Not much has changed since 1677 — Role Players Ensemble brings Aphra Behn’s The Rover to the Danville Village Theatre
Edited by Jessica Vaden
David J. Bohnet plays Don Pedro, Florinda’s overbearing brother. Nicolette Ellis is Florinda and Terrance Smith as Belville. Photos by Marian Bliss, 2018, courtesy of RPE.
Perhaps now more than ever we are questioning the social constructs that have been put into place for us, especially for those of us on the margins, or in places where our identities intersect. In an attempt at dismantling oppression, we look at its history… starting from gender bending to gender breaking, and finally, to what we assume will become the complete elimination of gender roles.Continue reading “Theater Review: Aphra Behn’s The Rover at Danville Village Theatre”
Several months ago, I first read that Bruce Springsteen was setting out to do a one-man show on Broadway. My immediate thought was, “I would really like to go to that, but I doubt I’m going to make it to New York anytime soon.” There was a period where you could sign up for the “Ticketmaster Verified Fans” program, which, somehow, determined who was an actual fan and who was a reseller (not entirely sure how this works, and not really sure it does, but that’s for another article). I almost signed up for that, but didn’t. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Continue reading “Show Review: Springsteen on Broadway at Walter Kerr Theater, 4/12/18”
2018 San Francisco International Film Festival ends this week
If you haven’t made it out to the SF International Film Festival yet, don’t worry – you still have one more day to catch some great films. The Festival ends tomorrow, Tuesday, April 17th, and tickets to remaining screenings can be found here.
Spinning Platters continues its coverage by taking a look at four films that screened at the Fest that will be opening soon here in the Bay Area (we note each film’s opening date below), so if you had hoped to see some of these at the Fest and missed them, you’ve got a second chance. And even though the Fest ends soon, stay tuned to Spinning Platters; we’ll have some wrap up coverage after the Fest concludes.
1.) Kodachrome (Canada/USA 2017, 105 min. Marquee Presentations)
Matt (Jason Sudeikis, l.), Zoe, (Elizabeth Olsen), and Ben (Ed Harris) have some fun.
Upon hearing the title of director Mark Raso’s new film, you would be forgiven for thinking it might have something to do with Paul Simon’s 1973 single of the same name. That song is referenced in the film, but never played, which is for the best, since the last film to take its title from a Paul Simon song was a huge flop. Raso fares better here, working from a script by the author and screenwriter Jonathan Tropper (This is Where I Leave You). Based loosely on a 2010 article in the New York Times about the closing of the last photo lab in the country to develop Kodak’s famed color film, Kodachrome is a father-son redemption story that calls to mind Sam Shepard, and not just because Shepard stalwart Ed Harris plays Ben, the estranged, terminally ill famous photographer father to Jason Sudeikis’s wounded music producer son Matt. The actors are believable as a father and son with a complicated history, which helps detract from the cliché of their road trip from New York to Kansas to drop off old Kodachrome rolls of Ben’s before the lab closes. Accompanying the duo is Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen), Ben’s nurse and assistant and, of course, love interest for Matt. Olsen’s likable presence and her chemistry with Sudeikis also help keep the story from feeling too obvious, and you find yourself wanting to spend more time with them. The film does occasionally succumb to the hackneyed, though, as when Matt and Zoe finally look at Ben’s developed slides (you’ll have long since guessed what’s on them), in a somewhat cloying scene that may remind some viewers of the famous “The Wheel” episode of Mad Men. But with its nostalgic look at how our analog world has given way to digital, Raso and Tropper manage to pull off a charming narrative that would have felt derivative with a lesser cast at the helm.
Kodachromewill open in the Bay Area this Friday, April 20th.
