Rex Reed | The New York Observer

Who Knew Zac Efron Could Act?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:23:56 -0500

Me and Orson Welles
Running time 114 minutes
Written by Holly Gent Palmo
Directed by Richard Linklater
Starring Zac Efron, Christian McKay, Claire Danes

Crowded into the cinematic sardine can of year-end releases, Me and Orson Welles is a modest but gigantically charming jewel that deserves rapt attention. Witty, wise, warm and unfailingly entertaining, it’s one of the year’s happiest surprises. And who knew Zac Efron could act?

In this lovable period...

Get Ready for The Road

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:19:11 -0500

The Road
Running time 119 minutes
Written by Joe Penhall
Directed by John Hillcoat
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce

Welcome to the apocalypse. In The Road, the eagerly awaited movie version of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, the end of the world is no longer on its way. It’s already here, bringing misery, desperation, death and no hope for the future. Adapted by Joe Penhall and...

Dumb and Dumber

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:24:24 -0500

Women in Trouble
Running time 92 minutes
Written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez
Starring Carla Guigino, Josh Brolin, Adrianne Palicki, Connie Britton

In the “whatever were they thinking of” genre, a new entry: Women in Trouble. It’s a movie in trouble, about … nothing, really, except a day in the lives of a screenful of trashy women: a pregnant porno star called Elektra Luxx, playing an oversexed nun; her idiot sister, called Holly Rocket, who...

I'm Certain You Can Skip Uncertainty!

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:17:50 -0500

Uncertainty
Running time 101 minutes
Written And Directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lynn Collins

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the young actor who was so charismatic in (500) Days of Summer and so deadly dull in Brick, now finds his interesting, sleepy-eyed face worthy of well-earned catatonia in a load of pretentious bilge called Uncertainty, which more than lives up to its title. This is one of those alternate-reality snoozes that makes...

The War at Home

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:00:01 -0500

The Messenger
Running time 105 minutes
Written by Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman
Directed by Oren Moverman
Starring Ben Foster, Jena Malone, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton

The box office has not smiled on movies about the Middle East conflicts or the men who fight them. Stop-Loss, Grace Is Gone, The Lucky Ones, In the Valley of Elah, Home of the Brave, Redacted, Rendition, Lions for Lambs, Body of Lies … they all tanked.

Now comes...

It's De-Lovely

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:09:12 -0500

Stevie Holland in Love, Linda
Triad Theater

Of all the cabaret acts about the legendary Cole Porter, Love, Linda: The Life of Mrs. Cole Porter is the first one that tries to shine a light on the most mysterious part of the composer’s life—the shrouded role played by his wife, Kentucky socialite Linda Lee Porter, a descendant of General Robert E. Lee, in a marriage that lasted 35 years. The light it shines is...

George Clooney Gets My Goat

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:13:37 -0500

The Men Who Stare at Goats
Running time 93 minutes
Written by Peter Straughan
Directed by Grant Heslov
Starring George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges

The Men Who Stare at Goats, the latest George Clooney fiasco, is like getting stung by a wasp on the inside of your eyelid. You are blinded to all reason and the agony lasts for days. Despite Mr. Clooney’s easygoing charm and obvious good looks,...

Girl, Interrupted

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:02:40 -0500

Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Running time 110 minutes
Written by Geoffrey Fletcher
Directed by Lee Daniels
Starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey

Raw, harrowing and undeniably unsettling, the controversial, much-anticipated Precious arrives on waves of film festival buzz this week. See it at your own risk, but be forewarned: It is not for the delicate of stomach or faint of heart. Nevertheless, it is so powerful a...

Mary Cleere Haran Celebrates the Genius of Johnny Mercer

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:00:59 -0500

Mary Cleere Haran
Feinstein’s at Loew’s Regency

Celebrating the centennial year of the genius lyrics of Johnny Mercer (he would be 100 on Nov. 18), the sophisticated cabaret star Mary Cleere Haran is serving up a banquet of musical delicacies at Feinstein’s at Loew’s Regency. For a hip New York component of everything cool, this soignée vocalist, once an Irish Catholic hippie from San Francisco, is so adaptable to songs she really loves that...

