- Issue Archive for
- Oct 1-7, 2009
- Vol. 19, No. 39
News+Features
Mounting Tensions
Friction with police was rising before global summit began
Arrested Developments
Why did most of the G-20 arrests occur after the summit ended?
On the Outside
Summit does little for climate concerns
Mutually Beneficial
North Side activists say subsidy reform would help them and entire city
Ruled Out
The protesters who got what they wanted were those who didn't follow the rules
Groupthink
A lot of Pittsburghers bought into G-20 hype and hysteria. How much of it came true?
More Postcards From the Edge
Moments that didn't make headlines during the G-20 summit
Food+Drink
ARTica Cooking Demos
"I'm not a chef at all. I've always just been really fascinated with cooking shows."
Paris 66 Bistro
A charming East Liberty venue brings Parisian-style café culture to Pittsburgh.
Music
Local band Dawn Canon releases new EP ... on USB
Barenaked Ladies, of all people, beat everyone to the punch in 2005, releasing an album with lots of extras, "incredibly low priced at $29.98."
A Conversation with Mike Ness of Social Distortion
"The Sex Pistols sounded like I felt inside."
Japandroids' brush with mortality is just more fuel for the fire
"When I came back in to check on him, he was already being sent to surgery."
Diamanda Galás combines astounding vocal range, social commentary
"I always enjoy baiting a Greek homophobic journalist with this when they begin to discuss our great innovations."
On Screen
Capitalism: A Love Story
In his latest film, Moore sets his sights on the entire economic system, literally asking, "Is capitalism a sin?" The answer to that question comes as no surprise. Neither do Moore's methods of addressing it. As he has in previous films, he makes plentiful use of 1950s footage, deploying it in a way that is simultaneously ironic and wistful. And once again, he engages in stunts like stringing up "crime scene" tape along Wall Street. But, his bad-boy-in-the-lobby shtick has worn thin. And because Capitalism is a much broader indictment than Moore's other films, it lacks a clear narrative and starts dragging by the last reel. Perhaps the most affecting footage is the long-lost archival film of Franklin Roosevelt promising a "second Bill of Rights" to the American people, including health care and a living wage. Hope was more audacious back then. And I found myself doubting the film's optimistic closing argument: that progressivism is making a comeback. (Chris Potter) [2.5 out of 4 stars]
Zombieland
In Zombieland, there's only a handful of uninfected people left. Ruben Fleisher's comedy tracks four of them as they band together for a road trip. Our guide is "Columbus" (Jesse Eisenberg), a nervous, nerdy college kid who hooks up with "Tallahassee" (Woody Harrelson), a wise-crackin' good ole boy. They're later joined by two devious gals, "Wichita" (Emma Stone) and her non-nonsense kid sister, "Little Rock" (Abigail Breslin). Both in structure and tone, Zombieland owes much to the 2004 rom-com-zom Shaun of the Dead, while expanding the premise slightly: This is a rom-com-zom-road trip. But then again, few genres are as heavy with "homage" as zombie is, so who's worried? Like Shaun, Zombieland parcels out zombie-fu, and the interstitial material is just as entertaining. The film -- which feels loose, but is a compact 86 minutes -- is bouncy with pop-culture riffs, throwaway gags and a movie-star cameo everybody will be laughing about. All that aside, folks go to zombie movies to see zombies get killed, and rest assured, Zombieland raises (or lowers, depending on your perspective) the bar on how to take down the undead. This film treats zombie execution with profound glee -- and lots of comic splatter -- even breaking out of the narrative to share particularly good zombie kills occurring elsewhere. [3 out of 4 stars]
Bright Star
English-lit majors know that this story about the 19th-century Romantic poet isn't going to end well. But Jane Campion's account of his youthful love affair with Fanny Brawne is so sublimely seductive that Romantics and romantics alike may well hope it does. The forthright Fanny (Abbie Cornish) comes to know her neighbor, the struggling poet (Ben Wishaw). He is sensitive and kind (and has dreamy hair), and finds inspiration in Fanny's joie de vivre and (limited) independence. It would be easy to transpose these two into contemporary archetypes, young artistic souls who easily meld, though naturally, much of the drama here is rooted in mores of the past. (For instance, Fanny cannot marry the penniless Keats.)
