Tag: movies

Weird; Godspell; The 39 Steps

Day By Day

Here’s a roundup of some entertainment I’ve seen recently.

The first and only thing I’ve gotten around to seeing on my newish Roku set is the movie Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, starring the unlikely but oddly convincing Daniel Radcliff. I’m a  big Weird Al fan, owning at least 90% of his work on LP or CD.

I imagine that familiarity with not only the music but the backstory of the creation of the songs and the launching of this career would enhance the appreciation of the storyline. The movie was written by Al and director Eric Appel, and it is a parody of biopic films about musicians.

It’s often funny, definitely silly, and inevitably excessive, especially in the second half, featuring Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood), when the pace sags for me.

The pool scene featuring Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson), Wolfman Jack (Jack Black), and several well-known icons is my favorite. I also liked the resolution involving Al’s father (Toby Huss). And Al is convincing s the record producer who wants to have nothing to do with Weird Al.

The film sometimes seems rushed, probably because of its 18-day shooting schedule, but I’m glad I saw it.

Theater!

My wife and I had said in the spring that we might see three or four shows at Mac-Haydn Theatre in Chatham, NY, over the summer. Suddenly, it was Sunday, August 13, and the final day of the third or fourth show. She said, do you want to go see Godspell?

I love Godspell. In 1976, I was in a production in New Paltz. I’ve seen the movie starring Victor Garber.

But this Godspell was sublime. Check out this review:  ” This Godspell, this gospel according to [director Trey] Compton, is an edgy, piercing, gritty, brilliant piece of theatre… “

This is how the show starts: “Cue the Gospel. As the ensemble cast of eight enters, each clutches a cell phone in his or her hand as if they are the last lifelines to their very existence. The soon-to-be disciples are quite literally separated one from another by virtue of Compton’s sharp and intentional staging, scattered about the theatre like the wandering souls they are at this moment.

“Looking for all the world like a world-weary crowd gathered on a dark subway track awaiting the last train of the day, they begin to deliver the Prologue/Tower of Babble, a number not always included in every production, but thankfully included here…

“[It] is a truly unique, brilliant, thought-provoking, cutting-edge work of theater art.” That says it all.

Hitchcock

My wife wanted to know if I wanted to go to the Spectrum Theatre to see the film The 39 Steps (1935). I had never seen it, so absolutely.

What I liked is that the protagonist, Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), a Canadian vacationing in London, didn’t believe the mysterious agent Annabella Smith (Lucie Mannheim) and her fanciful tale about an international spy ring involving something called the “39 steps.”

That is, until Smith ends up dead in Hannay’s apartment, with him as the only suspect. Hannay has to elude those chasing him while trying to figure out the truth behind the secret. His life becomes entangled with Pamela   (Madeleine Carroll), his unwilling accomplice, who doesn’t believe Richard any more than Richard initially believed Annabella.

The chase is a bit improbable, as the pursuers are mainly inept. It’s also a very humorous and early rom-com.

Incidentally, I did see The 39 Steps before, but it involved shadow puppets.

Movie review: The Good Mother

Empire State Plaza

I’m parochial enough to admit that I was actively rooting for me to love the movie The Good Mother.

Paul Grondahl “was allowed to read the script and was granted access to [the] 12-hour filming at the Times Union. As a reporter who worked at the paper for 32 years,” he felt “the script captures the strain of working at a daily newspaper that is struggling to remain financially viable and journalistically meaningful in a clickbait social media landscape. ” True, and this shows up in the movie, though it’s a minor part of the narrative.

Grondahl, who I’ve enjoyed reading for decades and who “wrote a long series of articles on the opioid epidemic,” believed that “the narrative shows how the opioid epidemic hit close to home and ravaged many ordinary lives, while conveying the gritty authenticity of Albany in all its bruised glory… It is not a flattering cinematic version of the Capital City. Still, it is a truthful portrait shot through with love from a director who has an abiding affection for his hometown.”

