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- <text id=90TT0892>
- <title>
- Apr. 09, 1990: Critics' Voices
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Apr. 09, 1990 America's Changing Colors
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- CRITICS' VOICES, Page 22
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>MOVIES
- </p>
- <p> BAD INFLUENCE. A devilish Rob Lowe matches wits with James
- Spader (sex, lies, and videotape), who plays a computer-nerd
- Faust in this stylish thriller. Spader, a truly talented actor,
- accomplishes the rare trick of making the weak good guy seem
- more interesting than the strong bad guy.
- </p>
- <p> HOUSE PARTY. On the night of the biggest party of the year,
- Kid (Christopher Reid) is grounded because of his bad report
- card. What's Kid to do? Sneak out, of course. Writer-director
- Reggie Hudlin gives zip and lots of laughs to this sharp,
- hip-hop comedy that blends a John Hughes-like ear for dialogue
- with the visual flair of Spike Lee.
- </p>
- <p> FOR ALL MANKIND. By combining NASA footage of the Apollo
- missions and voice-over interviews with 13 astronauts who
- visited the moon, this award-winning documentary recreates the
- exhilarating experience of exploring earth's satellite from
- pre-launch to splashdown.
- </p>
- <p>TELEVISION
- </p>
- <p> CRISIS: URBAN EDUCATION (PBS, April 10 and 17, 10 p.m. on
- most stations). The ills of big-city schools--and some of
- their successes--are explored in four half-hour
- documentaries, spread over two weeks.
- </p>
- <p> CAPITAL NEWS (ABC, debuting April 9, 9 p.m. EDT). Hill
- Street Blues alum David Milch co-created this overly earnest
- ensemble drama about reporters for a Washington newspaper.
- Lloyd Bridges presides weekly as the crusty editor.
- </p>
- <p>FESTIVALS
- </p>
- <p> NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL. Ten days of hot music
- (jazz, blues, R. and B., Zydeco, gospel) and spicy food
- (jambalaya, crawfish pie, gumbo, red beans and rice), set in
- America's premier party town. Now in its 21st year, the
- festival will play host to some 3,000 musicians, including
- local artists and such international stars as B.B. King, Ramsey
- Lewis, Linda Ronstadt, Gary Burton, Ornette Coleman and the
- Crescent City's own Neville Brothers. April 27 through May 6.
- </p>
- <p> THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL, Colorado Springs. From
- The Wrath of Grapes, a documentary about pesticide threats to
- farmworkers, to the pilot of The Elite, television's first
- eco-police drama, a feast of 135 movies, videos, shorts and
- cartoons that is certain to give the 20,000 expected
- participants a Rocky Mountain high. April 27 through 29.
- </p>
- <p>ETC.
- </p>
- <p> TALIESIN WEST: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S ARIZONA LEGACY,
- Scottsdale. There have long been daily tours, but now the
- master's Western architecture school and home is offering
- special seminars and musical performances, as well as expanded
- tours each Thursday, featuring spaces never before open to the
- public. Through April 15, 1991.
- </p>
- <p> TO MANY AMERICANS, THE WORDS SPANISH WINE mean sherry or
- sangria, that treacly mixture of fruit, club soda and purplish
- plonk. But try the phrase out on bargain-minded oenophiles, and
- the response is likely to be Rioja or Penedes, the rugged
- northern districts that produce most of the country's best
- table wines. Major vintners have spent millions on
- modernization, and Spanish reds and whites, once notorious for
- unreliability, have more than held their own in recent blind
- tastings with comparably priced products of France, Italy and
- California. In the U.S., Montecillo and Marques de Caceres are
- the best-selling Rioja brands, Torres the dominant name from
- Penedes. For a top-of-the-line treat, try one of the velvety,
- puissant reds produced by Pesquera (Alejandro Fernandez) or
- Vega Sicilia. Critics agree that they are world-class in
- quality--but, alas, in price as well.
- </p>
- <p>THEATER
- </p>
- <p> CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. Can screen sex-goddess Kathleen
- Turner play Tennessee Williams' toughest and lustiest heroine?
- An emphatic yes, though it doesn't hurt that she spends the
- whole first act in just a slip. The director is from Britain,
- and most of the accents are from Mars; but otherwise this is
- a spectacular production, with Turner's steam offset by the
- wonderfully chilly malice of Charles Durning as the patriarchal
- plutocrat Big Daddy.
- </p>
- <p> SEX, DRUGS, ROCK & ROLL. Solo satirist Eric Bogosian (Talk
- Radio) in another city-smart walk on the wild side. His
- characters, from a rock star to a homeless man to a
- fist-pounding executive, are realized with a stunning eye for
- detail.
- </p>
- <p> ST. MARK'S GOSPEL. What Hal Holbrook is to Mark Twain, Alec
- McCowen is to the King James Version of Scripture, and the
- return of this rich, textured performance off-Broadway is good
- news even for atheists.
- </p>
- <p>MUSIC
- </p>
- <p> RAGE TO LIVE: BLAME THE VICTIMS (Restless/Bar/None).
- Intense, intrepid rock 'n' roll. A Jersey group for whom
- Springsteen's Asbury might as well be a black hole on the
- ocean, Rage to Live muscles its way through 20 tunes--some
- tough, some off-center--and does a three-minute job on the
- CSN&Y classic Suite: Judy Blue Eyes that leaves you wondering
- what the original did with the extra five minutes.
- </p>
- <p> THE LOUNGE LIZARDS: VOICE OF CHUNK (1-800-44-CHUNK). Another
- bold first in direct marketing: the name of the label is the
- number you dial to order the record. The Lizards are
- actor-saxer John Lurie's loose-limbed group of refried bop
- addicts, and Chunk fairly swings with wit and invention.
- </p>
- <p>Compiled by Andrea Sachs.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
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