The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts & Sports
Wednesday, January 10, 2018 — 7A
Close and getting closer
EVAN AARON /Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein said after the game that he was convinced Michigan had a play set up to win the game.
Though
the
Michigan
women’s basketball team didn’t
come
out
victorious
in
its
overtime loss to rival Ohio State
on Sunday, it did play a closely-
fought game full of back-and-
forth runs between the two
teams.
Sunday’s game was a tough
loss for the Wolverines, as they
had multiple opportunities to
win in the last few minutes of the
fourth quarter, but just couldn’t
capitalize on them.
“We had them on the ropes, it
was a great game. They jumped
on us early but we battled back
and
kept
our
composure,”
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico said in a radio interview on
WTKA. “Sometimes you get over
defeats quickly, but this one is
going to take a little bit of time.”
Time, however, is a luxury
the Wolverines don’t have. Now,
they need to turn around quickly
and prepare to face Indiana on
Wednesday.
“Today we have to move
on, we have to be focused on
Indiana, we have to be focused
on our next game,” Barnes Arico
said. “That game will be with us
for the rest of the year and I think
it’s going to help us improve and
help us get better.”
Though the Hoosiers are just
8-9, they bring young talent to
the table for which Michigan
must be prepared.
“Indiana is a really good team,
they’re led by two all-conference
players, Tyra Buss and Amanda
Cahill, and their other players
are inexperienced and young,”
Barnes
Arico
said.
“They
graduated their other players but
they’re a team that has given us
a tough game in the past and we
know we can’t look past anyone.”
The Hoosiers have just two
seniors: Cahill and Buss, a
forward and guard, respectively.
Buss leads the team with 349
points on the season, averages
20.5 points per game and was
named to the All-Big Ten First
Team. Cahill has 142 rebounds
on the season, averages 8.4
rebounds per game, and found a
place on the All-Big Ten Second
Team.
The remainder of Indiana’s
team,
while
talented,
lacks
experience.
The
Wolverines
hope to take advantage of that
with their veteran players.
“We had that tough one, but
the success of our team, our
maturity, our experience (and)
our upperclassmen have got
to put the young ones on their
shoulders and teach them the
way,” said Barnes Arico.
And on Wednesday, Michigan
must not only face the challenges
the Hoosiers present, but also
prove that it can bounce back
after Sunday’s tough loss.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Wolverines looking to
bounce back at home
Ahead of his Super Bowl
performance, Justin Tim-
berlake announced his
fourth solo album, Man of
the Woods. The album art
is Bon Iver-esque, set in the
woods with Timberlake
donning a flannel under a
wool jacket. With his lead
single “Filthy,” fans who
speculated a return to his
Tennessee roots were mis-
taken.
“Filthy” isn’t country —
it’s an attempt for Timber-
lake to dip into electro-pop
without fully committing.
From the same team as
“SexyBack” and Britney
Spears’s dark-pop masterpiece
Blackout, the single leans
heavily towards early 2000s
electro-pop. However, unlike
“SexyBack” or
“Gimme More,”
which both build
into euphoric
choruses,
“Filthy” lacks
momentum. By
minute two, I
was ready for the
song to do something. The same
robotic synth throbs endlessly
over the song’s unneeded five
minutes. When the lackluster
chorus finally does arrive, it’s
indistinguishable from the
verse.
Repetitive production can
excel with the right lyricism
(see Talking Heads’ “Psycho
Killer”), but Timberlake’s song-
writing is equally disinterest-
ing. “Filthy” is a patchwork
of one-liners that show Tim-
berlake’s disconnect with pop
music’s pulse. With lines like
“Haters gonna say it’s fake” and
“This ain’t the clean version,”
Timberlake, now 38, is showing
his age with corny “this is how
the kids talk” lyricism. With
a February 2 release date, I’m
hoping the remainder of Man of
the Woods leaves this synth-pop
behind and commits to Timber-
lake’s signature bubblegum pop.
— Danny Madi-
on, Daily Arts
Writer
“Filthy” stars
out on a high
note, with Justin
Timberlake call-
ing out, “Hey,
if you know what’s good!” in
his characteristic, high-energy
belt. And it keeps climbing from
there, but not in the way you’d
expect.
