Stage: What really happened?

Blue
by June Carryl
director Michael Matthews
with June Carryl, John Colella
set Carla Goodman • sound Charles Moscatiello
Seven Dials Playhouse, London • 5-30.Mar.24 ★★★

Set in 2021 Los Angeles, this pointed two-hander draws a direct line between the incendiary police violence that sparked the Black Lives Matter protests and the January 6th insurrection. It's a bold, intense drama that continually punches its enormous themes about racism and social change. And while there's a razor sharp observation at the centre of the story, it feels perhaps a bit too polarised, never challenging the audience to consider things from a new perspective. This makes it riveting and involving, but never as provocative as it should be.

In a police interrogation room, two long-time friends and colleagues meet under new circumstances. Captain Parker (Carryl) is questioning veteran Sergeant Sully (Colella) about his role in a shooting that left a young man dead after what looked like a routine traffic stop. Over the course of a very tense hour, more details emerge about the situation, and Parker also confronts Sully about evidence that he participated in the attempt to subvert democracy during the Washington DC riot.

Of course, Sully's deep-seated racism and resentment emerge early on, echoed in throwaway lines and attitudes about how he sees society slipping away from what he thinks it should be. He denies it every time, but seeing him say these things directly to a Black woman he counts as a friend is darkly unnerving, and the ripples of emotion both actors convey are powerfully moving. These are seriously immersive roles that both actors play with full-on investment. Carryl is particularly involving as Parker tries to remain calm and professional in such a heated situation, but occasionally loses her cool. And Colella remarkably never flinches as the outspoken, angry and fear-fuelled Sully. Each actor adds extra interest by playing up the fact that these two people know each other very well, which allows the heightened emotion to be balanced with moments of earthy humour.

These realistic touches help create several heart-stopping exchanges over the course of this hour-long interrogation, as witty, natural interaction turns awkward and then heated. This is staged brilliantly, with the audience sitting right in the room, surrounding the table like eavesdropping ghosts. It's fascinating to watch their familiarity strain under the pressure, as a continual string of very clever lines hit the audience with full force. So watching these old friends circle around in an attempt to trap the other is powerfully involving, even if this is written in such a way that it's never a remotely fair fight.

For details: SEVEN DIALS PLAYHOUSE >

photos by Laurie Sparham & David Adly Garcia • 8.Mar.24

Out on a Limb: Oscar picks & Predictions

As usual, I am more about my picks than my predictions, as I always want someone unexpected to win. This year's winners seem to be predestined, as the same people have walked off with trophies at ceremony after ceremony. So let's hope Oscar voters go against the grain just a little bit. Here's my annual list of who I think will win, and also who I think deserves to get the prize...

PICTURE

Will win: Oppenheimer - Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, Christopher Nolan
Should win: Past Lives
- David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler
Dark horse: Anatomy of a Fall - Marie-Ange Luciani, David Thion
Darker horse: The Holdovers - Mark Johnson

INTERNATIONAL FILM

Will / should win: The Zone of Interest
- James Wilson 
Dark horse: Perfect Days - Koji Yanai, Wim Wenders, Takuma Takasaki

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Will win: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Kemp Powers, Justin K Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal
Should win: The Boy and the Heron - Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Will win: 20 Days in Mariupol
- Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson-Rath
Should win: The Eternal Memory - Maite Alberdi, Juan de Dios Larrain, Pablo Larrain

DIRECTING

Will win: Christopher Nolan - Oppenheimer
Should win: Jonathan Glazer - The Zone of Interest

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Will win: Anatomy of a Fall - Justine Triet & Arthur Harari
Should win: Past Lives - Celine Song
Dark horse: The Holdovers - David Hemingson

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Will win: American Fiction - Cord Jefferson

Should win: Barbie - Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach 

Serious contender: Oppenheimer - Christopher Nolan

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Will win: Lily Gladstone - Killers of the Flower Moon
Should win: Sandra Huller - Anatomy of a Fall

Serious contender: Emma Stone - Poor Things

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Will / should win: Cillian Murphy - Oppenheimer

