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The Red & Black | Friday, April 29, 2005 | 9
Sequel adds worthwhile extras
In this amusing sequel to
“Meet the Parents,” Greg
Focker (Ben Stiller) is put
through serious pain as his
hippie parents (Dustin
Hoffman and Barbra
Streisand) meet his fiancee’s
high-strung father (Robert
DeNiro). We, the audience,
get to laugh at his pain and
get a lot of nice DVD extras,
too.
“The Manary Gland” is all
about the artificial breast
that De Niro’s character uses
to feed his infant grandson.
Propmaster Eugene
McCarthy put a lot of effort
(to the point of strangeness)
into creating the device.
“Inside the Litter Box:
Behind-the-Scenes with Jinx
the Cat” tells all about De
Niro’s pet cat. The pet appar
ently, was treated like a
Hollywood star, and soon
developed an ego to match.
He even had an entourage.
The crowning moment of
hilarity was a mock interview
with Moses, the Fockers’ dog,
about the scene where Jinx
flushed him down an RV toi
let. The dog barks, and in
subtitles, we discover just
how traumatized the poor
animal was.
The DVD comes with a
65-segment blooper reel and
20 deleted scenes. The bulk
of the blooper reel consists
of actors breaking down into
giggles or flubbing their
lines. With a couple excep
tions, they are stronger on
quantity than quality.
The deleted scenes aren’t
much better, though the
viewer does get to see a lot
more of the overzealous
police officer, and he has
some hilarious lines.
In the mildly-amusing
“Focker’s Family Portrait,”
the actors talk about their
characters. Dustin Hoffman’s
description of his character is
hilarious, but the others’ are
so-so.
“The Adventures of a
Baby Wrangler” informs the
viewer about Rhonda
Sherman and her job of man
aging the twin boys who play
Robert De Niro’s grandson.
In “Matt Lauer Meets the
Fockers,” he interviews the
main cast in the set of the
Fockers’ living room. The
section ends on a clever note
with the title of the potential
third film, a title that shall
not be given away here.
— Matthew Quinn
MEET THE FOCKERS
Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert De
Niro, Barbra Streisand, Dustin
Hoffman
Grade: B+
Verdict: Clever, funny
Kung fu melodrama
detailed, yet dull
Fresh off the success of his
previous martial arts epic
“Hero,” director Zhang Yimou
delivers another sumptuous
looking film of lost love and
long battles with the DVD of
“House of Flying Daggers.”
The film follows the paths
of three people in ancient
China who are working for
and against each other and a
mysterious group of rebels
against the government
dynasty, the titular House of
Flying Daggers.
As complex love triangles
give way to beautifully chore
ographed fight scenes, howev
er, Zhang can never truly
balance the amazing visuals
with enough narrative to cre
ate enough emotional invest
ment in the audience to care
about the fate of any of his
heroes.
Similar to the movie itself,
the special features on Sony’s
DVD for the film are full of
beautiful music and visual
panache but are ultimately
hollow, leaving the viewer
waiting for something a little
more filling.
The film includes a com
mentary with the director
and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon” star Ziyi Zhang, but
not only are the subtitles for
both speaker’s Chinese
distracting, the dialogue
between the two is stilted,
with the film’s actress often
baiting the director into
revealing information against
his own reticence.
The most informative fea
ture is a 45-minute documen
tary on the making of the
film, but although some of
the interviews are interesting,
the narration reeks of bad
promotion material, as well as
useless lines such as, “When a
problem arises, he finds a way
to solve it. That’s why he’s
such a good director.”
A series of storyboard
SPECIAL | The Red & Black
comparisons serves to illus
trate how the elaborate dance
and battle scenes were envi
sioned before filming started,
set side-by-side with the
actual scenes from the film.
Photo galleries devoted to
costume design, with illustra
tions of the original wardrobe
drawings alongside, as well as
behind-the-scenes photos of
filming are both interesting,
but move at a slow pace out
side of the viewer’s control.
A music video of the film’s
main theme, “Lovers,” rounds
out the disc but is little more
than shots of the singer per
forming in between clips of
the movie itself.
“House of Flying Daggers”
and the DVD features accom
panying it are both elaborate
ly designed pieces of beauty
and grace, but the filmmakers
forgot at some point to inject
a little depth into the whole
set.
— Stephen Milligan
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS
Directed by: Zhang Yimou
Grade: B-
Verdict: Great package but a
little hollow
Unflinching memoir tackles alcohol abuse
By APRIL MOORE
For The Red & Black
Many — perhaps most —
college students know the
situations. A group of peo
ple you barely know become
your best friends in the span
of a few hours, aided by the
great equalizer, alcohol.
Or, drunk late at night,
you fight with your room
mate or boyfriend about
something so insignificant
that later, it can’t be
recalled.
Or, severely hung over,
you struggle to your morn
ing classes with the help of
coffee, exchanging knowing
looks with the other sweat-
pant-clad students in your
class.
For Koren Zailckas,
author of “Smashed: Story
of a Drunken Girlhood,”
these are the episodes that
made up her young life. In
her memoir, she takes an
honest look at the lifestyle
that she chose for herself,
chronicling her relationship
with alcohol from the age of
14 until she was 23,
undoubtedly the most influ
ential relationship she had
during those years.
