Star City Blog

Interview with James Crews, 2012 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry

By Ladd Wendelin

Prairie Schooner, the nationally and internationally-recognized literary journal and publication of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English Department, will hold the 2012 Book Prize Celebration on Monday and Tuesday, January 30^th and 31^st on the UNL main campus, with readings, dance and visual interpretations of prose and poetry from three of this years honorees. Recipients include Greg Hrbek (Writer-in-Residence, Skidmore College) whose book of short stories won the 2010 Book Prize in Fiction, and Shane Book (filmmaker, New York Times Fellowship in Poetry), whose book of poems won the 2009 Book Prize in Poetry.

Lincoln-resident and award-winning poet James Crews will receive the 2012 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. He is also the recipient of the Prairie Schooner Bernice Slote Award for Emerging Writers, and author of What Has Not Yet Left (2009 Copperdome Prize), One Hundred Small Yellow Envelopes, and Bending the Knot (2008 Gertrude Press Chapbook Prize). His new book of poetry is The Book of What Says, published by the University of Nebraska Press, which will be honored at the Book Prize Celebration this week. Mr. Crews answered some questions for Star City Blog readers via e-mail about the craft of poetry, writing it all down, and channeling his inner Buddhist.

SCB: When did you first begin writing poetry?

I love this question. I first began writing poems in the third grade. My teacher, Mrs. Brown, required us to memorize a poem each week and I got the bright idea of writing and memorizing my own poems. She was so encouraging, handing me books by Shel Silverstein and Robert Frost, that I got addicted to the process and (though I've always been shy) reading it to the rest of the class was pure pleasure. I've been writing poetry ever since then.

SCB: Do you remember your first poem? How was it received? 

My first poem, I believe, was "Ode to Summer" and Mrs. Brown loved it. My family also loved the fact that I was writing poems, making greeting cards of my own for everyone's birthday with little rhymes inside. I'm afraid I don't remember any of the text of that first poem, but I'll bet my mother still has it in a box somewhere.

SCB: Who in your career as a poet inspired or encouraged you to continue writing poetry?

I've been surrounded by folks who have encouraged me at every turn, and I feel grateful to all of the teachers and friends who have never told me how ridiculous it is to want to sit at a table and write poetry every day. My first poetry teacher, David Clewell, has been instrumental in my growth as a poet. I thought I wanted to be a fiction writer until I took his class and he reminded me of my first love, helped me to fall in love with language again and get to know what was happening in contemporary literature. He's now the Poet Laureate of Missouri, my home state, and it's a well-deserved post for someone who's been such a champion of young poets.

SCB: In "Paradoxical Undressing", you revisit the 2005 deaths of Janelle Hornickel and Michael Wamsley, who froze to death in rural Sarpy county during a snowstorm after abandoning their vehicle. It was later discovered that the couple was high on crystal meth. Briefly walk us through the composition of this poem. Despite the tragedy of this incident, what tone did you want to achieve in the reader's mind by the end of the poem?

I began this poem during a long, snowy winter in Wisconsin. I remember watching a 20/20report about the death of Janelle and Michael here in Nebraska and listening to the garbled 9/11 calls they had made once they realized they were lost. It was heartbreaking, but the detail that stuck with me was that idea of "paradoxical undressing": once we get cold enough, our body begins to tell us we're hot, burning up even, and we take off all of our clothes. I've always tried to find the silver lining in things and at the time I thought this was such a kindness our bodies do for us even in the midst of extreme pain. The poem finally found its legs, so to speak, when I realized it was all about this couple, that I wanted to capture their last tender moments together. I suppose that trying to describe their love, that last kiss, was my way also of helping the two of them find redemption in this horrible moment, even if only through my imagination. As Wallace Stevens said, "The world imagined is the ultimate good."

SCB: In several poems ("Palamino", "Sex in the Rain"), you allude to not wanting to forget, of capturing the moment, striving against how time can diminish our memory. In "Against Seizing", you write "As these waves illustrate / the endless cycle of give and take, realize that you / no longer trust in seizing each day and do not need a sun's pulse to offer warmth, or to feel it." As a poet, what's the greatest challenge in capturing feeling and emotion? Is language elusive, not enough, or does it do our senses justice at all?  

