The Prom

I am a huge fan of musical theatre and, as such, I have a long list of shows that I want to see with The Prom near the top.  Since I can’t see it on the stage, seeing the movie adaptation last night was the next best thing. I had so much fun watching a feel-good story about having the courage to be who you are that is also a colorful and sparkly love letter to theatre!  I loved everything about it!  Down and out Broadway stars Dee Dee Allen (Meryl Streep) and Barry Glickman (James Corden) are commiserating over the fact that their show has closed on opening night because the critics don't like them as people.  They think the best way to resurrect their careers is to champion a cause to show the public that they care about something other than themselves.  They hear about a girl named Emma (Jo Ellen Pellman) in Indiana who wants to attend her high school prom with her girlfriend (Ariana DeBose).  Rather than allow this, Mrs. Greene (Kerry Washington), the head of the PTA, cancels the prom despite the support of the high school principal Tom Hawkins (Keegan-Michael Key).  They decide to help Emma and are joined by Trent Oliver (Andrew Rannells), an out of work actor who never fails to mention that he attended Juilliard, and Angie Dickinson (Nicole Kidman), a chorus girl who has been the understudy for Roxie Hart for twenty years, on a bus for a non-union tour of Godspell headed to Indiana.  They help get the prom reinstated for the good publicity but, when Emma suffers an additional heartache, they realize they actually do care about helping her have a night to celebrate who she really is.  I loved every single song but my favorites are "We Look to You," about the power of theatre (Keegan-Michael Key really surprised me with how good he is in this number), "Love Thy Neighbor," about the hypocrisy of believing that you are a good person when you hate and discriminate against those who are different than you, and "Unruly Heart," about the freedom to love who you want.  The choreography throughout is a lot of fun, especially the Fosse-inspired "Zazz" and the exuberant "It's Time to Dance." Streep is absolutely perfect as a narcissistic Broadway diva and I especially enjoyed her rendition of "It's Not About Me" because it is so over the top! There has been some controversy over the casting of Corden, who is straight, but his performance as a gay man rejected by his family is full of such pathos that it really feels authentic.  Despite the star power, I was most impressed with newcomer Pellman because she is absolutely luminous and her rendition of "Unruly Heart" is incredibly touching.  I also enjoyed Broadway veteran DeBose (she was in the original cast of Hamilton) and her song "Alyssa Greene" is one of the most powerful moments in the movie. I had a smile on my face from beginning to end (I laughed out loud at the many theatre references) and I am so glad that it will be streaming on Netflix soon because I want to watch over and over again!  Its message of acceptance is an important one and I highly recommend it (especially to theatre fans).

Half Brothers

Comedies are usually a hard sell for me but I decided to see Half Brothers because the trailer made me laugh out loud! I saw it last night in a packed theater (by Covid-19 standards) and it was a lot of fun.  Young Renato (Ian Inigo) and his father Flavio (Juan Pablo Espinoza) are inseparable and share a love of model airplanes and figuring out puzzles.  When the value of the peso declines in Mexico, Flavio feels that he has no choice but to travel to the United States to look for work.  He never returns and Renato (Luis Gerardo Mendez) grows up to becomes a cold and bitter, albeit successful, man.  When he receives a phone call requesting that he visit his dying father in Chicago, he is angry but he begrudging decides to go to appease his fiance Pamela (Pia Watson).  He learns that he has a heretofore unknown brother named Asher (Connor Del Rio) and that his father has arranged for the two of them to complete a scavenger hunt which will explain why he never returned to Mexico. The uptight Renato is jealous that the free-spirited Asher got all of their father's attention while he had no one to rely on but himself and Asher reveals that he always felt like he was a disappointment to their father.  Through a series of misadventures, they eventually bond with each other and learn some important lessons from their father.  The plot is a bit far-fetched, there are quite a few jabs at the politics and culture of the United States, and the humor sometimes feels forced and silly (especially the physical comedy involving a goat which is amusing but comes out of nowhere) but this movie is a surprisingly poignant look at the relationship between fathers and sons.  I laughed out loud, especially in a scene where the brothers have to rescue the goat (the needle drop here is hilarious), and I had a tear in my eye by the end of the scavenger hunt.  I enjoyed this so much (and so did the crowd at my screening) but I suspect that this is because there is a dearth of new releases right now rather than because it is a great movie so keep that in mind when deciding whether to see it or not!

The Cold Millions

The November selection for the Barnes & Noble Book Club was The Cold Millions by Jess Walter. I must admit that I really struggled with this because the subject matter was not particularly interesting to me and I found Walter's prose to be unnecessarily flowery. I picked it up and put it down again multiple times and barely got it finished before the live Q&A with the author on Tuesday. This sweeping historical novel, based on actual events, is set in the Pacific Northwest in 1909 and follows two orphan brothers from Montana who ride the rails looking for itinerant work. Gregory "Gig" and Ryan "Rye" Dolan end up in Spokane and get caught up the free speech demonstrations by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or Wobblies as they are more commonly known. Gig, the elder brother, is fiery and idealistic and and ends up in jail, along with hundreds of others, for giving a speech during a riot. Rye, desperate to get Gig released, becomes a pawn for an eccentric group of characters (both real and fictional) who use him for their own ends, including a wealthy industrialist hoping to eradicate the unions from his businesses, a vaudeville showgirl with competing alliances, a hard-boiled assassin out to prove he is still up for the job, a double-crossing anarchist with plans of his own, a Pinkerton detective who is not who he appears to be, and a union activist who happens to be 19 and pregnant. Will Gig survive the beatings and hunger strikes in prison with his idealism in tact? Will Rye sell his soul to save Gig? Will the unions do anything to change the inequality between the wealthy few and the cold millions who struggle to survive? It sounds like it would be a compelling read and most people in our virtual discussion thought it was. Unfortunately, I did not. There are a bewildering number of characters and the narrative alternates between too many different POVs. I sometimes found it difficult to keep all of them straight, especially all of the minor characters meant to provide color rather than advance the plot (I sometimes have the same problem with Dickens and Hugo). I was not very invested in any of the characters because they are kept at such a distance (maybe it is due to the aforementioned flowery prose) so it is hard to sympathize with any of them. I actually found Rye, the main protagonist, to be quite unappealing because he is so passive. He is merely swept along by the actions of other characters without really taking a stand and I was a bit disappointed with the epilogue because he seems to benefit from the labor movement throughout his life without much involvement. In fact, I thought the ending was anticlimactic after the slog to get through it but I appreciate the author's comment in our discussion about wanting to demonstrate that the struggle still continues today. I usually love historical fiction but this just didn't do it for me. I am clearly in the minority so I recommend reading it for yourself if the topic sounds interesting to you.

