The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - SA The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - 5A Girl problems a COURTESY OF ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS Apparently fashion models are cold-blooded. This behind-the-scenes look digs deep can't quite get to the bottom of Vogl By Emily Boudreau I Daily Arts Writer On screen, with her perfectly coiffed bob and dark sunglasses, Anna Wintour (editor-in-chief **- of American Vogue maga- The zine) radiates et power and effi- ciency. She is ISSue easily one of the most influential At the Michigan and important Roadside Attractions women in the fashion world. And, in a documen- tary like "The September Issue," an audience would expect the film to delve into Wintour's complex psyche, getting at the underbelly of the fashion world. Director R.J. Cutler makes a mistake, though, by underestimat- ing Wintour. Her whole life has been dedicated to the idea of image control, of retouching photographs and creating perfection in fashion and appearances. Cutler attempts to catch her with her guard down, S and for that he is a fool. Through the film, her reputation a ilish woman in Prada doe rialize. Without capturin Wintour, the film fails t the true spirit of Vogue. "The September Issue' to explore the inner wo Wintour's empire durini ation of the 2007 Septer of Vogue. It was the lar to date, spanning 840 pa and spreads worth hut thousands of dollars. For about the first 30 the film struggles to fin hold. Wintour and her la polished and never onc sweat in front of the cam know how to fashion th too well. It is not until G dington, the creative comes into the' pcture th starts to really take off. Coddington is the voice of the-magazine, proclaimed "romantic" i that has sold its soul for She keeps the movie fror high but shallow as the indu creates some of thei ue. photographs in the Coddington, fashion ficial - it's art. The her relationship with s the dev- two women were hir sn't mate- time and it's their cl g the real alities that drive th o capture the success it has ac Coddington sli 'attempts making sarcastic c rkings of manipulating Wint g the cre- posely discusses herl sber issue of the camera crew t gest issue later admits, she k ges of ads an increase in it. Co ndreds of brings in the film's l man to model ina ph minutes, in an effort to publ td a foot- untouched by Photos ckeys are Wintour. Contrary e break a desires, hisprotrudin era. They not be edited out oft] eir image While the dynam race Cod- two women is incred director, ing,the filmcouldstil at the film other aspects of the try. Very little time is creative politics behind the the self- how what shows up n a world dictated by money a glamour. Companies pay to gi m being as inthepagesofthema fashion stry itself and less of how unpractical or ugly they most beautiful are. Vogue's job is to create a desire magazine. For for them. "nThe September Issue" is not super- never delves into this side of the film explores industry, and the film would have hWintour. The benefited if it had. ed at the same There are also many other per- ashing person- sonalities that add color to the e magazine to magazine but are not developed hieved. in the film. Andre Leon Talley, the nks around American editor-at-large, is par- omments and ticularly entertaining as he comes our. She pur- to represent the shallower, more budget in front ridiculous side of the magazine. He because, as she takes up tennis because Wintour new she'd get snarkily told him to lose weight. ddington even Talley shows up at the court with portly camera- six Louis Vuitton carrying cases oto shoot then, for his accessories and refuses to lish the image take a Louis Vuitton sweat-towel shop, overrides off of his neck. to Wintour's "The September Issue" man- agstomachwill ages to preserve a little spark of he magazine. the beauty and glamour that exists ic between the in the fashion industry before it libly entertain- is branded with a label. The film lhaveexplored keeps up the pretense that fashion fashion indus- is fun, but similarly,"tats onTy devoted to the surface-level entertainment. Cut- magazine and ler clearly had loftier ambitions in the pages is but Wintour manag 1fo PlalIhec nd advertising. strings behind the movie and keeps et their clothes him from delving too deeply into gazineregard- the w'rld of Vogue. By ERIC CHIU DailyArts Writer Given that the first word in Com- edy Central's name is "comedy," it would be safe to assume the network's stock- in-trade is being Secret funny. Comedy , Central's flag- Girlfriend ship shows - Wednesdays "The Daily Show at10:30 p.m. With Jon Stew- Comedy Central art," "The Col- bert Report" and "South Park" - certainly deliver on that promise, but "Secret Girl- friend," the network's latest addi- tion, doesn't encourage laughter so much as it encourages hitting your head with a lead pipe repeatedly to forget what you just saw. "Secret Girlfriend" is an adap- tion of an online video series from AtomicWedgieTV.com. It follows three 20-somethings and their trib- ulations as single guys. The show's big hook is that you're part of the group - the entire show is shot from a first-person perspective, with all of the characters directly addressing you via the camera. The show's Apatow-like promos unabashedlyaim at its target demo- graphic, with generous amounts of flatly written masturbation and sex jokes. But the show doesn't do any- thing beyond this empty premise. A lightweight plot runs through each episode - the pilot has "You" going out on a beer run for your friends after a breakup, meet- ing romantic interest Jessica (Sara Fletcher, "Redearth88") and watch- ing friends Sam (Michael Blaiklock, "Fired Up!") and Phil (relative new- comer Derek Miller) filmviralvideos, allwhile dealingwithyourpsychotic, nymphomaniac ex-girlfriend (Alexis Krause, "The Singles Table"). Krause notwithstanding, the cast does the best it can with the meager material it has been given. There's sonething appealingly stu- pid about Sam and Phil's faux-viral videos- -the pilot has the'i film- ing videos like "Toaster Head" and "Fork Head," where Phil gets beat- )ki' iinihehead