Uncut Gems

Unbelievably, the next movie in my winter break marathon was Uncut Gems.  I usually try to avoid movies starring Adam Sandler because I think his humor is really crude but I am a huge fan of the Safdie Brothers and the trailer really intrigued me.  Howard Ratner (Sandler) is a jeweler in New York's Diamond District and he is also a gambling addict who is in over his head with a dangerous loan shark (Eric Bogosian) who wants his money.  After watching a documentary about opals in Ethiopia, he purchases a large rock containing rare black opals which he values at over $1,000,000.  He plans on selling it at auction in order to pay his gambling debts but Kevin Garnett (playing himself), who is a customer in his store, sees it and feels a deep connection to it.  He asks to keep it to bring him luck during his NBA playoff game later that night against the Sixers.  Ratner reluctantly agrees but keeps Garnett's NBA Championship ring as collateral which he immediately pawns in order to place a bet on the Celtics.  The Celtics win but he finds out that his loan shark canceled the bet and took the money from his bookie as partial payment.  Garnett, thinking that the opals brought him luck, doesn't want to give the rock back which causes trouble for Ratner who has scheduled it for auction.  Ratner becomes more and more desperate to get the rock back and pay off the loan shark which culminates in another wild bet on the Celtics to win Game 7.   Ratner is an outrageous character who is estranged from his wife Dinah (Idina Menzel), having an affair with Julia (Julia Fox), an employee, and hustling everyone in his life, including his father-in-law (Judd Hirsch), to get himself out of trouble.  Sandler gives the best performance of his career.  He obviously excels at portraying Ratner's frenetic energy but he is also surprisingly vulnerable, especially in a scene with his teenage daughter (Noa Fisher) and a scene where he realizes that everything is falling apart.  I was also quite impressed with Garnett because he is essentially a foil to Ratner.  Much like in Good Time, another movie by the Safdie Brothers, this features hand held camera work that follows Ratner's every move as if you were right there with him so you feel his ever increasing desperation.  I was on the edge of my seat the whole time because, even though Ratner is definitely an anti-hero, I found his journey very compelling and wanted him to succeed.  This movie is a profound exploration of what greed can do to a man's soul but it is filled with sex, violence, and profanity so not everyone is going to enjoy it.  I think it is brilliant!

Bombshell

Next in my winter break movie marathon was Bombshell which tells the true story of how the women of Fox News took down the head of the network.  When Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) complains that her fellow male anchors on Fox & Friends are sexually harassing her, she is demoted to a program at a less desirable time and then eventually fired.  She decides to sue the network but her lawyers tell her that she has a better case against Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) who has sexually harassed her as well.  Her lawyers also tell her that she will have a better case if other women come forward and many former employees do.  However, a current employee will have more of an impact but the network puts pressure on the woman to support Ailes.  Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), the most powerful female anchor at Fox, and Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie), a young associate producer trying to advance, eventually come forward.  The story is both compelling and very timely, particularly a scene which shows what all the women have to go through before going on air (there are rows and rows of brightly colored form-fitting sheath dresses and high-heeled shoes) and a disturbing scene where Ailes, while watching a live broadcast, screams to the cameraman to pull back so he can see the anchor's legs because that is what he is paying her for.  Theron gives an incredible performance, almost disappearing into the role, especially in a scene where she finally breaks down about the fact that the environment is so toxic at Fox.  I was most impressed with Robbie because her role is incredibly demanding and she definitely delivers!  There is a particularly charged scene with Lithgow where she is asked by Ailes to lift her skirt higher and higher and you can see her discomfort mingled with a desire to please on her face.  It is so uncomfortable to watch but incredibly powerful.  I found all of the actors playing Fox personalities, such as Kevin Dorff as Bill O'Reilly, Spencer Garrett as Sean Hannity, Bree Condon as Kimberly Guilfoyle, Marc Evan Jackson as Chris Wallace, Tony Plana as Geraldo Rivera, and Alanna Ubach as Jeanine Pirro, to be very amusing.  I was, however, a bit disappointed that Kidman did not have much of a role.  I also found the story to be a bit safe for a movie called Bombshell.  It was interesting and I recommend it for the performances.

Little Women

The next movie in my winter break marathon was Little Women which I saw with both of my sisters late at night on Christmas.  I could not have loved this movie more!  In fact, I loved everything about it!  This movie is an updated version of the beloved novel by Louisa May Alcott recounting how the March sisters, including Jo (Saoirse Ronan), Meg (Emma Watson), Amy (Florence Pugh), and Beth (Eliza Scanlen), come of age in Concord, Massachusetts during the Civil War.  The movie begins with Jo pursuing her dream of being a writer in New York.  She is forced to compromise in order to sell her stories and her friend and fellow resident at her boardinghouse, Friedrich Bhaer (Louis Garrell), criticizes her for it which angers her.  There are then flashbacks to the trials and triumphs of her adolescence with her sisters and mother "Marmee" (Laura Dern), her neighbor Theodore "Laurie" Laurence (Timothee Chalamet), his grandfather Mr. Laurence (Chris Cooper), and her Aunt March (Meryl Streep).  In between these flashbacks we see Jo encounter sorrow in the death of a sister, disappointment in love with Laurie, redemption as she writes a story to be proud of, and, ultimately, love with Friedrich.  I really love the structure of the narrative because every time there is a flashback it is a memory that informs the present situation.  We learn why Beth is ill, why Meg wants beautiful things, why Amy wants to marry well, and why Jo is so determined to succeed.  The cast is absolutely perfect!  I really love Ronan's portrayal of Jo's strength, especially when she negotiates with her publisher for control of the copyright for her book, and her vulnerability, particularly when she rethinks turning down Laurie's proposal because she is lonely.  However, I was so impressed by Pugh's performance because Amy is a character that I usually dislike (I always want Jo to end up with Laurie).  She portrays Amy as precocious rather than bratty and I liked the fact that she secretly loves Laurie throughout the whole movie because it makes their relationship more understandable.  Chalamet is so charming as Laurie, Dern (who is hit or miss with me) is perfect as Marmee, Cooper is more sentimental rather than curmudgeonly as Mr. Laurence, and Streep steals every scene she is in as Aunt March.  I love the costumes, the production design (especially the attic in the March house where the sisters perform their plays), and the beautiful score by Alexandre Desplat (one of my favorite film composers).  I am sure that this is a movie that I will watch over and over again (I've already seen it twice) and I highly recommend it for a lovely movie viewing experience!

