I
ARTS
The Michigan Daily - Special Graduation Section - Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 7B
Carrey, Winslet return
with 'Eternal Sunshine'
ASHLEY HARPER/Daily
Filmmaker and activist Michael Moore spoke about the presidential election on Sept. 30, 2004, at Hill Auditorium.
LIKE MIKE
MOOM VOWS TO KEEP KERRY 'HONEST'
By Adam Rottenberg
Daily Arts Editor
After finishing his speech at Hill
Auditorium to the politically charged
crowd Wednesdaynight, Michael Moore
spoke to The Michigan Daily about the
power that he hopes the event will have.
"I hope that when people leave
here, they go out and volunteer and
plan to do something," Moore said.
His sentiments echoed the spirit
of the speech, which reiterated the
importance of the youth vote.
Moore revealed that, while his perfor-
mance antagonized President Bush, it
did not necessarily support Democratic
presidential candidate John Kerry.
"I'm probably helping to get their
candidate elected. I think the film did
a lot to bring people out, to get them
energized, to get out and vote," Moore
explained.
Though he views the upcoming elec-
tion from his biased liberal opinion, he
said, his cameras will continue rolling
to uncover the truth regardless of who
assumes power.
Moore continued, "I will go after
(Kerry) and keep him honest and do
those things I need to do."
Throughout the night, Moore stressed
the need for the media to expose the truth.
He put the burden on the student press
for this upcoming election to "cover the
things that are not being covered."
Much of the media spotlight now
shining on Moore stems from the release
of the record-breaking documentary
"Fahrenheit 9/11" - which served as an
indictment of the Bush administration
and the Iraq war.
Even with all the controversy sur-
rounding the film, he still views it as
a success. "I knew the film would be
effective, and, by being effective, it
would make a lot Republicans angry.
So they've gone berserk, and it's kind of
funny to watch them" he said.
Though Moore has milked his ever-
growing prominence with appearances
at both parties' national conventions this
summer, he still feels slighted by the
national media.
"I am rarely on any of the cable news
channels," Moore said. He recounted
that he has only been on FOXNews
once, MSNBC once and CNN five times
in the past 18 months.
Moore thinks that most young people
are ignoring traditional media outlets and
instead getting their news from satirical
programs like Comedy Central's "The
Daily Show with Jon Stewart." "It's kind
of a sad commentary on where people
get their news," Moore said. While not
a complete opponent of this growing
trend, he views humor as a "great way to
communicate," and he's "glad it's been
rediscovered."
With the election near, Moore has his
eyes set toward the future. "I think I am
going to do something on the health care
industry, but my plan at first is to take it
easy for a while." Additionally, he thinks
more levity will return to his work after
the election. "I'll probably get funnier
after Bush is gone. I'm at kind of a low
- a migraine mood right now," joked
Moore.
-Sarah Peterson contributed to this
report.
- Oct. 1, 2004
By Todd Weiser
Daily Arts Editor
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Even
though they're two of the world's big-
gest superstars, Jim Carrey and Kate
Winslet sure have a lot of trouble
talking about themselves. Gathered in
a Beverly Hills hotel along with the
director, screenwriter and other stars
of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind" - a film released today in the-
aters across the country - the two
leads can't help but hide their celeb-
rity status as they are too busy gush-
ing over what a great time they had
making the film.
A more dramatic departure for the
comedic giant, Carrey scoffs at the
idea that he needs to be funny all the
time. "For me the story's the star. It
doesn't matter whether it's funny or
not," he said.
If Carrey was looking for an imagi-
native, smart story that demanded
none of the usual Carrey showman-
ship, he certainly found the right men
for the job in acclaimed screenwriter
Charlie Kaufman, the unorthodox
mind behind "Being John Malkovich"
and "Adaptation," and music video
filmmaker Michel Gondry, a second-
time director also responsible for vid-
eos for The White Stripes and Bjork.
A romance with a sci-fi twist,
"Eternal Sunshine" finds Joel (Car-
rey) and Clementine (Winslet) as
one-time lovers who now wish to
erase all memories of their relation-
ship from their brains thanks to an
operation devised by Dr. Howard
Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson, "In the
Bedroom").
The film combines Kaufman's
eccentric storytelling with Gondry's
visual magic, but never lets the tech-
nical overcome the emotional. Win-
slet noted her attraction to the film,
"Whilst the story is told in this kind
of crazy, unorthodox way, it's actu-
ally a very simple love story about
two people who are really meant to be
Courtesy or ocus Features
together despite this horrendous thing
that they do," she said.
Carrey eagerly added, "It's roman-
tic, and yet it's not romanticized. It's
a real love full of compromise and
everything else that love comes with."
