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Metro staff reviews the latest CDs, DVDs and books for your reading pleasure.
 
Movies
The gangster of Hollywood
FEATURE. Johnny Depp doesn’t know what time it is. Though he technically calls an adorable village in France home and owns an island in the Caribbean, the mercurial actor spends so much time working that his internal clock is all out of whack.
 
 
Movies
Directorial debut is a shot at the ‘Moon’
INTERVIEW. When directors are limited to a $5 million budget and a 33-day shooting schedule, they usually won’t do anything too arduous — especially for their first films. But director Duncan Jones, 37, tells us that he “wanted to do something with ambition” for his debut flick. So instead, Jones, who is the son of David Bowie, decided to make the sci-fi adventure “Moon,” which opens Friday. The affable Brit explains how.
 
The Word
The Beckhams’ island getaway
GOSSIP. According to the Sun, David Beckham is planning a trip to Necker Island, Richard Branson’s private island hideaway, to celebrate his 10th wedding anniversary with Victoria Beckham. And the best part? It only costs $51,000 a night to have the whole island to themselves.
 
Movies
Bale does light-lifting
 MOVIES. Christian Bale is more relaxed than usual, and with good reason. The heavy lifting in promoting his latest film, “Public Enemies,” falls to Johnny Depp. For once, the success or failure of the movie doesn’t rest on Bale’s shoulders. There’s no talk of on-set outbursts or franchise potential. And for that, he’s grateful — and cheerful.
 
Published 23:12, November the 20th, 2008
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It’s only ‘Rock and Roll’

Stoppard play looks and sounds great, but story is lacking

 REVIEW. Tom Stoppard’s “Rock and Roll” is about a lot of things, but rock music really isn’t one of them.
Sure, rock ’n’ roll as an agent of change is an underlying theme, but this story is so jam-packed with issues, you could easily get lost in the excessively wordy piece. (It clocks in at nearly three hours, intermission included.)

There’s Marxism, cancer, political upheaval, journalistic integrity, political oppression and lots of Czechoslovakian history. And a multitude of scene changes that are, fortunately, accompanied by snippets of rock music from the 20-plus years that pass as the story unfolds.

Jan (Manoel Felciano) is a grad student who forfeits the safety of academic life in England to fight for freedom in his homeland, a post-“Prague Spring,” Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia.      

Meanwhile, his mentor Max, an uber-Marxist professor, bides his time opining on communism and caring for his cancer-stricken wife Eleanor and their hippie daughter Esme while fending off romantic advances from Eleanor’s student, Sappho-scholar Lenka.

As time passes, one character dies, another becomes a mom, there’s a regime change and the multitude of plots culminate in a dinner party.

The good news is that, like all Huntington productions, “Rock and Roll” looks and sounds great. Douglas Schmidt’s set is a perfect blend of colorful academia and the bland, tattered gray one might experience living under an oppressive regime.

The production also boasts stellar, almost scene-stealing work by Summer Serafin and Rene Augesen, despite the harried pace at which the production moves. Augesen is especially outstanding as Eleanor, grappling with her own fate while hurling one of the most vile, offensive, stay-away-from-my-man lines in history with the panache and aplomb of a true aristocrat.

Unfortunately, brilliant delivery of the show’s best line isn’t enough to earn this show rock star status.
Sending your audience out to the street after an exuberant Rolling Stones-style curtain call does help, but in the end, “Rock and Roll” does little to “Start Me Up.”

‘Rock and Roll’
Through Dec. 11
Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston
Green line to Symphony
$20-$83, 617-266-0800
www.huntingtontheatre.org

 
 
Music
MMMpod
The June edition of MMMpod features an interview with Perry Farrell on getting Jane's Addiction back together, as well as a talk with actor Ed Helms about his love/hate relationship with a capella music. We also have new music from Phoenix, Magic Magic, Lady Sovereign, and a classic from Booker T. & the MGs. As always, there's a chance to win a whole lot of free music.
 
 
Metro Life Panel
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