Monday, October 29, 2012 - SA The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com HIM REVIWW Sprawling'Atlas' succeeds Ambitiousbook FINE ARTS COLUMN Long-haired ballet dreams adaptation creates its own genre ByADITI MISHRA Daily Arts Writer There's something to be said about 2012 in cinema. While Hollywood continues to splurge on big-budget superhero sequels and remakes, this Cloud Atlas year has given us movies that At Quality 16 are pushing the and Rave boundaries of their respective Wamer Bros genres. "Looper" gave sci-fi films a "HOLD ME, BROTHA!" much-needed reboot, "Moonrise Kingdom" proved that there is a The film begins with. Adam heart to Wes Anderson's imagina- Ewing's (Jim Sturgess, "One tion, "Cabin in the Woods" edged Day") discovery of a black tribe's along the boundary of horror and enslavement in the Chatham comedy without ever turning to Islands during the 19th century the now-exhausted use of a hand- California gold rush. His rescue held camera in the making of a of a tribesman, who then tan- horror film. gles with a ship's doctor (Tom And then there's "Cloud Atlas," Hanks, "Larry Crowne"), leads a film that transcends so many to the start of Ewing's movement genres it has created a category against slavery. "Atlas" then tra- all for itself. "Atlas" suffers occa- verses another decade, telling the sionally from the perils of over- story of an unemployed musician ambition, but its grand scope, in search for inspiration and a pas- mesmerizing visuals and oft- sionate journalist, Luisa (Halle noble messages make it one of the Berry, "New Year's Eve"), out to year's most unforgettable movies. expose a conspiratorial oil execu- tive (Hugh Grant, "The Pirates! Band of Misfits"). Nearly two cen- turies later, Sonmi-451 (Doona Bae, "The Host"), a genetically engineered clone, leads a revolu- tion, like Ewing, against societal injustice, becoming a goddess to the people of a post-apocalyptic world in the distant future. Because of the visionary per- spective of its three directors, Lana Wachowski and her brother Andy ("The Matrix" trilogy) and Tom Twyker ("Run Lola Run"), and the complexity of the book it's based on, "Atlas" is an innovative film. The stories told are all differ- ent and epic in scope, but manage to find a connectingstring in their portrayal of society's oppression of those that are different, regard- less of time. It's also, however, a textbook example of a film that struggles between imagery and substance, and it's unclear whether that's an occupational hazard of trying to tell six stories that span over 500 years or a crippling shortcoming. For the most part, the movie suc- ceeds because of joint direction - the Wachowskis and Twyker are able to execute a very "Matrix"- See CLOUD, Page 6A thick l down t mothe: great li that sh was ve cognis my des So, I sp the bet part of first 10 with a1 cut, wI was ap fashior was we still, I You boundl piness, setbact to brai I was d favorit up wit! Ri d So b This do me str onto m cent pi downr withou from s strawb begin t ratelyc foul-st my bo As a dance, front o accoml cally cl ing the the 15h becom art fort of agili the dai Onc hen I was little, I my obsession with buns faded, I wanted nothing still wore the tights - this time, more than long, properly, on my legs. I spent ocks of hair reaching eight years dancing ballet, jazz o my bellybutton. My and tap, trying to pas de chat r, the my way onto the dance scene. istener The love for dance came from e is, my mother's incessant theater- ry going. While inSt. Petersburg, ant of my family would spend every ires. Friday night at the Mariinsky ent Theatre, and I'd sit, enthralled ter with the lithe ballerinas. my ANNA After crossing the ocean and years SD jSyA landing in Michigan, dance took bowl - a front seat in my life thanks to hich enrollment in a twice-weekly parently what every dance school. I considered n-forward six year old myself the Next Big Thing and earing in France. Luckier religiously practiced my ara- was in Russia. besques ... for a few minutes a can immediately see how day. less my childhood hap- Soon, it became evident I was. Despite the minor was not made to dance on the k of having no real hair big stage. Not only was I a head d into knots and twists, taller than all the girls in my letermined to play my class, I was also impatient and e game of ballerina dress- refused to spend more than an h a proper ballerina bun. hour at the dance school. My instructor, Shari, almost broke her ruler slamming it next to my feet in an attempt to correct my sloppy toe-pointing. Everything was bad. Ballet, as most people imag- ancesyou. ine it, is pretty. It's pretty, light and the dancers all look graceful and effortless. Let me be the first to tell you: blisters. Blisters, egan the age of tights. muscle spasms and exhaustion ark period consisted of are far more realistic. etching worn ballet tights Dancers begin at an early y head, letting the inno- age, training at prestigious bal- nk legs tangle and twine let schools such as the Bolshoi my back. Every evening, Ballet Academy in Moscow and it fail, I'd come home the American Ballet Theatre in chool, plop a handful of New York. They spend hours erries in my mouth and stretching and conditioning o choreograph an elabo- their bodies to fit into the mold clumsy dance, with the of a ballerina. Grooming a little selling footwear binding girl or boy into a world-class wl cut. dancer is as difficult as coaching type of performance the Detroit Pistons to a winning ballet is performed in season. f an audience to the The most prestigious title paniment of music, typi- awarded to a female ballerina assical. Originating dur- is the Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Italian Renaissance in first awarded in 1894 by French i century, it has since ballet master Marius Petipa e a technically difficult to Pierina Legnani, an Italian m, demanding a high level dancer for Imperial Russia. ty and skill on the part of Since Legnani, the title has been ncers. bestowed ont10 other ballerinas, e