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Theater Review: Bed Tricks in Central Park
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Saturday, 02 July 2011 10:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
All’s Well That Ends Well
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Daniel Sullivan
Starring Kristen Connolly, John Cullum, Carson Elrod, Michael Hayden, Andre Holland, Dakin Matthews, Annie Parisse, Lorenzo Pisoni, Reg Rogers
Measure for Measure
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by David Esbjornson
Starring John Cullum, Carson Elrod, Danai Gurira, Michael Hayden, Andre Holland, Dakin Matthews, Annie Parisse, Lorenzo Pisoni, Reg Rogers
The "bed trick," in which Shakespeare asked his audiences to suspend their disbelief even more than usual, is the obvious connection between the two plays in Central Park this summer.
But whereas All’s Well That Ends Well is among the Bard’s bumpiest rides, Measure for Measure may be his most cynically brilliant dissection of relationships. Both comedies end in forced marriages, but whereas the end couplings of All’s Well are nominally happy, those paraded onstage at the end of Measure are tenuous at best.
Typically for Central Park, these stagings are a grab-bag of good and less able actors fighting it out for Delacorte Theater supremacy, with each director contributing ready-made visual intrusions to give audiences what they pay for.
Daniel Sullivan’s All’s Well has a stateliness that works in the scenes between the heroine Helena and her protector, the Countess of Rousillion, along with the ailing King of France, but less well with her beloved Bertram (who loathes her) and his cowardly sycophant Parolles (who gets his).
David Esbjornson’s Measure, by contrast, begins with black-clad and horned extras wearing devil’s masks who are haunting Vincentio, Duke of Vienna, and apparently prompt him to leave his city, which is becoming morally corrupt.
The broad comedy subplot of All’s Well, which brings Parolles to his knees, is overdone by Sullivan, who allows Reg Rogers to mug shamelessly -- as does Esbjornson, who lets Rogers play Measure’s Lucio as Parolles’ campy double. That Rogers gets big laughs in both roles is disheartening.
Sullivan’s mostly sensible directing of All’s Well is helped by Tom Kitt’s subtle chamber music, Jane Greenwood’s appropriate costumes and Peter Kaczorowski’s elegant lighting.
Too bad Measure never balances the inherent difficulties in one of Shakespeare’s most problematic plays. Esbjornson goes for dramatic shortcuts by repeatedly bringing his horned demons back, while John Gromada’s kitschy horror-movie score and Elizabeth Hope Clancy’s nondescript costumes are no match for Kaczorowski’s stark lighting.
Like last summer, performers are in both productions, except for Danai Gurira, who plays Measure’s heroine Isabella with little gracefulness or charm, and who (like Katharine Waterston in a 
Measure directed by Arin Arbus) speaks in a dully one-note manner. Carson Ellrod shows Reg Rogers that it’s possible to overdo comic parts correctly, as his Interpreter in All’s Well and Pompey in Measure happily reveal. (The night I attended, Ellrod humorously engaged in mock-hero worship of audience member Bill Irwin.)
Vet John Cullum makes a regal King in All’s Well and a dignified Escalus in Measure. The accomplished Annie Parisse decently enacts All’s Well’s Helena and Measure’s Mariana.
Michael Hayden and Lorenzo Pisoni impress as the King’s sons in All’s Well and Hayden brings a welcome gravity to Measure’s villainous hypocrite Alberto. Pisoni fails to make that play’s Duke (in and out of disguise as a friar) believably complex.
And too bad Andre Holland does little with pivotal parts, All’s Well’s Bertram and Measure’s Claudio. Reliable Dakin Matthews makes the most of his supporting roles.
While neither production takes the full measure of Shakespeare, for many in the audience a beautiful summer night under the stars at the Delacorte is usually enough.
Shakespeare in the Park
Delacorte Theatre, Central Park
New York, NY
shakespeareinthepark.org
All’s Well That Ends Well
Opened June 25; closes July 27, 2011
Measure for Measure
Opened June 30; closes July 30, 2011
Film Review: Cristi Ruiu's "Aurora"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 30 June 2011 05:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Aurora
Directed & written by Cristi Puiu
Starring Cristi Puiu
In 2005, Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu helped introduce the new Romanian film renaissance to North America. With its excruciatingly long takes of an the elderly protagonist dying by degrees in real time in Bucharest, Lazarescu established Puiu as a director of uncommon power and wit.
But the slow accumulation of ordinary events that gradually reveal the inner workings of brutish Bucharest society, which worked in spades in Lazarescu, doesn’t work at all in Puiu’s new film Aurora.
For three hours, the antisocial protagonist (played by the taciturn director himself) goes about his menial business in real time, meeting but rarely connecting with other characters that include his former in-laws, his ex-wife’s notary, gun shop employees and his young daughter.
