One last big score ... Ron O'Neal stars in "Superfly" playing tonight at the Michigan Theater. Gotta dig that big white hat. $6.25 for students. michigandaiiy.com /arts zgtdigm n aig ARTS . MONDAY OCTOBER 1, 2001 5A Jin's visit to Drum ends the Waiting' Stupid is as stupid does : 'Zoolander,'just plain stupid By Lisa Rajt Daily Books Editor It seems like everyone is always waiting. Whether it's the populace of Ann " v. Ha Jin Shaman Drum Tonight at 8 p.m. Arbor antici- pating the arrival of criti- cally acclaimed author and Emory Univer- sity professor Ha Jin, or the lead character from Jin's sec- ond novel "Waiting," patience proves to always be a virtue. N o w. 12 elegant, neatly told short stories , set in Communist China. Jin evokes comparisons to Hemingway with his simplistic style of storytelling, and themes of nature, struggle, death and the search for identity. The list of accolades for "Wait- ing" goes on and on: A New York Times Notable Book, it won the National Book Award, the Pen/Faulkner Award and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. "The Bride- groom" has received similarly spec- tacular reviews. Accompanying Ha Jin at Shaman Drum tonight will be rising literary star Dennis Bock, newly-minted author of the highly anticipated "The Ash Garden." A tale of the bombing of Hiroshima in 1946, Bock revolves three stories around the ethical and moral fallout from that act of war. Beautifully written and almost certain to be a contem- porary classic, this is definitely one author to look for in the future. The wait is almost over. By Todd Weiser Daily Arts Writer Zoolander Grade: C- At Showcase and Quality 16 Many will argue that a film that is supposed to be stupid cannot be written off because it is what it tries to be. However, stupid does not always, or even often, equal funny, and in the case of "Zoolander," written, directed and starring Ben Stiller, it makes for a film containing few laughs and much head scratching. "Zoolander" follows the recent trend of every studio comedy in that it has an IQ below 30, and you will most likely be asking yourself after the film: how did Ben Stiller take the course that took him from his directorial debut, the smart, perceptive "Reali- ty Bites" to this silly, mind numb- ing comedy? "Zoolander" follows the adven- tures of male super-model Derek patience has proved itself a virtue once again. After a period of "wait- ing" several years, Jin graces fic- tion readers all over the world with "The Bridegroom," a collection of Courtesy of Emory University and Vintage International Ha An brings his own special kind of fiction to Drum. Multiple storylines promote tension in 'Don't Say a Word' By Wilbelmina Mauritz Daily Arts Writer Most people will probably dismiss "Don't Say a Word" as a rip-off of Ron Howard's thriller "Ransom" (1996) starring Mel Gibson. Are there similarities between the two movies? Yes. They both involve the issue of kidnapping children and demanding something for their return. In the case of "Ransom," money was demanded, but, in "Don't Say a Word," the demand is a 1 bit more complicated than just money; it involves psy- chiatric help to a disturbed patient in a mental hospital. That's a bit more intriguing than just money in many ways. "Don't Say a Word" starts out with a jewel heist gone bad. Five men break into a bank in search of a red jewel that is supposedly worh over $.l0 million. As the ren., break up into two groups during their escape, the larger group, consisting of three men, realize that the jewel that they have just stolen has been stolen from them. They are more than a little upset. Ten years later, we see Dr. Don't Say Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas) a Word a psychiatrist with the perfect life. He has got a great practice right in Grade: B+ the heart of New York City. He has At showcase a beautiful condo where his wife, and Quality 16 laid up due to a broken leg, and his 8-year-old girl wait for him to come home every night. The night before Thanksgiving, Nathan is held up from coming home because .; an old colleague of his wants him to take a look at a new patient (Brittany Murphy), a catatonic that has been buffeted in and out of mental hospitals over the last 10 years after she watched her dad get hit by a subway train when she was 10 years old. This is the beginning of the end for poor Nathan. On Thanksgiving morning Nathan wakes up to find his daughter missing and a man on the other end of his phone line insisting that he won't get his daughter back unless he can get the catatonic girl to release a 6-digit number she's got locked away in her head somewhere. Nathan has until five o'clock that day. "Don't Say a Word" actually involves a few story- lines within the main story. Each of the stories is told separately, but they are intricately woven together. Eventually, they all come together. At times, there are moments of confusion where it almost feels as if there were more to a certain sub-story that just got lost some- where on the editing room floor, but those moments are infrequent. "Don't Say a Word" is a suspense-thriller. The best thing about this movie is its ability to build and main- tain tension. The very first scene is a perfect example of this. It involves the group of thieves sitting in a van waiting for the right moment to make their movie. Zoolander (Stiller). Derek is the king of the catwalk, having won the male model of the year award at the VH I Fashion Awards for three consecutive years. Derek is the stereotypical model, vain and stupid, but Derek is also an aging superstar, and new kid on the block, Hansel (Owen Wilson, "Shanghai Noon") is prepared to eclipse Derek's stardom. Hansel is just as stupid as Derek, but he enjoys extreme sports and adopts a Zen lifestyle. Hansel's defeat of Derek at the VHl Awards throws Derek into an assessment of his own life and career as a supermodel. Derek wants to discover his roots back home in Southern New Jersey, declaring, "I'm pretty sure there's more to life than just being real- ly, really good looking, and I plan on finding out what that is." But here is the part of the plot that is a little tricky to comprehend, so follow along closely if you can. Derek's retirement has caused a damper in the plans of fashion designer Jacobim Mugatu (Will Ferrell). It