Union County

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Union County and I really appreciated the humane and honest portrayal of addiction but I found the observational approach to be a bit slow and remote.  Cody Parsons (Will Poulter) is an addict who is in a mandated recovery program along with his foster brother Jack (Noah Centineo).  He is barely hanging on as he struggles to attend required drug tests, support groups, and court appearances while living in his car and working a menial job at a lumber mill.  After a relapse which lands him in jail and Jack in rehab, he recommits to the program with the help of his counselor Annette (Annette Deao) and a fellow addict named Anna (Elise Kibler).  He begins taking the meetings seriously and has a breakthrough which leads to a reconciliation with his sister Katrina (Emily Meade).  However, a tragedy threatens his hard-won sobriety.  This features performances from people who are actually involved with the Adult Recovery Court in Ohio, including Deao, a social worker, Kevin T. Braig, a judge, as well as addicts who tell their own recovery stories in the court and support group scenes.  This (along with shooting locations in central Ohio and austere cinematography) gives the narrative an authenticity that is palpable and I was impressed by how seamless their performances are with those of the actors. Centineo is a live wire and Poulter is a coiled spring who telegraphs all of the pain and guilt Cody is feeling through facial expressions and physicality rather than dialogue.  It is a powerful and empathetic performance that does much to destigmatize addiction but the long silences sometimes become tiresome (my mind wandered at times) and there are a few scenes that require a bit more context.  This is a movie that I admire more than I love but I still recommend it.

Late Fame

Last night I had another double feature at the Broadway beginning with Late Fame.  I was intrigued by the trailer and I found it very charming.  Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe) was once a member of the bohemian art scene in the 1970s and even had a volume of poetry titled Way Past Go published but he now works at the U.S. Postal Service and spends his evenings playing pool with a group of working class men at a local bar.  One evening he is approached by a wealthy and pretentious young man named Meyers (Edmund Donovan) who tells him that he and his artistic friends, who call themselves the Enthusiasm Society, have recently discovered his poetry and would love to have him join their group.  He grows to love how much they fawn over him, especially an exotic and mysterious actress named Gloria (Greta Lee), and this gives him a renewed passion for the arts.  However, even though he is very well-received at a poetry reading organized on his behalf by the group, he eventually realizes that he no longer belongs in this milieu and that Meyers and his friends are mere dilettantes.  The portrayal of the Enthusiasm Society is often very humorous and I especially enjoyed seeing Meyers' apartment because, even though he professes a disdain for contemporary culture, it is sleek and modern and filled with every technological advance (I laughed out when it was revealed).  I also enjoyed the juxtaposition between real artists, embodied by Ed and Gloria, and the poseurs, represented by Meyers and his group, who use them for authenticity.  The cinematography evokes the NYC of a bygone era, particularly a sequence in which Ed wanders the city looking for inspiration for a new poem, and I love that the members of the Enthusiasm Society dress like Victorian-era dandies.  Finally, Dafoe gives a grounded and effortless performance as a man who ultimately discovers that he is living a romanticized version of his past but Lee steals every scene she is in as the flamboyant Gloria, especially when she performs "Surabaya Johnny" at a club.  This is a sometimes funny and sometimes melancholy character study and I really enjoyed it.  Definitely seek it out.

Tony

Last night I went to see Tony with my nephew and I think it is a brilliant coming of age story (or bildungsroman as Tony would say).  Anthony "Tony" Bourdain (Dominic Sessa) is a brash and arrogant student at Vassar studying writing.  He applies for a prestigious fellowship but, when he doesn't get it, he tells his parents that he did and follows his crush Nancy (Emilia Jones) to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she has a summer job.  When he sees that she already has a boyfriend, he goes to a local restaurant called The Flagship and gets drunk.  This eventually leads to a job there as a dishwasher and he soon becomes immersed in the chaos of the kitchen.  He also befriends a volatile and heroin addicted cook named Sal (Leo Woodall) and pursues Nancy by lying about the fellowship.  After Sal goes on a bender and is fired, Tony lies about his restaurant experience and is given his job.  The Chef (Antonio Banderas) takes him under his wing and begins teaching him, but when Tony makes an error trying to impress Nancy which results in a catastrophic fire, he realizes that Tony lied and he fires him.  Tony has a moment of truth and ultimately confesses to Nancy and makes amends to Chef who, in turn, gives him a letter of recommendation for the Culinary Institute of America.  This reminded me of the biopics by Pablo Larrain about Jackie Kennedy, Princess Diana, and Maria Callas because it focuses on one pivotal period of time that changes the trajectory of Bourdain's life rather than the entire story and this approach is extremely effective.  I did not know much about Bourdain, beyond the fact that he was a chef who explored cuisine around the world, but I think this stands on its own as a universal coming of age story and I found it very compelling.  I think Sessa is strangely appealing (I adored him in The Holdovers) and his performance as an aimless young man trying to find his way is incredibly nuanced.  I was especially struck by the stark contrast between his interview for the writing fellowship at Vassar and his interview for admission to the Culinary Institute of America.  Banderas and Woodall (who is playing against type) are also outstanding and have a lived-in chemistry with Sessa.  Finally, I loved the 1970s aesthetic in the production design (especially the music and the costumes).  This is a definite crowd-pleaser and I highly recommend it.

