Star City Blog / Theatre & Film

'Treeless Mountain' @ The Ross: One Week Only!

Intermittently wondrous and harsh, opening at The Ross on Friday, July 3, TREELESS MOUNTAIN is a sensitive drama about two abandoned sisters that gives time and space to the intimate and beautiful moments of childhood.

Film critic J. Hoberman writes in The Village Voice, “[TREELESS MOUNTAIN is] skillfully unsentimental -- because of, but also despite, the presence of two irresistible, unself-conscious performers in virtually every scene.”

“Both lovely and wrenching, So Yong Kim's intimate drama feels so honest, it's often difficult to watch,” opines New York Daily News film critic Elizabeth Weitzman.

TREELESS MOUNTAIN is showing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center on Friday, July 3 through Thursday, July 9.  Show times are available at www.TheRoss.org, by consulting your newspaper, or by calling the MRRMAC film information line at 402.472.5353.

 

'Anvil! The Story of Anvil' @ The Ross

Opening at The Ross on Friday, June 26, Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a touching, uplifting and inspirational rockumentary about an aging metal band, both hilarious and heart-warming in equal measure.
 
“Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a very funny documentary, following original band members Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner (seriously), on a disastrous European tour and an attempt at a comeback album,” according to San Francisco Chronicle film critic Peter Heartlaub.
 
Film critic Peter Travers writes in Rolling Stone, “Sacha Gervasi's powerhouse doc brings humor and fervent focus to Toronto musicians, supporting their families with day jobs, who won't give up the dream.

'Tulpan' @ The Ross

Acclaimed documentarian Sergey Dvortsevoy's debut narrative feature, TULPAN, is a work of extraordinary filmmaking bravado, an exhilaratingly alive and sweet-natured fairytale set in the barren landscape of a Kazakh steppe, an environment where only shepherds live.

Kazakh sheep herders get their cinematic due in this lovely, unsentimental debut from director Sergei Dvortsevoy, opening at The Ross on Friday, June 26.

“With a deadpan charm all its own, Tulpan ends up dealing with some fairly serious questions on the order of how you make peace with a dream,” opines Kenneth Turan, film critic for the Los Angeles Times.

Review of ‘The Producers’ at the Lincoln Community Playhouse

By Marcus Scheer

As I walked into the Lincoln Community Playhouse on Friday, June 5 , I was greeted with posters that said, “There was absolutely nothing funny about Adolf Hitler. Except this... and that mustache.”  Designed by Bailey Lauerman, these attractive and attention-grabbing posters set the tone for the event of the evening: the opening night of ‘The Producers.’ 

‘The Producers’ is a musical full of quick-witted lines, clever lyrics and interesting characters. The play follows the story of a not-so-honest producer and his bumbling accountant who team up to attempt to make millions by producing the biggest Broadway flop ever.

Review of 'Enter Stage Write' at The Loft

By Sarah F. Sullivan

Thursday was opening night for the latest endeavor put on by the members of Lyp-Schtick Productions, Enter Stage Write. However, the production isn’t your ordinary, run-of-the-mill play. It’s a series of plays, all written, acted and directed by amateurs trying to get their feet wet in the medium of their choice. Some attempt all three. Needless to say, everyone did an impressive job for being “amateurs.”

The plots of the skits are varied and take the viewer on a hysterical roller coaster ride, making you double over with laughter one moment and catching you off guard with a bittersweet, almost heartbreaking situation the next.