Check In Soon at the Madcap Motel

Posted on by Diversions LA

Looking for a place to spend the night? Well, you can’t stay overnight – at least not yet – although that may be in future plans, but you can, and should, spend the evening Elsewhere at The Madcap Motel.

Located in DTLA’s arts district, the immersive mix of walk-through theater and clever art installation might remind you a bit of Meow Wolf’s immersive offerings, and also reminded me, at least, of the 2019 film Bad Times at the El Royale, but it’s entirely unique.

Motel “guests” check-in at a comfortable lobby and wait their turn to enter, entertained by an improv-prolific maid who serves as de-facto leader of small groups of motel guests into another waiting room, a motel-suite.

From there, you’ll meet a mad, or semi-mad, scientist, various walking shrubbery, mysterious maids and other staff, and explore a wide range of surreal and super fun room installations.

You’ll travel into a storyline that is all about time travel, alternate dimensions, and the mysterious disappearance of one J.D. Sando, the motel’s original owner. You’ll uncover weird worlds and a variety of possibly illicit relationships in the bargain.

There are plenty of photographable moments for your social media sharing of choice, as well as lively improvisational performances, super cool miniatures, and a clever path through one door into another room and into another time.

Along with the elements of a missing person and assignations – noir aspects that brought to my mind the Jeff Bridges-starring El Royale film, there is of course a distinct hip art vibe coupled with Alice in Wonderland.

From the minute dioramas…

…to the oversized, step-inside TV and giant chair, guests enter one White Rabbit hole after another.

It’s a lot of fun and has a more intimate feel than other installation experiences, involving its “travellers” interactively with character encounters as well as experiential rooms.

Yes, a smoke effect may transport you into space, a beam of light lure you down a distant corridor, and a visit to the very “alive” greenery-filled courtyard encourage you to sit awhile.

You’ll also be privy to false doors and magical mirrors, an enormous blue/green coral reef, vehicles trapped inside walls and others filled with a jungle of plants.

There’s groan-worthy broad humor, lively performances, and abundant art and design, but above all else, your stay comes with a special kind of room service – a willing transcendance of disbelief into a magical throwback of pure fun.

You’ll find rooms at a slant and floating furniture; strange emerald green plants alight in terrariums; miniature desserts and towns and undersea life caught inside incandescent portholes, and more.

The experience takes somewhere around 90 minutes, and guests of all ages will enjoy their mini-vacation. We sure did!

Like any good traveler, if you want to bring home a souvenir from your trip, you can do that, too.

Tickets are $40 for adults; $30 for kids; 3 and under are free. Purchase in advance online.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis and Jack Burke

Dances with Films 2021 – Plenty of In-Person Appeal

Posted on by Diversions LA

We reviewed a number of features at the 2021 Dances with Films – with more ahead – but the short film program is such a powerful part of Dances with Films, it’s time to take a look at some of truly terrific offerings we viewed this year before I return to the feature offerings we screened.

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Outside the shorts program per se – a part of the Downbeat music selections – was the absolutely charming animated squirrels in The World’s Gone Nutz. This hilarious – and insanely catchy musical featurette is part of a series from animator Daniel Robert Cohn’s squirrel world. In this iteration, the first all-squirrel band, Squirrel Me Bad offers a pithy comment on politics and social mores over the past year. Seasonal squirrel offerings are also afoot on Cohn’s website which thanks to DWF 2021 I’m alerted to enjoy.

If you’ve ever flown in one of the great birds of the sky known as airplanes, there was plenty of fun to relate to in “Airway,” a smart, quick, hilarious fear of flying gone mad.

“Anniversary” is a visual and emotional stunner from writers and director Craig Ouellette & Neal McLaughlin that looks to be just the beginning of the road for this team. Subversive and strange. We were ready for more.

Generally creepy was the tension-filled and sleek “Black Hole.” “Bossbabes” was a ride with lots of humorous twists and turns to keep viewers guessing and laughing. Vibrant and compelling the music pulsed through the message of a powerful “Enough.”

“Georgia” was a heartbreaking and perfectly told story of parents seeking justice for their daughter’s tragic attack and death.

“The Huntsman and the Hound” created a brilliant atmospheric that anchored the tale of two hitmen at odds.

“Incognito” was a well-polished period story of forbidden love and secret consequences that offered a nice mix of the imagined and the real.

All nightmare was the mordantly funny, riveting, horror-tinged “The Jester’s Song,” offering the aftermath of a Rapture in which all the good people seem to have left the earth behind. But briefly, let there be music. Hope to see much more from writer/director Michael Woloson.

“Klutz” offered a happy ending to a sorrowful but sweet story of loss and spiritual connection in a tale of sisterly love and supernatural conversation.

More shorts coverage is coming, but for now –

Returning to feature selections at DWF…

New Year is an emotionally harrowing long night’s journey into New Year’s Day. Beautifully shot in black and white, the intimate cast moves from edgy friendship and sputtering marriage to confessional disaster. Director and co-writer Nathan Sutton keeps viewers as tense and involved as his characters celebration, as married duo Benjamin and Katherine, host a party with closest friends before moving from LA to NYC.

