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NYC Theater Roundup: 'Laramie Project' and "All in the Timing" Return

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 21 February 2013 10:00; Written by Kevin Filipski

The Laramie Project Cycle

Directed by Moises Kaufman and Leigh Fondakowski

Performances February 12-24, 2013

All in the Timing

Written by David Ives; directed by John Rando

Performances through April 14, 2013

The Laramie Project, which played off-Broadway in 2000, was an emotionally devastating experience. Director Moises Kaufman’s Tectonic Theatre Company—comprising several talented performer-writers—drew upon dozens of their interviews with citizens of Laramie (the Wyoming town where Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in 1998 by two gay-bashers) to piece together an honest account of how such a heinous crime affected those who lived through it.

In 2008, Kaufman and company returned to Laramie for a follow-up, and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later makes its New York premiere at BAM alongside the original, which remains a touchstone of theatrical journalism. So it’s almost inevitable that the sequel falls somewhat short of the high standards the company set for itself. But humane, intelligent and necessary viewing describes Ten Years Later to a T.

Using the same unadorned “style” of the original—the performers take turns directly addressing the audience while speaking in either their own or the locals’ voices and words—Ten Years Later deftly dismantles the dishonest “20/20” segment by Elizabeth Vargas from 2004, which trumpeted that Shepherd was murdered in a robbery and drug deal gone wrong. Those lazy untruths insinuated themselves into the very psyche of Laramie, as the Tectonics found when they returned to town: many people wanted to sweep the “hate crime” stigma under the rug.

Exploring what Shepherd’s murder means to Laramie a decade on—from anger to resignation to indifference— Ten Years Later also builds tension in separate interviews with killers Russell Henderson, whose appearance climaxes Act I, and Aaron McKinney, who dominates Act II. Henderson comes off as vaguely sympathetic and McKinney as an unrepentant dirtbag, but their dual presence doesn’t overwhelm the care and the craft that have gone into this searing—and must-see—play.

Liv Rooth and Carson Ellrod in All in the Timing (photo: James Leynse)

All in the Timing, David Ives’ delightful series of six one-acts, returns to Primary Stages, the theater which premiered it 20 years ago: it won’t run for 600 performances again, but its cleverness and humor permeate all two hours of John Rando’s winning new production. Although little more than glorified sketches, the playlets of All in the Timing have much to say about how we use and abuse language and one another.

The opener, “Sure Thing,” introduces Ives’ method, which has anything but madness in it: Bill and Betty meet in a Manhattan café and run through various permutations of how their conversation proceeds—or doesn’t—based on whether he, she or both respond in ways to further their discussion or to stop it dead in its tracks. Here’s a witty sample:

Bill: What’s the book?

Betty: The Sound and the Fury

Bill: Oh. Faulkner.

Betty: Have you read it?

Bill: I’m a Mets fan, myself.

In some ways, this rapid-fire two-hander is the best of the lot; other skits belabor their jokes (“The Universal Language,” about a new tongue dreamt up by a man to meet women), while others hammer their jokes into the ground (Philip Glass’s dully repetitive music is rightfully skewered in “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread,” although at ten minutes it wears out its welcome—like Glass’s music, which may be the point).

Better are “Words, Words, Words,” which smartly satirizes science telling us that a monkey at a typewriter can eventually write Hamlet; “The Philadelphia,” which snappily turns alternate reality on its head; and “Variations on the Death of Trotsky,” which transforms the Russian revolutionary’s murder into a wildly surreal voyage.

Rando’s irresistible staging whisks us from one skit to the next, while his adroit quintet—led by the comedically and histrionically agile Carson Elrod—effortlessly keep Ives’ amusing balls floating in the air.

The Laramie Project Cycle

Brooklyn Academy of Music, 651 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY

http://bam.org

All in the Timing

Primary Stages @ 59 E 59 Theatres, 59 East 59^th Street, New York, NY

http://primarystages.org

February '13 Digital Week III

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 15 February 2013 05:00; Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week

Argo

(Warners)

Director-star Ben Affleck dramatizes the so-strange-it-must-be-true story of U.S. embassy workers in Tehran during the 1979-80 hostage crisis holed up in the Canadian ambassador’s house while the CIA concocted an elaborate rescue plan. This is solid Hollywood moviemaking: Affleck smartly surrounds himself with top-notch actors and films it straightforwardly.

The tension remains even though we know the outcome: it’s just too bad that Affleck can’t resist adding a phony “skin of their teeth” climax. On Blu-ray, it looks superb; extras include Affleck and writer Chris Terrio’s commentary, several featurettes and a documentary about the hostages on the 25^th anniversary of their rescue.

Celeste and Jesse Forever

(Sony)

Despite her enormously warm presence, Rashida Jones is defeated in this irritating comedy of a couple that can’t let go despite knowing they should split up. Jones’ costar Andy Samberg’s one-note presence drags the movie down to a sophomoric level whenever he’s onscreen.

