La Chimera

After seeing all of the rave reviews for La Chimera I was really excited to see it at the Broadway last night.  It is incredibly thought provoking and, the more I think about it, the more I like it.  Arthur (Josh O'Connor) is a British archaeologist who has just been released from a stint in prison for grave robbing and is returning to a small town in Tuscany.  He visits Flora (Isabella Rossellini), the mother of a former girlfriend named Beniamina (Yile Yara Vianello) who has disappeared from his life but still haunts his dreams, and he befriends Flora's no nonsense music student and housekeeper Italia (Carol Duarte).  However, he soon finds himself back with an eccentric group of tomb raiders using his gift of divining, during which he goes into a fugue state, to locate ancient Etruscan antiquities to sell on the black market through an enigmatic broker named Spartaco (Alba Rohrwacher).  When he finds an untouched tomb full of treasure he must decide of he wants to live in the past or the present.  The story meanders very slowly and there are many shifts in tone (Arthur is a morose and melancholy character while his crew is wild and boisterous, there are images of a sun-dappled Tuscany juxtaposed with dark and gloomy underground tombs, and scenes depicting stark reality are interspersed with magical realism) and changes in format which are sometimes quite disorienting (by design).  Everything suddenly comes together in the end (and upon further reflection) but there were many times when I wondered what was going on and this kept me surprisingly engaged.  The haunting and beautiful final scene is worth all of the effort it takes to untangle the narrative (the allusions to Ariadne and Theseus are brilliant).  O'Connor's moody and otherworldly performance is perfect because Arthur is odds with everyone and everything around him (at one point I wondered if it was all just a dream) and I loved Rossellini's turn as an imperious aristocrat living in a crumbling mansion.  This movie defies description and categorization but I know I will be thinking about it for a long time to come!

Civil War

I have heard lots of different takes about the movie Civil War so I was very excited to have a chance to see it at the Broadway last night so that I could make up my own mind.  It is intense and often difficult to watch but I found it to be incredibly thought provoking with a message about war that really resonated with me.  In a dystopian future, the U.S. has descended into a civil war with Loyalist States led by a dictatorial third-term president (Nick Offerman) fighting against various factions, including the Western Forces (Texas and California), the Florida Alliance, and the New People's Army.  Two journalists, Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and Joel (Wagner Moura), covering the conflict in New York decide to head to Washington, D.C. to try and interview the heavily guarded president before the Western Forces make a final push to capture the capitol.  Their colleague Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) asks to join them as far as the front lines in Charlottesville, Virginia and, despite the fact that he is old and infirm, they allow him to come.  Joel also allows Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a young and aspiring photographer who idolizes Lee, to join them despite Lee's objections.  They document the ongoing conflict as they make the increasingly dangerous journey through civilian populations, who are doing whatever they need to in order to survive, which culminates in a dramatic assault on the White House.  This movie uses the lens of journalistic objectivity to focus more on what is happening rather than why it is happening.  It portrays urban warfare very realistically and it is incredibly shocking and violent with a discomfiting sound design that adds to the tension.  The fact that it does not espouse an ideological viewpoint (which has been problematic for many) and that it is difficult to watch (which has also been problematic for others) is actually the point because the message, in my opinion, is that war (and the subsequent collapse of societal norms) is catastrophic no matter the cause.  What I found most riveting is the juxtaposition between Lee, the hardened veteran of many foreign conflicts, and Jessie, the inexperienced newcomer who reacts emotionally to everything she sees, because they slowly trade personas as the narrative progresses.  The performances, especially by Dunst and Spaeny as well as a menacing cameo by Jesse Plemons that made me jump twice, are also very compelling.  I would rate this as one of my favorites this year but the choice to have characters of color on the receiving end of most of the violence made me extremely uncomfortable.  Nonetheless, I would definitely recommend it.

Direct from Sweden: The Music of ABBA

Last night the Utah Symphony was joined by Direct from Sweden: The Music of ABBA, an incredible ABBA tribute group, and to say that I had fun at this concert would be an understatement!  I don't think I have ever seen such a boisterous crowd at Abravanel Hall because people were enthusiastically singing and dancing to every song!  This group looks and sounds just like ABBA with costumes (I loved the cat mini dresses with white go-go boots), choreography, and vocal performances that are incredibly authentic.  They introduced themselves at Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Anni-Frid and they stayed in character all night with lots of amusing interactions with the crowd (especially a group from Sweden).  The first set included "Mamma Mia," "Super Trouper," "Knowing Me, Knowing You" (my favorite ABBA song), "When All Is Said and Done," "Ring Ring" (which was sung in Swedish), "S.O.S.," "Fernando" (which sounded amazing with the orchestra), "The Name of the Game," "Money, Money, Money," and "Waterloo" (with video footage from when ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974).  After the intermission, they performed "Voulez-Vous" and then passionate renditions of "I Have a Dream" and "The Winner Takes It All."  They continued with "Chiquitita," "Take a Chance On Me," "Does Your Mother Know," and then ended this set with a rocking version of "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)."  For the encore, they performed "Thank You for the Music" and ended the evening with "Dancing Queen" complete with a disco ball.  I love the music of ABBA and I have so many memories of listening to it when I was a child (it was part of my family's road trip playlist) so this whole concert was incredibly nostalgic for me (it always amazes me when I can immediately remember lyrics from song I haven't heard in a long time) and I loved every minute.  I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) for tonight's concert but act quickly because it was almost sold out last night!

