Friday news and reviews
Art
International photo show by and about women affirms female talents at the Mpls Photo Center.
- Mary Abbe, Star Tribune
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Angela Strassheim turned her career as a forensic photographer into a career as an artist
Even though the MIA exhibit includes 10 photographs Strassheim took after she left forensics, her former job had plenty of influence on her work.
- Amy Carlson Gustafson, Pioneer Press
Rogue Citizen's latest exhibit at Gallery 13 Friday
The new collection of works will revolve around themes of prison, capital punishment, and the justice system in the United States.
- Shelby Meyers, City Pages
Walker acquires Cunningham pieces
The Walker Art Center has acquired a collection of set pieces, costumes, painted drops and props created for the internationally renowned Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
- Amy Carlson Gustafson, Pioneer Press
Books
Carol Connolly: Poet Laureate and 2011 recipient of the Kay Sexton Award
The creator of the "Readings by Writers" series shared some thoughts on her career and honors.
- Linda White, Examiner.com
Movies
"Limitless" was supposed to push Bradley Cooper into brainier territory. Mission unaccomplished.
- Colin Covert, Star Tribune
Review: Don't think about it; just sit back and enjoy the spectacle
Flashy camerawork is the only through-line in a movie that sometimes seems like a story of downward-spiraling addiction, sometimes feels like a troubled romance, sometimes dips its toe in the waters of government and corporate corruption and ends up being a violent chase film.
- Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press
Review: Beautiful film asks us to meld rhyme and reason
The compassionate South Korean drama about an elderly woman with a lot on her plate is one of the most beautiful films of the year, and appropriately, it is obsessed with a search for beauty.
- Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press
Matthew McConaughey smirks his way through a hammy legal melodrama.
- Colin Covert, Star Tribune
Review: Crafty writer puts this 'Lincoln' in drive
"The Lincoln Lawyer" certainly feels made for the movies, with an intriguing central character -- a just-this-side-of-shady defense lawyer (Matthew McConaughey) who works out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car -- and a twistacious story that has us flipping and flopping about whether the lawyer is on the righteous side of his case.
- Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press
Director Greg Mottola hits the big time with the alien buddy film "Paul" - and even manages to snag a cameo by Steven Spielberg.
- Colin Covert, Star Tribune
Review: The little-green-guy way of knowledge
Genres swirl together as geeky Brits team up with an E.T.-like figure on a road trip to UFO sites in the American Southwest.
- Colin Covert, Star Tribune
Review: Talent-studded comedy not bad, but it should be so much better
The in-jokes in "Paul" will be amusing to those who pick up on them, but it needs more out-jokes.
- Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press
Devoted to god, imperiled by war
Dramatized from a true story of French monks living in Algeria in the 1990s, this movie achieves great power through quiet intensity.
- Colin Covert, Star Tribune
Review: French study of blind faith a vision in excellent filmmaking
"Of Gods and Men," a movie about monks, looks like it could have been made by one.
- Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press
Music
There's a kid-friendly riot going on
Dance-rap duo Koo Koo Kanga Roo is actually geared more to adults. But don't tell that to the children who dig the music.
- CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER, Star Tribune
It's Ravel vs. Rimsky-Korsakov
Say you wanted to set up a tournament bracket in which classical composers are pitted against one another in a battle over who gets the most out of an orchestra in their compositions and arrangements. It wouldn't involve too many upsets to imagine Maurice Ravel and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov facing one another in the finals.
- Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press
Orchestra adds relish to rearranged Ravel
REVIEW: The composer's Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello is writ large, for the entire orchestra, with a mixed result.
- WILLIAM RANDALL BEARD, Special to the Star Tribune
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's latest mix is unusual but done well
A strange mix of musical ideas, bearing some common elements, but more different than alike.
- Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press
Genre-bending guitarist Marc Ribot takes on a Charlie Chaplin classic in a solo concert this weekend.
- BRITT ROBSON, Star Tribune
The 'dance floor is a living thing,' and DJ Jake keeps it fed
"I want it to feel like a dance club in London in 1982," Rudh said, "except we're in Minnesota."
- Ross Raihala, Pioneer PRess
Stage
'Oedipus' and 'Symphony': Locals theaters get their Greek on
This is how you update the classics.
- Ed Huyck, City Pages
"Bare" takes on serious teen concerns - sex, drugs, alienation - within the confines of a Catholic high school.
- ROHAN PRESTON, Star Tribune