Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz in The Lobster. Film: Summer movies are supposed to be a vacation from challenging fare, but The Lobster challenges that assumption. It is a satirical slice of science fiction with as loopy a premise as you could ask for. Set in the near future, it offers a society where marriage is compulsory and the unattached have 45 days to find a life mate. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 20-22
Art: Community centers are not usually associated with striking art, but a chance encounter with vibrant colors at the Sugar Sand Park Community Center challenges that notion. Currently adorning the center’s walls are imaginative works featuring organic shapes and intriguing textures that bring to life what Farida Morris calls her happiest moments. Every color and composition … [Read more...]
‘Ida’ a hypnotic, beautiful journey into a dark past
In the Polish import Ida, the sky is always overcast, the interiors are as sparse as monasteries, nobody ever smiles, and they don’t speak very much, either. It goes without saying that it’s photographed in black-and-white; it’s that kind of art-house movie. As much as I hate the qualifier “it’s not for everyone,” this is one of those films that’s not for everyone. But … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 13-15
Film: Bicycling with Molière is a French film about two actors with large egos — if that is not redundant — rivals who are envious of each other to a fault. Gauthier (Lambert Wilson) is a television star who plays a brain surgeon on a popular French series, while the other has quit the business and moved to a small, remote village. Unsatisfied with his success, the TV actor … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 7-9
South Florida Jazz wraps its 2012-13 season this Saturday night with an appearance by the jazz singer Kurt Elling, who made his mark at Chicago’s legendary Green Mill while studying the philosophy of religion as a grad student during the day. A Grammy winner and a regular audience favorite, Elling has a flexible voice and style more akin to Al Jarreau than to Johnny Hartman, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 24-26
Theater: Palm Beach Dramaworks ends its season with Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, a fictionalized tale of his mother and her four spinster sisters, who lead a repressed, impoverished life in the Irish village of Ballybeg. But when they are at their lowest, they manage to kick up their heels and give in to the spirit of the pagan harvest festival of Lughnasa, capturing a … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 22-24
Music: It’s not too early to get into the holiday spirit for Independence Day. This Sunday, the Klezmer Company Orchestra at Florida Atlantic University mounts a concert of American music (mostly) under the baton of its leader, Aaron Kula. The concert also serves as an advertisement for the Spirit Of America Collection at FAU’s Wimberly Library, which contains 13,000 books, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 16-21
Art: This coming week, the Norton Museum of Art, which just opened a retrospective of the work of artist Edward Gorey, new photography curator Tim Wride offers more than 75 images devoted to the crowds and places of popular music. Clubs, Joints and Honky-Tonks brings together work by eminent lens artists such as Jeff Dunas, Lynn Goldsmith, Henry Horenstein, and even the quirky … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 24-June 29
Music: After conquering the world of popular music, bandleader Duke Ellington began branching out in more ambitious directions for the concert hall. In 1943, his suite Black, Brown and Beige had its premiere at Carnegie Hall, and in subsequent years there would be a landmark recording of the work with the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson performing Come Sunday. And come this … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 25-27
Theater: Gable Stage’s Joseph Adler is often eager to showcase new talent, as he does with Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate, which features three recent graduates of Miami’s New World School of the Arts -- Jackie Rivera, Ryan Didato and David Dearstyne -- in a quirky, contemporary comedy about geeky high schoolers growing up and fitting in. Karam may still need some seasoning … [Read more...]