The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Tuesday, April 5, 2016 — 5

Weezer continues its 
comeback on ‘White’

By SAM ROSENBERG

Daily Arts Writer

By now, you’d think that a ’90s 

band like Weezer would have 
given up already. The Los Ange-
les based rock 
group attained 
paramount suc-
cess from their 
magnetic Blue 
Album 
debut 

and their ini-
tially 
hated, 

now 
critically 

praised sopho-
more 
record 

Pinkerton 
in 

1994 and 1996, 
respectively. But even when their 
stardom grew with radio hits like 
“Island in the Sun” and “Beverly 
Hills,” the angsty coolness that 
they so effectively embodied was 
gradually disappearing. In the 
2000s, Weezer released a string 
of lukewarm power-pop records 
like 2005’s head-scratching Make 
Believe and 2009’s severely mis-
guided Raditude (yes, the one 
with a song that featured Lil 
Wayne). However, starting with 
2014’s refreshing Everything Will 
Be Alright in the End, their best 
record in years, Weezer is steadily 
making up for lost time and right-
fully so. Their sound, complete 
with sawtoothed guitar plucks, 
crisp drums, culturally relevant 
lyrics and lead vocalist Rivers 
Cuomo’s croon, is now even more 
finely tuned than before on their 
tenth record and fourth self-titled 

record Weezer (White Album).

While White Album still lacks 

some punch, it’s leaner, looser, 
happier and more mature than 
Weezer’s last few records. Like 
each of the previous Weezer self-
titled 
albums, 
White 
Album’s 

“color” backdrop represents the 
overall tone of the record. It’s 
about rebirth, purity and, to put 
it more concretely, it’s about their 
hometown of L.A. (mine as well) 
and the album uses the beach 
as its motif setting. Other than 
the sound of seagulls and waves 
crashing onto the shore in the 
album opener “California Kids,” 
you can really visualize the kind of 
peculiarities and strange beauties 
entrenched in the city of Los Ange-
les from Cuomo’s perspective.

By deriving its xylophone open-

ing notes from Pinkerton’s “Pink 
Triangle,” “California Kids” pos-
sesses both a nostalgic feel and 
yearning for the present. That 
theme continues in “Wind in Our 
Sail” and “(Girl) We Got a Thing,” 
two energetic romantic ballads 
that name-check Charles Darwin, 
Sisyphus, Gregor Mendel, Stock-
holm syndrome and the Hare 
Krishna. With the hilarious, pow-
er-rock anthem “Thank God for 
Girls,” Weezer succeeds not only 
because of the song’s bizarre nar-
rative, but also for its progressive, 
feminist overtones (“She’s so big / 
She’s so strong / She’s so energetic 
in her sweaty overalls”). The simi-
larly sharp “L.A. Girlz” plays with 
gender stereotypes, with Cuomo 
making himself into a desperate 

guy begging his crush to “sweeten 
up” and acknowledge his feelings 
for her.

Despite all the hard rock jingles 

and odes to women and cannolis, 
Weezer also infuses some of their 
trepidation and Pinkerton malaise 
into “Do You Wanna Get High?” 
which deals with Cuomo’s pre-
scription drug addiction and the 
relationship with his girlfriend 
around the time of 2001’s Green 
Album. Described by Cuomo as 
a “really yucky and intention-
ally uncomfortable portrayal” of 
an addict’s life, “Do You Wanna 
Get High?” is as drugged-out and 
depressing as you’d imagine, but 
Cuomo transforms it into a mind-
numbing throwback. The mostly 
acoustic closer “Endless Bummer” 
is when White Album really shines, 
with Cuomo anxiously awaiting 
the end of the summer during the 
song’s climactic breakdown end-
ing. 

Everything Will Be Alright in 

the End was a return to form for 
Weezer, and White Album is a 
strong continuation of that return. 
Because 
Weezer 
has 
already 

ingrained such an impactful cul-
tural legacy in pop and rock music, 
they don’t need to make a criti-
cally acclaimed record (though, 
that would be pretty nice). The 
only potential issue here is if they 
continue to tread on familiar mate-
rial without breaking new ground. 
Luckily, White Album has indi-
cated that Weezer is on the right 
track to maintaining their awe-
someness.

