The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, January 7, 2008 - 5A Weezer frontman returns to form Are quiet young children ever not creepy? By DAVID WATNICK DailyArts Writer In the 11 years since cult favorite Pinkerton was released, Weezer has done just about everything possible to alienate all but its most deranged and shallow fans. Wrapping up a downwardspiralthatbeganwith 2001's self-titled effort, 2005's Make Believe seemed to be the nail in the coffin. With sterile production, embarrassing pop- by-numbers ("Beverly Hills") and lyrics worthy of that poem you wrote for 8th grade **, health class ("We are all on Rivers drugs yeah / Give me some Cuomo of that stuff"), Alone: The Rivers Cuomo Home Record- succeeded in ings of Rivers guiding his Cuomo band in their graceful jump- ing of the shark. Despite these debacles, Wee- zer has remained commercially viable, so a change of course hasn't exactly been mandated. Nonetheless, Cuomo -has taken a sidestep with Alone, inviting the old faithful to share once more in his halcyon days with a gift disc of (mostly) gems. Call it submissive, defeatist or a telltale sign of a washed-up artist, but the decision to officially release old demos was a good one. The material is a hell of a lot better than anything seen by Weezer in the past decade. Alone finds Cuomo playing music with legitimate emotion, a hallmark of the angst-ridden, geek-rock that was subsequently replaced in favor of pale imita- tion (see: Green Album's "Hash Pipe" and Maladroit's "Dope Nose"). On the brooding, sui- cidal dirge "The World We Love So Much" - a Gregg Alexander cover - Cuomo turns in a hair- raising acoustic performance that rivals "Tired of Sex" and "Say It Ain't So" in sheer inten- sity. The same goes for the two other covers found here. "Little Diane" (Dion) is perhaps the only Cuomo performance of the 21st century with any sig- nificant pulse, and certainly the presence of Canadian alt-rock- ers Sloan on this 2003 recording helped coax it out of him. More surprising is Cuomo's take on Ice Cube's "The Bomb," which alternates hyper-speed white- boy rap with screaming atonal guitar riffs. The real appeal of the album for most fans, however, will be the inclusion of five songs from unreleased space-rock opera Songs From the Black Hole, a leg- endary set of ambitious Cuomo recordings scrapped in favor of Pinkerton. The highlight ofthese is unquestionably"BlastOff!," an explosive rocker featuring loud- quiet and stop-start dynamics, and a perfectly placed vocoder verse. It's catchy and crunchy, on par with Weezer's all-time best work. At only two minutes, it's unfortunately too brief. The churning "Superfriend" and the reflective, piano-driven "Longtime Sunshine" are also decisive, albeit minor, pop-rock triumphs of the lost album. And though the Black Hole num- Cuomo sings with emotion again on LP hers are excellent - unless the best still remain in the vault - Pinkerton is the stronger album and correct choice for release. Of the rest of the set, the only track with any staying power is "Crazy One," a Green Album out- take that, while better than any- thing from the record, is little more than a mid-tempo guilty pleasure. The only real failure is "This Is The Way," an unthinkable boyband-meets-R&B drum beat disaster in the manner,.of The Backstreet Boys' "The Call," but lamer. Worse, it's supposedly an outtake from Weezer's upcom- ing album. So while Alone is an enjoyable detour to the past, it points to a bleak future - reaf- firming that it's more rewarding to look back than forward. McEwan's epic novel is beautifully adapted on the big screen By SARAH SCHWARTZ Daily Arts Writer It's difficult. to find the right words to describe "Atonement." Words have too much power after this. They're frightening things, able to mutilate emo- tions and ruin lives. Not in Atonement recent memory has a film so At Quality16 successfully and Showcase focused on the Working Title devastating force of words as "Atonement" has. The novel by Ian McEwan, on which this film is based, is a crowning achievement, and its cinematic adaptation is excel- lent as well. Director Joe Wright ("Pride & Prejudice") has made a name for himself adapting lit- erature to film, and he shows the same care and ability to focus in this work. Though second- ary characters are introduced in a rush, the movie never feels as though it lost the essentials