Rain: The Beatles Experience
Review By: Gordon K. Smith
Okay, I’m seriously dating myself now, but I was watching, on February 9, 1964, along with 73 million others, when Ed Sullivan introduced those four youngsters from Liverpool who would rock the world in their first live American TV performance. Even from my viewpoint on Grandma’s carpet, watching her 1959 black-and-white, round-tube Philco, I knew I was watching history in the making. My mom and grandmother thought they were “shaggy but okay” -- they saved their harsher comments for those “scroungy” Rolling Stones, who made their debut a short time later. But like all kids at the time, I knew they were a lot more than just “okay.” (Read More)
Standard Operating Procedure: by Errol Morris
Review By: Gordon K. Smith
It would be interesting to see how “torture porn” junkies -- those who willfully plop down ten hard-earned to see young folks being gleefully dissected in movies with numbers in their titles -- would react to “Standard Operating Procedure”, avant-garde documentary director Errol Morris’ dissection of the real-life torture porn tale the world knows as Abu Ghraib, one with truly horrifying consequences.
This is Morris’ take on the so-called “prisoner abuse scandal”, in which, thanks to our multi-media age, hundreds of photos of ugly mistreatment of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad were leaked to the US press, by the soldiers themselves. I say“take” because Morris, a former private detective, has his own take on the documentary genre itself -- he’s practically fashioned a new genre, combining both existing footage and images with recreations in his own distinctive style. That style hasn’t always pleased the purist peers or critics -- his breakthrough 1989 film, “The Thin Blue Line”, got a Texas man wrongly convicted of a cop killing off death row, but was declared “not a documentary”, hence ineligible, by the Academy Award folks. In fact, he wasn’t nominated or “Oscared” until 2003’s “The Fog of War.” (Read More)
THE CURE: by Jafri Pictures
Review By: Gordon K. Smith
The Cure is a striking seven-minute short film written and directed by Brooklyn-born filmmaker Ryan Jafri. Mollie Weeks stars as a spurned young woman who turns to a hit man to right some painful personal wrongs. Independent films featuring hit men, long or short, are hardly unique, but Jafri puts a punch-line twist on this familiar setup you won’t see coming, and a knockout punch it is.
Beautifully shot by Eric Govon and Marie Peze, the film is styled in black-and-white flashbacks and shades of red that compliment the incendiary mane of its stunning lead lady; Weeks could go a long way on sheer Hair Appeal, but she also shows the acting chops to do the rest.
The vivid crimsons of the costumes, art direction (and, inevitably, the blood) show that, with his first film, Jafri has already developed an understanding of visual hooks that will hopefully extend into his feature film work (a feature-length expansion of this film is foreseeable). Told in flashbacks and flash-forwards, The Cure demands multiple viewings. The DVD has a subtitle option, which is useful at a few points where Weeks’ otherwise effective noirish voiceover is drowned out by the score.
You can read more about Jafri and The Cure at www.jafripictures.com.
TONY N’ TINA’S WEDDING
Review By: Gordon K. Smith
Everyone watches The Oscars, The Golden Globes, The Grammys. You pride yourself on watching the elite of award shows, The Tonys. So every spring you watch the Broadway casts sing and dance the excerpted show tunes from the musical nominees. If no one’s watching, you try out your pipes and try to match their footwork. “Hmf,” you say to yourself, recalling the lyric from A Chorus Line. “I can do that!”
But you only have time to attend a show, not be in one. Well, now you can do both. At the same time. Join another Tony as he swaps nuptials with his longtime fiancee Tina in the Dallas Summer Musicals production of Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, and you’ll be a member of both the audience and the wedding (and you won’t even have to audition or sleep with anyone to get there). From the minute you arrive at the Weisfeld Center, the show is on, and you’re a part of it. The actors portraying the Nunzio (groom) and Vitale (bride) families and the assorted other members of the wedding start mingling with you and don’t stop ‘til the end of the reception. And that’s after dancing, sing-alongs, pratfalls, slugfests and a real catered dinner (Italian, of course), which you’re invited to watch and/or take part in, as much or as little as you wish. It’s not only the funniest wedding you’ll ever attend, it won’t seem that far off from the real ones you’ve seen, whatever your culture.
The production mixes scripted segments with improv that changes with every performance, and combines both local and New York actors, though you’ll have a hard time telling them apart (or telling them from your fellow theater-goers). The title leads are hilariously played by Scott Belucchi and Denise Fennell, longtime veterans of the off-Broadway cast. A pioneering production in interactive theater, Tn’T premiered 20 years ago, and is still going strong. Go with it. You’ve never had a night of theater quite like this one, and when it’s over, you get to critique your own performance.
Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding continues through March 9 at the Weisfeld Center in downtown Dallas; call 214-631-ARTS.
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