#25: I went to the opera (please clap)
Death By Consumption
10/22/24 - 10/28/24
It has been brought to my attention by a dear friend that these openers have been very weather-focused, so in an attempt to course correct, I will not be discussing the weather today, which is fine because it’s been boring and steady for weeks. And... whoops, I have already broken my word by talking about the weather again. I can't resist! I regret the error, but I'm listening and learning.
Anora (2024) — at Nitehawk Prospect Park
This is such an indescribable, complicated, great movie. I was immediately swept up in the world (and by “the world” I mean “the part of Brooklyn 15 minutes south of my apartment” lol), and even though the tone shifts wildly between the three acts of the film, I was pretty much here for all of it. I mean, it’s a movie about sex work and violence and the commodification of women’s bodies, and yet it’s mostly a comedy, at times even a slapstick comedy, which is kind of weird! Watching it in a theater made the tone feel even weirder — there were multiple points where I was cringing, feeling like I was watching literal abuse, but meanwhile half the audience in the theater (mostly the male half, it seemed) was howling with laughter. I felt slightly out of body in those moments, wondering how we could be experiencing such different feelings while watching the same thing, and if that discomfort was what director Sean Baker wanted us to feel. I can’t remember the last time a movie made me reassess my own feelings so constantly in the moment.
The only uncomplicated aspect of the movie is the fact that Mikey Madison is a fucking STAR. I did not know this woman’s name or face a week ago, and now I would take a bullet for her. With a lesser actor, I could see the disparate tones making the movie completely fall apart, but Mikey anchors every scene, carrying you through the fucked-up Cinderella beginning, the slapstick comedy/violence of the middle, and the [spoilers redacted] ending. It's easily the best and most memorable performance I saw all year. (Second place goes to the madness of Jon Voight in Megalopolis, of course.) Give Mikey Madison the Oscar, you cowards!
Oddity (2024) — on Shudder, I think?
This was kind of stupid (more screenwriters should be taught that writing a twist into your movie is not necessary for everyone!), but I also watched a fair amount of it with my hands over my face (I'm a baby), so I guess the horror of it was mostly effective. I love a creepy Irish murder house, so the mood of the film was great, but the actual plot depends on the characters all acting somewhat insane. The only character who truly made sense as a real person was the one who was just like, "This is fucked up, and I'm actually just going to leave this haunted house now, bye." As for the rest of the characters, I don't know what they were thinking. Just leave!
Also, the house was not worth all this drama! It looked drafty as hell, and only one bathroom? I'd be out of there before anyone even had time to murder me.
Il trovatore — at The Met Opera
Let it be known it's not all reality TV all the time around here — I went to the opera! This was actually only my second time going to the Met (the first time, we saw La Boheme which was good but kind of dragged; sorry, but 3 hours of watching French bohemians clown around is not for me, I don't think!), but this was so much fun. So much stuff happens in this opera! A hag is burned alive! So is a baby! Beefy shirtless men sing a song while pounding anvils! There are sword fights and witches and plot twists and lots of death! I loved it.
Adding to the drama, between acts 3 and 4 we could hear some vague shouting or yelling. I thought the screaming was part of the show, while others thought it was someone in the audience, but then at curtain call the lead performer came out limping, which added to the mystery. The next day, the rumor was (and by "rumor" I mean "someone on Reddit said") he did something to mess up his leg backstage, and the yelling was him screaming out in pain. Drama onstage and backstage?! If this is what it's always like, I'm a big opera guy now.
The Mill House Murders, by Yukito Ayatsuji (1988) — paperback
Between this book and the movie Oddity, this week I strangely consumed 2 different stories about murders in strange castle-shaped houses. The story in this Japanese novel was a decently complicated mystery (although, not to brag, I did solve the core mystery pretty quickly), with some really great creepy aesthetics: we've got a strange house built by a maybe insane architect, a host who wears a latex mask at all times due to the horrific burns all over his face, his problematically age-gapped younger wife who's never allowed to go outside, a collection of guests with mysterious motives, etc. The book is way more concerned with the mechanics of the mystery and the reveal, though, rather than the characters. The wife in particular feels very hastily sketched out, but all of the characters are pretty one-note, merely there to move various parts of the plot forward. It's less a novel and more a puzzle, one that loses a lot of its appeal once you've solved it.