Sentimental Value

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway yesterday was Sentimental Value.  I have been looking forward to this ever since it won the Grand Prix at Cannes earlier this year and I was definitely not disappointed.  Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) is a stage and television actress in Norway who, along with her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), is dismayed when her estranged father, celebrated director Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgard), reappears in her life after the death of her mother.  He is hoping to make a comeback with an autobiographical movie about his mother featuring a script written specifically for Nora.  She is angry with her father for abandoning her and turns down the role thinking that he is only using her to get financing.  When Hollywood actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) becomes enamored with him after seeing a retrospective of his work at the Deauville Film Festival, he offers her the role instead and they begin rehearsals in the house, which has been in his family for generations, where key moments in the script actually happened.  Rachel eventually realizes that she cannot do justice to the role because she has no connection to the character.  Nora finally reads the script and recognizes that the character is actually based on her and that her father wrote it as a way to reconcile with her.  This features incredibly powerful performances from Skarsgard and Reinsve and I was especially impressed by the scene in which Gustav first offers Nora the role because there is so much raw emotion simmering under the surface in their seemingly polite conversation (it is absolutely riveting).  Fanning is also great and I loved the juxtaposition between how Rachel delivers a line from the script in English and how Nora delivers the same line in Norwegian because it is immediately apparent that the role was written for the latter.  The house in which Gustav, Nora, and Agnes grew up is used as a character to represent all of the memories that keep them in a dysfunctional relationship and it is remodeled throughout the narrative to depict the possibility of a fresh start.  This is a brilliant exploration of the power of art to heal and I highly recommend it.

Rental Family

Yesterday I spent most of the day at the Broadway watching movies with all of the other retired people!  My double feature started with Rental Family and I really loved it.  Phillip Vandarploeug (Brendan Fraser) is a lonely American actor living in Tokyo, Japan.  He struggles to find work (his biggest success has been playing a superhero in a toothpaste commercial) and to find a connection (he spends his evenings wistfully watching people in the apartments opposite his through the window).  His agent sends him on a job playing a "sad American" and he is disconcerted to realize that he has been hired to play a mourner at a funeral by a company that provides people to serve as family members, friends, colleagues, or other significant people for personal, social, or emotional reasons.  Shinji (Takehiro Hira), the owner of the company, offers him more work and, because he needs the money, he reluctantly agrees and plays a groom for a young woman who wants to appease her traditional parents and a friend to an antisocial young man who wants someone to play video games with him.  However, when he plays a reporter interviewing a retired actor (Akira Emoto) suffering from dementia and the estranged father of a young girl (Shannon Mahina Gorman) whose mother (Shino Shinozaki) wants to get her into a good school, he forms an emotional bond with both of them which eventually becomes problematic.  This has a beautiful message about the importance of feeling seen and there were several times when I had tears in my eyes.  I also loved the subplots involving the owner Shinji and another employee of the company (Mari Yamamoto) because they reveal the loneliness that has become endemic in society today.  Fraser gives a lovely and sensitive performance that never feels manipulative (in my opinion it is better than his performance in The Whale) and I loved his interactions with Emoto (particularly when Phillip stages a "jailbreak" because it is hilarious).  This is a gentle and touching movie that will make you laugh and cry and I highly recommend it.

Jay Kelly

Last night I went to see Jay Kelly at the Broadway.  I am a big fan of director Noah Baumbach and I really enjoyed it.  Jay Kelly (George Clooney) is a famous movie star with a 35 year career in Hollywood who has an existential crisis and questions whether it has been worth the cost of all of his important relationships.  He spontaneously decides to travel to Europe, ostensibly for a tribute at a film festival but really to spend time with his youngest daughter Daisy (Grace Edwards) who is on a trip with friends.  This forces members of his entourage, including his manager Ron (Adam Sandler), his publicist Liz (Laura Dern), and others, to leave their families on short notice to travel with him.  He has a series of misadventures on a train, including an incident with a German cyclist (Lars Eidinger) that goes viral, and reminisces, through flashbacks, about important people who are no longer in his life, including Peter (Jim Broadbent), the director who gave him his first big break, Timothy (Billy Crudup), a friend who blames him for stealing a role meant for him, Jessica (Riley Keough), his oldest daughter who feels abandoned by him, and Daphne (Eve Hewson), an actress with whom he had an ill-fated affair.  When he gets to the film festival, his daughter, who is angry at being followed, refuses to attend, his father (Stacy Keach), who he reluctantly invited, decides to go home early, and most of his entourage, who all have other responsibilities, abandon him.  His only support is Ron, who is paid to be there, and, even though the audience at the festival is visibly moved by a retrospective of his work, he finally realizes what he has lost.  This is a bit bloated with lots of underdeveloped characters to keep track of but I really liked the message about what truly matters in life which is shown through the juxtaposition between Jay and Ben (Patrick Wilson), a less famous actor who arrives at the festival with his wife (Isla Fisher) and other family members, as well as between Jay and Ron, who ultimately resigns in order to be with his wife (Greta Gerwig) and family.  This is a powerful portrait of a man who comes to regret his choices but it is also incredibly funny (I especially loved a running bit about a rider that stipulates having cheesecake on all of Jay's movie sets and at his appearances and another one in which he whines about being alone while having staff members cater to him).  Clooney is at his very best as Jay (a stand-in for himself?) and, even though I am not a big fan of Sandler, I was quite impressed with his performance as Ron.  I also loved Eidinger, who is absolutely deranged as the cyclist, and Alba Rohrwacher, who is hilarious as a fawning festival committee member.  You can probably wait to watch this on Netflix but I definitely recommend checking it out when it begins streaming on December 5.

