When I told another critic at the screening of Winter’s Tale that it was adapted from a novel many consider to be one of greatest of the last quarter of the 20th century, I was given a blank stare. As in: Really? Are you kidding me? I don’t know this factoid because I’ve read Mark…
OK, pay attention. Sometimes, that’s all you need: just someone to watch you, to hear what you’re saying or understand your feelings. A little attention can be a bad-mood squasher, a good-mood enhancer or just validation. Yes, a minute in the spotlight can do wonders. And as you’ll see in Ham: Slices of a Life…
Some of the best experiences you had last year were with your friends. When you think back about the highlights, you remember dancing together, eating together, late-night bull sessions, parties, travels and idle man-watching. Those shared experiences are the glue that forever holds your friendship together. Or maybe, like the men in The Aids Generation…
dvd of the week Dallas Buyers Club is the story of a man who fought the reprehensible policies of the FDA and the medical establishment during the worst of the AIDS crisis by selling unapproved drugs through a legally problematic buyers club. It is also the story of how a man was transformed from a…
You’ve been hearing rumors. You don’t know what to believe. Your favorite club is closing, it’s got new owners, it’s being remodeled, none of the above. You can get married anytime, the law is being repealed, it’s being approved. You’re being downsized, you’re getting a raise. Sometimes, you don’t know what to think. Other times,…
dvd of the week Based on the famed 1976 Formula 1 competition between James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl), Rush traces the two very different men from their early days driving lesser Formula 3 cars to the pinnacle of car racing, the Formula One World Championship. Hunt was a gorgeous blond British…
Your bag was packed. There wasn’t much in it except for the necessities: your two favorite toys, a clean T-shirt, the stuffed animal you couldn’t sleep without and $2.31. There wasn’t much there for actual survival, but you were a little kid running away from home – what did you know? At least, unlike in…
Brie Larson and Keith Stanfield in Short Term 12 dvd of the week In one of the biggest hits of Sundance, a revelatory Brie Larsen plays the manager of a half-way house for troubled teenagers. Her character is heroically resilient, warm and funny, and she is damaged by her own adolescence and confused by her…
’Tis the season to make theater plans for the New Year! It’s no secret that most San Diego theater companies are midway through their current season. Many of those companies have chosen a closing season line up that will get you out of the house and into their cozy theater seats. Starting with some of…
August: Osage County In 2008, Tracy Letts’ three-and-a-half hour comic tragedy August: Osage County won the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play, and it was considered one of the theatrical events of the first decade of the century. Transforming the play into a film was a no-brainer, but whittling three-and-a-half hours to…
