Weekend What's What 3/8-3/11

THURSDAY, MARCH 8TH

Pony Trash + Dial Up + Robust Worlds

@ Turf Club
1601 University Avenue
St. Paul

9pm / 21+ / $6

Self-described "post-shoegaze" band Pony Trash bring their all-star lineup to the Turf Club stage for a night of noisy indie rock. Featuring members of the Chambermaids, Vampire Hands, Poliça, Heavy Deeds, Gospel Gossip and Private Dancer, this is a bona fide super group! The band takes from classic rock influences including Crazy Horse and Fleetwood Mac, mixed in with some My Bloody Valentine-inspired shoegaze and elements of surf rock for a sound that's unique yet very familiar. Filling out the lineup is Dial Up, which takes elements of indie pop, noise rock and experimental electronica, adding catchy melodies that creates an interesting psych pop package. Opening is Alex Rose (of Vampire Hands fame)'s one-man band Robust Worlds, a blend of synths, guitars, and sometimes beats into a psychedelic package that has been aptly described as "futuristic-folk rock." -Danielle Morris

Click HERE for the Facebook invite


THURSDAY, MARCH 8TH

Book It: The Party

@ James J. Hill Reference Library
80 W 4th Street
St. Pail

7–10pm / $15 ($10 Members)

Leave your library voices at home - James J. Hill Reference Library's "Book It: The Party" series is billed as “Loud at the Library,” so no matter what volume you choose to employ, you’re unlikely to receive a dirty look from the librarian or fellow patrons. The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library have leveraged the considerable charms of the gorgeous and historic James J. Hill space to create a brilliant convergence of local music, trivia and free beer! You read that right, the mere ownership of a library card will get you a free Summit at this event. Trivia from Books and Bars’ Jeff Kamin will test your musical knowledge and there will be prizes, so keep that in mind when you assemble your crew for the evening (in other words, bring nerds). The chance to hear local music in the great acoustics of this library is a unique feature of the book it parties, and local quartet We Became Actors are the headliners for this iteration. Their lively crowd-pleasing performance style is exciting to watch, and their bright anthemic indie pop-rock should fill the space nicely. The book it series is the kind of ingenious hybrid of the literary and the musical that works especially well here in the Twin Cities so come out and see what all the fuss is about. -Anthony Enright

Click HERE for the Friends of the St. Paul Library site


THURSDAY, MARCH 8TH

Sound Horizon: Julianna Barwick

@ Perlman Gallery at Walker Art Center
1750 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis

6, 7 & 8 p.m. / FREE

Growing up singing weekly in gospel choirs, it's no surprise that composer/vocalist, Julianna Barwick's soundscapes reflect layered choral elements that exhale a halcyon state and usher in the era of a one-woman choir. Manipulating and looping her vocals via effects pedals, sample machines and other modes of audio technology, Barwick creates a masterpiece of vocal experimentation and ambient harmonies that are both intimate and ephemeral and which Pitchfork dubbed “a digital update on sacred hymns.” Tonight, catch a special performance from Barwick live in the Walker's Perlman Gallery. As part of the Walker's on-going live sound + visual art series, Sound Horizon, Barwick will be performing three times (once at 6, at 7 and again at 8 p.m.) beneath Ernesto Neto's monumental large-scale installation otheranimal, a piece which premiered at 2004's Edinburgh Festival Theatre and features a translucent canvas of “suspended biomorphic forms.” While you're there, don't miss an opportunity to peep the Walker's current vivid 'fashion meets choreography' exhibition Dance Works II: Merce Cunningham/Ernesto Neto for a evening that will excite all of your senses. -Juleana Enright

Click HERE for the Walker Art Center site


THURSDAY, MARCH 8TH

Cum On Feel the Noize: Women of Hard Rock

@ Clubhouse Jäger
923 Washington Avenue N
Minneapolis

10 p.m. / 21+ / free

You know you belt them in the shower, those classic, head-bangin' 80's hair metal power ballads. You may even harbor a few heavy duty crushes on the hot dudes that made gender androgyny a rock “it” factor. That's why tonight is your night to shed the shame and join DJ Danielle Morris as she spins “macho hard rock” faves for your fist pumping and sing-a-long pleasure. This month celebrates the women of hard rock: bad ass chicks, slinging guitars, belting it out, and usually rocking leather. Expect tasty jams from the likes of the Runaways, Joan Jett, Crucial Taunt, Lita Ford, Pat Benatar and many more. Plus, sip down delish libations conjured up by the good lookin' Jäger barstaff and drink specials including $5 Jameson and $2.50 Miller High Life Tallboys. Girls rock yer boyz; boyz rock yer girls; girls rock yer girls; boyz rock yer boyz...You get the picture.

Click HERE for the Facebook event


FRIDAY, MARCH 9TH

"Black & White: The Absence of Color"

To most visual artists, living and creating sans color would be like a death sentence, but the artists involved in Mpls Photo Center's latest exhibit see a black and white palette as a tool that exudes life and calls attention to the simplistic details often missed. Using a range of 35mm, wet plates, iPhone and digitally crafted photography, the artists in "Black and White" pay homage to the classic art of photojournalism and portrait storytelling with modern twists and deconstruction, these pieces gorgeously “oscillate between bright whites, deep blacks and rich shades of gray.” Definitely not to be missed. -Juleana Enright

Click HERE for the Mpls Photo Center site

Photo: Donna Pinckley

FRIDAY, MARCH 9TH

Saint Motel + Empires + Still Pacific + Lady Parts DJs

@ 7th St. Entry
701 First Avenue
Minneapolis

8pm / 18+ / $8

Los Angeles foursome Saint Motel brings their brand of angular power pop to the 7th St Entry. With rousing, cheerful melodies, accompanied by sunny guitars and cheeky, sometimes biting lyrics, the band is easy on the ears (and the eyes). This California band also has local ties, as singer AJ Jackson grew up right here in Minneapolis. Nylon Magazine is a fan, calling their new song "Honest Feedback" "an ode to the truth, kickstarting things with an impressive guitar riff and then quickly sliding into the quartet's retro-inflected, happy-go-lucky sound. The track is an instant party crammed into a three-minute package." We couldn't agree more. Chicago hard rockers Empires and Minneapolis’ own dark pop band Still Pacific open, with Lady Parts DJs between sets to keep the party moving all night. -Danielle Morris

Click HERE for the First Avenue site


FRIDAY, MARCH 9TH

Transmission 11 Year Anniversary

@ First Avenue
701 First Avenue N
Minneapolis

8 ppm / 18+ / $8 door, $6 adv

If you want to get down tonight, then get downtown. DJ Jake Rudh is presenting the 11th anniversary celebrating Transmission, his weekly night of dance including a medley of genres tangled in tempo. To celebrate, he's bringing in Chan Poling of Twin Cities new wave legends the Suburbs for a guest set, as well as throwing in a Suburbs tribute set. Rudh's talent for taste includes songs from the '70s and '80s, loved especially by the ones who have a soft spot for Hall & Oates, the Smiths, and Duran Duran. Rudh holds a weekly spot on the Current and has a wall-to-wall CD collection worth envying, and tonight you'll be able to hear his picks from the worlds of new wave, post-punk, Britpop and more. Rudh has lived up to his Mad Men-era-loving reputation by his commitment to transforming past to present - a present for you. While you're there, pick up your own take-home present: the brand-new, official Transmission t-shirts designed by Caroline Royce for a cool $15. -Meg Junkermeier

Click HERE for the First Avenue site.


