The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cSm

Tuesday, September 25, 2012 -- 5

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, September 25, 2012 - 5

Appreciating the
lasting beauty of
Drive-in theaters

Romantic 'Mindy'

Number 312 on my
bucket list, scribbled
between "Eat a maca-
roon" and "Build an igloo in
which I can
actually fit"
was my sin-
gle summer
goal. More
than taking
last-minute
trips to
Cedar Point, BRIANNE
more than JONHSON
achieving
the tan of a
Brazilian beach goddess (Insert
image of self basking in the
glow of a computer screen; Cue
hair tangling in the breeze of an
electric fan), I wanted to indulge
in my summer lovin' dreams.
I wanted to gaze at the stars
(Ryan Gosling, preferably) while
lying under them (also Gosling,
but the night sky will suffice).
Number 312: Watch a movie
at the Drive-in Theater.
It's the cliche date of cli-
che dates - a movie, a hand
to squeeze as you feign fear at
a "Paranormal Activity" pre-
miere, a car and the great, pol-
luted outdoors. It's a recipe for
romance ... or mosquito bites.
As young offenders everywhere
downloaded shoddy clips of
"The Avengers" to their laptops,
nothing seemed more exciting,
or more American, than a night
at the Drive-in. But, of course,
nothing is as it seems.
Expectation: It's 1956 and my
cardigan is adorned with poodle
appliqu6s, varsity letters and
Dwight D. Eisenhower's face ("I
still like "Ike!"). My T-Bird boy-
friend has just offered me his
leather jacket because the night
is nippy, what with our convert-
ible Ford Sunliner and lack of
regard for parental warnings
to "Wear something heavier;
you're going to catch a cold!"
But we don't care because we're
at The Drive-in.
Reality: " 'ParaNorman' or
'Step Up 3?' " my mother asks,
one hand clawing the passen-
ger-side headrest as she cranes
her neck to eye my two cous-

ins. An
across
Expedi
snout.
in poo
ture Pc
in a r
chewe
Norma
Expe
ers, m
even n
have a
tage cc
the gi
lean fo
of Ma
They c
curdlin
caught
snatch
a black
ster. Jo
ly elbo
and I,
in a t
"Hopei
that w
knees.
Fo]
and
Real
dies w
furrow
line, a
that Ft
proppe
in orde
movie
leather
Chann
once n
selves
dle-age
needs i
But
refuses
dition's
before,
stitute
armpit
who ne
Expe
ers ov
the au

empty soda bottle rolls flickers over the faces of couples
the floor of our Ford cuddled in backseats, families
ition, ushered by my dog's camped around their cars in
There are no poodles lawn chairs and pajamas, and
dle skirts, just a minia- .that one dude who finds no fault
omeranian named Moses in a solo cinematic experience.
ed bandana, one corner (We cast him strange looks. If
d. He yips. I moan. "Para- only we were so brave!)
n," it is. This is no longer a mere pub-
ectation: Ford Sunlin- lic venue, nor a congregation of
ore Ford Sunliners and consumers isolated in aisles and
more Ford Sunliners (I edging over polyester seats and
vast knowledge of vin- sticky floors. No one makes a
ars) huddle close before Dane Cook reference.
ant screen. Eager teens The air is tinged with far-off
rward, craving a glimpse campfire smoke and mosquito
rilyn Monroe's wiggle. repellant, that standard sum-
heer for the milkshake- mer scent, and a child buried in
sg screams of a mistress his father's half-zip wags a fin-
in the grips of a body ger toward the Big Dipper. No
er, or in the slimy fists of one fusses with their 3-D glass-
-and-white swamp mon- es. No one claps along to off-
hn Travolta has prompt- beats of the MJR theme song.
wed me in my brassiere, No one shuns my neighbor as he
excuse myself to indulge slithers a box of milk duds from
teary-eyed rendition of his sleeve. No one shushes me
lessly Devoted to You" for whispering, again and again,
ould bring Rizzo to her "Oh, Paul,Rudd! Oh, that looks
good! I want to see that!" No
one can deny that this is the real
charm of the drive-in theater.
d Reality: Refer to above.
rd Sunliners Once the film had ended and
[milkshakes we'd climbed back into our
S seatsfor the quiet drive home,
I turned to my cousin. "What
do you think it is about drive-in
ity: Cousin No. One fid- movies," I asked him, "that peo-
ith the radio, his brow ple seem to like so much?"
ed deep into his hair- "I guess it feels more per-
s each station spits out sonal," he said with a shrug, "It's
un. song (again!). We've like you get to take a bit of home,
d the back window open and that comfort, with you to the
r to watch our now-silent movies. And it's just different,
in a tent of blankets, y'know? Like a holiday tradition
r interior and crumbs. that you appreciate more because
el 89.7 eludes my cousin you only get to do it once a year."
sore, so we content our- Maybe my night at the Drive-
with the banter of mid- in hadn't lived up to my sock-
ed DJs. Dialogue - who hop-heavy imagination. But it's
t? an experience that offers movie-
the car's interior light goers a different breed of escap-
to darken, and the Expe- ism - an escape into the past and
battery will surely die into the wild (or a parkinglot, but
Cousin No. Two can sub- who's judging?).
ParaNorman's lines with "That," my cousin said, "and
farts. Jumper cables - you get to wear pajamas."

