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November '12 Digital Week I

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Monday, 05 November 2012 05:00; Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week

Americano

(MPI)

Talent must skip a generation: son of French director Jacques Demy and his more talented wife Agnes Varda, Mathieu Demy, wrote, directed and stars in this routine drama about a Frenchman returning to California, where he grew up, after his mother dies; Demy doesn’t give it the urgency which might make it more than merely meandering.

Salma Hayek makes a savvily sexy hooker, but another bad-seed celebrity offspring, Chiara Mastroianni, rivals Demy’s onscreen dreariness. The Blu-ray image looks fine; lone extra is a Demy interview.

The Campaign

(Warners)

Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis play opposing senatorial candidates in this sporadically funny comedy that shows how absurd and infantile American politics is—but do we need a lame Ferrell flick to tell us (and one with 11 minutes of raunchier material on Blu-ray)?

Ferrell basically gives a foul-mouthed Dubya impression, Galifianakis is an unwatchably campy rival, and running gags of punching infants and dogs wear out before they begin. The Blu-ray image is good; extras include deleted scenes and a gag reel.

Chained

(Anchor Bay)

I’m no fan of David Lynch, but he’s infinitely preferable to his director-writer daughter Jennifer Lynch, who made the abominations Boxing Helena and Surveillance. Her sordid latest follows a cab driver who murders a mother and keeps her young son in chains until they gradually evolve into a sadistic sort of father/child relationship.

The many gory killings are reprehensible and pointless; I don’t get moralistic about movies, but in this case, I’d make an exception. Why Julia Ormond bothers to make films with Lynch—she was also in Surveillance—is head-scratching. The Blu-ray image is excellent; extras are an alternate murder scene and Lynch’s commentary with actor Vincent D’Onofrio.

Excision

(Anchor Bay)

In this perverse sexual fantasy about a homely teenage girl whose hormones cause self-destructive behavior—written and directed by a man, of course: Richard Bates, Jr.—Annalynne McCord gives a fearless performance as Pauline, a typical loner who ends up acting on increasingly grotesque dreams of gore-filled glory.

Even if Bates directs the fantasy sequences as titillation, McCord grounds Pauline’s behavior in an uncomfortable reality. The Blu-ray image is top-notch; lone extra is a Bates/McCord commentary.

House of Dark Shadows and

Night of Dark Shadows

(Warners)

On the heels his television show Dark Shadows’ success, Dan Curtis quickly made two features in 1970-1 that captured the series’ flavor. Unlike Tim Burton’s 2012 reboot, Curtis avoids camp but the horror isn’t horrific enough to overcome the oppressive gothic atmosphere.

Overall, the movies nicely do what they set out to, and there’s a beguiling debut by future Charlie’s Angel Kate Jackson—her perfect face, in close-up, is what hi-def is for.

Pat Metheny—The Orchestrion Project

(Eagle Vision)

Grammy-winning jazz guitarist Pat Metheny displays his amazing six-string versatility in this special musical project where he plays along a series of newly-made “instruments” built by imaginative inventors.

Although some of the music on this nearly three-hour disc has a certain sameness to it, the tone and precision of Metheny’s guitar playing remains a wonder to hear after so many decades. The Blu-ray image looks solid; extras include additional performances and a Metheny interview.

The Reichorchester

(Arthaus Musik)

Enrique Sánchez Lansch’s probing 2007 documentary tackles the moral quandary of members of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1933 to 1945, when the ensemble became an official cultural attaché for Hitler and Goebbels.

Lansch interviews the last surviving members from that time—93-year-old Hans Bastiaan and 84-year-old Erich Hartmann—and their often painful reminiscences vividly inform the narrative of a cultured nation which turned a blind eye to inhumanity to preserve itself at a horrible human cost. The hi-def image is decent; lone extra is a 10-minute film of renowned conductor Wilhelm Furtlanger leading the orchestra in a Wagner prelude in 1942.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

(Kino)

If you’re in the mood for a badly written, directed, acted and photographed 1964 Z-movie that does nothing in 70 minutes except conjure memories of bad Ed Wood anti-spectaculars, then there’s nothing I can say except: enjoy.

Otherwise, Santa—rightly on “Worst Movies Ever” lists—won’t satisfy anyone except unpicky kids who want to watch anything Christmassy. You’ve been warned. The visuals, which look abominable, aren’t much better on Blu-ray; though there are 45 minutes of archival footage, it would have been fun to have a commentary by the MST3000 guys.