FRIDAY, MARCH 9TH

Private Stock

@ Clubhouse Jäger
923 Washington Avenue N
Minneapolis

9 pm / 21+ / FREE

This Friday, the Disco Devils present another segment of Craig Lambert aka DJ Focus during Private Stock at Warehouse District watering hole Clubhouse Jäger. To kick the weekend off right, the longtime vinyl veteran will play club classics from decades of long ago - we’re talkin’ '70s, '80s, and '90s, all in good old-fashioned vinyl form, and mixed to perfection. Come drink, dance and experience what DJ Focus calls “an eclectic blend of classic club, lounge and bedroom grooves.” -Stefani Arden

Click HERE for the Facebook invite


FRIDAY, MARCH 9TH

WAK LYF presents: Cybersex Party

@ Kitty Kat Club
315 14th Avenue SE
Minneapolis

10pm / 21+ / $1

Local DJ collective WAK LYF bring sexy back (did it ever really leave?) to the Kitty Kat Club with an evening of virtual grinding, web-based booty shaking and pixilated hip thrusts. Their Cybersex Party will have your avatar working up a sweat as the WAK LYF DJs spin face melting dance tunes. Special guest local producer and DJ Triple Six Sound Club brings his unique blend of future house, acid, techno, gangsta rap, and UK bass for a set that’s sure to ooze sex appeal. Don’t worry about the morning after; it’s Cybersex so it’s 100% safe! -Anthony Enright

Click HERE for the Facebook invite


FRIDAY, MARCH 9TH (THROUGH SUNDAY, MARCH 11TH)

“Wild Strawberries”

@ Trylon Microcinema
3258 Minnehaha Avenue
Minneapolis

7pm & 9pm Friday & Saturday, 5pm & 7pm Sunday / $8

Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 breakthrough is about the illusion of time, linking youth to old age (and back again to deepest youth), with a budding filmmaker’s vision being tied to one of his primary influences, Victor Sjöström, who is cast as Bergman’s widowed and elderly scientific dignitary, Isak Borg. On a trip to receive an academic honor, Borg’s collisions with other people carry reverberations of his past, which are bittersweet and tragic in how the old man confronts not only failure and regret, but the mortality he must accept. His yearning is collective: “Remember me.” Bergman creates a cosmos of the interior self, bridging his own youthfulness to an old man of his own creation, perhaps the elder he imagined he would become. The reality of death is not in a cloak as with The Seventh Seal, but in the nature of memory and dreaming, the hidden capacious world where an individual is safe from all others but his own self. The final product, tempered by Sjöström’s moving performance, is unsettling just as it is radiant. Wild Strawberries epitomizes Bergman’s talent in making movie-going an active encounter with one’s own sense of an eternity confined within individual experience. -Niles Schwartz

Click HERE for the Take-Up Productions site


SATURDAY, MARCH 10TH

"Insolvent"

@ Big Table Studio
375 Wabasha Street N
St. Paul

Let the allure of printmaking draw you in for the opening night of "Insolvent," a collaboration of the work of 12 artists exploring today's economic hardships. The work cleverly approaches the meaning of hard times and pinching pennies through the perspectives of national and international artists. Prints of faux run-down business signs and silly coupons offering air are only a couple prints among the witty bunch. Look for erratic prints by Jonathan McFadden and dark, mysterious prints by Faye Passow. Solvency, an issue among printmakers trying to avoid potentially lethal products, is also described among the work, bringing attention to their effects on those passionate for their results. Motörik Arts promoter Erik Farseth teamed up with Big Table Studio to create this three-week exhibition, beginning at today's opening from 7 to 10 p.m. with music from Jim and the French Vanilla. -Meg Junkermeier

Click HERE for the Facebook event.


SATURDAY, MARCH 10TH

Rosalux Gallery: 10th Anniversary Exhibition

@ Rosalux Gallery
1400 Van Buren Street NE, #195
Minneapolis

7–11 pm / Free

Typically anniversaries are a time to celebrate and reflect on the past, but not for always forward thinking and progressive Rosalux Gallery. Never content to rest on their laurels, Rosalux instead is spending their ten-year anniversary looking toward the future with an exhibition highlighting compelling work from the current line-up of Rosalux artists. Originally founded in 2002 as a collective focused on giving local artists greater visibility without onerous commercial limitations, ten years later the gallery is still going strong. This month’s wide ranging group show highlights artwork by 20 collective artist members including founding members Terrence Payne and Shawn McNulty, as well as Amelia Biewald, Valerie Jenkins, Elaine Rutherford, Laura Stack, and Bart Vargas. With a wide range of media and stylistic diversity, the painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media and photography on exhibit show the vibrancy of the collective’s work and the broad range of artistic practices the gallery supports. A Happy Anniversary Rosalux; here’s to another decade of great local art! -Anthony Enright

Click HERE for the Rosalux Gallery site.

Art by Terrence Payne

SATURDAY, MARCH 10TH

Nyteowl Album Release Show

@ Hexagon Bar
2600 27th Avenue S
Minneapolis

9pm / 21+ / FREE

Head to the Hexagon Bar this Saturday and catch the release of Minneapolis electro artists Nyteowl's latest, Love of Mine on 7" and 12" vinyl. This new release from UK's Juno Records features an electronic, '80s, star-studded string of new tunes that’ll surely blow your mind. Don’t miss opening performances by Littlefoot, Bollywood, Food Pyramid and a DJ set from Comanche, plus remixes from Mighty Mouse, Boy 8-Bit, Brassica and Hyboid. Minor disclaimer to all you skeptics out there: it’s kind of hard not to dance to the addictive, eclectic, feel good, electro pop that this group is throwin’ down. -Stefani Arden

Click HERE for the Facebook invite


SATURDAY, MARCH 10TH

International Womyn's Fest 2012

@ secret location

7pm / All ages / $5

Described as a "sort of belated celebration in honor of International Woman's Day," the International Womyn's Fest celebrates the Twin Cities' talented artists of the female persuasion. The all-inclusive event welcomes womyn of all backgrounds, natural born and self-identified alike. The musical lineup includes Lisa McGrath, performing music on homemade instruments; "harder than diamonds" all-girl punk band the Burglars; Diva 93, a new "dark diva" project from Jess Buns; and vinyl-slinger DJ Gold Star (AKA Kiera Coonan of the Velveteens and Goddamn Doo Wop Band). Stick around for performance art from the body-contorting Body Troupe and a feminist film by Feemeward Lens. Best of all, 100% of proceeds will go toward the struggle to free African-America trans woman CeCe McDonald, who has been charged with two counts of “second degree murder” after an incident that began when she was violently assaulted because of her gender and race. -Jahna Peloquin

Email bunwaldy@gmail.com for more info.


