Tenet

Last night I had the chance to see Tenet at an early access screening and it is awesome!  An unnamed CIA agent, known as the Protagonist (John David Washington), takes part in an operation to rescue a spy from an opera house in Kiev.  He is ultimately captured and tortured but he consumes a cyanide pill before he is forced to reveal anything.  He survives and his superior (Martin Donovan) informs him that the mission was a test and, since he passed, he is recruited to a secret organization called Tenet.  He discovers, with the help of a Tenet scientist (Clemence Poesy) and an arms dealer (Dimple Kapadia), that a Russian oligarch named Alexei Sator (Kenneth Branagh) has access to technology invented in the future which allows objects and people to be inverted, or to travel backwards through time.  He and his handler Neil (Robert Pattinson), who may or may not be who he says he is, convince Sator's estranged wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki) to help them stop Sator from triggering a catastrophic event through the manipulation of time.  The plot is fascinating but incredibly complicated with multiple characters traveling back and forth in multiple timelines (you wouldn't expect anything less from Christopher Nolan).  There were many moments when I had only the vaguest notion of what was going on but that did not detract from my enjoyment in the least!  I have not been able to stop thinking about it and I definitely plan to see it again.  The action sequences are absolutely incredible, especially a plane crash that is a little dramatic, a mind-blowing fight inside a storage facility, and a battle in which some of the soldiers are moving forward in time and some are moving backward, and what makes them truly spectacular is that the majority of the stunts are practical rather than CGI.  The cinematography puts you right in the middle of the action and it is thrilling, to say the least.  I really liked Washington as the Protagonist.  I've heard his performance criticized as being too detached but I think that works well for the character.  Debicki and Branagh have fabulous chemistry as a couple who loathe each other and I really enjoyed seeing a very playful Pattinson in an action role (I can't wait for The Batman).  The pulse-pounding score adds a lot to the tension but my one criticism would be that it sometimes overpowers the dialogue (and you definitely need to pay attention to everything that is said).  It was so much fun to watch an epic action blockbuster on the big screen again and I recommend seeing it (more than once) on the biggest screen possible!

Capitol Reef National Park

While I was staying at the KOA in Fillmore, I took a little trip to Capitol Reef National Park.  I got up really early on Tuesday and made the two hour drive through lots of little farming towns in order to spend most of the day in the park.  I went on the Scenic Drive through the middle of the park with stops in the Grand Wash and the Capitol Gorge (which are unpaved).  The views were absolutely spectacular with something to take my breath away around every bend in the road (as you can tell from the number of pictures I took).

Capitol Reef National Park is not as well-known as the other parks in Utah's "Mighty Five" but I definitely think it is worth the effort to get there!

The Personal History of David Copperfield

I am a huge fan of author Charles Dickens, director Armando Iannucci, and actor Dev Patel so I have been eagerly anticipating the release of The Personal History of David Copperfield ever since I heard about it!  I saw it last night and I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard!  David Copperfield (Patel) begins telling his life story to an audience in a vaudeville theater.  He relates his many adventures and describes the friends and enemies who come and go in his life including his widowed mother (Morfydd Clark), his kindhearted nanny Peggotty (Daisy May Cooper) and her family in Yarmouth, his cruel stepfather Mr. Murdstone (Darren Boyd) and his sister Jane (Gwendolyn Christie), his impecunious landlord Mr. Micawber (Peter Capaldi), his wealthy aunt Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton) and her eccentric lodger Mr. Dick (Hugh Laurie), Trotwood's drunken lawyer Mr. Wickfield (Benedict Wong) and his daughter Agnes (Rosalind Eleazar), his snobbish fellow student James Steerforth (Aneurin Barnard), the sycophantic villain Uriah Heep (Ben Whishaw), and his employer Mr. Spenlow (Matthew Cottle) and his beautiful daughter Dora (Morfydd Clark).  Through his adventures he learns many important life lessons which he writes down to become a celebrated author.  This is an incredibly whimsical and satirical version of the classic Dickens novel.  Normally I am a purist when it comes to literary adaptations but I love Iannucci's particular brand of humor (The Death of Stalin is hilarious) so I really enjoyed this.  So many things made me laugh out loud such as the many ways Mr. Micawber tries to avoid his creditors, the infestation of donkeys on Aunt Betsey's lawn, Mr. Dick's preoccupation with the thoughts of Charles I, Mr. Wickfiekd's attempts to find the sherry, the heavy cake at tea with Mrs. Heep, David's job as a proctor when he doesn't know what a proctor is, and David's proposal to Dora through the mouth of her dog.  The entire cast is fantastic and I really loved the colorblind casting!  Patel is charming in the title role but Swinton steals every scene she is in!  The bold and colorful costumes are so much fun and the production design, which blurs the line between imagination and reality, is incredibly original and theatrical.  This movie is absolutely delightful and I highly recommend it!

