Ladely, filmgoers pleased
with festival’s success
By Jason Hardy
Senior editor
Last Saturday night the Mary
Riepma Ross Film Theatre was
crammed with more than 200 people
who braved the heat to watch Chris
Eyre’s film “Smoke Signals.”
Following the showing, the
extremely receptive crowd stayed an
extra 30 to minutes ask Eyre ques
tions about the film and share with
him their comments.
It was the first actual weekend of
the Great Plains Film Festival and
attendance was just 200 people shy of
meeting the last festival’s record set
ting 1000 attendees mark.
Now with the weekend still ahead
and many guests still to arrive Ladely
couldn’t be more proud of his cre
ation.
“Seeing the crowds for Tony Bui
and Chris Eyre is really gratifying,”
Ladely said. “To have people turn out
in those numbers is great.”
Despite last week’s success,
Ladely said he is most looking for
ward to this weekend’s showings and
the arrival of Alexander Payne, direc
tor of Election, who will be awarded
the Mary Riepma Ross award for
directors. Payne will be present at the
awards ceremony Friday at 6 p.m.
and also at the screenings of two of
his films, “The Passion of Martin,”
Friday at 5 p.m. and “Election,”
Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 1, marks the last
day of the festival and the Mary
Riepma Ross Film theatre will show
the winners of each category, includ
ing the grand prize winner, “The
Brandon Teena Story.”
With all the excitement still to
come Ladely said he hasn’t had much
time to reflect on the events of the
past week but one thing is for sure, in
two years he’ll be back do it all over
again.
“Everybody has been having a
great time. In every way I can think of
it’s been very successful,” he said.
“And I haven’t even spent all the
money yet.”
Great Plains Film Festival
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Despite premise, ‘Haunting’
fails to bring forth frights
By Patrick Kelly
StaffWriter
This is the perfect horror movie
for the weak of heart. “The Haunting”
is a sterile and harmless film with a
series of predictable and clearly laid
out plot twists.
The film is a tribute to the classic
film, “The House on Haunted Hill”.
However the original film starred the
legendary Vincent Price. This latest
version has neither the amusing camp
value nor the menacing sense of ter
ror.
Dr. Jeffrey Marrow (Liam
Neeson) brings together a group of
insomniacs for group therapy. The
meeting place is a gothic mansion
conveniently removed from society.
Oh, and of course, the house is haunt
ed by an evil spirit and the souls of the
children that he killed.
The house itself was built by a
twisted millionaire by the name of
Hugh Crane who was believed to
have built the house to raise a family.
Instead, Crane uses the house to
entrap small children whose spirits
along with Crane’s occupy the house.
The paranormal activity provides
director Jan De Bont (“Speed”,
Twister”) a chance to saturate the
movie with visual effects.
Unfortunately the special effects
become repetitive and stale. The
appearance of the children in the
form of silhouettes and shapes made
by a breeze blowing through sheets
The Facts
Title: The Haunting’
Stars: Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta
Jones, Lili Taylor, Owen Wilson
Director: Jan De Bont
Rating: PG-13 (violence, horror
sequences)
Grade: D
Five Words: Be unimpressed, be
very unimpressed.
and curtains. As the movie wears on it
becomes obvious that this film is a
case of style over substance.
The film was also devoid of any
convincing performances due to the
fact that none of the characters were
well-developed. Since the characters
were so shallow I had no real concern
for what would happen to them.
Neeson phones in his perfor
mance as the stiff Dr. Jeffrey Marrow.
Catherine Zeta Jones plays Theadora,
the wealthy artist and socialite. Upon
her introduction, we learn that
Theadora is bisexual, thrown in pure
ly for shock value and nothing more.
The only entertaining perfor
mance is that of Owen Wilson
(“Armageddon”, “Bottle Rocket”)
who plays the sarcastic and wise
cracking Luke. Wilson’s performance
was well-used as he keeps the film
from taking itself too seriously.