A good cause

Moreover, “following the quick sellout of a special screening co-presented by New York State Writers Institute and Film Albany, which included an awards presentation and talkback with director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte and co-writer Madison Harrison, the Madison Theatre dedicated its remaining theater space to ‘The Good Mother.’ While the added screenings exclude the talkback, a portion of the ticket proceeds for the additional screenings will benefit Youth FX, the award-winning film studio and education program empowering young filmmakers of color.” Incidentally, Grondahl, who I know a bit, leads the Writers Institute.

And heck, during the 2022 filming, Hilary Swank helped return a lost dog named Blue to its shocked owner.

The setup

Here are parts of C.J. Lais’ review in the TU.  It notes “four main stars in the new thriller… — Hilary Swank, Olivia Cooke, Jack Reynor … and the Empire State Plaza. No joke, director and co-writer Miles Joris-Peyrafitte cuts to the brutalist government building complex so often I expected to see Nelson Rockefeller listed among the thank-yous in the film’s end credits…

“Set in 2016 amid the opioid crisis that had a stranglehold on the country, including the Capital Region, the movie centers around Times Union reporter-turned-editor Marissa Bennings (Swank), the paper’s ‘best writer’ who doesn’t write anymore. She’s already numb and numbing herself further with alcohol long before her cop son (Reynor) interrupts an editorial meeting to deliver the news that her other son, Michael, a once-promising baseball star-turned-junkie and drug dealer, has been shot dead in Arbor Hill.” Swank’s Mriisa is also numb from the grief of a spouse who died before the story unfolds.

“Marissa soon teams up, albeit reluctantly at first, with her dead son’s pregnant girlfriend Paige (Cooke) to discover the true nature of the murder and the seeming conspiracy surrounding it, including the possible complicity of Michael’s best friend, Ducky (Hopper Penn), a fellow addict and his partner in crime.”  

True enough

I agree with some aspects of Lais ‘ review. “The film’s original title [was Mother’s Milk and is a better one than the generic one now, with several layers of meaning and on-screen references. A marketing decision, I fear…” And there are at least two other films with the same title, from 1988 and 2013, plus a 2009 documentary.

“It’s a blast to see local landmarks like the Palais Royale, the Jesus Saves Mission sign, Nipper, and the Rensselaer train station immortalized on film. ” VERY true.

“Cooke.. might play the most tragic character of all, a young woman so bright, so capable of anything she set her mind to, if only she hadn’t trapped herself in this inescapable life.” I saw her in Sound of Metal.

“Irish-born Reynor (‘Midsommar’) is effective in the ‘good son’ role.” He was okay. “Penn, the son of Sean Penn and Robin Wright, has some of his dad’s early, squirrely energy playing Ducky.” Sure.

“Model Dilone as Reynor’s wife represents yet another view of motherhood. Broadway vet Norm Lewis lends the requisite gravity to a role as regal and important as the editor of the Times Union…

“But it might be Karen Aldridge (‘Fargo’) who makes the most visceral impact in a small role. Her anguished monologue during a support group meeting presents some gut-wrenching truths and stellar acting choices. ” She was VERY compelling.

Conversely

And yet, the finished product on the screen felt murky and unfocused. There are too many unnecessary long shots of the Empire State Plaza. (Yes, we’re in Albany. I get it, I get it. )

Lais stated that Joris-Peyrafitte “takes us on a journey through the underbelly of Albany, finding allure in its squalor and hope in its apparent hopelessness.” I wasn’t feeling the hope, or indeed how  I should respond.

Ultimately, I agree with most of the Rotten Tomatoes reviews, only 19% positive with the critics and 32% with audiences. Carla Hay wrote: “The Good Mother had the potential to be a better mystery thriller than it is, but the movie is undone by scenes that are either monotonous or predictable until it limps along to a very underwhelming ending. The big ‘plot reveal’ is not surprising.” Katie Walsh: “The screenplay strains for topicality, stuffing too many elements at once into this sad story in a bid for relevance that never quite resonates.”

