Student Life Archives

Every once in a while, Entertainment Weekly gets its head on straight and commits a block of column space to what really should be a weekly feature: capsule reviews of current movie trailers. After all, one of amateur moviegoing’s most popular razors is that “the best stuff’s in the previews”; why shouldn’t a little critical copy be spread in their favor?

With this in mind, I spent a little time at the Internet’s best movie preview site (www.apple.com/trailers) and sampled a few of the more prominent trailers available for streaming. Each of these flicks is due for release in the next few months (although, after checking out some clips, it’s pretty clear that some of them shouldn’t be).

Mean Girls – Remember that thing I mentioned 76 words ago about the best stuff being in the previews? We all know that’s one of the most common (and relatively accurate) complaints about trailers, and it just so happens to be the exact opposite description of the clip for “Mean Girls.” Approximately 90 percent of the humor here is textbook high-school lame-joke fodder (“It’s like I have E.S.P.N. or something”), but a few select snippets hint that there just might be cleverer material in line with this movie than its glitzy cast and Disney pedigree suggest. It’s written by Tina Fey, for one, who supplies the preview’s single best laugh (at the very beginning) and who damn near singlehandedly made “Saturday Night Live” watchable again in the early ’00s. It’s rare that cinematic “high school satires” actually include passable insights into high school, or even reasonable estimations of what it’s like, but hopefully the sharp touches of absurdity buried within this clip are the real rhyme of the movie, and the dumb scenes in the preview were picked out to draw the simple crowd in. (You know, fans of “Boys and Girls.”) Grade: C

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy – No one on Earth could make a comedy about a news anchor funny. It’s 110 percen impossible. Jim Carrey sure as hell didn’t do it with “Bruce Almighty,” and Mary Tyler Moore was a producer, so it doesn’t count. In addition, no one on Earth could make the age-old face-into-a-file-cabinet gag funny, either.
Except Will Ferrell. He could do both of those things. And he does. This movie is gonna be awesome. Grade: B+

The Day After Tomorrow – Okay, so, “Independence Day” was awful-we all know this. “The Day After Tomorrow” comes from the man who directed that movie; they even say that at the end of this preview. The very premise of “Tomorrow” is a bold-faced ripoff of “Independence Day”: big national landmarks bulldozed by special effects. The characters look the same, the subplots look the same, the sorry attempts at shock even look like “Independence” outtakes. All in all, this should be a pretty terrible trailer-the kind that would’ve made me weep with anticipation when I was around thirteen. And yet…something about this movie looks tantalizing. Despite that, dammit, I know it’s going to suck! What’s up with that? Grade: C-

I, Robot – This preview raises a lot of questions. Will Will Smith ever attempt to legitimately act again? How does he feel delivering a line like “I miss the good old days…when people were killed by other people?” Will Chi McBride-the big dude from “Boston Public”-ever play anything other than a police lieutenant? In this movie, will he repeat the immortal line “Get me Undercover Brother!”? Why am I watching this preview? Why, like the clip for “The Day After Tomorrow,” is something about it strangely alluring? How thankful am I that I know by now to wait for video for these things? Grade: D

Connie and Carla – Christ. Grade: F

Garfield – Double Christ. Grade: Uh…double F.

The Passion of the Christ – Nope…still awful. Grade: D

The United States of Leland – Sometimes, a preview’s so good that you almost don’t want the film to come out so you won’t risk disappointment. “The United States of Leland,” based on its trailer, is going to be masterful. Don Cheadle, for one, is probably the least heralded best actor in Hollywood, and he’s supported here by Jena Malone, Ryan Gosling, and Kevin Spacey, who looks like he might finally have a good role for the first time in years. Even the music used is perfect. The true test of a preview is whether you’ll want to see the movie opening night, and I’ll be lining up for this one. Grade: A

Coffee and Cigarettes – Wow. I couldn’t tell you a damn thing regarding what this movie’s about-it looks like a series of unrelated vignettes where everyone smokes and drinks cigarettes and coffee-but the preview is one of the most bizarrely fantastic things I’ve seen in months. Seriously-if you made it this far into this half-baked column, you need to watch this trailer. The Meg White/Jack White scene and the Bill Murray/Wu-Tang part make it completely worth it. Seriously. I won’t explain. Absolutely bizarre. Grade: A+