Love and Marriage and Songs

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:20:51 -0400

In the cabaret world, no singing husband-and-wife duo since the legendary Jackie Cain and Roy Kral has created more hip, enjoyable music than John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey, now in their third consecutive season at the Café Carlyle. You never ever hear any crap, but you do hear astoundingly fresh and lilting combinations of surprises, both together (Jessica with a raised eyebrow on Bobby Troup’s “Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast,” and John crooning...

Great Gazzara!

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:24:00 -0400

Looking for Palladin
Running time 115 minutes
Written and directed by Andrzej Krakowski
Starring Ben Gazzara, Talia Shire, David Moscow, Pedro Armendáriz Jr.

Looking for Palladin is a small movie with a big, big actor. In a gargantuan starring role, Ben Gazzara proves once again why he’s endured as one of the screen’s most popular and powerful performers for more years than the snow on top of his head gives away. After countless...

Color Bind

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:47:47 -0400

Skin
Running time 107 minutes
Written by Helen Crawley, Jessie Keyt, Helena Kriel
Directed by Anthony Fabian
Starring Sam Neill, Alice Krige, Sophie Okonedo

Movies about the violent struggles in apartheid-era South Africa have proved to be audience repellents in recent years, but Skin could be different. This accomplished first feature from documentary filmmaker Anthony Fabian tells the extraordinary true story of Sandra Laing, a girl with obvious black genes...

Don't Miss Carol Fredette!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:00:32 -0400

Carol Fredette is one of New York’s most underexposed and blissfully talented jazz singers. Her appearances are rare, but to celebrate her marvelous, swinging new CD, Everything in Time, music lovers with wisdom and good taste have been hanging out at the Iridium Jazz Club, home of the late guitarist Les Paul’s weekly trio sessions, to hang on every phrase. They are never disappointed. Ms. Fredette has been around for a while, recording since...

Mother Courage

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:55:06 -0400

Motherhood
Running time 90 minutes
Written and directed by Katherine Dieckmann
Starring Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, Minnie Driver

Many films have been made about the perils of parenthood, but none with a more attractive and entertaining mom on the verge of a nervous breakdown than Uma Thurman in Motherhood. Except, of course, the frazzled and terminally adorable Diane Keaton in the unforgettable Baby Boom, but Ms. Thurman has her charms, too, as Eliza Welsh,...

Amelia Has Me Flying High!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:09:10 -0400

Amelia
Running time 111 minutes
Written by Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan
Directed by Mira Nair
Starring Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Cherry Jones

When Amelia Earhart, the world’s most famous aviatrix, disappeared in midair on July 2, 1937, somewhere over the Pacific between New Guinea and a Howland Island refueling station, 22,000 miles into the first equatorial flight around the world, she became the greatest unsolved mystery in aviation...

A Melting Pot of Mush

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:55:36 -0400

New York, I Love You
Running time 110 minutes
Written by Emmanuel Benbihy (concept) and Tristan Carné (premise), and various others
Directed by Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Shekhar Kapur, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman, Brett Ratner, Randall Balsmeyer
Starring Shia LeBeouf, Bradley Cooper, Blake Lively, Julie Christie, Robin Wright Penn, Orlando Bloom, John Hurt, Ethan Hawke, Christina Ricci, Chris Cooper, Irrfan Khan

With the movie...

Mixed-Up Love

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:48:58 -0400

Peter and Vandy
Running time 95 minutes
Written and directed by Jay DiPietro
Starring Jason Ritter, Jess Weixler

Peter and Vandy is another low-budget two-hander that explores the ups and downs of a modern relationship using jump cuts, nonlinear plot mechanics and elliptical storytelling techniques that only succeed in keeping the couple in the title removed, at an annoying distance, from audience interest. Set in a wintry Greenwich Village where people are seen dragging...

