Tampa Film Fan

opinion:a prairie home companion

Fellow film fan Jim MacEachern has generously shared his review of A Prairie Home Companion with us:

I did see A Prairie Home Companion and loved it. I think it’s Altman’s The Reivers for the Faulkner comparison. At 81 he’s in fine form. The ghostly Virginia Madsen as an apparition that wanders through the film is a bit heavy handed but Mr. Altman has never been subtle. Keillor wrote the script so he is at least partly to blame for that. But he has to be given credit as well for the creation of this wonderful, droll commentary on old time radio and Midwestern values. Altman was born in Kansas City and shares those roots but looks at them with a more jaundiced eye. It’s an eye for human behavior filtered through 50 years of a marijuana-induced LA haze that sees everyone as characters in the movie of life. His characters are tragic and funny and they know this about themselves. The lucky ones know the role they are playing and the sad ones don’t have a role to play yet and that can eat at you.It opens and closes at a Roadside Diner that looks like a Rockwell Saturday Evening Post cover. Altman and Keillor know that this innocent Americana is a lie but they have great affection for those who know this but yearn for that myth anyway. The actors are incredible. The teaming of Meryl Streep and Lilly Tomlin as the surviving members of a family of singers specializing in gospel and old-time inspirational songs is wondrous. It’s been a rough life for them in many ways but they go on. Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly as Dusty and Lefty, a cowboy singing and comedy team, seem like they have been working together all their lives. The joy of performing even brings the juvenile/ suicidal Lindsay Lohan to life.There is nothing terribly profound in Prairie but Keillor’s script and Altman’s searching eye give us insight into a world gone by and the people who inhabited it. The movie is too short!

opinion:akeelah and the bee and garfield:a tale of two kitties

Fellow blogger Joy from Joy’s Journal emailed me last week to say:

I went to see Akeelah and the Bee Sunday afternoon–excellent movie and cast–intelligent and enjoyable with lots of tension. Saw previews again for Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties; it’s crude and tummy turning and should set our relations with Britain back for centuries.

I recently saw the previews for the new Garfield movie myself. Bleeeeccchh.

Thanks for sharing, Joy.

a broad abroad:local author gabi lorino’s film fan fun in london

(photo, from left to right: author Gabi Lorino, Norman Bowman (who played Harry the Horse), Mindy Miller and Sara Kahl)

Local author and fellow film fan Gabi Lorino recently told me about going to London to see Ewan McGregor in Guys and Dolls. Here’s her story:

Broad Abroad: My Adventures as an American Woman in Search of Ewan McGregor in LondonMy friend Anthony, who hails from Liverpool, had this to say when I told him I was crossing the Atlantic to see Ewan McGregor onstage: “I’ll be reading the Yahoo news and there you’ll be in the headlines: Fanatical Tampa Lady Whisks Celebrity Away.”It had all started with one innocent e-mail. My friend Mindy wrote me an e-mail at work to let me know that Ewan would be performing onstage in London. My response via e-mail was: “When are we going?”After making brief mention of this to several girlfriends, suddenly there were five of us planning a trip: three from Tampa, one from Boston, and one from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Then, a work colleague approached me with a lament that she simply hadn’t done enough traveling. I suggested that she join us, she cashed out her IRA, and then there were six!When September 2005 rolled around, we were ready to go, with hotel, plane, and theatre reservations and the debt that goes along with that. There was excitement in the air, and the voyage to London was punctuated by fitful sleep, English movies, and snacks. Once the passports were stamped and we were on our way through the Underground to our hotel, fatigue set in for that day. But the next day, we were anxious with anticipation and visited the Piccadilly Theatre to pick up our tickets. Then, we returned to the hotel to primp and don our foxiest outfits of the week. (What if Ewan saw us from the stage? We had to look good!) Finally, we headed down to Piccadilly Circus for an evening of fun, frolic, and Ewan-spotting.This circus doesn’t have lions and tigers, but it is a bustling place full of people and tacky souvenirs. Need a pashmina or British-flag underwear? You can buy it there. It reminds me a bit of Times Square in Manhattan. There are lights and people everywhere.Piccadilly Theatre is a gorgeous old theatre in the Piccadilly area of London. The interior is rich and draped in red velvet. It draws crowds from all over the world, as we can claim, since we may have been the visitors from farthest away that night. Programs cost a few pounds, but what’s a few pounds when you’re already in the hole $3,000 getting to London? Most of us bought the programs and drooled extensively over Ewan in all his onstage glory.My friend Jackie and I would compare the time every few minutes. An hour to go, 30 minutes until curtain. The excitement continued to build, at least for us, while our traveling companion K.C. snored next to me, until the lights dimmed and the horns blasted out the first notes of the Guys and Dolls score. K.C. woke up with a start once that happened.We were seated in the second row, dead center, so aside from a few stray hairs on the heads of the people in front of us, it was a clear shot to the stage. We joked that I could probably make it onstage with one well-executed handspring. Five rows back, also in the dead center of the audience, sat Ian McKellan, in town to film The DaVinci Code. For once in my life, I had bested a major actor! That’s right, Ian McKellan, I had better theatre seats than you!But we had to settle back and enjoy the show. Minutes went by and where was he? He was a headliner, his name and picture were bigger than life on the outside of the theatre…he’d be along any time now.

