‘LAST NIGHT IN SOHO’ RATED R

A trippy homage to swinging ‘60s London and twisted tale of time-travel to a horrific nightmare, Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho” often seems like the polarized world of the dark side of sex and graphic violence that would be the hallmark of a David Lynch film.

As a country girl from Cornwall with dreams of becoming a fashion designer, Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) is about to venture forth to the big city of London, leaving behind her doting grandmother (Rita Tushingham).

Orphaned at a young age, Ellie aspires to follow in her late mother’s footsteps. That may explain why her bedroom, complete with posters and ephemera from the 1960s, looks like a shrine to a bygone era.

The unsophisticated Ellie proves to be an outcast to the hip other girls at the fashion school. Her mean-girl roommate and the other party girls are so obnoxious that she leaves her dorm for a Soho rooming house run by Ms. Collins (Diana Rigg in her last movie role).

While Ellie’s designs show promise, they are fittingly retrograde to the ‘60s era. Her obsession with the past soon thrusts her into that Carnaby Street period as she dreams of a stunning blonde named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy) who sings Petula Clark and Dusty Springfield tunes.

Any doubt that Ellie has ventured into the mid-1960s is dispelled when emerging onto a street where a movie theater’s marquee hosts an oversized poster of Sean Connery as James Bond in “Thunderball.”

As Sandie’s carefree lifestyle in Soho looms large in Ellie’s mind, the fashion student becomes so increasingly fixated on her alter ego’s world that she dyes her hair blonde and dresses in vintage clothes.

At times it seems like Ellie is inhabiting Sandie’s body, but soon recoils at the advances made by Sandie’s pimp Jack (Matt Walsh), a slick scoundrel with an ugly streak of thuggish behavior. The glamorous world of Sandie is a total illusion.

“Last Night in Soho” is ultimately a psychological thriller that offers more style than substance, and that would not be so bad but for the increasingly repetitive nature of the horror elements of ghoulish men as disturbing visions.

On the other hand, while the Sixties nostalgia of great music and fashions delights, Anna Taylor-Joy brings the era so vividly to life that one wishes her screen time would have been even greater.



‘ONLY THE ANIMALS’ NOT RATED

The French mystery thriller “Only the Animals” is an art house film that made its mark at the 2019 Venice Film Festival and is now making its way to limited theaters.

A blurb on the poster calls it “A French Fargo,” which might be a stretch but for the film’s quirkiness and the fact that a snowstorm in rural France reminds one of a cruel winter in North Dakota.

How do five characters on two continents factor into the death of one socialite woman in the highlands of southern France where one can drive for miles and see nothing but snowdrifts and occasional livestock?

For one thing, director Dominick Moll may have been inspired by Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” in that the film’s structure of adopting successive points of view creates mystery and suspense.

In the press notes, the director disabuses that notion, observing that everything revolves around the mystery of Evelyne Ducat (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) where “the points of view of his characters are incomplete, intertwined, and do not necessarily cover the same period.”

Switching viewpoints, “Only the Animals” reveals the secret connections between a reclusive farmer, an unfaithful husband and wife, a lovelorn waitress and an African internet scam artist, exposing a world of greed, lust, betrayal, and loneliness.

The film opens in the shantytowns of Ivory Coast’s capital city where Armand (Guy Roger N’drin), a young black man, is seen riding a scooter with a goat on his back. Your first thought is how does he figure in the story?

From coastal Africa, we move quickly to a frigid winter in rural France where married social worker Alice (Laure Calamy) is having an affair with morose farmer Joseph (Damien Bonnard).

Alice is the first to spot Evelyne’s abandoned car on the side of a desolate road. The police question Joseph who claims to know nothing about the driver but why are strange things happening on his property?

Shifting back in time, the bisexual Evelyne strikes up a tempestuous relationship with young waitress Marion (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) during a visit to a coastal Mediterranean city.

Tension arises when Evelyne, who’s just looking for sexual gratification, rebuffs Marion’s professed love. Does this make the young woman a suspect for murder?

What about Alice’s husband Michel (Denis Menochet), so desperate for an affair that he falls victim to Armand’s cyber-scam posing as the sexy Amandine who keeps asking for money?

What binds everyone in “Only the Animals” are deep, dark secrets and a search for love, often in the wrong places. Well, there’s also the tale of murder and intrigue to hold one’s interest.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

Craig Santos Perez packs into this love sonnet, “Love in a Time of Climate Change,” echoes of many famous love poems, from Robert Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee (Sonnet 43),” to Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18,” to Neruda’s “Sonnet XVII.”

In the title, he alludes wittily to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel, “Love in the Time of Cholera.”

But to what end, one may ask?

To remind us of the persistence of love through times of catastrophe and change over the course of history, and to remind us that in clever and sensitive hands, a “recycled” love song can seem fresh, current and deliciously urgent.

