The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, February 16, 2009 - 5A FINE ARTS COLUMN Examining ourselves through self-portraits The world's most extreme piggy-back ride. p p Kingai Unnecessary horror est region only to be stalked and killed by the hulking, deformed killer known remake fails to break as Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears, "The Hills Have Eyes II"). Then, in a brilliant new ground twist, more college students show up and get killed off by Jason. And that's about it By BRANDON CONRADIS as far as plot goes. Senior Arts Editor The film is certainly diverting, but even judged primarily by its merits as "Friday the 13th" is part of a string of a slasher film, it feels somewhat tepid. recent horror movie Jason is menacing, the girls are attrac- remakes, and out of tive and the woods look suitably spooky. all of them, this film is But the film just reeks of laziness, as if perhaps the least war- Friday the filmmakers, knowing full well that ranted. After all, "Fred- audiences wouldn't care about the plot, dy vs. Jason" - a stupid the 13th hashed out a script in a matter of days but memorable contin- At Showcase and started shooting without making any uation of the original and Quality 16 revisions. '80s franchise - was Take the narrative structure, for released just six years r . example. The 20-minute-long pro- ago. So what's the point logue of the film, which introduces the in starting the series all over again? audience to the first set of campers, is Nonetheless, this new effort is mod- so satisfying in its blending of humor, efately entertaining. It's not great, even atmosphere, tension and shocks that in the context of the "Friday the 13th" it's impossible for the film to regain its series, but it's not embarrassing, either. footing when it shifts focus and intro- Ultimately, it's a film for tried-and-true duces another set of soon-to-be-dead "Friday thel13th" fans. Everyoneelse will characters. What follows is essentially probably just shrug and forget about it as the same thing as the prologue, only at a soon as it ends. much slower pace and with less likable The plot is simplicity itself. A group of actors. , college students hike into a secluded for- It doesn't help that there's nobody to [assic root for. While not entirely the fault of the actors (the writers deserve the most blame), the college students depicted in this film are perhaps the most pathetic, unlikable and downright stupid victims ever to grace a "Friday the 13th" film. And that's saying a lot. But the film's biggest fault is its famil- iarity. At times "Friday the 13th" feels amusingly postmodern in its attempts to poke fun at the conventions of the sub- genre, but most of the time it seems con- tent to merely tread the same ground as its predecessors. No one is going to see a film like this looking for high art, but even those just seeking a good slasher film might find this movie redundant and annoyingly derivative. Still, "Friday the 13th" is what it is. Complaining about a film like this for being derivative is about as pointless as throwing the same criticism at a James Bond film. Ultimately, viewers come to these movies because of their familiarity. If that's the case, this "Friday" is a minor winner, as it delivers everything the ear- lier movies did - mainly boobs and blood - in spades. So, while not impressive - even as a slasher film - this remake is a decent time-waster, even:if it can't compare to its brethren from the '80s. Self-portraiture is usually seen as one of two things: either a somewhat narcissistic piece of art made by a well-known, self-congratulating artist, or a somewhat narcissistic MySpace photo taken by a not-so-well-known, self- congratulating person. The idea of self-portrai- ture has changed over the years, especially with the advent of the digital camera. It has become too WiNY' easy to make an image POW of yourself - just point and click, and there you go; a second later you have a hazy-eyed picture of yourself that you can immediately review. The idea of the narcissistic self-portrait is different, though, when you consider the other end of this concept: When you're stuck in a quiet room with a mirror, your lovely face and some ink pens. And you sit there staring at yourself for hours. In that time, you'll probably be able to produce a few sketches of differing, flattering-to-unflatter- ing quality. I don't think we spend enough time with our faces. It's the fleetingness of it, really: We glance at ourselves in mirrors or reflec- tive coffee shop windows for a few seconds a few times a day. And similarly, we catch fleeting glances of ourselves in the digital photographs that are posted, quantity over quality, on social networking sites. These self-portraits are just glimpses, and in the same way, we flip through these photos after glancing at each for a second of two at a time. We don't really look at ourselves. And glimpsing is different than looking. Glimpsing means spending as little time as possible with our faces and their unsightly bits: zits, moles and floppy chins. Looking, on the other hand, means staring at these faults of ours without flinching. We're our own worst critics, and it really is hard to look at the things we dislike about ourselves. It might actually be a good thing that we aren't able to see ourselves without the aid of something - a mirror, a camera, the bowl of a spoon. With this in mind, self-portraiture can be self-congratulating, but more often than not, it's self-critical. It forces artists to stare at signs of old age and imperfection and re producethosethings ona canvas, in a photograph or in a sketch book. Whether or not these imperfections are re-created in the image is an entirely different story; the per- sonma ycdos6f se coverhhem up or display' them at his orcher own discretion. But the point is that analog self-portraiture involves a persistent stare at oneself, one's faults and one's changing self-understanding. Chuck Close is a world-renowned Ameri- can artist primarily known for his photo- realistic portraits and self-portraits. Much of his art is painted on larger-than-life canvases that can be as big as 10 feet by 12 feet. Close's concept of himself as an artist changed, however, when in 1988 he suddenly