Keeper

I didn't like Longlegs as much as other people seemed to (I think the unbearable tension so painstakingly crafted in the first two acts is completely undone when the mystery is explained) but I was willing to give Osgood Perkins another chance because the trailer for Keeper looked intriguing.  I went to see it last night at the Broadway with my nephew and, in my opinion, it is even worse than Longlegs.  Dr. Malcolm Westridge (Rossif Sutherland) arranges for a romantic weekend with his girlfriend Liz (Tatiana Maslany) at his secluded cabin in the woods for their one year anniversary.  When they arrive, Malcolm insists that Liz eat a piece of the cake left there for them by the caretaker and, even though she doesn't like chocolate, she eventually acquiesces.  The next morning Malcolm is called away to a medical emergency and Liz begins having disturbing visions, which may or may not be real, of strange women who seem to be haunting the cabin.  It is only when Malcolm returns that Liz discovers the true horror lurking inside.  There is an opening montage and an early scene between Malcolm and Liz that set up a possible exploration of toxic relationships and men who are unwilling to commit (my nephew had an even better take about a serial killer who preys on women) and I would have preferred that, or literally anything else, to the actual resolution to the mystery.  Even more frustrating than the underwhelming ending is the incredibly slow, and monotonous, build-up that prioritizes style over substance (I did really like the cabin, which is a character in and of itself, with architectural angles and plate glass windows that allow for some interesting shots with cool perspectives and reflections). This isn't even remotely scary and I found the creatures to be bizarre rather than creepy (my nephew and I laughed out loud several times).  Finally, I didn't especially like Maslany's performance (my nephew argues that she does the best she can with the cringe-worthy dialogue) but Sutherland is one of the worst actors I have ever seen and the two of them have zero chemistry.  I definitely recommend avoiding this (even to fans of Perkins). 

Note: I think Perkins needs better material.  He excels in creating atmospheric visuals but they are undermined by weak screenplays.

Die My Love

I loved You Were Never Really Here (it was my favorite film at Sundance in 2018) so I was very eager to see Lynne Ramsay's latest, Die My Love, at the Broadway last night and I was blown away by Jennifer Lawrence's committed performance.  Jackson (Robert Pattinson) and Grace (Lawrence) relocate from New York City to a small town in rural Montana after he inherits his uncle's rundown farmhouse.  A static opening shot from within the house makes it obvious that he is more excited about the move than she is.  After she gives birth and he takes a job working out of town for long periods of time, she is isolated, bored, and unable to write (her profession).  She is also extremely frustrated by the lack of physical intimacy with Jackson since the birth of the baby, especially when she comes to suspect that he is sleeping with other women on the road, and she begins acting more and more erratically (she literally claws at the walls).  Jackson becomes increasingly desperate to help her get better but he is largely ineffective (the more he tries to "fix her" the worse her behavior becomes) and she ultimately feels like he doesn't see her which signals the end of their relationship.  What I really liked about this movie is the immersive way that Grace's descent into madness is portrayed.  It is visceral and disjointed and it is often difficult to determine if what is happening is real or just inside her head (especially the frequent appearance of man on a motorcycle played by LaKeith Stanfield).  I have seen this criticized for lacking character development but, in my opinion, that is exactly the point because Grace does not have an identity beyond the one created for her by Jackson (so much of what she does is only inappropriate because Jackson thinks it is) and she eventually loses herself.  I have also seen criticism for the repetition of the same dynamic between Jackson and Grace over and over but, as someone who suffers from depression, it felt very authentic to me because these episodes often become a never ending spiral in which you become trapped.  Lawrence gives an absolutely brilliant physical performance, the best of her career, that perfectly captures Grace's unpredictability.  From one moment to the next I never knew what she was going to do or how she was going to respond and I loved the scenes in which Grace reacts to people without a filter (especially the cashier).  Pattinson does a great job portraying Jackson's early indifference and later desperation and I enjoyed Sissy Spacek as Pam, Jackson's mother, because she is an interesting foil to Grace (she is the only character who sees what is really happening to her).  I loved the use of a 4:3 aspect ratio to show Grace's claustrophobia as well as an incredibly chaotic soundtrack to represent Grace's state of mind (the scene with Toni Basil's "Hey Mickey" on repeat is hilarious).  I really liked this but a lot of people might find it difficult to watch.

Note:  I have always wanted to tell cashiers to stop talking to me!

