| 13 October 2009
A Taisho period (1920s) formal woman's long-sleeved kimono,
The coming art season looks to be as exciting as ever, with artists enthusiastically staging exhibitions through cooperative galleries, street fairs and public spaces, while local museums and galleries gear up to launch a wide variety of fascinating shows and international art fairs prepare to import art from around the globe.
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach: The museum plans an impressive exhibition schedule, beginning with innovative and influential 20th century sculptor George Segal’s Street Scenes (through Dec. 6) and accompanied by New York, New York: The 20th Century (now through Dec. 27), featuring paintings, photographs, sculptures and paper works centering on New York’s urban scene.
Opening Nov. 7 and running through Jan. 17 is a show about South Africa’s multimedia artist William Kentridge, whom Time magazine recently recognized as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. For lovers of classical art, Hapsburg Treasures: Renaissance Tapestries From Vienna, considered some of the greatest in existence, will be on display from Jan. 12-April 11. And, organized by New York’s Jewish Museum is a moving story captured in works owned by a legendary Dutch art dealer whose collection of Old Masters was plundered by the Nazis before being restored to his family a few years ago. Reclaimed: Paintings from the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker is on exhibition from Feb. 12-May 9.
A Paul Fusco photograph from Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral train
Photography will be well-represented at the Norton, too. Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 (Feb. 9-May 9), organized by the International Center of Photography in New York, showcases the career of famed fashion and advertising photographer Richard Avedon. Women, organized by The Women’s Museum in Dallas, features work by another “photo star,” Annie Leibovitz; 38 of her portraits of women from a wide spectrum of society will be on display from May 1 to Aug. 1. Also, a commemorative set of 20 images taken by Paul Fusco from Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral train in June 1968 will be displayed beginning Feb. 13.
On the second Thursday of the month, the museum continues its new Norton After Dark series of evening events, in which the museum buzzes with music, art events and activities from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach: The society will present three major exhibitions, beginning on Dec. 5 with Fashioning Kimono: Art Deco and Modernism in Japan, a remarkable exhibition of 97 kimonos (through Jan. 10). Opening Jan. 23 and running through Feb. 28 is The Grandeur of America’s Age of Sail, paintings by British maritime and technically proficient artist John Stobart, who will also give a lecture the morning of the opening. Finally, on March 13-April 18, Paintings from the Reign of Victoria: The Royal Holloway Collection, London will feature 60 paintings by artists such as Sir John Everett Millais. There will be two lectures: Dr. Debra Mancoff (School of Art Institute of Chicago) on March 20, and on April 3, artist and art historian Richard Frank will give a gallery talk.
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton: Late 20th -Century Abstraction (now through July 18) features works from the museum’s permanent collection. Also currently on display is a 40-year retrospective of the realistic and trompe l’oeil stylized paintings of New Jersey artist Gary T. Erbe (through Nov. 8). From the collection of filmmaker Martin Brest, meaningful and spiritual artwork by Cuban-born Enrique Martínez Celaya will include 19 works, from small watercolors to monumental paintings and a bronze sculpture (Nov. 17-Jan. 10). A tribal art exhibit from Africa, Oceanic and Meso-American cultures will include sculptures, masks and artifacts (Nov. 17-May 2).
The Lamp (1890), by Mary Cassatt.
The Magical World of M.C. Escher (Jan. 20-April 11) will offer more than 140 pieces of the Dutch artist’s puzzle-like images that tease one’s perception of reality. Other exhibits include American Impressionist Mary Cassatt’s works on paper (Jan. 20-April 11), abstract artist Stanley Boxer (April 20-June 13) and photographs by Alfred Wertheimer of the ever-popular Elvis Presley at age 21 (April 20-June 13).
Flagler Museum, Palm Beach: The second-floor art gallery at Henry Flagler’s Whitehall home offers a retrospective of American arts and crafts in A Spirit of Simplicity (Oct. 6-Jan. 3.) The exhibition, which features more than 150 objects, will include work by Gustav Stickley, Elbert Hubbard and Charles Rohlfs, prints by Arthur Wesley Dow and pottery by arts-and-crafts shops such as Newcomb and Rookwood.
