Melinda's Movie Marvels - Top Ten Picks this Year

My top 10 favorite films I've seen this the new year are listed in ALPHABETICAL ORDER by title.They comprise a pastiche of animation, comedy, documentary, drama, foreign language, horror and a new genre; true depiction.  THE RIDER by Amer. dir. Chloe Zhao (b China 1974) carved a unique genre in filmmaking; true depiction.  Zhao's majestic film enlightens most Americans to a dying indigenous culture; American cowboys of the frontier.  THE RIDER is NOT a documentary.  It flows seamlessly into an epic story of grace, dignity and heroism.  This film is my favorite movie of the year and should garner every award bestowed upon great filmmaking.  My 2nd favorite movie is the Lebanese film THE INSULT directed by Ziad Doueri (b Lebanon 1963).  THE INSULT is a French/Arabic language film.  It deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.  Two of the films on my list are by the same director, Sebastian Leilo, a Chilean filmmaker (b Argentina 1974).  These divergent films (Spanish & English languages) are set in Chili and Britain.  They're both LGBT love stories.  The films demonstrate a broad spectrum of humanity's compassion and cruelty.

Top Ten Films Seen so Far in 2018:

1.   A FANTASTIC WOMAN by Chilean director Sebastian Leilo (Spanish language).  Oscar nominated for Best Foreign film
2.   DISOBEDIENCE by Chilean director Sebastian Leilo (English language).
3.   HEREDITARY a psychosocial horror thriller starring Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne
4.   ISLE of DOGS an animated masterpiece by Wes Anderson.
5.   LEANING into the WIND a doc. on British installation artist Andy Goldsworthy.
6.   The INSULT by Lebanese filmmaker Ziad Doueri (French/Arabic language) Oscar nominated for best Foreign film.
7.    The PHANTOM THREAD - (Hopefully not Daniel Day Lewis' last film). Oscar nominated for best film.
8.    The POST - Meryl Streep as Katherine Graham during a major news cover-up crisis.  Oscar nominated for best film.
9.   The RIDER -True depiction by American filmmaker Chloe Zhao (b China 1974).
10.  THOROUGHBREDS -  Young adult suspense, cat & mouse psychological game.

I'm planning on seeing LEAVE NO TRACE and the doc. WON'T YOU be my NEIGHBOR.

Melinda's Top Ten Cultural Events for the First Half of the Year in New York City

The top 10 picks from a myriad mix of New York City's Cultural Cornucopia:

1.    A Night with the Paris Review at Symphony Space

2.    Brazilian Artist Tarsilo de Amaral at MoMA

3.    Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Lyric Theater

4.   Jeremy Irons Recites T S Elliot's Four Quartets at 92ndY

5.   Julliard Dance Senior Graduation Performance

6.    Laughing Stock Production "randy writes a novel" at Pershing Square

7.    New York City Ballet Premiers Dance Odyssey by Choreographer Peter Walker at Koch

8.    New York Times Talk with Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane and Marianne Elliot

9.   Philanthropy Panel:  Lin-Manuel, Bill & Melinda Gates at Hunter College

10.  George Saunders LINCOLN at the BARDOT in discussion with Radhika Jones at Symp Space

HEART BEATS LOUD Earns a Warm Spattering of Applause with Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons

HEART BEATS LOUD is a quietly disarming father/daughter film infused with love, growing pains and music.  Frank (Nick Offerman "Parks & Recreations") is a single parent to Sam (Kiersey Clemons in a star turning performance).  It's the summer of love for both Nick & Sam before she moves from Brooklyn to UCLA for college (on scholarship) to become a doctor.  Frank has been running a relic of a record store; actual vinyl albums are in stock.  The archaic business has become obsolete.  A belligerent customer demands Frank stop smoking in the store and walks out & back in telling Frank he just bought the album on Amazon for less "asshole."  Frank is not an asshole, he's still living part-time in his glory days when he was a in a band.  Sam has taken on more of the adult role in the father/daughter dynamics.  She is serious about studying (over the summer) while her dad pesters her to put down the books, pick up an instrument & have fun jamming.  Together the 2 make a dynamite duo on guitar, drums & keyboards featuring Sam on vocals.  Sam is a talented artist and there may be a bright future for her in the music business.  Meanwhile, Frank's business has been floundering for years.  Leslie is Frank's landlord & possible love interest (the always sensational Toni Collette).  He tells her he will be shutting down the store.  (Collette is in so many movies this summer it's a wonder she can keep her head on straight.)  Leslie is friendly and sympathetic but "held the rent down for as long as possible."  The pulse of the film is the bond between dad & daughter who make beautiful music together.   The back-up cast of actors all add harmony to this quaint coming-of-age (for both Frank & Sam) pitch perfect picture.  The crew includes Dave (Ted Danson as the friendly bar-tender; a part he owns), Gwyneth Paltrow as Frank's lovable mom with increasing dementia &  kleptomania charges and Rose, Sam's summer romance (a sensational Sasha Lane).  The movie hums along at a languid pace minus any major discords.   The finale ends with Sam & Frank playing to a handful of customers in the store on their everything must go closing night.  The group that gathered, including Leslie & Rose add their tears and cheers along with an enthusiastic smattering of applause from the crowd.  It's not all about the bass or forte in HEART BEATS LOUD.  It's a charming clash of compassion and enthusiasm.   The film directed & written by Bret Haley deserves an ovation.  Bravo!

