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Friday, February 19, 2010
Film / Film Reviews / News Shutter Island: Twist and shout
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 1:55 PM
SHUTTER ISLAND
***
DIRECTED BY Martin Scorsese
STARS Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo
Just how obvious is the big "twist" that concludes Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel? So obvious that some folks who haven't read the book are figuring it out simply by watching the trailer. But just how accomplished is the picture anyway? Enough that viewers will happily be led down the rabbit hole by a director with the ability to distract them with every technique at his disposal.
Delivering yet another topnotch performance that might help him win some sort of lifetime achievement award before he even hits 40, Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Teddy Daniels, a U.S. federal marshal who, with his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), travels to a mental asylum located on a remote island off the Massachusetts coastline. The year is 1954, and the lawmen are there to investigate the disappearance of one of the inmates. But although the head of the facility (Ben Kingsley) assures them that they'll have the full cooperation of the entire staff, it soon becomes apparent that everyone has something to hide, and Teddy must suss out the truth even while plagued by debilitating headaches, gruesome flashbacks to his World War II years, and disturbing hallucinations involving his deceased wife (Michelle Williams).
Scorsese's in pulp fiction mode here (see also Cape Fear and The Departed), which essentially means that this is one of those pleasing instances when "B"-movie material is given the "A"-list treatment. The screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis is packed with so much intriguing incident that it's easy to not even notice the plotholes until post-movie reflection, and all the craftspeople who won Oscars for Scorsese's The Aviator are back on board, resulting in an immaculate presentation that fully engages the senses. And while the major plot pirouette will disappoint discerning viewers, it's followed by a deliciously ambiguous coda that insures all moviegoers will exit the Island with at least something to ponder.
Arts / News Arts Flash: Q&A with Pauly Shore
Posted By Anita Overcash on Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 1:27 PM
How can we forget Pauly Shore's goofball appearances in '90s comedy flicks like Encino Man, Son-In-Law, and Bio-Dome, among others? Well, we can't -- that's the problem. Desperate for attention, the left-in-the-dust star released his own funded DVD, Pauly Shore Is Dead, in 2003. And if you thought that was scary, you ain't seen nothing yet. Shore has two new movies, Opposite Day and Adopted, slated for release and he's currently on tour for his stand-up comedy act. After a disappearance from the spotlight, it seems he's back in action ... or, at least trying.
Pauly Shore will visit Lake Norman Comedy Zone in Galway Hooker Pub for a performance on Monday, Feb. 22. Creative Loafing spoke with Shore about his stand-up comedy and the up and down spirals of his career.
Creative Loafing: Tell me a little bit about your current stand-up act. What's it rated?
Pauly Shore: Yeah, I’d say PG-13 to R. I think with stand-up I’m stripped down. I have such a huge persona with my old movies that people sometimes wonder what I do. But, to be quite honest I’ve been doing stand-up way before my movies. I grew up at The Comedy Store on Sunset and I’ve been around stand-up my whole life. I started when I was 17 years old. It’s kind of like what I do. The movies actually came secondary.
How do you describe your act to people who only know you through the movies you’ve appeared in like Son-In-Law, Encino Man, and Bio-Dome?
I definitely address the films because you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you. You want to give the people what they want, but you also don’t want to do just that. You want to leave them thinking, ‘Oh, shit. He does that too. I had no idea.’ I’m 42 years old now, so I talk about what it’s like being 42 and being single still, having a niece and nephew and just everyday things that kind of everyone relates to. So, when you leave the show you’re like ‘That’s who Pauly is, as opposed to what I thought he was.’
I see you’re still doing funny roles. In fact, you’ve got two major roles in the films, Opposite Day and Adopted, both of which are slated for release. Can you tell me a little bit about these?
Well, Opposite Day is a kid’s film. Its rated G and basically the kids become the parents and the parents become the kids, like a Freaky Friday thing. Then, Adopted is a mockumentary film that I did in Africa. I go there to adopt an African child, which is actually kind of funny because if you watch the news, everything is about people adopting children.
Boomer with Attitude / News Insanity or rightwing terrorism? And what's the difference?
Posted By John Grooms on Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 1:07 PM
Joseph Stack’s final act, deliberately crashing his plane into an IRS building yesterday in Austin, Texas was, first of all, a human tragedy: Stack dove off the edge into homegrown terrorism, people were killed, and other people lost loved ones. But in cultural and political terms, the attack has been like a sudden lightning strike, creating lots of opinionated noise, and illuminating the nooks, crannies and hidey-holes from which a variety of rightwing nuts have scurried to voice support for Stack’s views — and even his murderous actions.
