The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, January 23, 2015 — 7

Won’t remember 
FOB for centuries

ISLAND RECORDS

Thnks fr th mmrs vn thgh thy wrn’t s gd

By CHRISTIAN KENNEDY

Daily Arts Writer

Fall Out Boy’s album 

disappointingly 

uneven

It is hard to believe that 10 

years have passed since Fall Out 
Boy’s claim-to-fame album From 
Under the Cork 
Tree 
spawned 

“Sugar, 
We’re 

Going 
Down,” 

“Dance, Dance” 
and “A Little 
Less 
Sixteen 

Candles, a Little 
More 
‘Touch 

Me.’ ” Over the 
past decade the 
band has strung 
together a hand-
ful of hits, ulti-
mately leading up to American 
Beauty / American Psycho. Even 
though it starts off strong, FOB’s 
sixth LP loses all of its energy, 
devolving into an unimaginative, 
messy love poem.

“Irresistible” opens the album 

with a punching beat and fantas-
tic verses. The lyrics are strong 
and catchy without being repeti-
tive in typical Fall Out Boy fash-
ion. The chorus is decent, but 
nothing spectacular; it holds 
through the initial cry, but loses 
energy through echoes. The title 
track comes next and is one of the 
band’s strongest dance anthems 
since “Dance, Dance.” Here, the 
echoes that lost energy on “Irre-
sistible” amp up the energy and 
carry the chorus seamlessly into 

the next verse, which are equally 
enjoyable. 

“Centuries,” the album’s lead 

single, is decent, but let’s make 
one thing clear — we will not 
remember this song for centuries 
(or even decades). Its most memo-
rable quality is the ephemeral and 
haunting intro; beyond that the 
verses’ strength in the aforemen-
tioned tracks is lost and replaced 
with confused and slightly creepy 
lyrics. “The bruises on your thighs 
like my fingerprints” comes off as 
abusive if anything.

Following 
the 
unmemora-

ble “Centuries,” FOB redeems 
themselves on “The Kids Aren’t 
Alright.” This track boasts the 
first completely satisfying chorus 
on the record. It is passionate, 
moving and the first time we see 
maturation in the band’s reper-
toire. Of course, that does not last 
long once the quick keyboard rings 
in on “Uma Thurman.” There are 
so many reasons to love this song 
(and not just the title). Its instru-
mental breaks are reminiscent of 
action movie montages and laced 
between quick and catchy verses 
and choruses that do not come off 
as “shouty” in the way some Fall 
Out Boy material does.

If you find yourself listening 

to American Beauty / American 
Psycho you should soak up all of 
the great qualities featured in 
“Uma Thurman” because it is 
downhill from there. “Jet Pack 
Blues” begins the album’s decline 
into a cocktail of undeveloped 
stories and floating metaphors. 
You know when you sing a song 
and you think a line is repeated 
once more than it is? “Baby Come 
Home” is similar. When you think 

the line is done, it is then repeated 
five more times. None of the rep-
etitions are more enjoyable than 
the previous and all the more 
frustrating. “Novocaine” offers 
no redemption; it is like literally 
drowning in metaphors and simi-
les. The task of understanding 
what the hell the song is trying 
to say revokes any enjoyment the 
music could bring.

Between “Jet Pack Blues,” 

“Novocaine” and the next track, 
“Fourth of July,” it is hard to 
understand where one track 
begins and the other ends. 
Searching 
for 
distinctions 

among these songs is fruitless. 
“Fourth of July” continues the 
metaphorical 
misfires 
with 

“You and I were fireworks, and 
we went off too soon.” Brilliant.

“Favorite 
Record” 
and 

“Immortal” 
follow, 
posing 

nothing new or interesting. 
Ridiculously overused or unin-
terrupted metaphors abundant; 
it all comes off as trying much 
too hard. The latter half of this 
record is far from immortal; it 
was pretty much dead on arriv-
al.

The record concludes with 

the slightly redeeming “Twin 
Skeletons.” It has well-timed 
instrumental breaks as not to 
drown the listeners in content 
as the previous tracks have. The 
dragged out crooning of “hold 
on” at this point is just too much. 
I let go about six songs ago.

