Men in Black: International

Last night I went to see Men in Black: International.  I only remember seeing the first movie in the franchise but I really enjoyed the pairing of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson in Thor: Ragnarok so I thought this would be a lot of fun.  Twenty years earlier, a couple who sees an alien in the back yard is neuralyzed (their memories of the alien are erased) but their daughter Molly is missed and becomes obsessed with finding the Men in Black.  Now an adult, Molly (Thompson) tracks down the organization and impresses Agent O (Emma Thompson) enough to be taken on as a probationary agent named M and sent to the London branch.  High T (Liam Neeson), the head of the London branch, pairs her with H (Hemsworth), one of the top agents who helped T keep an alien collective known as the Hive from reaching Earth but is now lackadaisical and reckless.  Agents H and M, with a little help from an alien pawn (Kumail Nanjiani), must now stop the Hive from acquiring a powerful weapon and uncover a mole who has infiltrated the Men in Black.  The story is incredibly predictable and I figured out the plot twist way before it actually happened.  I also thought that some of the CGI with the aliens and in some of the action sequences is very obvious and a little bit distracting.  Having said that, I still had a lot of fun watching this movie.  Hemsworth and Thompson are both very charismatic and have a lot of chemistry with each other.  They also have great comedic timing and I found myself laughing out loud quite a bit.  I really enjoyed Emma Thompson as Agent O (I wish she had a bigger role) and Rebecca Ferguson is absolutely hilarious as an alien arms dealer and ex-girlfriend of Agent H.  Much like this movie, I would recommend Men in Black: International to fans of light summer blockbusters.

Sightseeing in Chicago

I have a tradition of taking Sean on a road trip every summer (we've been to the Four Corners Monument, Grand Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, and Mount Rushmore).  When we were trying to decide where to go this year every place that Sean suggested was farther than I wanted to drive (I don't mind long road trips but a long road trip with a fourteen year old boy seemed a bit daunting).  I asked him where he would go if he could fly anywhere in the U.S. and he answered Chicago.  I liked this idea because it meant we could go to Hamilton while we were there (I didn't have to twist his arm because he likes this show, too).  We had two days of sightseeing in the Windy City and we were able to cross off everything on Sean's list!

Our first stop was the Skydeck at the top of the Willis Tower, which was once the tallest building in the world.  I went out on the ledge with Sean for about two seconds but he actually sat down on it (it is a lot scarier than you might think because you can see through the floor straight down to the street).

The views of Chicago from the Skydeck were pretty spectacular!

Our next stop was the Cloud Gate (otherwise known as the Bean) in Millennium Park.  Have you really been to Chicago if you haven't posed for the obligatory picture in front of the Bean?  We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner (Sean got his first HRC pin to start his collection) and then called it a day.

We started bright and early the next morning at the Field Museum (more on this coming soon).  Sean loves museums and this is the one he chose to visit.

Next we went to the Navy Pier so we could ride the Centennial Wheel, a large ferris wheel with incredible views of the city and Lake Michigan.

After lunch (deep dish pizza at Giordano's) we finally got on the hop-on hop-off bus for a tour of the city (it's a long story).  This is one of my favorite ways to see a city.  It was raining when we started but it stopped after a few minutes.

Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan.

The old water tower and pumping station.  These buildings are some of the few that survived the Great Fire of 1871.

Some of the buildings downtown feature some really cool architecture.

In the evening we had main floor seats for Hamilton at the CIBC Theatre and we both enjoyed this cast very much (more on this coming soon).  This was such a great trip!  I really like Chicago and it was fun to spend time with my nephew (who now wants to move there).  Where will we go next year?

