A successful production of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” must satisfy three requirements: Beatrice and Benedick — the lovers in a merry war of wit — have to be lovable, the story needs to be clear, and the jokes have to land. Even Kenneth Branagh’s otherwise brilliant and definitive film of the play suffered from […]
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Life is a Dream enchants at CalShakes
The Bay Area’s California Shakespeare Theatre staged a wonderful production of the 17th century play “Life Is a Dream.” Director Greco fully compensates for the play’s shortcomings with her terrific cast. Hayon and Lopez-Morillas are particular standouts, able to play comedy, angst, and affection with equal seriousness and believability.
Review: Long-distance lovers struggle in 10000 km
Long distance relationships have a tendency to expose and magnify existing problems in romantic relationships. Such is the case for the lovers at the centre of Carlos Marques-Marcet’s impressive, sensitive, and heartbreaking debut 10000 km. Bookended by two sex scenes, the film charts how a deeply in love and committed couple go from connected and planning […]
Stratford Festival 2015: Hamlet is a terrific, tense family drama
Antoni Cimolino’s production of Hamlet at the Ontario Shakespeare Festival takes the Bard’s masterpiece and pares it down to a tense family drama.
Director Sean Baker talks finding the look for Tangerine
Sean Baker talks about Tangerine and how he created such stunning visuals when shooting on an iPhone. Read our review of Baker’s follow-up film, The Florida Project. It’s Christmas Eve in Santa Monica, but the transgender women at the center of writer-director Sean Baker’s Tangerine aren’t celebrating the holiday. Nobody outright says it in the film, […]
‘The Book of Mormon’ brings religious satire to Broadway San Jose
“You’re making things up again, Arnold. You’re taking the holy word and adding fiction,” croons Arnold’s father with disappointment. His nineteen-year-old son, Arnold Cunningham (A.J. Holmes), has been claiming the Book of Mormon contains stories about Christ’s abhorrence of genital mutilation and raping babies. Arnold is in Uganda as a missionary, where the Mormon group […]