Sports & Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, February 5, 2016 — 7
‘Jane Got a Gun’
is a sappy failure
Natalie Portman’s
romantic Western
is shooting blanks
By MADELEINE GAUDIN
Daily Arts Writer
“Jane Got a Gun,” but she
doesn’t really use it. Natalie
Portman’s (“Black Swan”) lat-
est film has so
much potential
to be a badass
reversal
of
traditional
Western
gen-
der roles, but
it loses itself
somewhere
along the way.
Portman
plays the titu-
lar character seeking revenge
against the band of outlaws
known as the Bishop Boys, who
want her and her husband Bill
Hammond
(Noah
Emmerich,
“Pride and Glory”) dead. When
they send Hammond home alive
but full of bullets, she calls on the
help of her ex-fiancé Dan Frost
(Joel Edgerton, “Black Mass”)
to be her “gunslinger.” The only
catch is that Hammond thinks
Dan is dead.
With a tangled plot of love
triangles, betrayal and dead
characters who come back to
life, “Jane Got a Gun” often feels
like a Nicholas Sparks Western.
Dan and Jane’s love story is told
through golden-hued flashbacks
in which the pair laugh and run
through various fields.
Jane starts out with peak bad
bitch potential. She tells her hus-
band to “watch his language” as
she pulls bullets out of his back,
then turns around and buys an
obscene amount of ammo to get
her revenge. Unfortunately, it’s
not long until Jane finds herself
in need of saving. Dan rescues
her from an alley attacker early
on, and continues to save her for
the duration of the film. It’s so
disappointing because “Jane Got
a Gun” ends up being more about
the men around her than Jane
herself.
“Jane Got a Gun” wants to be
over just as badly as the audience
wants it to be. The plot is rushed,
only taking its time to flesh out
dramatic flashbacks. Most of the
film is spent on Jane’s property
while she and Dan (but mostly
Dan) fortify the house and wait
for the impending attack. The
few scenes of action are rushed
and therefore insufficient to give
“Jane Got a Gun” the excite-
ment it so desperately needs. The
movie sacrifices drama for time
efficiency and loses in a major
way.
“Jane” had a rough time mak-
ing it to theaters, and perhaps
that’s why it feels tired before
it even begins. After losing the
original director and a chunk of
the male cast, Gavin O’Connor
(“Warrior”) came in, Edgerton
overhauled the script and the
movie was “saved.” However, it
still feels at times like two mov-
ies stitched together. Characters
— especially villain John Bishop
(Ewan McGregor, “Mortdecai”)
— are left painfully underde-
veloped. Perhaps the result of
too many hands on deck, “Jane
Got a Gun” seems torn between
wanting to be a vengeful action
flick or a movie about the emo-
tional toll of the West. It can’t
commit fully to either one, and
fails to find the proper blend of
the two.
Unfortunately for “Jane Got a
Gun,” it seems all the action and
excitement was had off screen.
TV NOTEBOOK
Death Wish Coffee
super ad to watch
By HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK
Daily Arts Writer
Super Bowl 50 is on CBS this
Sunday, which means three
things: beer, Beyonce and bang-
ing commercials. (And Cold-
play, the Carolina Panthers and
the Denver Broncos, if we’re
getting technical.) For me, all
the entertainment of the Super
Bowl
happens
outside
the
game — the pregame and pizza;
the gaudy halftime show; the
advertisements that make you
cry (Budweiser clydesdales and
puppies, I’m looking at you) and
split your sides (if you haven’t
seen Anna Kendrick’s New-
castle beer commercial, watch
it now).
Altogether, the Super Bowl
is really just a big, fat televised
spectacle of all things Ameri-
can, from its whooping football
fans and celebrity shows, to
its corporate commercials that
cost upwards of five million
dollars for 30 seconds of air-
time. To afford a commercial
slot during the most-watched
event on TV, companies must
be very powerful — think Pepsi,
Doritos, or State Farm Insur-
ance — because the Super Bowl
doesn’t do small.
There’s hope, however, for
small businesses to be heard in
the Super Bowl. Last August,
Intuit QuickBooks, an account-
ing software company catered
towards small businesses, host-
ed a competition called “Small
Business, Big Game,” in which
15,000 companies across the
country entered for the chance
to win an all-expenses paid,
30-second
advertisement
to
air during the Super Bowl. For
inspired
entrepreneurs
and
mom-and-pop shops, winning
the ad slot would be the oppor-
tunity of a lifetime — their
products would be broadcast in
front some 114.4 million people,
giving the company incredible
exposure and a springboard for
future sales.
And for some small business-
es, like New York-based Death
Wish Coffee, the quirky win-
ner of this year’s competition,
winning meant another thing:
getting the country hyped on
caffeine.
