Still Alice

Yesterday afternoon I went to see Julianne Moore in Still Alice.  She was my final Best Actress nominee (see my commentaries on Rosamund Pike, Felicity Jones, and Reese Witherspoon) and I was particularly eager to see her performance as it has generated a fair amount of Oscar buzz with Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Screen Actors Guild Award wins.  Moore plays Dr. Alice Howland, a professor of linguistics at Columbia University who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease at the age of 50.  It is an intense character study of a woman, known for her ambition, intelligence, and ability to communicate, who loses the very core of her identity and struggles to maintain relationships with her equally ambitious husband (Alec Baldwin) and her children Anna (Kate Bosworth), Tom (Hunter Parish), and Lydia (Kristen Stewart).  Moore gives a gripping tour-de-force performance.  You can literally see pieces of Alice slipping away bit by bit in each frame of the movie and this is particularly apparent when a nearly demented Alice watches a video she made after first receiving her diagnosis where she meticulously instructs her future self on how to kill herself.  The transformation is incredible, especially in light of the fact that most movies are not shot chronologically.  Moore's emotionally nuanced portrayal  draws the audience into the fear and anxiety she feels constantly.  She is most affecting when Alice gets lost jogging on the campus where she has taught for 20 years, when she visits a nursing home and the staff assumes she is looking on behalf of an elderly parent, and when she, who once traveled the country giving lectures, gives a faltering speech to an Alzheimer's symposium.  Directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland chose to shoot many scenes with a shallow depth of field leaving much out of focus and many conversations occur in the periphery of the scene, effectively emphasizing Alice's confusion.   While this movie is definitely a vehicle for Moore, Baldwin gives a strong performance as a man who tries to be supportive but, ultimately, doesn't want his life disrupted and Stewart shines as Alice's ne'er-do-well daughter who is the only one who really sees (and accepts) what Alice is going through.   Still Alice is very sad but I highly recommend it.

Note:  I saw Marion Cotillard, the remaining Best Actress nominee, in Two Days, One Night last week but I didn't especially like the movie so I didn't review it.

Ballet West's Swan Lake

Last night I attended Ballet West's production of Swan Lake.  I almost didn't go because I thought nothing could compare to the performance I saw of this ballet in Russia.  While seeing such a quintessentially Russian ballet performed in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg will always be one of the most magical experiences of my life, I'm really glad I got to see Ballet West's version.  It was absolutely wonderful! Prince Siegfried goes into the woods to hunt and aims his bow at a swan who becomes a beautiful woman named Odette.  She explains that she is a swan by day and a woman at night because she is under the spell of an evil sorcerer, the Baron von Rothbert. Only true love can break the spell but, as the sun comes up, Odette reverts back to a swan and Siegfried returns home to celebrate his birthday with a grand ball.  Many princesses vie for his attention because he must marry to inherit the throne.  He ignores them, thinking only of Odette.  Suddenly, Rothbert enters the ballroom with his daughter Odile, who looks exactly like Odette.  Thinking that she is Odette, Siegfried declares his love to Odile.  When Rotherbert reveals his treachery, Siegfried rushes to Odette to beg forgiveness which she grants.  They eventually find a way to defeat Rothbert and end the spell in a very dramatic ending.  Beau Pearson, as Siegfried, and Christiana Bennett (one of my favorite Ballet West dancers), as Odette/Odile, danced their roles beautifully and I especially loved their Pas de Deux. I also really enjoyed the Swan Maidens because they were so synchronized with very elaborate formations and the Hungarian dance at Siegfried's ball because it was very dramatic. The score by Tchaikovsky is absolutely exquisite!  The music during the Pas de Deux between Odette and Siegfried is incredibly romantic (right up there with the Pas de Deux between the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier in The Nutcracker).  I think all of Tchaikovsky's music is so beautiful and emotional and the choreography of this ballet really suits this particular piece!  The costumes are gorgeous and the sets are quite spectacular, especially the ballroom (I loved the chandeliers).  It was such an amazing production (one of Ballet West's best, in my opinion) and I definitely recommend getting a ticket to one of the few remaining performances. Go here for tickets and information.