Bitter Lemon at Plan-B Theatre

I loved Melissa Leilani Larson's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice so I was very excited to see her take on a minor character from Macbeth (one of my favorite Shakespeare plays) in Plan-B Theatre's production of Bitter Lemon last night. It is absolutely brilliant and I loved it just as much as the earlier play. Lady Helen Macduff (Yolanda Stange) has been alone for an indeterminate amount of time in a liminal space between life and the afterlife longing to be reunited with her children. She is suddenly joined by Finlay Macbeth (Bobby Cody), the man she holds responsible for her death and the death of her children, and she is justifiably angry. At first he doesn't remember her or the circumstances of his death but, when his memories do return, they are of their romantic relationship from long ago. As more memories return, they engage in a tense back and forth as they try to figure out why they have both been left in purgatory together and what they can do to escape. As Helen lashes out at Finlay, he blames her for turning him into who he became by deserting him and pushing him into the arms of the ambitious Marion and then he blames her husband Andrew Macduff (I love that all of the characters now have first names) for betraying him before he finally takes responsibility for his actions and begs her to forgive him. It is very intriguing when marginalized characters from literature are reimagined and given some agency and this play presents Lady Macduff as not just a strong character but one that is integral to the whole narrative. Stange is outstanding at portraying her righteous anger and her grief but I also enjoyed seeing her eventually come to the realization that she must forgive her enemy for her own sake (the final moment is so dramatic). Cody plays Macbeth as a charismatic leader who was justified in doing what he did because he believed that would be a better king and it is fascinating to see that facade break down bit by bit as the play progresses. The moment he asks for forgiveness is so affecting. The minimal set, featuring a series of neutral panels as a backdrop and randomly placed stone blocks which are used as seating, makes the subtle changes in the lighting even more dramatic and the sound design, which reminded me of white noise, is quite unsettling. I wish that the costumes were period rather than contemporary but this did not detract from my enjoyment in the least. This is an incredibly powerful and thought-provoking piece about the nature of forgiveness and I highly recommend getting a ticket. It runs in the Studio Theatre at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts through April 28 with Thursday and Friday evening performances and Saturday and Sunday matinee performances (go here).

Wicked Little Letters

I have been looking forward to seeing Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley together in Wicked Little Letters ever since I saw the trailer and I finally had the chance last night at the Broadway.  I loved this charming British period piece and I laughed out loud more times than I can count (as did the entire audience).  Edith Swan (Colman), a devout spinster who lives with her controlling and misogynistic father Edward (Timothy Spall) and her sympathetic mother Victoria (Gemma Jones) in Littlehampton, England during the 1920s, has been receiving anonymous letters that are deeply disturbing to her because they contain vulgar insults and profanity.  She suspects that her neighbor Rose Gooding (Buckley), a wild and foul-mouthed single mother from Ireland, is responsible for these letters and has the dim-witted Constable Papperwick (Hugh Skinner) arrest her.  Rose denies writing them and a female police officer named Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) believes her because there is no credible evidence against her.  However, Chief Constable Spedding (Paul Chahidi), who is under pressure from Parliament to solve the case, dismisses her concerns so she enlists several eccentric women from the village (Joanna Scanlan, Lolly Adefope, and Eileen Atkins) to help her find the proof to clear Rose.  Colman is absolutely hilarious as a seemingly pious woman who is secretly delighted by all of the attention she is receiving from this scandal and I wanted to cheer when she finally confronts her father.  Buckley is always a lot of fun when she plays a brash young woman but she is very affecting as a mother who wants a better life for her daughter.  I also really enjoyed Vasan's performance as a woman undaunted by discrimination she faces in the police department and the rest of the cast is delightful.  I figured out the mystery, based on a true story, early on but it didn't matter because the characters are all so engaging.  This is a crowd-pleaser that I recommend to fans of British comedies with the proviso that it obviously includes a lot of profanity (albeit with very charming accents).