Joss Whedon, a man whose name is synonymous with some of the most feverishly obsessed-over fantasy and science-fiction franchises of the last 20 years, is also a hardcore Shakespeare fan. In-between helming cult TV shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and blockbuster epics like “The Avengers,” the writer-director frequently hosts actor friends at his house […]
In the House, adaptation of Spanish play, comes to FilmfestDC
Movies arriving from overseas are the bread and butter of Filmfest DC, the annual tour of cinematic works Washingtonians would otherwise have little chance to see. The French drama “In the House,” one of the 80-plus features screening over the next ten days, is a prime example of the way this festival tries to stretch […]
The 2013 Oscars – a theaterlover’s guide
Normally the Academy Award nominations are an annual opportunity for film fans to gripe about how out-of-touch the Hollywood establishment is with quality filmmaking. But something strange happened on the way to the red carpet this year: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences actually produced a decent and diverse crop of contenders. And […]
Les Miserables – movie review
Have you heard there’s a film version of “Les Misérables”? Just kidding; of course you have. For the last several months the media bombardment preceding the Christmas day opening of this movie musical has been unprecedented.
Bachelorette
At one point late in “Bachelorette,” Kirsten Dunst’s fiery yet weak-kneed creation inadvertently reveals an ugly old habit of hers to a near-total stranger. “I wanted to be beautiful,” she offers, by way of explanation.
Rock of Ages
The modern jukebox musical is here to stay. Broadway purists can either fight this continued re-appropriation of fizzy, carbonated songs and their respective eras like some kind of theatre plague, or they can embrace the Jersey Boy Within as a necessary evil of a medium that thrives on pre-stamped mass appeal. And heck, there’s always […]
The Oscars: your Stage to Screen Cheat Sheet
The Academy Awards are almost upon us once again, and this Sunday night, the entire film industry will hold its breath while a bunch of old, white men tell us what they liked this year. Here, for the discerning theatergoer, is a stage-to-screen-to-Oscar guide to the most notable nominations (from our point of view, anyway).
The Woman in Black
Horror is a tricky genre for both stage and screen. It relies, perhaps more than any other genre, on emotion – evoking a gut-level, sometimes primal terror that makes the viewer forget, just for a moment, that they’re in a playhouse or movie theater. “The Woman in Black,” which opens today, aims to replicate the […]
Pina
One of the few concrete tidbits we learn about German dance choreographer Pina Bausch over the course of the new 3-D documentary “Pina” is that she was a woman of few words. As should rightfully be expected from someone whose preferred mode of expression is bodily motion, she was of the opinion that dance expresses […]
Albert Nobbs
Glenn Close doesn’t play Albert Nobbs as a woman passing for a man – she plays the character as sexless. The straight-laced member of the waitstaff at Dublin’s Morrison Hotel keeps a tellingly low profile, lips sealed, spine arched, uttering few words, preferring the world to think of him – because Nobbs identifies as male […]
War Horse
The London stage version won 2 Olivier Awards; it picked up 6 Tony Awards in New York. But will you like the movie? “War Horse” finds director Steven Spielberg melding together the two genres he’s most well known for: children’s fairy tale and epic, tragic war story. Under any other circumstances, a film about the […]
Carnage
Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage takes to the screen There’s a scene late in “Carnage” in which Penelope – the type-A, upper-middle class mother played by Jodie Foster – asks “why is everything so exhausting?” This question applies just as much to “Carnage” itself. This tale of sound and fury, despite sharp direction and a […]