Both Sides of the Blade

Director Claire Denis won the Silver Bear for Both Sides of the Blade this year at the Berlin Film Festival so I was really excited to see it last night at the Broadway.  Sara (Juliette Binoche) and her husband Jean (Vincent Lindon) have a blissful holiday at the sea but, when they return home to Paris, she catches a glimpse of a man on the street and this has a profound affect on her.  It turns out that he is Jean's former business partner and Sara's former lover Francois (Gregoire Colin) and he has come back into their lives after an absence of ten years with a business proposition for Jean.  Sara expresses concern but Jean ultimately accepts because he needs employment to support his son Marcus (Issa Perica) who lives with his mother (Bulle Ogier).  Sara continually professes her love for Jean but is completely undone when she inevitably meets with Francois at a company event.  Jean is jealous but she cannot deny the love she has always felt for Francois and begins an affair with him leading to an explosive confrontation and an ending that took me completely by surprise.  This is a slow burn without exposition so details about the three main characters are revealed very slowly (or not at all because I still have so many questions).  Binoche and Lindon give very understated performances in the first two acts with interactions that seem almost polite as they circle around each other in the claustrophobic environment of their apartment but every look and gesture is fraught with meaning.  The tension builds and builds until an incredible scene in the third act where they both give vent to all of the feelings they have been repressing and the performances are riveting.  I enjoyed the story about a marriage that seems very happy but eventually comes undone; however, many of the subplots, including Sara's job as a radio personality and Jean's troubles with his son, seem very superfluous with themes about race that are very underdeveloped.  This is an interesting psychological drama with compelling performances but I found the lack of detail to be very frustrating.

Where the Crawdads Sing

Several of my friends recommended Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and I finally had the chance to read it during the lockdown (when I spent all of my free time reading).  I absolutely loved it so I was a bit worried when I heard about the upcoming adaptation because the movie is rarely as good as the book.  However, after watching a Thursday preview last night, I have to admit that I really enjoyed it.  Catherine "Kya" Clark (Jojo Regina) grows up in extreme poverty with an abusive father in a North Carolina marsh.  Eventually her mother, all of her siblings, and even her father abandon her leaving her to fend for herself.  Kya (now played by Daisy Edgar-Jones) grows up to be incredibly resourceful and intimately acquainted with the flora and fauna of the marsh but she is wary of outsiders who treat her with disdain.  Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith) is able to break through her reserve by giving her specimens from the marsh and they begin a romantic relationship.  When he leaves to go to college, she feels as if he has abandoned her like everyone else in her life.  She turns to a wealthy young man from town named Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson) who woos her with promises of marriage but she soon realizes that he is just using her.  Things turn violent when she ends the relationship so, when his body is found at the base of a fire tower, she is the prime suspect.  The timeline alternates between the story of her life in the marsh and her murder trial with a big twist at the end.  The movie is very faithful to the book so if you enjoyed the story you will probably love this adaptation (and the reverse is also true so if you didn't like the book you should probably avoid this).  The beautiful cinematography brings the marsh to life and I was absolutely mesmerized by the images on the screen, particularly the scenes involving flights of birds against a vivid sunset.  Edgar-Jones gives an incredibly nuanced performance and she is exactly how I pictured Kya as I was reading.  I also really enjoyed David Strathairn as a kindly lawyer who comes out of retirement to defend Kya, although I will admit that the courtroom scenes are less compelling than the scenes in the marsh.  Both Smith and Dickinson are a bit bland as Kya's love interests but it almost doesn't matter because Edgar-Jones is so captivating in their scenes together.  My only real criticism of the movie is that the extreme poverty in the book is portrayed very unrealistically, especially in regards to her picture-perfect appearance and her stylishly appointed cabin.  I suspect that this will appeal to a very specific demographic because my audience was packed with enthusiastic middle-aged book club types.  As a member of said demographic, I recommend it!

Upgrade

My July Book of the Month selection was Upgrade by Blake Crouch (the other options were First Born by Will Dean, The Bodyguard by Katherine Center, You're Invited by Amanda Jayatissa, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin). I had never read anything by this author before but the premise was really intriguing to me so I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did! In a dystopian future where genetic engineering has wreaked havoc on the environment, Logan Ramsay works for the Gene Protection Agency out of a sense of guilt because his mother was the cause of the catastrophe. He helped her create a genetic modification that was meant to improve the rice plant's resistance to a virus but it ended up destroying the world's supply instead and caused millions of deaths. Genetic modifications are now outlawed. In the course of an investigation for the GPA he is unwittingly exposed to a virus which changes his genome and dramatically improves his strength and intelligence but takes away his ability to feel emotion. His agency sees him as a threat but this upgrade might be a way to save the human species from the disaster he and his mother set in motion. This is a tense science-fiction thriller, to be sure, but it is also a cautionary tale about the fate of the planet because the description of a world not too far in the future shows the logical progression of the problems we face right now, including climate change, environmental disasters, and the scarcity of resources, and it is quite sobering. I enjoyed the inclusion of specific details, such as the use of electric cars and innovative mass transportation systems as well as synthetic food sources, because they are so clever (some of the brand names are very amusing). All of the action and plot twists kept me turning the pages to find out what would happen but I also found the discussion about intelligence vs. empathy to be incredibly thought-provoking. The science is absolutely fascinating! Even though it is extremely complicated, I never felt like it was over my head enough to detract from my understanding and enjoyment (it reminded me of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir in that respect). This is one of my very favorite selections from Book of the Month and I highly recommend it!