Love in a Time of Climate Change
By Craig Santos Perez

I don’t love you as if you were rare earth metals,
conflict diamonds, or reserves of crude oil that cause
war. I love you as one loves the most vulnerable
species: urgently, between the habitat and its loss.

I love you as one loves the last seed saved
within a vault, gestating the heritage of our roots,
and thanks to your body, the taste that ripens
from its fruit still lives sweetly on my tongue.

I love you without knowing how or when this world
will end. I love you organically, without pesticides.
I love you like this because we’ll only survive

in the nitrogen rich compost of our embrace,
so close that your emissions of carbon are mine,
so close that your sea rises with my heat.


American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2020 by Carlos Santos Perez, “Love in a Time of Climate Change” from Habitat Threshold (Omnidawn Publishing, 2020.) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2021 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — Halloween events are taking place in Middletown on Sunday afternoon and evening.

From 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday you can come to a Day of the Dead celebration with DJ Dragonfly including face painting and an altar for loved ones passed at Dance Yogis in Middletown.

All family members are welcome and encouraged to participate in honoring ancestors in a fun and sacred way. Dance Yogis is located at 21248 Hwy 175 in Middletown. Participation is by donation, $10 to $20.

Then, from 7 to 10 p.m., the Higher Logic Project will perform outdoors in central Middletown at the Middletown Art Center.

It’s been a long time since this beloved Lake County-based band has performed locally and there is a lot of excitement around the event. Tickets are $15 and concert proceeds will benefit HLP friend Alma “Cötí” Husson, wellness.

The current configuration includes Dooby Wells lead singer, Chris Clark on bass, Travis Austin on guitar/voice, Peter Wilson on guitar, Zack Yurik drums, Gabriel Winter keyboards and Michael Gabriel voice and steel drum.

The concert will be postponed if it rains.

The Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 State Highway 175 in Middletown at the corner of Highway 29.

‘DUNE’ RATED PG-13

Forget about David Lynch’s 1984 version of “Dune,” because I certainly have and won’t revisit his vision for any comparison to director Denis Villeneuve’s take on Frank Herbert’s science-fiction novel.

Set thousands of years in the future, the year 10191 to be exact, “Dune” tells the story of Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), a young man propelled by fate into an intergalactic power struggle.

The son of beloved, embattled ruler Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) and powerful warrior priestess Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Paul will be given the ultimate test of conquering his fear when fate and unseen forces pull him inexorably to the sands of the remote planet Arrakis.

An unwelcoming desert wasteland, Arrakis is home to an indigenous human civilization called the Fremen. The planet has been fiercely contested for generations for its valuable natural resource.

The allure of Arrakis is the fight for control of the Spice, a rare, highly valued, mind-expanding resource upon which space travel, knowledge, commerce and human existence all rely.

But those seeking to harvest the Spice must survive the planet’s inhospitable heat, hurricane-strength sandstorms, and monolithic sandworms that are justly feared with the kind of reverence usually reserved for gods.

The battle for Spice involves a trade war pitting House Atreides against House Harkonnen, the leader of which is the sadistic Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard), a truly malevolent force ruling through fear and determined to feed his addiction to cruelty.

On the side of good is Josh Brolin’s irreverent and quick-witted Gurney Halleck, Duke Leto’s Warmaster, who has been forged in battle and will do anything necessary to protect House Atreides by overseeing Paul’s combat training.

The deadliest weapon for House Atreides is Jason Momoa’s Duncan Idaho, a legendary sword master and fearless pilot who serves as the eyes and ears of Duke Leto and defends members of the family as though they were his own.

Another wrinkle to be considered is that “Dune” is an incomplete take on Frank Herbert’s vision not easily translated to a cinematic adaptation, and it is understood that Villeneuve is looking to bring forward a second part to this movie.

Meanwhile, this big screen adaptation fully immerses the audience in the moving story of Paul’s coming of age against family rivalries, tribal clashes, social oppression and ecological disaster on the unforgiving, austere planet of Arrakis.

While the film may be streaming on HBO Max, “Dune” demands to be seen on the big screen to appreciate its stunning visual effects. On the other hand, viewer interest may wane for those who are less than avid followers of science-fiction.



‘THE CANTERVILLE GHOST’ ON BYUtv

In conjunction with BBC Studios, the cable network BYUtv turns the Oscar Wilde novella “The Canterville Ghost” into a four-part modern retelling of the humorous short story about an American family moving into a haunted British castle.

Premiering fittingly on Halloween, “The Canterville Ghost” stars Anthony Head as centuries-old Sir Simon de Canterville, the ethereal inhabitant of Canterville Chase, an estate purchased by Hiram Otis (James Lance), an American billionaire with ideas foreign to the locals.

