O (EQUALITY) PIONEERS

In honor of marriage equality, and spurred on by the current Cabrillo Stage production of La Cage aux Folles,  I thought it would be fun to celebrate the (brief) history of same-sex domestic partnerships in the movies.

Not  passionate gay relationships; there are plenty worthy examples of those, the best being Brokeback Mountain. Longtime commitment is definitely a major factor in that relationship, but it's never domestic. In fact, the characters have to create faux domestic relationships with other people—wives—to conceal their clandestine romance with each other. And I was trying to avoid the self-loathing gay stereotypes of a movie like Staircase, in 1969, where Rex Harrison and Richard Burton struggle to act fruity and waspish, as a long-together couple who basically hate each other.

My criteria is positive images of gay partnerships and here, in ascending order, are my faves:

At # 4, a nod to the original French film, La Cage Aux Folles, which was adapted by screenwriter Jean Poiret from his own stage play. The lead couple are still very much in the gay comic stereotype mode (it was 1978, after all), as dapper and fastidious club owner, Renato (Ugo Tognazzi) labors valiantly to keep his flighty, flamboyant drag queen partner, Albin (Michel Serrault), more or less tethered to terra firma.

What was groundbreaking was the depiction of this couple in a long-term domestic relationship not only based unabashedly on love, but in which they had also raised a child together. Quelle horreur! And yet, (amazingly, perhaps, to the general public of the day), the young man has not only suffered no ill effects from this arrangement with the unorthodox parental units he loves, he's planning to marry a woman.

Waltzing in at #3 is My Best friend's Wedding. It's 20 years after La Cage; still, Rupert Everett's partner does not have a speaking part in the movie. He's never even seen, except in the background at dinner parties with friends from which Everett is constantly being called away to the phone to deal with best pal Julia Roberts' neurotic crises. But a clever arrangement of photographs shows the partners and their loved ones in a variety of perfectly ordinary domestic scenes and family events.

And why, exactly, is Roberts heaping all of her problems at his feet? Not simply because he's the best-looking man in the movie (fat lot of good it does her), or clearly the best dancer, but because Everett's character is stable, sensible, and way more experienced in domesticity. He, unlike Roberts, knows what's involved in a committed, long-term relationship, and is the voice of reason throughout, even as she tries to wreck other lives to get her own romantic way.

Antonio Banderas has more screen time as the lover/partner of Tom Hanks' terminal AIDS patient hero in my #2 pick, Philadelphia. True, their physical relationship is mostly kept offscreen, except for a romantic slow dance together at a costume party. But his character is a presence throughout this 1993 film, not only as lover and loyal caregiver, but also a source on incipient, highly relatable domestic friction when the stress occasionally becomes too much.

In the accepting world of Philadelphia, both Hanks and Banderas are beloved by Hanks' large extended family of cousins, nieces, nephews, and siblings, beginning with his indomitable mother, played by the great Joanne Woodward. This love-feast of tolerance may seem a trifle idealized, but it's all in keeping with director Jonathan Demme's subversive agenda of presenting gay couples and their families as, you know, just like everybody else.

 And finally, my vote for the best domestic partnerships in the movies (to date) goes to The Kids Are Alright. The sublime Annette Bening and Julianne Moore star as a devoted, long-married couple raising their two kids in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Their family has its quirks, but the kids respect their parents, each other, and themselves.

That this movie is NOT about the fact that they are a lesbian couple is just one of the things that make Lisa Cholodenko's comedy so fresh, fun, and appealing; you could substitute a straight, hetero couple into the plot and the story would play out exactly the same way. It's not a "lesbian comedy," it's a family comedy that resonates with everyone.

I was trying to go for a Top Five list, but these are the only qualifying examples I could think of. I'm sure I'm forgetting something obvious, or maybe there are other contenders out there in movies I haven't seen. If you have any suggestions, let me know, and I'll post an update.

RIPPING

Hugh Jackman pops out the adamantium claws once again in The Wolverine, a punchy action adventure that successfully revitalizes our favorite X-mutant as franchise material (after the debacle of X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

It works because director James Mangold and scriptwriters Mark Bomback and Scott Frank stick close to the tormented psyche of Jackman's brooding Logan as he copes with everlasting life and unsettling dream appearances by deceased lover Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), while coming to terms with his responsibility to the world. Stunts and CGI effects, while often impressive, are secondary to the human story.

