The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, October 19, 2016 — 5A
ACROSS
1 Unlike this clue,
obviously
5 Driving force?
10 Bar regulars, and
then some
14 Bible book before
Romans
15 One-named
singer with 10
Grammys
16 William of
“Broadcast
News”
17 Does well at the
casino?
19 On
20 URL ending
21 Bridge call
22 Hang loosely
23 Star’s statuette
25 Cereal box
factoid
28 Mushroom cloud
makers
30 Pale
31 __ shadow
32 Tip to one side
33 Etiquette expert
Baldrige who
was Jackie
Kennedy’s social
secretary
37 Concert finale ...
and what 17-,
25-, 50- and 60-
Across have in
common
41 Comes back with
42 Hardly scads
44 Beer choice,
briefly
47 Part of un mes
48 Ready for the
piano recital
50 Opera house
level
54 “Ugh!”
55 Climbed aboard
56 Some Neruda
poems
58 Hawaiian tuna
59 Snack since
1912
60 Bullied
63 Musée Marc
Chagall city
64 Ancient Greek
region
65 Conversation
piece?
66 __ chair
67 Minute
68 Archer of myth
DOWN
1 Researcher’s
garb
2 Puzzle with a
quote
3 Recent medical
research subject
4 Org. operating
full-body
scanners
5 Prepare, as
avocados for
guacamole
6 Ancient theater
7 “Tradition” singer
8 “Bravo!”
9 “You eediot!”
speaker of
cartoons
10 Ventriloquist
Lewis
11 Delighted state?
12 Prize in a case
13 Fla. city
18 Go-__
22 Overalls material
24 Financier aboard
the Titanic
26 Strong string
27 1960s dance
29 Add sneakily
34 China’s Zhou __
35 “In Here, It’s
Always Friday”
letters
36 Diminish
38 Enterprise
choice
39 Academic figure
40 Southwestern
farm owner
43 Rear ends
44 “See ya!”
45 Everycity, USA
46 Tenochtitlán
natives
49 Where to see
IBM and JNJ
51 Deschanel of the
musical duo She
& Him
52 Whom to trust, in
“The X-Files”
53 Astronomer
Hubble
57 PayPal’s former
parent
60 Morsel
61 Salmon eggs
62 More than
impress
By Bruce Haight
©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/19/16
10/19/16
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
xwordeditor@aol.com
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TV REVIEW
Riding on the success of “Mr.
Robot,” USA has delivered a new
series that capitalizes on the
same eerie sweet
spots of the net-
work’s
break-out
hit. From produc-
er Gale Anne Hurd
of “The Walking
Dead” comes sci-
ence-fiction thrill-
er “Falling Water,”
where dreams are
not random mani-
festations of the
subconscious but,
instead, fated to reveal a world-
shattering truth. The premiere
offers a first taste of the mys-
tery that promises to unravel
throughout the season and sets
up potential for the the series to
become remorselessly addictive.
Three seemingly unrelated
individuals are connected by
their
dreams,
each
holding
answers to the others’ recurring
subconscious
improvisations.
The premiere first introduces
Tess (Lizzie Brocheré, “The
Wedding Song”), a trendspotter
looking for the next big thing,
who dreams of a son she does
not remember having. She is
sought out by Bill Boerg (Zak
Orth, “Wet Hot American Sum-
mer”), a scientist whose inter-
est in her dreams are shady at
best. Bill promises Tess answers
about her son if she cooperates
with his experiments, in which
he asks her to walk into other’s
subconsciouses.
Interwoven with
Tess’s story are
corporate
busi-
nessman
Burton
(David Ajala, “The
Dark
Knight”),
who dreams of an
elusive
Woman
in Red, and Taka
(Will
Yun
Lee,
“The Wolverine”),
a detective with
horrific dreams of his catatonic
mother.
It’s nearly impossible to dif-
ferentiate between their reality
and sleep, as the pilot waltzes
in and out of the vivid dreams
of the three main protagonists.
The
storyline
is
purposely
constructed to be convoluted;
perhaps the difficult to follow
plot intends to trick the audi-
ence into sticking around for
some answers. But confusion
breeds frustration in a restless
audience, and nobody is going
to wait around too long before
completely giving up on a direc-
tionless story. “Falling Water”
runs the risk of alienation in a
premiere so oversaturated with
questions that even the audience
doesn’t know what’s real and
what’s not.
Comparable to “Mr. Robot”
in look and feel, “Falling Water”
is visually intriguing from the
opening sequence. The series
stays true to a consistent aes-
thetic: muted colors and an
eerily silent soundtrack blan-
ket the screen as the characters
move through a cold, urban set-
ting. A few thematic elements
make frequent appearances; for
example, running water, often
played in reverse, recurs in both
the protagonists’ dreams and
realities, perhaps to provide an
origin to root the show’s title.
