Arthur Miller gives award
Miller will be presenting the first
*Arthur Miller Award For Dramatic
Writing to Willy Holtzman. The award
will be given on June 4 at the
Trueblood Theater.
ARTS
Tuesday
June 1, 1999'
U
Gooding, Jr. talks instincts
aEd Sholinsky
Jally Arts ditor"
After starting out by joking that, "I'll
never do this again," Cuba Gooding, Jr.
warmed to a recent interview with the
Michigan Daily.
Joining "Instinct" director Jon
Turteltaub, Gooding discussed every-
thing from stardom to working with
some of the best actors alive, including
Jack Nicholson ("A Few Good Men;'
* Good as it Gets") and Anthony
lopkins ("Instinct"). Having worked
with so many big name actors, including
Robin Williams ('What Dreams May
Come") and Tom Cruise ("Jerry
Maguire"), Gooding knows a thing or
two about this. "It's so easy for you to get
caught up in their aura and lose your own
identity - especially on screen,"
Gooding said of these great actors, when t
~cussintg clhetnistty between actors.
espite their talent, though, Gooding
said that the first thing one notices about
them is their aura, not their skill. "You
see their car pull up and it's like, 'Oh,
here they come,"' Gooding said, noting
that everyone around them changes.
But Turteltaub interjected that stars
don't give this to themselves, "You're
handed the aura ... you don't take it." Director Jon Turteltaub chats with actors
Gooding noted that of all of the actors
that he's worked with, though, Cruise is
the biggest. "When Tom gets on the set room," Gooding said. Other older
*n anything he does, he's got the actors, like Hopkins or Dustin Hoffman
attention in the room. So much so that it ("Outbreak"), he said know how to
only stops when [lie] sneaks out of the "divert" the attention.
Cheesy 'Instinct plays lie a
silly 'Silence of the Apes'
'Bi Slam' ends
By Elizabeth Jablonski
For the Daily
Women flock to movies with
Kevin Costner or Tom Cruise in the
buff. But in Bill Corbett's "The Big
Slam' male ass is not an attraction.
The play relates the escapades of
four young wanna be businesspeople
searching for "what people really
wanf" -to
- -; earn a quick
buck.
Thie narra-
Big Slam tor, 01riii
H it si s e r
( 1 s e p h
Purple Rose Zettelmaier),
May 22,1999 wallows in the
ins ecur iii es
brought upon
by his seem-
ingly perfect
friend - the
one who walks
around half-
naked - Russell Boam. Orrin joins
forces with Russell (Wayne David
Parker), and Russell's girlfriend,
Stephanie Rommel (Cadi Sutter),
hoping to turn his meager savings
into a booming enterprise.
Scraping for an idea, Russell hap-
pens to discover that their delivery
upnaked flop
girl, Gail Myszlwcski (Anmzy
Christine), believes that what people
want is simply something nice. This
comes in the form of a quick cocktail
napkin doodle - a marketable fad
that spurns the young entrepreneurs
to get rich quick.
Un fortunately, all of the characters
are too caught up in themselves and
their own interests to develop and
earn any compassion. Whatever fate
befalls each isn't ofconcern.
The action of the play is rapid and
indifferent. When Stephanie tittets
the closing lines, "Slow Down. We
have time," it's all too late.
Corbett tries to jazz up his comedy
with nudity But it's unnecessary to
have one of the men in bikini 4j
thong underwear for almost the entire
first half of the play. It's equally
unnecessary for one of the women to
bare her breasts. Neither revelation
adds anything except the ability to
boast that people are indeed naked
when not wearing clothes. Maybe it's
supposed to grant the play more
maturity and more appeal to an adult
audience. Unfortunately. it doesn't
work.
"The Big Slam "runs through .Jnte
12 at the Purple Rose Theate. Call
(734) 475-7902for more information.
Donald Sutherland and Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Wyd Sholinsky
y Arts Editor
Few movies leave you feeling like
you need to bathe to get the smell of the
piece of crap off of you. "Instinct," with
its cloying sentimentality plays like the
"Patch Adams" of psychological
thrillers, more than the intense look into
the dark side of the human soul.
Following a tried
and true formula,
3( "Instinct" is the
story of two men
i Cuba
InstinCt Gooding, Jr. and
Anthony Hopkins
- who start off
At Ann Arbor 1&2 as adversaries.
and Showcase June 4th but learn from
s each other as they
go along.
Gooding plays
] Tlheo Caulder, a
young psychiatric
resident at the top
of his game and
the top protege of Ben Hillard (a wasted
effort by Donald Sutherland). He begs
for the assignment to do a psychiatric
enaluationof Ethan Powell (Hopki-ns), a
respected anthropologist who went nuts
in Africa and killed some people.
It turns out that Powell had a break-
through with the apes that he was study-
ing, and became one of them. The miss-
ing link that Caulder has to discover is
what happened that set Powell off and
made him kill those people.
This cloying attempt at sentimentality
leaves you wonder what was worse: Jon
Turteltaub's ("Phenomenon") clumsy,
ham-handed direction or Gerald
DiPego's ("Message in a Bottle") attro-
cious screenplay.
For the most part, the acting isn't too
much better. After seeing "Itstinct," it's
no surprise that Hopkins recently quit
acting. His performance is awful and
doesn't even give a hint of the great actor
that he is. Gooding isn't too much better,
but he also has much less to work with
than Hopkins. After his Oscar-winning
performatice in "Jerry Magiuire"
Gooding has been looking for a break-
out role. This isn't it. The lone bright
spot in the cast is John Alyward (TV's
"ER") as Warden Keefer.
If "Instinct" doesn't end up as one of
the 10 worst films of the year, it's going
to be a long, hard year in fIm . . F , .
Besides his and other people's star-
dom, however, Gooding talked about his
projects outside of the public eye,
including Good Broes Productions "I'd
like to create more projects as opposed
to just coming on to a project," Gooding
noted of his production company with
producer, Derek Broes.
His love of film has come together
with his other love - hockey - though
when Good Broes almost made a film
called "Open Ice" about an African
American hockey player. After a disap-
pointing draft of the script, though,
Gooding and Escrow abandoned the
project.
Still, Gooding is primarily an actor.
See CUBA, Page 9
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By Jonah Victor
Daily Arts Writer
ehe Atomic
Fireballs
The Magic Stic k
May 23, 1999
The Atomic
Fireballs may be
the last band able
to cash in on the
passing swing fad
on a national level,
but the band that
was recently fea-
tured on "The Late
Show with Conan
O'Brien" wants to
show L.A. bands
how it's really
done, Detroit
Fireballs set Stick ablaze
style. The Fireballs celebrated the release
of their album, "Torch This Place," with
a rousing performance May 23rd at
downtown Detroit's Magic Stick.
The Fireballs couldn't have picked a
better band to kick off their CDrelease
party than the Porters. The Porters are a
'60s-style R&B band who have quickly
made a name for themselves. At the core
of the band are former members of
Detriot's once beloved ska band, the
Parka Kings.
Few bands emanate as much pgyj ive
energy as the Porters. Each of the eight
members put so much of themselves into
See FIREBALLS, Page 10
Ridiardsom's
GIORGIO ARMANI
POLO RALPH LAUREN Calvin Klein "
320 S. State St.
(lower level of Decker Drugs)
662-1945