Martin Cid's Blog: Martin Cid Magazine, page 165

Neal Brennan: Crazy Good (2024) Stand-up comedy special premieres on Netflix

Neal Brennan: Crazy Good is a stand-up comedy special starring Neal Brennan.

Neal Brennan takes us on a journey through the inappropriate, openly discussing some of the most controversial and contentious topics. He doesn’t shy away from making jokes about major religions through mock television advertisements. However, his funniest quip may just be about atheists, who according to Brennan, consider themselves above all else.

The performance doesn’t end there. With the air of a family man and a serious demeanor, Brennan delivers a stand-up routine that, without much gesticulation, provides a comprehensive overview of everything – current events, new societal schemes, cryptocurrencies, but most significantly, his bewildered expression in face of our ever-changing society. Each day seems different from the previous one and it appears no one feels quite at ease anymore.

“Neal Brennan: Crazy Good” is a stand-up routine that is, without a doubt, going to stir up conversations, which is precisely the point, offering many insights into the public sentiment.

Indeed, week after week, we find that humor brings a dose of realism that, curiously enough, we can’t find in newspapers. Yes, in television shows like this, we might feel a bit more understood, less alone, thinking that, in some way, we are all a little less mad.

A dose of sanity in this crazy world.

Enjoy.

Where to Watch “Neal Brennan: Crazy Good”

Netflix

Who is Neal BrennanNeal Brennan: Crazy Good

Neal Brennan is an American writer, comedian, actor, and director. He is best known for co-creating the Comedy Central sketch comedy series “Chappelle’s Show” alongside Dave Chappelle. Brennan has also written for popular TV shows such as “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” and “Inside Amy Schumer”. He has released several comedy specials including “3 Mics” on Netflix. Brennan continues to perform stand-up comedy and make appearances on various podcasts and talk shows.

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Dune: Part Two (2024) Movie Review: A film honoring cinema

Dune: Part Two is a film directed by Denis Villeneuve based on the novel by Frank Herbert. It stars Timothée Chalamet and features performances by Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem.

Denis Villeneuve is back, dazzling us with this desert spectacle about a war between civilizations, where the visual elements again become the main lure.

Dune: Part Two is a three-part story narrated across several worlds and characters, leading young Atreides to accept the prophecy that transforms him into a messiah as a war rages in every corner of the known universe.

These films, with such eye-catching visual elements that they almost overshadow everything else, tend to sideline the story, over-burdens the characters, and stories often become secondary because what matters is what you see.

In Dune: Part Two, there is a lot to see, but also a lot to understand in this well-achieved adaptation of Herbert’s novels, which they said were entirely unadaptable due to their complexity in terms of plot and characters.

Just like with the “Lord of the Rings,” the outcome is so superior both visually and in narrative elaboration that both Peter Jackson and Denis Villeneuve have silenced many critics.

Dune is a must-see, no question.

Dune: Part TwoPlot of Dune: Part Two

Paul Atreides embarks on a spiritual journey on the planet Arrakis as the Holy War threatens to destroy all known civilization and the future seems devastating.

About the Movie

Denis Villeneuve takes this second part of Dune with the calm and rigor the story deserves, allowing time for its plots to unfold and taking the necessary patience for such a complex story to reach its climax in the final sequences.

It’s a film of grand visual effects, where every shot takes weeks of work on production, CGI, and performance levels. Everything is perfect, everything goes as planned, and it’s one of those stories that couldn’t be better shot, paid attention to the detail, carefully handled, and meticulously edited.

Will it captivate the viewer? The most challenging part of Herbert’s novels was not getting lost amid so many characters, so many stories intertwined with each other. No, it was impossible to narrate everything, and what is told is just perfect and narrated perfectly.

A cold film? This has been blamed on Villeneuve, as they did with “Blade Runner” or in his many incursions into sci-fi. It’s a film with its own name too, that of its director and screenwriter. If you like his style, you’ll love it, and it’s much less cold than some of his other films.

