The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, February 17, 2017 — 5

HBO’s “Crashing” shines

A cynical wit and star-studded cast make Pete Holmes’s show a hit

In recent years, HBO has 

made a concerted effort to 
expand its comedy offerings. 
With 
series 
like 
“Veep,” 

“Ballers” and “Silicon Valley,” 
the network has attempted 
to establish itself as more 
than just “Game of Thrones.” 
Following 
the 
premiere 

of 
its 
new 

Judd 
Apatow-

produced (“The 
40-Year-Old 
Virgin”) comedy 
“Crashing,” HBO 
should be able to 
add another hit 
to 
its 
growing 

lineup. 
Despite 

its 
familiar 

premise, 
“Crashing” 
is 

expertly cast and scored, and 
contains an enjoyable brand of 
dark, self-deprecating humor 
that audiences can appreciate.

Created by rising comedic 

star Pete Holmes (“The Pete 
Holmes Show”), the series 
centers on Holmes’ fictional 
life as a middling comedian 
struggling to navigate the 
New York City comedy club 
scene. After leaving his wife, 
the hilarious Lauren Lapkus 
(“Jurassic World”), Holmes 
finds himself on the street, 
where a chance encounter 
with a washed-up Artie Lange 
(“Howard Stern on Demand”) 
results in his getting a new 
mentor. Along with Lange, the 
show 
features 
appearances 

from a number of prominent 
comedians, 
including 
the 

perpetually-cynical T.J. Miller 
(“Deadpool”) 
and 
anointed 

“RoastMaster General” Jeff 
Ross (“Comedy Central Roast 
of Charlie Sheen”).

For “Crashing,” its success 

is largely due to its talented 
core of comedic veterans. Each 
cast member occupies their 
own comedic niche, and their 
chemistry 
together 
shines 

through 
from 
the 
series’ 

initial 
scenes. 
Holmes 
is 

brilliant as a naïve, optimistic 
comedian attempting to break 
into an industry infamous for 
its sardonic wit. Despite her 
relatively minor part, Lapkus 

distinguishes 
herself 
with 

her 
blunt, 

biting 
style 
of 

humor. Lange is 
similarly 
solid 

within his role 
as a burnt-out 
comedian 
who 

never misses an 
opportunity 
to 

mock his own situation. As 
brief as his appearances are, 
Miller excels at delivering 
his 
trademark 
style 
of 

brash, juvenile humor. In a 
particularly hilarious scene, 
Miller becomes upset with 
Lange and begins an all-out 
verbal assault on his outfit, 
telling him: “You look like you 
work for a homeless person. 
Are you interning on skid row? 
What cargo are you carrying in 
cargo pants? Are you carrying 
nostalgia for the ’90s?”

Along 
with 
its 
cast, 

“Crashing” benefits from the 
strength of its soundtrack. 
Featuring 
acclaimed 
soul-

men Charles Bradley and Leon 
Bridges, the show uses its score 
to emphasize the melancholic 
aspects of Holmes’s life — he’s 
left his wife and continues to 
struggle to establish himself 
as a comedian. The songs are 
chosen well to coincide with 
more depressing scenes, but 
they remain confined to the 

series’s background to not 
disrupt the show’s overall 
lighthearted mood.

Outside of its soundtrack, 

“Crashing” suffers from its 
relatively 
weak 
storyline 

and, at times, narrow type 
of humor that is constantly 
repeated. The show opens 
with the rather trite plot line 
of Holmes coming home early 
one day to discover his wife’s 
infidelity 
firsthand, 
before 

immediately leaving her. This 
narrative is not only overused 
but 
also 
hastily 
executed, 

with the series glossing over 
Holmes’ 
wife’s 
affair 
and 

largely ignoring the storyline 
after the show’s premiere 
episode. “Crashing” is further 
hurt by the fact that its writing 
is unbalanced and, in several 
instances, relies too heavily 
upon the nature of Holmes’s 
life as its sole style of humor. 
The series elects to mold 
many of its jokes around this 
idea, and, while sometimes 
funny, 
these 
gags 
become 

repetitive and leave audiences 
questioning the extent of the 
show’s comedic range.

