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Film and the Arts
August '22 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 11 August 2022 01:11
- Written by Kevin Filipski
In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week
I Love My Dad
(Magnolia Pictures)
Based on writer-director-star James Morosin’s own experiences, this darkly comic character study dissects young Franklin’s frayed relationship with Chuck, his estranged father, and how Chuck, wanting to remain connected, ends up catfishing Franklin by creating a fake Facebook profile for a local waitress named Becca and responding to Franklin’s ever more affectionate texting.
It all remains a bit creepy, as it’s supposed to be, but Morosin isn’t an accomplished enough filmmaker to make it more insightful. Still, Patton Oswalt gives one of his best performances as Chuck and newcomer Claudia Sulewski is delightful as the unwitting Becca, whom Chuck morphs into Franklin’s dream woman.
(Music Box Films)
In Anita Rocha da Silveira’s toughminded satire, Mari and a group of likeminded evangelical young women prowl the streets physically abusing those they deem to be too sinful, even while remain blissfully (or is that willfully?) unaware that they are helping to promote a fascistic regime that is also deeply misogynist.
The problem with the film is that, after setting up this unsettling glimpse of contemporary society rife with hypocrisy—which has its parallels to what is actually happening in her native Brazil and elsewhere—da Silveira concentrates on eye-popping colors and visual style, so much that the repetitiveness becomes grating after two hours. But in lead actress Mari Oliveria the director has a remarkably vital collaborator.
Resurrection
(IFC Films)
Even a powerhouse performance by Rebecca Hall can’t save this risible, ultimately imbecile concoction by director/writer Andrew Semans, who has made an unholy, always grating hybrid of the worst impulses of David Cronenberg and Peter Greenaway (even the score by Jim Williams at times sounds like what Michael Nyman used to turn out for Greenaway).
What might have been a slow-burning psychological horror story about a woman whose past returns in the form of an abusive ex is, instead, ridiculously obvious, signaling its unsubtlety 20 minutes in, when Hall dreams about a finding something cooking in her oven. It’s all downhill from there, with nary a shred of narrative or dramatic coherence, let alone anything incisive, to be found.
Apples
(Cohen Media)
Greek director Christos Nikou’s intimate study of identity loss, set during a worldwide pandemic that leaves its victims with no memories, follows an ordinary man, Aris, whose amnesia puts him in a recovery program. As Aris builds a new life that includes new memories, Nikou gently suggests, through razor-sharp images that take in the full absurdity of modern life, that the way out of a global catastrophe might start from within; it is an understated but humanizing drama.
The tight 4x3 aspect ratio perfectly reflects the protagonist’s claustrophobic world and is nicely rendered on the excellent Blu-ray transfer; extras are two interviews with Nikou, one including executive producer Cate Blanchett.
Battle of the Worlds
(Film Detective)
Describing this cheesy sci-fi flick as a B-movie damns it with faint praise, as Italian director Antonio Margheriti crams much mediocrity into the 80 minutes that make up this loud, empty exercise in “the world’s going to end” melodrama.
Only Claude Rains, as a veteran scientist who’s humanity’s last hope, does what might be charitably called acting, and the Z-grade special effects are laughably amateurish throughout. A bonus featurette about Margheriti, by film historian Tim Lucas, and audio commentary by film historian Justin Humphreys end up making the case that this might be best seen on a tiny B&W screen.
Fanny—The Right to Rock
(Film Movement)
I thought I knew my classic rock, but Fanny—an all-female hard-rock group that released albums and toured in the early ’70s to critical acclaim but popular indifference—was a band I knew nothing about, so happily, Bobbi Jo Hart’s documentary sets things right by chronicling the women’s long-ago career, comeback and how those in the know (like David Bowie) hyped them.
The Sacramento-based Fanny’s energetic tunes are showcased in vintage clips; there’s also new material the latest incarnation has put together as well as a healthy dose of archival and new interviews that provide an intimate glimpse at a band more rock fans should know about. Plentiful extras include additional interviews and deleted scenes.
A New Generation: An Evening With The National Youth Orchestra of the United States
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 02 August 2022 20:19
- Written by Jack Angstreich
NYO-USA, Photo by Chris Lee
At Carnegie Hall, beginning on the evening of Thursday, July 28th, I was fortunate to attend three splendid concerts presented by the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. The enjoyable first program featured NYO Jazz conducted by trumpeter Sean Jones, the Artistic Director and Bandleader, with guest vocals by the impressive Jazzmeia Horn.
Even better was a terrific concert the following night performed by the remarkable musicians of the National Youth Orchestra proper—under the admirable direction of Daniel Harding—which opened with Edward Elgar’s melodious, autumnal Cello Concerto with the eminent Alisa Weilerstein as soloist. The first movement is Romantic and soulful while the Lento introduction to the second is more lyrical if, maybe paradoxically, more inward, ensuing in a sprightly, even dramatic, scherzo. With the Adagio and concluding Allegro the work moves from the meditative to the anguished.
