Tag: movies

Movie review: Jojo Rabbit (2019)

emotional rollercoaster

Jojo RabbitJojo Rabbit is your basic boy coming of age story. Well, if you’re a German 10-year-old who has bought into the Nazi propaganda machine and your best friend appears to be Adolf Hitler.

The film, marketed as an anti-hate satire, is by New Zealander Taika Waititi. He previously directed Thor: Ragnarok. Waititi wrote and directed Jojo Rabbit, as well as playing a rather insecure Adolf. The movie reminded me a bit stylistically of a Wes Anderson film.

Roman Griffin Davis plays Jojo, who gained his unfortunate last name moniker from an incident at a Nazi youth camp. It was run by Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell), assisted by Frau Rahm (Rebel Wilson) and others. This is the young man’s first movie, and he’s very good.

Jojo’s mom Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) is raising her son on her own, as her husband is “away.” Rosie is a delightful character, particularly in a fireplace scene. While mom was away, Jojo discovers a young woman, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding in the attic. Could she possibly be a Jew? And if she is, how should Jojo deal with her?

The emotional rollercoaster of this film should not work. Groan-worthy puns and quips precede more stark content. I suspect some folks will hate it. It certainly won’t connect with everyone.

But Jojo Rabbit worked for my wife, daughter and me when we saw it at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany on Veterans Day. It was thought-provoking, and occasionally LOL funny. Yet it was also ultimately a takedown of bigotry and prejudice.

Sidebars

Taika Waititi, who is Jewish, appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on October 17. Sometimes, he noted, he’d be directing, forgetting that he was in the Adolf garb. Then he’d catch a glimpse of himself. “I’m not directing, I’m suggesting,” he’d say to the cast.

I previously saw Thomasin McKenzie in the truly great 2018 movie Leave No Trace, which was Oscar-worthy. She, like the director, is a Kiwi, but there’s no sense of her accent in this film.

Isabella Rossellini appeared on the genealogy program Finding Your Roots in 2019. Her DNA test showed that Scarlett Johansson is related to her, certainly on her mother Ingrid Bergman’s side.

Movie review: Harriet [as in Tubman]

Cynthia Erivo as Harriet is phenomenal

HarrietThinking back on the movie Harriet, I had a sense I had seen a superhero movie. I don’t mean that necessarily as pejorative. Some comic characters have been bitten by a radioactive spider or slammed by gamma rays. Harriet Tubman, after a particularly nasty blow to the head, saw visions. This gift allowed her to escape enslavement, then lead others to freedom. A couple critics, I later learned, agree.

Cynthia Erivo as Harriet is phenomenal. She previously won a Tony for playing Celie in The Color Purple on Broadway. Not only did she seem to physically embody the role, but she also sang some great versions of spirituals. The complaint that an American, rather than the London-born performer should have had the role of an iconic American hero is a debate others can have.

Director/co-writer Kasi Lemmons helmed the movie Eve’s Bayou (1997), which I recall as quite impressive. She also directed other things, including an episode of Luke Cage. She used a bit of nepotism, but her casting choices worked out well. Her husband, long-time actor Vondie Curtis-Hall was great as Reverend Green, and did a particularly effective call and response. Their son Henry Hunter Hall, as the scout Walter did NOT muck up his mom’s film.

Put her on the $20!

Harriet Tubman is an important historical figure who has long been deserving of a major motion picture, not to mention being put on the $20 bill. After we left the Spectrum Theatre, my wife expressed disappointment that the movie ended with a brief scene during the Civil War and nothing but screen descriptions of her active life thereafter.

Maybe that could be the focus of the next Harriet Tubman film. While the fans gave the movie a 97% positive ratings, the critics were only 72% positive. I must agree with some of the criticism. This includes the fine Leslie Odom, Jr., Tony winner for playing Aaron Burr in Hamilton, given almost nothing to do except responding to Harriet.

