Into the woods with the foxcatcher ...

Is Stephen Sondheim on a roll or what, after all these decades ? INTO THE WOODS has been in the cinemas and is due on dvd; ASSASSINS recently finished its London run, I enjoyed it a lot at the perfect Menier Chocolate Factory venue with a friend from Ireland; and its off to that terrific new GYPSY next week with Imelda Staunton as Mamma Rose, and there are TWO productions of SWEENEY TODD currently on in London, the hot ticket being the Emma Thompson-Bryn Terfel one. There is a new Concert FOLLIES coming up here too, with Christine Baranski among the cast (I will have to dig out that dvd of the 1985 Concert with Lee Remick, Elaine Stritch, Barbara Cook, Mandy Patinkin etc).  We also saw the dull movie they made of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC in 1977 (as per review - Musicals label). At least when I saw the National Theatre MUSIC over a decade now - the Judi Dench one - the great man was sitting one seat away from us at the preview, scribbling furiously. He is still going strong now, in his mid-80s, attending all these openings. I must play my SIDE BY SIDE BY SIDE (saw that twice in the '70s) double CD again ....

INTO THE WOODS is a modern twist on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales in a musical format that follows the classic tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel - all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife, their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch who has put a curse on them. 

This is a show I did not know apart from Streisand's versions of some of the songs on her Broadway albums. I did not have too much high hopes for Rob Marshall's film (after his NINE and CHICAGO, the less said the better) from James Lapine's screenplay.
The eclectic cast work hard: another star turn from Streep, and fun to see Christine Baranski, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen as the two princes, Lucy Punch, Tracey Ullmann, Simon Russell Beale, Frances De La Tour, Annette Crosbie, and er, James Corden - at least he can't swamp this production. Johnny Depp seems out of place too as The Wolf .... Lilla Crawford plays Little Red Riding Hood as an obnoxious little brat. but on the whole, its a muddle as it plays fun with the fairy tales, and looks a little too dark. It seems the stage version breaks down "happily ever after" and teaches us a  lesson about loss and how gray the world really is - which most of the negative reviews did not get as it was a Walt Disney. However, I was fairly pleased.

Less so with FOXCATCHER - or RATCATCHER as I slipped into calling it. This weird drama - a true story it seems - from Bennett Miller (CAPOTE) has an intriguing story and top notch performances from an unrecognisable Steve Carrell and Mark Ruffalo, while Channing Tatum excels as well - as in CAPOTE his lead actors excel and transform themselves. Then there's Sienna Miller and Vanessa Redgrave for a few minutes as Carrell's controlling mother, but one keeps wishing it would end. 

FOXCATCHER tells the dark and fascinating story of the unlikely and ultimately tragic relationship between an eccentric multi-millionaire and two champion wrestlers. When Olympic Gold Medal winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is invited by wealthy heir John du Pont (Steve Carell) to move on to the du Pont estate and help form a team to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics at his new state-of-the-art training facility, Schultz jumps at the opportunity, hoping to focus on his training and finally step out of the shadow of his revered brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo). 
Driven by hidden needs, du Pont sees backing Schultz's bid for Gold and the chance to "coach" a world-class wrestling team as an opportunity to gain the elusive respect of his peers and, more importantly, his disapproving mother (Vanessa Redgrave)  - so the scene is set for the final tragedy. It has some cringe-inducing moments, but the actors give it their all. One cannot say too much about the outcome, but if you don't know, it will keep you guessing, the world of wrestling seems heavy with supressed homoeroticism here .... 

The Normal Heart

It starts as we join the ferry from New York to Fire Island that summer weekend in 1981, as we see the gays and the party people enjoying themselves, as Roxy Music's "Angel Eyes" blares out - on the beach, in the pines, all those houseparties, soon they are all dancing to Sylvester at that disco on the beach (that fantasy gay lifestyle that we aspired to here in the UK). Our focus is on Ned Weeks, who observes but does not seem part of it all. Suddenly, a friend (Jonathan Groff) collapses on the beach, and is ill again later .... soon he is dead.

THE NORMAL HEART is Larry Kramer's fascinating, contentious Tony-award winning play, first staged in 1985, about the early days of the AIDS pandemic decimating the New York gay community and the rage and bewilderment of those trying to cope with it and find a solution, as the government does not want to know .... Kramer wrote that very funny and outrageous novel "Faggots" in the late 70s, detailing the hedonism of gay life then - people loved or hated it in equal measure, and he also scripted Ken Russell's film WOMEN IN LOVE. Its taken 30 years for THE NORMAL HEART to reach the screen, is it too late? Today's gays see themselves as the post-Aids generation, having achieved equality. Its  a paean then to that lost generation and that lost time. The hedonism of the gay lifestyle then - endless disco, worship of the body beautiful - was for a lot of people what it meant to be gay then (before equality, civil partnerships, marriage and kids) and then it all came crashing down ...

