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Reviews
Broadway Play Review—“Job” with Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 15 August 2024 18:27
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Job
Written by Max Wolf Friedlich; directed by Michael Herwitz
Performances through September 29, 2024
Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street, New York, NY
jobtheplay.com
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| Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon in Job (photo: Emilio Madrid) |
Max Wolf Friedlich’s two-hander Job opens with a bang, as Jane, an obviously rattled young woman, is pointing a gun at Loyd, the middle-aged man who’s her therapist. After some back-and-forth, Loyd is able to talk Jane down and she puts the gun in her purse, where it remains for most of the play while they engage in a sort of cat-and-mouse dialogue. We gradually discover who they really are—or do we?
It turns out that Jane lost her job at a tech firm after a public meltdown filmed by her colleagues went viral; she is meeting Loyd as a condition for reinstatement, if he gives her the green light to return. Loyd is the model of therapist decorum, a former hippie who’s become respectable; he’s certainly sympathetic to Jane’s plight. Conversely, Jane is, understandably, jittery, worried and ever more frantic—and Job is at its cleverest when it reveals, by degrees, how she’s arrived at this state. There is some amusing repartee about the generation gap between the 20ish Jane and 60ish Loyd as well as discussion of the unfortunate proliferation of technology in all of our lives.
But despite Friedlich’s cleverness, Job remains pretty thin gruel. Both characters come off as chess pieces being moved around the board: neither is fully developed and their conversations are heavily loaded with dramatic irony, especially as we arrive at the final twist, which is unsettling to be sure, linking Loyd with the horrible videos that Jane must watch day after day as a content moderator—their grossness overwhelmingly led to her breakdown. But that gimmicky twist also overwhelms what the play is trying to say but never delves too deeply or insightfully into. It’s as if Friedlich started with his appalling reveal and built a skeleton of a story to surround it, however shakily.
Job does contain two tremendous performances: Peter Friedman (as the always professional Loyd) and Jack Lemmon’s granddaughter Sydney Lemmon (as the frenzied Jane) are brilliant sparring partners who make Job an 80-minute demonstration of superlative acting. Director Michael Herwitz’s staging, on Scott Penner’s appropriately claustrophobic set, nimbly echoes Jane’s state of mind through Cody Spencer’s expressively spectral sound design and Mextly Couzin’s artfully disjointed lighting, letting us briefly wonder whether what we are witnessing is real.
When all is said and done, though, Job is a mere shaggy-gun story.
National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America PLay Carnegie Hall
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 07 August 2024 09:02
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Photo by Chris Lee
At Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium on the evening of Monday, August 5th, I had the exceptional privilege to attend a fabulous concert—as part of World Orchestra Week—featuring the superb and precocious members of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America—along with musicians from the Polyphony Ensemble—under the stellar direction of the eminent Marin Alsop.
The event began marvelously with an exciting account of Samuel Barber’s excellent and undervalued Symphony No. 1, Op. 9, which bears the unmistakable imprint of that extraordinary composer, who provided this program note for the work’s New York premiere:
The form of my Symphony in One Movement is a synthetic treatment of the four-movement classical symphony. It is based on three themes of the initial Allegro non troppo, which retain throughout the work their fundamental character. The Allegro opens with the usual exposition of a main theme, a more lyrical second theme, and a closing theme. After a brief development of the three themes, instead of the customary recapitulation, the first theme in diminution forms the basis of a scherzo section (Vivace). The second theme (oboe over muted strings) then appears in augmentation, in an extended Andante tranquillo. An intense crescendo introduces the finale, which is a short passacaglia based on the first theme (introduced by the violoncelli and contrabassi), over which, together with figures from other themes, the closing theme is woven, thus serving as a recapitulation for the entire symphony.
The opening movement is variegated in character, alternately intense and subdued, while the second possesses a relative and not unexpected levity, if with some agonistic moments. The loveliest component of the score is the lyrical third movement, which is slightly reminiscent of the orchestral music of Jean Sibelius and reaches a powerful climax—and the finale too builds to a forceful conclusion.
The renowned soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet then entered the stage to brilliantly perform George Gershwin’s jazzy, exhilarating Rhapsody in Blue from 1924, orchestrated by Ferde Grofé—this rendition was sparkling, dazzling and unusually lucid. Enthusiastic applause elicited a delightful encore: Victory Stride by James P. Johnson—the author of the “Charleston”—arranged by Nicholas Hersh.
The second half of the concert was even more remarkable: a mesmerizing version of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s enthralling Scheherazade, Op. 35, from 1888. The first movement, titled The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship and marked Largo e maestoso, is stirring and enchanting, while in the succeeding Andantino, The Legend of the Calendar Prince, the exquisite melodies evoke the Orient. The wistful third movement—The Young Prince and the Young Princess, an Andantino quasi allegretto—is somewhat playful at times, and the Allegro molto finale is propulsive and exuberant, although it closes quietly and mysteriously. Another rapturous ovation was rewarded with a second wonderful encore, a new piece by Laura Karpman entitled Swing.
