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Tuesday, October 27, 2009 -- 5

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, October 27, 2009 - S

Cinephiles need
a bail out

Jennifer Granholm swore she wouldn't come back until she had found a solution for Michigan's economy. And she was never seen again:
'Amela' doesn't fl

Despite a credible acting job from Hilary
Swank, this biopic needs to disappear
By Sheri Jankelovitz ( Daily Arts Writer

Amelia Earhart is arguably one
of the most fascinating figures in
history and one of the world's most
enduringmyster-
ies. Earhart was
the first woman
to fly solo across Amelia
the Atlantic
Ocean, and later At the Michigan,
she attempted to Quality16 and
become the first Showcase
woman to fly Fox Searchlight
across the world.
The fact that nobody knows what
happened to Earhart the day she
attempted her doomed final flight
has made her a legendary enigma.
Considering how many unanswered
questions her life left, it's a surprise
and a disappointment that "Amelia"
is so boring.
In fact, "Amelia" is not really
a story about Earhart's life at all,
but just about her career as a pilot.
While her flying exploits are prob-

ably the most interesting aspect
of her story, it would've been nice
to learn more about the woman
behind the goggles. All the audi-
ence is told is that as a child Ame-
lia (Hilary Swank, "Million Dollar
Baby"), in an attempt to mentally
escape her country life, loved to
watch planes fly above the fields of
Kansas. The film is content to por-
tray Earhart as nothing more than
a clich.
After meeting publisher and
promoter George Putnam (Rich-
ard Gere, "Nights in Rodanthe"),
Amelia signs up to fly across the
Atlantic and make history. Despite
being saddled with an alcoholic co-
pilot, Amelia stands her ground and
refuses, to be marginalized by her
chauvinistic counterparts. Later,
she continues to buck the system
and marries Putnam after claiming
the marriage will not be bound to
old-fashioned ideas of faithfulness.

Maybe in real life this made sense,
but it's hard to believe that Putnam
would want to marry the strange,
slightly annoying woman Earhart
is portrayed as in the film. And they
don't even have a shred of screen
chemistry.
In today's day and age,it's bizarre
to think that at one point America
worshiped (going so far as to throw
ticker-tape parades) those who did
nothing more than fly across the
Atlantic. And why should today's
audiences care? Well the film never
bothers explaining why these
feats were so amazing, leading to
a strong disconnect between the
"heroic" action on the screen and
the reaction of the audience in the
theater.
Swank does a credible job por-
traying Amelia as a wide-eyed coun-
try girl who says things like "that's
hooey" and who just happened
to find herself as America's new-
est sweetheart. But Swank falters
somewhat in grounding Earhart in
nothing more than the stereotype
of the anti-society woman, wear-
ing pants, keeping her hair short
and refusing to be dominated by

the men in her life. The rest of the
actors in the film are clearly phon-
ing it in, believing that adopting
strange old timey accents takes the
place of actual acting.
Sure, the on-screen Amelia has
spunk and determination, but the
woman herself remains a mystery.
The true motivation behind her
daring flights - or her extra-mari-
tal tryst with fellow aviation enthu-
siast Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor,
"Angels & Demons") - is never real-
ly explored. The film briefly implies
that she is simply flying for the fame
and money. But that's it.
The entire film feels much too
rushed and, frankly, too tired. There
is not one credible moment of sus-
pense or even genuine emotion. At
the end of the film, grainy footage is
shown of the real Amelia Earhart,
and it stirs more feelings than the
entire two hours preceding it.
By the time the film arrives at
Earhart's final flight, audiences
won't care. It doesn't say much about
a film when the audience can't wait
for the heroine to disappear. If only
she would have taken the film with
her and saved us all the trouble.

