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Film and the Arts
Off-Broadway Review—"The Invisible Hand"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 17 December 2014 23:47
- Written by Kevin Filipski
The Invisible Hand
Written by Ayad Akhtar; directed by Ken Rus Schmoll
Performances through January 4, 2015
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| Ally and Kirk in The Invisible Hand (photo: Joan Marcus) |
With his Pulitzer Prize-winning play Disgraced doing boffo biz on Broadway (and a likely front-runner for the Tony Award), let's see if playwright Ayad Akhtar is not just a one-trick pony. Happily, The Invisible Hand—which shrewdly shows how money is the root of all evil, whether capitalism or terrorism—proves he isn't: it's another smart, provocative, hard-hitting and all too relevant drama.
After Nick Bright, a broker working in Citibank's Pakistan office, is mistakenly kidnaped—the target was his boss—the group who did the deed decide to try and extort money from the bank for his ransom. But the $10 million they are asking is, in Nick's own words, far too much for someone of his relatively minor stature; but his captors remain steadfast, assuming the dirty American bank will cough up the money.
After weeks in captivity, Nick makes a deal with the men: he will use $3 million from his own offshore acount to invest in the market until he raises $10 million. The group's head, the respected elder Imam Saleem, agrees to allow his protege, the hot-headed Bashir—a London-born Arab who is in Pakistan to wage jihad like, he says, the many leftists who turned into freedom fighters against Franco in the Spanish Civil War to assuage their guilt over living comfortably in the West—to become Nick's financial "assistant."
Although their investments begin well, a brilliantly written and staged scene shows how Nick quickly realizes that working financial angles for his captors has a plethora of moral quagmires: especially after their immediate windfall comes after a prominent Pakistani and his wife (both of whom he knew socially) are killed in a terrorist attack at a wedding. Parallelly, Bashir becomes giddy, almost scarily so, when he sees the ease with which they've made $700,000 in 10 minutes.
Akhtar's writing skillfully treads the blurred lines separating freedom fighters from terrorists and surviving at all costs from doing what's morally right: he adroitly positions his characters and their explosive behavior in the front lines of the so-called war on terror. If Disgraced found tough insight into that war through two couples in a well-appointed Manhattan apartment, then The Invisible Hand is its flip side: a dispatch from that endless war, with lives on the line for nothing more than cold hard cash.
Since the play began life as a one-acter, there's a noticeable difference in the writing: act one has a simple but forceful elegance that underlines its brutal truths about both sides; after intermission, there are blunter statements of physical and mental brutality. Some may find the sheer viciousness of the play's final moments too obvious, but it works perfectly as the only possible ending for a story that's been leading to ever more dangerously fraught situations for everyone involved.
Ken Rus Schmoll directs with alternate muscle and finesse on Riccardo Hernandez's starkly imposing set (with bonus points for Tyler Micoleau's exquisitely evocative lighting), while the actors—Justin Kirk (Nick), Usman Ally (Bashir), Dariush Kashani (Imam) and Jameal Ali (Dar, a gun-toting minion)—give firmly commanding performances in roles that could easily have become caricature.
All of that, combined with Akhtar's assured script, makes The Invisible Hand another winner by New York's playwright of the moment.
The Invisible Hand
New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, New York, NY
nytw.org
December '14 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 16 December 2014 23:00
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
At the Devil's Door
(IFC Midnight)
An unapologetic ripoff of other (and some better) fright flicks, writer-director Nicholas McCarthy's lackluster horror film sets up its premise so lazily that whatever happens—from the death of main characters to a dragged-out, unsuspenseful finale—will probably be met with indifference by most viewers.
A game cast (led by Glee's Naya Rivera and a sorely underused Catalina Sandina Moreno) has little to do, while bumps in the night and other would-be scares do little more than add to a frighteningly dull 93 minutes. The movie looks good on Blu-ray; extras comprise a making-of featurette and deleted scenes with McCarthy's commentary.