The setting is modern-day Japan, where Logan has been summoned to the deathbed of a powerful tycoon whose life he once saved. (This follows a prologue set in a Nagasaki POW camp at the end of WWII, a pretty nifty sequence except for an unusually benign atomic bomb which takes its time wafting over the hills toward the camp instead of incinerating everything in sight on contact.)

Anyway. Before long, Logan is in the middle of a war between Yakuza mobsters, Ninja assassins, and the evil schemes of a sexy mutant called Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova).

His slowly simmering romance with the tycoon's granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto), falls a bit flat, if only because we keep rooting for him to hook up with plucky, pink-haired warrior girl Yukio (Rila Fukushima) instead.

But the fact that time is spared for Logan to develop a romance with anybody is a plus in a summer action blockbuster. On the other hand, Jackman is such a personable and charismatic guy, onscreen and off (yes, even as Wolverine), it's too bad they don't give him better dialogue throughout—especially when delivering a coup-de-grace to some villain. ("Go f**k yourself, pretty boy," lacks a little something in flair; it's not exactly in the same league as, say, "Make my day.")

Still the action is fairly inventive, from a fight atop a speeding bullet train to self-inflicted open heart surgery. The central premise of whether Logan would give up his immortality as Wolverine for a "normal" life and the promise of eventual death—and if so, on what terms—is compelling, and Jackman still has presence enough to make us care.

LOVE MATCH

Fred Arsenault and Gretchen Hall

Laughter and love reign in gorgeous SSC 'Taming of the Shrew'

Shakespeare Santa Cruz launches its 2013 season with a crowd-pleasing, often uproarious production of The Taming of the Shrew. The company has a newly rebuilt and reconfigured performance space to show off in the Sinsheimer/Stanley Festival Glen (although to the lay viewer, nothing appears to be radically altered), and they inaugurate it in style with this visually gorgeous production.

Lively incidental music and B. Modern's lavish costumes evoke the Renaissance, while the action flows gracefully across Michael Ganio's formidable, multi-tiered set, and all around the Glen. It's a splendid setting for one of Shakespeare's brightest, yet most misunderstood romantic comedies.

Director Edward Morgan wisely keeps the emphasis on laughter (literally; every character has his own distinctive chuckle), so that the lusty romantic coupling at the play's core sneaks up on the audience by stealth, then explodes in all its heartfelt complexity.

Hortensio (William Ellsman) woos Bianca (Victoria Nassif)

Things get going with the arrival of fussbudgety Hortensio (the hilarious William Elsman) and elderly Gremio (an irascibly funny Kit Wilder), two wealthy suitors to pretty young Bianca (Victoria Nassif). But her doting father, Baptista (the wonderful V Craig Heidenreich, who always manages to coax four or five insinuating syllables out of his daughter's name), has decreed that Bianca cannot wed until her elder sister, Katherine (Gretchen Hall) finds a husband.

Katherine, underappreciated by a father who clearly prefers her sister, and too smart to suffer fools gladly or curb her sarcasm, is ill-tempered most of the time, and the dynamic Hall shows us every atom of her frustration.

But Bianca's suitors collude with Petruchio (Fred Arsenault, suitably robust and witty), a rough-hewn, outspoken knight from Verona, to woo Katharine.

The play is often considered problematic, chiefly by those who interpret the words "taming" and "shrew" too literally. Kate is profoundly unhappy in her home life and unable to escape it by any other means than marriage. Petruchio is an eccentric drawn to an unconventional spirit equal to his own. He's not trying to break her spirit, nor demanding Kate's blind obedience to a capricious master; rather, he is asking her to trust him in maneuvering around social conventions to create an extraordinary life together.

In an effective production like this one, Kate's final speech resonates because we understand the complicity between the two of them—to rise up together above the mundane conventions of their society and live on their own terms. Their partnership is not a "taming," it's a liberation—for both of them. We get that here when Arsenault's jaunty Petruchio reacts to Kate's speech not with a victor's smugness, but with astonished awe. His Kate has outwitted them all, and we see in their final embrace the birth of a genuine love match that warms the audience all the way home. (Read more)

ON TARGET

Fear trumps reason in complex Danish drama 'The Hunt'

A child's remark brings lives to the brink of ruin in Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg's complex drama The Hunt. The story takes shape in the treacherous and fascinating twilight zone between acute moral responsibility and witch-hunting. Not a lot happens in the narrative except ordinary people going about their daily routines—talking, laughing, drinking, making love, going to work—but because the focus is on the ever-unpredictable vagaries of human nature, the film plays like a compelling, edge-of-your-seat thriller.

