Thursday, March 10,190* ArtsSEntertainment
Duo of Depp, DiCaprio deliver delightful drama
“What’s Eating
Gilbert Grape”
★★★★
“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” is a film for
all appetites.
Johnny Depp (“Benny and Joon,” “Edward
Scissorhands”) brings in a powerful perfor
mance as Gilbert, a young man living in a dead
end town with an unusual family.
H is mother (newcomer Darlene Cates) weighs
more than 500 pounds; she has been eating
nonstop since Gilbert’s father committed sui
cide many years ago.
Gilbert’s younger brother Amic (Academy
Award nominee Leonardo DiCaprio) is mental
ly challenged and wasn’t supposed to live past
the age of 10. Yet, the Grape household is
preparing to celebrate Amie’s 18th birthday.
Gilbert has no life and no ambition. He’s the
man of the Grape household and must stay for
the love and obligation he feels for his mother,
his two sisters and Amie.
However, when Becky (Juliette Lewis,
“Kalifomia,” “Cape Fear”) comes rolling into
town with her grandmother and a disabled
mobile home, Gilbert begins to lose focus on his
family’s need for him.
The entire film is a masterpiece, courtesy of
Lasse Hallstrom (“My Life As A Dog”). He
assembled an incredible cast, filled with some
of the best of today’s young talent in Lewis,
Depp and DiCaprio.
Lewis’ touching performance more than
makes up for what she threw out to the camera
in “Kalifomia,” and Depp shows improvement
with every film. There is always more depth and
more sensitivity to his characters. It’s hard to
believe this person at one time appeared in a
“Nightmare on Elm Street” film.
However, it is DiCaprio that runs away with
the prize. He has received a well-deserved
nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the
upcoming Academy Awards.
His character of Arnie is hypnotizing.
DiCaprio evokes anger, laughter and sympathy
from the audience as easily as any seasoned
performer in the movie business, and this is only
his second feature film. His first was a riveting
performance in “This Boy’s Life” with Robert
DeNiro.
The chemistry between Depp and DiCaprio’s
characters is a big part of what makes the film
work. Gilbert’s quiet sensitivity contrasts with
Amie’s childlike demeanor wonderfully. It helps
the film along and draws the moviegoer into the
story.
“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” should not
be missed.
— Gerry Beltz
Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” stars Johnny Depp (center) as Gilbert Grape
and Juliette Lewis (right) as Becky, while Leonardo DiCaprio co-stars as
Gilbert’s brother. Tne film is about Grape’s life in a dead-end town.
I ' — '■■■- 1 ■ ■ '
Jay Calderon/DN
Eric Ginsberg, a clarinet professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, performs
tonight at 8 as a contributor to UNL’s Faculty Recital Series. The free concert is in
Kimball Hall and is open to the public.
Concert at Kimball to spotlight
professor’s talent on clarinet
Concert
review
By Marissa Jorgenson
Staff Raportar_
Eric Ginsberg is no stranger to
the eloquent world of classical
music, and on Thursday, the clari
net player’s harmonies will dance
through the auditorium at Kimball
Hail.
The concert is part of the Faculty
Recital Series, in which University
ofNebraska-Lincoln faculty show
case their talents.
Ginsberg said the series, which
has been going on for about six
years because of its success, would
continue as a tradition on the UNL
campus.
As for Ginsberg, he began his
musical career with private lessons
at the age of 9, and the clarinet has
been his passion ever since, he said.
Ginsberg said he studied at the
Julliard School of Music in New
York City, where he earned his
master’s degree. He then went on to
play with the Oklahoma Symphony
Orchestra in Oklahoma City. The
Con Spirito, a chamber group in
Pennsylvania, was next to add to
the richness of his already budding
career.
Ginsberg now spends his time at
UNL, where he is a professor in the
School of Music. Ginsberg uses his
talent with the clarinet toenrich his
students in Single Reed Skills, a
class for music education majors.
But Ginsberg said despite his im
pressive score of accomplishments,
he would always be a student.
“Teaching is always a great way
to learn to play your own instru
ment, because you’re forced to re
peat to yourself,” Ginsberg said.
“One never really grows out of learn
ing.
“In the same way that you can
always see your own faults better in
other people, you can see your own
problems as a player in your stu
dents. It’s made me a better player,
and it’s also a lot of fun.’’