Kaling's new
sitcom relates to
everyday women
ByPROMA KHOSLA
Daily Arts Writer
In a 2011 article for The New
Yorker that would end up in her
book "Is Everyone Hanging Out
Without Me?",
Mindy Kaling *
wrote, "Saying
you like roman- The Mindy
tic comedies
is essentially PrB
an admission Tuesdays at
of mild stupid- 9:30 p.m.
ity. But that has
not stopped me FOX
from enjoying
them." Less than a year before
its premiere, Kaling essential-
ly spells out the thesis of "The
Mindy Project," her terrific new
Fox sitcom. Though Kaling and
the eponymous heroine of her
television production debut are
hopeless romantics, they are still
pragmatic young women who just
happen to hope for the best.
Mindy Lahiri (Kaling) is a
skilled OB/GYN in New York
City with an insatiable appetite
for romantic comedies but the
restless feeling that, at age thir-
ty-one, she may not find her own.
She's had the phantasmagoric,
encounter with a good-looking
man in a stuck elevator, but it
didn't work out. She happens to
be hooking up with a handsome
British coworker, but it's not love
and, it never will be. She even
gets to date a textbook-perfect
friend-of-a-friend, but manages
to nip that one in the bud with
a delicate combination of career
crisis and crazy.
Lastbut far from least on Min-
dy's laundry list of inadeqate
men is Danny Castellano (Chris
Messina, "Celeste & Jesse For-
ever"), the sardonic male foible
to all Mindy's romantic aspira-
tions. Messina's performance is a
triumph; unabashedly macho but
never condescending. He man-
ages to be Mindy's confidante,'
colleague, friend and enemy,
inhabiting each role without
diminishing the others. It is he
who tells her to "look hot, keep
it simple" on her date (advice she
begrudgingly takes to heart), and
he who has no qualms about tell-

a just want you to love me '
ing her to lose weight in an effort
to fight dirty and win an argu-
ment with an irksome peer.
Inonescene, DannyasksMindy
if her date was "a man" - the type
of guy who would investigate the
sound of a burglar in the night, or.
wipe her forehead when she's in
labor instead of being repulsed.
It's an overt explanation of Dan-
ny's expectation of masculinity,
but without belittling feminin-
ity. He has nothing to say about
sports and skills, but speaks to
the subtler agents of masculinity
to which real, live men can relate.
In the kind of conventional
rum-com both Mindys would
eat up, Danny is the perfect
opposition to a lead female: the
surly, reluctant but inevitable
love interest. But Kaling's fan-
tastic writing team deals with
even that relationship expertly.
Kaling and Messina's characters
interact with the wonderful ease
of two people who have known
each other well for years; the
chemistry is undeniable, yet the
prospect of romance is actually
uncertain.
Despite how handsome and
charming he is, there's some-
thing repellent about Jeremy
Reed (Ed Weeks, "Olivia Lee:
Dirty, Sexy, Funny"). He's the
George Wickham to Mindy's
Elizabeth Bennett - but vapid
and possessing zero character
depth. It's empowering to know
that Mindy is regularly getting it
from an attractive doctor with a
poetic soul, but it's immediately
clear (to her as well as the audi-

ence) that he represents every-
thing she dislikes about herself
and will only inhibit her person-
al growth.
The beauty of "The Mindy
Project" is that Kaling isn't act-
ing at all - she doesn't need to.
She is real: well-intentioned and
sarcastic and funny and success-
ful, but like so many women out
there, struggling to find someone
drawn to that particular cock-
tail. It's the kind of character she
would actually be unable to por-
tray if it didn't strike so close to
home, epitomized by a juxtapo-
sition of two scenes: In the first,
Mindy is in her office, whining
over a Slurpee to her friend about
the debacle that is her love life.
When her secretary comes in
and announces a-patient in labor,
Mindy switches gears without a
second to spare on self-pity. "Oh
hell yes," she says, and she jumps
up to race to the hospital.
There's no shortage in the
media of female archetypes,
characters who we as young
women are supposed to see and
want to be. Kaling's article cites
"The Klutz" and "The Ethereal
Weirdo" (see also: a certain other
Fox Tuesday sitcom) among oth-
ers, but Mindy Lahiri isn't any
of those. She is us - the every-
day viewers, not the women
we are told to aspire to, but the
women we are. In that respect,
"The Mindy Project" is not only
delightful, but also realistic, and
Kaling, already in the ranks of
modern comedy legends, has
lived up to and beyond the hype.

