Monday, December 3, 2012 - 7A
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
FILMLRR fV_ .
Grit and Pitt kill it in
mobster movie 'Softly'
In Soviet Russia, furs wear you-
Eamoring Anna
Knightley powers Director Joe Wright ("Atone- Instead, the film stays true to
'meoc"), who has collaborated the essence of its source by mak-
adaptation of with Knightley in multiple films, ing the visuals exquisite, in line
ambitiously decided to place with the expensive and flagrant
Tolstoy classic most of the film within a resplen- elite scene of 1874 Russia. It's as if
dent old theater, heavy-handed- the film takes place in a different
By NATALIE GADBOIS ly hinting that in this society, world, where the colors are rich-
,Daily Arts Writer these characters are always er, the people are more gorgeous
actors on stage, always with an and pristine - everything ampli-
Even when going insane, Keira audience. This meta-theatrical fied, dramatized and beautified.
Knightley ("A Dangerous Meth- move is risky, as it further dra- Though it's visually a fairy
od") always looks perfect. But in matizes an already melodra- tale, the film doesn't shy from the
"Anna Kareni- matic and tragic romance, but conflicted social conditions that
na," a decadent 3 Wright almost makes it work Tolstoy analyzed so vividly in the
and sweeping by fully committing the story to novel. This high-falutin Russian
adaptation of Anna his choice. He doesn't half-ass society, constantly twirling in
Leo Tolstoy's anything. At times, the flurried place in Wright's (often oppres-
masterpiece, confusion of setting everything sive) theater, contrasts directly
the weight of At the in one location detracts from the with crystalline scenes of peas-
Knightley's Michigan storyline, but all the actors give ants cutting hay under an unend-
performance themselves whole-heartedly to ing sky.
extends beyond Focus reflect the grandeur of the sym- Anna is happiest when she is
her lovely face. bolic theater. away from St. Petersburg and
Knightley is transcendent as With design work from has the freedom to be with the
Anna, a high-society woman liv- acclaimed production designer man she loves, far from the judg-
ing in St. Petersburg in the late Sarah Greenwood ("Sherlock ment of society. Her persecu-
19th century and unhappily mar- Holmes"), every costume and tion as a woman who broke the
ried to a righteous and morally prop is luxurious and adds to the rules, and her brother's relative
rigid politician (Jude Law, "Sher- sensory delight present in every (and humorous) ease in admit-
lock Holmes"). Anna does not shot. The costuming is beautiful, ting that he cheated on his own
recognize her unhappiness until each piece chosen to precisely wife shows the inherent sexism
she meets Count Vronsky (Aaron complement the mental state of founded in their society. These
Taylor-Johnson, "Savages"), a the characters: Anna begins her are heavy issues at hand, and it's
young cavalry officer with a pen- journey to societal condemna- the actors, in particular Knight-
chant for looking handsome and tion wearing demure black, and ley and the inflexible Law, who
breaking hearts. As they fall in becomes flashier and more col- give them depth.
love, Anna is ostracized and pun- orful as she defies the unwrit- "Karenina" keeps up with the
ished by a cruelly callous soci- ten laws. Similarly, the score is present theme of making majes-
ety and her squarely honorable impressive and impassioned, tic and visually extravagant
husband, and she must sacrifice exemplifying the sheer strength films, which is often a hit-or-
everything to stay with Vronsky. of the story. miss strategy. Though its ten-
Knightley, often accused ' of The storyline is a classic trag- dency to veer toward melodrama
overacting, is particularly suc- it romance, and Wright does and theatrics at times is over-
cessful in utilizing her infamous not attempt to complicate the powering, the film ultimately
pout to sympathetically show plot itself - removing some of works because it fully commits
Anna's selfish and unavoidable Tolstoy's drier segments, like to the splendor without losing
deterioration. the Russian agrarian system. the story along the way.
