Coco in Concert

Last night I celebrated the Day of the Dead by watching the movie Coco while the Utah Symphony played the score by Michael Giacchino live.  It was so much fun because I think Coco is such a magical movie!  It is about the importance of family as a twelve year old boy named Miguel travels to the Land of the Dead on Dia de los Meurtos to uncover a mystery about his ancestors.  I loved seeing this on the big screen again because the images are so vibrant and colorful, especially the marigold petals that are used to guide family members to their loved ones and the spirit animals.  The music in this movie is absolutely wonderful and features some incredibly beautiful themes that incorporate Spanish guitars, a festive mariachi band, and the full orchestra.  The Utah Symphony, under the baton of Associate Conductor Conor Covington, performed it beautifully and I often found myself watching the two guitar players rather than the screen.  My favorite parts of the score are "Crossing the Marigold Bridge," "Cave Dwelling on the Past," and "Reunion Familiar de Rivera" because I find the story to be so moving in these scenes and the music really adds to the pathos.  I also really enjoyed the many version of the song "Remember Me," particularly the version by Miguel and Mama Coco (I may or may not have been crying at that point).  The crowd, many of whom were in costumes with sugar skull makeup, was so much fun because they cheered out loud multiple times.  I really love the Utah Symphony's Films in Concert series and this was such a fun movie to include.  I enjoyed it so much and I recommend getting a ticket for tonight's performance (go here).

Note:  There was a fantastic mariachi band performing before the show and there was an ofrenda in the lobby featuring pictures of famous composers (so clever).

Terminator: Dark Fate

I am a huge fan of The Terminator (it is one of my very favorite movies from the 1980s).  I used to watch it over and over late at night on HBO and it was one of the first VHS tapes that I owned.  I also really enjoyed Terminator 2: Judgement Day but I found the subsequent sequels to either be forgettable or awful.  When I heard about Terminator: Dark Fate, I was initially very skeptical but I really liked the trailer and, when I heard that James Cameron was involved and that it was a direct sequel to the first two movies, I started to get excited!  Last night, after having our traditional Halloween chili (my family has had chili every year on Halloween since I was a little girl), I went with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew to see it and, while there is absolutely no reason for this movie to exist, it is completely awesome!   Twenty-two years after Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) defeats the T-1000 and stops the rise of Skynet, another AI called Legion has risen and sends a new Terminator, the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), from the year 2042 to kill Danielle "Dani" Ramos (Natalia Reyes).  The Human Resistance sends a cybernetically-enhanced soldier named Grace (Mackenzie Davis) to protect Dani.  In order to stop the Rev-9 (not only can it shape-shift but it can also separate from its metallic skeleton to create two relentless killing machines), Grace reluctantly teams up with Sarah and a rehabilitated T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger).  This movie is very derivative of the first two in the franchise but I really didn't care because it was so much fun to see Hamilton and Schwarzenegger reprising these iconic roles and they both give great performances with some fun callbacks that had the audience cheering.  Both my sister and I were literally giggling out loud when Sarah makes her first entrance in an action sequence (she is just so badass).  I also really like both of their character arcs in the story because they are authentic.  Sarah is exactly who you would expect her to be given what she has gone through.  There are a few unexpected twists, including the reason why Dani needs to be protected, that I really liked, as well.  The action sequences are absolutely thrilling, particularly a high-speed chase on a highway in Mexico City and a fight on a military cargo plane.  I think this move has a very satisfying conclusion for Sarah and, while there is the possibility of a sequel, I really hope that there isn't one.  I had so much fun watching this movie and I recommend it to fans of the franchise.

Pumpkin Carving 2019

With Tashena away at college (we miss her) I wondered whether Sean would want to carve pumpkins this year.  I told him that we didn't have to do it if he didn't want to because I sometimes worry that these seasonal activities are more for my benefit than for his.  He responded that we had to do it because it was tradition!  I got some of the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen and we carved them Tuesday night!  It was a lot of fun and my sister roasted the seeds which is my favorite part!

