Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli, Susan Sarandon
My Review: It is my completely amateur opinion that there are going to be two types of people going to see The Lovely Bones in December: Those who have read and loved the book, and those who think they’re going to see a murder mystery and will be sorely disappointed. The story is about a 14-year-old girl who is murdered and then watches as her family and friends continue their lived on Earth. The murder happens in the very beginning, and the identity of the murderer is never kept a secret, so the mystery element that the trailer seems to be playing is somewhat misleading. But I guess the studio needs to do what it can to draw in an audience, and I’m not sure how many people will go for a drama that splits its time between heaven and Earth.
I’m in the first camp of potential audience members, having read the book and enjoyed it (except for a certain other-worldly part at the end that anyone else who has read it will know what I’m talking about). And no matter how the movie is received, I give director Peter Jackson a ton of credit for taking it on. It can’t be easy trying to make a movie of a story that already has a very rabid (and difficult to please) fan base. And then there’s that whole major parts of the story take place in heaven thing. How do you make a vision of heaven that is believable, yet still mystical, yet isn’t so fantastical that it will distract from the very real drama going on in the real world? I have no idea, but from what the trailer shows, Jackson is tapping into his Heavenly Creatures roots, rather than his Lord of the Rings fame, which is exactly what The Lovely Bones needs.
Would I Pay For It?: I am extremely eager to see how the vision of heaven in the book is portrayed on screen, and I’m also eager to associate star Saoirse Ronan with a character other than the brat she played in Atonement. So come December, I’ll mostly likely find my way to a theater to check this out.
This past week was an extremely culturally geeky one, even by my standards. First I went to see a screening of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, a version that was directed by Julie Taymor (of The Lion King on Broadway fame) and filmed at the Metropolitan Opera in 2006. Then later in the week I attended the Mostly Mozart festival at LincolnCenter—a classical music festival that lasts nearly a month and features, well, mostly Mozart music.
No surprise, Taymor’s vision of The Magic Flute is stunning. The costumes and scenery are saturated with vibrant color and the few puppet-like creations she utilizes are amazing (like the giant polar bears who seem to glide across the stage due to the kite-like way they’re constructed). This particular production is sung in English, though subtitles are still supplied for those times when it’s still difficult to decipher what is being sung. Listening to opera in English sort of takes away from the foreign romanticism of it and I wish they had kept it in German with English subtitles. It makes me wonder if when Germans and Italians listen to opera in their native language they wish it was in another one. But it was still an excellent production and while it was a little odd watching it on a screen in a movie theater, rather than on stage, it was a far more affordable way to partake in a medium I’m still not fully sure I enjoy.
LincolnCenter’s annual Mostly Mozart festival started recently and is running through August 22. Since Mozart is my favorite composer, and I had a chance to attend a concert for only $4, I decided to check out the festival. As luck would have it, the night I went the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra wasn’t performing any Mozart music (it is Mostly Mozart, after all, not Totally and Completely and Undeniably Mozart). The concert featured works by Brahms and Haydn, one an inspiration to Mozart and the other inspired by him. Classical music is obviously not for everyone, but if you do enjoy it, the Mostly Mozart festival is a great way to experience it. The various venues in LincolnCenter have such a grandiose feeling to them, you can’t help buy feel artistic and cultured just by being seated there. And experiencing classical music live is so much more rewarding than listening to a recording (especially when you get to see guest pianist Stefan Vladar rock out on a Haydn piano concerto). I would gladly return for an evening of culture at the Mostly Mozart festival. I would just like to, you know, hear some music actually composed by Mozart next time.
My Review: I’m somewhat ashamed to admit it, but I’ve lived in New York City for nearly five years and only recently had my first ice cream cone from a Mr. Softee truck. What makes this even more pathetic is that every night from March-September, a truck is parked across the street from my apartment, playing that insipid tune that every New Yorker knows (but not every New Yorker knows that there are actually lyrics to the song, and sheet music to be found on the website).
Deciding that five years is long enough to resist the siren song of Mr. Softee, and after constantly hearing about how “so good!” his ice cream is, I broke down and sampled his wares. It’s pretty much everything you’d expect from soft serve: cool, creamy, and delicious. Plus with the added convenience of being able to get some on nearly every NYC street corner from when the temperature hits above 60 until the first frost. The flavor options are somewhat limited, but there are plenty of other ice cream places in the city to check out if it’s inventive concoctions you want. But for a simple cold treat on a hot summer day, Mr. Softee is easy to find and always ready to serve.
Bottom Line: Losing my Mr. Softee virginity was definitely more satisfying than losing my actual virginity. A+, would gladly try again.
In case you haven’t discovered one of the best shows on TV right now, season three of AMC’s Mad Men premieres on August 16. And to celebrate, the AMC website is allowing you to Mad Men yourself; at last you can follow Don Draper’s advice to picking up women, by actually becoming Don Draper. Mad Men Rachel thinks it’s a swell idea.
Starring: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving, Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows
My Review:Adam is a very sweet and simple love story that is entertaining to watch, thanks to the talented cast, but is ultimately easily forgettable.
