First off, apologies for getting off schedule. Ever since going on vacation, I haven’t been following my usual routines. I’ve also been relying on Twitter instead to keep track of my pop culture life. But, I do have more to say than 140 characters per outing. So here are some more thoughts/reviews:
Billy Elliot
I enjoy musical theater. A couple of my all-time favorite movies are musicals- Easter Parade and Singing in the Rain. However, I’m a Broadway cynic. It is difficult to put aside the exorbitant ticket prices although if your schedule is flexible, TKTS and box offices do offer slightly less expensive alternatives. If I’m laying out that much financially and/or time-wise for something, I expect it to be worthwhile. Tonys and other accolades mean something but only a bit. I’ve been sorely disappointed by award-winning productions (Contact, Boy from Oz – Hugh Jackman is talented but the show is beyond cheesy). When I’m fortunate to see things without paying or waiting for tickets, I try to be less critical & be appreciative but then I imagine if I had actually paid for my ticket and have to admit I would’ve been mad/disappointed/annoyed (Grease – a good high school production). I’ve seen many high caliber high school productions but I don’t want to see them on Broadway! Anyway, I’ve found it is more gratifying to sit in decent seats for these shows. So as a result of my high demands and limited resources, I try to pick and choose. A fellow Pop Culture Addict suggested seeing Billy Elliot and I agreed although it was not high on my list. I figured it would be respectable. I’ve seen the movie and remember liking it. The actual Broadway production blew me away. I had seen those kids performing on the Tonys but it really did not translate on tv how talented they are and how inspired the choreography is. The Billys alternate. I adored the one I saw Kiril Kulish. The combination of his talent and training with the conditioning the show gave him is definitely a magical formula. The show songs are just regular songs, but the dances, solo, duet, group are incredible. I am stingy with my standing ovations but I was one of the first to stand right up. Of the three of us in my party, I was most impressed. One of us felt let down and was expecting more. It probably made a difference that I was expecting less. The third PCA liked the show very much. So a range of reviews from my party but I have been recommending the show to everyone.
Orphan
A fellow PCA said, there must be a reason these good actors (Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard) are in this silly-looking movie. I saw Peter Saarsgard on Conan saying he plays the character people will be yelling at for making mistakes. He sure was! Manohla Dargis wrote the movie was fine but too long for what it was. Personally, I enjoyed it a lot. I would even say I was surprised at how entertaining I found it. I couldn’t tell from the trailers how much of a supernatural element there was to it. It added to the suspense for me. I feel like all the twists ad turns will be common knowledge by the time I post this. Too bad. I had it half right but even then I was going in a different direction from the movie. Also, if it is not glaringly obvious, I try not to figure things out and just try to enjoy the movie. I am still thinking about the movie and wouldn’t mind seeing it again with a different eye. So Orphan is a movie to watch if you are in the mood for a scary, gory, violent movie. I’m not going to dwell on the movie-goers who brought little kids to it. I know ratings are guidelines and sometimes kids can take it but usually this is more for humorous movies and less so for scary movies. I’m thinking of the mom and dad who brought their (not so little) kids to see the South Park movie. They sat in front of me and laughed together. The kids in Orphan were great. I want to give props to Isabelle Fuhrman and Aryana Engineer in particular but Jimmy Bennett had his role to play. The girls had a lot of scenes together and sold it!
Thirst
I’m going to explain the plot because it will help you if you see it and I don’t think it will spoil anything. I wish I had known a bit more because I would’ve been able to apply it to what was on-screen. There’s this highly moral Catholic priest. He volunteers to go to Africa and be injected with this deadly virus they are trying to cure. He allows himself to be subject to various cures, some involving blood transfusions. We see him die. Then almost immediately he comes back to life and he is deemed the miracle worker who rose from the dead. He returns to Korea where people want his touch and prayers. He doesn’t know what is going on with his body. He notices a bunch of odd things in this order: he is highly attuned to the smell of human blood, his senses are sharpening, his strength & agility are also supernatural. Then his body starts to show signs of the virus. He is driven to drink human blood which turns out to keep the virus at bay. He determines that during his last blood transfusion, he was given vampire blood. This vampire blood is a cure the disease. But now as a vampire, he must drink blood on a regular basis. Park Chan-Wook successfully makes a unique and interesting movie that’s an original take on the vampire genre.
In the Loop
I saw this for free but I would pay to see it. That’s a good review, don’t you think? It’s a political satire that preaches to the choir but it’s told from a UK point of view so that makes it different from Wag the Dog, etc. Zach Woods did a great Q & A afterwards. I was impressed by his poise and humor. Then I remembered I saw him do improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade. Those people are not joke. I mean, they are hilarious but improv is hard! They make it look easy and made us all laugh with their performances.
Somers Town and In a Lonely Place
I am putting these movies together because I saw them both at Film Forum. But they are from completely different time periods and are not related in any other way. Both were fantastic. I highly recommend both. Somers Town is by Shane Meadows who debuted with the amazing and disturbing semi-autobiographical pic This is England. I loved the teens in Somers Town. The little kid from This is England is now a teenager. He meets this Polish immigrant kid who is lonely and trying to establish an identity. They develop the sweetest friendship. I love their crush on the French girl. Their entrepreneurial neighbor is also a memorable character. The father-son relationship is wonderful to watch. And as a bonus, this movie is only 71 minutes long. See it!
In a Lonely Place is a movie from 1950 starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame. I had never seen it but I was glad to see it for the first time on a big screen. I was thinking Humphrey Bogart’s mercurial screenwriter character was probably what director Nick Ray was like. I later read that this was in fact true. Also, Nick Ray was in the process of divorcing Gloria Grahame. So basically, Hollywood life has always been complicated. Anyway, the movie was great. Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame had great chemistry and really conveyed the attraction and repulsion well.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
I enjoyed it thoroughly. The kids have dramatically improved in their acting. They really captured the mood and characters created by J.K. Rowling. My only complaints would be that I found out later that the 3D segment, the first 20 minutes or so, are not in non-3D for people who see it in non-IMAX. So those 20 minutes of film just aren’t included. This bugs diehards because it means that much plot goes unexplained. But for me, I wouldn’t mind so much. But it seems like it should’ve been included for both versions. My other minor complaint is that while I enjoyed the 3D portion, those IMAX glasses were not the most comfortable.
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