8A-The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 9, 2006
Cook's
latest,
drops
By Christina Choi
Daily Arts Writer
The
worst part **
of grocery
shopping: Employee of
"Welcome to the Month
Meijer! I'm At the Showcase
so glad that amd Quality 16
you're here!"
If you're Lionsgate
lucky, there
will be another shopper ahead of
you to be used as a human shield
from the cheery death rays of an
overenthusiastic greeter. If you're
not lucky, run like hell to the cart
corral with your head ducked
down.
It's not that the greeting itself
is bad - it's just that it's not
genuine. The same can be said
of hapless Super Club workers of
"Employee of the Month," bright-
blue vests and all.
Zack (Dane Cook, "Waiting") is
a lowly box boy who has perfected
the art of slacking off while on the
clock. With his trusty band of lack-
eys, Zack contentedly spends his
days puttering around Super Club
and avoiding all forms of work.
His life is predictably thrown into
a tailpin when he becomes com-
pletelyssmitten with what can only
be the looks of the newest cashier,
Amy (Jessica Simpson, "The
Dukes of Hazzard").
Problem is, the slick, blond-
haired, blue-eyed "alpha male"
and head Super Club cashier,
Vince (Dax Shepard, "Zathura"),
feels the same way. A vicious bat-
tle ensues to see who can collect
enough gold stars ("Super Mario,"
anvone?) to win the emnlovee-of-
Down the street:'Ypsisongs'
By Brian Chen
For the Daily
"Mostly, America is the
speech of the people," wrote
John Dos
Passos,
author of
the "U.S.A." Various
trilogy. It's Artists
difficult to Ypsisongs
argue with
his sentiment cerberus
- from small
suburbs to bustling metropo-
lises, the dialogue of the every-
day citizen defines the ethos
of his environment. It's fitting,
then, that Cerberus Records has
brought together an assortment
of local musicians to depict
Ypsilanti in its preciously titled
Ypsisongs compilation. The
artists involved have brought
together their disparate experi-
ences to recreate the essence
of their hometown, but the end
result doesn't always make for
compelling music.
If there's anything mislead-
'te ing about geographically based
albums, it's that they aren't
actually about geography - at
uly least, they shouldn't be. Sufjan
ion. Stevens' Michigan was never
mo- really about Michigan, but in
ntly Ypsisongs, several artists appar-
pit- ently didn't get the memo. Per-
as
x of i M L
elf.
are Th , r W W $$$} T#
me
use
des
ces
ble.
his
tar-
ort,
ohn
did
Ise-
liv- _
an,3'
vith 3
orn
ate
haps the guiltiest song is the
appalling "Ypsilanti Is A Great
Place To Live," an awkward
musical tour highlighting the
city's hot spots. Its bridge fea-
tures a maddening chant of "Y-
P-S-I-L-A-N-T-I!" and it's just
as aggravating as it sounds.
"I Used To Call You Home,"
a love letter penned to Ypsilanti
itself, features a mesmerizing
duet proclaiming affection for
the city of the singers' childhood.
Vailcode's autumnal "View
From An Upstairs Window"
glances across the cityscape and
reminisces on past days, an alt-
country accompaniment to leaf-
ing through worn sepia prints in
an old photo album. The effec-
tiveness of such songs comes
from their unflinching intimacy
- they're models of unabashed
songwriting, the type that
exudes the sort of personal emo-
tion most musicians struggle to
express coherently.
From the hollow vocals to the
stripped-down instrumentation,
the album makes no effort to
masquerade its lo-fi production.
"Normal Street" even opens
with the obvious announcement:
"This is a home recording."
You can practically hear the
crackling hiss of Memorex tape
recorders; it's not hard to imag-
ne a fledolinua nd or---A
If "Saturday Night Fever" was shot at Meijer ...
the-month award and, consequent-
ly, Amy's heart. Will this prize
beat out management's incentive
of a "new-ish Chevy Malibu?"
Only time will tell.
Just like the majority of its char-
acters, the film is firmly medio-
cre. Zack's love for Amy seems
cemented in the fact that they tend
to say the same thing at the same
time. Obviously, this is meant to
be cute, but Amy actually just
suffers from a limited vocabulary.
