Tags Posts tagged with "Jeffrey Sanzel"

Jeffrey Sanzel

Lacey Chabert in a scene from 'Hot Frosty.' Photo courtesy of Netflix

Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel

Christmas is a time of giving: gifts, good cheer, and kind wishes. Christmas is also the time for an endless parade of holiday movies launched by every channel and streaming service. And, like a handful of coal, Netflix stuffed our stockings with the one-note, no-joke Hot Frosty. 

Writer Russell Hainline’s premise is simple. Depressed widow Kathy Barrett (Lacey Chabert), owner of Kathy’s Kafé, lives in the town of Hope Springs (subtle). Still grieving over the death of her husband to cancer, her life is falling apart: the roof leaks, the heat does not work, and she no longer cooks for herself, represented by a counter of empty takeout containers. However, other than that, she seems to be doing okay. Let’s call it grief light. 

Lacey Chabert in a scene from ‘Hot Frosty’ with Dustin Milligan. Photo courtesy of Netflix

Her friend, Mel (Sherry Miller), runs Reclaimed Rags, a second-hand clothing store across from the café. Mel gives Kathy a scarf with the “wise” advice: “You’ll never find the warmth unless you venture out into the cold.” Kathy graciously accepts the scarf but then notices that between two scarved snowmen is an Adonis-like ice sculpture without one. Feeling generous(?), she wraps the scarf around the sculpture, bringing it/him (Dustin Milligan) to life. (Don’t worry—the scarf covers the naughty bits.)

On the plus side, the adult fairy tale kicks into gear very quickly, without much backstory or exposition (or explanation). On the negative side, the adult fairy tale kicks into gear very quickly, without much backstory or exposition (or explanation). The writing is puerile, and Jerry Ciccoritti’s direction club fisted.

The animated sculpture crashes into Reclaimed Rags and steals some clothing, including a vest with the name “Jack.” Thus, he is called “Jack.” The next morning, Kathy finds Jack standing in front of the diner. Thinking he might need help—given his strange behavior—she brings him inside … because that is what one does with psychotics who say, “I was made of snow, now I’m made of not snow.” (Scintillating dialogue.) When he claims, “I’ve never had food before,” one questions why she does not call for help or simply runs screaming into the street. Instead, she takes him to the local doctor, Dottie (Katy Mixon Greer), who concludes that he might be the snowman he claims to be (for this, she went to medical school?). They agree not to take him to the police because the sheriff tends to overreact. 

Kathy moves him into her house, and the newly sentient Jack immediately falls for her. The rest of the interminable film focuses on their growing relationship and his ability to learn anything by watching television. (This includes the discovery that vampires are afraid of crosses. Very Christmasy.)

An unpleasant and fairly ugly encounter with a snow-banked cougar, Jane (Lauren Holly), concludes with Jack’s innocent punchline, “Do you want me to get behind you and push?” Fortunately, this thread goes nowhere besides landing Jack a maintenance job at the middle school. The majority of his work is decorating the gym for the winter dance.

The film is a mix of styles—like a Christmas gift bag of assorted pointy objects. (Each is different, but all are painful in their own ways.) The occasional joke that lands is a holiday miracle. (Though a Mean Girls reference is pretty smart.) There are two montages because one is not nauseatingly enough. 

A grating subplot focuses on the sheriff hunting for the person who smashed the clothing store’s glass. The officer is a parody of a spoof of a send-up of a take-off on small-town law enforcement. In a film of mostly poor moments, the usually hilarious Craig Robinson is saddled with some of the most eggnog-curdling dialogue in this (or any) film: “You can’t buy me breakfast. It might influence the investigation.” (Hilarious.) Joe Lo Truglio’s deputy sheriff makes Barney Fife look like Hamlet’s Horatio. The café/ice cube scene might rank as the unfunniest bit in holiday history.

Chabert and Milligan work well together, play it straight enough, and do not lack charm. But the material is so painfully underdeveloped and wrong-headed that they cannot mine a moment of tension in the ninety minutes. His declarations like “I still don’t understand how all of this is happening, but I am so glad you were the one who found me” are only matched by his constant statement of “I love you.” Will she say it back? Can she? Is she ready? (Spoiler alert. Yes.)

Corralling the underdeveloped townspeople, the film builds to a lazy finale—a Frosty the Snowman/E.T./It’s a Wonderful Life rip-off. (Yes, they can claim homage to the last one, but it is not.) A strong cast fails to shovel this slushy mess. (Even the outtake bloopers are not funny.)

Perhaps the film has created a new sub-genre: the Frenetically Lugubrious Christmas Fantasy Rom-Uncom. (Ho-Ho-No, Thank you.) Next year, instead of holiday fare like Hot Frosty, Netflix, please just give us the cheese-of-the month club.

By Julianne Mosher

Celebrating its 40th year, Theatre Three’s production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is as great as it is in the present, just as it has been in the past, and as it will be in the future. 