Note:  The Barnes & Noble Book Club is taking the month of December off and will return with a new selection in January.

A Christmas Carol at HCT 2020

With HCT's new guidelines for socially distanced seating (which I actually applaud), I didn't think that I would be able to see A Christmas Carol this year. Even though I have seen it more times than I can count, the thought of missing out on yet another Christmas tradition made me a bit sad. Then HCT released a few tickets last weekend and I quickly grabbed one for an early show yesterday afternoon! I enjoyed it so much, probably more than I ever have before! HCT's production is a lovely adaptation of the well-known classic by Charles Dickens about the reclamation of Ebenezer Scrooge (David Weeks) by the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Jackie Spendlove), Present (Jonathan Fifield), and Future (Spencer Hohl). What I love most about HCT's production is the addition of Christmas music in between every scene by an octet (Brett Myers, Taylor J. Smith, Michael Von Forell, Josh Shimizu, Emily Hawkes, Mindi Hansen, Emily Leishman Roh, and Erin Camp Worland) and in certain party scenes by the characters. I love Christmas music so much and I think the addition really helps add to the mood. My favorite song by the octet is "What Child is This?" and I also really love "Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella" during the Fezziwig's party (it was my favorite song to sing when I was in the choir in college) and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" during Fred's party. This year they added a violin (Katie Frandsen) to the musical numbers and I loved it! Because I've seen this production so many times I always anticipate seeing the same actors return to the same role year after year but this year there were quite a few new faces!  I particularly loved Elijah Thomas as Charles Dickens/Fred because his performance of the opening prologue (it seems like it was expanded this year) gave me goosebumps, Anthony LeRoy Lovato as Bob Cratchit because he is so tender after the death of Tiny Tim, and Jonathan Fifeld as the Ghost of Christmas Present because he is jolly but also a little bit stern. Of course the young actor playing Tiny Tim (Payson Inkley) is absolutely adorable and he really works it when he says his iconic line at the end of the show. The elaborate Victorian sets on the turntable (I love the rag and bottle shop) and the opulent costumes effectively transport the audience back to London in the 1800s but, because I was sitting on the side in the back of the theatre, I sometimes had a hard time seeing all of the projections and I missed the climactic moment when the Ghost of Christmas Future shows Scrooge his name on the tombstone. It mattered not because this show is full of so much Christmas cheer that you can't help leaving the theatre with a smile on your face and a vow to keep Christmas in your heart all year long! I highly recommend getting a ticket and, last I heard, there are still some available for a few shows (go here)

Come Play

I really wanted to see Come Play when it was first released in October but, for one reason or another, I never made it.  I noticed that it was still playing in theaters and, since I had nothing to do last night, I decided to see it.  To be honest, the main reason I wanted to see it is because of Azhy Robertson who was so good in Marriage Story.  This time Robertson is Oliver, a young autistic boy who is non-verbal and uses electronic devices exclusively to communicate.  He is bullied by the kids at school and his parents, Sarah (Gillian Jacobs) and Marty (John Gallagher, Jr.), argue about what is best for him so he finds solace in watching Spongebob Squarepants whenever he feels isolated.  A children's story called Misunderstood Monsters suddenly appears on his phone and tablet and he reads about a monster named Larry who has no friends because he is different.  Larry tells Oliver that all he wants is for him to be his friend.  At first Larry manifests himself through various electronic devices but he soon enters the real world by draining power from electricity, most notably from lights, to terrorize everyone.  Ultimately, Oliver must decide if having Larry as a friend is better than having no one.  Reviews have been mixed but, while I wouldn't call this a great movie, I liked it more than I thought I would.  Robertson's performance is the best thing going for this movie (most of the other performances are incredibly bland) and, even though he has almost no dialogue, his facial expressions and body language convey so many different emotions.  He is riveting, especially in the scenes where he is overstimulated.  The message that screens are no substitute for human interaction gets a bit muddled in the execution but it is definitely thought-provoking, especially now when so many things are virtual rather than face to face.  There are a few really menacing sequences, particularly when Larry appears in front of Oliver's friends at a sleepover (which is incredibly scary!), but for the most part the narrative relies on cheap jump scares rather than on atmosphere.  It is inconsistent but I enjoyed it enough to recommend it to fans of the genre.

