Imagine if there actually was a world where nobody could lie. All the 20 year olds would be enjoying their time at home instead of living the bar scene. There would be a lot more failed relationships because the women would find out that yes, that dress does actually make you look fat. And yes, guys, when your shirt is off 24/7 during the summer, doing so may actually make you look like a tool. Well, in The Invention of Lying, there is a world like that. And having this world as a backdrop to the movie makes for an enjoyable time.

Like I said, the movie is set in an alternate reality where nobody has ever told a lie. Not only do they not lie, but the people living in this reality often tell the entire truth. This is especially tough on Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais, star of Ghost Town and creater of The Office). Mark is a lecture film writer, a very unsuccessful one at that. His movies basically consist of a narrarator sitting on screen, lecturing about historic events. Not only is Mark not succesful, but he is also very unattractive, as he is told by his date in the beginning of the movie Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Gardner). The day after that date, Mark is fired from his job, because his movie about the Black Plague is sparking no interest. Also, when Mark goes to the bank after being fired, he finds that he is short on his rent. He then, for reasons he can not even figure out, tells the first lie, claiming that he has $800, enough to pay the rent. The bank teller, assuming that she made a mistake, gives Mark the money. Mark becomes fascinated with this new found power, and realizing that nobody else can comprehend lying, decides to use it to his advantage. Things begin to go really well for Mark, but when he makes up a lie to his mother about 'a place you go when you die', things begin to backfire on him. He then has to make a decision on whether to use his ability to lie for himself or for the good of everyone else.

Typical of a Gervais movie, there is nothing flashy about this. However, this movie moves swiftly from scene to scene, never really skipping a beat. It's a completely different story that any that I've ever seen, so I was immediately attached to it. There aren't a lot of laugh out loud moments, but instead a repetition of small chuckles, which, if you're in the mood for it, works out well. I guess I was just in the mood for one of these types of movies.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc79ho-PzeE

Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are is a classic children's book by Maurice Sendak. I grew up with it as have millions of people across the world. Not going to lie the book terrified me and I hated the pictures of all the grotesque monsters. But hey, I was like 5 years old. When I heard about it being adapted to film I was pretty excited to see it. So on a Friday night I went and faced my fears over the Wild Things.

It is a story about a boy named Max who runs away from his home and goes off to a far off land. There he encounters the Wild Things and to keep them from eating him alive, he convinces them that he has special powers and they then proclaim as king. He promises to group to keep out all the sadness with his special shield and they all become civilized under Max's direction. They build a fort for all of them to live in but eventually things become tense. Max then realizes he is not a king at all, just a young boy who belongs at home with his mother.

Surprisingly this movie was directed by Spike Jonze who is the writer and producer of Jackass. Luckily he was under the guidance by producer Tom Hanks and they really pulled off a great movie. There aren't any familiar faces other than Max's mom (Catherine Keener who starred in 40 Year Old Virgin) because they are only 3 human characters. None of the voice actors are that well-known either, save Forrest Whittacre. He is joined by James Gandolfini, Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine), Catherine O'Hara, Michael Berry Jr., and Chris Cooper plus a raccoon named Richard who was responsible for many of my random laughs through the movie.

As far as children's movies go, I wouldn't take anyone under the age of 8 to it. It's not as simple as a 50 page children's book would suggest. I have the feeling that watching this when I was 5 would of made me even more terrified. But as a 20 year old, I was highly entertained the whole time. Its very uniquely played out and honestly it was pretty abnormal... But beyond its peculiarity, I enjoyed it entirely. I was highly amused by the whole thing and I laughed a lot. Finally, I can say that I am no longer afraid of Where the Wild Things Are-- there's one in all of us.

Rating: 3 of 4 Stars.

One on One With Joe Gow

I had the chance to sit down for a one on one interview with our Chancellor to find out more about himself and his hopes for the university in the future as it celebrates its Centennial. We talked about many things and hopefully you all will get to know Joe Gow a little bit better by this.

TR: First of all, where is your hometown?
Joe Gow: "Well it's hard for me to say home town, because I moved a lot but I spent first grade through freshman year of college in Pennsylvania.