Although Vinterberg (Celebration) is a founding member of the ill-advised Dogma school of Danish filmmaking, The Hunt is mercifully unburdened by shaky hand-held camera work or attempted real-time narrative constraints. It flows over time and place at its own pace, like a normal movie, and is so much stronger because of it.

 It takes place in a small, contemporary Danish suburb on the edge of a forest, where the men of the town initiate their sons into manhood during the annual deer hunt, as their families have done for generations.

The great Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen gives a performance of astonishing force and subtlety as protagonist Lucas. Completely integrated into the life of the town, yet somewhat apart, Lucas is divorced and lives alone; his adored teenage son lives elsewhere, with Lucas' prickly ex-wife. (In a wry running gag, Lucas' loyal dog barks like crazy if anyone mentions the name of his ex.)

One day, a child says something vague to the principal of the kindergarten where Lucas works, that makes her think something inappropriate has happened. Vinterberg shows with scalpel-like precision how fear and misinformation spread like a contagion throughout the town, infecting everyone. (Read more)

UNCAGED

Dance, diversity shine in Cabrillo Stage's fizzy, if uneven 'La Cage aux Folles'

In celebration of the end of DOMA, and the repeal of Prop 8, Cabrillo Stage launches its 2013 summer musical season with a lavish, light-hearted production of La Cage aux Folles. Based on the groundbreaking 1978 French film comedy, one of the earliest depictions in modern pop culture of a sympathetic gay couple in a long-term domestic relationship, the show was first produced in 1983 with a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by the legendary Jerry Herman.

The Cabrillo production is directed and choreographed by CS veteran Janie Scott for maximum crowd-pleasing. The story is set in and around a popular drag nightclub in St. Tropez in the south of France, so there's plenty of opportunity for big, elaborate dance numbers, which is where this production shines. Some other aspects of the production can be a bit uneven, but as long as the eight-man (plus one anatomically correct female) troupe of chorus "girls," called Les Cagelles, are onstage, the show is great fizzy fun.

On the French Riviera sits the famed nightclub, La Cage aux Folles. It's owner/proprietor and emcee is Georges (dapper Curt Denham, who has a great singing voice and an easy, affable onstage presence), whose longtime companion is the club's star attraction, Albin, performing under the stage name, Zaza (Tony Panighetti, in a game, heartfelt performance). Suave Georges and the more flamboyant Albin have been together for 20-plus years, and are well known and loved in their community.

The plot involves the impending marriage of Georges' 24-year-old son (by a youthful, one-night indiscretion) who desperately wants the couple who raised him to act "normal" for one day to meet his fiancee's right-wing, bigoted parents. Fortunately. this plot doesn't interfere much with the entertaining production numbers onstage at the club, especially in the show's more dynamic first half.

Sammy Lopez makes a fun, campy feast out of the role of houseboy and wannabe showgirl Jacob. But the play's trump card is its portrait of tender affection between an aging couple who have been together for a long time. The touching relationship between Georges and Albin is the foundation from which this lively production takes flight. (Read more)

FRIENDLY SKIES

Almodóvar turns airborne disaster into frothy comedy in 'I'm So Excited'

Who else but Pedro Almodóvar could take a standard disaster movie premise and turn it into a frothy, candy-colored comedy? But the merry Mexican maestro carries it off with delicious, subversive aplomb in his new film, I'm So Excited, which dares to ask the question: how would you choose to live your last hour of life?

In the Almodóvar universe, the answer involves cocktails, plenty of sex, and a disco beat.

There has always been a fine line between farce and melodrama, in Almodóvar's films, where reckless human passions intersect in unexpected, often ironic ways. But while Excited has one of his more dire set-ups—a commercial airliner bound from Spain to Mexico City experiences equipment failure as the flight crew searches for a place to make an emergency landing—this is a return to pure comedy for the filmmaker.

Cecilia Roth

Sure, sex, drugs, murder, and betrayal figure in the entwining stories that make up the plot, but the mood is light, even boisterous throughout.

Chief Steward Jossera (Javier Cámara), and his First Class cabin crew (Raúl Arévalo  and Carlos Areces) serve as both a bawdy Greek chorus of observers and the eye of the storm, a zany trio mixing vats of mescaline-laced mimosas and kibitzing as the other passengers' stories unfold.

