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Reviews
Director Simon Curtis Says Hello To “Goodbye Christopher Robin”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 27 November 2017 22:28
- Written by Brad Balfour
Director: Simon Curtis
Writers: Frank Cottrell Boyce, Simon Vaughan
Stars: Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Kelly Macdonald
Everybody in the western world, and maybe beyond it, knows the lovable children’s character Winnie the Pooh — the gentlest of gentle creatures, the one who lets kids know that through it all, there’s one figure who always represents innocence and the light.
The Winnie the Pooh stories were inspired by father’s appreciation of his son as he grew up. The Dad in this case was noted playwright A. A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) who learns to connect with his son Christopher Robin at a time when men did little to connect with their offspring besides being the dominant provider. In Director Simon Curtis’ film “Goodbye Christopher Robin” he offers a glimpse into this relationship as the elder Milne transitions from shell-shocked writer-turn-war-veteran to country squire to loving father to celebrated children’s book author.
Along with mother Daphne (Margot Robbie) and nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald), son Christopher Robin lives at first, an isolated life in their home near the countryside far from the hustle and bustle of London. Then, thanks to the success of dad’s stories of these imagined characters from based on his childhood toys, Christopher Robin becomes a high-profile celebrity as the magical world of Pooh becomes an international phenomenon
He and his family are swept up in the international success of the books; the enchanting tales provide hope and comfort to England after the crushing devastation of World War One but with all the attention focused on Christopher Robin, the cost on the family was profound as he became one of the world’s first media darlings.
This film offers a set of balanced performances by this quartet of characters (with several actors playing Christopher Robin at various ages). Mother and child and father and nanny pirouette throughout the course of the story outlined here. The weight of this film rest on actor Domhnall Gleeson whose performance as Milne provided insight into a man who learned how to be a father while making his share of mistakes along the way.
Director Curtis has an uncanny way of finding the story beyond the narrative as he did in “My Week With Marilyn” where he drew out a subtle performance from Eddie Redmayne as well. In fact, both films address the toxic effect fame can have on people not exactly equipped to handle it. Though this film seemed overshadowed by other films set in 20th Century England, this one shouldn’t be overlooked.
Off-Broadway Review—Billy Crudup in “Harry Clarke”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 27 November 2017 20:49
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Harry Clarke
Written by David Cale; directed by Leigh Silverman
Performances through December 10, 2017
Vineyard Theatre, 108 East 15th Street, New York, NY
vineyardtheatre.org
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Billy Crudup in Harry Clarke (photo: Carol Rosegg) |
One of our most accomplished stage actors, Billy Crudup delivers a tour de force performance in Harry Clarke, a solo play by David Cale. Crudup effortlessly portrays Philip Brugglestein, an American who takes on the identity of a Britisher he names Harry Clarke to escape his small-town Midwest upbringing and moves to Manhattan, where he meets Mark Schmidt, a strapping young WASP from Connecticut, and his heavy-drinking family—all of whom he dupes into believing that “Harry” was once pop singer Sade’s personal assistant. He soon beds Mark, Mark’s sister Stephanie, and even their mother Ruth, making his own life (as Philip and Harry) complicated indeed.
The conceit of Cale’s clever if misogynistic and ultimately misanthropic one-acter is that the actor is onstage alone for entire 80 minutes, not only speaking as Philip but also as Harry, whose voice fluctuates between a standard (to American ears) British accent and more outlandish Cockney one. He also speaks the parts of Mark, Stephanie and Ruth, among others.
The glory of Crudup’s bravura acting is his shifting gears among all of these differing and at times competing accents while narrating this initially amusing then deeply troubling story about how this nondescript kid from Indiana fooled several people—including himself—into thinking him a big shot from London, a place that Philip has never been to. (Crudup even credibly sings a couple of Cale’s sly songs.)
Crudup, who from his first Broadway forays (in the original production of Arcadia and opposite Mary Louise Parker in Bus Stop) has been a talent to be reckoned with, has gone from strength to strength onstage, from Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia and Arcadia revival to Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
But his prestidigitation in Harry Clarke, juggling so many different accents and, even more impressively, disparate characterizations, is what makes this flawed play—disturbing in its implications of how a man can so cavalierly ignore others’ well-being, whether his lover or his lover’s vulnerable sister or even more vulnerable mother—worth attending.
