Aurelia Butler

More stories

  • 50 Shares189 Views

    in Movies

    ‘Music’ Review: Oedipus Rocks

    An ethereal, experimental new drama retells the story of the mythical Greek hero.“Music” is a contemporary retelling of the Oedipus legend, though the parallels between the director Angela Schanelec’s experimental drama and the original Greek myth are elusive by design.In the beginning of the film, a crew of young people pull up to a craggy Grecian coastline, among them Jon (Aliocha Schneider), whose feet, like Sophocles’ hero, are scraped and bloodied. While there, Jon accidentally knocks one of his companions into a rock. The friend, Lucian (Theodore Vrachas), hits his head, and Jon goes to prison for his crime. Upon his release, he reunites with a willowy woman, Iro (Agathe Bonitzer), with whom he starts a family.All of this unfolds with little to no dialogue. The biggest plot points are choreographed like somber dances, gestural fragments in a loosely bound narrative that employs booming, baroque music (and later, modern indie ballads) to sculpt its emotions.The Oedipus myth provides footholds with which to make sense of these ethereal proceedings, though it’s clear Schanelec is interested only in the contours of story: More powerful, for instance, are the supple ways the hands of two lovers touch for the first time; the way a father gazes beholding his child.“Music” follows “I Was at Home, But…” (2020), Schanelec’s similarly mysterious riff on “Hamlet,” but there’s a crucial difference separating this new film from not just the previous one, but possibly all of Schanelec’s earlier work.We eventually discover who Jon’s parents are, but the film’s most significant revision of the original story takes mercy on Jon. He is never told the truth, and this blissful, productive ignorance pervades the second, radiant half of the film, which is set in Berlin, where Jon’s musical gifts are foregrounded. Hope was never something that I associated with Schanelec’s typically dour films, yet here, from the darkness of a timeless tragedy emerges light.MusicNot rated. In Greek, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. In theaters. More

  • 150 Shares199 Views

    in Movies

    Review: In ‘June Zero,’ There Are Many Ways to See the Past

    Jake Paltrow’s film braids three fictional stories around the 1962 execution of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi official and war criminal.In 1960, Israeli agents smuggled the Nazi official Adolf Eichmann from Buenos Aires to Jerusalem to stand trial for his role in the Holocaust. Rather than focus on the operation, or on Eichmann’s notorious defense, “June Zero” thoughtfully braids three stories that relate to the events around Eichmann’s execution by hanging in 1962.Jake Paltrow’s film, which premiered at festivals in 2022, might sound like an exercise in hagiography: Drawing on actual accounts, it’s framed by the tale of David, a plucky Israeli teenager who finds himself involved in Eichmann’s fate. But the shifting story, written by Paltrow and Tom Shoval, complicates the act of commemoration and dwells on the moral quandaries and uncomfortable resonances that result from the events.David (Noam Ovadia, a nervy newcomer) is pushed to work in a factory after trouble in school. His boss, Shlomi (Tzahi Grad), a brutal former soldier, is secretly custom-building an oven for the government to cremate Eichmann’s remains, and their plan is played in the movie for unease as much as for suspense.At the same time, Eichmann’s guard in jail, Haim (Yoav Levi), nearly goes mad from his assignment to protect the Nazi. The spotlight then leaps to Poland, where a tour guide (Tom Hagi), a Holocaust survivor, spars with the trip organizer (Joy Rieger), weighing the necessary rituals of remembrance against the risks of being trapped by the past.Concluding with David’s role in Eichmann’s disposal, “June Zero” sticks to its characters’ specific experiences of these events. But the resourceful narrative, with some surprising grace notes, tends to invite questioning and reflection.June ZeroNot rated. In Hebrew and Spanish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters. More

