Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

I am not a big fan of the earlier movies in the Transformers franchise (to say the least) but I absolutely loved Bumblebee so I was interested to see where Transformers: Rise of the Beasts would land.  I went to see it yesterday and it definitely doesn't have the same heart as Bumblebee but I didn't hate it.  A world-eating transformer named Unicron (voiced by Colman Domingo) is seeking the Transwarp Key, which can open portals through space and time, on the homeworld of the Maximals, or cyber animals, but a group of them use it to escape to Earth.  A museum intern named Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishbeck) discovers half of the key hidden in an ancient artifact and accidentally activates it which calls Autobots, who are still stuck on Earth, and Terrorcons, who are searching for it for Unicron.  Meanwhile, an ex-soldier named Noah Diaz (Anthony Ramos) is talked into stealing a Porsche 911 in order to sell it to pay for treatments for his younger brother who is suffering from leukemia.  When the Autobots are summoned, Noah is inside the Porsche when it is transformed into Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson) and he is eventually recruited by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) to steal the key from the museum where he meets up with Elena.  They are attacked by the Terrorcon Scourge (voiced by Peter Dincklage) who steals the key but they are saved by the Maximal Airazor (voiced by Michelle Yeoh).  They eventually head to Peru in search of the other half of the key where they meet Optimus Primal (voiced by Ron Perlman) and the other Maximals.  The humans, the Autobots, and Maximals learn that they must work together to defeat the Terrorcons and keep the key from Unicron.  The story is convoluted with way too much exposition and much of the dialogue is incredibly cringe-worthy but it is still far superior to the Michael Bay movies (in my opinion).  The goofy interactions between Noah and Mirage are a lot of fun (I actually really liked Davidson's performance) and I found the juxtaposition between Noah's motivations and those of Optimus Prime to be very effective.  I also really enjoyed the final battle sequence (I love that Bumblebee now communicates with movie dialogue) because the effects look really good.  I think Bumblebee is still my favorite but I had a lot of fun watching this and recommend it to fans of big action blockbusters.

Sanctuary

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Sanctuary.  I really enjoyed this psychological thriller until the ending derailed it for me.  Hal (Christopher Abbott) is the presumptive heir to a billion dollar chain of luxury hotels.  He likes to engage in BDSM role-playing games with a professional dominatrix named Rebecca (Margaret Qualley) but, after inheriting his father's empire, he tries to end their relationship because he feels it is no longer appropriate for such a high profile businessman. She feels that her services are what has given him the self-confidence to be a CEO and wants further compensation. They engage in a tense (but thoroughly entertaining) battle of wills in a hotel suite after one of their games in which they each vie for control with escalating stakes.  What makes this so compelling is that you never know if what is happening is real or just part of an elaborate game.  Rebecca first enters the hotel suite as a businesswoman and begins interviewing Hal for the position of CEO but then he complains that she is not sticking to the script that he wrote.  She proceeds to humiliate him because she believes that she knows what he needs better than he does.  Then a close-up of the script reveals that the entire encounter has been part of the game and this is only the first of many times that expectations are subverted.  You are literally left guessing until the final scene but, unfortunately, I found the resolution to be hurried and anticlimactic (several people in my audience groaned out loud).  The action takes place in one location with only two characters but the production design is incredibly stylish with compelling performances from both Abbott and Qualley.  Ultimately, I had a great time trying to figure out who would emerge victorious (even if I didn’t like the answer) so I would recommend it for a bit of escapist fun.

The Eight Mountains

I was really intrigued by The Eight Mountains because it won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes last year (tying with EO) so I decided to see it last night as the first in a double feature at the Broadway.  I absolutely loved this moving portrait of a 40-year friendship.  An 11-year-old boy from Turin named Pietro (Lupo Barbiero) spends the summer with his parents in a mountain village in the Italian Alps.  He soon meets Bruno (Cristiano Sassella), an 11-year-old living in the village, and they become inseparable as they hike around the mountains with Pietro's father Giovanni (Filippo Timi).  They reunite every summer until they eventually grow apart as the teenage Pietro (Andrea Palma) becomes estranged from his father and stops coming to the village while Bruno (Francesco Palombelli) continues hiking with Giovanni on his visits.  Fifteen years later, Pietro (Luca Marinelli) returns to the village after his father's death and learns from Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) that Giovanni purchased a plot of land with the intention of building a cabin on it.  The two of them spend the summer building the cabin together and, even though adventure takes Pietro around the world and domestic responsibilities keep Bruno busy in the mountains, they vow to spend their summers there.  Pietro relates a story he heard in Nepal about the world being made up of eight mountains separated by eight seas surrounding the tallest mountain.  They have a philosophical discussion about whether it is better to visit the eight mountains or to climb to the top of the tallest one which is an allegory for their lives (this reminded me of the theme in Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse).  What I loved most about this movie is that, even though Pietro and Bruno are very different people, the friendship that is forged between them as children is genuine and they support each other through the vicissitudes of life.  Marinelli and Borghi have tremendous chemistry together (as do Berbiero and Sassella) and the friendship feels very lived in and believable.  The cinematography is simply breathtaking with vast mountain landscapes and lakes and I especially enjoyed the Steadicam shots as Pietro and Bruno hike at different times during the year.  The action is very slow (the runtime is 147 minutes) but I was never bored because I was so emotionally invested.  I highly recommend seeking this one out!

