Jazz isn’t exactly the genre best-known for producing superstars, but a chosen few will appear in South Florida this season. The most notable is likely legendary crooner Tony Bennett, who plays both the Knight Concert Hall in Miami and the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach (the latter on Valentine’s Day). The gifted pianist and silky singer Diana Krall, who had been scheduled, … [Read more...]
2014-15 arts preview: The season in books
After all these years, the literary events season in South Florida has long reached its maturity. No more jokes about “cultural wastelands,” and publishers still send writers here on the few publicity tours they pay for each year. Why? Because so many people here read books, talk about books, and attend literary festivities. It would be understandable if organizers of, say, … [Read more...]
2014-15 arts preview: The fall season in film
Somewhere hidden in the list below is this year’s Oscar-winning best picture and most of the performance nominees. Having survived the all-about-the-box-office summer, the film industry rolls out its prestige products, which includes an armful of biopics ranging from theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking to seascape painter J.M.W. Turner to the Old Testament’s Red Sea parter, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 26-27
Film: Scratch a proficient sketch comedian and you will usually find a performer capable of dramatic roles as well. Consider Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader of Saturday Night Live fame who handle darker material with impressive skill in a new independent film, The Skeleton Twins. It has its amusing sequences – most of which are crammed into the promotional trailer – but the story … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 20-21
Music: Veteran songwriter and bandleader Tom Petty returns to his home state tonight with a concert at the Cruzan Amphitheatre with his longtime band, the Heartbreakers; he’ll be joined by the British pop icon Steve Winwood, who has played with Petty for years. Petty has created a durable collection of tunes that are not only an indelible part of the soundtrack of the 1970s, … [Read more...]
‘The Drop’: A neo-noir that keeps you guessing
Tom Hardy, who has proved in recent years that he could be the Bane of Batman’s existence and that he could carry an entire movie alone in a car (this past spring’s inventive Locke), reveals, in The Drop, another compelling facet of his actorly toolbox: the noir patsy. As Bob Saginowski, a bartender at a New York City watering hole that doubles as a “drop site” for bookmaking … [Read more...]
The View From Home 63: Cassavetes’ flameout, Wikipedia in the spotlight, a Borzage gem, and an antiquated sex farce
Love Streams: Technically, John Cassavetes’ final film was the middling 1986 trifle Big Trouble. But 1984’s Love Streams (Criterion, $26.22, Blu-ray + DVD) is his pure swan song, the last feature made in his signature frayed-nerve style — and it’s been a long time coming on home video. Gena Rowlands plays Sarah Lawson, a woman still under the influence, who escapes a pending … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 29-31
Art: Industrial man has made a mess of things, and while there are industrial ways to get some of it cleaned up, we have to leave it to the artists to find beauty even in our most careless factory effusions. Opening today at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in Lake Worth is Re-purposed/Re-Seen, an exhibit of, well, stuff that has been recycled and reworked into objects … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 23-24
Music: Soon, the season will be upon us and there will be almost too many things to cover in the music world. At this time of year, you can find smaller, intimate shows if you know where to look, such as the Boca Steinway Gallery this afternoon. Pianist Asiya Korepanova, a strong and interesting player, returns to the gallery for a concert of music from her native Russia, … [Read more...]
Remembering Bacall: An interview with one tough cookie
I once worked for a newspaper in Washington, D.C. that spent extravagantly to say the least. It preferred to fly me to interview celebrities that I could talk to almost as productively, and certainly more cost-effectively, on the telephone. The thought is prompted by the death this week of the legendary Lauren Bacall, at 89, of stroke complications. Thirty years ago, I flew … [Read more...]