Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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MOVIE REVIEW Fro* the <rr Iter-01 rector o»' "Soda arO donaters" Liam Neeson Laura Linney KINSEY Let’s talk about sex ? * -f * J » iJL l.. i i* , "'£* t > *• 1 Kinsey reverses taboos, questions social norms “Kinsey” ★★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆ By LESLIE DENNIS THE GAMECOCK “Let’s talk about sex.” Most people today are not even phased by this tagline for the film “Kinsey.” But in the 1930s and 1940s, the . mere mention of sex, let alone an entire conversation about the subject, was taboo and mostly resulted in “don’t do it before marriage”. However, Alfred Kinsey attempted to bring the most carnal of man’s desires to the forefront of America’s consciousness and reveal the sacred secrets of America’s bedrooms. The film begins with Kinsey (Liam Neeson) coaching his research assistants oh how to take a successful and truthful • sexual history by revealing his own. Moving through a childhood and . adolescence of sexual repression and Christian conservatism enforced by his father (John Lithgow), Kinsey ultimately rebels against his father’s wishes for him to become an engineer and goes into the biology field. While studying, collecting and teaching a coarse on gall wasps, Kinsey meets and marries one of his students, Clara “Mac” McMillen (Laura Linney). ru> uicii lauuiy cApauui uuuugn me years and Kinsey continues to teach at Indiana University, students begin to consult Kinsey about sexual problems they are having with their husbands, wives or significant others. In one of these sessions, Kinsey is appalled to find out that the couple he is counseling believes that oral sex causes female reproductive problems. When Kinsey looks into the couple’s claims, he finds the current sexual education is uninformative and is used as propaganda for a certain socially dictated type of sexual behavior. Kinsey then decides someone must answer questions about sex instead of avoiding the subject and begins a “marriage” class that quickly turns into a research study of sexual practices. • With the help of assistants Clyde - Martin (Peter Sarsgaard), Wardell . Pomeroy (Chris O’Donnell) and Paul Gebhard (Timothy Hutton), Kinsey ' embarks on both an ambitious study of sexual behavior and a risky game with human emotions. With a protagonist — or antagonist, depending on your opinion — like Kinsey, the film could easily be turned into a laughable disaster or perverse exploitation, but apt director and writer Bill Condon, also the writer/director of the haunting and controversial “Gods and Monsters,” carefully handles and openly discusses the subject matter simultaneously. Just as in “Gods and Monsters,” Condon successfully recreates the life of a man who disregards social norms and struggles with his own inner demons. As Kinsey, Neeson gives an incredibly controlled and subtle performance, one that will most likely gatner him a second Academy Award nomination for best actor. His performance is just as brilliant as his depiction of Oskar Schindler, for which Neeson received his first Oscar nomination. Linney, an Oscar nominee for “You Can Count on Me,” plays the supportive-yet-outspoken Mac to perfection and once again displays her versatility as an actress. Veteran actor and two-time Academy Award nominee Lithgow saves his character from becoming the cliched overbearing father and vigorously exhibits the range of the character and his own acting. but perhaps the strongest or the supporting cast is Sarsgaard, a young actor on a roll with consistently amazing performances like that of his hard-yet fair New Republic editor Chuck Lane in “Shattered Glass” and the constantly stoned gravedigger Mark in “Garden State.” Sarsgaard seems natural and effortless in the role of the bisexual researcher and lover of both Kinsey and Mac. Although Sarsgaard slips with ease into all his roles, his understated passion and quiet grace as Clyde firmly secures him as one of the best actors of his generation. With strong performances from the entire cast and the powerful hand of Condon guiding the camera and script, “Kinsey” not only shows the impact Kinsey had on the way society perceives and expresses sexuality but also intelligently displays the importance of continually questioning the social « norm. Comments on this story? E-mail gatnecockfeatures@gwm.se. edu Spring Break on sale...save NOW!!! X2TRAVELCUVS 1-800-592-CUTS (2887) See the world your way Call or book online! Movie Releases j i;v_ L “Assault on Precinct 13” “Are We There Yet?” Winter weather wardrobes add style to keeping warm By Lisa Jones Townsel ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH When you think of a down coat, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Warmth? Coziness? A profile resembling the Michelin Man? Yeah, I thought so. But by far, this synthetic mix of nylon, polyester and, sometimes, down feathers is among the best barriers against winter’s fury. The challenge is making it look less, well, inflated. Let’s face it. The coats are big. Bodacious. Even the titles of a few, which refer to “puff” in the name, point to their mammoth size. “With the older down coats, it was like you were carrying around an extra sleeping bag on top of you,” suggests Maeghan O’Hagan, co-owner of Clayton based Lusso. “Now, they’ve gone to great lengths to make it more wearable and less like camping gear.” Nowadays, you can dress up down. “The right pieces together can make a great outfit, like a great pair of cropped pants and a short-waisted down jacket,” notes Jacob Laws, visual merchandiser for Splash. To illustrate his point, he paired a tangerine shrunken jacket with cropped