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Reviews
Out in Theaters: "Bad Grandpa"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 25 October 2013 12:54
- Written by Evan Pearson
“Bad Grandpa”
Directed by Jeff Tremaine
Starring Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Nicoll, Greg Harris, Georgina Cates, Kamber Hejlik, and Spike Jonze.
Comedy
92 Mins
R
Oh Jackass, your combination of filthy jokes, raunchy slapstick, and hidden-camera non-sequiturs are as amusing as they are tasteless. This mixture is the defining factor and key draw for Jackass fans since the days of the TV show that gave the franchise it’s start. Bad Grandpa has this sophomoric concoction in spades, and for those who are willing to suspend their seriousness and not scrutinize the themes to closely, it’s great entertainment. Unlike previous Jackass incarnations though, Bad Grandpa is not a jumbled collection of skits: it has a plot line and defined characters, and dare I say, more depth than any of its predecessors.
NYC Theater Roundup: “The Glass Menagerie,” “Bad Jews,” “The Model Apartment”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 24 October 2013 22:16
- Written by Kevin Filipski
The Glass Menagerie
Written by Tennessee Williams; directed by John Tiffany
Performances through February 23, 2014
Bad Jews
Written by Joshua Harmon; directed by Daniel Aukin
Performances through December 22, 2013
The Model Apartment
Written by Donald Margulies; directed by Evan Cabnet
Performances through November 1, 2013
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| Jones and Quinto in The Glass Menagerie (photo: Michael J. Lutch) |
As any bored high school student knows, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is filled with symbols right from its title collection of fragile figurines. So for director John Tiffany to cram his new production with visual markers is to make a familiar play obvious. Far from illuminating a classic, he does the opposite: it’s Glass Menagerie for Dummies.
Tiffany wants to shake the cobwebs out of this overfamiliar play, but he’s done what a group of clever high school seniors would do in theater class. Tom’s opening monologue declares off the bat that this is a memory play, so sister Laura comes out of the sofa and mother Amanda appears from behind a dressing screen to reenact these memories. The Wingfield family is stuck in its own self-deluded existence, so their home floats on a sea of black, showing how separated they are from the real world. Since they are unable to break free from that insular world, a fire escape rising to infinity shows that no one sees an obvious exit.
Laura’s menagerie has been reduced to a lone unicorn, making something tangible simply symbolic. A “little silver slipper of a moon” hangs to our left throughout; when Amanda mentions it, we wonder why it took so long to notice. The characters—mainly Tom—make occasional herky-jerky motions that apparently trigger flashbacks, courtesy movement director Steven Hoggett. Nico Muhly’s music, while understated, too often unnecessarily underlines the drama.
So what’s left? When Tiffany isn’t trying to replace Williams’ vision with his own, there are affecting moments like the scene between The Gentleman Caller and Laura, one of the play’s foolproof scenes pretty much done as written. Brian J. Smith and Celia Keenan-Bolger, both quite good in that scene, manage to escape the director’s heavy hand, but otherwise the actors must do double duty to Williams and Tiffany. So Cherry Jones (Amanda) and Zachary Quinto (Tom) are severely hamstrung, and their portrayals suffer in a frustratingly uneven Glass Menagerie.
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| The cast of Bad Jews (photo: Joan Marcus) |
Joshua Harmon’s comedy Bad Jews is as blunt as its title. Of its four characters, two matter: cousins Daphna and Liam, she a devoutly traditional Jew and he proudly modern, dating shiksas like his latest blonde Melody, whom he brings to his brother Jonah’s apartment after missing their beloved Poppy’s (grandfather’s) funeral. Daphna is personally offended that Liam didn’t get back in time for Poppy’s ceremony because he lost his phone on the Aspen slopes with his ski bunny, and much of the play consists of the two cousins going at it—sometimes hilariously and devastatingly, more often stridently and redundantly—while Melody, content to look at her smartphone, and a nearly catatonic Jonah sit idly by.
Harmon writes funny lines, although some are too witty to be believable, as when Daphna nails Melody as someone “who dresses like she was conceived and live-water birthed in a Talbot’s.” The main problem is that these characters exist to show off Harmon’s cleverness. Melody talks about majoring in opera (hence her name, ha ha), but when she opens her mouth, she sounds worse than Katy Perry sans autotune. After Daphna explains why Jews can’t have tattoos, Melody arrives with an ugly, huge cleft note inked on her calf. (Jonah’s final revelation to Daphna of his own tattoo tribute to Poppy is a desperate twist of fake dramatic irony.)
