Escape to Margaritaville in Las Vegas

I received a season subscription to Broadway Las Vegas for Christmas (I think the Smith Center is a fantastic venue and I don't mind the drive from SLC to Las Vegas) and the first show was Escape to Margaritaville last night.  The story is basically the lyrics to Jimmy Buffet's classic song "Margaritaville" but it features a lot of other Jimmy Buffet songs and it was a lot of fun!  Tully (Chris Clark) is wasting away as the singer at the Margaritaville Hotel and Resort on a tropical island.  He enjoys island life because his relationships with women only last for as long as they are on vacation.  Tammy (Shelly Lynn Walsh) and Rachel (Sarah Hinrichsen) travel to the island for one last fling before Tammy gets married.  Rachel is driven and uptight but Tully is able to get her to relax and they spend the whole week together.  Meanwhile, Tammy begins a flirtation with the bartender Brick (Peter Michael Jordan).  In addition, J.D. (Patrick Cogan), a beach bum who is perpetually searching for his lost shaker of salt, tries to woo Marley (Rachel Lyn Fobbs), the owner of the hotel.  When it is time for the women to go home, Tully realizes that he is in love with Rachel and Tammy is having second thoughts about her upcoming wedding.  When a volcano threatens the island, Tully and Brick decide to find Rachel and Tammy but will the women feel the same when they are not on island time?  It is really clever how Buffet's songs are incorporated into the story, especially "License to Chill," "Fins," "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," "Changes in Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes," "Margaritaville," "Come Monday," and "One Particular Harbor."  I did think that "Cheeseburger in Paradise" was a little cheesy (pun intended) but my very favorite number was "Why Don't We Get Drunk" because it involved some audience participation for one particular word!  The singing and dancing were great and I enjoyed watching the incredibly talented band on stage (I really love steel drums).  This wasn't the greatest musical I have ever seen but it was such a blast watching it with a boisterous crowd filled with Jimmy Buffet fans (many were dressed for the islands) and quick road trips to Las Vegas are always a lot of fun!

1917

I have had a lifelong fascination with World War I (my great-grandfather was wounded in the Battle of Ypres and left for dead on the battlefield until he was found alive by his brother) so I have been anticipating the movie 1917 for months.  I was finally able to see it last night with my Dad and the hype is real!  This movie is absolutely brilliant!  At the height of WWI in northern France, General Erinmore (Colin Firth) sends two young soldiers, Lance Corporal Will Schofield (George MacKay) and Lance Corporal Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), on a desperate mission across no-man's land to deliver a message to Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch).  Thinking that the German forces are on the run, Mackenzie is about to attack but Erinmore has received aerial reconnaissance photos that show the Germans are waiting to ambush the regiment.  Communications have been cut so Schofield and Blake are the only hope to avoid the massacre of 1600 soldiers, including Blake's older brother.  Everything about this movie is outstanding!  The story about the futility of war is compelling and full of so much pathos that I was crying uncontrollably by the end of it (aspects of the story reminded me of my very favorite movie Gallipoli which is what started my tears).  MacKay gives an astonishing and physically grueling performance as a jaded soldier who initially doesn't want to go on the mission because he has seen action at the Somme but eventually finds a meaningful reason to continue.  His character's arc is incredibly profound and the final shot had me crying once again.  The action is intense and completely immersive (it is as if you are in the trenches with the soldiers) due to the elaborately choreographed camera shots which give the impression of one long and continuous take.  It is a technical achievement that left me stunned.  I have long been a fan of Roger Deakins (I loved the cinematography in Blade Runner 2049) and his use of light and shadow while Schofield runs through the bombed out city of Ecoust is mesmerizing.  I also loved the evocative score by Thomas Newman because it adds so much to the intensity and emotion.  I highly recommend this movie (both my Dad and I want to see it again) and, even though the nominations haven't been announced yet, it is my pick for the Best Picture Academy Award!

A Hidden Life

The final movie in my winter break marathon (and my final movie for 2019) was A Hidden Life which I saw on New Year's Eve.  It tells the true story of Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian conscientious objector during World War II.  It is emotionally exhausting to watch but it is also beautiful and elegiac (and one of Terrence Malick's most linear narratives).  The movie begins by showing Franz (August Diehl), his wife Fani (Valerie Pachner), and their three daughters enjoying their simple life as hard-working farmers in a valley in the Austrian mountains.  Their idyllic life is shattered when they hear the rumblings of fighter planes overhead and Franz is called up for basic training.  He is horrified by what he sees (in the clever use of black and white archival footage of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis) but, after France is occupied and the war is presumed over, he is sent home.  But as the war rages on, he lives in fear that he will be called up again every time he sees a bicycle bringing a telegraph go by.  He is tormented by the fact that he will have to swear an oath to Hitler.  He knows that he cannot do something that is against his beliefs but he fears for what will happen to his wife and children if he is condemned as a traitor.  As a devout Catholic, he consults his priest and then the bishop, but they urge him to consider his family.  He ultimately refuses to take the oath, is put in prison in Berlin where he is routinely mistreated, and condemned by a military tribunal while Fani endures hostility from the people in her village.  A lawyer tells Franz that if he takes a non-combat role in the army the charges will be dropped but he will still have to take the oath.  Fani comes to visit him in prison and gives him the strength to do what he feels he must.  Jagerstatter is a man who refuses to take part in the evil he sees all around him so I found his story to be particularly salient for these troubled times and I was very invested in its outcome.  I also found it to be a profoundly spiritual exploration of free will.  However, the narrative moves very slowly (albeit with some beautiful shots of the Austrian mountains and valleys) so not everyone is going to enjoy it.  Both Diehl and Pachner give emotional performances and I also enjoyed Matthias Schoenaerts as a soldier who interrogates Franz and Bruno Ganz (in his final role) as a judge in the military tribunal who tries to understand his motives.  It was sometimes a difficult movie to watch but I would highly recommend it.

