Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Zion National Park 2015

Over fall break I took a quick trip to Southern Utah.  Zion National Park is one of my very favorite places on Earth and it had been more than a year and a half since I had been there last.  That was much too long!  There is something about those red rocks that just calls to me and I spent a lovely day wandering around.  It was incredibly peaceful even though it was quite crowded and I needed a bit of peace after a crazy couple of months!

Monday, October 19, 2015

Pawn Sacrifice

Last Thursday night I went to see the film Pawn Sacrifice at the Broadway.  It tells the true story of the epic chess tournament between American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky during the height of the Cold War through the filter of Fischer's mental illness.  Tobey Maguire gives an incredibly nuanced performance (one of his best performances in years) as Fischer, a man who becomes incapacitated by his own paranoid delusions as government officials use him to score a victory over the Soviets in the wake of the Vietnam debacle.  Maguire portrays all of Fischer's eccentricities, such as demanding a match be moved because he can hear the sound of the television cameras, trashing his hotel room because he is certain that it is bugged, and battling reporters at the airport, without overshadowing the pathos of his isolation.  I was particularly struck by a scene showing Fischer cowering in a corner of his apartment tormented by the sound of the footsteps of people coming and going in the hall.  I also enjoyed Liev Schreiber's performance as Spassky because he was able to show both vulnerability and respect for Fischer's ability, especially in Game 6 when he concedes the match to Fischer. Their strong performances as men who were, themselves, used as chess pieces by their respective governments were compelling enough to make me invested in the outcome of a match conducted in near silence.  I, like many people in my screening, cheered when Fischer won!  The constant use of actual footage from coverage of the matches (there is a Forrest Gump moment with Dick Cavett) got old and the pop culture montages (especially the one with Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit) interspersed here and there were a bit cliched.  However, I would definitely recommend this film as a compelling biopic about a complicated man.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Utah Opera's Tosca

Last night I went to opening night for Utah Opera's Tosca with my cousin John.  Not only is Tosca one of my favorite operas but this is a marvelous production so it was an incredible evening!  Floria Tosca (Kara Shay Thomson) is a fiery and passionate singer with two men in love with her:  her lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi (Dinyar Vania), and the Police Chief, Baron Scarpia (Michael Chioldi), who wants to possess her at any cost.  Scarpia arrests Cavaradossi for aiding a political prisoner and sentences him to death.  He tells Tosca that he will release him if she submits to him, promising her that the firing squad will be a ruse.  She agrees but when he embraces her, she stabs him with a knife.  She visits Cavaradossi in the Castel Sant'Angelo to tell him that he must pretend to die and then they will run away when the guards leave.  However, Scarpia has betrayed her so Cavaradossi is actually killed by the firing squad.  Knowing that she will be accused of Scarpia's murder and unwilling to live without Cavaradossi, Tosca leaps to her death from the parapet of the Castel Sant'Angelo.  The music is so beautiful and the three main actors give wonderful performances.  A scene in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle at the end of Act 1 where Scarpia reveals his plan to execute Cavaradossi and possess Tosca while a procession sings the Te Deum is absolutely breathtaking.  I also loved Tosca's aria "Vissi d'arte" at the end of Act 2 where she asks God to help her.  But my favorite moment of the entire opera is in Act 3 when Cavaradossi sings the aria "E lucevan le stelle" reminiscing about his love for Tosca as he awaits execution.  Vania sings it so beautifully (and there is an amazing theme played by the clarinets) that I had tears in my eyes!  I really enjoyed the addition of the Choristers of The Madeleine Choir School singing the Te Deum as well.  The sets of the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, Scarpia's study in the Palazzo Farnese. and the Castel Sant'Angelo are very elaborate and added to the overall dramatic feeling of the opera.  I thoroughly enjoyed this production (I love the tragic operas where desperate lovers die for love) and I would highly recommend it.  Tosca runs at the Capitol Theatre until Oct. 18.  Go here for tickets and more information.

Note:  It now takes me less than 15 minutes to drive to the Capitol Theatre (instead of the usual 45 minutes it used to take me from South Jordan)!  Moving into my new house was the best decision I have ever made!

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

The Walk

A few months ago I saw a trailer featuring a man climbing out on to the ledge of a towering skyscraper.  When the camera slowly revealed the man's view of the street down below I felt a little bit of vertigo.  Not knowing anything about The Walk, I immediately wanted to see it just because it looked so thrilling!  The fact that it is inspired by Philippe Petit's actual high-wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 made it even more compelling to me.  I finally had the chance to see it last night (I have been preoccupied with another little movie called The Martian...oh, and I also moved into a new house) in IMAX 3D and it is fantastic.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Petit and he prepared for the role by learning to walk on a high-wire (he trained with Petit himself) and learning French (I thought his accent was great).  He is absolutely endearing as a street performer who becomes enamored with a picture of the World Trade Center that he sees in a magazine and then becomes obsessed with walking in the air between the towers.  He recruits a series of "accomplices" to help him with his "coup" and these characters are often quite comical (Charlotte Le Bon, Clement Sibony, and Cesar Domboy).  Three-fourths of the film is an Inspector Clouseau-like caper as the team surreptitiously prepares for the walk and the rest of the film is a thrilling adventure that will have you on the edge of your seat.  The views while Petit is out on the wire are spectacular and, even though most of it is CGI, it feels very authentic.  The production design is incredibly stylized, first in black and white as Petit performs in the streets of Paris, then in vivid color as he trains at the circus, and then misty as he walks through the air in New York. I really enjoyed this film and I recommend that you see it in IMAX 3D.

Friday, October 2, 2015

The Martian

Last night my family went to the first screening of The Martian and we all absolutely loved it!  The book seriously blew me away and the movie is an incredible adaptation!  Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is an astronaut with the Ares 3 expedition on Mars.  During a sand storm he is seriously injured and the rest of the crew, thinking that he is dead, initiates an emergency evacuation leaving him behind.  He uses science and his own ingenuity to survive and eventually contacts NASA to formulate a plan for his rescue involving his former crew, now orbiting Mars.  To say that this movie is intense would be an understatement!  I was on the edge of my seat and holding my breath most of the time (and I had read the book!).  This movie also has a lot of comedic moments as well, particularly involving Watney's use of expletives.  The entire cast of NASA engineers and astronauts, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, and Michael Pena, is outstanding but Damon gives a tour de force performance!  At various times he had me laughing, crying, and cringing (he had to treat his own rather serious wound).  I was literally crying when he established contact with NASA for the first time.  The cinematography is breathtaking with incredible long shots of the barren landscape on Mars.  The sound design is spectacular and I was particularly struck by the sound of Watney's breathing.  I also loved the soundtrack (one of the astronauts left behind an extensive collection of disco).  I think the screenplay is very faithful to the source material.  The book does go into a lot more detail about the actual science of what Watney is doing but its omission does not detract at all.  Some events during Watney's journey to the MAV in the Schiaparelli Crater are also left out but, again, it doesn't lessen the dramatic impact of what he goes through.  I loved it! I really, really loved it and I would highly recommend it!
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