Mutiny

Whenever there is a new movie featuring Jason Statham kicking ass, my nephew and I will always be seated (we got two of them this year) so we went to see Mutiny last night. One never goes to these movies expecting a masterpiece but, even though I enjoyed it, I found it very boring slow at times.  Cole Reed (Statham) is a former Marine and police officer with a troubled past who now works as a personal bodyguard to Tibu Campollo (Ramon Tikaram), the CEO of the shipping company KMG based in Bangkok.  After brokering a deal to sell the company at the behest of his son Kameron (Chaneil Kular), Tibu is ambushed on the road and killed.  Cole is framed for the murder so he begins investigating and discovers that one of the assassins worked for KMG on the cargo ship Artemis.  He sneaks on board pretending to be the assassin but soon encounters the assassin's last-minute replacement Angie Ellis (Annabelle Wallis) and they find evidence of a human trafficking operation conducted by Captain Marko Madsen (Roland Moller) and the rest of the crew.  Cole surmises that Tibu was killed to stop the sale of the company in order to keep the human trafficking operation going and mayhem ensues when he tries to save the hostages and take vengeance for Tibu's death.  One goes to these movies for the action and there are some great set pieces where Cole must fight everyone on board the ship.  My favorite scene involves an epic confrontation between Cole and Madsen on a moving gangway with a hatchet, a knife, a fishing hook, and a harpoon.  Wallis also gets in on the action, particularly when Ellis must fight her way out of the bridge.  However, there are long stretches where both Cole and Ellis, together and separately, are running around the ship or trying to escape from confined spaces and my mind definitely wandered.  The story is also a bit convoluted and I was baffled by a subplot involving a U.S. Coast Guard ship that intercepts a distress signal from the Artemis because there is a lot of buildup only to have them arrive after the ship has been secured (their arrival could have been a great action sequence).  Still, we had a good time and I recommend this to fans of Statham.

Newsies at West Valley Arts

Last night I went to see Newsies at the West Valley Performing Arts Center. I love this show so much and this production is fantastic! It tells the story of how Jack Kelly (Jerdyn Akeripa), along with his fellow "newsies" and a determined young reporter named Katherine (Ashtyn Roskelley), stand up to Joseph Pulitzer (Taylor Smith) by going on strike after he raises the cost of the papers. I love the songs because they are incredibly stirring and the choreography because it is exhilarating. The talented cast (which, I was happy to see, includes several girls as newsies) does an amazing job with the big production numbers "Carrying the Banner," "The World Will Know" (this is my favorite song in the show and it gave me goosebumps), "Seize the Day," "King of New York" (the tap dancing is incredible), and "Once and for All." These scenes feature the signature athletic leaps, jumps, and spins that this show is known for but they also incorporate lots of innovative and acrobatic steps which keep it fresh and vibrant. Both Akeripa and Roman Curiel, who plays Davey, are very charismatic and I enjoyed their interactions as their characters spar back and forth. The former delivers a rousing rendition of "Santa Fe" and that definitely got the crowd cheering. Roskelley is also very impressive and I loved her spirited performance of "Watch What Happens." Smith's Pulitzer is more ruthless than I have seen before (but I loved his voice in "The Bottom Line"), Nnuka Barcelona's Medda is a force to be reckoned with in "That's Rich," and Sebastian Long's Les is adorably precocious. The set is very minimal (much more so than any other production of this show that I have seen) but it is surprisingly effective. The platforms above the wings are used for Jack's fire escape, Katherine's desk, and Pulitzer's office and one of the wings features an iron gate as the entrance to the New York World building and a wooden platform where the newspapers are distributed to the newsies (it is very clever how the headlines are displayed). A simple wooden stage and an old-fashioned printing press are brought out by the ensemble for "That's Rich" and "Once and for All," respectively, and neighborhood signs are distributed throughout the audience for "Brooklyn's Here" (this is so fun). The costumes are very much informed by the Broadway production (there are lots of the famous newsie caps) but I especially liked Medda's velvet gown and the costumes worn by the Bowery Beauties. I had so much fun at this high-energy show and I cannot recommend it enough! There are only three more opportunities to see it next weekend (tickets may be purchased here) so act quickly.

Note: This was once at the top of my list of shows I most wanted to see. I wanted to see it so badly I chaperoned the HHS performing arts trip to Disneyland (my least favorite place on Earth) just so I could see the Broadway touring production at the Pantages Theatre with the group! It was worth it!