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Monday, February 26, 1996 Page 9
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Cliff Hicks
Gladhands
growing up
as a band
Sooner or later, all bands grow up.
Sonic leave, some stay, some make
record deals, some don’t.
Artists such as Matthew Sweet and
311 had to lice the Heartland to find
their breaks. Some musicians make it,
some don’t.
Let’s all hope the Gladhands do.
I remember Doug Edmunds, drum
mer and sometimes vocalist for the
Gladhands. He was working at
Homer’s in Omaha’s Old Market, and
my friend Jessi and I would always
come down and talk to him. Even
though Jessi and I never dated, Doug
always joked that we acted as though
we were married. She and I both
thought it was funny.
Doug knew Homer’s like the back
of his hand. If it was in the store, lie
knew about it, had probably listened to
it and was always more than willingto
offer an opinion about it. He was the
best music store employee I have ever
met.
For a while, though, I didn t even
know he was in a band. To me,he was
just a well-versed Homer’s employee.
Then, when 1 went and saw the Posies
at the Ranch Bowl on a fine August
evening in 1993,1 saw the Gladhands
for the first time, and realized that was
Doug silting at the drum set.
The show is quite clear in my mind.
It was one of the best concerts 1 had
ever seen. The Gladhands had a tight
set without many problems, and alter
the show, a lot of people went out and
bought the band’s tape.
I told Doug that following weekend
that I was kind of upset that one of the
songs they played at The Posies con
cert, “Reckless,” was not on the tape.
I explained to him that it was perhaps
the best song played that night out of
both the Gladhands’ and the Posies’
sets. It was quite some time before I
found out “Reckless” was one of his
songs.
He apologized and assured me it
would be on the next thing they re
leased. 1 didn’t even have a clue how
long that was going to be, for several
reasons.
as it turned out, me Gladhands
moved from Omaha to Chapel Hill,
N.C., without another release. Doug
told me about it, and 1 missed the
band’s final concert in Omaha, which
I still regret.
That was, if memory serves me
right, in late 1994. Since then, nothing.
Then, last Friday night, while
browsing in the Homer’s here in down
town Lincoln, I found the Gladhands’
new album, “From Here to Obscu
rity.”
It was on CD, not tape. It did indeed
include “Reckless.” I was overjoyed.
After having taken it home and lis
tened to it, 1 was quite happy to hear
that the band hadn’t lost its sound and
was doing quite well. I plan on drop
ping Doug a line sometime soon.
While “From Here to Obscurity”
isn’t on a giant label (Big Deal), it’s
still a fine album that’s worth picking
up, and while the Gladhands may not
be Omahans anymore, they’ll never
forget it. Maybe they’ll come back.
Someday.
Until then, Omaha will miss them,
and I will miss Doug.
Hicks Is a freshman news-editorial and
English major and a Daily Nebraskan staff
reporter.
Love scene mins ‘Before and After’ plot
By Brian Priesman
I' Film Critic
Most people know the biblical
story of Abraham and Isaac.
Abraham, a kind and loving fa
ther was asked by
God to prove his
devotion. God
asked him to sac
rifice his son on
the altar.
Abraham, a de
voted follower of
God, agreed,
though it sad
dened him to do
so.
As Abraham was raising the kni fc
to kill his own son, God interceded.
God was pleased with Abraham’s
devotion and let both him and Isaac
live in peace.
“Before and A Her,” a new drama
starring Meryl Streep (“The Bridges
of Madison County,” “The River
Wild”) and Liam Nccson
(“Schindler’s List, “Rob Roy”) puts
this biblical story in a modern con
text.
Ben and Carolyn Ryan (Nccson
and Streep) are the parents of two
line children. They have a happy,
normal family relationship and are
respected members of their small
town.
But all oft hat changes when their
son turns up missing and his girl
friend is found dead.
The Ryans’ lives are turned up
side down as they struggle to come
to the truth of the matter—whether
or not their son killed hisgirlfriend.
“Be fore and A ft er” st art s out wcl 1
enough. Both Streep and Nccson
give excellent performanccs, and Ed
ward Furlong (“Terminator 2: Judg
ment Day”) is wonderful as the
haunted youth, Jacob.
Photo courtesy of Hollywood Pictures
Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson star in “Before and After” as Carolyn and Ben Ryan, a married
couple whose good standing in a small town is threatened when their son is suspected of
murder.
Before Jacob tells his parents the
truth of what really happened, the
audience is pulled along on a roller
coaster of emotion as Jacob’s par
ents try to help their son in any way
they can, including destroying evi
dence.
But after the truth is revealed
midway through the movie, all mo
mentum stops, dragging this movie
to a screeching halt.
The movie loses focus as the Ryan
family struggles to help Jacob. Jacob
and his father resort to lying to a
grand jury as they try to survive in a
town that has grown to hate them.
The fault lies in theseript. Screen
writer Ted Tally (“Silence of the
Lambs”) tries too hard to pull the
heart strings of the audience.
And why did he and director Bar
bet Schrocder have to include a to
tally pointless love scene between
Streep and Necson? Didn’t they re
alize that no one wants to sec old
people kissing at this time of year?
