La Chimera

After seeing all of the rave reviews for La Chimera I was really excited to see it at the Broadway last night.  It is incredibly thought provoking and, the more I think about it, the more I like it.  Arthur (Josh O'Connor) is a British archaeologist who has just been released from a stint in prison for grave robbing and is returning to a small town in Tuscany.  He visits Flora (Isabella Rossellini), the mother of a former girlfriend named Beniamina (Yile Yara Vianello) who has disappeared from his life but still haunts his dreams, and he befriends Flora's no nonsense music student and housekeeper Italia (Carol Duarte).  However, he soon finds himself back with an eccentric group of tomb raiders using his gift of divining, during which he goes into a fugue state, to locate ancient Etruscan antiquities to sell on the black market through an enigmatic broker named Spartaco (Alba Rohrwacher).  When he finds an untouched tomb full of treasure he must decide of he wants to live in the past or the present.  The story meanders very slowly and there are many shifts in tone (Arthur is a morose and melancholy character while his crew is wild and boisterous, there are images of a sun-dappled Tuscany juxtaposed with dark and gloomy underground tombs, and scenes depicting stark reality are interspersed with magical realism) and changes in format which are sometimes quite disorienting (by design).  Everything suddenly comes together in the end (and upon further reflection) but there were many times when I wondered what was going on and this kept me surprisingly engaged.  The haunting and beautiful final scene is worth all of the effort it takes to untangle the narrative (the allusions to Ariadne and Theseus are brilliant).  O'Connor's moody and otherworldly performance is perfect because Arthur is odds with everyone and everything around him (at one point I wondered if it was all just a dream) and I loved Rossellini's turn as an imperious aristocrat living in a crumbling mansion.  This movie defies description and categorization but I know I will be thinking about it for a long time to come!

Civil War

I have heard lots of different takes about the movie Civil War so I was very excited to have a chance to see it at the Broadway last night so that I could make up my own mind.  It is intense and often difficult to watch but I found it to be incredibly thought provoking with a message about war that really resonated with me.  In a dystopian future, the U.S. has descended into a civil war with Loyalist States led by a dictatorial third-term president (Nick Offerman) fighting against various factions, including the Western Forces (Texas and California), the Florida Alliance, and the New People's Army.  Two journalists, Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and Joel (Wagner Moura), covering the conflict in New York decide to head to Washington, D.C. to try and interview the heavily guarded president before the Western Forces make a final push to capture the capitol.  Their colleague Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) asks to join them as far as the front lines in Charlottesville, Virginia and, despite the fact that he is old and infirm, they allow him to come.  Joel also allows Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a young and aspiring photographer who idolizes Lee, to join them despite Lee's objections.  They document the ongoing conflict as they make the increasingly dangerous journey through civilian populations, who are doing whatever they need to in order to survive, which culminates in a dramatic assault on the White House.  This movie uses the lens of journalistic objectivity to focus more on what is happening rather than why it is happening.  It portrays urban warfare very realistically and it is incredibly shocking and violent with a discomfiting sound design that adds to the tension.  The fact that it does not espouse an ideological viewpoint (which has been problematic for many) and that it is difficult to watch (which has also been problematic for others) is actually the point because the message, in my opinion, is that war (and the subsequent collapse of societal norms) is catastrophic no matter the cause.  What I found most riveting is the juxtaposition between Lee, the hardened veteran of many foreign conflicts, and Jessie, the inexperienced newcomer who reacts emotionally to everything she sees, because they slowly trade personas as the narrative progresses.  The performances, especially by Dunst and Spaeny as well as a menacing cameo by Jesse Plemons that made me jump twice, are also very compelling.  I would rate this as one of my favorites this year but the choice to have characters of color on the receiving end of most of the violence made me extremely uncomfortable.  Nonetheless, I would definitely recommend it.

