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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 1995)
9,15) P$i Monday October 9, 1995 >rl: —..■■■ • 54(3 lea; m How To Make An Touching story and powerful acting blend to make dynamic film By Amy Uptmor The Battalion Chick flicks come and go. Every year there has to be some movie that we bond with our mothers over, drag our dates to, cry over and eat choco late ice cream while watching with our best girlfriends. We’ve had our Steel Magno lias. We’ve had our Boys on the Side. But rarely does a chick flick come along of epic proportions with a cast of legendary actress es, an intricate, symbolic story line and, most importantly, a lack of bitterness and divorce. How To Make An American Quilt is that movie. Winona Ryder plays Finn, a Berkeley graduate student who spends the summer with her grandmother and friends to think about an impending marriage and to work on her thesis. All the women in her grand mother’s quilting club have a story to tell, each of which is in corporated into a square on the quilt they are making for Finn’s wedding. The quilt, as can be imag ined, has symbolic meaning that guides the movie, as do each of the stories the women tell. The overlying theme of the movie is tied into the art of OVI E to Make * luring Winona Ryder, Bancroft, Maya Angelou, Ell< Burstyn and Kate Neir Directed by Jocelyn Moorttoi Rated PG-13 Playing at Hollywood : ★★★★ 1/2 tout of quilting — “Self-expres sion heals a wounded heart.” The movie has a lot of symbolism. It has warm, fuzzy moments. It has fe male bonding at its finest. But there’s more to this movie that makes it a cut above ordinary movies. For starters, the story line transcends the ordi nary chick flick mode. The story is good enough to be en joyed by husbands, boyfriends, children and grandparents. It does not harp on how men are the root of all evil. Rather, it is a story about growing up, changing and learning to find happiness. The movie also has an extra ordinary cast. Ryder is wonder ful in her lead role, but she is of ten in the shadows of her older, wiser counterparts, Anne Ban croft and Kate Nelligan, who play her great aunt and grand mother, respectively. And what could make more sense than to have Maya An gelou, one of the greatest story tellers of the twentieth century, playing an integral part in a movie that weaves together sto ry after story. Angelou plays Anna, the master quilter whose guidance makes every quilt a master piece. Likewise, her story is the thread that binds the movie to gether. Angelou’s storytelling — combined with her outstand ing acting — elevates the movie to classic proportions. The 20-something crowd that this movie will likely attract will get an added bonus. Claire Danes and Jared Leto, stars of the short-lived but pop ular television series My So- Called Life, both have small roles in American Quilt. Both do an excellent job of injecting their charm, not to mention their gifted acting skills, into this movie. Guys should not run in fear from this movie. This is a movie that all people can equally en joy and find meaning in. How To Make An American Quilt is not a typical chick flick, but has what it takes to become an American classic. -Feet lin” at to he!; nd ho? his fe itii >• To Die For succeeds in shewing By Amy Protas The Battalion What does a person have to do to be famous in America? Just ask Susan Smith or O.J. Simpson. By commit ting or being implicated in a murder, they instantly became media icons. In his newest film. To Die For, director Gus Van Sant unleashes a satirical attack on the me dia and the United States’ obsession with it. The timing for the release of this film could not be better. With the country still reeling from the Simpson verdict. Van Sant offers a look at the ridiculous attention we lavish on the famous and infamous. He accomplishes what Oliver Stone couldn’t with Natural Born Killers. Nicole Kidman, proving she can act, stars as Suzanne Stone Maretto. Suzanne is blinded by ambition and will do anything to be on TV. She starts out by getting a weather girl spot at her local cable station, but this is not enough. Suzanne always has her eye on what she calls “the big picture.” She will let nothing stand in the way of her dream of one day being on a major television network. Beautiful and driven, Suzanne seems capable of obtaining her vision. There is not much up stairs, but she overcomes that with good looks. There is only one problem — Suzanne’s husband, Larry. Played by Matt Dillon, Larry loves Suzanne and wants to start a family. Suzanne realizes she can’t ruin her most important asset, her beauty, by getting pregnant and gaining weight. So instead of telling Larry how she feels or leaving him, she has him killed. To Ole For Starring Nicole Kldmai Matt Dillon Phoenix Directed by Gus Van Sant Rated R Playing at Hollywood ★ ★★★ 1/2 Cout of sudden fame's corrupting nature One of the funniest but saddest aspects of the film is how blind everyone is. To accomplish the murder, Suzanne enlists the help of three ador ing high school students. None of them, includ ing Suzannne, realize how ridiculous and solv able the crime will be. The film is perfectly cast. Kidman is great as she delivers Suzanne's vapidity with dead-pan hilarity. To Die For combines elements from Van San t’s past movies. It has the dark humor from Drugstore Cowboy and the sense of the pathetic from My Own Private Idaho. Thankfully, nothing in this film resembles the horrible Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. The scariest part of the film is how similar it is to real life. Resembling a documentary, every one gives their opinion on “what really hap pened.” Suzanne’s and Larry’s parents appear on a talk show, and Suzanne makes a video tape of her side of the story. Sound familiar? Another solid point is that the film is perfectly cast. Kidman is great as she delivers Suzanne’s va pidity with dead-pan hilarity. Joaquin Phoenix, one of the high school stu dents, evokes sympathy and disdain as he is naively drawn into Suzanne’s web. Illeana Douglas plays Larry’s sister and is the only one who sees Suzanne’s true character. She shows bitterness and rage while mixing in subtle sarcasm as she shoots Suzanne down with every line. From the beginning, she’s the lone dissenter who has to patiently wait for vindica tion. To Die For shines a telling light on the fact that the line between our heroes and people with values society deplores has become almost non-existent. 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