Well performed as far as these types of films allow. Villeneuve lets actors act and lets Zendaya show us what a great actress she is. We have other great supporting actors, like Javier Bardem and Christopher Walken, all shining.

Dune: Part Two stands out, of course, in its production department, in one of those adaptations that are so monumental that, we predict, it will make future adaptations (if any) of Herbert’s work very difficult.

Our opinion

It’s the literary adaptation that will mark this decade, and we can do nothing less than almost pay homage to it on all levels. It is a work honoring cinema in all its facets and consuming it as the major art that combines narrative, visual style, and musical rhythm.

Dune: Part Two has it all.

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MaXXXine, Ti West’s new film, opens Sept. 16

Mia Goth stars in MaXXXine, the new film from director Ti West. MaXXXine is produced by A24 and also stars Elisabth Debicki, Moses Sumney and Michelle Monagham.

This is the third part of the trilogy X (Pearl and X, also directed by Ti West).

Synopsis

The story follows Maxine, the only survivor of the massacre in the previous film X. She escapes to 1980s Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a famous actress. However, her past catches up to her as a mysterious killer starts targeting Hollywood starlets, leaving a trail of blood

Release Date: 

MaXXXine is set to be released in theaters on September 16, 2024

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‘Turtle all the Way Down’ on Max on May 2

TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN, a film from New Line Cinema and Temple Hill based on John Green’s bestselling novel of the same name and directed by Hannah Marks, debuts THURSDAY, MAY 2 on Max.

Logline: TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN tackles anxiety through its 17-year-old protagonist, Aza Holmes (Isabela Merced). It’s not easy being Aza, but she’s trying… trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, and a good student, all while navigating an endless barrage of invasive, obsessive thoughts that she cannot control. When she reconnects with Davis, her childhood crush, Aza is confronted with fundamental questions about her potential for love, happiness, friendship, and hope. 

Cast: Isabela Merced, Cree, Felix Mallard, Maliq Johnson, Poorna Jagannathan, Judy Reyes, and J. Smith-Cameron.

Credits: TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN from New Line Cinema and Temple Hill and based on John Green’s bestselling novel, is directed by Hannah Marks and written by executive producers Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker. Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen and Isaac Klausner serve as producers. Richard Brener, Nikki Ramey and Paulina Sussman executive produce on behalf of New Line Cinema, alongside executive producers Laura Quicksilver, Bart Lipton, John Green, and Rosianna Halse Rojas.

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Eva Hesse | Hauser & Wirth, New York

New York…Eva Hesse (1936-1970) transformed the language of sculpture through her pioneering use of alternative forms and materials. Challenging the hard-edged, manufactured aesthetic of the prevailing minimalist movement of her day, Hesse’s use of latex, Fiberglas and industrial plastics opened new possibilities in art. Half a century later, her groundbreaking oeuvre is as potent as it was in 1968, the year of the first and only exhibition of her sculptures held during her lifetime. That there have been some fifteen exhibitions in the decades following her death in 1970 is a testament to Hesse’s continued contemporaneity.

Beginning 2 May, Hauser & Wirth will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the estate’s representation by the gallery by spotlighting Hesse’s remarkable achievements in ‘Eva Hesse. Five Sculptures.’ This exhibition, organized by Barry Rosen, longtime adviser to the Hesse estate, in collaboration with art historian and critic Briony Fer, reunites five of her most celebrated large-scale works, all on loan from major American museums and all made in the most intense period at the end of her life from 1967 to 1969. Installed on the ground floor of Hauser & Wirth’s gallery on West 22nd Street, the exhibition will emphasize the breadth, scope and impact of Hesse’s materially experimental and psychologically charged sculptures.