FILM REVIEW
Romanian ‘Aferim!’ 
a deft western satire

By DANIEL HENSEL

Daily Arts Writer

The Western is a curious type of 

film. The genre features plotlines 
that often feel limited to a short list 
of possible con-
flicts drawn up 
by the genre’s 
masters of yes-
teryear. 
Even 

from a purely 
geographic and 
temporal stand-
point, most of 
its films occur 
in one specific sliver of space and 
time. Whenever a film enters the 
Western canon that attempts to 
fundamentally rethink the genre, 
it’s important to take note. Fred 
Zinnemann’s “High Noon” made 
the Western intimate and small. 
Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Fargo” 
made the Western wintry, Minne-
sotan and modern.

Now, Radu Jude (“Everybody in 

Our Family”) has made the West-
ern Romanian. His film “Aferim!” 
borrows from the greats of the 
1940s and 1950s, and yet it feels 
especially new. “Aferim!”, which 
roughly means “bravo!” or “well 
done!” in Romanian, follows a 
policeman and his son in 1833 
Wallachia, Romania. The pair are 
hired by the local feudal lord to 
find a Roma slave named Carfin 
(Toma Cuzin, “The Treasure”), 
who ran away from the lord after 

sleeping with his wife. Along the 
way, the policeman, Costandin 
(Teodor Corban, “4 Months, 3 
Weeks and 2 Days”), gives ques-
tionable guidance to his teenage 
son, Ionita (Mihai Comanoiu, a 
newcomer) and begins to befriend 
Carfin as he divulges his sexual 
history with the lord’s wife.

Shot in a beautiful black and 

white, 
the 
film’s 
Romanian 

landscapes are stunning. Jude 
constructs his shots carefully, 
establishing 
the 
mountainous 

background as if it, too, were one 
of our main characters. Jude also 
has a knack for framing, whether 
in the lord’s chambers or at an out-
door carnival. In both intimate and 
large-scale scenes, he can immedi-
ately establish a textured setting 
with a deftness that usually takes 
years of experience to master.

The film is a Western, but to 

limit it to that genre would be 
inaccurate. “Aferim!” doubles as a 
biting and hilarious political sat-
ire, showcasing the absurdity of 
historical discriminatory policies 
in Romania. That country’s his-
tory of Roma slavery is a subject 
rarely addressed in its nation’s film 
industry, and for its first major 
movie on the topic, comedy was a 
brave decision. But Jude had the 
right idea. Often, it’s comedy that 
can force us to confront the most 
pressing and taboo subjects of 
our histories. It’s the film’s writ-
ing that takes center stage — the 

Coens or Quentin Tarantino must 
have served as a particular inspi-
ration, with pointless vitriolic ban-
ter being its main comedic feature 
– but it’s easy to feel like some of 
the jokes were lost in translation. 
Of course, no subtitle could ever 
match the vocal intonation and 
timing required to land a perfect 
joke. But here, they come pretty 
close.

However, at its violent sections 

and when generally addressing 
the prevalence of Roma slavery 
in Romania at the time, “Aferim!” 
becomes somber. That dour tone 
is integral to addressing the story 
with the gravitas needed to con-
front such a tragedy. The legacy 
of slavery in Romania is very dif-
ferent from the American per-
spective. Jude, by necessity, must 
approach it carefully.

Yet, the film focuses on Costan-

din who, as a very vulgar and con-
tradictory individual, is a tough 
sell as a protagonist. In the same 
sentence, he can pay deference to 
his lord and denigrate the neigh-
boring lands (Turkey is a common 
target), yet decry the lousy state 
of Romania. He’s the least lik-
able character in the film (except 
for, perhaps, the feudal lord and 
an incredibly racist priest), as he 
tastelessly disparages everyone 
he meets. And yet, with humor as 
our aid, we see him transform. The 
comedy may end on a bitter note, 
but Costandin is bitter with us.

ATLANTIC

But the only good Weezer songs are the top 1 percent.

