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Downtown SLC Opens Up for Open Streets
The Blocks SLC has come up with a new way to socialize outside to last us the fall, and it smacks of friendly and familiar downtown traditions like Gallery Stroll.
Kajillionaire, The Last Shift, Shortcut, Oliver Sacks: His Own Life and more
The Artist’s Wife **1/2
“Spouse of a great man” dramas are kind of their own sub-genre—most recently in 2018’s Glenn Close/Jonathan Pryce vehicle The Wife—and co-writer/director Tom Dolby finds himself falling into some familiar patterns here. The titular subject is Claire Smythson (Lena Olin), wife of celebrated painter Richard Smythson (Bruce Dern), who is preparing for a new exhibition after a long period of inactivity.
A Helluva Lot of Strings at Salty Cricket
The Urban Arts Alliance and Salty Cricket are teaming up for a show-stopping night of strings on strings on strings, with a performance by the Tribeca Ensemble.
Antebellum, The Devil All the Time, The Secrets We Keep and more
All In: The Fight for Democracy **1/2
The political documentaries of our moment continue to be frustrating in both the depressing realities they’re trying to combat, and the strident sameness of the way in which they’re trying. The specific subject at hand for directors Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés is voter suppression—both as a tactic with a long history in America, and as a specific case focused on the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race, where Republican nominee and then-Secretary of State in charge of elections stacked the deck against Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams.
The Broken Hearts Gallery, Rent-a-Pal, Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President and more
The Broken Hearts Gallery **1/2
Geraldine Viswanathan deserves lead roles, many of them, in every possible kind of comedy—and she also deserves a little bit better than this kind of a rote rom-com. Writer/director Natalie Krinsky (a one-time Gossip Girl writer) casts Viswanathan as Lucy, a romantic New Yorker with a penchant for saving way too many trinkets from her failed relationships.
Radio Retrograde plays Excellence in the Community, plus Jazz at the Station
The Excellence in the Community concert series is bringing another great local act to the fore with this week’s sessions with Radio Retrograde, a jazzy trio that does covers like no other around.
The plight of the entertainment industry has been much overlooked in recent months, and owners of venues, booking companies, labels and more are struggling to see where their future lands in a pandemic that seems to have no end in sight.
Tenet, Mulan, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Critical Thinking and more
The Argument **
As a high-concept, it sounds a little like Groundhog Fight: After a particularly awkward cocktail party that ends in a blowup, actress Lisa (Emma Bell) and her writer boyfriend Jack (Dan Fogler) decide to re-stage the occasion multiple times, in an attempt to prove definitively who was to blame. That’s an interesting idea for exploring the pettiness that can erode the foundations of a relationship—except that director Robert Schwartzman and screenwriter Zac Stanford don’t seem particularly interested in digging into that territory.
Perhaps only once the closing credits begin to roll in the live-action telling of Mulan does it really come into focus what this story means. As Cristina Aguilera belts the new theme song “Loyal Brave True,” those credits begin to unfold with a stylized flourish of unfurling banners, and our narrative’s heroine, Hua Mulan (Yifei Liu), wielding her sword.
