Category: Review

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Arts & Life Books Review

‘The Bad Girl’ charms readers

By Carolyn Williams

Staff Writer

“The Bad Girl” is first and foremost a shameless love story. Ricardo Somocurcio, the story’s narrator and protagonist, falls in love as a teenager in his childhood home of Miraflores, an upscale district of Lima, Peru. The object of his affection is a young Chilean named Lily, recently arrived on the scene, and before Ricardo can convince her to go steady, she vanishes from his life.

Years later, Ricardo finds himself a young expatriate in France, working as a translator for UNESCO, focusing all his energies on making his youthful ambition of a quiet life in Paris a reality. Suddenly the arrival of Comrade Arlette, a Peruvian revolutionary stopping over briefly in Paris before moving on to Cuba for further training, turns Ricardo’s humble world upside down. Although she denies it, Comrade Arlette is Lily, the purported Chilean of Ricardo’s youth. Again, Ricardo declares his love, this time for the unwilling revolutionary, and after favoring him with a few dates, she inevitably flits out of his life again.

From then on, Ricardo is cursed to love no one but the bad girl, a woman of irresistible charm and beauty, whose true identity remains shrouded in a complex web of lies and deceptions. Each time she meets him, she has reincarnated herself, capitalizing on rich men to catapult herself higher into society, and only when she is in between wealthy patrons does she turn to Ricardo, her fellow compatriot, lover and the single constant which transcends her many lives. At times Ricardo regards her with contempt and hatred, but in his heart he knows he will never escape his love for the bad girl.

Each chapter of “The Bad Girl” acts as a separate story. They follow a sort of pattern, in which Ricardo is living a normal life, seeing other women, interacting with friends, when the bad girl makes a sudden, shocking reappearance. Each time he encounters her, an exasperated Ricardo finds his love has increased, and for forty years, the pair play a game of cat and mouse across several continents.

“The Bad Girl” can be compared to Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” in that the bad girl can be called a cheekier, modernized version of Emma, and Ricardo, the good boy, as the bad girl always called him, is comparable to Charles Bovary, Emma’s simple, trusting husband. In spite of Emma’s philandering and other outrageous behavior, Charles always welcomes her back with open arms, as does Ricardo, until their bad girls die.

Mario Vargas Llosa, one of Latin America’s foremost writers, is responsible for having written a large body of work and his efforts have recently been rewarded: he is the 2010 Nobel Prize laureate for literature. The Peruvian author, politician, journalist and essayist is best known for such works as “The Time of the Hero,” “The Green House” and “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter.” He is also notorious for his feud with Colombian writer and fellow Nobel Prize laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The two have maintained a resolute silence for more than 30 years, since Vargas Llosa famously punched Garcia Marquez in the face in Mexico City, according to www.kirjasto.sci.fi. The reason behind the schism has never been revealed. “The Bad Girl” is Vargas Llosa’s latest work.

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Arts & Life Campus Events Review

CollegeHumor comedian performs

By Nicole Della-Cava

Contributing Writer

Originally a columnist for collegehumor.com, Steve Hofstetter took the stage at the Bison Wednesday night to amuse and surprise students and faculty.

Hofstetter, who has performed at the University several times over the past few years, began his performance with confidence and repose.  To break the ice, he started on diversity on campus and in Lewisburg.  He transformed such unoriginal and recognized statements into a series of jokes that got the audience going.

Hofstetter included the audience by taking a survey and asking all the Jewish people to raise their hand. Surprisingly, and to prove his point, there were no Jewish people in the whole cafeteria.  Taking this discussion to another level, he said people always ask him if he is both Irish and Jewish.  He is Jewish, but just because he has flaming red hair and pale skin does not mean he is Irish.

Hofstetter has a black adopted sister and speaks openly on the subject.  This became one of his discussions about race that showed the audience that it is acceptable to talk about these subjects.  He included his personal anecdote to make his performance unique and alluring to the audience.

“I liked the abortion and racist jokes.  They are serious issues but he is very talented to be able to do that,” said Blandine Manteau, an exchange student from France.

Hofstetter also related Lewisburg, with its rural setting and plentiful fields of crops, to Farmville.  That was definitely unexpected which made the audience even more amused and interested.

Hofstetter’s jokes are focused towards more mature viewers. His comedy and sense of humor are known around the country because of his popular website and books and frequent travels to universities and nightclubs.

