Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Last night I finally had the chance to see Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and it was so much fun!  A bard named Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) becomes a thief in a crew with Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), a barbarian, Simon Aumar (Justice Smith), a sorcerer, and Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant), a rogue, to support his daughter Kira (Chloe Coleman) after his wife is murdered.  He agrees to a dangerous raid for a mysterious stranger named Sofina (Daisy Head) because he wants to steal a Tablet of Reawakening to bring his wife back to life but he and Holga are caught and put in prison while the others are able to get away.  After two years in Revel's End prison, Edgin and Holga stage a daring escape only to discover that Forge, now the Lord of Neverwinter, is in league with Sofina, who is a Red Witch, and that the two of them orchestrated their capture.  Forge has also been taking care of Kira and has poisoned her against her father.  Elgin decides that the only way to get revenge and win Kira back is to rob Forge's vault but, in order to do that, they must go on a fantastical quest that has them reunite with Simon, recruit a shapeshifting druid named Doric (Sophia Lillas) and a paladin named Xenk Yendar (Rege-Jean Page), visit an underworld, retrieve an ancient relic, fight assassins, elude dragons, escape from a maze, and eventually defeat the Red Witch.  What I loved most about this adaptation of the popular role-playing game is that there are a lot of references and Easter eggs to keep players happy but it is accessible enough that you don't need to know anything about D&D in order to enjoy it (I have never played but a lot of my friends in high school did so I understood many of the references).  I also really liked the dynamic within the group of characters because, while there is a lot of witty banter and slapstick comedy, each of them has an important arc which allows them to overcome obstacles and grow over the course of the campaign!  Pine is incredibly charismatic, Rodriguez is a bad ass, and Grant is his usual hilarious self as a smarmy villain but Page steals the show and his detailed explanations had me laughing out loud.  The action sequences are great, especially those involving Rodriguez, and I loved all of the visual effects, particularly a sequence when Doric shapeshifts into several different animals to escape from Forge's castle.  As a fantasy loving nerd I expected to enjoy this but I actually really loved it and I highly recommend it!

Air

I love a good sports movie but I have to admit that I had my doubts about Air when I first heard about it.  How could a movie about the making of a basketball shoe be entertaining?  I had the chance to see a sneak peek last night and, not only was I completely riveted, I wanted to stand up and cheer by the end of it!  In 1984 Nike's fledgling basketball division is in third place behind Converse and Adidas.  A Nike executive named Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) wants to change that by betting the entire budget on only one player, Michael Jordan, who has yet to play a game in the NBA because he sees greatness in him.  First he must convince the Nike Director of Marketing Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), Nike CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck), sports agent David Falk (Chris Messina), and then a reluctant Michael Jordan who wants to sign with Adidas.  But, more importantly, he must convince Jordan's mother Deloris (Viola Davis) because she also understands her son's worth.  This movie is about how a game-changing partnership between an athlete and a sponsor came about but, rather ironically given my reservations, my favorite scenes involved the designing of the shoe!  I laughed out loud when the Creative Director Peter Moore (Matthew Maher) unveiled the prototype to Vaccaro and Strasser for the first time because it is bathed in light but the audience doesn't actually see the shoe just the reaction to it!  Damon and Davis are outstanding with several goosebump inducing moments but, really, the entire ensemble cast is great!  Bateman delivers a poignant monologue about the high stakes of this deal, Messina is completely unhinged in a scene on the phone, and Affleck is hilarious as an aphorism-spouting CEO beholden to his board.  As a child of the 80s, I really loved the nostalgia of the production design as well as the needle drops, especially the opening montage of pop cultural references with "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits underneath it.  I also enjoyed the references to John Stockton (Utah Jazz fan here).  Affleck's direction should also be praised because, even though much of the action consists of conversations, many occurring over the phone, and almost everyone, even those who do not follow basketball, knows the outcome of the negotiations, he somehow infuses the narrative with heart and humor.  This is a crowd-pleasing slam dunk and I highly recommend it!  

