Bottoms

Last night I saw Bottoms with a large and enthusiastic crowd at the Broadway and it is the funniest movie I've seen this year!  PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edibiri) are best friends since childhood who are tired of their status as the losers of their school (not because they are lesbians but because they are untalented and ugly lesbians).  At the beginning of their senior year PJ decides that they need to be proactive in their goal to have sex with their crushes Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber) despite the fact that they are popular cheerleaders and Isabel is dating the quarterback Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine).  When their friend Hazel (Ruby Cruz) inadvertently starts a rumor that PJ and Josie spent the summer in juvenile detention and had to fight the inmates every day, they see the effect it has on their classmates, especially the cheerleaders, who often fear for their safety and they decide to start a self defense club.  They enlist their inept history teacher Mr. G (Marshawn Lynch) to be the faculty advisor and soon the so-called fight club becomes a source of female empowerment to the members but it also gets the much sought after attention of Isabel and Brittany.  Complications ensue when their real motivation for starting the club is revealed but they must all come together to save the football team from their biggest rival.  I loved the representation in this movie and that it features lots of social commentary but I also loved that it is a hilarious satire of the high school sex comedy genre! I laughed out loud at the clever script from beginning to end (there are so many jokes and I already want to see it again because I'm sure I missed some) and I was definitely not alone!  The portrayal of the football team, who are never out of uniform, is especially over the top because the entire school is invested in the forty year rivalry with another school's football team to the exclusion of everything else. Galitzine is so funny (the scene of him dancing to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" had me in hysterics) and Lynch steals every scene he is in (a joke about being an ally is another laugh out loud moment) but Sennott and Edibiri are wonderful together with a very natural chemistry that is so much fun to watch.  I absolutely loved this and I highly recommend watching it with the biggest crowd you can find with the proviso that it is violent with lots of crude humor.

Note:  Be sure to stay through the credits because there are deleted scenes and bloopers that are just as funny as the movie!

Jeremy Jordan at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre

As a huge theatre nerd I actually squealed out loud when I found out that Broadway star Jeremy Jordan was coming to the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre and I have been looking forward to the show all summer! The concert was last night and to say that it was amazing would be a understatement! He was accompanied by the Utah Valley Symphony under the baton of Blanka Bednarz and the program, much to my delight, consisted mainly of songs from the Great White Way! He began with "Something's Coming" from West Side Story and then continued with "Broadway Here I Come" from the TV show Smash (in which Jordan stars as Jimmy Collins, a composer who writes the Broadway musical Hit List). Next came a really cool arrangement of "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" from Oklahoma and one of the best renditions of "Soliloquy" from Carousel that I have ever heard. After this Jordan took the first of two breaks while the orchestra played a beautiful medley from Les Miserables. My first introduction to Jordan was in the movie The Last Five Years (which I love) so I was absolutely thrilled that he sang "Moving Too Fast" when he came back to the stage.  One of my favorite moments of the concert came next when he sang "She Used to Be Mine" from Waitress (he played Jim on Broadway but he said Jenna had all of the best songs so he wanted to sing one of hers).  I love this song so much and I've heard Jessie Mueller, who originated the role of Jenna on Broadway, and Sara Bareilles, who wrote the musical, sing it but I have to say that Jordan's rendition gave me goosebumps! He told the crowd that he was required to include a Disney song so he gave a stirring performance of "Out There" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Next came a medley of songs originally arranged by Oscar-winning composer Johnny Mandel for Andy Williams which included "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing," "Mona Lisa," "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe," "All the Way," and "Moon River." He told the crowd that he included this medley because he wanted to take advantage of having an orchestra backing him and it was incredibly lush and romantic. Jordan took another short break while the orchestra performed a medley from The Phantom of the Opera and when he returned he brought me to tears with "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables and "Why God, Why?" from Miss Saigon. When I first found out about this concert, I really hoped that he would sing "Santa Fe" from Newsies. He originated the role of Jack Kelly on Broadway and I listen to the soundtrack all of the time so I was incredibly excited to hear a live version of this song and he did not disappoint! He ended his main set with an amazing version, another favorite moment of the concert, that brought the crowd to their feet! For the encore, he performed "Being Alive" from Company which, once again, received an enthusiastic standing ovation! Not only does Jordan have a beautiful voice, he is so charismatic and he had lots of funny and spontaneous interactions with the crowd. His setlist was everything I could have ever wanted as a Broadway fan and I loved every minute! It was definitely worth waiting all summer for!

