I don’t read about a play or musical or film before seeing it. The reason: I want the art form to speak for itself. But taking that approach to Laundry Shoot! is problematic because the narrative is far from straight forward. This is what I could make out after seeing the 70-minute play before reading the program….
Sandra Pankhurst was a remarkable woman whose life hardly followed a conventional path. She founded a successful trauma cleaning business and is a no-holds-barred public speaker. The documentary Clean starts by outlining the work undertaken by her conscientious employees. They must have a strong constitution, because this is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. Blood,…
It may follow the playbook, but The Way Back still grips tightly. Back in high school, Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck) had everything going for him. A basketball phenomenon, he could have punched his ticket to college or even the pros. Instead, he chose to walk away from the game, forfeiting his future. Jack’s glory days…
Next to Normal begins with a familiar modern family scene; suburban mother Diana Goodman (Carly Skelton) waits up late for her son Gabe (Christopher Batkin) and attempts to comfort her academically-anxious daughter, Natalie (Hannah Kassulke). Soon husband Dan (Adam Bartlett) rises to help prepare the family for “Just Another Day”. Yet their lives are anything…
You can see the raw emotion; feel it; you can almost taste it in the reflective and haunting drama Leave No Trace. Some films mark the breakthrough role for an actor. I’m thinking, for instance, of Winter’s Bone for Jennifer Lawrence.That’s the case here for New Zealander Thomasin McKenzie, who is stupendous as a dutiful…