ALBUM REVIEW

B+

Weezer 
(White 
Album)

Weezer

Atlantic

B+

Aferim!

Parada Film

Michigan Theater.

I 

think about Will Gardner 
a lot. Since the character’s 
death on “The Good Wife” 

two years ago, Will (played by 
Josh Charles) probably crosses 
my mind 
unbidden 
at least 
once a day. 
It’s always 
something 
stupid or 
small that 
reminds 
me of him, 
like the way 
somebody 
pronounces 
“Chicago” or the way the 
newsroom felt when I’d stay 
late at work, the fluorescent 
lights glowing dim yellow and 
the office quiet except for the 
breaths of a few hardworking 
insomniacs. I can recite lines of 
Will’s dialogue like they’re lyr-
ics to my favorite song; I can’t 
step into an elevator without 
remembering the way his hand 
clasps with Alicia’s when the 
doors close and they’re alone 
and unseen. These memories 
feel like my own — and when 
Will was shot to death in court 
in season five, the grief that his 
friends and co-workers experi-
enced felt like mine, too.

I could barely finish “Wet 

Hot American Summer: First 
Day of Camp” because it was 
so weird to see Josh Charles 
wearing a sky-blue polo shirt 
instead of a blood-stained 
gray suit, to see him smiling 
and laughing instead of lying 
motionless on the courtroom 
floor. I miss him viscerally. 
Even two seasons after the 
fact, my throat closes up when 
someone mentions his name on 
a new episode. I watch old clips 
from season one just to hear 
his voice. I read episode recaps 
from five years ago so I can 
remember what he argued in 
the case that week and what he 
said to Alicia after. And more 
often than I’d like to admit, 
I rewatch mopey fan videos 
on YouTube and weep openly 
about that big, bursting heart 
that isn’t beating anymore.

“The Good Wife” just 

doesn’t feel the same without 
him. Though I’d count it as 
one of my favorite shows (any-
one who has ever spent five 
minutes with me can attest 
that I will never fucking shut 
up about “The Good Wife”), 
watching new episodes is a 
chore. Objectively, the show 
has gone downhill with its 
reliably lazy writing and unin-
spired plotting. It’s a shame, 
really. There are only four 
episodes left this season, and 
I can barely get any joy from 
seeing Alicia Florrick chas-
ing her dreams of a female-led 
law firm and giving a hand job 
to Jeffrey Dean Morgan in a 
crowded restaurant.

It’s not just me. The “Good 

Wife” Twitter-verse laments 
the days when this show was 
one of the best on TV, rivaling 
“Breaking Bad” for the most 
thrilling episodes of the year, 
and the simple act of pushing 
papers off a desk could make 
professional pop culture jour-
nalists lose their shit. “The 
Good Wife” ’s weekly recapper 
on The A.V. Club (and former 

Michigan Daily TV columnist) 
Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya 
noted in a recent review that 
“ ‘The Good Wife’ is going out 
at its most mediocre, its most 
bland,” and I’d have to agree. 
When is the last time some-
body did something really sur-
prising, something that landed 
as emotionally grounded? 
Drama, or at least “The Good 
Wife” ’s version of it, comes 
from characters, history and 
bursts of feeling bubbling out 
from behind poised, lawyer-
like exteriors. “The Good 
Wife” has been completely 
devoid of this since Jeffrey 
Grant grabbed a guard’s gun in 
season five.

“The Good Wife” ’s great-

ness died on the courtroom 
floor with Will Gardner. It 
was hard to recognize when he 
was still alive, but Will really 
was unlike anyone else on that 
show. Where Alicia, Diane and 
Cary are pragmatic and gov-
erned by their logical, politi-
cally cognizant brains, Will 
had an atom bomb of a heart 
that he couldn’t always control. 
His feelings buried themselves 
deep — he’d crushed on Alicia 
since their law school days, 
feelings he carried with him 
for 20 years and moves across 
the country until she was back 
in on the job market with a 
wounded marriage and looking 
for some help. He wasn’t very 
good at hiding it — which made 
seasons one and two’s stolen 
kisses and impulsive declara-
tions of love so electric. He had 
passion to spare, enough to 
kick-start nearly every serial 
storyline in the first few sea-
sons. The musical chairs of the 
name partner switch ups, Ali-
cia’s climbing of the corporate 
ladder, the gaining and losing 
of big clients and major cases, 
the spark that ignite Alicia’s 
romance and push her further 
from her husband Peter — it all 
traces back to Will and his big 
mouth and his giant, fragile 
heart.

