8
Thursday, October 24, 2002
'White Oleander' Captures Novel’s Drama in Rushed Format
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PHOTC COURTESY OF WARNER BROTHERS
Michelle Pfeiffer (right) and Alison Lohman play a mother-daughter pair struggling for identity and happiness
in the powerful film interpretation of the novel "White Oleander."
Japanese 'Spirited' Defies Animated Boundaries
By Brian Millikin
Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor
It took a long time for animated films
to get respect in the United States.
But audiences and academics still
remain cold to Japanese animated films.
Maybe it’s the foreign language or a fear
of bad English dubbing. Maybe it’s the
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"Spirited Away”
★★★★★
adult plots or a
lack of musical
sequences. Aside
from the juvenile
“Pokemon,” no
Japanese animated
film has found success in America.
If there’s any justice in the movie
world, “Spirited Away” will be the straw
the breaks that camel’s back.
From the remarkably fertile imagi
nation of landmark filmmaker Hayao
Miyazaki, “Spirited Away” has become
the biggest moneymaker in Japanese
history, and for good reason. There isn’t
a more refreshing film in theaters this
year than “Spirited Away.”
The animated masterpiece is blissful
ly bizarre and wildly imaginative, from
the rich stable of ghosts that populate
the film to the dreamy form of the nar
rative itself. “Spirited Away” is a rush of
creativity and is delightfully absurd -
different, and better for it.
“Spirited Away” reimagines and rein
vents the animated film with its ethereal
and moodily metaphorical take on Alice
Take 15/501 South towards Pittsboro
Exit Main St./Southern Village
RED DRAGON IB)
3:30-7:00-9:30
WHITE OLEANDER IHHH
4:00-7:10-9:40
SWEET HOME ALABAMA BSHS
3:45-7:15-9:35
THE TRANSPORTER lEEDS
3:00-5:15-7:30-9:45
vZ‘.” s STA Dlu .
$4.75 PIOITAII SEATIWc
( MOVIES AT TIMBERLYNE
Weaver Dairy at Airport Rd.
\ 933-8600 /
THE RING* i Daily 3:30,7 00,9:30
FORMULA 51* ® Daily 3:10,5:10,7:10,9:10
WHITE OLEANDER* m Daily 3:35,7:15,9:35
RED DRAGON i Daily 3:40, 7:05,9:40
SWEET HOME ALABAMA B 5 Daily 3:25,7:00,9:25
RULES OF ATTRACTION* ® Daily 3:10
THE TUXEDO E 0 Daily 5:25,7:25
( PLAZA THEATRE 'J
Elliott Rd. At East Franklin
Q 967-4737 J
ABANDON* IBS Daily 3:40,7:10,9:45
THE TRANPORTER* m Daily 3:15,5:15,7.25
KNOCKAROUND GUYS* B Daily 7:05
BROWN SUGAR E 0 Daily 3:25,7:00,9:45
BARBER SHOP m Daily 3:35,7:30,9:40
JONAH: A VEGGIETALES MOVIE 0 Daily 3:00,5:00
ft*
DIVERSIONS
and the rabbit hole. Spoiled adolescent
Chihiro (voiced in this English-dubbed
version by “Lilo and Stitch” star Daveigh
Chase) wanders with her parents into a
spooky abandoned amusement park.
When her parents eat part of a curious
feast lying unattended in a food stand,
they are transformed into pigs.
Darkness falls, and a terrified
Chihiro finds herself surrounded by a
vibrant sea of ghosts and spirits, all con
verging at the gigantic bathhouse in the
center of the living park. It’s a startling
and wondrous sequence, teeming with a
frightening suspense most scary movies
could hardly dream up.
Chihiro quickly becomes trapped as
an employee in the dizzying carnival
bathhouse, indentured to Yubaba, an
elderly witch with an enormous face.
Yubaba takes Chihiro’s name and
assigns her anew one- and when she
forgets her true name, she’ll be buried at
the spirit palace forever.
“Spirited Away” is a film about chil
dren but for adults. Miyazaki’s film
plays to both young and mature audi
ROMAN CANDLE
From Page 5
Furthermore, it will be appearing on the
cover of the newest issue as a promotion
for the festival.