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens: The Delray Beach museum will feature exhibits of tetsubin cast-iron teakettles from the 19th and 20th centuries (Sept. 29-Dec. 6), and during that same time, Japanese woodblock prints with moon and plum-blossom motifs. An exciting exhibit for contemporary art enthusiasts will be the large-scale ceramic sculptures of internationally renowned Jun Kaneko (Dec. 22-March 7), reflecting two decades of his work, such as his 7-foot-tall, half-ton dangos and 8-foot tall heads glazed with repetitive lines and geometric patterns. Kyoto: A Place in Art (June 22-Oct. 17), focuses on Japan’s cultural capital with ceramics, woodblock prints and photographs of the Kyoto gardens.
Ceramicist Jason Walker will teach at the Armory Art Center starting Dec. 12.
Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach: The Armory’s exhibitions offer the opportunity to collect art by artists of national and international renown. From Oct. 9-28, it’s Drink Up! –Ceramic Cup Invitational, and also that same month are Women in the Visual Arts: Artistic Visions and Vanishing Florida, judged by Norton’s photography curator Charles Stainback, in which Armory Photo Salon photographers explore the beauty, current and lost, of Florida’s environment. In November, Visual Conceits: Fantasy or Reality (Nov. 6-28), will be juried by Miami’s Bernice Steinbaum. Also that month is the Master Artists’ Exhibition, which includes Beth Cavener Stichter, Philippe Faraut, Lala Zeitlyn, Christopher Leeper, Marie Natale, Louisa McElwain and several others.
Jan. 8 will be the Take Home a Nude event in which art lovers and collectors will be wined and dined while they bid for work by the internationally renowned artists of the Master Artists workshops. The center also has a comprehensive art school that features classes from visiting master artists. Even if you can’t take the classes, plan to attend the lectures and demonstrations, starting with Peter Rubino’s figurative sculpture demonstration (Dec. 10), Tom Barton’s clay sculpture (Dec. 12), Jason Walker’s ceramics (Dec 13.), Jason Briggs’ intricately painted porcelain sculptures (Dec. 16), and Simon Kogan’s sculpture (Dec. 17).
Starting the evening of Oct. 29, Dia de los Muertos kicks off the Armory’s After Hours events, where one can network with artists, see demonstrations and participate in creative projects.
Palm Beach Photographic Centre: Opening Nov. 13 in its large new Clematis Street location in West Palm Beach, the center kicks off with the 13th Annual INFOCUS Juried Exhibition. The museum also will feature exhibits by world-famous photographers, many who teach master classes. Jan. 19-23 is FOTOfusion, one of America’s largest photo events.
The Lighthouse Center for the Arts: The Tequesta center is hosting a “can-struction” event through Nov. 5, in which artist teams create unusual sculptures using canned food that eventually will be donated to local food banks. There’s also a photography exhibition by teenage photographer Allison Parssi that explores the two sides of Palm Beach County with images taken in the wealthiest and most impoverished areas of the county.
Cornell Museum: The museum at Delray Beach's Old School Square celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Barbie doll in an exhibit continuing through Nov. 8. Later this year, it's another popular culture fixture: the pinball machine. Pinball Palooza: The Art, the History, the Game (Dec. 1-March 28) takes a close look at pinball culture, and beginning April 12, it's Stuff 2: The Joy of Collecting!, featuring collectibles from area residents and celebrities (closes Sept. 25).
Florida Atlantic University: Through Oct. 31, the galleries at FAU’s Boca Raton campus will be hosting work by winners of the 2009 South Florida Cultural Consortium Media/Visual Arts Fellowships. Work by masters of fine arts graduates will be on display from April 16 through the summer of 2010, while the bachelor of fine arts exhibition can be seen from Dec. 3-11. The annual Juried Student Exhibition runs from March 26-April 3, and the biennial faculty exhibition is set for Nov. 14-Jan. 23. There’s also an exhibit of cutting-edge graphic design by Chicago-based Rick Valicenti/Thirst Design (Feb. 13-April 3).
Celebrating its 10 anniversary, FAU’s John D. MacArthur Campus in Jupiter is hosting a retrospective of artists who have exhibited at the University’s Art in the Atrium. Retro I is running now through Oct. 23 and Retro II is set for Nov. 4-Dec. 18. Exhibitions are also held in the library, starting with Fe-male Transitions, a multimedia contemporary exhibition by Diane Arrieta and Jackie Kern that can be seen through Oct. 16.
