Monday
January 30, 2006
arts. michigandaily. com
artspage@michigandaily.com
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The business of buzz
Eclectic
A2
Folk
The media traffics in hype, but
occasionally they try to pedal
something America just can't
buy. If you browsed through any repu-
table entertainment coverage during the
past week, you might have heard that
one of the world's trendiest film festi-
vals is spotlighting a lot of movies that
star a lot of actors you'll
never hear of again.,
Prettily elocuted diary
entries from Park City - the
ski resort-cum-international
cinema hub that hosts the
annual fest - are splashed
in front of important news.
For example, the fallout
from Lindsay Lohan's
"Scarlett-(Johansson)-is-a-
cunt" bathroom-stall poetry. AM,
And here's the strange ANI
part: Outside the buyers
jockeying for prestige positions and blow-
ing through studio spare change, Sun-
dance just doesn't do it for the masses.
As an American film festival, we might
appreciate it, but Sundance lacks the aus-
terity of Venice, the industry importance
of Toronto and the champagne-swilling
sex appeal of Cannes. In fact, for all the
focus on how mainstream it's turned (it
probably has), and all the celebrities hit-
ting the slopes between promotions (they
probably do), what Sundance still really
lacks is star pedigree.
Not that it wants it. In a quaint tradi-
tion, Sundance organizers stand on their
soapboxes and attempt to reaffirm their
mission to bring international attention
to independent film. Glamorous celebs
and glitzy parties can take it back to Hol-
lywood and the French Riviera, they say.
Sundance opened this year with "Friends
with Money," a comedy directed by
Nicole Holofcener ("Lovely & Amaz-
ing"), starring tabloid staple and jilted
wife Jennifer Aniston.
Of the two, guess whose picture ran
next to every Sundance headline.
Without a famous face, it's hard to
get your moderately dedicated film buff
to care. It's the same in film marketing.
Movies need hype to sell, and a celebrity
name on the marquee is a guarantee of
precisely that. This year, however, there's
been a surge in a different kind of hype.
Call it the sexiness of indie acclaim.
It turned "Crash" into an $80-mil-
lion international summer must see.
Acclaim also made a top-five box
office smash and pop-culture punch-
A
DI
line out of cowboys in love.
All right, these films had recognizable
stars, but it's hard to argue that the appeal
of Heath Ledger - box-office heavy-
weight of "The Brothers Grimm" - is
responsible for shouldering the success of
"Brokeback Mountain" Acclaimed films,
particularly those hyped as contenders for
an Oscar, can go pretty far in
today's marketplace.
Of course, acclaim
doesn't always get you to
the top of the box office. In
fact, it doesn't even guar-
antee inclusion at the local
multiplexes. One of the big
award winners at Sundance,
"Quinceanera," chronicles a
pregnant 15-year-old Latina
.NDA who goes to live with her
RADE gay cousin. Not exactly the
stuff to play next door to
"The Da Vinci Code" this summer.
But while it may not always work both
ways, indie movies absent big stars are
absolutely dependent on acclaim. If you
don't recognize someone 10 seconds into
a trailer, you better believe a fistful of
laurels are about to bombard the screen.
Otherwise, what's the point?
Film culture today makes going to the
movies only worthwhile if the movie is
hot. Nobody sees Woody Allen movies
anymore, but "Match Point" has Oscar
buzz. "King Kong" was an extremely
audacious and accomplished film that
many people avoided on the assumption
that it was flopping.
And ultimately that's the whole point
of Sundance - to bestow those neces-
sary accolades on films that can't make
it any other way. The irony is that while
a Sundance branding can turn a film
white hot, Sundance itself lacks appeal
because films come in stone cold. But
the movies people don't read about now,
instead scanning their way down the
page to Lindsay's party antics, are the
ones they'll be lining up for soon.
It's the culture of being "in"; it's not
wanting to blow $9 on limp cinema you
can't even discuss over lunch. But less
cynically, it has one very beneficial side
effect: If people see a movie because
it has the hype of critical acclaim, they
just might get tricked into seeing some-
thing really good.
- Andrade never pays to see movies,
but she likes to bitch about the $9
anyway. E-mail aandrade@umich.edu.
