On Broadway: 'Wit': Donne Too Soon

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 31 January 2012 05:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Wit
Starring Cynthia Nixon
Written by Margaret Edson
Directed by Lynne Meadow

Margaret Edson has written only one play, but what a play! Wit has everything in such abundance--sympathetic characterizations, corrosive insight, lacerating psychology, welcome gallows humor in the face of impending mortality--that only a disastrous staging would undermine these sundry virtues. The new Manhattan Theatre Club production gives an excellent account of one of the best plays of the past two decades.

Vivian Bearing, an esteemed but notably difficult poetry professor, teaches the Holy Sonnets of John Dunne, the early 17th century metaphysical poet who tackled life’s great mysteries--death, the afterlife, the existence of God--with such forcefulness and precision that he, in the words of one character, “makes Shakespeare sound like a Hallmark card.”

Vivian, who has just been diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer, realizes to her dismay that all her erudition and intellect--which includes endlessly reciting and analyzing Donne’s immortal works--are no help when coming face-to-face with the insidious disease and invasive chemotherapy which destroy her body, while her mind--keen as ever--is trapped. The words that always came so easily to her are useless against such opponents.

This might sound dreary, even boring, but Edson smartly backs up her title by having the hyper-articulate Vivian narrate her own story, warning us that the play--and her life--will end within two hours (it’s actually 100 minutes). She guides us through everything that happens at the hospital--invasive procedures, heartless research doctors’ discussions, talks with sympathetic nurses--alongside flashbacks to her early life and classroom discussions with her not-so-learned undergrad students.

Edson’s biting and bitter humor underlines the true pathos of Vivian’s losing battle, as the accomplished professor discovers that merely understanding Donne’s challenging poetry in the abstract fails when the fearsome reality of mortality rears its head. Edson’s brilliant balance between Vivian’s gargantuan life force and the brick wall that her cancer quickly  becomes is such that, even at its bleakest, Wit remains optimistic and humane.

Lynne Meadow’s forceful staging is greatly assisted by Santo Loquasto’s spare but striking design, including moveable walls that reveal ever-mounting hospital horrors behind them. Happily, Michael Countryman and Greg Keller don’t overdo the doctors’ single-minded interest in Vivian as a mere research subject, Carra Patterson makes a sweetly personable nurse and Suzanne Bertish is nicely restrained as Vivian’s own professor, whose climactic hospital visit--as Donne is sidestepped for The Runaway Bunny--provides a devastating moment of catharsis.

My memory of Kathleen Chalfant in the original 1998 off-Broadway production is so strong that I was initially hesitant to accept Cynthia Nixon as Vivian. With her bald head protruding from a long, swan-like neck, Nixon first seems tentative, her speaking voice sounding affected rather than affecting. But she soon settles down and gives the role the emotional and physical investment it begs for, catching the humor, heartbreak and humiliation of this woman and her battered body.

Wit ends with the ultimate triumph: a final, shattering image of a nude Vivian released from her suffering gives Edson’s masterpiece an awesome (in both senses of the word) coda.

Wit
Previews began January 5, 2012; opened January 26; closes March 11
Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street, New York, NY
http://mtc-nyc.org

January '12 Digital Week IV

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 29 January 2012 10:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week
Annie Hall, Manhattan
(MGM)
Woody Allen’s recent films have made it to Blu-ray, but these are his first classics to be released on hi-def: Annie Hall, his 1977 mainstream breakthrough, showcases Diane Keaton’s charming Oscar-winning acting; and 1979’s Manhattan--even more cohesive and assured--has Gordon Willis’ magnificent B&W widescreen photography and then-teenager Mariel Hemingway’s precocious, persuasive performance.

On Blu-ray, Annie Hall (with wonderfully filmic grain) and Manhattan (with fabulous New York City vistas), are miles ahead of the previous DVD releases. Of course, there are no extras.

50/50
(Summit)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s sympathetic portrayal of a 20-something slapped in the face by cancer smoothes over rough patches in Will Reiser’s script (based on his own life), which often--thanks to director Jonathan Levine and costar-producer Seth Rogen--falls into unfunny Judd Apatow territory.

