Flee

I had heard so many great things about the documentary Flee so I was really excited to finally be able to see it at the Broadway last night.  It is even better than I anticipated!  Jonas Poher Rasmussen interviews his friend Amin Nawabi about his harrowing escape from the civil war in his home country of Afghanistan, his years in exile in Russia, an ill-fated attempt to escape only to be sent back, and finally claiming asylum alone in Denmark.  Nawabi relates his experiences so that he can make peace with his past, especially the guilt he feels for abandoning his family and the pressure he feels to succeed to compensate for it, in order to have a future with his partner Kasper.  Amin's story is incredibly poignant, particularly the scenes of him and his family trying to leave Russia, but what makes this documentary even more compelling is that it uses animation to tell the story to preserve his anonymity.  I have never seen anything like it before and I was really struck by the different types of animation employed in order to convey different emotions.  When Amin is being interviewed by Rasmussen, he is shown lying on a couch with an overhead shot so that the audience is looking down on him.  To me, this feels like we are looking into his soul as he reveals his deepest secrets for the first time.  The scenes showing his happy childhood in Kubul and his interactions with Kasper in present-day Copenhagen are very bright and colorful whereas the scenes in Moscow are dark and dreary to depict his state of mind.  Many scenes of terror, including the capture of his father and his sisters' escape on a container ship, are shown in black and white with indistinct and chaotic line drawings as if the memories are too painful to remember clearly.  Archival footage of actual events in Afghanistan and Russia is used very effectively to establish the veracity of Amin's account and the haunting score filled with plaintive violin solos does much to enhance the traumatic nature of Amin's memories.  This documentary, which highlights the power of storytelling as a way to heal, is something really special and I highly recommend it.

Thierry Fischer Conducts Rachmaninoff, Honegger & Nathan Lincoln de Cusatis

I was really excited for last night's Utah Symphony concert because it was the first opportunity for Music Director Thierry Fischer to conduct the orchestra this season (I was also really excited to hear Rachmaninoff).  The orchestra began with Symphony No. 3, Symphonie Liturgique, by Arthur Honegger.  I was not familiar with this piece (or this composer) but I loved it because it was written after World War II and was inspired by Honegger's desire for peace.  Each movement is named after a liturgical text.  The first, which was my favorite, is "Day of wrath" and it is very turbulent and powerful with a bold theme played by the brass.  The second is "Out of the depths have I cried" and it is more lyrical and contemplative and I really loved the almost mournful solo by the flute.  The third is "Grant us peace" which begins as a march featuring lots of percussion and then ends with a beautiful solo played the cello.  What I loved about this piece is that I could really feel each of the emotions suggested by the titles as the orchestra played.  Next came the premiere of The Maze by Nathan Lincoln de Cusatis.  This piece was commissioned by Concertmaster Madeline Adkins and was inspired by a hike through an isolated area of Canyonlands National Park.  The music emphasizes the vastness of the landscape and the geologic forces that created it.  Adkins was the soloist with the violin acting as a guide through the hike and I really enjoyed how the themes played by the violin sound like the flow of the river.  After the intermission the orchestra played Symphonic Dances by Sergei Rachmaninoff and I absolutely loved this piece!  I think the first movement is incredibly romantic with a theme played by various woodwind instruments which is then repeated by the violins followed by a theme played the piano and harp.  During the second movement, which features a beautiful waltz, I always see couples whirling around a red and gold ballroom and the music takes me back to imperial Russia.  The final movement is almost mournful but it ends triumphantly with timpani and a gong.  I really enjoyed all three pieces (and seeing Fischer back on the podium) and would highly recommend getting a ticket to tonight's concert which will feature the same program (go here for tickets).

