Sections SEARCH Skip to content Skip to site index Theater Subscribe Log In Subscribe Log In Advertisement Supported by The Beast in the Jungle Off Broadway, Musical 1 hr. and 45 min. Closing Date: June 16, 2018 Vineyard Theater, 108 E. 15th St. 212-353-0303 More Information ByBen Brantley May 23, 2018 Tony Yazbeck is a rarity in show business. He’s a complete, romantic dancing actor, or acting dancer. Like such hallowed predecessors as Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, he’s as expressive with his twirls and jetés as he is with his face and voice, bringing balletic wonder to ordinary rituals of love and courtship. Unfortunately, there are few shows around these days to provide a worthy showcase for the distinctive talents of Mr. Yazbeck, who received a Tony nomination as a pirouetting sailor (played by Kelly on screen) in the delightful 2014 Broadway revival of “On the Town.” Fans awaiting … [Read more...] about Review: Dirty Dancing to Henry James in ‘The Beast in the Jungle’
The jungle book review
At Home in the Jungle, Everything Is ‘Alive and Has a Spirit’
Sections SEARCH Skip to content Skip to site index Subscribe Log In Subscribe Log In Advertisement Lens Supported by The photographer Misha Vallejo has been documenting a people who live in the Ecuadorean Amazon, the Sarayaku Kichwa, for three years. ByDavid Gonzalez April 20, 2018 The Sarayaku Kichwa who live in the Ecuadorean Amazon believe in the “Living Jungle,” where rivers, land, animals and even the wind are interconnected. “Everything in the jungle is alive and has a spirit,” said Misha Vallejo, who has been documenting this indigenous community for three years. “If you destroy something, you will see the consequences somewhere else.” Like at news conferences, at international forums and on social media. These venues have been used by this indigenous group to fight oil exploration in one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems. They scored a victory in 2012 when the Inter-American Court … [Read more...] about At Home in the Jungle, Everything Is ‘Alive and Has a Spirit’
CBS News Logo Box office report: “The Jungle Book” has legs
Disney is already having a very good year at the box office. The studio's latest offering -- a live action/CGI retelling of Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" -- nabbed to top spot at the box office for the second week in a row, besting the debut of "The Huntsman: Winter's War" "The Jungle Book" brought in $60.8 million, bringing its total two-week take to $191.5 million, while the follow-up to 2014's "Snow White and the Huntsman" only earned $20.1 million. "Barbershop: The Next Cut," also in its second week, landed at third with $10.8 million, bringing it to $36 million since opening. "Batman v. Superman" opens to $170 million despite bad reviews Disney's previous release, "Zootopia," also spelled success for the studio, coming in fourth during its eighth week of release and bringing its international gross to an impressive $900.7 million. With "Captain America: Civil War" opening in two weeks -- and already breaking advance ticket sales records for Marvel films, according to … [Read more...] about CBS News Logo Box office report: “The Jungle Book” has legs
Regional book review: “Imagining a Great Republic”
“Imagining a Great Republic” by Thomas E. Cronin Fiction gives heart and soul to the bones of history. Novelists, not historians, are the writers charged with evoking the human element. In “Imagining a Great Republic,” Thomas E. Cronin — a Colorado College professor and expert on American politics — tells of the great novels, from Uncle Tom’s Cabin” to “Beloved,” that raised American readers’ consciousness or called us to action. Political novelists are a moral compass. “The American political novel may be primarily written to entertain us,” Cronin writes. Still, “good writers want to be renouncers of lies, restorers of truths, and undaunted advocates of what communities, and the nation, ideally might become.” Most political novelists are optimistic. Their storytelling is a “means of pointing the way to a more desired future,” the author says. They are realists, … [Read more...] about Regional book review: “Imagining a Great Republic”
Book review: There’s a fungus among us in ‘Genius Plague’
THE GENIUS PLAGUE Author: David Walton Data: Prometheus Books, 384 pages, $18 paperback By Lee Scott For the Times-Union The threat to life as we know it may be growing in your front yard. It also may be the next step in human evolution. It influences behavior by eliminating selfish behavior while increasing intelligence and seems to cure Alzheimer’s. Sounds grand, but it comes with a price: Loss of free will. In “The Genius Plague” spores from an ancient, previously unknown species of fungus have found their way from deepest, darkest Amazon rainforest to suburban America. NSA code breaker Neil Johns become deeply involved when his brother Paul, an American mycologist, after being lost in the Amazon, comes home suffering from a severe fungal infection. “In the jungle, Paul finds an unfamiliar species of bioluminescent fungus:… (He) stopped to examine the glowing spots, but he learned nothing new. The fungus all appeared to be the same species, one … [Read more...] about Book review: There’s a fungus among us in ‘Genius Plague’
Movie review: ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ smartly mixes action, humor
