September '25 Digital Week II

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

Bang Bang 

(Vertigo Releasing)

Tim Blake Nelson’s ferocious portrayal of Bernard “Bang Bang” Rozyski, a washed-up boxer beset by personal foibles and tragedies—his twin brother was brain-damaged after a fight years ago—who has redemption and revenge on his mind in director Vincent Grashaw and writer Will Janowitz’s gritty but ragged character study. Although the relationships (with his daughter, grandson, etc.) don’t always parse plausibly, the acting of Nelson, Nina Arianda (estranged daughter Jen), Andrew Liner (teenage grandson Justin), Glenn Plummer (former ring foe turned politician Darnell) and others is compelling enough to keep one watching.

Dreams 

(Strand Releasing)

The other films in director-writer Dag Johan Haugerud’s trilogy about nontraditional sexual relationships were better in theory than execution, but this final entry is an intelligent depiction of the confusion of high school student Johanne, whose crush on Johanna, her French teacher, is the trigger for a knotty study of morality and agency when Johanne writes a book about en evening in Joahanna’s apartment when Johanne was a minor. Unlike Sex and Love, Dreams has an urgency thanks to a  lively script that’s populated by authentically believable people like Johanne (Ella Øverbye), her mother Kristin (Ane Dahl Torp) and grandmother Karin (Anne Marit Jacobsen) as well as Johanna (Selome Emnetu), who is given space to breathe as an individual. The exemplary acting is led by Øverbye, whose Johanne is wondrously alive and complex.

Naked Ambition 

(Music Box Films)

She looked like a pinup (and was, actually, winning several beauty pageants), but photographer Bunny Yeager had a fascinating career arc that is only touched upon by Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch’s documentary, which dutifully follows her pathbreaking trajectory amid interviews with friends, family members and colleagues alongside copious archival footage and, of course, photographs. At a fleet 73 minutes, the portrait seems more superficial than it should—after all, Yeager made Bettie Page famous in the ‘50s with her nude photographs of her for Playboy—but if you don’t know Yeager’s story, then this is a decent primer.

Triumph of the Heart 

(Outsider Pictures)

The tragic true story of Maximillian Kolbe, a Polish Catholic priest whom the Nazis put in Auschwitz, where he tended to his fellow prisoners’ spiritual needs before taking the place of another who was sentenced to the gas chamber, was the basis of a shattering 1991 dramatization by the great Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi, Life for Life. In this new biopic by writer-director Anthony D’Ambrosio, the sad but uplifting story is retold effectively, although the director’s wallowing in the camp misery mutes some of the power of the martyred Kolbe’s story. (The priest was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982). Still, this story needs telling, and with the inexplicable unavailability of the Zanussi film, D’Ambrosio’s version is an adequate replacement.

Streaming Release of the Week 

Hidden Face 

(Well Go USA)

In this fervid remake of a sordid 2011 thriller by Colombian director Andrés Baiz, the lives of three people—a charismatic young conductor; his wife, the orchestra’s cellist, who goes missing; and a younger woman, who soon takes her spot in the orchestra and the conductor’s bed—are tracked by writer-director Kim Dae-woo. Unfortunately, after an hour confidently setting up the various relationships and the characters’ secrets, he lets the second hour badly get away from him, as the plotting gets more cartoonish. Still, the strong acting from the central trio and an erotic atmosphere keep this watchable right up until the doozy of a denouement. 

DVD Release of the Week

Spenser: For Hire—The Complete Series 

(Warner Bros)

This popular nighttime drama was centered on crime novelist Robert B. Parker’s iconic renegade detective, the mononymously named Spenser, and followed Robert Urich’s earlier television hits—SWAT and Vegas—to last three seasons (1985-87) on ABC. Urich’s charismatic presence was perfect for this Boston-based private detective who marched to his own drum. Alongside Urich and the Beantown setting, the series’ 65 episodes also included a terrific supporting cast led by Avery Brooks, Ron McLarty, Richard Jaeckel, Barbara Stock, and Carolyn McCormick.