And in last week’s CMJ’s Top Ten
Most Added Songs, which gauges play
time songs get on college radio stations
across the nation, Roman Candle’s Latin
inspired love song “You Don’t Belong to
This World” ranked ninth. MTV’s special
Own OMUmww, PfTTRTJUNMPfT WEEKLY
“AMAZING! ( J
GRADE: A!
EMI MWcftdt, THE NEW YORK TIMES '
“MAGNETIC AND J&X
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7:10, 9:20 SAT-SUN 2:10, 4:40
SPIKITEV AWAY
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MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING
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By Michelle Jarboe
Staff Writer
The more extreme the physical beau
ty, the more trauma and dysfunction is
masked by that beauty in the blonde
ridden movie adaptation ofjanet Fitch’s
“White Oleander.”
Following the lines of the novel, the
film centers on
Ingrid Magnussen
(Michelle Pfeiffer)
and her daughter
Astrid (Alison
Lohman), a dis
, Tricwth
/;ey/ew/
"White Oleander"
★★★★☆
tinctly Aryan mother-daughter team.
But beneath the facades of their
appearances, both Ingrid and Astrid -
along with the other women featured in
the film - aren’t anywhere as close to
true perfection as they might seem at the
beginning of the story.
Though overtly telling the story of
Astrid’s life in foster care while her
mother serves life in prison for murder,
the film actually depicts the dynamic
between Astrid and Ingrid.
This plot may sound like the perfect
setup for an estrogen fest. But it stays
true enough to Fitch’s psychological and
dramatic novel to prevent comparisons
to humorous and less weighty chick
flicks like “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya
Sisterhood.”
There’s little to laugh at in the course
of Astrid’s travels from temporary home
to temporary home, from the outside
ences in a way that all the double enten
dres of “Shrek” never could.
The film is impossibly thick with
symbolism and meaning, with lyrical
imagery and an undertow of philoso
phy. The film challenges its audience
but never abandons it, alternating fluid
ly between comedy and drama, subtle
frights and sublime thrills. There are
moments of silence, when the film takes
an introspective pause, that U.S. ani
mated films sorely lack.
“Spirited Away” is an animated film
by default alone - it could just as easily
have been a live film. It certainly lives
and breathes like one.
It’s probably a bitter pill to swallow
for a lot of U.S. film fans that this year’s
best film to date is not only animated
but from a foreign country. “Spirited
Away” has that much magic.
Respect for the animated genre has
been a long time coming - now it just
needs to go this one last mile.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
“You Hear It First” will feature the band
this winter, it will appear on the World
Cafe program, and it even has a U.K. tour
planned for several months next year.
Bassist Carter Gaj put it best: “Our
future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.”
With all of the good news and praise,
you would think Roman Candle would
be getting a swollen head. But just when
you think the band members are getting
too big for shows at the local dive bar,
they rekindle their home-grown feel.
Roman Candle is a major band with
a local attitude, which means despite the
money and madness, despite the shows
and signings, despite the groupies and
gold albums, it will still enjoy - more
than anything - playing “Happy
Birthday” for a fan.
Quiet and composed, keyboardist
Timshel Matheny, Skip Matheny’s wife,
summed up the band’s sentiments.
“Above all else, we are just thankful.”
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
M. Night Shynmalan’s .... _ , . „
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Two thumbs up . “Amazing"
Punch Drunk Love is swnrt am) stianyfi
: -i critics (including this one) In tears'
| O i PUNCH-DRUNK
LOVE
RI VOLUTION H ' A i •
world to the prison-walled environment
of her manipulative but enrapturing
mother and from complete captivity to
struggling freedom.
But the characters are sometimes
amusing for their oddly believable
eccentricities.
Robin Wright Penn -another blonde
- dramatically diverges from memo
rable past roles such as Buttercup in
“The Princess Bride.”
Taking on the part of Starr, a short
skirted cleavage-sporting foster mother,
her catch phrase quickly becomes,
“Have you accepted Jesus as your per
sonal savior?”
