0 8A - Monday, February 8, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com The heart of the Oscars . "And then the talent agent says, 'Nicolas Cage is a really good actor.' " Cage goes cra y 'Bad Lieutenant' remake reiterates Herzog's talent for dark humor By ANDREW LAPIN Senior Arts Editor There's something admirable in the way Nicolas Cage just goes balls-to-the- wall insane in every single one ofhis roles today (his vocal work in "Astro * Boy" possibly being the lone excep- Bad Lieutenant tion). Cage hasn't let critical derision Port of Call or audience apa- New Orleans thy affect his act- ing decisions, even At the Michigan though those deci- First Look sions led hinn to star in "Knowing." Clearly, the inimitable Werner Herzog, director of such man-on-the-brink films as "Fitzcarraldo" and "Grizzly Man," saw something he admired in Cage's ability to bring the crazy to mainstream cinema.. And this must have been what led him to cast Cage in his in-name-only remake of Abel Ferrara's 1992 anti-establishment cop movie "Bad Lieutenant." Ilere's a nifty sleight-of-hand this filn pulls before our very eyes: With its sweeping shots of a ravaged, post-Katrina New Orleans and a seemingly hard-boiled murder mystery, this new "Bad Lieuten- ant" walks and talks like a mainstream police drama. But by the time Cage's Ter- ence McDonagh is hallucinating igua- nas and cutting off an old lady's oxygen supply, you'll know the film is anything but mainstream. This stuff makes "The Departed" look like "Kindergarten Cop." Herzog and screenwriter William Fin- kelstein (TV's "NYPD Blue") are careful to include only as much plot as is neces- sary to keep adding fuel to Cage's luna- cy. The opening scene finds McDonagh uncharacteristically risking his life to save a drowning victim. He spends the rest of the film paying for this random act of kindness with insufferable back pain that gives him an addiction to Vico- din. After his promotion to lieutenant, McDonagh takes on an investigation into the murders of five Senegalese refugees and secures drugs from perps on the side to both pay off his gambling debts and share with his prostitute girlfriend (Eva Mendes, "The Spirit"). This isn't one of those movies in which we're helplessly watching a straight-and- narrow guy spin his life out of control as he succumbs to the evils of addiction. Herzog is too dismissive of human nature to make a film about a downward spiral; to him, everyone is already at the bottom,, spiraling in place. Neither he nor Cage is interested in creating a drug addict the audience will feel sorry for. So we see McDonagh ingest the highest-grade cocaine, let off crack-possessing girls on the street in exchange for sexual favors and light up a blunt in front of a prime suspect (but not without offering him a hit, of course). There's nothing redeeming in McDonagh except the unrestrained glee he takes from getting away with it all. And we're laughing right along with him. Here, at last, is a worthy successor to "Scarface," and when McDonagh com- mands a stooge to keep riddling a dead drug lord with bullets because "his soul still dances," it's an instantly iconic scene that begs to be quoted a la "Say hello to my little friend!" But for such a dark comedy of excess, it's surprising that the film ends with something approaching restraint. The closing shots are more optimistic about the futures of McDonagh and the sins of humanity than a film directed by Herzog has any right to be. Is this - pardon the pun - a cop-out? A result of pressure from the studio? An admission by Her- zog that he can't even maintain inter- est long enough to properly finish his vision? Whatever it is, the ending pulls off another muddling sleight-of-hand on the viewer. One thing's for sure: Now that Cage has restored some of his reputation by getting a better director to film his bug- eyed antics, he's free to keep up his reign of insanity through another batch of bad movies. That is, once he's settled all of his recent lawsuits. Hey Cage, a birdie says there's money in New Orleans real estate. I'11 admit that I was one of those people annoyed to see "The Blind Side" among the Best Picture con- tenders when the Oscar nominations were announced last week. And I'll also admit I had many other issues with this year's Oscars, from Sandra Bullock's inclu- sion to the Academy's decision to expand the supposedly most pres- tigious categoryto ten ANDREW movies. There's an audio LApIN recording of my col- leagues and I on The Michigan Daily's web- site that can attest to these feelings. But since that recording I've been ask- ing myself: Why all the snark and con- tempt? Maybe