Concerts featuring a world-renowned piano master doing his thing at an old-fashioned grand piano? Bo-ring. But a pianist fooling around on an iPad? That's the stuff of an Internet sensation.
At least according to YouTube, where Lang Lang's first encore after a concert in San Francisco has gone viral. Lang Lang — classical music's rock star pianist, a man who is treated almost like a tabloid celebrity in his home country of China — played Houston's Jones Hall earlier on the same tour.
The song was Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" and the instrument was Magic Piano for the iPad, which Lang Lang played while showing off the screen to the audience and symphony musicians alike, even offering the conductor a note or two.
A week later over half a million people have checked out what a real artist can do with the app — which maker Smule says was inspired by Lang Lang himself.
But Lang Lang still has a way to go before being the Internet's most famous Magic Pianist. He's still four million views behind Iggy the Cat.
When making movies about the long history of sins visited upon Black people in the United States, a good instinct by filmmakers is to keep the story small. In telling a personal tale, as is done in Nickel Boys, the larger systemic issue can be exposed without getting lost in the enormity of the wrongs done to everyone who’s similar to the central characters.
What makes this film unique, though, is that writer/director RaMell Ross and co-writer Joslyn Barnes adapted Colson Whitehead’s novel in a way that is as personal as you can get: By giving it a first-person perspective. For the first half of the film, the audience sees the world of Elwood (Ethan Cole Sharp as a child, Ethan Herisse as a teenager) through his eyes, with the character only appearing in reflections or photos.
Through this technique, the impact of the turbulent 1960s hits even harder, as — among other things — Elwood sees the rise of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and becomes a high-achieving student against the odds in Tallahassee, Florida while living with his grandmother, Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor). On his way to attend a college that would help him achieve his dreams, he is waylaid in a traffic stop and taken to a reform school against his will.
As he tries to adjust to what amounts to an imprisonment, he makes friends with Turner (Brandon Wilson). From that point on, Ross shifts the perspective back-and-forth between the two boys, as well flash-forwards to an adult Elwood, as each deals with the innumerable injustices that they experience at the school. Their friendship is the thinnest of ropes that keeps them tethered to any hope that they will be able to leave one day.
While the first-person perspective could be viewed as a gimmick, in the case of this film it underscores the bewildering circumstances in which Elwood finds himself. Instead of being privy to information that Elwood or Turner might not know, we can only see what they see, a viewpoint that serves to increase the harrowing nature of their plights. Ross shifts the camera slightly to behind Elwood’s head in future scenes, a subtle move that helps the audience understand where in time they are, and give more information on the man that he has become.
While showing overt racism in films remains a powerful reminder of the evil that can exist in the world, many movies fall into a trap of making the racists one-dimensionally vile. Ross and Barnes make sure to flesh out characters like teacher Spencer (Hamish Linklater) and other adults, making their mistreatment of the Black kids at the school even more horrific.
Although the unusual camera placement prevents them from receiving the full star treatment, both Herisse and Wilson are able to demonstrate their talents well. The fleeting glimpses of their faces helps to understand the strength of the work they do off-screen. Ellis-Taylor puts in another award-worthy performance, projecting heart and desperation in equal measure as Hattie fights to get Elwood back.
While not strictly a historical film (the book is a fictional story that takes inspiration from real events), Nickel Boys holds enough truths in it to be completely gripping. The first-person perspective draws the viewer in, and then the story clobbers them with events that make the central characters indelible.
