4 ARTS the Michigan Daily Wednesday, November 29, 1989 Page 8, Richardson's cowboy junkies Drugstore Cowboy1 dir. Gus Van Sant BY ALYSSA KATZ "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs." Aaargh! Enough al- ready! The anti-drug propaganda go- ing around these days is so relentless that any halfway moderate counter- force comes as welcome relief. When it takes the form of a film as satisfy- ing as Drugstore Cowboy, that break from the drone is doubly nice. Gus Van Sant, whose only previous feature was the equally controversial Mala Noche, has done a really good job with this touchy subject by rev- eling in the details of a way of life that most of us just read about as we hold our noses in the air. It's not necessarily a realist film, but at times it approaches the intensity of an anthropological study as it por- trays the lives of junkies in Port- land, Oregon in 1971. The much-maligned Matt Dillon is well cast as Bob, an addict who instead of taking the usual steal-and- buy route handles things more di- rectly: he gets his drugs directly from drugstores, just like we all do. Still, he's a little ruder about it. Bob, his wife Dianne (Kelly Lynch), and friends Rick (James Le Gros) and Nadine (Heather Graham) pull off profitable heists using the kind of hole-filled diversionary tactics that arise from desperation, like having one of them pretend to have a seizure while another rifles through the drawers behind the counter. Bob knows he'll get caught, as he has been countless times before, but it doesn't matter to him. It's as if he's drawn to this risky behavior not only because of a physical addiction but because he's enjoying and ad- dicted to this self-styled alternative lifestyle. There's a certain glee visi- ble as he plots revenge against the police or deftly negotiates with a less intelligent small-time speed freak. Maybe society at large doesn't care about him, but in this world he's king. Van Sant has done a great job balancing Drugstore Cowboy in the usually avoided zone between glori- fication and moralism. Its tone of happy ambivalence gives it a certain power - half the time you're think- ing that Bob and his pals are self- serving scumbags, yet I for one wanted to see them succeed in their heists. The down side of the drug world isn't ignored, either; these guys face their fair share of unpleas- ant situations, and their paranoia is well conveyed. Toward the end of the film, when Bob decides to enter re- hab, things threaten to turn preachy (there's a boring little rap session scene that has a bunch of addicts talking about their experiences), but all is saved by the appearance of William S. Burroughs as Tom the Priest, an elderly addict who got Bob started way back when. As would be expected, the amazingly slow-speak- ing Burroughs is great fun to watch and has a strong screen presence. The film is also quite good stylis- tically, with a muddy early '70s look reminiscent of Paul Schrader's Patty Hearst and a general tendency to avoid visual clichds. A couple of in- novative surreal interludes, in which cows and houses float around as Dil- lon's voice describes the experience of shooting up, help pull the movie away from plodding realism. In all its glorious iconoclasm, Drugstore Cowboy reaffirms the fact that indh pendent filmmaking is the last great hope for American movies. DRUGSTORE COWBOY is playing at Ann Arbor 1 & 2 and Showcase. I 0E ON TOP Steve Kilbey The Slow Crack Rough Trade With his multi-cultural borrow- ings and taste for the exotic, listen- ing to Steve Kilbey's music is like eating at an unfamiliar ethnic restau- rant. And when one does so, one should heed one rule religiously: If it tastes good, don't ask any questions. So I won't bother to ask why this album, available for some time on import and spiced up here with three new tracks, wasn't released stateside until now - and almost exactly at the same time as Hex, his collaboration with ex-Game Theory guitarist Donnette Thayer. Or why these songs are so objectionable that: Kilbey couldn't have recorded them with The Church. I'll just tell you that The Slow Crack is just about Kilbey's most adventurous, elegant, and listenable work to date, solo or Church. The swirling arrangements on the album are more suited to Kilbey's laid-back vocals than the hard-edged studio sound of Starfish, harkening back to The Church's more dreamy early albums. "Favourite Pack of Lies," an instrumental from Kilbey's earlier Earthed with lyrics added, and "Something That Means Some- thing" have all the ethereal beauty of The Church's "Tear It All Away" end "Into My Hands," and the moky, beat-heavy raga "Tran- saction" continues Kilbey's fasci- nation with Eastern-tinged music. But Kilbey also does a fair share of experimentation here. "Ariel Sings" is Kilbey's interpretation of the song of the spirit from The Tempest, and yes, "Song of Solomon" is