GMU Players Take Center Stage: Actors Rescue Weak Plot November 12, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentDylan Hares, Staff Writer
The world of literature is oversaturated with coming-of-age stories – especially unimaginative ones. They follow the same pattern, reach the same climax and follow the same conclusion.
They are boring and stale. Such is the case with Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness!
Set on Independence Day during the early 1900s in New England, Ah, Wilderness!”is the story of an upper class family who is genuinely ordinary. Their oldest son goes to Yale and their youngest daughter is peppy and annoying.
Their 17-year-old son, Richard Miller, is a brooding, angst-driven teen who feeds off of the anarchist material of Irish writers such as George Shaw and Oscar Wilde, quoting them and others extensively in long, exhausting and melancholy monologues.
We learn about Richard’s brother Arthur and how the time he has spent at Yale has made him stuck-up.
We learn about Uncle Sid and his excessive drinking and Lilly, the girlfriend he can always come home to when he is drunk and not have to worry about leaving her as long as he looks sorry.
Any information we get about the father and mother, Nat and Essie, does not contribute to the story at all, nor does any action by Mildred, the younger sister.
In fact, most of the information we are given throughout the play is generally useless since the audience only comes to realize at the end that the entire story was about Richard, whom O’Neill constructs as a pretentious idiot who not only gets what he wants by complaining, but can generally get away with anything with his girlfriend and parents.
By the end of the night, Richard Miller is still an unlikeable and whiny teenager whose only lesson learned was that drinking is bad.
The George Mason University Players, on the other hand, were the literal saving grace of the evening. They delivered in spades what we have come to expect of them: a stellar performance.
Each of the actors was animated in their gestures and flawless in their speech.
The rare moments of slapstick comedy brought about genuine laughs from the audience, as well as the cast.
First-time Player, Elijah Sloan, who tackled the role of Richard, was very good in his role.
Odds are he would be exceptional in a character that isn’t as horrible to listen to.
The set design was fantastic and expertly crafted. The costumes, props and speech were all impeccable and compelling in drawing the audience back a hundred years or so.
If it hadn’t been for the expertise of the Mason Theater Department, this production wouldn’t have been nearly as good.
At the end of the night, the production of Ah, Wilderness! was tolerable at best.
Despite the load that Eugene O’Neill dumped onto the cast and the plethora of awkward moments that came with it, the Mason Players certainly delivered wonderful performances.
The one thing that the interchangeable plot of the play has proved is that to come of age, one doesn’t have to necessarily learn anything.
Talking About The Box: Diaz, Kelly and Marsden Talk with Broadside November 12, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentBased on the short story by Richard Matheson, The Box is a new psychological thriller directed by Richard Kelly and starring James Marsden and Cameron Diaz that depicts a financially unstable 1970’s couple who one day receive a mysterious box with a button inside.
They are told that if they push the button, they will receive one million dollars, but someone, somewhere in the world will die. Broadside recently had the chance to sit down with Diaz, Marsden and Kelly to talk about their experiences on making the film.
Have any of you read the short story or seen the Twilight Zone episode this movie is based on?
JM: Embarrassingly, I never read the short story, not out of laziness, but because we just wanted to focus on our version of what we were doing. I did see the Twilight Zone episode which—Richard where are we with that whole mentioning the Twilight Zone episode?
RK: I’m under the impression that I’m not allowed to mention those words legally. [Laughs] But the short story was something I read when I was young and it had a huge impression on me, obviously, and I optioned it from Richard Matheson and I spent many years trying to figure out how to expand it into a feature film and you know, here we are.
It was a long journey to get here, but the concept of the story was something I felt left a strong, strong footprint in my mind, so to speak.
CD: My answer’s the same as Jimmy’s. I didn’t read the short story because it was something that I wanted to sort of have, you know, to focus on our script, the sort of concept that Richard—or how Richard expanded on that concept.
What was your initial reaction when you first read the script?
CD: I was a huge fan of Richard from Donnie Darko and Southland Tales and I just really wanted to work with him, so when I read the script, I felt that it was very authentic to the stories that he tells. There is sort of this existential quandary and I just knew that Richard would tell the story as uniquely as he does and I wanted to be a part of that.
