Broad Street Review

Philly's home for arts, culture, and conversation

Jake Blumgart

Contributor

BSR Contributor Since August 16, 2011

Jake Blumgart is a reporter and researcher who lives in West Philadelphia.

Jake Blumgart is a reporter and researcher who lives in West Philadelphia. His work has been published by The Stranger, The American Prospect, Alternet, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Follow him on Twitter.

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Note to self: Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix in “Inherent Vice.” (Photo by Wilson Webb - © 2014 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)

Paul Thomas Anderson’s 'Inherent Vice'

Seriously weird

The trick to enjoying Inherent Vice is to just let the thing wash over you, laugh at the jokes, and don’t fret too much (or at all) about the details. This is substantially easier if you are a fan, as its protagonist is, of late-night movie marathons.

Jan 13, 2015 Articles 4 minute read

Eddy and Boyle tackle algebra and physics. (Photo by Mark Garvin)

Tom Stoppard's 'Arcadia' at Lantern Theater Company

Romantic poetry and the second law of thermodynamics

Sir Tom Stoppard doesn’t let the characters become puppets of his wit and intellect: Arcadia is a delightful, engaging, and engrossing escapade.

Oct 14, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Not going to be a good-natured romp (Photo by Kate Raines, www.plate3photography.com)

Fringe Festival: New Paradise Laboratories’ ‘The Adults’

A masterwork of unease

New Paradise Laboratories’ Fringe show, The Adults, is a play for those who like their drunken pratfalls freighted with metaphysical anxiety.

Sep 09, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Charming leads: Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana in "Guardians of the Galaxy" (© 2014 - Marvel Studio)

James Gunn's 'Guardians of the Galaxy'

A by-the-book comic-book blockbuster

It’s nice having a reliably enjoyable summer movie experience, the cinematic equivalent of fried boardwalk food or cheap, cold beer. A lot of blockbusters don’t live up to my hopes, but with a Marvel movie I always know what I’m going to get, so I’m never disappointed.

Aug 19, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Not an impenetrable art house flick: Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, and Octavia Spencer in "Snowpiercer." (Photo © 2013 - RADiUS/TWC )

Bong Joon-ho's 'Snowpiercer'

An allegory with ax fights

Snowpiercer is worth seeing not just because of its indictment of widening global inequality, but because it seriously examines the alternatives.

Jul 12, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Dan Hodge, Suzy Jane Hunt, Kevin Collins, and Karen Peakes in 'The Real Thing': photo by Alexander Iziliaev.

Stoppard's 'The Real Thing' at the Wilma

An intellectual's foray into matters of the heart

The Real Thing is not just a showcase for Tom Stoppard's beautifully crafted language — it has a heart, even if it is well-concealed.

Jun 19, 2014 Articles 4 minute read

Léa Seydoux (right) in "Blue Is the Warmest Color" (photo © 2013 - Sundance Selects)

'Blue Is the Warmest Color' and 'The Great Beauty'

The view from Europe

Blue Is the Warmest Color and The Great Beauty make excellent companion pieces, presenting a surfeit of gorgeous filmmaking as they bookend two lives in advanced industrial democracies.

Apr 03, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

Those wacky Nazis: Willem Dafoe and Adrien Brody in “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

Wes Anderson's 'Grand Budapest Hotel' (second review)

Inside a Central European snow globe

The Grand Budapest Hotel is no different from Wes Anderson’s other films — it is visually stunning and quite funny, but there is nothing at the center.

Mar 26, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Perrier (above) is appropriately childlike, but why not the real thing?

Lantern’s ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ (2nd review)

Even in Wales, was Christmas ever this somber?

Would it be too much to ask that a few kids be cast in a play that’s so purely wrapped up in the wonders of youth?

Dec 21, 2013 Articles 3 minute read

Kreitz (left), Lyons-Cox: Ridiculous, but so is The Bard. (Photo: Claire Horvath.)

Curio Theatre’s ‘Gender Comedy’

Do you really think Shakespeare’s comedies are funny?

In the sophomoric and absurd Gender Comedy, Curio Theater does to Twelfth Night what should be done to Twelfth Night.

Dec 21, 2013 Articles 3 minute read

Saki's "Unrest-Cure': Lampooning Britain's upper class

The defeat of the smug and the boring

Every fan of satire knows Wilde and Wodehouse. But don't forget Saki, who introduced talking cats and child-hungry werewolves into upper-class British drawing rooms, on the theory that nothing invigorates a tea party like a ravening hyena.

Sep 09, 2013 Articles 6 minute read

Bar-hopping was a thrill, when you were 18.

"The World's End': 40-something reunion

The old gang of mine meets the Stepford wives

In this appealing comedy, five ex-buddies in their 40s try to rekindle their youthful friendship, only to find that even a robot/alien invasion can't heal their fundamental differences.

Sep 07, 2013 Articles 4 minute read

Whyte (left), Kern: Indochina, here we come.

Stoppard's "Heroes' at the Lantern (2nd review)

Waiting for Godot, or for Stoppard?

The audience was in stitches throughout much of Heroes. But the intellectual fireworks that accompany most Tom Stoppard scripts are largely absent here.

May 27, 2013 Articles 3 minute read

Cassel (right) and fellow thieves: If torture doesn't work...

Danny Boyle's "Trance'

Hypnotists rule!

Even a flawed premise can be swept away by real moral quandaries, sparkling dialogue, charismatic actors and characters we actually care about. Unfortunately, Danny Boyle's alleged thriller, Trance, offers no such perks.

Apr 20, 2013 Articles 3 minute read

Sottile and Farhner: Un-tempting seductions. (Photo: Mark Garvin.)

Oscar Wilde's "Ideal Husband' at the Walnut (1st review)

Oscar Wilde gets serious

At the fringes, Oscar Wilde's characters in An Ideal Husband convey a spritely delight in mocking the staid practices of a moralistic society. But Wilde keeps dragging them into a ludicrous plot that he wants us to take seriously.

Jan 26, 2013 Articles 4 minute read

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