SATURDAY, MARCH 10TH

Brute Heart 7" Release

@ Kitty Cat Klub
315 14th Avenue SE
Minneapolis

9:30 pm / 21+ / $5

We've always thought Brute Heart's hauntingly repetitive sounds would be the perfect soundtrack to a Jodorowsky film. Why, simply put on Lonely Hunter and you're practically transported into trippy cult western world of dwarfs and mutants like in El Topo - except instead of dwarfs and mutants, you have a lovely trio of gypsy-esque lady art rockers. Join the Minneapolis band known for their psychedelic art-rock, viola-wielding live shows and Middle Eastern-inspired flair tonight as they celebrate the release of their latest musical contribution, the 7" Fever b/w In Limbo on M'lady's Records. Plus, catch live sets from dark orchestral folk rockers Painted Saints and motronic grime rock from locals Les Ourses. -Juleana Enright

Click HERE for the Facebook invite


SUNDAY, MARCH 11TH

North Star Bartender’s Guild presents "The Imbibes of March"

@ XYandZ Gallery
3858 Minnehaha
Minneapolis

8pm–1am / $50

We have been pouring over our copy of the North Star Bartender’s Guild’s bartending guide North Star Cocktails for months, and we must admit our obsession has been more aspirational than practical. All those bitters and tinctures and drams make our heads spin, and we find we need a nice bourbon on the rocks to calm our jangled nerves. No, not all of us were cut out to be mixologists, but the bartenders who make up the NSBG are blessed with the ability to imbue a lowly cocktails with that extra something that renders it art. As none of us civilians are likely to reach that lofty level anytime soon, why not leave all the fussing to the professionals and treat yourself to a great time! NSBG’s "Imbibes of March" party will benefit Minneapolis homeless shelter People Serving People so while $50 tickets may seem a bit steep, bear in mind that admission includes eight different mini craft cocktails, light appetizers and a raffle, with all proceeds going to a very worthy cause. Live music by Sound System Sabotage and DJ Richy Rivera will keep the party going through the evening and XYandZ’s intimate space will give you a front row view of the masters in action. NSBG’s first party was a pile of cocktail soaked awesomeness, so do yourself a favor and don’t miss this one! You can always finish making those home-brewed bitters next weekend… -Anthony Enright

Click HERE for the Facebook invite


Editor in Chief: Jahna Peloquin / Contributors: Juleana Enright, Jahna Peloquin, Stefani Arden, Anthony Enright, Niles Schwartz, Danielle Morris, Meg Junkermeier

Prince of Many Faces and the Self on Many Stages: Gary Oldman

L'étoile once again welcomes new contributor Niles Schwartz of The Niles Files. This week, Niles shares his musings on the many faces of Gary Oldman. You can listen to Niles every Thursday night at 11 p.m. on The Nite Show with Mischke on WCCO 830 AM.


Halfway into Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, director Tomas Alfredson gives a large bloc of moviegoers something that they’ve not only been waiting for the last hour of the film, but several years – perhaps decades. At long last, the actor Gary Oldman, here portraying John Le Carre’s iconic spy George Smiley, is given the scaffold’s spotlight, delivering an important monologue, his face held in an exquisite close-up. Smiley has been mostly silent up to this point, the glare of his immense thick eyeglasses denoting a ghostly presence communicating the almost post-human logic of the Cold War in which Le Carre’s story is set (specifically, 1973). Smiley talks to young Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch) about his Soviet nemesis “Karla,” whom Smiley tried to lure to the West in 1955.


“We can give you a comfortable life,” quotes the 1973 Smiley of the original 1955 conversation. Notice how the reminiscence is staged, Smiley talking to the empty chair in front of him, like an actor rehearsing on stage. “Have a cigarette. Use my lighter. Think of your wife.” Smiley confesses to Guillam that his strategy to get Karla was to “keep harping on about the damn wife,” offering forth the logic of coming to the West when a return to the East meant almost certain death. “We’re not so different, you and I. We look for the weaknesses in each other.There is as little worth on your side as there is on mine.” But Karla “never said a word. Not one word.” Karla willingly went back to Russia, knowing full well that he might be tortured or killed. “He kept my lighter. It was a gift. ‘To George, from Anne. All my love.’” Smiley acknowledges that the interrogation gave Karla an advantage, because Smiley, through the lighter and his “harping on about the damn wife,” has essentially revealed to Karla how much his wife, Anne Smiley, means to George. Smiley’s emotional attachment exposed, he is vulnerable. Paradoxically, Karla’s steadfast determination to reject the West points to why Smiley says “he can be beaten.” He explains, “He’s a fanatic. And the fanatic is always concealing a secret doubt.” Your passion is your weakness to the enemy, found in political ideology and romantic love. You only win by not being yourself.


Smiley looks at Guillam. “Assume they’re watching you, Peter. Now’s the time to tidy up.” Smiley is telling him that whatever elements in your life serve a private human yearning, get rid of them if you want to endure in this world of espionage. It’s as if Smiley already knew everything “secret” about young Peter Guillam, who we then see taking his elder’s advice, “tidying up.” Guillam has a gay lover who must be rejected so that the young spy can maintain an inconspicuous heteronormative appearance. This leads back to the eerie presence of Oldman’s Smiley, who seems a metaphor for the fine film Alfredson has meticulously crafted. At first glance, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one of the most dispassionate films imaginable, its arteries hardened and blood slow moving like we could sense in these middle aged effete men, their visages like masks (none more so than Smiley) conveying decay and submission to aging: Oldman, Toby Jones, John Hurt, Ciaran Hinds, David Dencik, even a ladies’ favorite like Colin Firth – they are the anti-Daniel Craig, the anti-Bond or Bourne. Their bodies are appropriated by governments and made vessels of information and communication; the men of the “Circus” (Le Carre’s name for Great Britain’s spy division) are performers, actors, and acrobats, selling the drama.


Click HERE to continue reading "Prince of Many Faces and the Self on Many Stages: Gary Oldman"

Weekend What's What 3/1-3/4

THURSDAY, MARCH 1ST

Literary Death Match

@ Nomad World Pub
501 Cedar Avenue S
Minneapolis

6:30–9:30 p.m. / 21+ / $6 advance, $10 door

Because we could not stop for death, it kindly stopped for us. We're referring, of course, to that live literary marriage of traveling episodes, Literary Death Match - not the cloak and dagger routine. Boasting an evening of four writers, three judges, two rounds, one epic finale, lit-nerds galore, and one of the most entertaining printed-word throwdowns you'll see all year, Literary Death Match's returns to the Twin Cities for its sixth year of knock-down, drag-out competition of wit, comics, absurdity and the writer's ruse of charm. Judges include an all-star cast of locals: filmmaker Emily Goldberg director of Venus of Mars, master of hilarity Ian Rans of Drinking with Ian fame, and Vita.mn's doctoress of sex, Alexis McKinnis, who will judge works from four local word pugilists: Martin Kihn (writer for House of Lies, Showtime's new hit show), Tristan Jimerson, Sarah Stonich (author of Shelter and The Ice Chorus), and Coffee House Press rep Kao Kalia Yang. -Juleana Enright

Click HERE for the Literary Death Match site.


