Asher LubertoFilm
Sorry to pop your balloon, but "It Chapter Two" is a mess. The second chapter in the clown saga feels as long as Stephen Kings' 1,138 page novel (it's nearly 3 hours!), and twice as bleak. It's astounding that Andres Muschietti could have made such a ...
Asher LubertoFilm
Issa Lopez was an archaeologist before she was a filmmaker, and it's clear she took notes. Her latest, "Tigers Are Not Afraid," is about digging up the past to make sense of the present. It's a premise that fits right in with the current Mexican New Wave. As ...
Nella VeraEtcNew York,
Former BBC Journalist Catherine Higgins-Moore started researching birth experiences after her first child was born in 2013. The traumatic birth and hospital stay inspired her to interview other women and a play emerged. The Maternity Monologues builds on those transcripts, adding some fictional scenarios and characters to create a ...
Emily S. MendelTheaterSan Francisco,
Cal Shakes’ world premiere of “House of Joy” by emerging playwright Madhuri Shekar is a dramatically staged and spectacularly costumed action-adventure romance set in a harem during the impending collapse of the storied 17th century Mughal Indian Empire. For over two hundred years, this empire reigned over virtually the ...
Toba SingerDanceSan Francisco,
Even if your beat is strictly limited to ballet, you can’t write about dance in the San Francisco Bay Area without running into the classical dances of India. In the case of Drive East, Indian Classical Dance--to exploit the analogy--ran into me! Thanks to the efforts of an intrepid ...
Paula FarmerFilm
An inordinate amount of drama happens within a week or two immediately after a wedding ceremony and celebration in the movie “After the Wedding” starring acting heavyweights Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore and Billy Crudup. Things start innocently and slowly enough as Isabel (Williams), an American manager of a struggling ...
Emily S. MendelTheaterSan Francisco,
It’s not often that theater reviewers heap praise on the set designer in the same way that they do on the writers, actors, and directors. Perhaps they should . . . and after seeing “The Play That Goes Wrong,” the farcical London import that’s sweeping through the United States ...
Paula FarmerFilm
Even just a light, entertaining summer movie, like the newly released, “Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” gets a bit elevated thanks to the chameleon-like actor Cate Blanchett in the lead. Per usual, Blanchett is a joy to watch perform, and in this movie, that fact is no exception, but it ...
Nella VeraDestinationsSpain,
If you took Mardi Gras and combined it with New York’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve and then multiplied that by ten, you would still fail to come up with a festival that approaches the frenetic energy and insanity that is the annual “The Running of the Bulls” ...
Nella VeraTheaterLondon,
ARAGON. BOLEYN. SEYMOUR. CLEVES. HOWARD. PARR. Remember their names because these ladies are set for world domination. “Six,” the thoroughly smashing pop musical about the wives of Henry VIII is currently playing in London to sold-out, rapturous crowds. Written by wunderkind Toby Marlow (he’s 23 ...
