The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Monday, January 14, 2019 — 5A
By C.C. Burnikel
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/14/19
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
01/14/19
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Monday, January 14, 2019
ACROSS
1 Parks who
wouldn’t give up
her bus seat
5 Jewel box item
10 Colored eye part
14 Cartel acronym
15 Prizefight venue
16 Brit’s “Later!”
17 Version to debug
18 Recall ability
20 Blew like Etna
22 Black as night,
e.g.
23 Well-groomed
guy
26 __ XING:
crosswalk sign
27 Noteworthy
period
28 Removes, as a
cork
30 Nowhere close
33 Places to swim
36 Geek’s cousin
37 Fodder storage
site
38 Hauls with effort
40 Japanese warrior
42 “Right back __!”:
“Me, too!”
43 Flashy promotion
45 Turn topsy-turvy
46 Water-testing
digit
47 “__ With the
Wind”
48 Map app path:
Abbr.
49 Cantina
condiment
51 One making
a living in
government,
briefly
56 Small piano
59 Motivate
60 Knockout drink,
in old gangster
movies
63 Puma rival
64 Australian gem
65 So last year
66 Cafeteria staffer
67 Heredity carrier
68 “Some __ time”:
“Not now”
69 RR stops: Abbr.
DOWN
1 Dressed like a
judge
2 Mozart work
3 Arrange in
advance
4 Like singing sans
instruments
5 GoPro product
6 “Judge __”:
Stallone film
7 Sleep acronym
8 Lennon’s love
9 Red planet
10 “Who’s there?”
reply
11 In quick
succession
12 Emphatic type:
Abbr.
13 Fit to be tried
19 Puppy’s barks
21 Succinct
24 Orangutan, e.g.
25 Swedes’
neighbors
29 Kissing at the
mall, for short
31 Actor Cumming
32 __ rage:
bodybuilder’s
concern
33 H.S. junior’s
exam
34 Numerical prefix
with -pus
35 Self-affirming
retort
36 “Bye Bye Bye”
band
37 Large political
spending gps.
39 Rice noodle
soup
41 Trumpet
mufflers
44 Veggie in a pod
47 Sheer joy
48 Jeremy of “The
Avengers”
50 Often-twisted
joint
52 Washer cycle
53 Whirl on one foot
54 Hunter
constellation
55 Plumbers’
problems
56 Air quality
concern
57 Frosty’s corncob
accessory
58 Autocorrect target
61 Budgetary
excess
62 “Give or take”
suffix ... that
can be added to
the end of 18-,
23-, 51- and
60-Across to form
a sort of set
There was a time when it
seemed
possible
that
“The
Upside,” a drama based on a 2011
French cultural phenomenon
and starring one of the most
acclaimed actors of the last
decade and one of the most
popular comedians on planet
Earth, wouldn’t get a release.
The film premiered at the 2017
Toronto
International
Film
Festival, about a year and a
half ago. It was picked up for
distribution
and set for a
March 2018
release date,
but a month
later
its
distributor,
The
Weinstein
Company,
found
itself
facing
the
legal
firestorm
that
jumpstarted
the #MeToo
movement
and
continues
to shift the power structure
of Hollywood today. It sat on
a shelf for nearly a year before
STX Entertainment and Lantern
Entertainment, the successor to
The Weinstein Company, bought
it, retooled it for a PG-13 rating
and re-slated it for release.
I open by recounting the story
of “The Upside” not just because
it provides a look into how even
a movie with so much
going for it can still
nearly fall through the
cracks and how other
movies that have fallen
through the cracks can
come to be “rescued,”
but because the story
behind “The Upside” is
much more interesting
than anything about
“The
Upside”
itself.
Like
“Green
Book”
before
it,
it seems to
strive to be
the
most
milquetoast,
inoffensive
race
relations
story
possible, but where
“Green
Book”
at
least had the comfort
of
stylish
period
trappings to propel
it into something an
iota above average,
“The
Upside”
has
only its underserved
leads.
