INSIDEBEATTHE WEEKLY ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE OF THE DAILY TARGUM

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Making it in showbusiness istough, but for a few lucky familiesbig screen success is in their DNA

HOLLYWOODGENEALOGY

Page 2 • Inside Beat Column November 5, 2009

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BY ROSANNA VOLISSTAFF WRITER

The iconic image of JamesDean in a leather jacket noncha-lantly holding a cigarette hadgirls swooning over him then andnow. So why is it that girls alwaysfall for the bad guy? Maybe it’sthe notion of being taken awayon a motorcycle instead of awhite horse and smoking ciga-rettes instead of sipping wine bycandlelight. This is for the girlswho don’t fall for the jocks of theworld, the girls who would give

The Badder The Better

EDITORIALBOARD

THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS

TO INSIDE BEAT : Ariba Alvi, Ciara Copell,

Sukanya Dutta,Theo Jones,Amanda Litchkowski,

Marc Mance, Peter Sperlazzo, Tara L. Young, Becca Zandstein.

Cover photo courtesy of justjared.buzznet.com

MARGARET DARIAS

TOM WRIGHT-PIERSANTI

Rutgers Student Center126 College Avenue,

Suite 431New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Phone (732) 932-2013Fax (732) 246-7299

Emailbeat@dailytargum.com

Web www.inside-beat.comAdvertising in Inside Beat,

Call (732) 932-7051Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

EDITOR

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

INSIDEBEAT

STACY DOUEKASSISTANT EDITOR

NIDHI SARAIYABOOKS EDITOR

ADRIENNE VOGTCOPY EDITOR

MICHAEL MALVASIOFASHION EDITOR

EMILY SCHACHTMANFILM EDITOR

JASION STIVESMUSIC EDITOR

TOM WRIGHT-PIERSANTITV EDITOR

come to our weeklymeetings every

MONDAYat 9:15 p.m. located

@ RUTGERS STUDENT CENTER,

Suite 431

up their right arm for a real-liveDanny Zuko.

There’s a reason why rockstars always have groupies. I fullysupport the concept that rock ’n’roll will save your soul. There’sjust something about a well-playedguitar, a gorgeous lead singer andthe boom of the bass that makesyou feel alive. The fact that it wasonce referred to as “the devil’smusic” makes it all the more in-triguing to figure out that scruffyman behind the microphone.

We have all seen him: the guythat walks into a room with a dev-

ilish grin. He knows he’s confidentand can have any girl he wants,but he chooses you. That in itselffeels like an accomplishment. Youwalk down the street and peoplestare; little old ladies shake theirhead at his tattoos and piercingswhile you smirk to yourself. Dat-ing a bad boy is a constant strug-gle of wondering whether he willuse his charm on someone elseand never being able to figure outwhat he is thinking, because a truerebel doesn’t show his emotions toanyone. We all want to be the girlthat will change him, the one that

will make him settle down —which is easier said than done.

Although we would all like tobelieve in the Hollywood idea thatthat every motorcycle-riding badboy has a heart of gold deep downinside, this is hardly ever the case.So when you see that guy at theparty with a gaggle of girls aroundhim, watching intently as he en-tertains them with stories of hislife on tour or showing off his tat-toos — run. Most of these guys re-ally are what their label depictsthem as: bad. They love attention,and if you’re not willing to shower

them with it, they will gladly findsomeone who will.

Do nice guys really finish last?I propose a compromise, one thatwill leave us rebel worshippersslightly less emotionally scarred:Uncle Jesse, post-twins. Forthose of you who weren’t one ofthe little girls who crushed onJohn Stamos’ Uncle Jesse in FullHouse, he was the cool and caringfather who wore leather, was ob-sessed with Elvis and had hishair slicked back. Find an UncleJesse and you have found theholy grail of bad-boy-dom.

November 5, 2009 Books • Fashion • TV Inside Beat • Page 3

A look atNEW BOOKS

in November

OUR CHOICE BY AL GORE – NOV. 3It is surprising that this book has not received more attention.

After the success of An Inconvenient Truth (the book, the documen-tary and the album) led to a Nobel Peace Prize, an Academic Award,and a Grammy Award, expectations are high for this environmentalactivism follow-up.

Gore was never one to skirt around the issue. Although the Amer-ican government often tries to disregard its role in combating globalwarming, in An Inconvenient Truth, Gore laid out the evidence toprove that this glacier-melting threat is one we cannot ignore. Aftergiving us three years to discuss it, Gore has decided that it is time to

act. Our Choice encourages readers to band together, bypass political reluctance, and usethe best of our world’s green artillery to counter the climate crisis.

