Arts & Entertainment
Film Review: ‘Spy’
Book Review
‘Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles’
by Bert Ashe
Bolden / An Agate Imprint
Paperback, $15.00
252 pages
ISBN: 978-1-932841-96-1
By Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
“After leading a far too
conventional life for nearly
40 years, Bert Ashe began
the long, arduous and un-
certain process of growing
dreadlocks in an attempt to
step out of American con-
vention. As his hair takes
on a life of its own and gets
‘twisted,’ Ashe chronicles
the reactions of his family,
friends, strangers and col-
leagues—and his own frus-
tration and bewilderment
at his locked hair.
“[This book] explores
black hair, in all its un-
tamed glory, from a man’s
point-of-view. With humor
and exacting self-reflec-
tion, Ashe uses his own
experience not only to ex-
plain the history of dread-
locks, but also to unpack
the complicated issues of
identity, politics, gender
and culture in America.”
-- Excerpted from the
book jacket
B
ert Ashe was com-
ing of age in the
Seventies around
the same time dreadlocks
first became popular in the
U.S. However, it wasn’t
until about a quarter-centu-
ry later, in March of 1998,
that he finally decided to
give the Rastafarian hair-
style a go.
But, by then, Bert was
a happily-married family
man raising a couple of
impressionable young kids.
Furthermore, his wife, Val-
erie, hailed from a military
family, so she was under-
standably a little worried
when he started “letting it
grow out.”
“Does it have to look
so scruffy?” she inquired,
contemplating the mush-
rooming of an unkempt,
matted mess atop her hub-
by’s head.
Bert also had to be con-
cerned with how the new
‘do would be received
by his neighbors and col-
leagues. After all, not only
did he reside in suburban
Virginia but he was also
a straitlaced professor of
English at the Universi-
ty of Richmond. Thus,
he wondered whether his
sporting dreadlocks might
be misread by some as a
counter-cultural statement,
despite his otherwise or-
thodox appearance.
Bert’s intriguing experi-
ment in coiffures is the sub-
ject of the very entertaining
Twisted: My Dreadlock
Chronicles. Written in a
delightful, stream-of-con-
sciousness style reminis-
cent of the Beat Era of the
1950s, this surreal opus is
essentially an introspective
memoir rife with intimate
reflections, offbeat asides
(ala a Letterman-inspired
Top 10 List), plus personal
anecdotes in which you re-
ally get to know a lot about
the author’s eclectic back-
ground which ranged from
pee wee football to indie
movies to mosh pit punk
music.
Oh yeah, and dreadlocks,
too!
Melissa McCarthy Stars as CIA Analyst-Turned-
Spy in Fish-Out-of-Water Comedy
A kitchen fight erupts in the movie ‘Spy’ with McCarthy and Nargis Fakhri
By Kam Williams
For The Skanner News
F
or the past three years,
Susan Cooper (Me-
lissa McCarthy) has
been stuck sitting behind a
desk as an analyst at CIA
Headquarters in Langley,
Virginia. In that capacity,
she’s been providing tech-
nical support from afar to
Bradley Fine (Jude Law),
a veteran spy who has suc-
cessfully handled a series of
dangerous missions over the
course of a decorated career.
Serving as his eyes and ears
via hidden cameras and lis-
tening devices, the 40 year-
old spinster’s been quite
content to live vicariously
through her dashing col-
league, especially given the
big crush she has on him.
Everything changes the
day he’s murdered while at-
tempting to secure a suitcase
bomb about to fall into the
wrong hands. Susan subse-
quently pressures her reluc-
tant boss (Allison Janney)
to be allowed to replace her
late partner in the search for
the assassin as well as the
rogue nuclear device.
Elaine is understandably
reluctant, since this would
be the plump pencil push-
er’s very first field assign-
ment. Nonetheless, she
It has its moments, yet one
tires of the tendency to rely on
Melissa to generate laughs by
way of her trademark trash-talk
grudgingly gives Susan a
new identity (“Carol Jen-
kins”), before issuing strict
orders about keeping a low
profile and about observing
but never confronting any of
the bad guys she encounters
overseas.
Needless to say, the rules
of engagement are out the
window just as soon as Su-
san’s plane lands in Paris.
Monday, June15, 2013
at 7pm
Ellyn Bye Studio
at the Armory
128 NW Eleventh Avenue
PRESENTED BY
She blows her matronly
tourist cover by coming to
the assistance of a fellow
agent (Jason Statham) un-
aware that he’s in imminent
peril. Between the loose-
lipped loudmouth’s need for
attention and her appetite
whetted for more action,
there’s little hope of getting
the subtle surveillance genie
back in the bottle.
Thus unfolds Spy, the lat-
est collaboration between
Melissa McCarthy and
writer/director Paul Feig.
This film pales in compar-
ison to either Bridesmaids
(2011) or The Heat (2013),
perhaps because, here, Me-
lissa has been asked to car-
ry the comedy load alone.
In Bridesmaids, she shared
those duties with a talented
ensemble; in The Heat, her
pairing with Sandra Bullock
worked to perfection.
By contrast, this picture
definitely has its moments,
yet one tires of the tenden-
cy to rely on Melissa to
generate laughs by way of
her trademark trash-talk.
Those vulgar comments
were funny when delivered
as unexpected asides in
Bridesmaids. Now, they sort
of fall flat when exposed as
the only material a one-trick
pony might have to offer.
A Melissa McCarthy ve-
hicle recommended for fans
with a big appetite for her
crude, expletive-laced brand
of humor.
HH Good
Rated R for sexuality, brief
nudity, violence and perva-
sive profanity
In cooperation with
In English, French, Italian
and German with subtitles
120 minutes
20th Century Fox
Page 8 June 10, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner