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...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 9-10, 2016
Film: Last year’s Oscar-winning director, Alejandro Iñárritu (Birdman) is back with another tour de force saga, this time far from the urban canyons of New York City. It is called The Revenant, which means “one who returns from the dead.” Indeed, fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is mauled by a bear in the bitter cold Old West wilderness and is left for dead by his … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 20-22
Film: Its expansion delayed for a couple of weeks to maximize its impact and exposure for Oscar consideration is a small, but powerful film, Spotlight, certainly one of the year’s 10 best and a sure competitor for Best Picture honors. Spotlight is the name of the Boston Globe’s small, elite investigative team, which launches a major project to look into the city’s … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 6-8
Dance: Stephen Mills didn’t think he was the right person to tell a Holocaust survivor’s story in dance, but the Ballet Austin artistic director relented, and the result was a remarkable 45-minute depiction of the memories of survivor Naomi Warren called Light: The Holocaust and Humanity Project. The work also includes larger themes, including the Genesis myth, used here as a … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 12-13
Film: Within every great comic is a dramatic actor yearning to break through. Or that’s how the show business cliché goes. But it is true about Lily Tomlin, who gives a remarkable, tough, smart-mouthed performance in a brief – only 78 minutes – low-budget film called simply Grandma. She is Elle, a lesbian poet whose granddaughter, Sage (Julia Garner), arrives on her Van Nuys … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 4-7
Theater: Fort Lauderdale’s Thinking Cap Theatre has produced the area premiere of Dave Hanson’s clever Waiting for Waiting for Godot, a takeoff on Samuel Beckett’s highly influential existential comedy. Set backstage at a playhouse where Waiting for Godot is being performed, this wry tale stuffed with inside show business jokes focuses on two understudies who while away the … [Read more...]