that made the book so mesmeriz- ing. The film is incredibly tight, effortlessly shifting across years and viewpoints. Wright shows different perspectives of scenes, cuttingback across time to replay the pivotal moments between Cecilia (Keira Knightley, "Pride & Prejudice") and Robbie (James McAvoy, "The Last King of Scot- land") through their eyes and the eyes of her sister Briony (new- comer Saoirse Ronan). It's Briony's unique interpre- tation of events that sets every- thing in motion. The movie begins on the Tallis estate, where precocious 13-year-old Briony secretly witnesses the blooming love between her sister Cecilia and the housekeeper's son Rob- bie. She considers herself a writ- er, and the score is punctuatedby the sounds of a typewriter. Her sense for the dramatic prudish- ness and use of imagination per- haps makes what happens next more understandable, but no less ruinous. Unable to comprehend what she sees, Briony's misun- derstanding is directly respon- sible for Robbie's involvement in World War II. "Atonement" then smoothly shifts, focusing on the war and the home front. Robbie began as the quintessential good man, filled with hope and life. The Atonement' finds turmoil and pain in silent moments extraordinary transformation in McAvoy's eyes by the end of the movie portrays how much was lost in him after Briony's betrayal. War can break men's bodies, as seen in the horrors of the hos- pitals where Briony worked, but words can also kill a man's soul. The scenes of broken men, physi- cally and emotionally, force the audience to wonder which pain is worse. The movie is about more than the division between truth and lies, fact and fiction. It's also the juxtaposition of noise and quiet, words and silence. Movies are noisy things, but "Atonement" makes the audience explore the quiet moments, when words fail or are not needed. The idea of "coming back," either from anger and pain or guilt, is weaved throughout each storyline. Cecilia whispers "come back to me" to Robbie as he's taken away, but it's also a part of Briony's story as well. She has to come back from the con- sequences of her actions to make amends. And eventually, Briony uses words to try to achieve her redemption, but after a movie filled with their destructive power, it's hard to imagine them being used to create hope. ARTS IN BRIEF Back to the Futurama' Film: k* Extras: *** "Futurama: Bender's Big Score" 20th Century Fox When "Family Guy" returned after a three-year cancellation, the move drew cheers from scores of devoted geeks who had memorized the show's catch phrases. And now, Matt Groening's "Futurama" returns after a four-year cancel- lation in the form of a straight- to-DVD feature, "Bender's Big Score." Though the plot of "Bender's," in which a group of naked aliens use spam e-mails to take over the world, is somewhat erratic, the strength of the show has always been its characters, not its plotlines. And though all the members of the 30th Century com- pany Planet Express - from lewd, cigar-smoking robot Bender (John DiMaggio) to crass but earnest Fry (Billy West, "Doug") - tend to occupy a similar moral low ground, the sight gags and quick dialogue exchanges are enough to keep fans of similar character-based shows (such as Groening's most notable project, "The Simpsons") entertained. The disk's spe- cial features range from an inscruta- bly tedious "Futurama math les- son" to a so-bizarre- it's-funny . , "Hypnotoad" show, featuring nothing but a swirly-eyed toad that pur- portedly keeps viewers entranced. The highlight of these features is an "Inconvenient Truth" promo featuring an animated Al Gore, as well as the real one chatting with Groening. Never before have a "cartoon boy" and a Nobel Peace Prize winner kept such close com- pany. MARK SCHULTZ Typical horror film finds rare scares "One Missed Call" At Quality 16 and Showcase Warner Bros Have you seen "The Ring"? Well, it seems those behind the release of "One Missed Call" cer- tainly have. In fact, the movie has literally everything "The Ring" does. Something terrible that hap- pened to a child a long time ago, a resulting curse, a foreboding phone call and a fixed, period of bizarre hallucinations before the victim's demise. Seriously, they could be twins. Really, this shameless similarity can't be blamed entirely on who- ever is behind this version of the film, because like "The Ring," it's