“My favorite part was the closing; Steve engaged well with the crowd, ” Danny Wallace ’14 said.

Ending the night, he thanked the crowd for not bothering him with claps. The audience was caught off-guard and was probably expecting him to thank them for laughing at his jokes or being a good crowd.  He exited the stage with the audience still laughing.

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Arts & Life Movies Review

The story of Facebook

By Carolyn Williams

Staff Writer

“The Social Network” tells a version of the unexpected beginnings of Facebook. The movie is based on the 2009 nonfiction book by Ben Mezrich called “The Accidental Billionaires.” Since no members of the Facebook team were involved in the project, many of the film’s characters are portrayed in an unflattering light.

The story begins in 2003, when Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, a sophomore at Harvard, is in the middle of a date that is going quite badly. Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is a prototypical, if somewhat bitter, nerd, and as he beleaguers his date with the importance of being accepted into a Harvard final club, she bluntly ends their relationship.

Angry about rejection and somewhat drunk, Zuckerberg and several of his friends create FaceMash, a website where people can compare the “hotness” of most of the female undergraduate community, while simultaneously blogging about his anger with his former girlfriend. The site gets so many hits that it crashes Harvard’s network, landing Zuckerberg on academic suspension and in trouble with most of the female student body.

His notoriety brings Zuckerberg to the attention of several upperclassmen looking to create an exclusive social networking site for Harvard students, and while he is supposedly working on this project, Zuckerberg and his business partner, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), launch their own social networking website, www.thefacebook.com, the predecessor to today’s Facebook.

Much of the movie is told in a series of flashbacks as Zuckerberg sits trial, having been sued both by the upperclassmen, who believe he stole their idea for a Harvard dating website, and Saverin, Zuckerberg’s former CFO and ex-best friend.

Moviegoers will find “The Social Network” has more depth than its depiction in trailers. The overall tone is heavy, with only a few absolute moments of comedy. The film leaves no doubt that it is a serious drama. The acting is very believable, particularly Andrew Garfield as the wounded Saverin. Justin Timberlake also does a superb job filling the role of bad influence on the impressionable young Zuckerberg in his part as Napster co-founder Sean Parker.

University students at the Campus Theatre left the movie pleased.

“I thought that a movie about the creation of Facebook wouldn’t be very interesting, but it was compelling and well-acted, with complex characters,” Rachel Pearson’14 said.

“I thought it was a well-done movie. It was really emotionally engaging and intense. I really enjoyed it,” Kate Wilsterman ’14 said.

“Emotionally engaging” is a good choice of words. For the majority of “The Social Network,” the filmmakers do a commendable job creating tension and involving their audience on the emotional level; however, when the credits roll, viewers are left with a sense of hope and optimism for the innovative website’s future.

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Arts & Life Review Television

Off the tube: House

By Katie Monigan

Arts & Life Editor

This season of House is decidedly different from the last, and it’s a refreshing change.

Last season, House struggled with addiction issues, and the people around him were especially timid, even after he returned to work.

This season, he’s mostly back to his old, grumpy self, minus the Vicodin.  What makes things much more interesting is that House’s circumstances have changed yet again. He is finally sleeping with Cuddy (after season upon season of sexual tension) even though she now has a toddler. His addiction drama is gone, and it’s back to the usual medical oddities.

In the most recent episode, Cuddy asks House to help care for her daughter and has him babysit one evening. He orders Chinese food, and when he and Wilson argue outside for a minute or two, they come back inside to find her eating the change. In another medical case, a woman with two types of cancer passes it on to her newborn, but House is constantly concerned with whether or not his neglect will kill Cuddy’s daughter.

Earlier this season, Thirteen left work, claiming to be entering a clinical trial for Huntington’s disease. She never actually went, and the team has no idea where she actually is. House decides to replace her with a new female doctor but so far, none has been accepted.

The two main sources of conflict this season, House’s relationship with Cuddy and the disappearance of Thirteen, are much more entertaining than those of the past. The medical mysteries are as interesting as ever, and the writing is still clever. Despite the negative changes last season, the new season has a tone reminiscent of very early episodes of House, and considering its former success, this current season is sure to be successful as well.

