Over the Edge - November 16

arts & entertainment i7

RAINN WILSON’S DEVILISHLY GOOD LOOKS AREN'T ENOUGH

Super a Disappointing Comedy

DARCIE SMITH ARTS EDITOR

uper is an outlandish American

comedy starring Rainn Wilson,

Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, and the always-memorable Kevin Bacon. The plot line focuses on Frank (Wilson), whose wife Sarah, played by Tyler, left him for her drug dealer. The an- swer to your question is yes, Kevin Bacon plays the villain. Wilson meets Page’s character, Libby, where she works at a comic book store. Togeth- er, the two of them pair up to fight crime, though they end up doing FAR more harm than good.

Frank becomes The Crimson Bolt, and Libby becomes Boltie, his trusty, over-zealous sidekick. Frank is reluc- tant to have such a young and bizarre individual follow him on his quest to win his wife back, but she eventu- ally convinces/forces him to let her.

Libby also forces herself onto Frank sexually. There is an incredibly awk- ward scene where the awkward Frank stays over in Libby’s apartment, and she literally jumps him and forces her onto him. The scene is painfully awk- ward and almost unnecessary.

There is a ton of slapstick violence that includes showing people literally blow up. This is where some viewers might drop their jaw and shake their head at how absurd it is. Frank seems like such an unlikely character to be inflicting violence in the name of justice. He poorly executes costume changes in the back seat of his car, and runs around like a dope shout- ing out “Shut up, Crime!” The movie is riddled with the silly graphic vio- lence, and then it just sort of reaches

the conclusion in a very underwhelm-

ing manner. The film unsuccessfully tries to parody other super-hero films.

Ellen Page delivers a bizarre per- formance that at times seems way too forced. She acts borderline psychotic and has extreme bursts of violence to- wards the “criminals” they attempt to stop. She shrieks and jumps around It is defin- itely entertaining on some level, how-

and laughs hysterically.

ever if you are not a huge Ellen Page fan you might not be convinced.

The film is a dark comedy that is horrendously campy. It lives up to the genre, but if you tend to struggle to sit through and appreciate campy films, this one might be a tough sell. Rainn Wilson is sexy, but maybe not sexy enough unless he’s playing Dwight Schrute.

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BOOK REVIEW: WINTER'S BONE

Not an Easy Read

DARCIE SMITH ARTS EDITOR

D aniel Woodrell must have had a lot of free time on his hands when he

wrote Winter’s Bone. The coming of age novel set in the Ozarks dur- ing a harsh winter is written very carefully and beautifully. The prose is a literary masterpiece, however, this is definitely not a quick read.

Ree Dolly sets out on a mission to locate her missing father when he skips bail. He was accused of running a meth lab, and if he is not found the family house will be repossessed. Ree is an independent, tough, gritty young woman with enormous amounts of pride and integrity. Her mother is mentally ill, and she has two younger brothers that she must step up to raise and care for. This is a slow-paced novel that takes time to sit and absorb. It is a short novel, as is often characteristic of Woodrell, but even the two page chapters require a length of time to get through.

The winter is excruciatingly cold, and it is only the beginning, therefore Ree is racing against the season to find her father on her journey. She encounters many relatives and long-time friends of the Dolly family to try and track him down. Almost all of her encounters are negative and lead her to dead ends. She’s a relentless and determined young protagonist who draws comparisons to the young female lead from the novel (and subsequent films) True Grit. The Seattle Times says that, “Winter’s Bone is compact, atmospheric and deeply felt, drenched in the sights, sounds and smells of the author’s native Ozarks. Woodrell’s novel taps a ferocious, ancient manner of storytelling, shrewdly combining a poet’s vocabulary with the vivid, old-fashioned vernacular of the backwoods.”

This quest is especially difficult, not only because of the stakes if she does not recover him, but also because he needs to be found dead or alive — and the former begins to seem all the more likely of occurring as she proceeds on.

This novel is potentially difficult to get through in the winter months of the north. Reading it can at times feel like one is trudging through deep snow, sur- rounded by silence and furious winds.