Ambulance

I am not a big fan of Michael Bay (a major understatement) but I thought the trailer for his latest movie, Ambulance, looked intriguing and I heard enough positive word of mouth to warrant seeing it last night.  I didn't hate it.  In fact, I liked it more than I thought I would!  Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a decorated combat veteran who is trying desperately to find the money for an experimental surgery that his wife needs.  He turns to his estranged brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal), a notorious bank robber, for a loan but gets drawn into his latest heist.  The job goes awry when an officer (Jackson White), spurred on by his partner (Cedric Sanders), enters the bank in order to make a date with one of the tellers and is shot by Will.  There is a dramatic shoot-out with the police and Danny and Will are the only members of the crew to make it out alive.  They hijack the ambulance transporting the injured officer and take Cam Thompson (Eiza Gonzalez), the cynical EMT treating him, hostage as they lead police, led by SIS Agent Monroe (Garrett Dillahunt) and FBI Agent Clark (Keir O'Donnell), on a high speed chase through rush hour traffic on the streets of Los Angeles.  Their escape is complicated by the need to keep the officer alive and by the involvement of one of Danny's criminal associates (A Martinez).  The action sequences are as chaotic as you would expect from Michael Bay (I saw it in IMAX and found all of the angles and fast cuts to be quite disorienting at times) but the story is surprisingly compelling with high stakes and characters that you actually care about.  I was especially invested in Will's fate and I was actually dreading what I imagined would be the inevitable conclusion (it was not what I was expecting).  Fans of the director are sure to enjoy this but I would also recommend it to anyone who enjoys action thrillers because it is a wild ride, especially on a Saturday night with a big tub of popcorn.

Hilary Hahn Plays Ginastera and Sarasate

I have been looking forward to last night's Utah Symphony concert for quite some time because it featured the return of fan favorite Hilary Hahn for the second time this season!  The orchestra began with Prelude a L'apres-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the afternoon of a Faun) by Claude Debussy and it was lovely.  I think this piece is incredibly romantic and it always reminds me of Spring (I once saw a beautiful performance by Ballet West to this music).  I especially enjoyed the themes played by the flute and the harp.  Next on the program was the U.S. premiere of Nature Symphony by Composer-in-Association Arlene Sierra.  According to the composer, each movement represents different processes within and against nature such as the migration of butterflies, the destruction of the landscape by fracking, and the rebellion of a bee colony.  I particularly liked the second movement because the main theme repeats and builds and builds in intensity (I loved the percussion).  After the intermission, Hahn joined the orchestra for Alberto Ginastera's Violin Concerto.  I was not at all familiar with this piece or this composer but I enjoyed it because it was very surrealistic.  The opening passage by the solo violin is incredibly technical and Hahn performed it brilliantly.  When the rest of the orchestra eventually joins the soloist it is very dramatic, especially the timpani and the brass.  Hahn returned once again for Fantasy on Bizet's Carmen by Pablo de Sarasate.  This is an adaptation of the Aragonaise, the Habanera, an interlude, the Seguidilla, and the Gypsy Dance from the well-known opera and it is meant to be a showpiece for the violin soloist (it often seemed like the orchestra was accompanying the violin).  It is another highly technical piece and, once again, Hahn gave an amazing performance.  This was definitely my favorite piece of the evening because I love Carmen so much.  It was the first opera that I saw performed live so it will always be among my favorites.  Hearing this version performed by Hahn and the orchestra pretty much blew me away!  The entire concert was pretty spectacular so I would definitely recommend getting a ticket to tonight's performance of the same program (go here).

Everything Everywhere All at Once

To be honest, Everything Everywhere All at Once wasn't really on my radar until I started hearing a lot of positive buzz from South by Southwest.  The more I heard about it, the more I wanted to see it!  I had an opportunity to attend an early screening (which was completely packed) at the Broadway last night and I absolutely loved it!  Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is a middle-aged Chinese immigrant who runs a laundry, which is being audited by the IRS, with her husband Waymand (Ke Huy Quan).  She is extremely dissatisfied with the choices she has made in life and is disappointed with her relationships with her frivolous husband, her disapproving father Gong Gong (James Hong), and her wayward daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu).  While meeting with an IRS auditor (a hilarious Jamie Lee Curtis), an alternate version of her husband from a parallel universe confronts Evelyn and explains that there is a threat to the multiverse that only she can defeat.  It turns out that every choice a person makes creates a new universe and Evelyn is given the technology to access all of the alternate versions of herself in order to acquire their skills to use in the fight.  However, Evelyn eventually realizes that she must make peace with all of her perceived failures in order to defeat the threat.  The narrative is chaotic, strange, fantastical, and sometimes even ridiculous but it tells an incredibly touching story about the weight of missed opportunities and the pressures of living up to expectations (after laughing uproariously through most of it I had a tear in my eye at the resolution).  The images on the screen are gorgeous and I loved the fact that each of the multiverses has its own unique visual style with brilliant cinematography and editing.  The fight choreography is intense because most of it takes place inside the IRS building using everyday items found in an office.  My favorite sequence involved the use of a fanny pack to fight a group of security guards.  I enjoyed the entire cast (did I mention that Jamie Lee Curtis is hilarious?) but Michelle Yeoh gives a brilliant performance that showcases her amazing range (she performed most of her own stunts) and, even though it is still very early, I will go on record saying that she should be in contention for all of the Best Actress awards this year.  I am not exaggerating when I say that this is a masterpiece and it is currently my favorite movie of 2022.  See it on the big screen!

