Film: Among the many atrocities attributable to the Nazis is the masterful way they churned out propaganda films during World War II. A new inside look at their disinformation machine is found in A Film Unfinished, a documentary by Yael Hersonski that sifts through existing footage of the Third Reich’s depiction of the Jewish ghetto, contrasting the well-off and the … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Oct. 30-Nov. 2
Film: The long waited third shoe in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series -- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest -- has just dropped locally, and it snaps the trilogy back into form, paring down the third weighty, introspective novel about Goth computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) into an involving, fast-paced … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Oct. 22-24
Art: The Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale received a major bequest almost 20 years ago from Ira Glackens, who at his death in 1991 left the estate of his father, William Glackens, to the museum. This has formed the basis of a major collection of work by a group of American painters known as The Eight, who in addition to Glackens includes George Luks, Maurice Prendergast and Robert … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Oct. 15-18
Film: Moviegoers with a tendency towards high blood pressure are advised to take medical precautions before seeing the first-rate documentary, The Tillman Story, which is bound to make you seething mad. Amir Bar-Lev does a first-rate job sifting through the lies and cover-ups surrounding the death of Arizona Cardinals star Pat Tillman, who put his lucrative football career on … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Oct. 8-11
Theater: Palm Beach Dramaworks opens its new season by continuing to take the high road, giving its audience “theater to think about,” the triangular comedy Candida by the all-too-rarely produced in South Florida George Bernard Shaw. Kim Cozort stars in the title role, the wife of a “moralist and windbag” reverend, who attracts the romantic attentions of a young, blithering … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Oct. 1-3
Film: I am no fan of vampire movies, particularly the Twilight series, with its two-dimensional, catatonic acting. But two years ago, a subdued, suspenseful Swedish film, Let the Right One In, put a new twist on the undead genre with its tale of a 12-year-old boy who is befriended by a seemingly young vampire who moves into his neighborhood. Now comes Matt Reeves’ (Cloverfield) … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 24-26
Art: This weekend, the historic African-American neighborhood on Fort Lauderdale’s Sistrunk Boulevard is the site of the Midtown Urban Arts Show, part of a nonprofit effort to support revitalization of the Sistrunk corridor, named for the pioneering black physician who tended to its residents in the early 20th century. Restoration projects have been ongoing for many years in … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 17-20
Film: When Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter, he never imagined it would become the inspiration for a high school comedy such as Easy A, but screenwriter Bert V. Royal plants his tongue firmly in cheek and comes up with a wise, wise-assed morality tale set at Ojai (Calif.) High, about a misfit named Olive who lies about losing her virginity and gets swept up in a … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 10-14
Art: Five female artists explore the human figure in an upcoming exhibition called the Figuratively Speaking Invitational at The Art Gallery on the Eissey Campus of Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens, and there’s much more to it than is first apparent. The artwork consists of classical-styled paintings, modeled and molded ceramics, drawings and video, beautifully … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 4-7
Art: One of the most revelatory, absorbing art shows I’ve ever seen was The Studio of the South, an exhibit exploring the relationship between Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin and the work they created while briefly living together in the French town of Arles in late 1888. I caught it at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001, and it was remarkable to see the influence the two … [Read more...]