American Beauty / American 

Psycho comes out of the gate on 
fire and ends in a ball of flames. 
It has two clear acts; take my 
advice and get the hell out dur-
ing intermission.

C

American 
Beauty/
American 
Psycho

Fall Out Boy

Island Records

‘Paddington’ delights

FILM REVIEW

By JACOB RICH

Daily Film Editor

When I walked out of “The 

Grand Budapest Hotel” last 
March, I felt several conflict-
ing 
emotions. 

I was exuber-
ant, 
having 

just 
experi-

enced such a 
beautiful 
and 

absorbing film, 
but also some-
what sad, as I 
realized that I 
would have to 
wait another two years to get 
to experience another new Wes 
Anderson movie. 

Thanks 
to 
“Paddington,” 

I really only had to wait 10 
months. 

No, Anderson didn’t actually 

have anything to do with this 
film. But “Paddington” imitates 
the beautiful, creative imag-
ery that Anderson’s films are 
known for (complete with his 
quirky rule-of-thirds-breaking 
cinematographic style), while 
simultaneously 
and 
expertly 

emulating the innocent, non-
cynical and nostalgic emotional 
content of his kid-friendly films 
(like “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and 
“Moonrise Kingdom”). But it’s 
not just a Wes Anderson rip-off. 
“Paddington” carves out its own 
identity as a unique tale about 
immigration, and the hardships 
immigrants face when acclimat-
ing to their new surroundings.

“Paddington” is a screen 

adaptation of an extraordi-
narily popular icon of British 
children’s literature: Padding-
ton 
Bear. 
Paddington 
(Ben 

Whishaw, “Skyfall”) is a polite, 
hopeful and naïve to a fault 
young bear from “darkest” Peru, 
who, due to a series of tragic 
events, is sent by his aunt to 
find a new home in London. Its 
narrative champions the impor-
tance of immigrants to an urban 
society, and one of its villains 
(Peter Capaldi, “Doctor Who”) 
is an obvious parody of the far-
right anti-immigrant groups of 
the United Kingdom like the 
British National Party.

While the story is one of a 

political nature, the film never 
feels stuffy or overly preachy. 
On the contrary, this film is 
the shot of pure non-cynical 
warmth that the increasingly 
cynical world of children’s cin-
ema needs. “Paddington” is less 
concerned with minute-to-min-
ute laughs or beat-you-over-the-
head morals and more in love 
with cinematic beauty. Every 
shot is lavishly and individually 
treated as its own diorama of 
interesting objects, and part of 
the fun of the film is discovering 
what visual treats the filmmak-
ers have around every corner. 
Perhaps it’ll be a pointlessly 
complex steampunk-style filing 
system in the library, or a paint-
ing on the wall that animates 
to reflect the emotions of the 
house’s residents. “Paddington” 

is chock-full of these wonderful 
visual flourishes.

The narrative of “Padding-

ton” works because of its dis-
tinctly 
British 
sensibilities 

surrounding 
the 
potential 

absurdity of having human 
actors speak to a talking, cud-
dly bear. You’d expect a film like 
this to fall prey to the obvious 
set of jokes involving anthro-
pomorphic animals in film: 
the exclamations of finding “a 
real-life talking bear” and the 
inevitable slapstick humor to 
follow. It thankfully avoids that 
altogether by having the human 
characters 
quite 
amusingly 

just not care that Paddington 
happens to be a talking bear. 
This narrative choice cuts out 
unnecessary plot hang-ups and 
leads to some funny dialogue 
moments (“just keep walking, 
that bear is probably just selling 
something”).

It also works because of 

its superb technical sensibil-
ity with its CGI. Paddington, 
constructed of a blend of ani-
matronics and CGI, is a techni-
cal accomplishment, and looks 
far less out of place strolling 
through London than the half-
CGI 
dwarves 
did 
stomping 

around Middle Earth in the 
recent “Hobbit” movies.

“Paddington” is an expert 

piece of children’s cinema. It’s a 
shame it likely won’t be as popu-
lar in the Americas as it will be 
in the UK, because its simple 
beauty is universal.

