Tag: review

ILLINOISE at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre: A Triumph in Musical Storytelling

Posted on | by

CHICAGO | One of the greatest critiques of the current landscape of musical theater is the onslaught of recycled media: jukebox musicals and musicals based on popular movies and other stories. The regurgitation of popular artists’ songs into a musical theater format may get audiences in seats, but lacks the artistic integrity and heart of great original theater. ILLINOISE, however, breaks the trend of mediocre, uninspired jukebox musicals. Utilizing the masterful storytelling featured in Sufjan Stevens’ 2005 album Illinois, the cast brings us through a beautifully human story about life, love, and healing.

ILLINOISE subverts the traditional musical theater format by omitting spoken dialogue and allowing the characters themselves to tell the story through dance, as opposed to song. The band is visible in the stage setup, and the music is sung by three visible performers, who are costumed in fairy-like wings – Elijah Lyons, Shara Nova, and Tasha Viets-VanLear. The show was choreographed and directed by Justin Peck, who notably choreographed the 2021 movie remake of West Side Story, among other musicals and ballets. 

In the Playbill, Peck explains his choreography choices for the show, stating:

“The choreography is a real amalgamation of styles I have been inspired by over the years– everything from tap dance to hip-hop to ballet to breakdancing to modern dance. It’s all woven through this show. The genre-defying approach of the dance language is inspired by the genre-defying quality of the album.”

The fluidity in Peck’s choreography choices allow for the characters to engage in a very natural, physical form of storytelling. The amount of emotion portrayed by characters who do not speak is astounding as they bring us through the intricacies of emotions we know all too well – joy, love, pain, grief, fear, and more.

The story follows main character Henry as he joins a group of young artists in what seems to be a writer’s retreat. The group gathers around a “campfire” — a collection of camping lanterns on the stage — and takes turns reading “stories” from matching journals with a butterfly motif. The artists take us through the tracks “Jacksonville,” “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh!,” “John Wayne Gacy Jr.” and “The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts” before coaxing Henry to share his story. The group of artists evokes the feelings of joy, community and support like the community of artists in the musical RENT.

Henry’s story truly gets to the heart of the show; by explaining his history with childhood friends Carl and Shelby, as well as his experiences with love, friendship, loss, grief, and growing up, set to some of Sufjan Stevens’ most iconic tracks, such as “Chicago” and “Casimir Pulaski Day.” In one of the show’s best displays of young love, Henry falls in love and enters into his first adult relationship while continuing to work through the grief and trauma of his past. This scene is scored by “The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out To Get Us!”, which chronicles a young queer relationship in Stevens’ own life. The show also explores themes of grief, depression, and suicide by utilizing the song, “The Seer’s Tower.”

Henry’s story is met with love and support by his fellow writers, and the show ends with him offering a journal to the audience, inviting us to engage in this level of self-expression. The show is colorful, bright, and energetic, and maintains the same level of whimsy and spontaneity as the album. It leaves you with a feeling of hope and love, without feeling overly optimistic. 

Better yet — it showcases Sufjan Stevens’ ability to create an incredibly detailed narrative world. ILLINOISE avoids the cliches of a jukebox musical because it allows Stevens’ magnum opus to shine as the expression of storytelling genius that it truly is. 

ILLINOISE will continue its run at the Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre at Navy Pier until February 18. The show is set to debut off-Broadway in March.

All photos courtesy of ILLINOISE staff

Poor Things – It Makes You Think

Posted on | by

CHICAGO | Imagine a world where Willem Dafoe plays Dr. Frankenstein and Emma Stone is his monster, except this monster is a learning and thinking being that wants to experience life and travel the world. This film (and the word film is very deliberate, as it is a work of art) has some of the best set design I have ever seen and puts Barbie to shame, with an amazing wardrobe and set design that mimic the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí heavily. 

The setting of this movie is set in Victorian times with a heavy steampunk vibe that gives all the buildings and sets this whimsical feel with all the buildings having deliberate curves and intricate designs and details. In terms of cinematography, the movie is shot in a way that feels very similar to a Wes Andersen film; with a variety of lenses and camera angles being shown as well as focusing on contrast of colors and using wardrobe/outfit colors in a very distinct way. Visually this film is absolutely stunning and the set design and wardrobe are like nothing I’ve ever seen, but this movie is still very much so a dark comedy with themes and moments that will make you question things and how to see the world. Poor Things  truly is hard to describe; in the beginning we are introduced to Emma Stone’s character Bella, Willem Dafoe plays a mad scientist and surgeon named Dr. Baxter who plays god for fun, making several creations that are animal hybrids such as chicken dogs and goat geese. 

His most recent creation is Bella; she was “created”  after Dr. Baxter found her corpse floating in a river and she was still, as he put it, “freshly dead.” So he takes her to his lab and plants the brain of a two year old into her and she comes to life. This is the basic premise, and the rest of the movie is her rediscovering the world and learning things with a naive and ever developing brain. She travels all over the world, going to places like London,Paris and Portugal as she has a craving for travel, exploring new places and experiencing new things. All throughout this trip as she meets people and gains more knowledge about the world, she slowly becomes more of a person. 

