Film Review: Daddio

There are cabbies, talkative and sometimes even nosy, and there are people who need a ride somewhere. Under no circumstance would I consider a pairing of the two sufficient for a film plot.

I’m happy to admit that I would be wrong.

“Daddio” is a strange, funny, oddly even moving film about an old cabbie named Clark (played by Sean Penn), who picks up a fare in the form of a young, pretty girl called here “Girlie,” brilliantly played by Dakota Johnson.

Clark is from New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. Girlie is a computer programmer from Oklahoma and says she lives in a world where “everything is ones and zeroes.”

They’re a strange pair, to say the least. He is talkative in the extreme, and seems to have an answer (or at least a suggestion) for any situation. He just lacks someone to talk to.

Girlie has a half-sister who “used to tie me up and lock me in the bathroom.”

“Did you like being tied up?” he asks.

“I liked the challenge of getting free.”

Girlie is trying to figure out what to do with her situation: she’s been dating a married man. And she gets frequent texts from guys who want, well, you can guess what.

Will she get free? Will Clark keep on driving that cab and helping out the socially lost?

You’ll have to see the film to find out. And I would definitely advise that.

Film Review: Janet Planet

          

                     Julianne Nicholson and Zoe Ziegler in "Janet Planet"               

As the show opens, Janet (Julianne Nicholson), the named star of this most unusual film, comes to pick up her 11-year-old daughter Lacy (Zoe Ziegler). It’s 1991 and Lacy has called her mom to rescue her from summer camp, an event apparently not appreciated by the kid.

(This is an understatement. Lacy had actually threatened to “kill myself if you don’t come get me.”) 

Thus begins playwright Annie Baker’s first feature film. In the rest of “Janet Planet,” we will meet an assortment of folks who may or may not remind you of folks you met at camp, if you ever did that sort of thing. This gang is, as one would expect, varied in age, interests and abilities, which will lead to some amusing scenes, but this place in rural Massachusetts looks more like an extended campsite than anybody’s idea of home. Then again, maybe that was the plan.

Janet makes her living as an acupuncturist. When we meet her, she has a much-older boyfriend named Wayne (Will Patton), who doesn’t show up often.

For no apparent reason, this leaves Lacy to fend for herself more often than not, and we see her practicing the piano on an electric keyboard and amusing herself with a homemade puppet theater peopled with tiny homemade figurines.

But as for human relationships, well, this is Another Thing, and the longer the show goes on, the odder it gets. At one point, Lacy asks mom, “Would you be disappointed if I might one day date a girl?

Janet muses that she’s always thought she could make any man fall in love with her.

“Will you stop trying?” asks Lacy.

Then there’s Avi (Elias Koteas), who does theater and likes to discuss the Big Bang when “there was nothing…..there was just God.”

And then Avi disappears.

This is a film like no other I’ve seen. Nominated for the Panorama Audience Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024, it is peculiar beyond words, but I found it odd but fascinating. See what you think. It’s currently playing at the Reading Cinemas Town Square, 4665 Clairemont Drive. 

New Review: The Ballad of Johnny and June

                 The Ballad of Johnny and June

I’ve never been a huge fan of country music, so writing this is pushing it a bit for me. But even I have heard about Johnny Cash.

Now La Jolla Playhouse gives me and anyone else who loves, hates or is curious about this country-music phenom a chance to find out what he was all about.

“The Ballad of Johnny and June” plays through July 7 at the Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Theatre.

This Air Force veteran broke into the music scene in 1955, thanks to a deal with Sun Records, and by 1969 was an international hit, eclipsing even the Beatles in album sales.

Christopher Ryan Grant plays Cash, the Arkansas native who made a living singing country music, though his ancestry goes back to Scotland and he served as a Morse Code operator in the Air Force in Germany.

The show is mostly a compendium of songs and the story of how Johnny and June met, sang together and eventually married. Along the way, we’ll meet other members of the Cash family, notably Johnny and June's son John Carter Cash (played by Van Hughes), who sits on stage left for most of the show and tells his side from there.

The show is notable for another reason as well: the Playhouse’s own Des McAnuff not only directs, but is also listed as co-writer of the script, which does not shy away from showing us Cash’s less-attractive sides, such as his addiction to alcohol, amphetamines and barbiturates.

But mostly, this is a musical about one of the most popular musicians in history. Cash got 71 awards and 11 Hall of Fame inductions. Those include Grammys, Country Music awards and Cash’s 2018 induction to the Grammy Hall of Fame for “At Folsom Prison.” Cash died in 2003.

The show is almost as exhausting to watch as it must be to perform, but I doubt it could be done better. If you’re curious about who this guy Cash was, grab a ticket and find out.

The details

“The Ballad of Johnny and June” plays through July 7, 2024 at La Jolla Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Theatre, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive in La Jolla.

Shows Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 1 and 7 p.m,

Tickets: LaJollaPlayhouse.org or (858) 550-1010

Photo credit of cast by Samantha Laurent

Film Review: Last Summer

 

                       Last Summer

There’s passion, unfulfilled desire, sex and lots of lust in Catherine Breillat’s provocative “Last Summer,” opening on July 12 at downtown’s Digital Gym Cinema.

