David Mamet's Broadway prize-winner, with something approximating a dream cast: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, and briefly, bringing in an expensively scented whiff of prosperity, Alec Baldwin. All men, no women. The first five of them play, respectively, the preening tomcat, the drowning rat, the …
An "interactive experience" where theatregoers are expected to use social media to "raise your voice and show your passion for changing America's education system."
High-contrast cop partners (white, black; New York, L.A.; Buddhist, cinephile) witlessly bantering and quipping their way along the trail of a twisted serial killer who would seem to have been overly impressed with Seven. Him, or his director, John Gray: it's dark; it rains a lot; the crime scenes are …
A carefree circus performer named Glitter (Filipino star Alex Diaz) falls for a struggling musician Doom (UK newcomer Alan Cammish). An undeniable spark throws them into a summer of camping trips, late-night conversations, and innovative song-and-dance numbers – until the real world comes calling. Their relationship is put to the …
Schmaltzy Sunday, even more. In an image the consistency of overcooked goulash, a Budapest waitress juggles three suitors and inspires a lethally melancholy melody (lethally, literally) by the house pianist, reprised ad nauseam. The much-recorded title tune (Billie Holiday, most famously) indeed dates from pre-WWII Hungary: that much is true. …
Nights spent clubbing in search of indiscriminate sex partners may lead one to believe that Gloria (played with shimmering ebullience by Paulina García) is just another helpless middle-aged free spirit vigorously pursuing a life of teenage desperation. Look deeper to find a woman who spends every moment of the day …
Sidney Lumet's remake of the atypically conventional and commercial John Cassavetes film of 1980. If you could think of the central figure of the gunmoll-cum-babysitter as a repertory role on a par with Hedda Gabler or Lady Macbeth, then you might allow that Sharon Stone does a rock-hard New York …
This is the first John Cassavetes movie that could seriously be contemplated in terms of a possible TV series spinoff: the continuing adventures of a crusty but tender-hearted retired gun moll and a spunky but vulnerable Puerto Rican orphan in their relentless private war against the New York criminal syndicate …
Three features and five years after Sebastián Lelio’s Gloria cracked the international film scene, the Chilean director seems to be out of ideas, as evidenced by this American-speaking remake for gringos too lazy to grapple with subtitles. It’s set in contemporary Los Angeles, but when was the last time you …
The story of a Disco legend who, for five decades, has inspired millions with her words, but only understood the lyrics when she hit rock bottom at age 65.
True to “My Life on the Road,” the 2015 autobiography that director Julie Taymor uses for inspiration, a good portion of the film takes place in Greyhounds and train cars, their wheels a rolling throughline linking past with present. It’s not uncommon to find two performers cast as the same …
A less familiar but immeasurably meaningful chapter of Civil War history, a sort of precursory case of affirmative action, to do with the formation of the first black fighting unit in the United States. The unprecedented and unrepeatable circumstances of this story are special enough, unique enough, to refreshen even …
Yet another Disney raid on the annals of sport for an Inspirational True Story: the 1966 NCAA basketball final in which the upstart Miners of Texas Western (today, UTEP) sent out five blacks for the opening tip against the "basketball royalty" of the all-white Kentucky Wildcats. This story, within a …
A Shakespearean herald reading the play’s old prologue is comically yanked at the beginning. So much for the literary roots, and despite mostly British accents, the wit leans to “Adios, loser,” “Let’s kick some grass,” and a “pansy” joke as garden gnomes fill out plastic remnants of the Romeo and …