Note:  Taylor Swift used costumes from Ballet West's production of Swan Lake in the video for "Shake It Off."

Mahler's Symphony No. 3

It has been quite a while since I last saw the Utah Symphony (at least for me) so I was very happy to end a long week back at Abravanel Hall with an incredible concert featuring Symphony No. 3 by Gustav Mahler.  The Utah Symphony is performing the entire Mahler symphony cycle this season and next to commemorate their 75th anniversary and to honor the legacy of Maurice Abravanel.  I am not very familiar with Mahler but I am starting to really appreciate his work (Symphony No. 1 was amazing).  This particular piece was absolutely magnificent!  The orchestra was joined by mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, the women from the Utah Symphony Chorus, and the Madeleine School Choir.  I had goosebumps almost from the opening notes played by the horn section (eight of them).  The first movement was very dramatic, featuring a rousing march and a wonderful theme played by a solo trombone.  The second movement was very playful, in my opinion, with themes played by the oboes and clarinets (I love it when the woodwinds are featured).  According to Mahler, this movement represents flowers and it was probably my favorite section of the symphony.  The third movement included a solo trumpet played off stage and this was amazing!  The fourth movement featured Mumford, who gave a lovely performance.  The text is based on Friedrich Nietzsche's "Midnight Song" and I found it to be both beautiful and atmospheric.  Mumford was joined by both choirs in the fifth movement and I particularly loved when the children imitated bells.  The final movement was also incredibly dramatic.  It started very slowly and softly and then built to an incredible crescendo featuring the timpani.  This symphony is almost two hours long but the beautiful music carried me away and it seemed to last for just an instant!  I really enjoyed this concert last night and I definitely recommend getting a ticket to tonight's performance.  Go here for tickets and information.

