Therese Raquin: Hauntingly Beautiful

After watching Old Times, I was officially bitten by the theatre bug and raced back to Broadway to watch yet another Roundabout Theatre Company production. This time around, the play was Therese Raquin, starring Keira Knightley in her Broadway debut. It was a mesmerizing two and a half hours of theatre.

Adapted by Helen Edmundson from a novel by Emile Zola, the play tells the story of Therese Raquin (Keira Knightley), a young woman who has been raised by her aunt in a small French village and is pressured into marrying her cousin Camille (Gabriel Ebert) at the age of twenty-one. Camille is a sickly, whiny man-child, who has been coddled by his mother (Judith Light) and has no great affection for Therese so their marriage is a mostly perfunctory affair. Camille then decides that he is being stifled by life in this village, so he abruptly moves the family to Paris. Therese is brokenhearted to leave the natural beauty of her surroundings to live in a cramped dingy apartment in the city. Her life seems increasingly desperate, until one day, Camille brings home Laurent (Matt Ryan), an old friend from the village who happens to be working at the same firm in Paris. And he changes Therese's life. 

The play is utterly fascinating. It captures the circular evolution of Therese from a desperate, unhappy woman to a happy, passionate woman back to a desperate, unhappy woman, because that's how French literature goes. As Laurent and Therese attempt to secure their happiness forever, they embark on a doomed journey that will bring them terror and misery. The play has many romantic and funny moments in the first half. But don't expect any giggles in the second half. Let's just say that things take a decided turn for the macabre after the intermission. 

The actors all deliver remarkable performances that keep you invested in these characters till the bitter end. Judith Light is wonderful as Madame Raquin, a well-meaning woman who lets her son walk all over her and has no idea what resentment she has bred in Therese. Matt Ryan and Camille Ebert are superb as the two men in Therese's life, one adored and one despised. And Keira Knightley is unsurprisingly magnificent, convincing you to root for Therese every step of the way despite her increasingly poor decisions.

Putting aside the engaging plot and performances however, we must discuss the extraordinary set design by Beowulf Boritt. Because so much of the play takes place on the banks of the Seine, half the stage contains a river flowing through it. At first you think, "Oh that's a nice special effect," and then you realize, "Oh wait, that's real water on the stage." At one point, people actually go sailing on a rowboat on this stage river - it's one of the most impressive things I've seen.

Directed by Evan Cabnet, Therese Raquin is a must-see production that hits it out of the park on all fronts. Whether you're interested in a good story, great acting, or jawdroppingly amazing set design, this play has you covered. So head on down to Studio 54 and indulge your soul. This is a piece of Broadway brilliance that you cannot afford to miss. 

Spectre: Bond's Past, Present, and Future

The thing I love about the recent spate of Bond movies is that it features women I can actually respect. No simpering Bond girls here; instead it's a parade of women who can hold their own against 007 and give as good as they get. I am well aware that this is far from being the point of a Bond film, and based on some reviews, many men were grossly disappointed in Spectre because it didn't feature as much action or plot as they would like. But as far as I'm concerned, Spectre has everything I want in a Bond movie. Action, gadgets, romance, betrayal, and Daniel Craig.

Spectre serves as the culmination of the three movies that preceded it, and Bond is wrapping things up after the events of Skyfall. The villain he faces this time around, Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), is the head of the shadowy crime organization Spectre and has a mysterious connection to James's past. The two men are heading for a final showdown in the movie's third act, but along the way James has a brief dalliance with Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci) and then meets Dr. Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), who might be the woman he has needed ever since Vesper's death in Casino Royale (spoiler alert!). Back home in London, MI6 is being undermined by new management, thanks to the zealous Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), who thinks drones and government surveillance solve everything and the 007 program is an antiquated notion. James certainly has his work cut out for him.

Every actor is delivering a pitch perfect performance and this is a quintessential Bond movie. Daniel Craig goes through the film with the right amount of brute force and cool elegance as he engages in action sequences that are epic in scope and satisfactorily death defying. M (Ralph Fiennes) is constantly snipping at and protecting Bond, Q (Ben Whishaw) exasperatedly provides help and tries to withhold his precious gadgets and cars from James's destructive grasp, and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) grudgingly has to save Bond's life as per usual while trying to have a life of her own. Lea Seydoux gives Madeleine Swann the right amount of vulnerability and self-possession to make her the perfect romantic foil and partner in crime for our hero. And Christoph Waltz is the ideal Bond villain, complete with a furry white cat, who delivers idiotic pronouncements with the required gravitas and manages to push all of James's buttons while ensuring his own destruction. 

Spectre might be Daniel Craig's swan song. While I would never object to him returning for about a dozen more Bond films, with this movie it seems like he has completed the arc of this particular iteration of 007 and it's now time for someone else to grab the reins. This movie featured all the old school Bond tropes but with updated modern characters who didn't feel like tired caricatures. If Craig doesn't return, I can only hope the franchise continues to feature a Bond who isn't afraid to get tangled up with powerful women and serve Her Majesty's Secret Service in as charmingly disrespectful a manner as possible. 