As the play progresses, Daphna seems so delusional and sociopathic that the more measured Liam wins our sympathy by default, even if he disingenuously claims Poppy wanted him to give Poppy’s own heirloom, the precious chai (which he improbably hid in his mouth from the Nazis) to Melody. Despite Daniel Aukin’s slick directing and good actors, the balance is fatally off. As centered as Michael Zegen’s Liam is, Tracee Chimo’s Daphna is so borderline unhinged from the start, she has nowhere interesting to go. But Chimo’s head of bushy hair, which deserves a credit of its own—Harmon script description is that it’s “Hair that screams: Jew”—is a case of a character’s appearance saying more than the writer and performer.
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| Davis and Grody in The Model Apartment (photo: James Leynse) |
Like Bad Jews, Donald Margulies’ The Model Apartment is unafraid to let fly with potentially offensive invective that might alienate its core audience. Although Margulies’ play is superior, it too is tripped up by unwelcome contrivances. First, we are to believe that Lola and Max, an elderly Brooklyn couple, would get into their car and drive all the way to Florida overnight, only to find their new condo not yet ready: so they are put into a smaller apartment to tide them over. Second, we are to believe that their flaky daughter Debby—after discovering they left, obviously to get away from her—tracks them down to their temporary place. Third, we are to believe that Debby’s young boyfriend Neil also ends up at her surprised parents’ place.
Of course, this is a play of dreams, nightmares and heightened reality, but such gimmickry casts a pall over an intelligent exploration of Jewish guilt over surviving the Holocaust. Max, who lost his first wife and young daughter Deborah to the Nazis, met Lola in a concentration camp; they came to America to start anew and had Debby, who becomes the living, breathing embodiment of their guilt. This incredibly obese loose cannon’s neediness, hypermanic behavior and constant barrage of nasty anti-Semitic putdowns are a metaphor for Max and Lola’s own difficulties putting their horrific past behind them.
Although the Debby/Deborah pairing is a mite precious—a grown-up Deborah appears in Max’s dreams and her appearance at the end suggests he’s happy to live out his years with a fantasy Deborah rather than a real Debby—Margulies creates such psychologically acute characterizations and dialogue that his play is devastating despite its flaws.
Evan Cabnet’s lucid staging on Lauren Helpern’s unerringly accurate antiseptic condo set features outstanding acting by Mark Blum and Kathryn Grody as the harried couple hoping for peace and quiet away from their monstrous creation. But Diane Davis’s tour de force as Debby/Deborah is the production’s centerpiece. Her quick changes from huge Debby to slim Deborah and back are only obvious physical manifestations; this gifted actress also nails the emotional arcs of both women as remarkably as Margulies does.
The Glass Menagerie
Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th Street, New York, NY
theglassmenageriebroadway.com
Bad Jews
Laura Pels Theatre, 111 West 46th Street, New York, NY
roundabouttheatre.org
The Model Apartment
Primary Stages, 59 East 59th Street, New York, NY
primarystages.org
October '13 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 21 October 2013 03:15
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Corruption
(Grindhouse Releasing)
This sleazy 1968 thriller morphs from a swinging London movie into a bizarre serial killer movie after a middle-aged surgeon’s beautiful model wife is disfigured in a freak accident: he stalks unsuspecting young women whose skin he needs to graft onto her hideously burned face.
As nuts as it sounds, there’s little actual gore; a weirdly insane finale and over-the-top performances by Peter Cushing and Sue Lloyd make this a frightfully fun 90 minutes. The Blu-ray transfer looks quite good; extras include alternate scenes, interviews, commentary and two versions of the film, one bloodier than the other.
(Fox)
Melissa McCarthy cursing like a truck driver is as unappealing as it gets, and this scattershot, incredibly bloated—especially in its extended version—buddy comedy follows suit.
Unlike McCarthy telegraphing each joke, Sandra Bullock is a smartly restrained straight man, but that’s no compensation for two hours of bad-taste, unfunny one-liners. The Blu-ray looks excellent, at least; extras include deleted/extended scenes, bloopers, featurettes and five—count ‘em—commentaries.
A Hijacking
(Magnolia)
Unlike the star-laden Captain Phillips, this taut Danish thriller slipped under the radar; everyone who saw heroic Tom Hanks should watch a superior drama which doesn’t rely on star power.
