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TRANSCRIPT
10 Diversionsthursday, february 18, 2010 The Daily Tar Heel
FROM THE SAHARA WITH ROCK
Middle Eastern rock band Tinariwen performed during a show at Memorial Hall
Monday night. The band is comprised of four former members of Touareg tribes,
and the group formed in Libyan rebel camps in the Sahara. Tinariwen fuses
traditional Touareg melodies with rock and blues, adding a hefty dose of electric guitar to
traditional African, Berber, and Arabic music sung in the band’s native Tamashek.
dth/Sam ward
diverecommends
Album from the Vaults:
Elliott Smith, XO: Smith’s elegiacsongwriting and languid, intimatevocals have become a staple oncollege iPods since the late ‘90s, butthis 1998 gem reiterates just whySmith developed such a devotedfan base. With its introspectivelyrics and unabashed misery, XO cements Smith’s iconic musicalprowess.
Movie from the Vaults:
“American History X”: It’s no roman-tic comedy. In fact, this movie is upthere with the most depressingwe’ve seen, but it’s also one of themost powerful. Edward Norton flex-es his acting chops as a skinhead inthis 1998 drama about race, deliver-ing a compelling performance thatends in a shocking plot twist. Don’tsay we didn’t warn you.
Events:
Thursday
Dean & Britta
Reynolds Industries Theater, Duke| In “‘13 Most Beautiful...’ Songs forAndy Warhol’s Screen Tests,”DeanWareham and Britta Phillips willsing wistful harmonies as AndyWarhol’s screen tests play dream-ily behind. It’s a mix of culture androck, and it’s worth the trip. 8 p.m.,$22/$28
saTurday
HOG
The Reservoir | Reuniting threemembers of former Durham metalmonstrosity Tooth, HOG deliv-ers third-degree burns with thesame brand of Southern-friedfury. Human Smoke and excellent
Chapel Hill metal duo The CurtainsOf Night also play. 10 p.m., FREE
Carrboro Home Brew Fest
Nightlight | It’s everything a goodweekend should be made of —beer and music. The Nightlighthosts this festival full of home-grown beer and local music. TheWhiskey Smugglers kick off themusic at 5 p.m., followed by Popsie’sField, Lizzy Ross and the LittleBear that Barks, and Black SwampBootleggers at 8. 4 p.m., SuggestedDonation $10
wednesday
Vetiver
Cat’s Cradle | Get your freak-folk on at Cat’s Cradle Wednesdaywhen Vetiver comes into town,bringing with it the band’s pen-chant for cozy, earnest lyrics set togentle melodies. Though the band’sbeen linked to fellow folk rockersDevendra Banhart more than once,this show should be more mellowthan mad. The Clientele, autumnalBritish rockers and Merge Recordssignees, follow. 8 p.m., $15
movieshorts
The LasT sTaTion
Ever eaten with the family of asignificant other that constantly fights? Then you have a goodidea of what watching “The LastStation” is like.
Everybody’s motivations areunclear — unless of course the per-son that dragged you there clues
you in. And sadly you won’t have the
benefit of a drink to take the edgeoff the awkwardness on display in“The Last Station.”
It’s not especially hard to fol-low, but “The Last Station” doesn’tdepict its characters’ motives well.
It’s true that Leo Tolstoy, theRussian author whose last daysare the impetus for the movie, wasa complex man, drawn strongly to
both sensuality and spirituality.These facets of his personality
come out strongly in novels suchas the famously lengthy “War andPeace.”
His sycophant , the mus-tachioed Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti) cajoles Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) into serv-ing as messiah to a religious order
with quasi-socialistic underpin-nings and an emphasis on absti-nence.
It’s an ideal that is quickly con-travened by a disoriented ValentinBulgakov (James McAvoy) andhis love interest, Kerry Condon’ssaucy Masha, who both reside
within a Tolstoyan commune nearhis estate.
Together they give the movie itsR rating with a series of weirdly short and graphic sex scenes.