A pillar of the holiday season, not only in Port Jefferson but across Long Island, the Dickensian tale of Ebenezer Scrooge (Jeffrey Sanzel) and the ghosts of Christmas Past (Cassidy Rose O’Brien), Present (Scott Hofer) and Christmas Yet to Come (Steven Uihlein) is a story that taps into the hearts of the young and the old, making it the perfect way to kick off the season of giving. 

The theater opened its annual show on Nov. 9 to a packed-out house filled with an audience dressed in their best Christmas best. Young girls wore their red velvet dresses with bows, while fathers wore silly, ugly Christmas sweaters and Santa hats. Ushers greeted visitors to their seats in top hats and Victorian-era gowns, a nice touch to the show which is set in the mid-1800s.

When the curtains opened up, the stage turned into the dark, dreary streets of London where the poor and hungry begged for food. We are brought inside Ebenezer Scrooge’s office, that he once shared with the late Jacob Marley (Stephen T. Wangner), where he works during Christmas Eve — a holiday he absolutely despises. Scrooge’s nephew is Fred (Uihlein), a young man who is starting a family of his own, but who yearns for his uncle’s approval since it’s the last piece of his mother he has on earth after her death during childbirth. Scrooge, an angry, frugal man, wants nothing to do with the holiday, and isn’t shy about how he feels about it. Bah-humbug.

Scrooge has an underpaid, overworked clerk, Bob Cratchit (Ray Gobes Jr.), who is a man of simple means and a high spirit. Scrooge is unkind to him, as well, but reluctantly gives him off on Christmas Day. 

Later that night, Scrooge is visited by his former partner’s ghost. Marley warns Scrooge that he has the opportunity to avoid the same fate — a dire one where he roams the earth entwined in chains and money boxes because of his lifetime of greed and selfishness — with visits by three ghosts. He must listen to them or he will be cursed and spend eternity in the same purgatory as his friend.

The visits of the ghosts are done spectacularly. The Ghost of Christmas Past brings Scrooge back to scenes of his boyhood and young adulthood where we see the relationships between him, his family, his sister, Fan (Ash Stalker), Belle, his first love (Julia Albino) and his first job — an apprenticeship with Mr. Fezziwig and his wife (Scott Hofer and Ginger Dalton).

The Ghost of Christmas Present enters next and takes Scrooge to the homes of Fred and Bob Cratchit. Fred’s holiday party shows the group making fun of Scrooge, while the Christmas dinner with the Cratchit’s shows how poor the family of six copes with Scrooge’s poor wage. We meet Tiny Tim (Stanley Zinger), Cratchit’s ill son who the family prays gets stronger by the day. This opens Scrooge’s eyes. 

Enough so that when the Ghost of Christmas Future comes on stage, the audience lets out an audible gasp.

Upon the stage is a 13-foot grim reaper who towers over Scrooge and his grave. Scrooge watches his possessions be stolen and sold, while mourners mock him during his funeral. He begs for forgiveness to the reaper and he vows he’ll change for good. 

On Christmas morning, Scrooge is a new man. He sends a turkey to the Cratchit home, donates money to a charity he previously rejected and attends Fred’s Christmas party where he is welcomed with lovingly opened arms. The next day, Scrooge increases Cratchit’s wage in which Tiny Tim says the famous line, “God bless us, everyone.”

Theatre Three’s rendition of A Christmas Carol is always a treat, but this production was quite magical. Sanzel, who also serves as the show’s director, celebrated his 1,590th performance as the bitter, but complex, Scrooge — and he keeps getting better.

In fact, after performing the show for 40 years, the entire company has perfected the show. They have it down to a science with their special and unique adaptation, impressive set design (by Randall Parsons), stunning costumes (by Parsons and Jason Allyn) and fantastic lighting (Robert W. Henderson Jr.). After performing the show for four decades, we can’t wait to see how the next 40 look at Theatre Three. Don’t miss this one.

CAST and CREW: Julia Albino, Jason Allyn, Karin Bagan, Steven Barile, Jr., Kyle M. Breitenbach, James Bressler, Kelsie Curran, Ginger Dalton, Olivia Davis, Angelina Eybs, Sari Feldman, Roy Fleischer, Brad Frey, Jason Furnari, Christina Gobes, Ray Robes Jr., Skye Greenberg, Tim Haggerty, Kathleen Arabelle Han, Robert W. Henderson Jr., Scott Hofer, Patrick Hutchinson, Zach Kanakaris, Giovanni Ladd, Linda May, Cassidy Rose O’Brien, Randall Parsons, Mia Rofrano, William Roslak, Vivian Leigh Rumble, Jennifer Salvia, Jeffrey Sanzel, Aidan Sharkey, Ash Stalker, Amelia Theodorakis, Melissa Troxler, Steven Uihlein, Stephen T. Wangner and Stanley Zinger

Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson will present A Christmas Carol through Dec. 28. All tickets are $25 in November and range from $25 to $40 in December. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.