Director Tobias Lindholm powerfully shows everyone’s gradual deterioration over the course of drawn-out negotiations between Somali pirates and the head of the Danish shipping company whose vessel they seized. Magisterial acting (Soren Malling, Pilou Asbek and Dar Salim are from the great Danish TV series Borgen) keeps nerves frayed throughout. The Blu-ray image is lustrous; extras include featurettes.
and The Stranger
(Kino)
Ida Lupino’s tense 1953 noir The Hitchhiker—which pits a ruthless killer (William Talman) against two men he kidnaps (Edmond O’Brien and Frank Lovejoy)—is trashy but effective pulp that, at a fleet 71 minutes, never overstays its welcome.
Orson Welles’ The Stranger (1946), a crackerjack thriller about a Nazi hiding in plain sight in small town America, wraps everything into a satisfying knot at the end. The Blu-ray transfers are decent but imperfect; Stranger extras include a concentration camp short, audio commentary and Welles’ wartime radio broadcasts.
Jumbo
(Warner Archive)
This lumbering, fitfully entertaining musical is set in a circus—Jumbo is the elephant—but its main claim to fame is a selection of wonderful Rodgers and Hart songs.
For over two hours, Jimmy Durante, Doris Day and Martha Raye try their best to put this treacly material over, and occasionally succeed; director Charles Walters’ heavy hand is nearly fatal, while Busby Berkeley’s elaborate circus sequences are nowhere near his best. The hi-def transfer is splendid; extras include a musical short and cartoon. (available through WarnerArchive.com)
Maniac
(IFC)
This blood-drenched remake of a 1980 slasher flick—itself forgettable—has one borrowed idea: the entire action is from the point of view of its murderous protagonist (played by a zombified Elijah Wood, whom we see when his character looks in the mirror), but that’s about it for director Franck Kalfoun’s originality.
If you want to see unsurpassed gore, from sticking a knife through a woman’s throat to carving off young ladies’ scalps, then this is the demented movie for you. Why such a winning actress like Nora Arnezeder would appear in this is a condemnation of decent roles for women. The Blu-ray image is crisp and clear enough to wallow in the gruesome bloodlettings in rich HD; extras include Wood and Kalfoun’s commentary, deleted scenes, an hour-long making-of.
(Fox)
It played on Broadway five years ago, so this release of the musical based on the beloved William Steig book and subsequent movie franchise is belated to say the least. The hit-or-miss show has cute if forgettable songs by Jeanine Tesori and a campy book by David Lindsay-Abaire.
But it’s the cast that shines: Brian D’Arcy James’ Shrek, Daniel Breaker’s Donkey, Christopher Sieber’s Lord Farquaad and—most memorably of all—Sutton Foster’s touching and funny Princess, the best thing about this watchable knock-off. The Blu-ray looks fine; extras include short featurettes.
Superheroes—A Never-Ending Battle
(PBS)
In this detailed chronicle of America’s greatest contribution to pop culture—comic books—the history superheroes from Superman’s birth during the rise of 1930s European fascism, is recounted up to current CGI-dominated movies.
In this detailed chronicle of America’s greatest contribution to pop culture—comic books—the history superheroes from Superman’s birth during the rise of 1930s European fascism, is recounted up to current CGI-dominated movies.
Narrated by the ubiquitous Liev Schreiber, the three-part program comprises interviews with so many experts and historians that it’s no surprise the extras feature more interviews taking up another 40 minutes. The Blu-ray image looks stellar.
(MGM)
In this impressive-looking dramatic series, the legendary warriors and explorers who bravely left the comforts of home for unknown lands get television’s usual melodramatic treatment, with copious sex and violence overshadowing credible characterizations.
Visual design and the actors are first-rate; far less compelling is a lack of an original point of view. The hi-def transfer is ravishing to the eye; extras include deleted scenes, commentaries and interviews.
DVDs of the Week
After Earth
(Sony)
This sour, humorless piece of sci-fi is the ultimate vanity project: Will Smith is not only credited with the (vapid) story but stars with his teenage son Jaden as a father-son team that crash-lands on an uninhabited earth, with the wounded dad guiding his willful son to success and survival against various obstacles and creatures.
