At Eternity's Gate

The last film in my winter break movie marathon was At Eternity's Gate, a tragic portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh's final years starring Willem Dafoe in the title role.  Unlike many traditional biopics which focus on one linear event after another, this film is very episodic.  Van Gogh was inspired by nature so there are many scenes of him walking through the fields of Arles, looking up at the sky with a blissful expression, painting the same tree over and over again, and even rolling around in the dirt to more fully understand its properties.  These scenes are beautifully rendered, often with the camera following Van Gogh closely as wanders through the countryside or from his point of view as he looks at something he wants to paint.  This film explores his madness with disturbing scenes of lashing out at school children for bothering him and physically posing a woman against her will for a painting.  His isolation is also explored and it is heartbreaking whenever he parts from his brother Theo (Rupert Friend), a Paris art dealer who supports him financially, and Paul Gaugin (Oscar Isaac), another painter with whom he argues over technique.  The aspect of this film that I enjoyed the most is his understanding that he sees the world differently from everyone else and that, while contemporary audiences may revile his paintings, he is creating works for people who haven't been born yet.  There is a wonderful scene when Van Gogh is visited by a priest (Mads Mikkelsen) at the asylum and he says that when he paints he touches eternity.  Dafoe gives an incredibly nuanced performance because the Van Gogh that we meet in this film is not necessarily sympathetic but Dafoe makes us feel every bit of his suffering.  While I understand what director Julian Schnabel was going for, namely to make an "artistic" film about art, I sometimes struggled while watching it because of the slow and deliberate pace.  Not everyone is going to enjoy this but it is beautiful and profound.

The Lion in Winter at PTC

Last night I went to see The Lion in Winter, the current production at Pioneer Theater (I will review the final film in my winter break movie marathon tomorrow).  It is Christmas Eve 1183 and King Henry II of England (Esau Pritchett) has summoned his family to spend the holiday together.  This includes his sons Richard (William Connell), Geoffrey (Damian Jermaine Thompson), and John (Austin Reed Alleman) as well as his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Celeste Ciulla), who has spent the past ten years as his prisoner for staging a rebellion against him.  Since King Philip of France (Grayson DeJesus) is pressuring him to wed his sister Alais (Maryam Abdi) to the heir to the throne, Henry uses this opportunity to decide the succession.  He advocates for John simply because he knows that Eleanor wants her favorite son, Richard, to be the next king.  This pits brother against brother as they scheme, manipulate, plot, and form and break alliances.  It is so much fun to watch.  But the real fireworks come in the scenes between Pritchett and Ciulla as they spar with each other.  Their performances are melodramatic and completely over the top but this is really effective because everything they say is a calculated performance for an audience of one.  They have great chemistry together and I found them to be riveting.  The princes are the ultimate pawns in their parents' battle with each other and, while they sometimes come across as caricatures of the oldest (Richard is the leader), middle (Geoffrey is ignored), and youngest (John is petulant) children in a family, they each have their moments of vulnerability. What I liked most about this production is that, while it is set during the 12th century, it still has a contemporary vibe to it with a message that modern audiences can relate to (when Eleanor says, "It's 1183 and we're still barbarians," it got a huge response from the crowd).  This modern aesthetic is reflected in the set and the costume design.  There are the traditional Gothic arches but they have LED lights on top which change colors during scene changes to reflect the mood.  The costumes have medieval silhouettes and include chain mail and cloaks lined with fur but they feature very modern fabrics and colors (John and Geoffrey even wear athletic shoes).  I really enjoyed this play and would recommend it (go here for tickets).

Note:  The Lion in Winter is one of the very first plays I saw at the Utah Shakespeare Festival when I was in college.  I was fascinated by Eleanor of Aquitaine, as a character and a historical figure, which prompted me to research her and watch the Academy Award winning movie starring Katharine Hepburn in the role.  Good stuff!

