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May '14 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 13 May 2014 21:40
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Blazing Saddles—40th Anniversary
(Warners)
Mel Brooks’ legendarily crude 1974 western has become a classic despite the fact that it probably has two misfired jokes for every one that hits: but its gleeful sendup of every cinematic cliché and racial stereotype in the book makes it one smart “dumb” comedy.
Even with Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Cleavon Little and Slim Pickens, Madeleine Kahn steals the movie—naturally—as the hilariously named Lili von Schtupp. The Blu-ray has the same sharp transfer from the previous release; extras are the same along with a new half-hour Brooks reminiscence.
Otello
(Decca)
Since she rarely performs in New York, it’s always a treat to watch (and listen to) Italian opera superstar Cecilia Bartoli in action: she’s still at the top of her game in these relative rarities by Giacomo Rossini, a comic romp and dark tragedy.
In Comte, Bartoli glitters as a Countess being wooed by a Count in disguise; in Otello—not the masterly Verdi opera—the soprano is heartbreaking as the innocent Desdemona. On Blu-ray, the hi-def transfers and sound are peerless.
Dave Clark Five—Glad All Over
(PBS)
In this (for many) eye- and ear-opening documentary, the meteoric career of one of the British Invasion’s unsung bands is recounted in interviews with Dave Clark, other band members, and fans/colleagues from Paul McCartney and Elton John to Freddie Mercury and Twiggy, along with endless snatches of tunes and videos.
Too much credence is given to the claim that they were as good as the Beatles or Stones, but this snapshot of rock’n’roll history is lively and well-told. The Blu-ray image looks quite good; another disc comprises two extra hours of interviews and performances.
Home of the Brave
(Olive Films)
These World War II-set dramas treat their soldier protagonists seriously, even if they diverge when it comes to dramatizing heroism or jingoism: 1942’s Tigers stars John Wayne as the macho commander of a group of daring American flyers who take to the air against their wily Japanese enemies.
1949’s clumsy but compelling Brave—from Arthur Laurents’ play—concerns a black soldier dealing with the army’s institutionalized racism while fighting the war in the Pacific. Both B&W films look stellar on Blu-ray.
Her
(Warners)
One of the most absurdly overrated films of recent vintage, Spike Jonze’s computer romance about a lonely, anti-social geek who (surprise!) falls in love with the voice of his operating system is so pleased with itself that it drones on for two stultifying hours, stretching its one-note premise far beyond its meager limit.
Joaquin Phoenix’s goofily-moustached, nerdy-glasses wearing protagonist would be more plausible if he wasn’t so patently and symbolically desperate for some sort of connection, just so that everything can fall neatly into place in Jonze’s leaky (but somehow Oscar-winning) screenplay. On Blu-ray, the movie’s visuals look snazzy; extras include shorts and featurettes.
(Criterion)
For the 70th anniversary of D-Day, this visceral reenactment of what it was like for Allied soldiers coming ashore amidst that day’s carnage is out on hi-def, courtesy of the Criterion Collection.
Stuart Cooper’s 1975 small-scale film might not have the impact of a Full Metal Jacket, but its immediacy draws the viewer in, thanks to gritty B&W photography by John Alcott (himself a Kubrick associate) and forceful performances by Brian Stirner in the lead and Julie Neesam as the girl. The hi-def transfer looks miraculously good; extras include a Cooper/Stirner commentary, Cooper short film and various pieces documenting the war and the footage used in the film.
The Wind and the Lion
(Warner Archive)
John Milius’s spirited 1975 yarn, which overcomes its reliance on Rudyard Kipling-esque adventure clichés, has Spanish locations standing in for Morocco—the tangy cinematography is by Billy Williams—and amusing performances as Sean Connery as the Berber pirate who kidnaps an American widow (an unfortunately dull Candice Bergen) and Brian Keith as a blustery President Theodore Roosevelt.
The Blu-ray image is strong; extras are a Milius commentary and vintage making-of featurette.
After Tiller
(Oscilloscope)
One of the most devastating documentaries I’ve seen, Martha Shane and Lana Wilson’s study of the only four doctors in America who perform late-term abortions following the cold-blooded murder of Dr. George Tiller doesn’t flinch from diving headfirst into the complexities of the abortion debate.
