Smile

This year has been a great one for the horror genre!  I have seen more horror movies this year than in the past five years combined (some of my favorites include Pearl, Barbarian, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Nope, The Black Phone, Crimes of the Future, X, and Scream) and I added another one to the list last night by seeing Smile.  It is probably not destined to be among my favorites but I enjoyed it for the commentary on trauma.  Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) works at an emergency psychiatric unit and is clearly stressed, overworked, and plagued by a recurring nightmare when she is called in to conduct an intake interview with a psychotic patient named Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey).  She hysterically claims to be haunted by a smiling malevolent entity before she smiles at Rose and then cuts her own throat.  It turns out that Laura witnessed the gruesome suicide of one of her professors, who experienced similar hallucinations, before taking her own life and now Rose believes that she might be next.  There are quite a few jump scares but I didn't find them to be particularly scary (several of them elicited laughter from my audience) because most of them are telegraphed well in advance.  However, the narrative is quite unsettling because you are never really sure if Rose is experiencing something real or if her hallucinations are in response to witnessing her mother's suicide when she was a child.  The central theme of unresolved trauma and the PTSD that accompanies it is very intriguing, especially in regards to how it impacts the people around those who suffer from it.  I also liked the use of a smile as a metaphor for repressed trauma because people often smile through their pain and there is a powerful scene where Rose, who is obviously suffering, attempts a smile at a birthday party because it is expected of her.  Bacon gives a compelling and convincing central performance as a woman who is becoming increasingly desperate but I didn't like her character's resolution because I think it sends the wrong message about mental health (in my opinion the movie should have ended ten minutes before it did).  Despite a few flaws, this movie is a great start to the spooky season and I recommend it to horror fans.

Pearl

I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked X so I have been anticipating the release of the prequel Pearl ever since I learned about it!  I finally had the chance to see it last night and I think it is a brilliant character study that sets up the events in X very well.  It is 1918 and Pearl (Mia Goth) longs for a more exciting life but her husband Howard (Alistair Sewell) has abandoned her to fight overseas and she is now trapped on her family's farm caring for her infirm father (Mathew Sunderland) and her judgmental mother (Tandi Wright).  She is further alienated from everyone around her when her plans to become the biggest star in the world do not come to fruition.  She eventually decides to take matters into her own hands, thereby becoming the villain we meet in X.  This has a very different style than X, which is an homage to the slasher films of the 1970s such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and takes its visual cues from the Technicolor films from the Golden Age of Hollywood, especially The Wizard of Oz.  It also has a very different tone and feels more like a melodrama than a horror film (even though it has plenty of gore) with a sweeping score to match.  However, it is a perfect complement to the earlier movie because it adds another layer to Pearl's motivation.  She is obviously mourning her lost youth but now we see that she is also envious of all the opportunities that she did not have and I actually found her to be a bit sympathetic.  Goth gives an amazing performance with a monologue in the third act that blew me away where she tearfully confesses to everything she has done and laments the fact that she really had no choice.  It is a very powerful moment.  I was also mesmerized by the long close-up on her face during the end credits!  As with X, I enjoyed this so much more than I was expecting and I recommend it to fans of its predecessor.

Note:  A sequel to X called MaXXXine is coming soon and I'm beyond excited for it!

Bright Star at CPT

I love the musical Bright Star so I am always happy for any opportunity to see it. Last night I saw a production at CPT and it is absolutely stellar! The story takes place in North Carolina during the 1920s and just after World War II and features incredible bluegrass music by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. Alice Murphy (Anya Wilson) is a young and rebellious teenager in the small town of Zebulon where she regularly exasperates her mother (Jan Williams Smith) and father (Brent Sloan). She begins a romance with Jimmy Ray Dobbs (Jared Haddock) but his father, the Mayor (John Philpott), conspires to separate them. Twenty-two years later, just after the war, Billy Cane (Alex Young) returns to his hometown of Hayes Creek to visit his father (Chad Wilkinson) and his childhood friend Margo (Abigail Ford). However, he soon decides to try writing for a magazine in Ashville where he meets Alice, now an uptight editor who mentors him. The narrative alternates between both timelines as Alice learns to deal with love, loss, forgiveness, and redemption. Even though I have seen it multiple times (PTC, HCT, and HCTO) and know the big twist, I still find the story to be incredibly powerful and heartwarming. I love all of the songs, especially "If You Knew My Story," "Asheville," "I Can't Wait," "Sun's Gonna Shine,"and "I Had a Vision." Wilson (I saw her in the same role at HCTO) has a beautiful voice that is very well suited to the bluegrass genre and I had tears in my eyes during her emotional rendition of "Please Don't Take Him." I was also very impressed by her physical transformation, which happens right before our eyes, from the uptight editor to the rebellious teenager during "Way Back in the Day." Her wardrobe and hair change but it is her expression and physicality that really distinguishes the younger from the older character. The rest of the cast is really strong, one of the strongest I've seen at CPT, but the standouts for me are Haddock, especially the emotionally charged confrontation with his father in "Heartbreaker," and Ford, because she shows a lot of vulnerability in "Asheville." The set features the bare outline of a rustic cabin (I especially loved the rafters with lanterns hanging from them) with many items, such as barrels, crates, wooden doors, fence posts, chairs, and signs, used in multiple configurations to become a book shop, an office, the Mayor's house, a train, and other locations. The members of the ensemble move these items on and off stage seamlessly and it is extremely clever! The choreography really emphasizes the time and place, especially the square dancing during the town social and the swing dancing in "Another Round," as do the costumes. Finally, I really enjoyed the staging of the pivotal train sequence in the reprise of "A Man's Gotta Do" because it is very dramatic (make sure to look up at the top of the proscenium). My only disappointment is that there wasn't a live bluegrass band on stage because it adds so much to the overall feel of the show. Nevertheless, I was very impressed with this production and it is definitely one of my favorites at CPT!  It runs through October 22 (go here for tickets).