Summer Reading: The Last Time I Lied

The next selection on my summer reading list, The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager, is another book that I simply could not put down! Luckily I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn during the summer because I have spent far too many nights reading into the wee hours of the morning! While spending the summer at Camp Nightingale, Emma and her older and more sophisticated bunkmates Vivian, Natalie, and Allison, enjoy playing a game called Two Truths and a Lie. One night Emma wakes up to find the three other girls gone, never to be heard from again. The negative publicity forces the camp to close and in the aftermath Emma has a nervous breakdown. Fifteen years later, still tormented by their disappearance, she is a successful artist but she is only able to paint disturbing portraits of the three girls disappearing into a dark and terrifying forest. She is contacted by Francesca Harris-White, the wealthy socialite whose family owns Camp Nightingale, and offered a job as an art instructor at the newly reopened camp. She is also informed that many of the former counselors and campers will also be back. She takes the job, thinking of it as an opportunity to find out what really happened to the girls and confront her demons so she can finally move on. But when she gets to Camp Nightingale, she must figure out who is telling the truth and who is telling a lie about that fateful night. This novel is incredibly suspenseful and, as I mentioned, I could not put it down because I had to know what happened! Sager does a masterful job of creating a sinister atmosphere and I felt a tremendous sense of dread as the events of the past come to haunt the present. I loved the fact that every single character has something to hide, including Emma who is a very unreliable narrator. The mystery is so clever because the clues are all there if you can piece them together (this may be a book that I need to read again). There were multiple times when I thought that I had figured everything out, but Sager took me in a completely different direction right up until the final page! I highly recommend this riveting story but do not begin it if you have to get up early the next morning. Trust me on this!

Note:  Have you read The Last Time I Lied?  What did you think?

The Biggest Little Farm

Last night I went to see the documentary The Biggest Little Farm.  It tells the true story about how a documentary filmmaker and a personal chef decided to leave life in the city to create an organic farm.  When John and Molly Chester adopt a dog named Todd, he does not adapt well to living in a small apartment and barks all day when they are not at home.  The neighbors complain and they are eventually evicted.  Since they have to move, Molly thinks it would be the perfect time to pursue her dream of owning a farm to produce the organic food she uses in her recipes.  With the help of a few investors, they buy a farm in Moorpark, California and name it Apricot Lane Farms.  It is a barren wasteland when they first buy it so they hire a consultant named Alan York to help them create a plan.  He tells them that they key is to create biodiversity where everything in nature, including the plants, livestock, and wildlife, work in harmony to mimic the natural ecosystems found on Earth and that it will take at least seven years for the farm to become self-sustaining.  The Chesters follow York's plan for designing their farm and rely on him completely but, one year into their experiment, York dies of cancer which leaves them on their own.  They encounter problem after problem but eventually look to nature to solve them.  For example, the ground cover they plant to enrich the soil in their orchard attracts snails which destroy their fruit trees.  One day, John notices that the ducks in their pond eat snails so they release the ducks in the orchard.  Coyotes attack their chickens and, after trying many different solutions, they feel they must kill the coyotes which goes against their mission of achieving harmony with nature.  One day, John notices that their sheep dogs like to play with the chickens so they have the sheep dogs guard them at night.  The coyotes then begin killing the gophers that have been plaguing the farm.  This story is so inspiring and I love that the fact that they continually find solutions in nature to achieve sustainability.  I also love that this documentary shows the eight years of backbreaking work it took to get the farm producing and that it highlights both the triumphs and the tragedies.  If I had one complaint it would be that I wish they had talked more about their business plan and how they got their investors.  This feel good documentary, filled with footage of the cutest animals you can imagine, has a great environmental message that everyone should see!