The Family Upstairs

Last night I went to a meeting of my book club to discuss the latest selection, The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell. We had a very lively discussion with a great moderator and I enjoyed it so much because I discovered many new insights that I had not thought about while I was reading it.  This riveting psychological thriller begins when Libby, who was adopted as a baby, turns 25 and discovers that she has inherited a large mansion in a highly desirable neighborhood in London. She also discovers that her birth parents and an unidentified stranger died in the house in an apparent suicide pact and that she has two siblings who have not been heard from since. She enlists the help of a reporter who once covered the case to help her find the truth and what she discovers is far more sinister than she could have imagined.  The narrative alternates between Libby's search for the truth, her brother Henry's recollections from the past about a charismatic man named David who moved into the house with his family and turned their lives into a nightmare, and her sister Lucy's struggle to survive in the present after the trauma of her childhood. All of the narrators are very compelling, especially Henry because he is so unreliable, and I read well into the night because I had to uncover the mystery of what happened in that house (which is almost a character in and of itself). It is incredibly suspenseful and there are quite a few twists and turns, some of which I wasn't expecting, My only complaint is that there are a lot of main characters to keep track of as well as quite a few secondary characters that are not as developed and do not add much to the story. This, along with alternating between the past and the present, sometimes makes it a bit confusing. As I mentioned, we had a great discussion about the themes of manipulation and how easy is it was for David to gain control of the vulnerable Lamb family, of trauma and how it continues to affect Lucy's decision-making even after leaving the traumatic situation, of identity and how learning about the past impacts Libby's perception of herself, and obsession with the past and how it consumes Henry's life. Almost everyone in the book club really liked this one (two women sitting near us who were listening in on our discussion came over and asked the name of the book because they thought it sounded so interesting) and I would definitely recommend it.

Note:  Next month's selection is Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano.  Go here for more information and to RSVP at a Barnes & Noble near you.  If you are local, consider joining us at the Layton Barnes & Noble on Feb. 4 because we have a fun and lively group!

Uncut Gems

Unbelievably, the next movie in my winter break marathon was Uncut Gems.  I usually try to avoid movies starring Adam Sandler because I think his humor is really crude but I am a huge fan of the Safdie Brothers and the trailer really intrigued me.  Howard Ratner (Sandler) is a jeweler in New York's Diamond District and he is also a gambling addict who is in over his head with a dangerous loan shark (Eric Bogosian) who wants his money.  After watching a documentary about opals in Ethiopia, he purchases a large rock containing rare black opals which he values at over $1,000,000.  He plans on selling it at auction in order to pay his gambling debts but Kevin Garnett (playing himself), who is a customer in his store, sees it and feels a deep connection to it.  He asks to keep it to bring him luck during his NBA playoff game later that night against the Sixers.  Ratner reluctantly agrees but keeps Garnett's NBA Championship ring as collateral which he immediately pawns in order to place a bet on the Celtics.  The Celtics win but he finds out that his loan shark canceled the bet and took the money from his bookie as partial payment.  Garnett, thinking that the opals brought him luck, doesn't want to give the rock back which causes trouble for Ratner who has scheduled it for auction.  Ratner becomes more and more desperate to get the rock back and pay off the loan shark which culminates in another wild bet on the Celtics to win Game 7.   Ratner is an outrageous character who is estranged from his wife Dinah (Idina Menzel), having an affair with Julia (Julia Fox), an employee, and hustling everyone in his life, including his father-in-law (Judd Hirsch), to get himself out of trouble.  Sandler gives the best performance of his career.  He obviously excels at portraying Ratner's frenetic energy but he is also surprisingly vulnerable, especially in a scene with his teenage daughter (Noa Fisher) and a scene where he realizes that everything is falling apart.  I was also quite impressed with Garnett because he is essentially a foil to Ratner.  Much like in Good Time, another movie by the Safdie Brothers, this features hand held camera work that follows Ratner's every move as if you were right there with him so you feel his ever increasing desperation.  I was on the edge of my seat the whole time because, even though Ratner is definitely an anti-hero, I found his journey very compelling and wanted him to succeed.  This movie is a profound exploration of what greed can do to a man's soul but it is filled with sex, violence, and profanity so not everyone is going to enjoy it.  I think it is brilliant!