A mixed-media painting by Wayne Stephens.
Palm Beach Community College: The gallery at the college’s Eissey Campus in Palm Beach Gardens has a slate of varied and dynamic exhibitions, beginning with a four-decade retrospective of work by photography professor Sherry Stephens and her husband, painting professor Wayne Stephens (Oct. 20-Nov. 25). Art of Ink (Jan.6-Feb 5) will feature Korean-American master Sun Kim and painted scrolls by several artists. And from Feb. 16 to March 26, large ceramic cutting-edge sculptures by Brian Somerville will be coupled with oil paintings by Turkish-born artist Sibel Kocabasi, a recipient of the Hector Ubertalli Visual Arts Award and a Palm Beach Community College instructor.
Art fairs: Throughout the year, major art fairs stop by at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, attracting visitors from all over the globe.
They include Art Palm Beach, formerly known as palmbeach3, now in its 13th year, with contemporary art exhibitions, including photography, video, installation art, public sculpture and design, and an educational lecture series. (Jan. 15-19). It’s the 14th year for the American International Fine Art Fair (Feb. 3-7), a premier fine-art fair that features works from antiquity to contemporary, as well as jewelry and antiques. It is vetted by museum curators and experts and attracts international dealers and collectors. The vernissage preview party on Feb. 2 benefits the Norton Museum of Art.
On Feb. 12, the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Fair opens with a preview benefitting the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. In 2009, more than 50,000 people visited the show, which featured more than 200 international dealers showing everything from ancient Greek sculpture and Native American pots to antique furniture. There also were works by Impressionists such as Renoir, and contemporary and 20th-century artists such as painter Milton Avery and sculptor John Chamberlain. (Through Feb. 16).
Finally, there is the Palm Beach Fine Craft Show (March 5-7), which presents an opportunity to meet talented craft artists and collect their one-of-a-kind or limited-edition creations of ceramics, glass, wood, sculpture, furniture, fiber, jewelry and wearable art.
Art Basel: Indisputably the biggest art event of the season in Florida is Art Basel Miami in Miami Beach (Dec. 2-6). Held in the Miami Beach Convention Center, this massive show of more than 250 leading art galleries from across the globe will exhibit 20th- and 21st-century artworks by more than 2,000 artists. The show floor is divided into special sections: established galleries, Art Nova and Art Positions (new and emerging artists and young galleries) and Art Kabinett (curated exhibitions within ArtBasel). Art Salon and Art Conversations present a platform for leading artists, curators, collectors and museum directors to lecture and discuss the art scene.
Off-site, there are visits to well-known artists’ studios, public performances and sculpture, and from 6 p.m. to midnight, Oceanfront Nights, a collaboration between Art Basel and New York City’s Creative Time that will be hopping with curated nightly art events, concerts, films and performances.
Even if you spend the entire week in Miami, it may not be possible to see everything, as there are more than 22 accompanying art shows, such as Vanguard: New Contemporary Art by GenArt, Red Dot Miami, Art Miami, PULSE Miami, Scope Miami, NADA Art Fair Miami and Design Miami, as well as museum and gallery shows.
[Editor’s note: This post has been updated to remove a notice about an exhibition that has been canceled.]
| 13 October 2009
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“Change, but no progress."
That is how the tireless advocate for federal and state anti-hate crime legislation Judy Shepard describes the past 10 years since her gay son Matthew was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming.
That killing and its aftermath were captured by Moises Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project in the much-produced 2001 docudrama The Laramie Project. Monday night, on the 11th anniversary of Shepard’s death, theater companies across the United States and around the world participated in simultaneous readings of an epilogue/sequel, The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.
In all, an estimated 146 companies participated from all 50 states and such countries as Canada, Great Britain, Spain and Hong Kong. Although the original play had its South Florida premiere at the Caldwell Theatre, it was Manalapan’s Florida Stage that was tapped to represent the region in this shared premiere.
While reviews of the play were specifically discouraged, and the script does have an unfinished, unshaped feel to it, the evening as an event had a sense of global community about it and an unsubtle call to action that efforts to eradicate hate crimes are still in their infancy.
