Tarantino

     I’m fascinated with Quentin Tarantino’s artistic process. I’ve thought a lot about the brutal violence in his movies and the reasons why people might be drawn to them, and if some are justified in saying he is a major threat to decency.

     I think immoral influence is potentially strengthened in a society that's increasingly amoral. Our society is still rewriting what is good and evil and when that happens the guardrails of ethics and morality wear away and all kinds of calamities take place. The worst casualties will always be the children. In this, Tarantino potentially becomes a huge false light for people who’re feeling weak and need to piggy back over what they perceive to be strength. Inherently, we all look for what would help us to be strong or feel better about ourselves. We can stitch what ideas we find and adopt a makeshift truth. Genuine truth is getting harder and harder to discern without real light, and as a result, anger and fear can express itself in some form of violence.

     It’s primal. Because we live in a society that wants to murder. We drench our hearts and minds with music, cinema and video games that will feed the fantasy from a safe distance. Look on the comment boards of entertainment websites, and you’ll read cleverly perverse things. They come from hearts that need to contradict, to hinder and to break spirits. 99% of these guys wouldn’t say it to someone’s face on the street. People spew their hate at the first throbbing opportunity. Murder is a heart desire; a state of mind, not just an act. The time is coming when murder will actually be sanctioned throughout the world.

“… but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” – John 16:2

     Tarantino’s forte is revenge fantasies. I enjoy Kill Bill because of the inherent desire for justice I have. That’s true for everyone. It’s written not just in our DNA, but even in our souls because we were made in God's image. Revenge is not something God is opposed to. Most all of Tarantino’s characters are active in physical murders and no one in their right mind would or could befriend them and stay healthy. But God is the great avenger and He has all the right to be. Christ will return as the avenger in a way that no movie has ever portrayed the hero of the day. No one is going to injure him or be allowed to put him on a cross again. That time has passed. We all want to be recompensed for what was stolen from us. God hates injustice more than anyone. We can’t see beyond the darkness when we tell ourselves we have a right to revenge and knowingly can’t stomach facing the same punishment for similar crimes we’ve committed. I tell you the truth when I say that if Beatrix Kiddo fatally crashed her car into a tree at the end of the movie, she would not have seen heaven. That needs to be said. Because most of the country is under an illusion that God is near-sighted, and uses a faulty rating system to earn heaven. God is clear: “Don’t touch revenge. You can’t handle that and you don’t know how to wield it properly. That’s My job.”

“Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,' says the Lord. – Romans 12:19

     Tarantino is not wholly correct when he says that music and film can’t inspire crime and murder. They can and they do. Yes, there’s mental health and gun control to consider. Music and words can inspire people to do positive things, but in the absence of truth, the same can happen toward acts of hate. There’s too much evidence to the contrary in the last century alone. Adolf Hitler was an engaging orator in Nazi Germany. Many young men worship gangsters real or fiction. A celebrity can inspire fans to hate and reject a person or group if words aren’t chosen carefully. The sweeping comments about the police made by Tarantino recently come to mind. In the absence of true light and courage, you grope in the dark and find yourself a role model who only appears strong, but has only learned how to hide their weaknesses better. I don’t believe that taking a war against Tarantino is the answer. People want authenticity. They want light… if they’re thirsty and sensible enough. That’s Christ.

     Self-righteous anger is a major weapon used to keep people down. The use of intimidation and passive-aggressive warfare is more common. Excuses are made for doing evil. Not for mercy’s sake, but for self-interest and promotion of a clique cause. When moral people risk the wrath of these types and take shelter in God, knowing who God is and walking with Him, then accountability begins to take shape again. Accountability is not being enforced because we’ve made many excuses. There is no humility and the discipline of children is deficient. None of this can be improved without God and we’ve tried for so long to do it without Him. Accountability shows you where the lines are and it helps temper-flaring males grow into godly, strong and loving men. Accountability shows women that they too can’t abuse their power. Accountability really ticks off people who love their sin, love their excuses, love their causes and their arguments. Accountability improves the quality of life. The iPhone does not. When accountability grows and people fight for that, then people can see Quentin Tarantino for what he really is: an incredibly talented storyteller and entertainer, but not a proponent for morality and decency.