Too bad a wooden Rogen goes for cheap laughs, which tramples the emotion in Gordon-Levitt’s performance. The women--Anjelica Huston (mom), Bryce Dallas Howard (girlfriend), Anna Kendrick (unlikely therapist)--are also handled poorly, but Philip Baker Hall is bravura as a patient who befriends our hero. The image quality is fine; extras include commentary, deleted scenes and featurettes.

Happy Happy
(Magnolia)
This fresh Norwegian comedy traces the falling apart and patching together of two marriages with good humor and insight by director Anne Sewitsky and her accomplished cast led by Agnes Kittelsen, who plays a mother and unhappy wife who begins a fumbling affair with her next-door neighbor with a winning combination of naiveté and strength.

Rural Norway’s wintry landscapes are not overused as metaphors, and the Blu-ray image  sparkles; no extras.

Hell and Back Again
(Docurama)
This powerhouse documentary--just nominated for an Oscar--tells the story of a U.S. soldier, wounded in Afghanistan, who returns home to be helped by his loving wife. Director Danfung Dennis--a veteran war photographer--has brilliantly photographed the horror of war and the horror of returning home, adroitly crosscutting between the two.

On Blu-ray, Dennis’s photography is splendidly recreated; extras include a Willie Nelson music video, Dennis’s camera primer and deleted scenes.

The Moment of Truth
(Criterion)
Francesco Rosi, one of the greatest obscure directors, made this remarkable 1965 quasi-documentary about bullfighting that’s complete with actual footage of the running of the bulls and violence in the ring. The movie is not for the squeamish, so prepare yourself if the sight of dead animals (and people) bothers you.

Rosi’s extraordinary eye transforms his raw material into a compelling and detailed character study that stars real-life bullfighter Miguel Mateo. The movie’s ultra-realism is perfectly rendered on The Criterion Collection’s grainy transfer; the lone extra is a 14-minute Rosi interview.

The Rake’s Progress
(Opus Arte)
Igor Stravinsky’s blissful 1951 neo-Mozartean opera was revived in 2010 at England’s Glyndebourne Festival, with all its salient virtues in place. Artist David Hockney’s whimsical designs, John Cox’s inventive directing, Miah Persson, Topi Lehtipuu, Matthew Rose and Elena Manistina’s strong singing and Vladimir Jurowski’s sensitive conducting add up to a superlative musical experience.

Hockney’s visuals pop off the screen on Blu-ray; Stravinsky’s music is all-encompassing in surround sound. Extras include backstage featurettes.

Real Steel
(Touchstone/Dreamworks)
This  21st century crowd-pleaser is not only “Rocky with Robots”--as the cover blurb has it--but it’s robots fighting as men outside the ring “punch” as if they’re playing a boxing video game in front of their TV.

This might work as a video game, but a two-hour movie with over-the-top dramatic crescendos and climaxes--with sentimental blackmail in the form of a “tough boy and childish dad” plot--alongside metallic bludgeoning is hard to take. The Blu-ray image is excellent; extras include on-set featurettes, deleted scenes, “second screen” app featuring director Shawn Levy and bloopers.

The Whistleblower
(Fox)
Rachel Weisz’s sturdy portrayal of Kathryn Bolkovac, small-town U.S. cop in Bosnia to help with the inhumanities occurring during the protracted civil war, centers this true story. Well-crafted but ultimately preaching to the choir, the film does little that’s compelling except to show that a) war is bad and b) government bureaucracies are bad.

We knew that coming in, so even if those facts need constant restating, it isn’t enough. The Blu-ray image is solid; the lone extra is a brief interview with the real Bolkovac.

DVDs of the Week
The Bed Sitting Room, Hannibal Brooks, A Small Town in Texas
(MGM)
These three movies are part of the MGM Limited Edition Collection‘s latest release slate. Richard Lester’s absurdist, episodic The Bed Sitting Room (1969), starring Dudley Moore, Spike Mulligan and Peter Cook, has some moments of comic inspiration, while Michael Winner’s Hannibal Brooks (1969) is a bizarre but uninvolvingly war movie starring Olive Reed and an elephant.

A Small Town in Texas (1976) has local flavor and Susan George’s sexy presence, but clichéd writing and directing hurt. The movies look acceptable; there are no extras.

Eclipse Series 31: Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin
(Criterion)
These non-fiction films will come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Jean-Pierre Gorin’s agitprop documentaries he made with Jean-Luc Godard in the late 60s/early 70s. Based in San Diego, Gorin went on to record some remarkable--and remarkably ordinary--lives.