The 2024 cast of Theatre Three's 'A Christmas Carol.' Photo by Steve Able/Showbizshots.com
“Marley was dead, to begin with…”
The holiday season beings TONIGHT with the return of Long Island’s favorite holiday tradition!!!

Celebrate the season with the 40th annual production of A Christmas Carol at Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson from Nov. 9 to Dec. 28. Follow the miser Ebenezer Scrooge on a journey that teaches him the meaning of Christmas — past, present, and future. Tickets are $25 through November; $40 adults, $32 seniors and students, $25 children ages 5 to 12 in December. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com

For Tickets:

 

Jeffrey Sanzel has portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in 'A Christmas Carol' more than 1500 times. Photo by Steven Uihlein/Theatre Three Productions, Inc.
 A spirited foreword from Executive Artistic Director, Jeffrey Sanzel

By Stephanie Giunta

As the holiday season approaches, the air in Port Jefferson fills with the unmistakable spirit of Christmas—a joyous and abundant feeling that resonates throughout the community. Amid the festive hustle and the cherished traditions, we are thrilled to celebrate a special milestone: the 40th anniversary of Charles Dickens’ timeless classic, A Christmas Carol, at Theatre Three.

This enduring tale of redemption has been masterfully adapted year after year by Jeffrey Sanzel, who not only serves as the production’s director but also takes on the beloved and complex role of Ebenezer Scrooge. The cast’s heartfelt performances continue to attract both new audiences and long-time fans alike, with Sanzel sprinkling different nuances into the mix to keep the production unchanging yet fresh. 

In honor of the show’s ruby anniversary, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sanzel about his enduring passion for the role, some of his fondest memories, his unique adaptation of Scrooge, and more.

How many times have you played Scrooge in the production of A Christmas Carol?

The opening night of this year’s A Christmas Carol, November 9, will be my 1,590th performance.

How did you come about to play Scrooge? What first sparked your interest in the role?

I first played Scrooge when I was teaching at John F. Kennedy High School in Somers, New York. I produced and directed a student-faculty production. None of the teachers wanted to play Scrooge, so my assistant director suggested I do it. That was my first real encounter with the story beyond watching movies and cartoons growing up. I don’t think I had even read the story until then.

Are there any particularly memorable shows you can recall over the years?

During one performance there was torrential downpour, and we lost power. We ended up playing the rest of the show using lanterns. Another time, we had an onstage mishap and had to finish the show in the parking lot.

What are some of your favorite memories that you look back on?

I’ve worked with hundreds of actors over the years. Some of them grew up in the show—starting as The Girl/Want and going right through to Fan—even one who came back and played Belle.

There have been milestones—my 500th and 1,000th performances come to mind. Douglas Quattrock, a long time Bob Cratchit, his 500th was a special show. Probably, the most exciting and memorable was a special show we did in the 25th  anniversary season. It was the first year we had the new set—a brilliant design by Randall Parsons [complemented by Robert Henderson’s powerful lighting design]—the set we continue to use 15 seasons later. On the Sunday night of opening weekend, we had a performance just for A Christmas Carol veterans—actors, designers, technicians, front of house staff—all people with a connection to the production over two and a half decades. They were the best audience reacting to every new piece—a wall opening or steam coming off the goose.

In each year’s production, do you put a different twist on Scrooge or have you preferred consistency in persona?

As I am the adaptor, I am always reworking and tweaking the production. Sometimes I make large changes—rewriting scenes or removing dialogue and replacing it with tableau or music. As far as the character goes, I think it is influenced by who I am playing opposite. There was one year that I took a completely different approach to the character. I pulled him way back, took a lot of the vocal size and energy out of it. I was aiming to make him as real as possible. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a mess. My performance ended up lacking impact. Maybe it played well to the first few rows, but overall, I think I learned that a bit of “more” is important. With the exception of that year, the growth in the character has been gradual. I’m sure some years are better than others.

What are some lessons you have learned in playing a complex character like Scrooge? 

From a technical perspective, finding a moment in the few seconds offstage to take a drink of water. It’s a lot of talking!

I guess on a personal level, the theme is always how one person can make a difference for good or ill in the world.

We know that Scrooge has a change of heart and grows to love and exude the true meaning of Christmas. How does being a key part of A Christmas Carol impact your love and appreciation for the Christmas season?

My Christmas is A Christmas Carol. I am Jewish, so Christmas growing up was watching Christmas specials, maybe decorating a neighbor’s tree, that sort of thing. Obviously, after 37 years, I have a whole different experience. It is part of my life year-round and certainly from the end of September to the end of December.

Over the years, I’ve become a collector of A Christmas Carol memorabilia—books, tapes/DVDs, audio recordings, sketches and paintings, figurines, bookmarks, comic books, candle snuffers, trivets, board games…I’ll pretty much watch or read anything with A Christmas Carol in them. I’ve been to Dickens’ house in London. I met his great-grandson, Cedric Dickens, there.

