The Return

Yesterday I went to a matinee of The Return and, as a fan of Homer's The Odyssey and of both Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, I was really looking forward to it.  Unfortunately, I found this retelling of the classic story to be really bland and lifeless.  It has been twenty years since Odysseus (Fiennes) left Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War and his wife Penelope (Binoche) has been besieged by suitors who wish to wed her and take his place.  The suitors have also despoiled the island and bullied the inhabitants causing Penelope to keep her son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) close to her and, therefore, weak.  Odysseus washes up on shore naked, battered, and completely unrecognizable with no explanation for where he has been other than he has been traumatized by war.  He takes refuge with the swineherd Eumaeus (Claudio Santamaria) but he is forced to reveal his identity when the suitors attack Telemachus and when the suitor Antinous (Marwan Kenzari) forces Penelope to choose a husband.  Odysseus is the only one able to complete the challenge for Penelope's hand which provokes a battle during which Telemachus is finally able to prove himself and Odysseus is able to reunite with his wife.  Both Fiennes and Binoche give compelling performances but I still found this very tedious to watch.  In order to ground this retelling in reality, filmmakers have removed everything fanciful from the source material and replaced it with it with so many interminable close-up shots of silent contemplation.  Even with a long runtime there is not much backstory and those without a familiarity with the mythology might not understand anything that is going on because not much actually happens.  I even found the final battle, while incredibly bloody, to be very anticlimactic.  Aside from Fiennes, Binoche, and possibly Plummer, the rest of the acting is quite stilted and most of the characters do not make any sort of impression.  I really wanted this to be better than it was and recommend giving it a miss (unless you are big fans of the lead actors).

Leslie Odom, Jr. at the Eccles

Last night I was able to combine my love of Christmas music with my love of the original cast of Hamilton.  I went with my friend Wendy to see Leslie Odom, Jr. in a Christmas concert at the Eccles Theatre and it was absolutely amazing!  I am still on a high from it!  He took the stage dressed all in black with his insanely talented band, including Chris Cadenhead on piano, Steven Walker on guitar, Eric England on bass, and David Chiverton on drums (all of whom had extended solos all night which thrilled the audience), and played selections from his two Christmas albums, Simply Christmas and The Christmas Album.  I really love his jazz interpretations of Christmas classics and I enjoyed hearing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "My Favorite Things," "The Christmas Waltz," "The Christmas Song," "First Noel," "Please Come Home for Christmas," "Last Christmas," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," and "O Tannenbaum" (sung in German).  He also sang a beautiful rendition of "Christmas" by Pete Townshend as well as his own original songs "Snow," "Winter Song" and "Cold" (which was one of my favorites).  He was joined by his band members all around him for some stirring a capella versions of the Sam Cooke songs "Jesus Gave Me Water" and "He's So Wonderful" and these got the audience cheering as if we were at an old-fashioned gospel revival!  He then recited "Twas The Night Before Christmas" which was absolutely mesmerizing and I was reminded that he is not only a beautiful singer with a velvety smooth voice but he is also a talented actor!  He continued with an exquisite performance of "Ave Maria" and then ended his set with "Heaven & Earth" (which was another of my favorites).  For the encore he sang acoustic versions of "Merry Christmas Darling" and the Sam Cooke song "I Wish You Love" which was a lovely way to end the concert.  In between those songs he performed an acoustic version of "Wait For It" from Hamilton (he apologized that it wasn't a Christmas song but I can assure you that no one in the audience minded) and it was incredible!  It was so thrilling to be able to see Leslie Odom, Jr. again and I loved every minute of this concert!

Flow

I have been anticipating the release of Flow ever since I saw a trailer and I finally had a chance to see a matinee yesterday afternoon.  It is visually stunning with an incredibly poignant story and I loved it!  When a cataclysmic tsunami completely submerges a forest in a post-apocalyptic timeline without humans, a curious and expressive black cat finds refuge on a sailboat occupied by a somnolent capybara.  They are eventually joined by an acquisitive ring-tail lemur, an irrepressible yellow Labrador, and a protective secretarybird.  They have a series of misadventures during which they must learn not only to coexist but also to work together in order to survive.  I love the way the animals are portrayed because, while they are not anthropomorphized (they definitely move and behave as animals and there is no dialogue), they do have distinct characteristics which are maintained throughout.  The cat likes to explore and is often in peril as a result (I couldn't breathe whenever the cat is thrown overboard and struggles to swim to the surface), the capybara falls asleep at inopportune times and in inconvenient places, the lemur is enamored with a collection of items (particularly a hand mirror) that must be protected, the Labrador loves to play which sometimes causes conflict (especially after the lemur's glass ball is thrown overboard during a boisterous round of catch), and the secretarybird takes a position of leadership (both literally and figuratively) and defends the group against a flock of other angry secretarybirds.  These defining characteristics made me feel a deep emotional connection with the characters and I was very invested in their fate (which is more hopeful than I was anticipating).  I loved both the naturalistic soundscape (the labored breathing of a beached whale reduced me to tears) as well as the evocative score (the dramatic theme as the water continues to rise over the cat's home gave me goosebumps).  The animation is beautiful, dynamic, and immersive and I love that it is both grounded in reality and otherworldly (there is a scene involving the secretarybird that is absolutely transcendent).  I loved this movie so much and, in a year that also included Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot, it is my favorite animated release of 2024.