A movie featuring the biggest action movie star working in films today (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) teamed with one of the biggest comedians on the planet (Kevin Hart) would be enough to give “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” the potential to be the most entertaining movie opening for the holiday season. All you need to do is look at their team-up for the 2016 action/comedy “Central Intelligence” if you have any doubts about what they can do when they put their comedy minds together. They are so good together they don’t need help but they get it in the form of Jack Black, who turns in his best work since “School of Rock,” and Karen Gillan, the “Doctor Who” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” star, who shows she can handle comedy with just as much ease as she can deal with massive action sequences. The four make “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” one of the funniest and fun films of the year. This one is … [Read more...] about Movie review: ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ smartly mixes action, humor
BOOK REVIEW: ‘OSS Operation Black Mail’ by Ann Todd
ANALYSIS/OPINION: OSS OPERATION BLACK MAIL: ONE WOMAN’S COVERT WAR AGAINST THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE ARMY By Ann Todd Naval University Press, $27.95, 258 pagesBlack propaganda is one of the more ticklish weapons of the intelligence profession. Put simply, it means lying to an adversary to attack the morale not only of his battlefield fighters, but also his supporters back home — which means civilians.Black propaganda boils down to the art of telling believable lies. As stated by an OSS officer quoted in Ann Todd’s incisive — and highly delightful — book, “The key to black propaganda is to do as much truth as possible, and just bend it a little at the end. Just put a little hook in it.”Ms. Todd’s book revolves around a remarkable woman named Elizabeth “Betty” McIntosh, a sometime journalist who joined the Office of Strategic Services at the outset of World War II. Having lived in the Far East, she was assigned to work in OSS … [Read more...] about BOOK REVIEW: ‘OSS Operation Black Mail’ by Ann Todd
Book review: ‘The Flamethrowers’ by Rachel Kushner
Rachel Kushner so deftly interweaves the story of an Italian industrialist with that of a young woman insinuating herself into the 1970s New York art scene that “The Flamethrowers” slowly and seductively becomes a novel you just can’t quit. Reno is a young woman who arrives at the Bonneville Salt Flats races on her Italian street bike, the Moto Valera, looking to achieve “almost repercussionless speed,” leaving only traces in the sand to photograph as land art. That’s something like the ambition that brought her to New York, a recent graduate from the University of Nevada, a pedigree that draws no recognition in SoHo, newly staked out as a breeding ground for artists. It’s the new bohemia where art is inversely defined by the barriers it breaks. A photographer convinces women to punch themselves in the face and hangs the bruised images in a show. A vagrant Reno glimpses in a park is actually a performance artist using the streets as a … [Read more...] about Book review: ‘The Flamethrowers’ by Rachel Kushner
‘The Extra Man’ review: Kevin Kline and Paul Dano brighten up Jonathan Ames adaptation
When a novel feels too difficult to adapt, the wise filmmaker streamlines its span, while finding new truths along the way. Jason Reitman, for example, achieved this brilliantly with Walter Kirn's "Up in the Air." Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini don't have quite as much success in translating Jonathan Ames' "The Extra Man," but they do make a sincere -- and even endearing -- effort.Ames' quirky style requires the lightest touch, and his book's unexpected insights feel more like gentle amusements here. (He and the directors co-wrote the script.) Fortunately, this flighty approach is grounded by Paul Dano, who plays Louis Ives. A timid schoolteacher who's just moved to Manhattan, Louis is already a man out of place: courtly and old-fashioned (though also a secret cross-dresser), he can barely survive in the urban jungle.He finds a guide in Henry (Kevin Kline), an unemployed dandy who serves as a spare date for aging socialites (like a delightful Marian Seldes). … [Read more...] about ‘The Extra Man’ review: Kevin Kline and Paul Dano brighten up Jonathan Ames adaptation
10 holiday movies you absolutely must see, from ‘Justice League’ to the new ‘Star Wars’
Santa Claus is bringing all the good stuff to movie theaters the next two months, including the return of Marvel’s resident thunder god, an epic DC team-up with Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Aquaman, the latest Star Wars blockbuster-to-be and even Hugh Jackman singing and dancing. Here are 10 films you won't want to miss in November and December: Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Cate BlanchettDirector: Taika WaititiThe skinny: On the road to saving his home of Asgard, Thor (Hemsworth) unexpectedly runs into his Avenger buddy Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in an alien world, and becomes “the mother character" to his trickster brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and new ally Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), “keeping everyone alive and happy,” Waititi says. “I love it when heroes have a bigger goal that they need to achieve but also these really small goals that are more relatable to human beings, like just looking out for your best … [Read more...] about 10 holiday movies you absolutely must see, from ‘Justice League’ to the new ‘Star Wars’