PIRATE LATITUDES BY MICHAEL CRICHTON – NOV. 24With Crichton’s sudden passing only a year ago, it is bittersweet

to see his name gracing the cover of this posthumous novel. PirateLatitudes takes us to Port Royal, Jamaica, a wealthy city infamous forprivateering (government-sponsored piracy) by 16th century Euro-pean rulers. Not much the plot has been revealed, but it appears thatthe story centers around characters involved in England and Spain’spolitical battle for control of Jamaica.

The book is a departure from the science fiction, medical, andtechnology-based thrillers that Crichton is known for, but initial re-views for the book have been positive. In fact, if all goes well, we

shall soon see Crichton’s name on the silver screen. DreamWorks Studios has alreadybrought the film rights to Pirate Latitudes and Steven Spielberg and David Koepp, theduo that brought us the first two Jurassic Park movies, will be teaming up again to cre-ate the film adaptation.

THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA BY VLADMIR NABOKOV – NOV. 17

Readers who pick up a copy of The Original of Laura can know onething for certain: Nabokov never wanted anyone to read his last work.The Lolita author, who died in 1977, had left explicit instructions forhis wife to destroy the note-cards that contained the rough draft ofthe story. But the note-cards were left intact and Nabokov’s son,Dmitri, ultimately decided to release this final and unfinished novel.It is hard to say whether Dmitri was right in defying his father’s finalwishes (Nabokov was a perfectionist and supposedly tried to burndrafts of Lolita as well), but The Original of Laura will undoubtedly

give us a glimpse into this Russian genius’ writing process and final thoughts.

TOO MUCH HAPPINESS BY ALICE MUNRO – NOV. 17Munro, who is this year’s Man Booker International Prize winner,

reminds us why she is Canada’s premier short story writer with TooMuch Happiness. The collection contains ten stories that take readersfrom Canada to Europe and deal with topics ranging from love, mar-riage and childhood. These subjects may sound like happy ones, butin Munro’s hands, they are anything but. She infuses a dark under-current of despair into all stories and creates a mood of nonchalancethat is intoxicating. It is as if her characters watch their actions froman outsider’s perspective, talking about their lives exactly as they per-ceive them and without control over their destined paths. Readers

cannot help but join her characters for the ride.

BY NIDHI SARAIYABOOKS EDITOR

November is destined to be an exciting month for readers, as many of the industry’sbest are returning to bookstores with new literature. Barbara Kingsolver, John Grishamand Philip Roth started the month off strong with their Nov. 3 releases, The Lacuna, FordCountry and The Humbling. Stephen King’s latest novel, Under the Dome (Nov. 10), prom-ises to be as engrossing as his previous 1,000-page epic, The Stand. But hiding behind thepress of these famous authors are the stories of a former politician (no, not Sarah Palin),two famous men writing from the grave, and an award-winning short story writer thatmight just sneak up on us and become this month’s bestsellers.

LUXIBY MICHAEL MALVASIOFASHION EDITOR

For a girl, finding the right nailsalon means everything. How muchwill the manicure be? Does the man-icurist hold your hand firmlyenough during the manicure? Doesthe salon have the latest issue ofCosmo? The amount of questionsseems endless and varies from girlto girl. So, to help lessen the confu-sion, we asked a typical girl fromRutgers to take a trip with us to thenail salon: Luxi, located in HighlandPark. Using her as our subject, weobserved and scrutinized every lastdetail as she received a basic mani-cure and pedicure.

COLORS: While at the salon, wehappened to run into a womannamed Rebecca Novak, a formerbrand manager at Revlon in NewYork City. She gave us some inter-esting facts to consider when rat-ing the color selections at a salonand said, “Look at the bottles andsee if they are old and dried out …[dried out bottles] means theydon’t replenish.” Luxi’s selection— both moist and bountiful — wasobviously a replenished and up-to-date collection. Offering morethan 100 color choices, includingabout 35 choices for French mani-cures, the salon’s color wall rangesfrom light pink to dark black. Thecurrent colors are also stocked toinclude the perfect shades for thefall season, including dark gray,navy and purple.

PRICING: This is probably themost important, and best, featureabout Luxi salon: the pricing isvery reasonable. The salon offersstudent discounts, including $5 offpedicures. With the discount, oursubject was able to get a manicureand pedicure for only $30 — shewas even offered a five-minuteback massage during the dryingcycle free of charge. Other baseprices include: manicures for $10,French manicures for $15, eye-brow waxing for $8 and finally,Brazilians, which start at $50. Thesalon also has deals for childrenunder 8 years old, called “Lil An-gels,” with prices that range from$6 to $14.