Happy Halloween!

The Lighthouse

I thought The Witch was one of the best horror movies I've ever seen because I felt so uneasy while watching it.  Robert Eggers' latest film, The Lighthouse, is another masterpiece that drew me into the madness on screen with such intensity that I could hardly breathe.  It is a dark and atmospheric psychological thriller about two men who descend into madness that is so brilliant I know that I will be thinking about it for days.  I may even need to see it again.  Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson), a man with a troubled past looking for a new start, arrives on a desolate island in New England in the late 1800s to serve as an assistant to the lighthouse keeper, Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe).  Wake is as gregarious (and flatulent) as Winslow is taciturn which immediately sets them at odds with each other.  Wake also allocates the most difficult tasks to Winslow, refusing to give him access to the top level of the lighthouse, and berates him for what he considers to be a subpar performance of his duties.  Their adversarial relationship is intensified when a storm delays the ferry coming to relieve them and their rations run low.  Winslow begins having hallucinations and becomes almost obsessed with seeing what is at the top of the lighthouse leading to several prolonged confrontations between the two men.  The narrative is from Winslow's perspective so there are many times when you are not sure if what you are seeing is real and I think this brilliantly draws the viewer into his madness.  Pattinson (who I think is very underrated as an actor) gives the best performance of his career and certainly the best one I've seen this year.  He convincingly portrays a man losing his grip on reality and displays every human emotion imaginable, from absolute despondency to ecstasy (in a brilliant scene).  Dafoe also gives an incredible performance as a man already unhinged.  The narrative is filled with enough mythology and allegory, my favorite being the seagull, to warrant another viewing just to unravel it all and the ambiguous ending will keep you thinking for days.  This movie is technically perfect.  The sound design, which features unrelenting wind, crashing ocean waves, creaking floorboards, blaring foghorns, and jarring machinery, is unbelievably unsettling and contributes much to the claustrophobia felt by the men and, vicariously, by the audience.  Finally, the black and white cinematography, the atmospheric lighting, the 1.19 to 1 aspect ratio, and the period verisimilitude in the production design (much like in The Witch) make you feel like you have traveled back into the 1800s for a viewing experience that will blow your mind.  I cannot recommend this haunting movie enough but it might be too intense for sensitive viewers.

The Current War

I saw a trailer for The Current War several years ago and I immediately wanted to see it because Bennedict Cumberbatch in a period drama is pretty much everything.  Then I never heard anything more about it until I saw it on the Salt Lake Film Society website under the Coming Soon tab a few weeks ago.  I've been counting down to this weekend ever since!  Inventor Thomas Edison (Cumberbatch) is interested in bringing electricity to power his light bulbs to the common man.  He decides that Direct Current (DC) is the best way to power the country but it has a limited range requiring generators to be built close together with expensive copper tubing buried underground connecting them.  Businessman George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) decides to try Alternating Current (AC) because it can work over longer distances with transformers and overhead power lines, making it significantly cheaper.  However, Edison believes that AC is dangerous and tries to discredit Westinghouse, with a subplot involving the creation of the electric chair, in their competition to get cities around the country to their systems.  There is another subplot involving Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), a brilliant inventor who is unable capitalize on his inventions because he lacks funding, who works for Edison but ultimately joins forces with Westinghouse.  Eventually, both Edison and Westinghouse submit competing bids to power the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and thereby receive invaluable publicity.  This movie looks beautiful with interesting camera angles, incandescent lighting, and gorgeous period costumes.  Cumberbatch is perfect as the disheveled, distracted, and dismissive genius (he excels at this kind of role) who wants to win at any cost.  Shannon is charismatic as the businessman who wants to succeed on his own merit rather than resorting to mudslinging.  However, the story is quite jumbled with lots of short and choppy scenes and I sometimes found it difficult to follow what was going on.  The story is also not quite as compelling as it could have been.  I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more focus on Tesla because I have always been fascinated with him.  This isn't a bad movie but it didn't live up to my expectations so I recommend waiting until it is available to stream.