Washington Ballet, "Mood Swings," Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theatre, Washington

Big and beautiful Erin Mahoney is positively feline in Balanchine's Rubies; Jared Nelson also does quite well.

The cat-themed evening continues with Unknown Territory, made by Choo-San Goh in 1986. What appears to be nuptuals of an animal cult, set on a gamelan-ish score by Jim Jacobson, ends with an apparent quote from Balanchine's Serenade, the girl standing aloft, supported by ranks of dancers facing diagonally downstage.

The evening's new piece is the playful The Reassuring Effects of Form and Poetry, by Trey McIntyre and scored by Antonin Dvorak. Michele Jimenez has an excellent pas de deux with Nelson. At one point, they stand facing one another; he dips his shoulder and lifts her with nothing more that that. Liz Prince designed fabulous costumes in blues, teals, and purples; the dance is inventively lighted by Nicholas Phillips. One of his gobo effects makes a pattern like corrugated cardboard on the deck, says Leta.

posted: 3:06:07 PM  

Cowboy Bebop provides a good two hours' entertainment. I liked the "cinematic" elements: the ultra-wide shot in the convenience store "photographed" with a fisheye lens, the "clips" from High Noon seen at the drive-in, the simulated rack focus. But the music is pure cheese. And Ed is the most annoying sidekick since Jar Jar Binks.

Trailer watch: Raising Victor Vargas looks promising; I'll pass on Better Luck Tomorrow.

posted: 2:42:44 PM  

Lukas Moodysson combines fantasy and documentary elements in his exposé of the contemporary white slave trade, Lilja 4-ever. The film tells the story of Lilja, of an unspecified Russian city, sixteen years old and abandoned by her mother (who has escaped with her boyfriend to America) to a life of sniffing glue and turning the odd trick. We know we're not in a happly place when the first shot of friend Volodya shows him playing hacky sack with a crumpled beverage can.

Lilja, perhaps improbably naive, falls in with a pimp who traps her into imprisoned prostitution in Sweden, apparently paying her off in McDonald's takeaway. The montage of her johns, all shot from her POV, is brutally effective.

The documentary techniques (handheld awkward zooms, pullaways from two-shots of Lilja and Volodya on the couch to one-shots) nicely set off the fantasy bits.

An affecting movie. A couple of the discussants at the Talk Cinema screening were audibly shaken by what they'd seen.

posted: 2:31:45 PM