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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 8 March 2019

Julianne Moore shines in ‘Gloria Bell’

By JAKE COYLE secure for us to ever fear
Associated Press much for her future.
NEW YORK (AP) — Every- It’s at the nightclub that
one is vanishing around Gloria meets Arnold, an ex-
Julianne Moore’s title char- Marine who owns a paint-
acter in Sebastian Lelio’s ball park. His first line at
“Gloria Bell.” The disap- the bar is: “Are you always
pearances don’t come this happy?” ‘’Some days I
with blood-curdling shrieks am,” responds Gloria, fresh
or thundering score cues, off the dancefloor. “Some
but with the humdrum ebb days I’m not.”
of middle age. People just Their budding relationship
move away or recede from moves to the center of
view. the film but Arnold — as all
Gloria is a divorced, fifty- paintball park owners do —
something Los Angeles in- This image released by A24 shows Julianne Moore in a scene from “Gloria Bell.” remains a mysterious figure.
surance agent by day and Associated Press He’s clearly still attached to
dances disco at a nightclub for Gloria is a hairless cat light and spontaneous. ments or slights are usually his ex-wife whose calls dis-
by evening. Her son, Peter that keeps turning up in In between the two “Glo- worked out at the night- turb nearly every romantic
(Michael Cera), is caring her apartment. “It’s like an ria” movies, the Chilean club — a place of refuge in moment. While smitten with
for a newborn while his wife Egyptian mummy cat,” she filmmaker Lelio made the “A Fantastic Woman,” too. Gloria, Arnold is so absurdly
is away somewhere in the complains. Oscar-winning “A Fantastic “When the world blows up, tethered to his ex-wife and
desert “finding herself.” Her “Gloria Bell” isn’t a dour Woman,” about a trans- I hope I go down danc- their apparently unstable
daughter, Anne (Caren Pis- midlife character study gender woman (Daniela ing,” Gloria says brightly to young adult daughters that
torius), has an extreme surf- but a warmly affectionate Vega) in Santiago, and his friends. the character — though so
er boyfriend chasing waves one, in large part due to English-language debut, Gloria’s world isn’t implod- poignantly rendered by
abroad — and she might Moore’s radiant, lived-in “Disobedience,” a tale of ing but it’s not exactly Turturro — verges on par-
soon join him. Gloria’s clos- performance as a woman forbidden love with Rachel soaring, either. Her life, like ody. Or better yet, “Gloria
est colleague at work is committed to self-renewal. Weisz and Rachel McAd- most, is full of impermanent Bell” — pleasantly low-
sent packing. And, most The film is an English-lan- ams. He has made a spe- connections and stabs at key as it is — should have
of all, her promising new guage remake of Lelio’s cialty of graceful and ear- self-improvement. But she is tipped more fully into com-
boyfriend Arnold (John Tur- own 2013 drama “Gloria,” nest female-led films that blessedly undaunted, like a edy. With Moore, Turturro,
turro) has a funny habit of which starred Paulina Gar- make up for their lack of personification of the uplift- the underused Cera and
disappearing every time his cia in the lead role, and this dramatics with a rare sen- ing spirit of the Laura Brani- others like Brad Garrett
ex-wife calls. version is frequently a shot- sitivity. gan anthem “Gloria.” In Los (as Gloria’s ex), the cast is
Just about the only one for-shot, line-for-line rec- With a dreamlike sheen Angeles traffic in her car, certainly there for it. Some
who’s consistently there reation. Still, “Gloria” feels (aided by Matthew Her- she belts out ‘80s songs. scenes feel like they would
bert’s technicolor score), Vulnerable and guileless, turn hysterical if the cam-
“Gloria Bell” follows Gloria this is as natural as Julianne era just rolled a little longer,
through her modest days Moore has ever been, if the sheen of art-film was
where any disappoint- even if her Gloria feels too a little punctured.q

Weezer’s ‘Black Album’ mocks,

shocks and knocks

by the surprising success of their take on
Toto’s “Africa.” “Black Album,” for exam-
ple, also harkens back to the ‘80s “me de-
cade” with some self-referential moments,
makes generous use of kitsch and includes
“The Prince Who Wanted Everything,” a
song that alludes to paisley and a red cor-
vette but crassly ends up making Prince
come across like a second-rate Liberace.
Where “Teal” had outliers, like versions of
The Turtles’ “Happy Together” and TLC’s
This cover image released by Crush Music/ “No Scrubs,” ‘’Black” has opening track
Atlantic Records shows “Weezer (The Black “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” which pairs
Album),” a release by Weezer. some lines in Spanish with Mexican horns,
Associated Press and “Zombie Bastards,” song No. 2, where
By PABLO GORONDI “blah, blah, blah” substitutes “yada, yada,
Associated Press yada” and sounds like a prime candidate
Weezer, “Weezer (Black Album)” (Crush for the soundtracks of the inevitable re-
Music/Atlantic Records) Fashion and de- makes of “Adventureland” or “The Way
cor experts say black and teal are a good Way Back.” “Teal” was also notable for the
combination, so there are ways in which bands’ and Rivers Cuomo’s facility of stick-
Weezer’s “Black Album” matches the “Teal ing to versions of others’ hits that hardly
Album,” their barely-a-month-ago release strayed from the originals but still sounded
of largely 1980s cover versions motivated very much like Weezer. q