Tuesday November 22, 2005 arts. michigandaily. com artspage@michigandaily.com able W Jii~jn adU1 ,. RTrS 5 ThE HOTTEST PICKS IN ENTERTAINMENT FROM A DAILY ARTS WRITER S 'The Boondocks' - Adult Swim's "The Boondocks" is the most promising animated show since "Family Guy." It's had eight peo- ple rolling around on my living room floor for two weeks straight now. The ninth guy is a little upset, though, because we wake him up. Check it out even if you have never read the comic strip. 'Match Point' - Woody Allen has certainly derailed from his jj signature style with "Match Point," which is due out next month. Either he's gotten off drugs or taken some. Something is cer- tainly different, and, in my all-important opinion, better. Scarlett Johansson's presence doesn't exactly hurt things either. 3 Not Seeing 'Harry Potter' - I'm upset with this new Dumb- ledore and therefore am boycotting the "Harry Potter" series until they either re-replace the late Richard Harris or rouse him from the dead. Michael Gambon makes Dumb- ledore seem less like a wise, aging wiz- ard and more like an over-caffeinated basketball coach. What a ham. I'm glad he dies soon. Courtesy of Fox Searcnlight "Ok, one more time. I'm a Buddhist, playing a Jew." SPELLBOUND 'BEE SEASON' FAR FROM A CHAMPION 'In the Mix' - Usher has a new movie coming out over Thanksgiving weekend. Apparently he gets involved with a mob boss's daughter. There are going to be babes and guns and some horrible acting. This movie has a real chance. U-S-H-E-R, someone better get served or I am going to be pissed. By Zach Borden Daily Arts Writer The breakdown of families is a pretty familiar genre, a subsection of films that often features end- ings meant to warm the heart. Yet "Bee Season," which follows Bee Season a father who can't quite connect At the Michigan with his family, deviates from Theater the norm. Too distant and cold, the movie has no effect on the Fox Searchlight heartstrings whatsoever. Based on Myla Goldberg's novel, "Bee Sea- son" focuses on the Naumann family. While they might seem comfortable on the surface, there's plenty going on under the surface. Daughter Eliza (Flora Cross) finally captures the attention of her father, Saul (Richard Gere); once she becomes a spelling-bee champion, he shuns the rest of his family. It couldn't come at a worse time; his emo- tionally scarred wife Miriam (Juliette Binoche, "Chocolat") hides a dark secret, and his frus- trated son Aaron (Max Minghella) joins the Hare Krishnas. As Eliza makes her way through major spelling championships, the family's secrets are revealed. "Bee Season" has many ambitious ideas, so it's unfortunate that directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel ("The Deep End") don't handle them with more care. While they capture the emotional isolation of the characters, the film's theological elements never quite mesh. Religious beliefs are a driving background force in the story, but their ultimate meanings to the characters are covered too broadly. Visually, the film is quite stylized, particu- larly the spelling sequences. When Eliza closes her eyes and opens her mouth, her imagination - or, arguably, something spiritual - takes over. Pollen floats around her when she spells the word "dandelion"; later, a bird turns into folded paper when she spells "origami." While cute, the computer-animated wizardry feels out of place in what's primarily a human story. Also problematic is the grand finale. While it gives some closure for its young protagonist, it's too open-ended as far the rest of the family is concerned. This might be intentional, but it's also frustrating; much of the conflict comes to a head in the final 30 minutes. The film's book- end - Eliza's narration - comes off equal parts cheesy and manipulative. Still, the young actors do a fantastic job and run circles around their seasoned adult counter- parts. Newcomer Cross is the real find; while she lacks the wide-eyed precociousness of con- temporary Dakota Fanning, Cross hones in on her character's complex emotions well. Ming- hella also does a superb job, capturing religious confusion mixed with the usual teen angst. When it comes to the veterans, though, Gere is bland and fairly one note, and Binoche doesn't really say much of anything. Given the promise that directors McGehee and Siegel have shown in the past, "Bee Season" is a letdown. If the conflicts and underlying religious themes had been artfully balanced, this might have been a more emotionally welcoming movie. Clearly, there's one season that this film is bound to miss: Oscar season. Basement Arts - For those of you who may have neglected seeing "Big Love" in the Frieze last weekend, this is what you missed: three screaming girls in lin- gerie rolling around in tomato shrapnel, mass murder, slow dancing, a cake fight, poignant tear-jerking observations about love and sex in a bathtub. This is one of the best seasons for the Basement in years. The kicker? It's always free. courtesy of Sony Clientele stay with middling formula By Kimberly Chou Daily Arts Writer Recently, major indie-rock players have been singing the praises of the Clientele, a Lon-_ don-based outfit The Clientele stuck in the mel- low, marijuana- Strange Geometry heady fog of the Merge '60s. It's not often that a band's collective sound - multi-layered strings and acoustic guitar, airy vocals, random chimes and ringing bells - puts them under suspicion of owning numerous cop- ies of Forever Changes by iconic psych-group Love. Strange Geom- etry is not some remastered LP from 40 years ago, although, at times, it may feel that way. Though Merge label-mate Britt Daniel has openly professed his love for this band (Spoon chose the them to open on their tour this year), truth be told, they're kind of boring. Despite crystalline folk melodies and metic- ulously honed instrumentals, the majority of Strange Geometry comes off as a poor man's version of similar bands' work. Considering technical- Comedian outlines rocky rise to fame By Megan Jacobs Daily Arts Writer Almost as hot as Patty Hearst. Almost. ity and musical ability, the group is running on all eight cylinders; it's obvious the members make up for anything they lack talent-wise with hours in the production studio. But, ultimately, in looking