Susan Granger’s positive review says it best: “Inspirational biopic, hampered only by its simplified, conventional story-telling. Another favorable review, by Abbie Bernstein: “We come out of HARRIET feeling like we’ve seen something important that we ought to have seen. But we don’t feel like we’ve lived through it alongside any of its people, and it seems like that should have been part of the experience.”

It was important that the movie Harriet was made. Although it felt, inexplicably, at arm’s length, I was really glad to see it, as I learned quite a bit. I’d LOVE to see a sequel, perhaps focusing on her time in Auburn, NY; we’ve been to the house.

Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles

stories by Sholem Aleichem

Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles is a documentary about the making of the Broadway production, and the subsequent movie called… yes, you guessed it. Fiddler on the Roof is one of my Top 5 favorite musicals, so when the story about it hit the Spectrum Theatre, my wife my daughter and I had to see it.

It is really good.

The narrative contains several strands. How do you take stories by Sholem Aleichem of Tevye (the Dairyman) and his Daughters and turn them into a compelling musical narrative? “He wrote in Yiddish between 1894 and 1914 about Jewish life in a village in… Imperial Russia at the turn of the 20th century.”

Earlier iterations had been staged: a play in Yiddish in 1919 was made into a movie in the 1930s. An off-Broadway production, Tevye and his Daughters, was created in the late 1950s.
How would this time be more commercially successful?

Watching the process between Jerry Bock, who wrote the music, and lyricist Sheldon Harnick was fascinating. Jerry would send Sheldon music snippets on reel-to-reel tape, and Sheldon would say some of them fit perfectly.

I was really glad to see the late Hal Prince, who was the producer and who brought in director/choreographer Jerome Robbins. Prince’s death was so late in the filming process that the death notice was clearly tacked in early in the opening credits. Robbins and the writers came up with the musical’s title, based on paintings by Marc Chagal.

Still, it was a struggle. Zero Mostel, who played Tevye, fought with Robbins. Other cast and crew also had issues with the director. Yet Prince thought Robbins’ contributions were worth the grief.

Once the classic opening number “Tradition” was created, the narrative began to solidify. Still, the out-of-town tryouts in Detroit weren’t successful, in large part because of a too upbeat penultimate number, When Messiah Comes, that was thankfully cut.

Ultimately, Fiddler shows the universality of the musical, which plays well in Thailand and with New York City black schoolkids, in Japanese, and in Yiddish. The documentary uses interviews with participants of recent productions, plus archival footage, in telling the story. Fiddler on the Roof is certainly a story about oppression and optimism. Is it also a feminist tale? One can make that case.

The documentary, which the last time I checked had 100% ratings from both the critics and the fans on Rotten Tomatoes, is recommended.

David Crosby: Remember My Name

not an exercise in hero worship

David Crosby.Remember My NameI had seen the documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany the day after a friend of mine did. He loved it.

My friend noted, correctly, that the musician had been brutally honest about his many, many character flaws. The film is certainly not an exercise in hero worship, as Crosby takes the blame for the several relationship breakups, both romantic and musical.

Crosby tells us he started becoming full of himself when he joined the Byrds and they began achieving success. He started spouting political messages onstage, including his beliefs about JFK assassination conspiracy theories, that Roger McGuinn, leader of the group, didn’t think were appropriate.

He shows us the house where he, Stephen Stills, late of Buffalo Springfield, and Graham Nash, soon to leave the Hollies became Crosby, Stills, and Nash. We even see their brief “second gig,” at Woodstock. Then Crosby alludes to the fact that while he really wanted Neil Young in the group, there proved to be only room for three egos. Or something like that.

He speaks fondly of his friendship with the late Mama Cass Elliot. He notes that Joni Mitchell, who he idolizes musically, was a better fit with Nash than with him.

