Michael Nesmith's October 30 date at The Kessler will be the third Dallas appearance by The Monkees or one of its members in 2013.
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The Monkees are a nearly 50-year-old band who haven't put out any new music since the mid-1990s. But with the news that Michael Nesmith will perform a solo show at The Kessler on Wednesday, October 30, this could easily be called The Year of the Monkees in Dallas.
Unfortunately, unless he announces new dates during the holidays, Dolenz will not put on a solo show in Dallas in 2013, leaving the dream of a complete Monkees bonanza unfulfilled.
Prior to his current reunion with Tork and Dolenz in the wake of the death of former bandmate Davy Jones in 2012, Nesmith — who partially grew up in Dallas — had famously eschewed anything to do with The Monkees. Now, in addition to shows with them, Nesmith is recommitting to his solo work, going on his first U.S. solo tour in more than 20 years.
Although he hasn't put out a new album since 2006's mostly instrumental Rays, Nesmith has released a string of new songs over the past couple of years through his website.
Tickets for Nesmith's show are now on sale through The Kessler, ranging anywhere from $25 for standing room to $600 for eight-person suites. Given the size of the venue and the The Monkees' ability to still draw a crowd, you'd better get your seats soon.
In modern society, where fear of “the other” has made many people into insular creatures, it has become easy to get locked into one point of view. The new film Fjord will be a challenging one for many viewers, as it puts forth a situation that confronts narrow-minded thinking and forces even those who think they’re open-minded to re-evaluate their own biases.
Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) are a married couple who have just moved back to Lisbet’s home country of Norway. They have five children, all of whom were born in Romania, Mihai’s home country. The family, which is part of an unspecified Evangelical Christian sect, runs into issues almost right away when their oldest daughter, Elia (Vanessa Ceban), shows up to school with bruises on her body.
A well-intentioned but perhaps overzealous Child Protective Services system gets put into motion, resulting in the children being removed from the home while Mihai and Lisbet are being investigated. The parents, while acknowledging some minor physical punishment, deny doing anything that would cause bruising, and the possible failings of the system mostly get ignored despite a lack of hard evidence.
Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, the film is an infuriating watch due to its depiction of a system that seems to be oblivious to its own faults. But it’s also illuminating, as the cultural and linguistic divide that exists between the characters in the film could just as easily be applied to those viewing it. Misunderstandings arise as people switch between Norwegian, English, and Romanian, and interpretations of different words or phrases play a crucial role in how people and actions are perceived.
But the film is about much more than just language mix-ups. Mungiu is purposefully vague about Mihai and Lisbet’s religion, but it’s clear that it leans conservative. This puts them at odds with a liberal society in Norway, and more than one character voices their disapproval of the family’s beliefs. The film is framed in such a way, though, that it’s those who are seemingly most progressive who can’t get over their own prejudices, with Mihai and Lisbet rarely being able to object to how they’re being treated.
The cold and forbidding landscape adds to the drama of the film, especially when Mungiu includes side stories from Mihai and Lisbet’s neighbors about, for example, a rebellious neighbor daughter or their ailing father. While those elements don’t impact the plot much, they add complexity to the film as a whole and demonstrate that some characters are more than who they seem to be on the surface.
Stan, who’s had notable roles in recent years in A Different Man and The Apprentice, puts in another solid performance that is less showy. With a bald head and stoic-but-firm demeanor, he brings depth to a potentially unlikable character. Reinsve, coming off the success of Backrooms, is the emotional center of the film and demonstrates chemistry with Stan after co-starring in A Different Man. The supporting cast is all solid, especially the actors portraying lawyers, who bring to life a system that seems much different from that in the U.S.
Fjord does not play out like a typical American film would if it were depicting a similar situation, and by holding back where western storytellers wouldn’t, it allows viewers to make up their own minds on who is right or wrong. Many things go unspoken in the film, and the debate on what should happen with Mihai, Lisbet, and their family continues even after the film ends.
