[ThisWeek] Superman Returns at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

[This Week at the Kenworthy]

This week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre...

Superman Returns (PG-13)
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, August 31, September 1 & 2
7:00 PM
Sunday, September 3
3:45 & 7:00 PM
$5/adult, $3/child 12 or younger
KFS pass accepted for Sunday movies
(See movie review below)
* * *

Next week at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre...

The Devil Wears Prada (PG-13)
Friday & Saturday, September 8 & 9
7:00 PM
Sunday, September 10
4:20 & 7:00 PM
$5/adult, $3/child 12 or younger
KFS pass accepted for Sunday movies
* * *

Coming in September to the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre:

Wordplay (Not Rated)
September 15 & 16
7:00 PM
September 17
4:45 & 7:00 PM

Sirius Idaho Theatre presents
Cow-Tipping and Other Signs of Stress
September 21-23 & 28-30
7:30 PM
$15/adult, $10/senior, $6/student
Tickets and season passes available at:
BookPeople, Farmers¹ Market and KPAC box office

Sopie Scholl: The Final Days (not rated)
September 24
4:15 & 7:00 PM

Back by popular demand:
An Inconvenient Truth (PG)
October 1
2:30, 4:45 & 7:00 PM

Coming in October: Who Killed the Electric Car?; Little Miss Sunshine

Regular movie prices:  $5/adult, $3/child 12 or younger
KFS series pass prices:  $30/10 films, $75/30 films.  KFS pass good only for
Sunday movies.

For more information on movies, events, rental rates, and/or to download a
schedule, visit our website at www.kenworthy.org
* * *

Save with a Sirius Idaho Theatre season pass

Sirius Idaho Theatre (SIT) announces their third season of plays, with three
productions scheduled at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre in Moscow.
Cow-Tipping and Other Signs of Stress, the world premiere of a new comedy by
Gregory Fletcher, opens September 21. Touch, by Toni-Press Coffman, opens
January 25, 2007, and Breaking the Code, by Hugh Whitemore, opens April 12,
2007. In addition, SIT presents a staged reading of The Oldest Profession,
by Paula Vogel, dates to be announced.

Sirius Idaho Theatre is offering a significant savings to patrons who
purchase a 2006 ­ 2007 season pass. Passes are now available at the Moscow
Farmers¹ Market, BookPeople of Moscow, the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre
box office, or by contacting a SIT board member (John Dickinson, Pam Palmer,
Andriette Pieron) www.SiriusIdahoTheatre.com

Adults - $15 per show or $40 pass
Seniors - $10 per show or $25 pass
Students - $6 per show or $15 pass

 
World Première
Cow-Tipping and Other Signs of Stress
by Gregory Fletcher

Directed by Stan Brown
7:30 pm, September 21 - 23 & 28 - 30, 2006

After years of perseverance and rejection letters, undiscovered playwright
Christopher Post asks for a sign from the universe confirming that he¹s on
the right path.  The signs flood in, each contradicting the next.  When
Christopher runs into an old college buddy who works for role model and star
playwright Ward Edington, Christopher begins sneaking, stealing, hiding,
conniving, teasing, fighting, and his life continues to snowball from there.
Saving his marriage and career will be the hardest rewrite of his life.  A
romantic dramedy laced with farce and cows.  (Adult themes)

Cow-Tipping and Other Signs of Stress won the 2005 American College Theatre
Festival Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting.


Touch
by Toni Press-Coffman
7:30 pm, January 25 ­ 27, February 1 - 3, 2007

Kyle Kalke, an astronomer since childhood, a high school ³science nerd,²
falls in love with flamboyant, outspoken, openhearted Zoe,
who‹astonishingly, he thinks‹loves him back. A tragic and graceful love
story, Touch is about a man in despair questioning whether there is any
point to rediscovering passion, risking connection, groping toward the touch
that will rekindle joy.


Breaking the Code
by Hugh Whitemore
7:30 pm, April 12 - 14 & 19 - 21, 2007

Derek Jacobi took London and Broadway by storm in this exceptional
biographical drama about a man who broke too many codes. The eccentric
genius Alan Turing played a major role in winning World War II; he broke the
complex German code called Enigma, enabling allied forces to foresee German
maneuvers. Since his work was classified top secret for years after the war,
no one knew how much was owed to him when he was put on trial for breaking
another code. A compelling and suspenseful story, Breaking the Code portrays
a creative genius living in a world not yet ready.


For more information, visit www.SiriusIdahoTheatre.com
<http://www.siriusidahotheatre.com/>  or call Pam Palmer, Managing Artistic
Director at 208-596-2270.
* * *

This week¹s movie review-

Superman Returns

Directed by Bryan Singer. Screenplay, Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris; story,
Singer, Dougherty, Harris, based on characters appearing in comic books
published by DC Comics; Superman created by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster.

