By Kam Williams / Critic

(Feb. 4, 2010) — Mel Gibson might be looking a little long in the tooth, but he hasn’t lost a step in terms of his acting chops, judging by "The Edge of Darkness," a remake of the six-hour BBC mini-series of the same name first broadcast in 1985. The setting has been shifted from Britain to Boston, where the film unfolds in a fashion similar to such samples of the emerging gritty, Beantown-based crime genre as "Mystic River" (2003), "The Departed" (2006), "Gone Baby Gone" (2007) and "What Doesn’t Kill You" (2008).

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By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

NEW YORK (Feb. 4, 2010) — Betty Buckley, the illustrious star of film and stage, is showing audience members at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency what a star turn is all about. In her latest cabaret outing, titled “For the Love of Broadway!,” Buckley makes her way through the American songbook of musical theater, singing the standards of Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Leonard Bernstein and Cy Coleman.

The result is a slick 90-minute presentation of nearly two-dozen songs that rejuvenates the confidence in these classics. Offering many selections in her trademark jazzy style, Buckley seems to travel miles, even though she never leaves her piano-side spot on the tiny stage at Feinstein’s.

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By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

ENGLEWOOD (Feb. 4, 2010) — In the coming weeks, the Bergen Performing Arts Center, lovingly coined the bergenPAC, will feature several headliners from the world of blues, classic rock and dance. Tickets vary in price, and are as low as $19 for some shows. Visit www.bergenpac.org for more information.

Getting things started Friday, Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. is Ballet Hispanico presenting “Latin Nights.” Rather than traveling to exotic locales where the mojitos are as plentiful as the sandy beaches, stay close this winter and head up to Englewood for this display of conga, rumba, mambo and cha cha. Influenced by countries such as Brazil and Cuba, and everywhere in between, Ballet Hispanico will put on a show for a fraction of the cost to actually travel to these countries. Ticket prices range from $22 to $65.

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By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

NEW YORK (Jan. 28, 2010) — Young Jean Lee’s “Lear” is best described as a spirited experiment, and thus an imperfect theater piece. There are ideas of great scope crammed into the 80 minutes of this one act, especially when Lee focuses in on the relationship between children and their fathers.

But finding any cohesion or fully realized thought is difficult. It feels too much like a tryout.

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By Kam Williams / Critic

(Jan. 21, 2010) — A year ago, Mickey Rourke became the toast of Tinseltown after the release of "The Wrestler," in which he delivered a memorable performance as a down-on-his-luck loser making the most of his last shot at redemption.

Rourke, whose own life’s trajectory resembled the arc of the character he was portraying, collected a Golden Globe and numerous other accolades over the course of the 2009 awards season.

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By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

NEW YORK (Jan. 21, 2010) — Seán McGinley has performed works by O’Neill, Wilde, Shakespeare, Williams, Mamet and Synge. From Galway to Dublin, he’s graced a number of stages in his native country of Ireland, chiseling out character after character throughout his long and illustrious career. McGinley very much earns the designation of a veteran theater actor.

But this month, he is doing something different, something novel, something perhaps surprising: Seán McGinley will perform in New York City for the very first time.

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By Kam Williams / Critic

(Jan. 20, 2010) — It is 2043, several decades after a war to end all wars which has left America a vast, violent wasteland devoid of infrastructure. In the wake of the devastating catastrophe, civilization has been replaced by a desperate, lawless society where life is cheap, and a man might lose his life over a glass of water, a piece of food, or even nothing at all.

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(Jan. 18, 2010) — Let’s face it, although the Hollywood Foreign Press Association hands out annual awards in a variety of television and film categories, most people really consider the Golden Globes a fashion show and an early indicator of Academy Award potential. Judging by this year’s results, "Avatar," which won for Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director (James Cameron), emerged from the evening with the most Oscar buzz.

In the acting categories, perennial-nominee (24) Meryl Streep took home her seventh trophy for "Julie & Julia," while Sandra Bullock won one for the first time in four tries for "The Blind Side." Mo’Nique was a shoo-in for "Precious" in the supporting actress category, as was Christoph Waltz for "Inglourious Basterds."

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By Kam Williams / Critic

(Jan. 15, 2010) — This searing, coming-of-age saga, written and directed by Brit Andrea Arnold (Red Road), gets my vote as the best cinematic release of the first two weeks of 2010, if that means much. Last year, the movie made a big splash on the other side of the pond where it reeled in awards at film festivals in Cannes, England, Norway, Scotland and Croatia.

Despite the film’s title (and my employing every aquatic allusion I could think of in the previous sentence), the movie doesn’t revolve around a fish tank. Still, that might be the best way to describe the modest flat which serves as the setting for the picture’s lead characters sharing the cramped confines of an increasingly-claustrophobic, pressure cooker.

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By Kam Williams / Critic

(Jan. 15, 2010) — Christopher Brian Bridges was born Sept. 11, 1977, in Champaign, Ill., where he began rapping at the age of 9 and formed his first musical group a few years later. While in his teens, his family moved to Atlanta where he attended Banneker High School before majoring in music management at Georgia State University.

