Mo goes to Brooklyn College - A New Web Series

The Brooklyn College TV Club presents: Mo goes to Brooklyn College - a new web series.

Written and directed by Johanna Schoenfeld.

Director of Photography: Floyd Rock.

Starring Linda Elizabeth Freund, Massiel Hernandez, Mary Ann Walsh and Kevin Kennison.

Direct Link

“Reasons to be Pretty”: Funny and enjoyable, but characters ultimately fall flat

By Johanna Schoenfeld

“Reasons to be Pretty” by Neil LaBute celebrated its Brooklyn College premiere last Thursday in the New Workshop Theater in front of a full house. Directed by MFA Directing student Adrian Wattenmaker and cast exclusively with Brooklyn College acting students, the 2008 play follows Greg (Django Palty), his girlfriend Steph (Ana Bell) and their married friends Kent (Emmanuel Elpenord) and Carly (Eunjung Lee).

We open on a vicious fight between Greg and Steph in their bedroom about a remark Greg supposedly made at a party. Steph finally pries out of him that during a conversation with Kent about a new female co-worker, he called Steph's face “regular.” This is an insult she just can't get over and leads to a rift in their relationship. Kent, meanwhile, although being a perfectly happy husband on the surface, cannot get the hot new co-worker off his mind. Over several scenes in five different locations, we get to witness witty and oftentimes hilarious conversations not only about these characters' relationships, but, in a way, about the relationships between men and women in general. We might recognize ourselves in these people; and realize that you have to face the bitter truth that sometimes, it just doesn't work out for one reason or another.

Django Palty as Greg carries the play. He is clearly the protagonist here, and we see this world through his eyes. Palty displays a remarkable sense for comedic as well as dramatic timing; his facial expressions alone made the audience erupt in laughter at times, and we felt with him through every dramatic beat.

This very strong protagonist, however, might also be the play's fatal flaw. He is an ordinary but very nice and funny guy. His dialogue is realistic and comes from the heart. Unfortunately (and I believe this to be largely due to the writing, not the actors' performances), he is the only one. All the characters around him seem like caricatures, over-the-top archetypes. This is just exacerbated by Greg's sardonic comments about them throughout the dialogue, while everyone else plays it completely straight. It's like the playwright is talking to us, saying, “look at these ridiculous people.” While this is very amusing, it prevents the audience from ever identifying with them or seeing them as real people.

The most prominent example is Greg's girlfriend Steph. From the very first scene, in which she's shrilly yelling at Greg for calling her face regular, adding that he wouldn't trade her for anything, for what feels like hours and even considers ending a four-year relationship because of it, she comes off as a hysterical bitch. At the very end, we learn that they had other, underlying problems, but this is revealed much too late to not make Steph look insane throughout almost the entire play. I literally cringed at some of the dialogue in the opening sequence, so obvious was it that this woman's dialogue was written by a man with a nagging ex-girlfriend who wanted to make himself look good in his alter ego Greg. While actress Ana Bell could have played the scene more subtly and with some sorely missed sadness or hurt, I mostly blame LaBute's writing once again.

Because of the cardboard cutout quality of all the supporting roles and the near-perfection (if in an adorable, scatterbrained way) of Greg, no chemistry ever develops between any of them, leaving us without emotional attachment. Maybe even more unfortunate is that the theme of the play – people's obsession with superficialities – was not dramatized in the complex way it deserves to be and therefore never fully flourishes. Instead, we just laugh at Steph's getting bogged down on a trivial comment.

The actors' performances, the interesting music choices and the realistic set design as well as an abundance of funny one-liners from Greg make the evening well worth the while. At the end, these enjoyable elements just don't add up to much.