As with the first play, the members of the Tectonic troupe trekked to Laramie to interview the locals, injecting themselves into the play with reenactments of transcripts of their conversations. Ten years later, they found signs of growth in the town -- the Walmart had been transformed into a Super Walmart -- but the townsfolk were largely in denial about the Shepard case.
Trying hard to shake off the label of Hate Crime Central, many of those interviewed preferred to think of the college student’s death as a “robbery gone bad” perpetrated by a couple of druggies, with the victim’s sexual orientation all but incidental. Such a view was clearly refuted by the testimony at the trials of Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, the two young men accused of and convicted of Shepard’s murder, but the residents of Laramie as represented here do not seem to let facts get in the way of their opinions.
The first act of Ten Years Later is a series of “moments,” snapshots of the encounters, with a flatness to the dramatic arc that seems intent on mimicking the Laramie terrain.
The payoff comes after intermission, with face-to-face prison interviews with Henderson and McKinney, the latter a remorseless figure who simply sees himself as an abject criminal. Only briefly present in the first play because of a lack of access to them at the time, their views a decade after the fact are one of the play’s most compelling pieces of the Laramie puzzle.
Also involving is a tangential battle in the Wyoming legislature over a defense-of-marriage bill, with Wyoming emerging as one of the few states in the autumn of 2008 to defeat efforts to define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.
The 18-member Florida Stage cast included producing director Louis Tyrrell, managing director Nancy Barnett and public relations director Michael Gepner. Among the other cast members were such frequently seen area actors as Dan Leonard, Bruce Linser, Lourelene Snedeker and Karen Stephens.
The only no-show of the evening was Tony Award winner Glenn Close, who hosted the reading at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and was to have introduced the reading via streaming Webcast. But despite all cyber-efforts, Close was unable to be conjured up by Florida Stage’s technical staff. So much for the blend of new technology and good old-fashioned live performance.
Florida Stage drew a packed house for the event at $30 a seat, with the proceeds going to The Shepard Foundation and to Compass, Palm Beach County’s gay and lesbian services organization.
| 12 October 2009
Brad Paisley, who plays the Cruzan on Oct. 17.
The Allman Brothers Band, Steve Miller, Roger Daltrey, Miley Cyrus, Leonard Cohen, and Lady Gaga.
Those are some of the pop acts that will grace South Florida before the new year. Only one problem: All are playing in Broward County or way down in Miami.
By comparison, the musical calendar in Palm Beach County is dotted with entertainers who can still remember when their fans played phonograph records -- with big holes in the middle, and that lasted only 3 minutes. Even now, in the age of iPods and MP3 recordings, the area's major venues are bringing in the likes of Tony Bennett and the Lettermen and, still going strong in their 61st year, The Four Freshmen.
And they're selling.
“It's amazing how well we're doing,” said Lee Bell, who books the Kravis Center. “We actually have more celebrities on the tour this year, and our Broadway Series is going gangbusters. This year we have 6,700 subscribers already. Last year we had 4,150 total. And we still have a month to go.”
Of course, the Kravis's audience skews a bit older than the typical crowd at Cruzan Amphitheatre, but with the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Billy Crystal and Pink Floyd Experience on the bill, some younger fans will give up beer and tailgating for wine and valet parking.
However, should the opportunity arise to book a younger act, Bell wouldn't slam the door. Performers who've been regulars at major amphitheaters are beginning coming in out of the heat. Bonnie Raitt, who plays Pompano Beach Amphitheatre Oct. 23, is turning an eye toward performing arts centers, Bell said, and had the night not already been taken, he could have booked James Taylor.
“We've not had a problem booking acts,” Bell said. “They all want to work. They're all calling me. Rock acts, on the other hand, don't decide to tour and book until later and by that time all our dates are usually taken. Pop and middle-of-the-road acts are a little more predictable. Performing arts centers usually aren't on rock groups’ radar."
