Ballad of a Small Player

There are a lot of movies that I want to see this month so I actually had a triple feature yesterday in order to fit them all in (it has been a long time since I have done that).  I started with a matinee of Ballad of a Small Player at the Broadway and it is a stylish look at the nature of greed with a committed performance from Colin Farrell.  Brendan Reilly (Farrell) is an Irish con man on the run from a British private investigator named Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton) after embezzling the life savings of several women.  He has ensconced himself in a luxury hotel suite in Macau, the gambling capital of the world, as the self-styled Lord Freddy Doyle and believes that he is just one game of baccarat away from hitting it big.  However, his luck runs out when he amasses large debts that he cannot pay and when Blithe eventually locates him.  He flees to Hong Kong where Dao Ming (Fala Chen), a mysterious woman who understands his situation all too well, offers him a choice between redemption or Hell.  Farrell is outstanding as both a bon vivant who swaggers from casino to casino in one gaudy outfit after another in search of his next big win and as a desperate man who slowly realizes that he has no more cards left to play.  I also liked Swinton as yet another awkwardly eccentric character (I think she chooses her roles based on the wig she gets to wear).  The symbolism, particularly the use of food as a metaphor for greed and the use of water as a metaphor for redemption, is very intriguing and the bold and chaotic lights of Macau juxtaposed with the tranquility of nature in Hong Kong is also quite powerful.  The cinematography is beautiful and the bombastic score perfectly matches Doyle's false bravado. The biggest flaw is that the narrative overplays its hand in the third act with a supernatural subplot that is both obvious and convoluted.  I liked this more than others have but it is definitely one that you can wait to see when it begins streaming on Netflix later this month.

Jazz vs. Clippers

Last night was the Utah Jazz season opener at the Delta Center and I got to go with my friend Angela (she has a season package and very graciously lets me pick several games to attend with her).  The game against the Los Angeles Clippers was so much fun (it is probably the most fun I've had at a game in over a year) because the Jazz dominated them from the opening tip-off to the final buzzer and they had a considerable lead during all four quarters (something fans haven't seen in over a year).  Keyonte George was the starting point guard and, despite the fact that he looks about 12, he did a great job leading the team.  He ended the night with 16 points and 9 assists (including an amazing steal in the first quarter).  It was great to see Lauri Markkanen shooting well again, after struggling last year, with 20 points and 5 assists.  The veteran of the team, Walter Kessler, was outstanding (he was the player of the game) and shot 7-7 from the field and 2-2 from the three-point line to end the night with 29 points.  He did a little bit of everything had the crowd cheering every time he touched the ball!  Our newest player, Ace Bailey (another player who looks about 12), didn't play much because he is still recovering from the flu but he scored his first points in the NBA with a really pretty breakaway dunk!  The crowd went crazy and he was so excited!  Our other rookie, Walter Clayton, Jr., also had a nice night with 10 points and it was good to see Taylor Hendricks back on the court with 13 points after an injury that sidelined him for most of last season.  Finally, I was really impressed with Brice Sensabaugh who scored 20 points and looked great with several three-pointers.  The Jazz got a decisive 129-108 win over the Clippers (the most points scored in a season opener in franchise history) and I loved cheering with the large crowd because it was electric.  I don't want to get my hopes up but it really looks like this team has some depth and I am actually looking forward to going to games again after so much disappointment last season!

Note:  My sister made me this awesome hoodie when I complained that all of my jerseys were for players who are not on the team anymore.

