Category: review

How to Let Go and Love

Last week, I had the opportunity to see Josh Fox’s new documentary, How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change.

The film takes up where his prior films, Gasland and Gasland 2, left us. Josh’s home in Pennsylvania is saved from fracking when it is banned in the Delaware River watershed. There is rejoicing and dancing – until Josh realizes that a beloved hemlock tree is dying due to a climate-change-related pest, leading to further investigation and travel to see what can be done about it.

The first part of the film reviews a lot of the science of climate change. Well, it is review for me because I have been dealing with issues of fracking, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change for years now, but may be new information for some viewers. It’s pretty grim, but, just when you are thinking that there isn’t much hope, Josh and his trusty banjo begin travelling the world to show us what people in diverse locations are doing to fight or cope with climate change.

In locations as diverse as Ecuador, China, Zambia, and the islands of the Pacific, Josh visits with communities who band together to care for each other and the planet, standing up to governments and corporations that are doing harm. They use lots of tools – storytelling, investigation, photography, dancing, and canoes among them – to share their love for each other and their home/land, showing us what is really important and lasting.

I will warn anyone who is motion sensitive that Josh uses a handheld camera, which can make some of the video a bit shaky. There are also some drone shots that might affect you. I did have to close my eyes a few times…

How to Let Go and Love has been making the rounds of theater festivals and is on a 100 city tour with Josh conducting Q&A after the film. Schedule information is available from the link above.

It will make its television debut on HBO on Monday, June 27, at 9 PM EDT/PDT. It will also be released later in the year on DVD.

I hope that many people will see this important film.

Star Wars – no spoilers

B and I with daughter T went to a Monday morning showing of the new Star Wars movie in the renovated Regal Theaters near us. Yay for new reclining seats – especially because my legs aren’t long enough to touch the floor! Not quite as posh as our Loew’s Cinema recliner loveseats, but still nice.

We went to a showing that was 2D, as all three of us have issues with vision, motion sickness, or both. And at the bargain price of $5 a ticket, what could possible go wrong?

Short answer – nothing went wrong. We all loved the movie and had a great time.

B and I saw the original Star Wars movie when we were in high school – and already a couple. A long time ago in this galaxy…  The original Star Wars was a great good guys vs bad guys story with young, engaging characters, older sages, technology, robots, and space travel. So much fun!

In Episode VII: The Force Awakens, we all loved the classic familiarity of the opening credits, location shooting, strong characters, action sequences with spacecraft and light sabers, and state of the art effects. State of the art now is more advanced than it was then, of course, but the “wow” feeling is the same.

We also loved that John Williams was back to do the music, which adds so much to the film. We were glad to see that he brought on a collaborator to help with orchestration and conducting. Given that he is 83, it seems a very sensible thing to do.

Our daughter E and her spouse L arrive tomorrow. They saw the movie over the weekend in Honolulu, where they live. We are all hoping to catch another showing together while they are here. I’m sure we’ll  enjoy it as much the second time around!

Lava and Inside Out

In keeping with family tradition, my daughter E and I went to the movies this morning to see the Pixar film Inside Out, which premiered yesterday.

One of the many things I love about Pixar films is that there is a short before the main feature. This one is called “Lava” and is a love story – with volcanoes. E and I, sitting here in Honolulu, with our spouses thousands of miles away, both got teary. It is beautifully rendered and so touching.

Inside Out is the story of an eleven-year-old girl named Riley as she moves to San Francisco from Minnesota and what is going on inside her head, as told through her emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. We also occasionally get glimpses into other characters’ emotion quintet, which is both enlightening and entertaining.

The best adjective I can come up with to describe the movie is poignant. Having once been eleven and having two daughters who were once eleven, I found myself empathizing with Riley as she tries to navigate a difficult situation. Yes, E and I did some more crying.

At the end of the credits, the filmmakers dedicate the movie to their children, asking them not to grow up, but, as E and I discussed later, that wasn’t really the point. Growing up is complicated and necessary and one’s own work and responsibility. E and I talked over lunch about how undesirable/impossible it is for parents or anyone else to make someone happy – or even to be happy a lot of the time. We were both glad that the emotion is named Joy rather than Happiness.  Joy is deeper and more able to integrate with the other emotions than happiness could ever be.

Wishing you all as much Joy as possible,
Joanne

Lessons from Selma, Ferguson, and Seneca Lake

This morning I watched coverage on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the first attempt at the voting rights march in Selma, Alabama. I am re-blogging my post from January after I saw the film “Selma” which draws together the story of the march with recent events.
– JC

Joanne Corey's avatarJoanne Corey

When the events depicted in the film Selma occurred, I was a four-year-old girl in rural New England.  I do remember seeing Dr. King on the news when I was a bit older and definitely remember his assassination in 1968 in the midst of the Memphis strike by black public works employees who were facing discrimination.  It was incomprehensible – then and now – that a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of such an important social movement could have been only 39 when he died. Because he was such a force and martyred so young, his legacy became a legend, masking his complexity as a human being. While the public life of some of those around King, such as Ambassador Andrew Young and Rep. John Lewis, was decades long and vital to keeping the civil rights movement going forward while remembered its momentous, if painful, past, King’s life has…

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Paul Goldstaub tribute concert

On January 31st, the Music Department of Binghamton (NY) University presented a concert of Professor Emeritus Paul Goldstaub’s music on the first anniversary of his death. It was wonderful to hear such an eclectic mix of Paul’s music, much of it performed by the musicians who had premiered it.

