Late Night

The movie Late Night was a big hit at Sundance this year but, by the time it was on my radar, I couldn't get a ticket.  Luckily it is now out in wide release and I had a chance to see it last night.  It is fabulous!  Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) has been the host of a late night talk show for the past thirty years.  She has dozens of Emmy awards and she has a high standard of excellence which she refuses to compromise for the sake of social relevance.  However, her ratings have been going down and the new head of the network (Amy Ryan) wants to replace her with a crass comedian (Ike Barinholtz) to shake things up.  Refusing to go without a fight, Katherine insists that her producer (Denis O'Hare) hire a woman comedy writer.  Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling), a woman of color who has absolutely no experience in television, just happens to be interviewing with him when he gets this directive and is hired.  The all-male all-white writing team thinks of Molly as a "diversity hire" and look down on her until some of her ideas actually improve the ratings.  This movie is incredibly funny with very witty dialogue but it also addresses some important issues such as racism, sexism, ageism, and an interesting take on the #metoo movement.  Thompson is absolutely brilliant in the role of a diva forced to acknowledge her fallibility and I especially loved the scene where Katherine realizes how much her show means to her in a mea culpa monologue after a scandal breaks.  Kaling is very hit or miss with me (I sometimes find her to be annoying) but she is endearing as an outsider who speaks her mind because she doesn't know any better.  Because Kaling wrote the script based on her own experiences as a comedy writer on The Office, it feels very authentic and I enjoyed the behind the scenes look at what makes a joke funny.  While Molly does have a romance with one of the other comedy writers, I really appreciated the fact the focus was more on her relationship with Katherine and how they both cope with being women in a man's world.  I love comedies with biting social commentary so I can't recommend this movie enough!

Field of Dreams

I was able to see Field of Dreams on the big screen last fall but it was so much fun to see it again as part of the TCM Big Screen Classic series yesterday.  Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is a struggling Iowa farmer who hears a voice telling him to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his corn field.  At first his wife Annie (Amy Madigan) is skeptical but gives her consent when she sees how passionate he is about doing something spontaneous.  When building it causes financial hardship, Ray wonders why the voice asked him to do it.  At first he thinks it is so "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) and the other Chicago White Sox players who were banned from baseball for intentionally losing the 1919 World Series can play again.  Then he thinks it could be so Archibald "Moonlight" Graham (Burt Lancaster) can have the chance at bat that he missed out on during his one and only game in the Major League.  Then he sees that this experience has given a reclusive writer named Terrence Mann (James Earl Jones), who was once popular in the 1960s but has now become disillusioned, something to believe in again.  But eventually he realizes that baseball is a way for him to make peace with his father (Dwier Brown) who loved the game.  To be sure this feel-good movie is a nostalgic ode to baseball but it is ultimately about the power of a dream, the importance of family, and the need for redemption and reconciliation with baseball as the unifying theme.  As evidenced by the troubled relationship between the radical Ray and his conservative father, there are so many things that can divide people but there are also many things, like baseball, that can unite us and that is a great message for the world today.  This movie is so charming because Costner is incredibly endearing as Ray, the cinematography is stunning, and the score by James Horner is beautifully atmospheric.  I highly recommend it!  You have one more chance to see it on the big screen on Wednesday (go here for tickets and information).

Note:  I think this move resonates so deeply with me because my Dad and I have very different world views but the thing that unites us in an unbreakable bond is our love for a game!  In our case the game is hockey, not baseball (we're Canadian), but the sentiment is exactly the same.

