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    Comic horror

    Catch this hand before it's gone: Behanding at Spokane will keep you up withfright laughs

    Caroline Gallay
    Sep 21, 2010 | 8:09 am
    • Andrew Weems as Carmichael and Emily Neves as Marilyn
      Photo by Jann Whaley
    • Behanding at Spokane runs through Sunday.
    • Emily Neves, left, as Marilyn, Andrew Weems as Carmichael and Sean-MichaelBowles as Toby
      Photo by Jann Whaley
    • Chris Hutchison, left, as Mervyn and Andrews Weems as Carmichael
      Photo by Jann Whaley

    In a play on a set that involves a pile of severed hands littering the floor for much if its duration, you might not expect a lot of laughs. But you'd be wrong in the case of A Behanding in Spokane, the Martin McDonagh one-act currently running at the Alley Theatre.

    Like all McDonagh's work, or at least all that I've encountered, the gore is mixed in equal parts with the absurd, and what results is the hilarious. (McDonagh was also behind In Bruges, the Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes-starring film about two hit men in boss-ordered exile in the beautiful Belgian city of castles and fog. He won an Oscar in 2006 for an equally dark short film, Six Shooter.)

    As the playwright said of his Lieutenant of Inshmore: "We're all cruel, aren't we? We're all extreme in one way or another at times, and that's what drama, since the Greeks, has dealt with . . . There have to be moments when you glimpse something decent, something life-affirming even in the most twisted character. That's where the real art lies."

    The play, a nearly two hour-long intermission-less one-act, is as uncomfortable in moments as it is funny. It deals with a one-handed, murderous semi-lunatic on a 27-year-long search for his missing hand, which he claims was cut off and stolen from him as a boy in Spokane. (It's unclear whether his story checks out.) He ends up with a reject, ancient aborigine hand sold to him by a fumbling, biracial, pot-dealing couple, and the unwelcome involvement of the still-more-bumbling "front desk guy" from the seedy motel where the action takes place.

    Yet through the violence and the ever-increasing weirdness, there's something endearing about each of the characters, even as they, in turns, save one another and throw each other to the wolves.

    A Behanding runs until Sunday at the Alley's Neuhaus theatre, and if you haven't seen it already, I recommend you go. I saw it with my mother Sunday evening, and it was her second time.

    Sure, my dreams that night were a little frightening — but man, were they funny.

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    Movie Review

    Tom Cruise goes all out in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

    Alex Bentley
    May 22, 2025 | 3:30 pm
    Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
    Photo courtesy of
    Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

    Over the course of 30 years and eight films, the Mission: Impossible series has proven to be the most reliable of any action movie franchise. Not all of them are equally good, but with Tom Cruise in the lead as Ethan Hunt, they can be counted on for at least a couple of mind-blowing stunt sequences per film, enough to keep fans clamoring for more.

    Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning has the feel of being the last film in the series, and not just because the 62-year-old Cruise is getting up there in age. Following up closely on the events of 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One (Part Two changed to The Final Reckoning for unknown reasons), the film has Hunt trying to stop an A.I. villain known as The Entity from taking over the world’s collective stash of nuclear weapons.

    To do so, Hunt and his cobbled-together team — Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), and Paris (Pom Klementieff) — must hopscotch around the world, tracking villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) and trying to figure out a way to get The Entity’s source code, which is located on a sunken Russian submarine. Oh, and they also have to evade capture by a disgruntled U.S. government, led by now-President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett).

    Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie and co-written by Erik Jendresen, the film might just be the most convoluted one in the series so far. The filmmakers layer on tons of exposition, with lots of flashbacks to previous events in the series to explicate the events of the present, as well as providing unexpected connections to previous films. The plan for stopping The Entity and the references to the past are so dense that the first half of the film is relatively boring.

    Things pick up in the final 90 minutes of the three-hour film, mostly because that’s when the majority of the action takes place. More than other entries in the series, the film considers the geopolitical implications of Hunt’s actions, and he has to negotiate with a variety of high-powered people to do what he deems best. While his efforts are somewhat preposterous, even by the standards of the series, they lead to a bunch of fun sequences that provide levity among the world-changing drama.

    Ultimately, what makes the film succeed are its action scenes. Cruise has done stunts on planes/helicopters before in the series, but what he does during a biplane sequence toward the end of the film is almost beyond belief. Yes, he’s attached to the plane with harnesses that are digitally erased, but he’s still doing it hundreds of feet in the air at great bodily risk considering. While the series has always featured spectacular stunt sequences, this one deserves to be near the top of the list.

    The flashbacks to scenes from throughout the series underscore just how much Cruise has changed in the past 30 years, but also emphasize how amazing it is that he’s still willing to sacrifice his body as much as does to make these films. No other actor goes as far as he does to entertain the masses, and the events of the story even give him opportunities to show off his dramatic acting skills.

    The supporting cast is more packed than usual, and all of them enhance the film. In addition to Hunt’s team, the President has a group of advisers that includes actors like Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, and Janet McTeer. Other recognizable faces like Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Trammell Tillman (Severance), and Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding) show up for impactful roles.

    Whether or not this is the last film in the current incarnation of the series, The Final Reckoning has a lot to offer longtime fans, with action set pieces that remains some of the best Hollywood has to offer. The story may be completely baffling, but with Cruise and other appealing actors leading the way, there’s more than enough great entertainment to go around.

    ---

    Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning opens in theaters on May 23.

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