The movie, Her

I finished the movie feeling like I’d spent the evening in thrall with an amazing woman. And then we broke up! That’s how watching the movie, Her might make you feel. 

Joaquin Phoenix is Theodore, a sensitive and talented personal letter writer who walks through the haze of melancholy music, video games and distractions to battle loneliness. He’s not pitiful, I think. He’s reluctantly facing divorce from his wife and it's dealt him a debilitating blow. He purchases an advanced operating system which is an intuitive entity with the charming voice of Scarlett Johansson. The OS calls “herself” Samantha. Very quickly, Theodore and Samantha develop feelings for each other. It is a bizarre relationship. It is brow raising. I'm overlooking any vulgarity to isolate on the thing that consumed me throughout the film. 

I’m not meaning to do movie reviews— if I do them, I’m not in it to prove what’s good or what isn’t. But Her has such an emotional and honest profundity that I find it overshadows the themes. I care about themes. I had a hard time finding the words. I was heart sick. But not in a sad way.  

Actress Samantha Morton
played the O.S. before being
replaced by Johansson.

I scanned some of the reviews and of course, I saw mention of the idealization of women and the obsession with technology. I also caught some pretty nasty hate comments about how people who like this movie are “… pretentious pseudo intellectuals..." and worse. But unabashedly, I say the relationship between these two characters was the height of what love could sound like without resistance from the flesh. It was giving without fear of disapproval. There were no mind games, no manipulation and no milking of the ego. This story inadvertently tapped into what love may sound like at least at an imperfect, but human peak. I mean it’s as close to what love ought to look like. Samantha’s love was utterly selfless, if not naïve. By saying that, I know I’ve already infected it with an insecurity. But I need to say that because her character was not altogether human. Obviously naïve, no matter how intelligent or how much knowledge Samantha could accumulate in her programming she can never know what it’s like to have a human soul or be a physical woman. There are movies that make you pause. You got to catch your breath and sit for 45 minutes. This is the one that did it for me. What makes this movie such a find is the exquisite intimacy between Theodore and Samantha. I'm not talking about sex. Is it embarrassing to openly discuss that everyone has experienced that perfectly intoxicating sense of love and acceptance from the opposite sex? I thought about that and it shouldn’t be. There was a pure and completely loving acceptance of Theodore. It was in her words. There was no judgment. No pretense. Even when she was leaving him, it was completely compassionate. I think someone ought to say what so many people are afraid to say aloud. That deep, deep down every single breathing soul yearns for that kind of love—the thing that Theodore was looking for when he wanted to have sex with Emily to fill that "small hole" in himself. There are men and women who don't experience intimacy at all anymore for whatever reason. That is a horror. So I won't mince words here, when obviously ultimate fulfillment can only come from God. But you can’t duplicate what the actors created; it astounds me what they did. Something that is so hard to create between people in everyday life: genuine intimacy and rapport. Actress Samantha Morton originally played the role of the A.I., but director Spike Jonze decided to replace her with Johansson. You can't fake rapport. These two actors, they had it. People still go to watch theater to experience that kind of intimacy between characters, which is something I think the theater has lost. If Her were a stage play, I’d probably see it two more times. It’s perfect for the stage. That is the potential of what true theater can be. Without egos and the ability to be vulnerable with some excellent, heartfelt writing to boot. This script is a masterpiece and it won an Oscar for best screenplay. I love this performance by Johansson more than I like her as Black Widow.

Here is a short scene:

I confess I want to love like that. At all times. I'm still not talking about sex. What a glorious way to live and what honor it brings to God. Words have tremendous power. Too often I see the careless way we destroy with our mouths when we can build each other up with deliberate inclination.

While Samantha grows in her programming, Theodore has stopped growing. The reality is that at some point, Theodore would’ve wanted a real life relationship with a woman. It was inevitable. But isn’t that what we do? We settle. We camp out in a hole. Because we don’t think it could possibly get any better than this and we don’t want to hurt anymore and we don't want to hurt the other person. Who can deny the longing? Everyone has felt it and it’s there underneath all of the emotional scars and information overload. However trite it sounds, there is no more wonderful thing than having the close love and companionship of someone who loves you so without reservation.

One of the best lines in the whole movie.

Reexamining Shallow Hal

I remember the response to my MySpace review of Shallow Hal made me feel badly for liking it.