The last of them, 1992’s My Crasy Life, is a rote examination of Samoan gangs, but 1986’s Routine Pleasures provides a memorable forum for critic/painter Manny Farber and model train fanatics, while 1980’s Porto and Cabengo (at 73 minutes, the most succinct of these occasionally incoherent documents) is a fascinating study of six-year-old twins and their supposedly made-up language.

Essential Killing
(Tribeca Film)
Jerzy Skolimowski’s visceral adventure about a Taliban insurgent (Vincent Gallo, in an intensely physical--and mute--performance) who escapes from U.S. clutches is superbly shot and edited but tends to ramble rather pointlessly.

Still, there’s much to admire in the artistry of the film’s often pungent visuals, and Skolimowski’s closing shot--though far too metaphorical--is a beautiful and memorable image. The lone extra is a five-minute Skolimowski interview.

Punished
(Vivendi)
This exciting thriller about a rich father extracting revenge from kidnapers who murdered his daughter flies by with nary a moment to catch one’s breath. Famed action filmmaker Johnnie To is the producer, and director Law Wing Cheong follows his boss’s style with unsparing brutality and a sense of doom that is hanging over every character’s neck.

It’s too bad that, in the final reels, the movie goes off the rails and loses its way. Extras include short on-set featurettes.

CDs of the Week
Schubert: Piano Trios
(Eloquentia and Bridge)
In the last year of his short life (he died at age 31 in 1828), Franz Schubert penned two piano trios that are among his masterpieces. The B-flat major trio is sprightly and effervescent; the E-flat major trio stately and elegant. On the Bridge CD, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio plays these weighty works with finesse, their stylish playing coalescing in the march-like tragic hymn of the E-flat major trio’s second movement.

On the Eloquentia CD, Trio Latitude 41 finds musicality and whimsy within the E-flat major trio’s daunting framework and imposing length. Each ensemble also performs other Schubert chamber works.

January '12 Digital Week III

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 22 January 2012 15:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Blu-rays of the Week
Age of Heroes
(e one)
This crackerjack World War II adventure has a familiar story of heroic soldiers taking risks to defeat Hitler’s army, whose melodramatics take over, especially in the climactic battle scenes. Still, with a swarm of good actors and dazzling location shooting, the movie comes across as authentic, which is enough.

The Blu-ray transfer delivers a solid visual experience; extras include cast and director interviews, deleted scenes, bloopers and bonus footage.

The Black Hills and the Badlands
and The Everglades (Mill Creek)
The awesome and--for now--unspoiled beauty of America’s National Parks is shown on these releases, which showcase the varied terrain and wildlife within two of our most remarkable park areas.

The Black Hills and the Badlands features the distinctive landscapes that have filled visitors with awe for more than a century; The Everglades looks at the subtropical paradise that lives on in the state of Florida. Of course, both of these parks look amazing in hi-def, even if that’s no substitute for actually visiting them.

Carmen
(Teatro Real)
The art of flamenco is displayed in masterly fashion in dance maven Antonio Gades’ and film director Carlos Saura’s stylish production, which is visually reminiscent of classic Spanish painters Goya and Velázquez.

Vanesa Vento is a vivacious and vibrant Carmen, the gypsy whose love for two men leads to her inevitable death; alongside Bizet’s familiar music, there’s much rhythmic flamenco music by various Spanish composers. The entire staging looks spectacular on Blu-ray; the lone extra is a short making-of featurette.

Dead Poets Society and
Good Morning Vietnam (Touchstone)
Two of Robin Williams’ Oscar-nominated performances are the calling card of these hi-def releases: Good Morning Vietnam features “funny Robin” as an outlandish DJ entertaining U.S. troops in Barry Levinson’s slight 1987 comedy; “serious Robin” appears in Dead Poets Society, the much-loved but pretentious 1989 Peter Weir drama.

Both movies look excellent on Blu-ray; Vietnam extras include a production diary and uncut Williams monologues; Poets extras include a retrospective featurette with interviews (no Williams, however), featurettes and commentary featuring Weir, writer Tom Schulman and cinematographer John Seale.