August '24 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 07 August 2024 01:04
- Written by Kevin Filipski
In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week
The Beautiful Summer
(Film Movement)
Director/co-writer Laura Luchetti’s empathetic and sensitive coming-of-age saga follows the introspective 17-year-old Ginia (played, in a starmaking turn, by the terrific Yile Yara Vianello), who is simultaneously confused and excited by her attraction to Amelia (persuasively embodied by Deva Cassel, daughter of Italian actress Monica Bellucci and French actor Vincent Cassel), who’s a headstrong model for local artists.
With a 1938 Turin setting that is both evocative and quietly chilling—Il Duce Mussolini’s fascists are hovering in the background—Luchetti’s gorgeously realized feature was one of the happiest surprises of this year’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema series at New York’s Film at Lincoln Center in June.
(Abramorama)
The creation of Electric Lady Studios—immortalized on Jimi Hendrix’s classic album Electric Ladyland—is the subject of John McDermott’s entertaining documentary, which lands us in late ’60s Greenwich Village alongside Hendrix’s legendary engineer-producer, Eddie Kramer, and others involved in the planning, construction and running of the first artist-owned music facility in rock.
Hendrix music is generously played and the talking heads (which include John Storyk, the studios’ architect; and two of Jimi’s band members, Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox) are chatty and revealing in this valuable chronicle of an indispensable music studio, later populated by the likes of John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie and the Clash.
Modernism, Inc.
(First Run)
Director Jason Cohn’s enlightening account that explores how architect Eliot Noyes transformed American design in the mid-20th century smartly condenses a knotted history of design into something digestible, spirited, but never dumbed down.
Fond remembrances and paeans from his family members, colleagues and historians blend with well-chosen vintage footage to present this nuanced portrait of Noyes’ ongoing importance to contemporary design, from his playful but norm-shattering designs for IBM and Mobil to his family’s unique home.
(Submarine Deluxe)
Although this documentary’s stated aims are lofty, even necessary—simulating a possible insurrection on January 6, 2025, four years after the real-life attempted coup to overturn a lawful presidential election, with many actual politicians and government insiders playing a fictional presidential cabinet and advisors—what we’re actually watching ends up less than the sum of its parts.
Directors Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber turn this plausible doomsday scenario into an effective if derivative pulse-pounding thriller, but the reality of what happened on January 6, 2021 is still too raw to make this well-intentioned cautionary tale more than an intriguing but manipulative curio. The best moments are unfiltered comments by real veterans Chris Jones, Kris Goldsmith and Janessa Goldbeck (CEO of VetVoice, which originated the staging of this scenario), who emotionally discuss how imperative saving democracy is. More of their reality and less of the actual war game would have made this a more powerful—though, admittedly, entirely different—film.
Blu-ray Release of the Week
June Zero
(Cohen Media)
In Jake Paltrow’s accomplished anthology feature, which tells the fragmented stories of several ordinary people on the periphery of the 1962 execution of Nazi Adolf Eichmann (which occurred just after midnight on June 1, hence the film’s title), is burnished by intelligence and sympathy.
The three tales, which move from humor to horror, are followed by a bittersweet epilogue, as Paltrow takes the measure of a young nation grappling with shared traumas that nevertheless leave room for triumph over tragedy. Paltrow’s 16mm images look quite striking on Blu-ray; too bad there’s no interview or commentary that contextualizes this complex historical drama.
Gerhard—Don Quixote (Complete Ballet)
(Chandos)
Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970) isn’t as well-known as fellow Catalan composers Xavier Montsalvatge and Federico Mompou, but his music is just as original, especially in his melding of popular and classical forms with a more rigid 12-tone method. His delightful zarzuela/operetta, The Duenna, might be the best example, but his other stage works have the same captivating variety. The works on this disc all originated in the 1940s, after Gerhard left his beloved Spain following the civil war and settled in England.
There’s the attractive suite for the ballet Allegrias as well as the complete ballet Don Quixote, one of Gerhard’s most enchanting and gorgeous scores. Rounding out this recording is Pedrelliana, originally written in 1941 but revised 13 years later; it’s a heartfelt memorial to Gerhard’s beloved teacher Felipe Pedrell. Juanjo Mena leads the BBC Orchestra in vigorous renditions of this often exuberant music.
July '24 Digital Week IV
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 31 July 2024 22:46
- Written by Kevin Filipski
In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week
The Bohemian
(Music Box)
Czech writer-director Petr Václav’s absorbing biopic introduces Josef Mysliveček, a late 18th-century, Prague-born composer who was much sought-after throughout Europe for his operas and vocal music. He reportedly inspired Mozart, and the film includes a marvelous sequence of Mysliveček meeting and discussing music with the young prodigy; it also shows how Mysliveček’s prodigious appetite for women could have been a factor in his premature death at age 43: he got a serious case of syphilis and had his nose disfigured by an inept doctor.
