Past Lives, Past Sins

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The Sins of the Father

By Skip Sheffield

“Past Life” is proudly “Made in Jerusalem” by writer-director Avi Nesher. Set in 1977, it concerns past events in the dark year of 1939 in Poland.

Nana (Nelly Tagar) and Sephi Milch (Joy Rieger) are the daughters of Holocaust survivor Dr. Barach Milch, now a successful gynecologist in Jerusalem. Older sister Nana works for a racy magazine owned by her husband Jeremy Kotler (Tom Avni), but she dreams of being a novelist.

Sephi has even bolder dreams. Though she is still a student at a musical academy and is a featured soloist in its choir, she dreams of being a composer.

The story begins with a concert in which Sephi is featured. At the reception afterward she spots an attractive German boy. Suddenly she is accosted by an older woman who grabs her and screams “You are the daughter of a murderer!”

The German boy subdues the woman. Sephi is shaken. The boy is Thomas Zielinski (Rafael Stachowiak), already a successful composer. The older woman is his mother (Katarzyna Gniewkonska). Thomas apologizes profusely, and when he returns as a visiting professor, he takes a personal interest in Sephi.

When Nana learns of the incident she becomes determined to get to the bottom of the mystery of whether their father was a blameless survivor or a villain.

It is a complex mystery, entailing trips to Poland and Germany, where Barach Milch had vowed never to return. Unlike many Holocaust-related films, this one has a silver lining, but you have to wait for it. It is worth the wait. Oh, and it is based on a true story.

Salma Hayek Cuts Loose in "Beatrz at Dinner"

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Salma Hayek Gives a Performance From the Heart in “Beatriz at Dinner”

By Skip Sheffield

Salma Hayek is one of the sexiest women working in the movie business today. But in “Beatriz at Dinner” she totally deglamorizes herself to play the title character, a Mexican immigrant who has made a living working as a masseuse for the ultra-rich in Southern California.

It is at one of these showplace houses that her car breaks down. Her employer Kathy (Connie Britton) invites her to wait in the house and then goes one further by inviting Beatriz to a dinner party later that evening. Reluctantly Beatriz accepts, much to the chagrin of the lord of the house, Doug Strutt (John Lithgow).

The evening begins well enough, with Beatriz remaining meek, quiet and mild while Doug Strutt shamelessly brags about his business conquests and ruthless tactics. After a few glasses of wine Beatriz gets her courage up. When Doug begins bragging about shooting a rhino in Africa, she explodes, to everyone’s amazement.

It is hard not to think of Donald Trump when considering the vain, arrogant character of Doug Strutt. I suspect that’s what Puerto Rican-born director Miguel Arteta (“Youth in Revolt”) and Southern California writer Mike White (“School of Rock,” “Nacho Libre”) had in mind. This movie is billed as a comedy, but it is not so funny when it uncomfortably resembles our current situation of haves and have-nots. The beauty of it is when Mexican-born Salma Hayek explodes with real passion, speaking for downtrodden immigrants everywhere. I think it is her finest performance, frumpy appearance and all. Right-wingers will not like this film, but “bleeding heart liberals” surely will.

47 Meters Down Pretty Girls in Peril

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Pretty Girls in Peril in “47 Meters Down”

By Skip Sheffield

“It’s just like being in a zoo, except you are in the cage,” explains a Mexican beach boy to two pretty American girls he is trying to convince to see sharks up close from the safety of a metal cage hanging by a steel cable.

The movie is “47 Meters Deep,” and it is a real nail-biter. What could go wrong? Just about everything.

For me I had two initial problems. First I like sharks and I have had some close encounters. Second I am highly claustrophobic, so being cooped up in a cage would be torture.

But British writer-director Johannes Roberts knows how to keep an audience on the edge of its seats and make them jump, as he did most recently in 2016 with “The Other Side of the Door.”

Former pop singer Mandy Moore and Australian actress Claire Holt play Lisa and Kate; two sisters who look nothing alike. Dark-haired, brown-eyed Lisa has just been dumped by her boyfriend, so she decides to invite her blond, blue-eyed sister to take his place to a dream vacation to a Mexican resort.

