Being Heumann

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway yesterday was Being Heumann with my nephew.  This is Sian Heder's follow-up to the Academy Award-winning CODA and I enjoyed it just as much as its predecessor!  Judy Heumann (Ruth Madeley) is a polio survivor and disability rights activist determined to get Joseph Califano (Mark Ruffalo), the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, to sign Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which would prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities as well as provide them equal access to programs that receive federal funds, such as K-12 education, higher education, healthcare, housing, and pubic services.  When all of her repeated attempts to contact Califano fail (in some amusing scenes), she decides to stage a sit-in at the HEW building in San Francisco along with other disabled activists. They are aided by Evan White (Dylan O'Brien), an ambitious reporter who comes to believe in their cause, and, even though the phones are disconnected and access to food is cut off, they persevere until Califano agrees to meet with them.  When he sends an underling instead (another amusing scene), Heumann and several other protesters decide to go to Washington, D.C. to compel him to meet with them but this also proves difficult when they are arrested for trespassing (and released because there are no accessible jails to hold them).  The group eventually goes back to San Francisco but Califano ultimately decides to sign Section 504 and, in an epilogue, Heumann continues to work for the eventual passage of the American With Disabilities Act in 1990.  As a teacher, I implemented many 504 Plans for my students and know the law very well but I had no idea how it came about.  I found the story so compelling that I had to do a deep dive into the events portrayed and I definitely appreciate what disability activists went through to ensure equal access for all (even though it seems we still have a long way to go).  The movie is incredibly inspirational and I especially loved the message that people with disabilities are not tragic figures but ordinary people who can accomplish much with simple accommodations (I also loved that the characters, especially Heumann, are not always portrayed as sympathetic because they shouldn't need to be likable to deserve their civil rights).  Finally, I loved the authentic representation in the cast with disabled actors portraying the real-life activists (they all do a great job, especially Madeley).  My only complaint is that Califano is not a well developed character (I think he is a very one-note villain) and it seems like his decision to sign Section 504 comes out of nowhere.  This is now streaming on Apple TV+ and I highly recommend it.

Mouse

I absolutely loved Ghostlight so I was really looking forward to Mouse, the latest from directors Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson.  I saw it yesterday as the first in a double feature at the Broadway and I was very moved by it because, much like its predecessor, it is a touching exploration of grief through the lens of the performing arts.  Minnie Dunn (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) is a shy and introverted high school student whose life is upended when her talented, charismatic, and popular best friend Callie Bell (Chloe Coleman) is killed in a tragic car accident.  Callie's grief-stricken mother Helen (Sophie Okonedo) reaches out to several of her daughter's friends in order to feel closer to her and Minnie responds as a way to assuage her own grief and to escape a difficult relationship with her single mother Barbara (Tara Mallen).  Eventually, Minnie spends more and more time with Helen who begins transforming her into a copy of her daughter.  This culminates with Minnie singing one of Callie's favorite songs at a concert in her honor organized by her friends Brandi (Addisyn Cain) and Cara (Audrey Grace Marshall) and sponsored by the drama teacher Mr. Murdaugh (David Hyde Pierce).  When her performance is less than stellar, Helen realizes that Minnie deserves to be celebrated for her own qualities and Minnie comes to appreciate the unconditional support of her mother.  This is an incredibly tender and realistic portrayal of grief in which a young girl's mother and friend lose their identities when she is no longer with them, especially since she took up so much space in their lives, and I think many people will relate to this specific aspect of loss.  I was also struck by a subplot about two of Callie's casual friends who hijack the grieving process from Minnie and another about how a new relationship with a video store clerk named Kat (Iman Vellani) sparks feelings of guilt in Minnie for moving on too quickly.  Kupferer gives an understated but highly nuanced performance as Minnie experiences a myriad of emotions and, while I was riveted by her interactions with Okonedo (one single tear falling down her face in a grief support group brought many tears to my eyes) and her real-life mother Mallen, my favorite moment was a scene with Hyde Pierce in which he gives advice about navigating grief.  This is a simple but lovely movie and I highly recommend it.