55 Raritan Ave, Highland Park| A

BY BECCA ZANDSTEINSTAFF WRITER

Modern Family is laugh-out-loud funny and gives a great up-dated perspective of theconstantly-evolving Americanfamily. It follows a father and histwo kids, each of whom is incharge of their own unique fam-ily. Its mockumentary stylegives an inside look at the dailyoccurrences that happen withinthe confines of their lives.

The patriarch of the family isJay, played by Ed O’Neill. He isnewly married to his secondwife, who is half his age, andtries to keep his entire family to-gether in a straightforward way,very reminiscent of his charac-ter Al Bundy from Married withChildren. Jay’s wife, Gloria(Sofía Vergara, Madea Goes toJail and Dir ty Sexy Money) hasan accent that is as thick andsmooth as honey, is a completeMILF, and will do anything tosupport her son in his endeav-ors. Gloria’s son Manny is a 10-year-old who dresses like a re-

ModernFamily

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tired accountant and speakswith his stepdad’s daughter as ifhe were her psychologist. Hisknowledge and vocabulary levelplace him above most of hisolder relatives despite the age dif ference.

Jay’s daughter Claire, playedby Julie Bowen (Boston Legaland Weeds), is a protective stay-at-home mom who always has afreshly-baked item ready for thekids to devour. Her husband,Phil (Ty Burrell, The IncredibleHulk), is a dad who tries waytoo hard to fit in to the new hipgeneration of his oldest daugh-ter but fails miserably. Phil is anawkward guy who shows his ob-vious attraction towards ever ydrop dead gorgeous woman heencounters. Phil and Clairehave three kids: Haley, the old-est girl, who only cares aboutimage and boys; Alex, the mid-dle child, who plays cello andlacrosse and is already thinkingabout college even though sheis only a young teenager; andLuke, who is way too curious,experimental and has probably

hit his head way too many timesfor his own good.

Jay’s son Mitchell (JesseTyler Ferguson, The Class) ismarried to Cameron (Eric Ston-estreet, CSI) and they have justadopted a girl from Vietnam.Cameron is a flamboyant, outgo-ing guy who loves to eat, danceand photograph his daughter asgay musical icons. Mitchell is anuptight dad who is scared ofdoing anything wrong and is will-ing to go the distance just tohave peace and love.

Modern Family came out atjust the right time. In this reces-sion, we don’t need shows likeGossip Girl where teenagers sipMerlot at classy bars whilewearing Diane Von Furstenberg.We need a sitcom that is seriousyet comical and shows the im-portance of family, which is ex-actly what Modern Familymanages to accomplish. Thisshow is definitely a must-watch;the heavy accent paired with theludicrous personable family dy-namics make it quite hard topeel away from.

SERVICE: Entering a nail salonfor the first time can be slightlydaunting, and that’s why qualityservice is important when consid-ering customer comfort. Luxi wason point when it came to accom-modating clients. From the ladywho was helpful in guaranteeingour reservation (we requested thebest manicurist) to the gentlementhat actually performed the mani-cure, the service could not havebeen better. At one point, the man-icurist accidentally got a tinysmudge of nail polish on our sub-ject’s skin. He then meticulouslyproceeded to take out a tiny, damppiece of cloth to remove the mis-take. During the entire process, themanicurist took his time, stoppingseveral times to see if she liked theshape, color and amount of coats.

EXTRA TOUCHES: From thehardwood floors to the multipleflat screen TVs, the salon has justthe right amount of extras withoutseeming ridiculous. Extra ingredi-ents used in the water bowl forsoftening nails include limes, min-erals and something that lookslike olives which are meant to addnutrients to the soaking nails. Sec-ond, toward the end of the pedi-cure, warm stones are heated andrubbed along the calves and bot-tom of the feet, creating an inter-esting yet relaxing sensation.During the manicure, there wereseveral pauses for hand massagesin between filing. Finally, duringdrying, customers are treated tofree magazines (yes, all are up todate) and candy, including thoseamazing strawberry candies thathave the fruit-filled center (thesame ones you get at Chineserestaurants; so good!).

Besides manicures and pedi-cures, Luxi services include body-work massages, facials, four typesof spa treatments and — for thoseof you with feet issues — theyeven offer callas eliminator op-tions. Considering all of these cat-egories, our girl said she woulddefinitely recommend Luxi as asalon. Located on Raritan Avenuein Highland Park, it’s in a great lo-cation for grabbing a bite to eatwith friends afterward.

