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(10/20/00 4:00am)
The opening shot in Robert Altman's Dr. T and the Women plays out the dialogue in a gynecologist's office like a symphony, with the high-pitched banter of rich Dallas socialites growing tense and rapid in a thick crescendo of feminine disharmony. This is the hectic world of gynecologist Sullivan Travis (Richard Gere in fine fatherly form), who has the dubious distinction of being the male crutch for the overwhelming female demands of both his family and the city's upper crust. From the way these women fight over a few moments in Dr. T's gaze or stirrups, you'd think he was doing something more with that speculum. The real reason is that these women, both liberated and bound by the social status they uphold, are missing the simple attention and consideration that only Dr. T's sympathetic male touch can provide.
(10/20/00 4:00am)
Here's a freaky horror story for you: A famed author is walking down the road when an oncoming driver is distracted by his dog and swerves his van into the author, sending him flying 15 feet into a wall. Over the next year, the author suffers from unprecedented writer's block while recovering from a collapsed lung and shattered leg, among other injuries. The van's driver, meanwhile, gets his license revoked and slides into a deep depression. The author prepares to release a quasi-biography related to the accident. Around that time, the driver of the van mysteriously passes away, unexplained and unnoticed. Wonder how that story turned out.
(09/22/00 4:00am)
ock and roll, to those who truly love it, is about more than just music-it's about attitude, about "cool." As reverential critic and grown fanboy Lester Bangs dubs it in Almost Famous, it's the "Industry of Cool," thriving on the fantastical, mythic constructions of its star heroes as they are fed to the idolizing fans.
(09/08/00 4:00am)
Thirty years from now, when intro film students look back on the long-dead "Age of Film," it may at first seem strange to them that two seemingly innocuous works-The Blair Witch Project and Time Code-were the earliest artifacts of the new era of movies.
(09/01/00 4:00am)
How do I justify myself in saying that I liked Bring It On, a fluffy, peppy high school cheerleading comedy? I don't think I'm alone when I say that I rank cheerleaders next to telephone salesmen and fascist dictators on my List of Favorite People, and as a rule I generally opt out of teensploitation movies to watch things more rewarding, like Bassmaster. But-so help me God-Bring It On packs some surprises, however few and concessionary they may be.
(08/25/00 4:00am)
Perhaps the most ambitious and eccentric of this summer's suspense fare, The Cell is a disappointing case study in style overpowering substance. A by-the-book hunt for a serial killer and his hidden victims, The Cell's only intriguing twist is a detour into the killer's malevolent subconscious. The film suffers from an underwritten script that is concurrently overdirected by newcomer Tarsem Singh. You can almost imagine the former MTV video director standing like a carney outside his dilapidated director's tent, thirsty for attention and recognition above the ranks of the seedy music-video circus. But unlike the genuine article discovered in freakshow Spike Jonze, who translated music-video ingenuity into big-screen gold, Singh sticks to the visceral whiz-bang trickery of MTV only to neglect real-movie basics-starting with the plot.
(06/15/00 4:00am)
Though watching MTV typically makes me depressed or angry or both, the network's annual movie awards' tongue-in-cheek look at the year in film is a refreshing change from the formal, conservative Oscars. MTV's show isn't held down by studio politics or cumbersome categories like "Best Foreign Documentary Grip," so it can afford to reward the issues audiences care about, like what movies showed chicks making out, and can we get them onstage with as much skimpage as possible? It's a celebration of the real juice in pop culture, and while a lot of these awards take a backseat to the cleavage, at least the show's two relatively short hours are entertaining.
(04/21/00 4:00am)
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band roll into Raleigh tomorrow, providing a possible last opportunity for people to experience one of his exhilarating concerts. On this second leg of their first tour in many years, Bruce and his veteran band will still prove (for a tireless three and a half hours) that they are as integral to American culture as apple pie and barbecue. Bruce jumps, struts and sprints, but unlike the other unstoppable war-horse, Mick Jagger, Bruce stays clear of self-parody. While the Stones are big to the point of distraction, Bruce engages an arena like the Jersey bars of decades ago, keeping stage production to a minimum and the lights on the crowd for most of his set.
(03/28/00 5:00am)
Although channel surfing is one of America's most beloved pastimes, most Duke students put TV watching near the bottom of their to-do lists. Ask students what kind of television they watch and the indignant response comes back: "I don't have time for TV." Changing schedules and high workloads often make it hard for undergraduates to watch a specific show on a daily or even weekly basis.
(01/21/00 5:00am)
A soundtrack's relationship to a film is generally tenuous at best, featuring songs that were featured in the movie for maybe a minute or two, if at all. What results is usually no more than an assembly of songs by new artists and covers of old classics. The Magnolia soundtrack, however, presents a cohesive accompaniment to the movie's plot and adds a new dimension to its themes. Aimee Mann (formerly of the '80s post-new age group 'Til Tuesday) wrote most of the album, displaying an impressive talent for lyrics and melody.
(01/14/00 5:00am)
Phish is probably the only band in America that has a following loyal and rugged enough to drive from all parts of the country for a New Year's concert in the middle of nowhere. This year's show, hosted at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in the Everglades, combined the intensity of the band's annual New Year's show with the sprawl of their summer weekend festivals. This promised to be the band's most ambitious effort yet, with three sets on the 30th and one massive millennial jam from midnight to the dawn of the new year. I had nothing better to do and the campgrounds were a short drive from my home, so I forked over the $150.
(11/05/99 5:00am)
I've always considered Adam Duritz to be the saddest man in music. The Counting Crows' past two albums, released three years apart from each other, created a career for Duritz to act out his acute sense of self-pity and despondency. Three years later, This Desert Life finds Duritz beginning to come to terms with his problems. He isn't plucky just yet, but this offering clearly signifies a slightly more optimistic attitude. Although it may seem that this would be a welcome change of direction for Counting Crows to explore, the passion that added glitter to their gloomy past is lost in the transition.
(10/06/99 4:00am)
The Interfaith Dialogue Program, part of a new effort to promote appreciation for religious diversity, kicked off its semester-long series last Wednesday. The forum, an initiative of the Kenan Ethics Program, meets weekly in assigned locations on East Campus, and the discussions feature people of a particular faith sharing their stories and experiences.