DVDs of the Week

Coma

(Sony)

Novelist Robin Cook’s medical thriller was turned into an effective if silly movie by Michael Crichton in 1978, with beautiful Genevieve Bujold as its star. Now, 34 years later, we get this overlong, bloated, occasionally interesting TV movie starring Lauren Ambrose and Stephen Pasquale as doctors who discover devious doings going on at their hospital.

The plot twists and turns are as ludicrous as they were in the original, but the earlier movie’s faster pace has been ruined by a pokey 160-minute mini-series designed for a four-hour TV time slot.

Elena

(Zeitgeist)

A masterly dissection of the “new” Russia—in which oligarchs outpace the working classes at a rate even greater than the good ol’ USA—Andrey Zvyagintsev’s drama is best when silent: when all else falls away and we are left with the naked pain and desperation of the title character, a former nurse married to a gazillionaire whose own family is ignored by her rich husband.

Too bad Philip Glass’s risible and self-parodic music downgrades every scene it’s heard in; happily, Zvyagintsev sensibly builds the most powerful moments—beginning with the evocative opening shot—with silence that speaks volumes more than broken Glass. The lone extra is a 30-minute Zvyagintsev interview.

Free Men

(Film Movement)

The French resistance is seen through a new lens in Ismael Ferroukhi’s drama set at the Paris Mosque, where the Muslim community assisted Jews to escape the Nazis. Despite melodramatic touches, Ferroukhi builds tension without sacrificing credible psychology as his young protagonist Younes becomes politically—and morally—engaged. Tahar Rahim, memorable in Jacques Audiard’s prison yarn A Prophet, plays Younes as an innocent naïf, a blank slate with which the director fills in Younes’ interior complexity.

This tense chronicle shows a multi-faceted Vichy atmosphere through the eyes of people rarely encountered onscreen: Muslims putting their lives on the line to defeat Hitler.

Rosemary’s Baby

(Criterion)

Roman Polanski’s 1968 shocker, from Ira Levin’s novel, is one of the most frightening horror movies ever made. Polanski’s matter-of-fact direction makes the reality of Rosemary (Mia Farrow), her husband (John Cassavetes) and baby—spawn of Satan?—even more horrifying, and when the movie spills over into the supernatural, there’s no turning back, despite being couched in a plausible New York milieu.

Extras include new interviews with Polanski, Farrow and producer Robert Evans and Komeda Komeda, a portrait of composer Krzysztof Komeda, who wrote the eerie score.

The Streets of San Francisco—Complete Season 5

(CBS)

Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, a hit duo, broke up at the beginning of the 1976-7 season—Douglas, who won an Oscar producing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was carving out a big-screen career—and handsome Richard Hatch came on board. The new partners did well, but audiences dwindled, and this became the series’ last season.

A smattering of decent episodes (out of 24) includes the opening two-parter, The Thrill Killers, which sees Douglas’s exit and Hatch’s entrance; there’s amusement in nice girls Patty Duke and Susan Dey as cold-blooded murderers.

Turn Me On, Dammit

(New Yorker)

Jannicke Systad Jacobsen’s caricatured comedy about a teenage girl whose hormones rage uncontrollably might have made a fun, insightful short, but stretched to 72 minutes—though fairly compact for a feature—it has little to say about Jacobsen’s protagonist, who spends her time fantasizing about sex or trying to rub herself raw.

Helene Bergsholm’s nuanced portrayal completely outclasses her writer-director’s film. Extras include deleted scenes and a director interview.

CD of the Week

Joyce DiDonato: Drama Queens

(Virgin Classics)

American mezzo Joyce DiDonato, who puts on various guises in this entertaining collection of baroque arias sung by Queens and other royalty, is equally at home singing these extravagantly ornamented vocal works and contemporary music.

Alternating works by composers both familiar (Handel, Gluck, Monteverdi) and obscure (Cesti, Ormandini, Giacomelli), DiDonato has an uncanny ability to inhabit these women in a vivid musical journey, inestimably helped by conductor Alan Curtis and ensemble Il Complesso Barocco.

CD Reviews: Great Vocal Stars Complied on New Releases

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Sunday, 04 November 2012 14:03; Written by Lloyd Carroll

The-Singer Art Garfunkel
The Singer
(Columbia/Legacy)

Art Garfunkel and I have two things in common. We’re both alums of Forest Hills High School and we got our undergraduate degrees at Columbia University. Of course, he can sing a lot better that I. My ego can accept that because his ethereal voice is one of the best that has ever graced a recording. It’s not hubris that this just-released, 34-song, two CD Garfunkel career retrospective is titled The Singer.

