Idol Insider

American Idols Live concert showcases the power of the voice as Haley Reinhartsteals the show

'90s kids will remember how Saved by the Bell: The College Years evoked slightly uncomfortable, almost defensive feelings when it aired: The fresher, more modern twist on the old show seemed appropriate for the times in theory, but lacked the organic magic of the original series.

Often, the first half of the variety show-styled Idols Live concert that brought the 11 Season 10 finalists to Houston’s Reliant Arena Thursday night felt just like that.

Tackling a slew of high-energy Top 40 hits, the finalists turned the stage into a current dance party, injecting an extra shot of flashiness that you’d be hard pressed to find on previous Idol tours –think sequenced mini-dresses and frequent shimmying. There were times when it worked, like Pia Toscano, Thia Megia, Haley Reinhart and Naima Adedapo’s fierce cover of Janelle Monae’s “Tightrope,” or Adedapo’s African dance-infused spin on Jennifer Lopez’s “On the Floor.”

Even the goofy group number to Cee Lo Green’s PG-13 “Forget You” was a blast of fun, showcasing the range of personalities.

But more often than not during the first half, the finalists fell short of the pop stars they covered. The girls gave a lackluster opening performance of Lady Gaga “Born This Way,” and the trio of Lauren Alaina, Toscano and Megia had trouble matching the energy and control of Katy Perry’s “Firework.” Stefano Langone got the crowd moving and shaking to Usher’s “DJ Got Us Falling in Love” but couldn’t…be Usher?

Perhaps because American Idol isn’t designed to unveil the hottest performer — it’s designed to elevate the best singer.

That’s why Toscano’s stripped down “Empire State of Mind” by Alicia Keys and Jay-Z and Casey Abram’s bass-accompanied “Smooth” by Rob Thomas and Santana served as a breath of fresh air — a reminder of the power of the voice, whether its commanding like the former, or nuanced like the latter. And that’s why the second half of the concert felt that much richer, carried by the tried-and-true Idol formula of songs that give the contestants’ voices room to breathe and individuality a chance to shine.

Alaina‘s purely country set kicked off the second half (oddly, the show was only loosely based on the order of elimination, unlike previous tours). She wrapped her textured, country-soul voice around the foot-stomping “Flat on the Floor” by Carrie Underwood, and then fell into her groove with a searing cover of The Band Perry’s “If I Die Young” and her latest single, “Like My Mother Does” (prompting a spontaneous hug between the 20-something and her mom in the row in front of me).

James Durbin married showmanship with vocals on a crowd-pleasing “Sweet Child O’Mine” by Guns N’ Roses, which he began in the middle of the crowd, and followed it with Muse’s anthemic “Uprising.” Jacob Lusk relived his best performance on the show with Marvin Gaye’s soulful “You’re All I Need to Get By.”

And this skeptic isn’t ashamed to call out the show stealer: Reinhart. The consummate performer delivered a killer set, comprised of a scintillating, pitch-perfect reprise of “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals and an infectious, soaring “Bennie and the Jets” by Elton John. Her presence and comfort level on the stage was unmatched by any other finalist.

Though not quite as powerful as Reinhart, the Season 10 winner Scotty McCreery closed out the show with a sincere, solid set of country songs — Josh Turner’s “Your Man” (a nod to his comical start on Idol), Thompson Square’s “Are You Going to Kiss Me or Not,” his lukewarm latest single “I Love You This Big,” and a gorgeous duet with Alaina on Alison Krause’s “When You Say Nothing At All.”

McCreery finished with a smokin' performance of Montgomery Gentry’s “Gone,” including an adorable line dance by back-up singers Alaina, Megia, Toscano and Reinhart. The crowd met him with undoubtedly the strongest applause, and he reciprocated with palpable genuineness and graciousness.

The finalists united one last time for a Glee-esque medley of songs — “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake, “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith, etc. — that, against the cheesy odds, felt endearing and enjoyable.

And isn’t that how Idol works?

Tara Seetharam covered Season 10 of American Idol for CultureMap. Click here to see all of her stories.

unspecified

Movie Review

New comedy I Want Your Sex saddles an all-star cast with a dull story

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde in I Want Your Sex.

Writer/director Gregg Araki has been making provocative movies for nearly 40 years, releasing his debut — Three Bewildered People in the Night — in 1987. Most of them have had plotlines that revolved around sex in one way or another, and for his latest — his first film in 12 years — he’s putting it right there in the title, I Want Your Sex.

Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) is an aimless twenty-something who can’t even afford the rent for his apartment with best friend, Apple (Chase Sui Wonders). Thankfully, he finds a job at the gallery of artist Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), who is open with her sexuality both in her artwork and in her day-to-day life. That soon includes Elliot, whom she convinces to enter into a dominant-submissive relationship with her, with sessions taking place both at work and her home.

Elliot, who’s in a going-nowhere coupling with Minerva (Charli XCX), is more than willing to participate, both because it lets him feel something he doesn’t get normally and because Erika offers a perspective on sex that’s much different from people of his generation. But as he gets in deeper with her, he starts to lose a sense of himself, going down a path in which he finds himself talking to police detectives Zem (Johnny Knoxville) and Zola (Margaret Cho).

Araki does his level best to make I Want Your Sex into a broad comedy, and early on it seems as if he might succeed. The deadpan way that sexual objects appear in the film (a penis-shaped rug in Elliot and Apple’s apartment, a vagina artwork with chewed gum as the medium) make for amusing sight gags. He also makes Elliot the bewildered other in multiple twosomes, with Minerva being the funniest, as she’s way more interested in studying than his ham-fisted attempts at sex.

It’s clear that Araki wants the film to be a commentary on the generational differences about sex, but he fumbles his own idea. It starts with an on-the-nose conversation between Erika and Elliot, and continues with the various dalliances, which seem to be more about making Elliot look and feel ridiculous than giving true insight. Their encounters certainly open his mind about what sex can be, but their one-note nature makes them repetitive and frankly boring, odd considering the acts in which the two engage.

The uninspired storytelling makes the 90-minute film drag way more than it should. Araki includes a few other characters to try to vary the tone of the film, including gallery workers Zap (Mason Gooding) and Vikktor (Daveed Diggs), but their early promise yields little results. The framing device of Elliot’s interview with the detectives never works, especially because Araki completely neuters the personalities of Cho and Knoxville for seemingly no good reason.

The cast as a whole goes to waste. Hoffman is showing the promise of his late father (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and even though he’s appealing here, the material pulls him down. Wilde just made her own provocative movie about sex (The Invite), and this one pales in comparison despite her heightened performance. Wonders, Charli XCX, and Gooding are all young stars who deserve to be showcased much better than they are in this film.

A film called I Want Your Sex is announcing itself as daring and alluring, but this film contains almost none of those qualities. Instead, it’s a slog that only occasionally has something interesting to show or say, mostly relying on the power of its actors to hold viewers’ attention — and failing at even that.

---

I Want Your Sex is now playing in select theaters.