The first nightc
29th annual Ann
found MC Cheryl
Wheeler wearing
an outfit made up
of a faded t-shirt
and sweatpants -
more suitable for a
night on the couch
than onstage at Hill
of Hill Auditorium's
Arbor Folk Festival
Ann Arbor
Folk Festival
Friday and
Saturday
Hill Auditorium
Festival
By Kimberly Chou
Daily Arts Writer
Auditorium - while Blanche bassist
Tracee Mae Miller sported a '50s-style,
dusty pink party dress and oversized
bouffant hair. Older, country-fried rocker
Bill Kirchen showed he was still able to
knock out Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix
impressions; young folkie James Hill
dazzled on the small-scale with a cutting,
cheetah-fast variation of the traditional
"Miserlou" on ukulele.
Friday's performances were an amal-
gamation of vintage and up-and-coming
talent, brought together two nights a year
at one of the largest and most prestigous
folk festivals in the country. Though
sponsored by the Ark, a Main Street con-
cert hall, the event moved to the more
spacious Hill Auditorium four years ago.
Fans travel from across the state as well as
from across the country for the gig, which
clocked in at a lengthly five hours by the
end of headliner Robert Cray's set. The
performers' energy was not dampened
by the length; they were ever enthusiastic
and championed the merits of the venue,
the festival and Ann Arbor's folk music
legacy. To top it off, Hill is in the middle
of Central Campus - yet it's doubtful the
majority University students knew about
the folky weekend festivities, much less
found them relevant.
The festival's opening night was meant
to be more diverse - a louder and more
eclectic gap of artists for the presumably
hip Friday-night crowd. Saturday night,
headlined by the Lyle Lovett Trio, saw
more traditional folk and rootsy Ameri-
cana. But Friday - if a ticket holder
rMMA NOULAN-ABRAHAMIAN/Daily
Blanche performs during the first night of the Ann Arbor Folk Festival at Hill Auditorium Friday.
wanted everything from chill-inducing,
campfire sing-a-longs (Catie Curtis's
closer of "Passing Through") to the afore-
mentioned ukulele maestro - was defi-
nitely a lot of bang for $45.
The Robert Cray Band headlined,
playing a predictable (but still satisfy-
ing) dirty blues-based set more than four
hours after guests started filling the seats.
Tired attendees started to sneak out of
Hill between songs, but Cray still tried
to work the crowd, proclaiming, "Thank
you kindly!" between every other song.
Cray's style of blues is solid but almost
too pop-oriented - maybe too easy-lis-
tening to keep an audience alive after
they've sat still for the past five hours.
Singing about "Poor Johnny" and los-
ing your baby to a 12-year-old boy
works better when the venue is packed
tightly and the crowd isn't escaping
during your set.
The audience's reaction to the Rob-
ert Cray band reflected the rest of the
night - for the most part, they ate it up.
Certain members of the crowd didn't
quite get the memo that Hill acoustics
guarantee well amplified sound or that
Blanche isn't quite as tame as their thrift-
store suits suggest: A number of people
covered their ears during Blanche's last
song, a blistering cut that segued from
pedal-steelist Dave Feeney chanting the
lead to dirge-like three-part harmony.
But Blanche's performance was one
of the strongest of the night. A few tried
not to listen during Iris Dement's set -
her aggressive soprano proved too much
for a couple of the baby boomers on the
main floor, though they couldn't seem to
get enough of MC Wheeler's quirky sex
jokes and rewritten verse.
Throughout the night, it was clear that
the show would be Ann Arbor-centric.
Besides the local artists and Ark president
explaining the donation cards stuck inside
the programs, performers showed love
for the Ark, its legacy and its home city.
Wheeler described her excitement at find-
ing booking contracts for the Ark in her
mailbox; the Greencards' Carol Young,
on the other hand, burbled about how the
food at Jerusalem Garden is incentive for
her and her band to return for shows.
Today's folk music isn't all Joan Baez
and Bob Dylan, or world-peace-orient-
ed lyrics and acoustic guitars. The hus-
band-and-wife-led Blanche isn't even
associated with the Ark scene. The band
spent several months of last year open-
ing for Wilco and the White Stripes.
Friday night was a stylistically diverse
experience for those who attended
- and folk music might stand a chance
with University students once they real-
ize what they've been missing.
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