A sense of elegy also permeated Sing to Me Sylvie, in which former bandmates reconnect in Portland. One is married but still attached to her past, the other a surprisingly content homeless itinerant musician. This was one of the film’s that didn’t quite connect for me, but the turbulence of a touring performer’s life had undeniable appeal.

In another encore performance from the virtual 2020 fest, Take Out Girl pulls viewers into the nightmare that pursuit of the “American Dream” has often become. Here, the “take out girl” for her family’s struggling restaurant begins to deliver the goods for a drug kingpin as well, with potentially shattering results.

With festival offerings overall less lighthearted than some viewed in previous years, They/Them/Us with a zany blended potential family and kinky sex play offered a humorous perspective in this slice of the Brady Bunch life for modern times.

A festival standout for me was Voodoo Macbeth, a collaborative work by multiple directors and writers through the USC film program. This simply terrific film took on a true story and made it sing with heart and hope. Set in a beautifully realized 1936 Harlem, the first all-Black cast production of ‘Macbeth’ struggles toward opening night under the helm of an increasingly unhinged young director, none other than Orson Welles. Fascinating story, filmmaking, and a fantastic cast – it glued viewers to their seats. An incredibly fine film.

Black and white, Chaplinesque from its score to shooting style, What? offered an engaging look at today’s LA in silent-movie style. The fairytale-like quality of this story of a deaf actor tired of discrimination against him, the film is reminiscent of 2011 Academy Award winner The Actor, and equally lovingly-made.

Also calling back a previous film for me – in this case Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, was the extremely well done and haunting love story that marks the central tenet of the Russian film Dreamover. Mysterious and magical, a journey from loneliness into the the love language of the past proves a trip worth taking.

And, speaking of journeys, there’s Holidays at All Costs. This French comedy of errors takes viewers into an hilarious and harrowing vacation, hard earned by a loving father who has more than earned a far better resort stay than this one. Lots of fun.

More features and final words ahead and so many rising stars and smart screenings at DWF 2021.

  • Genie Davis; photos courtesy of filmmakers, also by Jack Burke

This is Halloween – High Beams Art Collectives Offer Rooftop Fun

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Saturday and Sunday Halloween weekend, the Bendix building rooftop became an awesome party spot with High Beams #5 Night Moves.

Exciting and radiant against a backdrop of DTLA skyline, exhibiting artists showcased art that glowed, moved, spun, or simply dazzled in its own right.

Exhibiting artists included: Eugene Ahn, Ismael de Anda III, Ilona Berger, Chelsea Boxwell, Nicolas Cienfuegos, Elizabeth Folk, Leslie Foster, Ricardo Harris-Fuentes, Iva Gueorguieva, Jamie Hamilton, Ariel Huang, Ben Jackel, Kellan Barnebey King, Sharon Levy, Kim Marra, Justin Michell, Robert Moya, Jorge Mujica, Hagop Najarian, Larissa Nickel, Liz Nurenberg, Laura Ricci, Molly Schulman, Karim Shuquem, Christina Shurts, Mitch Temple, Josh Vasquez, Andrew Wingler, and Surge Witrön. Curators Carl Baratta and Katya Usvitsky of TSALA and Dani Dodge and Sean Noyce of Durden and Ray brought together artists from their collectives, as well as from 515, CACtTUS, Last Ditch, LAST Projects, Monte Vista Projects, Museum Adjacent, and San Francisco Artists Alumni

There were kinetic sculptures, projected images, sculptures – including a climbable and thrilling net hammock, banners, paintings, and audio work. If you missed it, you snoozed. Plus, attendees came in costume and the city glittered, as well as the red neon Bendix sign towering not-that-high above.

There was drone and interactive computer magic from Eugene Ahn, Ismael de Anda III…

Jorge Mujica and Gerardo Romero offered a deep blue blaze of glory aligned with the skyline, below.

Light danced on a mirrored city by Nicolas Cienfuegos…

Justin Mitchell and Kellan Barnebey King spun revolving, riveting color.

Karim Shuquem created the black-box magic of the motion of atoms (per the artist) in his glowing sculptural installation, below.

It’s a bird, it’s not really a plane but a wonderful, playfully curated sculpture from Ben Jackel, below.

Jamie Hamilton’s nylon and steel climbable “Net.”

Robert Moya’s beautifully detailed wood panels survived winds at installation…

Chelsea Boxwell delighted with a glittery textile passageway, above and below.

Pulsating with light, the cocoon of Laura Ricci’s “Ones Left Behind,” images below.

Elizabeth Folk and Mark Brobo offered “A Desert Spritz” of fun performance art and projected image.

Ariel Wang, below; above, collaborative magic from Last Projects by artists including Ilona Berger, above.

Black light made this gorgeous piece vibrate from Ricardo Harris-Fuentes.

