Warning: Extreme negativity ahead. Why don’t you read Rachael’s piece about all the Friends Thanksgiving episodes instead? Tapestry Briefs: Booster Shots (Tapestry) Conceptually, this evening of short opera scenes tied together with corresponding shots of curated liquors was a brilliant idea. How do you battle every simplistic but not altogether unfounded accusation of “long, boring, old, […]
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This Thanksgiving, I decided to watch all 9 Thanksgiving episodes of Friends in order to finally determine: “Why does Ross, the largest of the Friends, not simply eat the others [for Thanksgiving]?”* Here are the lessons I learned: – The first instalment, The One Where Underdog Gets Away, features one of those “early sitcom family […]
Birdman leads the Independent Spirit Award (ISA) Nominations with 6, Boyhood, Selma, and Nightcrawler follow closely with 5 nominations each. For those keeping score, Foxcatcher was not eligible in any of these categories, while Imitation Game was, and was snubbed. Harvey Weinstein has bigger fish to fry, but ISA winners over the last few years […]
Sextet (Tarragon) This new theatrical dramedy from Morris Panych is a six-person character piece that plays out almost in real time between three motel rooms occupied by a string sextet on tour during a snow storm. It’s emotionally complex but conceptually simple, a combination that pretty much always reaps great rewards, particularly with a cast […]
I was at a friend’s bachelorette party in New York when the second episode of The Newsroom‘s final season aired and I thus found myself in an unfamiliar situation- hearing the Newsroom reaction before witnessing the thing to which people were reacting. Even more unfamiliar was the tenor of said reaction. People liked it. They […]
You already know the biggest problem with the newest installment of the Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1. It’s right there in that ridiculously long title. They took the last movie of the Hunger Games saga, and split it in half. This means that the finished film is half the final story, half […]
The new National Ballet of Canada season has begun with the emotional gutpunch that is Manon. My intention was to review that production- the knockout leading performance from Jillian Vanstone and scene-stealing guest turn by American Ballet Theatre’s James Whiteside (whom I’d really like to see the National steal); the brutality of the choreography and […]
“How angry am I? You don’t want to know. Nobody wants to know about that.” It almost makes you regret knocking. Or was it she who knocked on your door? From the first line, we find ourselves wondering how to deal with the Woman Upstairs. We could keep ignoring her; we’re used to doing so. […]