She Said

The second movie in my Saturday double feature was She Said.  I had been anticipating this for a really long time but, unfortunately, I didn't love it.  When New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) receives a tip that actress Rose McGowan was sexually assaulted by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, she begins investigating and discovers that Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow had similar encounters with him.  However, none of them want to go on the record because they are afraid that their careers will suffer.  Kantor asks Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan), a reporter who broke the story about allegations of sexual assault against Donald Trump, to help her with the investigation.  They find three former production assistants at Miramax, Rowena Chiu (Angela Yeoh), Zelda Perkins (Samantha Morton), and Laura Madden (Jennifer Ehle), who also report being sexually assaulted but fear speaking out after receiving settlements.  Even though Kantor and Twohey eventually receive corroboration from an accountant at Miramax, it is when two of the women consent to go on the record that the story is published.  For a movie that is about such an important investigation that launched a global movement and systemic change in the workforce, I found it to be strangely flat and not very compelling.  I feel like this topic could have benefited from from waiting a few years in order to get more perspective because it definitely didn't help that the details as well as the outcome of the investigation were fresh in my mind. Kazan and Mulligan do give very powerful performances but I found the scenes about their experiences as women investigating the story, such as Kantor's guilt at leaving her children, Twohey's postpartum depression, and their male editor (Andre Braugher) having to intervene on a phone call to get an answer to a question for them, to be more interesting than the investigation itself.  Morton and Ehle are also outstanding but the interviews of the victims start to become monotonous after a while, especially since they are not learning anything new just trying to get victims to go on the record.  Also, many of the interviews, including those with an unseen Weinstein, McGowan, and Paltrow, happen over the phone so they are not very interesting from a visual standpoint and they lack tension.  Finally, for a movie with a $32 million budget, the production design, while authentic, is quite dull.  I wanted to like this more than I did but I struggled with it.

The Menu

Because there are so many movies that I want to see right now I decided on another double feature yesterday and I started with The Menu.  I laughed out loud all through this scathing indictment of the privileged class.  A select group, including self-styled foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and his date Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), outspoken food critic Lillian Bloom (Janet McTier) and her editor Ted (Paul Adelstein), wealthy businessman Richard Liebbrandt (Reed Birney) and his wife Anne (Judith Light), washed up actor George Diaz (John Leguizamo) and his assistant Felicity (Aimee Carrero), and entitled investors Soren (Arturo Castro), Bryce (Rob Yang), and Dave (Mark St. Cyr), travel by boat to a private island for dinner at Hawthorne, the trendy but exclusive restaurant operated by celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes).  The captain Elsa (Hong Chau) is disconcerted by the fact that Margot is a last minute replacement for another guest but service begins with one pretentious course (with amusing on-screen descriptions) after another.  The guests, especially Tyler, try to out perform each other with their pompous analysis of each dish but Margot is decidedly not impressed.  She soon realizes that the guests are not there by accident and that the chef has sinister intentions.  This is a delicious dark comedy making fun of haute cuisine and those who partake of it but I found the message that success can sometimes ruin the joy that one takes in executing one's craft to be very poignant.  Fiennes gives an over-the-top performance, especially when he imperiously announces each course with a loud clap, but it works so well because he plays it completely straight, especially in his interactions with Taylor-Joy when Margot refuses to fawn over him.  Chau and Hoult are also a lot of fun to watch because their characters are so slavishly devoted to the chef.  What begins as a satire eventually becomes a suspenseful thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat with tension that builds and builds until the action comes full circle with a conclusion that is a hilarious antithesis of fine dining.  Finally, the production design is fantastic and I loved the overhead shots of the meticulously prepared dishes.  This is clever and wildly entertaining (it reminded me of Triangle of Sadness) and I highly recommend it!