Eva Hesse: Augment. 1968
Latex, canvas. Installation variable, 17 units. 198.1 x 101.6 cm / 78 x 40 in each
Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland. © The Estate of Eva Hesse. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
Photo: Genevieve Hanson

In conjunction with the exhibition, Hauser & Wirth Publishers will release ‘Eva Hesse: Exhibitions, 1972–2022.’ Offering insight into Hesse’s milestone exhibitions from 1972 to the present day, this special volume addresses the ways in which exhibitions evolve from ideas to critical reception through the prism of Hesse’s work and her journey to becoming an icon of American art. Texts by the museum curators who made these shows reflect the personal dimension of crafting an exhibition, its intent and its reception. Edited by Barry Rosen and accompanied by extensive installation views, archival material, exhibition-related ephemera and snapshots, ‘Eva Hesse: Exhibitions, 1972–2022’ brings these exhibitions to life through the voices of Linda Shearer, Nicholas Serota, Ellen Johnson, Helen Cooper, Renate Petzinger, Elisabeth Sussman, Sabine Folie, Fred Wasserman, Catherine De Zegher, Fiona Bradley, Briony Fer, Luanne McKinnon, Petra Roettig, Brigitte Kölle, Andres Gyorody and Lena Stringari.

About the exhibition

‘The effect of a lot of Hesse’s large-scale sculpture is to put in question what you think you know about art.’ –– Briony Fer.

Unlike most of the abstract sculpture being produced at the time, Hesse’s works were abstract yet powerfully evocative of human corporality, laying bare the processes used to make them.

Seriality, connection and repetition were at the heart of Hesse’s creative process and are evidenced clearly in the earliest work on view in this exhibition, ‘Repetition Nineteen I’ (1967). On loan from The Museum of Modern Art, New York, this work is the first of three versions Hesse planned to make over a period of ten months. It is comprised of eighteen bucket-like forms, each a little over nine inches tall, and is the last piece Hesse made using papier-caché, a favored medium. Hesse originally planned a second version of ‘Repetition Nineteen’ in sheet metal coated with Sculp-Metal, but abandoned that idea when she began to work with rubber and latex. ‘Repetition Nineteen I’ is a key example from Hesse’s oeuvre, elucidating the artist’s emotionally suggestive use of form and space, and interest in objects that were visibly handmade and irregular.

Eva Hesse: Aught. 1968
Installation view, ‘Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947-2016,’ Hauser & Wirth, Los Angele, California. March 13 – September 4, 2016
© The Estate of Eva Hesse. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
Photo: Brian Forrest. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Gift of Mrs. Helen Charash

Although similar in size and shape, none of the cylindrical forms in ‘Repetition Nineteen I’ are exactly alike, creating a destabilizing and uncanny sense of doubling. Hesse kept their arrangement open- ended, insisting that they should not have a fixed order. The result is a responsive and provisional installation whose overall shape varies with each presentation. ‘I don’t ask that the piece be moved or changed, only that it could be moved and changed. There is not one preferred format,’ Hesse said.

‘Area’ (1968), on loan from the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University in Columbus, was created in the summer of 1968 for Lucy Lippard’s landmark traveling exhibition ‘Soft and Apparently Soft Sculpture.’ For Hesse, ‘Area’ was important because of its underlying relationship to ‘Repetition Nineteen III.’ The artist explained: ‘‘Area’ is made from the mold of another piece, ‘Repetition Nineteen III.’ It is the insides that we took out. And then I made it into another piece. I mean there is no connection whatsoever except if you saw it, it is very clear… I rubberized the forms, attached them and sewed them together with wire and that is the piece… I have a personal attachment because it comes from another piece. I take a piece from one piece and make it totally another one. ‘Repetition Nineteen III’ was made of empty containers and there was that sexual connotation. It is anthropomorphic. ‘Area’ isn’t, or is in a totally different way. It is used as a flat piece with a suggestive three-dimensionality…’

