About nine years ago, in a humble Los Angeles-area nightclub, urbane British folk singer Billy Bragg reappraised 20th-century politics–as is often his Socialist wont–by means of an intriguing correlation. Might it be, he postulated, that contemporaries Leon Trotsky and Harlan Sanders were not merely striking doppelgängers, but, in fact, the…
I never imagined the day would come when I would cringe to see Ralph Fiennes onscreen. Not only is he shamelessly good-looking but, whether playing the brooding, remote figure doomed by love in The English Patient or the bloodless commandant of a Nazi death camp in Schindler’s List, he projects…
So, when was the last time you shared a woman with your dad? No, not your mom–don’t be gross. You know, just some woman that you and your dad both dug, who perked you up a bit. It’s probably been a while, huh? What? Never? Really? Well, that may be…
As the opening-night world premiere of Fugitive Pieces progressed, I couldn’t shake the idea that playwright Caridad Svich was less inspired by Samuel Beckett–Waiting for Godot, specifically–than liable for intellectual theft under some copyright law. Anything worth having is worth stealing, as a colleague once observed, but the showcase production…
As the opening-night world premiere of Fugitive Pieces progressed, I couldn’t shake the idea that playwright Caridad Svich was less inspired by Samuel Beckett–Waiting for Godot, specifically–than liable for intellectual theft under some copyright law. Anything worth having is worth stealing, as a colleague once observed, but the showcase production…
Sometimes, I would like to get in touch with my inner child and beat the crap out of him. I know what he looks like; I’ve seen the pictures of that gawky brat, wearing bottle-thick Run-DMC specs and braces and a helmet made of hair. If he ever shows his…
In the late ’70s, it was fashionable to predict that, by the year 2000, humans would be populating the moon. Man had first set foot there late in the previous decade, and surely in another 20 years or so, special space suits and biodomes could get us there on at…
Nick Park speaks so softly that the tape recorder barely registers him at all. His is a whisper of a voice, the sound of a man who has spent years in isolation talking to no one but himself. Transcribing an interview with him is like trying to decipher a man’s…
There exists deep within any man who once read comic books and collected them–protected them, actually, with plastic sleeves and cardboard backs and boxes that fought off the yellowing of time–the mythical being known as The Fanboy. A long time ago, The Fanboy pored over every issue of World’s Finest…
Strip the movie of its brand name, mute the Isaac Hayes theme song that’s still icebox cool, and John Singleton’s Shaft doesn’t even qualify as a distant cousin to Gordon Parks’ 1971 original–much less Ernest Tidyman’s 1970 novel, on which the franchise is based. To reiterate a point made by…
It’s the year 3028, and man…is an endangered species! (Haven’t we heard that somewhere before, like last month?) But this time around, the threat is a little more intimidating than those effeminate, Xenu-worshipping Conehead psychologists in platform boots. The villains in Fox’s new animated spectacular Titan A.E. are the Drej…
Kikujiro, the latest release from Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano, is likely to be a surprise to his American fans–possibly even a disappointment–if they walk in unprepared. In fact, the movie is altogether worthwhile, so just get yourselves prepared. Kitano attracted international attention when his first two films–the crime movies Violent…
Some 2,400 years after it was first staged at the midsummer Dionysus festival in Athens, The Trojan Women is oft resurrected as a pacifist theatrical statement. That’s understandable. The show is grueling in its depiction of the agonies of women and girls who suddenly find themselves rounded up and treated…
Banter Despite repeated dashings, my hopes have been raised yet again by the recent opening of the Trinity River Arts Center, in the same complex as KD Studios. KD president and owner Kathy Tyner, who started off as a secretary in 1965 for model mogul Kim Dawson, says that it…
Greater minds than yours have pondered the nuances, subtleties, and mysteries of Jasper Johns’ groundbreaking artwork over his 50-year career; a couple of them work at the Dallas Museum of Art, and another was hustled in to help explain the American master’s latest exhibition of new paintings and drawings installed…
For something that is nothing more than a big, fat fib, the curse on King Tut’s tomb has remarkable staying power. Death shall come to those who dare disturb this sanctuary. There are countless movies, stories, and songs written about it. It’s probably the best-known part of Egyptology, and it’s…
Here at Night & Day we like to be considerate of our reader(s). When the bored and the uninspired turn to our pages hoping to find the perfect activity to inject some cheer into their uneventful lives, we don’t want to disappoint. Our only hope in life is that the…
His name appears in almost every book written about Groucho Marx, so much so, he has been given the appropriate appellation by members of the Marx family: Wesso. But Paul Wesolowski is of no relation to the famous clan. He’s a man in his 40s who lives outside Philadelphia and,…
Blink–or, more likely, doze–and you will miss it, this tiny, beautiful oasis in the middle of an otherwise barren wasteland. For a moment–a precious, frustrating moment to be treasured in a movie that flaunts its disposability–Cage reminds us of how good an actor he can be, when he attempts to…
Apart from mass cultural annihilation, beatniks, Hee Haw, some dumbass sports, and the freak shows of Brentwood, most pop-culture trends are not homegrown but imported to America after prolonged cultivation overseas. Take that novelty food tofu, for instance, dubbed le curd du soy by uncredited Belgian sailors exploring China centuries…
Could there be any less appealing image than that of an obese, dress-wearing Martin Lawrence scratching his ass, as featured on the poster for Big Momma’s House? The idea of sitting through any movie promoted in such a fashion brings to mind the hideously awful It’s Pat: The Movie or…
Southern Methodist University professor emeritus Margaret Loft directs three prodigiously able and alert actresses through a cataclysmic afternoon and evening in the life of one of Great Britain’s most influential psychoanalysts. Mrs. Klein happens to be Melanie Klein, the Austrian Jewish titan who strode into The British Analytical Society in…
