On the Basis of Sex

Ever since I saw the documentary RBG, I've been a huge fan of Ruth Bader Ginsburg so I have been eagerly awaiting the release of On the Basis of Sex.  I was able to see a Thursday preview and it is so good.  This movie chronicles Ruth Bader Ginsbug's time as one of the first female law students at Harvard University, her inability to find a position at any NYC law firm despite graduating at the top of her class because she is a woman, her time as a professor at Rutgers Law School, and her role in a ground breaking sex discrimination case.  Ginsburg (Felicity Jones) is given a tax case by her husband Marty (Armie Hammer) in which a Denver man was denied a deduction for caring for his sick mother because he is a bachelor and caregiving roles traditionally belong to women.  Inspired to fight for the rights of women by her daughter Jane (Cailee Spaeny), she decides to take it because, if she can get a ruling on a case involving sex discrimination against a man, it will set a precedent that can be used against cases involving sex discrimination against women.  She, along with her husband and Mel Wulf (Justin Theroux) of the ACLU, files an appeal in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, writes the brief, and, despite the fact that she has very little experience arguing cases, gives an impassioned speech about how the world has changed and the law needs to change with it.  I found this movie to be incredibly inspiring because I had no idea how many laws discriminating on the basis of sex actually existed and there were many times when I wanted to cheer out loud.  There is a moment at the end when Ruth walks up the stairs to the Supreme Court to argue her next case when everyone in my screening applauded.  One of the things I really enjoyed about RBG is Ginsburg's mutually supportive marriage to Marty and it is portrayed exceptionally well in this movie (I loved the scene with Marty chopping vegetables for dinner).  Jones and Hammer give outstanding performances, especially in their scenes together.  I think I prefer RBG because it is more comprehensive but I really loved this movie and I highly recommend it!

Escape Room

Now that I have finished reviewing the movies that I saw over winter break I can catch up with the movies I've seen in the new year, the first of which was Escape Room.  It is not a great movie but I saw it at a late night screening with a rowdy crowd on opening weekend so I had a lot of fun watching it.  Six strangers are recruited to participate in a mysterious escape room for a chance to win $10,000:  Zoey (Taylor Russell), a painfully shy physics student, Ben (Logan Miller), a struggling alcoholic, Jason (Jay Ellis), a cocky stockbroker, Amanda (Deborah Ann Wolf) an Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD, Mike (Tyler Labine) a former coal miner, and Danny (Nik Dodani), a gaming enthusiast.  It begins as a ordinary game with complex puzzles to solve as they move from one elaborate room to the next.  However, each of them have secrets which are revealed in the puzzles and the consequences for not solving the puzzles in time are deadly.  As one survivor emerges from the final room, the purpose of the game is revealed.  As I mentioned, this is not a great movie but I didn't really expect it to be.  In fact, I actually liked it more than I thought I would because of the clever premise, the design of the rooms (especially the optical illusion room), as well as the tense and suspenseful action sequences.  The biggest flaw, in my opinion, is the ending because, not only does it slow down the action in an attempt to explain it all in some really clunky scenes, the explanation lacks any credibility and includes a groan-worthy cliffhanger (a blatant bid for a sequel).  This movie could have been so much better but it wasn't awful.  Take a group of friends to a late night screening for a fun night out.

At Eternity's Gate

The last film in my winter break movie marathon was At Eternity's Gate, a tragic portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh's final years starring Willem Dafoe in the title role.  Unlike many traditional biopics which focus on one linear event after another, this film is very episodic.  Van Gogh was inspired by nature so there are many scenes of him walking through the fields of Arles, looking up at the sky with a blissful expression, painting the same tree over and over again, and even rolling around in the dirt to more fully understand its properties.  These scenes are beautifully rendered, often with the camera following Van Gogh closely as wanders through the countryside or from his point of view as he looks at something he wants to paint.  This film explores his madness with disturbing scenes of lashing out at school children for bothering him and physically posing a woman against her will for a painting.  His isolation is also explored and it is heartbreaking whenever he parts from his brother Theo (Rupert Friend), a Paris art dealer who supports him financially, and Paul Gaugin (Oscar Isaac), another painter with whom he argues over technique.  The aspect of this film that I enjoyed the most is his understanding that he sees the world differently from everyone else and that, while contemporary audiences may revile his paintings, he is creating works for people who haven't been born yet.  There is a wonderful scene when Van Gogh is visited by a priest (Mads Mikkelsen) at the asylum and he says that when he paints he touches eternity.  Dafoe gives an incredibly nuanced performance because the Van Gogh that we meet in this film is not necessarily sympathetic but Dafoe makes us feel every bit of his suffering.  While I understand what director Julian Schnabel was going for, namely to make an "artistic" film about art, I sometimes struggled while watching it because of the slow and deliberate pace.  Not everyone is going to enjoy this but it is beautiful and profound.