How much of your own personality would you say that you put into the characters? How much of you goes into who you’re playing?
CD: All I have is me. [Laughs] James would agree that you really have to use—you try to understand what other people are going through even if you haven’t gone through it yourself. You just try to get to the feeling of what you think it would feel like to be in that position, but you never really know.
As much as you want to feel that you’re being somebody else, you’re only working from your own toolbox and experience, so I would like to think that there’s nothing of me in there, but really I can only contribute with what I have.
JM: For me, you wouldn’t be responding to the material and to the story and to the character if there wasn’t a part of you in that, so there’s always going to be a piece of you that is going to be inherent to your performance, or my performance anyway.
How is this 1970’s set film relevant to our society today?
RK: Well I think that this film kind of puts in the crosshairs the idea of the nuclear family.
In our film, it’s a married couple under the age of 40 with a single child and they have a lifestyle that they really can’t afford and they’re sort of living on credit and they have a mortgage that’s beyond their means and they’re driving a car—Arthur is driving a car—and it’s a little bit too expensive.
They have a son in private school with tuition that’s a little too much for them to handle.
I think looking at our economic crisis right now, the film I hope resonates with the audience of today despite the fact that it’s set in 1976 because these are things that we can identify with and we can see and realize that we all are trying to live a better life and achieve a better life, but it’s ultimately about the things that we strive to possess in this lifestyle that we want to achieve.
Hopefully, that’s something that resonates with modern audiences.
The story in the movie is obviously a little bit more complex than the original short story. How did you go about elaborating the original premise and what kind of inspiration did you have?
RK: Well, the short story was almost like a great set-up for act one of a movie and there was one line of the short story that just sent my mind racing and it was when they asked who Mr. Stewart worked for and he said, “I can assure you that the organization is large and international in scope,” and that to me was just so fascinating because it had all these questions.
I wanted to know, who did Mr. Stewart work for? Why did they build the button unit? What are their intentions? Why are they kind of approaching these married couples? What’s the point of it all? What’s the agenda at work?
And I thought those were such amazing questions and to be able to kind of explore all those answers in act two and act three and make it a story of redemption was really exciting so we really spent a lot of time to get it right and figure out what act two and act three were going to be.
This movie poses a big moral question about our human nature. In your opinions, do you think that the majority of people would push this button given the opportunity?
JM: Probably.
CD: In today’s society, I think we’re already proving that we’re pushing the button more than ever by, you know, taking out credit cards and mortgages and dumping stuff into the ocean, doing all these things that we think we aren’t going to have to take responsibility for, but ultimately it does have an effect and we do have to suffer the consequences of that, like our economy, and we are right now based on all the buttons that were pushed over the last few years.
Disasterpieces: The 10 Best Movies About the End of the World November 12, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentRoss Bonaime, Staff Writer
This week, director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) will destroy the world once again with his newest disaster film, 2012.
As audiences, we’ve seen many horrible disasters and the many ways the world has come to complete destruction. Here are the greatest disaster films:
10. Sunshine
Before director Danny Boyle turned a slumdog into a millionaire, he made this space-epic about a group of people who go to “restart” the sun to save the freezing earth.
The slow breakdown of the astronauts with the fate of the world at their hands makes for a thrilling space drama.
9. Cloverfield
An unidentified monster destroys New York in the surprise hit from last year. The film uses a first-person point of view to generate a greater sense of fear than in many other past disaster-films. The haunting monster that easily looms over the Big Apple is chilling.
8. Independence Day
Yes, it’s cheesy and ridiculous. Yes, it’s over-the-top. And yes, it’s odd that aliens use Apple computers. But the film that made Will Smith a movie star is a fun action film that goes for cool explosions and hilarious one-liners.
7. 28 Days Later
Imagine waking up in an abandoned hospital, then realizing that a majority of the world has been infected with a virus that turns people into zombielike creatures. This film, also directed by Boyle, takes a dark look at our world filled with mayhem.
6. WALL-E
In Pixar’s great film, humans pack the world so full with trash that they are forced to flee into space until the trash has been taken care of.
Pixar’s fantastic look at commercialism and humans’ laziness is a unique take on humans’ destructiveness.