The greatest challenge is capturing a feeling without being sentimental, using image and narrative to do so; I hope I have succeeded in this. The failure of language is certainly not an original theme among writers since words can never live up to the real thing. But what else do we have, when that moment has passed? We can describe it, tell a story to bring it back. I've always been someone who's abhorred change, and even as I realize it's the nature of everything--time passes and we will pass away--some stubborn part of me wants to hold on for dear life and never let go. "Against Seizing" was born after a day spent observing the tide pools at a beach outside Malibu. Every time a new wave swept in, the tide pools would change completely and of course nature has no choice but to accept this. We are encouraged to "seize the day," but what if we didn't? What if we didn't cling so tightly to our fixed ideas of how things should be and just accepted things as they are, without forcing it? I suppose the Buddhist in me is starting to come out.

SCB: Robert Frost once described poetry as beginning as a "lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, homesickness, lovesickness." Where does poetry begin for you? Where does it originate? 

I love Frost's description, and I would absolutely agree. For me, poetry begins as that lump of wanting to hold onto something, someone. I'd say the homesickness and lovesickness both originate from a place of craving safety and solid ground which none of us will ever have when it comes to love (our partner's always changing) or even home for that matter: Our notions of home shift just as the place changes. More and more, though, my poems begin with a line or two that I just find mystifying or intoxicating and feel a need to follow to its logical conclusion. And then I just chip away and chip away until the poem feels finished and makes sense and has that extra charge of the something-or-other (which can take years to bring about).

SCB: What was the last poem you read by another poet, and what was the one line that stuck out at you? 

I was reading an anthology this morning called The Book of Luminous Things, edited by Czeslaw Milosz, and these lines from Mary Oliver's poem, "Wild Geese" stood out. It's good advice for a poet:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

SCB: Compose a haiku. 

It is difficult
to pull silver from the sky
Try being the moon 

 ***

Thank you, James! For more information on The Book of What Says, James Crew, and to read an excerpt, visit http://prairieschooner.unl.edu/?q=book-what-stays

The 2012 Prairie Schooner Book Prize Celebration runs Monday, January 30th and Tuesday, Jan. 31st, 2012. The Celebration is Free and Open to the Public.

Author meet-and-greet/Q&A is Monday, January 30th, from 2-4 p.m. at Dudley Bailey Library, Andrews Hall, UNL Campus. Readings and performances (visual interp, modern dance) begins at 8 p.m., Room 15, Anderson Hall, UNL Campus. 

 

 

 

 

            

 

Science Odyssey: Probing the Mysteries of Entropy and Information

By Clay Farris Naff

Entropy has been called the supreme law of the universe, yet more than a century after Ludwig Boltzmann wrote down the equation for it, entropy remains a deeply confusing concept. In that regard, it's much like its cousin, information.

In Part 1 of this program, we hear from Chemistry Professor Emeritus Frank Lambert of Occidental College on his effort to correct what he sees as a fundamental misunderstanding about entropy.

In Part 2, we turn to  the distinguished physicist and computer scientist Steven M. Girvin of Yale to learn about the curious relationship of entropy and information and how it complicates the effort to develop quantum computing.

Entropy, Part 1
Entropy, Part 2

Clay Farris Naff is (claynaff.com) is a science author and blogger whose weekly radio program, Science Odyssey, airs Saturday mornings from 8:30 to 9 a.m. CST on KZUM, Lincoln's community radio station. You can hear it over the air at 89.3 FM or on the web live at kzum.org. Clay's science and religion blog on the Huffington Post can be seen here.

“A Dangerous Method” to Obtain a Talking Cure

by Justin Senkbile

David Cronenberg's “A Dangerous Method” is a detailed history of the development of Sigmund Freud's “talking cure”, better known today as psychoanalysis. And as such, it ends up being a film about the psychology of psychologists, and the ways in which their own relationships and neuroses formed what would eventually be remembered not just as a touchstone in psychology, but a fundamental part of much of twentieth century thought.

In yet another role that plumbs psychosexual depths (his starring role in “Shame” continues at the Ross for another week), Michael Fassbender here plays newbie analyst and Freud protege Carl Jung. We meet him shortly after a troubled young woman, Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightly), is being admitted into his care. With her, he begins experimenting with Freud's psychoanalytic method.