When I finally saw "I
Love You, Man,"
good month after it
came out, it was playing at my
local theater
only once a day.
My friend anda
I walked in just,
as the two other
people in the
theater (a rowdy #
teenaged couple) DREW
finished strad- L
dling each other.
Eventually a few more trickled in,
but there still weren't enough of us
to fill one row, let alone the entire
theater.
And yet, we each still had to pay
$10 for our tickets.
To me, this represents the most
flawed aspect of movie ticket pric-
ing: the fact that you have to pay
the same blanket amount for some-
thing that's been out for weeks as
you do for an opening-night show.
It's completely nonsensical, espe-
cially considering the box office
trajectory a wide-release movie
goes through these days.
Generally, studios place so much
emphasis on a big opening weekend
for a movie that neither they nor
the moviegoing public care about
the following week when five new
films are released. The exceptions
are mega-blockbusters like "Trans-
formers: Revenge of the Fallen"
and word-of-mouth surprises like
"Paranormal Activity," but most
wide-release films have a big open-
ing then fade into oblivion.
It doesn't have tobe like this,
though. People are still willing to
see new-ish movies in theaters, and
they also love a good bargain. And
studios love it when a film has stay-
ing power. So here's a movie ticket
stimulus plan that'll make every-
body happy: Theater chains should
start a new pricing option and sell
cheaper tickets for wide-release
moves that have already been out for
a set number of weeks, during that
awkward middle stage of their run
before they hit the dollartheater.
Say you're paying $10 a pop
this weekend at the Showcase for.
"Saw VI" tickets because.it doesn't
offer student discounts; maybe you
should also have the option to see
"Zombieland" for $6 or $7 instead.
If you go for "Zombieland," you
get the satisfaction of both sav-
ing money and catching up with
something the rest of the world has
seen; the movie theater still gets
the satisfaction of ripping you off;
and Columbia gets to post fairly
sizable ticket sales for a month-old
film once budget-minded consum-
ers everywhere flock to see the
splattered brains of the undead.'
Now, I've been emphasizing

"wide-release" movies for a reason.
This pricing plan simply wouldn't
make sense for independent films.
Even successful ones like "The
Hurt Locker" and "(500) Days of
Summer" start out their theatri-
cal runs on only a few screens in
New York and L.A. They open in
more theaters every week as good
reviews trickle in, so by the time
these movies reach you, odds are
they're already a month old. And
the limited-engagement nature
of most art theaters ensures they
won't be sticking around for long,
not to mention that, coming from
an independent distributor, these
movies are generally more in need
of the funds a fully-priced ticket
provides. And between you and
me, they're usually worth the extra
money. Overall, I don't mind drop-
ping a Hamilton for Werner Her-
zog and a Lincoln for Michael Bay.
This plan isn't as simple as what
I'm making it out to be, though.
Movie ticket prices are completely
in the hands of the theater chains,
which have to keep raising them as
the studios raise the cost of distri-
The longer they
run, the cheaper
they should be.
bution if they want to make a prof-
it. But if the Quality 16 can give out
student and senior discounts, I see
no reason why a "new-ish movie"
discount can't exist in the future. If
video stores can do the same thing
with "nearly new" DVDs, why the
hell not? And yes, I'm aware of the
existence of matinee prices. But
not everyone has the time to go to
the movies at 11 a.m. between Mon-
day and Thursday.
Disclaimer: I'm not an econo-
mist. I'm just a guy who loves going
to the movies. And, as a reviewer
for the Daily, someone who occa-
sionally sees them for free. But
that doesn't mean I can't feel for
the moviegoers across the country
whose wallets are screaming in
agony. Hollywood needs us to go to
the movies, and we need them to
go easy on our paychecks. So start
writing letters to Showcase, Goo-
drich Theaters, AMC and all the
other theater chains, and tell them
to start charging less for older
films. And do it quick: I still need
to see "The Invention of Lying."
Lapin is a cheap date. So if you also
haven't seen 'The Invention of Lying'
either, e-mail alapin@uwich.edu.