You can’t think of Art without thinking about his childhood buddy from Kew Garden Hills and on and off again performing partner, Paul Simon.

While Artie has had a far longer career as a solo artist than he did as half of Simon & Garfunkel, there are plenty of original S&G tunes here including the well-known “Sound of Silence,” “Scarborough Fair” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” as well as more obscure tracks as “For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her,” “Kathy’s Song,” “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” and April Come, She Will.”

Regrettably the dour 1975 hit, “My Little Town,” in which Paul Simon painted Queens as a dreary place populated by people with small minds is included here as well.

Few vocalists can consistently hit the upper octaves of the treble clef without breaking into falsetto. Garfunkel has always managed to pull it off as evidenced by “Breakaway,” “A Heart in New York,” and “99 Miles from LA” -- a song co-written by Hal David who passed away this past September at the age of 91.

It’s somewhat ironic that Artie chose to omit his three biggest solo hits, the overly dramatic “For All I Know,” the lighthearted “I Shall Sing,” and the heartbreaking “Second Avenue.” He did include a samba version of “Some Enchanted Evening.” While it is pleasant to listen to, it can’t hold a candle to the definitive Jay & the Americans’ 1965 hit rendition which truly brought the South Pacific standard to life and to a younger audience.

The Beach BoysFifty Big Ones
(Capitol)

One of the happier concert stories this past summer was the Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary tour in which the surviving key members, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks, proved that age is no barrier to rock & roll. The guys sounded great and were on stage for well over two hours nightly, something most younger bands can’t even endure.

Fifty Big Ones is a clever play on the title of the 1976 Beach Boys album 15 Big Ones in which the guys celebrated their 15th anniversary with both original tunes and covers of their favorite rock songs. Carl Wilson’s vocal take on the Righteous Brothers’ “Just Once in My Life” was worth the price of the LP alone.

If you’ve been looking for the definitive Beach Boys’ greatest hits album, wait no longer. Name a Beach Boys hit and it’s here on this two-disc, 50-song compilation.

Two songs recorded in 1965, “Please Let Me Wonder,” the best song ever written about having a crush on someone, and “Kiss Me, Baby” a tune about the pain of having a blowout argument with your girlfriend and hoping to make up ASAP, finally take their rightful place on a Beach Boys “best of” album alongside “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “California Girls,” “Good Vibrations,” I Get Around,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and the like.

This year’s Beach Boys comeback tune, “That’s Why God Made The Radio,” is here as well. Regrettably their terrific 1986 cover of the Mamas & Papas’ “California Dreaming,” which received substantial airplay on both radio and MTV back in the day, is not here.

Donny Hathaway
Live +In Performance
(Shout Factory)

Much as George “Superman” Reeves’ death in 1959 has remained a mystery all these years, so has rhythm & blues singer Donny Hathaway’s fall from his hotel room at the Essex House in 1979.

Hathaway was best known to pop music fans for a pair of hit duets with Roberta Flack -- 1972’s “Where Is The Love?” and 1978's romantic “The Closer I Get To You.”

While he never achieved the chart success as a solo artist that he did as a singing partner with Ms. Flack, Hathaway was idolized by such legends as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye for both his expressive vocalizing and composing abilities.

This twin-disc live album of Hathaway performing his interpretations of Carole King’s “You’ve Got A Friend,” Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” Leon Russell’s “A Song For You,” and “I’ll Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know” written by Blood, Sweat & Tears’ founding member Al Kooper combined with his own songs, “The Ghetto” and “We Need You Right Now,” shows why he was lionized and still very much missed.

October '12 Digital Week IV

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Sunday, 28 October 2012 10:00; Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week

Alcatraz—Complete Series

(Warners)

This offbeat hybrid of detective and supernatural series, which never had a chance to survive—seeing the first season, it’s probably for the best—follows a group of “detectives” hunting down criminals who disappeared at Alcatraz back in 1963 (its closing was a cover story) and are reappearing in present-day San Francisco, committing crimes decades later. Sound confusing? Join the club.

A general stylishness and a cast headed by Sam Neill help, but the show couldn’t escape its own inconsistencies. The hi-def image shimmers on Blu; extras include deleted scenes and a making-of featurette.

