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Reviews
Film Review: "Parkland"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 04 October 2013 00:20
- Written by Matt Oakes
"Parkland"
Directed by Peter Landesman
Starring Zac Efron, Paul Giamatti, Jackie Weaver, Marcia Gay Harden, James Badge Dale, Colin Hanks, Mark Duplass, Ron Livingstone, Billy Bob Thornton, Jeremy Strong
Drama
93 Mins
PG-13
Everything that holds Parkland back is cemented right into its very foundation due to the fact that it's a story with an airplane hanger's breadth of anecdotal perspective. Following the journey of no less than six central characters during the days of and following JFK's assassination, this mostly true biopic is so frequently shifting gears that it never manages to achieve a degree of focus or narrative intent. Leapfrogging from story to story, the focal point is so consistently fleeting that we never feel tethered to a single narrative. Instead, we're lost in a jumble of self-importance and historical whodunnits with actual characters cast to the side. In attempting to capture everything about a historic day, director/screenwriter Peter Landesman has captured almost nothing.
Partially based on Vincent Bugliosi's novel Four Days In November, Parkland is exactly the type of historical drama that allows the importance of a true-life event to supersede the actual narrative within the film. Characters are painted in broad strokes, making their varied reaction to the assassination feel plastic, like action figures trying to sing, dance, and cry. Every story beat is so uptight and self-aggrandizing that it's impossible to sort this mish-mash of events into whatever framework the film is supposed to achieve.
Film Review: "Gravity"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 04 October 2013 00:11
- Written by Matt Oakes
"Gravity"
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Starring Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris
Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
90 Mins
PG-13
The true star of Gravity is notSandra Bullock but director Alfonso Cuarón and his crew of special effects wizards. Getting started with a bang in a mind-blowing 13-minutes uncut shot, the dance of Cuaron's camera quickly establishes the level of head-scratching wonder that will go on to define the film. Floating from on high into tight zooms before zipping into wide pans with a solitary shot, Cuarón's camera is one of mystifying eloquence, a whodunnit of CGI effects. His uninterrupted camera work displays an immeasurable degree of invisible precision, whether it's drifting amongst the black canvas of space or capturing cacophonous yet silent explosions. For the miles-from-simple technological feats he has achieved here alone, Cuarón proves he is an undeniable modern master of cinema.
But that fact, in and of itself, doesn't mean that Gravity is not without its missteps. At times, the script from Cuarón, and son Jonás feels clunky and a bit unnatural. How much this stems from English not being the Cuaróns' native language is debatable but it at times serves to take us out of the moment, a tragic reminder that this is indeed still a film with people reading their lines. Thankfully, the film is predominantly a silent one and these tell-all bits of dialogue serve more as a relic to the disaster movies of the golden age than lofty, award-seeking self-indulgences. From that limited prowess within the script comes a simplicity of storytelling that both elevates Gravity and holds it back from being truly wonderful.
NYC Theater Roundup: “Romeo and Juliet,” “Women or Nothing,” “You Never Can Tell,” “Natural Affection”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 30 September 2013 21:27
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Romeo and Juliet
Written by William Shakespeare; directed by David Leveaux
Women or Nothing
Written by Ethan Coen; directed by David Cromer
You Never Can Tell
Written by Bernard Shaw; directed by David Staller
Natural Affection
Written by William Inge; directed by Jenn Thompson
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| Rashad and Bloom in Romeo and Juliet (photo: Carol Rosegg) |
David Leveaux’s Romeo and Juliet shows a director desperately trying to ensure there’s always something going on, apparently to help keep awake younger audience members who wandered in wanting to see not-quite movie star Orlando Bloom and not-quite good actress Condola Rashad play the Bard’s star-crossed lovers.
