Hi everyone!
Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film "The Master" is, quite simply, a thrilling piece of film-making with a performance by Joaquin Phoenix that I dare anyone to challenge isn't the best performance by an actor in a film this year. Yes, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lancaster Dodd, the would-be founder of a religious cult not unlike Scientology, is terrific. Mr. Hoffman just possesses such a natural and magnetic screen and stage presence that I don't think it's possible for him to give a bad performance. And Amy Adams, as Lancaster's cold and eerily indoctrinated wife, gives a thoroughly chilling performance in a role that while not commanding a lot of screen time, is quietly and frighteningly effective. Yet, for me, this is Joaquin's movie. After a bizarre 'performance art' turn in the mockumentary "I'm Still Here"(which may or may not have been a mental/emotional breakdown) and a solemn pledge to give up acting in favor of becoming a rapper, Mr. Phoenix proves in his performance as the disenfranchised alcoholic World War Two seaman Freddy Quell that he is the greatest actor of his generation.
This is a big and beautifully photographed 'event' film. From its Pacific seascapes to a motorcycle ride through the Arizona desert evocative of David Lean's "Laurence of Arabia," "The Master" leaves its viewer in a visual thrall. Anchoring all of this beauty, however, is the tortured and tormented Freddy Quell (Joaquin Phoenix). Freddy's narrative is a little vague. What little we know about him is through a handful of insights the character provides during an early indoctrination session with Mr. Hoffman's Lancaster: during the war, he loved a girl "back home" who left him for another guy; his mother is in a mental institution, he had a sexual relationship with an aunt, and he killed a lot of "Japs" during the war. Interwoven throughout the film are flashbacks of Freddy's story. The girl he loved back home was a sixteen year-old girl who had written letters to him while he was on the Pacific Front. He had actually never met her until after the war had ended. Early in the film, we see Freddy being interviewed by the Navy upon his discharge. He's being told of the difficulties he will inevitably face adjusting to life in the real world after having suffered through the traumas of war.
We then see Freddy drinking his way through a host of meaningless, soul-deadening jobs (photographing wealthy patrons of a department store, picking cabbages, etc) until he winds up in the dubious care of Lancaster Dodd, the creator of a religious organization called The Cause, who takes Freddy under his wing and tries to mould Freddy into something of his own image with rather shaky results. Although Freddy is an alcoholic and probably half-crazy, he's still a fairly sharp guy, at least when he allows himself to be. He observes, he listens, he sees things. He's tortured by his past (however undefined) and despite Lancaster's "best" intentions, Freddy never quite conforms to the Cause's doctrines. As such, he proves a threat, most especially it seems to Lancaster's wife (Amy Adams) who has her own way of dealing with the darker forces that always seem to threaten her's and Lancaster's tightly controlled family unit. I won't go into this here but I will say I found it probably the most frightening (and unexpected) scene in the film.
"The Master" is one of those films that begs to be viewed a second time. The ending, for example, kind of mystified me because, at least upon initial viewing, it didn't feel like an ending at all. I won't give it away except to say that it somehow defused the tension and power and the mesmerizing quality of the preceding two hours-and-twenty-minutes of the film's running time. I sat through the end credits feeling confused and wondering whether the film itself was nothing but an elaborate hoax, much ado about ultimately nothing. I don't think this is the case but I can understand how a casual film-goer is going to be left feeling totally unsatisfied. I need to see it again...
Still, I highly recommend "The Master" if for no other reason than its performances and its visual style. I'm not sure about the narrative or its overall meaning, but then...not all great works of art are easily defined or understood. I believe "The Master" to be a true work of cinematic art. I'm just not sure the mainstream is going to be quite as embracing.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Theater Review: "Sweet Bird of Youth" at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago
Hi everyone!
What to say about the new revival of Tennessee Williams's 1959 play "Sweet Bird of Youth" that recently opened at Chicago's Goodman Theatre starring film actress Diane Lane and Broadway veteran (the recent award-winning revival of "Death of a Salesman") Finn Wittrock?
James Schuette's sets and costumes are beautifully evocative of the Gulf Coast circa late-1950s. Keith Parham's lighting design is equally atmospheric. The show looks great. But for a three-hour-plus production, you can't rely on visuals alone to provide an entertaining and thought-provoking evening of theatre.
