“The Nice Guys,” writer-director Shane Black’s darkly entertaining R-rated homage to action movies of the 1970s, is not particularly nice. But it’s a whole lot nicer than many of the films that inspired it. Low-rent L.A. private eye Holland March (Ryan Gosling, displaying admirable physical comedy chops) is a drunk and a screw-up, but he…
“Don’t get me started.” Jasson Minadakis, one quickly notices, uses that phrase a lot. “Don’t get me started.” For the record, when it comes to talking about theater—especially the kind of expectation-defying, definition-challenging, artistically fearless theater Marin Theatre Company (MTC) has become known for over the 10 years that he has served as its artistic…
Slavery was still legal in England in 1833, when American actor Ira Aldridge became the first black man to appear on stage in London. Following the death of famed actor Edmund Kean, Aldridge was called upon to play the lead in Shakespeare’s Othello, alongside white actors at Keane’s Theater Royal, in Covent Garden. With Abolition just…
Few filmmaking tricks are harder to pull off than that of fusing honest, political outrage with solid, crowd-pleasing entertainment. Whenever significant political questions are tucked into a mainstream movie – as in the recent “Avengers” and Captain America films – they are usually so dumbed down and simplified they are unlikely to cause anyone to…
“It’s a very exciting time to be a political comedian,” remarks Will Durst, acclaimed satirist, newspaper columnist, stand-up comic and author. Durst ought to know. When it comes to politics and comedy, few have more assiduously studied the odd art and science of laughing at politicians than Will Durst. “It’s rare when a comedy scene…
“Being hit by a superhero has got to hurt—and it’s definitely going to make a big sound on contact,” notes fight choreographer Zoe Swenson-Graham, striding past a cardboard lobby display featuring a massive Captain America preparing to be wailed upon by a large, metallic Iron Man. Then she adds, “Being hit by Captain America, though,…
It all began with a photograph. Last year, while doing research for a middle-school science project, 14-year-old Audrey Andrews – better known locally as one half of the culinary sister-act the Twin Chefs – stumbled upon a 1960s-era black-and-white photo of NASA computer programmer Margaret Hamilton. “It was so powerful,” says Andrews. “It’s a simple…
Elizabeth Fuller and Conrad Bishop, the multitalented, long-married team at the core of Sebastopol’s Independent Eye theatre troupe, approach their art with a fervor and devotion rarely seen outside of religion or psychosis. Over the decades, they have tackled all forms of theatre, from the traditional to the experimental. They have also written books and produced syndicated…
Movies about the end of the world are never more popular than when we are most frightened that the world may truly be about to end. The pattern reaches back to the beginning of motion pictures, and forward to this summer’s “Independence Day 2.” The scariest apocalypse movies frequently occur during the most unsettled and…
“Fabulous concealment.” Those are the words playwright Tim Firth employed in the author’s notes for his 2008 stage play “Calendar Girls.” They refer to the staging of one particular scene. It is, perhaps, the most famous scene in the play, as it was in the 2003 film from which Firth’s script – he also co-authored…
North Bay Stage and Screen 