CD Release of the Week 

Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady

(Chandos)

One of the all-time classic musicals, My Fair Lady set Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion—a still-relevant exploration of class and gender differences—to equally memorable music, as Lerner and Loewe’s sharp and witty songs bump up against Shaw’s brilliant characters, the low-class Eliza Doolittle and the arrogant Professor Henry Higgins, whose showdown is hilarious, dramatic and thrilling. In this excellent recording—the latest in Chandos’ traversal of legendary Broadway musicals—Scarlett Strallen makes a feisty, powerhouse-voiced Eliza, and she’s matched perfectly by Jamie Parker’s droll Higgins. Eliza’s transformation from guttersnipe to princess is handled beautifully by Strallen, and the sumptuous music is given a wonderful spin by the Sinfonia of London under the sure baton of conductor John Wilson.

Broadway Review—Jeff Ross in “Take a Banana for the Ride”

Take a Banana for the Ride

Written and performed by Jeff Ross

Directed by Stephen Kessler

Performances through September 28, 2025

Nederlander Theatre, 208 West 41st Street, NYC

jeffrossbroadway.com

Jeff Ross in Take a Banana for the Ride (photo: Emilio Madrid)

If you thought comic Jeff Ross, best known as the Roastmaster General who’s made brutal fun of celebrities for years on Comedy Central roasts, would come to Broadway with his insult flag flying, you might be surprised by Take a Banana for the Ride (yes, he explains the offbeat title). Sure, Ross spits out some blisteringly nasty remarks—and even shows an over-the-top putdown of both Sandra Bernhard and Bea Arthur, from a long-ago televised roast, before he takes the stage—but keeps them to a minimum, considering his reputation. Banana instead is an autobiographical tale of how his family life in Newark put him on the path to standup comedy.

Ross grew up as Jeffrey Lifschultz, saying that his last name “is an old Hebrew word. It means, ‘Hey, you ought to change that’.” Working in his dad’s restaurant, Ross says that he got his work ethic from both parents. For 90 minutes, Ross spins an entertaining yarn that’s often hilarious and even, at times, poignant. But for such a tart-tongued performer, Ross often gets sentimental discussing his family, close friends and even the German Shepherds he adopted during the pandemic—and whom he jokingly named Ausch and Schwitz—even getting the audience to bark a collective “Aw!” when he brings one of his pups onstage.

There are sharp jokes scattered throughout as Ross reminisces about his mother, dad and grandfather, “Pop Jack,” with whom Jeff lived while trying to break into the comedy world. The show’s title comes from Pop Jack, who, Ross says, would give him a banana when Ross went into the city to perform at clubs, saying, “You never know when you’ll need one, so take the banana for a ride. You never know what’s going to happen: you might get stuck in traffic, you might need some potassium, you might need it for low blood sugar—and in a pinch you could use it as a dildo or if you get sad, turn it sideways: it’ll remind you to smile.” 

He candidly admits that bananas can get mushy inside, and a few times during a show where Ross skirts sappiness, I admit I wanted to hear him go off on a roasting tangent. But that’s not what he’s going for with this performance—he had a close call when he was recently diagnosed with cancer, and he also lost several close comedy friends: namely, Norm McDonald, Gilbert Gottfried and Bob Saget. Director Stephen Kessler helps pace what is essentially a long monologue adroitly—photos and videos are displayed on the screen behind Ross, while pianist Asher Denburg and violinist Felix Herbst accompany Ross with well-chosen musical selections and often amusing song interludes.

Ross does provide a bit of his penchant for insult comedy at the end, when he roams up and down the aisles chatting with audience members, giving them a cutting comment or two and handing them a banana for being good sports. Take a Banana for the Ride might not convert non-fans, but Ross’ observational comedy does successfully transfer to Broadway.

September '25 Digital Week I

4K/UHD Release of the Week 

Jurassic World—Rebirth 

(Universal)

The latest chapter in the Jurassic Park franchise is less risible that its immediate predecessors, and the storyline (David Koepp, who penned the first two Spielberg-Crichton films, is back as screenwriter) is not as ludicrous as it might have been. Of course, the main premise of Gareth Edwards’ film is, as always, people getting close enough to dinosaurs to become dinner (or almost), but the tension is ratcheted up effectively and the actors—with the exception of Scarlett Johansson, who tries hard but is rarely convincing—are decent enough to watch for two hours of maulings and other thrills. The heavily CGIed visuals are impressive on 4K; extras are an hour-long making-of, featurettes, gag reel, deleted scenes, alternate opening and two commentaries.