HEREDITARY A Psychological Horor Film Not for the Faint of Heart with Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne

HEREDITARY is a suspenseful horrifying thriller and a psychological puzzler.  The artistically shot film is shocking, scary and sympathetic towards a family coping with profound grief.  This is a nightmare that relentlessly haunts through the night and spills over into the seemingly safety of a sunny classroom.  (The safety of the classroom has become more or less a myth).  The opening scene is a banal obituary of a 76 year old woman listing her surviving family: her daughter, son-in-law, grandson & granddaughter.  The daughter Annie (a terrific Toni Collete) is married to Steve (a remarkable Gabriel Byrne).  Their two teenage children are an awkward13 year old girl, Charlie (Milly Shapiro) and older brother Peter (Alex Wolf).  The eulogy given by Annie for her mother at the funeral is not effusive in praise or love; rather an acknowledgement of a somewhat regrettable dissociation.  It's not long before unnatural & eerie occurrences start happening; an unknown mourner anoints the lips of Annie's mother in her coffin.  Back home, Annie asks Steve if it's okay not to feel sad.  But, who would feel bad having had the mother from Hell.  The film's director/screenwriter Ari Aster creates a tense & terrifying movie that blurs ground between horror and psychosis.  Heaven knows Annie & her son have plenty of reason for having mental breakdowns but heaven has no bearing in this effectively fraught family tragedy.  Annie's wavering between grief and rage is understandable.  But, it becomes untenable for her husband who terminates Annie's macabre rituals.  He's seared between protecting his family and helping them to heal.  The acting by the exceptional cast carries the gruesome & unsettling events into a mystifying realm of incredulity to a reality of pain unworkable to entomb.  This movie panders to those with a proclivity for the paranormal.  It's also a harrowing psychological thriller that encrypts itself into one's psyche.   The ending is a tad overkill.  Still, for those mild of heart & temperament I would tempt you to see HEREDITARY, a daring film that delivers on many cylinders.  For those who appreciate the chills of a finely executed horror film, I advise you to bring a sweater and a bottle of holy water.

