Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

Last night I saw Professor Marston and the Wonder Women and I thought it was fabulous!  It tells the fascinating true story of how the Wonder Woman comic strip came into existence.  William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) is a Harvard professor of psychology whose area of expertise is dominance and submission in human relationships.  His wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) has also earned a PhD in psychology, although Harvard won't grant her the degree because she is a woman, and she works closely with her husband testing his theories.  Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote) is a student who signs up to participate in their experiments and falls in love with both of the Marstons.  They begin a relationship and the two very different women inspire William to create the character of Wonder Woman.  What I loved most about this film is the clever way that every part of Wonder Woman's iconography comes into being.  Watching the film becomes a little bit like a scavenger hunt looking for clues, some of which are fairly obvious, such as the Marstons' creation of the lie detector test as the inspiration for the lasso of truth, but others are more subtle and are satisfying to notice (the timing of this film is particularly good coming so close after the release of the blockbuster Wonder Woman).  While the film does focus of the creation of the iconic character, to me it is more about the relationship between these three people and I think director Angela Robinson does a beautiful job in developing it tastefully and intelligently.  Yes, there are some really steamy scenes involving S&M role playing between the three characters but it is absolutely clear that they are all consenting adults and that they all love each other deeply.  All three of the lead actors give amazing and highly nuanced performances but I was especially impressed with Hall who is brilliant in this role.  It is a beautiful film on the screen with lovely cinematography, costumes, and production design.  This story is interesting but it is also very timely in its message about the right to love who you love.  I highly recommend it!

Imagine Dragons at USANA

Last night I had the opportunity to see Imagine Dragons perform at the USANA Amphitheatre and it was absolutely amazing, definitely a night I won't forget for some time.  I love Imagine Dragons (their album Night Visions is rare in that I can listen to it on repeat for hours without skipping any songs) and they always put on a spectacular show.  Last night was no exception!  They began with a song from their latest release, Evolve, called "I Don't Know Why" and continued with almost every song from this album throughout the night, including "Whatever It Takes," "I'll Make It Up to You," "Mouth of the River," a rousing rendition of "Yesterday," "Start Over," and "Rise Up."  I was really happy that they played "Gold," one of my favorite songs from Smoke + Mirrors but I have to admit that I especially enjoyed "This Is It," "On Top of the World," and an incredibly powerful version of "Demons."  Dan Reynolds was effusive in his love for Utah and the impact that the state had on their development as a band.  He dedicated "This Is It" to the crowd!  He also gave a heartfelt speech about depression before performing "Demons" and the audience held up their phones to light up the amphitheatre.  It was amazing!  After their main set, the band walked to a small stage in the middle of the crowd and performed an acoustic version of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" which they dedicated to him.  This was another high point of the concert for me.  Then they performed acoustic versions of "Bleeding Out" and "Dream."  I especially loved the cello on both of those songs.  Once they returned to the main stage, they finished their set with "Thunder," "I Bet My Life," and "Radioactive" complete with smoke and lasers.  It was thrilling to stand in a crowd with everyone singing every word to "Radioactive," the song that made me a fan of the band!  For the encore (which was really not an encore because they decided that it was too cold to make the crowd wait for them to return to the stage) they performed "Walking the Wire" and "Believer."  I can't describe how much I loved this show!  Dan Reynolds is such an enthusiastic performer and he seems so genuine in his interactions with the crowd!  At one point he mentioned that the rest of the tour would all be downhill from this point on because he loved the Utah crowd so much (sorry Denver!).  I will always try to see this band whenever they come through SLC!

Note:  It was really cold!  Last year I seem to remember making a vow that I would never see another outdoor show this time of year ever again...