“Take Shelter”: Visually Stunning, but Ultimately Fatally Flawed, Plot-wise

When family man Curtis from rural Ohio starts to have disturbing visions of an impending apocalypse, he has to make a decision: Prepare for the end of the world or seek help from a psychiatrist. In a way, he does both: He starts to fix up the old storm shelter in his backyard, an endeavor for which he ends up risking both his job and his marriage; but as his nightmares begin to seep into his waking life and the people around him grow increasingly concerned about his erratic behavior, he has to seriously ask himself if what he is facing is not the end of days, but rather the early days of a mental illness that runs in his family.
This elegiacally shot film by writer-director Jeff Nichols lives from two things: One, the visually absolutely stunning cinematography depicting rural life just as impressively as the protagonist's increasingly terrifying yet beautiful nature-related visions. We see pastoral wide shots of the family's back yard and the fields behind it that seem to stretch out up to the faraway horizon. Not only does this take your breath away in the same way an impressive painting in a gallery might, it also conveys the apparently free country life that can be suffocating at the same time because of its literal and figurative emptiness. Curtis's visions provide a welcome break: Yellow, oil-like rain starts to fall and lightning covers the entire sky – phenomenons that are scary in themselves, but become even more so when Curtis realizes he seems to be the only one noticing them.
The second strong suit of the film is the tour-de-force performance of Michael Shannon in the lead role as a truly torn man who feels he has a mission on which his family's lives depends while having to satisfy the demands of a society who regards that mission as insane. He goes back and forth between thinking himself a prophet and a madman; and both options become increasingly terrifying. Over the course of the film, Shannon dials up the dread in a subtle but striking way. When things come to a climax as Curtis believes the end of the world to arrive, he appears to become a threat to his family instead of protecting them, which had been his goal all along. He seems to be aware of this discrepancy, and yet, he can't help himself. By trying to save his wife and kid, he runs the risk of destroying their family bond. Shannon portrays this compulsive behavior in a beautifully restrained way: Instead of wide-eyed lunatic, he becomes tormented caregiver.
Where “Take Shelter” runs into its biggest problem, however, is in deciding what it ultimately wants to be (possible spoilers ahead): A mystery that keeps us guessing if this character's visions are real – or the psychological profile of a man that is slowly falling apart due to mental illness.
As a mystery, it fails: It is much too slow and artsy to keep suspense junkies on the edge of their seats. But more importantly, it doesn't really give us the impression it is even trying to be a mystery. Rather, all clues throughout the story point in the same direction: that Curtis is mentally ill. There is not much here that keeps you guessing.
But the film's real downfall, and the reason why it doesn't work as a psychological study either, is its final scene. All the clues given to the viewer are suddenly done away with in favor of a resolution that all but contradicts the trajectory of the entire previous narrative. Unless the last scene is regarded as another delusion (and according to interviews with the filmmaker and actors, it is not intended that way), it makes you feel cheated and deceived after following the plot along for two hours. Sadly, all the beautiful thunderstorms in the world won't make you walk out of this film completely satisfied.

The Best of 2011: What Award Season Taught Us

By Johanna Schoenfeld

Last week, the award season of 2011 came to an end with the Oscars. The bottom line: There were really no surprises this year. However, there are still a few lessons to learn – The Excelsior sums up the results in the main award categories for you. Plus, we tell you what the awards say about the people who voted on them, as well as who the real winners and losers were.

The Academy Awards
“The Big Ones”

Best Film: The King's Speech
Best Director: Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)
Best Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin (Adapted, The Social Network) / David Seidler (Original, The King’s Speech)
Best Actor: Colin Firth
Best Actress: Natalie Portman

What it says about the voters: “We are old. That movie about the king reminded us of our childhoods. What is this ‘Facebook’ you are talking of?”

SAG Awards
“The Acties”

Outstanding Performance by a Cast: The King's Speech
Best Actor: Colin Firth
Best Actress: Natalie Portman

What it says about the voters: “We are actors. We don’t care what anyone says, we are the real stars of movies. Also, we liked that British movie.”

The Golden Globes
“The Ones Where People From Other Countries Decide”

Best Film: The Social Network (Drama) / The Kids are All Right (Comedy/Musical)
Best Director: David Fincher (The Social Network)
Best Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)
Best Actor: Colin Firth (Drama) / Paul Giamatti (Comedy/Musical)
Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Drama) / Annette Bening (Comedy/Musical)

What it says about the voters: “We don’t wanna be mean, so we have two winners in each category. Will you like us now, America?”

Critics' Choice Awards
“The Critical Ones”

Best Film: The Social Network
Best Director: David Fincher
Best Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin (Adapted) / David Seidler (Original)
Best Actor: Colin Firth
Best Actress: Natalie Portman

What it says about the voters: “We like giving our opinion, so why not have our own award? Also, we are special, so we have random categories such as “Best Young Actor/Actress” (this year’s winner: Hailee Steinfeld). But in the end, we really agree with everyone else.”

BAFTAs
“The Britoids”

Best Film: The King's Speech
Best Director: David Fincher
Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin (Adapted) / David Seidler (Original)
Best Actor: Colin Firth
Best Actress: Natalie Portman

What it says about the voters: “We are British.”