I just geta guilt complex when I rant about my favorite pastime. I was furious that "The Reader" robbed "The Dark Knight" of its spot last year. But looking back on that a year later, it seems ridiculous to get so worked up over the "lack of love" for a movie that grossed over $500 million in the United States alone. I have a feeling we'll be doing some similar soul-searching around this time next year, and I hope we realize that our love for the movies shouldn't be dependent on whether a bunch of old fogies in Los Angeles share our opinions. I'll let you guys in on a little secret: I liked "Crash." And "Juno." And "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." I don't think the Acad- emy was wrong to nominate any of them, despite the backlash they all faced sooner or later. At one point or another, maybe you felt that way too. The movies themselves haven't changed since they were first released with zero awards to their name. For the most part, our perceptions of these movies only change once the studios in charge of them (read: not the filmmakers themselves) decide to spend lots of money and go all Max Bialystock on little-old-lady Acad- emy voters. And just as these voters can be swept onto a film's bandwagon with a couple of well-timed cocktail parties, so too can us filmgoers be swept away by an anti-Oscar mindset. We like to sit around and talk about how irrelevant the Oscars have become, as though we'd know exactly how to make them relevant if the Academy would only give us complete free reign of the awards process. We don't know. If you think you know, you're wrong: You know only how to make the Oscars relevant to you. The Oscars are now just as relevant as they've always been; they mean something to those who enjoyed the nominated films, just like every year. They're a nice little capper to the annual film cycle. Sometimes the people you like get to take home little gold men. Sometimes they don't. Then the cycle begins anew. But if Oscar didn't mean anything, these debates wouldn't even happen anymore. The fact that we still get worked up over the inclusion of movies like "The Blind Side" automatically proves the validity of the ceremony, as opposed to, say, the collective shrug of the public when "The Hangover" won Best Comedy at the Golden Globes. Am I sucking all the fun out of the tried- and-true art form known as bitching and moaning (of which I am a master)? Look, if you want to walk up to people looking forward to the Oscars and tell them they're wrong, that the ceremony's credibility has gone completely out the window and that the only way the Oscars can redeem them- selves is by bludgeoning Sandra Bullock to death on live TV, go ahead. But I think it would be better for all of usinvolved, film fanatics and casual audiences alike, to sim- ply treat the ceremony as great entertain- ment and nothing more. We'll all be alot happier that way. Ten Best Picture nominations may not be so bad after all. "Great entertainment" isn't the same thing as saying the Oscars are meaning- less. The AFI Awards are meaningless. The Oscars are the glue that holds the art of filmmakingtogether, which isn't as bold of a claim as you might think. Studios bankroll the production of quality movies like "Up in the Air" in the hopes of win- ning Oscars, and when you take away that prize potential, you're left with lowest- common-denominator panderers instead of legitimate works of art. Again, movies can exist as thought-provoking produc- tions outside of the realm of the Oscars, and the ceremony itself can exist as a night of glittery indulgence without the films themselves. But you need both elements to keep the film industry alive. So let's all put aside our differences and take the pre-Oscars opportunity to actu- ally do what this ceremony was designed to have us do: see some movies. Because at the very least America has now been given 1 new movie recommendations instead of just five, and if you want to follow Hollywood enough to debate awards, you owe it to yourself to see as many of those as you can. Lapin wants to be relevant to you. To let him know your likes and dislikes, e-mail him at alapin@umich.edu. 0 0 0 0 A Chorus will sing you to sleep 0' Tresspassers will be shot on site, 256 times! MAG From Page 5A In this aspect, the managing of objectives and the teamwork those objectives require, "MAG" is almost brilliant When you have a disciplined, organized squad with a competent squad leader direct- ing players toward challenging but achievable goals, "MAG" is a blast. There's nothing else out there quite like it; the teamwork necessary to get anything done in the more