6 — Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Martin Scoresese is no stranger to messy, 
twisted characters. He has a tendency to paint 
these characters with a sharp, but humanizing 
brush. This quality is what gives his films like 
“Goodfellas” and “Taxi Driver” (among others) 
their uniquely hazy morality. His stories are 
compelling not despite their darkness, but because 
of it. 
The director’s latest release, “The Irishman” is 
no exception. The film offers both the delectably 
gritty genre work that Scorsese’s audience has 
come to expect as well as a tender self-reflection 
on the filmmaker’s own oeuvre. Following the rise 
of the Buffalino crime family and the Teamsters 
Union, the story depicts the ambitions, flaws and 
humanity of three 
gangsters 
with 
genuine heart.
Frank 
Sheeran, 
played 
by 
Robert 
De Niro (“Heat”), is 
the story’s primary 
narrator, recounting 
his 
experience 
joining 
the 
mafia 
as 
a 
hitman. 
De 
Niro’s performance 
involves some of his most impressive acting in 
years, bringing back the rageful poise of his other 
collaborations with Scorsese along with a softness 
that answers the simple question, what happens to 
a gangster if they make it to old age? That answer 
is not a pleasant one; in fact, when the glory days of 
his role in the mafia are over, it is painful to watch 
him past his prime. A similar point can be made 
about De Niro himself, and maybe that’s what 
makes the film as touching as it is. 
At Sheeran’s side are mob boss Russel Buffalino 
(Joe Pesci, “My Cousin Vinny”) and President of 
the Teamsters Union Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino, 
“Ocean’s Thirteen”). The very experience of 

watching these three legendary actors interact 
is electrifying — their criminal endeavors made 
me momentarily feel what it was like to watch 
the crime movies with fresh eyes. But to call “The 
Irishman” a mere best hits anthology of Scorsese’s 
career would be a severe underappreciation of its 
power. 
Sheeran, Buffalino and Hoffa’s stories are laden 
with stylistic and narrative Scorsese tropes, but 
they explore new territory too. In particular, I 
found the script’s entanglement with national 
politics particularly insightful. The Buffalino 
family’s friendship with the Kennedys sheds light 
on a magnitude of political corruption that is 
present in other crime movies, but rarely so directly 
impactful on actual history. 
Scorsese leaves no detail of this story out, 
amounting in a runtime of three hours and 29 
minutes. Yet, the film does not drag for the most 
part. 
Excepting 
the 
penultimate 
hour, a close look 
at 
Jimmy 
Hoffa’s 
attempts to return 
to 
power, 
“The 
Irishman” 
avoids 
feeling sluggish. If 
anything, I’m glad 
Scorsese decided to 
pack the story with 
everything he could.
But Scorsese knows that the actors at the 
film’s center now lack the vitality of their 
digitally de-aged counterparts possessed in the 
mob’s heyday. And he uses this to his advantage, 
challenging the audience to imagine their lives 
without youth or momentum or glory. In this 
way, “The Irishman” becomes a story about 
falling from one’s peak. The nature of a high 
point is that it is momentary, subject to the 
remorseless advance of time. What Scorsese 
ultimately achieves with “The Irishman” is 
nearly magical: It is a sad, even painful thing 
to watch these criminals fade, much like it is to 
watch Scorsese himself grow old.

‘Irishman’ is a moving trip

ANISH TAMHANEY
Daily Arts Writer

This morning I Googled the following: 

Cuffing season duration

Timothée Chalamet Jewish

When is retrograde over

Can you die from lack of attention

It turns out that cuffing season is until March, Timmy 
is Jewish, Mercury is technically out of retrograde but 
its effects will linger until Saturday and no, you can’t die 
from a lack of attention. I think our morning Googlings 
say a lot about us. For your reading pleasure, dear reader, 
here are some recent Googlings from yours truly.