Debussy's La Mer

I specifically picked last night's Utah Symphony concert because I anticipated that I would need something to get me through the first days back to school after winter break.  It actually wasn't that bad but I am still glad I picked this concert because it was wonderful.  I wasn't familiar with any of the pieces that were performed but I loved them all!  The orchestra began with Leonore Overture No. 3 (from the opera that was eventually renamed Fidelio) by Ludwig van Beethoven.  This tells the story of Florestan, a man who has been unjustly imprisoned in a gloomy dungeon, and it is very atmospheric but then it becomes triumphant as he contemplates his redemption.  My favorite part was a dramatic fanfare by a solo trumpet off stage, which represents Florestan's jailer giving him a reprieve.  Next came Edgar Meyer's Violin Concerto featuring Associate Concertmaster Kathryn Eberle as soloist.  This piece was originally commissioned for Hilary Hahn, a frequent soloist with the Utah Symphony, and I absolutely loved it.  It is very beautiful and it has a bluegrass feel to it.  I especially loved the duet between the solo violin and a contrabassoon.  Eberle was amazing (I always enjoy her as a soloist) and she received a rousing standing ovation.  After the intermission, the orchestra played a quirky piece called Moler by Arlene Sierra.  I found this piece to be a bit cacophonous but I kind of dug it.  The concert concluded with La Mer by Claude Debussy and it was absolutely lovely.  Each of the three movements represent a different period of time during a day at sea.  I really enjoyed the first movement because there were several different melodies played briefly by various sections of the orchestra and it sounded like waves that were gathering momentum and then dissipating.  It was really cool!  For the encore, the orchestra played two waltzes by Johann Strauss Jr. to ring in the new year, as they do in Vienna, complete with confetti and a champagne toast by conductor Conner Covington.  It was so fun!  This program will be repeated again at tonight's concert (go here for tickets) and trust me when I say that you don't want to miss it!

Note:  I will return to my reviews of the movies I saw over winter break tomorrow!

Cats

Unfortunately, the next movie in my winter break marathon was Cats.  I saw the stage musical Cats for the first time on a trip to London.  I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen but the friends I saw it with absolutely loved it!  Clearly I was missing something (to be fair I saw it the night after I saw Les Miserables, which was a dream come true, so almost anything would have been anticlimactic after that).  I decided that I needed to see it again so I went with my best friend and her family when the Broadway touring company came to SLC.  They were amazed by it and, once again, I was completely underwhelmed.  I have since seen it several more times and, even though it is not my favorite, I have come to appreciate the choreography and the song "Memory."  When I saw the trailers for the movie adaptation, the CGI looked horrible but I thought that, with Andy Blankenbuehler of Hamilton as choreographer, the dancing would be fantastic, and, with Jennifer Hudson as Grizabella, "Memory" would be great so I decided to see it on Christmas Eve.  It was even worse than I was anticipating.  There really isn't a plot because it is about a gang of cats, known as Jellicles, who compete to be the chosen one who gets to go to the Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a different life.  It is a weird premise but this is not the main problem with the movie.  The CGI is an absolute mess and I found the cat characters to be so strange looking.  Some of them have human hands and feet, sometimes their heads just seem to be floating on their bodies, and their proportions are so inconsistent.  Many of the musical numbers are incredibly bizarre, especially "The Gumbie Cat" which is truly horrific with Rebel Wilson as Jennyanydots eating mice and cockroaches with faces and "The Jellicle Ball" which is basically a cat orgy (several people walked out of my screening after this).  As much as I love Judi Dench, I was not a fan of her performance as Old Deuteronomy because she is not really a great singer and she always seems so confused (maybe she had too much of Bombalurina's catnip).  I also didn't really care for Idris Elba as Macavity because his characterization is really evil rather than mischievous.   What was most disappointing for me was the dancing because it could have been so amazing.   There are lots of fast cuts and changes in angles so we never get to see sustained shots of the dancing.  There is one exception when Victoria, played by Francesca Hayward, pirouettes around the room and it is so exhilarating that it makes me wonder what might have been.  Finally, I didn't even like Hudson's version of "Memory."  I have seen both Elaine Paige, who originated the role of Grizabella in the West End, and Betty Buckley, who performed the role on Broadway, sing it live with the Utah Symphony and Hudson's version doesn't hold a candle to theirs.  I thought she sounded much too angry and I was distracted by the snot running down her face.  I did, rather surprisingly, enjoy James Corden's version of "Bustopher Jones" and I loved Taylor Swift's version of "Macavity" but there is just so much that is truly awful that I can't possibly recommend it.