“Hey daddy-o/Hey mamma-mo/How about we all go/To the Palm Beach Poetry Festival-o?” Can’t you just hear the fingers going snippity-snap when former poet laureate Robert Pinsky delivers his poetic truths with might and coolness, backed by a jazz trio on Wednesday night? Can’t you just feel the heat that will…
From Ron Howard, director of the better carmaker dramedy Gung Ho, The Dilemma is a myriad of subplots piled into the trunk of a lemon. Vince Vaughn is Ronny, co-owner of a boutique car-engine manufacturer. He’s the pitchman; the brains belong to Nick, played by Kevin James. Their intention—to build…
While previous themes for shows at Bear and Bird Gallery have hit on everything from revenge fantasies and tattoo art to candy apples and razor blades, the call to artists this time around went a little something like this: “Artwork for the show can be any subject matter or theme,…
The Killing of Sister George, by playwright Frank Marcus, is a parody of social attitudes toward lesbianism that was misread and taken seriously in its 1964 debut. The play follows June Buckridge, who stars in a radio series as a benevolent village nurse — a sort of Dr. Quinn, Medicine…
Nothing sells like sex, except, perhaps, violence. (We’re a sick, sado-masochistic people.) Combine those two and you’ve got a rated R film that’s going to break box office records. The folks over at the Empire Stage are using it to their upmost advantage with their latest production — simply called…
In a celebrity culture that seems to be fueled by pantyless party girls, naked tweet pics, and leaked sex tapes, it’s easy to forget what stars look like with their clothes on. Even the majority of red carpet loaners leave very little to our imagination, and the more conservative the…
Most believer-versus-atheist arguments go like this: Both combatants make an equal number of points, each of which appears to be equally valid. The combatants outrage each other. They stump each other. At some point, the believer makes an appeal to something called “faith” or “grace” and smiles dreamily, hinting at…
White Material is a portrait of change and a thing of terrible beauty. The time is unspecified. The subject is the collapse of an unnamed West African state, and the protagonist, Maria, a French settler unflinchingly played by Isabelle Huppert, is the proprietress of a family-run coffee plantation. White Material…
The late George Hickenlooper’s Casino Jack is an improbably blithe cautionary tale, recounting the rise and fall of D.C. superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. “You’re either a big-leaguer or you’re a slave clawing your way onto the C train,” the avid antihero (Kevin Spacey) tells his mirrored reflection in the pre-credit sequence;…
Kelly Canter is the Courtney Love of country stars. Spectacular meltdowns on stage have forced Kelly (an inconsistently twanging Gwyneth Paltrow) into rehab. There, her decolletage decked out in black lace and a bling cross, she jams in more than one sense with singer-songwriter-janitor Beau (Tron fox Garrett Hedlund), until…
Season of the Witch begins in a Crusade taking place after the Crusades, in a 14th century For Dummies about as immersive and real as the Ohio State Renaissance Festival. Disillusioned, defected knights Behmen and Felson (Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman) retreat home across a hotchpotch Europe, and turn off…
To put together a photo exhibit tackling a subject as complex and weighty as refugee life requires more than good camera skills and a passing interest in the subject. For the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ touring exhibit “Invisible in the City: Lives of Urban Refugees,” the UNHCR needed…
It’s the first week of 2011 and you’re already not living up to your New Year’s resolutions. The treadmill is still a clothes rack, that expensive journal you bought yourself for Christmas is still blank, and you are still living the same boring, uneventful life you were a week ago…
Do you have a significant other, male or female, who is maybe more into hot rods and football than wine and theater? And did you, perhaps over the holidays, drag said other to various events that he or she hated — maybe a nephew’s fifth-grade holiday play or a performance…
How does a musician remain visible let alone relevant on-stage with guitar virtuoso Pat Metheny? Ask Christian McBride. The Philly-born bassist routinely elicits awe while playing in Metheny’s trio, pulling rich, resonant tones from his upright or providing growling, slippery solos on his electric ax. McBride, 38, established himself as…
At the new World and Eye Arts Center in FAT Village, a night out at the theater is not your traditional, theatrical soiree. First, this venue is a gallery, so no giant stage and the formal atmosphere that can come with that. At the inaugural World and Eye Coffee House,…
We think about superheroes as musclebound men and women parading around in spandex underwear, rescuing the innocent from wrongdoing at the hands of diabolical villains. But true heroes are more subtle. Instead of skull-cracking baddies to a soundtrack of thwacks and boffs, they’re giving our children safe environments to live…
It’s fair to say no one would call Fort Lauderdale an artropolis. In fact, Broward is a bit of a cultural dead zone when you compare it to West Palm Beach or Miami. But the past year and a half has witnessed a notable upsurge in support of local art…
Broadway Bound is considered one of Neil Simon’s greatest plays. It’s his semi-autobiographical account of two brothers struggling to become comedy writers; and their parents, whose marital troubles become fodder for the brothers’ radio skits. The father is cheating on his wife with a dying woman. The mother is helplessly…
Hungering for something zestier than those interactive wedding and bar mitzvah shows? Meet the Calamari sisters. These, ahem, ladies discover that their cooking show is about to get chopped from the lineup at the public access cable station, and they aren’t handling the news well. Sure, they’ll sing songs of…
The downtown doldrums are downright inevitable: Parking in Fort Lauderdale is always a hassle, and with only a couple of establishments providing shelter from the fist-pumping masses and their anthems, you run the risk of either getting bored with same old routine or turning into a bitter alcoholic recluse. We’ll…
Whether they are confidently elevating a modest A-cup to Parton-sized portions or carefully flattening and tucking away à la Hillary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry, a decent bra can be a true work of art. So why is it that these specimens of artistry get relegated to Goodwill’s 99-cent bin…