5. The Matrix
As far as world-destruction films go, it doesn’t get much worse for humans than in The Matrix, who after destroying the sun, are used as batteries for the robots that have taken over.
The Wachowski brothers created a dark, tragic future for a society that leaned too much on technology.
4. Godzilla (1954)
At this point, Godzilla may be somewhat of a joke after countless sequels and spin-offs. But the original, an incredible metaphor for the effect of the atomic bomb on the people of Japan, helped influence many films like Jaws. It is one of film’s finest examples of social commentary.
3. Children of Men
Alfonso Cuarón’s gritty future where women can no longer have children is bleak and depressing. Cuarón’s gorgeous direction with astoundingly beautiful shots creates a realistic and hopeless world waiting for their time to run out.
2. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Stanley Kubrick’s black comedy goes into the war room where a nuclear holocaust is only minutes away and the fate of the world is left in the hands of crazy politicians. Peter Seller’s greatest role has him playing three equally hilarious characters and features one of the most classic and haunting endings of all time.
1. King Kong (1933)
One of the first great movie monsters, King Kong, was plucked from his home in the jungle and forced into New York City where he stomps around looking for his lost love, actress Ann Darrow.
King Kong is one of the all -time great disaster films, not only because Kong’s ascent of the Empire State Building is incredible and his destruction is great, but because his feelings are understandable and his plight is misunderstood, making him sympathetic, yet scary. King Kong showed that you don’t necessarily have to be a villain to leave damage in your wake.
‘Tis the Season for A Christmas Carol: Director Robert Zemeckis Teams Up with Jim Carrey for New Take on Holiday Classic: New Carol? Bah, Humbug November 12, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentJosh Hylton, Staff Writer
And the onslaught begins.
Here we are, not even 10 days into November and the Christmas spirit has already begun to seep through the cracks of the nation.
Christmas commercials are popping up on television, retail stores are preparing for the inevitable hordes of holiday shoppers, and Christmas music has already begun to ring in our ears.
America has a strange fascination with the holiday and Hollywood is happy to oblige, this time in the form of yet another version of the timeless classic, A Christmas Carol.
A quick Internet Movie Database (IMDb) search of “A Christmas Carol” pops up 26 exact matches of the title, with an extra 12 partial matches that include adaptations of the story from the Muppets, Sesame Street, the Flintstones and, evidently, Barbie.
There are quite literally dozens of versions of this story and although director Robert Zemeckis’s newest iteration is far from a bad film, it is this overabundance of adaptations that really holds it back.
By now, you know the story. Scrooge, a greedy, curmudgeonly old money-grubber, hates Christmas.
He treats his employee, Bob Cratchit, like scum and he thinks of nobody but himself.
Little does he know, though, that his whole mindset is about to change because three ghosts are coming to visit to show him past, present and future Christmases, none of which will be merry unless Scrooge betters himself.
I haven’t been so unequivocally torn from a movie in quite some time. Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol is a sight to behold, a visual masterpiece.
Never before have I seen motion-capture technology used so superbly. Furthermore, the 3D is exquisite with a depth of field that ranks among the best I have ever seen. The foreground takes no precedent over the background because each is as lushly vibrant as the other.
However, I found it hard to care about Scrooge and his journey, not because it’s a bad story – on the contrary, it’s among the best ever told – but because I’ve seen it so many times.
I knew exactly where it was heading from the get-go and it only sets itself apart from the cavalcade of other adaptations through its visuals. Narratively, it is precisely the same, never taking any liberties with the material.
What little amount of new features the movie does bring to the story is not enough to salvage it.
In fact, it detracts from the experience. The action scenes – like late in the movie where Scrooge is chased, shrunk to the size of a bug, hurled through a slide of drainage pipes and tossed down the city streets surfing on an icicle – feel pretentious in a way that makes you feel like the filmmakers wanted only to show how amazing their new technology was instead of giving us a new emotional experience.
What does that have to do with the messages of redemption and kindness the movie so fervently displays?
Despite these quibbles, you will still find yourself smiling at the end because you can’t help but feel good for the old coot, though you will still feel puzzled and empty inside.
As far as adaptations of this beloved story go, Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol is somewhere in the middle.