Adam is a socially awkward 29-year-old man with Asperger’s Syndrome, who lives alone in his Manhattan apartment after the recent death of his father. The lovely and newly single Beth moves into the apartment upstairs, and the two strike up a neighborly friendship, prompted by Beth expressing an interest in outer space and that being one of the few topics Adam is comfortable babbling on about ad naseum. Despite being a bit odd and difficult to read, Beth finds herself drawn to Adam, and when he tells her about his disorder she only briefly worries about that making him less than prime boyfriend material before they tentatively begin a romantic relationship. Their relationship progresses with many of the same roadblocks and rites of passage as any other: the meeting of the friends, the meeting of the parents, the first fight when he asks her currently on-trial father if he’s going to jail, etc. And like every other relationship, Adam and Beth ultimately have to decide if theirs is going to last for the long haul.
It’s no secret that Hugh Dancy can play cute and charming with aplomb, so it was refreshing to see him step away from the sort of fairy tale princes he usually plays and deftly portray Adam as a real man; yes, he has a disability, but he’s also a functioning adult with the same needs and desires as anyone else. It’s a Hollywood mainstay that lesser-known actors want to play disabled characters to be able to show off their range, and all too often they wind up playing them as caricatures—all twitches and impeded speech—rather than actual people. But Dancy approaches Adam and his Asperger’s deftly, making him nervous and awkward, but also smart and endearing. It would be easy to wonder what would compel someone like Beth to want to get involved with someone like Adam, knowing all the additional challenges their relationship will face, but Dancy lets you see in Adam everything that Beth does, and you hope for them to make it against all the odds.
Rose Byrne is lovely as Beth, and while at first I found it unrealistic that someone so smart and beautiful wouldn’t already be involved with some overly-coiffed Adonis, the filmmakers took care of that by having her confess that her last boyfriend cheated on her, thus making her attraction to the bizarrely sweet Adam more plausible. Amy Irving and Peter Gallagher (and his eyebrows) play Beth’s parents and only come into play in a few scenes that involve Gallagher’s character, an affluent accountant from White Plains, undergoing a trial for performing some creative accounting for an old family friend. At first accepting of his daughter’s new relationship (at least on the surface), when his legal troubles take a turn for the worst, he does an about face, creating the unnecessarily cliché, “It’s your boyfriend or your family—choose” scenario. But this gives Amy Irving the opportunity to shine briefly as she relates to Beth about the wonders of both loving and being loved.
My one complaint about Adam is that it adopts the typical non-ending that so many independent films use. The final resolution is left up in the air for the audience to decide, which some filmmakers seem to think will connect them to their audience members on a deeper level by letting them interpret the finale in the way they prefer. Personally, I find it to be lazy storytelling and think if you’re going to tell a tale, you should finish it. Otherwise, it has the same effect as me walking up to someone, crying “Knock-knock!”, then walking away. In other words, I prefer a disappointing conclusion to no conclusion at all.
Bottom Line:Adam is the very definition of a “cute movie.” It’s enjoyable to watch, encompassing all the things that most movie-goers like in a romantic film; relatable and flawed characters, a touching but not sappy story, a deviation from obvious stereotypes, and a few genuinely funny moments. But there’s nothing so amazing about Adam that will stick with you for days (or even hours) after viewing it. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it just is.
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Alan Rickman, Michael Sheen, Stephen Fry
My Review: There’s really not a whole lot for me to say about this trailer. By now, you must know if you like the story of Alice in Wonderland and if you like the movies Tim Burton creates. So if you already know you like both, then you know you want to see this movie. I, for one, can’t wait to see how Burton darkly twists this already darkly twisted tale. My one complaint is that they have the nerve to advertise for it now, when it won’t be released until March 2010. I guess that will give the audience ample time to become curiouser and curiouser.
Would I Pay For It?: Yes, but only at a late-night showing. If I have to share the theater with a bunch of kids whose parents will inevitably complain about how this version of Alice is “too scary,” there is a distinct possibility that I will cut someone.
Atmosphere: Every Cold Stone Creamery looks a bit different, but for the most part, it’s an assembly line of ice cream and toppings. You walk by the display of the various toppings on your way to the end of the line, then you come face to face with the variety of ice cream flavors available. There are many pre-existing “creations” to be had—ice cream and toppings blends that Cold Stone has already concocted—or you can put your own together. Just tell the ice cream jockey behind the counter what flavor you want and with what toppings, and they’ll chop it all together for you on a stone slab before scooping the mix in a cup or cone.
My Review: There’s really no need to wax poetic about Cold Stone Creamery; it’s good ice cream made into any sort of concoction you can imagine. But I do wonder what the best possible blend is. I’m a fan of creating my own, rather than going with one already on the Cold Stone menu, and I tend to favor the various candy mix-ins available. Despite being a bit of a chocoholic, I actually don’t care for chocolate ice cream, so I tend to stick with either Sweet Cream (for a basic sweet flavor) or Cake Batter (for ultimate creamy goodness) as my base ice cream flavor. The graham cracker pie crust mix-in adds an interesting texture and flavor, so that usually factors into my blend, as well as either Heath Bar or Butterfinger (which work better in ice cream than other candies, like Snickers, which when frozen can both chip teeth and cut glass). Recently I had a Sweet Cream blend with graham cracker, peanut butter, and Butterfinger that was like heaven in a tiny bowl.
So my question to the three of you who regularly read this site, is what is the ultimate Cold Stone Creamery creation? The next time I’m there, I’m thinking of something involving Gummi Bears and rainbow sprinkles and calling it “Rainbow Brite on Acid”.