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Arts & Life Movies Review

‘Repo! The Genetic Opera’ fails to be Halloween hit

By William Bonfigilo

Writer

It wouldn’t be Halloween season without terrible movies, often so campy and clichéd, horribly written and poorly acted that they are more titillating than terrifying. Once in a while, a movie will veer from beautiful teenagers being stalked by insane/misunderstood/evil forces and introduce a truly novel premise. Think “Saw” in 2004, before the torture porn genre became as outdated as last year’s jack-o-lanterns.

In 2008, film director Darren Lynn Bousman brought an original premise to the big screen. It’s a shame that the movie itself, “Repo! The Genetic Opera,” was so abominable.

“Repo! The Genetic Opera” was first conceived by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich as a stage play in 1996, but it developed a strong underground following, in no small part thanks to its creative take on repossessions.

The film’s introduction presents a bizarre futuristic world. The year is 2056, nearly three decades after an epidemic of mass organ failures devastated the world’s population. To combat the outbreak, a biotechnology company called GeneCo begins harvesting unaffected organs from the recently deceased, and leasing those organs to infected individuals. If patients are unable to pay their medical bill, GeneCo sends the Repo Man to reacquire the organ through any means necessary. Scenes of improvised surgery clog the movie, and, despite the American appetite for violence, the film drags.

“Repo!” embodies the very notion of campiness. Featuring a collection of performers who are either washed up (Sarah Brightman, Paul Sorvino) or lacking talent altogether (Alexa Vega, Paris Hilton), Bousman tries to make do with a style that is both grandiose and gross; organs are literally picked up and passed to the characters as if they were hot potatoes. Attempts at witticisms are crude and ineffective, characters are aggravating and whiny, and musical numbers are irritating, childish and poorly conceived, with too few strong moments for such a musically inclined cast (Brightman, Sorvino and Vega).

Such pretension shows a resemblance to the “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” another campy Halloween film that developed an underground cult following. The difference between the two films seems to be charm. While actor Tim Curry could make transvestitism delightful in “Rocky Horror,” Anthony Head, who plays the Repo Man, lacks the swagger to convey any emotion besides contempt effectively. His character grows tiresome quickly.

While the premise was strong enough to inspire an action-packed blockbuster (“Repo Men,” 2010), “Repo! The Genetic Opera” failed as a film, and while its style was certainly memorable, it was also really painful to sit through.

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Arts & Life Campus Events Review

‘Shepardfest’ in review

By Katie Monigan

Arts & Life Editor

The best way to describe Shepardfest is a hodgepodge: this weekend’s series of four plays could not have been more varied, almost as if they were not written by the same man.

But they were. Sam Shepard was named the 2010 Janet Weis Fellow in Contemporary Letters, but was unable to come to campus to accept his award. In his honor, and because of stage director Gary Grant’s passion for his work, this fall’s acting showcase was a diverse series of Shepard’s plays and short stories.

Inside Tustin Theatre’s small performance space are four risers with chairs, enough room for 30-40 people and six circular tables that create a café atmosphere. There were even plates with cheese, crackers, grapes and water on each of the tables.

The first of four plays this weekend, “Just Space,” which according to the program is a dramatization of a short story, was only a few minutes long and had two cast members. In the play, a mother does not understand the daughter now that she has moved away and married. She repeatedly refuses to acknowledge her daughter’s husband as her “husband,” instead calling him her “beau.” While mostly serious, it had a couple one-liners that made the mood less grim. On stage, two screens, one on each side, set the scene: the mother’s was a tidy living room, and the daughter’s was a much messier and basic one. Stephanie Walters ’11 played the daughter while a convincing Emily Singleton ’12 played the mother.

The second play, “Cowboy Mouth,” was much longer, almost too long.  Set in a messy apartment, the play features a drunk man and woman who scream, sing and crawl around the stage. The entire play is very intense, with almost no lulls. There are some funny moments, like when they order lobster and a man in a red leather lobster suit delivers it. Just like the first play, though, the comedic breaks are no match for the intensity and sadness of most of the play. Katharina Schmidt ’13 and Eddie Pailet ’11 both delivered impressive performances.

After a much-needed intermission, the tone completely turned in a lighthearted play about a woman who thinks her head is going to explode while she is skiing, a maid learning to swim by practicing on a bed and a man who suffers a 10-year affliction with crabs. The play is bizarre and entertaining, with especially compelling acting by Christina Cody ’12, who played the maid.

