8A - Monday, November 24, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.tom
A broken rapper
KANYE
From Page 5A
this album - but he's not a singer.
For a track like "Street Lights" to
work, Kanye needs a voice that will
dominate the empty space generat-
ed by the drum machine doldrums
and wandering buzzes. Even when
he crows, "I'm just nothing, life's
just nothing," drowsiness sets in
rather quickly.
But if there's one thing Kanye
does do well on Heartbreak, it's
that he makes a convincing argu-
ment he's been through some ter-
rible experiences. With the passing
of his mother, album closer "Cold-
est Winter" has a certain touch of
homeliness to it that makes the
words "Memories made in the cold-
est winter / Goodbye, my friend /
Will I ever love again?" sound like
more than just the usual Kanye
whining. And standout single
"Love Lockdown" has a thunder-
ing and bouncing quality that hints
at empowerment, as Kanye sings,
"I'm not loving you / Way you want
me to" and "I got something to 4
lose, so I gotta move /I can't keep
myself, and still keep you too." It's
not standard Kanye, but it's still an
addicting stomper.
Even so, with all this heartache,
some of it does feel just a tad man-
ufactured. On "RoboCop," Kanye
cries against pounding, "Star
Wars"-like sound effects ("I will
never be your robot") before danc-
ing into the cheap, flowery words of
"You spoiled little L.A. girl /You're
just a spoiled little L.A. girl."
We get it. You're not feeling
the best. But instead of reflecting
it with his usually quick-witted
rhymes and wordplay, he opts for a
more childish response.
Maybe this is just Kanye breath-
ing a bit. For all the ranting he does 4
on his blog, maybe it was time to
get this off his chest. Reinvention
is something Kanye doesn't seem
too far above, but returning to his
roots is also a viable option. The
swagger might be gone here, but 4
inside Heartbreak is a troubled
man, who's only partly able to con-
vince us we should believe what he
says, once and for all.
"My hair is as wistful and romantic as the waterfall behind me. Now can we do it?"
Bleeding hearts club
Supernatural love story
blossoms in print but wilts
in awkward transition
to the big screen
By SHERI JANKELOVITZ
Daily Arts Writer
The tale of a young girl falling head-
over-heels in love with a vampire has made
millions of teenage girls,
and maybe a few guys too,
around the world go crazy.
But the "Twilight" phenom- Twiig
enon is puzzling. What's the
big deal with the book any- At Quality16
way? Unfortunately, the film and Showcase
version will only serve to SummiT
perplex people even more.
In "Twilight," Bella
(Kristen Stewart, "Panic Room") moves from
sunny Arizona to the gray and rainy town
of Forks, Wash. There, she meets the pale,
moody and incredibly gorgeous Edward Cul-
len (Robert Pattinson, "Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire"), who is repulsed by her. This,
in turn, intrigues Bella and she becomes even
more fascinated when she discovers the truth
about Edward. His revulsion turns out to be a
way to mask his insatiable desire to drink her
blood. Yes, he's a vampire. Despite the great
differences between the two, they fall deeply
in love.
Ridiculous? Yes. But on the page it works
wonderfully. We can see the burgeoning
romance between the two, and it all makes
sense. But when translated to screen, it's clear
how much the novel's success depended on
readers' imaginations. We know these two are
in love because that's what the novel tells us,
but it's awfully hard to believe it in the movie.
What "Twilight" truly lacks is subtlety.
Everything is too over-the-top, and many
moments just don't plain work, where serious
romantic -scenes cause an entire audience to
burst into giggles. Not a good sign.
Low budgetis one thing, and this film clear-
ly is, but cheesy is quite another. Why has no
one figured out that slow motion just doesn't
work for movies outside "The Matrix?" Also,
quite a bit of the film's budget must have went
to buy gallons of white face powder for the
vampire teens.
But not all is lost in the film adaptation.
With his high cheekbones and smoldering
gaze (there's really no other phrase for it),
Pattinson has turned pale into the new hot.
Even when his lines become ridiculous by
tween standards (like when Edward tells
Bella to "Hold on tight, Spider Monkey" as he
climbs a tree with her on his back), Pattin-
son brings a level of professionalism more
than unequaled by Stewart. While talented
in many other films, Stewart delivers each
breathy line as heavily as if she just finished
running a marathon.
The supportingcast, mainlyEdward'sfam-
ily and Bella's father, is delightful. It's unfor-
tunate that the film gives us so little time to
get to know them. When they're on screen,
the film is infused with the energy that's so
lacking in the scenes between Edward and
Bella.
Understanding why the novels sell is sim-
ple: Teenage girls everywhere found a little
bit of themselves in the character of Bella,
and they cheered to see this shy, clumsy girl
win the heart of a beautiful, almost-perfect
boy. Shy and clumsy, though, seems to trans-
late into socially awkward and unbearably
dull on film.
Those who haven't read the novel will most
likely find themselves woefully confused,
since the film explains fails to elaborate on
the telling elements of the book. "Twilight"
knows its audience and caters specifically
to them. For fans of the novel, bad reviews
won't stop them from seeing this movie, but
they may prepare them for the disappoint-
ment that will follow.
Gallery experience
EXHIBITION
From Page 5A
Design freshman Danielle Batta-
glia.
"It's a really exciting piece, but
it didn't make any friends. I ended
up putting it next to some other
large commanding works that
could handle the intensity," Niels-
en said. "The trick is to try to find
a good spot for everything, so the
show feels balanced and the pro-
cess of moving through the gallery
is not interrupted by an awareness
of badly organized or displayed
work."
With numerous great works on
display this year, it's tough to cre-
ate a list of must sees, but there are
a couple that stand out in Nielsen's
eyes.
"Im extremely impressed with
many of our first-year students this
year. There are some very ambitious
projects in the show from this new
group," Nielsen said. "Like (A&D
freshman) Eli Rosenbloom's wall
sized mural - a colossal psychedel-
ic tree called 'Hiroshima 3000.' And
on a smaller but no less ambitious
scale, (A&D freshman) Kate Bonst-
ed's 'Bull.' The title is so direct and
unassuming, but the image of a bull
chopped out of a huge piece of card-
board literally reels between the
representational and the abstract."
With the opening of the new Uni-
versity of Michigan Museum of Art,
fine arts are in the forefront of cam-
pus news. Events like the "All Stu-
dent Exhibition" illuminate the art
scene in Ann Arbor. Galleries are
all over campus, but they are often
concealed.
"The problem is they're kind of
hidden away, but (the galleries)
are all addressing ways to improve
their presence and accessibility,"
Nielsen said. "There are more gal-
leries downtown than ever before.
I really believe that we are close
to the tipping point, of becoming
a destination for the visual arts as
well as music and theater."
I
I
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Picture
Michigan.
There are some images that you're going to want to
remember. The scene on the Diag on election night.
The time you held an audience transfixed. That play
that changed everything.
Now, you can keep those images.
Visit photo.michigandaily.com.