Wicked Little Letters

I have been looking forward to seeing Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley together in Wicked Little Letters ever since I saw the trailer and I finally had the chance last night at the Broadway.  I loved this charming British period piece and I laughed out loud more times than I can count (as did the entire audience).  Edith Swan (Colman), a devout spinster who lives with her controlling and misogynistic father Edward (Timothy Spall) and her sympathetic mother Victoria (Gemma Jones) in Littlehampton, England during the 1920s, has been receiving anonymous letters that are deeply disturbing to her because they contain vulgar insults and profanity.  She suspects that her neighbor Rose Gooding (Buckley), a wild and foul-mouthed single mother from Ireland, is responsible for these letters and has the dim-witted Constable Papperwick (Hugh Skinner) arrest her.  Rose denies writing them and a female police officer named Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) believes her because there is no credible evidence against her.  However, Chief Constable Spedding (Paul Chahidi), who is under pressure from Parliament to solve the case, dismisses her concerns so she enlists several eccentric women from the village (Joanna Scanlan, Lolly Adefope, and Eileen Atkins) to help her find the proof to clear Rose.  Colman is absolutely hilarious as a seemingly pious woman who is secretly delighted by all of the attention she is receiving from this scandal and I wanted to cheer when she finally confronts her father.  Buckley is always a lot of fun when she plays a brash young woman but she is very affecting as a mother who wants a better life for her daughter.  I also really enjoyed Vasan's performance as a woman undaunted by discrimination she faces in the police department and the rest of the cast is delightful.  I figured out the mystery, based on a true story, early on but it didn't matter because the characters are all so engaging.  This is a crowd-pleaser that I recommend to fans of British comedies with the proviso that it obviously includes a lot of profanity (albeit with very charming accents).

Late Night with the Devil

The next movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Late Night with the Devil and it was fun seeing this with a large late-night crowd!  This begins like a documentary investigating a disturbing incident that happened during a live broadcast of a late night talk show called Night Owls with Jack Delroy on October 31, 1977.  We learn details about Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian), including his career trajectory and competition with Johnny Carson, his mysterious connection to an exclusive men's club, the death of his wife Madeleine (Georgina Haig) which has caused his show to suffer a steady decline, and his decision, against the objections of his sidekick Gus McConnell (Rhys Auteri), to do an occult-themed show on Halloween in order to boost ratings.  Then it shifts to the "found footage" from the episode featuring Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), a medium, Carmichael the Conjurer (Ian Bliss), a former magician turned skeptic, Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon), a parapsychologist, and her subject Lilly D'Abo (Ingrid Torelli), a survivor of a Satanic cult who seems to be possessed by a demon.  During the course of the broadcast, Jack and his producer Leo Fiske (Josh Quong Tart) convince June to summon the demon with terrifying results.  I found the premise to be very interesting but I was a bit disappointed with the ending because the message about the high cost of success is a bit jumbled.  However, I really loved Dastmalchian's performance because he nails the smarmy persona of the late night talk show hosts of the era (more about that) and he portrays Delroy's uncertainty about what is happening so well that the audience begins to question it as well.  The rest of the cast commits fully to the bit but Torelli is especially unnerving!  The 1970s vibe is absolutely brilliant and I loved the retro design of the brown and orange set, the cheesy theme music, the period costumes and hairstyles, the aspect ratio, and the grainy film aesthetic.  This is more unsettling than scary (although there are some suitably gory sequences) but it is really entertaining, especially with a crowd, and I recommend it.

Problemista

Last night I had another double feature at the Broadway starting with Problemista.  I saw a preview for this last fall and it really piqued my interest but it got delayed so I've been waiting a long time to see it.  It was worth the wait because I loved this imaginative and whimsical take on the American dream.  Alejandro (Julio Torres) is an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador who keeps getting rejected from a development training program at Hasbro.  In the meantime, he works at a cryogenics facility and is tasked with monitoring the frozen body of an artist named Bobby (RZA) but an incident with the power generator gets him fired which puts his work visa in jeopardy.  On his way out he meets Bobby's eccentric wife Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton), an art critic who has alienated everyone in the art world with her outrageous and deranged behavior.  She decides to hire Alejandro, after he lies about knowing FileMaker Pro (a hilarious running joke), to help her curate a show of Bobby's paintings.  She promises him that she will sponsor him on his visa application if the show is a success but she is almost impossible to please and seems to create obstacle after obstacle.  However, he ends up being the one person who understands her and she ends up giving him the confidence to go after his dream.  As someone who has had dealings with the immigration system in the U.S., I found the surrealistic portrayal of the bureaucracy involved to be both hilarious and poignant, especially when Alejandro must climb through an endless maze that gets him nowhere as the sands in an hourglass fall faster and faster.  I also loved the personification of Craigslist (Larry Owens) as a genie, who Alejandro uses to find jobs that pay under the table, to be really clever.  Torres gives a subdued performance as Alejandro shuffles through (literally) all of the outlandish situations in which he finds himself and this is highly effective in juxtaposition to Swinton's over the top portrayal of entitlement on steroids.  This is definitely a social satire about inequality but it is one with a highly original vision that mostly succeeds and I couldn't stop laughing!

