Die My Love

I loved You Were Never Really Here (it was my favorite film at Sundance in 2018) so I was very eager to see Lynne Ramsay's latest, Die My Love, at the Broadway last night and I was blown away by Jennifer Lawrence's committed performance.  Jackson (Robert Pattinson) and Grace (Lawrence) relocate from New York City to a small town in rural Montana after he inherits his uncle's rundown farmhouse.  A static opening shot from within the house makes it obvious that he is more excited about the move than she is.  After she gives birth and he takes a job working out of town for long periods of time, she is isolated, bored, and unable to write (her profession).  She is also extremely frustrated by the lack of physical intimacy with Jackson since the birth of the baby, especially when she comes to suspect that he is sleeping with other women on the road, and she begins acting more and more erratically (she literally claws at the walls).  Jackson becomes increasingly desperate to help her get better but he is largely ineffective (the more he tries to "fix her" the worse her behavior becomes) and she ultimately feels like he doesn't see her which signals the end of their relationship.  What I really liked about this movie is the immersive way that Grace's descent into madness is portrayed.  It is visceral and disjointed and it is often difficult to determine if what is happening is real or just inside her head (especially the frequent appearance of man on a motorcycle played by LaKeith Stanfield).  I have seen this criticized for lacking character development but, in my opinion, that is exactly the point because Grace does not have an identity beyond the one created for her by Jackson (so much of what she does is only inappropriate because Jackson thinks it is) and she eventually loses herself.  I have also seen criticism for the repetition of the same dynamic between Jackson and Grace over and over but, as someone who suffers from depression, it felt very authentic to me because these episodes often become a never ending spiral in which you become trapped.  Lawrence gives an absolutely brilliant physical performance, the best of her career, that perfectly captures Grace's unpredictability.  From one moment to the next I never knew what she was going to do or how she was going to respond and I loved the scenes in which Grace reacts to people without a filter (especially the cashier).  Pattinson does a great job portraying Jackson's early indifference and later desperation and I enjoyed Sissy Spacek as Pam, Jackson's mother, because she is an interesting foil to Grace (she is the only character who sees what is really happening to her).  I loved the use of a 4:3 aspect ratio to show Grace's claustrophobia as well as an incredibly chaotic soundtrack to represent Grace's state of mind (the scene with Toni Basil's "Hey Mickey" on repeat is hilarious).  I really liked this but a lot of people might find it difficult to watch.

Note:  I have always wanted to tell cashiers to stop talking to me!

Back to the Future

Back to the Future is back in the theaters to celebrate its 40th Anniversary (what?) and I had so much fun seeing it on the big screen again yesterday.  Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) meets his eccentric friend Emmett "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd) to test his latest invention, a time machine made out of a DeLorean powered by plutonium.  However, they are interrupted by Libyan terrorists who are not happy about having their plutonium stolen and Marty is forced to flee in the time machine which takes him to 1955.  He eventually finds Doc but he also inadvertently disrupts the meeting between his parents, Lorraine (Lea Thompson) and George (Crispin Glover), which puts his own existence in jeopardy.  Will Marty be able to get his parents back together?  Will Doc be able to get him back to 1985?  I think the action really holds up well after forty years, especially when Marty is pursued by the Libyans before he travels to 1955, when he is chased on an improvised skateboard through the town square by Biff (Thomas F. Wilson), and the incredibly tense sequence when he and Doc try to harness the electricity from a storm to power the DeLorean back to the future.  I love all of the subtle humor, particularly when the teacher judging the battle of the bands (Huey Lewis) says the song that Marty performs ("The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News) is too loud, when the Twin Pines Mall is renamed the Lone Pine Mall after he hits a pine tree in 1955, when he crash lands into a barn and the owners think he is an alien in a space ship (and when he uses this to his advantage to get George to ask Lorraine to the dance), when everyone thinks he is a sailor because of his puffer vest, when Doc refuses to believe that he is from the future after he tells him that the actor Ronald Reagan is president, when Lorraine pursues him after telling him that his girlfriend Elizabeth (Claudia Wells) is too forward, and when he performs "Johnny B. Goode" in front of Chuck Berry's cousin.  I also love the message that you can do anything you set your mind to (which Marty, who is scared to take a chance on his music, realizes after telling George to take a chance on his writing).  Finally, Fox is incredibly appealing as Marty and I can't think of anyone better than Lloyd to play a mad scientist!  I don't know how much longer this will be in theaters but, if you grew up in the 1980s, seeing this on the big screen again is a must!