For over half of its nearly
five-minute duration, “Filthy” is
jerky and deceptively low-ener-
gy, an understated jam with a
funky spring. Then the electric
guitar kicks in, and suddenly
the song reaches the energetic
peak it has secretly been build-
ing to all along — only to fall
back again a few seconds later
into its own hypnotic under-
current. The song ends amid
a weirdly ghostly atmosphere
that feels like the exact antith-
esis of the place where it started
out: A woman whispers, “Do
you see me? Can you find me? /
Look closer, through the trees /
Do you see it?” And then noth-
ing. Silence.
Upon first listen, “Filthy” is
a bit of a slow burn. It takes a
while to decide what type of
song it wants to be: A dancefloor
jam? Five minutes of artsy back-
ground noise? To some extent,
it never really decides. The
lyrics aren’t really anything to
turn one’s head at either — they
ultimately boil down to a lot of
repetitive lines like “Put your
filthy hands all over me” and
“Your friends, my friends and
they ain’t leavin’ ’til six in the
morning.”
However, the song does suc-
ceed in blending a large number
of genres — pop, electronica
and funk to name a few — into
an overall catchy song. “Filthy”
doesn’t pretend to be anything
it’s not; at one point, Timberlake
even sings, “You know this ain’t
the clean version.” It’s unpre-
tentious and genuinely fun. As
far as what direction it’s point-
ing in, we may have to wait for
Timberlake’s next single — or
simply the release of his upcom-
ing album, Man of the Woods —
to know for sure.
— Laura Dzubay, Daily Arts
Writer
SINGLE REVIEW
“Filthy”
Justin Timberlake
RCA Records
RCA RECORDS
“We will never surrender!”
Winston Churchill shouts in
one of his most famous speeches
to the House of Commons,
recreated in one of the most
powerful
moments
of
the
thrilling retelling of Churchill’s
first few weeks as
Prime
Minister,
“Darkest
Hour.”
With France on its
heels, the United
States
nowhere
to be found and
Nazi
Germany
seemingly
on
the
brink
of
domination
over
all
of
Europe,
into
the
fray
stepped Winston
Churchill,
who
would eventually
succeed
where
Neville Chamberlain had so
infamously failed. Gary Oldman
(“The Hitman’s Bodyguard”),
rendered almost unrecognizable,
portrays
Churchill
with
a
gravitas and force that seems
destined to rank among his best
performances.
The
stunning
picture
also
features
Ben
Mendelsohn (“Rogue One: A
Star Wars Story”), Lily James
(“Baby Driver”) and Kristin Scott
Thomas (“Sarah’s Key”). Written
by Anthony McCarten (“The
Theory of Everything), directed
by Joe Wright (“Pan”) and
accompanied by a breathtaking
score
composed
by
Dario
Marianelli (“Anna Karenina”),
“Darkest Hour” reminds us of
how, in the midst of the darkest
chapter in modern European
history, there were still people
brave enough to stand up for the
light.
Oldman’s charisma and energy
propel
the
film,
demanding
attention every time he is on
screen
while
simultaneously
giving viewers a deep look
into the confused, conflicted,
depressed but never conquered
mind of Winston
Churchill. The film
takes care to paint
Churchill
as
a
flawed individual,
one whose vices
occasionally
got
the better of him.
His
relationship
with his wife is
well
established
in the first act
but
does
fall
off a bit as the
movie
continues.
Churchill’s
complex
relationships with the King of
England and other members
of Parliament is
portrayed
in
a
fairly
unbiased
manner,
though
the
benefit
of
history
will
clearly
lead
the
audience
to
fall
almost
exclusively on one
side.
The
film
is
visually stunning.
It features sweeping overhead
shots of the Parliament chambers
and limited use of stylized war
footage that gives the film a wide
spectrum of interesting shots.
The overall aesthetic is cold and
crisp, fitting for a story about the
darkest days in British history.
There aren’t enough good
things that can be said about the
soundtrack in “Darkest Hour.”
Few films in 2017 have featured
a booming orchestral score so
prominently,
harkening
back
to a grander, more narrative-
based method of scoring movies
that has faded from prominence
in today’s era of temp scores
and generic action music. With
his score for “Darkest Hour,”
Marianelli has redefined himself
as one of the most promising
young composers in the industry.
There are only two facets
of the film in which it falters.
One is the length. The second
half of the movie at times feels
like it’s spinning its wheels,
with Churchill and the remains
of
Chamberlain’s
powerbase
fighting a war that feels like
it could have been condensed.
