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Thursday, July 7, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS
FILM REVIEW
Hawthorne has
prodigal return
By MERIN MCDIVITT
Daily Arts Writer
The audience — a mix of
students here for the summer,
townies and adults in their 50s
and 60s — looked like they would
have been at home at a Beethoven
showcase. The Power Center is
also a venue better suited for
polite,
muted
applause
than
raucous crowds and wild dancing.
Yet
Mayer
Hawthorne,
Ann
Arbor’s homegrown neo-soul star,
whipped his polite, well-behaved
audience into shape. By the end
of the singer’s well-timed concert
and
enthusiastic
encore,
the
crowd was swaying and dancing to
Hawthorne’s pulsating, buoyant
hits.
This
concert
marked
a
watershed
moment
in
Hawthorne’s music career — it’s
the first time he’s performed a
mainstage, ticketed event in Ann
Arbor. Earlier events, such as his
hugely successful Sonic Lunch
concert in the Michigan Theater
several years ago, saw a full house,
but no tickets were needed for the
free concert. He has performed
countless times in town and
has a strong support base, but
some wondered how much fans
would shill out to see an act they
previously enjoyed for free.
Luckily for Hawthorne, plenty
made the leap to the ticketed
event to show their support. After
a brief DJ opener, Hawthorne and
his band struck their signature
poses and leapt right into the first
syncopated number.
“It’s good to be back home,”
Hawthorne said.
He kept the small talk to a
minimum, packing in as many
songs as possible. Though, he did
take time to reflect on how far he’s
come, remarking that he couldn’t
believe he was on the Power
Center stage after seeing concert
after concert there growing up.
Hawthorne performed a steady
mix of new and old hits, which
half the audience could and did
sing along to, as well as a few
unexpected covers. His signature
style suited his updated music
well: a slim suit and tilted fedora
were exchanged for a gold lamé
blazer and matching kicks halfway
through the show.
He’s a diva — is there a male
equivalent of diva? — in the best
sense of the word. He’s surrounded
himself with an extremely talented
band, with beats, backup and
on-point dance moves. With them,
he’s gracious with the spotlight,
directing plenty of attention to
their individual talents as well.
Years
ago,
Hawthorne
got
himself a stage name, assumed his
suave, worldly stage persona and
started making music here in Ann
Arbor. Timed to coincide with
the release of his fourth studio
album, this tour featured the best
of his smooth, upbeat crooning.
The woman in Hawthorne’s hit
song “The Walk” may walk her
“high heels right out of my life,”
but here’s hoping that the singer
doesn’t walk out of our lives
anytime soon.
‘The BFG’ wonderous
despite thematic issues
Legendary director’s
latest packs strong
visual punch
By DANNY HENSEL
Daily Arts Writer
“The witching hour, somebody
had once whispered to her, was a
special moment in the middle of
the night when
every
child
and
every
grown-up
was in a deep,
deep
sleep,
and
all
the
dark
things
came out from
hiding and had
the world to themselves.”
Anyone who has read Roald
Dahl’s 1982 classic children’s
novel “The BFG” knows the
quiet moments of the witching
hour are magical enough to awe
both the youthful and the aged.
Dreams, fed through a trumpet
from the titular big friendly
giant to the people of London,
can amaze, stun, terrify and
stupefy.
Legendary
director
Steven
Spielberg’s latest, an adaptation
of Roald Dahl’s novel, written by
the late Melissa Mathison (“E.T.
the
Extra-Terrestrial”),
is
a
return to the fantastical films of
his past. From “E.T.” and “Close
Encounters of the Third Kind”
to the later, more maligned
“Hook” and “A.I.,” Spielberg
has continued to construct a
universe of realized childhood
dreams,
with
marvelous
characters and stunning visual
imagery to match.
“The BFG” follows that big
friendly giant (Mark Rylance,
“Bridge of Spies”) and a small
girl named Sophie (newcomer
Ruby
Barnhill),
whom
he
snatched up from her orphanage,
as they try to stop the other
man-eating giants from eating
innocent people. It’s the latest
in the canon of Spielberg special
effects films, and it knocks the
others out of the park — visually,
at least. From the first shots
of the BFG weaving through
the cobblestone streetscape of
London in the early morning
hours, turning on a dime to
hide from pedestrians and cars,
the careful choreography of
the film is clear: whoever is
responsible for the film’s visual
effects should be lauded heavily.
Perhaps the most stellar example
is a captivating dream-catching
sequence in the shadows of a
mythical tree laden with floating
specks of dream stuff. The magic
doesn’t
stop
at
grandiosity:
in between the scenes of the
massive world around Sophie,
some of the film’s most heartfelt
moments come in the intimate
shots, close ups on her and the
giant.
The
performances,
for
the
most
part,
are
equally
extraordinary.
Rylance,
transformed into a giant through
motion capture technology, acts
with genuine warmth. He acts
through the technology, not
despite it; every eye movement
or nervous smile feels so true.
The other giants, led by The
Fleshlumpeater (the wickedly
funny Jemaine Clement, “Flight
of the Conchords”) are a bit more
cartoonish, but it’s forgivable,
like their wildly rambunctious
fits. Meanwhile, on the formal
end of the film, the Queen
(Penelope
Wilton,
“Downton
Abbey”) and her maid (the
always underrated Rebecca Hall,
“Frost/Nixon”) and butler (Rafe
Spall, “The Big Short”) are prim
and proper, exuding a regality
that
borders
on
excessive,
heavily contrasting the savage
life of the giants with the orderly
customs of Buckingham Palace.
In the middle is Sophie, our
protagonist. Barnhill embodies
the archetypal young Spielberg
character
—
precocious
yet
perpetually in awe of what she
purports to already know. While
Spielberg has an incredible track
record of coaching wonderful
performances out of young kids,
somehow Barnhill just doesn’t
live up to expectations. Her voice
is showy (think Veruca Salt in
“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory”) and her words are
obvious
exposition.
Dialogue
flows unnaturally as if she was
specifically cued to say each line.
Thankfully, where the writing
may falter, Spielberg’s regular
below-the-line trio of composer
John Williams, editor Michael
Kahn
and
cinematographer
Janusz
Kamiński
realize
Spielberg’s
cinematic
vision.
Williams’s music swells at just
the
right
moments,
sucking
the audience into his regular
partner’s world. Kahn keeps
the film moving quickly, but is
able to linger on the moments
that
really
count.
Kamiński
expertly navigates around the
complications
motion-capture
may pose as he follows Sophie to
assure us it’s her story.
Spielberg has been consistently
crafting
masterpieces
since
1975’s “Jaws” literally invented
the blockbuster. Of his now
thirty movies, at least a full third
could
be
considered
perfect
films. Though “The BFG” doesn’t
match the genius of some of his
prior efforts, there’s enough here
to satisfy fans. While Spielberg’s
grasp on the film-going audience
may be flickering, the moments
of brilliance are still there, as
strong as ever.
B+
The BFG
Walt Disney
Pictures
Rave & Quality 16
DISNEY
“A couple of peepin’ Toms.”
ANDREW RABAH/Daily
Mayer Hawthorne returns to old stomping ground for Ann Arbor Summer Fest.
CONCERT REVIEW
“It’s good to be
back home.”