Broker

My interest was really piqued by Broker when Song Kang-ho won Best Actor for his performance at the Cannes Film Festival this year so I went to see it at the Broadway last night (I have now seen every new release currently playing at the Broadway which is a challenge I often set for myself but rarely achieve).  I was incredibly moved by this heartwarming portrait of an unexpected family.  Moon So-young (Lee Ji-eun) leaves her son Woo-sung (Park Ji-yong) at a baby box located in a church where Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won) works part-time and Ha Sang-hyeon (Song Kang-ho) volunteers.  The two of them have a scheme where they periodically steal the babies left behind and sell them on the black market.  They take Woo-sung but, when So-young returns to the church to claim him, they convince her to join their scheme by offering her a portion of the money.  They travel to an orphanage to find prospective parents and then begin an odyssey across the country only to discover that one of the orphans, Hae-jin (Im Seung-soo), has stowed away in their van because he wants to be adopted too.  However, two detectives, Soo-jin (Bae Doona) and Lee (Lee Joo-young), are pursuing them but not everything is as it seems.  Every character, including the police officer, is broken and has something to hide but they all come to understand and care about each other even as they make difficult decisions about what is best for Woo-sung.  Human trafficking is clearly wrong (I don't think it is romanticized in any way) but the narrative does explore the ways in which each character's choices, or lack thereof, have brought them to this point and I really empathized with them due, in no small part, to the marvelous performances from the entire cast.  There were two scenes, in particular, that brought me to tears including when So-young tells her son and then everyone else that she is happy they were born and when So-young and Dong-soo ride on a ferris wheel and think about what it would be like to raise Woo-sung themselves.  I loved the repeated use of rain as a symbol of new beginnings and the atmospheric score is very affecting.  This is a lovely film that is definitely worth seeking out.

Skinamarink

The trailer for Skinamarink really freaked me out so of course I had to see it at the Broadway last night (the theater was packed for a late screening on a Sunday).  Two children, six-year-old Kaylee (Dali Rose Tetreault) and four-year-old Kevin (Lucas Paul), wake up disoriented in the middle of the night in their dark suburban house to discover that their parents seem to be missing.  They decide to go downstairs, build a fort out of blankets, eat some cereal, and watch cartoons (as one does) but strange and terrifying things begin happening in the house.  This experimental film will definitely not be for everyone because it is more concerned with evoking a feeling rather than telling a linear story.  I also think that you have to be able to commit fully to the vibe in order for it to work for you but, as someone who truly believed that there were monsters in my closet and under my bed when I was a child, this really worked for me.  It is terrifying, not for what you see, but for what you think you see.  The camera angles are low as if the images are from the perspective of a child and, even though it was shot digitally, it looks as if it was shot using grainy analog film which really makes it appear that there are things lurking in the darkness.  The lack of a score, along with the audio from the cartoons, really adds to the unease.  Seeing this with a large crowd really enhanced the experience for me because there was a lot of nervous laughter (the tension is palpable) and even a few screams (I screamed out loud for the first time since seeing  Hereditary at Sundance).  There were also lots of interesting conversations in the lobby when it was over!  I recommend this to anyone who ever let their imagination get the better of them in the middle of the night!

Holy Spider

I became interested in Holy Spider when Zar Amir Ebrahimi won Best Actress for her performance at the Cannes Film Festival this year.  I decided to see it at the Broadway (my second home this week) last night and it is disturbing but very compelling.  A journalist named Arezoo Rahimi (Ebrahimi) travels to the holy city of Mashhad in Iran to investigate a serial killer known as the Spider.  Saeed Hanaei (Mehdi Bajestani), a middle-aged veteran of the Iran-Iraq War who laments the fact that he did not become a martyr for Allah, travels through the city on a motorcycle, lures prostitutes to his apartment when his wife and children are away, strangles them with their own headscarves, and disposes of their bodies in the same location.  He believes that what he is doing is a crusade to rid the streets of sin and, as Rahimi investigates, she suspects that the chief detective on the case (Sina Parvaneh) and an important local cleric (Nima Akbarpour) believe the same thing because there have been no new leads in the case in the past six months.  She decides to intervene and poses as a prostitute in order to catch him herself (in scenes filled with so much tension that I was holding my breath) but then must contend with the public who view him as a hero.  I was very struck by the difficulties that Rahimi faces as a woman trying to investigate a crime.  She is almost refused a room in a hotel because she is a single woman, she is berated for showing too much hair (there are many parallels with the situation in Iran today), she must be accompanied by a male journalist (Arash Ashtiani) everywhere she goes, and she is physically attacked by the police chief (the juxtaposition between the threat posed by a serial killer and by men in power is very thought-provoking).  I was also struck by how normal Hanaei is in his interactions with his wife and family and by how easy it is for him (and, later, his son) to get swept up in a religious mania.  Even though the audience knows who the murderer is very early on (it is based on true events) it is still incredibly suspenseful because of what happens after Hanaei is arrested and there are a few twists and turns that had me on the edge of my seat.  Ebrahimi is brilliant in the role because you can see the fury on her face even as she pulls her hijab tighter.  This scathing condemnation of misogyny and religious extremism is difficult to watch (the violence is very graphic and the final scene left me shaking) but I recommend it.

