The Ballad of Wallis Island

I really enjoyed The Ballad of Wallis Island at Sundance this year (it was one of the few comedies at the festival that actually worked for me) so I was secretly happy when my nephew expressed an interest in it because that meant I had an excuse to see it again!  It was the first in a double feature at the Broadway last night and he liked it as much as I did (I liked it even more upon a second viewing).  The awkward and eccentric Charles (Tim Key) retired to a remote island after winning the lottery not once but twice.  On the five year anniversary of the death of his wife Marie, he uses some of his winnings to bring Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden), one half of their favorite folk duo McGwyer Mortimer, to the island to perform a concert.  Charles is a very enthusiastic fan and Herb soon finds the whole arrangement to be strange, especially when he learns that Charles will be the only one in the audience, but he stays because he needs the money to finance a solo album.  Complications ensue when Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan), the other half of the folk duo, arrives on the island with her husband Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen).  There are unresolved tensions between Herb and Nell stemming from their messy break-up both personally and professionally but, as they rehearse, Herb begins to romanticize their time as a duo because he is unhappy with the direction of his solo career.  Charles also romanticizes their music because it reminds him of his late wife and this is keeping him from pursuing a relationship with Amanda (Sian Clifford), the owner of a shop on the island.  Both Herb and Charles must learn to let go of the past in order to move forward into the future.  The story is incredibly charming and I love how music (my nephew and I both loved all of the songs) is used as a way to evoke memories because I am instantly transported back to a certain time and place whenever I hear some songs.  The humor is really dry (you have to listen very carefully to all of Charles's one-liners because they are absolutely hilarious) and it was a lot of fun to hear the large crowd laughing out loud with me because I was sometimes the only one laughing during the Sundance screening.  This is a movie with a lot of heart and I definitely recommend it!

A Case for the Existence of God at PTC

I had heard great things about PTC's production of A Case for the Existence of God but I didn't have a chance to see it until last night. I'm glad I was finally able to get to it because this existential exploration of an unlikely friendship that provides hope in a precarious world is very powerful and I was incredibly moved by it. Keith (Jon Hudson Odom) is Black, gay, well educated, sophisticated, and comes from an affluent background. Ryan (Lee Osorio) is white, straight, uninformed, aimless, and comes from a working class background. He works at a yogurt factory in Twin Falls, Idaho and is currently going through a divorce but he hopes to purchase land that once belonged to his family in order to make a better life for his daughter. He reaches out to Keith, a mortgage broker who has a daughter at the same daycare as his daughter, to help him complete the purchase but there are many obstacles because he has a poor credit history. While working together, they begin disclosing personal details and it turns out that both men have preconceived ideas about the other. Keith sees Ryan as the popular and confident boy who bullied him in high school while Ryan believes that Keith lives a privileged life free from worry. However, Ryan reveals that had a dysfunctional childhood with parents who were addicts and Keith eventually confides that he could lose his foster daughter to a biological relative. They forge an uneasy bond over their shared sadness but it is this bond that ultimately provides them with hope for the future when they both suffer devastating setbacks. Both Osorio and Odom give highly nuanced performances, particularly in the way they communicate so much about their characters with just their body language and mannerisms (the play opens with both men sitting in silence for several minutes and this gives the audience more information than pages of dialogue). I especially loved Odom's portrayal of a panic attack because it is very realistic and I also enjoyed Osorio's drunken reaction to a piece of music. I had tears in my eyes when the two characters are finally able to comfort each other because the actors have such a believable rapport in this scene. All of the action takes place in a cramped cubicle at Keith's brokerage firm with just enough room for a desk and two chairs and I really appreciated the subtle changes in the position of the chairs (and the even subtler changes in wardrobe and lighting cues) to denote the changes in their relationship. The set evolves, as do the characters, during the conclusion and I think the final message is really beautiful. I will definitely be thinking about this for a long time and I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, there are only two more performances left (go here for tickets).