With wisdom beyond her
24 years, Zailckas looks at
the influences that first
drove her to drink, then at
the effects drinking had on
her life. She relates in dis
quieting detail the friend
ships, sexual experiences,
crimes and romances that
unfolded while she was
under the influence. Her
telling is raw but not
sensational; brave but never
bragging.
Zailckas’ mastery of self-
analysis is stunning.
Speaking about a photo
of herself and her one-time
boyfriend, she says, “for a
long time, I will see the illu
sion of emotional connec
tion in the way we are sit
ting ... It will take years to
notice the miserable truth
about our body language,
the fact that while he looks
as wide open as a sunflower,
I am closed tight as a clam...
The only thing I’m grasping
lovingly, with both hands, is
a cup of rum and Coke.”
This self-knowledge is
what drives the book.
Through it, alcohol
becomes a dynamic charac
ter and the story’s thread.
Zailckas will describe it
alternately as “my beloved”
and “a manipulative bitch.”
The personification of the
drink is not unique to
Zailckas — in fact, it makes
the relationship more
universal.
It seems as if everyone
SMASHED: STORY OF A
DRUNKEN GIRLHOOD
by Koren Zailckas
Grade: A-
Verdict: Brutally honest account
of college alcohol abuse
has met alcohol in one of
its forms.
Unflinching in the telling
of her story, Zailckas offers
not only her personal experi
ences but also takes a look
at the social influences that
link alcohol and college stu
dents so strongly. “In col
lege,” Zailckas says, “we can
wear our alcohol abuse as
proudly as our university
sweatshirts; the two con
cepts are virtually synony
mous.”
For this reason, and many
more, Zailckas’ book is an
important and provocative
work, on par with Brad
Land’s fraternity-life memoir
“Goat.” Through her
insightful and mature
telling, Zailckas’ story is
intimate but also feels as if
it could be your own story.
Expect to feel uncomfort
able but to understand.
STORY OF A DRUNKEN GIRLHOOD KOREN ZAILCKAS
smashed
SPECIAL | The Red & Black
Trio rocks in
high energy
performance
By MICHELLE FLOYD
mfloyd@randb.com
A little over a year ago, a
local advertisement
brought new wave rockers
Psychic Hearts together.
Vocalist/guitarist
Matthew Rain and
bassist/keyboardist Nico
Cashin teamed up with
drummer Carr Chadwick
when Chadwick replied to
an advertisement for a
musical project that Rain
wanted to begin in Athens.
The trio, which will play
Saturday at Tasty World
with fellow local act
Modern Skirts and Atlanta
band Y.O.U., found a “really
good, instant musical con
nection,” Cashin said.
Rain knew from the get
go that the members would
work well playing together,
he said.
“For me, it was pretty
obvious from the start
because I have played in a
lot of bands in town with a
lot of different people,” he
said. “A lot of things that
ordinarily have to be
explained between musi
cians fell right into place,
and the chemistry was real
ly solid.”
The group feels it has
created music that is differ
ent from what is going on
right now, he said.
“There is a lot of punk
and hippie jam rock bands,”
Rain said. “But we are sort
of riding our own horse with
the new wave rock’n’ roll.”
A lot of the group’s lyrics
deal with love and relation
ships, he said.
“Deep down the message
is kind of sad, but the
melody is pretty happy a lot
of the times,” Rain said.
When writing songs, the
band tries to keep a bal
ance between sadness and
happiness.
“When you sit down and
want to be on fire, some
thing has to happen, so the
inspiration has to be
extreme enough to make an
impression on you, whether
it is sad or happy,” Rain
said. “It is all drastic emo
tions that inspire us.”
But the group does not
try to write any particular
type of song — the process
happens naturally, he said.
“We just bring in ideas
and work with them,” Rain
PSYCHIC HEARTS
with Modern Skirts and Y.O.U.
When: 10:30 p.m. Saturday
(Doors at 10)
Where: Tasty World
Tickets: $6
said. “By the time (the
ideas) are actually a song, it
is not what it was when it
came in at all. It gets a little
of everybody.”
The members are play
ing the music they like,
Cashin said.
“We like new wave, fun
danceable music that
makes you feel emotion
when you hear it,” she said.
“I really love playing in this
band because I feel like the
music that I am playing
gives people emotion and
makes them feel. All of the
parts have an extreme
impact on the emotions.”
Aside from simply play
ing the music they want to
hear, the members are try
ing to be a live act that they
would go out to see.
The band, which is influ
enced by the White Stripes,
The Pixies and Lou Reid,
will put on “a high-energy
rock show,” Rain said.
“We like to entertain
people and put on a per
formance,” Cashin said.
Saturday’s show will be
special because it is the last
time anybody can get the
group’s self-titled three-
track EP The band started
with about 1,000 copies but
now only has a handful
remaining with no plans to
print more.
“Who knows if these
songs will ever come up
again or not,” Rain said.
Psychic Hearts plan to
start recording the new
songs it has been writing
for a new album in August
or September.
ii
"... the message is
kind of sad, but the
melody is pretty
happy
MATTHEW RAINS
Vocalist/Guitarist,
Psychic Hearts
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