The Book of Mormon: A Raucous Good Time

A few weeks ago, I went to see The Book of Mormon with my boss and her family. That should tell you everything you need to know about my relationship with my boss. This show premiered in 2011 and four years later, I finally saw what all the fuss is about. If you have been dithering about seeing this musical, stop procrastinating and get on over to the Eugene O'Neill Theater.

The show follows Elder Price and Elder Cunningham, young Mormon missionaries who have just completed their training and are eager to get their assignment for their first mission. Price is the over-achieving all-star, the perfect Mormon who has read all the books, knows all the material, and is ready to go forth and proselytize. He is secretly hoping to get posted in his favorite place in the world: Orlando. Cunningham is the weird schlub of the group, the unpopular, ADD kid who is full of enthusiasm, but is a bit of an embarrassment and just can't seem to get it together. So he is delighted when his posting is announced and he has been paired with Elder Price to go to Uganda. Understandably, Price is less than thrilled.

The two of them arrive in Uganda to find a village besieged by murderous army generals and ravaged by AIDS. They meet their fellow missionaries at the Mormon outpost and find a group of men who are depressed about still not having successfully baptized any of the villagers, but who are also adept at earnestly masking their disappointment (and other unacceptable feelings) through some cheery song and dance. Be warned, The Book of Mormon is filled with some of the cheeriest and filthiest songs you will hear on Broadway. You will be humming them to yourself for days but the lyrics are more than a little NSFW.

The show is such a lot of fun that I am loath to go into any more detail about the plot. Suffice to say, there are crises of faith, a lot of religious satire, hilarious twists and turns, and several over-the-top shenanigans and dream sequences that feature the Devil and Hitler, if things weren't wild enough for you. It is a spectacularly silly and wonderful musical, hugely offensive to anyone without a sense of humor, but wildly entertaining otherwise. Written by the creators of South Park, it was never meant to be everyone's cup of tea but if you love satire, profanity, and grand musical numbers, you need to check out The Book of Mormon. If you don't care for such things, all I can say is Hasa Diga.

Paddington: A Cute Comical Caper

Paddington was yet another movie I wanted to watch in theaters but ended up catching on the plane. Based on the books by Michael Bond, this is a quintessentially British movie that will appeal to children and adult Anglophiles. As a member of the latter group (though some might argue I have the the mentality of the former), I thought this was an utterly charming and well-constructed movie that made me immediately long for my teddy bear.

The movie opens in "darkest Peru." An explorer meets two intelligent bears and teaches them how to speak English, drink tea, and appreciate the sticky sweet joys of marmalade. He leaves them with records about common British customs, and promises to take care of them if they ever choose to visit England. Those two bears are Pastuzo and Lucy who end up raising their orphaned nephew, Paddington. When his home is destroyed in an earthquake, Paddington stows away on a boat bound for London and arrives at Paddington Station with a note around his neck asking someone to please give this bear a home. Of course, it is a markedly different time from the Blitz when the English were ready to take care of any strangers they met and the poor bear's prospects look dim. Thankfully, he catches the eye of Mrs. Brown, who insists on taking him home for the night.

The Brown family is comprised of the patriarch, Henry (Hugh Bonneville), his wife, Mary (Sally Hawkins), and their children, Judy (Madeleine Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin). Mary is an adventurous book illustrator, and she is the one who opens her heart to Paddington and insists on taking care of him. Henry is a cynical risk analyst, whose first action after bringing Paddington home is to adjust his insurance policy for bear-related damages (a move that proves cannily prescient). Judy is your typical mopey teenage girl, embarrassed by her mother and now this bear, and just desperate to ignore it all. While Jonathan is a typical young boy, who is frustrated by his father's inability to sanction any childhood activity that could result in injury (i.e. every childhood activity), and is therefore delighted at the prospect of the mayhem and madness that Paddington will introduce into the household. 

The main plot of the movie revolves around the dastardly taxidermist, Millicent (played marvelously by an ice-cold Nicole Kidman), who has a Cruella de Vil-esque plan to capture Paddington and stuff him. Interestingly, she has an actual back story and motivations that make her villainy much more understandable (though still not acceptable) as the movie progresses. And throughout we are treated to some very typical British humor, featuring wry sarcasm, outrageous slapstick gags, and general hapless frustration that can only be solved with a cup of tea and a marmalade sandwich.