National Theatre Live: Vanya

The main focus of my BA in English was British literature but if I were to do it all over again I would definitely study Russian literature because I love it.  I don't know what this says about me but I really relate to the dark themes in the works of Dostoevsky (my favorite author), Tolstoy, Pushkin, and Chekhov.  So I was really excited to have the chance see Vanya, a bold retelling of the play Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov starring Andrew Scott, which was filmed live on stage by National Theatre Live during its sold out run at the Duke of York's Theatre in London.  I saw this screening, presented by the Tanner Humanities Center and the Salt Lake Film Society, yesterday and it is absolutely brilliant.  The original setting has been changed to a potato farm in Ireland, the names have been anglicized, the dialogue has been modernized, and Scott portrays all of the characters with a very minimal set but the impact is just as powerful as the source material.  Alexander, an elderly filmmaker who hasn't had a hit in years, visits the vast estate he inherited from his late wife Anna with his much younger second wife Helena.  Anna's brother Ivan and Anna and Alexander's daughter Sonia have been running the estate for years and are bitter and angry at the disruption.  Ivan is in love with Helena and cannot understand why she is wasting her life with such a worthless old man like Alexander.  Sonia is secretly in love with her father's doctor Michael and calls him repeatedly to see to his aches and pains but he keeps returning because he is also in love with Helena.  These repressed passions and resentments eventually lead to a dramatic confrontation when Alexander announces that he plans to sell the estate.  Sonia reassures Ivan that, even though they have no joy in their lives, they will eventually receive their reward.  Scott brings each of these characters, and several others who provide comic relief, to life with very specific accents, body language, and props and it is absolutely mesmerizing (I loved it whenever Helena would play with her necklace and when Maureen, the housekeeper, would chain smoke).  It is easy to distinguish between the characters, even when they are interacting with each other, and Scott portrays their boredom, frustration, and unhappiness with so much passion.  It is a remarkable performance!  The nearly empty stage is filled with mismatched pieces, such as what one might see during rehearsals, and a large mirror gives the impression of more than one character on the stage.  Scott is dressed simply so as not to detract from his performance and this is very effective.  I was blown away by this production and I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than by seeing a Russian play about the meaninglessness of life!

Io Capitano

Last night I went to the Broadway to see Io Capitano, which was nominated for the Best International Feature Academy Award and won the Silver Lion for director Matteo Garrone at the Venice Film Festival, and I was incredibly moved by this powerful story of migration.  Two Senegalese teens, Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and his cousin Moussa (Moustapha Fall), secretly work construction jobs for six months to earn enough money to emigrate to Europe for a better life. Seydou begins having second thoughts about the dangers involved but Moussa convinces him and they leave without telling their families.  They pay an exorbitant price to be taken across the Sahara Desert during a harrowing journey with a group on foot but they are separated when Moussa is arrested and Seydou ends up in a detention camp in Libya.  Seydou survives the horrors of the detention camp and being sold into indentured servitude with the help of a fellow detainee named Martin (Issaka Sawagodo) who takes him under his wing but he refuses to continue on to Italy with him in order to stay and search for Moussa in Tripoli.  He eventually finds Moussa only to discover that he was shot while escaping from prison.  Desperate to get Moussa to Italy for medical care, Seydou takes the only option available to him which is to pilot a boat, overcrowded with desperate woman and children for whom he feels responsible, in a daring journey across the Mediterranean Sea.  It was sometimes very difficult to watch everything that Seydou and Moussa go through but, even though there are lots of people who ruthlessly take advantage of their situation, there are just as many people who show them kindness and I loved the use of magical realism as a way of coping with the horrors they are experiencing.  Both Sarr and Fall give highly sympathetic and compelling performances but I was especially invested in Seydou's fate because we see everything through his eyes and he humanizes a global problem.  The suspense is almost unbearable in the third act because of how much I had come to care for these characters but I loved the ending because it is cautiously optimistic without minimizing the dangers they still face.  I loved this and would highly recommend it.

