No Jacket Required, Apparently: Talking Death of a Salesman, In the Heights, and The Wild Party on Around Town

You can see for yourself what a business-casual mood I was in the day Robert Aubry Davis, Jane Horwitz, and I convened at WETA to shoot a fresh batch of Around Town segments. Perhaps you are correct that I should have chosen a shirt that is not the same shade as our studio backdrop. Hey, I don't tell you how to do your part-time job.

I reviewed Ford's Death of a Salesman and Constellation's The Wild Party for the Washington City Paper. For In the Heights, the musical I herein refer to as "Lin-Manuel Miranda's THX-1138," I didn't write about it. I just bought four more tickets the morning after to take my folks.

Ex-Agent Provocateur: The Foreigner, reviewed.

"Let's just watch this movie on my phone." It's Chan v Brosnan in The Foreigner. (STX)

Here's my  NPR review of Martin Campbell's The Foreigner, which I enjoyed for its Northern Irish political skullduggery and for Pierce Brosnan's sleazy performance but found far less successful as a vehicle for producer-star Jackie Chan. In addition to a bunch of decent-but-not great movies (and the giant flop Green Lantern, which I never saw) Campbell made the best-in-class 007 adventure, Casino Royale, so a mediocre espionage film from him counts as a disappointment.

Information Overload: Forum’s Love and Information & Constellation’s The Wild Party, reviewed.

Farrell Parker (center) is the best reason to see Constellation's The Wild Party. (AJ Guban)

A surfeit of arts coverage in last week's Washington City Paper means it took my reviews of Forum's Caryl Churchill experiment Love and Information and Constellation's Jazz Age musical The Wild Party 'til now to appear. They're in the paper this week.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: Blade Runner 2049, Pop Culture Happy Hour: Blade Runner 2049, Voigt-Kampff'd.

Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford have a lot to talk about. (Stephen Vaughn / Alcon)

Any debate over whether Blade Runner 2049, a 35-years-later sequel to the cultiest cult film in the history of movies, has general-interest appeal should be put to rest by virtue of the fact that Stephen Thompson—the host of the three-way discussion of the film the comprises today's Pop Culture Happy Hour—liked it, too! Pal-for-Life Glen Weldon and I are this movie's core constituency. But when the Kung Fu Panda-loving Mr. Thompson gives his approval to an intense, nearly-three-hour dystopian future flick, you know it's got some moves.

You can listen in here, where the episode is posted along with my review from last week. I had to write it just a couple of hours after I saw Blade Runner 2049, but I think the piece stands up. I'm seeing the movie again tomorrow night at the National Air and Space Museum. I'm looking forward to spending another 163 minutes with a new stone classic.

Mercy Is For Closers: Ford's Death of a Salesman, reviewed.

Craig Wallace, Kim Schraf, Danny Gavigan, and Thomas Keegan as the Lomans. (Carol Rosegg)

What can you do with Death of a Salesman, a play that has never really fallen out of circulation since it debuted almost 70 years ago? Just stay out of its way. Here’s my Washington City Paper review of Ford’s Theatre’s new Craig Wallace-starring production, which I loved.

Under the Skin Job: Blade Runner 2049, reviewed.

All I'm allowed to tell you is this is a photo of Ryan Gosling. (Stephen Vaughn)

I seldom write same-day reviews, but because Blade Runner 2049's embargo was abruptly lifted before it even screened in DC, I had to scramble. I'm very happy to be able to say it's a triumph, a satisfying much-later follow-up in the new tradition of Mad Max: Fury Road, Creed, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But... better than those, even, would you believe.

Here's the review. Enhance!

Barry, Plane and Not Tall: American Made, reviewed.

Domhnall Gleeson and Tom Cruise as two con men. (Universal)

Here's my NPR review of American Made, Doug Liman's heavily fictionalized but ecstatically true crime biopic starring Tom Cruise as C.I.A. gunrunner and dope smuggler Barry Seal. As I discuss in the piece, Liman's father, Arthur Liman, was heavily involved in the 1987 U.S. Senate hearings into the Iran-Contra affair, of which Seal's covert flights were an operational element. And here's Arthur.

FURTHER READING: I loved Cruise and Liman's prior collaboration, 2014's Edge of Tomorrow, and I wrote about it and discussed it on Pop Culture Happy Hour, as part of an episode about good movies that kinda tanked.