The Messenger at PTC

Last night I had the opportunity to see an incredibly timely and relevant play called The Messenger at Pioneer Theatre.  This play by Jeff Talbot, which is having its world premiere at PTC, is loosely based on the Henrik Ibsen play An Enemy of the People and I found it to be very powerful.  In 1882 the Mayor of a small town in Norway, Peter Stockman (Mark H. Dold), is proud of the mineral baths that have brought tourists to the town, provided jobs for the citizens, and bolstered the housing market.  However, his sister Dr. Therese Stockman (Ora Jones) is concerned about a mysterious illness that is afflicting her patients, and has killed at least one of them, so she decides to investigate.  When she receives a report showing that the water is contaminated, she feels compelled to warn the public of the danger to their health.  She confides in her friend Kristine Hovstad (Meredith Holzman), the owner and editor of the newspaper The Messenger, and asks her to publish the report.  This brings her into conflict with her brother, who fears that the mineral baths will be closed which will put many people out of work and ruin his chances for reelection, and with her friend, who has her own agenda about what should be published.  Therese takes matters into her own hands and reveals her findings at a public meeting (which features characters played by Alexis Grace Thomsen, Marcello Joseph Say, Victoria Wolfe, and Connor Mamaux-Partridge in the audience who refuse to believe the science and heckle her) which puts her life and the life of her daughter Petra (Turna Mete) in jeopardy.  She must weigh the individual rights of her friends and family against the greater public good.  The parallels between 19th century Norway and contemporary America are incredibly striking as the debate between keeping people safe from a contagious disease vs. keeping the economy going rages on.  I also enjoyed the discussion about the role the media plays in a crisis and the isolation that being a whistleblower causes.  These themes are still very relevant today.  The entire cast is strong but I was especially impressed with Jones who has a commanding presence, particularly in a scene with Dold where she lashes out at her brother for never listening to her.  She gave me goosebumps.  At first I found the staging of the public meeting to be a bit jarring.  The characters yelling insults at Therese seem to be members of the audience because they are in contemporary costumes but I eventually decided that they are meant to represent the role social media plays in swaying public opinion.  I loved the set because it appears to be deconstructed as the play goes on which represents the disruption that this situation has caused Therese and I also loved the bold primary colors used in the period costumes for the women (Therese has a gorgeous red velvet coat).  I didn't realize that this was a one act play performed without an intermission so I was absolutely stunned by the final line of dialogue.  I just sat there in my seat for a minute or two before I noticed that everyone around me was on their feet giving a thunderous ovation.  It was such a powerful moment!  I thoroughly enjoyed this thought-provoking play and highly recommend it.  Unfortunately there are only a few performances left (go here for tickets).