Jack Black plays Hal. He’s a fairly successful guy, but his major drawback is that he rates the worth of women solely by their physical appearance. But we like him because he’s not a complete cretin.  He finds himself stuck in the elevator with real life motivational speaker, Tony Robbins, and he tells his life to him. Robbins offers to plant a hypnotic suggestion in Hal’s mind that would cause him to see only the inner beauty of the women he encounters. I couldn’t help but be annoyed when Mr. Robbins put his hand over Hal’s head and roared, “Devils! Come out!’ I note the silliness of actual demons being afraid of Robbins simply because he raised his voice. But I digress. Hal leaves the elevator. He meets and entertains a slew of women while his friend, Mauricio looks on in gaping astonishment. Jason Alexander hilariously plays Mauricio, wearing a Velcro toupee and spouting the best lines in the whole movie. In one scene, Mauricio frantically tracks down Robbins to get him to reverse Hal’s “brainwash”, describing to him the ugly women he’s meeting.

“Who says they’re ugly?” Robbins asks.

“Bausch & Lomb.” Mauricio retorts.

Hal meets Rosemary, a super obese sweetheart played by the beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow (who wore a fat suit for some scenes). Hal can only see the absolute beauty of her soul which is the spitting image of Paltrow. I still love this movie. Because we’ve all been fat and ugly in our lives and we’re all caught up in this maniacal pitch of what is lawfully beautiful. In one scene, a friend of Hal dates a nurse named Tanya who works in the same ward as Rosemary. To everyone else, she appears as this physically gorgeous woman. But in Hal’s sight, her inner self appears as decrepit and repulsive-looking. Nan Martin who played the unattractive Tanya passed away in 2010. I couldn’t help but wonder. How did the producers present this part to her?

“So Ms. Martin, basically the part we’d like for you to play is an extremely ugly version of Tanya…”

Brooke Burns as Katrina (Inner Beauty)

Actress Nan Martin
as Tanya

There’s a cruelty about this, but if the heart motivation was ever right I can recognize the courage in it too. It’s one of the artistic aspects that I admire. All of the pretty actresses had their unattractive counterparts and they probably had to watch each other’s mannerisms. That must’ve been uncomfortable and a potentially great way for them to bond. Brooke Burns is notable for playing pretty Katrina and then putting on a prosthetic nose and teeth for her scenes as unattractive Katrina. 

Brooke Burns as Katrina
wearing prosthetics

But her performance as Katrina overall is consistently delivered with a trembling, insecure laugh and nervous tics. I think she deserved recognition for not playing up Katrina as a joke, but as a sweet, but damaged human being. It’s her portrayal that makes it hard to resist feeling a protective love for the character-- you can’t help but feel a little bad for laughing. Well, I do anyway. It’s that sort of deeply human expression that I recognize in these characters and potentially, I think the actors did too. That’s one reason why Shallow Hal should be acknowledged. Ultimately these characters just want to be loved and they want to have purpose. They've been trained to feel worthless because they laugh a little strangely or gawk embarrassingly. We can laugh with them, but I don’t see them as a mistake. God knew what He was doing. Anything less is cruelty. I had severe cystic acne growing up. While it has cleared up tremendously, as an adult I still have minor breakouts. It’s one of those hard things I have to live with and a thing that some people have a hard time getting past.

"(Save me) from what?!"

"From what? From a pack of stampeding buffalo! That's from what!"

So maybe my friends back in MySpace land didn’t understand how I could rave for this movie. It's likely the Farrelly Brothers did create the human aspect of this movie as a way to make the fat jokes more palatable. Years ago, that genuinely bothered me. I needed to know if they really cared. People are cynical for a reason. If Beyonce never met Jay-Z would she date a lowly average-looking songwriter, even if he was secure and had a heart of gold? I think a lot of men secretly hope so. As for me, I think anything is possible with God when it comes to love. I also think that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. I know there are men who genuinely are attracted to overweight women. But after Hal is brought back to his original state of mind by Mauricio, Hal leaves Rosemary alone in the restaurant and starts to avoid seeing her as she truly looks. Later, Rosemary is seated by the phone in the hospital with her back to us. She hangs up the phone and bows her head to cry after Hal brushes her off again. That’s a real moment. I mean it’s excruciating. Anyone whose ever been dumped or who decided to end a relationship knows it. So Rosemary is not just a “punch line” in the movie, even if the Farrelly Brothers always intended it. The only reason to dismiss this movie is for the disbelief that the Farrelly Brothers are sentimental. Or it’s just easier to be in the nook of our seasoned cynicism.