National Theatre Live: Mrs. Warren's Profession

Yesterday I went to a screening of the National Theatre Live production of Mrs. Warren's Profession which was filmed earlier this year from the Garrick Theatre in London's West End and presented by the Tanner Humanities Center and Salt Lake Film Society.  I had never seen George Bernard Shaw's scandalous play before (it was written in 1893 but not performed publicly until 1925 due to censorship laws) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Vivie Warren (Bessie Carter), a modern young woman who has recently graduated from university, reunites with her long absent mother Kitty (Imelda Staunton) after spending much of her life boarding with others.  Mrs. Warren arranges for Vivie to meet her friend Mr. Praed (Sid Sagar) and her business partner Sir George Crofts (Robert Glenister) as possible suitors but Vivie prefers her ne'er-do-well neighbor Frank Gardner (Reuben Joseph).  His father the Rev. Samuel Gardner (Kevin Doyle) objects to his relationship with Vivie because Mrs. Warren is not socially acceptable so she asks her mother why.  Mrs. Warren finally confesses that her childhood of poverty compelled her to work as a prostitute because she felt that it was a better way of achieving independence than the life of drudgery to which she was doomed by her class and gender.  Vivie is shocked but comes to respect her mother for her determination to succeed.  However, she is horrified when Sir George reveals that he and her mother own several brothels and that she now works as a madam.  This leads to an epic confrontation in which Vivie rejects her mother, and her money, to take an office job in the city and Mrs. Warren responds by saying that her profession is what provided Vivie with an education and choices that she never had.  I really enjoyed the thought-provoking narrative because, at various times, I found both characters to be guilty of, and victims of, hypocrisy and I think the audience is left to decide the morality of their actions.  Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter are outstanding and, because they are mother and daughter in real-life, their interactions have an added poignancy.  I was especially impressed by the scene in which Vivie accuses her mother of exploiting women and Mrs. Warren accuses her daughter of ingratitude because it is incredibly emotional and crackles with energy.  The only drawback is that, with such powerful performances from the women, the men are often overshadowed.  I loved the minimal set which begins as a beautiful garden filled with flowers and ends up as a stark gray office because this represents the journey from illusion to truth.  I also loved the inclusion of a large female ensemble, who are dressed as prostitutes and gradually remove all of the set pieces and props until the stage is bare, because it symbolizes the way such women are used.  This was another great production by NT Live and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to see it.  Upcoming screenings at the Broadway include The Fifth Step on February 21, Hamlet on March 21, and Life of Pi on April 11.

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway with my nephew last night was If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.  I was really excited for this because it got a lot of buzz at Sundance this year but I found it absolutely exhausting to watch.  Linda (Rose Byrne) is a therapist dealing with her daughter's mysterious illness, which requires the use of a feeding tube, and the collapse of the ceiling in her apartment, caused by a broken water pipe (both of which are symbolized by a tunnel through which she travels during hallucinations).  Her husband Charles (Christian Slater) is away on a two-month work trip and, not only does he provide very little support, he chastises her for her inability to cope with their daughter and the repairs in their apartment.  Her therapist (Conan O'Brien) is very cold and distant and becomes exasperated with her escalating erratic behavior.  Her daughter's doctor (Mary Bronstein) takes great pains to reassure her that she is not to blame for her daughter's condition but is extremely judgmental about her daughter's lack of progress.  Her client (Danielle Macdonald), who is suffering from postpartum depression, abandons her baby in her office and this mirrors her own anxieties about being a mother.  She finds release with a neighbor (A$AP Rocky) who enables her drug use but eventually seeks another form of release.  This has a very important message about the unrealistic expectations placed on mothers and the lack of support available to them when things become overwhelming but it is definitely difficult to sit through because the camera work and sound design mimic what it feels like to experience a full psychotic breakdown.  I also had very mixed emotions because the audience is clearly meant to sympathize with Linda but I found her to be a very unsympathetic character (this is probably the point).  Byrne gives a bravura performance (she won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin Film Festival this year) and I was also impressed with O'Brien in a more dramatic role.  This is the kind of movie that I think I should like more than I actually do but I wouldn't recommend it.

Bugonia

I am a huge fan of Yorgos Lanthimos so I have been eagerly anticipating his latest movie, Bugonia, for what seems like forever.  My nephew and I saw it last night at the Broadway (with a huge crowd) as the first in a double feature and we both loved it!  Conspiracy theorist Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) has become convinced that an alien species, known as the Andromedans, has infiltrated the Earth and is actively destroying the environment, especially the honeybees, and forcing the population into subservience.  He coerces his intellectually disabled cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) into helping him with his plan to kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Auxolith who Teddy believes is an Andromedan, so that she can negotiate a meeting between him and the Emperor during the upcoming lunar eclipse.  They immobilize her (in a hilarious sequence), shave her head and cover her skin with an antihistamine cream to prevent her from sending a distress signal to other Andromedans, and then imprison her in their basement.  When she wakes up, Michelle denies being an alien, demands to be released, and then bargains with her captors.  However, in the course of their negotiations, it is revealed that Teddy works for Auxolith and that his mother Sandy (an unrecognizable Alicia Silverstone) was a test subject for one of Auxolith's experimental drugs and is now in a coma.  Absolute mayhem ensues with a bonkers third act that had me questioning everything that came before!  Both Plemons and Stone give phenomenal performances.  It is implied that Teddy has been the victim of trauma all of his life and has been desperately searching for something or someone to blame for all of his losses.  Plemons imbues him with a sadness that makes him sympathetic despite that fact that what he is doing is wrong.  Stone is cold and arrogant as an unethical CEO who is only concerned with the bottom line but yet you also sympathize with her because of her mistreatment.  The movie is at its best when the two of them interact, especially their conversation about bees, because they are both absolutely convinced that their version of the truth is correct in an age when it has become increasingly difficult to ascertain the truth (it is sometimes uncomfortable to watch).  There are many other thought-provoking themes to unpack (most notably environmentalism, capitalism, and trauma) but I think the message about misinformation is the most powerful.  This movie is definitely a wild ride (with all of the black comedy you have come to expect from Lanthimos) but I will be thinking about it for a long time to come and I highly recommend it.