I wish I could say the performances lived up to the scenery. Alas, however, I can't.
"Sweet Bird of Youth" is one of Williams's later plays and the last to really experience popular success, coming as it does on the heels of the mighty theatrical triumvirate that is "The Glass of Menagerie", "Streetcar Named Desire", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." It's a long and windy play that tells the story of Alexandra Del Lago (traveling under the assumed name of Princess Kosmonopolis), a fading Hollywood actress who is convinced she's just starred in the biggest flop of her career; and 29-year-old gigolo and wannabe actor Chance Wayne. As the play begins, they are holed up together in a luxurious hotel room in Chance's hometown of St. Cloud. They drink vodka and smoke pot. They have sex. They talk and talk and talk about how Alexandra is going to help jump start Chance's acting career. Chance has brought Alexandra to St. Cloud ostensibly to 'rescue' his former girlfriend, Heavenly, and take her away from the rather bigoted clutches of her father, local politician Boss Finley, and her brother, Tom. What Chance doesn't know is that there's a price on his head for giving the once virtuous Heavenly a venereal disease because of which she was forced to undergo a hysterectomy. Heavenly's father, Boss, has vowed to castrate Chance if he catches him in town.
This is a play that should be great fun to watch, if not riveting. What's currently onstage at the Goodman is oddly inert and utterly lacking in any sexual heat between its stars, Ms. Lane and Mr. Wittrock. The hour-long first act takes place entirely in Alexandra's hotel room. It is meant to introduce us to Alexandra and Chance, to understand where they're coming from and what they both want out of life and each other. Alexandra is hung-over if not still drunk. And when she and Chance share from her stash of marijuana, they should be high. They spend most of the first act in bed, half-undressed, and yet there is simply zero chemistry between these two very attractive stars. Hence, the audience never really connects to them or cares about what happens. As a couple, Ms. Lane and Mr. Wittrock simply aren't convincing. Both come across as entirely one-dimensional. Ms. Lane has a tendency to declaim all of her lines to such a degree that she becomes monotonous as opposed to sultry and seductive, while Mr. Wittrock relies too much on volume to get his character's passion across. He comes across as merely petulant and spoiled.
The very brief second act introduces us to Boss Finley and his daughter Heavenly. This is when we learn of her shame and the scandal it's created within the family and Boss Finley's constituents. John Judd as Boss provides a welcome jolt of energy to the production that sticks out like a lightning rod whenever he occupies the stage. As Heavenly, Kristina Johnson is suitably winsome in, as played here at least, a relatively underwritten role.
Act Three parallels the first act in length and while visually the most striking part of the whole production, it is also the most uneven. The highlight of Act Three is definitely Jennifer Engstrom as Miss Lucy, Boss Finley's mistress, and town gossip. The problem however is that Ms. Engstrom almost seems as though she is the star of an entirely different play because her energy and overall stage presence is never matched by those of her colleagues, Mr. Judd excepted. With her bright red poodle skirt and (at times) incomprehensible drunken drawl, you can't take your eyes off of her. She is riveting to watch while being a distraction from the ho-hum quality of all that surrounds her. This of course is problematic because it pulls focus from the events transpiring in the play.
While I praised the lighting design at the top of this review, I have to say though that the lighting was somewhat problematic for me in Act Three. Its relative dimness at times cast strange shadows on the actors--particularly Ms. Lane--that obscured their faces and served to further block the audience from feeling fully engaged with the characters on stage. This may have merely been a technical glitch that will be corrected in subsequent performances. I can't say.
All in all, this is a wildly schizophrenic though handsomely mounted production that lurches from a maudlin kind of ennui to a hyperkinetic energy that is as distracting as it is occasionally welcome. It is still very early in the run (it opened last Friday and closes October 25th) and I'm confident the production will continue to evolve and find some kind of consistent pacing. Still, the chemistry between Ms. Lane and Mr. Wittrock is so non-existent that it weighs and I fear dooms the entire production to failure from start to finish.
This is a shame because, on paper anyway, this could have been something special.
