57 Chevy

Before “57 Chevy,” which my acting class took a trip to see on Wednesday in Los Angeles, I had never seen a one-man show, which made me initially have doubts about the play’s ability to keep me engaged for an hour and a half.  How could one person, one character, maintain a presence so engrossing that they didn’t need anyone else on stage with them?  As you can probably tell, I was thinking of a one-man show as more of a really long (boring) monologue than a play with diverse characters interacting with each other in a meaningful way.  Coming out of the play, I am glad to not only have had my misconceptions cleared up, but also to have been thoroughly entertained in the process.

The main character Cris “Junior” Franco, played by Ric Salinas, narrates his life story through the lens of his beloved father’s Chevy, the symbol of the Franco family’s American Dream.  Junior seamlessly transitions from playing himself in the present day to himself as a child, to his father, to his mother, and to a multitude of minor but hilarious characters.  I was really impressed with Salinas’ ability to adopt the mannerisms, inflection, and tics of people of different ages, ethnicities, and attitudes.  Within a few moments, I had a good sense of each character’s personality and truly believed that Salinas was whatever he was acting as.  His exaggerated gestures and voices contributed to the comedy that kept the play light while dealing with deeper issues of race.

Salinas also made excellent use of props, especially the two desk tables that he writes on in the beginning, in order to help the audience visualize what was happening.  The tables filled in for almost everything--from the front door, to a coffin, to (of course) the Chevy itself.  Combining props with realistic movement and the projection of images in the background, Salinas always made clear where the character was and what he was doing.  My favorite moment was when Junior talked at length about the “stalker gringo Jesus” (which, if you are Mexican, you’re probably very familiar with) while the picture was displayed behind him just in case you haven’t seen it before.

We see all the play’s events through the perspective of Junior, who at ten years old has to deal with moving from the familiar South Central L.A. to the “Same” Fernando Valley.  The tensions between his immigrant family at home, the white people at school, and his distant relatives in Mexico are expressed poignantly through a series of anecdotes of his day-to-day experiences.  His father is shown over and over again to be an important figure in his life as he undergoes this process.  I understood the father’s desire for his son and daughters to achieve, especially in light of his background and the love he clearly possesses for them; he becomes a sympathetic character alongside Junior as a result.  Junior’s navigation through issues of identity and race is a political one, but personalizing it through childhood memories and a strong relationship with his father makes it more subtle yet also real.  As a fourth-generation Mexican American, I fundamentally appreciate the Latino Theater Company for producing a piece of art that I was able to partake in, even if I couldn’t relate to everything that happened in Junior’s life.

Hotel Transylvania 2

If you want to remember the quirkiness from the first Hotel Transylvania, you'll certainly get it in its successor.  The sequel features Dracula and his daughter Mavis once again, but this time with Mavis' son Dennis, who has yet to get his vampire fangs.  Worried that Mavis will move her family away to live with humans, Dracula wrangles the hotel gang in a series of hilarities to bring out his grandson's monster side.  Also, Dracula's dad shows up.  That part of the plot is shoe-horned as ungracefully in the movie as it is in my synopsis, but more on that later.

I really liked Mavis and Johnny getting together in the first movie (what, I'm a romantic, SUE ME!), so I enjoyed even more watching them get married and having possibly one of the cutest, sweetest animated kids to ever exist.  When they go to see Johnny's family, his mother embarrassed me on so many levels, like a true mom.   She had obnoxious Halloween decorations to make Mavis "feel at home" and invited "mixed" couples of a monster and a human to have dinner.  Unfortunately, one of the couple members told her that he wasn't a werwolf like she thought.  #Awkward!  Anyone else see the parallel with mixed-race couples?  Just wondering.  In general I liked seeing her and other humans interacting with the monsters in the classic fish-out-of-water trope.

From the preview, I knew that Dracula's dad would get incorporated in Dracula's quest to make Dennis a vampire.  I expected him to come into the movie a lot earlier, but instead he showed up in about the last fifteen minutes.  His conflict with the family about Dennis' half-human identity and the swarm of creepy bat monsters he brings with him are resolved too quickly to feel real.  His appearance didn't fit well into the overall arc of Dracula embracing all aspects of his grandson, which had thus far created quite a bit of entertainment for me, and it did not turn into a satisfying father-son reconciliation to make up for it.