Sundance Film Festival 2015

For ten days in January, independent filmmakers, and the occasional Hollywood celebrity, descend upon Park City to screen their movies at the Sundance Film Festival and, hopefully, find studios willing to distribute them for wide-release.  It is an absolutely magical time for film lovers (some travel from all over the world to be here) because many of the films are world premieres.  I always try to see at least one film every year but this year I decided to go for it and see as many films as my schedule (I didn't take any time off but I am thinking about it for next year) would allow.  I had the opportunity to see ten films in seven days at six venues and I loved every minute of my Sundance experience!  Monday night I saw Unexpected at the Broadway Theatre.  A high school Biology teacher (Cobie Smulders) discovers, unexpectedly, that she is pregnant and is conflicted about potentially losing her identity.  When her best student also discovers that she is pregnant, she channels all of her emotions into getting her student into college at any cost with disastrous results. I really related to this movie because I've worked with students to help them get into college and sometimes it was what I wanted rather than what they wanted.  I cried during a particularly heated scene. Tuesday night I saw Entertainment at the Broadway.  This is one of the strangest films I've ever seen.  A third rate comedian (Gregg Turkington) travels through the Mojave Desert to perform at a series of dubious gigs (one is in a prison), stay in one run-down motel after another, and take some bizarre field trips (an airplane graveyard) to pass the time.  It was a powerful character study of a man being driven to desperation which made me uncomfortable (but that was rather the point).  Wednesday night I drove all the way to Ogden (about an hour north of where I live) because I really wanted to see Brooklyn.  This is a very sweet film about an Irish girl (Saoirse Ronan) who emigrates to New York in the 1950s.  I really loved Ronan's performance and this is one of my favorites of the festival.  Thursday night I saw People, Places, Things at the Rose Wagner Theatre.  Will Henry (Jemaine Clement) is a graphic novelist who is getting over a breakup, learning how to relate to his twin daughters, and trying to date again.  This movie was absolutely hilarious with lots of quick and witty dialogue ("I'm a sassy little hobbit").  I also really liked the use of actual comic strips to tell the story.  Friday night I saw a double feature.  First was Z for Zachariah at the Grand Theatre (a really great venue).  I was so excited when I was able to score a ticket to this film at the last minute because I read the book in Jr. High and it has always stayed with me.  After a nuclear war, Ann Burden (Margot Robbie), who lives in an isolated valley protected by mountains, believes that she is the only survivor.  After a year on her own, she is visited by two other survivors who may not be all that they seem.  The movie deviated from the book quite a bit with the addition of a third character but I enjoyed it.  Next I saw Hellions at the Broadway as part of Sundance's Midnight Madness series.  A pregnant teenager (Chloe Rose) must survive Halloween when a group of demon children attack her to steal her unborn child.  This was actually a really awful movie but I had a lot of fun watching it at midnight with a fun crowd.  Saturday afternoon I saw The Diary of a Teenage Girl at the Grand.  A fifteen year old girl (Bel Powley) has a sexual awakening in 1970s San Francisco.  Powley gives an astonishing performance and is considered by many critics to be the break-out star of the festival. I really loved all of the 1970s music used throughout the film, especially Heart's "Dreamboat Annie."  (I really love that song).  Saturday I saw another Midnight Madness film, The Hallow, at the Broadway.  Adam (Joseph Mawle), along with his wife and infant son, moves from London to a remote area in Ireland to evaluate the forest for future development but he is soon warned by his superstitious neighbors that the forest is haunted by spirits.  Soon, these spirits attack and try to take his son.  It was a predictable plot but the tension leading up to the attack was almost unbearable and the creatures were quite scary.  I spent Sunday morning at the beautiful Sundance Resort for a screening of 71.  A British soldier (Jack O'Connell from Unbroken) is left behind after a riot on the streets of Belfast during "the Troubles."  As he tries to make his way back to the barracks, he his both helped and pursued by various factions and doesn't know who to trust.  It was a very powerful and suspenseful movie.  Finally, my friends Rob and Esther gave me a ticket to see the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize winner at the Eccles Theatre in Park City Sunday afternoon and it turned out to be Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.  I was excited because I really wanted to see this film but was unable to get a ticket!  Greg (Thomas Mann), an awkward teenager, and his only friend, Earl, spend most of their time making movies based on classic films (Their version of Midnight Cowboy just about killed me).  Greg's mother asks him to befriend a girl who has recently been diagnosed with leukemia and their friendship is both touching and heartbreaking.  I absolutely loved this film and I laughed and cried through the whole thing.  It is definitely my favorite film of the festival.  The films this year were really great but my favorite part of the festival was getting to have so many wonderful conversations with people from all over the country.  Sometimes I think that people find me to be a bit much when I start talking about music, books, theatre, and movies so it was great to talk to people who are just as passionate as I am.  I am already looking forward to next year!

Note:  For the past five years I have taken my students to see free screenings at Sundance.  Go here for an article in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Leaving Time

My book club chose Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult for its January selection.  Picoult can usually be relied upon for an entertaining read (my book club has also read My Sister's Keeper and House Rules) and this novel is more of the same.  Jenna Metcalf is a 13-year old girl searching for her mother Alice, a renowned elephant researcher who disappeared ten years ago in the wake of a tragic accident on the elephant sanctuary where she worked.  Jenna enlists the help of Serenity Jones, a psychic who has lost her gift, and Virgil Stanhope, the police officer who first responded to the accident and is tormented by his inability to solve the case.  The story is told from multiple perspectives, including Alice's journals detailing her research on elephants, as the three main characters search for clues about that fateful night.  There is an epic plot twist at the end, of the I-can't-believe-I-didn't-see-that-coming variety, which, if you can suspend your disbelief,  brings about a satisfying resolution.  My favorite element of the story is the juxtaposition of Jenna's experiences with that of elephants (my very favorite animal).  Much is made of Jenna's inability to remember the accident while elephants never forget.  Jenna is distraught over the fact that her mother may have willingly left her behind while elephants are devoted mothers who often refuse to leave a calf who has died.  I think the elephants are my favorite characters in the novel, although Jenna is endearing and the duo of misfits who help her are wonderfully quirky.  I did feel that the multiple perspectives were sometimes confusing (Serenity was my favorite narrator) and there were definitely some holes in the plot, but I enjoyed the compelling mother-daughter story and I loved the elephants!  If you are a fan of Jodi Picoult (and elephants), I recommend this book.