A Boy on the Run From the Holocaust

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By Skip Sheffield

There are at least 8 million stories about the Holocaust. Very few are told from the point of view of a child.

“Run Boy Run” is based on a novel by Uri Orlev, which we are told is based on a true story that occurred in Poland in World War II. Srulik (Andrzej Tkacz as young Srulik and Kamil Tkacz as an older Srulik) is an 8-year-old boy from the Polish Jewish ghetto whose entire family is wiped out in the Nazi invasions of 1942. Srulik flees Warsaw and hides out in the snowy, freezing woods. He finds a friendly Christian farm woman who takes him in out of pity and tells him to change his name to the more Catholic-sounding Jurek Stanlak. Srulik adapts well to his new Christian identity, but there is peril at every corner. As the title implies, “Run Boy Run” is a series of narrow escapes by the plucky, resourceful boy. The story is not without a certain amount of humor leavening the terror, for Srulik suffers terribly. The Tkacz brothers are enormously appealing and emotive. The movie amounts to an exciting adventure that sees the terror of the Holocaust from a fresh young viewpoint.

A Pakistani Girl Who Rocked the World

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A True Heroine is “Malala”

“He Named Me Malala” is a documentary by Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) about the fiercely courageous Malala Yousafzai.

At age 15 Malala was targeted for death by the Muslim extremist group Taliban for daring to speak out in favor of education for females. Since the Taliban came into power in Pakistan, they destroyed 400 schools and forbade females from any education. Such an extreme attitude seems absurd to those of us who believe in freedom of religion, thought, expression and knowledge, but sadly it exists in the 21^st century.

Malala was shot in the head and gravely injured, but she survived to defy the Taliban and went on to even greater risk to address the United Nations. She was rewarded for her courage with the Nobel Peace Prize. If you have a pulse, you will surely be inspired by this amazing young woman.

A Compelling Argument for Same-Sex Relationships

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Ladies in Love

By Skip Sheffield

“Freeheld” is based on the true story of Laurel Hester, a New Jersey police woman. Laurel was the very definition of good cop in the bad world of northern coastal Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Laurel’s partner was Dane Wells (Michael Shannon), a gruff, tough, but compassionate cop who relished bringing down bad people.

We first see Laurel and Dane in action, busting chops on the boardwalk. Then we see Laurel in a bar that obviously caters to homosexual people. Laurel is a lesbian, still in the closet. When she spies Stacee Andree (Ellen Page), something clicks. Stacee is half the age and almost half the size of Laurel, but she is one feisty, charmingly butch chick.

Ellen Page came out publicly in 2014. She is a producer of this film, and she specifically requested Julianne Moore play the role of Laurel Hester. She made the right choice. Julianne Moore is one of the finest actresses of our time. It doesn’t hurt that she is exquisitely beautiful. Moore does doomed characters like no other woman. Though she is hetero, she is absolutely convincing as lovelorn Laurel Hester, who meets the woman of her dreams only to be dealt a death sentence of lung cancer. Written by Ron Nyswaner (“The Painted Veil”) and directed by Peter Sollet (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”), “Freeheld” is one of the most caring, compassionate arguments for legal same-sex marriages ever. Laurel Hester was denied assigning her pension benefits to her partner, although the State of New Jersey recognized domestic partnerships in 2005, the year before Laurel Hester died. “Freeheld” is about doing the right thing, regardless of one’s personal beliefs. Some people won’t like this, but they are unlikely to go to this movie anyway.

"Once" Upon a Time in Love

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Go Early and See It With Someone You Love

By Skip Sheffield

Go to “Once” early and mingle with the cast onstage. The exuberant Irish musical continues through Oct. 18 at Broward Center for the Arts.

An Irish pub is the setting for “Rush,” so a working bar is set up onstage, where the audience is invited to belly up to the bar and perhaps sing along with the musicians.

“Once” began as a 2007 low-budget musical film set in Dublin, Ireland. Glen Hansard played an itinerant street musician whose day job was working with his dad repairing Vacuum cleaners. One day a Czech immigrant flower girl (Marketa Irglova) heard ‘The Guy” (he is not given a name) play. In order to get to know him better, she asks for him to fix her Hoover vacuum cleaner. So begins a mutual attraction that blossoms into love. The songs that were in the movie and the subsequent Broadway show that won eight 2012 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, were written by Hansard and Irglova.

The national touring production that is visiting Broward Center stars British actors Stuart Ward as “The Guy” and Dani de Waal as “The Girl.” A multi-national supporting cast sings and plays various instruments. This makes the show uniquely organic, as if it were being made up on the spot. There are two female fiddlers (Erica Spyres and Claire Wellin)  and additional musicians doubling on various instruments including piano, guitar, banjo, accordion, concertina, mandolin, ukulele, electric bass and percussion. Stuart Ward plays guitar and Dani de Waal plays piano and they harmonize beautifully on the score’s best song, “Falling Slowly.”

