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Posted on December 10th, 2007 by Union
Posted on December 9th, 2007 by Union
A Review of Control
By Nikki Frustere
All the great minds of music have dealt with inner turmoil and outer torments. Ian Curtis and his band of droogs Joy Division were no exception. Anton Corbijn’s film Control chronicles the life and death of dark wave’s most influential band; Joy Division. Although they started as “Warsaw”, frontman Ian Curtis later changed the band’s name to Joy Division in 1978. The new name was an homage to an area of WWII Nazi death camps where German soldiers could enjoy the voyeuristic pleasure of drooling over stripping frauleins.
Corbijn’s debut film feels more like a gripping tale of constant struggle rather than a generic musical bio pic filled with debauchery and groupie sluts. The script flows smoothly and all factors that Ian dealt with are considered in depth. From his hasty marriage to his first love Debbie, to his affair with a German journalist named Annik, to his struggle with epileptic seizures. Corbijn’s black and white, dark mood-setting drama allows the viewer to immerse themselves in Ian’s world during the late 1970s in the UK. Ian juggles a normal job at the unemployment office while striving to create a punk sound that expresses his need to feel accepted and connected.
Why see this movie? Because Ian Curtis’s story is unique. Ian was an introverted, poetic genius who suffered from epilepsy and struggled to balance marriage, a music career and himself. However, at the time, so-called experts didn’t know what epilepsy was, let alone how to treat it. So, after months of consuming copious amounts contradicting psycho-tropic medications and dealing with the stress of success, Ian committed suicide by hanging himself in 1980 at the young age of 23.
Joy Division’s sound was new. Young Brits could relate to the frustrations and angst associated with Ian’s music and they flocked to him like a dark beacon of temporary relief from everyday insanity. Songs like “She’s Lost Control” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart” sky-rocketed the band into the indie spotlight. Fame, marriage, and a child proved to be too much for Ian to handle and rather than take his frustrations out in his music, he chose to give it all up and leave it all forever.
Sam Riley and Samantha Morton give amazing performances as Ian and his wife Deborah. The actors absorbed their roles and gave the audience an inside view of the relationship between a tormented rock star and the woman who was stupid enough to fall in love with him. Sam had to embody one of the most tortured souls to ever hold a microphone and he does so brilliantly. Sam makes you feel for Ian just as Samantha makes you feel for Ian’s wife Debbie.
The audience I observed in the theater was as diverse as downtown Los Angeles. Young and old, different ethnicities, different walks of life. However, they all seemed to have the same reaction to the film; a sadness for Ian. You don’t have to be a fan of Joy Division or know anything about dark-wave music to enjoy this film. It’s simply a tale of a young man struggling to find something, anything to satiate his need to find balance. This quest is one we can all relate to.
The visual aspects of the movie were as important to the story as the characters themselves. Filmed in black and white and sometimes slightly out of focus, the viewer is transported to a type of gloomy yet enticing dream world. Late ’70s era Britain seems as dark as Joy Division’s music and the wardrobe reflects the punk style of rockers at the time. Cigarettes, beat up shoes and navy pea coats with their collars flicked up speak volumes as to the mind set of just barely getting through another shitty day of confusion.
One thing that drew me to this movie, besides the fact that I’m a Joy Division disciple, was the inclusion of large portions of songs and re-enacted performances. The movie incorporates the entire process of Ian’s song-writing by describing the steps taken to create his unique style of poetry in sound. Scenes of Ian scribbling lyrics, vivid live performances on TV shows and gutter-punk rock-outs at the local pub all accurately portray the band’s black and mild punk image.
I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys really diving into a character, fictional or otherwise, but be prepared…this movie isn’t pop, it’s dark wave.
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Filed under: Blog, Entertainment
Posted on December 7th, 2007 by Union
A Review of the Play The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow An Instant Message With Excitable Music
By Laura Sardisco
The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow An Instant Message with Excitable Music, directed by Edgar Landa (known to the CSULB campus for directing Titus Andronicus in Spring 2006), is a comedy that follows 22 year-old computer prodigy Jennifer Marcus on her quest to find her biological mother. The story is told through an instant message conversation Jennifer Marcus is having with a bounty hunter that she has been put in contact with to find the now missing Jenny Chow. Jennifer has spent the last four months creating her robotic alter ego to send to China in order to meet her biological mother. Although Jennifer is a brilliant computer engineer, she is unable to cope with her obsessive-compulsive disorder and agoraphobia, thus why she can’t travel to China herself.
Jennifer Marcus’ (Megumi Ageishi), compulsions include: the number of times she brushes her hair, and having to walk around the house in a grid-like pattern. Megumi Ageishi’s portrayal of her character was well-executed, except in the portrayal of Jennifer’s compulsions. Megumi often dropped the grid-like walking pattern when moving around the house, there were many times when she moved through the house quite naturally and thus breaking the convention of her compulsion. What was great about Megumi’s portrayal is that she clearly brought a sense of immaturity to the character, meaning that for someone who is 22 years-old Jennifer is clearly unable to comprehend or relate to what happens in the real world, she can only relate to those who are just as focused on her obsession: robots. People like Dr. Yakunun (Sean Gray).
Much of Jennifer’s coping mechanisms seem to be in response to how hard her mother Adele (Jocelyn Jolley) has pushed her, on top of the lack of a sense of self-identity from not knowing who her biological mother. The relationship between Adele and Jennifer is rather cold and rigid, as Adele pushed her daughter into accelerated courses and always held exceptionally high standards for the young prodigy. This has resulted in the resentment that they now hold for each other as Jennifer, cannot meet Adele’s expectations because now unable to leave the house to attend college or hold a job and Adele cannot begin to comprehend that her daughter really has a problem that needs to be dealt with.
As for Jennifer’s father, Mr. Marcus (Matt Straus), he is the quintessential awkward father who clearly loves his daughter but has no idea how to relate to her and feels slightly intimidated by her level of intelligence. Probably one of his most poignant moments with his daughter happens when he is trying to explain Adele to Jennifer by telling her that, “parents often push the child that is most like them.”
Overall, guest director Edgar Landa’s production of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, is a skillful commentary on experiences that are all too common in a world that is becoming smaller with its growing dependence on technology to cope with problems that we all experience.
The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, ran from November 16 thru December 1, 2007.
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Filed under: Blog, Entertainment
Posted on December 3rd, 2007 by Union
Posted on November 27th, 2007 by Miles Lemaire
Click Hear to Here It!! Download it many times and send us much emails at theshowshow@yahoo.com. We’ll be forty shows old next week, and the best gift you can possibly give us is an iTunes subscription (search “showshow” in iTunes or go to the side of our main page to do so).
Cheers,
Miles
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Filed under: Blog
Posted on November 26th, 2007 by Union
