2B - Thursday, November 1, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
ARTS RECOMMENDS
In this feature, Daily Arts writers will give their endorsements
for the arts you need to experience to help you deal with current events.
"The Sorrows of Young
The
Werther"
Sorrows
f Yo n Ah, true love. It's cause to rejoice. Unless, of
course, your name happens to be Werther, in
erther which case romance is more likely to leave you
paralyzed with obsessive paranoia. Goethe's "The
Sorrows of Young Werther," first published in 1774,
is still the most moving reminder out there of the
NORILANA dangers of this crazy thing we call love.
ls is -Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' third EP Is Is is one of
the lesser talked about albums released by the
indie-punk, Karen 0-led group. Sexually charged
and full of turbulent riffs, Karen 0 puts on a
haunting show of vocals and noise. Plus, the third
track "Kiss Kiss" was featured in the Halloween
masquerade episode of "Gossip Girl" 's first sea-
IS S son.
NTERSCOPE
"Alien"
Forget about this summer's disappointing "Pro-
metheus." Let's go back to a time when Ridley Scott
films were of a much higher caliber. Released in
1979, "Alien" was a crossover hit, superbly combin-
x. ing elements of sci-fi and horror to make a truly
chilling, staggering film that's both an adventure
and breathtaking work of cinematic art. It's not
your typical scary movie, but "Alien" is a perfect
20TH CENTURY FOX way to continue the Halloween spirit this weekend.
"Mirror's Edge"
Let's face it: Not all of us are made for park-
our. But 2008's first-person platformer, "Mirror's
Edge," lets you see through the eyes of free-run-
ningbadass Faith as she jumps, climbs, slides and
crawls through a futuristic and dystopian city.
Realistic and fresh, the acrobatic gameplay and
split-second decision making necessary to sur-
vive makes this game a standout adrenaline rush.
ELECTRONICARS
JUDGING
A BOOK
BY IT
COVER
4
Daily Arts writers go
against the famous
idiom, choose a
random book and
make assumptions
about its contents
Not to be outdone by O.J.
Simpson's "fake" account of
murder, "If I Did It," Bill O'Reilly
outlines how he would've
"mowed down that liberal pussy
J.F.Gay" in his latest book, "Kill-
ing Kennedy."
The book starts out with
O'Reilly's claim that he bedded
Marilyn Monroe before Presi-
dent Kennedy even got to second
base: "Marilyn was a hell of a
lady. Real thick waist, a face that
got me hotter than Ann Coul-
ter's dominatrix underpants and
she really knew her place. A true
pioneer in anti-women's rights."
As the book continues,
O'Reilly's senility gets the best
of him. His words become unfo-
cused, and at one point he for-
gets how to use punctuation:
"french people are all pussies
the world was a better place
when 'Welcome Back Kotter'
was on Jon Stewart is a terrible
racquetball player."
After calling out Wolf Blitzer
for cheating in their weekly
mahjong game, O'Reilly returns
to that whole "killing Kennedy"
thing in the style of esteemed
Western author Eli Cash: "So
everyone knows that Lee Har-
vey Oswald killed JFK. What
this book presupposes is ...
maybe he didn't. Maybe a hand-
some young neocon, working
in conjunction with some true
American heroes, stopped JFK
from committing the ultimate
evil: voter fraud."
In an unsettlingly candid
account of hypothetical murder,
O'Reilly describes howthe afore-
mentioned "American heroes"
based on the cover art.
taught him well: "Cheney is the
guy that taught me how to shoot.
Real cold-blooded jabroni. Not
only did he shoot his dumbass
hunting partner in the face, he
got him to apologize on national
television."
In the final chapter, O'Reilly
stops asking questions like "how
do I check my voicemail?" and
"what the heck is a dang VCR!?"
and finally gets to the good stuff.
His assassination attempt is a
little different than one shot to
the bead: "First, I would have
Condy seduce all of the Secret
Service. Then, once the entire
parade is watching Condy and
her boys get down, I would walk
up slowly to the car, and put JFK
in a headlock until he suffocat-
ed. You're welcome America."
-ANDREWECKHOUS
4
EPISODE REVIEW
"The'Mindy Project" essen-
tially promises a romantic com-
edy every
week. This
premise
hasn't really The Mindy
been done
before, and Projet
even though "Halloween"
the series is
still trying to FOX
find' its voice,
"Mindy" so far feels fresh.