Note:  While I was reading this I kept thinking that it would make a great movie so I was excited to learn that the film rights have been acquired by Amblin!

Lost Illusions

The French film Lost Illusions was nominated for fifteen Cesar Awards and won seven, including Best Picture.  I was really intrigued because it beat Annette, my favorite movie last year, so I decided to see it last night at the Broadway.  It is nearly three hours long, is adapted from a nineteenth century novel by Honore de Balzac, and is in French with subtitles but I was absolutely riveted for the entire runtime.  Lucien de Rubempre (Benjamin Voisin) is a young and idealistic poet living in Angouleme.  His patroness and lover Marie de Bargeton (Cecile de France) convinces him to come to Paris with her but he is completely out of his depth in society and, when he makes a faux pas at the opera, her cousin Marquise d'Espard (Jeanne Balibar) and friend Baron de Chatelet (Andre Marcon) convince her to sever all ties with him or face being shunned by society.  Alone and penniless, Lucien attempts to find a publisher for his poetry but meets an editor named Etienne Louseau (Vincent Lacoste) who convinces him to abandon his artistic ambitions and become a journalist for a corrupt newspaper where favorable (or unfavorable) content is sold to the highest bidder.  Soon Lucien is famous for his scurrilous anti-royalist articles condemning the members of society who cast him aside but he regrets the loss of his integrity when he meets the writer Nathan d'Anastazio (Xavier Dolan).  I was fascinated by this story because there are so many parallels to today's media, especially when so-called "influencers" shape public opinion for compensation.  I also really enjoyed the commentary on criticism vs. art.  The images on the screen are beautiful with gorgeous costumes, sumptuous production design, and dynamic camera work that puts the audience in the middle of the streets of Paris, back stage at the theatre, and in the chaos of a newspaper office.  The performances of the three lead actors are outstanding.  Voisin brilliantly portrays both Lucien's wide-eyed innocence and his disillusionment, Lacoste allows a hint of danger to show beneath Etienne's charm, and Dolan (sigh) conveys a kind of sexual tension whenever Nathan acts as a foil to Lucien.  The camera lingers on all three of their faces just a bit longer than necessary and this is captivating.  I loved this film (although I still prefer Annette) and I highly recommend it.

Big Fish at CPT

Last night my sister and I went to a production of Big Fish at Centerpoint Theatre. I think this story about a son trying to understand his father and a father trying to make his son proud is very moving and CPT does a great job with a very complicated show. Will Bloom (Doug Wadley) has always been exasperated by all of the outlandish stories that his father Edward (Scott W. Butler) has told him all his life. These include having his fortune told by a witch (Claire Glaittli) in a swamp, learning how to swim from a mermaid (Samantha Millward), going on the road with a giant named Karl (William Maguire), joining a circus owned by a werewolf (Matthew Price), wooing his future wife Sandra (Tara Wardle) with daffodils, and thwarting an assassination by Red Fang (Josh Lee) during the war. As he is about to become a father himself, Will learns that Edward is dying of cancer and returns home to attempt a reconciliation with him. After a Wild West confrontation between the two of them, Will discovers that the truth about his father is more extraordinary than the stories. I really enjoy the songs in this show because they bring all of Edward's fantastical stories to life and the staging of these numbers is very well-done. The choreography is incredibly whimsical, especially in "I Know What You Want" with the witch, "Favorite Son" with the townspeople of Ashton, "Closer to Her" with the circus (I loved the use of the cannon), and "Red White and True" with the USO (I am always impressed when the ensemble tap dances). Both Butler and Wadley are outstanding as Edward and Will Bloom, respectively. Butler portrays Edward's zest for life with an enthusiasm that is palpable while Wadley portrays Will's journey from skepticism to appreciation of his father's stories with heartfelt emotion, particularly in the song "What's Next." The set consists of large moving panels upon which projections are used to denote the riverbank, the swamp, the town of Ashton, the circus, Auburn University, and a field of daffodils. This is very effective at creating an immersive experience for the audience, particularly when Ashton is flooded because it seems as if the entire theater is under water, but some of the projections are a bit blurry (this could be because of the angle of my seat). I was very impressed with the costumes in all of the big musical numbers, most notably the lights on the costumes worn by the creatures in the swamp, the vintage circus costumes, and the Wild West costumes. My favorite production of this show remains the one I saw at HCT several years ago but I thoroughly enjoyed CPT's version and I recommend it (go here for tickets).

Note:  My sister and I are subscribers but the show on our original night was canceled due to Covid.  We rescheduled for last night but we had to sit apart. During intermission several patrons moved seats so we could have moved to be together but we chose to stay where we were!