Chad Liffmann – Page 25 – Spinning Platters

Show Review: Singin’ in the Rain with the SF Symphony

It’s very likely that many folks who exited Davies Symphony Hall into sweeping sheets of pouring rain on Friday night felt like tap dancing their way to their cars, to BART, and to buses…with beaming smiles on their faces, and for good reason — Singin’ in the Rain with the San Francisco Symphony had just been let out, and the gleeful residuals were in full effect. Personally, I had never seen Singin’ in the Rain (1952) in its entirety. I had heard the music and seen clips at award shows, etc. but had no idea what an excellent tongue-in-cheek Hollywood satire it is. It’s witty, hilarious, romantic, and fun. And once again, what better way to experience an iconic film (never mind one with such famous musical numbers) than to see it with a live score accompaniment.

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Film Review: Frozen

It’s worth visiting Frozen’s musical winter wonderland.

Characters chill in Disney's "Frozen" — Characters chill in Disney’s “Frozen”

Disney made a lot of smart moves with Frozen, the new animated family film being released just in time for the holiday season. With snow/wintery elements at the core of its story, Frozen’s release is not only timed well at the beginning of the holidays, but is thematically (and seasonally) relevant. Also, Disney had been toying with an adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen for over a decade, and rather than rush it out the gate, it appears that the studio took careful consideration for a worthwhile script and stellar musical accompaniment. Finally, speaking of the music, Disney made a brilliant move by bringing in Robert Lopez, the Tony award winning composer behind the music for Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon. With a Broadway style of musical energy driving the story along (at least for the first three quarters), Frozen is heartwarming fun with a very powerful feminine voice…one that would pass the Bechdel test with flying colors.

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Film Review: Thor: The Dark World

All brawn and little brain, but still…all brawn, glorious BRAWN!

Kenneth Branagh, who directed the first Thor movie, stepped down from the director’s chair and left it to Alan Taylor, who has quite the resume — including credits directing episodes of Game of Thrones, Mad Men, and The Sopranos. Thor: The Dark World is therefore very well directed; the action scenes are easy to follow and filled to the brim with marvelous visuals. There’s nothing technically problematic about Thor: The Dark World, either. All the pieces fall into place to create a very fun superhero tale. But what’s missing is that extra uniqueness that made Thor a surprising success. Chris Hemsworth as Thor was definitely part of that box office attraction, but, in my opinion, Branagh’s handling of Shakespearean themes (familial betrayals and royal tensions) helped Thor really separate itself from the rest of the superhero fare. Thor: The Dark World lacks that maturity. Instead, this film relies on explosive adventure and playful Whedon-esque humor to carry the full load. It succeeds at the blockbuster surface level, but it fails to carry over its predecessor’s dramatic character arcs (except for Loki – -as always… damn, Tom Hiddleston is good.)

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Show Review: Hitchcock Week — Greatest Hits

Last night closed the book on Hitchcock Week with the San Francisco Symphony. The talented orchestra players, conducted by Joshua Gersen, performed selections from Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief, Strangers on a Train, Vertigo, Dial M for Murder, and North by Northwest. Part of the night belonged to the complex scores, at times sweepingly romantic, other times suspenseful and bombastic. The other half belonged to the charming host, Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront, North by Northwest). At 89 years old, she still carries a youthful exuberance that would make you question whether she was a day over thirty. Aside from a few film intro slip ups, she held her own, constantly throwing out sharp pokes at herself, hilarious flirtations at Gersen, and telling fascinating anecdotes about her work with Hitchcock.

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Film Review: 12 Years a Slave

Hard to endure, hard to fathom, but essential.

"12 Years A Slave" captures a personal, intimate, fear. — “12 Years A Slave” captures a personal, intimate fear.