BROTHERS

FATHER-DAUGHTER

MARLON, KEENAN IVORY AND SHAWN WAYANS

DAVID LYNCH

SOFIA AND FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

JENNIFER LYNCH

With the limited release of Joel and Ethan Coen’s A Serious Man in early October, audiences areonce again reminded of famous and successful families in Hollywood. Francis Ford Coppola’s latestwork, Tetro, came out earlier this summer, and his daughter Sofia’s Somewhere is slated to debut in2010. The Scott brothers both have at least two films in the works for next year, including Robin Hood,an untitled Alien prequel (Ridley), and The Warriors and Unstoppable (Tony). Both Afflecks havemoved from acting to directing in films. Jennifer Lynch, daughter of famously innovative directorDavid Lynch, is releasing her film, Hisss, next year. Families are pervasive in Hollywood, and a con-tinual point of interest for either their repeated collaborations together or lack thereof. Here’s a run-down of a few successful filmmaking families:

BROTHERSNo sibling rivalry here! The brothers who stick together succeed together. Marlon, Shawn and

Keenan Ivory Wayans are a great example, co-writing and directing 2000’s Scary Movie, which earned$42 million in its opening weekend. This movie spurred multiple sequels. Though they have done sep-arate projects, like Marlon’s roles in Requiem for a Dream and G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, or fourthbrother Damon’s role in Major Payne, the brothers make a formidable comedy writing team. WhiteChicks and Little Man are other samplings from the three Wayans, and they’re planning on followingup the White Chicks 2 in 2011.

The Coen brothers are another prime example of filmmaking brothers who are practically insepa-rable. Their works include Arizona Rising, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou?, NoCountry for Old Men, Burn After Reading, and the latest, A Serious Man; they have been working to-gether as long as they’ve been making films. They have received four Academy Awards and roped inanother 68 awards and 68 nominations.

A newer addition to the sibling filmmaker club is the Affleck brothers. Ben made his feature filmdebut in 2007 with Gone Baby Gone, a detective story based in Boston, which Casey starred in. He’s

following up with 2010’s The Town, about a bank heist. Though Casey hasn’t released a filmyet, he is credited on IMDB as directing the Untitled Joaquin Phoenix Documentary (which will

hopefully answer some of the questions that arose with Phoenix’s erratic behavior while pro-moting Two Lovers on Letterman last year).

Of course, there are the brothers who don’t direct together, like the Scotts. Thoughthey work together through Scott Free Productions, they have extremely dif ferentstyles. Tony has made various wildly fun action films like Top Gun, True Romance, Man

on Fire, Domino and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. Ridley seems to be drawn to moreepic stories like those of Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, and American Gangster.

Both have had flops and successes, and both seem eternally poised to move on to thenext huge hit.

DAUGHTERSIt’s not just the sons who carry on the family business. One of the most well-known cases

of successful daughters of famous directors is Sophia Coppola. After appearing in several of fa-ther Francis Ford’s movies (Godfather III, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish) and a blink-and-you’ll-

miss-it part in Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace, Coppola turned her attentionto directing. She made a couple of shorts in the mid-’90s before earning respect for

1999’s The Virgin Suicides, and then won the Best Writing Oscar for 2003’s Lost inTranslation. In 2006, she directed Marie Antoinette, another critically lauded film.

Somewhere, her newest film about a “hard-living Hollywood actor” who “re-examines his life after his 11-year-old daughter surprises him with a visit”will be out next year.Jennifer Lynch is another Hollywood daughter. The girl whose birth is

believed to be part of the inspiration for David Lynch’s Eraserhead has be-come a filmmaker in her own right. After making Boxing Helena in 1993, she

took a long break from directing, but returned last year with the eerie Rashomon-esque crime thriller, Surveillance. Hisss, the story of a venomous snake woman,

is coming out later this year.

SONSBen Stiller, son of actor Jerry Stiller (Seinfeld, King of Queens), has recently got-

ten in on the directing game as well. Debuting in 1994 with Reality Bites and then1996’s The Cable Guy, Ben’s best known films are probably Zoolander (2001)

and last year’s Tropic Thunder. The Trail of Chicago 7, about the 1968 Viet-nam protests, is in pre-production, and he’s announced he will be directing

Help Me Spread Goodness, a 2011 film about a “Chicago banker who getsswindled in a Nigerian Internet scam.”

Though plenty of Hollywood fathers go the Will Smith route and fea-ture their children looking cute in their films, not many do what

Melvin Van Peebles did in 1971’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,where he featured his son Mario Van Peebles as young lothario Sweetback.

Melvin made Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-Itchy Footed Mutha in 2008, “a semi-auto-biographical story about an adventurer whose journeys take himfrom Harlem to the high seas and back again.” Mario, meanwhile,has been directing and acting throughout the ’90s, including direct-ing an episode of Sons of Anarchy and Bring Your ‘A’ Game.

