Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

Director Paul Thomas Anderson ( The Master ) had his work cut out for him. Pre-buzz about Inherent Vice pointed to the un-adaptability of Thomas Pynchon 's eponymous novel, upon which this is based and which I haven't read. The resulting film, for which Anderson wrote the adapted screenplay, covers what seem like multiple tangents, like Anderson was trying to rein in a sprawling, unstructured novel. The driving action (all set in California in 1970) focuses on stoner PI Doc Sportello (a full-gonzo Joaquin Phoenix , who previously worked with Anderson on The Master ). His ex-girlfriend, Shasta (the ethereal muse Katherine Waterston , who's wowed me on stage in Kindness and Bachelorette ), is now seeing Mickey Wolfman ( Eric Roberts ). Shasta asks Doc to investigate the machinations of Wolfman's wife and Wolfman's wife's boyfriend. (Does this sound a little confusing? It kind of is, but pay attention and you'll follow along.) Doc takes on the case, an...

Her is set in the near future, a future in which technology is even more integral to our lives, but the remarkable thing is we don’t seem too far away from this world writer and director Spike Jonze created. In Jonze’s world, technology is fully integrated into people’s lives, and a new, artificially intelligent and intuitive OS has just been introduced. These people are so used to connecting to technology and not people; our protagonist, Theodore, works for beautifullyhandwrittenletters.com, which is just what it sounds like. He and his colleagues get little tidbits from their clients, and then write beautiful, hand-written letters—love letters, letters from kids away at camp, letters from loved ones serving overseas—and print and send them.  This is a world in which everything, including human connection and emotion, is outsourced, and it’s not such a stretch to imagine such a world. We already rely so much on technology and use it to “connect,” but can anything actual...

The 18th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards nominations were announced today. Awards will be presented on January 10, 2013 (the day Oscar nominations are announced), and be broadcast on the CW. Herein, the nominees in select categories (reviews are linked to in the first mention). For the full list of nominees, visit criticschoice.com/movie-awards : Best Picture : Argo Beasts of the Southern Wild Django Unchained Les Miserables Life of Pi Lincoln The Master Moonrise Kingdom Silver Linings Playbook Zero Dark Thirty Expect to see this slate of films throughout the award season, with maybe The Dark Knight slipping in in the place of Life of Pi . Having not seen Django , Les Mis or Zero Dark Thirty yet (that is, of the nominated films I plan to see) I can't reasonably pick a favorite. Best Actor : Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln John Hawkes, The Sessions Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables Joaquin Phoenix, The Master Denz...

Do you remember that cult TV movie The Wave ? I don’t mean that it was a cult hit but rather that it was about how easy it is to form and gain followers for a cult. It took place in a school, and a teacher began a “movement” as a way of demonstrating what a cult is, then it spiraled out of control and became an actual cult. It’s from 1981 and if you missed it you’re not missing much, except I can’t help but think that Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest opus, The Master , was maybe, in some small part, inspired by that movie of the week. The Master follows Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) as he is inculcated in The Cause, a new religion – which many view as a cult – created by the master, Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Leading up to and following the release of The Master , many were speculating that The Cause was (not-so-loosely) based on Scientology, the cult/religion followed by some Hollywood A-listers. I can see where the specifics of The Cause (particularly its belief ...