‘Fire’ leaves audience charred


By
 in , ,
Theater is at its worst when it is self-consciously moralistic. The second we feel like we’re being preached to, the experience is ruined. Regrettably, such is the sorry case of Christopher Piehler’s The Triangle Factory Fire Project, which opened Nov. 5 at USC’s Bing Theatre. The show — the first of two shows this academic […]

Office turns quirks into irritating habits


By
 in ,
Our mothers might say our quirks are what make us who we are; they give us “character.” Unfortunately, some quirks aren’t so charming and can sometimes manifest themselves as bad habits, which are notoriously hard to break. Sometimes, they are so deeply ingrained in a person’s behavior that turning them off is a nearly impossible […]

Disney delivers a not-so-cheery ‘Christmas Carol’


By
 in ,
The cinematic depection of old, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge — Charles Dickens’ very own Grinch — is hardly original material. A Christmas Carol has been adapted too many times to count. Every winter, dramatic renditions of the novella originally published in 1843 are enacted on stages worldwide. Allusions to the tale and comparisons to Scrooge are […]

Single-screen theaters cultivate best and worst of indie film


By
 in ,
What can you say about a movie in 200 words? At the Daily Trojan, the word count for film reviews stands at somewhere around 800. At other papers, that number runs higher or lower depending on the editor and, more frequently these days, the bean counters behind the arts section. Put all those words together, […]