Even if it doesn’t mean to, does Shallow Hal truly show us that love can transcend physical appearance? I’ll wrap it up this way…

There’s a Vietnam vet named Dave Roever who I heard speak at my former church. He’s a funny, inspirational guy. He went to war because of his conscience, but he intended to come back home in one piece to be a minister. His life changed when he picked up a white phosphorous hand grenade that exploded in his hand, and tore through his face, chest, arms and fingers. He dove into the water to put out the flames that engulfed his body. In the infirmary, he tried to kill himself but it didn’t take. He didn’t think that his beautiful teenage wife would want him. But he recounted to us how his wife came to see him, leaned down and kissed him, saying, “Welcome home, Davey.” They’re still together today. I’m not going to pretend that I would know what to do if my girlfriend or wife was disfigured. But I do believe that love goes beyond a beautiful body and prestige. It’s a very right enablement given by God. 

Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow bump into each other
at an art show a few days ago

A writerly observation about Avengers: Age of Ultron (and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel's Daredevil and Agent Carter)

Major Spoilers Ahead

I thought it was good, but I wasn’t blown away. It’s not terrible. It’s a fun, exciting movie. I really liked the foreshadowing for the fallout to come, the introduction of Vision and the presence of Baron Von Strucker. I have a lot of little complaints, but more worthwhile is an observation which I want to point out about Marvel Studios media.

Thomas Kretschmann as Strucker
Avengers: Age of Ultron

Baron Von Strucker is a Hydra leader whose secret base is attacked by the Avengers. Later, he’s murdered by Ultron in his jail cell. Thomas Kretschmann appeared briefly as Strucker in Captain America: Winter Solder.  I wished we might’ve seen him stay in the role a little longer because I can only imagine how exciting his work might’ve proven. The company benefits when it gives its actors ample opportunity to grow in a role—Marvel Studios has become like an unofficial repertory company of actors. The audience benefits because we don’t get a one-shot baddie who cackles and shakes his fist only to get blown up. I don’t need a tear jerker on how the villain became, but Kretschmann was striking to me as Strucker and he got offed too soon. The same thing happened in the recent season two finale of the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. where a whole crop of exciting-and-ready-to-bloom characters were wiped off the board in one fell swoop. What? Why?

Ruth Negga as Raina
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

What Marvel Studios has been doing since 2008 is a radical form of entertainment. These guys are underdogs who tipped over the haterade. I’ve been a staunch supporter of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. since the first season. I loved Agent Carter and Daredevil. Like any company or group that blazes a new trail, there’s always going to be those areas that lack.

B.J. Britt as Agent Antoine Triplet
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The work done by actors to develop these characters cannot be taken for granted because they make the story and cast better. This is especially true for the villains. The second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. saw this crowd of new characters who never got a chance to come to some fruition. Three examples of thrilling and engaging talent who gave their characters great life were B.J. Britt (Agent Triplett), Ruth Negga (Raina), and of course, the great Edward James Olmos (Robert Gonzalez). Most disappointing of all is the exit of Olmos -- who may be the only positive and talented Latino male actor to ever appear on this show. I was excited to see Olmos involved in Captain America: Civil War next year when it crosses over with … S.H.I.E.L.D. The gravitas of Olmos is universally noted. Why are the most compelling characters on … S.H.I.E.L.D. being killed off? The killings are premature and fatigued… like Age of Ultron.

I read a Forbes review about Age of Ultron that described the movie as “…played like an obligation…” like a checklist to get over with before getting to the really great part. I’m aware that Joss Whedon confessed in interviews he was exhausted from making it.

I think with time and season, killing off characters does work. 

