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- <text id=92TT0574>
- <title>
- Mar. 16, 1992: Critics' Voices
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Mar. 16, 1992 Jay Leno
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- CRITICS' VOICES, Page 10
- </hdr><body>
- <p>MOVIES
- </p>
- <p> HEAR MY SONG. This Anglo-Irish hit, about a nightclub
- manager (Adrian Dunbar) who hopes to lure a retired Irish tenor
- (played with well-calculated reserve by Ned Beatty) from exile
- for one last concert, has for a time a jaunty, quirky air. But
- director Peter Chelsom allows eccentricity to deteriorate into
- cuteness.
- </p>
- <p> KAFKA. In his first film since sex, lies, and videotape,
- Steven Soderbergh serves up a flimsy whodunit starring Kafka
- (played by Jeremy Irons, the male Meryl). It's a film-school
- movie, with devices lifted from The Third Man: vertiginous
- staircases, malevolence glistening off the cobblestones, a
- madman's drool caught in the Prague moonlight. As someone
- murmurs, "All a bit much, don't you think?" Yes, pity--and not
- nearly enough.
- </p>
- <p> THIS IS MY LIFE. "And my mother wants to be a stand-up
- comic." In Nora Ephron's adorable yet unsentimental comedy,
- Dottie Ingels (Julie Kavner) is an up-to-date Stella Dallas: an
- Everymom whose greatest responsibility is to live for herself.
- </p>
- <p>MUSIC
- </p>
- <p> JOHN PIZZARELLI: ALL OF ME (Novus/RCA). Smooth,
- well-groomed versions of standards, with Pizzarelli (son of
- sure-handed jazz guitarist Bucky) providing some nimble chording
- and easygoing vocals. He sings a little like a Sesame Street
- Chet Baker, but his gently swinging ways still send tunes like
- the title track out under full sail.
- </p>
- <p>BOOKS
- </p>
- <p> OUTERBRIDGE REACH by Robert Stone (Ticknor & Fields;
- $21.95). Owen Browne, a fortyish American male, plunges into an
- improbable sailboat race around the globe. The hero's wife and
- a cynical documentary filmmaker observe Owen's quest with
- different interests in mind. The conclusion is shattering and
- not to be forgotten.
- </p>
- <p> RISING SUN by Michael Crichton (Knopf; $22). Japan-bashing
- has never been more exquisitely calibrated for best-sellerdom.
- There is a whodunit at the heart of this commercial thriller,
- but the identity of the bad guys is never in any doubt. Lay out
- some plastic for this novel before publishers' row becomes a
- subsidiary of Sony.
- </p>
- <p> THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM by Richard Kluger (Viking; $23).
- Robin Hood has only a minor role in this novel of 13th century
- England. The Sheriff, maligned by history and Hollywood, is
- shown to be a dutiful official confronting personal and moral
- dilemmas and the origins of constitutional government. A real
- parchment turner, richly imagined and beautifully written.
- </p>
- <p>TELEVISION
- </p>
- <p> THE DENNIS MILLER SHOW (syndicated, weeknights). The
- former Saturday Night Live newscaster has made a surprisingly
- smooth transition to the talk-show couch. Miller's esoteric
- references (from Stephen Sondheim to Herman Melville) are
- sometimes too self-conscious, but he's hip, intelligent and--a rarity on TV--authentically curious.
- </p>
- <p> NIGHTMARE CAFE (NBC, Fridays, 10 p.m. EST). At a
- supernatural all-night diner, passersby relive key events from
- their past. TV could certainly use a Twilight Zone for the '90s,
- but this tacky, poorly acted horror-fantasy series from Wes
- Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street) will make no one forget Rod
- Serling.
- </p>
- <p>THEATER
- </p>
- <p> SIGHT UNSEEN. A trendy artist revisits the woman who first
- inspired him and tries to steal the sole memento of that time,
- a portrait of her. Writer Donald Margulies weaves a glittering
- web of satire about the art scene, the media, the exploitative
- side of creativity and rueful romance. This off-Broadway succes
- d'estime has vaulted to a commercial run.
- </p>
- <p> CONRACK. Novelist Pat Conroy (Prince of Tides) has helped
- turn his autobiographical tale, The Water Is Wide, about a
- young white teacher and rural black pupils, into a sweet Jon
- Voight movie and, now, a poignant musical at Washington's Ford's
- Theater.
- </p>
- <p>ETCETERA
- </p>
- <p> MERCE CUNNINGHAM DANCE COMPANY. Now 72, Cunningham has
- been making modern choreography for 50 fiercely independent
- years. His dance seasons at Manhattan's City Center Theater are
- an aficionado's delight. This time, as usual, he mixes new
- works (three of them) and welcome revivals (like the 1981
- Channels/Inserts). March 17-29.
- </p>
- <p> THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE: THE WORLD OF BEATRIX POTTER,
- Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Childhood would be a fallow
- field without the carrot patches and flopsy bunnies of this
- great storyteller. But Peter and his friends weren't Potter's
- only creations, and the show also delves into a trove of her
- naturalistic sketches. Kids will love the accompanying tea
- parties and interactive video games. Through May 4.
- </p>
- <p>THIRD-DEGREE BYRNE
- </p>
- <p> What is the sound of one Head talking? Check out David
- Byrne. Since leaving Talking Heads, the brainiest rock band of
- the '80s, to go solo, Byrne has found his muse in the
- unexpected: an album of Latin salsa (1989's Rei Momo) and a
- mystical orchestral soundscape (last year's The Forest). Now
- Byrne has transplanted his rock roots into fertile tropical
- soil. In UH-OH (Luaka Bop), released last week, jangling
- electric-guitar riffs alternate with piquant Caribbean rhythms,
- often in the same song, while Byrne aims his quirky intelligence
- at sex-change operations, domestic discord and even the Deity:
- "Well God can turn the world around/ And he can push it in the
- dirt/ And he can tear it all apart/ He don't care who'all gets
- hurt/ Oh, something ain't right." The mix is intoxicating--a
- dark elixir candy-coated with buoyant melodies and lyrics that
- smile even as they bite. At once scathing and funny, swinging
- and strange, UH-OH is Little Creatures with dancing feet.
- </p>
- <p>By TIME'S Reviewers. Compiled by Georgia Harbison.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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