I found my mind going back to my own studies of theory and composition at Smith. At that time, we began our theory course sequence in a contemporary setting with the study of rhythm, timbre, and melody, before progressing in later semesters to common practice period harmony, counterpoint, and chromatic harmony. The concert opened with a fugue for 3 snare drums, which included some air drumming and left us wishing that we could have seen the score to see how Paul had notated it. The second half of the concert opened with Pastorale II for flute and digital delay, played by Georgetta Maiolo. I loved how it wedded wonderful melodic writing with contemporary technology, with the digital delay taking the place of what would probably have been done by tape in my student days.

I also appreciated that Paul wrote for so many different instruments and combinations. In the concert, there was a piece for trombone and piano and one for marimba and piano. Hindemith came to mind. The concert program included a full list of Goldstaub’s composition, arranged chronologically, which allowed us to appreciate the full scope of his range as a composer.

Paul’s inventiveness as a composer was on fullest display in the excerpts from Every Evening for baritone, a chorus of three sopranos, piano, and percussion duo. Before each movement was sung, the poem was read by Professor Emeritus Martin Bidney, who had translated them from Russian, into which they had been translated from the Spanish folk tradition. The settings that followed had an incredible richness of soundscape, including some pitched speech reminiscent of Sprechstimme, close harmony from the three sopranos, and dialogue between the baritone and varied combinations of the sopranos.

As a member of a chamber chorus drawn from the Binghamton University Chorus, it was my privilege to participate in the final piece on the program, the first movement of Shakespeare Mix, which Paul had written for us in 2002. Accompanied by two pianos and percussion, we sang from Twelfth Night, “If music be the food of love, play on.” As we finished, a photograph of Paul was projected on a screen beside the stage. As the ovation went on, it was good to know that we had all joined together that evening to make sure that Paul Goldstaub’s music does “play on.”

Annie

This morning, I went to see Annie. I had hoped to see it with T before she headed back to school, but the holiday period didn’t go according to plan, so I went today before the movie leaves the theater tomorrow.

I was a bit leery about going as I am not often a fan of updating older work. Annie appeared on Broadway in 1977. We had the cast album at home and I knew all the songs. We sang some arrangements from the show at my high school. I can still remember some of the choreography for “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile.” Over the years, I’ve seen some live performances and was annoyed with the 1982 movie version for changing the time frame to July because then you didn’t get to have “A New Deal for Christmas.” I also come from a classical/church music/classic American songbook sort of background and tend to be pretty clueless on the popular music side.

But, I really enjoyed this version of Annie with Quvenzhané Wallis.  Wallis is amazingly talented. She doesn’t seem as though she is acting, even when that involves breaking into song and dancing on a regular basis. Her charm and energy really carry the movie.

I thought that the transformation to the present day worked well, with foster kids replacing the original orphanage of the 1930’s NYC.  I did miss the song “NYC” although its replacement “The City’s Yours” worked in the context of the film. I was particularly moved by the addition of literacy as a plot point. Dyslexia runs in my family and I was pleased to see literacy embraced as a cause here.

Review: Into the Woods

When our daughters were children, one of their favorite videos to watch was the the Great Performance’s recording of the original Broadway cast of Into the Woods. For a while when T was very young, we only let her watch the first act, deeming the second act, which goes into the aftermath of “happily ever after,” too dark for her – until her four-year-older-and-wiser sister filled her in on the rest of the play and we let her watch the whole performance.  All of which gives you insights into the kind of family we are…

At any rate, long before the current spate of fractured fairy tale mash-ups, there was the brilliance of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical Into the Woods.  Besides uncounted viewings of the original Broadway cast, my daughters got to see the 2002 Broadway revival with Vanessa Williams, for which we also owned the CDs, for singing along on long car rides. We have also seen local productions, most recently at the CIder Mill.  So, I had high hopes and a few misgivings about the new movie version of our family favorite.

Fortunately, I enjoyed the movie very much. While there had to be some cuts to shorten the length from the original theatrical production, they were made very judiciously, with only a few song/dialogue cuts that we missed. We had to admit that, while we enjoy the reprise of the Princes’ “Agony,” it was better for the flow of the movie to have cut it, especially when the first act version of it is so charmingly (over)played as it is in the film.