This is a costumed parlor drama that nonetheless has an ethereal air about it: Is it the candlelight, the strolls in fields of flowers, or the genteel scenes of unspoken longing? Campion (The Piano) has long had a sure touch with this sort of emotionally charged, vaguely dreamlike material, and those who surrender to scenes depicting rooms of butterflies or lovers pressed silently to opposite sides of a shared wall should find Bright Star affecting. There's also plenty for the more prosaically romantic to enjoy, be it a nasty love-triangle with Keats' mentor-companion, Charles Brown (Paul Schneider); a courtship via billets-doux; and that old favorite, the untimely death that forever separates (or does it?) young lovers. Altogether, handsomely filmed, well acted and likely to have you revisiting Keats' works. Starts Fri., Oct. 2. (AH) [3 out of 4 stars]
The Burning Plain
A thirtysomething Oregon woman named Sylvia (Charlize Theron) struggles with the residual damage of a troubled adolescence. And who is that Mexican man stalking her? And why did this film open with a shot of a trailer home engulfed in flames? Guillermo Arriaga wrote and directs this multi-generational melodrama, which uncovers the source of these mysteries years ago in a hardscrabble New Mexico border town. Arriaga previously scripted Alejandro González Iñárritu's features Amores Perros and 21 Grams, and this film follows a similar nonlinear structure. Besides the two concurrent contemporary threads, several others set in the past unfold out of sequence. These reveal the affair that Sylvia's mom (Kim Basinger) was having, and how knowledge of it sent repercussions through two families. The story isn't as confusing as it sounds, and in fact, that's part of Plain's problem: Its random pieces fall into place too quickly and easily. Therefore, when the big revelation comes, viewers may have already guessed it, removing much of its dramatic impact. While Theron's Sylvia remains mostly a cipher, I was glad to see Basinger settle into a role with a little more heft. But a few good performances can't save it entirely: This film strives for the arthouse, but is too often played like a less shrill, and more chopped-up, Lifetime movie. In English, and some Spanish, with subtitles. Starts Fri., Oct. 2 (AH) [2 out of 4 stars]
The Cove
Ric O'Barry trained dolphins for the hit 1960s TV show Flipper. Since then, he's become a highly visible fighter for dolphin rights, advocating for their release from theme parks and swim-with programs, and working to prevent their needless slaughter. One such site of concern is Taiji, a picturesque fishing village in Japan, the source of most of the world's "working" dolphins. There, such animals can sell for up to $150,000 each, but the majority – netted in huge sweeps – go for a couple hundred dollars and are killed for meat.
All this and more comes to light in Louie Psihoyos' muckraking documentary about Taiji's secretive cove. The narrative is driven primarily by an undercover operation O'Barry spearheads to discover exactly what happens behind Taiji's fences.
The film is never not interesting, but suffers somewhat from a scattershot approach. The drama turns on three bitter ironies that, while discussed, could have been honed more sharply. Irony No. 1 is O'Barry's singular role in popularizing the use of captive dolphins as entertainment. No. 2: Killing dolphins for food is a Pyrrhic game, since their flesh is extraordinarily high in mercury. And No. 3, and least explored: Dolphins are mammals, smarter and more sentient than our beloved, pampered dogs, yet they suffer greatly from their resemblance to fish, to which we credit little.
The film picks up steam when O'Barry and his crew begin their covert surveillance of Taiji's dolphin cove. It's a real-life action thriller, complete with neat-o high-tech gadgets. The fun stops, though, when the videotape is reviewed: What happens to the dolphins is shocking and horrifying. It's not easy to watch, but we should see: This is dark side of that supposedly fun stuff dolphins do for our amusement. In English, and some Japanese, with subtitles. Manor (AH) [2.5 out of 4 stars]