An hour into the film, a murder is committed, and Puiu’s movie becomes quite risible after that, ending with an extended police station scene that seems a nod to the equally specious film Police Adjective by Puiu’s fellow Romanian Corneliu Porumboiu.
It is daring of Puiu to choose mundane subjects with which to develop his singular style. (There are apparently four more films on the way, all snippets of life in Bucharest.) His long takes, occasionally interrupted by startling cuts, can either mesmerize or put a viewer into a stupor: Lazarescu did the former, Aurora the latter.
I’m still replaying images from Puiu’s first film in my mind, dealing as it did with a literal life-and-death situation. However, I’ve almost completely forgotten Aurora a mere 24 hours later: what was immediate, honest and grippingly real in the first film has become gimmicky and tendentious.
But Puiu is a talent worth watching -- he has a .500 batting average after two cinematic experiments. Let’s see where his next film leads him…and us.
Film Review: "Larry Crowne"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 30 June 2011 05:00
- Written by Lloyd Carroll
Larry Crowne
Directed by Tom Hanks
Written by Tom Hanks, Nia Vardalos
Starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Cedric the Entertainer, Rob Riggle
Larry Crowne purports to be another film that reflects the tough economic times that all too many Americans are facing. While it’s an innocuous way to spend 90 minutes, it is certainly no Up in the Air.
The titular character, Larry Crowne, is a hardworking team leader at a San Fernando Valley U-Mart, a big chain retailer modeled after you-know-what. Despite being well-like by colleagues and having been named “employee of the month” eight times, Larry is called into a meeting with store executives and told that he is being let go because he lacks a college degree.
While the film says that Larry is a victim of downsizing, it seems that he is instead hurt by a new, sudden “up or out” philosophy at the store: without the sheepskin, he can never be promoted.
So after pounding the pavement and discovering that it is hard to find a decent paying job when you are over 50 -- even if you unexpectedly lose your previous one -- Larry decides to enroll in fictional East Valley Community College in the hopes that it will lead to a better economic future for him.
Rather than be told to enroll in technical classes, such as accounting or computer networking, he is told by a liberal arts-oriented dean to take Speech, Composition (although we never see him in that class) and Economics 101.
(Based on my experience, the only thing that matters in Economics is supply and demand, while everything else is used just to fill up textbooks.)
Larry’s speech professor, Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts), is a bitter burnout whose favorite activity at home is breaking out the blender and downing one margarita after another. She is married to a failing writer who spends his days surfing the web for new porn sites. It is only a matter of time until she finds herself attracted to salt-of-the-earth Larry.
Larry Crowne had the ingredients to be a good film, but it is unfortunate that it loses its focus rather early. We are supposed to believe that AARP member Larry would be sought out by a group of young, mostly Hispanic, motorcycle riders to be their newest member.
To be fair, in a refreshing change of pace, motorcycle enthusiasts are portrayed as upstanding citizens instead of criminal gang members. The film also points out the great gas mileage motorcycles get.
The notion that Roberts’ character, an aspiring Medieval English scholar, would embark on a romance with Hanks, a part-time short order cook who is now a full-time student where she teaches, is rather far-fetched, even for romantic comedies.
One positive for the film is its supporting cast. Cedric the Entertainer nearly steals the film as Larry’s next door neighbor who is always having a flea market on his lawn. He enjoys the haggling far more than the actual selling.
The always welcome Rob Riggle is hysterical as a blowhard U-Mart executive who gets his comeuppance.
Larry Crowne is not an awful film. It just should have been a lot better.
Cinefantastique Spotlight Podcast: Cars 2
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 27 June 2011 13:30
- Written by Daniel Persons
Kids love cars, and kids love Cars-- that seems to be the calculation behind Pixar's latest animated offering, Cars 2. Abandoning the original film's theme that celebrated the romance of exploring off-the-beaten-superhighway U.S, director John Lasseter and crew have devised an espionage plotline for this sequel, with cocky race car Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and kids'-fave country-bumpkin tow-truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy, a.k.a. Daniel Lawrence Whitney) embarking on a whirlwind world tour to compete in an international racing competition, and finding themselves dragooned into a deadly conspiracy being battled by suave super spy Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and his sexy (check out those steel-belted radials!) partner Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer). With beautifully crafted settings and numerous, exquisitely choreographed action sequences, does Cars 2 overcome the problems found in the first installment, a film that many feel is Pixar's weakest effort? Join Cinefantastique Online's Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons as they examine the movie.
Also in this episode: Steve offers his thoughts on Woody Allen's hit fantasy/comedy, Midnight in Paris, Dan discusses the level of human misery he'll inflict for the sake of saving a few lousy bucks, and the gang discusses the inscrutable artistry of Michael Bay.
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