Vondie Curtis-Hall as Ben Urich
Marvel's Daredevil

In Marvel’s Daredevil, investigative reporter Ben Urich is murdered before he can expose Wilson Fisk as a crook. In the comics, Urich is Caucasian so I was particularly excited that Marvel cast Vondie Curtis-Hall. He just deserved that role! I was shocked when his character is murdered, but it wasn’t premature. I was hoping to see Curtis-Hall as Urich interact with Spider-Man in the second season of Daredevil. But Curtis-Hall had duration of time to give an appreciated, noted performance. Same thing in Agent Carter, for the tense office scene where S.S.R. chief Roger Dooley is unable to take off a vest put on him by the villain. The vest is rigged to blow and there is no way of getting it off. Shea Whigham portrays Dooley like he was born and raised from mean streets; tough-as-nails and hard working. The accent sounds like a guy from the suburbs who’d put a bat to your head if you threatened his family. He’s the type that wants answers short and quick, little-to-no empathy, but later we see softer moments appropriately woven. Nothing awkward and forced which was masterful, as he expresses love for his estranged wife and how deep down he worries about his agents. Whigham is so cool; he doesn’t play Dooley as a bland cop suit. It’s awesome! So when Dooley jumps out of the window to save his team, it feels earned in a sense. It sucks, yes, because we love the character. It’s not gratuitous.  

Vincent D'Onofrio as
Wilson Fisk
Marvel's Daredevil

The main cast of Agent Carter
Shea Whigham as Roger Dooley is seated second from left.

Consider the decision to allow Vincent D’Onofrio to play Wilson Fisk in a way that I don’t think the comics have shown. Fisk is a complete stoic, except in moments of rage. D’Onofrio made him genuinely scary by portraying him as a man so repressed in his boyhood anguish and is awkward as a result of it. When he would lose it, you cringed. I think Baron Von Strucker given some time could give us “a little color.” The character of Raina deserved more time in her clairvoyance and to potentially appear in the movie, Inhumans.  A lot of exciting characters and interactions on ...S.H.I.E.L.D. were wiped out.

Raina transformed into an Inhuman
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I actually sucked my teeth at Tony Stark when he tried to convince a stunned Bruce Banner into activating the Vision. Robert Gonzalez played by Olmos gives a succinct and satisfying assessment of Tony Stark on the second-to-last episode of …S.H.I.E.L.D.: 

"Want to talk facts? Ultron was created because people were too close to Tony Stark. They were blinded by his charm. They trusted him. Never even thought to look at what he was working on. And the Avengers- they let one man do whatever he wanted and the world was almost destroyed for it. We’re S.H.I.E.L.D. We’re better than that.”

Edward James Olmos as Robert Gonzalez
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Come on! That monologue commands a hush. It's reason enough for me to believe that the death of Gonzalez is premature on the show. 

I tend to notice these trends of fatigue. I’m not always right, but you can usually tell from the trailer. I felt it when they advertised The Dark Knight Rises to death. It felt like a lack of confidence then. I think Christopher Nolan is great and I liked …Rises. But it’s the lesser of his trilogy.

Or maybe Avengers: Age of Ultron is like one of those movements in symphonic music from the great classical composers centuries ago, where you had one really bad or dissonant section, which made way for that beautiful and intoxicating allegro and sonata that was to come. Maybe that’s Marvel’s plan. I forget the name of the composer who I learned was said to have done this. It’s been many, many years since I sat in music history class.

The Hopeful Watch for Spider-Man's homecoming

       Last May, a writer named Max Landis posted a random Twitter comment asserting that the film rights to Spider-Man had reverted to Marvel Studios. People blew it off. But then rumors picked up again, and by the end of the year, the Sony Pictures hack released confidential data into the public domain. There was confirmation that Spider-Man was in talks to appear in Captain America: Civil War.

       If it’s to be believed that there really will be a “Spidey Summit” this month between Marvel Studios and Sony, then that’s exciting. Aside from Max Landis, there’s one clue that’s cropped up last year in light of this news. Robert Downey, Jr. posted a pictorial collage of scenes in New York City where filming of The Avengers took place. Among them is an interesting find: the scene between Tobey Maguire and Stan Lee in Spider-Man 3. A fan comment points out that the photographs were not from Downey, Jr. but by a photographer named Christopher Moloney, with the link: http://philmfotos.tumblr.com/post/33156411567/the-avengers-2012-image-178-posted-by

       Mr. Moloney snaps unique pictures of famous locations throughout the cities where movies like, When Harry met Sally and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off have been shot. A November 4^th, 2014 Twitter post by Moloney comments that Downey, Jr. is taking credit for his pictures.