Freud shows up shortly afterwards, played by frequent Cronenberg collaborator Viggo Mortensen. Already well-established as the father of this brave new method, Freud takes a supportive but strictly authoritarian role in Jung's life. It's Jung's fascinating sessionswith Spielrein that will bring him together with his Austrian father figure. And its his quick burning affair with her that will eventuallyhelp drive the two men apart.

Based on actual events, as documented in letters between these historically heavyweight figures (Spielrein went on to become a noted psychoanalyst as well), “A Dangerous Method” has a very exciting sense of immediacy to it. Especially when we're listening in as Jung and loose-cannon analyst Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel) discuss the moral and psychological implications of an extramarital affair. Or as we eavesdrop while Jung and Freud casually dissect a recent dream, as friends would.

Most of all, we watch as Jung experiments with his work through his life. His relationship with Spielrein seems based on just as much professional curiosity as sexual attraction. Like an insatiable explorer, Jung delights in burrowing deeper into analysis of his own desires and behavior. So what better way to test the mettle of his ideas than having an affair with a madwoman (one played by Keira Knightly, no less)?

That's the sort of thing that's most fascinating here, the way that “A Dangerous Method” so often illustrates theory being fleshed out, filled in and adjusted by experience. That's no short order for an actor, but seems like child's play for Fassbender, a performer capable of communicating enormous complexity with his presence.

Her forceful Russian accent is a bit startling at first, but Knightly gives a full body performance here, spending much of the early scenes writhing and convulsing under the weight of her psychosis. The kind of “bodily horror” we're used to from previous Cronenberg films like “Dead Ringers” and “The Fly” finds a home in this film too, right there in Knightly's startling, contorting face.

As far as intellectual adventure films go, this is about as compelling as they come. And for its performances, its visceral power and its graceful final notes, “A Dangerous Method” emerges as Cronenberg's best film in recent years.

“A Dangerous Method” is playing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, 13^th and R streets, through February 9^th.

 

The “Shame” of Addiction

by Justin Senkbile

Director Steve McQueen's “Shame” is a film with a focus on sex, but it plays out with icy stares and teeming silences instead of rapturous moans and cleverly-lit thrusts. Because, although we see quite a lot of it, this movie isn't about sex at all. And though its central character is undoubtedly an addict, this really isn't about addiction either. It actually took me most of the 101 minute running time to realize what should be obvious: “Shame” is about shame.

Michael Fassbender, who also starred in McQueen's first film, 2008's “Hunger”, plays Brandon, a young-ish professional living a robotic existence in Manhattan. As an archetypal “modern man”, it's only appropriate that he should work in a sterile office and live in a mostly bare, white-walled apartment, as he does. But Brandon is a slave to the pleasures (or, in his case, curses) of the flesh. He hires high-class prostitutes, picks up girls in bars and gorges on any kind of pornography he can get his hands on. But he's never satisfied, and succeeds only in becoming even more distanced, more confused and more self-loathing.

At the beginning, Brandon is set up so perfectly as a creature defined only by his addiction that it's a little jarring to learn he's a person too, which we discover while observing him out with co-workers or simply holding the door open for a neighbor. It's equally disorienting to realize he has a sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), who has barged back into his life, in need of a couch to sleep on. Her presence is a burden in his eyes (he even tells her as much), but she's serving a twisted purpose that he may or may not realize: he gets a chance to beat up on someone besides himself for a while.

Detractors of the film point to a few particular elements in their criticism, one of them being the notion that McQueen, with all the clean, empty rooms and ostensibly blank silences that populate the film, is using ambiguity as an end in and of itself; in short, that he has nothing to say, and worse yet, not even a compelling style. It's an appealingly succinct idea, but to accept it only means that you aren't paying attention to Fassbender and, to a lesser extent, Mulligan.

Because it's true: nothing McQueen has done here has any value without his actor. But creating that very situation is a feat only a remarkably skilled director would be able to pull off. At the risk of being reductive with such a powerful performance, I'll put it this way: Fassbender fills in McQueen's gaps. It's his eyes, his clenching jaws and most of all his simple presence that are communicating everything worth receiving here. In one excruciatingly visceral scene, where Sissy sadly sings “New York, New York” in an upscale bar and Brandon watches, it's the faces alone providing volumes of history, feeling and conflict.

In the wake of “Shame”, it's clear how rare such pictures actually are today. We see a lot of money movies that have built themselves around a star, but this is a real movie that builds itself around an actor. Since most of us are hard-wired us to approach challenging films with the director's intentions in mind, a movie like this is particularly tough to grapple with, hence the claims that McQueen is a director with no style and no substance.