Despite the movie’s commercials
which play on Neeson and Zeta
Jones’ recent box-office successes
the movie is centered on Lili Taylor’s
character, Eleanor. Eleanor has a
supernatural connection to the house
and a tortured soul.
For a horror film, “The Haunting”
was not very frightening. This can be
attributed to the fact that the perfor
mances by the actors are terribly
unconvincing. The actors never con
vey a sense of fear to the audience. At
any time, I never felt that the charac
ters were in any real danger. How can
I be afraid of killer harpsichords,
giant cement birds, gargoyles and a
man eating fireplace if the actors are
not.
A scene which comes to mind is
one which involves a statue coming
to life and trying to drown Liam
Neeson while spitting blood. Neeson
breaks free and walks away noncha
lantly. This cavalier attitude is pretty
much the tone of the movie. I never
really saw the actors in any real peril.
The action culminates into an
anti-climactic climax. Eleanor takes
on Hugh Crane pretty much by stand
ing still and shouting at the ghost.
The movie plays on the retro
charm of classic horror films.
Unfortunately, the story becomes a
cliche. The caretaker of the house
warns Eleanor that the town is so far
removed from the house that the
townspeople could never hear their
(the group’s) screams.
While the film itself did not scare
me, the fact that moviegoers are pay
ing admission s a frightening
thought.
‘Division Street’
brings the ’60s
back to life
Play is awkward, but amusing
By Patrick Kelly
Staff Writer
If you haven’t gotten enough of
the hype surrounding Woodstock ’99
then there’s still a way to take a trip
back to the ‘60’s without the use of
LSD. The Nebraska Repertory
Theatre’s production of “Division
Street” brings the age of Aquarius
into the age of yuppies.
Steve Tesich’s play centers on
Chris, a ‘60’s radical turned ‘80’s
sell-out. Chris, played by Eric
Liddell, is forced to renounce his ide
alism to save his job. If the premise
sounds overdone, that’s because it is.
However, it should, be noted that this
play was written twenty years ago
before films like “The Big Chill”
made ex-hippies wonder if whether
or not they sold out.
Eric Liddell brings to Chris a
sense of pessimism and self-doubt
which becomes annoying after a
while. However, this performance is
effective and establishes Chris as the
straight man and leaves the rest of the
cast an opportunity to steal the spot
light.
The comedic aspects of the play
comes at the expense of the story. The
first act of the play introduces an
eclectic cast of characters, but does
very little to move the story along
making the play dependent on the
second act to tie up all the loose ends.
We meet, Mrs. Bruchinski
(Trazana Beverley), his overbearing
landlady. Mrs. Bruchinski along with
Yovan, (Stan Rifkin) a mad restau
rant-owner who threatens to kill
Chris provide an ethnic flavor to the
Theatre review
The facts
Title: “Division Street”
Stars: Eric Liddell, Trazna Beverley,
Stan Rifkin, Tara McAllister-Viel, John
Blair, Amy Jirsa, Mark Lynch, Sonya
Hensley
Director: Paul Gaffney
Grade: B
play. Their misuse of the English lan
guage becomes their predictable
source of humor.
The past comes to Chris’ door in
the form of Roger, (Mark Lynch) a '
burned-out hippie. Lynch’s perfor
mances one of the highlights of the
play especially when he has a flash
back concerning orgasms.
We also learn about Chris’ past
from his ex-wife Dinah (Tara
McAllistar-Viel) and her lawyer, Sal
(John Blair) who prone to partially
exposing himself.
Of course, there has to be a little
romance in the play. Chris falls in
love with Nadja, (Amy Jirsa) a cyni
cal hooker who also happens to be
Roger’s ex-wife and Yovan’s daugh
ter. Sal falls in love with Betty, a
transsexual cop. Eventually, all the
characters relationships are cleared
up but only after a series of bizarre
episodes.
While there is much humor to be
found in the performances by all of
the actors, none of the characters are
very well-developed. The play’s con
clusion serves as an awkward oppor
tunity to find a resolution for the var
ious conflicts facing the characters.
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