But the movie is dominated by Helen Mirren’s berserk perfor-mance of Tolstoy’s wife, Sofya.
This isn’t to say that Mirrendoesn’t do a good job. Mirren defi-nitely earned her Oscar nomina-tion for Best Actress.
“The Last Station” boasts beau-tiful acting, but devolves into an
Anglicized British period piece withover-the-top melodrama punctu-ated with moments of humor that
brings levity to this convoluted,existential mess.
It’s a well-shot film with gen-erally terrific acting, but the per-formances are uneven and oftenunnecessary.
It’s filled with too many actors
to follow, forcing an oversimplifica-tion of a dying genius’s final days.
-Robert Turner Story
The woLfman
All this film is missing are threesilver bullets:
One for careless director JoeJohnston, another for the listlessly subdued Benicio Del Toro, and, if
you’re a real horror cinemaniac,one for yourself.
Overindulgent in self-referential jokes and assumably understoodplot gaps, “The Wolfman” sacrificesstory for exhibitions of keenly styl-ized art design.
The result is a pointless col-lage of iconography with a mon-ster that’s no more scary than theGrinch.
After the mysterious death of his brother, traveling actor LawrenceTalbot (Benicio Del Toro) returnsto his home in Blackmoor, wherehe revives his relationship withhis widowed father (Anthony Hopkins) and seeds an awkwardromance with his dead brother’sfiancée (Emily Blunt).
Eventually cursed by a were- wolf bite, he transforms into the Wolfman, who rampages throughforests looking for human buffets.
While being hunted by authorities,Lawrence searches for answers inhis father’s hazy past.
With countless characters eachproviding a banal metaphor aboutmen and monsters, the film stag-nates in a state of perpetual fore-
boding. The viewer constantly awaits the “horror”, but the movienever delivers on the rich promiseof its iconic source material.
The “frightening” scenes failto deliver any chills because of Johnston’s partiality to slapstick
violence. As the rollicking Wolfmanclaws through torsos and mauls off heads, it’s unclear if any of it should
be taken seriously.But Del Toro’s monotonous por-
trayal of Talbot is the real horror of this picture.
The poetic struggle between thehuman and the inhuman is eclipsed
by his Ritalin-laden performance,leaving the audience dependent onHopkins, whose harrowing turn asthe spookily aloof sage is the only part of the film bound to shake youup.
Thus “The Wolfman” unin-tentionally finds a home in theB-Movie realm of horror cinema.Much like one long trailer for therevamp that never was, this movie
barks, but sadly never bites.
-Rocco Giamatteo
vaLenTine’s day
“Valentine’s Day,” the new movie by director Garry Marshall, mar-kets the kind of chocolate-box lovethat ultimately makes you want togag.
It’s a flat-out disaster, an undeni-able mess that has been overstuffed
with A-list actors who barely haveenough screen time to make animpression.
The film follows a cast of morethan 20 characters around Los
Angeles on the titular holiday, mak-ing lowest-common-denominator
jokes and gross generalizations onromance, marriage, cheating, loss,sex and commitment.
Audiences may be reminded of “Love Actually,” that endearingly adorable British film where all thecharacters magically intersect.
Similarly, “Valentine’s Day”also finds inane ways to connectits stars, but what “Love Actually”had was a decent screenplay andthe room for good actors to showtheir range. “Valentine’s Day” hasneither. The movie tries its handat plot twists, though they windup coming off more like gags thananything else.
The casting is as contrived as the Valentine’s Day clichés that bog themovie down. The list of celebritiescrammed in this movie is so long it
would take up most of this review.None of the story lines manage toresonate. Marshall is no Robert
Altman, and it shows. Appearances of bona fide movie
stars like Julia Roberts or JamieFoxx feel more like cameos thanstarring roles.
Ashton Kutcher disappoints asthe centerpiece of the story whoconveniently owns a flower shop.
And suffice it to say that TaylorSwift’s debut film performance isenough to make you hope that it’sher last.
