Never Let Go

The reviews for Never Let Go have not been great but I was really intrigued by the trailer so I decided to see it last night.  Unfortunately, like several horror thrillers released this year, it begins well with an interesting premise and an escalating sense of dread but falls apart in the final act.  An unnamed mother (Halle Berry) lives in an isolated cabin in the woods, in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic timeline, with her twin sons Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins).  She regularly reminds the boys of an omnipresent evil in the world, that only she can see which often takes the form of her abusive mother (Kathryn Kirkpatrick) or her deadbeat husband (William Catlett), and the only thing that can keep them safe from this evil is their home and the love they share.  When they venture into the woods to forage for food they must stay tethered to the house, literally with ropes, and recite an incantation before leaving and after they return (I wish this lore was explored more fully).  When supplies run low and the family faces starvation, Nolan starts to question everything his mother has told him.  Is the evil outside in the world or is it within the house?  I was really invested in the setup of a mother, who may or may not be suffering from delusions brought on by trauma, doing whatever it takes to keep her children safe and Berry does a great job at walking a tightrope between her character's protectiveness and unhinged paranoia.  Daggs and Jenkins are also very convincing and highly sympathetic, especially when the brothers disagree about the evil, because I didn't want anything bad to happen to either of them.  The atmospheric cinematography in the woods, the creepy production design inside the candle-lit house, and the menacing sound design create a palpable unease.  However, as with The Watchers, Longlegs, and Cuckoo, all of the tension is undone in the third act.  There is an M. Night Shyamalan type plot twist (that mirrors the one in The Village beat for beat) but the script doesn't commit to it and we are left with some incredibly confusing action sequences and a decidedly unsatisfactory resolution that leaves more questions than answers.  I found the ambiguity to be more disappointing than thought-provoking so I don't recommend this.

The Eagles at the Sphere

Seeing U2 at the Sphere was an incredible experience so when I heard that the Eagles would be doing a residency there I knew I had to get a ticket.  I took a road trip to Las Vegas for the first show Friday night and it was absolutely amazing!  I ended up sitting by some people from Virginia who were big fans but had never seen the Eagles before and they were so excited.  While we waited for the show to start we tried to guess what the first song would be and they suggested "Take It Easy" because it was their first big hit and I thought it would be "Seven Bridges Road" because they often start with it but it was actually "Hotel California" which they usually perform during the encore!  I tried to prepare them for how immersive the three-dimensional images would look on the state-of-the-art screens but they just about lost their minds when a car on a dark desert highway appeared to drive right into the audience!  The images also take the audience through a dark corridor with burning sconces to check in and then to a courtyard for a feast.  It was seriously so cool!  I also really loved the visuals for "Witchy Woman" (the band performs in a haunted forest), "Tequila Sunrise" (the sun slowly appears through the clouds), "In the City" (apartment buildings get bigger and bigger until they surround Joe Walsh during an epic guitar solo), "New Kid in Town" (filmstrips featuring archival photos and videos of the band are configured and reconfigured into 3-D cubes), "Life's Been Good" (archival photos and videos spin around the band as they play), "The Boys of Summer" (a couple runs on a beach then they swim underwater), and "Life in the Fast Lane" (a car races along the Las Vegas strip).  They also performed "Lyin' Eyes," "Take It to the Limit," "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "I Can't Tell You Why," "Seven Bridges Road," "Those Shoes," "Already Gone," "Take It Easy," and "Rocky Mountain Way" with a live feed of the band performing on the screens (there is not a bad seat in the venue because all of the images appear at eye level).  The encore included an incredibly emotional version of "Desperado," with silhouettes of an orchestra performing behind a curtain, and "Heartache Tonight" (dedicated to JD Souther), with animated images of gambling.  Vince Gill is such a great addition to the band because, even though he doesn't necessarily sound exactly like Glenn Frey or Randy Meisner, it just somehow sounds right when he sings their songs.  I was also glad to see Deacon Frey back with the band (he looks so much like his dad and sounds a lot like him in the songs "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Already Gone").  Neither of them spoke to the crowd but they were heavily featured on the screens.  Don Henley provided most of the commentary (although Joe Walsh was predictably hilarious) and he joked that they were just the house band for all of the high-tech wizardry!  Just like with U2, this was another mind-blowing concert and I recommend getting a ticket (go here) during the residency (they keep adding more shows due to the overwhelming demand).

Note:  Hearing the audience singing along with "Hotel California" gave me goosebumps because it was so loud!