Although I do think it is worth seeing, I cannot stress enough how much more beneficial it would be for you to stay in and rent a different version instead.
‘Tis the Season for A Christmas Carol: Broadside Sits Down with Zemeckis November 12, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentJosh Hylton, Staff Writer
Beginning with The Polar Express and Beowulf, award-winning director Robert Zemeckis has become the pioneer for motion capture technology, a technology that allows the performers’ movements to be captured and reproduced digitally, and his latest 3D visual darling is A Christmas Carol, starring funnyman Jim Carrey.
Broadside recently chatted with Zemeckis on the look and feel of his new film, the challenges of getting it done, and what new elements he hopes to bring to the timeless story.
What inspired you to follow up Beowulf with A Christmas Carol? Why Dickens’ Christmas Carol and not another story?
When I was doing Beowulf, I realized that this is a great form to reintroduce classic stories in a new way to a new generation of movie-goers because what you can do is can create a version of the story which is visually modern and separate it out, and many of these classic stories have great spectacle in them which makes them, in a strange way, difficult to do for the big screen so they are sort of relegated to Masterpiece Theater and that sort of thing.
So you get a chance to really, in the case of A Christmas Carol, realize the story in a very spectacular and surreal way that Dickens wrote it.
So anyway, obviously it’s a very familiar title and it’s a great story to be told in cinema and all those things sort of added up and the idea came, so I thought, why not give this a try?
A Christmas Carol is a timeless story. How do you balance the dual problem of adhering to a very traditional story, but also creating a piece that is fresh, new and exciting?
Well of course that was a challenge and that was the reason that we did it, which is to attack that problem head-on and say, okay we are going to be extremely true to the underlying material and we aren’t going to tinker with it too much, although we do a little bit. We provide some action at the end to get Scrooge from place to place.
But we really are going to distill this down to making sure that all the elements, the fact that it’s a timeless story, is rooted in Scrooge’s character and his character change and development and his story of redemption. We have to be true to that.
The other thing of course that I did which made everyone very nervous at the studio, but I don’t think it could work in any other possible way, is that I had everyone speaking in the language of the time, the way Dickens wrote it, which I think is beautiful.
So we kept all that and we basically kept the tone that Dickens wrote in the original piece.
Is there anything in the Dickens story that you feel has been overlooked by past filmmakers that you highlight in your version of the story?
For some reason, past versions of the story have not delved into the idea that Dickens had great tension and great suspense in the story, the way he wrote it, and that seems to have been watered down in all these other versions.
That feeling of foreboding and that feeling of dread that you have in the first half of that story I think has been missing a lot, so I thought that was really important because you have to understand that Scrooge basically has this wild nightmare.
I really feel very strongly that you have to have the dark before you can have the light.
That was something that I really wanted to present in the way that I think Dickens wrote it.
And the other thing that is amazing that I realized about Dickens that I hadn’t realized before was how cinematic[ly] he wrote.
He wrote very filmically 100 years before the invention of movies. It’s really amazing when you read his work. He writes in scenes.
How do you see the 3D aspects of the movie as aiding in the telling of the story?
Well, it aides in telling of the story in the intellectual sense. Obviously, the images don’t do that. Even an old black and white movie isn’t going to do that.
But aiding in telling the story from an emotional standpoint, the 3D is a storytelling element just like the music is.
You have the underlying intellectual material that is what Mr. Dickens wrote and then you embellish it with performance and you embellish it with color and you embellish it now with immersive 3D image.
So what that does for the audience is it gives them another emotional handle on the story.
It presents it in an emotional way. So what we’ve been able to do is we’ve been able to immerse the audience in Dicksonian London.
What do you want people to take away from your new take on a family holiday classic?
If they can just be reintroduced to this fantastic story – you know, it’s interesting that people we’ve been showing the movie to in the test audience, they think they know the story, but they really don’t.
Unless you’re a scholar or a real cinephile and you’ve watched every single version of A Christmas Carol, people think they know the story and they see the movie and they go, “Oh I didn’t know it has all this in there.”
So that would be what I would like people to take away. It’s really one of the greatest stories ever written and maybe you might want to go back and read it after you see the movie.