It Was Just An Accident

I saw It Was Just An Accident, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year, as the second movie in my double feature at the Broadway yesterday and it is brilliant!  After a man wearing a prosthetic leg hits and kills a dog while driving late at night, he brings his damaged car to a factory where Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) is working to ask for help.  Vahid hears the distinct squeaking sound of the man's leg as he walks and immediately recognizes him as Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), the sadistic guard who tormented him in an Iranian prison.  The next day he follows him in a borrowed van, kidnaps him, and attempts to bury him alive in the desert but he isn't certain that he has the right man because he was blindfolded the whole time he was in prison.  In order to make a correct identification, he locates other former prisoners, including Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a photographer, Golrokh (Hadis Pakbaten), a bride having her wedding portraits taken with her fiance Ali (Majid Panahi), and Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), Shiva's volatile former partner, for confirmation.  Hamid eventually identifies him but chaos ensues (which provides a bit of comic relief in this tension-filled drama) as they argue over what to do.  Hamid advocates for killing him immediately, Shiva does not want to become like him by resorting to violence, Vahid wants him to confess and be judged before they take action, and Goli is too traumatized by seeing him again to make a rational decision.  This ultimately leads to a powerful confrontation between Eghbal and his captors with an ending that gave me chills.  Writer/Director Jafar Panahi was himself once a political prisoner who was mistreated by his captors and you can definitely feel the weight of his own moral dilemma about justice and revenge in the disparate reactions of his characters.  I found it to be incredibly thought-provoking and moving but also really funny as their journey to retribution becomes increasingly more absurd (which is an interesting commentary on taking matters of this nature into your own hands).  All of the performances, from a largely unknown cast, are riveting but I was particularly struck by Afshari's portrayal of Shiva's character arc as a woman who simply wants to move on with her life but finds that she can't (her rage-filled monologue gave me goosebumps).  This is one of the best movies I've seen this year and I highly recommend it.

Nouvelle Vague

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon at the Broadway watching two movies with subtitles and it was definitely a great way to spend the day!  I started with Nouvelle Vague which is an amusing look at the making of Breathless, one of the most influential examples of the French New Wave movement in cinema, and I really enjoyed it. It is 1959 and Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) is the only film critic at the Cahiers du Cinema magazine who hasn't made his own film.  He convinces a reluctant Georges de Beauregard (Bruno Dreyfurst) to produce his debut based on a treatment written by Francois Truffaut (Adrien Rouyard) after the latter's success with The 400 Blows at Cannes, coerces his friend Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin) to star as the gangster, enlists Francois Moreuil (Paolo Luka Noe) to help him get his wife, Hollywood actress Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch), to star as the American student, and hires war photographer Raoul Coutard (Matthieu Penchinat) to shoot it.  Godard wants the film to be as spontaneous and naturalistic as he can make it so he is rarely prepared with a completed script and only shoots when he is feeling inspired.  He insists on hand-held camera work and finds unusual ways to film scenes from different perspectives (this includes putting Coutard inside a mail cart).  He also forms an adversarial relationship with his actors to get the performances he wants.  As a result, the shoot is fraught with tension.  Beauregard is exasperated with all of the delays, Belmondo is worried that he will never work again, and Seberg is furious with her husband for convincing her to take the role and threatens to quit every day.  Everyone involved is certain that it will be the worst film of the year after a private screening but an epilogue describes its lasting impact on the French New Wave and subsequent cinematic movements.  What I enjoyed most is how Richard Linklater replicates Godard's style with grainy black and white film, a 4:3 aspect ratio, hand-held camera work, and multiple jump cuts.  I also loved the use of static shots with names listed below to introduce all of the notable players in the French New Wave (some of whom only appear for a few minutes) because it is almost as if Linklater is giving the audience a primer in film history.  All of the actors have an eerie resemblance to the real-life characters they play and I was especially impressed with the performances from Deutch (I loved her pixie cut) and Marbeck (he looks so cool in Godard's signature sunglasses).  There are lots of fun film references (at one point I was giggling out loud) and I highly recommend this to cinephiles.

