Liz’s Review: ‘CYMBELINE’- True in text, new in vision.

CYMBELINE_poster

Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night… Ghostly apparitions, star-crossed lovers, mistaken identity… If you mashed up all three of these Shakespeare plays, you would get the plot of his work Cymbeline. We’ve seen modernized versions of Shakespeare in the past, with films like Baz Luhrmann‘s Romeo + Juliet, O (for Othello), Hamlet,  10 Things I Hate About You, which was a modern incarnation of The Taming of the Shrew, and She’s The Man, meant to resemble Twelfth Night. Only R+J and Hamlet made the bold decision to use the original text. This can be a hindrance in getting audiences through the door. Some might look at this as too much of a challenge when stepping into a movie theater versus going to see a live play. Let alone the general understanding of the language, it’s not the easiest to follow for some. Cymbeline knocks it out of the park in both use of text and understanding. With a glorious cast, filled to the brim with talented celebrities, this version of Shakespeare’s work is pretty spot on. Read More →

‘Mistaken For Strangers – The Play’: A Funny or Die Masterpiece

For those of you who followed us when we were swinging our beat over at Cinemit.com, you might have read my review of Tom Berninger‘s fascinating documentary Mistaken for Strangers about his brother Matt‘s band, The National, and their time together on tour. Well, Funny or Die, in the way that few can do, created this wonderful send-up of the film being turned into a stage play:

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