Riding in Cars With Boys

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:40:29 -0400

Trucker
Running time 90 minutes
Written and Directed by James Mottern
Starring Michelle Monaghan, Benjamin Bratt, Jimmy Bennett, Joey Lauren Adams

In an honestly observed and understated little film called Trucker, an excellent cast vibrates with authenticity to tell an impassioned story about the uncharted lives of discarded people denied the crumbs of hope the rest of us live on. Michelle Monaghan, who has made an impact as tough broads in gritty films like North...

An English Rose in Bloom

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:35:32 -0400

An Education
Running time 100 minutes
Written by Nick Hornby
Directed by Lone Scherfig
Starring Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour, Rosamund Pike, Dominic Cooper, Emma Thompson

Riding in on waves of raves from film festivals around the world, the exquisitely made British coming-of-age film An Education features, as its centerpiece, a career-breakthrough performance by newcomer Carey Mulligan reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn’s in Roman Holiday. Captivatingly written, directed and acted with sensitivity and...

Akers Singing Porter Transported Me!

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:26:48 -0400

The new cabaret season is in full swing. A streamlined Jack Jones, still recovering from back surgery and singing the unfailing get-well lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, accompanied in a rare appearance by the fantastic pianist Mike Renzi, kicked things off at the Algonquin, and it’s good to know he’s lost none of his swing. He’s been replaced by Karen Akers, a polished sophisticate who has every right to be disenchanted with the...

Oy Vay! Coens Lose Moral Center in A Serious Man

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:07:22 -0400

A Serious Man
Running time 105 minutes
Written and Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring Michael Stuhlbarg

Growing up going to Hebrew school every day and synagogue every Saturday may not be a prerequisite to overcome the bleak confusion of A Serious Man, but my guess is that it sure would help. This is the new one from the quirky Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel, who shift from comedy to drama with uneven results,...

Clive Finally Picks a Good Flick

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:05:57 -0400

The Boys Are Back
Running time 104 minutes
Written by Allan Cubitt
Directed by Scott Hicks
Starring Clive Owen, Laura Fraser, Nicholas McAnulty, George MacKay

Clive Owen has either a bad agent or a bad eye. Considering his talent and charisma, it’s amazing how many really terrible movies he makes. (The male Julianne Moore?) Submerged in a predictable rash of indistinguishable action flicks and violent crypto thrillers, his career has hit so many...

I Just Don't Care About The Other Man

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:01:55 -0400

The Other Man
Running time 90 minutes
Written and directed by Richard Eyre
Starring Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Antonio Banderas, Romola Garai

Despite the gimlet eye of Richard Eyre, former director of England’s Royal National Theatre, and the top-echelon talents of an impressive cast, a dreary, disabled disaster called The Other Man drops dead at the starting gate. It’s been around for a few years, and the dust shows. Dissecting a case of unhealthy...

Patricia, I Love You, but This Film's a Downer

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:58:22 -0400

Blind Date
Running time 80 minutes
Written by David Schechter and Stanley Tucci
Directed by Stanley Tucci
Starring Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci

One of the more fascinating and discerning actresses in the current cinema, New Orleans’ own Patricia Clarkson is always worth watching. Even when she’s wasted in small, inconsequential roles in Woody Allen movies, she stands out. Making every minute count is one of her particular skills, and that knack is doubly...

Blame Canada!

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:06:35 -0400

At the 34th Toronto International Film Festival, everyone’s seeing orange. The lower-case “tiff,” the color of a pumpkin, blares from posters and billboards throughout the city as a symbol of festival director Piers Handling’s determination to simplify everything, including the logo, in a movie orgy that has clearly outgrown itself. Last year, the sheer bloat of this annual circus inspired accusations of “elitism” and complaints that a beloved event started by three movie buffs...