eds 'em?
ctation: The screen tow-
er the lot, illuminating
dience with its glow, and

Johnson wants to drive into
your theater. To make this happen,
e-mail briannen@umich.edu

T. ADVANtCEREEW
'Ben and Kate' find
humor in dysfunction

SAY MY NAME,
IF NO ONE IS AROUND YOU
SAY BABY I LOVE YOU
WE DON'T RUN NO GAME.
APPLY TO DAILY ARTS
To request an application,
e-mail arts@mich igandaily.com

By RADHIKA MENON
DailyArts Writer
r Sibling relationships have
been explored on television for
years. There were the support-
ive Gellars
on "Friends"; ***
the eccen-
tric Bluths Ben and
on "Arrested
Development";
and frenemy Tuesdays at
Barone broth- 8:30 p.M.
ers on "Every-
body Loves FOX
Raymond."
"Ben and Kate" follows similar
conventions adding to a strong
Tuesday night lineup on FOX.
Children of divorced parents,
Ben and Kate Fox grew up to be
entirely different people, though
always remaining best friends.
Ben (Nat Faxon, "Walk Hard:
The Dewey Cox Story") never
matured - the classic screw-
up. He blows in and out of town,
taking refuge in his younger sis-
ter Kate's (Dakota Johnson, "21
Jump Street") home.
Kate has only made one mis-
take in her life, and it proved to
be a blessing in disguise. She's
a single mother trying to make
ends meet, but living a stable life
as compared to her older brother.
Ben's intentions are always good,
but his dreamer mentality never
allows him to stick around for too
long.
The bond between Ben and

Kate is the driving force of the When Ben witnesses her boy-
show, sothankgodit'sagood one. friend's weak attempt, he saves
Faxon plays the role of nomadic Kate from rushing into a doomed
Ben easily, showcasing his vul- relationship.
nerability and simplicity through Perhaps the greatest interac-
endearing interactions with tion of the show occurs between
other cast members. Thankfully, Maddie, Ben and Ben's friend
Kate isn't as rigid as her character Tommy (Echo Kellum, "Hard
description maysuggest, showing Hats") as they devise a plan for
her goofy side just enough for us crashing Darcy's wedding. As
to believe that she's actually relat- Kate looks on through a secret
ed to Ben. nanny-cam stashed in a cookie
jar, the trio don night-vision gog-
gles and concoct a plan that has
rn1s show v no chance of working. Yet their
fun is palpable, molding a real
sibling bonding friendship that could exist out-
side of the walls of television.
The greatest boon of the show
is that it's actually funny. It
Ben barges into Kate's life seems simple, but jokes that work
this time because of a broken are the cornerstone to sitcoms;
heart. Taking Kate's five-year-old after all, to be considered com-
daughter Maddie (Maggie Eliza- edy, laughs mustbe involved. The
beth Jones, "We Bought A Zoo") main and the secondary char-
in tow, he sets out to spy on his ex- acters are both sympathetic and
girlfriend Darcy - or as he likes hilarious, allowing us to health-
to refer to her, "The Future Mrs. ily invest ourselves in their story-
Ben Fox." But when he finds out lines. Everyone's line delivery is
that she's engaged, he does the spot-on, moving along at a near-
most logical thing he can think perfect pace.
of: to crash the wedding. "Ben and Kate" has flown
Meanwhile, Kate navigates her mostly under the radar, and FOX
own relationshipwoes. Shehasn't has chosen to advertise mainly
dated anyone since Maddie's for "The Mindy Project." But
birth, and she's finally ready to where "The Mindy Project" relies
loosen up and get out there again. on a strong lead, "Ben and Kate"
But when Ben meets her new relies on a strong ensemble. So if
boyfriend, he senses something you're wondering what to check
fishy about him, and we all learn out during this fall premiere sea-
Ben Fox's man test: An excellent son, "Ben and Kate" is worth a
high-five is the secret to success. second glance.