Note:  My only criticism is that we are ten years past 2015 (the time Doc travels to at the end of the movie) and we still do not have flying cars!

Murdered to Death at the Empress Theatre

I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie (I made a goal of reading all of her books one summer when I was a teenager) so I had a great time at the Empress Theatre's production of Murdered to Death last night because it is a hilarious spoof of the popular British author's murder mysteries. It features a 1930s setting in the drawing room of an isolated English country manor owned by a wealthy dowager and a cast of eccentric characters who all seem to have a motive for the murder that inevitably happens.  I absolutely loved being able to recognize all of the stereotypical characters and formulaic plot devices that I have come to love from all of Christie's whodunits and I don't think I stopped laughing all night. The aforementioned wealthy dowager is Mildred Bagshot (Diana Sorensen) and the suspects in her murder include her quintessentially stuffy butler Bunting (J.D. Robison), her young niece (and heir to her fortune) Dorothy Foxton (Addy Coates), and her guests for the weekend including the blustering Colonel Craddock (Scott Sorensen), his long-suffering wife Margaret (Catherine Bohman), French painter Pierre Marceau (Carina Dillon), and socialite Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington (Cathryn Guzzwell). On hand to help solve the murder is the busybody spinster Miss Maple (Chalese Craig), the bumbling Inspector Pratt (Paul Gibbs), and his put-upon assistant Constable Thompkins (Jiji Dillon). Hijinks ensue, including another murder right under everyone's noses, until the mystery is inadvertently solved after multiple twists and turns! The physical comedy and witty dialogue are very entertaining and you really have to pay attention to get all of the references (I was the only one in the audience who laughed at a quick allusion to Hercule Poirot). The entire cast does a fantastic job with all of the chaos but my favorite performance was that of Gibbs because his committed physicality and lightning-fast delivery of all of Pratt's malapropisms steal the show (when he uses nasturtiums instead of aspersions I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe). I also loved his interactions with the exasperated Dillon, particularly a running bit where he calls her Thompson instead of Thompkins (one of the funniest moments in the show is when he gets it right). Finally, I loved the set (one of the most elaborate I've seen at the Empress) with period furnishings that do much to evoke the time and place and two doors opposite each other which add to the mayhem as characters make quick entrances and exists. This is the perfect show for a fun night out and I definitely recommend getting a ticket for one of the remaining performances next weekend (go here).

Note:  The Empress Theatre very graciously provided me with tickets so I was able to bring my sister with me. It was her first visit to this theatre and she absolutely loved the show (she even correctly guessed the murderer during intermission).

