The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

I promised my sister that I wouldn't see The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes without her (we are huge fans of both the books and movies in The Hunger Games franchise) and, even though it was really hard to wait, I am so glad that we were able to see it together last night because we both loved it and couldn't stop talking about it on the drive home!  Eager to restore the former prosperity and honor of his family, Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) volunteers to become a mentor to one of the tributes in the 10th Annual Hunger Games, a scheme devised by Head Gamemaker Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis) and the Academy Dean Casca Highbottom (Peter Dincklage), who created the games, to increase viewership.  He is assigned Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the female tribute from District 12 who is also a member of a traveling musical group known as the Covey.  He wants her to win in order to claim the prize money given for mentoring the victor in the games so he begins proposing changes, such as introducing the tributes to the Capitol and allowing sponsors to send them supplies during the game, in order to help her.  However, he soon forms a bond with Lucy Gray and will eventually risk everything, even his humanity, to save her.  I loved almost everything about this movie!  The story is so clever and compelling because it traces the genesis of the various elements used in the subsequent Hunger Games as well as Snow's transformation into the tyrannical leader of Panem and it is a pretty faithful adaptation of the book (events that are left out, such as the funerals of Arachne Crane and Felix Ravinstill and Snow's search for a guitar for Lucy Gray, are not really necessary in my opinion).  I loved the production design because the Capitol is clearly rebuilding after the devastation of war but there are definitely glimpses of what it will become and the academy, the zoo, and the arena are exactly like what I pictured when reading the book.  The costumes are so dramatic and I especially loved the academy uniforms, Lucy Gray's dress, and Dr. Gaul's wild outfits.  The use of bluegrass music for Lucy Gray's songs is brilliant (I especially loved "Nothing You Can Take From Me," "Pure as the Driven Snow," and, of course, "The Hanging Tree") and I loved all of the callbacks to the original score.  The cast is perfect because Blyth looks the part and portrays all of Snow's conflicting motivations so well, Zegler has an incredible screen presence and her performance of the songs is a highlight, Jason Schwartzman is an absolute hoot as Lucky Flickerman and looks like he could really be a relative of Stanley Tucci's Caesar Flickerman, and Davis steals the show by chewing up the scenery as the evil Dr. Gaul.  My only complaint is that the third act is a bit rushed but I understand the necessity of it (I've heard that there is a four hour cut in existence).  I think this is the strongest movie in the franchise since Catching Fire and I highly recommend it to fans!

Next Goal Wins

Last night I went to see Next Goal Wins because I simply cannot resist an inspirational sports movie and I enjoyed seeing this true story (told with a few wild embellishments according to a priest, played rather amusingly by director Taika Waititi, who breaks the fourth wall to narrate) with a large crowd who frequently laughed out loud.  Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) is coerced into to coaching the football team in American Samoa, notorious for losing by the widest margin (31-0) ever during a game against Australia, after being fired from the U.S. men's national team.  The organizer of the team (Oscar Kightley) just wants them to score one goal, which they have never done in international play, but Rongen is a volatile alcoholic with anger management issues and immediately butts heads with the devoutly religious, traditional, and laid back players.  The team eventually finds success but they also teach Rongen that there are more important things than winning.  This is full of the usual sports movie tropes, such as a training montage to "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," a motivational locker room speech, as well as a suspenseful come from behind win, and it definitely includes a white savior narrative (although it is somewhat subverted by the fact that the team wins in spite of Rongen).  Fassbender's performance is surprisingly bad and I actually cared about the individual members of the team (especially a transgender player, the first to ever compete in a FIFA qualifying match, brilliantly portrayed by Kaimana) more than Rongen and I wish that their character arcs had been emphasized more.  Despite all of this, however, there is enough heart and humor (I loved all of the references to The Karate Kid) to make this an entertaining watch and I recommend it, especially to fans of the genre, although it is definitely one you can wait to see when it streams.

Brahms' Symphony No. 2

Last night I was back at Abravanel Hall for another Utah Symphony concert and it was wonderful.  The orchestra began with a modern piece called Prelude a une nuit americaine by Mathilde Wantenaar.  It is meant to represent a sultry evening with just the hint of jazz in the air and I really enjoyed the energy and vitality, especially the tension created by the themes played by the brass.  Next came Death and Transfiguration by Richard Strauss and this was my favorite piece of the evening because I could definitely envision a dying man searching for what lies beyond just by closing my eyes and listening to the music.  It begins very slowly with beautiful themes played by the woodwinds and a solo violin to represent dreams once cherished during a lifetime.  Then there is a dramatic change in tone with a crash of timpani and fanfares from the brass leading to some intense passages from the violins to depict the reality of the human condition.  The piece concludes with the stroke of a gong signifying the transcendence needed to achieve the greatness once dreamed of.  The performance was incredibly powerful!  After the intermission, the orchestra concluded with Symphony No. 2 by Johannes Brahms.  Guest conductor Markus Poschner, a world-renowned expert on Brahms, explained that this piece celebrates both the joy of living and the melancholy that exists below the surface.  I was really struck by the notes played by the cellos and basses at the beginning of the first movement which eventually develop into themes by the horns, the woodwinds, and then the violins with underlying hints from the trombones and tuba threatening the calm.  The melancholy themes, which I loved, come from the cellos in the second movement while the oboes play a lighthearted theme recalling the first movement in the third.  The final movement ends triumphantly with the trombones!  What I most enjoyed about this concert is that, like the one two weeks ago, the three pieces were tied together thematically through their exploration of the highs and lows of the human experience.  I highly recommend getting a ticket to tonight's performance of the same program (go here).

