Theater/Film Reviews
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Fair and Unbalanced
More than 50 years dropped off my back last night when the Second City touring company took the stage at the Touhill Center. Suddenly it was the mid-50s again, and a Chicago-based comic group called the Compass Players was under the lights at the Crystal Palace. Ted Flicker directed, and Del Close was there. And
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Memphis
"Memphis," which won four Tony awards last spring, including Best Musical, will send its touring company to the Fox next May 1. But the movie version, or a sort-of movie version, is playing at three area theaters this weekend, and it's a terrific show, with fine music, superb dancing, outstanding singing and above-average singing. It's
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Winter in Wartime
Many years ago, I knew a Dutch cinematographer who had been a boy in Amsterdam during World War II, and had suffered through the German occupation. He sometimes told stories of the war's final winter, 1944-45, and the horrors that visited the Dutch people. "Winter in Wartime," which opens today, recalls those days in the
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Heartbeat
One must be generous to the young, but there are exceptions. Take Xavier Dolan ("Take him please," as Henny Youngman might have said). He's 22 years old, directing "Heartbeats," his second movie. But directing is not enough for this would-be Canadian filmmaker. He also wrote it, was the editor, designed the costumes, served as
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Black Pearl
There's a hard note of cynicism running through Frank Higgins' strong, interesting play, "Black Pearl Sings," which opened Friday night at the Grandel Theatre as a St. Louis Black Repertory Company production. The author's point seems to be that whether the goal is as crass as money, fame and power, or as noble as motherhood
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Awake and Sing
Think back a moment. Think of the last couple of years, and how much less money you have today than you did in 2008. Remember collapsing home values. Foreclosures in your neighborhood. People begging on the streets, maybe in your neighborhood. Think about it being 10 times worse. Then go to the New Jewish Theatre
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Potiche
"Potiche" means "trophy wife" in French. Catherine Deneuve, beautiful and glamorous as ever, describes herself as "a trophy housewife," which is more accurate. Either way, she and Gerard Depardieu have a great time in this rather dated French comedy and they are good enough to draw the audience into their fun. These veteran actors are
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Sound It Out
When it comes to investments, no one ever will mistake a record store for an oil giant, but hardly anyone enters a local gas station with the joy that people show as they walk into Sound It Out Records in Stockton-on-Tees, the last record shop in a decaying town in northern England. "Sound It Out
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The Human Resources Manager
“Human Resources Manager” is a handy management euphemism for a low-level bureaucrat who used to be called a personnel director. He/She is in charge of not hiring people during hiring freezes which thaw whenever a real executive wants to hire needs a job for a relative. The movie of the same name, an Israeli offering,
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Water for Elephants
Rosie, the riveting elephant, responds to commands in Polish and drinks at least as much whiskey as water, but "Water for Elephants," probably is a more acceptable title for a film that had some good ideas and is technically magnificent but which is startlingly passionless. Reese Witherspoon (Marlena), as platinum blonde as Jean Harlow, is