An equally busy and perhaps more diverse house is the Lyric Theatre in Stuart with more than 130 performances into early May. It got started Oct. 9 with jazz flutist Nestor Torres, and continues with the funky Neville Brothers Oct. 16, 10 days of Three Redneck Tenors (Oct. 28-Nov. 8), West Side Story (Nov. 13-15), rock legend Dave Mason (Nov. 17) and on to Lily Tomlin (Jan. 11, 12), Woodstock star Richie Havens (Jan. 14,15), animal expert Jack Hanna (Feb. 9,10), and finally to Australia's Thunder From Down Under (April 17) and classical guitarist Constantinos Jaferis' salute to mom on May 9. That's Variety with a capital V.
The booking success of the Kravis and the Lyric is indicative of change in the business.
Despite his legendary status, Bruce Springsteen, who recently breezed through South Florida, didn't sell out. Even his most devoted fans are choosing not to spend $500 of their dwindling salaries for two tickets. By comparison, Taylor Swift, the hottest star in the country music sky, keeps prices below $100.
“The audience is getting more picky,” AEG Live Vice President John Valentino said. “How many 18-year-olds can pay $100 a show?”
Rockers and country stars, old and new, continue to play Cruzan Amphitheatre: Brad Paisley, Oct. 17, and REO Speedwagon, Styx and Night Ranger, Oct. 31. Add the more spiritual Wayfest, with BarlowGirl, Superchick and Sevenglory on Nov. 14 and the edgier Rise Against Dec. 5. After that, however, who knows? The shed shows no listings into the new year.
Cruzan, however, isn't the only amphitheater in town. Sunset Cove is the new shed on the block, so new that it's virtually unknown. Tucked into a county park next to the Everglades at the end of Glades Road in Boca Raton, it has hosted only a couple of shows.
AEG Live, barely into its second year as a promoter, will present George Thorogood and the Destroyers on Nov. 13 and the new, hot Zac Brown a night later.
The biggest problem with Sunset Cove is its newness, Valentino said. Once the fans discover it, he's convinced it will become as popular as Pompano and not a day too soon, because he expects 2010 to be a big year.
“Touring has become so important to artists because recording income has dropped so much,” Valentino said. “Bands used to tour to promote a new record; now they tour to make income. The biggest thrill for us this year for us was probably Kings of Leon. Last year they were a club band occasionally playing small theaters, but as they came through Florida they moved into medium-sized arenas and they started getting radio airplay. It was exciting to see them make it.”
After seeing their cash cows dry up, record companies are adjusting, Valentino said. They've realized that if they want to survive, they have to develop new artists, not wait for them to make it on their own and then jump in with a fat contract.
The big acts will return, as will Zac Brown and Kings of Leon, as well as the next phenomenon.
The rumors for 2010 include the usual suspects: Billy Joel, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Black-Eyed Peas, John Mayer. Promoters are hoping that Mariah Carey will hit the road, and if they are similarly inclined, the Jacksons could attract some big cash.
No matter what, says Valentino, “There will be an abundance of bands on the
road.”
Thom Smith is a freelance writer based in South Florida.
| 11 October 2009
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I haven't seen many full houses at FAU's University Theatre over the years, but Saturday night's concert there was exceptional, and not just in that respect.
The overflow crowd had come to hear the world premiere of a new piece by Libby Larsen, one of the country's best-known composers, whose official Website claims more than 200 works. Larsen, 58, wrapped up the second year of her residency at Florida Atlantic University with a half-hour piece called Encircling Skies, a semi-cantata for chorus, orchestral and wind ensembles, as well as solo instruments including pianos, marimbas, didgeridoo, conch shell and even cellphones.
A hodgepodge setup like that, undertaken to include as many elements of FAU's music department as possible, poses the peril of lapsing into a gimmicky, incoherent mess. But Larsen is a skilled writer, and she was able to take all those disparate elements and make a piece of music out of them that was not only reflective of South Florida and of FAU, but compelling in itself.
Encircling Skies takes its title from a poem by the African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of three poems (one by the 17th-century English poet Robert Herrick, and the other by the contemporary American poet Mark Jarman) heard throughout the work's continuous seven sections. One of the conceits of the piece has to do with the changing nature of sound, and in its own way is an argument for the pure, acoustic sound of instruments and human lungs over the intrusiveness of electronic sounds of all kinds.
