Italian writer-director Paolo Virzi adapted an unusual source material for his latest film, the Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film submission Human Capital. It’s based on an American neo-noir of the same name by Stephen Amidon, its cruel, suburban-set machinations of fate and avarice reimagined in Brianza, an upper-class enclave north of Milan. It’s here that its … [Read more...]
Sundays: Engineering a better human
By Myles Ludwig Computo ergo sum: I compute, therefore I am. Old Monsieur Descartes would likely be writhing in his grave had he known what his defining formula for human existence has become and how irrelevant it might be coming. I’m not suggesting that thinking, as such, will lose its place as an especially juicy characteristic of mankind (and womankind as well, of course), … [Read more...]
Brief reviews: ‘Bat Boy,’ ‘Tintypes,’ ‘Magical Thinking’
'Bat Boy' charms, but new company needs smaller space Making its area debut, Slow Burn Theatre Company certainly fulfills its stated mission by selecting Bat Boy: The Musical, a quirky, cult show about, yes, a kid who is half-bat, half-human, based on the character immortalized in the pages of the tabloid Weekly World News. With a clever, eclectic score by Laurence … [Read more...]