DANCE REVIEW Explosion of color and flying acrobatics
Shen Yun Performing Arts troupe dazzled its Boston audience at the Citi Performing Arts Center’s Wang Theatre in three evening performances from Friday, Feb. 11 to Sunday, Feb. 13.
The King’s Speech ... and more
This year’s group of nominees for Best Picture will provide a tough challenge for Academy voting members. The tight race will most likely come down to The Social Network and The King’s Speech. Though many fans view Black Swan and True Grit as strong contenders, they are more likely to take awards for actor and actress, with Natalie Portman practically already holding the Oscar for Actress in a Leading Role. Despite the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed The Social Network, The King’s Speech should win the Oscar this year. Between the impressive directing and cinematography and the brilliant performances by Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush, and Colin Firth, the film is a standout among the contenders.
Crushes, confessions, things that thud in the night A short review of the Oscar-nominated shorts
The Confession (Tanel Toom)
FILM REVIEW Heroes and villains in True Grit
The latest film by Joel and Ethan Coen, True Grit is the second adaptation of the 1968 novel by Charles Portis about a tough U.S. Marshal helping a stubborn young girl find her father’s murderer. John Wayne starred in the 1969 adaptation as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn. True Grit is has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Jeff Bridges). Fifteen-year-old newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, who was chosen among 15,000 other competitors for the role of Mattie Ross, was nominated in the category Best Supporting Actress.
Arts staff place their bets for 2011 Oscar wins
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Colin Firth in The King’s Speech
INTERVIEW How much do you really know about your roommate?
How much does he or she know about you? Relationships between two people who know each other tend to become fragile and volatile when they begin living together. What happens when you have to live with a complete stranger in the strange new land that is college? Suddenly everything is a crapshoot. In theatres nationwide today, The Roommate explores the budding relationship between two strangers, including one who happens to cross the line.
THE STERNEWIRTH PRIVILEGE 2010 Vintage Ale — a great value
There’s an old tradition that workers at a brewery are freely-able to consume beer when they are thirsty at work: the Sternewirth Privilege. Today, I bring to you a new Sternewirth Privelege — a Tech column which will review beers that should be brought to the attention of the beer-lovers of the MIT community. I also hope to inspire new beer lovers, and expose the world of good beer to those that are sick of the traditional party fare. If you’ve never had a beer before that you’ve enjoyed, it might just be because you’ve never had the right brew for you.
The Year in Arts
What with earthquakes, volcanoes, and oil leaks, 2010 had almost enough disasters to make The Day After Tomorrow seem closer to everyday life. The arts and entertainment world chose to confront these events with creations of both truth and fantastical fairy tale, dark or otherwise. Perhaps the fact that a Picasso painting sold for 106.5 million dollars illustrates this strange but successful marriage between substance and imagination.
The Silver Screen in 2010
The King’s Speech, True Grit, Inception, and The Social Network garnered the most nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards. But what about the films that didn’t get an Oscar nod? Here are some of the good and the mediocre.
THEATER REVIEW Geeky. Humorous. Inspiring. Powerful.
When I invited a friend to see the play with me, he asked me who R. Buckminster Fuller was. My response was, “He’s an architect, some kind of engineer … I think.”
FILM REVIEW Dark and perfect
Darren Aronofsky is a director who seems to love to explore the dark side of human nature, and there’s a whole lot of that to explore. It’s easy for us to pawn off our dark side on the orcs and demons in stories, and on some deeper level it probably makes us feel better about ourselves. But every villain, monster, and atrocious real-world act in our recorded history was the creation of human beings.
MOVIE REVIEW Doesn’t just sting, it hurts
I’m not a superhero buff, but I could tell that The Dark Knight and Iron Man were great superhero flicks. The Green Hornet, directed by Michel Gondry (of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fame, and once an Artist-in-Residence at MIT) and starring Seth Rogen and Jay Chou was not a great superhero flick. It wasn’t even a good superhero flick. It promised an exciting and witty blend of comedy and action, but failed to deliver either in significant amounts. One or two chuckles and a mildly entertaining final action scene couldn’t make up for another hour of vapid dialogue, lackluster 3D, and a general sense of “what’s going on here?”
MOVIE REVIEW Date night don’t
For those who are considering watching the romantic drama Blue Valentine on a date this weekend: Don’t do it.
INTERVIEW Destinations and playgrounds
Tamir Hendelman is a young Israeli musician and a product of the Los Angeles jazz scene. His latest Boston performance at Sculler’s Jazz Club was particularly lively, with Tim Horner on drums and Martin Wind on bass. Hendelman’s music is quite accessible, and he does a particularly good job of combining various musical influences together. Credit should also be given to Horner and Wind, who gave a decisive edge to the trio’s sound. Tamir Hendelman has two recordings released to date: 2010’s Destinations with Lewis Nash and Marco Panascia, and 2008’s Playground with Jeff Hamilton and John Clayton.
FILM REVIEW On loss and words
Rabbit Hole is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire of Boston. I discovered this fact after watching the movie, but I was not surprised. What kept me captivated and what makes Rabbit Hole a movie worth watching is the dialogue. Rabbit Hole is a movie constructed of words uttered by characters — subtle, like human expressions.
FILM REVIEW Living up to its legacy?
In Tron: Legacy, Joseph Kosinski presents the sequel to the classic 1982 science fiction film Tron. Tron: Legacy was produced by Steven Lisberger, the original Tron’s director, and features Jeff Bridges, reprising his role as the protagonist hacker and game developer Kevin Flynn. Despite a shallow storyline, which mainly feeds on ideas from the original movie, Tron: Legacy is epic thanks to its amazing visuals and the fantastic soundtrack, composed by the French duo Daft Punk.
FILM REVIEW A voice for the King
It’s post-World War I England and George V (Michael Gambon) is an aging monarch with a domineering personality. David (Guy Pearce), the immature successor to the throne and the future King Edward VIII, will later abdicate in order to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Bertie (Colin Firth) is his younger brother, the Duke of York. When the time comes for Bertie to take up the title of George VI, the reluctant king must overcome his debilitating stammer and lead his people into war.
EXHIBIT REVIEW Fresh Ink: Ten takes on Chinese tradition
Settled in a gallery that’s not quite part of the new Art of the Americas wing and not quite part of the old MFA, Fresh Ink is surprisingly quite at home. In this newest project, ten contemporary Chinese artists responded to pieces in the Museum’s collection with works of their own, adeptly treading the boundaries of the traditional and the modern, bringing the past and present closer together.