A&EMarch 11, 2010 � Mount Holyoke News

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At the Oscars this year, Avatar, James Cameron's bloated, egotisti-cal, horrible movie won the Oscar for best cinematography. Given thateverything in Avatar, a movie where everything was created and ren-dered by a computer, including a large amount of the performancse (Iknow, I know, motion capture blah blah blah), it seems absurd that itshould compete against actual movies like The Hurt Locker, InglouriousBasterds, The White Ribbon, and yes, even Harry Potter. (Yeah, I wentthere.) But the winning seems to be the latest trend in Hollywood decid-ing that “Oh hey, technology is awesome! See what we can do now!”

What is the biggest issue with this “see what we can do now” men-tality? 3-D movies. I hate 3-D movies. I hate the idea of them, I hate howthey cost more money and I hate how they’re being used instead of thingslike actual plot, good storytelling and well-written dialogue. 3-D is likeHollywood's next biggest crutch. Was Avatar pretty? Yeah it was, but itwas also pretty silly as well. Yet somehow people are proclaiming it agreat movie for the ages.

No, no fanboys, settle down. If it wasn’t so pretty and wasn’t in 3-D,people wouldn’t care about it. Initially 3-D movies were kids’ moves. Now3-D has been given precedence over normal movies. Now, maybe this isa movie-going case of “get off my lawn you god damn kids!” but with the-aters getting rid of celluloid projectors in order to bring in new 3-D ones,it is fairly obvious that those who enjoy traditional movies are beinggiven the boot by Hollywood.

For example, I am someone who completely adores Tim Burton (in-sert shock and awe here) and until yesterday, I didn't even realize thatAlice in Wonderlandwas out in 2-D until a friend told me. The total mar-keting push has been about how it's in 3-D and IMAX 3-D. The fact thatthings are being marketed in 3-D is to be expected, but to not mention 2-D for those of us who don't (or can't) enjoy seeing movies in 3-D? Yeah,it feels a little like a nice slap in the face.

And it seems like the production line of movies in 3-D is never-end-ing. Horror movies, action movies, adventure movies and the all power-ful kids movies have been in 3-D in the last few months, and there seemsto be another announced every day. Making matters even worse is theway in which the 3-D genre has influenced the remake genre. Becausethe way to make a bad idea better is to add another bad idea to it.

Please Hollywood, stop. Really. Just sit down, take a breath and thinkbefore you green-light “the next big thing.” Some of us are still trying tolove movies and you’re making it pretty hard to do that. We all know thatthe Oscars are about politics, but please use them to reward actual moviemaking and not computer work.

When I first saw the trailer for Alice in Won-derland, I knew that it was going to be a dark,twisted and wonderful ride. Director Tim Burtonhas once again teamed up with Johnny Depp, whoplays the Mad Hatter. I was a bit surprised thatDisney was behind it, as this is the studio’s sec-ond expedition into Lewis Carroll’s novel, andthis is definitely not the 1951 animated adapta-tion.

Combining the stories of Alice in Wonderlandand Through the Looking Glass, Alice (played byAustralian newcomer Mia Wasikowska) returnsfor her second trip down the rabbit hole after es-caping her surprise engagement party. There issome debate among her old friends if she is the“right” Alice, a champion who will end the reignof the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) by bat-tling and killing the Jabberwocky in order to re-store peace and the crown to the White Queen(Anne Hathaway).

Wasikowska plays Alice well, although I hada hard time believing her as a 19-year-old youngwoman on the cusp of adulthood. She seemedyounger and distant, perhaps 13 or 14, stuck in thedream-world fantasies of her childhood. Once inUnderland (the actual name of the land, since ap-parently ‘Wonderland’ was a name little six-year-old Alice created for the world on her first visit),Alice does grow up a little bit, becoming a littlebraver and more self-confident to make her own

choices.The madness that you

would expect from Wonder-land is all there. Even thesupposed ‘good’ guys andfriends that Alice has arejust a bit off. Depp’s Hat-ter was brilliant, han-dling the script withef fort lessgrace ;however, at times,when he wouldswitch between a

Scottish accent, feminine whis-per and fast-talking babble, Icouldn’t help but notice simi-

larities to Depp’s roles as the now-infamous Cap-tain Jack Sparrow and Willy Wonka. In Wonder-land, the Hatter has become a darkly-twisted“Mad” version of himself because of a past inci-dent with the Red Queen. He is defined by his or-ange hair and bright green bug eyes that turnyellow when he becomes angry.

Bonham Carter as the Red Queen was a deli-cious treat, with her giant heart-shaped head,sickly-sweet yet blunt attitude, and favorite howlof “Off with his/her/their head(s)!” Crispin Gloverplays her semi-loyal Knave of Hearts, a slimysidekick role that he pulls off with ease. I was abit hesitant at the casting of Hathaway as theWhite Queen, but she played the role with ele-gance and a hint that even this Queen was not allthere. Michael Sheen voices the pocket-watchleading White Rabbit with prim and proper ease,Matt Lucas delights as twins Tweedledum andTweedledee, and Stephen Fry brings a grin as theevaporating and semi-elusive Cheshire Cat. PaulWhitehouse is perfectly insane as the MarchHare who becomes fascinated with shiny spoonsand chucks teacups every-which-way while AlanRickman is cool and collected as the Blue Cater-pillar Absolum.