In Bed with Billy: Selecting Classes and Men November 12, 2009
Posted by Sonya Hudson in : Style , add a commentBilly Curtis, Sex Columnist
Selection can be a really important thing. Whether you’re choosing your classes for an upcoming semester or the right guy to date; your choice can make all the difference.
As class registration opened this past week for the spring semester, I began thinking about how important these options can be.
Think about it, if you choose the wrong schedule, there is a strong probability that you could end up spending more time in college than you originally intended and if you choose the wrong person to date, you could end up investing your time in a relationship that may be more damaging than beneficial, resulting in you losing in the end.
Either way, it’s always smart to weigh your options and understand the risks that can vital to consider. Mason’s selection of dating material hasn’t showed much promise, at least for me, but I am sure some have had better luck.
So what happens when you aren’t happy with the class options you are given, you search for alternatives. In my case, I looked to other college campuses in search for a better dating opportunity.
James Madison University didn’t have a very promising selection, mostly just alcoholics, and rejects seeking shelter in the valley from their life’s problems. George Washington University, while I am sure has an awesome class variety, they clearly lack in the department of well-pedigreed men.
One of my most recent interesting choices for dating material was from the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. Adam was a junior neurobiology major at UM, and seemed to share the same level of confidence as a pretentious lion that hadn’t gotten his mane yet.
With every conversation it seemed that we had more and more in common, and I thought that the first date would have gone over well. I was clearly mistaken.
Upon our first meeting, the standard traditional Starbucks visit was a must. For some reason though, the conversation we had in person was very different from those that weren’t.
What I had originally believed to be Adam’s overzealous confidence actually turned out to be a level of such pretention that I literally couldn’t stand sitting next to him and was overjoyed that coincidentally we had chosen to watch a movie for the date.
Almost every word that came out of Adam’s mouth was some sort of bloated or narcissistic story about himself. A man clearly belonging to one caste who believed he was part of better one.
I was surprised, the last guy I dated from UM was awesome, very sweet, smart, and not a pretentious social reject—nothing at all like this self-esteem-issued narcissine school boy.
After the date—thankfully—ended, goodbyes were said, awkward “Pleasure to meet you” statements were expressed, sealed with a handshake, and we went our separate ways—luckily this was a rare occasion where all the cards were placed on the table.
Situations like this are easier because you can learn a lot about one person from one visit, especially when they are that pompous. Not all out-of-college dating experiences can be horrifying, and some can yield even more benefit than expected, it’s really just a matter of how lucky you are when it comes to the matter.
Risks need to be taken and mistakes need to be made. If we all never made such decisions or choices we wouldn’t graduate with our degrees or find people in our futures to marry and be happy with.
If only they had a website like RateMyProfessor.com for dating students—they could call it something similarly tacky and you could evaluate a selective dating partner before you even meet them from all of the comments their exs made about bad habits and misfortunate experiences with the aforementioned social reject.
Dedication to your selections, whether it be for courses or guys, should always be made with the utmost consideration for all factors, how both will fit into your life, or whether you can maintain such a commitment.
If you don’t take the time to research what you may be getting into, you could lose everything you’ve worked so hard to create. Take my word for it, starting over in either scenario is going to be a rough situation to deal with, especially when all of life’s little surprises still need to be considered.
I’ve over-analyzed my schedule for each semester just as much as I have with all my previous relationships, worrying that if I didn’t , I wouldn’t get the best selection or would be stuck with things or people I didn’t want or need.
Remember that the selections you make in whatever aspect of life will be reflected in your future.
Graduating on time, finding the right boyfriend; these decision can be some of the hardest of our time.
When you know what you’re getting into, and what it is you’re looking for in whatever aspect of life that may be, you can be better prepared for the likely twists and turns that both life and love can bring while in college though preparation and a clear selection.
Happy hunting!
Two Days, Two Stars: Bob Dylan and Rob Thomas Highlight Week at the Patriot Center November 6, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentPatrick Wall, Style Editor
The coming week is one filled with musical superstars. Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas takes the Patriot Center stage with OneRepublic on Nov. 10, followed by the incomparable Bob Dylan the day after.