It all begins with a seat-jolting blast as the theater plunges into darkness. Then, as the lights go up (the adroit lighting design is by David Weiner), a dove lands on a solitary hanging bell and Friar Lawrence (a far too neurotic Brent Carver) speaks the famous opening soliloquy: but why does “our two hours traffic upon the stage” get such a hearty laugh from the audience? When the Friar is done, he carries the dove—obediently sitting on the bell—offstage.
For the next 2-1/2 hours—Shakespeare was apparently wrong about his play’s length—fires are variously lit around Jesse Poleshuck’s jumbled set, Juliet frolics on a swing dropped from above, a low balcony allows both Romeo and Juliet to scamper on and off, and Juliet’s bed—hovering pointlessly in mid-air—doubles as her tomb. To hammer home how “modern” it all is, Romeo first enters on a motorcycle, Juliet’s Nurse bicycles around Verona and swordfights are instead fought with switchblades, blatantly (and unnecessarily) linking Shakespeare and West Side Story.
Leveaux’s lone idea concerns casting: the Montagues are white and the Capulets are black; since nothing in the play explicitly explains this ongoing family feud, we are left with the uncomfortable feeling that the families are simply racist. Bloom’s hardscrabble Romeo speaks the poetry easily and well; too bad Rashad sounds if she just learned her lines backstage without understanding anything she says. Her singsong delivery sounds like a teenage girl smitten with a guy she met at a party, but that’s about all Rashad does right.
In a decent supporting cast, Christian Camargo’s flamboyant Mercutio and Conrad Kemp’s loyal Benvolio come off best. But Jayne Houdyshell’s Nurse is too farcical for a part already painted broadly: her attempts to convey emotion are laughable. And, as always with Shakespeare in New York, the biggest laughs come from what he didn’t write, i.e., a friendly dry-humping session by Romeo and his buddies, witnessed by the Nurse, who does a prolonged double take. Ah, youth!
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| Rush and Pourfar in Women or Nothing (photo: Kevin Thomas Garcia) |
For his first full-length play, movie man Ethan Coen has a juicy idea for a short playlet. Too bad Women or Nothing flails about for two hours showing how concert pianist Laura and partner Gretchen want a baby so desperately they decide to have Laura sleep with a (gasp) man to get pregnant. And not just any man: Gretchen’s coworker Chuck, the perfect unwilling partner, has a bright young daughter (which means his genes are superior), and he’s about to move to Florida (cue obvious Florida jokes). Nothing can go wrong, right?
Aside from what Coen hasn’t thought of—for starters, is it Laura’s time to get pregnant and would a responsible man have unprotected sex with a woman he just met?—the plan works, apparently. But we have to take it on faith, since Act I ends with Laura and Chuck don’t seem to be hitting off that well, while Act II begins the next morning, when Dorene, Laura’s mom, conveniently walks in on her lesbian daughter, who has a strange man in her bed.
Coen’s dialogue, like that in his and his brother’s films, is hit or miss: lines of ringing humor or even insight are surrounded by verbiage that flatly lies there. When Laura and Chuck discuss her jet-set life, it’s initially a believable conversation about the drudgery of flying into Cleveland, performing Brahms and going to cocktail parties for rich donors. But then they drone on and it collapses under the weight of its insubstantiality.
David Cromer’s glossy staging features Michele Spadaro’s knockout set, which is a mite too detailed: the women’s well-appointed Manhattan apartment’s second floor houses a piano for the sole reason to remind us of Laura’s career. (No one ever walks up there, let alone plays it.) As Dorene, Deborah Rush enjoyably spits out lines that would sound gauche by other actresses. Robert Beitzel makes Chuck believable despite his absurd situation, Halley Feiffer does little with the nothing role of Gretchen, and Karen Pourfar is a compelling Laura, conveying so many contradictory emotions that she nearly turns Coen’s flimsy comedy into something meaty.