THURSDAY, MARCH 1ST

"Sharon Louden: Movement and Gesture"

@ Burnet Gallery at Le Meridian Chambers
901 Hennepin Ave.
Minneapolis

Opening reception 7–9 pm / Free

Anyone who has seen Sharon Louden’s immense quarter million piece sculpture "Merge" (currently installed at the Weisman) knows that she is an artist who thinks very big, both in scale and ambition. The Burnet Gallery is exploring a different side of the New York artist's work with a show that provides the opportunity to enjoy the conceptual forces that inspired "Merge" at a smaller scale. In "Movement and Gesture," Louden’s sculptural compositions - rendered in both aluminum and oil paint - spill across the walls of the gallery in a flurry of dynamic movement. The clear appreciation for Frank Gehry’s pioneering deconstruction of architectural form is evident as strongly in these small scale works as in her enormous Weisman commission. The artist has stated that her abstract figural work is intended to evoke “whimsy and playfulness, elegance and a child-like beauty” and each of those elements are clearly expressed in the exhibit. The intimate Burnet is a great place to get a close look at this celebrated artist’s exuberant and thoughtful work. -Anthony Enright

Click HERE for the Burnet Gallery site.


THURSDAY, MARCH 1ST

Your Pest Band + Holy Shit! + Birthday Suits + Brother Nature + Braver

@ Hexagon Bar
2600 27th Avenue S
Minneapolis

9 p.m.–midnight / 21+ / free

With vocals reminiscent of early Operation Ivy and a sound that mixes a twinge of Dinosaur Jr. and Hüsker Dü with the catchy chops of rockabilly, Japan's Your Pest Band takes punk back to its old-school roots, even if though roots happen to lie in an entirely different country. The punk rock-heavy lineup is filled out with Milwaukee's so-called “thrash crazies” Holy Shit!, local punk luminaries The Birthday Suits, Brother Nature (feature members of Serenghetoo, Sundowners and Frozen Teens) and Braver. -Juleana Enright

Click HERE for the Facebook invite.


THURSDAY, MARCH 1ST

DJ Ander Other

@ Clubhouse Jäger
923 Washington Avenue N
Minneapolis

9 p.m. / 21-plus / FREE

Ander "Young Baby" Other is best known as Doomtree's official "Intern/Merchant/Graphic Designer/Webmaster/Video Editor/Social Media Agent/Librarian" (so reads his email signature), but the man of many hats also moonlights as a DJ. His DJ debut throughout Doomtree's Blowout Week last December showcased his unsurprisingly solid hand behind the DJ booth. Head down to Jäger tonight for a mix hip hop, R&B, local tracks (Doomtree's sure to make a few appearances), and his own mash ups, plus drink-slingin' and $5 Jameson specials courtesy of l'etoile's own Robyn Lewis. -Jahna Peloquin


FRIDAY, MARCH 2ND

"Not About Bombs" Artist Talk & Closing Reception

@ Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Avenue S
Minneapolis

7 p.m. / All Ages / $3 suggested donation

Expect the unexpected at the Intermedia Arts' "Not About Bombs" exhibition, which closes this Friday evening with an artist talk. Co-sponsored by the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project, the show features a vivid collection of contemporary works by female Iraqi artists that help shed light on and explore an identity in flux. Let these lovely ladies take you on a journey through their creative hearts and minds, as the exhibit uniquely addresses and explores a female’s perspective in a modern day context. View the show, meet three of the featured artists, take part in the Q&A hosted by show curator Tricia Khutoretsky, and enjoy complimentary desserts and coffee. Join featured artists Dena Al-Adeeb, Sundus Abdul Hadi and Tamara Abdul Hadi again on March 3 when they appear in a session of the Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Minneapolis with Camille Gage, "Illustrating the Cost of War: Artists Respond to a Decade of Conflict." -Stefani Arden

Click HERE for Intermedia Arts' site.


FRIDAY, MARCH 2ND

Vita.mn Are You Local? Showcase: 2012 SXSW Send-off

@ First Avenue
701 1st Avenue N
Minneapolis

7 p.m. / 18+ / $10 adv, $12 door

Okay, so maybe you don't have the dough to spend on a trip to Austin's SXSW festival. But thanks to Vita.mn's Are You Local? and SXSW Sendoff, you can still catch a handful of local acts headed to Texas, sans the heat, and long lines. Peep sets from melodic indie rockers Peter Wolf Crier, whiskey-drawled rapper Astronautalis, punktastic surf rockers the Blind Shake, lady-fronted punk rockers from Pink Mink, and eclectic electro duo Fort Wilson Riot. And if that's not enough to shake your music-loving soul, pop next door at the Entry to catch sets from three finalists pulled from Vita.mn's Are You Local? battle-of-the-bands contest: rapper Xavier Marquis (backed by full band), all-star newbies Prissy Clerks (whose members hail from Total Babe, Red Pens and Teenage Strangler), and Iggy Pop-and-'80s-Sunset-Strip-reviving band the Japhies. Take it from us, it's a whole lot cheaper than SXSW, but bursting with “write-home-about” worthy experiences. -Juleana Enright

Click HERE for the Facebook invite.


FRIDAY, MARCH 2RD

Total Fucking Blood CD Release

@ Turf Club
1601 University Avenue
St. Paul

9 p.m. / 21+ / $7

Head to the Turf Club this Saturday night for what will truly be an affair of epic proportions. Total Fucking Blood is back with a new record and they've whipped up an awesome lineup for the occasion that forecasts a 100% chance of ridiculousness. With Slapping Purses and Marijuana Deathsquads at the helm, TFB is keeping it all in the family tonight as they unleash their symphony of blood-curdling screams and double duty drumming from Ben Ivascu (STNNNG, Signal To Trust, Marijuana Death Squads and basically every other good band in town). If the music isn't enticing enough, the first 48 cds bought at the merch table gets you a free PBR tallboy. Score! -Robyn Lewis

Click HERE for the Facebook invite.

FRIDAY, MARCH 2ND

Afro Funk Release Party

@ Clubhouse Jäger
823 Washington Avenue N
Minneapolis

10 p.m. / 21+ / FREE

Minneapolis' own Secret Stash Records are internationally known for unearthing and re-releasing some impressive forgotten gems from around the world, committed to introducing music lovers to unique and influential sounds that are - despite their original release dates - shockingly fresh and relevant. The label's latest re-release, Afro Funk – Body Music, is a collectable piece of African music history. Originally recorded in London in 1975, it mixes elements of West-African music with American funk. In celebration of the release, Club Jäger hosts a funky evening of DJs including Eric Foss from Secret Stash, Steeley from KFAI, and Danny Sigelmal spinning their Afro Beat favorites. Enjoy the Afo-Funk jams while you sip drink specials concocted by the talented Jäger bartenders. Caution, this party is likely to get extra funky, so you should probably wear your dancing shoes, or possibly a bejeweled James Brown cape if you’ve got one handy. -Anthony Enright

Click HERE for the Facebook invite.