(Decca)
Georges Bizet's classic opera, a sure-fire crowd-pleaser with some of the most famous music ever written, gets an uneven 2009 Zurich staging, but at least conductor Franz Welser-Most leads the Zurich Opera Orchestra and Chorus in a blisteringly dramatic reading.
It's unfortunate that Matthias Hartmann's production decides to scuttle time and place, while the cast—Vesselina Kasarova as Carmen, Jonas Kaufmann as Don Jose and Isabel Rey as Micaela—is polished but infrequently inspired. On Blu-ray, the visuals and audio are equally impressive.
Inspector Lewis—Complete 7th Season
(PBS)
At first, Inspector Hathaway soldiers on without his partner, Detective Inspector Lewis, and has problems dealing with his new partner, Lizzie Maddox—until D.I. Lewis returns from retirement, helping both himself and Hathaway as they become an unbeatable pair once again.
The three 90-minute Oxford-set mysteries that make up the seventh season are filled with the series' usual fine acting (Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Angela Griffin, Claire Holman) and intelligent writing. The Blu-ray image is quite good.
(Millennium)
In this unsettling adaptation of a lesser-known Poe story, director Brad Anderson romps through the all-too-familiar halls of a shadowy insane asylum, with his cast chewing the scenery in high style: Ben Kingsley as the head of the asylum, Michael Caine and Kate Beckinsale as inmates (with Kate an impossibly glamorous one).
The daft twist ending, though drawn out too much, still perfectly closes the gleefully ludicrous tale, which retains the blackly humorous Poe flavor. The hi-def image looks excellent; lone extra is a making-of featurette.
This Is Where I Leave You
(Warners)
This comic drama about a dysfunctional family sitting shiva after the father dies has its share of funny lines, but director Shawn Levy's penchant for triteness and sentimentality prevents his film from being anything more than an intermittently entertaining mess.
Good performances by Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Debra Monk and Connie Britton help smooth over the unnevenness, but at 103 minutes, this overdone soap opera is stretched too thin. It all looks attractive on hi-def; extras include featurettes, outtakes and deleted scenes.
Altina
(First Run)
Altina Schinasi was a renaissance woman: painter, sculptor, bon vivant and sexually liberated, she was ahead of her time—so far, in fact, that even today some people might be shocked at her long, eventful and unapologetic life, which is recounted in her grandson Peter Sanders's admiring and loving documentary.
What shines through from archival interviews with her and new interviews with friends, lovers, husbands, family and admirers, is her love—even lust—for a life well-lived: that she also helped Holocaust refugees and made an Oscar-nominated film about the Nazis are merely more reasons to have her story told. Extras are 18 minutes of additional interviews.
Bob Marley—Uprising Live!
Justin Hayward—Spirits...Live
(Eagle Rock)
Before his death in 1981, Bob Marley went on a world tour, and his Germany concert—filmed for posterity—contains the hallmarks of a great Marley show: opening act Threes, featuring wife Rita, sings back up for Marley and the Wailers, with highlights being "Jamming," "No River No Cry" and an encore of "Lively Up Yourself." Uprising Live! is a terrific souvenir of an indelible talent at his best.
Longtime Moody Blues frontman Justin Hayward toured with stripped-down versions of his classic-art rock band's songs—his acoustic guitar and three sidemen (and woman)—and his Spirits...Live concert will satisfy Moody Blues fans with renditions of "Tuesday Afternoon" (the show's opener), "Nights in White Satin" and "Question" that are interesting alternate takes of the group's overblown arrangements. Lone Hayward extra is a backstage featurette.
The Little Bedroom
(Cinema Libre)
French Affairs, a by-the-numbers Gallic roundelay, follows two pairs of lovers with more amusement than bemusement, but director Pierre-Loup Rajot doesn't do anything particularly unique or telling, while his mostly obscure cast can't make the comedy or drama very interesting.
