November 6,1998
Reviews
5B
Velvet director digs deep; not worth weight in gold
By Jeremy M. Doherty
Kansan movie critic
Velvet Goldmine hits its peak early on — before the opening credits, in fact.
Before this saga about '70s glam rockers gets rolling, a black prologue card flashes on the screen:
"Although what you are about to see is a work of fiction, it should be played at maximum volume."
And loud it is. What it doesn't contain is a reason for the audience to care about its smarmy, selfish characters. Like Oliver Stone's The Doors, another movie about excessive rock stars, Velvet Goldmine veers from social satire to drug parable to sex opera — rarely succeeding in its efforts.
The movie also is about the relationship between singers David Bowie and Iggy Pop, though the uninformed viewer won't know that. "Bowie" is called Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), and the
VELVET GOLDMINE
Kansan rating: **★ out of ★★★**
Running time: 2 hours
Rated: "R" for glitter and nude punk
Rated: "R" for glitter and nude punk rockers
"Iggy" clone (Ewan McGregor) is a long-haired screecher known as Curt Wild.
Why the name change? Writer-director Todd Haynes couldn't obtain the rights to Bowie's and Iggy's music. As a result, Velvet Goldmine never feels like anything other than a jokey, half-completed film. It's like watching a production of Hamlet without Hamlet.
The movie begins in the early '80s as a young London journalist (Christian Bale) receives an unusual assignment: Find out what happened to Brian Slade, the glam rocker who faked onstage death 10 years before.
Slade's ex-wife (Toni Collette)
recalls Brian's first meeting with Curt Wild. After lulling the audience to sleep with his wistful tunes, Wild electrifies the crowd with scorching punk music and frontal nudity. Afterward Brian approaches Wild, offering to produce his next album.
The construction of Velvet Goldmine mirrors another film, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. In both cases, a journalist attempts to piece together the life of a powerful, elusive celebrity.
The difference here is that Charles Foster Kane was an enigmatic, brooding and complex figure. Slade never comes across as anything other than a clinging, drug-snorting pop star.
It would have been better had Haynes dismissed his flashback structure in favor of a more streamlined film that explained the appeal, success and death of glam rock. The live performances in Velvet Goldmine occasionally liven up the proceedings but also highlight the movie's hollow feel.
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers stars as Brian Slade, a fictional icon of the London glam rock scene in the film Velvet Goldmine. The movie also stars Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale and Toni Collette. Contributed photo
U2's double disc represents band's evolution
By T. R. Miller Kansan music fiend
This dual-CD exploration through the U2 music archives pays tribute to not only the band's roots, but it represents the image and sound transformation so many bands from the 80s have made in this decade. Most "best of" compilations seem to come after a musical group has entered a new stage or era of their music. Many critics and long-time fans长乐 for the desperate and angry tone of U2's earlier ventures. Age and money have softened the Irish band's political message and modern technology has pumped up the sequencing and vocal stylistics. Bono is now glam, and the band members seem to all have super-model girlfriends. But in the beginning, U2 was a bunch of smart punks from Dublin with a lot of their minds and some musical instruments in hand.
THE BEST OF 1980-1990
Kansam rating:
***** out of *******
The first CD hosts the greatest hits of U2's earlier career. The band's breakthrough album, "The Joshua Tree," is well-represented with such songs as "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "With or Without You." The LP version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" with the screeching violin background is my personal favorite. All of the greatest hits came straight off their original album, except for a live version of "I Will Follow." The CD jacket features several early 1980s pictures. It's amazing to remember back to a skinny Bono, with his high-pitched screech on "Sunday" or the rhythm and blues interpretations on "Angel of Harlem" and "Desire."
The first CD includes the "Sweet
est Thing," which Bono wrote for his wife as an apology for missing a birthday. The song has never made an album cut and is the only single not previously released.
The second CD contains B-sides, showing U2's early experimentations. From the dreamy instrumental "Bass Trap" to several renditions, including the Righteous Brother's "Unchained Melody," this CD seems to hint to U2's current high-tech, rock/pop sound. Some highlights are the emotional "Love Comes Tumbling" and "Trash, Trampoline and The Party Girl," which appeared on U2's "Under A Blood Red Sky." The B-sides are definitely the darker and abstract side of the band, and most come, ironically, from the late 80s when U2 began to feel international commercial success.
I wanted desperately to give this album a five-star rating. The album is a must-have for any music lover
and a dream for any U2 fan who remembers the band's raw, young sound. The only thing missing is the rocking guitar-driven "Bullet the Blue Sky," which showcases The Edge's quintessential and recognizable sound. Nevertheless, the album is a musical museum for younger listeners and a nostalgic trip for the fans that loved U2 before they went from rags to riches.
Siege starts strong; loses luster at end
By Jeremy M. Doherty
Kansan movie critic
With The Siege, director Edward Zwick has handed us a ballpark Wiener dressed up as filet mignon.
And it does. In fact, *The Siege* wallops the audience so heavily with its message that it makes
The thriller, about what happens when federal authorities respond to a series of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, unfolds at a breathless pace and keeps promising to deliver the rarest of things: A Hollywood pot boiler that actually has something on its mind.
Oliver Stone's films seem like a standard of moderation. What a shame that Zwick has forgotten the subtlety and restraint that marked his earlier films Glory and Courage Under Fire.
Denzel Washington stars as FBI agent
THE SIEGE
Kansan rating:
★★ out of ★★★
Running time: 1 hour,
55 minutes
Rated: "R" for a bad
toupee
Anthony Hubbard, a hard-lined officer who works an anti-terrorism beat for the Bureau.
Hubbard's team investigates a string of bombings in downtown New York that appear to be the retaliatory work of a fundamentalist Palestinian group in the United States.
Under orders from the president, Gen. William Devereaux, Bruce Willis, wearing a toupee and acting as mean as can be, institutes a state of martial law in New York and herds the city's Arab population into a sports stadium like cattle. Devereaux figures that it's worth fudging a few thousand civil rights if it'll weed out the handful of bombers.
But Zwick missed a key opportunity to create at least one fully dimensioned Arab character. Washington is given a Lebanese partner, played by Lebanese-American actor Tony Shalhoub, but he's more of a puppet of the script than a self-sufficient character.
Zwick ultimately is too concerned with supplying Washington with speeches about the First Amendment and the values of our country to allow his story to unfold on its own terms. By overstating its mantras while simultaneously heating up the action, The Siege pulls itself apart.
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