MOVIES
God Save the Scream!
By the Bad Samaritans:
Zach Drucker (left) and Chris Poldoian.
 
Left: Jack Nicholson in “The Shining.” Right: Janet Leigh in the shower scene in Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960).
We’ve seen it a thousand times. Some no-name ingénue with limpid blue eyes and impeccable — assets? — tiptoes cautiously through a dark room, wielding a sharp object. Next, sinister music stirs the captive audience as a dark figure seizes the girl, who shrieks like a dissonant lyric soprano. There is a struggle, and inevitably, the murderer becomes the murdered as he plummets through a bay window, impaled by an iron-gargoyled fence spike. Or he is shot and slain by a dashing male friend of the heroine whom she thought was dead?
Of late, horror films have become entirely too predictable. We acknowledge that once in a while everyone wants to scream and have a little bit of thrilling fun. But we have amusement parks for that. And good horror flicks. Can anybody recall the glory days of “The Shining” (1980) and“The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)?
In the coming weeks, a couple of scary movies are premiering that are sure to succeed in the box office but will fail to quench our thirsts for thrills and gore. “The Unborn” may very well be the stillborn child of “The Exorcist” (1973) and “Fiddler on the Roof” (1971). The film consists of a Megan Fox double, haunted by the dybbuk, an evil spirit from Jewish folklore, of her twin brother who died during childbirth.
We have several problems with this film. First, our bible, the Sacred Scriptures of Rotten Tomatoes, accorded this movie a 14 percent favorable rating from among its surveyed reviewers. To put things in perspective, “Death Race” (2008) tripled the score of “The Unborn,” with a 42 percent approval rating for a film about a hardcore British convict competing in a deadly car race.
Furthermore, we have problems believing the story behind “The Unborn.” Of course, we understand that this is the movie business and it’s not reality. Yet, we still cannot get past one fatal flaw in the plot: the discrepancy between the twins’ ages. In ads for the film, the boy is pictured as a 10-year-old kid, while his twin sister is probably 20. We could understand if the boy were a fetus — an evil fetus, obviously. Or if he were 20 like his sister. Are we supposed to believe that humans age more rapidly than dybbuks? We cry foul.
Also, watch out for “My Bloody Valentine 3D” and “The Uninvited.” The former is nothing special; it has the stereotypical sexy teens, parties and even death by pick-axe. But hey, it’s shot in 3D.
In “The Uninvited,” everyone’s favorite soft-core femme fatale, Elizabeth Banks of “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” (2008), goes loco as an evil nurse/stepmother. Not since “Misery” (1990) has any female been cast as such a menacing character, but, when played by a comedic actress, we do not expect the antagonist in “The Uninvited” to give us goose bumps.
Horror films in modern America are similar to Winona Ryder’s clothes: their ideas are usually stolen and poorly presented. Consider Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates in “Psycho” (1998) trying to pick up where Anthony Perkins left off in the 1960 original. We do foresee, however, a glimmer of hope in “The Wolfman,” set to release in November. Although it is another remake attempt, it has a star-studded cast (including Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins) and is co-written by Andrew Kevin Walker “Se7en” (1995), “Sleepy Hollow” (1999)). Until then, we’ve got our worn-down VHS copies of “Halloween” (1978) to keep us awake at night.
Zach Drucker and Chris Poldoian are freshmen at Tufts University where their “Bad Samaritans” column appears regularly in “Tufts Daily.”
François Bégaudeau deconstructs idiomatic french in “The Class.”