FAMILY

ALL IN THE(HOLLYWOOD)

FATHER-SON

BY EMILY SCHACHTMAN • FILM EDITOR

JERRY AND BEN STILLER

WILL AND JADEN SMITH

JOEL AND ETHAN COEN

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES

November 5, 2009FilmPage 6 • Inside Beat

BY THEO JONESSTAFF WRITER

Ten years ago, The Blair WitchProject set a precedent that hasnever been equaled. The low-bud-get hand-held camera horror filmcreated true suspense with seem-ingly “real” people and the super-natural beings that lure audiencesinto theaters every Halloween.Paranormal Activity not onlyreaches Blair Witch’s heights, itsurpasses them.

A young couple suspects apresence haunting them whilethey sleep, leading curiousboyfriend Micah to buy a cameraand document their nights. Mostof the film’s scare tactics are builtthrough sound and subtle move-ments while he and girlfriendKatie lay unaware in bed. Whatstarts as a simple door movementunleashes a relentless assault onthe senses, building up more andmore to the finale.

The fact that the movie ismade with a simple HD camerashows how simple suspense, with-out gore or violence, can equal oroutshine a “valid” horror movie.The current trend of the Saw andHostel films, having the most dis-

Paranormal

Oren Peli | ABY SUKANYA DUTTASTAFF WRITER

Precious is guaranteed to be acommercial success not only dueto Oprah’s endorsement, but alsofor its compelling story. PreciousJones (Gabourey Sidibe) is amorbidly obese, nearly illiterate16-year-old girl from Harlem whois still in the seventh grade. Incase all of that wasn’t enough,she has been impregnated twiceby her father. Her mother(Mo’Nique) eats, watches TV,sleeps all day and has no mater-nal instincts whatsoever—shebeats Precious daily and beratesher mercilessly. To escape herhorrible reality, Precious day-dreams of being a glamorouscelebrity, highlighting society’simpact upon her self-esteem.Never does Precious fantasizeabout being a scholar — happi-ness is only superficial fame.

School is less of a nightmare,but it is nonetheless a grueling or-deal. The principal, alarmed byPrecious’ second pregnancy andinability to read, relocates her to aspecialized school. You are right toexpect a dedicated teacher at thisschool who changes her students’lives. Yet Ms. Rain (played by gor-

Lee DanielsB+

BY AMANDA LITCHKOWSKISTAFF WRITER

The sixth installment of theSaw series delivers nothing be-yond what is expected.

Saw, proving to be the horrorfilm franchise of Generation Y, isthe modern-day version of Hal-loween. Characterized by a seem-ingly infinite number of sequels,Saw is not even stopped by theon-screen death of its psychotickiller. The Jigsaw murderer, whodied from cancer in Saw III, con-tinues his torturous antics intoSaw VI.

John Kramer’s (Tobin Bell)legacy lives on as his next-in-lineapprentice terrorizes his vic-tims, all of whom do not suf fi-ciently appreciate their healthylives. Mark Hoffman (CostasMandylor, Beowulf), a detectiveassigned to the case in Saw III,has been designated to carry outKramer’s desires.

A plethora of flashbacksthroughout the film reveals the re-lationship between the murderer’svictims. Twists in the interweav-ing of characters happen to be thesole aspect of this movie thatsomewhat resembles a plot line.Otherwise, watching the film con-jures up memories for horrorgurus of Michael Myers rising

Kevin Greutert | D

HeathersBY TARA L. YOUNGSTAFF WRITER

When thinking of “classic” films, MichaelLehmann’s Heathers (1988) is not necessar-ily the first to spring to mind. The word“classic” can be defined in several ways:serving as a standard, model, or guide; of en-during interest; definitive. All of these applyto Heathers.

Not only does the story still ring trueafter twenty years, it still serves as a modelfor teenage social hierarchy, especiallywithin female cliques. Mean Girls owes a lotto Heathers. While in Mean Girls the protag-onist only fantasizes about physical harmdone to her bully, Heathers takes it a step fur-ther by showing what happens when fantasybecomes reality.

The movie opens with the Heathers, themost popular group of girls in school, playingcroquet in a backyard. Their nickname is ob-vious: their group consists of Heather Duke,Heather McNamara and queen bee HeatherChandler. The fourth in their group, VeronicaSawyer (Winona Ryder), is still being initiated.Veronica is pretty, popular, extremely intelli-gent and possesses only one flaw — a con-science, which Heather C. is attempting toassassinate on a daily basis. She achieves thisby forbidding Veronica to speak to her former(read: unpopular) friends and by coercingVeronica to do things such as forging a lovenote from jock Kurt Kelly in order to humili-

PreciousActivity

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from the dead and continuing onhis mission to kill, kill and killsome more.

Advertised as the horror movieof the season (since it is continu-ally released as close to Oct. 31 aspossible), Saw VI lacks any frightfactor. The bone-chilling, terrify-ing original Saw of 2004 has trans-formed into a stomach-turningcheap thrill in 2009.

