review

Crowd-pleasing musical “Evita” opens Rep’s 52th season – By Cate Marquis – The Repertory Theater of opened its 52th season with “Evita,” a hit Broadway musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice which has previously graced both the Fox and Muny theater stages. Of course, this is the Rep’s own production, not a Broadway…

– by Mark Glass – As bloody revenge flicks go, this one turns out to be surprisingly gratifying. Jennifer Garner may seem an unlikely vigilante, but she kicks plenty of bad-guy butt for perfectly valid reasons in this vehicle. She plays a loving wife and mother who suffers a tragic, undeserved loss. Five years later,…

Jodie Foster excels with understated lead role in dystopian-future crime thriller – By Mark Glass – 3 stars of 5, Rated R As crime thrillers go, this one is fairly intense. Among those set in some sort of dystopian future, it’s more of a head-scratcher. This Los Angeles exists in a time of water deprivation…

– By Cate Marquis – The hit musical comedy THE BOOK OF MORMON makes a return to the Fox Theater, May May 29-June 3. Written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the guys behind “South Park,” and Robert Lopez, it is one of the funniest Broadway musicals in recent years but not the typical musical….

Anton Chekhov’s THE SEAGULL is great material for a first-rate film. Director Michael Mayer’s screen adaptation of Chekhov’s 1896 play is a visually lovely production with a top-tier cast with wonderful locations, sets and costumes. “The Seagull”was the first of Chekhov’s four great plays, a work full of human meaning, and one of the great…

– By Cate Marquis – RBG is a delightful, inspiring documentary on Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the Notorious RBG, giving us the backstory of the 84-year-old Supreme Court justice who has become a pop culture icon. Long before she became known as the Notorious RBG, Ginsberg was a brilliant legal mind who was a courtroom ground-breaker in…

– By Cate Marquis – The heartbreaking romantic drama ON CHESIL BEACH stars Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle as a young couple in the early 1960s, whose marriage feels the impact that the sexual attitudes of a time period can have on love. Based on Ian McEwan’s 2007 Booker Prize-winning novella. McEwan also wrote the…

**** (out of 5) stars – (R) – By Mark Glass – The first film about this Marvel Comics superhero (of sorts) is one of my all-time favorite action comedies. Ryan Reynolds – not known for acting as much as hunkiness – found the perfect role, allowing him to be physical, hilarious, and self-satirical, wrapped…

– By Mark Glass – RATING: 3 out of 5 stars (R) As a reminder, my ratings aren’t always about the overall artistic merit of the covered film. In the case of intentionally dumb, gross comedies like this, or other niche fare, I tend to award stars on how good a job they do in…

– By Cate Marquis – Jon Hamm shines in political thriller “Beirut” Jon Hamm finally gets the leading man role he has long deserved, in the Middle East-set thriller BEIRUT. It should have happened long ago for the former St. Louisan, based on his unforgettable turn in MAD MEN, if nothing else. Hamm is excellent…