The movie glutton goes to the symphony

Last weekend during Fort Worth's Main Street Arts festival, I took the kids to the Fort Worth Symphony's Open House.  They had an instrument petting zoo and played a short concert.  Zippy was restless, Chloe covered her face, but Elliot and I enjoyed it.  In the little goody bag they were giving away we found a pass for one adult and one child to attend the symphony for free.  Elliot and I returned Saturday night for the concert.  We were thrilled when we picked up our free tickets--center orchestra, row G!  Not many better seats in the house!  When I go, I usually sit WAY up top in the cheap seats!

The first piece on the program was the short "Huayno Sinfonico 'Cascay'" by the 20th century Peruvian composer Francisco Pulgar Vidal.  One of the things I love about Miguel Harth-Bedoya's tenure at the Fort Worth Symphony is his introduction of the works of lesser-known Latin American composers.  Several times each year the symphony will feature a piece from South America.  This Vidal piece gave a lively start to the night.

The featured selection for the night, Tan Dun's "Water Concerto," tested the tastes of symphony goers.  Tan Dun, best known for his award-winning soundtrack for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, composed this concerto to include a variety of water-based instruments.  The features soloist, renowned percussionist David Cossin, had two big bowls of water and various implements to splash and drum in them.  Two Fort Worth symphony percussionists accompanied him.

Some examples of the use of water: patting and slapping the water with his hands, flicking his fingers in the water, beating the surface of the water with upturned plastic cups, putting his hands in the water and raising them above the surface so that the water drips off.  He had a plastic tube in a separate container which he beat on with a flip-flop.  As he raised it in and out of the water it changed pitch.  Similarly, they had some gong-type instruments and some bells that they played with mallets then raised and lowered them in the water to change pitch.  He floated salad bowls of various sizes upside down in the water and played them with mallets.  He had a funky looking stainless steel bowl full of water with handle at the top and rods sticking up all around it.  He played the bottom like a drum and used a bass bow to play the rods.  He also bowed the gongs.

While the use of water was clearly creative, and the music accompanying the water was certainly of high quality, I could help thinking I was getting hoaxed.  Mostly I was reminded of Stomp, when, for instance, they come on stage with a sink strapped to themselves and use the water and the metal of the sink to create a form of music.  I also thought Tan Dun must have done a lot of his composing in the bath  tub.

The final piece of the night was Beethoven's 7th symphony.  Now that's music!  Here were are, 200 years after he composed that great work, and it's still fresh and powerful.  (Harth-Bedoya noted beforehand that it was quite revolutionary at the time of its premiere.)  Tan Dun's work in contrast to Beethoven's reminded me of a visit to an art museum where you have an exhibit of some classic masterpieces, then step down the hall to the modern works.  The plain canvasses with simple geometric shapes, the splashes of paint, the non-representational art, the piles of trash and found objects in the modern art gallery may make some interesting artistic points, and some might not be that bad to look at, but mostly they are shallow works, requiring much less skill and insight than some timeless masterpieces, and that will be quickly forgotten.  While Tan Dun's "Water Concerto" was enjoyable to listen to (and watch--the percussionist was soaked by the end!), I have a feeling the Fort Worth Symphony of 2211 is much more likely to be playing Beethoven.

Try, just try to watch this without laughing out loud:

Sturm (Storm)

As a shallow movie glutton, I feel inadequate to comment on Storm.  Not that it's a great, brilliant movie, although it may be.  It just deals with complex historical scenarios in a complex way.  I should know and remember more about the Bosnian war, but I simply don't.  Storm brings some of those vague memories back, as it follows an investigation at the Hague into war crimes committed by the Serbs in Bosnia.  The prosecutor, Hannah Maynard, is on a mission to get to the truth, but her witnesses may not be so reliable.

Storm is powerful in its understated storytelling.  Matching the mood of the subject matter and the characters, the pacing is slow and deliberate.  Even then, the tension and suspense run high.  It's a well-shot, powerful movie, definitely more cerebral than the average Hollywood fare.

Bottom line, 3 stars.

Ostrov (The Island)

At first glance, Ostrov fits into the same category as Stellet Licht and Lake Tahoe: slow, artsy, subtitled, sort of dull.  OK, so Ostrov is a little of all of that, but there is a lot more to it than the other two.  If you have patience for it, you can glean a solid message of forgiveness and faithfulness here.  The monk Father Anatoli lives at a remote Russian Orthodox monastery where he tends the coal fires.  Taking monastic austerity to its extreme, he makes the coal bin his cell.  He has gained a reputation as a seer and healer; lay people come from around the area for his wisdom and healing touch.  Among the monks, he is a prankster and gadfly, drawing the ire of the other fathers.

