The Rice Thresher, Vol. 93, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, September 2, 2005 Page: 12 of 20
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12
THE RICE THRESHER ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2,2005
C I III K M nnini
'Junebug' portrays culture clash with slow-burning precision
Jonathan Schumann
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
The suburban North Carolina
bedrooms and hallways in direc-
tor Phil Morrison's debut feature,
Junebug, are filled with silence. His
characters, misfits of both rural and
urban extraction, spend as much
time meaningfully conversing as they
do wandering silent and alone. The
result is a surprisingly ruminative
and endearing, albeit slow-paced
and ultimately lethargic, dramedy
about family and the contemporary
American sociopolitical divide.
'junebug'
in theaters
Rating: ★★★ 1/2
(out of five)
Madeleine (Bridget Jones's
Diary's Embeth Davidtz) is a
Chicago art gallery owner. She
features "outsider" art — works
from individuals not schooled in
traditional, formal artistic methods.
She meets George (iMurel Canyons
Alessandro Nivola) at an auction
and immediately falls in love with
him. The couple visits George's
small North Carolina town to check
out a new artist and borderline
schizophrenic who paints graphi-
cally violent and highly eroticized
Civil War panoramas. Here, in this
bubble of red-state values and unre-
fined social conventions, Madeleine
meets George's extensive family.
Peg (Flirting with Disasters
Celia Weston), the matriarch, ex-
cels at sewing and domestic arts
and crafts. Her husband Eugene
(Pearl Harbors Scott Wilson),
passes his time whittling away at
various carpentry projects. Their
son Johnny (77te O.C.'s Ben McK-
enzie), detached and brooding,
works at a factory during the day
and sulks around the house at night.
That leaves his garrulous and very
pregnant wife Ashley (Catch Me
If You Can's Amy Adams) lonely,
hungry for attention.
Morrison and screenwriter
Angus MacLachlan set up an
intriguing culture clash between
big-city and small-town values,
paying specific attention to the
importance placed on family life
versus business life. They explore
the divide between urban and rural
sensibilities with a great deal of
humor, but never condescension.
This touch separates them from
other young filmmakers — most
notably Alexander Payne and Jim
Taylor oiAbout Schmidt and Citizen
Ruth fame — who have written
satirical, funny films that skewer
the Midwest. As hilarious and
ultimately superior as those films
are, Morrison and MacLachlan's
affection for these small-town
characters warrants praise.
In fact, if anyone emerges short-
sighted, it is Madeleine, the zealous
career woman. She is driven and
very much in love, and while she
tries to welcome George's family
into her life, her expressions of
delight and accommodation eventu-
ally become contorted and strained.
Davidtz played a two-dimensional
version of this character in Bridget
Jones, where her chirpy voice
drove shards of ice into Bridget's
heart as Mr. Darcy's legal partner.
She was captivating in that film,
but here she has more room to
humanize. She does great work
finding Madeleine's contradictions
and flaws.
: t:
W
COURTESY SONY PICTURE CLASSICS
The O.C.'s Ben McKenzie stars as Johnny, a North Carolina factory worker, in Junebug, director Phil Morrison's new
film about clashing cultures.
While the rest of the cast
also fares well, especially
McKenzie — who all but sheds his
teen idol status — Adams steals the
film. While audiences may remem-
ber Adams as Leonardo DiCaprio's
most serious paramour in Catch
Me If You Can, this film will be
regarded as her breakthrough. She
creates Ashley as an eager young
woman hungry to learn all about
Madeleine's sophisticated Chicago
At,en,i„n>His.oi'V Th",r' 8Uf,8!
Music sat! Lyrics by STEPHEN S0NDHE1M
Beak by JOHN WEHKAN
ASSASSINS is bissd an >a idea by Charles fiiiberi, Jr
Playwrights Horizons, Inc. New York City
Probated ASSASSLVS Of! Brcidxir in 1590
Winner of
5 Tony AwardsK
Evening Performances—September 8-10, 2005
Matinee—Saturday, September 10, 2005
Zilkha Hall
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
Tickets—$28, $38 & $48
Hobby Center Box Office
713-315-2525 or www.thehobbycenter.org
Group Discounts Available
tBaijou
City
Concert .
Benefiting
The Center for AIDS
Information & Advocacy
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life. While she displays an extraordi-
nary comic ability—often delivering
lengthy speeches that range in topic
from her impending delivery to the
Muir cat — she also excels in the
film's dramatic scenes.
Her relentlessly energetic pres-
ence infuses life into the film's
otherwise laconic and ultimately
sluggish final act. In this scene,
the film achieves a level of subtlety
that borders on mundane, and the
MENU
From page 10
signs reading "Please Do NotTouch
Works of Art."
While the initial visual appeal of
McManaway lies in its large-scale
installations, the exhibit also con-
tains a bevy of smaller structures.
McManaway offers the must-have,
not-for-the-faint-of-heart fashion
accessory of next season with 'Ihe
Houston Basket, This hometown take
on the classic alligator-skin purse
is sure to attract gawks from the
fashion-forward.
The Warrior, one of Love's
small-scale masteries, sits near
viewer begins to see several missed
opportunities. What about showing
us Madeleine and Ashley shopping at
the local mini-mall? A trip to Fayless
would surely provide great comedy
and underscore the film's culture-
clash motif.
Morrison and Macl Sicilian give
us such an intriguing premise and
characters that wholly gain our
affection. In the end, all we're left
wanting is more.
The Houston Basket behind the
exhibit's massive glass case. The
Houston Basket and The Bird, The
Warrior demonstrate Love's talent
for bending old iron and steel to
new uses. I,ove uses these metals'
malleability to form a captivating
window into the artist's mind-on-
the-go, a feat rarely accomplished
so elegantly.
McManaway and Friends runs
through Sept. IIS at the Menil Col-
lection, and provides a uniquely
enjoyable modern-art experience
for the masses.
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Obermeyer, Amber. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 93, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, September 2, 2005, newspaper, September 2, 2005; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443002/m1/12/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.