Yet there is a great deal of inno-
vation and versatility in the
visual construction, as lighting
and shadows create personality
in a show that is objectively col-
ored by grays and diluted tones.
In fact, most of the pivotal plot
points lie in the visuals rather
than extensive dialogue or nar-
ration.
While the series may be con-
fusing narratively, it’s far from
boring, allowing the cinematog-
raphy to tell most of the story
instead of the screenplay. So if
the audience can stay engaged
long enough for “Falling Water”
to establish solid footing, USA
might have a new hit on its
hands.
USA’s ‘Falling Water’ narratively
sinks, but aesthetically stays afloat
DANIELLE YACOBSON
Daily Arts Writer
Two Door Cinema Club have
always been a band known for
their originality. I remember
hearing
“Ciga-
rettes In The The-
atre” for the first
time and thinking,
“WOW! This is
something
really
special!” Yet, their
newest offspring,
Gameshow, comes
off like Saint Motel
and Daft Punk had
a child that grew
up to be exceptionally boring.
The album does little to show-
case their prior penchant for
soaring, enticing guitar melodies
and catchy synth hooks, replac-
ing them with a more standard
techno vibe.
Two Door’s debut album,
Tourist History, was a defini-
tive album in my love affair with
music, but Gameshow snuffs out
that flame under bass-heavy
beats and frankly unoriginal mel-
odies in context of what can be
expected from Two Door’s music.
The music itself isn’t horrendous,
but its lack of characteristic flair
causes the album to fall flat from
the band’s past electricity.
A fairly blatant detriment to
the album is its length. The deluxe
edition is over an hour long, with
the inclusion of two remixes and
a live recording, and a majority of
the tracks feel like they overstay
their welcome. Lengthy portions
of songs seemed like they were
written with the intent of forcing
concertgoers to dance at a perfor-
mance, and not to
enjoy on their lone-
some with a record-
ing. If anything, the
duration
created
confusion
during
my
first
listen,
and then just pure
boredom and frus-
tration on my sub-
sequent attempts to
enjoy it.
“I’m a present danger to my
health,”
sings
Alex
Trimble
on the opening notes of “Good
Morning,” in true summation of
the album. He sings of contradic-
tions that are perfectly analo-
gous to my experience with this
album: conflicted feelings of con-
fusion and desire to thoroughly
enjoy my listen. Yet, the track
only calls to mind Two Door’s
past glory; it’s indicative of their
previous sound while coming
across as outdated in today’s
indie music scene.
The album burns slowly, and
few songs are able to truly hold
attention or emotional invest-
ment for longer than a minute,
which makes the inclusion and
placement of the last two tracks
even more confounding. “Gaso-
line” and “Sucker” close out the
album, one of the most artistical-
ly befuddling choices I’ve heard
in music. Both are strange and
slow, leaving literally nothing but
a bad taste in the listener’s mouth.
It really causes the album to lack
a reasonable sense of closure.
However, Two Door doesn’t
totally fail on every track. Title
track “Gameshow” blurs the line
between indie and rock, provid-
ing a much needed incidence of
vocal and instrumental variation.
Trimble desparately shouts, “Just
give me something, anything to
live by / my blood is pumping so
fast I forgot why I try.” It feels
like a cathartic release among the
relative normativity of the rest of
the album. Another solid track is
“Je Viens De La.” It’s similar to
the classic Two Door tone, and
brings back the much needed
fire that characterizes their most
successful creations. Its chorus
is shrill and captivating, and the
track isn’t long enough to make
me want to hit the skip button.
Gameshow, despite its spar-
ing highlights, feels like a let-
down. Individually, the tracks
aren’t terrible, but as a collective
album, it induces a confusing,
underwhelming listen. Gone are
the days of the tight pop tracks
on Tourist History, along with
the incredible songwriting on
“Changing of the Seasons,” one
of the best indie tracks from this
decade. Two Door set their bar
too high for their third album to
be a true success.
PARLOPHONE
One trip to Urban and suddenly you’re an indie-pop band.
DOMINIC POLSINELLI
For the Daily
‘Gameshow’ is a disappointment to fans of the band’s early work.
C-
Gameshow
Two Door Cinema
Club
Parlophone
Two Door Cinema Club
can’t continue its success
ALBUM REVIEW
B
“Falling Water”
Series Premiere
USA
Thursdays at 10
p.m.
N
othing ever ends when
it’s supposed to. Espe-
cially not movies.
Last weekend, the lovely
and talented Community Cul-
ture Edi-
tor, Natalie
Zak, and I
went to see
“American
Honey.”
We tucked
the outing
neatly in
between
dinner and
an evening
of singing
Alanis Morissette at Circus.
We never made it to Circus,
however, because “American
Honey” refused to end.
