The Cycle of Love

Yesterday I went to a matinee of The Cycle of Love at the Broadway (along with all of the other old retired people in the Salt Lake valley) and it is the most life affirming documentary I have seen in a long while.  P.K. Mahanandia is born in a small village as an "Untouchable" in the restrictive caste system in India and, when he is a child, he is told by an astrologer that the woman he marries will come from a land far away, will be a Taurus, will be musical, and will own a jungle.  At age twenty he moves to Delhi to escape the limitations of his caste and becomes a street artist who draws portraits for tourists.  One of these tourists is Lotta von Schedvin and, when he learns that she is from Sweden, is a Taurus, plays the piano, and lives in the middle of a forest, he believes that they are destined for each other.  They spend several weeks together and she also comes to believe in the prophecy (in one my favorite scenes) but she must return to Sweden for school.  They correspond by letter but P.K. eventually decides that he needs to go to Sweden to be with her.  He sells everything he owns, buys a second-hand bicycle, and begins the arduous 6,000 mile journey across Asia and Europe without any knowledge of the geography.  He faces numerous obstacles and starts doubting that he is good enough to be with Lotta but he comes to rely on the kindness of the strangers who not only help him on his physical journey but also help him on a journey of discovery in which he realizes his worth (this will restore your faith in humanity).  In addition to interviews with P.K. and Lotta in the present day, this features reenactments, with Chirag Benedict Lobo as the young P.K. and Mina Dale as the young Lotta, that are so realistic, with a 1970s aesthetic and the grainy look of the film used in that era, that you wonder if it is actual footage.  These reenactments also include ordinary people who tell their real stories to Lobo as a clever way to portray those who P.K. encountered on the journey.  I loved this so much and I highly encourage everyone to seek it out.

Hope

Last night I went back to the Broadway (my happy place) to see Hope, a movie I have been anticipating ever since it premiered at Cannes earlier this year, and it is absolutely wild!  When Ko Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) and a group of his friends discover a bull that was killed by an unknown but unusually large predator lying in the middle of the road, he calls his cousin Ko Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min), the police chief of the small South Korean village of Hope Harbor, to investigate.  The young men think it might be a tiger so Bum-seok sends them into the nearby forest to search while he investigates the village.  He discovers more dead livestock and several dead people before he sees that something large has rampaged through the streets.  As he slowly walks through the carnage, he encounters several people, including a retired colonel named Ahn Nak-yeon (Lee Sang-hee), who have survived attacks by a large and seemingly indestructible creature until he, too, is pursued by it.  He and Im Sung-ae (Hoyeon), a rookie on the police force, are eventually able to kill the creature and, in the aftermath, they learn why it attacked the village and that there are more of them in the forest.  Meanwhile, Sung-ki and his friends discover what the creatures are (sort of) but they are attacked until only he is left alive.  Bum-seok, Nak-yeon, and Sung-ae rush to the forest to rescue Sung-ki which leads to an epic show-down (sort of).  I found this a bit confounding but it hardly matters because it is just so entertaining.  The tension builds and builds with the creature always one step ahead of Bum-soek as he tracks it through the streets and it is almost unbearable because you only see the devastating effects of the creature rather than the creature itself for almost an hour of the runtime (the camera work in these scenes is brilliant).  The action sequences are an absolute adrenaline rush and I was holding my breath during several thrilling high speed car chases and an equally thrilling chase on horseback through the forest.  The creatures, portrayed by Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, Taylor Russell, and Cameron Britton, look great but the CGI is sometimes really wonky when they move and, because they are so much larger than the humans, the perspective is weirdly skewed and the distance between them is frequently off during the chases.  There is lot of dark comedy, which did make me laugh out loud (I especially enjoyed a running joke in which Bum-seok questions where everyone got the guns they are using), to relieve the tension but the pacing grinds to a halt in the second act with unnecessary and lengthy scenes.  Finally, all of the spectacle is ultimately meaningless because we know so little about the creatures and their motivation and, just when we start to learn something, the screen suddenly goes to black (I was actually shocked when it ended and I was not alone judging from the response of my audience).  However, I have to say that I had an absolute blast watching this because it is so completely bonkers and I think people will either love it or hate it!

