Ann: How did your show go?
Henry: I killed them. And your gig?
Ann: I saved them.

This movie is not easy to talk about without spoiling things that would be much better experienced in the theater (or, in a couple of weeks, streaming) unspoiled, but I’ll do my best. I’ve only seen one other film of the director, Leos Carax — his 2012 film HOLY MOTORS, which I loved (it was on my Best of 2012 list) but which was also strange and hard to describe, like ANNETTE. He has a wonderful sense of the absurd and unreal that I found really compelling to watch, and his lead actor in that film (Denis Levant) was really good at grounding material that, in other hands, could have been truly ridiculous and unwatchable.

ANNETTE is playing with a lot of ideas, perhaps chief among them the notion of fame and how it can corrupt and consume. It is partially a love story, but not entirely, and this love story is not a “feel good” one. It is also a musical (or, perhaps more accurately, a rock opera), with music and lyrics by Ron and Russell Mael of my beloved Sparks (who also have a story credit and are having quite the moment this summer, with this movie and Edgar Wright’s documentary about them, THE SPARKS BROTHERS). But it’s not a song-song-song musical. A lot of the music is sung dialogue — a bit like THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, though unlike that movie, not *all* of the dialogue is sung.

The movie starts rather charmingly with the opening number “So May We Start” (with what seems to be a clever play on “mais oui, mais oui, now start”), starting in a recording studio and transitioning into a rather breathtaking one-take tracking shot (reminiscent of the accordion scene in HOLY MOTORS). This is a very self-aware “you are about to watch a piece of fiction” introduction to the film, and it features Sparks, Leos Carax, stars Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard and Simon Helberg, and several others, seemingly as themselves just getting pumped to have a good time and entertain you. And then we segue into the story.

Adam Driver plays Henry, a provocative insult comic. Marion Cotillard plays Ann, an opera soprano. Both of them are on the rise in their respective careers, and they are in a relationship that has captured the public’s and the media’s attention, Despite being apparent opposites, they are very much in love, but from the very beginning you can sense something ominous. Early on, they sing the obviously titled “We Love Each Other So Much,” a love song that sounds a lot like a funeral dirge and that culminates in a frankly sexual moment that was much giggled over when the movie screened at Cannes a few weeks ago. They soon marry and have a child, who they name Annette, and eventually we learn that Annette has a special talent. And that’s where I’ll stop because part of the magic of this movie is the unexpected places it takes you and the unexpected tools it uses to tell its story.

Like many of Carax’s previous films, ANNETTE explores reality and artifice, and in many ways (and I swear I don't mean this the way it's going to sound) it resembles Shakespeare. It revels in its own artifice — the opening number resembles a chorus introducing the drama to come, or Puck addressing the audience in A Midsummer Night’s Dream — and it’s built like many of Shakespeare’s tragedies — everything comes to a head in Act III and progressively deteriorates from there to the tragic but inevitable end. There are many moments that are deliberately made to look fabricated, and I imagine some people will dismiss the movie entirely for this, not reasoning that these are conscious choices by the filmmaker meant to evoke a particular idea or feeling. This is one of the reasons to go into the movie as fresh as possible and not be put off by some particular detail or other that you may have heard out of context. This movie is an experience and one that wants you to think about it and talk about it, not just idly enjoy it as popcorn entertainment (nothing against popcorn entertainment, which I also dearly love, but this is quite a different endeavor).

All of the cast is great in this. Adam Driver in particular gives what may be his best performance to date. He and Marion Cotillard boldly sell these roles and take the absurd elements of the film (including one element that is especially absurd — you’ll know it when you see it) and ground them in reality. And if you've only ever seen Simon Helberg in The Big Bang Theory, he's a revelation here. The music is wonderful and is a great match for the tone of the movie. There are only a handful of songs that can exist on their own as songs; the rest of them are brief moments in the film and depend on the context of the film to feel complete (not a criticism at all). The movie is also gorgeous to look at, with some stunning visuals and interesting effects, as well as copious use of the color green.

The movie is in a few theaters now, and I would advocate seeing it that way if you can, and if you feel safe doing so -- it's a great film for immersing yourself. If not, it will be streaming on Amazon starting August 20 (for goodness sake, watch it on your big TV and not your phone). Oh, and stay for the credits.

If you’d like a taste of the movie before diving in, here’s a two-minute clip with the part of the opening number (the way Russell Mael dramatically turns to direct our attention to Driver and Cotillard coming down a staircase fills me with such joy, I can’t explain it), and about halfway through the clip it begins to show brief not-too-spoilery moments from the rest of the film (including a tease of Adam Driver’s bewtocks, if you’re into that kind of thing).

I have seen more versions of this play than probably any other Shakespeare play except Hamlet. I am very familiar with the story and the dialogue (I usually reread a Shakespeare play before I see it, but I didn't feel the need to with this one). I love the pure confection and Italian countryside porn of the 90s Branagh version. I loved the lo-fi homemade version of Whedon's take (and the especially remarkable performance of Amy Acker). I enjoyed the SITP production a few years ago with Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater (the one where I sat in front of Alan Rickman). I loved the Utah Shakespeare Festival production (of *several* years ago now), though I was "meh" on their Beatrice. I love this play, despite all the issues a modern lens brings to it (ugh, Claudio amirite?).