Drop

Last night I went to a Thursday preview of Drop because I thought the premise looked intriguing.  I went in with very few expectations and I found it entertaining enough.  Violet (Meghann Fahy) is a single mother who is finally ready to go on a date after surviving an abusive marriage.  She meets Henry (Brandon Sklenar), a handsome and charming man with whom she has been communicating on a dating app for three months, at an upscale restaurant while her sister Jen (Violett Beane) watches her young son Toby (Jacob Robinson) at her house.  Violet is nervous but soon becomes annoyed when she receives several AirDrops from someone nearby.  She and Henry attempt to discover which of the restaurant's patrons is sending them but the messages become increasingly threatening until she is forced to follow a series of instructions in order to prevent her son, who has been taken hostage, from being killed.  When she is told to kill Henry by poisoning his drink, she becomes desperate to save both him and her son from the anonymous caller.  There are some great twists and turns with a few exciting action sequences in the third act but it drags in the second act because, in my opinion, the mystery is belabored for longer than it should be and I found the big reveal to be a bit anticlimactic.  You must also suspend your disbelief a lot (why would someone stay on a date with a woman who is continually staring at her phone and frequently leaving to use the restroom and why wouldn't you just turn AirDrop off after the first innocuous message?).  However, I really liked the stylized production design (the restaurant is seriously cool), the disorienting camera angles that emphasize Violet's claustrophobia, and all of the visual effects that integrate what is happening on Violet's phone (especially the way her home camera feed is portrayed in a tension-filled scene).  I also really enjoyed Fahy's performance because she very effectively communicates Violet's terror (there are many close-up shots on her face) and Jeffery Self is hilarious as an aspiring comedian working as a waiter.  This is definitely not a great movie but I enjoyed it enough to recommend it for a fun night out but nothing more.

A Nice Indian Boy

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was A Nice Indian Boy.  I am not a huge fan of romantic comedies but I decided to see this because the trailer made me laugh out loud!  Megha and Archit Gavaskar (Zarna Garg and Harish Pateal, respectively) are overjoyed when their daughter Arundhathi (Sunita Mani) marries the nice Indian boy (Sachin Sahel) that they and his parents arrange for her.  They only wish that their son Naveen (Karan Soni), who they begrudgingly acknowledge is gay, will be next.  Eventually the mild-mannered and awkward Naveen meets the outgoing and dramatic Jay Kurundkar (Jonathan Goff), a former foster kid who is white but was adopted by an Indian couple.  They bond over the Bollywood musical Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (the source of much amusement throughout the movie), fall in love, and get engaged (twice).  Complications ensue when Naveen introduces Jay to his parents and when Arundhathi announces that she wants to divorce her husband.  What I loved most about this heartwarming story is that Megha and Archit, who had a traditional arranged marriage, realize that they actually love each other after all of these years (in some hilarious scenes) and that, once Arundhathi and Naveen finally communicate how they feel, they are a lot more accepting than their children assumed they would be (in some really moving scenes).  The central romance is a lot of fun, especially their meet-cute in a Hindu temple and when Naveen reenacts the song from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge that Jay embarrassed him with when he sang it to him on the street.  All of the performances are great (Soni and Groff have believable chemistry) but I especially enjoyed Garg when the overwrought Megha plans the elaborate wedding (with printed invitations).  This is incredibly charming and I had a lot of fun watching it so fans of romantic comedies will love it.

The Friend

Last night I went to the Broadway for a double feature and I started with The Friend because I have a soft spot for dogs.  It is a slow-moving but poignant exploration of how an unlikely friendship helps a woman come to terms with her grief (bring tissues).  Walter (Bill Murray) is a successful author and professor with a messy personal life which includes three troubled marriages, countless affairs with students, and an estranged daughter.  The only constants in his life are Iris (Naomi Watts), a friend and former student who is also an author, and Apollo (Bing), a 150-pound Great Dane.  Iris is devastated when Walter commits suicide but she is surprised and annoyed when she learns that he has chosen her to care for Apollo.  This completely disrupts her life because her rent-controlled apartment has a strict no-dogs policy and, since Apollo is also mourning the loss of Walter, he dislikes being alone which keeps her from working on her current novel.  She eventually forms a bond with Apollo so, in a last ditch attempt to avoid being evicted, she meets with a therapist to certify that she needs him as an emotional support animal only to discover that she actually does.  Anyone who has ever had a dog will definitely relate to how much comfort they can provide and I cried several times, particularly when Iris wishes that Apollo could live as long as her.  Even though Watts and Murray are outstanding, especially in an emotional scene where Iris imagines confronting Walter about abandoning Apollo (who is a stand-in for her), I absolutely loved Bing's performance because he is so expressive.  I enjoyed this touching movie and highly recommend it (but please heed my suggestion about the tissues).