Jack and I really liked this leisurely comedy about a middle-aged couple, each having an affair, surprised to discover sparks of lust and affection for each other. Tracy Letts and Debra Winger are terrific as poor communicators Michael and Mary (Letts, who will be 52 this summer but here looks age appropriate for Winger's youthful 62, was last blogged for Indignation; and Winger, who I wrote was understated in Rachel Getting Married, was Oscar-nominated for Terms of Endearment (1983), The Sheltering Sky (1990), and Shadowlands (1993), the latter of which I don't think I saw, also was great in Urban Cowboy (1980), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Cannery Row (1982), Legal Eagles (1986), Black Widow (1987), and Forget Paris (1995)). Also wonderful are Melora Walters (good in Dead Poets Society (1989), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), and 43 episodes of Big Love) and Aiden Gillen (most recently in Sing Street) as their needy paramours Lucy and Robert.
The sly work here by director/writer Azazel Jacobs (last helmed and co-wrote the story for Terri) has been compared by many to a French film. I appreciated the kitchens--Mary and Michael's has two 30" gas ranges side by side and Robert's has a distinctive tile backsplash--perhaps due to the work of production designer Sue Tebbutt, or perhaps due to a clever location scout (it was shot in Santa Clarita, northwest of LA).
The retro symphonic score by Mandy Hoffman, who also scored Terri, can be streamed on spotify. Yesterday it was also on youtube, but today it has been removed for copyright reasons, most likely because the album is for sale at the usual outlets. The soundtrack includes a cover of It Must be Love sung by Letts (track 19 on the spotify playlist), which was a 1981 hit for the band Madness (video), performed in 1972 by its composer Labi Soffre (video), and is listed on imdb as being in eleven other movies.
We are firmly in line with Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 87%, and not its audiences at 43.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
Friday, May 26, 2017
Snatched (2017)
As the critics have said, this isn't a good movie, but we laughed pretty much the whole time anyway as Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn play an immature daughter and uptight mother who get kidnapped on an Ecuadorean vacation. Schumer was last blogged for Trainwreck and this is Hawn's first movie in 15 years. Here are a select few of her credits: 64 episodes of Laugh-In, won an Oscar for Cactus Flower (1969), nominated for Private Benjamin (1980), also noted for There's a Girl in My Soup (1970), Butterflies Are Free (1972), Shampoo (1975), The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976), Foul Play (1978), Best Friends (1982), Wildcats (1986), Overboard (1987), Death Becomes Her (1992), The First Wives Club (1996), Everyone Says I Love You (1996), The Out-of-Towners (1999), and The Banger Sisters (2002), and she got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this very month, May 2017. Included in the large cast are Ike Barinholtz (most recently Sisters) as the agoraphobic brother and Wanda Sykes (Bad Moms) and Joan Cusack (Welcome to Me) as a couple vacationing at the same resort. Cusack is very funny in her small part.
While filming in Hawaii Schumer and Sykes did pop-up comedy shows that sold out in hours, with the proceeds going to charity.
Directed by Jonathan Levine (50/50), written by Katie Dippold (the Ghostbusters reboot), and produced by, among others, Paul Feig (last in these pages for directing Ghostbusters above, which he also produced), the movie suffers from mood swings--dirty jokes to action, farce to family dysfunction.
There are a lot of great songs (here are a list of 23 and a playlist of 16), especially Soy Yo by Bomba Estéreo, as well as a soundtrack by Chris Bacon (Source Code) and Theodore Shapiro (Ghostbusters).
Rotten Tomatoes was our first indication not to have high expectations, averaging 36% critics and 35 audiences. Right before the movie started, there was a trailer with Schumer and Hawn thanking us for watching it with other people in a theatre. Sorry to say, Jack and I can't totally recommend doing that when it'll be available streaming soon enough. But if you do happen to see it in one format or another (be sure to get an uncensored version), do watch at least the beginning of the end credits, as Hawn cuts loose on the dance floor.
While filming in Hawaii Schumer and Sykes did pop-up comedy shows that sold out in hours, with the proceeds going to charity.