All that to say that last night I saw my absolute favorite production of this play. Period. The Public Theater made history this year by having its first ever all-black cast at the Delacorte Theater. I didn't know most of the actors beforehand, but I knew Danielle Brooks played someone called "Taystee" in Orange Is the New Black (which I've never seen). She apparently turned down other projects to do this because, as a black actress of a particular size, she never gets to do roles like this.

I'm going to spoil the heck of this because this production only runs for a couple more weeks and I suspect none of you will get a chance to see this. I'll obviously be spoiling the play, and if you have somehow missed the bajillion productions of this text, then that's on you.

( Read more... )

Nearly six months later, and I finally finished my write-up.

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So I went to see a play the other night. I've written many times about the process of acquiring free tickets to the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park productions, but this season's Julius Caesar has taken on a new significance in the past few days, and I should say things about the play itself.

( How many ages hence shall this our lofty scene be acted over in states unborn and accents yet unknown. )

For the third straight year I schlepped up to the Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers for their annual horror marathon. I had been torn, because the Nitehawk had a pretty awesome lineup (which they announced well in advance), but the two events overlapped and I had to choose. Ultimately, the Nitehawk's event cost more than twice as much as the Drafthouse's and I decided to trust to the Alamo's surprise programming.

My expectations for awesomeness were somewhat lowered, since the programmer for the last two events was now the programmer for the Brooklyn location and wouldn't be involved. But it turns out I needn't have worried. As usual, they didn't announce the titles, letting us find out what we were seeing only when the title appeared on screen.

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Another great year, and I wonder if the Brooklyn location will join the fun next October.

Pottermore and Magic in North America
I'm still as in love with JKR as I ever was, but this is the first time she's released information where I wish she hadn't. And I look back on how much we all wanted the HP Encyclopedia, and I'm glad this new info is only on a website (and somewhat easier to overlook/ignore) than if it were in print in a bookstore. The North American wizard worldbuilding -- what little I've seen of it -- is kind of embarrassingly bad. To the point that I'm still half waiting for it to turn out that she didn't actually write it. (I *cannot* believe she wrote the phrase "as dim as she was pretty.") As a white person, it's not my place to talk about the portrait of Native Americans, but that and the religious persecution element (and probably more that I haven't looked at) seem grossly under-researched. This makes me very nervous about anything else she might be planning to release about magical history in South America, Asia and Africa. I wonder if any backlash she might get on this might make her rethink it.

I swear I'm not one of those people who thinks she should just shut up and not give any more story beyond the seven books. I've loved the little bits of extra character backstory and details that were part of her worldbuilding and just couldn't fit into the books. But this recent string of updates have literally nothing to do with the plot or characters of the books and it doesn't really add anything to them. This is not a series that really needed a Silmarillion.


Captain America
I've gotten away from watching trailers much at all, and this latest super-hyped trailer for Civil War reminds me why. Did we really need to see Spidey? I also have to echo something FilmCritHulk said today -- that it's difficult to buy that the world is tearing itself apart over Bucky Barnes when we care so little about him. Yes, I know Bucky is Tumblr's "precious cinnamon roll," but honestly I'd forgotten who he was by the time Winter Soldier came out (and I know I'm not the only one).


***

On an unrelated-to-anything note ... what is with this new trend of the kids calling their faves "daddy" or "my son"?! I mean, when I was in high school I crushed pretty hard on Kevin Costner. I can safely say I did *not* want him to be my dad. "My son" is maybe a *little* more understandable. Maybe. At least coming from someone my age, or if you're actually older than the person you're talking about. I don't know why a 19-year-old wants to call 55-year-old Bradley Whitford "my son."

Gah, I wish I had time to do proper reviews like I used to, but I always dawdle until it feels too late and then I have like half a dozen movies I want to write about! I'm so rusty at this! So here are some brief (for me) thoughts on a bunch of movies I've seen the last couple of months.

( Cut for pics and length. )

I'm not sure why I'm posting this here instead of Facebook, like everything else nowadays, but it just felt like it belonged here, you know?

I was listening to Kevin Smith's and Scott Mosier's "SModcast," which I haven't done in a while, and their latest episode was about the recent deaths of David Bowie, Dan Haggerty, and especially Alan Rickman (who they both worked with on Dogma). They talked a lot about Rickman in particular and their relationship with him (did you know that Emma Thompson almost played God in Dogma because Rickman showed her the script and she loved it?), but the best bit was this...

About ten years ago, when Rickman was doing the play "My Name Is Rachel Corrie," Kevin Smith was visiting him and Rickman told him that he'd finally broken down and bought an apartment in New York. It was in the same building as Ralph Fiennes, and they were both desperate that no one ever find out, because if Potter fans found out that Snape and Voldemort lived in the same building, the response would be out of control.

I ... don't really like the new version of Pottermore? The old version was purely rooted in the books, but this new version has a LOT of movie stuff, which ... I like the movies for what they are, but they are not the books. And I grow ever more crotchedy about the increasing pervasiveness of "movie canon" into what is generally accepted as part of the story. (For example, on Tumblr today, I saw a comic that made reference to Harry killing Quirrell, which only happened in the movie and which is one of the few things I definitely hold against Steve Kloves.)

No House competitions, which ... okay, I was never that into that or the spells and potions and stuff, but I still thought it was cool, and very friendly to younger users. No sorting test or wand choosing. And no exploring the books like before and those great detailed pictures from scenes in the book that you could zoom in on and look around.

Now it's like a more slick, but less detailed version of (I hate to say it, but it's true) the HP Lexicon. And what's with stuff like "11 Times Snape Was the Hardest Teacher to Please." What is this - Buzzfeed?