So the piece begins with the chorus simply standing and breathing, audibly, before entering on a soft series of repeated C's, and then singing the text of Dunbar's poem. The music here was consistent with Larsen's general style, which is tonal, warm and melodic, though not without complicated harmonies and difficult melodies; what is striking about her music is how contemporary it is without being angular.
Theatricality was an important part of the work, with that first section ending with a drone from the didgeridoo, played by James Cunningham, and followed by a collage of cellphone sounds (titled The Maenads) assembled by Alejandro Sanchez-Samper and played by graduate students sitting in the audience. Sanchez-Samper said he took the inspiration for his contribution from a story by Julio Cortazar in which a crazed audience at a concert overtakes the performers; it was a witty riposte to the inadvertent electronic heckling that mars so many concerts.
Patricia Fleitas led the FAU Chamber Singers, who sang well throughout the evening, and who had the most compelling music of the work. The choir, which was divided into two sections, one for each side of the stage, remained there for the whole performance while ensembles were switched behind curtains and conductors traded places out front. The FAU Symphony under Laura Joella introduced a jumpier kind of energy in the third section while unseen narrator Dean Peterson declaimed the Herrick poem (Weigh me the fire), after which the Chamber Singers performed the Jarman poem, beginning God like a kiss/God like a welcoming.
To my ears this was the finest music of the piece, a setting that mirrored the poem's rising sense of ecstasy in the presence of God as the "rush of time," particularly in the use of the line And God the secret neither one is keeping. The stage switched again for the next section, featuring three pianists -- Heather Coltman, Edward Turgeon and Krisztina Kover -- and three marimbists -- Jason Bloom, Shawn Hagood and Christopher Hand. This sextet, directed by FAU Wind Ensemble conductor Kyle Prescott, played a back-and-forth music of Latin coloring and very tricky rhythms in which a kind of hyper mambo in the pianos alternated with steady, rising tremolando lines in the marimbas.
The Wind Ensemble itself appeared next from behind the curtain (kudos to the students for such a quiet backstage change from orchestra to wind band) with music that began with a quiet muted brass motif and grew in power, leading to the final section, in which the Chamber Singers sang the Herrick poem that had earlier been spoken. Both sections contained music consistent with the choral writing that began the work and consistent with Larsen's essential style, which is direct, sensitive to text and expressive of it, and tonally friendly.
In the final moments, the theme on which Larsen based much of the music -- the hymn tune All Creatures of Our God and King -- was heard in the auditorium, played by trumpeter Tim Walters, and the piece faded into silence over a low rumble in the timpani. Overall, Encircling Skies was an effective, interesting piece of music and concert theater, neatly conceived and smartly performed by the combined FAU forces.
Given that it might be difficult to find a didgeridoo player for future performances, Larsen here has written material that could easily be refashioned into a choral work, and one that would be well worth hearing again. Like her well-known version of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets From the Portuguese, this new work has intelligent, persuasive text-setting at its core, and the other parts of the piece, while interesting in themselves, don't add or detract much from the three poems in a strictly musical sense.
But the special appeal of Libby Larsen is in her enviable ability to take something as usual in our lives as music, rethink it and make it new. The musicians had gathered "to excite the air," she said in remarks before the performance, and what she has created in this piece is a meditation on the role of sound in concert and in daily life, and in a kindlier way than earlier experimentalists such as John Cage.
Not incidentally, she also brought a major arts happening to Florida Atlantic University, and that is progress of a significant kind that one hopes the school is able to build on in the future.
[Editor’s note: This review has been updated to correct a factual error.}
Libby Larsen signed autographs after Saturday's concert. (Photo by Greg Stepanich)
| 10 October 2009
Hilary Swank. (Illustration by Pat Crowley)
It used to be that superheroes and special effects went on vacation in the fall, but the studios seem more intent this season on making money than making art. It is hard not to notice, for instance, the barrage of vampire and assorted undead movies (Zombieland, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, The Twilight Saga: New Moon) coming our way.
True, the Oscars have expanded the Best Picture category to 10 nominees this year in an attempt to get some more mainstream, commercial flicks in the race, but surely none of these bloodsuckers will --pardon the expression -- make the cut.
So let’s look beyond them to more promising fare likely to arrive in the region in the next few months. Per usual, take these release dates as firm at your own peril.