FRIDAY, MARCH 2ND (THROUGH SUNDAY, MARCH 4TH)

The Seventh Seal

@ Trylon Microcinema
3258 Minnehaha Avenue S
Minneapolis

7 p.m. & 9 p.m. Friday & Saturday, 5 p.m. & 7 p.m. Sunday / $8

Our ominous year of 2012 boils hot with rampant ambiguity and uncertainty, with struggling economies, pandemic rumors, Middle Eastern wars, Mayan predictions, and Rick Santorum running for president. So it’s a fine time to engage in the argument of meanings vs. insignificance with Ingmar Bergman’s classic The Seventh Seal. Long before Terrence Malick’s spiritual excavations in The Tree of Life, Bergman was filming his anxieties, guilt, questions, and yearnings, the highly allegorical Seventh Seal being the definitive example. The effect on audiences is reflected in Barry Levinson’s Diner, as Steve Gutenberg asks during the opening minutes of the film, “What am I watching? The movie just started and I don’t know what’s going on.” Berman’s serious inquiries set alongside the story of a knight (Max von Sydow) who plays chess with Death (Bengt Ekeron) aren’t for everyone, but the images complementing the ideas remain unforgettable. Bergman’s reaper is an affable antagonist, and the film has subsequently invited audiences to chuckle at its solemnity, from Woody Allen to Bill and Ted. What is there to fear in Death, as the vision of a danse macabre is cleansing, an escape from the pain of living? The motif of theatricality is a consolation. Behind the stage – and the film – is nothingness, but we can still be fascinated in the artifice and delight in each other. -Niles Schwartz

Click HERE for Take-Up Productions' site.


FRIDAY, MARCH 2ND

Last Night Famous: The Encore

@ Honey
205 E Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis

10 p.m. / 21+ / $5

Last Night Famous is definitely a see and be seen situation! This Friday, arts and style writer Joan Erakit of The Brown Girl Files and Anthem Heart are back with a night of dance, drinks, DJs, and memorable photo opps galore. Experience a mix of musical selections from DJs Soviet Panda of Too Much Love fame and Ken Hannigan of Anthem Heart, drinks themed in honor of three stylish Twin Citians: "Serene" (named after lady-about-town Serene Enloe), the "Wilkerson" (after the frontman of the Japhies, Reed Wilkerson) or the "Rabb" (in celebration of CW host Jonathan Rabb). And make sure you dress to impress: photographer Amy Gee will be snapping pics all night, so you and the crew best be looking extra snazzy. -Staff

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FRIDAY, MARCH 2ND

HOTEL with Triple Six Sound Club & Tennis Hoodman

@ Kitty Cat Klub
313 14th Avenue SE
Minneapolis

10 p.m. / 21+ / FREE

The Hotel is open! Head down to Dinkytown's Kitty Cat Klub tonight for this monthly dance party hosted by prolific DJ Jonathan Ackerman. This month, he'll be joined by special guests Triple Six Sound Club, an 18-year-old Chicagoan producer who describes his style "a unique blend of future house, acid, footwork, techno, gangsta rap, minimal, UK bass and any thing decidely futuristic," and Minneapolis' own "slime" practitioner Tennis Hoodman. Drink specials, sexy peeps and good times await. -Jahna Peloquin


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SATURDAY, MARCH 3RD

Lucia di Lammermoor Tempo Night Out + After Party

@ Ordway Center
345 Washington Street
St. Paul

7:30–10:30 p.m. / $35-200 for show + party

Donizetti’s powerful and gripping opera Lucia di Lammermoor revolves around the forbidden secret love of Scottish lass Lucia for her beau Edgardo. Of course this is an opera, so things will not go smoothly for these lovebirds. Edgardo is her clan’s sworn enemy and Lucia’s scheming brother is determined to force her into a loveless marriage to shore up the family’s finances. As you might imagine, disaster, drama, duels, insanity and death ensue, but all set to impeccable music and with soaring vocal stylings. Celebrated opera star Susanna Phillips returns to the Minnesota Opera stage as the fragile heroine of this psychologically complex masterpiece. At intermission you can join fellow young opera fans in the Tempo Intermission Lounge on the Ordway’s mezzanine level where you can have pre-ordered drinks waiting for you. If you have any energy left after riding along on Lucia’s gorgeous emotional roller coaster, join the cast for a lively after party at across the street at Sakura. There, DJs will help extend the drama of the opera into the night. -Anthony Enright


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SATURDAY, MARCH 3RD

"Love Expressions"

@ Two Tigers Gallery
Northwinds Lofts Building
2400 N 2nd Street, Suites 107 & 113
Minneapolis

7–10 p.m. / FREE

Artist-making couple Silvia Yordanova and Brant Kingman host a unique one-night-only art show and performance this Saturday at the Two Tigers Gallery. The exhibit includes recently created mono prints and watercolors by each artist inspired by the other's work. During the one-night-only show, Playatta's Kara and Hal Lovemelt are bringing out their high-tech interactive photo booth, allowing guests to pose for a photo that will appear in selected artworks by the duo. You’ll have a chance to have your image become part of the art, so get ready to leave a lasting impression in local art! -Anthony Enright

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SATURDAY, MARCH 3RD

"Art(ists) On the Verge 3"

@ The Soap Factory
514 2nd Street SE
Minneapolis

7–11 p.m. / FREE

"Art(ists) On the Verge 3" is an intensive, year-long fellowship program for four emerging artists whose work is at the intersection of art, technology, and digital culture. Throughout the program special emphasis is put on interactive and participatory forms of expression that engage a network of people to produce experimental artwork. Co-presented by Northern Lights.mn, the Soap Factory-hosted exhibit allows the five AOV3 artists to share the product of their year of work in a gallery setting. The work on display ranges from live body projections by Anthony Tran to Mike Hoyt’s video paintings of the Powderhorn neighborhood. In Drew Anderson’s miniature theater, you’ll find yourself in the north woods of Minnesota looking through the eyes of an animatronic hunter. Caly McMorrow’s sound and light installations allow you to leave a public status update while Aaron Westre’s urban planning video game lets two layers compete to create the best version of a virtual city. These interactive and civic minded works should make for an evening that is at once spirited, enlightening and edifying. -Anthony Enright

Click HERE for the Soap Factory site.

