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It's a Straight: Poker Night, reviewed.

Chris Klimek

Beau Mirchoff has the cheek to try to play a tough-guy lead in Poker Night.

Beau Mirchoff has the cheek to try to play a tough-guy lead in Poker Night.

I don't know anything about poker, but I gave writer/director Greg Francis' feature debut Poker Night 2.5 out of a possible five starts for The Dissolve. Which according to this ranking of various hands in poker, makes it the equivalent of a straight.

Sorry about the gross photo. I didn't have many choices.

On Around Town, discussing Theater J's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide and Arena's Fiddler on the Roof

Chris Klimek

We take you once again to the studios of WETA, where I was delighted as ever to join Around Town host Robert Aubry Davis and Washington Post arts writer Jane Horwitz for on-message discussions of two shows I recently reviewed for the Washington City Paper. We covered Theater J’s production of Tony Kusher’s latest play, the exhausting (deep breath) The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scripturesas well as Arena's square and satisfying production of Fiddler on the Roof  my first. That's the one I'll be sending my folks to see for Christmas.

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Won't Someone Please Think of the 'Tweens? The PG-13 at 30.

Chris Klimek

Amrish Puri rips out the heart of mainstream cinema in 1984's Temple of Doom.

Amrish Puri rips out the heart of mainstream cinema in 1984's Temple of Doom.

To wrap up The Dissolve's Movie of the Week examination of Joe Dante's GremlinsKeith Phipps asked me to write a reflection on the PG-13, the lukewarm rating introduced in the summer of 1984 in response to the outcry that greeted the PG-rated Gremlins' violence and darkness, as well as that of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, released two weeks earlier. I was honored to oblige.

A surprising, random fact of which I was unaware: Gremlins, a horror comedy and the fourth-highest grossing film of 1984, was released the very same day as that year's second-biggest hit, Ivan Reitman's horror comedy Ghostbusters. That would never happen now, and yet apparently it didn't hurt either of those films back then. Neither of them could out-earn Beverly Hills Cop, however. The fact an R-rated action comedy was the biggest hit of the year is another reminder of how much Hollywood has changed in a generation-and-a-half.

Suicide Admission: Theater J's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide, reviewed.

Chris Klimek

Tom Wiggin, right, is the emotional anchor of this discursive and pointy-headed gabfest.

Tom Wiggin, right, is the emotional anchor of this discursive and pointy-headed gabfest.

My review of Theater J's production of Tony Kusher's latest play, (deep breath) The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, is in today's Washington City Paper, just in case your own family's arguments aren't sufficiently academic and orotund and insufferable enough for you. Good performances, though. Happy Thanksgiving.

On Around Town, talking Sex with Strangers, Julius Caesar, and How We Got On

Chris Klimek

For more on how abysmal I am at looking into a camera and smiling when someone says my name, we take you now to the studios of WETA, where I was pleased to join Around Town host Robert Aubry Davis and Washington Post arts writer Jane Horwitz for very brief discussions of three shows I recently reviewed for the Washington City Paper, starting with my favorite of 2014, Signature Theatre's production of Laura Eason's Sex with Strangers.

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Can of Wormholes, or Accretion Discography: My Interview with Kip Thorne, Interstellar Progenitor and Scientific Adviser

Chris Klimek

Kip Thorne on the set of Interstellar. (Paramount/Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures)

Kip Thorne on the set of Interstellar. (Paramount/Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures)

For my day job at Air & Space / Smithsonian, I interviewed Kip Thorne, the theoretical physicist who with his friend the movie producer Lynda Obst, conceived the film Interstellar back in 2006. Thorne remained closely involved with the picture throughout its writing, production, and editing, and has now published a 324-page companion to the film called The Science of "Interstellar" laying out his scientific rationalization for every aspect of its story -- even the Love Tesseract Wormhole.

DUH: Don't read this interview if you intend to see Interstellar but haven't yet.

And if that's your situation, and you live anywhere in the Washington, DC diaspora, make sure to catch the movie in 70mm IMAX at either the National Air & Space Museum downtown or at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center out by Dulles International Airport. I've seen it both this way and in digital IMAX, and the 70mm presentation is more painterly and majestic. It also sounds better, curiously. The muddy sound mix we talked about on Pop Culture Happy Hour last week (based on a digital IMAX screening in Silver Spring, Maryland) was not a problem when I saw the film again at NASM in 70mm.