Note:  Strangely enough, I became a fan of the French New Wave after seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  I was fascinated by the character Claude Lacombe (I don't know why) and, when my dad told me that he was played by the famous director Francois Truffault, I immediately conspired to see The 400 Blows.

Frankenstein

I love the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (it, along with Hamlet, was one of my favorite pieces of literature to teach) so the new adaptation by Guillermo del Toro was one of my most anticipated movies this year.  I went to see it with my nephew, and a huge crowd, at the Broadway last night and I loved it!  I loved everything about it!  Baron Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) encounters a mysterious Creature (Jacob Elordi) after taking refuge on a ship, under the command of Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen), that is trapped in ice whilst on an expedition to the North Pole.  When Frankenstein hears that Anderson is willing to continue to the North Pole no matter the cost to his crew, he fears that he shares his same madness and recounts his story to him as a cautionary tale.  He tells of his obsession to overcome death after his beloved mother died in childbirth, his expulsion from the Royal College of Surgeons for experimenting on corpses, his patronage from Heinrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz) which funds his experiments in an abandoned water tower, his unrequited love for Harlander's niece Elizabeth (Mia Goth) who is also engaged to his brother William (Felix Kammerer), his success in reanimating a corpse created from the bodies of soldiers killed in the Crimean War, his disappointment with the Creature's seeming lack of intelligence, and his attempt to kill the Creature by setting the tower on fire.  The Creature then describes his mistreatment at the hands of Frankenstein who sees him as a monster, his bond with Elizabeth who sees his purity of heart, his escape from the fire at the tower, his terror at being lost and alone in the woods, his interactions with a blind man (David Bradley) who befriends him and teaches him to speak and read, his search for answers about his creation, and then his search for the creator who doomed him to a life of isolation.  After Frankenstein and his Creature have a final reckoning, Anderson decides to abandon his reckless pursuit and return home.  I am usually a purist when it comes to adaptations of literature but I think the changes from the novel add to the narrative rather than detract from it and I especially loved the more sympathetic depiction of the Creature.  I was impressed by the performances from Isaac, as a man consumed by his obsession, and Goth, as the moral compass of the story, but I was absolutely blown away by Elordi.  I loved his physicality as a being with an imposing stature but the development of a newborn as well as his haunting portrayal of both innocence and rage.  I also really enjoyed all of the Gothic elements in the production design (the visuals are gorgeous and I particularly loved the use of fallen angels as a motif) and the Baroque-inspired score by Alexandre Desplat (one of my favorite movie composers).  I've always loved the story but I found this adaptation to be incredibly moving and I highly recommend it (I'm sure it will be among my favorite movies of the year).  It will be available to stream on Netflix beginning November 7 and I cannot wait to watch it again.

The Mastermind

The next movie in the double feature with my nephew at the Broadway last night was The Mastermind.  I am a fan of Kelly Reichardt's brooding and contemplative character studies and I think the protagonist of this movie might be her most intriguing one yet.  James Blaine "J.B." Mooney (Josh O'Connor) is an unemployed former art student who is supported by his wife Terri (Alana Haim) and his wealthy, but disapproving, parents Sarah (Hope Davis) and William (Bill Camp) in the suburban town of Framingham, Massachusetts where his father serves as the local judge.  It is 1970 and the Vietnam War continues on but J.B. is seemingly unaffected by it and the attendant protests all around him (there are many references to both in the background of the action).  He meticulously plans a robbery in broad daylight of four paintings by Arthur Dove from the local art museum with Guy Hickey (Eli Gelb), Larry Duffy (Cole Doman), and Ronnie Gibson (Javion Allen) and, even though the heist is initially successful, everything that can go wrong does go wrong and J.B. is ill-equipped to deal with the fallout.  He ends up on the run where help is either not forthcoming, from his art school friends Fred and Maude (John Magaro and Gaby Hoffman, respectively) or his long-suffering wife, or not available until he is finally held accountable for his actions for maybe the first time in his life.  This is definitely more character-driven than plot-driven because the action in the second half is incredibly slow, almost maddeningly so, with lots of static shots of J.B. trying to figure out what to do which seem to go on much longer than necessary.  How J.B. responds is much more important that what he responds to and this is ultimately very effective but I admit that I got a bit fidgety.  However, I found the narrative to be very thought-provoking because, in my opinion, J.B. is a symbol for an America that lost its way prosecuting a war it could not win.  I also loved the 1970s aesthetic in the production design, costumes, and cinematography, the Jazz-inspired score, and the understated performance from O'Connor (he excels at playing rumpled anti-heroes).  I recommend this to fans of Reichardt but others might find it boring.

Note:  The first movie in our double feature appealed specifically to me and this one appealed specifically to my nephew!