I Had a Helluva Time Watching Inglourious Basterds

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:32:09 -0400

Inglourious Basterds
Running time 153 minutes
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger

Like all Quentin Tarantino movies, Inglourious Basterds is exasperating, absurd, cruel, cynical, sneeringly arrogant, racist, elitist, naïvely derivative and viciously funny. It is also one whale of a rigorous entertainment.

The wild plot: In World War II–occupied France, a band of bloodthirsty American Jews form a battalion of renegade guerrilla...

What's Troubling About The Troubles

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:17:26 -0400

Fifty Dead Men Walking
Running time 117 minutes
Written and directed by Kari Skogland
Starring Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, Kevin Zegers, Natalie Press, Rose McGowan

Five Minutes of Heaven
Running time 90 minutes
Written by Guy Hibbert
directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt, Mark Davison

Is anyone as tired of the endless stream of movies about the war in Northern Ireland between the Protestants and the Catholics (still...

Time After Time

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:50:04 -0400

The Time Traveler’s Wife
Running time 107 minutes
Written by Bruce Joel Rubin
Directed by Robert Schwentke
Starring Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Arliss Howard, Ron Livingston

In the boring, benign and inconsequential transfer from best seller to film of The Time Traveler’s Wife, an adventurous Chicago librarian is cursed with a genetic mutation that forces him to shift involuntarily back and forth in time, regardless of age. There’s no warning when this anomaly will...

Welcome Back, Renee!

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:32:27 -0400

My One and Only
Running time 108 minutes
Written by Charlie Peters
Directed by Richard Loncraine
Starring Renée Zellweger, Logan Lerman, Mark Rendall, David Koechner, Eric McCormack, Kevin Bacon, Chris Noth

A stampede of new end-of-summer films arrives next week in time for Labor Day, and my vacation getaway—too many to adequately cover in the space I’ve been allotted. So I’m recommending one of them a week early. High on the list, there...

Tourist Trap

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:07:09 -0400

A Perfect Getaway
Running time 97 minutes
Written and directed by David Twohy
Starring Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant, Milla Jovovich, Kiele Sanchez

In the new action thriller/slice-and-dicer A Perfect Getaway, two couples who look like they’ve been doing overtime at the gym literally bash each other bloody with results that can only be described as moderate goose pimples. Half of the movie seems fresh and hair-raising. The rest is just disappointing and predictable. At...

You'll Be Drooling Over Julie & Julia!

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:00:00 -0400

Julie & Julia
Running time 123 minutes
Written and directed by Nora Ephron
Starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina

Nora Ephron loves to cook. Nothing fancy, like pheasant stuffed with pate and truffles in Champagne brandy, but you can order her meat loaf at the Monkey Bar. She also loves movies, and makes so many good ones that with a surfeit of junk polluting marquees everywhere, she’s become something of...

Where Are All the Funny People?

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:10:13 -0400

Funny People
Running time 146 minutes
Written and directed by Judd Apatow
Starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman

I'd like to tell you how vile this deviation from sanity called Funny People really is, but it is one of those rare times when I am at a loss for words. Judd Apatow, the most tasteless no-talent and truthfully alleged “director” since John Waters and the Farrelly brothers, follows the...

Fragments, Indeed

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:06:20 -0400

FRAGMENTS
Running time 100 minutes
Written by Roy Freirich
Directed by Rowan Woods
Starring Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson, Jeanne Tripplehorn

Fragments is aptly titled. In style and format, it’s another connect-the-dots movie cut from the same bolt of cinematic fabric as Crash, 21 Grams, and Babel. An act of random violence erupts in a Los Angeles diner, impacting the lives of several innocent survivors and triggering...

Hugh Dancy Is on His Way to Superstardom

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:56:24 -0400

ADAM
Running time 99 minutes
Written and directed by Max Mayer
Starring Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving

Charm that isn’t forced and wit without contrivance are such rare ingredients in today’s so-called comedies that when I come across either, I tend to go overboard. There is plenty of both in Adam, a touching and engaging film about a likable and attractive young man who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome. Now there’s a fresh...