Solange is 'True'to herself,
spreads wings with new EP
By AKSHAY SETH
Daily Arts Writer
"Whacking these assholes is
a fuckin' shitty business, pal.
They cry, they plead, they beg,
they piss them-
selves, they A-
cry for their
mothers. It gets Killing Them
embarrassing. IS
like to kill 'em
softly. From a At Quality16
distance."' and Rave
That's Jackie
Cogan's (Brad The Weinstein
Pitt, "Inglouri- Company
ous Basterds")
tactful take on what he does to
pay the mortgage. It's a thought-
ful attitude - measured and
weirdlyrsympathetic in intention.
For a moment, it may even seem
as if our mob-hired-hitman anti-
hero is a nice guy.
But make no mistake - this
is the closest thing to the grim
reaper good moviemaking can
offer. Hair greased back, black
leather jacket wrapped around
a coiled frame and eyes staring.
vacantly into the distance, Cogan
makes it clear from his first
Johnny Cash-serenaded scene
that he's the resident badass of
this movie, and for that matter,
the most apparent reason this
film is as good as it is.
The other reason (yes, there's
only one other reason) is a set
of scenes sprinkled throughout
the film in which two moronic
would-be criminals talk about
the most random shit imagin-
able. Think Tarantino, except 10
times as many curse words and
20 times as much vulgarity. The
deep, often philosophical topics
of discussion include(but are not
limited to) drugs, defecation, jail,
sex, pe
favorit
Yes,
versati
ents bh
some of
dialogu
So cyn
mistak
The
cynicis
nature
card ga
bastard
It's bee
and
Domin
Jesse J
ert Fot
of dwe
storylir
it to at:
movie t
on An
actualr
t-napping and my personal ads that play throughout.
e - bestiality. Political speeches by Presi-
these are the types of con- dents Barack Obama and George
ons that make grandpar- W. Bush serve as a makeshift
ush, but they also feature soundtrack for most of the film,
f the most brutally cynical with Dominik taking special
ue put on screen this year. attention to hone in on Cogan's
ical, in fact, it at times is mocking eyes as lofty ideals of
en for honesty. unity and community are thrown
groundwork for all this around like red and blue confetti.
m is laid in the routine The steely restraint Pitt brings
ofthe plot:A mafia-backed to his portrayal reflects a deeply
me gets hit; some unlucky ingrained sense of apathy. Most
ds have to pay the price. people would think the indiffer-
n done a thousand times, ence is a consequence of years of
writer-director Andrew shooting people in the face.
ik .("The Assassination of But we can't expect good ol'
ames by the Coward Rob- Dominik to miss an opportunity
rd") knows it. So instead to throw bricks at us, can we?
Mling on his commonplace No, according to our borderline-
se, Dominik wisely uses nihilist director, the Irish hit-
ring some structure into a manspoutiness is more likelyche
that's more a commentary result of a resigned acceptance
nerican politics than an that everything in the world is
mob flick. going to shit - a sentiment per-
sonified by has-been button man
Mickey (James Gandolfini, TV's
Drugs "The Sopranos").
rg ,Gandolfini delivers a visceral
fecation and performance and colorizes the
slow, painful deterioration of a
)estiality man being ripped to shreds by
an alcohol addiction. This is an
oh my age of the mob in decline, filled
by men unwilling and perhaps
unable to let go of the old ways -
Mickey represents a byproductof
aps the word "cqmmen- that hesitation. He, like most of
is an understatement. the other characters in the film,
ik's idea of subtly dissect- is on a collision course with life.
e U.S. political landscape When the impact finally arrives,
h powerful imagery and it comes in the form of Cogan's
ter interaction falls more wrath.
the lines of throwing a It's a jarring experience, styl-
t the audience in the hopes ized by a few gorgeously edited
someone hard enough to scenes of the Irish hitman doing
ow change an opinion. It's what he does best: ending lives.
