Didi

Last night I decided to have another double feature at the Broadway and I started with Didi because it is one that I missed at Sundance this year.  I absolutely loved this touching portrait of early adolescence.  Chris Wang (Izaac Wang) is spending the final weeks of the summer before his freshman year of high school suffering from teenage angst.  His awkward behavior pushes his best friends Fahad (Raul Dial) and Soup (Aaron Chang) away and his attempt to get closer to his crush Madi (Macaela Park) ends in embarrassment.  He tries to befriend a group of skateboarders by promising to create videos of their tricks but this eventually backfires.  His father is away working in Taiwan, his grandmother Nai Nai (Chang Li Hua) is critical of everything he does, his mother Chungsing (Joan Chen) embarrasses him, and his sister Vivian (Shirley Chen) bickers endlessly with him.  Just when he feels alienated by everyone in his life, his mother gives him the courage to start high school with his head held high.  What I loved most about this movie is that even though it is about a very specific perspective (the child of Chinese immigrants dealing with the pressure to succeed) and a specific time (the early days of social media in 2008) it is also universal in that almost everyone can relate to what Chris feels and experiences as he tries to navigate the transition to high school (I had a flashback to when I called my crush but then immediately hung up when he answered because i didn't know what to say).  I also like that the filmmakers don't sentimentalize Chris because a lot of his problems are of his own making and they don't magically disappear after his moment of catharsis.  Izaac Wang gives a wonderful performance but I was most impressed with Joan Chen because she portrays the hurt and anger that Chungsing feels with subtlety, especially in a scene when she responds to criticism from her mother-in-law.  Finally, I loved seeing the early iterations of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook!  This is a movie that I think anyone can enjoy and I highly recommend it!

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse

I love the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels!  It is hilarious so it was a lot of fun to see a new production at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse last night. I was laughing so much I couldn't breathe! Lawrence Jameson (Nick Balaich), a charming and sophisticated international playboy, cons a wealthy woman named Muriel Eubanks (Melissa Trenery), who is visiting the French Riviera from Omaha, by pretending to be a prince fighting a revolution to reclaim his country. When an uncouth amateur con artist named Freddy Benson (Josh Curtis) comes to the Riviera, Jameson decides to take him under his wing to keep him from stealing his marks. When he tries to con Jolene Oaks (Janelle Wiser), an heiress from Oklahoma, he enlists Benson's help to get him out of an accidental engagement. They both take credit for the success of the plan so they bet each other that the first one to con Christine Colgate (Natalie Peterson), an heiress from Cincinnati, out of $50,000 will win and the other will leave town. Hilarity ensues when Benson pretends to be a paralyzed soldier and Jameson pretends to be a Viennese psychiatrist but who is conning whom? What makes this show so funny is all of the physical comedy and it is brilliant in this show, especially in "All About Ruprecht" and "Ruffhousin' Mit Shuffhausen." I also really enjoyed "Love is My Legs" because it is completely over the top and made me laugh out loud! The choreography is a lot of fun in the big song and dance numbers "Give Them What They Want," "Great Big Stuff," "Oklahoma," and "The More We Dance" and the ensemble does a great job with lots of highly amusing bits of business sprinkled throughout. The main cast is outstanding because Balaich is very charming and debonair with a beautiful voice and Curtis is a perfect foil to him with all of his uproarious energy and body language (he ended up in the audience, including next to me, multiple times and it was so funny). They have perfect comedic timing and great chemistry with each other. Peterson also has a beautiful voice and provides the perfect blend of innocence and guile while Wiser is incredibly flamboyant and brought the house down in "Oklahoma." However, I especially loved Trenery because her facial expressions are hilarious but she also shows a bit of vulnerability. I was really impressed with the costumes, particularly all of the tuxedos and couture gowns, and with the main set which resembles a terrace overlooking the sea. I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining show and I highly recommend it.  There are performances on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays through September 21 (go here for tickets).  

Borderlands

I have never played the game but I thought the trailer for Borderlands looked like a lot of fun and I am a big fan of Cate Blanchett so I went to see it last night.  It is not quite as bad as all of the reviews have made it out to be but it is not good.  Roland (Kevin Hart), a mercenary gone rogue, kidnaps Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), along with her protector Krieg (Florian Munteanu), and takes her to the planet Pandora because he believes that she is Eridian and can open a vault containing vast amounts of treasure and technology left behind by the ancient civilization.  Atlas (Edgar Ramirez) hires the notorious bounty hunter Lileth (Blanchett) to retrieve Tina which forces her to return to her home planet for the first time after fleeing as a child.  She locates Tina with the help of the robot Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black) but she soon joins forces with Roland, Tina, and Krieg when she realizes why Atlas wants the technology.  They enlist the help of Dr. Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), an Eridian specialist, to find a series of keys so they can open the vault before Atlas.  Mayhem ensues.  I actually enjoyed the story, even though I was confused a few times and I guessed a big plot twist during the opening voiceover narration, and I was invested in the relationship between Lileth and Tina.  However, I did find the resolution to be incredibly anticlimactic because the vault is almost meaningless.  There are non-stop action sequences but they are very chaotic and it is often difficult to see who is fighting whom and the CGI is a mess.  Both Blanchett (I am sorry to say) and Curtis are surprisingly bland but I was most disappointed by Hart and Black, who can usually be relied upon to provide some fun comic relief, because they are not even a little bit funny (I laughed exactly once during the entire runtime).  Greenblatt is the only one who brings any energy to her role.  It is not the worst movie I have seen this year but it is definitely one you can wait to see when it streams.