Nick Jonas nipples

Larry David young

Bernie Sanders young

Dog swimming 

Dog with human teeth 

Dog with human eyes

Dog with human nose

Human with dog nose

How to ask your crush out 

How to ask your crush out in a way that’s cool and chill 
and not weird

How to ask your crush out in a way that’s cool and chill 
and not weird and also not awkward

How to buy vibrator on parents credit card without 
them knowing 

How to pronounce appreciate 

How British pronounce appreciate

Prince Charles young 

Charles and Camilla

Charles and Diana

Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed

Was Lady Di murdered by the queen 

Stop biting nails 

Song that goes duhduh duh duh duhduh

Jobs Chicago

Jobs New York

Jobs Los Angeles

Jobs anywhere 

What do I do after graduation

How to poach an egg

How to write a comedy column 

Why is Michigan a basketball school

How to make turtlenecks look cool for four days 

Is it safe to drink an open bottle of vodka you found 
on the street 

Am I dehydrated or do I need more coffee

How much coffee is too much coffee

Can you die from too much coffee

How often should you wash your sheets

No but really, can you die from lack of attention

Becky Portman: Is searching

HUMOR COLUMN

BECKY PORTMAN
Daily Humor Columnist

NETFLIX

FILM REVIEW

 BOOK REVIEW

Even if you don’t know her name, it’s likely 
you’ve seen Debbie Harry’s face. As the 
frontwoman of the groundbreaking sometimes-
pop, sometimes-rock group Blondie, Harry’s 
wide-set eyes and shock of bleach-blonde hair are 
unmistakable, a necessary and irreplaceable part 
of 
music 
history. 
Blondie 
was 
the 
band, but it was 
also 
a 
character 
for Harry to play, 
an 
ultra-feminine 
woman in the macho 
rock scene of New 
York in the ’70s, 
consistently proving 
her 
place 
in 
the 
industry over and 
over again. In her own words, Harry’s “Blondie 
character was an inflatable doll but with a dark, 
provocative, aggressive side.”
Her image was appropriated by friend, Andy 
Warhol, in his iconic Polaroid series, in his 
eerie computer-generated pop art, in addition 
to photographs which have been taken of her by 
every major photographer. Harry is an icon in 
the truest sense of the word — just as Marilyn 
Monroe’s blonde curls represent a specific time 
and place in the past, so do Harry’s, heralding 
onlookers into a people’s 
history of art and rebellion 
in the greatest city on the 
planet. 
“Coincidence 
came 
calling for me big-time 
in the early seventies,” 
Harry writes in an early 
chapter of the memoir. 
“Coincidence: it’s supposed 
to 
mean 
just 
these 
random 
disconnected 
events 
that 
concur 
or 
collide. But coincidence 
is not that at all. It’s the 
stuff that’s meant to be.” 
This 
perception 
makes 
sense 
considering 
the 
performer’s 
history. 
Everything 
that 
made 
Debbie Harry the icon 
she is today is what made 
Blondie so popular, and 
most of what happened 
in the height of post-punk 
glory 
seems 
to 
hinge 
on brief moments of interpolation between 
one world and the next. In the book, Harry 
remembers these flashes of coincidence in 
brilliant literary detail, plunging the reader into 
the color and fury of her experiences with a sharp 