People's Choice Awards
“The One For The Commoners”

Favorite Movie The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Favorite Actor: Johnny Depp
Favorite Actress: Kristen Stewart

What it says about the voters: “We are gullible pop culture junkies and love consumerism. Also, we are teenage girls. Team Edward!”

But who, now, are the real winners and losers of 2011’s award season?

The Real Winners:

The King’s Speech: While The King’s Speech and The Social Network pretty much went Dutch on the main award categories (well, except for Best Actor), the British period piece is the clear winner of the duel. This is mainly due to the degree the two movies were hyped: The Social Network extremely, The King’s Speech not at all. Even before the “Facebook movie,” as the Social network was and is known, came out, it was dubbed a generation-defining piece of cinema history. The King’s Speech, on the other hand, came out only a month before award season started. Most people hadn’t even heard of it before the Golden Globes – but it gained momentum and took home the arguably biggest prize, the Oscar for Best Picture. If it actually was the best film of the year, of course, is a completely different question.


Aaron Sorkin: Even though The Social Network didn't succeed in throwing a strike in the best film category, screenwriter Sorkin took home all the awards for best screenplay. This is partly due to the fact that many awards have separate categories for original and adapted screenplay, so he wasn't always up against The Social Network's arch-nemesis, The King's Speech. But even so, it is clear that Sorkin's rapid-fire, sharp-as-a-knife style dialogue – his trademark since The West Wing – was more than appreciated across the board.

Melissa Leo: She won pretty much all “Supporting Actress” statuettes there were this year (except for the BAFTA one) for her performance in The Fighter. But mostly, she made for the only semi-outrageous moment at the drab Oscar ceremony by slipping the F-word into her acceptance speech.
Colin Firth: He won everything. Plus, he's just too cute, and now everybody knows that.

The Real Losers:

Anne Hathaway & James Franco: They have already been dubbed the worst Oscar hosts in history, supposedly even overtaking 1995's David Letterman. While Hathaway appeared to have had one too many Red Bulls before the show and was a little too excited to be there, Franco took the opposite road and just stood there silently grinning for most of the ceremony. Jokes were rare – and not that funny. If the funniest thing you can come up with is a dude in a dress, you're doing something wrong. They probably won't be asked back next year.

Christian Bale: Even though he pulled a Melissa Leo in the Male Supporting Acting Category, his acceptance speech at the Oscars was mostly remembered for a weird pause after “Thank you to my wife,...” Bale was most likely just choking up, but to the audience it seemed as if he had forgotten his wife's name. Awkward.

Melissa Leo: Apart from the f-bomb, her Oscar acceptance speech was incoherent blubbering. Probably the worst since Sally Field’s “You like me, right now, you like me!” outburst. (Oscar fun fact No. 38: This is often misremembered as “You like me, you really like me!”)

Dancing at Lughnasa: A Beautiful Lyrical Memory

Original Article

by Johanna Schoenfeld

It's a warm August day in 1936 in the small village of Ballybeg in Ireland – the time of the festival of Lughnasa, an ancient tradition full of bonfires and dancing. But the Mundy family is not going to attend the festivities: They are five unmarried sisters and a young boy, and they hardly get by, much less have time, or reason, for celebration. Recently, their uncle has returned from missionary work in Africa, and he is hardly recognizable. The world is a place where tradition gives way to modernity – how long will they be able to resist the change that is coming?

“Dancing at Lughnasa” by Brian Friel is a lyrical memory, told from the point of view of the boy, Michael, who looks back at this summer he remembers so distinctly. It premiered last Thursday at the Gershwin Theater at Brooklyn College – a show that culminated in a standing ovation. The play, on the other hand, is strangely void of climaxes. “Dancing at Lughnasa,” which runs for two and a half hours with a ten-minute intermission, is almost more of a character study, or presentation of the ordinary life of this unusual family, than a story of action or, for that matter, plot. But, of course, its intention lies elsewhere. As adult Michael says in his ending monologue about his memories of the summer of 1936: “In that memory atmosphere is more real than incident.” Even so, some scenes feel endless and could have used editing.

And precisely because of this lack of excitement in terms of story, the show heavily depends on music, lighting, set design and, most of all, the actors' performances. It would almost be more succinct, however, to say the actresses' performances – because this play belongs to the female performers playing the five sisters. Even though the story is framed by Michael's narration, it is them who – literally and figuratively – take center stage. There is Kate, the schoolteacher and only one of the five to work outside the home; Maggie, full of life and joy, but also unwaveringly loyal to her sisters; Agnes and Rose, who knit gloves for a living and dream of a better life; and Chris, Michael's mother, who has curiously little interaction with her son who was born “out of wedlock.”

