Sam Shepard's dark melodrama Curse of the Starving Class is currently playing at Open Fist Theatre on Hollywood's Theatre Row. Shepard uses biographical references to his own childhood on an avocado-and-sheep ranch in Duarte, CA as a device to highlight the virtual impossibility for social mobility in the United States. Through tragic and utterly unstable characters, the play elicits audience sympathy without being overly sentimental. Curse of the Starving Class is a well-rounded production with a compelling cast, artful direction, and clever set. more ›

With a title almost as long as its 160-minute running time, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is one of those movies that just seems destined to fail at the box office which is too bad really because if you make the time to see this movie you will be treated to a somber, revisionist Western that is both tender and violent in its portrayal of an era that is... more ›

A Word or 44: The first 1/2 of the "24" season premiere was quite good even though I don't understand how Jack found the terrorist dude before his house got blown up. Also, was there some anal play going on between Jack and the first terrorist guy? Kinky. Tonight - Monday - January 15th, 2007 "Lawrence of Arabia" (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) Quite possibly the best movie ever made. "Hamlet" (IFC, 6:00 p.m.) Classic Shakespeare... more ›

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