The Ambassador

(Image)

Renegade documentary filmmaker Mads Brugger poses as a racist European colonial who wants to make a bundle of money in Africa, and through hidden cameras, provides proof that the black market and corrupt politicians are alive and well.

Brugger, shooting fish in a barrel, is too pleased with his own prankster duplicity to make any truly pertinent points, unfortunately. Brugger’s commentary is entertaining but also lacks insights. The movie looks quite good in hi-def.

Blade Runner—30^th Anniversary Edition

(Warners)

Ridley Scott’s 1982 dark drama about “replicants” and the bounty hunter tracking them down has become, after an initial bumpy ride, one of the seminal sci-fi films. This 30^th anniversary Blu-ray set, is essentially a re-do of the film’s 25^th anniversary Blu-ray set, has made improvements: the upgrade makes the film’s stunning images even more stunning.

The myriad versions are still present—the original version and international cut, the 1991 directors’ cut, the workprint version, and Scott’s preferred 2007 final cut—and there’s also Scott’s commentary, a crew commentary, and the documentary Dangerous Days.

Exorcism and Female Vampire

(Kino/Redemption)

These steamy Jess Franco horror flicks are typical of his work: both 1973’s Exorcism and 1975’s Female Vampire provide ample opportunities for Franco’s gorgeous and buxom companion Lina Romay to show off her assets in the name of terrorizing audiences, but the silly stories mitigate any real eroticism.

The Blu-ray images of both films, while far from perfect, are the best representations of these films so far on home video; extras include shorter, blander re-edits of both films, a retrospective documentary and tribute to Romay, who died earlier this year.

Magic City—Complete First Season

(Anchor Bay)

This new series, set in a Miami hotel in 1959, is another TV nostalgic trip riding the coattails of Mad Men. That it’s on Starz lets it get away with nudity and language still not allowed on other networks.

There’s dramatic intrigue aplenty in these eight episodes as the mob wants its claws in the hotel, along with Frank Sinatra, the Kennedy clan, and clusters of comely women. This stylish soap has the period sets and costumes down pat—but the characters lack depth. The Blu-ray image looks fine; the extras are featurettes.

Magic Mike

(Warners)

In Steven Soderbergh’s latest on-the-fly character study, that some of the hottest guys in movies (re: my wife), like Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey, play strippers overshadows the fact that this is Soderbergh’s third enjoyable movie in a row (after Contagion and Haywire), a sympathetic, non-condescending look at how regular folks make ends meet during economic troubles.

That Olivia Munn shows her bare breasts is a very fair trade-off for my having to endure the female-scream inducing dance moves. The hi-def image is first-rate; extras are extended dance sequences and a making-of featurette.

Neil Young—Journeys

(Sony)

Director Jonathan Demme accompanied Neil Young to his old haunts in and around Toronto and filmed him at a solo show in grand old Massey Hall. There are unguarded moments of Neil driving through his old neighborhoods, but most of the film rightly takes place onstage, where Young delivers incendiary versions of tunes both new and old.

Classics like “After the Gold Rush” and “Ohio”—where the only explicitly political propaganda is inserted by Demme as he shows photos of the college students killed at Kent State by the National Guard—are front and center. The Blu-ray image is very good; extras include two Demme and Young interviews and a making-of featurette.

Peter Gabriel—Classic Albums: So

(Eagle Vision)

Peter Gabriel’s So turned a cult artist into a superstar in 1986 with hits “Sledgehammer” and “Big Time” (“In Your Eyes” became a smash later in the movie Say Anything). In this fascinating look at So’s creation, Gabriel, co-producer Daniel Lanois, engineer Kevin Killen and musicians Tony Levin, Jerery Marotta and Manu Kache discuss the recording of Gabriel’s seminal record.

I’m still unconvinced “In Your Eyes” should be the last song, because it upsets the familiar balance, but if Gabriel wants it there, who am I to argue? The 60-minute program is reinforced by 35 minutes of additional interviews.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

(Criterion)

Director John Schlesinger and screenwriter Penelope Gilliat’s account of a bi-sexual triangle was groundbreaking in its onscreen depiction of homosexual lovers back in 1971. But it seems tame today, a snapshot of an era when being gay was swept under the rug. If Schlesinger and Gilliatt do little more than update romantic movies with a twist, the splendid trio of Glenda Jackson, Murray Head and Peter Finch is the main reason to watch.

