The Call of the Wild

Yesterday my Mom and I went to see The Call of the Wild, a heartwarming adaptation of Jack London's classic tale of adventure and friendship, and we both enjoyed it.  Buck is a large and high-spirited dog belonging to a prominent judge in Santa Clara, California when he is stolen and transported to the wilds of Alaska during the gold rush of the 1890s because dogs are needed and top dollar is paid.  He is sold to Perrault (Omar Sy) and Francoise (Cara Gee), French-Canadian mail carriers who use him as a sled dog on their route along the Yukon trail.  Buck is challenged by the lead dog Spitz and, after defeating him, he becomes the lead dog and makes the trip to Dawson in record time.  Eventually the Canadian government determines that the mail route is no longer needed and the dogs are sold to a cruel gold prospector named Hal (Dan Stevens), his sister Mercedes (Karen Gillan) and her husband Charles (Collin Woodell).  They are inexperienced in the wild and abuse the dogs.  Buck is eventually saved by John Thornton (Harrison Ford), a man trying to escape his tragic past by hiding out in the Yukon, but it is Buck who really saves John.  Together they go on the adventure of a lifetime where Buck finds his true place in the world.  I may be biased because I love dogs but I found this movie to be incredibly touching.  I loved the relationship between John and Buck and I really enjoyed Ford's earnest performance as a grief-stricken man brought back to life by a dog.  The Alaskan and Canadian scenery is breathtakingly beautiful and I loved all of the action sequences, especially an avalanche, an incident on a frozen lake, and a canoe going down a waterfall.  Much has been made about the CGI used in creating the dogs but I honestly didn't find it distracting at all (there were a few moments when Buck's size in comparison to John is a little bit inconsistent but that is the extent to which I noticed anything amiss).  While there are a few scenes involving animal cruelty, I think this is a thrilling action adventure with a great message that the whole family would enjoy.  I highly recommend it!

Beethoven's Symphony No. 7

I love having a Utah Symphony concert to go to on a Friday night because, in my opinion, it makes the work week so much better to have something wonderful to look forward to at the end of it!  I have been looking forward to last night's concert for a long time because it featured Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, which is one of my favorites, and it didn't disappoint!  The orchestra also played two movements from Olivier Messiaen's epic piece, Des canyons aux etoiles, which he wrote after visiting Southern Utah.  The concert began with "Bryce Canyon and the Red-Orange Rocks" and the orchestra continued after the intermission with "Cedar Breaks and the Gift of Awe."  I enjoyed both of these pieces because I love the red rocks of Southern Utah and I imagined myself there as I listened.  They both featured a lot of percussion, including a few unusual instruments such as a large hoop filled with sand that was swirled around (does this "instrument" even have a proper name?).  Both pieces were often very discordant and jarring but these sounds evoked the powerful forces that created these formations and it was brilliant.  The orchestra was joined by pianist Francesco Piemontesi for Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto.  I really loved this piece because it was incredibly wild and dramatic.  It almost seemed as if Piemontesi was attacking the piano and it was very entertaining to watch!  I also really loved the long timpani roll at the end of the piece.  Piemontesi received a thunderous standing ovation and favored us with an encore (I didn't recognize the piece).  The concert concluded with Symphony No. 7 by Ludwig van Beethoven and this piece gave me goosebumps!  I especially love the second movement because of the repetition of the main theme by the various string sections followed by the woodwinds and the orchestra played it beautifully.  The rest of this symphony is incredibly exuberant and triumphant but I find this movement to be a bit more solemn and melancholy and it really appeals to my dark soul.  It was a wonderful evening and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) to tonight's concert featuring the same program.