The second half of the event was enthralling, devoted to a compelling reading of Gustav Mahler’s magnificent Fifth Symphony. The beginning of the first movement is thrilling and suspenseful, the prelude to a beautiful funeral march that builds to great intensities before ending softly. The second movement is more turbulent but also with quieter passages, closing too on a hushed note. The increasingly eccentric Scherzo that follows begins with a cheerful and ebullient Ländler with a lovely, slower, waltz-like section. The celebrated Adagietto is unearthly in its majesty and the exhilarating finale has a more pastoral character but concludes exuberantly. The artists received an enthusiastic ovation which was answered by a fabulous encore: a dazzling performance of an abridged version of "Adventures on Earth" from John Williams’s wonderful score for Steven Spielberg’s film, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial.
The marvelous third concert—performed on the evening of Monday, August 1st—featured the absurdly precocious musicians of NYO2—which consists of instrumentalists ages 14-17—with Fellows of the New World Symphony and America’s Orchestral Academy, under the flamboyant direction of Mei-Ann Chen. The program began auspiciously with an accomplished account of the rewarding Soul Force by contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery which was notable for its effective orchestration. The excellent jazz soloist Aaron Diehl then took the stage for a brilliant performance of George Gershwin’s delightful Piano Concerto in F. The opening Allegro is sparkling, although very variegated in style and mood, while the second movement is bluesy and more subdued. The exciting finale is propulsive and virtuosic.
The second half of the evening—an assured rendition of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s enchanting Symphonic Dances—was equally memorable. The first movement is compelling with tuneful passages and the second is a captivating—if oddly eerie—waltz, with the last impassioned if quirky. Ardent applause elicited two outstanding encores: An-Lun Huang's extraordinary “Saibei Dance” from Saibei Suite No. 2, Op. 21 and Leonard Bernstein’s irrepressible Candide Overture.
Concert Review—Heart’s Ann Wilson at Sony Hall, NYC
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 01 August 2022 12:35
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Ann Wilson
July 26, 2022
Sony Hall, New York City
August 2, 2022
AON Grand Ballroom, Chicago
AnnWilson.com
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| Ann Wilson in concert at Sony Hall, NYC (photo: Criss Cain) |
On her current tour—which stopped at New York City’s Sony Hall July 26 and comes to Chicago August 2—Ann Wilson deftly balances the well-chosen covers that dominate her three solo albums, including her fine new Fierce Bliss CD, with classic cuts from Heart, the band with which she and sister Nancy have made their mark since the mid-’70s. (Now on hiatus, as both sisters have released solo albums in the past year, Heart is supposed to return to touring in 2023.)
Opening with the vigorous one-two punch of Heart’s “Even It Up” and “Straight On,” Wilson and her (all-male) band spent the rest of the 90-minute concert alternating between excellent covers—like their powerful versions of Jeff Buckley’s “Forget Her,” the Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” and Robin Trower’s “Bridge of Sighs”—with classic Heart hits like “Magic Man,” “Crazy on You” and “Barracuda.” But it was in the deeper cuts of the evening where Wilson’s still-formidable voice rang out most strongly. (Although she’s now 72, Wilson’s voice remains an imposing instrument.)
On two originals from Fierce Bliss, the pounding rocker “Greed” and the stately “Black Wing,” Wilson sang impressively and with little strain. (It’s instructive to watch her while singing: unlike many rock vocalists, she makes it look effortless, even when hitting the high notes that she can still often reach.) And the lone Heart deep cut, the brooding, mystical “Mistral Wind,” allowed her to alternate between lung-shredding power and exquisite delicacy.
Queen’s “Love of My Life” also brought out Wilson’s ethereal side, as she made her own a song that most vocalists might cede to Freddie Mercury. But Wilson has never shied away from covering songs that others might hesitate to tackle, like her majestic “Stairway to Heaven” at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012.
And it was Zeppelin—one of Heart’s most obvious influences, as anyone who hears “Achilles’ Last Stand” whenever “Barracuda’s” drum track kicks in—that dominated the encores, as Wilson ran through her superb, singular takes on the mandolin-driven “Going to California” and the pummeling “Black Dog.” One might even go so far as to say that Wilson’s versions surpassed Robert Plant himself on these songs. But that’s an argument for another day.
July '22 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 28 July 2022 19:18
- Written by Kevin Filipski
4K/UHD Release of the Week
Angel Heart
(Lionsgate)
Alan Parker’s brooding 1987 horror film, based on William Hjortsberg’s novel Falling Angel, has a labyrinthine plot consisting of demons, voodoo, murder, incest and madness that risks becoming silly and risible but somehow remains strong, even thrilling stuff. Mickey Rourke gives one of his most intense performances as a NYC private eye whose latest case unfolds strangely, culminating in a New Orleans that’s both unrecognizable and familiar; Robert DeNiro as the creepy antagonist and Lisa Bonet as the mysterious love interest (her and Rourke’s celebrated sex scene is present in all its glory in this unrated version) provide excellent support.
Parker’s indelible visuals (Michael Seresin’s photography and Gerry Hambling’s editing are first-rate) look spectacular and unsettling in 4K; extras on the 4K and Blu-ray discs include Parker’s commentary and interviews; Rourke and Bonet archival interviews; deleted scenes; and making-of featurettes.