Dark horse: Jeffrey Wright - American Fiction

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Will / should win: Da'Vine Joy Randolph - The Holdovers

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Will win: Robert Downey Jr - Oppenheimer
Should win: Ryan Gosling - Barbie

Dark horse: Mark Ruffalo - Poor Things

ORIGINAL SCORE

Will win: Oppenheimer - Ludwig Goransson
Should win: Poor Things - Jerskin Fendrix

ORIGINAL SONG

Will win: What Was I Made For? - Barbie - Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt
Should win: I'm Just Ken - Barbie - Billie Eilish, Finneas O'Connell

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Will / should win: Oppenheimer - Hoyte van Hoytema

FILM EDITING

Will win: Oppenheimer - Jennifer Lame
Should win: Anatomy of a Fall - Laurent Senechal

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Will / should win: Barbie - Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

Dark horse: Poor Things - James Price, Shona Heath, Zsuzsa Mihalek

COSTUME DESIGN

Will win: Poor Things - Holly Waddington
Should win: Barbie - Jacqueline Durran

VISUAL EFFECTS

Will / should win: The Creator - Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts, Neil Corbould
Dark horse: Godzilla Minus One - Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, Tatsuji Nojima

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Will / should win: Poor Things - Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, Josh Weston

SOUND

Will / should win: The Zone of Interest
- Tarn Willers, Johnnie Burn
Dark horse: Oppenheimer - Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A Rizzo, Kevin O'Connell

Dance: Pushing forward

New York City Ballet: Mixed Bill
Sadler's Wells, London • 7-10.Mar.24 ★★★★

Displaying skills at the very peak of the artform, the New York City Ballet continues to blend a reverence of classical forms with modern touches. So this mixed bill is packed with moments that feel surprising and even thrilling as they subvert expectations. This is a spirit-lifting programme featuring four distinct pieces...

Rotunda
choreography Justin Peck
music Nico Muhly
dancers Megan Fairchild, Miriam Miller, Jacqueline Bologna, Sara Adams, Indiana Woodward, Unity Phelan, Daniel Ulbricht, Victor Abreu, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Sebastián Villarini-Vélez, Jules Mabie, Gilbert Bolden III
conductor Andrews Sill

First up is Justin Peck's jaunty gathering of 12 dancers wearing colourful practice garb, floating in shapes together and separately, echoing each other and then shooting off individually as if they are in a rehearsal jam session. It's expressive and fluid, with an almost weightless, bouncy sensibility that reveals the dancers' lyrical athleticism. Further impressive sequences include duets, solos and more group numbers, all held together with the buzzy choreography and bright music, performed live by an orchestra. Most powerful is the connection we feel between the dancers as they spin around each other, revealing a camaraderie that adds to the impact of the piece.

Duo Concertant
choreography George Balanchine
music Igor Stravinsky
dancers Megan Fairchild, Anthony Huxley
piano Elaine Chelton • violin Kurt Nikkanen

There's an instant cheeky sense of interaction between two musicians and two dancers on-stage, as Stravinsky's music starts things off before the physical movement begins. Balanchine's choreography still feels fresh and inventive, revealing beautiful lines, big emotions and engagingly expansive expressions. As these two gifted dancers spiral around the stage, they continually offer humane touches that bare their souls, with added moments of wit, emotion and dazzling footwork. Throughout the piece, they return to the piano and violin to get lost in the music, regroup and set off again. It culminates with a lovely black stage illuminated with action in tiny spotlights.

Gustave Le Gray No 1
choreography Pam Tanowitz
music Caroline Shaw
dancers Naomi Corti, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Ruby Lister, Mira Nadon
piano Stephen Gosling

The piano remains on-stage, as four performers appear dressed in red, with floaty drapes over full-body suits. Once again, there is interaction between the musician and the dancers, but this has a more technical feel to it, choreographed to focus on movement and shapes rather than deeper emotions. It's beautiful, with fascinating touches and some wonderfully cool moments. It's also rather self-conscious in the way it plays out, revealing impressive skill without deeper emotionality. The highlight is a wonderfully absurd sequence in which the dancers push the piano across the stage, and the pianist doesn't miss a note. 

