What happens when Detroit Police investigate themselves?
On an October evening in 1998 an off-duty Detroit police officer pumped at least three .40 caliber bullets into Johnny Crenshaw. That much is certain. What remains a matter of much dispute is exactly how Crenshaw’s attempts to get cash that night in a rundown neighborhood ended with him slumped on the pavement of a…
The Trial
Like the famously unfinished Franz Kafka novel on which it’s based, Orson Welles’ The Trial (1963) is less a straightforward narrative than a series of vignettes woven around a common theme. Though Kafka’s story has a definite beginning and end, it lacks a proper middle, offering instead obviously truncated chapters and digressive fragments which, since…
West Beirut
Writer-director Ziad Doueiri’s first feature has the appealing premise of following two young boys as they try to forge a normal life in the dangerous environment of war-torn Beirut. Told largely in the loose style of strung-together anecdotes, the story has an improvisational feel which, while initially engaging, eventually becomes a bit too meandering. The…
Price of Glory
“I could have been a contender,” says Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, and the raw emotion he puts into this oft-quoted line sums up the allure of boxing movies. With Rocky as their archetype, these films are about an individual triumphing against massive odds and trading that one-way ticket to Palookaville for a bloody…
Southpaw
“I could have been a contender,” says Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, and the raw emotion he puts into this oft-quoted line sums up the allure of boxing movies. With Rocky as their archetype, these films are about an individual triumphing against massive odds and trading that one-way ticket to Palookaville for a bloody…
Articles
Detroit’s island-jazz eclecticists, the Articles, have fused the extended-ska sensibilities of Jamaican greats the Skatalites with classic jazz DNA courtesy of Messrs. Coltrane, Davis and Monk, to create a hybrid that makes not only intuitive musical sense, but will also set your feet and hips to moving and swaying. Whether it’s originals or classic gems…
Far afield
Detroit’s most adventurous musical travelers, the Immigrant Suns, have journeyed far and wide … now they share their homemade works from around the globe.
Homeless people count
The 2000 Census Bureau aims to find Detroit’s invisible population with the help of volunteers, shelter workers, and – hopefully – a better plan than the one used 10 years ago.
Beautiful People
Two men on a crowded London bus suddenly recognize each other and begin a brawl that will land them in side-by-side hospital beds. Once neighbors in a small Bosnian town, this Serb and Croat grew into bitter enemies and their hatred remains intact even after emigrating to England as political refugees. In writer-director Jasmin Dizdar’s…
Black and White
Can you be ghetto without living in the ghetto? That’s the question at the center of the edgy new urban drama, Black and White, written and directed by James Toback. The film enlists the talents of rap artists (Power of Wu-Tang Clan), supermodels (Claudia Schiffer), athletes (Allan Houston, Mike Tyson) and TV and movie stars…
Fun with furnishings
Nest is hands-down the best thing to come out of the massive glut of fashion-and-home-and-design magazines now sprawling comfortably at your local bookstore. When you pass the magazine rack devoted to the places we’d like to live (but all too frequently can’t afford), take a minute to look for this one. Instead of holding out…
For beginners
Chinese characters are always viewed as one of the most difficult and complex forms of writing. Totally different from phonetic alphabets, the written language of China is essentially a picture language. Many Chinese characters are based on images from nature (real objects) which makes for a striking form of expression. We cannot know when calligraphy…
Monstrous menagerie
Jim Woodring claims that, since childhood, he’s had visions of a strange world where neither Bosch nor Dali would feel comfortable, inhabited by creatures both frighteningly grotesque and cuddly at the same time. This is the world of Frank. Chronic back pain has made drawing nearly unbearable for Woodring; however, after two years, Frank finally…
