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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1999)
|hntertainment Page 12 Monday, October 25,1999 ‘Descent’ portrays man’s inhumanity ByLizaHoltmeier Senior editor If the future of modem dance lies with the likes of Susan Marshall, it’s in good hands. Friday night, the Lied Center presented Susan Marshall and company in “The Descent Beckons,” a dance piece co-commissioned by the Lied and several other arts organizations. For the piece, Marshall used New Year’s Eve celebrations and winter solstice rituals as her basis. But the piece explores much more. From its beginning plunge into chaotic revelry to its final, subtle ascent, “The Descent Beckons” reveals man’s inhumanity in a poignant and univer sally recognizable way. All the while, a digital clock hangs from the rafters, counting up to some seemingly inevitable end. The piece begins with actress Lisa Kron doing a pseudo master of ceremonies shtick. Cloaked in black sequins and satin, she quietly assures the audience they will love what they are about to see. With her nervous giggling and absent-minded ness, Kron serves as comic relief through the first half of the piece. Suddenly, Kron leaves the stage, and the cur tain rises on a silver-clad dancer, her back to the audience, alone in the spotlight. The dancer ges tures fluidly and slowly, beckoning the audience into a world she seemingly controls. This illusion of control doesn’t last long. As the solo dancer leaves the stage, she is engulfed by a group that has no plans of letting anyone escape. The dancers pull, push and throw each other, switching from dominator to dominated in the blink of an eye. There is a brief reprieve when two lovers grace fully entwine their limbs in a tenderly passionate duet. Then the piece dives into a series of show tunes and old jazz standards punctuated by David Lang’s ominous music. One minute, the dancers shimmy like Las-Vegas showgirls; the next, they march solemnly across the stage. The piece moves from orgiastic revelry to funereal and back again, but Kron’s antics make us not take ourselves too seriously along the way. As die dancers expertly recreate the chaotic merrymaking of the New Year, they throw them selves, each other and several dozen inflatable dummies around the stage. At first the dummies seem like simple comic relief, thrown in to humorize overly sentimental songs such as “The Way You Look Tonight.” But soon, as the music grows more foreboding and the clock ticks ever forward, the audience sees the dummies for the tormented, dominated class they are. Kron’s role also begins to change. Her charac ter’s attempts at being funny fail more and more as her stories and jokes become more disturbing. The group’s cruelty also intensifies. The dancers pound, stomp and crush the dummies. They shove one dancer into a laundry basket, forc ing him to perform a contortionist’s act When the lovers appear again, they tear at each other, entangling their limbs until you can’t tell whose legs are whose. Chaos reigns supreme. In a final, blood chilling moment, Kron stands at the edge of the stage as deflated dummies fall around her. Her once ■ .....shy smile turns to absolute horror as death and decay pile up on the floor, and the curtain falls. But when the curtain rises again, we are back to the dancer from the beginning, alone in the spotlight. She repeats her gestures, but this time birds chirp beneath the music. We have hope that though the cycle may repeat itself, the experience may be brighter this time around. ‘Chocolate’ lives up to title By Shelley Mika Staff writer What is better than chocolate? Everyone has his or her own answer, and it probably involves sex. But that’s not what “Better Than Chocolate” is all about Instead, the movie revolves around several characters, each with his or her own subplot The central figure is Maggie, a 19 year-old lesbian who has just dropped out of school. Then there is Maggie’s mom, recently divorced because of her husband’s philanderous relations with a “tequila-slushy bimbo.” The plot thickens immediately as Maggie’s mom announces that she and Maggie’s brother, Paul, will be moving in with her. But it doesn’t stop there. Maggie has just met Kim, her new lover, who is also living in Maggie’s new sub leased apartment. It sounds complicated, but add the fact that the former occupant of the apartment gives lectures on safe sex and has “toys” lying all around, and you get even more scrambling and humor than “Mrs. Doubtfire.” One of the strengths of “Better Than Chocolate” is that each character gets the right amount of attention to develop. Maggie deals with telling her mom that she’s gay, while Kim is frus trated they have to hide their relation ship. The mother sobs her way through her divorce in order to find herself. And Maggie’s friend Judy, who is making the change from male to female, deals with adversity and her love for Pat, Maggie’s boss. Each side plot, and there are sever al more, is original and fully realized. The audience is not sold short, while at the same time the plots are not pre dictable. The strongest part of the movie is director Anne Wheeler’s ability to manipulate drama and humor even as they are presented in virtually the same moment. Wheeler effectively Him Review nw facts Title: “Better Than Chocolate” Director: Anne Wheeler Rating: Not yet rated Stars: Wendy Crewson, Karen Swyer, Christina Cox andAnne-Marie McDonald Grade: A Five Words: Hilarious and original romantic comedy draws the audience into the emotional hardships of the characters but imme diately afterward makes them laugh without