ARTS The Michigan Daily Monday, January 23, 1989 Page 7 Full Moon eclipsed by watered-down plots BY TONY SILBER Gene Hackman is doubtless this year's workhorse of the motion pic- ture industry, starring in his fourth film in as many months - an unbelievable output. But three of the four films, including the new Full Moon in Blue Water, are just for- gettable misfires. Hackman teams up with the charming Teri Garr and Burgess Meredith for an interesting, yet lost comedy-drama set in a small Texas coastal town. Full Moon tells the story of the Blue Water Grill and the lives of four people who work and live in it. Floyd (Hackman) owns the rundown Grill and seems content to watch it deteriorate into bankruptcy while he mourns the recent death of his wife. Louise (Garr) plays a local woman with a crush on Floyd and a dream of bringing the Blue Water back to the greatness it once had. The General (Meredith) is Floyd's live-in father- in-law, a senile, foul-mouthed cru- sader. And lastly, there's Jimmy (Elias Koteas), the Grill's only em- ployee and a former mental patient y who dreams of owning a car and "picking up girls." The film presents four drastically different characters with only the bar as their common bond, their lifeline to a lost past or a hopeful future. But that is not enough to carry Full Moon. The film needs a structured plot and character development to give these people a sense of believ- ability. The plots of the film are not clear nor are they made important to us. There are several different stories involving different characters and none of the individual plots are given priority over the others which undoubtedly hurts the film. Director Peter Masterson (The Trip To Bountiful) creates mood and texture well enough, but doesn't provide for any meaningful character growth. The characters begin and end as the same people with the same problems, except that Floyd has come to accept his wife's death. There are no real conficts resolved. Sure, the Bar is saved from the greedy land speculators, but Full Moon goes no deeper than this. It doesn't bring the characters to us, but instead forces us to go after them; many viewers will be lost as a result. Its flaws notwithstanding, the film has some genuine merit. De- spite the lack of character growth, the portrayals are good. Hackman comes off well as the southern recluse bar owner, giving a richness to his character and generally good guidance for the rest of the players. Teri Garr has a place in my heart, so xomeaP m n it's tough to find anything negative in her roles. She brings a zealous charisma to her parts and Full Moon is no exception. Meredith has a de- manding role in playing the senile father-in-law, but his wealth of experience comes through and he turns out a funny, yet sensitive per- formance. Elias Koteas also adds to the film, but the flaws in his character shroud much of the film in silliness and it is easy to forget the real human qualities that come though in his acting. Coming off a spectaqular perfor- mance in Mississippi Burning, Full Moon in Blue Water is a disap- pointment for Gene Hackman, but not altogether a failure. It presents a nostalgic small town story with some interesting characters and qual- ity acting, but it suffers from same- ness and ultimately fails to evolve into anything meaningful or impor- tant. Full Moon is a nice film to look at, as it takes a beautifully scenic place and incorporates it into the work, but the problems with plot synthesis and character devel- opment drag it down into the murky depths of paltry pictures. FULL MOON IN BLUE WATER is now showing at Showcase Cinemas in Ann Arbor. BY MARK SWARTZ ACCORDING to the C.B. radio lingo of the '70s, your "handle" was your on-the-air pseudonym. In my father's robin's-egg-blue Fleetwood, people ad- dressed him as Mud Hen. He told me he could maintain a level of privacy and still make contact with strangers by giving out a handle. His friends out in Citizen's Band Land didn't know him, but thanks to his handle they at least could call him something. STATE OF THE In much the same way, when we talk about records and books, we affix artificial "handles" on them in order to get a grip on them. For conve- nience's sake, we identify art with a generalization, rather than coming to know it individually and eval- uating it on its own terms. The publishers, record companies, and to some degree the media help