The New Mutants

It seems like I have been waiting forever to see The New Mutants because, well, I have!  There have been so many delays since its original April 2018 release date because of reshoots, Disney's acquisition of Fox, and a little thing called Covid-19 but it is finally in theaters and I had a chance to see it yesterday.  At one point I was really excited about this movie so was it worth the wait?  Not really because, while there are some aspects that are entertaining, I found it to be pretty forgettable.  Danielle "Dani" Moonstar (Blu Hunt), a Native American teenager, wakes up feeling disoriented in an abandoned hospital run by Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga).  Dr. Reyes tells her that her entire reservation was destroyed by a tornado and that she is the sole survivor but she doesn't entirely believe this scenario because she has memories of being chased by an unknown being.  Dr. Reyes also tells her that she survived because she is a mutant and that she must stay at the facility until she learns to control her powers which are still unknown.  Dani meets four other mutants who are also being held at the facility for their own protection:  Illyana Rasputin/Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy) who is a sorceress, Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams) who can turn into a wolf, Sam Guthrie/Cannonball (Charlie Heaton) who can fly at jet speed, and Roberto da Costa/Sunspot (Henry Zaga) who can manipulate solar energy.  Not only are they all haunted by physical manifestations from their pasts, including Dani's mysterious pursuer, they also learn that they are being held for more nefarious reasons than just their safety.  They must help each other defeat their demons in order to escape from Dr. Reyes.  I really enjoyed the special effects, especially the rendering of Magik's superpowers, and I also liked all of the horror elements because they are quite frightening, particularly the Smiley Men.  The young cast does a great job with the material, although I found all three of the accents to be very inconsistent, and I especially loved the chemistry between Williams and Hunt.  My biggest problem was with the script and the pacing.  I am not at all familiar with the source material so I would have appreciated having more backstory for each character.  There is not a lot of exposition beyond brief flashbacks and the interactions meant for them to bond with each other seem rushed (the scene with the polygraph machine is ridiculous).  I also found the ending very anticlimactic because the references to Essex Corp go nowhere and their fate is unknown (in all fairness this was supposed to be the first film in a trilogy that will probably not happen now).  I actually think this would have been a better TV show with episodes devoted to each character but nobody asked me!  This is probably my least favorite in the X-Men franchise but I didn't hate it because the visuals are really cool.  I would, however, definitely recommend waiting until it is available to stream.

A Week at a KOA

I started Kindergarten in the fall of 1973 and since then I have gone back to school every year without an interruption (13 years of public school, 4 years of college, and 30 years of teaching).  All of my friends and colleagues in the Granite School District went back to school on Monday and I was not with them.  I thought it would feel bittersweet but, honestly, I was very grateful and so relieved not to have to start a new school year during a pandemic.  I really wanted to go somewhere fun to celebrate the fact that I am no longer tied to a school schedule and I had planned to go to Iceland but, like so many of my summer plans, that trip was rescheduled.  Since I couldn't go to Iceland I decided to do the next best thing and go to my favorite KOA in Fillmore for the week.  I had so much fun!  I like to stay in a cabin and the one I booked has a double bed and a bunk bed (you provide your own linens), a mini-fridge, and an A/C (it also has a heater but I didn't need that).  There is a lovely porch, a picnic table, a fire ring, and a gas grill located outside.  There is not a bathroom in my particular cabin (some cabins at this KOA have bathrooms) but there are wonderful facilities inside the main lodge which is a short walk away.  When I booked this cabin I thought that I would spend the majority of my time relaxing and reading on the porch but I ended up using it as a base of operations to go on a few adventures (more on these adventures is coming).  I did, however, spend all of my evenings eating way too many treats and watching movies on my laptop in my cozy cabin!  I kind of like retirement!