Halloween Team 2018: The Gunning Picks

For four years now the Gunnings, Mikols and Jacoby-Murphys have been taking turns picking Halloween movies.  I covered our first batch for 2018 in my last post.  Here are some more.

Next up was Hilary's turn.  This year she chose Ghost Stories with Martin Freeman.  It was basically a series of vignettes following a man trying to debunk ghost stories that convinced other skeptics.  The real success of this movie, was the buildup.  In each section, the main characters would move through a series of escalating events with plenty of time in between each jump.  It was the anticipation that really amped up the scares.  Up through the penultimate theme we were feeling like this was the scariest movie we'd watched.   And I think in some ways that is true.  BUT.  The ending really knocked the legs out from under it.  I don't know where I wanted the story to go, but I think the end retroactively made even earlier good parts a little less good.  Still, worth the watch and a very good pick.

I give it 80% of the movie 4 faulty flashlights, with the final bit getting 1 goat man.

Now... our next pick. I don't think it's really important to say who chose it. That's not even the point.  It's a mistake anyone could make. I don't think the selector should be held accountable. Anyway, at the appointed time we gathered and began the mid-90s horror, comedy, drama, thriller  movie Wolf starring Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer and James Spader (for some reason).  I guess if I have to give one compliment, it is pretty impressive that the team behind Wolf manged to get such wooden, confusing performances out of Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer and James Spader (for some reason.)  I would expect more from any of those people and was actually pretty excited to see Nicholson and Pfeiffer together. Look, this movie sucked. It was the worst.  Let me see if I can stitch together the plot.  Spader is gunning for Nicholson's job as managing editor of... something.  A publishing house?  Michelle Pfeiffer is the sullen daughter of the new owner of the publishing house (?).  For some reason she likes Nicholson.  For some reason Spader likes Nicholson's wife.  Oh and also, several people are werewolves.  I give up. This is more like a super hero movie for middle aged people, and an unsuccessful one at that.  There are no silver linings here and I'm too bored to make some sort of silver bullet joke. Whoever picked it would like to apologize to the group.

I give this 1 full moon.

Halloween Team 2018: The Eric and Sally Picks

This tradition has legs!  (Spooky, spindly spider legs, but still.)  We've been doing this for four years now and the hits keep on coming. With Sally and Sarah in North Carolina, we've had to get a little more technical to keep the tradition undead, but so far so good.

Kendra used some black magic to set the order and Eric was up first. I always look forward to the Eric pick. (With the exception of Eight Legged Freaks, of course.)  This year he chose Fright Night, the 2011 remake of the 80s cult classic.  This one starred Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrel and just hit the mark at every turn. It was spooky and actually scary here and there, but it was the general weirdness that really sold it for me.  David Tenant pops up and delivered as usual. Finding the balance in a movie like this is tough, but I felt like this walked the line well.  It made me want to check out the original.  We watched this at Eric and Kendra's with the movie on one screen and Sally and Sarah on the other. It was great when it worked.

I give it 4 McLovins.

The following week was the Jacoby-Murphy pick.  Sally and Sarah were actually in town for this one.  So after Sally, Eric and I recorded the annual Halloween episode of the podcast we settled at our house for the movie. Every year I'm terrified that Sally's going to go off-book and pick something that will live in my brain forever, but she relented and they ultimately settled on John Carpenter's The Thing.  I was actually all in for this movie. The feel was absolutely right. It's grim and unsettling in places, but Kurt Russell sells it. It was scary enough and a fun movie to talk through with a group of friends.  I'd kinda like to see the updated version now.

I give it 4 Spider Dog Alien People.

Bonus!  After the movie we watched the original David S. Pumpkins skit from SNL.  Still hilarious.  I don't know why it works, but it does.  Tom Hanks is just so game.  Then we rolled right in to the David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special.  Making this was not a good idea and it definitely doesn't deliver on the same level as the original brief skit.  BUT.  I like it. There are enough laughs to get you through and it does maintain the same offbeat vibe.  I wish it was more kid friendly so I could show my son, but I can see this being the kind of thing that gets funnier the more you watch it.  Maybe not.  Time will tell.

I give it 3 Beat Boys.

