A long time ago, we lost sight of something fundamental: The connection we had to the natural world has been severed—maybe permanently—and humanity has been left to suffer as prisoners to the cerebral and abstract. This is what Modest Mouse’s first album in eight years, Strangers to Ourselves, argues. [Read More…]
Search Results for author "Chris Lutes"
Round Dance: The circle of sex
If there’s a single universal truth to social interaction, it’s that people will say anything if they think it will convince the person they like to sleep with them. It was true in 1920 when Arthur Schnitzler’s play La Ronde debuted in Berlin to a shocked and offended crowd, and[Read More…]
The write stuff
Hemmingway once wrote, “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.” The lives of poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, as portrayed in Tuesday Night Café’s production of Dear Elizabeth, put that idea into practice. With a couple of brief exceptions, the sole pair of actors in the play are[Read More…]
Dark creatures and light humour in What We Do in the Shadows
Comedy, in a lot of ways, is the most subjective genre in any medium. Something that one person finds hilarious could fall completely flat for another—and both would be correct in their opinions because comedy comes from the realm of visceral, indescribable feelings, and gut reactions. Even more subjective is[Read More…]
Windy City for the win in AUTS’ Chicago
Part of the thrill that comes from live musical theatre is knowing that something could go wrong at any moment, but rarely does. The best theatre uses this to its advantage, radiating a sense of jubilant spontaneity that wriggles its way into the audience’s hearts and leaves them humming the[Read More…]
Album Review: Belle and Sebastian – Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance
Ever since Belle and Sebastian shocked the indie pop world with 2003’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress by releasing a louder, dancier, more mainstream album than anyone thought possible, fans have had to reconcile with the fact that they’re basically a different band now. Gone are the days of lead singer and[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: Christopher Nolan and the cinema of abstraction
Christopher Nolan used to make movies about people. The director, along with his script-writing brother Jonathan Nolan, have made some of the best genre films of the past decade, including Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002), The Prestige (2006), and two-thirds of the Dark Knight trilogy. His recent movies—particularly his latest film, Interstellar—have confirmed a[Read More…]
Play Review: Six Characters in Search of an Author
Most theatrical productions that work well are not trying to reinvent the wheel. As long as the writing is solid, a play will generally be successful if it just sticks to the script with few extra flourishes. This isn’t really an option with Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of[Read More…]
Birdman successfully walks a tightwire
I’ve often wondered why actors don’t just retire after starring in a high-grossing film. Presumably, they have more than enough money to do whatever they want for the rest of their lives, so what makes them turn away from a life of comfort? Is it fear of boredom? Is it[Read More…]
Criminal fails to evolve past story-telling tropes
Arguably, the most difficult subject to talk about objectively is yourself. Darius Monroe’s debut documentary feature Evolution of a Criminal confirms this idea. Though he places himself squarely at the centre of the film’s narrative as the titular criminal, Monroe evades revealing the motivation behind his actions, resulting in a[Read More…]
