Language Bury Her: Studio's Translations and Folger's The Winter's Tale, reviewed.

British soldiers survey an Irish village circa 1830 in Translations. (Teresa Wood)

I've got reviews of two shows I enjoyed in this week's Washington City Paper: Studio Theatre second-in-command Matt Torney's confident new production of Brian Friel's 40-year-old Irish classic Translations, and Aaron Posner's The Winter's Tale over at the Folger. The former as a lot of superb performers who haven't worked a lot in Washington before. The latter has a bunch of Posner's favorite actors (and mine), but it's Michael Tisdale as the maniacal King Leontes who runs away with the show.

Furry Road: Isle of Dogs, reviewed.

Boss (Bill Murray), a former baseball team mascot, is part of a pack of exiled canines.

It's no shocker that I loved Wes Anderson's new stop-motion adventure of Isle of Dogs. It's a mild shocker that I didn't cry watching it. Either time! My NPR review is here. UPDATE: I'm on the Pop Culture Happy Hour episode where we hash over some of charges of insensitivity and cultural appropriate that a few critics have levied against the movie, too. That's on the same page as the review, but you can hear below, too.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Isle of Dogs"

Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson, Glen Weldon, Chris Klimek

Farewell, Angelina: Tomb Raider, reviewed.

Alicia Vikander and Walton Goggins pay some bills. (Graham Bartholomew)

People always told me, don't go raiding tombs... I mean, if you're determined to see Tomb Raider, a movie, technically, based on a 2013 reboot of a 1996 video game that previously spawned a couple of Angelina Jolie-starring movies, nothing will deter you. But you'll be going against critical advice.

Nothing to Declare: Gringo, reviewed.

David Oyelowo and Sharlto Copley

Here's my NPR review of Gringo, a bloody farce that musters four good comic performances from primarily non-comedic actors in the service of nothing much.

Cloak & Dagger? I Hardly Know 'Er: Red Sparrow, reviewed

J-Law and Joel Edgerton make love and also war.

Red Sparrow, a nasty adaptation of a novel by C.I.A. veteran Jason Matthews starring Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton, is the Black Widow origin movie Marvel Studios will never make. I like a movie that gets at the existential misery of spycraft. Here's my NPR review.

John Brown's Body: The Raid, reviewed.

Marquis D. Gibson and Nicklass Aliff as Douglass and Brown (Theatre Alliance)

As much as like going to Ford's Theatre to see plays about Abraham Lincoln, going to Anacostia to see plays about Frederick Douglass is a rarer pleasure. Here's my review of Theatre Alliance's production of Idris Goodwin's The Raid, from this week's Washington City Paper.

What's Past Is Prologue: The Great Society, reviewed.

All Occasions Do Inform Against him: Jack Willis as LBJ, with Elliott Bales, Brook Berry, Alana D. Sharp and Andrew Weems (C. Stanley Photography)

I wrote about Arena Stage's production of Robert Schenkkan's LBJ play The Great Society in this week's Washington City Paper.

FURTHER READING: My April 2016 review of All the Way.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: Annihilation! (emphasis mine)

Gina Rodriguez and Natalie Portman breach the perimeter in Annihilation. (Paramount)

"Annihilation" and What's Making Us Happy

NPR

Here is a joke you will not hear on today's episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour, wherein I join old friends Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson and new friend Daisy Rosario to dissect (heh) Annihilation, the new thriller from Ex Machina writer/director Alex Garland starring Natalie Portman and involving lots of cool but hella gross body horror stuff:

 Portman hand

Portman finger

Portman foot

Portmanteau

(Bows.)

Let nothing, nothing go to waste. You can hear the episode here.