Mark Ruffalo as Ned is the Kramer figure here, a writer who combats the silence about this new disease with his own brand of fighting back, as he becomes an AIDS activist accusing the Mayor of New York and Reagan's presidency of neglecting the health crisis, and antagonising the very group he helped to set up - The Gay Mens Health Crisis, who feel they have to force him out. Ned sees the pain and toll the disease is taking in those early years, as more and more fall victim to those lesions and start to waste away. It was that frightening time when people were afraid, not only to have sex, but to touch or assist those afflicted. One horrifying sequence shows a friend taking his dying boyfriend home on a plane, he dies en route and is left out with the garbage, wrapped in bin-liners as hospital workers refuse to touch the body, so the family have to collect the body themselves. 

Julia Roberts is Dr Emma Brooker, at first the only doctor treating these patients, from her wheelchair. Matt Bomer shines as Felix, Ned's partner, who starts off healthy but he too gets the lesions all over his body and wastes away before our eyes - Bomer lost 40 lb. to play the role, and deserves an Emmy at least, for his terrific portrayal (seeing as actors who lose or gain weight now automatically get awards for their dedication) - he and Ruffalo have some great scenes together as their relationship deepens. Alfred Molina shines as ever, as Ned's estranged brother. It takes the dying Felix to bring the brothers back together as they continue the fight against ignorance. There is no denying this is a devastatingly sad film, particularly for those of us who lived through that era. (It was the mid-'80s here in London when this was happening over here - I remember a particular Sunday morning in 1985 in Brighton by the sea,  when we gathered with the papers after a good night out, and began reading about these lesions ..... some of the gang vowed to stop having sex with Americans and to stop using amyl nitrate which it was thought caused these skin lesions; I also remember an afternoon with the gang sunbathing on Hampstead Heath near the men's pond, and a passer by yelling out  to the serried ranks of sunbathers "You are all going to die"... By the early '90s the death toll was rising as most of the gang died, with the then treatments (like AZT) being as toxic as the disease, as one witnessed friends and then one's best friend, and then one's partner all succumb ....).

There is no happy ending here, as we leave Ned, alone again, crying and watching the dancers .... as Paul Simon's "The Only Living Boy In New York" plays - part of the terrific soundtrack. Its a very affecting moment (and is so me, circa 1996-2003).
THE NORMAL HEART is directed by Ryan Murphy of GLEE fame, and thankfully has not been Glee-ified (well maybe apart from that "The Man I Love" rendition). 
The script is by Larry Kramer from his play. Barbra Streisand held the rights for 10 years, and had a public falling out with Kramer over the proposed film. One could imagine if she had played the doctor, it would have been all about her, helping the Aids victims. Roberts downplays nicely. The film shows how prejudice thrived and yet love survived, as the Gay Mens Health Crisis tackled government indifference. Like PHILADELPHIA this is accessible to everyone who wants to know what it was like back then, and is even more essential now as gay rights and equality are still not available to all in some parts of our world. THE NORMAL HEART (which I did not see on the stage) is a key work on the AIDS crisis, along with LONGTIME COMPANION, PARTING GLANCES, AND THE BAND PLAYED ON, ANGELS IN AMERICA, AN EARLY FROST, OUR SONS, MY NIGHT WITH REG, THE LINE OF BEAUTY, etc. More on those later ...

Kids, Kinsey, Gods, Monsters, Love, Death, Long Island

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT - Finally I got around to Lisa Cholodenko's 2010 film which attracted a lot of attention, and one can see why. It is another of those oddball screwy comedy-dramas like CRAZY STUPID LOVE or FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, but its oddly engaging and keeps one involved, I liked it a lot but with reservations. 

Annette Bening is perfect as the controlling Nic - she deserved the Oscar for that Joni Mitchell song at the dinner table and then she finds out what is really going on, just as she is warming to Paul ... Julianne Moore though seems to be channelling Diane Keaton a lot here, its as if Keaton was playing the role of Jules who is a bit of a flake trying different businesses, currently she is trying landscape gardening, as Nic supports her. Some questions though: do lesbians really get off watching vintage gay male porn ? 

It is all set in motion by the two kids Joni (yes she is named after Ms Mitchell) and Laser - Mia Wasikowska and Josh  Hutcherson - decide to track down their sperm donor father (the girls must have used him twice then?). Mark Ruffalo is ideal here as the initially bemused Paul who finds himself attracted to the two kids he helped create and then to Jules, but she casts him  aside at the end as does Nic at the front door when he comes to make an apology. We end therefore with Nic and Jules together again with Laser, as they see daughter Joni off to college. Cholodenko though seems to have nothing to say about her characters or their lifestyle,  the plot is just propelled by absurd turns of events as absurdity piles upon absurdity, is it a comedy-drama or just a farce about different lifestyles. Paul though is left with the command to go and create his own family. Is Jules really attracted to him or just experimenting having sex with an attractive man ... ? and is Paul so hot that even the middle-aged lesbian just has to have him ?

