4D - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 The Michigan Daily -- michigandaily.com 'Hunger Games'triumphs Film adaptation.- of popular novel beats the odds The writers/directors of "Reunion" also helmed the "Harold and Kumar" films. American Pie' cast and crew talk'Reunion' By ADITI MISHRA Daily Arts Writer MARCH 26, 2012 - Now hold on just a second, Can it be pos- sible? Can a film based on a best- selling young adult saga, with a fan base fright- eningly similar to that of the "Twilight" series (a moment's The Hunger pause to shud- Games der at the mem- ory...), hit all the At Quality16 right notes? Yes, and Rave yes it can! "The Lionsgate Hunger Games," with- its flawless cast, perfectly paced action and dramatic intensity, is everything we've been waiting for and more. Breathe easy, Suzanne Collins - perhaps Hollywood's finally learning how not to mess up a beloved piece of fiction. Though, the movie's victory has to be due in part to Collins's contribution to the screenplay. Director Gary Ross's ("Seabis- cuit") decision to hire Collins, writer of -the original trilogy, yields a film that's true to its lit- erary counterpart even after cer- tain scenes from the book are cut and altered. If anything, it ensures that the books' multi- tude of fans get what they pay for - a movie that's loyal to the 10 13 years after first film, humor and shenanigans return By KAVI SHEKHAR PANDEY Daily Arts Writer APRIL 6, 2012 - "Hey, do you want to have sex with us right now?" Jason Biggsasked. "I know we just met, brother, but there's a fuckinglock on that door, right?" Since it would be a blatant breach of journalistic ethics, this writer for The Michigan Daily respectfully declined, politely, pointing out that the windows in the group-study rooms at Ross are in fact, two-way, before pro- ceeding with an interview with the cast and crew of "American Reunion": writers/directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg ("Harold and Kumar" films), star Eddie Kaye Thomas (Finch), and the apple pie paramour himself, Jason Biggs (Jim). It's been a long 13 years since the first "American Pie" launched a new generation of teen-sex com- edies and nine years since the last non-direct-to-video sequel, "American Wedding." But the original cast wasn't always keen about reuniting for yet another installment. "No one thought after ("Ameri- can Wedding") that there was going to be one, and the idea, on the surface, wasn't that appeal- ing," Thomas said. "(Hurwitz and Schlossberg) wrote a qual- ity script, and I know that's what got everybody on board. It's hard to find good movies, period, to make. Whether it was.'American Pie 4' or a whole other film, it's just a good, funny script, which got everybody to say 'Alright, I'll do it.'" Because of storytelling and scheduling issues, members of- the core cast were dropped for 2003's "American Wedding," including Chris Klein (Oz), Tara Reid (Vicky) and Mena Suvari 0 (Heather). But Hurwitz and Schlossberg were insistent that they and everyone else were game before "Reunion" moved forward - this meant every- one, including Jim's foreign exchange crush Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), the MILF Guys and The Sherminator. "You wanted to bring back all the favorites from that first film," Schlossberg said. "The hope was that once you started getting some of the cast, the rest of the cast would jump on board." Hurwitz added: "If these guys hadn't signed on board, Tara Reid would have played every character. It would have been Eddie Murphy style." As newcomers to the "Ameri- can Pie" franchise, Hurwitz and Schlossberg were brought on for their dual-threat capability - not only did the duo create, write and direct the entirety of the leg- endarily raunchy "Harold and Kumar" trilogy, they are devo- tees of the "American Pie" films. "These guys know these mov- ies better than any other human being walking on the planet - to a scary degree," Thomas said. Biggs related an anecdote from their flight to Detroit that explicated the breadth of the pair's fandom. "I looked over,' (Schlossberg) puts his earphones into his iPhone," Biggs recounted. "I'm like 'What're you watching?'" because I'm nosy as shit. And it's 'American Pie 1.' He was like 'I just wanted to double check the Uncle Mort reference in 'Ameri- can Pie 1' and see what scene it was in."' " "When you're doing a sequel, you want to make sure." Schlossberg began. ."Yeah, especially six, seven, eight months later, after the movie's already been locked into the can, you want to be able to reference it on the flight," Biggs interrupted. "I was sitting next to Jason Biges, I wanted to imoress him." Schlossberg said. But when it came to writing the story, the duo knew they had to inject fresh material among the recurring jokes' and call- backs to the previous films. "When we were first approached with the idea of doing the movie, Jon and I started thinking about differ- ent ideas, and the first idea that came into our heads was that Jim's mom is dead," Schlossberg said. "You sick fucks. You sick, sick, fucks," Biggs exclaimed. "The truth of the matter is, when you have'someone like Eugene Levy (Jim's Dad) and you see that he's been put in the position where he's been doing the same thing every movie," Hurwitz said. "We were looking to give Eugene (more to do)." "It's kind of a genius idea - to introduce death into the 'Ameri- can Pie' franchise is conceptu- ally ridiculous," Biggs said. "But it's so smart and so good, it's one' of my favorite things about the movie because, first of all it adds some poignancy, which there is a lot of in this movie, despite what you maay have gathered from the present company." Though pathos is pumped up, so are the sex-crazed she- nanigans that would make even Tracy Morgan blush. While Jim romancing a pie was boundary- pushing in 1999, Jim running around in a gimp suit for an extended sequence is one of the tamer scenes in 2012. "When we were on set, you shoot those long days and like, on hour 15, I'd have a long con- versdtion with Biggs," Thomas narrated. "I'm like 'Yeah, I think the country is headed in the right direction, how do you feel about Obama' and he's got leather studs on his cock." Now with kids and careers, the hormonal teens from "Amer- ican Pie" have certainly evolved and matured - thankfully, the humor hasn't one bit. Tributessss ... make it work. material it's inspired by. To most, the story is familiar. