The Bowdoin Orient

Sara Gruen's 2006 novel "Water for Elephants," which I happen to have read for a Bowdoin English class, beckons like a book that comes ready-made for the transition from page to screen.

It seems like "Your Highness," the second large-scale project by director David Gordon Green realized/created in tandem with Danny McBride and James Franco, is what happens when the guys from "Pineapple Express" take a time machine back to the middle ages: the costumes get older and so, unfortunately, do the jokes.

"Sucker Punch" is the work of director Zack Snyder—whose previous efforts include "300" and "The Watchmen"—so walking into the theater, you have to know what type of film you are getting yourself into. The introduction, featuring dramatic, booming music, a majority of slow motion shots, close-ups and bleak and textured scenery, is to be expected. It is essentially the same visual strategy that Snyder used in his previous two films, and though it's not a surprise here, the technique is still very effective.

Offhand, how old would you guess Liam Neeson is? Judging from the characters he has played in his latest movies, including Bryan Mills in “Taken” (2008), and Colonel Hannibal Smith in “The A-Team” (2010), you might think he’s middle aged; 45, maybe? 50? No. He is 58.

If we're honest with ourselves, what do we expect when we go to see a Jason Statham film? Compelling character development? Clever dialogue? Complex relationships? Probably not.

For anyone who has seen Natalie Portman in "Black Swan," her starring role in the new romantic comedy "No Strings Attached," directed by Ivan Reitman and also starring Ashton Kutcher, will certainly seem like less of an event. Obligatory endeavors for many rising movie stars, romantic comedies are undoubtedly some of the most disposable, forgettable and generally poorly made films to come out of Hollywood today.

Watching the previews before the beginning of "Love and Other Drugs," I came to the realization that many romantic films take surprisingly simple situations and stretch them into full-length features.

What could possibly be unfunny about Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. stuck in a car together on a cross-country trip? This concept, used as a primary selling point for director Todd Phillips' sophomore effort, "Due Date," uses the same rubric, and some of the same jokes, as his directorial debut, "The Hangover" (2009).

The new Clint Eastwood film "Hereafter" is distinctly an Eastwood film for many reasons. Though it is ultimately not among his best, it is his distinctive touch that prevents the film from falling victim to the artificiality that plagues most afterlife-related films.

There have been few films in recent memory that coax the allegiance of their viewers onto the side of the villain, but Oliver Stone's "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps," the sequel to his 1987 hit "Wall Street," does just that.

The newly opened Trattoria Athena, located near Fort Andross on Mill Street, is not the type of place that you would find unless you were looking for it.

This weekend, some of the most interesting and unconventional modern musical sounds that Maine has to offer will be heard at the 2nd Annual Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival. This festival features performers and composers from all around the state, a lineup that includes several Bowdoin students.

For the second night of renowned jazz performance this semester, Bowdoin welcomes acclaimed artist Cedar Walton tonight.

Everyone knows that brunch at Moulton or Thorne offers one of the best meals around, but when Bowdoin students begin to tire of the tried-and-true weekend lineup, Portland beckons as a brunch haven.

If you're keeping tabs on what's hot on the campus-band scene at Bowdoin, then it's time to add another band to your list. Bowdoin College's own rap group, Egyptian Gold, has been making music for over a year. While there maybe a lot of buzz regarding this new sub—genre of hip-hop music on college campuses, anyone who knows them will certainly testify that they are a far cry from your average Asher Roth.

Valentine's Day is on the way, and if you're looking beyond Brunswick for a restaurant that would provide that date-night milieu, Portland could be your place. Eating in Brunswick is great, but taking your valentine to a standard Bowdoin haunt won't get you high marks for originality.

This Wednesday evening, Bowdoin students and members of the Brunswick community will have the opportunity to hear the highly renowned and beautifully innovative jazz of the Marcus Roberts Trio. The trio consists of Roberts on the piano, Rodney Jordan on bass and Jason Marsalis on the drums.

This past week, I checked out two small live music venues in Portland. More than cafés but less than music clubs, these are places to relax, get something to eat or drink, and listen to artists both famous and unknown—think of them as Portland's versions of Jack Magee's.

For all the kids out there who might worry that Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are" will ruin their favorite children's book, be not afraid. The hugely anticipated adaptation, which converts Maurice Sendak's 10-sentence picture book into an hour and 40-minute adventure film, expands the book but does not do any heavy reinterpretation, creating a movie that adds to but does not change the original.

It might strike some people as strange that Davis Guggenheim, famous for his Oscar-winning direction of An Inconvenient Truth, decided to make a documentary film about the electric guitar.

If you have ever heard the music of Senegalese pop music star Youssou N'Dour, then it is easy to imagine how any film in which he is the subject could be electrifying, enlightening and unifying all at once. "I Bring What I Love," a documentary film directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, chronicles N'Dour's rise to national and international stardom in the 1970s and '80s, as well as his more recent and more controversial album, "Egypt."

Some of the best and most recent art projects that Bowdoin students have to offer will be on display, starting next Friday, at Fort Andross in an opening of both the Advanced Studies In Visual Arts (Art 350) final projects and the senior visual arts major projects. While Art 350 is an independent course, both groups of projects will be intermixed in one show consisting of 31 total projects.

The sounds of opera music coming from the concert hall will provide a classical alternative to those that will be heard across the Quad on Saturday. While several musical acts will visit Bowdoin this weekend, the Bowdoin Chamber Choir will be putting on a show of its own during Ivies Weekend. The show, held in Studzinski, is the concert version of Henry Purcell's opera "Dido and Aeneas," which was written in 1689 and is England's oldest opera. It is based on the fourth book of Virgil's "Aeneid" about the Queen of Carthage Dido and the Trojan Aeneas.