My Fair Lady at the Eccles

I'm a big fan of the musical My Fair Lady (there is just something comforting about all of the old favorites from Broadway's Golden Era) so I have been looking forward to the Lincoln Center production currently touring ever since the 2023-2024 Broadway at the Eccles season was announced!  I was able to see it last night and, unfortunately, I was a little bit underwhelmed by it.  When Professor Henry Higgins (Jonathan Grunert) and Colonel Pickering (John Adkison) encounter a Cockney flower girl named Eliza Doolittle (Annette Barrios-Torres) in Covent Garden, Higgins boasts that he could pass her off as a duchess at the Embassy Ball within six months by teaching her to speak properly.  Even though Eliza is a success at the ball, she becomes a true lady when she compels Higgins to treat her like one.  While I love all of the music in this show and wait with great anticipation for all of my favorite songs, including "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," With a Little Bit of Luck," "Just You Wait," "The Rain in Spain," "I Could Have Danced All Night," "On the Street Where You Live," "Get Me to the Church on Time," and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," I found the performances to lack energy despite the fact that everyone in the cast has a beautiful voice (especially Borrios-Torres).  The big production numbers, "With a Little Bit of Luck" and "Get Me to the Church on Time," are the best scenes in the show thanks to Michael Hegarty's comedic turn as Alfred P. Doolittle (and some cross-dressing can-can dancers) but every other number has surprisingly unimaginative choreography and nothing really grabbed my attention.  I especially found the ball scene to be oddly anticlimactic because it features couples dancing without much opportunity for Eliza to practice her correct diction with Professor Zoltan Karpathy (Christopher Isolando).  The costumes at Ascot are usually a highlight of the show for me but the ones in this scene are muted pastels rather than the dramatic black and white ones that you usually see (they are admittedly very beautiful, especially the hats, but they do not have a lot of impact).  I did, however, love the jewel-toned gowns, particularly Eliza's golden one, at the ball and both Higgins and Pickering have some opulent dressing gowns and smoking jackets.  The other aspect of the production that really impressed me was the set, especially the opera house in Covent Garden, Henry Higgins' wood paneled study (I loved the spiral staircase connecting the two levels and the large arched window), and the Embassy ballroom (the lighting in this scene is gorgeous).  I will always love this show and this version is "loverly" enough for me to recommend it but, honestly, I have seen much better local productions (especially this one) with tickets at half the price.  It runs at the Eccles Theatre through November 18 (go here for tickets).

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Live in Concert

Last night I got to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse while the score was played live by an orchestra and a DJ with a turntable.  It was awesome!  Seeing it on the big screen again reminded me of how much I love this movie and the soundtrack!  A Brooklyn teenager named Miles Morales (Shemeik Moore) is bitten by a radioactive spider and, after waking up with superpowers which disrupt his life, he returns to the alley where he was bitten.  He finds a secret lab with a supercollider created by Kingpin (Liev Schrieber) to access parallel universes in order to bring back alternate versions of his wife and son who died during an altercation with Spider-Man (Chris Pine).  Spider-Man is ultimately killed while trying to destroy the collider but not before several incarnations of Spider-Man from parallel universes appear.  These include a down-and-out Peter B. Parker/ Spider-Man (Jake Johnson), spunky Gwen Stacy/ Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), the cartoon Peter Porker/ Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), a monochromatic Spider-Noir (Nicolas Cage), and Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) a young Japanese girl who pilots a biomechanical spider.  They help Miles discover his powers and find the motivation to fight Kingpin as well as other familiar villains.  The animation in this movie is absolutely dazzling and the music by David Pemberton is just as exciting.  The score was performed by Broadway Sinfonietta, an orchestra composed of women (mostly WOC) conducted by Emily Marshall, and they were a lot of fun to watch because the music features lots of percussion (the percussion section took up half the stage).  I really loved all of the dramatic and exciting themes punctuated by the percussion, especially "Security Guard" as Miles runs away from school after discovering his powers, "Are You Ready to Swing?" as Spider-Man and Miles swing through the trees at Alchemax, and "Miles Morales Returns" when Miles joins the fight against Kingpin, but I also enjoyed the more poignant themes, such as "Destiny" (I loved the trombone) when Spider-Man asks Miles to destroy the collider before he dies, "On Your Way" when Miles learns the truth about the Prowler, "This Spark in You," when Miles' dad talks to him through his door, and "Saying Goodbye" when all of the Spider-People return to their own universes.  Another really cool element of the score is the use of unusual sounds recreated on a turntable, such as the scratching in "Into the Spider-Verse," the howls in "Green Goblin Fight," an elephant trumpeting in "The Prowler," and the clicking of a pen in "Kingpin Clicks," and DJ Damage was on hand to provide these effects (he was also really fun to watch because was so animated).  It is really cool when the songs featured in the soundtrack blend seamlessly into the score, particularly when Miles sings along to "Sunflower" by Post Malone and Swae Lee and when "What's Up Danger" by Blackway and Black Caviar (I love this song so much and I am not alone because the audience applauded for it) fades into "Miles Morales Returns."  I love seeing films in concert but I think this one just might be my favorite because the sights and sounds were so dynamic!  I hope Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will be next!