Anyone who was paying attention during last night’s Super Bowl was surprised for fifteen seconds that a pro-Dalai Lama advocacy group had managed to buy ad time for a spot on the troubles Tibet faces–then somewhere between miffed or horrified as the second half of the ad pulled the rug out. Groupon can get you Read More
The travails of regional theater make rich meta-entertainments, as Christopher Guest & Co. have ably demonstrated.
So how about a New York theater group doing a play about Texans doing a play about New York “bohemians”?
New York Theater Barn’s project, titled “Speargrove Presents,” is described by a company Read More
Not much to give thanks for this Thanksgiving, but it’s a good time to play catch-up. Whatever you do this holiday season, if anyone recommends a dirge called The Fountain, take them off your Christmas list. I don’t care what a movie is about, but I have one rule that never changes: It has to Read More
In the comedian’s famous last words, “Dying is easy; comedy is hard.” In movie terms, comedy is considered simply as a work that makes people laugh—and heaven knows, that’s hard enough. But to make people laugh while providing them with profound insights into human nature and the world around them is sheer hell. That is Read More
Christopher Guest’s A Mighty Wind , from a screenplay by Mr. Guest and Eugene Levy, has generated a great deal of buzz-both favorable and unfavorable-for its affectionately satiric swipe at the cultural backwater of folk music. Put me down in the unfavorable faction, though I can’t say that A Mighty Wind filled me with undue Read More
Pooches and Their Pamperers
Best in Show , a riotous soufflé written and directed by Christopher Guest, the clever man who made This Is Spinal Tap and Waiting for Guffman unexpected comedy classics, uses the same “mockumentary” style. Only this time he presents a savage look at the eccentric world of dog shows Read More
