Downton Abbey

My Mom, my sisters, and I are huge fans of the PBS series Downton Abbey and we have been giddy with anticipation ever since we found out about the movie!  I actually binge-watched all six seasons again to prepare myself for it (yes, I am a nerd).  Last night the four of us had a girls night out to watch a Thursday preview and we all loved it!  Lord and Lady Grantham (Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern, respectively) are visited by King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) when they stop at Downton Abbey as part of their royal tour of Yorkshire.  Chaos ensues!  Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery) is overwhelmed by the details of the visit and wonders if keeping Downton open is worth the effort in a changing world.  Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) is finding it difficult to adapt to her role as Marchioness of Hexham (I love it that Edith outranks everyone).  Tom (Allen Leech) puts his loyalty to the Crawley family to the test when he is inadvertently involved in an intrigue against the King.  Violet, the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith), is up to her old tricks and plotting against the Queen's Lady-in-Waiting, Lady Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton).  Of course, Violet has some of the best dialogue in the movie ("Machiavelli is frequently underrated.").  My favorite part of the story is when the downstairs staff take great exception to the fact that the royal entourage has taken over Downton Abbey.  The Royal Page of the Backstairs (David Haig) has usurped Carson's (Jim Carter) authority, Monsieur Courbet (Philippe Spall) has taken over the kitchen from Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nichol), and Mrs. Webb (Richenda Carey) has relegated Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan) to a mere bystander in the house.  Anna (Joanne Froggatt) comes up with a brilliant plan to help the staff resume their duties and to allow Mr. Molesley (Kevin Doyle) to serve the King and Queen at dinner (in the funniest scene in the movie).  I also enjoyed the opening credits because the bringing of the letter from Buckingham Palace to Downton mimics the bringing of the telegram about the Titanic in the very first episode.  I thought that was very clever.  I loved this movie so much because it was like watching an extended episode showing us what has happened to these beloved characters since they last appeared in our living rooms but with even more sumptuous production values (especially the costumes and jewelry) and beautiful cinematography.  Fans of the series are sure to love this movie (the rowdy crowd in our screening, many of whom were in 1920s period costumes, was very appreciative) but people who are not familiar with the show and characters may not enjoy it as much.

Note:  Our girls night out was so much fun!  We even got ice cream after the movie!

Brittany Runs a Marathon

Another movie that I absolutely loved at Sundance this year was Brittany Runs a Marathon (it won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award) so I was very excited to see it again yesterday.  I loved it just as much, if not more, upon a second viewing.  Brittany Forgler (Jillian Bell) drinks too much, smokes too much, arrives late to her dead-end job every day, and has one night stands in bathroom stalls at clubs every night.  She is the life of the party but she doesn't have any real friends.  She pretends to have ADHD so a doctor will prescribe her Adderall but, instead, he gives her a wake-up call about her health and admonishes her to exercise and lose 50 pounds.  Because a gym is too expensive she challenges herself to run just one block (in an absolutely hilarious scene).  Soon she joins a Saturday running group, runs her first 5K, and trains for the New York Marathon.  What I loved about this movie is its authenticity because we see Brittany's setbacks as well as her triumphs.  Even though she loses weight and achieves many of her fitness goals, she must learn to love herself in order to be successful and that is what makes her story so meaningful to me.  Bell gives a fantastic performance as an unsympathetic character that you end up rooting for (I love movies that feature flawed characters finding redemption).  It is a feel-good movie that will have you laughing out loud but it is also quite heart-warming and I had tears in my eyes during an especially poignant scene.  This movie includes a bit of profanity and the realistic depiction of questionable behavior but it is so inspiring and I highly recommend it!

Eric Clapton in Las Vegas

Eric Clapton is arguably one of the greatest guitar players of all time so it is an absolute thrill to be able to see and hear him play live!  I've seen him a couple of times before but it has been a while.  When I found out that he would be in Las Vegas (for one of only three concerts leading up to the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas) I got a ticket immediately!  I took the day off from school yesterday to drive to Vegas for the show last night and it was amazing.  He had a very minimal set and just played the blues all night.  I loved it!  He started the show with "Pretending" and the crowd went crazy!  I was unfamiliar with some of the other early songs (mostly covers) he played but it didn't matter because it was amazing to watch a legend jam.  One of the biggest highlights during this set was his version of "I Shot the Sheriff."  Then he played an acoustic set that included "Circus" from Pilgrim, an album that I absolutely love, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," and a beautiful version of "Tears in Heaven."  When he plugged back in he played the Cream song "Badge," which was absolutely epic, and "Holy Mother," which was incredibly emotional.  Next, he played covers of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads" and "Little Queen of Spades" which featured extended solos by his unbelievably talented band!  He ended this set with "Layla" which got everybody on their feet!  I basically waited all night for this song and it definitely did not disappoint.  For the encore, he brought Jimmie Vaughan, who opened for him, back to the stage to perform a cover of "Before You Accuse Me."  It was an incredible evening of music and I can't even describe how much I loved watching Slowhand play the guitar!  I will be on a high for days!