Colony

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Colony and I found it very entertaining and compelling.  A disgruntled biologist named Seo Young-cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan) deliberately releases a virus he engineered during a biotechnology conference being held in a high-rise building in Seoul, South Korea, and informs the police that he has ingested the only antidote.  Those infected by the virus immediately mutate into violent and aggressive zombies and soon all but a small group of survivors, led by a controversial biotechnology professor named Kwon Se-jeong (Gianna Jun), are affected so the government seals the building under a military quarantine.  As the trapped survivors attempt to elude the zombies, they are horrified to discover that the virus has given them a collective hive mind and that they all share any sensory input received by one of them.  This allows them to evolve and adapt to any strategy the survivors use to escape.  They are forced to search the building for Young-cheol because he is their only hope for an antidote but he is also their biggest threat because he controls the zombies.  This is incredibly suspenseful because the survivors must travel from floor to floor to escape from zombies who are always one step ahead of them.  The character design for the zombies, including the prostheses and makeup, as well as the way they contort their bodies make them terrifying.  The action sequences are epic and I loved the synchronized movements used by the zombies as they receive new input, particularly the scene in which they are overwhelmed by faulty information and devolve to their primitive state.  Finally, I found the message about the dangers of groupthink to be very thought-provoking and I loved that Se-jeong and another biotechnologist named Gong Seol-hee (Shin Hyun-been), two women who are outliers in their field and think for themselves, are the ones who stop the zombies.  This is a fresh take on the zombie genre and I highly recommend it.

The Sun Never Sets

Since the mainstream releases were a bust this weekend I decided on an indie double feature at the Broadway last night.  I started with The Sun Never Sets mostly because I loved the beautiful Alaskan scenery featured in the trailer but I ended up enjoying it.  Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is a thirty-something woman who is in a long-term relationship with Jack (Jake Johnson), an older man with two children from a previous marriage.  He is very set in his ways and does not share her passion for the great outdoors but, more importantly, he has no desire to get married again or have more children.  She has adapted to fit into his life because she loves him but her reaction to the news that her best friend Lindsay (Debby Ryan) is pregnant has him worried that she might regret her decision not to have children in the future.  He suggests that they take a break for six months so she can explore her options and decide if she really wants to be with him on his terms.  She objects but he finally coerces convinces her and she goes on several amusing blind dates.  While on one of these dates, she runs into Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), an ex-boyfriend who has recently returned to Anchorage, and she resumes a relationship with him.  This makes Jack extremely jealous and he suddenly wants her back on any terms but now she is unsure.  Jack then begins dating Sara (Karley Sciortino), a woman his age with whom he is very compatible.  Chuck begins exhibiting the behavior that made Wendy break up with him in the first place and, when she learns about Sara, she is jealous and wants Jack back.  Confusion (and many screaming matches) ensues.  What I especially liked is that the characters are complicated, flawed, and messy because I think they really reflect the uncertainty that many young adults feel when their lives don't look like everyone else's (I definitely went through this when I was in my early thirties).  I found it very interesting that the free-spirited and immature Chuck is obviously meant to be the villain but Jack, who is more settled and responsible, is even more problematic because he is so controlling and manipulative (one scene, in particular, in which he is trying to get her to come home with him is extremely disturbing in my opinion).  This is why I loved the final resolution because it is so empowering that she doesn't settle. Fanning gives an incredibly nuanced performance, one of her very best, because Wendy is often frustrating but you still like her enough to root for her to succeed.  I wanted to see more of the Alaskan wilderness and the bickering between the characters does go on a bit longer than it needs to but I liked this and recommend it to fans of romantic dramas.