There is no demonizing or caricaturing either side as the emotionally drained doctors are seen doing what they must for women desperate enough to want the procedure to avoid an even worse fate. An extraordinary array of extras includes a Sundance Festival Q&A with directors and doctors; an interview with the directors and one with Dr. Susan Robinson; and a vintage Tiller interview.
Alexander Calder
(First Run)
One of the great sculptors of the 20thcentury, Alexander Calder created an entirely new medium, the mobile, and also created massive artworks that have been placed in public plazas throughout the world, as this smart, succinct 1998 PBS American Masters documentary shows.
This entertaining 60-minute summary of this truly unique artist features several historians, art critics and others (like his good friend Arthur Miller) discussing Calder in familiar yet awed terms.
(Sundance Selects)
Noah Chomsky’s challenging theories in linguistics and philosophy—among much else—are brought vividly to life in this often playful film by French director Michel Gondry. Gondry’s witty animated passages superbly make what might seem arcane and distant to some viewers stimulating and comprehensible.
Extras are an animated making-of featurette, an interview with Gondry, and a Docfest Q&A with Gondry and Chomsky.
Kennedy’s Brain
(MHZ Networks)
This taut, globe-trotting mini-series, based on the book by Swedish novelist Henning Mankell, was dubbed into German for the local TV market, which is how it’s presented on DVD somewhat confusingly.
An archeologist whose son turns up dead in Sweden tries to find out what happened and, when she discovers that he was uncovering dangerous information about corrupt government officials, goes to Cape Town and Mozambique to dig up more evidence and becomes embroiled in more mysterious doings.
(Warner Archive)
Although his narcissism blunts this look at the near Herculean task of raising money for new films, director James Toback shrewdly lets Alec Baldwin, Martin Scorsese, Bernardo Bertolucci and Roman Polanski discuss their own amusing travails in the movie business.
With the Cannes Film Festival as a backdrop, cinematic history drenches the movie despite Toback’’s usual crudeness—he foolishly hopes to get financing for a quasi-remake of Last Tango in Paris set in Iraq. The lone extra is Baldwin interviewing Toback.
NYC Theater Roundup: Brits Off Broadway 2014
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 13 May 2014 04:17
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Playing with Grown Ups
Written by Hannah Patterson; directed by Hannah Eidonow
Previews began April 29, 2014; closes May 18
The Love Song of Alfred J. Hitchcock
Written by David Rudkin; directed by Jack McNamara
Previews began May 1, 2014; closes May 25
It’s that time of year again: Brits Off Broadway, a staple of New York theater since 2005, returns, providing another chance to see an imported stable of talented writers, performers and directors bringing their shows from across the pond. Chief among these, of course, is the Stephen Joseph Theatre, where master playwright Alan Ayckbourn has plied his elevated trade for decades. This year, Ayckbourn brings three works here—two new plays and a double bill of one-acts—which open in June. Meanwhile, I caught two Brits stagings: one impressive, the other not.
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| Hughes and Jackson in Playing with Grown Ups (photo: Carol Rosegg) |
A concise comic drama, Playing with Grown Ups explores an increasingly common “new” reality: a wife in her late 30s can’t deal with her newborn. Joanna, literary historian who “resurrects” forgotten women writers, is married to Robert, who teaches film courses at the local university. Baby Lily has frazzled Joanna, making her unable to handle the routines of parenting: when Lily cries, needs to be fed or changed, Joanna goes berserk. So Robert inviting his colleague and close friend Jake—also Joanna’s former flame—to their place for dinner is not the best idea, especially since Jake brings his latest conquest: 17-year-old student Stella.
Playwright Hannah Patterson and director Hannah Eidinow might ratchet up the drama until its overwrought finale, which falls flat even if, as shown onstage, it’s about the only place the story and characters can go. But despite that miscue, Patterson writes precise, literate and amusing dialogue for these characters—although Stella is far too mature for her age (which is 16 in the script; is 17 more palatable for American puritans?)—and Eidinow directs persuasively.
Daisy Hughes plays Stella with a commanding winningness that makes believable her superiority to the three adults, played compassionately by Trudi Jackson (Joanna), Mark Rice-Oxley (Robert) and Alan Cox (Jake). Despite flaws, Playing with Grown Ups treats its adult subject matter with intelligence.