advanced scenarios cre- ates an atmosphere of camaraderie rarely seen in video games. Sure, there are plenty of two to four player co-op games out there, but to feel like you're working in sync with more than 100 other players is really, really cool. The defeats are more bitter, and the victories much, much sweeter, accented by the hoots and hollers of your fel- low soldiers. Unfortunately, matches that actually demonstrate that kind of teamwork and organization are painfully rare. Far more common are 100 to 200 lone wolves, killing the first thing they see and getting killed immediately afterward. And having to re-spawn back into the game after death is no picnic; there can be up to a 30-second delay and there's a good chance the player will start on the far reaches of the map, sometimes a full minute or more away from any action. That may not seem like a lot, but try spending 12 minutes of a 30-minute game waiting to actually play the game. It's no fun. And that's not the biggest prob- lem. This first-person shooter's flaw is that the first-person shoot- ing just isn't that fun. The controls are clumsy, the aiming feels awk- ward and the weapons are dull. The character customization tries to address some of these problems with perks for leveling up, but even after hours and hours of gameplay the issues aren't resolved. You can't help but wonder if bothering with "MAG" is worth it when there are other titles out there doing the same thing, but better. That being said, if the idea of teamwork on such a massive scale intrigues you, give "MAG" a try. But if you're going into this title expecting "Modern Warfare 2" multiplied by 20, you're setting yourself up for one hell of a disap- pointment. By BRIAN FLAHERTY DailyArts Writer Ever since The Album Leaf toured with Icelandic icons Sigur Ros, the band has established itself* as perhaps the closest American The Album equivalent to its expressive, oth- Leaf erworldly coun- A Chorusof terpart across the Storytellers pond. The Album Sto Leaf's fifth and SubPap latest record, A Chorus ofStorytellers, is a strange and sublime set of instrumental compositions. For the last decade, The Album Leaf has been a collaborative project of its driving force and chief instrumentalist, Jimmy LaValle. He came loaded for bear with A Chorus, the group's first album with a full band, recorded near Seattle with veteran musi- cian Ryan Hadlock (Blonde Red- head, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks) and mixed in Iceland with producer Birgir Jon Birgisson (Sigur Ros). After many months of editing, A Chorus places itself squarely in the tricky sphere of instrumental indie - the realm where a band relies on the strength of its shim- mering keyboard melodies, spac- ey drum lines and atmospheric harmonics to engage listeners. Spare lyrics occasionally grace a few of the album's tracks, but vocals aren't the defining sounds on the album. The new record comes across soothing, somnolent and bright. Harmonious piano arrangements and sweeping strings make for a hypnotic, dream-like experience that, for the most part, doesn't disappoint. Just be sure not to listen to it while studying at 2 a.m., because it's sure to cocoon a fatigued listener into sleep. LaValle delivers consistently throughout the album but gener- ally doesn't step outside his com- fort zone,.yielding little in the way of clear standouts. After the first few songs, it's pretty easy to guess the formula for the album's songs: start with a repeating piano or drum line, fold some subtle and intricate melodies over it and build up to a conclusion with a pleasant solo at a higher tempo. Like those cookies grand- mas bake for holidays, the record always tastes good but isn't espe- cially shocking or fresh. The main stumbling block for the album is that the airy tracks occasionally drone on. "Fall- ing from the Sun," for instance, repeats virtually identical melo- dies and vocals in numbing cir- cles. Redundancy within songs isn't necessarily noticeable in most of the album's tracks, but can get quite irritating when it does appear. A Chorus sounds an awful lot like The Album Leaf's last two records, which isn't bad news because Album Leaf has shown it can routinely produce strong instrumental albums. There are differences between A Chorus Album Leaf creates another satisfying yet safe album. and previous albums - the new album is altogether sleepier and less tense - but LaValle sticks to the musical forms he knows and, for the most part, does well. Fans may cross their fingers for albums that are edgier and take risks, but LaValle's formula still works. 0 'And I shall name this island, Blurryland!'