I like Bill Condon's 2004 film KINSEY about the creation of those Kinsey Reports back in the repressive '40s and '50s. Liam Neeson has one of his key roles, like in SCHINDLER'S LIST, ably supported by Laura Linney as his wife. Peter Sarsgaard is amazing too, particularly in that scene where he strips and comes on to the Professor in their hotel room, it is so full-on without any coyness. Lynn Redgrave (the aunt of Neeson's wife Natasha Richardson) contributes a terrific little cameo too. The large cast includes Chris O'Donnell, Timothy Hutton, Tim Rice and John Lithgow, and the period detail is nicely conveyed without being trowelled on. Condon also scripted.

Though the film tries to depict Kinsey as a social pioneer, it doesn't shy away from (nor does it condemn) his dubious breaches of ethical standards, such as encouraging sexual activities among his staff and their wives. At one point, Kinsey interviews a creepy subject played by William Sadler who has maintained a detailed record of all of the thousands of people he has had sex with (including children) and the implication is clear that he and Kinsey are two sides of the same coin. (Neeson was a terrific Oscar Wilde too on stage in THE JUDAS KISS, a late '90s play by David Hare - Tom Hollander label).

Condon's GODS & MONSTERS, 1998, is another vastly enjoyable foray, this time into the final days of director James Whale (director of the original SHOWBOAT as well as those '30s  FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN classics) marooned in '50s Hollywood, with just his disapproving German housekeeper Hanna (another splendid turn by Lynn Redgrave) for company, until he takes on that hunky gardender played by Brendan Fraser. Ian McKellen has one of his best roles (before Gandalf came along) as Whale - there is a hilarious interlude at George Cukor's residence at one of his famous parties where Princess Margaret is in attendance.

Whale has had a stroke and is slowly dying. He is a lonely man in need of companionship and inner peace. He tries to find this solace in Clay Boone (Brendan Fraser, in a rare serious role). The blossoming relationship between the two is the plot focus of the film - but how true is it really, did Whale die in the swimming pool ? Was there really a Boone for Whale to project his fantasies onto? the film is more than just an homage to old Hollywood and echoes some of the themes of SUNSET BOULEVARD in its portrayal of a Hollywood veteran, who has been forgotten by the industry of the early '50s and has retreated into a private world of his own making where he still directs the scenes.

I had a pleasant conversation about it with Ian McKellan one evening (early morning actually) out in clubland, a decade or so ago, when everyone wanted to talk to him about the LOTR films, but I was able to tell him I had bought GODS & MONSTERS that week and how much I liked it. Condon has since done the so-so DREAMGIRLS and the TWILIGHT saga ...

Another nice comedy drama with an amusing gay angle is the film of Gilbert Adair's novel LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND from 1999. Cirtic Adair died last year (RIP label) and the movie is a faithful visualisation of his novel, itself a hommage to DEATH IN VENICE (Thomas Mann's book and Visconti's film).  Giles De'Ath (John Hurt) is a widower and lofty intellectual who doesn't like anything modern. He goes to the cinema to see the latest E.M. Forster heritage movie but goes into the wrong cinema at the multiplex and falls in love with its teen star, Ronnie Bostock. He then investigates everything about the movie and Ronnie, and gets a machine to play Ronnie's movies; then he decides to track Ronnie down, so he travels to Long Island city where Ronnie lives and gets meets him, pretending that Ronnie is a great actor and that's why Giles admires him. Ronnie's girl friend (Fiona Loewi) though begins to see through Giles after she has brought him and Ronnie together ... this is delightfully orchestrated by director Richard Kwietnioswski, who does not seem to have done anything of note since.

The character of Giles could so easily have been a caricature, a bumbling old fogey; Hurt shows that, while he is indeed out of touch, he is also highly intelligent and unapologetic about his fusty ways. It is one of this very individual (and busy) actors best roles. Jason Priestley is rather good too as the slightly dim Ronnie, and Sheila Hancock is as splendid as ever even if she has nothing much to do as Giles' housekeeper.

There is a touch of Nabokov too as European high culture brushes with American teen culture. Hurt's performance is dignified, perplexed and slightly tragic; he makes Giles one of the most touching "stalkers" in film history. Much like James Mason's Humbert in LOLITA (or Dirk's Aschenbach in DEATH IN VENICE) Giles is a man of culture finding beauty in callow youth and being changed by it. McKellen and Hurt though have done some of their best work here as these older men obsessed with younger beauties ...

Before too long: another look at that BBC series THE LINE OF BEAUTY from Alan Hollinghurst's novel (an adaptation of his THE SPELL would be nice), along with those newies like SHAME, TINKER TAILOR..., TREE OF LIFE, that new MISSION IMPOSSIBLE which looks fun,  THE SKIN I LIVE IN and some other Almodovars.