Hiram and his psychotherapist wife Lucy (Caroline Catz) have three children, 22-year-old Virginia (Laurel Waghorn) and mischievous 12-year-old twins Franklin and Theodore (Joe and Tom Graves) who devise ways to torment Sir Simon.

For hundreds of years, the otherworldly and malevolent Sir Simon de Canterville, who considers himself Britain’s premier ghost, has taken immense pride in scaring the locals and terrorizing the tenants of his castle in rural England.

Even his own descendant Lord St. John Canterville (Harry Gostelow), who grew up in the castle, moved his family out when he could no longer take the haunting and abandoned the estate to an American willing to buy the ancient mansion with all of its contents.

For the lonely, unhappy spirit, the thought that anyone would move into his ancestral home is an insult, but it’s an even greater affront that a family of (gasp!) Americans would have the temerity to purchase his property.

That the uppity Americans are unwilling to be frightened by a ghost who wants them to skip back across the pond to their homeland is certainly unsettling to an apparition who believes he’s an experienced performer going about his haunting duties with enthusiasm.

But Sir Simon’s attempts to haunt the Otis family fall flat when the Americans greet his efforts with gift baskets and positive affirmations. He’s consumed with guilt and unable to go to eternal rest until he finds redemption he so desperately craves.

The Otis family has its own struggles. Virginia seeks solace after dropping out of law school and is the only one who doesn’t torment the ghost. Lucy and Hiram must navigate the treacherous and chilly waters of British aristocracy that abhors outsiders.

Like many of Oscar Wilde’s works, “The Canterville Ghost” has been adapted for films and television on many occasions. BYUtv may have a hit on its hands.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Members of the Lake County Symphony Association got a taste of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Piano Concerto No. 11 in August in a virtual presentation featuring LCSA Board President Camm Linden.

Now, Linden returns to the stage to play all three movements of Haydn’s Concerto in another virtual performance, conducted by John Parkinson.

The first public performance of this Concerto took place in Paris in 1784. According to the renowned Haydn scholar, H.C. Robbins Landon, this work soon became an audience favorite due to its “sparkling keyboard writing and general sense of energy.”

This joyful, upbeat musical offering was composed in a popular “galant” style which makes for easy listening. Watch for syncopated rhythms, crushed grace notes, and the passing of lyrical themes between the keyboard and orchestra.

Haydn is considered the “Father of the Symphony,” with 106 symphonies to his credit. Ironically, this was Haydn’s first concerto ever to include the use of wind instruments — something the current COVID-19 safety guidelines advise against.

So, the LCSA Chamber Orchestra is presenting this piece in a smartly adapted, all-strings version.

The symphony had hoped to play live and in person at the Soper Reese Theatre starting in November, but due to the County’s current COVID-19 numbers, this performance will once again be a virtual one, as will the very popular Christmas Concert.

The November concert premieres Sunday, Nov. 21, at 2 p.m. on Lake County Symphony’s YouTube channel.

Click on the link to LC Symphony Musicians on the LCSA website.

Linden is a longtime musician who studied piano at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she received the Duke Ellington Jazz Masters Award for Keyboard Excellence. She also earned a diploma in composition from the LA Film Music Institute and has a master’s in business management, along with a Doctorate of Music in composition and conducting.

Linden is semiretired from the motion picture industry where she specializes in composing scores for art films.

She also continues to work as an orchestra rehearsal conductor for various movie studio soundstages and recently has been engaged by several orchestral groups around the world to write arrangements for all non-wind instruments in the hopes of restarting their live music seasons during the pandemic.

Linden has traveled extensively performing on piano and guitar with her family music trio — vocalist Jude Darrin and pianist Slade Darrin — and has played both brass and percussion with orchestras from LA to Boston.

She currently plays trumpet (and sometimes, piano) with the Lake County Symphony Orchestra.

The elegant irony of Elaine Equi’s lament — what the Germans, I am told, call, “Weltmüdigkeit” (world-weariness) — in her poem, “In an Unrelated,” about the very contemporary phenomenon of “the news cycle,” is that despite what may seem like a grand separation of human beings in the world, we, in the end, have a common sense of collective connection.

In other words, the poet recognizes that we are all in this thing together. This is one splendid use of poetry, to be the “campfire” of our humanity.

In an Unrelated
By Elaine Equi

We have almost nothing left,
no ground in common.

At best, a brand
or maybe a miniseries.

No campfire to gather around.
The big stories—peckish news

gets told in tweets,
gets old so quickly.

In place of one place
a billion tiny customized versions

appear targeted specifically
to your tastes.

You see only what you want to see.
Maybe you always did.

American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2019 by Elaine Equi, “In an Unrelated” from The Intangibles (Coffee House Press, 2019.) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2021 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.