Friday
March 10, 2006
arts.michigandaily.com
artspage@mickigandaily.com
Ra e ~ TSitt til
5
uourtesy Of Paramount
"This new self-tanning spray gun is really sweet!"
'Failure' to entertain
By Sarah Schwartz
Daily Arts Writer
Finally, a proper name has been given
to the countless grown men who still live
at home. They are
no longer "slackers"
or "losers." Instead,
the movie "Failure to
Launch" unites them
under the title "adult
children." Unable to
leave the security of
a world where par-
ents cook, clean and
Failure to
Launch
At the Showcase
and Quality 16
Paramount
take care of their
every need, such men simply refuse to
grow up.
This may not seem like the makings
of an ideal romantic leading man, but in
the form of Trip (Matthew McConaughey,
"Sahara"), this situation creates a fresh
dynamic. But despite its somewhat clever
premise, the movie relies too much on
the typical romantic-comedy storyline to
really take off.
For Trip, taking the next step into adult-
hood has been slow in coming. The solu-
tion presents herself in the form of Paula
(Sarah Jessica Parker, TV's "Sex and the
City"), who simulates a romantic relation-
ship with men like Trip. With her "pro-
fessional" help, these men gain enough
self-confidence to finally move out.
Trip's parents Sue (Kathy Bates, "About
Schmidt") and Al (Terry Bradshaw,
"Robots"), desperate for their 35-year-old
son to move out, recruit her services.
At its heart, the movie is about two peo-
ple both scared of the next step - but the
obviousness of the plot's direction makes
the audience completely indifferent to the
way the characters get there.
Free Ride'
botches
improv edge
The movie does, however, give an
interesting brand of relationship advice.
By its logic, a relationship is a five-step
process. Boy and girl meet cute, pretend to
like everything the other likes, bond over
an emotional crisis, get the nod from the
friends and teach each other something.
True, brevity suits the film's 96-minute
length, but through this oversimplifica-
tion, the story loses the romance in its
romantic-comedy formula.
Also by this formula, the audience
should not be more interested in secondary
characters then the romantic leads. Both
Trip and Paula are beautiful and charm-
ing, but their onscreen coupling fizzles,
and it falls to the supporting cast to make
up for this mismatch. Kit (Zooey Descha-
nel, "Elf") steals every scene she's in. It's
a bad sign when the audience is more
interested in her problems with a mocking
bird than with the chemistry between Trip
and Paula. It doesn't help the protagonists
any that castmembers Ace (Justin Bar-
tha, "Gigli") and Demo (Bradley Cooper,
"Wedding Crashers") have some of the
best dialogue in the movie, either.
The film is full of wasted potential.
Besides the hilarious supporting charac-
ters, it cleverly allows Trip to use his par-
ents in a breakup. There's even an entire
arc about Trip's lifestyle following a course
contrary to nature, leading to attacks by a
chipmunk, dolphin and lizard.
McConaughey, for his part, pulls off
the physical slapstick comedy without a
hitch and there are some inspired lines
("I'll give you a Canadian Goose"). Terry
Bradshaw even gets naked - it should
have all come together. But it doesn't.
"Adult children" is clever, even socially
sensitive, but I'd just as soon call them
slackers if it meant someone could reuse
the premise for a better movie.
DAILY ARTS.
WEIRE KIND
Courtesy
of UMS
Marc
Bamuthi
Joseph
will per-
form at
the Power
Center
tonight
at 8 p.m.
SPEAK UP
MARc BAmuvil JOSEPH BRINGS DYNAMIC PERFORtAANCE TO POWER CENTER
By Andrew Klein
Daily Fine Arts Editor
Productions such as "The Laramie Project"
and "The Vagina Monologues" stand as a few
of today's most recognizable
- and controversial - con- Word
temporary dramas. In these
shows, the stage functions Becomes
not as a fictional sphere of Flesh
escape, but as an outlet for Tonight at 8 p.m.
human emotion, a barom- $32-12
eter of social progress and At the Power Center
a flesh-and-blood blog of
everyday life.
Tonight at 8 p.m., the Power Center will bring
renowned performer Marc Bamuthi Joseph and
his spoken-word performance piece "Word
Becomes Flesh," a multimedia memoir revolv-
ing around an unplanned pregnancy and the
internal struggle of a single father-to-be.
