SIN Entertainment

'Sunset Park'

Rated R

initially rejects her as a know-
nothing female. And, initially,
fter appearing together on they are right. But as Perlman
"Taxi," husband and wife stays up at night reading coach-
duo Danny DeVito and ing books and watching game
Rhea Perlman pursued dif- tapes, she finds that she has the
ferent career paths. DeVito found ability to mold this group of mis-
success as an actor in film, while fits into winners, both on and off
Perlman enjoyed a long stint as the court. Naturally, the film cul-
Carla on television's "Cheers." minates with the team playing
More recently, DeVito has had at Madison Square Garden for
string of hit movies as a produc- the city championship.
er, including Pulp Fiction and Get
If this were the first movie of
Shorty. And Perlman? Well, she its kind, it would have been mild-
hasn't been as productive.
ly interesting. Had it been the
So, what did DeVito do when fifth of its kind, it would have
he got the opportunity to
been offensively pre-
produce TriStar Pictures'
dictable. But, this
M o VIES
Sunset Park? He gave
movie has been made
Perlman the lead role. As
so many times before
far as gifts from husbands to that it has practically no effect on
wives go, he probably should the audience at all.
have gotten her flowers instead.
The characters are so familiar
Perlman plays Phyllis Saroka, we can anticipate how they will
a schleppy Brooklynite whose respond to every situation and,
dream is to open a restaurant in as a result, the film lacks any
the Caribbean. Having little sense of tension, dramatic or
money or family support, she comic. In the end, it doesn't mat-
does what anyone would do in ter whether they win the big
her situation — she gets a job game or not because we know
coaching boys basketball at an that everything will turn out all

New CD Releases

as Smashing Pumpkins and
Urge Overkill.
If there's one knock on
this mostly impressive debut
album, it's that Kidd's songs
lean too much on the quiet-
to-loud dynamic that's be-
come a modern rock cliche.
Broadcaster's best songs are
actually those that stay
tonally consistent, such as
the slow-burning opening
cut "Aerosmith" or roaring
tracks like "Anna (Get Your
Gun)," "Revved Up" and the
Seattle-leaning "Never Ever
Care."

A

1@c)

Guided By Voices
Under The Bushes Under
The Stars
Matador

I

Maria McKee
Life Is Sweet
Geffen

S

Rhea Perlman, center, stars as a novice boys varsity basketball coach.

inner-city high school that hasn't
won in years. Although she has
no coaching experience or knowl-
edge of the game, she embraces
her job, making up for her lack
of qualifications by working hard
and eating potato chips.
Of course, her team, a collec-
tion of baggy-shorted attitudes,

right in a namby-pamby, feel-
good kind of way. In other words,
Pm not telling you not to see this
movie; I'm telling you that you
already have.

1/2

— Richard Halprin

Bagel Barometer

Outstanding

Very Good
Good
Fair

his is the Guided By
Voices album for those
who haven't gotten
it yet. You're not termi-
nally unhip if
you haven't; GBV's
approach can be
overwhelming,
stringing together
short song snippets
that work less as
independent works
and more as pieces
of sprawling suites
of sound.
On Under the
Bushes — the Day-
ton, Ohio, group's
24th release —
songwriter Robert
Pollard gives his
songs a little more
room to stretch out
— some of them
even hit the two-
minute mark, pos-
itively verbose by
Pollard's standards
but still within
the early Ramones'
mantra.
Fortunately, Pollard
shows that after all the great
hooks and melodic teases of
GBV's previous albums, he can
write more fully formed songs
that are just as appealing, as ev-
idenced by "Ghosts of a Differ-
ent Dream," "Big Boring
Wedding," "Rhine Jive Click,"
"Cut-Out Witch" — virtually any
of the two-dozen tracks that
you'll find yourself humming
along to within the first 10 or 15
seconds.

ince Lone Justice
split up nearly a
decade ago, McKee
has been a moving
target. Her eponymous
solo debut in 1989 of-
fered ethereal ambience,
while 1993's You Gotta
Sin to be Saved was
Lone Justice redux with a soul
vaccination.
On Life is Sweet, McKee has
left her rock mothership again,
this time pursuing a dense, fre-
netic art-pop sound driven by
Spiders From Mars-style guitars
(played by McKee herself) and
pumped up with lush production
and swirling strings.
Sometimes it's masterful; pop
songs don't get much more in-
fectious than "Everybody."
Sometimes it's a mess — or
maybe "I'm Not Listening" was
meant to sound like it could fall
apart on each succeeding cho-
rus.
The other 10 songs fall in be-
tween, but there's a constant
sense that McKee has done an

injustice to some strong
compositions ("This Per-
fect Dress," "Absolutely
Barking Stars," "Human")
by more sound than they really
need.

tOck:)

Triple Fast Action
Broadcaster
Capitol

t the beginning of Broad-
caster, Triple Fast Action's
Wes Kidd sings that he's
"got some Aerosmith and
some Stiff Little Fingers." That's
a fairly apt assessment of where
this Chicago quartet comes from
— but don't forget healthy dos-
es of its hometown heroes such

A

sO ckA

—Gary Graff

87