The story follows
Dell
Scott
(Kevin
Hart,
The
91st
Academy A—I mean, “Night
School”), a down-on-his-luck
ex-con looking for a job who
eventually finds it with Phillip
Lacasse
(Bryan
Cranston,
“Sneaky Pete”), a quadriplegic
billionaire in need of a live-in
life assisstant. Phillip is struck
by Dell’s cavalier attitude during
the interview and hires him, and
the two men form a friendship
that will not
only change
their lives for
the
better,
but
maybe,
just
maybe,
will
teach
themselves
a
little
something
about
themselves.
For
all
the
well-
deserved
controversy
currently
surrounding
him, it’s hard to see Hart’s
performance in “The Upside”
as anything other than his best
yet. What he needs is a director
who can rein in his boundless
energy and channel it towards
something productive rather
than the same types of ego-
stroking riffs that serve only
to pad the runtime. Here, Hart
seems to find that in Neil Burger
(“Divergent”), who gives him his
fair share of comedic moments
but also forces him to, you
know, act. His chemistry with
Cranston is particularly strong,
and their odd couple dynamic
provides the movie with its best
moments.
The problem is that those
moments
are
few
and
far
between. For all the restraint
he shows with his use of
Hart,
Burger’s
direction
of the rest of the film
results in little more than
a shot-for-shot remake of
the original French film
“The Intouchables,” warts
and all. The stilted social
commentary is there. The
predictable story is there.
Even the opening scene is
virtually an exact copy of the
original film. The only thing
of note added is a romantic
subplot between Phillip and
his executive Yvonne (Nicole
Kidman,
“Boy
Erased”),
a story so familiar that it
only serves to further the
feeling that this script was
assembled from the pages of
other films.
That’s what “The Upside”
feels like more often than
not. It’s not a bad movie. It’s
not a good movie. It’s a well-
acted but deeply uninspired
movie which tries for social
relevance and falls flat on
its face. I’m not arguing
that every story has to be
completely
original,
but
there are no surprises here.
We’ve seen it with “The
Blind Side.” We’ve seen it
with “Green Book.” Now we
see it with “The Upside.” If
you can read the synopsis
above and honestly say that
you can’t predict beat-by-
beat where that story will go
and how it will eventually
end, then maybe you’ll find
some enjoyment here. But if
you’ve seen any inspirational
drama in the last twenty
years, this will likely do very
little for you.
‘The Upside’ proves to be
absolutely milquetoast
JEREMIAH VANDERHELM
Daily Arts Writer
FILM REVIEW
STX ENTERTAINMENT
‘The
Upside’
STX Entertainment
and Lantern
Entertainment
Ann Arbor IMAX
20+ and Goodrich
Quality 16
Even the
opening scene
is virtually an
exact copy of
the original
film.
After
fifteen
years
on
Broadway, “Wicked” has set
out to make a change. Britney
Johnson
was
recently
cast
as the first black Glinda in
a
Broadway
production
of
“Wicked,”
making
history
for the world-
famous musical.
Despite
the
fact
that
the
musical has had
many people of
color
playing
principal
roles
like
Elphaba,
Madame
Morrible, Fiyero
and
Nessarose,
the role of the
Good Witch of
the North has
traditionally
been held by a
white
actress.
The
beloved
story took on an
entirely different
meaning
with
Johnson as the
sparkly,
ditzy
and
“popular”
character,
allowing
the
audience to see
new rays of light
in the story that
previously went
unnoticed.
With
Glinda
as a person of
color, there is a
level of empathy
between
green
Elphaba and the
good witch that
creates a greater
semblance
of
similarity
between
the
characters’
journeys.
The
musical
follows
themes
of
love, connection and kindness,
preaching the message that
strong female friendships are
able to withstand divisions,
animosity
and
feelings
of
otherness.
