“Radical Decency” might be a fancy new name for the old-timey philosophy governing Bridge of Spies, Steven Spielberg’s earnest, burnished, thoroughly gripping account of a notable episode of Cold War diplomacy. Compressing events that unfolded between 1957 and 1962, the film is primarily about the relationship between Manhattan insurance lawyer James B. Donovan and Rudolf Abel, née Col. Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher, the Soviet spy he was court-appointed to represent.
Though reluctant to accept Abel’s case, Donovan defends his client with more zeal than anybody, including the judge, wants, on the grounds that it’s the only way to show the world that innocent-until-proven-guilty American justice is superior to its totalitarian Soviet counterpart. Though unable to persuade a jury of Abel’s innocence, Donovan persuades the judge to spare his life—leaving the U.S. with a bargaining chip when C.I.A. pilot Francis Gary Powers’ top-secret U-2 spyplane is shot down over Soviet territory and Powers is captured three years later. Appreciating that Donovan foresaw the need for a captive to trade, the C.I.A. dispatches him to freshly walled-off East Berlin to try to negotiate Powers’ release in exchange for Abel.
Read More
After our summer hiatus, I'm back on WETA's Around Town with host Robert Aubry Davis and fellow theatregoer Jane Horwitz to talk about three recent shows I reviewed for the Washington City Paper: MetroStage's historical musical Uprising, Olney Theatre Center's brutal-but-funny addiction drama Bad Dog, and Synetic Theatre's confused new version of Alice in Wonderland. You will no doubt notice from my lapels that I am wearing a new sport jacket, at my mom's insistence. Anyway, please enjoy my stuttering, my trailing off, and of course, my truly peerless sportjacket-wearing.
Read More
...wherein I join PCHH host Linda Holmes and regular panelists Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon to talk about where the beloved hit movie fits into director Ridley Scott's oeuvre and its fidelity to Andy Weir's novel.
I suggested How-To Stories as a companion topic, since The Martian — in both its incarnations, albeit moreso in prose than onscreen — goes into unusual detail about the stuff its stranded-astronaut hero Mark Watney must do to survive on a planet that (so far we know) does not sustain life. We all struggled to come up with suitable examples of favorite stories in this genre, and to thread the needle between a How-To and a Procedural. I could've talked about several different Michael Mann films, but particularly Thief, Manhunter, Heat, or even The Insider. As is often the case, I didn't think of that until later.
Read More
Reviewed in this week's Washington City Paper: Gabrielle Fulton's Uprising, about Osborne Perry Anderson, who wrote the only first-hand account of the doomed 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry led by abolitionist John Brown. In this "rolling world premiere" at Alexandria, Virginia's MetroStage, a mix of Negro spirituals and original songs power Fulton's story of a romance between Anderson — a fugitive for his role in Brown's raid — and a Pennsylvania field hand named Sal.
Some wonky characterization aside, I found it to be a powerful and not-glib exploration of heroism and sacrifice. My review is here.
Read More
