the bde
The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 25,2007
The Daily Arts
guide to the best
upcoming events
- it's everywhere
you should be this
weekend and why.
Emile Hirsh in Sean Penn's "Into the Wild."
On the
way to
himself
By JEFFREY BLOOMER
ManagingEditor
It was an impulse.
That's the way Sean Penn describes it. It
was 1990, during the era of another Presi-
dent Bush, when Chris McCandless finally
let himself go. It was just after his gradu-
ation from Emory University. Law school
seemed to be next, and he had the grades
for Harvard. His parents, self-made mil-
lionaires, hardly objected.
McCandless's path, as it seems always
to have been, lay clearly before him. And
just like that, with some simple arrange-
ments to keep his family from finding him,
he donated his $24,000 savings torchar-
ity and left the carefully plotted life that
awaited him.
Two years later, he died of apparent
starvation in the Alaskan wilderness.
The real-life story of what happened
in between and the desires that drove it
inspired the book and Penn's new film ver-
sion of "Into the Wild," now playing at the
State Theater, and Penn said the story's
enduring fascination comes from the basic
question it poses.
The answer to that question, "'Who am
I without Mom and Dad, the television,
politics and pictures and whatever else it
is I'm supposed to define myself by,' " he
said in a telephone interview, "becomes a
lifelong pursuit."
In his two-year travels across North
America, Chris (played in the movie by
Emile Hirsch, who has popped in and out
of Hollywood and independent films since
his early teen years) abandoned the iden-
tity and responsibility his 20-some years
had afforded him by leaving his life as if it
had never existed.
Penn, a, touchstone of an actor who
rotated behind the camera for the fourth
time to helm "Into the Wild," suggests
Chris's decision was an act of bravery,
audacity and, at least in the mind of some,
narcissism. But, he said, that's to ignore
what the journey reflected of Chris's char-
acter.
"There are those who think of this as-
a spoiled rich kid who ought not to put
himself and his family's emotions in such
peril," Penn said. "But what I think is real-
See PENN, Page 3B
ON STAGE
Student arts organization
F.O.K.U.S. (Fighting Ob-
stacles Knowing Ultimate
Success) and Arts at
Michigan's Culture Bus
are sponsoring a trip to
see acclaimed hip-hop
group Little Brother per-
form live in Detroit. The
show is at St. Andrews
Hall on Wednesday night.
To get your $10 tickets,
visit arts.umich.edu. The
deadline to register is
Wednesday at 1 pm.
This man is scared. You will be, too
t m t
1 not have seen
"CAT PEOPLE" (1942)
From the infamous Val Lewton wheel
house at RKO came this monster hit, which,
as did many of its contemporaries, inspired
a sequel and remake. But in recent years,
it's become little more than a cult product.
Irena fears all forms of intimacy because she
believes it will turn her into an actual wild
animal. The really scary thing is the total
lack of budget and director Jacques Tour-
neur's ability to frighten us with the dark.
"Cat People" proves just how terrifying a
panther's growl can be in a pandemonium
shadow show.
BLAKE GOBLE
"RAVENOUS" (1999)
If you thought two years after bearing it
all in "The Full Monty" a grizzled Robert
Carlyle would be chowing down on fellow
western pioneers in "Ravenous," you must
be pretty sick. So is this movie. Quirky, dark
and disturbing comedy bookends this tale of
cannibalism in an isolated Manifest Destiny
fort. Possibly Guy Pearce's ("Factory Girl")
most underrated and under-publicized role
despite his convincing and infectious fright.
ELIE ZWIEBEL
"THE LAST WINTER" (2007)
Remember when those self-conscious
critics called "An Inconvenient Truth" the
scariest movie of last year? They obviously
hadn't gotten wind of "The Last Winter."
From director Larry Fessenden ("Wendi-
go"), the movie depicts a thinly populated
Alaskan drilling post whose members lose
their minds as the long-frozen tundrabegins
to melt because of climate change. What's
You've done "The Exorcist" and "Carrie" and "The
Texas Chain Saw Massacre." The Daily Arts film
staff offers you a few alternative cannibals, voyeurs
and a whole lot of Cronen berg.
under the ice? The wild, it seems, wants its around him starts getting killed by a bunch
revenge. (The movie is still in theaters, but of deranged mutant dwarves. Truly unset-
it's available on Comcast OnDemand.) tling social panic.