Almodóvar selected his cast mostly from his stock company of recurring players, in what must have been a party for all involved. The fabulous Cecilia Roth makes her seventh appearance with the filmmaker (she was in his very first feature, back in 1980).

Cámara starred as the compassionate orderly in Almodóvar's brilliant Talk To Her.

The dialogue is fast and funny even as the situation deteriorates. In the comic centerpiece, the three stewards perform a perfectly choreographed lip-synch routine to the Pointer Sisters tune that gives the film its title—complete with aerial shots a la Busby Berkeley. (Read more)

Raúl Arévalo,  Carlos Areces and Javier Cámara are SO excited!

BLOOD SISTERS

'Byzantium' a lush, eerie, feminist vampire tale

In his varied career, Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan has shown a particular gift for weaving eerie folklore and fairy tale sensibilities in and out of so-called "real" life.

So to call his new film, Byzantium, a mere "vampire movie" doesn't begin to suggest the lush and disturbing depths and subtle textures of this provocative and atmospheric tale.

Told from a refreshingly female perspective, with a time-traveling narrative and a rich subtext about storytelling and its consequences, it revitalizes the notion of what a vampire movie can be.

Byzantium was scripted by Moira Buffini (Tamara Drewe), based on her stage play A Vampire Story. (She claims it was inspired—very loosely—by the Victorian Gothic story, "Camille," by Sheridan Le Fanu.)

 Fleeing a murder scene in a nearby town, two young women come to roost in a bleak English seaside town in the off season. Clara (Gemma Arterton) is a brash, savvy, beautiful prostitute and lap dancer. Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) an introspective 16-year-old who was raised in a convent, calls Clara "My savior, my burden, my muse."

We see right off that the women have an unholy taste for blood (but no fangs are involved; a protruding thumbnail does the trick). Nor do these blood-drinkers fly, possess superhuman strength, turn to dust in the daylight, or morph into bats. All that sets them apart is their immortality.

In flashbacks to the Napoleonic era, we see how each woman was initiated into the Brotherhood of the Immortal (operative word: brotherhood), and how they have since turned the tables on the Old Boy's Club of the undead, "to punish those who prey on the weak (and) to curb the power of men."

 The film can be slow going for awhile, but I find this forgivable as long as the film finally does get somewhere. And the payoff in Byzantium is its own reward. (Read more)

This one opens this Friday (July 12 ) at the Del Mar, only two shows daily, so don't miss it!

SPIRIT MISGUIDED

The reviews are pretty awful, and the box office is tanking. But, seriously, can The Lone Ranger really be that bad? Well, there's nothing wrong with this movie that couldn't be fixed by cutting out about 45 minutes and hiring new scriptwriters who know how to set and maintain a consistent tone, tell a coherent story, and develop characters we care about.

That leaves out Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, the main culprits here, along with director and fellow PotC alumnus Gore Verbinski; together with third credited screenwriter Justin Haythe, they prove they ought to be making amusement park rides, not movies.

Armie Hammer (he played both Winklevoss twins in The Social Network) stars as the deputy Texas Ranger turned masked avenger for justice, but he's stuck playing a dull-witted, square-jawed, prig. There is no there there. Resurrected from the brink of death after an ambush, he's still a stiff; his only heroic attribute is an (undeserved) reputation for not staying dead.

It's Johnny Depp who gets the plum role of wily "sidekick," Tonto; he's the most consistent thing in the movie, and there's pleasure to be had if you tune out all the sturm and bluster in the overcooked plot about ruthless railroad men vs. vicious outlaws vs. noble Indians and view his performance as an extended homage to the deadpan physical slapstick of silent comedians Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.

But these two "heroes" have no chemistry or camaraderie; the characters dislike and mistrust each other, falling into pathetic bickering at the most inappropriate moments. The non-stop jokiness is also a big problem, especially when the movie tries to shift gears and address the spirituality and suffering of Native American peoples at the hands of the white man. A couple of times we are asked to ponder the sobering aftermath of a massacre, then up pops Depp to crack another joke so the audience can start laughing again.

Comedy and tragedy coexist in life, of course, but can only be combined onscreen by writers who know what they're doing. Here the juxtaposition is not well integrated, so the movie doesn't feel more resonant, it's just schizoid. The big action finale featuring three runaway trains on split-level, intersecting tracks is a marvel of stunt choreography, but like everything else, it goes on forever. This isn't a thrill ride, it's an endurance test.