pants with lame banding. People might be surprised to learn that even coats that say down aren’t always filled exclusively with feathers. “There’s a lot of simulated down. It has the look and same effect: w^mth,” Laws says, adding, “The addition of other materials helps to keep your coat’s shape.” Coats typically have somewhere between 20 to 80 percent down feathers combined with fillers. Want something more than the basic blanket form? Laws says check for designers with “a cool edge.” Embellishments also help. Regular white coats with brassy gold detailing can’t help but stand out. And coats in robust hues, including cotton candy pink and sky blue, look good enough to be plucked. We caught up with Monroe G. Milstein, chief executive officer of Burlington Coat Factory recently. During a phone interview, Milstein called the down coat the year’s No. 1 fashion, at least in the coat market. “More than any other coat this year, it’s selling,” he says. “It’s selling this year was far superior to any other year. Ordinarily, they stop buying coats right before Thanksgiving, but this year’s going so strong that we put in additional orders for January.” But the coat mogul acknowledges that color variety and easy maintenance are only a part of the appeal. The puff is a must. “The truth is, the flatter ones aren’t as warm,” he says. “It’s from the depth of the pile; that’s where you get the insulation. It’s not like the old Michelin Man, but the puffier ones are warmer.” Does he deny that that depth results in a puffier profile? “No, it doesn’t make you look fat, but it doesn’t make you look anorexic either,” Milstein says before asking, “Do fur coats make people look fat?" Down feathers can be one of the warmest materials for a winter coat, and fur trim can add extra protection from wind and harsh winter temperatures. PHOTOS COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Fr WUSC DESK Destroyer Notorious Lightning & Other Works (Merge) Daniel Bejar is a strange one. When not working with Neko Case, A.C. Newman and co. as a part of indie-rock supergroup the New Pornographers, Bejar moonlights in his quirky and bookish side project Destroyer. Based on his work in Destroyer, one imagines Bejar leads a rather solitary life, rapidly and maniacally devouring Victorian poetry by moonlight. But rest assured, he still finds his way to the bar, and this is where the Destroyer persona manifests itself in a sort of magnificent oddball pomp. After one regretful, ill-timed remark, a drunken Bejar slams his fist down and begins to cackle, and the resulting monologue is the basis for Destroyer’s lyrics. Bejar’s vocal delivery is one of the most unique you will ever come across. His rambling, melodramatic style is like a cross between David Bowie’s androgynous croon and William Shatner’s rigid method acting. Indeed, Bejar often sounds more like a drunken, crazed, out-of-work Shakespearean actor than a proper rock singer. On “Notorious Lightning & Other Works”, Bejar is in rare form as he reworks songs from 2004’s “Your Blues” along with Vancouver-based art-rockers Frog Eyes. The songs here are less MIDI/keyboard-based, as Frog Eyes provides a twinkling, melancholic palette that provides Bejar with all the fanfare his highly theatrical narratives demand. The song “Notorious Lightning” is the highlight here just as it was on “Your Blues.” Bejar’s dramatic monologue builds and builds, gaining in urgency as he chants “Someone’s got to fall before someone goes free” until he explodes into yelping la-la-la’s before rapidly skipping off into the sunset of his screwball fantasy. It is a fact that Destroyer’s lovable eccentricities take some getting used to, but to know Daniel Bejar is to love him, and if he has his way, you too will have “Destroyer” embroidered on your jeans. K IT TC3T Black Mountain Black Mountain (Jag Jaguwar) Eugenics is a dirty little secret of this great nation. In the first half of the 20th century (and some would argue still today), our government sought to isolate the gifted within the population and engineer a superior race of Einsteins, Elvises and Captain Americas. Perhaps remnants of this wayward project remain today, buried deep beneath the Appalachians. If we are seeking proof that these mad scientists have any aspirations to create the perfect rock ‘n’ roll band, look no further than Black Mountain. Splicing the DNA of Ozzy Osbourne, Lou Reed and Mick Jagger, Bl^ck Mountain’s debut album amalgamates the considerable talents of these men into one monstrous rock ‘n’ roll opus. Borrowing Black Sabbath’s penchant for blistering hard-rock grooves, the Velvet Underground’s guitar-mangling, and the drug-induced stomp and sexy swagger and soul of the Stones, Black Mountain appropriates everything that is good and vital about the “classic rock” of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s. Whereas classic rock radio has taken the sting out of many great songs by not only beating a dead horse but continually running over it for 20 years, this band of Vancouver revisionists still revels in the raw power and glory of classic rock ‘n’ roll music. “Don’t Run Our Hearts Around” could have been one of the best songs on Sabbath’s “Paranoid” if Ozzy was channeling American blues and soul music instead of Satan and evil fairies. In fact, in a just world, “Don’t Run Our Hearts Around” would be a smash commercial hit. It’s the song Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) has been trying to write his whole career. On its self-titled debut, Black Mountain does not simply erect a Mount Rushmore to Ozzy, Mick, Lou and others — they manage to rework these timeless influences in their own image. By Jordan Redmond WUSC MUSIC DIRECTOR r- ' yw'