— FILM REVIEWS
DOGS LIE
Intrigue & Wit will keep you guessing to the end....
It has been some time since I first saw this film, but it left me with distinct impressions.
I recollect my wishing the film would not end due to the central characters' (Josh & Iqbal) perfect casting, and strong performances in their abilities to intrigue, as well as captivate the viewer with layers of subtle, clever repartee.
It's a Must See and on my List of Recommendations for anyone who loves the suspense of watching a carefully paced chess game loaded with wit and intelligence.
Not surprised it's gaining so much recognition. Also on my List to see again..... but I don't want to spoil anything.... Just See It!
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Harold and Kumar go to Deathtrap
IMDb estimates the total budget for "Dogs Lie" was $170k which, in Hollywood terms, wouldn't cover the parking tab for most big studio productions. That said, if you're scared off by indie films on a budget then you can pass on this. But if you enjoy seeing low key productions and seeing how effectively filmmakers can tell a story with limited resources, then read on.
The story is really perfect for an indie flick because it's very minimal in nature. Adapted from a play, "Dogs Lie" revolves closely around the 2 main characters "Josh" and "Iqbal" and their quirky banter while working the late shift at a sleep clinic. No, there aren't any car chases or explosions or strippers (oh, wait, actually there are a couple of those), but instead the dialogue of the 2 leads is what engages us. Just don't expect a nail-biting, pulse-pounding thrill ride because that's not the goal of this movie. Instead I would compare it to the classic "Deathtrap" (another film adapted from a play) with its word-based approach to action. Just imagine instead of Michael Caine & Christopher Reeve you get something leaning closer to Harold & Kumar.
The plot: A murder happens early in the film, and Josh & Iqbal happen to be the alibi for one of the suspects who was at the sleep clinic the night of the murder. At first this is just a peripheral event for the two, but over the course of a few shifts they begin to discuss & get deeper into the mystery as they find out more details and divulge a few themselves. As other reviewers have mentioned, what keeps this film entertaining is the humor and natural banter between the 2 main characters. Great job by both actors, Frank Boyd (Josh) and Samrat Chakrabarti (Iqbal), whom I didn't really like at first but they soon had me feeling like one of the gang with their natural chatter.
Also for no special reason I have to mention something I found hilarious, whether it was deliberate or not. Notice whenever they're talking to someone on an intercom we can't hear the person on the other end, but they still carry on normal conversations over the speaker. Sort of a surreal touch... like in the cartoon Peanuts where we never really hear adults speaking. Or maybe it was just a sound goof. Either way I really liked it.
opening night at Tribeca Film Festival for DOGS LIE .
The Street
by Ellen Wernecke
EDGE New York City Contributor
Whitney and Tiki are tired of working for The Man--not surprising, considering they both work on Wall Street. But breaking away to form their own firm, KDS (for their initials, but also "Killer Dames on the Street") is harder than it looks, with long hours in the offing. When a short-sell of a cosmetics company, whose CEO (Theresa Rose) is pulling her own dirty tricks, goes awry, there’s only one way they can get out of it.
That’s by singing and dancing of course, since we’re talking about The Street, a new musical at the Midtown International Theatre Festival by Ronnie Cohen with support from Jane Beale, directed by Heidi Lauren Duke and Daniel Cataneo. The Street veers from type in putting the heroines’ jobs, not their romantic lives, in center stage. A subplot involving the CEO and the man she seduces to get her twins into elementary school is a nice diversion as is Leslie Anne Friedman as Whitney singing the anthem "Failure to Deliver" as well as any Broadway songstress, making its meaning clear for those of us who might not be up on our Street jargon. The supreme all-cast number "Spontaneous," in which the up-tights of the Street decide to be impulsive, is a showstopper. Part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival Through August 5th
rehearsing the finale of THE STREET, a musical comedy about Wall Street inequities
Witnessed by the World rehearsal at the 59E59 theatre in Manhattan
THEATRE IS EASY — a review of Witnessed by the World by Jason Rost
A timely thriller with the intent to entertain rather than commemorate.
Along with the 50th anniversary of the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy comes a slew of television specials, commemorative magazines and here in New York...theater. These productions include Regular Singing at the Public and The Day Before at Symphony Space. Another to add to the list is less a remembrance of the man or the infamous day, but a contemporary Da Vinci Code-style conspiracy theory play in Ronnie Cohen and Jane Beale’s New York premiere of Witnessed By the World. The theories around the assassination of JFK have become nearly as much a part of the American fabric as the actual event. Witnessed, snappily directed by Karen Carpenter, takes place not in 1963 but 2013. It focuses not so much on the assassination of the president, but on the theories of ties to the mafia.
Who killed JFK has been done. In this play, young commercial screenwriter Ira (Max Gordon Moore) wants to avoid “covering old territory” by steering away from well-tread popular culture like Oliver Stone’s film. Lucky for him he becomes entangled with journalist Joan Ross (Charlotte Maier) who has a lifelong fascination with the event, specifically with Jack Ruby, the man who killed Lee Harvey Oswald. Ira has a Hollywood producer brother cheekily named George (last name Basil not Gershwin). After some flops he and George decide to stick to a proven film genre by making a mob movie. Joan’s theory of Jack Ruby’s connection to the mafia is exactly the untold mob story Ira is looking for. For differing personal ambitions, they agree to team up and write the screenplay.