In spite of the peace he can bring to others, Father Anatoli struggles with his own sin.  Years ago, as a young sailor, he was given a choice by his Nazi captors to kill his commanding officer and preserve his own life.  He shot the officer, was rescued by the monks, and has spent decades repenting and trying to atone for his sin.  I will uncharacteristically not tell you how or if he gains his peace.  It's worth watching to see for yourself.

This is a dark movie, literally.  Everything is gray and cold.  The sets and story are simple, befitting a remote monastery.  But the story and spiritual message stand out all the more against the gray background.

Bottom line: 3 stars.

Stellet Licht (Silent Light)

I'm admittedly a shallow movie viewer.  This is one of those movies that makes me ask, am I really shallow, or was that a dull movie?

Here's where the weirdness begins for Stellet Licht.  This was the Mexico official entry for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (it didn't end up being nominated).  So why isn't it called Luz Silenciosa?  Because the movie's not in Spanish, silly, that would be too simple!  It's in Mennonite Low German, a sort of German/Dutch hybrid spoken in some Mennonite communities around the world. 

A plus of the movie is a realistic depiction of the life of rural Mennonites in Mexico.

Stellet Licht focuses on a Mennonite family living in a Mexican Mennonite community.  The dad is having an affair and struggling with family life.  There are just enough lingering shots and odd elements here to make me think, hmm, this is sort of poetic, and maybe there is some profound symbolism here.  But it wasn't compelling enough to make me want to carefully rewatch it and analyze it.  Plus, the absurd ending seemed quite out of place, throwing the value of the whole movie into question.

There is barely enough material here to fill a 1/2 hour TV slot, but the director drags it out over 2 hours.  Long, lingering shots of nature (like 6 minutes of dawn breaking at the beginning) and long scenes with people sitting around not talking do that to a movie.  If you've had a long day, be sure to have a cup of coffee before you sit down for this one.  There, do I sound shallow enough for you?

Bottom line, 1 1/2 stars.

Lake Tahoe

This movie has nothing to do with a big lake on the California-Nevada border.  OK, very little to do with it.  It's there as a symbol of longing, or some such drivel.  Oh, that sounds too harsh.  I sort of liked this movie for the experience of it.  It's a simple story: a young man has a minor wreck, and needs a part to repair his car.  He wanders around town trying to find a part, has amusing encounters with a variety of characters, and, well that's about it.  There is very little story, it moves slowly, and has sparse dialogue.

The only thing that really sets this movie apart is the style in which it was filmed.  As I was watching, I thought, every shot looks like a carefully framed photograph.  Then it struck me: the camera never moves!  In each shot, the camera is stationary.  Characters, if they move at all, move within the frame, but the camera never follows them.  It adds a huge level of interest to an uninteresting movie, like that novel that was written without the letter e. 

As a movie, Lake Tahoe doesn't have much to offer, but as an experiment in film, or as a work of art, it's sort of interesting.

Bottom line, 2 1/2 stars.

Movies about Wanna-be Superheroes

I like the superhero blockbuster movies as much as the next guy, but even more that the big-budget comic book adaptations that keep coming out, I like the movies about the other superheroes, the not-so-super vigilantes, or the ones with powers that aren't quite as super as the biggies.  Here are a few movies that try to break the mold of the superhero movie with some humor and action.

I'll start with the loser of a movie, The Specials.  In this movie, there are the in-crowd superheroes and the loser superheroes, vying for dominance in the superhero action figure market.  There are some funny bits (I liked the running gag with Minute Man, meaning small, not 60 seconds, and he's very sensitive about it!), but overall, this one is a dog.  If you're a fan of superhero movies, pick this one up for a laugh, but don't say I didn't warn you.
1 star

Can he really levitate?  Or not?

I saw a preview for Special and knew I wanted to see it, but it wasn't that easy to find.  A low-budget, indie film, I don't know that this one was ever in theaters.  Les is prescribed some anti-depressants, he thinks, but the drug is actually an experimental drug designed to make the patient think he has superhuman powers.  Les thinks he can levitate, read minds, and other feats.  This is a set up for great comedy at Les's expense, but he gets drawn into some real-life bad guy situations with painful results.  Special is funny in a pathetic way, especially the mind-reading bits, leading the viewer to sympathize with Les and believe that maybe he is a superhero after all.  This was an unexpected winner.
3 1/2 stars.

Along the same lines as Special, only with a bigger budget and a bigger star, we have Woody Harrelson as Defendor.  A lonely, probably mentally ill guy, Defendor dons his home-made, goofy costume each night to defend his city and seek out Captain Industry.  In a stumbling way, he actually does get closer to the truth of crime and corruption than the criminals like, making himself a target.  You have to love his persistence and odd genius, for instance, his breeding of wasps to use as a weapon.  Defendor doesn't have much going for him in life, but he puts up a good fight, stands up for what is right, and defends the defenseless. I can cheer for that.