Note:  This is Latvia's official entry for the Best International Feature Academy Award and it has my nonexistent vote to win!

Nightbitch

The second movie in my double feature with my nephew at the Broadway last night was Nightbitch.  I didn't know what to think about this movie when I first heard about it because it sounded so bizarre but I found the trailer to be really intriguing so I decided to see it.  Unfortunately, it is not bizarre enough and is all bark and no bite.  Mother (Amy Adams) was an artist of some renown who worked in a gallery before giving up her career to stay home with her Son (Arleigh and Emmett Snowdon).  Her Husband (Scoot McNairy) is away on business for most of the week and, frankly, isn't much help when he is home.  She fears that she no longer has an identity beyond that of mother, feels simultaneously overwhelmed by the demands of motherhood and bored by the monotony of it (there are lots of scenes in which she cooks the same breakfast and lunch over and over again), and doubts all of the decisions she has made about raising her Son.  Eventually she suspects that she is becoming a dog and it is not long before she physically transforms into one (in some amusing scenes involving magical realism).  It is when she fully embraces her animalistic instinct that she finds liberation and becomes a better mother and better artist.  I have not read the book by Rachel Yoder upon which this is based but it seems like there is an interiority that does not translate well to the screen because there is a lot of voice-over narration that becomes very tedious (lots of telling rather than showing).  The central metaphor is an interesting one so it is a shame that it is only ever explored on a superficial level.  Many of the scenes where Mother acts like a dog are comedic rather than scary and I wanted more rage and I definitely wanted more body horror (there is only one relatively benign scene where Mother discovers a tail).  I also wanted a more meaningful resolution (it veers from an honest examination of motherhood to a less compelling dissection of a marriage in which the Husband has an unearned redemption arc).  Adams is absolutely fearless but I can't help but feel that her performance would have been better if she had been allowed by the script to be more ferocious (the best performance comes from the Snowden twins who are adorable).  This is not quite as daring as it thinks it is and I was a bit disappointed.

The Order

Last night my nephew and I had a double feature at the Broadway starting with The Order.  It is a tense thriller based on true events that I found disturbing but very compelling.  Terry Husk (Jude Law) is a world-weary FBI agent who arrives in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to investigate a disappearance that he believes is connected to a string of bank robberies.  The local police chief (Philip Granger) is not very helpful but an eager young officer named Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan) believes that the nearby Aryan Nation, under the direction of Richard Butler (Victor Slezak), is involved.  They eventually discover a splinter group called The Order which was formed by Robert Mathews (Nicholas Hoult), a former disciple of Butler who has become radicalized and is following the blueprint set out in The Turner Diaries which calls for fundraising, recruitment, assassination, and domestic terrorism.  As The Order becomes increasingly more brazen, including the murder of provocative Jewish disc jockey Alan Berg (Marc Maron), Husk, his former FBI partner Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett), and Bowen close in on Mathews resulting in a fiery standoff.  This is a gritty old-school procedural with a tormented cop playing a cat and mouse game with a charismatic sociopath and it is extremely well-done.  The action sequences, particularly the bank and armored truck robberies, are incredibly intense but some of the scenes involving the recruitment of potential white supremacists are hard to watch (particularly since this is still going on around the country) and the sense of dread escalates until it becomes almost unbearable.  I was especially fascinated by the juxtaposition between the beautiful natural surroundings (the cinematography is stunning) and the evil lurking just under the surface.  Law is outstanding as a man who is living with regrets and both Sheridan and Smollett deliver strong supporting performances but Hoult is brilliant because he completely disappears into a role unlike anything he has done before.  I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.  This is not getting much attention but it is definitely worth seeking out.