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Arts

Merry Mendelssohn

by B.A. Nilsson February 22, 2012

The third movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 is a scherzo of incredible vivaciousness, throwing all three instruments into a lively, virtuosic dance. The acrobats are leaping, tumbling in gravity-defying merriment, at any ...

Gorgeous George

by Ann Morrow February 16, 2012

He was, in his day, bigger than Madonna or Gaga, bigger than the Beatles or Beiber fever, bigger than all the crowned heads of Europe put together (c’mon, how many people could pick King Louis ...

0 comments Albany Institute of History & Art

Dressed to Kill

by James Yeara February 16, 2012

Wit’s not the thing you need around the house, And it’s no joy to have a bookish spouse. When I get married, you can bet your life My man will study nothing but his wife --Martine, Act 5, scene ...

0 comments Shakespeare & Company Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre

Step Right Up

by Jeff Nania February 16, 2012

The live variety show has made a comeback in a big way. This performance by the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus was part of a monthly series that Club Helsinki and the Cirkus presented this winter, and ...

0 comments Club Helsinki

Time to Remember

by Laura Leon February 16, 2012

Maybe The Vow is the kind of chick flick that makes you embarrassed to be seen waiting in line for, but at the same time, it deserves props for respecting the genre and delivering its ...

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House of Shadows

by Ann Morrow February 9, 2012

Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is in mourning for his deceased wife. His gloom is so unrelieved that it’s affecting his young son, as well as his career as a solicitor for a London law firm. ...

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A Real Pisser

by John Rodat February 9, 2012

The musical Urinetown is a curious blend of earnest social commentary and ironic self-awareness. On the one hand, it scolds (if it doesn’t quite skewer) capitalistic-monopolistic command over essential resources; on the other, it satirizes ...

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Harnessing Vertical Dance

by Elyse Beaudoin February 9, 2012

On Saturday (Feb. 4), a diverse audience laid down on a stage in the Theater at RPI’s EMPAC. Each face in the crowd looked up at choreographer Yves Fauchon, who was perched on a large ...

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Farming the American Dream

by B.A. Nilsson February 1, 2012

The documentary The First Season follows Paul and Phyllis Van Amburgh and their children through a year’s worth of changes as they pursue a crazy midlife dream of operating a dairy farm. They’re slaves to ...

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Lovable

by James Yeara February 1, 2012

Rich in theatrical allusions and as pregnant with satire and humor as a Chekhov or a Shaw play, Wendy Wasserstein’s The Sisters Rosensweig ripples with laughter as it pricks the soul. This 1992 follow up ...

0 comments Capital Repertory Theatre

Crazy for You

by Laura Leon February 1, 2012

We’ve come to expect nasty creatures or literal out-of-body experiences (complete with fluids of all types) in David Cronenberg’s movies. While A Dangerous Method doesn’t quite veer into Naked Lunch or Dead Ringers territory, it ...

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Sad Man

by Ann Morrow February 1, 2012

As a woman disguised as a man, Glenn Close is physically astonishing, her androgynous face subtly altered (with the slight use of prosthetics) to be completely masculine. Only her voice, at times, acts as a ...

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Fall of the Wild

by Ann Morrow February 1, 2012

Liam Neeson’s hypnotic, sensual baritone does more for The Grey than its metaphysical musings—imminent death being a surefire stimuli to those kinds of conversations—and more than the gripping plane crash that sets this survivalist tale ...

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They Fight

by John Brodeur January 26, 2012

The story of the Tuskegee Airmen is one of the great narratives of World War II. Trained near the end of the war, they were the first African-American pilots in a still-segregated military. The sole ...

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Going Nowhere

by Laura Leon January 26, 2012

The ridiculous notion that there’s such a thing as closure drives so much of our pop culture that’s it difficult to find anybody willing to admit that, for some things, there just isn’t any pat ...

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Kick Girl

by Ann Morrow January 26, 2012

“The motives are strictly professional?” asks Paul, a debonair contract killer (Michael Fassbender). “The motive is money,” responds an incredulous Kenneth (Ewan McGregor), the slippery manipulator behind a shadowy black-ops company. “The motive is always ...

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Sex Negative

by John Rodat January 26, 2012

Steve McQueen’s Shame might be as good as its hype—if, that is, you’re willing to accept certain prejudices about promiscuity or sexual behavior, generally. There are explicit indications that the lead character, Brandon (Michael Fassbender), and ...

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Maggie Right or Wrong

by Shawn Stone January 19, 2012

Meryl Streep’s performance as legendary British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is the entire point of The Iron Lady. The film is muddled history, hackneyed drama and a generally underwhelming entertainment—except that Streep brings the British ...

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Movie Movie

by Laura Leon January 19, 2012

Considering the onslaught of big-budget and 3-D extravaganzas that seem to be monopolizing the local cineplex, The Artist is a decided anomaly. For one thing, it’s in black-and-white. More significant, however, is the fact that ...

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Nifty Goods

by Ann Morrow January 19, 2012

The Icelandic novel Reykjavik-Rotterdam is probably a nifty little thriller, going by the American version of the Icelandic screen adaptation. Directed by Iceland’s Baltasar Kormákur, Contraband moves the action across the latitudes, to New Orleans-Panama. ...

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Civilized People

by Shawn Stone January 19, 2012

When the 10-year-old scion of the Longstreet family whacks the eldest son of the Cowan clan in the face with the end of a stick, the result is hurt feelings and missing teeth on the ...

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Her Heart Is in It

by Ann Morrow January 19, 2012

“I’m more excited than I’ve ever been in my life,” says Heidi Philipsen. The independent filmmaker is referring to this Saturday’s gala premiere (at the Fenimore Gallery at Proctors) of Her Telling Heart, a reinterpretation ...

0 comments Fenimore Gallery at Proctors

Super Trouper

by B.A. Nilsson January 18, 2012

Bebe Neuwirth has a distinctive singing voice, and that’s the first thing many critics mention when appraising her cabaret performances. It’s lauded as an asset or damned as a distraction, but all such observations miss ...

0 comments Proctors

Frantic Fun

by Laura Leon January 12, 2012

Regardless of whether you made the joyful discovery of Herge’s Tintin comics as a child, or, like me, got hooked on the clear-line expressiveness of the stories much later in life, the series of books ...

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Master of the Game

by Ann Morrow January 12, 2012

The Cold War oeuvre of John le Carre is so redolent of the recent climate of obssessive intelligence gathering that it’s surprising that a new adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy didn’t come down the ...

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