Blue Moon

Last night my nephew and I had another double feature at the Broadway (they are becoming a regular occurrence for us).  We started with Blue Moon and, even though I really liked it, I can definitely see why others might not.  Before Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) worked with Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney), he had a successful 24-year partnership with Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) before the latter's self-destructive behavior forced a split.  During the opening night performance of Oklahoma!, the first collaboration between Rodgers and Hammerstein, Hart slips away to Sardi's restaurant to commiserate with Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) the bartender and Morty (Jonah Lees) the piano player.  He is openly critical of Oklahoma! (my favorite comment is that it will be performed by high schools until the end of time because it is so inoffensive) but he knows that it will be a bigger hit than any of his shows with Rodgers so he can barely bring himself to congratulate him when he arrives for the afterparty.  When Hart proposes a new project for the two of them to work on, Rodgers remains skeptical about his depression and alcoholism.  His spirits are momentarily lifted at the arrival of Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), his 20-year-old protege, because he has unrequited feelings for her and is hoping to impress her with his connections to the Broadway world.  When she abandons him to attend another party with Rodgers, it is a confirmation of both his personal and professional failings but he hides his heartbreak and continues regaling Eddie and Morty with yet another story.  This features a lot of dialogue (Broadway fans will find many fun references) and takes place in one location in real time (almost like a chamber play) so it is very slow but I found it surprisingly compelling because of Hawke's brilliant and transformative performance as the talented but tormented songwriter.  You can always see the pain behind the bravado (although it is distracting to see the balding wig that he wears) and I was impressed by his physicality as a man who is embarrassed by his short stature.  Scott is also outstanding (he won the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the Berlin Film Festival), especially in a highly charged scene where Rodgers expresses both his gratitude for and frustration with Hart.  Qualley does a great job but she sometimes feels very out of place, in my opinion, because she is so anachronistic in this time period.  As a fan of Broadway musicals, I really enjoyed this but I don't think the stellar performances will be enough to make this appealing for those who do not share a similar interest.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

Yesterday I went back to the Broadway (I pretty much live there) for a matinee of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere and I loved it!  Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) is exhausted after a grueling world tour and, despite feeling pressure from his record company to capitalize on the success of "Hungry Heart," he decides to return to his hometown in New Jersey to relax and get away from his growing fame.  Instead, he is assaulted by memories of his childhood, especially his troubled relationship with his father Douglas (Stephen Graham), and begins an ill-fated relationship with the sister (Odessa Young) of a high school friend which leads to an existential crisis.  He writes songs that are darker in tone as a way to cope and eventually enlists his guitar tech Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser) to help him make a stripped down demo tape using a four-track recorder in his bedroom.  He also writes and records "Born in the U.S.A," "Glory Days," and "I'm on Fire," which his producer Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) wants to release, but he insists on releasing the rough version of his earlier songs which eventually becomes the album Nebraska.  Landau ultimately fights the record company for what Springsteen wants, even going to extraordinary lengths to find equipment that preserves the sound on the demo tape, because he sees that it is a form of catharsis for him.  After facing his demons, Springsteen is able to record the album Born in the U.S.A. which makes him a global superstar.  I love that this focuses on a seminal period in Springsteen's life rather than using a traditional biopic structure and I found the story to be incredibly emotional and compelling.  White delivers a brilliant performance because, while he doesn't look exactly like Springsteen (which distracted me at first), he captures both his physicality, especially on stage, and his singing voice.  However, it is his portrayal of Springsteen's pain that impressed me most, particularly a scene when he finally allows himself to cry (it is a very powerful turning point).  Finally, I loved hearing all of the songs on Nebraska because I wasn't familiar with them and it was fascinating to see the creative process behind writing, recording, and mastering them.  I really enjoyed this and highly recommend it.

Urchin

My nephew joined me at the Broadway for Urchin, the next movie in my triple feature yesterday, and we both loved this powerful and tragic portrayal of someone falling between the cracks in society.  Mike (Frank Dillane) is a homeless young man suffering from mental health issues and addiction.  After he severely beats and robs a man (Okezie Morro) who attempts to help him, he is arrested and sentenced to nine months in prison.  When he is released, he is sober and commits to a fresh start.  He regularly meets with his counselor Nadia (Buckso Dhillon-Woolley), moves into a temporary hostel, gets a job working in a kitchen at a hotel, maintains his sobriety with a new group of friends while avoiding those who have had a negative influence on him, and even listens to self-help tapes.  However, a mediated meeting with his victim damages his fragile self-confidence which sends him spiraling into self-destructive behavior once again.  An overworked Nadia abandons him, his boss fires him when his behavior affects his performance at work, his temporary housing situation expires, and he returns to the friends who enable his addiction.  I loved the gritty and realistic portrayal of what it looks like to live on the fringes of society interspersed with beautiful images of a dark cave with a light-filled opening that seems too far to reach (a very vivid metaphor).  I was also very intrigued by the recurring motif of a figure that seems to be following Mike because it suggests that what happens to him is inevitable in such a broken system.  The entire narrative is incredibly moving and there were many small moments that made me want to cry because I wanted Mike to succeed so badly.  Dillane gives an absolutely brilliant performance that is both sympathetic and frustrating (I wanted to yell at the screen when someone offers him drugs).  The close-up on his face when Mike is forced to listen to his victim describe how the attack affected him is heartbreaking because his guilt is palpable.  This is an impressive debut from writer-director Harris Dickinson and I highly recommend it.

