Flatiron Hot! Critic
The Dilemma of The Brainy Sci-Fi Blockbuster (BSFB): Looper
November 14, 2012 | Eric ShapiroFlatiron Hot! Critic on those Sci-Fi BLockbusters …
Like many Brainy Sci-Fi Blockbusters (BSFBs), Looper begins with an emphasis on its intellectual side. The film’s basic premise is that in the distant future, crime syndicates have devised a new, foolproof way of making their enemies disappear: sending them back in time to be executed by agents known as Loopers. The moral implications of this concept bring up interesting thematic possibilities.
The Dilemma of the Brainy Sci-Fi Blockbuster (BSFB) Part 1
November 8, 2012 | Eric ShapiroThe Flatiron Hot! Critic deconstructs the Sci-Fi Blockbusters – Part 1 …
One can select any number of summer blockbusters to support the cliched assertion that Hollywood has lost its magic. Loud, flashy, and utterly bereft of such cinematic staples as storytelling, characterization and directorial vision, the films in question are unashamedly tailored to deliver the biggest possible adrenaline rush to the widest swath of the testosterone-fueled young male demographic.
Danza Permanente Blends Color, Music, Dance for Unique Aesthetic Experience
October 16, 2012 | Heath RobbinsTechnically, a critic would not be remiss in describing choreographer DD Dorvillier’s Danza Permanente as an interpretive dance based on Beethoven’s String Quartet in A Minor (op. 132), but that would be reductive. Dorvillier’s ambitious work invites interpretation through lenses decidedly outside the repertoire of dance criticism.
Flatiron Hot! Critic: Athol Fugard Play “Train Driver” Reveals Horrors of Apartheid
October 3, 2012 | Eric ShapiroIt should go without saying that South African playwright Athol Fugard’s works are not for the faint of heart or the apathetic. Typically set in apartheid South Africa, they confront the audience with the horrors of a well-documented historical moment, while simultaneously appealing to the full spectrum of universal human emotion.