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Rethinking the idea that the darkest possible version of the character is best
If you follow the world of movies and television at all, you’re certainly familiar with the concept of the “gritty reboot.” It’s become something of a cliché in recent years, this notion that the way to get some pop-culture product taken seriously is to give it a darker sheen, full of psychological depth and angst. This is how we end up with a Kristen Stewart doing a gritty reboot of Snow White, or Man of Steel’s gritty reboot of Superman, or gritty Archie and Veronica on Riverdale, and so on and so forth.
Provo venue showcases female artists for February festival
This weekend musical calendar will highlight the concluding shows of the seven-night Les Femmes De Velour music series—at, naturally, Velour Live Music Gallery (135 N. University Ave., Provo).
Cyrano, The Desperate Hour, No Exit, Oscar-Nominated Short Films and more
2022 Oscar Nominated Short Films – Animated ***1/2
Though narrative components can certainly be a significant part of animated shorts, this impressive collection of nominees emphasizes the spark of visual artistry that’s possible when not one of them employs now-ubiquitous CGI.
Two compelling productions challenge the idea of safe spaces, even for the audience
There are times when art comforts you, and times when it very specifically sets out to make you uncomfortable. Those latter occasions can be challenging for audiences, but two local theatrical productions prove that sometimes the best way to take on a complex issue is to put the viewer a little bit on edge.
Uncharted, Dog, The Worst Person in the World, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and more
A Banquet ***
How do you deal with a horror film where every part of the build-up seems to be working, but you can’t fully make sense of the payoff? That’s the complicated question arising from this tale of a woman named Holly (Sienna Guillory) trying to maintain normalcy for her two teen daughters, Betsey (Jessica Alexander) and Isabelle (Ruby Stokes), after the death of her husband.
For 10 years, Esther Rose called New Orleans home. And even a quick look at the video documentation of the singer-songwriter’s time there shows how immersed she was in that city’s music culture.
Marry Me, I Want You Back, Death on the Nile, Blacklight, Kimi and more
Blacklight **
We could quibble over precisely how many of Liam Neeson’s roles over the past decade constitute him going back to the “very particular set of skills”/grizzled-badass routine, but suffice it to say that it’s a lot, and it grows increasingly difficult to tell them apart. Here he reunites with Honest Thief director Mark Williams to play Travis Block, who’s spent a couple of decades as a kind of personal fixer for the FBI director (Aidan Quinn), extracting deep-cover agents from assignments-gone-sideways.
Grateful Dead-centric band plays Commonwealth Room tonight
As the Grateful Dead-centric Dark Star Orchestra arrives in Salt Lake City for an 8 p.m. gig at the
Commonwealth Room this evening, it’ll do so having played with giants of the genre this past
weekend in San Francisco. On the first of two evenings at the Warfield Theatre, they enjoyed an
acoustic set with Peter Rowan, a bluegrass legend, singer/songwriter known for works with the
Dead-adjacent New Riders of the Purple Sage, and former bandmate of the Dead’s Jerry Garica
in the short-lived Old & In The Way.
Jackass Forever **1/2
Depending on which individual segment you’re watching in the latest Jackass feature, ringmaster Johnny Knoxville’s hair is either dyed, or naturally grey, which kind of feels like a metaphor for what an odd experience this is—watching a bunch of 50-year-old guys still treating their bodies like they did when they were 30-year-old guys. While a few new faces have been added to this latest parade of mayhem, the base group of Knoxville, Steve-O, Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Ehren McGhehey et al. still take the brunt of the punishment, which still falls into three basic categories: people being catapulted into the air; people threatened by dangerous animals; and people—well, dudes, specifically—getting their junk pummeled.
