- John Stoehr
Arts Editor
There's more to art than you think. It's not just theater, paintings, books and dance. It's the enterprise of human creativity and it takes vastly different shapes and forms. Here you'll find my thoughts about the arts in Charleston and beyond. Neither of us knows what to expect.
Category Archives: Film
Pearl goes national
July 24, 2008 – 7:52 am
In 1976, Pearl Fryar moved to the all-white town of Bishopville, S.C., and ignored his close-minded white neighbors who thought Pearl, who is black, would fail to keep his yard maintained. According to The Washington Post, after becoming a self-taught topiary artist, Pearl wooed his neighbors with his magnificent backyard. He took unique plants not […]
Dude, where’s my 3-D?
July 21, 2008 – 7:50 am
Journey to the Center of the Earth is poised to be the largest 3-D film release in history, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But Warner Bros. distribution fears the expansion of 3-D is moving at a snail’s pace. Since Beowulf, which aired on 660 3-D screens, only 204 more screens have been installed. Considering that […]
Even Rocky D says Indy nuked the fridge
July 8, 2008 – 11:55 am
I don’t expect most to know about his column. I don’t expect serious-minded readers to take him all that seriously. Even so, RadioFree Rocky D, the conservative talk-show host at WTMA, is among the many people who’ve seen the new Indiana Jones movie and can’t come to believe that it’s possible to survive a nuclear […]
3-D movies better than they used to be
July 6, 2008 – 4:29 pm
Do consumers really have an appetite for 3-D? Yes, they do. According to a new study reported in the Hollywood Reporter last month, when given a choice between a traditional movie and 3-D, consumers not only chose 3-D, but also a higher price for the ticket, according to a new study by Nielsen. After the […]
Too late for Charleston’s IMAX
July 6, 2008 – 4:28 pm
IMAX Theaters will go digital starting next month, Reuters reported last month. For four decades, these colossal movie screens used 70mm film. By the end of this year, however, IMAX plans to convert 296 theaters to digital. The company hopes the upgrade will encourage more studio films to be released in IMAX theaters. It now […]
Movie Review: Mongol
June 28, 2008 – 9:44 am
Mongol opened last night at the Terrace Theatre. Our critic Jonathan Kiefer had this to say.
King of the World
Sergei Bodrov reveals the good side of the Mongol mystique
By Jonathan Kiefer
Mongol
Starring Tadanobu Asano, Sun Hong-Lei, Khulan Chuluun, Odnyam Odsuren
Directed by Sergei Bodrov
Rated R
Forget Zohan. What about Genghis Khan? Now there’s somebody you don’t want to be […]
Say yes to movie police
June 12, 2008 – 1:03 pm
It’s a mystery why Charleston has taken so long to welcome a sit-down movie theater where a waitstaff takes food orders and offers a selection of wine and beer to the serious movie patrons who also enjoy plush seating (like myself).
Slated to open June 27, Cinebarre promises to be all of the above.
Replacing the former […]
A new rendition of “Fix You”
May 20, 2008 – 9:03 pm
We just saw the Stephen Walker documentary, Young@Heart, about the Northhampton choir by the same name. The average age of choir members is the low 80s. They sing punk tunes, rock ‘n’ roll, and other genres you’d never expect from octogenarians. It’s a charming, LOL hilarious, and touching film. The most striking aspect, I think, […]
No advanced screening of Iron Man — the new reality
April 17, 2008 – 9:55 am
Yep, Hollywood is increasingly cutting critics off from advanced screenings of movies. Such is the case with Iron Man, much-anticipated among those of us who love Stan Lee’s Tony Stark. Critics have been told all over the country that there will be no pre-screenings of the movie (you can guess with some measure of confidence […]
The problem with thumbs-up-thumbs-down criticism
April 16, 2008 – 6:20 am
Jeff Simon, the culture critic at the Buffalo News, the paper I grew up with, is as usual right on the money. He notes here in this piece that movie criticism has been ailing since Roger Ebert played Roman emperor in the 1980s.
Things have been wrong in the movie critics’ trade for a while, I […]
