Tuesday
May 30, 2006
arts.michigandaily.com
artspage@michigandaily.com

ARTS


Sundance hits Mich.

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"Go Blue!"

By Jeffrey Bloomer
Managing Editor
With the famously discriminating
yes of the international film com-
nunity currently set on the public-
ty parade that is the Cannes Film
Festival, The Michigan Theater has
urned its focus to honoring classics
rom another festival.
The theater will be among 14 spe-
ially selected U.S. theaters to host
5 films passed down by the Sun-
Lance Institute, in a 25th-anniversary
eries dedicated to classic movies that
lebuted at the Sundance Film Festi-
al. The theater will also host three
sore films it selected - "Roger &
Me," "The Upside of Anger" and "The
Purple Rose of Cario" - because of
heir local interest.
To add to the clout, one of the
American art house's biggest stars
- Chelsea-bred actor Jeff Daniels
"The Squid and the Whale") -
will appear this Thursday to answer
questions after a presentation of
Cario," one of the now-revered
tar's early films.
Michigan Theater executive direc-
or and CEO Russ Collins, who trav-
led to the Sundance Film Festival
arlier this year and spoke on a
>anel, said the series will give the
heater the opportunity to showcase
ilms that have made the art-house
radition what it is today.
"The Michigan Theater is primar-
ly a cultural institution, and this
s an excellent way to celebrate the
ndependent film movement of the
80s and '90s as well as the 25th
nniversary of the Sundance fes-
ival," he said. "This is a series of
ery interesting films picked by a
ery important institute."
The series will bring a sequence
f films originally screened before
ome of cinema's most eager and
rdent fans, which Collins said are
he lifeblood of the festival.
"As I walked the streets (at Sun-
ance), they were filled with people
assionate about film," he said."They
were not movie stars; they were pri-

STERILE MUTATION
RATNER BRINGS TRILOGY TO UNSATISFYING END

By Evan McGarvey
Daily Arts Writer
I hate you, Brett Ratner.
You and your rough-shod, slap-it-all together directo-
rial style have taken the most methodical, gradual and sat-
isfying comic-book movie trilogy of all time and diluted
it with standard exclamatory/declar-
atory dialogue ("Work as a team!"
"Alcatraz Island!" "Dad!"), the X-Men:
evisceration of a few major x-mytho- The Last
logical plot points and the gameful Stand
introduction of a half-dozen canoni- At the Showcase
cal X-Men quickly rendered into and Quality 16
impressive CGI wallpaper. You've
also taken a script that's been a fitting 20th Century Fax
stand-in for the black power move-
ment, gay rights and the Holocaust and smashed it into
a cartoonish (that's not a compliment) block that barely
runs more than 90 minutes.
I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.
This film could have been so easy to pull off. Under the
helm of Bryan Singer, "X2" had Jean Grey (Famke Jans-
sen, "The Faculty") dead and gently teased the epic Phoenix
storyline. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, "Van Helsing," who
was finally settling into the role) had finally balanced rage
and humanity on those sweet-ass muttonchop side burns.
Professor X (Patrick Stewart, "Star Trek: Nemesis") kept the
dull, lesson-heavy speeches about tolerance and pacifism to
a polemic roar.
But no. Not only did you decide to tackle the Phoe-
nix storyline, but you've also got to drag in the oh-so-
troubling "Cure" arc in as well. They're both fine choices
alone - the notion of a "cure" for mutants, a drug effec-
tively stripping them of their powers and whatever defor-
mities, God-like abilities or cool morphology resonates
especially well with the blue, ape-like Beast (Kelsey
Grammar in one of the only roles that he escapes with

some kind of dignity) and Rogue (Anna Paquin, "The ti
Squid and the Whale"), who still can't touch anyone with
out killing them - but together? i
And at 100 minutes? i
Come on, Brett, you're killing me here. I'd make the old it
joke about circus clowns in a VW, but to your credit, you '
pulled off some absolutely stunning visuals to keep the most a
potent rule about filmmaking intact: Put asses in seats. ti
When Iceman (Shawn Ashmore, "Star Trek: Nemesis") v
finally turns his entire body into ice? Beyond sweet. v
When Magneto (Ian McKellen, "The Da Vinci Code")
twists the entire Golden Gate bridge to get to the final o
show down spot on Alcatraz? You better believe I had my s
Junior Mints in hand. a
But still, you turned the cosmic goddess force of Jean ti
Grey into a whiny, bootleg Sylvia Plath who hates that no
one lets her be as destructive and powerful as she can be. d
Even when the source material is disregarded you p
failed: The action and expository scenes make leaps in w
space and time that go so unexplained I kept waiting for
some bad-ass time warping mutant to show up and make
it all make sense. Screenwriters Zak Penn and Simon
Kinburg make dialogue and set pieces that are so in vio-
lation of "show, don't tell" they'd have trouble getting a
charitable C in English 223.
But it all comes back to you, Brett.
Little kids won't be able to follow the nonsensical
scene jumps and hasty introductions and exits of so
many of their favorite heroes (Kitty Pryde, Angel, et.
at.). Parents and smarmy college kids (like this one) are
going to wretch at the over-simplified (Violence bad! Be
yourself!) "philosophy."
And us, the nerds who got picked last on teams, who
got made fun of for reading "X-Men" deep into ado-
lescence and who still wonder if we'd ever have cool
powers, we're destroyed. We, the people who carry the
deep, complex morals held by the "X-Men" about iden-
tity, justice and responsibility like a religious text and
believe in the communal effect of well-done cinema,
are damn near heartbroken.

Actor Jeff Daniels will appear at
The Michigan Theater Thursday.
marily people who care about the art
of the motion picture."
Among the other films selected
by the institute are University-
adorned cult classics like "Donnie
Darko" and "Memento," which will
screen alongside such cultural land-
marks as "sex, lies, and videotape"
and the decade-spanning documen-
tary "Hoop Dreams." The series,
which debuted May 19, will close
with screenings of Kevin Smith's
"Clerks" in early November.
Regular theater prices apply to
the series, with the customary dis-
count of $6.75 given to students with
identification and some package dis-
counts available.
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