The Rogers Revue

Hollywood Comes To Capitol Hill At The 8th Annual Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival, July 29th – August 1st 2019

Special Screening of OFFICIAL SECRETS on Capital Hill

July 17, 2019 TRR News Movie News, Movies

IFC Films’ OFFICIAL SECRETS advanced screening with National Whistleblowers Summit + Film Festival at the National Press Club. Right to left: Gavin Hood, Katharine Gun, Martin Bright.

A pre-Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival publicity rollout began last night with an advanced screening of Gavin Hood’s (Eye In The Sky) new film “Official Secrets” which opens in September 6^th in D.C., at the National Press Club. Special guests included writer and director Gavin Hood and real-life inspirations, whistleblower Katharine Gun (portrayed by Keira Knightley) and journalist Martin Bright (portrayed by Matt Smith). “Official Secrets” screened to a full house with many notable whistleblowers such as Marcel Reid, Sheila White, Robert J. Maclean, Dr. Matthew Fogg and influencers like members of the National Press Club, Government Accountability Project, Project on Government Oversight and staffers from various representatives offices on the hill.

The Shore Leave 41 Interviews: Alex Mallari Jr.

July 17, 2019 Dean Rogers Uncategorized

This weekend, Shore Leave, the longest-running fan-run convention celebrated its forty-first year with its annual gathering of family, friends and fandom! This year’s convention is no shortage of amazing guests like Star Trek Discovery’s Anson Mount & Ethan Peck, Smallville’s Erica Durance & Laura Vandervoort, and Star Trek’s own Nichelle Nichols. Nichols is making her final run of conventions before she retires in March 2020. The DMV is so honored to have her at the annual convention. As with our custom, we interviewed some of the actors who participate in Shore Leave. In our first of three interviews, I talked to the man who plays Four/Ryo Tetsuda/Ryo Ishida in the Syfy television series Dark Matter. Now its time to get his take on conventions, for your reading pleasure, I present Alex Mallari Jr.

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Free For All Production of Hamlet at Sidney Harman Hall

Accessible Arts: Bringing a Wily Hamlet to the People

July 17, 2019 Jaya Ghosh Theatre, Theatre Reviews

Photo of Keith Baxter as Ghost and Michael Urie as Hamlet in Hamlet by Scott Suchman.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) returns for its 29th season of Free For All, with a classic tragedy, Hamlet. Each summer, with the support of community sponsors, the STC is able to present two weeks of ABSOLUTELY FREE exemplary Shakespeare.

Cortland sits down with Lulu Wang, the Director of The Farewell

Director Lulu Wang on Inspirations and Thought Process Behind ‘The Farewell,’

July 16, 2019 Cortland Jacoby Interviews, Movies

In The Farewell, director Lulu Wang puts her real-life experiences on the big screen. When her family decided to not tell her grandmother that she had stage 4 lung cancer and instead plan a wedding to bring the family together, Wang struggled with that decision and the cultural differences between the American life she had been living and the Chinese way of life that connected her to her grandmother.

Wang first documented this tale on NPR’s This American Life in 2016. Now, Wang has recounted the story in a more emotional way on the big screen, in theaters this Friday. I sat down with the director to talk about her directorial influences for the film, the brillance of actor Tzi Ma, the difficulty of finding an actor to play “you”, and the lessons she’s learned along the way.

Dean talks Food Truck Nation's host Brad Miller as they deliver a new season of episodes and food trucks!

Food Trucking with Brad Miller

July 16, 2019 Dean Rogers Interviews, Television

On this Summer edition of THE INTERVUE, Chef and food truck aficionado Brad Miller travels across the country to find the latest and greatest bites on wheels. He highlights the innovative chefs who push the boundaries of food and their customer’s curious palates on the upcoming season of Food Truck Nation on Cooking Channel!

Movie Revue: "Stuber"

Catch a Ride with Stuber

July 13, 2019 Derrick Dunn Movie Reviews, Movies

The buddy film genre receives a modern day spin in 20^th Century Fox’s Stuber from director Michael Dowse. Veteran, tough-as-nails LAPD NARC Vic Manning (Dave Bautista) is on a mission to track down a drug trafficker and cop killer Teijo (Iko Uwais). Due to his recent LASIK surgery, Vic cannot drive himself around. Vic decides to force a meek Uber driver by the name of Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) to assist him with his mission.

Stu has his own set of problems including a low paying job at a big box Read more

Movie Revue: "Crawl"

Crawl is a Creepy Good Time

July 13, 2019 Derrick Dunn Movie Reviews, Movies

Director Alexandre Aja collaborates with producer Sam Raimi in Paramount Pictures’ Crawl. The state of Florida is in the midst of a Category 5 hurricane with a mandatory evacuation set in place by the governor. College student Haley Keller discovers that her father Dave is missing and sets out to find him. When Haley finds her dad massively injured, she must find a way to save them both. Not only will Haley have to deal with the rising water from the hurricane, she must also Read more

Ally Theatre Company opens third season with regional premiere of Naomi Wallace’s The War Boys

July 11, 2019 TRR News Theatre, Theatre News

Fresh off receiving the 2019 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company, Ally will open its third season with the regional premiere of Naomi Wallace’s The War Boys. First produced in London in 1993, The War Boys is more relevant than ever. Set on the Texas/Mexico border, David, George, and Greg, three childhood friends turned vigilante border patrol, spend their nights antagonizing both themselves and those they catch trying to cross the border. But these youths soon learn that even the most guarded borders are permeable. When the lines between fantasy and reality become dangerously blurred, each of the boys is forced to decide what it means to be an American, and who has the right to belong.

Dean on the Scene interviews Stuber's stars Kumail Nanjiani & Dave Bautista

Order a Stuber This Weekend

July 10, 2019 Dean Rogers Interviews, Movie News, Movies

Coming to the theatres this weekend is the action-comedy Stuber starring Kumail Nanjiani & Dave Bautista! When a mild-mannered Uber driver named Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) picks up a passenger (Dave Bautista) who turns out to be a cop hot on the trail of a brutal killer, he’s thrust into a harrowing ordeal where he desperately tries to hold onto his wits, his life, and his five-star rating.

During the weekend of AwesomeCon 2019, 20th Century Fox had a special screening of the movie at the National Geographic in Washington DC. Some of the DC fans got a chance to not only see the movie but also stayed around for the Q&A Panel hosted by Toby Knapp of Toby + Chilli Mornings – 97.1 WASH-FM. I was on the red carpet and talk to the two stars about the movie!

Cool Off This Season with Prix Fixe Menus from 250 Restaurants, Listed at RWDMV.com

Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington Announces Summer Restaurant Week Participants

July 10, 2019 TRR News Arts & Entertainment

Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) is thrilled to announce the roster of restaurants participating in Summer Restaurant Week taking place Monday, August 12 – Sunday, August 18, 2019. The biannual promotion’s website www.RWDMV.com will be updated regularly with menus from each of the 250 participating restaurants in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, as they are finalized. The site allows diners to peruse specially priced prix fixe menus and to search restaurants by cuisine and location before directly booking reservations.