I’ve finally been back to my favorite independent
Ottawa theatres, the ByTowne and the Mayfair, with precautions and limitations
(mask-wearing, distancing and a 50-person audience maximum). But let me start
with streaming suggestions from Netflix which already has over 36,000 hours of
content to which it is constantly adding. Dark (Germany,
three seasons 2017-2020, 26 episodes, Netflix) A- I only discovered this title recently
but it appears to have been Netflix’s first original German series, concluding
with the final season released in June. Although extremely strange as well as
dark, the production is of high quality. The setting is the small German town
of Winden in the shadow of the twin towers of a nuclear power plant.Linked to that facility is a spooky cave with
subterranean passages storing barrels of radioactive waste and, more
importantly, a time-travel portal on which is inscribed the Latin phrase “ Sic
mundus creatus est” (“Thus the world was created”) Scenarios affecting
mu…
Cinephiles mourned the loss of the great
Italian composer Ennio Morricone who died at age 91 earlier this month,
especially remembered for his iconic film scores for the Clint Eastwood
“spaghetti westerns” of the 1960s and for “The Mission” among other
classics.Also on the music front,
although my last post was quite critical of the Netflix series “The
Politician”, the best thing about it is to have introduced a wide audience to
Ben Platt who has the title role.Platt,
who has been on stage since childhood and became a Broadway star, is a
supremely talented musician, singer, and songwriter.Check out the Netflix special Ben
Platt Live from Radio City Music Hall, a fantastic performance,
immensely appealing and candid, recorded last September. As the “politician”, Platt’s character is
determined to become president. So my favorite Platt quote is: “I’m counting
the days until Trump is just a stain on history …”.On the acting side, Platt has joined an
18-year project by master filmmaker Ri…