“Once” is a musician’s delight, and its book, by Irish playwright Enda Walsh, is a romantic parable that appeals to anyone who has ever been in love or has loved and lost. That pretty much is all of us, which explains the universal appeal of “Once.”

Tickets are $35-$125 at TicketMaster. Call 800-745-3000 or 954-462-0222.

Romantic Irish Fable "Once" Visits Broward Center

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“Once” Upon a Time in Ireland

By Skip Sheffield

Dani de Waal is a young British woman born in Germany to a South African father. She co-stars with Stuart Ward in the Irish musical “Once” as a Czech girl in love with an Irish street musician. The musical fable “Once” runs Oct. 6-18 at the Broward Center for the Arts.

Dani de Waal has been playing the role of “The Girl” for more than two years and will stay with the show until it finishes its national tour leg in December.

“It’s been a long haul,” she says cheerily. “The show is about more than just the feelings between two people. It is about going for your dreams and pushing for all it’s worth.”

“Once” is based on a 2007 Irish musical film by John Carney, with a new book by Irish playwright Edna Walsh. The film stars were Glen Hansard playing a 33-year-old Irish street musician and Marketa Irglova as a 17-year-old Czech girl and aspiring pianist-singer. Irglova was the same age as her character and she collaborated with Hansard on writing, singing and performing the songs. She also fell in love with Hansard in real life, which made the movie all the more romantically convincing. Such fairy tale romances don’t always last, but the songs of once, especially the hit ballad “Falling Slowly,” are forever.

“The important thing is that these two people have changed each other’s lives,” offers de Waal. “It is less important that they stay together. It is not the end of their life’s journey.”

“Once” is performed by a large cast, each singing and playing their own instruments onstage.

“The beauty of the show is it is real,” says de Waal. “Love is complicated but the music is beautiful.”

Tickets for “Once” are $35-$125 at TicketMaster. Call 800-745-3000 or 954-462-0222.

"Sex With Other People" Not So Hot

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Can’t We Just Be Friends?

By Skip Sheffield

If you think the title “Sleeping With Other People” sounds salacious and sexy, think again. This rom-com, written and directed by Leslye Headland (“About Last Night,”) is more ironic than erotic.

Lainey (Alison Brie) and Jake (Jason Sudekis) are college students when we first meet them. Lainey has a fight with her boyfriend, and she is comforted by Jake in his room. The comfort soon leads to seduction and they have the proverbial one-night stand.

The story vaults ahead 12 years. Jake has been dumped yet again by his latest girlfriend because of his chronic infidelity. Lainey guiltily confesses to her boyfriend (Adam Brody) that she has cheated on him. She gets dumped and Lainey and Jake reunite and conclude they need to go to sex addiction meetings.

The rest of the film is a cat-and-mouse game. Can Lainey and Jake “just be friends?” Can any woman and man be close friends without sex entering to complicate things?

At this point I foresaw the obvious conclusion and lost interest. If you enjoy clever banter, you might like this for awhile. For me even 95 minutes was too long.

"The Walk" That Stunned The World

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A Thrilling “Walk” of a Lifetime

By Skip Sheffield

Afraid of heights? Better steer clear of “The Walk.” On the other hand if you like dizzying thrills, this reenactment of Phillippe Petit’s amazing 1974 World Trade Center high wire walk offers some bracing good jolts.

The World Trade Center twin towers were destroyed by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. This fact lends a sobering, macabre quality to this fictionalized documentary.

Phillippe Petit is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in what I think is his best performance to date. Gordon-Levitt not only spoke French and English with a French accent, he mastered a very close approximation of walking a tightrope 110 stories in the air. The average person may consider Phillippe Petit a suicidal madman. Thereby lays part of his crazy appeal. Gordon-Levitt captures that craziness in a cheerful, upbeat way. The actor received training from Petit himself.

Director Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future”) had a hand in writing the screenplay, starting with a brief history of Petit’s career as a street performer in Paris. Along the way he befriended a beautiful French girl, Annie Allix, played by real-life Parisian Charlotte Le Bon. Charlotte also coached Gordon-Levitt is perfecting his French accent.

Conquering the World Trade Center towers took six years of planning and crucial accomplices every step of the way. Spanning the 200 feet between the towers, 1,350 feet or a quarter of a mile above the Earth, was a three-stage process. The first stage was a bow and arrow hooked to monofilament fishing line.

Petit’s stunt, accomplished in the early hours of the morning on Aug. 7, 1974, has been hailed as “The artistic crime of the century.” Although they were required to arrest Petit, the cops of NYPD and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were clearly on the daredevil’s side. In what was a win-win for everyone, Petit’s charges were dismissed in exchange for a free public performance in Central Park. The World Trade Center, unloved by many when it was built, got much-needed positive publicity. Phillippe Petit remained in New York City and was granted a lifetime pass to the observation decks of the World Trade Center. Though it is about a French man, “The Walk” is a movie that makes you proud to be an American.