One of the most satisfying evenings of Chicago theatre I have had over the past couple of years was Redmoon Theatre’s “The Cabinet” back in 2005, a stunning adaptation of F.W. Murnau’s German Expressionism film masterpiece, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, using a creative blend of puppets, music, lighting, and silent film-like surtitles. Since then, I have tried to see a performance at Redmoon Central, the theatre’s combined performance space and build shop in a sprawling converted ink factory in the West Loop, but for some reason or another had been unable to do so. On Thursday night, I finally made my way over there for the re-mount of their 2000 hit “The Hunchback”, based on the famous Victor Hugo novel. I continue to be a gushy fan of Redmoon, and plan to attend many more performances in the future, but “The Hunchback”, unlike “The Cabinet”, was a play that I ultimately respected and admired more than enjoyed.
If the Oscars are the World Series, the Golden Globes are the playoffs. Sure, the Hollywood Foreign Press has had some wacky choices over the years (Pia Zadora anyone?), but it is very rare for anyone in the acting categories to win an Academy Award if they have not been at least nominated for a Golden Globe. So this morning’s announcement is the first serious milestone for avid Oscarwatchers like the Divine Ms. Jennifer M. and me. Despite a virtual snub from many of the critics’ groups, Atonement, the film version of my most favorite book of the past five years, led the Globe nominations with 7 nods. It’s looking like this is the film to beat at the Oscars, and I am very much looking forward to seeing it this weekend (despite the fact that having mass-challenged Keira Knightley, who seems to be auditioning for the part of Yorrick’s skull in a post-modern version of “Hamlet”, as the heroine, is quite the bitter pill to swallow). I am also excited that the great Julie Christie, she of Darling and Doctor Zhivago legend, notoriously choosy about her roles, has been nominated for Away from Her, a movie that was probably screened last spring at the Landmark Century for just half a day. I may have to travel to the distant tundras of Bollingbrook or Olympia Fields to find a rinky-dink theatre showing this movie. I think she may be the Best Actress frontrunner, together with Marion Cotillard, also nominated for the Edith Piaf biography, La Vie en Rose. Christie won the New York film critics prize while Cotillard was acclaimed by the LA film critics; these are the only two critics groups that really matter in the Oscar race. Based on the nominations, other must-see films during this awards season are No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Sweeney Todd, and Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I will be posting on these films soon. And the two loudest yays for me this morning were for the Best Foreign Language Film nomination for the Romanian abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, one of the most harrowing and emotionally-wrenching movies I saw this year, and the Best Actor for a Comedy or Musical nomination for the man many gay guys have sent Rachel McAdams’ picture to voodoospells.com for, my boy Ryan Gosling, for Lars and the Real Girl. Hope Oscar will come calling for both!
It was cold, icy, and grey last weekend in Chicago and I could have just curled up indoors and watched “Project Runaway” over and over again (plus it was the first weekend right after the 30-xxx birthday, which was cause enough for a solitary meditation on one’s inevitable need for Botox injections and tummy tucks all in itself). However, between Edward Albee, taiko drumming, and a Sunday dinner club dinner (not to mention the incomprehensible, and frankly alarming, sight of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s bare derriere on film), there was absolutely no reason to stay home and stew.
OK, I know I just posted a blog entry slightly more than eight hours ago on the unaninous acclamation in New York City of “August: Osage County”’s greatness. Well, that’s why I have a blog- I can write about the things I am passionate about anytime I feel like it. I just wanted to link to two of the interesting Chicago theatre blogs I read, Kris Vire’s Storefront Rebellion, and Rob Kozlowski’s Everyone’s Favorite-As-Yet-Unproduced Chicago-Based Polish Playwright. Both of them have something to say about the raves and hotlink to many of the reviews. But I also wanted to point out Rob’s very honest, very precise reminder: “Congratulations, of course, are due to the folks at Steppenwolf but let us NOT forget that to legitimize AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY as a great American play only when it reaches Broadway does an enormous disservice to it. It was a great play already, when it was here. The best fucking town in America.” I can’t agree more.
I’m not a big Bob Dylan fan. To be honest about it, I am not a big music fan at all. So I went to see I’m Not There, Todd Haynes’ film biography of Dylan with a little bit of trepidation. I’m sure I won’t recognize much of the music, so would that detract from my fuller appreciation of the film? I don’t know a lot about Dylan except that he has quite an exalted, almost mythic, place in the American musical history of the 60s and 70s, when his poetic, humanistic, but outspokenly rebellious music deeply touched the collective zeitgeist. Would I be able to form an opinion, then, on how ably the film represents his life? No worries, however, because Haynes has created a powerful, jaw-dropping film that is as dazzling, and yes, as mythical, as his subject, with a sensational central performance from one of the few women I will strongly contemplate turning heterosexual for, the too-magnificent-for-mere-words Cate Blanchett, as, amazingly, Bob Dylan, during his Don’t Look Back period.
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