Summer Reading: The Outsider

I actually started reading The Outsider by Stephen King, the first selection on my summer reading list, last week. I was supposed to be completing the checkout process for the end of the school year but I simply could not put this book down! One of my colleagues started reading it, too, and every time we saw each other we would immediately start discussing it (this even happened at graduation!). I finished it in only a few days because I had to know what happened! A grisly murder of a young boy has sent the small town of Flint City, Oklahoma reeling. Understandably, the police want to solve this murder as quickly as possible. When Detective Ralph Anderson finds multiple witnesses and incontrovertible forensic evidence that points to Terry Maitland, he and District Attorney Bill Samuels decide to arrest the popular teacher and Little League coach very publicly. Despite the fact that Maitland has an iron-clad alibi, the town goes into a frenzy due to the nature of the murder and several tragedies occur. Distraught over the notion that Maitland might have been innocent, Anderson enlists the help of another police detective, Maitland's defense attorney, and a private investigator to determine how one man could be in two places at one time. What they discover is far more sinister than they could have imagined. As you know, I have a love/hate relationship with Stephen King so I tend to judge him more harshly than the rabid fans who gave this book such glowing reviews but, having said that, I really enjoyed this. I found it to be incredibly suspenseful, particularly the police investigation in the first part of the novel. The chapters are short and move from narrator to narrator and this serves to keep you guessing. The action does slow down a bit when they begin hunting the Outsider in earnest (there is a lot of dialogue where characters voice their doubt about what is really happening and it gets a bit tedious) but that didn't stop me from reading into the early morning hours to get to the resolution! I really liked the use of folklore to ground the supernatural aspects of the story and I found the specific legends to be incredibly unsettling. King is the master of writing about ordinary characters caught up in extraordinary situations and this novel is no exception. I particularly enjoyed Holly Gibney.  However, she is a character in the Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch) which I have not read. Referencing his other works is one of King's hallmarks but in this instance I found it to be frustrating because it happens frequently and I didn't understand the references. This is nowhere near as good as the classic King novels but it is good enough and I definitely recommend it.

Note:  Have you read The Outsider?  What did you think?

Booksmart

Last night I went to see Booksmart because the trailers made me laugh out loud!  I absolutely loved it because, not only is it funny and heartwarming, but I saw a lot of myself when I was in high school in the character of Molly.  We meet two best friends, Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), as they are about to graduate from high school the next day.  They are the valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, and have spent all of their time in high school studying to ensure that they get into Yale and Columbia, respectively.  They are quite pretentious and rather disdainful of their fellow classmates.  They think of them as players (Mason Gooding), mean girls (Diana Silvers), jocks (Nico Hiraga), sluts (Molly Gordon), rich kids (Skyler Gisondo), theatre nerds (Noah Galvin and Austin Crute), druggies (Billie Lourd), and losers (Eduardo Franco).  When Molly hears a group of students making fun of her in the bathroom, she brags to them about being accepted to Yale and that she will eventually have a much better life than them.  When they reveal that they have all been accepted to Ivy League schools as well, Molly feels that she and Amy have wasted all of their time studying instead of having fun like all of their classmates.  Molly convinces a reluctant Amy that they should attend a wild party to make up for lost time and thus begins a hilarious adventure where they discover the true meaning of friendship and learn that they may have misjudged all of their classmates!  I really loved the message in this story because the characters are forced to look beyond all of the labels to really see the people behind them.  I especially liked it when Molly is confronted by Annabelle, whom she considers to be a slut, about stereotypes.  I also loved the relationship between Molly and Amy because they are so complimentary to each other ("I have no breath.") and so supportive.  I was quite impressed by all of the young cast but I particularly enjoyed Feldstein, because she has such great comedic timing (I loved her in Lady Bird, as well), and Lourd, because she steals every scene she is in with her over the top antics.  Finally, this movie is so funny (I laughed and laughed and I was not alone)!  My favorite scenes are when Molly and Amy's lyft driver turns out to be their principal (Jason Sudeikis) and when a group performs a karaoke version of "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette at the party.  This just might be my favorite movie of the year so far and I highly recommend it (with the proviso that some of the humor is a bit crude and there is a lot of profanity).

