Film Clips: July 18, 2024

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Fanny, The Other Mendelssohn

(Mercury Blu-ray)

In 1842, Felix Mendelssohn was invited to Buckingham Palace to perform Queen Victoria’s favorite Mendelssohn composition. Only, it wasn’t written by Felix but by his older sister, Fanny. The documentary by Sheila Hayman (a descendent of the Mendelssohns) is part of the effort to honor Fanny’s place in music history—a facet of the larger project of discovering overlooked creative women of the past. Fanny and Felix were prodigies, but at age 14, she was told to stop by their father. Music would be Felix’s profession, he insisted. For Fanny, it would only be an “ornament.” Dutiful but persistent, Fanny composed hundreds of lieder, many only recently coming to light. Hayman’s documentary shows and tells her story with great insight. (David Luhrssen)

Todd Rundgren: Liars Live

(MVD Blu-ray)

Through his prolific career as a producer and recording artist, Todd Rundgren was a technocrat who rocked—and popped. This two-hour concert filmed in 2005 was focused on what was then his current album, Liars. Many of the themes sound more pertinent today than then as Rundgren warned of separating “the church and the state before it’s too late” and of “the sex police at your bedroom door.” The show was bathed in moody lighting and electronic murk. The performers—a crack crew including Kasim Sultan and Prairie Prince—could be mistaken for holograms. Included is a cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” nothing revelatory but with scorching guitar solos, a tribute to Rundgren’s foundation in the Beatles/George Martin. (David Luhrssen)

Twisters

(In Theaters July 19)

Twenty-eight years after the original Twister wowed viewers with fearsome tornados, this reboot aims to captivate a new generation. Since storm chaser footage is now widely available, the new Twisters further stretches the weather envelope with ginormous weather monsters. An online featurette reveals that to mimic the consequences of being in or near a tornado, the actors buffeted by jet engines, while being showered with a mix of freezing water and crushed ice. Daisy Edgar-Jones portrays a storm researcher. Believing she’s found a means of dispersing tornados, she must get close enough to one to release dozens of specially crafted steel balls into the funnel. Glenn Powell appears as an impossibly appealing daredevil storm chaser, while Anthony Ramos is a careful meteorologist, attempting to document tornados from what he hopes is a safe distance. Oklahoma’s rural settlements are front and center in sequences that depict houses, trucks, people and animals taking terrifying weather rides. A love triangle between the three leads constitutes a so-so story element, but director Lee Isaac Chung focuses on our love-hate relationship with the weather. (Lisa Miller)