East of Wall

My second movie set in the state of South Dakota last night was East of Wall.  I was excited to see this because it got a lot of buzz at Sundance this year (it won an Audience Award at the festival) and I mostly enjoyed it.  Tabatha Zimiga plays a fictionalized version of herself in a semi-autobiographical story about how she comes to terms with her grief by training horses on a ranch in South Dakota (this docudrama format reminded me a lot of The Rider).  After the suicide of her husband John, Tabatha struggles to keep the 3,000-acre ranch he left to their three-year-old son Stetson.  She lives there with Stetson, her mother Tracey (Jennifer Ehle), her older son Skylar, her daughter Porshia, her new partner Clay, and a group of wayward teens who have found a home with her.  She has an affinity for communicating with horses and is just able to keep her head above water by rehabilitating rescue horses and selling them on TikTok and in sale barns but she has less success communicating with her daughter Porshia who blames her for John's death.  She encounters Roy Waters (Scoot McNairy), a wealthy rancher from Texas, at a sale barn after he buys one of her horses for an exorbitant price.  He also offers to buy the ranch but, while this will solve her financial difficulties, she eventually realizes that the horses, her daughter, and the other teens in her charge need her.  The story is really thin (this may have been better as a documentary) and it takes a long time to get going with a resolution that doesn't necessarily feel earned.  I also struggled to keep track of all the many different characters, the majority of whom are people who actually live on the ranch with Zimiga and play themselves, because they mostly appear in random slice-of-life sequences without a lot of exposition.  However, I did enjoy getting an immersive and authentic glimpse into what life is like in the American West, especially for women, and I really admire Zimiga's fierce determination in rehabilitating horses and providing refuge for her found family (she gives an incredibly powerful performance).  I also really enjoyed the beautiful cinematography showcasing the rugged landscape of the Badlands as well as the horses in motion (I especially loved the rodeo sequences) although the use of actual footage from TikTok is jarring in comparison.  I personally found this to be compelling enough to recommend but it might not be for everyone.

Americana

Last night I went to a double feature at the Megaplex with two movies set in South Dakota.  I began with Americana and it was a big surprise to me because I really enjoyed it!  Roy Lee Dean (Simon Rex), a sleazy black marketeer, Dillon MacIntosh (Eric Dane), a petty thief, Mandy Starr (Halsey), MacIntosh's abused girlfriend, Cal Starr (Gavin Maddox Bergman), Mandy's younger brother who believes that he is the reincarnation of Chief Sitting Bull, Lefty Ledbetter (Paul Walter Hauser), a lonely veteran, Penny Jo Poplin (Sydney Sweeney), a waitress who dreams of becoming a country singer, and Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon), the leader of a militant Native American group, all become embroiled in the theft of a valuable and sacred Lakota Ghost Shirt in a small South Dakota town.  All of their stories eventually converge in an epic shoot-out on a ranch in Wyoming owned by Mandy's father Hiram Starr (Christopher Kriesa), a radical fundamentalist.  I liked the nonlinear structure featuring chapters that focus on individual characters and it was fun to see how the different narratives come together.  The tone is all over the place because it is really funny with quirky characters, snappy dialogue, and outlandish situations (that get more and more outlandish as time goes on) but there is also an undercurrent of sadness and desperation as the characters attempt to improve their situation and it is quite violent.  However, I think the tonal shifts work and the neo-Western genre serves the story very well (the cinematography is very striking, particularly the wide shots of the vast landscape).  I loved all of the performances, especially the interactions between Sweeney and Hauser because they are so charming together, but the standout for me is Halsey because her character has the biggest transformation and she portrays this arc very convincingly.  I had low expectations for this movie and I ended up being very entertained by it.  I encourage people to seek it out because it seems to be flying under the radar.

Highest 2 Lowest

Last night my nephew and I went to see Highest 2 Lowest at the Broadway.  We both had been looking forward to this for weeks and we couldn't have been more disappointed.  David King (Denzel Washington) is a successful music mogul trying to structure a deal to take back control of the music label he founded.  However, these plans take a back seat when his son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) is kidnapped and a $17.5 million ransom is demanded.  When he realizes that Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of his driver Paul (Jeffrey Wright), was mistakenly taken instead of Trey, things become more complicated because now he doesn't feel obligated to pay the ransom.  He needs the money to save his record label but ultimately agrees to pay because he doesn't want to be cancelled on social media.  Kyle is eventually released but the police lose track of the money during the handover which puts King's deal in jeopardy.  He decides to search for the kidnapper himself and discovers that the culprit is a disgruntled rapper named Yung Felon (A$AP Rocky) who wanted to be signed to his record company.  After several confrontations with Yung Felon, he relinquishes control of his company to get away from the business and get back to the music.  The plot is an incoherent mess with a very muddled message about class inequality.  There are lots of editing and pacing issues and it features some of the most cringe-worthy dialogue I have heard in a long time.  I still don't know how I feel about Washington's performance because, while it is often very melodramatic, there is no denying that he is a compelling presence.  Wright is absolutely brilliant (one of the few highlights of this movie) and I did like A$AP Rocky (even though he is essentially playing himself) but all of the other performances are almost laughably bad.  Ilfenesh Hadera, as King's wife, and Dean Winters, as a police detective, are the worst offenders.  There are lots of cameos but most of them feel shoehorned in (Ice Spice is on screen for about a minute).  The score is particularly egregious (which is ironic in a movie about the music business).  It feels like it belongs in a completely different movie and it undercuts the tension in every scene because it is so incongruous.  The only reason this isn't the worst movie I've seen this year is because of an incredibly dynamic sequence on a subway filled with Yankees fans and on the street in the middle of a Puerto Rican Day festival but this is not enough for me to recommend it.  You can definitely wait until it streams.