Btw, much virtual ink has been spilled over Tonto's dead crow headdress, including on this blog. Depp claims he was inspired by this painting, I Am Crow, by contemporary southwest artist Kirby Sattler, from which Depp also evidently borrowed make-up tips.

I don't know how authentic this painting is supposed to be, or whether the crow is metaphor, or if the image is meant to represent a man of the Crow nation. (In the movie, Tonto is supposed to be Comanche.) But Depp has said in interviews that he got into the idea that a native warrior might wear his totem animal spirit guide on his person, and that actually is fine with me. (In fact, the crow becomes a character in the story, in flashbacks.) It's just too bad the rest of the movie lacks the wit, purpose, and spiritual depth of that dead crow.

PS: And don't even get me started on the rabid bunnies....

FRIGHT CLASSES

Take a fun summer refresher course at 'Monsters University'


Looking for something fun to do with the kids this holiday weekend? Why not sign up for a refresher course at Monsters University? This lighthearted prequel to the Pixar/Disney 2001 animated blockbuster, Monsters Inc., reunites audiences with some of their favorite characters and introduces some cool new ones in a family-friendly tale of friendship, destiny, diversity, and higher education, told with maximum humor and heart.

Monsters Inc. is a hard act to follow, with its entertaining and audacious premise that the monsters that lurk under the bed and pop out of the closet to frighten children at night are not only real, they are proud members of an elite labor force who punch a time clock and take the work very seriously. The screams they harvest at night from the human kids they scare silly are captured in canisters to supply fuel for the city and the economy in the alternative reality where the monsters live.

There's no way to top this premise, so incoming director Dan Scanlon and returning scriptwriters Daniel Gerson and Robert L. Baird backpedal instead. Monsters University is an origin story on how two of the top "Scarers" found their path in life. The first film showed big, blue, fur-ball James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (voice of John Goodman), and his partner, diminutive, green, cyclops Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) at the top of their game. In Monsters U, we see their rocky road to friendship, and the personal obstacles each faces along the way.

 My favorite addition to the Monsters universe is the imperious Dean Hardscrabble (above). An upright reptile whose dozens of centipede feet scrabble ominously across the floor, with an impressive set of giant dragon-like red wings, she's part Maleficent, part "Night on Bald Mountain's" devil, with a fine, chilly voice provided by Helen Mirren.

Part frat house comedy, part Hunger Games, with a soupcon of Hogwarts, Monsters U delivers some engaging messages with a very light touch. (Read more)

DRIVE-IN, HE SAID

Remember these little guys? They used to parade across the giant screen at the drive-in to lure patrons out of their cars and over to the snack bar during Intermission.

(Sometimes they sang that haunting refrain, "Go on out to the lobby..." but that was mostly in indoor theatres.)

Santa Cruz musician Michael Gaither remembers these dancing cartoon snacks. They feature prominently in the new video for his song, "Starlight Drive-In Saturday Night," the title track of his new CD. 

The song is a pleasant folk-pop ode to the drive-in experience, a vital slice of Americana Gaither fears is fast going the way of the Dodo—like real milkshakes and vinyl records.

To pay homage to those thrilling days of yesteryear, Gaither and his videographer, Jeff, of RabbitHat Productions, have put together a fresh and fun video celebration of Drive-In Nation. The "Starlite" video is not only full of nostalgia-inducing dancing cartoon food and drinks, it also cites plenty of the movie fodder that made drive-ins so much fun, from Godzilla to Plan 9 From Outer Space, from AIP biker movies to Frankie and Annette.

And don't miss the 10-second countdown (until the show begins) at the end of the video!

A lifelong patron of the old Starlite Drive-In in Watsonville, Gaither was happy to find out how many other drive-ins by that name exist (or used to exist) around the country; many of their cool, '50s-atomic marquees are featured in the video.

The Watsonville drive-in is long gone, but the story has a happy ending: in its place now stands the Starlight Elementary School. Read Gaither's blog about the pilgrimage he made to the school to take pics and sing for the kids.

Watch the video here, and prepare to start humming along!

MODERN ROMANCE

Whedon blends Shakespeare, screwball comedy in entertaining 'Much Ado About Nothing'

Who else but Joss Whedon could pull this off?