The bottom line is that this is your typical mainstream rom-com.It’s a lousy movie with a star-stud-ded cast that has no shame earn-ing millions by further commer-cializing February 14, indulging inromantic fallacies left and right.
As the movie opens and thesun rises on Valentine’s Day, anoff-screen radio host announces,“Today is special.” Maybe so, butthis movie certainly is not.
-Stewart Boss
musicshorts
Pierced arrows
DescenDing shaDows
garage
Summoned by husband and wife duo Fred and Toody Cole,Pierced Arrows is the resurrec-tion and rebranding of ‘80s garage
band Dead Moon. Pierced Arrowscontinues the legacy of its formerincarnation with a new drummerand a dirty guitar sound that rocks
without any concern for how it will be received.
“This is The Day” starts thedescent into the sloppy punk-rockshadows. Pierced Arrows may haverecorded their second album with
Vice Records but their sound ishomier than your neighborhood
band’s demo tape. Slightly out of tune guitars, trivial tempo devia-tions and throaty vocals completethis garage rock formula.
It’s a power pop soundscape.The album is grungy and the musi-
critique of a missed note or two.“Let it Rain” shows the album at
its rawest. From the perspective of a veteran rocker, Fred Cole offersadvice to his confederates: “Tell me‘bout your tragedy, tell me ‘bout
your youth/Confidence is sacred, itlies beside the truth.”
Pierced Arrow’s sound is the cul-mination of years of nothing new– three chords in a minor key anda riff driven bass line won’t breaknew ground. But Pierced Arrows’intent isn’t to wow. It’s a middlefinger to the Pitchfork pretensionsof the world.
Descending Shadowscloses witha track that makes the album oddly self aware. “Coming Down to Earth”acknowledges that the end is com-ing sooner or later for these ancientrockers. Let’s hope it’s later.
-Joseph Chapman
Proud simon
anchors aweigh eP
Soft rock/country
If Rascal Flatts took a cue fromthe indie world and stepped outof their cowboy boots, they mightsound something like Brooklyn’sProud Simon.
The supple vocals on Anchors Aweigh are orthodox Americana —no wailing, no rapping, just sinu-ous lyrics from the heartland that
waver between decent and sub-par.
He was given a golden ticket.
But at what cost?
A documentary, followed by Q&A
with director, André Robert Lee
ThePrep SchoolNegro
When: Thursday, February 18
Where: Nelson Mandela Auditorium
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Jordan Lawrence, Editor 843-4529 | [email protected]
Linnie Greene, Assistant Editor
Stewart Boss, Elizabeth Byrum,Joseph Chapman, Joe Faile, Rocco
Giamatteo, Lyle Kendrick, SethLeonard, Mark Niegelsky, Anna Norris,
Jonathan Pattishall, Robert Turner Story, Benn Wineka; staff writers
Ashley Bennett and Amy Dobrzynski,Design Co-Editors
Cover Design: Ashley Bennett
The album is grungy and the musi-cianship is messy, but Descending Shadows begs for a fist pump, not a
waver between decent and sub-par.The five-song EP seems to veertowards experimentation, only toend up consistently mediocre.
Generic drum rhythms beatalongside effortless guitar and
barely noticeable keyboards, cre-ating an unengaging sound. Thereare incompatible guest appearanc-es by pedal steel and harmonica,a country element that calls intoquestion exactly which directionthe band was trying to go.
The final track “Time Capsule”arouses from the boring slumber
with poignant rapping drums anda bulging bass line. The song carvesout a clean, distinctive sound thatshames the rest of the bland EP.
But for the most part Anchors Aweigh makes it seem as if ProudSimon took a Paint-by-Numberscourse in soft rock. With vocals,guitar, and drums composedaccording to a preset template, thisEP feels like re-heated leftovers.It’s an unoriginal effort that palesin comparison to livelier pop fare.
-Joe Faile
For more information call (919) 843-3319
Sponsored by the UNC Alumni Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity
and the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs
This event is FREE!
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
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