The year was 1924, but the “thrill killing” of a 14-year-old boy by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb was so brutal and senseless that it was already being labeled “the crime of the century.” Over time, the case would continue to capture the nation’s imagination, in Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rope, Ira Levin’s novel Compulsion and John Logan’s play Never the Sinner. And most … [Read more...]
Violinist Fain shines in Prokofiev at Boca Symphonia
There is a kind of intense, high-energy sound that is ideal for the special lyricism of Sergei Prokofiev, and Tim Fain has it. The American violinist gave a riveting performance Sunday afternoon of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto (in G minor, Op. 63) as the Boca Raton Symphonia opened its seventh season at the Roberts Theater. Fain, 35, who’s been celebrated recently for … [Read more...]
Clooney gives breakthrough performance in riveting ‘Descendants’
For an actor as compelling as George Clooney, he’s the kind of matinee idol who has been asked only on the rarest of occasions to stretch his abilities behind his chiseled-hunk personality type. My two favorite performances of his – in Michael Clayton and Up in the Air – were both Clooneyfied: minor deviations from his smooth, fast-talking persona. Even his Batman was less … [Read more...]
‘Unbroken’ tells riveting tale of airman’s survival
For weeks, Unbroken has been perched at or near the top of the nonfiction best-seller list, and for good reason. The book tells the riveting story of a World War II airman who survived for 47 days in 1943 on a raft in the Pacific Ocean before Japanese soldiers captured him and held him in brutal conditions for the rest of the war. The airman, Louis Zamperini, was a … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Riveting ‘Angry Men,’ half-accomplished ‘Cane’
The “golden age of television” of the 1950s produced many classic dramas that went on to further acclaim in other media. Think of Requiem for a Heavyweight, or Marty, or The Miracle Worker. Certainly earning a spot on that list is Reginald Rose’s dramatized civics lesson, Twelve Angry Men, which the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has dusted off and given a vigorous mounting that makes … [Read more...]