Finding Emily

Last night my nephew and I went to the Broadway to see Finding Emily (I have quite a few movies from last weekend to catch up on).  I am not a big fan of romantic comedies but I thoroughly enjoyed this!  Owen Brompton (Spike Fearn) is a sound engineer at a student bar near Manchester City University where he meets and forms an immediate connection with a girl named Emily (Sadie Soverall).  She quickly gives him her phone number when she leaves the bar but, when he tries to call her the next day, he realizes that she made a typo in her haste.  He is desperate to find her so he begins looking for her at the university.  His search leads him to another Emily (Angourie Rice), a psychology student working on her thesis about the self-destructive nature of romantic attachment, and she thinks he will be a perfect case study for her research so she offers to help him find his Emily.  Of course Owen and Emily fall for each other, which invalidates her conclusions, but not before they cause mayhem on campus with their search and eventually find the original Emily.  This is incredibly predictable and you know exactly what will happen beat for beat as soon as Owen interrupts Emily's class for their meet cute but it has a sparkling energy and a message about the travails of finding love in the digital age that I found compelling.  I really loved the music (any movie that features "Blue Monday" by New Order will always get a positive review from me) and I enjoyed all of the eccentric side characters, particularly a militant Emily (Kat Ronney) who mobilizes all of the other Emilys on campus against Owen because she believes he is a stalker.  Fearn, who is so endearing, and Rice, who gives a delightfully earnest performance, have genuine chemistry and are very charming together.  It does go on a bit longer than it needs to but I had so much fun watching this (I laughed out loud multiple times) and I highly recommend it!

Union County

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

Late Fame

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

The Rivals of Amziah King

Last night I went to the Broadway to see The Rivals of Amziah King and I was completely charmed by this movie.  Amziah King (Matthew McConaughey) is a beekeeper, bluegrass musician, and born-again Christian in rural Oklahoma.  He is the undisputed leader of his tight-knit community and hosts impromptu jam-sessions with members of his band, employs wayward young men in his honey making operation, attends pot-luck dinners at his church, and frequently helps out with bee emergencies in town.  After he encounters his former foster daughter Kateri (Angelina LookingGlass) when she returns to the area, he integrates her into his circle of friends and instructs her in the characteristics of his bees.  When one of his rivals, Dob McCoy (Kurt Russell), steals all of Amziah's bee hives, Kateri rallies his friends to help her get them back and exact revenge.  The first act features several vignettes of Amziah interacting with his eccentric friends and these scenes are filled with joy, exuberance, and wonderful music (not to mention a lot of comedy which made me and the rest of the audience laugh out loud).  McConaughey gives one of his most charismatic performances to date and his scenes with LookingGlass are incredibly touching. The second and third acts then become a tension-filled revenge thriller with a brilliant breakout performance from LookingGlass.  So many of the sequences that seem totally random in the first act suddenly make sense as each of Amziah's friends use their unique skills to help Kateri in her quest.  I really loved the message about the importance of community and I also loved that Amziah's community mimics the structure of his bee hives (the line that bees know when to find a new queen really struck me).  I honestly did not know what to expect but this quirky and atmospheric movie pulled me in and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I think it is definitely worth seeking out!

Wild Inside

I wasn't very interested in any of the new releases this weekend so I spent my Friday night at the Broadway watching a documentary about an owl (as one does).  I really enjoyed Wild Inside because it is both heartwarming and thought-provoking.  Flaco, a male Eurasian eagle-owl, was bred in captivity and spent 13 years in a small enclosure inside the Central Park Zoo before escaping.  When he is discovered in and around Central Park, he captures the attention and imagination of New Yorkers, especially a group of birdwatchers who document his actions and movements online (and provide many of the photos and video footage used in this documentary).  At first, the public is concerned that Flaco will not be able to survive in the wild and advocate for his immediate capture and return to the zoo.  However, Flaco's natural instincts kick in and he eventually improves his ability to fly with practice and develops the ability to hunt on his own.  The public then decides that he should remain free and the staff at the Central Park Zoo stop trying to capture him.  Sentiments shift once again when Flaco meets an untimely end after he is weakened by rodenticides used to control the city's rat population and many point out that he would have lived a much longer life inside the zoo.  Flaco is definitely anthropomorphized but, like many interviewed for this documentary, I also couldn't help but ascribe human characteristics to him, such as choice, resilience, and curiosity, and this made me root for him to succeed.  The photos and footage are adorable and I especially loved his big orange eyes and the way he looked into windows to watch people (much like he was watched in the zoo).  I also learned a lot about Eurasian eagle-owls and about owls in general (they are surprisingly fascinating).  Finally, I really appreciated the discussion about the best way for animals to interact with humans and urban environments even if there are no easy answers.  Penny Lane, the director, has an obvious opinion about zoos and keeping animals in captivity but she does interview people who advocate for their necessity in order to keep them safe and to stave off extinction of endangered species.  I think this is a documentary that will resonate with many people and I highly recommend it.

