I recently saw Ralph Fiennes’s labor of love—his adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus—and I fully loved it. The movie is beautiful, gritty, unadorned, and truly unique in its interpretations of the characters and the play. It’s also a real war movie, with things to say about human nature, politics, and violence. Fiennes directed and stars […]
Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret is a fundamentally flawed piece of theatre; it’s absurdly constructed, tonally conflicted and full of disjointed and ill-conceived numbers. Then Adam Brazier got hold of it. The charming tenor-turned savvy director took on none of the musical’s high-profile baggage when he began preparing to stage the problematic piece at Hart House Theatre. […]
Few modern directors have the skill and precision to nail both large budget genre film and tiny indie projects. Steven Soderbergh embodies the concept of versatility with his second released film in under a year, Haywire. With his twenty-fifth film in twenty-two years Soderbergh branches out from his norm to the world of high action […]
….Aaaaaand we’re back. Remember, Kill Shakespeare is a comic book series about two factions of Shakespeare characters trying to save or kill the god/wizard Will Shakespeare. In this corner, we have The Heroes (trying to save Will): Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Falstaff, and co. In this corner, we have The Villains (trying to kill Bill and […]
In a lot of ways, the new Disney policy of re-releasing classic films (like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast) in 3D can be seen as a cynical cash grab. After all, it essentially tricks people into paying $16.00 a pop to see a movie they probably already own on VHS, DVD and […]
“Why did I come to Copenhagen?” one of the characters asks, late into the second act of Michael Frayn’s play Copenhagen. I asked myself the same question after seeing Flat Earth Theatre’s production last weekend. I am a huge Noises Off fan, another play by Michael Frayn, but his two scripts are nothing alike. Copenhagen […]
Steig Larson’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a fast-paced, utterly engrossing, reactionarily feminist mystery novel, with a charismatic leading man and a fascinating lead female. But Larson’s novel falls off when you start thinking about writing style, thematic brilliance, or overall writerly aptitude. David Fincher’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, in contrast, is almost […]
As I mentioned in my last review, November was full of Shakespeare. My second show was at Brandeis University, featuring an original adaption of Comedy of Errors by Bill Barclay, a Resident Acting Company member of the Actor’s Shakespeare Project. Barclay also directed this unique production, which starred Brandeis University students with award-winning community actors. […]