Ralph Alessi and his quintet, "This Against That," will fill Studzinski Recital Hall tonight with the jazz music that has made them some of the preeminent jazz musicians in the Northeast over the past 10 years. Alessi plays the trumpet and is one of the leading jazz trumpeters of his generation. He and the members of "This Against That", who have played together for five years, are all faculty members at the Brooklyn-based School for Improvisational Music (SIM). The quintet consists of Alessi on trumpet, John Hebert on bass, Tony Malaby on saxophone, pianist Andy Milne, and drummer Mark Ferber.

Four Bowdoin students will be honored in a Maine art show opening this weekend. "Next Generation IV," a biennial exhibition showing the work of roughly 20 junior and senior art majors enrolled at Maine colleges, opens at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport this Saturday.

Studzinski Recital Hall will not only be filled with the sounds of Bowdoin's two brass ensembles on Monday, but also by those of the United States Air Force Liberty Band's Colonial Brass ensemble. The Colonial Brass ensemble usually maintains a schedule of shows that would make even The Rolling Stones cringe.

Both the men's and women's squash teams competed at their respective national tournaments over the past two weekends, battling teams ranked close to Bowdoin in last-leg efforts to end the season on a good note. The women entered their national tournament, the Kurtz cup, held this year at Harvard, with a record of 14-7. The men, competing in the Summers Cup at Princeton, entered the tournament with a record of 10-12.

Until two years ago, the little room with a flower-print exterior perched on the second floor of Smith Union was merely an extension of the game room—seen but rarely used. Now, it provides art. When the room was renovated two years ago, art railings were added in order to use the space as a gallery for student art or local artists.

Both the men's and women's squash teams breezed through their home stand this past weekend in the last matches of the regular season. The women emerged with a record of 5-0 and the men with a record of 3-0. The women kicked off the first match of the weekend on Friday night, taking on the University of Toronto.

People may not think of their ordinary home videos as fine art, but after viewing the most recent exhibition in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art's Media Gallery, anything seems possible. The exhibition is Guy Ben-Ner's "Moby Dick," a 12-minute silent film staged in a strange setting: the artist's kitchen. Starring only himself and his six-year-old daughter, the film summarizes Melville's classic novel and accentuates many of its basic motifs while simultaneously introducing themes of fatherhood, masculinity, and sexual tension between the father and daughter.

The past two weeks have held mixed results for the men's and women's squash teams as they battle through the heart of the season. Last week, the Polar Bears traveled to Providence to take on the Brown Bears. Bowdoin suffered two 8-1 losses, with wins by junior co-captain David Funk on the men's side and senior co-captain Kate Gormley on the women's side.

Currently, passersby gazing into the windows of the Space Gallery in Portland see the work of two Bowdoin artists: Adjunct Lecturer of Art Randy Reiger and Visual Arts Technician Kyle Downs. While the two installations share a venue, they differ in content and medium.

The men's and women's squash teams endured a tough couple of days last weekend as they faced two of the top-ranked teams in the nation. On Saturday, both teams made the drive down to Williamstown, Mass., to take on Williams and Princeton. The men and women both entered the weekend with a 1-1 record, with both teams defeating Connecticut College but falling to Dartmouth in matches before Thanksgiving.

The Frontier Café is in the middle of its fall/winter international film program titled "Global Lens 2008," the most recent intstallment of which is the Argentinian film "El Custodio." Filmed in 2006 and directed by Rodrigo Moreno, "El Custodio" reveals the everyday life of a personal bodyguard, Ruben, as he spends his days shadowing his boss, the Minister of Planning in Argentina. While Ruben's life is shown to be monotonous, meaningless and repetitive, "El Custodio" is anything but. If this film is an indicator of the quality of the rest of the films in Global Lens, Bowdoin students should start heading to the Café for more than just scones and coffee.

Heard all across the globe, from Munich to Montreal, trombonist Ron Barron will perform in Studzinski Recital Hall on Friday night. Barron was the principal trombonist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) from 1975 until his retirement last August. He has performed with numerous brass ensembles as well as with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian State Radio Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and the American Wind Symphony.

Mac House will provide tonight's venue for The Gregory Brothers, a Brooklyn-based-band originally raised in and influenced by the "creeks and crawdads" of their home state of Virginia. The Gregory Brothers band consists of brothers Andrew (guitar, bass, and vocals), Evan (keys, drums, vocals), and Michael (keys, drums, vocals), and Sarah Fullen (guitar, bass, vocals). Andrew describes their style as similar to "The Band, [but] with more soul."

Professor Jane Knox-Voina, chair of the Russian Department, and Gulnara Abikeeva, a leading film critic in Kazakhstan, hosted a presentation about visual media portrayals of the iconic Soviet and post-Soviet woman on Wednesday night. The presentation covered photography, painting, and film of the 20th century that worked both as manipulated propaganda and as enlightening documentary in shaping the heroic Soviet woman.

A month after Edward Albee graced Memorial Hall with his common hour lecture, his work will take the stage in Wish Theater as Masque and Gown presents his Pulitzer Prize-nominated "The Play About the Baby" tonight and Saturday. The play was written and first performed in England in 1998 and it premiered off-Broadway in the United States in 2001. It will have its Bowdoin premiere under the direction of Caitlin Hylan '09.