Kikujiro, the latest release from Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano, is likely to be a surprise to his American fans–possibly even a disappointment–if they walk in unprepared. In fact, the movie is altogether worthwhile, so just get yourselves prepared. Kitano attracted international attention when his first two films–the crime movies Violent…
Some 2,400 years after it was first staged at the midsummer Dionysus festival in Athens, The Trojan Women is oft resurrected as a pacifist theatrical statement. That’s understandable. The show is grueling in its depiction of the agonies of women and girls who suddenly find themselves rounded up and treated…
Banter Despite repeated dashings, my hopes have been raised yet again by the recent opening of the Trinity River Arts Center, in the same complex as KD Studios. KD president and owner Kathy Tyner, who started off as a secretary in 1965 for model mogul Kim Dawson, says that it…
Greater minds than yours have pondered the nuances, subtleties, and mysteries of Jasper Johns’ groundbreaking artwork over his 50-year career; a couple of them work at the Dallas Museum of Art, and another was hustled in to help explain the American master’s latest exhibition of new paintings and drawings installed…
For something that is nothing more than a big, fat fib, the curse on King Tut’s tomb has remarkable staying power. Death shall come to those who dare disturb this sanctuary. There are countless movies, stories, and songs written about it. It’s probably the best-known part of Egyptology, and it’s…
Here at Night & Day we like to be considerate of our reader(s). When the bored and the uninspired turn to our pages hoping to find the perfect activity to inject some cheer into their uneventful lives, we don’t want to disappoint. Our only hope in life is that the…
His name appears in almost every book written about Groucho Marx, so much so, he has been given the appropriate appellation by members of the Marx family: Wesso. But Paul Wesolowski is of no relation to the famous clan. He’s a man in his 40s who lives outside Philadelphia and,…
Blink–or, more likely, doze–and you will miss it, this tiny, beautiful oasis in the middle of an otherwise barren wasteland. For a moment–a precious, frustrating moment to be treasured in a movie that flaunts its disposability–Cage reminds us of how good an actor he can be, when he attempts to…
Apart from mass cultural annihilation, beatniks, Hee Haw, some dumbass sports, and the freak shows of Brentwood, most pop-culture trends are not homegrown but imported to America after prolonged cultivation overseas. Take that novelty food tofu, for instance, dubbed le curd du soy by uncredited Belgian sailors exploring China centuries…
Could there be any less appealing image than that of an obese, dress-wearing Martin Lawrence scratching his ass, as featured on the poster for Big Momma’s House? The idea of sitting through any movie promoted in such a fashion brings to mind the hideously awful It’s Pat: The Movie or…
Southern Methodist University professor emeritus Margaret Loft directs three prodigiously able and alert actresses through a cataclysmic afternoon and evening in the life of one of Great Britain’s most influential psychoanalysts. Mrs. Klein happens to be Melanie Klein, the Austrian Jewish titan who strode into The British Analytical Society in…
Photographs taken at crime scenes have become big business. Before television cameras rolled on Courtney Love’s running mascara, photographs of Kurt Cobain’s body were showing up on tabloid magazines and for sale in the underground press. Now the market has moved to the Internet, where a quick search will reveal…
Anyone who is a student of the English language should appreciate the importance, the power, and the usefulness of the expletive. Unfortunately, from our overworked linguistic sensibilities anyway, most people are not students of the English language. When properly wielded, foul language is like a spice added to food, enhancing…
There’s a moment in Mrs. Klein where Beverly May attempts to burst through the stone wall of premises and hypotheses to connect to her hurting daughter, played by Susan Sargeant. The two are sharing a bottle of wine but not much else, and May reaches over to pluck a piece…
For a moment or two, David Lowery–frontman for the band Cracker, and before that, beloved college-radio revolutionary sweethearts Camper Van Beethoven–found himself enjoying the book. He laughed in the right places, winced in the appropriate spots, and thought, for a moment, the book wasn’t half bad. And there’s no reason…
It’s hard to imagine a more relentlessly somber basis for a movie than Jane Hamilton’s 1994 novel, A Map of the World. In it, Alice Goodwin is a small-town school nurse whose neighbor’s 2-year-old daughter accidentally drowns in the backyard pond. Alice blames herself–punishes herself, in fact, with guilt. Since…
It is difficult to reconcile American perceptions of Iran–a rigidly authoritarian fundamentalist Islamic society–with the captivating and compassionate films that emanate from the country. Most of these pictures, including the 1995 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’Or winner The White Balloon and the 1998 best foreign-language film Oscar nominee Children of…
The moody, feverish images that fill Running Free are so exquisite, they almost make up for the film’s disastrous auditory misstep: the decision to cast Lukas Haas as the voice of Lucky, the chestnut foal that narrates this unusual adventure story. A cross between Nicholas Roeg’s Walkabout and Jean-Jacques Annaud’s…
Rarely have I been to a sold-out performance of a three-hour play where ticket-buyers, during intermission, laughed nervously about whether they had the fortitude to return. Mind you, I’ve been to three-hour shows where people fled during the break because the script or the performances were boring them silly or…
What a curious theatrical creature is Shakespeare for the Modern Man, Lesson 1: Macbeth, currently rattling the boards at Pocket Sandwich Theatre. I can’t count it as altogether successful, because there are so many sonic, thematic, and verbal threads running through it that playwright-adapter Scott A. Eckert couldn’t possibly work…
A lissome teenage girl lies draped across a pool table, crucifixion-style, in the center of an elegant and expensively furnished room. You can’t actually see her until she rises up, hops off the table, and disappears stage right. A shadowy figure of a man appears at the French doors that…
More Whitney hoo-hah Since they’re winding up the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2000 Biennial on June 4, here’s one BLINK’s worth of gauging the local fallout. This Biennial was the first to use six regional curators, you’ll recall, who scoured the countryside in an attempt to expose New York…