Crosby describes the freeform process by which his solo album If I Could Only Remember My Name was made. Each of the CSNY members put out an LP after the massive success of Déjà Vu. David’s included Nash, Young, Joni Mitchell, plus members of the Grateful Dead (most notably Jerry Garcia), Jefferson Airplane, and Santana.

In 1982, he was convicted of several drugs and weapons offenses and spent nine months in a Texas state prison. Now, after surviving numerous health scares, he’s surprised to be alive. He’s caught between the need to go out on the road in order to make music and money, and wanting to be a homebody with his wife Jan.

With all that, I felt there was something lacking in Remember My Name, as directed by A.J. Eaton. We know why Neil Young won’t talk with him, based on a Crosby insult about a Young friend. But what about Stills? And especially Nash, with whom Crosby could almost harmonize? They hadn’t talked in two years.

Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press put it this way: “Crosby is left to awkwardly narrate outside. It’s clumsy filmmaking – either go in or cut it out. That’s the problem with the overall film, too – it stands outside respectfully and just doesn’t go for it.”

It felt, even with all the confessions, a bit at arm’s length. Oddly unsatisfying, yet, in part, because I have so much of his music, I’m glad I saw it.

Sigourney Weaver turns 70

Journeyer

Sigourney Weaver
by David Shankbone, from Wikipedia, 2008
Given the relatively few roles of hers that I’ve actually seen, I’ve nevertheless felt as though I’ve watched Sigourney Weaver in lots of films.

The first movie she was in, I’ve viewed several times, a non-speaking part as a date for Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) in Annie Hall (1977).

Then I went to see Alien (1979). OMG. She was fierce and strong and smart, and that was very appealing. No doubt that her character, Ripley, is one of the most significant female protagonists in all of cinema. I never watched any of the sequels – there were at least three – but I’m glad I saw the original. She did reprise Ripley briefly on the TV show Full Frontal with Samantha Bee in 2019.

In Ghostbusters (1984), Sigourney held her own as Dana in the mostly male film. I saw the sequel (1989) to this, but honestly, I’m not remembering it that much.

The performer played a real person, Dian Fossey, in Gorillas in the Mist (1988), a woman studying the primates and trying to stop their decimation. She was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for this role. She’s become a supporter of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and is now its honorary chairwoman.

Sigourney is the mean boss in Working Girl (1988). I know we’re supposed to root for the Melanie Griffith character over the conniving boss stealing her ideas, but Weaver, Oscar-nominated, was such a good villain! The Golden Globes picked as best supporting actress, meaning she won BOTH GG acting awards in the same year.

I loved Dave (1993), even though the Constitutional premise is absurd. Sigourney plays the First Lady, estranged from President Bill Mitchell (Kevin Kline). The White House staff use his doppelganger Dave (Kevin Kline) to cover up the fact that Mitchell had a stroke.

My, but The Ice Storm (1997) was depressingly good at portraying suburban ennui. She won the BAFTA Award – think British Oscars – for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Sigourney played The Warden in Holes (2003), and the voice of the ship’s computer in WALL-E (2008).

I wish I had seen the performer, trained at the Yale University School of Drama, on stage. She was a 1985 Tony nominee as Best Featured Actress In A Play in Hurlyburly.

On television, she’s hosted Saturday Night Live twice; I saw the 1986 episode but not the one in 2010. I’ve heard her speak fondly about her father, the late Sylvester L. Weaver Jr., better known as Pat. He virtually pioneered the very concepts of morning and late-night television programming in creating both the Today Show (1952) and Tonight! (1953).

Sigourney and Pat went to the Academy Awards together in 1987, when she was nominated for Best Actress for Aliens; she lost to Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God.

Susan Alexandra “Sigourney” Weaver took her first name from a minor character in The Great Gatsby. My spellcheck does not like that first name, wanting to change it to Journeyer, which would also be appropriate.

She received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in December 1999. Sigourney Weaver turns 70 today. Read this June 2019 interview in PARADE.

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