Then came that unmistakable voice, although disguised in the New York accent for the show. There he was, talking about getting a crap game running while keeping the police unaware. After the initial excitement of seeing him, we had to settle in and enjoy the show.

Ewan sang several songs and danced in several numbers throughout the show. As an actor with far more film experience than onstage experience, he hasn’t had as much theatre experience as most actors who make it to the London stage. As a crazed fan, I thought he was absolutely perfect in every way. But as a theatre afficionado, I’d say he wasn’t quite Tommy Tune with the singing and the dancing. I’d give him a 7.5 out of 10 overall.

Emoting is no problem for our boy Ewan. His stage presence and sincerity went unquestioned in his role as Sky Masterson. The part of my brain that had settled in to soak up the show believed that he was some crazy gambler from New York City back in the 1950’s. The accent never slipped into his real Scottish tone, to his credit, and his dancing, from the second row, looked pretty good to me. (Some of the gals in the balcony seats did report that he seemed stiff in his dancing, but as I said, he’s mostly a film actor with limited dance experience). Getting straight men to dance well has been an issue for choreographers since Broadway and the West End of London began.

The singing? Ah, excuse me as I sigh. Let’s say that the singing was what you would expect after seeing him in Moulin Rouge or perhaps the very end of Down With Love. I thought he sounded excellent in the songs that he sang alone or with his co-star, Jenna Russell. My Time of Day and I’ve Never Been in Love Before were absorbing and fun- although, to the ensemble’s credit, Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat stole the show!

Some highlights from that night were:1)Bursting in to giggles with Jackie when the curtain went down for the first act and blurting out, “I’m SO glad my boyfriend isn’t here to see me like this!” The guy in front of us, Jesse, immediately laughed, and we befriended him for the rest of the night.2)During the final sequence, Adelaide marries Nathan and the actress playing Adelaide, Jane Krakowski, tossed a bridal bouquet into the audience. Where did it land? K.C.’s head! We caught it and she handed me a stray flower that had fallen out. Of course, I pitched it back onstage and hit Ms. Krakowski in the foot. She and Ewan had a laugh about it.3)f course, we stalked the stage door afterward, but our beloved Ewan was nowhere to be found. The actors have stopped meeting with fans after the shows because of the recent terror attacks in London. If we’ve ever had more of a reason to hate terrorists, here it is. In the grand scheme of things, this is the farthest I’ve ever traveled to be entertained. Tampa to London is pretty far! This production of Guys and Dolls definitely made the headlines of my life that week. London is a bustling city and my friends and I were caught up in it. We loved the performances that night. In truth, the entire ensemble cast was extremely talented, and there were a few notable characters (such as Norman Bowman’s Harry the Horse, whom we met) who stole some scenes here and there. I also walked away from the experience very impressed with Jane Krakowski. She will conquer all film, stage, et cetera in her career, just like Ewan.As a theatre afficionado, there is a certain thing that can happen with actors onstage- moments where you “catch them acting”- when it seems like they’re just putting on a show. That never happened with Guys and Dolls, and it says a lot for the cast that they managed to absorb this Ewan fan in their reality for a few hours.

Gabi Lorino is the author of The Independent Woman’s Guide to Life. Visit www.gabilorino.com to learn more about her new book or her stagedoor-stalking experiences.