Directed by Jonathan Levine (50/50), written by Katie Dippold (the Ghostbusters reboot), and produced by, among others, Paul Feig (last in these pages for directing Ghostbusters above, which he also produced), the movie suffers from mood swings--dirty jokes to action, farce to family dysfunction.
There are a lot of great songs (here are a list of 23 and a playlist of 16), especially Soy Yo by Bomba Estéreo, as well as a soundtrack by Chris Bacon (Source Code) and Theodore Shapiro (Ghostbusters).
Rotten Tomatoes was our first indication not to have high expectations, averaging 36% critics and 35 audiences. Right before the movie started, there was a trailer with Schumer and Hawn thanking us for watching it with other people in a theatre. Sorry to say, Jack and I can't totally recommend doing that when it'll be available streaming soon enough. But if you do happen to see it in one format or another (be sure to get an uncensored version), do watch at least the beginning of the end credits, as Hawn cuts loose on the dance floor.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
This sequel to the 2014 blockbuster is predictably entertaining with plenty of laughs and great makeup and special effects, though a little heavy on the pop psychology: daddy issues, sibling rivalry, and a touch of Freud with a character named Ego. Returning from the first go-round are Chris Pratt (last blogged for Passengers) as Peter Quill, Zoe Saldana (most recently in Infinitely Polar Bear) as green-skinned Gamora, Bradley Cooper (after Joy he was a voice on the phone in 10 Cloverfield Lane) as the voice of Rocket who doesn't want to be called a raccoon, and Dave Bautista as Drax and Vin Diesel as the voice of Baby Groot (both of their last appearances in these pages were for the original Guardians of the Galaxy--Diesel voiced big Groot last time), to name a few. Joining up for this chapter are Kurt Russell (profiled in The Hateful Eight) as Ego and Sylvester Stallone (starred in yet another Rocky sequel, Creed) in a cameo.
James Gunn returns to the director's chair and writer's desk from the original and, this time, he is the only writer credited with the script and not with creating a concept or a character. As usual, keep your eyes peeled for Stan Lee's appearance, watching our heroes whiz by an unnamed planet.
Like so many big budget blockbusters, this has pages and pages of trivia factoids. One that caught my eye is that Gunn choreographed and performed the motion capture for Baby Groot's dance in the opening credits and it took almost two years to make just that sequence digitally. Also, his brother Sean performed motion capture for all of Rocket's scenes.
Awesome Mix Vol. 1 was integral to the first movie as Awesome Mix Vol. 2 is to this one. You can read the playlist on this page and listen to it from this one. Tyler Bates reprises his role as composer of the driving battle music, available on spotify.
We saw it two weeks ago and liked it fine, agreeing with Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences, who average 81 and 90% respectively. It's still playing everywhere in various formats and they've already started making Volume 3.
James Gunn returns to the director's chair and writer's desk from the original and, this time, he is the only writer credited with the script and not with creating a concept or a character. As usual, keep your eyes peeled for Stan Lee's appearance, watching our heroes whiz by an unnamed planet.
Awesome Mix Vol. 1 was integral to the first movie as Awesome Mix Vol. 2 is to this one. You can read the playlist on this page and listen to it from this one. Tyler Bates reprises his role as composer of the driving battle music, available on spotify.
We saw it two weeks ago and liked it fine, agreeing with Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences, who average 81 and 90% respectively. It's still playing everywhere in various formats and they've already started making Volume 3.
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016)
You don't have to be Jewish to love Norman Oppenheimer, a pushy nobody determined to connect people and get somewhere himself. In fact, you don't have to be Jewish to portray him either. The unlikely casting of gentile boomer heartthrob Richard Gere (last blogged for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) pays off in a layered performance that you won't forget. Steve Buscemi (most recently on the big screen in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone before starring in 56 episodes of Boardwalk Empire) is hilarious as the harried Rabbi and Michael Sheen (last blogged for Passengers) may have picked up some mannerisms for his part of Norman's nephew (or is he?) from years of dating Sarah Silverman. Both Sheen and Dan Stevens (just seen in Colossal) do well at trading their native English accents for New York ones. I shouldn't quibble about who's Jewish and who isn't--it's called acting, after all.
