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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2005)
o i ii n n LUNA open Tuesday through Saturday at 4 pm j (541) 434-LUNA I 30th East Broadway CHICAGO BLUES TERRY ROBB TRIO JC RICO & ZULU DRAGON \lBLMF§ SOULFUL BLUES T dli JHL ■ w* ^ mMk i mt wA \ DEB CLEVELAND ban SAT APRIL 9 PM SHOW LUNA Late Night Menu Open Tuesday Through Saturday Live Music Thursday Through Saturday! Next to Adam’s Place Restaurant Dinning Room open 5 pm to 9 pm weeknights 10 pm weekends Wt rtff ool • • • . . . great events April JEFF BRIDGES JOHN GOODMAN IWUMNI^MOM Stwt tVXtW mx TMMVMK) “Dude” Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it. PLC 180, 9pm, FREE Square Dance with Government Issue Orchestra 7:30pm workshop, dance at 8pm $3 students, $5 general Agate Hall (18th and Agate) UO Cultural Forum Friday Night Flicks The Big Lebowski Trashy Fashion Show at 8pm The Carolines at 8:30pm Samba Ja at 9:30pm AAA Lawrence Hall Courtyard All ages free • Drinks and food provided April 12 Buzz Caffe Art Opening Reception Kids art from EMU Child Care Development Center • 4pm, FREE http://culturalforum.uoregon.edu GOT A STORY IDEA? give us a call at 346-5511.!<| ■ Film review Distinct graphics, absurd fantasy make sinful film one of years best Director Robert Rodriguez pours audiences an adrenaline-laced visual cocktail with, his film,'Sin City' BY RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR The best crime stories always have a certain kind of dark poetry to them. From Dashiell Hammettto Raymond Chandlerto James Ellroy to a hundred 1950s film noirs, tales of evil deeds and rotting societies have been told with verbal grace and dark wit. "Sin City" is a distillation of these tales, an absurdly exaggerated romp through a dark fan tasy world of crime, corruption and vio lence. It is one of the best films of the year so far and one of the most visually distinct and engaging cinema experi ences of the decade. Based on the comic book series by Frank Miller (who is given co-director credit along with Robert Rodriguez, with a small piece from Quentin Taran tino), the film takes place in Basin City and tells a series of interlocking tales concerning cruel, violent anti-heroes. In any other movie, these stories would hardly add up to more than a stack of B-movie rehashes with stilted dialog. But the look of the film brings the twist ed plot screaming to life. Filmed in black and white with color splattered across it like spilled paint, the characters come off drawn in broad strokes, larger-than-life images thatfill the screen. Bruce Willis plays a straight-line cop jailed for a crime he did not commit, Clive Owen plays a killer in hiding and Mickey Rourke gives a powerhouse performance as a nearly psychotic street fighter out to avenge a murdered prostitute he hardly knew. The film's obvious absurdities be come simple shading under the weight of its storytelling power. The charac ters take an ungodly amount of physi cal abuse and walk away looking only more hardened. The laws of physics are disregarded with cheerful glee as people crash through windows, leap from cars and land on their feet every time. It doesn't matter. The film is one giant head rush, the pure definition of suspended disbelief. The highlight of the film is Rourke's tale. His character hunts down those who framed him forthe death of a woman who showed him kindness be fore she was murdered. He tears through every scene he's in, almost lit erally chewing the scenery apart Make-up transforms his face to look as if ft were carved in stone, covered in layers of scar tissue and fractures. His story ends as almost all of the film's stories end: With a cynical form of jus tice and a ending that even the most bright-eyed optimist would be stretched to call happy. It could be said thatthis film has pretty much redeemed Rodriguez for his past failures. His "Spy Kids" movies sunk into drivel and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" was a horrid piece of crap, its only saving grace a particularly lu natic Johnny Depp performance. But by drawing from such original material, Rodriguez seems to have found some lost muse. Much of the look of the film comes from its incorporation of the look and feel of the comic books. Everything is in dark noir shadows and seems to take place in a world that has never seen sunlight. Shot against green screens, the film is an almost entirely digital cre ation. Unlike previous attempts atthis particulartechnique, it actually works here, in part because the unreality of the digital backdrops only strengthens the sense of this being a fantasy world. This visual look also plays a hand in the violence of the film, which is con siderable. But with its glaring colors and intended cartoonishness, nothing in the film is too hard to swallow. What remains is pure visceral filmmaking, and one intense film-going experience. ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com Nyburg: A bizarre animation apocalypse Continued from page 11 feasting on the only snack food I could afford, i.e. water. "Spike & Mike" seemed like just the thing for me. A collection of cyni cal, depraved cartoons created by nerdy, disgusting little people in dark rooms. I could so relate. I laughed, cheered and cringed along with the rest of the late night audience through the festival. And then at the very end, something came on the screen that I could not have seen coming. Opening with a title card that labeled the work "Rejected," the film detailed the life and mental breakdown of one Don Hertzfeldt, an animator trying to get his work aired on a number of com mercial cable stations. His work is a series of stick figure animations that have little if anything to do with the products they are supposedly adver tising. The absurdly minimalist char acters come on screen, utter twisted non sequiturs and walk off, followed by a picture of the product (complete with labels such as "Now with lard.") Finally, as the animator suffers a complete mental deterioration (in cluding a stint where he begins drawing with his left hand instead of his right) the cartoons become even more violent and absurd. As he slips into total madness, the cartoons go down with him and a complete ani mated apocalypse takes place. In one oddly disturbing moment, a stick figure bangs helplessly on the frame, crinkling the paper with its small black fist as it tries to escape. This cartoon was a revelation. Here was an artist as bitterly cyni cal, as wonderfully imaginative and as hopelessly untalented as any I have ever encountered. This was Dada. This was punk rock. In short, this cartoon was the Boss. Since this first introduction, I have seen a number of Hertzfeldt's other pieces. While none of them are the equal of "Rejected," which has so far remained his masterpiece, they each are brilliant in their own way. The deeply cynical "Ah, L'Amour" is the story of a man attempting to woo various women he is passing by. Each woman meets his greetings (which range from compliments about their hairto queries about what time it is) with rage and violent retribution. Its closing punch line is a wonderful kick in the gut. Though the film could easily be taken as misogy nist, its self-effacing humor and de pressed world view move it a step beyond such categorization. Another great work from Hertzfeldt is "Billy's Balloon," which depicts a young boy mercilessly at tacked by the balloon wrapped around his wrist. The terror slowly spreads into an ending much like the lunatic Armageddon's of 1970s hor ror films. The timing and camera placement of the short is some of the best Hertzfeldt has done to date. The film is funny the same way watching your grandma falling down a flight of stairs is funny. Also in the Hertzfeldt canon is a tril ogy of shorts done for the first entry in "The Animation Show," a touring fes tival Hertzfeldt put together with Mike Judge. If nothing else, the festival is worth itfor these shorts alone. I have yet to see two of Hertzfeldt's earlier shorts, "Genre" and "Lily and Jim." I have also not seen his most recent work, "The Meaning of Life," though these are all on my to-do list. Current ly I am waiting for "Bitter Films Vol ume One," a collection of Hertzfeldt's work which comes out sometime lat er this year. What I enjoy about Hertzfeldt's work is both the absolute minimal ism and the personality that is con veyed through it. His cartoons are existential in their approach to reali ty, creating a bizarre mental state that is simple yet unique. He is the Samuel Beckett of animation, and if you get a chance to see anything by him, take it immediately. This column has been brought to you by our friend, Caffeine. ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com
