The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 41, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 9, 2003 Page: 21 of 28
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THE CANADIAN RECORD
THURSDAY9 OCTOBER 2003
21
AT THE MOVIES
New Movies & Video Rentals
BY GAIL REAGAN
r EXCELLENT
NewRBleasBs
THE SECONDHAND
LIONS: Michael Caine, Robert
Duvall, Haley Joel Osment.. This
coming-of-age story can be affec-
tive, in fits and starts. It's about a
clever fourteen-year-old boy, Wal-
ter (Osment), who is left by his
footloose mother (Kyra Sedg-
wick) to spend one summer with a
couple of eccentric uncles (Caine,
GOOD tJ FAIR WDON'T WASTE MONEY
Duvall) on their scruffy Texas
farm in the early 1960s. Caine and
Duvall are wonderful, even with
the molasses-drenched script,
and the story's concerns are sig-
nificant: bringing life into an arid
existence, learning to love on both
sides of the age divide. Of the two,
Michael Caine is the quieter and
more philosophical. He regales
Walter with tall-sounding tales of
the brother's fantastic overseas
adventures decades earlier. As he
rambles on. the movie visualizes
these swashbuckling feats of res-
cue and romance as pulpy
comic-book tableaus or scenes
from a bottom-drawer Hollywood
costume drama that's churning
Walter's imagination. Duvall is
the crusty, never-say-die uncle
who refuses to go gentle into re-
tirement. Secondhand Lions
may be pure hokum, but it sure
does spin a great yarn with an
ending that pays off like a slot ma-
chine. Go just for the pleasure of
the company of two peerless ac-
tors, and the fun of indulging in a
fantasy-comedy. PG
Three Boxes
UNDER THE TUSCAN
SUN: Diane Lane. The film adap-
tation of Frances Mayers'
best-selling memoir strays too far
from the book. The movie is a
cross between Enchanted April
and Mr. Blandings Builds His
Bois d'arc apples, bikes,
dirt roads and bitin dogs
Returning from eastern Arkansas last week, af-
ter a few days visit with close friends and family,
was just what the doctor ordered. It has been a cou-
ple of years since the state of Arkansas has hosted
me, and several years since any of the four seasons
had entertained me in that land of never-ending
opportunity.
Many of the landmarks are no longer there.
Much of the woods are gone and the land where
those mighty hickory, pecan and oak trees once
stood—begging us to climb them—is now under
cultivation in rice and soybean. My grandparents
and some of my aunts and uncles have gone to a
better place we call heaven. A wise man once said,
"Time does not exist where things never change."
We are blessed with a gift from God called memory,
and for the most part, it does not change.
While there last week the memories really
flowed: Memories of hot summer days, McCabe's
old grocery store where you could buy a pecan twirl
and a Pepsi and still have a quarter left from the
fifty cents Uncle Welch and Aunt Mable had given
you, and stories the old black gentlemen told while
they rested in the shade of the store's porch after
spending the morning in the fields.
My cousin Bimbo and I never tired of these
tales, swattin' skeeters and drinking soda pops and
living adventures these men shared with two
wide-eyed tow-headed boys. It was better than
any t.v. show could ever hope to be.
Bimbo—his real name was Edward Neal—was
the same age as me and we were always on the
prowl. Important things were always happening
and life was never boring. From building crawdad
drags out of scavenged lumber and screen win-
dows, to collecting big blue devils from the back
waters of the White River, catching wild things in
the woods, to gathering catalpa worms off catalpa
trees with dreams of grandeur and hope of catching
the big fish.
What is a catalpa worm you ask? Well, let me ex-
plain. There is a large black and yellow horn worm
that grows on catalpa trees and they are a guarded
commodity in certain parts of this country as they
are one bait that a big river cat can't pass by.
Because of these I found out what bois d'arc ap-
ples were good for. Me and my cuz had one bike at
our disposal—one would pedal and the other
would ride on the handle bars. One of our missions
in life was to catch the big river cat, and to accom-
plish this we needed catalpa worms. On the way to
the river bottoms there was a big tree in this yard
covered with them. The man who lived there was
not the sharing type of person and he had a big
Braying
from
burro
A COLUMN BY
BOB ROGERS
black dog that always chased our bike and tried
to bite—came real close several times.
Here is the picture: A pretty day early fall
and we were on our way to catch Mr. Catfish.
Thinking ahead we gathered three bois d'arc ap-
ples and started off. Now it is not easy to carry
two cane fishing poles, a bucket for bait and
three apples while trying to balance on a set of
handle bars—but it can be done. Arriving at the
tree we gathered the worms fast and took off
with big dog right on us. A bois d'arc apple di-
rected at a biting dog's head will definitely
change his attitude. He dropped and lay there
with his tail flopping like a headless chicken.
The first thought was, "oh no, we killed him."
No chance. He got up and ki-yied for the house.