The key character in Norman's rise and fall is Israeli bureaucrat Micha Eshel, played by Lior Ashkenazi (new to me, he's had dozens of roles in his native Israel). Along the complex way, Harris Yulin and Josh Charles, who play father and son businessmen in five episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, are a business team in this movie (Yulin has 127 credits in his almost 80 year life, including Scarface (1983), Woody Allen's Another Woman (1988), Multiplicity (1996), Training Day (2001), and The Family Fang; and Charles was in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot but is best known for his TV work such as 45 episodes of Sports Night, 10 of Masters of Sex, 4 of Inside Amy Schumer, and 108 of The Good Wife). Hank Azaria (since I wrote about him in Love and Other Drugs he's continued his animation work, bringing his Simpsons episode total to 606, and is currently the dissolute title character in the profane and hilarious IFC series Brockmire, about a baseball play by play announcer) has a nice little cameo near the end.
Director/writer Joseph Cedar was born in New York but moved to Jerusalem at age 5. This is his sixth feature (I haven't seen any) and his first in English, and several of the production companies are Israeli. Yes, the story is complex, and Jack complained later that he found it somewhat hard to follow but, full disclosure, he was sleepy Saturday afternoon when we saw it so he may have missed some of the complexities.
I was wide awake and loved the music by Jun Miyake, who composed, among others, Lilies in the Valley and two more songs which were in Pina. The soundtrack for Norman doesn't seem to be available but here's a very long playlist of Miyake's work. The a cappella quartet's rendition of the haunting Mi Sheberach would be nice to find as well.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 80% for this sleeper and its audiences may also have been napping during the exposition, coming in at 70. I recommend it.
The key character in Norman's rise and fall is Israeli bureaucrat Micha Eshel, played by Lior Ashkenazi (new to me, he's had dozens of roles in his native Israel). Along the complex way, Harris Yulin and Josh Charles, who play father and son businessmen in five episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, are a business team in this movie (Yulin has 127 credits in his almost 80 year life, including Scarface (1983), Woody Allen's Another Woman (1988), Multiplicity (1996), Training Day (2001), and The Family Fang; and Charles was in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot but is best known for his TV work such as 45 episodes of Sports Night, 10 of Masters of Sex, 4 of Inside Amy Schumer, and 108 of The Good Wife). Hank Azaria (since I wrote about him in Love and Other Drugs he's continued his animation work, bringing his Simpsons episode total to 606, and is currently the dissolute title character in the profane and hilarious IFC series Brockmire, about a baseball play by play announcer) has a nice little cameo near the end.
Director/writer Joseph Cedar was born in New York but moved to Jerusalem at age 5. This is his sixth feature (I haven't seen any) and his first in English, and several of the production companies are Israeli. Yes, the story is complex, and Jack complained later that he found it somewhat hard to follow but, full disclosure, he was sleepy Saturday afternoon when we saw it so he may have missed some of the complexities.
I was wide awake and loved the music by Jun Miyake, who composed, among others, Lilies in the Valley and two more songs which were in Pina. The soundtrack for Norman doesn't seem to be available but here's a very long playlist of Miyake's work. The a cappella quartet's rendition of the haunting Mi Sheberach would be nice to find as well.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 80% for this sleeper and its audiences may also have been napping during the exposition, coming in at 70. I recommend it.
Thursday, May 18, 2017
3 Generations (2015)
Jack and I really liked this story of Ray, a 16 year old transitioning from female to male, his single mother Maggie, and Maggie's mother Dolly, who lives with her life partner Frances. Don't let the date fool you--this was released this month, almost two years after its appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival AKA TIFF.
The cast is terrific with Elle Fanning (last blogged for 20th Century Women, which had some similarities to this) as troubled Ray, Naomi Watts (most recently in these pages for While We're Young) as compassionate yet ambivalent Maggie, Susan Sarandon (last in My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea) as foot-in-mouth Dolly, and Linda Emond (most recently in Indignation) as peacemaker Frances. Dolly provides enough humor that some critics have called this a dramedy. More on them in a moment.
