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Film and the Arts
January '16 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 21 January 2016 00:09
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Die Freischutz
(Unitel Classica)
One of the staples of the German operatic repertory, Carl Maria von Weber's 1821 classic drama—which concerns a would-be marksman, the young woman he loves and seven magic bullets—is shot through with romantic musical moments.
This 2015 Dresden production, while fairly unremarkable as far as story, setting and atmosphere, has illuminating orchestral playing under conductor Christian Thielemann and, in an accomplished cast, Sara Jakubiak superbly plays Agathe, the female lead. This performance looks and sounds tremendous in hi-def.
(Warner Bros)
Nancy Meyers makes movies filled with juvenile comedy masquerading as adult, phony dramatics straining for significance and an unchecked sentimentality that floods the entire enterprise; her new effort is no exception.
After retired widower Robert DeNiro begins interning at a hip company for hard-driving boss Anne Hathaway, the odd couple gradually learns life lessons from each other: despite their professionalism, DeNiro and Hathaway can't overcome their writer-director's inadequacies. The hi-def transfer is fine; extras are three featurettes.
King Roger
(Opus Arte)
One of the great 20th century operas, Polish master Karol Szymanowski's compact 90-minute masterpiece is crammed with tautly unsettling music and a strangely compelling story that nods to ancient myths and Arabic musical idioms.
Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien makes a commanding Roger and American soprano Georgia Jarman nearly equals him as the queen; but dominating Kasper Holten's fluid staging is the orchestra’s magnificent playing of Szymanowski's hypnotic score under conductor Antonio Pappano.
(Troma)
Believe it or not, there are not one, not two, not three, but four Toxic Avenger movies, each more ludicrously amateurish than the previous installment, but that's how Lloyd Kaufman likes it: the willful ineptitude on display comprises incredibly fake mutilations and disembowelments, coupled with horrible non-acting and cheesy makeup.
But the movies enjoy a cult status that stems from the onscreen ridiculousness and, admittedly, there's a certain fascination in watching it all unfold. The hi-def transfers look decent; extras include commentaries, interviews, featurettes and a two-hour making-of mockumentary about the fourth film.
DVD of the Week
Hate Crimes in the Heartland
(Virgil Films)
Rachel Lyon's thought-provoking documentary examines two racially motivated crimes in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which occurred nearly a century apart: 1921’s Tulsa Race Riot was led by murderous white supremacists, followed by random 2012 killings of several innocent blacks at the hands of two white men.
Despite the film's brevity (it clocks in at under an hour), it makes distinct parallels that add up to a salient statement on American race relations, which hasn't progressed as far as we've liked in the past 100 years.
Alfredo Casella—Orchestral Works, Vol. 4
(Chandos)
One of the unsung Italian composers of the first half of the 20th century, Alfredo Casella was facile proficient in many genres, even—as the latest volume in a series of Chandos discs shows—though his greatest facility was for orchestral music, three early examples of which are heard here.
The excellent BBC Philharmonic, under Gianandrea Noseda's sensitive conducting, performs Casella's Russian-accented Symphony No. 1, gracefully balletic Symphonic Fragments, and haunting Elegia eroica.
Mieczyslaw Weinberg—Violin Sonatas
(CD Accord)
Already showing up on many recordings in a classical market that if anything seems relegated to regurgitating the tried and true standards, Polish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg—who died in 1996 in relative obscurity—has deservedly become a composer of stature, with every new CD of his music consolidating that argument.
Here, violinist Maria Slawek and pianist Piotr Rozanski give exceptional performances of some of Weinberg's violin-piano works, including the fiercely hard-nosed Sonata No. 4 and the expansive Sonata No. 5.
Broadway Review—Michael Frayn's "Noises Off"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Saturday, 16 January 2016 21:47
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Noises Off
Written by Michael Frayn; Directed by Jeremy Herrin
Opens January 14, 2016
 |
| Megan Hilty, David Furr and Jeremy Shamos in Noises Off (photo: Joan Marcus) |
One of the funniest plays of this or any year, Michael Frayn’s fiendishly clever Noises Off (first on Broadway in 1983, then again in 2001) is a farcical deconstruction of the first rank whose set-up is simple: actors stumble through a rehearsal of something called Nothing On as their incredulous director wonders whether they will actually make it through the first performance the following night.
The genius of Noises Off is that Frayn's characters don't just run around and slam doors for two-plus hours: they do much more, as the three acts slyly feed off one another so that, in Act II, we see what goes on backstage during a performance, as the actors' personal lives intrude backstage (but never onstage) to brilliant comic effect. Later, Act III presents the play-within onstage again, now raggedly played after months of exhausting touring: everything that can does go wrong, even more frantically than in Act I.
In Frayn's expert hands, the laughs keep coming...and coming: he has written with such controlled comic intensity for his nine actors—seven players, one director and the stage assistant having an affair with him (other offstage pairings lead to more hilarious complications onstage and backstage)—that it's possible to miss something happening to some characters because one is following others.
