Carnage: A review
Adapting a play from stage to screen can flummox the best filmmakers. Many otherwise brilliant directors — who train themselves to always think visually — fail to realize that theatre is still essentially a verbal medium, where the words the actors speak are supposed to take precedence over how good the mouth looks that is…
Puss in Boots, In Time, The Rum Diary, Take Shelter, The Tower Heist, Anonymous
PUSS IN BOOTS ** Stanley Roper was arguably the funniest character on the long-running TV series Three’s Company (not a difficult feat, admittedly), but that didn’t mean it was wise to yank him and the missus out of their supporting stints on that hit show in order to place them front and center in a…
Rock ‘N Roll Marathon: A guide to the bands on the course
After 26 miles and change, those who’ve just finished up Saturday’s Rock ‘N Roll Marathon will doubtless be ready for a celebratory sit-down in Forsyth Park, wherre Carolina Liar and Savannah’s own Train Wrecks will be cranking the big finale tunes. Of course, there’ll be music at strategic points all along the marathon route. Before…
Homeland Security in the ‘Hood?
The Department of Homeland Security held a public meeting in Savannah last Tuesday, much to the surprise of almost everyone. The agenda of the meeting, held in a mostly empty ballroom at the DeSoto Hilton, was to brief the public and collect comments concerning the Department’s proposed rule for the Ammonium Nitrate Security Program. Used…
Coriolanus: A review
I’m generally not a fan of updating Shakespeare plays to any other era than what the Bard intended. If I have to see one more precious version featuring a duel in which two guys in sportcoats pull down swords from over the fireplace of a hunting lodge or whatever, I’ll have to hack somebody up…
Coming to terms with term limits
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on office, a rottenness begins in his conduct. — Thomas Jefferson COUPLE OF funny things about term limits: 1) The only people who strongly oppose term limits are politicians who stand to lose their jobs because of them. 2) We already have term limits for governors and…
Bleem changes everything
For his senior thesis, Colin Levy created The Secret Number, a short film that takes the conventions of time, space and mathematics and turns them on their heads. Levy, who graduated from SCAD in May, won the Savannah Film Commission Award at the 2010 festival for his short En Route. Once The Secret Number was…
Reality bikes
Earlier this month bicycle advocates all over the country called out General Motors over an advertisement published in college newspapers. Beneath the headline “Reality Sucks,” the ad featured a young man on a bicycle sheepishly trying to shield his face from the gaze of a young woman. She’s laughing at him from the window of…
So you think you can be mayor
What, the election is this Tuesday, Nov. 8 and you haven’t picked your mayoral favorite yet? The six–way race means it’s unlikely any one candidate will garner the 50 percent-plus-one of the votes necessary to win outright, but your vote definitely counts: The top two candidates will face each other in a runoff Dec. 6.…
Mark your calendar: ‘Cats’
Ah, those polarizing felines. Depending on how you feel about Cats, it’s either the greatest musical ever performed, or the stupidest damn thing to ever come out of London’s West End. There’s no denying that the Andrew Lloyd Weber show, based on the fuzzy–wuzzy writings of T.S. Eliot and featuring a cast of heavily made–up…
Monster mash
November’s first theater productions, both opening this weekend, are entirely dissimilar in all respects but one: They both have to do with monsters. Asbury Memorial Church’s fall musical is Side By Side By Sondheim, a revue celebrating the creative wellspring that is composer Stephen Sondheim – a monstrous talent in the world of musical theater.…
A Greek festival of flavor
Basil’s Pizza and Deli A decade ago, if I was looking for my wife on Friday night, I could usually find her working away on scrapbooks with other creative ladies at Wilmington Island’s Scrap Happy. The clipping and pasting was fueled by pizza and sandwiches from little Basil’s Pizza and Deli next door. Trends change,…
A rock ‘n’ roll weekend at Coach’s Corner
According to legend, there was a time in the mid ‘70s when Mother’s Finest was “the most dangerous opening act in rock ‘n’ roll.” Paired with the likes of Aerosmith or Ted Nugent, Georgia’s mighty funk machine invariably stole the show and became the literal interpretation of a hard act to follow. Fronted then, as…
R ‘n’ R Marathon parking problems
Huge parking challenges will be the order of the weekend as Savannah prepares for its inaugural hosting of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, with over 23,000 runners. All on–street parking will be closed to the public all along the marathon route. All City parking garages will be open, however a flat $10 per day parking…
Bricks, mortar and marvel
Something new is glowing in Savannah’s western skyline. The 86–foot glass tower of the SCAD Museum of Art lit up for the first time last week, rising up out of MLK Jr. Boulevard like a great green guidepost. Indeed, SCAD is leading the city’s cultural future: The sleek, clean line of the tower is erected…
Bringing up Famke
It’s been 14 years since Famke Janssen was in Savannah, filming The Gingerbread Man with director Robert Altman. (Say it out loud: FAHM–keh YAHn–sen.) A lot has changed since then for the Amsterdam–born actress, who started as a model and graduated to film roles like the nefarious Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye. She subsequently played Jean…
Savannah Film Festival 2011 Week 2 schedule
Wednesday, Nov. 2 9:30 a.m., Gutstein Gallery Panels & Workshops: Change the World With Film 11:30 a.m., Trustees Theater Screening: “The Bully Project” 11:30 a.m,. Gutstein Gallery Panels & Workshops: Cinema Studies Panel 2:30 p.m., Trustees Theater Screening: “The Late Show” Q&A with Lily Tomlin 2:30 p.m., Lucas Theatre Screening: “In Darkness” 2:30 p.m., Gutstein…
The actor’s process
With a filmography that includes box office hits (The Dark Knight, Erin Brockovich, The Black Dahlia) and critically acclaimed indies (Thank You For Smoking, Towelhead, In the Company of Men), Aaron Eckhart can pick and choose his projects. He admits he doesn’t always get it right – the big-budget romantic comedies No Reservations and Love…
Swede Caroline
Carolina Liar is in the middle of a cross–country tour with Gavin DeGraw and David Cook. “Literally every other day,” says the band’s singer/songwriter Chad Wolf, “one of the guys from the other bands or the crew will say to me ‘How did this happen, man? How are you hanging out with all these crazy…
5 questions: Shannon Whitworth
After Shannon Whitworth’s performance at the 2010 Savannah Music Festival, many people – this writer among them – predicted great things for the Asheville singer/songwriter. It was the voice – sultry, smooth, a kind of honey–blend of New Orleans and Appalachia (think Peggy Lee on “puree” with Gillian Welch). And the songs, tender but tough…
The evolution of Audra McDonald
She won three Tony Awards before she’d turned 30, and then a few years later scored another one. But Audra McDonald – who also has a pair of Grammys – has a restless nature. She’s not a laurel-rester. That’s why one of Broadway’s hottest musical theater stars took a gig on the TV series Private…
That other film festival?
It was my moment on the red carpet and I was trying to play it cool. You know how these film festival events are, all flash and buzz and glitter. Everyone’s dressed to the nines and sizing you up and down, trying to figure out if you’re someone important, then looking through you like a…