Rated PG-13 (for some intense action violence)
Running time: 2 hours, 34 minutes


As reviewed by Jason Anderson writing for Eye Weekly (Toronto, Canada)

Bryan Singer's restoration job on the Man of Steel's movie career is about
as satisfying as modern Hollywood filmmaking gets. Lovingly crafted and
enthusiastically staged, it's marred only by some slack pacing in the middle
stretch and a leading lady who's at least five years too young for the part
of Lois Lane. Then again, Superman Returns amply rewards any suspension of
disbelief. Equally proficient as superhero epic and romantic tearjerker,
it's the rare blockbuster that lives up to advance hype.

It's also what Superman III might've been if the franchise hadn't gone off
the rails. Redeploying plot elements of the first two Superman films (plus
John Williams' theme), the movie begins with the end of Superman's five-year
vision quest to discover what was left of his home planet Krypton. The big
guy (played with unembarrassed sincerity by Brandon Routh) is welcomed home
by everyone but Lois (Kate Bosworth), who has moved on by establishing a
family with a nice-guy beau (James Marsden) and a son of unclear parentage.
Lex Luthor (a perfectly cruel Kevin Spacey) also returns to the fray with
his flighty foil Kitty (Parker Posey) and some freshly thieved crystals from
the Fortress of Solitude that will make Metropolis suffer like it should.

Though it's all sufficiently dazzling, Singer keeps the core themes --
inheritance, regret and our desire for saviors -- from getting lost amid the
mayhem. Along with the film's abundance of quieter moments and smaller
details, like an unexpected piano duet or Lois slipping off her shoes before
a night flight with her old flame, they add soul to the spectacle.


As reviewed by William Arnold writing for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

As we all know, Superman is the Zeus in the pantheon of comic-book
superheroes: the first of our pulp culture's do-gooder man-gods, the longest
lasting (68 years), the most fanatically followed (think of Seinfeld's
obsession) and the one with the most complex mythology.

Superman also is a premise that has worked in virtually all media: comic
books, comic strips, animation, the radio (where much of his back story was
developed), four television series over 50 years and a big-budget movie
cycle in the '70s and '80s.

He also works in "Superman Returns," an immensely satisfying revival and
continuation of that Warner Bros. movie series, which comes to us after a
lag of 19 years with a new Superman (Brandon Routh) and some $180 million
worth of digital effects.

It's not quite a runaway success, the casting is hit-and-miss and there's
nothing hugely innovative in the story line or the effects. In an era full
of superhero movies, it's not likely to have anything close to the impact of
the '79 version with Christopher Reeve.

But the film is magnificently mounted, it moves like a speeding bullet and
it's so respectful of Superman traditions that even the pickiest of die-hard
fans should love it. After a lapse of two decades, it revitalizes the
franchise and makes it seem fresh and alive.

The story has Superman returning to Earth after a five-year sojourn in which
he's been exploring a fragment of his home planet Krypton that has been
floating around the universe since its destruction. (Exactly why it took him
five years to do this is not explained.)

He crash-lands on the Kent family farm, has a tearful reunion with his
widowed mother (Eva Marie Saint) and returns to Metropolis, where he finds
Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has a small child and a Pulitzer Prize for an
article on "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman."

The Man of Steel also finds that his nemesis, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), has
gotten out of jail, uncovered the Fortress of Solitude and is using the
secrets stored there to fuel another of his ambitious, genocidal real-estate
deals.

As Superman sets out to stop him, the ghost that hangs over the movie is the
late Christopher Reeve, whose looks, dash and deadpan humor made him the
definitive Superman and whose grit in the wake of his tragic accident made
him a symbol of never-give-up courage.

It's a tough act to follow and Routh doesn't quite do it. Still, he's
likable, he has charisma, he looks like a cross between Reeve and Tom
Cruise, he mimics Reeve's charm well in several scenes and he's about the
best we could expect in an impossible situation.

Some of the film's weaker casting choices are made up for by Kevin Spacey,
whose Lex Luthor strikes just the right chord of cheeky demented genius and
gives the film an agreeable touch of comedy and anarchy. It's his best movie
performance since "American Beauty."

Above all, the film works off the dedication of writer-director Singer
("X-Men" I and II), whose love of Superman tradition and the Superman movies
is legendary, and who turned down the third "X-Men" for the chance to direct
this film.

Instead of trying to reinvent or modernize Superman, Singer has struggled to
retain the things we love about him, taking him into the 21st century but
retaining his '30s newspaper world, where the Internet has no presence and
eager cub reporters still wear bow ties.

Singer finds just the right tone to tell his story, winking at some of the
absurdities of the premise (no one notices Superman and Clark Kent look
alike) but otherwise taking it seriously, and avoiding the tongue-in-cheek
self-awareness that ruined "Superman" III and IV.