Facebook fan pages sprang up, calling Stack “a true American hero,” and even comparing dead IRS employees to British soldiers during the American Revolution. Rightwing extremists popped up across the internet, with one woman asserting that “if I were in that building when Joe struck it, I would have been honored to die for a good cause.” And just in case this blog post seems like some lefty blaming the right for everything, consider that the GOP’s new hero, Sen. Scott Brown, told FoxNews that Stack’s actions could be a sign of how frustrated voters are.
It remains to be seen whether or not the media will settle on the word “terrorism” to describe Stacks’ actions, or if the country will come to terms with how dangerously crazy some of the right’s anti-everything rhetoric has become. I’m not directly blaming Stack’s terrorist attack on FoxNews or the Tea Party crowd; but it’s no secret that overheated rhetoric, goofball conspiracy theories and exaggerated claims of “tyranny” and “oppression” can fire up the, um, less stable among us.
Remember last year when a federal report begun under the Bush administration was released, noting the rising danger of rightwing violence? Conservatives reacted by claiming the Obama White House was out to get them, and ratcheting up their rhetoric to evermore-heated levels. Don’t expect the right to engage in any self-reflection as a result of Stack’s attack, though; that would be playing right into the hands of the socialists who are out to enslave us all through their Kenyan dictator, right?
Just one more question: which country does Dick Cheney think we should invade as a response to this latest terrorist attack?
Arts / Today's Top Five / News Today's Top 5: Friday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 12:36 PM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Feb. 19, 2010 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Reservior Dogs at Studio 1212 Theatre
• Tony Trischka at Stage Door Theater
• How We Met exhibition at Evergreen Studio & Gallery
• Film screening of Uncertainty at Duke Energy Theatre
• Charlotte Comedy Theater at Prevue
The N Word / News To Tiger Woods: Grow a pair
Posted By Nsenga Burton on Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 12:28 PM
Why is Tiger Woods giving a press conference on cheating on his wife? Is he an elected official or a man of the cloth? Come on man. Fifteen minutes of Tiger beating up on himself is not good television. I don't give a damn about his dalliances with other women. That should be Elin's concern, not mine. Just play golf again. I do not think that his success on the golf course was due to his squeaky clean image -- more like his unparalleled skill set. Why are people mad? 85 percent of people in marriages in America cheat, so why do we have a different standard for him? Athletes and celebrities are not role models because they are as human and fallible as we are. To the world, I say, "Get a life." To Tiger, grow a pair.
News CPAC Swag
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 12:12 PM
Rachel Maddow, a MSNBC pundit, attended the Conservative Political Action Conference so we don't have to. Here's what she found. (Warning: Once you get past the first few seconds of silly, it gets scary.)
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Read on in The Atlantic: Do Conservatives need CPAC?
Here's how Marc Ambinder begins the article:
The early evening at the Conservative Political Action Conference allows ample time for participants to take stock of the day or perhaps to browse through the interest groups that paid for exhibition space in the hall. Ambling through the enormous lobby of the Marriott Wardman Park hotel, eavesdropping on conversations, it hits you immediately: CPAC is not a grassroots convention. Its success -- the highest attendance ever -- is evidence that CPAC has outlived its usefulness to the conservative movement. It has become a place to network and cheer at applause lines -- nothing more. Leave the hall and end the day, and you've had a good time, but you don't feel fulfilled. CPAC is a guilty pleasure.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Arts / News Birdie blog
Posted By Perry Tannenbaum on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 6:15 PM
OK, so just a few days after I’ve taken Theatre Charlotte’s production of Biloxi Blues to task for being way too professional to be categorized as true community theater, along comes Central Piedmont Community College Theatre’s Bye Bye Birdie, directed by Tom Hollis. With a mix of theater vets, greenhorns, and neophytes in its cast, this revival of the 1960 Tony Award winner for Best Musical sets up exactly the kind of onstage ecosystem that Biloxi abandoned.
Professional-grade actors, presumably nurtured some years ago in a community theater environment, get a chance to give back to the company where they started: by treating audiences to their seasoned craft while teaching less-experienced cast members by their example throughout the process, from the first rehearsal to the final performance. Smaller communities than Charlotte trust their mentoring, of course, to veterans who have retained their amateur status in the bosom of their hometown theatre companies, amassing local experience, prestige, and wisdom.