Mank

The movie Mank is getting a lot of Oscar buzz right now (for Best Picture and for director David Fincher) so, of course, I wanted to see it.  I had the chance yesterday and the hype is definitely real!  Screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) is a washed up alcoholic who has burned all of his bridges in Hollywood but he is chosen by Orson Welles (Tom Burke), who has been given carte blanche by RKO Pictures, to write the screenplay for his first movie.  However, this comes with a "for hire" clause which means that Mankiewicz will be paid but won't receive credit for writing the script. When Mankiewicz is injured in a serious car accident, Welles sets him up on an isolated ranch in the desert with three minders, a housekeeper named Fraulein Frieda (Monika Gossman), a typist named Rita Alexander (Lily Collins), and producer John Houseman (Sam Troughton), to keep him working on a strict deadline and, more importantly, to keep him sober.  As he writes what will become Citizen Kane, there are flashbacks to his relationships with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance) and studio mogul Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard).  Mankiewicz is disillusioned by how they used their power to influence the 1934 California gubernatorial race and this informs the script.  His interactions with actress Marion Davies (a brilliant Amanda Seyfried), Hearst's mistress, are also explored, although he repeatedly denies that she is the model for Susan Alexander Kane.  He finishes the script and, despite warnings from his brother Joseph (Tom Pelphrey) and Marion that it is dangerous, he decides that it is the best thing he has ever written and fights Welles for credit.  This movie is incredibly dense and it assumes that viewers know the plot of Citizen Kane (it is referenced dozens of times without explanation) but it is absolutely brilliant.  The story, which may or may not be true (authorship of Citizen Kane has been disputed for decades), is fascinating and cinephiles will find the depiction of Old Hollywood as glamorous but also corrupt very intriguing and thought-provoking.  It is a technical masterpiece with black and white cinematography, shot composition, lighting, and editing that mimic the look and feel of Citizen Kane and an authentic-sounding score recorded in mono by regular Fincher collaborators Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.  Oldman is outstanding but I was especially impressed with Seyfried who gives the best performance of her career.  The supporting cast is also very good (cinephiles will love all of the cameos portraying Old Hollywood legends), especially Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg (the scene where he says he makes no apology for doing what he has to do gave me goosebumps) and Dance (the scene where Hearst escorts Mankiewicz out of San Simeon also gave me goosebumps).  I loved it and consider it to be a must-see for film aficionados but I concede that some might find it confusing (especially for anyone who hasn't seen Citizen Kane) or boring (it is, after all, about the writing of a screenplay).  It is in theaters for a limited run and then it will stream on Netflix beginning December 4. 

Christmas Porch

I will sometimes put a Christmas wreath on my door but I have never decorated my porch before (many of my neighbors do).  Since I've gone a little overboard with my Christmas decorations this year, I decided that I might as well go all the way!  My sister bought this sign from a vendor that she met at a craft boutique and, when I said I wanted one, she asked her if she had any of them left.  I was so excited when she said that she would make me one!  I really love it because it is black but still obviously Christmas themed!

Then I found this cute door mat on Amazon.  I am really liking buffalo checks right now!

The last item that I needed for my porch was a wreath.  I usually just buy a pine wreath from Home Depot on Black Friday but I found this one on Facebook and had to have it!

A fourteen-year-old girl near me was making them to sell to earn money for Christmas and I liked the idea of supporting her.  I also really liked the wreath because it is really simple and has a buffalo check ribbon (it is also really sparkly).  My sister bought one as well and we got seriously lost in her subdivision when we went to pick them up!

I really love how it looks!  I rarely invite anyone over and I almost never use this door to enter my house (I go in through the garage) but it makes me happy!  Maybe the Amazon delivery man will appreciate it?

Note:  My sister thinks that I will start decorating the porch for every season now.  Let's hope it doesn't come to that!

Thanksgiving 2020

Yesterday my family had a wonderful holiday (as you can see from Sean's expression ha ha!).  It was a little different than usual because we put all of the food out buffet-style and ate in the living room so that we could distance ourselves a bit more.  That ended up being a lot of fun with lots of conversations and laughter!

We had turkey and ham, stuffing, cheesy potatoes (here in Utah they are called funeral potatoes), rolls, pomegranate salad (a tradition in our family), and a vegetable tray with dip.  Everything tasted delicious!  We actually had pumpkin, pecan, and cherry pies but we were all so full that we didn't even get them out!

After dinner we played a crazy game of shanghai rummy!  We have not played this together since New Year's Eve and it felt really good to be doing something so normal after the year that we have had!  We got laughing so hard that I could hardly breathe!  Kristine won but I came in second, even after a disastrous early round (we are thinking of having a tournament over the Christmas break where we all buy in and winner takes all but that might make it even more ruthless than usual).  I think this is one of the best Thanksgivings we've had!

Note:  Tashena is going back up to school in Washington state today after being home since the pandemic started.  We will miss her so much but she'll be back for Christmas!

The Last Vermeer

I have been looking forward to The Last Vermeer since I saw the trailer months ago and I was really excited to see it last night.  Weeks after the end of World War II Hermann Goring's collection of stolen art, including an incredibly valuable painting by Johannes Vermeer, is discovered in an abandoned railway car.  Captain Joseph Piller (Claes Bang) is tasked by the Allied forces with discovering who the art originally belonged to and who sold it to the Nazis.  His investigation of the Vermeer painting leads him to a painter named Han van Meegeren (Guy Pearce) and, believing him guilty of collaboration, he eventually arrests him.  When the local Dutch government, in the person of Alex de Klerk (August Diehl), takes jurisdiction of the case away from him and moves quickly to condemn van Meegeren, Piller has second thoughts about his guilt.  He enlists his assistant (Vicky Krieps) and a retired lawyer (Karl Johnson) to help him prove his innocence in court.  This movie was a bit of a mixed bag for me because the plot takes a really long time to get going.  The first half, where Piller investigates van Meegeren's involvement, is very boring and incredibly convoluted.  There are references to a vast conspiracy involving the sale of art to channel money to a German espionage ring but I didn't really understand any of this and I had a hard time keeping track of who was who because of all of the Dutch and German names.  I found my mind wandering many times.  However, the court scenes in the second half pulled me back in because the revelations about van Meegeren's actions are absolutely fascinating (it is based on a true story).  I really wish more of the narrative had focused on van Meegeren and the trial and less on Piller and his motivation (Pearce gives a much more dynamic performance as van Meegeren than Bang does as Piller).  Piller's character arc raises questions about the morality of acts committed for survival while a country is occupied by an enemy but I found van Meegeren's exploration of how the value of art is determined to be much more interesting (this theme reminded me of The Burnt Orange Heresy which also features Bang).  On a side note, I really liked the production design in the depiction of post-war Amsterdam (a favorite city of mine) and the lighting design which seems to mimic a Vermeer painting.  This is an average movie at best but I enjoyed it because of my fascination with World War II and my love of art.  It might be a bit too esoteric for most moviegoers.