It Ends With Us

I went through a Colleen Hoover phase last fall and, while I didn't love everything I read by the author, It Ends with Us was one book that I did enjoy.  It is always fun to see how a movie adaptation compares to the book so I went to see an early screening last night.  I think fans of the book will love it.  A young Lily Bloom (Isabela Ferrer) grows up witnessing the abuse her mother Jenny (Amy Morton) suffers at the hands of her father Andrew (Kevin McKidd).  When she meets Atlas Corrigan (Alex Neustaedter), a young man who is also the product of an abusive home, they bond over their shared trauma and begin an ill-fated relationship.  Years later, Lily (Blake Lively) is now the owner of a successful flower shop when the meets a handsome and charming neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni).  She falls in love with him but soon discovers that he has a temper that he cannot control.  She rationalizes that the injuries she sustains from his outbursts are just accidents until she comes into contact with Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) again and he recognizes the signs of abuse.  However, it is only when she has a daughter of her own that she realizes that she must stop the cycle of abuse.  This movie, like the book, has an important message about domestic abuse and I appreciate Lily's character arc moving from condemning her mother for staying with her father to understanding her reasons after experiencing abuse from a man she loves for herself.  I also really appreciate the fact that, while she does turn to Atlas for help after an especially devastating attack from Ryle, she doesn't rely on him to save her (it is not really the love triangle that it is being marketed as) but finds the courage within herself to make a difficult choice.  However, unlike the book, this message is only explored in a very superficial way and I was particularly disappointed in a rushed scene between Lily and her mother late in the third act because it could have been so much more powerful.  Viewers who have not read the book might not feel the full emotional impact.  Both Lively and Baldoni, who have sizzling chemistry, give compelling and highly nuanced performances and Ferrer is pitch perfect as the younger version of Lily (you really believe that she and Lively are the same person) but I think Jenny Slade steals the show as the quirky best friend!  The look of this movie is really appealing despite the dark subject matter, which effectively underscores how someone can be taken in by appearance, and the soundtrack is amazing.  I liked this adaptation but I definitely think my enjoyment was influenced by my familiarity with the book.

Note:  I can't really remember how Lily's clothes are described in the book but the costumes in the movie are definitely a choice.

School of Rock at CPT

I have been so excited for School of Rock ever since CPT announced the 2024 schedule because it is such a fun and feel good show! I got to see it with my sisters last night and all three of us loved it! Dewey (J.B. Moore) is kicked out of his band No Vacancy right before the Battle of the Bands and his friend Ned (Blaine Backman), with whom he has been living for the past several years, is being pressured by his uptight girlfriend Patty (Kimberly Teitter) to get him to pay rent. Desperate to earn some money, he takes a job as a substitute teacher at Horace Green Prep School that was meant for Ned. He has no idea what he is doing in the classroom but he is able to see that his students are being crushed under the pressure put on them by parents who don't understand them. When he overhears them during music class, Dewey decides to form a band with Zack (Jack Putnam) on lead guitar, Katie (Reign Gilmore) on bass, Lawrence (John Nelson Wakley) on keyboard, Freddy (Henry Smith) on drums, and Shonelle (Rylee Hunt) and Marcy (Audrey Edwards) on backing vocals. He recruits Billy (Soren Ray) to be the band's stylist, James (Cooper Nichols) as security, Madison (Aubrey Balls) and Sophie (Eden Liljenquist) as roadies, Mason (Payson Inkley) on tech, and Summer (Amy Gurney), the class know-it-all, as the band's manager. He also convinces Tomika (Adeline White), a shy and insecure transfer student, to become a featured vocalist. Being in the band gives the students a lot of confidence so Dewey decides to enter them in the Battle of the Bands but first he needs to convince the straight-laced principal Ms. Mullins (Michaela Shelton) to let him take them on a "field trip." Eventually the parents discover Dewey's deception but their performance at the Battle of the Bands wins them over. The kids in this show are insanely talented and play their instruments live on stage in the songs "You're in the Band," "Stick it to the Man," "Time to Play," and "School of Rock." It is so much fun to watch them during these songs, especially Putnam whenever he has a solo because he really shreds, but I loved their performance in "If Only You Would Listen" because it is so poignant (I had a tear in my eye). Moore is really great as Dewey because he has a lot of charisma and energy (I laughed out loud during his version of "In the End of Time") and I loved his interactions with the kids because you can really see the bond he forms with them. Shelton has an incredible voice, particularly in "Here at Horace Green" and "Queen of the Night," but her rendition of "Edge of Seventeen" is hilarious and "Where did the Rock Go?" shows a lot of vulnerability. The sets and costumes depicting the Horace Green Prep School are a lot of fun and I was also impressed with the lighting during all of the band performances. This show is definitely my favorite from CPT this season and I highly recommend it (go here for tickets). It runs on the Barlow Main Stage through August 31.