12 Years a Slave feels like it could very well be the most accurate cinematic depiction of the atrocities of slavery. We don’t just see the physical brutality, we also feel the isolation, the helplessness, and each slave’s necessary abandonment of individuality in order to survive. The geographical solitude in which two different worlds are formed, the one inhabited by the slaves and the one inhabited by the landowners and overseers, is one of the story’s focal points and how it affects the mentality of each character. For all of these reasons, 12 Years a Slave, based on the book of the true story by Solomon Northup, succeeds where no other film about slavery has. In other films of this nature, the “hero” rises up against the odds. The protagonist rises up by gradually becoming an outspoken leader, or by finding the only sympathetic ear that winds up being a ticket to freedom. Those stories may be inspiring, and well told, but they are often sugar-coated, to put it bluntly. When viewing 12 Years a Slave, we, the audience, don’t get special treatment. We are forced into a very dark place in our nation’s history, and we are asked to face the harrowing truth head on.

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Film Review: Free Birds

“Free Birds” is a surprising, scattered, Thanksgiving treat.

Jake (Woody Harrelson) slaps some comedy sense into Reggie (Owen Wilson)

Yes, this is a movie about turkeys. It’s not a spin-off adaptation of the mobile game, Angry Birds. Free Birds is not the strongest title, it lacks punch. Free Birds also hasn’t benefited from a strong and focused marketing campaign. The reason for this — Free Birds is wacky and crosses multiple genres, and even includes some very surprising plot twists. Yet, its filled with original humor and employs an extremely playful attitude with perfectly timed editing to create a funny and thoroughly entertaining family film.

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Show Review: Hitchcock Week — Psycho

Ree! Ree! Ree! Ree! > — Ree! Ree! Ree! Ree! <<stabbing ensues>>

It’s Hitchcock Week with the San Francisco Symphony and Wednesday night kicked things off with Psycho (1960), Hitchcock’s masterpiece thriller. Why is the SF Symphony playing Psycho? And for what reason are they having a week devoted to Hitchcock, at all? For starters, Hitchcock films feature some of the most memorable scores in film history. Just like John Williams’s scores have enhanced the sense of adventure in countless films directed by Steven Spielberg, the scores in Alfred Hitchcock films have greatly enhanced the chilling suspense, the horrifying thrill, and the bloody payoffs of his stories. These are a few particularly momentous nights at the symphony because the scores have been removed from the film’s print and, instead, filled in by a live orchestra (in Psycho’s case, just the string section…it seemed).

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Film Review: The Counselor

‘The Counselor’ is in need of some script counseling.

It was exciting to imagine what the product of a Ridley Scott-Cormac McCarthy collaboration would be like. Add in an all-star cast and the anticipation grew stronger. Unfortunately, the finished product leaves so much to be desired. The Counselor features an original screenplay by McCarthy, who’s normally credited only with writing the novels on which a few film adaptations have been based (No Country For Old Men, The Road), and the inexperience shows here. The dialogue in The Counselor lacks flow, and in a story as convoluted as this, the flaws in the script are all the more blatant.

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Film Review: Gravity

An exhilarating, suspenseful, emotional thrill ride unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

Sandra Bullock takes on the universe in Gravity.

It’s hard to describe Gravity without using a superfluous amount of positive adjectives. The action drama directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien), is a somewhat simple story of two astronauts who are marooned after their craft is left battered and adrift after being struck by debris from a botched Russian satellite dismantling. The film is more complex than that though, tapping into an unimaginable terror unlike any film has done before. It’s nice to have a visual spectacle of this magnitude also feature incredible performances. The visuals can only bring the audience in so far, but the stellar performances by George Clooney and, especially, Sandra Bullock help seal the deal. I can’t stress this enough — you are PULLED into this movie and firmly grasped for 90+ minutes! You won’t believe the wizardry of what you see on screen. And you won’t be able to shake the emotions for a while.

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Film Review: Rush

Rush is a fantastic, tense drama, and character driven.

Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl revving their dramatic chops

I don’t care for racing. It doesn’t interest me and I think the culture surrounding it is silly and uninviting. That being said, if I were forced at gunpoint to choose a type of car racing to watch, it would be Formula 1 racing. There’s a dynamic of risk and impending disaster, along with more beautiful environments, in Formula 1 racing. Rush, the new movie from director Ron Howard about a 1970’s rivalry in Formula 1 racing, is not only a great racing movie and a great sports movie, but a great drama. Spearheaded by solid direction and terrific performances, Rush also contains all the right pieces fitted together to complete the whole package — impeccable editing, strong writing, and thrilling cinematography.

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