TUESDAY
What: “Miyazaki!” retrospective
Where: Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables
When: 6:30 p.m.
Cost: $11.50
Contact: 786/385-9689, gablescinema.com
Japan’s Hayao Miyazaki is one of a modern minority of animation auteurs—directors who leave their own indelible, individual stamp on their animated features. Often centering on determined young women, and regularly focusing on the struggles of pacifism in warlike environments, Miyazaki’s sensitive, intelligent masterworks have earned worldwide admiration, with Roger Ebert once suggesting that he may be the best animation director alive. Miyazaki has officially retired as of last year, but local audiences will have a chance to relive his greatest hits at this Coral Gables Art Cinema retrospective, which began last Friday and which continues through June 25. On Tuesday night, you can catch the adventure film “Castle in the Sky;” come back on Wednesday and Thursday for two of his rarest titles, the supernatural fantasy “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and the post-apocalyptic thriller “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.”
WEDNESDAY
What: “Japan’s Robot Kingdom”
Where: Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, 4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: $9-$15
Contact: 561/495-0233, morikami.org
When television host Morgan Spurlock decided to spotlight robots on his CNN show “Inside Man” earlier this year, one destination was obvious: Japan. The robotics industry is larger in Japan than in any other nation in the world. It already employs a quarter of a million industrial robot workers, in fields as varied as security guards and domestic helpers to primary school teachers and fashion models (the latter are programmed to pout, among other settings). Japan’s robot revenue is expect to exceed $70 billion by 2025, but as this fun and illuminating exhibition at the Morikami illustrates, androids have been a part of the culture long before these practical applications became technology feasible. Robots have enjoyed a rich residence in the minds of Japanese science-fiction writers and film producers for many decades, and “Japan’s Robot Kingdom” promises to explore this multifaceted field in all directions, from its pop-culture past to its innovations of the future. Visitors can even meet Paro, the Morikami’s very own therapy robot. While you’re there, you can also check out the sister exhibition “Morikami Menagerie: Creatures in Japanese Art,” which explores the fantastic creatures that have permeated Japan’s folklore. The exhibitions run through Sept. 13.
THURSDAY
What: Opening day of “Going Places”
Where: Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach
When: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Cost: $5-$12, free for children and members
Contact: 561/832-5196, norton.org
In today’s era of private jets, bullet trains, self-driving cars and—soon enough—private missions to Mars, it’s easy to take for granted the novel thrill of basic transportation in the mid-20th century. It was a period when trains evolved beyond the rickety steam engines that once connected east to west, when the automobile industry turned Detroit into Motor City, when commercial aviation made it accessible to see the world. Gregarious art collector Frederick Sharf and his wife Jean have long been obsessed with this particular transportation explosion, devoting a sizable chuck of their thousands of collectibles to this industrious period of travel history. Part-time Palm Beach residents and Norton trustees, the Sharfs will showcase their collection of more than 100 model cars, planes and trains at this edutaining exhibition, including concept cars, see-through model airplanes, light-up locomotives and my favorite name for a tether car, the spindizzy. The exhibition runs through Jan. 6, 2016.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: Jon Lovitz
Where: Fort Lauderdale Improv, 5700 Seminole Way, Hollywood
When: Various show times
Cost: $30 with a two-drink minimum
Contact: 954/981-5653, improvftl.com
This nasally voiced staple of the golden years of Saturday Night Live (1985-90) helped craft some of the series’ most memorable characters—Hanukkah Harry, the Master Thespian, and Tommy Flanagan of the Pathological Liars Anonymous. Since graduating from late-night glory, his career has been uneven but marked by cult sensations: the deadpan cartoon “The Critic,” the black comedy “Happiness,” the final season of “NewsRadio.” As a standup, along with his friend Dennis Miller, he’s dipped into political humor at the risk of alienating some of his fans, but the Improv will surely have no problem packing them in for this weekend’s tour, which arrives a few short months after Lovitz’s inevitable return to our area in November for the Chris Evert Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic.
SATURDAY
What: Opening night of “The Recommendation”
Where: Artistic Vibes, 12986 S.W. 89th Ave., Miami
When: 8 p.m.
Cost: $15 to $20, free for audiences members younger than 25
Contact: 305/562-5849, groundupandrising.org
Miami’s Ground Up and Rising only produces plays during the sweltering summer months, but attendees can rest assured that its productions will be intimate, confrontational explorations of hard-hitting issues, rather than the lighthearted fluff that is most often staged during the off-season. First up this summer is “The Recommendation,” a play set at a top college, where a privileged white student with connections all the way up to NHL great Wayne Gretzky shares a dorm with a striving middle-class student of Ethiopian heritage. This uneasy clash of race and class is further compounded when the wealthy student winds up in prison, this time sharing a holding cell with a repeat offender. As one critic of a previous production wrote, “what follows is a delicate, volatile interplay whose consequences end up echoing over a period of years.” It runs through July 12 at the Artistic Vibes black-box space, then moves to an outdoor run at Miami Beach Botanical Garden for two weekends of free performances.
SUNDAY
What: Spirit of America concert
Where: Kaye Auditorium at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
When: 3 p.m.
Cost: $20–$42
Contact: 800/564-9539, fauevents.com
When Duke Ellington wrote his jazz symphony “Black, Brown and Beige” in 1943, he viewed the 50-minute composition as “a tone parallel to the history of the Negro in America,” from slave ships through emancipation and the Second World War. Ellington’s longest work is rarely performed in its entirety—which makes it instantly appealing to Klezmer Company Orchestra conductor Aaron Kula, who lays claim as the only South Florida bandleader to perform it. “I try to do pieces that are either not done very often or overlooked, but are still great compositions from the American orchestral heritage,” he says. “I haven’t done ‘Black, Brown and Beige’ in five years, and it’s a great orchestral work by a crossover composer. Like the ballet that brings back repertory pieces, I’m bring this back after four years, because people deserve to hear it again.” The Ellington piece is one of several highlights of the orchestra’s 10th annual Spirit of America concert, which features another rare gem—the overture from Gershwin’s musical “Girl Crazy”—as well as compositions from Joplin and the Tin Pan Alley jazz movement.
SUNDAY AND MONDAY (JUNE 28-29)
What: Screenings of “It is Fine. Everything is Fine!” and “What is it?”
Where: Cinema Paradiso, 503 S.E. Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale
When: 7 p.m.
Cost: $20
Contact: fliff.com
Often dubbed both madman and genius—terms that are certainly not mutually exclusive—Crispin Glover has cultivated an off-kilter persona unique among actors. His eccentricity has shone through nearly role he’s taken, from “Back to the Future” to “Willard” to “Alice in Wonderland.” It should come as no surprise that his work behind the camera, as co-director of these two features, is even more daring than his performances in front of it. “It is Fine! Everything is Fine!,” which screens Sunday night, is the offbeat, semi-autobiographical story of screenwriter Steven C. Stewart, whose cerebral palsy hasn’t diminished his psychosexual predilections. “What is It?,” which screens Monday, explores the psyche of a man with Down’s Syndrome as he obsesses over a pipe, salt and snails (actress Fairuza Balk voices a snail). Both need to be seen to be believed, both will be screened in their original (and rare) 35mm format, and both will be preceded by live hour-long slideshows with Glover himself, as he narrates in front of images of his own profusely illustrated books.