JEFFREYBLOOMER BRANDON CONRADIS
"MOTEL HELL" (1980) "ONE HOUR PHOTO" (2002)
Just because "Grindhouse"went nowhere When you think of someone who would
last April doesn't mean crappy exploitation play a pathological stalker, you probably
flicks don't work. With the slogan "It takes don't think of Robin Williams. Proving his
all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vin- best work is in drama rather than com-
cent's fritters," the word "butcher" takes on edy, Williams's discount warehouse voyeur
new meaning as people discover Vincent's lives a fantasy life. He gets to know a fam-
secret ingredient: us. Horror-comedy got ily through the pictures it develops at his
its foot in the drive-in with this sleeper. A booth, and when pictures aren't enough,
remake is in the works, so better to see it his delusions escalate into a finale involving
now before everyone wants to rent it. Razor- a hunting knife and a sort of sex tape. Not
sharp laughs - ha! - alongside violent bra- what you'd expect from Patch Adams.
vura make this a nasty treat. PAUL TASSI
BLAKE GOBLE
"THE FLY" (1986)
"THE BROOD" (1979) In David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of
This is a weird one. David Cronenberg "The Fly," Jeff Goldblum portrays an eccen-
made arguably one of his scariest and most tric scientist who begins to change into a
bizarre horror filmsawith "The Brood," a sort fly after one of his experiments goes awry
of horror version of "Kramer vs. Kramer." - actually, it's more of a gruesome morph-
Theoalready-troubled relationship between ing that takes place. As scary as it is to see
a man (Art Hindle, "Invasion of the Body body parts melting off, the real terror lies in
Snatchers") and his lunatic ex-wife becomes the story of a man slowly losing his mind and
even more complicated when everyone See SCARE, Page 4B
UN IITEI A
Senator and democratic
presidential candidate
Mike Gravel will speak
on the Diag tomorrow at
noon at a rally to "End the
War on Drugs." His plan
includes "reclassifying
marijuana" and "making
hard drugs available by
prescription." We love old
men who want to legalize
drugs. See how the crowd
differs from the Ron Paul
rally - the event is free.
ON THE FLOOR
University hip-hop dance
company Dance 2XS is
holding company classes
on Sundays from 5 to
6:15 pm. Dancers of all
abilities are invited to
learn new choreography
and train. $10 at the door
or $60 for the whole
semester. Sundays in the
3725 Dance Room at
the CCRB. For more info
check out www.myspace.
com/2xsumich/
'Concrete city,' concrete artist
New York City-based
artist Justin Bua to
lecture in Ann Arbor
By WHITNEY POW
For the Daily
Let's set the stage: New York City,
1980s, the Upper West Side. We've
got your cement,
your balla courts,
your breakdancing Justin Bua
b-boys, your graffiti
tags, and the pain, The Identities
the poor, the fla- and Ideologies
vor. And from these of Hip-Hop
roots we've got Jus-
tin Bua. Next Thursday
"There's a hard- at16 p.m.
ness to urban art. I AtthelBimedical
think it really echoes Science Bulding
the architecture of
New York City, all
of the really harsh gates, undulating
terra-cotta of New York," he said. "The
square, the cement, the projects, the
fences, the basketball courts - it's got
a very similar rhythm. It's a concrete
city."
Bua is giving a lecture titled "The
Identities and Ideologies of Hip-Hop"
at 6 p.m. next Thursday at the Biomedi-
cal Science Research Building and will
also conduct a painting workshop the
next day at the same location.
Bua is an artist - a self-described
"distorted urban realist." His paint-
ings are striking; they mix all aspects
of street culture, creating vivid'por-
traits of the streets and intimate imag-
es of life. His work is visual hip-hop:
There's a beat and flow to his paint-
ings, as if any second the sub-woofers
will kick in and the canvas will shake
and rattle to life.
Bua is not limited to one medium.
He's flourished artistically, over-
whelming the public eye and the mass
market with his own brand of hip
hop. He's a breakdancer, a skateboard
designer and a CD cover artist for Sony
Music and Atlantic Records. He creat-
ed Comedy Central's animated series
"Urbania" and designed the music
video for Slum Village's "Tainted."
He currently teaches classical figure
drawing in the Fine Arts department
at the University of Southern Califor-
nia. But Bua is a New Yorker. He bleeds
for the city.
Stylistically, Bua's images are
indeed "distorted" - his characters
are long and lanky, rhythmic and
angular, their bodies capturing the
swooping rhythms of graffiti. But his
vision of street art isn't just graffiti or
breakdancing or hip-hop music, it's
the thread that holds them all together
as a unit. It's how the street affects life,
experiences and expression.
Most of all, urban art is about the
self, about the harshness of living,
growing up and finding your identity
in a jarring environment.
"Street art is a way to pose and
gesticulate that you are art, and no
matter what is going on around you,
you're standing strong," he said. "And
you know, even though I'm poor, I'm'
proud."
Bua grew up in the Upper West Side
of Manhattan, a rough patch of city
where it wasn't an easy (or safe) task to
get to the subway station. Many of his
paintings are untraditional portraits;
you won't catch any flat, statuesque
poses here. His art features people in
their element: musicians plucking dou-
ble bass strings with spidery fingers,
See BUA, Page 3B
A H.ILLL
Last year's Golden Apple
winner, LSA Prof. Andrei
Markovits will lecture
about racism in soccer at
Hillel tonight at 7 p.m. in
the second installment
of the Shmooze.Golden
Apple speaker series. Fas-
cinating topictfantastic
speaker - don't miss it.
The event is free.
COURTESY Of E
Justin Bua's "The DJ." Bua will come to the University next week.