my hair grew out and See SADOVSKAYA, Page 6A 'Chasing Mavericks'wipes out By MATT EASTON mind and soul in preparation fory Daily Film Editor the ultimate wave. He's trained by local legend Frosty Hesson An alcoholic writer once (Gerard Butler,"300"), who spendsr proclaimed that only bullfight- the entire film either gazing at Jay ing, rock climbing and auto rac- surfing from 500 yards away or ing were true asking him to write essays." sports, the rest, merely games. While his state- ment surely raises some objections, it's possible to see his reasoning. Those sports embody a con- flict between humanity and natu where success is m quest instead of po spiritual componen death are very muc (for examples, se read "Death in the) There is one ei sion from this li "Chasing Maveric passable argument inclusion, but sad the weight of its ov "Mavericks" is Moriarity (Jonny Dies at the End"), Chasing Little beneath Maveicks the surface. At Quality 16 th*ura e and Rave Twentieth As the movie progresses, lit- Century Fox tle conflicts are introduced and resolved: Jay struggles to ask out re (or machine), the girl he loves, a stereotypical easuredby con- bully hits the mirrors off cars, ints. All possess Jay's mom is lazy and Jay's best nts, and life and friend, Blonde (Devin Crittenden, :h daily realities "Disaster Movie"), uses mysteri- e "Senna" and ous drugs (gasp!). These arcs have Afternoon"). emotional depth worth exploring, gregious exclu- but seldom is. One can't shake the ist - surfing. feeling that the movie is just try- cks" makes a ing to fill space. it for surfing's Frosty's character is the sto- ly sinks under ry's strength. Frosty is truly torn erloaded plot. between his compulsion toward a tale of Jay surfing (danger) and a love of his Weston, "John family. He broods on a paddle- molding body, board over a deep ocean trench, . Guess there was more CGI in '300' than we thought. contemplating his fear of loss, and the concurrent emptiness and fullness of the water - a moment that taps into "soul surfing." The problem is, for every scene of true feeling, there is another in which Frosty condenses his religion into buzz-words and self- help lingo. He tells Jay to observe the sea, and then, after Jay's arbi- trary failure, simply "tells him the answer." There shouldn't be a SparkNotes for finding yourself in the ocean, yet, "Mavericks" almost implies that possibility. Fear of emptiness, and fear in general, becomes the major mes- sage of the script. Jay struggles to open a letter from his absent father, both a fear of losing hope and of what the words inside might say; Blonde sees Jay moving forward with his dreams while he sits flipping pizzas. These are compelling, complex feelings, but they end up reduced and resolved in the simplest of ways. None of the characters engage in any sig- nificant manner, so the audience is left to presume motives - it isn't subtlety, it's sloppiness. The editing and direction also lack cohesiveness. Camera angles change too quickly, an artifi- cial attempt to inject energy into See MAVERICKS, Page 6A Few snickers in teen flop 'Fun Size' By NOAH COHEN Wren (Victora Justice, "Vic- Daily Arts Writer torious") is Just Your Average Highschooler who happens to Possibly the weirdest chil- be incredibly gorgeous, her best dren's movie in existence, "Fun friend (Jane Levy, "Suburga- Size" is an unredeemably idi- tory") is the Same But Shallower otic mashup of And Marginally Less Pretty. She every PG/PG-13 begins the movie as a fangirl of teen drama Some Idiot Popular Boy (Thomas of the past Fun Size McDonell, "The Forbidden King- two decades. dom"). She ends as the girlfriend One thing it At Quality 16 of her Nerdy Friend Who Genu- has going for and Rave inely Loves Her (Thomas Mann, it, though, is "It's Kind of a Funny Story"). This squeezing so Paramount happens during an Unexpected hard on its for- Quest to find her Annoying But "BOO!... you whore." mula, the last few drops are so Uniquely Cool Little Brother, bizarrely tainted by miscellany Albert, (Jackson Nicoll, "The alized, the boys that the movie attains a "wait, are Fighter") whom she's assigned to cleanly into Al they for real?" originality. babysit before her Oppressive But egories. All charac A Halloween movie whose Well-Meaning Mother (Chelsea minor, somehow target audience is approximately Handler, "The Chelsea Handler board cutouts of th no one, "Fun Size" is a surreal, Show") returns home. shamelessly unironic cultural But the stereotypes don't end Frankenstein. If you manage to there. The Nerdy Friend, Roo- Cardb stomach the teenpop absurdity, sevelt, has a Repressed Asian however, the ending is "Juno"- Best Friend named Peng (Osric chara esque and actually quite sweet. Chau, "2012") and New-Age Les- "Fun Size" is much more about bian Mothers. He, Wren and Peng fall f the feels than the scares. If you're confront bullies, get up to she- looking for a Halloween movie nanigans that inevitably wreck guaranteed not to spook you, this Roosevelt's mothers' car and bond is a fair escape from the creepy through running from the police. As much as you c tenor of average Halloween enter- Almost every character is movie, any attempt tainment. It might still creep you pigeonholed into an awkward respectful boys int out, but not by intent. corner - the girls are too sexu- teen mqvies gets at separated too nod of approval. Further reasons pha/Beta cat- to see this movie include a trou- ters, main and bled but compassionate deskboy become card- named Fuzzy (Thomas Mid- emselves. dleditch, "Splinterheads") and a giant mechanical chicken sodom- izing a Volvo. oard This is another one of those films that probably ought to be ters pre-gamed for maximum enjoy- ment. It's an interesting attempt, [at. but sexually charged "The Hangover"-style narratives don't translate well into kid-friendly Halloween flicks. With its odd- an hate on this ball content and jerky pace, "Fun to make nerdy Size" limps into theaters wearing o the heroes of the mismatched costumes of its least a cursory predecessors.