The Lion in Winter at PTC

Last night I went to see The Lion in Winter, the current production at Pioneer Theater (I will review the final film in my winter break movie marathon tomorrow).  It is Christmas Eve 1183 and King Henry II of England (Esau Pritchett) has summoned his family to spend the holiday together.  This includes his sons Richard (William Connell), Geoffrey (Damian Jermaine Thompson), and John (Austin Reed Alleman) as well as his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Celeste Ciulla), who has spent the past ten years as his prisoner for staging a rebellion against him.  Since King Philip of France (Grayson DeJesus) is pressuring him to wed his sister Alais (Maryam Abdi) to the heir to the throne, Henry uses this opportunity to decide the succession.  He advocates for John simply because he knows that Eleanor wants her favorite son, Richard, to be the next king.  This pits brother against brother as they scheme, manipulate, plot, and form and break alliances.  It is so much fun to watch.  But the real fireworks come in the scenes between Pritchett and Ciulla as they spar with each other.  Their performances are melodramatic and completely over the top but this is really effective because everything they say is a calculated performance for an audience of one.  They have great chemistry together and I found them to be riveting.  The princes are the ultimate pawns in their parents' battle with each other and, while they sometimes come across as caricatures of the oldest (Richard is the leader), middle (Geoffrey is ignored), and youngest (John is petulant) children in a family, they each have their moments of vulnerability. What I liked most about this production is that, while it is set during the 12th century, it still has a contemporary vibe to it with a message that modern audiences can relate to (when Eleanor says, "It's 1183 and we're still barbarians," it got a huge response from the crowd).  This modern aesthetic is reflected in the set and the costume design.  There are the traditional Gothic arches but they have LED lights on top which change colors during scene changes to reflect the mood.  The costumes have medieval silhouettes and include chain mail and cloaks lined with fur but they feature very modern fabrics and colors (John and Geoffrey even wear athletic shoes).  I really enjoyed this play and would recommend it (go here for tickets).

Note:  The Lion in Winter is one of the very first plays I saw at the Utah Shakespeare Festival when I was in college.  I was fascinated by Eleanor of Aquitaine, as a character and a historical figure, which prompted me to research her and watch the Academy Award winning movie starring Katharine Hepburn in the role.  Good stuff!

Ben is Back

I really wanted to see Ben is Back over winter break because, ever since I saw Manchester by the Sea, I've become a huge fan of Lucas Hedges.  It is a very powerful, but depressing, film that explores a mother's love for a child under any circumstance.  Holly Burns (Julia Roberts) is a frazzled mother trying to wrangle three of her four children through a nativity rehearsal on Christmas Eve.  Upon returning home she notices a visitor on her front porch.  It is Ben (Hedges), her oldest son, who has unexpectedly returned early from a rehab facility.  Holly is thrilled to see him, if a bit wary, but his stepfather Neal (Courtney B. Vance) is concerned and his sister Ivy (Kathryn Newton) is openly hostile.  It is soon apparent that Ben's behavior has ruined previous holidays for the family but Holly allows him to stay with the condition that he remain within her sight at all times.  When the family returns home from church, they discover that the family dog is missing and Ben suggests that it has been kidnapped by someone angered by his return.  This prompts Holly to take Ben out looking for the dog but it soon becomes a journey through Ben's troubled past which not only horrifies her but forces her to confront the person her son has become.  The tragedy is that while she is trying to save Ben from his former associates, and himself, she is also trying to save the holiday for the rest of her family.  As with Beautiful Boy, this film brilliantly portrays the effect that addiction has on everyone surrounding the addict and it is heartbreaking.  The fact the the action takes place over a 24-hour period gives the film a sense of urgency and I like the fact that Ben's past, and future for that matter, is only hinted at rather than explicitly stated because the uncertainty is more unsettling.  Roberts gives one of her best performances to date, conveying so many emotions with just a single look, and Hedges gives an unflinching portrayal of a manipulative liar who shouldn't be trusted.  Their scenes together are fraught with tension and this elevates a typical addiction drama into something incredibly poignant.  I highly recommend it.