NOSTALGIA Starring Jon Hamm and Catherine Keener is Stirring and Worth Viewing

Dir./screenwriter Mark Pellingten has had previous hits with "Jerry Maguire" and "Almost Famous" with its A list stars.  NOSTALGIA is stocked with A list stars in a movie that has been sadly overlooked.  The cast includes Jon Hamm & Catherine Keener as brother & sister and Ellen Burstyn & Nick Offerman as mother & son.  The movie is an overlapping triptych story that is a poetic eulogy to what gives life meaning.  The film begins with an appraiser (Ron Ortiz) coming to the home of an elderly man (Bruce Dern) to provide an estimation of value to anything amidst the accumulation of detritus in the home he's lived for decades.  Ortiz appears in the 2nd linked story.  The stories merge separated by a hazed colored striations.  Ortiz comes upon the charred remains of a home owned by Burstyn who is both bitter and distraught.  She tells Ortiz she rain into her flaming home to retrieve a baseball that was her husband's prized possession.  Burstyn takes the Ted Williams autographed baseball to be appraised by a baseball memorabilia seller (Jon Hamm).  Hamm listens sympathetically to Burstyn's lament the baseball's inherent value stemming from its association with her late husband.  Hamm confirms the ball as rare & official and gives it an appraisal of $80-$100,000.  The 3rd & most poignant chapter brings Hamm to his childhood home where he & his sister (Catherine Keener) are dismantling the home & sorting through the remnants of what remains.  Hamm doesn't understand his sister's attachments to artifacts or her need to rent a storage locker although storage lockers are a treasure troves for his memorabilia business.  While sifting through their parents attic, Keener's high school daughter Talli comes begrudgingly to help.  Talli pleads with her mom while texting on her cell to please release her from this chore of clearing out all this clutter which has no significance to her generation and let her join her friends.   The film is an ode to the disappearance of epistolary communications, music listened to from albums on phonographs and photograph filled albums.  As Marvin Gaye sang on an early album "Ain't nothing like the real thing baby!"  A poster in Talli's bedroom hauntingly reads "Love Before It's Too Late."  The significance of value attributed to tangible artifacts can be profound.  The omnipotence of love for another far outweighs any trinket.  Things are replaceable human beings are not, but tangible tokens have the power to continue a connection to loved ones.  NOSTALGIA is a film of haunting deja vu beauty that benefits from an excellent cast and solemn storytelling.      

Basil Twist's SYMPhonie FANtastique - Musical Puppetry Pastiche Sinks to the Bottom of the Sea

SYMPhonie FANtastique is a unique melding of classical music with splashes of avant garde artistry  bathed in mystery.   Perhaps the Dream Music Puppetry is best described as a hallucinatory vision 20,000 leagues under the sea.  Basil Twist is the creator, artistic director and designer for the 1,000 gallon water tank which contained 5 hidden underwater puppeteers.  Twist, a recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Grant is an American performance artist and puppeteer.   He's an int'l collaborator for theater, dance, opera and film.  The lively pianist for the evening was Christopher O'Riley, the NPR host "From the Top".  O'Riley bore an uncanny resemblance to Robin Williams.  O'Riley played all 5 movements of Hector Berlioz's "Symphony Fantastic" (1830).  Berlioz's composition is the story of a gifted, imaginative artist who takes his own life suffering from despair stemming from unrequited love.  I'm quite sure the swirling fabrics, abstract visuals, lighting, glitter & bubbling formations did not comprise story telling.  However, I was drawn by O'Riley's animated antics at the keyboard and the colorful lighting that showcased his playing.  I viewed the hallucinatory puppetry stemmed from the pianist's imagination.  Leonard Bernstein called Berlioz's composition the 1st musical foray into psychedelia hallucination.  It's been suggested Berlioz composed "Symphony Fantastic" while under the influence of opium.  My mind meandered midway into the 3rd movement.  I wondered would the "Dream Music Puppetry Program" appear more enthralling while under the influence of mind-altering substance.  The graceful formations and glitzy affects lost their luster under superfluous subterfuge awash in flotsam & jetsam.

Rockwell, Roosevelt and the 4 Freedoms - More Depth to Norman Rockwell's Work than Thanksgiving Dinner

For those who don't recall the 4 Freedoms that Pres. Roosevelt promoted as propaganda for going to war, you'll likely recall Norman Rockwell's iconic painting of an all white American family gathered at a table laden with food and a robust, elderly woman holding a large turkey on a platter.   This idyllic picture of a blissful holiday gathering is "Freedom from Want".  "Freedom from Want" is one of the 4 Freedoms Roosevelt referred to on his radio talks to rally our nation to causes worth sending our troops to protect.  The 4 Freedoms include "Freedom of Speech," "Freedom of Worship" and  "Freedom from Fear."  Although Pres. Roosevelt's famous line in his 1933 inauguration speech "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," his 4 Freedoms Speech in his Jan. 1941 State of the Union Message didn't resonate.  Pres. Roosevelt intended to steer our country away from isolationist polices following WWI and rouse Americans to the values we hold most dearly.  Norman Rockwell conveyed these slogans into the American conscience with his paintings seen on the covers of the "Saturday Evening Post" in 1943.  Rockwell admitted "Somehow I just didn't get my head around it {Roosevelt's messaging} until I sat in on a town meeting."  He said a man voiced an unpopular opinion but allotted respect to voice his views without interruption or contempt.  This inspired Rockwell to paint the strong visual images that conveyed Roosevelt's messaging into the mass psyche.   Rockwell had criticism for 2 of his works in this group.  He felt "smug" with "Freedom from Fear" knowing the blitz on London.  And, had misgivings with "Freedom from Want" realizing hunger was rampant during the war.  The art critics were not kind to Rockwell considering his talents wasted on banal, overly sentimental & kitchy subject matter.  I was cynical expecting to see a homogenous collection of idyllic & playful depictions of white America albeit knowing his painting "The Problem We all Live With." It portrays Ruby Bridges being escorted into school in LA by the Nat'l Guard amidst violent protests against integration.  A young student seeing the painting said he was impressed by how "unfazed" the girl looks.  Ms. Bridges was taught alone in a class for a year because the white parents forbade integrating the classrooms.  Rockewell's paintings take a massive turn in subject during the 60s civil rights movement.  While working for LOOK mag. he painted scenes of civil unrest.  "Murder in MS" (1965) is a haunting painting marking the murders of the 3 civil rights workers. The ominous shadows of the heinous KKK loom over the slain bodies.  Rockwell refused a commission for a recruitment poster for the Viet Nam War because he opposed the war.   Rockwell's work has more depth & social significance than the carefree images he's most famously associated.    