As noted, I was rooting heavily for The Good Mother. Yet I was ultimately disappointed; the problem was largely in the editing. Still, I’m glad I saw it. Miles Joris-Peyrafitte and his boyhood pal, Madison Harrison, have some talent I look forward to seeing on screen.

Movie review: Theater Camp

Joan, Still

Whether or not you enjoyed the movie Theater Camp may depend, at least in part, on one’s experience at summer camp, especially in upstate New York, and/or hanging out with musical theater nerds.  A knowledge of musical theater might make the experience richer, but it’s not required. 

I liked the mockumentary a lot, and I laughed quite a bit. The script played it as though the story was real. Those kids and their counselors were believable, in my view. I was on the stage crew in high school, so I KNOW these people. Also,  I worked at a non-theatrical summer camp before my senior year in high school, and the dysfunction was palpable.   

So it seems plausible that when the camp’s founder and inspiration, Joan (Amy Sedaris), becomes seriously incapacitated, her decidedly non-theatrical-nerd adult son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) tries to save the day. He has a few ideas that he is trying to implement.

Among the staff, the stars are former campers Amos (Ben Platt) and Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon), who are writing an original musical dedicated to Joan. The other counselors have their own quirks and secrets, notably Janet (Ayo Edebiri). 

Poor, overworked, exhausted stage manager Glenn (Noah Galvin of The Good Doctor) tries to jerry-rig the aging camp infrastructure and fix all the set-related problems. 

The campers included several young and highly talented performers. Indeed, the movie could use more of them and less of some of the grown-ups.

Even an unfavorable review noted that the film’s last twenty minutes were a revelation.  Rotten Tomatoes pegged it as 84% positive with the critics and 81% with audiences.

Precursor

There was an 18-minute short, also called Theater Camp, in 2020, which I have not seen.  It was directed by Nick Lieberman, written by Galvin, Gordon, and Lieberman, and starred Platt, Galvin, and Gordon. The 2023 iteration, at 92 minutes, was written by the same team and directed by Lieberman and Gordon. 

My wife liked the movie less than I did. She felt that the character Amos didn’t change; I’d counter that he never needed to until he did. It was the reverse of our opinions regarding Shortcomings, which we saw two days earlier, whose I thought the male lead was stuck. 

 

Movie review: Shortcomings

bsed on the graphic novel by Adrian Tomine

In August, my wife and I saw the movie Shortcomings at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany.

It begins strong, watching a re-creation of a pivotal scene from the film Crazy Rich Asians. The conversation about that film was a legitimate point of discussion, including the disdain of CRA by Ben (Justin H. Min), a struggling Asian-American filmmaker and operator of a none-too-successful movie theater.

Ben’s girlfriend, Miko (Ally Maki), is often exasperated by him, usually for good reason. He riffs off his cynical worldview with his friend Alice (Sherry Cola). When Miko goes to New York City for a couple of months, Ben fulfills his predilections, which he had denied, when he meets Autumn (Tavi Gervinson) and then Sasha (Debby Ryan).

The story is based on a 2007 graphic novel I have not read. It was written by Adrian Tomine, who also adapted the screenplay. Actor Randall Park related to the storyline and chose it as his movie directorial debut.

My feeling about the movie is mixed. The theater workers are fun. I was most interested in Alice, who has the most intriguing story arc. Miko is MIA for much of the film, so we don’t see the development.

Meanwhile, Ben is pretty much the same guy until near the end. It’s spot on when he’s more than once told that he’s disliked, not because of his race, but his personality. He’s a tiresome guy who thinks he knows everything, even when he doesn’t. I’ve known people like him IRL, and they, too, are mighty annoying.

Fetish

Yet the film did touch on some critical themes about race, sex, and the fetishism that may exist in that space. I wish it were sharper.