Don't Worry Darling

I was already really intrigued by Don't Worry Darling before all of the drama surrounding the production was revealed but I have to admit that it definitely fueled my interest in seeing it!  I had the chance last night and, while there are a few issues, I actually liked it!  Jack Chambers (Harry Styles) and his wife Alice (Florence Pugh) are a young and passionate couple living in a utopian community known as the Victory Project in the middle of the California desert in the 1950s.  Victory is the brainchild of Frank (Chris Pine), a charismatic leader who aspires to make the world a better place, and his supportive wife Shelley (Gemma Chan).  Every day Jack and the rest of the men in Victory, including Dean (Nick Kroll), Peter (Asis Ali), and newcomer Bill (Douglas Smith), leave their well appointed homes for classified work at a secret installation.  Alice and her friends Bunny (Olivia Wilde), Peg (Kate Berlant), Margaret (KiKi Layne), and Violet (Sydney Chandler) happily cook, clean, and care for their husbands (even meeting them at the door with a drink) while their every want and need is fulfilled.  However, their perfect lives are disrupted when Alice ventures into an off-limits area of the desert and then begins questioning what is happening in Victory.  The best part of this movie is Pugh's performance because she is entirely believable as a woman who comes undone while her husband and everyone around her doubt what is happening to her.  Her terror is absolutely palpable.  Pine is also outstanding because he is so creepy, especially in a scene where Alice confronts Frank.  Styles has been much maligned for his performance but I think he is fine and delivers what the character demands (I won't say any more to avoid spoilers).  The visuals are stunning and I loved the stylish 1950s aesthetic in the production design and all of the gorgeous period costumes.  I found the premise, including the twist (which was not what I was expecting), to be interesting and very thought-provoking but my biggest complaint with this movie is that the resolution is rushed and anticlimactic.  I was left with way too many unanswered questions.  It is, however, so much better than I was led to believe based on the discourse coming out of the Venice Film Festival and I think fans of psychological thrillers will enjoy it!

The Goonies in Concert

Last night's Utah Symphony concert featured The Goonies on the big screen while the orchestra played the score by Dave Grusin live.  This movie is such a nostalgic favorite of mine so it was really fun!  The Walsh family is facing a foreclosure on their house so it can be bulldozed to make room for a golf course.  Mikey Walsh (Sean Astin) is spending a final night with his friends, a group of quirky misfits known as the Goonies, including Chunk (Jeff Cohen), Mouth (Corey Feldman), and Data (Ke Huy Quan).  They end up exploring in the attic and find a 1632 doubloon and a map which they believe will lead to a long lost treasure hidden by the pirate One-Eye Willy.  Mikey convinces his friends to use the map to find the treasure because that will enable his family to stop the foreclosure and they are eventually joined by Mikey's older brother Brand (Josh Brolin), Brand's crush Andy (Kerri Green), and Andy's friend Stef (Martha Plimpton).  The map takes them to a series of tunnels leading to a grotto where they find One-Eye Willy's ship, the Inferno.  All they have to do is elude all of the booby traps as well as the Fratelli crime family, made up of Ma (Anne Ramsey), Jake (Robert Davi), Francis (Joe Pantoliano), and Sloth (John Matuszak), who are in hot pursuit.  This movie features a lot of really exhilarating action sequences and the score complements them so well.  I loved the main theme, "Fratelli Chase," because it is so stirring and the brass is featured very heavily with a fun fanfare by the trumpets.  It is first heard during the police chase after the Fratellis break Jake out of jail and it is repeated throughout as the Goonies travel through the tunnels and when they fight the Fratellis on the Inferno.  I also enjoyed the use of the Bond theme and the Superman theme.  As always, hearing the score played live was such an immersive experience and I loved all of the audience participation!  People cheered enthusiastically for all of the iconic lines (especially "Hey You Guys!" and "Goonies Never Say Die!").  I had such a great time last night and, if you haven't attended a film in concert with the Utah Symphony, I highly recommend doing so.  Next in the series is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One in October (go here for tickets).