Hotel Transylvania 2 is a fun animated kid's movie, although in the end it's simply that: a kid's movie.  I don't mean that negatively, because I laughed and awwwed several times in the theater.  However, when you put up this movie's amusing yet silly characters against the glory of, say, Toy Story, you remember that Hotel Transylvania 2 is not the classic, universal film that adults and kids get nostalgic about generation after generation.  It may be enjoyable for families, but it's missing the substance that takes a movie from decent to great.

Remember My Satire?

My lovely followers, I have an announcement, which you may have already heard but I'll share it again: my satire about Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey has finally been posted on BOP Journal.  I submitted it in the spring (I think), but some issues with the images and other things delayed its publication.  If you want to relive the laughs that the satire gave you before, go to this link: http://www.bopjournal.com/message-to-christian-grey-no-one-knows-how-to-win-middle-aged-womens-hearts-except-me-by-edward-cullen/

Some things have been changed to make it child appropriate, but hopefully it hasn't lost any of its overall humor and wit.

Trainwreck

Raunchy, unapologetic, and funny, Trainwreck is one of those rom-coms that (probably) wouldn't make your boyfriend want to dunk his head in the toilet and then flush twice.  Amy Schumer was phenomenal, both as the writer and the leading actress, and her co-star Bill Hader ain't too shabby either.  Schumer plays Amy (hm, same name… COINCIDENCE??), a woman who was taught by her father that monogamy isn't realistic and who has been living the party life ever since.  She interviews the sports doctor Aaron Conners for a men's magazine and, as you may guess, eventually changes her player/partier ways.

Aside from the gender role switch, we've seen this trope before, but thanks to the chemistry between the leads, Schumer's impeccable comedy, and a slew of other characters that contribute their own wackiness to the story, Trainwreck still feels like a fun ride.  We have John Cena as Amy's clueless, ridiculously buff semi-boyfriend, Colin Quinn as her rude, offensive father, and Carly Oudin as her pregnant, barely-keeping-her-cool sister.  Also, I really appreciated any scene that had LeBron James (that's his name right?).  His friendship with Aaron was adorable (and much more than the mere cameo I expected), and he even stages an "intervention" for Aaron that I had a fun time watching.

The story's secondary dimension with Amy's father Gordon had its laughs, but it had its tears, too.  At some point, Amy asks a crowd of people if he had ever offended them, and they all raised their hand.  However, they also all raised their hand when she asked if Gordon was still one of their favorite people.  A touching moment that I could relate to my own grandfather.  Moments like that made the characters so much more relatable, and even though Amy had her bad moments like her dad, she still turned out to be one of my favorites.

My only qualm about this movie was the sex scenes.  Like, SEX scenes, if you know what I mean.  I knew the movie was rated R so I wasn't surprised, but unless you wanna feel #AWKWARD watching it with your parents (hi, Mom) or even your significant other, I'd see it solo.

Fantastic Four: A Study on How to Screw up Marvel… Again

I could sum up my thoughts on Fox's (hopefully final) attempt at doing Marvel's Fantastic Four in six words: too much buildup, not enough payoff.  I had seen the bad reviews on Rotten Tomatoes before going into the theater, but I wanted to see it for myself since I hadn't hated the previous Fantastic Four movies as much as everyone else did.  I went in not expecting greatness but thinking it at least wouldn't be the worst film in the world.  It wasn't, but it was certainly disappointing.  Spoilers ahead.

The plot was dragging its feet, and I kept waiting for the inevitable confrontation between the superhero team and their nemesis.  Unfortunately, once it came, I didn't feel any of the edge-of-my-seat tension I've come to expect of this kind of movie.  I didn't even get to see much action before the scene ended.  The story's climax was not the only part that let me down from too little effort.  There's supposed to be a romance between Sue Storm (Invisible Woman) and Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), but aside from a meet-cute and one friendly conversation that makes Dr. Doom, I mean Victor, jealous, they did not have any relationship development.  Meanwhile, Johnny Storm is rebelling against his "overbearing" father, Dr. Storm, a theme so clichéd I don't even want to bother going into detail about it.

Reed's friendship with Ben (The Thing) had more meaningful attention, but even that got plunged into the toilet.  Reed abandons the group in a military complex after they get their powers and is in hiding for the next year as he tries to find a way to fix the situation.  Ben especially feels betrayed, but somehow by the end of the movie he acts as if nothing has happened.  Wow, way to deal with tension, movie.  Just have them work together to fight some villain for five minutes and then maybe the audience will forget all about it, too.