Love Letter (on shuffle)
choreography Kyle Abraham
music James Blake
dancers Olivia Boisson, Jacqueline Bologna, Naomi Corti, Christopher Grant, Emily Kikta, Ruby Lister, Malorie Lundgren, Jules Mabie, Alexa Maxwell, Roman Mejia, Mckenzie Bernardino Soares, Taylor Stanley, Quinn Starner, Kennedy Targosz, Peter Walker

Ending on a high, this final piece is a wonderfully engaging mix of classical ballet moves with modern dance and hip-hop. The performances and choreography are often exhilarating, accompanied by soulful music that continually reveals new textures. This is a visceral piece that unfolds in a series of terrific variations in pace, creating an expressive, intriguing dreamlike atmosphere that's infused with life and humour. The movement is luxuriant, performed with serious strength while the 15 dancers allow their personalities to emerge in their interaction. With clever costumes that feature theatrical flourishes, and colourful lighting that adds textures to the floor, this is a lovely collection of impressive solos, romantic duets and buoyant group moments, coming full circle with Joy Division's Atmosphere.

For information: SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Erin Baiano & Paul Kolnik • 7.Mar.24

Critical Week: I have a bad feeling about this

I arrived back in London on Tuesday, and any thoughts of starting back to work slowly quickly evaporated as I have worked to catch up on things. Not only is there a backlog of movies to watch and write about, but one of London's biggest film festivals starts next week. And it's the Oscars on Sunday night, the climax to this year's awards season (I'll post my picks and predictions as usual this weekend). Meanwhile, next year's awards season is building up some buzz already, with the astonishing Late Night With the Devil, a 1970s TV talk show pastiche that spirals into inventively thrilling demonic horror. At the centre, David Dastmalchian delivers a career redefining performance.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Origin • Soul
High and Low: John Galliano
ALL REVIEWS >

Other films included American Dreamer, a scrappy comedy-drama starring Peter Dinklage and Shirley MacLaine that's likeable but never quite comes together. Bonded is a very low-budget American slasher thriller that has some underlying charm. And Crossing is a stunner of a drama from Swedish-Georgian filmmaker Levan Akin (And Then We Danced). Set mainly in Istanbul's trans community, it's screening next week at BFI Flare, and deserves to be in awards conversations this time next year. I also had time to catch up with one of last year's movies while I was on the plane back to London...

Silent Night
dir John Woo; with Joel Kinnaman, Catalina Sandino Moreno 23/US ***
Leave it to action veteran John Woo to make the very most out of an explosive thriller that has no dialog at all. The story centres around a man who loses his son, and his voice, to local gang violence, so he spends the next year training to get even. Kinnaman ably balances the beefy tough-guy nonsense with a deeper emotionality, which is even more strongly felt thanks to Sandino Moreno as his understandably frightened wife. But instead of meaningfully grappling with ideas of grief and revenge, the film essentially turns this man into Batman, a seemingly independently wealthy vigilante with a muscle car and a personal arsenal. Woo makes it look fabulous, but any point is lost in the glorious mayhem.

This coming week I'll be watching Cate Blanchett in The New Boy, Sydney Sweeney in Immaculate, Emile Hirsch in State of Consciousness, Luc Besson's Dogman, relationship drama Thirty, plus several more films that will be showing at the 38th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, which kicks off next Wednesday with the drag-scene romance Layla. I'll also be staying up all night to watch the Oscars on Sunday night!

Critical Week: On the road

I'm still in California this week, hanging out with family and friends and trying to avoid work for the most part, and yet I still managed to see two more movies that were out here before opening in the UK ... so that was work for me (reviews are already on the site). First was Ethan Coen's road-trip action comedy Drive-Away Dolls, a pastiche exploitation romp that's smart and funny but also rather thin and corny. But the chemistry between central duo Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan is terrific.

Second was the inspirational true-life drama Ordinary Angels, starring an up-for-it Hilary Swank as a blowsy hairdresser who decides to help a beefy widower (Alan Ritchson) whose young daughter needs a liver transplant. The film thankfully remains grounded in realistic characters and earthy humour, so it's genuinely moving.