I also have rituals. Before we go into rehearsal, I start by re-reading Tom Mula’s extraordinary Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol—one of my favorite books. Immediately following every performance, I have to set-up for the next show—I won’t leave the building until that’s done. I’ve used certain props for over 30 years.  

Outside of A Christmas Carol, my favorite thing about the holiday is driving around looking at Christmas lights.

Theatre Three’s A Christmas Carol is a long-term collaborative effort. My predecessor, artistic director, Bradlee Bing; managing director Vivian Koutrakos, who has been the show’s champion even prior to my coming to the theatre, resident musical director, Ellen Michelmore, and associate artistic director, Brent Erlanson, both who have passed away, made contributions that still resonate with the current production. Actors, designers, and behind-the-scenes people give a piece of themselves and leave a mark on the production.

And then, of course, the audience that comes year after year. Having done it for nearly four decades, I’m now meeting the children of the people who saw the show as children. Paul Davis wrote a comprehensive study of the story, The Lives and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge (1990). He captures its power: “[Charles Dickens] may have framed our thoughts and established the broad outlines of the story, but the Carol is rewritten each Christmas, and Scrooge, an altered spirit, appears anew with each retelling.”

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Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson will present A Christmas Carol from November 9 through December 28. All tickets are $25 in November and range from $25 to $40 in December. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.

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Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in a scene from 'Here'. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel

In 1989, Raw published Richard McGuire’s six-page comic strip, Here. The thirty-five panels followed a single location but spanned 500,957,406,073 B.C. to 2033 A.D. Often, the panels contained other images within, depicting multiple time frames simultaneously. In 2014, Pantheon Books published McGuire’s full-length graphic novel. The 304 pages traced the same space from 3,000,500,000 B.C. to A.D. 22,175, concentrating on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, predominantly focusing on the living room of a house built in 1907.

As a senior thesis project in 1991, students from Rochester Institute of Technology’s Department of Film and Video created a six-minute film of the original comic. An immersive V.R. film based on the full-length novel was designed and produced by British Fifty Nine Productions, under the direction of Lysander Ashton, with music by Anna Meredith.  

Now, director Robert Zemeckis brings his adaptation to the big screen. The prolific Zemeckis broke out with the 1978 I Wanna Hold Your Hand. His work includes Romancing the Stone, the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her, and Contact, among others. His 1994 Forest Gump won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (for Tom Hanks). Over the years, Zemeckis has teamed with Hanks on Pinocchio, The Polar Express, and Cast Away. Here reunites Hanks with his Gump co-star, Robin Wright. 

Zemeckis (who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth) uses the basic idea and framework of the novel but instead chooses to highlight on the twentieth-century Young family that occupies the house. While still weaving back and forth through time, it eventually settles into a more chronological telling of the one family.

The first eight minutes progress through thousands of years of history (dinosaurs, volcanic eruption or asteroids, Ice Age), but then Here slows down to offer a handful of earlier years, including a native American couple and their tribe, as well as a view of the house across the street where Benjamin Franklin’s son, the loyalist William, lived. Of the former, the indigenous people seem cast from a 1960s history museum diorama. The late eighteenth-century Revolutionary War moments feel like a community theatre production of 1776. 

The earliest inhabitants of the house, the Harters (Michelle Dockery and Gwilym Lee), serve little function except establishing occupancy and a nod to the Influenza Epidemic of 1918 (with a parallel later with the COVID pandemic). A slight subplot about aviation grates. The Beekmans follow—Stella (Ophelia Lovibond) and her inventor husband, Leo (David Fynn), who provide a humorous and interesting diversion.

Zemeckis trades the book’s panoramic and epic nature to emphasize the Young family’s day-to-day struggles. Recently discharged from the service, World War II veteran Al Young (Paul Bettany) purchases the house for his wife, Rose (Kelly Reilly). Here, they raise their family—two boys and a girl. The oldest, Richard (Hanks), impregnates his girlfriend Margaret (Wright) on the living room sofa. The couple weds, taking up residence in the house. What follows is years of joys and sorrows, trials and tribulations—marriage and children, illness and death. 

Throughout their story, flashes of the earlier inhabitants recur, as well as the Harris family (Nikki Amuka-Bird and Nicholas Pinnock), who take the house when Richard sells it. Perhaps Zemeckis is trying to draw parallels between these disparate worlds—but, unlike McGuire—he does not succeed.  

Here veers towards the saccharine when it is trying to be its most sincere. The Hallmark (card, not network) feel hovers around most of the stiff dialogue. Instead of simple, the exchanges feel simplistic. The messages about love, family, dreams, art, and loss seem predictable and lack anything bordering on revelatory. The best-landing moments can be attributed to the Young quartet and the inherent honesty in their performances, even when saddled with two- and even one-dimensional material.