Not only does he set William Shakespeare's romantic comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, original Elizabethan-era wit and wordplay intact, in modern-day Santa Monica, he shoots it in black-and-white—a visual detail that suggests the sparkling vintage screwball comedies of the 1930s more than the Elizabethan stage.

It's an impudent idea for a movie realized with great charm and affection by a master craftsman and his devoted repertory company of players.

 As a writer and director, Whedon is best known for a particularly wry and sophisticated brand of horror/fantasy/sci-fi genre work, from Buffy and Firefly on TV to Cabin In the Woods, and The Avengers on the big screen.  

Much Ado is something completely different; a project that as been dear to his heart for a long time, it was shot in just 12 days, using Whedon's own Santa Monica home and its grounds as the principal set. The immediacy of this shooting process only helps to remind us how timeless and timely Shakespearean stories can be.

Not that you need to know the play to enjoy the film. The central story of a bantering couple too busy flinging defensive witticisms at each other to realize they're in love is prime romantic comedy fodder in any era.

That would be Benedick and Beatrice, here played con brio by Alex Denisof and Amy Acker. They are not only funny as hell, but they bring emotional urgency to the perilous ebb and giddy flow of their thoroughly modern romance. (Read more)

Btw, I like Whedon's smart idea that Beatrice and Benedick have already been bedmates. But, in typical modern fashion, sex doesn't necessarily mean they've yet learned to value each other. It just gives the tension between them a little extra sizzle!

HERE COMES the SUN

Happy Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year!

Ever wonder why this is considered the FIRST day of summer? Well, because it's not. In the pre-Christian Gaelic and/or Celtic seasonal year, the Solstice in the middle of June was officially Midsummer—halfway between the first day of Summer on May 1, and the first day of Autumn, on August 1.

Seasonally, this makes a lot more sense than the arbitrary assignment of Christian holy days (not to mention modern American holidays) overlaid on the old pagan calendar. In the Gaelic/Celtic year, August, September and October were the fall harvest season. (They didn't use the same Romanesque names of the month, but they were still seasonally correct.)

November, December, and January were considered Winter, broken up by the Feast of Midwinter in mid-Decmber, where ceremonies of light, warmth, feasting, and revelry were held around the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night in the year. This was the season for the Roman Saturnalia, the Nordic Yule, and, much later, Christmas.

Spring began on February 1, and the planting season continued through March and April. The big spring festival, celebrating the return or resurrection of the Sun/Son, was held around mid-March and the Vernal Equinox.

I've always thought these seasonal divisions were right on, especially here in Santa Cruz, where we're likely to get an un-wintery heat wave in February, and most of the green of summer (the hills of UCSC, for instance) have dried to crispy brown by August.

Of course, all seasonal bets are off, if climate change is allowed to advance any further, threatening our planet with a permanent Endless Summer (and I don't mean that in the "Cowabunga!" sense).

But for now, old Sol is still a welcome sight! He's putting on quite a show as we speak, in a beautiful blue, cloudless sky, and he'll be onstage until well into the evening. My advice is to drop whatever else you're doing and get out there and enjoy it!

(Illustration: Medieval threshers outstanding in their field, under the Midsummer sun, from  Les Tres Riches Heures de Jean Duc du Barry (June).

MUSCLE-BOUND

Valiant cast battles loud, ugly action for the soul of Man of Steel

Early in Man of Steel, fourth-grader Clark Kent, the boy who will be Superman, is cowering in a broom closet at school, eyes screwed shut, hands clapped over his ears. He can't control his super powers: his X-ray vision shows him the skulls and skeletons under everyone's flesh; unfiltered noise—dogs, traffic, heartbeats—assault him from all sides.

Rushing to school, his mom kneels outside the door and asks what's wrong.

"The world is too big!" he tells her.

Then focus, she urges him. "Make it smaller."

If only somebody had given director Zack Snyder the same advice.

When Snyder keeps his focus small—the boyhood and young manhood of Clark Kent (played as an adult by supernaturally handsome and chiseled Henry Cavill), told in beautifully integrated flashbacks as he drifts though a series of itinerant odd jobs searching for his destiny—the movie is persuasive and rewarding.

But when the supervillains from Krypton, led by bug-eyed General Zod (Michael Shannon), start laying waste to Earth in a series of demolition derby grudge matches against prodigal son Kal-El (aka Clark), the movie loses its credibility and its heart.

The action sequences in Man of Steel are remarkable for their aggressive ugliness. After one CGI orgy in which Clark's home town of Smallville is devastated, I was ready to crawl into a broom closet.

