Hustlers

I didn’t initially have a lot of interest in seeing Hustlers but several people whose opinions I value recommended it very highly to me so I decided to see it last night.  I'm glad that I took a chance on this movie because it is much better than I was expecting.  Dorothy (Constance Wu), who takes the stage name Destiny, is working at a strip club to support her infirm grandmother but she is barely getting by.  She turns to veteran stripper Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) who coaches her on how to get better tips.  She begins making a lot more money but, more importantly, she and Ramona become close friends.  Everything changes when the financial crisis of 2008 happens and both Destiny and Ramona become desperate to make money.  Ramona comes up with the idea of luring wealthy Wall Street traders into the club, drugging them with a mixture of ketamine and ecstasy, and running up their credit cards to the limit.  Destiny and strippers Mercedes (Keke Palmer) and Annabelle (Lili Reinhart) join her and they all become fabulously wealthy until it all falls apart.  This movie is a true story based on a 2015 New York Times article called "The Hustlers at Scores" so there is a framing device of having a reporter (Julia Stiles) interview the strippers in 2014 with flashbacks to the past.   What I really loved about this movie is that it has a powerful message about friendship and female empowerment.  While there are a few fun shopping montages, both Ramona and Destiny are ultimately trying to improve the lives of their daughters so that they will have more choices than they did.  I also found the biting social commentary to be very interesting (it reminded me a lot of The Big Short).  The women justify what they are doing by saying that these corrupt Wall Street bigwigs have fleeced Americans for years with their unscrupulous policies so they are just trying to get some of the money back.  It's hard not to root for them to succeed!  Finally, the performances are great!  Wu is incredibly affecting, especially when her conscience begins to bother her, but Lopez gives a tour-de-force performance that is definitely one of her best (it has already generated some Oscar buzz).  Cardi B and Lizzo have some fun cameos as strippers as does Usher who plays himself.  I would recommend this movie with the proviso that it does earn its R rating with quite a bit of nudity, sexuality, (the characters are strippers who dance provocatively) drug use, and language.

Judy

There has already been a lot of Oscar buzz about Renee Zellweger's performance as the legendary Judy Garland in the new biopic, Judy, so I was very eager to see it yesterday.  It is 1969 and the former star is homeless, in debt, addicted to pills and alcohol, and reduced to performing in second rate clubs for payment under the table.  She is in the middle of a bitter custody battle for her children with ex-husband Sidney Luft (Rufus Sewell).  She reluctantly takes a five-week gig singing in a club in London hoping to make a substantial amount of money and rehabilitate her tarnished reputation.  She gives her all on stage, singing such hits as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "The Trolley Song," and "Come Rain or Come Shine" to standing ovations, but eventually the turmoil of her life, including an ill-advised marriage to a younger man who takes advantage of her neediness, takes a toll on her performances.  There are flashbacks to a young Judy (Darci Shaw) who is belittled by Louis B. Mayer, denied food, and plied with drugs to keep her working an impossible schedule.  As a young girl and as the tragic figure she becomes, it is always the audiences who love her that keep her going.  This movie is your standard cautionary tale about the destructive nature of fame that we have all seen time and again but what elevates it is the absolutely brilliant performance of Zellweger.  She performs Garland's iconic songs live with a full band behind her and an actual audience in front of her.  It is incredibly impressive.  Even though she doesn't sound exactly like the singer, she is able to inhabit her with all of her idiosyncrasies as a performer.  She also gives Garland a sort of humanity amidst all of her bad diva-esque behavior.  I was especially impressed by a scene where she calls her children from a payphone to see if they really want to live with their father.  She is trying to control her voice so her daughter feels comfortable enough to tell her the truth but her face shows all of her pain.  It is so powerful.  Ultimately, it is an average movie but I highly recommend it for Zellweger's Oscar worthy performance

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band at the Vivint Arena

When I was camping with a friend and colleague a few years ago, he played a Bob Seger CD featuring his greatest hits while we were sitting around the campfire.  I had never really realized just how many great songs he had until then.  My friend mentioned that he had seen him in concert recently and that it was an amazing show!  I suddenly really wanted to see him!  I finally had my chance last night and it was such a great concert!  He played hit after hit, including several that he had not played in over twenty years, and I absolutely loved it!  Some of my favorites were "Still The Same," "Old Time Rock & Roll," "Shame On The Moon," "Like A Rock," "You'll Accomp'ny Me," and "Turn The Page."  The highlight for me came towards the end of his main set when, accompanying himself on the piano, he sang a very beautiful rendition of "We've Got Tonight" which he dedicated to his mother because it was her favorite of all the songs he had written!  He also sang a lovely cover of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young," which he dedicated to Glenn Frey.  He frequently mentioned that this was to be his final tour so he ended his set with his very first hit from 1968, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man."  During the first encore he played my favorite song, "Against The Wind," which was amazing, and he got the audience on their feet with "Hollywood Nights."  For the second encore, he played "Night Moves," to the delight of the crowd, and then "Rock & Roll Never Forgets."  Seger, who is 74 years old, sounded great (with his signature raspy voice in fine form) and so did his band, particularly the horn section, and they played for over two hours.  He was incredibly exuberant and interacted with the crowd all night, telling stories from his fifty year career in the music business.  He looked like he was having the time of his life.  I'm so glad that I got to see him live, especially if it really is his final tour.