A-

Paddington

StudioCanal

Rave and 

Quality 16

‘Seeking Woman’ is 
creative & hilarious

By MATT BARNAUSKAS

Daily Arts Writer

Ever hear that someone is liter-

ally Hitler? Hyperboles are a com-
mon but powerful part of speech: 
They can con-
vey 
sadness, 

frustration and 
excitement 
as 

language 
that 

makes everyday 
occurrences 
larger 
than 

life. In FXX’s 
new 
comedy 

“Man 
Seek-

ing 
Woman,” 

hyperbole 
becomes real as 
the fantastic and surreal go hand-
in-hand with the mundane, creat-
ing a unique perspective for the 
TV romantic comedy.

The show opens with Josh 

Greenberg (Jay Baruchel, “This 
Is the End”) parting ways with 
his girlfriend of four years (or six 
if you count the e-mailing), Mag-
gie (Maya Erskine, “Betas”). Josh 
shows a quiet sense of defeat as he 
tries to keep open opportunities 
with Maggie, as the two decide 
if they might be able to be bud-
dies. Josh walks away followed 
by his own personal raincloud. 
The raincloud is the first of the 
magical reality moments in the 
episode. By using such a common 
image, “Man Seeking Woman” 
preps itself to dive into the absurd 
world that it has created.

Josh’s sister Liz (Britt Lower, 

“Unforgettable”) sets him up 
with a friend from Sweden, only 
to learn the friend is an absolute 
troll – a troll as in being born in 
the Scandinavian Forest and “she 
moved here last year so she could 
run her nonprofit and live under-
neath the Wabash Bridge.” 

Creator Simon Rich, a former 

writer for “Saturday Night Live,” 
has adapted his own short story 
collection “The Last Girlfriend 
on Earth” into “Man Seeking 
Woman.” There’s definitely a 
sense of Rich’s sketch and short 
story writing influences in the 
show with most of major events of 
supernatural comedy forming the 
meat of the episode. Rich takes 
tropes associated with roman-
tic comedies and inserts enough 
insanity and exaggeration to 
make the situations enjoyably 
clever. 

Interspersed between are more 

grounded moments in Josh’s life 
as he tries to gain his confidence 
back. However, some of these 
moments feel like they’re just bid-
ing time untill the next comedic 
set piece. These bits are aided 
though by the efforts of Baruchel 
who makes Josh more than a sad 
sack who hasn’t been laid in a 
while. Josh’s efforts show heart, 
and that makes it saddening to see 
him try and fail.

In a world where the extremes 

of ideas exist, Baruchel serves as 
the straight man to the absurd 
happenings around him. This is 
best seen when he attends a party 
hosted by Maggie and her new 
boyfriend who is literally Hitler 

(an unrecognizable Bill Hader, 
“Saturday Night Live”). In the 
world of “Man Seeking Woman,” 
the crazy events are accepted 
as normal by most characters, 
and Josh is the only occasional 
detracting voice, “I thought he 
died like, years ago?” Josh ques-
tions, only for his friend Mike 
(Eric André, “Don’t Trust the B in 
Apartment 23”) to answer, “Nah, 
he faked that. Yeah, he’s been hid-
ing in Argentina since, like, the 
‘40s.”

By using common exaggera-

tions and spinning them into a real 
world setting Rich has created 
an insane but relatable universe. 
Even though Josh’s experiences 
veer into the preposterous, there 
are still the common struggles 
of getting over a relationship or 
reclaiming one’s self-confidence 
to tie fantasy to reality. 

It’s hard seeing Josh stumble 

and fail in such large ways that 
it is a relief to see him succeed 
when he gets the phone number 
of a woman called Laura (Vanessa 
Bayer, another “SNL” cast mem-
ber). The corresponding response 
by the show’s universe is uplift-
ing. Even though life’s difficul-
ties can seem larger than life, the 
smallest victories can bring us 
insurmountable joy.

FXX

More Men Must Seek Eric André.

B

Man Seek-
ing Woman

Series Pilot

FXX

Wednesdays 

at 10:30 p.m.

TV REVIEW
AKBUM REVIEW

