10 - The Michigan Daily - Weekend etc. - Thursday, April 7, 1994 Davies finds success with 'Spanking' By ALEXANDRA TWIN "A film with incest in it is something not very easy to explain to yourgrandma;"explained "Spank- ing the Monkey" star Jeremy Davies when asked to describe his new film. "I'd rather people just saw it than have me to try to explain it to them.;It deals with incest, but that's just one aspect of it. It's really about a lot of things." Must be damn good, whatever it is. This year, itjoins "sex, lies and videotape," "The Waterdance" and countless other films as the proud recipient of the Sundance Film Festival's much-coveted audience choice award. It is the only award offered by the festival that is voted on by the screening audience members as opposed to the judges. Must have felt pretty good to know that your film was the favorite, huh? "Actually, it was a big relief, 'cause it's such a sensitive subject." "It" refers to incest. But isn't that just an aspect of it? "Well, yeah, but arguably the most memo- rable." Arguably. However, beyond the buzz word,, "Spanking the Monkey" is a relatively straightfor- ward, contemporary tale of a young boy trying to adjust to the changes that have come over his family while he's been away at college for a year. Kinda scary for those of us who are first-year students. Dad picks Davies' character up from school with the news that he needs to give up his ideal summer internship with the Surgeon General to stay home and take care of Mom, who has recently attempted suicide. The good son submits, there is littleelse hecan do. Yet what entails isa farstranger summer than he ever could have anticipated. Dad's detachment is matched only by Mom's nearobses- ,ion with the boy. The girl down the road provides someemotional support, but ultimately this is some- thing he must deal with by himself'. Although weird and dark and disturbing, it is not without comic relief;it isas likely to bring up a laugh as ashudder. It is also quite likely to put Davies in the spotlight, although not for the first time. Hey, weren't you in that "Like Grunge, except it's a car" commercial? "Yeah," he laughed,"but don't print that." Oh, so we don't want to talk about our humble beginnings, hmm? "No, no, you can mention that. It's actually, ironically, how Igot the film. It was just such a high- profilecommercial that Iended up getting all these scripts sent to me, one of which was 'Spanking the Monkey."' Although at the time it was called "Swelter," the film lacked a distributor and a budget. The brainchild of "new" filmmaker David 0. Russell, "Spanking the Monkey" was very much an inde- pendent film. "When we started, all we really had was a script. We just got the money together whenever we could. We got some short ends from 'Carlito's Way' and some free film stock from 'House Party 3,' 'cause the director's wife was producing it," he said. As a result of the limited budget and shooting time, a good deal of improvising was done. AIt really helped me a lot," he asserted, "'cause it would get frustrating to be only able to do one or two takes and then have to move on. It also helped that David, our director, was also the writer. Some- times they don't let the writers be on the sets, and they tend to feel like their material is being raped if anything is changed or experimented with. But because he wrote it and really knew what he was after, he was comfortable with letting us play around with it a bit before the cameras rolled." Davies found his "Spanking The Monkey" experience quite different from that of 1993's "Guncrazy," the Drew Barrymore-James Le Gros. Bonnie-and-Clyde-ish western that marked his film debut. "It was a little easier with that one. I didn't have the lead, so there wasn't as much pressure. Also, they had more money. They had Drew Barrymore." His next picture is "Nell" with Jodie Foster. "She plays this woman raised in the backwoods, in the wild, by this old woman who keeps her isolated from society. It starts with the old woman dying and I'm one of the kids in the town who finds Nell and really give her a hard time. I have a couple of good scenes with her." He sees himself as being extremely lucky to have such a good role in such a big film. As for the argument that independent film tends to olTer better character roles for actors than mainstream film, he is unsure. "Yes and no. It really depends. Like Gus Van Sant ('Drugstore Cowboy. 