4 Page 10 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, April 17, 1989 The left laughs again Political humor returns in High Hopes 1 0000 BY NABEEL ZUBERI The Political Left is often accused of lacking a sense of humor, usually with good reason. Waiting for the contradictions in capitalism to lead to the proletar- ian revolution isn't much fun and a revolutionary committee meeting isn't exactly a barrel of laughs ei- ther; even the sardonic Trotsky had his work cut out trying to get Lenin to lighten up. The British left hasn't had much to laugh about in the last ten years, so Mike Leigh's High Hopes comes as a very refreshing surprise. It's the sharpest comedy about life in Margaret Thatcher's Britain since My Beautiful Launderette. The story centers around a working-class couple who live in the King's Cross area of London. Cyril (Philip Davis) is a motorcycle courier and unreformed socialist, and Shirley (Ruth Sheen) works for the council, clearing wasteground and planting trees. Cyril sees that socialism isn't just around the corner, but he's sustained by the simple pleasures of life like lis- tening to Chuck Berry records and smoking a nice long joint of an evening. Shirley loves him and though she recognizes his complete antipathy to "the bourgeois game," she desperately wants to have a child. Cyril doesn't want to bring another person into such a mis- erable world. Leigh has written some beautifully taut scenes detailing the tension but deep love between Cyril and Shirley. The couple regularly visit Cyril's ageing mother, 'Mrs. Bender (Edna Dore), who is in the first stages of Alzheimer's disease. She's the only remaining council t'enant living in her street. Under Tory rule council houses, which have provided cheap accommodation, have been sold off. Yuppies have bought them, Vsmartened them up and sold them for a tidy profit. :This gentrification of the slums has pushed out Mrs. Bender's old neighbors, replacing them with horren- dous yuppie Sloane Rangers Laetitia and Rupert THERE ARE!1 BECOMING A NU And t sented by thei as a membero Corps. The ca means you're p system in whic uki career advanc not the except on the right means you commanc earning a BSN, write: Army Nu Clifton, NJ 07015. Or call toll free ARMY NURSECORP Boothe-Brane. As Cyril says, their house is not a home but a capital investment. The Boothe-Branes are stereotypical upper-class twits. Leigh uses these stereotypes in a wonderfully overblown way that highlights particular cultural atti- tudes. Our yuppie couple is completely disgusting. Lactitia and Rupert will have you in stitches one mo- ment, gritting your teeth the next. Cyril's sister Valerie (Heather Tobias) and her hus- band Martin are both products of the new spirit of free enterprise (i.e. greed) that Thatcher has propogated. Martin is an oily used car salesman and burger joint entrepeneur who sleeps around and humors his wife by giving her loads of spending money. She gets more affection from her pet Afghan hound "Baby." Valerie is Leigh's caricaturial piece de la resistance in the movie. She's a desperate social climber, a sym- bol of all that is bad about the nouveau riche. The viewer will need sunglasses to deal with the dreadful color coordination and garishnes of her interior decor. At one point, she sneaks a tour of the yuppie couple's house just to see how the other half lives. Valerie is also a pathetic figure; we do feel for her when she tries to spark the sexual fire in her husband. She sports a sexy negligee and attempts to instigate a fantasy: "You're Michael Douglas," she says. Martin doesn't know who Michael Douglas is, and guffaws into his pillow when she play-acts coyly, "I'm a virgin." Despite their weaknesses, Cyril and Shirley are the solid center of the picture, and Leigh makes them qui- etly heroic. It's impossible not to love them. They carry on with a wink and a laugh in spite of their ab- surd environment. Cyril still looks after his Mum even though she irritates the hell out of him with her crotchety behaviour. The couple help people in need without being saintly; they take in the hapless and simple Wayne - who wears the most amazing sneak- ers to have graced a movie screen - when he comes to See Hopes, Page 11 For a band that once sang about throwing small children into wells, the Violent Femmes are certainly looking all smiles these days. On their fourth album, 3, the Femmes' sunny tone leaves their ostensibly grim looks at life sounding forced. The Violent Femmes 3 Slash Records On 3, (actually their fourth LP), the Femmes attempt a return to their trademark minimal acoustic trio stylings. The Horns of Dilemma appear only occasionally, having shrunk to two members, on sax and piano. The dense, progressive (for them) sound of their last album, The Blind Leading The Naked, has been summarily junked. The press release calls it one of those clichd "attempts to capture our live sound." And capture it it does. The band is as tight as ever, but the music just plods along, serving mainly as a backdrop for Gordon Gano's vocals. Only on "Mother Of A Girl" does the band reach a peak of propulsive energy equal to past efforts. So, then, what about those vo- cals? TheViolent Femmes haveal- ways been known for being simultaneously pissed off and con- fused. On this record Gano seems to realize he has a reputation to live up to. Yet when one sees Gano in per- son in 1989, he is all smiles. With the exception of "Nothing Worth Living For," I can't explain this, but 1 can't shake the thought that Gano just doesn't feel the emotions expressed here anymore. -Brian Jarvinen Rush A Show of Hands Polygram Records A Show of Hands: The Video Concert Polygram Music Video In order to justify its pretentious bigness, I figure, the straight double- live album ought to succeed on least two of three special criteria: the first objective being to capture the spon- taneous thrill of a concert's instru- I mental challenges; the second, to yield variations and surprise, emphasizing covers or rearrange- ments of old songs; the third possi- See Records, Page 11 rWO SIDES TO IRSE IN THE ARMY. hey're both repre-f insignia you wear of the Army Nurse duceus on the left art of a health care :h educational and ement are the rule, ion. The gold bar d respect as an Army officer. If you're rse Opportunities, P.O. Box 7713, e 1-800-USA-ARMY. S BE ALLYOU CAN BE. 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