Heeeeeere's Johnny,..
Kubrick's stylish bastardization of
Stephen King's "The Shining" is often
considered better than the book.
Michigan Theater. 7 p.m. $6.25 for students
michigandaily.com /arts
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ARTS
MONDAY
NOVEMBER 19, 2001
A
A
Spellbinding
'Harry Potter'
idelivers magic
By Wilhelmina Mauritz
Daily Arts Writer
Probably one of the most anticipated movies of this
year, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" does not
The Strokes play Detroit,
challenge Nirvana's shadow
By Keith Dusenberry
Daily Arts Writer
I hate the Strokes. The best new
band to come along in years, they
are rich, young, attractive, tall, tal-
Harry Potter
and the
Sorcerer's
Stone
Grade: A
At Showcase
and Quality 16
Oft
disappoint. Many diehard fans may
be wary that the movie will not live
up to the book (as many movies
bear no resemblance to the books
on which they are based). However,
"Harry Potter," with its 152-minute
running time, was able to capture
the magic and imagination of J.K.
Rowling's vision and not stray from
from the plot of the book. Yes,
there are subtle differences and
minor changes, but nothing drastic.
For those who are not familiar
with the book, Harry Potter is a
young boy -who discovers he's a
wizard on his 11th birthday. He is
able to leave his dreadful aunt and uncle, with whom he
has lived after his parents were killed when he was a
baby, and attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry.
At Hogwarts, Harry is famous and loved by every-
body (well almost everybody). He is finally able to dis-
cover what it feels like to belong with help from his
new friends Ron (Rubert Grint), Hermione (Emma
"I wish I'd worn a cup!"
Watson) and the groundskeeper Hagrid (Robbie
Coltrane). Mystery and adventure follow, not to men-
tion a whole new magical world filled with Quidditch
matches (think Michigan football), three-headed dogs
and invisibility cloaks.
The three young actors who took up the roles of
Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were
brilliantly suited to their parts. The actors were chosen
with Rowling's help to match her vision. The search for
the perfect Harry in particular took the longest and has
been compared to finding the right Scarlett O'Hara for
"Gone With -the Wind."
Daniel Radcliffe is the perfect embodiment of Harry
Potter. He not only looks identical to the descriptions of
Harry's character, but he also does a great job acting,
especially with his facial expressions. Personally
though, Grint's Ron may have topped Radcliffe's per-
formance, playing the ever-faithful sidekick to a T.
The true star of "Harry Potter" is not actually a per-
son but rather the visual effects. They steal the show.
Harry's world is filled with magical moments that could
only occur with help from a computer, but are so realis-
tic on screen it will blow anyone away. A whole Quid-
ditch match is shown, involving Hogwart's students
flying on broomsticks chasing a variety of balls that
have minds of their own. It all looks so natural that for
a minute you forget that you are not watching ESPN but
rather computer graphics.
Another visual masterpiece is the dining hall, which
has floating candles, a banquet of food that appears and
disappears in a blink of an eye and a night sky in lieu of
a ceiling. Hermione points out that the sky is not really
the sky but rather a spell (a little spell we like to call
technology).
Harry Potter fans will not be disappointed with this
film, nor will those who have never even heard of the
book (although where that person has been in the last
two years would be a mystery to me). The movie is a
trip to another world where magic holds the viewer
spellbound.
Strokes
St. Andrews
November 17, 2001
f
ented and doing
what they love
as they traverse
the globe
putting on enig-
matically excel-
lent shows.
This is not to
mention that
they're from
America's new
love affair -
New York City.
Not since Nir-
vana captured
the essence of
early-'90s boredom-born angst has
a band been so perfectly suited to
its time.
Copping their best "Here we are,
now entertain us" attitudes, the
crowd at St. Andrew's Hall Saturday
night was appropriately diverse for
this new millenium of music.
Grunge kids having grown into so
many sub-genres (indie, emo,
garage, etc.) over the years, the
Strokes' variously influenced sound
attracted a representative contingent
from each bunch. But through the
years, no matter in which niche they
eventually landed, the Children of
Nirvana have grown up and their
tastes matured. They've traded their
thrift store flannel for designer
denim, homeless chic for mussed
prep, coffeehouses for local bars,
heroin heroes for cigarettes-and-
beer boys.
Far from the Cobain-ly strung
out, sloppy live sound, the Strokes
performance was perfectly precise
and full of vigor. Each member of
the band executed every note like he
meant it, but the Strokes' live per-
formance comprised a study in con-
trasts. Guitarist Nick Valensi and
Bassist Nikolai Fraiture hardly
moved whilst playing, both standing
stoically behind their instruments as
if the music siphoned their energy
to move and shot it through the
speakers. But drummer Fab Moretti
and guitarist Albert Hammond
relentlessly punished their instru-
ments, Moretti's mop of curls flying
just as wildly as Hammond's wind-
mill windup strums. And with them,
lead singer Julian Casablancas, the
manchild behind the Strokes who
writes all of the music and all of the
words, stumbled and careened
around the stage visibly drunk, but
musically flawless.
Unfortunately, the contrast
between the band's live show and
only record, Is This It, is all but
nonexistent. The concert's song
order was like the CD on shuffle, as
was the actual sound. It is com-
mendable that the Strokes can put
out such a good album and com-
pletely and accurately recreate it on
stage, but it was also a little disap-
pointing for the concert attendees
who already knew it. With the
exception of Casablancas' addition
of the occasional "fuck" to the
lyrics and the new, but entirely
unremarkable, song "Meet Me in
the Bathroom," the Strokes' live
show sounded exactly like their
record.
But there was added live intensi-
ty, largely drawn from the audience.
At such a scenester-style show, one
might expect a sea of hipster head-
nod, but at a few points there was
full on contact hopping (just short
of moshing) and even a few air-
pumping fists. Mostly in their '20s,
the crowd who sang, "I feel stupid
and contagious" as part of their
adolescent anthem may well adopt
the Strokes' "Barely Legal" chorus
of "Oh, you ain't never had nothin'
I wanted, but/I want it all/I just
can't figure out/Nothing" as its
more mature mantra. Regardless of
how much older, wiser or cooler the
crowd gets, live music remains a
collective experience and Saturday
night showed that Generation What-
ever is ready for it.
The Strokes' Is This It release
date was delayed two weeks due to
the September events, but it was
originally scheduled to come out on
Sept. 25 - exactly ten years and
one day after the release of Never-
mind. Ten years and five weeks
after Nirvana played St. Andrew's
Hall for the first and last time, the
Strokes appeared there and showed
Detroit that hopefully music's direc-
tion is about to again change for the
better.
I'm not like them, but I can pre-
tend ...
The Strokes rock a sold out St. Andrews in Detroit.
Courtesyy
Friends are already hitting Harry (right) up for money.
II