Monday
May 15, 2006
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ATeSidiig

9

'School'
teaches
too little
By Alexandra Jones
Daily Arts Writer
In 2001, the filmmaking duo of
director Terry Zwigoff ("Bad Santa")
and screenwriter
Daniel Clowes Art School
("Ghost World") Confidential
created a suc-
cessful cinematic At the
version of the Michigan Theater
graphic novel Sony Pictures classics
"Ghost World"
that reproduced the plot and emotional
timbre of the original well, if not per-
fectly. But "Art School Confidential,"
their sophomore adaptation, suffers
from a disappointing combination of
scant source material and overconfi-
dent execution.
The film was conceived from a short
one-off story that appeared in an issue
pof Clowes's quarterly "Eightball." Unfor-
tunately, the source material's quality is
more important to graphic novel-to-film
adaptationsthantheduoandfansrealized.
The original's underdeveloped plot and
unidimensional vantage point are used to
support the entire film - and although
*the bitter loners and miscellaneous aber-
rations who populate Clowes's comics are
often ghoulish, vitriolic and morally cor-
rupt to a disturbing degree, their creator
possesses a. subtlety in the medium that
makes his boxed-in line drawings more
lifelike and compelling than any film ver-
sion could be: Here, Clowes's signature
combination of humanity and misanthro-
py translates poorly to a mass medium.
The conduit through which the direc-
tors channel the story is would-be next-
big-thing Jerome (Max Minghella, "Bee
Season"), whose noble, if egotistical,
intentions don't make up for the fact that
he's been aggressively ignored by girls
for most of his life. Zwigoff and Clowes
present this loose sketch of the charac-
ter in the film's first few minutes, but
for the most part, they stop there. The
strict social and artistic hierarchy that is
Strathmore Academy (a whiff of corpo-
rate sponsorship in its name, perhaps?)
is constructed as such that Jerome pin-
balls off of everyone he meets. Zwigoff
and Clowes define their ultimately bor-
ing "hero": He's not a stoner, a slacker,
a beatnik, an art fag, a goth or any of the
ther genres of deluded, talentless losers
who populate his classes.
Like other filmic misfits, Jerome is
taken under the wing of Bardo (Joel
Moore, "Dodgeball: A True Underdog
Story"), a socially unaffiliated goofball
who encourages Jerome to loosen up
and sample the wide array of emotion-

Local group scores
on newest release

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"Dude, those boobs ain't minimalist." "Word."

ally damaged Strathmore girls, rather
than obsessing over his unrequited
romantic ideal, the classically perfect
(and terminally boring) nude model
and art-world insider Audrey (Sophia
Myles, "Tristan + Isolde").
Jerome never finds a mentor, either
- at least not in any of the bitter, real-
world failures like Professor Sandiford
(co-producer John Malkovich, in a role to
which his effortless brand of creepiness is
perfectly suited) on the faculty at Strath-
more, the dissection of whose institu-
tional corruption we're meant to savor. A
grisly subplot concerning a ruthless cam-
pus murderer floats through the scenery
in the film's first half, but taken with the
laundry list of stereotypes swarming over
Strathmore's grounds, the cliched subplot
feels just a tad stale.
A more intriguing product of the art
world's soul-sucking machinery is Strath-
more graduate Jimmy (Jim Broadbent,
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion,
the Witch and the Wardrobe"); once an
aspiring young creator, now an unhinged,
middle-aged alcoholic, Jimmy will only
buzz Bardo and Jerome into his building
when they bring offerings of cheap liquor.
"You're about to have a life-changing
experience," Bardo tells the girl-crazy
Jerome before they enter. It's pretty clear
early on that Jerome's slacker buddy has
the right idea jumping from one con-