Also, based on the trailer, I thought the movie would be funnier. Because I saw the bits coming, they were much less humorous in the film.

My wife liked it more than I did; she found some revelations surprising. It’s not a terrible movie; perhaps I had overly high expectations.  FWIW, it was reviewed reasonably well, with 83% positive by the critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

One last thing: props to my wife for recognizing Debby Ryan as the title character in Jessie, the 2011-2015 TV series our daughter used to watch.

Movie review: Barbie

wonderfully strange

I wanted to review the movie Barbie, which I saw a week after it opened at the Spectrum Theatre. The problem is that it may be unreviewable.

I liked it. A LOT, actually. It’s a movie that took shots at some of Mattel’s less successful items in the Barbie line while addressing the issue of the doll as a symbol of unattainable beauty. 

The Vanity Fair article said Barbie Is About as Good as a Barbie Movie Could Ever Be. 

The first paragraph: “The film, about the preeminent fashion doll, has to serve the interests of its masters, in this case, the Mattel corporation, while also cheating out to the audience to convince them that what they are watching is not just some two-hour ad. The film must be extra conscious of what Barbie is—critical of it, even—while also celebrating one of the most famous toys ever made. What choice did Gerwig have, then, but to go weird?”

I think the movie had to thread a very tight needle, and mostly, it succeeded, even if, as The Hollywood Reporter suggested, it “delivers the fun but fudges the politics.”

From Medium: “Barbie is “wonderfully strange,” and also “political satire, a product placement film that simultaneously praises and criticizes its product, a mother-daughter relationship, an investigation of gender and its presentation, and a road trip film about the quest for identity and purpose,” writes Sahifa Syifa. “It’s an existential dystopia disguised as a child’s fantasy.”

No pleasing some people

So, as much as it tried, it couldn’t be all things to all viewers. It wasn’t the feminist film one reviewer hoped for, or it was too much. It was a movie for children, or it was too mature for children, or it should have been geared more toward adults [which would have been economic suicide.]  

The reviews were 89% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. The negative reviews were pretty consistent. Collin Garbarino of WORLD: “Instead of offering a reflection of what it means to be a human living alongside other humans, Gerwig falls into a cliched form of existentialism in which life is essentially meaningless, and it’s up to us to assert our own meaning.” 

I don’t think so. Director/co-writer Greta Gerwig has said, “I’m interested in how life is complicated and messy and that there is nothing that’s either or, either good or bad, but it’s mostly it’s both…it can be all these things at once. And I think that felt like a rich place to start from.”

Fun

Here’s something from W magazine: “Go on YouTube and you’ll find plenty of right-wing wannabe pundits decrying the Barbie movie as the latest example of the attack on American values by ‘woke mind virus.’ Visit Twitter, and you’ll find self-identified Communists calling it capitalist trash and the exemplification of ‘girl boss’ nonsense.

“Go to an actual movie theater, however, and you’ll find Americans of all stripes simply enjoying a fun movie. While the film certainly has a broadly feminist perspective, it seems like any attempts to turn it into a political football fell flat on their way to record-breaking ticket sales. It may very well end up as the biggest movie of the year. It feels indicative of a wider trend: maybe everyone is a little bit sick of almost everything in pop culture becoming fodder for a political fight?”

Credits

I should note that the set in Barbie’s World by Sarah Greenwood is fabulous. The cast -Issa Rae as President Barbie, Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie, Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu as two of the Kens, Michael Sera as Allan, Rhea Perlman as Ruth, and Helen Mirren as the narrator, were all great.

I think, though, that is Gloria (America Ferrara), the put-upon  Mattel employee with a moody tween daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), who is ultimately the film’s star. It’s her feelings that informed the feeling of stereotype Barbie (Margot Robbie). She also has the best monologue, which you shouldn’t read until you see the film.

Speaking of dialogue: Greta Gerwig Shared Why She Ended ‘Barbie’ With That Iconic Last Line.

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