Author: Max Rider

Paul Sparks and Brian J. Smith in Grangeville. EMILIO MADRID In my travels I’ve visited 23 of our United States, but never Idaho. A quick search reveals its nickname: the Gem State, and a population that’s one-quarter that of New York City. To be frank, a flight to Boise probably won’t be necessary; Samuel D. Hunter has taken me there so many times. Over the past 15 years, the prolific and consistently affecting playwright has mined his home territory more diligently than a 19th-century quartz driller (Gem State, remember?). Thanks to Hunter, I’ve spent hours in Pocatello, Lewiston, Clarkston (all…

Jonathan Pryce on the set of Brazil, written and directed by Terry Gilliam. Embassy International Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images) In February 1985, when Terry Gilliam’s Brazil first hit the big screen in the UK, it was an obvious, albeit messy, homage to George Orwell’s then almost 40-year-old novel, 1984.  Now, after another 40 years have passed, the Orwell link is still clear. But in our current dystopian moment, Gilliam seems in some ways more prescient, and more insightful, than his most obvious influence. Orwell’s vision of authoritarianism, like his prose, was clean, regimented, organized. Authoritarianism in real life, though,…

Joshua Conyers, Mary Elizabeth Williams, Chauncey Packer and Patrick Quigley. Jennifer Packard, Courtesy of Opera Lafayette In Bordeaux in 1887, New Orleans-born composer Edmond Dédé finished an opera called Morgiane and, perhaps unknowingly, made history. His magnum opus is the oldest grand opera and the first known opera by a Black American composer. Sometime after Dédé set down his pen, the over-500-page manuscript for Morgiane disappeared for over a century, reappearing in Harvard’s library in 2011. Almost no one had heard it until last week. Morgiane is the product of painstaking reconstruction from Dédé’s manuscript through a collaboration by two…

Matt Doyle and Caroline Aaron in Conversations with Mother. Carol Rosegg Playwright Matthew Lombardo has often built shows around strong women, some of them real-life figures. In 2002’s Tea at Five it was Katherine Hepburn, played by a Grade-A Kate Mulgrew. And in 2010’s Looped, it was Tallulah Bankhead, played by Valerie Harper in her last  great performance—a Tony-nominated one at that.  Tea at Five was based on Hepburn’s memoir, Me: Stories of My Life, and Looped was based on a real-life event, a tanked-up Bankhead, trying (for eight hours!) to redub one line of dialogue in her final film—a…

Now that the Golden Globes, Grammys and Critics Choice Awards have all come and gone in Los Angeles, it’s time to head across the pond for the next stop on the awards show circuit. Tonight (Sunday, Feb. 16), the British Academy of Film and Television Arts honor the best in British and international cinema at the annual BAFTAs. The 78th British Academy Film Awards are once again taking place at Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre, and David Tennant is returning to host the ceremony for the second year in a row. Conclave leads the pack with a staggering 12 nominations,…

Robert De Niro in Zero Day. Courtesy of Netflix It’s not necessary to agree with the politics of a work or its authors to find it entertaining, but in the case of a political thriller, that’s a very tall order. Zero Day, the new Netflix miniseries starring Robert De Niro, is undeniably a page-turner. It’s also a thriller so painstakingly centrist that it makes Aaron Sorkin look like Boots Riley, and for this critic, that’s impossible to look past.  Zero Day’s inciting incident is a genuinely terrifying coordinated cyber attack in which all computer systems, navigation, automated safeguards, power grids,…

Yuval Sharon. Courtesy The Industry About fifteen years ago, Yuval Sharon arrived in L.A. with a big idea. Coming from the New York City Opera, where he directed the VOX program from 2006 to 2009, he had an insider’s view of elitist tradition-bound institutions and thinkers that define opera, trapping it in amber. His new company, The Industry, was going to change that by taking a ‘holistic approach to creation, integrating artistic ideas, production, audience experience and civic engagement,’ according to its website. Directed by Sharon, The Industry has staged operas in a train station, a warehouse and even in…

Theo James as Hal in The Monkey. Courtesy of NEON After his wildly successful directorial breakthrough Longlegs last year, Osgood Perkins needed a follow-up that would cement his status as a bonafide horror director—and what better way to ensconce oneself in the genre’s upper echelons than to adapt a Stephen King story? Perkins’ take on the short story The Monkey certainly shows that he’s a filmmaker with a unique eye for horror (and comedy), though his attempts at grounding the story are less assured. THE MONKEY ★★1/2 (2.5/4 stars)Directed by: Osgood PerkinsWritten by: Osgood PerkinsStarring: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Adam Scott,…

Margaret Qualley and Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon. Sabrina Lantos/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics Isn’t it romantic? Just a few days after February 14th, the Berlinale delivered its own funny valentine to American songbook legend Lorenz Hart with the World Premiere of Richard Linklater’s beautifully melancholic Blue Moon. In a virtuoso performance, Ethan Hawke stars as the famous (and famously tortured) lyricist still suffering the sting of his recent estrangement from composer Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott). Set entirely on March 31, 1943—only a few months before Hart would die from pneumonia at age 48—Blue Moon takes place during the premiere of Oklahoma!, the…

Led Zeppelin and Sly & the Family Stone, both in 1969. At left, Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page and Robert plant (standing), John Paul Jones and John Bonham (seated). At right, Sly & the Family Stone: L-R (back): Larry Graham, Gregg Errico, Freddie Stone, Cynthia Robinson; (front): Rose Stone, Sly Stone, Jerry Martini Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images (Led Zeppelin)/GAB Archive/Redferns (Sly & the Family Stone) One could argue, persuasively, that Sly & the Family Stone and Led Zeppelin  —±are the two greatest rock bands of all time. (Prince might have, for example.) Both are the subject of strong new documentaries; each…