It clocks in at over three hours, but Peter Jackson’s remake of the 1933 classic is gripping. For starters it’s visually compelling, with its lush sets depicting Skull Island and period Manhattan. Jackson rethinks the characters, turning the original’s stark Jungian fantasy into a soulless but skillful set of kinetic and emotional effects. Carl Denham […]
Tag: Vol. 35 No. 12
Issue of Dec. 15 – 21, 2005
Posted inArts & Culture
Marques Houston, Chris Brown, Trey Songz
“Sex with you is like . . . damn, I don’t really know what it’s like,” goes the spoken intro to “Sex Wit You,” the third single off MARQUES HOUSTON’s Naked (Universal). He’s not at a loss for words for long, though. “Sex with you is really the best with you / It makes life […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
A recent move has brought me to a comfy apartment building in friendly Medford, Massachusetts, complete with washer and dryer hookup. However, while having such a hookup is helpful, it’s much more practical to have a working hookup, which alas I do not (dirty scamming realtors are to blame). So I’m left with a dilemma: […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Magic Flute
The Lyric’s current production of The Magic Flute is truly magical–the singing, the playing, the sets, the costumes, the dancing wild animals. This often confusing mix of fairy tale, vaudeville, and Freemasonry lesson is probably Mozart’s most famous work, written at the same time as the Requiem and finished just two months before he died. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Project Unreality
Regarding “Get Real,” December 9: Teenagers are going to have sex. Not all of them, and not all starting at the same age–but this most basic of human compulsions is not going to be denied. Telling teenagers they shouldn’t have sex until they’re married, while simultaneously teaching them practically nothing but gross distortions about how […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Hairspray
Gleefully juvenile and flippant, Hairspray seems perfect for high school kids, who also make up most of its characters. But despite all the attention paid to appearance–especially the towering bouffants that require so much of the title product–it’s far from superficial. Set in 1962 Baltimore, Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan’s musical adaptation of John Waters’s […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Oliver!
You’d think that Lionel Bart’s effervescent musical version of Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens’s tale of redemption, would be especially amiable holiday fare, featuring such beloved songs as “Consider Yourself” and “Food, Glorious Food.” But much of the first act of this lackluster production drags: under David H. Bell’s direction the well-choreographed musical numbers are sprightly, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
If I Were Editor
I’ve lived in Chicagoland for about 15 years, and used to enjoy the entire Reader every week. Now I read a few features regularly and throw the rest away. I understand that circulation on the whole is way down, so I know I’m not the only one. A simple analysis makes it obvious what the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Hipmas Carol
Writer-performers Tyler Bohne and Patrick Zielinski evoke the spirit of comedian, poet, and inspired madman Lord Buckley in this hipster retelling of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. The show is entertaining enough, thanks in large part to these seasoned improvisers’ charm as performers. But it has little of Buckley’s subversive wit: instead of using Dickens’s […]
Posted inMusic
Keepin’ It Really, Really Real
Kanye’s cowriter on “Jesus Walks” wants to talk to you about regular folks.
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story In November, as Canadian protesters bemoaned what they said were the effects of global warming on outdoor hockey, the Associated Press reported on a form of the sport seemingly immune to climate change: underwater hockey. Teams of six players–each outfitted with snorkel, mask, fins, and a short wooden stick–hit a plastic-coated lead puck […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Calculating Care
Advocate runs hospitals where there might otherwise be none, but is it doing all it can for the patients who use them?
Posted inMusic
More Morricone
A brilliantly curated trove of the sound track master’s lesser known works.
Posted inArts & Culture
The SantaLand Diaries
Splitting up David Sedaris’s monologue among ensemble members is a pretty bad idea: the writer’s voice gives the piece what unity it’s got. Stranding the haphazardly lit actors behind podiums is a worse one, especially when the material is this prosaic. But the engaging Janus Theatre cast all find at least a few comic moments […]