All Is True

I really love Kenneth Branagh's aesthetic as a director and his passion as a performer and I love anything relating to William Shakespeare so it should come as no surprise that I have been looking forward to All Is True.  This film, which I had the chance to see yesterday afternoon, is an elegiac look at what Shakespeare's final days might have been like.  After the Globe Theatre burns down, Shakespeare (Branagh) is unable to write and decides to return to Stratford-Upon-Avon to the family he has neglected for years.  His wife Anne (Judi Dench) is distant after hearing rumors of his infidelity for years, his daughter Susanna (Lydia Wilson) is married to a man who only cares about what she will receive in his will, and his daughter Judith (Kathryn Wilder) is bitter over his excessive grief over the death of her twin Hamnet.  He attempts, rather unsuccessfully, to create a garden while ruminating on his legacy with visits from the Earl of Southampton (Ian McKellen), purported to be the subject of many of Shakespeare's sonnets, and Ben Jonson (Gerard Horan), a rival playwright.  It is the story of a man facing his mortality with regrets and it is incredibly moving but the plot unfolds very slowly.  However, the images on the screen are unbelievably beautiful so I never found my mind wandering.  I loved the production design, especially the outdoor locations and the Tudor manor houses used throughout.  It goes without saying that both Branagh and Dench give absolutely brilliant performances but I was also really impressed with Wilder, particularly in a scene between Shakespeare, Anne, and Judith where they finally give vent to all of their seething recriminations.  It is pretty powerful!  Finally, nerd that I am, I loved all of the references to Shakespeare's works such as Titus Andronicus, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Sonnet 29 (just hearing Branagh and McKellen recite this sonnet to each other is worth the price of admission in my opinion).  I am sure most people will think this film is utterly boring but, since I have studied and taught Shakespeare's works for most of my life, I loved it!

Note:  I give the same lecture on Shakespeare's life to my sophomores every year before we start reading A Midsummer Night's Dream.  The students are always amused with Shakespeare's bequest of his second best bed to his wife.  This movie has a lovely explanation for it.

Dark Phoenix

The Children's Center, where my sister and her husband both work, has a huge benefit this time every year and it has been my responsibility to take Sean for the weekend (we have gone swimming, to drive-in movies, to the zoo, and to museums).  This year he didn't want to spend the weekend with me because we are going on a little trip next week and he thought we might annoy each other if we spent too much time together before we went!  I suggested that we could still go to a movie and he was pretty lukewarm about it until I mentioned Dark Phoenix.  He is a huge fan of the X-Men franchise (we went to X-Men: Apocalypse during one of these weekends) so he was immediately on board!  Despite the bad reviews we both, but especially Sean, loved it!  Set a decade after the events in X-Men: Apocalypse, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) are sent by Professor X (James McAvoy) to save astronauts on the Space Shuttle from a solar flare.  During this mission Jean absorbs the energy from the solar flare to save one final astronaut and miraculously survives, earning the nickname Phoenix.  She now has even stronger powers that she struggles to control and, when she learns something about her past which was repressed by Charles, the rage she feels causes her to lash out and she kills one her friends.  She turns to Magneto (Michael Fassbender) but he wants to kill her when he learns what happened.  The mutants then become divided over what they should do about Jean but must unite when an alien being named Vuk (Jessica Chastain) wants Jean's powers.  While some of the CGI in this movie isn't very good I really liked most of the action sequences, especially those in space and on the train.  I also really loved the atmospheric score by Hans Zimmer.  Turner gives a great performance as Jean, particularly when she is confronted with the consequences of her actions.  I have always really enjoyed McAvoy as Charles and Fassbender as Erik in this franchise and this movie highlights their shortcomings and they, too, have to deal with the consequences of their actions in several very poignant scenes.  Each of the mutants has a moment to shine and I especially enjoyed the Beast's character arc.  This is reportedly the final movie in this particular franchise (we could have movies about new mutants) and I absolutely loved the final resolution between Charles and Erik because it hearkens back to one of my favorite scenes in X-Men: Days of Future Past.  I really enjoyed this movie (Sean loved it) so I would recommend it.

