Crazy For You at CPT

Since moving to Bountiful three years ago I have become a huge fan of CenterPoint Theatre. Last night I had the chance to see their production of Crazy For You, a wonderful musical featuring the music of George and Ira Gershwin and lots of tap dancing! Who could ask for anything more? Bobby Child (Fred Lee) just wants to dance for the Zangler Follies but he has a fiance, Irene (Hailey Weeks), who has been waiting five years to get married and a mother who wants him to work at the family bank. He is sent by the bank to Deadrock Nevada to foreclose on a theatre owned by Polly Baker (Landry Thomas) and her father Everett (Shane Casteel). Instead, he immediately falls in love with Polly and comes up with a plan to save her theatre by producing a show. Polly doesn't want anything to do with him so he decides to impersonate Bela Zangler (Adam West) and brings the Zangler Follies to Deadrock. The show comes together until both Irene and the real Bela Zangler come to town! I loved all of the classic Gershwin songs: "Shall We Dance," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Embraceable You," "I Got Rhythm," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," and "But Not For Me." The choreography is spectacular, especially in "I Can't Be Bothered Now," "Slap That Bass," and "Nice Work If You Can Get It." I also loved all of the physical comedy in "What Causes That." All of the ensemble are great dancers and perform with a lot of energy. The leads, Lee and Thomas, are both incredibly talented with strong voices and impressive tap dancing skills. Lee, especially, is very charismatic and the two of them have a lot of chemistry. I am always really blown away by the costumes and sets for CenterPoint Theatre and this show is no exception! I highly recommend this fun and energetic show which runs through July 14 (tickets may be purchased here).

Note:  One of my former students was in the ensemble and he was fantastic! I didn't know that he could tap!

Hearts Beat Loud

Believe it or not, I actually saw a few films at the Sundance Film Festival this year that were not dark and gritty!  One such film was Hearts Beat Loud which is absolutely charming and I enjoyed it so much I decided to see it again now that it is in wide release.  It is a heartwarming story about Frank Fisher (Nick Offerman), a single father who is facing many changes including having to close his record shop, a mother (Blythe Danner) with dementia, and a daughter (Kiersey Clemons) about to leave for college.  Frank and his daughter Sam write and record a song during one of their weekly jam sessions and, when Frank uploads it to Spotify, it goes viral.  Frank begins to fantasize about recording an album and going on tour with Sam but, ultimately, he realizes that he needs to let her go to pursue her own dream.  There is a tremendous amount of humor in this film, especially when Frank hears their song playing in a coffee shop for the first time and when he begins thinking about their potential costumes.  Both Frank and Sam are incredibly sympathetic characters and the father-daughter relationship is very affecting.  Offerman, more known for his comedic roles, give a heartfelt performance as a father afraid to lose his daughter and there are moments when he looks at Sam that are so poignant.  Even more impressive is the fact that both Offerman and Clemons perform several original songs.  Clemons has an amazing voice and I really loved the song "Hearts Beat Loud."  I highly recommend this feel good movie.  It will put a smile on your face!

Hotel Artemis

Yesterday I saw the noir thriller Hotel Artemis and, despite negative reviews from the critics, I actually really enjoyed it.  In a dystopian future, a nurse (Jodie Foster) runs the Hotel Artemis, a members-only hospital for criminals, in an Art Deco building located in Los Angeles.  An orderly (Dave Bautista), who also serves as a bouncer when the need arises, assists her.  The nurse is an alcoholic agoraphobic who lost her licence to practice medicine when her son died.  The current residents include an arms dealer (Charlie Day) and an assassin (Sofia Boutella) but they are soon joined by a bank robber (Sterling K. Brown) whose brother (Brian Tyree Henry) was injured in a botched job and an underworld crime boss (Jeff Goldblum).  Everyone must follow the rules:  no guns, no cops, and no killing the other patients.  In the course of one night every one of the rules are broken because everyone in the Hotel Artemis has something to hide.  The narrative is a bit derivative and it does meander a bit with some characters and subplots that serve no purpose.  I also found some of the dialogue to be very clunky.  However, the action sequences are fantastic, especially when Boutella's character fights a group of bodyguards by herself, and I loved the aesthetic of the hotel itself.  In my opinion, what makes this film work is the character arc of the nurse (I love when a really flawed character is able to find some redemption) and Jodie Foster gives an incredible performance.  This film won't be for everyone but I do recommend it to fans of action thrillers.

American Animals

When I saw the trailer for American Animals last week I thought it looked highly amusing and immediately wanted to see it.  I took in a screening on Saturday afternoon and I really enjoyed it.  Spencer Reinhard (Barry Keoghan) is finding college life to be less exciting than he imagined and, as an aspiring artist, longs for a transformative experience to give his paintings more interest.  On a typical college tour of the library he notices that the special collections library has several volumes of Audubon's The Birds of America valued at over $12 million.  He fantasizes about stealing them and mentions this to his ne'er-do-well friend Warren Lipka (Evan Peters) who is on the verge of losing his athletic scholarship and longs for adventure. They spend all their time planning an elaborate heist and, when they realize that it could actually be done, they recruit Eric Borsuk (Jared Abrahamson) and Chas Allen (Blake Jenner).  As the narrative plays out, the real Spencer Reinhard, Warren Lipka, Eric Borsuk, and Chas Allen give documentary-style interviews about the goings-on and this is both incredibly successful and a bit detrimental in the final resolution.  Their commentary is often hilarious but their remorse at what they did feels a bit self-serving.  At the end of the movie the librarian of the special collection, Betty Jean Gooch (played in the narrative by Ann Dowd), condemns the boys as selfish thrill-seekers.  This feels a little bit out of place, as if this movie doesn't know if it is a light-hearted caper or a cautionary tale about the amorality of affluent young men.  However, I found it to be wildly entertaining despite the weighty conclusion and would recommend it.

Hereditary

I saw Hereditary at the Sundance Film Festival this year and I thought it was incredibly disturbing and one of the scariest films I had ever seen.  I screamed out loud during two different scenes and I was not alone.  I had decided that I would not see this again when it had a wider release but, given the divisive response to it, I wanted to see if I had the same reaction upon a second viewing.  I saw it late Friday night in a theater by myself and, needless to say, I was scared out of my mind.  I even screamed out loud once again even though I knew what was coming.  A woman with a long history of mental illness and a penchant for dabbling in the occult dies which has a profound effect on her daughter Annie (Toni Collette).  Annie's distress, in turn, begins to have a devastating effect upon her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), son Peter (Alex Wolff), and daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro).  As events become more and more bizarre, the audience is left to wonder if Annie is descending into madness and causing all of these events or if the family is truly being haunted.  When I watched the film the first time I found the final resolution to be deeply upsetting but I realize now that it is not the subject matter that makes this film so scary.  Rather, it is the sense of unease that is created through the sound design, lighting, and spellbinding performances (especially by Collette).  I was incredibly tense almost from the beginning of the film and that tension never lets up.  You want to know what is happening but you dread finding out.  This film is actually quite brilliant...but deeply disturbing so see it at your own risk (preferably not late at night in an empty theater).