"Halloween," unfortunately,
doesn't deal a whole lot with
the holiday. Mindy frantically
tries to find a costume that will
blow people's minds - specifi-
cally, the latest guy she's seeing,
sports lawyer Josh, who's smug
and jerky in a way that is almost
Jeff Winger levels of charming
(but not quite). Her hunt yields a
fewhumorous moments - Dirty
Harry Potter and Tinkerbell
Tailor Soldier Spy are true gems.
When done well, Halloween
episodes allow sitcoms to high-
F
For fans of any franchise, it's
always painful to see the series
overstayitswelcome. Fewknow
this pain
more than any
fans of the
"Die Hard" A Good Day
saga. As much
fun as it once to Die Hard
was to watch 20th Century Fox
Bruce Willis
fuck shit up,
2007's "Live Free or Die Hard"
was but a shade of the pulpy
thriller's past glory.
Confusingly set to the Ger-
man, Beethoven-composed
"Ode to Joy," "A Good Day to
Die Hard" takes place in Rus-
sia. The story is simple, as "Die
Hard" details tend to be: John
McClane (Willis) travels to
Moscow to help his son Jack (Jai.
Courtney), and coincidentally,
gets tied up in a terrorist plot.
The most important thing
about this trailer is that things
explode, and they explode in a
I
light their strengths. "How I Met
Your Mother" 's "Slhtty Pump-
kin," "Parks and Recreation" 's
"Greg Pikitis," "Friends" 's "The
One With the Halloween Party"
- all are hallmarks of their
respective comedies. /
"Mindy" doesn't have as
much fun with the holiday as
it could. It's a well structured
episode, with Kaling hitting
enough jokes to make it work.
But it's certainly not something
to remember or revisit when All
Hallows' Eve comes again.
-KAYLA UPADHYAYA
glorious fashion. Willis took a
breather from the action scene
to play the humorously pathetic
island sheriff in Wee Ander-
son's "Moonrise Kingdom" this
year, but he's back with a gun in
hand and all is right.
"A Good Day to Die Hard"
looks like it could be a thrilling
summer blockbuster, despite its
February release date.
Whether it will be enough
to prove this series deserves to
keep on breathing is a whole
other question.
-KAYLA UPADHYAYA
4
I
TRAILER REVIEW
SINGLE REVIEW
Tarantino's fascination with
setting continues in "Django
Unchained." His previous,
almost wildly
imagina-
tive works
have always ngo
belonged to
whatever real Unchained
or fictional Columbia
world he put
them in, from
Hitler'sGermanytothe astound-
ing scenarios of "Kill Bill."
This time, he's serving us a
kind of Western we've never
been served before - a Taranti-
no WesternAnd it looks as if it's
got every dish Tarantino serves
best. We have the wronged-but-
never-vulnerable protagonist
seeking revenge from wrongdo-
ers, played by Jamie Foxx. Djan-
go is a slave freed by a bounty
hunter (Christopher Waltz)
who's on a mission to free his
wife from a viciously conniv-
ing plantation owner (Leonardo
Turn to A$AP Rocky's single to
find the answer to a vital question:
"Exactly how many bitches does 2
Chainz have?"
"F**ckin'
Problems,"
the second F**ckin'
single from Problems
A$AP Rocky's
LongLiveA$AP, A$AP Rocky
is coated in ICA
lavish swagger
and unneces-
sary levels of misogyny by verses
from Rocky, Drake and Kendrick
Lamar, as well as an amusingly
ignorant 2 Chainz hook - one
that will likely kill the song's radio
potential with explicit content.
In addition to its glaring musi-
cal shortcomings - including a
beat that sounds like a half-hearted
retread of the harder tracks from
Drake's Take Care - this Noah
"40" Shebib-produced track suf-
fers severely because its only com-
pelling features are its features.
Rocky took the "strength in
U
COLUMBA
DiCaprio). Foxx's character has comes out on Christmas. But
a reason to kill - we see a lot of times are a-changin', and "It's
him doing it in the trailer, and a Wonderful Life" has spent far
we'll undoubtedly see a lot more. too long at the forefront of go-to
Which is why Tarantino has holiday season movies. It's time
a wicked sense of humor the Tarantino conquered that illu-
bloody and unforgiving gore- sive territory, all in good style.
fest that's bound to be "Django" -ADITIMISHRA