I Have Some Questions For The Answer Man

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:34:51 -0400

The Answer Man
Running time 95 minutes
Written and directed by: John Hindman
Starring Jeff Daniels, Lauren Graham, Lou Taylor Pucci

Jeff Daniels has an oafish charm that has been utilized skillfully on the stage many times, but ambushed by the movies. While on hiatus from the smash Broadway comedy God of Carnage, he can be seen on the screen this week in a flawed but appealing little trifle called The Answer Man....

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You About Deadgirl!

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:29:35 -0400

Deadgirl
Running time 101 minutes
Written by Trent Haaga
Directed by Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel
Starring Shiloh Fernandez, Noah Segan

When a monstrous piece of exploitative junk called Deadgirl was unveiled to aghast audiences almost a year ago in the “midnight madness” program at the Toronto International Film Festival, it was labeled “too shocking to produce.” But here it is. Vile and disgusting, it is being shown at special midnight shows next...

Psychobabble

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:21:33 -0400

SHRINK
Running time 110 minutes
Written by Thomas Moffett
Directed by Jonas Pate
Starring Kevin Spacey, Mark Webber, Dallas Roberts, Robin Williams, Jack Huston, Saffron Burrows

Not since The Informers, based catatonically on the idiotic Bret Easton Ellis book, has the screen unleashed a Hollywood abortion as dismal and dead-on-arrival as Shrink. This vile and preposterous abomination about a Hollywood shrink to the stars who is more screwed up than his...

Harry Potter's Gone to Pot!

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:41:53 -0400

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Running time 153 minutes
Written by Steve Kloves
Directed by David Yates
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Alan Rickman, Jim Broadbent

Am I the only person over 12 who truly believes the Harry Potter franchise has outlived its shelf life? Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth and worst installment yet, is two and a half hours of paralyzing tedium, featuring another colossal...

Love, Actually

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:37:39 -0400

(500) Days of Summer
Running time 95 minutes
Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber
Directed by Marc Webb
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel

Fresh and slightly off the beaten track, (500) Days of Summer gives rom-coms about confused yuppies in love a welcome face-lift. The title does not refer to a season of prolonged sunshine. It’s about a year and a half in the life of a bewildered guy irrevocably in...

Welcome to Dysfunction Junction

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:33:56 -0400

Death in Love
Running time 97 minutes
Written and directed by
Boaz Yakin
Starring Josh Lucas, Jacqueline Bisset, Lukas Haas, Adam Brody

Death in Love is a grim, crestfallen and downright depressing sexual psychodrama about a New York family that is not only dysfunctional but self-destructive beyond hope. The mother is the great, underrated Jacqueline Bisset, who delivers another performance that showcases the dark side of her considerable talents,...

A Little Depp'll Do Ya! Johnny Gets His Gun

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:20:49 -0400

Public Enemies
Running time 143 minutes
Written by Ronan Bennett, Michael Mann and Ann Biderman
Directed by Michael Mann
Starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Channing Tatum, Stephen Graham, Giovanni Ribisi, Billy Crudup

America's enduring obsession with the folk-hero outlaws and gangsters of the 1930s is about to get ratcheted up a few notches. Ace director Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, with Johnny Depp as an unlikely but undeniably mesmerizing John Dillinger, opens on July...

Bring Tissues—Lots of 'em!—to My Sister's Keeper

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:13:20 -0400

My Sister’s Keeper
Running time 109 minutes
Written by Jeremy Leven and Nick Cassavetes
Directed by Nick Cassavetes
Starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Sofia Vassilieva

A less talented director than the sensitive, polished and mature master craftsman Nick Cassavetes might fail to lift My Sister’s Keeper above the level of suicidal depression. It’s about a 14-year-old girl dying of cancer, but don’t let the subject matter deter you from experiencing a...