This is director/co-writer Gaby Dellal's third time directing (I don't think I saw first feature, On a Clear Day (2005), and know I missed her second in 2011) and first feature script, co-written with Nikole Beckwith, who directed and wrote one other.
West Dylan Thordson, who wrote some of the songs for Joy, provides a lovely indie score, which can be streamed from spotify on this link.
A few months ago, I signed a petition on change.org to get the MPAA to rate the movie PG-13 instead of R (for language), so that teenagers could freely see it. It worked!
There's a bit of home-movie video that I thought might cause Motion Picture Motion Sickness, but the moments are brief and I was unaffected so fellow sufferers need not worry. Here's the running list anyway.
Speaking of the critics, they're mean, averaging 30% on Rotten Tomatoes and its audiences only 40. We think they're not just mean, they're wrong.
The cast is terrific with Elle Fanning (last blogged for 20th Century Women, which had some similarities to this) as troubled Ray, Naomi Watts (most recently in these pages for While We're Young) as compassionate yet ambivalent Maggie, Susan Sarandon (last in My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea) as foot-in-mouth Dolly, and Linda Emond (most recently in Indignation) as peacemaker Frances. Dolly provides enough humor that some critics have called this a dramedy. More on them in a moment.
This is director/co-writer Gaby Dellal's third time directing (I don't think I saw first feature, On a Clear Day (2005), and know I missed her second in 2011) and first feature script, co-written with Nikole Beckwith, who directed and wrote one other.
West Dylan Thordson, who wrote some of the songs for Joy, provides a lovely indie score, which can be streamed from spotify on this link.
A few months ago, I signed a petition on change.org to get the MPAA to rate the movie PG-13 instead of R (for language), so that teenagers could freely see it. It worked!
There's a bit of home-movie video that I thought might cause Motion Picture Motion Sickness, but the moments are brief and I was unaffected so fellow sufferers need not worry. Here's the running list anyway.
Speaking of the critics, they're mean, averaging 30% on Rotten Tomatoes and its audiences only 40. We think they're not just mean, they're wrong.
Monday, May 8, 2017
My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea (2016)
Jack and I didn't love but definitely didn't hate this crazy animated feature about a sophomore who learns that his coastal California school may float away in a major earthquake. With a potpourri of animation styles and a great cast of voices, it will appeal to many.
Jason Schwartzman (last blogged for The Overnight) stars as Dash, Reggie Watts (covered in Creative Control) is Dash's best friend Assaf, Maya Rudolph (last in Maggie's Plan) is their friend Verti, Lena Dunham (blogged most recently for Don't Think Twice and This Is 40) is popular girl Mary, Susan Sarandon (last in these pages for her 1974 appearance in The Front Page) is Lunch Lady Lorraine, Alex Karpovsky (a regular on Dunham's series Girls, he was in Sleepwalk with Me) is stoner Drake, and John Cameron Mitchell (his best known acting gig is the title role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) which he directed and adapted from his stage musical, but he also had a recent series arc in Girls, not to mention lots of New York theatre work) makes an appearance in the third act as Brent Daniels.
This is the feature debut, after one short, of director/writer Dash Shaw, who worked in the art department of Mitchell's Rabbit Hole. It was first conceived as a short graphic novel.
Rani Sharone, who composed some additional music for Rock the Kasbah, provides a fun soundtrack that can be streamed in its entirety on spotify (here's a link).
We saw it on vacation a couple of days ago but it's playing locally. Rotten Tomatoes' critics like it a lot, averaging 88%, while its audiences are more lukewarm at 54. If this sounds good to you, better snap it up before it closes because it's not on my DVD release site.