Beauty Shop – Funny story. Freshman year, my friend Dylan and I go to a Weezer concert with a couple female friends. On the way, extremely bored, Dyl and I somehow get onto the topic of 311, a band I hate. For no particular reason, we conjure up a completely fictional anecdote about me getting into a fight with 311’s lead singer, outside a concert our friends dragged me to back home. It’s really brilliant, and nothing about it is true, but the girls believe us anyway, for a matter of weeks. Great stuff. Grade: D-

There’s nothing greater than seeing one of your favorite bands, standing in the midst of a sea of like-minded fans. Pumping fists, dancing, singing along-it’s one of those times where just feeling like a member of a crowd isn’t a bad thing. Likewise, there are few things weirder than seeing a band you like with almost no one else in the audience. This has happened to me on a number of occasions, and it makes the concert-going experience far more awkward than it should be.

This most recently occurred at the Hi-Pointe on Saturday evening. I saw a band from Chicago called Bible of the Devil. I didn’t really know much about them going in, but was interested in seeing them after listening to a couple of mp3s on their website. After all, they had a kinda silly, kinda awesome name, and one of St. Louis’ best, the Shame Club, were opening for them.

By the time the guys of Bible of the Devil hit the stage, though, there was barely anyone in the venue, and most of the people that remained were sitting at the bar. It was just a few heavy metal looking dudes, former Cadenza editor Dan Carlin, and me.

Bible of the Devil put on a helluva show for the five or so people watching, but certain moments were very weird. The thanks and comments for the crowd seemed a lot more personal, since they were directed toward a small group of people, and often said while making eye contact with a member of the audience. The barrier between audience and performer was totally shattered.

This had happened to me before, but it had been a long time, and it felt pretty weird. Heading to the bathroom to release the recycled PBR in my system made me feel bad, because for a minute or so a fifth of the audience was gone. It was nice to be able to easily walk back to the front of the stage after going tinkle, but part of the concert experience comes from dealing with the crowd and being swallowed up in it. That experience was totally vacant.

The last time I remember seeing a band with almost no one else there was back when I lived in Boston. The band was the Hives, the Swedish garage punks who have since broken big and then basically disappeared off of the face of the Earth (though they supposedly have a new album coming out sometime during the spring). They were opening for their Swedish comrades the (International) Noise Conspiracy, who at that time, were a bigger draw. When the Hives took the stage, there was barely anyone there, and even fewer people there to see them.

Like Bible of the Devil, they seemed to take no notice of the sparseness of the audience and played their hearts out. And the barrier between audience and performer was demolished, in this instance by the enthusiastic lead singer Howlin’ Pelle, who sang the entirety of the final song emoting on his knees on the floor in front of the stage. It was a fun performance, but it was awkward.

About six months later I had the good fortune of seeing the Hives again, after they had broken big. They played the Metro in Chicago, a place equivalent in size to the Pageant here. The show was sold out. Seeing the Hives with a big, enthusiastic, packed-to-the-gills crowd was an entirely different experience, and I felt myself swept up into the energy of the audience rather than simply watching the band work hard to entertain. I looked around and saw people jumping up and down before realizing I was doing so myself. Getting lost in the moment like that is something that can only happen in a crowd. I hope the next time I see Bible of the Devil-if they ever come back to St. Louis-someone will have caught on so I can get caught up.

Bernell Dorrough

“I am wasted but I’m ready,” the chorus goes to one of Ben Kweller’s songs from his last album, “Sha Sha.” Nothing could have been truer of Saturday night. Mumbling and stumbling onstage, forgetting lyrics, and telling long stories, Kweller appeared under the influence of more than music. But his saving grace was the fact that he managed not to miss a note, sounding even better with a slur in his soft voice and an extra dose of aggression in his guitar.

Kweller’s lighthearted, bouncy piano and guitar melodies were translated into rawer, dirtier versions, showing true rock and roll grit. The foursome of shaggy-haired, t-shirt and jeans twenty-somethings used their youth to their advantage, jumping up and down onstage and striking all of the classic guitar poses.

The band rocked through 90 minutes of the best of their jingles from both “Sha Sha” and their newest album, “On My Way,” to be released April 6. The set also included a couple of solo acoustic songs, one of which was a blues version of Vanilla Ice’s 90’s hit “Ice Ice Baby.”

