Aurelia Butler
More stories
- in Music
For Billy Joel Fans, a New York Night to Remember
Thousands of people piled into Madison Square Garden on Thursday to hear Billy Joel’s catalog of hits in the final show of his long residency at the arena.Lori Umbrino saw her first Billy Joel concert at Shea Stadium in Queens in 1990. More than three decades later, she stood with her two children outside Madison Square Garden on Thursday evening, each wearing a T-shirt from the singer’s concerts across the years.“We’ve been there with him along the journey,” said Ms. Umbrino, 51, whose shirt was from Mr. Joel’s 100th concert at Madison Square Garden on July 18, 2018, designated Billy Joel Day in New York State.That journey has led them back to Madison Square Garden, where Mr. Joel was performing the 150th and final show of his 10-year residency there.The milestone — and, for some, the devastating misunderstanding that Mr. Joel was retiring — drew veterans of his shows, first-timers, families and singles from around the city and the country. Thousands of people piled into the Garden to hear Mr. Joel glide from hit to hit.Stuart Stephenson sat outside the arena at 34th Street and Eighth Avenue, blowing into his melodica, fingering the keys to play “New York State of Mind” and “Uptown Girl.” Fans and commuters streamed by, hawkers sold T-concert shirts, and drivers planted their hands on their horns.Mr. Stephenson saw a news segment on Thursday morning about Mr. Joel’s concert, and thinking the Piano Man was closing his Steinway for good, he rushed into Midtown.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
- in Movies
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Reviews Are In: Amusing or Exhausting?
Few critics could deny that the highly anticipated super spectacle, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, has its charms — but most left wanting more.After a summer without superheroes, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is slashing its way into theaters.The high-octane collision of the wisecracking antihero Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds in two previous films, and the hulking and messianic Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman (returning to the role for the first time since “Logan” in 2017), marks Marvel Studios’ only release of the calendar year. The movie, directed by Shawn Levy, is projected to have the best ever domestic opening weekend for an R-rated film.Most critics have found something to like in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which has an 81 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. They say it has a superpowered jokes-per-minute ratio and two winning performances from its lead actors. But many reviewers had a mixed-to-negative assessment of the movie overall, calling it difficult to follow, lacking in real tension or stakes and overly reliant on self-referential story lines.Read on for some highlights.Look, I Laughed [Vulture]The movie’s aggressive sense of humor about itself may win you over despite its flaws. “‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ isn’t a particularly good movie — I’m not even sure it is a movie,” Bilge Ebiri wrote. “But it’s so determined to beat you down with its incessant irreverence that you might find yourself submitting to it.”Nothing Ever Ends [The New York Times]The movie’s existence reflects Hollywood’s inability to “let well enough alone,” wrote Alissa Wilkinson, but it’s entertaining nonetheless. “It still features Reynolds making fun of himself; it has some fun set pieces, clever sight gags, amusing surprises, left-field references and adoring pauses to admire Jackman’s biceps and abs.”‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Makes the M.C.U. the Villain — and Not in a Good Way [Polygon]In a negative review, Joshua Rivera found the film dispiritingly hollow. “‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ has made its hero the worst kind of comic book character: one who doesn’t stand for anything.”Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s Sarky Gagathon Mocks the M.C.U. Back to Life [The Guardian]Peter Bradshaw appreciated the movie’s satirical bent while capturing a common complaint about it in a few words. “It’s amusing and exhausting,” he wrote.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
- in Movies
‘Only the River Flows’ Review: A Spiraling Murder Investigation
