reviews
Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda,’ a feminist ode to teachers, dazzles as a musical
March 26, 2019The protagonist is a precocious 5-year-old girl with mystical psychic powers, a love of reading and a gift for wild, inventive storytelling, who overcomes the cruel fate of being born into a family of con-job masters...
Read moreRink(wo)manship in ‘For the Love Of (Or, The Roller Derby Play)’
March 11, 2019The revival of this rollicking roller skating romp is part of Center Theatre Group’s annual “Block Party” that celebrates the L.A. stage by re-mounting several intimate theatre productions at the 317-seat Culver City playhouse.
Read moreInterested in Chicago, politics, or Obama? Read ‘Conversations with Abner Mikva’
February 5, 2019CHICAGO—If you’re interested in Chicago, read this book. If you’re interested in politics, read this book. If you’re interested in the more-than-occasional zaniness of Chicago politics, read this book. And if you’re interested in Barack Obama...
Read moreDick Cheney in ‘Vice’: Was he vice president or viceroy?
January 2, 2019Writer/director Adam McKay pursues a path of disrupting a straightforward docudrama narrative with highly filmic forays into satire, speculation, metaphor and more.
Read moreTwo important films from Palestine at Toronto Festival
December 20, 2018One of the films takes a satirical approach while the other goes uncharacteristically beyond the traditional focus on the heroic acts of courage the world has come to know from people in this region.
Read more