Ammonite

There is nothing I love more than an atmospheric character-driven period drama and yesterday I got to see Ammonite which is a really good one!  Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) is a 19th century amateur paleontologist who spends her days roaming the Lyme coastline looking for fossils which she sells to tourists in a dingy little shop shared with her ailing mother (Gemma Jones).  She is cold, isolated, and a bit misanthropic, mostly because her discoveries are ignored by the establishment due to her gender and class.  She reluctantly agrees to teach Roderick Murchison (James McArdle), a wealthy member of the Royal Geographic Society, how to identify rocks containing ammonites (prehistoric mollusk-like sea creatures) because she needs the money.  His wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan) is fragile and suffering from what he calls "mild melancholia" after a miscarriage so he decides that she is too weak to accompany him on an extended expedition and must stay behind in Lyme.  He asks Mary to be her companion while he is gone but neither woman is happy about this arrangement and their interactions are fraught with tension.  Mary, however, is increasingly drawn to Charlotte when the latter falls ill and Charlotte eventually responds to her care.  They begin a passionate, if desperate, affair knowing that Charlotte must soon return to her husband.  This will inevitably be compared to Portrait of a Lady on Fire but, while they both have a similar theme, they have very different tones.  I loved the symbolism of having the women break open a seemingly ordinary rock to discover the valuable fossil within.  Both women are dismissed by the people around them but they bring each other to life by recognizing what is extraordinary in the other.  I also loved the washed-out monochromatic color palette of blues and grays that gradually becomes more saturated as their affair continues, especially in relation to the sea.  Whenever Mary is on the beach alone, the sky is gray and the water is very turbulent but, when Mary and Charlotte swim in the sea together, the water is welcoming and the sun gives their skin a luminous glow.  The images on the screen are incredibly beautiful but the performances of both Winslet and Ronan are brilliant!  Both of them are able to convey so many emotions with just their body language and facial expressions rather than through dialogue (the sound design is eerily silent through much of the duration), especially in a scene where the women attend a music recital.  The final scene between them, standing on either side of a glass case filled with fossils at the British Museum, is devastating because of the way they look at each other.  Some might say the ending is ambiguous but I found the symbolism to be quite thought-provoking and it gave me goosebumps!  I suspect that both actresses will be receiving multiple nominations during awards season.  It is definitely a slow burn but I highly recommend it!

Zukerman Plays Bach's Violin Concerto

A couple of days ago Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson decided to temporarily close most performing arts venues in SLC, including Abravanel Hall, until December 31 to stop the spread of Covid-19.  This is a necessary measure because cases have been spiking out of control here in Utah.  I understand the need for this but it absolutely breaks my heart because I have been looking forward to several Christmas concerts with the Utah Symphony next month.  I really love hearing Christmas music performed live and so many of the events that I usually enjoy during the holiday season, such as the Lower Lights Christmas concert and the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, have already been canceled due to the pandemic so I would be lying if I said this news wasn't a blow.  Thankfully, this weekend's concerts were allowed to proceed and the beautiful program performed last night was such a solace.  Once again the string section of the orchestra was featured and the guest conductor (and soloist!) for the evening was the amazing Pinchas Zukerman, who was simply marvelous.  The concert began with a piece by a young and talented composer named Jessie Montgomery called Starburst.  I really enjoyed this piece because it is dynamic and so full of energy.  Next came Serenade for Strings by Edward Elgar.  I always think of Elgar's music as stately, elegant, and celebratory (one of his most famous works is Pomp and Circumstance) and this particular piece is just lovely.  Zukerman performed the dual roles of conductor and soloist for Johann Sebastian Bach's Violin Concerto.  This piece has some really beautiful melodies and it was obvious that Zukerman was having a lot of fun putting his own flourishes on the solo violin melody as his bow flew up and down the strings.  It was fascinating to watch him play and communicate with the orchestra at the same time.  He received a rousing standing ovation (this was the biggest socially distanced crowd I've seen at Abravanel Hall since this re-imagined season began) for his efforts.  The concert concluded with Symphony No. 29 by my favorite composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart!  This piece was composed when Mozart was only 18 but it is absolutely brilliant.  The first movement begins so softly that it almost takes you by surprise but, by the final movement, it is absolutely dazzling and effervescent.  I loved it!  This wonderful concert was just what I needed after feeling a bit blue this week and I highly recommend it (go here for tickets).