Thankfully, her breasts valiantly
fight to compensate.
Vince requires a different form
of support. His constant com-
panion is Jorge (Efren Ramirez,
"Napoleon Dynamite"), a dim-
witted-but-faithful bagger with
whom he shares a strange love-
hate relationship ranging from
mildly racist to slightly homo-
erotic. While Vince validates his
existence with his record checkout
times, Jorge just really has a thing
for Vince's '81 Honda. Neither
character warrants the audience's
concern.
In fact, the only thing that tr
works for the film is its locat
Super Club's warehouse at
sphere provides a conveniei
familiar setting for sequences,
ting Zach against Vince, such
when the two race to get a bo
bunion cushions off the top sh
The store's various sections
also creatively used to beco
anything from a hidden clubho
to a full-blown date that inclu
dinner, a movie and golf.
But even these unique spa
fail to make the film memoral
And for this, blame Cook for
absolute failure to make the ch
acter of Zack his own. In sh
he simply doesn't do what J
Heder's moronic monotone
for "Napoleon Dynamite." Con
quently, instead of the sharp de
ery of an experienced funnym
all his performance leaves us w
is the aftertaste of stale popc
and the whimper of a second-r
comedv.
into a tight Ypsilanti garage,
compressing their sound into
cheap and tinny microphones.
It's not the immaculate produc-
tion of major record labels, but
its authenticity.
Considering its purpose,
Ypsisongs has a surprising
lack of variety. The album is
more or less a country and folk
affair, with most songs limited
to acoustic guitar and vocals.
Occasionally a few songs dif-
ferentiate themselves but only
because of the impressiveness
of their failure. Dirt Road Log-
ic's "The Ypsilanti Vigilante"
flounders, attempting to achieve
a sinister tone despite goofy lyr-
ics and insipid instrumentation.
Meanwhile, "Ypsilanti Jaxxy"
recalls old-school hardcore, but
the song is entirely confused,
lost in its wall of noise.
Perhaps it's the transparent
production, or even the clumsy
stumbles, but Ypsisongs brings
to mind the shaky, handheld
camera integral to cinama vdrit6
filmmaking.
The naturalistic approach
can be tricky, however - usu-
ally, what you see is what you
get. Instead, Ypsisongs gives
all that it's able: the sometimes
compelling, sometimes tedious,
but always genuine dialogue of
its people.
More
Allen
at the
Michigan
By Sarah Schwartz
Daily Arts Writer
Woody Allen's love letter to
romance movies, "The Purple
Rose of
Cairo," is an The Purple
honest look Rose of
at the blurred Cairo
line between
fantasy and Tonight at
realitywhich, TAtli
in today's Michigan Theater
world, is
becoming hazier than ever.
Every day, the gossip rags are
filled with the goings on of the
rich and the famous, to the point
where people find it hard to dif-
ferentiate between the actor and
their character.
So what would happen if a
character came right off the
screen and into your life? Ceci-
lia (Mia Farrow, "Rosemary's
Baby") faces this problem when
her favorite character leaves his
movie screen to come to her.
And like all romantic charac
ters, Tom Baxter (Jeff Dan-
iels, "Dumb and Dumber") is
perfect. He's head over heels
for her, can kiss perfectly and
spouts all those gushy roman-
tic words. And for a woman in
an abusive relationship during
Depression-era America, this
man is quite the catch. Even if
he isn't quite real.
The actor playing Tom, how-
ever, is real, and less than happy
with the sudden independence of
his creation. Gil Shepard, also
played by Daniels, comes to New
Jersey to straighten out the situa-
tion after Baxter's movie absence
causes his film's other characters
to be stuck on screen. It's ironic
tat Baxter might be damaging
Gil's career, since it's usually
the actor's behavior that dam-
ages his reputation, not the type
of characters he or she plays.
In reality, of course, life is
less than a fairy tale. People are
not perfect. Cecelia's humdrum
daily routine lacks excitement
and love, and she finds both in
the movies. But in the end, like
the movies, neither are real.
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