White Girl in Danger (Off-Broadway) (2023)

I've never had this experience before but we got free tickets from Culture Pass and got "General Admission" tickets". What that meant was that we got whatever empty seats were left right before curtain. Somehow there are empty seats, at what I think is an otherwise sold out performance. But here's the tricky part, if the ticketholder with your seat shows up, then they can kick you out at intermission, at which point you'll get "refunded". But that means this person who showed up late has to wait an hour and a half for intermission--who's going to wait that long? Anyways, we're lucky we got seats in the front row and got to stay the whole show. 

Michael R Jackson's new musical is a lot. It's a satire on classic white people soap operas. It's imaginatively about a "blackground" character trying to make it in an "all-white" show--Jackson sticks with the meta concept. It was over 3 hours. The first act, a full hour and 40 minutes. And the 15 minute intermission also has content playing on the projector. And there's content playing before curtain. They film these hilarious cheesy, bad green screen, commercials. It felt like watching Atlanta spoof public access TV. He also kind of leans into the Tyler Perry-esque mannerisms that he berates in A Strange Loop (Atlanta does it too). But it's really long. Especially compared to the tight A Strange Loop. They probably need to cut a full half hour at least. It's funny but it kind of rambles. The songs are pretty hit or miss--the highlight is the opening title song. A few of them kind of lack melody. They're not really Sondheim-esque but y'know they also don't have a hummable tune. It's also very profane. A Strange Loop was too, but I feel like this was even more extreme. The gay sex scene in this one is a lesbian sex scene and there are multiple sex toy props. Definitely not family friendly. 

Tarra Conner Jones steals the show as Nell. This is her Off Broadway debut. She literally has a showstopper. There was a standing ovation for her in the middle of the show for her big number. Those are always cool moments.

95th Academy Awards (2023)

It's a landmark year for Asians in the movies. Sure we had Minari, The Farewell, Crazy Rich Asians, Parasite won it all in a memorable surprise. But the arrival of Everything Everywhere All at Once, both a indie box office smash and now the prohibitive front runner, signals a new era. The movie boasts no fewer than 4 acting nominees, three of whom are of Asian descent, including Ke Huy Quan who returns to the screen after two decades unable to find work in front of the camera in Hollywood. The legendary James Hong got a moment of glory at the SAG Awards too. And let's not forget Hong Chau nominated for The Whale. The NYT even ran a feature on the unprecedented number of Asian nominees across the board. It has been a long time since the front runner for Best Picture has been such a popular film, and I don't know that the nominees have ever included so many box office successes--it's an exciting year.

Tyler's Top 10:

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once
2. Tar
3. Decision to Leave
4. The Fabelmans
5. Armageddon Time
6. Petite Maman
7. Triangle of Sadness
8. The Northman
9. Aftersun
10. Turning Red
    

Honorable Mentions: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Top Gun: Maverick, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, The Quiet Girl, Fire of Love, Living, Navalny, Avatar: The Way of Water, Puss in Boots:The Last Wish, Vengeance

Best Picture (prediction):

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once
2. The Fabelmans
3. Top Gun: Maverick
4. All Quiet on the Western Front
5. Avatar: The Way of Water
6. The Banshees of Inisherin
7. Tar
8. Triangle of Sadness
9. Elvis
10. Women Talking

Best Director
Will Win/Should Win: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Honorable Mention: Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans

Best Actress
Will Win/Should Win: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Honorable Mention: Cate Blanchett, Tar

Best Actor
Will Win: Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Should Win: Paul Mescal, Aftersun

Best Supporting Actress
Will Win/Should Win: Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Honorable Mention: Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Supporting Actor
Will Win/Should Win: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Honorable Mention: Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans

Best Adapted Screenplay
Will Win: Women Talking
Should Win: Living

Best Original Screenplay
Will Win/Should Win: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Honorable Mention: Tar

Best Cinematography
Will Win: Elvis
Should Win: Empire of Light

Best Costume Design
Will Win/Should Win: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Honorable Mention: Babylon

