Section A·Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, November 19, 1998
Entertainment
Susan Werner is a folk musician on tour promoting her new album Time Between Trains. She will be co-headlining the show tonight at Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St. Contributed photo
Folk musician vows to entertain crowd
By Augustus Anthony Piazza
Kansan staff writer
An up-and-coming folk musician, while not widely recognized in Lawrence, has promised not to bore the audience at Liberty Hall tonight.
"Boring is bad," said Susan Werner, who is on tour promoting her new album *Time Between Trains*. "As a performer, I don't think that you should have to pay attention to me."
Werner said that she would try anything to capture the audience's attention during the show and that she tried to add one variable to each show to keep her performance fresh.
Werner played last spring in Lawrence but has yet to build a strong following in the area. Many students said they were not familiar with the artist.
Margaret Kirtland, St. Louis freshman, said that she liked folk music but she never had heard of Werner.
Werner was raised in a rural Iowa town near Dubuque. She attended graduate school at Temple University in Philadelphia and received a masters degree in classical music.
The opportunity to play at Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St., has allowed Werner to return to the Midwest.
"For me, flat is good," Werner said.
Soon after completing her graduate studies, Werner decided to write her own lyrics and sing her own songs.
She plays more than 200 shows a year.
Bob McWilliams, host of a KANU folk radio show called "Trail Mix," said Werner's music could be compared to popular folk musician Joni Mitchell.
Werner said that earlier in her career she wrote about her own experiences but that in the new album, she did not write about herself as much.
Old Mistake and Sorry About Jesus are two songs on the new album that focus on the experiences of others.
"The they are part of an embarrassment series." Werner said. "I'm interested about embarrassment because it is real. I like seeing other people's embarrassment."
Werner will play tonight as part of a double bill with Cheryl Wheeler. It is an all-ages show, and ticket prices range from $12.50 to $15.50.
Neo-Nazi film lacks organization
Movie Reviews
By Jeremy M. Doherty
Kansan movie critic
Skinheads and neo-Nazis receive the big-screen treatment in American History X, a gripping tale that's marred by a half-written script and confused direction.
AMERICAN HISTORY X
That said, the movie provides a startling showcase for actor Edward Norton, who's quickly emerging as his generation's best actor. Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are freshly scrubbed teenyboyners compared to Norton, whose performance as a well-educated skinhead is so unnerving that he may be forgiven for the movie's overall lack of depth.
— he believes, studies and practices it. When someone refers to him as a "Junior KKK," he takes it as an
What's frightening about Norton's character, Derek Vinyard, isn't that he sports white-power tattoos and leads midnight raids of Korea-owned grocery stores in Venice Beach, Calif. It's his intelligence, evidenced by his calm demeanor and effortless monologues. He doesn't merely spout a harmful ideology
Kansan rating: ★★1/2 out of
Running time: 2 hours
Rated R for profanity, violence and a rape scene
Edward Furlong receives a lesson in tolerance from his brother (Edward Norton), a reformed skinhead in the drama *American History X*. Contributed Photo
insult. To him, the Klan is nothing more than a "disorganized bunch of rednecks."
American History X begins with Derek's release from prison after serving three years hard time for a racially motivated murder. His younger brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), kept up Derek's legacy of hate in his absence, much to the chagrin of their mother (Beverly D'Angelo) and the local high school principal (Avery Brooks).
Prison changed Derek. Three years of sexual abuse, humiliation and isolation calmed the anger within him, and he now is determined to rescue his brother from following in his footsteps.
Norton is required to play three different faces of Derek: the impressionable teen-ager who's converted into a fanatic by his father's prejudices; the angry racist who grins in triumph after executing two African-American teens who tried to steal his truck; and the older, mature Derek who now lives a life of regret and sorrow.
Unfortunately for Norton, director Tony Kaye and writer David McKenna can't organize the disjointed pieces of Derek's personality into a cohesive portrait. It's too much to accept that Derek would abandon the evil that festered inside him for so long.
With its emphasis on tacked on Hollywood values, *American History X* ultimately cheapens the impact of its anti-hate message.
Happiness offers a disturbing perspective
By Jeremy M. Doherty
Konson movie critic
Kansan movie critic
Make no mistake: Happiness provides anything but a happy time at the movies.
In fact, I wouldn't recommend director Todd Solondz's nutty film to anyone who has ever entertained suicidal thoughts; it so relentless that it might push them over the edge.
Happiness is a scaching look at the underbelly of normalcy. To hear it from Solondz, who also directed the similarly bleak Welcome to the Dollhouse, domestic tranquility is a farce — an unattainable pipe dream. To prove it, he weaves together the stories of about a dozen seemingly
unrelated characters — each of whom is undergoing their own private version of hell on earth.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, last seen as the gay groupie in *Boogie Nights*, is nauseating here with his slimy, sweaty turn as a porn-addicted computer nerd who gets his rocks off making obscene phone calls. He's obsessed with his neighbor (Lara Flyn Boyle), a successful poet who bored with the world, but he's too timid to introduce himself.
Misery also afflicts Boyle's two sisters (Jane Adams, Cynthia Stevenson) but in different ways. Adams is a dejected songwriter who flits from one dead-end job and rotten boyfriend to another. Stevenson puts
HAPPINESS
Kansan rating: **** out of *****
Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Happiness is uncreated and contains profanity and men who enjoy themselves in an unsavory fashion.
Now playing at the Manor Square Theatre in Kansas City, Mo.
forth the image of a happy homemaker, but a secret hurks at home without her knowledge: Her husband (Dylan Baker), a respected psychiatrist, privately harbors a penchant for prepubescent boys.
Baker's performance is outstanding; I've not seen such a complex portrait
of a pedophile since James Mason's work in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 classic *Lolita*. In one scene, Baker's reminding himself to pick up a dozen eggs for his wife; in the next, he hunkerdown in the backseat of a car, masturbating to pictures of teen idols.
It's a credit to Solondz's talent that Baker's character remains oddly sympathetic. Sadly, he doesn't extend the same courtesy to his other characters, most of whom remain one-dimensional through the film.
I'm looking forward to the day when Solondz decides to say what's really on his mind. Maybe then he'll stop hiding behind the forced comedy that weakens Happiness and hampers the power of Baker's terrifying performance.