In this Chinese police procedural, directed by Wei Shujun, solutions are murkier than they first appear.Near the start of “Only the River Flows,” police officers set up an office in a closing movie theater. That backdrop suits this Chinese noir, the third feature from the director Wei Shujun, which, at times, feels like it unfolds in a universe of other films.Tangled, unresolved procedurals like Bong Joon Ho’s “Memories of Murder” and David Fincher’s “Zodiac” loom large. Much of the score, on the other hand, is taken, strangely, from David Cronenberg’s “Crash” — not a murder mystery, but perhaps a clue to the kind of mind-body disconnect and existential stakes that Wei’s film means to ponder.The story, largely set in 1995, follows a police captain named Ma Zhe (Zhu Yilong) as he investigates the killing of a woman called Granny Four. At first, the case seems straightforward: Granny Four had taken in a simpleton who, throughout the movie, is known only as “the madman” (Kang Chunlei) — a natural suspect. But nothing is so clear-cut. Many of this thriller’s pleasures involve watching Ma Zhe chase leads, as he listens to a cassette found at the crime scene to try to locate a woman heard on it or questions a hairdresser (Wang Jianyu) who seems eager to be apprehended.But “Only the River Flows,” based on a work by the author Yu Hua, is not the pure pulp a summary suggests. (An opening quotation from Albert Camus is fair warning.) As Ma Zhe’s personal life and the investigation begin to merge in his mind, Wei’s film increasingly blurs the line between the real and the imagined. The filmmaker has a gift for disorientation — a chilling cut connects a scene of a pregnancy ultrasound to Ma Zhe flipping through slides of murder evidence — that partly compensates for the muddiness of the plot.Only the River FlowsNot rated. In Mandarin, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. In theaters. More
- in Movies
‘Rhinegold’ Review: Rapping With a Rap Sheet
Based on the life of an Iranian German drug dealer and rapper, Fatih Akin’s interminable drama feels uncomfortably partial to its violent subject.Any enjoyment of Fatih Akin’s protracted, genre-hopping “Rhinegold” requires that you give a hoot about its thoroughly unlikable subject, a violent criminal and, later, successful rap artist named Giwar Hajabi. And while Emilio Sakraya deserves respect for tackling the monumentally unsympathetic role of the adult Hajabi, his cocky charisma only underscores the movie’s seeming enchantment with his character’s wrongdoing. As does a fairy-tale ending featuring frolicking, animated mermaids.Inspired by Hajabi’s tumultuous life, “Rhinegold” opens in 2010 with his torture in a Syrian prison for refusing to cough up the bullion from an audacious gold heist. From there, the film flashes back to his inauspicious birth in a rubble-strewn cave as his parents, both Kurdish musicians, flee the Iranian Revolution. By the mid-1990s, safely settled in Bonn, the young Hajabi is busily selling drugs and purloined pornography while perfecting his ability to deliver bare-fisted beatdowns. Luckily, the Persian beauty (Sogol Faghani) he has his eye on will later forgive the vicious pummeling he gives an adversary right in front of her.Mixing war movie, coming-of-age drama and gangster thriller, Akin and Hajabi’s screenplay is a dispiriting brew of repellent behavior and odious rap lyrics. Incarceration ends the film’s parade of criminal conspiracies while kick-starting Hajabi’s singing career; but beneath the nefariousness we catch a glimpse of a more interesting story, one of dispossessed minorities repeatedly banding together to claim power in a new world.“Rhinegold” is not that movie. As its swaggering subject sniffs out another ally and a new angle, careless of the pain he’s causing his family, the picture seems almost impressed.“My kismet sucks,” Hajabi complains after one of his many setbacks. Somehow, I don’t think kismet was his problem.RhinegoldNot rated. Running time: 2 hours 18 minutes. In theaters. More
- in Movies
‘The Fabulous Four’ Review: Beaches (and Lots of Mojitos)
This raunchy comedy features Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally on a bachelorette weekend.“The Fabulous Four” stars Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally as old pals who cut loose during a bachelorette weekend in Key West.Marilyn (Midler), a recent widow, is marrying a guy she just met at the D.M.V. But first, she’s itching to grind on an exotic male dancer. In the last year and a half, this kind of all-star girls trip flick has become its own genre (see also: “80 for Brady,” “Summer Camp” and “Book Club: The Next Chapter”). This one, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and written by Ann Marie Allison and Jenna Milly, is the raunchiest and loopiest so far. Slapdash but executed with gusto, “Fabulous Four” feels like it was made after guzzling three bottles of champagne — and honestly, that’s an apropos way to watch.The central conflict is that Marilyn is a self-absorbed TikTok influencer and Lou (Sarandon), a self-righteous stick in the mud who considers her estranged best friend’s wedding a personal affront. Lou blames Marilyn for turning her into a lonely cat lady — and, fittingly, gets tricked into the vacation by a phony claim that she’s won one of Ernest Hemingway’s polydactyl felines, descendants of his six-toed pet Snowball that continue to roam the grounds of the author’s former Florida home. (Sarandon’s saucer