What to say about the new revival of Tennessee Williams's 1959 play "Sweet Bird of Youth" that recently opened at Chicago's Goodman Theatre starring film actress Diane Lane and Broadway veteran (the recent award-winning revival of "Death of a Salesman") Finn Wittrock?
James Schuette's sets and costumes are beautifully evocative of the Gulf Coast circa late-1950s. Keith Parham's lighting design is equally atmospheric. The show looks great. But for a three-hour-plus production, you can't rely on visuals alone to provide an entertaining and thought-provoking evening of theatre.
I wish I could say the performances lived up to the scenery. Alas, however, I can't.
"Sweet Bird of Youth" is one of Williams's later plays and the last to really experience popular success, coming as it does on the heels of the mighty theatrical triumvirate that is "The Glass of Menagerie", "Streetcar Named Desire", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." It's a long and windy play that tells the story of Alexandra Del Lago (traveling under the assumed name of Princess Kosmonopolis), a fading Hollywood actress who is convinced she's just starred in the biggest flop of her career; and 29-year-old gigolo and wannabe actor Chance Wayne. As the play begins, they are holed up together in a luxurious hotel room in Chance's hometown of St. Cloud. They drink vodka and smoke pot. They have sex. They talk and talk and talk about how Alexandra is going to help jump start Chance's acting career. Chance has brought Alexandra to St. Cloud ostensibly to 'rescue' his former girlfriend, Heavenly, and take her away from the rather bigoted clutches of her father, local politician Boss Finley, and her brother, Tom. What Chance doesn't know is that there's a price on his head for giving the once virtuous Heavenly a venereal disease because of which she was forced to undergo a hysterectomy. Heavenly's father, Boss, has vowed to castrate Chance if he catches him in town.
This is a play that should be great fun to watch, if not riveting. What's currently onstage at the Goodman is oddly inert and utterly lacking in any sexual heat between its stars, Ms. Lane and Mr. Wittrock. The hour-long first act takes place entirely in Alexandra's hotel room. It is meant to introduce us to Alexandra and Chance, to understand where they're coming from and what they both want out of life and each other. Alexandra is hung-over if not still drunk. And when she and Chance share from her stash of marijuana, they should be high. They spend most of the first act in bed, half-undressed, and yet there is simply zero chemistry between these two very attractive stars. Hence, the audience never really connects to them or cares about what happens. As a couple, Ms. Lane and Mr. Wittrock simply aren't convincing. Both come across as entirely one-dimensional. Ms. Lane has a tendency to declaim all of her lines to such a degree that she becomes monotonous as opposed to sultry and seductive, while Mr. Wittrock relies too much on volume to get his character's passion across. He comes across as merely petulant and spoiled.
The very brief second act introduces us to Boss Finley and his daughter Heavenly. This is when we learn of her shame and the scandal it's created within the family and Boss Finley's constituents. John Judd as Boss provides a welcome jolt of energy to the production that sticks out like a lightning rod whenever he occupies the stage. As Heavenly, Kristina Johnson is suitably winsome in, as played here at least, a relatively underwritten role.
Act Three parallels the first act in length and while visually the most striking part of the whole production, it is also the most uneven. The highlight of Act Three is definitely Jennifer Engstrom as Miss Lucy, Boss Finley's mistress, and town gossip. The problem however is that Ms. Engstrom almost seems as though she is the star of an entirely different play because her energy and overall stage presence is never matched by those of her colleagues, Mr. Judd excepted. With her bright red poodle skirt and (at times) incomprehensible drunken drawl, you can't take your eyes off of her. She is riveting to watch while being a distraction from the ho-hum quality of all that surrounds her. This of course is problematic because it pulls focus from the events transpiring in the play.
While I praised the lighting design at the top of this review, I have to say though that the lighting was somewhat problematic for me in Act Three. Its relative dimness at times cast strange shadows on the actors--particularly Ms. Lane--that obscured their faces and served to further block the audience from feeling fully engaged with the characters on stage. This may have merely been a technical glitch that will be corrected in subsequent performances. I can't say.
All in all, this is a wildly schizophrenic though handsomely mounted production that lurches from a maudlin kind of ennui to a hyperkinetic energy that is as distracting as it is occasionally welcome. It is still very early in the run (it opened last Friday and closes October 25th) and I'm confident the production will continue to evolve and find some kind of consistent pacing. Still, the chemistry between Ms. Lane and Mr. Wittrock is so non-existent that it weighs and I fear dooms the entire production to failure from start to finish.