Robot Dreams

Last night I went to the Broadway for an early access screening of Robot Dreams, a nominee for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award this year, and it made me feel all the things.  Dog lives a lonely life in a small apartment in the East Village where he spends his time playing video games, watching TV, and eating microwaved dinners.  He sees an ad for a Robot companion and decides to order one. Soon Dog and Robot are inseparable, riding the subway, roller skating in the park, rowing on the lake, eating hot dogs from street vendors, and watching The Wizard of Oz together.  At the end of the summer they take a trip to the beach and spend a fun day swimming and sunbathing but the water makes Robot rust in place and, when Dog cannot move him, he reluctantly leaves in order to get the tools to fix him.  Unfortunately, when he returns, the beach is closed for the winter and he can't get to Robot.  While they wait for the summer, Robot has a series of hopeful dreams in which he reunites with Dog while Dog goes on with his life trying to find another connection.  Eventually, Robot ends up in a scrap yard and is rebuilt by Rascal the Racoon and Dog buys another Robot named Tin.  When Robot sees Dog on the street he decides not to approach him because Dog has formed a new friendship with Tin and he has done the same with Rascal.  I found the message that friendships sometimes grow apart through no fault of anyone involved to be incredibly moving (and not at all what I was expecting) and it actually brought me to tears.  I loved that this is able to convey just about every emotion imaginable without any dialogue (I especially loved Robot's expression of wide-eyed wonder) and I loved the colorful 2-D animation.  The depiction of New York City in the 80s is perfectly realized with lots of little details that put a smile on my face and the sound design featuring the background noise of the city is very effective. Finally, the use of "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire is a lot of fun in the roller skating scene but it becomes increasingly more poignant and the movie progresses.  I do think that some of the dream sequences go on longer than they need to but I loved this more than I was expecting to and I highly recommend it when it gets a wide-release this summer.

Note:  This would be a perfect double feature with Past Lives (but only if you have enough tissues).

Perfect Days

Last night I went to the Broadway to see Perfect Days and I absolutely loved it because it reminded me of Paterson (my favorite comfort movie).  Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) is a middle-aged man who lives alone in a modest apartment in a suburb of Tokyo and cleans a group of public bathrooms with architectural significance in Tokyo for a living.  Even though he is a manual laborer, he goes above and beyond what is expected of him and takes pride in a job well done (he even provides some of his own specialized tools).  He adheres to a very regimented routine from the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes to sleep (which we see repeatedly portrayed) but he greets every morning with a smile and takes delight in small pleasures such as caring for his greenhouse of plants, selecting the music for the day from his collection of cassette tapes, photographing the patterns he sees made by the trees in the park, and reading from his collection of books (which he adds to every week) before bed.  He seems to be very isolated but he enjoys the random interactions he has with the people he sees during the day (my favorite involves a game of tic-tac-toe).  He appears happy and content but a surprise visit from his niece Niko (Arisa Nakano) hints at a deep sadness and suggests that his serenity is a choice that he makes every day.  This is a slow-moving character driven narrative without a lot of action but I found the message that there is beauty in the mundane to be incredibly moving (much like in Paterson) and, even though it is often very repetitive, it is strangely compelling (watching a man scrub a toilet shouldn't be this riveting but it is).  Yakusho gives a deeply empathetic performance (he won Best Actor at this year's Cannes Film Festival) and conveys everything that Hirayama is feeling with almost no dialogue.  The final scene where his expression vacillates between happiness and despair while listening to "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone on the drive to work is beautiful and cathartic.  Finally, I loved the music because selecting what he will listen to during the day conveys so much about Hirayama's state of mind.  I especially loved "The House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals, "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison, and, obviously, "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed.  This is a lovely and gentle movie that will stay with you long after you've seen it and I highly recommend it.

Drive-Away Dolls

I have been looking forward to Drive-Away Dolls ever since I saw the first trailer (I thought it looked fun and quirky) so I went to see a matinee at the Broadway yesterday.  Unfortunately, I was really disappointed because I was expecting something much better from one of the Coen brothers.  Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) are lesbians and unlikely best friends living in Philadelphia in 1999.  The free-spirited Jamie has just been dumped by her girlfriend Sukie (Beanie Feldstein) so she invites herself along when the uptight Marian plans a trip to Tallahassee to visit her aunt.  Jamie suggests getting a car from a driveaway service (where someone is paid to drive a rental car one way to a specific destination) but they are inadvertently given the wrong car, one with a mysterious case inside that is also headed to Tallahassee for a criminal organization headed by the Chief (Colman Domingo).  When the Chief discovers the mistake, he sends his bickering associates, Arliss (Joey Slotnick) and Flint (C.J. Wilson), after the girls to retrieve the case but they have taken various detours to lesbian bars to help Marian loosen up.  Chaos ensues.  Qualley and Viswanathan, especially, do what they can with the material but I didn't like either of their characters (I enjoyed Feldstein, Domingo, and a cameo from Matt Damon so much more) and their actions quickly become tedious because they are so meaningless.  The humor, in my opinion, is very juvenile rather than quirky and I did not laugh even once (no one in my audience did, either).  The editing is an absolute mess with transitions that look like they were created with iMovie and there are also several really strange, and jarring, psychedelic sequences with Miley Cyrus that have absolutely no context until the very end.  The best thing I can say about this movie is that it is only 84 minutes long (I don't think I could have listened to Qualley's obnoxious accent for much longer).  I highly recommend giving this a miss.

