How to resolve AdBlock issue? Arts & Life
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The Lake County Theatre Co., in collaboration with Mendocino College, summons actors of all experience levels to audition for a grand production of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
The play will be presented as this summer’s “Shakespeare at the Lake’ production.
Auditions shall be held at the Mendocino College Lake Center, 2565 Parallel Drive, Lakeport, upon these dates:
• Thursday, May 15, 6 p.m.;
• Saturday, May 17, 1 p.m.
Prepare thyself! Audition materials are available at LCTC.us. Those who dare to tread the boards are welcome, whether seasoned performers or spirited newcomers.
Come and lend thy voice to this immortal story of star-crossed lovers, fierce feuds and fateful destiny.
For more information, contact Director John Tomlinson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The event will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Main Street Gallery, 325 N. Main St. in Lakeport.
This festive monthly event brings together artists, art lovers and the community at large for an evening of inspiration and fun.
Enjoy the newest exhibits at the gallery and the live performance of musician Bob Lucatorto.
Admission is free, and light refreshments will be available.
For more information, call 707-263-6658 or follow the Lake County Arts Council on Facebook for updates.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
‘THE AMATEUR’ RATED PG-13
The television series “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” transformed John Krasinski’s titular character from a CIA analyst working from the safe position of a desk job into dangerous field assignments that go with the territory of an espionage thriller.
The premise of this type of work-related transition in the spy world is hardly new, but along comes “The Amateur” to offer its own twist of thrusting, and in this case under unusual circumstances, a deskbound introverted CIA decoder into an international pursuit of ruthless killers.
Charlie Heller (Rami Malek), a brilliant but socially awkward decryption and analysis expert, is confined to a basement office at Langley where he works alone and sequestered from interaction with other colleagues.
A man enjoying a bucolic lifestyle in a lovely farmhouse, Charlie is blissfully in love with his wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), who gifted him with a vintage plane he’s working to restore.
Loathe to travel far from home, Charlie decides not to join Sarah on her trip to a conference in London. Tragically, she’s taken hostage during a terrorist attack and meets a horrible fate.
After returning to work, Charlie is summoned by his superior, Deputy Director Moore (Holt McCallany), to the office of CIA Director O’Brien (Julianne Nicholson), where a viewing of gruesome video footage reveals the senseless murder of his wife.
Unable to face a life without his beloved spouse, Charlie decides to avenge her death by going after three killers, an understandable course of action that gets stonewalled by Director Moore and his colleague Caleb (Danny Sapani).
Given the shadowy world of espionage, it seems like more than bureaucratic roadblocks may impede Charlie’s path, but he knows enough inside secrets to blackmail superiors into getting field training from veteran agent Robert Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) to hunt down the assassins on his own.
Charlie doesn’t have the physical skills or killer instinct of James Bond. He proves inept at shooting or fighting. But fearing a nefarious motive by his superiors, Charlie decides to go rogue and run off with a bunch of fake passports to attempt his mission.
Utilizing intelligence talents gathered from work, Charlie also taps into the dark web where the mysterious Inquiline (Caitriona Balfe) assists in his journey to Paris, Marseille, Istanbul and other exotic locations in his search.
Ingenuity works well for Charlie, and sometimes amusingly as when he employs a video tutorial on how to pick locks to break into an apartment. One of the best scenes in the movie, also featured in the trailer, is the dramatic pool-collapse on a high-rise glass bridge.
While the climactic confrontation on the Baltic Sea lacks plausibility, “The Amateur” does benefit from Rami Malek’s quirky performance of a novice field agent out of his depth but driven by vengeance to make it interesting.
‘DROP’ RATED PG-13
Have we become slaves to our smartphones? That’s not the question asked in the thriller “Drop,” but it may be one to take into consideration if you are on a first date at a fancy restaurant and your cell phone turns from an annoyance to a serious threat with a lot of memes.
That’s the situation for Violet (Meghann Fahy), a widowed mother of a young boy on her first date in years, who arrives at an upscale Chicago restaurant where she first meets the helpful, pleasant bartender Cara (Gabrielle Ryan Spring).
She encounters an older man named Richard (Reed Diamond), who she’s relieved to find out is waiting for another blind date that is not her. At this point, she’s still waiting for Henry (Brandon Sklenar), who has texted he’s running late.
When Henry arrives, they are seated at a table with a fabulous skyline view and served by overly talkative waiter Matt (Jeffrey Self), who’s obviously waiting for his next theatrical audition.
Charming and handsome, Henry turns out to have a pleasant personality and attentive demeanor. He will soon be put to the test for patience when Violet starts getting a stream of text messages.
Violet’s son Toby (Jacob Robinson) has been left in the care of her younger sister Jen (Violett Beane). Nervous enough for going out for the evening while Toby is at home, Violet’s evening takes a dark turn when someone starts sending “drops” to her phone.