All that being said, there is a bone to pick. “Shame” really could've benefitted by showing Brandon's carnal advances getting turned down at least once. In this Manhattan, it seems every female body we encounter is immediately melted under the guy's icy, objectifying stare. Obviously Fassbender is a flawlessly handsome dude, but such an oversight not only deprives us of an even fuller picture of the character (imagine how Fassbender would play such a scene!) but indicate an unsettling concept of women, one that might fall in line with Brandon's urges, but is not likely true to his actual perceptions.

I know we're only a few weeks in, but I don't think we'll see a sadder movie this year. This is certainly among the saddest I've seen. But “Shame” isn't a cruel film, its an illuminating one. Dark, rough and challenging, yes, but also immensely rewarding.

Shame” is playing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, 13^th and R streets, through February 2^nd

Science Odyssey: Freeing Climate Change From Distortions

By Clay Farris Naff

Climate change has equaled or surpassed evolution as a scientific subject mired in political controversy. In this edition we learn how scientific recommendations and data have been distorted, and how the National Center for Science Education is responding. Full disclosure: Naff has written for and contributed to the National Center for Science Education in the past.

 In Part 1 we hear from their new climate science education advocate, Mark McCaffrey. In Part 2, we talk with Dr. Richard A. Muller. He's a physicist at the University of California at Berkeley who found reasons to doubt that the data in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's reports was being properly collected or presented. To clear up his doubts, he took on the monumental task of independently confirming the global land temperature records of the last 200 years. He and his team found that their data closely match the IPCC's.

Climate Education, Part 1
Climate Education, Part 2

Clay Farris Naff is (claynaff.com) is a science author and blogger whose weekly radio program, Science Odyssey, airs Saturday mornings from 8:30 to 9 a.m. CST on KZUM, Lincoln's community radio station. You can hear it over the air at 89.3 FM or on the web live at kzum.org. Clay's science and religion blog on the Huffington Post can be seen here.

All's Well in “Le Havre”

by Justin Senkbile

In Aki Kaurismäki's deceptively simple new comedy, “Le Havre”, André Wilms plays a former bohemian and currently aging shoeshine man named Marcel Marx. Marcel lugs his gear around the French port city of Le Havre, and brings his crumpled euros back home each evening to wife Arletty (frequent Kaurismäki collaborator Kati Outinen). Its evident they're barely making ends meet, but all is peaceful in the Marx household.

Even when a bunch of illegal immigrants are discovered in a shipping container, and one of them, a young boy, manages to escape the police, the pacific mood around the neighborhood is barely disrupted. It's Arletty's sudden hospitalization that sends Marcel whirling. But almost as soon as she's been admitted he meets the fugitive boy, Idrissa (Blondin Miguel), and instinctively begins to help him.

His innate antipathy towards the immigration laws, and towards the steely-eyed Inspector Monet (Jean-Pierre Darrousin), who is busy hunting for Idrissa, is something shared just as automatically by his neighbors. Yvette (Evelyne Didi), the baker, happily shelters Idrissa while Marcel goes searching for the boy's family. And the grocer Epicier (François Monnié) is a key component of Idrissa's escape plan at the end. The only person who actually seems threatened by the fact that this hungry kid has entered his country is a nosy informer, played by the iconic Jean-Pierre Leaud.

What would likely take up a number of precious scenes and minutes in an American film about immigration isn't even an afterthought for Kaurismäki's characters. There are no moments of internal conflict about what's legal and what's right, about state law versus human morality. Because the situation is simple: the boy needs help.

This might classify as a rosy perspective of Europe, which hasn't historically embraced immigrants, especially when they're black and undocumented. But not a moment of this love-soaked picture seems false or pandering. Though it is dealing directly with current, dire situations, “Le Havre” has the feeling of being a fable more than anything else – or maybe even a fairy tale.

With the help of his constant cinematographer Timo Salminen, Kaurismäki shows us this city with his usual, irresistible twist of unreality. The paint is peeling and the appliances are well-worn in the homes and bars we visit, but the colors are eye-poppingly rich, and a phrase of lushly “movie” music swells up periodically. Kaurismäki's Le Havre is very much a real place - with real cops and real dirt – but it's also a fantasy world, where a sense of community thrives, and love and compassion can indeed conquer all.

