Arts & Entertainment
‘Dark Knight’ of the soul
Trilogy finale of Batman reboot conflicted, intensely satisfying
The cast of ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ helmed by Christian Bale. (Photo courtesy Warner Bros.)
Director Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” leaves you emotionally drained, exhausted and in a daze when the film ends. Nolan, who co-wrote with his brother Jonathan, expertly toys with current widespread fears of a pending apocalypse and squeamishness over talk of waning American hegemony in this spectacular finale to his Batman trilogy.
“The Dark Knight Rises” has a brooding, moody beginning set eight years after “The Dark Knight.” Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is out of the public eye and withdrawn from society and Batman is a faded memory. Gotham still mourns the loss of District Attorney Harvey Dent when Bane (Tom Hardy) interrupts any reflection on the past by reintroducing newfound terror to the city.
Hardy delivers an exceptional performance as Bane, especially considering he’s the follow-up villain to Heath Ledger’s brilliantly disturbing (and Oscar winning) interpretation of the Joker in “The Dark Knight.” Bane is a hulking mass of muscle with a militaristic breathing device surgically attached to his face, which mechanically provides his voice a diabolical intonation while alleviating the agony of a past facial disfigurement.
Bane at first appears like another greedy aggressor after the Wayne Enterprises empire, with the help of a corrupt board member of the company and a master thief in cat ears, Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway). The extent of his desire to destroy is revealed by his master plan involving the nuclear reactor of Wayne’s clean energy initiative.
Bruce ditches his unkempt hermit look and squeezes back into the bat suit, but in doing so, is forced to confront the personal struggles that have been with him since the trilogy’s start in “Batman Begins.” Although butler Alfred (Michael Caine) refuses to watch Batman meet his death in another mission to save Gotham, Bruce finds help from faithful weapons expert Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), policeman and fellow orphan John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and the new CEO of Wayne Enterprises, Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard).
Even the cunning and calculating Catwoman comes around. From her first appearance in disguise as an obedient maid who steals Bruce’s mother’s pearls, Hathaway has as much charisma as the two actresses who played Rachel Dawes in the prior two Batman films combined. In their defense, the character Selina Kyle lends itself to far more dynamism and energy — let alone ass kicking — than Bruce’s past love interest.
Hathaway looks sexy and sinewy in her cat suit, but her character is not the objectified acknowledgement that gender roles are changing seen in most action films. She is funny, hardened and resourceful, and just as much a savior to Batman as he is to her.
Christian Bale delivers another excellent performance as Bruce Wayne that heavily draws on the previous two films. Bruce struggles with his inner demons that were intensely developed in “Batman Begins.” “Rises” is full of allusions to the death of his parents and even his childhood fear of bats resurfaces at a pivotal life-or-death moment. The death of Rachel Dawes and the destruction caused by the Joker in “The Dark Knight” hang over Bruce and he initially struggles with either resigning to his role as apathetic, entitled playboy or anonymous keeper of justice.
What’s so striking about Bale as Batman and Christopher Nolan’s directing of the franchise is that the hero’s humanity is constantly reiterated. Wayne’s often battered body, sad eyes and initial withdrawal from Gotham society make him much more complex than most heroes of his genre. Nolan seems to understand that in today’s world, trust in a perfect savior is passé.
“The Dark Knight Rises” continuously blurs divisions between good and evil, with even the brutal Bane showing a glimmer of humanity in the end. Nolan challenges our trust in the institutions we depend on through police ineptitude, corporate corruption and a horrifying sequence of explosions right after the singing of the National Anthem at a Gotham “Rogues” football game. At one point when the situation is beyond dire, an anonymous white male president offers empty, flagrantly rehearsed words of hope to the city.
Like most self-serious, epic films these days, “The Dark Knight Rises” is too long (2 hours, 40 minutes), but the plot is easy to follow and doesn’t drag. The special effects, action scenes and all of Batman’s toys also keep the proceedings engaging throughout.
Much of the film’s middle section is full of hopelessness and dread. The ending is heart-wrenching and visually stunning, but that’s not to say it isn’t bittersweet. That it’s an emotional mixed bag is part of what makes it such a satisfying conclusion to the franchise.