I've neglected to mention that while Paddington is rendered through a combination of CGI and animatronics, he is voiced by the brilliant Ben Whishaw, who manages to imbue the bear with a weary innocence and resignation that is dreadfully entertaining and pathetic all at once. The script by Paul King and Hamich McColl is never dull,  and the production design is colorful and fantastic, steeping you in pure Englishness for a solid hour and a half. Director Paul King has created an entertaining and intricate family film that will satisfy fans of the books but also people who have never heard of Paddington before. It is simply impossible not to love this bear and the wacky family that has taken him in. So grab some marmalade and settle in for this charming tale. 

Laggies: Growing up Is Hard to Do

Apologies for leaving the blog so bereft this month but I had to jet off to Dubai for work and haven't had much time to post. However, one of the advantages of the long flight is that I got to watch some movies, including Laggies. This was a movie I randomly noticed in the theatre when I went to see something else; it seemed interesting but it disappeared before I could return to watch it (probably because no one else noticed it). Starring the very interesting pairing of Keira Knightley and Chloe Grace Moretz, this is a slight but sweet story about a woman who just can't seem to get it together and her weird friendship with a teenager that finally gives her some perspective on adulthood.

Knightley plays Megan, a woman in her twenties who is very adrift. She thought she wanted to be a therapist, but in the midst of her training realized this wasn't the life for her. Now she keeps making plans to explore career options and get her life in order, but instead she's just doing a couple of hours' work as a sign spinner outside her father's office and generally being a wastrel. She still hangs out with her high school friends, one of whom, Allison (Ellie Kemper), is getting married and is very frustrated at Megan's inability to act like an adult. Finally, at Allison's wedding, Megan's boyfriend (who was her high school sweetheart) proposes to her, an unexpected leap towards adulthood that jolts her out of her stupor. 

Bewildered by the proposal, she comes up with an excuse that she needs to go attend a career development seminar for a week and takes off. Instead, she ends up crashing with Annika (Moretz), a teenage girl that she met in a supermarket parking lot. Annika lives with her lawyer father, Craig (the charming Sam Rockwell), who is understandably confused when he finds a grown woman having a sleepover with his daughter. However, after talking to Megan, he decides that while she's a little strange and lost, she can certainly be trusted. As Megan goes off on adventures with Annika and has light but ultimately meaningful conversations with Craig, she gradually starts to sort through her life.

Written by Andrea Seigel and directed by Lynn Shelton (naturally it takes a female writer and director to get a movie that passes the Bechdel test), Laggies is one of those movies that is small in scope but has a big heart. You can predict how the story will go, but it is delightful to see how it gets there. Populated by talented and likeable leads, it is a thoroughly enjoyable movie, both funny and frighteningly accurate about how it feels to be going through a quarter-life crisis. Most millennials could probably find something to love about this movie (if you don't relate to Megan, you'll relate to the super put-together Allison), and the way that Annika and her friends talk to each other is much more indicative of the way teens speak than what you'd find on the Disney channel. Despite the bizarre concept, at its core Laggies is a very honest and insightful movie. So seek it out this weekend, because this is a movie that certainly deserves to be seen by many more people. 

Going Clear: Scientology Revealed

Going Clear premiered at the Sundance Film festival in January and created quite the stir. It finally premiered on HBO last Sunday so I could finally see what all the fuss about. With a combination of archival footage, interviews from former church members, and the brilliant investigative work by journalist Lawrence Wright for the novel this movie is based on, director Alex Gibney has created a chilling and searing indictment of this religion that has fascinated people for so many years.

The first half of Going Clear discusses the origins of the religion as devised by science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard. He published Dianetics, the book that would become Scientology's equivalent of the Bible, in 1950, and created a sensation that inspired people across the world to attend workshops and pay scads of money to achieve the various levels of enlightenment described by Hubbard in the book. While he may initially have devised this as a money-making venture, it seems like Hubbard fell for his own fantasies, becoming a megalomaniacal God-like figure who relied on the techniques that he made up to help him with his own mental problems and paranoia. He spent the latter years of his life in hiding, dodging the IRS over their claims of tax evasion, but never failing in his belief and support for this religious cult that he created out of thin air. 