seems that the new prime minister of Malaysia is being elected based on his anti-child labor views, and the fashion industry, particularly Mugatu, who has many sweat- shops in the country, view the new executive as a threat. And since male models have been behind every known assassination of the past 200 years (don't ask), Derek has been picked to off the new president. Also in on the conspiracy is Derek's agent Maury Ballstein (Jerry Stiller, Ben's dad) and Mugatu's assistant Katinka (Milla Jovovich). Taking two whole paragraphs to explain this film's plot is too much a compliment for Stiller's script, but there is one more character who must be introduced: Matilda Jeffries (Christine Taylor, Ben's wife). Matilda is a Time magazine reporter investigating the world of modeling and is especially interested in the mysterious Mugatu. Along the way, actually in the middle of a giant orgy featuring Swedish dwarves and a Buddhist Tenacious D rc Courtesy of Paramount Look, everybody, we can blame Andy Dick on this guy! monk, Derek falls in love with her. For his main cast and a non-stop series of cameos, Stiller has brought together all his family, friends and even acquaintances. These random appearances make for some of the most enjoyable scenes from the film. David Bowie is obviously the only person who could referee a "Walk-Off" between Derek and Hansel, Billy Zane does his best to deter confrontational Derek from the showdown with Hansel, Natalie Portman proclaims that Derek is just too good looking to date and Fred Durst is one of the many who enjoy the final catwalk appearance for Derek as he fights the mind controlling power of the '80s dance hit "Relax" as it tells him to kill the Prime Minister. The strange thing about "Zoolander" is that as bad as it may be, you still sit through the film trying as hard as you can to enjoy it. At this time, this country needs a great comedy where you can leave your brain at home and just enjoy yourself for a couple hours. Stiller is not attempting to make "Godfather" or "2001: A Space Odyssey" here (although he parodies both films, one successfully and one not), he just wants you to laugh at the stupidity of his character and the situations around him. Occasionally, he is successful, especially in scenes involving both Stiller and Wilson, but most of the time the jokes fall flat. This usually occurs when the film tries to parody itself by being so bad that it is actually funny, but it constantly just comes off as lackluster filmmaking. If you do go see "Zoolander," take a careful look at the shots of the New York skyline; even though the fiati was shot months ago, the World Trade Center towers are missing. After the recent tragic events, the filmmak- .ers..ad the towers digitally edited out. While,it may, seem weird to not see the towers in certain shots where you know they belong, it would most certainly make you feel weirder if they were there. )cks socks off tonight at Detroit's State Theatre By Luke Smith and Lyle Henretty Daily Arts Editors Tonight, Tenacious D rocked the State Theatre in Detroit. Acoustic comic-rock duo Jack Black and Kyle Gass dropped trau and kicked C~our tesy Vof hItncentury rFox C'mon, Mikey, she could be your granddaughter! There isn't a lot going on, but all the same, the audi- ence still has this feeling of mounting tension. There is a feeling that something really big is about to blow, but you're just not sure what or when. The worst thing about "Don't Say a Word" is the occasional black-and-white nature of both the charac- ters and the plot. Here are the bad guys, horrid to the core. By contrast, the hero is left alone to save the day, made even more apparent since his wife is stuck at home in bed due to her broken leg. Even many of the settings in "Don't Say a Word" are magnified and blown out of proportion to create a more exciting backdrop. For example, the psych ward, as is usually the case, is the most awful, disturbing place. It really makes one wonder why psychology is so popular a field these days if places like this are portrayed as the spot where one might end up. Is it really necessary to make the mentally ill appear more like animals than humans? The answer is probably not. It does, however, add a sense of creepiness to the whole aura of the movie. This is exactly why it was done that way. Tenacious D State Theatre, Detroi' Tonight at 7:30 p.m. song that made" ass in the crowd-pleasing show they have yet to play. The much anticipat- ed show is to promote the release and sub- sequent recall of their epony- mous debut. The "greatest and best song" of the evening was clearly "Tribute," the The D the media - but fellas, you better. listen too!) "Karate," (a song nearly as danger- ous as a Daniel LaRusso "Crane" kick) and "Kylfe Quit the Band" (don't worry kids, the song is of his triumphant return). The D first gained notoriety through their short-lived HBO miniseries, which featured the boys busting funnies (and their much- maligned belts) for six action- packed episodes. Another highlight of tonight's show was their brilliant telling (through song) of the life of a little guy named "Wonderboy." This is also the band's first single, which can be seen in a Spike Jones' direct- ed clip, should resurrect them from the mucky-muck of the underground music scene. The performance of the song this evening was probably the most rousing part of the show. The D refused to speak with The Daily after tonight's concert, and who were we kidding, we (weren't) aren't worthy. Despite the snub, we couldn't have been happier with the concert which has not yet taken place. See you there tonight. ~-i"I- ..-- - .-.- Courtesy of Epic The D searches for inspiration. whoremongers that they will be tonight. Other songs may have included "Fuck. Her Gently," (a serene acoustic ballad for the ladies How far north, south, east, and west can you travel from Ann Arbor and still take Michigan courses? Budw s rAre you thinking about law school? CONCERT SERIESEC E Do you want to collect tips from admissions deans? " Plan to attend .. Find out at the 'I 4 _n_ F r1u Law Day - Meet with over 90 law schools plus local test preparation services * Collect application information and explore law education options f _, Yr. ~ \v;\,l -- 1 ' 1 i. i ti r' Nl 4 / QI P S idAbroad Fair 51IL i i