Summer Reading: The Woman in the Window

I have been reading a lot this summer! At least once a day I will sit in one of the three reading areas that I have in my house, grab one of the books on my summer reading list, and then not even notice that two hours have suddenly gone by! It makes me so happy to have time to read what I want! I actually read the second book on my list, The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn, in less than two days because I could not put it down! Anna Fox was once a renowned child psychologist before a mysterious accident derailed her life. She is separated from her husband and daughter and now lives alone in her New York brownstone suffering from severe agoraphobia and a drinking problem. She spends her days counseling others in an agoraphobia chat room, playing chess online, learning French, watching classic black and white noir films, and spying on her neighbors through the window. She becomes obsessed with watching a new family, the Russells, across the park and eventually she sees something violent happen to one of them. She reports the incident to law enforcement but the Russells deny it and no one believes her. Police officers reveal a huge plot twist which, along with her abuse of prescription drugs and her excessive drinking, discredits everything she says. Even she begins to doubt what she saw, thinking she might be remembering the plot of one the films she was watching. But what if what she saw actually happened? The chapters are extremely short which makes the action move quickly and the tension builds and builds to a conclusion I honestly didn't see coming. Anna is a very compelling character (she reminds me of the unreliable narrator in The Girl on the Train) and Finn does a great job of showing her claustrophobia and frustration, especially when she begins to doubt her own reality. As a classic film aficionado myself, I really enjoyed the references to all of the noir thrillers, especially Hitchcock's Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt, Vertigo, Spellbound, Suspicion, and George Cukor's Gaslight, because they mirror events in the narrative. In fact, this novel feels a lot like a Hitchcock film with characters who cannot be trusted, escalating tension, and a climactic plot twist! It is a brilliant psychological thriller and I highly recommend it!  Incidentally, I cannot wait for the movie version which is due to hit theaters in October!

Note:  Have you read The Woman in the Window?  What did you think?

Afternoon Tea at the Grand America Hotel

I have always wanted to have Afternoon Tea at the Grand America Hotel and I finally found a willing victim friend to go with me.  Angela and I went yesterday afternoon and it was so lovely.  I especially loved the live music playing in the background!

You have your choice of several black teas, green teas, herbal teas, or hot chocolate.  I chose a peppermint herbal tea and it was delicious!

English scones with clotted cream, lemon curd, and jam.  My Scottish grandmother made the best scones ever but these were pretty good!

We were also served Strawberries & Creme Chantilly (divine), Finger Sandwiches, and an Assortment of Pastries.

Afternoon Tea is served in the Lobby Lounge of the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City every afternoon at 1:00 pm Monday-Thursday and at 12:30 and 3:30 pm Friday - Sunday.  Afternoon Tea is $32 for adults and $24 for children 12 and younger.  You can also order a Grand Traditions Tea which includes a Selection of Imported and Domestic Cheeses for $40 and you can add a glass of Champagne for $12.  Reservations must be made 24 hours in advance.  Go here for more information.

Birthday Dinner at The Garden Restaurant

My sister and I have birthdays one week apart and we have a tradition of celebrating at The Garden Restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building downtown.

The Garden Restaurant has a casual atmosphere, with stunning views of downtown, and and upscale bistro menu.

Spinach & Artichoke Dip ($11)

Classic Burger ($13)

Berry Cobbler & Ice Cream ($8)

The Garden Restaurant is a great place to celebrate an occasion (there is a special menu for Father's Day).  The food is really good and reasonably priced (entrees range from $13-$20) and the wait staff is very efficient and friendly.  It is open Monday - Thursday 11:00 am to 9:00 pm and Friday - Saturday 11:00 am to 10:00 pm.  Reservations are accepted (go here).