On the other side of the indie-rock spectrum turned the smiles into straight faces, with Death for Cab for Cutie’s more serious, melancholic rock. Wearing western shirts and cardigans, Death Cab emoted through half of their newest album, “Transatlanticism,” building songs to great heights. The stage and grunge of guitars allowed the band to grow stubble on the chins of their lighter sound. Open strings rang and swirled with droning bass lines and cool keyboards, all while lead singer/guitar player Ben Gibbard’s voice floated softly over airy chords.

Along with the mood, Death Cab also brought the tempo down to a comfortable head nodding level. Fans stood mostly still to watch the quartet meander through songs spanning four of their six albums. Leaving the stage after a hefty hour-plus set, the band returned for a long two-song encore, appeasing the indie appetites of the high school and college student heavy show.

Bernell Dorrough

“I’m Rick James, bitch!”

Undoubtedly you’ve heard that phrase somewhere-at a party, in the dorm, or just out and about. If it’s not that then it’s the even more recent “What?!” or “Okay!”, done in a Lil’ Jon-esque crunk holla. The man behind these outbursts? The one and only Dave Chappelle, whose half-hour of sketch comedy, “Chappelle’s Show,” has become something of a cultural phenomenon in the past few months. The star of “Half Baked” and “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” brings the laughs every Wednesday night at 9:30 on Comedy Central, but his show is not without its controversial edge. Many have accused it of perpetuating racial stereotypes, but viewership keeps increasing.

It’s hard to say when “Chappelle’s Show” really hit its stride. I remember friends of mine quoting from one of the ever-popular “Tyrone Biggums” skits, where Dave does his best white-lipped, head-scratching crackhead impersonation. In one sketch, Tyrone visits an elementary school and turns out to be the worst anti-drug speaker ever. “When I did LSD, all my favorite superheroes and cartoon characters were there with me,” he happily tells the children before relieving his bowels in the classroom wastebasket. More recent skits, especially True Hollywood Stories by Charlie Murphy (Eddie’s real-life brother) have further solidified “Chappelle’s Show”‘s standing as the funniest thirty minutes on basic cable.

Yet many cannot overlook the fact that Chappelle’s skits tend to focus on one aspect: race. Nearly every segment features some kind of racial joke or slur. Chappelle is “allowed” to use the n-word since he himself is black, but many have complained that his show still perpetuates racial stereotypes, with whites being viewed as square nerds and blacks as pimps and drug dealers. Take, for example, the “Mad Real World” skit, in which one white guy shares a house with six blacks. While Chad tries to work hard at his job, his roommates smoke weed and play dice. One Real Worlder even stabs his dad, prison-style. At a socially aware and politically correct environment like a university, how are we supposed to respond to skits like this, or especially “The Niggar Family,” a send-up of “Leave It To Beaver”-style 50s sitcoms that features a wholesome Caucasian family with a questionable surname? The whole skit plays on African-American racial epithets: “He’s got those Niggar lips!” or, “That Timmy is one lazy Niggar!” Should we laugh or cringe?

Many students have no problem laughing. “I don’t tend to easily get upset by that stuff,” said sophomore Elliott White. “I don’t think he’s doing anything worse than, say, music videos.”

Others think Chappelle is actually attacking such prejudices rather than exploiting them. “I think it’s funny, but only because I know these stereotypes aren’t the norm,” said sophomore Jamie Thomas. “He’s poking fun at people who believe them.” Thomas thinks Chappelle is actually using his airtime to address the important topic of race. “It’s an important issue in America. I can’t walk anywhere and not feel black,” she said.

Alyse Rothrock agreed. “The way that Chappelle displays it, it’s a laugh, but he shows that it’s ridiculous,” she said, adding, “I don’t think it only pertains to African-American culture either, but to all racial slurs. I watched it with an Asian, a Caucasian, and I’m Mexican, and it hit home for everybody.”

Others take a more philosophical stance in defense of Chappelle. Said sophomore Karl Aaning, “In a lot of ways, he’s very similar to Socrates in that he goes around telling people they’re wrong. Rather than condemning him, as they did with Socrates, we should provide him ample space for his views. In interviews, he seems like the last person on Earth who would be racist. He just makes fun of what’s wrong. He made fun of Rick James because he was a cokehead. And there’s nothing wrong with that.”