There also is a subplot that
focuses on Churchill’s young
aide eventually coming around
to him that feels both outdated
and out of place,
and it seems like
that
storyline
either
could’ve
been cut or the
time
would’ve
better been spent
elsewhere.
“Darkest
Hour” might be
Oscar-bait,
but
it is also simply
an
amazing
film. It features one of Britain’s
finest actors as one of Britain’s
finest men in the weeks before
what would be one of its finest
hours in history. Oldman gives a
performance for the ages.
IAN HARRIS
Daily Arts Writer
“Darkest
Hour”
Focus Features
Michigan Theater,
Goodrich Quality
16, Rave Cinemas
Ann Arbor
FILM REVIEW
‘Darkest Hour’ is a tour
de force for Gary Oldman
The Churchill biopic excels both visually and narratively
Oldman’s
charisma and
energy propel the
film
SARAH HURST
Daily Sports Writer
RUCHITA IYER/Daily
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico says her team must move on quickly.
A
controversial review to
give Purdue the ball, a
somewhat controversial
foul called on an in-bounds
play and a half-court shot that
missed just
short.
Those
were
the
lasting
moments
from
the
Michigan
men’s
basketball
team’s 70-69
loss to the
fifth-ranked
Boilermakers. Any of which
could have changed the outcome.
The
review
came
when
redshirt
sophomore
Charles
Matthews seemingly had the
ball poked out of his hands by
Purdue guard Dakota Mathias.
During the replay, Matthews
told Beilein the ball didn’t go off
his hands, but after an unusually
long look at the monitors, the
referees disagreed.
“I wish we could have got
Charles to the rim,” Beilein said.
“It looked like he was going to
go lay it in, and all of the sudden,
you know, with 5.6, or whatever
it is on the clock, that’s enough
time. I really was convinced that
we had a play set up that we were
going to win the game. All of
the sudden, they’re winning the
game.”
Considering how the game
went,
with
Michigan
crawling
back
from a 14-point
first-half deficit
and having the
ball in its hands
with the game on
the line, it’s easy
to
understand
disappointment.
This would have
been a huge win
against a Boilermaker team that
has looked as good as any in
recent weeks.
Yet, taking a step back, it’s
hard to ignore how far the
Wolverines have come.
This isn’t the same team
that lost to LSU, looked hapless
against North Carolina and
blew a huge lead in Columbus.
On Tuesday, against a team
that looked like it was a terrible
matchup
for
Michigan,
the
Wolverines hung around.
Freshman
forward
Isaiah
Livers
and
freshman
guard
Jordan Poole kept the Wolverines
alive at times. They were hardly
factors early in the season.
Freshman
guard
Zavier
Simpson hit two huge 3-pointers
to give Michigan its first lead of
the game with
4:38 left. He was
benched
after
the loss to the
Tigers.
Most
importantly,
perhaps,
the
Wolverines
made
halftime
adjustments
and came back
against an elite
team when they were punched
in the face to start the game.
Against the Tar Heels, that
seemed an impossibility.
It was enough to give senior
guard Muhammad-Ali Abdur-
Rahkman encouragement.
“I was pretty encouraged,
but you never like to see your
team lose,” said senior guard
Muhammad-Ali
Abdur-
Rahkman. “I mean, a lot of guys
showed a lot of great stuff. We’ve
just got to continue to grow. It’s a
marathon.”
Michigan still has plenty
of
progress
to
make.
The
Wolverines still had trouble
stopping
Boilermaker
center
Isaac Haas, and if it weren’t for
a strong, second-half shooting
performance, Michigan might
not have been in the game.
But the adjustments were
made, and if Matthews’ call
doesn’t get overturned, or if
Wagner doesn’t foul Haas, or
if Matthews’ half-court heave
goes four inches further the
Wolverines come out on top.
Steady
improvement
over
the season has nearly become a
patented trademark of Beilein’s
teams. This one may be another
example.
Tuesday’s
game
was
just
the latest testament to how far
Michigan has come this season.
It’s why Beilein seemed so
disappointed after the game.
Saturday’s matchup with No. 4
Michigan State – possibly the
best team in the country – will
be the next opportunity to show
it.
The Wolverines might not get
the lucky bounces in that game,
either. They may lose again. Yet
it seems they are approaching
where they want to be.
“I wish we
could have got
Charles to the
rim.”
MIKE
PERSAK