Despite 
its 
occasionally 

weak 
writing, 
the 
series 

remains 
entertaining 
and 

produces a stream of laughs. 
Viewers can’t help but enjoy 
Holmes’s naiveté juxtaposed 
with Lange’s no-holds-barred 
approach 
that 
produces 
a 

show replete with quality 
gags. In “Crashing,” Holmes 
has succeeded in capitalizing 
on the show’s star-studded 
cast to develop a program that 
has terrific dark humor, and 
it’s pure fun to follow along.

“Crashing” will premiere on 

HBO Sunday, Feb. 19.

HBO

CONNOR GRADY

Daily Arts Wrtier

‘Freude!’ — The politics of art

A week ago I finally got 

around to doing something 
which 
I 
probably 
should 

have done a few years ago. 
Sitting somewhere up in the 
left mezzanine (I’m not sure 
precisely where — my ticket 
has since become a bookmark 
in 
something 
or 
another), 

knees askew and jutting out 
uncomfortably into the seat-
back in front of me, I finally 
saw a live performance of 
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, 
his “Ode to Joy,” as part of an 
all-Beethoven program that 
spanned 
nearly 
a 
quarter-

century of the composer’s life.

Under the baton of Iván 

Fischer, 
last 
Friday 
Hill 

Auditorium was host to the 
Budapest Festival Orchestra, 
one of the world’s leading 
symphonic 
concert 
groups. 

Before the performance began 
— 
indeed, 
before 

the orchestra was 
even on the stage 
— 
the 
longtime 

president of UMS, 
Ken Fischer (who 
is retiring at the 
end of this season, 
after 30 years with 
the 
organization), 

took 
the 
stage 

to 
introduce 
the 

musicians. 
In 

his 
remarks, 
Mr. 

Fischer included the usual 
comments about how pleased 
UMS was to welcome the 
orchestra, but the end of his 
speech 
included 
a 
rather 

unique 
tag: 
The 
orchestra 

was thrilled to be here that 
night, including every member 
of the cello section. “If you 
don’t know what I’m talking 
about,” Fischer said, “ask your 
neighbor, or take a look at the 
New York Times.” And then we 
heard Beethoven.

Well, to my surprise, I didn’t 

know what he was talking 
about, and I’m altogether too 
shy to ask a neighbor about 
anything. But it really didn’t 
take an extraordinary degree 
of 
deductive 
reasoning 
to 

hypothesize about the situation 
— and after the concert a quick 
Google 
search 
confirmed 

what I had already suspected. 
“An 
Orchestra 
Triumphs 

Over Trump’s Travel Ban,” 
the headline read. It seems 
that our amateur president 
hadn’t quite thought through 
the nuances and complexities 
of his “complete and total 
shutdown” idea (to say nothing 
of its legality or morality), 
and in the chaotic hours and 
days following the ban’s ham-
handed implementation, the 
Budapest Festival Orchestra’s 
US tour was jeopardized by the 
fact that one of their cellists 
was being told that he could 
not enter the country because 
of his dual Hungarian/Iraqi 
citizenship. 
Fischer 
(Iván, 

that is) lodged a complaint 

with the State Department, 
and a day later, following an 
international 
effort, 
dual-

passport holders were deemed 
to be exempt from the ban.

Let this be a lesson: Art is 

not immune from politics.

Not that many people would 

have seriously suggested the 
opposite, but often it seems 
that 
art 
serves 
for 
many 

people as an escape from 
the 
increasingly-alarming 

information 
surrounding 

national 
and 
international 

affairs. In the last few weeks 
I’ve certainly used it in such a 
manner. And that’s fine, even 
necessary — art can be an 
emotional balm for artist and 
recipient alike. But we also 
can’t ignore the fact that art is a 
political act. Perhaps it doesn’t 
always mean to be, just as 
sometimes it does, and maybe 

not everyone notices 
that 
it’s 
political. 

But 
ultimately, 

like 
almost 
every 

decision made, like 
the 
act 
of 
living 

itself, art is one of 
the infinite intricate 
pieces of the vast 
world machine we 
describe through the 
lens of politics. Art 
reflects life and life 
reflects art — and 

right now especially, both are 
pretty full of politics.