Léa Drucker plays Anne, an attorney married to boring businessman Pierre (Olivier Rabourdin). Anne is definitely bored herself, so much so that she even considers taking up with Pierre’s randy teenager Théo (Samuel Kircher) when he pushes her buttons.

Of course, the setting in la belle France doesn’t hurt, but it’s the shockingly shifting power dynamics and the fine acting that will keep you intrigued and wondering how it will end. 

“Last Summer” opens on Friday, July 12 at downtown’s Digital Gym Cinema (1100 Market Street). Here’s the phone number: (619) 230-1938.

Prices: $12 general, $10 students and seniors, $9 members.

Theater Review: Mrs. Doubtfire

                    Rob McClure as Mrs. Doubtfire

I hardly know where to start to describe what goes on in this show, but it seems to be about the lengths one father will go to just to be around to watch his three kids grow up.

Rob McClure plays that father, named Daniel Hillard. His wife Miranda (Maggie Lakis, coincidentally McClure’s real wife) wants him to go out and make the money they need to raise these kids. But Daniel wants to be home to watch them grow up.

The only way he can figure to do this is to “become” Mrs. Doubtfire (and we get to watch him make that change, and it’s pretty funny).

The plot (an adaptation of the 1993 film) is way too complicated to try to explain, so I won’t. Let it be said that puppets, fakery, lying, crazy costumes and songs go on for the entire length of this two and a half-hour show. Oh, and dance, lots and lots of dance.

There’s a judge (David Hibbard), somebody named Mr. Jolly (never did figure out why that character is there, but he’s also played by David Hibbard), lots of other characters who flit in and out, and a sizable ensemble, all of whom can dance (even flamenco), sing and play crazy.

McClure and Lakis are excellent as the spouses, and so is everyone else in this large, unruly cast.

The band consists of five imported and six local musicians, all keeping the beats going. Along with the huge cast, the audience (well, at least this audience member) was kept utterly confused but always amused.

If you’re looking for a noisy show with lots of action, songs and dance, get on down to Civic Theatre for “Mrs. Doubtfire.” It runs through June 9.

The details

“Mrs. Doubtfire” runs through June 9 at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Avenue, downtown.

Shows June 6 at 7:30 p.m., June 7 at 8 p.m (ASL performance); June 8 at 2 and 8 p.m.; June 9 at 1 (open caption performance) and 6:30 p.m.

Tickets: https://www.ticketmaster.com/mrs-doubtfire-touring-tickets/artist/3007777?venueId=82007

Theater Review: Camelot

                             Cast of "Camelot"
                 

There are ordinary plays and musicals and big downtown shows. I go to all and like most of them.

But then there’s “Camelot,” the Lerner and Loewe musical based on T. H. White’s novel “The Once and Future King,” originally staged in 1958 by Moss Hart. 

“Camelot” is like no other show in offering not only terrific songs, but an amusing and delightful story about those long-ago days of knights and their ladies, along with a serious consideration of democracy, justice and romance and the struggle between democracy and aspiration.

North Coast Repertory Theatre offers a splendid rendition of “Camelot” through June 30, replete with terrific singing actors who can even dance.

King Arthur, played by Jered McLenigan, is a king who doesn’t really want the job and tends to spend more time hiding in or behind a tree. One day he happens to see Guenevere (wonderfully played by Lauren Weinberg), who has been named the new queen and has come to meet her soon-to-be spouse. She and Arthur hit it off and they will eventually get together.

Then there’s Lancelot du Lac (Brian Krinsky), a handsome stranger who will eventually fall for Guenevere and create more political problems. 

“Camelot” is a long, complex story that can be done with varying numbers of cast members. Never mind who’s doing what to whom, the importance of this particular show is the excellence of the actors, who do justice to both the script and the fabulous Lerner & Loewe score.

McLenigan’s Arthur is adorable as the don’t-want-to-be king, who nonetheless likes Weinberg’s terrific Guenevere and enjoys hanging out with her. So he concocts a different future for them, inventing a new group for the knights, who will now sit at a more democratic round table and come up with positive things to do.

Of course, there’s the not-so-nice Mordred (Nick Apostolina) and several others including Jacob Caltrider (as Sir Dinadan), Jason Heil (as Merlyn the magician and Sir Gareth) and Scott Hurst, Jr. as Sir Lionel, and Elias Wygodny, in his first Lerner & Loewe musical as Sir Sagramore. 

Kudos also to the musicians (pianist Daniel Lincoln, cellist Jacob Thompson and violinist Kiersten Smith), to set designer Marty Burnett, lighting designer Matthew Novotny, costume designer Elisa Benzoni, projection and sound designer Matt Fitzgerald, props designer Audrey Casteris and fight choreographer Benjamin Cole.

“Camelot” is a big production all around. Kudos to all involved for making it the smashing sensation it is. 

The details

“Camelot” plays through June 23, 2024 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach.

Shows Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday and 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.

Tickets: (858) 481-1055 or NorthCoastRep.org