By Sandra Schulman A brilliant — in more ways than one — new art installation will be beaming into downtown West Palm Beach from June 4 to July 4 nightly from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on the Great Lawn. Designed by artist Jen Lewin and presented by the city of West Palm Beach Art in Public Places (AIPP) Program, this concentric, temporary interactive art installment is comprised of … [Read more...]
For tribute bands, the music plays on — and on
The music biz adapts to setbacks in ways that aren’t unlike the tobacco industry, which reacted to a decrease in cigarette smoking by reformulating an interest in cigars and designing a range of new novelty smoking products, or Hollywood, which crippled modern screenwriting to embark upon remaking practically every existing film, TV show or cartoon. One current popular … [Read more...]
Message and manna duke it out in breathless ‘Tomorrowland’
Is Tomorrowland a movie, or a 130-minute advertisement for a theme park? Borrowing its title from the futuristic Disneyland/Magic Kingdom attraction of the same name, Brad Bird’s second live-action feature is certainly his most shameless. In this expensive monument to CGI plasticity, Bird’s vision — eccentric, referential, inspired — vies for your attention with blatant … [Read more...]
‘Sophie, Totie and Belle’ brings back iconic trio in fine fashion
By Dale King The Delray Square Performing Arts Center has apparently saved its best of the 2014-2015 season for last. Sophie, Totie and Belle, a combination revue and musical featuring the “reincarnations” of Sophie Tucker, Totie Fields and Belle Barth, is playing through May 31. It’s a production well worth carving out some time to attend. Three exceptionally talented … [Read more...]
The View From Home 70: Great Truffaut and Sturges, strong Mitchum and Newman, iffy ‘Fantasticks’
The Story of Adèle H: This haunting biopic from 1975 easily ranks as one of Francois Truffaut’s best films of the ’70s, and Twilight Time’s uber-limited, 3,000-copy Blu-ray transfer is a treasure to behold ($29.95). A 20-year-old Isabelle Adjani became the youngest actress at the time to earn an Academy Award nomination for her role as the title character, the damaged daughter … [Read more...]
A Hardy heroine for 2015, beautifully done
In 20 years, Danish director Thomas Vinterberg has strayed as far from his original reservation as one could imagine. He has evolved (some might say devolved) from the docu-like purity of the Dogme 95 movement, with its rejection of optical work and filters, special lighting, and genre plotting, to the latest film adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s sumptuous, glossy romance Far From … [Read more...]
Brilliant ‘About Elly’ keeps viewers guessing
When considering Asghar Farhadi’s psychological thriller About Elly, a word pretzel from that (in)famous 21st-century philosopher Donald Rumsfeld comes to mind: “There are known knowns, unknown knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns.” To follow along with this knotty and riveting study of humans in crisis is to rewire old paradigms when unknowns become known, to accept … [Read more...]
Postcard From Broadway No. 7: “It Shoulda Been You”
I have now seen nine shows on this trip and the main thing they have in common is that they all received standing ovations. And the proof that a Broadway audience will give a standing O to anything is the new musical I saw Thursday night, It Shoulda Been You. Its story, such as it is, concerns a wedding between a Jewish girl and a gentile guy who tries to endear himself by … [Read more...]
‘Adaline’ absurd and corny, but honest about it
One deus ex machina contrivance, at the beginning of a fantasy movie, is acceptable. It gets the wheels of imagination rolling. But a second one, less than two hours later? That’s sheer dramaturgical laziness, and the crutch of your genre can only protect you for so long. But that’s what you have to accept in The Age of Adaline. This is a movie so proudly, self-consciously … [Read more...]
Athletic, virile Schumann closes Symphonia’s 10th season
One of the benefits of a smaller orchestra is that music of the early 19th century can sound lean and mean if the players and conductors enter into the spirit of the thing. And that’s precisely the way the Symphonia Boca Raton closed its 10th season Sunday at the Roberts Theater in Boca — with gritty, energetic readings of works on a meat-and-potatoes program led by James … [Read more...]