In light of this, it was fitting 

that the centerpiece of the 
Budapest Festival Orchestra’s 
concert was Beethoven’s 9th 
symphony, a work which was 
meant as a paean of universal 
brotherhood — a fact which was 
not lost on Doyle Armbrust, 
who wrote the remarkably 
unconventional program notes 
for the UMS concert. But by 
this point — perhaps because 
of its universal popularity, 
or maybe because of its sheer 
brilliance 
— 
Beethoven’s 

symphony has sort of become 
the go-to example of a political 
composition. I wrote about it on 
November 9th, my insomnia-
addled 
mind 
desperately 

seeking 
for 
some 
small 

consolation or sliver of solace, 
and the New Yorker’s ever-
eloquent Alex Ross discusses 
it 
in 
his 
characteristically 

percipient 
article 
“Making 

Art in a Time of Rage” on 
February 8th (Ross also gave a 
shout-out to Armbrust). All of 
which makes sense: Beethoven 
himself meant it as a statement, 
and was a rather political 
person. As a republican living 
under the careful watch of 
Metternich’s secret police in 
autocratic Vienna, the failure 
of the French Revolution and 
the imposition of the arch-
conservative post-Napoleonic 
order surely ranked among one 
of his many sorrows in life.

But 
Beethoven 
certainly 

isn’t the only composer to 

deal with political topics. The 
first opera I ever truly loved 
was “Nixon in China,” the 
1987 work that springboarded 
the American composer John 
Adams to prominence. Though 
I had enjoyed various operas 
I saw before, until “Nixon” I 
had never loved one with the 
same sort of unreserved, fierce 
and unabashed abandon which 
characterized 
my 
feelings 

towards Adams’s composition. 
And part of this love, I think, 
stemmed from the fact that 
“Nixon” dove directly into the 
political, raising ethical and 
moral questions in the context 
of beautiful art, aided by Alice 
Goodman’s stunning libretto.

Adam’s does this in other 

works as well — his opera 
“Doctor Atomic” deals with 
the subject of nuclear war, and 
the highly controversial opera 
“The Death of Klinghoffer” 
focuses on the 1985 hijacking 
of 
a 
passenger 
liner 
by 

Palestinian 
terrorists. 
This 

last work especially waded 
into the public fray of the 
emotionally fraught politics 
of 
the 
Israeli-Palestinian 

conflict, and the opera has 
been accused of antisemitism 
(which 
its 
creators 
deny) 

and of being sympathetic to 
terrorism 
(what, 
after 
all, 

does it mean if terrorists are 
able to sing beautifully?). But 
setting aside the specifics of 
these examples, all of them 
demonstrate 
that 
art 
and 

politics are often inextricable. 
One cannot create art without 
participating in the world, and 
to some degree or another, this 
means that art will turn out 
to have political implications. 
And often art can help us 
better understand the political 
world we experience. Though 
Adams has recently stated in 
an interview with KQED: “The 
idea of a Trump opera doesn’t 
interest (him) in the least,” 
because “you don’t want to 
spend time as an artist giving 
your very best to a person who 
is a sociopath.” The work he 
has done on previous projects 
can still provide insights into 
the contemporary climate.

As I look around at the way 

events are unfolding today, I’m 
put in mind of a scene from 
“Nixon.” In it, the president is 
in discussion with Mao Zedong 
and Premier Zhou Enlai when 
the Premier addresses Mao.

“You’ve said that there’s a 

certain well-known tree that 
grows from nothing in a day, 
lives only as a sapling, dies just 
at its prime when good men 
raise it as their idol.”

“Not the cross?” ventures 

Nixon.

“The Liberty Tree,” comes 

Mao’s reply. “It was a riddle, 
not a test.”

But perhaps now the riddle 

has become a test for us all.

DAYTON

 HARE 

CLASSICAL MUSIC COLUMN
TV REVIEW

“Crashing”

Series Premiere

HBO

Sundays at 10:30 

P.M.

NYFW REVIEW
Ulla debuts first runway

Ulla Johnson is killing it. Last 

Thursday, she debuted the Fall 
2017 ready-to-wear collection for 
her eponymous brand. This marks 
her first ever runway show for New 
York Fashion Week — a hallmark 
of success for any designer, and 
a particularly poignant one for 
Johnson whose brand has been 
growing since its inception in 
2000.

A psychology major, Johnson 

had not always envisioned a future 
in fashion. However, traveling 
alongside 
her 
archaeologist 

parents instilled in her a love of 
textiles. Shortly after graduating 
college, she began her business, 
much to the chagrin of her parents, 
who tried to discourage her from 

a future in fashion. Originally 
self-financed, the brand gained 
traction when Barneys picked up 
the line.