'My Own Private Idaho') is getting more and more mainstream and a lot of his characters in his films are along the lines of what I'd be interested in doing, but certainly, independent films tend to take more risks: they don't have as much to lose; they want to make a statement."I While he pledges no particular allegiance to either mainstream versus independent or cinema versus theater, there are a couple of things that he would prefer to do without: television and James Dean. "I've done mostly television. A lot of commer- cials and stuff. There's just a lot of limitations. You could never put a film like 'Spanking the Monkey' on television." As for the roles it does offer ? "Very 90210-ish. One thing that does bother me is the whole James Dean role. I think he did it very well. Some others have done it well since. But there are a lot of young actors, particularly on television, who get caught up in wanting to look cool in every role. That's all they play. They would never play Leonardo Dicaprio's role in 'Gilbert Grape,' which is just fantastic. They just want cool guy roles, and I'm really not interested in that, partly 'cause it's already been done and partly 'cause, well, I'm not verycool my self."he said laughing. But aren't you a big teen dream in England? 'What? Who told you that ? I've done some press there, but, no. I wouldn't say that I'm a 'star' or any thing.'. What ifthis film were a big success: would you he ready for it? "I don't know. I would hope so. It's been pretty overwhelming so far. The response at Sundance was pretty incredible. People just really took to it. One thine that I've always maintained was that it was an incredible script. I really liked that the whole incest issue was addressed so intelligently. So many scripts just throw things in for mutilation and I felt like this one really took it seriouslv. I felt like it worked." Doesn't make it any easier to explain to grandma. though. does it? "No." he said laughing, "not at all.'' 1 11 Prawn Song has just released the first album by Charlie Hunter's jazz trio. ew label signs artists PRAWN Continued from page 3 hadn't heard from them in a while - a hand called Polkacide. They're amazinc - it's straight-up polka. A couple of people from Tragic Mulatto are in the band. That's something I'm excited about." A not her favorite croup of Before Clint, there was John, John and 'The Searchers' By MICHAEL BARNES You're in a generational pickle at the video store ... you want something new but you're in no mood for some vrni@ TOO CHEAP FOR THE MOVIES cutesy, feel-good bullshit; you nix "Dave" for Harvey Keitel in "Bad Lieutenant." Your parents or grand- parents start getting nervous. Aggres- sive cops who swear a lot and mastur- bate in public rattle their dentures. The solution'? Pick an old western like "The Searchers" starring John Wayne and directed by John Ford. You'll love the spectacular scenery and laugh at the Indians who look like surfers. Your father will turn to you while putting down his peanuts, belch, and then slap you on the back telling you how real men like John Wayne just ain't around no more. John Wayne plays Ethan, a myste- riousex-soldierwhopays a visit to his brother Aaron's home in the rugged post-civil war Texas. Ethan charms everyone in the family with his gilts and macho bravado except his nephew, Martin, who Ethan appar- ently rescued from an Indian massa- cre that killed the boy's parents. Ethan refuses to recognize his nephew be- cause Martin is "a half-breed." The threat of an Indian attack brings Reverend Samuel Clayton to the house. The pious reverend is a frontier Everyman: he marries couples off and shoots at crazed "savages" in hisother line of'duty as aTexas ranger. The reverend organizes a posse to hunt down the Indians: Ethan and Mar- tin join. In their absence though. a mean Comanche named Scar pays a bloody visit to Aaron's family. Ethan returns. finds a few fanilynis member heads without scalps, and sets out with Martin to search for his two nieces whom the warchiefhascaptured. What follows includes a blossoming friend- ship. acrazy man on a rocker.a pair of' mishap weddings and plenty of guns blazing forth in the wild brush. If you're a fan of testosterone- charged asskickers. forget Van Damme or Stallone. John Wayne is the original, and these days few do the hard-guy routine better. E;than is so tough that he punches out a fellow deputy to prevent the man from see- ing the grisly, hacked-up body of his beloved. Yet he's got the grit sensiti v- ity to dig a grave with his own hands and bury a fallen lady wrapped in the coat olf his