6A - Wednesday, January 11, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
'Young Adult' reveals
growing up isn't fun
"The department's policy on Batman isnto arrest him on sight."
tailored success
'Tinker Tailor'
unsettles with Cold
War vibes
By EMILY BOUDREAU
Daily Arts Writer
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,"
despite being a movie about
spies, doesn't
rely on loud **g ;
explosions or
buckets of fake Tinker Tailor
blood. InsteadS
the film is built Soldier Spy
on intense bits At Quality16,
of dialogue Rave and the
and stealthy Michigan
exchanges
between actors Focus Features
and the camera
to create an atmosphere of sus-
pense and fear.
Set during the Cold War peri-
od, the movie revolves around
George Smiley (Gary Oldman,
"Red Riding Hood"), dragged
out of retirement to hunt down
a mole hiding in the top tiers
of British intelligence. Smiley
weaves himself into the web of
secrets and lies, entering a world
in which everyone wears two
faces.
The story is complicated and
full of twists. The general flow
of the narrative also relies on
camera shots of small details like
the arrangements of chess pieces
or picking out a face in a photo-
graph. It's a story that requires a
lot of patience and attention.
Nevertheless, the movie is
beautifully crafted and evokes its
chosen era seamlessly. The Cold
War was a period of fear and
uncertainty, of internal struggle
and mistrust of basic instincts.
Instead of relying on tropes like
old news footage to emphasize
the atmosphere or provide a
sense of historical background,
director Tomas Alfredson ("Let
the Right One In") merges the
plot with its Soviet-era context.
The costumes, the setting and
even the characters emit a tense,
frozen sensibility.
Oldman in particular man-
ages to encapsulate this complex
conflict within his character.
His eyes, magnified by his large
glasses, convey exactly how
sharply his mind works. How-
ever, the intelligence with which
he approaches his job is under-
mined by his drab appearance
- a reminder that the best spies
are not necessarily the ones with
the flashy gadgets and fancy cars
but rather the ones most easily
forgotten.
In some respects, Smiley's
anonymity and the faceless
enemy whose steps he traces
provoke a striking and more dis-
turbing form of violence than
the traditional shoot-out scenes
in spy movies. When some-
one is killed, there's no fight
or struggle. Importantly, this
means there is no clear distinc-
tion between good and evil, no
identifiable villain. Each side is
just as bad as the other, leaving
behind their own share of car-
nage.
Though violent and in some
respects disturbing, "Tinker
Tailor Soldier Spy" is, at least
cinematographically, a beautiful
movie. A scene with a reflection
in a black-marble desktop stands
out, hinting at duality and the
falseness of perception. And yet
the beautiful, stilled appear-
ances serve as reminders that
the world is unstable, that just
because something is seen does
not make it true.
Above all, the film builds up a
fear of the unknown, or rather,
causes that kind of innate fear to
surface in the film's characters
and in the audience. The story
is told masterfully but is full of
small details. "Tinker Tailor Sol-
dier Spy" is not meant to enter-
tain, but to unsettle.
By EMILY BOUDREAU
Daily Arts Writer
Some people never grow up.
Yet "Young Adult" demonstrates
that being young at heart is
not always a
healthy way
to retain the
charm of one's Young Adult
earlier days.
Mavis (Char- At Quality
lize Theron, 16, Rave and
"The Road") is the State
a recent divor-
cee who lives Paramount
in Minneapolis
(or the "Mini-Apple" as it's affec-
tionately called). She's work-
ing on the last installment of a
"Gossip Girl"-esque series and
decides to return to her home-
town, a place she claims to have
escaped. She tries to rekindle
her relationship with her high
school boyfriend Buddy (Patrick
Wilson, "The League"), who has
since married and recently had
a baby girl. While there, Mavis,
a former mean girl, strikes up
a friendship with Matt (Pat-
ton Oswalt, "A Very Harold and
Kumar 3D Christmas"), a former
nerd. Through this new friend-
ship and by returning to her
hometown, Mavis begins to face
her own issues.
Theron fits perfectly into her
role. Mavis is dazed and lives
in her own world, a teenage
fantasy in which she is still the
prom queen. However, Theron
doesn't just allow the character
to remain a typical mean girl.
Theron's Mavis is conscious of
her world falling apart, and that
her fantasy and denial of the real
world is merely a way for her to
survive.
Yet Mavis's vulnerabil-
ity doesn't take away from her
being, first and foremost, an
unlikeable character. As painful
as it is to watch her crumble, to
watch her enter into one embar-
rassing social situation after
another, it's impossible to for-
"The Road" of young adulthood ends in ... this.
get th
lives
rottei
as a
sey S
show
the K
trash
collar
feren
TV.
a
he filthiness of her life. She these moments is probably just
her life in the same kind of a way of relieving tension. In
n, culturally bankrupt state this sense, the movie does push
character from "The Jer- boundaries.
hore." Surrounded by TV The film, written by Diablo
s like "Keeping Up With Cody ("Juno"), doesn't have the
ardashians" and her own same warmth as "Juno." Instead,
y book plots, Mavis's own it replaces the snappy dialogue
pse is in some ways no dif- with a new tone, full of a kind
t from those seen on reality of Midwestern bleakness. This
bleakness is complemented per-
fectly by the soundtrack, which
is full of angry '90s music, the
Juno is all songs of Mavis's past. In the
opening scene, she listens to the
grown up same song over and over again,
believing it holds some special
nd very, very meaning and symbolizes the
connection she thinks exists
regretful. between herself and Buddy.
The movie's soundtrack acts
as a contrast between the past
and the present. The songs reek
oung Adult" does not pro- of teen angst, of the things Mavis
the same kind of comic should letgo ofbutcannot. Mavis
that reality television does. still carries the pangs of young
in incredibly dark movie, adulthood with her, and her anx-
he funny moments usually ieties serve as a reminder that
t from miscommunications growing up is a painful process
ringe-inducing situations. and one that is never fully com-
laughter that comes from plete.
"Y
vide
relief
It's a
and t
resul
or c
Any
DARREN CRISS WATCH: Read about the 'U' alum and "Glee" star's
performance in "How to Succeed in Business" on Broadway.
RELEASE DATE- Friday, January 13, 2012
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