The Little Bedroom, a minor gem by co-writers/directors Stephanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond, stars the always persuasive Michael Bouquet (who was last seen as the aging painter in Renoir), who provides the gravitas needed to prevent this old-age drama from becoming syrupy.
Levitated Mass
(First Run)
When I saw Michael Heizer's gargantuan rock outside the L.A. County Museum of Art last year, I thought it was a gimmick, something that would automatically draw visitors. (It does.) Doug Pray's fascinating documentary makes clear that getting the rock there, an enormous logistical and even political challenge, is a story far more interesting than Heizer's "art" itself.
Bringing the huge (340-ton) rock from its original spot miles away to Los Angeles was the responsibility of dozens of people, an oversized road vehicle and signing off by nearly two dozen town officials en route. But for what? To paraphrase what someone says, "It's a rock. It's nature. Not art." Extras comprise three short featurettes.
December '14 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 09 December 2014 23:31
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Anna Netrebko— Live from the Salzburg Festival
(Deutsche Grammophon)
The biggest superstar in the opera world, Russian soprano Anna Netrebko combines intense musicality with the sheer force of her personality to dazzle audiences in any number of dramatic and comedic roles, and this set brings together a trio of her flavorful performances in productions from Austria's long-running summer Salzburg Festival, all of which show off her range.
There's her sexy Violetta (in that oh so stunning dress) in 2005's La Traviata, her charming Susanna in 2006's The Marriage of Figaro and her sympathetic Mimi in 2012's La Boheme. The hi-def transfers and surround-sound audio are top-notch on all three releases.
(Strand Releasing)
Brazilian medium Chico Xavier's 1944 novel Nasso Lar became this 2010 film, about a doctor who finds himself in a 'spiritual city" after his death, that was among Brazil's most expensive and popular.
Director Wagner de Assis visualizes the afterworld with lushness and pomposity, befitting the new age sensibilities of the book, while Philip Glass's retread score pounds away at your brain mercilessly. The visual beauty is the Blu-ray's main attraction; lone extra is a making-of featurette.
Eric Clapton—Planes, Trains and Eric
(Eagle Rock)
Filmed during his recent Mid and Far East tour, Eric Clapton plays his patented blend of blues-rock that's been his musical bread and butter since the 60s: just a few examples of his artistry are "Tell the Truth," "Key to the Highway," "Cocaine" and "Hoochie Coochie Man" (although I wish he'd put that sleep-inducing acoustic "Layla" to bed).
Most interesting, though, are interviews with Eric and his band members, who ruminate on his decision to retire from performing to spend more time with his family: he sounds indecisive, the others are crushed; we'll see if he goes through with his promise. Hi-def visuals and audio are terrific; extras are two songs and featurettes.
(Sony)
Based on Elmore Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole," the fifth season of Justified finds its brooding protagonist, U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens, not divulging a secret that could threaten both his career and his life.
Timothy Oliphant gives Givens gravitas, while Michael Rappaport also scores as a ruthless crime family head. The hi-def image looks flawless; extras include commentaries, deleted scenes and a making-of featurette, with added Blu-ray exclusives comprising eight more featurettes.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
(Warner Archive)
Oscar Wilde's classic horror tale of a rake who stays young while his portrait ages instead became a very effective 1945 film adaptation by director Albert Lewin, who smartly keeps the horror psychological, like Wilde.
In the title role, Hurd Hatfield is perfectly smarmy, as is George Sanders as the man who eggs him on, while Harry Stradling's B&W photography (with color inserts during the painting sequences) is appropriately ominous. On Blu-ray the movie looks smashing; extras are a commentary with costar Angela Lansbury and two unrelated shorts.
Time Bandits
(Criterion)
Terry Gilliam's first solo extravanganza behind the camera—his co-directing debut with fellow Monty Pythoin alum Terry Jones, 1977's Jabberwocky, is best forgotten—is this delightfully demented 1981 fantasy about a young boy and group of dwarves who fall through holes in time, meeting historical characters like Napoleon (Ian Holm) and Agamemnon (Sean Connery).
