Review

CD Review: Julia Holter’s “Loud City Song” — Stark Urban Beauty

August 13, 2013
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The third and latest LP from indie singer-songwriter and composer Julia Holter proffers a vision of urban ecstasy.

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Fuse Theater Review: Barrington Stage Company Serves up a Lavish “Much Ado”

August 12, 2013
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From the first clearly projected lines to the last, it’s obvious that director Julianne Boyd set out to direct a production of Much Ado where language rules supreme.

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Jazz CD Reviews: John Scofield’s “Überjam Deux” and Dave Holland’s “Prism”

August 12, 2013
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Dave Holland’s Prism tells stories, several of which are very effective. Scofield’s, like his earlier Überjam releases, extends the jam-band esthetic into jazz without completely giving in to it. And neither of them would be as they are without the great looming shadow of Miles Davis.

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Film Review: “Blue Jasmine” — Woody Allen’s Evocative Triumph

August 11, 2013
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What carries Blue Jasmine over the moon is the breathtaking, Oscar-worthy performance of Cate Blanchett, whose tortured Park Avenue socialite on the skids is among the most stunning performances by an actress in years.

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Film Review: “Lovelace” — A Provocatively Written, Well-Acted Biopic

August 9, 2013
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Amanda Seyfried gives a sensitive performance as Linda Lovelace; Peter Sarsgaard is chilling as Chuck Traynor, the abusive husband who saw her as sex-object and potential money-making machine.

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Film Review: “Elysium” — The Sound and Fury of CGI Signifying … Not Much

August 9, 2013
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Overall, Elysium is an entertaining distraction posing as a meaningful global allegory.

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Film Review: “Le Pont du Nord” — An Entertaining Exercise in Playful Dis-Ease

August 8, 2013
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This entertaining and provocative work, made in 1981 by the now 85-year-old director, fits into his oeuvre as a complement to his best known movie among American art-film fans, 1974’s Céline and Julie Go Boating.

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Theater Review: “Laughing Stock” Redux

August 8, 2013
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The current revival of Laughing Stock, directed again by the playwright, has softer edges than I remember in the earlier one, played with fluidity rather than crackle.

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Theater Review: Shakespeare & Co Mounts a Powerful Staging of “Mother Courage”

August 7, 2013
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Olympia Dukakis makes good on her desire to evoke the weakness the indomitable Mother Courage fights so hard to cover up: the actress conveys the highs and lows of this gargantuan character with enormous power.

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Fuse Album Review: Mark Dresser’s “Nourishments” — Music Tough and Pretty, Smart and Fun

August 6, 2013
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Nourishments is an emphatic musical statement from a seasoned bandleader, returning to the front of a traditional quintet.

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