After the Hunt

Despite some divisive reviews, my nephew and I decided to see After the Hunt at the Broadway last night.  I was initially very put off by several things but, upon further reflection, I think they were intentional and, ultimately, tremendously thought-provoking.  Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts) is a well-respected philosophy professor at Yale University who is being considered for tenure along with her colleague and close personal friend Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield). She and her psychiatrist husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) host a dinner party for several of her students, including her protege Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri), and colleagues, including Hank, where a heated discussion takes place.  The next day Maggie accuses Hank of sexually assaulting her and turns to Alma for support but she is disappointed by her surprisingly indifferent response.  Hank also reaches out to Alma to protest his innocence but she reports him to the dean which results in his termination.  However, the situation becomes increasingly fraught as information about each of the three, and their motivations, comes to light.  I really enjoyed the juxtaposition between Alma and Maggie who are intriguing foils to each other.  They both may or may not have been assaulted (more about that later) but they each respond according to the social mores of the time in which their attacks occurred.  Alma represses what happened to her and counsels Maggie to do the same if she wants to succeed in the male-dominated world of academia but Maggie sees her victimhood as a way to publicly fight against the patriarchy.  My nephew and I, who roughly correspond to the generations depicted by these women, had an engaging discussion about their differing mindsets.  I did not enjoy the ambiguity of the narrative (Alma, Maggie, and Hank are slowly revealed to be incredibly unreliable narrators) because I wanted to know the truth but Guadagnino is emphasizing that the truth is sometimes difficult to ascertain and that it can be manipulated.  I also disliked the theatricality of the performances (Guadagnino even breaks the fourth wall to yell "cut!" after the last scene) which is further emphasized by an uncharacteristically melodramatic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross but I think that this is a commentary on the often performative nature of pursuing social justice (which is provocative, to say the least).  Both Roberts and Edebiri are definitely compelling but I was most impressed by Garfield, who is playing against type, because he is very believable as an unsympathetic character.  This will not appeal to everyone (I still don't know what I think about its themes) but I have not been able to stop thinking about it and that might be the point.

Something Rotten at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse

Last night I went to the Terrace Plaza Playhouse for my fourth production of Something Rotten this year (it is safe to say that I love this show). As with most community theatres, some productions at the Playhouse are better than others but I would definitely put this one among the best! It is fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Nick and Nigel Bottom (Brock Harris and Bryson Warner, respectively) are playwrights in Renaissance England who are tired of being outshined by William Shakespeare (Nick Balaich). Nick is desperate for a big hit because his patron Lady Clapham (Kassie Winkler) is withdrawing her support, Shylock (Glen Merrell) the moneylender is demanding that his loan be repaid, his wife Bea (Whitney Cahoon) is pregnant, and his brother has fallen in love with the daughter (Julia Green) of a Puritan (Nathan Fawcett) who wants to shut down his theatre for debauchery, so he contacts the soothsayer Thomas Nostradamus (Kaltin Kirby) to see what will be popular in the future. Nostradamus suggests writing a play with singing and dancing. Things go awry, however, when Nick asks Nostradamus to look into the future again to see what Shakespeare's most popular play will be and, instead of Hamlet, Nostradamus sees omelette (so close!). Nick tries to produce Omelette The Musical while Shakespeare, who is suffering from writer's block, tries to steal his own play back! All's well that ends well when Nigel reminds Nick to be true to himself. There are over 60 different musicals referenced in the hilarious numbers "A Musical" and "Make an Omelette" and it is always so much fun when I recognize a new show or line of dialogue. In this production I noticed a line from Ragtime for the first time in "Make an Omelette." I also love all of the allusions to Shakespeare and I was the only one in the audience who laughed when Shakespeare promises that he won't make the judge Falstaff appear foolish in one of his plays. Everyone in the cast is outstanding but I especially loved Balaich (my favorite character in the show is Shakespeare because he is portrayed as a rock star) for his over the top performances in "Will Power" and "Hard to Be The Bard," Cahoon for her spirited rendition of "Right Hand Man," and Kirby for the physicality of all of his antics while trying to see the future and in "A Musical." I also loved the gender swap from a lord to a lady with Winkler as Clapham because it is so funny to see Nick's former patron swoon over Shakespeare. The choreography (especially the tap dancing), costumes, sets, and projections are some of the best I've seen from this theatre and I was very impressed with all of the effort that went into such a great production of one of my favorite shows! Huzzah to everyone involved! It runs Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays through November 15 and you definitely want to get a ticket (go here).

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.