back. The strength of the movie is its stunning visuals. The jagged. lonely peaks of Monument ValIey in Utah are the real stars of the film. These enormous statuesque slabs of rock. whether covered in mist or standing anonymous in swirls of dust, accom- pany the Searchers in the background and convey the desolate loneliness of a land that is beautiful but dangerous. You don't have to be a geologist to appreciate the sights (John Ford liked Monument Valley's scenery so much that he shot a total of nine westerns here). The direction is reason enough to see "The Searchers." One of Hollywood's great directors. Ford is a las ish visual stylist and influenced such people as Orson Welles. who reputedly watched Ford's 1939 clas- sic -Stagecoach" some 200 times be- fore making "Citizen Kane." Every scene has something to look at. At night. just prior to Scar and company s better-then-BoRicks visit, the interior of Aaron's home is cast in a dull red burn to convey the impend- ing danger. When Ethan rides up to the house, John Wayne becomes the thrilling hero standing as a majestic tower of macho. saddled-up steel in dark silhouette against the backdrop of engulfing flames. Some of the shots look corny to a post-Gunsmoke generation. At the end of the film. Martin, the now veteran hitman nephew of Ethan. with friends, strolls into the lodge to celebrate in shadowy darkness. Wayne. however. prefers the soli- tude of an empty doorway. The hero squints his eyes then strolls outside into the wind and eternity as the soundtrack swells in some ban jo-har- monica jamming. Typical western tough-cuv mirage'? Yes. but remem- ber. this is still the 1950s. Claypool's will also have something released on Prawn Song later thi year. -One of my favorite hands lo- cally, Eskimo, had broke up for a while." lie recalled. "and they made a tape a while ago that they were selling locally. They gave me a copy of it and I thought it was great. We're just gonna take the tape and do a little EQing on it and remaster it and we're gonna release it on our label. It's out there - it's Beef'heart. Zlappa type stuf f." V Although Prawn Song is accept- ing submissions from artists, Clay pool admits that they can't sign every- body. "I only want to sign hands that I think that we could do a good job for., he said. "I heard some groups recentis that ,kc could make a lot of money with but I just don't think we would he the right label for them. They're pop hands and thes should, go to a more pop-oriented label. I'm trying to lean away from the popular hip-hopja/f. Ifwe doreach intosome- thing like that I want to make sure it's very signature and the players are ama/img players. It'sgcot to have some sort ofedge to it that would attract me to it. Prawn Song also plans to release films. videos and books: a M.I.R.V comic book is already on the market: Still. Clay pool wants the company to crow gradually. "I don't want to take too big ofa leap into different things." he said, "that's how Primus was suc- cessful and that's how this thing has been growing so well --starting small and keeping it very small and taking things one step at a time. I would like this thing to become a multimedia entity that sort of feeds itself. I don'ti see Prawn Song as something that is gonna make a bunch of money, as much as I hope it becomes something that just feeds itself." THE CHARLIE HUNTER TRIO will perform at the Perfirmance Network on Sunday, April 10. Tickets are $8 and available at Schooikids Records. Doors open at 8 p.m. Caii u663-0681 fir more ino. * RESEARCH INFORMATION Largest Library of Information in U.S. 19,278 TOPICS-ALL SUBJECTS Order Catalog Today with VISAMC or COD 1r 800-351-0222 or rush $2.00 to Research Information 11322 Idaho Ave. #206-A Los Angeles CA 90025 V I Terence Blanchard of Spike Lee movie soundtrack fame Salif Keita the golden throat of Mali April18 8pm Power Center f / 94 763-TKTS UM Major Events. UAC Soundstage. Eclipse Jazz Michigan UnionTicket Office & all Ticketmaster outlets Student Leadership Development Classes Motivation Lead 001 Leadership Development Seminar Designed for first and second year students who are interested in developing personal leadership and organizational skills. Students will be introduced to the various concepts and theories of leadership, organization/group development and dynamics. Four basic components of student leadership development will be explored; communication, group collaboration, human differences, .; :,. 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