From a visual standpoint, Here is almost a one-camera set-up. We view the living room straight on as it evolves and shifts, often picture-in-picture(-in picture). The effect alternates between clever and precious. Sometimes, the entire experience feels like Disney’s Carousel of Time. And speaking of Disney, the A.I. intelligence Metaphysic Life, used for face-swapping and de-aging the actors in real-time (instead of post-production), presents a young Tom Hanks looking more like the puppet Pinocchio than his real boy counterpart. 

In the end, the film works and doesn’t work. For some audiences, they will embrace a concept taken to its fullest and a sometimes touching family saga. For others, Here is a gimmick with a center that is human, but not inspiring, tapping into soap opera plots that overstay the hundred-minute running time. Gertrude Stein said of her hometown, Oakland, “There is no there there.” Ultimately, with Zemeckis’s film, there is no Here there either.

Rated PG-13, the film is now playing in local theaters.

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Grace Delaney, Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh in a scene from the film. Photo by Peter Mountain/A24

Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel

To describe the plot of a non-linear story chronologically seems to be counterintuitive. At the very least, the approach undermines the essence of the creator’s intent in selecting the structure. That is true in the cast of We Live in Time. Director John Crowley (Brooklyn) and screenwriter Nick Payne (the Tony Award-nominated Constellations) constructed (or deconstructed) the decade-long relationship of Tobias Durand (Andrew Garfield) and Almut Brühl (Florence Pugh). 

As a film, it easily ticks all the boxes of romantic drama: a meet-cute (in this case, she hits him with her car, only causing a slight trauma), courtship, struggle, illness, careers, frustrations, fertility, and family. There are dates and montages, lingering looks, and tasteful scenes of physicality. These well-known and well-worn tropes play with sensitivity and style, even from a standard approach. But in this case, by ignoring the standard narrative and presenting the story as almost a shuffled stack of photos, the often peripatetic tapestry provides greater depth. 

Almut’s second bout with ovarian cancer is presented first, giving an unusual resonance to both her first illness and the birth of their child, Ella (Grace Delaney, who manages to be adorable without being precocious). 

The individual details—she is a former figure skater turned Bavarian fusion chef/restaurant owner, and he is a Weetabix representative—are handled smartly. At the beginning of the timeline, Tobias is on the cusp of a divorce; the issue of a pen to sign the papers is simultaneously hilarious and poignant. Nothing solely functions as a punchline, and every element serves as textural development. 

Central to much of the later conflict is whether Almut will enter the Bocuse d’Or, one of the most prestigious international cooking competitions. Wedding preparations, along with chemo treatment, are deftly threaded. 

The “what if’ element of life choices lands differently when you know what will happen. Something as simple as how to properly crack an egg or why one should get a child a dog takes on entirely new dimensions when presented from multiple time perspectives. The film even knows when to allow rom-com elements—an aggressive extraction from an overly tight parking space or a visit to an amusement park. Somehow, the filmmakers manage to elevate the predictable. 

Crowley has assembled an excellent cast. Adam James, as Almut’s former boss and mentor, Simon Maxson, hits the right notes, reflecting the pressured world of high-end cuisine competition. Lee Braithwaite is appropriately awkward as Jade, Almut’s commis (novice chef), who assists her. 

Nikhil Parmar and Kerry Godliman elevate the convenience store workers who assist with Ella’s birth, making them real and honest rather than playing the scene for easy laughs. Lucy Briers makes the oncologist a person rather than a plot delivery system.

But at heart, We Live in Time is a two-hander. While the ensemble strongly supports the principal characters, it is the story of Tobias and Almut. Perhaps the most overused and indefinable term applied to performances is “chemistry.” However, whatever “chemistry” actually is, Garfield and Pugh have it. Their attraction and connection are wholly displayed, and their frustrations and disappointments are believable. The depth of the relationship never feels false, precious, or theatrical. They achieve that rare symbiosis by simply being present with each other. 

Garfield makes Tobias an anxious, occasionally twitchy type A. He is a notetaker and highly emotional, with feelings always bubbling to the surface. In contrast, Pugh’s Almut is a portrait of stillness and silence, intensity that breaks into a smile of gentle joy or erupts into a seething, low-grade anger. They are perfectly complementary.

The fact that the audience always knows not just where they are but when they are is a tribute to Crowley, Payne, and a gifted design team that manages to ground every moment in detailed reality. The film is beautifully paced. Unlike the turgid It Ends with Us (that could have been timed by a calendar), the playing time of just under two hours never flags.

We Live in Time offers a love story told in an unusual and appropriately challenging way. Life’s underlying interconnectedness and complexity are presented with dark humor, wit, and humanity, with two powerful, memorable central performances.

Rated R, the film is now playing in local theaters.

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Tony Hale and Anna Kendrick in a scene from the film. Photo from Netflix

Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel

In the world of truth-is-stranger-than-fiction, Netflix’s Woman of the Hour tackles the story of serial killer Rodney Alcala and his September 13, 1978, appearance on The Dating Game. Directed by Anna Kendrick and written by Ian McDonald, the film tells the story through bachelorette Cheryl Bradshaw (played by Kendrick), who selected him, focusing on her experience on the show and dealing with systemic sexism. The film premiered on September 8, 2023, to a positive response at the Toronto Film Festival.