A National Poetry Slam champion with sev-
eral appearances on HBO's "Russell Simmons
Presents Def Poetry," under his belt, Joseph
has also written two performance pieces, Tony
Award-winning "The Tap Dance Kid" and
"Stand-Up Tragedy."
By definition, spoken-word poetry is a form
of performance art, and thus an extension of the
body. Joseph's performance pieces are a fusion of
bodily and verbal expression, as well as a throw-
back to orally based dialogue and storytelling.
Self-evolution through adversity, no mat-
ter how eloquently expressed, is an inherently
amorphous topic. But Joseph leaves behind
nothing onstage. The performance is structured
as a series of letters to his unborn son, a raw
and emotive approach to a simple theme. A trio
of bass, drums and guitar accompany Joseph's
letters, expanding the story
through rhythm and melody.
"Word Becomes Flesh," The stage
regardless of its intrinsic
social commentary, does just not as a fil
what its title proclaims: It tells
the story of Joseph's personal sphere of
trauma regarding unplanned
pregnancy. but as anC
"The Vagina Monologues" human en
and "The Laramie Project"
have the potential to over- a baromet
whelm a casual viewer with
linguistic reversals of slang, SOCial pro
vitriolic announcements ofp
independence and a mass of
viewpoints told through a large ensemble of
characters.
In comparison, "Word Becomes Flesh" con-
sists of one man and his struggle to come to
terms with the hand life has dealt him.
This premise is more intimate, more immedi-
ate than the overreaching - but certainly still
important - themes presented in "Laramie"
and "Monologues."
"Word Becomes Flesh" takes on an almost
epic dimension, chronicling Joesph's personal
and emotional transformation through speech
and performance.
While the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, the RC
Players, Basement Arts and other prominent student
theater groups uphold the image of theater as a grand
arena of Shakespeare, magical realism, slapstick
functions
ctional
escape,
outlet for
notion,
er of
gress.
the serious and
comedy and progressive writ-
ing, performances such as the
"Monologues" and "Laramie"
create the biggest buzz because
they enlighten, educate, call for
social change and transcend the
realm of theater as a venue of
entertainment.
They are commentaries on
the here and now, the vital and
the ignored, and this is what the
public responds to.
A powerful collaboration of
poetry and performance the-
ater, Joseph's "Word Becomes
Flesh" is a must-see. For both
the casual theatergoer, the per-
By Mark Schultz
Daily Arts Writer
ur parents don't
after college.
Note to students: Yo
want you to move back in
OF ILIK ThE
LAW LIBRARY.
formance will be more than a treat for the ears
and eyes - it's an example of contemporary
theater at its best.
While the ordeal of unplanned. pregnancy
might not strike everyone as immediate or espe-
cially urgent, Joseph's representation of the
human condition - his own - is an experience
not to be missed.
But that doesn't seem
to bother Nate Stahlings Free Ride
(former theater star Josh
Dean), the protagonist Sundays at
of Fox's purported com- 9:30
edy "Free Ride." Decid-
ing he isn't "majorly
into" his major, Nate returns home to
a fractured family. His parents, Margo
(Loretta Fox, "Curb Your Enthusiasm")
and Bob (Allan Havey, "Punk'd"), have
started counseling, and their marriage isn't
helped by the fact that Nate's stay might be
more than temporary.
Living at home is enough, but Nate
takes a bigger hit when he finds his life
is strikingly similar to that of crass Mark
(Dave Sheridan, "The Devil's Rejects"),
one of his former schoolmates. Confound-
ing the situation is Amber Danwood (Erin
Cahill, TV's "Power Rangers"), the cute
former classmate who rekindles feelings
of romance but is engaged to another old
friend - which just makes thing worse.
"Free Ride," described as a "partially
improvised" sitcom, fails to pull off the
deliciously awkward spontaneity that made
shows like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" suc-
cessful. Any improvised moments come
off as forced, probably because they rest
on of a cast of unknowns with less-than-
spectacular acting skills.
The improvised conversations also feel
increasingly out of place when juxtaposed
with the show's ridiculous situations and
characters. At times, "Free Ride" feels like
two directors' takes rammed together as
one disjointed program.
The sitcom's saving grace comes, sur-
prisingly, in Mark. The typical bad boy
with no future and questionable morals,
he wok,c as cormedic foiil to level-heraded
U
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