8- The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 21, 1995 'Strawberry and Chocolate' a tasty treat By Shirley Lee Daily Arts Writer Miramax films, "Strawberry and Chocolate"'s U.S. distributor, would like viewers and critics alike to consider this film as a cozy friendship between volatile opposites, ultimately signify- ing the possibilities for unity and mu- tual tolerance in the larger realm of a politically divided and equally volatile country. So on and so forth, blah blah blah. The message is hardly original or specific enough to do this engrossing, multifaceted film from Cuba any jus- tice. With all their chatty marketing- bites about kinky sociopolitical com- mentary and colorful character types, the posters and the press set us up for the "I Love Ricky Show." Do not allowed yourself to be fooled. "Strawberry and Chocolate" serves up a soft spin in a hard attack on the complexity of human relationships, unraveling in adeceptively simple way. The film focuses on the increasingly passionate relationship between a guy who "likes chocolate" and another guy who "likes strawberry"-two sides of a social coin. This coin, however, is also the currency of Castro's Havana in the late '70s. Diego is a worldly art-lover and openly gay man; David, a naive politi- cal-science major and a devoted mem- ber of the student socialist movement, is aggressively straight. In line with his party, David initially views Diego's homosexuality as mere deviance-a Strawberry and Chocolate Directed by Tomas Gutierrez Aleca At the State Theater strategy in directdefianceoftheculture's compulsory heterosexism. While the inevitable sexual tension between the two might easily have slid to center, director Tomas Gutierrez Alea opts for a wider political focus, associating this sexual dance with the sensuality, spiri- tuality,andexpressive variety of Cuba's literary and artistic traditions before the communist revolution. While I awaited a romantic clich6 at the finale of the reel,Igotaknotof lovely and surprising complexity instead. Diego attempts to seduce David and David entertains Diego in order to spy on him for the ruling party. Although Diego and David's connection sprouts from a dual deception, their relation- ship gradually matures beyond these limited agendas, freeing them to shed the social rhetoric and strip down to a more personal politics. "Strawberry and Chocolate" is inundated with prop cues: Diego's tiny apartment is crammed with books, photos of Cuban composers and writ- ers, and large unfinished sculptures of Catholic saints with exaggerated stigmata. Alea gracefully eschews the bombastic sermonizing of many American films in favor of odd pair- ings, flawless characterization, and witty intellectual sparring. David learns to recognize and ap- preciate Diego's resistant stance as another side of patriotism and Diego discovers that his stubborn idealism has some very real and even painful consequences. The film is technically unsophis- ticated. A majority of the scenes are straight-on interior tote-a-tetes which could only work well on stage. The one exception to this claim is the introduction of Havana itself as ades- titute, once-decadent character with its own stories. The style is all in the content here and in this case, that is plenty. i Pitch Shifter The Remix War Earache Records Mostremix albums are nothing more than long-winded musical orgies; sure,it's really exciting anddifferentat first, but by the end it's kind ofrepetitiveand pungent, and you'll be lucky if leave with the right clothes and few unusual stains. Not with Pitch Shifter. Once inside the tasty sugar walls of their infectious industrial / metal dance machine, all caution slips away. Along with the band's own four overhauls of songs from their last album, members of Therapy?, Biohazard and Gunshot give each a song an extended tryst, all ex- tremely gratifying. Therapy? adds a thumpin' techno edge to "Diable" and Gunshot pumps up "Triad" as the great lost hip-hop record Helmet nevermade. Granted, this isn't music to deeply penetrate your mind. "Diable," has just two lyrics, one a spoken word sample of aman screaming "Hail Satan!" and the other vocalist J.S. Clayden growling, "Hands up who wants to die?" But why be long and meaningful if you can be quick and nasty? Edgy, butt-shakin', groovy and hard. I'm spent. - Kirk Miller Today Is The Day Willpower Amphetamine Reptile Recorded in Detroit's very own White Room Studios, Today Is The Day's sec- ond album "Willpower" is a churning mass of rockoplasm. The title track slams into being with a woman screaming "I tell you I look in your face and I know that you're lying" in a truly angry fasmon. It sets the tone for the entire platter pretty well, with both the unmistakable scent of anger and the judicious use of samples. The music proceeds like a soundtrack to a stalking movie. The guitars are all dis- torted but the rhythm and energy of the songs keep a lethargic killing pace. Take the song "Many Happy Returns." The bass is pretty repetitive, but the twisted sound of the instruments keeps it interesting. And the raw lyrics "Red light you want pussy fuck 200 marks far away from home I want pussy fuck ready to ride" rounds out the atmosphere.The album as a whole is an almost unrelenting assault of gut wrenching noise. And there's nothing quite like a band with a raptor trying to pop out of their pants. Woo! - Ted Watts 'A