The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 7A The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday. October 21, 2009 - 7A Not cops with donuts - lawyers with donuts! See? It's original, now!v A flnot to ARTS IN BRIEF Music Neon Indian's bipolar masterpiece Neon Indian Psychic Chasms Columbia Like the band's very name suggests, Neon Indian simul- taneously incorporates both the old and the new. The other- worldly Technicolor ambiance of Psychic Chasms is rendered familiar by its reassuring '90s lo-fi mumblings, and a sense of world-weariness permeates the record despite the bizarrely bright synths. Psychic Chasms is a study of contrasts - vivid clarity juxtaposed with jaded burbles, and novelty paired against the status quo. Neon Indian is the third musical project of Alan Palomo, who at the tender age of 21 is also already affiliated with the now-defunct Ghosthustler as well as VEGA, an ongoing project. Lyrically, the record is presented in retrospective, reminiscing on an idealized past from the perspective of a cynical present. The vocals on Psychic Chasms, although mostly indiscernible, clearly reflect disillusionment with the contemporary world and a longing for the past. "Deadbeat Summer," the discs's most radio-friendly and appealing track, is a testament to the creative bipolarity of Neon Indian. The track epitomizes the nature of the release by mergingthe familiar with the strange. The songhas a nos- talgic feel of summers long gone, with a backdrop of zingy, twee electronic bleep-bops. The youthfully druggy "Should Have Taken Acid With You" is another track with a wist- ful, slightly melancholy and sentimental sound. The song's tone is delibeiately sweet and regretful, painting a picture of halcyon days of yore. The idyllic past is a consistent theme woven throughout the entirety of Psychic Chasms. "Mind, Drips" is a distortedly fuzzy '80s flashback with intermittent electro-pop buzzing reminiscent of retro- futuristic spaceship sounds. The track is somewhat pre- dictably gimmicky as a result, but an enjoyable listen in the guilty pleasure sense. In fact, Psychic Chasms itself is a bit of a guilty pleasure, with its unabashed embrace of rebel- without-a-cause-ness. But it's a pleasure to indulge and wal- low in the past alongside Palomo. All this rumination on the past may have listeners eager to hear about the future. The effort ends with the appropri- ately titled "Seriously, It's Over," leaving us looking forward to the next stages of Neon Indian. JASMINE ZHU 'Law Abiding Citizen' murders the very idea of character development By NICK COSTON Daily Arts Writer In 1817, philosopher and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge devised a formula for fiction known as the suspension * of disbelief. It theorizes that an audience is willing to overlook Law Abiding certain preposterous aspects of MM a story in order to better engross itself in the unfolding narrative. At Quality16 "Law Abiding Citizen," the latest and Showcase film from director F. Gary Gray Overture ("Be Cool"), tries harder to prove Coleridge wrong than almost any other film this year. It's so absurd, so nonsensical, so offensively stupid that one has to wonder if it's some sort of nihilist exercise in bad filmmaking that exceeds apathy and dives straight into contempt for logic. The titular citizen is Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler, "300"), a retired spy who goes on a killing spree from inside prison after his wife and daugh- ter are killed in the film's first 30 seconds by two worthless and unimportant characters who have no connection to the succeeding two hours. Jamie Foxx ("Collateral") is Nick Rice, a rising star in the Philadelphia district attorney's office who has built his career on orchestrating shady plea bargains - including one. with the murderer .of Shelton's family. It's up to Rice to stop Shelton's murderous rampage, because apparently Philadelphia doesn't have any police officers or detectives. Speaking of Philadelphia, the audience has no idea the film takes place in the City of Brotherly Love until the final 30 minutes (bear in mind that two of the most important characters are the dis- trict attorney and the mayor). Characters talk about terrified citizens evacuating"our proud city," and putting a cop on every corner of "the city" and how Shelton owns a number of properties outside of"city limits;" meanwhile, the audience throws up its hands and asks, "What city?" As District Attorney Rice, Foxx performs about as admirably as could be imagined of a man playing a hybrid lawyer-cop. Unless the real Philadelphia has recently adopted a radical form of law enforce- ment, its public servants do not fly police helicop- ters or attempt to defuse bombs or carry a firearm as Foxx does. While Foxx doesn't do anything to inspire hatred - he didn't write his own bad dialogue, f after all - Butler's performance is a laughable sight to behold. His accent, purportedly intended to reflect a native of the United States' East Coast, falls somewhere between Scottish brogue and perpetual chewer of skirt steak. His face is con- tinuously twisted into what is supposed to be an evil grin but looks more like a visit to the dentist. More problematic than his bad accent and smile, however, is his deplorably cold reaction to his family's murder. Butler's Shelton is the driving force behind what makes "Citizen" so loathsome. The problem begins when director Gray offers no more than a title card reading "Ten Years Later" to illustrate Shelton's descent from sorrow to murderous rage. Although time has passed within the film, the audience is jarred by the tasteless proximity of his family's death to the beginning of his rampage - he captures, tortures and gruesomely murders the killer within minutes of his family's demise, real-time. And he does so with a sick smile on his face, while taunting the helpless criminal he has strapped to atable in a warehouse basement. Shel- ton's vengeance is complete, seemingly before the movie even begins, and it's exacted in a manner that inspires repulsion rather than sympathy. As a result, he's given no humanity to counterbal- ance his villainous qualities. It's not unreasonable to portray a man violent- ly deprived of his wife and daughter as mentally unstable. But Shelton shows no signs of such emo- tional vulnerability or progression. It's as if this ice-cold maniac just happened to have been mar- ried with a child - as if his domestic past has no genuine impact on his soul, and his family's death merely provided him with the opportunity to kill dozens of people and falsely justify it. "Law Abiding Citizen" has a slew of problems. It's poorly written, poorly acted and poorly direct- ed. But worse than that, it's offensive. Ittakes a man in a potentially vulnerable position and transforms him, unnecessarily and inexplicably, into a glee- ful mass murderer. If Gray wanted to make Shel- ton the villain, that's fine. But by failing to intercut Shelton's killing spree with some sign - any sign - of grief for his departed wife and daughter, the director destroyed the only shred of believability he might have otherwise achieved. Worst hiding spot ever. ,rsover-gelle hal( turns t em off* *National survey of 2,500 gidue18-24 conducted by Strategy0ne June and July 2008 'a GET GIRL-APPROVED HAIR