Ann Lemons Pollack
-
The Sons of Tennessee
The South long has known "bachelor uncles," "walkers," and other euphemisms for gay men who were part of families and social groups, but who remained closeted, even if their sexual preferences were known, if not discussed. "The Children of Tennessee Williams," a look at a half-century of gay participation in the New Orleans Mardi Gras
-
Next to Normal
Diana's a modern American mom, modern enough one school-day morning at 6 a.m. to inform her teen-aged daughter, Natalie, that she's about to go upstairs to have sex. Nothing abnormal about the sex, it's with her husband, who is Natalie's dad, but the off-handed manner is a bit off-putting, though funny. Not necessarily normal, but
-
McCormick & Schmick Brunch
Our friends – and that includes, we feel, our regular readers – know we're not much on chains, particularly national ones. But darn, that brunch menu at McCormick & Schmick's looked inviting, with lots of seafood, of course, and some interesting possibilities out of that great brunching town, New Orleans. We actually looked forward to
-
Poetry
"Poetry," a South Korean movie that opens here today, is long, slow-starting, in Korean with subtitles. But despite these probable impediments to audiences, it's an amazing movie, sensitive, gripping, studious, mesmerizing. There are wondrous performances from a number of actors, especially Yun Jung-hee as Mija, a 66-year-old woman who lives with an angry, truculent, pain-in-the-neck
-
Win Win
“Win Win” is the third film to be written and directed by Thomas McCarthy–and it’s his third good one. Maybe it’s not as touching as “The Station Agent” nor as winsome as “The Visitor,” but the New Jersey native now has made his home state look good twice in three appearances, and that’s a rather
-
Hanna
When Maurice Chevalier sang "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," he was not thinking of Saoirse Ronan, the eponymous heroine of "Hanna," which opens here today. Chevalier was thinking of pink-and-white cuties in pigtails. Ronan, who is as drop-dead gorgeous as any of his coterie, would destroy him and a couple of dozen of them in
-
Pearl Cafe
The arrival of spring usually means a pleasant touch of color. And it extends to the plates at the small, charming Pearl Cafe, where pink noodles, black rice pudding, bright red and green bell peppers bring an extra spark to extremely tasty dishes at a Florissant location, improved by recycling a fast-food spot to provide
-
The Death of Atahualpa
"Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings," said King Richard II, describing a common group activity in the court, in summer camp, at saloons, in theaters everywhere and upon the Kranzberg Arts Center stage, where "The Death of Atahualpa" opened over the weekend. The Upstream Theater production
-
This Week’s Wine, April 2, 2011
Interested in Missouri wine? Would you like to taste some? The Doubletree Hotel at West Port Plaza should be your destination today. The 2011 Drink Local Wine Conference offers three seminars (tickets include lunch) this morning; a taste-off this afternoon with some two dozen Missouri wineries pouring samples and tasters voting on their favorites, followed
-
Certified Copy
Iranian writer-director Abbas Kiarostami, in his first film outside his native country, brings us an English man (William Shimell) and a French woman (Juliette Binoche) in Italy. He’s an art historian on a book tour, pushing his volume about originals and copies in the art world (thus the movie’s name) in “Certified Copy,” which opens