Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan in The Trip. Film: Fans of director Michael Winterbottom’s Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story are likely to get a kick out of the ad lib road comedy The Trip, for he has again enlisted the duo of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in a sly verbal romp. As in the earlier film, the two British actors play themselves, or at least a comic … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 18-20
Daniela Mack. (Photo by Dario Acosta) Music: The music of Spain has long been a favorite of the conductor Philippe Entremont, and for this weekend’s concert by the Boca Symphonia, he’s commissioned new arrangements of familiar and not-so-familiar masterworks from the land of Cervantes. The Argentine-born mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack is the guest soloist for Manuel … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 11-13
Film: It is a complaint have heard so often I can anticipate it returning every Oscar season: “Where can I go to see the short subjects, both animated and live action, that are nominated for an Academy Award?” The answer used to be a big shrug, but now you can head to Emerging Cinemas. This week, at the funky art cinema called Mos’Art in Lake Park, you can see … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 20-22
Tilda Swinton as the title character in Orlando.Film: Tilda Swinton broke into the wider consciousness back in 1992 with her star turn as Orlando, the androgynous hero/heroine of Virginia Woolf’s gender-bending novel of a Tudor-era Zelig who begins as a debonair male court poet in 1588 and ends up in 1928 as a married woman. In Sally … [Read more...]
Film review: ‘The Maid,’ compelling portrait of a breakdown
Catalina Saavedra in The Maid.By John ThomasonSevere mental illness or run-of-the-mill midlife crisis?This is the debate posed by Sebastian Silva’s The Maid, which opens Friday in Lake Worth and Lake Park. This compelling Chilean drama, which won a jury prize at Sundance last year, explores a character of complex interiority: a dowdy, middle-aged, live-in maid for an … [Read more...]
Film feature: ‘Trucker’ star Monaghan found role refreshing
Actress Michelle Monaghan.By Hap ErsteinEye candy with a comic flair. That sums up most of the roles that 33-year-old, Winthrop, Iowa-born Michelle Monaghan has played (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Mission Impossible: 3, Eagle Eye) in her decade-long career. But Hollywood is going to look at her differently once Trucker, in which she play tough-talking, hard-drinking, stubborn big rig … [Read more...]
Film feature: West Coast swing hits Lake Park in ‘Love N’ Dancing’
Amy Smart and Tom Malloy in Love N' Dancing.By Hap ErsteinThe still-fledgling Mos’Art Theatre, Lake Park’s independent art cinema playhouse, has a double coup this weekend. Not only is it presenting the South Florida premiere of Love N’ Dancing, a romance set amid the West Coast swing dance craze, but tonight and Saturday afternoon, producer Sylvia Caminer puts in a personal … [Read more...]
Film review: ‘Throw Down Your Heart,’ banjo strumming across Africa
Bela Fleck, right, with African musicians in Throw Down Your Heart.By Hap Erstein The banjo and Africa. Maybe they seem to have nothing in common, but as Grammy-winning virtuoso of the instrument Bela Fleck explains in the appealing musicology lesson and travelogue, Throw Down Your Heart, the former is the product of the latter.So armed with videocassettes and a wide-eyed … [Read more...]
Film feature: Mos’Art Theatre goes independent route in Lake Park
Albert Rossodivita, left, and Philip Dvorak, founders of the new Mos'Art Theatre in Lake Park. (Photo by Katie Deits)By Hap ErsteinLAKE PARK -- A new independent movie theater going up against the major studio releases in the height of summer blockbuster season. With cut-rate ticket prices, a Chick-fil-A sandwich coupon with each admission and free wi-fi access in the lobby.And … [Read more...]