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| Miller in The Love Song of Alfred J. Hitchcock (photo: Carol Rosegg) |
As a fan of the Master of Suspense, I was predisposed to like The Love Song of Alfred J. Hitchcock. So it’s too bad David Rudkin’s underwhelming psychodrama regurgitates clichés about Hitch, from his overbearing mother to his problems with women in general.
Initially, Love Song promises drollness, as Martin Miller—who looks like Toronto mayor Rob Ford—gives an impersonation of Hitch, not a caricatured impression: he credibly approximates Hitch’s voice, gait and physicality. But since Rudkin merely skims over moments in Hitch’s life—equating a couple of them with Psycho and Strangers on a Train, complete with obvious musical and dialogue cues for those who miss the similarities—the show becomes painfully inert, despite director Jack McNamara’s attempts to enliven the proceedings.
It’s somewhat perverse trying to resurrect an original film director in the medium of theater. Although Hitchcock would have found a clever way around it, Rudkin and McNamara are unable to find a stage equivalent. The Love Song of Alfred J. Hitchcock—even the title’s allusion to T.S. Eliot’s poem Prufrock is a desperate bid to gild itself by association to a greater work of art—commits the cardinal sin of being dull, which Hitchcock’s best films never were.
Playing with Grown Ups
The Love Song of Alfred J. Hitchcock
59 E 59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, New York, NY
britsoffbroadway.com
NYC Music Roundup—‘Here Lies Love’ @ the Public; Britten, Chenoweth @ Carnegie
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 09 May 2014 22:37
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Here Lies Love
Concept, music & lyrics by David Byrne; music by Fatboy Slim; directed by Alex Timbers
Choreographed by Annie-B Parson
Previews began April 14, 2014; opened May 1
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
April 30, 2014
Kristin Chenoweth
May 3, 2014
Carnegie Hall, 57th Street & 7th Avenue, New York, NY
carnegiehall.org
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| Here Lies Love (photo: Joan Marcus) |
It’s easy to see why Here Lies Love, which has returned for an open-ended run, is a hit with audiences and reviewers: this show about Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has music by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim and was directed by Alex Timbers, a director of endless visual inventiveness who involves the audience in the show to such a degree that it becomes an “event” for those in attendance.
But Here Lies Love is also a colossally lightweight affair that relies so much on gimmickry that it collapses on itself, which could be a metaphor for the corruption of power that finished off the Marcos regime. The show’s paltry idea—that Imelda enjoyed going to clubs while traveling the world as the Philippine first lady so the songs and the staging provide a club atmosphere for the entire 90 minutes—is reflected in the music: Byrne’s and Slim’s songs are interchangeable, unmemorable and repetitive. Exceptions are the title song, a soaring ballad whose chorus sounds like the “oh oh oh” bridge of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” and “The Fabulous One,” a rousing anthem for Marcos’ political opponent (and anti-Marcos martyr) Benigno Aquino, which has the spiky wit and rhythmic vigor of the Talking Heads’ heyday. But the rest are sheer noise, smothered as they are by Slim’s relentless club beats.
That leaves Timbers’ staging, which utilizes the LuEsther Hall space of the Public Theater to great effect. Various risers and platforms are endlessly movable so the action can be seen on all four sides of the audience (there are seats upstairs for those who don’t want to stand for 90 minutes or be herded like sheep from one side of the floor to the other). Flexible stagehands keep everything and everybody on the move—the clever choreography is by Annie-B Parson—ensuring audience members aren’t run over.
In his Broadway show Rocky, Timbers brings part of the audience onstage and moves part of the stage into the audience. Here, he melds audience, stage and performance together. But despite his cleverness, Here Lies Love is shrill, loud and paper-thin: in other words, a perfect club show.
* * * * * * * * *
Carnegie Hall’s final Britten Centenary concert was a doozy: Britten’s War Requiem—one of the towering works of the last century—was performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and three soloists under the baton of conductor Robert Spano. War Requiem is one of those works that, no matter how many times I’ve heard it on recordings, has never lost its ability to reduce me to a quivering, drained mass of jelly in the concert hall. And this was no exception.
