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: May 6-8
Pianist Shuree Enkhbold. Music: If you’ve ever heard the music of Sembiin Gonchigsumlaa, who lived from 1915 to 1991, you’re in exclusive company. But if you haven’t, tonight is your chance to hear music by Mongolia’s most eminent composer, played by a young Mongolian pianist studying with Roberta Rust at Lynn University. Munkshur Enkhbold, who prefers the name Shuree, is, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 15-17
James Hazen Hyde (1901), by Theobald Chartran. Art: Two fine exhibitions are closing this weekend at Palm Beach venues, and this weekend might be the perfect chance to catch them. The Flagler Museum has Beauty’s Legacy, a collection of portraits of the grandees of America’s Gilded Age as captured in portraits by some of the finest artists of the era, including John Singer … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 2-3
Opera: It’s hard to imagine a more challenging subject than that of the Polish-Soviet composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s 1968 opera, The Passenger. Written for the Bolshoi but shelved, it was not performed until 2010, when it made its sensational debut at the Bregenz Festival in Austria. Tonight, Florida Grand Opera brings that David Pountney-directed production to the Ziff Ballet … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 11-13
From left: Nicholas Richberg, Anna Lise Jensen and Jeni Hacker in Passion. Theater: Miami’s Zoetic Stage is not known for producing musicals, but it was highly successful with Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, so it has now gone back to Broadway’s reigning composer-lyricist to serve up Passion, his 1994 Tony Award winner (albeit the one with the shortest run, roughly nine months). … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 5-6
Ginnifer Goodwin voices Judy Hopps, rabbit cop, in Zootopia. Film: As the name suggests, Zootopia is a contemporary city populated by a menagerie of animals, and it is also the best animated film that Disney Studios has produced in many a year. This tale of an ambitious little female bunny who long yearned to join the police force absolutely has one level of humor for adults … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 27-28
Film: On the weekend that it looks likely that Sylvester Stallone will walk off with an Oscar for playing his screen alter ego, Rocky Balboa, go see another sports underdog, Eddie the Eagle, the real-life story of an unlikely Olympian. From a young age, Eddie set his sights on participating in the Olympics any way he can. He decides his best chance of qualifying would be in the … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 19-21
`Opera: The Palm Beach Opera opens its second mainstage production tonight with Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, one of the bel canto’s most charming and radiant scores. Janai Brugger is Norina, David Portillo is Ernesto, Lucas Meachem is Dr. Malatesta, and Carlo Lepore sings Pasquale in a production directed by Fenlon Lamb and conducted by Antonino Fogliani. The plot of this 1843 … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 6-8
George Clooney in “Hail, Caesar!” Film: Ever since they burst onto the scene in 1984 with their idiosyncratic take on film noir, Blood Simple, a new film by Joel and Ethan Coen has been a much anticipated event. Certainly that is true for the incessantly promoted Hail, Caesar, opening this weekend at area theaters, and it does not disappoint. This snarky valentine to the days … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 16-17
Film: The Academy Awards nominations were announced on Thursday and the following day, Mustang, France’s entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category opened locally. Actually, it is a co-production of France and Turkey, the story of five young, coltish girls from a seaside Turkish village whose stern grandmother is intent on keeping them virginal until she is able to marry … [Read more...]