Paunchy and laconic, Joaquin Phoenix mumbles and mopes his way through the first half of Woody Allen’s Irrational Man, seeming to channel Morrissey from his first ragged moment onscreen as the self-flagellating miserablist Abe Lucas. Abe is a radical philosophy professor newly installed at a leafy Ivy League college, and he takes the world’s existential questions a bit too … [Read more...]
Historian Goodwin takes audience back to Progressive Era
By Dale King Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin doesn’t just talk about history. She takes her audience on a word picture journey through time, giving wings to funny facts and deep insight into many of this nation’s presidents. Her lecture Thursday night at the Mizner Park Amphitheater in Boca Raton, part of Festival of the Arts Boca, touched on her latest … [Read more...]
Hap’s top 10 films of 2009
As a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association as well as the Florida Film Critics Circle, I have spent the last few weeks watching new movies about to be released that the studios made available either at special screenings or -- even better -- on “For Your Consideration” DVDs that arrived at my home almost daily from FedEx or UPS. Why? Because we vote on year-end … [Read more...]