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Reviews
Off-Broadway Review—Horton Foote's “The Roads to Home”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 13 October 2016 13:15
- Written by Kevin Filipski
The Roads to Home
Written by Horton Foote; directed by Michael Wilson
Performances through November 27, 2016
Primary Stages, Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street, New York, NY
primarystages.org
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| Harriet Harris, Rebecca Brooksher and Hallie Foote in The Roads to Home (photo: Jamez Leynse) |
In Horton Foote’s The Roads to Home, three interlinked one-act plays trod ground familiar to anyone who’s seen his work: there are fractured relationships and shifting family dynamics aplenty, along with the possibility (however slight) of starting anew. The trio of women at the heart of this play set in the 1920s—two middle-aged wives who are next-door neighbors, Mabel and Vonnie; and a younger woman from their Houston neighborhood, Annie—are quintessential Foote characters, with Mabel yearning for the sentimental comfort of hometown Harrison, Vonnie worried that her own husband is cheating on her, and younger Annie becoming dangerously unstable.
The first scene, A Nightingale, is set in Mabel’s house, as she and Vonnie await Annie, who visits every day rather than stay with her own children—her husband has to leave his office to retrieve her. Scene two, The Dearest of Friends, set six months later, finds Mabel comforting Vonnie, who believes her husband is having an affair. Both women’s spouses also appear, and Foote’s dialogue skirts farce as the disconnect between both couples is made apparent. Finally, the third scene, Spring Dance—set four years later in Austin—reintroduces Annie (she wasn’t in the second scene) at what turns out to be an asylum, where she was sent by her husband years earlier.
In his typically thoughtful manner, Foote paints brutally honest portraits of these women—and their men—which become quite moving by play’s end, especially when one realizes that the “home” of the title remains an unreachable destination, whichever road they find themselves on.
Michael Wilson directs sympathetically, and his cast is magisterial. Harriet Harris finds the humor beneath Vonnie’s heartbreak, Rebecca Brooksher makes Annie and her plight simply heartbreaking, and Devon Abner and Matt Sullivan provide needed laughs as Mabel and Vonnie’s slightly ridiculous husbands. And, as Mabel, Hallie Foote—the playwright’s daughter and most esteemed interpreter (she played Annie in a 1992 off-Broadway revival)—perfectly balances the playfulness, pathos and poetry in her father’s distinctive dialogue.
The Roads to Home
Primary Stages, Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street, New York, NY
primarystages.org
October '16 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 11 October 2016 19:29
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Les Cowboys
(Cohen Media)
In screenwriter Thomas Bidegain’s auspicious directorial debut, a teenager girl’s disappearance takes over the lives of her father and younger brother, disrupting and changing everyone along the way.
Loosely based on John Ford’s The Searchers, Bidegain’s drama has built-in contrivances, but it’s done so compellingly and acted so powerfully that the film’s denouement—showing the young woman’s ultimate fate—is a slow-burning stunner. There’s a superlative hi-def transfer; lone extra is a making-of featurette.
(Cohen Media)
Benoit Jacquot directs the latest adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s classic novel about a young woman who works as chambermaid for a wealthy provincial family and must balance her professional and personal lives.
For once, Jacquot’s sledgehammer directing doesn’t go against his material and he smartly casts in the lead Lea Seydoux, who—like Jeanne Moreau and Paulette Goddard before her in the earlier Luis Bunuel and Jean Renoir versions—makes criticism seem like carping, so effortlessly does she make the title character three-dimensional. The film looks ravishing on Blu; lone extra is a making-of featurette.
The Last King
(Magnet)
A complicated web of deceit is dramatized in this fast-paced thriller by director Nils Gaup, who brings a sense of immediacy and excitement to this true story of an infant, next in line for the throne, being protected from his many enemies.
Of course, at 100 minutes, the film simplifies and the real complexities involved, but it’s still a fun ride. The film looks sumptuous on Blu; extras are interview with lead actor and music video.
(Warner Bros)
Director David Yates’ reboot of Tarzan takes place years after the tale everyone knows: Tarzan and wife Jane leave civilized life in London to return to Africa, where they are confronted by more criminals.
As far as it goes, it’s not completely imbecile, with a nice balance of action, 3-D and a delightfully feisty Margot Robbie as Jane. Alexander Skarsgard’s Tarzan is adequate but doesn’t have enough to do: less time spent on Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz’s supporting antics would have helped. The Blu-ray image is sharp and clear; extras comprise several featurettes.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
(Warner Archive)
In Clint Eastwood’s turgid 1997 adaptation of John Berendt’s colorful best-seller about a real-life killing among Savannah’s upper-crust renders them as cartoons, especially Kevin Spacey’s campy protagonist who shoots a guest at one of his own lavish parties.