The Piano

I am so happy that The Piano is back in theaters because I think it is an atmospheric masterpiece and I have always wanted to experience it on the big screen (I missed it during its original theatrical run).  I went to see it yesterday at the Broadway and I was completely mesmerized.  Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) is a Scottish woman in the mid-19th century who has been mute by choice since childhood.  She travels to New Zealand with her precocious daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and her cherished piano for an arranged marriage to a colonial settler named Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill).  When she arrives, Alisdair refuses to transport the piano from the beach to his settlement and this alienates her from him.  She asks Alisdair's neighbor, George Baines (Harvey Keitel), to take her back to the beach and he falls in love with her after he witnesses a passionate performance.  Baines has her piano taken to his house and then offers Alisdair a piece of property in exchange for lessons from Ada, which Alisdair compels her to give.  However, Baines tells Ada that he will trade the piano back to her, key by key, if he can listen to her play in various stages of undress during encounters that become more and more intimate.  He eventually gives the piano back to her before she fulfills their agreement and they begin an intense affair with tragic consequences after Alisdair learns the truth from Flora.  Many find the narrative to be problematic but I have a different interpretation. I think the piano represents Ada's voice because she communicates by playing it rather than by speaking.  Both Alisdair and Baines manipulate her with their control of the piano and getting it back represents that she is able to choose her destiny.  This is why she is able to leave it behind in the middle of the ocean and why she begins speaking after she is rid of it.  I love Hunter's performance because, even though she is incredibly stoic, you can still see everything she is feeling in her eyes and her piano playing is incredibly impressive.  I also love Paquin's performance because it is so nuanced and strikes a delicate balance between innocence and mischievousness.  The visuals are gorgeous (New Zealand is one of my very favorite trips) and I was blown away by many of the evocative shot compositions.  Finally, the score by Michael Nyman is hauntingly beautiful, particularly the main theme "The Heart Asks Pleasure First."  This is brilliant on so many levels and I highly recommend it (especially if you have a chance to see it on the big screen).

Rose of Nevada

I was absolutely mesmerized by the movie Enys Men so I was excited to see Mark Jenkin's latest, Rose of Nevada, at the Broadway yesterday.  When the fishing vessel Rose of Nevada disappeared from a Cornish village thirty years ago, the effect was catastrophic.  The community has not yet recovered economically and the families of the lost fishermen, Alan and Luke, are still mourning the loss.  The boat mysteriously reappears and Mike (Edward Rowe), the former owner, decides to hire a new crew and send it back out to sea.  He recruits Nick (George MacKay), a husband and father who desperately needs money to repair his roof, and Liam (Callum Turner), an itinerant worker who sleeps on the dock.  Even though neither one of them have experience, they return with a substantial catch but the village they return to is thirty years in the past.  Liam is mistaken for Alan and is warmly welcomed by Alan's wife Tina (Rosalind Eleazar) and his young daughter while Nick is mistaken for Luke and is taken in by Luke's parents (Adrian Rawlins and Mary Woodvine).  They both realize that something is amiss and go back out on the boat thinking that they will reset the timeline but, when they return to the past again, Liam happily settles into a life with Tina.  However, Nick is increasingly distraught and goes to extraordinary lengths to return to his wife Emily (Mae Voogd) and young daughter but eventually becomes conflicted about condemning his community to poverty and grief again.  What I love about Jenkin as a filmmaker is the way he uses images rather than dialogue to tell the story.  He opens with a series of static shots and it is immediately clear that the village is suffering from an economic depression.  He also uses several extended sequences of Nick and Liam working on the boat (fishing is hard work) to establish that they have an aptitude for the job despite the fact they have no experience.  I also love the ambiguity in his movies, especially in this narrative, because you are never really sure if Nick has been displaced in time or if he is suffering from madness.  I was particularly struck by a recurring photo of Alan and Luke taken on the boat because the movie ends with Nick and Liam in that same photo.  Finally, I loved the use of degraded 16mm film, because this emphasizes that these characters are in another time, as well as the unsettling sound design and otherwordly score, because it creates such a haunting atmosphere.  I really dug this and am now eagerly awaiting the next movie from Jenkin.

