If playwright Stan Lachow could have seen the set that the Hollywood Playhouse was going to construct for the world premiere of Harry and Thelma in the Woods, he would have edited out the “in the woods.” Walking into the small, residentially located theater, you are so assaulted by the…
Social alienation seems to be an underlying theme of postmodern urban America. The separation of labor and leisure has created a social estrangement that is only becoming more acute. We don’t have the time or, more important, the space to make contact. People usually spend two-thirds of the day confined…
Irish. Sex. Farce. These are not three words you see snuggled up together very often. Given the ironclad no-no’s of the Catholic Church, the preoccupations imposed by political troubles for the past eight centuries or so, and frequent commutes to the local pub, the Irish probably haven’t had much time…
Break dancing is back (minus the parachute pants). A renaissance of popping, locking, uprocking, head spins, robotic jams, phat flips, and contorted poses. Truth be told, the energetic street dance that busted out of the Bronx decades ago never really left — it was shuffled out of the fickle consumer…
For all of us everything began with Mom, in the sense that we owe her our lives. But for Elvis Presley, his mom was responsible for a little more — his career. If it weren’t for Gladys Presley’s love of music, her son would never have gone into the studios…
Heath Ledger, wearing the scowl of the anxious and uneasy, is having trouble standing still. He most certainly would rather be anywhere but here: killing time in a TV studio, waiting to be interviewed during a live afternoon newscast. Waiting to promote his new movie. Waiting to assume the guise…
Last thing first. At this very moment, Chris Carter sits behind his desk in the Ten Thirteen Production offices, on the 20th Century Fox lot in Studio City, California, finishing the final X-Files episode of this season. The show’s creator has just one scene left to write–the very last–and that…
Where were Howard Fast, Joe Adler, and Bob Rogerson when Mr. Nelson, my high school history teacher/wrestling coach, sidled up to the lectern to teach the American Revolution? That war, as I remember it, was a series of lively anecdotes about converting Boston Harbor into a giant cup of Earl…
Things seem to come in waves in South Florida. We have hurricane season, snowbird season, and come spring, film-festival season. There seem to be dozens of them, rolling in with the regularity of summer thunderstorms. Next up is the seventeenth Israel Film Festival, a presentation of Israel’s latest cinematic fare…
Presently sitting in a very peaceful meditational facility. First time here. The location (which shall remain unnamed so as to maintain nondenominational vibe) was selected specifically for the loving creation of this review, as it provides an almost perfect contrast to The Center of the World, the new motion picture…
Usually found in its storefront space in North Miami, M Ensemble Company, the oldest African-American theater organization in Miami-Dade County at 30 years of age, has certainly been around. From its beginnings in a Liberty City warehouse to an eleven-year tenure at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center to a…
On the seventh day God created Mobil. And God said unto Adam and Eve: “I have provided you with enough fuel for your eternity in the garden. I call it petroleum. Use it in thy scooter and in thy compact car. It is clean; it is infinite; it is pure…
Classic noir is the color this season in West Palm Beach. The Cuillo Centre for the Arts’ current production, The Betrayal of Nora Blake, is a musical comedy billed as “musical noir.” This spoof of the film-noir classics of the Thirties and Forties takes all the late-night B-movies you’ve ever…
Miami is getting the vibe of a bigger city. April’s bunch of openings was a good example, keeping many of us happily busy. And this time around it was Coral Gables that had some of the most interesting shows: Cuban veteran Flora Fong at Cernuda Arte; Neoexpressionist works by Carlos…
There is no good place to begin with Harry Shearer, because he doesn’t sit still long enough to allow one the chance to focus. He is a blur, forever in motion–on his way to the radio station, on his way from the movie studio, on his way to the publisher’s…
This year’s Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival concludes with the South Florida premiere of Susan Seidelman’s Gaudi Afternoon, an entertaining mystery-comedy. Headlined by the always excellent Judy Davis, the cast includes champs such as Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher Bown, Lili Taylor, and Juliette Lewis. Imagine a cinematic cross between…
It was easy to get all geared up to see Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World by Q. Allan Brocka. It was gay animation, after all. There’s not much of that around, and it could prove a bit risqué as well. But it was not…
Excuse me, but can somebody explain the movie world’s fascination with Las Vegas? The town without p(ersonal)ity crops up year after year as Hollywood’s favorite location. It’s not as though Las Vegas has some kind of special energy. There are tawdry casinos and cruising cars and neon nightscapes all over…
Treasure is inside. She’s been in and out of so-called correctional institutions most of her 21 years. Now, on her birthday, she’s moving from a juvenile joint to a tougher state women’s facility, where she hopes to reunite with the mother she’s never met. Without irony she explains the transfer’s…
Many well-known houses have sprung up around Miami over the years. Coming to mind immediately is Vizcaya, the opulent Italian Renaissance-style villa with lush adjacent gardens built on the fringe of Coconut Grove by International Harvester scion James Deering in 1916, and now a must-see for tourists. A few years…
Joe Simon doesn’t read comic books anymore, and not because he’s an 87-year-old man with far better ways to spend his time. The former and, perhaps, future comics writer and illustrator simply doesn’t get them anymore; he doesn’t know who they’re for, what they’re about, why most of them even…
At best the revival of a classic stirs our sensibilities much like a remarkable piece of music. A chord is struck that reverberates from antiquity to the present, reuniting us with the universality of our most human emotions. At its worst a classic only manages to transport us as far…