Both ‘Aught’ and ‘Augment,’ also made in 1968, will be installed just as they were for their public debut in that year’s now-legendary exhibition ‘9 at Leo Castelli.’ On loan from Glenstone Museum, ‘Augment’ comprises seventeen overlapping rectangular sheets of rubberized canvas (78 by 40 inches) placed on the floor. ‘Aught,’ borrowed from the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, is comprised of four parts, each the same size as those in ‘Augment,’ hanging side-by-side along the wall. However, each of the four segments in ‘Augment’ are comprised of two sheets of rubberized canvas that have been attached at the edges and filled with polyethylene drop cloths, creating a slightly billowing effect on the surface, provoking viewers to feel the tension in the space––literal and psychological––between painting and sculpture.

Finally, the monumental work ‘Expanded Expansion’ (1969), on loan from the Guggenheim Museum and made in the year before the artist’s death, embodies all her interests—especially her fascination with materiality, contradiction and absurdity. Hesse once described this piece as ‘opposite in form, large, looming, powerful yet precarious.’ Standing just over 10 feet tall and 30 feet wide when fully extended, ‘Expanded Expansion’ comprises thirteen panels made of fragile rubberized cheesecloth supported by rigid fiberglass and polyester resin poles. Its height is fixed by the length of the poles, but its width could originally be manipulated to expand or contract, so, like Repetition Nineteen I, its ultimate size is dependent on the qualities and limitations of its environment.

About the artistPortrait of Eva Hesse in her Bowery Studio
ca. 1966
© The Estate of Eva Hesse. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth

Born in Hamburg Germany in 1936, Eva Hesse is one of the icons of American art of the 1960s, her work being a major influence on subsequent generations of artists. Comprehensive solo exhibitions in the past 50 years, as well as a retrospective that toured from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to the Museum Wiesbaden in Germany and finally to the Tate Modern in London, have highlighted the lasting interest that her oeuvre has generated. Hesse cultivated mistakes and surprises, precariousness and enigma, to make works that could transcend literal associations. The objects she produced, at times barely present yet powerfully charismatic, came to play a central role in the transformation of contemporary art practice.

In New York in the 1960s, Hesse was one of a group of artists, including Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra and Robert Smithson, who engaged with materials that were flexible, viscous or soft: latex rubber, plastic, lead, polythene, copper, felt, chicken-wire, dirt, sawdust, paper pulp and glue. Often unstable and subject to alteration, these elements yielded works that were vital in their relativity and mutability. Hesse was aware she produced objects that were ephemeral, but this problem was of less concern to her than the desire to exploit materials with a temporal dimension. Much of the life-affirming power of Hesse’s art derives from this confident embrace of moment. As she stated in an interview with Cindy Nemser for Artforum in 1970, ‘Life doesn’t last; art doesn’t last.’

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Grammy Nominated Singer/Songwriter Franni Rae Cash Cain Into Survival Thriller ‘Hazel’

Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Franni Rae Cash Cain (formerly of ‘We The Kingdom’) is continuing her on-camera career after wrapping her role in the Christmas musical ‘Carol’. 

Cash Cain has joined the cast of the survival thriller Hazel. She joins an ensemble cast led by Laurie Fortier (The Walking Dead), SAG award nominee Stelio Savante (Nefarious), and Madelyn Dundon (Getting Grace). 

Hazel is written and directed by Daniel Bielinski (Sanctified, End Of The Rope) for Canticle Productions. 

Based on the true story of Hazel Miner, the synopsis reads as follows: 

A gentle March snowfall suddenly transforms into a furious blizzard. The Miner children, Hazel ( Madelyn Dundon ), Emmet, and Myrdith; struggle to make it home from school as they become lost in the blinding wind and snow. As their parents ( Stelio Savante  and  Laurie Fortier ) and friends hunt desperately for the lost children, Hazel must keep her younger siblings alive in the face of impossible odds.

Filmed in North Dakota, Hazel is produced by Daniel Bielinski, Dave Diebel, Carson Nordgaard, and J Brockton Holbert.  

