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‘Heart’ shoots beyond
sports flick fare, scores
BY RACHEL BRODY
STAFF WRITER
“The Heart of the Game” has
enough game to be interesting
and enough heart to be inspira
tional, without being sappy.
Director Ward Serrill fol
lows the Roosevelt High School
Rough Riders girls’ basketball
team for seven years and pieces
together a moving collection of
the importance of teamwork and
the strength of one’s self.
Rap artist Ludacris narrates
the Seattle high school team’s
every move, on and off the court.
Enter Bill Resler, a tubby,
white-bearded tax law professor
at the University of Washington.
As the new head coach of the
women’s varsity basketball team,
Resler leaves the X-and-0 strate
gies on the chalkboard and instead
focuses on the “inner circle” the
teams’ confidential pow-wows
free from parental input and even
Resler’s guidance.
Resler’s unorthodox tactics
transform the dwindling bas
ketball program to undefeated
champions with a packed house.
This story might seem like just
another heartwarming tale of the
underdog team, with an eccentric
coach who challenges his play
ers, leads them to victory and
then walks away with the Coach
of the Year award after only one
season.
But it’s only the first quarter,
the movie still has a long way to
go
“ The Heart of the Game” can
not be denied the touching and
inspirational feel associated with
great sports flicks, but the film
CULT MOVIES
FROM PAGE 7
Once the word is out, then,
everyone in the cult might as well
drink their metaphorical Kool-
Aid.
In the meantime, however, cult
movies simply step in to fill a void
mainstream film studios cannot.
They make viewers feel like part
of some secret club, one that meets
in whatever basement has the moist
Ed Wood posters and whose only
password is, “Dude, I finally saw
Peter Jackson’s ‘Braindead.’”
Cameron Price, a local filmmak
er who works with 301films.com,
says the appeal of cult movies is all
about leveling the terrain.
“It’s their ability to connect with
an audience, because these direc
tors are people who got their start
basically by making movies for no
money with their friends. So you
watch Peter Jackson’s first movie
that could have been done by any
body,” Price says.
“He just had the time and the
energy to do it.”
The Internet made “Snakes on
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goes beyond warm fuzzies and
stays grounded in the nuances of
reality.
Resler not only pushes the
physical strength of the team
but adds a very mental aspect to
the team’s strategy. Each season
Resler selects a theme that the
players use to visualize strategies
and psych themselves.
When the girls are the “Pack of
Wolves,” they talk about smelling
players’ weaknesses and moving
in for the kill.
Some of the most humorous
parts come from pre-game chants
of “draw blood!” —a shock to
many parents who came to watch
their little girls play ball.
And then the coach scoots by
screaming, “Look them in the
eyes! Go for the kill!”
The Rough Riders are unique
and surprise those outside their
tight inner circle.
When Damellia Russell enrolls
at Roosevelt, she feels out of
place but is in no way out of her
league.
MOVIE SHORTS
Gabrielle
French director Patrice Chereau’s
adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s short
story “The Return” is more like a
single episode of a daytime soap
opera with subtitles than what it
aims to be: a drama about setting
love aside once you find it
Gabrielle (Isabelle Huppert) is
the trophy wife of bourgeois Jean
Hervey (Pascal Greggory), and she
a Plane” what it is today (if that’s a
compliment). Without that world
wide series of tubes, “Snakes,”
would have been a late-summer
joke.
To feed the frenzy, a vast buffet
of Internet message boards allow
cult movie hounds to find one
another and swap random titles
no normal moviegoer would ever
touch.
But while the Internet certain
ly can bring past titles to promi
nence, it almost can be the death
of upcoming ones.
Cult films existed long before
the Internet, whether they be “This
Is Spinal Tap,” “Plan 9 From Outer
Space” or to go back to 1932, Tod
Browning’s “Freaks.”
What unites those seemingly
random titles, Price says, is the
manner in which they grew by
pure, slow-moving word of mouth
among friends, as opposed to the
Internet superhighway, where the
speed limit has no name.
“In the old days, what made a
cult movie was the fact that you
couldn’t see it,” Price says. “Like
with Tod Browning’s ‘Freaks’, there
Diversions
MGVItREVIEW
THE HEART OF THE GAME
Her mother placed Russell, a
black freshman good enough to
make the women’s varsity team,
in the mostly white high school
because of its academic reputa
tion and athletic program.
The film turns its focus from
the team at this point and places a
great emphasis on Russell and her
relationship with Resler. This shift
unfortunately cuts connections
to the other players, but Russell’s
story is one worth telling.
Like all sports films before it, the
game is a metaphor, and you don’t
have to be a die-hard fan to get it
But the film needs no celebrities
or pumped-up pep rally music to
draw audiences in and make them
care.
Contact the Diversions Editor
at dive@unc.edu.
eventually becomes completely
apathetic toward her husband
because his business success is his
main priority. She feels he possess
es her instead of loving her.
Huppert and Greggory’s perfor
mances are mediocre, with a lack of
chemistry between the characters,
even when they’re fighting.
It is simply a filming of Conrad’s
short story, but does not move the
story along as fast as it could have.
- Shelly Fullwood
was a 30- or 40-year period when
that movie wasn’t even available.
Things never will be like that again
because when something is put out
there once, on the opening night,
it’s discussed on the Internet, so
you can’t build up that word of
mouth in the same way.”
Whether cult movies still can be
bom is up for grabs, but the ones
audiences laugh at but secretly
love never will fade away.
“These movies think outside the
mainstream Hollywood box office,
and there’s a lot of film fans who
like that, because they’re sick of
seeing ‘Mission Impossible: Part
73,’” Gamble says.
“You have people who love
those big blockbusters and don’t
veer off that path very much, but
then you’ll always have filmgoers
who really seek those smaller films
out.”