Beasts of No Nation: The Casualties of War

Beasts of No Nation (based on the novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala) is a story about a young African boy who is caught up in a war and becomes a child soldier. Therefore, it is not an easy film to watch. However, it is a beautiful and powerful film to watch, anchored by brilliant performances from its lead actors and featuring the always stunning cinematography and vision of director, Cary Joji Fukunaga.

Abraham Attah stars as Agu, a young boy who lives with his family in a small West African village. As the war makes its way to their borders, they make plans to flee to the capital. Agu's mother leaves with his younger siblings, leaving him behind with his older brother, father, and grandfather. Unfortunately, it is too late for the men to escape. Agu is forced to flee while his male relatives are all shot by the army and he is discovered in the bush by the rebel Native Defense Force. They first threaten to kill him, but once they discover his backstory, they enlist him as a child soldier, someone who would be willing to enact his vengeance against the army that killed his family.

The NDF is led by the Commandant (Idris Elba), a charismatic and fierce battalion leader who believes in barbarically initiating his new recruits and setting them upon the road to bloody violence. Throughout the movie we get Agu's voiceover, a reminder that this is a mere child who has been trapped into committing horrific atrocities. Despite the murders he commits and the horrors he witnesses, he never becomes inured to this life, always praying that he will be reunited with his mother, but despairing of what she will think of a son who has committed so many sins.

Attah offers a magnificent performance, ensuring that Agu retains a veneer of childish innocence despite the increasingly horrific acts that he is subjected to. Elba is terribly wonderful, ensuring you never feel an iota of sympathy for the Commandant but still feel the force of the magnetism that has charmed so many men into following in his brutal wake. Written, directed, and shot by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the movie is surprisingly beautiful despite the brutality it depicts. And perhaps that's the point; that in this ethereal and lush setting, so much destruction and malice is being wrought by human beings.

Beasts of No Nation shines a light upon the many horrors of war but is particularly concerned with the tragedy of child soldiers. These young boys lose their families and their childhoods, and the physical and psychological trauma they undergo is unimaginable. While the movie and the novel might be fictional, the circumstances they portray are very much a reality of wars that are currently taking place across the world. This movie is not interested in portraying war as a rah-rah Hollywood fantasy being fought by brave young men who volunteered for combat. It shows us what war truly is: a ruthless, relentless, foolish act of hubris that destroys the beauty of the world. 

Bad Feminist: Striving for More

If you think I would instantly want to read a book titled Bad Feminist, you would be right. This collection of essays by Roxane Gay is wonderfully insightful, featuring witty and angry observations about the current state of women in the world, who have come so far yet have so much further to go.

The book begins with an introduction about how feminism can be a lot of things. What is isn't though, is a bad word. Feminism is not a movement to be disavowed and sneered at. It has its flaws but its aims are noble, and women who eschew feminism while partaking of its benefits are kidding themselves. Then follow a few essays about the writer herself, a black woman and a professor, a woman who would see the staggering poverty in Haiti during family trips and is aware that despite the racism she has faced in the United States, she is still living with an enormous amount of privilege in comparison to others. Again, privilege is not a bad word, but a misunderstood one that puts many people on the defensive. Right off the bat, Gay wants you to own that you are a feminist and you have privilege, in some shape or form. Once you're OK with that, we are ready to proceed.

There is a section on Gender & Sexuality that commences with a wonderful essay entitled "How to Be Friends with Another Woman." If you insist on being a woman who won't read a book called Bad Feminist, at least read this one essay. It is a delightful melange of hilarity and wisdom that breaks down the sisterhood and the fact that women can be awful to one another. But in the end, we all need to engage in a little soul-searching and put some work into our female friendships. The rules of these friendships are complicated - for example, Gay advises you to "tell your friends the hard truths they need to hear." But this is quickly followed by, "don't be totally rude about truth telling, and consider how much truth is actually needed to get the job done. Finesse goes a long way."

There is a marvelous section on Race & Entertainment that looks at movies by and about black people and both the faults and merits of films like The Help, Fruitvale Station, or everything by Tyler Perry. The section on Politics, Gender & Race looks at the debate on reproductive freedom (seriously why is this still a debate?), the merits of social media versus ordinary journalism, and the way that racial profiling plays into the narrative whenever something terrible happens in the world. There are several essays about sexual violence, including the author's own personal experiences, and an indictment of the flippant way society treats such occurrences, which makes young women think they are worthless and deserving of such acts.

The essays in Bad Feminist range from funny to heartbreaking. One minute you could be reading a hilarious story about the intensely competitive word of Scrabble, and the next minute Gay is begging young women to stop letting Chris Brown beat them. Gay is very clear that this is her view on the world, it doesn't have to be yours. But a lot of what she has to say is important, well-articulated, and perfectly reasonable. Oftentimes, she can see both sides of every issue, but she will stand on the side that she has chosen because of her personal background and beliefs. It might not tally with your stance, but you can still respect it. And the final sentences of the book summarize the core thesis that should resonate with everyone, male or female: "I am a bad feminist. I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all."