Note:  I basically spent the whole day at the Broadway because I saw The Odyssey in 35mm (my third viewing!) next.  It gets better every time I see it!

The Invite

Last night my nephew and I went to the Broadway to see The Invite.  This movie got a lot of buzz at Sundance this year so I was really excited and it definitely lived up to the hype!  Joe (Seth Rogen) is a former musician who now teaches at a third-rate music academy and Angela (Olivia Wilde) is a bored stay-at-home mom who fills her days by endlessly remodeling and decorating their apartment.  They bicker back and forth until their upstairs neighbors, Pina (Penelope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), arrive for dinner.  Angela tries way too hard to impress them and Joe resents their intrusion but, after several extremely awkward encounters, they eventually become titillated by Pina and Hawk's unconventional sex life.  When Pina and Hawk invite them to participate in one of their orgies, everything that is wrong with Joe and Angela's relationship is revealed and they must decide whether they want to separate or make the changes needed to remain married.  This is absolutely hilarious (I don't think there was an empty seat in the theater and the audience laughed out loud through the entire runtime) and I especially loved a scene that cuts back and forth between Joe asking Pina how she knew when a relationship was over and Angela asking Hawk to help her make an important decision because it subverts expectations in a highly amusing way!  This is also an insightful and thought-provoking exploration of how couples lose connection and intimacy within a marriage when they become complacent (the ambiguous ending is quietly devastating).  This reminded me of a play performed live on stage because it takes place in one location in real time with an emphasis on dialogue rather than action.  However, this structure is surprisingly compelling because the scenes are framed in an incredibly dynamic way, particularly one in which the couples are placed opposite each other against the large cased opening to the dining room to highlight the distance between them, and the dialogue is very witty with brilliant performances that feature perfect timing (Rogen is outstanding).  I really enjoyed this and I am sure that it will be among my favorites this year.

Leviticus

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Leviticus and I absolutely loved it!  Arlene Reid (Mia Wasikowska) moves with her son Naim (Joe Bird) to an extremely conservative Christian community in Victoria, Australia.  She finds comfort but he struggles with the repressive environment until he begins a secret relationship with Ryan Whelan (Stacy Clausen).  However, Naim sees Ryan kissing the pastor's son Hunter (Jeremy Blewitt) and, because he is jealous, he outs them to the pastor.  A deliverance healer is called in to perform a ritual on the two of them to cleanse them of their homosexual desires but this summons an invisible entity that stalks them in the form of the one they love.  A malevolent being that looks Naim attacks Ryan and another one that looks Ryan kills Hunter.  When Arlene learns about Naim's feelings for Ryan, she takes him to the deliverance healer to perform the same ritual on him and a spirit that looks like Ryan attacks him.  Naim and Ryan eventually discover that the entity appears whenever they are alone and it becomes difficult for them to distinguish between perception and reality.  In addition to the physical threat, this is a psychological nightmare for both Naim and Ryan because the one person who makes them feel less alone is now the person they fear the most when they are alone.  Bird and Clausen have tremendous chemistry and I love the way they portray the romance that develops between their characters because this makes what happens to them absolutely heartbreaking as well as terrifying.  Bird, especially, is devastating during the scenes in which he wants so desperately to believe that the person in front of him is actually Ryan.  There is a tension whenever Naim and Ryan are on screen together that is palpable as a result.  This has a lot to say about the damage caused by homophobia, religious extremism, and conversion therapy but I was really struck by the theme of fear and how it is weaponized.  The shapeshifter wants Naim and Ryan to fear each other so that they will repress who they really are but both of them eventually realize that love is more powerful than fear.  I was incredibly moved by this and highly recommend it!