Hamilton in Chicago

On our last night in Chicago Sean and I were able to see Hamilton at the CIBC Theatre.  This was my eighth time (it was Sean's second) seeing this amazing show in the sixth city (New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas) and I was just as excited as I was the first time!  Because I've seen it so many times I immediately notice the different variations from production to production and I really loved this company, especially Miguel Cervantes as Alexander Hamilton.  He was the first person to play this role after Lin-Manuel Miranda and he was hand picked by Miranda who told him not to do what he did on Broadway but to make the role his own.  Cervantes played him with a lot of swagger and he had cocky grin on his face (we were sitting so close that we could see the facial expressions of all the actors), especially in his interactions with Aaron Burr (Akron Watson).  This arrogance throughout the show made his rendition of "It's Quiet Uptown" even more poignant because he was humbled and very emotional.  This is one of my favorite moments in the show and I always judge every actor playing Hamilton by whether he can move me to tears in this song.  I was practically sobbing!  Tamar Greene, as George Washington, is a large and imposing man and he absolutely dominated the stage during "Right Hand Man."  I had goosebumps when he charged onto the stage ("We are outgunned!  Outmanned!  Outnumbered!  Outplanned!") and I had goosebumps again when he raised the roof in "One Last Time."  Every Thomas Jefferson I've seen has done something different in the Cabinet Battles.  Paris Nix did the running man and it was absolutely hilarious when Hamilton mimicked him!  I also loved it when he gave a pamphlet to the conductor ("Have you read this?") during "The Reynolds Pamphlet." Most of the actors I've seen play King George have been completely over the top but Andrew Call gave the character a bit of angry vulnerability in "You'll Be Back," especially when he laughed while telling us that he will send a fully armed battalion to remind us of his love.  This is one of the best productions I've seen and I am so glad that I was able to see this brilliant show again, especially with my nephew who sat riveted the entire time.  It was the perfect way to end our wonderful trip to Chicago.

The Field Museum in Chicago

Sean really likes going to museums and Chicago has a lot of them to choose from (my favorite is the Art Institute of Chicago).  He picked the Field Museum, an incredible natural history museum that we both really enjoyed!  There were displays of animals from around the world, artifacts from different regions (I loved the Polynesian displays), and fascinating science displays (Sean spent more than an hour at a microscope station).  However, we both absolutely loved the dinosaurs!

Maximo the Titanosaur!

Sue is the largest and most complete (90%) Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil ever found and it was very impressive!  There is a really cool light show which shows which bones are not real and explains what they have changed from the original exhibit after studying the T. Rex (they positioned her shoulders differently and raised her tail).  It was fascinating!

We spent most of the morning here and it was definitely well worth our time.  I would highly recommend a visit if you are ever in the Chicago area.

Men in Black: International

Last night I went to see Men in Black: International.  I only remember seeing the first movie in the franchise but I really enjoyed the pairing of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson in Thor: Ragnarok so I thought this would be a lot of fun.  Twenty years earlier, a couple who sees an alien in the back yard is neuralyzed (their memories of the alien are erased) but their daughter Molly is missed and becomes obsessed with finding the Men in Black.  Now an adult, Molly (Thompson) tracks down the organization and impresses Agent O (Emma Thompson) enough to be taken on as a probationary agent named M and sent to the London branch.  High T (Liam Neeson), the head of the London branch, pairs her with H (Hemsworth), one of the top agents who helped T keep an alien collective known as the Hive from reaching Earth but is now lackadaisical and reckless.  Agents H and M, with a little help from an alien pawn (Kumail Nanjiani), must now stop the Hive from acquiring a powerful weapon and uncover a mole who has infiltrated the Men in Black.  The story is incredibly predictable and I figured out the plot twist way before it actually happened.  I also thought that some of the CGI with the aliens and in some of the action sequences is very obvious and a little bit distracting.  Having said that, I still had a lot of fun watching this movie.  Hemsworth and Thompson are both very charismatic and have a lot of chemistry with each other.  They also have great comedic timing and I found myself laughing out loud quite a bit.  I really enjoyed Emma Thompson as Agent O (I wish she had a bigger role) and Rebecca Ferguson is absolutely hilarious as an alien arms dealer and ex-girlfriend of Agent H.  Much like this movie, I would recommend Men in Black: International to fans of light summer blockbusters.