Thanks to the overused tech-niques of isolated characters, si-lenced music and the suspense ofturning a corner and not knowingwhat you’re going to find, viewerscan nonchalantly predict the fewscary scenes of Saw VI.

But slightly less predictable areJigsaw’s new devices of torture.Audiences are shocked and sick-ened by traps that demand fleshharvesting, yet are disappointed tofind even here a few repeatedideas. If anything, moviegoersflock to Saw for the same reasonFinal Destination recently re-leased a fourth installment: to wit-ness the creative ways in whichpeople die.

In this way, Saw VI is amediocre attempt to satisfy itsfragmented group of loyal viewers.Its typical fright tactics and over-worked storyline leaves audiencesmore sick to their stomachs thanscared out of their wits.

gusting and gory thoughts imagi-nable put onto film, finally feelsdated. Instead, first-time directorand writer Oren Peli has tappedinto an important resource in hor-ror films: sound.

If you’re sitting in a theatersurrounded by a captive audi-ence, there’s a dull hum andbeating sound that occurs when-ever the couple is sleeping atnight. It builds anticipation inyour mind — you can never re-ally tell when the scare is goingto occur. This beat slowly fills thetheater and gets louder andlouder, as if this demon hauntingthe couple is getting closer. Withthe right audience, simple thingslike a cover moving off Katie or adoor closing make peoplescream and clutch their seats,and you’re equally gripped.

Paranormal Activity is a the-atrical experience that will neverbe replicated, though many horrorfilms will try. It’s the only movieI’ve ever seen that is worth everypenny spent at the theater. Don’tdownload it. Don’t wait for theDVD. If you don’t see ParanormalActivity in theaters, you’re missingout on the best horror experienceof the decade.

geous Paula Patton) is not a cliché.She is standoffish, and her coldcalmness contradicts the genuinehope she has for these girls. Pre-cious admires her for being unlikeher mother. Her social worker,Ms. Weiss, is another confidanteand role model for Precious. LikeMs. Rain, Ms. Weiss (an unrecog-nizable Mariah Carey) does not in-dulge in self-pitying and isintolerant of Precious’ evasivelying about her home situation.Weiss does soften when Preciousreveals the horrors of her up-bringing, but Carey carefullyavoids any melodramatics.

The most memorable elementof Precious is Mo’Nique. Sheworked with Daniels once beforein Shadowboxer, and is probablybest known for The Mo’NiqueShow. She has also starred in thefirst all-black cast of The VaginaMonologues. As a seething, bittermother, Mo’Nique demands theaudience’s fearful attention. Yet itis hard to completely hate her —the saddest scene in Precious iswhen she tearfully explains toWeiss why she is so terrible toPrecious. Mo’Nique will definitelysweep every Best Supporting Ac-tress award for her nuanced ren-dition of the worst mother ever.

There are feminist overtonesin Precious. The heroes are work-ing, independent women whomPrecious strives to emulate. Pre-cious is mostly a sweet and quietgirl, but twice punches other stu-dents who have provoked her.What is frustrating is that if Pre-cious had shown this same fierce-ness at home, her life might beexponentially better.

Maybe I had really low ex-pectations or maybe it reallywas good, but I enjoyed Pre-cious. Its director, Lee Daniels,deftly orchestrated somethingdif ferent from the usual Life-time fare. Given Daniel’s ré-sumé, this isn’t surprising; heproduced the Academy Award-winning film Monster’s Ball,along with films Shadowboxerand The Woodsman, which werealso critically acclaimed.

That Precious would be opti-mistic at the film’s end, with twosmall children and no securehome, is improbable. In defense ofthe movie’s accuracy though, Pre-cious does not start reading Dos-toevsky, though she does takesome small steps. Precious is ahaunting harbinger of what hap-pens when someone is unloved fortoo long.

ate the school’s overweight loner, Martha“Dumptruck” Dunnstock.

Already discontent with her new social re-sponsibilities, the tension builds when Veron-ica meets the school’s new student, bad boyJ.D. (Christian Slater), whom Heather C.deems as socially unacceptable. On his firstday, J.D. witnesses Veronica’s reluctance to as-sist humiliating Martha, and he immediatelyquestions her and makes her feel guilty. J.D.then becomes the victim of lunchtime bullyingfrom jocks Kurt and Ram. They only intend tointimidate J.D., but when his smart mouth rilesthem, he responds by pulling a gun on the pair.Although the tension breaks when viewers re-alize it is only loaded with blanks, the attitudeof clique warfare sets the tone for the rest ofthe movie. This hostility leads Veronica to part-ner up with J.D. and fight back against her ownsocial oppressors.

