Theater/Film Reviews
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Conversations With My Father
As the greatest philosopher of the 20th century, Pogo the Possum, once reported, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." In a nutshell, that's the story of "Conversations With My Father," the searing, passionate drama by Herb Gardner that opened the New Jewish Theatre's 13th season last night in the Clayton High School
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Capitalism: A Love Story
If Louis IX, our patron saint and the leader of many Crusades, were choosing his army of Crusaders today, he wouldn’t choose Michael Moore. After all, Moore is kind of fat, and he’s funny looking, and carries himself less like a Crusader than anyone I can imagine. Even though he’s a Catholic, he’d never
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The Invention of Lying
For its first 40 minutes or so, "The Invention of Lying" is one of the funniest films I've seen in years. It slows down from there, and the flying start becomes a walking finish, but the overall effect is splendid work by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson, who co-wrote and co-directed. Gervais also stars
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No Impact Man
Colin Beaven may have parlayed his 15 minutes of fame into a year, a book and a movie, but "No Impact Man" lives up to its title perfectly, as far as I'm concerned, though he's talking about living with no environmental impact and I'm talking about living to provide interest, or entertainment, or even enjoyment.
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Wonder of the World
When it comes to off-the-wall comedy, mostly of the absurd variety, David Lindsay-Abaire can provide good entertainment. He shows it well, if for too long, in "Wonder of the World," which ends the Orange Girls' 2009 season-and probably its existence-with the current production, which opened Friday at COCA's Anheuser-Busch Black Box theater and will run
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Portrait of My People
Erin Kelley, local actress and director and Managing Artistic Director of the Avalon Theatre Company, has white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. She's also one-fourth Cherokee and Shawnee, and that's the part of her heritage she discusses in her one-woman show, "Portrait of My People," which opened last night as an Avalon production at
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The Burning Plain
Kim Basinger and Charlize Theron are mother and daughter. In the days of Damon Runyon, they would be charitably characterized as "having round heels." Today, in "The Burning Plain," they're more than a little mixed up. And so is Guillermo Arriaga, who wrote and directed a film that bounces around in time and place and
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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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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