The second half of the movie delves into the new direction taken by the organization, headed by Hubbard's successor, David Miscavige. This is where we get the revelations about John Travolta and Tom Cruise, Scientology's two most important celebrity spokespeople, and the ways in which the church has influenced and/or blackmailed them into supporting their cause. We learn about how a program of intimidation and litigation enabled Scientology to persuade the IRS to give them status as a tax-exempt religious organization. Horrifying tales of abuse and degradation are revealed by former members, all of whom are grossly ashamed of their past promotion of the church and are now keen to do what they can to let the world know what is going on behind Scientology's closed doors. 

Going Clear is a crazy and fascinating film, a meticulously documented piece of investigative work that tells a disturbing story about a highly dysfunctional yet powerful organization. If even 1% of the stories revealed in this documentary are true, the Church of Scientology has some serious explaining to do. Going Clear has created awareness of the issue; it's now up to the world to take notice and do something about it. 

Cinderella: Fantasy Comes to Life

When I was 8, I got a book of ancient Egyptian myths that featured a Cinderella variant called The Girl with the Rose-Red Slippers. There's a reason this story has endured for millennia in various forms among cultures all over the globe. It's a timeless tale with a happily ever after conclusion that could only disappoint if you were an evil stepmother. Now Disney has released a live-action Cinderella based on their classic 1950 animated film, and it proves that you can still never get tired of this story.

This version is incredibly faithful to the animated movie but it makes certain tweaks to lend some plausibility to this fantastical fairytale. Screenwriter Chris Weitz has penned a script that takes away some of the more fanciful and childish bits of the cartoon and focuses on developing these characters. Yes, there's a fairy godmother and a pumpkin that's turned into a carriage, but the actors are delivering much more nuanced performances and are much more grounded than your standard Disney characters. This is not a musical (characters will hum snatches of music from the cartoon but that's about it), and while the mice and other animals are all present, they are merely very well-trained animals, and don't actually start talking to our heroine. 

Lily James plays Cinderella and imbues her with the perfect amount of kindness, awkwardness, and charm. She is not a polished princess, but she is guided by her mother's motto of "Have courage and be kind," which makes her an absolute queen among women. Cate Blanchett does a wonderful job as her wicked stepmother, a woman who is quite dreadful and treats Cinderella abominably. Yet even she has a back story that allows the audience to somewhat understand why she behaves the way she does for the sake of her two spoiled and stupid daughters (played with blithering, entitled perfection by Sophie McShera and Holliday Grainger). And then there's the Prince (affectionately called Kit by his father) who is played by Richard Madden, formerly of Game of Thrones. Here he is given full reign to exercise his charm without fear of another Red Wedding and it isn't too difficult to spot why he and Cinderella have fallen so hard for each other. The two actors have chemistry in spades and it is all quite romantic and splendid.

But the true beauty of this movie lies in the special effects. This is a movie that would have looked appalling ten years ago, but thanks to advances in CGI, all of the magical elements of the story, so easy to render in animated versions, but so challenging to make in a live-action film, have been created with breathtaking beauty. Whether you're watching a mouse turn into a horse, or a pumpkin become a carriage, this is a startlingly fun movie that allows you to suspend your disbelief and just indulge in pure fantasy for an hour and a half. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the spectacular and vibrant costumes by Sandy Powell (complete with those brilliant Swarovski glass slippers) and the sumptuous production design by Dante Ferretti that lends all the authenticity you need to get the audience to truly invest in a fairytale. 

Director Kenneth Branagh has wrangled together the perfect cast and crew to create an earnest and faithful retelling of a classic tale. You admire the heroine for her courage and you never find her kindness too naive or cloying. The Prince is dealing with the weight of family obligations but it is clear that he too is kind and courageous and deserving of Cinderella's love. The ultimate point of the movie seems to be that kindness and bravery are what matter, and while magic may have helped her a little, Cinderella would have always found her prince. Glass slippers and pumpkin carriages are fine things, but in the end, the reason we keep returning to this story is because we all just love a happy ending, no matter how we get there.