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8 Thursday, January 20, 2000 'Girl' Flops With Superficial Psychoanalysis B\ Jerem\ Hirt/ Staff Writer The largest eyes and lips in the enter tainment industry (Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, respectively) star in “Girl, Interrupted.” an unnatural cross between “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" and “Thelma and Louise.” Ryder plays Susanna, a sui cidal young woman com mitted to a |j| Movie Review “Girl, Interrupted” ft mental institution. There she meets Lisa Jolie , a “bad girl” - promiscuous, con trolling and generally unruly. The two befriend each other and share ostensibly touching and hilarious misadventures dealing with their fellow loonies until Strong Performances Power 'Boys Don't Cry' By Jim Martin Staff Writer In the relatively new genre of queer cinema, early films (starting in the 70s; featured the tragic homo sexual, one misunderstood by the masses and inevitably smiled. Recent Movie Review "Boys Don’t Cry" frit queer-centered films (“Get Real,” “Billv’s Hollywood Screen Kiss”! thank- Walk away with % CASH in your hands! Participate in our life-saving & financially c rewarding plasma donation program. IMMEDIATE COMPENSATION! J Donors Earn up to $165 per Month! §s||||3[ \) ★ New donors earn S2O for first visit, $35 for the second visit within 7 days. New donors call for appointment. Call or stop by. parking validated Sera-Tec 4^ www.citysearch.com/RDU/SeraTec 1091 /2 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill • 942-0251 • M-THIO-6; FlO-4 FREEt-shirt with orders of slo.°° or greater. (while supplies last) Mon-Fri 11am-10pm • 932-9010 • 161/2 E. Franklin St (Beyond Bandido's ALL the way thru the Rathskellar Alley) B hrvgd. tragedy befalls a minor character. This event causes another, more important character to rethink her life. The result is a climax that became obvi ous over an hour before it happened - an excruciatingly plodding hour, at that. Occasionally, when their characters aren’t saying anything aimed at further muddling their personalities, Ryder and Jolie exchange a refreshing, sincere moment, surprisingly well-acted. Then they return to lines unworthy of Steven Seagal (“You’re already dead. You’re already f- — dead,”) or impene trable metaphors such as, “Maybe I was just a girl, interrupted.” What does that phrase mean? Having not read ihe autobiography on which “Girl, Interrupted” is based, I am not sure if the phrase had any relevance in the source material.. But 1 couldn't divine a good connection to the film. fullv strayed awav from AIDS as a cen tral plot theme and tackled love. So with the advancement of the genre, the tragedy factor has been con siderably lessened directors are lean ing tow ard more uplifting fare. Then where does Kelly Pierce’s “Boys Don’t Cry” factor in to the mix? Her homage to Nebraskan Teena Brandon, a woman brutally raped and murdered by homophobic rednecks, harkens to the past, but Pierce’s gaze looks very much to the reality of today. In Lincoln, Neb. circa 1993, Teena Brandon cut off her hair, strapped down DIVERSIONS Movies “Maybe it was the TiOs,” Susanna says at the outset, in one of many unneces sary voice-overs, trying to explain her traumatic experience. Just in ease the audience doesn’t catch it then, director James Mangold (“Copland”) goes out of his way in the first reel to remind us of the decade in which it’s set, throwing in references to John Lennon and ’Nam where they aren’t needed. Mangold leaves some plot elements less than fully fleshed out, to varied effect. Susanna’s pre-asylum sexual rela tionship with a married man is never explored, leaving us to wonder if it con tributed to her condition, or resulted from it, or both. Later she and Lisa exchange an inex plicable chaste kiss. Nothing in the pic ture either addresses this or builds up to it; the kiss is totally out of place, regard less of whether it really happened. her breasts, stuffed her underwear and switched her name to Brandon Teena. Taking on the persona of a young man, she searched for her Juliet. In her words, she wasn’t a lesbian. In the words of her killers, she was sick and needed to die. Pierce doesn’t make this pretty to watch. Her personal story makes the viewer leel Brandon’s desperation. The harrowing narrative receives its power from its principal actresses. The remarkable metamorphosis that actress Hilary Swank (“Beverly Hills 90210”) undergoes to become a man inspires awe. And Chloe Sevigny’s role as Cardboard left at the curb WILL NOT be recycled. 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We’re 1 miles on the left. 7s, 3136 SOUTHWICK DRIVE • GRAHAM, NC 27253 yfcv- , I XIMULS 2/29/00’VALID WH II .STIIDLNT OB FACULTY 1.0. 6 weeks. 