He later worked at a local radio station as DJ Chris Lova Lova until adopting the alias Ludacris to perform on Timbaland’s track “Phat Rabbit.” He subsequently launched his own career in 2000 with the release of the album “Back for the First Time,” following that up a year later with “Word of Mouf,” and the rest is history.

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By Kam Williams / Critic

(Jan. 14, 2010) — Peter Jackson is fond of making long movies, to wit, each of his previous four films has been at least three hours in length. This latest one, "The Lovely Bones," clocks in at a mere two and a quarter, but unfortunately feels a lot longer than that. The movie is based on Alice Sebold’s surrealistic bestseller of the same name, posthumously narrated from Limbo by a 14-year-old rape and dismemberment victim as she observes the toll her death takes on her family as her killer remains free and continues to stalk other young victims.

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By Kam Williams / Critic

(Jan. 13, 2010) — Despite turning 21, Michael Cera apparently has no problem remaining typecast as a terminally-nerdy teenager. Since appearing as an awkward geek in "Superbad" in 2007, we’ve seen the baby-faced thespian play slight variations of the same archetype in "Juno," "Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist," "Paper Heart," "Year One" and, now, "Youth in Revolt."

This time out, he’s Nick Twisp, a 16-year-old with raging hormones who’s obsessed with losing his virginity. How original! And the object of his injection is his proverbial girl next-door, Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), the prettiest girl living in their seedy trailer park.

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(Jan. 12, 2010, 3:35 p.m.) — The Leader Newspapers is now available 24 hours a day, seven days a week online and on your cell phone. Follow the news that affects you at The Leader's new Facebook page and Twitter page.

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By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

NEW YORK (Jan. 11, 2010) — The new monologue-driven play, “Little Gem,” an import from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that originally premiered in Dublin, fits nicely into the tradition of Irish theater that relies on spinning yarns and revealing the soul through stories of everyday people living everyday lives. Think Brian Friel meets Conor McPherson meets Sebastian Barry.

In her playwrighting debut, Elaine Murphy proves to have a deft skill at writing realistic dialogue for the three women she’s created for the stage: a grandmother, mother and daughter who each struggle with different stages of love in their life.

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By Kam Williams / Critic

(Jan. 8, 2010) — Mayor Cory Booker may doing his best to resurrect Newark, but it looks like he’s fighting a losing battle, judging by Brick City, a riveting documentary focusing on the body count and wanton violence in the beleaguered New Jersey metropolis. The root of the problem is black-on-black crime emanating mostly from the neverending, bloody turf war between the Crips and the Bloods as they wrestle for control of the lucrative drug trade.

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By Kam Williams / Critic

(Jan. 7, 2009) — Fresh off her 2009 Oscar win for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," Penelope Cruz is back with what might be a more deserving performance in "Broken Embraces," another Spanish soap opera revolving around a messy love quadrangle. The movie marks her fourth collaboration with director Pedro Almodovar, who previously featured the versatile actress in "Live Flesh," "All about My Mother" and "Volver."

In "Broken Embraces," she plays Lena, an aspiring actress who sells her soul, or should I say body, twice. Her first deal with a devil comes in 1992, while working as a secretary for the elderly Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez), a multi-millionaire businessman. She starts sleeping with her smitten boss in order to get him to pay for her terminally-ill father’s medical expenses.

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By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

NEW YORK (Jan. 3, 2009) — Flamenco, that desirous blending of emotive dancing, singing and guitar playing that originated in the Andalucia region of Spain, is an art form that relies on a healthy dose of mystery and spontaneity. It's an expression, through the entire body, of hypocrisy: at one moment, it feels mathematically precise, at the next, a creation born of the moment.

Soledad Barrio, the accomplished flamenco dancer, and Noche Flamenca, the troupe headed by Barrio's husband, Martín Santangelo, seemingly understand this dichotomy perfectly. Their latest show, being presented at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York City, is an embodiment of a structured program that feels tailor-made for each unique performance and individual audience member.

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By John Soltes / Editor in Chief

NEW YORK (Dec. 25, 2009) — There's not much time left to enjoy the annual holiday offering of George Balanchine's "The Nutcracker" at the New York City Ballet. The two-hour, kid-friendly piece has been a Christmas standard for more than 50 years, and there's good reason for this distinction.

Balanchine, original founder of the New York City Ballet, offers a wholly appropriate approach to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's recognizable music. There's a childlike wonderment to the proceedings on the expansive stage of the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, where the New York institution is housed.

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By Kam Williams / Crtiic

(Dec. 29, 2009) — Byron Pitts was born on October 21, 1960 in Baltimore, Maryland where he was raised by a single-mom who saved to send him to Catholic school on a modest seamstress’ salary, despite the fact that they were churchgoing Baptists. Although he would eventually embark on an enviable career on TV as a well-respected news journalist, Byron had to overcome illiteracy and a host of other seemingly-insurmountable childhood challenges en route to turning himself into a great success story. That admirable endeavor was intimately recounted in his revealing memoir “Step Out on Nothing,” a best seller which earned the #2 spot on my annual Top 10 Black Books list.

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