'Selma' movie review: Politically salient in the early 21st century and 'beautiful in all the ways of cinema' (photo: David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. in 'Selma') The title of director Ava DuVernay's historical drama Selma tells us what the film is about, while implying what it isn't about. In other words, Selma is not about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- wonderfully played by British actor David Oyelowo -- even though the reverend is the film's gravitational center and its emotional weight accrues to him. Just like what took place in Selma, Alabama, back in 1965. In fact, Oyelowo's presence is as transfixing as that of the young Ben Kingsley in his transformative interpretation of Gandhi in Sir Richard Attenborough's 1982 titular classic about one of Dr. King's inspirational figures. Unlike Gandhi, however, Selma is a single canvas on which a few months in Dr.
- 1/3/2015
- by Tim Cogshell
- Alt Film Guide
When Audra McDonald arrives at the Disney Concert Hall on Dec. 2, don't expect her to be singing from her latest Broadway show, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. She won a record sixth Tony Award for her take on Billie Holiday in the play with music that includes such classics as "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the Child," none of which will be included on her current 28-city tour. "I only sing her as Billie, and I'm not quite ready to sing her as Audra yet," McDonald explains to The Hollywood Reporter. "It would feel
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- 12/1/2014
- by Jordan Riefe
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Apparently, the redoubtable Audra McDonald needs to break that Tony-winning record. With five wins under her belt (the last was for her shattering take on the drug-snorting, tortured female lead of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess), she could net a sixth for the Broadway premiere of longtime regional staple Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, in which she will embody none other than “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless the Child” songstress Billie Holiday, in what would become a Tony milestone as she currently ties Angela Lansbury and the late Julie Harris for the most competitive wins by an actress.
- 3/25/2014
- by Jason Clark
- EW.com - PopWatch
More shows a-comin’ in what looks to be a busy fall, but it’s a summer Tony winner that’s still packing ‘em in. Kinky Boots, which scored Best Musical, Best Score (for Cyndi Lauper), and Best Actor in a Musical (Billy Porter), among other trophies, recouped its running costs in what’s been a staggering seven months for Broadway (even The Book of Mormon took longer, though Kinky has a few hundred more seats per show to sell, in all fairness). The Glass Menagerie, boasting ecstatic reviews (including ours) has extended seven extra weeks to play through February 2014, Taxi...
- 10/5/2013
- by Jason Clark
- EW.com - PopWatch
Beyoncé and Jay-z joined up last night in NYC to show support for their friend Kanye West at the listening party for his new album, Yeezus. Other celebrity attendees included Aziz Ansari and Timbaland, while Kanye's girlfriend, Kim Kardashian, stayed at home in La as she prepares for the arrival of the couple's first baby. This is the second time in the past week that Beyoncé and Jay have partied with their pal as they celebrated Kanye West's birthday with a group of famous friends in the Big Apple on Saturday night. Kanye was in town to play at the Governors Ball music festival on Sunday, and he stayed in town to roll out his new music. He reportedly played 10 tracks of the new LP, including "Black Skinhead" and "I Am God," and talked to the crowd about his new approach to music. He said, "I have an idea...
- 6/11/2013
- by Maria Mercedes Lara
- Popsugar.com
What chilled most about murder mystery Mayday was the claim of an ancestral right to wear green man makeup
You'd naturally think Aidan Gillen killed Hattie, the 14-year-old May Queen, in the woods above the village. Ever since he played transgressive super-hottie Stuart in Queer as Folk, he's worked sneering lips and leering eyes as a series of reptiles, chancers and scumbags – dodgy mayor in The Wire, slimy counsellor in Game of Thrones, venal banker in credit-crunch drama Freefall. Why not add murderer to the list?
In Mayday (BBC1), he's similarly sinister: a bad dad who thumps his son for nothing and buries his grief over his dead wife in video game marathons. Plus he has a mysterious bag locked in a cupboard. Could it be a body-bag full of May Queen? Possibly. Harold Pinter called Gillen "dangerous" when he was in The Caretaker, which is damning evidence. The prosecution rests,...