Lisa mopes around at first, but more outgoing Kate convinces her to go out on a night on the town at their seaside resort. There they meet a couple of local guys and begin dancing and kanoodling with them. The next day the guys say they have a friend, Capt. Taylor (Matthew Modine) who has a dive boat and will make them a really good deal- just $100- for the cage diving experience.

The girls should have been a little wary when they were picked up in a rickety rowboat and taken to an even more rickety, age-worn dive ship.

But as in all horror-thrillers, the girls are naïve and trusting. At first their dive is enchanting. Capt. Taylor chums the water with bloody fish guts and they see their first sharks. The cage is just five meters down. Then the winch lets loose and they plummet to the 47 meters of the title. Even for experienced divers that is a long way down; more than 150 feet. At this depth you can’t just pop up to the surface or you will get the bends, or nitrogen narcosis. Suffice it to say the girls endure all manner of peril in their fight to survive. Happily the movie is only 90 minutes long, but in that time Roberts pulls out every trick in the scare book. Mandy Moore proves herself an able screamer and weeper, while Claire Holt isn’t as tough as she thinks she is.

If you enjoy pretty girls in peril, this may interest you. For me, 90 minutes was more than enough

Beautiful "Beauty and the Beast" at the Wick Theatre

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A Beautiful “Beauty and the Beast” at Wick Theatre

By Skip Sheffield

“Beauty and the Beast” goes back, way back to a 1740 French fairy tale.

The Wick Theatre has a thoroughly modern version enhanced with video projections that cuts to the chase. Beauty is beautiful Mallory Newbrough. The Beast is Loren Christopher, a prince cursed by a witch because he turned her away.

This Disney version of “B&B” is highly simplified version for an attention-deficit audience, running through July 9. The score, by Alan Menkin with lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, has become quite familiar even if you haven’t seen the stage version or the 1991 Disney animated version on which it is based.

Mallory Newbrough, who was so electrifying as Janis Joplin in the Wick production of “Beehive,” channels her softer, feminine side as Belle, a book-loving girl who lives with her widowed father Maurice (Troy Stanley). Maurice is considered an oddball because of his goofy inventions. Belle is considered odd simply because she loves literature and could not care less about Gaston (Jacob Thompson) the vain town hunk who pursues her relentlessly.

Maurice wanders off into the woods, gets lost, and ends up at the castle of the Beast (Loren Christopher). When Belle tries to free her father, she comes into the clutches of the Beast, who is a sad, lonely and very ugly man.

When the Beast was cursed, so was everyone in his castle. So everyone who was human is turned into a household object. Therefore we have Cogsworth the clock (Kevin Robert Kelly), Lumiere the candelabra (Jonathan Van Dyke), Mrs. Potts the teapot (Angie Radosh) and her son Chip (Alexa Lasanta) and an opera-singing wardrobe (Krystal Bly). Flitting about is Babette (Emily Tarolo), an incurable flirt and temptress to Lumiere.

These characters give the Wick Theatre a chance to show off its costume magic. Combined with ingenious sets by Kelly Tighe and precise lighting by Jose Santiago, “B&B” is the most visually stunning show I have yet seen at The Wick. Its enormous cast includes a half-dozen local high school students who blend quite well thanks to the direction of Dom Ruggiero. Even if you have seen Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” before, you might want to consider seeing it again for its timeless message that real love overcomes any physical obstacle.

Tickets are $70-$75 adults and $40 children under 13. Call 561-995-2333 or go to www.thewick.org

A Girl and Her Dog

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Megan Leavey Loved Her Dog Rex.

By Skip Sheffield

Megan Leavey was not just an ordinary dog-lover. She was an upstate New Yorker who found her purpose as a U.S. Marine Corporal. Rex was not just any dog. He was a very aggressive and fearsome German Shepherd who became a bomb-sniffing dog for Marines in Iraq.

“Megan Leavey” is a rah-rah story for dog-lovers and those who support the Iraq War.