As reviewed by Todd McCarthy writing for Variety (Hollywood)

Singer imprints his handiwork with its own personality. Despite its acute
awareness of what's come before, "Superman Returns" is never
self-consciously hip, ironic, post-modern or camp. To the contrary, it's
quite sincere, with an artistic elegance and a genuine emotional investment
in the material that creates renewed engagement in these long-familiar
characters and a well-earned payoff after 21Ž2 hours spent with them.

After an opening credits sequence devoted to an explosive illustration of
the tremendous energy forces in deepest outer space, screenplay by Michael
Dougherty and Dan Harris ("X2: X-Men United""X2: X-Men United") returns
Superman, briefly, to the farm where he was raised (memory flashbacks neatly
recall his learning to fly) after a five-year absence. Soon turning up in
Clark Kent guise at the Daily Planet to reclaim his old job, he's nonplussed
when he learns his beloved Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has a son, Jason
(Tristan Lake Leabu) and a good-looking significant other, Richard White
(James Marsden), the editor's nephew, and has made her name as
banner-carrier for the anti-Superman lobby.

But the Man of Steel nonetheless proves he's worth having around. Old
nemesis Lex Luthor (a shaven-headed Kevin Spacey) is up to no good again,
harnessing power from a perfect crystal and announcing his return by causing
power outages and creating mayhem on an intended airborne space shuttle
launch (yes, that's Richard Branson on the shuttle crew) that sends the
plane carrying the shuttle and reporters, including Lois, out of control.
Arriving a half-hour in, sequence is a doozy, as the burning jet eventually
plummets straight for the ground (unavoidable shades of "United 93") until
being gently stopped at the last second by the Caped One.

As far as the public is concerned, Superman has made a triumphant return.
But Lois remains unimpressed, to the point that a rebuffed Superman takes a
lonely flight to Lois' waterfront home (with its gorgeous view of
Metropolis) in order to use his X-ray abilities to eavesdrop on her
seemingly enviable family life.

Sequence, and all that comes after, renders rubbish all the uninformed
pre-release media stories about a gay Superman, as what Singer and his
writers are offering here is an elaboration on the theme of Superman (or
most any superhero) as an outsider. Brando's Jor-El is heard to tell his son
(in dialogue from the Donner version) that he'll always be "different," an
"outcast" who can pass as a human being but will never truly be one.

For quite some time, Lois maintains her resistance to Superman, while he
can't help but do what he does best -- save the day for those in dire
jeopardy (in a truly internationalist, although markedly nonpolitical,
spirit, as TV news reports testify). Pushed by editor Perry White (Frank
Langella) to get an interview with her old flame, Lois finally meets him on
the roof of the Daily Planet's splendidly retro office building, whereupon
Superman takes her on a nocturnal flight that beats Howard Hughes' airborne
date with Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator" any day.

By this point, it is clear Singer's take on the impossible love between the
two has nothing to do with the old joke that Lois doesn't see the
resemblance between Superman and Clark Kent (something picked up on quickly
by her son) or the problems of finding a place to change into tights and
cape, but perhaps quite a bit to do with themes of loss and the tragedy of
fate as classically expressed in opera or ballet. There are dramatic
passages where, in another context, one could easily imagine any of the
three leading characters breaking out into arias of regret, confession,
desire or intent, just as Superman's incredibly graceful and often slow
vertical ascents and landings, as well as his moments of reflective
isolation, create the frissons of expressive dance movements.

Topping off these aspects is the evocative, darkly lyrical score by John
Ottman, continuing in his unique dual role for Singer as composer and editor
(with Elliot Graham). The sometimes ethereal qualities of Ottman's work,
amplified by significant choral strains, provide an emotional dimension --
and show up Williams' "Star Wars" thematic variation for the bombast it is.

Luthor's dastardly plans involve kidnapping Lois and her son aboard his
sleek boat, giving Spacey a big scene in which he can really rock and roll
with some very choice line readings. The villain really does seem to have
Superman on the ropes at one point, but after a somewhat distended final
stretch, the real climax comes in a touching scene between Superman and
little Jason, who may or may not be super himself.

Regular Singer cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel has contributed
significantly to giving the film a fantastically clear, clean and stable
look; "Superman Returns" is an unalloyed pleasure simply to behold.
Production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas and costume designer Louise Mingenbach
have anchored their work in the '50s -- an old-fashioned newsroom with
modern accoutrements, coats and ties for the men, sharp professional wear
for Lois and other women -- but without any cloying self-consciousness.
Visual effects are super throughout.


Film reviews researched and edited by Peter Haggart
* * *

Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre
508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho
208-882-4127
Sign up for this weekly email on events and movies at the Kenworthy by
logging onto our website
http://www.kenworthy.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAMELA PALMER, Volunteer
Mailto:ppalmer at moscow.com
Film and Events Committee
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

http://www.kenworthy.org
To speak with a KPAC staff member,
call (208) 882-4127
Mailto:kpac at moscow.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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