Robert Moses’ Kin Dance Co.’s new home season, which opened Thursday at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, featured a program packed with thought, vitality and emotional highs that was exciting throughout, despite the somewhat trying length of two hours.Unusually, Kin offered six pieces, including three world premieres, instead of the three typically presented by modern dance companies.
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Who is Paula West going to cover next — Kurt Cobain? George Clinton? Prince? Enya?She could, and she’d be good. And it wouldn’t come as a total surprise from the sultry, inimitable San Francisco jazz-cabaret singer known for her eclectic taste in song selection.In concert Wednesday on the second night of her annual residency at the Plush Room, West was only half-joking when she admitted she had attention deficit disorder when it comes to music.
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When it comes to muddling things, credit writer-director Anthony Minghella with doing it agreeably. "Breaking and Entering," his mishmash of social statement, romance, personal crisis and criminal and emotional theft, is so thematically full and atmospherically vibrant that, until the story collapses in the late innings, it’s easy to overlook its lack of clarity and pith.
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There is a certain sameness to all tales of youth squandered by addiction, a point at which drugs cease to provide a rush and serve only to stave off the agony of withdrawal. The story of Edie Sedgwick, the 1960s starlet created by Andy Warhol, is no different, save for her brief flirtation with fame. After dropping out of Radcliffe to pursue her dream of being an artist in New York, she quickly settles into a self-destructive groove, surrounded by friends who take advantage of her family’s wealth while encouraging her worst habits.
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"The Dead Girl," written and directed by Karen Moncrieff, presents us with a string of vignettes that relate to violence, physical and psychological, against women, with the title character, to whom circumstance has been particularly vile, serving as the connective point. It’s grim, for sure, but this trip though several lives and their common emotional zone makes for engrossing viewing, thanks to vital performances and the winning mix of humanity and heat.
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The whirlwind Hollywood romance of the century — OK, of the past two months — is over. Faster than you can say "media exposure," Britney Spears has been dumped by her model beau, Isaac Cohen — reportedly by a cell phone call. Ouch!Still, the short-lived relationship was a good influence on the divorcing diva, Isaac pal Yaniv Fituci tells Star: "He toned her down for sure. … One night, he made her go back to the hotel early because he had an audition in L.A. the next morning and needed some sleep — he’s very professional — and she complied."
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As they say in "Casablanca," I’ve been misinformed. Still, most of the responsibility rests with me. I was misinformed by the promising cast of "Norbit" — Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Clifton Powell, Cuba Gooding Jr. — a bunch of talented folks. My fault: not connecting the title with those horrid advertising snippets where an 800-pound female Murphy squashes a quasi-male Murphy like a bug, with an unbelievably stereotyped bucktooth "Chinese" Murphy doing unspeakable things.
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"Hannibal Rising" marks the fifth installment in the ongoing saga of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the twisted, flesh-eating genius personified so memorably by Anthony Hopkins in "The Silence of the Lambs." Let’s hope it’s the last.
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Never mind what you’re seeing in an Anthony Minghella picture, says the Oscar-winning director of "The English Patient" — it’s all about what you’re hearing."There’s a love that I have of music and for me, before I actually write a film, I have to know what a movie is going to sound like," Minghella says. "It can be a quandary. I remember doing ‘The English Patient’ … I was stuck and then I came across some Hungarian Transylvanian music and that was the beginning of me starting to write the film."Needless to say, the man’s iPod is loaded.
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Have you ever had the kind of day when life hits an emotional crescendo and shedding a tear or two is pretty much unavoidable?No matter how powerful the urge, most folks reserve this display of emotion for the comforts of home, simply because crying in public is a cultural no-no for those over age 7.
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