Rocketman

Last night I went to see Rocketman, the biopic about the flamboyant singer Elton John, and I loved it, especially the music and Taron Egerton's performance as the iconic star.  The movie tells the story of John's life as if it were a stage musical with big production numbers of songs that reflect the events in his life.  The movie uses the framing device of having John (Egerton) enter rehab for his addictions to alcohol, cocaine, sex, and, rather amusingly, shopping.  He recounts his childhood with a self-absorbed mother ("The Bitch Is Back") and distant father ("I Want Love"), performing in local pubs as a teenager ("Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting"), forming his legendary songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin ("Your Song"), his triumphant performance at the Troubadour ("Crocodile Rock"), his loneliness ("Tiny Dancer"), beginning a personal ("Don't Go Breaking My Heart") and business ("Honky Cat") relationship with John Reid, his suicide attempt ("Rocket Man"), his descent into drug, alcohol, and sex addiction ("Bennie and the Jets"), his disastrous marriage to Renate Blauel ("Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"), the deterioration of his relationships with Reid, his mother, and Taupin ("Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word"), and his decision to go to rehab ("Goodbye Yellow Brick Road").  While in rehab John is able to confront all of the people in his life and learn to love himself for who he is ("I'm Still Standing").  This movie portrays John as a consummate performer even when his life is falling apart and that makes it very compelling.  Egerton is absolutely fantastic in the role and I was very impressed by the fact that he did all of the singing himself (and that he actually hit a baseball during the concert in Dodger Stadium). I was also impressed by Jamie Bell as Taupin and Richard Madden as Reid (who is a very nasty character).  I loved the staging of the musical numbers because they are very energetic, fun, and filled with fabulous choreography and gorgeous costumes.  This movie earns its R rating because of some sex scenes between John and Reid and some scenes of debauchery at a club but I don’t think they are overly salacious.  There will be the inevitable comparisons to Bohemian Rhapsody (which I think are unfortunate because the two movies, while they have similar subjects, are very different) but I have to say that Rocketman didn't quite have the pathos for me that Bohemian Rhapsody did but I loved it, nonetheless, and I certainly recommend it.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

I'll be honest and admit that I don't really know much about the Godzilla mythology and I didn't see the 2014 movie Godzilla but Godzilla: King of the Monsters looked like a fun summer blockbuster so I went to see it last night.  Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga), a paleobiologist with an organization called Monarch which studies creatures like Godzilla who once dominated the Earth, has created a device, nicknamed Orca, which will communicate with these Titans.  She joins forces with Alan Jonah (Charles Dance), an eco-terrorist, because she believes that these Titans can reverse the effects of overpopulation, pollution, and destructive mining to bring balance back to nature.  She brings her unsuspecting daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) with her as she and Jonah use the Orca to awaken a Titan which becomes known as Ghidorah.  Scientists from Monarch, believing that Emma and Madison have been kidnapped by Jonah, contact Dr. Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) to help rescue his ex-wife and daughter.  When Monarch realizes what Emma has done, they begin tracking Ghidorah and discover that it is an ancient alien and that it is activating all of the other Titans to attack the Earth.  The only Titan impervious to Ghidorah's control is Godzilla.   This leads to an epic battle where the scientists of Monarch attempt to help Godzilla defeat Ghidorah as well as rescue Madison, who ran away with the Orca when she realized what her mother had done.  Again, I don't know much about Godzilla and his origins but I found this story to be incredibly convoluted and I thought the triangle between Madison and her parents to be completely unnecessary.  There are so many characters, including Monarch scientists (Bradley Whitford, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Thomas Middleditch, and Zhang Ziyi) and military personnel (Aisha Hinds, O'Shea Jackson, Jr., David Strathairn, Anthony Ramos, and Elizabeth Ludlow), many of whom seem to be there only to provide exposition, that it was sometimes hard to keep track of who was who.  However, the creature design is incredible, especially Godzilla's dorsal plates which light up when he feels threatened and Mothra's wings which are beautiful, and the visuals on the screen are amazing, particularly in the action sequences when the monsters fight each other!  I was actually more interested in the monsters than the humans in the story!  The sound design and the bombastic score are also outstanding and really add to the sense of dread when the monsters fight each other.  It is an exciting and entertaining summer blockbuster and I recommend it to fans who are expecting that and nothing more.

Note:  There is an end credits scene setting up the next installment in the MonsterVerse, which reportedly pits Godzilla against King Kong.

Bountiful High School Class of 2019

Yesterday Tashena graduated from Bountiful High School.  We are all so incredibly proud of this girl (but we don't know how this happened because she was a five year old starting kindergarten yesterday!).

