Oh So Geeky

Set several months before songwriter Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) passes away of complications of pneumonia brought on by alcoholism, he spends a night out at the iconic restaurant Sardi's as his old songwriting partner Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) celebrates the premiere of Oklahoma! and goes on to have a legendary creative partnership with Oscar Hammerstein II.  Director Richard Linklater essentially composes a play to film, centering on a one-set location and tiny ensemble to steer Robert Kaplow's wondrous script. As a dialogue driven drama, there's a His Girl Friday pace to the tone of what is said. Think about anything else than what is being heard on screen, and you might miss the string of fast paced one quips Hawke hits out of the park or the painful ruminations as Hart misunderstands his essential part in theatre and fame's grand scheme. Simultaneously revered and forgotten by his contemporaries, the old world of Hart's success and congeniality slips away a...

The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been on a strange journey since it debuted fifty years ago. Linus O'Brien, son of musical creator Richard O'Brien, traces back the phenomenal musical to its heyday when his father first started working out the idea of transvestite scientist Frank-N-Furter with his cohorts and their run-in with straight-laced couple Brad and Janet.  When experiencing in person, or merely observing, the underground yet global reception of Rocky Horror Picture Show today, it's tough to believe that the theatrical production originally began with such humble beginnings - O'Brien putting his own feelings of gender and belonging to the page, assembling a ragtag group cast and crew who eventually hopped the pond over to the Roxy Theatre in L.A., and then becoming cemented as a film classic. And yet, as the LGBTQ+ community faces more and more challenges, the show never goes out of style, kept continually revived by midnight theatrical runs, fan clubs, and sh...