The Blu-ray gives an accurate representation of talented cinematographer Billy Williams’ intention; extras include interviews with Williams, Head, Schlesinger’s lover Michael Childers and biographer William J. Mann.

DVDs of the Week
DL Hughley—Reset

(Image)

For this latest standup appearance, D.L. Hughley performs in New Jersey for an hilarious hour of uproarious observations and stinging wit.

Although the ear-opening section of Hughley’s hour-long routine centers on his autistic son—whom the doting father has no compunctions about mocking, albeit lovingly—he also takes on other, less incendiary topics, all to his audience’s fall-out-of-their-chairs amusement.

The Firm—Complete Series

(e one)

Picking up 10 years after the original John Grisham novel (and Sydney Pollack film) left off, this 22-episode series follows lawyer Mitch McDeere leaving the witness protection program with his wife and daughter and trying to start a new life—and law career.

There are twisty turns galore, and the characterizations are fairly complex for once; the actors, including Josh Lucas and Molly Parker as Mitch and his wife, are up to the task. Extras include interviews and featurettes.

Great Museums

(PBS)

This thorough four-disc set comprises 24 programs that show off our best depositories of art, history and culture: along with obvious choices like MOMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there’s a good mix of regional museums like the Delta Blues Museum and California Surf Museum and national museums like the National D-Day Museum and American Indian Museum.

The 30-to-60 minute programs provide informative overviews of such uniquely American museums as Cooperstown’s Baseball Hall of Fame or New York’s Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

Il Postino

(Sony Classical)

The immensely charming 1995 film with Philippe Noiret and Massimo Troisi—about an ordinary postman who befriends Chilean poet Pablo Neruda while falling in love with a beautiful waitress—has been transformed into a lovely opera by composer Daniel Catan.

Placido Domingo (Neruda), Charles Castronovo (postman) and Amanda Squitieri (waitress) are wonderfully affecting both vocally and histrionically, which makes the story so personal and profound. In an awful parallel, Troisi died right after the film finished shooting and Catan died just months after his opera premiered in Los Angeles.

The Invisible War

(Docurama)

This powerful documentary by Kirby Dick—who also made This Film Is Not Yet Rated—shockingly recounts our military’s worst secret: that female soldiers have a better chance of being raped or sexually abused by fellow soldiers than they do of being wounded or killed on the battlefield.

Several courageous women step forward to discuss what happened to them and how their bosses stonewalled their complaints (in at least one instance, because he was involved). It’s a sadly enlightening commentary on a male-centric world. Extras include a commentary, extended interviews and a deleted scene.

Wish Me Luck—Complete Series

(Acorn)

This British made-for-TV drama series, originally telecast in 1988-9, tells the gripping true story of English women who were Allied secret agents while France was occupied by the Nazis. These 6 discs include 23 hour-long episodes from all 3 seasons, beginning with the fall of France and leading up to D-Day, as the London home office gives the female spies orders for dangerous missions to keep the Germans occupied.

A superlative cast is led by Jane Asher (who is best known to Beatles fans as Paul McCartney’s pre-Linda fiancée) as the embattled chief of the home office.

CD of the Week

Salonen: Nyx/Violin Concerto

(Deutsche Grammophon)

Soloist Leila Josefowicz sizzles on Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto, a technically formidable work in which she plays almost constantly, easily dispatching its many runs and bringing intensity to a less than impassioned piece.

The disc is rounded out by Nyx, an interesting if disjointed workout for the musicians of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, led persuasively by the composer himself.

Theater Roundup: "Virginia Woolf" on Bway; "Freedom of City," "Modern Terrorism," Heresy" off-Bway

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Saturday, 27 October 2012 20:00; Written by Kevin Filipski

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Written by Edward Albee; directed by Pam Mackinnon

Performances through February 24, 2013

The Freedom of the City

Written by Brian Friel; directed by Ciaran O’Reilly

Performances through November 25, 2012

Modern Terrorism, or: They Who Want to Kill and How We Learn to Love Them

Written by Jon Kern; directed by Peter DeBois

Performances through November 4, 2012

Heresy

Written by A. R. Gurney; directed by Jim Simpson

Performances through November 4, 2012

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, in an incendiary new staging by Pam Mackinnon Virginia Michael Brosilow transplanted from Chicago to Broadway, proves that Edward Albee was once a vital, important playwright—which is hard to believe, considering the substandard Albee plays we’ve been seeing in New York in recent years, from The Goat or Who Is Sylvia and Me Myself and I to this year’s disastrous return of The Lady from Dubuque.

