Nostalgic folks like to moan about the lost art of letter writing. Simpler times, whimsy times, blah, blah. But let’s take a moment to discuss its more practical merits: the art of the strongly worded letter. Also known as hate mail, the strongly worded letter harks back to the days…
The usually silver-tongued Eliot Spitzer stammers and hesitates when asked to explain the psychosexual motivations behind his spectacular flameout in Alex Gibney’s gripping Client 9 — or, if you prefer, Inside Blow Job. Spitzer, whose tireless efforts to redeem himself led to his cooperation in this doc, receives an entirely…
Moving in just six years from critic-approved discovery (Head-On) to state-of-the-union meller (Edge of Heaven), with a fruitful detour into the music doc (Crossing the Bridge), Turkish-German director Fatih Akin now takes a break with a peppy Eurocomedy. Wild-haired young Greek-German Zinos Kazantsakis (Adam Bousdoukos) runs a lumpen-loved schnitzel joint…
There really aren’t enough exclusive parties in South Florida — I mean, really high-end stuff. I’m longing for the kinds of parties with disdainful doorpeople who let in only A-listers — or at least solid B-pluses. I mean, parties with celebrity DJs, bottle service, perfectly proportioned women in barely there…
Programmatic by design, Burlesque flattens singer Christina Aguilera’s inherent thorny appeal — the persona that’s at once obnoxiously “provocative” and sympathetic — by laughably casting her as the 21st-century, torch-signing equivalent of Ruby Keeler in a hodge-podge of Busby Berkeley plots, with none of the Depression-era style or social critique…
From a jaunty Spin Doctors-scored opening to a teary, Regina Spektor-cued finale, Love and Other Drugs will switch to any style, station, or frequency to keep you entertained. Or at least not bored. (Maybe awake?) The most egregious four-quadrant pander-party of the year, Ed Zwick’s latest middlebrow atrocity has been…
“Great,” sighs the wicked witch in Tangled, a CG-animated spin on the Rapunzel story, “now I’m the bad guy.” Mother Gothel, the frizzy-haired, sharp-featured enchantress with the inimitable voice of Donna Murphy, is Disney’s first villainess whose chief crime is being an underminer, and the heroine of Disney’s 50th animated…
How the hell did South Florida’s most troubled theater land Michael Leeds? Usually, the only time Tony nominees visit South Florida in any official capacity is to host the Carbonell Awards. Somehow, Leeds, the Tony-nominated director and composer of Swinging on a Star, has found himself directing at the nonequity…
Faster is a glossy B made from three twining badmen stories: There’s pneumatically-muscled ex-con “Driver” (Dwayne Johnson), sharp-dressed hitman “Killer” (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), and self-explanatory “Cop” (Billy Bob Thornton). Driver stomps out of prison with a list of the people who put him there and a sworn mission to cross them…
Used to be that when you saw somebody exposing his or her bum on Biscayne Boulevard between 65th and 75th streets, you were in the presence of a certified street walker. But these days, the recently designated MiMo historic district has classed up its image, and the only ass crack…
Mmm. Beer. Everybody likes beer. Light beer. Dark beer. Red beer. Ales, lagers, stouts, and pilsners. It has so many uses. If you get a promotion at work, your friends buy you a beer. If you get fired at work, your friends buy you a beer. Rinsing your hair with…
The best art openings don’t need to contain exhibits that go together; in fact, sometimes it’s important that they don’t, in order to produce in the viewer vastly different feelings and sensations in one evening — it’s like traveling. The directors of 18 Rabbit Gallery, Leah Brown and Peter Symons,…
Art is born in one’s imagination — you dream something up, and then you make it happen. Artists and teachers Jean Minuchin and Randy Hendler dreamed of a space where they could not only display their own creations but where people could come together to express themselves and experience art…
Stuffed with turkey and tired of chasing sales on Black Friday? If so, why not spend the evening reveling in a good, old-fashioned reckoning, Miami Heat-style at Whiskey Tango, where you get 25 bucks off your tab if the Heat loses. Perhaps this venue will be full of everyone in…
Never have 15-minute intervals been more important than the day after Thanksgiving. At 5:30 p.m., Santa arrives (yes, he’s available for pictures). At 5:45, Red Bull Air Force performs a skydiving exhibition. At 6, Fort Lauderdale’s mayor, Jack Seiler, will flip the switch and officially turn on Christmas in way…
When the pumpkin pie begins to digest, you have a decision to make. You can go with the downward momentum and sink into the couch. Or, you can stand up in spite of the malaise, pull your shirt over your head, and scream “I am the Great Cornholio! My bunghole…
What’s blond, completely plastic, and absolutely fabulous? No, it’s not Barbie. It’s the wildly bold and fiercest female on the scene — Joan Rivers. With a career spanning more than four decades, Rivers has been everything from a talk-show host to a bestselling author. She’s the Red Carpet’s Queen of…
As a genre, Jewish cinema is more about the who than the what. Movies about major-league baseball, senior dating, and a band of musicians fall under the same umbrella as those about Palestinian/Israeli relations and tales of Holocaust survival. And they’re just a portion of the approximately three dozen flicks…
“Chase me! Mate with me! Seduce me!” yells Isabella Rossellini dressed in red spandex and bug eyes. “He’s so strong and sharp, he doesn’t need a vagina at all. He ejaculates in my wound.” The Lynchian actress is reenacting the mating ritual of bedbugs. As if the little bastards weren’t…
About once a year, a play opens in South Florida that is so good, so rich with life, that I spend the week after opening telling everyone within earshot: Go see this fucking thing! If you only leave the house once this month, go see this play! Missing a great…
Other people besides James Franco appear in 127 Hours, but as they’re unimportant, they will not be mentioned in this review. Danny Boyle’s film — based on the story of Aron Ralston, who in 2003 cut off his own arm after being stuck for five days under a rock in…
Every town has at least one Irish pub. It’s part of the global Irish-industrial complex. O’Shea’s is the West Palm Beach outpost for wayward Irishmen and women and locals looking for an authentic Irish experience — or at least something different from the usual Clematis Street vibe. Sit down for…
