The Michigan Daily -Thursday, April 11, 1991 - Page 9 Defending Defending Your Defending Your Life dit. Albert Brooks by Jen Bilik Life difficult Albert Brooks can be truly funny in his self-appointed persona as an everyperson riddled with doubt and insecurity. Like Woody Allen, his humor stems from a persona that seems synonymous with the real person behind the comic creation, but Brooks' humor falls flat when 'is investment in himself spurs him to spin the individual into the uni- versal. In Defending Your Life, Brooks imagines an afterlife where people are judged not according to virtues and sins but upon their inse- curities and anxietics, a nightmare scenario for one so afflicted with self-doubt. The idea itself isn't so ludicrous, *and it bears the seeds of comic suc- cess, but like his little man charac- ter, it just tries too hard. Brooks of- ten has the feel of a comedian on a talk show, after the monologue, who steps up to chat with the host and can't stop joking. His routines seem prefabricated, unable to fit the impromptu nature of the conversa- tion so that he seems less a screen- writer than a scared boy on stage. Like much failed comedy, Defending Your Life is character- ized by the apparentness of its structure. It's all too easy to see what Brooks was thinking when he conceived the script. The trans- parency of his comic motivation renders the movie predictable and contrived. Viewing becomes a pro- cess of guessing what he'll do next and, too often, being right. In his ad-line, Brooks dubs his movie "the first true story of what happens after you die," revealing a self-conscious righteousness that permeates the script. Death is a tran- sition from one life to another where characters must defend their lives in courts fashioned after r~,1 Julia that she was once an Arthurian knight. Dan, simple and insecure, sees himself as a tribal savage. Streep's talents are entirely wasted, underscoring her assertion that Hollywood provides few good roles for women, as she does little more than giggle and glow in smug self-satisfaction. Brooks provides no justification for Julia's attrac- tion to Dan, other than the moralis- tic nature of the movie that justifies his cowardice with parental abuse and good intention. Every joke Brooks could possibly have thought up about the afterlife finds its way into the movie's episodic structure, yet few are funny because they've been forced into a preconceived script. Brooks' insecurity gets cloying at times, as in Judgement City's comedy club where he meets Julia. The comedian is an eternally bad al- See DEFENSE, Page 12 _ANARORM 5TH AVE. AT LIBERTY 761-9700 $2'5DAILY SHOWS BEFORE 6 PM6& ALL DAY TUESDAY' STUDENT WITH I.D. $3.50 There is hip and there is hip. Blow Up is hip. Really. I mean, any film that has sex scenes with photo equipment, The Yardbirds, surreal- istic mimes, Verushka, wild parties, drug use and can still maintain a good message about the nature of re- ality must be pretty hip. Blow Up was made in 1966, which means that it was made a good two years before the rest of the world started talking about those topics. This makes it doubleplus hip. What happens: a jaded fashion photographer (David Henning), tired with sexual sublimation through his camera, goes out on the town to take some casual pictures in order to get his mind off of the su- perficiality of his work. He sees two people (a young, hip, pre- Weight Watchers Vanessa Redgrave being one of them) dancing in a park and takes some pictures of them. When he gets home and develops the- pictures he notices something in one of the photo's corner of one of them. As he blows the photo up fur- - ther and further he realizes that the picture that he took was not at all the picture that he thought he took. He goes to investigate, and that's when things get really good. As he delves deeper and deeper into the in- trigue behind the picture, things be- gin to get stranger and stranger. To add to the strangeness, Michel-an- See CAMPUS, Page 12 Albert Brooks as Dan Miller looks concerned playing someone similar to Brooks' public persona. But wouldn't you standing near a train called the "Destination Train"? Notice also Rip corner. screening rooms. Lawyers call upon episodes that illustrate their clients' strengths and faults, while judges look on before making final decisions about the next life. The stupid and cowardly return to earth to address their fears, while the brave move on to heightened intel- ligence in another world. Judgment City, the way-station where most of the movie takes place, is an amuse- ment park of hotels and golf courses, filled with over-literal vi- sual and verbal puns. Everything in Defending Your Life functions as a vehicle for Torn's official back in the left Brooks' overly self-conscious con- cerns, as if he asked himself about what happens after we die and spent the rest'of the time fitting comic skits into this newly concocted world view. He sets himself as normal Joe, Dan Miller, against his love interest, Julia (Meryl Streep), a woman whose bravery is character- ized by an episode where she rescues her children from a fire and returns to save the cat. For her bravery, Julia lives in a better hotel and gets in- vited to afterlife parties. In the Past Lives Pavilion, Shirley MacLaine surfaces as the MC, revealing to PLLLEAS AND 9ELISANDE Isa ~r The Nasty Girt PG -13 Cyrano De Bergerac PG Present this coupon with purchased ticket thru 4/19191 E F:. , d. \' An adaptation of Maeterlinck's classic love tragedy Trueblood Theatre Apr. 4 - 6, 11 - 13 at 8 PM; Apr. 7, 14 at 2 PM Z -Y l y e r Tickets: $9 general Students $5 with ID at the League Ticket Office. admission: M tltx)I 0 p IN' t I.,^ I. , A ..... r.r r U I BEST Pu ers o na l U DO YOU... /specialize in word processing °.. °1 A9 A N IF )4 IF 1 r NN -~ * 0 eog 4 rap I' Dance Gallery in concert Choreography by Alan Lommasson April 11-13 - 8:00 pm U-M Dance Building Studio A 1310 N. University Ct. Tickets in advance at the Michigan Theater box office, 668-8405, or at the door. Sponsored by Kessler & Geer and Ketelaar Associates, Inc. \ Made possible in part by a grant from the = Michigan Council for the Arts 5 t4 4R t WS y /run a test preparation service OR /furnish resumes? Advertise in Classifieds Call 764-0557 NOW!_ "RIIDAIY+ z I COMPLETE TRAVEL RESOURCE CENTER INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FRAME BACKPACKS FROM DANA, LOWE, NORTH FACE, GREGORY COMPLETE SELECTION OF BACKPACKING SUPPLIES *SLEEPING BAGS *TENTS e HIKING BOOTS eCOMPLETE PATAGONIA LINE OF CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT COMPLETE SELECTION OF TRAVEL SUPPLIES *ELECTRICAL ADAPTERS AND CONVERTERS *PASSPORT CARRIERS AND MONEY BELTS eLIGHT-WEIGHT RAIN GEAR TRAVEL PACKS - CONVERT TO BACKPACK OR LUGGAGE FROM MEl, LOWE, OSPREY, KELTY -A I !EI I ............