Every Day

As a high school English teacher I read a lot of YA fiction because I am always on the lookout for good books to recommend to my students who are very reluctant readers.  To be honest, most of it is rubbish but I actually really loved Every Day by David Levithan because I thought it was incredibly clever and thought-provoking.  When I learned that a movie adaptation was in the works, I really hoped that it would be good.  I had the chance to see it yesterday and I liked it. A is a mysterious spirit who wakes up in a different body every day.  It is always someone the same age, although it can be someone of a different gender, race, and sexual orientation, who lives in the same geographical location.  A tries to integrate into the person's life and do as little damage as possible but everything changes when A inhabits Justin (Justice Smith).  While in Justin's body, A meets Justin's girlfriend Rhiannon (Angourie Rice) and feels an immediate connection to her.  Rhiannon also feels a connection to Justin that had never been there before as they spend a magical day at the beach together.  When A wakes up in another body (a girl named Amy) the next day, she seeks Rhiannon out and eventually tries to explain.  A continues seeking Rhiannon out even though there are consequences for those he inhabits (the story of Nathan believing he is possessed by the devil is less developed in the movie than the book).  As Rhiannon falls in love with A, she eventually realizes the difficulties with such a relationship.  In order to appreciate this movie you have to be willing to accept the concept (and ignore a few inconsistencies, such as how they are able to communicate using cell phones that belong to other people).  The reason why A inhabits different bodies every day is never explained but, in my opinion, that it not what this movie is all about.  Rather, it is about loving someone for who they are rather than their appearance and loving someone enough to let them go.  Rice gives an endearing performance and it is really easy to root for her.  I also liked how each of the different actors playing A give the character similar mannerisms.  This is definitely a movie that will appeal to the demographic for which it was meant (my screening was full of teenage girls) but I enjoyed it and recommend it for its sweet romance and powerful message.

Red Sparrow

I am a huge fan of espionage so I was really intrigued by Red Sparrow and went to see it yesterday.  Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is a ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow when she suffers a career ending injury at the hands of a fellow dancer.  Worried that she will no longer be able to support her ailing mother (Joely Richardson) she is coerced by her uncle (Matthias Schoenaerts), an agent in Russian intelligence, to become a Sparrow, an agent trained to seduce her target to gain information.  After grueling training under the tutelage of the Matron (Charlotte Rampling) at State School 4, or “Sparrow School,” she is sent to Budapest to meet up with Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), a CIA agent, to learn the identity of the double agent he is running in Moscow.  I judge all spy movies on whether or not they can keep me guessing and this is an intense and suspenseful thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat trying to unravel who was double-crossing whom.  There is not a lot of action, like you would normally see in a typical spy thriller, but the character-driven intrigue is what creates the tension.  I think Jennifer Lawrence gives a good performance and I wasn't at all bothered by her much-maligned accent.  There are some pretty graphic sex and torture scenes but, in my opinion, they are appropriate within the context of the story and not at all gratuitous.  One particularly disturbing scene where an attempted rape is recreated at the Sparrow school is used to help Dominika learn to detach herself from her body.  It is exploitative but that is the entire point of the movie.  She has been forced into this situation by men with power over her and that is what makes the final resolution so incredibly satisfying!  These scenes might bother some some sensitive viewers but I actually thought they were a lot tamer than what I was led led to believe.  I liked this movie quite a bit and I would recommend it to fans of the genre.

Note: I thought the nudity and sex in Atomic Blonde was much more gratuitous.

The Sound of Music at the Eccles

Last night I had the opportunity to see the Broadway touring company production of The Sound of Music now currently playing at the Eccles Theater.  This story about a high spirited nun who is sent to be the governess to Captain Von Trapp's seven children has long been one of my very favorite musicals but I am more familiar with the 1965 movie starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer than I am with the stage version.  The production that I saw last night is based on the original book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse which is quite different from the movie and I found it to be a bit jarring.  I was happily anticipating all of my favorite scenes and songs and I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed when I was surprised by something else.  Some of the songs from the movie are omitted, such as "Confidence" which is such a fun number.  Some songs that are not in the movie are included, such as "How Can Love Survive?" and "No Way to Stop It" which are both sung by Baroness Schraeder (Melissa McKamie) and Max Detweiler (Jake Mills).  I didn't particularly care for either song because I don't really care about either of these characters.  I wanted more time with Maria (Sarah Brackett) and the Captain (Mike McLean) because their romance seems very rushed in this version.  Quite a few of the songs are performed in a different scene than they are in the movie.  For example, "My Favorite Things" is sung between Maria and the Mother Abbess (Lauren Kidwell), "Do-Re-Mi" is sung when Maria first meets the children, "The Lonely Goatherd" is sung when the children are scared of the thunderstorm, and "Eidelweiss" is not sung until the music festival near the end of the show.  After a while I decided to stop comparing it to the movie and simply enjoy the performances, which are fantastic!  Brackett, who is the understudy, is delightful as Maria.  All of the Von Trapp children are adorable, especially Sophia Massa as little Gretl, and they have beautiful voices which harmonize very well.  Kidwell just about blows the roof off the Eccles Theater with her rendition of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," definitely a highlight of the show.  I would absolutely recommend this show because it is such a classic that everyone in the family will enjoy but if the movie is your touchstone, like it is for me, just be prepared for some differences.  It runs at the Eccles Theater until March 4.