Sundance Film Festival 2022

I didn't participate in the Sundance Film Festival last year because it was completely virtual and I prefer seeing films on the big screen and I really enjoy interacting with film aficionados from all over the world.  When I heard that the festival would be in-person this year, I immediately bought a Salt Lake City package which entitled me to ten tickets rather than access to every film screened in SLC as in year's past.  It seemed like a lot of money for only ten tickets but I eagerly selected my films and began anticipating an experience that I really love.  Then came the disappointing news that, due to the surge in Covid cases from the Omicron variant, the festival was canceling all in-person screenings in order to be completely virtual once again.  I assumed, incorrectly, that refunds would be issued to those who didn't want to watch films on their computers but festival organizers insisted that all packages were non-refundable and refused.  I was really angry about this but, since my only other option was to donate the cost of the tickets to the festival, I decided to make the best of it and I eventually picked 21 films.  My first film was The Princess and I was really excited about this documentary because I have been fascinated by Diana ever since I got up early to watch her wedding.  This is a story that has been told many times but the use of archival footage without any narration or contemporary interviews provides an intriguing new take on the Princess of Wales and I really enjoyed it.  There was even footage that I, a self-avowed expert on the Royal Family, had never seen before!  My second film was The Worst Person in the World and this was, without a doubt, my most anticipated film of the festival (it will have a wide release in theaters in a few weeks and I will definitely be seeing it again).  Renate Reinsve is incredibly appealing as an aimless young woman who drifts from relationship to relationship, first with Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) and then Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), in order to discover that you don't need to have life figured out yet.  As someone who does not even remotely have life figured out yet, I loved this film!  My third film was Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and, even though it was not at all what I was expecting (I thought it would be a lot funnier), I loved Emma Thompson's brilliant, and incredibly brave, performance as a widow who has a sexual awakening after hiring a male prostitute.  I also loved her chemistry with Daryl McCormack.  My fourth film was Summering, a coming of age story about four girls who have an unexpected adventure the weekend before they start middle school.  It reminded me of Stand By Me but it wasn't nearly as endearing.  I enjoyed the magical realism but the story doesn't really go anywhere with too many unresolved plot points.  My fifth film was A Love Song.  This is a subdued (maybe too subdued?) but moving portrait of grief and loneliness with fantastic performances from Dale Dickey and Wes Studi as former high school sweethearts who meet each other once again.  My sixth film was Emergency and it is another festival favorite for me.  Two Black college students, along with their Latino roommate, are forced to take racism into account when deciding how they will respond to an emergency.  It brilliantly combines comedy, suspense, and biting social commentary to create a thought-provoking and entertaining film that I absolutely loved!  My seventh film was FRESH and it gives new meaning to the term "meat market."  Daisy Edgar-Jones plays a woman fed up with dating apps and Sebastian Stan is the charming but psychotic man she falls for after meeting him in the produce section.  It is a gruesome dark comedy but I loved the killer soundtrack.  My eighth film, 892, was another one of my most anticipated.  It is a tense and heartbreaking true story about a former marine who holds up a bank for the $892 disability check that is owed him but is caught up in the bureaucracy of the VA.  It features a riveting and powerful performance by John Boyega.  My ninth film was Living and I selected it because it stars Bill Nighy and I will see anything he is in!  He plays a paper-pushing bureaucrat in post-war London who decides to live a more meaningful life after receiving a terminal diagnosis.  It is very slow but charming and features a lovely performance by Nighy, especially in a scene where he sings on a playground swing that he helped build.  My tenth film was Call Jane, the first of two films I saw about a real-life underground collective that helped women have access to abortions in the late 1960s.  This is a fictionalized account about a suburban housewife (Elizabeth Banks) who finds the group when she needs a life-saving abortion and the hospital refuses to perform it.  The lighthearted tone didn't quite work for such an important and timely subject, although I really enjoyed Sigourney Weaver's irreverent performance.  I got a last minute ticket to my eleventh film, After Yang, because it received such glowing praise and it definitely didn't disappoint.  When an android companion malfunctions, his owner accesses his memories and they cause him to reevaluate the nature of humanity.  This is beautiful, contemplative, and moving with lovely performances from the whole cast.  I loved it!  My twelfth film was Master which follows the recent trend of using the horror genre to explore the theme of racism.  A young Black student at an elite New England college is haunted by an incident from the past and plagued by an ongoing problem in the present.  In my opinion the social commentary works better than the supernatural elements do but they both contribute to a very palpable sense of dread.  My thirteenth film was Dual and I chose it because I absolutely loved The Art of Self-Defense and was eager to see another film by Riley Stearns.  I am a huge fan of dark absurdist comedies and this is a fantastic satirical exploration of identity in which a woman is forced to fight her clone in a duel to the death.  Karen Gillan's deadpan delivery as both characters really worked for me because it emphasizes the dehumanization they both experience.  My fourteenth film was Resurrection and I don't know what this says about me because it is absolutely bonkers but I loved it.  Rebecca Hall is brilliant as a woman who comes undone when an emotionally manipulative former lover suddenly reappears in her life and it is her committed performance that makes the bizarre twist in the third act seem completely plausible.  My fifteenth film was Lucy and Desi, a touching portrait of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz that emphasizes their enduring legacy.  It is a very straightforward documentary but it is at its best when it utilizes their own voices culled from hours of audio tapes provided by their daughter Lucie Arnaz.  My sixteenth film, Cha Cha Real Smooth, was one of the biggest crowd-pleasers of the festival and I was lucky enough to snag a ticket when more were released.  This is a heartfelt and charming coming of age story about a recent college graduate trying to navigate life and love and features incredibly appealing performances from Cooper Raiff and Dakota Johnson.  Even though I am a bit older (ahem) than the target audience I really related to the main character because I also felt completely lost during this period in my life.  I loved everything about this film!  My seventeenth film was Brian and Charles and this put a huge smile on my face.  It is a hilarious mockumentary about an eccentric inventor in Wales who builds a robot to be his friend and it reminded me of the British comedies I loved as a teenager.  My eighteenth film, Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul, was another mockumentary this time about a pastor of a megachurch and his wife as they attempt to rehabilitate their tarnished image after a scandal.  It is laugh out loud funny but it is also a scathing indictment of the hypocrisy so often found in the megachurch culture.  Regina Hall is fantastic, especially when the cameras stop rolling and the mask drops.  My nineteenth film was LAST FLIGHT HOME and it was incredibly difficult for me to watch having recently lost my own father.  This documentary is a beautiful and moving tribute from a daughter to her extraordinary father as he ends his life on his own terms.  I cried through most of it.  My twentieth film was The Janes and I was really eager to see this having watched Call Jane.  This documentary explores the same underground collective that helped women gain access to abortions in Chicago during the late 1960s but it is much more compelling because it puts the real names and faces to the characters in the fictionalized story.  My final film was the funny and delightful Am I OK?  I loved this story about friendship and self-discovery with yet another fantastic performance from Dakota Johnson.  It was nice to end on such a lighthearted note after so much heavy content.