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| The cast of You Never Can Tell (photo: Al Foote III) |
In Bernard Shaw’s You Never Can Tell, men are (as usual) at women’s mercy: it’s unsurprising that neither the original actors nor audiences could fathom its complex characterizations and dizzying plot. Young dentist Valentine falls for Gloria, older sister of his first patient, teenager Dolly; after he gets involved with their family—including his landlord who, unbeknownst to him (and the family) is the progressive mother’s long-lost husband and the independent children’s father—twists prevail until engagements are made and family members reunited.
As always in Shaw’s best plays, the glorious follies of the human condition are painted with equally broad and subtle strokes: impossibly witty but truthful quips, one-liners and epigrams abound. But David Staller’s bumpy production robs Shaw of some of his comic power—gimmicky scene transitions, for example, bring the intellectual action to a grinding halt. The acting, though not inspired, is generally competent: if there are better productions of this and other Shaw classics (look north to Niagara on the Lake for that), at least this You Never Can Tell approximates Shaw’s mastery well enough.
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| Bert and Erbe in Natural Affection (photo: Marielle Solan) |
It’s easy to see why William Inge’s Natural Affection lasted only 36 performances in its 1963 Broadway debut—and that, over the past 50 years, it’s rarely been revived anywhere. It’s a play filled with dysfunctional families and relationships—so much so, in fact, that alcoholism, adultery, and even hints of incest are par for the course. This misanthropic drama is so downbeat and depressing that audiences may not follow.
It’s daring of TACT to stage a play announcing its intentions in its opening words: Sue Barker—a single mom in her late 30s living in sin with younger man Bernie (not acceptable in 1963)—looks out her Chicago apartment window and says, “the world’s awful ugly.” Inge proceeds to crudely dramatize that line, as Sue’s delinquent teenage son Donnie visits during the Christmas holidays and announces that he can leave reform school if Sue lets him live with her.
Sue is initially happy to again be a mother to the son she gave up at age 18. Donnie’s dad is out of the picture, but Bernie—who just lost his job as a Cadillac salesman and is jealous that Sue makes more money—doesn’t really want Donnie around. Bernie also has an eye for Claire, the gorgeous neighbor across the hall, whose husband Vince—who likes Bernie a little too much—drinks to excess and frustrates his wife both in and out of bed.
Speaking pulpy, often dated dialogue, Inge’s characters are overwhelmed by melodrama; but at least it’s all onstage where we see what happens and not just be told about it. Jenn Thompson’s blunt staging follows this brutal journey to its violent end. Kathryn Erbe (in a frightful wig) is a sweetly accommodating Sue, Alec Beard a pitiful Bernie, Victoria Mack a vivacious Claire, Chris Bert a dour Donnie and John Pankow a magnificently drunk Vince. Inge’s intentionally ugly drama, despite awkward stretches, might finally find its audience a half century later.
Romeo and Juliet
Performances through January 12, 2014
Richard Rodgers Theatre, 225 West 46th Street, New York, NY
romeoandjulietbroadway.com
Women or Nothing
Performances through October 13, 2013
Atlantic Theater Company, 336 West 20th Street, New York, NY
atlantictheater.org
You Never Can Tell
Performances through October 13, 2013
Pearl Theatre Company, 555 West 42nd Street, New York, NY
pearltheatre.org
Natural Affection
Performances through October 26, 2013
Beckett Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street, New York, NY
tactnyc.org
September '13 Digital Week V
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 30 September 2013 03:03
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Arrow—Complete 1st Season
(Warners)
In this robustly entertaining series based on one of DC Comics’ last TV-movie adaptation holdouts, billionaire Oliver Queen’s five years on a deserted island enable him to learn the skills necessary to return to his hometown to fight crime—and settle scores.
Of course, it’s silliness personified but done with cleverness and lack of self-importance—everything The Dark Knight wasn’t—it remains watchable. The Blu-ray image is superb; extras include featurettes, interviews, deleted scenes and a gag reel.
(Warners)
I’ve gone on record expressing my dismay with Christopher Nolan’s ponderous reboot of the Batman franchise with his three Dark Knight films, so I won’t repeat myself.