Nazi Zombies? You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:03:14 -0400

Dead Snow
Running time 90 minutes
Written by Stig Frode Henriksen and Tommy Wirkola
Directed by Tommy Wirkola
Starring Charlotte Frogner, Ørjan Gamst, Stig Frode Henriksen, and Vegar Hoel

Dead Snow is a Norwegian horror film, if you can envision such a thing without developing a cataract, about a group of randy skiers in a mountain cabin without cell phone signals (or indoor plumbing) who are attacked by Nazi zombies. You can’t make up...

Marilyn Maye Is Better Than Ever

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:48:51 -0400

Mercer the Maye Way
The Metropolitan Room

After a 16-year hiatus, marvelous singer Marilyn Maye made a New York comeback in 2006, and it’s been full steam ahead ever since. Back at the Metropolitan Room through June 21, celebrating the great lyricist Johnny Mercer, she’s a valid one-woman reason to make a trip to New York. In this staggering show, she serves 35 Mercer tunes, spiced up with her own brand of Tabasco, and punches...

Oh, Woody! You Came Home to New York Only to Disappoint Me

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:45:09 -0400

Whatever Works
Running time 92 minutes
Written and directed by Woody Allen
Starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr., Henry Cavill

On the face of the Woody Allen canon, Whatever Works is a zit. I once wrote that Woody Allen on a bad day was better than everybody else on Sunday. Too many bad movies later, I don’t know where he is on Sunday In Whatever Works, he comes...

She's Still Here!

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:50:19 -0400

Debbie Reynolds: An Evening of Music and Comedy
Cafe Carlyle

Debbie Reynolds has avoided New York as if it were the swine flu ever since her disastrous 1976 one-woman show at the ugly, antiseptic Minskoff closed four weeks earlier than scheduled. Her shtick was stale; she naïvely used a stage full of mirrors that only emphasized all of the empty seats; she showed film clips from her movies while dumping on them at the same...

The Love That Dares to Sing Its Name

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:45:00 -0400

Michael Feinstein & Cheyenne Jackson: The Power of Two
Feinstein’s at Loews Regency

It's a new world, dude. If two men can raise their glasses to toast their own weddings, they might as well lift their voices to serenade each other with love songs. If Phylicia Rashad can now play Elizabeth Ashley’s sister in August: Osage County on Broadway, Michael Feinstein and Cheyenne Jackson should be able to gaze into each other’s eyes...

Run, Don't Walk, to the Algonquin!

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:12:52 -0400

Claire Martin with Richard Rodney Bennett
Algonquin Oak Room

For bracing jazz and potable musical phrasing, run don’t walk to the Algonquin this week for a lesson in great singing from the British sensation Claire Martin. Her appearances in New York are rare. Don’t even think about missing this one. The focus is on the dapper, sophisticated songs of the late Cy Coleman and his astutely seasoned lady lyricists—Peggy Lee, Carolyn Lee...

Won't Somebody Please Save Poor Maria Bello From This Movie?

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:01:28 -0400

Downloading Nancy
Running time 102 minutes
Written by Pamela Cuming and Lee Ross
Directed by Johan Renck
Starring Maria Bello, Jason Patric, Rufus Sewell, Amy Brenneman

In the creepy cinematic genre “Movies to Commit Suicide by,” a new entry: Downloading Nancy, a dismal mess by Johan Renck, a Swedish director of music videos and TV commercials who is clueless about telling a narrative story. Not only does it waste the audience’s time with 102...

What Has Happened to Sam Raimi?

Tue, 26 May 2009 18:01:06 -0400

Drag Me To Hell
Running time 99 minutes
Written by Sam and Ivan Raimi
Directed by Sam Raimi
Starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long, David Paymer, Lorna Raver

The true test of any successful horror flick is how wretched it makes you feel. At the very least, it should inspire a banquet of dread or offer a canapé of anxiety. After Drag Me to Hell you won’t mind walking home alone. You might even welcome...