Hillbilly Elegy

Last night I decided to see Hillbilly Elegy on the big screen ahead of its release on Netflix next week.  I have heard many conflicting views on this movie so I was eager to see what all of the fuss is about for myself.  It is based on the memoir of the same name by J.D. Vance, which I have not read, and I gather that the book is much more political than the movie.  The Vances are a multi-generational family from the Appalachian region of Kentucky.  They are caught in an endless cycle of extreme poverty, drug and alcohol use, and physical abuse.  Mamaw (Glenn Close) and Papaw (Bo Hopkins) make it out and hope for a better life in the steel town of Middletown, Ohio but their relationship becomes abusive as the area becomes economically depressed and they end up perpetuating the cycle of violence.  Their daughter Bev (Amy Adams) also hopes for a better life, becoming the salutatorian of her high school class, but she, too, gives up her ambitions when she becomes a single mother to Lindsay (Haley Bennett) and J.D (Gabriel Basso as an adult and Owen Asztalos as a teenager).  She flits from man to man and job to job, abusing drugs to cope with the reality of her life.  Young J.D. starts hanging out with the wrong crowd and getting into mischief but Mamaw, hoping to break the cycle, takes him in and uses tough love to get him on the right path.  Through hard work and determination he makes it to Yale Law School but, as he is interviewing for a prestigious summer internship, he is called home to deal with his mother's latest heroin overdose.  Will he put his family or his future first?  The narrative is sometimes very haphazard, jumping multiple times between 1997 and 2011 (there are flashbacks within flashbacks without much thematic cohesion), and is quite superficial.  It masquerades as social commentary without delving into the underlying causes of generational poverty or engaging in any meaningful discussion of what it takes to overcome it.  The characters, while they give Adams and Close a chance to give very showy transformative performances that are already garnering a lot of Oscar buzz, are strangely one-dimensional and never really rise above stereotypes.  Honestly, I sometimes found this movie really boring because the characters don't do much more than scream each other after they make the same mistakes over and over again.  Ron Howard gives us the requisite feel-good ending but it seems very abrupt and, therefore, not earned.  I had so many questions about how Bev is suddenly able to rise above the circumstances that have plagued her for decades.  I didn't especially like this movie and I would definitely recommend waiting for it to stream on Netflix if you want to see it for yourself.

Murder on the Orient Express at HCT

I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie (I made a goal to read all of her books when I was a teenager) and one of my favorites is Murder on the Orient Express. I've seen several screen adaptations but never the stage play so I was really excited about HCT's production! I was able to see it last night (closing night) and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  After finishing a case in Syria, the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Mark Knowles) is called back to London on urgent business. Despite the fact that it is fully booked, a compartment is found on the Orient Express for Poirot by Monsieur Bouc (Benjamin "BJ" Whimpey), the director of the railway. Poirot is immediately approached by Samuel Ratchett (Kelton Davis), an odious American businessman on board, who asks him to investigate some threatening letters he has been receiving but Poirot declines. The train becomes snowbound on the first night of the journey and in the morning Ratchett is discovered dead, having been stabbed multiple times, in his locked compartment. Knowing that the murderer must still be on board the train, Monsieur Bouc asks Poirot to investigate. There are numerous clues which Poirot finds puzzling but, as he interviews his fellow passengers including a Hungarian Countess (Natalie Peterson), an aging Russian Princess (Heidi Scott), her Swedish companion (Wendy Oltmanns), Ratchett's secretary (Zachariah Combs), a Minnesota housewife (Tamari Dunbar), a Scottish colonel (Kelton Davis), an English governess (Lisa Zimmerman), and a French conductor (James Bounous), he discovers that they all have an alibi for the time of the murder and that they all have a connection to the infamous kidnapping and murder of Daisy Armstrong by Bruno Cassetti (who is believed to be Ratchett). Poirot eventually discovers evidence of a mysterious second conductor with a grudge against Ratchett but is he the real murderer? The big plot twist is a lot of fun and the resolution is a thought-provoking examination of retribution vs. revenge. The ensemble cast does a really great job, especially Whimpey, but the stand-out in this production is the rotating set featuring both the interior and exterior of a full-size railway car. The interior space includes an opulent club car and several first-class compartments which rotate to give periodic glimpses of action taking place in a narrow corridor between the two areas. The attention to detail is absolutely amazing, with Art Deco light sconces, peacock blue velvet upholstery on the chairs and sofas, cut glass lamps, mahogany paneling, and, my personal favorite, giant murals featuring dancing swans. The turntable allows for very quick transitions and seeing characters move from the club car to their compartments is a brilliant bit of staging. The sound design also creates the illusion of a real train and the costumes do much to add to the characterization (I loved Mrs. Hubbard's fox stole). This was such a nice evening out but, unfortunately, the run for this show is now over and many of the upcoming shows are sold out because of stricter Covid-19 guidelines.

