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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 2000)
‘Boiler Room’ knocks off other, better Wall Street-type movies Troupe to perform dreamlike dance By Samuel McKewon Senior editor In watching “Boiler Room,” an expose of sorts on stockbroker chop shops, I was reminded of words Mark Twain once spoke about women who cussed: “She knows the words, but knows not the music.” Had writer and director Ben Younger known the music to go along with his dialogue-heavy script, he might as well have made another “Wall Street" or “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Instead, the movie seems like a theft of those better films because it cannot develop any sense of story outside die stock con. “Boiler Room” pumps in those early scenes, as 19-year-old Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi) learns the ropes at J.T. Marlin - a one-floor, low-ceiling rent space in an office building way die hell out on Long Island, a “good hour away from Wall Street,” as Seth points out But die surroundings fool no one. At J.T. Marlin, everybody is under 30- and everybody is very rich. Recruiter Jim Young (Ben Affleck) tells new pledges they’ll be millionaires in three years. He tosses the keys to his Ferrari on the table: “Money can’t buy you happiness? Well, look at the smile on my face.” Seth buys into it, all of it. Never mind that the firm makes money by scamming middle-class folks out of -1 m jl. Boiler Room STARRING: Giovanni | Ribisi, Vin Deisel, Ben Affleck, Nicky Katt DIRECTOR: Ben Younger RATED: R (language, 1 I I and lots of it) GRADE: B FIVE WORDS: Energetic, then a big cliche their savings by selling them nonexis tant stock. These are guys who know die movie “Wall Street” by heart - and wor ship Michael Douglas’s character Gordon Gekko. But Seth has better reasons to suc ceed, and all roads lead back to his dis appointed father (Ron Rifkin), a judge who would like to disown him. Seth needs some new, in-the-money friends, and he finds them: J.T. Marlin compatriots Chris (Vin Diesel) and Greg (Nicky Katt), both husder million aires who never sniffed die Ivy League. Inside J.T. Marlin, “Boiler Room” thrums with energy, as Seth is taught die rules of the stock con: Always sell hard, never let them sell back to you, lie, lie some more and never, ever “pitch the bitch” - as in, never, ever sell stock to a woman. Seth buys a new suit and per fects those rules. It’s about that point when the movie falls off the rails, descending into old, FBI investigation cliches and a romance subplot involving the secretary (Nia Long) that no one needed to see again. Seth begins to uncover what’s hap pening at J.T. Marlin and plots a major scam a la Charlie Sheen in “Wall Street,” while the feds are closing in. Younger, who spent nine months doing research at a chop shop to get the atmosphere clearly didn’t spend a whole lot of energy on the rest of the story. The director shows some interest in portraying how these young men spend money - they live in giant houses with nothing in them - and their strange con nection to black culture. (A hip-hop soundtrack riffs throughout.) But it’s all dropped during those •fleeting 30 minutes, as Seth tries to help a worked-over customer (Taylor Nichols) who lost his shirt in the scam, and tries to reconcile with his father. There are hordes of memorable lines in the “Boiler Room,” likely to be repeated at a fraternity bar near you. It’s those lines that make the movie work. As a parable against greed, it slumps. Few can deny a vicarious thrill in watching these sharks go to work. But Younger messes with morality in the wrong ways, he knows not the notes, screws up the tune and watches his own chop shop of a movie get shut down. ---, AT TIAA-CREF, LOW EXPENSES ARE A HIGH PRIORITY. / All financial companies charge operating fees and expenses — some more than others. 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Read them carefully before you invest or send money. 8/99 By Emily Pyeatt Staff uniter Few times is visual poetry creat ed by human limbs stretched upon a stage. The precision and movements of the human body expressed throughout dance speak a visual lan guage that is truly unusual. The Japanese dance group Buto Sha Tenkei brings its dance form of butoh to Lincoln tonight in the Johnny Carson Theater. The perfbrmance is fueled by the work of Ebisu Torii and Mutsuko Tanaka. Four dancers, including Torii and Tanaka, will perform a dreamlike interpretation of compos er Frederic Chopin’s “Nocturne.” The 80-minute journey is “something you can enjoy the way you would a picture book,” Torii said in an interview interpreted through production manager Andrew Kranis. The story, imagery and butoh is also interpreted through the use of lights, sound and precise movement for a cultural experience that tran scends language. Barbara Banks, spokeswoman for the Lentz Center for Asian Culture, said that butoh was a post Hiroshima art form. “Butoh can deal with dark themes but is quite intense,” Banks said. Butoh’s intense roots stem from the dance form called ankoku buto, created by Tatsumi Hijikata in the sixties. Literally translated as the “dance of darkness,” the art form connoted dark images prevalent in the sixties. The changes during the sixties included movements in politics and art. The explosion in art brought the avant garde movement. Hijikata was heavily influenced by the work of Andy Warhol and avant garde experiments in artistic interpretation. “Hijikata wanted to translate the changes during the sixties into a style of dance,” Tanaka said. Torii and Tanaka were both inspired by Hijikata’s form of dance and began to practice butoh in 1981. “The dance style reveals the inner soul,” Tanaka said. Tanaka and Torii said they want ed to continue such revelations throughout future generations. For the previous ankoku buto ^Japanese dance - performance IjjNocturne WHO: Buto Sha Tenkei WHERE: Johnny Carson Theater, 12th and R streets WHEN: Feb. 22,8 p.m. COST: sold out THE SKINNY: Japanese dancers bring dreamlike quality to Lied. dance form to translate to modern audiences, Torii and Tanaka wanted the emphasis and themes of butoh to remain light versus the previously darker form. “We were very drawn to the early form of dance, and we wanted to create a dance for ourselves and our generation,” Tanaka said. Perhaps the darker parts of human existence were explored in the early forms of butoh, but the dance Tanaka and Torii discovered for their generation included many more layers. “You can’t really describe butoh as a single form. It is a mix of ele ments from all kinds of people,” Torii said. The diverse elements of the butoh style are evident in the perfor mance of “Nocturne.” “‘Nocturne’ is not a very dark piece. There is humor in the dance,” Torii said. “The performance explores the darkness and shadows from a dreamlike sense, but that darkness is not necessarily nega tive.” The many different interpreta tions of the butoh dance form have been explored by Torii and Tanaka throughout their world travels. The performance’s surreal images are enhanced by the dynam ic music and atmospheric lighting. Masaru Soga’s moody music along with Yoshiro Abe’s lighting design enhance the dream-like qualities of not only the butoh dance form, but “Nocturne.” The translation Torii and Tanaka chose for butoh means “Heavenly Chicken.” Yet, the direct translation is heavenly bird in English. “We wanted a pop sound to emphasize the humor and modern elements of butoh so we chose to use chicken in the translation,” Tanaka said. Ftan]®“®® for|| * A -I¥maxmmsi I & Old Cheney J 20-6454 1 res 2/29/2000 w -«-s—s-r-«-—--- " ' > 11 immmmm %