TR: Very cool, what did you study in college?
Gow: "I went three schools just for my undergrad, not many people know that. First year I went to a place called Westchester University. Then I went to New York University and then I transfered to Penn State for my junior and senior years. I started in Business and then changed to Journalism. I went to Alabama for graduate school for Speech Communication and then my doctorate at Penn State also for speech communication. So I've been a number of places.

TR: What brought you to La Crosse?
Gow: "Well its just a dream come true. I knew after awhile I wanted to be a leader of a great university. When I was selected I just couldn't say no."

Q: So what is your favorite part about La Crosse and Wisconsin?
Gow: Basically the people, particularly the students here at UW-L."

TR: You're in your Junior year as Chancellor of UWL, immediately you were a bit of a celebrity on campus. How did that all come about?
Gow: "Well, it in the past my inclination was that students did not really know much about who the Chancellor was. So I made it a point to be a visible figure and they really like that."

TR: What do you think of all the attention?
Gow: [Laughs] "Well I think it's great, I mean who wouldn't want that?"

TR: So we all know your a guitarist, who are your musical influences?
Gow: "Hard rock of 1970s and blues of the 50s. So Led Zepplin, it all comes together there. I am in a band now with a faculty member and lawyer and will be playing a show at the Popcorn Tavern on November 13th at 10:45pm We will be playing lots of stuff like Jimi Hendrix and Cream."

TR: Are you a sports fan?
Gow: "I used to play a lot when I was younger but now I only run and lift weights for exercise. I love to watch football. Right now I'm pretty interested in what Brett Favre is trying to do at his age, it's pretty remarkable."

TR: I'm sure you're pretty preoccuppied but do you have any hobbies?
Gow: "Yeah its busy, but I always make time for music and of course films. Me and my wife are members of Netflix."

TR: What's on your Ipod?
Gow: "Well put it this way, in my car CD-player I've got the tubes, John Lee Hooker, and Van Halen."

TR: During your time here at La Crosse one of your major staples are your frequent emails. Who thought of that?
Gow: "I came here from a bunch of smaller schools of only about 1,500 students in Nebraska, and we have almost 10,000 students and almost 1,000 people work here and I thought, 'How can I reach all of these people?' So coming from a journalism background, I thought why don't I write some notes? Some people reply back to me but I don't always have time to do a lengthy reply but I do try to connect."

TR: What is your crowning moment to date for you as Chancellor?
Gow: "Defininitely the passing of Growth, Quality, and Access was a big day for me. Of course I cannot take credit for it all as many, many people put hard work into it but it was an important achievement for UWL."

TR: What was your childhood dream?
Gow: "I wanted to be a rockstar. Hey, I still want to."

TR: What is your proudest memory?
Gow: "Well at my last job they wanted to offer me extra salary and I said I don't need the money and I'd like to give it back and I'm pretty proud of that. The basic thing is it isn't about the money, but about the opportunity."

TR: Any guilty pleasures?
Gow: "I'm pretty straight-forward. I like what I like."

TR: What would attempt if you knew you could not fail?
Gow: "I usually try to do things I want to do, and being Chancellor of this university is one of those things."

TR: Very true and you may not be a rock star but at least you are one on campus. Finally, what is the major thing who hope to accomplish here during the rest of your time as Chancellor?
Gow: "To keep the university moving forward. So that when you graduate in 10 or 15 years and people ask you where you went to college and you say University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. They say "Wow, that is a great school." That's what I'm trying to do.

Thank you to Joe Gow for allowing for this interview to be taken place. As UW-L is entering its second century, we should feel confident that we are be well guided by a qualified and down-to-earth guy.

