Live from Lincoln Center: Leslie Odom Jr.

This is the second of the four-part Lincoln Center concert series.  Having seen Leslie Odom Jr. perform live back in March, I was already acquainted with a lot of the numbers he did, but you really can’t go wrong with that voice, and I was more than happy to hear them again.

Like I said, this was definitely a familiar concert.  Odom performed with the same band he had when he came to Minnesota – I recognized his wildly-enthusiastic piano player – and quite a few of the songs were the same.  That makes sense, though.  I think most, if not all, of them are from his album, and if these concerts are about including songs that are of personal significance to each artist, he already did that work in choosing them for his record.  I really didn’t mind hearing these songs again.  They were all terrific songs, I liked his arrangements, and of course, he sang them beautifully.  Highlights for me included “Winter Song” by Sarah Bareilles, “Joey, Joey, Joey” from The Most Happy Fella, and “Without You” from RENT.

Still, there were a handful of songs I hadn’t heard him do before, particularly in the second half of the concert.  I really enjoyed his lovely rendition of “At Your Best (You are Love)” by the Isley Brothers, and he closed the show fittingly with “The Party’s Over” (from Bells are Ringing, but it’s also been performed by the likes of Nat King Cole and Shirley Bassey.)  Odom had one guest for the evening – his wife, actress Nicolette Robinson, who came out to share a duet with him.

The format of the program was a little different than the Sutton Foster concert.  Whereas Foster’s kept the camera on the stage the whole time and included her occasional remarks between songs, Odom’s only showed the song performances themselves, replacing the between-song patter with short pre-filmed bits that were brief interviews overlaid onto footage of Odom rehearsing/walking through the city.  There, he discussed what his songs meant to him and his personal history with them.  Some nice, thoughtful comments, and for some reason, I always enjoy seeing performers rehearse in their street clothes.

One complaint, however – no Hamilton!  Odom even talked about it in one of his interview clips, returning to the theatre and discussing the show’s importance to him.  I thought for sure it was leading into “Wait for It” or “Dear Theodosia,” but then he pivoted to “Joey, Joey, Joey” (for the theme of knowing when to leave, even when it’s still good.)  Then, I thought he was saving it for the end, but nothing!  That really surprised me.  Come on, man – give the people what they want!

Avengers: Infinity War (2018, PG-13)

No plot spoilers beyond the general premise today – I’ll save my more detailed thoughts for next Marvelous Wednesday.

This is it, the big one of big ones (at least, until the fourth Avengers comes out next year.)  Virtually all the heroes from all the movies in one giant extravaganza ultra-crossover event.  As such, it shares a lot of the hallmarks of a big crossover, for both better and worse.  Ultimately, it’s a crazy ride, by turns entertaining and intense, and I really appreciate the time Marvel took to build up to this.  The previous movies from all the various franchises laid the groundwork to help the spectacle here 1) feel earned and 2) matter.

He’s existed on the edges of the films for a while now, largely in the post-credit scenes (although he has a slightly bigger foray in the first Guardians of the Galaxy,) but now, Thanos is ready to kick things up a notch.  He’s collecting the six Infinity Stones to gain ultimate power and, in his mind, save the universe in the most genocidal-maniac of ways.  It’s serious all hands on deck, and the threat calls for Earth’s mightiest heroes – along with a handful of our favorite MCU aliens – to band together and fight on multiple fronts.

Like Civil War before it, I was a little nervous going in about how well the film was going to balance its ludicrously-enormous cast (seriously, it makes The Hobbit trilogy look intimate,) but I continue to be impressed with the Russo brothers and their team in juggling the many heroes onscreen here.  The characters are mostly divided into several main groups that shift a bit over the course of the film, rather than cramming everyone together in a giant scrum of superpowers (narratively, probably a good move.)  It means certain fan-dream meet-ups don’t happen in this film, but each grouping does include meetings between chararacters who’ve never encountered each other before, mainly by bringing the Guardians, Doctor Strange, and the Wakanda crew into various folds.  And hey, the fourth Avengers is still coming, so we’ve got time on those meet-ups that didn’t happen here!

For the most part, I think the film does a good job with this.  Some characters inevitably have more screentime than others, as they’d have to, and there are some that I wish had gotten to do more (i.e. Cap and Natasha,) but the give-and-take largely feels appropriate for what’s going on.  All of the massive cast turns in fine work, but I’m voting for Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Tom Holland’s Spidey as the movie’s MVPs, the Guardians make a strong showing in their introduction to the larger central franchise, and not for nothing, this is the first time that I’ve genuinely enjoyed Doctor Strange as a character.

Naturally, the cross-franchise meetings provide many of the film’s highlights.  It reminds me of other crossover events I’ve seen, like the DC-show crossovers on the CW and multi-Doctor stories on Who, because at least 80% of the point of this thing is seeing the different characters interact.  Obviously, it’s very cool to watch all these heroes with their assorted powers and/or gadgets fight alongside each other, and there are plenty of BAMF moments to be had.  And even better than that are simply the meetings:  all the new character combinations, the more grounded characters encountering the more out-there ones, the priceless reactions from characters who, up till now, have been in separate franchises.  The movie absolutely delivers on that front, and it brings the same sort of fandom warm fuzzies as watching Kara and Barry pal around on Supergirl/Flash crossovers or Two and Three snark on each other in “The Three Doctors.”