“Le Havre” ends up being something like a deadpan, European flavored Frank Capra picture: honest but never cynical, and romantic without ever feeling superficial. It's the sort of movie one might mark off as a guilty pleasure if it wasn't so deeply, immediately touching.

“Le Havre” is playing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, 13^th and R streets, through January 19.

Best of Lincoln Theater 2011

By Ladd Wendelin

There was something for everyone, no matter what your theatrical tastes, during the 2011 Lincoln theater season. It was a good year for angels, witches, and whatever humanimals are. Here’s a rundown of the best and the brightest, on the boards, and in the glow of footlights – 10 great reasons to look back upon and look forward to theater in Lincoln!  

Listen to Me – If you remember one name from the Wesleyan theater department this year, remember Jay Scott Chipman, who helmed this past October’s thrilling Enron, but also Gertrude Stein’s Listen to Me, which played as part of the ’10-’11 season. Told on a set composed of bar and line graphs, Enron explored the seedy dealings that led to the largest corporate collapse in U.S. history. But it was Listen to Me, staged at the 48^th St. Studio Theatre, that exploded with Wesleyan’s trademark youthful energy and a zest for the spoken word, which in turn seasoned and informed Enron. Chipman wisely referred to the play itself as an “event” in the program notes, and it certainly was that. Challenging, rewarding and not easily forgotten, Listen to Me was everything that take-no-prisoners, experimental theater should be in Lincoln.

X-FIles: The Musical - The Colonel Mustard Amateur Attic Theater Company pulled out all the stops this August and once again brought their zany and satirical sass to another hallowed pop culture institution, The X-Files. After the runaway backyard success of Jurassic Park and Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, bigger ideas needed time, more space and the funds to be fully realized, so Col. Mustard harnessed the power of social networking, employing Kickstarter, Twitter, Facebook, and Livestream to drum up support for the continued adventures of Agents Scully and Mulder. Relocating to the empty lot at 9^th and D, formerly home to Zion Presbyterian, not even an occasional rain shower on opening night stopped droves of attendees from experiencing “humanimals”, succulent barbeque and a show-stopping Lone Gunmen barbershop quartet. What will they think of next? Stay tuned… 

Angels in America: Part 1: Millennium Approaches – It’s a match made in theater heaven: Director Bob Hall, Flatwater Shakespeare and the Haymarket Theatre brought Tony Kushner’s epic drama to life this past April. A powerhouse cast of Flatwater regulars helped the show to earn its wings, including standout performances by Summer Widhalm (Harper), Richard Nielsen (Roy Cohn), and Daniel Kubert (Belize). With great performances and Hall’s strong directorial vision, Angels was simply divine, played with conviction, heart and humor, all necessary components for a tale of love and death in the midst of the mid-80s AIDS epidemic. The second coming of Angels in America, entitled Part II: Peristoika, will run March 29 – April 14, 2012 at the Haymarket Theater.

The 39 Steps – The highlight of this year’s Nebraska Repertory Theater summer shows was this witty, quick-change comedy adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic spy thriller, The 39 Steps. Not only did it feature outstanding nationally-recognized actors Matt Penn and Dan Rodden, but also sensational local character actors – the radiant Melissa Lewis and Robbie Hayek, who along with Penn played at least several dozen characters during the course of the play. Those who attended the July production experienced a theatrical tour de force - a rare feat combining all the talents and abilities in an actor’s arsenal. But would you expect anything less from the Nebraska Rep?

 Lend Me A Tenor – A staple of contemporary theater found a home at the Playhouse this past October. Or, rather, it found a posh hotel suite, replete with opening and closing doors, a half-dead opera singer, and romantic travails between artists and those who love them. Directed by Morrie Enders, whose affection for Ken Ludwig’s madcap farce was more than apparent in the slapstick rhythm and pacing of the action, Tenor also benefited from a hybrid cast of Lincoln and Omaha talent, including the sauve Michael Corner (Max), Ed Culter (Tito Merelli) and Mark Kocsis (Saunders). With a season of mostly old standards and tried-and-true hits, the Playhouse brought out the best in Tenor, lending it enough classic cool for an audience-friendly experience.