Kate Nash is somebody that too many people have forgotten about. She put out Made Of Bricks, a massive, brilliant record of bright, yet jaded, pop nearly 16 years ago. The kind of album Elvis Costello could have done if he had been a teenage girl. Her follow up, My Best Friend Is You, recast her as a garage punk heroine. She put away the piano, picked up the guitar, and managed to put out an even better record than her first one. It was such a departure from the first album that few fans followed, and with her name tied to the unfairly mocked “pop” genre, few fans of garage rock followed. This is OK, because this gave her the freedom to follow that with the riot grrrl flavored, lo-fi masterpiece, Girl Talk. And, just this last week, she followed up Girl Talk with yet another reinvention. Yesterday Was Forever is another lo-fi treat, with her signature sharp, biting lyric writing, fuzzy guitars, and adding in analog drum machine beats and trap-influenced syncopation, making a very surprising and highly listenable record. Continue reading “Show Review: Kate Nash and Miya Folick at The Fillmore, 4/9/18”
Laura Veirs hasn’t enjoyed the widespread popularity or been welcomed to the radio waves like her other Portland musician colleagues and frequent collaborators have, like The Decemberists and Sufjan Stevens. “Not a household name / but she’s been in your head all day / It would be so cool to be like Carol, Carol Kaye.” These lyrics from “Carol Kaye” off of Veirs’s 2010 incredible LP offering July Flame, just about sums it up. It’s unfortunate that Veirs isn’t the household name her music has well-earned the distinction of becoming. Alas, two more LPs and a collaboration album with Neko Case and k.d. lang (Case/Lang/Veirs) later, and Veirs is still delivering radio-worthy tunes that are as catchy as they are folksy and heartfelt. Continue reading “Album Review: Laura Veirs — The Lookout“
Make time for these three great documentaries at the 61st San Francisco International Film Festival
1.) Carcasse (Iceland/France 2016, 61 min. Vanguard)
Faraway lands and anthropologic impulses lured filmmaker Gústav Geir Bollason to the subject of how we adapt the 21st century’s material bounty to the timeless problems of survival. Drawing heavily from Robert Flaherty and Basil Wright, Bollason is fascinated with the ways in which we repurpose the consumerist world to adapt quite nicely in the survivalist one. Aircraft fuselages become shelters for lamb flocks. Volkswagen bodies become boat bridges. Compact car bodies become horse drawn buggies. Flaherty showed how the Inuk bent nature to tame nature. Bollason shows both the pervasive nature of modern material culture, and our ingenuity at bending it our needs. Plays with the short The Art of Flying (Jan van Ijken, Netherlands 2015, 7 min).
Screenings (tickets available here):
— Saturday, April 14th, 3:15pm, YBCA Screening Room
— Sunday, April 15, 2018, 8:00pm, YBCA Screening Room
Don’t let anyone Block you from seeing this smart, funny comedy
Parents Mitchell (John Cena, l.), Lisa (Leslie Mann), and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) try to figure out what their daughters are up to on prom night.
The teen sex comedy is given a refreshing update in Blockers, director Kay Cannon’s feature film directorial debut. Cannon, an actress and screenwriter best known for the Pitch Perfect series, brings a welcome feminine touch to a genre that’s typically directed by men, for a teenage boy audience (e.g., American Pie). Here, though, working from a script by brothers Brian and Jim Kehoe, Cannon’s focus is a trio of teen girls, friends since kindergarten, and their somewhat hastily made pact to lose their virginity on prom night. That the trio’s well intentioned but clueless parents set out to stop them (hence the film’s title) brings a layer of fun to the proceedings that widens the film’s audience from rebellious teens to adults, who may find themselves alternatively relating to the girls or the parents at any given moment. Continue reading “Film Review: Blockers“
It’s the same story every festival: In the days and weeks leading up to the line up announcement, people try to predict the line up. Then folks get their hopes set super high with some imaginary Beatles / Smiths / Talking Heads / Mozart & Salieri reunion, and then nothing else is ever good enough. Then they complain about how it’s never as good as it was in 2013, or 2009, or 2017, or whenever that time you last complained about how bad the line up was.
As expected, the internet was flooded with complaints about the 2018 line-up, which goes on sale today at 10am. If you want to experience pure frustration, feel free to peruse the Outside Lands’ Reddit page. I, however, believe that this might actually be one of the most exciting and riskiest Outside Lands bill yet.
Rock is dead, people say. They say this because EDM and hip-hop headliners rule the festival stage, and when a rock band is seen anywhere on stage, it’s always dismissed as a legacy act. When people say this, they’re stupid. , but Iif they need convincing, here comes a tour that gives a big giant fuck you to the concept. For rock isn’t dead, and The Darkness is here to stick their big giant riffs in your face in the name of rock and roll.Continue reading “Show Review: The Darkness with Diarrhea Planet at The Regency Ballroom, 3/31/2018”
61st annual San Francisco International Film Festival opens this Wednesday, April 4th
The 61st annual San Francisco International Film Festival begins this Wednesday, April 4th, and will run almost two weeks, until Thursday, April 17th. This year’s Festival features 186 films from over 40 countries, and will include eight world premieres, five North American premieres, and six U.S. premieres. Of special note is that over a third of this year’s selected films are directed by women. Tickets and more information about films and programs can be found here.
To help you plan your Fest schedule, we’ll start you off here with five Festival film spotlights (three narrative features and two documentaries). And be sure to bookmark Spinning Platters and check back frequently, as we’ll have more coverage throughout the Festival.