Before “Before and After” was a
movie, it was a wonderful novel
exploring how far a family would go
to protect their son. Now that it’s a
movie, it’s pretty pointless. Read
the book.
Film: “Before and After”
Stars: Meryl Streep, Liam
Nccson, Edward Furlong
Director: Barbet Schrocdcr
Rating: PG-13 (Language,
Violence)
Grade: C
Five Words: A modem
Abraham and Isaac
‘Unforgettable’ leaves much to be desired
By Cliff Hicks
Film Critic
If a film is going to be called
“Unforgettable,” it must be prepared
to live up to that name.
This one doesn’t.
Here’s the plot, in
a nutshell: David
Krane (Ray
Liotta; “Field Of
Dreams,”
“Good fellas”) is a
medical examiner
who is acquitted
of the murder of
his wife on a tech
nicality. But,
knowing he didn’t do it, Krane is
driven to find the killer.
He meets Martha Briggs (Linda
Fiorcntino; “The Last Seduction,”
“Vision Quest”), whose experiments
on transferringmemory through spi
nal fluid intrigues him.
That is all what’s really impor
tant because the rest of the film flics
off those spokes. By the time the
film is done, Krane has the memo
ries of four diftcrent people floating
around his head, the murder is solved
and no one cares one way or the
other.
Clocking in at two hours, “Un
forgettable” could have had 40 min
utes cut out of it with no adverse
effects. Too much of the film was
spent attempting to build up an in
tensity that was never intense. Lots
of shots of scenery and overly-drawn
out scenes filled time that didn’t
need to be filled.
The acting isn’t all bad. Liotta is
convincing as an obsessive doctor
seeking revenge on the man who
killed his wife (Sound familiar? “It
wasn’t me! It was the one-armed
man!”). But unlike Harrison Ford’s
“Fugitive,” Liotta offers no redeem
ing side to the hero. He is too much
the maniac and not particularly lik
able.
Fiorcntino’s character is over
whelmed completely by Liotta. She
plays the bookish scientist whose
research is swept into human ex
perimentation.
David Paymcr’s (“City Hall,”
“Get Shorty”) performance as
Krane’s friend and head coroner
Curtis Avery is believable and lik
able. Christopher McDonald (“Quiz
Show”) and Peter Coyote (“E.T.”)
portray cops fairly realistically, but
neither oilers dynamite in this dud.
In addition, the endingofthe film
is so far out, anyone who figures it
out before the finish cams a Sherlock
Holmes hat and a summer internship
with Scotland Yard. It is also unbe
lievable. But by this point, if you’re
still in the theater, you’ll buy any
thing.
The final problem is pacing. This
film has none. Even if all the excess
footage were cut out of “Unforget
table,” stringing the events together
without the trickle speed would be
difficult because the transitions are
so miserable.
Despite Liotta’s attempt to offer
us anything desirable in this film,
“Unforgettable” quiet clearly isn’t.
Film: “Unforgettable”
Stars: Ray Liotta, Linda
Fiorentino
Director: John Dahl
Rating: R (violence,
language)
Grade: D
Five Words: Wish I could
forget “Unforgettable”
Guild awards join Oscar hype
By Dennis Anderson
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES —The Os
car-nominated “Apollo 13” won
the award for best performance
by a movie cast Saturday at the
second annual Screen Actors
Guild Awards.
Nicolas Cage and Susan
Sarandon won best actor and ac
tress honors.
Cage won for his role as a
drunken, suicidal loner in “Leav
ing Las Vegas,” and Sarandon
won for her performance as a
life-affirming crusader in the
death penalty drama “Dead Man
Walking.”
Accepting his award, Cage re
called watching James Dean in
the film “East of Eden” give an
anguished performance of a son
trying to win his father’s love.
“It was at that moment I knew
I wanted to be a screen actor,
Cage said.
In television categories, the
casts of two NBC hit series,
“Friends” and “E.R.,” won hon
ors for outstanding ensemble per
formances.
“E.R.” cast member Anthony
Edwards, who also was honored
as best male actor in a television
drama series, accepted the award
on behalf of the cast.
“This is truly the award we
wanted to win tonight because
this is what we do every week,
work together,” Edwards said.
Edwards joked about reports
that fellow cast member George
Clooney will succeed Val Kilmer
as Batman in the blockbuster film
scries.
“Hopefully I’ll play batboy,’
or 'cat boy,”’ Edwards said.
Matthew Perry, accepting the
cast award for “Friends,” joked,
“I always thought the ensemble
award was a wardrobe award.
We’re really honored.”
Alfre Woodard won best per
formance by a female actor in a
television movie or miniseries for
her role in “The Piano Lesson,
Hallmark Hall of Fame.”
“I am so grateful my life has
led me to this community of
people,” she said. “We’re vaga
bonds, clowns, queens, crack
pots.”
Gillian Anderson won for out
standing performance by a fe
male actor in a television drama
scries as the doubting FBI inves
tigator on “The X-Files.”
David Hyde Pierce, the neu
rotic therapist brother on
“Frasier,” won the award for out
standing performance by a male
actor in a television comedy sc
ries. He noted the award “has
See ACTORS on 10