Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - 5A

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com


EVENT PREVIEW
Author of 'Winter's
Bone is co ming
Woodrell and Estill rural Missouri as a backdrop on of "Winter's Bone" received the
which to weave his tales. Grand Jury Prize for a dramatic
to share respective Shaped by his experiences, film and the Waldo Salt Screen-
Woodrell's books wrestle with writing Award at the 2010 Sun-
works at Zell series tough themes of violence and dance Film Festival, and was
crime. While many authors write nominated for four Academy
By TYLER BAILEY crime dramas or violent thrill- Awards, including Best Picture.
and TEHREEM SAJJAD ers, Woodrell's work is impactful Over the past several years,
Daily Arts Writer and For the Daily because, between these outbursts, Woodrill's wife Katie Estill has
one can find moments of calmemo- worked as a teacher and journal-
Though his claim to fame is tion and a strong feeling of family. ist, while authoring an assort-
authoring the book adapted into "The idea of family or the ment of short stories, as well
the award-winning film "Win- search for family turns out to as two novels: "Evening Would
ter's Bone," be at the core of every book I've Find Me" and "Dahlia's Gone."
Daniel Woodrell Zell Visit- written," Woodrell said. "It may At Thursday's reading, Estill will
has much more . not be a blood family, it may be be showcasing "Dahlia's Gone"
to offer in terms ' Wrers some facsimile family that you and sharing her experiences from
of his writing Series: create among like-minded and writing the novel.
abilities. Ka Eill needy people, but almost all of "One of the things that I was
This Thurs- them seem to concern that." thinking about a lot while I was
day, Woodrell and Daniel His newest story, "The Maid's writing the book was how polar-
will be reading Woodrell Version," which Woodrell plans ized we have become as a nation
selected passag- on sharing with attendees on - politically and culturally - and
es from his most Thursday at Thursday, illustrates what he I was looking for characters that
recent work as 5:10 p.m. seems to bring to life so well - were very, very different, who
part of the Zell Helmut Stern a sense of family love set amidst had extremely different ideas
Visiting Writ- Auditorium a disaster or difficult situation. about human politics and were
er's Series. His This might be his most personal brought into contact because of
wife and fellow Free tale, based off a true disaster and this incident," Estill said.
author Katie what ensued. This story makes Estill finds orally reciting her
Estill will join him, reading from his already personal and emo- work an "enriching experience."
her own body of work. tional style of writing all the She added, "but, it's definitely
Many of Woodrell's books are more visceral. one of those experiences that
about people on the fringes of "It's kind of a family tale," Woo- can be shared by when you go to
society - a type of country life drell said. "Although it's a family the theater or see the movies at
that Woodrell experienced for tale designed around a catastrophe the theater. You're here and the
himself, living most of his life that happened when a dance hall experience is with a community
in the Missouri Ozark mountain blew up around here. There was an of people - something happens
country. It shows in his works actual event like that." there, some subconscious moral
too: Woodrell hardly ever strays In addition to Woodrell's liter- that doesn't happen on your read-
from the familiar environment of ary awards, the film adaptation ing alone."
YOUR MOM FOLLOWS @MICHDAILYARTS

TV REVIEW
New-'Story,'same scare

By BRIANNE JOHNSON
DailyArts Writer
Bring out the monsters, call
them forth from their closets -
but, please, fasten their shackles
tight.Hometo
the criminally
insane, Briar-
cliff Mental A ecan
Institution is
the new set- Horror Story:
ting of FX's Asylum
anthology
series, "Amer- Season Two
ican Hor- Premiere
ror Story." Wednesdays
The twisted at10 p.m
minds behind a
the show's FX
infamous
Dylan McDermott sob-sturbing
first season have made "Asylum"
a hair-raising, mind-numbing
(lobotomy, anyone?) thrill.
Dubbed the largest tuberculo-
sis ward of 1901, the fictional Bri-
arcliff claimed 46,000 victims,
and is hungry for more. But "Asy-
lum" introduces a fresh Briar-
cliff, reinvented by the Catholic
Church in 1964 as a sanitarium
for residents one screw loose
of, well, their weapon of choice.
Governed by Monsignor Timo-
thy Howard (Joseph Fiennes,
"Shakespeare in Love"), headed
by Sister Jude (Jessica Lange,
"Big Fish") and corrupted by
Dr. Arthur Arden (James Crom-
well, "The Green Mile"), Briar-
cliff welcomes its "most famous
resident," mechanic Kit Walker,
a.k.a. serial killer "Bloody Face"
(Evan Peters, "Kick-Ass"). Sniff-
ing out a sensational story - or
the stench of leftover limbs -
journalist Lana Winters (Sarah
Paulson, "Serenity") sneaks
through the institution in search
of its secrets and the motives of a
murderous lover.
A lick of lusty nun and a dose
of sadistic Doc (specialty: cutting
the Devil out from his patients'
FILM NOTEBOOK

FX

"Man, this stuff is good."