She Loves Me (2018): Debrief

     Sometimes I finish plays and can just sit back and be pleased.  (Don't get me wrong, even then, there's always a thing or two I would do differently in hindsight.)  However, the She Loves Me revival has brought up a different feeling altogether. Overall it was a good experience. I thought the final product turned out really well.  The audience responded and things came together nicely. I got to work with some of my favorite actors. It was the first time I got to direct my little brother. I love the symmetry in capping our first 10 years with a re-staging of  our first show.  I liked having the chance to appraise 25 year old Nic's directing. (He missed some things.)   I'm glad we did it, but it also served to reaffirm my feeling that I just shouldn't do musicals.

     Back in the days when I was performing more I gravitated towards musicals and looked at plays as a nice change of pace every now and then. Now that I approach scripts as a director, I just don't find a lot that excites me in the libretto of a musical.  I prefer to be able to put my own stamp on things and I think the nature of the musical just makes that difficult.  In this show, for instance, there are many subplots that are mentioned but not explored. I kept trying to find ways to lean in to those moments, to build them up to the level I wanted them to be.  That's a mistake though. In play you maybe get three pages to work through an issue.  In a musical you get three lines, then the songs flesh things out a bit more.  That's the kind of thing I missed.  I wanted to go down these side streets and add a little weight.  I think we did manage that here and there, but the format just ties your hands.  That's not to say that you can't do great and even deep stuff with a musical.  I've certainly seen that and I think I even did it once.  But that's usually the exception to the rule.
     Think about The Sound of Music.  A man loses his wife and is left to care for seven children. A young nun comes in to care for the children while the Nazis move in on their home.  Meanwhile, Dad's best friend is a lovable Nazi sympathizer.  The nun and widower fall in love and and then drag children through the Alps on foot. To me that sounds like a dark story with a little hope sprinkled in.  How much time we give to the kid's dead mom or the fact that the Captain lost his wife?  What about the fact that a nun is contemplating breaking her vows because she's falling in love with an engaged man?  And we haven't even gotten to the Nazis! Anyway, the answer is that each of these things gets about 3 lines.  So does that mean The Sound of Music is bad?  Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-NO!  I love it.  It's one of my favorites.  But do I want to direct it? The hills are alive with the sound of me saying NO.
    All that to say,  I love She Loves Me.  There was a ton of talent in our cast.  Again, I'm glad we did it. It was great to get the chance to do it in Houghton and expand to the Wellsville stage. Basically, what I'm saying is that until someone writes this dark take on Sound of Music, I'm probably done with musicals for a while.   (The Sounds of Music in a Minor Key?  We'll workshop it.)

Tune in here for a special interview with the cast: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-160-she-loves-me

She Loves Me (2018): Director's Note

      In 2002, My friend Beau was working at Tibbitt’s Opera House in Coldwater, MI. He got a set of free tickets to their big musical for the year and invited me along. The show was She Loves Me. We both loved it.  I picked up the 90’s cast recording and listened to it a million times over the next few years. Amanda had a similar experience seeing it in Miami, FL. with Mike. They saw it and it stuck with them. Cut to 2008.

Directing Scene 1.4 in 2008

     When we decided to launch Valley Theatre, it was an obvious choice for our first show. We already had affection for the characters and that great music. Plus it appeals to me as a show with a small cast and an offbeat little story. It remains one of my favorite musicals, which brings us to 2018.

Cast Selfie at 2018 Read-through

    Directing it again after all of these years was an interesting experience. Not only was I directing the actors, but in a way I was directing my 25 year old self. When rehearsals began we’d get in to a scene and I’d find myself catching things I’d missed before. I’d nudge things in a different direction thinking, “Not so fast 25 year old Nic.” I’ve enjoyed working with Mike, Amanda and Paul in reprising their original roles. Knowing the characters as well as we do has given us a freedom to try new things and see what shape the scenes take. It’s been memorable. I don’t think I’ll run out and re-direct all of my old favorites, but this was a very fitting way to cap our first ten years. Here’s hoping I age as well as this show.

Also, in preparation for the show I interviewed Mike, Amanda, Josh and Vanessa on The All the Books Show.   You can find the audio here. 

Debrief to follow...