Gilliam's imaginative movie is a wondrous prelude to even more extravangant fantasies Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Criterion's hi-def transfer is luminous; extras comprise a commentary, a new featurette, 1998 Gilliam interview and 1981 Shelley Duvall appearance on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show.
DVDs of the Week
Forbidden Hollywood—Volume 8
(Warner Archive)
The eighth volume in Warners' collection of Hollywood "pre-code" dramas (made before the motion picture industry began enforcing the Hays code in 1934) comprises a quartet of films probing the seamy side of sex, drugs, crime, etc.
The four films are Blonde Crazy, Strangers May Kiss, Hi Nellie and Dark Hazard, and they feature such luminaries as James Cagney, Ray Milland, Norma Shearer, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson; whatever they lack in polish they more than make up for in star wattage.
(Film Movement/Ram Releasing)
Joe Sarno, who made several successful sexploitation flicks until hardcore porn went mainstream in the mid '70s with Deep Throat, is lovingly remembered in Wiktor Ericsson's documentary.
Sarno (who died in 2010 at age 89) comes across as earnest and sincere, and those who talk about him—mainly his wife and former lead actress Peggy Sarno, and a few film historians—discuss him with reverence and appreciation in equal measure. Extras include expanded interviews with adult-film stars Annie Sprinkle and Jamie Gillis and featurettes.
Marius & Fanny
(Kino Lorber)
It's hard to equal Marcel Pagnol's 1930s trilogy of films—Marius, Fanny and Cesar—which tell engrossing, heartwarming stories of a hardheaded old man, his equally headstrong son and a beautiful young woman, but damned if Daniel Auteuil doesn't resurrect Pagnol's humanist spirit in his sturdy remakes of the first two films, which deal with Marius and Fanny's courtship, separation and reunion.
Auteuil himself makes a tough-as-nails Cesar, Raphael Personnaz is a handsome, dashing Marius and newcomer Victoire Belezy is an even better Fanny (beautiful, smart, irresistible) than Orane Demazis in the original. Too bad Auteuil didn't remake Cesar: maybe that's next? Extras are short featurettes.
(Big World)
Eric Rohmer's 1996 entry in his Tales of the Four Seasons series—the others were made in 1990 (Spring), 1992 (Autumn) and 1998 (Winter)—is less irritating than usual, thanks to a lightness of touch the director is usually at pains to create, but here it works effortlessly in a story of a young man juggling three women, unsure of whom to decide on.
Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet, Gwenaëlle Simon and Aurelia Nolin are all beguiling, while Rohmer's dialogue is witty and realistic; the attractive landscapes of Brittany seal the deal. But why is there no Blu-ray, when all of Rohmer's films have been released in hi-def in Europe?
Off-Broadway Reviews—"Grand Concourse," “A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations),” "A Christmas Memory"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 05 December 2014 23:36
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Grand Concourse
Written by Heidi Schreck; directed by Kip Fagan
Performances through November 30, 2014
Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, New York, NY
playwrightshorizons.org
A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations)
Written by Sam Shepard; directed by Nancy Meckler
Performances through January 4, 2015
Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street, New York, NY
signaturetheatre.org
A Christmas Memory
Book by Duane Poole; music by Larry Grossman; lyrics by Carol Hall
Directed by Charlotte Moore
Performances through January 4, 2015
Irish Repertory Theatre, 103 East 15th Street, New York, NY
irishrep.org
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| Mendes, Moreno and Tyler Bernstine in Grand Concourse (photo: Joan Marcus) |
How unfortunate that Heidi Schreck's Grand Concourse closed after a relatively short run, for this modest but insightful character study deserved an extension. But that seems to be the way of things: when engrossing works like this or Adam Bock's A Small Fire a few seasons back deserve a second life—or even a longer first life—in New York, they rarely get their just due.