The best “Good Wife” drama 

married the firm’s politics 
with the characters’ tangled 
relationships, and no stretch 
of episodes nailed it more than 
season five. After almost 100 
episodes of carefully laid char-
acter moments, we knew that 
Will valued justice and loyalty 
above all. Season five’s “Hit-
ting the Fan” is a series high-
light, bringing unparalleled, 
delicious dramatic tension. 
When Alicia betrays Will to 
start her own firm with Cary 
(and take some of the clients 
they’d earned for Will and 
Diane’s firm), Will’s passion 
finally boils over. He clears 
everything off the traitorous 
Alicia’s desk with one furi-
ous swoop of an arm. His eyes 
look wide and crazed, burn-

ing with hurt and wildness 
and self-hatred for everything 
he’s about to say and can’t 
hold back. “I took you in. No 
one wanted you. I hired you. 
I pushed for you. God. God, 
you’re awful, and you don’t 
even know how awful you 
are.” With Alicia’s stony glare 
returning Will’s burst of fire, 
it’s clear nothing will ever be 
the same.

And it wasn’t. After that 

episode, Will lost his better 
judgment which he went face 
to face with Alicia in court. 
He couldn’t choke his feelings 
down, and Alicia wounded 
him further; she knew he was 
a sentimental type and would 
remember the shell-pink suit 
she wore the time they made 
out in the elevator. She wore 
it to court, and with each 
subsequent episode, his heart 
stretched wider and thinner — 
until there was nothing else for 
him to do but take a bullet or 
a dozen to that delicate chest 
and go out in a blaze of dramat-
ics. The episode where he died, 
“Dramatics, Your Honor,” was 
the highest peak “The Good 
Wife” would ever reach, and 
the show should have ended 
there.

Of course, it didn’t. It’s been 

two years and one month since 
Will left in a body bag, but the 
show is still ticking. Alicia is 
haunted by the happiness she 
could have seized with Will, 
those lost years of passion 
when she stayed buttoned up, 
kept her heart in its cage and 
pushed Will to think practi-
cally. Four episodes from series 
end, she’s now letting loose a 
little more, starting an affair 
with her employee and finally 
asking for a divorce from flop 
husband Peter. But it feels inor-
ganic, because we know this 
just doesn’t fit with the Alicia 
we know. Will Gardner was 
the wild one, the tactless and 
passionate who made mistakes 
and thought and spoke with his 
heart first. He got mad, he got 
hurt and he was the catalyst 
for drama — both in his per-
sonal life and for “The Good 
Wife” ’s greater plot. Alicia’s 
new lover (and probable end 
game dude) Jason Crouse is 
handsome and nice enough, but 
he’s bland as a saltine cracker 
and is missing that uninhibited 
soul that made Will Gardner so 
compelling.

Since this is my penultimate 

column, I’ll inevitably graduate 
and burn out before “The Good 
Wife” ends in May. Somebody 
else will review the finale, and 
they’ll probably do a great job 
and avoid talking about sup-
porting characters that died 
two seasons ago. But if I could 
make one last passionate plea 
to Robert and Michelle King, 
the creators of my favorite 
show, I’d say: Please, please, 
please don’t forget about Will 
Gardner. It might be too late to 
bring him back from the dead, 
but it’s not too late to start 
some fights, some fires and 
reignite that classic “The Good 
Wife” drama.

Gilke is probably thinking about 

Will Gardner right this second. To 

make her your good wife, e-mail 

her at chloeliz@umich.edu.

Don’t you forget 

about Will Gardner

CBS

When you hear the new Weezer album.

CHLOE 
GILKE

Will crosses 

my mind 

unbidden at 

least once a day.

TV COLUMN