Note:  The opening band was The Wild Feathers.  I had never heard of them before but I really liked their sound.  They reminded me a little bit of the Eagles, especially with the three-part harmony on "Big Sky."  I also really liked their cover of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down."

Respighi's Pines of Rome

I thoroughly enjoyed last night's Utah Symphony concert because every piece the orchestra played was exceptionally beautiful!  The first half of the concert featured Mozart, who is my very favorite composer, and the second half featured Respighi, who I was unfamiliar with before the concert but who I now count among my growing list of favorites.  The first piece was the Overture to Idomeneo.  I have never seen this opera before but I loved the overture because, like much of Mozart's music, it is light and delicate but still quite dramatic.  Next came Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, featuring guest soloist Viviane Hagner, a great favorite with Utah Symphony audiences (and the reason I chose this particular concert) on violin and Brant Bayless on viola.  This piece is highly emotional and I particularly loved the juxtaposition between soft and loud.  Hagner and Bayless performed the piece brilliantly and I really enjoyed the interplay between the violin and viola.  After the intermission, the orchestra played The Birds by Respighi and this piece was delightful.  Various instruments represent the dove, the hen, the nightingale, and the cuckoo.  I think the solo clarinet perfectly captured the sweetness of the dove.  The concert ended with Respighi's Pines of Rome which is a tribute to various scenes around Rome.  I thought it was amazing and I especially liked the dark and rich tones of the cellos in the second movement, "The Pines near a Catacomb," and the triumphant fanfare of the trumpets and the timpani depicting the grandeur of the Roman army in the final movement, "The Pines of the Appian Way."  I loved every minute of this beautiful concert (so did the rest of the audience judging from the thunderous standing ovation at the conclusion) and I highly recommend getting a ticket for tonight's performance of the same program (go here).

Cagney at PTC

The musical Cagney is getting a lot of buzz because PTC's expanded production of the show is a preview before eventually transferring to Broadway!  I was so excited to see it last night and, even though I was really tired (I had parent teacher conferences this week), I enjoyed this tap-dancing extravaganza!  The story about the life and career of James Cagney (Robert Creighton) is framed by the presentation of a SAG Lifetime Achievement Award to Cagney by Jack Warner (Darrin Baker), with whom he has an acrimonious relationship, in 1978.  The show begins with Warner bragging about plucking Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Lauren Bacall, and James Cagney out of obscurity to turn them into stars.  It then traces Cagney's humble beginnings as a laborer in New York City, to a job as a member of the chorus in a vaudeville act to pay the bills, then as a featured performer along with his future wife Willie (Jessica Wackenfuss) which leads to a role on Broadway and then to the momentous call from Jack Warner offering him a role in The Public Enemy, where he memorably ad libs a scene throwing a grapefruit in his costar's face and becomes a star.  Cagney fears that he is being typecast as a gangster, leading to friction with Warner, until he returns to the studio to star in one of his most memorable movies, White Heat.  Since Cagney worried about being remembered only for his gangster roles, his entire Hollywood career is compressed into two very clever numbers, "Warner at Work," when he is a part of the studio system, and "Cagney at Work," when he has his own production company.  The rest of the show focuses on Cagney as a song and dance man with with big production numbers, including his vaudeville number "Every Sailor," his performance as George M. Cohan in the movie Yankee Doodle Dandy, and his USO shows with Bob Hope (Matt Crowle) during the war.  I really enjoyed these numbers because the choreography is spectacular and Creighton is an exceptionally agile tap dancer.  My favorite song in the show is "Tough Guy," in which Cagney accepts his legacy, because Creighton imbues it with so much pathos.  Cagney's story is interesting and compelling and this musical hearkens back to a by-gone era with wonderful performances.  My only criticism, and it is a big one, is that the projections used throughout the entire show are out of focus and I found this to be incredibly distracting!  I would still recommend seeing this show about a "hoofer who got lucky in the movies."  It runs at PTC until October 5 (go here for tickets).

Note:  I didn't know a lot about James Cagney before seeing this musical.  Now I want to watch some of his movies, especially The Public Enemy and White Heat.