Good Fortune

I thought the trailer for Good Fortune looked hilarious so my nephew and I went to see it last night.  Unfortunately, it was not at all what I was expecting.  Gabriel (Keanu Reeves) is a low-level guardian angel responsible for saving people from accidents when they text and drive but he aspires to be an angel who saves lost souls.  He takes an interest in Arj (Aziz Ansari) after he saves him from an accident and begins watching him.  Arj is sleeping in his car and working temporary jobs because, even though he has a degree, he can't find a job in his field.  He eventually starts working as an assistant to Jeff (Seth Rogen), a wealthy tech investor, but is fired for using a company credit card to pay for an expensive dinner with Elena (Keke Palmer), a co-worker he is trying to impress.  When his car is impounded for unpaid parking tickets, Gabriel decides to intervene to show a despondent Arj that his life is worth living.  Arj is not consoled by seeing his future self because he is still struggling financially so Gabriel has him trade places with Jeff for a week to see that money does not solve all problems.  Chaos ensues when Arj sees that money does, in fact, solve all of his problems and refuses to switch back.  Gabriel's supervisor Martha (Sandra Oh) punishes him by taking his wings until he can get Arj to agree to switch back and both he and Jeff see what it is like to live the life Arj once lived.  This features a very heavy-handed message condemning the increasing disparity between the rich and poor and the inability to change one's circumstances through education or hard work.  However, in my opinion, this message is undermined by an ending that suggests finding joy in the little pleasures of life (such as tacos, dancing, and spending time with friends) as a way to endure the hardship.  This is meant to be uplifting but it is overly simplistic at best and insulting at worst.  I also found the plot to be very meandering with a lot of unnecessary tangents (so many scenes involving cold plunges).  Finally, I was expecting a comedy and I don't think I laughed once (all of the humor is shown in the trailer).  The only highlight for me was Reeves (Rogen and Ansari are portraying characters they've played many times before).  This was a bit disappointing and I recommend giving it a miss.

Black Phone 2

I was really surprised by how much I liked The Black Phone so I was excited to be able to see the sequel, Black Phone 2, with my nephew last night.  I think it takes a lot of the ideas explored in the first movie and expands upon them.  Four years after Finney Blake (Mason Thames) killed the Grabber (Ethan Hawke), his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) is having disturbing dreams about three dead boys at the Alpine Lake Camp, including one in which her late mother Hope (Anna Lore), who worked at the camp, calls her from a pay phone there.  Finney is still traumatized by his experience with the Grabber but he reluctantly agrees to go with Gwen and her boyfriend Ernesto (Miguel Mora), the brother of one of the Grabber's victims, to investigate the camp.  They arrive in the middle of a severe snowstorm and are stranded there with Armando (Demian Bichir), the owner of the camp, who remembers Hope and the three campers who were killed by a counselor and never found.  When Gwen begins having disturbing interactions with the Grabber in her dreams, Finney receives a call on the pay phone from him vowing to kill Gwen as retribution for his death.  They eventually realize that the Grabber was the one who killed the boys and that they must find their bodies in order end his power over Gwen.  What I enjoyed most about this story is that it mirrors the one in the original.  In the first movie, Gwen uses her supernatural ability to help Finney defeat a real monster and, in this one, Finney uses his real ability to help Gwen defeat a supernatural threat.  I also liked the continued use of the phone as a link to those beyond the grave, especially the connection between Gwen and her mother which becomes more significant as the movie progresses.  Gwen's dream sequences have a grainy Super 8 film aesthetic and feature plenty of gory imagery, particularly a decapitation using a windowpane, but my favorite scene is when Finney interacts with the three dead campers while in the phone booth because it is incredibly unnerving.  Thames and McGraw give great performances but Bichir is used mostly for exposition and there are a few other characters who feel a bit extraneous.  I think this is a good sequel but what keeps it from being a great one, in my opinion, is all of the cringe-worthy dialogue (of which there is a lot).  I still really liked it and would definitely recommend it to fans of horror.

National Theatre Live: Inter Alia

Yesterday afternoon I was really excited to see a screening of the National Theatre Live production of Inter Alia which was filmed earlier this year at the Lyttelton Theatre in London and presented by the Tanner Humanities Center and Salt Lake Film Society.  This new play by the same team responsible for the hit Prima Facie is brilliant and I was blown away by Rosamund Pike's powerful performance.  Jessica Parks (Pike) is a ground-breaking Crown Court Judge as well as a wife to Michael Wheatley (Jamie Glover) and a mother to eighteen-year-old Harry (Jasper Talbot).  While she is a rock star in the courtroom (she is backed by a band who performs live on stage during the courtroom scenes) known for refusing to back down from the misogynistic barristers who appear before her and for her tough stance on the perpetrators of sexual violence, she frequently feels compelled to downplay her accomplishments to soothe the ego of her husband, who is a less successful barrister, and defers to him in matters relating to their son because he is a man and she thinks that he can relate to what Harry is experiencing more than she can.  She shoulders most of the responsibilities for running the household (there is an incredible scene in which she frantically prepares for a dinner party as Michael and Harry make demands of her) and often feels guilty about her perceived failures as a mother.  Her professional and personal worlds collide when Harry is accused of rape at a party and her role as a judge who advocates for the rights of victims is at odds with her role as a mother who wants to save her son.  Pike is in constant motion, moving between a platform upstage, which represents her courtroom, an elaborate set center stage, which represents her home, and a large screen downstage, which depicts flashbacks with Harry as a child, as she juggles all of Jessica's many responsibilities (inter alia is a legal term which means "among other things"), and she deftly manages multiple costume changes on stage and a myriad of props.  She also effectively portrays many competing emotions, from a hilarious scene singing karaoke (of course she sings "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!") to a devastating one in which she confronts her husband for not stepping up and helping their son navigate the toxic masculinity on the so-called manosphere.  Both Glover and Talbot are also outstanding and I was especially moved by the latter's final scene with Pike because it is so emotional.  I loved this because, in addition to its clever staging and memorable performances, it is incredibly thought-provoking, particularly the difference between the moral definition of guilt and the legal one, and I know that I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.  The next National Theatre Live productions at the Broadway are Mrs. Warren's Profession on November 8, The Fifth Step on February 21, Hamlet on March 21, and Life of Pi on April 11 (I so excited for this!).