Instead, let’s praise Warner Brothers for this extraordinary six-Blu-ray disc boxed set, handsomely designed and executed, which will no doubt please the trilogy’s fans.
Included along with the fatally overlong films (all looking perfectly detailed in hi-def) are bonus features galore—90 minutes of new extras including a new making-of—and, inside the box itself, a 48-page photo book and Nolan letter.
In the House
(Cohen Media)
Francois Ozon’s latest wispy sleight of hand amusingly adapts Juan Mayorga’s play that literally tackles “reality vs. fiction”: a precocious high school student variously seduces his teacher and his wife, his classmate and the classmate’s mom and dad, with his words and natural charm.
How much is true and how much is made up allow Ozon to display his nimblest filmmaking in years. A choice cast is led by Fabrice Luchini and Kristin Scott Thomas. The hi-def transfer looks great; extras include a gag reel and featurettes.
(Berlin Philharmonic)
This exuberant performance of Mozart’s symbol-laden Masonic singspiel, filmed in Baden Baden, Germany, is a modern staging by director Robert Carsen that doesn’t ruin the work’s atmosphere since Flute doesn’t take place in any specific era or setting.
The singers, led by Pavol Breslik’s touching Tamino and Kate Royal’s ravishing Pamina, are uniformly excellent, and Sir Simon Rattle leads his musicians in a lithe reading of Mozart’s glorious score. The Blu-ray image and audio are first-rate; extras include Carsen and Rattle interviews and behind-the-scenes featurette.
Peter Gabriel—Live in Athens ‘87
(Eagle Vision)
When Peter Gabriel toured in support of 1986’s So album, he became a superstar thanks to hit singles and award-winning MTV videos. The tour, also a massive success, was one of the best concerts ever for those who witnessed it (I saw two shows during that tour), and this 1987 Athens concert is finally on Blu-ray in all its visual and musical glory.
Gabriel and his crack band, playing two hours’ worth of jagged and fractured tunes from his brilliant solo albums, are joined by opening act Youssou N’Dour for emotional encores of “In Your Eyes” and “Biko.” Extras include N’Dour’s 40-minute opening set, vintage Gabriel interview and bonus DVD of Play, comprising 23 Gabriel videos from “Solsbury Hill” to “Growing Up.” Blu-ray image and audio are superlative.
Room 237
(IFC)
In this alternately bemusing and amusing documentary, five people espouse their theories of what Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is really about, from the Holocaust to Kubrick faking the first moon landing! The Shining is filled with mysterious doings even by Kubrickian standards, and seeming gaffes are heavily fraught with “Meaning” because the exacting Kubrick would never allow a chair to go missing or a typewriter to change color. Or would he?
Director Rodney Ascher has fun with these outlandish theories, but since the movie is itself outlandish—Jack Nicholson’s crazed hamminess would ruin lesser films—it can withstand such thematic hocus-pocus. The Blu-ray image is good; extras include a commentary, panel discussion, 11 deleted scenes and music and poster design featurettes.
3 Films by Roberto Rossellini
(Criterion)
This trio of films Roberto Rossellini made with wife Ingrid Bergman in the early 1950s—Stromboli, Europa 51 and Voyage in Italy—is of historical and cinematic importance, showing Rossellini’s style hardening from his neo-realist roots to the didacticism that would overwhelm his later television films.
Bergman is both radiant and haggard in these films, and despite their lack of melodrama, they really pinpoint a specific postwar Italian era. The five films—included are Stromboli and Europa in Italian and English versions—look splendid in Criterion’s hi-def transfers; the voluminous extras comprise documentaries, commentaries, featurettes, interviews and Rossellini introductions.
Fill the Void
(Sony Classics)
Rama Burshtein made this honest and direct drama about a young Orthodox Jewish woman initially persuaded by her family to marry her dead sister’s widowed husband in order to care for their infant son.