Jason Schwartzman (last blogged for The Overnight) stars as Dash, Reggie Watts (covered in Creative Control) is Dash's best friend Assaf, Maya Rudolph (last in Maggie's Plan) is their friend Verti, Lena Dunham (blogged most recently for Don't Think Twice and This Is 40) is popular girl Mary, Susan Sarandon (last in these pages for her 1974 appearance in The Front Page) is Lunch Lady Lorraine, Alex Karpovsky (a regular on Dunham's series Girls, he was in Sleepwalk with Me) is stoner Drake, and John Cameron Mitchell (his best known acting gig is the title role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) which he directed and adapted from his stage musical, but he also had a recent series arc in Girls, not to mention lots of New York theatre work) makes an appearance in the third act as Brent Daniels.
This is the feature debut, after one short, of director/writer Dash Shaw, who worked in the art department of Mitchell's Rabbit Hole. It was first conceived as a short graphic novel.
Rani Sharone, who composed some additional music for Rock the Kasbah, provides a fun soundtrack that can be streamed in its entirety on spotify (here's a link).
We saw it on vacation a couple of days ago but it's playing locally. Rotten Tomatoes' critics like it a lot, averaging 88%, while its audiences are more lukewarm at 54. If this sounds good to you, better snap it up before it closes because it's not on my DVD release site.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Colossal (2016)
I loved this twisted sci-fi comedy about an alcoholic who discovers that she is both a monster terrorizing Seoul, Korea, but also her loser self in upstate New York; sort of Godzilla meets The Hangover. No surprise that Anne Hathaway (last blogged for Interstellar) is terrific in this role, Gloria, especially if you saw Rachel Getting Married. Fun fact: she was in her second trimester of pregnancy (it was a boy whose father is Hathaway's husband Adam Shulman) during the shoot. I never noticed any bump, but there are plenty of special effects in the movie, and, now that I think about it, Gloria frequently wears hiphugger pants with loose tops. Dan Stevens (profiled in Beauty and the Beast) as Tim, Jason Sudeikis (most recently in these pages for Sleeping with Other People, although we saw Race after it) as Oscar, and Austin Stowell (he was in Whiplash and played Francis Gary Powers in Bridge of Spies) as Joel all play important roles in Gloria's life. And Tim Blake Nelson (covered in The Homesman) does a nice job as barfly Garth.
Spanish director/writer Nacho Vigalondo (new to me, he has made three other features and many shorts, one of which was Oscar-nominated) is to be congratulated for an inventive story (although the makers of the 2014 Godzilla remake sued for similarities but they settled) that takes a turn in the second act. It's a nice touch that Gloria constantly plays with her hair, with a nice payoff early in the movie.
Though I confidently wrote upstate New York, due to Gloria's leaving New York City and moving to her hometown "up here," it was shot in Vancouver (and Seoul).
Composer Bear McReary (last scored 10 Cloverfield Lane) gives us spooky music which can be streamed from this link.
Not highly rated on Rotten Tomatoes (78 critics and 68% audiences), it will be in these parts another week and here's a list of theatres screening it nationwide. The DVD release date hasn't been announced yet, though Amazon would be happy to take your $29.98 for a pre-order (I'm not linking that page, due to spoilers and haters in the comments). If you can't make it to a big screen, try to remember to see it later on a small one.
Spanish director/writer Nacho Vigalondo (new to me, he has made three other features and many shorts, one of which was Oscar-nominated) is to be congratulated for an inventive story (although the makers of the 2014 Godzilla remake sued for similarities but they settled) that takes a turn in the second act. It's a nice touch that Gloria constantly plays with her hair, with a nice payoff early in the movie.
Composer Bear McReary (last scored 10 Cloverfield Lane) gives us spooky music which can be streamed from this link.
Not highly rated on Rotten Tomatoes (78 critics and 68% audiences), it will be in these parts another week and here's a list of theatres screening it nationwide. The DVD release date hasn't been announced yet, though Amazon would be happy to take your $29.98 for a pre-order (I'm not linking that page, due to spoilers and haters in the comments). If you can't make it to a big screen, try to remember to see it later on a small one.
Born in China (2017)
As always, Jack and I loved this year's Disneynature documentary, mainly about three animal families: a snow leopard with her two cubs, a cuddly panda with her one, and an extended family of hilarious golden monkeys. The last Disneynature doc that I blogged was Monkey Kingdom, and of the ten so far, we've seen the seven that were released on Earth Day weekends. John Krasinski (most recently in these pages for The Hollars) narrates with energy and humor along with Xun Zhou.
