CHICAGO – If you’ve never seen the farcical ensemble theater chestnut “Noises Off,” you will see no better version than on the Steppenwolf Theatre stage, now at their northside Chicago venue through November 3rd. For tickets and details for this riotous theater experience, click NOISES OFF.
Film Review: Odd Fairy Tale of ‘Upside Down’ is Also Inside Out
CHICAGO – Definitely one of the strangest films so far in 2013 is “Upside Down,” featuring a dream pairing of Kirsten Dunst and Jim Sturgess. The problem is they exist as disparate lovers on opposing planets, with opposite gravitational pulls. Thus what is up for Kirsten is down for Jim, or vice-versa?
Rating: 2.5/5.0 |
With an opening prologue that tries to explain it all, it’s best to go with the easy of flow of lovers who are “upside down” from each other. Yes, this is shown on screen in vertigo inducing special effects. The planet that the Dunst character resides on is rich and powerful, which makes handsome Sturgess left with the dregs of the “other” planet. With elements of “Brave New World” and “1984,” there is also a corporation who wants to control this set-up, and only allows downers from Jim’s world to come “up” if they can profit from an invention. There are a lot of hoops to jump through and logic holes to venture into to grasp the story, which is basically a fairy tale featuring star-crossed lovers. The vagueness of it all is the subtracting factor, and the bizarro up-and-down head trip of the film may be a journey that only science fiction nerds can enjoy.
Two worlds, which rotate together, have polar opposite gravity. For example, a look to the sky is to see the other world upside down. The upper world is occupied and controlled by an international corporation, which controls all employment and exploits the lower world by taking its resources. The lower-world boy named Adam (Jim Sturgess) is an adventurer, and climbs to the peaks of his earth to meet with Eden (Kirsten Dunst), even though there are warnings of spontaneous combustion when opposites attract.
They are pursued by the “big brother’ authorities – who want to prevent such couplings – and Eden is injured in the escape. Ten years later, Adam gets an opportunity to work in the upper world, with his main motivation to find and connect with Eden again. Luckily, he has an upper world ally in Bob (Timothy Spall) and Eden just happens to work for the same corporation. Despite their gravitational obstacles, love can prevail.
Photo credit: Millennium Entertainment |