the original Biblical lust-fest set to music. He infuses jazz into "A Minute Without You" and "Surrealist Woman Blues," and his acoustic guitar mandolin mixture on a cover of Australian songwriter Gulliver Smith's "Woman With Reason" sounds like a ballad from Led Zeppelin III. Steve Kilbey's fascination with Eastern-influenced music perhaps brings TIft( OF FEELMJ LIKE about this impersonation of Kali, the The album's only weak spots come when its instrumental failings stand out. Kilbey, who plays almost all instruments on the album, is a better songwriter than a player, so there is the occassional intrusive drum machine or dull instrumental passage, but his skill as a composer usually overshadows these. "Fire- man" sounds a hell of a lot like the Jesus and Mary Chain, but then they sound a hell of a lot like the Church. "I am not the kind of man given to extravagance/ Even so, I must confess a weakness for your ele- gance," he sings on "Lies." My words exactly, Steve. -Jim Poniewozik Tater Totz Mono Stereo Giant Records Lennon was a dreamer, but he was a presumptuous bastard. And Yoko Ono? What is there to be said? Here, thrashers Red Kross, White Flag, Pandoras and the Shonen Knife come together to thrash the life out of the flailing, writhing spirit of John Lennon. The presence of Thurston Moore (brandishing two severed bustier tassels from his last headhunt the Whitey Album), is also appreciated in this dada excursion. Cherie Currie, formerly of the Run- Hindu deity. aways, joins in and Three O'Clock's Michael Quercio tosses in a severed hand. Mono Stereo is hilarious. There's a tongue-in-cheek subtlety to these covers that utterly permeates their spirit, no matter how much they resemble the originals. "Rain, sung by Shonen Knife, particularly demonstrates this quality. The Knife, Japan's answer to Bananarama, wails like three different Yokos at once, pouring on the camp. A particularly indulgent and sadistic 'version of Ono's "Why" is the funniest of the bunch, if just to hear a soundalike screech in abjct horror and denial for five and a half minutes. Musically, Mono works well. A reworking of the David Essex/ Michael Damian shlock "Rock On" is given a damn decent rhythm section that almost makes up for its soupy arrangement as well as its be- ing covered for the umpteenth time. The psychedelic groove sensibilities of "Rain" and "Instant Karma" are plastered over with loads of fuzz and metallic schmaltz. And all of this hasn't convinced, you to run out and buy the new Tater Totz, remember that it's al- ways fun to laugh at others' ex- pense, especially if they're dead. -Forrest Green III I Big, beautiful 2 bedroom apartments available now for as little as $550.00/month. This includes heat for the long, icy winter, hot water for cooking and bathing, parking, and laundry facilities. Convenient and secure campus locations. You don't have to be cramped up like a sardine anymore. Call Prime Student Housing today. OF r 'N Prime Student Housing Office located at: 610 Church Street Ann Arbor, MI (313) 761-8000 M-F 9-5:00 p.m. Saturdays by appointment LONDON INTERNSHIPS DESIGNED BY American Association of Overseas Studies SUMMER INTERNSHIPS IN LONDON, EUROPE & ISRAEL FILM - LAW BUSINESS - ARTS COMMUNICATIONS - GOVT Fall & Spring Semesters Also Available GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT Tutoring Janet Kollek, J. D. Director AAOS 158 W. 81 - NYC 10024 12 212.724.0804 or 800*EDU"BRIT (outside NY) --, * Short term leases available * Model unit available for show. i -Auditions for the RC Players' production of Chekhov's The Three Sisters on December 6 & 7, 6-11 p.m. in 2528 Frieze Building. Sign- up in room 1505 Frieze. Prepare a one to three minute monologue and be familiar with Ronald Hingley's translation, available at any campus bookstore. Performance dates: March 15-18. -Auditions for the Brecht Com- pany's production of Romeo and Juliet on December 4 & 5 at 8 p.m. in room A-03 (Basement Anderson House) in the East Quad, 701 Easi University. Arrive promptly to par- ticipate in group readings. A pre- pared two minute monologue is en- couraged. Performance dates: March 29-April 14. -Auditions for Ann Arbor Civic Theatre's production of To Kill A Mockingbird on Dec. 3 at 2 p.m. and Dec. 4 & 5 at 7 p.m. in the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre building, 1035 S. Main St. Scripts are available at the AACT office. Auditions and Opportunities runs Wednesdays on the Daily Arts page If you have items for the column; - call 763-0379. I THE COMEDY COM PANY PRESENTSI I j--E-hE available at. THE MICHIGAN _________ UNION BOX OFFICE. PJS USED RECORDS. SCHOOU DS RECORDS and ALL rwra Im OUlEIS. Or charge by phone 763-TKISo--r 645-6666. For mor W.. .U canFlflpse at 763-0046.- Fn I U Tr 11 L1 If A A X I - AU MIDW~EST- , . .. -, .MA 24.4 Nmo;L A K&. 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