It is possible to admire Frailty, directed by Texas-born actor Bill Paxton, without actually liking it. It’s not, strictly speaking, a gratifying movie: Too dependent upon twists, both excruciatingly obvious and irritatingly ludicrous, it never fully satisfies; what you can’t guess you won’t see coming, because it’s too outrageous to…
Wending through the summaries of this year’s forthcoming blockbusters — dudes fight evil; chicks keep yanking up their trendy hip-huggers while fighting evil — it’s immediately refreshing to note a movie about furry freaks and saucy geeks whose primary goal is just to, you know, do it. In Human Nature,…
When asked if South Florida in general — and Miami Beach specifically — served as an inspiration for the ticky-tacky resort setting of “The Last Single Days of Don Viktor Potapenko,” one of twelve short stories in his just-published collection My Life in Heavy Metal, Steve Almond nods his head…
People stare and smirk as you pass in your culottes, bat-wing top, and shoulder pads. You wear stirrup pants over your shoes. Your getups are not ghetto fabulous but a modish monstrosity. On Saturday E! Entertainment television’s foremost fashionista, Leon Hall, will be in Miami to counsel the style-challenged. Hall,…
The work of Henry Jaglom is an acquired taste that for many of us remains unacquired. While his new film, Festival in Cannes, is not a huge departure from the usual, it may be his most accessible work for nonfans since 1991’s Eating. Not surprisingly the movie is set at…
Besides obvious political and economic ramifications, the aftermath of September 11 challenged charities, nonprofit organizations, and small arts groups to rise from the ashes. The throng of thespians behind The International Monologue Festival, which debuted last year to acclaim, constitutes one such association. Alberto Sarraín and Lillian Manzor, codirectors of…
The Beatles mugging, President Richard Nixon resigning, the Reagans dancing, IRA bigwigs lying in state. A few of the spontaneous moments captured by intrepid Scottish photojournalist Harry Benson. The maverick lensman strives for what he calls “pictures with air in them.” Given the countless scenes he has shot over the…
Here’s a question for you: When does a theater company become “significant”? Is it a question of the number of seats in the auditorium? If so, your average high school produces “significant” theater. Is it a question of the company’s annual budget? Or the number of shows produced? In the…
The two slacker antiheroes of Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También (And Your Mother, Too) come furnished with all the usual glitches of late adolescence — raging hormones, impatient wanderlust, contempt for their elders, and a jones for dope and beer. In fact Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego…
If you’re a fan of feel-good, upbeat musical theater, you have to like what Barbara S. Stein and the Actors Playhouse have been doing for lo these many years. Stein and her artistic director, David Arisco, regularly serve up well-produced, tightly staged shows that could more than hold their own…
Salvador Dalí was, at different times in his life, an anarchist, communist, Cubist, Surrealist, monarchist, and avowed mystic. With an exuberant imagination and remarkable craft, Dalí — a fashion dandy who once declared himself divine and managed to outrage most of his avant-garde comrades — became one of the most…
Before he died of congestive heart failure in March 1992, Richard Brooks, director of The Blackboard Jungle and In Cold Blood, used to tell this story. It takes place sometime in the late 1940s, when Brooks was ascending royalty in Hollywood; after all, he’d written John Huston’s Key Largo, starring…
Cell phones and silk saris, dot-coms and arranged marriages — Monsoon Wedding, the latest film from Indian-born director Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala), captures the heady mix of old and new, rich and poor, traditional and modern that defines contemporary India. A sort of Father of the Bride set…
A young, handsome, newly married doctor finds he’s becoming attracted to other men; after an affair with a young, handsome, feckless novelist, he regretfully leaves his young, attractive, sadder-but-wiser wife. That was the plot of Making Love, and it was considered fairly groundbreaking material in Hollywood back in 1982. Now…
Ahhh … Abba. The Swedish pop supergroup that did disco better than any American ever could, amassing scores of catchy Top 10 hits including “Dancing Queen,” “Waterloo,” and “S.O.S.,” selling more than 300 million records worldwide from 1971 until its 1983 demise, and spawning tribute bands such as the wonderfully…
The sleaze, the sin, the dirty deals, the scandals. Life in Miami is a proverbial gold mine for investigative reporters and comedians alike. Just a brief perusal of the local paper’s metro section offers healthy fodder for a funnyman. As a result the city and its rumblings have nurtured many…
Some theaters, like some people, have a clearer sense of self-identity than others. The New Theatre and its artistic director Rafael de Acha certainly know what they are about, presenting plays with emotional texture, poetic resonance, and often a welcome dose of sociopolitical thought. Such is the case with Mario…
This very expansive Miami Latin Film Festival was once two: the French Hispanic and the Miami Hispanic film festivals, which this year morphed into one, headed by Jaime Angulo. Running from March 22 to 31 at the Regal South Beach cinema, the festival’s 38 films seem to cover the spectrum…
Artist Abiodun Oladewa wants you to have his art. Really. So much that if you find yourself drawn to his drawings, pining for his paintings, he’s going to give you one or two or three or more at no charge. Yes, free, gratis, complimentary. The Nigerian-born Oladewa, who uses the…
Don’t get the members of the Tribal Arts Society wrong: They admire and appreciate the work of Western artists — Dutch masters, Impressionists, Abstract Expressionists — as much as the next group. But they also feel that too often in the past the arts of non-Western cultures in Africa, Oceania,…
One day, years ago, Gregory Mcdonald was playing tennis with a man he’d known since they were both 12 years old. It was hot, the middle of summer, and Mcdonald was playing a good game–doing that tricky shit, making with the kind of moves that get under an opponent’s skin…
What’s South Florida’s most overlooked cultural resource? I’d vote for the variety and depth of children’s theater on the local scene. With little public notice and less media fanfare, a number of busy stage companies are finding a huge audience base hungry for live entertainment suitable for the younger set…