Dark comedy does not justly describeDaniel Water’s acerbically witty script. Uponmultiple viewings, the biting dialogue andthemes still hold up, and it remains extremelyquotable. Some stand-outs are: “What is yourdamage, Heather?” “Lick it up, baby. Lick. It.Up.” and “I love my dead gay son!”

In the interest of not ruining the plot forthose who have not seen Heathers, this vastlyentertaining film will never tire out. It helpedcreate a sub-genre of the teen flick by using in-telligence and sarcasm, showing that teenangst can be entertaining for all. Here’s to aninnovative classic.

November 5, 2009 Film • TV • Music Inside Beat • Page 7

This Is ItKenny Ortega | B+

BY JASON

STIVESMUSIC EDITOR

With six previous albumsunder their belts, alt-rock partyfavorites Weezer have nevertried to replicate the success oftheir 1995 debut, the aptly titledBlue Album. Instead they opt forsubstituting social pop culturecommentary with each new re-lease that is never given enoughshelf time before the grouphastily begins to write about thenext trends and fads for a newrelease. With that in mind, theband hasn’t given their highlyexperimental June 2008 release,The Red Album, time to sizzle onthe charts. Instead, they havereleased Raditude, an album ofmainstream culture spliced upinto 10 neatly packaged songs

WeezerRaditude | C+

BY ARIBA ALVISTAFF WRITER

Forget Prison Break — Neal Caf-frey, of the new USA Network showWhite Collar, proves that breakingout of prison is easier than MichaelScofield made it seem.

With the lineage of To Catch aThief and brilliant actors with aneasy repertoire, this show isbound to do well. It’s witty, fresh,and Matt Bomer (Caffrey) is morethan easy on the eyes.

There are plenty of shows aboutthe feds, but none of them have re-ally shown the good and the badworking together — save for Dex-ter (in its own twisted manner).

The premise of the show is thatcon artist Caffrey and FBI agentPeter Burke team up after playingcat and mouse for years. Fouryears into his sentence in a maxi-mum-security prison, Caffrey es-capes three months before hisrelease to reunite with the love ofhis life before she leaves him.

Caught by the one man whocan nab him, Caffrey strikes adeal with Burke, offering to help

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BY CIARA COPELLSTAFF WRITER

This Is It is an excellent tributeto the late “King of Pop,” MichaelJackson. Directed by Kenny Or-tega (High School Musical), thedocumentary shows Jackson inhis final few months rehearsingfor his sold-out concerts in Lon-don. The footage contains inter-views with dancers, musiciansand other crew members.

Jackson was set to performfan favorites such as “Thriller,”“Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and “Manin the Mirror,” among otherhits. This Is It does an excellentjob of showing what a spectacu-lar concert this would havebeen. His performance wasgoing to take the best elements

for the iGeneration to inhaleand forget immediately.

Lyrically, frontman RiversCuomo is trying to address hissmarmy views on the currenttrend in music that the bandshrugs off for their catchy, sim-ple and — at times — repetitivesong writing style. His deadpandesire to drink with the “playas”(“Can’t Stop Partying”) andlonging for the girl no one tookto the prom (“The Girl GotHot”) once again show Cuomo’s“keeping it simple” writingskills. But in the end, Weezer isdoing what Weezer does best asa collective unit — producingcatchy numbers with straight-forward, relatable lyrics. Thealbum’s lead single “(If You’reWondering If I Want You To) IWant You To” is the classic poprock single Cuomo and com-pany are known for, harkeningback to the days of “BuddyHolly” and “Hash Pipe.”

Other album tracks like “PutMe Back Together” feel right athome on a Weezer album, butare more akin to acts like theAll-American Rejects — ironicin the fact that the track was co-written by AAR frontman TysonRitter. A marginal and flat-outcleverly written stand out isdrummer Patrick Wilson’spenned pop culture Nir vanatrack “In the Mall,” showing theversatile nature of the band’s other important and longstanding members.

With this highly catchy yetef for tless record, no real pro-gression is made in campWeezer, except for the band’sstatus as a pop culture filter anda musical landmark in late 20thcentury/early 21st centurymusic. In the end, Raditude fallsinto the usual Weezer critique:No new album is bad, but nonew album will be like the BlueAlbum or Pinkerton.

of all his most popular songsand music videos. The film in-cludes graphics, such as newvideos for “Smooth Criminal”and “Thriller,” which add to theef fect that the concert wouldcertainly have had.

All of Jackson’s signaturedance moves are included here.The man was still an untouchabledancer, even weeks before hisdeath. The film also incorporatesdifferent aspects of the planningprocess, including auditions thatJackson attended. It is interestingto see all the behind-the-sceneswork that goes into creating aconcert. This Is It shows thehands-on role Jackson played inthis work by taking the lead inevery aspect, directing thesingers, dancers and musicians.