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God, a
heavei
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tend h
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But
son on
the st:
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aliens
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Demon

tal lobes and feeding them please. Roll out the blood-red
nibalistic pets) is nearly all carpet for "I Know What Evan
rs need to check in to "Asy- Peters Did Last Summer," parts
or a permanent stay. Lange one through five of "Evan Peters
smerizing as the complex on Elm Street" and let him join
Jude, plagued by desire, Jason for a slasher rampage in
to cruelty, yet maternal space. Viewers can offer Levine
ulnerable. Fiennes is the as a sacrifice (virgin status unde-
ely charming gift from termined).
humble reward from the But the delectably dangerous
ns for tolerating Maroon cast would be little without the
am Levine as horny hon- writers' dedication to humaniz-
ner Leo. Maybe if we pre- ing each character to depths oth-
e's not here, he'll go away. erwise unexplored by the horror
genre. Not one (still ignoring
you, Levine) is left bobbing at
- * ob the surface, assigned the Unholy
cipital lobes: Nun archetype or the Nosy Jour-
e other, other nalist cliche. Sister Jude is both
aroused and shamed by her fan-
vhite meat. tasies; Winters struggles to hide
her love for her partner, Wendy
(Clea Duvall, "The Faculty");
Walker is passionately devoted
,fresh from his role as sea- to wife, Alma (Britne Oldford,
e's Tate Langdon, Peters is "36 Saints"), despite their taboo
ar as Kit Walker, the Jack interracial relationship. "Asy-
lson of Briarcliff's cuckoo lum," by tangling the expecta-
Though slightly stiff com- tions of hero and villain, proves,
to his last role as Tate, the as Sister Jude says, "All monsters
'em-up dead boyfriend, are human."
is magnetic as a trauma- There's something to be
country boy, swiped by said about a show that makes a
(yes, aliens) and delivered squeamish roommate bury his
w nightmare. head in blankets before the title
ir Horror Gods (er, sequence can finish. It's damn
ns), more Evan Peters, good, and a bloody success.

From damsels-in-distress
to ass-kicking heroines

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By PROMA KHOSLA
Daily Arts Writer
Superhero movies are usu-
ally a fail-safe Hollywood for-
mula: Money for the studios
and a big break for the leading
men in tights (and metal suits
and ripped shorts and Kevlar ...
oh, you get it). But the genre has
always spelled uncertainty for
their most peripheral charac-
ters - the women. After years
as marginalized plot devices,
the women of the superhero uni-
verse have evolved into protago-
nists as impressive as the heroes
themselves.
A prime exception to sole-
ly supporting women is the
"X-Men" series, which from
comic book page to screen intro-
duced a host of powerful women
in almost equal number to the
men. From vengeful combatant
Mystique to the shy-but-deadly
Rogue, the story has always been
about humans and mutants, triv-
ializing further classification.
Even Jean Grey (Famke Jans-
sen), the obligatory center of a
love triangle, is a teacher, scien-
tist and one of the most powerful
and volatile mutants alive.
Nothing showcases the evo-
lution of females in superhero
movies more than this summer's
fare. Black Widow (Scarlett
Johannson) of "The Avengers"
more than holds her own among
six male colleagues and the
nefarious villan Loki. The most
brilliant accomplishment here
is that it isn't even discussed.
Her gender isn't pointed out
once in the movie; the writing
and performances are so natu-
ral that reviewers barely even
commented on it. She never uses
her sexuality as a weapon, and
only mentions romance when
remarking that "love is for chil-
dren." It didn't escape my notice
that she wears a rather skintight
combat suit - but if anything
was objectified in that movie,
it was Chris Evans's back in a
t-shirt.
It's no secret by now that the
crowning jewel of July's "The

"How could youleave so little starring roles for the rest of us?"
Amazing Spiderman" was its sor (so ... two). I was not disap-
superb lead actors, Andrew Gar- pointed. Selina Kyle, externally
field and Emma Stone. Apart an innocent beauty, turns out to
from the kind of hypnotic chem- be a remorseless revolutionary, a
istry that can only be described transition Anne Hathaway con-
as nerd-porn, "Amazing" com- veys literally in the blink of an
pletely changed the established eye. One of the most chill-induc-
on-screen dynamics of Peter ing scenes in the film features
Parker and his love interests. Kyle beating up her opponents,
before almost instantly acting
the part of a hysterical victim
Girls just want when polite enter the scene.
The seductive catlike manner-
to have super isms can grow irksome, but then
she'll snap a few necks and all is
powers. forgiven.
Kyle.succeeds, not because of
the film's writing, but because
of Hathaway's superb perfor-
Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) mance. It's a remarkable trans-
was a classic damsel-in-distress formation for an actress whose
in the early 2000s Spiderman big break was "The Princess
trilogy, placed in peril whenever Diaries." Hathaway once became
the writers seemed to run out an idol for girls who felt invis-
of ideas. She loved Peter, sup- ible and longed to be pretty. Ten
ported his quest and made him a years later, she's upped the ante,
better man ... she also screamed showing girls that the best way
and got kidnapped an awful lot. to be noticed is to make a killer
Stone's Gwen Stacy is the smart- impression. Kyle is a woman
est girl at school (and knows it), unintimidated by the lowest of
sharp enough to befuddle Parker criminals who become her new
with brains as much as beauty neighbors in prison; a woman
and create the serum that saves who, when the time comes to
New York City by the end of the choose a course of action, opts
movie. Now that's the kind of for the moral high ground and
girlfriend a superhero should be basically saves Batman's ass.
so lucky to have. At first, I feared Marion Cotil-
With all that, I was anxious lard's Miranda Tate wouldbe just
to see what was in store with another woman in need of sav-
"The Dark Knight Rises," with a ing, but Cotillard gives a thrilling
cast list boasting twice as many performance in the third act that
female leads as its predeces- See HEROINES, Page 6A