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Beautiful View: Ron Sexsmith @ Myrons

by Stephan MacLeod STAFF WRITER

Seeing Ron Sexsmith live is an intimate experience. Sexsmith is, without a doubt, one of the best singer/songwriters on the planet and his performance at Myrons on November 6" proved he also the most likeable.

He is the first artist I’ve ever seen give credit to the importance of his guitar technician. And he was approachable after the show; he even stuck around and had a few drinks with the Cadre’s editor.

The set-list covered all of my favorite Sexsmith tunes from all three of his albums, and he even did a cover of Gene MacLellan’s “Snowbird.”

The live arrangements of the songs were really, cool. Don Kerr (drums) and Tim Vesley (bass) from the Rheostatics backed Ron up and added a lot to the show. Their backup vocals were excellent, and their musical diversity helped to shift the mood of the songs when needed.

To set the perfect atmosphere, Don traded his drums for a viola and Tim played an accordion on such bittersweet songs as “In a Flash” and “April After All.”

It was an emotionally satisfying show. Myrons’ new Rhythm and Blues Café provided an intimate setting for Sexsmith and he took advantage of it by letting the audience glimpse into his heart.

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tHE CINEPHILE

Three Kings Directed by David O. Russell

Three Kings begins as a humorous and fast-paced post-Gulf War caper, involy- ing four American soldiers (George Clooney, Ice Cube, Mark Wahlberg and Spike Jonze) trek- king across the Iraqi desert in search of stolen Kuwaiti gold. Writer/director David O. Russell then takes a brilliant turn by giving the story depth and meaning, tackling issues such as vio- lence, intolerance and greed. The entire cast is excel- lent and the cinema- tography ranks among the best in recent years. After a summer of unre- markable action films and unfunny comedies, Three Kings is the elixir that makes up for it all. It is, hands down, one of the

best films of 1999 (8).

Music of the Heart Directed by Wes

Craven

After a sudden separation from her husband, a woman (Meryl Streep) moves to NYC with her two young sons to start a new life. With fifty spare violins and an abrasive teaching style, she manages to convince an alternative public school in East Harlem to hire her as a violin teacher. Meryl Streep is fantastic in what is basically a standard Hollywood story of a woman overcom- ing all odds and achieving her dreams. It’s been done before in other films, but they are usually far too sentimental and melodramatic for their own good. Director Wes Craven proves he’s not just for horror anymore, slowing down the tempo and giving us a Nice Little Movie (6).

by Jeff Coll STAFF WRITER

The Bone Collec-

tor Directed by Philip Noyce

A mostly-paralyzed (he can move his shoulder, head, and index finger) homi- cide detective (Denzel Washing- ton) helps a young officer (Angelina - Jolie) track down a serial killer. The Bone Collector, with its mentor-rookie, relationship is reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs, although it is not nearly as suspenseful and Denzel does not

do nearly as much flesh-nibbling. It is also reminiscent of Seven, complete with gruesomely- devised murder scenes, but all the plot twists seem to » have been lifted directly from Mur- der She Wrote. Good cinephotography does not save this film from being mostly unoriginal and downright stupid (3).

The Insider Directed by Michael Mann

Based on a true story, The Insider is about a former tobacco company executive (Russell Crow) and his mission to go on 60} Minutes in order to say that cigarettes are designed to be addictive. The problem is, there are serious legal — implications for himself and for the | television program if he goes on the air. Al Pacino, playing a 60 Min- utes producer, is fantastic as usual, but Crow deserves the most credit, giving a perform- ance that perfectly portrays the whis- tle-blower’s feelings of fear, guilt and confusion. Director Michael Mann’s balancing of a large cast of characters is worthy of Stone or Altman and the cinematography gives the film a gritty and realistic feel (8).