Around the two-hour mark,
I sat in the theater fidgeting
and doing something I (almost)
never do — covertly checking
the time on my phone.
“American Honey” felt like it
was slowly ghosting me toward
our end. It wasn’t going to
come right out and dump me,
instead it was going to spiral
towards the end, suggesting a
million points of closure and
choosing instead to continue on
despite them. That’s what made
it so painful: its repetition of
signs my movie-saturated brain
recognizes as ending. Some-
thing dramatic and conclusive
happens, the music swells and
the camera lingers on some
object of symbolic significance.
Then, cut to black and roll the
credits, right? Wrong.
Even when it did decide
to end, within the context of
its scene, it was too late. Star
wades into the water — a clear
callback to an earlier scene
and a symbolic rebirth — she
submerges and then bursts out,
her hair arching dramatically
overhead. That’s the end of the
movie, but it’s not its ending.
Instead, the camera lingers on
the surface of the water and
the moonlight catching on the
trees. This return to stillness
takes away from the power and
movement created earlier in
the scene.
In my film class last week,
we were discussing “Shaw-
shank Redemption” and some-
one pointed out that it too ends
after it ought to. It should have
ended with hope — the driving
emotion of the movie — in the
form of Red riding in the bus,
going up a hill on the other side
of which the audience can only
imagine is Andy and freedom
and, you guessed it, redemp-
tion. But, instead, the camera
follow Red there. We watch
him get to Mexico and reunite
with Andy. The film closes
itself up neatly, so neatly in
fact, that there is no room for
lingering emotion. The hope of
resolution is much more pow-
erful than resolution itself. In
the world of the movie, once
the two men are reunited,
there is nothing left for the
audience to want.
So many movies fall victim
to the too perfect ending. Even
my beloved “Heathers” is not
immune. Instead of leaving
Veronica covered in ash with
a cigarette hanging out of her
mouth — by far the standout
visual moment of the movie
— we have to follow her back
into the school so she can make
nice with Martha Dumptruck
and reaffirm her status as
the “nice” one. Much like in
“American Honey” or “Shaw-
shank,” the movement away
from the dramatic moment
breaks the emotional spell that
scene creates.
Maybe it’s because endings
are the most artificial part of
movies, of any type of story-
telling. They’re so hard to get
right because there’s no real
world model for how to do
it. In life there are very few
— maybe, depending on how
much you like to overthink,
no — things that end like the
ending of a movie. Moments
slip into one another in a messy
and overlapping web. Noth-
ing really begins or ends, but
rather continues.
Sometimes that endlessness
is really frustrating. I think
what frustrated me and Natalie
so much about the slow death
of “American Honey” was its
resemblance to real life. It, like
most ex-boyfriends, refused to
let us go. It did the film equiva-
lent of texting us right when
we were finally almost getting
over it. It was so frustratingly
realistic.
It refused to give into the
artificiality of endings. Its
length seemed to suggest that
it equally could have ended
at any point or not at all. The
moment of conclusion was arbi-
trary. Because it wasn’t a story
of something; it was a story
about something. A something
that stems from, and likewise
flows into, a thousand other
somethings without a clear
beginning or end.
I’m glad Natalie and I —
unlike some of our fellow mov-
iegoers — made it to the end.
It was a challenge. “American
Honey” tested our patience
with an annoying lead, a grimy
setting and Shia LaBeouf’s
braided rattail (*gag*).
I’m not glad I made it to the
ending because Star’s moment
of self-baptism was particu-
larly revelatory or original,
but because it wasn’t. It ended
as silently as moments in life
normally do, each one fading
into the next. Its mundanity
highlighted the construction,
the falsity, of endings.
Nothing ever ends when
it’s supposed to because noth-
ing ever truly ends. Someone
much wiser than me once told
me that it is impossible for the
people we care about to leave
our lives forever. Mortality
aside, I’m beginning to under-
stand what she was saying.
Sometimes it’s a text from an
ex, a sweet email from your
high school art teacher or a
kid handing out fliers in the
Diag who you swear you met
at a party once freshman year.
Nothing really ends — it only
changes, becoming something
new.
So although I had to spend
almost three hours watching a
movie where Shia LaBeouf had
a rattail and missed singing
“Ironic” with my Alanis-loving
gal pals, I’m glad “American
Honey” did what it did. I’m
glad it frustrated me and made
me fidget. Because it proved
to me that the storyteller —
regardless of the expectation’s
of their audience — has power
over when to end their story,
if ever.
Gaudin is here to remind
you of the mess you left when
you went away. To apologize,
email mgaudin@umich.edu.
Overstaying our
welcomes
How too many films fall victim to the allure of the perfect ending
FILM COLUMN
MADELEINE
GAUDIN
New sci-fi thriller series could potentially follow the path of ‘Mr. Robot.’