Transformers One

I am not a huge fan of the Transformers franchise (Bumblebee is my favorite and I liked Transformers: Rise of the Beasts well enough) but I thought the trailer for Transformers One looked like a lot of fun so I went to see a Thursday preview in IMAX last night.  I had a blast with this animated origin story detailing how friends Orion Pax and D-16 become the arch-enemies Optimus Prime and Megatron.  In the aftermath of war with the Quintessons, during which the original Primes were destroyed and the Matrix of Leadership was lost, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) leads Cybertron from the underground city Iacon.  He frequently visits the surface to look for the Matrix of Leadership because it is needed to restore the rivers of energon.  Orion (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), two of the many bots who are missing the cog that would allow them to transform, are forced to work in the energon mines but they are demoted to waste management because of a stunt.  Hoping to regain their status, they recruit fellow miners Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) to go to the surface with them to find the Matrix of Leadership in order to impress Sentinel.  Instead, they discover a betrayal.  Orion, who wants to use the truth to unite all of the bots to work for change, and D-16, who wants to control them all to take revenge, disagree on what to do about this discovery which leads to an epic confrontation.  I really enjoyed the surprisingly engaging story (which also has deeper themes than I was expecting), the relationship between Orion and D-16 and their believable evolution from friends to enemies, the excellent voice work from Hemsworth (who really impressed me with his, er, transformation from a goofy optimist to a leader with gravitas), the dazzling animation (I especially loved the visuals on the surface), and the exciting action sequences.  I was actually really surprised by how much I liked this and think it might be my favorite in the franchise!  See it in IMAX if you can!

Merchant Ivory

The second documentary in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Merchant Ivory and, as someone who absolutely loved their movies as a teen and young adult in the 1980s and 90s, I found it to be fascinating.  This is a very straightforward look at the professional and personal partnership between director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant and how they, along with regular collaborators screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, composer Richard Robbins, and costume designers Jenny Beavan and John Bright, revitalized the costume drama with some of the most acclaimed movies in cinematic history.  Despite being obsessed with A Room with a View, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day, I didn't really know very much about the filmmakers who made them so I enjoyed the discussion about the yin-yang dynamic in their partnership with Ivory being calm, cool, collected, and dedicated to the purity of his artistic vision while Merchant was loud, bombastic, passionate, and determined to work faster and cheaper.  I also loved the discussion about how most of their movies have subversive themes about the hypocrisy found in polite society juxtaposed with gorgeous production design.  It was fun to see all of the behind the scenes stills and footage from my three favorites but it was also really interesting to learn about the difficulties in making their earlier movies (I now want to watch Shakespeare Wallah after learning that they only had enough film for one take in the final climactic scene) and to see how different perceptions impacted their later films, particularly with Jefferson in Paris.  My favorite aspect of this documentary is all of the contemporary interviews with many of the actors they worked with, especially Rupert Graves, James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Samuel West, Vanessa Redgrave (who is an absolute hoot), Emma Thompson, and Helena Bonham Carter.  A common theme in these interviews is how difficult it was to work on one of their movies because of the limited budget (at one point Merchant was catering the food for the cast and crew himself) but they were always lured back to make another one because of the final product.  I definitely enjoyed this and recommend it to fans of Merchant-Ivory movies.

Will & Harper

I don't see a lot of documentaries but there are two currently playing at the Broadway that piqued my interest so I decided on a double feature last night.  I started with Will & Harper because I missed it at Sundance this year and, just as I had heard from so many people at the festival, it is equal parts funny, heartwarming, and powerful.  Writer Andrew Steele and actor Will Ferrell are close friends dating from their days together on Saturday Night Live but, when Steele sends an email coming out to him as a trans woman after living for years in the closet, she wonders if their friendship will be the same (and she wonders if she will feel comfortable going to all of the places she once enjoyed as a man).  Ferrell suggests that they take a 16-day cross-country road trip together so that he can learn the best way to support her and so that he can act as a buffer when she interacts with new people who might not be accepting of her.  There are lots of really funny moments as these two friends who have known each other for decades bounce off each other (my favorites were a recurring bit involving Pringles and an attempt by Ferrell to go incognito in Las Vegas).  However, what really resonated with me was how much genuine emotion this trip elicits from Ferrell, especially when he realizes how much Steele suffered when she was forced to live an inauthentic life and when he sees first hand how dangerous it is for her to simply exist in some parts of the country (a scene in a Texas steakhouse is especially difficult to watch).  Ferrell is very curious about Steele's experience and asks her lots of questions ranging from what it feels like to have boobs, to how she chose her new name, to how she might navigate a romantic relationship in the future (as well as if she thinks she is now a bad driver because she is a woman) and his empathy and compassion set an important example for mainstream audiences, especially for those who are uncertain about how to interact with trans people, to follow.  This begins streaming on Netflix September 27 and I highly recommend it for everyone.