For those people, someone’s
already made a direct-to-video
release of “Snakes on a lYain.” And
God bless them for it
Contact the Diversions Editor
atdive@unc.edu.
Superchunk: Live
from rocks heyday
You hear it all the time: Back
in the day, Chapel Hill had all
the trappings to become the next
Seattle.
We’d fostered Ben Folds. We
had the seedy local clubs, the'
breeding grounds of independent
rock music. We had spawned
Superchunk —and a subsequent
recording label from frontman
Mac McCaughan and bassist
Laura Ballance, Merge Records.
Way back 10 to 12 years ago,
riding the last breaths of grunge
from the Pacific Northwest, the
climate for new music in the
Triangle was exciting and fresh,
says Frank Heath, owner of Cat’s
Cradle.
“There was sort of a buzz,
partly because there was a buzz in
Seattle,” he says.
On Friday local music fans will
get a chance to wax nostalgic for
the old school when Superchunk
takes the Cradle stage to celebrate
the Orange County Social Club’s
five-year anniversary.
Jim Wilbur, Superchunk’s
guitarist since its second album,
1991’s No Pocky for Kitty, says
the band’s success —and all the
town buzz it fed was a pleasant
surprise.
“At least when we started, there
wasn’t really like a concept of suc
cess ... there was no really driving
force,” he says.
“There was that desire there,
but it was so not a viable reality at
that point,” Wilbur says of bands
setting out to make records and—
as Superchunk did inadver
tently make it big.
At the Cat’s Cradle show, the
group will play music that is now,
as it always has been, created in
the spirit of having fun, Wilbur
says.
The band has been on semi
hiatus for the last five years and
has taken projects as they’ve
come along. But Wilbur says
Superchunk’s long-term goals are
as relative now as ever:
“There’s no grand plan, and
there never really has been.”
Last spring the group repre
sented Merge at the annual South
by Southwest music festival in
Austin, Texas. In November the
band will play for “The Daily
Show” with Jon Stewart’s anniver
sary party.
About 15 years after the group’s
initial Chapel Hill indie-baby
glory, Wilbur says the decelera-
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HALLS (OCSC ivyear Roman Candle" $7
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HUGHES" Helvetia" (SlB/S2O)
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22 FR CITIZEN COPE w/ Alice Smith 30 MODRAGONSHIP w/ Special
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CARRBORO CALLING
tion toward unglamorous, inher
ent when musical trends change
and band members start having
babies, was a welcome shift.
How does a band that codified
what it meant to be from Chapel
Hill go from being all the rage to
being almost 40 years old?
“It’s funny how quickly you
go from being cutting edge to
lame,” Wilbur says.
Dated or not, Superchunk has
cemented a spot on the list of acts
whose surge to the popular spot
light brought a college town along
for the ride.
And while talented bands are
still bountiful in Chapel Hill,
Heath says, the audience for
music has grown larger and more
complex making it harder to
find that devoted fan base.
“I think the average clubgoer’s
interests are rrfore diversified ...
there are not as many people who
are sort of concentrating on local
bands or one particular type of
music,” Heath says.
As Chapel Hill has grown,
Wilbur says, its music patronage
might have lost that 1990s tight
knit feel.
“It used to be you’d go down to
the Cradle, and you’d know every
body,” he says. The bond might
still be there, Wilbur adds, but it’s
been a while since his last night
on the town.
For Superchunk it’s OK to be
no longer considered the driving
force that would make Chapel
Hill the next Emerald City.
The shifting scale of media
approval for alternative music is
created largely by music reviews,
Wilbur says. And many rock crit
ics, he says, are young only
vaguely cognizant of the time
when the quartet was the East
Coast “it” band.
“The impetus was never to be
cool,” Wilbur said. “It was just
being honest to what we were and
what we are.” V
X
Contact Margaret Hair
at mhair@unc.edu.
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 CALEXICO
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WE ARE ALSO PRESENTING...
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- BEST
thursday, august 31,2006
DI VERECOMMENDS
Album bom the Vaults:
Sonny's Crib - Sonny ClaricThis five
song set from one of jazz piano's
understated bigmen is, listen after
listen, a lesson in careful note
choice and just the right amount of
swing.'Come Rain or Come Shine'is
a solid track.
Movie Rental Pick:
"Repo Man": Emilio Estevez plays a
young punk rocker turned repo man.
Also featuring: aliens, conspiracy
theories and a killer soundtrack with
Black Flag.
Something Random:
Mrs. Freshley's pastries:These vend
ing machine standbys are absolute
ly delicious. Check out the Jumbo
Honey Bun or Texas Cinnamon Roll.
Events:
TODAY
► The Old Ceremony
► West End Wine Bar | The self
described pop-noir'group will play
two sets, led by Django Haskins on
guitar. 10 p.m. $3.
FRIDAY
► Superchunk with Tenement Halls
► Cat's Cradle | The band that gave
Chapel Hill most of its indie-rock
cred in the '9os plays for the Orange
County Social Club's anniversary
bash. 8:30 p.m. sl2 advance, sls at
the door.
SATURDAY
► The Presidents of the United States
of America
► Moore Square Park, Raleigh |*
Continuing the "Hey, remember
these guys? They're still playing!" line
of Raleigh's Downtown Live series. 9
p.m. FREE
MONDAY
► SkyTerrian Hip Hop
► The Library | DJ Merlin and DJ
Forge pump it out for the first
Monday of the month dance party.
10 p.m. FREE.
WEDNESDAY
► Cities, Grey Young
- The Reservoir | Guitary quartet
—and UNC alums Cities play the
Carrboro set. 10 p.m. No cover, 21 and
up with club membership.
Movies in the Union:
None. Happy Labor Day!
Contact the Diversions Editor
atdive@unc.edu.
9