Thursday night’s recital,
Ginsberg said, will consist of two
pieces of chamber music accompa
nied by soprano voice professor
Margaret Kennedy and pianist Dav
id Abbott.
“When I pick music for a pro
gram, I try to make a balance be
tween music that I’m interested in
learning and performing and music
that will, in the totality of the pro
gram, make some sense and make a
balanced program that will be en
joyable for me to play and enjoyable
for the audience to hear.”
A piece by composer Ned Rorcm
is one that Ginsberg said he had
always wanted to perform and was
thankful for the opportunity to do
so. The second piece will come
from Hungarian composer Bela
Bartok.
Success-driven mind-set
is focus of Mamet play
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
At the root of all evil lies the Amer
ican Buffalo nickel. No matter whose
toes he tramples, junk shop owner
Donny Dubrow will get it back.
Dubrow’s insistence on breaking
the rules and making new ones to get
what he wants is the topic of the
award-winning play “American Buf
falo,” by David Mamet.
“American Buffalo,” a University
Theatre production, will be performed
at the Studio Theatre tonight. Direct
ed by Kevin Hofcditz, this truc-to-life
play takes a shot at declining Ameri
can values.
Set in the mean streets of Chicago,
the play creates a satirical look at what
desperation to succeed will do to an
average American.
Hofeditz, a coin collector himself,
said the play, at face value, told the
story of how three people planned to
steal a man’s coin collection.
“There’s a bit of mystery involved.
The audience will see how these three
characters go through trying to ac
complish what they’re trying to ac
complish,” he said.
Tne quest for the coin begins when
Dubrow, played by senior theater major
Dean Houser, sells an American Buf
falo nickel to a.customer. An interest
in old coins sparks Dubrow’s curiosity
in this man’s collection.
An old swindler named Teach
(Mark Klemetsrud), a naive young
man named Bobby (Colby Cash) who
falls under Dubrow’s wing, and
Dubrow conspire to break into this
man’s house and bring the “American
Buffalo” back home. Hofeditz said the
story operated on a much deeper level
as well.
“It’s about how people go about
getting what they think they deserve
in life, whether that is financial re
ward or prestige or just what they
consider to be what they deserve,”
Hofeditz said.
He said the play showed how peo
ple sometimes changed or twisted the
rules in order to make the rules apply
to their lives.
“It’s based on the idea that ‘I have
my right to get what I want just like
anybody el se docs"he said.“Its hows
what lengths people will go to to jus
tify going after what they think they
deserve.”
The three characters make the ini
tial mistake of breaking the rules, he
said, but then they still don’t work
hard to accomplish their goals.
“There’s a bit of a double difficulty
there,” he said. “They think they de
serve something, and they twist the
rules to get it, but then they don’t work
very hard even with the twisted rules.”
Hofcditz said thccharactcrs weren’t
even sure of the value of the coin.
Depending on the variation and the
year it was minted, the coin could be
worth between a few cents and several
hundred dollars.
This ambiguous natureot the value
of the coin shows that people cstabl ish
questionable goals, he said.
“Mamet has given them something
to go after that they don’t really know
much about,” Hofeditz said.
In this aspect, “American Buffalo”
is parallel to the Nancy Kerrigan
Tonya Harding incident, Hofeditz said.
“The fact that whoever was in
volved in Nancy Kerrigan’s assault, it
was at least people in Tonya Harding’s
camp, and the idea (behind the as
sault) was that Tonya Harding de
serves Olympic gold,” Hofeditz said.
“Yet they weren’t willing to say
‘let’s see if she can get it,”’ he said.
“They said ‘let’s see if we can twist the
rules to help her see if she can get it.’”
Hofeditz said once Harding’s group
decided to eliminate her strongest
American competition, they still didn’t
do a good job of it. This was just 1 ike
Dubrow’s group screwing up the coin
heist, he said.
“(Harding’s attackers) didn’t do
the ir homework,” he said. “They could
have done a lot better and not impli
cated themselves—maybe more suc
cessfully disabled her.”
Although Hofeditz said he didn’t
wish for Kerrigan to have been hurt,
he said the two cases still proved the
same points.
Another similarity between the
Olympic skaters and the characters is
the violent nature of the two incidents.
See BUFFALO on 14