Chuan Lu is the director and co-writer along with David Fowler, Brian Leith, and Phil Chapman (all new to me) and five cinematographers do the honors on the ground and in the air. We've learned enough about the series to know that there are no digital effects--just hundreds of hours of film edited down to a short (in this case 1:16) feature.
The extreme close-ups of the animals are delightful, as well as the marvelous sound. I'm not sure how many speakers were in our theatre, but the birds were definitely chirping from over my left shoulder and not my right.
Lovely Chinese-inflected music is composed by Barnaby Taylor, who scored some other nature documentary series. Look at his website's home page for the paintings, and then listen to the music.
Because these movies take years to make, we were treated to a preview of next year's Dolphins. We're looking forward to the underwater photography.
My regular readers know that Jack and I always stay to read the credits. This time we stayed but didn't read much because there is so much added: film, stills, "making-of" clips, and a funny bit about a photographer commenting on his time lapse unit.
You can bring the children--although there's a bit of hunting, there is no blood. Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are slightly less enthused than we are, with averages of 83 and 79%. They're dumb. See it on the biggest screen with the best sound system you can find.
Chuan Lu is the director and co-writer along with David Fowler, Brian Leith, and Phil Chapman (all new to me) and five cinematographers do the honors on the ground and in the air. We've learned enough about the series to know that there are no digital effects--just hundreds of hours of film edited down to a short (in this case 1:16) feature.
The extreme close-ups of the animals are delightful, as well as the marvelous sound. I'm not sure how many speakers were in our theatre, but the birds were definitely chirping from over my left shoulder and not my right.
Lovely Chinese-inflected music is composed by Barnaby Taylor, who scored some other nature documentary series. Look at his website's home page for the paintings, and then listen to the music.
Because these movies take years to make, we were treated to a preview of next year's Dolphins. We're looking forward to the underwater photography.
My regular readers know that Jack and I always stay to read the credits. This time we stayed but didn't read much because there is so much added: film, stills, "making-of" clips, and a funny bit about a photographer commenting on his time lapse unit.
You can bring the children--although there's a bit of hunting, there is no blood. Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are slightly less enthused than we are, with averages of 83 and 79%. They're dumb. See it on the biggest screen with the best sound system you can find.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Little Boxes (2016)
Jack and I really liked this indie movie about a family (white art professor mom, black writer dad, their middle school son) who move from Brooklyn to a fictional lily-white Washington state town. We streamed it on amazon for a small fee two weeks ago and enjoyed it at home.
Melanie Lynskey (after The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World and They Came Together, she was wonderful in 16 episodes of Togetherness) and Nelsan Ellis (last blogged for Get On Up) are great as the parents Gina and Mack, as is Armani Jackson (I guess I saw his six episodes of Grey's Anatomy but don't remember, maybe because he was much littler then) as their son Clark. Oona Laurence, as Clark's new friend Ambrosia, looked familiar, because we've seen her in the trailer for the Sofia Coppola movie The Beguiled several times and she and Miranda McKeon (as Julie) are both good, too. Here's a photo of the three kids at the premiere. Janeane Garofolo (I'm fond of her acerbic work, including The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996), 52 episodes of The Larry Sanders Show, Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion (1997), Ratatouille, and the first season of Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce; we also saw her perform live recently at a New York comedy club, rambling somewhat incoherently, doing a set along with at least five other comedians) has a nice cameo as another professor.
Director Rob Meyer won a bunch of awards for a 2008 short and a couple for his first feature in 2013. This is his second. Writer Annie Howell is credited with two other features, co-directed and -written with another person, and this movie is also known as Nowhere Ever After. I can't find any of the music by Kris Bowers to stream online so I can't recommend it or not.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are not feeling our love, averaging 67 and 53% respectively. Nonetheless, we thought it was terrific.
