Cold Pursuit

I went into Cold Pursuit last night thinking that it would be a typical Liam Neeson revenge movie.  While it is an action thriller that revolves around a father seeking vengeance for the death of his son, it is also a strangely compelling dark comedy that I liked much more than I thought I would.  Nels Coxman (Neeson) is a snowplow driver in the Colorado ski town of Kehoe.  His son Kyle (Michael Richardson), a baggage handler at the Kehoe airport, dies of an overdose of heroin.  Believing that his son didn't use drugs, Coxman investigates and discovers that he was killed by a drug cartel in Denver over a misplaced cocaine shipment.  He vows revenge and kills the three men directly responsible for Kyle's death but then decides to take down the leader of the cartel, Trevor "Viking" Calcote (Tom Bateman), as well.  Chaos ensues when Viking mistakenly assumes that his men were killed by the local Ute tribe, led by White Bull (Tom Jackson), who control the drug trade in Kehoe.  When his only son is killed by Viking in retribution, White Bull also vows revenge.  This leads to an epic shootout between Coxman, White Bull's gang, and Viking's gang, leaving an ambitious Kehoe police officer (Emmy Rossum) to sort out the bodies.  This movie is filled with eccentric characters (each with a nickname) who behave in such an over-the-top manner that it almost seems like a spoof of the genre.  All of their bizarre antics are wildly entertaining, especially the irreverent ways in which Coxman kills and disposes of the bodies of his victims, and I laughed out loud at the gallows humor many times.  My favorite part of the movie is when each character gets a full-screen "in memoriam" card, complete with nickname, after he is killed (the entire screen is filled with names and nicknames after the shootout!).  It gets pretty wacky (imagine if Taken and Fargo had a baby) but I enjoyed it.

Note:  This movie even has its own version of Fargo's infamous woodchipper scene.

They Shall Not Grow Old

My great-grandfather fought in World War I with the Gordon Highlanders and was wounded at the Battle of Ypres so I have had a lifelong fascination with this war.  I really wanted to see They Shall Not Grow Old, the Peter Jackson documentary commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, but I missed the original screenings for one reason or another.  I was so excited when I found out that it was returning to theaters for a limited engagement and I went to see it yesterday.  It begins with the black and white, silent, and grainy footage that we have all seen before and then transitions into restored and colorized images with recreated sound.  I know that many people are against colorizing old film footage but, to me, this gave the images an immediacy that I had never experienced before, as if these events had happened during my lifetime rather than one hundred years ago.  It is incredibly powerful to see!  The documentary also includes audio of interviews with 120 veterans about their experiences as British soldiers on the western front and these are incredibly moving.  I was struck by several commonalities in the narrative.  First, the men were very eager to enlist because, not only did they want to do their part for king and country, but they also wanted adventure.  Many of them were leaving the villages where they were born for the first time!  Second, most of them didn't complain about the truly horrific conditions in the trenches because they felt they had a job to do and simply got on with it.  Third, they regarded the German prisoners of war as lads just like themselves and started wondering why they were being asked to kill them.  Fourth, most of them reported that there were no celebrations on Armistice Day and many of them wondered what would happen to them now that the war was over.  Several mentioned that they were more concerned about going home than they were about enlisting!  These anonymous voices make the war come alive and I thought of my own great-grandfather many times, especially when the footage included men in kilts and the sound of a plaintive bagpipe.  I highly recommend seeing this extraordinary film while it is still in theaters!

