Tully

Yesterday I finally had the chance to see Tully, the new comedy from Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman.  Marlo (Charlize Theron) is a stressed out mom about to have her third child when she meets a friend from her days as a free-spirited young adult and begins ruminating on what she has given up to move to the suburbs.  Her husband (Ron Livingston) is well-meaning but he has a stressful job which frequently takes him out of town and is generally clueless about the toll motherhood has taken on Marlo.   Her wealthy brother (Mark Duplass) offers to gift her with a night nanny when the baby comes but she doesn't like the thought of a stranger taking care of her newborn.  After the baby is born she is almost incapacitated by fatigue and, after a particularly trying day with her son, who seems to be on the autism spectrum, she relents and calls Tully (Mackenzie Davis).  Tully's presence has an immediate effect on Marlo, who gets a good night's sleep for the first time in years and begins to re-engage with the world.  Tully reminds Marlo of the free-spirit she used to be while Tully tries to remind Marlo that her most important dream has come true.  There is a huge twist at the end which some viewers may have difficulty with but for me it worked very well.  It's hard to talk about why I loved it so much without giving too much away, but I think it shows that just because a woman's role may change she should never lose who she really is.  I loved that this film highlights the fact that you need to take care of yourself in order to take care of other people.  Charlize Theron is fantastic in this multi-layered role and she isn't afraid to show the real (read: unglamorous) side of motherhood.  You can really feel her quiet desperation.  She and Mackenzie Davis have great chemistry and the scenes of them giving each other advice are incredibly poignant.  I enjoyed this movie a great deal and I highly recommend it.

Note:  My very favorite moment is when a school counselor tells Marlo to stop apologizing for her autistic son after he reacts to a loud noise because he has done nothing wrong.  So powerful! 

Spring in the City

Friday night I was downtown and I had an hour to kill in between dinner and the symphony.  I happened upon this lovely little garden area in between the Joseph Smith Building and Temple Square.  There were lots of little flower beds and places to sit and I absolutely loved it.  The spring flowers were so beautiful and they smelled amazing!  I wanted to sit there for hours!  I always say that fall is my favorite time of year but the spring is pretty spectacular, too!

Richard Strauss' Don Quixote & Zarathustra

Last week I went to a Utah Symphony concert with my friend Angela and this week I persuaded my sister to come along.  I usually really enjoy doing things by myself but I have to admit that it has been kind of nice being social lately!  I invited my sister along because she plays the cello and last night's concert featured Rainer Eudeikis, the Principal Cello.  The entire program highlighted the music of Richard Strauss and it was absolutely epic!  The concert began with Serenade in E-flat Major which is a lovely piece featuring the woodwinds and the horns.  Since I played the clarinet in school I enjoyed this very much.  Next, the orchestra played Don Quixote, with the aforementioned Rainer Eudikis on cello and Brant Bayless on viola.  This amazing piece is, of course, based on the novel by Miguel Cervantes and if you are at all familiar with the story it is uncanny how the various instruments mimic the action!  The cello represents Don Quixote, a old man who thinks that he is a knight is pursuit of an adventure, and the viola represents Sancho Panza, his loyal sidekick.  There are ten variations which tell the story and my favorites are when Don Quixote mistakes a bunch of sheep for an army because the brass sound just like the bleating of sheep, when he mistakes a group of pilgrims as kidnappers because the brass, once again, mimic the singing of liturgical chants, and the death of Don Quixote because I always think of the cello as a mournful sounding instrument and the final note depicting the old knight's last gasp is heartbreaking!  After the intermission, the orchestra played Also sprach Zarathustra which I found to be absolutely exhilarating!  I have never heard this piece performed live before but it is instantly recognizable if you have seen the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.  In fact, I can never hear the opening fanfare without thinking of the movie!  This piece is simply spectacular and I loved hearing it live!  I suggest you get a ticket for this epic evening of music (go here).

Note:  One of the perks of having a companion for the symphony is being able to go out to dinner!  Last week it was the Cheesecake Factory and this week it was the Garden Restaurant!

A Chilly Bees Game

Marilyn was offered some free tickets to yesterday's Bees game at work.   The seats were right behind the dugout so we were pretty excited.  It was 80 degrees over the weekend but you just never know with the weather in Utah.  At one point it was actually snowing yesterday and I thought the game might be postponed.  But then it cleared up in the afternoon and we decided to go.  We had so much fun!  I can't begin to tell you how much I love spending time with Sean and Tashena!  We love going to Bees games and we have some silly rituals like what we get to eat (we opted for hot chocolate instead of ice cream, or at least three of us did).  We were laughing so hard I wondered if we were bothering the people around us!  The Bees played the Fresno Grizzlies and they scored three runs in the first two innings which was a lot of fun.  Then the Grizzlies scored three runs in the third inning and three more in the fourth inning which deflated the crowd a bit!  By the bottom of the sixth inning we were all really cold so we decided to leave and it might be a good thing we did because the Bees ended up losing 11-4.

It really doesn't matter what the score is because we always have so much fun and last night was a blast!  I am so grateful that I get to spend so much time with my niece and nephew.  Being an aunt is the best!

Lean on Pete

I have developed a lovely habit of seeing an independent movie at my favorite art house theater every Sunday afternoon and yesterday's selection was Lean on Pete.  Charlie Thompson (Charlie Plummer) is living a hand-to-mouth existence with an unreliable father when he finds a job at a racetrack working for an irascible trainer named Del Montgomery (Steve Buscemi).  He grows attached to an aging racehorse named Lean on Pete but, when the horse starts losing races, he is destined for slaughter.  After a tragedy involving his father, Charlie takes Lean on Pete for a cross-country journey to find his aunt.  It is a coming of age story about a boy whose situation becomes more and more perilous and it is absolutely unrelenting.  Much like Andrew Haigh's previous movie 45 Years, this movie does not have a lot of dialogue or exposition but everything that Charlie is feeling is evident and he is an entirely sympathetic character.  There were times when I had tears in my eyes and one scene made me gasp out loud but I never felt that it was manipulative.  It felt like an accurate portrayal of a segment of society living on the edge of poverty.  Plummer gives an astonishing performance, appearing in literally every scene.  The cinematography is beautiful, especially the nighttime scenes of Charlie walking with Pete through the desert with only a lantern for illumination.  I loved this movie and I highly recommend it!