As I head back to London, I have no movies in the diary, although I'm hoping to catch up with something on the flight if possible. Finding something I haven't seen on the airline's entertainment system - and that I actually want to see as well - isn't always easy. It'll be Wednesday next week before I begin to get back into normal gear, just as Oscar night arrives.

Critical Week: Holding on...

I've been enjoying hanging out with family in Southern California, not worrying about the rather iffy weather, which turned downright nasty just in time for me to trek across town to see Dune: Part Two on the Warner Bros lot (which was cool - see Insta post below). It was quite surreal to be feeling so wet and soggy while watching such a dry and sandy movie. But of course I loved it; Denis Villeneuve's imagination and attention to detail being this dense story to life in constantly surprising ways. Each shot looks simply spectacular, and the powerhouse acting ensemble gets a lot to do as well.

I also caught Lisa Frankenstein in a cinema, directed by Zelda Williams (daughter of Robin) from a script by Diablo Cody. It's a bit of a messy concoction, but is packed with genuinely hilarious dialog and up-for-it performances from a strong cast that includes Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano and Carla Gugino. Its 1980s setting offers some strong gags as well.

Ethan Coen's Drive-Away Dolls opens this weekend, so I plan to catch that in a local cinema. I am also asking around for contacts for a Kung Fu Panda 4 press screening here, as it opens the week I return to London. There may be some other things that pop up along the way, and I do have some screener links to watch, but am reluctant yo give up family time for that.

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On the Road: Use your head

I'm in Southern California for a couple of weeks, mainly to celebrate my mother's birthday, but also to visit with family and friends and hopefully get some nice weather this time of year. Although the rainy storminess hasn't started off very promisingly. I'm also going to completely miss this weekend's Baftas - the British Academy Awards - and will just have to read about the winners online. Meanwhile, on the flight over here I caught up with three films from last year that I'd missed...

Dumb Money
dir Craig Gillespie; with Paul Dano, Pete Davidson 23/US ***.
The story of the GameStop stock market mayhem is made thoroughly entertaining by lively direction from Craig Gillespie that concentrates on character quirks rather than the dull financial details. That said, some of these details begin to make sense as a group of amateur traders take on the big hedge funds. The terrific over-packed ensemble includes Paul Dano, Nick Offerman, Seth Rogen, America Ferrera, Pete Davidson, Sebastian Stan and Shailene Woodley. Some plot threads get lost along the way. But it's consistently entertaining and occasionally engaging too.

She Came to Me
dir-scr Rebecca Miller; with Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway 23/US ***
Writer-director Rebecca Miller creates an intricate, intelligent multistrand narrative using light and nicely offhanded performances and jagged interaction. But the plot never quite grabs hold, as it centres around a blocked opera composer (Peter Dinklage) and a scrappy tugboat pilot (Marisa Tomei) who becomes his muse, while his obsessive wife (Anne Hathaway) spirals. Subplots involve their teen son, his girlfriend, her parents and lots of tangled feelings, bad decisions and messy behaviour. It's all a bit corny, and aside from the general economic realities it's difficult to connect with a central theme. So even with the wonderfully nuanced acting, it ends up feeling cute and a bit simplistic.

Strays
dir Josh Greenbaum; voices Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx ***
The central joke here is that a sweet movie about cute dogs is bursting with profane dialog and outrageously adult jokes. That concept feels stale within minutes, but thankfully the script is loaded with genuinely hilarious humour aimed squarely at grown-up dog lovers. The plot is very simple, as an abandoned pup realises that his owner mistreated him, so vows revenge with a group of fellow strays. Wacky adventures ensue, often involving humping things. So if the general tone is belaboured as it tries desperately to push things rudely over the top, the furry characters win us over, ably voiced by a first-rate cast.

While I'm out here I'm planning to catch up with a few films that are in cinemas here but not yet out in the UK, like Drive-Away Dolls and Lisa Frankenstein, and I'm on the lookout for press screenings of Dune: Part Two and Kung Fu Panda 4. Otherwise, I'm enjoying time with family and friends and not thinking about movies.