After a January 29 concert at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Monster Mother of them all Lady Gaga brought her Born This Way Ball show to Houston's Toyota Center. It's just a trip down I-45, but we all know what a change those 200-plus miles brings. All of us except for Gaga, it seems.
On January 31, Gaga entertained adoring fans in Houston with two-and-a-half hour spectacle featuring oversized meat grinders, a medieval castle and a mechanical horse.
The concert strings together more than 20 songs into a sort of rock opera starring Gaga as a dangerous fugitive from outer space. (Stay with me here.) She escapes from G.O.A.T. — Government-Owned Alien Territory — only to be chased down by a creepy animatronic head plastered with Gaga's own face.
It all works out in the end — but, my God, were there some twists and turns along the way. The biggest surprise of the night was arguably when, thanks to sponsor Virgin Mobile, Lady Gaga called a random guest in the crowd and offered a chance to hang backstage.
It was a touching scene, actually, as she sat at a piano surrounded by five young fans handpicked from the stageside VIP section. She sang a soothing acoustic rendition of "Born This Way" — then mistakenly thanked "Dallas" for such a great night.
Knowing that you don't just call Houston "Dallas," Gaga apologized profusely — not something the superstar is known for doing.
Lady Gaga made upwards of 14 costume changes throughout the concert, wearing everything from a meat dress to a machine-gun bra. It brought back visions of some of her best concerts past (included the one featured in this pic).
Photo by Andrea Wilson
Lady Gaga made upwards of 14 costume changes throughout the concert, wearing everything from a meat dress to a machine-gun bra. It brought back visions of some of her best concerts past (included the one featured in this pic).
Writer/director Ryan Coogler has become so well-known for his blockbuster films - Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - that it’s easy to forget that he made his debut with the small-but-powerful 2013 film, Fruitvale Station. After more than a decade, he’s finally returning to original material with his latest film, Sinners.
Each of Coogler’s films has either starred or featured Michael B. Jordan, and this one gives moviegoers a double dose, as Jordan plays twins who go by the nicknames of Smoke and Stack. Set in 1932, the two hustlers have recently returned from mysterious (and possibly criminal) work in Chicago to their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi to open a juke joint.
They call upon a number of friends and family to help them with the venture, including cousin and guitar player Sammie Moore (Miles Caton), Smoke’s old girlfriend Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), piano player Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), bouncer Cornbread (Omar Miller), and Chinese couple Bo and Grace Chow (Yao and Li Jun Li). Trouble is never far from the brothers, though, whether it’s Stack’s old girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), the Ku Klux Klan leader who sold them the property for the juke joint, or something even more sinister.
Coogler began his feature film career by confronting the issue of unjustified shootings of Black people by police, and how Black people are perceived by society has been a part of everything he’s done since. By placing this film firmly in the middle of the Jim Crow era, he infuses the story with all manner of subtext, including the injustice of sharecropping and prevalent segregation in the South.
Music, specifically Blues, plays a big part in the film as well. It’s championed through the emerging talent of Sammie and the veteran presence of Delta Slim, but it’s also a driving force for other parts of the plot. Sammie is decried by his pastor father for playing “the devil’s music,” while strange newcomer Remmick (Jack O’Connell) seems to appreciate it a little too much. A fantastically surreal scene at the juke joint turns into an entertaining and educational lesson on the history of Black music.
It’s Remmick’s obsession that’s at the center of the final hour or so of the film, one in which all hell breaks loose. The manner of that hell is probably better enjoyed if it’s not spoiled here, but suffice it to say that Remmick has an evil to him that threatens to destroy Smoke and Stack’s venture before it even gets started. The horror aspect of the film is fine, but it actually winds up being the least interesting part of the whole story.
Jordan can occasionally go over-the-top with his performances, and with him playing twins the threat of doing so was doubled. But he remains relatively restrained for most of the film, giving each twin their own unique spin. Caton, a rising R&B singer, makes his acting debut in the film and winds up stealing every scene he’s in. The rest of the cast complements each other well, with Mosaku and Steinfeld being standouts.
Coogler has proven himself to be a savvy filmmaker in each of his previous four films, and with Sinners he combines the personal with crowd-pleasing elements to great effect. It features great music, an insightful story, and even some gory action for an experience you’re not likely to find anywhere else.