Composed for the 1962 consecration of a new Coventry Cathedral in England after the 14th century original was destroyed by Nazi bombing, Britten’s pacifistic masterpiece sets the standard Latin Mass for the Dead alongside poems of Wilfred Owen, himself killed in the trenches of World War I. The piece’s masterly structure is so brilliantly designed as to be unique in Britten’s—or anyone else’s—canon, and believers and non-believers alike find themselves emotionally shattered at the conclusion of this unforgettable plea for peace.
Spano and his orchestra’s taut reading captured the music as it alternates between soaring expansiveness and anguished intimacy, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (placed in the balcony) and the orchestra’s own chorus sounded luminous throughout. Soprano Evelina Dobraceva and baritone Stephen Powell sang with immense power, while tenor Thomas Cooley—a last-minute replacement for an ill Anthony Dean Griffey—showed that he’s no stranger to Britten’s music, singing with authority, soulfulness and strength in a sterling performance of a work for the ages.
A few nights later, another vocal powerhouse in the form of soprano Kristin Chenoweth appeared at Carnegie: her Evolution of a Soprano was a delightful, stirring journey through the acclaimed award-winning actress-singer’s brilliant career, from her Christian upbringing in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to her current musical theater eminence.
The diminutive Chenoweth had the audience in the palm of her hand from the start, telling hilarious stories in between numbers from Broadway shows she starred in and some she one day hopes to (a song from Mame), which she sang in a gleaming yet powerful voice that somehow emanates from her 4’11” frame.
Special guests were boy soprano Sam Poon, who sang a lovely duet with Chenoweth from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem; a trio of backing vocalists, helping bring the house down with the Christian song “Upon This Rock” (before which Chenoweth sagely told those who aren’t Christian that they shouldn’t worry, it would be over in four minutes); singer-composer Andrew Lippa, serenaded by his heartfelt same-sex love song “One Day”; and opera superstar (and Chenoweth’s self-professed idol) Deborah Voigt, who joined in for an hilarious “Anything You Can Do” from Annie Get Your Gun.
But no one eclipsed the star, who ended on a subdued but entirely appropriate note: finally eschewing her microphone, she sang an emotional, unamplified “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables that sent her audience home sated and ecstatic.
Here Lies Love
Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, New York, NY
herelieslove.com
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
April 30, 2014
Kristin Chenoweth
May 3, 2014
Carnegie Hall, 57th Street & 7th Avenue, New York, NY
carnegiehall.org
May '14 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 06 May 2014 03:49
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
The Art of the Steal
(Anchor Bay/Starz)
The targets in Jonathan Sobol’s caper flick—the Guttenberg Bible and a Seurat painting—are not the usual Hollywood fluff, although the zany motley criminal crew led by Matt Dillon and Kurt Russell as double-crossing half-brothers is.
With Terence Stamp and Jason Jones making an amusingly ragtag Interpol team, the adversaries are offbeat enough to keep this 90-minute heist movie afloat, even if it evaporates from memory when it ends. The Blu-ray image looks good; extras include making-of featurettes and director commentary.
Hit the Deck
(Warner Archive)
This colorful 1955 musical directed by Roy Rowland might not be an obvious winner in the era of Guys and Dolls, An American in Paris and Singin’ in the Rain, but its killer cast (Debbie Reynolds, Jane Powell and Ann Miller) performs songs like “The Lady from the Bayou” and “More Than You Know” while hoofing it up to Hermes Pan’s choreography.
This musical about sailors may not be On the Town, but it’s endless Technicolor fun all the same. The movie looks splendid on Blu-ray.
Mobius
(Lionsgate)
Director Eric Rochant’s breakneck thriller features The Artist Oscar winner Jean Dujardin, typecast as a suave Russian double agent in Paris who falls for his latest mark, played by a stunning Cecile de France.
There are enough dizzying double crosses to make the viewer forget the many inconsistencies that are par for the course in the spy genre, and Tim Roth and John Lynch provide solid Anglo support. On Blu-ray, the fantastic locales and glamorous stars look their hi-def best; extras include interviews.
Mr. Jones
(Anchor Bay/Starz)
The storyline of this found-footage horror film—a couple looking for peace and quiet stumble upon an infamous sculptor whose malevolent works start terrifying them to within an inch of their lives—is acceptable.
Too bad that, after a strong set-up, the payoff has scant originality or scares, even if Sarah Jones and Mark Steger are a credible couple and director Karl Mueller stretch this out to 80 watchable (if forgettable) minutes. The hi-def transfer looks fine.