with; resp ttively,' a toaster and a fork. Still, Fletcher is a surprisingly strong presence onscreen. Among the show's numerous problems, though, is that it feels like "Secret Girlfriend" was predi- cated on nothing much beyond hav- ing an excuse to watch a parade of cleavage and scantily clad females on basic cable every week. The guys' leering point of view toward the opposite gender makes Tucker Max look like Gloria Steinem - the girls who aren't strippers, models or models who happen to be strip- ping exist solely for "You" and your friends to either have sex with or talk about having sex with. It's not helped by the first-person conceit, which doesn't bring much to the viewing experience besides the occasional bout of nausea. The show still feels like a standard sit- com that just happens to be filmed in first-person andthe gimmick kills the show's half-hearted attempts at building a narrative. Admittedly, the characters are .all already thinly written stereo- types and episodes are basically a series of loosely strung together You are the star in this disaster. vignettes. The problem is, "You" never respond to anything the other characters do or say. Having the characters do nothing besides continually react to "You" makes the show's attempts at character- ization and plot fall flat. But really, trying to pick apart something like "Secret Girlfriend" misses the point, or the lack there- of. "Secret Girlfriend" isn't a show so much as it's a loosely assembled video collage of breasts, extend- ed shots of female behinds and dick jokes, with something barely resembling a plot tying all of this together. That being said, it's easy to see why Comedy Central picked the show up, but considering the end product, "Secret Girlfriend" would have been better off staying online. Built to Spill keeps on trucking By JEFF SANFORD Daily Arts Assistant Editor Doug Martsch, frontman of ven- erable rock stalwart Built to Spill and one third of indie rock's Holy *** Bearded Trinity (Iron & Wine's Built to Spill Sam Beam and Bonnie 'Prince' There is no Billy, aka Will Enemy Oldham, com- Warner Bros. plete the tri- umvirate), seems impervious to change. But it's not like he needs to embrace it. With every release of a Built to Spill album comes some automatic good news - namely, that it will sound just like every other Built to Spill album. Again, this is good news. Built to Spill's brand of rock is similar to our nation's other . top brand names in that it's both consistent and consistently sat- isfying. Like Coca-Cola, McDon- ald's fries and Bud Light, Built to Spill's releases combine a warm- blanket sense of familiarity with that initial, refreshing taste that immediately affirms why they're so well-loved. The band knows this - take a look at past albums' opening tracks: Perfect From Now Keep It Like a Secret's "The Plan," You In Reverse's "Goin' Against Your Mind." Those are some of the finest first sips in any indie-rock band's catalog. But enough with the beverage metaphors. There Is No Enemy is Built to Spill's most recent album and only the third proper one the band has released in the new mil- lennium. Like every new Built to Spill album since PerfectFrom Now On, it differs from its predecessors only by slight degrees. For one, there are fewer - but not many fewer (see the seven-minute "Done") - spacey, solo-riddled jams that push songs past the six- or sev- en-minute mark. For two, Martsch abandons You In Reverse's and Per- fect From Now On's emphasis on guitar- and riff-based songs for a more holistic, full-band approach. But again, there are still some killer, song-making guitar lines (especial- ly noteworthy are the spiky, punky stadium-ready rockers "Pat" and "Planting Seeds"). Martsch, as usual, tackles weighty topics and asks some big questions. On "Oh Yeah," the album's jammiest and most mel- ancholic track, he apparently sums up his theology in totality: "And if god does exist / I am sure he will see / h self se along w ture an how un beliefs.. makes f poignar Cont rock's Martsc There with lif the mit Martsc produc more yr A you lov will be want li' He memor, album's mark h ow unlikely he made him- he complains, "Hindsight's given em." Martsch's delivery, me / too much memory / There's vith the song's loose struc- too much never seen," and fur- d weeping solos, reveal just ther considers: "The tricks that are sure he really is about his played with human brains." And A sweet contradiction, it all if all this isn't enough to get your for some very moving, very inner Nietzsche fired up, Martsch nt tension. then asks one of humankind's inuing his reign as indie most burning, universal questions: resident philosopher, "What about Canada?" If only we h spends a great deal of had an answer... is No Enemy struggling Since all Built to Spill albums fe, death and the nature of have similar themes, sounds, pro- nd. On finale "Tomorrow," duction, etc., it comes down to the h flips the notion of a good, relativestrengthofindividualsongs tive life on its head: "The to determine whether the record is tu have to live for /the more a success or not. That being said, There is No Enemy doesn't have any clear standouts like "Conventional s consistent Wisdom" or "Randy Described Eternity" on albums past. But it CCca-cola. is remarkably solid from top to bottom, with enough depth and nuance to sustain the high stan- e your life / the harder it dard of quality on which Built to for you to die / and we all Spill's career has been predicated. ving and dying easy." Is it among the best of the band's questions the reliability of albums? I think not. But it's enough y on "Hindsight," one of the of a success to ensure that the Built highlights. In that trade- to Spill brand name lives on. And igh-register, nasally voice, live on it does. "Do vou ever think to yourself, 'Man, I'm so healthy." You're Sick LSA students, if you're concerned about flu season this year, be sure to visit the LSA website. You can self-report your illness and simultaneously inform your instructors and advisor as well as read up on University efforts to curtail the spread of H1N1 and other potential campus outbreaks. www.isa.umich.edu