This is a shame because, on paper anyway, this could have been something special.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Book Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Hi everyone!
Now that summer is for all intents and purposes over, I always look forward to the new Fall season in books, film, theatre, television, and the arts. One of the most anticipated film releases of the year, is acclaimed director Mira Nair's film adaptation of Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid's bestselling and Man Booker Prize nominated novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." I'd been meaning to read this work for several years and when I heard the film was releasing this fall I jumped on it over the long Labor Day weekend.
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is written as a first-person narrative in the voice of a young Pakistani man named Changez who is relating his story of how he's returned to his hometown of Lahore after a brilliant academic career at Princeton and a potentially promising career working as a financial analyst at a top Manhattan business evaluation firm in the months just before and after 9/11. He loves New York and everything that American capitalism stands for. Changez feels like he's king of the world. Not only is he earning a huge salary and is considered one of the best employees at his firm only months out of college, he is dating a beautiful Upper East Side girl named Erica and finds himself falling in love with her.
But, of course, Changez's all-American success story hits a snag. Changez confesses to feeling a sense of understated but smug satisfaction when he watches the planes fly into the World Trade Center. He is disturbed by this response to the tragedy and seeks to cover it up, but as prejudices against him among his co-workers come to light in the wake of 9/11 and with the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and an escalation of tension between his home country Pakistan and India, Changez's perceptions of his adopted country begin to change in slow but dramatic ways. This runs parallel with a steady deterioration in Erica's mental health. She has never gotten over the death from cancer of her best friend and former boyfriend. And as her relationship with Changez heats up and the world as they'd known it prior to 9/11 becomes utterly foreign to them, Erica retreats deeper and deeper into herself to a point of no return.
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is one of those novels that grips you from the first paragraph. Changez proves to be a compelling character and the fact that the novel is written entirely from his perspective gives an immediacy to the seeming halcyon days prior to the attacks of September 11 2001. What makes it all the more fascinating is that Changez clearly represents the "other" and effectively portrays the fear and paranoia that gripped the Muslim and South Asian population here in the United States after that fateful day. Changez's voice alternates between gung-ho youthful idealism and a gnawing slightly off-kilter bitterness that haunts the reader with its sinister undertones. This is a fast read and one that can easily be devoured in one or two sittings.
But it's not without its problems, and these problems don't really come to light until you've finished the book and begin to reflect upon it. I realize that the character of Erica is meant to symbolize the decline and fall of American civilization post-9/11, and while she sort of works as a literary device, it's kind of a stretch. Because we only see Erica through the lens of Changez's experiences, she remains a bit of a cipher. The reader never really gets to know her or find out why exactly she has this, well, fatal attraction for her dead boyfriend. We just see her shut down as Changez grapples with the reasons for her increasing isolation from him. This is not to say that the reader isn't moved by her or by what ultimately happens to her, it's just that she is never closer than arms'-length.
Changez's transformation into the "reluctant fundamentalist" is also problematic, though for a different reason. We're dazzled by his language and the pace at which he tells his story, but the transition itself--while understandable--is undercut by a sense that he is leading the person to whom he's telling his story (an American we assume sitting with Changez in an outdoor restaurant in Lahore) to a certain doom. This sense of foreboding comes to the forefront in the novel's final pages, and the ending itself is deliberately kept ambiguous. In fact, I had to reread the final paragraph at least three times to figure out what exactly takes place, and I'm still not entirely certain.
Despite these flaws, however, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is definitely worth reading. The film premiered last week at the Venice Film Festival to decidedly mixed reviews. I am excited by the casting of British-Pakistani actor/rapper Riz Ahmed as Changez. Mr. Ahmed was terrific in Michael Winterbottom's recent film "Trishna" and I'm sure he'll be equally as good as Changez. I am somewhat surprised that Ms. Nair cast Kate Hudson--not exactly known for her dramatic acting--in the role of Erica though this could be a breakthrough performance for Ms. Hudson. Mira Nair is a brilliant film director ("Monsoon Wedding," "The Namesake," etc) with a wonderful visual style that leaps off the screen with energy and color. I look forward to seeing what she can do with Mr. Hamid's problematic but ultimately engaging and topical novel.