Additionally,
the
span
of
Glinda’s
character
arc is greatly widened when
we see her through this new
lens, allowing her growth as
a character to resonate more
soundly with the audience. The
audience certainly resonated
with the newfound complexity
of the character, with videos
circulating on the internet
showing
audience
members
roaring with applause during
Johnson’s
first
scene
on
stage
where
Glinda
utters
the perfectly fitting opening
line: “It’s good to see me, isn’t
it?” This reaction was born of
excitement because Johnson
made history as she floated
down from the blue skies of Oz
in her glittery bubble, but from
something deeper as well. The
seeds for change and for a more
diverse Broadway were planted
on that celebrated Gershwin
stage this past weekend. Now
those seeds must be nurtured
by audiences, privileged actors,
minority actors and creators
alike to help them to grow.
While
musicals
like
“Hamilton”
and
“On
Your
Feet” created many roles for
Latinx, Black and minority
actors, it is still very rare to see
minorities cast in traditionally
white held roles
on
Broadway.
Musical theatre
seems to be on
the
trajectory
towards a more
inclusive reality
and progress is
being made on
major stages, but
it is by no means
equal
in
any
sense of the word.
According to an
Asian American
Performers
Action Coalition
Ethnic
Representation
in
New
York
Stages
Report,
in the 2015-2016
season 23 percent
of
Broadway
roles were held
by Black actors,
7
percent
by
Latinx actors, 4
percent by Asian
American actors
and
all
other
minorities held 2
percent of roles.
These
statistics
prove that while
progress
has
been
made
in
terms
of
more
representation
on the Broadway
stage,
there
is
still much to be
done. The same
report states 15.4 percent of
all available roles were non-
traditionally
cast, a spike up
from
previous
years
but
still
a
low
figure.
Every day, when
minorities
are
cast
into
traditional,
previously white
cast
roles,
we
take
one
step
closer to finding
a semblance of
equality. But in
order to continue
this
progress,
all
theatres,
casting directors
and
producers
need
to
be
cognizant of the
changes that are
required to bring
momentous
stories
like
Johnson’s
further
away
from anomaly and closer to the
norm.
Many
recent
Broadway
shows are working tirelessly
on improving representation,
which
was
seen
in
2016
through the casting of African
actress Noma Dumezweni as
Hermione Granger in the stage
adaptation of “Harry Potter and
the Cursed Child.” Upon the
casting announcement, many
longtime Harry Potter fans
expressed
their
disapproval
of the decision. However, J. K.
Rowling, author of the novel
and play, made a statement on
Twitter almost immediately,
saying she never specified skin
tone in her writing and “loves
black
Hermione.”
Changing
Hermione’s face for the stage
adaptation provided a much-
needed layer of diversity to the
whitewashed world presented
in the “Harry Potter” films and
adds a fascinating perspective
that was previously not present
in the story.
Storytelling on the Broadway
stage is evolving. However, we
cannot simply call it quits and
feel satisfied with the work put
in to increase representation
when
we
make
marginal
improvements. There is still
work to be done. There are still
widespread discrepancies in
opportunities. When one Black
Glinda breaks through the
formerly padlocked door, we
must honor her commitment,
talent and perseverance. We
must help hold the door open
so that more minority actors
can have the opportunity to
hold non-traditional roles on
commercial stages. We must
help hold the door open so that
the statistics can be raised to a
more equal standard.
Changing the narrative and
the perspective of commonly
known, traditional stories by
way of increasing theatrical
representation
provides
musicals and plays with the
ability to transform beautifully
without altering the script or
scenario at all.
Not only should
we
be
casting
minorities
in
non-traditional
roles to increase
representation,
we
should
be
giving
minorities these
opportunities
because it makes
the
stories
more
beautiful,
intricate
and
colorful.
Providing depth
to
these
roles
and
color
to
these characters
transforms
stories
into
a
wider,
more
complete
and
more
inclusive
dimension.
These actors are
the
beginning
of a new Broadway: one where
color is celebrated, triumphed
and most of all, the standard.
New ‘Wicked’ is a triumph
for race representation
ELI RALLO
Daily Arts Writer
COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK
BROADWAY BLACK
The musical
follows
themes of love,
connection
and kindness,
preaching the
message that
strong female
friendships
are able to
withstand
divisions,
animosity and
feelings of
otherness.
These actors are
the beginning of
a new Broadway:
one where color
is celebrated,
triumphed and
most of all, the
standard.