The final play in the series was by far the most abstract. It included the entire cast of Shepardfest and was broken into three groups of people: six people in chairs with blankets on their laps who were illuminated one at a time with spotlights, four drummers hiding behind the chairs of the speakers and an entirely-female chorus dressed in dark colors who ran around and danced. They all spoke in a chant-like manner, and eventually ran up into the risers where the audience sat to further extend the atmosphere.

Overall, Shepardfest seemed to be directed at an audience other than the student body. In fact, of the few people in attendance last Sunday night, about five were students, most of them greeting cast member friends when the show was over. It was enjoyable to watch, but nothing special, and seemed more to be a tool for acting growth rather than for viewing pleasure of University students.

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Arts & Life Review Television

Off the Tube: ‘Big Bang Theory’

By Katie Monigan

Arts & Life Editor

“The Big Bang Theory” is the epitome of nerd shows, but it’s more than just a showthat nerds watch—it talks about nerdy things, but also makes fun of them so it appeals to other people, too.

The show depicts the interactions between four researchers at CalTech, two of whom are roommates, and an attractive but dim-witted waitress from across the hall named Penny.

This season is not very different from the previous seasons, but it doesn’t really need to be. Where shows with children like “Two and a Half Men” or shows that have very dramatic plotlines like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives” need to constantly change to remain interesting, “Big Bang Theory” is pretty much the same every week: somebody messes up an experiment, has an awkward date or comes up with a brilliant idea that doesn’t work out, and by the end of the episode their lives are normal again. It’s a pretty childish way to structure a show, but it’s consistently pretty funny, so it works well.

Recently, Sheldon, the nerdiest of the nerds involved, is in a relationship with a woman, but their relationship is not even close to normal. She’s a neurobiologist, and he’s a theoretical physicist, so they’re both smart enough to be beyond any hope of social functionality. They text constantly but have no physical contact. They are planning to have children artificially to avoid ever touching each other. It’s so ridiculous, it’s hilarious.

The show is simple, but if it’s your kind of humor, it’s really entertaining. It’s probably going to burn out for lack of new ideas in a season or two, but for now, it works, and those of us that like to laugh at awkward smart people find it very enjoyable.

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Arts & Life Movies Review

‘The Shining’ makes theater’s Horror Month

By Jessica Rafalko

Writer

A common litmus test for something’s relevance to our culture is whether or not it has been parodied on “The Simpsons.” So, as a Simpsons nerd of epic proportions, I have received a decent education about what movies matter.

“The Shining” is one of these movies. I had already seen the “Simpsons” spoof (Homer’s psychotic outburst in a snowcapped hotel), so I was not entirely unprepared when I went to the Campus Theatre to see this film. “The Shining” was playing as part of the theater’s “Horror Month”—the goal of which, I assume, is to frighten an audience of adults so badly that they’re crying for their mommies when the end credits roll.

“The Shining,” Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s 1977 novel, stars Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, a teacher-turned-writer who volunteers to be the caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. He brings his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), with him. The family intends to spend several months watching over the hotel, located atop a precipitous mountain whose snow-covered roads become impassable in the winter. The Torrance trio is alone in the enormous hotel, as the staff and visitors leave at the start of each winter.

The Overlook Hotel, as Jack learns from its manager at the start of the movie, has been tainted by tragedy. We are told that a previous caretaker, mad with cabin fever, killed his wife and daughters before committing suicide. In some instances, Kubrick foreshadows too much. This drains the movie of some of its suspense—giving us a notion of how the Torrances’ story might end—but also sets an appropriately chilling tone for the rest of the film.

The set-up seems to be half the battle for Kubrick, anyway. He devotes much of the film’s first half to exposition. We are given a tour of the hotel—the kitchen, the lounge, the cramped apartment and bathroom the Torrances must share. The almost languorous pace of the film contributes to its eeriness, but also makes it easy for us to zone out during the more monotonous moments.

We also learn Danny has “the shining”: the ability to see into the past, the future and the minds of others. Danny’s visions (most strikingly a cascade of crimson blood that rushes from a hotel elevator and floods a hallway) are a precursor to the unexplainable, frightening and downright bizarre images Kubrick accosts us with in the second half of the film.

As visually compelling (and twisted) as the film is, the true scares come from Jack’s eventual psychosis. Kubrick does not frighten us with spectacular gore; Nicholson scared viewers with a perfectly unhinged performance. As Jack pursues Wendy up a flight of stairs, pleading with her to drop the baseball bat she’s brought in self-defense, assuring her that he simply wants to “bash [her] brains in”—we squirm in our seats. This is a man we would never want to encounter, a man whose behavior is all the more disturbing because he is a father and a husband.