Actor Bradshaw scrapes by in Los Angeles, attempting to make her way into film and television. “I’m working very hard and accomplishing very little,” she reflects. After a particularly depressing audition, her agent gets her a spot on the popular game show. Reluctantly, Bradshaw agrees to appear. The film is mostly taken up with the time from her arrival at the studio through her segments on the show. Intercut are several of Alcala’s horrific rape and murders, beginning with one in Wyoming in 1977, which opens the film.

During the show’s taping, Bradshaw goes rogue, changing the questions to more pointed and revealing interrogations of the three bachelors. The first proves to be a bit of a fool, the second inappropriate, with Alcala coming off as smooth, witty, and a touch thoughtful. 

Bradshaw chooses Alcala, and the second bachelor warns her not to go near him. After leaving the studio, Bradshaw and Alcala have a few drinks in a nearby bar. Quickly, Bradshaw realizes that there is something off about him and exits the bar with him in pursuit. She is only saved by a group of men coming out of the studio.

In her directorial debut, Kendrick proves to be first-rate. She instinctually knows what to show and when to pull back, maintaining a constant tension in the film’s brisk ninety-minute running time.

Sometimes, Alcala’s crimes are shown in all their horror; other times, they are suggested by a sun-drenched landscape with just the sound of the victim. The film is spot-on as an indictment of toxic masculinity and misogyny leading to violence. In both the casual dismissal of women to the horrific rape and torture, Kendrick creates a taught, unflinching, and brutal film. Even the use of Alcala’s photography, particularly the enhanced sound of the shutter clicks, adds to the exceptional storytelling. Additionally, the film captures the visual and auditory essence of 1970s California.

Some of the film’s wisdom is courtesy of the make-up artist, Marilyn (a very strong Denalda Williams): “Is it possible to get a guy in this town who isn’t a total maniac?” Later, she follows this up: “The question beneath the question. Which of you will hurt me?” Her casual statement delivers a wallop and succinctly but pointedly expresses the overall thesis.

As a true crime docudrama, Woman of the Hour is less successful. McDonald has fictionalized a great deal for storytelling purposes, and one must at least pause to consider the validity of the choices. Most viewers will take the film at face value without looking into the actual facts and history. Since the film is short, much information is changed or left out.

The only subplot deals with an audience member, Laura (Nicolette Robinson), recognizing Alcala as the man who most likely murdered her friend after a beach party encounter. The way the security guard deals with her accusation is chilling. Unfortunately, Laura is a fiction. This is one of many introduced changes and additions without indicating where liberties were taken. In reality, Bradshaw stuck to the innuendo-laden questions, and the bachelors were dissimilar to the film’s counterparts.

Kendrick, a first-rate actor, shows dimension, fear, strength, and resolve. Always watchable, she delivers at every moment. Daniel Zovatto succeeds in making Alcala wholly plausible—a sadistic, dangerous, and threatening narcissist who knows how to turn on the charm. Tony Hale is appropriately sleazy and short-tempered as the gameshow host Ed Burke, based on Jim Lange. Some of the finest moments belong to Autumn Best as the runaway, Amy, who survives Alcala’s attack. Her raw performance resonates to her final cut-off scream. (However, the reality of the runaway’s story is very different than that offered in the film.)

At the time of his appearance on The Dating Game, Alcala was responsible for the murder of five women and the attempted murder of eight-year-old Tali Shapiro; he was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives List. He had served thirty-four months for child molestation and spent two-and-a-half years in prison for giving drugs to a thirteen-year-old girl. 

Because there were no background checks—or vetting of any kind—Alcala easily landed a spot on the show. Two years after his Dating Game appearance, Alcala was convicted of the murder of twelve-year-old Robin Samsoe and sentenced to death. The overturned verdict caused a 1986 retrial, where he was found guilty and sentenced to death (the ruling was overturned in 2011). While remaining on California’s death row, he died at the age of natural causes at the age of seventy-seven. Some of this information is presented in the final scroll, but most are not. Alcala was directly linked to eight murders, but his actual crimes could have encompassed up to one hundred and thirty victims. 

Those looking for a detailed account of Alcala’s crimes should seek the three-part documentary series Dating Death. However, viewers open to more flexible telling will find that Woman of the Hour viscerally lays bare both the killer and danger of a hyper-toxic macho culture.

Rated R, the film is now streaming on Netflix.

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Christopher Reeve played the cinematic hero Superman in four films. Photo courtesy of © Warner Bros./ DC Studios

Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel

Born in 1952, Christopher Reeve graduated from Cornell before studying acting at the Juilliard School, appearing in a range of stage productions. His cinematic work encompassed nearly two dozen films, including Somewhere in Time (1980), Deathtrap (1982), and The Remains of the Day (1993). But he will be forever remembered as the legendary Man of Steel in Superman (1978) and its sequels Superman II (1980), Superman III (1983), and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). 