became paralyzed from the neck down. Although he was able to regain some control of his body, he had to have paint brushes attached to his arms in order to paint. He still continued to work, however, and it is fascinating to see how his self-portrayal has changed over the years. Close's self-portrait titled Big Self- Portrait, painted from 1967 to 1968 depicts the skinny, artsy upstart shirtless from the shoulders up. He has a smoldering cigarette in his mouth, his eyes are eerily half-opened and hazy. His head is tipped upward, cockily daringsomeone to chal- lenge him. The image appears self-appreci- ating. It's a glamour portrait that suggests youth, drugs and sex. Close produced another self-portrait called, yes, Self-Portrait in 1977. In this painting, Close has a full beard, and his hair- line has receded to the top of his head. The painting still depicts him from the shoulders up, although this time he looks directly at the viewer in his collared, button-up shirt. His eyes are open, expressive and lucid. His image suggests his stark reality: he is the aging painter. Finally, we'll jump to 2000, 12 years after he became paralyzed form the neck down. The portrait is also titled Self-Portrait, though the painting contains only his head from the neck up. This reminds us of the fact that this is the only part of Close's body over which he has immediate agency. He is com- pletely bald. His eyes look off the corner of the picture, evasive, suggestingsomething that has been closed-off or disconnected. Perhaps it's meant to remind the viewer that his paintings are now made with the help of an assistant, because Close does not paint these intimate portraits by himself anymore. Close's self-portrayal changed a great degree over a period of forty years. And the way we see ourselves changes over time as well, for better or for worse; it's paral- lel to how our looks, our memories and our relationships change. Who we are is grittier than what the haphazard glance will reveal, and a self-portrait contains more than attractive aesthetics; it contains personal meaning, the passage of time and details we might not want people to know or care about. It's honest, and honesty is not always pretty. Staring at yourself in the mirror isn't just narcissistic. The fact that a self-portrait, by its own nature, encourages self reflection is unique. ' Byspehding time withour own image; somethingwe rarely spend more than an hour a day looking at unadorned, we are forced to look at ourselves in a way that can't be replicated with the instantglimpses of digital cameras and the age of profile pic- tures. We've begun to take the self-portrait for granted as something that is effortless to create, and equally effortless to delete if it depicts us in an unfavorable light. A self-portrait is easy to conceive. Mini- mally, it takes a pen, a napkin, a mirror and an opened eye. What may be more difficult is looking at yourself in a way that's more than just a casual glance. Pow wants to paint your self-portrait. Explain to her why that doesn't make any sense at poww@umich.edu. An odd couple in advertising By TOMMY COLEMAN For the Daily The buddy comedy is a subgenre that always holds great potential. From Joe and Jerry in "Some Like it Hot" to Harry and Trust Me Lloyd in "Dumb and Dumber," it's still sat- Mondays at isfying to see two best 10 p.m. friends screw around TNT and stick together through thick and thin. "TrustMe"isaworkplacedramedythat follows the exploits of an odd couple in the advertising world. Mason (Eric McCor- mack, "Will and Grace") is the respon- sible half - a high-strung, hard-working art director. Connor (Tom Cavanagh, "Ed") is the goofball - a fast-talking but laid-back copywriter. The duo works as a creative team at a fictional Chicago agency called Rothman, Greene & Mohr, which also houses some other memora- ble personalities. There's Monica Potter (Sarah Krajicek-Hunter, "Boston Legal"), a talented but neurotic and thin-skinned newcomer to the office, and the hilarious team of Tom (Mike Damus, "Numb3rs") and Hechtor (Geoffrey Arend, "Greek"), a mischief-making pair who, when their powers combine, become the agency's two-headed village idiot. Indeed, Rothman, Greene & Mohr proves to be the ideal setting for "Trust Me." The preposterously pressure-filled atmosphere of the world of advertising quickens the pace of the show. In addi- tion, advertising executives work in pairs (one art director with one copywriter), which is perfect for a buddy series. Pre- dictably, some of the most powerful scenes in "Trust Me" are those featur- ing Mason and Connor hard at work in fierce brainstorming sessions, where each spews out ideas, both compelling and awful, for their latest advertising campaign. This competitive environment fre- quently puts Mason and Connor's rela- tionship to the test. In the pilot, Mason and Connor's stressed-out boss kicks the bucket, and the agency's creative direc- A well-played buddy comedy. tor Tony Mink (Griffin Dunne, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent") needs to find a replacement. He chooses Mason to fill the position. Connor is upset that his partner chose not to tell him about the promotion, and their friendship must survive the added tension. It's clear this symbiotic relationship will be consis- tently tested through the rest of the sea- son with similar plot lines. Unlike "Mad Men," AMC's popular drama-heavy series about a New York City advertising agency in the 1960s, "Trust Me" finds humor in the stress- ful world of advertising. During one of Mason and Connor's brainstorming ses- sions for a client, Arc-Mobile, a fictional telephone company, Connor humorously suggests that a gladiator named "Spar- text-icus" be the mascot for the brand, "slaying a lion with one hand and texting with the other." Whether they're getting along or not, it's McCormack and Cavanagh that hold the whole show together. When they aren't working on an ad campaign, they quibble and squabble like an old married couple over anything and everything. But it's obvious that, at the end of the day, they'll still be pals. Watching these two talented actors bicker, fight andmakeupforan hour each week prom- ises, if nothing else, to be entertaining. 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