Note:  I was hoping that he would play "Cocaine" but I didn't mind too terribly that he didn't because he actually played it twice the first time I saw him in concert!  The crowd went crazy when he played it the first time so he said, "You like that one, huh?"  Then he played it again!

Official Secrets

I had the chance to see Official Secrets at Sundance this year and it was one of my favorites of the festival.  I decided to see it again last night now that it is in wide release and, once again, I thought it was a taut and suspenseful political thriller.  It tells the true story of Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley), a translator at GCHQ (a British intelligence gathering agency) who leaks a top-secret memo from Frank Koza of the NSA asking for intelligence which could be used to blackmail smaller countries into voting for a U.N. resolution supporting the invasion of Iraq to the press in 2003.  Once the story is published in The Observer, she confesses and is charged with violating the Official Secrets Act.  She pleads not guilty and her lawyers argue that she acted to prevent the imminent loss of life from an illegal war, a defense which could potentially be embarrassing for the British government.  I found the story to be both fascinating and compelling because it profiles an ordinary woman willing to face extraordinary consequences in order to follow her conscience.  Knightley gives an absolutely riveting performance, especially in a powerful interrogation scene where she tells investigators that she doesn't work for the British government but for the British people who are being lied to by the government.  The movie also features an impressive all-star cast including Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, and Rhys Ifans as the reporters who break the story, Ralph Fiennes as a defense lawyer, and Jeremy Northam as a Crown prosecutor.  The movie is fraught with tension (even on a second viewing), particularly during a sequence surrounding the deportation of Gun's husband in retaliation for her actions.  I enjoyed this movie (again) and I recommend it highly.

The Addams Family at HCT

Last night I got to see the musical The Addams Family on the Jewel Box Stage at Hale Centre Theatre.  I've seen this show several times before and it is a lot of fun so I have been anticipating it for quite a while. A nearly perfect cast and some amusing little additions make this one of the best productions of this particular show that I have seen.  The Addams family is not like other families because they are all obsessed with the macabre and rely on their dead ancestors to help them through life.  Things start to go wrong when Wednesday (MaKenna Tinney) falls in love with Lucas Beineke (Nathaneal Abbott), a normal Midwestern boy. She wants to introduce his uptight parents, Mal (Shawn Lynn) and Alice (Carolyn Hartvigsen), to her family which includes her father Gomez (Josh Richardson), her mother Morticia (Erin Royall Carlson), her brother Pugsley (Blake Walker), her uncle Fester (Jeff Thompson), her Grandma (Jayne Luke), and their manservant Lurch (Michael Von Forrell). She arranges a dinner and begs her family for just one normal night.  Of course, chaos ensues when a mishap involving a poisonous potion occurs and it is up to Uncle Fester, with the help of the ancestors, to convince everyone that love is the answer. The plot is quite silly but the message about the importance of families is very appealing. The songs in this show are not especially memorable but the cast is so outstanding that they made them very enjoyable, particularly "Just Around the Corner," "The Moon and Me" (a highlight), and "Tango de Amor."  The choreography is outstanding and I especially enjoyed all of the big song and dance numbers involving the ancestors (a Conquistador, Caesar, Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, a Pirate, General Custer, Joan of Arc, and a Titanic passenger). The set is fantastic and features an ornate spiral staircase, a Medieval torture chamber, bedrooms with velvet draped canopy beds (Pugsley's bed is made out of a guillotine), and an imposing iron gate. The costumes are also quite spectacular, especially Morticia's slinky gowns and Gomez's elaborate smoking jackets. The entire cast is strong but Richardson and Carlson are absolutely perfect as Gomez and Morticia.  I laughed and laughed at just about everything they said and did!  Speaking of laughter, if you see this show pay very close attention to the antics of Lurch and Thing (Eden Tinney) because they provide many laugh out loud moments of physical comedy that are often hidden in the background.  The Addams Family is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it but act quickly (go here for tickets) because shows are selling out at a record pace.