Strictly Ballroom at HCT

I don't know if there is anyone out there who loves the movie Strictly Ballroom as much as my sisters and I do! We have probably watched it over one hundred times (not an exaggeration) and we can quote the whole movie to each other at will (and we often do). When HCT announced the 2020 season, the three of us could hardly contain our excitement over the U.S. premiere of the musical based on this cult classic. I was able to see it last night (I am seeing it again next week with both of my sisters and my Mom) and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the production. Scott Hastings (Noah Bradford) and his ballroom dancing partner Elizabeth Holt (Alexa Knutzen) are on their way to winning the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Open Amateur Old Time, New Vogue, and Latin Championship but, after an incident on the dance floor with another couple, Scott resorts to his own flashy crowd-pleasing steps. The Australian Federation President Barry Fife (Zac Freeman) denounces them so Liz decides to dance with Ken Railings (Brandon Perry) instead.  His mother Shirley (Claire Kenny) and his coach Les (Bryan Dayley) try to find him another partner, including the Champion Tina Sparkle (Alexis Burton), but Fran (Serena Kozusko), a beginning student, tells him she wants to dance with him using his steps. They train in secret with her father Rico (John Graham), who teaches them a more authentic version of the Paso Doble.  However, Shirley, Les, and Barry Fife all try to convince him to dance Federation steps with Liz to win the Pan-Pacific Championship. His father Doug (Benjamin J. Henderson) ultimately convinces him that he will live his life in fear if he doesn't follow his heart and dance his own steps with Fran. The musical follows the movie pretty well, with the addition of a master of ceremonies named Wally Strand (Quinn Dietlein) who narrates the action and provides the music. All of the songs from the movie, including "Time After Time," "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps," and "Love is in the Air," are included but I really enjoyed the dance-themed pop songs that are interspersed throughout, such as "Let's Dance" by David Bowie, "Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" by Whitney Houston, and "Dancing in the Streets" by Martha & and the Vandellas. The ballroom dancing in this show is absolutely fabulous and so much fun to watch. Bradford and Kozusko, in particular, are amazing dancers and have so much chemistry with each other! I loved the costumes, especially Fran's Paso Doble dress which is incredible, but I have one tiny complaint and that is that Liz's dresses should be yellow. The set is mostly comprised of a large stage with spotlights and cabaret tables all around (patrons can sit at these tables during the show) with Kendall's Dance Studio coming down from the rafters and the Hastings's kitchen coming up from the pit. The disco balls hanging from the ceiling and the red metallic door curtains at every entrance provide the perfect atmosphere for a dance competition. This show is just so much fun and, if you are a fan of the movie, you are sure to love it!  Go here for tickets.

Note:  I can't wait to see it again with my sisters. I just hope that we can control ourselves (I apologize in advance to anyone sitting near us!).

Downhill

The movie Downhill was screened at Sundance this year but I didn't have a chance to see it.  I was very intrigued by the premise so I decided to check it out yesterday now that it is in wide release.  Pete (Will Ferrell) and Billie (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) Staunton are on a ski holiday in the Austrian Alps with their two sons.  After they are caught in a controlled avalanche, the two of them have different reactions which puts them at odds with each other.  This incident hangs over them for the rest of their trip and the tension builds and builds until the two of them must decide what they want from their marriage.  I am always up for a good dark comedy but I didn't like this movie as much as I thought I would.  Despite a relatively short 85 minute runtime, I found this movie to be incredibly boring at times.  There are many long and sustained shots of the family riding the ski lift and skiing down the mountain and the skiing sequences are not even that exciting.  The avalanche sequence is even pretty anticlimactic.  As much as I like Louis-Dreyfus, I really disliked the character of Billie.  I found her to be incredibly bossy and overbearing before the incident happened and, in my opinion, her reaction to what happened was just an excuse to treat Pete badly.  I honestly didn't understand why he was working so hard to gain her forgiveness because he seemed pretty checked out of their marriage before the incident happened.  Also, the resolution seemed very abrupt and not at all earned.  This movie either needed to be more dramatic with a real emotional connection between the characters or it needed to be funnier (the talents of both Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus are squandered here).  I recommend giving this one a miss.

Note:  Downhill is based on the Swedish film Force Majeure and many believe that it is an inferior remake.  I haven't seen Force Majeure (I missed it when it screened at the Broadway) but now I really want to!

The Gentlemen

Last night I finally had the chance to see The Gentlemen and I had an absolute blast watching this movie!  American ex-patriot Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) has amassed a multi-million dollar business growing marijuana on the estates of cash poor aristocrats in England but now wants to retire with his wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery).  He decides to sell the business to Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong), a fellow American, for $400 million.  However, Dry Eye (Henry Golding), the underboss for a Chinese gangster, offers to buy it instead and doesn't take kindly to being refused, a group of amateur MMA fighters trained by the Coach (Colin Farrell) raid one of his farms and film the escapade, some of his henchmen accidentally kill the son of Russian gangsters while doing a favor for one of the aristocrats, and a newspaper editor (Eddie Marson) who has been snubbed by Mickey hires a private investigator named Fletcher (Hugh Grant) to get the dirt on him and he, in turn, attempts to blackmail his right hand man Raymond (Charlie Hunnam).  Chaos ensues as Mickey tries to take back control of his empire.  This movie is wildly entertaining because Guy Ritchie is back to doing what Guy Ritchie does best.  He has created a group of eccentric characters, assembled an all-star ensemble cast who look like they are having the time of their lives, especially Grant (this is a side of him that I have never seen before and he is hilarious), and devised a plot with enough twists and turns to keep audiences guessing until the final scene.  Ritchie is known for his fast cuts and stylized action sequences and there are some great ones here!  I especially loved the raid on one of Mickey's farms and the scene where a group of henchmen must track down all of the phones used to film the incident with the Russian boy.  I laughed out loud through the whole movie and, if you like Ritchie's previous gangster movies, I highly recommend this!