Since it’s debut on Broadway in 2013, the musical After Midnight has been a popular revue across the country, with its latest production currently taking stage at the Fifth Avenue Theatre through this weekend. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen on stage before, and it’s well, well worth your time and attention. This is the second successive production at the Fifth Avenue that I’ve reviewed after the immensely fun Bye Bye Birdie, and both are unqualified successes.
Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest stumbles, even as Denzel soars
Spike Lee’s “re-imagining” of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low opens with Matthew Libateque’s glossy footage of New York City waking up in a golden sunrise reflected off shiny buildings. “Oh What A Beautiful Morning” from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! blasts over the soundtrack. It’s definitely a beautiful morning, but for record exec David King it will be anything but a beautiful day.
Cloud drags us down to the gritty world of the dark web market
Ryôsuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) seems harmless enough; a factory worker that dreams of bigger and better things if he could only get his hands on more cash. His way out is making backdoor deals under the moniker Ratel (some may call it swindling) with desperate, or just naive, people needing to offload bulk products.
Boys Go To Jupiter is absurdity on the surface, uncertainty at its heart
We see a group of kids hanging out on what turns out to be their Christmas break. One refuses to wear a shirt, another always dons a purple burglar beanie, a third is the pipsqueak of the crew and last is Billy 5000. Billy, a recent school drop out, is chasing his dream of making five thousands bucks delivering food for Grubster before New Years with only his hoverboard and intense focus to get him there. Finding a financial glitch in his employer’s system, he’s making hand over fist when his focus cracks after delivering to an ex-schoolmate and crush Rozebud.
Hola Frida journeys into the heart and mind of a legendary artist
Friday Kahlo is known for her self-possessed, unfazed take on the world and her art. She found beauty in the every day, pride in her culture and refused to adhere to societal norms. What could have made her an outcast instead made her unique empathetic and adored and most importantly exceptionally creative. Hola Frida is an attempt to explore her early life, both the tragedies and spiritual journey she experienced that shaped who she would become as an adult and artist. Animation and a light-hearted tone, no matter where the story takes us, allows for an all-ages audience.
Liam Neeson gets many (many!) laughs, and some revenge, in The Naked Gun
Like the previous Naked Gun and Airplane! movies, the comedy here relies on puns, physical humor, deadpan, and visual gags. Most of the bits fall flat (the law of averages demands it), and the humor can sometimes be scatological and certainly not for everyone—but man, did I enjoy it. Director Akiva Schaffer, from the comedy trio the Lonely Island, clearly knows how to generate laughs in the compact 85 minute running time.
Fantastic Four: First Steps is no giant leap for Marvelkind
The Fantastic Four has proven to be an oddly tricky team of superheroes to adapt. After decades languishing in the custody of other studios, Marvel finally got their “First Family” back after a pricey union with 20th Century Fox. Six years after those nuptials, the first MCU-produced family takes its first steps onto the big screen this weekend. With a fresh visual palette and a quaint sense of optimism, it’s a reliably agreeable re-introduction to a quartet that’s slated to be a key piece of Marvel’s latest phase of storytelling, that falls somewhere between Fantastic Snore and Fantastic Fine on the excitement-meter.
Ari Aster drags us back to pandemic hell with Eddington
Hard to believe it’s already been five years since the SARS-CoV-2 landed on our shores, and the response to the novel coronavirus shredded the hearts and minds of the United States into a toxic waste dump whose halflife remains unknown. Or at least that’s the feeling that one gets from watching Eddington, the latest from the twisted mind of horror auteur Ari Aster. After a Cannes premiere approximately coinciding with the anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, it crashes into theaters this weekend like the Kool-Aid Man running through a brick wall, but more painfully.
SIFF Interview: Director Megan Griffiths reflects on Year of the Fox and the Seattle film scene
In 2023 Megan Griffiths debuted Year of the Fox at SIFF and Morgen had the delightful opportunity to interview our local director darling about this new venture collaborating with writer Eliza Flug (whose life the story is based on). You can now see this dark and thought-provoking drama at SIFF Film Center through 7/13.
Nerds of the world, rejoice! Superman is good.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware that there’s a new Superman movie heading to theaters this summer. If you are living under a rock, the Man of Steel will cheerfully use his super-human strength to hold up said rock long enough to move yourself, your family, and your worldly possessions to much more stable housing.