The Lies I Tell

My June Book of the Month selection was The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark (the other options were The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah, Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier, The Lifestyle by Taylor Hahn, Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, and The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan). This is a cat-and-mouse thriller with a twist and I found it to be so engrossing that I read it during every bit of free time because I had to know who was conning whom! Meg Williams, an expert grifter, has returned to her hometown of Los Angeles after an absence of ten years to perpetrate the ultimate con on a man who once wronged her and her mother. Kat Roberts is a journalist who holds Meg responsible for an incident that derailed her life ten years ago and has been waiting for the opportunity to expose her for her duplicity. She views Meg's return as the perfect opportunity to take her revenge and does everything she can to insinuate herself into Meg's operation without revealing her true intentions. But can you really con a con artist? What I enjoyed most about this novel is that it features two strong female characters who are both incredibly sympathetic and have compelling reasons for doing what they do. I also enjoyed that fact that I didn't know what to believe and kept going back and forth about who I wanted to succeed until the final resolution! The unlikely friendship that develops between the two characters, despite their best intentions, is also very moving. The narrative alternates between the perspectives of the two women in the present with flashbacks to various times in the past so information about each of them is revealed little by little. It seems as if there is an a-ha moment at the end of every chapter and I kept reevaluating everything I thought I knew. I literally couldn't put it down! The ending is not at all what I was expecting but it left me completely satisfied and I think it is one of the best I've read in a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed this selection and would highly recommend it to fans of domestic thrillers.

Eiffel

I was really intrigued by the trailer for Eiffel so I decided to see it last night at the Broadway.  I enjoyed aspects of the film but it wasn't as good as I was expecting.  An engineer named Gustave Eiffel (Romain Duris), renowned for providing the structural support for the Statue of Liberty, is persuaded to enter a competition to build the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair.  When Adrienne (Emma Mackey), a woman from his past with whom he had a passionate affair that ended abruptly, enters his life once again he decides to build a tower dedicated to her.  Construction on the tower is beset with many problems but, when he rekindles his affair with Adrienne, her husband Antoine de Restac (Pierre Deladonchamps) threatens to ruin his reputation in the press.  Eiffel must ultimately chose between Adrienne and the tower that she inspired.  The images on the screen are absolutely beautiful with sumptuous costumes and atmospheric lighting.  I enjoyed the two lead performances, particularly Duris during a scene in which Eiffel gives a stirring speech to motivate his unpaid workers to continue building the tower, but Mackey does not age at all even though she appears in flashbacks meant to be twenty years earlier.  I have been to the top of the Eiffel Tower many times so I was absolutely fascinated by the engineering required to build it, particularly the method by which the four feet are raised and lowered by sand in order to align perfectly to create the first level (I was holding my breath during this scene and wanted to see more of the actual construction of the tower).  It was also very interesting to learn about the difficulty in securing funds and the public backlash against building it.  I was so engrossed by the building of the tower that the fictionalized romance seemed like an intrusion that didn't really advance the plot and it bored me at times.  The narrative would have been so much better if it had focused on the real Eiffel and his accomplishments instead of a romance that seemed shoehorned into an already compelling story.  I was a bit disappointed by this and recommend waiting until it is available to stream.

Hairspray at the Draper Amphitheater

Last night I saw Hairspray at the Draper Amphitheater and it was so much fun!  I had never been to the Draper Amphitheater before but, since I love seeing outdoor performances in the summer, I decided to make the drive and I am so glad I did because it is a great venue and the show was fantastic!  Hairspray has always been a favorite of mine (I saw the Broadway touring production a few years ago and another touring production will be coming to SLC next year) because it has such a great message about loving who you are, following your dreams, and standing up for what you believe is right.  Plus-sized Tracy Turnblad (Linze Struiksma) wants to be one of the dancers on the Corny Collins (Weston Seiler) Show, to have Link Larkin (Austin Kimbell) notice her, to integrate the show so her Black friends can dance with her, and to win the Miss Teenage Hairspray crown.  Velma Von Tussle (Marilyn Oveson) and her daughter Amber (Kellie Seiler) do everything they can to stop her but Tracy proves that you can't stop the beat and makes all of her dreams come true.  The main cast is outstanding but I particularly enjoyed Struiksma's performance as Tracy because she could really dance and was very charismatic.  I also really enjoyed Gennell Goodman as Motormouth Maybelle, because her rendition of "I Know Where I've Been" brought the crowd to their feet, and Chad Smith and Joey West as Edna and Wilbur Turblad, respectively, because their antics were incredibly amusing in "Timeless to Me."  The ensemble is also very noteworthy, especially all of the dancers on the Corny Collins Show and the Dynamites (Ariana Marshall, Rebecca Meats, and Kimberly Teitter), because they execute the choreography very well.  I especially loved the staging of "The Big Doll House" (the tap dancing!), "Nicest Kid in Town," "I Can Hear the Bells," "Run and Tell That," "Hairspray," and "You Can't Stop the Beat."  My favorite song in the show is "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" and Struiksma, Kellie Seiler, and Kaitlyn Schreiner (as Penny Pingleton) did such a good job with it. I loved the costumes (the sheer number of costumes is very impressive) because they were so colorful and sparkly.  The set was a lot of fun with a giant LED television screen that featured live shots in black and white of the Corny Collins Show.  I really enjoyed every aspect of this show and it was wonderful to sit outside because the weather was absolutely perfect (although it did get a tad cold when the sun went down).  I highly recommend getting a ticket for one of the remaining shows (go here) through June 11.