Best Film Editing
Will Win/Should Win: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Honorable Mention: Top Gun: Maverick

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Will Win/Should Win: The Whale

Best Production Design
Will Win: Babylon
Should Win: Avatar: The Way of Water

Best Score
Will Win/Should Win: Babylon

Best Original Song
Will Win: Naatu Naatu, RRR
Should Win: Lift Me Up, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Best Sound
Will Win/Should Win: Top Gun: Maverick

Best Visual Effects
Will Win/Should Win: Avatar: The Way of Water

Best Animated Feature
Will Win: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Should Win: Turning Red

Best Documentary Feature
Will Win: Navalny
Should Win: Fire of Love

Best International Film
Will Win: All Quiet on the Western Front, Germany
Should Win: The Quiet Girl, Ireland

Best Animated Short
Will Win: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Should Win: Ice Merchants

Best Documentary Short
Will Win: Stranger at the Gate
Should Win: Haulout

Best Live Action Short
Will Win/Should Win: Le Pupille

Update: 17/23, just enough to win my Oscars pool.  I hosted a little Oscar party with a themed menu. It was a big hit, if I do say so myself. It was a great ceremony with lots of memorable wins for Asians/Asian-Americans, including Judy Chin for Best Makeup and Hairstyling who went to middle school with mom. EEAAO came away with a record six statues above-the-line, and A24, no longer the indie upstart, won all six of the top awards. Hopefully we can expect to see more of these beautiful, wonderful, diverse, niche movies being made.

Hercules (Paper Mill Playhouse) (2023)

We weren't able to get tickets to the one-week run at the Delacorte Theater back in 2019, but now Hercules is back at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ. It's a quaint town about an hour from Manhattan driving, though NJT also goes there for future reference. 

I realize that I've never actually seen the movie Hercules, though we probably have it somewhere on VHS. I kind of know the broad strokes just because it's Hercules. Plot wise, the beginning is kind of slow. It's a lot of exposition. I found myself resting my eyes a bit. And we don't even meet teenage Hercules nor Meg nor Phil until pretty far into the show. I think it's actually one of Alan Menken's best soundtracks. I like the gospel-y, motown-y touches. It of course has no business in ancient Greece, nor do the Roman jokes, but it's super catchy, even Hades's songs. I Won't Say (I'm in Love) needs to be higher up the Disney rankings. The first time I heard that song was when Ariana Grande did the ABC sing-a-long during the pandemic and slayed all the parts herself. It's a great song, but unfortunately Isabelle McCalla's singing voice as Meg was a little thin. Alan Menken also wrote some new music for the stage, and To Be Human, sung by Hercules at the climax of the show is totally wrong. All the music had been so upbeat and fun, and at the climax for some reason he wrote a downbeat song. I liked Bradley Gibson as Hercules. He kind of hams up the acting, in a way that could be annoying but screams Disney musical. The costumes and the sets were delightful. The muses really steal the show. I lost count at how many costume changes they had, but every outfit was fabulous. The puppets are also really cool, I wish we got to see more of them. The titans are pretty far back on the stage, but they really should be center stage to showcase their artistry.
 

His Dark Materials (2019-22)

I found His Dark Materials very difficult to follow.  I know the books were written for children but for some reason I just couldn't understand what was happening. Even after 3 seasons, I'm still not sure what the heck dust is. I'm still not sure if Mrs Coulter and Lord Asriel are evil. I don't know why Lyra is so obsessed with Roger when she's got this hunk Will. I chalk it off to the writing. And I found the child actors Dafne Keen and Amir Wilson are very ok. I honestly found them to be kind of annoying. I thought there would be more Lin Manuel Miranda, but he's a pretty minor character. Ruth Wilson is probably the highlight. The subtext of the plot though is fascinating reading about it afterwards. The critique of the Catholic Church is spot on. And I thought the final episode was a stand out. The denouement following the climax of the penultimate episode is quite beautiful. It kind of comes out of left field, but it's a great tie up. The second season was super boring. I nearly stopped watching. And I'm not sure if it was worth finishing but here we are.

