Arts and Culture (All)

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener - 9/6/12

Lawless

Bring a mason jar to this true tale of moonshine and bloodshed

During the Prohibition Era, drinking didn’t diminish; it became more chic. While gangsters and molls kicked their heels up at speakeasies in Chicago, the Bondurant brothers were taking advantage of a new cottage industry, cooking up mountain dew in homemade stills tucked away in the hills of Virginia. Feared and respected at home in Franklin County, the Bondurants were imagined immortal. A world war, Spanish flu, knives and bullets — nothing seemed to slow down...

Article - Books; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/6/12

The Reader

Janet is an utterly personal book describing the human experience with purity, truth and guilelessness. That is how elegies work.

The elegy is a literary form dear to the human heart, for it’s the best reply we can summon to death’s speechlessness. Janet is such a work, created by Bay Weekly contributing writer Al McKegg in honor of his wife, Janet. With soaring highs and crashing lows, theirs was a love story made for literature. It was too cruel for real life. Cupid struck them with wayward arrows. Al was 12 years older than Janet and otherwise...

Article - Movie Reviews; by - 8/30/12

The Expendables 2

This bad movie is loads of fun for ’80s action fans

Remember when you listened with rapt attention to your grandfather’s stories of his glory days? Imagine that Grandpa is Sylvester Stallone, who calls in a bunch of his buddies to act out his stories. That, in essence is The Expendables 2. It’s poorly written, unevenly plotted and deeply silly. Yet it’s fun to watch action stars of the 1970s and ’80s relive their glory days. Barney Ross (Stallone: Zookeeper) routinely leads a group of mercenaries on...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener - 8/23/12

ParaNorman

A comedy for adults masquerading as a horror movie for children

Young Norman Babcock (Kodi Smit-McPhee: Dead Europe) isn’t very popular with the living. He’s obsessed with zombies and horror movies, awkward with kids his own age and an embarrassment to his family. But he can talk to the dead, so he’s never alone. He spends his days chatting with his departed grandmother, petting the spirits of road kill and waving to the many dead souls that line the streets of his neighborhood. Norman lives in Blithe Hollow, a small...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Davina Grace Hill - 8/16/12

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre’s Xanadu

Irrepressible fun!

Spoiler alert for readers not current on 1980s’ kitsch: The musical Xanadu has nothing to do with Citizen Kane or with Coleridge’s poem of the same name. The motif of creating a stately pleasure dome, however, does link all three disparate references to Xanadu. Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre ends its 2012 season irrepressibly with goofy fun. Set in 1980 — the era of leg warmers and big-hair bands — as a tongue-in-cheek theatrical send up of a...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener - 8/16/12

Hope Springs

An old couple learns new tricks in this surprising comedy

After 30-odd years of marriage, Kay (Meryl Streep: The Iron Lady) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones: Men in Black 3) have a routine: Kay suffers in silence as she does housework, longing for grand romantic gestures. Arnold ignores her. They sleep in different rooms and barely touch, talk or acknowledge each other in front of their grown children. From the outside, they’re every couple of a certain age. From the inside, it’s amazing they haven’t snapped. ...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by - 8/9/12

Dignity Players’ Shakespeare’s R&J

Four versatile boys take on Romeo and Juliet

Is Shakespeare R&J a new take on Romeo and Juliet — or a throwback to the theater before King Charles II when women were not allowed on stage and men played all the roles? Playwright Joe Calarco has reset Romeo and Juliet in a Catholic New England boarding school for boys. Reading Romeo and Juliet is forbidden. Why we never know, though the boys’ reaction may be reason enough. For Dignity Players, Director Edd Miller creates a wonderful...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener - 8/9/12

Total Recall

Erase this unnecessary remake from your mind

In the near future, the world has become almost uninhabitable. The only areas with breathable air are The United Federation of Britain and The Colony (Australia). The rich one percent live in the UFB and force The Colony to occupy slums and work grueling hours in factories. Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell: Fright Night) is one of these factory drones. He spends his days screwing bolts in an assembly line, his nights drinking with buddies and moping around his grim apartment....

Article - Books; by Ashley Brotherton - 8/9/12

Putting in His Two Cents

Crownsville author writes to end hatred

Denis Murray wants to put his two cents on the table. After 70 years of reading and thinking and thinking and reading, he believes that death, hate and responsibility are gifts we should appreciate. “If it weren’t for death,” Murray explains, “we wouldn’t appreciate life. If it weren’t for hate, we would be bystanders in life. With hate comes the choice of hope, a choice that can offer meaning in our lives. And responsibility gives us the...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Ashley Brotherton - 8/2/12

Twin Beach Players’ Kids’ Playwriting Festival

Six young winners bring their plays to life

See how kids interpret the world in the Twin Beach Players Seventh Kids’ Playwriting Festival. The festival invites kids from all over the state to write their own plays, with the six winners bringing their play to life. Winners and performers range from age seven to 19. The festival not only fosters new talent but also keeps theater alive for the younger generation, who play with iPads and Wii’s. Plays range from...