The Widow of Saint-Pierre
Set on a French island colony off Newfoundland in 1850, this new film by director Patrice Leconte (The Girl on the Bridge) is equal parts grand romance, anti-capital-punishment tract and one of those angrily sad stories where the tide of history sweeps over hapless characters — with Emir Kusturica, Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche.
Rock ‘n’ jocks
Hot divas, cool schmoozers and a full-moon Mathers at the lively Detroit Music Awards … Local jocks support a charitable cause … & opening-day freeloading at Tiger Stadium.
Bad Blood
The strength of Léos Carax’s 1986 film lies not in the area of storytelling but rather in the creation of an anxious and dreamlike mise-en-scène, punctuated by outbursts of joy and terror. Carax makes being in a funk seem interesting — with Denis Lavant, Michel Piccoli and Juliette Binoche.
Restating the obvious
The Detroit “mainstream” music scene is anything but boring, but behind the indescribable energy at the Detroit Music Awards are a few questions about the voting procedures … plus, promising new hip-hop and open-mic nights in town.
Along Came a Spider
A thriller? Don’t believe the hype. The only diamond in this movie of mostly dust is Morgan Freeman reprising his role in Kiss the Girls (1997) as a forensic psychologist. The few trickles of adrenaline are diluted by a slack plotline, cardboard characterizations and a premature opening visual flash.
Cluster flip-flops
Dennis Archer: Round and round he goes (but where he stops on casinos, nobody knows)
Twin Pigs
Twin Pigs belt out driving testosto-rock with guitar wails, powerful hooahhs and emotion-rich harmonies to spare. The band’s sound is very Southern-fried ’60s and ’70s blues-rock a lá the Allmans or Led Zeppelin, but the lyrics bring you back to the ’00s, with songs about empty network news and Royal Oak’s semi-recent homogenization. The overall…
Think globally, protest locally
Border cities protest free trade agreements on April 21….
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Dear Smart Gambler: That you’re attracted to this horoscope is proof that you rank in the top 5 percent of the population in expressing quirky intelligence, funny logic and the ability to suspend disbelief. No other group rivals your healthy sense of absurdity and willingness to use yourself as a guinea…
Dudz’s duds
Judge and protestors clash over T-shirts and modern art while in session at police-shooting hearings….
Japan unmasked
Kabuki serves a variety of Japanese and Korean specialties, including shabu-shabu (a classic Japanese fondue-type dish with meat and vegetables self-cooked in boiling water, served with dipping sauces) and bibimbap (a Korean dish served in a stone bowl, with rice, meat, vegetables and egg). A wide assortment of sushi and sashimi is also offered –…
Combining the two
Q: I’ve been married 16 years. I am very comfortable in bed with my husband, sharing talk and all. I have been seeing this other man for six years now and I can’t feel that connection in bed with him, but we share comfort that I don’t share with my husband. We laugh, he makes…
Brain-dead drug policies
Saner minds attempt to mediate the war on drugs….
Downer
After the grueling bar crawl that was last year’s drunken masterpiece, the eponymous debut by Eric Bachmann’s solo project Crooked Fingers, it was inevitable that the ex-Archers of Loaf front man’s follow-up couldn’t recapture the heart-wrenching, open-wounded world of his first release. Even still, when Bring on the Snakes opens with the hushed, hymnlike narrative…
Butt-kicking babes
Charlie’s Angels, Trinity, Lara Croft, Buffy … Why worry about those tough girls on-screen? Conservative viewers aren’t the only ones who oppose the portrayal of scantily clad, violent female heroines.
Now they tell us
Estate taxes and the mythical family farm….
Inner ivories
Pianist Paul Bley, a gray eminence of the jazz avant-garde who played with Ornette Coleman in the ’50s before going on to make his mark as an introspective alternative to Cecil Taylor in the ’60s, is approaching his 70th year with enviable amounts of grace and energy. His new solo album, Basics, is a world…
Highs and lows
The life-or-death story of America’s king of cocaine….
Back to the future
Put digital pen to digital paper….
