The Cuarteto Casals may sound like it hails from over yonder across the pond, in a land filled with paella, Jerez and gazpacho, far away from all things Houston, like barbecue, Saint Arnold beer and Monica Pope.
But as deliciously Barcelonian as the group may be, one of its members has very strong cowboy roots in the Bayou City as a graduate of Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Violist Jonathan Brown joined the Spanish cuarteto nearly 10 years ago and has been touring the world with a string quartet that knows just how to get that Bilbao spirit out of compositions by Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga and Sevillian sass from tunes found in the music of Joaquín Turina.
Now, Brown and his international buddies are in Houston for a Tuesday night performance at Shepherd.
Along with Schubert's String Quartet No. 13 "Rosamunde," the Houston concert program is slightly different from Cuarteto Casals's sold-out performance in Carnegie Hall Friday, but equally as compelling with more exotic Spanish works in lieu of Shostakovich.
Turina's Oración del torero or the Bullfighter's Prayer is on the bill, a work prized for its ability to audibly describe the essence of the Spanish spirit.
Curious to learn what it's like to be a touring classical musician? Houston Friends of Chamber Music is hosting its first Twitter chat. Starting at noon on Tuesday, interested tweeples can join the conversation by using the hashtag #casals.
Violinists Cibran Sierra Vasquez (temporarily replacing Abel Tomàs) and Vera Martinez Mehner and cellist Arnau Tomàs complete the foursome who will perform Tuesday night at Shepherd as part of Houston Friends of Chamber Music's 2011-12 classical season.
Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures and Blumhouse
Scoot McNairy and James McAvoy in Speak No Evil.
Blumhouse Productions has become the premier horror movie company over the past 15 years, starting with 2009’s Paranormal Activity. Over that time they have made all types of scary movies (along with the occasional non-horror), ones that range from silly to gory, ones that will haunt your dreams to ones that are more psychological in nature. Their latest, Speak No Evil, falls in the latter category, playing with perceptions in a way that may not please everybody.
Based on the 2022 Danish film of the same name, it follows Louise and Ben Dalton (Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy), an American couple living in London who, as the film begins, are on vacation in Italy with their daughter, Agnes (Alex West Leifer). There, they meet Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Francioni), who are staying at the same hotel with their son, Ant (Dan Hough). After hitting it off, the two couples soon agree for the Daltons to visit Paddy, Ciara, and Ant at their rural home in Ireland.
The visit to Ireland starts off well, but Louise and Ben soon start to feel uncomfortable with a variety of things. Paddy and Ciara’s attitudes toward parenting put the two couples at odds, especially when Paddy is overly critical of Ant, who they say is mute due to a congenital tongue condition. More and more is revealed as the story goes along, with each disclosure seemingly worse than the last.
Written and directed by James Watkins, the film is light on horror but heavy on personal drama and explorations of the human psyche. It might cause more than a few discussions among married couples about what they would do in a similar situation, as much of the story revolves around how people often hide their true feelings for the sake of being polite. Louise’s discomfort comes well before that of Ben, who’s often willing to give Paddy and Ciara the benefit of the doubt, but both of them bite their tongues until it proves impossible to hold back.
The enjoyment of the film by individual viewers will depend on their appetite for scary things. While Paddy and Ciara come off as strange, especially compared with the buttoned-up Louise and Ben, Watkins relies more on the building of tension instead of outright frights for the majority of the film. There’s an explosion of that tautness in the final act, but the time it takes to get to that point may not be fully satisfactory for some.
Instead, the film is character-driven, with the clashing traits at the heart of the drama. Louise and Ben are still struggling to come to terms with their recent move to London, and the stress of that and other marital issues colors many of their scenes. Paddy and Ciara seem to be gaga over each other, but there are signs of cracks that belie their free-spiritedness. The truth is easier to find between the two kids, although Ant’s condition prevents him from being fully forthcoming.
McAvoy has the ability to go from utterly charming to outright terrifying in no time at all, and his performance is what drives the film to be as engaging as it is. Davis is great at showing disbelief or outrage, and she makes sure the audience never trusts Paddy and Ciara. McNairy makes Ben into someone who’s especially timid, giving the chameleonic actor another level to play. Francioni is not as well-known as the other three main actors, but she holds her own.
While the killing and gore is kept to a minimum in Speak No Evil, it succeeds because of the way it pits its characters against each other psychologically. Blumhouse continues to show that they know multiple ways to make horror films, including the awfulness of not knowing when to confront someone over behavior you don’t like.