Given these bludgeoning effects, it's easy to forget the good things in the movie. But here's what they are:

Superman. All three actors play him effectively, including Cooper Timberline and Dylan Sprayberry as the child and adolescent Clark.

Henry Cavill (left) gives the movies its best moments as scruffy young drifter Clark, trying to find himself.

Russell Crowe. As Superman's natural father, Jor-El, Crowe is the voice of reason, wisdom, and restraint amid the chaos.

The Moms. Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer is wonderful as Kal-El's birth mother; her tender scenes with Crowe at the beginning (that's the two of them, with infant Kal-El, right), and her quiet maternal ferocity are quite lovely.

And Diane Lane is fun as a spirited, if careworn, Martha Kent, standing up for her foster son against all comers. (Read more)

Btw, diehard comics fans are enraged by the climactic moment in this film; no spoilers here, but it alters a fundamental character trait in Superman's personality.

I have to say I agree. With one careless decision, this movie turns one of pop culture's most mythic heroes into just another vigilante.

BRIGHT IDEAS

Color me jazzed!

An essay I was invited to write about my new fantasy novel, Alias Hook, has just been posted at the excellent sci-fi/fantasy book preview site, Upcoming 4.me.

It's a regular feature on the site called "The Story Behind..." where authors are invited to write about whatever on earth it was that prompted them to abandon all rational thinking and plunge into writing a novel.

In my case, it was simple: Captain James Hook started talking to me. No, seriously! There's no other way to describe it.

So if you've ever wondered where authors get their ideas, here's my story!

THE ART(S) of SUMMER

With the days getting longer (and the mornings foggier) it's starting to feel a lot like summer around here. And what better way to spend a long, sun-kissed summery evening than stepping out on the First Friday Art Tour to see what's going on in the Santa Cruz art scene?

The answer this month is: plenty!

For one thing, the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County (ensconced in temporary digs downtown for the last two years) has just moved into its new forever home at The Tannery, in the historic Kron House.

The orgnization that stages the Open Studios Art Tour every October, puts real-live artists in the schools via the SPECTRA program, and funds innumerable arts projects countywide throughout the year is celebrating the next chapter in its collective life not only with a new location, but a new name: henceforth they are —ta-da!—Arts Council, Santa Cruz County.

Get over to The Tannery by 5 pm, Friday, in time for the ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate the new space. Inside, you'll see an exhibition of work celebrating local artists who have at one time or other served on the Open Studios Committee—including James Aschbacher (that's his "Ocean View Apartment," above), Faye Augustine,  Fanne Fernow, Jane Gregorious,  Roy Holmberg, Tobin Keller, Steven and Bonnie Barisof, Peggy Snider, Doug Ross, Christianna Hunnicutt, Sally Jorgensen, Lynda Watson, Peggy Waller...oh, and at least a dozen more!

The Kron House, built in the 1860s, and most recently the site of Kirby Scudder's Dead Cow Gallery, has been painstakingly rennovated and restored to preserve the integrity of the original building. (When you go, take note of the massive, original brick wall in the kitchenette area—a piece of art in its own right. They don't make 'em like that any more!)

Then wend your way downtown to the Santa Cruz Public Library to meet one of the newest artists of FFAT. Nina Lutz won't even graduate from Santa Cruz High School until next week, but she's showing a body of paintings and drawings at the library to celebrate the publication of her new children's book, Fashion Animal ABCs. It's a whimsical alphabet book whose charming watercolor illustrations combine her love of animals and extreme fashion.

Diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer about one year ago, Nina turned to painting and drawing to get her through the long process of treatment and recovery. Her original illustrations and other paintings will be exhibited at the library, and copies of her book will also be for sale. Proceeds from the book go to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, for childhood cancer research. Reception on Friday is from 4-6pm.

Just down the road, the Felix Kulpa Gallery will be hosting one of Santa Cruz's most venerable and well-known artists, Gloria K. Alford.

A long-running Open Studios veteran, and 40-year resident of Santa Cruz, Gloria is known these days for her bold abstract paintings and beautifully textured paper collages.

At her one-woman show at Felix Kulpa, called 16" x 16", Gloria will be showing recent and vintage work. Artist's reception will be from 6-9pm. (To get in the mood, click here to watch Gloria discuss her work and her upcoming show with KZSC's Artists on Art hostess Nada Milijkovic.)