Note:  Most of the seating is on grassy tiers so bring a blanket or a camp chair and grab some snacks because food is allowed.

Crimes of the Future

I have been looking forward to Crimes of the Future ever since it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and I finally had the chance to see it last night.  It is incredibly bizarre and definitely won't be for everyone but I found it to be haunting and extremely thought-provoking.  In the near future, humanity has begun evolving to cope with a rapidly decaying environment but the government attempts to control the rate of evolution with a National Organ Registry and a police force dedicated to solving evolutionary crimes called the New Vice Unit.  Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) has developed the ability to grow new organs inside of his body but this is incredibly painful and causes severe digestive issues which require specialized machines to regulate.  He and his partner Caprice (Lea Seydoux) have turned the surgery required to remove his extra organs into performance art in front of a live audience who view mutilation as a form of pleasure.  This attracts the attention of a bureaucrat (Kristen Stewart) with the National Organ Registry who becomes enamored with him, a police detective (Welket Bungue) with the New Vice Unit who asks him to infiltrate a group of underground evolutionists, and the leader (Scott Speedman) of this group who wants to use his notoriety to publicly highlight an illegal but revolutionary advance.  I found the narrative to be a bit confusing in the beginning because the audience is dropped in the middle of a strange new world but there was a moment when everything suddenly came together for me and, by the time it ended, I was left wanting more because the themes are so compelling (the most fascinating, in my opinion, being that the destruction of the planet is actually changing our bodies).  The mood is quite unsettling (but it is not nearly as graphic as I was expecting) with a bleak production design filled with abandoned and rotting vehicles, atmospheric lighting, and a tension-filled score.  All of the performances are great but Stewart is brilliant and steals every scene she is in as a woman desperate for sensation in a world devoid of feeling.  I was captivated by this movie and I have not been able to stop thinking about it but it is not something I would recommend to everyone.

Montana Story

Last night I went to my favorite art house theater to see Montana Story and I really enjoyed it.  Erin (Haley Lu Richardson) and Cal (Owen Teague) are estranged siblings who return to the Montana ranch where they were raised after their father suffers a stroke and is placed on hospice.  They disagree over what should be done with an aging and decrepit horse named Mr. T once they sell the ranch.  Cal believes the humane thing to do would be to euthanize him but Erin reacts very emotionally to this plan and impulsively decides to haul him from Montana to upstate New York where she lives.  The disagreement over the horse triggers a past trauma between them involving their abusive father and another horse and, as they work out the logistics of transporting Mr. T, they begin to heal.  The plot unfolds very slowly and there are many long moments of silence so some viewers might become impatient with it but I found the narrative to be captivating because of the beautiful cinematography and the stellar performances from Richardson and Teague.  The expansive Montana scenery is used in juxtaposition with the tense and emotional drama that is playing out between the two characters in a claustrophobic setting and this is highly effective.  Richardson and Teague have great chemistry and their portrayal of siblings feels really natural.  You can feel the quiet animosity radiating off of them when they see each other for the first time in seven years and this tension continues to build until they finally confront each other in an incredibly powerful scene.  I loved the resolution between them but I loved the solution they find for the horse even more (a lovely metaphor for their relationship).  It is definitely a slow burn but it is ultimately very moving so I would recommend it.