With superb performances by the entire cast, two actresses stood out: Cassidy Elms played Kate, the quasi head of the household, and, by her own admission, a “bitch.” She is an old-school traditionalist whose strategies to hold her family together slowly start failing, and she reacts to it with pressure on her sisters. She doesn't seem to have a joy for life, and yet, at times, you get a glimpse of the fact that this is only because she wants to protect her family. Elms portrayed this unconventional matriarch's longing for order with an extraordinary sensibility.

Mary Ann Walsh not only supplied the comic relief of the piece, but also delivered the most layered performance of the evening. Her Maggie certainly has the best one-liners and the laughs on her side. But, once again, there's more to her than meets the eye. She and her loved ones live dull and somewhat monotonous lives – and she is the one to spice it up for them. She is the one who animates them to dance to their new wireless radio and enjoy life. And she is also the one who turns into an aggressive wolf-mother protecting her young when one of her sisters is attacked.

Dance is weaved through the story like a thread and ties the story together. In the midst of a bleak existence, it is was gives the characters a silver lining; it is the purest expression of joy. It is also what adult Michael remembers the clearest. He closes the play with this sentiment, while everybody around him sways in a trance-like state to the beautiful music enveloping them: “What is so strange about that memory is that everybody seems to be floating on those sweet sounds... When I remember it, I think of it as dancing... Dancing as if language no longer existed because words were no longer necessary...”

Future Showings of “Dancing at Lughnasa” at Gershwin Theater:
Fri 11/19 and Sat 11/20 at 7:30 PM
Sat 11/20 and Sun 11/21 at 2:00 PM

Tallgrass Gothic: A Tragedy in the Plains

By Johanna Schoenfeld

A small town in the Great Plains, the present: A man and a woman fall in love. The problem: Laura, the woman, is married, and divorce is not an option here. All the young couple has are afternoons in the country, watching clouds and dreaming of a future together that will probably never come true.

“Tallgrass Gothic” premiered last Thursday at the New Workshop Theater at Brooklyn College to a sold-out house. The MFA students of the theater department put on an impressive show – there was love, loss, violence and even some sex; all of it culminated in a spooky fantasy sequence that left the audience terrified and satisfied at once. Directed by Justin Ball, an MFA Directing student at Brooklyn College, this was a re-imagining of the work by distinguished playwright Melanie Marnich. “Tallgrass Gothic,” a fantastical tale inspired by the classic Jacobean tragedy “The Changeling,” was first staged in 1999 in Minneapolis and has since been shown in theaters around the country.

Adrianna Riolo-Mason starred as Laura, a beautiful woman trapped in a loveless marriage, whose only wish is to escape from her life. She seems to have all the best prerequisites in life – everyone who meets her is captivated by her and falls for her. But somewhere, probably at the altar, her life took a wrong turn; and now, running away has become her only option. But it isn’t that easy – at times, she herself doesn’t really seem to know what she wants, and in the end, everything she dreamt of slips away. The problem here is that over the course of the play, it becomes harder and harder to sympathize with her, and when another character calls her the biggest bitch he knows, it is hard to disagree with him. In the end, it almost feels as if she is getting what she had coming to her, but not even that is truly satisfying: Too pathetic is her character in the final scenes.

Arthur Kriklivy as Daniel, the love interest, is given a couple of interesting scenes, especially when he expresses his ambivalent feelings about the fact that Laura doesn’t seem to feel all that guilty about her infidelity. But overall, his character feels unfinished, either because the playwright intentionally made him more dreamlike than real, or because she simply failed to fully realize him. What remains is a man that seems more like a little boy fantasizing about being in love than anything else.

The real standouts of the evening were supporting actors Cristina Pitter as Mary, Laura’s best friend, and Django Palty as Filene, the town creep (admittedly, an alluring creep) who helps Laura to get rid of her husband. Pitter gave a truly inspired performance, taking Marnichs beautifully crafted dialogue to the next level and nailing the comic tones of her role just as well as the underlying longing for her best friend to acknowledge and love her. In the end, she becomes the tragic character we truly sympathize with; while Palty’s delivery and indifference in the final scene make our skin crawl and eventually shows us the true nature of the protagonist and what might be called the morale of the story – even if the morale is that there is no such thing.

