.8A- Monday, February 14, 2011

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

8A - Monday, February 14, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

ALBUM REVIEW
Sick of 'la vida loca'

FILM REVIEW
An illustrious 'Illusionist'

'Sexo' proves album Musica + Alma + Sexo.
Even with all the time that
Ricky Martin's has passed since his career's
golden age, the artist's sound
irrelevance has changed surprisingly little:
Musica +Alma + Sexo is trapped
By CHLOE STACHOWIAK in the same predictable club
DailyArts Writer rhythms, tiresome melodies
and Spanish pickup lines as
Ricky Martin is America's his past work. It's like listen-
pesky younger brother. For ing to the pop charts 10 years
years we've screamed at him ago, a musical catastrophe we
to get out of thought we escaped with the
our rooms A downfall of*NSYNC.
and just leave "Mis" is one of these unsur-
us alone, sick M M n prisingly mainstream songs,
of still hear- eerily similar in style to the
ing songs like Musica+ radio megahits of the past.
"Shake Your Alma+Sexo With its heavy refrain and fast-
Bon-Bon" on paced beat, it's easy to be trans-
the radio and Columbia ported to the simpler times of
even sicker singing in front of a bedroom
of hearing them in the back- mirror with a hairbrush. The
ground of cheap commercials track is equipped with vigor
and movie soundtracks. Even and Martin's bold vocals, but
at his peak of popularity in the still leaves something to be
early 2000s, his was the kind of desired. Nothing sets it apart
music that sends shivers down from other Latin club songs or
any self-respecting listener's earlier American music, and it
spine - obnoxious melodies, lacks the charisma of "Livin'
over-the-top sexual innuendos La Vida Loca" and other over-
and shallowness have over- played Martin classics.
whelmed Martin's songs since The album continues its
his first U.S. album release in trend of mediocrity with tracks
1999. Despite our pleas to dis- like "Sera Sera" and "No Te
appear, he has been lingering Miento." Though they aren't
in our culture for over a decade. awful, the songs don't offer
From "MTV Diary" specials to anything the 2000s didn't give
Broadway performances, there us. Like most of the tracks on
has been no escape from the Musica + Alma + Sexo, they're
Puerto Rican pop star who lively but outdated, best
should have fizzled out in the reserved for crappy nightclubs
late '90s. and middle-aged women look-
As if his tabloid and daytime ingto stay young.
talk show appearances weren't Other songs, like "The Best
enough, Martin is attempt- Thing About Me Is You," rep-
ing to make yet another come- resent mainstream music at its
back with the release of the absolute worst. The album's

COURTEsY OF COLUM5IA
dance beats are replaced with
unbearable sappiness - com-
plete with sugary guitars, a
bubbly female vocalist and
terrible lyrics. Nausea is inevi-
table when listening to the
track, which is full of witless
phrases like, "The doctor says
something wrong with me /
The smile on my face has no
remedy." It's an overbearing
romance song that should have
died out with the boy band
craze, too simple and sweet to
provide listeners with real sub-
stance.
There is a time and a place
for early pop music - unfortu-
nately for Ricky Martin, that
time was over a decade ago.
Musica + Alma + Sexo hasn't
evolved with the rest of its
genre. Maybe Martin is nos-
talgic for the good old days
of "She Bangs" and "Nobody
Wants to Be Lonely," or maybe
he's too intimidated to com-
pete with superstars like Lady
Gaga and Ke$ha. Or maybe he's
just modeling his career after
the Hanson Brothers - how
many unsuccessful comebacks
have they made since the '90s,
again?

By ANDREW LAPIN
DailyArts Writer
"The Illusionist" is one of those
time-capsule films, with a style so
quaint and unassuming it seems
transplanted
in whole from
another era.
And it may The IliusioniSt
have arrived
at the wrong At the State
time for audi- Sony Pictures Classics
ences to prop-
erly enjoy it
- or at least American audiences,
for whom. any discussion of the
film needs to be prefaced with,
"Yes, it's a movie about a magi-
cian, but it's not the one starring
Edward Norton."
But the magic (for lack of a bet-
ter word) of this new "Illusionist"
- nominated for a Best Animated
Feature Oscar - is worth any
confusion it may cause. Which
is good, because its background
is about to get a lot more confus-
ing. Ready? It's based on a semi-
autobiographical script written
in 1956 by legendary French film-
maker Jaques Tati ("Playtime"),
now deceased - which would
certainly help explain the "from
another time period" thing. And
it was adapted into animation
by director Sylvain Chomet,
best known for "The Triplets
of Belleville," who modeled the
title character's demeanor and
appearance after Tati himself, or
more accurately after the version
of himself he often played in his
films (a bumbling, Chaplinesque
figure named Mr. Hulot).
It would certainly seem at first
glance like the decades of discon-
nect between script and screen

would prevent "The Illusion-
ist" from escaping its trappings
as a great mind's afterthought,
a past-its-expiration piece of
film-buff fluff. Many elements
of Tati's original vision were
altered in the finished prod-
uct, including the fundamen-
tal medium through which the
story is told. But the film some-
how transcends its curio status,
quite magnificently. Think of its
long road to production as the
extravagant setup to a really
great trick, the kind that makes
an audience cheer while asking,
"How did they do that?"
Turns out that Tati and Chom-
et were naturally made for each
other. Both share a penchant for
elegant, complex scene construc-
tion and surrealist slapstick. Both
view dialogue as an intrusion
on a film's aesthetic appeal. And
both use their films to satirize
the chaos of the modern world.
To this mix, Chomet adds one
element essential for viewers: He
gets us to care about the plights of
certifiably bizarre characters.
This is why we root for the
film's aging magician Tatischeff
as he bumbles through increas-
ingly smaller venues, performing
the same old parlor tricks and
carefully rolling up his same old
poster so he can take it to the next
gig. It's why we root for Alice,
a young maid who's astounded
by his talents and follows him
to Edinburgh, where she keeps,
insisting he buy her expensive
gifts (thinking he makes them
magically appear, when in fact
he blows through his paltry sav-
ings to please her). And it's why
we root for a background motley
crew of yesterday's entertain-

ers, including a down-on-his-
luck ventriloquist and a suicidal
clown.
Everyone here is dealing
in some way or another with
encroaching loneliness, the sense
that the world they once knew
has passed them by. Tatischeff
keeps indulging Alice's materi-
alistic urges because he desper-
ately needs someone around who
respects and admires him, no
matter what the cost. It's a sad
thought and a distinctly human
one - the idea that you'll wake up
one day with no one fulfilling that
need. Forget dying alone; living
alone is the hard part.
The magic
connoisseurs
who didn't get
into Hogwarts.
Chomet communicates this
longing with hilarious set pieces,
the best one involving a cigar-
chomping American and his
shiny car. Unsurprisingly for fans
of "Belleville," Chomet accom-
plishes some incredible things
with his animation, like sweeping
panoramas of the Scottish coun-
tryside. And he does it all while
still honoring Tati's legacy as an
old-world artist and performer,
giving him what his characters
can only dream about: one more
moment in the sun.
Yesterday's unrealized idea :
becomes " today's masterpiece.
What a trick.

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