The Petal Release Party and Drag Show was held at Spark Social on Friday, July 31. Performers included Tiara-Missou, Labianna and Darcy de la Cuadra.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Celebrity News
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon
AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.
The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.
“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.
Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.
Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”
Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.
Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.
Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.
“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”
Theater
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
First five shows a reminder that ‘pressure is a privilege’
Madly talented and preternaturally energetic, Reggie D. White, 38, is about to launch his first season as artistic director of D.C.’s boundary-pushing Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
White brings a lot to the job. As actor, playwright, and director, his varied resume includes a 2019 Broadway acting debut in Matthew López’s Tony Award–winning play “The Inheritance,” his semi-autobiographic play “Fremont Ave.” that opened to acclaim last season at Arena Stage, and a number of exciting regional directing credits.
A longtime admirer of Woolly, the out theater-maker was selected from a pool of candidates before receiving the offer last November and starting work in January. His season of five world premieres kicks off with gay playwright Steve Yockey’s “Venus” (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), a darkly funny study of modern relationships told through two lesbians looking back on their first encounter.
White was introduced to Woolly Mammoth as a pre-law student at Cal State Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, long before he foresaw a life in the arts. “As part of a random theater history course, I was assigned to write a paper on a counterculture company called Woolly Mammoth,” he recalls “Strange name. I was like what the hell is that?”
Nineteen-year-old White was intrigued. Research acquainted him with Howard Shalwitz who co-founded Woolly in 1980, and the company’s commitment to living playwrights and new work. He also learned how theater could be used as a tool for difficult conversations and shape the way people thought about social issues by employing imagination and rigor.
“Never in a million years did young me envision that one day I’d be Woolly’s third artistic director in its 46-year history,” says White. “It’s kind of serendipitously insane.”
WASHINGTON BLADE: Was there a moment when the enormity of the job hit you?
REGGIE D. WHITE: After I’d signed my contract and finished all the paperwork, I got my keys and sat in the theater by myself in the dark and thought about what an incredible honor it is to be trusted with what happens in this beautiful space [in D.C.’s Penn Quarter]. I might have cried. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember it’s real.
BLADE: Are you curating the upcoming 2026–2027 season?
WHITE: Yes, I am. It’s very rare that an incoming artistic director gets to program their first season, but I was lucky in terms of time. After being hired late last year, I asked Woolly’s managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, if she thought it would be crazy if I programmed the season. She warned me it would be hard.
I invoked tennis legend Billie Jean King’s maxim “pressure is a privilege” and got to work.
These plays [dubbed White’s “first five”] represent both the kind of theater that Woolly can do really well and speak directly to my voice as curator and how I want to contribute to the larger theatrical conversation in the DMV.
Getting here has meant a lot of late nights. But I knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.
BLADE: As a queer artistic director, what makes you unique?
WHITE: When I was playing in “Inheritance” on Broadway, after a performance, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer came backstage to meet the cast. She spoke about how her lens on the world as a Puerto Rican woman shapes her decisions. Similarly, because I’m a queer Black man I see through a lens that shapes my work.
I know I’m not the only queer artistic director in town. For me, it influences how I make editorial decisions. Out of this season’s five plays there are explicitly queer characters in four [“Venus,” “Chanukkah Spectacular,” “Ten Grand,” and “Love I Awethu Further”] and I’m directing two [“Venus,” “Ten Grand”].
BLADE: Will we see familiar faces?
WHITE: Every show this season will feature a Woolly Mammoth company member in its cast. Our company also includes designers and directors who we’ll include. I’m invested in continuing to provide a showcase for their work.
BLADE: How do you think queer audiences will receive the season?
WHITE: Very well, I think. For queer people who’ve had to navigate the world subversively and solve problems in unique ways, I think it will be especially interesting. I find theater a potent place for questions.
Like all artistic directors. I’ll show up for the job in my own way. I’m just excited that I’ve been invited to bring the fullness of myself to the role.
PHOTOS: Petal Release Party
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
PHOTOS: Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade
Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade draws hundreds of thousands
Madonna to perform at World Pride in Amsterdam
BLADE ENDORSEMENT: Susan Stewart for mayor of Rehoboth Beach
PHOTOS: Lambda Legal in the Pines
Calendar: July 31-August 6