The Woman in Black at Parker Theatre

Seeing Parker Theatre's production of The Woman in Black last year was one of the most frightening theatrical experiences I have ever had (at one point I was so scared I nearly jumped out of my seat and there were multiple times when members of the audience screamed out loud). I was, therefore, excited (terrified?) when I learned that they were bringing this show back for a limited run just in time for Halloween! I saw it last night and, while I was more prepared for when the woman in black suddenly appeared in the aisle next to me, I was still quite unnerved by the whole experience. In other words, I loved it! Arthur Kipps (Michael Hohl) is still traumatized by an encounter with an apparition that he had many years ago while settling the estate of Alice Drablow at Eel Marsh House on an isolated island that is only accessible by a causeway at low tide. He believes that he can rid himself of the nightmares that plague him by telling the story publicly on stage so he hires an Actor (Ben Lowell) to help him. The Actor convinces him that it would be better to act out the story rather than recite it from a manuscript so they begin rehearsing in a Victorian theatre using minimal props, realistic sound cues, and imaginative light design. The Actor portrays a younger version of Kipps and Kipps plays all of the other characters and narrates the play. The action on stage depicts Kipps attending Drablow's funeral, traveling to her house in an old-fashioned pony and trap, working alone in the eerie house, and witnessing unsettling events including the appearance of a strange figure dressed in black. They stop in between scenes to discuss their performances and, during one such break, Kipps promises a surprise. The Actor interprets this to mean that Kipps hired the actress who suddenly appeared on stage with them. The action concludes when young Kipps discovers the identity of the mysterious figure and when the Actor makes a startling realization about the actress portraying her. This is a very clever adaptation of the Gothic novel by Susan Hill because it uses imaginative stagecraft to tell the story. I particularly loved the smoke effects when Kipps is trapped in fog on the causeway, the light from a single torch when he gets lost in the marsh, as well as the shadows on a scrim and the creaking of a rocking chair when he discovers a room that seems to be haunted (people in the audience screamed during all three of these scenes) because the suggestion of something is often much more effective than the thing itself (especially the woman in black because she only appears a few times but I thought I saw her in every shadow). Both actors are outstanding! Lowell's performance really adds to the unease because his terror is palpable and Hohl seamlessly inhabits all of his characters with just the addition of an article of clothing or prop. In my opinion, this is the perfect show to see for Halloween (go here for tickets) but act quickly because it is a limited run with only nine more performances through Nov. 1.

Thriller 2025

Last night I had so much fun at Odyssey Dance Theatre's Halloween-themed dance extravaganza Thriller.  It is one my favorite Halloween traditions and, even though most of the dances are the same every year, I eagerly anticipate every one of them.  My favorites include a group of the undead cavorting in a graveyard in "Thriller" (I love this because it incorporates the choreography from Michael Jackson's iconic music video), a breakdancing mummy and his maidens in "Curse of the Mummy," misbehaving pandas at their first dance recital in "Miss Alli's Nightmare" (I love the one that slowly removes his costume and the once that sits down and refuses to dance), a Pas de Deux that goes horribly wrong in "Frankenstein & Frankenstein" (I love the inclusion of Gene Wilder's overwrought monologue about giving his creation life from Young Frankenstein), tap dancing skeletons that glow in the dark in "Dem Bones," a trio of serial killers who wield a variety of weapons in "Jason Jam" (this is a huge crowd favorite and they seemed even more deranged because they chased a victim through the aisles), scarecrows that terrorize a group of teens in a cornfield in "Children of the Corn" (I love that the cheerleaders' uniforms are from a different school every year), a coven of condemned witches seeking vengeance from beyond the grave in "Salem's Mass" (this is my favorite number), demonic dolls that come to life in "Chucky-Rama" (this features a different youth cast from various dance schools around the valley every night and they are always fantastic), acrobatic vampires stalking an unsuspecting victim in "Lost Boys," and an elaborate costume parade in "Trick or Treat" (my favorite was the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man).  There were also a few new dances and my favorite was a sexy tango in "Gomez & Morticia" (this was especially fun after seeing The Addams Family earlier in the week).  I was happy that Bubbles the Clown once again appeared in between numbers because he is hilarious (I was equally happy that Giggle Girl did not appear this year) and I laughed out loud at a new short film by Scott Winn featuring a dance-off between the wizards from Harry Potter and the vampires from Twilight judged by Gandalf ("You shall not dance!").  There was a large and enthusiastic crowd (it was at the Grand Theatre once again) and I loved cheering along with them for every number!  I highly recommend this for some Halloween fun (go here for tickets) but act quickly because there were very few empty seats last night.  It runs at the Grand Theatre through October 25 and at Tuacahn from October 28-November 1.

Note:  Every year I try to avoid eye contact with the undead who roam the aisles before the show but this did not save me last night because one of them kept sneaking up on me to hiss at me (at one point I jumped a mile out of my seat which made her laugh).  It turns out I was sitting next to her parents.