In a really crappy summer and a pretty hectic year in Hollywood, one of the bigger releases in 2021 was “In the Heights.” It’s a movie I’d been looking forward to for a long time, since Lin Manuel Miranda is one of my personal heroes. It’s finally brought to film by director Jon M. Chu after being in literal development hell since 2008. Jon M. Chu is no stranger to films involving dancing and urban settings, thankfully, and we’re given an absolutely dazzling, emotional, and energetic musical.
Tag Archives: Performance
In the Heights (2021)
The COVID Pandemic has changed a lot about what we love about New York City; over the years it’s become something of an environment where opportunities have dwindled and the sense of community has been lost. From Gentrification and the Exodus of its residents, the city just isn’t familiar anymore. “In the Heights” is that reminder that once upon a time New York was about tight knit communities sticking together and beating the odds. And it’s a call to the idea that maybe it all can be reclaimed.
SF Sketchfest Presents “Plan 9 From Outer Space” Table read – adapted by comedian Dana Gould
Part of the 2021 TCM Classic Film Festival, the SF Sketchfest presents their rendition of “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” The virtual event is depicted through a series of web cams, and in glorious black and white just for authenticity. Despite the characters not being able to play off one another, the adaptation of “Plan 9” from Dana Gould is actually damn good, and that can be attributed mainly to the fantastic cast, all of whom have a great time with the goofy material.
Poms (2019)
The way Roger Ebert felt toward “Bucket List” is kind of the way I feel toward “Poms.” While it is a movie that’s meant to be life affirming and celebrating old age, “Poms” watches like a patronizing, exploitative last gasp of a once excellent actress. For a movie that is meant to be fun and light hearted, “Poms” is painfully depressing while also being embarrassingly bland and silly when we get down to it. I’m all for movies that confront the idea of ageism and that nothing can hold us back from accomplishing our dreams, but “Pom” is absolutely disingenuous to its very foundation.
Earwig and the Witch (2020) [Blu-Ray/DVD]
I’m one of the traditionalists that think Studio Ghibli should have stuck to hand drawn animation, but sometimes there’s just no fighting change. With “Earwig and the Witch” there’s so much new, that you’re almost tricked in to forgetting that the movie almost has no real narrative. At all. This is one of Studio Ghibli’s more aimless movies that doesn’t have a whole lot to it. Substantially, the movie packs in some great animation, and it’s quite startling how some of the motion for some scenes looks so realistic. I’m not going to say that the movie is an accomplishment in regards to Ghibli because Pixar has pulled off so much better.
Hell, Dreamworks has accomplished so much more with this medium.
Röckët Stähr’s Death of a Rockstar (2020) [Fantaspoa Fest 2021]
It’s not too often I’m privileged enough to watch an animated rock opera, but Röckët Stähr’s one man production about world fighting for peace through rock and roll is quite the spectacle. One thing you can’t accuse it of is being unambitious, as Röckët Stähr’s does everything in the movie possible. He literally does everything as when the movie comes to a close you can see the impressive list of tasks he undertook to bring his movie to life.
Nuevo Rico (2020) [SXSW 2021]
Director Kristian Mercado Figueroa’s short musical is a brilliant and excellent look at the end of the potential creeping end of the American territory known as Puerto Rico. Though fiction, Mercado brings to light the very troubling developments that could change how Puerto Ricans connect to their homeland. In the near future, the raw land of Puerto Rico has been destroyed in favor of a futuristic dystopia now known as Nuevo Rico.