National Theatre Live: Mrs. Warren's Profession

Yesterday I went to a screening of the National Theatre Live production of Mrs. Warren's Profession which was filmed earlier this year from the Garrick Theatre in London's West End and presented by the Tanner Humanities Center and Salt Lake Film Society.  I had never seen George Bernard Shaw's scandalous play before (it was written in 1893 but not performed publicly until 1925 due to censorship laws) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Vivie Warren (Bessie Carter), a modern young woman who has recently graduated from university, reunites with her long absent mother Kitty (Imelda Staunton) after spending much of her life boarding with others.  Mrs. Warren arranges for Vivie to meet her friend Mr. Praed (Sid Sagar) and her business partner Sir George Crofts (Robert Glenister) as possible suitors but Vivie prefers her ne'er-do-well neighbor Frank Gardner (Reuben Joseph).  His father the Rev. Samuel Gardner (Kevin Doyle) objects to his relationship with Vivie because Mrs. Warren is not socially acceptable so she asks her mother why.  Mrs. Warren finally confesses that her childhood of poverty compelled her to work as a prostitute because she felt that it was a better way of achieving independence than the life of drudgery to which she was doomed by her class and gender.  Vivie is shocked but comes to respect her mother for her determination to succeed.  However, she is horrified when Sir George reveals that he and her mother own several brothels and that she now works as a madam.  This leads to an epic confrontation in which Vivie rejects her mother, and her money, to take an office job in the city and Mrs. Warren responds by saying that her profession is what provided Vivie with an education and choices that she never had.  I really enjoyed the thought-provoking narrative because, at various times, I found both characters to be guilty of, and victims of, hypocrisy and I think the audience is left to decide the morality of their actions.  Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter are outstanding and, because they are mother and daughter in real-life, their interactions have an added poignancy.  I was especially impressed by the scene in which Vivie accuses her mother of exploiting women and Mrs. Warren accuses her daughter of ingratitude because it is incredibly emotional and crackles with energy.  The only drawback is that, with such powerful performances from the women, the men are often overshadowed.  I loved the minimal set which begins as a beautiful garden filled with flowers and ends up as a stark gray office because this represents the journey from illusion to truth.  I also loved the inclusion of a large female ensemble, who are dressed as prostitutes and gradually remove all of the set pieces and props until the stage is bare, because it symbolizes the way such women are used.  This was another great production by NT Live and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to see it.  Upcoming screenings at the Broadway include The Fifth Step on February 21, Hamlet on March 21, and Life of Pi on April 11.

Markus Poschner Conducts Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" Symphony

I was thrilled to attend the Utah Symphony concert last night because the future Music Director Markus Poschner was on the podium!  I am already such a big fan of his, especially when he conducts without a score (which he did last night).  It ended up being an absolutely glorious evening of music and you should probably stop reading now and get a ticket to tonight's performance of the same program because there were not many empty seats in Abravanel Hall last night.  The orchestra was joined by the Utah Symphony Chorus, soloist Shea Owens, and Jason Brown, a chorister of the Madeleine Choir School, for Gabriel Fauré's Requiem and it was beautiful.  I love Mozart's Requiem because it is incredibly dramatic but Fauré's version is much more comforting because he saw death as a release rather than something to be feared.  He used excerpts from the Requiem Mass but also included other liturgies to create something different to reflect his own beliefs about death.  I especially loved the Sanctus because it featured beautiful arpeggios played by the harp accompanied by a rising melody performed by the violins.  A fanfare by the horns followed while the male voices sang "Hosanna in excelis."  The female voices answered softly as the harp repeated the arpeggios before it ended with the full choir accompanied by the organ.  It was lovely.  The  Pie Jesu was performed by Brown (he did an amazing job) and hearing this prayer sung with such an angelic voice was incredibly moving and it was definitely the highlight for me.  The line "In paradisum deducant angeli (May angels lead you to paradise)" sung by the sopranos in the In Paradisum also gave me goosebumps.  This piece was lush without being overpowering and I really enjoyed it.  After the intermission, the orchestra played Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and this was another beautiful performance.  I think all of Tchaikovsky's music is emotional but this is even more so because it was composed shortly before his death and many believe it to be his farewell (he said himself that it was the best and most sincere of all of his compositions).  I loved the intensity of the first movement with the powerful themes performed by the brass intertwined with solos played by the woodwinds, the whimsical third movement with themes played by the strings that eventually reach a triumphant climax (the audience applauded at the end of it), and the haunting final movement that ends with a gong and themes played by the cellos and basses that seem to disappear into nothingness.  It was a wonderful concert, one of the best Utah Symphony performances I've seen in a while, and I highly recommend it (go here for tickets).