wit and unflinching sense of honesty. 
From the first page, in which Harry describes 
her biological parents before going into the stories 
of her childhood as an adopted daughter of two 
humdrum New Jerseyans, one is able to grasp 
how she’s processed the somewhat accidental 
nature of her life. The musician has a keen eye for 
detail and orchestration: Just when she brings up 
an anecdote that seems out of place, it suddenly 
begins to make sense in the larger framework 
of her life — the last 
chapter of the book 
is all about thumbs in 
her life, just because 
she wanted to end 
on a funny note. 
Harry’s own sense 
of humor about both 
the 
happy 
times 
and the sad times 
of her rollercoaster 
experience 
with 
fame is what makes “Face It” a must-read. Sure, 
two of her apartments went up in flames, one 
of them while she was on tour, but it made for 
a fantastic photoshoot in which she sat in burnt 
kitchen wearing a full ballgown. 
Harry’s clout as a cultural powerhouse could 
have carried her through “Face It” on a wave of 
crazy stories about shows, cheeky cameos from 
her bandmates and thin analyses of her own life. 
But Harry doesn’t do this at all. Instead, “Face 
It” seems more like a self-interrogating revision 
of 
her 
experiences, 
occasionally 
punctuated 
by the names and stories 
that we expect from a rock 
star’s memoir.
From 
someone 
who 
has 
been 
funneling 
her 
experiences 
and 
inspirations into music 
and art for the last 40 
years, it is clear how 
easily 
self-analysis 
comes to Harry, as she 
weaves her true history 
into a riveting and often 
surprising 
narrative 
of 
serendipity and triumph. 
Even if you’ve never heard 
a Blondie song beyond 
“Heart of Glass” (on Wii 
Just Dance 2), Harry’s 
story is one that deserves 
to be read widely. Her 
voice and experiences act 
as a time capsule of New 
York in its prime. The 
American reflex to make art, even in the craziest 
of times, is most present in people like her. That 
thread of passion is hard to miss in Harry’s 
retelling of her own story, as it is one that reaches 
much farther than just her.

Debbie Harry’s ‘Face It’ is
more than a popstar story

CLARA SCOTT
Senior Arts Editor

The Irishman

Netflix

Face It

Debbie Harry

Dey St. Books

DEY ST. BOOKS

By Robert E. Lee Morris
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
12/03/19

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

12/03/19

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2019

ACROSS
1 Desert Storm 
missile
5 Jed Clampett 
portrayer Buddy
10 Newspaper ad 
meas.
14 Greek liqueur
15 Like much snack 
food
16 German wheels
17 Optimistic 
viewpoint to “look 
on”
19 “The Way You 
Love Me” singer 
Faith
20 Comfort
21 Medieval clubs
22 Vampire played 
by Cruise
26 Offhand 
comment
29 Breathed out
31 Connects (to)
34 Eastern neighbor 
of Tenn.
35 “FBI” actress De 
La Garza
37 “Strange Magic” 
rock band
38 California’s 
Big __
39 Know-it-all
41 UFC sport
42 Psychic’s “gift”
43 “Gesundheit!” 
evoker
44 For each unit
45 Emancipate
47 Middle of __: 
remote area
50 Restaurant chef’s 
workload
52 Came close to
53 Singer Joplin
55 Taste defeat
57 Strong desire
58 Samsung product
64 Any thing, say
65 Bamboo muncher
66 Black stone
67 Pigged out (on), 
briefly
68 Fur tycoon
69 Designer Chanel

DOWN
1 Cry noisily
2 Many a stray 
4-Down
3 Special forces 
weapon
4 Hound

5 Sprawling 
property
6 Barbershop 
quartet member
7 More 
underhanded
8 Flight board abbr.
9 “Bill __ Saves the 
World”: science 
talk show
10 Arid African 
expanse
11 Hothead’s trait
12 Wait in traffic
13 Rock’s Lofgren
18 Get better
21 Southeast Asia’s 
__ Peninsula
22 Camera 
attachments
23 Reason for 
absence
24 Wicked wit
25 Driveway surface
27 Jeremy Irons 
film based on 
a Christopher 
Paolini fantasy 
novel
28 Bill of fare
30 One of Santa’s 
reindeer
32 “Get Shorty” 
novelist __ 
Leonard

33 Lathered 
(up)
36 Late July zodiac 
sign
39 City districts
40 Slushy treat
44 “I understand 
now!”
46 Ally
48 GM security 
system
49 Blubber
51 Point of view

53 Roman queen of 
the gods
54 Retired MLB 
slugger
56 Word on a dollar
58 Place for TLC
59 Humanities 
degs.
60 Ad __ committee
61 Lennon’s love
62 Grand Central 
Sta. site
63 Skeleton prefix

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