Art by Aaron Westre

FRIDAY, MARCH 2ND

Hugh Cornwell + Glen Matlock + Clem Burke

@ Nick & Eddie
1612 Harmon Place
Minneapolis

8 p.m. / 21+ / $12 in advance, $15 at door

If you were a infant circa the '80s, there are certain cardinal moments of music history you had the unfortunate outcome of missing – the embryonic stages of punkdom being one of them. Oh, the irony. But don't kick yourself, curse your parents or start sketching designs for a time machine just yet. Tonight, fans of punk, new wave and post-punk delight in an era-merging line-up of sheer audio bliss as Hugh Cornwell – former member of legendary UK outfit the Stranglers – shares a stage with fellow late '70s punk alums Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols and Clem Burke of Blondie in separate sets. Believe us when we say it's a rare chance to witness live performances from three punk legends. Get there early to catch a new wave-y set from DJ Jake Rudh of Transmission fame and an opening set from local psych-garage-punk rockers Fuck Knights. Viva la punk rock! -Juleana Enright

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SATURDAY, MARCH 3RD

Mad-Hatters Tea Party & Fashion Show

@ K & J Victorian Room
2546 7th Avenue E
North St. Paul

3-6 p.m. / $4 in advance, $7 at the door

We love us a good Alice in Wonderland theme as much as the next tea party-loving fashionista, so thankfully North St. Paul boutique Design Vertigo is keeping our appetites satiated. Trade in your cocktail for a cup of tea and head to the K & J Victorian Room for a fancy afternoon of fashion. Snack on tea sandwiches and hors d'oeuvres while taking in local looks from Gina Marie Vintage, whose style infuses a modern sensibility into classic styles. -Jahna Peloquin

Click HERE for the Design Vertigo site.


SATURDAY, MARCH 3RD

Phantom Tails + The Hounds Below + Iguano + Voytek

@ Hexagon Bar
2600 27th Avenue S
Minneapolis

8 p.m. / 21-plus / FREE

Sometimes when we hear the organ-loving synths of local band Phantom Tails, our mind cast back to the late, great Don Knotts and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. It's something about the ghostly and mysterious organ music...Believe us, there's a correlation. Tonight, pay ode to Mr. Knotts and organ tune as you catch local electro garage punk locals Phantom Tails tonight, who'll be joined by Detroit indie rockers The Hounds Below - whose members include Jason Stollsteimer of the Von Bondies fame, plus post-punk throwbacks Iguano and loose-leaf new wave garage rockers Voytek. Prepare to lose it...in the best way possible. -Juleana Enright

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SUNDAY, MARCH 4TH

Nick & Eddie Winter Fest

@ Nick & Eddie
1612 Harmon Place
Minneapolis

4 p.m.-1 a.m. / 18+ / $6

Everybody knows Nick and Eddie’s is the perfect chill spot to sip a classy cocktail and enjoy an abundance of ambience and awe-inspiring music. On the flip side, it’s also the perfect joint to slam a PBR, and dance your heart out, semi-recklessly, on the intimate sized dance floor. Well hooray, this Sunday at Nick & Eddie’s Winter Party, you’ll have your chance to do both. Make note: the evening starts early, which is good, because there’s a hell of a lot of tunes squeezed into this 8-hour musical extravaganza. Here are the bands you won’t want to miss, in order: Mayda, Ghost Towns of the West, Gabriel Douglas, The Half Hearts, Grant Cutler, Caetani, Sleep Study, Hot Ashes, Zoo Animal, Me and My Arrow, The Idle Hands, Fort Wilson Riot, “Super Dope Hyper Squad” Secret band. -Stefani Arden

Click HERE for the Facebook invite.


SUNDAY, MARCH 4TH

The Night + Dust Buns

@ Honey
205 E Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis

9 p.m. / 21+ / $5

We're goths at hearts, so we can't help but be charmed by new lo-fi, feedback-drenched darkwave band Dust Buns. The female-fronted trio aptly describes their sound as "Halloween music," and it makes us want to dress in black, line our eyes in eyeliner, and dance like Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club. The dark night's complete with fellow darkwavers, minimalist synthpop group the Night.

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Editor in Chief: Jahna Peloquin / Contributors: Juleana Enright, Robyn Lewis, Jahna Peloquin, Stefani Arden, Anthony Enright, Niles Schwartz

Yiptee Diptee Doo, Happy Shiny Day: The 2012 Oscars

This week l'étoile welcomes a new contributor: Niles Schwartz of The Niles Files. The prolific film blogger has made a name for himself thanks to his weekly spot Thursday nights on WCCO's The Nite Show with Mischke and his incredibly well-informed, occasionally cynical and sometimes romantic ruminations on the magic of movies on his namesake blog, The Niles Files. In his first shared post with l'étoile, he offers his observations on this year's Oscars.

Much as I’d like to fool myself and in spite of flukes, the Oscars aren’t about movies, craft, or art. They’re about fashion and culture. It’s the tough lesson of the film geek/snob, learned year after year, conveniently forgotten as he roots for a couple of favorites in late February. The Oscars are my Superbowl (with my team rarely playing or winning), and like the Superbowl, the play isn’t really the thing. Some weeks back, the radar of media picked up very little about the sport of football, and instead fixed its sights on the commercials and Madonna’s half-time performance. It felt like the closest the Superbowl discussion got to the sport was the subject of Gisele and her tweets, emails, or whatever the hell they were, involving her quarterback boyfriend. Even then, it’s news because it’s Gisele, which brings the sport back into the arena of fashion.

I was looking a little ridiculous last night at the Cowles Center in Minneapolis for the Official Twin Cities Oscar Party, which I was persuaded to attend in the waning Sunday afternoon hours. There were photographers, designers, gift bags, a red carpet, swanky gents in suits and beautiful women in luxurious dresses. In my childlike enthusiasm I was sporting my new official Drive jacket over an Oak Street Cinema t-shirt, Buckle jeans, and old Doc Martens. I was “representin’,” as they say, cheering on Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling’s snubbed noir, which was merely up for the prestigious category of Sound Editing. Unsurprisingly, it lost. I contained myself and stayed away from the elevators.

Not that many of the party’s attendees had seen Drive. I dare say that 50 percent of them had seen more than three of the films nominated for Best Picture, to say nothing of 2011’s many excellent films utterly snubbed in all categories. Though I had a good time, especially after I wound up in the VIP section with an open bar, the jabber and networking between people usurped the interesting-looking moments of the broadcast, where actors discussed what effect movies had on them. Because the two most nominated films were films about film history – The Artist and Hugo – producer Brian Grazer feebly tried to channel cinematic reverence. I don’t think many people cared. Honestly, the most exuberant part of the show was probably the sketch starring Christopher Guest and company (Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge) playing the first test audience in 1939, commenting on flying monkeys and such in The Wizard of Oz. As with his films Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, Guest and Co. are more us than we’d ever admit.

Meanwhile, the show tried to focus on the excellence of an art while itself being shabbily executed, with the sound going in and out and an inept handling of audience reaction shots to follow up on Billy Crystal’s jokes. Sounding hoarse and tired, Crystal quickly launched into his trademark “It’s a Wonderful Night for Oscar” medley, compressing nine nominees into verse when before he always did five. It didn’t quite work. Maybe the hooks in the songs were weak and the jokes lame, or maybe it was because too many of 2011’s Best Picture nominees were full of hot-air to begin with. I’m not even sure I could make out the song for what is universally acknowledged to be the least deserving of the nominees, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I did enjoy the opening montage, with Crystal intercut with some big 2011 entries, but wasting time with a Tin Tin homage plummeted the proceedings.