The Wizard of Oz – You didn’t have to go “over the rainbow” to get your Oz fix this past July. What it lacked in polish, Pinewood Bowl, along with director/choreographer Courtney Piccoli, brought plenty of heart and humor to the annual outdoor event, along with a great performance from 13-year old Liza Piccoli, whose tender rendition of “Over the Rainbow” hit all the right notes. Not even this past summer’s grueling heat stopped Piccoli’s hoofers from selling Oz in all its Technicolor glory to the hundreds of Lincolnites who attended. Wedding bells will ring in 2012 when Seven Brides For Seven Brothers says “I do!” at the Pinewood Bowl.

‘cast.’ –  Following ‘coal chamber opera’, a one-man “basement play” performed earlier in the year, local playwright Robert Stewart (Wetrats Prod.) continued his unconventional streak of self-produced, independent shows by returning to the Tugboat Gallery with ‘cast.’, a one-act play about the shifty nature of storytelling, which featured octopus tentacles, a giant leg cast and a superb ensemble cast led by Matthew Gee, Katie Segrist, and Angela Barber. Unpredictable as a playwright and provocative as a director, Stewart's vision of theater is both surprising in its attention to detail and uncompromising. 

25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – Not only did TADA Productions bring back Lawrence and Hope Juber of Gilligan’s Island: The Musical fame for the regional premiere of their latest creation, It’s the Housewives!, in March, but also the 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – a hit during the 2008-2009 season, and another sold out run this past August. Returning cast members Bill Maltas (Vice-Principal Panch) and Matthew Works (William Barfee) were hilarious, as were new cast members, particularly Brent Welch, Jessie Cotton, and Jaci Manning. With its misfit spellers, William Finn's great score and audience participation, Putnam County remained as fun and joyous a musical as you were likely to come across this season. In 2012, TADA will stage the regional premieres of the Spider-Man musical spoof The Spidey Project and the Tony Award-winning naughty puppet show Avenue Q.

 Twelfth Night / A Midsummer Night’s Dream – What theater season in Lincoln would be complete without a tale or two (or more – Othello at the Playhouse) from the Bard of Avon? When Shakespeare’s gender-bending comedy Twelfth Night is set in the Old West, a gunslinger’s paradise, just outside of a bordello, it’s not to be missed, especially when Ian Borden’s all-encompassing reimagining brought UNL audiences into a packed Studio Theater. Mike Lee, who assumed the role of a banjo-picking troubadour, also found success as the mischievous sprite Puck in Flatwater Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Leave it to Bob Hall and Flatwater Shakespeare, who brought Puck, a half-man/half-jackass and the whole magical gang of fairy-folk to the Lincoln Foundation Community Gardens in June while the Swan at Wyuka Cemetery is under renovation. In addition to their run at the Gardens, Midsummer also played free shows at local parks, amounting to a magical evening of theater. That Shakesepeare fellow. He's gonna go far...

***

Wow! What a year! So, what were your favorite show(s) in the last year? Sound off, and get ready – 2012 is going to be a great year for theater in Lincoln!

 

A Young Veteran's Journey to “Hell and Back Again”

by Justin Senkbile

Of all the modern war documentaries, “Hell and Back Again” by Danfung Dennis has to be one of the most interesting. It begins in Afghanistan, as a group of American soldiers embark on an extremely dangerous mission. Eventually we're introduced to the leader of the platoon, Nathan, and to the film's simple and powerful structure.

Through Nathan, who was badly wounded on one of his last days of deployment, Dennis takes us back and forth from the villages and battlefields of Afghanistan to the parking lots and drive-thrus of North Carolina. War is hell, as is illustrated when a young soldier gets shot down in the first few minutes. But home is no cakewalk either, especially for Nathan. He quickly concedes that, up against the anxieties of a packed Wal-Mart parking lot, for example, life in Afghanistan seems much simpler.

Virtually obsessed with guns and itching to recover from his massive hip injuries so he can get back to battle, Nathan might be a pretty tough nut to crack for those who've been following the avalanche of antiwar documentaries over the last decade or so. Ideologically, Nathan is worlds away from the disabled vet turned antiwar activist profiled in “Body of War”, for example.

He's also plagued by a presumably PTSD related anxiety. He worries about the parking lot, as mentioned above and, in one particularly moving moment, tries to stay calm as his doting and infinitely patient wife Ashley orders a long list of items at a drive-thru.