The Class. Shot in high definition, the distinction of this interesting, albeit not very arresting movie is that it takes place almost solely in a French language classroom whose makeup is comprised of young teens from disparate social and ethnic backgrounds. The conceit is that the acting is mostly unscripted; its improvisational approach requiring many more hours of shooting and editing, thus rendering some of the give and take between teacher and 13 and 14 year-old students, all in real life from the same school, a bit self-conscious. To add to its quasi-documentary style, the key figure in the classroom, is François Bégaudeau, who wrote the autobiographical novel on which the movie is based. Bégaudeau plays a fictionalized version of himself, a good guy who in wanting to engage his students in a collegial way, is only semi-successful. The Sunday afternoon we saw it in a movie house devoted mostly to foreign films, the place was packed, leading me to believe that the word of mouth throughout upper Manhattan helped propel this movie to a rarefied status, this side of Slumdog Millionaire. The Class pales in comparison to perhaps the classiest of French classroom films , To Be and To Have [Être et Avoir] a fly-on-the-wall documentary about a one-room schoolhouse in the remote farming community of Auvergne, whose students ranging in age from 4 to 10, share the premises. Director Nicolas Philibert patiently observes the children, who are patently unselfconscious about the presence of a camera while they are engaged in the 3R’s, coloring, baking and flipping pancakes, tobogganing in the snow, and picnicking in the verdant summer fields. They are all taught by the same remarkably dedicated and caring teacher, Monsieur Lopez, son of Spanish immigrants, who has logged 20 years at the schoolhouse and is now approaching retirement. Lopez’s gentle mien, the Christ-like bearded visage, the reassuring timbre of his voice, make you think to yourself, “what incredibly lucky kids.” He regards it as his duty to try and prepare his students for the adult world beyond the incubated classroom. Verbal and physical disputes are settled by reasoned discussion, and the youngsters are encouraged to express their concerns, whether about a sick parent or work chores intruding on homework time. Lopez's enlightened philosophy is manifest in a conversation with a worried mother on her daughter's extreme reticence, calmly stressing that he wants the child "to develop and be happy.” And on the day of Mr. Lopez's departure, amid tears and kisses from his young disciples, he assures the frightened, near-autistic daughter who is about to enter Middle School, that she is free to visit him at his home any Saturday for any help that she may require. Subtitles. Full disclosure: I recently rented To Be and To Have (2002) from Netflix, fortifying my original high opinion of it.
THEATER
Raúl Esparza as Charlie Fox is an immovable force
in the revival of David Mamet’s “Speed-the-Plow.”
Speed-the-Plow
Ethel Barrymore
243 W. 47th St.
212-239-6200
Through Feb. 22.
What are the odds of viewing a play in which one of the principal actors is replaced by someone who is so unrehearsed or under-rehearsed that he or she must rely on a script in hand? I would dub it as remote as a lottery pick, since it has happened on but two occasions in all my years of theater-going. And, here’s where the odds get longer.Both plays I witnessed when these phenomena took place were David Mamet creations and both involved Neil Pepe.The first was the Atlantic Theater Company production of The Voysey Inheritance in 2006 in which Mamet did an adaptation of a melodrama by Harley Granville-Baker. Neil Pepe is artistic director of ATC. As I recollect, Todd Weeks, who played one of the principal characters, Hugh Voysey, had a death in the family that precluded his appearing that evening. The director David Warren appeared before the curtain and asked for the audience’s forbearance since Mr. Pepe would be stepping into Weeks's role that evening, carrying a script in hand, his adult pacifier. Interestingly, fast forward to the here and now with the revival of Speed-the-Plow directed by - well - Neil Pepe. I loved the original which I saw in 1988 that starred Joe Mantegna as Bobby Gould , Ron Silver as Charlie Fox and –yes- Madonna as Karen. The promise of this year’s revival, with Jeremy Piven, Raúl Esparza and Elizabeth Moss in corresponding roles, was fulfilled by glowing reviews. Then came word that Piven, the enormously funny, fast-talking talent agent Ari, on HBO’s Entourage, was withdrawing from the show, because of a high incidence of mercury in his system. From all reports, Jeffrey Richards and his fellow producers did not take kindly to what Jimmy Durante would have called a “revolting development.” They quickly turned to Nobert Leo Butz to step in as Bobby Gould until such time as William H. Macy could take over. I was scheduled to take my son to see the show on his birthday on December 23 and promised Jeffrey Richards not to review the performance since Butz had only two days of full rehearsals and understandably would have to rely on a script, augmented by a prompter in the first row off Stage Right. I can state objectively and incontestably that the audience reacted enthusiastically to the entire performance. Fast forward to January 27 when I saw my second performance of the Speed-the-Plow revival, this time – a reviewable one - with Mametician William H. Macy as Gould. This relatively short play (1 ½ hours without intermission) is, along with Glengarry Glen Ross my favorites of the Mamet oeuvre. Let it be said that Raúl Esparza is riotously funny as Charlie. He keeps topping himself after earlier Tony nominations for Sondheim’s Company and Pinter’s Homecoming.
Matthew Risch and company “sound the happy hunting horn” in Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of “Pal Joey.” Photo: Joan Marcus.
Pal Joey
Studio 54
254 W. 54th St.
212-239-6200
Through March 1.
What is a man? Is he a stimulant? Good for the heart, bad for the brain. Nature’s disgrace since the world began. What is this thing called man?