Ballad of a Small Player

There are a lot of movies that I want to see this month so I actually had a triple feature yesterday in order to fit them all in (it has been a long time since I have done that).  I started with a matinee of Ballad of a Small Player at the Broadway and it is a stylish look at the nature of greed with a committed performance from Colin Farrell.  Brendan Reilly (Farrell) is an Irish con man on the run from a British private investigator named Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton) after embezzling the life savings of several women.  He has ensconced himself in a luxury hotel suite in Macau, the gambling capital of the world, as the self-styled Lord Freddy Doyle and believes that he is just one game of baccarat away from hitting it big.  However, his luck runs out when he amasses large debts that he cannot pay and when Blithe eventually locates him.  He flees to Hong Kong where Dao Ming (Fala Chen), a mysterious woman who understands his situation all too well, offers him a choice between redemption or Hell.  Farrell is outstanding as both a bon vivant who swaggers from casino to casino in one gaudy outfit after another in search of his next big win and as a desperate man who slowly realizes that he has no more cards left to play.  I also liked Swinton as yet another awkwardly eccentric character (I think she chooses her roles based on the wig she gets to wear).  The symbolism, particularly the use of food as a metaphor for greed and the use of water as a metaphor for redemption, is very intriguing and the bold and chaotic lights of Macau juxtaposed with the tranquility of nature in Hong Kong is also quite powerful.  The cinematography is beautiful and the bombastic score perfectly matches Doyle's false bravado. The biggest flaw is that the narrative overplays its hand in the third act with a supernatural subplot that is both obvious and convoluted.  I liked this more than others have but it is definitely one that you can wait to see when it begins streaming on Netflix later this month.

After the Hunt

Despite some divisive reviews, my nephew and I decided to see After the Hunt at the Broadway last night.  I was initially very put off by several things but, upon further reflection, I think they were intentional and, ultimately, tremendously thought-provoking.  Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts) is a well-respected philosophy professor at Yale University who is being considered for tenure along with her colleague and close personal friend Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield). She and her psychiatrist husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) host a dinner party for several of her students, including her protege Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri), and colleagues, including Hank, where a heated discussion takes place.  The next day Maggie accuses Hank of sexually assaulting her and turns to Alma for support but she is disappointed by her surprisingly indifferent response.  Hank also reaches out to Alma to protest his innocence but she reports him to the dean which results in his termination.  However, the situation becomes increasingly fraught as information about each of the three, and their motivations, comes to light.  I really enjoyed the juxtaposition between Alma and Maggie who are intriguing foils to each other.  They both may or may not have been assaulted (more about that later) but they each respond according to the social mores of the time in which their attacks occurred.  Alma represses what happened to her and counsels Maggie to do the same if she wants to succeed in the male-dominated world of academia but Maggie sees her victimhood as a way to publicly fight against the patriarchy.  My nephew and I, who roughly correspond to the generations depicted by these women, had an engaging discussion about their differing mindsets.  I did not enjoy the ambiguity of the narrative (Alma, Maggie, and Hank are slowly revealed to be incredibly unreliable narrators) because I wanted to know the truth but Guadagnino is emphasizing that the truth is sometimes difficult to ascertain and that it can be manipulated.  I also disliked the theatricality of the performances (Guadagnino even breaks the fourth wall to yell "cut!" after the last scene) which is further emphasized by an uncharacteristically melodramatic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross but I think that this is a commentary on the often performative nature of pursuing social justice (which is provocative, to say the least).  Both Roberts and Edebiri are definitely compelling but I was most impressed by Garfield, who is playing against type, because he is very believable as an unsympathetic character.  This will not appeal to everyone (I still don't know what I think about its themes) but I have not been able to stop thinking about it and that might be the point.

National Theatre Live: Inter Alia

Yesterday afternoon I was really excited to see a screening of the National Theatre Live production of Inter Alia which was filmed earlier this year at the Lyttelton Theatre in London and presented by the Tanner Humanities Center and Salt Lake Film Society.  This new play by the same team responsible for the hit Prima Facie is brilliant and I was blown away by Rosamund Pike's powerful performance.  Jessica Parks (Pike) is a ground-breaking Crown Court Judge as well as a wife to Michael Wheatley (Jamie Glover) and a mother to eighteen-year-old Harry (Jasper Talbot).  While she is a rock star in the courtroom (she is backed by a band who performs live on stage during the courtroom scenes) known for refusing to back down from the misogynistic barristers who appear before her and for her tough stance on the perpetrators of sexual violence, she frequently feels compelled to downplay her accomplishments to soothe the ego of her husband, who is a less successful barrister, and defers to him in matters relating to their son because he is a man and she thinks that he can relate to what Harry is experiencing more than she can.  She shoulders most of the responsibilities for running the household (there is an incredible scene in which she frantically prepares for a dinner party as Michael and Harry make demands of her) and often feels guilty about her perceived failures as a mother.  Her professional and personal worlds collide when Harry is accused of rape at a party and her role as a judge who advocates for the rights of victims is at odds with her role as a mother who wants to save her son.  Pike is in constant motion, moving between a platform upstage, which represents her courtroom, an elaborate set center stage, which represents her home, and a large screen downstage, which depicts flashbacks with Harry as a child, as she juggles all of Jessica's many responsibilities (inter alia is a legal term which means "among other things"), and she deftly manages multiple costume changes on stage and a myriad of props.  She also effectively portrays many competing emotions, from a hilarious scene singing karaoke (of course she sings "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!") to a devastating one in which she confronts her husband for not stepping up and helping their son navigate the toxic masculinity on the so-called manosphere.  Both Glover and Talbot are also outstanding and I was especially moved by the latter's final scene with Pike because it is so emotional.  I loved this because, in addition to its clever staging and memorable performances, it is incredibly thought-provoking, particularly the difference between the moral definition of guilt and the legal one, and I know that I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.  The next National Theatre Live productions at the Broadway are Mrs. Warren's Profession on November 8, The Fifth Step on February 21, Hamlet on March 21, and Life of Pi on April 11 (I so excited for this!).