Burton’s take on the story is a fun adventureand a journey away from the blandness of the realworld. The CGI effects are thrillingly eye-catch-ing, making Carroll’s world a fascinating spec-tactle. Creatures such as the Bandersnatch andthe Jabberwocky become life-like and believable. The usualstrangeness that comes with abona-fide Burton-Depp collabo-ration is ever present and youcan’t help but feel a little‘round the bend yourselfonce you leave the theater.But, as Alice says to the Hat-ter, repeating reassuring adviceabout madness given to herwhen she was younger by herfather, “I’ll tell you a secret.All the best people are.”

Alice in Wonderland is cuurently playing in theaters.

Returning to Wonderland: Tim Burton’swild ride through the Looking GlassBY MEGAN DEAN ’13STAFF WRITER

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MTV’s web series “$5 Cover: Seattle” followsSeattle’s up-and-coming bands as they try tomake it big. The musicans all play versions of

themselves in the show, which captures the vibrant musicscene of the city. I interviewed the director, Seattle nativeLynn Shelton, who is best known for her highly acclaimedindependent film, Humpday, which premiered at the 2009Sundance Film Festival. She has also directed three pre-vious feature-length films: My Effortless Brilliance, Whatthe Funny and We Go Way Back. During our chat, Sheltonoffered plentiful thoughts on the filming process, her vi-sion and goals for the series, the origins of some of thefunny storylines that are featured, and the city’s uniquemusical community.

Mount Holyoke News: I guess the first thing to startwith is the birth of this series. How did “$5 Cover: Seattle”come about?

Lynn Shelton: The story of how it came about was thatI was at Sundance Film Festival for my film, Humpday,which got a lot of attention once it was screened. All of asudden, people wanted to buy the film and this particularproducer from MTV Films, David Gale, wanted to meetme to talk about a project. He looked for me everywhere!He finally tracked me down and he pitched “$5 Cover:Seattle” to me. He felt I would be perfect for the job of di-recting the web series which had just finished with its firstseason in Memphis, directed by Craig Brewer [the direc-tor of Hustle & Flow]. MTV had wanted to do a portrait ofone city’s music scene and Craig grew up in Memphis andwas well connected with its music scene so it was a goodfit for him. Interestingly, Craig shot “$5 Cover: Memphis”similarly to the way I shot Humpday, in that he used a doc-umentary, cinéma vérité shooting style and he used twocameras like I did. He also approached the acting by out-lining the scenes and having the actors kind of improvise

the lines within that one outline. This way, the performerbecomes more invested in the project and the characterand, especially in this case, it can be used more success-fully with actors and non-actors alike.

David wanted me to start this project right away, butat first I was apprehensive because I wasn’t sure about theprospect of working with MTV and I wasn’t sure whetherI really wanted to do a web series. I had made a couple ofmusic videos, but I kept telling him that I could point himin the direction of other people and friends who could dothe job. I just wasn’t sure whether I was even the right per-son to do it. Of course, at the same time, I didn’t want toput David off completely because I thought it would begreat for Seattle and great for the indie music scene. Itwas a bigger production than I was used to so it tookDavid a lot of convincing to get me to really sign on to theproject. It turns out, luckily, that David has really goodtaste in music and he’s extremely nurturing and he reallyallowed me to own my work and my process which is theonly way I would do it in the first place.

MHN: One of the many intriguing aspects of this se-ries is the presence of real people playing themselves, es-pecially in the case of the actual musicians. What was itlike to direct primarily non-actors?

Shelton: This was a major learning process, having towork mainly with non-actors. I found myself giving com-mands like, “Try saying this. Try doing that.” SometimesI would have to veer towards being more forceful than Inormally am because I was directing non-actors. In thiscase, it proved to be better overall to have everyone workoff of an outline rather than memorizing lines which ishard to begin with! And, what’s even harder is trying toget the participants to perform their genuine selves. Thiswas an extremely important part of the shooting processfor me. As I was developing this project, it felt a little likeI was developing a documentary, but for this venture, Iwas required to fit the shooting in somewhat of a particu-

lar format. It needed to be a piece of entertainment thatwas pre-written and it needed to have a little more narra-tive so, the series consists of narrative threads that kind ofget pieced together.

MHN: What was your approach to choosing bandsand additional performers for the series? Did you goabout it with a particular vision in mind?

Shelton: I had created my own set of requirements tocheck off when casting these bands. Number one on mylist was that I really wanted to show a sense of commu-nity that I witness in real life in Seattle’s music scene, thatI can go and see my friends play at a club and that thereare other musicians there who are either the openingband or just sitting in the audience and who are genuinelycaring for and supporting each other and are genuine fansof each other. I think it is so cool and unique that themusic scene in Seattle doesn’t have this cutthroat com-petitiveness, but rather a genuine sense of mutual supportand passion for what’s going on and where it’s going oninstead of everybody just hunkering down and being in-volved in their own little world. I remember talking toZana Geddes [Dita Vox], the lead singer of Thee Emer-gency, who said to me that I could just follow her on a Fri-day night and she will run into 50 people that she knowswho are all musicians and who are wandering aroundfrom club to club saying, “Let’s hang out here before thenext show starts,” and then they run into more people andyou really see this sense of community among them all.This scene, this warm communal vibe, is my main inspi-ration because it is so illustrative of my goal for this se-ries. I really wanted to capture Zana’s experience and Igot really excited and I wanted to initially film just a sin-gle night, but then I realized that it would be too limitingto do so.

The complete interview with Lynn Shelton is featuredon The MHN online, www.themhnews.org.

BY FAY GARTENBERG ’11STAFF WRITER