But Jones is also to blame, since she co-wrote the script with McCormack: the writer lets the actress down. In addition, the delightful Ari Graynor (who plays Jones’ best friend) also deserves better. The Blu-ray image is decent; extras include commentaries, deleted scenes and featurettes.

Hara-kiri

(Tribeca)

A lone samurai warrior arrives at his lord’s estate hoping for an honorable death in this latest retelling of the epic swashbuckler immortalized in 1962 by master director Masaki Kobayashi. For this unnecessary remake, director Takashi Miike makes it all very stylish and lush—the original was in black and white, while this version is in vivid color—but not particularly compelling.

Needless to say, the splashy visuals look amazing on Blu-ray, but since Kobayashi’s classic is available on Blu-ray from Criterion, this is an expandable release. The lone extra is Geoffrey Gilmore’s brief discussion of the film.

Little White Lies

(MPI)

Writer-director Guillaume Canet’s heavy-handed French Big Chill is a protracted tale of friends who gather at a beach house while one of them is in the ICU seriously injured from a motorcycle accident. The movie keeps stopping dead with scenes that do nothing to further our interest in the characters, who reek of self-indulgence and insufferability for 2-1/2 hours.

Marion Cotillard, always intense, cements her rep as cinema’s best crier, while she and good actors like Francois Cluzet and Gilles Lelouche have only stick figures to play. The movie has a warm sheen in hi-def; extras include featurettes.

The Sessions

(Fox)

In Ben Lewin’s comic drama, John Hawkes is fantastic as Mark O’Brien, a man who’s spent most of his life in an iron lung, and who wants a sexual encounter—so he calls a sex therapist, played with astonishing tenderness by Helen Hunt, the rare American actress at ease with plentiful nudity.

Lewin’s light touch is perfect for such adult subject matter and ordinary protagonist, but it’s his actors—save William Macy, too Macy-ish as Mark’s father confessor of sorts—who save the day. The Blu-ray image is immaculate; extras include featurettes and interviews.

DVDs of the Week

Diana Vreeland—The Eye Has to Travel

(e one)

Diana Vreeland—a leading fashionista long before that term gained currency—edited Vogue and transformed the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s moribund Costume Institute into something special.

Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s otherwise pedestrian documentary of a terrific subject at least includes wonderful archival footage of the woman herself, along with discussions on her career and legacy by Marisa Berenson, Twiggy, Calvin Klein and others. Extras include additional interviews.

Girl Model

(First Run)

The world of high fashion modeling is shown in all its smarmy non-glory in David Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s tough documentary portrait. Unblinking cameras follow 13-year-old Siberian Nadya—who goes to Japan for her big break, unable to understand the language—and Ashley, a former model who selects newbies to (possibly) become famous in Japan.

Not that it’s revelatory, but seeing how these innocent girls are treated in an industry that spits them out daily is disturbing to watch. Extras comprise deleted scenes.

Gossip Girl: Season 6

(Warners)

The final season of the popular TV series about the young and beautiful on Manhattan’s Upper East Side is a lively, amusingly superficial chronicle of the one percent spending its time insulated from the rest of the world.

Still, one could do worse than watch the great Margaret Colin at her snarky best, and the vivacious Leighton Meester and Blake Lively are not to be taken lightly either. Extras include on-set featurettes and a gag reel.

Photographic Memory

(First Run)

In his first feature in several years, master documentarian Ross McElwee again trains his camera on himself—this time, he also returns to Europe to look up a long-ago girlfriend and deals with the difficulties his adult son has separating the virtual and real worlds.

As always, McElwee manages to find humor amidst heartbreak and insightfully analyzes the very mediums he uses: photography, film and digital are parsed to reveal their importance to one’s past, present and even future.

Serena and Same Time Every Year

(Impulse)

These triple X movies are considered the height of “artistic porn” in the early 1980s; but although Fred Lincoln—the nominal director—was able to keep the camera focused on the correct body parts throughout, he’s no Radley Metzger or Gerard Damiano, to name two better purveyors of erotica.

The hardcore scenes are intact—so beware to anyone unfamiliar with these movies—but so are the flimsy storylines: nowadays, the “gonzo” shooting style has done away with pointless “plots.” The lone noteworthy achievement is the genuine beauty of Loni Sanders in Same Time.

Film Review: Putzes and Pill Poppers -- "Identity Thief" and "Side Effects"

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 13 February 2013 20:04; Written by Marion Dreyfus

Identity Thief
Directed by Seth Gordon
starring Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy

A surprisingly vulgar, crude, and manically unfunny film to avoid is this unfortunate Identity Thief, which takes a topical red flag issue and makes it absurd and fleece-lined cuddly by starring the usually hilarious Melissa McCarthy and the solidly talented Jason Bateman. Most of the film is so unpleasant and unbelievably ill-intentioned that you won’t believe these two stellar actors would sign on.