Melanie Lynskey (after The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World and They Came Together, she was wonderful in 16 episodes of Togetherness) and Nelsan Ellis (last blogged for Get On Up) are great as the parents Gina and Mack, as is Armani Jackson (I guess I saw his six episodes of Grey's Anatomy but don't remember, maybe because he was much littler then) as their son Clark. Oona Laurence, as Clark's new friend Ambrosia, looked familiar, because we've seen her in the trailer for the Sofia Coppola movie The Beguiled several times and she and Miranda McKeon (as Julie) are both good, too. Here's a photo of the three kids at the premiere. Janeane Garofolo (I'm fond of her acerbic work, including The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996), 52 episodes of The Larry Sanders Show, Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion (1997), Ratatouille, and the first season of Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce; we also saw her perform live recently at a New York comedy club, rambling somewhat incoherently, doing a set along with at least five other comedians) has a nice cameo as another professor.
Director Rob Meyer won a bunch of awards for a 2008 short and a couple for his first feature in 2013. This is his second. Writer Annie Howell is credited with two other features, co-directed and -written with another person, and this movie is also known as Nowhere Ever After. I can't find any of the music by Kris Bowers to stream online so I can't recommend it or not.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are not feeling our love, averaging 67 and 53% respectively. Nonetheless, we thought it was terrific.
Monday, May 1, 2017
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
I loved this sentimental live-action version of the 1991 animated musical. I went by myself Thursday, because Jack was watching the NFL draft, to see it at the last place in town showing it in 3D. I had the room to myself and had a ball. I don't remember if in the original we met the castle staff as humans before they were turned into talking objects, but in this one we do. It's important to note that there was a Disney stage musical (opened in 1994 on Broadway with many tours and revivals since then, but I didn't see any) in between the original Disney animated feature and this (Disney) live action one.
In the title roles Emma Watson (last blogged for Noah) and Dan Stevens (best known for 25 episodes of Downton Abbey as Matthew Crawley, but I enjoyed a few of the new series Legion and especially his three of High Maintenance as a pot-smoking cross-dresser named Colin) are very good. Kevin Kline (most recently in these pages for Ricki and the Flash) is predictably wonderful as Belle's father and Audra MacDonald (who played Kline's wife in Ricki and the Flash) brings her operatic chops to the role of the singer, Madame Garderobe, who becomes a wardrobe. Because of his broad grinning prosthetic teeth I did not recognize Stanley Tucci (last in Spotlight) as the musician who becomes a harpsichord, Maestro Cadenza. Luke Evans (new to me) is the arrogant Gaston with the powerful voice and Josh Gad (most recently in Jobs) is sweet as LeFou, Gaston's sidekick who is in love with him. The addition of a gay character has been a source of some controversy (this is a good article about it with spoilers clearly avoidable). Emma Thompson's (last in Burnt) accent as Mrs. Potts is so thick it's a bit hard to identify her voice, as is Ewan McGregor's (most recently in T2 Trainspotting) as Lumiére. And the venerable Sir Ian McKellen (last in X-Men: Days of Future Past) is the clock Cogsworth. Lumiére's love interest, who was named Babette in the animated and stage versions, is now Plumette (was it something I said?) and voiced by Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Concussion). All of them sing and I didn't wince once.
Bill Condon (Oscar winner for adapting the screenplay of Gods and Monsters (1998) which he directed, also directed Kinsey (2004) and the musicals Chicago (2002) and Dreamgirls (2006)) keeps us engaged over the 2:09 running time, working from an adaptation by Steven Chbosky (who adapted his own novel for The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and Evan Spiliotopoulos (new to me).
As far as I can tell, this version has all the original songs by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman and includes additional lyrics by Ashman in the songs Belle, Gaston, and Be Our Guest written in 1991 but not used. There are also three brand new songs by Menken and Tim Rice: How Does a Moment Last Forever, Days in the Sun, and Evermore.
Be Our Guest is as wonderful as I had hoped, with parts reminiscent of the Disney movie Fantasia and the musicals of Busby Berkeley. Videos are hard to come by, as Disney has possibly the best copyright infringement protection of any studio, but this playlist has the entire soundtrack, at least until it's yanked by legal. Then, over the credits there's another version of Beauty and the Beast by Ariana Grande and John Legend, as well as How Does a Moment Last Forever by Céline Dion and Evermore by Josh Groban.