Though Death Wish Coffee
founder Mike Brown has now
hired new staff members for his
roasting crew (for a still-tiny
staff total of 12) and is expecting
a huge business growth after the
Super Bowl, his future hasn’t
always been certain. Before
founding Death Wish in 2012,
Brown worked at a small coffee
shop, Saratoga Coffee Traders,
in Saratoga Springs, NY. Brown
told Fortune magazine that his
customers would often request
“a cup of your strongest cof-
fee,” inspiring Brown to tinker
with his roasting process, using
robusta coffee beans instead of
classic arabica beans.
The result? A cup of coffee
with two times the caffeine of
an average cup of joe. Brown
dubbed the jitter-juice “Death
Wish Coffee,” and the brand
has steadily gained a cult-like
fan base (maybe because it’s so
addictive?), earning more five-
star reviews than any bag of cof-
fee on Amazon. Brown accredits
to his loyal fans Death Wish’s
victory
in
“Small
Business,
Big Game,” as the winner was
determined by public votes. His
roastery beat runner-up com-
panies Chubbies Shorts, official
clothing sponsor of frat boys
everywhere, as well as Vidler’s
5 & 10, a family-owned general
store.
Naturally, the commercial for
Death Wish is just as intense
as the brand itself. Released
late last week, the finished ad
looks remarkably similar to a
“Poseidon”-esque movie trailer:
there’s a soaking wet crew of
Vikings rolling on a sea of black
coffee, their fearless captain
shouting, “The day of reckon-
ing is upon us! Row, awaken and
welcome death!” Intense battle
cries follow, like a real-life reen-
actment of a caffeine-induced
energy surge. The sea turns
dark, then pours from a mug
into a coffee drinker’s mouth.
Death Wish signs off with the
slogan, “Death Wish Coffee:
Fiercely Caffeinated.”
“I think it’s going to be one
of the best, if not the best ad in
the Super Bowl,” Brown told Fox
Business. Whether the commer-
cial stands its ground alongside
the likes of GoDaddy.com and
the Esurance baby is yet to be
determined, but we can safely
say that Death Wish will be the
only small business on the field
this Sunday — and that’s some-
thing to applaud.
Brown continued in his Fox
Business interview, “Half of
the entire workforce works for
small businesses. The fact that
I’m able to represent small busi-
nesses is an honor.”
Maybe Super Bowl 50 can be
the game when we all drink a
little more craft beer and a lit-
tle less Budweiser, the year we
brew a little more Death Wish
Coffee and a little less Star-
bucks. After all, what’s more
American than rooting for, the
underdog?
C
Jane Got
a Gun
Rave & Quality 16
The Weinstein
Company
FILM REVIEW
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The film wants
to be over just
as badly as the
audience.
Because the
Super Bowl
doesn’t do small.
Wolverines to compete for Iron D
By KEVIN SANTO
Daily Sports Writer
For the past 91 years, the
Michigan hockey team has played
for plenty of trophies against
Michigan State.
But
never
before
have
the Wolverines
had the chance
to take home
hardware quite
like the one up
for grabs against
their
in-state
rival
this
weekend.
Now, with the
Duel in the D
on the horizon,
Michigan (7-1-2-
1 Big Ten, 16-3-4
overall) has the
chance to claim
possession of the newly crafted
Iron D trophy.
The trophy — crafted by Erik
and Israel Nordin — has a “made
in Detroit feeling” according to
Michigan coach Red Berenson.
And while Berenson praised
the Nordin brothers’ work, he
also emphasized that the in-state
rivalry already has a life of its own.
“We went down to the factory
where they made that trophy
and watched a little bit of the
production of it — how it’s made,
where it’s made and why it was
made,” Berenson said Jan. 25. “I
think it’s good. It’s the beginning
of another tradition between the
two schools. We’ve had that game
(at Joe Louis Arena) forever, but
now you’ve got another thing to
play for.
“It’s
a
goal,
it’s
a
mini
championship, if you would. It’s
bragging rights. If the players had
to play for a gum wrapper, they’re
going to play hard. It’s important to
them to win.”
The last meeting between the
two teams came Jan. 8 and Jan.
9, when the Wolverines handed
Michigan
State
back-to-back
losses, 9-2 and 6-3.
Though the Spartans (2-8-0-
0, 6-18-2) got on the board first
in both matchups, they had no
answer for the Michigan offense
that is averaging a nation best five
goals per game.
The 15-goal weekend was led, as
usual, by the Wolverines’ first line.
Freshman forward Kyle Connor
and junior forwards Tyler Motte
and JT Compher combined for
seven goals in two games.
Michigan State now faces the
task of stopping the trio that seems
to be growing more dominant
every time they take the ice
together.
And that will be a tall task for
the Spartans’ blueliners, who are
tied for last in the Big Ten in team
defense, allowing 4.30 goals per
game. Part of that problem falls
on the shoulders of goaltender
Jake Hildebrand, whose .930 save
percentage from last year has
plummeted to .896.
Regardless of the approach
Michigan State takes to stop the
top line, the Wolverines won’t
look to fix what isn’t broken, as
Compher, Motte and Connor have
combined for 75 points in 10 games.
