Perhaps the most amazing thing about Asteroid City is that it actually exists. For the bean counters who fund the movies, eccentricity and experimentation are rarely inspiring motivators to open wallets, as evidenced by the Sisyphean career of Terry Gilliam. But somehow, even though his projects have by no means been consistently successful, Wes Anderson has managed to crack … [Read more...]
‘Vice’ takes on Cheney, but it’s a mess
When I think of actors portraying Vice President Dick Cheney, I’ll always jump to Richard Dreyfuss in W. first. Remember that scene around the war room, when he emerges literally from the shadows and outlines a sinister plot to take Iraq’s oil and establish permanent American hegemony in the Middle East? Dreyfuss didn’t sound much like Cheney — he sounded like Dreyfuss — but … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 18-19
Dance: Miami City Ballet opens its first show of the season this weekend at the Kravis Center with his triptych, Jewels. Divided into Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds, and set to the music of Fauré, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky, this three-act ballet evokes French Romanticism, 20th-century modernism and Imperial Russia. While MCB has branched out considerably in its past few years, … [Read more...]
‘Last Flag Flying’: Grief and hope, down to the last detail
As Mark Twain reputedly said, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. I thought about this aphorism more than once during Last Flag Flying, Richard Linklater’s alternately amusing and somber heartstring-tugger about the victims of America’s misbegotten wars. Iraq was hardly a repeat of Vietnam, but it rhymed with bitter lucidity: two bloody occupations of nations … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 29-31
Film: Any Woody Allen movie is a much anticipated event and Café Society – his 46th feature film – is no exception. Not a home run, but more of a solid double, it casts Jesse Eisenberg as the Allen surrogate schlemiel, who leaves the Bronx for 1930s Hollywood, takes a job in the office of his talent agent uncle (Steve Carell) and promptly falls for Carell’s secretary/mistress … [Read more...]