6 credits, as low as $2,800 (based on typical costs of tuition, room & board, books, and airfare) Term 1: May 24-July 2 • Term 2: July 6-August 13 www.outreach.hawaii.edu • toll-free 1 (800) 862-6628 University of Hawaii at Manoa, Summer Sessions Ultimately, the single shoddiest aspect of this movie is its main charac ters’ lack of realistic motivation at crucial moments. For instance, Susanna comes to a major revelation at the close which somehow breaks through Lisa’s psycho logical defenses. But given what we’ve seen of Lisa’s previously tough skin, and the nature of the confrontation (which seems more psychobabble than insight), this final triumph is totally unbelievable. Maybe the movie really appeals only to women, as one critic suggested. Maybe those with a more innate con nection to the film’s theme of a w oman’s difficulty finding her place in the ’6os could overlook its many flaws. Maybe it’s just a film, interrupted. (A phrase that still doesn’t mean anything.) The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu. Brandon’s unsuspecting yet sympathet ic love interest is touching. The startling Oscar buzz surrounding both women has brought attention to an otherwise low-budget art film. With the murder of Matthew Shepard still registering on America’s radar screen. Pierce crafts a film with a strong message, “a true story about finding the courage to be yourself.” I’d say that fits in the annals of Hollywood quite well, not just in the queer cinema genre alone. The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu. 'Hurricane' Hits Theaters With Well-Crafted Drama By Ferris Morrison Staff Writer When a Brooklyn teenager picked up an old book at a used book sale, his teacher told him, “Sometimes we don’t pick the books we read. They pick us.” The same could be said for films. Denzel Washington’s latest drama, “T h e Hurricane,” is the true story of Rubin “Hurricane” j|k Movie Review "The Hurricane" fffff Carter, a middleweight boxer wrongful ly convicted of three murders in the 19605. The film chronicles his struggle to proclaim his innocence and find peace within himself. “T he Hurricane” begins when Lesara Martin, a young Brooklyn native who moved to Canada to receive a better education, finds Carter’s autobiography at a used book sale. Lesara immediate ly feels a connection to Carter and ulti mately goes to meet him. Director Norman Jewison creates a film that flows easily from scene to scene. The story danced back and forth from Carter’s boxing days to his days behind bars in New Jersey. Jewison gives the film a distinct doc Star Power Can t Salvage Spaced-Out 'Supernova' By Jlstin Winters Staff Writer Pieced together like Frankenstein’s monster and twice as scary, the newest sci-fi yawner “Supernova” teleports into theaters as undoubtedly the worst flick of 2000 so far. With big stars like Lou Diamond Phillips and Angela Bassett, one might believe that “Supernova” would be a lit tle more than a $65 million B movie, but someone made a drastic mis- |l Movie Review "Supernova" f take when greenlighting this umpteenth addition to the “Alien” clone clan. The setup for the movie is so convo luted that the audience is forced to forgo all hopes of explanation 10 minutes in. Trying really hard to catch on, 1 deci phered that the story revolves around a group of space people (including Phillips and Bassett) who live together in a spectacularly tacky rescue ship. 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Franklin St. (Bank of America Building) Chapel Hill - 933-6133 (Former Havana Location) aiir Satlij alar HM umentary feel, going so far as to use actual footage of Carter’s fights and of protesters begging for his release. Most of the white characters in the film, especially Detective Vincent Della Pesca, are portrayed as genuinely evil people. This aids the audience in seeing the world through Carter’s eyes and feeling the blatant racism he witnessed during his lifetime. Together, Jewison and Director of Photography Roger Deakins juxtapose one of Carter's fights in the boxing ring with a fight he prepared for in prison, showing his lifelong battle. The scene Hashes back and forth smoothly from the black and white boxing ring to the Technicolor prison cell. Washington is known for his roles as powerful historical figures. His portray al of “Malcolm X” won him an Oscar; his portrayal of Carter will certainly cause a stir in the bonnets of Hollywood moguls and muster up discussion of another Oscar nomination. “The Hurricane" is not a story of courtroom drama, but one of human emotion and the power of a man to sur vive adversity, if books and films can pick those that read and watch them, hope that “The Hurricane” chooses you. The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu. ing, the movie uses camera angles and smoke to cover up the naughty parts. To sum it up, this movie has so many major problems that any educated moviegoer will have a field day singing its un-praises. I kept waiting for a young audience member to cry out afterwards, “Mommy, that was really dumb.” About a year ago, Director Walter Hill decided that he didn’t like the movie either, jumped ship and left Francis Ford Coppola (yes, Mr. Godfather) to paint-by-number the movie into something reprehensible. Acting-wise, everyone in the film seems like they thought they were in a better movie. Phillips gives his best comedic role yet as a medic on the ship that trades the sultry Robin Tunney in for an evil alien artifact that looks strangely like a jello-mold. The bulk of the film’s cost must have been devoted to bad special effects instead of a script. Space has never looked so boring and the film seems to be missing an entire middle section. Either way, the only thing that makes “Supernova” anything close to super is the way that it will fade from theaters. The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Jan. 20, 2000, edition 1
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