“We’re just trying to focus on
ourselves,” Compher said. “For my
line, just keep playing hard, second
efforts, two-way hockey. (We
will be) sticking to what’s been
working, which is moving the puck
and get in the dirty areas.”
Michigan’s defensive unit, on
the other hand, is coming off a
weekend in which it allowed seven
goals to then-No. 15 Penn State.
While
that
mark
is
unimpressive, senior goaltender
Steve Racine recorded a .918
save percentage on the weekend
against the Nittany Lions, giving
the
Wolverines
some
reason
for optimism. And coming off
the sweep against Penn State,
Michigan will have solid footing
entering the matchup with the
Spartans — standing at No. 4 in the
PairWise Rankings.
But that ranking comes with a
bullseye, as the Wolverines have a
lot more than a trophy to lose this
weekend.
A loss to the Spartans, who
are fifth in the Big Ten, could be
catastrophic to Michigan’s position
in the PairWise Rankings, which
are used to determine the NCAA
Tournament field and seeding.
Based on the last meeting
between the two sides, these aren’t
games the Wolverines should lose,
but nothing is guaranteed.
“Obviously they compete really
hard,” Connor said. “I think it’s
just something with the rivalry.
When you throw out the rankings,
you throw out the record, it doesn’t
really matter at this point. It’s
going to be a hard game to play in.”
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Junior forward JT Compher is part of a line that combined for seven goals in two games last weekend against Penn State.
Michigan vs.
Michigan
State
Matchup:
Michigan
16-3-4;
Michigan
State 6-18-12
When: Friday
7:30 P.M.
Where: Joe
Louis Arena
TV/Radio:
FSD
‘M’ hosts Illinois
By TED JANES
Daily Sports Writer
The
Michigan
women’s
basketball team (4-7 Big Ten, 12-10
overall) needs to rebound — both
metaphorically and literally.
After
the
Wolverines
were
handed
their worst loss
of the season
Wednesday — a
21-point defeat
against No. 17
Michigan State
— they have
potentially
their
easiest
chance
to
bounce back.
Sunday,
Michigan hosts
Illinois (1-10 Big Ten, 8-14 overall),
the lowest-ranked team in the Big
Ten.
It’s likely that neither team will
make the NCAA Tournament,
but the game has postseason
implications nonetheless.
The
Big
Ten
Tournament
begins in less than a month,
and the four worst teams in the
conference face each other to
start the tournament. Depending
on the outcomes of other games,
a loss for Michigan this weekend
could drop the team one spot
down into the bottom four.
Michigan wants the highest
seed it can get when it arrives in
Indianapolis on Mar. 2. With just
seven games left, including road
games against No. 5 Maryland and
Purdue — a team that scraped past
Michigan by two points Dec. 30 —
it will be tough for the Wolverines
to get any higher than the No. 5 or
No. 6 spot.
But if Michigan coach Kim
Barnes Arico has a plan up
her sleeve, it will start with
rebounding this weekend against
Illinois.
Against a strong Michigan State
frontcourt,
Michigan
suffered
on the glass and lost the rebound
battle, 38-23.
In conference play, Michigan is
0-5 when it loses the rebounding
battle. For the most part, the
Wolverines have been neck and
neck on the glass — averaging
35.5 rebounds, just half a rebound
fewer than their opponents.
Michigan can’t afford to get
blown out on the glass, but Illinois
doesn’t have the same quality that
Michigan State possessed.
The Fighting Illini are on a five-
game skid, bear the worst record
in the Big Ten and are averaging
double-digit
losses
against
conference opponents.
Illinois’s worst loss of the season
came Jan. 7, losing by 31 points to
the Golden Gophers, a team the
Wolverines beat twice this season.
The Illini’s match for Michigan
freshman center Hallie Thome
will be center Chatrice White. At
6-foot-3, White doesn’t have the
height advantage over Michigan’s
star freshman, who measures at
6-foot-5. Thome averages 14 points
and 5.8 rebounds.
Michigan’s advantage, though,
comes from its guards. Standout
sophomore Katelynn Flaherty,
who averages 22.3 points per
game, continues to impress despite
a struggling supporting cast.
Besides Flaherty, who scored
18 points against the Spartans,
freshman guard Boogie Brozoski
put up 13 points off the bench,
but not much else went right on
offense in East Lansing.
“We got tight, and we just
tried to get the ball to (Flaherty),”
Barnes Arico said. “Instead of
multiple people trying to do things
for our team, their pressure really
got to us.”
Flaherty won’t have as tough
an opponent against Illinois, and
it’s not unreasonable to think she
could go for at least 20 points, but
how the rest of the team steps up
could be the deciding factor.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Illinois at
Michigan
Matchup:
Illinois 8-14;
Michigan 12-10
When: Sunday
2 P.M.
Where:
Crisler Center
TV/Radio:
BTN Plus