Women Talking

I have been anticipating the wide release of Women Talking for months and I was so happy to finally have a chance to see it at the Broadway last night!  It is incredibly powerful with performances that should be generating a lot more awards buzz.  Many women in an isolated Mennonite community have been drugged and raped but, despite waking up bruised and bleeding, they are not believed until there are eyewitnesses.  All of the men go to town to post bail for those accused and the women are admonished to forgive them or else face being exiled from the community and excommunicated from their faith.  While the men are gone the women take a vote about whether they will do nothing, stay and fight, or leave the colony but there is no clear winner.  A group of women, including Ona (Rooney Mara), Salome (Claire Foy), Mariche (Jessie Buckley), Mejal (Michelle McLeod), Agata (Judith Ivey), Greta (Sheila McCarthy), and an older member of the congregation known as "Scarface" (Frances McDormand) who disagrees with the process, are elected to come to a decision and they meet in the hayloft of a barn to debate the merits of each option.  A sympathetic schoolteacher named August (Ben Whishaw) is asked to join them to record the minutes because the women are illiterate.  The themes are incredibly compelling, especially the notion of forgiveness.  There is a phenomenal scene during which Greta realizes that her teachings may have encouraged the violence against her daughters and granddaughters because forgiveness can sometimes be misconstrued as permission.  The performances are outstanding because my attention never wavered from the dialogue-heavy narrative.  Foy and Buckley have the showier roles, portraying fiery women who eventually have their opinions challenged, but Mara gives a beautiful performance as a woman trying to reconcile their decision with their faith.  I have heard many complaints about the color grading but, in my opinion, the gray tones reflect the despair the women have been living with and serve to keep the time and place ambiguous.  Finally, I loved the score by Hildur Gudnadottir because it is tense during the flashbacks that hint at the violence but haunting during scenes showing the children the women are fighting to protect at play.  I was very moved by this sensitive depiction of a heavy subject and I highly recommend it.

Ain't Too Proud at the Eccles

Last night I had the chance to see Ain't Too Proud at the Eccles Theatre and it was so good!  It is a jukebox musical about The Temptations and it reminded me a lot of Jersey Boys (a musical I love).  It obviously features all of the wonderful music by the group (and others) but I also really enjoyed the story because I didn't know a lot about The Temptations.  After Otis Williams (Michael Andreaus) has a brush with the law, he decides to form a music group so he can rise above the streets of Detroit and never lose his freedom again.  He recruits Al Bryant (Devin Price), Melvin Franklin (Harrell Holmes, Jr.), Eddie Kendricks (Jalen Harris), and Paul Williams (E. Clayton Cornelious).  Bryant is soon replaced by David Ruffin (Elijah Ahmad Lewis) and they are signed by Berry Gordy (Jeremy Kelsey) to Motown Records where they begin working with Smokey Robinson (Omar Madden) as a songwriter and producer.  The show features the creation of their biggest hits, their rivalry with The Supremes (Amber Mariah Talley, Shayla Brielle G, and Traci Elaine Lee) at Motown, and how personal conflicts and tragedies as well as racial tensions in the United States threaten to tear them apart.  The entire cast is unbelievably talented because the singing and dancing in this show is absolutely brilliant!  I especially loved Lewis because, just like David Ruffin does in The Temptations, he often steals the spotlight and dazzles with his vocal performance!  Andreaus is also outstanding because he narrates the show from beginning to end and provides many of the emotional beats.  I really enjoyed the staging of the songs, especially when they would seamlessly transition from city to city while performing a song on tour through choreography and the changing of the marquee above them.  I also enjoyed the recreation of their performance of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" on American Bandstand because the cameras become part of the choreography.  My favorite numbers were "My Girl" and "Get Ready" (I may or may not have been singing along) but I also liked how many of the songs mirror what is happening in the story such as "If You Don't Know Me By Now" when Josephine (Quiana Onrae'l Holmes) leaves Otis, "I Wish It Would Rain" when Martin Luther King is assassinated, "Ball of Confusion (That's What The World is Today)" when the group wants to record more politically charged music, "Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)" when Ruffin and Kendricks insist on joining the group for a reunion tour, "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" when personal tragedies befall the group members, and "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted" when Otis Williams is the last original member left.  I didn't really know what to expect from this show but I enjoyed everything about the production and I highly recommend getting a ticket for one of the remaining performances (go here) at the Eccles.