It's too bad, for Schreck's play, set in a Bronx soup kitchen and revolving around four characters—Shelley, a nun who runs the place; Emma, a confused 19-year-old and a new volunteer; Oscar, the kitchen's handsome handyman; and Frog, one of the elderly men who frequent the place—is a low-key, eloquent look at how disparate people come together, and explores whether they are selfless or selfish: most likely a combination of the two.
That's not to say that Grand Concourse is perfect—there's a finale that feels tacked on, especially coming after a penultimate scene which seemed to say all that needed to be said about these characters, and especially about the volatile relationship between Shelley and Emma—but there's an economical precision to Schreck's mostly believable dialogue. Kip Fagan resourcefully directs a magisterial quartet—Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Shelley), Bobby Moreno (Oscar), Lee Wilkof (Frog) and Ismenia Mendes (Emma), fast becoming an essential performer on New York stages, and who is well on her way to being one of our best actresses—that pours added compassion and humor into Schreck's already excellent script.
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| Judith Roddy and Stephen Rea in A Particle of Dread (photo: Matthew Murphy) |
The plays of Sam Shepard, from Curse of the Starving Class to The Late Henry Moss, often deal with Oedipal issues of absent or abusive father figures. His latest, A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations),declares its intentions in its subtitle, but the rather trite updates to and borrowings (to say it as nicely as possible) from the enduring Greek myth suggest that Sheaprd doesn't have too much to say whatever continuing relevance Oedipus might have today.
Instead, a playwright who has made virtues of structural disjointedness and violent outbursts among his often crudely drawn characters here goes so far over the edge that it's difficult to take anything that occurs onstage seriously (or even comedically). Taking place in what looks like the remains of an asylum, A Particle of Dread—a typically resonant Shepard title—radiates out from the central murder to encompass dual characters like Oedipus/Otto, Jocasta/Jocelyn and Antigone/Annalee, along with a ludicrous pair of forensic detectives and two onstage musicians.
Sheaprd's dialogue is portentous and ponderous in equal measure, while Nancy Meckler's staging—except for a vividly realized hanging (for which Michael Chybowski's striking lighting design deserves a lion's share of the credit)—can't harness the essential shallowness in Shepard's concept, and so resorts to putting Frank Conway's evocative set awash in blood both literal and figurative. Of a game cast, only Stephen Rea makes an impression as Oedipus and Otto, but there are times when he seems as confused as the rest of us.
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| Robinson, Spagnuolo and Ripley in A Christmas Memory (photo: Carol Rosegg) |
Based on Truman Capote's classic short story, A Christmas Memory is a perfectly pleasant holiday musical set in Alabama in 1933 and 20 years later, where we meet adult Buddy, returning as a successful writer to the old—and now vacant, except for the loyal black servant, Anna—family home. Memory is a series of flashbacks to young Buddy's last Christmas with the trio of eccentric cousins who are raising him, notably Sook, with whom he bonds by making annual Christmas fruitcakes, one of which is even sent to the new President, FDR. The adult Buddy looks on, narrates and even enters scenes with his younger self.
The two-hour show is a sometimes sleepy but sweet concoction that will warm the hearts of those in the mood for sentimental holiday fare, agily directed by Charlotte Moore and containing several polished songs by composer Larry Grossman and lyricist Carol Hall. Ashley Robinson and Silvano Spagnuolo memorably play Buddy as a grown-up and a young kid, and Alice Ripley is heartbreaking as cousin Sook, even if she tends to sing to the back row as if she's in a large Broadway theater, compromising her naturally beautiful voice. She should tone it down as effectively as the rest of this small-scale but engaging production does.
Grand Concourse
Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, New York, NY
playwrightshorizons.org
A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations)
Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street, New York, NY
signaturetheatre.org
A Christmas Memory
Irish Repertory Theatre, 103 East 15th Street, New York, NY
irishrep.org
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