In-Theater Releases of the Week

The Baltimorons 

(IFC Films)

This sometimes amusing but unbelievably slender rom-com stars its cowriter Michael Strassner as a failed standup who, through various wince-inducing contrivances, ends up with divorced dentist Didi (Liz Larsen) on Christmas Eve. Director and cowriter Jay Duplass hits every obvious note right from the opening Peanuts version of “O Christmas Tree,” with the nadir a long, inert comedy club sequence where the pair starts to fall for each other. Strassner and Larsen are certainly game, but what might have been a satisfying short has been expanded to an interminable 100 minutes.

Democracy Noir 

(Clarity Films)

It’s a difficult moment for democracies across the world, with the rise of right-wing authoritarianism in Europe and in the U.S. Director Connie Field’s timely portrait of how one of Trump’s heroes, Hungarian president Viktor Orbán, has readily and easily dismantled his country’s democratic norms is a reminder of these scary times and a hopeful glimpse at resistance. Field urgent chronicles how three brave women attempt to sound the alarm on the corruption and lies happening right out in the open in their beloved homeland, with the implication that democracy is hanging by a thread in other places as well (hint hint).

Four Nights of a Dreamer 

(Janus Films)

Legendary French auteur Robert Bresson (1901-99) made many masterpieces, from Diary of a Country Priest and Pickpocket to Balthasar and L’Argent, but this 1971 romantic drama—little-seen for decades, which might account for the unaccountably positive reception of this restored version—is not one of them. Based on a Dostoyevsky story, this modern transposition follows a couple that meets when painter Jacques rescues Marthe from jumping off the Pont-Neuf bridge after her lover doesn’t return as he promised. Then comes 80 meandering minutes between them until she returns to her lover when he finally returns Too bad Guillaume des Forêts as the artist is as wooden as Isabelle Weingarten is ravishing as the heroine. Bresson does play around effectively with a tape recorder and Parisian nights glisten thanks to Pierre Lhomme’s luminous camerawork, but the film is as big a misfire as Bresson’s The Devil, Probably.

A Little Prayer 

(Music Box Films)

In Angus MacLachlan’s sensitive drama, David Strathairn gives a towering performance as Bill, a pious businessman in a small Southern town, who bonds with daughter-in-law Tammy after realizing his son David (Will Pullen) might be having an affair with an employee. MacLachlan’s film is filled with bracing moments that are never overstated or sentimentalized; the family dynamics are sympathetically observed, and the central relationship between Bill and Tammy is enacted trenchantly by Strathairn and the wonderful Jane Levy. This small-scale gem hints at the interiorized dramas of Terrence Malick without ever becoming slavishly imitative.

A Savage Art—The Life & Cartoons of Pat Oliphant 

(Magnolia Pictures)

The great political cartoonist, Australian-born Pat Oliphant, has been drawing unique and cutting cartoons for decades, and Bill Banowsky’s illuminating documentary provides a broad overview of his life, career and how he creates his brilliant caricatures and his beloved character, Punk the penguin, who speaks truths from the corner of each drawing. Interviews with colleagues and his children—along with the master himself—give a fully-formed portrait of an idiosyncratic talent, with glimpses of dozens of his seminal, eye-opening cartoons, from Kennedy to Obama (too bad he retired before Trump rose up). 

Stranger Eyes 

(Film Movement)

In Singaporean writer-director Yeo Siew Hua’s unsettling drama, the aftermath of a child gone missing is potently dissected, as the young girl’s estranged parents discover that their everyday lives are being surreptitiously recorded and they are convinced that the person performing the surveillance also abducted their daughter. The director’s misdirection, to coin a phrase, is fitting for a film about voyeurism in our connected digital age, and his refusal to turn this into a mere redo of something like Hitchcock’s Rear Window or Michael Haneke’s Cache—both of which it superficially resembles—is all to the good.

The Threesome 

(Vertical)

What starts as an intriguingly offbeat comedy-drama about the repercussions of a drunken menage a trois among Connor, his former squeeze Olivia and Jenny, a new woman he just met quickly devolves into an often enervating soap opera, particularly when Connor, superman that he is, impregnates both women. Some may find it cute to watch these shenanigans, especially when both babies are about to be delivered and Connor runs back and forth between Olivia’s and Jenny’s hospital rooms like a bad slapstick comedy, but even with nicely-turned performances by Zoey Deutch (Olivia), Jonah Hauer-King (Connor) and Ruby Cruz (Jenny), director Chad Hartigan and writer Ethan Ogilby’s film seems like an afterthought.

