Ann Lemons Pollack
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The Cartel
Many people think that the films of Michael Moore swing too far to the left in their political and social thinking. Bob Bowdon takes us in a diametrically opposite direction in "The Cartel," which opens here today. This film is a right-wing, libertarian diatribe against public schools and for charter schools, using New Jersey to
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Stellina Pasta Cafe
Stellina Pasta Cafe has emerged from a major remodeling with an extremely different air. With a more sophisticated dining room and a small bar in a waiting area at the door, the restaurant now seats about 60, double its former capacity. This doesn't seem to have alleviated the demand for their food, though. We visited
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Karen Akers: Akers Sings Porter
Cool weather outside, cool singing inside. Karen Akers, tall and slender, with handsome cheekbones and a voice that both purred like a chorus of kittens and snapped like the jaws of a tiger, brought the clever, convoluted lyrics of Cole Porter to the Kranzberg Art Center Wednesday night and held them up to be
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The Wild Party
Poems only occasionally are inspirations for musical theater, and it took a long time for this one to reach fruition, but "The Wild Party," based on a 1928 poem–and a decade of Prohibition-driven parties–arrived in St. Louis last night to run through May 15. The production by New Line Theatre will run through May 15
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Country Girl
"The Country Girl" is over-the-top theater. There are three great roles for actors who are willing to let it all hang out and able to retain control. It's high drama, even melodrama at times, but the Clifford Odets play gets an almost-terrific production from the Avalon Theatre Company, it should shed the "almost" by
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Ajami
Ajami is a neighborhood in the Israeli city of Jaffa, practically next door to Tel Aviv, though its population is mostly Arab. It's a rowdy, seedy, rough neighborhood, like those all over the world that provide a familiar setting for violent books and movies. Ajami, almost a slum, has all the usual characters. Poverty is
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Gogol Bordello Non Stop
Whether it's "gypsy punk," as founder and front man Eugene Hutz says, or any other music- and band-based movie, it boils down to an inescapable truth: If you like the group and its sound, you'll like the movie, if it's "Gogol Bordello Non Stop," at Webster University's Moore Auditorium through Sunday, or anything else. If
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Kota Wood Fire Grill
There's a new kid in Grand Center, right across the street from the Fox. Kota Wood Fire Grill, from the same people that operate the Triumph Grill in the neighborhood, has opened and, after giving the restaurant a little time to shake out the kinks, we decided to visit. The corner location facing the theater
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Brunch: scape
Spring is busting out all over, and some days it's even warm enough to consider not just eating outside, but seeking a shady table. At such times, Sunday brunch on Maryland Plaza provides its own entertainment. The important thing is if the food matches up. At scape (still no capital letter), it does. The menu
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Terribly Happy
The depths of irony and black humor are obvious companions for whoever named this bleak Danish story "Terribly Happy," but that's for someone else to judge. Excellently acted and with a slow, stately, tension-building pace, we follow Robert, a Copenhagen policeman exiled to the small and lonely town of Skarilld for reasons that never are