  • 100 Shares159 Views

    in Movies

    ‘Fancy Dance’ Review: The Search for a Sister

    This debut feature about a missing woman on an Oklahoma reservation is an imperfect but palpably emotional portrait of desperation and hard-won hope.“Fancy Dance,” the debut feature film from Erica Tremblay, begins where most films of its ilk might find their story’s second act. Tawi, a mother of a teenage daughter, has been missing for weeks. Search parties have been combing the fields, and her sister, Jax (Lily Gladstone), has struggled to get the F.B.I. to assist.The ghost of Tawi, in other words, is a fixture from the start and hovers over the film. The empty space of her — we glimpse her only in photos and fliers — is intentional: This story about the search for a missing woman on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation of Oklahoma is not a mystery thriller, and the film is not meant to milk dramatic tension from her disappearance. Rather, Tawi’s case is all too common, and the entry point to what is ultimately a portrait of desperation, poverty and hard-won hope.Hope, or the illusion of it, is worth fighting for because of Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson), Tawi’s daughter, whom Jax has been taking care of since Tawi went missing. The two are close, forcing Jax between two poles: the hardened exterior that reservation life necessitates (Gladstone is imperfect, but well suited to Jax’s steel-encased tenderness) and the desire to preserve Roki’s innocence. Even as they commit petty crimes to scrounge up cash and continue the search, Jax assures Roki that her mother will be at the upcoming annual powwow, where there is a mother-daughter dance.Tremblay’s film is not always graceful — the dialogue and acting can be stilted, and one hopes for a little more formal rigor — but it’s a strong debut undergirded by a palpably real emotional core and an un-showy sense of the reality of reservation life. Jax is often confronted by a push and pull in the same room: those ready to pounce and those offering to help. Each stance is born out of the same understanding — that the world is harsh, and not everyone can survive it.Fancy DanceRated R for language, some drug content and sexual material. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters. More

  • 75 Shares169 Views

    in Movies

    ‘Daddio’ Review: Two for the Road

    Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson outclass a humdrum script as two people who talk — and talk — in a New York City taxicab.Handicapped by more than a terrible title, Christy Hall’s “Daddio,” set almost entirely inside a New York City taxicab, tries too hard and lasts too long. A synthetic encounter between a gabby cabby and his self-possessed female passenger, the movie is a claustrophobic two-hander oxygenated in part by Phedon Papamichael’s sleekly gorgeous cinematography.The star power of its leads, Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson, doesn’t hurt either. Injecting nuance and emotional depth into Hall’s uninspired script, the two turn a threatened slog into a mildly enjoyable journey. Penn plays Clark, a tough, salt-of-the-earth type (he actually talks about salt at one point) whose roughened hands and veined forearms are catnip to the camera. Johnson is his last fare of the night, a sophisticated young woman traveling from Kennedy Airport to midtown Manhattan. He calls her Girlie.He is very nosy. When not railing against credit cards and rideshare apps, he peppers his passenger with increasingly personal questions. Initially guarded, Girlie slowly warms to this drive-by philosopher. Through the barriers of age, gender, class and education, their revelations grow more intimate — sometimes implausibly so, as when Clark shares a distasteful anecdote about his first wife, along with his thoughts on what married men want in a mistress. (Hint: It’s not love.) Not that Girlie is clutching her pearls; rather, she’s surreptitiously sexting her tongue-lolling lover.Somehow, Penn never allows Clark’s inappropriateness to become predatory, and Johnson’s marvelously expressive features reveal details the dialogue declines to provide. Yet if there’s a finer point to any of this — beyond yes, talking to strangers is sometimes beneficial — it eluded me. I did, though, appreciate Hall’s choice to flash some texts directly onto the movie screen: Squinting at characters’ smartphones is one of my least favorite activities. Along with listening to gossipy cabdrivers.DaddioRated R for bared breasts and barroom language. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. In theaters. More

  • 125 Shares119 Views

    in Movies

    ‘Chronicles of a Wandering Saint’ Review: Are the Meek Blessed?