We've all seen fiction films pretending to be documentaries (“Spinal Tap” is still the best example), but the overwhelming feeling here is of Dennis making a documentary that pretends to be fiction. Nathan often seems treated as a character in Dennis' psychological drama instead of the subject of his emerging documentary. When the sounds and images slow down and get distorted as a doctor talks about pain medications, or when audio from Afghanistan is heard over a shot of Nathan reeling with sickness from the pain of his injuries, Dennis is boldly imposing a psychology on his subject.

Such manipulations usually send me screaming, but there's no doubt that Dennis is taking liberties here for purely compassionate ends. And it's hard to argue about choices like that after experiencing the depth of feeling we have for Nathan by the end of the picture.

Towards the end, I literally began to half-wonder if this wasn't actually a work of fiction, partly because of moments like those mentioned above, but also because of how stunning most of the images are, how nearly every shot is perfectly composed, and how almost every scene has some palpable amount of tension or visceral sense of pain.

Unfortunately, this stuff is real. Which makes the film's impact all the more lasting.

“Hell and Back Again” is playing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, 13^th and R streets, through January 12.

 

“Melancholia”: The Beautiful and the Damned

by Justin Senkbile

“Melancholia” is the name of the latest film by Denmark's greatest director/provocateur/rampaging ego, Lars von Trier. Though it's a title more widely appealing than that of his previous picture, 2009's “Antichrist”, this labyrinth of sensations seems likely to be just as polarizing for audiences.

Kirsten Dunst stars as Justine, an apparently happy young woman about to marry a pleasant guy named Michael (Alexander Skarsgård). Much ink has already been spilled elsewhere over the astonishing slow-motion prologue of tableaux vivants that open the film. But after that, we cut to a shot almost as interesting: Justine and Michael's stretch limo, on its way to the wedding party, trying to shift itself around a sharp rural corner.

Sister of the bride Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her needly husband John (Keifer Sutherland), are hosting the party in their sprawling mansion. Under the pressure of the attention, a recent nightmare and likely some past experiences with depression, Justine begins to deteriorate as the night wears on. So much so that her groom eventually packs up and leaves.

By the time we reach part two, titled “Claire”, the rogue planet Melancholia is easy to spot in the sky, and is reportedly closing in on earth. Justine is now lost in a despairing fog, and is staying at the mansion. Claire's nerves are bending as she reads doom-laden predictions of Melancholia's trajectory online, even while John, an amateur astronomer, tries to assure her the earth will be spared.

If you've paid attention to the first ten minutes of the film, it'll be no spoiler to reveal that Claire ends up being right.

Let's go back to that prologue, made up of carefully, coldly composed images that move hypnotically as Wagner barrels down on the soundtrack. From all this pomp and circumstance, von Trier cuts to great sight-gag: that shot of the limo. “Melancholia” is full of juxtapositions like this, where a loose irony is used to undercut the gravity of the lavish estate, the perfectly formed dialogue or the immaculately composed images. Justine's line about the meatloaf in the second half (“It tastes like ashes!”), even manages to be heavy and funny in the same moment. It's just as hard to take such a line without a slight laugh as it is to ignore and dismiss her suffering.

Von Trier has a way with actresses – his films usually get them awards at Cannes, including Dunst for this one and Gainsbourg for “Antichrist”. Here he gets two stunning performances side-by-side. Gainsbourg's warm and utterly baffled Claire deserves as much praise as Dunst's crumbling and ultimately transformed Justine.

Add those performances to an enigmatic, romantic atmosphere and a plethora of menacingly beautiful images, and you have the weird world of “Melancholia”. A strange, wonderful start to the New Year.

“Melancholia” is playing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, 13^th and R streets, through January 19.

 

The Year On Screen

By Justin Senkbile

For the movies, 2011 was full of immense highs and equally vast lows. In short, it was similar to 2010. Or 2009. Or virtually any other year. The great stuff was really great: engaging, enlightening and often challenging. And the rest was typically bad: amusing at best and insulting at worst.

We had everything from romantic spirituality (“The Tree of Life”) to apocalyptic existentialism (“Another Earth”, “Melancholia”). There were successful franchise reanimations (“The Muppets”) and disastrous ones (“The Smurfs”). “Harry Potter” made his last dent at the box office, and the “Twilight” series finally started rounding the same corner. There were lots of strong documentaries too, especially for us Lincolnites: The Ross showed “Summer Pasture”, “Tabloid” and “We Were Here”, to name just a few great titles that didn't make the list below.

