Theater/Film Reviews
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Shadowlands
Joan Didion's husband dropped dead at their dinner table. C. S. Lewis' wife died in a hospital after a three-year battle with cancer. Two stage versions of those tragedies have opened in the last fortnight, with "Shadowlands," the William Nicholson drama about the late-life romance between Lewis and American poet Joy Davidman Gresham, took the
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The Illusionist
Jacques Tati (1907-1982), was born Jacques Tatischeff. He directed only six films. Four of them featured the writer-director as Mr. Hulot, a gawky, shambling man who smoked a pipe, wore a raincoat and carried an umbrella. The films were scant on dialogue, long on sight gags and sound effects, and genially lampooned the vagaries of
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White Material
Isabelle Huppert brings a fierce performance to "White Material," as she desperately hangs on to the shreds of the past. She owns a coffee plantation somewhere in Africa, but the men and women who have worked there for generations are aflame with the fires of change and they seem to care little whether the change
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The Company Men
If schadenfreude, or taking pleasure from someone else’s misfortune, is your thing, run, do not walk, to “The Company Men,” and get a fix watching the rich and powerful take a financial and psychological beating by being fired. It’s fitting emotional revenge for so many of us who have seen employees sacrificed on the altar
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Summer Wars
Japanese animation, or anime, has been a stylistic gem in the movie industry about 30 years, and it's done so well it's staggering. "Summer Wars" is a charming tale, successful as a contemporary film and in its artistic creativity. Mamoru Hosada is the drector, Satoko Okudera the writer. Our hero is a pre-teen boy named
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The Year of Magical Thinking
There's a considerable amount of magic in the Rep's Studio Theatre these days, led by Fontaine Syer. The co-founder and long-time artistic director of the Theatre Project Company returned to a St. Louis stage and offers a brilliant re-creation of Joan Didion in "The Year of Magical Thinking," which will run through Jan. 30. Didion's
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Sea Rex: Journey to a Prehistoric World
Pascal Vuong has spent five years on "SeaRex: Journey to a Prehistoric World," and believe me, it was worth the time. It's one of the best films to have spread around the huge screen of the Omnimax theater at the St. Louis Science Center, where it opened on Friday. It's a tale of undersea creatures,
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Blue Valentine
We're big into relationship movies these days, but love stories of one type or another, always have been popular fare from Hollywood. Of course, changing times bring new styles, with much increase in visible sex and tedious discussion. "Blue Valentine," which opens this weekend, joins "Somewhere" and "Rabbit Hole," also new in town, "I Love
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Voices
Five large and historic figures are on the Missouri History Museum Lee Auditorium stage these days, taking an interesting and personal look at many things. The theatrical piece, "Voices," by the Freed-Yorick Ensemble, opened last night and will run through Jan. 23; it's reminiscent of the Holy Roman Repertory Company, which often performed on this
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Rabbit Hole
Few events in a marriage are more painful than the death of a child, and when it occurs in a moment, with the speed of a light being turned off at the switch, without time to make farewells, without time to prepare emotionally, it’s a horrid experience that spreads through relationships with similar speed. “Rabbit