Note:  Broadway at the Eccles announced the shows coming to SLC next season and I could not be more excited!  The lineup includes Waitress, Come From Away, Finding Neverland, Aladdin, School of Rock, and RENT!  The season add-ons are Wicked and The Book of Mormon.  My sister Kristine has never see Wicked before so my Mom, Marilyn, and I are going to take her for a fun girls night!  Broadway at the Eccles also teased us with the announcement that Dear Evan Hansen will be coming the following year!  Squeal!  Go here for more information.

i at PTC

Last night I went to the world premiere of an incredibly thought-provoking play by Jeff Talbott called i.  I didn't know anything about it because there were no director's notes provided in the program and the setting was listed as a city sometime soon.  Now that I have seen it I think it is much better to go in blind and let the events (and the plot twist) surprise you.  It begins with a clearly distraught young woman named Sarah Cooper (Kathleen McElfresh) as she is interviewed by a doctor before undergoing a mysterious medical procedure.  The next time we see her she seems to be a completely different woman who has relocated to another city.  Then she meets Jake Bellamy (Todd Gearhart) and her new life begins to unravel.  This play is a profound meditation on identity and my mind was swirling with so many ideas as I left the theater!  What role do our memories play in who we are?  Is it better to feel nothing at all rather than feel sad?  Just because something is possible does that mean it should be done?   This play requires quite a bit of engagement as it is comprised mostly of intimate conversations between the two main characters (several people sitting near me were clearly restless) but I really enjoyed it.  The minimal set, composed of moving plexiglass panels, and the lighting cues are very effective at conveying the isolation felt by the main characters.  Both McElfresh and Gearhart give highly nuanced performances that I found to be incredibly affecting and I was very impressed by the sheer number of characters portrayed by Nefeesa Monroe.  I applaud Pioneer Theatre for its willingness to produce new works like this and I highly recommend this production.  It runs through March 3 and tickets may be purchased here.

Annihilation

I battled the flu last week so I had to wait a few days before I could see Annihilation, a film I have been anticipating for months.  I finally had a chance to see it last night and, while it is definitely not for everyone, I thought it was absolutely brilliant.  The film begins with the interrogation of Lena (Natalie Portman), a biologist, who is seemingly the only member of a top secret expedition to have survived.  Then there is a flashback to a meteor falling to the Earth and hitting a lighthouse.  Next we see Lena's husband Kane (Oscar Isaac) return after having been missing for over a year.  He is seemingly the only member of a top secret military expedition to have survived but he soon falls ill.  Both he and Lena are taken to a military base near the lighthouse which is now surrounded by a strange and ever expanding shimmer.  Every expedition into the shimmer has been unsuccessful and Kane is the only person to have survived.  Lena volunteers for the next expedition, made up of scientists rather than military personnel (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, and Tuva Novotny), because she wants to know what made her husband volunteer for what amounts to a suicide mission.  The narrative alternates between Lena's interrogation and the mission into the shimmer where the scientists discover that plants and animals have mutated and that their own DNA might possibly be mutating as well.  Unable to trust their own bodies and minds, the team disintegrates until Lena confronts what is in the lighthouse.  In my opinion this film is a metaphor for man's self-destructive nature but I feel that everyone who sees it will have a different, yet completely valid, interpretation.  The nonlinear storytelling reveals just enough information to keep the audience on edge and constantly guessing and I have to admit that I was thoroughly frightened at times.  The visuals alternate between vivid and swirling colors with amazing plants and animals and dark shadows filled with monsters so you never know what to expect.  There are scenes of terror that will make you jump as they battle some mutated animals but I found the quiet scenes where the scientists begin to distrust one another to be even more menacing.  The score is brilliant with strange and unrecognizable sounds emanating from the shimmer which are incredibly unsettling and the music during the final climax contributes to such a feeling of dread that I count that scene as one of the scariest I've ever seen.  Again, this movie may not be for everyone.  There is certainly enough ambiguity to drive a person mad but that is what allowed me to have some epic conversations with complete strangers after my screening and that, in my opinion, is what makes a good science fiction thriller.  Go see it!