The Death of Robin Hood

I spent most of last night at the Broadway for a double feature because I missed a few movies that I really wanted to see while I was out of town.  I began with The Death of Robin Hood and it is definitely my jam.  Despite all of the stories that have turned him into a folk hero, the outlaw Robin Hood (Hugh Jackman) is tormented by a lifetime filled with violence and is living in self-imposed exile to escape those seeking vengeance against him.  He agrees to help fellow outlaw Little John (Bill Skarsgard) fight a clan who has taken his wife and daughter hostage so that he can die in battle but he is severely wounded, instead.  John takes him to a Priory on a remote island to be healed by Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer) and he begins to find a measure of peace through his interactions with her, a leper (Murray Bartlett) who works as a caretaker on the island, and John's daughter Little Margaret (Faith Delaney).  However, his past eventually catches up with him in the form of Godwyn (Noah Jupe), the sole-surviving member of the clan slaughtered by Robin and John, and he is finally forced to reconcile everything he has done.  The movie begins with several bloody and brutal action sequences involving medieval warfare that establish Robin Hood as a villain but then it turns into a more contemplative character study as he deals with the consequences of his actions with a conclusion that I found very powerful.  I loved the themes of vengeance, forgiveness, redemption, and legacy, especially in the scenes when Robin convinces Godwyn to abandon his quest as well as when Robin perpetuates the myth to spare Margaret from learning the truth about her father.  The cinematography, which uses lots of desaturated blues and grays, is incredibly bleak but strangely beautiful and I was really struck by the change in aspect ratio because it becomes almost claustrophobic on the island to represent Robin's inability to hide from his actions.  All of the performances are outstanding but Jackman is particularly haunting because he conveys a lifetime of regret with just his eyes and body language.  This will not be for everyone (some may be put off by the violence in the first act and others may find the pace of the second and third acts to be too slow) but I always love flawed characters who find redemption and I really appreciated the subversive take on a well-known character.

Power Ballad

I am a huge fan of John Carney (I really like Flora and Son but I absolutely love Once and Sing Street) so I had a lot of fun watching his latest movie, Power Ballad, at the Broadway last night.  Rick Power (Paul Rudd) is an aging American ex-pat who gave up on his dreams of being a rock star to marry Rachel (Marcella Plunkett), an Irish woman, and raise their daughter Aja (Beth Fallon) in Ireland.  He is now the lead singer of a wedding band based in Dublin but he still has dreams of writing and performing his own songs.  While at a wedding gig at a castle, he meets Danny Wilson (Nick Jonas), a childhood friend of the groom who was once a member of a popular boy band but is now working on a solo album.  They end up jamming all night and share the songs they are working on with each other.  When Danny returns to Los Angeles, his manager Mac Darling (Jack Reynor) tells him that his record label is not confident about his new music because they don't think he has a hit single.  He struggles to write one but, when he starts playing Rick's song "How to Write a Song (Without You)" on the piano, his girlfriend Marcia (Havana Rose Liu) loves it because she thinks it is about her.  He ends up recording it and it becomes a huge hit which reignites his career.  Rick immediately recognizes the song as his but he can't prove that he wrote it and his obsession with getting credit alienates both his band and his family.  He travels to Los Angeles to confront Danny but ultimately remembers his reason for writing the song.  I really loved the message about appreciating the life you actually have rather than mourning the life you thought you would have and I was really struck by the differences in how Rick and and Danny sing "How to Write a Song (Without You)" in the final scene.  I also liked the discussion about the high price that fame exacts when trying to stay authentic and I appreciated that Danny isn't portrayed as a one-dimensional villain.  In between the poignant moments are some hilarious ones, especially a scene in which Rick performs one of his songs at a wedding while fantasizing about adoring crowds in a large arena before realizing that the dance floor is empty.  Finally, Jonas and Rudd have great chemistry and I was really impressed with Rudd's singing chops (I can't decide whose version of "How to Write a Song (Without You)" I like better).  This is not quite as good as Once and Sing Street but I really liked it and would recommend it to fans of Carney.