Ephemeral work from Iva Gueorguieva, below, suspended on wire.

Golden work from Mitch Temple, bathed in red light, above.

A collaboration of artists connecting through “Zoom Connecting.” Among the creators were Hagop Najarian and Leslie Foster, above and below.

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Auditory sculptural experience from Liz Nurenberg, below.

Each artist and the event curators created stellar work and a costumed art party that served the perfect blend of spirits for All Hallows Eve.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

Dances with Films – Gets Physical

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“Let’s Get Physical” was the catch phrase for the 24th annual Dances with Films festival at the TCL Chinese in Hollywood. Last year viewed virtually, this year it was time to don those masks and sit down to enjoy films on the big screen.

From shorts to features, there was plenty to see at the always-eclectic event. This set of reviews is not the last – this year the program ran an expanded number of days, from August 26 to September the 12th.

Voting this year for audience awards utilized a QR code, which was even easier than marking up a piece of paper with a pencil as in pre-pandemic times. Q and A’s were as lively as ever, and the mix of comedy, drama, horror, and even sci-fi invigorating.

Also new this year: the First Film Series, which served up some fascinating looks at the works of and discussions with honoree filmmakers including producer Michael London and director Paul Greengrass. Greengrass, the director of United 93 was a moving inclusion, a fitting tribute to both filmmaker and the somber anniversary of 9/11.

Rather than going in festival order, we’ll start with some features, and move on to the vibrant shorts programs.

As always offering a stimulating start, the opening-night film was the premiere of The Art of Protest, an exciting, kinetic documentary from Colin M. Day, packed with interviews from elite rockers and espousing power of music and protest. The film was a rousing success as both a galvanizing opener and an eye-opener about politics and change.

While I’d love to be as enthusiastic about the fest’s closer, Mars Roberge’s Mister Sister, despite allowing a fascinating look into NYC’s drag scene, the film felt more like a documentary hopeful than a narrative feature, and just didn’t register for me. The red carpet interactions with some of the film’s supporting players gave a tantalizing look at what could’ve been – maybe next time.

There were far more hits than near misses at the fest, no mean feat with a lineup that included over 250 varied films, from 350 filmmakers. I’ll take on the festival as best I can, starting out with an an alphabetical look at the feature films we had the pleasure to view.

Thematically, a number of films seemed to hit on moments of isolation, addiction, and recovery, but there were lighthearted moments as well.

Among the films that offered a taste of both, Addict Hal was a surprisingly fresh and moving take on addicts in a recovery program, viscerally plunging viewers into the harrowing road to getting – and staying – clean with humor and poignancy.

Likewise, Alex/October offered a mix of touching moment and dark humor in a film that explored a friendship evolving from a man’s Craigslist ad seeking a hired killer to end his own personal misery. Restless, curious, and unhappy, a young woman meets suicidal new BFF in a film that evoked memories of Harold & Maude without the whimsy and music along the way.

In a second look from last year’s fest, which I viewed virtually, a woman comes to terms with the loss of her marriage in before/during/after, a fine film that takes a wistful look at the life of an actress in emotional transition.

One of my very favorite films of the 2021 festival was the dark emotional world of Bone Cage. Pitch perfect in tone, beautifully acted, the tragic story of a lost soul in an economically devastated rural community was a fully successful film adaptation of a play by Catherine Banks. Written and directed by Taylor Olson, who also starred in the film, this one tore a hole in my heart.

The Catch was another dark and tragic film that resonated, a noir and haunting story from Matthew Ya-Hsiung Balzer. Redolent with the salt air of a small Maine fishing town and the desperation of a young woman returning home from an abusive relationship, Balzer took viewers on a dangerous, compelling journey.

Moody in black and white, Ghostwriter explored the mentor/mentee relationship, the meaning of family, and creativity. In this four-hander character study, ghosts can be composed of words, or memories or the fading reach of fame.

Evan Wood gave viewers another look at addiction – a sister coming to terms with the mental unbalance and addiction of her brother following the death of their grandmother.

Beneath the Banyan Tree explored another family’s coming-to-terms, here with generational family ties, the difficulty of immigration and assimilation, and the even greater difficulty of self-acceptance in the relationship between a mother and daughter.

Family ties were also a strong focus in Last Night in Rozzie, a Boston set story of a dying friend’s wish for his estranged son, and the traumas of the past in a poetic and graceful character study.

Generation Wrecks was another film I loved. But, unlike the harrowing filmic knife-thrusts of my other favorites, Bone Cage and The Catch, this was a lighthearted coming of age film, filled with great performances, an unbelievably terrific soundtrack, and a fully realized, touching and funny story of revenge, forgiveness, and growing-up. A bit of both the Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink infused the spirit of this winning, heart-melting film. Writers and co-stars, as well as the film’s director, below.

It was great to be back in the theater – and even better to be viewing the program from Dances with Films. There’s more alphabetical feature viewing/reviewing pleasure ahead…and then the powerhouse short films.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Jack Burke and Dances with Films