So sings Stockard Channing as the wealthy society matron Vera Simpson about that “pint-sized imitation,” Joey Evans.
With those few strokes of the pen, Lorenz Hart changed the face of the American Musical, with of course a little help from Richard Rodgers. No words can describe John O’Hara’s beguiling rogue Joey Evans more aptly than Larry Hart who set the bar high for future musicals having such lovable cads as Howard Da Silva’s Judd Fry, John Raitt’s Billy Bigelow, Steve Lawrence’s Sammy Glick, Robert Alda’s Sky Masterson and Robert Preston’s Professor Harold Hill.
Having stepped into the title role from that of understudy, it by no means diminishes Matthew Risch’s talent and promise, to conclude that he is overmatched by Channing, who shows that not only is she one of our most formidable and versatile actresses, but surprising to me, can darned well sell a song having as much bite and sexual insinuation as Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered.
(Horizontally speaking, he’s at his very best) was not exactly tame stuff in 1940, when Vivienne Siegel did Vera Simpson opposite the great Gene Kelly. No, I didn’t see Kelly in the original Pal Joey but I did see Vivienne Segal in PJ’s first revival in 1952 opposite Harold Lang, a classically trained dancer who could hoof with the best of them and had a clarion-clear show voice to boot. That revival was not only notable for having those two mega-talents but also by showcasing Elaine Stritch as a reporter who, having interviewed the erudite and cerebral ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee, peels off the outer garments of her very sincere tailored suit while singing:
Zip! Walter Lippman wasn't brilliant today
Zip! Will Saroyan ever write a great play?
Zip! I was reading Schopenhauer last night
Zip! and I think that Schopenhauer was right.
It was a miscalculation in this production for director Joe Mantello to have Martha Plimpton, a superb classical actress in her own right, doing Zip!, not as an intellectual exercise that could rival the best of Noel Coward, but as a humdrum showgirl number with Plimpton reduced to doing a vacuous imitation of Judy Holliday. With such potential show-stopping dance numbers as Happy Hunting Horn and That Terrific Rainbow at her disposal, Graciela Daniele brings little in the way of innovation to the choreography.
MUSEUMS
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 5th Ave.
Pierre Bonnard’s
The Late Interiors
Through April 19
The entirety of this arresting exhibition focuses exclusively on the radiant late interiors and still lifes of Bonnard (1867–1947). His 80 paintings, drawings, and watercolors on display date from the artist’s later years, when his painting activity took place in his pink stucco home overlooking the Mediterranean in the village of Le Cannet. Working in a converted upstairs bedroom, Bonnard transformed the rooms and objects that surrounded him into iridescent subjects, noteworthy for their color, light, and vision. It is these luminous late interiors that characterize Bonnard’s modernism and prompt a reappraisal of his reputation in the history of 20th century art.
Photo: Hal Drucker
Seventh Annual Orchid Show at
The New York Botanical Garden
Brazilian Modern
February 28–April 12
The New York Botanical Garden is a museum of plants located at Bronx River Parkway (Exit 7W) and Fordham Road. It is easy to reach by Metro-North Railroad or subway. The Botanical Garden is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. February 24–March 31 and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 1–April 8.
212-220-0503.
This year’s Orchid Show will send you flying down to Rio via the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory where they are showcasing thousands of brilliantly colored orchids in a contemporary Brazilian garden.
TELEVISION
Cherry Jones in high definition displays those penetrating steely blue peepers, that
escape her legion of theater fans in the balcony seats. Mondays at 9 p.m. FOX.
Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler are the exquisite acting pair that help make “Friday Night Lights” in the fictional Texas town of Dillon, must viewing every Friday at 9 p.m. (EST). NBC.
For acting of the highest order, I commend three performances this new season, the first adds needed freshness and gravitas to Kiefer Sutherland’s 24, in its seventh season, to wit, that of Madam President Allison Taylor. A woman president? Well let’s put it this way, 24 presciently had two black presidents. President Taylor is played incomparably by Cherry Jones, underscoring my contention that she deserved the screen role of Sister Aloysius Beauvier in Doubt for which she won a Tony on Broadway.
The other two: Kyle Chandler as Eric Taylor, coach of the Dillon High School Panthers football team and Connie Britton as Tami Taylor, principal of the school, continue to prove they are the most natural pairing of a husband and wife in an ongoing series since William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man movies. |