Canticle Productions has produced three feature films: A Heart like Water, Sanctified (distributed by Film Rise), and End of the Rope, which recently signed with Saban Films for distribution.  

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The State Ballet of Georgia: Swan Lake at the London Coliseum

Based at the stunning Opera and Ballet State Theatre in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, this company of “versatile and accomplished” dancers (The New York Times) has soared under the bold artistic direction of world-renowned, Georgian-born Nina Ananiashvili, former prima ballerina with Bolshoi Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Ananiashvili, considered one of the all-time greats, returned home to her native country in 2004 to lead the company. The State Ballet of Georgia’s last visit to the UK was in 2008 when they performed at the Edinburgh International Festival. Having performed on the London Coliseum stage in 1999 (as Kitri in Don Quixote with the Bolshoi), Ananiashvili now brings her company to London for the first time.​

Considered among the world’s 10 best classical companies, with a tradition of 175 years, experience the sleek grace and physicality of classical ballet at its best with The State Ballet of Georgia. Swan Lake’s enthralling story, timeless score, and unforgettable choreography have made it the most in-demand ballet in the world. This breathtakingly beautiful production with gorgeous white tutus and sumptuous lakeside and ballroom settings will undoubtedly draw audiences into the fantasy of the world’s most loved ballet.

This version of Swan Lake, staged for the Company by Nina Ananiashvili’s long-term dancing partner, the renowned Alexei Fadeechev, features hand-painted cloths made in the Georgian Opera House’s own workshops. They were designed by theatrical legend Vyacheslav Okunev. He also created the nearly 100 costumes for the production, all coming from Tbilisi to London.

​Director of The State Ballet of Georgia, Nina Ananiashvili said of the production: ‘Swan Lake is one of our best repertoires. It combines elaborate costumes, stunning choreography, exquisite ornaments and the young generation of dancers with Georgian characteristics. Swan Lake has always had an important place in my career. It was the first ballet that I performed in the Bolshoi Theatre and was my first and final significant performance at American Ballet Theater. I can’t wait to share it with audiences in London for the first time.’

​With a company of 65, and accompanied by the award-winning English National Opera Orchestra, this lavish production opens on 28 August.​

The company will then travel to Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre for performances of Swan Lake from 20-24 November.

The State Ballet of Georgia

Swan Lake

London Coliseum, St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4ES

​Performances from 28 August 2024

Press Night Wednesday 28 August 7.30pm

Evening Performances Wednesday – Saturday 7.30pm

Matinees Thursday Saturday and Sunday 2.30pm

Tickets https://londoncoliseum.org/

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Gian Manik: “You own the school, embrace your responsibility for its legacy” | Gertrude Glasshouse, Australia

Harnessing imitative techniques honed during a childhood spent voraciously copying old master paintings, Gian Manik recasts and filtrates Caravaggio’s second version of Supper at Emmaus (1606). By speculating upon the futures and legacies of reproduced artworks, the exhibition demonstrates a research-led practice responding to the ontology of “institutional painting,” that has been canonised in western art history.

Gian Manik’s approach to painting is informed by an irreverence for genre and resistance to stylistic categorisation. Driven by a compulsion to paint, Manik’s artworks move dexterously between the polarities of figuration and abstraction. Within Manik’s layered surfaces, references from the fabric of his daily life and familial history converge with gestural passages to form a chaotic palimpsest of representation and memory. Nostalgic, melancholic and facetious, Manik’s paintings vibrate with emotional and compositional intensity.

Gian Manik is represented by Sutton Gallery, Naarm Melbourne.

Gertrude Glasshouse is generously supported by Michael Schwarz and David Clouston.

The 2024 Gertrude Glasshouse Program is supported by the City of Yarra.