Kate Mara plays Megan, based on a real-life character. The year is 2001. Megan is floundering aimlessly. Her divorced mother (Edie Falco) is thinking of marrying a new guy (Will Patton). Megan is the odd person out. On a whim at a local shopping mall she goes to a local USMC recruiter and says sign me up.

Like Goldie Hawn in “Private Benjamin” Megan is an unlikely soldier, but this is not a comedy. A sympathetic Sgt. Gunny Martin (Common) tries to get her into combat shape, but she soon screws up and is punished by being assigned to dog kennel cleanup duty. It is there she meets her destiny: a surly, violent German Shepherd named Rex. Rex is gifted with an extraordinary sense of smell, so he is trained to be a bomb-sniffing dog in the deserts of Iraq.

On one hand Megan and her dog are heroic and self-sacrificing. On the other hand it is hard to romanticize a war so misbegotten, so destructive to both sides with no clear gain either way. “Megan Leavey” and her dog are true heroes, but what happens when they have to go back to civilian life? This movie is directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, who made the compassionate documentary “Black Fish.” Its heart is in the right place but I can’t help but feel melancholy about such a pointless, unwinnable war.

"My Cousin Rachel" is a Most Fetching Rachel Weitsz

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Rachel Weisz Rules “My Cousin Rachel”

By Skip Sheffield

The choice was between “The Mummy” and “My Cousin Rachel.” I chose “Rachel” because of its star, Rachel Weisz. I have never seen a bad performance from this British-born actress. “Rachel” may be a new benchmark for her. Weisz has a certain look; an exotic beauty, which she uses to good advantage to play Rachel Ashley, a cousin of Philip Ashley (Sam Claflin) a young British nobleman who will come into a ton of money and a beautiful manor house when he turns 25. Philip was orphaned young and adopted by his godfather Nick Kendall (Iain Glen). When Nick Kendall dies suddenly, Philip suspects his young bride Rachel (Weisz) had something to do with it.

The story is based on British mystery master Daphne Du Maurier’s 1951 novel. Du Maurier is better known for “Rebecca” and “The Birds,” but this movie, adopted for the screen by Roger Michell (“Notting Hill”), may prove a boost to her posthumous reputation.

Rachel does not make her appearance until 20 minutes into the film. When she does, Philip, who has been moping about in his magnificent seaside manor house, is intrigued and a little bit frightened. Is this young widow dressed in black truly grieving for her older husband, or does she have designs on the estate and all its riches?

Weisz keeps us guessing. Philip predictably becomes smitten over her. What is in that exotic tea Rachel keeps serving Philip? If you desire an old-fashioned mystery set in stunning beauty in 19^th century England and Italy, this is a movie for you. Rachel Weisz is the bonus. You cannot keep your eyes off her.

Who is Jeremiah Tower? Find out in the movie of the same name.

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“Jeremiah Tower:” a Celebrity Chef Uncovered

By Skip Sheffield

Who is Jeremiah Tower?

I had no idea, but evidently he is a big-deal chef credited with much of the New American cuisine.

“Jeremiah Tower” is a documentary by Lydia Tenaglia, who previously directed “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.”

Anthony Bourdain I have heard of. I enjoy his globe-trotting gastronomic adventures on PBS. Jeremiah Tower is quite reclusive by comparison.

“I have to stay away from human beings” he says early in the film. After emerging as one of the first celebrity chefs in 1970s California, he retreated from the public eye.

Part of the deal was Tower was a gay man, and sensitive about that. He re-emerged in a most public place: New York City’s Tavern on the Green in November of 2014. Tower was a notorious control freak. Tavern on the Green is a huge operation and major tourist attraction.

Throughout the film major celebrity chefs give their testimony on Tower, starting with Anthony Bourdain and including Mario Batali, Martha Stewart and Samantha Talbot.

If you are a “foodie,” this movie will be of interest. If you are not you may find Tower’s conflicted life story interesting. For this weekend it is showing exclusively at FAU’s Living Room Theaters.