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mandycp
Reviews
Sugar! (2016)
A study in selfishness
A repressed middle-aged wife of an up-and-coming politician revisits her choices in college by putting together a rock band. Suspecting that her family would disapprove, she keeps it a secret and lies to them about what she is doing. She also has an affair with a younger bartender, but presumably that's "ok" because it's only a one-night stand.
After months of deception, her surly daughter finds a video of the band on Youtube, and proceeds to have a self-centered meltdown about the impact on her social life at school. Shortly after, the husband discovers the deception, and makes a similar scene, arguing that she shouldn't hang out in bars, even though he visits them to raise funds for his campaign. In the face of their disapproval, she drops out of the band, leaving her friends in the lurch on the cusp of stardom. But it's ok, because she finds them another keyboard player.
But wait... the daughter discovers that her mother's fame is actually beneficial for her social life. And the husband finds that he is doing better in the polls because of it. So suddenly, the mother's choices are fine. She serendipitously rejoins the band, casting aside her replacement in the process, but not before revisiting her one-night stand, and replying to his affection by suggesting that he move to another state.
It has good production values, cinematography, and acting.
Space Island One: Nemesis (1998)
Intelligent & Realistic SciFi
The crew of the space station encounter an anomaly, and have to use their wits to discover what it is, and how best to protect themselves.
Watching this in 2019, I am impressed by how well this series holds up after twenty years. The commander is a woman, the second in command has a physical disability, and the rest of the crew includes a pregnant woman and representatives of a number of different countries. The tech looks good, excusing the enormous CRT monitors. The writing is believable and lacking in manufactured drama. About the only shortcoming is the soundtrack, which consists of generic BBC synthesizer pap.
La forza del destino (1958)
A Brilliant La Forza
There's no dancing around it: La Forza never makes it to the top of anyone's list of favorite Verdi operas for good reason. The story is silly, and takes far too long to play out, due in part to padding with pageantry on more than one occasion. And yet...anyone who perseveres is rewarded by some of the most beautiful music in the operatic repertoire, which is to say some of the most beautiful music period. The pilgrims' chorus in the second scene of Act I, the swelling accompaniment to Leonora's reception into the monastery later in the act, and Leonora's final solo aria immediately come to mind. In fact, if there ever were an opera tailor-made for the selective playback capabilities of a DVD, it's this one. (I would say the same about most Wagner operas, but don't get me started.)
The lynch-pin holding together the three musical diamonds in the rough I've already mentioned is the voice of Leonora, and with Renata Tebaldi, the role could not be in better hands. Her approach will forever be associated with craft and finesse, qualities in abundance in this performance. Tebaldi's artificial gestures and posturing may at first seem jarring to a modern audience, but before long, there is no question that the listener is in the presence of genius. In this recording she was at the height of her power, and for my money, only Leontyne Price can match (exceed?) her artistry in the heartrending 'Pace Pace Mio Dio'.
Tebaldi is here well-matched vocally and stylistically by the legendary Franco Corelli. Eschewing the excesses of a "bad boy" interpretation, he crafts a dignified and aristocratic Don Alvaro, a character clearly proud of his exotic heritage, and unbroken by the vicissitudes of fate. Corelli's clear, bright tonality is at its best when paired with the dark intensity and undercurrent of menace in Ettore Bastianini's take on Don Carlo di Vargas, particularly in the sickbed scene and their final confrontation.
The production is quaint by modern standards, with backdrops painted on tapestries that billow faintly from time to time. The video can be grainy and streaky, but there are no noticeable skips or static in the soundtrack.
The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000)
Slight, but of historical interest
To paraphrase one of the characters in this slight but enjoyable movie of the week, it's not enough to be gay, rather you should be an interesting person who happens to be gay. And that's basically the problem with this movie - it's about being gay, being gay, being gay... and not much else. I suspect however that it will ultimately find a place in the history of queer cinema as an example of the "homosexuality is good/healthy" period, as contrasted with all the gay stereotypes in movies up to the late 90's. It will also form a sharp contrast with subsequent cinema, in which the banalization of homosexuality returns the focus to drama (where it should be) not sexual orientation per se.