Parsifal
(Sony Classical)
Salome
(Arthaus Musik)
In his reverent Metropolitan Opera staging of Richard Wagner’s final, ethereal opera Parsifal, director Francois Girard has a formidable cast—Jonas Kaufman as Parsifal, Rene Pape, Katarina Dalayman and Peter Mattei—performing vocal magic under conductor Danielle Gatti’s sensitive baton.
Richard Strauss’ still biting Salome, from Oscar Wilde’s play about the teenager who danced for John the Baptist’s head on a platter, has a sexy Salome in Swedish soprano Erika Sunnegardh in Gabriele Lavia’s otherwise adequate 2010 production. Both operas look and sound smashing on Blu-ray; Parsifal extras include backstage interviews.
Toto—Live in Poland: 35thAnniversary Tour
(Eagle Rock)
Who knew that Toto—a band whose last hit was in 1982—was still performing for fans around the world? Based on the Polish crowd’s fervent response to this 2013 concert, apparently Toto is still a big deal.
Hits “Africa,” “Rosanna” and “Hold the Line” get huge responses, of course, but surprisingly so do deep album cuts like “Hydra” and “St. George and the Dragon”; original members David Paich and Steve Lukather (whose blistering guitar solos are the highlights of the show) are well-augmented by an army of session men and vocalists. The concert looks and sounds impeccable in hi-def; extras are interviews with band members.
Veronica Mars
(Warners)
I know I’m not the target audience for this by-the-numbers comic mystery based on a TV series I never watched, but Rob Thomas’s overlong movie version moves at a snail’s pace, has little dramatic urgency and true comedy, and is populated with cardboard characters, lazy plotting and phoned-in performances.
Many fans signed up to fund this through Kickstarter; let’s hope that they feel they got their money’s worth. The Blu-ray image is top-notch; extras include interviews and deleted scenes.
DVDs of the Week
The Address
(PBS)
In his new 90-minute PBS documentary, director Ken Burns shows how the most famous speech in American history—Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address—endures for each generation, as seen at a Vermont school for boys with learning difficulties, as the students create their own sense of self-worth and accomplishment by memorizing and reciting it.
By also allowing several students to narrate the speech’s historical context, Burns once again brings American history alive for a new generation. Lone extra is Steven Spielberg reciting the speech.
China Beach—Complete Season 3
(StarVista)
The third season of this groundbreaking Vietnam War television drama—about the unsung women who served our country—was originally shown during 1989-90.
Once again, the show owes its success to stars Dana Delany and Marg Helgenberger and the many period songs that evoke both nostalgia and emotion, from Cream’s “White Room, “Sunshine of Your Love” and “Strange Brew” to Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl.” Extras are interviews, commentaries, gag reel and deleted scene.
Falling in Love
Islands in the Stream
(Warner Archive)
Falling in Love, Ulu Grosbard’s saccharine 1984 romance with Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep as marrieds who meet on their way to work each morning and fall in love, has little chemistry between its stars, which allows Dianne Wiest and Harvey Keitel to steal the movie.
In Franklin J. Schaffner’s musty 1976 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream, George C. Scott gives a characteristically crusty portrayal of the flawed hero in a hackneyed story about family, art and war.
The Story of the Jews
(PBS)
Simon Schama, author of numerous books and host of television documentaries about art history, returns with his multi-part exploration of a most expansive subject: the history of the Jewish people.
A mere five hour-long episodes can’t hope to convey the fullness of that rich history, but Schama invests the subject—dealing with European anti-Semitism from the Middle Ages to the Holocaust—with his animated and deeply personal touch, which makes the series an intelligent and powerful viewing experience.
Suzanne Vega—Solitaire Standing
(MVD)
This 2003 Rome concert, comprising a baker’s dozen of Suzanne Vega’s classic songs, lasts barely an hour: Vega also recites four of own poems, which her friend Valerio Piccolo translates for the audience.
Vega is in fine form throughout, especially on her best songs like the opening “Marlene on the Wall,” “The Queen and the Soldier” and “Solitude Standing,” the title track from her 1987 breakthrough album that featured her two biggest hits, “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” (which she saves for last, of course). The lone extra is a Vega interview.
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