Collage on Downey, Jr's Facebook

       I don’t like that most of what I’m saying is conjecture, but I also don’t think that it’s coincidence either. Did someone at Marvel have a hand in the Tobey Maguire/ Avengers album? Newsweek has reported that Marvel Studios president, Kevin Feige was pleased with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series. I’m Team Tobey. Despite the inevitable groans and jeers, I think it would be a coup if Marvel Studios would hire Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi to take up the franchise again for the MCU. Folks love to hate Spider-Man 3, but I appreciate the innovative way they chose to illustrate arrogance in Peter while making a way for him to choose forgiveness at the end of the movie. The dance scenes were an exaggerated analogy of our pretenses, and I suspect that’s the real reason why people were so ticked off. Granted, it didn’t work so well. But for that reason alone, I liked it. I’ve always liked Andrew Garfield, but his portrayal is low on humility. What some might call “street smart” is really code for “bully”, and it doesn’t resonate because Peter isn’t that guy. Marvel could adapt the Raimi films into the MCU, and catch up with Peter as a young man having graduated from college, while working full time for the Daily Bugle. Who doesn’t want to see J.K. Simmons return as Jameson? The only thing that would have to be explained is where Spidey was during the Chitauri invasion of New York. 

       No matter how you view it, Spider-Man coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is an enthusiastic win for everyone. 

Into the Woods

           The opening minutes of Into the Woods brought it all back with a bounce and a tap, and I remembered classroom periods of 4 part harmony in front of the piano, and all the clever ways you can evoke the personality of a character with melody. I’m mildly delighted-- and it’s not my movie, really. My friend chose it. She knows movies.

James Corden and Emily Blunt as The Baker and wife.

            A childless Baker and his wife are visited by their neighbor, the Witch (Meryl Streep) who offers to remove a curse over them if they would seek out certain items for her. The couple venture into the woods to find these items when they meet characters from children’s tales. I note that Chip Zien was cast as The Baker in the 1987 Broadway premiere, and in the 2012 revival at The Public Theatre, he doubled for two different roles. A year before he played The Baker, Zien voiced the resident duck of Marvel Comics in a live action film.

            I found my thrill mostly in the vocal deliveries of the cast— in particular, how Streep can stretch a syllable with a breathy note of arrogance and it’s flawless. James Corden is a humble and very likable Baker. Johnny Depp becomes the wolf stalking Red Riding Hood with the right amount of sleaze in his cadence. He is “creepy” (I’m using my friend’s word). Depp’s scene is the second most memorable, with perfect paws and hat, movement and he closes it out with a bay at the moon. “Agony” is a song by the two princes pining for Cinderella and Rapunzel. It’s full of the hardships of the male mystique and it gets more than an embarrassed chuckle. But it’s the appearance of the giantess that drew pause. The film captures a jowled, menacing face peering through tree branches, from an imperfect angle of view. Her face is obscured by trees; the sky a gloomy light grey. It’s a nightmarish kind of beautiful shot. She’s played by Frances De La Tour who I recognized immediately as the cannibal housewife in the film, The Book of Eli.

            Into the Woods takes the fairy tales of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Jack & the Beanstalk and unifies them into a cool, cinematic universe. If you’re a hardcore fan of fantasy and musical theater then you’ll love it. The cast is stellar and the story idea is a lot of fun. But I felt it was too long. It’s dark—a mother hits her head on the ground and dies, the witch is not altogether a villain. There is a junior version of this musical that played in the schools sans the second act, and Disney made family-oriented changes with composer Stephen Sondheim’s approval.

            It’s not “puritanical” to point out that the fates of these characters are cynical as if for its own sake—like the infidelity of Cinderella’s prince. It feels like a wink and a snicker. I could only appreciate the thematic gems after reading the observations of critics from past theater productions, but I wasn’t convinced that Sondheim or Disney cared very much about that. At best, each of the characters discovered that their lives would not be as idyllic as they had hoped. It’s common in the theater for the writer to cast off the theme of his play for the audience to figure out, rather than having a bold conviction. It doesn’t work all the time. Anyway, no matter how compelling the life view of a witch is, you don’t put your trust in one. 

Johnny Depp as the Wolf and Lilla Crawford as Red Riding Hood