Trivia and other factoids abound so I'll give you my three favorites. 1. Ryan Gosling turned down the role of Beast to star in La La Land and Emma Watson turned down the starring role in La La Land to be in this one. 2. Here's a video clip of "Easter eggs" from this movie. It has spoilers but with a warning so you can avoid them if you want. 3. Unadjusted for inflation, it is the most expensive musical ever at $160 million. I'm not worried about Disney. Opening weekend grossed $170m in North America alone and, as of this weekend, its seventh, it has grossed over $480m.
We audiences, averaging 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, like it better than critics at 71. Wonderful in 3D but not necessary if you want to wait for your home theatre. There's a fairly violent battle at the end, so parents be forewarned.
In the title roles Emma Watson (last blogged for Noah) and Dan Stevens (best known for 25 episodes of Downton Abbey as Matthew Crawley, but I enjoyed a few of the new series Legion and especially his three of High Maintenance as a pot-smoking cross-dresser named Colin) are very good. Kevin Kline (most recently in these pages for Ricki and the Flash) is predictably wonderful as Belle's father and Audra MacDonald (who played Kline's wife in Ricki and the Flash) brings her operatic chops to the role of the singer, Madame Garderobe, who becomes a wardrobe. Because of his broad grinning prosthetic teeth I did not recognize Stanley Tucci (last in Spotlight) as the musician who becomes a harpsichord, Maestro Cadenza. Luke Evans (new to me) is the arrogant Gaston with the powerful voice and Josh Gad (most recently in Jobs) is sweet as LeFou, Gaston's sidekick who is in love with him. The addition of a gay character has been a source of some controversy (this is a good article about it with spoilers clearly avoidable). Emma Thompson's (last in Burnt) accent as Mrs. Potts is so thick it's a bit hard to identify her voice, as is Ewan McGregor's (most recently in T2 Trainspotting) as Lumiére. And the venerable Sir Ian McKellen (last in X-Men: Days of Future Past) is the clock Cogsworth. Lumiére's love interest, who was named Babette in the animated and stage versions, is now Plumette (was it something I said?) and voiced by Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Concussion). All of them sing and I didn't wince once.
Bill Condon (Oscar winner for adapting the screenplay of Gods and Monsters (1998) which he directed, also directed Kinsey (2004) and the musicals Chicago (2002) and Dreamgirls (2006)) keeps us engaged over the 2:09 running time, working from an adaptation by Steven Chbosky (who adapted his own novel for The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and Evan Spiliotopoulos (new to me).
As far as I can tell, this version has all the original songs by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman and includes additional lyrics by Ashman in the songs Belle, Gaston, and Be Our Guest written in 1991 but not used. There are also three brand new songs by Menken and Tim Rice: How Does a Moment Last Forever, Days in the Sun, and Evermore.
Be Our Guest is as wonderful as I had hoped, with parts reminiscent of the Disney movie Fantasia and the musicals of Busby Berkeley. Videos are hard to come by, as Disney has possibly the best copyright infringement protection of any studio, but this playlist has the entire soundtrack, at least until it's yanked by legal. Then, over the credits there's another version of Beauty and the Beast by Ariana Grande and John Legend, as well as How Does a Moment Last Forever by Céline Dion and Evermore by Josh Groban.
Trivia and other factoids abound so I'll give you my three favorites. 1. Ryan Gosling turned down the role of Beast to star in La La Land and Emma Watson turned down the starring role in La La Land to be in this one. 2. Here's a video clip of "Easter eggs" from this movie. It has spoilers but with a warning so you can avoid them if you want. 3. Unadjusted for inflation, it is the most expensive musical ever at $160 million. I'm not worried about Disney. Opening weekend grossed $170m in North America alone and, as of this weekend, its seventh, it has grossed over $480m.
We audiences, averaging 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, like it better than critics at 71. Wonderful in 3D but not necessary if you want to wait for your home theatre. There's a fairly violent battle at the end, so parents be forewarned.
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