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- <text id=90TT1758>
- <title>
- July 02, 1990: Critics' Voices
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- July 02, 1990 Nelson Mandela:A Hero In America
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- CRITICS VOICES, Page 10
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>MOVIES
- </p>
- <p> DICK TRACY. Lovely to look at (seven gorgeously orchestrated
- colors), delightful to hear (three terrific Stephen Sondheim
- songs), a pleasure to sit through. Warren Beatty's take on the
- tec is funny but not facetious, and Madonna sizzles as a vamp
- chanteuse. Pssst!--this girl could be big in movies.
- </p>
- <p> TOTAL RECALL. Someone has stolen Arnold Schwarzenegger's
- mind! No great loss: Arnold still has his body, which muscles
- its way through two planets and a death toll in the hundreds
- to deliver high-tech, high-octane entertainment. In every
- sense, the movie is bloody sensational.
- </p>
- <p> ANOTHER 48 HRS. You know a movie is in trouble when always
- rumpled Nick Nolte looks to be in better shape than once sleek
- Eddie Murphy. A pity: the great black hope of the '80s seems
- to have phoned in his performance from a stretch limo on its
- way to ex-stardom.
- </p>
- <p>BOOKS
- </p>
- <p> THE BURDEN OF PROOF by Scott Turow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux;
- $22.95). The summer's hottest read by the Chicago attorney and
- best-selling author brings back Presumed Innocent defense
- lawyer Alejandro Stern, now faced with the mystery of his
- wife's suicide, a commodities-market scandal and the
- realization that justice is never blind when it gets too close
- to home.
- </p>
- <p> WILDLIFE by Richard Ford (Atlantic Monthly Press; $18.95).
- A novel about a 16-year-old boy's coming of age in Montana
- during the 1960s, a time of oil boom and family disintegration,
- but also a time to begin understanding the world of grownups
- by observing their passions--and mistakes.
- </p>
- <p> THE FOLKS THAT LIVE ON THE HILL by Kingsley Amis (Summit;
- $18.95). Britain's sharpest satirist has not lost his edge in
- this social comedy about a retired librarian who is busier than
- ever coping with modern inconveniences.
- </p>
- <p>THEATER
- </p>
- <p> FURTHER MO'. In this sprightly off-Broadway sequel to One
- Mo' Time, written and directed by Vernel Bagneris, long-legged,
- loose-jointed Papa Du (Bagneris) leads his squabbling trio of
- red-hot mamas through a re-creation of black vaudeville in the
- 1920s. Sandra Reaves-Phillips is a standout as Big Bertha, and
- the five-piece band, led by clarinetist Orange Kellin, delivers
- up a joyous mix of blues and ragtime that leaves the audience
- shouting for mo'.
- </p>
- <p> THE CEMETERY CLUB. This Broadway comedy about three Jewish
- widows who meet every month to visit their husbands' graves is
- sentimental and sometimes dumb, but also sweet, funny and
- superbly played by Eileen Heckart as a would-be vamp and
- Elizabeth Franz as a proper lady seeking a new life.
- </p>
- <p> COBB. Playwright Lee Blessing (A Walk in the Woods) joins
- forces with director Lloyd Richards (Fences) for a complex,
- intriguing look into the mystique of that nonpareil player and
- apparent racist, Ty Cobb, at San Diego's Old Globe Theater.
- </p>
- <p>MUSIC
- </p>
- <p> SOCIAL DISTORTION: SOCIAL DISTORTION (Epic). Had it with
- those dance divas? Try a dose of this. Real chainsaw-massacre
- modernist punk, laid on heavy but built for speed. Let It Be
- Me is guaranteed to produce feedback in your gold fillings.
- </p>
- <p> WYNTON MARSALIS: THE RESOLUTION OF ROMANCE (Columbia). How
- long can Wynton Marsalis keep getting better? His latest trip
- to the studio, this time accompanied by his father Ellis on
- piano, has produced what may be Wynton's best recording to
- date. His breathy lyricism on such standards as Where or When,
- The Very Thought of You, and I Cover the Waterfront will
- surprise those who dismiss the young man from New Orleans as
- a dazzling but cold technician.
- </p>
- <p>TELEVISION
- </p>
- <p> DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS (ABC, June 28, 3 p.m. EDT). Another
- chapter in that never ending soap opera: Will Susan
- (eleventh-nomination) Lucci finally win an award?
- </p>
- <p> PRESTON STURGES: THE RISE AND FALL OF AN AMERICAN DREAMER
- (PBS, July 2, 9 p.m. on most stations). Hollywood's brilliant
- burnout, who created a string of comedy classics in the 1940s,
- then faded into oblivion, is profiled in the first American
- Masters segment of the summer. If only for the wonderful clips,
- a don't-miss.
- </p>
- <p> ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT REVUE (A&E, Fridays, 8 p.m. EDT, with
- weekend repeats). A weekly magazine with a fresh approach and
- guests you're unlikely to see anywhere else. Host Eric Burns,
- low key and ingratiating, presides over a classy potpourri of
- cultural news and features.
- </p>
- <p>EVENTS
- </p>
- <p> JVC JAZZ FESTIVAL. The son of the famed Newport Festival
- returns to New York City with more than 100 jazz greats and
- future greats, including Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Ray
- Charles, Roberta Flack, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Dave
- Brubeck and Wynton Marsalis. Through June 30.
- </p>
- <p> 1990 GOODWILL ARTS FESTIVAL. Just as Ted Turner's Goodwill
- Games will bring international athletic stars to the Seattle
- area, this festival will gather there some of the world's most
- talented performing-arts groups, including the Bolshoi Ballet,
- Cirque du Soleil and the Grand Kabuki Theater of Japan. Through
- Sept. 30.
- </p>
- <p>CLASSICS
- </p>
- <p> BEETHOVEN: 9 SYMPHONIES (BMG/RCA). This five-disc set (also
- available on cassette) spearheads the first installment of
- BMG's ambitious "Toscanini Collection." It is an invaluable
- introduction to Arturo Toscanini, who was revered for most of
- this century as an emblem of musical perfection but is now
- sometimes assailed for shunning the works of modern composers.
- Here conducting the fine NBC Symphony Orchestra (1939-52), the
- maestro remains unsurpassed for precision and clarity--even
- at breakneck tempos. His structural grasp of entire works is
- astonishing: parts build with inevitable force to form
- coherent, if sometimes debatable, interpretations. The digital
- remastering is admirable, though limited dynamic range and
- parched sound can yield lusterless strings and tinny horns. The
- informed listener will find this offering indispensable, but
- those beginning a music library should try the safer Herbert
- von Karajan or Roger Norrington sets.
- </p>
- <p>By TIME's Reviewers. Compiled by Andrea Sachs.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
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