Harry Clarke
Vineyard Theatre, 108 East 15th Street, New York, NY
vineyardtheatre.org
Amazing Acting and Directing Seen In “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 27 November 2017 19:27
- Written by Brad Balfour
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Director/Writer: Martin McDonagh
Starring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, John Hawkes, Peter Dinklage
In “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” a mother, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), doesn’t merely grieve for her daughter who was raped and murdered in a particularly grisly way, she takes action. She has felt that the local police have done little to solve the crime, so she issues her own public complaint in a particularly dramatic way — by buying space on three billboards outside her home, demonstratively declaring the local sheriff’s incompetence.
Her response is not unlike the firestorm hitting the media nowadays as certain powerful men are being accused of sexual assault, harassment and cover ups. One only wonders how many of these stories would have come to the light if one of those affected had said something sooner or as demonstratively as does Mildred Hayes. One wonders what would have happened if these victims had been paid attention to rather than see their accusations swept under the rug or paid off.
The frustration Hayes feels is like that of today — and then she takes action. This sets off a series of reactions on the part of both law enforcement and the locals which was not unexpected but was also painful for her and her family.
The townspeople, are upset over the billboards’ content, particularly Sheriff Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) and incompetent, racist officer Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell). Many people also find the signs in bad taste considering that Willoughby suffers from terminal pancreatic cancer. Soon after the billboards are put up, Mildred and her depressed son Robbie (Lucas Hedges) are harassed and threatened, but Mildred stays firm, much to Robbie’s chagrin.
A cascading series of events tumble down until Mildred surprisingly joins forces with enervated former officer Dixon to track down the perpetrator or someone else who has assaulted women as well.
An internationally recognized playwright and occasional film director, Martin McDonagh skillfully toys with emotions and possible outcomes in order to force an audiences to allay their expectations. He did some thing of the same with his previous film, “In Bruges” where he humorously stood expectations on their head.
If any film that’s come out this season turns simple, raw emotions like rage and frustration into a deep psychological essay, then it’s this one. But none of it could have happened without the director’s partnership with such a unique set of actors. The core acting trio which exudes the film’s glue — McDormand, Harrelson and Rockwell — emotionally inhabit their characters so successfully that they deeply engage audiences. If any film warrants a crop of award noms, it’s this one.
Actor Liam Neeson Inhabits “Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 27 November 2017 17:45
- Written by Brad Balfour
Director/writer Peter Landesman
Starring Liam Neeson, Diane Lane, Marton Csokas, Ike Barinholtz, Tony Goldwyn, Tom Sizemore, Bruce Greenwood, Michael C. Hall, Brian d'Arcy James, Josh Lucas, Eddie Marsan, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Maika Monroe
We all should remember the Watergate break-in and its connection to the Nixon White House. The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did the expose to discover who was behind it and that led to bringing down Richard Nixon and his White House for multiple nefarious abuses of power.
None of that would have been possible had not FBI agent Mark Felt given secret information to these investigators because he believed that the President had betrayed his country’s trust in order to serve his own interests over those of the United States.
In “Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House” veteran award-winning actor Liam Neeson assumes Felt’s persona in order to establish with audiences just how deeply Felt resented Nixon’s actions and what it took for him to take the steps he took.
Directed and written by Peter Landesman, this 2017 biographical tale plays out like a spy thriller but is based on the 2006 autobiography of Felt’s, written with John O'Connor. Felt became "Deep Throat" —the Post reporters’ anonymous source — and his revelations and tips pushed forward their investigation which not only led them to the exposing the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s downfall but changed the course of politics in the ‘70s.
Without histrionics or melodrama, Neeson portrays a man who has had a grip on incredible power only to see it disappear once his mentor, the fearsome FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, dies. The film is both a dissection of a thundering historical event and a deft character study of man who understood how the levers of power worked — or didn’t.
Bolstered by an all-star supporting cast of Diane Lane, Tony Goldwyn, and Maika Monroe, this is a smoothly directed, informative film that has been overshadowed by a plethora of films addressing past events which now have a fresh relevance.