This glimpse into a society most viewers are unaware of absorbingly creates, in a brief 90 minutes, a world of love and forgiveness. In the lead role, actress Hadas Yaron is unforgettable in her naturalness. Extras include Burshtein and Yaron’s commentary and a Burshtein/Yaron Q&A.
Hidden in the Woods
(Artsploitation)
In Chilean director Patricio Valladares’ no-holds-barred horror flick, we are subjected to limbs being chain-sawed off, a father having sex with his daughters, their deformed brother eating other people and endless scenes of rape and torture. If that prompts you to want to see it, then nothing I say can change your mind.
It’s well-made and even well-acted—considering what these poor people (especially the women) go through—but the buckets of blood and gore, even considering what Valladares withholds from us, are too much. Extras include a director interview and making-of featurette.
(Warners)
In this beguiling police procedural’s latest season—which includes its landmark 100th episode—Simon Baker’s sophisticated and sharp-witted investigator Patrick Jane comes back strong after being charged with assault and fraud last season.
Baker’s effortless charm helps smooth over plot holes that gape larger on DVD when no TV commercials separate sequences. Extras include interviews and behind the scenes featurettes.
The Neighbors—Complete 1st Season
(ABC)
Two and a Half Men—Complete 10th Season
(Warners)
Two Broke Girls—Complete 2nd Season
(Warners)
High-concept sitcoms live on: the new The Neighbors, which thinks a neighborhood filled with hidden extraterrestrials is automatically funny, works due to perennially underrated Jami Gertz’s levelheaded presence.
Two and a Half Men, after ten years well past its sell-by date, continues limping along with Ashton Kushter replacing Charlie Sheen, while the surprisingly raunchy Two Broke Girls (comedienne Whitney Cummings is its creator) works because both Beth Behrs and Kat Dannings are fun together—and separately. Extras include making-of featurettes, gag reels and deleted scenes.
(Deutsche Grammophon)
Thomas Ades’ second opera, from Shakespeare’s play, is light years ahead of his first, 1995’s Powder Her Face: the musical and dramatic mastery show a maturity I never expected. (I saw it in 2006 in Santa Fe.) Robert Lepage’s Met Opera staging is filled with welcome restraint, allowing the story, characters and music to take center stage.
Ades conducts a vivid account of his own score, Simon Keenlyside is a powerful Prospero, and Isabel Leonard again demonstrates how far ahead she is of other young sopranos as a luminous Miranda. Extras include host Deborah Voigt’s interviews with the principals.
CDs of the Week
Anna Netrebko—Verdi
Anna Netrebko—Verdi
(Deutsche Grammophon)
At the beginning of her career, Russian soprano Anna Netrebko sang roles for which her bright soprano was suited, often by fellow Russians like Prokofiev and Glinka. But when she became the opera world’s darling, she started to tackle meatier roles, and that’s what she’s been mainly performing the past several years.
As far as Verdi goes, Netrebko has sung Violetta in La Traviata, but there are many other juicy women’s roles—from Lady Macbeth to Il trovatore’s Lenore—and Netrebko’s creamy voice acquits itself well throughout this recital. Able assistance comes from conductor Gianandrea Noseda and the Turin Opera Orchestra.
(Warner Classics/Erato)
One of the great—and grossly underrated—operas of all-time is this formidable take on the Faust legend: crammed with memorable music, complex characterizations, truly epic sweep and a knowing sense of drama. A re-release of this 1999 recording—the first complete version of the opera since the classic 1969 version with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau—is worth seeking out, as Kent Nagano conducts the Lyon Opera Orchestra with the proper balance of expansiveness and intimacy.
In a flawless cast, Dietrich Hensel (Faust), Kim Begley (Mephistopheles) and Fischer-Dieskau himself (speaker) are especially good. There’s also the option to listen to both endings of the operas (Busoni died before completing it).
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