Bernadette Peters with the Utah Symphony

I cannot believe that I actually got to see the incredible Bernadette Peters perform with the Utah Symphony last night!  It is a concert that I will not soon forget because it was basically a love letter to Broadway, especially for fans of Stephen Sondheim!  The first half of the concert featured the orchestra under the baton of Lee Mills.  They performed Cole Porter Salute, Three Dance Episodes from On the Town by Leonard Bernstein, and Salute to the Big Bands and I enjoyed these pieces very much.  After the intermission, Bernadette Peters took the stage with her music director Joseph Thalken and began with "Old Friends" from the musical Merrily We Roll Along and continued with "No One Is Alone" from another Sondheim musical, Into the Woods.  Then she performed incredibly sultry versions of "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" from South Pacific (which involved quite a bit of flirting with one of the cello players) and "Fever" (while reclining on top of the piano).  She talked about listening to her parents' Rodgers & Hammerstein records when she was young and said that her favorite was Carousel before singing a lovely version of "(When I Marry) Mister Snow" from the show and then the Rodgers & Hammerstein song "It Might As Well Be Spring" from the movie State Fair.  She returned to the music of Sondheim by singing "In Buddy's Eyes" and "Losing My Mind" from Follies, "Johanna" from Sweeney Todd, and "Children Will Listen" from Into the Woods.  She recently starred as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway and gave a poignant performance of "Before the Parade Passes By" and a really playful performance of "So Long Dearie."  Her emotional rendition of "Send in the Clowns" from A Little Night Music by Sondheim was definitely the highlight of the concert for me because it was absolutely amazing and gave me goosebumps!  Her final number, "Being Alive" from Company by Sondheim, was equally amazing and prompted an enthusiastic standing ovation!  She returned to the stage to perform "Kramer's Song," a lullaby she wrote for her charity Broadway Barks, as an encore.  To say that I loved this concert would be an understatement and I am so glad that I got to see this Broadway legend!  She will be back with the Utah Symphony again tonight (go here for tickets) and I highly recommend getting a ticket!

Carrie Underwood at the Vivint Arena

I like Carrie Underwood but my niece Tashena is a huge fan!  I wasn't really planning on seeing her on her latest tour until Tashena mentioned that she wanted to go.  Since we had so much fun the last time we saw her, I decided to get tickets and I am really glad that I did!  The show last night was amazing and I loved seeing Tashena sing along to all of her hits!  She played quite a few songs from her latest album Denim & Rhinestones, including the title track, "Burn," Crazy Angels," "Garden," "Ghost Story," "Hate My Heart," "Poor Everybody Else," and "She Don't Know."  I wasn't very familiar with these songs but it didn't matter because Underwood has such a big voice and her performance was spectacular with multiple costume changes (with lots of the requisite rhinestones), pyrotechnics, platforms that emerged from below the stage, a floating sphere that transported her across the arena, and even a drum solo.  She had a long diamond-shaped stage and a smaller stage at the end of the arena which allowed her to interact with lots of the fans and she was so engaging and fun to watch.  However, it was when she sang the hits that the audience, especially Tashena, really got loud.  She started the evening with "Good Girl" and continued with "Church Bells," a rousing rendition of "Undo It" with lots of audience participation, "Cowboy Cassanova," "Wasted" (which was Tashena's favorite of the evening), a powerful rendition of "Blown Away," "Cry Pretty," "Two Black Cadillacs," "Flat on the Floor," and "Something in the Water."  I really love the song "Jesus, Take the Wheel" and her performance of it gave me goosebumps because she included "How Great Thou Art" at the end of it and she just about blew the roof off the Vivint Arena!  She also performed my very favorite of all her songs, which is "Last Name," and I sang every word at the top of my lungs!  For the encore, she sang a cover of "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses (which was another highlight for me) and then she got the entire arena singing with "Before He Cheats."  I had so much fun at this concert and I am so glad that Tashena suggested it (and I'm glad that she still likes hanging out with her aunt).  I think we should see Carrie Underwood together every time she comes to town!

Note:  The opening act was Jimmie Allen.  I wasn't familiar with any of his songs (I'm not a big fan of country music as a genre) but I really liked his voice and he was very entertaining!

We Are the Light

My November Book of the Month selection was We Are the Light by Matthew Quick (the other options were The Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie Lang, The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh, White Horse by Erika T. Wurth, and Someday, Maybe by Onyi Nwabineli). I selected this because it deals with important topics such as PTSD and mental health and I really wanted to like it but, unfortunately, I didn't. Lucas Goodgame, a high school counselor in the town of Majestic, Pennsylvania, is the survivor of a mass shooting that claimed the life of his wife, Darcy. He is really struggling but his Jungian analyst, who also lost his wife in the tragedy, has terminated his sessions and is now refusing to answer his letters. Eli, the younger brother of the shooter, is also struggling because he saw his brother's behavior become erratic but said nothing and now blames himself for what happened. Lucas comes to believe that helping Eli through his trauma will be the way forward in healing himself as well as the people of Majestic. The narrative is completely from the perspective of Lucas because it is in the form of letters written by him to his analyst and this is why I didn't entirely like it as much as I expected to given the subject matter. I found Lucas to be an incredibly unsympathetic character despite his trauma and the obvious mental health issues stemming from his childhood (he was in analysis before the tragedy) and, while I understand that he was suffering, I just couldn't get past my dislike of him as a character and that made it very difficult for me to be invested in what happens to him. Also, I could not understand the motivation for why all of the other characters literally do everything they can to help him, especially his wife's best friend Jill who sells her house and neglects her business to care for him, because we never get their perspectives. Finally, I found all of the constant references to Jungian analysis (phallic energy?) to be incredibly off-putting. Most people seem to have enjoyed this more than I did but it just wasn't for me.