Maria

My nephew and I went to a matinee of Maria at the Broadway yesterday and, even though it is my least favorite of Pablo Larrain's portraits of enigmatic women, I absolutely loved Angelina Jolie's bravura performance.  Maria Callas (Jolie) spends the final days of her life in Paris reminiscing about her celebrated career on stage and her turbulent relationship with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer), worrying her devoted butler (Pierfrancesco Favino) and housekeeper (Alba Rohrwacher) with her increasing dependence on prescription drugs, and rehearsing with a vocal coach (Stephen Ashfield) to improve her deteriorating voice in an attempt to become La Callas again.  She also has regular hallucinations in which a reporter named Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee), the personification of the drug she has become addicted to, interviews her for a documentary about her life.  However, it is only when she is able to break free from the prison of her voice and sing for herself that she finally finds peace (this is incredibly fatalistic but I think there is an exultation in Maria's final scene).  The narrative sometimes feels crowded and disjointed but it looks absolutely gorgeous with warm and saturated colors evoking Paris during the 1970s along with dramatic black and white images used to represent moments from the past.  I loved the elaborate staging of operas both on stage in famous opera houses around the world and in various locations around Paris in Maria's hallucinations (my favorites were the mad scene from Anna Bolena at La Scala and a surrealistic interpretation of the "Humming Chorus" from Madame Butterfly on the steps of a historic building during a rainstorm).  I also loved the parallels between the operas used and the events depicted (and, as a fan of opera, I loved that extended excerpts are used rather than brief snippets).  The costumes and sets are incredibly lavish but it sometimes feels like there is more style than substance.  The highlight is Jolie's brilliant performance because she imbues Maria with an imperiousness (I laughed every time she made her butler move the piano for no reason) and a vulnerability that is absolutely captivating.  I think this is a role that Jolie was born to play because her own star status and troubled off-screen persona add credibility to the performance (just give her the Oscar now) even if the script leaves us wanting to know more about the character.  This will not be for everyone but it is a must-see for fans of Jolie and I recommend it when it comes to Netflix on December 11.

Moana 2

Last night I went with both of my sisters and my nephew to see Moana 2 at an early preview.  The original is my all-time favorite animated movie from Disney so I was both excited and nervous to see the sequel.  It is definitely not as good as the first one but I enjoyed it.  Moana (Auli'i Cravalho), who is now a Wayfinder, receives a vision from one of her ancestors asking her to break a curse placed by the storm god Nalo on the island Montufetu which once connected all of the people living in Oceania.  She sets sail with a crew of fellow islanders, including a master builder (Rose Matafeo), a grumpy farmer (David Fane), and a storyteller (Hualalai Chung), and eventually finds Maui (Dwayne Johnson), who has been captured by an underworld goddess named Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), while battling a giant clam for the Kakamora.  Maui joins the crew but they must survive Nalo's destructive storms in order to find Montufetu.  The story follows the original beat for beat and seems better suited for streaming but the gorgeous animation, particularly the dazzling storm sequences, makes it worth seeing on the big screen.  The message about needing to work together in order to solve a problem is not particularly subtle but I really loved the idea that you sometimes need to find a different way to do something.  The villains are not very memorable (Matangi had potential but she is abandoned after one epic scene) and many of the other new characters are one-dimensional but I really liked the dynamic between Moana and Maui (Cravalho and Johnson are great).  I think a lot of the humor is very crude (it involves a lot of slime being expelled from various orifices) but the children in the audience were laughing out loud the whole time.  Finally, the songs are definitely not as good as the ones by Lin-Manuel Miranda in the original (I absolutely love "How Far I'll Go" and "We Know The Way" so it was always going to be hard to top them) but I did like "Get Lost" in a fun sequence with Matangi and her back-up singing bats and "Can I Get A Chee Hoo" as Maui tries to boost Moana's confidence.  This is a fun movie to see with the family over the Thanksgiving holiday (the kids will love it) but it is good rather than great.

A Christmas Carol at Parker Theatre

Last night I went to Parker Theatre for the second of five productions of A Christmas Carol that I have scheduled this season. This version tells the well-known story of the reclamation of Ebenezer Scrooge's soul by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future but it is much more atmospheric than others I've seen and I loved it! I especially enjoyed some of the more dramatic differences, such as when Jacob Marley (Stephen Harmon) dies at the beginning of the show and then haunts Scrooge (Brinton M. Wilkins) before he appears to him in his chambers, when characters that Scrooge meets on the streets of London return at key moments from his past to soften his heart, when young Ebenezer (Matthew Delafuente) has a romantic dance with Belle (Isabelle Purdie), and when Scrooge learns the truth about his fate by opening his coffin in the cemetery (it is so ominous). I also enjoyed all of the elaborate special effects as Scrooge interacts with the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Helene Parker), Present (David Hanson), and Future (Helene Parker) because they are quite impressive. The use of a scrim, fog, and atmospheric lighting as Scrooge sees memories from his past as well as shadows and silhouettes as he is shown a frightening possible future is incredibly effective in creating an otherworldly mood. Wilkins is outstanding as Scrooge because there is a marked change, shown through facial expressions and body language, between the bitter old miser at the beginning of the show and the lighthearted character he becomes at the end after his transformation. His interactions with Bob Cratchit (Lucas Charon), when his clerk tearfully thanks Scrooge for his generosity, and with Fred (Tanner Tate), when Scrooge entreats his nephew to let him into his life, are very moving and brought a tear to my eyes. The sets and costumes may be simpler than other local productions but they portray a more realistic interpretation of Victorian London (I loved the street lamps). This is one of my favorite adaptations of the novel by Charles Dickens and I highly recommend including it as one of your Christmas traditions. It runs at Parker Theatre on Fridays and Saturdays through December 24 (go here for tickets).