The Taste of Things

The second foreign film in my double feature at the Broadway last night was The Taste of Things.  I was really excited to see this because of everything I had heard about it and it certainly didn't disappoint.  Dodin (Benoit Magimel) is a French landowner in 1885 who meets regularly with a group of his fellow gourmands for a meal he prepares with his cook Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) with whom he has been having an affair for over twenty years.  She refuses to eat these meals with him and his friends and refuses his frequent proposals of marriage.  When Dodin and his friends are invited to an elaborate eight hour meal prepared by the distinguished chef of a visiting prince, they are all disappointed because they prefer the artistry of Eugenie's cooking and Dodin makes plans to invite the prince to his chateau for a simple meal consisting of a pot-au-feu.  However, Eugenie begins having fainting spells that worry Dodin so, while she rests, he prepares an exquisite meal for her after which she finally accepts his proposal.  This is a beautiful and moving story about how the purest form of love is preparing food for someone!  The vast majority of the runtime involves the meticulous preparation of gourmet meals featuring many different courses followed by people eating them with pleasure and there is very little dialogue (and no score beyond the sounds of nature from the open windows) but these scenes are absolutely captivating because the food looks amazing and you can almost smell the aromas through the screen.  Binoche (who is luminous as always) and Magimel give lovely performances because, not only do they have insane chemistry with each other (this is one of the most romantic movies I've seen in a long time), but they also really seem to be cooking all of the food!  The cinematography, whether the camera is panning over simmering and sizzling pots or the sun-dappled garden where many of the ingredient are freshly picked, is simply gorgeous.  I loved everything about this delightful film and highly recommend it.

The Teachers' Lounge

Last night I decided on a foreign film double feature at the Broadway and I began with The Teachers' Lounge.  I had an almost visceral reaction to several scenes because I am a former teacher and this is an incredibly accurate portrayal of what teaching sometimes feels like.  Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is an idealistic first year teacher in a middle school that has been experiencing a series of thefts.  When one of her students (who is Muslim) is accused, she objects to the way in which her superiors abuse their power to single him out and decides to investigate the thefts herself.  She surreptitiously gathers evidence that seems to lead to an administrative assistant as the culprit but her accusation puts her at odds with the administration, her students (especially the son of the accused who is in her class), the parents, and the other teachers.  What I found fascinating is that Carla is initially very well-liked by her colleagues and is a great teacher with a lot of participation and engagement from her students but, as an unintended consequence of her well-meaning action, they all quickly turn against her and events spiral out of control.  The school becomes a microcosm of society where everyone is looking for someone else to blame and misinformation abounds.  All of the action takes place within a few areas of the school and this really heightens Carla's sense of claustrophobia when she finds no support.  The tension slowly escalates until it is almost unbearable and a scene where every student in her class refuses to comply with her directions gave me a panic attack.  Benesch gives a brilliant central performance, which is enhanced by an unnerving score, and I often found it very difficult to watch.  My only criticism is that the ending is a bit anticlimactic after all of the build-up but I highly recommend this thought-provoking film.

National Theatre: Romeo and Juliet

I am not a big fan of Romeo and Juliet but I couldn't resist seeing Josh O'Connor and Jessie Buckley on stage in the title roles as part of National Theatre Live.  It is a completely reimagined version of Shakespeare's tale of woe about Juliet and her Romeo and, to my surprise, I absolutely loved it.  Unlike other performances presented by National Theatre Live, this was filmed in an empty theatre during the pandemic which allowed the action to take place on the stage and in other areas backstage (my favorite was the use of the loading dock in the scene where Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio sneak into the Capulet's ball and the scene when Romeo leaves Verona when he is banished).  Minimal props are used, the action begins and ends as if it is a rehearsal, and the resulting film is more cinematic than theatrical with very dynamic camera work, dramatic lighting, and editing which allows for scenes that foreshadow the tragic ending to be interspersed throughout.  The setting is modern day, which I usually do not like, but I loved the use of electronic music during the Capulet's ball and I really loved the modern take on Lady Capulet (she pushes for the marriage to Paris and speaks many of Lord Capulet's lines from the original text).  The chance to see O'Connor and Buckley was my motivation for getting a ticket and they certainly didn't disappoint because I was captivated by their performances.  Buckley's Juliet is strong and rebellious and her soliloquy before she drinks the poison gave me goosebumps (this scene is staged brilliantly with every character seated around her as ghosts).  I also loved her interaction with Lady Capulet (Tamsin Greig) when she learns she must marry Paris because it is really intense.  O'Connor's portrayal of Romeo is one of the best I've seen (I think Romeo is a very problematic character) because he is passionate rather than petulant.  This is especially evident in the fight with Tybalt (David Judge), because it is deliberate (and a bit shocking) rather than impulsive, and in the scene with Friar Lawrence (Lucien Msamati) after he is banished, because he is resigned rather than hysterical.  He has tremendous chemistry with Buckley and the night they spend together is quite steamy!  Greig is also outstanding as Lady Capulet because her portrayal is very cold and calculating and I also really liked Fisayo Akinade's interpretation of Mercutio because it is a very bold choice.  I am glad that I decided to see this because it is so good.  If you have the opportunity to see it on the big screen I would highly recommend doing so but I believe it will be available on PBS on April 23.

