We just saw Anna Deavere Smith’s one-person, one-act show, Let Me Down Easy. I liked it, but probably less than anyone else in the theater, given the immediate standing ovation she was given.

I feel bad saying anything negative since the show is incredibly well-intentioned and ADS is hugely talented. In it, she presents monologues in the voices of about 20 different people, based on interviews with them. These are named, real people who span ages, genders, races, and countries. Impressive. The topic is health, health care, having a body, and death. Some of the monologues are moving, some are funny. I loved the one by a New Orleans’ nurse. But I felt manipulated by others. And the main thing that kept me from leaping to my feet at the end was the fact that only occasionally did ADS get me to forget that I was watching an actor — an immensely talented actor — imitating someone else.

It was admirable and enjoyable. For me, it was 3.5 stars out of 5.

We also went to the Bauhaus exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. I loved it. It covers everything from architecture to painting to furniture to font design. (Great fonts!) And it does a good job conveying the movement’s political and economic principles. I only wish there were some examples of pre-Bauhaus design, because it’s become so much the standard style of contemporary design that it can be hard to remember how radical it was at the time: from heavily ornamented wooden cabinets to simple cabinets with glass doors, designed for practicality of use and manufacture. Bauhaus so won.

It’s a great, rich exhibit. And when you’re done, you still have five floors to visit!

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I’m not sure if the following contains spoilers, since part of the problem is that “The God of Carnage” was so predictable that I’m not sure if we were supposed to know from the beginning what would happen. So, while I’ll steer clear of outright plot spoilers, I am going to talk about the general progression and strategy of the play, so don’t read any further if you’re thinking of seeing the show. On the other hand, if you’re thinking of seeing the show, you ought to read a little further just to give yourself a chance to change your mind.

“The God of Carnage” won a Tony for best drama and for best actress for Marcia Gay Hayden. So obviously the experts saw something that I didn’t. I saw a play that from the beginning was obvious in its intent: Two couples would come unglued. Civilization would be revealed as a shiny surface believed in by liberals (obvious as soon as we learn one of the characters is writing a book about Darfur), masking the dog-eat-dog, name-calling bestiality waiting to break through at any moment. The play proceeds by giving each configuration of the four a moment, and each person a revelatory scene. By the book. By the book.

The acting was pretty disappointing, especially given that the four stars — on stage pretty much for the entire 80 minutes — are Hayden, James Gandolfini, Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels. Wow. I actually don’t blame them. The writing — or perhaps the translation — is just awkward. It’s stuff nobody would actually say, and not because it’s so clever. It’s stuffy language.

The play was written by Yasmina Reza. I liked her “Art” better, although that seemed to me to be more superficial than it intended. Still, it at least was about something. “God of Carnage” isn’t. And although there are a couple of funny moments — Jeff Daniels on the phone — and some of the acting was enjoyable — Gandolfini smiling — I’m beginning to think that Yasmina Reza is the French Neil Simon, except more pretentious and not even as funny. (And please note that I am not a big Simon fan.)

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Video games have gotten one rev away from awesome. While the graphics on PC games are not yet truly photo-realistic, they are good enough that, in the hands of superb graphic artists, they are not only immersive, they are stylistically interesting. Bioshock is a terrific example of this. Far Cry 2 is realistic enough that you want to pull over and watch the scenery now and then. The new Call of Duty is visually good enough that killing Nazi and Japanese soldiers was too gruesome. The human figure, facial expressions, and even dirt and dust are getting very close to being good enough for drama.

So, here’s the movie I’d like to see using these tools. It’s a drama, possibly a mystery. Multiple narrative threads and interdependencies. All set within a single city, or in sites that I can teleport between (unless travel becomes more rewarding than it is in most games). I want the characters to enact the plot. And I want to be free to wander around the city, eavesdropping. I want to be a ghost, a disembodied eye and set of ears, a camera, moving around the room where characters are now interacting, choosing where to look and who to listen to. The first time through, I’m not going to be in the right spots at the right time. Eventually, though — and perhaps with some guidance from the plot or extrinsically (“Go here now!” arrows) if necessary — I will see and hear everything, and I will understand what happened.

I don’t want to interact. I don’t want to choose my own ending or help characters find the key or move the crate. I want to watch a movie, but be completely free to move through its settings as I want. And, perhaps the software will let me record the movie as I’ve seen it, and share my path with others.

I wouldn’t know how to write a movie like this. Maybe it can’t be done in a way that makes for a satisfactory experience. But I’m curious. I’d like to see one. [Tags: movies video_games theater art narrative ]

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