Solo

It was really hard for me to wait so long to see Solo: A Star Wars Story (particularly since so many of my friends were seeing it before me) but my Dad made me promise him that I wouldn't see it without him!  I'm glad that I kept my promise because he took my family to see it on Memorial Day and we had such a good time together!  We all loved it because it is such a fun and entertaining movie, perfect for the holiday weekend!  The galaxy is ruled by competing crime syndicates and a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) teams up with Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) to procure a valuable resource, coaxium, for Crimson Dawn, a syndicate run by the ruthless Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany).  Along the way he meets the wookie Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), wins the Millennium Falcon in a card game from Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), and makes the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs!  The story gave me everything I was looking for and I think it does a good job explaining how Han Solo got to be the rakish smuggler we meet in the original trilogy.  Ehrenreich is more than up for the challenge of playing such an iconic character but Glover steals the show as Lando Calrissian.  I laughed and laughed at the scene where he records the "Calrissian Chronicles."  The action sequences and special effects are really what make this movie so much fun, particularly a spectacular high speed train robbery and the infamous Kessel Run!  I still think that Rogue One has more depth and pathos but this addition to the Star Wars Anthology is well worth a visit to the theater!  Go see it!

1945

Yesterday I spent a rainy afternoon at the Broadway seeing a compelling foreign film called 1945.  In a rural village in Hungary just after World War II, two Orthodox Jews get off a train and arrange for two large trunks to be taken into the town by wagon.  News immediately spreads throughout the village and everyone reacts with alarm, wondering who they are and what they want.  We slowly learn that many of the villagers were complicit in denouncing a prominent Jewish family before the war and that many profited, unethically, from their arrest.  Intermingled with these frantic scenes of chaos are long shots of the two men slowly following the wagon into town which is a bit menacing as the villagers await their arrival.  As guilt plagues the villagers, with catastrophic results for many of them, we learn the innocuous reason for their visit.  It reminded me a lot of High Noon because the town is anticipating, not gunslingers, but two strangers walking into the town while nervously peering out from behind lace curtains as events unfold in real time.  This is, ultimately, a profound portrayal of guilt and how you cannot escape from the consequences of your actions forever and I am sure that I will be thinking about it for some time to come.  The cinematography effectively uses high contrast black and white to create unbearably beautiful images and the jarring score does much to add to the tension.  It is in Hungarian, and some Russian, with English subtitles and many of the characters look and dress alike (particularly the women) so I had a difficult time following the action at first but I found the images on the screen to be riveting.  I would definitely recommend this film.

Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2

Last night my friend Angela and I went to the final Utah Symphony performance of the 2017-2018 season and it was such an amazing concert!  In my opinion a performance featuring Rachmaninoff was a great way to end what has been a fantastic season!  The orchestra began with a piece commissioned by the Utah Symphony called Reflections by Tristan Murail.  It is very modern but, as explained by Thierry Fischer, it is a contemplative piece where the instruments mimic the tides and the wind and their ability to withstand adversity.  I found it to be very soothing.  Next Concertmaster Madeleine Adkins was the featured soloist in a performance of Korngold's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.  I had never heard this piece before and I thought it was beautiful.  I especially loved the third movement because it was very lively and the violin sounded a lot like a fiddle.  Adkins gave a spectacular performance (I really like her and I like the fact that the Concertmaster is a woman) and she received a thunderous standing ovation.  After the intermission the orchestra played Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2.  Rachmaninoff is one of my favorite composers so I enjoyed this immensely.  I think that the fanfare played by the horns in the second movement is so quintessentially Russian and I think that the main theme played in the third movement is especially romantic.  It was such a lovely concert and it was a great way to celebrate the end of the school year!

Note:  I am really looking forward to seeing the Utah Symphony perform in some outdoor venues this summer, particularly a performance with Sutton Foster at Deer Valley!

The Rider

Last night I saw The Rider, a film I have been anticipating for weeks, and it is so good!  Brady Blackburn (Brady Jandreau) has suffered a catastrophic brain injury from being trampled after riding a bucking bronco at a rodeo.  Riding broncos is the only thing he knows how to do and it is his sole source of identity.  When he is told that he can never ride again he struggles to find himself again.  It is a beautiful and powerful exploration of what it means to let go of a dream.  What makes this film so remarkable is that it is based on actual events in the life of rodeo star Brady Jandreau, who plays a fictionalized version of himself, and stars his father Tim, his sister Lilly, several of his friends, and a former bull rider named Lane Scott who was paralyzed in a similar accident.  This device lends a certain authenticity to the film.  Footage from Jandreau's accident is used in the film and scenes where he actually trains wild horses are absolutely spellbinding.  Because he lived through these events, his pain and frustration are palpable and I found Brady to be an incredibly sympathetic character.  When he breaks down after visiting Lane in the rehabilitation center, knowing that this could be his fate if he continues, it is one of the most powerful moments I've seen on film.  The scene where he rides his horse for the first time after the accident is also beautiful and the look on his face does much to establish his motivation for wanting to continue in the face of insurmountable obstacles.  It is a remarkable performance.  The film takes place in the South Dakota badlands and the cinematography is stunning.  The beautiful, yet harsh, environment is the perfect backdrop for a character-driven film that is ultimately hopeful but tinged with melancholy.  I loved The Rider (it is now one of my very favorites of 2018) and I highly recommend it!

Summer Reading 2018

There is nothing that I enjoy more than spending an afternoon reading and, now that the school year has officially concluded, I have some uninterrupted time to do just that!  Once again I am sharing my summer reading list and inviting you to read along with me.  This year my list includes popular historical fiction, my very favorite genre, including Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave, We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter, Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, The Alice Network by Kate Quinn, Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate, To Capture What We Cannot Keep by Beatrice Colin, The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck, Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan, The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan, and Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly.  I am so excited to get started!  Once again I will review each selection here every Friday and I hope you will join me and tell me what you think in the comments.  Yay for summer reading!