Enys Men

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Enys Men (which is Cornish for "Stone Island").  I am a big fan of experimental horror and I found this to be incredibly unsettling.  A Volunteer (Mary Woodvine) conducts daily observations of and logs the data for a group of white flowers on the cliff of an isolated and inhospitable island off the coast of Cornwall in 1973.  She follows the exact same monotonous routine every day and the results of her observations do not change.  She has very little contact with the outside world except for a short-wave radio and a Boatman (Edward Rowe) who periodically brings her supplies.  After the Boatman and his smashed up boat wash up on shore, however, the Volunteer begins to be haunted by the spirits of people who once inhabited the island and a strange lichen appears on both the flowers and on the Volunteer's body.  It seems as if the Volunteer is being subsumed by both memory and nature but this is my interpretation (everything is open to interpretation because what this movie does so well is put you inside the head of the main character so that, like her, you begin to question everything that you see on the screen).  The action happens in a very non-linear structure (the Volunteer is shown with a yellow rain slicker well before we see the floating body of the Boatman wearing it and she places a piece of his boat on the mantel before we see the wreck in the water) and the images are steeped in mythology and allegory, particularly the oft-repeated wide shots of circling birds, crashing waves, and a mysterious stone monolith.  The sound design, which features wind, waves, and static from the radio, emphasizes the disorientation and the use of grainy 16-millimeter film is incredibly evocative (it is almost as if the movie itself is a relic unearthed from the past).  Woodvine is absolutely riveting as a woman slowly going mad.  The narrative can be frustrating because it focuses more on atmosphere than plot and it is more unnerving than scary but I was fascinated by this movie and highly recommend seeking it out (it is playing in a very limited engagement at the Broadway).

A Thousand and One

I was so excited for another double feature at the Broadway last night!  I started with A Thousand and One because, after hearing all of the buzz, I really regretted missing it at Sundance this year.  Now that I've seen it, I definitely understand why it won the Grand Jury Prize at the festival because I loved this powerful exploration of what makes a home and family.  Inez de la Paz (Teyana Taylor), who is herself a product of the foster system, impulsively decides to kidnap her six-year-old son Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola) from his foster placement after being released from Rikers Island.  She loves her son fiercely and, even though what she has done is illegal, she is determined that he will have a better life than her.  Through sheer force of will and despite many obstacles she creates a home for Terry and enters a tumultuous relationship with a former boyfriend (Will Catlett) so that he will have a male role model.  As Terry grows older (Aven Courtney at age 13 and Josiah Cross at age 17) Inez is hard on him and pushes him to succeed in school but this gives him many more opportunities than she had.  However, their hard-won sense of security is threatened by the gentrification overtaking New York and by a secret that eventually comes to light.  This story about a young woman trying to build a stable home for her son is made even more poignant by the fact that she never had one herself and I had tears in my eyes several times!  Taylor gives an absolutely brilliant performance because it is so lived in.  It almost seems as if events are happening to her in real time because all of the many emotions she portrays are incredibly authentic.  I was also really impressed with the three actors who play Terry because they all have a stillness that belies what is going on behind their eyes.  I was especially moved by a scene in which Adetola asks why no one is looking for him and another one in which Cross tells his mother he will always remember his home.  This is now one of my favorite movies of 2023 and I highly recommend it!

Harvey at the Grand Theatre

Last night I had the opportunity to see a delightful production of Harvey at the Grand Theatre.  I was especially excited for this play because I had never seen it, or the movie adaptation starring Jimmy Stewart, before and I was very pleasantly surprised by how moving I found it!  A social climber named Veta Louise Simmons (Kristin Housley) is exasperated when her brother, Elwood P. Dowd (Roger Dunbar), interrupts one of her gatherings by introducing his imaginary friend Harvey, a six foot one-and-a-half inch tall white rabbit, to her high society guests.  Veta is humiliated by his behavior, and what it might mean for her daughter Myrtle Mae (Niki Rahimi) and her chances for an advantageous marriage, so she makes the drastic decision to have him committed to a sanitariam called Chumley's Rest.  However, when Veta attempts to explain the existence of Harvey to Dr. Sanderson (Aron Cain), he mistakenly assumes that she is the one who needs to be committed.  Hijinks ensue when everyone, including Dr. Harold Chumley (Mickey Goldstein), the orderly Duane Wilson (Robert A. Easton), Nurse Ruth Kelly (Angie Nicole), and Veta's lawyer Judge Omar Gaffney (Jeffrey Owen), tries to determine who is really crazy!  In the end, Veta realizes that Elwood is a kind man and that she doesn't want to change him even if it means living with Harvey!  I really loved the message about the importance of kindness, which seems particularly salient in these times, and Dunbar is fantastic as Elwood because he exudes warmth and charm in every scene even when all of the other characters are caught up in the chaos.  Housley is also a lot of fun to watch, especially when Veta becomes hilariously overwrought on Dr. Sanderson's fainting couch!  Speaking of which, the elaborate sets consisting of the wood paneled library in the old Dowd family mansion and the reception room of Chumley's Rest are quite impressive.  There is a fun bit of business involving a maid (Teresa McLeod) as the sets are changed from one to the other that is very effective as well as some great special effects that make the invisible Harvey an actual presence on stage (I especially liked his inclusion during the bows).  This heart-warming show put a huge smile on my face and I highly recommend it (go here for tickets).