Each foster family incident is dra
matically set yet illustrated with restraint
by director Peter Kosminsky. The film
works much like a book, with sections
devoted to each of the families and inter
ludes both with Ingrid and with Astrid’s
graphic-novelist-in-training love interest
(Patrick Fugit).
The story only suffers from the essen
tial nature of translation from paper to
the big screen - compression. With
fewer foster families to harden Astrid
along tlie way and without much of the
sensually detailed imagery of the novel,
“White Oleander” becomes far more
straightforward, and a bit rushed, in film
form.
Personalities are less developed, and
many essential facets of the novel were
obviously placed in the dustbin in favor
of achieving an accessible 110-minute
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PHOTO COURTESY OF DREAMWORKS
Samara (Daveigh Chase) appears in "The Ring" in a strange videotape
that kills people seven days after they view it.
Psychological Thriller 'Ring'
Haunts Screen and Viewer
By Duncan Pittman
Staff Writer
Talk about violence on television.
Parents might advocate that TV rots
your brain, but in the case of “The
Ring,” the new film by Gore Verbinski,
parents might want you to stick to the
idiot box and stay away from the big
, — —^ r fmov/e>
review/
"The Ring"
★★★★☆
screen.
“The Ring”
stars Naomi Watts
(“Mulholland
Drive”), a single
mom who search-
es for answers behind a mysterious
video tape rumored to kill you after you
watch it. The tape is a grainy, black and
white short film reminiscent of an
experimental student film.
Its spooky visuals, from creepy
women in mirrors and dead horses to
burning trees and icky insects, are
accompanied by searing sound effects.
It’s shocking and disturbing to the
point that when the tape ends, the
viewer is thoroughly entranced by the
images.
Sljp Satlg (Tar liM
running time.
Leaving bits of the plot to the imagi
nation, some cuts suggest that pivotal
features of the storyline, such as sexual
interludes,'were discarded to keep a PG
-13 rating and thus allow for a wider
range of filmgoers.
Though these manipulations satisfy
the length and rating requirements guar
anteed to draw a wider range of filmgo
ers into theaters, they also alienate the
audience a bit more than necessary and
could potentially confuse viewers who
cannot fill in the gaps from having read
the novel.
Nevertheless, superb acting and a
captivating pace make “White
Oleander” an engrossing film that takes
familiar actors and casts them in new,
intriguing positions. Pfeiffer and
Lohman dominate the film - the moth
er’s detached and methodical methods
of destruction clash with the daughter’s
continual attempts, and failures, to
escape domination and to find some
warmth.
“White Oleander” makes the greatest
impact as a book, but the story survives
and is well-told on screen.
Through flawless acting, the film
manages to provoke thought and to cre
ate a complex world, one that isn’t so
pumped with blonde estrogen as to
become a cliche.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Soon after, however, the phone rings,
and a child’s voice informs the viewer
that he will die in seven days. The film
traces Watts’ quest to put a stop to the
tape’s grisly multimedia massacre -with
one chilling revelation after another.
Unlike the usual foray of campy hor
ror films like the “Scream” trilogy and
all its bastard knockoffs, “The Ring” is
unique because it plays with the human
psyche and the boundaries of film ver
sus reality. While the film focuses on
death, its emphasis on keeping the audi
ence members cringing in their seats is
alive and well.
The film also works because it uses
recurring imagery to reinforce images
from the video tape in the viewer’s
mind and guides you through the char
acters’ excruciating quest to stop the
ghosdy filmmaker. The tragic and dis
turbing mood of the film is accentuated
by rainy, melancholy landscapes and
decaying settings drenched in a sullen
blue filter.
And the script deserves particular
applause for not falling into the
Hollywood cliche of ending a mystery
by releasing a tortured soul - though
the audience might think it will.
To say “The Ring” is disturbing
would be an understatement -but rest
assured, its frightening images will stay
in your mind and creep you out hours
after you’ve left the theater. The film
trailer says, “Before you die, you see the
ring,” but that statement would be best
reworded to all moviegoers as, “Before
you die, see ‘The Ring.’”
Just don’t tell mom and dad.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached atartsdesk@unc.edu.
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