Ann Lemons Pollack
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Bright Star
Watching "Bright Star," the tale of a sterile love affair, is like watching a yacht race on a windless day. So much beauty, so little movement. The romance of John Keats and Fanny Brawne, next-door neighbors in London in the early 19th century, is filled with scenes that provide lots of sex that never happens.
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Fame
They're together again. All the teen-aged descendants of Mickey and Judy, and they're putting on their own show, though on a stage and not in a barn. That's the new "Fame," opening today. It's a remake of the 1980 film, though in today's version, as in real life, the school is named after Fiorello LaGuardia,
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Molly’s In Soulard
Things ain't what they used to be at Molly's. At least not completely. The Soulard spot best known for its immense outdoor bar area has taken over the former Norton's next door and gone serious about food, without abandoning the patio and its frolic. How serious? Well, Eric Brenner, best known to most of us
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Into The Woods
Stephen Sondheim is one of the great names of American musical theater, and he has provided countless glorious evenings for millions of people. But a few of his creations, like "Into the Woods," which opened last night as a sprightly, enjoyable production by the Stray Dog Theatre at the Tower Grove Abbey, leave me disappointed
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The Baader-Meinhof Complex
When young people turn to criminality, whether for personal gain or political statement, they're often far more violent than their older compatriots, even if the elders served as mentors or role models. "The Baader-Meinhof Complex," which opens today, looks at one of the most violent of the guerrilla groups in an exciting but often-depressing movie
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Tetro
Francis Ford Coppola, who always has woven his own life into his films, looks again at family rivalries involving a dominating father and sons who don't always get along, but with less passion than has gone before. The new film is "Tetro," opening today, and it is strengthened by a remarkable performance by Alden Ehrenreich,
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Van Gogh: Brush With Genius
When people talk about painters–people from all walks of life, from high-powered experts to wherever the other end of the spectrum touches down-the first name mentioned is usually Vincent Van Gogh. The Dutch-born Expressionist painter lived only 37 years (1853-1890) and painted for only nine of them, but created masterpieces familiar to almost everyone and,
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It Might Get Loud
Davis Guggenheim, born in St. Louis in 1963 while his late father, Charles, was a busy movie maker here, is following nicely in Dad's footsteps. After the extremely successful and well-received "An Inconvenient Truth," about global warming, directed by Guggenheim and starring Al Gore, he turns to music in "It Might Get Loud," and scores
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Grapevine Grill
Just where is Coffman, Missouri? Well, look between Farmington and Ste. Genevieve on a state road that runs almost parallel to State Highway 32. Ann can say firmly that there's never been a restaurant there before; a hundred years ago, her grandmother was a little girl playing in the valley that spreads out from the
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Sausage Museum
There must be some polysyllabic Latin-based word that refers to sausage lovers, beyond the generic swinophile. If so, they have a new destination. This turns out to be the 60 th anniversary of one of the most popular German sausages, currywurst, and someone has opened a currywurst museum in Berlin. The sausage, it seems, goes