Here in Charlotte, where professional-grade theater abounds (with only a fraction of actors getting paid their true worth), the ecology has extra benefits and nuances for those who take advantage of them. When a community theater production I attend this week lacks the polish I’d expect in a typical off-Broadway show, I can see that polish next week here – at Children’s Theatre Of Charlotte, Actor’s Theatre Of Charlotte, or Carolina Actor’s Studio Theatre, to name the most prolific.
Hollis has opened the door wide in CPCC’s production of Birdie, tacking on three choruses – a total of 30 kids, teens, and adults – to a cast that already boasts 26 individual roles. Anyone who expects a production on such a huge scale to run like clockwork, when the budget for actors’ salaries is zero, is probably perfectly in tune with our community’s unenlightened attitude toward arts funding.
Arts / See & Do: The Weekender / News Weekender
Posted By Anita Overcash on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 6:11 PM
Check out these events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area this weekend— as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
Friday, Feb. 19
Duke Energy Theatre
Give into suspense by checking out The Light Factory's screening at Duke Energy Theatre of Uncertainty, a film featured in the acclaimed 2008 Toronto Film Festival and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (of 500 Days Of Summer) and Lynn Collins (of Wolverine). In the film, the two act as a young couple torn over how they should spend the 4th of July. But, here's the twist: Viewers get to see how each alternative unfolds, and in one scenario an action-packed string of events unravel, leading to a chase by mobsters.
• Theater After staging performances of Trainspotting and Fight Club in 2009, Citizens of the Universe is shuttling farther into the dangers of space with its 2010 premiere of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs at Studio 1212 Theatre in Plaza Midwood. The cult classic follows seven newly acquainted thugs, all who team up for a jewel heist, which goes horribly wrong and makes them question just who tipped off the police. You'd think criminals would know better than to trust each other. more...
• Theater Matthews Playhouse of the Performing Arts kicks off 2010 with performances of C.S. Lewis’ fantasy loaded, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, adapted for the stage by Joseph Robinette. more...
Saturday, Feb. 20
The Snuggie Ball for Dining With Friends
The Forum
No need to worry about renting a tux or shopping for a gown to attend this ball; just bring your blanket with sleeves. The Snuggie Ball for Dining With Friends event - benefiting the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network - will feature a charity Snuggie fashion show (pets with Snuggies are welcomed to enter), food courtesy of Cosmos Café, '80s music spun by DJ Andy Kastanas and a special Snuggie drag performance from BethAnn Phetamine.
• Music Tonight’s going to be a good night at Time Warner Cable Arena, as Black Eyed Peas roll in to perform catchy pop songs and radio favorites like, "Let's Get it Started" and "I Gotta Feeling." more...
• Art Charlotte Artery’s latest exhibition of new works will be unveiled at Hair Klaudt Salon Studio tonight during its opening reception, from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. more...
Sunday, Feb. 21
Actor's Theatre of Charlotte
Actor's Theatre of Charlotte's latest production of playwright Frank Higgins' Black Pearl Sings! dives deep into soulful waters. Alberta "Pearl" Johnson (played by Terry Henry-Norman) is a black woman with soulful vocal chords who is serving time at a Texas prison. Discovered by Susannah (Stephanie DiPaolo), a white worker for the Library of Congress on the search for old folk songs - both for historical purposes and her claim to treasure - Pearl possesses a number of musical gems rooted in her ancestors' African heritage. With the possibility of being released from her jailhouse keeping, Pearl struggles with whether to unveil the well-preserved songs for her ticket to freedom.
• Dance Tonight at Ovens Auditorium folks can enjoy fancy footwork from performers across the ocean, as Tchaikovsky Theater of Russia presents a ballet performance of the classic fairytale, Sleeping Beauty. more...
• Film Still Bill, an intimate documentary film about soul musician Bill Withers will be screened at The Evening Muse tonight. Withers is known for hits like, “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean On Me,” “Lovely Day,” “Grandma’s Hands,” and “Just the Two of Us.” more...
News Please rob me
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 4:06 PM
Well, this is scary as all hell: PleaseRobMe.com. Are you Tweeting your location? Think that's cool, huh? What you're also doing is announcing to friends, family and strangers that your home is empty. Good work.
PleaseRobMe.com is a feed of Tweets from people bragging about where they're at when they're not at home. It's also a huge reminder to be aware of what you're announcing in a public forum.