Brightburn

I was very intrigued by the premise of Brightburn so I went to see it last night.  Tori and Kevin Breyer (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman, respectively) have been hoping, in vain, for a child when an alien space craft containing a baby boy crash lands on their Kansas farm.  They decide to take the baby in and raise him as their own.  They are a loving family and Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn) is a devoted son until he reaches puberty.  At this point the alien space craft hidden in the barn begins calling to him and he discovers that he has extraordinary strength as well as other powers, such as the ability to fly and shoot lasers from his eyes.  Because he is different, he is teased at school and his crush rejects him so he decides to retaliate.  Soon he is terrorizing the entire community and, while Kyle begins to suspect his son, Tori steadfastly defends him.  It is an interesting take on the Superman mythology but this movie does not live up the the promise of such a great premise. Despite solid performances by Banks and Dunn, the script doesn't give them a lot to work with.  All of the characters are very thinly drawn and they often make very questionable choices just for the sake of advancing the plot.  I was especially disappointed in the character of Brandon because there is very little motivation for his behavior.  Once he discovers his powers, he becomes evil almost immediately without any kind of internal struggle that would have made him more compelling.  All of this could be forgiven if it was a good horror movie but it quickly becomes a third rate slasher film with scenes that are gory rather than scary.  I didn’t find it suspenseful because there are so many cheap jump scares and obvious musical cues.  Finally, the ambiguous ending, with the sole intention of setting up a sequel, is incredibly unsatisfying. I found it to be very disappointing and I recommend giving it a miss. 

Mahler Symphony No. 1

Last night my friend Angela and I went to the final Utah Symphony concert of the 2018-2019 season and it was the perfect way to begin our summer break.  A smaller chamber orchestra, who remained standing for the duration of the performance, began with Symphony No. 9 by Joseph Haydn.  It had a very intimate and lighthearted feel to it and it did much to lift my spirits after a long and difficult week.  Next, another chamber group performed Moz-Art a la Haydn by Alfred Schnittke with Associate Concertmaster Kathryn Eberle and Principal Second Violin Claude Halter as soloists.  This piece was so much fun because it is a parody of Mozart's unfinished "Music to a Carnival Pantomime" and Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony.  The piece began in the dark with the musicians improvising before beginning in earnest.  As it progressed the musicians moved from place to place, actually mimicking a carnival atmosphere.  Then, at the end of the piece, the musicians left the stage one by one as the lights went out leaving the conductor alone on a dark stage waving his baton to an absent orchestra.  It was highly amusing!  The main event came after the intermission when the full orchestra (including two sets of timpani and eight horns) performed Symphony No. 9  "Titan" by Gustav Mahler.  To say that this piece was spectacular would be an understatement and I absolutely loved it!  I especially loved the third movement which began with a theme played by the timpani and a solo bass and then built in intensity as other instruments joined in.  It was very moody, atmospheric, and emotional (it sounded Russian to me) and it gave me goosebumps.  This concert was an amazing way to conclude a marvelous season!

Note:  I am looking forward to seeing the Utah Symphony perform in some outdoor venues this summer, especially concerts with Kristin Chenoweth and Renee Elise Goldsberry at Deer Valley!  Go here to see their entire summer lineup.

Aladdin

Unlike many people, I don't really have a problem with all of Disney's live-action remakes of their animated classics.  I've enjoyed most of them, especially Cinderella and The Jungle Book, and I am really looking forward to The Lion King later this summer.  However, the 1992 version of Aladdin is one of my favorite movies so I was really nervous about what Guy Ritchie might do with it (King Arthur is a convoluted and bloated mess) and I didn't really like the casting of Will Smith as the genie.  Despite my misgivings, I decided to to see it last night and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  In fact, I really loved it!  The story of how a street rat wins the love a princess with the help of a genie freed from a magic lamp doesn't stray too far from the 1992 version but it does give Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) a powerful new story arc that I really appreciated.  I also really liked her new song, "Speechless."  Mena Massoud is an incredibly appealing and charismatic Aladdin and he has great chemistry with Scott.  Both of them have lovely singing voices and I especially loved their rendition of "A Whole New World."  I also, rather surprisingly, liked Smith as the genie.  He is a lot of fun and, in my opinion, he does enough to make the iconic role originated by Robin Williams his own, particularly in "Friend Like Me."  I didn't hate the CGI blue genie but I did prefer it when Smith physically portrays the character in human form while at the palace.  The genie's interactions with Aladdin when they officially meet Princess Jasmine are absolutely hilarious!  Ritchie's idiosyncratic style of directing is most evident in "One Jump Ahead" but the stylized action sequences really work here as Aladdin eludes the guards through Agrabah.  My favorite song in the 1992 version is "Prince Ali" and the big production number in this movie is quite the spectacle and did not disappoint (I even liked the elephants).  The costumes are absolutely spectacular and the production design, especially the palace, is fantastic.  Sometimes the CGI is really obvious and I didn't particularly care for how Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) is portrayed, but I found the movie as a whole to be very magical!  Ignore the critics and go see it!