MGM’s justifiably beloved musical version of “The Wizard of Oz,” which first opened at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Aug. 18, 1939, was always astute about fundamentals of human nature and psychology, beginning with such bedrock items as fear, wonder, homesickness and bombast. It also seems to have gotten a head start on teasing modern self-esteem therapies, wittily anticipated when Frank Morgan as the Wizard contrives to “cure” the inferiority complexes of Dorothy’s valiant companions just before her departure from Oz by awarding the clever Scarecrow a college diploma, the Cowardly Lion a medal of courage and the Tin …

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Septime Webre goes for programs that end in explanation points, drawing audiences looking for the Next Big Thing. But there’s something deceptive about this picture: It obscures the serious way he has been molding the Washington Ballet. Mr. Webre arrived in Washington as the company’s artistic director 10 years ago, in his mid-30’s, fairly brash and determined to make a splash from the start. Founded by Mary Day in 1976, the Washington Ballet soon drew national attention for its spate of original dances by the talented young choreographer Choo San Goh, who died untimely in 1987. More than a decade …

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“District 9″ is an odd melange of a movie: part fake documentary, part body horror, part office comedy and part “Mechwarrior.” Neill Blomkamp’s new film manages to feel fresh and exciting without actually bringing anything groundbreaking to the table. It’s a rousing and entertaining film, if a little hollow. “District 9″ posits an alternate Earth on which aliens landed above Johannesburg 28 years ago. Leaderless and starving, the aliens were given a slum (the eponymous district, D-9 for short) in which to live, and a Blackwater-like organization of mercenaries and bureaucrats (Multi-National United, or MNU) was tasked with keeping them …

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A wide-ranging conversation with filmmaker Jeffrey Levy-Hinte leads to a discussion of actors who are reticent to speak about politics — or regretful when they do. “I don’t know why people are so afraid to express themselves. It’s like the more freedom you have, the more afraid you are to use it,” he comments. Mr. Levy-Hinte was in the District to present “Soul Power” at the Silverdocs film festival in June, right around the time authorities in Iran and China were blocking their citizens’ access to social-networking Web sites. People in those places, he notes, would be happy to be …

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Time will tell if “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” enters the pantheon of great but ridiculous movies that find second life on HBO, the sort of flick that is eminently watchable for 15 minutes because of its quotable lines and great sight gags. It’s something of a golden decade for this genre: “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” “Zoolander” and others have become basic cable staples, midday candy for the shiftless looking to kill a little time. “The Goods” has all the ingredients to make the jump — an eclectic cast of …

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After the sheer artistry of Hayao Miyazaki’s previous efforts — beautifully animated movies like “Princess Mononoke,” “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” — “Ponyo” is something of a disappointment. Leaving aside the plot deficiencies and storytelling awkwardness, Mr. Miyazaki’s latest simply doesn’t look good. There’s a certain amount of weirdness to be expected from any film bearing the anime stamp, and “Ponyo” is no exception: Loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid,” “Ponyo” tells the tale of a goldfish who falls in love with a human boy and wishes to become a girl so they can spend the …

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With Tony Danza heading to Philadelphia to teach high school English as part of a new reality television show, we got to wondering which celebrities would make worse teachers. 1. Benicio Del Toro, Latin American Studies — The producer and star of “Che” seems comfortable propagating feel-good myths about the Cuban revolution’s political murders. “They didn’t do it blindly, they found them guilty and they executed them — that’s capital punishment,” he told this newspaper’s Sonny Bunch. Since when did show trials count as legitimate legal exercises? 2. Steve Buscemi, Epidemiology — When our Liz Glover asked him on the …

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NOW PLAYING • Living Dead in Denmark — Rorschach Theatre at Georgetown University’s Davis Performing Arts Center — ★★★ A slew of suicidal Shakespeare heroines are transformed into kung-fu fighting, undead uber-babes (rather like the Powerpuff Girls with Wonderbras) in Qui Nguyen’s horror fantasia, “Living Dead in Denmark,” directed with comic book flair by Casey Kaleb. Lovers of the Bard and Marvel Comics will geek out over “Living Dead,” which takes place five years after the carnage that ended “Hamlet.” Instead of a new day dawning, Elsinore is ravaged by a war between the dwindling humans and an army of …

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SAN DIEGO | Peter Jackson is driven by a deep-seated neurosis: The fear that his films are terrible. Now, the director who won legions of devoted fans and Oscar glory with his mega-grossing “Lord of the Rings” movies is facing those fears times three: He’s spent the past year juggling aliens, hobbits and a dead teenage girl in an oddly mismatched trio of major movie projects. And if the sheer workload weren’t enough to keep the 47-year-old filmmaker on edge, he’s also grappling with lofty expectations. Chief among them, his own. “You’re always imagining the best and then you always …

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TV classics go postal The U.S. Postal Service is going into showbiz. Sales began Tuesday of Early TV Memories commemorative stamps featuring classic characters from television’s golden era of the 1950s. The campaign was launched in a crowded auditorium at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood, Calif. Funnyman Carl Reiner kept the program running with his comments, Associated Press reports. A TV performer since 1948, Mr. Reiner doesn’t have his own stamp. The reason: He’s 87 and still alive. You have to be dead to appear on the stamps. Mr. Reiner introduced dozens of survivors of …

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