Meanwhile, over at True Olive Connection, catch up with another longtime local artist, Evelyn Jenkins Drew. Justly famed for her popular, sun-splashed watercolors of woodies and othr seaside and surf culture scenes, her artwork has graced numerous local event posters, from Capitola Art and Wine and the Capitola Begonia Festival to Woodies on the Wharf.

Evelyn's original watercolors will be in display at True Olive, not only of local scenes, but also work inspired by the tropical landscapes of Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean, where she and her husband travel on their sailboat for four months out of every year. Artist's reception from 6-8:30 pm. (But after soaking up Evelyn's paintings, don't be surprised if you get the urge to head across the parking lot to Hula's to keep the tropical buzz going!)

These are just a few of the 41 venues hosting art exhibits on this month's FFAT. Feel free to design your own personal tour!

MYSTIC PORTALS

Here's a tip from the Inconstant Traveler. If you want to soak up the art, culture, and/or history of a place, forget the museums. Check out the doors!

I speak mainly of Europe, since I've rarely been anywhere else. (That's why my travels are inconstant!) But there is nothing so mysterious and beguiling as an Old World door you stumble across by sheer chance, on your way to someplace else.

Like this wonderful little Hobbit-like door tucked under a stone archway in the walled medieval town of Noyers-sur-Serein, in the Burgundy district of France. Art Boy and I fell in love with this door! Where does it lead? Who used it? What was its story?

That's the thing about the Old World; it's so much older than the New World! History is right there in front of you at every turn, begging to be discovered, and plumbed. If only we could find the password to get in.

Not all doors are small and atmospheric.

Some are inexplicably massive. I loved the gigantic carving (a man, a mermaid, and some sort of heraldic shield, is my best guess) above what is apparently a residential door in downtown Stockholm, Sweden.

The heavy wooden door is pretty cool too, once I get out of the way so you can see it; look at the size of that doorknob!

Another massive architectural carving decorates this arched double doorway in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, about a block away from the bridge over the Danube Canal into the Inner Stadt (downtown).

Judging from the little plaques, I think this building now houses offices—however grand a past it might have once had.

Here's another wildly carved doorway (although in a very different mood) from the Inner Stadt in Vienna.  My guess is this dates from the highly decorative 1910s or 1920s (although it could be much later).

 The figures look mythic, and from the star patterns that decorate them, I think they must represent constellations—Perseus, with the snake-haired Medusa head, on the upper left, and Andromeda, in chains, on the right.

The doors inside the alcove are impressive too; I love the contrast between the warm, brandy-colored wood and the cool grey concrete.

The buzzer placket suggests apartments or offices inside, but, sadly, unlike museums, doors you find on the street don't come with labels, so what the use or intent of this portal originally was is lost to the murky depths of Time.

Here we have another very arty door from wonderfully arty Prague.

This is half of a wrought iron gate that leads from a bustling little commercial street in Mala Strana (Little Town) into a quiet courtyard dotted with a couple of shops.

This castle-knight-ship design looks very modernist to me—possibly post-Communism—and as whimsical and charming as all of Prague.


 These ornate carved wooden double doors are attached to a small house that has stood empty for years in Mala Strana; we passed them every day when we were in Prague last summer.

Our traveling companion, Donna Mekis, poses here with Art Boy, as we all fantasize about moving in!

Sometimes it's not the door itself, but the decorations that get me.

 Look at these wonderful medieval-ish carving on a private door we passed in Prague one day in the vicinity of Nerudova Street!

They don't appear to be door knockers, but simply whimsical carvings for the sheer joy of it. The figures are not exact mirror images of each other, either, so your guess is as good as mine as to why one is upside down.

I thought they might be jesters with very stylized ass' ears, since the jester/fool is the official emblem of Prague (for a people who were as occupied and oppressed for so long as the Bohemians, what can you do but laugh?), although it's hard to tell. But the detail is amazing, especially the faces!

And finally, perhaps the most mysterious of all: this rather alarming, riveted iron door stood in an otherwise unremarkable wall of the tiny kitchen in our apartment in Vienna.

It was locked and bolted, of course, although without this pic as a reference point, I'd be tempted to remember it as being swathed with chains and padlocks—that's how forbidding it was!

It might have been a cellar door guarding dark family secrets (except it's on the fifth floor). It might have been built to keep out the Nazis during World War II.

But—like all the other mysterious doors of Europe—it's like a mystic portal into another world entirely.