Watching what happens to the Torrances, their domestic strife times a thousand, is absolutely terrifying. And to think, this seemed so funny when I saw Homer Simpson doing it.

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Arts & Life Books Review

‘The Poisonwood Bible’ remains controversial

By Carolyn Williams

Writer

Barbara Kingsolver’s renowned novel “The Poisonwood Bible” is essentially risky. Though the book received critical acclaim, garnering New York Times bestseller status and becoming Editors’ Choice for the New York Times Book Review, it has received mixed popular reviews from the moment it hit stores in 1998. It continues to be somewhat controversial more than 10 years later.

The story follows the Price family for about 30 years, beginning with their move from small-town America to the Belgian Congo in 1959, a much-anticipated part of their father Nathan’s missionary work. Orleanna and her four daughters are the narrators, and each infuses her own personality and point of view into her narration, forcing the reader to carefully consider the speaker’s reliability.

Rachel, the oldest daughter, is shallow and vapid. Leah, next, is idealistic and eager to please. Adah, Leah’s twin, detaches herself from the rest of the world, hiding behind her crooked body. Ruth May, the baby, is the most courageous of all, with a contagious vivacity. Orleanna, their mother, narrates from the future, her narration interspersed with the girls’ stories. Her memories are heavy with guilt and regret for what has happened to her family.

Tensions mount in their Congolese village, and it becomes clear these small troubles are a microcosm of the changes in the Congo itself during its struggle for independence. Under the weight of these upheavals, the Price family is torn apart. Nathan’s religious fervor moves to such a level of fanaticism that he refuses to move his family back to America and vows to stay in the Congo until he believes God’s work there is done.

Some of the daughters remain in Africa for the rest of their lives, and others return to America, but all are irrevocably changed by their time in the village of Kilanga.

Much of the reason “The Poisonwood Bible” has come under fire is the depiction of Nathan Price. The Baptist minister is so fiercely dedicated to converting the village to Christianity that he alienates his entire congregation and jeopardizes and mistreats his wife and daughters. He seems to lose touch with reality completely. The religious title of the book, Nathan’s actions and several of the daughters’ subsequent losses of faith have caused some readers to label Kingsolver’s work as hateful and disgraceful.

In reality, demonizing Christians is not Kingsolver’s intent in “The Poisonwood Bible.” The book is about ignorance, and much of the ignorance Kingsolver highlights is that which the Prices bring with them into the Congolese jungle. The most poignant instance of the theme is demonstrated through Nathan’s ignorance of the nuances of the Lingala language spoken in Kilanga, and, more significantly, his ignorance of mankind in general. He continually mispronounces the word bangala, which he intends to mean beloved, but with his incorrect inflection, he is actually ending his services with the confusing, disconcerting statement “Jesus is Poisonwood Tree.”

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Arts & Life Review Television

Off the Tube: ‘Desperate Housewives’

By Katie Monigan

Arts & Life Editor

Season seven of Desperate Housewives began in late September, but three episodes later, the writers have exhausted all possible ideas for plotlines.

The series has had some seriously surprising events in past seasons—tornadoes, planes crashing into lawn parties, murder and a few inconveniently-timed pregnancies—but this season is not just surprising, it’s plain strange.

Paul’s back from jail, where he’s been since very early in the series, and he’s married. The wedding took place while he was in jail, andhis wife refuses to have a physical relationship with him. She simply wants to cook and clean for him.

Susan and Mike had money troubles in season six, so Susan began teaching art to pay for her son’s education. This season, she’s taken it to a new level and now streams video online of herself cleaning the house in her lingerie.

Weirdest of all, Gabrielle and Carlos discover that a drunken nurse was working in Fairview Memorial hospital the day their daughter was born. The nurse switched Juanita with another baby eight years ago.

Desperate Housewives was, at one point, about a group of scandalous ladies with very interesting pasts who happened to live in the same neighborhood. Now everyone’s either married or just boring, and all the scandal is gone. Its family drama and unrealistic plot twists barely make sense.

Without Edie to spice things up, and now that Susan and Gabrielle are married with children, the sources of drama have switched from scandalous secret affairs to incredibly obscure character development, and the show is far less appealing. This is another series that has passed its prime. Six seasons was enough.