Playwrights Cohen and Beale are themselves screenwriters, which may account for some of the truncated vignettes, quips, and button-ending scenes. Anytime a scene ends with the line “…if it’s the last thing I do!” it begins to enter “zinger” territory for me. Luckily they have thrown in enough intriguing facts about Jack Ruby that if you’re not well read on the subject you may be inspired to study up. However I always ask the question of any play: does this need to be theatre, or would it actually be served better as a film? More times than not I found Witnessed to fall into the latter. One reason is that the story would come alive with highly realistic texture and context. Without this, the bones of the plot are laid bare in a dialogue-centric style of storytelling.
Carpenter’s direction decides to go with the cinematic flow by pulsing through the scenes and transitions, which are full of "news report" music and heavy drumming in Lindsay Jones’ sound design. Libby Stadstad’s set design is economic and functional. The scenery really comes to life though with Matthew Haber’s projection design; I only wish there were a way for his projections to live on stage longer than the transitions between scenes.
Cohen and Beale do use facts, theories, and research to throw together a world where all of it can become something more immediate than history. While the meeting of Joan and Ira is contrived, their relationship allows for secrets to be unveiled for an audience not as familiar with the theories. Ira is drawn as a young daft writer unfamiliar with words like “the Warren Commission.” While I hope our American history curricula are not failing this much, Ira's ignorance at least helps in creating a space to spell everything out – literally on a chalkboard center stage.
One of the greatest joys of the evening is the performance by veteran actor Lois Markle as Eileen Kaminsky, Jack Ruby’s sister. She brings a welcome pause and humanity to the plot-driven journey. Cohen and Beale have written some of their most human and unrushed scenes between Eileen and Joan. Bob Ari is also excellent as a mostly utilitarian character who is close friends with Joan and also in trouble with the contemporary mafia. Joe Tapper is appropriately slippery and intimidating as mob member Joe Capano.
Cohen and Beale succeed in giving a look at what a child deeply affected by the JFK assassination might be up to now. Maier is mentally acrobatic at connecting the dots on stage. However, her character is more a conduit of research than a sympathetic hero. More times than not she echoes The X-Files character Scully in her relentless truth hunting. In the end we learn a good deal about Jack Ruby and not so much about our protagonist Joan Ross.
The story of why the world is still shaken by the assassination of JFK is maybe what the young Ira Basils of the world need more. Joan touches upon it early in the play demanding an understanding from Ira of the scope of the horrific event, comparing it to 9/11: “The country went from Camelot to crap in the blink of an eye. Jack, Bobby, Martin Luther King…those guys were out to change the world!” After 50 years I wonder if all of the conspiracy theories are still as vital for future generations to grasp as this context of how our country was knocked off kilter in a very lasting way.
(Witnessed by the World plays at 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street between Madison and Park Avenues, through December 15, 2013. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:15 PM, Friday at 8:15 PM, Saturday at 2:15PM and 8:15 PM, and Sunday at 3:15 PM. Tickets are $49 and are available at www.59e59.org or by calling 212.279.4200.)
AN ANNIVERSARY CONSPIRACY FOR JFK
Posted on November 22, 2013 by The People's Critic
On this date, just exactly 50 years ago, I was a student at The University of Texas in Austin and preparing to join several friends that very afternoon for a little trip out to Austin Airport where we were to gather with others planning to welcome President John Fitzgerald Kennedy to the state capitol. Fate had other plans for a much-loved President who would not be making his planned flight from Dallas to Austin.
The sad and eventful days that followed that earth-shaking assassination would soon give birth to countless conspiracy theories that persist to this day. For those attending the premiere of WITNESSED BY THE WORLD, currently playing at the 59E59 Theaters in Manhattan, yet another conspiracy theory can now be added to that number. Written by Ronnie Cohen & Jane Beale and directed by Karen Carpenter, this new play may offer a theory just as inconclusive as those that went before it, but don’t think that prevents this plot from bringing plenty of thought-provoking suspense to the stage.
We meet Ira Basil (Max Gordon Moore), a somewhat successful screenwriter known for his light comedies, but having less success in transitioning to the realm of serious drama. The slightly built Ira seems a bit of a nebbish as he shuffles about in madras Bermuda shorts with disheveled hair and thick nerdy eyeglasses while trying to develop his next film concept. He so reminds one of a young Woody Allen that if I were a playwright I would quickly try to come up with a script celebrating the actor/filmmaker and featuring Mr. Moore as my star.
Ira soon begins collaboration with seasoned investigative reporter, Joan Ross (Charlotte Maier). Joan has reportedly been a bit too effective in Chicago Sun Times investigations that unnerved her editors. Now she encourages Ira to try developing a plot designed around a real life character. They settle on the notorious Jack Ruby who gained his infamy by shooting (on live television) Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Joan begins researching Ruby’s past and gets the unique opportunity to interview Jack’s surviving sister, the elderly Eileen (Lois Markle in a standout performance that is absolutely wonderful). This is where things really get interesting because Eileen is able to share some secrets that may turn history on its head.
Paralleling these events, Joan has a friend and confident in liquor storeowner, Aaron Spencer (Bob Ari). A loan shark mobster named Joe Capano (Joe Tapper) is haunting Aaron.
Capano is demanding money and involving Aaron in some criminal transactions. To add to the fun, rumor has it that Joe’s “Uncle Tony” (a mob kingpin, not a real uncle) actually knew Jack Ruby. When Joan gets wind of that connection she insists on meeting Tony. There is an atmosphere of mystery as the one-act play (90 minutes with no Intermission) weaves its conspiratorial spell. To say more would give away the surprise ending.
WITNESSED BY THE WORLD continues its limited engagement through December 15th at 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th St. in Manhattan. Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7:15 PM; Friday at 8:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM & 8:15 PM; and Sunday at 3:15 PM. Tickets are $49 ($33.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to http://www.59e59.org.