Director Jeremy Herrin's superlative staging mines Frayn's crammed script for every one of its minute details, all on Derek McLane's extraordinary set, which becomes yet another character with its very slammable doors and its slippery staircases onstage and backstage that are cause many a pratfall. If Act III dips somewhat, it's only because Act I is a procession of wonderfully observed mishaps while the largely wordless Act II is an unequalled display of slapstick that even the best mimes could only hope to equal. Act III, conversely, rehashes what we've already seen while showing the implausibility of what occurs onstage since we've already seen the farcical machinery at work, so some of the entrances and exits don't make sense. But really, in the end, who cares?
Herrin—whose two-part production of Wolf Hall was a highlight of last season—again shows his unsurpassed ability to corral a large cast into an imposing, singleminded juggernaut. As Belinda, an accomplished, haughty actress, Kate Jennings Grant remains delightfully levelheaded throughout the ever-increasing lunacy. As Tim, the befuddled stagehand roped into understudy duties, Rob McClure again shows off his physical comedy flair from the ill-fated Chaplin musical a few seasons back: his entire body shaking and quaking in fear is priceless hilarity.
If Daniel Davis gives soused, over-the-hill star Selsdon Mowbray (a great name!) an irresistibly tainted aura of a past master gone to seed, only Tracee Chimo marks a sour note by overplaying how pathetic assistant Poppy is, making her far less funny and poignant than she should be. As the play-within's actors, clueless Garry and wimpy Frederick, David Furr and Jeremy Shamos provide endless chortles while mangling lines (Garry) and getting nose bleeds whenever things get too hectic (Frederick).
As aging leading lady Dotty, Andrea Martin is deliciously daffy whether wielding a phone, a newspaper or a plate of sardines (all of which figure heavily in the play-within), and Campbell Scott is winningly sardonic as director Lloyd, juggling his own career and his fraught relationships with Poppy and Brooke, the bimbo to end all blond bimbos.
Brooke is enacted so commandingly by Megan Hilty that she may plausibly claim the title of our best stage comedienne. Not only does Hilty do the obvious things right—she looks stunning in her barely-there wardrobe and acts as brainlessly as any Marilyn Monroe double should—but she projects subtlety in her movements, the stiff gesticulations, the mouthing of other actors' words so she knows when to speak next, or the crawling around the stage whenever she loses a contact lens.
As peerless as the cast of this unmissable revival of Noises Off is, Hilty provides a comedic acting class by herself.
Noises Off
American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street, New York, NY
roundabouttheatre.org
January '16 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 12 January 2016 23:08
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
The American Friend
(Criterion)
In Wim Wenders' accomplished 1977 adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel, the shabbiest locales in New York, Paris and Hamburg are stars of a slow-building but ultimately gripping crime drama that centers around Ripley, played by Dennis Hopper, whose usual insouciance is only partially counterbalanced by an uncommanding Bruno Ganz as his opposite number.
Wenders toys with film noir clichés as he uncoils the mystery behind Ripley's game. Criterion's new transfer is luminous; extras comprise Wenders' and Hopper's commentary, deleted scenes with Wenders' commentary and Ganz and Wenders interviews.
Irrational Man (Sony Classics)
Woody Allen's semi-rewrite of his own Match Point follows a philosophy professor who creates a perfect murder scenario with no moral complications—and soon finds the opportunity to test out his thesis. Shorn of anything resembling credible characterization, subplots or even atmosphere—the college town setting is appropriately generic—the drama marches straight ahead from A to B, which is the movie's saving grace.
Woody follows his theorist in action in a clinical, detached way, and Joaquin Phoenix (prof) and Emma Stone (student turned paramour) work well within his minimalist mindset. Darius Khondji's cinematography shimmers in hi-def; lone extra is a red-carpet featurette.
Sinister 2
(Universal)
I doubt that missing the original Sinister is a disadvantage in assessing yet another attempt at the tired found-footage horror movie, but this sequel lulls the viewer into a stupor for 90 minutes before rousing itself for an effective, if nonsensical, climax involving the demonized young protagonist-videographer and his terrified family.
Despite that unsettling few minutes, the movie is not particularly arresting overall, despite a nice performance by Shannyn Sossamon as the mom. There's a good hi-def transfer; extras include deleted scenes, featurette and director commentary.
The American Invasion
Frontline—Immigration Battle
(PBS)
The American Invasion, a persuasive history lesson, tells the true story of the U.S. airmen who went overseas after we joined the war on the Allied side to help keep the Brits safe from Nazi sorties, with many casualties but also the eternal gratitude of those who were protected by the selfless Yanks.
The must-see PBS series Frontline jumped into the Congressional fray in Immigration Battle,investigating what happened on both sides of the aisle in a unique attempt at bipartisanship after Obama's re-election to come up with a comprehensive immigration plan. Although we know what did (or didn't) happen, this behind-the-scenes peek at political maneuvering is a riveting 90 minutes.