    It’s clear that Rita’s life in rural Argentina could use a bit of magic. But her willingness to bend the truth to achieve it heralds disaster.“How do I know if something is a miracle?” This is the question that Rita (Mónica Villa), a 60-something Catholic woman living in rural Argentina, poses to a search engine — though deep down, she already knows the answer. A statue that Rita found while tending to her duties as the local chapel keeper isn’t the long-lost figure of St. Rita. But it’d be a miracle if it were, and miracles mean glory, attention and prestige in her small town.Rita’s simple life — scrubbing pews, tolerating the pretenses of other church volunteers, coming home to her spacey but loyal husband, Norberto (Horacio Marassi) — could use a bit of magic. Yet this desire, and her willingness to bend the truth to achieve it, herald disaster.Directed by Tomás Gómez Bustillo, “Chronicles of a Wandering Saint” begins as a slow-moving scammer comedy. Halfway through, the film receives a jolt, and Rita’s drab surroundings take on an enchanted quality that places the film within the robust tradition of Latin American magical realism.The visually elegant film can also be overly precious and whimsical, though that might be a virtue by some measures. In this regard it shares DNA with the laconic comedies of Aki Kaurismaki. The superior second half, in which Rita’s reality is upended, eases into a realm of fantasy that is admirable — and more effective — because of its uncanny, inventive minimalism.That miracles happen under the most banal circumstances is a bit of a cliché, but the film tackles this conceit with the kind of originality and intelligence that makes you forget there’s a blueprint in the first place.Chronicles of a Wandering SaintNot rated. In Spanish, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 24 minutes. In theaters. More

  • 163 Shares189 Views

    in Music

    30 L.G.B.T.Q. Artists Look Back on the Pleasures and Pain of Being 30

    What’s it like to be 30 and queer and an artist? To try to put something meaningful into the world while simultaneously figuring out who you are? For many, it’s a pivotal year — a time when you start to know yourself with greater clarity and to understand what you want and how you want […] More

  • 125 Shares99 Views

    in Music

    Tom Prasada-Rao, Whose Song Elegized George Floyd, Dies at 66

    His 2020 lament “$20 Bill” was covered by scores of artists and, a fellow musician said, might well be destined for the folk music canon.In late May 2020, Tom Prasada-Rao, a veteran of the contemporary folk scene, was recovering from the “chemo fog,” as he put it, that was the debilitating aftermath of his cancer treatment, when he turned on CNN and saw the protests over the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police.He was exhausted, but the protests broke his heart, and he felt compelled to write an elegy for Mr. Floyd. He called it “$20 Bill” — a reminder that Mr. Floyd died while being arrested for buying a pack of cigarettes with what might have been a counterfeit 20. It’s a tuneful lament, the gentlest of protest songs, and when Mr. Prasada-Rao recorded himself playing it on Facebook, his soft baritone muted by his illness, “$20 Bill” took off.He then posted the guitar chords and the lyrics, and more than 100 other musicians, at his request, began recording it. (The original video now has over 40,000 views.) The singer-songwriter Dan Navarro, one of many in the folk community who did so, called it “the song of a lifetime.” NPR included it in its list of 50 protest songs that defined 2020, along with Usher’s “I Cry” and Beyoncé’s “Black Parade.” Jake Blount, a musician and ethnomusicologist, wrote that it was easy to imagine “$20 Bill” entering the folk canon.The song begins:Some people die for honorSome people die for loveSome people die while singingTo the heavens aboveSome people die believingIn the cross on Calvary’s hillAnd some people die in the blink of an eyeFor a $20 bill.Mr. Prasada-Rao — folk music’s “quiet giant,” as Mr. Blount called him — died on June 19 at his home in Silver Spring, Md. He was 66.Early in 2019 he had been diagnosed with cancer of the salivary gland, which had metastasized to his lungs, said his sister Patty Prasada-Rao, who confirmed the death.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

  • 125 Shares99 Views

    in Music

    Popcast (Deluxe): Will There Ever Be Another Global Pop Icon?

    Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTubeThis week’s episode of Popcast (Deluxe), the weekly culture roundup show on YouTube hosted by Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, includes discussion of:The current Hot 100, which features newcomers like Tommy Richman, Shaboozey, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and othersWho has emerged, besides Taylor Swift, as a true cross-platform pop superstar in the last decade — Bad Bunny? Drake?How centrist pop has become an aggregation of several styles rather than one coherent soundHow pop superstars of the ’80s and ’90s aggregated superfans and casual fansWhether there is a path for a new star to get famous enough to play something like the Super Bowl halftime show a decade from nowConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. More