Theater/Film Reviews
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Crime and Punishment
Everyone says that Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" is one of the world's great novels. But hardly anyone has read the entire book. Well, it's been reduced to a mere 90 minutes, moves at the speed of a NASCAR racer and practically sucked all the air out of the Rep Studio Theatre when it opened
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Gutenberg! The Musical!
We've seen too many self-referential, let's-pat-ourselves-on-the-back productions on local stages since we entered 2010, and another one arrived at the Ivory Theatre last night, to run through March 28. Steve Isom and Ben Nordstrom, with a solid Henry Palkes at the piano, are partly responsible for "Gutenberg: The Musical." Scott Brown and Anthony King, who
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Our Family Wedding
Stereotypes on parade are front and center as an African-American boy, a would-be doctor from New York, plans to wed a Mexican-American girl from Los Angeles. His father is a popular disc jockey; hers is a successful auto mechanic and rehabber of classic cars. And the movie, "Our Family Wedding," which opens today, is produced
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Remember Me
Leading the race for most dishonest film of the year is "Remember Me," which opens here today and shows off Will Fetters as a writer who develops a few interesting characters and a story that seems to be progressing until a teacher takes a piece of chalk and writes a date on a board. It's
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The Ultimate Wave Tahiti
The spectacular panorama offered by the huge IMAX screen at the St. Louis Science Center is at its most dramatic in films about the glories and the danger of nature. The new movie, "The Ultimate Wave: Tahiti," that opened over the weekend, is a perfect fit for the glorious camera work and the auditorium whose
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The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds
Families in turmoil and Pulitzer Prizes for drama march hand-in-hand across St. Louis stages this week. The vicious "August: Osage County," the winner two years ago, opened on Tuesday at the Fox, and the 1971 winner, "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds," a strong, excellent production by Stray Dog Theatre, arrived last night
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The Ghost Writer
With his life the subject of a great deal of drama, it's no surprise that Roman Polanski's new film looks into a life-reflecting mirror from time to time. "The Ghost Writer," which opens here today, is a rich, multi-layered, high-tension adventure story in which snippets of real people show up from time to time, advancing
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Fish Tank
There are overtones of "An Education" in "Fish Tank," which opens here today, but it's also fascinating to watch Andrea Arnold, another extremely talented woman film director, put a different, but equally powerful vision on a movie about a teen-age girl and a much older man. Acting is a key factor, of course, and Arnold's
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August: Osage County
Dysfunctional families are a boon to playwrights. From Shakespeare to Eugene O'Neill, from Moliere to Arthur Miller, they've provided the material on which writers have thrived, but rarely has dysfunctionality achieved the level Tracy Letts reaches in "August: Osage County," which opened at the Fox last night. From that simple title, he takes us down
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Yesterdays: An Evening With Billie Holiday
Wasted by drugs and alcohol, the legendary Billie Holiday, Lady Day of song and story, took a Harlem gig in May, 1959. She was undependable and a risky hire, but she needed work and money to support her habit, and the club owner took a chance in the long-shot hopes of a good score. The