No matter: 1962’s Virginia Woolf, is by far Albee’s best play. It recounts one very long night for two couples in a small university town at the house of longtime history professor George and wife (and the college president’s daughter) Martha, as new and young professor Nick and wife Honey arrive for drinks and talk that turns nasty.

Sure, there are the familiar Albee tropes: the metaphysical grandstanding, unnecessary foul language, parsing of words and phrases, and surrealist touches, but Albee smartly keeping his high-wire dramatics going until an anti-climactic final scene. But since these couples—led by the endlessly squabbling, duking-it-out George and Martha—are multi-dimensional characters we are actually interested in, Virginia Woolf remains an emotionally charged three hours in the theater.

In a play about how words can hurt mercilessly, Mackinnon’s directing re-charges the physical confrontations into something that adds immeasurably to the conflicts between and among the couples. Although Todd Rosenthal’s set is a bit too gorgeously appointed for a mere professor’s house, it certainly provides a superbly-detailed ring for these figurative boxing matches to play out on. And what acting!

The four Chicago-based actors give flawless performances. Madison Dirks makes a perfectly annoying Nick and Carrie Coon—except for her overdone drunken scenes—is a perfectly weak Honey. Amy Morton, whose towering acting in August: Osage County was an indelible theater moment, plays Martha with remarkable nuance, making believable both her barbs at George and her underlying sadness.

Pacing Morton word for word and blow by blow is Tracy Letts: although I’ve admired his plays August: Osage County, Bug and Killer Joe—and he’s been onstage in Chicago for years, it’s my first time seeing him. And he’s a revelation: his George gives as good as he gets, making a much better sparring partner for Martha than an ineffectual Bill Irwin did for an overbearing Kathleen Turner in the dodgy 2005 Broadway revival.

City Carol Rosegg Brian Friel’s The Freedom of the City—which reports on the deaths of a trio of Irish locals at the hands of the English—was written in 1973, following the killing of several people on what’s known as “Bloody Sunday,” which Friel alludes to in his most explicitly political play.

Friel is unapologetically didactic, humanizing his martyred trio and letting the British officials act like inhumane monsters, which may be truthful but makes for lopsided drama. Still, Friel’s poetic flair takes flight in several monologues that personalize an otherwise dispassionate tract. Ciaran O’Reilly’s straightforward directing, a solid group of actors, and Charlie Corcoran’s imaginative set richly transform the Irish Rep’s tiny stage into the volatile streets of Derry.

Two plays about our uncertain post-9/11 world are little more than Saturday Night Live skits stretched too thin. Jon Kern’s Modern Terrorism: Or They Who Want to Kills Us and How We Learn to Love Them (an obvious allusion to Stanley Kubrick’s classic satire Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) finds dark humor in three inept Middle East conspirators plotting to blow up the Empire State Building.

Skillful comic acting by Utkarsh Ambudkar, William Jackson Harper and Nitya Vidyasagar as the would-be bad guys and gal is blunted by Steven Boyer’s broad Jack Black impression as a doofus neighbor who stumbles upon them. Peter DuBois’ direction can’t give shape to Kern’s mostly misfiring comedy.

Old pro A.R. Gurney alternates between affectionate comedies of manners and screeds against former President Bush’s wartime bungling and overreaching: his Heresy is an example of the latter. In the near-future in what’s now called New America, a prefect named Pontius Pilate is visited by old friends Joseph and Mary, upset that their son Chris (without the final “T”) has been thrown in jail for no apparent reason.

Strained Biblical parallels aside, Gurney and director Jim Simpson keep things percolating amusingly until this paper-thin satire is resolved in 75 painless minutes. An accomplished cast led by Reg E. Cathey, Annette O’Toole and Karen Ziemba polishes off Gurney’s one-liners with comic zest, putting off the playwright’s worries about a future police state to a later date.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Booth Theatre, 222 West 45^th Street, New York, NY

http://virginiawoolfbroadway.com

The Freedom of the City

Irish Repertory Theatre, 136 West 22^nd Street, New York, NY

http://irishrep.org

Modern Terrorism, or: They Who Want to Kill and How We Learn to Love Them

Second Stage Theatre, 307 West 43^rd Street, New York, NY

http://2st.com

Heresy

Flea Theatre, 41 White Street, New York, NY

http://theflea.org