Spellbinding
The mere mention of jazz singing may evoke the high-velocity theatrics of scat, but some of our reigning elders of the form are, in fact, slow-motion specialists. Jimmy Scott, Abbey Lincoln and Freddie Cole come to mind, and especially Shirley Horn, who in her seventh decade arguably does slow and sultry better than anyone else…
Seeing in tongues
The Center Galleries new exhibition looks at the ways art and language interface … and every picture there is worth its weight in words.
Go for what you grow
A step-by-step guide to a natural high….
Déjà vu
It’s way too easy to slap a label on a band these days. Take for example every independent release from a female-fronted band that has a couple of melodic hooks: the knee-jerk reaction of “girl-pop” is automatically tossed out as a quick and easy review. Although this generalization has been more of a frequent cliché…
Letters to the Editor
Slow burn I feel Adam Druckman’s pain. I just read his column titled “Slo-town” (MT, April 4-10). I used to live at Eight Mile and Van Dyke in Detroit. The truth of the matter is people don’t like to come to Detroit. No street lights, people always walking around. You know, it’s kind of shady.…
Write-it-yourself
McSweeney’s feeds on itself (and it’s so yummy)….
Turn it up!
The reverse-fade opener says it all. You’re gonna want to turn Loud & Clear way up. This passionate collection of 10 shiny pop pearls begs for two-story stadium speakers, but as their devoted Detroit fan base knows very well, these guys derive just as much satisfaction blowing their amps in college-dorm basements. The first track,…
Less than Zero
Planet Ant’s minimalist production of The Adding Machine enhances the “man vs. machine” theme and confirms its continued, anguished relevance.
Play not pay
An interactive, online-comics showcase….
Cash course
From the number of times per day we’re treated to the breaking news about the NASDAQ and the Dow Jones, you’d think that everyone had a consuming interest in following his or her investments minute by minute. The truth is that only about half of Americans have anything to do directly with Wall Street, even…
Detroit Music Awards winners
National album: Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP National single: Eminem, “The Real Slim Shady” Compilation: Marshall Crenshaw, This is Easy Producer: Mark Nilan Studio: Live Wire Record Label: Static Records Live performance: Immunity Sound technician: Neil Sever Rock act: Trash Brats Alternative act: The Ottomans Hard rock/metal act: Broadzilla Pop act: The Dungbeatles Rock/pop recording:…
Inner ivories
Pianist Paul Bley, a gray eminence of the jazz avant-garde who played with Ornette Coleman in the ’50s before going on to make his mark as an introspective alternative to Cecil Taylor in the ’60s, is approaching his 70th year with enviable amounts of grace and energy. His new solo album, Basics, is a world…
Suddenly Stephen
Former Pavement pounder Stephen Malkmus stretches out in the spotlight, wisecracking about the band’s Coney dog dinner and waxing nostalgic toward his history with St. Andrew’s Hall.
Everywoman’s adventures
In this bright, vibrant, screwball romance, Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) is a lovable goofball and a welcome blast of fresh air in a time when women on-screen are increasingly generic. Instead of a goddess, she’s an everywoman worried about who she should be, but always gloriously herself — with Hugh Grant and Colin Firth.
Bushwhacking us all
You have to admire President Bush, who realizes that what we really want is the threat of a war with China. We’re in for it, all right.
Panic
A hit man having a midlife crisis and seeing a therapist? In veteran TV writer-producer Henry Bromell’s beautifully nuanced feature debut, simplicity is a strength and a few insightful glimpses reveal the truth of a person’s life — with William H. Macy, Neve Campbell and Donald Sutherland.
Choosing segregation
According to Census 2000, the Detroit metropolitan area is the most segregated metropolitan area in the United States. Perhaps that’s not something the city ought to wear as a badge of honor, but things could be worse.
Blow
Director Ted Demme’s biopic skims the unattractive details from the true stories of its heroes, drug trafficker George Jung (Johnny Depp) and his father (Ray Liotta), boiling it all down to a romanticized, tragic family drama within a tale of two illicit pharmaceuticals (marijuana and cocaine).
Bushwhacked
Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s first live-action TV series features the dolt in the Oval Office, but it reserves its greatest ridicule for liberal causes.