Suk's Serenade for Strings

Last night I had the opportunity to attend an incredibly interesting and innovative concert with the Utah Symphony!  What set this concert apart from the others I've attended is that there was not a conductor.  Rather, Concertmaster Madeline Adkins led the strings through two pieces during the first half.  I absolutely love the fact that the concertmaster is a woman!  I've actually met Adkins very briefly at a Utah Symphony after-party (yes, I sometimes attend Utah Symphony after-parties) and she is so cool!  It was really fun to see how she kept the musicians together with very subtle gestures.  A small chamber group began the evening with Battalia by Henrich von Biber.  I really enjoyed this piece because it mimics the sound of muskets and cannons firing during a battle without the use of percussion.  The musicians stomped their feet several times and the basses plucked their strings very dramatically among other unorthodox techniques.  Then the entire string section performed Serenade for Strings by Josef Suk.  I loved this piece because, while it is very beautiful and lighthearted, I think there is a tinge of melancholy in it, especially in the third movement.  The second half of the concert (after the stage was completely reconfigured in a matter of minutes) featured different groups within the orchestra.  A quartet of percussionists, including Keith Carrick, Eric Hopkins (sigh), Michael Pape, and Gavin Ryan, performed Ku-Ka-Ilimoku by Christopher Rouse which features more than fifty different percussion instruments (some of which are quite unusual).  Ku is the god of war in Hawaiian mythology and this piece brings to mind a savage war dance and it is extremely exhilarating.  I loved it and it was definitely my favorite of the evening.  The concert continued with the final movement of Masque: Incidental II by Toru Takemitsu which features a duet of flutes.  This performance was very dramatic with two musicians, Mercedes Smith and Caitlyn Valovick-Moore, slowly walking onto the darkened stage from either side and circling each other as they played.  I found it to be very mysterious.  The final piece of the evening was Serenade No. 12 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart featuring an octet of two clarinets, two oboes, two horns, and two bassoons.  This piece is both somber and tempestuous which is why I love Mozart so much!  Other than Mozart, I was totally unfamiliar with the composers featured on the program but I enjoyed this introduction to their work.  I really appreciate this opportunity to hear some lesser-known selections from the classical repertoire during these re-imagined concerts!  This program will be performed again Friday and Saturday (go here for tickets) and I highly recommend it.

Another Tree!

I have really enjoyed having my Christmas tree in the living room the past few days.  At first I felt weird about putting it up so early but I think we can use all of the Christmas cheer we can get this year!  I always turn on the lights whenever I am watching TV (I have recently discovered Britbox and I am currently obsessed with British crime shows) and it makes me so happy.  However, I realized that I actually spend more of my time reading upstairs in the loft than I do watching TV and that it might be nice to have a Christmas tree up there, too.  I immediately dismissed the idea as ridiculous but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to do it!  I bought a little tree and put it up last night!  I love it!

I am looking forward to spending lots of time reading up here with my cute little Christmas tree!

Note:  How do you feel about Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving?  Do or don't?  Apparently people have very strong opinions about this!

Let Him Go

I have been looking forward to Let Him Go since I saw the trailer several weeks ago (I've not read the book by Larry Watson upon which it is based).  I had the chance to see it Saturday night and it was even better than I was expecting.  George Blackledge (Kevin Costner), a Montana rancher and retired lawman, lives with his wife Margaret (Diane Lane), his son James (Ryan Bruce), his daughter-in-law Lorna (Kayli Carter), and his grandson Jimmy (Bram and Otto Hornung).  The relationship between Margaret and Lorna is tense and it becomes more so when James dies in a horse riding accident.  It is implied that Lorna gets remarried to Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain), in part, as a means to escape Margaret's constant criticism of her as a mother.  When Margaret witnesses Donnie physically abusing Lorna and Jimmy on the street, he suddenly takes them to live with his family in North Dakota and she convinces a reluctant George to go after them to rescue their grandson.  In their search, George and Margaret encounter a young Native American loner named Peter Dragswood (Booboo Stewart) who eventually leads them to Bill Weboy (Jeffrey Donovan) and his sister Blanche (Lesley Manville).  Blanche has no intention of letting her son Donnie and his family leave the Weboy compound ever again but Margaret is just as determined to take Jimmy back to Montana.  I was expecting a Western action thriller but, while there is the requisite shoot-out at the end, it is a powerful character study of two people consumed by grief and regret.  Their characters are developed slowly and deliberately with quiet moments and subtle gestures rather than obvious dialogue.  George buys a bottle of whiskey as Margaret looks on with disapproval to establish that he drinks to mask his sorrow.  Margaret silently packs up the car for the trip to North Dakota without George's knowledge to show that she will stop at nothing once she makes up her mind.  Costner and Lane have great chemistry together and give strong performances but Manville is completely over-the-top and steals every scene she is in.  The interactions between Blanche and Margaret are a lot of fun to watch, even when they become menacing and then violent.  Stewart also gives a powerful performance as a young man traumatized by his experiences at an Indian Residential School and as the personification of Margaret's fears for Jimmy.  I loved the cinematography featuring wide shots of the vast landscape to emphasize the isolation, especially in the scene where Bill drives the Blackledges to the Weboy compound.  This is an old-fashioned Western that is painstakingly crafted, gorgeously shot, and well acted.  I highly recommend it!

Ballet West's Nine Sinatra Songs

One of the last performances that I attended at Capitol Theatre before everything was canceled and everyone went on lockdown was Ballet West's beautiful production of Giselle so I was especially happy to be back there yesterday afternoon for another Ballet West production.  I found Nine Sinatra Songs to be incredibly moving and I absolutely loved all three pieces.  The program began with the world premiere of Tides, a ballet commissioned by Ballet West featuring choreography by Jennifer Archibald and traditional music that is almost primal.  Several different groupings of dancers, both soloists and couples, form intricate patterns pushing and pulling against each other which represent the complicated ebb and flow of human history.  The backdrop alternates between blinking stars in a night sky, the rising and setting sun, and then back to the stars again and the costumes mimic the ocean.  I really liked the athleticism of the choreography and the timeliness of the theme.  The second piece was another world premiere by Ballet West's Resident Choreographer, Nicolo Fonte, called Faraway Close.  This is another powerful commentary on our times with various groups of dancers downstage and other groups of dancers on an elevated platform behind a scrim upstage.  The dancers upstage sometimes mimic those downstage and sometimes they move in opposition to or in reaction to the movements of the dancers downstage.  I loved the imagery of finding a way to connect with people even when you are physically separated and I loved the evocative music by Harry Escott and Max Richter.  Katlyn Addison is one of my favorite dancers in the company so it was nice to see her featured in this piece.  I was particularly excited for the final piece, Nine Sinatra Songs, because I was a little bit obsessed with Frank Sinatra when I was in my late twenties.  His music is used by choreographer Twyla Tharp to showcase various types of relationships through the medium of ballroom dancing.  Emily Adams and Beau Pearson portray glamour and romance in "Softly As I Leave You," Victoria Vassos and Hadriel Diniz portray seduction in "Strangers in the Night," Beckanne Sisk and Chase O'Connell portray the bittersweet end of a relationship in "One For My Baby," Lillian Casscells and Beau Chesivoir portray the awkward nervousness of first love in "Somethin' Stupid," Jordan Richardson and Adrian Fry portray abiding love in "All the Way," Olivia Gusti and Tyler Gum portray a playful fling in "Forget Domani," Beckanne Sisk and Chase O'Connell portray love on the rocks in "That's Life" (my favorite), and all of the couples are featured in two different versions of "My Way" to showcase the ultimate power of love.  I loved the costumes by Oscar de la Renta and I was very impressed by the ability of the dancers to convey so many emotions with just movement (they were all wearing masks so they couldn't rely on facial expressions).  All of these pieces emphasize the importance of connection during difficult times and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  I highly recommend this production which runs at Capitol Theatre through November 15.  Go here for ticket information (many performances are sold out but a matinee performance has been added recently). 