Three-time Grammy winner Thomas burst into the spotlight in 1996 with the release of Matchbox 20’s freshman release, Yourself or Someone Like You. Anchored by five popular singles including “Push” and “3 A.M.,” the album went on to sell over 10 million copies. The band’s next two albums were also commercially successful and the band churned out several more radio hits.
After the release of their third record, Thomas left to work on a solo project. Already famous on his own, thanks in large part to his collaboration with Santana, Thomas released his first solo effort, …Something to Be.
The album debuted at number one, based largely on the strength of hits like “Lonely No More” and “This is How a Heart Breaks.”
Thomas returned to Matchbox 20 after the group’s 5-year hiatus, culminating in 2007’s Exile on Mainstream. The band toured for a year before Thomas returned to his solo career.
In 2008, Thomas again returned to the solo scene with Cradlesong. For this album, Thomas worked to add more of a world music flavor, drawing inspiration from Paul Simon. Since its release, the album has sold nearly 300,000 copies.
On Nov. 11, the Patriot Center will welcome the iconic singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Affectionately known as the voice of his generation, Dylan has been a musical force for nearly a half-century.
He was heavily involved in the protests of the ‘60s, writing songs like “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”
In 1965, Dylan released Highway 61 Revisited. The album is widely regarded as not only Dylan’s finest work, but as one of the best records ever made.
The album featured the song “Like a Rolling Stone,” which has inspired artists since its release. Dylan would go on to create decades worth of material, including “All Along The Watchtower,” later covered by Jimi Hendrix.
Dylan is recognized as one of the most important figures in recent history, making Time Magazine’s list of most influential people of the 20th century. He is the recipient of 11 Grammy awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and been awarded a Kennedy Center Honor.
Known for his relentless touring, Dylan has played over 2,000 shows in his career. Since 1988, he has been on what is known as “The Never Ending Tour.” Even at 68 years old, he continues to sell out stadiums and captivate audiences. His performance at the Patriot Center should be no different.
Tickets are available at the Patriot Center box office. Tickets for Rob Thomas are $56 and $41, while tickets for Bob Dylan are $57.50.
The box office is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Tickets are also available at ticketmaster.com and by calling Ticketmaster Phonecharge at (703)-573-SEAT.
New November Music: Like Autumn Leaves, New Albums Dropping all Month November 5, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentPatrick Wall and Pearson Jones, Style Editors
Weezer – Raditude (11/3)
Legendary nerd-rock quartet Weezer is back with their seventh album, Raditude. The lead single, “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To,” is as hooky as the name is long.
Singer Rivers Cuomo retains his awkward charm while the band provides an energetic pop-punk background. Raditude has the potential to be the best summer album of the winter.
Dashboard Confessional – Alter the Ending (11/10)
Chris Carrabba, better known as the mastermind behind Dashboard Confessional, will release his sixth album, Alter the Ending.
The lead single, “Belle of the Boulevard” has the same kind of heartfelt emotion of Carrabba’s older work, but feels more like his polished work from Of Dusk and Summer. Fans who have stuck by him thus far will likely be pleased with the new batch of songs.
Three 6 Mafia – Laws of Power (11/10)
Oscar-winning hip hop trio Three 6 Mafia (that title never gets old) return with their follow-up to last year’s smash Last 2 Walk with their tenth studio album, Laws of Power.
The record features a litany of musicians ranging from Insane Clown Posse to Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash.
Wale – Attention Deficit (11/10)
The debut album Attention: Deficit has had some setbacks. The album’s release date has been changed between three different dates this year, even though the first single came out in 2007, and the album has already been leaked on the Internet.
Wale’s first attempt at a full LP is looking promising, with numerous guest appearances on the album from some of the hottest artists of the moment, including Lady Gaga and Rihanna. The wait may have just been worth it.
Switchfoot – Hello Hurricane (11/10)
“I am my own affliction,” confesses front man Jon Foreman in the intro of the bands new single “Mess of Me,” a self-deprecating track of the lead singer and how his only downfall is himself.
Switchfoot, a band who was once only recognized in the Christian music scene, has begun to make a transition into the mainstream.
John Mayer – Battle Studies (11/17)
After being voted as one of the modern-day “guitar gods,” people would expect John Mayer to live up to the overly generous title that was bestowed upon him. The first single of his new album Battle Studies is a softly played acoustic ballad that challenges the social standard of what is accepted.