Golda

Last night I went to the Broadway to see Golda because I have always been fascinated by the history of the Middle East.  It is incredibly powerful with another brilliant performance from Helen Mirren.  The narrative surrounds the Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Syria and Egypt in 1973 with the framing device of the Agranat Comission during which Prime Minister Golda Meir (Mirren) is called upon to explain her controversial decision not to launch a preemptive strike despite receiving intelligence suggesting a coming attack.  While there are strategy meetings with her ministers and generals and some incredibly tense sequences listening to the audio from battle, much of the focus is on how a chain-smoking and stoop-shouldered woman undergoing treatments for lymphoma responds to the crisis.  The constraints imposed on her by her diplomatic position are shown through her complicated relationship with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber), her continuing heath problems are shown through her relationship with her personal assistant Lou Kaddar (Camille Cottin), and her despair over the deaths of so many soldiers is shown through her relationship with her secretary Shir Shapiro (Ellie Piercy) and I think this is very effective at showing the real woman behind the politician.  Mirren is absolutely phenomenal and disappears completely into the role.  I was particularly moved by the scene where she keeps replaying the audio from the devastating battle in her mind and when she must inform her secretary of the death of her son in battle.  I also enjoyed some recurring visual motifs throughout, such as the appearance of birds and the use of the ever present cigarette smoke to represent battle, as well as the dramatic sound design and score.  I really liked this historical drama and highly recommend it.

The Hill

Last night I went to see The Hill because I am a sucker for a good underdog sports story (it was the second one in two days).  Unfortunately, this one is not good.  Rickey Hill, the son of a poverty-stricken itinerant pastor, has a degenerative spinal disease that requires him to wear leg braces as a child (played by Jesse Berry) but he is a phenom at hitting a baseball and dreams of playing in the major league.  His father James Hill (Dennis Quaid) believes that it is God's will that he follow in his footsteps and become a preacher but Rickey believes that it is God's will that he play baseball and he (played as a teen by Colin Ford) eventually becomes a star on his high school team.  However, he must overcome a debilitating injury that requires surgery and the disapproval of his father for a chance to try out for an MLB scout.  Hill's story is compelling and inspirational and I actually enjoyed the messages about faith (it isn't as heavy-handed as I expected it to be) and perseverance so I really wish that the telling of it was better.  It uses a linear timeline with all of the predictable beats of a traditional biopic (which doesn't always bother me if there is some other element to keep my attention) so the pacing becomes very sluggish at times.  I also found the climactic reconciliation between father and son that I had been waiting for throughout the whole movie to be incredibly disappointing because Pastor Hill confesses the error of his ways to his congregation rather than to Rickey.  Most of the supporting characters are one-dimensional, the dialogue is hackneyed, and the score is emotionally manipulative.  The performances range from bland at best to cringe-worthy at worst and Quaid, who I usually really like, is almost laughably bad with a permanent scowl on his face (a school yard bully with a comical grimace as he tries to strike Rickey out in a pick-up game is almost as bad).  The only dynamic presence on the screen is Scott Glenn in a cameo as the curmudgeonly scout Red Murff.  I really wanted to love this but, alas, I didn't and I can't really recommend it.

Gran Turismo

Last night I finally had the chance to see Gran Turismo and, as fan of inspirational underdog sports stories, I absolutely loved it!  I may or may not have cheered out loud during a climactic moment in a race.  Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom), a marketing executive for Nissan, pitches the idea to find the best players of the PlayStation game Gran Turismo and have them compete for a chance to race on Team Nissan for the publicity.  He recruits Jack Salter (David Harbour), a former driver turned mechanic, to train the gamers but Salter doesn't think they have the stamina or intuition to succeed and only accepts Team Nissan's offer because his current driver, Nicholas Capa (Josha Stradowski), is too arrogant for his own good. Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) spends all of his free time playing the game and, despite the disapproval of his father Steven (Djimon Hounsou), he is selected to train at the GT Academy and ultimately wins the respect of Salter and a contract with Team Nissan.  However, after struggling in a few qualifying races, he succeeds in placing and earning a F1 Super License but faces growing backlash from the racing community and must prove himself at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race.  This is somewhat predictable (there is the ubiquitous training montage, the obvious competition between Mardenborough and the driver that Salter abandoned to train him, a convenient love interest, a devastating crash as an emotional arc, and a touching reconciliation between Mardenborough and his father before Le Mans) but it is a really inspiring story about an outsider who overcomes the odds and the visuals are spectacular!  The racing sequences are incredibly immersive and it really seems as if Mardenborough is actually driving when he is playing the game and like he is playing the game when he is driving.   I especially loved the Le Mans race because I was on the edge of my seat during the final lap even though I basically knew what was going to happen (see above comment about cheering out loud).  Madekwe is very appealing but Harbour is the standout for me because, in my opinion, his moving performance as a reluctant mentor is what makes you care about Mardenborough.  The soundtrack is also a lot of fun (I loved the Enya and Kenny G needle drops).  This is much better than I was expecting and I highly recommend it!