* Deerhunter's Cox scores with 'LogosF

By SASHA RESENDE
Daily Arts Writer
Bradford Cox is probably the most over-
worked creative genius in indie rock today.
Nearly every press piece
currently produced about ****j
the Athens, Ga. native prais-
es his relentless, critically Atlas $ound
acclaimed work in a broad
range of musical outfits, Logos
most notably the shoegaze- Kranky
inspired project Deerhunter.
Cox has recently found further praise with
Atlas Sound, a solo effort created to receive
the totality of Cox's creative energy, allowing
the musician to play a more collaborative role
in his four-piece Deerhunter outfit.
Cox supposedly wanted to achieve a more
"international" feel with Logos by incorpo-
rating big-name indie rock collaborations and
shying away from writing purely autobio-
graphical lyrics. In order to maintain the raw,
static-tinged effect heard on previous efforts,
nearly all of the songs on Logos are first takes,
thus preserving the collection's unrefined,
"live album"-like quality. The finished prod-
uct is true to its aim: a free-spirited journey
through various ambient soundscapes, care-
fully guided by Cox's expressive artistry.
Hype for Logos began to escalate within the
indie-rock blogosphere this past summer when
Cox released "Walkabout," the album's collab-
oration with Animal Collective's Noah Lennox
(a.k.a. Panda Bear). The track's sampled synth
hook, from the Dovers' "What Am I Going to
Do?" channels the summer's soulful energy,

offsetting the rest of the album's subdued,
autumnal gloom.
The record's second collaborative piece is
also its most ambitious - and arguably best
- track. Cox's work with Stereolab's Laetitia
Sadier yielded "Quick Canal," an epic hymn
complete with yearning keyboard strokes,
a delicate bassline and Sadier's tragically
haunting vocals tinged with the French sing-
er's exotic accent. The track was originally an
endlessly compelling 15-minute ode before
Cox pared it down to a more reasonable eight-
and-a-half minutes. While the edit certainly
facilitates the song's momentum within the
album's overarching flow, "Quick Canal" is
so effortlessly alluring that listeners probably
wouldn't have noticed if the song continued
into further static abstraction for another five
minutes.
While both these efforts stand on oppos-
ing ends of the album's musical spectrum,
they fit perfectly into the record's progres-
sion. Cox explained that the album is "a
A free-spirited
journey in expression.
collection of songs. There is no 'filler.' There
are little scrapbook details everywhere,"
according to Pitchfork. These words ring
true through the album's eclectic selections,
which include dreamy vocalizations over
dark drumbeats ("Kid Klimax"), whispered
movie devoted solely to crazy death contrap-
tions iscompletely bogus and out of place.
Even the staple of the series - torture scenes
- has been watered down in both shock value
and creativity. For example, one of the tor-
ture devices is a machine that slowly squeezes
the victim's sides with each breath the person
takes, so the victim has to hold his breath to pre-
vent himself from being squashed. Scenes like
this take up far too much time and aren't even
particularly breath-taking (pun unfortunately
intended) to watch.
Other than the newly vamped insurance con-
demnation and the lack of imagination, "Saw
VI" is the same movie as the previous five. The
mood is ominous; the moral messages are as pre-
tentious as ever; the scattered plot elements fall
inevitably into place by the end of the film. The
worst part is that the end of the movie doesn't
feel like any sort of resolution, hinting at more
"Saw" movies to come. If this ends up being the
case, the "Saw" franchise will find itself in the
same fatal situations as the victims in its films.
HANS YADAV

COUESY OF KR ANKY
acoustics ("Attic Lights") and kitschy electro-
beat hooks ("Washington School"). Although
these assorted musical soundscapes do not
fit under one easily regurgitated genre, the
album's lo-fi melodies flow well together and
ultimately allow the record to prevail as a
whole.
With his latest effort, Bradford Cox suc-
ceeds in challenging naysayers who deride the
artist's propensity for nonstop creative explo-
ration. Through his survey of static-driven
ambient rock, he has crafted a truly sublime
collection of diverse songs that meld into each
other and manage to sound fully integrated.
Cox has proven himself as a musical innova-
tor, and this fact shines through his solo work.
On Logos, he expands upon his own expressive
abilities and succeeds in producingyet another
luscious, multifaceted album.

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ARTS IN BRIEF

Film Review
'Saw VI' can't cut the
mustard
"Saw VI"
At Showcase and Quality 16
Lionsgate
The "Saw" series is in trouble. When the-
franchise decides to substitute what it does best
- splashing unreasonable amounts of blood,
gore and mayhem at audiences - with scenes
of political criticism, you know something has
gone terribly wrong.
The newly released sixth installment of the
series shifts away from the quasi-comfort zone
of graphic violence, focusing instead on boring,
politically charged rants about health insur-
ance companies. These unstructured inter-
jections feel forced and overly didactic. While
noble in theory, addressing weighty issues in a

I