On that note, since it's impossible to fit all the good into a measly ten spots, you'll also find a handy group of ten other honorable mentions below, most of which are either still playing in town or are now available on DVD.

Several of my picks were technically released in 2010, but didn't reach us until this year. And a few much-hyped titles are still unseen by this reviewer for that same reason. Steve McQueen's “Shame”, David Cronenberg's “A Dangerous Method”, and Aki Kaurismaki's “Le Havre” all received kind words when they opened elsewhere earlier this year, but won't reach us until January (The Ross already has them booked). “The Artist”, Michel Hazanavicius' silent picture, and the espionage thriller “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” will presumably reach a Marcus screen in early 2012 as well (Omaha's Film Streams has “The Artist” starting January 13th).

So here they are, the ten best films released in Lincoln this year, roughly in order of preference. Happy new year!

1. Another Year - If you'll pardon the use of an unpardonably corny phrase, Mike Leigh films are like chicken soup for the soul. His latest, which reached us in early January, follows an older couple (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) through the four seasons of an average year. They're a happy pair, but life comes much harder for many of their friends (including one played by the amazing Lesley Manville). This film's performances and its flawless simplicity are almost overwhelming.


2. Young Adult – Jason Reitman's “Up In The Air” was one of last year's best movies, and his latest is even better. Here, Charlize Theron stars as a writer of young adult novels who returns to her hometown with plans to whisk away a happily married ex-flame (Patrick Wilson). Not for the faint of heart (painfully awkward and embarrassing moments abound), Theron here is as stunning as she is deplorable.


3. Nostalgia for the Light – Patricio Guzman's essay film ties together Chile's violent political history and the work of astronomers, out in the desert, searching for the earth's history by looking to the stars. An amazing reminder of the potentials of the sound and image relationship, and, even better, a reassurance that there are still filmmakers interested in that relationship. A movie so personal, specific and true that it becomes universal.


4. The Tree of Life – Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and Sean Pean all appear in director Terrence Malick's intensely poetic web of feelings and sensations. Tracing human life from the earth's beginnings, through a Texas family in the fifties, and on to the cold, hermetic modern world, this is the art film for people who didn't think they liked art films.


5. Le Quattro Volte – As ambitious as “The Tree of Life”, minus the majestic scale and A list stars. Michelangelo Frammartino's second film follows a soul through four incarnations: human, animal, vegetable and mineral. Seriously. It's an incredible, completely unique experience.


6. The Descendants – Alexander Payne's beautifully textured film is about a descendant of one of Hawaii's first white landowning families (George Clooney). His pressures – financial, paternal and marital, among others – are real. But the Payne touch makes it all feel like the most effortless of comedies while retaining every ounce of dramatic weight.


7. Certified Copy – Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's latest, set in Italy, is a deceptively accessible film, a web of impressions about relationships, history and art, all wrapped up within a warm and frequently funny tale of two people who may or may not share a past (Juliette Binoche and William Shimell). The restaurant scene towards the end is one of Binoche's finest moments.


8. Hugo - As with “My Week with Marilyn” below, Martin Scorsese's 3D outing might be most appealing to movie freaks like myself. This story about the later life of Georges Méliès is, besides being one giant love-letter to cinema, the first film I've seen that really embraces 3D technology as something more than an expensive novelty.


9. The Skin I Live In – Pedro Almodovar's latest is about a demented plastic surgeon (Antonio Banderas) and his unfortunate patient (Elena Anaya). It's a classical tale of revenge and madness, a bigger-than-life horror story filtered through Almodovar's brand of high melodrama. Also gets the award for best, craziest plot twist in recent memory. Avoid spoilers at all costs!


10. My Week With Marilyn - A young man (Eddie Redmayne) breaks into the film industry in London. He spends his days with Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and his nights with Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams). If not a perfect movie, this is a perfect movie experience and an irresistible fantasy for film lovers. Williams channels Marilyn's spirit like no one else I've seen.

Honorable mention:“White Material”, “Senna”, “Putty Hill”, “The Trip”, “Bridesmaids”, “The Muppets”, “My Dog Tulip”, “Carlos”, “The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975”, “The Time That Remains”