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Law- rence, "Winter's Bone") lives with her mother and younger sister Prim (newcomer Willow Shields) in an exhausted part of District 12 called the Seam. As happens annually, all children between the ages of 12 and 18 from the 12 districts have to sub- mit their names for the Hunger Games - a competition in which 24 children battle to the death, used by the Capitol to maintain totalitarian control. When her 12-year-old sister is picked to compete, Katniss volunteers in Prim's place. When it comes to the Capitol, Ross lets his imagination fly. It's precisely as over-the-top, color- ful and extravagant as readers undoubtedly expected. But just as Katniss and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta (Josh Hutcherson, "The Kids Are All Right") are pawns inthe Capitol'sgames, the Capitol is a pawn in Ross's game. It's a means for him to break the emotional intensity of the games themselves, to occasionally hide the fact that under the love tri- angle most teenagers in the audi- ence have come to see, this film is actually about survival, death, desperation and unrestrained See GAMES, Page 9D Florence + the Machine get soulful on Ceremonials' spi dej OC after albunr far fri For Cerem Mach again winni The many which it has world Flo simpl rock tracks With instea rating grand spirit ment not re largel name New album is damnation, but also revelation and heaven. The album is practi- iritual, yet not a cally a danceable sermon. "What the Water Gave Me," parture for band the first single released, is a sin- ister track with themes of death By KATIE STEEN - more specifically the suicide of Daily Arts Writer Virginia Woolf. It starts off low- key, a metallic drumbeat with a T. 30, 2011 - Two years melancholy guitar phrase moan- the release of her debut ing in the background, which nLungs, Florence Welch is continues throughout the song. om winded. Florence's voice is gothic and r the band's second album, intimidating, ebbing and flow- nonials, Florence + the ing in a fluid reference to the ine have joined forces once song title. She wonders in a deep with fellow Brit and award- breathy whisper, "Would you ing producer Paul Epworth. have it any other way?" A min- album sounds similar in ute later the song is flooded with ways to the group's first, deluge of instrumentation while is to say vocals surge down octaves in a an other- **** torrential outburst. ly beauty. But the mournful overtones of forwent Florence "What the Water Gave Me" are er garage- + The incongruous. in comparison to inspired "Shake It Out." While Florence s like "Kiss Machine contemplates suicide in the for- a Fist," mer track, in 4'Shake It Out" she. cd elabo- nial proceeds to advise everyone to on the Universal Republic simply shake out their demons. A lose and youthful chorus adds in a "who- ual ele- o-oa," perhaps articulating its s found in Lungs. While surprise at the sudden shift eligious, Florence discusses toward optimism. The song, like y non-secular topics - to the majority of the album, has a a few, demons, devils and rich, weighty quality to it. '0 The lyrics of "Shake It Out" are poetic as always but still relatable, much like the pop- inspired sound of the single. While Lungs was written as a girl-power response to a break- up, Ceremonials is an affirma- tion of Florence's strength and independence even with a man in her life (yeah, she got back with her ex). It's easy to get carried away in the inflated nature of Ceremoni- als. Florence's most memorable tracks of the album, however, are the ones that stray furthest from lavishness. In "Breaking Down," she exposes her vulnerability, an eerily cheery piano accompany- ing lyrics centering on madness. In "Lover to Lover," Florence muses on a loose lifestyle, admit- ting she has no chance of salva- tion. But she repeatedly shrieks, "that's all right" - beautifully, of course, because Florence is never capable of uttering an inharmon- ic note. Florence even dabbles in unabashed discordance in "Remain Nameless," atrackcom- manded by an electronic beat and unrelenting coolness. It starts slowly, a sense of unpredictabil- ity underneath its superficial tameness, but comes together in the end with Florence's emphatic request -for her darling to call her whenever he needs her. The track is clubbier than Flo fans are used to, but it shouldn't be disre- garded as mere experimentation with the electronic genre. With that in mind, consider that the band almost went pop for its sophomore album, propo- sitioned by various U.S. produc- ers. But Florence explained her ultimate decision to reject the enticement of pop in a Billboard interview: "No. No. No. No. No! I can't do that. This is too weird. I can't just suddenly leave behind everything that made Lungs." And for that, Florence fans may thank heaven or salvation or demons or any ofthe other inspi- rations for Ceremonials.