John Cusack’s lackadaisical outsider, a reporter working on a story about the town’s checkered history who falls into a big murder story, seems out of his element, as does Eastwood himself: although a few sequences come off fairly well, best is a solid supporting cast that includes Jack Thompson and Jude Law. The film looks good on Blu; lone extra is a 20-minute behind the scenes featurette.
On Dangerous Ground
(Warner Archive)
This gritty 1952 film noir about a brutalizing cop and the blind young woman who turns his world upside down was directed with vigor by Nicolas Ray and features a pulsating Bernard Herrmann score.
As the detective, Robert Ryan gives a satisfyingly no-nonsense performance, while Ida Lupino is heartbreaking as the sightless heroine. There’s a superb hi-def transfer, on par with most Warner Archive releases; the lone extra is historian Glenn Erickson’s commentary.
Parsifal
(BelAir Classiques)
Richard Wagner’s solemn, four-hour “religious” opera is profaned by director Dmitri Tcherniakov’s 2015 Berlin staging, as Wagner’s dignified characters searching for the Holy Grail are dropped into a ludicrously modern setting that battles the majestic music.
Despite the ridiculous visuals, Daniel Barenboim conducts a wonderfully detailed reading of Wagner’s weighty score, and his singers—especially Rene Pape as Gurnemanz and Anja Kampe as Kundry—are in splendid voice throughout. The hi-def audio and video are first-rate.
(Magnet)
Four giggly millennials on a tour of devil-worshipping sites get more than they bargained for after they interfere with a sacrificial ritual and find themselves dealing with its female survivor in Jeffrey Hunt’s ragged but occasionally scary horror flick.
At a tidy 84 minutes, it passes quickly—and becomes forgotten even faster—but it will do decently enough for those desperate for a few chills. The film looks spiffy on Blu; extras include making-of featurettes.
Slugs
Vamp
(Arrow)
Made by Spanish horror auteur Juan Piquer Simon, 1996’s Slugs is an icky entry into the slimy horror genre whose predecessors are movies like Squirm and Bug; it’s too risible to work, though there’s a dash of cleverness in some of the deaths by slug infestation.
1996’s Vamp isn’t saved by a game Grace Jones as vampire Kinky Katrina or by Michelle Pfeiffer’s younger sister Deedee, who’s actually pretty good (but still wasted). Both films have good, grainy hi-def transfers; many extras include new and vintage interviews, bloopers, featurettes, and a Slugs commentary.
The Becoming of the Mannheim Ring
(Arthaus Musik)
Director/stage-lighting designer/costumer Achim Freyer was behind the mish-mash of a staging of Richard Wagner’s 2013 Ring Cycle in Mannheim, Germany; this two-disc set follows Freyer, cast, crew and company officials during the lengthy rehearsal and pre-production period of the four operas that make up the massive tetralogy.
At nearly four hours, this making-of feature might be a lot to sit through, but since the operas themselves total 15 hours, what’s another 240 minutes of watching fly-on-the-wall director Rudij Bergmann’s record of behind the scenes machinations?
The Hunting of the President Redux
(Virgil Films)
Based on the highly readable, fair-minded book by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons about the demonization of the Clintons by right-wing opponents, Harry Thomason and Nicolas Perry’s 2004 documentary—with 2016 updates—comes off more screechy and biased, like a liberal corollary to what the wingnuts having been doing to the former (and future) First Couple since they became a viable political force.
There’s much damning evidence that what the GOP has taken as gospel—everything and everybody the Clintons touch die—is lunacy writ large, but done more soberly, it would be more persuasive.
(Warner Archive)
Tobe Hooper’s trashy 1994 slasher flick is a garbled mess, despite its pedigree: it’s based on a Stephen King short story and stars Freddy Kruger himself, Robert Eglund, as a laundry owner whose press goes rogue.
The ostensible monster—a machine that morphs into a murderous creature—isn’t very frightening, with special effects so slipshod that it seems like the work of rank amateurs. Ted Levine plays the detective with unsavory menace, similar to his turn as the villain in The Silence of the Lambs.
Vincent Van Gogh—A Life Devoted to Art
(Arthaus Musik)
This Dutch documentary about the Netherlands’ most famous artist is an informative overview of the life, career and early death of Van Gogh (whose name is pronounced correctly throughout, so it sounds wrong to an American ear—no pun intended).