So long as Chappelle enjoys that kind of backing, there’s no limit to the heights his show can achieve. There has always been a very thin line between the humorous and the offensive, and while “Chappelle’s Show” is constantly riding the fence between the two, there’s no denying that “Samuel Jackson Beer” and a mock R. Kelly video entitled “I Wanna Pee On You” are gut-bustingly hilarious. So if you haven’t yet experienced the comedic juggernaut that is Dave Chappelle, tune in tonight to see what all the fuss is about. Mmm mmm, bitch!

Whether you love it or hate it, you can’t ignore the spectacle of the musical. From movie classics like Gene Kelly’s “Singin’ in the Rain” to the recent Broadway sensation “Hairspray,” the musical has become an important staple of American theater, drawing both sharp critics and impassioned enthusiasts. The standard American musical employs elaborate sets and costumes which help ease the audience into a suspension of disbelief, where otherwise-normal characters spontaneously break into song whenever there’s a lull in the conversation. But deprive the audience of these visual distractions and you leave them with nothing more than the music, the dialogue, and their own imaginations.

Music and film student Eric Dienstfrey has done just that in his senior project, entitled “She’s Hideous!” The musical, set in 1920’s Vienna, tells the story of the unlikely relationship between a young artist struggling with a “painter’s block” of sorts, and the (presumably) human subject that ultimately wins him the recognition he desperately desires. Far from the classical image of beauty, this artist’s muse appears in the form of an absurdly ugly girl who can’t even manage to step outside without creating a disturbance. This ugliness is completely speculative, however, since the actors have no costumes; the only visual cues the production gives are in the form of dialogue.

Luckily, I had a chance to view a dress rehearsal of the musical before it debuts on April 3rd and was able to speak with its writer/director/pianist after the show.

Cadenza: Why write a musical without any visual elements?

Eric: I’m really attracted to acting through odd obstacles…I like acting through song, I think it’s an interesting way to tell a story…In terms of musical theater, and theater in general, there’s a lot of emphasis on staging, dance, costume design and set design, which is important, but to me the most important thing is the character, and in musical theater, the songs.

C: But even though the musical lacks any kind of visual stimulation, the characters seem to be concerned with the visual.

E: The concept of the show is about a very, very ugly woman, and about not judging her by normal standards, and not judging art by normal standards. I did the show in such a way that you can’t really judge it from how it looks.

C: Did you find having the focus on the sound of the musical over the visual aspect liberating, or was it something that you had to constantly keep in mind?

E: There are definitely certain jokes thrown in there just to take advantage of this, certain lines of dialogue, when they’re singing their stage directions at times, like in the tango when they’re undressing each other to the music and narrating it. That obviously wouldn’t be said if it was shown visually. I wouldn’t say it was liberating; it was sort of a challenge and from that challenge came something.

C: Why did you decide to set the musical in 1920’s Vienna?

E: I think, music-wise, the last real important movement, arguably, was the second Viennese school, with composers like Schoenberg, or Berg, or Weber, and twelve-tone music and later atonal music. I’ve always liked that type of music; there’s something really subtle about a lot of Schoenberg’s piano pieces. And I found it sort of humorous to think: what if Schoenberg were to write a musical?

C: So were you trying to write music that sounded like it came from the second Viennese school?

E: There’s sort of a mixture between Schoenberg-type stuff and 1920’s cabaret-ish music, in terms of the harmonics and certain types of chords and progressions. But I also tried to mix it with another composer that I like from the 70’s, Burt Bacharach.

C: Was the choice of piano and vocals as the only instrumentation out of convenience or did you have something else in mind?

E: I’m sort of a content-over-form person, if a choice has to be made out of convenience, that choice also has to be made out of what you’re doing in the show. In terms of convenience, I didn’t want to worry about getting people to learn the music, orchestrating and whatnot…I had so much else to deal with. So I chose a Schoenberg piece that’s just piano music, and it worked. And also, we’re dealing with the bare essentials of a show. The gimmicks of a brass line or a costume change or whatever, they’re all gimmicks. It’s not really what the content is.

C: Did you find yourself more interested in the music or the dialogue when you were writing this musical?

E: Well, the Schoenberg piece I use is actually six little piano pieces, so I wanted to have six songs in the show, and I had this arch idea of having [the artist’s] solo at the beginning and the end, and [the model’s] solo in between, with two duets in the middle. I’m not really a big fan of dialogue…most of this dialogue gets to the point.

She’s Hideous! will be performed on April 3rd at 7:00 at Steinberg Auditorium. Admission is free.