Division III
(Image)
If you’ve ever wanted to see comedian Andy Dick as a hard-nosed, tough-guy college football coach, then here’s your chance. Be warned, however: the negligible movie’s attempts at humor are even less convincing than Dick himself in the lead. The football team’s nickname is the Blue Cocks, and the comedy goes downhill from there.

There’s a good Blu-ray transfer; extras include a Dick and director Marshall Cook commentary, outtakes and deleted scenes.

George Gently, Series 1
(Acorn)
This absorbing crime drama stars a rock-solid Martin Shaw as a hard-bitten London detective (and widower) who begins work in the hardscrabble northeastern part of England during the volatile 60s, and begins butting heads with colleagues as well as criminals. 

With lovely locations and a fine supporting ensemble, George Gently is a must-see for anyone interested in these rapidly proliferating--and mostly superior--British crime series. The Blu-ray image is splendid; no extras.

Traffic
(Criterion)
Steven Soderbergh won a Best Director Oscar for this multi-layered 2000 dramatization of the Herculean task of fighting the drug war: we watch multiple plots about smugglers, users, sellers and law-enforcement officials. A superlative ensemble featuring Michael Douglas, Erika Christensen, Benecio del Toro, Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman give the movie needed realism, but it’s Soderbergh's guiding hand that builds the stories so powerfully.

The color-drenched visual palette can be savored on the Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray; extras include three commentaries, 25 deleted scenes with commentary, unused footage and demonstrations of editing, dialogue editing and film processing.

DVDs of the Week
Bombay Beach
(e one)
Alma Har’el’s fascinating non-fiction study of the dead community now surrounding California’s Salton Sea--which was once a promise of America’s unparalleled greatness in the 1950s--goes beyond the bounds of documentaries.

Her gracefully structured film includes much dance-like movement (choreographed wonderfully by Paula Present) and an eye for details that go a long way toward telling the story of lost souls living their lives far from the American dream. Extras include selected scene commentary, Har’el’s music videos and deleted scenes.

Dirty Girl
(Anchor Bay)
Writer-director Abe Sylvia’s sentimental tale of a sexually confused teenage boy and a sexually promiscuous girl from his high school is shallow and lazy filmmaking. Needless to say, opposites attract, as they help each other out of their varied (and myriad) difficulties. Still, despite the lameness of the humor and 1980s song cues, the movie’s worth watching for the acting of newcomer Jeremy Dozier and Juno Temple, who create an unlikely but lively pair.

Support by Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw and Milla Jovovich also helps, even if Sylvia’s apparently autobiographical portrait remains uninspiring. Extras include Sylvia’s commentary and deleted/extended scenes.

Night and Day
(Zeitgeist/KimStim)
Korean director Hong Sang-soo has made an impressively sober but lightly comic drama about a Korean artist who, after a breakup, goes to Paris without knowing anything of the language and eventually befriends two younger expatriate Korean women.

Leisurely paced at two hours and 24 minutes, Hong’s film nevertheless has a bracing balance of talk and immaculate silences, a remarkable drama that has sympathy, eroticism and insight in abundance.

Special Treatment
(First Run)
In this not very interesting S&M drama by director Jeanne Labrune, Isabelle Huppert plays a high-class call girl whose professional life has an emotional wrench thrown into it when she begins an offbeat relationship with her psychotherapist.

That their professions are, in some ways, similar gives the movie its singular kick, but Labrune does very little with what could have been a probing psychological study. Even Huppert, who gives it her all, cannot overcome the thinness of the premise and its lack of resolution.

CD of the Week
Beatlesmania
(Naive)
Although the Beatles’ songs never received better performances than their own, there are many superb cover versions, and this two-disc set from France compiles some of them on the first disc: classic renditions like Stevie Wonder’s “We Can Work It Out,” Earth Wind & Fire’s “Got to Get You into My Life,” Ella Fitzgerald’s “Can’t Buy Me Love” and Al Green’s “I Want to Hold Your Hand” are wonderful interpretations.

The second disc, however, comprises newer takes on the Beatles’ catalog by 20 artists whose techno versions sound similar--but inferior--to Paul McCartney’s own forays into experimental electronica. If nothing else, hearing Tamara Kaboutchek’s “Sun King,” Studio Paradise’s “I Am the Walrus” or others shows that, even if their covers are unmemorable, the Fab Four’s musical influence is widespread and enduring.