The movie’s writing is also very witty and clever, as the dialogue is amazingly written making you hate yourself for laughing.. There is a scene where Bella is at a dinner party and an infant is crying and being annoying, she gets up to silence it and says, “I must go punch that baby” before her boyfriend Duncan quickly grabs her and sits her back down. Another great moment is when on a cruise ship Duncan is arguing with someone and mockingly says, “[in a mocking tone] ‘We’re all masters of our own ship’ you cu-ty c-ntface dipsh-t!” Which brings to mind this movie is definitely NOT family friendly. There are undertones of drug use, some gorey surgery scenes, sex scenes and foul language, but much like a Tarantino film they are all very deliberate and done well and improve the overall experience of the movie. 

To wrap things up, this review sucks. You really can’t understand this movie unless you experience it in a theater as I have. The set design, actors and dialogue, are all brilliant and compliment each other extremely well. The two hours in the theater goes by like that and you will find yourself questioning alot and feel absolutely blown away by what you just experienced. This movie is not for everyone, some scenes are tough to watch and it takes a certain intellect to get some of the jokes as they are very witty and quick. But if what I have just described appeals to you then I urge you to look into watching it, definitely in a theater. Poor Things is being screened in most movie theaters around the city until the end of this month (if not longer), it truly is a must see.

Album Review: 1989 (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift

Posted on | by

2014 was the year of Taylor Swift. I felt like no matter where you went, you couldn’t escape her that year. From constant red carpet appearances, headlining Victoria Secret’s fashion show, releasing 1989 — which was a career-defining album cementing Taylor as a pop icon, — and pulling the album from free streaming services, Swift was always in the media following a highly publicized relationship with at the time One Direction member Harry Styles. The album was Swift’s full pop release, and the gamble of leaving her country roots paid off as the album scored her three number-one singles with “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space” and “Bad Blood.” As Swifties were waiting anxiously for her to re-record her best-selling album, it was no surprise when Swift made the announcement on August 9, 2023. 

Onto the re-recordings of songs that Swifties are all too familiar with, there were hits and misses. One of the reasons being that the primary producer of 1989, Max Martin, was not present on the re-recording of the album and was instead replaced by Christopher Rowe, who has worked on Taylor’s past re-recordings. However, I think it was a mistake for Swift not to have Martin on the album as he is a legendary producer, and even though Rowe could replicate Martin’s sound, it always felt like an imitation and not as sincere as his predecessor. Particularly the biggest misstep on the record is the re-recording of “Style” as the bass sounds entirely out of tune, while the guitar riff in the beginning of the song sounds so different that it’s disorienting. Even Swift herself doesn’t sound as passionate on this re-recording when compared to the original. When the lyrics for the part of “some other girl” come on the original, you can hear the pain and emotion in Swift’s voice. In the re-recording, however, it comes off as flat and surface level; as if Swift is giving a karaoke performance instead of performing her own song. 

A more minor miss for me was “Blank Space,” as it lacked the sass from Swift that the original one had. I think the re-recordings sometimes sacrifice the song’s emotions for correcting the production and vocals; a tradeoff that I don’t fully agree with.

On the positive, the re-recordings made me finally enjoy “Welcome to New York.” While it is still not the best lyrically, I can stand to listen to its production now without running to hit the skip button like I used to. Also, as a certified “Shake It Off” slanderer, I was not expecting Taylor’s Version to make me add the song to some of my playlists. The production changes here make it sound different enough that it doesn’t sound precisely like the overplayed original. I also thought the rerecordings of “Out of the Woods” and “You Are in Love” were the most faithful sounding to the originals and that Jack Antonoff did a great job repeating his brilliance from the original. 

Now, let’s get onto the vault tracks. The first of which was “Slut!” which was the most surprising vault to me as my expectations for the song were not at all what we got. Due to the exclamation mark in the title, I thought we were going to get a fast-paced or upbeat song formed as a feminist anthem against slut-shaming. Although slut-shaming was a topic of the song, it was more focused on the idea of entering a relationship with a guy because “it might be worth it for once,” highlighting how women are often judged more for their dating histories than men. Although the song is slower, I think it will be divisive among Swifties as Swift had mentioned she had considered replacing “Blank Space” with “Slut!” Let’s just say I’m glad she kept “Blank Space.” Overall, “Slut!” is a slow-burner and will not be for everyone, and I get why it was a vault track, as it is my least favorite out of the five but still not a bad song.

Next, we have “Say Don’t Go,” co-written by Diane Warren, and it’s a captivating vault track. You enter the song hearing Taylor’s lower register which makes it stand out among all of 1989, and then you get hit with an infectious and loud chorus which sells you entirely onto the song. “Why’d you whisper in the dark, just to leave me in the night?” were the lyrics that stood out for me because the dark is the loneliest time when you are up late with you and just your feelings. Out of the five vault tracks, I would rank it number three as it is a great song, but two others were just connecting more with me.

