Into the woods, with French movie-thriller ‘Misericordia’
It’s no news to anyone — we’ve known it since “Hansel & Gretel.” Bad things happen in the woods. To prove that that essential truth has gone unchanged since the days of Grimm’s fairy-tales, the woods are the chosen terrain in which auteur Alain Guiraudie stages the central plot turn of his latest movie, Misericordia ...
Film review: THE SUBSTANCE, a triumph of the insubstantial
Ed note: This review, written in August 2024, is belatedly published, thus the wishful reference to a woman president in its last paragraph. The director is French, which I found surprising. And she cannot be called young. That was my second shock, for, in watching her movie, THE SUBSTANCE, I would have sworn it was ...
Out of the blue, an accident: Margot Rose’s ‘Unconditional’ at Skylight Theatre
Melina Young, Margot Rose – photo: Sherry Ryan Barnett for SPLASH Some people transmit their profound life experiences in autobiographies. Others, in memoirs. Playwright/performer Margot Rose has fashioned a proprietary genre, a “musical memoir,” as a live-theater experience. The one-act show’s title, “Unconditional,” ostensibly refers to the quality of unbound love that she tapped, in ...
Rarefied air: Justin Peck’s new work at New York City Ballet
Mystic Familiar, choreography by Justin Peck, photo: Erin Baiano The symmetry is uncanny. Almost exactly eight years ago, on January 26, 2017 – six days after an impactful inauguration — Justin Peck delivered a robustly explosive, invigorating ballet, The Times Are Racing. Set to four sections of Dan Deacon’s 2012 album “America,” it throbbed with ...
Haunting new Vivaldi opera a cautionary tale at Guggenheim ‘Works & Process’
In these cataclysmic times it sometimes seems that, if we’re looking for leadership out of an existential crisis, we need artists more than we do politicians. That thought occurred to me two weeks ago, while wildfires ravaged Los Angeles and New York shivered through an Arctic vortex, and I sat in the auditorium of the ...
‘The Brutalist’ leads crop of Oscar hopefuls exploring Jewish-American experience
As awards season heats up in Los Angeles, The Brutalist seems to be a likely (arguably, the likely) frontrunner for Best Picture at the upcoming Oscars on March 2, certainly for those who’ve seen it. But that last bit is an important caveat. For, with a running time of three hours, twenty minutes (and a ...
REVIEW: Teatro Grattacielo’s operatic ‘Beyond The Horizon,’ angst by Eugene O’Neill
photo credit: amanda vaill BEYOND THE HORIZONOpera in Three ActsMusic by Nicolas FlagelloLibretto by Nicolas Flagello and Walter SimmonsOrchestration by Anthony SbordoniPresented by Teatro Grattacielo at LA MAMA Shares, 66 East 4th Street, New York NYSunday, September 15, 2024 Eugene O’Neill is the most operatic of American playwrights — think of those conflict-ridden families, those ...
‘The Instigators’: a watchable star-studded misfire
The first twenty minutes of The Instigators, a new movie by director Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow, Mr and Mrs. Smith, Swingers), presented by Apple Originals, is a delight. Each new scene introduces great actors to a story with unique characters navigating a time-worn yet always suspenseful plot (a heist). Who can quibble with this ...
REVIEW: Easily distracted? Hopelessly romantic? Try ‘Touch.’
Egill Ólafsson stars as Kristofer in director Baltasar Kormákur’s TOUCH credit: Baltasar Breki Samper What? You’ve not heard of Touch? You’re not sure it’s a movie for you? Here are ten reasons to enjoy the new Icelandic film about an elderly widower journeying to find his first love before it’s too late. The movie opens ...
A shuffle away from democracy in prescient ‘Shiraz’ at Montpellier Danse
It is nothing less than a confounding political moment in which to write about “Shiraz,” a dauntingly brilliant dance performance seen last night at Montpellier Danse’s Hanger Theatre performed by a troupe directed by a young choreographer, Armin Hokmi. The Iranian-born, Berlin-based dance maker made very clear that his work was inspired by the suppressed ...