Congratulations Tashena!  I can't wait to see what you do next!

Ma

Tashena really wanted to see the movie Ma so I took her and her brother (who was visiting from California for her graduation) to see it yesterday.  I don't know that I would have picked this movie on my own but it was better than I thought it would be.  Ironically, Tashena's brother and I liked it more than she did!  Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer) is a lonely, middle-aged veterinary assistant who agrees to buy alcohol for some bored teenagers, including Maggie (Diana Silvers) and Andy (Corey Fogelmanis).  She worries that the kids will get into an accident if they go off drinking so she invites them to her basement which soon becomes the popular hangout for all of the kids in the town.  Sue Ann follows the kids on social media and begins harassing them, wanting them to come over more and more.  Maggie is unsettled by this and soon realizes that Sue Ann went to high school with her mother (Juliette Lewis) and Andy's father (Luke Evans) and that the two of them pulled a public and humiliating prank on her.  Maggie warns her friends to stay away but Sue Ann lures them back and terrorizes them, using tranquilizers from the vet's office, in retribution for what their parents did to her.  In my opinion, this is more of a psychological thriller than a horror movie (which disappointed Tashena) and it is more gruesome than scary with some truly disturbing scenes.  What elevates this above a campy teen movie is Spencer's performance as an unexpectedly sympathetic character (before she goes completely off the rails).  There is the requisite plot twist which didn't really work for me because it didn't add anything to the story and there were some interesting racial dynamics which definitely should have been explored more thoroughly but I didn't hate this movie.  I think it is destined to become a cult classic.

School of Rock at the Eccles

I have a long list of musicals that I really want to see and last night I got to cross one that was pretty near the top off (number one on that list is coming to Broadway at the Eccles next season and I will be seeing number two in San Francisco in the fall).  School of Rock the musical is very similar to the movie of the same name starring Jack Black and I really enjoyed it.  Not only is it a feel good show but the kids in the cast, who play their own instruments, are all insanely talented!  Dewey (Merritt David Janes) has been kicked out of No Vacancy, the band he formed, right before the Battle of the Bands.  Ned (Layne Roate), Dewey's best friend with whom he has been living for several years, is under pressure from his girlfriend Patty (Madison Micucci) to get him to pay rent.  In desperation, he takes a substitute teaching job at Horace Green Prep School meant for Ned.  The students in his class are being crushed under the pressure put on them by their parents who don't understand them.  After hearing them during their music class, Dewey decides to form a band with Zack (Mystic Inscho) on lead guitar, Katie (Leanne Parks) on bass, Lawrence (Julian Brescia) on keyboard, Freddy (Cameron Trueblood) on drums, and Shonelle (Arianna Pereira) and Marcy (Alyssa Emily Marvin) on backing vocals.  He recruits Billy (Sammy Dell) to be the band's stylist, James (Jacob Moran) as security, Mason (Dylan Trueblood) on tech, and Summer (Sami Bray) the class know-it-all (I probably laughed harder than I should have when Dewey calls her Hermione Granger) as the band's manager.  Tomika (Camille De La Cruz), a shy and insecure transfer student, eventually becomes the band's secondary lead singer.  As the students play they become more confident and Dewey decides to enter them in Battle of the Bands.  He just needs to convince the uptight principal Ms. Mullins (Lexie Dorsett Sharp) to let him take the students on a field trip (in a hilarious scene involving the music of Stevie Nicks).  Eventually, the parents catch on to Dewey's deception but the kids convince him that they need to perform at the Battle of the Bands and this performance wins over the parents.  Janes has a great rock and roll voice and a fun rapport with all of the kids but I couldn't help comparing him to Jack Black.  The true stars of the show are the kids and every time they performed (my favorite songs were "Stick It to the Man," "Time to Play," and "School of Rock") they brought the roof down on the Eccles Theatre.  This show is so much fun and it runs through June 2 (tickets may be purchased here) at the Eccles.