Vojtěch Dyk’s towering portrayal of Mysliveček is buttressed by a large and talented supporting cast led by Italian actress Barbara Ronchi (also in Marco Bellocchio’s latest masterpiece, Kidnapped) as one of Mysliveček’s vocal collaborators.
(Neon)
This ungodly mashup of The Silence of the Lamb and the Swedish TV series The Bridge stars Maika Monroe as an autistic, and possibly clairvoyant, FBI agent tracking a serial killer who has ties to her and her family. Writer-director Osgood Perkins’ artful-looking thriller relies too much on jump scares (and jump non-scares) as well as redundant flashbacks made more enervating by being in a different aspect ratio. Monroe’s persuasive performance is nonetheless hampered by Perkins, whose opening sequence allows this supposedly smart character to make the first of several stupid decisions.
As the title character, Nicolas Cage seems to have been directed with a cattle prod, giving a hammier performance than usual; Longlegs might have been more resonant if Longlegs himself was excised from the meandering narrative.
Sleep No More
(Iris Indy Intl)
This 2014 crime drama by Antonia Bogdanovich—daughter of hit-or-miss Peter Bogdanovich—has been reedited to create a director’s cut that still remains nondescript. The relationship between a neglectful father and his two battered sons is the main throughline, with other shady characters and an unlikely femme fatale hovering around but adding up to very little.
It’s as if Bogdanovich highlighted her plot’s lesser aspects: instead of showing the youngest son’s reciting Shakespeare while his older brother pickpockets spectators multiple times, the budding—and more interestingly oedipal—relationship between the oldest son and a friend’s lonely and available mother deserves more screen time. The fine cast features a terrific Rebecca Romijn as the mom, but nothing hits with any real dramatic force.
The Fall Guy
(Universal)
If you thought that pairing Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt—both Oscar nominated for their supporting performances in last summer’s Barbie and Oppenheimer, respectively—would be irresistible, then David Leitch’s overblown action comedy will dissuade you of that notion.
There’s a bit of fun early on, but the pointless action scenes pile up in mind-numbing fashion, especially in the interminable 146-minute extended cut. Gosling is always game, but Blunt seems out of her element (her best moment finds her singing karaoke to “Against All Odds,” a very low bar); the stunt men are unsurprisingly spectacular, but it all adds up to a noisy misfire. The 4K image looks impressive; extras include a gag reel, making-of featurettes, extended scenes, and Leitch’s and producer Kelly McCormick’s commentary on both cuts.
Blu-ray Releases of the Week
Back to Black
(Universal)
Sam Taylor-Johnson, who made the intriguing misfire Nowhere Boy about John Lennon’s teenage years, has now done the same with this biopic about Amy Winehouse, the talented British singer who lost her battle to the demons of fame, alcohol and drugs at age 27 (joining the so-called “27 Club,” populated by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain).
Matt Greenhalgh’s by-the-numbers script follows Amy from teen obscurity to stardom, while Taylor-Johnson’s generally competent direction rightly focuses on her songs—yet it never coheres dramatically, with even the final, desperate scenes coming off mechanically. Lesley Manville (Amy’s nan), Eddie Marsan (her dad) and Jack O’Connell (her husband) acquit themselves well, but it’s Marisa Aleba who makes this rote portrait watchable with a thrilling performance that’s less an impersonation than a deeply-felt immersion. There’s a good hi-def transfer; extras comprise Taylor-Johnson’s commentary and on-set featurettes.
(Well Go USA)
When 12-year-old Charlotte’s pet spider Sting (of course she names it that!) reaches monstrous, human-eating proportions, writer-director Kiah Roache-Turner decides that his only mission is to use the general squeamishness of viewers to arachnids to try and scare the hell out of his audience, overt ridiculousness be damned.
Taking place in the claustrophobic rooms of an apartment building, it’s minimally effective, although it’s stretched out far beyond its meager means before its 90 minutes are up. There’s an excellent hi-def transfer; extras are making-of featurettes and interviews.
CD Release of the Week
Meyerbeer—Le prophète
(LSO Live)
The grand operas of German composer Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) held stages for decades after his death but have since fallen out of favor for reasons including the massive cost to produce such spectacles and a sense that his style was retrograde (anti-Semitic screeds by noted bigot Richard Wagner didn’t help). But there are signs this might be changing. At Bard Summerscape, Leon Botstein leads an elaborate production through August 4 of this five-act 1849 opera about an innkeeper who becomes a radical Christian prophet, which leads to a fiery, tragic climax.
And this accomplished performance from last summer’s Aix Festival in France is well-paced by conductor Mark Elder, beautifully performed by the London Symphony and Mediterranean Youth orchestras, Maîtrise des Bouches-du-Rhône and Lyon Opera Chorus, and impressively sung by a cast that’s led by John Osborn (Jean de Leyde), Elizabeth DeShong (Fidès) and Mané Galoyan (Berthe). The three-SACD recording gives listeners a thrilling intro to Meyerbeer’s epically-scaled music drama.
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