The dog never chased us again. He just barked
from the front porch—like a good dog. We al-
ways wondered if the old man knew why his dog
quit chasing us.
We never caught the big cat—only his little
brothers, but we sure had fun and made memo-
ries. I reckon he is one big catfish by now.
While there on this visit I wondered if boys
still fished with stolen catalpa worms and
busted big black bitin' dogs with bois d'arc ap-
ples while doing a balancing act on the handle
bars of a bike.
Grandma's house is still there, the missing
brick on the fireplace chimney where the wood
duck nests and fledges her brood each year is
still missing. The toad, or some of his kin, is
there under the front stoop and the ancient
hackberry with its moss-covered roots still
stands sentry at the edge of the road.
I noticed on the way out of town that the ca-
talpa tree was covered with worms. The black
dog was not there and the house was vacant and
falling down.
Somewhere in the mists of time there are two
boys chunkin' apples at bitin' dogs and headin'
for the bottoms. More memories shared.
Enjoy your world—it's a good place to be!
Dream House, with more empha-
sis on finding sex than success
with restoration. It's a beautiful film
to watch and Diane Lane does her
best to breathe life into a script that
is so very predictable. She plays a
writer who, after divorcing her phi-
landering husband, flies off to Italy
to start a new life. There she finds a
new love—a rundown villa,
Bramasole, that she buys on the
spur of the moment. But Tuscany is
not the soul-saver that Frances
hopes for. The house's promise of ro-
mance and a new life in Tuscany
don't burst into bloom like sunflow-
ers. While some really funny and
very interesting Italian characters
are introduced, they get left in the
dust for our heroine's fling with an
Italian heart-throb (Raoui Bova).
Along the way there's a lot of eating,
drinking, romancing, laughing and
crying until Frances has suffered
enough and the film slaps on a
happy ending. PG-13
Hue and 3 Halt Boxes
THE DANCER UPSTAIRS:
(2003) Javier Bardem. John
Malkovich's first feature film is
adapted from a novel by Nicholas
Shakespeare, who also wrote the
screenplay. In an unnamed Latin
American country a police official
named Rejas (Javier Bardem),
chases a magically charismatic
guerrilla chief called Ezequiel
(Abel Folk). On the DVD of this
unusual film, Nicholas Shake-
speare tells of going to Peru to
seek the Maoist terrorist group
Shing Path and its leader, Abimael
Guzman, who was captured in
1992. His novel was the result. A
Kantain philosopher, Ezequiel is
as much an idea as a man. Rejas
stays calm in his pursuit, and
Javier Bardem plays him with a
morose wit. The story, as it un-
folds, is somber, understated and
chilling. There is other commen-
tary on the DVD. R
Three Soxes
A MIGHTY WIND: (2003)
Eugene Levy, Christopher Guest.
Folk singers from the 60's gather
for a tribute at Town Hall in
Manhattan. None of them is real,
but in a film by Christopher
Guest, it's hard to imagine them
as fictional. He wrote the movie
with Eugene Levy, who plays the
intensely neurotic Mitch Cohen,
half of the famed old folk duo
Mitch and Mickey (Catherine
O'Hara). Their jokes are some-
times so subtle as to seem imper-
ceptible, until you realize they are
everywhere, from the broadest
gestures to the tiniest details of
dress and decor. The spoofing car-
ries over into the commentary on
the DVD as Eugene Levy recalls
that the Wisemen and the
Balladeers got together with
Raumblin' Sandy Pitnik to be-
come the Main Street Singers.
Not so, answers Christopher
Guest, the Village Folk Ensemble
merged with the Clapper Family
to become the Neuffet Sound and
then the Main Street Singers.
Anyway, regulars like Eugene
Levy, Parker Posey, Bob Balaban,
Catherine O'Hara and Fred Wil-
lard give their all to the parody,
and it is impossible to think of a
group of people capable of being
funny in so many different ways.
PG-13
Three Soxes
VIDEO TIP: There's a new
Woody Allen film opening. You
might want to watch Barbara
Kopple's 1997 documentary Wild
Man Blues that follows Woody
Allen on a tour of the Continent as
he socializes and concertizes with
his Dixieland band. Some of the
sequences are entertaining, but
many are startling, also shocking
in their depiction of the several
crosses that Allen has either cho-
sen or been forced to bear. The
film includes footage of his wife,
Soon-Yi, and of his aged, implaca-
ble obtuse parents.
Gran
f
Campano
(predicador:
jhfno. (Ramon ^Enriquez
d'e CMhuafua, Chi ft.
MercoCes, 10/8 hasta e[
SaSacfo, 10/11: 7:00p.m. yeC
CDomingo<, 10/12: 6:00 p.m.
Venga a gozarse con nosotros!
Spanish (RevivaC Center
114 S. 4th
323-9352
Si necesita transportation, [fame at323-8407.
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Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 41, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 9, 2003, newspaper, October 9, 2003; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth220599/m1/21/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.