Denzel Washington's phenomenally touching, multitextured performance in August Wilson's "Fences" sings a heartrending paean to every dad who struggled to make a living, raise a family and preserve his human dignity in the face of herculean obstacles. Plying one of the most complexly realized, tragic American figures since Arthur Miller's iconized Willy Loman, the philosophical, historical and psychological contemplations Washington plumbs are packed with seriocomic emotion.

This is filmed theater at its very best. Utilizing only four or five sets to occasionally supplement the working class, Pittsburgh back yard where most of the action takes place, Denzel

0 Comments
>> Read More

For parents of a daughter approaching marrying age, James Franco's Laird Mayhew is your worst nightmare realized. On the positive side of the ledger, the Silicon Valley mega-billionaire would doubtless be a good provider. But topping the much longer list of negatives, he is a filthy mouthed libertine who thinks nothing of regaling you with highlights of the sensual pleasures he has enjoyed with your dear little offspring. Paired with a raft of other, freethinking improprieties and all manner of distressing chutzpah, he begs the question, "Why Him?"

It's a pretty good idea for a film. We're all interested in the vexing, unexplainable decision making that comprises the

0 Comments
>> Read More

For those filmgoers who long for a movie with a beginning, middle and end, bereft of razzle-dazzle special effects and philosophy class mind benders, writer-director Kenneth Lonergan's soulfully touching "Manchester by the Sea" is just the ticket. But beware oh ye to whom such traditional fair initially appeals, as the astutely filmed story about an uncle made the guardian of a teenage boy after the kid's father dies ultimately asks just how much reality are you willing to take?

While to a degree you may escape into the fine artistry of the saga, its authenticity poignantly and regularly, to coin a phrase, harks back to the human drama in which we are all cast members.

0 Comments
>> Read More

Imagine you are driving late at night on a desolate country road, hardly a speck of civilization in sight save for an occasional utility pole. It's spooky to begin with, but nowhere near as scary as when a car suddenly appears in your rearview mirror. You make a turn, just to see. The car follows. You make a couple more, random turns. There it is, right behind you. What's the odds? Your paranoia concedes to one of your worst fears realized. Surely you are being followed by the most deplorable, inbred ne'er-do-wells in creation.

Good thing this is merely the fiction within a novel that Susan, the female lead in director Tom Ford's "Nocturnal Animals," is reading.

0 Comments
>> Read More

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Norman Rockwell Museum has begun the Berkshire County Student Passport Program, part of a comprehensive effort to reach out and engage many more young people in the region with the museum, and to introduce them to Norman Rockwell, who lived the last 25 years of his life in Berkshire County.

The museum uses Rockwell's narrative images to support learning in the classroom in relation to history, language arts and art, and educators have also found meaningful connections with regard to social/emotional learning and ESL themes.

Supported by the contributions of friends of Norman Rockwell Museum, the Passport Program was created for students and families in

0 Comments
>> Read More

Maybe it's because I've recently had my fill of bragging billionaires that I was slow to build interest in director-writer-actor Warren Beatty's "Rules Don't Apply." The partially fantasized biographical sketch about the much mythologized Howard Hughes also starts off sluggishly and is a mite jagged. It isn't until about the midpoint, when Beatty's eccentric caricature begins to gel, that the mélange of loony and philosophical almost compensates for what then, alas, devolves into a run-of-the-mill romance.

In the opening scene we are welcomed into the opulently celebrated tarnish that is Hollywood just before the death knell sounds on the studio

0 Comments
>> Read More

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Barrington Stage Company welcomes Ashley Pirsig as its new director of advancement.
 
Pirsig joins the Barrington Stage Company team having previously served as the director of development at Flat Rock Playhouse (Flat Rock, N.C.) and assistant director of development for Virginia Stage Company in Norfolk. Additionally, she has worked in marketing and development for Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Lyric Stage (Dallas, Texas) and Huntington Theatre Company.

Pirsig has a BFA in Musical Theatre from Emerson College and an MBA and MA in Arts Management from Southern Methodist University.

"We are thrilled that Ashley Pirsig has joined us as Director of

1 Comment
>> Read More

The DNA of everything that is wrong, sad and perplexing about race relations in the U.S. is poetically discerned and illuminated in filmmaker Barry Jenkins' Oscar-worthy "Moonlight." Jenkins ingeniously utilizes the low-budget, art house look of his sociologically profound film about a young black man's journey in ghettoized America to personalize the tale without the least bit of affectation. It is storytelling in our best, lyrical tradition, ripping open barely sealed wounds in its engrossing proof that there's nothing like the real truth to get your attention.

In the slums of Miami, in an indeterminate near-past that implies the infinite stagnancy of such

0 Comments
>> Read More

To accent boxer Vinny Pazienza's close-knit family in director-writer Ben Younger's "Bleed for This," turning points in the pugilist's remarkable saga are inevitably marked by the clan crowded around the dinner table eating, with hardly room for a bread stick among them. There is a basic, anthropological purity in the devotion, an incontrovertible given, as each member, whether laughing, chiding or worrying out loud, plays out his or her supportive role in the dynamic. The conceptualization is as engaging as the accompanying tale of fisticuffs.

Based on a true story, the travail that was "The Pazmanian Devil's" career should please boxing fans who know

0 Comments
>> Read More

0 Comments
>> Read More

• Most Read

• Most Comments

• All News

• Blogroll

• Photos

• BerkshireJobs.com

• Home & Garden

• Weddings