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The Pink Cloud

Last night I took a break from Sundance to see The Pink Cloud, a movie that premiered at Sundance last year, at the Broadway.  It has an intriguing, and incredibly prescient, premise and I found it to be very unsettling.  Giovana (Renata de Lelis) and Yago (Eduardo Mendonca) meet and have a one night stand on the beach.  Their tryst is interrupted by a warning to take shelter immediately because toxic pink clouds, which kill people within ten seconds of exposure, are mysteriously appearing around the world.  Even though they are little more than strangers, Giovana and Yago end up quarantining together in her mother’s spacious and luxurious apartment and, at first, it seems like an adventure as they wait for the clouds to dissipate.  However, weeks turn to months then years and the tension begins to mount.  Giovana is ever hopeful that her former life will resume at any moment but Yago is perfectly content to make a life with her in their beautiful apartment and suggests that they have a child.  She is reluctant but eventually agrees.  The birth of her son Lilo causes her to spiral into a deeper depression because she views his life as hopeless and she retreats even further from reality while Yago and Lilo become more comfortable in it.  This movie begins with a title card stating that it was written in 2017 and shot in 2019 so any resemblance to actual events is purely coincidental.  However, I couldn't help but view this movie through the lens of my own experience in lockdown.  I was particularly struck by the subplot involving Giovana's friend Sara (Kaya Rodrigues), who succumbs to loneliness, because I had to quarantine by myself and I also felt very cut off from the world.  Sometimes what happens on the screen made me uncomfortable, and even angry (when the couple reacts differently to the situation it is the woman who is pressured to give in), but the narrative is compelling and the images are beautiful.  I loved the ethereal pink color palette that suffuses almost every shot and I also enjoyed the meticulous production design as the apartment changes and deteriorates as time goes on.  Lelis and Mendonca have great chemistry and give powerful performances as they portray the ebb and flow of a complicated relationship.  This is an atmospheric psychological thriller that might hit a little too close to home but I definitely recommend it.

Note:  I am looking forward to seeing some of the movies premiering this year at Sundance at the Broadway when they are given a wide release!  I am compiling a list!