The Church of Scientology may have a bone to pick with playwright Dane Hanson.
Tag: Vol. 25 No. 4
Issue of Nov. 2 – 8, 1995
Posted inArts & Culture
Art People: Jo Hormuth’s funny farm
Strange bulbous creatures appear to creep across the floor in Jo Hormuth’s new installation Frozen Turkey Dinners. Based on balloons folded into various shapes, each looks like it’s ready to pop. Unmistakably sexual, the sculptures seem “to be bursting and throbbing,” according to Hormuth. She also says they’re “democratic”–they seem to have “breasts and penises […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reader to Reader
A dressy couple is standing in the lobby of an apartment building. The man is scanning the list of names on the directory, looking for the right button to push. “Is my dress OK?” asks the woman. “Your dress looks fine,” he responds without looking at her, still scanning the list. “Does my hair look […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Devi
One of Satyajit Ray’s greatest early films (1962), full of sensuality and ironic undertones, Devi is sufficiently critical of Hindu superstition that it was originally banned from foreign distribution until Nehru interceded. The plot concerns a wealthy and devout landowner in the 19th century who believes his daughter-in-law (Sharmila Tagore) is the reincarnation of the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival
The 15th Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival runs from Friday, November 3, through Sunday, November 12, at the Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, and at Kino-Eye Cinema at Chicago Filmmakers, 1543 W. Division. Advance tickets can be purchased at Chicago Filmmakers or at the box office of either theater a half hour before […]
Posted inArts & Culture
In Performance: new music for old movies
The period between Halloween and Hanukkah forms a perfect pocket in which to view The Golem, director Paul Wegener’s 1920 silent marvel of German expressionism. Based on ancient Hebrew folklore, The Golem is part monster flick, part religious epic. It concerns a Czech rabbi who creates an outsize clay “robot”–which some people think of as […]
Posted inArts & Culture
River North Dance Company
River North is really fun, the way it’s fun to go to a party or club and dance with a lot of people to a lot of different kinds of music. Because variety–within limits–is definitely part of the troupe’s appeal. Founder Sherry Zunker Dow has a flair for choreographing to vocal music, whether pop or […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Dottie Gets Spanked
Six-year-old Stevie is a loner who’s obsessed with a sitcom star in Todd Haynes’s hauntingly mordant deconstruction of 1950s television and family life, which trenchantly depicts both in terms of hierarchical power relations and unexpected transformations. Alienated from other kids, who tease him for his femininity, and by his cold father, who watches sports on […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Get Shorty
As a follow-up to his comeback performance in Pulp Fiction, John Travolta plays a likable Miami loan shark and movie buff dispatched to Los Angeles to collect on a gambling debt from a sleazy producer (Gene Hackman), in an entertaining comedy-thriller adapted by Scott Frank from the Elmore Leonard best-seller and directed with bounce (if […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Tom and Jerry, American Blues Theatre
Tom and Jerry, American Blues Theatre. Rick Cleveland’s play would make a great movie. The scenes are short. The pace is quick. The dialogue is witty. And the chatty pair of hit men at the center of it are just the sort of cartoonish characters–85 percent cliche–Hollywood adores. In the theater, however, this likable entertainment […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
DISMEMBERMENT PLAN 11/3, EMPTY BOTTLE Jittery indie rock for people with nervous twitches and short attention spans, the music on ! (DeSoto), the debut album from the Washington, D.C., group Dismemberment Plan, favors skittering riffs and quickly shifting tempos. The spastic vocal machinations of Travis Morrison have little to do with the music churning behind […]
Posted inFilm
Shallow Beauty
Total Eclipse Rating * Has redeeming facet Directed by Agnieszka Holland Written by Christopher Hampton With Leonardo DiCaprio and David Thewlis. Biopics nearly always fail. Even the most critically acclaimed are often dreary experiences. Do you want to see Amadeus, Camille Claudel, Gorillas in the Mist, Viva Zapata!, Gandhi, or Malcolm X again? Are you […]
Posted inMusic
Lloyd Cole Grows Up/Urge Stalkers Blow Town/More No Depression/Shannon is Gone
Cole’s Back With Love Story, his second Rykodisc album, Lloyd Cole completes his transition from fervid rocker to adult crooner. Looking back, you can see that this romantic Scot’s work with his original backing band, the Commotions, and his first solo album, were of a piece; his second solo outing, the aptly titled Don’t Get […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Before I Wake
Prairie del’Arte Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Studio Theater Although theater veteran William J. Norris’s bleak two-character piece features some skillful writing and character development, it’s far too obvious and sluggishly paced to sustain interest for two hours. Before I Wake begins as a standard naturalistic 1970s living-room drama, but gradually changes into a surrealistic meditation […]