Lend Me A Tenor at CPT

Last night I had the chance to see Lend Me A Tenor, the current production at CenterPoint Theatre, and it was so much fun.  Henry Saunders (Michael Hohl), the general manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, has invited the world-renowned tenor Tito Merelli (Dale Boam) to perform for one night only. He asks his assistant Max (Michael Gardner) to get Merelli to the opera house on time but, when Merelli is indisposed, he has to take drastic action. Add a jealous wife (Holly Reid), an ambitious diva (Kati Paul), a love-struck daughter (Katie Plott), a ditsy opera guild president (Laura Krummenacher), and an opera loving bellhop (Holden Smith) and hilarity ensues. It took a little while for this show to get going but, once it did, it was full of physical comedy and mistaken identity that had the audience howling with laughter. I especially enjoyed a scene where both Tito and Max, who is impersonating Tito, are entertaining women in the hotel suite and then the women inadvertently end up with different Titos. The set, which features a hotel sitting room and bedroom with a connecting door (which are both visible to the audience), is fantastic and really adds to the action as Tito and Max run in and out while slamming doors. The costumes are also a lot of fun, especially the opera guild president's dress ("You look like the Chrysler building!") and the costume Tito (and Max!) wears as Othello. The cast has great comedic timing, particularly Gardner who has great facial expressions as the overwrought Max. As an opera fan, I really enjoyed the arias used at the end of scenes because the subject mimics the action. I'm sure most audience members didn't catch on but I laughed out loud when Mozart's "Lacrimosa" played after Tito is presumed dead!  I recommend this hilarious show for a fun night out (go here for tickets).

Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique"

It seems like it has been such a long time since I've been to Abravanel Hall to hear the Utah Symphony so I was very happy to be there last night for a concert featuring one of my favorite composers!  The orchestra began with the Overture to Tannhauser by Richard Wagner and I absolutely loved it!  This opera is about the temptation and ultimate redemption of a troubadour and the music is incredibly dramatic (I loved the themes played by the brass)!  After this performance I definitely need to put this opera on my list ones I want to see!  Next came a trio of pieces by Hector Berlioz: Sara la baigneuse, Ballade for Three Choruses and Orchestra featuring the Utah Symphony Chorus and the University of Utah Chamber Choir; "La Mort d'Ophelie" from Tristia featuring the women from the aforementioned choruses; and Reverie et caprice for Violin and Orchestra featuring an amazing performance by soloist Philippe Quint.  I loved all of these pieces but I especially enjoyed the second because I am obsessed with the play Hamlet and I could see Ophelia's death scene very clearly as I listened to the beautiful and ethereal music.  After the intermission, the orchestra played Symphony No. 6  ("Pathetique") by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  I love the Russian composers because their music is very emotional and this piece, in particular, is almost unbearably so.  I especially enjoyed the final movement because I think it is so passionate and filled with such longing.  This was the best interpretation of this piece that I have ever heard and I had tears in my eyes at its conclusion!  It was an evening filled with music from three of the best composers from the 19th century romantic era performed beautifully by the Utah Symphony and I loved every minute of it!  I highly recommend getting a ticket to tonight's performance of the same program (go here).

Destroyer

Last night I went to see Destroyer, a film I've been wanting to see for months.  The trailer really intrigued me because it seemed to feature a tormented character looking for redemption which is a favorite theme of mine.  The tormented character in this film is LAPD Detective Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) who, twenty years ago, infiltrated a notorious gang in an undercover operation with an FBI agent (Sebastian Stan) that involved a robbery gone wrong.  She was clearly traumatized by this event and, with her career in shambles and her relationship with her daughter (Jade Pettyjohn) in crisis, she responds to a murder scene which she believes is a message for her that Silas (Toby Kebbell), the leader of the gang, has resurfaced.  On her own, she cruises the underbelly of Los Angeles looking for former gang members Toby (James Jordan), Arturo (Zach Villa), and Petra (Tatiana Maslany) as well as DiFranco (Bradley Whitford), a crooked lawyer who launders money for the gang, to find Silas and exact vengeance.  Interspersed with her search for Silas are flashbacks to her time in the gang and the ill-fated robbery with an interesting revelation about her participation (and another interesting revelation in the present).  It is a fairly standard story of revenge but it is elevated by a transformative performance by Kidman who makes you care about a thoroughly unpleasant person doing reprehensible things.  The rest of the cast is uniformly good as well, especially Whitford and Maslany.  This film, in many ways, reminded me of You Were Never Really Here in that there is a kind of beauty in the brutality (Bell is thoroughly battered and bruised throughout but never wavers in her determination to set things right) and the redemption comes from an unexpected source.  Not everyone will enjoy this movie but I think it is brilliant.