My final complaint is having to see some of the worst examples of foreshadowing that I've come across… and I say this as someone who's read a lot of good and bad books.  The first was when Ben's older brother exclaims "It's clobbering time!" right as he's about to beat him.  Aside from the horribly not-subtle harbinger of Ben's future, I can't imagine using a reminder of childhood abuse as a catchphrase when you become a superhero.  Later, while the group is having a conversation about their inter-dimensional teleporter, Victor expresses pessimism about the world and Sue scoffingly calls him "Dr. Doom."  Really? Really?  I could have dealt with the more low-key foreshadowing of Johnny's car engine exploding into flames, but that piece of dialogue felt like someone was squelching all of my book-loving braincells in one swift motion.

Listen, you don't have to be like me and find out how the movie is for yourself.  I will tell you straight up: you will have a much, much better time watching Ant-Man.

Ant-Man: A Worthy New Avenger

When I heard that Paul Rudd, the guy I knew from the high school comedy Clueless, had been cast as the newest addition to the Avengers franchise, I was skeptical.  I didn't think he was the kind of guy that could pull off playing a superhero, but he pleasantly surprised me. I sympathized with his character Scott Lang, an ex-convict who is finding it impossible to get a job or reconnect with his young daughter because of his record.  I thought his interactions with her were adorable and heartfelt (he calls her "peanut," how cute is that?).  They were a nice contrast to the strained relationship between Hank Pym and his daughter  Hope van Dyne.

Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, and Hope are plotting to take down Pym's old mentee Darren Cross.  Cross is developing his own shrink formula despite Pym's attempts to keep it under wraps, so Pym enlists Scott's help to steal it and shut Cross down.  For it being a Marvel movie, I expected there to be a lot more action, but most of the plot involved planning the heist of Cross' work.  During that time, a lot of the development focused on Pym and his daughter and the fact that Pym is so overprotective of her that he won't let her wear the Ant-Man suit for the heist, even though she has better knowledge of Cross' facilities and more experience with the Ant-Man technology.  Frankly, I found it an overused theme, and I also couldn't imagine Pym being like that if Hope were a son.  Thankfully the mid credits scene (spoiler!) made it up to me.

The movie also had me laughing a few times.  Scott was funny in an awkward way, but his Hispanic friend/fellow thief was by far the most hilarious.  Scott's conversations with Hope were fun to watch as well, even if you can see their romance coming from a thousand miles away.  Seriously, when don't they pair a male and female character up?  Finally, of course, there are plenty of cameos and references that reminded me of this film's ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Awesome bonus for Marvel nerds like me.  Admittedly, if you're not already a Marvel fan, Ant-Man is not the first film I would recommend to make you fall head-over-heels in love with the franchise.  It is, however, still an entertaining film that will make you laugh and cry and cheer for the characters.  I applaud Paul Rudd for pulling off such a charming new character and I look forward to seeing him in future installments.

This Movie Turned Me Inside Out (Pun Intended)

Well, Pixar has done it again.  Inside Out is another heartwarming, visually compelling addition to the studio's plethora of animated films that both adults and kids can enjoy.  Before watching the movie, I already liked the idea of personifying emotions, but I liked even better how it manifested as Joy, Fear, Sadness, Disgust, and Anger operated headquarters in Riley's mind.  You never think of emotions such as fear, sadness, or even disgust as being good things, but the movie made a solid point about their usefulness and necessity.

The character Joy describes Fear as the one who keeps Riley safe, while showing Fear prevent Riley from tripping over a wire.  This is just one of many moments throughout the film that prove how sometimes in this world, happiness may not be the most appropriate response.  In fact, that's what the whole story arc is about.  Joy and Sadness are swept out of headquarters and must work together to find their way back.  Meanwhile, Anger, Disgust, and Fear are the only ones left to help Riley navigate the difficulties of moving to a new city and trying to find her place there.  The separation between the characters makes clear how all of them are needed for Riley to be, well, Riley.  Now that I'm writing it out, the message by itself seems a little corny, but the movie did a great job in not becoming fake or sappy.  I even cried.  Twice.

We also get brief glimpses into other people's heads, which usually led to a lot of crack up-worthy moments (by the way, can I get a Brazilian helicopter pilot to daydream about?).  One thing bothers me about that though: the emotions get the same hairstyles as the person whose mind they're in, except for Riley's.  Her dad's emotions have his mustache, and her mom's emotions have her ponytail.  Riley's emotions, however, have nothing in common in their appearance.  It's a small thing, but consistency-wise it is questionable when you really think about it.

My tangent aside, Inside Out is a beautiful, funny, and meaningful movie that deserves all the critical praise it has received thus far.  This is just my two cents, but I think anyone who likes Pixar will definitely like this movie.