However superior the under-fire Oscars are when compared to other gala award shows like the Emmys and the Grammys, it’s now more than ever about the posturing of popular culture, instead of disappearing under the shadowy and archetypal wings of the masquerading icons and stories being told. Tweets and Facebook updates become the complementary narrative to what the Oscar producers are staging, the show besieged by a haughty and snarky backstage Chorus. Cynical viewers love to say how bad the Oscars are, while there’s another populace with their eyes laced to the red carpet pre-show. Both factions are eager to dig their teeth into celebrities baring too much skin and going over the top. The merit of The Artist or Christopher Plummer’s Beginners is not being chatted about today. Rather, it’s Angelina Jolie’s weight and thighs, and Jennifer Lopez’ apparently prodigious Frisbee nipples.

As far as winners go, the night wasted no time in launching into disappointment. The only widely predicted winner that ended up losing (if we don’t count Viola Davis’s Best Actress vie in The Help) was the first award of the evening, as Emmanuel Lubezki lost the Cinematography Oscar to Robert Richardson for Hugo. I love Richardson and Hugo, but there was something unforgivable about Lubezki’s loss. The Mexican cinematographer of Y Tu Mamá También, Ali, The New World, Children of Men, and Burn After Reading had swept the critics’ awards and took the Guild prize, but his work also conveyed the meaning of Terrence Malick’s elusive and wondrous Tree, which I hold to be more pertinent to a philosophical discussion of cinema than The Artist and even Scorsese’s Hugo. It’s not just that Lubezki’s cinematographic achievement ranks for me alongside John Alcott’s work on Barry Lyndon (1975) or John Toll’s on Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998); he and Malick made the screen a great window through which we look and find ourselves. What was so startling and magnificent about The Tree of Life was how if affected me and how I experienced the world outside the theater after the movie. The world was dancing, and a run around Lake Harriet or a simple stroll through Minneapolis was suddenly boiling over with sensation. Malick begins The Tree of Life with a little girl’s hands set on a barn window, crossing over the other side, and he ends it with a bridge. Lubezki’s camera is not a tool of escape or trickery, but a link that loops back on ourselves. Granted, Hugo has cinematography that is also aesthetically rich just as it is meaningful to its subject, bringing 3D and the digital realm back to a photographic, human-centered root. But I’d bet a little money that even Scorsese and Richardson would bow in reverence to what Malick and Lubezki accomplished.


The subtext to this unfortunate start ties into the future of movies, and so makes the show’s narrative more dramatic. With Kodak going out of business and celluloid dying out to make room for the way of the future, the long-hold-out Scorsese finally embracing the digital (and doing it transcendently), giving the award to Hugo re-affirms the future path of Hollywood. Slumdog Millionaire was the first digital film to win the Cinematography Oscar (though it should have been Dion Beebe for Collateral in 2004), followed by Avatar the next year. Inception was mostly shot on film, but its victory over Roger Deakins’ True Grit indicates a trend to award bigger “oooo-ahhhh” films, heavily painted over with special effects. Lubezki’s great offerings are earthy when compared to such spectacle, using natural light whenever he can; even when he’s experimented with digital in a few shots in Ali, it was defiantly basic. During a recession, when a current golden era of television threatens movies, the Academy may want to reward pictures of great scale, dismissing the sublimity that sits right before us (much as audiences would dismiss The Tree of Life).


Hugo continued to reign with most of the technical categories, deservedly getting Dante Ferretti a second Oscar for Art Direction, in addition to Sound Mixing, Sound Editing (beating my beloved Drive), and Visual Effects. The one moment when my arm was raised in surprise and enthusiasm occurred with Film Editing, which I expected to be taken by The Artist or the great Thelma Schoonmacher for Hugo. Instead, it went to Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, my picks, for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The win was a shocker for me, not because of the industry’s tepid response to David Fincher’s magnificent Swedish noir, but because Baxter and Wall won last year, just as deservedly, for The Social Network.


It’s still somewhat of a pooper when Film Editing is the high point of Oscar night. The major awards went by the book, and deserved or not, it’s still a let-down. Christopher Plummer won for playing a gay man who comes out of the closet at 75 in Beginners; he was the deserving winner, but lacked suitable competition in snubbed peers like Albert Brooks (Drive), Viggo Mortensen (A Dangerous Method), Brad Pitt (The Tree of Life), and Christoph Waltz (Carnage). I had no problem with Octavia Spencer’s victory for The Help, though it would have been a welcome surprise had Melissa McCarthy won Best Supporting Actress for Bridesmaids; I also regret that Jessica Chastain was nominated for her fine work in The Help when she was so much better as the confused wife of Take Shelter and luminous mother in The Tree of Life, and the category was also marred by the dismissal of newcomer Shailene Woodley, who plays George Clooney’s feisty daughter in The Descendants.


Best Actor was something of a three-way front-runner horse race between Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Clooney, and Brad Pitt (Moneyball), with two unexpected dark-horses in the background (Demian Bichir in A Better Life, and Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). The category was really blunted by the Academy’s demand for the big names Clooney and Pitt, who are nominated – for doing some good work, I admit – at the expense of more impressive performances from Ryan Gosling (Drive), Michael Shannon (Take Shelter), Michael Fassbender (Shame and A Dangerous Method), and arguably Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar) – and dare I say Mel Gibson (The Beaver). I think Dujardin’s victory still felt a little overripe in its predictability. Indeed, I was hoping my three front-runners would cancel each other out and Oldman’s George Smiley, the most haunting of all five performances (and the most revered actor of the bunch), would take the gold. Had this happened, I can guarantee you that half the articles this morning dismissing the Oscars as dull would be saying something different. An Oldman victory would have been the longest standing ovation in years, and the most career-affirming Academy Award for an actor since Al Pacino 19 years ago.


I guess we were supposed to think that Meryl Streep’s Iron Lady victory was the surprise of the night. It wouldn’t have been, had not the buzz in trade papers turned Viola Davis’ way a couple of weeks ago. In November, it was almost a given that Streep would get her third Oscar for playing Margaret Thatcher (she should have probably gotten it last year for playing the much more cuddly Julia Child). But reverence for the world’s greatest actress (if not actor generally, if we’re to be gender neutral) prevailed. My personal choice for the award was Rooney Mara, my new imaginary girlfriend, whose Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was an uncanny creation, a harmony of performer, director, and music score. As with Oldman, the actor disappeared and the character haunted me for days afterward. Oldman and Mara gave performances that were ghostly in their silences and unblinking stares. As good as Streep, Davis, and the magnificent Michelle Williams (as Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn) were in their respective roles, I still wasn’t as transported.