eyes light up endearingly as she clutches a pet carrier to her chest.)Rounding out the foursome are Kitty (Ralph), a cannabis farmer with a born-again daughter (Brandee Evans) who wants to stick her in a religious retirement home (“Heaven’s Gate?” Kitty groans, “More like hell on earth”) and Alice (Mullally), a lusty singer who roams the margins of the plot blurting as many gasp-inducing one-liners as she can.The jokes dance right on the edge of what you’re willing to giggle at in a matinee with your mother-in-law. Somehow when Lou meets a love interest (Bruce Greenwood) who happens to be clutching one of Key West’s famous wild chickens, the script restrains itself from a wisecrack about his rooster. There’s a little too much reliance on half-baked physical comedy. Midler kicks up her heels with such pizazz that her shoes literally go flying offscreen; later, she twerks, and she’s pretty good. More impressively, she and her fellow professionals do their utmost to add at least one layer to their caricatures. Midler allows her narcissist’s vulnerability to poke through, while Sarandon, tasked to look severe, wins us over every time she loosens up. (One scene has her blitzed on edibles and hallucinating a cat performing heart surgery.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
- in Movies
‘Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net’ Review: How the Magic Happens
This documentary chronicles the reboot and reopening in Las Vegas of the acrobatic show “O,” which shutdown during the pandemic.Conventional wisdom once held, snootily, that circus folk were quirky, superstitious, given to idiosyncratic behavior. Whether that was ever really true or not, the members of the rather unconventional Cirque du Soleil, as portrayed in the new documentary “Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net,” happen to be rather remarkably levelheaded.In scenes of conception, rehearsal and more, nobody raises a voice, storms off, indulges in Machiavellian scheming or displays anything vaguely resembling diva or divo behavior. One acrobat expresses a hope to bring a new trick to a revived show. When she can’t make it work, she reverts to her rehearsed routine and resolves to come up with something some other time. No drama.The movie is not boring or dry, though, as “Without a Net,” directed by Dawn Porter, chronicles a critical period in the organization’s history: the remounting of a show after the pandemic shutdowns. (It had dozens of shows playing around the world before the pandemic. The virus shut them down within 48 hours in March 2020, and 95 percent of the company’s staff was laid off.) Over a year later, the company began remounting “O,” its popular Las Vegas show. The title is a pun: This spectacle features acrobats performing without a net above an ingeniously engineered pool of water — as in “eau,” the French word for water.Porter’s inquisitive camera gives the viewer enticing detail on how everything comes together — for instance, unbeknown to the audience, the pool is constantly monitored by rescue divers in scuba gear who also serve as prop people — while holding in suitable awe the actual magic all this work eventually yields.Cirque du Soleil: Without a NetRated PG-13 for some strong language. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Amazon Prime Video. More
- in Music
Klaus Florian Vogt’s Strange, Essential Voice in Opera
Klaus Florian Vogt, a Wagner specialist with an ethereal yet mighty sound, is returning to the Bayreuth Festival to sing in the “Ring.”Klaus Florian Vogt’s voice is a phenomenon that even he has had trouble grasping. In the early days of his career, he would hear recordings of himself singing and be surprised by the timbre. He knew his tenor was bright, but outside his head it sounded even brighter.He wasn’t the only one unsure of what to make of his voice. Lithe, polished and powerful, it continues to divide listeners. Some critics find it youthful; others, immature. At 54, Vogt is one of the most essential performers in opera. But “there is no voice that divides fans so much,” the music critic Markus Thiel wrote in a review. “‘Ethereal,’ ‘otherworldly,’ some cheer. ‘Boyish,’ ‘Wagner wish-wash,’ others complain.”These days, Vogt isn’t so surprised by his sound. “It’s continually grown closer, what my imagination is of how I want to sing and what the actual result is,” he said in an interview.He has also accepted that his voice is not for everybody. “What I never wanted,” he said, “was to pretend to be something I’m not. That’s what’s dangerous for vocal technique and for a voice in general — when you don’t sing with your own voice.”Vogt is a Wagner specialist, with all of the composer’s major tenor roles in his repertoire as of last year, when he performed as Siegfried in the final two operas of the “Ring” cycle at the Zurich Opera House. On July 31, he will sing the role for the first time at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
