Dream Horse

I had the chance to see Dream Horse with a group of my students (and Sean) last year at the Sundance Film Festival and we all loved this inspiring true story!  I saw it again last night now that it is in wide release and I had just as many goosebumps as I did during my first viewing.  Jan Vokes (Toni Collette) lives in an economically depressed mining village in Wales with her unemployed and unmotivated husband Brian (Owen Teale).  She works as a checker at a co-op during the day and as a barmaid at the local pub in the evening as well as caring for her aging parents.  She feels that her life has become stagnant and yearns for a reason to get out of bed in the morning.  One night at the pub she overhears Howard Davies (Damian Lewis) brag about owning a winning racehorse with a syndicate of investors (he fails to mention that this venture nearly bankrupted him) and decides that she wants to own a racehorse.  She uses her savings to buy a bad-tempered mare who came in last in every race she ran and enlists Howard's help in recruiting a group of friends, including the town drunk (Karl Johnson) and a lonely widow (Sian Phillips), to form her own syndicate to pay the stud fee of a champion.  They name the resulting foal Dream Alliance and raise him on their small allotment in the village.  Philip Hobbs (Nicholas Farrell), a well-known trainer in England, decides to work with Dream because he thinks the horse has spirit but he doesn't have much hope for his prospects.  Nonetheless, Hobbs enters Dream in a local race and the syndicate is elated when he comes from behind to win.  As Dream wins more and more races against all odds, he becomes a symbol of hope for Jan, Brian, Howard, and the entire village.  This is a stand-up-and-cheer movie about doing whatever it takes to achieve a dream and I found it to be incredibly moving even though I knew the outcome!  The racing sequences are exhilarating but my favorite moments are when the ragtag group of misfits in the syndicate watch Dream's first race in the owners' box with the other wealthy and aristocratic owners (it is hilarious) and when the entire village welcomes the syndicate home with a victory parade.  I highly recommend this feel-good movie (stay through the credits to see the actors and their real-life counterparts singing in the pub).

Note:  This story is also the subject of fabulous documentary called Dark Horse.  I recommend it as well.

Beethoven 1 & Demarre McGill Plays Jolivet

Last night I attended another wonderful performance by the Utah Symphony.  The concert began with Suite en concert for Flute and Four Percussionists by Andre Jolivet and it featured Utah Symphony musicians Keith Carrick, Eric Hopkins, Michael Pape, and Gavin Ryan on percussion and guest soloist Demarre McGill on flute.  This piece was mysterious and primitive and, in my opinion, it almost seemed like the notes played by the flute were casting a spell on the audience.  I especially liked the second movement because it was very solemn and sounded like it could have been used in a sacred rite.  It included a gong (which I love) and an alto flute which is bigger and has a much deeper tone.  McGill played this highly technical piece brilliantly and I wish that the audience had been bigger to show him the appreciation he deserved (we tried and were rewarded with an encore).  The concert concluded with Ludwig van Beethoven's Sumphony No. 1.  I think Music Director Thierry Fischer has a real affinity for Beethoven and he led the orchestra through a lovely performance of this piece.  I really like the first movement because the opening notes are so dramatic and the themes played by the strings and woodwinds together are beautiful.  This symphony is incredibly joyful and exuberant and I left Abravanel Hall feeling so happy and lighthearted.  I highly recommend getting a ticket to the concerts tonight or Saturday featuring the same program (go here).

Ariadne

My Book of the Month selection for May was Ariadne by Jennifer Saint (the other options were Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen, How Lucky by Will Leitch, The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, and Imposter Syndrome by Kathy Wang). I was so excited to read this novel because, with the name Phaedra, I have always been fascinated by Greek mythology in general and King Minos' daughters in particular and I simply couldn't resist a story about Ariadne, Phaedra, Theseus, and the Minotaur! Princess Ariadne of Crete is subject to the tyrannical whims of her father King Minos and she witnesses firsthand how her mother Pasiphae is capriciously punished by the gods for the king's hubris. She is determined to live her life on her own terms rather than as a pawn of men or the gods so, when Prince Theseus of Athens comes to Crete as one of the tributes to be fed to the Minotaur in the Labyrinth below the palace, Ariadne makes the dangerous decision to betray her father and help him as a way to avoid an arranged marriage. However, this decision has unforeseen consequences for both her and for her sister Phaedra. Even though Ariadne falls under the spell of the god Dionysus after being betrayed by Theseus and is powerless to stop her sister Phaedra from being torn between Theseus and his son Hippolytus, she ultimately finds the courage to demand a future for herself and the women and children under her care. I love strong female characters and I really enjoyed the retelling of this familiar Greek myth from a feminist perspective, especially the exploration of motherhood, and I enjoyed learning aspects of the story that I didn't already know. Ariadne's character arc is incredibly powerful because, even though she is fallible, she finds a sort of redemption and her story is very compelling. Saint's prose is beautiful and poetic and, at times, it mimics the oral storytelling tradition of the original Greek myths as characters recount the exploits of Zeus, Hera, Perseus, Medusa, Heracles, Hades, Poseidon, Daedalus, and Icarus. As previously mentioned, I have a particular fascination with the story of Phaedra (for obvious reasons) and have read many accounts but, even though this is ostensibly Ariadne's story, I really heard Phaedra's voice come to to life for the first time and I absolutely loved that! This novel was everything I hoped it would be and I highly recommend it!

A Drive to Antelope Island

Yesterday I spontaneously decided to take a drive out to Antelope Island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.  It is about a 45 minute drive from my house, and once you drive across the causeway, the scenery is pretty spectacular.  I drove around the island and up to Buffalo Point to get some good views of the lake, then I drove to the Garr Ranch to see the buffalo grazing (some of them were really close to the road which was thrilling because I love buffalo), and then I walked down to the beach near the causeway.  It was a beautiful day (not too hot and not too cold) and it felt great to be outside!

Go here for more information about Antelope Island State Park.

Profile

I was absolutely fascinated by the movie Searching because the entire narrative takes place on computer and smartphone screens.  When I saw the trailer for Profile, which employs the same format, I immediately wanted to see it and I had the chance to do so last night.  Amy Whittaker (Valene Kane) is a British investigative journalist who works freelance but is desperate for a permanent position.  She pitches a story about the recruitment of young European women into the terrorist organization ISIS but she needs something compelling to impress her editor (Christine Adams).  She decides to create a new Facebook profile using the persona of a young girl who has recently converted to Islam so she can experience the recruitment process firsthand.  She begins liking and sharing videos with jihadist content and is soon contacted by Abu Bilel (Shazad Latif), a member of ISIS living in Syria.  They begin conversing over Skype every day and, while Amy initially tries to find out damaging information from Bilel, she eventually becomes sympathetic to his cause.  Is she falling in love with the charismatic terrorist or is she doing whatever it takes to get a good story?  The images on Amy's computer screen flash very quickly between her conversations with Bilel, her conversations with her increasingly concerned editor and friends (Morgan Watkins and Emma Carter), footage of ISIS activities from other Facebook profiles, and Google searches for information.  This particular format is even more compelling in this movie than in Searching because it is based on a true story about a relationship conducted entirely on social media.  It is also a cautionary tale about revealing too much about yourself to strangers online. The narrative is incredibly suspenseful and I was on the edge of my seat for most of the final act as Amy's situation becomes more and more dangerous.  Both Kane and Latif give convincing performances as two people playing a cat-and-mouse game with deadly consequences and the tension is palpable.  I really enjoyed this and I recommend it to fans of these so-called Screenlife movies.