As a half-hour Twilight Zone episode, it would barely pass muster, but at 100 minutes, as nominally directed by M. Night Shyamalan and badly acted by Smith pere and fils, this is impersonal Hollywood moviemaking at its most ludicrous. Extras include self-congratulatory featurettes.
(Warner Archive)
This very mild satire about the morality of murder was directed without much distinction by veteran Basil Dearden.
In fact, for a movie made in 1968, featuring a fairly interesting cast (Oliver Reed, Telly Savalas, Diana Rigg), set in enticing European locales and climaxing with a sword fight aboard an airborne dirigible, this mostly forgettable movie remains unfocused on what it wants to scatter its shots at. (available through WarnerArchive.com)
Deep Purple—Perfect Strangers
(Eagle Vision)
When the best-loved Deep Purple lineup reformed in 1984 for its Perfect Strangers album, the band embarked on a worldwide tour, and this two-hour Australia performance shows them at the peak of their considerable hard rock powers.
Along with the title track and other tunes from that album (which sounds dated thanks to the era’s processed guitar sound), the group also barnstorms through classics like opener “Highway Star” and inevitable closer “Smoke on the Water.” Included is a featurette about the album and tour.
(Millennium)
Emily Browning, who’s shown an ability to outclass her material in such middling items as Sleeping Beauty and Sucker Punch, does it again in this tepid thriller about a rock star who falls for a bad boy guitarist with a past.
Director Catherine Hardwicke, who made Thirteen and a little something called Twilight, seems unsure whether to go for full-on thrills or make it campy, with the result neither scary nor humorous. Browning’s sexy heroine helps, but not enough. Extras include videos and extended musical sequences.
Treasures of New York
(PBS)
This attractive compendium of the enlightening PBS series about New York City area attractions comprises seven episodes, showing off the Park Avenue Armory, New-York Historical Society, Hearst Tower, Roosevelt House, Pratt Institute, New York Botanical Garden and American Museum of Natural History.
The series, which is continuing this season with new programs about the Saratoga Race Track (not really near NYC) and Four Freedoms Monument on Roosevelt Island, is a must-watch travelogue.
(First Run)
In this relentlessly cutesy comedy, Sophie Marceau tries to keep her head above water as a single-minded career woman who learns what’s important in life when she gets letters from her seven-year-old self on her 40th birthday.
Yann Samuell’s mediocre movie goes exactly where you expect, and despite Marceau investing her character with as much emotion as possible, there’s little she can do to elevate this above the passable.
CDs of the Week
Leos Janacek—The Piano
(Allegro)
It’s always heartening when a master composer best known in one genre—Janacek’s operas, from Jenufa and Kata Kabanova to The Makropulos Case and The Cunning Little Vixen, are among the 20th century’s greatest—is spotlighted in another, like this first-rate two-disc set of Janacek’s solo piano works by Luxembourg-born Cathy Krier.
Along with a few immature early works, masterpieces like his piano sonata (titled 1.X.1905) and the suites In the Mists and On an Overgrown Path are played by Krier with lilting gracefulness. This is the first standout traversal of Janacek’s piano music since Andras Schiff nearly 20 years ago.
(Hanssler Classic)
When Penderecki’s piano concerto Resurrection premiered in 2002, it was criticized for exploiting the horrific events of September 11 (hence its subtitle). Whether or not that was the reason, a revised version was premiered five years later; this recording, with Florian Uhlig dazzlingly playing the demanding piano part, allows the work to breathe on its own without any 9/11 baggage.
Penderecki's score, which moves restlessly from dark tragedy to majestic light, is given a towering performance (the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra plays magnificently under conductor Lukasz Borowicz) that propels it to the top of anyone's list of memorable 21st century works.
Film Review: "Wajdja"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 18 October 2013 09:30
- Written by Matt Oakes
Wadjda is first and foremost an important film. More than just the first movie ever filmed in Saudi Arabia - where cinema has been illegal under censorship laws since the 1980s - and the first feature film ever from a female Saudi Arabian director, Wadjda is actually quite a good film. Director Haifaa Al-Mansour braves the rocky shoals of creating a slyly counterculture work in a totalitarian epoch that bans women from driving, voting, and dressing as they like, crossing the finish line with saintly courage. With material on display that, like its central character, is consciously subversively and takes careful aim at the many forms of culturally-approved misogyny, Al-Mansour boldly promulgates material that defiantly flies in the face of the normative Saudi lifestyle and, for it, she deserves celebration.
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