Note:  I have become a huge fan of Parker Theatre and I am so excited for next season!  The shows include Persuasion, The Sting, Noises Off, Macbeth, Silent Sky, and A Christmas Carol.  Season and individual tickets are now on sale (go here).

Gladiator II

Last night my nephew and I went to a Thursday preview of Gladiator II and we were both definitely entertained.  Rome is now ruled by a pair of tyrannical twin emperors, Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), who are bloodthirsty in their desire to acquire more and more land.  General Acacius (Pedro Pascal) leads an invasion of Numidia for them during which a Roman refugee named Hanno (Paul Mescal) is captured and his wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen) is killed.  Hanno, as a prisoner of war, is eventually purchased by a former slave named Macrinus (Denzel Washington) and he agrees to become a gladiator for him in order to take his revenge on Acacius.  Meanwhile, Acacius is growing disillusioned with fighting wars on behalf of the corrupt emperors and he and his wife Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the daughter of Marcus Aurelius, plot to overthrow them with his personal army.  Hanno begins winning the gladiator contests in the Colosseum and Macrinus plans to use him in his own plot to rule Rome but Lucilla recognizes him as her son Lucius who was sent away after the death of his father Maximus and is next in line to the imperial throne.  Will Lucius fight for revenge, for Macrinus, or for Rome?  The original movie is one of my very favorites and, while I did really enjoy this one, the plot often feels like a repeat without the same emotional stakes.  I think that Mescal does a great job, especially in the action sequences, but his character is not as compelling as Maximus because Lucius achieves success in the arena by emulating him rather than because of his own skills (there are lots of callbacks to Maximus when Lucius is fighting).  I also found Geta and Caracalla to be less villainous than Commodus because the two of them are unstable rather than evil (I hated Commodus by the end of the original but Geta and Caracalla are just annoying) and Quinn and Hechinger don't have a lot to do but wear more and more eyeliner to show their debauchery.  Pascal provides a great moment of pathos in the arena but even Acacius has a similar character arc to Maximus.  However, Macrinus is absolutely fascinating because he has risen from slavery to become a powerful political player and he gleefully treats everyone like chess pieces in the pursuit of his own agenda.  Washington commands the screen in a riveting performance (while having the time of his life chewing the scenery).  Finally, Ridley Scott can always be counted on to create a grand spectacle and he certainly does so here with some epic and exhilarating set pieces, especially those in the Colosseum involving a rhinoceros and the staging of a naval battle (although the battle with a bunch apes is a bit weird).  I also really loved the visuals, particularly some black and white sequences involving the afterlife.  This is ultimately a lot of fun (my nephew and I left the theater with big smiles on our faces) and, even though it doesn't reach the heights of the original, it is worth seeing on the biggest screen possible.

Wicked

I am a huge fan of the musical Wicked (I've seen it in London, on Broadway, in San Diego, and in SLC multiple times) so, even though I really enjoyed what Jon M. Chu did with In the Heights, I still had a bit of trepidation about a movie adaptation and I wasn't sure about the casting of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.  I went to see it at an early access screening last night and I needn't have worried because it is amazing and I loved it.  It is a very faithful adaptation of the musical (with a few surprises) and the decision to separate it into two parts allows it to delve deeper into the friendship between Glinda (Grande) and Elphaba (Erivo) as they evolve into Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.  I really liked the flashbacks to Elphaba as a child (Karis Musungole) because we see her mistreatment for being different and her protective relationship with her sister Nessarose (played by Cesily Collette Taylor as a child) and I also enjoyed seeing Elphaba's training with Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) and Dr. Dillamond's (Peter Dinklage) interactions with other animals.  The production design is dazzling and I loved how the worldbuilding has been expanded for the movie, particularly all of the elaborate classrooms and dorms at Shiz University and the Emerald City.  The choreography is incredibly lively and the large ensemble really adds to the exuberance, especially in "No One Mourns the Wicked," "Dancing Through Life," and "One Short Day."  Grande is perfect as Glinda and I laughed out loud at all of her antics (I love how she theatrically tosses her hair).  Her version of "Popular" is so much fun because she nails the physicality and the vocals.  However, I was most impressed by Erivo because she blew me away with her powerful and passionate renditions of "The Wizard and I" and "Defying Gravity" but I also loved her nuanced performance of "I'm Not That Girl" which is my favorite song in the show.  The two of them play off each other so well in the hilarious "What Is This Feeling?" and their poignant interactions in the Ozdust Ballroom brought me to tears.  Jonathan Bailey is a charismatic Fiyero (he is spectacular in "Dancing Through Life"), Yeoh adds dimension to Madame Morrible, and Jeff Goldblum has a subversive charm as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  I was also really impressed with the casting of Marissa Bode as Nessarose because she has the same disability as the character.  I had very high expectations for this adaptation and it exceeded every one of them!  I highly recommend it because it is the perfect movie to see this holiday season.