An American in Paris at the Eccles

I have wanted to see the Tony Award-winning musical An American in Paris for a long time so I was thrilled when Broadway at the Eccles announced it as the first show of the 2017-2018 season.  I was able to see it last night and I thought it was wonderful.  The story follows the movie of the same name (a personal favorite) pretty closely.  A U.S. soldier named Jerry Mulligan (McGee Maddox) decides to remain in Paris after World War II and meets an aspiring ballerina named Lise (Sara Esty).  He pursues her and they begin to fall in love.  However, Lise has become engaged to Henri (Nick Spangler) out of a duty she feels to him and his family for protecting her during the war and Jerry is pursued by a wealthy heiress (Emily Ferranti) who wants to promote his art.  Will they choose love or duty?  Both Maddox and Esty are incredible dancers and the choreography is absolutely stunning, especially in "I've Got Beginner's Luck" and "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise."  The final 18-minute ballet to the tune of "An American in Paris" is simply spectacular and it was amazing to me that the leads have the skill and stamina to perform such demanding choreography at the end of a Broadway show!  It was a lot of fun to hear the well-known songs, written by George and Ira Gershwin, such as "I Got Rhythm," "'S Wonderful," "But Not For Me," and "They Can't Take That Away From Me."  I loved all of the costumes but the sets are so creative!  The minimalist sketches that Jerry draws throughout the show are often projected on screens to transport audience members to the middle of Paris.  This is an old-fashioned and incredibly romantic musical that reminded me of the big Hollywood extravaganzas of the 1950s.  Who could ask for anything more!  I highly recommend seeing it if you get a chance and this particular production runs at the Eccles Theatre until Sunday (tickets may be purchased here).

The Princess and the Frog

When The Princess and the Frog was first released in 2009, I took my nine-year-old niece to see it and it was absolutely magical for her to be able to look up at the screen and see a Disney princess who looked like her.  After seeing it on the big screen she watched the DVD over and over and sang every song.  She even had a Princess Tiana dress!  This movie may have a few flaws (I still think the voodoo scenes are a little weird, especially for a film marketed to children) but Tiana was definitely important to my niece and I can't think of a better role model for her to emulate.  The Princess and the Frog is being screened again at AMC Theatres as part of the Dream Big, Princesses film festival so I invited Tashena, who is now almost seventeen, to see it with me again last night.  We had so much fun!  She says she doesn't really remember when I took her to see it the first time but she certainly remembers the words to all of the songs because she sang them all at the top of her lungs (we were the only ones in the theater).   Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) is a young girl determined to succeed and open the restaurant she has always dreamed of owning.  Prince Naveen (voiced by Bruno Campos) is a ne'er-do-well who has been cut off financially by his parents.  Naveen turns to voodoo to make his dreams come true but he is inadvertently turned into a frog.  Thinking that Tiana is a princess because of a costume she is wearing, Naveen asks her to kiss him to break the spell, promising her the money she needs to start her restaurant, but when she does she is also turned into a frog.  Naveen and Tiana must discover what they need, rather than what they want, in order to break the curse with the help of a jazz playing crocodile, a Cajun lightening bug, and blind voodoo priestess (some really fun characters).  I really loved all of the scenes in the bayou, especially when all of the lightening bugs guide Tiana and Naveen to Mama Odie because it looks so magical (it reminded me of the lantern scene in Tangled).  I had forgotten how great the hand-drawn animation is in this film.  It was such a fun night and I'm glad that, for a little while, I got to spend some time with the little girl who wanted to be just like Princess Tiana!  The Princess and the Frog will be screened at AMC Theatres until Oct. 12.

Victoria & Abdul

Sunday afternoon I decided to see Victoria & Abdul.  I was initially very lukewarm about this film because, frankly, I felt that this story had already been told much better in Mrs. Brown (which also stars Judi Dench).  While it does have a similar plot to the previous film, I found Victoria & Abdul to be absolutely charming.  Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) is old and barely able to get out of bed for an endless round of ceremonial duties which hold little interest for her.  Abdul (Ali Fazal) is randomly selected to present Victoria with a ceremonial coin from India as part of the Golden Jubilee.  Victoria takes a liking to Abdul and spends most of her time with him, much to the dismay of the Prince of Wales (Eddie Izzard), the Prime Minister (Michael Gambon) and her household staff.  I'm sure that there were a lot of liberties taken with the historical accuracy of this film and there has been a lot of criticism about the portrayal of Britain's colonization of India, but I enjoyed it as a story about an unlikely friendship.  Dame Judi Dench is brilliant in this role, as ever, and there is an incredibly affecting scene where she laments the fact that everyone she loves has died while she goes on and on.  Ali Fazal is very endearing as Abdul and it is easy to see why Victoria would be so enamored of him.  The other characters are pretty one-dimensional but the two strong central performances make up for that.  The film is gorgeously shot, especially the scenes in Scotland, and the costumes and interiors are  everything that you could want from a British period-piece.  In short, it is a lovely little film that I enjoyed much more than I thought I would!