Mayer’s lack of willingness to re-invent himself is becoming unbearable. It’s the same old overplayed Mayer sound that’s pulled at the heartstrings of his overly romantic pre-teen followers, but with maybe a slightly more mature message.
Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures (11/17)
Musical super-groups are something that should usually be approached cautiously and with little expectation, Velvet Revolver being one of the many less-than-impressive star-studded bands.
Them Crooked Vultures may have finally gotten it right. The newly-formed band consists of Queens of the Stone Age singer Josh Homme, Led Zeppelin’s bassist John Paul Jones and finally back on percussion David Grohl, drummer for Nirvana and member of the Foo Fighters.
Musically, the group sounds just like they should – a flawless intertwining of Homme’s haunting vocals and Grohl’s merciless drumming all brought together with the legendary bass lines of Jones.
Rihanna – Rated R (11/23)
Rihanna has finally returned to us after a much needed beak. On October 15, Rihanna posted a picture of herself on the her website and a statement that simply said the “wait is ova, Nov. 23, 2009.” The young artist’s new album entitled Rated R is as dark and mature as the title suggests. “Russian Roulette,” the new single, has the same flair and attitude that initially got her recognition, but the tone resonates slightly a darker mood.
Timbaland – Shock Value 2 (11/27)
All-star producer and collaborator Timbaland returns with the follow-up to his triple platinum Shock Value.
Timbaland has always broken down barriers with the musicians he works with, and this new album is no exception. Everyone from Miley Cyrus to Daughtry and Nickleback make an appearance on the record, which is shaping up to be the biggest club album in recent memory.
Susan Boyle – I Dreamed a Dream (11/27)
Britian’s Got Talent’s Susan Boyle took the world by storm this summer with her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the play Les Misérables.
Not to be outdone by the slew of Idol hopefuls, Boyle is primed to release her debut album, aptly titled after the song that made her Europe’s sweetheart. Boyle’s album is primed to explode, as it is Amazon.com’s pre-sale leader.
The Weird World of Jared Hess: Broadside Talks with Gentlemen Broncos Director November 5, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentKatie Robertson, Broadside Correspondent
Jared Hess is an award-winning writer and director who, in just five short years, has created two blockbuster films and made a lasting impression on popular culture and the independent movie-making world, creating an unassumingly unique genre all his own.
Hess, who brought us the weird world of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, has a new movie called Gentlemen Broncos opening in selected cities Oct. 30.
Gentlemen Broncos tells the story of 15-year-old Benjamin Purvis, an aspiring science fiction writer, played by Michael Angarano (Lords of Dogtown).
Benjamin’s mom, played by Jennifer Coolridge, sends him to a writer’s camp where Benjamin gets a chance to meet his idol in the science fiction writing world, Dr. Ronald Chevalier.
Flight of the Conchords star Jemaine Clement plays the Bluetooth-wearing, novel-stealing antagonist of the film. Chevalier, in a fit of desperation, steals Benjamin’s story to submit to his publishers.
The story that unfolds follows Benjamin’s misadventures to get recognition for a story that was rightfully his.
Broadside got a chance to sit down with Hess to ask him about the inspiration for his new film, a surprising Ninja Turtles connection, and the danger that comes with getting too weird.
Napoleon Dynamite took everyone by surprise. How did that idea come about and how did you get it made?
We [Jared and wife Jerusha] wrote the script while we were in film school.
Jon Heder [who played Napoleon in the film] was a friend. The film premiered at a movie festival called Slamdance and never in our wildest dreams did we think it would be as big as it was- that it would get into Sundance and get picked up. Napoleon really became a monster all its own. It’s fun to see how people have taken to it.
What is it like co-writing movies with your wife?
Well it’s funny because she blames all the disturbing stuff on me. Working with my wife is getting easier…I slept on the couch a lot while writing Napoleon Dynamite.
Is Gentlemen Broncos a more personally-inspired script?
Napoleon was an accurate representation of my social life at that age and this is kind of more of an accurate representation of my current life.
I mean it’s not a total autobiography by any means, but my personal life definitely.
