Archive 1997-2016
We first glimpse Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling) shirtless, muscular and tattooed, twirling a butterfly knife open and closed with rhythmic precision, finally donning a ragged Metallica tee and leather jacket and climbing onto his motorcycle to perform a daredevil routine inside a metal globe of death for a roaring carnival crowd.
A travelling magician with an underdeveloped conscience and a penchant for deceit in his seductions as well as in his stage performances, Oscar “Oz” Diggs (James Franco) is not an overly likeable fellow. When an old flame named Annie (Michelle Williams) arrives after an abortive magic act to tell him another man has proposed to her, his response is ambiguous, and she ends up reassuring Oscar that he is a good man.
With his 1944 play No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre coined the phrase, “hell is other people.” Director John P. Kelly’s version of British playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular seems to refine that famous line. Here, hell is five other people forced to make banter at an annual Christmas party.
“I’ve got these tremendous eyes,” Chris Ralph bellowed early in Plosive Productions’ adaptation of Billy Bishop Goes to War. It’s a line that describes both the titular First World War flying ace and the actor playing him.