The Promised Land

Last night I went to the Broadway to see the epic historical drama The Promised Land and, since that is one of my favorite genres, I absolutely loved it!  Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen), the illegitimate son of a Danish nobleman and a maid, spends twenty-five years working his way to the rank of captain in the German army and, when he is discharged, he petitions the King of Denmark for permission to build a settlement on the barren moors of the Jutland peninsula.  The only compensation he requests for successfully cultivating the land is a noble title.  However, the local landowner and magistrate, Frederik de Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg), claims that the land belongs to him and initially tries to bargain with Kahlen for control but, when he refuses, he lures his workforce away.  Tensions escalate when Kahlen hires two of Schinkel's indentured servants, Johannes and Ann Barbara Eriksen (Morten Hee Andersen and Amanda Collin, respectively), who have broken their contract and run away and when he begins a relationship with Edel Helene (Kristine Kujath Thorp), Schinkel's cousin and betrothed.  Even though he overcomes numerous challenges and a harsh winter through sheer determination, Kahlen must eventually face Schinkel in an epic confrontation with stakes that might be too high to bear.  The story, which is a fictionalized version of real events, is incredibly compelling and I was very invested in the fate of Kahlen and all of the people who become a surrogate family for him (especially a young orphan girl played by Melina Hagberg) because the characters are so well developed and the performances are outstanding.  I even had to stop myself from cheering out loud during one dramatic scene because Bannenbjerg does such a good job of making the audience hate Schinkel!  The closeups on Mikkelsen's face show every emotion he is feeling and it is a highly nuanced, yet powerful, performance.  The cinematography is gorgeous and, while I was impressed by the sweeping shots of the desolate landscape, I was just as blown away by a closeup shot of a budding potato plant.  The costumes and production design are very effective at immersing the audience in 18th century Denmark and my attention never wavered during the two hour runtime.  This is one of the best historical dramas I've seen in a long time and I highly recommend it!

Origin

Last night I went back to the Broadway for an early screening of Origin, a film by Ava DuVernay based on the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson which draws parallels between the treatment the Dalit, or "Untouchables," in India, the Jews in Nazi Germany, and slaves in the American South and argues that they are victims of caste, a structure based on the idea that one group of people is inherently better than another, rather than racism.  This is more than just an adaptation of the book because it puts Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) in the middle of the story as she writes it.  She formulates her thesis and conducts research while experiencing the deaths of her husband (Jon Bernthal), mother (Emily Yancy) and cousin (Niecy Nash).  Much of her research is dramatized as it is uncovered and I found it very compelling and emotional (I cried several times), especially a study conducted by Allison and Elizabeth Davis (Isha Blaaker and Jasmine Cephas Jones, respectively) and Burleigh and Mary Gardner (Matthew Zuk and Hannah Pniewski, respectively) on segregation in the South and the work of B. R. Ambedkar (Gaurav J. Panthania) advocating for the rights of the Dalit in India.  I also found much of her research to be very eye-opening and thought-provoking, particularly a document from the German archives about the Nazis using Jim Crow laws in America as the inspiration for codifying the persecution of the Jews.  Ellis-Taylor gives an incredibly powerful and affecting performance but I think this may have worked better as a documentary because I found it difficult to connect the meandering vignettes depicting Wilkerson's grief to her specific research on oppression and subjugation.  I walked out of the theater wanting to read the book to learn more.  I didn't love the structure but I would definitely recommend it because the topic is so important.

