Rated R
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'Arcadia'
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o the ancient Greeks, Arca- quent. Surrounding these two are
dia was a rural paradise; to a constellation of stars, I only re-
18th-century thinkers, the gret that Mrs. Chater — the ob-
English in particular, Arca- ject of every man's amorous
dia represented an idyllic, clas- attentions (including Lord By-
sical past, something to aspire to. ron's) — is only talked about. But
To Tom Stoppard, the author her husband's cuckoldry is so
ofArcaclia, it is a symbol of man's droll in John Seibert's charac-
folly, foibles and obsession. All of terization that we forgive her ab-
which he illuminates with great, sence.
roaring wit and sharp dialogue,
In the 20th century, Hannah
as well as with low comedy and Jarvis, an author, is smartly
wonderfully interesting charac- played by Margo Skinner — she
ters spanning nearly 200
who can make a look of
years.
Raul E. Esparza distaste speak multi-
Arcadia is the love sto- and Dana Powers tudes. Her competition is
ry of Thomasina Coverly,
Acheson in
the don, Bernard
a young woman in early Meadow Brook's Nightingale. Played by
production of
1800s rural England who
Robin Chadwick, he is by
is on the brink of sexual Tom Stoppard's turns a lout, a poet, a
and intellectual awaken- Arcadia, running greedy-guts, a con man
ing. The 19th-century through April 23. and an actor up to the rig-
scenes in her stately home
ors of restoration comedy,
alternate with a 20th-century un- farce and, certainly, anything
raveling mystery surrounding Stoppard hands him — which is
poet Lord Byron's visit to the the starring role.
Coverly home and the reason for
Designer Peter W. Hicks has
his subsequent departure from impeccably set the one-scene-two-
England. There are seven such century milieu of the beautifully
alternating scenes and in the arcaded room of the Coverly
last, the past and the pre-
home, right down to the
sent merge as "geniuses
tortoise with a painted
THEATER
waltz and everything is
shell. His costumes, too,
found and lost."
are superior.
Great works can embrace op-
Arcadia is a dense, brilliant
posites and make them whole. play requiring audience partici-
Arcadia does.
pation: listening and thinking. If
Meadow Brook's Geoffrey you're up to the challenge, Mead-
Sherman has directed a superb ow Brook has created theatrical
cast with elegance and playful- Arcadia.
ness. He, too, embraces opposites
— lumpishness and subtlety.
Dana Powers Acheson brings
great humor and passion to her
role as Thomasina Coverly; as
— Michael Margolin
her tutor Septimus Hodge, Raul
E. Esparza is vibrant and elo-
Michael Margolin writes about
00 00
the arts.
ue to the complexi-
ty and nature of
the subject, I would
have thought J.G.
Ballard's 1973 book
Crash to be unfilmable.
When I discovered that
the movie was to be di-
rected by David Cro-
nenberg (Dead Ringers,
M. Butterfly), I figured
that if anyone could
make some sense of
William S. Burroughs'
Naked Lunch and put it
on the screen, he could
probably do Crash jus-
tice. But, maybe not.
Crash is an auto-erot-
ic (pun intended) story
about James Ballard (James Vaughn states his goal
leather and chrome
Cr onenberg's
Spader), who loses control of his as "the reshaping of the David
full-body support suit
Crash st ars James
car and crashes head-on into Dr. human body by modern
with leg braces.
Spader and Holly
Helen Remington (Holly technology," with an ad-
I was left wanting
Hu nter.
Hunter); the two meet up later ditional interest in
much more insight
at the car impound and become recreating the auto ac-
into the psychological
sexually involved. Dr. Reming- cidents of the famous, such as drives of the characters and how
ton introduces Ballard to
James Dean and Jayne they got drawn into this obses-
Mansfield.
Vaughn (Elias Koteas),
sion of sex, twisted metal and
MOVIES
a former scientist whose
Ballard draws his challenging their own mortali-
erotic obsession with car
wife Catherine (Deborah tY.
crashes has instigated an un- Unger), who herself has a fetish
Crash attempts to take dri-
derground network of crash sur- for cold metal, into this network. vers' desire to gawk at a traffic
The couple's emotionally de- accident a step further, where
vivors with similar fetishes.
The group, led by Vaughn, tached sex life relies on their the metal on metal becomes
watches crash videos. Its mem- shared knowledge of each one's erotic. This works in the book,
bers seek out the violence of adulterous affairs Ballard even- but not even Cronenberg can
crash sites and crash into oth- tually has relations with each translate this to film.
ers for their sexual satisfaction. main character in the film, the
most fascinating of these being
® 1/2
David Warmbier spends too much Gabrielle (played by Rosanna
time in dark rooms.
Arquette), who wears a black
— David Warmbier
'Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie'
Rated PG
N
o one's likely to see Turbo:
A Power Rangers Movie
unless he's already a fan
(or parent of a fan) of the
TV show. But kids will enjoy the
cheesy special effects, costumes
and plot, and even their parents
might like them on a campy,
nostalgic level.
Turbo opens with a Star
Wars-esque text crawl explain-
ing how the evil piratess Diva-
tox (Hilary Shepard Turner)
plans to use the diminutive
alien wizard Lerigot (a combi-
nation of Yoda, E.T. and Gizmo
the Gremlin) to release the de-
Stephen Bitsoli is the former
entertainment editor for Detroit
Monthly magazine.
monic Maligore from his prison
in the "Nemesis Triangle." Ob-
ject: matrimony and universal
domination!
So good guy Lerigot flees to
Earth, where he meets the Pow-
er Rangers. First, they rescue
him from the African wilderness
(where he's befriended by some
chimpanzees), then follow him
into the Nemesis Triangle when
he's caught by Divatox.
The Rangers pursue Lerigot
in new "turbo" vehicles which
can unite to form a giant robot
warrior (anyone remember
"Voltron"?).
But first they need a new
Blue Ranger. Enter Justin
(Blake Foster), a pre-teen who
grows when in costume.
Former Rangers Kimberly
(Amy Jo Johnson) and Jason
(Austin St. John) also appear,
only to be captured by Divatox.
Comic relief buffoons Bulk (Paul
Schrier) and Skull (Jason
Narvy) pop up, too, and even
former Ranger baddie Rita Re-
pulsa shows up for a cameo.
While a couple of scenes
might upset young viewers
(former Blue Ranger Rocky al-
most breaks his back attempt-
ing a kung fu move, and both
Kimberly and Jason briefly
turn into bad guys when Ma-
ligore possesses them), all is
well in the end. There's even a
message after the Power
Rangers turn back into regular
teens: Ordinary people can be
heroes too.
Adults may enjoy Turbo best
as a throwback to the heroes
from Japanese science-fiction
PHOTO BY JONATHAN WENK
'Crash'