There are plentiful glimpses of his paintings, sober talking heads in discussion, and visits to locations throughout the Netherlands and France, where he lived, worked and, finally, killed himself in 1890, penniless and forgotten. As someone notes, he’d be amazed that his paintings now are sold for unfathomable amounts of money. A second disc has a 15-minute featurette—but why isn’t it included on the main disc?
Off-Broadway Review—“Nat Turner in Jerusalem”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 11 October 2016 03:36
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Nat Turner in Jerusalem
Written by Nathan Alan Davis; directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian
Performances through October 16, 2016
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| Rowan Vickers and Phillip James Brannon in Nat Turner in Jerusalem (photo: Joan Marcus) |
Suddenly, the Nat Turner slave rebellion is everywhere: in Nate Parker’s new film The Birth of a Nation and in Nathan Alan Davis’s play Nat Turner in Jerusalem. While Parker’s film choppily dramatizes what happened before, during and after the uprising—in which Turner and many fellow slaves butchered dozens of slave holders and their families, only to be caught and massacred themselves, with Turner arrested and thrown in prison before being hanged—Nat Turner in Jerusalem concentrates on Turner’s last night on earth in a two-hander (with three characters) that is by turns realistic, metaphysical and too obviously symbolic.
The symbolism starts with the title: Jerusalem was the Virginia town where Turner’s rebellion went to grab a cache of firearms and also were he was imprisoned and hanged, but it also conveniently alludes to the martyrdom of both Turner and his savior Jesus Christ. As Turner discusses his fate with two men—a nameless guard and his lawyer, Thomas Gray, the latter of whom publishes Turner’s confessions after his death—the dialogue is peppered with Biblical quotations, and the prisoner even convinces the atheist lawyer to kneel for a final prayer before he agrees to speak to him.
Some of this makes for convincing drama, but there are long arid stretches where Turner, for example, extols the existential beauty of the sunset or describes the spiritual rightness of his murderous rampage; as if to compensate, he is turned into a Christ-like figure by Mary Louise Geiger’s moody lighting, which throws his shadow on the wall as he holds a lamp—and voila, it looks like the Holy Grail being carried to the altar.
None of this is coincidental, obviously, but since the material itself is so strongly compelling, reducing it to mere metaphorical drama—Turner even frees himself from his chains at one point—makes Jerusalem a frustrating 90 minutes of theater that’s further burdened by a set-up where the movable wooden stage itself is placed between two sets of uncomfortable bleacher seats.
Phillip James Brannon makes Turner a charismatic figure, even when wearing his clumsily literal chains, while Rowan Vickers plays Gray and the guard with insufficient variety. Nat Turner in Jerusalem contains pertinent food for thought, but its lyrical flights are too often weighed down by thudding didacticism.
Nat Turner in Jerusalem
New York Theater Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, New York, NY
nytw.org
American Classical Orchestra Opens Season at Lincoln Center
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 27 September 2016 21:30
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Photo by William Neumann Photography
The fine musicians of the American Classical Orchestra inaugurated their 32nd season with a rewarding opening night concert at the wonderful Alice Tully Hall on September 22nd. The program was devoted to music of the early Romantic era, unusual in the period-instrument repertory, all of it new to this ensemble. (This orchestra specializes in music of the Classical period along with some works of the High Baroque.)
The estimable and appealing Thomas Crawford who led (and founded) this orchestra remarked in an enjoyable pre-concert talk that he was confident that the first work on this program—the excellent, little-known Symphony No. 10 by the rarely encountered Cipriani Potter—was receiving its New York premiere and would never be heard by the audience again. The influence of Ludwig van Beethoven was keenly felt here while the piece was admired by—as well as conducted by—Richard Wagner. The strengths of this ensemble were at their most evident in this performance, especially with respect to the conductor's splendid command over tempo.
Crawford described the next work—the resplendent set of songs, Les nuits d'été, by the visionary Hector Berlioz—as one that he cannot understand and that sounds almost random, calling it "enigmatic, inexplicable and rapturous"—he added that despite his incomprehension, he intended to program more by this composer because the texture is so different from other music they play. The superb performance was most remarkable for the stunning presence of the lovely and amazing soloist, Juilliard student Avery Amereau, whom I've been privileged to hear sing several times and whom Crawford noted with astonishment was that most uncommon creature, a contralto—indeed, on this account she was recently profiled by the New York Times.
The second half of the concert was devoted to a compelling rendition of the great Felix Mendelssohn's magisterial "Scottish" Symphony. (This was a fitting counterpart to the composer's lesser-known "Reformation" Symphony heard at Carnegie Hall the previous day, played by the Senior Concert Orchestra of New York.)
I look forward to attending the other performances by the American Classical Orchestra being presented this season.
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