With a story they believed in
drawing the actors to the project,
Gondry's high-wire-act filming style
never disappointed Carrey and Win-
slet on the set. Winslet explained,
"I think that so much of what we
ended up shooting was not only bril-
liantly written by Charlie but was in
Michel's mind and that, for all of us,
was the thing that was so inspiring
and challenging and spontaneous
about making this film, that every
day there was something new."
"Michel definitely flouts conven-
tion," Carrey echoed. "(It was) differ-
ent than anything I think any of us has
ever experienced. At a certain point,
he didn't want to say action or any-
thing. He just wanted to completely
rewrite the whole rulebook."
Gondry's bizarre approach con-
fused Carrey at first, as he explains,
"I argued with him a couple of times
about that I didn't think that I could
accomplish certain things like a scene
in (Dr. Mierzwiak's office) where I'm
in two different places in the scene and
I have to run around the camera."
Winslet adds, "And you never
thought it was gonna work."
But Carrey could not argue with
the results, "It looks so clunky. You
just go, 'This is a student film right
here,' and then you see it and you go,
'Wow. It's magic man.' "
From Elijah Wood to Kirsten
Dunst, the entire room sang the prais-
es of Kaufman and Gondry. More-
over, from their stories it appeared
the entire crew fell in love with the
project.
Carrey recounted, "When (we) were
done in the scene, (everybody) would
run down the hall to the video monitors
to see if we pulled it off and then this
cheer would go up at the end of it."
And with that trademark Carrey
grin, he added, "It was like old-time
show business again."
- Mar. 19, 2004
"Really? They want me for a good movie?"
'San Andreas'
expands GTA
gainer umiverse
Mouse makes 'Bad
News' good on LP
By Joel Hoard
n A --+ r "erit
By Jason Roberts
Daily Arts Editor
It's almost difficult to comprehend
the amount of information packed into
Rockstar's latest entry in the thriving
"Grand Theft Auto" series. Part role-
playing game, part driving game, part
action game and
part epic adven-
ture, "Grand Grand Theft
Theft Auto: San Auto: San
Andreas" is so Andreas
involved and
expansive it
erally takes
entire state
contain it all.
so
lit-
an
to
PS2
Rockstar Games
The setting for this iteration of
"GTA" is three West Coast cities in
the early '90s (all inspired by real-
world cities) sprawled across the
fictional state of San Andreas: Los
Santos (Los Angeles), Las Ventu-
ras (Las Vegas) and San Fierro (San
Francisco).
Carl "CJ" Johnson, a young man
from the desolate neighborhood of
Los Santos known as Ganton, and
his gang are pulled straight out of
John Singleton's "Boyz N the Hood"
and the architecture and styles of
the times are all hit with uncanny
precision.
Though the progression in "San
Andreas" is often linear, it is, like it
has been in the past, extremely open-
ended. After meeting up with a few
friends from CJ's past - Ryder, Big
Smoke and Sweet - a vast majority
of Los Santos's map is already avail-
able for exploration. The three cities,
each the size of Vice City in 2002's
"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" ver-
sion, have plenty of winding roads and
small backcountry towns in-between.
To put this expanse in perspective,
the amount of area that's open in the
beginning of the game is larger than
the fully opened Vice City and only
expands as the game advances.
The developers at Rockstar have
put as much, if not more, time and
energy into creating the atmosphere
are an integral part of the game and
blend well with the in-game action.
The missions, like those in pre-
vious editions, keep the narrative
moving forward, as do the calls CJ
receives on his cell phone. In addi-
tion, the player's use of a gang also
changes the perspective of play. Most
of the missions are not solo; they usu-
ally involve one or more members of
CJ's crew, making them more about
teamwork and unity and adding more
human quality.
Breaking from the narrative,
however, has always been one of
the game's biggest assets, and "San
Andreas" is no different. Not only is
there much more area to explore, but
there are dozens of new things to see
and do, including eating, exercising,
gambling, tricking out cars and much
more. In this edition, the numerical
health meter has been replaced by
a stamina bar. The player no longer
relies on picking up random power-
ups to recharge and replenish health.
Stamina is replenished by eating food
at local restaurants, which mainly
consists of pizza, hamburgers and
chicken. Eating too much, however,
will put extra pounds onto CJ's waist-
line and force players to work it off in
the gym.
Stats such as "Respect," "Fat"
and "Sex Appeal" are all recorded
in a level-building way similar to
games such as "The Sims." As play-
ers buy more stylish outfits (one can
don anything from a green hoodie
and flip-flops to a sharp suit with dog
tags and high-tops), CJ's sex appeal
and respect will vacillate, making it
either easier or harder for him to pick
up dates. In addition, skills such as
driving, shooting and swimming (yes,
gamers no longer die as soon as they
hit water) have to be worked at and
learned over time. A player that has a
higher level in driving, for example, is
better equipped to handle tight turns.