You'd naturally think Aidan Gillen killed Hattie, the 14-year-old May Queen, in the woods above the village. Ever since he played transgressive super-hottie Stuart in Queer as Folk, he's worked sneering lips and leering eyes as a series of reptiles, chancers and scumbags – dodgy mayor in The Wire, slimy counsellor in Game of Thrones, venal banker in credit-crunch drama Freefall. Why not add murderer to the list?
In Mayday (BBC1), he's similarly sinister: a bad dad who thumps his son for nothing and buries his grief over his dead wife in video game marathons. Plus he has a mysterious bag locked in a cupboard. Could it be a body-bag full of May Queen? Possibly. Harold Pinter called Gillen "dangerous" when he was in The Caretaker, which is damning evidence. The prosecution rests,...
- 3/4/2013
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
Gil Evans, perhaps the second-greatest arranger in jazz after Duke Ellington, was born Ian Ernest Gilmore Green on May 13, 1912 in Toronto, Canada (Evans was his stepfather's name). Though best known for his collaborations with Miles Davis, Evans released many great albums as a bandleader and created a highly influential style that changed the course of jazz history.
Though self-taught, by age 21 Evans was leading a big band that became the house group at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa Beach. Eventually it was fronted and then led by singer Skinnay Ennis, and Claude Thornhill joined Evans in providing arrangements for them. Thornhill then moved to New York to start his own band, and in 1941 invited Evans to New York to write arrangements. Soon Evans's arrangements with their lush, hazy, floating textures defined the Thornhill style.
Though theoretically a swing band, the Thornhill ensemble was one of the most progressive big bands of its time,...
Though self-taught, by age 21 Evans was leading a big band that became the house group at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa Beach. Eventually it was fronted and then led by singer Skinnay Ennis, and Claude Thornhill joined Evans in providing arrangements for them. Thornhill then moved to New York to start his own band, and in 1941 invited Evans to New York to write arrangements. Soon Evans's arrangements with their lush, hazy, floating textures defined the Thornhill style.
Though theoretically a swing band, the Thornhill ensemble was one of the most progressive big bands of its time,...
- 5/13/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Sanford Biggers: Sweet Funk -- An Introspective
The Brooklyn Museum
Through January 8, 2012
Sanford Biggers gathers the imagery and sounds of Blues, the rhythm and movement of break dancing, and the costumes and theatricality of blackface routines and turns them into a very personal discourse on race and culture in our time. The exhibition centers on a large installation of a tree growing through a player piano (Blossom, 2007), which grows through the museum’s fifth-floor rotunda. With passing references to “a tree grows in Brooklyn,” nature versus culture, and Buddha's enlightenment under the bodhi tree, it drives home its point by intermittently playing “Strange Fruit,” the ode to black victims of racism made famous by Billie Holiday.
In a separate room, a two-channel video creates a dreamlike carnival depicting a traveling minstrel. He incorporates his signature lighted sign (a bright-red grinning mouth with marquee light bulbs for teeth) called Cheshire (2008) into...
The Brooklyn Museum
Through January 8, 2012
Sanford Biggers gathers the imagery and sounds of Blues, the rhythm and movement of break dancing, and the costumes and theatricality of blackface routines and turns them into a very personal discourse on race and culture in our time. The exhibition centers on a large installation of a tree growing through a player piano (Blossom, 2007), which grows through the museum’s fifth-floor rotunda. With passing references to “a tree grows in Brooklyn,” nature versus culture, and Buddha's enlightenment under the bodhi tree, it drives home its point by intermittently playing “Strange Fruit,” the ode to black victims of racism made famous by Billie Holiday.
In a separate room, a two-channel video creates a dreamlike carnival depicting a traveling minstrel. He incorporates his signature lighted sign (a bright-red grinning mouth with marquee light bulbs for teeth) called Cheshire (2008) into...
- 11/12/2011
- by bradleyrubenstein
- www.culturecatch.com
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