Unfortunately, some diamonds get lost in the cocktail chatter. The greatest of the night’s acceptance speeches was courtesy of Asghar Farhadi, winning for Foreign Language Film with A Separation, from Iran. Accepting the award, Farhadi said, “At this time, many Iranians all over the world are watching us and I imagine them to be very happy. They are happy not just because of an important award or a film or filmmaker, but because at the time when talk of war, intimidation, and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their country Iran is spoken here through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics. I proudly offer this award to the people of my country, a people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment.” It was an important remark, giving the night a feeling of historical significance, as maybe some viewers felt with Bert Schneider’s speech for 1975’s Hearts and Minds. In that case, a war had ended. Unfortunately for the present speech, one may be beginning. A close-up of Steven Spielberg’s quizzical face as Farhadi spoke injected ambiguity into the moment, so fitting for the writer and director of A Separation, which rejects the convenient clarity of a black and white universe.


I would think that a survey of 2011’s cinema would be an utter rejection of “convenient clarity.” The defining films of the year had so much ambiguity and irresolution, where things were left to us, the audience: The Tree of Life, Shame, Meek’s Cutoff, Take Shelter, Melancholia, Carnage, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, A Dangerous Method, Drive, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Sourcecord, The Ides of March, and of course A Separation. Yet with the exception of The Tree of Life, none of those films were nominated for Best Picture.


Every year, there’s a cultural shrug as every blogger, insider, critic, whatever, has to form their narrative of either the year in review, or of the Oscar race. You never read a positive take on things, how movies are getting better, how the nominees reflect something happening in the international sphere, like in Mark Harris’ book on the 1967 nominees, Pictures at a Revolution (where four of the five nominees were culturally significant: Bonnie and Clyde, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, and The Graduate). Year after year we hear about how originality is dying, how all the films are depressing, how spectacle is taking over, and how the Europeans are doing it better than us. And that’s fine. Bitch and moan away.


But last year was really interesting. Of the 10 nominees, nine of the films were interesting fodder for a cultural critic or film buff. There was an idiosyncratic edginess to them, many being the visions of great cinematic voices: Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, David O’ Russell’s The Fighter, the Coen brothers’ True Grit, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours. You had an out-of-nowhere uncompromising indie darling, Debra Miller’s Winter’s Bone. Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right was released months before the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Arab Spring was happening during Oscar season, the subtext of which was Facebook, social networking, the ubiquitous camera eye and impact of technology on the world, easily connecting things to the grand duel of David Fincher’s The Social Network and Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech. The nominees were adventurous, significant, bookmarks for their year of release. Many of them will, I believe, be watched with admiration years from now.


Instead of “right now” movies, 2011’s nominees are about nostalgia. At their best, they may be the kind of masterpiece that is plugged into the “Eternal,” the deep past that loops around to the present. Whereas The Social Network is a zeitgeist “Information Age” masterpiece, The Tree of Life is a transcendental all-encompassing one. Hugo bridges the film technology of 1900 to 3D digitalism, and how the creation, manufacturing, and criticism of the Art is a religious process of Promethean fire-theft. The Descendants is a family drama on the surface, but with its images of Hawaii’s terrain and interest in how history is about kingdoms displacing and usurping old ones, it’s a cosmological story about accepting the slow continental drift of history, having the same Darwinian weight as Malick. Midnight in Paris is about our tragic pining for the “Golden Age,” while it also reminds us, in a materialistic present where people measure out their lives in tiny units and possessions, that “the past isn’t the past,” and how there is value in staying connected to the richness of history.

Elsewhere, The Help goes back to Jim Crow Jackson, Mississippi, being too reactionary for some of its critics. Spielberg’s War Horse goes to the Great War, but for whatever is there to move and thrill us, it still doesn’t offer much that resonates for the world of today. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is about a kid with Asperger’s, searching for some hidden clue that will connect him to the time before everything went bad, on September 11, 2001. Even films that weren’t nominated for Best Picture but won awards for their actors, are focused on the past. Beginners is about “historical consciousness,” while The Iron Lady is about a woman drifting into senility, her mind hopelessly wandering in the past.


Only Moneyball, also about a man haunted by his past and lost potential, seems of the zeitgeist variety (it was co-written by The Social Network’s Aaron Sorkin) that we had last year. It works as a film about digitalization and how technology affects us, but it also clearly talks about our political and economic struggle in America, anticipating Occupy protests centered on rich teams that have too much money while small teams have so little. Billy Beane’s pragmatism, for Aaron Sorkin, could be seen to reflect President Obama, while Art Howe is as obtuse as the congress of John Boehner.


And though it makes sense to nominate Moneyball, Hugo, The Descendants, and The Tree of Life, and perhaps the fluffy satisfaction of Midnight in Paris and The Artist, Spielberg’s fine but autopilot War Horse, the Lifetime pleasures of The Help, and Extremely Loud, in addition to the warmth of the deserving films, drains out a lot of the sting from the list. All the nominated films have something of a tender and uplifting ending. The emotions, oftentimes, are clearly spelled out. In a year where there was a lot of ambiguity, only The Tree of Life is an elusive movie here – though it’s affirmation of all creation is fairly transparent.

There are no unhappy or challenging endings this year, though in recent years such endings have been on the up: No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood and Michael Clayton in 2007, The Departed, Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima in 2006, The Hurt Locker, A Serious Man, Inglourious Basterds, District 9 in 2009, and again, Inception, The Social Network, Black Swan, and True Grit last year.


Sure, happy endings are fine. I liked the euphoric dance coda of Slumdog Millionaire. But when you have War Horse and The Help and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and The Artist is almost a shoo-in winner (a film that is almost too likable), things just feel a little airy and light. Meanwhile, a famously dark filmmaker, Martin Scorsese, makes his most optimistic-feeling film (albeit with very rich subtexts) in Hugo, and Woody Allen, who loves to leave his characters frustrated and confused, recently in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Vicki Cristina Barcelona, Cassandra’s Dream, and Match Point, has a euphorically delightful conclusion in Midnight in Paris, his most enjoyable film in maybe decades. Evil remains abstract, like in The Tree of Life, or as a cartoonish and materialistic woman, like Rachel McAdams in Midnight in Paris or Bryce Dallas Howard in The Help. But I still feel that the dark side of human nature, the Daniel Plainview side or Anton Chigurh side, is sorely under represented.


That would have made Drive or Take Shelter perfect. Are these men heroes and prophets, or psychotics? Are they both? Is Brandon in Shame merely a sex addict, or is he an emblem for a whole culture of excess? Is Freud or Jung right in A Dangerous Method, un-meaning or meaning? The perplexing questions posed in the remarkable films of 2011 are hushed by the simple assurances of escape in The Artist, or feel-good progress in The Help. The film canon wasn’t particularly enriched by the 84^th Academy Awards, and most of its content and highlighted movies will be soon forgotten, blips on an increasingly digital map. Whatever. Granted the disappointments of the evening, I put on my Drive jacket and take what has value into the future with me.