Tony Hawk, eat your heart out.
A player that has an increased stami-
na level will be able to sprint further
and longer than one that is fat with a
lower stamina rating.
The stat system is a welcome addi-
tion to the "GTA" package and adds
more realism and customization to
an all-ready well-rounded package.
In addition to changes in clothes and
nutrition, players can also visit local
barbers and tattoo artists to further
customize their character's physical
appearance.
"GTA" has always been about the
vehicles, and "San Andreas" does not
disappoint. Some of the highlights of
the latest edition include the bicycle,
the black van and the four-wheeler.
The bicycle is easy to use and as CJ
becomes more skilled with the bike,
he can enter BMX races to win cash
prizes. The black van can be entered
at night and triggered - like in the
"Vigilante" missions and taxi cab
missions of past installments - to
perform home invasions, where CJ
will sneak into a person's home and
steal valuables for extra money while
the resident is asleep. The four-wheel-
er can be found outside the city limits
and used to terrorize the backcountry
in a full-out ATV onslaught.
Technically, "GTA: San Andreas"
is another solid installment into the
genre. While the characters look a bit
blocky in medium and close-up shots,
their animations and subtle nuisances
clearly make up for it. The environ-
ments are extremely well rendered
(each neighborhood within the vari-
Isaac Brock, Modest Mouse's eccen-
tric, neurotic, death-obsessed front man,
established himself as indie rock's resi-
dent Woody Allen years ago, and the
band's latest album, Good News for
People Who Love Bad News, further
ous cities that make up San Andreas
have their own unique feel) and push
the capabilities of the PS2. Rarely do
objects or textures suddenly "pop"
into view. The weather effects -
including a heat haze for the mid-day
desert settings and a grainy, desatu-
rated texture for the grey, rainy eve-
nings - are especially impressive.
"San Andreas" is an epic game no
matter how one may slice it. With all
of the possibilities for exploration,
expansion and customization, gain-
ers could easily spend 150 plus hours
within this gaming universe and still
not reach a 100 percent completion
rating. Games like this are simply
unheard of in today's market. With
such an expansive release, Rockstar
could have easily let the game get too
far out of hand and end up as a jumble
of misfit parts. But in "San Andreas,"
everything clicks and falls into place
to create one of the defining video-
games of this generation.
- Nov. 5, 2004
cements his title.
Brock's fixation
on mortality is still
present, but Mod-
est Mouse's brand
of acid-fried indie
is jumpier and
more anxious than
ever before.
Modest
Mouse
Good News for
People Who
Love Bad News
Sony
Deviating sharply from 2000's brood-
ing and plaintive The Moon & Antarc-
tica, Good News takes the rock-heavy
sound of 1997's Lonesome Crowded
West and updates it with refined produc-
tion and an eclectic array of instruments
that includes organs, strings, accordion,
whistles and glockenspiel. To be sure,
Modest Mouse are still a guitar-centric
group, but the new assortment of instru-
ments adds an element of depth that was
previously lacking.
Good News's centerpiece is the shim-
mering "Float On," Modest Mouse's
catchiest and most accessible song since
Crowded West's "Polar Opposites."
Over a lilting guitar riff and dreamy
atmospherics, Brock shouts and lisps
his way through quirky lyrics such as "I
backed my car into a cop car the other
day / Well, he just drove off, sometimes
life's OK."
Brock's love for absurdist humor and
oddball lyrics is on display throughout
Good News, especially on "The Devil's
Workday," a tongue-in-cheek take-off
of Tom Waits's bleak New Orleans death
marches. The song features low, belch-
ing brass, twangy banjo and bleating
trumpets. All the while Brock bellows
out strange, witty lines like "Gonna
take this sack of puppies and set it out
to freeze / Gonna climb around on all
fours till the blood falls out my knees"
and the nonsensical chorus of "All the
people that you know floating in the
river are logs."
But Brock also shows a sober side on
songs such as the serene "Blame It on
the Tetons." With a backdrop of slow and
subdued acoustic guitar, Brock's somber
lyrics and surprisingly endearing vocals
make the singer sound uncharacteristi-
cally vulnerable.
Throughout Good News, the marks
of producers Dennis Herring and Dave
Fridmann are noticeable. Herring and
Fridmann create a cleaner and crisper
sound through refined guitar tones and
denser arrangements without sacri-
ficing Modest Mouse's characteristic
sloppiness and rawness. Brock's unmis-
takable, lispy whine and jittery guitar
style remain distinct and untouched.
If Isaac Brock is indie rock's Woody
Allen, then Good News for People Who
Love Bad News is his "Annie Hall."
He's at the top of his game, and all of the
unrefined brilliance and idiosyncrasies
have come to a head in Modest Mouse's
best record to date.
-April 6, 2004
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