sarasotacritic.blogspot.com
Critic on the Run: January 2011
http://sarasotacritic.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html
Critic on the Run. Friday, January 21, 2011. Boeing Boeing' takes off. When it’s done right, of course. The Asolo Rep’s current production of Boeing Boeing. Does it right. Greg Leaming directs and really gets the rhythms of the comic music down. And cracks the whip of dominance in a Lili Von Shtupp/Marlena Deitrich sense. (I suspect this reflects the deep trauma the French endured in W.W. II) Herrero is excellent as the maid — the eye at the center of the hurricane — the sane pers...As said, I love farce...
sarasotacritic.blogspot.com
Critic on the Run: Clouds of Sils Maria
http://sarasotacritic.blogspot.com/2015/05/clouds-of-sils-maria.html
Critic on the Run. Friday, May 15, 2015. Clouds of Sils Maria. This is a very clever movie. Heartfelt as well. I should also mention honest. Very truthful, right. Also closely observed. It captures the way people talk now, the 21st century's ubiquitous demi-cyberspace of cellphones and tablets, the nuts-and-bolts of an actor's craft, the rarefied world of an A-list actor, and on top of that it's got lots of really nice Swiss scenery. But? Good stuff, right? Hey, you could take this movie and teach a clas...
sarasotacritic.blogspot.com
Critic on the Run: 2BRN02B
http://sarasotacritic.blogspot.com/2011/10/2brn02b.html
Critic on the Run. Friday, October 14, 2011. Submitted, for your consideration, a production of Hamlet. By the Wooster Group—a group famed for experimental theater. This production at the Ringling International Arts Festival was experimental indeed. Imagine—in some scenario out of Rossum’s Universal Robots. The Wooster Group's production of Hamlet. Very much like that. A performance of Hamlet by androids, directed by Max Headroom. T-t-t-trippingly on the tongue! Hey, that's entertainment, right? Hamlet s...
sarasotacritic.blogspot.com
Critic on the Run: The Brothers Karamazov
http://sarasotacritic.blogspot.com/2011/11/brothers-karamazov.html
Critic on the Run. Thursday, November 3, 2011. Photo by Frank Atura. O Brother, Where Art Thou? Ignoring the glorious sun and sand, I spent one family vacation on Saint George Island cooped up inside a beach cottage reading big novels: Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead,. John Barth’s Giles Goat Boy. And Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. Etc Out on the sunny beach, my sister caught a Whiting and hollered with delight; inside the gloomy house, I crammed my head with literature. As to Karamazov. There a...
sarasotacritic.blogspot.com
Critic on the Run: December 2011
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Critic on the Run. Tuesday, December 27, 2011. OSS: Nest of Spies. You want to make a spoof? Watch OSS #117. It’s like a film school course in cinematic satire. Watch it, see what it does, and don’t do it. It breaks all the rules of satire. I never knew satire had rules, until I saw this movie. Now I know. Here they are:. Rule #1. Know what you’re making fun of. Rule #2. Love what you’re making fun of. Check out Young Frankenstein. Rule #3. An imitation of bad art, if it’s bad, is just bad art. Mel Brook...
sarasotacritic.blogspot.com
Critic on the Run: A meditation on screenwriting
http://sarasotacritic.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-meditation-on-screenwriting.html
Critic on the Run. Friday, August 31, 2012. A meditation on screenwriting. Just caught the first disc of the first season of Homeland. This meditation is the result. Smart writing. But it stretches the suspension of disbelief to the point I wanna scream, "Uncle." Stuff happens that wouldn't happens; characters do things they wouldn't do. It bugs me. But I happen to agree with him. Fiction - any kind of fiction - has a certain amount of necessary bullshit. So be it. Is full of unnecessary bullshit. Angle ...
sarasotacritic.blogspot.com
Critic on the Run: December 2010
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Critic on the Run. Friday, December 10, 2010. What do you mean they canceled my! By an improbable sequence of events, I caught the final episode of In Treatment. Now I need treatment. How can I put this . In storytelling, there's always a conflict between logic-logic and dramatic logic. In real life, actions have consequences. If A, then B. If B, then C. There are no non sequiturs. In reality. Nothing happens that can't happen. That doesn't apply to fiction. The creator of the ride doesn't ask, "What is ...
sarasotacritic.blogspot.com
Critic on the Run: May 2015
http://sarasotacritic.blogspot.com/2015_05_01_archive.html
Critic on the Run. Friday, May 15, 2015. Clouds of Sils Maria. This is a very clever movie. Heartfelt as well. I should also mention honest. Very truthful, right. Also closely observed. It captures the way people talk now, the 21st century's ubiquitous demi-cyberspace of cellphones and tablets, the nuts-and-bolts of an actor's craft, the rarefied world of an A-list actor, and on top of that it's got lots of really nice Swiss scenery. But? Good stuff, right? Hey, you could take this movie and teach a clas...
sarasotacritic.blogspot.com
Critic on the Run: July 2011
http://sarasotacritic.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html
Critic on the Run. Monday, July 4, 2011. Wow Amazing film. I'll get back to that. But, first, here's a chunk of film philosophy . Film is a visual art, like painting. Film is a narrative art, like novels and short stories. Filmmakers are torn between these impulses. Either paint with light, or tell stories with moving pictures, that is the question. Call me a plebe, but I love storytelling. And I have a short attention span. But I surrendered to this movie. And I'm glad for it. Look how beautiful it is!
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