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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (June 14, 1990)
Arts & Entertainment Courtesy of Avenue Pictures Genevieve Lemon plays the title character in “Sweetie,” Jane Campion’s new film also star ring Michael Lake. Mazzy Star makes debut By John Payne Senior Editor __ “She Hangs Brightly’’ Mazzy Star Rough Trade Records Even halfway accurate descriptions become a problem when trying to categorize a group like the Los Ange les-based duo “Mazzy Star.” Reli able labels suddenly seem hackneyed, ineffectual. And there’s a beautiful intangibility enveloping their debut, “She Hangs Brightly”-one that meanders tliough various sounds, while creating several intriguing new ones. Mazzy Star was first conceptual ized seven years ago, when guitarist David Roback of Opal met a young singer/songwriter named Hope San doval, who was with the L.A. duo Going Home. Last year, Roback left Opal to record with the vocalist that had so impressed him in 1983. And indeed, much of Mazzy Star’s unique appeal, as well as its ambigu ous sound, can be attributed to San doval, who gives serious challenge to Cowboy Junkies’ Margo Timmins as music’s most stirring new voice. Her moaning chants on songs like “Ghost Highway” and the “Taste of Blood” contrast drastically with the rest of the album. The echoing “She Hangs Brightly,’ ’ in particular, basks in timid sort of retrospect for six and a half minutes, establishing its own brand .1 iiil'i; i ill ■ i — Ml Til— ffil—WIBWITB I Courtesy of Rough Trsde Records Hope Sandoval and David Roback of Mazzy Star. of psychedelia, lls effect is powerful, randomly drifting in and out of con sciousness the same way the Doors did with “The End.” Yet there’s a very relaxed type of imagery to be found in “Blue Rower,’’ the first single to be released from the album, and the fragile, country/blucs of “Ride it On.” With the tambourine-laden “Hal lah,” Sandoval makes an emphatic, albeit reluctant exit from a failed love affair: *4 Before I close the door/I need to hear you say goodbyc/Il’s like I told you/I’m over you somehow.Baby, won’t you change your mind?” The level of songwriting on “She Hangs Brightly,” is certainly not spectacular. Tracks like “Give You my Loving” and “Be my Angel” contain pretty straight-forward coun try lyrics, but Maz/.y Star’s unique approach, along with Sandoval’s angelic harmonics make listening to “She Hangs Brightly” an enjoyable endeavor. - u 1 .. .. i ‘Sweetie’ validates need for love, understanding By Mark GeorgefT Staff Reporter “Sweetie”, director Jane Campion’s feature film debut, is a “soul-ride,” a search for reality that follows the w'arping curvature of a down-trodden, manic-depressive urban Australian family’s existence. moyip , Sweetie (Genevieve Lemon) is the film’s antagonist to older and men tally constipated sister Kay (Karen Colston), who is a baby doll to her doting father, Gordon (Jon Darling), and a very confused, numbing experi ence to her singing, strength-anchor ing mother, Flo (Dorothy Barry). But in reality, each of the characters is his or her own antagonist. Kay, a very mystical, wandering young woman, seems more concerned with omens and what tea-leaves are supposed to guide her life than with her own self-risks and initiatives. And yet, viewers can’t help but feel sorry for Kay, and perhaps for themselves as well, for possibly being in the “search for knowledge.” Her absurd belief in an omen causes Kay to seduce Louis (Tom Lycos) less than an hour after he had pro posed to another woman. Their tryst spans from the upper stratas of mysti cal sexuality to Kay’s eventual hard, self-spiteful frigidity. Enter Sweetie and her temporary boyfriend Bob (Michael Lake), a zany producer on the verge of a drug-in duced comatose. From there Kay’s already misguided world is reaimed through the boundries of “The Twi light Zone.” Louis learns to put up with this twosome, only recently introduced to his life. God knows, Kay’s father and mother have. Kay, on the other hand, goes into fits of repressed anger that never quite explode when trying to get rid of Sweetie and Bob. For all of her aesthetic downfalls, there is beauty to be found in the jelly-framed Sweetie, and a sadness, loo. An unrealized, yet self-glorified actress, dancer and singer, she is a much-needed magnet of attraction and repulsion for herself, and the people around her. Sweetie is the overly ripe, plump savior validating humanity’s desper ate, continual need for mutual love, understanding and forgiveness toward one another See SWEETIE on 10 ‘Bird’ proves exception to chase scene movies By Troy Falk Siaff Reporter Once “Bird on a Wire” starts, you’d better catch your breath you may not get it back until the credits run. Although the entertainment value of most movies usually runs in in verse proportion to the number of chase scenes, this action/comcdy starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn proves a welcome exception to the reliable rule. Gibson plays a man buried within the FBI’s witness protection pro gram. His fiance, played by Hawn, was told he died. Gibson has been living under different names and doing all sorts of odd jobs arranged by the FBI. Hawn has since be come a New York lawyer, been married and divorced and currently has a boyfriend. One of many classic lines deliv ered by Hawn to her almost invis ible boyfriend--“You know how you said you wanted to have sex in some weird place? How about Detroit!” In a chance meeting at a Detroit gas station, Hawn is reunited with the man she believed was dead. With Gibson still on the run from the men he testified against, Hawn an ives just in ume to save his neck. From then on, “Bird on a Wire” takes off, putting the love birds on everything from airplanes to mo torcycles as the bad guys give chase. During their cross-country ex cursion, Gibson is forced to use some of his past aliases to get Hawn and himself out of various jams, as they visit a hairstylist’s shop, a zoo and a farm. Director John (Stakeout) Badharn gives us a couple foggy flashbacks that detail (he drug deal that put Gi bson in the program and show Hawn as a hippy'Jovechild. Writers David (Punchline) Selt zer and newcomers Louis Vcnosta and Eric Lcmcr have done a good job with the story’s hurry-up-and wail pace that is needed to explain life on the run. And Gibson is extremely lik able as the ordinary man turned fugitive.There’s a definite chemis try between him and Hawn,and the scenes that exploit that chemistry arc what keep the movie flying . “Bird On a Wire” certainly doesn’t go out on a limb with re gard to its script, but it docs enough things right to keep the story flying high. ‘‘Bird On a Wire” is playing at the Cooper Theater, 54th & O streets.,
