Formed in the mid-1970s in England, iconic jazz/fusion group Brand X became one of the sub-genre’s prominent acts of the decade after its members initially met to record solo albums for multi-instrumentalist/producer Brian Eno. Dormant afterward through the 1980s and again between 1999 and 2016, its current four-year-old lineup hasn’t yet recorded in a studio, but has … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2020
‘Swallow’: You are what you eat
It’s about time somebody made a movie about pica, the psychological condition, first described by Hippocrates, of habitually consuming non-nutritive objects: soil, paint, glass, needles. Because of pica’s generic intersection between psychodrama and body horror, I would have thought that somebody would have been David Cronenberg. But Swallow is the work of a new voice — … [Read more...]
In ‘Wendy,’ filmmaker finds another side of Peter Pan
When your feature film debut becomes an international sensation, pulling in four Oscar nominations, the conventional wisdom is to quickly produce a follow-up to cash in on the first movie’s success. That is precisely what director-screenwriter Benh Zeitlin did not do after 2012’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, a remarkable film about climate change in the Louisiana … [Read more...]
Sumptuous ‘Firebird’ a treat at MCB
The central focus of Miami City Ballet’s Program Three, performed Feb. 21-23 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, was concentrated on the brand-new staging for the newly acquired ballet Firebird. The production itself was visually resplendent with its translucent and mystical 3D special effects and its vibrant and rich costumes, sets and lights. It was a sumptuously … [Read more...]
‘You Go To My Head’: Amnesia plot skims noir surface
Forget bars, and forget Tinder. For Jake (Svetozar Cvetkovic), the 54-year-old architect of You Go To My Head who lives alone in a remote property he designed on the Moroccan outskirts, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to meet women. So he seizes on happenstance. On an expedition to collect ground samples for a future project, he spots, through his binoculars, a stylish … [Read more...]
‘Miss Saigon’ retains power in Kravis revival
Romance in wartime is a familiar topic of musicals, but few are as emotionally wrenching or politically charged as Miss Saigon. Controversial when it first arrived on Broadway in 1991 – more for its casting choices than its themes – the show has gotten beyond that cultural authenticity issue and beyond a fixation with its onstage helicopter to demonstrate its lasting … [Read more...]