out by manufacturing and reinforcing handles. In the marketplace, the offshoot of the use of these handles is divisions of books and records according to cate- gory. Walk into Schoolkids Records and Tapes without a specific purchase in mind and your first decision is which bin to thumb through. There's Jazz, Blues, (including Cajun/Zydeco and New Orleans music) Folk, Country (and Bluegrass). There's Gospel, Dance/Soul, Vintage R&B, Rock (the largest sec- tion), Reggae/International, Easy Listening (also called Adult Contemporary) and Soundtrack Music and at least five that I'm skipping. It's a dizzying array; anyone with an even harmless curiosity about styles and genres will get their head spun around a couple times before they walk out of the store. Handles might help with this cumbersome load of musicians, but they are just as apt to get in the way. Generally, the artists within one category are all the same race. Most Blues artists are Black, ex- cepting Johnny Winter, who's albino. It could be easily argued that Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin belong with their Blues progenitors, but you'll find Slowhand and Houses of the Holy in the Rock section. Country music is a predominantly white endeavor, but Charley Pride hangs out there. Other crossings-over include Jimi Hendrix's secure place- ment in Rock and Madonna's in Dance/Soul. It gets troublesome when you have artists with hard-to-handle styles. Over their ever-long careers, Bob Dylan and Ray Charles have worn at least a half dozen musical caps each. A single Tom Waits al- bum might invoke the spirits of Howlin' Wolf, Kurt Weill, Hank Williams, and Buddy Holly. It once took me 45 minutes to locate a record by New Orleans R&B outfit the Neville Brothers before I discovered it in Folk. If you feel like reading something more substan- tial than liner notes, make the trip back down Lib- erty to another of Ann Arbor's cultural goldmines, 'The pump don't work 'cuz the vandals took the handles' -Bob Dylan, 'Subterr- anean Homesick Blues' Dylan and others still bear 'handles' in bookshelves and bins, raising.... A question of Labels Borders Books. Most of the handles at Borders are - conventional and logical - Science Fiction, His- tory, Biography, Self-help, etc. With the tens of thousands of titles at this bi-level store, handles are essential for finding anything. If you feel like reading a novel, chances are you'll find a good one somewhere along the north wall of See Handle, Page 7 0 t' 9r . A a !k k I ,a Burgess Meredith (left) and Teri Garr (right) are probably toasting Gene Hackman's (center) success in Mississippi Burning - either that or drowning their sorrows, because there's little cause to celebrate Full Moon in Blue Water. INTRODUCING ANN ARBOR'S 21 PRIME PROPERTIES AVAILABLE FOR LEASE FOR 1989-1990 SCHOOL YEAR SARMY SURPLUS 51 W1TNTrrrTn cD CAI f =ME 0 VV 11 N IFLXC~~~ I U Insulated Boot Clearance Sale! SALES OF UP TO 60% OFF! Timberland, Herman Survivors, etc. Winter Coat Sale! SALES OF UP TO 35% OFF! A Full Line of Insulated Underwear $49.98 and up 'Cf 0 0 o ° o (1) The Abbey - 909 Church (2) Albert Terrace - 1700 Geddes (3) The Algonquin - 1330 N. University (4) The Carriage House - 1224 Washtenaw Ct. (5) The Dean - 1021 Vaughn (6) The Forum - 726 S. State (7) The Lion - 525 Walnut (8) The Lodge - 1333 Wilmot (9) 344 S. Division (10) 515 E. Lawrence (11) 326 E. Madison (12) 1000 Oakland (13) 520 Packard (14) Arbor Forest - 721 S. Forest (15) Oak Terrace - 908 Oakland (16) 517 Catherine (17) 1014-1016 Church (18) 415 Hoover (19) 511 Hoover (20) 114 E. Kingsley (21) 727 S. Forest $4.98 and up MR 0 Open 7 days a week to serve you 201 E. WASHINGTON at Fourth Ave. Ann Arbor 994.3572 ru For leasing information contact Prime Student Housing 610 Church St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (313) 761-8000 '-N WANTED: STUDENT PHONATHON CALLERS Fart Time Employment SchickA AN' 3-on- * Single Elimination & R " Championship Game o Silverdome before Pisti - Single Elimination Toun D RECREATIONAL 0l SPORTS The School of Education will interview students by phone who will be hired to call alumni nationwide for an alumni fundraising phonathon. . Phonathon held Sunday through Thursday, February 14 - March 24, excluding Spring Break 3 Basketball egional Tournaments held in Ann Arbor f Regionals to be played in the Pontiac on's Game rnament Deadline: Jan. 23,1989 0