A House of Dynamite

The second movie in the double feature at the Broadway with my nephew last night was A House of Dynamite and it is incredibly tense and thought-provoking if ultimately anti-climactic.  The launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from an unknown country is shown from three different perspectives.  The first perspective introduces the threat as Major Daniel Gonzalez (Anthony Ramos) and his team at Fort Greely in Alaska first detect the missile heading inbound to the United States on radar and attempt, unsuccessfully, to neutralize it with anti-ballistic missiles and as Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), the senior  officer in the White House situation room, and her team assess the danger to the population and inform all high-ranking government officials.  The second perspective proposes possible responses as General Anthony Brady (Tracy Letts), the senior military officer at STRATCOM (the United States Strategic Command), advocates for nuclear retaliation against all known enemies and as Jake Bearington (Gabriel Basso), the Deputy National Security Officer, urges caution after contacting Ana Park (Greta Lee), the NSA's North Korea expert, and the Russian Foreign Minister (Andrei Kouznetsov).  The third perspective conveys the weight of making an impossible decision as the POTUS (Idris Elba) consults with Secretary of Defense Reid Baker (Jared Harris) and Presidential Military Aide Lieutenant Commander Robert Reeves (Jonah Hauer-King) in order to choose between several devastating options.  One of the things I found most compelling is how the narrative humanizes the characters who are responsible for keeping the country safe, often at the expense of their own families, especially when Walker tearfully advises her husband (Neal Bledsoe) to take their son (Nicholas Monterosso) and drive as far away as possible, when Baker calls his estranged daughter (Kaitlyn Dever) after he realizes that she lives in the targeted city, and when the POTUS calls the First Lady (Renee Elise Goldsberry), who is visiting Africa, to ask her opinion.  However, this is also extremely disconcerting because we see that these very human individuals tasked with keeping us safe are also fallible and are the weakest link in elaborate contingency plans. The action is frenetic as the camera shifts from person to person in the large ensemble cast and the suspense is almost unbearable as the countdown to impact is shown three different times with an unsettling score.  I was on the edge of my seat until the ending which I found very disappointing (I may or may not have uttered an expletive under my breath) even though it is probably the only way it could have ended.  I would recommend seeing this in the theater because it is a visceral experience but it will be available on Netflix beginning October 24.

Orwell: 2+2=5

My nephew was very eager to see Orwell: 2+2=5 so it was the first in a double feature at the Broadway last night.  It is an incredibly insightful (and deeply upsetting) look at the life and writings of George Orwell that is, unfortunately, very relevant in the world today.  It takes a nonlinear approach to show how his life experiences informed his world view and his work, most notably Nineteen Eighty-Four, with Damian Lewis narrating as the voice of the author.  Eric Arthur Blair, who wrote under the pen name George Orwell, was born into what he called the lower-upper-middle-class in which he felt his status very keenly, especially while at Eton, and came to abhor social classes.  His family was unable to afford university and his marks were not good enough for a scholarship so he joined the police force in what was then Burma.  He saw first hand the oppression of the powerless by the British and developed a hatred for imperialism.  He eventually volunteered to fight against Franco's military uprising during the Spanish Civil War where he experienced the evils of fascism and totalitarianism and also worked for the BBC for a time during World War II but resigned after observing media manipulation.  He began writing as a way to call attention to these issues.  The documentary then highlights the themes of Nineteen Eighty-Four by reiterating the motto of Oceania (War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength) and then applying it to the global situation today by highlighting the military invasions of Iraq, Ukraine, and Palestine; the growing income inequality around the world; and the spread of misinformation, anti-intellectualism, AI, and book banning.  For me the most chilling motif, shown multiple times with footage from the various movie adaptations of Nineteen Eight-Four, is when the protagonist Winston is forced to agree that 2+2=5 during his interrogation because I think that people have willingly abandoned what they know to be true in favor of what is expedient in our current political climate.  As distressing as this is to watch, it does end with the belief that people will not abandon their common decency and will eventually heed Orwell's warnings.  I think this is an important documentary for everyone to see and I highly recommend it.