Tuner

I was so excited to see Tuner with my nephew at the Broadway last night because the trailer reminded me a lot of Baby Driver, a movie I absolutely love, and it definitely did not disappoint.  Niki White (Leo Woodall) was once a promising pianist but hyperacusis, a condition which makes him extremely sensitive to loud noise, forced him to stop playing.  He now works as an apprentice to a piano tuner named Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman), a friend of his late father, and he begins a relationship with a student named Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu) after he tunes a piano at her conservatory.  When Harry has a heart attack and is faced with mounting medical bills, Niki reluctantly starts working for the group of thieves, led by Uri (Lior Raz), who manipulated him into opening a safe using his heightened sense of hearing at a wealthy client's house.  While Niki is able to pay all of Harry's bills and impress Ruthie with a meaningful gift, the heists become more and more dangerous and this threatens his relationships and, eventually, his life.  I think the screenplay is very clever (there are similarities to Baby Driver but it definitely has its own vibe), especially when Niki uses Uri's criminal philosophy against him to pull a heist of his own and when he uses the music he has denied himself for so long to form a real, if bittersweet, connection with Ruthie (the final scene is exhilarating).  I loved Niki's character arc (even though it is a suspenseful heist movie with some fun romantic elements, it is mostly a compelling character study about a young man who has lost himself) and I also loved Woodall's performance because the juxtaposition between his detachment and his joy in the final scene is incredibly powerful.  Finally, I enjoyed seeing all of the moving cogs in the safecracking scenes and hearing much of the action from Niki's POV (the sound design, in both the loud and quiet moments, is incredible because it is so immersive).  This is one of my favorite movies this year and I highly recommend it!

The Wizard of the Kremlin

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway yesterday was The Wizard of the Kremlin.  I found it very intriguing because I love Russian history but also a bit of a slog to get through (can both things be true?).  An American academic named Lawrence Rowland (Jeffrey Wright) arrives in Moscow to research a Russian author when he is contacted by Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano) and invited to his isolated dacha to interview him about his former role as advisor to Vladimir Putin (Jude Law).  Barasov chronicles his rise from an avant-garde theatre director after the fall of communism to become the producer of trashy reality television during the surge in organized crime and then a media mogul as the new class of oligarchs manipulate the rule of Boris Yeltsin (George Sogis).  When the oligarchs realize that Yeltsin's health is declining, they handpick Putin, the balding and nondescript leader of the FSB, to be his successor because they think he will be easy to manage only to have him take control of the media away from them.  Baranov quickly makes himself indispensable to Putin and helps him manipulate public opinion about the Second Chechen War, the sinking of the Kursk submarine, and the invasion of the Crimea (the start of the war in Ukraine).  He also uses internet trolls to destabilize events in the West and propaganda during the Sochi Winter Olympics to change the world's perception of Russia.  However, it is his love for a woman named Ksenia (Alicia Vikander) that ultimately leads to his downfall.  Baranov is a fictionalized character (loosely based on Vladislav Surkov) who is at the fulcrum of Russian history from the dissolution of the Soviet Union to the formation of the current authoritarian regime but the narrative is simultaneously bloated with too much information and superficial without providing any insight.  My mind wandered multiple times during the endless exposition dumps.  Even though Dano, Law, and Vikander give fascinating performances (their inconsistent accents notwithstanding), their characters are very thinly drawn and I didn't really learn anything new about Putin.  I recommend giving this a miss.

Note:  I think this might have worked better as a limited series.

Omaha

Yesterday I had a double feature at the Broadway in the middle of the day (with a large group of other retired people who are now my new best friends) and I started with Omaha.  When this movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival two years ago, the filmmakers (who are from Utah) invited so many friends and family members that even pass holders were not able to get into the screening. A lot of people were really upset but I knew that it would eventually come to the Broadway so I just got in line for something else.  Needless to say, after all of that drama I was really excited to finally be able to see it but it left me feeling very bleak.  An unnamed father (John Magaro) suddenly wakes his two children, nine-year-old Ella (Molly Belle Wright) and six-year-old Charlie (Wyatt Solis), early in the morning in order to go on a cross-country road trip along with their golden retriever Rex.  Ella is immediately suspicious because he won't tell them where they are going and she starts noticing other clues that lead her to believe that something about this trip is very wrong.  It is implied that their mother is dead and that the bank is foreclosing on their house but it is obvious that their father is on edge and that he is rapidly running out of money.  They have a series of adventures, including flying a kite on the Bonneville Salt Flats, swimming in a motel pool, and visiting a zoo together, but the real reason for their trip is finally revealed when they arrive in Nebraska.  I thought that I knew where the narrative was going because, like Ella, I also noticed the clues but the resolution is somehow even worse than I was expecting and I'm not sure how I am supposed to feel about the father's actions because there is almost no context provided.  The action is very episodic and impressionistic with no exposition and very little dialogue so I was left with many questions, chief among them being why they had to go to Nebraska (this is answered in a closing title card that left me gutted as well as frustrated).  Magaro gives an incredible performance because he becomes more and more agitated as the trip goes on while trying to create happy memories with his children (it is a tightrope of emotion and he balances it well).  I was also very impressed with Wright because you can see the worry on her face even as she tries to give her father the benefit of the doubt and shield her brother from her growing suspicions (it is one of the best performances by a child that I have seen).  This is absolutely devastating but I don't think it goes far enough in its indictment of the father's circumstances.