12 April – 11 May 2024
Opening | Thursday 11 April, 6 – 8pm
Gertrude Glasshouse
44 Glasshouse Road, Collingwood, Wurundjeri Country

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Mika Häkkinen’s 2013 Mclaren P1 Validation Prototype 3 (VP3) Offered At Bonhams|Cars Monaco Sale

Monte Carlo, Monaco – Bonhams|Cars will present Mika Häkkinen’s 2013 McLaren P1 Coupé Validation Prototype 3 (VP3) offered directly from the two-time Formula 1 World Champion and McLaren Brand Ambassador at The Monaco Sale ‘Les Grandes Marques à Monaco’. One of only seven ‘VP’ (Validation Prototype) cars built, this example, VP3, was the lead car in the project’s durability testing programme, and is the only VP to ever be offered at auction. McLaren created a special booklet for each prototype car, outlining their importance in the project and giving owners more background on the testing that they were involved with. Its accompanying booklet, including the test notes, is a fundamental part of this prototype’s history. This piece of hypercar history will be offered at The Monaco Sale ‘Les Grandes Marques à Monaco’ on 10 May at an estimate of €1,500,000 – 2,000,000.

2013 McLaren P1 Validation Prototype 3 (VP3),
estimated at €1,500,000 – 2,000,000.

Ultimately achieving back-to-back Formula 1 World Championship wins for McLaren in 1998 and 1999, Häkkinen raced through the 2000 and 2001 F1 World Championships, finishing 2nd in the former and 5th in the latter. In 2017 McLaren announced that Häkkinen would be rejoining the company as a brand ambassador. McLaren had unveiled the production version of the P1 at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, announcing that only 375 of these exclusive hypercars would be built, and by the end of the year, the entire production run had sold out.

Mika Häkkinen and the 2013 McLaren P1 Validation Prototype 3 (VP3), estimated at €1,500,000 – 2,000,000.

Offered here is the first McLaren ever owned by Häkkinen and has been tailored by McLaren Special Operations in accordance with his specifications. More than a decade after its initial conception, the P1 remains a formidable proposition and an engineering tour de force of the highest order. Its next custodian will also receive an exclusive one-day driving/racing instruction by Häkkinen at a location of the buyer’s choice.

1982 Finnkart 85cc SF A1, estimated at €3,000 – 5,000.

Born in Finland in 1968, Mika Häkkinen began his career racing karts, winning several local and national championships. One of his former karts, a 1982 Finnkart 85cc SF A1, estimate €3,000 – 5,000, will also be offered at The Monaco Sale. In 1982 Mika contested the Ronnie Peterson Memorial Championship, placing first, and the Finnish Karting Championship (Formula Mini Series), placing second, behind the wheel of this Finnkart.

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“Descendants: The Rise of Red” Debuts this July on Disney+

Descendants: The Rise of Red is a film directed by Jennifer Phang and written by Dan Frey and Russell Sommer. It stars Kylie Cantrall, Malia Baker and China Anne McClain.

Storyline

The story centers around Red, the rebellious daughter of the infamous Queen of Hearts from Wonderland. She’s the newest Villain Kid (VK) to attend Auradon Prep, a school for the children of good and evil. There, she crosses paths with Chloe, the daughter of Cinderella and Prince Charming, known for her perfectionist tendencies.

An unexpected event throws Auradon into chaos, with the Queen of Hearts possibly involved in a coup. To prevent disaster, Red and Chloe, despite their differences, must join forces.

Their mission involves traveling back in time using a magical pocket watch created by the son of the Mad Hatter. They aim to stop a past event that has dire consequences for the present.

Cast and Crew

The film is directed by Jennifer Phang and written by Dan Frey and Russell Sommer.

New Faces: This movie introduces new actors like Kylie Cantrall as Red and Malia Baker as Chloe.

Familiar Figure: Fans will be happy to see China Anne McClain reprise her role as Uma, the former VK who is now the headmaster of Auradon Prep.

Release Date

“Descendants: The Rise of Red” premieres on Disney+ on July 12, 2024. There will also be a special encore on Disney Channel on August 9, 2024.

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