Another Jazz Game

My friend Angela invited me to another Jazz game last night and, because we had so much fun last time, I have been looking forward to it for weeks!  The Jazz clinched a playoff spot after winning their last game so several key players, including Donovan Mitchell, were sitting out in order to rest.  They played the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have a really bad record, so the atmosphere at the Vivint Arena was not quite as electric as the last time I was there but it ended up being a great game.  I actually thought it would be more of a rout than it was so I have to give the Thunder some credit for staying with the Jazz, even getting to within two points in the second quarter, until they were completely outplayed in the fourth quarter when the Jazz went on a 27-5 run.  Rudy Gobert was really fun to watch with 20 points and 10 rebounds and Bojan Bogdanovic had a great night with 27 points.  The Jazz ended up winning 137-101 but the best part of the evening was spending time with Angela.  We spent as much time chatting as we did watching the game!

Note:  Because the Thunder have such a poor record, tickets to this game were really cheap!  I paid more to park than I did to watch the game!

School of Rock at HCT

Several years ago I went on a theatre trip to New York with Hale Centre Theatre. On one of our free nights a group of HCT staff went to see the new musical School of Rock. The next morning they were all buzzing about it because it seemed like a good fit for HCT if they could find enough kids who played instruments. When HCT announced the 2022 season, one of the shows was left as TBA and, remembering those conversations, I suspected that it would be School of Rock and I was right! I had the chance to see the show last night and I loved it even more than the Broadway touring production I saw a few years ago! Dewey (Bryan Hague) is kicked out of his band No Vacancy right before the Battle of the Bands and his best friend Ned (Will Ingram), with whom he has been living for several years, is under pressure from his girlfriend Patty (Riley Squire) to get him to pay rent. Desperate to earn some money, Dewey takes a substitute teaching job at Horace Green Prep School that is meant for Ned. The students in his class are being crushed under the pressure put on them by their parents who don't understand them. After hearing them during their music class, Dewey decides to form a band with Zack (Cameron Dietlein) on lead guitar, Katie (Sydney Madsen) on bass, Lawrence (Miles Jeppson) on keyboard, Freddy (Nat Paxman) on drums, and Shonelle (Afton Grace Higbee) and Marcy (Alice Alcorn) on backing vocals. He recruits Billy (Amauree Mack) to be the band's stylist, James (Cade Hixon) as security, Mason (Nolan Reinbold) on tech, and Summer (Katherine Clark), the class know-it-all, as the band's manager. Tomika (Taryn Davis), a shy and insecure transfer student, eventually becomes the band's secondary lead singer. Being in the band gives the students more confidence so Dewey decides to enter them in the Battle of the Bands. He just needs to convince the uptight principal Ms. Mullins (Bailee Morris) to let him take the students on a field trip (in a hilarious scene involving the song "Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks). The parents eventually catch on to Dewey's deception but the kids win them over with their performance at the Battle of the Bands. This kids in this show are insanely talented and play their instruments live on stage in the songs "You're In The Band," "Stick It To The Man," "Time To Play," and "School Of Rock."  Dewey's band No Vacancy, with Doug (James Densley) on drums, Theo (Memphis Hennesy) on guitar, Gary (Mark Maxson) on guitar, Snake (Brady Bills) on guitar, Kevin (Eric Noyes) on keyboard, Kyle (Kelly DeHaan) on keyboard, and Bob (Davin Tayler) on bass, perform "I'm Too Hot For You" during the Battle of the Bands and serve as the house band on stage for all of the other songs. They are also fantastic! Hague is incredibly charismatic as Dewey (he does a great job of differentiating his performance from Jack Black's in the movie) and he has a great rapport with the kids. Davis is my favorite young actor in the show because she portrays Tomika's vulnerability very well (after a poignant moment when Tomika proves that she deserves to be the lead singer, Davis broke character for a minute to smile at all of the applause and that was really endearing). The set is a lot of fun, particularly the halls and classrooms at the Horace Green Prep School and all of the speakers and flashing lights that come down from the rafters for the Olympic Powerhouse Club. I also liked the school uniforms worn by the kids (there are Horace Green Prep School patches on their blazers and school bags), especially when they are embellished for their performance. I had so much fun at this show (it will definitely be one of my favorites this year) and I highly recommend it but act quickly because tickets are going fast (go here).  School of Rock runs on the Young Living Main Stage through May 28.