- Issue Archive for
- Nov 19-25, 2009
- Vol. 19, No. 46
News+Features
Lost Key
Development at crucial point as Hill House's Frazier departs
Safe Choice
City facing its own choice on abortion-clinic protection
Cut Down
ICA rejects budget, student tax while urging further spending reductions
Laying a Bad Foundation?
Pens may have violated CBA on hotel project
The Art of Compliance
Groups forced to sign statements to get funding
Food+Drink
Simmie's Restaurant & Lounge
A well-prepared selection of fresh fish tops this menu of Southern-style comfort food
Market District
There's plenty to see, buy and eat at the new super-sized Giant Eagle
Music
Eastern Watershed Quartet release The Klez Dispensers
Rather than just the classic Jewish-music genre, Eastern Watershed revels in the connections to Eastern European cultures.
Acoustic folk-punks The Frantic Heart of It release debut at BRICKS benefit
"I tried to write songs from the point of view of a man with a career, a wife and two kids, trying to reconcile that with ideals I'd had my whole life."
Lohio's new lineup releases a five-song EP that's full of surprises
Lohio's new lineup releases a five-song EP that's full of surprises
Satin Gum delivers its fuzzed-out A-game with new full-length
The first song, "Dance Me Home," is an unequivocal statement of intent: a wistful, blissful power-pop chorus strapped to a woozy guitar figure.
Black Tusk brings its Savannah swamp-metal to 31st Street Pub this Sunday
"When you're playing in such a hot place, it's so humid all the time, it's really hard to not make heavy music."
Lo-fi indie darling Jay Reatard: media manipulator, or simply dense?
The new record preserves both the awkward angst with which Reatard's made a name for himself and the incredibly simple and sensible pop structure he's long hung it upon.
On Screen
2012
If you like your cheesy entertainment on the apocalyptic, no-holds-barred scale, Roland Emmerich's film is for you! Tectonic plates out of order mean Billions dead, and all of planet Earth -- not just a few urban centers -- pulverized beyond recognition. Emmerich shoehorns in some silly human drama to pace out the jaw-dropping, effects-heavy destruction, but 2012 is just a two-and-a-half-hour amusement-park ride. It's hard to get invested in characters who mostly gape in horror and scream "Run!" But, as an unabashed fan of disaster pics, I left satisfied with what really matters: the scenes of geological meltdown. Emmerich clearly sat up late dreaming up unimaginable cataclysmic events, all lovingly depicted, that really raises the bar for the genre. What thrill is there now in watching even a major earthquake on screen, having already "experienced" the state of California dropping off into the ocean? In English, and various language, with subtitles. (AH) [2.5 out of 4 stars]
Precious
Clareece Precious Jones is friendless, obese and illiterate. Tossed out of junior high for being pregnant with her second child, she finds no refuge at her home. Lee Daniels' drama follows Precious for a year or so, as she gradually gains self-respect, purpose and forward momentum. Feel-good inspirational film? Not quite. It accentuates the positive, but Precious' story is mired in so much institutional negativity that the big picture is depressing. Though the story is set in 1987, the questions Precious raises -- child abuse, generational poverty and identity -- are wholly relevant and worth exploring, even if the film leaves many open-ended. The film features gutsy performances from newcomer Gabourey Sidibe as Precious and comedienne Mo'Nique as her abusive mother. Sidibe has the tougher role, as the actress has much inner life to convey through Precious' numbed inertia, barely audible mumble and expressionless face. Director Daniels fills these gaps with such cheats as Precious' dream sequences and voiceovers, but Sidibe holds her own, drawing us in, compelling us to look. Starts Fri., Nov. 20. AMC Loews, Manor [3 out of 4 stars]
An Education
Sixteen-year-old Jenny (Carey Mulligan)is bright and quick-witted -- and thrills to meet the older, charming David (Peter Sarsgaard). He takes her to concerts, to Oxford, and even Paris. For a while, An Education is a wonderful movie, the story of a girl who's done all of her reading and who's ready now to start putting it into practice. There's pleasure in watching Jenny react to her widening world with a mixture of credulity and confidence. Then An Education moves into a third act that I can best describe as miscalculated. It may all be true -- screenwriter Nick Hornby adapted Lynn Barber's memoir -- but the plotting is too clumsy to feel like it actually happened. An Education is only 95 minutes long, and director Lone Scherfig slights the more complicated and morally ambiguous elements of the drama. She does handle her two leads well, and Sarsgaard especially stretches here, keeping David's motives nicely shaded. Starts Fri., Nov. 20. Manor (Harry Kloman) [2.5 out of 4 stars]
The Blind Side
A poor, struggling black teen-ager in Memphis is taken in by an affluent white family, who patiently teach him enough football and survival skills that he is ultimately drafted by an NFL team. It admittedly sounds like one of those hokey, inspired-by-a-true-story heart-swellers that Hollywood regularly churns out, except it's not quite. John Lee Hancock's film is the story of Baltimore Raven Michael Oher. But it's fairly low-key, opting to depict more day-to-day life than big dramatic moments. Its primary relationship is that of Oher (Quinton Aaron) and his take-charge, go-getter new mom, Leigh Anne Touhy (portrayed with brio by Sandra Bullock).
While I'm happy to be spared those over-the-top big games and artificially pumped-up nail-biting moments of decision, Blind Side could have used a little more tension and depth. It flirts with meatier fare -- race, class, religion, the focus on athletics over books, and what it might mean to a rudderless youth like Oher that his new family holds all his cards. Tellingly, we rarely hear from the quiet Oher, while the Touhys talk a lot.
Blind Side punts -- this is, after all, a story with a happy ending. (Sit through the credits for photos and film of the actual people.) Rather than dig into the contradictions and messiness that defines even successful lives, Blind Side finds its salvation in a lot of football-inspired pep talks. It's all very rah-rah, but something of a disservice to Oher's journey. Starts Fri., Nov. 20. (AH) [2 out of 4 stars]