With so many characters to fit in and so much (justified) emphasis on fanservice-y meet-up elements, story can be an afterthought in crossovers like this.  Overall, I think Infinity War does a better job with that than most – Thanos is an interesting villain, and there are some strong emotional stakes.  That said, while I enjoyed the movie hugely, it doesn’t rank near the best MCU films in terms of story (a la The Winter Soldier, Black Panther, etc.)  There’s some sloppiness, especially in the early part of the film, the plot sometimes relies a bit too much on heroes doing dumb things to keep the plot moving, and to some extent, no final judgment can be made on the film until we see the next one and are able to put it in its full context.

Warnings

Comic book violence, swearing, a little gross-out humor, and strong thematic elements.

A Few Thoughts on Matthew (Big Mouth)

I feel a little weird bringing this up, because 1) I think Big Mouth is a terrific show and 2) I get quite a kick out of Matthew as a character.  In fact, I prioritized checking out the show in the first place when I found out Andrew Rannells, who voices Matthew, was in it.  All that said, I don’t think the show is quite giving Matthew his fair share compared to the other characters.

I’ll start by repeating that I do pretty much love Matthew.  A catty gay middle schooler who provides an endless source of one-liners, he’s smug and bitchy, but he’s hilarious.  I like his commentary on all the drama happening around him, especially the following summation  at the school dance in the pilot:  “Nick and Andrew.  You’re friends again.  Nick’s pants are gone.  The teachers look poor.  What the fuck is going on?!”  After that line, I knew I was going to have a good time with this character.

I like that Matthew is self-assured and that his time onscreen isn’t punctuated by homophobic bullying or heartbreaking crushes on straight boys.  While that’s of course a part of many, many LGBTQ kids’ lives, it’s a nice to see this kid completely owning himself and not angsting over being gay.  That said, the show is entirely about the awkward tribulations of puberty, and to me, it feels like a copout to have the gay 13-year-old apparently be the one kid in the entire school to have it all together.

Again, I’m not asking for coming-out drama, bullying, or unrequitable crushes.  But the other kids all deal on the regular with self-esteem issues, their confusion about their changing bodies and the feelings that go along with that, and all sorts of other middle-school weirdness.  So where are Matthew’s ill-timed boners or social fails?  Barring that, even if he has a talent for constantly appearing bulletproof, where are his worries that he’s not?

In all fairness, Matthew is a recurring supporting character.  He’s in nearly every episode (and Rannells is the most-frequently occurring voice actor outside of the main cast,) but he’s mainly a punchline generator, popping up at opportune moments to give a withering zinger and then ducking out again.  When he’s around, he’s often commenting on the action rather than taking part in it.  However, there are other supporting characters with similar levels of importance to the narrative, like Devin and Lola, and despite being around less often than Matthew, they get their moments of vulnerability.  At Jessi’s sleepover, Devin and Lola both wind up crying over their assorted fears/pressures, and even DeVon, who’s more minor as a character, gets to be fed up with Devin changing the pronounciation of his name so they can match.  Devin and Lola in particular are just as cartoony as Matthew and don’t get the same deep explorations as the main characters, but the show does take time in small moments to show that they’re just as much a mess as everybody else.

Matthew doesn’t seem to be bothered by anything.  He rolls his eyes a lot and declares himself “over” pretty much everything, but he doesn’t get upset, or nervous, or unsure, or awkward, ever.  When there’s so much richness to mine in all the other characters’ insecurities and confusion, it feels like a disservice to make the one gay tween “above” all that.

Also, for a show that’s all about 7^th graders’ feelings about sex and relationships, one that’s never afraid to get down and dirty, the series definitely pulls its punches with Matthew.  Even though he’s instantly gay-coded (I think his first line is some catty remark about the eyebrow care of another kid’s dad,) there are only a few times that his sexuality has any bearing on the show.  The first is in an episode that features Andrew questioning his sexuality and consulting Matthew as his gay guru.  It’s there that we learn that Matthew is apparently casually out and that he also has a hormone monster, who we never see.  Additionally, we see him treating himself to a homoerotic action flick starring the Rock, the most the show ever gets into Matthew’s desires.  In another episode, he comments offhandedly to Jessi that Jay is cute and later has fun messing with Jay’s ignorance – when Jay admits that he’s not sure whether or not gay and trans are the same thing, Matthew, full-on straight-faced, tells Jay that they are and that Jay should definitely tell people that.

I know it’s not nothing, but it’s also not much.  And when you’re looking at a show that features so much masturbating, fantasizing, and mostly-ignorant sex talk from a bunch of middle schoolers, this relative tameness stands out.  Here’s hoping that, in season 2, Matthew gets a little more of the same puberty treatment that the other characters get.