Choice Cuts

Reviews of Everything

Zine: Infiltration #16

Infiltration is “the zine about going places you’re not supposed to go,” which basically amounts to urban

exploration. Despite the lack of any

widely recognized popularity, infiltra- tion, be it sneaking into abandoned or occupied buildings (corporate or gov- ernment, never private dwellings cos that’s not cool), underground tunnels, scaling rooftops or whathaveyou, is a pastime enjoyed by bored and adven- turous city-dwellers worldwide. Infiltration zine is an independent publication out of Toronto which chronicles the adventures of some kid

named Ninj, and often includes maps -

and detailed descriptions of hotels and other areas in the greater toronto area. This issue, however, is dedicated to stories about getting caught infiltrat- ing, sent in by the readership. I have to say, this is good shit,. Maybe this is just because I’m a part of the market to which it is targeted, but i think any- one who reads this will get a good sense of the exhilaration, and, to a cer- tain extent, the risks involved with this hobby. (For whatever, write to 152 Carlton Street; PO Box 92552, Toronto, ON, MSA 2K1. Or. visit www. infiltration.org)

-Jonah CAMPBELL

Movie: Hearts in Atlantis Director: Scott Hicks Distributor: Warner Bros.

In Scott Hicks’s Hearts in Atlantis, lurking beneath the golden veneer of Robert Garfield’s (David Morse) childhood memories of a very special summer, there is a lot of dark- er subject matter — that’s not really a Surprise considering it’s based on a Stephen King novel.

The film is in part about the friendship between young Garfield (Anton Yelchin) and Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins), an old man with

strange and wonderful psychic powers. The old man-young boy relationship, however, has been done before and the most interesting part of the film — Brautigan’s situation — is barely explored: he is on the run from people he refers to as “low men,” who are pre- sumably FBI agents that want to use his psychic abilities to fight commu- nism.

This is fascinating stuff, but the film spreads itself thin by explor-

ing the boy’s single mother (Hope

Davis) and her deplorable actions: she lies, she squanders money, she is attentive to her son only at the wrong times, and she has an affair with her boss to keep her job. She is in part a victim of circumstance, but because much of what she does is more a reflection of her own stupidity, it is hard to determine whether this is social commentary about the struggles of single mothers or just a hateful por- trayal of women (there is, in fact, fur- ther evidence that strengthen the latter explanation). Even at the end, her problems are not so much solved by an act of self realization, but by a deus ex machina of sorts.

The insult is that the music, the narration and the beautiful cine- matography are all trying to sweep the viewer away emotionally by her trans- formation into a loving mother, but it

just doesn’t work — it’s shallow and not earned.

With so much talent behind this film, it is surprising that the film isn’t better. From director Scott Hicks (Shine) to screenwriter William Goldman (The Princess Bride) to actor Anthony Hopkins (nuff said), all signs point to a great film; instead, it merely aspires to be great.

-Jeff COLL

Book: Hearts in Atlantis Author: Stephen King Publisher: Pocket Books

In Hearts in Atlantis, King covers, what is for him, mostly new ground while still providing familiar elements his readers have come to expect. This story looks at powerful themes of the 1960s through five sep- arate but connected segments.

The novel begins with Bobby Garfield, who lives with his widowed mother in an apartment in Harwich, Connecticut. Bobby’s life is forever changed when a mysterious elderly man named Ted moves in upstairs. Ted is from another world which has inter- acted with our world in past King nov- els such as The Stand and Insomnia. This is also the world that is the set- ting for the Dark Tower series. This

link gives most King fans another small piece of the mysterious world he has created, but it is not important enough to necessitate reading those other books before reading this one.

Bobby and his two best child- hood friends, Carol Gerber and John Sullivan, grow apart and go their sep- arate ways after an eventful summer. The rest of the stories involve these characters and others from Bobby’s childhood as they grow older, told from different perspectives and differ- ent times.

Hearts in Atlantis is an enjoy- able novel dealing with fantasy, the 1960s and human nature.

-Marc MACDONALD

Album: The Theory of Harmonial Value

Artist: Moneen

Label: Smallman Records

This album is an excellent fol- low-up to last year's Smaller Chairs for the Early 1900s. I mean "follow up" in the most literal possible sense, in that the last track on that album flows into the first track on this album. Too sweet. Moneen play incredibly catchy emo that thankfully deviates from the slightly punkish pop-rock formula most "emo" bands these days are playing. The songs range from incredibly upbeat to slow, sad, quiet numbers, perfect for crying yourself to sleep by. Their lyrics are delightful in that quirky depressed- perhaps-slightly-deranged but still cute emo way. I mean, with lines like "I'm going to break my legs just so I don't forget to be nice to you," "and what if I wrapped it in a dead seagull, would it find its way home?" and songs like "Half Empty? Half Full? I Didn't Get a Glass To Begin With," how could you not be endeared all to death? Yay.

(www.moneen.com)

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