The intimate setting of the New Workshop Theater was a suitable backdrop for this intimate story that revealed secrets, longings and sins of seemingly regular characters. A minimalist set design by Tatsuki Nakamura transformed the small space into a grassy outdoor area, a porch and a bedroom all at once and underlined the cramped feeling of the small town as well as the implied plains in which it is set. The lighting, designed by Diana Bane, is appropriately muted and almost dusky in most scenes, mirroring the grassy but dusty set. Like the entire play, the lighting concept has its climax in the finale, a spooky and shadowy, nightmarish scene.

The final scene, while having a significantly different tone than the rest of the play – some might even say a different genre – is ghost story and allegory all in one, and expresses the desperation and hopelessness of the situation that everyone, and Laura in particular, ends up in. This is where the play finally does the “gothic” part of its title justice – and dramatically, it’s a definite high note.

The Excelsior: The TV List: The Future of the Fall’s New Arrivals

Original Article

Pilot season is upon us once again: In the last two weeks, series and season premieres were all over TV. The Excelsior presents three shows, their virtues and vices, and what we think will become of them.


My Generation
(ABC, airs Thursdays at 8 pm)

This remake of a Swedish show portrays the life of a group of young adults ten years after their high school graduation. We see what became of them and how they live today, including flashbacks to their teenage years.

The Good: The concept of showing the life, love and struggles of an entire generation personified through a handful of 28-year-olds has a lot of appeal: While we meet the characters, we identify with them and their problems. It is also a very novel idea, at least on American TV. And while the mockumentary style has become common in comedies (The Office, Modern Family), the way My Generation employs it to drama is refreshing.

The Bad: The show’s novel concept could just as well be its downfall: The documentary style is being used to its extremes, with characters telling the cameraman to turn away and whispering to each other so the camera cannot pick up on it. While this makes it more realistic in a way, it gets increasingly irritating over the course of the episode; not only because it leads to logistical problems (like not hearing or seeing a character at a crucial moment), but also because it decreases the authenticity of scenes (if a character really didn’t want the camera there, they wouldn’t have the most important conversations in front of it in the first place). Plus, the actors are much prettier than they are capable of acting.

The Prognosis: No likeable characters, no good acting, too convoluted a concept – this one won’t survive.


Hawaii 5-0
(CBS, airs Mondays at 10 pm)

A group of special agents, Alex O’Loughlin and Daniel Dae Kim among them, track down organized crime in beautiful Hawaii in this remake of the successful 60ies show.

The Good: Surprisingly, the strongest suit of the new Hawaii 5-0 are the characters and their interactions. Alex O’Loughlin plays the very matter-of-fact leader of the team Steve McGarrett, and his dynamic with sidekick Danno occasionally leads to comedy gold. When they storm into an elevator, in full body armor and guns drawn, a little boy is scared of them. McGarrett, brazenly: “Don’t worry, we are cops.” After Danno consoles the crying child, he turns to his partner: “You are really great with children.” A beat. McGarrett, confused: “What?”
Plus, Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park’s sexual chemistry has potential for some good storylines.

The Bad: The storylines are generic and forgettable. While there’s some mystery throughout the episode, it eventually always comes down to cops chasing down a bad guy – something we have seen millions of times over on TV an in movies.

The Prognosis: Action-packed, interesting characters – unless Hawaii 5-0’s storylines get even more familiar, this has a good chance of becoming a crowd pleaser.


The Whole Truth
(ABC, airs Wednesdays at 10 pm)

A new take on crime shows: Every episode, we see a court case from the perspective of both the prosecution and the defense. In the end, the truth is revealed – but only to the audience.

The Good: The Whole Truth’s structure is interesting and new, even with some overlapping scenes a la Vantage Point or Elephant. The show’s pace is fast, and leaves the viewer breathless and wanting more. There is never a dull moment here, even though there are no high-speed chases or global threats. A major plus of the show is its ambiguity: There’s no clear-cut good guy or bad guy here; both parties are just trying to do their jobs the best they can. The evidence is contradictory and unclear at times, which makes this probably the most realistic courtroom drama to date. And the chemistry and implied history between the leads (Maura Tierney as the hard-boiled prosecutor, Rob Morrow as the somewhat slick defense attorney) is promising.

The Bad: For all its inventiveness, The Whole Truth is essentially another crime/court drama, with only minor variations to the formula of shows like Law and Order. It might get old.

The Prognosis: Intriguing premise and characters, and the audience loves a well-written courtroom drama. So unless this is lost among its similar peers, it will last.