centration to another - he's paid close
attention to the example set by Jimmy's
miserable misanthropy.
Even so, Jimmy is the most compel-
ling example of a "real" artist that the two
students ever meet. And although most of
the "art" used in the film's studio scenes
are calibrated to elicit snickering derision
for Jerome's inferior classmates, Jimmy's
works hold more power, both aesthetic
and ideological, than Jerome's meticu-
lous, romantically inspired portraits of
the bland honey-blond Audrey.
It doesn't much matter if the film's
greater statement - that the conflict
between the creative ideal and the cre-
ator's reality is irreconcilable, that this
idealism will be destroyed by the artist's
negative humanity - achieves prece-
dence over the surface veneer of retread
characters and relatively cheap (though
frequent) laughs. There will be audi-
ences who choose to pick up a distinctly
Clowesian aftertaste in the film's unso-
phisticated displays of cynicism, and
those who don't will see a slightly quirky
loser flick with a twist.
But if the price of art is so great -
and Zwigoff and Clowes suggest that
mortality, not only morality and artistic
integrity, is part of the equation - one
would hope that the product resulting
from such a Faustian bargain would be
more impressive than this.

By Lloyd Cargo
Daily Arts Writer
In the early 1970s, Detroit was
at somewhat of a cultural and eco-
nomic crossroads. Motown had left
for Los Angeles, and the Motor City
was slowly reduced to
a shell of its former " "
self. But the heart of Nomol
the underground jazz New Tones
scene remained, and Ubiquity
brilliant artists such
as Phil Ranelin, Mar-
cus Belgrave and Wendell Harrison
stood ground to fill the void, forming
Tribe Records to showcase their deep
jazz and funk roots. Local musicians
captured the soul of a city, printing
a progressive magazine and promot-
ing the message "Music is the healing
force of the universe." Nomo, with
their latest, New Tones, continue in
that tradition by evoking the essence
of Ann Arbor and celebrating the
vibrancy of our diverse city.
Formed in 2003 through jamming
in the basement of a Kerrytown house,
Nomo, comprised of School of Music
alumni, shake, rattle and roll in the
spirit of John Coltrane, Fela Kuti and
Sly Stone. The group is the vision of
band leader, keyboardist and saxo-
phonist Elliot Bergman, the heart of
an extremely talented bunch.
Nomo is more than the sum of its
considerable parts, though, since
every member is indispensable.
Nomo couldn't groove without per-
cussionists Dan Piccolo and Olman
Piedra, and couldn't wail without the
frontline of trumpeters Ingrid Racine
and Justin Walter, alto sax Dean
Moore or baritone sax Dan Ben-
nett. Nor would the carefully crafted
polyrhythms be complete without the
tasteful guitar of Erik Hall and the
bottom end boost of bassist/vocalist
Jaime Register.

In addition to the stellar lineup,
Bergman has an ace in the hole with
Warn Defever behind the mixing board.
Defever, founder of His Name is Alive,
produced this affair and did a terrific
job capturing the excitement of a Nomo
performance at The Blind Pig, while
giving every instrument space and deft-
ly integrating exotic sounds and ideas.
The disc leads off with "Nu Tones,"
and boy do those handclaps hit hard.
The distorted thumb piano carves out
a riff before the swaggering horns take
over. Bergman's tenor reminds that not
only does he write beautifully intricate
melodies and powerful arrangements,
but he can also blow some fire as well.
The album is a whirl of energy with
eachtrackmelting intothenext.It'smusic
for dancing down South Division St.,
for celebrating Ann Arbor in the spring
with a toss on the Diag or a jog through
the Arb. "Hand to Mouth" introduces an
indomitable Fender Rhodes (the classic
electric piano sound) to the fracas, as the
band careens through corners, turning
on the face of a dime, stretching a motif
until the breaking point and ending right
back where they started.
The album is so joyous because New
Tones is injected with the same quirky
spirit as the place that spawned it. The
space, the texture, the tension, the
depth of it all - are as nuanced as Ann
Arbor. The booming baritone on "The
Reason" sounds like the horn of a train
roaring down the tracks, and carries as
much weight in its delivery.
New Tones is a grand success and
its release on the esteemed Los Ange-
les label Ubiquity Records will make
Nomo Ann Arbor's most important
musical export since Defever's own
His Name is Alive signed to 4AD
more than 15 years ago. There can be
no better representative, no one more
passionate or earnest than Bergman
and his crew. This record is some-
thing for Ann Arbor to be proud of,
a healing force to move the spirit and
shake the body.

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