The New Rijksmuseum
The Storm Makers
(First Run)
The New Rijksmuseum, Oeke Hoogendijk's exhaustive account of the great Amsterdam art institution's 10-year renovation, is an extraordinary achievement in its original four-hour version. Here, at a streamlined two-plus hours, we get some sense of what went on behind the scenes, but without the director's original vision, the decade-long struggles to finish what was scheduled to take five years are only hinted at.
In The Storm Makers, director Guillaume Suon exposes the 21st century slave trade in his native Cambodia, telling the heartrending story of one young woman as he shows the chillingly matter-of-fact confessions of a couple of unrepentant "capitalists."
January '16 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 05 January 2016 23:52
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Experimenter
(Magnolia)
While writer-director Michael Almereyda relies too heavily on gimmickry like rear projection, direct camera address and (literally) an elephant in the room, he has made an intelligent biopic about psychologist Stanley Milgram and his controversial behavioral experiments.
Peter Sarsgaard’s commandingly aloof and brooding Milgram, Winona Ryder’s welcome return as his faithful wife and nicely turned appearances by Jim Gaffigan, John Leguizamo, Anthony Edwards, Josh Hamilton and Taryn Manning greatly assist. The movie looks good on Blu; extras comprise featurettes and an interview with Milgram’s brother.
(Universal)
As usual, director Eli Roth takes a workable premise—naively idealistic students take a trip to the rainforest to defend tribes from greedy developers—and turns the horrors they discover to the most ridiculous extremes.
Fans of his movies may not squirm throughout the by-numbers plotting and extensively gory bloodlettings, but even they may shrug at Roth's final, tepid twist that places his heroine in an unflattering light. The hi-def transfer is first-rate; lone extra is a commentary.
Infinitely Polar Bear
(Sony Pictures Classics)
Mark Ruffalo gives a powerful and sympathetic portrayal of a husband and father whose bi-polar condition makes for fraught relationships with his loving daughters and wife in this sensitive but unsentimental drama based on writer-director Maya Forbes's own dad.
Although his full-bodied performance is anything but an obvious star turn, Ruffalo is superbly complemented by the wonderful Zoe Saldana as his wife and two remarkable young actresses as his daughters: Ashley Aufderheide and the director's own daughter Imogene Wolodarsky, basically playing her own mother dealing with her own grandfather's difficulties. The Blu-ray transfer is exceptional; extras are a commentary, deleted scenes and Q&A.
(Universal)
After many years (and films) in the wilderness following his breakout The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan has thrown in the towel and jumped on the found-footage bandwagon with this lukewarm thriller pitting two kids against their grandparents, whom they discover to be nothing like how their mother remembered them while she was growing up.
The problem, apart from this genre’s inherent silliness, is that the kids’ mom—who hadn’t seen her own parents since she left home years earlier—assumes that having them visit would have no complications: the movie proceeds to pile up implausibilities faster than you can spell Shyamalan. The film looks fine on Blu; extras are an alternate ending, deleted scenes, and a making-of featurette.
DVDs of the Week
Jenny's Wedding
(IFC)
For a movie that was dumped onto DVD with little fanfare, Mary Agnes Donoghue’s dramedy about a successful young woman who decides to out herself to her family by announcing her marriage to her long-time girlfriend is serviceable entertainment.
With a top cast—Tom Wilkinson and Linda Emond are unsurprisingly excellent as the parents, while Katherine Heigl gives a robust performance as Jenny—the movie passes by harmlessly, coming to a satisfying conclusion with minimal maudlin or sappiness. Lone extra is a making-of featurette.
Divide in Concord
(First Run)
In 1971, director Johanna Hamilton chronicles the break-in of a Pennsylvania FBI office during the height of the Vietnam War: those responsible not only made public secret documents about illegal surveillance, but they eluded authorities for the next four-plus decades.
Hamilton has caught up to them: her absorbing look at a politically fraught era features interviews with the men and women who did it, and raises still-pertinent questions about our own culture of paranoia and secrecy; the lone extra, an hour-long post-screening Q&A, features none other than Edward Snowden.
A microcosm of our society's widening societal gap, Kris Kaczor's Divide in Concord is a heartening documentary about Jean Hill, who in her ninth decade fights the good fight by spearheading a bill that bans water bottles from being sold in Concord, Mass: this plucky David goes up against many Goliaths, from local businesses and shrill activists to water bottle corporations themselves.
Tokyo Fiancée
(First Run)
Amelie arrives in Tokyo to teach French, fulfilling a cherished dream since she was young: and when she falls in love with her first (and seemingly only) student, it complicates many things both about their relationship and how she's decided to live her life.
Director Stefan Liberski's fey romantic comedy is too often forced, and the heroine’s name is too obviously a nod toward the Audrey Tautou Amelie that's the blueprint for this kind of you-either-love-it-or-hate-it movie. Even though it moves into darker territory, weird whimsy predominates, centered on Pauline Etienne's boyish appeal.
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