The movie’s editing is also ex-cellent, bringing the concert tolife with only rehearsal footage.Along with new effects, editorsmanaged to insert backgroundsand performance elements thatwere otherwise missing.

The interviews show the ex-citement of everyone involved inthe tour. Each person interviewedtells of their love for Jackson andexpresses their high expectationsfor the show.

This Is It gives an inside lookto the mystery behind MichaelJackson. It shows the legend inhis final days, working hard toput on a perfect show. Thoughthe world will never be able tosee the final product, one thing isfor sure — we missed out on anamazing exhibition.

him capture another elusive conman in return for eventualamnesty. Outfitted with an anklebracelet, he uses his wit andcharm to get a room at a posh res-idence, and utilizes his contacts tohelp catch the thief.

Caffrey is one of the smartest,wittiest and hottest con artistsyou’ll ever see. He not only knowsthe difference between a Goya anda forgery painting, but he alsoknows the difference betweenDior and Marc Jacobs.

Burke is the typical job-ob-sessed genius FBI agent, aloof tothe simple things like figuring outwhat his wife wants for their an-niversary. But he does show thatsome FBI agents are first-class,while a few of their Harvard-gradcounterparts can be outsmartedby everyday con artists.

The easygoing chemistry be-tween White Collar’s stars, Bomerand Tim DeKay, adds to the over-all dynamics of the show.

With only the pilot undertheir belt to date, White Collarhas a lot of promise and looks tobe a classic.

November 5, 2009MusicPage 8 • Inside Beat

BY MARC

MANCESTAFF WRITER

Even after pumping out twodiscs worth of music for their 2007release, In Defense of the Genre,Say Anything’s brainchild MaxBemis still has some fresh and in-genious ideas for the band’s newself-titled release. This album isBemis’ most innovative, experi-mental and lyrically scatterbrainedwork to date. Not only that, but heknows what the fans want to hear,and Say Anything lives up to theirfans’ high expectations.

Whereas In Defense was meantto be listened to as a whole con-cept rather than each track indi-vidually, this album is the opposite.It churns out 13 refreshinglyunique tracks, each standing outfrom the others. Bemis experi-ments with some different musicalelements, like a piano outro,strings, horns and ’50s style intros.

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BY PETER

SPERLAZZOSTAFF WRITER

Metalcore is a style of musicthat has often been plagued withgeneric-sounding bands and alack of creativity. In a genre thathas long suffered from too muchconformity, Between the Buriedand Me is a breath of fresh air.Their latest album, The Great Mis-direct, is a perfect example of theband’s ever-changing style andconstant innovation.

The Great Misdirect is an abnor-mal album, even for fans of Between

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the Buried and Me’s previous work.The album is highly progressive —some songs last more than 10 min-utes and feature some of the band’smost intricate songwriting yet. Thesongs are all very different fromeach other and are constantly goingin new directions that will keep thelistener guessing. The track “FossilGenera - A Feed from Cloud Moun-tain” starts off with a jazzy piano lineand clean vocals that sound as ifthey would be more fitting in a BenFolds song rather than one writtenby a progressive metalcore band.However, another track, “Obfusca-tion,” begins with an exciting andfast-paced riff that seems more rem-iniscent of the band’s older material.The variety of different styles that

can be found in The Great Misdirectis astounding, and attempting to in-tegrate all them together in one album is an incredibly ambitious move.

Thankfully, this move works.The Great Misdirect is an albumthat moves seamlessly from fran-tic metal to slow-paced ballads.New listeners to Between theBuried and Me might find thealbum slightly intimidating andless accessible than their oldermaterial, but The Great Misdirectis definitely worth the effort. Itshardcore, ambitious and refinedsound makes this one of Betweenthe Buried and Me’s best albumsto date and one of the best albumsin the entire genre.

The experimenting pays off sur-prisingly well and meshes wellwith Bemis’ singing.

The real highlight of the band’swork on the album is the lyrics.The whole album has a love focus,but in Bemis’ own sick way. In“Crush’d” he sings, “You’re nowitch, you’re no wench / you’re likeBjork with better fashion sense.”The hook to this song is as simpleas “I have a total crush on youbaby,” but he somehow made it socatchy and genuine. “Less Cute”screams jealousy in lines like “He’slike a less cute version of you / buthe’ll have to do,” and would giveany song from their highly ac-claimed ...Is A Real Boy a run forits money. In “Cemetery” Bemisasks, “Can I lie with you in yourgrave?” leaving a haunting impres-sion on the listener.

Every song on this album has aspecial flair to it, both musicallyand lyrically. Bemis’ creative out-put this time around is his bestever, and it will please the oldestfan as well as anyone first discov-ering his insanity.