The Outsiders at the Eccles

Alienation is one of my favorite themes in literature so The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton had a big influence on me as an adolescent (I've always been drawn to tragedies). I went to see the stage adaptation last night at the Eccles and I loved everything about it (even though it made me cry at the end). It is a coming of age story set in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1967. Fourteen-year-old Ponyboy Curtis (Christian Arredondo) is a member of the working-class "Greasers" who escalates an ongoing conflict with the upper-middle-class "Socs" when he talks to their leader's girlfriend Cherry Valance (Emma Hearn) at the drive-in. His brothers Sodapop (Brendan Dallaire) and Darrel (Travis Roy Rogers), who now acts as the head of the household after the death of their parents, worry about the influence that Dallas Winston (Anthony Garcia), the leader of the gang, has on him. After a tragic altercation with the Socs, Dally advises Ponyboy and his best friend Johnny Cade (Bonale Fambrini) to go into hiding but this leads to even more tragedy. Ponyboy eventually realizes that he must rise above the gang mentality to search for what is good in the world. I love the folk-rock music by Jamestown Revival and Justin Levine and, while every song really affected me, my favorites were "Great Expectations," "Run Run Brother" (this gave me goosebumps), "Little Brother" (this made me cry), and "Stay Gold" (this made me cry even harder). The performances are absolutely amazing. There is not a weak link in the entire cast and everyone had a moment that blew me away but Arrendondo and Garcia are both next level. Arrendondo has a beautiful voice and Ponyboy's vulnerability and frustration are palpable as he tries to find his place in the world, especially in the aforementioned "Great Expectations" because it is filled with so much yearning, and Garcia commands the stage with a powerful performance as the leader of the gang which then makes his emotional rendition of "Little Brother" all the more heartbreaking. The set is very eye-catching with items that you might find in a junkyard, such as boards, tires, a jungle gym, and a broken down car, which are then configured and reconfigured into various locations (I particularly loved how these items become a maze that Ponyboy and Johnny have to navigate as they escape in "Run Brother Run"). The staging is incredibly dynamic and I loved all of the projections used because they are visually stunning. The back wall resembles the screen at a drive-in movie on which scenes from Cool Hand Luke are shown and then it becomes an abandoned church during the second act and the fire sequences, which use light and shadow to great effect, are spectacular. The choreography is exhilarating and the final rumble, especially, is absolutely thrilling with athletic leaps and jumps as the gang members push and pull against each other in the rain (I kept going back and forth on whether it was actually raining and a synchronized sequence in which everyone flips their hair proved that it was). It is one of the coolest bits of stagecraft I have seen! Finally, I was impressed with the high contrast lighting, especially a scene in which a police officer uses a flashlight in an interrogation and then turns it towards the audience. I loved this show so much and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) for one of the remaining performances through November 15.

Fatherland

The second foreign film in my double feature at the Broadway yesterday was Fatherland and I found it to be a subtle but powerful examination of national identity.  After fleeing Nazi persecution at the beginning of World War II, renowned author Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) returns to Germany in 1949 with his daughter Erika (Sandra Huller), who acts as his assistant, to receive the prestigious Goethe Award.  He gives speeches about what it means to be German and attends receptions in Frankfurt, which is controlled by the Allied powers, and in Weimar, which is occupied by the Soviets, and finds decadence in the former and intolerance in the latter (I loved the juxtaposition between the two receptions).  It is only when they stop at the ruins of a bombed-out church and hear "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach being played on a out-of-tune organ that they find the true soul of the fatherland.  There is also a subplot in which children, Erika and her brother Klaus (August Diehl), are alienated from their father and experience a loss which parallels the loss of country.  This adds emotional weight to the restrained storytelling, especially in the incredibly moving ending in which Thomas and Erika are finally able to come together.  The black and white cinematography is very dramatic and I loved the shot composition which keeps Thomas and Erika physically separated every time they appear together on screen because this makes the aforementioned resolution between the characters that much more poignant (and visually striking).  The performances are brilliant because, even though they are understated, both Zischler and Huller have incredible moments of catharsis.  I was particularly struck by a scene in which Erika speaks to her mother on the phone because her grief is conveyed by her physicality rather than dialogue.  This may be too austere for some but fans of Pawel Pawlikowski are sure to find it as compelling as I did.

La Bola Negra

Yesterday I had an amazing double feature of foreign films at the Broadway starting with La Bola Negra.  I went into this pretty blind and I was absolutely blown away by it!  In 1932, Carlos (Milo Quifes) applies for membership to an exclusive club in Granada, Spain but is blackballed over rumors that he is a homosexual.  Vincente (Antonio de la Torre), his wealthy and prominent father, demands that he return to the club and deny the rumors even though they are true.  At the exact moment he lies to the membership committee, the club is attacked by a mob and Carlos realizes too late that he has wasted his life by hiding his true self.  In 1937, Sebastian (Guitarricadelafuente) is a trumpet player who survives an attack on his village during the Spanish Civil War but is compelled to join the Nationalist forces.  He is ordered to guard Rafael Rodriguez Rapun (Miguel Bernardeau), a wounded Republican prisoner of war, and eventually falls in love with him. Rafael reveals that he was once the lover of the famous playwright Federico Garcia Lorca (Alberto Cortes), and when he learns that he is about to be executed by firing squad, he begs Sebastian to find and preserve one of Lorca's plays.  In 2017, Alberto (Carlos Gonzalez) is a struggling playwright who lives in Madrid with his boyfriend Juan Pablo (Julio Torres).  He receives an inheritance from the maternal grandfather he never knew which gives him the strength to move forward in his personal and professional life.  The narrative goes back and forth between the three timelines, which all have distinct visual styles (my favorite is the theatrical production design used in the 1932 timeline), and they are eventually connected by Lorca's unfinished play La Bola Negra.  The story is extremely layered and I loved the powerful themes about queer representation in art inspiring the courage to live authentically, particularly the scenes between Sebastian and the cabaret singer Nene Romero (Penelope Cruz), as well as the trauma of its erasure on future generations.  The camera work is incredibly dynamic and I was completely mesmerized by a flamenco dance in a bar by Carlos and a sequence in which Nene entertains the troops.  I loved the music so much, especially the song "El pueblo quiere sangre" which features the Spanish guitar (I've already listened to it innumerable times).  Finally, the performances are all very moving (I was in tears multiple times).  Guitarricadeafuente, especially, is heartbreaking in one of the most passionate scenes I've seen on screen (in which the characters do not even touch each other).  This is a beautiful and sprawling epic that I loved and highly recommend (it will definitely be among my favorites this year).