When I first moved to North Carolina, I just so happened to move across the street from a meth addict who liked to rob my rental home. (I found out later that's why the previous two tenants moved.) I lived in that mill house in Shelby for six months. During that time, my neighbor stole my wallet from my kitchen, someone (I think his meth addict friend) woke me up at midnight one night screaming "Give me your money" while standing in my bedroom door and, a week later while I was at a friend's house, the two of them cleaned out my house. And when I say "cleaned out," I mean it. They even stole food from my freezer, notes from college classes and damn near everything else.
It's for this very reason I refuse to participate in the FourSquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz phenomenon. This is why I'll only Tweet where I'm at if I know, for sure, someone else is at my house. This is also why my house has a serious alarm system and why we hire house sitters. Call me paranoid. I'm OK with that; I've been robbed enough for one lifetime. I've earned that badge.
During those six months of hell, as you might imagine, I had several opportunities to speak with the police. One piece of advice they gave me really sunk in: No one knows your patterns like your neighbors. They know when you're home, when you're not, when you sleep and when your pattern has changed — like when you're on vacation. That was pre-social media, though. Today, your virtual neighbors may well be people you've never met before, people you forgot are tuning into your conversation.
You might think it's no big deal to get robbed. Maybe you think you don't have anything worth stealing.
I didn't think I had anything worth stealing either. What I didn't realize, though, is thieves often take everything. They'll sort through the crap (aka your life's treasures) later and toss what they don't want. My hand-written notes from my now deceased flute tutor? Gone. That antique diamond ring that once belonged to my great grandmother? Gone. That painting my mom did? Gone. Groceries, appliances, CDs — yep, all gone.
And, guess what? It's not just getting robbed that sucks. The six months I'm telling you about now? That was five years ago and I'm still dealing with the fall-out. There's court dates, notifications that the asshats that robbed you are out of prison — early, of course —and on parole. There's the restitution the state stole, the restitution I now have to jump through myriad hoops to get (though I'm still not hopeful). There's my complete lack of trust in strangers, no matter how broad my smile. There's the fact that doors are only unlocked around me when I'm passing through them. There's the memory of my neighbor sitting on his porch, staring at my house — a memory I conjure every time I Tweet my location.
But, hey. Yeah. Why don't you tell me where you're at right now via a wide-open forum? I haven't cringed enough today.
How stupid is FourSquare? Skip to the 10-second mark (past this guy's I'm-the-greatest promo) to find out how goofy this shit is. Or, here, I'll spare you: By checking in you're offering business owners free advertising, free demographic research and you're avoiding phone calls. Call me old-fashioned, but if I want to know where my friends are on a Friday night, I can call/ text/ direct message/ e-mail and ask. I don't need to cyber-stalk them all over town.
Boomer with Attitude / News Happy birthday, Huck Finn
Posted By John Grooms on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 2:39 PM
Today is the 125th anniversary of the first U.S. publication of author Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. It’s one of the foundations of American literature, an endless source of humor and insight, and, yes, one of this writer’s favorite novels — even though, as lit scholars will tell you, Twain botched the ending. It doesn’t matter, because what comes before the final couple of chapters is so rich and deep and full to overflowing with clarity of thought, drama and raucous humor, any ending would have been inadequate. A couple of years ago, I wrote a column, “My Own Bible,” in which I related some quotes from Huck Finn, along with what I got out of them, in italics. Here are a few excerpts:
"We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn't ever feel like talking loud, and it warn't often that we laughed — only a little kind of a low chuckle." Some of life's finest moments are the simplest and are to be enjoyed, going with the flow without overanalyzing everything.
"All I say is, kings is kings, and you got to make allowances. Take them all around, they're a mighty ornery lot. It's the way they're raised. All kings is mostly rapscallions." Rulers and politicians may be necessary, but don't ever think they're necessarily honest, or even always mean well.
"H'aint we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?" The idea of "communal wisdom" is too often an exercise in delusion.
[Huck agonizes over whether he should tell his benefactor, Miss Watson, where to find her former slave Jim (as, Huck believes, society and God expect him to), or follow his conscience and help Jim escape from his new owners] "I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself, 'All right, then, I'll GO to hell.'" At times, it's better to follow your own moral compass than to blindly obey societal rules you feel are cruel and hypocritical.
If you'd like to read the original essay, click here. (It is also included in Deliver Us From Weasels, a collection of 50 columns and features I've written for CL, available at Paper Skyscraper, Park Road Books, Joseph Beth, and Borders Morrocroft.)
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