42nd Street at CPT

Last night my sisters and I went to see a fun and energetic version of 42nd Street at Centerpoint Theatre. I saw the Broadway touring production several years ago and that was a showy song and dance extravaganza where every number was completely over the top with dazzling choreography and sparkly costumes. I didn't think that a community theatre production could compare to that spectacle but I was really impressed with what CPT did with it! A young dancer named Peggy Sawyer (Kaylee Wheeler) arrives in New York City straight from Allentown, Pennsylvania in order to make her Broadway dreams come true during the Great Depression. She joins the chorus line of a brand new musical produced by Maggie Jones (Amanda Rogers) and Bert Barry (Matt Ford) and directed by Julian Marsh (Brock Harris) called Pretty Lady but when Dorothy Brock (Cynthia Klumpp), the star of the show, has a mishap on stage, she gets the chance of a lifetime! This features lots of well-known Broadway standards, including "You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me," "I Only Have Eyes For You," "We're In the Money," "Sunny Side to Every Situation," "Lullaby of Broadway," "About a Quarter to Nine," "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," and "42nd Street." My sisters were really excited because, even though they weren't familiar with this show, they recognized all of the songs and I suspect fans of Broadway will enjoy hearing them, too! The choreography is a lot of fun and the insanely talented members of the ensemble execute it very well! It is so much fun to watch and I especially enjoyed it when the curtain slowly opened to reveal row upon row of tap-dancing feel at the beginning of the show! Wheeler is absolutely delightful as the ingenue Peggy Sawyer because she has a wide-eyed enthusiasm that really works for the character. She is a great dancer and has a beautiful voice (my sister wished that she had been featured more). Harris is bombastic as the impresario Julian Marsh but he has a few really tender moments with Wheeler and I loved his rendition of "Lullaby of Broadway." Klumpp commands the stage as the quintessential Broadway diva Dorothy Brock but she also shows a lot of vulnerability when a younger and more talented dancer threatens to take her place. The set, featuring the stage, back stage area, and dressing room of an Art Deco theatre, is very impressive and I especially liked the various backdrops for the big production numbers in Pretty Lady.  Finally, costume designer Brianna Taylor is to be commended for the sheer number of elaborate period costumes built for this show (and the cast is to be commended for all of the incredibly quick costume changes, too!). This is a toe-tapping old school musical that will definitely put a smile on your face. It runs on the Barlow Main Stage through July 11 (go here for tickets).

The Boogeyman

Movie adaptations of Stephen King's works are really hit or miss with me.  In my opinion, The Shining is the best and The Dark Tower is one of the worst.  Last night I went to see The Boogeyman, the latest adaptation based one of King's short stories, and I think it falls somewhere in the middle of these two extremes because I certainly didn't hate it but I don't think it will have a lasting impression.  Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are almost debilitated by the recent death of their mother and they are not getting much support from their father Will (Chris Messina) because he is burying his own pain in his work as a therapist.  Will is approached by an unstable man named Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) who claims that his children were killed by a monster that is now stalking him.  When Lester hangs himself in a closet in their home, this mysterious monster begins terrorizing the family.  Sadie eventually reaches out to Lester's wife Rita (Marin Ireland) and learns that this creature lives in the dark and feeds off feelings of grief and sadness.  This movie is incredibly atmospheric with a menacing sound and light design that makes the buildup to the terror extremely effective even if it does strain credulity (why don't they just turn on the lights?).  One scene in particular, when Sawyer rolls a glowing orb down a dark hall to see if the monster is lurking at the end of it, is so scary that I almost had to cover my eyes.  However, the final confrontation with the monster is very anticlimactic after all of the terrifying shots of dark closets and the message about getting over the trauma of losing a loved one is a bit heavy handed.  All of the performances are outstanding, although the characters are not developed fully, and I was especially impressed by Blair, who is very convincing as a child suffering from night terrors, and Dastmalchian, who is equally affecting and creepy in a brief role.  This is a serviceable horror movie that I enjoyed but it is not very memorable and I recommend waiting until it is streaming.