toward their predecessors, The Clientele draw too much from their influences and fail to establish their own identity. Strange Geometry ultimately founders in the past, never quite become more than a plain imitation. A lot of kids that listen to so-called "indie music" will probably snatch up this album because The Clien- tele fit into the mold of indie-cool. It's difficult to picture an especially stimulating Clientele show - maybe lead singer Alasdair Maclean stage- diving into the lethargic crowd after an over-the-top cover of folk stan- dard "Scarborough Fair" would liven things up. Not every band needs to whip hipster kids into a frenzy, but it's a bad sign when imagining a rau- cous Clientele show involves pars- ley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Strange Geometry does have its stellar moments, however brief they might be. The Clientele have a way of ensnaring song introductions, even if they eventually lose the lis- tener's attention by the two-minute mark. "Since K Got Over Me" is a gem of an opening with an operatic vocal sample - ethereal and open - until distortion and fuzz blends it into the rest of the song. Another standout is the strangely compelling spoken-word piece "Los- ing Haringey," a tale mixing the nar- rator's shitty day with photograph flashbacks and familial revelations. Though it's hard to make sense of the lyrics with the musical structure, the song is a welcome departure from the already-been-there feel of Strange Geometry. More moments like "Losing Haringey" would raise the voltage of the album, but as it stands, throwing on an old copy of Forever Changes should suffice. He may have a Friday night slot on Comedy Central, but he's no Dave Attell. He loves getting laughs out of lewd jokes, but Dave Chappelle, he's not. Comedy Central's newest late-night stand-up and comedic go-to guy is New York's Greg Giraldo. Giraldo fell into comedy through a series of professional mis- haps, most notably his less-than-burgeoning law career. "I was a very bad lawyer," Giraldo said. "I basically wanted a job where you can drink for free and sleep all day." Though this behavior was not conducive to the courtroom, Giraldo found ways to integrate his background ("My comedy is the sum of all my parts," he said) into his first foray into enter- tainment through the criminally short-lived comedy "Common Law Show." "It's in production in Singapore right now, if that's any indica- tion of its success," Giraldo said. Despite his rocky start, and due in part to his self-deprecating wit and ability to let criticism roll off him, Giraldo exploded onto the comedy scene. He's suddenly landed a recurring rant role on "Last Call with Carson Daly," frequent guest spots on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," joined the Comedy Central line-up with his own two-and-a-half-hour segment, "Comedy Central Presents...Greg Giraldo" and a key player in the "Dave Attell Insomniac Tour" trio with Attell and Dane Cook. Though praised by many for his razor-sharp, often bawdy, quips, "Crack cocaine is the best way to prepare for nights when I don't feel funny - then everything I say is hilarious," Giraldo has also had criticism for his portrayal of women, particularly his wife; his frequent references to women as "bitches" and his wife's shortcomings lead some to question his taste. "The things about my wife ... those are more about me not being original enough to come up with a new angle," Giraldo said. "Any reasonable woman is going to destroy a guy for living the way I do." Giraldo has continued to blossom in the entertainment scene since his induction a decade ago, amid several failed sitcom pilots (ever heard of "Drive" on CBS?) aided by yet another unintentional publicity stunt, "The Underpants Song." Giraldo describe it as his life's work distilled into music, courtesy of '90s one-hit-wonder "Barbie Girl" band, Aqua. "I was drunk at the Comedy Cellar ... they basically raped me Courtesy of Comedy Central The five o'clock shadow is like his comedy - abrasive. at their hotel's portable recording studio. It went Gold in Austra- lia; it's playing at frat houses all over the country, and I haven't seen a penny yet," Giraldo said. Whatever the case, his continued popularity has opened forums better than skeevy nightclub basements to showcase his talent and broad range of comedic discourse. "I like to dabble," Giraldo said. "Sometimes I like to talk about bitches, sometimes NAFTA." His versatility led him to comedy giant and one of Giraldo's personal favorites, Dave Attell, who selected him to be part of the "Insomniac Tour" triumvirate, in spite of Giraldo's public disre- gard for Dane Cook. Tour-mate Cook publicly roasted Giraldo with a startling sharpness, surprising many, including Giraldo. "Bottom line: I really don't give that much of a shit about other comedians. There's a reason he's as popular as he his, so I'll be friendly," he said. Giraldo sees his current place as one of Comedy Central's golden boys as favorable, but temporary. His past failures, fre- quent intoxication and inherent laziness have set him up to have fun now and not worry about the future. "I don't do goals," he said. "If I were the kind of guy that had goals, I wouldn't be doing stand-up in bars. My goals are just not to suck. Worst-case scenario, I'll be on cruise ships. And hey, that's not too bad of a life." Stories illuminate Chinese cultural rift after the revolution By Gillian Quian For the Daily Set amidst the China's moderniza- consequences of misunderstandings between generations of families. At the end of each story, Li doesn't reconcile any problems among char- acters nor does she define any solu- tions for them. The plights of Li's characters allow the stories to unfold more realistical- ly, as intimately portrayed affairs. In "Love in a Marketplace," a woman is forever changed by a broken promise, illustrating how a person's struggles with the heaviness of struggles; Such feelings reveal the frailty of human emotions. In "Immortality," a man with a face like the dictator's pretends to live like one but soon realizes how less use of metaphors to reinforce her themes. Events run parallel to each other, but all illustrate the same idea. For example, in "Son," a man discuss- es the fate of someone else while