Revolution: The Music of the Beatles

It should be no surprise that I love the Beatles so, when I created my Utah Symphony season package last spring, a concert featuring new symphonic arrangements of classic Beatles songs was obviously the first on my list!  However, when I learned that the 2020-2021 season was being re-imagined because of Covid-19, I felt certain that this concert would be canceled in favor of something simpler.  I was thrilled when it was announced that it was still on the schedule and I was thrilled to be at Abravanel Hall last night listening to my favorite songs performed by the Utah Symphony under the baton of Conner Gray Covington.  The orchestra was joined by guest artists Colin Smith on vocals, Zach Jones on vocals and drums, Paul Loren on vocals, Greg Mayo on guitar and vocals, Josh Myers on bass, and Andy Roninson on keyboard.  They didn't particularly look like or dress like the Beatles (as most of the tribute bands that I have seen do) but they sounded great!  They performed fantastic renditions of "Get Back," "Ticket to Ride," "Yesterday," "Penny Lane," "Lady Madonna," "Blackbird," "Eleanor Rigby," "Here Comes the Sun," "Hey Jude," "Come Together," "Something," "I am the Walrus," "Golden Slumbers/ Carry that Weight/ The End," and "Twist and Shout."  The guest artists returned without the orchestra to play "Can't Buy Me Love," "A Hard Day's Night," and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" as an encore.  I think that the music of the Beatles is particularly well suited to symphonic arrangements and I especially loved their versions of "Yesterday," "Blackbird," and "Something."  I also loved Travis Peterson's trumpet solo in "Penny Lane."  Listening to these songs was so much fun because it actually felt like a rock concert (I haven't been to one since February) complete with clapping, cheering, singing along, and holding up flashlights on phones!  We may have been a smaller audience than usual but I think we did justice to the chorus of "Hey Jude."  I really enjoyed all of the images of the Beatles (some of which I had never seen before) projected on the screen during each song. The guest artists, who hadn't performed with each other since March, told us how happy they were to be on stage in front of actual human beings and dedicated "Here Comes the Sun" to the crowd.  I loved every minute of this concert (I was actually a little bit sad when it came to an end because I had been anticipating it for so long) and I highly recommend getting a ticket to tonight's performance of the same program (go here for more information as seating is limited).

Decking the Halls a Little Early

I usually do not decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving (I like to celebrate Thanksgiving before I start celebrating Christmas).  However, I was self-quarantining over the weekend (someone in my family was waiting for the results of a Covid-19 test and I thought it best to stay home until I knew if I had been exposed) and, with zero trick-or-treaters at my door, I decided to bring a few Christmas decorations up from the basement.  My sister recently made me this new runner because she knows I like the color black.

After I put the runner out I spontaneously decided to put up my tree!  I didn't have a tree last year because I couldn’t get the lights on the new one I bought to work so I sent it back and didn't get another one.  It made me so sad not to have a tree (I had a few meltdowns) so I bought one for this year a few months ago.  It felt a little bit weird to put up my tree on Halloween but it made me so happy.  A lot of my ornaments have sentimental value to me because I collect them from my travels and I try to buy a new one to commemorate each year (some recent favorites are a Kylo Ren figure and one from Hamilton).

It makes me so happy to sit with just the lights from the tree illuminating the room.  I decided to order a few more decorations (I am a minimalist and don't have a lot) so I bought some pillows and a new tree skirt.

I am loving buffalo checks right now!

I really love the overall effect!  Some people may object to decorating for Christmas so early but it makes me happy and this is definitely a year for doing what makes you happy!

Note:  I’m almost finished with my Christmas shopping, too.