In 1985, after learning to ride for the television version of Anna Karenina, Reeve became an avid equestrian. On May 27, 1995, his horse made a refusal (a failure to jump a fence which stops forward movement). Reeve fell and shattered his first and second vertebrae, resulting in a cervical spinal injury that resulted in paralysis from the neck down. 

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is a well-crafted, riveting documentary chronicling Reeve’s life, emphasizing his career as the cinematic superhero, his accident, and its aftermath. Directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui (who co-wrote the script with Otto Burnham) created a loving, dimensional tribute to a beloved personality in a sensitive but unflinching account. 

In the film’s first ten minutes, Reeve is established as Superman and superstar and quickly shifts to the accident: “In an instant, everything changed.” Over one hundred and four well-paced minutes, the filmmakers interview his children from his relationship with British modeling executive Gae Exton—Matthew Reeve and Alexandra Reeve Givens—and his son from his marriage to actor-singer Dana Morosini—Will Reeve. Exton, Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Daniels, and John Kerry are interviewed, sharing their working and personal relationships with Reeve. 

The film touches on Reeve’s difficult childhood with unsupportive parents who divorced when he was three and remarried. In archival footage, Reeve discusses his father’s perpetual disappointment in his choices. Reeve saw theatre as providing a “neutral place that felt like home.” Theatre offered security with a beginning, middle, and end. The filmmakers emphasize his friendship with Juilliard classmate Robin Williams as well as his early days as a stage actor. While appearing in an off-Broadway play, Reeve flew to London for a Superman audition at Pinewood Studios. (Fellow castmate William Hurt discouraged him from selling out.) Immediately cast, the milestone changed the entire course of his career.

The film alternates between tracing the Superman films with his life post-accident, smartly weaving and contrasting the two worlds. His personal life is respectfully but thoroughly explored, focusing on his time with Exton and the birth of their two children. Realizing that they were incompatible, they separated but shared custody. Over the next several years, Reeve led a more Hollywood lifestyle until meeting Morosini. After a short courtship, Reeve realized he was ready to settle down, and they married in 1992. Their idyllic life was devastated just three years later.

The days immediately following the accident segue into the years of challenges and soul-searching. He states, “I ruined my life and everyone else’s.” The highly active Reeve pondered his shift from intensely “no fail” and “never quit” to a more reflective worldview. His sense of isolation, his weeks on the ventilator, and his fear of not just death but if I live, “Now what?” are part of the many interviews documented with Reeve. His shift in his approach to parenting is intimate and insightful. 

Super/Man draws on hundreds of hours of footage of Reeve’s struggles. (One odd note is the use of clips from the 1998 remake of Rear Window; they seem strangely integrated as they are not indicated as fictional.) Reeve became an outspoken activist, raising awareness for others in similar situations. He and Morosini founded The Christopher Reeve Foundation (later The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation), whose mission is “dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by advancing innovative research and improving the quality of life for individuals and families impacted by paralysis.” Reeve became a high-profile advocate, beginning with his first public appearance at the 68th Annual Academy Awards.

Central is the committed family bond—all three children, Exton, and, especially, Morosini—supported Reeve, who required twenty-four-hour care. (At the time, the cost was $400,000 a year.) Reeve’s gradual return to film, directing In the Gloaming and occasional acting appearances are traced until his sudden death on October 10, 2004 of heart failure at the age of 52. The coda is Morosini’s cancer diagnosis and passing two years later. 

The film is raw, compelling, and heartbreaking. Reeve lost much but embraced a difficult future: he made his path about giving visibility to those in similar straits. Ultimately, Super/Man is an honest and eye-opening look at the person who once said, “I am not a hero. I never have been, and I never will be.” On the contrary, Reeve was a hero in the real sense of the word—a person who has “the strength to persevere in the face of overwhelming obstacles.” Super/Man celebrates this truth.

The documentary is now playing in local theaters.

Time for witches, ghosts and toast!

By Heidi Sutton

It’s kooky and it’s spooky and it’s hauntingly good. Now in it’s 7th year, A Kooky Spooky Halloween returns to Theatre Three in Port Jefferson to celebrate one of the most popular holidays of the year. 

Written by Jeffrey Sanzel and Steve McCoy, the adorable musical tells the story of Abner the Ghost (Steven Uihlein) who has just graduated from Haunting High School and is assigned to be a spooksperson at Ma Aberdeen’s Boarding House, (known for being the most haunted house in Harrison Corner USA and for having the best toast!) as its last ghost, Baron Von Yost, has recently retired. Abner is given a diploma and a medallion of invisibility and is sent on his way with two rules: never haunt before sunset and never, ever lose your medallion.

But Abner has a shocker of a secret — he’s afraid of the dark! When he confides in his best friend Lavinda the Witch (Cassidy Rose O’Brien) she gifts him a nightlight and promises to help him get settled in. With Lavinda’s help, what could possibly go wrong?

