Daddio

Another trailer that really caught my attention was the one for Daddio so I decided to see it at the Broadway last night.  It is a dialogue heavy two-hander that takes place in one location in real time but it is far more compelling than it has any right to be!  A young woman (Dakota Johnson) lands at JFK and gets into a cab driven by Clark (Sean Penn) for the ride home to midtown Manhattan.  At first the two of them engage in desultory small talk but, when they are detained for an extended period of time by a serious accident on the highway, he begins asking probing questions about her life and relationships.  She pushes back against his unsolicited advice but, when he suggests that he is the perfect person to talk to because she will never see him again, she opens up which allows both of them to share a profound human connection.  The script is incredibly intelligent with razor sharp insights about the dynamic between men and women that are sure to provoke lots of conversations.  Both Johnson and Penn give brilliant and highly nuanced performances (in my opinion Johnson is an outstanding actress when given the right material) and their chemistry with each other is authentic as they spar back and forth.  Even though almost all of the action takes place inside a cab, the cinematography is very dynamic with shots that alternate between Johnson and Penn and employ many different angles and perspectives (I loved the use of the rear view mirror).  I also really loved the moody original score because it adds another layer of subtext to the dialogue.  This might not be for everyone because it requires a lot of engagement but my attention never wavered and I would highly recommend it (with the caveat that there is a lot of profanity).

Janet Planet

I was intrigued by the trailer for Janet Planet so I decided to see it at the Broadway yesterday.  I was really impressed with the performances but I sometimes found it very tedious to sit through.  Janet (Julianne Nicholson) is a free-spirited acupuncturist living in rural Massachusetts with her precocious 11-year-old daughter Lacy (Zoe Ziegler).  During the summer of 1991 Janet has an ill-fated relationship with a withdrawn and troubled boyfriend (Will Patton), reconnects with an old friend (Sophie Okonedo) who is fleeing a new age commune, and pursues a friendship with the guru (Elias Koteas) of this commune.  Lacy cannot bear to be away from her mother (she begs to come home from summer camp and even pretends to be sick to delay going back to school) but she spends most of her time on the periphery of Janet's life while silently judging her choices.  This is a very impressionistic examination of a codependent relationship between a mother and daughter in which newcomer Ziegler brilliantly portrays the loneliness of a child who inhabits an adult world while Nicholson is heartbreaking as a mother who loves her child but is being suffocated by her neediness.  The narrative is incredibly thin and, while that is not necessarily a bad thing, the characters need to be compelling to sustain interest.  Unfortunately, I found them both to be unlikable (Janet is aimless and Lacy is manipulative) and there isn't any growth or resolution (I was actually stunned when the credits started rolling).  The images are beautiful and I liked the use of natural sound instead of an original score but the pacing is so boring deliberate that my mind wandered frequently (I get that many of these scenes are meant to mimic the boredom of a child spending the summer with only adults for company but that makes it boring for the audience, as well).  I am definitely in the minority but this just didn't do anything for me.

Fly Me to the Moon

Last night my sister and I went to an early access screening of Fly Me to the Moon (another movie on my sister's list) and we both really enjoyed it!  With support for NASA's mission to the moon waning, a marketing expert named Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) is brought in to improve public opinion and ensure continued funding from Congress, much to the dismay of the launch director Cole Davis (Channing Tatum).  As the launch date approaches, the White House fears what a failure will mean for US-Soviet relations so Jones is coerced by a government official, Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson), to create a simulation of the moon landing as a contingency plan.  However, Jones comes to believe in the importance of the mission, and develops feelings for Davis, so will she continue to fake it?  This is a fun and lighthearted romantic comedy, with a charming performance from Johansson and amazing chemistry between her and Tatum (even though I did have a hard time believing that Tatum was smart enough to be a director at NASA), and it is a lot funnier than I was expecting (I laughed out loud every time Jim Rash appeared on the screen as the flamboyant director of the fake moon landing).  This also has more substance than I was expecting with a dark backstory for Jones and a more poignant one for Davis that really informs the decisions that they make.  The story is also really compelling because the filmmakers manage to create a lot of suspense about the moon landing (even though we all think we know what happened).  I loved the 1960s aesthetic in the production design, especially the clothes, hairstyles, and cars, and I was impressed with all of the scenes at NASA, particularly the launch of the rocket.  This is an incredibly entertaining summer blockbuster that I highly recommend!