Near-nebbish-citizen and mild-mannered businessman Sandy Patterson (Bateman) treks from Colorado to Florida to hunt his criminal nemesis, a seemingly ditzy, cheery-looking woman (also named Sandy Patterson or so it seems) played by McCarthy who has been living very large after hoisting Patterson’s identity, cards and bank account.

The audience managed to not laugh throughout, which is no accomplishment, since there was precious little to evoke it. Even Bateman’s smart downplaying and under-acting fails to ignite anything beyond disgust at the plot turns.

Amanda Peet has the thankless role as his wife Penelope awaiting Patterson’s return home for the length of the film. The last 10 minutes of wrap-up do not redeem this downer, and even this writer and her usual movie-seat companion failed to ratchet the laugh-meter up to the eensiest first notch. Worse, the seriousness of the issue, and the obnoxiousness of its treatment here, is such that tension knotted one’s stomach for the full first hour. The scriptwriter should wear a sign on his chest with a huge E for execrable as he goes about his clearly delta-minus life.

Side Effects
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
starring Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Polly Draper

A cleverly plotted film that only reluctantly becomes evident, Side Effects is a Hitchcockian roller coaster ride starring a taut Jude Law, a nearly unrecognizable Rooney Mara, a buttoned-up Catherine Zeta-Jones and Polly Draper (she of the whiskey voice from Thirty Something).

Not wanting to say too much about the plot since one of the rewarding aspects of this film is discovering what’s going on, but here's a nominal summation.

A young New York couple’s tidy world unravels when a new anti-anxiety drug prescribed by Emily's (Mara) psychiatrist (Law) has unexpected effects on its patient, husband (Channing Tatum) -- who has just been released from prison -- and others. Don’t expect Tatum, again beefcake delectable, to be seen for more than the briefest of celluloid moments.

The baddies in this thriller are not whom or what you originally think, especially given the title.

The pharma industry now dubs them “adverse events,” which neatly avoids the chilling taint connoted by the earlier, more popularly known term. One of the choicer elements of the film is its exceptional photography; one sees a Gotham that is not the tired vernacular.

This scenic Trou Normand may coast under one’s radar, but it is elegant, almost-Gordon Willis-level cinematography (from Woody Allen’s more elegaic films), a gift floated to the receptive viewer.

Audience members, many of them apparently physicians and therapists, gabbed with each other afterwards, discussing their take on the goings-on, comparing notes from their practices.

Film Review: "Side Effects" Actually a Thrilling Thriller

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Tuesday, 12 February 2013 12:57; Written by Matt Oakes

With Side Effects, Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Eleven) hasn't reinvented the thriller, he's just breathed life back into a fading genre. What begins as an ambiguous tale of a struggling romance morphs into a pulsing question mark whose greatest strengths lie within it's ability to create suspense and uncertainty.

Since the twists and turns are vital to your general enjoyment of the film, I want to carefully navigate to ensure that nothing here is too telling. All you really need to know is that the story opens with Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) reuniting with her husband Channing Tatum (Magic Mike) and from there delves quickly and fervently into the world of psychiatry and prescription pills.

Filling out the cast we have Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes) playing a psychiatrist struggling with a puzzle of a patient. He has a great little character arc that is handled with subtle panache, pulling a muted transformation in the most understated of ways. His new client puts him in contact with a fellow colleague played by Catherine Zeta Jones (The Mask of Zorro) who has an unwritten history with Law's patient. Although we don't see Jones that often on screen anymore, she shows that she's still gotta talent within her 40-something sex appeal.

All four of the principal characters are putting their all in here and I'd expect nothing less under the lead of Soderbergh. He has a crisp, clear direction and a really deliberate framing. All of his shots are captured with concise precision. Nothing here feels left to chance as little bits of foreshadowing are dug intricately into the scenery for those watching with a careful eye.

Soderbergh has talked at length about how he felt Side Effects was the natural progression of the thriller which he asserts have died out in the past few decades. To a degree, he's right. As an audience, we're not accustom to the suspense builders than dominated the silver screen of the 80's and 90's and so something like Side Effects is a pleasant throwback.

In the same vein though, it fails to really transcend the trappings of the genre and provide anything groundbreaking. And while you can applaud it's level of self restraint, both within the acting and directing field, it just doesn't have the staying power of films that transcend their genres. While it truly is a completely competent and very well acted, nothing here feels new or remarkable. It's a great suspense thriller just not a genuinely great movie.

There's enough backstabbing, lies, betrayals and revelations to keep Side Effects taut and the audience on the edge of their seats. It's a rare thriller that manages to deliver on the thrills and much like the thrillers of the 80's and 90's it will keep you engaged for it's run-time but is unlikely to stay with you long after.

Reviews

NYC Theater Roundup: 'Laramie Project' and "All in the Timing" Return

February '13 Digital Week III

Film Review: Putzes and Pill Poppers -- "Identity Thief" and "Side Effects"

Film Review: "Side Effects" Actually a Thrilling Thriller

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