Note:  The only message I got from this movie is that Spike Lee hates sports teams from Boston!

The Wizard of Oz at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse

I had a lot of fun at Terrace Plaza Playhouse's production of The Wizard of Oz last night! Dorothy Gale (Maren Messerly) is transported from Kansas to the magical land of Oz by a tornado. When she wants to return home, she seeks help from Glinda the Good Witch (Mailee Halpin) who tells her to follow the yellow brick road to get to the Wizard (David Storm) in the Emerald City. Along the way, she encounters the Scarecrow (Autumn Spangler), who wants a brain, the Tin Man (Trey Montgomery Cornell), who wants a heart, and the Cowardly Lion (David Hales), who wants some courage. They must face the Wicked Witch of the West (Jacci Florence) before they learn that they had the power to achieve their desires within themselves all along. Messerly is a very appealing Dorothy and her rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is beautiful. I was also very impressed by Spangler, Cornell, and Hales because they are outstanding in "If I Only Had a Brain," "If I Only Had a Heart," and "If I Only Had a Nerve," respectively. I especially enjoyed Spangler's dancing because it really seemed as if her body was made of straw. This does not have the same spectacle as some other productions I've seen but it is extremely clever. I especially loved the way the tornado, the snow on the poppies, the melting of the Wicked Witch, and the lift-off of the Wizard's balloon are staged. I also loved the use of puppets for Toto (Beckett Ronnow), the Crows, and the Flying Monkeys. The costumes are fun and whimsical and I particularly liked seeing Dorothy's gingham dress transform from grey in Kanasas to blue in Oz and then sparkly green when she arrives in the Emerald City (a fun detail), all of the colorful costumes worn by the Munchkins, the sparkly pink ball gown worn by Glinda, and the parasols carried by the poppies. The set, featuring a large and circular yellow brick road in the middle of the stage, is one of the most striking I've seen at this theatre and I loved the use of very muted tones in the set pieces for the door of the farmhouse, the picket fence, and a large windmill before an explosion of color happens once Dorothy gets to Oz. The apparatus used by the Wizard, complete with moving eyes and a moving mouth, is also very impressive. I often feel like the second act of this show gets bogged down but I think the pacing in this production is really tight and my attention never wavered. I now count this among my favorite productions at this theatre and I recommend it to families. It runs on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays through September 13 and tickets may be purchased here.

Nobody 2

I really liked Nobody so I was excited to see the sequel, Nobody 2, at a matinee yesterday.  It is not quite as good as the first movie but I enjoyed it.  Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) is still going on missions for "The Barber" (Colin Salmon) to repay the debt he owes after burning the Russian mob's money and his wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) feels that he is neglecting his family as a result.  He decides to take a break so he can take Becca, his son Brady (Gage Munroe), his daughter Sammy (Paisley Cadorath), and his dad David (Christopher Lloyd) to the same amusement park in the small town of Plummerville that he once visited as a child with his dad and brother Harry (RZA).  Hutch eventually runs afoul of Abel (Colin Hanks), the corrupt sheriff, and Wyatt (John Ortiz), the owner of the amusement park who runs a bootlegging operation for the notorious crime boss Lendina (Sharon Stone).  He must ultimately break his promise to Becca to leave the violence behind in order to protect his family from Lendina's henchmen.  The non-stop action sequences, particularly those in an arcade, on a duck boat, and the final confrontation in a booby-trapped amusement park, are really fun, violent, and chaotic and I loved the use of ordinary objects in the fight choreography.  Odenkirk, once again, does most of his own stunts and he is very kick-ass in the role.  I enjoyed all of the humor, especially the needle drops because they are hilariously on the nose, but the villains are so ridiculously evil that it often verges on parody.  What is missing in this sequel is the novelty of an ordinary suburban dad who also happens to be an assassin.  In this version, an assassin tries to be an ordinary suburban dad and, in my opinion, it is not as compelling because it is not as unexpected.  I still had fun with it and fans of the genre will definitely love it.