MaXXXine

I was quite surprised by how much I loved both X and Pearl so I was really excited to see MaXXXine, the conclusion to the trilogy, at an early access screening at the Broadway last night.  It is definitely the weakest of the three movies, which is a bit disappointing, but at least I had fun watching it with a big crowd.  After surviving a massacre at a Texas farmhouse, Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) is now living in Hollywood and working in the adult entertainment industry.  She signs on to star in a horror film, The Puritan II, written and directed by Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki) because she is hoping for more mainstream success but her big break is jeopardized by a mysterious serial killer with ties to her past who is killing her friends and colleagues and using a private detective named John Labat (Kevin Bacon) to stalk her.  She evades homicide detectives Marianne Williams (Michelle Monaghan) and Ben Torres (Bobby Canavale) to confront the killer herself, in an epic battle at the Hollywood sign, and uses the notoriety to become the star she was always meant to be.  Just as X is an homage to the slasher films of the 1970s and Pearl takes inspiration from the Technicolor Golden Age of Hollywood, MaXXXine references the neo-noir erotic thrillers of the 1980s (it reminded me of a Brian De Palma movie).  It portrays the sleazy underbelly of Hollywood and the fear of the religious right about the influence of horror prevalent during the time period but these themes are not explored with any depth.  As a result, I found the climax and the big reveal of the killer to be incredibly underwhelming and I kept waiting for there to be another twist in the final few minutes.  Even though there is more style than substance, I thoroughly enjoyed the 1980s aesthetic in the costumes and production design as well as all of the needle drops, especially "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood during a club scene.  Goth is as compelling as ever, particularly in a scene involving an audition, and Bacon's over the top performance is so much fun to watch but most of the other actors are not given much to do and Debicki seems like she is in a completely different movie.  I didn't hate this but I was expecting so much more (because the previous movies are so good).

The Nutty Professor at HCT

Other than one of the best versions of Fiddler on the Roof that I've ever seen, I haven't been very impressed with the shows at HCT this season. Happily, that changed with their production of the new musical The Nutty Professor, which I was able to see last night, because it is so much fun! I don't know what I loved more: the story, the performances, the choreography, the costumes, the sets, or the projections! Julius Kelp (Spencer Jackson Hohl) is a nerdy and socially awkward chemistry professor at Korwin College who is often reprimanded by the dean, Dr. Warfield (BJ Whimpey), for blowing up his lab. He befriends Stella Purdy (Bre Welch), a new adjunct professor, but when he is humiliated by the star football players (Eric Ascione and Even McKay Naef), he decides that he must make some changes in order to impress her. He creates a serum that transforms him into the handsome and charismatic, but narcissistic, Buddy Love and soon the entire studentbody, including Stella, is under his spell. However, when Stella sees that Buddy is having a negative influence on the students, she realizes that it is Julius who she truly loves! This is a delightful and entertaining show and I love the message that it is always better to be yourself. Hohl is absolutely hilarious as Julius/Buddy because he is so good at the physical comedy! A scene where the serum wears off and he keeps transforming from Buddy to Julius and back again at inopportune times, with just a change in posture and facial expression, had me laughing out loud. He is also incredibly charming in all of the scenes with the students and it is entirely believable that Buddy could have them all swooning over him (I think Hohl may have actually taken the serum because all of the girls around me were swooning over him, too!). Welch has a beautiful voice and I especially loved her performances of "Too Much for Me" and "While I Still Have the Time." Everyone in the ensemble is insanely talented but I have to give a shoutout to Phil Lewis for the epic baton twirling! The choreography by Afton Wilson is amazing and it is worth the price of admission just to see all of the dazzling song and dance numbers. My favorites were "Dance to My Own Drummer," "(Hey Is It Me Or) Is It Hot in Here," "Buddy's Place" (especially when Julius suddenly appears and starts dancing awkwardly and then all of the students mimic him), "Everything You've Ever Learned is Wrong," and "Step Out of Your Shell" (the ballroom dancing is lovely). All of Joy Zhu's costumes are incredible (I was impressed by the sheer number of them) but I really loved the purple sequined suit worn by Buddy the first time he appears and all of the purple and yellow uniforms worn by the Korwin College cheerleaders, football players, and marching band (probably because they are the same colors as my college alma mater). I always love the sets at HCT and this one is no exception! The attention to detail in Julius' laboratory (I loved all of the neon potions in the beakers) is fabulous! Finally, the projections featuring atoms and the periodic table on the LED screens around the theater and on the stage are very amusing! I really cannot say enough about every aspect of this production and I highly recommend that you do not miss it! It runs on the Young Living Centre Stage through August 17 and tickets may be purchased here (but act quickly because many shows are sold out).

Note:  I saw Bre Welch last night in this show and her husband Addison the night before in Kiss Me Kate!