Atlanta (2016-22)

This one leaves a pretty large hole in the television landscape. Atlanta was a landmark. It was experimental. It spent whole episodes without a glimpse of our main characters. It pulled stories from real life. It was raucous and poignant. It had something to say about the black experience in America. And then in its penultimate season they go to Europe and speak to the black American experience abroad. It bravely portrayed white people in a way no other show dares to. Its bizarre-ness is explained in its final episode with a not wholly original but brilliantly executed meta sensory deprived dream. It went from a black Justin Bieber to a white Teddy Perkins to a trannsracial man being interviewed on a Charlie Rose type talk show.

Donald Glover can do just about anything and everything. Brian Tyree Henry is now a highly sought after actor, who I apparently saw on stage in Book of Mormon years before Atlanta, and who stole the show in the excellent If Beale Street Could Talk. I think Hiro Murai also gets a lot of credit for the look and dreamlike feel of the show. And I don't know who the music supervisor is, but they're first rate.

The Good Fight (2017-22)

The Kings' spinoff of The Good Wife (a stellar legal drama in its own righht) was the perfect way for CBS to enter the streaming wars. The Kings took a successful show, a formula that worked, and were permitted to experiment with profanity, more taboo teams not allowed on network television, and even animated musical segments. They challenged the censors, and memorably let their audience know CBS censored their satirical song on China in a meta episode about censorship. The Good Fight was the boon we needed in the Trump era. When the world turned tipsy turvy, The Good Fight satirized us by cranking up the absurdity further. It gave us a way to process the craziness around us. They rolled with the punches when the pandemic came around, always the most topical show on television. They brought back their cast of kooky judges and Chicagoland lawyers from The Good Wife, and even elevated Audra McDonald to a leading role. At the black law firm of Reddick & Boseman, we were introduced to many excellent black actors. And they played high powered lawyers! That was unheard of before and I hope those roles continue to be written. Clever and timely, poignant and funny-- though I'm not generally a proponent for TV spinoffs, I always looked forward to The Good Fight.

Straight Line Crazy (The Shed) (2022)

It's my first time to The Shed. Aglaia had the foresight to get Culture Pass tickets for a Wednesday matinee. Tickets sold out fast, even when they released a new block, and they were going for hundreds of dollars. It's a decent sized theater on the sixth floor. The stage juts out into the audience, three-quarters in the round. It's interesting (in that you're really close to the action) but it's sort of unnecessary. It requires them to block the scenes in an awkward way. They move around in circles constantly as they converse so that they're sometimes facing you and sometimes facing away. At the back of the stage, there are some extras that don't really have lines.

There are also some weird narrative choices. Act I centers on Robert Moses's early career building the Northern and Southern State Parkways on Long Island, challenging the unsympathetic landed gentry. Act II focuses on his failed attempt to build a highway through Washington Square Park toward the end of his career. We have Jane Jacobs to thank for his defeat, and she shows up in the play as a rather major character, despite them never having met. In Act I, she interjects with totally unnecessary narration. I actually think all the narration is kind of cheesy. The play would have benefited from ending Act I and Act II at the end of the scene, at the height of the drama, instead of closing with narration. Honestly, we could do without Jane Jacobs altogether. The scenes in Washington Square Park are awkward. The peanut gallery reacts to the protests and public hearings by looking straight at the audience and exclaiming pointlessly. And the play loses momentum whenever Ralph Fiennes isn't on stage. Fiennes is phenomenal as always. His repartee is quick and his posture impeccable. His accent was a little difficult to understand at first but I got used it.

What I do like is that Act I build Moses up. And Act II takes him down. He accomplished a lot in his long career. The play just focuses in on these two key moments and gives the audience both sides of the coin. We are allowed to make our own judgments. What's kind of ironic is that the times have shifted. It has been nearly a hundred years since the events of Act I. Moses believed that cars were the future, and he was right, partially because he built New York that way, and the rest of the country followed suit. But we've now come all the way around to where Manhattan is about to institute congestion pricing. Cars are the enemy now. Unfortunately, thanks to Moses, we're already all-in on cars.