Ode to an English Poet
Like a comet that flashes across the sky and is gone, John Keats lived only 25 years. Panned by critics during his lifetime, his poems …
Homeland Insecurity
Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is an ordinary, law-abiding citizen, enjoying a few minutes of hobby time with his daughter (Ksenia Hulayev, in a brief but …
Into the Blue
“Up” is an animated feature film from Disney’s Pixar studios, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s a children’s movie. This film offers …
The Art of the Con
School’s out for summer, and teen comedies abound. Most of them are trite, raunchy, potty-mouthed, formulaic – and immensely successful. “The Hangover” is one of …
Precious Dread
I confess to a lifelong love of horror movies – the good old-fashioned kind that make the spine tingle with dread, without resorting to gratuitous …
Color and Pomposity
“Waiting for Godot” (directed by Anthony Page), Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece of existential angst, opened at Studio 54 on Broadway this spring with a sparkling cast …
Return to the Future
Brutal, intense, and irreverent, the original “Terminator” (1984) was anything but a Sunday School story. And yet, it was one of the best messianic allegories …
Dotty Brilliance
Here’s one of my immutable rules of theatrical enjoyment: If there’s a play by George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, or Noel Coward in production, don’t …
Chickens Roost
Yasmina Reza is a French playwright whose works transcend barriers of language and culture to reveal the core of human relationships. She has a gift …
Slapping the Driveway
“State of Play” is a good old- fashioned newspaper thriller in which the curmudgeonly journalist solves the case using wits, not guns. The film is …