Orders from Above
(Gravitas Ventures)
Vir Srinivis’ dry, stagy account of war criminal Adolf Eichmann’s interrogation by Israeli police officer Avner Less after his capture in Argentina and return to Israel for trial doesn’t add much to what we already know about the infamous Nazi’s defense that he was just following orders.
Peter J. Donnelly (Eichmann) and Richard Cotter (Less) are properly intense, but even with such built-in dramatic material, Srinivis doesn’t do much more with it than make it straightforward and less than compelling.
She Will
(IFC Midnight)
In Charlotte Colbert’s sporadically creepy horror debut, Alice Krige plays Veronica, an aging actress who checks into a remote Scottish retreat with her assistant to recover from major surgery and soon finds that the local area, where witches were burned centuries ago, triggers her own imaginings of vengeance.
Writer-director Colbert’s tantalizing setup yields to a bumpy ride where only certain moments come alive in an original way—Krige and Kota Eberhardt (assistant) give full-throated portrayals, but the movie wastes such luminaries as Malcolm McDowell and Rupert Everett while falling back on familiar tropes from the likes of The Wicker Man.
The Adventures of Don Juan
(Warner Archive)
Of course, it’s Errol Flynn playing the swashbuckling, seductive Don Juan in this entertaining 1948 adventure, directed by Vincent Sherman, about how the great ladies’ man meets his match in the form of Queen Margaret of Spain, who assigns him to teach sword fighting when he returns home after a diplomatic fracas in England.
This colorful and sweeping piece of fun finds Flynn—never the subtlest actor—in his element as a movie star, and the supporting cast includes Viveca Lindfors as the Queen. There’s a superb Blu-ray transfer whose colors really pop; extras include an audio commentary and vintage featurettes, short and cartoon.
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
(Film Movement Classics)
In Bruno Barreto’s ramshackle 1976 romantic comedy, Sonia Braga burns a hole in the screen as a young widow who, while grieving her cheating but sexually fulfilling dead husband, gets remarried to a good but dull pharmacist, which causes dead hubby’s spirit to return and once again fulfill her sexually.
Although way overlong at two hours, Barreto’s movie has an unabashed erotic spirit, and Braga began her multi-decade international career of renown with her sexy, free-spirited, uninhibited performance. Too bad the new hi-def transfer leaves something to be desired; extras are a Barreto commentary and vintage making-of featurette.
(Dynamic)
Giuseppe Verdi’s enchanting final opera, based on Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor,” still holds the stage humorously in this 2021 Florence staging by director Sven-Eric Bechtolf.
The great character of Falstaff’s comedic gravitas is well-acted by Michael Volle, but it’s the superb stable of women surrounding him that’s led by Ailyn Perez’s hilarious Alice Ford and Francesca Boncompagni’s bewitching Nannetta. John Eliot Gardiner ably leads the fine orchestra and chorus; both hi-def video and audio are exemplary.
Nathalie…
(Cohen Film Collection)
In Anne Fontaine’s typically elegant 2003 drama, Fanny Ardant plays the wife of philanderer Gerard Depardieu; Ardant hires stripper/call girl Emmanuelle Beart to seduce her husband and report back to her with every detail.
Beart complies—until Ardant realizes that the sexual manipulations may have spiraled beyond her control. Although there’s something familiar, even old-fashioned, about the setup, Fontaine’s execution is subtle and mature, and the three stars—particularly the alluring Beart—are in superb form throughout. There’s a fine hi-def transfer.
(Naxos)
Polish-Russian composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s shattering 1968 opera about the Holocaust’s devastating fallout on its survivors—particularly a former camp guard who recognizes one of the female prisoners on board a cruise ship they are on—receives a fine 2021 staging from Austria’s Oper Graz by director Nadja Loschky.
Weinberg’s emotional music rawly exposes the post-war wounds of characters precisely rendered from Zofia Posmysz’s original novella (also the basis of the great director Andrzej Munk’s last film before his premature death in 1961). The Grazer Orchestra, under conductor Roland Kluttig, and the singers, both the soloists and the Graz Chorus, are top-notch; hi-def video and audio are excellent.
DVD Release of the Week
The Gilded Age
(HBO/Warner Bros)
After his Downton Abbey triumph, Julian Fellowes returns with a series about the haves and have-nots in late 1880s New York City, following the young Marian (Louisa Jacobson, a Meryl Streep daughter), who arrives in Manhattan to be chaperoned by her aunts Agnes (Christine Baranski) and Ada (Cynthia Nixon), as much of the upper crust tries to keep the upwardly mobile upstart Bertha (Carrie Coon) from taking her place among the privileged.
The 10-episode season’s sumptuous costumes and arresting set design notwithstanding, except for Baranski’s sardonic Agnes, those populating the mansions are relatively uninteresting. A slew of theater performers (Audra McDonald, Bill Irwin, Kelli O’Hara, Donna Murphy, and Michael Cerveris, for starters) unfortunately make little impact. There are several on-set featurettes and interviews.
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