Hokum

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Hokum.  The story is a bit messy but there were moments when I was genuinely scared.  Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) is a popular horror author suffering from writer's block (and his own personal demons) so he decides to travel to the remote and atmospheric hotel in Ireland where his parents spent their honeymoon so he can scatter their ashes there.  He is incredibly rude and antagonistic to the staff, including the owner Cob (Brendan Conroy), the front desk clerk Mal (Peter Coonan), the groundskeeper Fergal (Michael Patric), the bartender Fiona (Florence Ordesh), and the bellhop Alby (Will O'Connell), and dismisses their claims that the honeymoon suite is haunted by a witch from Irish folklore.  He also encounters an eccentric local named Jerry (David Wilmot) who lives in the woods and frequently ingests hallucinogenic mushrooms.  He eventually bonds with Fiona (for reasons) and, when she mysteriously goes missing after a Halloween party, he suspects that she might be trapped in the locked honeymoon suite.  He sneaks inside to look for her and becomes trapped and increasingly tormented by a supernatural figure that may or may not be the witch.  This sometimes doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be (is it an exploration of grief and trauma, a mystery involving a missing person and a possible murder, or a supernatural ghost story?) but there is no doubt that it is incredibly unnerving.  Most of the action takes place in one darkly-lit and claustrophobic location that is only accessible by a creepy elevator and an even creepier dumbwaiter.  The tension builds and builds, more from what you don't see than from what you do, and Scott does a great job communicating his escalating terror (his performance is outstanding because he excels at making unsympathetic characters compelling).  There are some really effective jump scares (someone in my audience screamed) and I loved the use of folklore because I think that always makes the threat more plausible and, therefore, more frightening.  I had a lot of fun watching this with a large crowd late at night and I recommend it to fans of the genre.

Blue Heron

Last night I had a double feature at the Broadway starting with Blue Heron.  This is an incredibly moving look at the fallibility of memory and I absolutely loved it.  The narrative begins with flashbacks to when an eight-year-old girl named Sasha (Eylul Guven) moves to Vancouver Island in the 1990s with her mother (Iringo Reti), father (Adam Tompa), and older brothers Jeremy (Edik Beddoes), Henry (Liam Serg), and Felix (Preston Drabble) and her parents become worried about her brother Jeremy's increasingly erratic behavior.  Events are shown from Sasha's eight year old perspective with images that are hazy and fragmentary as the family settles into their new surroundings (the cinematography is beautiful).  Jeremy's actions are largely on the periphery with little explanation for what is motivating his behavior and dialogue is often muted, particularly when Sasha overhears tense phone calls to family members and conversations with psychologists and social workers.  The narrative then shifts to Sasha (Amy Zimmer) as an adult twenty years later.  She is working on a documentary about the events depicted and, as she views the photographs and videos taken during this period and listens to the interviews with psychologists and social workers with a different perspective, her memories are recontextualized.  She is finally able to reconcile her lack of understanding about her brother and his mental health issues and to absolve her parents for his fate (in an incredibly poignant twist that I will not spoil here).  I really love the theme of art as a way to heal and not only is this theme beautifully and hauntingly portrayed in this film but, because it is semi-autobiographical, the film itself is director Sophy Romvari's attempt to process her own childhood memories.  The structure is very impressionistic but every seemingly random vignette is imbued with meaning that is eventually revealed and I found it spellbinding.  I cannot recommend this enough but be prepared for an emotional response.