She Loves Me (2018): Press Release

The Valley Theatre of Houghton, NY, began ten years ago with a production of Tony-award winning musical comedy, She Loves Me.  The group continued to perform shows annually including recent, well-received productions of Steel Magnolias and Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, as well as last year’s Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, A Grand Night for Singing.  Now to commemorate their ten year anniversary they are restaging the show that started it all.  She Loves Me tells the story of two bickering clerks who don’t realize that they are actually secret pen-pals who are quickly falling in love.  This popular story has been adapted to film on three separate occasions including the Jimmy Stewart led The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland, and most recently, You’ve Got Mail starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.  As before this production is directed by Nic Gunning with Mike Cox, Amanda Cox and Paul Young reprising their roles as Georg Nowack, Amalia Balash and Mr. Maraczek, respectively. Shows run September 13th and 14th (Thursday and Friday) at 7 p.m. in the community room of the Houghton Wesleyan Church (9712 Rt. 19, Houghton).  The production will then move to the Nancy Howe Auditorium at the David A. Howe Public Library (155 N. Main St.  Wellsville) where shows will run at 7 p.m. on Saturday September 15th and 2 p.m. on Sunday September 16th.

The Wellsville shows are sponsored by the Friends of the Library and will be presented free of charge.

To hear an exclusive interview with the cast of She Loves Me, tune in to this special episode of my podcast.

Final Entries for Halloween Team 2017

Kendra's pick was Get Out.  This wins for being the most intense movie we watched.  Without giving too much away, a guy goes to meet his girlfriend's family and things get bonkers.  I hadn't really seen trailers and new almost nothing about this, which definitely played in my favor.  I had no idea what to expect.  Every curve ball that came my way was a shock. There was some over the top violence, but overall I found it more enthralling than scary.  It was a great pick though.  We were all on the edge of our seats. I rate this 4 Tea Cups!

Hilary brought things to a close with Crimson Peak.  This was one we'd wanted to see when it was in theaters but it looked to scary so we never did.  She was having trouble finding something right and Crimson Peak just clicked.  None of us had seen it, so that was cool.  We all really liked it.  This had some jump scenes and some pretty upsetting violence, but was more mysterious than scary.  It definitely worked for Halloween.  Ghosts, spooky houses, menacing elements.  It was just right. Coincidentally, I also give this 4 Tea Cups!

Final thoughts, I think I had the most fun watching Firestarter.  Get Out was the most intense.  Crimson Peak was the best.  Beetlejuice was long overdue and did not disappoint.  Eight-Legged Freaks was the only stinker of the bunch, and that's just personal taste.  (Sorry Pickles.)

Now for some bonuses.
Eric, Kendra, Hilary and I watched the Rob Lowe 'Salem's Lot miniseries.  We had low expectations but were pleasantly surprised.  The actors were all in and it stayed pretty true to the book.  Like the novel it suffers from too many characters, but they were easier to keep track of on screen.  3 Stakes.

Hilary, Sally, Westy and I watched Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie.  This was spookier than we realized and Westy was white knuckling the arm rests the whole time.  There's a Heffalump frame story and some classic Pooh shorts are highlighted.  Pretty good over all.  3 Hunny Pots.

Hilary, Borch, Ishtar and I settled in with beef stew for Ghost Story based on the novel by Peter Straub.  The movie was pretty good, and definitely scary at places.  We were really in to the plot and were all confused by the out of place nudity.  I guess they figured they had and R, so they might as well.  The ending was chilling and satisfying.  4 overflowing sinks!

Halloween Team 2017: Firestarter

What do you get when you combine Stephen King, Marty Sheen, a mondo creepy George C. Scott plus a little post-E.T. Drew Barrymore? A hot time in the old town tonight, that's what!  My pick was Stephen Kings retro classic(?) Firestarter!

I don't know, this movie was a kinda bad.  But, it was bad in just the right way. Everyone involved was 100% committed and I was pretty curious as to where things were heading.  It was not scary.  It was not thrilling.  But it had a certain something.  And things got real crazy towards the end.  I liked it.  It was perfect for a do-it-yourself MST3K night.  I kinda wanna read the book now.  I also feel compelled to watch the TV sequel.

I give this 3 flames.

You can find my review of the book here.

For more on Stephen King tune in to this special episode of my podcast!