There are a number of songs performed by an ensemble of characters and I thought that the filming of these, moving among the characters in their different settings was very effective, especially the opening version of “Into the Woods.”  I also thought it was a great choice to use the sung finale music over the first part of the credits.

My favorite performers were the three main female characters. Meryl Streep made a very convincing witch, aided by cinematic effects that let her appear and disappear in a swirl. Working for a camera instead of a large theater, she was able to show more subtlety than she would have been able to in a theater. Anna Kendrick made a wonderful CInderella. We especially liked that “On the Steps of the Palace” took place on the steps of the palace, rather than in the woods, giving her the chance to sing about her decision as it was happening, rather than reflecting on it later, as she does in the stage version.  Emily Blunt as the Baker’s Wife carries a lot of the heart and lesson-learning of the film. One hopes that this role, which won a Tony for Joanna Gleason in the original Broadway cast, will win some awards for Ms. Blunt.

The real star of the movie for me is Stephen Sondheim, whose clever and sophisticated lyrics and music make the whole production lively and touching, ably assisted by James Lapine, who wrote the book/screenplay. Because I know the show well, the clever lines were familiar to me. I was sitting next to someone in the theater who did not know the musical at all. It was fun listening to him react to the wordplay.

I’m hoping to be able to see the movie again while it is in the theaters and will definitely want to add it to my DVD collection when it becomes available. I hope other people will enjoy it as much as I did.

Interstellar

It’s relatively rare for me to get to a movie theater to see a film on opening weekend, much less opening day, but B. and I got a chance to see” Interstellar” on Friday afternoon.

What should follow is a long review, but I don’t feel moved. If I had to sum up my opinion in one word, the word would be “meh.”

There were moments that were startling or thought-provoking, but most of the movie was just boring – and I don’t bore easily. Perhaps the pacing was intentional to denote the hopelessness or vast lengths of time involved. If so, other cinematic or writing techniques should have been deployed.

I also think the music score needs to be toned down. As a former organist, I admit that I loved a few prominent appearances of the organ, but overall the music was too loud and intrusive.

I’ll be interested to read some of the professional reviews – to see how far off the mark I am…

Into the Woods

Last night, we went to see a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods at our local professional theater.  “We” equals me, my spouse, and my parents.  My mother-in-law was to have joined us, but she is having difficulties with her back and couldn’t sit for such a long performance.

Into the Woods is one of my favorite musicals.  I find the interwoven fairy tale adaptation fascinating and love Sondheim’s ability to pack both wit and depth of feeling into the lyrics, which move the plot along even more than the spoken dialogue.  I also have a longstanding relationship with the musical because it was a favorite of my daughters when they were young.  We watched it many times through a recording of the original (1988) Broadway cast.  For quite a while, I only let our younger daughter see the first act, which ends with the somewhat expected “happy ever after” vibe, shielding her from the much darker second act, until her four-years-older sister told her what happened and my shielding tactic became moot.

I enjoyed last night’s performance because the brilliance of Sondheim and James Lapine, who wrote the book, shines through.  I especially enjoyed the performances of CInderella, the Baker’s Wife, and Little Red Ridinghood and the singing voices of the two Princes.  Some of the other performers were occasionally flummoxed by Sondheim’s complex melodies, although those in the audience who have not heard the music over and over might not have realized it.

My major disappointments were with the technical aspects.  The lighting was often too dark – and, yes, I get the whole being-in-the-woods thing, but it would have been better to use dappled lighting to give the illusion of moonlight through trees, rather than just not having enough light to see the actors.  There was also a gaping hole in the back wall of the set, which was only used in one scene in the second act.  It was very distracting to look at it for two and half hours when it was so little used.  The stage could also have used some pitch, as quite a few songs took place sitting on the stage; alternatively, the actors could have been placed more upstage to make them more visible to those in the back rows.  (The seating is cabaret style, so there aren’t many rows, but each row is deep.)

I was also disappointed with the costuming.  Many of the costumes were too drab.  A number of them were ill-fitting, especially too tight.

The theater company is in the midst of a change in leadership.  I wonder if some of the technical problems are the loss of a long-time team experienced with this theater, which was once a storehouse for apples.  It is a tricky space in which to work and the new team may be groping a bit as they adjust to its idiosyncracies.

One of the surprises last night was of a more personal nature.  I found that the second act’s deaths of a number of mothers of varying ages hit me hard.  As I have said, I know the play well, so I knew what was coming, but I found myself tearing up as the losses mounted.  Sitting beside my mother, who had a heart attack on July 31st, missing my mother-in-law who is suffering from osteoporosis, having spoken earlier this week with a friend who recently lost her mother, and anticipating the upcoming birthday of a friend who died much too young nine years ago, my heart was aching more than usual in reacting to the losses in the play.

The loss of a mother – at whatever age – represents its own brand of pain and even fictional losses on stage can echo or foreshadow that pain in our own lives.