It’s Halloween and Abner arrives at the boarding house  just as Ma Aberdeen (Ginger Dalton) and her boarders the Petersons — Paul the periodontist (Liam Marsigliano), Penelope the p.r. professional (Katy Snair) and their daughter Pip (Sarita Alvarado) — and Kit Garret (Julia Albino), a girl who “just came from a small town to a big city with a suitcase in her hand and hope in her heart,” are stuffing goodie bags for trick-or-treaters in the kitchen.

In one of the funniest scenes in the show, Abner tries out a series of spells, making the group stuff the bags in double time, dance, do jumping jacks, sing, spin like a top, quack like a duck and stick to each other. Just as he is about to undo the last spell, fellow graduate ghost with a grudge Dora Pike (Josie McSwane) appears, steals his medallion of invisibility and nightlight and heads to the bottom of Black Ridge Gulch, the deepest, darkest gorge in the entire world (where it’s really, really dark). Now visible, Abner must convince the strangers who are still stuck to each other help him get his medallion back or it will “all fade to black.”

Director Colleen Britt has assembled a terrific cast to tell this hilarious story filled with singing and dancing, action and adventure and tons of Halloween jokes. Ginger Dalton as Ma who makes the toast is especially wonderful. “What kind of toast do you serve? Rye, whole wheat, sourdough, french?” she’s asked. “White. No butter, no jelly … and no jam!” she snaps. 

This year’s production has amped up the spookiness with floating ghosts, use of the trap door and more special effects, but don’t worry— it is not scary. The show also makes use of the screens on each end of the stage from the set of ‘Matilda The Musical’ to project images. A nice touch.

Costumes by Jason Allyn in shades of black, orange, purple and sparkly white for the ghosts are the icing on the haunted house cake. Don’t miss this one. You and your kids will have a spooktacular good time. Ghostly pumpkin souveniers will be sold during intermission and costumes are encouraged. Meet the cast in the lobby after the show for photos. 

Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson presents A Kooky Spooky Halloween through Oct. 19. Children’s theater continues with Barnaby Saves Christmas from Nov. 23 to Dec. 28 and Hansel and Gretel from Jan. 25 to Feb. 8. All seats are $12. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.

By Julianne Mosher

One of the last musical numbers during Theatre Three’s latest production of Matilda the Musical is called “Revolting Children,” but the cast of this show is far from it. 

Based on the beloved book by Roald Dahl and the 1996 movie starring Mara Wilson and Danny DeVito, the musical is a fun and enchanting twist that will make all ages in the audience smile. 

Written by Dennis Kelly, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and directed by Jeffrey Sanzel, Matilda follows the story of a spectacularly smart child who lives in an unhappy home with dimwitted parents. Matilda (played by the extraordinarily talented Sadie Mathers — who is readily on the path to stardom), finds solace in the library where she reads books upon books while also sharing tales she makes up in her head to the local librarian, Mrs. Phelps (Michelle LaBozzetta).

Her family, the Wormwoods, don’t read. In fact, they’re lazy and dumb. Matilda’s father, played by Steven Uihlein, is a crooked car salesman who refuses to acknowledge the young girl as his daughter, and her mother, played by Rachel Geiser, is an amateur ballroom dancer who only cares about her looks — not her family. Matilda has a brother, Michael, played by Jax Segal, who does not speak and stares at the TV throughout the entire show, remote in hand. 

To teach her some discipline, Mr. Wormwood ships Matilda off to a private academy headed by Miss. Trunchbull (Liam Marsigliano), a former Olympian who hates children and wishes for a world without them. Luckily, Matilda and her classmates find comfort knowing their teacher, Miss Honey (Veronica Fox), loves them and tries to make their school days better despite their dreary and frightening walls.

Throughout the play, Matilda shares a tale of an escapologist (Eric J. Hughes) and his wife, the acrobat (Josie McSwane) that she makes up in her head. The characters, however, seem to match with certain people the young girl meets and encounters in her daily life.

Compared to the movie, the musical version of Matilda is set in England so the ensemble needed to not only learn the lyrics to difficult songs, but do it with a cockney accent — the child actors included. The talent of the entire cast is remarkable with its leadership from musical director Jeffrey Hoffman and choreography from Sari Feldman with dance moves and vocal ranges fit for Broadway. 

And if you’re a fan of film, you’ll be surprised with a similar plot but with different twists and turns.

From the campy costumes full of color — minus the school uniforms, of course — (designed by Jason Allyn) to the set design that integrates video using TV monitors framing the stage (Randall Parsons), the attention to detail is nothing short from extraordinary.

So, you better go see this show or else you’ll be thrown in the chokey and give this group of actors the standing ovation they continuously deserve.

Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson presents Matilda the Musical through Oct. 20. Tickets are $40 adults, $32 seniors and students, $25 children ages 5 to 12, $25 Wednesday matinees. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.

All photos by Steve Kyle/Showbizshots