MOVIES
Continued from page 6
second,astuteviewing thethought-pro-
vokingfilmwillmakemuchmoresense.
ThoughDaughtersoftheDust could be
grouped with Prospero's Books as the
mostintolerableartfilmoftheyear, this
complicated, evasive piece of work,
with a little effort, will be the more
worthwhile of the two. Daughters of
the Dust plays at the Michigan Theater
through Thursday.
weet nothings it's whispering Annette Petruso
Allen3
dir. David Fincher
Yukko! After the breathless Alien2
that kept every viewer on the edge of
his/herseat,directorDavidFincher went
haywire with Sigourney Weaver's Lt.
Ripleycharacterandthewholesenseof
what one should expect from a film in
the Alien series. After notoriously go-
ing through four writers, millions
overbudget, and an almost unheard of
twoweeksofreshoots,Fincher'svision
of theAlien-infested future necessarily
becamemuddledandmurky.Few char-
acters in the prison on the edge of the
universe that Ripley's pod crashes on
livelong enough todevelopintopeople
rather than symbols. Though Dillon
(Roc's CharlesS.Dutton)lasts formost
of the movie, evenhehasless than two-
dimensionstohispersonality.Thisprob.
lemforcestheviewer'sfocusonRipley,
the plot, and the film's imagery none of
which held up their individual end.
Weaver, as always, is excellent with
what she has to work with, but the plot
positions her character as vulnerable
and less in control than in previous
films. For example, the gratuitous sex
scene between her and Dr. Clemens
(Charles Dance)doesn'teven fit within
this film's incomplete jigsaw puzzle.
Though many critics find the darkness
ofAlien3problematic, it is not so much
thistoneandsetting thatisquestionable
Crust
Crust
Trance Syndicate
Recipe for the Crust musical deli-
cacy: mix a globof Foetus with a quart
ofLubricatedGoatextractandaslightly
masticated piece of Throbbing Gristle
and allow to fester.
Although this might sound revolt-
ingly appetizing to those of you who
cravegratuitouslybelligerentnoiseand
proto-industrial slop, stop drooling.
Crust doesn't exactly match the grind-
ing grandeur of the Dry Lungs compi-
lations but, in fairness, they seem to be
more strongly influenced (disturbed)
by the likes of Killdozer and their kin.
Crust's firstrelease-a7"ofnoise,
darkness, and tape loops - seemed so
promising. On this, their first LP, they
naively attemptto vocalize their primi-
tive inner stirrings, bogging down al-
ready sludgy tunes. They seem to have
compromised the integrity of their mu-
sical soundscapes and assemblages.
Then again, there is something endear-
ing about a band that opens their album
with an answering machine message
about a friend's problem with head lice
(so much for confidentiality).
Crust's "sound" is rather elusive.
Close
as the lack of gripping action. The little
suspense in Alien' comes at the very
end, and even that is given away by the
preview; and the poster. Fincher tried
desperately to create something new,
foreboding and exciting, but instead
ends up running in slowly cut circles
around a Ripley character who doesn't
even die very heroically. Hopefully
Fincher's poor film debut ensures that
he will never make another film again.
SeeAlien,if youdare,atShowcaseand
Briarwood.
-Annette Petruso
rangingfromtotallyamorphous,throb-
bing guitar noise with delightfully ago-
nizing screams to deceptively docile
songscenteredaroundquirkytapeloops.
Maybe it's the cover photo of a mucus
laden eye and shimmering entrails or
songslike"HardStool,"butthesepained
teensseemtobepreoccupiedwithbodily
(dis)functions.
Even their cover of "Feelings" is
maligned by their perversion, integrat-
ingaconfessionofaserialkillerintothe
lumbering dirge. Their playful descrip-
tion of typical cafeteria slop on "Diet
Tray" is reminiscent of glib King Mis-
sile banter. The remaining songs round
out the dark, distorted mutterings of
these tortured souls.
-Chris Wy(do Iwaste my time)rod
Cracker
Cracker
Virgin
One aspect of Cracker screams out
to the first-time listener: this band con-
tains David Lowery, one of the leaders
of the former Camper Van Beethoven.
Even though Cracker is a completely
differentband, this fact demands atten-
tion before any appreciation of Cracker
%-PRn oanc P oP 1
I ''
. H
angst like "Hard Stool,: can you biame Crust for abusing guitars?