DareMe: Burlesque Video
2015-04-16: “Dare Me” columnist Katie Lewis in… by motifmag-mb To read Katie’s DareMe article click here
Golda’s Balcony: Getting It Wrong
Dramatic works based upon historical events sometimes twist reality into an unrecognizable opposite well beyond what can be justified by legitimate theatrical license. No one expects what transpires on stage to be a strictly faithful account, but it is going too far to have George Washington support monarchy or Abraham Lincoln support slavery. Playwright William […]
Wildlike: “Don’t Run, Got It.”
People embark into the wilderness to find out who they are and what they are, seeking to distance themselves from what they know and find familiar, often learning more than they either expected or wanted. People do not go into the wilderness to seek solitude, but to seek surroundings consistent with the loneliness they already […]
Fifty Shades of Criticism
Criticism is not about the conscious refusal to distance oneself from the audience, but about trying to explain why or why not a prospective audience member would want to invest in experiencing a particular work. Every film has some plausible audience, but some films are cynically made for an audience of idiots and it is […]
Opinion: Questions Surround the PawSox Sale
Ben Mondor, after buying the franchise out of bankruptcy in 1977, turned the Pawtucket Red Sox into a national model of how to run a successful, fan-friendly, family-friendly, and profitable minor-league baseball team. Until his death in 2010, Mondor defined the beloved institution that became, arguably, Rhode Island’s premier professional sports organization. On February 23, […]
Workshop: The Business Experience of Filmmaking
“A lot of people don’t emphasize the business aspect in the academy. How do you make a living?” asked Jim Jermanok rhetorically, explaining the focus of his workshop, Successful Film Producing and Financing: Making Your Film Happen, to be offered at the Brooklyn Coffee and Tea House in Providence on Fri, Feb 21. Jermanok said […]
Providence French Film Festival 2015
The 2015 annual Providence French Film Festival is dedicated in memory of its long-time director, Shoggy Waryn, who passed away only days before the opening of the festival last year in February 2014. Waryn, a native of France, was active with the festival since joining the Brown University faculty in 2001 and became the festival […]
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: By Their Own Insinuation
I should concede at the outset that Tom Stoppard’s now-classic meta-theatrical Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is one of my favorite plays. It is a clever and rapid-fire comedy that combines Marx Brothers witticisms with serious philosophical quandaries, but – trust me on this from personal experience – is a lot funnier than a graduate-level […]
Braving the Terrorists at the Cable Car Cinema
The Cable Car Cinema in Providence was among a phalanx of independent theaters that screened The Interview after all of the major chains abandoned it, fearful of controversy and terrorist threats generally assumed to emanate from North Korea, where some were unhappy to see their dictator Kim Jong-Un portrayed as an assassinated buffoon. The first two […]
The Interview: More Than Just Poop and Fart Jokes
No motion picture could live up to its hype after the unprecedented rollercoaster ride The Interview has had. Still, The Interview is a much better film than many of the reviews would have you believe. To be clear, the film is no contender to be a cinematic classic, but it also is a lot more […]