This off-off-Broadway docu-play puts us in the cockpit of airplanes about to crash, as a handful of actors recreate the crew members' final conversations, taken from actual black-box recordings. From the mundane small talk to the sudden bursts of panicked pilot-speak, it's a rough ride, but one of the best examples of the increasingly popular genre of plays drawn entirely from verbatim transcripts.
Come fly with us, and Leo, through the best (and worst) of 2004. Tops in the cinema this year include Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. Elsewhere, Deadwood was good TV, and a Strange tale fascinated readers.