“I think ultimately Barneys 

(came to us because of the fact that 
we feel more intimate, because 
we’re not a gigantic brand that’s 
in a big department store, because 
people want something that is 
not so insanely visible and just 
feels like product,” Johnson told 
Fashionista back in 2014. Even 
as the brand snowballed, it was 
important to Johnson that it grow 
organically. By keeping the brand 
at a size she could financially 
support, Johnson never had to 
relinquish her vision and was able 
to maintain a high standard. This 
ultimately fostered the brand’s 
popularity and ushered in the 
success it currently enjoys.

The collection shown Thursday 

was massively successful; it can 

be summed up as “Little House 
on the Prairie” x knitwear x ’70s x 
Valentine’s Day. Feminine, but not 
cloyingly so. Cool, but not effortful. 
Vintage-inspired, but not stale. 
While Ulla Johnson has built her 
brand on loose printed dresses, in 
this collection her outerwear and 
tailored pants shone brightest, 
particularly her shearling jackets, 
which were a reoccurring motif 
in the collection, appearing in 
several different colors, styles, and 
lengths, the most impressive being 
the one draped over the shoulders 
of the inaugural look. Paired 
with impeccably tailored cream 
trousers, which were detailed 
with two rows of gold buttons and 
attached suspenders, the outfit 
declared that the forthcoming 
collection was not one to be 
ignored. Overall, it was a forceful 
debut, one which will foster a new 
era of success for Johnson. 

TESS TOBIN
Daily Arts Writer

MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW

 
When the new music 

video for Michael Bublé’s “I 
Believe in You” opens with 
two kids shyly watching one 
another from a distance, it 
isn’t hard to try to predict 
where the plot might go 
from there. The narrative of 
a young boy and girl grow-
ing up alongside one another 
and falling in love isn’t new, 
requiring the video to go 
beyond the plotline in order to 
be really appealing.
 
And, in many 

respects, it did. The first 
transition features the boy 
jumping down from a tree and 
landing as a teenager, which 
sets up a pattern of smoothly 
shot transitions that continues 
for the rest of the video. He 
and the girl are shown doing 
innocuous childhood activi-
ties together — riding a bicy-
cle, doing homework — before 
leaning in for what is presum-
ably their first kiss, which 
then cuts to a shot of him car-
rying her over their threshold 
in a wedding dress.
 
In every age period, 

there is a gesture involving 
flowers. The young boy gives 
the girl a yellow flower in 

their backyard; as teenagers, 
he gives her a pink flower as 
they are about to kiss; as new-
lyweds, she holds a similarly 
pink flower over her head as 
he carries her. By the end of 
the video, several years have 
passed, and the man and the 
woman have grown old, their 
mantle filled up with memo-
ries of their lives with their 
children and grandchildren. 

The now-elderly man gives 
his wife a box, and she opens 
it to find flowers, reminding 
us of all of his gestures of love 
toward her over the course of 
their lives.
 
“I Believe in You” is 

a lively song at times, and the 
video echoes this, primarily 
with the terrific dancing skills 
of the actors. Derek Hough 
of “Dancing With the Stars” 
directed and choreographed 
the video, and in his starring 
role as the husband, he brings 
a life and an energy to the 

video that dramatically spikes 
the emotional investment of 
the viewer. He slides down 
tables, jumps over the banister 
of the house’s staircase, and 
embraces his wife, and all of 
these come across as effort-
less expressions of love. Com-
bined with the use of flushed, 
spring-reminiscent colors and 
the emphasis on flowers, it is 
easy to see how this dancing 
would appeal to people at a 
time when a film like “La La 
Land” is so popular.
 
The video ends with 

a quick return to the main 
characters smiling at one 
another as kids, a cliché but 
reasonable decision meant to 
remind the audience of how 
far they’ve come since the 
beginning of the song. The boy 
and the girl aren’t particularly 
unique or memorable, nor is 
the plotline at all inventive 
or something we haven’t seen 
before. But with the help of 
some uplifting music and 
Hough’s choreography skills, 
the video for the most part 
succeeds in packing the emo-
tional punch that it set out for.

— LAURA DZUBAY

“Believe”

Michael Bublé

Reprise Records