Now that summer is for all intents and purposes over, I always look forward to the new Fall season in books, film, theatre, television, and the arts. One of the most anticipated film releases of the year, is acclaimed director Mira Nair's film adaptation of Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid's bestselling and Man Booker Prize nominated novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." I'd been meaning to read this work for several years and when I heard the film was releasing this fall I jumped on it over the long Labor Day weekend.
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is written as a first-person narrative in the voice of a young Pakistani man named Changez who is relating his story of how he's returned to his hometown of Lahore after a brilliant academic career at Princeton and a potentially promising career working as a financial analyst at a top Manhattan business evaluation firm in the months just before and after 9/11. He loves New York and everything that American capitalism stands for. Changez feels like he's king of the world. Not only is he earning a huge salary and is considered one of the best employees at his firm only months out of college, he is dating a beautiful Upper East Side girl named Erica and finds himself falling in love with her.
But, of course, Changez's all-American success story hits a snag. Changez confesses to feeling a sense of understated but smug satisfaction when he watches the planes fly into the World Trade Center. He is disturbed by this response to the tragedy and seeks to cover it up, but as prejudices against him among his co-workers come to light in the wake of 9/11 and with the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and an escalation of tension between his home country Pakistan and India, Changez's perceptions of his adopted country begin to change in slow but dramatic ways. This runs parallel with a steady deterioration in Erica's mental health. She has never gotten over the death from cancer of her best friend and former boyfriend. And as her relationship with Changez heats up and the world as they'd known it prior to 9/11 becomes utterly foreign to them, Erica retreats deeper and deeper into herself to a point of no return.
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is one of those novels that grips you from the first paragraph. Changez proves to be a compelling character and the fact that the novel is written entirely from his perspective gives an immediacy to the seeming halcyon days prior to the attacks of September 11 2001. What makes it all the more fascinating is that Changez clearly represents the "other" and effectively portrays the fear and paranoia that gripped the Muslim and South Asian population here in the United States after that fateful day. Changez's voice alternates between gung-ho youthful idealism and a gnawing slightly off-kilter bitterness that haunts the reader with its sinister undertones. This is a fast read and one that can easily be devoured in one or two sittings.
But it's not without its problems, and these problems don't really come to light until you've finished the book and begin to reflect upon it. I realize that the character of Erica is meant to symbolize the decline and fall of American civilization post-9/11, and while she sort of works as a literary device, it's kind of a stretch. Because we only see Erica through the lens of Changez's experiences, she remains a bit of a cipher. The reader never really gets to know her or find out why exactly she has this, well, fatal attraction for her dead boyfriend. We just see her shut down as Changez grapples with the reasons for her increasing isolation from him. This is not to say that the reader isn't moved by her or by what ultimately happens to her, it's just that she is never closer than arms'-length.
Changez's transformation into the "reluctant fundamentalist" is also problematic, though for a different reason. We're dazzled by his language and the pace at which he tells his story, but the transition itself--while understandable--is undercut by a sense that he is leading the person to whom he's telling his story (an American we assume sitting with Changez in an outdoor restaurant in Lahore) to a certain doom. This sense of foreboding comes to the forefront in the novel's final pages, and the ending itself is deliberately kept ambiguous. In fact, I had to reread the final paragraph at least three times to figure out what exactly takes place, and I'm still not entirely certain.
Despite these flaws, however, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is definitely worth reading. The film premiered last week at the Venice Film Festival to decidedly mixed reviews. I am excited by the casting of British-Pakistani actor/rapper Riz Ahmed as Changez. Mr. Ahmed was terrific in Michael Winterbottom's recent film "Trishna" and I'm sure he'll be equally as good as Changez. I am somewhat surprised that Ms. Nair cast Kate Hudson--not exactly known for her dramatic acting--in the role of Erica though this could be a breakthrough performance for Ms. Hudson. Mira Nair is a brilliant film director ("Monsoon Wedding," "The Namesake," etc) with a wonderful visual style that leaps off the screen with energy and color. I look forward to seeing what she can do with Mr. Hamid's problematic but ultimately engaging and topical novel.
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