Serene aesthetic sets tone in ‘Pumpkin
Movie review
Aaron Shakra
Pulse Reporter
“Pumpkin,” from first-time
directors Anthony Abrams and
Adam Larson Broder, is a really
strange film. Really, really strange.
But it works in such a way that
ends up drawing the viewer into
the story, themes and characters,
without telling them what to
think. And it has absolutely noth
ing to do with Halloween.
The film played at Bijou Art
Cinemas earlier this month, and
will come to DVD and VHS on
Nov. 5. It opens with Carolyn
McDuffy (Christina Ricci), a USC
student and member of the
Alpha Omega Phi sorority on
campus, scheming with her
Greek sisters to win “sorority of
the year” by assisting disabled
athletes. This scene has a
serene, bright aesthetic which
alternately sets and offsets the
tone of the film throughout its
113 minute run-time.
At first, Carolyn is surrounded
by a world of forced cheerfulness,
both on her own accord and by
her sorority environment.
Perfection and imperfection, nor
malcy and weirdness saunter
around her head as she works
with her assigned athlete,
Pumpkin Romanoff (Hank
Harris). She has an immediate
repulsion to him, which turns to
a kind of simultaneous affection
and attraction.
In one of the funnier moments
of the film, her poetry teacher
rips apart her “Ode to
Pasadena,” challenging her to
read the poem. She tears it up
and throws it in the garbage can
halfway through the film, as sort
of a breaking point for her char
acter. It’s a short scene, but it
packs a punch.
And here is precisely where
the strength of “Pumpkin” lies —
in its subtlety. Take Pumpkin’s
watercolors, or Carolyn’s
boyfriend, the cookie-cutter ten
nis star, Kent (Sam Ball). Or the
seamless blending of satire, com
edy, drama and edgy subject mat
ter without having to fall into any
one of them. The film confronts
the racy — both literal and
metaphorical — topics under the
guise of happy, purposeful cheer
fulness without being preachy. To
give away more scenes of this
balancing act would be spoiling
the fun.
Contact the Pulse reporter
at aaronshakra@dailyemerald.com.
Dole wants teens drug tested
to receive driver’s licenses
Mark Johnson
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
RALEIGH, N.C. — Elizabeth
Dole wants to require all teenagers
to pass a drug test before getting a
driver’s license.
Dole, the Republican U.S.
Senate candidate in North
Carolina and a former transporta
tion secretary, has promised to
push for a federal law pressuring
states to enforce such a measure.
“Wouldn’t that help them
understand how important it is to
be drug free?” Dole asked at a
recent campaign stop in
Washington, N.C. “It’s not cool (to
abuse drugs). It kills.”
Then-President Bill Clinton
proposed a nearly identical meas
ure in 1996 while campaigning
against Dole’s husband, former
Sen. Bob Dole, and offered feder
al grants to states the next year.
Campaign officials for Elizabeth
Dole said they were unaware of
the Clinton initiative.
Dole included the pre-license
drug test as part of her “Dole Plan
for North Carolina” this year, pro
posing teens who test positive
must complete a drug counseling
course and pass another test
before getting a license.
The test could be bypassed.
Parents who don’t want their chil
dren to take a drug test could
waive the requirement, said Mary
Brown Brewer, Dole’s communica
tions director.
“You can’t solely address (ille
gal drugs) from the supply side.
You have to address it from the
demand side,” Brewer said.
“When you turn 16, you look so
forward to getting that driver’s
license. This is a pretty strong
incentive not to do anything that
would prevent you from getting
that driver’s license.”
Dole has made “less govern
ment” a campaign mantra, as have
many Republicans, which makes
it striking that she would embrace
an invasive expansion of govern
ment duties and authority. Last
year, nearly 62,000 North
Carolina teens got their first dri
ver’s license. ;
A spokesman for the National
Highway Traffic Safety
Administration said he was
unaware of any states enacting
such a program after the Clinton
push.
Dole’s opponent, Democrat
Erskine Bowles, said he would like
to talk with law enforcement offi
cials, parents and teenagers before
proposing such a measure.
The testing presents practical
obstacles and legal questions.
State motor vehicles administra
tions would suddenly face the
costs of processing drug tests
through a laboratory, not to men
tion the idea of testing youngsters
who haven’t been accused of any
thing. U.S. courts, though, have
repeatedly upheld the constitu
tionality of drug tests.
Several states have zero toler
ance laws on alcohol use, requir
ing that teens lose their license if
caught driving with any amount of
alcohol in their blood. The alcohol
tests, though, are administered
after a youth has been stopped on
suspicion of drinking.
Substance-abuse experts said
drug testing works as an incentive
to keep youths from abusing drugs
but likely only until they pass that
checkpoint.
© 2002, The Charlotte Observer
(Charlotte, N.C.). Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Pumpkins
continued from page 1
grow an assortment of pumpkins
on their 20 acres, including vari
eties for cooking.
Henderson said she doesn’t grow
huge pumpkins because they are
too hard to handle. Sometimes, she
said, customers don’t understand
that fitting their selections into a
Volkswagen isn’t possible.
Or if not possible, about as likely
as, well, seeing the Great Pumpkin
on Halloween.
Contact the reporter
at jodyburruss@dailyemerald.com.
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9pm emu ballroom
oct 31 + nov 1
RECYCLE
Samurai
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Monday, Oct. 28th
•Jungle DJs
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• Oral Sex
Tuesday, Oct. 29th
• Northwest Best
•Jungle and Acid Techno
Wednesday, Oct. 30th
•Community sounds - last time
Thursday, Oct. 31st
•International Reggae Artist
• Earl Zero and 7th Street
• Halloween Reggae Party!
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Peace, Justice and Civil liberties
Conference
Building the Movement Against the Assault
on Human Rights Since Sept. 11
November 11 to17, Monday to Sunday
National and Local Speakers each weekday evening at
7 p.m. in 150 Columbia (comer of 13th and University)
Monday 11/11
Tuesday 11/12
Wednesday 11/13
Thursday 11/14
Friday, 11/15
Leah Wells, Voices in the Wilderness
Medea Benjamin, Ryan Amundson
Barbara Lubin, Rania Masri
Kevin Gray, Rahul Mahajan
Mario Africa, Amy Goodman
Weekend of Events
Saturday 11/16
Sunday 11/17
Banned Film Festival in 180 PLC, 11 a.m.
Workshops and Speakers in EMU all day
Comic Dave Lipman 7p.m., Columbia 150
Workshops and Speakers in EMU all day
World Cafe withRev. Robert Jeffreys in the
EMU food court, late afternoon
id
General $2 Students/Low Income (available at the door) or $10 Entire Conference (available at
O THE CULTURAL FORUM EMU.SUITEZ3464373 culturalforum.uoregonedu