Ben is Back

I really wanted to see Ben is Back over winter break because, ever since I saw Manchester by the Sea, I've become a huge fan of Lucas Hedges.  It is a very powerful, but depressing, film that explores a mother's love for a child under any circumstance.  Holly Burns (Julia Roberts) is a frazzled mother trying to wrangle three of her four children through a nativity rehearsal on Christmas Eve.  Upon returning home she notices a visitor on her front porch.  It is Ben (Hedges), her oldest son, who has unexpectedly returned early from a rehab facility.  Holly is thrilled to see him, if a bit wary, but his stepfather Neal (Courtney B. Vance) is concerned and his sister Ivy (Kathryn Newton) is openly hostile.  It is soon apparent that Ben's behavior has ruined previous holidays for the family but Holly allows him to stay with the condition that he remain within her sight at all times.  When the family returns home from church, they discover that the family dog is missing and Ben suggests that it has been kidnapped by someone angered by his return.  This prompts Holly to take Ben out looking for the dog but it soon becomes a journey through Ben's troubled past which not only horrifies her but forces her to confront the person her son has become.  The tragedy is that while she is trying to save Ben from his former associates, and himself, she is also trying to save the holiday for the rest of her family.  As with Beautiful Boy, this film brilliantly portrays the effect that addiction has on everyone surrounding the addict and it is heartbreaking.  The fact the the action takes place over a 24-hour period gives the film a sense of urgency and I like the fact that Ben's past, and future for that matter, is only hinted at rather than explicitly stated because the uncertainty is more unsettling.  Roberts gives one of her best performances to date, conveying so many emotions with just a single look, and Hedges gives an unflinching portrayal of a manipulative liar who shouldn't be trusted.  Their scenes together are fraught with tension and this elevates a typical addiction drama into something incredibly poignant.  I highly recommend it.

Creed II

I really wanted to see Creed II when it was first released but I somehow never made it to the theater (maybe it was because I saw Bohemian Rhapsody so many times in November).  I decided to make the time over winter break and I am so glad I did because I really loved it!  When Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) wins the WBC World Heavyweight Championship, he is pressured into accepting a fight with Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) who is the son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), the Russian prizefighter who killed Apollo Creed in the ring.  Thinking that Adonis is taking the fight for the wrong reasons, namely to prove something to his father, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) refuses to train him.  Adonis is heavily outmatched and essentially loses the fight but retains the title because Viktor hits him when he is down and is disqualified.  Meanwhile, his fiancee Bianca (Tessa Thompson) has given birth to their daughter Amara who is born deaf.  Adonis eventually realizes that he wants to fight for her and agrees to a rematch in Moscow after a brutal training regimen in the desert with Rocky.  The climactic battle between Adonis and Viktor is exciting and everything we have come to expect from the Rocky franchise (I cheered out loud) but it is the emotional journey that both fighters take that make this movie so good.  Both characters are weighted down by their respective fathers' legacies and they have to overcome those expectations in order to win.  I really liked that Viktor is a sympathetic antagonist and, while I wanted Adonis to win, I really felt Viktor's pain, especially in the scenes with his mother (Brigitte Nielsen).  Jordan and Stallone give very affecting performances and I really liked the chemistry between Jordan and Thompson.  Definitely go see this inspiring movie, if you haven't already!

Bumblebee

I am not a big fan of the Transformers franchise because I think they are mostly big CGI messes (I haven't even seen the last few).  However, I was very intrigued by the prequel Bumblebee and decided to see it next in my winter break marathon.  The rebellion started by Optimus Prime on Cybertron is not going well so he sends B-127 to Earth to set up a base of operations.  A Decepticon, Blitzwing, follows him and, even though he is seriously injured, B-127 kills him and then scans a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle.  He is discovered in a junkyard by a teenage girl named Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) who has withdrawn from the world from grief over her father's death.  She gets him running and nicknames him Bumblebee but this activates a signal which is detected by two more Decepticons, Shatter and Dropkick, who come to Earth looking for him.  Shatter and Dropkick join with Sector 7 led by Colonel Jack Burns (John Cena) to track down Bumblebee and this leads to an epic confrontation.  To my surprise, I really enjoyed this movie because it is so heartwarming and entertaining.  Bumblebee is an actual character, rather than a CGI caricature, with a distinct personality and the relationship between Bumblebee and Charlie is very real.  He helps her learn to trust again and she helps him figure out his purpose on Earth.  I loved it when Bumblebee, who can only communicate to Charlie through song lyrics on the radio, plays "Girlfriend in a Coma" by The Smiths to tell her that he doesn't want anything to happen to her during a battle.  Speaking of music, this is filled with great stuff from the 80s.  I just about lost my mind when I heard the beginning of "Save a Prayer" by Duran Duran!  This movie is a lot of fun, exactly the reboot this franchise needed, and I recommend it if you haven't seen it.