"American Animals" An American College Crime Thriller Combined with Interviews with the Actual Culprits

"American Animals" is a TRUE story, not just BASED on a true story about 4 KY Univ. students who plan an actual "Ocean's Eights" art heist that goes bust.  The thrust of the intrigue, which remains an enigma, is why would 4 "good kids" with no criminal records conspire to rob KY Univ. of some of the world's most valuable rare books.  The reckless disregard for the consequences of their actions which include attacking & tying up the librarian responsible for maintaining the valuable collection.  The irony of Darwin's "The Origin of the Species" nabbed in this blundered robbery is not lost.  Darwin's theory of "survival of the fittest" maintains the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life.  The 4 young actors portraying the actual college culprits led by the Svengali, narcissistic Walter Lipkin (an electrifying Evan Peters) are all credible in what seems an obvious felonious folly with life changing implications.  British dir/screenwriter Bart Layton's previous film "The Imposter" and TV series "Locked up Abroad" are subject to true crime & punishment accounts.   The fascination with "American Animals" is akin the case of Leopold & Loeb.  These two college students murdered a 14 yr. old believing themselves to be intellectually superior and capable of carrying out this heinous crime without be caught.  Layton's dramatization of the 2004 heist, the planning & playful antics are interjected with interviews by the real co-conspirators: Lipkin, Reinhard, Borsuk & Allen.  The most profound moment is an austere shot when Reinhard catches a glimpse of his younger doppelgänger driving to the scene of the crime.  We want to give the foursome an opportunity for a major do over to not do the crime for which they do pay the time. The accumulation of all the interviews deplete from  a taut tension.  Still, the interviews show regret,  remorse & sheer bafflement as to why they believed the theft would jump start their stagnant lives.  Has the human species evolved to where complacency with normalcy as not sustainable?  There are glimpses of the actual parents in the film and a short excerpt from librarian brutally attacked.  She believes they were looking for a short-cut to selfish gains.   Had Layton cut some of the interviews and repetitive plannings the film would be an edgier crime thriller.  The stylish cinematography & musical score add an energetic youthful exuberance & confusion.  Overall, the misguided students whose outcomes we anxiously await, provides a fascinating yet unresolved study of what drives someone to disregard their own inherent good fortune for perceived exhilaration and financial gains

Poet Laureate W. S. Merwin's "Remembering Summer" is Not Reminiscent of NYC's Summer

American Poet Laureate W. S. Merwin was born in 1927 in NYC but moved to the PA countryside as a young boy where he fell in love with the expansive bucolic surroundings.  Merwin received the Putlize Prize for Poetry in1971 and 2009.  He is also a recipient of the Nat'l Book Award for Poetry.  I spotted his poem "Remembering Summer" on the subway as part of the MTA Poetry series.  It  ironically calls to mind the missing spring season here in the city where a relentless winter never released its hold and spring was damp and cold.  Our city's summer season which doesn't officially arrive until the 21st is still a slow go to warmer days & balmy nights.  "Remembering Summer" seems drawn from Merwin's fond memories of rural summertime and sheds a little light on brighter days ahead.

