Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles

Chinese film by veteran Zhang Yimou is a tale about good intentions and missed opportunities.

"...journey to record a particular performance of the masked opera, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, which he has..."

Oct. 13, 2006 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Callas Forever

While Callas Forever seems sincere in its attempt to pay tribute to the world’s most famous opera singer, it unwittingly disserves her in its bizarre wish-fantasy about resurrecting her voice onscreen.

"...accounts, she lived life as if it were high opera, regardless of whether she was on the stage or..."

March 25, 2005 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Red Trousers: The Life of the Hong Kong Stuntmen

This double-layered documentary examines the creation of a Hong Kong action film and the impossible feats performed by the Asian stuntman.

"...of valuable and fascinating footage of the Tai Yuen Opera Group, a thespian boot-camp academy that hearkens back to..."

April 2, 2004 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Stendahl Syndrome

"...artful cinematic violence not seen since Argento's 1987 masterpiece Opera. Like that film, The Stendahl Syndrome is at least..."

Oct. 22, 1999 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Madame Butterfly

"...with the AARP generation. I'm speaking, of course, of opera appreciation. With this faithful stage-to-film transfer of Giacomo Puccini's..."

Nov. 29, 1996 Movie Review by Russell Smith

Celestial Clockwork

"...(Belle Epoque) luminous face. Gil plays Ana, an aspiring opera singer who bolts for Paris midway through her wedding..."

Sept. 6, 1996 Movie Review by Alison Macor

ASO Fires Player Over Racist Remarks

Austin Opera and area schools also cut ties with trombonist

"...she made on Facebook last Saturday. Within hours, Austin Opera followed suit, as did some area schools, with which..."

June 2, 2020 Arts Post by Robert Faires

Robert Faires' Top 10 Classical Music / Dance Treasures of 2016

The richest work in dance and classical music this year ran the gamut from a dance in a backyard pool to an opera about Cold War brainwashing

"...1) THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (Austin Opera) The gamble of mounting a new opera based on..."

Dec. 30, 2016 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

GenEnCo's The Mikado: Reclaimed

In this newly devised work, Asian-American artists grapple with the complicated legacy of Gilbert & Sullivan's opera

"...S Society: The Mikado was the ninth of 14 operas that librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan created..."

Feb. 12, 2016 Arts Feature by Rosalind Faires

'Downton' Throws a House Party

This one's for the lovers

"...new, converge on Downton along with a cadre of opera singers, card sharps, sexy young lords, and friendly rapists...."

Jan. 13, 2014 Screens Post by Melanie Haupt

Murder at Yellowstone City

Horse opera is just a sturdy, well-worn mule trail

"...search to strike a vein, and as this horse opera begins, Dunnigan (McGowan) has found one. A big one...."

June 24, 2022 Movie Review by Josh Kupecki

Pavarotti

Ron Howard's documentary shows the great tenor in all his humanity

"...This love letter dedicated to opera’s biggest rock star, the larger-than-life Luciano Pavarotti, achieves something..."

June 21, 2019 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Teen Spirit

Pop fable never feels like a smash hit

"...greedy goblins and bad decisions, with a broken-down drunk ex-opera singer (Buric) as her spirit guide (actually, the relationship..."

April 19, 2019 Movie Review by Danielle White

The Upside

Remake of a true story of an unlikely friendship is the flattest version yet

"...while the white man teaches the black man about opera, fine art, and exotic foods like kumquats...."

Jan. 18, 2019 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The Coen brothers head West, but it's a bumpy ride

"...and serious, it’s a hodgepodge in spurs, a horse opera with nothing but arias...."

Nov. 16, 2018 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

What They Had

Authentic Alzheimer's drama steers just clear of soap opera

"...turn this sensitive yet funny drama into predictable soap opera territory. (The film’s goopy closing images should be burned..."

Nov. 9, 2018 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Generic Ensemble Company's Carmen

This devised work shares the name of Bizet's opera, but it has its own story to tell, one that's modern, irreverent and funny

"...name of the seductive "gypsy girl" in the famous opera and teases you with a snippet of Bizet at..."

May 25, 2018 Arts Review by Robert Faires

2018 Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Animation

Cartoon creations from Kobe to Goldilocks

"...French offering "Garden Party," a preposterously detailed CGI comic opera involving a hungry frog, a quick-thinking salamander, a deserted..."

Feb. 9, 2018 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Star-Lord and co. return in the popular Marvel series

"...and writer Gunn is a dab hand with space opera quippery and most of the set-pieces land bang on..."

May 12, 2017 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Five Faces of Frankenstein

This Halloween, Austin serves up five freaky takes on Mary Shelley's mad doctor and his monster

"...their own plan for the brain device. One Ounce Opera stages the premiere...."

Oct. 23, 2015 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Maps to the Stars

David Cronenberg's film, with a script by Bruce Wagner, is a darkly humorous moral fable aimed at Hollywood.

"...from a mysterious fire who covers her scars with opera gloves, she meets Jerome (Pattinson, correctly blank) a limo..."

Feb. 27, 2015 Movie Review by Josh Kupecki

Guardians of the Galaxy

These lesser-known, misfit, comic-book characters are a grand addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"...Guardians of the Galaxy is an outlier: a space opera in a largely earthbound movie cycle (excepting the occasional..."

Aug. 1, 2014 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Third Person

Globe-trotting multistory meditation on love, betrayal, and lost/found children from the director of Crash.

"...after five minutes. In New York, a former soap opera actress (Kunis) tries to regain partial custody of her..."

July 4, 2014 Movie Review by Josh Kupecki

Endless Love

New era, same old story: young passions, forbidden love, and parents who just don't understand.

"...arms of perverse comedy. If the vanilla, homogenized, soap opera/TV commercial, teen-romance stereotypes had just been pushed a bit..."

Feb. 14, 2014 Movie Review by Louis Black

Bullet to the Head

Sylvester Stallone is back – the action is loud and pulpy, the quips are ever-ready, and the cycle is unbroken.

"...the target, but it’s a big, obvious one, a soap-opera-predictable cavalcade of violence...."

Feb. 1, 2013 Movie Review by Louis Black

Quartet

A charming, funny, and sentimental comedy/drama about former opera singers living in a home for retired musicians.

"...(Collins), and their friend Reginald Paget (Courtenay) are former opera singers living in a home for retired musicians. They..."

Jan. 25, 2013 Movie Review by Louis Black

To Rome With Love

Ambling and merely passable, this new Woody Allen picture lacks a raison d'être.

"...time since his 2006 dud Scoop) plays a failed opera impresario who thinks he's hit pay dirt when he..."

July 6, 2012 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Dark Shadows

Sometimes it might be best to let sleeping vampires lie.

"...eternal violation of humankind. Dark Shadows, the afternoon soap opera on television from 1966-1971, popularized the breed long before..."

May 11, 2012 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Lucky One

This latest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks bestseller is timelessly shopworn.

"...that tend to accompany real-life romance. For all its soap-opera psychodrama, The Lucky One is pretty boilerplate stuff, with..."

April 20, 2012 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Brooklyn's Finest

Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, and Don Cheadle star in this clichéd police drama that's capped by an outlandish third act.

"...for another go-round in Brooklyn’s Finest, Fuqua’s latest cop opera, where he’s joined by Gere and Cheadle in the..."

March 5, 2010 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

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