Capitalism: A Love Story: You can almost hear the irony in documentary filmmaker Michael Moore’s voice with the title of his latest activist non-fiction tale, designed (like Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko) to educate, entertain and irritate. This time around, his focus is the global financial crisis and the greed-meisters who caused it. (Opened Oct. 2)
A Serious Man: A new movie by Joel and Ethan Coen is always welcome, whether they are in a whimsical mood (Fargo) or deadly serious (No Country for Old Men). Their latest sounds like a little of each, the saga of a Midwestern professor (Michael Stuhlbarg) whose life takes a downward turn when his wife asks him for a divorce, his children rebel against him and a student of his attempts to bribe him for a better grade. (Opened Oct. 2)
New York, I Love You: This is the second shoe to drop, following its precursor, Paris, Je T’aime, another series of short films from such A-list directors as Alexander Payne, Wes Craven and Mira Nair, exploring the nature of love, New York-style. The cast is similarly attention-getting, with such name performers as Natalie Portman, Kevin Bacon, Robin Wright Penn and Ethan Hawke. (Oct. 16)
Amelia: The search for aviatrix Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while trying to fly around the world, has led to this much-touted biopic, starring two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank and directed by Mira Nair (The Namesake), with Richard Gere as the feminist pilot’s manager and husband. (Oct. 23)
Men Who Stare at Goats: A dark comedy based on the non-fiction best-seller about an Army unit seeking to apply the tenets of telepathy and other paranormal phenomena to combat. Wait, don’t turn the page! The high-powered cast includes George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges, and it is directed by Grant Heslov, co-writer of Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck. (Nov. 6)
Lily Morgan and John Cusack in 2012.
2012: Here’s another summer picture that has migrated to the fall, an action picture about the end of the world -- oh, that again -- with John Cusack as a science fiction writer who feels the burden of having to prevent doomsday. Since director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) is at the helm, you have to expect a few major global landmarks to be exploded along the way. (Nov. 13)
The Twilight Saga: New Moon: If you are going to sink your teeth into one vampire movie this fall, you might as well make it this second installment in the Stephenie Meyer series. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are back as the teen bloodsucker and the comely gal he is smitten with. Get in line behind every teenager with nine dollars. (Nov. 20)
Nine: Not to be confused with 9, the sci-fi animated movie of a couple months back, this is the film version of Maury Yeston’s acclaimed Broadway musical based on Federico Fellini’s loosely autobiographical classic, 8½. Rob Marshall (Chicago) puts a prestige cast of Academy Award winners, including Daniel Day-Lewis as philandering Italian filmmaker Guido Contini and his bevy of beautiful women, including Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz and the great Sophia Loren. (Nov. 25)
The frog (Bruno Campos) puckers up for Tiana (Anika Noni Rose).
The Princess and the Frog: Flying in the face of computer-generated animation, Disney returns to the traditions of hand-drawn, two-dimensional feature-length cartoons with this New Orleans-based retelling of the Grimm Brothers’ The Frog Prince, with a definite twist. After African-American Princess Tiana (Anika Noni Rose of Dreamgirls) kisses her frog, she turns amphibious, too. (Nov. 25)
Invictus: Here comes Clint Eastwood with another below-the-radar, end-of-year drama, which is likely to become popular, despite the Latin title. Of course, it helps that it stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. The former plays South Africa’s political force of nature Nelson Mandela, in the early days of his presidency, in the run up to his nation’s upset win at the 1995 rugby World Cup. Damon, presumably having shed his Informant weight, plays the team captain. (Dec. 11)
Avatar: It has taken Titanic director James (“King of the world”) Cameron a dozen years to make another feature film, but expect it to be a blockbuster. It is a 3-D science fiction yarn about a soldier out of his element on the planet Pandora. Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver star, but from early glimpses, the real star looks to be the state-of-the-art special effects. (Dec. 18)
Sherlock Holmes: The enduring Arthur Conan Doyle character is probably the most filmed literary icon ever, but we have never seen him quite like this. The rational sleuth (Robert Downey Jr.) and his medical sidekick (Jude Law) have been re-conceived by action-violence director Guy Ritchie. Baker Street may never be the same. (Dec. 25)
Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel McAdams in Sherlock Holmes.