What was your inspiration for creating the eccentric characters for Gentlemen Broncos?
It has a lot to do with what I know and living in a lot of rural towns growing up and that whole dynamic…and people living in small places but with big dreams.
It’s definitely a theme in our stuff. The characters are inspired by life. I like seeing the underdog win and these people are definitely underdogs.
Do you ever worry about getting too weird or pushing things too far in your films?
Yeah this might be as weird as we get. You know, we just try to make the film that we’ve always want to see with characters and situations we haven’t seen before and that’s what fun to do as a filmmaker.
A lot of your characters are very awkward and nervous, but also heartfelt at the same time. How do you find a balance?
We’re definitely laughing at them throughout the film, don’t get me wrong.
Have you ever seen a comedy where you know you’re laughing with the characters not at them – well, they’re not laughing when something bad happens to them.
At the same time we have a lot of love for them.
I identify so much with their predicament because a lot of it is drawn from my life. But, our movies end happily thus far…we like a happy ending.
What was the casting process like for this film?
For all the bit parts our local casting director in Utah would take a video camera to the grocery store and put people on tape.
It’s fun to cast non-actors in movies. And I don’t know if too many people know the guy that plays the camp counselor [Josh Pais]…that dude was Raphael in the first Ninja Turtles movie.
He was the only guy in the suit to also do the voice. So a lot of the conversations on set were about Ninja Turtles.
Rock, Paper, Action: Mockumentary The Flying Scissors is Amusing, but Not Much Else November 5, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentJosh Hylton, Staff Writer
There’s a game I play with my friends. It is always spur of the moment and it always comes about when we have a disagreement, when neither my friend nor I want to get up and do something. It is initiated by one quick sentence: “Let’s go, on ‘shoot.’”
That game is Rock Paper Scissors, but to us, it is more than a game. It’s a way of life. It is sacred and the loser must do what is expected of him, no questions asked.
Perhaps that is why I was so amused by the new mockumentary, The Flying Scissors, a film that puts a humorous satirical spin on the hallowed game.
The film follows the National Rock Paper Scissors League as they prepare for the upcoming championship where dozens of regional winners from all over the nation will compete in upstate New York with the hope of being crowned the NRPSL champion.
Among the contestants are Leon Washington, played by Mike Britt, who uses vulgar trash talk to intimidate his opponents, Frank, played by Todd Susman, an aging man who has come down with arthritis in his RPS hand, making it increasingly difficult to compete, and more zany kooks that spend a little too much time thinking about the seemingly arbitrary game of Rock Paper Scissors.
Each contestant has their own way of preparing for the upcoming event.
Leon records his swearing and plays it back to himself while others hire coaches and partake in training exercises that include crunching probability numbers, playing video games, doing cardio and even wrestling alligators.
How some of these translate to the game of Rock Paper Scissors, I haven’t the slightest idea.
Not that it matters anyway. The Flying Scissors isn’t trying to wow you through story or emotional involvement. It only hopes to provide a silly, stupid, fun time for all, and it succeeds for a while, though it is limited in its appeal.
There are only so many times you can watch someone enthusiastically throw rock before it begins to get dull.
Its biggest problems are that it doesn’t go anywhere unforeseen and it tends to drop certain side stories altogether.
For example, the NRPSL’s rival is the Coin Toss Consortium, a coin flipping league, which is brought up only to serve as a very loose antithesis to the NRPSL, but it is quickly forgotten after a couple of brief scenes that don’t provide any extra depth to the film’s already flimsy story.
Combine this with the unnecessary, misplaced political jab and the fact that we never truly come to know or care about any of these characters and you have a movie that wears out its welcome far too quickly.
What The Flying Scissors does is take what would have been a hilarious short and stretches it to its breaking point.
Nevertheless, it shows moments of inspiration, mocking the seriousness of big sporting events that in actuality hold just as little significance as a paltry Rock Paper Scissors match. In this regard, it is quite smart, but it never capitalizes on the satire and fails to say anything relevant about the sporting world.
The Flying Scissors is a moderately amusing, if a bit sporadic, picture that will work as a good watch on a rainy weekend, but like playing an actual game of Rock Paper Scissors, once is enough.