a remake of a Japanese film. How- ever, unlike "The Ring," it's not a good movie. Unlike the much creepier video tape featured in "The Ring," scenes of demons being exorcised from cell phones just don't pack much punch. But since it shamelessly rips off "The Ring," it does main- tain some of its inspiration's better elements, including a cohesive plot and one or two actual scares - a rarity in modern movies like this. Despite being panned by crit- ics across the country, all is not as dark and bleak as some would make it out to be. Although it starts with a pretty preposterous concept, it turns into something almost watchable. PAUL TASSI Murder, as only Depp can By BLAKE GOBLE DailyArts Writer Johnny Depp has created a pretty cozy niche for his brand of acting. He plays the quirkiest, kinkiest and most phantasmagoric characters possible. And Depp has managed to corner the market for those roles. Now he's back with another mad creation in Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street," a fast and furi- ous macabre musical, where blood flow is not only com- mon, but also integral to the *** story. Benjamin Barker was Sweeny once a well-respected hus- Todd: The band and father, until he was unjustly sent to prison Demon only to return some years Barber of later to his native London Feet Street j bloodthirsty for revenge. He wants to kill the men At Showcase who sent him away, and and Quality16 will do whatever it takes Dreamworks to get them in his deathly barber's chair. With the help of waif-like meat pie matron Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter, "Conversations with Other Women") and his skilled blades, Barker transforms into the depraved Swee- ney Todd. At the base level, "Todd" is a "revenge musical." Blood is let. Songs are sung. The audience has a general feeling of unease. But it's an overall satisfying experience. "Todd" is a great work of acting, singing and production. It's about a man looking for "bleeders," only to find too many. Ironically cheery music dis- turbs the landscape. London, like Todd, has a scuzzy, baroque and gothic presence. The setting, a bleak backdrop to an even bleaker story, makes the film look great. When Depp Singing makes sense here. first emerges, his demeanor and hair grab the audience's attention right away. Every charac- ter has an eerily carnivalesque presence that demands attention, even when they upstage each other. Though Depp showcases yet another mem- orable character, he's not the best character in this film. The cast in "Todd" is a strong and talented ensemble of British actors, such as Alan Rickman ("Die Hard") as the wicked and malicious Judge Turpin, who sent Barker away in hopes of accosting Barber's wife and daughter. Timothy Spall ("Enchanted") has the best greasy sneer you'll ever see as Beadle Bamford, Turpin's lackey and Todd's link to the judge. Sacha Baron Cohen ('Borat") works all 10 minutes of his screen time to perfection as Signor Pirelli, a flamboyant Italian barber and Todd's adversary. All of the cast mem- bers work together to create a great group of loons. But the best performance in Todd belongs to Helena Bonham Carter, who steals the film as Mrs. Lovett. Boasting the "worst pies in London" the second we meet her, she's a tiny force to be reckoned with. Strangely attrac- tive, doe-eyed beautiful and barking mad, Carter is perfect in this film and grabs atten- tion every second she's on screen. When she dreams of romantic bliss with Todd, even her picturesque dreams of sunshine are ruined by her own filthy existence in London. She's the heart of "Todd," both the film and the man. She's crazy for Todd, and convinces him to turn his practice murders into pies. Yes, human pies. The only real weakness comes from two subplots involving Todd and two younger boys. Pirelli's apprentice latches on to Lovett, only to deliver some last minute surprises. The other is the story of Anthony Hope (Jamie Campbell Bower, "The Dinner Party") who first arrives in London with Todd only to fall in love with Todd's daughter. Please. "Todd" is a strong piece of Gothic film as well as a return to form for Burton ("Pee-wee's Big Adventure"). Boasting many memorable performances and a haunting atmosphere, "Todd" doesn't get bogged down in the usual triteness of other musicals, like singing out of place to express one's emotions. "Todd" is far more chilling than that.