CD Release of the Week 

Shostakovich—Chamber Music 

(Capriccio)

One of the most prolific classical composers, the great Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75) wrote much extraordinary and some ordinary music in many genres, from vocal works to symphonies to operas—it was Stalin’s insistence on an agenda of socialist realism that forced him to create rote pieces of disposable music. Then there are his cycles of 15 string quartets and 15 symphonies that are among the most imposing of the 20th century. This excellent compilation of several recordings made between 2000 and 2005 collects three discs of some of Shostakovich’s signature chamber works, including string quartets 1 and 4, piano sonatas 1 and 2, the masterly piano quintet, 24 preludes for piano and the dark Chamber Symphony, an arrangement of perhaps his greatest chamber work, string quartet No. 8. Several first-class performers, including the Moscow Virtuosi ensemble and the Petersen Quartet, give estimable readings of these imposing works.

Shakespeare in the Park Review—“Twelfth Night” at the Delacorte Theater

Twelfth Night

Written by William Shakespeare; directed by Saheem Ali

Performances through September 14, 2025

Delacorte Theater, Central Park, New York, NY

publictheater.org

The cast of Twelfth Night (photo: Joan Marcus)

My first-ever Central Park Shakespeare production was in 1989: Twelfth Night was a star-studded mess with Michelle Pfeiffer as a ravishing Olivia and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio a winning Viola/Cesario, but the rest was a motley crew including Jeff Goldblum, Fisher Stevens and Stephen Collins. Two decades later, Daniel Sullivan’s soggy 2009 Central Park Twelfth Night at least had a wonderful Anne Hathaway as Viola/Cesario; but tentative performances by Raul Esparza as Orsino and Audra McDonald as Olivia dragged it down. And the inconsistent Shaina Taub musicalization, which was at the Delacorte in 2016 and 2018, was anchored by the dynamic Nikki M. James’ Viola/Cesario.

Saheem Ali’s new production of the Bard’s dazzling comedy of errors, mistaken identities and the vagaries of love also introduces a revitalized Delacorte Theater. Actually, the theater doesn’t look much different, as most of the updating was done to the performers’ backstage digs and the amount of machinery needed for scene changes. (And yes, the nearby restrooms have been given a welcomed makeover.)

What’s onstage is the usual clash of acting styles, hit-and-miss directorial interventions and unnecessary additions to Shakespeare’s script that mark this pleasant evening under the stars—a gorgeous New York night like the one at the performance I attended helps compensate for what’s lacking. 

Ali announces his intentions from the start: at the rear of the stage, huge letters spell out the play’s cheeky subtitle, What You Will, wittily created by designer Maruti Evans and illuminated brightly by Bradley King. The cast walks on- and offstage near the letters, and Ali delivers a few visual puns, as when Sir Toby Belch (a memorably sardonic John Ellison Conlee) walks off saying “Ay?” while pointedly looking at the A in WHAT, and Sandra Oh—an otherwise unaffecting Olivia—lounges near the O in YOU. (A later scene where four characters hide behind a tree that is just four letters spelling TREE is far less felicitous.)

Ali has cut the play to 100 minutes sans intermission, which speeds up the action among the various subplots too quickly, muting the comic and dramatic highlights along with Shakespeare’s brilliantly conceived reveal. Of course, the hijinks of Toby, Andrew Aguecheek (a funny but overdone Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Olivia’s maid Maria (a game Daphne Rubin-Vega) take center stage, with extra doses of would-be hilarity the playwright never thought of: Toby even snorts coke during one of their comic binges.

Malvolio, the self-centered servant whose loss of dignity and nervous breakdown can be blamed on the aforementioned trio, is played sharply by Peter Dinklage, although he only rarely approaches Philip Bosco’s unforgettable turn in the role, the highlight of Nicholas Hytner’s waterlogged 1998 Lincoln Center Theater revival. 

But Ali’s most interesting addition—having the separated twins Viola (the charming Lupita Nyong’o) and Sebastian (one-dimensional Junior Nyong’o, Lupita’s brother) speak Swahili as outsiders in Illyria, actual lines from the play—is marred by them sprinkling the Swahili in their dialogue throughout, so when they speak it to each other upon being reunited at the end it’s not as touching as it would have been if we hadn’t heard it several times earlier. 

Turning Feste the clown into a rapping and singing troubadour, and embodied agreeably by Moses Sumney, is a decent idea, while wrapping up the show with a curtain call in which the entire cast is clad in Oana Botez’ sumptuous, eye-catching costumes is something that can only work at the Delacorte.