fragmented and makes the But he gives his message softly,
the film look like a setup from a distance. If only Dominik
of the terrible campaign had used a similar approach.
de
Perh
tary"
Domin
ing the
throug
charac
along
brick a
it'll hit
somehb
blunt, f
rest of
for one
By RAY MALO and lame rap guest verses. And
DailyArts Writer her sound on her 2008 followup,
which like most records at the
I wouldn't be accomplishing time, was guided by Mark Ron-
much if I made this piece a com- son, channeled '60s-girl-group
parison between Solange and her wall of sound and, ahem, "disco?"
big sis. I'll say just this to get it out It was so not disco.
of the way: Solange's music career Some key life events provide
has undoubtedly benefited from necessary context: Solange wrote
being the younger Knowles sister. and recorded Solo Star when
But with the release of True, her she was 14. She then married
fantastic new EP, she's making a at 17, had a child, got divorced
case for her independence. and gradually became the cool-
I mean this in two ways. Sure, est mama/most desirable bach-
by writing and recording a col- elorette in Brooklyn, according to
lection of songs this strong, Sol- ComplexCityGuide.
ange has made a big step toward And in 2009, hipsters flipped
forging her own identity outside their shit when Solange brought
of Beyonce. But True, released on her sister and brother-in-law
Brooklyn-based Terrible Records Jay-Z to see Grizzly Bear on the
and produced by Dev Hynes of Williamsburg Waterfront. Like
Blood Orange, also represents many, I took particular note of the
Solange's first foray into the sec- fact that it was kid sis who was
cor of the indiesphere where she introducing the king and queen
seems to belong. to indie rock's finest, and not the
After almost a decade of shuf- other way around (It's worth
fling genres, Solange has finally mentioning that Terrible Records
found a sound that works for is run by Chris Taylor, Grizzly
her. First under the supervision Bear bassist/producer). Collabo-
of Columbia Records, then indie rations with Of Montreal and
label Polydor, her past cata- Dirty Projectors, along with Sol-
log consistently showcased her ange's reputation as a tastemak-
charming, sweet vocal stylings ing DJ, suggested she was capable
but badly missed sonically, rely- of better quality than what her
ing on the well-intentioned but discography was telling us.
misguided whims of the super- This October, she delivered
producer du jour. big, releasing the stellar video for
In 2003, on her debut album her single "Losing You," a song so
Solo Star (so unpopular it's no pristinely joyful that I lost sleep
longer in genuinely worrying that the rest
print), it First seen on of the EP would fall flat in com-
was Nep- -the parison.
tunes beats It does not. "Losing You"
remains the EP's most shim-
mering, danceable moment, but
True's midsection is its meat and
potatoes. You'll want to skip sec-
ond track "Some Things Never
Seem To Fucking Work." An
aberration, even before the pain-
fully awkward, British-accented
spoken word outro. "Locked In
Closets" pairs glorious '90s Janet
Jackson vocal riffs with synth
pop (think Bat for Lashes or Twin
Shadow), while "Don't Let Me
Down" features direct, engaged
lyrics bookended by harmonized
nonsense "ohs" over pure funk
bass and Brian Eno synth freak-
outs. And the two closing tracks
are a voyage through new wave
heaven, sure to please fans of the
"Drive" soundtrack.
But it's "Lovers In The Parking
Lot," the record's absolute center,
that best showcases Solange's
newly effortless cool. Clearly the
lesser vocalist in the Knowles
clan, she no longer seems to care.
Relying on,'falsetto when she
needs to, Solange moves around
this song like she's known its
melody for years. It's a refreshing
moment: After years of feeling
forced to try to be different, she
finally sounds like herself.
This must seem like too many
words to dedicate to a seven-
track EP. I assure you, True is an
event, the lovely sound of great
potential finally beingtapped. It's
my favorite record of 2012.
-A version of this article was
first published on The Filter on
Dec. 2,2012.