What starts off as irritating interruptions during dinner for Violet turns incrementally more sinister. The “drops” deliver messages growing from annoying to menacing, soon insisting that she will have to kill Henry or else an intruder, appearing in video on her phone, will slay her son.
The “drops,” which operate on a short radius, indicate the messages are coming from someone in the restaurant. This heightens the tension because she’s constantly warned not to call the police or seek help from anyone.
The paranoia is ramped up in this bizarre cat-and-mouse game as Violet nervously checks everyone in the room. What about the guy constantly texting on his phone while waiting for his guest? There are plenty of red herrings to at least keep “Drop” interesting.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
The TCM Classic Film kicks off its opening night gala, showcasing its theme of “Grand Illusions: Fantastic Worlds on Film” with the screening of “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back,” the second film in the “Star Wars” trilogy.
Visionary director George Lucas will be there to present his film that is celebrating its 45th anniversary. Hard to believe that so much time has passed when “Star Wars” films were truly thrilling, rather than what Disney has done with forgettable remakes or reboots.
“The Empire Strikes Back” is like “The Godfather Part II.” Technically, they’re sequels, the second movie is a series. But they are so much more. In fact, they arguably could be stand-alone films.
“Empire” not only “dazzled and delighted ‘Star Wars’ fans, it pushed the boundaries of moviemaking, further deepening its characters and expanding the most popular cinematic universe of all time,” said Ben Mankiewicz, the official host of the festival.
According to Mankiewicz, “The first ‘Star Wars’ picture in 1977 ignited a new era in Hollywood and turned a generation of young people into passionate movie fans for life. Then, somehow, three years later, along comes ‘Empire,’ which might be even better.”
The publicity machine at Turner Classic Movies touts 1980’s “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” as “widely considered one of the greatest sequels in film history,” winning two Academy Awards and other accolades as time goes by.
The excitement of the space opera franchise began with George Lucas’ creation of “Star Wars” which quickly turned into a pop culture phenomenon in what was to be a trilogy of intergalactic adventure.
Not known at the time in 1977 was that “Star Wars” would result in a series where the film would later be known as Episode IV subtitled “A New Hope,” while “The Empire Strikes Back” maintained the same subtitle and became known as Episode V.
Three years later along came “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” with the beloved characters in the Rebel Alliance fighting the malignant Galactic Empire. Some will contend that the legacy of “Star Wars” would have been best served if “Return of the Jedi” had been the final chapter.
With the festival rapidly approaching its launch on Thursday, April 24th, the schedule is fully formed, though subject to last-minute changes. A movie lover’s dream will be fulfilled, as it has since the first festival in 2010.
The Marx Brothers may be the best-known family comedy team of all time, having success in vaudeville, the Broadway stage, and a slew of movies that have not lost their popularity.
The festival will feature Groucho’s favorite of all his movies that was not available in its original form for more than 80 years. “Animal Crackers,” the Marx Brothers’ second feature from 1930, was also their last film adapted from one of their Broadway productions.
In fact, “Animal Crackers” was the play the brothers were performing at night while filming their debut feature, 1929’s “The Cocoanuts” at Paramount’s New York studio.
Fun fact: There were five Marx Brothers, but youngest, Zeppo, never appeared on film, while Gummo, the second youngest, appeared only in the first five films. While Groucho is the de facto ringleader, Chico was the oldest, followed by Harpo. If you lost count, that makes Groucho the middle child.
A classic from the 1920s, “Beau Geste,” to be shown in a world premiere restoration, was one of Paramount’s most popular films, starring Ronald Colman, Neil Hamilton, and Ralph Forbes as three brothers forced by scandal to flee England and join the French Foreign Legion.
There’s high drama as they deal with a sadistic lieutenant (Noah Beery) and swashbuckling action scenes of desert warfare. The film also features early appearances by William Powell and Victor McLaglen.
The film’s Irish-born director Herbert Brenon was one of the first directors to achieve celebrity status, second only to D.W. Griffith. In a career spanning three decades, Brenon directed more than 120 films.
Another world premiere restoration is 1955’s “The Big Combo,” a film noir billed as a symphony of “chiaroscuro,” which is Italian for “light-dark,” thereby explaining a lighting technique to achieve contrast between the subject and a dark background.
Cornel Wilde’s detective Leonard Diamond is trying to get the goods of Richard Conte’s Mr. Brown, a new breed of criminal who keeps his hands clean and his books dirty. Diamond is also in love with Mr. Brown’s mistress (Wilde’s off-screen wife Jean Wallace).
Like any good film noir, the script is filled with punchy lines like “You can’t tell a jury a man’s guilty because he’s too innocent,” and contained multiple levels of overt and implied adult sexuality.
Conte and Wallace have a love scene that had censors in a tizzy, while Conte’s two cool gangsters, Lee Van Cleef’s Fante and Earl Holliman’s Mingo, seem to be more than just colleagues, putting it imprecisely.
While these films are a brief taste of the cornucopia of great cinema, a future column will feature some of the festival highlights.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