The Zone of Interest

The Academy Award nominations were announced last week and the only nominee for Best Picture that I hadn't seen yet was The Zone of Interest (click on the titles for my commentaries about American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, and Poor Things) so I decided to see it as part of my double feature at the Broadway last night.  It is one of the most unsettling movies I have ever seen because it is a brilliant depiction of the mundanity of evil.  Rudolf Hoss (Christian Friedel), the commandant of Auschwitz, lives an idyllic existence with his wife Hedwig (Sandra Huller) and their five children in a large house next to the camp.  Hedwig is able to ignore the sound of trains, screaming prisoners, gunshots, and furnaces (the sound design in this movie gave me so much anxiety) because she is living in her dream house and enjoys having prisoners as servants in the house, being given her choice of all of the prisoners' belongings, and working in her extensive gardens and greenhouse.  Her mother (Imogen Kogge) is initially impressed by her daughter's status when she comes to visit but is horrified by the flames from the crematorium and soon leaves.  Rudolf is able to speak dispassionately about the death happening all around him because he sees his efficiency in disposing of the prisoners as a means of gaining advancement.  He is so numbed by death that he casually calculates how much gas it would take to kill the officers attending a party.  The scenes of the family going about their daily life with picnics by the river, birthday celebrations, and parties by the pool are disturbing because there is always a hint of the horrors taking place in the camp just out of sight.  However, I was most disconcerted by the scenes of janitors blithely cleaning the gas chambers, ovens, and museum displays at Auschwitz in the present because this serves to emphasize how easy it is to become accustomed to evil in plain view.  Both Friedel and Huller give chilling performances that convey so much without a lot of dialogue and the haunting score emphasizes the unease.  I was very unnerved by this movie (people in my audience sat in silence long after the credits finished rolling) and I know I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.  It is very difficult to watch but I recommend it because it is so powerful.

All of Us Strangers

A few movies on my list came out in wide release while Sundance was going on so I decided on a double feature at the Broadway last night to get caught up.  I started with All of Us Strangers and I loved this moving portrait of a man who must reconcile with his past in order to move forward in the present.  Adam (Andrew Scott) is a lonely screenwriter living in an almost uninhabited new apartment tower in London.  He meets Harry (Paul Mescal), the only other inhabitant of the building, who drunkenly flirts with him one night but, even though he is desperate for a connection, he is too uncomfortable to let him in.  When he finds some photos of his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy), who died in a car accident when he was twelve, he is prompted to visit his childhood home where he finds them alive at the ages they were when they died.  He is able to interact with them so he comes out as gay to them and tearfully recounts his struggle to find a sense of belonging as a child.  He begins a tentative relationship with Harry (who is charismatic and outgoing but also feels a crushing loneliness) and, as his parents express their pride in him and love for him, it grows stronger and he is able to see a future with him.  However, there is a heartbreaking twist (while "The Power of Love" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood plays) that left me absolutely devastated.  I also cried in a beautiful scene where Adam remembers a happy moment from his childhood and his parents sing along to "You Were Always on My Mind" by the Pet Shop Boys and during a scene where his parents tell him to let go of his grief and be happy (this is probably not the best movie to see if you have recently lost both of your parents).  There are some incredibly powerful themes, including identity and the search for acceptance, unresolved grief, and the need for connection, as well as some intriguing metaphors throughout (I want to see it again if I can bear it).  The needle drops are highly effective at conveying both a feeling of nostalgia for the 1980s and a feeling of longing in the present.  Finally, all four performances are absolutely brilliant but Scott is simply amazing, especially in a highly nuanced scene with Bell.  I highly recommend this but it will probably make you cry.

American Fiction

I have been looking forward to American Fiction ever since it premiered at TIFF so I was really excited to finally have a chance to see it at the Broadway last night.  It is a hilarious social satire but it also includes incredibly poignant themes about identity.  Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) is an uptight and curmudgeonly Black author and professor in Los Angeles whose books are critically acclaimed but not popular.  He attends a book conference in his hometown of Boston to try and sell his latest novel to a publisher and is dismayed when he hears a reading by best-selling author Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) because he believes that she is pandering to Black stereotypes.  He impulsively decides to write his own book featuring every offensive Black stereotype he can think of as a joke but, when his agent Arthur (John Ortiz) sells it for an exorbitant amount of money, he decides to publish it using a pseudonym because he needs the money to care for his mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams), who has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  As the hype builds for his book (a movie deal and a possible literary award) and his relationships with his brother Cliff (Sterling K. Brown) and his girlfriend Coraline (Erika Alexander) deteriorate, Monk faces an existential crisis.  This features a powerful and scathing commentary on how the entertainment industry views the Black experience but it is as laugh out loud funny as it is thought-provoking.  This is juxtaposed with a compelling family drama about siblings coming to terms with the roles they have been playing all of their lives and how to break free from them.  However, the journey to understanding that Monk goes on is somewhat undermined by an unsatisfactory ending that leaves him back where he started as he gives in to a choice that he has criticized Black artists for making in order to succeed (my only criticism).  Wright gives a brilliant performance, especially with all of his interactions with Tracee Ellis Ross (as his sister Lisa) and Brown and his humorous code-switching dialogue with his publisher (Miriam Shor) and a Hollywood executive (Adam Brody).  The rest of the cast is also outstanding and I especially enjoyed Brown's affecting performance.  Despite the third act, I really enjoyed this movie and would definitely recommend it.