                       "Remembering Summertime" by W. S Merwin

Being too warm the old lady said to me it is better than being told cold.
I think now in between is the best because you never give it a thought but it goes by too fast.  {spring sprung too rapidly}
I remember the winter how cold it got.  {It's still too cold}
I could never get warm wherever I was but I don't remember the summer heat like that, only the long days, the breathing from the rest, the evening with the hens still talking in the lane
and the light getting longer in the valley
The sound of a bell from down there somewhere
I can sit here now still listening to it. {ubiquitous drillings & sirens}

As I ride the subway on a rainy, dreary & cold Sunday in June, I try to look ahead to more clement weather yet to come.  W. S. Merwin said, "Poetry is like making a joke."  The joke has been on all New Yorkers still expecting fairer skies this springtime.

John Ashbery's Poem "Train Rising Out of the Sea" Seen on the Subway: MTA Poetry in Motion

John Ashbery is one of America's most highly honored & revered poets.  Born in 1927, Ashbery died this past Sept.  He received nearly every major American award for poetry including a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, National Book Critics Circle Award and a Nat'l Book Award.  He was the Poet Laureate for NY from 2001-03.  Ashbery has the distinguishing honor of being the first English language poet to receive the Grand Prix de Biennales Int'l de Poesie.  A portion of Ashbery's stirring poem "Train Rising Out of the Sea" is a melodious, melancholy poem that feels written specifically for the masses of New York City dwellers who feel invisible and unmoored at times.  The poem resonates with a sense of being overwhelmed in a concrete jungle blocking out the beauty of a sunrise, sunset or summer breeze.  Ashbery said, "I like poems you can tack all over with a hammer and there are no hollow places."  I will chip away at his poem
                       "Train Rising Out of the Sea"  - with my own commentary.
Like an era that refuses to come to an end or be born again {when will the never ending construction with its scaffolding & cranes end?}
We need more night for the sky, more blue for the daylight {we can barely glimpse the sunsets & stars in the sky}
That inundates our remarks before we can make them {Overrun by rudeness}
Taking away a little bit of us each time {wearing down our very essence}
To be deposited elsewhere In the place of our involvement {struggling to find our way}
With the core that brought excessive flowering this year of enormous sunsets & big breezes {becoming obscured}
That left us feeling too simple {insignificant}
Like an island just off the shore, {NYC} one of many that no one notices, though it has a certain function though an abstract one. {an inexplicable pull}
Built to prevent you from being towed to shore.  {New Yorkers are resilient and unflappable}

Ashbery has said of his poems "The poem is sad because it wants to be yours and cannot be."  Poetry is an elusive diaphanous glow we can just barely begin to know.

A. R. Gurney's "The Fourth Wall" Crumbles and Fails in a Cacophonous Panoply at the A.R.T. Theatres

A. R. Gurney is one of America's most prolific and honored playwright.  Gurney died last year at the age of 87 leaving behind a legacy of plays mainly parodying a WASP lifestyle of privilege and familial acrimony ("The Cocktail Hour" and "The Dining Room").  Gurney is a member of the Amer. Acad. of Arts & Letters and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Obie's in 2016.  "The Fourth Wall" was originally written in 1991.  Gurney revised his play in 2002 adding political commentary lashing out against President Bush (2001-2009) and his disastrous military invasion into Afghanistan shortly after the terrorist attacks in 2001.  Gurney's brilliance evident in sharp dialogues of his earlier works is MIA throughout this mishmash of theatrical structures that degenerates into a cacophonous calamity.  The one act, 4 character play incorporates adulterous and lascivious relationships but there is no keel mooring the play sending it off course and crashing against obstacles.  Roger enlists the support of Julia to help him convince his wife, Peggy to redesign the layout of their living room .  Peggy has become adamant and aligns the furnishings facing onto a large blank wall.  The metaphor of breaking through barriers and building connections is ridiculously obvious.  This result is a not too subtle missive.  Gurney's self-effacing message is there are 2 types of plays, cliched sexual comedies or transformative dramas with the power to globally resonate.  The playwrights with whom Gurney aspires his legacy be aligned are numerous:  Beckett, Shaw, Ibsen, Williams and Dickens.  Even so, Gurney can't resist shading his literary idols.  Floyd, a college prof. of drama notes "Plays that try to change the world never last."  "The Fourth Wall" tries too hard to be clever in constructing a new paradigm for playwriting.  The incongruent concoction is a discordant drama that fails miserably.