3 stars.

Sticking with the theme of marginal people becoming vigilantes and rising to hero status, Kick-Ass takes the action to another level.  I thought this would be a teen comedy type of superhero spoof.  The hero is a teen, and there is some spoofiness and comedy, but mostly it's a straight-on, violent vigilante story.  Nerdy, comic-book loving Dave's only superpower, he says, is that he's invisible--to girls!  He dons a goofy costume, gets beat up by the criminals he's trying to collar, then goes out again and has some luck fighting bad guys.  This latter encounter is captured by some kids on video, becomes a You Tube hit, and brings Kick Ass into the big time (yes, Kick Ass is his superhero name.). 

Unfortunately for Dave, his new fame does not escape the attention of a real-life, really bad bad guy, who attributes some recent attacks on his thugs to Kick Ass.  In fact, those attacks are the work of Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage).  He's a renegade ex-cop who is systematically picking off D'Amico's men, as vengence for his wife's death.  Big Daddy and his 11-year-old daughter Hit Girl have some real skills and great superhero gear.  They cross paths with Kick Ass and lead up to a showdown with D'Amico and his men.  There are lots of explosions and killings.

The violence and depth of this movie surprised me.  The violence, graphic and frequent, fed the story, which was interesting and involved.  This wasn't a perfect movie, but it was defintely enjoyable, one I wouldn't mind seeing again.
3 1/2 stars

Finally, Iron Man 2.  I don't have much to say about this somewhat predictable, but action packed and enjoyable blockbuster.  Top-notch special effects, great action sequences, and an entertaining performance by Robert Downey, Jr., add up to a fun (but ultimately rather forgettable) movie. 
2 1/2 stars

I'll still watch and enjoy the big blockbusters, but I think cut-rate superheroes are more my speed.  These stories address the need, not only of the pathetic and lonely among us, but of all of us, to reclaim a sense of power and efficacy in our daily lives.  None of these wanna-be superheros has superhuman powers derived from an alien source, genetic mutation, or exposure to radiation.  But each has felt victimized, neglected, or rejected, yet still was willing to take some risks and take on evil in their world.  More power to them.

Not the Messiah

If you love Monty Python, you don't mind that they keep repackaging and rereleasing their old material.  But even better than a new "best of" DVD is when they actually do produce something new.  A few years ago, Spamalot was a Broadway hit, mixing songs and some of the story of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with some other MP classic skits and a bit of new.  I had a great time watching by dad come to tears, laughing at their craziness.

Not the Messiah follows up on the success of Spamalot.  They haven't toured much with it; as far as I know, it was only performed a few times.  But it lives on forever on DVD and CD.  The title comes from a line in the MP movie, The Life of Brian, in which Brian's mother tries to get the crowd outside their home to leave.  "He's not the messiah," she screams, "He's a very naughty boy!" 

It almost looks like a legitimate oratorio.

The other meaning of the title is a reference to Handel's Messiah.  Not the Messiah, an oratorio roughly in the tradition of Handel's Messiah, is performed by a huge choir, full orchestra, and several soloists, but with the addition of sheep and lumberjacks.  There are moments where the style is classical, but mostly it's rock inspired or Broadway musical style.

Like The Life of Brian, it's rather, shall we say, unorthodox.  I don't think it's totally heretical, but it's certainly not suitable for Sunday services.  Monty Python fans will love it; non-fans might be mildly amused, but, as enjoyable as it was, it served more to bring nostalgia for the MP golden years than to add to their oeuvre.

I bet this is the first time a concert at Royal Albert Hall feature life-sized sheep puppets.

One song struck me as accidentally insightful.  Again, not suitable for Sunday services, but in a weird sort of way I think it communicates the grandeur of God.  I am thankful that I am no longer smelly and stupid and cheesy and spotty and naughty in God's sight, since I have been cleansed by Jesus' blood, but the song does recognize what a mess we are without God's saving grace.

O God you are so big
You are so very huge
My word what a size you are
And we are tiny in thy sight
So very small and very grotty
And smelly and stupid and cheesy and spotty
You are so big
We are so small
You are so huge
We are so tiny
You are so big
And we are naughty in thy sight
O god you are so big
You are so very huge
My word what a size you are
And we are tiny in thy sit
So very small and very grotty

And smelly and stupid and cheesy and spotty

You are so big

We are so small

You are so huge

We are so tiny

You are so big 

And we are naughty in thy sight.

Bottom line, if you're a Python fan, 4 stars.  If not, maybe 2.  If you are a Christian who is easily offended, negative 1 star.