jeopardizing the serious nature of the scene. Even though real issues are pre sented, “Better Than Chocolate” is ultimately a comedy. Wheeler uses both dialogue and props with expertise to keep the audience laughing throughout. This really is a hilarious Please see CHOCOLATE on 13 ‘Best Man’ celebrates No. 1 spot LOS ANGELES (AP)“— Taye Diggs found wedded bliss at the box office when “The Best Man” debuted as the weekend’s top movie with $9.1 million, according to industry esti mates Sunday. Martin Scorsese’s “Bringing Out the Dead” had a so-so opening week end with $6.2 million for fourth place. “Crazy in Alabama,” directed by Antonio Banderas and starring his wife, Melanie Griffith, premiered dis mally with $ 1 million to finish well out of the top 10. ** “Bats,” about swarms of killer winged things on a rampage in a Texas town, opened in seventh place with $4.7 million. “Three to Tango,” a romantic comedy with Neve Campbell, Matthew Perry and Dylan McDermott, was eighth with $4.6 mil . lion. It was a tough weekend for new movie^, with earlier releases still com peting strongly. “Double Jeopardy” remained the No. 2 movie, grossing $7.7 million in its fifth weekend, push ing its total take up to $91 million. ‘“Double Jeopardy’ is still siphon ing off that mature audience so many of the fall films go after,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., which tracks movie ticket sales. “It’s making it tough for some of these newcomers to break in.” Last weekend’s top film, “Fight Club,” fell to third place with $6.3 mil lion. “The Story of Us” was Noi 5 with $5.5 million, and “American Beauty” placed sixth with $5.4 million. In “The Best Man,” co-produced by Spike Lee and written and directed by his cousin Malcolm D. Lee, Diggs plays a writer who is best man at a friend’s wedding. Bedlam breaks loose when a bridesmaid, played by Nia Long, obtains an advance copy of Diggs’ steamy novel that borrows heav ily from the lives of the wedding party. The weekend audience for “Best Man” was 80 percent to 85 percent black, but "the movie did very well across the board,” said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, which released the film. “It played well with the white community.” The film played in just 1,346 the aters and averaged $6,761 a screen. “Double Jeopardy” was on 3,002 screens and averaged $2,565, while “Bringing Out the Dead” opened in 1,936 cinemas and averaged $3,202. “Best Man” had the broadest appeal of all the weekend’s new Please see FILMS on 13 Handsome Boy Modeling School “So...How’sYour Girl?” Tommy Boy Records Grade: A Dopest rhyme: “My rhymes carry like the weight on Barry (White)” - Grand Puba on “Once Again (Here to Kick One For You)” A name such as Handsome Boy Modeling School is one way to get attention from the hip-hop commu nity. But what’s more attractive than the name of this pseudogroup is the list of people associated with it, the main two being Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and Prince Paul. While Prince Paul’s resume is enough testimony to spark interest from anyone interested in hip hop’s more credible but less publicized underground musical scene, the list of artists featured on the album “So...How’s Your Girl?” is just insane. Everyone from Mike D and Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto to Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, DJ Shadow, Dave of De La Soul, Money Mark and Grand Puba and Sadat X of Brand Nubian are hooked up to the 16 tracks on “So...How’s Your Girl?” Of course, that list isn’t quite as shocking when you consider what Prince Paul has done in the past. He’s worked with some of the hottest underground hip-hop groups in recent musical history, including De La Soul, Gravediggaz and Kool Kieth (Dr. Octagon). His last album, “A Prince Among Thieves,” was well embraced by the hip-hop communi ty. That being said, Handsome Boy Modeling School is almost a minor’s reflection of Prince Paul’s eclectic nature seamlessly woven with Dan “The Automator” Nakamura’s inno vative mixing skills. Overall, the album is more a col lage of sounds and styles than a straight-forward hip-hop record. Starting with “Rock n’ Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This),” an organ-fueled explosion of steady beats and scratching mixed in with vocal samples, the album runs the gamut of musical experimentation. The quality continues with “Magnetizing,” the album’s second track that is equally as catchy as the first one but built on a simpler beat and rhyme-focused structure featur ing Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, who spins some of the most intelli gent lyrics on the record. From there, “So...How’s Your Girl?” switches back and forth from basic beats and rhyme formats to more technically involved sample- ' heavy tracks and even stops for a few slowed-down soul numbers. “The Truth,” featuring Roisin of Moloko and J-Live, is a spaced-out mellow and sexy soul track that sounds more like Pordshead than anything. Ironically, the subject ol model ing is mentioned on this album only during “Look At This Face (Oh My God They’re Gorgeous)” and “Modeling Sucks,” both of which feature a barrage of samples from Chris Elliot’s canceled TV series “Get A Life.” Overall, the only time the album gets a bit tedious is during “Waterworld,” featuring Encore, and “Megaton B-Boy 2000,” featuring Alec Empire and El-P of Company Flow. Both songs are almost five minutes long but get old after the first minute, making them little more than filler on a record that’s already quite long. The album ends with a phony advertisement for The Handsome Please see GIRL on 13