Synchronic

I was really intrigued by the premise of the movie Synchronic so I decided to see it last night and it is so much more than I thought it would be.  Dennis (Jamie Dornan) and Steve (Anthony Mackie) are long time friends and paramedics in New Orleans who are called to a series of unusual cases where victims have unexplained injuries, including a man who has been stabbed by an ancient sword and a woman who has been bitten by an exotic snake that is nowhere to be found.  As they investigate these strange occurrences, we learn that Dennis has a troubled teenage daughter named Brianna (Ally Ioannides) and a marriage that is deteriorating while Steve is a hard-drinking womanizer who can't commit to anyone because of a tragedy during Hurricane Katrina.  They eventually learn that the victims have been taking a designer drug called Synchronic which transports them to another time period in the same geographic location.  When they are called to another case involving the drug, they learn that Brianna has taken it and disappeared.  Steve is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and given a short time to live so he makes the decision to take Synchronic so he can find Brianna.  The story is interesting and there are some really trippy images but I particularly enjoyed the philosophical exploration of time, relativity, perception, and fate.  There is an absolutely brilliant discussion between the two characters about their perceptions of time based on their experiences and why it is more interesting to live in the present, which is filled with variables, and not fear the end of your life, which is not.  I loved the description of time as a record album.  The needle is dropped in one groove which represents one point in time while all the other points in time still exist simultaneously in the other grooves.  I found this fascinating.  I also found the subtle commentary on race to be interesting because Steve runs afoul of the Ku Klux Klan when he is transported to a Depression-era homestead and is mistaken for a slave during a Civil War battle, which is to be expected, but he is also mistaken for a criminal by the police at a crime scene in the present.  Both Dornan and Mackie give riveting performances but I was especially impressed with Steve's character arc as a bitter man obsessed with death who learns the value of life.  This is an incredibly thought-provoking movie that is more than just a sci-fi thriller and I highly recommend it.

The Empty Man

I really like seeing horror movies during the month of October (I guess it is my way of getting in the mood for Halloween).  Last night I went to see The Empty Man because, despite having a similar plot to Slender Man which was absolutely awful, it sounded very intriguing to me.  It opens with a long (over twenty minutes!) prologue involving a group of hikers in the mountains of Bhutan who inadvertently discover a supernatural creature called the Empty Man which possesses one of them and then kills the rest.  Twenty-three years later, a group of Midwestern teens discover the urban legend of the Empty Man.  They perform the ritual to summon the mysterious creature and then they disappear.  James Lasondra (James Badge Dale), a former cop who is haunted by a recent tragedy, begins looking for Amanda Quail (Sasha Frolova), one of the missing girls, because she is the daughter of Nora (Marin Ireland), a woman who is somehow connected to his tragedy.  His investigation eventually leads to a cult-like organization, led by the charismatic Arthur Parsons (Stephen Root), which practices physical manifestation through the manipulation of thoughts.  Then there is an almost incomprehensible plot twist that focuses on the manifestation of a physical host for the Empty Man to possess.  The premise of this movie is extremely ambitious but it goes completely off the rails in the third act and I still don't entirely understand what happened because it is so convoluted and there are a number of plot holes and inconsistencies.  I did, however, find it to be very compelling and it kept my attention throughout the 2 hour and 17 minute runtime.  Even though The Empty Man feels more like a psychological thriller than a true horror movie, it incredibly scary because there is a feeling of dread that permeates every single shot and the atmospheric score adds greatly to this sense of unease.  Dale gives a strong central performance as a troubled man who is slowly drawn into something that he can't explain but begins to feel very personal and Root is fantastic as the cult leader.  This is definitely much better than Slender Man (the bar was pretty low) and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would but there are some problems that keep it from being a great movie.

Leave the World Behind

The October Barnes & Noble Book Club selection was Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam and, even though it was unbelievably unsettling, I couldn't put it down! Amanda and Clay, a middle class white couple, leave New York City for a family vacation in a secluded area of Long Island with their teenage son Archie and daughter Rose. They begin their stay in a luxurious Airbnb with barbecues by the pool and trips to the beach but their idyllic getaway changes when the owners of the house, a wealthy black couple named G.H. and Ruth Washington, knock on their door in the middle of the night. The older couple is seeking refuge from a mysterious power outage in the city. Amanda and Clay are initially wary of the strangers but invite them in and soon the six of them are stranded together without any form of communication with the outside world. A series of unnerving events, such as the unusual appearance of animals, a deafening noise, and worrisome physical symptoms, leave them terrified and desperate for information. This novel is incredibly compelling because it begins as a thought-provoking commentary on race, social class, and privilege but then it taps into the zeitgeist of our times with discussions of disease, death, fear of the unknown, mass destruction, and the apocalypse. What I found so fascinating is the juxtaposition between the abject terror that they are experiencing and the need to carry on with the mundane tasks associated with daily life. I thought it was a very accurate response to the end of the world. It was also very illuminating to me that the characters are practically incapacitated when they can no longer rely on their cellphones (one of the characters becomes horribly lost driving to the nearest town without GPS even though he has instructions). The fact that there are so few details about the cataclysmic event (but endless descriptions of the minutiae of their activities) adds tremendously to the sense of menace. I found the ambiguous ending to be infuriating at first but I have not been able to stop thinking about it since I finished and now I feel that there was really no other way the novel could have ended. Our discussion with the author on Facebook last night cemented my thoughts when he said that the fear of the unknown is sometimes worse than the fear of something specific.  I also loved his comment about the power of art to heal which is something that did not immediately jump out at me when I was reading.  One of the main characters longs to listen to the music from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky one more time before the world ends because it is the most beautiful thing she has ever heard. Alum indicated that he included that because when humanity seems to be at its worst we tend to seek out the best of what man has created and I loved that! It is quite brilliant but I do have a few complaints. The third person stream of consciousness jumps around from person to person very abruptly so it is sometimes difficult to keep track of whose head we are inside. I also found the prose to be a bit flowery at times (it reminded me of when my sophomores would use a thesaurus to make me think they were better writers).  This will not be for everyone (especially those struggling with the fear and isolation of our current situation) but it is definitely a book that will stay with you for a long time and I highly recommend it.

Note:  The November Barnes & Noble Book Club selection is The Cold Millions by Jess Walter. Once again, there will be a live discussion with the author via Facebook on December 1.  Go here for more information.