Theater/Film Reviews
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Legally Blonde
With the Tax Man visiting in less than a week, it's important to clear the mind before the late start we all get, or to assuage the pain of the check we have to write, or to relieve the depression caused by the one we just wrote. "Legally Blonde," which opened a weekend run at
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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson is a marvelous story-teller who also was a popular, crusading left-wing journalist. His sudden death in 2004 at age 50 precluded his opportunity to see or know how successful, famous and wealthy he was about to become. His "Millenium Trilogy" ("The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," originally titled in Swedish, "Men Who Hate
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The Most Dangerous Man in America
Daniel Ellsberg helped start the Vietnam war, then realized the horror he had created and helped end it. His story is told powerfully in "The Most Dangerous Man in America," a stylish documentary that opens today. And in one frightening scene after another, without saying a word or pointing a finger, it illustrates exactly how
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A Prophet
Prison movies can be just another style of horror film, and through punishment and agony, a rigid caste system and some exciting acting, "A Prophet" scores on every level. A French film about a Frenchman of Arab descent in a French prison, it won the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival a year ago.
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Five Guys Named Moe
Two-tone wingtip shoes were only the beginning. The flash and dash that make "Five Guys Named Moe" a joyous evening extended from there through the costumes to lights and set, gained momentum from Charles Creath's talented quartet and rolled through the evening with six talented performers and the vibrant music and lyrics of Louis Jordan.
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Chloe
If sex sells, as some maintain, "Chloe" should be a real blockbuster of a movie. The slick tale of a woman who hires a "professional escort" to do a little chick-check of her husband's fidelity stars Julianne Moore as the jealous wife, Liam Neeson as her flirtatious husband, Max Thieriot as their son and Amanda
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Greenberg
Ben Stiller is a talented actor. Noah Baumbach ("The Squid and the Whale") is a talented writer and director. But the two of them now have combined to create one of the most disagreeable, unpleasant and irritating leading men I've ever seen. I don't walk out on movies or plays. It's my job to see
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The Fantasticks
All the superlatives about "The Fantasticks" have been written, and they're all true. In the 50 years since it opened off Broadway, there has not been a night when a production was not playing somewhere in the world. I can't count how many times I've seen it, but the first time included Jerry Orbach in
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The Art of the Steal
The continuing story of the Barnes Foundation is a tragedy, one of many in America when the rich and powerful, using expensive p.r. firms and lots of money, manage to weaken the rule of law and the rights of property for those less well-endowed, all the while claiming to be acting for the benefit of
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Desire Under the Elms
Muddy Waters, a small theater organization that works from the Kranzberg Arts Center, devotes each season to a single playwright. This is Eugene O'Neill's year, which began over the weekend with a tense, almost-frightening production of "Desire Under the Elms," pairing a veteran local actor, James Anthony, with a comparative rookie, 25-year-old Franklin Killian. They're