By Sa Daily A Fo tance," AlfieB satisfi andw nugge tain of initial ter Ro the ph warnin down half o clearth forget Impor veil. I middl much league film b at time Be sires t around Wilde with a pletely as the Fitzge (Albert Finney, left) must convince his friend Robbie (Rufus Sewell, right) that he's a man of importance. Man of No Importance'is hardly a Wilde time srah Stewart rens") steps on the double-decker bus, troduced. Virtually the definition of an' rs Writer Alfieimposes his own imageupon her- innocent, Alfie painfully learns that r much of "A Man of No Impor- in his eyes she's a pure, virginal, silver Adele is not as virginal as he is. He "itseemsthatDublinbusconductor flower and the only woman capable of consequently takes to the streets of Byrne(AlbertFinney)iscompletely playing the lead role in his "Salome." Dublin as Oscar Wilde, donning the ed with life: as far as his passengers The play is never produced, but in- appropriate costume makeup and green eknow,he'snothingbutwidesmiles, stead offeeling theregretofincompletion, carnation and seeking the costly affec- ts of wisdom and an endless foun- it's almostarelief.The passengers/actors tions of a man. Even though this scene fOscar Wilde quotes. While Alfie's sticks out from the rest of the film like light-heartedness rivals thatof Mis- xR EViEW an American in Dublin, Finney per- gers and Mary Poppins combined, forms it as well as can be expected. ysically dark nature of the film is a A Man of No Although we feel nothing but sympa- ng that this Irish gent is secretly Importance thy towards Alfie'scharacter, his interac0 on his luck. By the time the second tions with Adele fail to grasp ouremotions f the film rolls around, it becomes Directed by Suri Krishnamma as much as Krishnamma must have ex- hatdirectorSuriKrishnammadidn't with Albert Finney pected.Alfie'sundauntablefaithinAdele's to turn up the lights; "A Man of No and Tara Fitzgerald. purity is so hard to believe thatitisequally tance" never escapes from its dark At Ann Arbor & 2 unbelievable that he would suffer such a nstead, as it is revealed that theA - & crushing blow when her true character is e-aged Alfielongsto belovedby his are mildly entertaining in their Viking finally revealed. At least from an outside,' younger and much straighter col- costumes - an obvious error on the part perspective, the parallelsbetween Adele's e, Robbie Fay (Rufus Sewell), the of the costumer - but otherwise their overt sexuality and his repressed homo- ecomes downright depressing and tedious rehearsals are as frustrating for us sexuality are notdirectenough to make his es, downright dull. as they are for Alfie. You can't help but Wildecharadeappear tobe anything more efore Alfie's more scandalous de- wonder why Adele, who is no more of an than an absurd stunt of desperation. "A' ake center stage, the plot revolves actor than the rest of the group, would Man ofNolmportance" has several comic d his dream of producing Oscar agree to be part of it. moments that break the tedium of the 's controversial drama, "Salome," Alfie's obsession with this play and film's depressing elements, but too often' cast composed of his faithful, com- the idiosyncrasies of its author is pro- there is little to laugh at and less to like. If y common bus passengers. As soon ducer Jonathan Cavendish's tribute to you're only willing to depress yourselffor e wide-eyed Adele Rice (Tara Wilde and also the primary means by thesakeofareally good film,keepinmind rald. Hugh Grant's wife in "Si- which Alfie's sexual frustration is in- that this one does not fit the bill. ........ a,..b.. ...... .... .. ...... ... ..... MEN Coninued from page 5 children, teens and men. These were real people who lived real lives and who had their lives taken from them for as many reasonsascouldbeimagined.Thesepeople wereasrealasthetearswhichflowedfrom dozens of nameless faces in the crowd overcome by the sheer number of unnec- essary deaths being read to them, and their seemingly powerlessness (pronounced "unwillingness") to try and stop it. This play wasn'tjust about tears and mourning, however. It was also about finding solutions. The primary solution wasself-love, love from within theBlack community. "I love you. I love you as much as a dead man could love," Johnson said. "I am not immune to love. It s love that is immune to me." That way of thinking must beelimi- nated. But how? "I need for you to touch me again, softly. I need for you to teach me again, gently," Johnson said. "Will you love me again? Because I am alive. Because I am dying." "Love me again," Rogers said. "Believe in me; teach me my history. Don't give up on us, and my brothas, let's not give up on ourselves." "We must move," Jenkins told the Black men in the audience. "We must startupsomething. We must aggrevate; we must agitate; we must mess up; we must kick; we must holler." Black men must realize that "I am the man, the true man, the Black man. I am the strength upon which the great- ness of this country was built. I am the blood of this nation; one can not live without blood. I am the bones of this nation; onecan not stand without bones." From this, the cast hopes to instill one feeling - no, one fact - into the@ hearts of Black men everywhere. "No matter what the world takes away from me, I will not let it take away the essence of me. I am strong; I am powerful; Iam Black; I am da man." t t, RON cr~s" JNIe *jIS I