ARTS The Michigan D aily Friday, January 17, 1992 Page 8 Hay ne's Poison is hardly pretty Poison dir. Todd Haynes by Gabriel Feldberg odd Haynes, who first gained un- derground notoriety for making a movie about Karen Carpenter's bout with anorexia and casting a Barbie doll as the lead, became a champion of.the artistic left and an enemy of theradical right with his most re- cept controversy, Poison. The charges of pornography were a slzarne, because lost in the media hype was what an amusing and un- settling film Poison is. Inspired by three distinct works by author Jean Genet, Poison inter- cuts between a trilogy of vignettes: one surreal, one satirical, and one that is at times almost too realistic. The surrealistic tale entitled "Hero" is a mock documentary that probes the mythologized disappear- ance of a masochistic seven year-old boy. Several years earlier, the boy shot his father and leaped from the family patio into the heavens. Talking in the wooden voices of interviewees on A Current Affair, baffled townspeople try to explain to the camera what made the boy so strange. No one cAn account for his whereabouts; as one policeman says, "He's still on milk cartons." While "Hero" has its darkly humorous moments, "Horror," the satirical segment, is absolutely hys- terical. Having just magnetized some polysyllabic ions no real sci- entist has ever heard of, Dr. Graves (Larry Maxwell) at last finds the formula to capture human sex drive in a liquid form. He accidentally in- gests the serum, and becomes what the newspapers call "The Leper Sex Killer." A send-up of the modern mad scientist melodramas of the 1950s, "Horror" hits on every cliche of its genre. Its stilted dialogue, blood- thirsty mob and love-conquers-even- the-worst-skin-problems motif are perfect. Bonuses like the tilt-angled, black and white shot of a bar's neon sign, and the kitschy jazz in the background add the elegant touches. The third thread, "Homo," is hardly funny at all. As a teenager in a work camp where every boy paired off with another, John Broom (Scott Renerer) married young Jack Bolton (James Lyons) in a oddly beautiful, Bunuelian ceremony. When the two are reunited years later in an adult prison, Bolton does not recognize Broom. Broom, how- ever, becomes pathologically ob- sessed with his former lover, and brutally rapes him. Haynes' details of prison life, like the close-up of a cigarette being passed along a chain of dirty fingers and grimy mouths, make this hyper- masculine world stiff and cold. Following the stylized "Hero" and "Horror," "Homo"'s graphic (al- though not excessive) sexual vi- olence seems all the more authentic and disturbing. By the film's end, Area chefs slice the ice with chain saws by Diane Frieden While you might be a bit leery of eating in a restaurant where the people preparing your food are using power tools, it only seems natural that V- chisels, die-grinders and high-powered chain saws are used to whittle away 500 pound blocks of ice, forming delicate creatures. Two area chefs, Chris Thomas of Paesano's and Chef Bill of the Novi Sheraton Oaks, spent Thursday morning chipping away for a Gifts of Art demonstration in the University Hospital courtyard. "I'm carving two swans, with birds in the trees behind them," said Chef Bill, casually gesturing with his power saw at the unformed cube of ice. "Usually we carve animals, letters ... Once, I'm embarrassed to say, I did a woman for a bachelor party. And once I spelled out a proposal on a woman's lawn, 'Will you marry me?' for this guy," he said. When Chef Bill was working as a chef for Tom Monaghan, he did ax number of animals for centerpieces at dinners, "mostly Tigers." Thomas also likes creating animals with his medium. "It's fun to do mythological creatures - this here is a dragon - because if you mess up, you can get the feet of a dog and the head of a dragon, and pass it off as something from mythology," he said. Aside from demonstrative or catering sculpting, where the fees can run up to $300 per statue, both chefs enjoy entering contests. The judging factors include technique, difficulty, artistic interpretation, and originality. Most competitions limit the artist to two or three hours for completing an entry, although in an exhibition it could take as long as five hours. Thomas, who won the gold medal in a Laport, Indiana contest, saves minutes (and mistakes) by making a sketch on tracing paper and then, cutting into the ice through the paper. "I don't think of myself as artistically inclined, so I take a lot of time setting up a template," he said. Cold weather is not a deterrent for the sculptors, who like the cold and dress appropriately. "When you're lifting the chain saws and concentrating on cutting, you manage to keep warm," said Thomas. The creations will last up to a week, according to Chef Bill, providing the weather stays around or below freezing. However, patients and visitors can view the art from wanner stations inside. ICE SCULPTING will be on display in the University Hospital courtyard. until the ice melts. What could make people with skin like that laugh so hard? It must be the hysterical parody in Todd Haynes' Poison about the Leper Sex Killer on the loose. however, Haynes shows this brutal- ity to be nothing next to the orga- nized, sexless tortures administered by the boys in the work camp. The discreetness of the rape scene was not enough for the American Family Association. The AFA's no- tion that the physical terrorism in the jail is more disturbing than the film's emotional barbarity is like saying Christ's only wounds on the cross were inflicted by the nails. Nonetheless, right-wingers made Haynes a marked man, and that, of course, made him an avant-garde hero. The resulting "art film" label Poison has acquired shouldn't scare anyone away from it. Unlike the de- liberately impenetrable David Lynch and his army of film school imitators, Todd Haynes is not a more eccentric than thou filmmaker. Commenting on mass psychology and societal behavior, Haynes shows off nothing but his biting brilliance. POISON opens Sunday at the Michigan Theater. . ANNARbOR 5TH AVE. AT LIBERTY M4700 1$3.00 DAILYALL SHOWS BEFORE 6 DAY TUESDAY' P-exopp m ST110M MQTH I O. $3.50 GOODRICH OUAL Y THEATERS Channel Z Make it a lazy Friday after- noon withAnnie Hall (2:30 p.m., HBO). Woody Allen reached his peak with this romantic comedy thatwon an Oscar for bestpicture. This is his finest moment. Those without cable will be forced to watch the Garth Brooks shindig (9 p.m., NBC). University Activities Center is looking for people to head the following groups: ,ftmu RAKI ^n~I~na1 The Dustbin cleans up Ned's Atomic Dustbin w/Tyrone's Power Wheel Industry January 13, 1992 There are two common ways to express angst in British pop. One, the Morrissey/Smiths camp, is to turn inward and celebrate the miser- able and be metaphorical. The other is to just be rather noisy about it and sing about "you" and "I," like .. Uhiversity Activities Center " MlINlI-COURtE 9 SOUNDSTAGE 9 SPECIAL EVENTS FIR - THE ILM PRINCE MAOING TF ':rifaTI DES t1 II U. m applications are available at UAC, 2105 Mich. Union dnd are due by 5pm January 24, 1992. For more information, call UAC @ 763-1107 STEVE DIANE MARTIN MARTIN KEATON SHORT i Ned's Atomic Dustbin. Most of Ned's repertoire sounds" very similar, with maybe one or twa core songs which are then the bash5 for musical variations on the theme But the gutsy guitars (for pop any, way), Jonn Penney's earnest three- note vocals, and, most of all, the whole band's enthusiasm more thai made up for what they lack in' songwriting at this stage. Their set at Industry covered- most of their debut God Fodder and some new material, but the subs tleties which made the album dy- namic were lost in the live mix. Locals Tyrone's Power Wheel more than matched Ned's frenzy and surpassed them in song variety, but their blatant imitation of bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, and Kiss detracted from this heav ier-than-pop opener. - Annette Petruso 0 -!S - ,_ im im Present this coupon when purchasing a large popcorn and receive one FREE LARGE DRINK Expires 1-27-92 $50 OR SELECTED FEATURES Discount Available 7 Days a Week! 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