Ferrari

When I heard that Adam Driver was starring in a biopic about Enzo Ferrari I decided to read the book upon which the movie is based, Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine by Brock Yates, and I was fascinated by this enigmatic and larger than life auto maker.  Needless to say, Ferrari was one of my most anticipated movies this year and I finally had the chance to see it last night at the Broadway.  It is an incredibly powerful character study and I was absolutely blown away by Driver's performance.  During the summer of 1957, Enzo Ferrari (Driver) is at a crossroads in his life.  His business is on the brink of bankruptcy because he is more interested in racing his cars than in selling them.  He needs his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) to give him power of attorney over her shares in the company so he can deal with investors but his relationship with her has been damaged by the recent death of their son Dino and with her discovery that he has another son with his mistress Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley).  His relationship with Lina is also deteriorating because she pressuring him to legitimize their son Piero (Giuseppe Festinese).  Juxtaposed with these distractions in his professional and personal life is his fierce determination to win the Mille Miglia, a grueling road race across Italy, at any cost, including the lives of his drivers Alfonso de Portago (Gabriel Leone), Peter Collins (Jack O'Connell), and Piero Taruffi (Patrick Dempsey).  This will definitely not be for everyone because, even though there are some thrilling racing sequences (that are enhanced by brilliant sound design and cinematography that puts the audience in the driver's seat) and one of the most brutal car crashes I've ever seen, this is a slow and meditative exploration of how Ferrari responds to these professional and personal challenges as well as to the people in his life.  Driver, in one of his best performances, is understated but incredibly compelling because, despite an outwardly calm demeanor, you can see see Enzo's inner turmoil behind his eyes and in his microexpressions.  Cruz, in an equally powerful performance, is a perfect foil to Driver because she is as explosive as he is restrained in expressing Laura's grief and rage.  Their scenes together are amazing because they are so dramatic.  I also really enjoyed the editing of certain scenes because they show Enzo's compartmentalization of his life, particularly scenes while he is at mass and at the opera.  I really loved this because it is so character driven and the character portrayed is so complex (but I think that is the reason why the critical response has been so divisive).

Poor Things

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Poor Things. I am a huge fan of Yorgos Lanthimos and I had heard a lot of intriguing discourse about this movie (both good and bad) so I was beyond excited to see it.  I absolutely loved this dark and twisted masterpiece!  Victoria Blessington (Emma Stone), a pregnant woman in Victorian England, commits suicide by jumping off a bridge.  A brilliant but disfigured surgeon named Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), who was experimented upon by his father, discovers her body and reanimates her by transplanting the brain of her unborn baby into her body.  He names her Bella Baxter and hires Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), one of his medical students, to record the data as her intellect develops rapidly.  Max falls in love with her and she agrees to marry him but she wants a grand adventure first.  She learns about physical pleasure and other forms of hedonism (my favorite is when she dances with wild abandon) from a feckless lawyer named Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) while in Portugal.  She learns about philosophy and compassion for the the suffering in the world from fellow passengers Martha Von Kurtzroc (Hanna Schygulla) and Harry Astley (Jerrod Carmichael) while on a cruise ship.  She learns about resourcefulness and socialism from Madame Swiney (Kathryn Hunter) and a prostitute named Toinette (Suzy Bemba) while working in a brothel in Paris.  She learns the truth about her origins from Victoria's husband Alfie Blessington (Christopher Abbott) when she returns to London and finally discovers her purpose when she reunites with Dr. Baxter and McCandles.  I loved the themes of rebirth, self-discovery, transformation, liberation, and empowerment and I know that I will be thinking about this movie for quite some time.  Stone gives a brilliant and fearless performance and I found her disjointed movements, mannerisms, and facial expressions as Bella develops to be so much fun to watch.  Dafoe, Ruffalo, Youssef, and Abbott are also outstanding and it was fascinating to see the different ways in which they portray their need to control Bella (Ruffalo is hilarious).  The production design is gorgeous and I loved all of the steampunk elements, especially the modes of transportation.  The costumes are also fantastic and I particularly enjoyed how they change as Bella develops and how they represent both the Victorian aesthetic but also freedom from the societal norms of that time.  I enjoyed this so much and so did my audience because they applauded at the end!  I highly recommend this to fans of Lanthimos and black comedies but it is extremely explicit so keep that in mind when deciding to see it.

Note:  I thought that Barbie had a lock on all of the production design and costume awards this season but I think Poor Things will give it some serious competition!