Shows of 2025

No movie will ever capture the feeling of seeing it on stage. The amazing staging, costumes, and orchestration were a powerful backdrop for a fantastic cast. It was heart breaking to see a story of refugees and a community destroyed by politcs of hate being reflected 120 years after the pogroms to a world that looks shockingly similar.

Lucille Ball is a quick witted dame with a New York edge, hunting for a serial killer in between war Britain. The stars are big, but the movie feels like a small play. It never rises to the thrills or suspense of other noirs, nor the comedy of Lucy. It sits in a pleasent in-between with witty lines, Lucy's knowing looks, and a cast of obvious characters. It is novel to see Lucille Ball play for drama, but otherwise it is one of many small productions from that time.

Shakespeare in the Square kicked off the London summer with pinics, bubbles, songs, and another play by the timeless bard. This year's Taming of the Shew delighted with their casual settings and engaing performances. SitS interleaves modern songs and dress to lighten the dense language and imagery of the words. The performers play to the crowds and bring along everyone from children giggling at the silliness of adults to classic afficianados. It is one of the gems of London to catch one of their shows. A new location each performance, hosted by private squares that would normally be offlimits and out of view.

Choices were made. Did they make sense? No. Were the gorgeous and fun to watch? Yes!

Instead of giving us another John Wick movie, the franchise went for a fresh story set in the same world. John Wick suffered from each movie having to one up the previous to the point of preposterousness. This side quest allowed for just as ridiculously over the top action, without having to watch Keanu fight his wave up a staircase of assasines, twice! But we did have a flamethrower battle, icepick ninjas, and death by skates that would have left Tanya Harding jealous.

This movie has long been staple of the LA midnight movie scene, but difficult to get copies of it to watch until an official version was made available for download and streamiling. So I was excited to check out what for so long was just an insane poster. Well, it was worth the wait. Fair warning, to say that the film is offensive is a massive understatement. It starts out with blackface and just goes downhill from there. It is full of student film / art house / Warhol Factory vibes. It is intenionally low production and vulgar, yet full of sophistication. It is hard to tell where it is simply offensive and where it is a self-referential joke mocking the audience's reactions. There is no plot that I can describe. The acting and dialogue is intentionally terrible. There are boobs all over the place for no intelligable reason. But there is also painstacking animation and set design. There are throw awar segments that represent hours if not months of painstakcing manual labor. All of this was done with volinteers and imagination and no special effects of CGI. You can see the early visual language and music of what would become familiar in future Elfman works. Is it genius? Yes. Is it good? No.

Rosalind Russell's fast talking dame pops out every now and again, but she showcases a more fragile and timid version of herself. It. has great supporting actors and solid noir direction. The plot lakes punch, but the cat and mouse game of suspense kept me engaged. In the end, you wonder what really got to her? Was it her guilt? Or her need for her audience to know who well she had acted?

I'll admit it, between the poster and the cast list, I was suckered into watching this premium-eque Disney Direct to DVD knock-off.

This movie has every cliche deployed in a cloyingly terrible melange of banality. Nothing is good; from costumes, to plot, to the child actors, to Charlize Theron's fright wig. There is a love story, a make over reveal, multiple montages, an ugly duckling, a fish out of water, school bullies, and even a battle at the school dance. Oh, and don't forget a ending that would make the orginal Neverending Story seem edgy. Yuck!

Boon Joon Ho delivers another darkly comic satire that hits too close to home and seems just a little to bit topical. A pretty blatent, and not innacruate, apparsial of celebrity worship and late stage capitalism; where the ultimate goal is to forever make things cheaper and faster. We finally made earth and even humans disposable. Yet, instead of a paradise of cheap goods, we see a world of universal suffering and acceptance of their fate. In gray suits, people eat gray food, and fly though space in a grey box, so they can start anew on a barren ice world. Like Snowpiercer, this dystopia has a class system that is revealed through out the movie.

Ho's genius to show a complete unrealistic world and populate it with real world idosyncrancies that make the unrealness seem mundanly familiar; from the bored office workers to the loading of the feeding tray for the "human printer."

I was distracted by the aliens, which seems more like something from a Disney cartoon than a dystopian reality. But that is my one small complaint.

Another four person play at the King's Head. All the actors were strong. The staging while minimal effectivly transported you to various economically.

The plot and story moved at an uneven pace, moving tectonically slowly at times only jerk forwards like an earthquake. The effect might have been intentionally, but kept the audience unbalanced. You are lulled into quite scenes to have the world jerk.

The plot wrapped up in a rather rushed an unsatisfactory ending, that felt more like an exhale after not realizing you had been holding your breath for so long. But finding room to breath was kind of the feeling of the show.

Nothing could come between Jack and Rose, except this French Canadian's drunk history style first hand account of what really happened. 6 people stomp around, sing, dance, change costumes; all to the deleriously derranged narration of one Celine Dion. That is until an iceberg in the guise of Tina Turner ruins it all.

From book, to musical, to screen; another blockbuster franchise makes the leap. It was nice that they cast actual signers in the key roles, not so much with Michelle Yoeh and Jeff Blum who speak-talk their way through the songs. It is a visual feast with customers and practical and special effects to dazzle but not so overdone as to look cheesey or distract from the movie. Think how technicolor was used in the original Wizard of Oz. Like the musical that is the source, the movie has uneven pacing and jumps between dragging and lurching. Cynthia is fantastic. Ariana's high pitch comes at the cost of being able to understand her some of the times.

How is something so slow, so tense? This movie is pure Oscar bait with plot, names, and cinematography. The camera lingers on moments both grand a small to draw the viewer into the dochotomy between the holy and spiritual world populated by small and very flawed men. Isabella Rosalini is the only women with a speaking role, while many other women are on screen; highlighting the narrowness of the Vatican's world.

Nothing says success like repackaging a well-known property. Elton John and Vanessa Williams deliver music and bops. The cast all have voices that can belt you into the stratosphere. Andy clearly is cribbing her whole performance from Anne Hathaway. The musical makes her boyfriend more sympathetic and her much less so. But other than a few small tweaks, you are watching a scene -by -scene, line -by -line retelling. Obviously, this is fan service to the hot polo. I would have loved to see a version where Andy doesn't even talk. What if it was all the other characters reacting to her, each showing their impressions. As the musical goes on, their versions of Andy should get more extreme to follow her metamorphosis.