The third vault track is “Now That We Don’t Talk,” placed as the shortest Taylor Swift song ever made at two minutes and 26 seconds, and I can feel that during the song. I love the production and the lyrics and  wish the song were longer and we got more of it. My only other small critique of the song is that it reminds me of that Charlie Puth song “We Don’t Talk Anymore” with Selena Gomez, (which is god awful, so it leads me to sometimes to skip this one). My standout lyrics were “And the only way to get back my dignity, was to turn into a shrouded mystery,” as it reminds me of when you rely on someone to validate your self-worth during a relationship. Now that you have broken up, you need to go into a period of isolating yourself to give you time to reinvent yourself. This also has one of my favorite Taylor outros on any song. Out of the five songs, I placed this one as fourth, only due to the length.

“Suburban Legends” is the fourth vault track and was my most anticipated vault track for Taylor’s Version, and it did not disappoint. My interpretation of the song is that it is Harry Styles-coded and that it centers on the fact that both Taylor Swift and Harry Styles have become celebrity figures; that their relationship was gossip fodder that we all discussed, and that she had hoped they would prove the public wrong and their relationship would be successful. My standout lyrics were “Would surprise the whole school when I ended back at our class reunion, walkin’ with you.” The lyrics make me think the school is a metaphor for the general public; the class reunion could be her thinking of a wedding where she marries the man that no one thought she could make it last with and prove us all wrong. 

Still, the outro reveals she knew it probably wouldn’t last. Out of the vault tracks, this song has the biggest story being told and the most lyrically complex. My favorite thing about Taylor Swift’s songs is the amount of easter eggs in the songs and how much theorizing and speculation on the lyrics we can do. Out of the five vault tracks, it is my second favorite, only being bested by one song.

My favorite vault track and the last song is “Is It Over Now,” and this song is such a great closing vault track as it connects to so many 1989 songs, and it perfectly encapsulates the album. If you take any line in the song, you can connect it to another Taylor song, making it fun to analyze as a huge Swiftie. The song also felt the most personal as there were many personal details in the song as well as more of the sass I felt was missing in the rerecordings from the original 1989 songs. Some of these include the lines: “You dream of my mouth before it called you a lying traitor… you search in every maiden’s bed for something greater” or “And you think I didn’t see you? There were flashin’ lights, at least I had the decency to keep my nights out of sight,” which implies that either they were both cheating or after the breakup Swift kept her flings secret out of respect for him while he didn’t have the same courtesy for him. This song has the most tea out of any of the vaults, and it was a pleasant surprise as I was expecting this to be a slow song, but it wasn’t. 

Overall, I enjoyed 1989 (Taylor’s Version), besides a few of the re-recordings, and I think it’s worth a listen for anyone interested. I cannot wait to hear the re-recordings for her debut album and Reputation. 

“Anatomy of a Fall” Placidly Delivers an Icy Melodrama Effectively but Predictably 

Posted on | by

“Anatomy of a Fall” is the definition of the kind of foreign film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars that your annoying film obsessed family member relentlessly tells you to watch at Christmas — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I say that because that film guy is me by the way. I saw Justine Triet’s new film on opening night and it was thoroughly entertaining (normally my parents don’t go for French films, but I was able to sell them on the fact that around one third of the film is in English). 

“Anatomy of a Fall” follows Sandra (Sandra Hüller), a successful novelist living in the French mountains with her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) and their visually impaired son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner). The film opens with Sandra being interviewed by a college student for their thesis, Daniel giving his pet dog Snoop a bath and Sam blasting 50 Cent through the attic. What starts as a tame opening to the film dramatically increases when Daniel finds his father’s body dead after falling off the side of the house with a large, bloody gash in his head. 

The rest of the film plays out as a courtroom melodrama, with more of Sandra’s skeletons coming out of her closet. Everything from marital infidelities to emotional manipulation is used to accuse her of killing her husband. While her defense is claiming that Samuel committed suicide because he went off his anti-depressants and was stretching himself thin between homeschooling Daniel, fixing up their house and his lack of creativity within his writing. 

Writer/Director Justine Triet penned an engaging story looking into the morality and complexity of domestic life but in a way that won’t surprise you, if you’ve seen the work of Ingmar Bergman and John Cassavetes. Although this “marriage in meltdown” is familiar, what “Anatomy of a Fall” lacks in potency is decently made up for with the setting and dash of courtroom drama. 

The scenes in the courtroom are sharply written interrogations going dramatically back and forth; keeping the viewer engaged. The snow-covered mountains contribute to the mostly fluorescent color of the film, making the film feel cold and as distant, directly mirroring Sandra and Samuel. 

Sandra Hüller carries the film with her tired eyes projecting both aloof jadedness, mournful regret, and flaming anger. A lot of the marketing for the early screening I went to is about a “If she did it?” angle, however her performance is morally ambiguous enough to let you come to your own conclusion. While I liked Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner), who delivers a great performance for being a pre-teen at the time of shooting, the script plays his visual impairment fast and loose, only making it matter when the plot needs it to. 

Overall, “Anatomy of a Fall” is one of the most straightforward films of the year and I would happily recommend it to people looking for a respectable drama film this season. I personally feel like my mom would really like this movie. 

Header and above photo | Still from “Anatomy of a Fall”