Students to Put on "Hair" Performance to Benefit Scholarship Fund

Did you miss this summer's performance of Hair on UW-L's SummerStage in July? Well good news, students from the theater program have organized a "Hair Under the Clock Tower Tribal Reunion." The event will be held on Wednesday October 21st under the clock tower from 4-6 pm. The performance will consist of acoustic and a capella numbers from the original Broadway score. These will be performed by many members of the cast from the summer performances in Toland Theater. The cast was composed students from both UW-L and Viterbo as well as community members who have fallen in love with this classic musical. Shannon McDonald, cast member and one of the performance's organizers, states, "It was a huge experience for all of us in the cast, and we all were going to jump at the chance to get back together for a good cause. We seriously felt like a family."

Hair is an old tradition for UW-L but due to a recent Broadway revival, it was unable to be put on this fall. Says McDonald, "This show is done every 10 years at UW-L and it is a huge encompassing experience for everyone in the cast, crew, and audience." Donations will be accepted as the event will be free of admission. All proceeds will be contributed to the theater department's scholarship fund dedicated to the late UW-L student, Peter Talen. "The Peter Talen Scholarship Fund is a scholarship based solely from donations from supporters of the department and goes to the most deserving students. We plan on having donation buckets dispersed throughout the crowd so that talented students will not have to feel a financial burden on their future in theater."

Come see a up close and personal performance of a classic American theater under the clock tower. If you are passing through, feel free to stick around for a few songs. All donations collected will be greatly appreciated and will help the arts live on here at UW-L.

When is it?

October 21st (Wednesday) from 4-6pm

Where?

Under the Clock Tower.

And its for FREE.

October Looks To Be Promising for the Cinema

This month is going to be a big month for movies. Already released last weekend were The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais, the spoofy horror Zombieland, and the rerelease of Disney/Pixar's Toy Story/Toy Story 2 in 3-D. Next weekend on October 9th will be the release of the new Vince Vaughn comedy Couples' Retreat. Law Abiding Citizen looks to be one of the most epically intense films of the year and stars both Jamie Foxx and Gerald Butler, out Oct. 16th. Also out that week will be the adaption of Maurice Sendak's classic, Where the Wild Things Are, and the thriller The Stepfather. Halloween-natured films dominate the weekend of Oct. 23 with Saw IV, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, and the 3-D release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. The rock-doc on Michael Jackson's cancelled tour This is It begins its short two-week run on Oct. 28. Closing out the month on Oct. 30, much to the pleasure of college students nation wide is The Boondock Saints II: All Saint's Day in limited release.

Eric and I will do our best to keep you updated on these movies so you don't pay for a few hours of disappointment. See you in the theaters and thanks for reading.

The Informant!

The newest work under the director of Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Trilogy) is The Informant!, a quirky dark comedy based on Kurt Eichenwald's 2000 book, the true tale about the highest-ranked whistle-blower in the history of white collar crime, Mark Whitacre (played by Matt Damon). Whitacre is a Cornell Ph. D. and is a rising star at Archer Daniels Midland, an agribusiness powerhouse involved in the high-fructose corn syrup found in about 90% of our grocery products. ADM was a powerful Fortune 500 company and was earning millions by price fixing with its competitors. Whitacre saw himself as an honest man and could not stand seeing himself letting illegal operations slide by under his watch. He was a tattle-tale who just wanted to do the right thing.

Through 5 years of serving the FBI as an informant, Whitacre provides hundreds of secretly recorded tapes from business meetings and other discussions. Unfortunately, he suffers from a bipolar disorder making it difficult for him to tell the truth. The FBI becomes frustrated as he slowly becomes another boy-who-cried-wolf. The dam bursts for Whitacre after he reveals that he siphoned off millions of dollars for himself, defending himself with the claims that "everyone was doing it." Whitacre brough ADM down, himself included.

The Informant! is an amusing film, there is a lot of subtle humor and a lot of quirky laughs. The script is filled with quotes of Whitacres thoughts, one of my favorites: "Polar bears cover their noses before they pounce on a seal. How do polar bears know their noses are black? Did they look in the water one day, see their reflection and say, 'Man, I'd be invisible if it wasn't for that thing.'" The score is equally erractic (perhaps mirroring the nature of Whitacre's bipolar imagination), it ranges from jazzy, to whimsical, to nearly Revolutionary War patriotic. There are a lot of familiar faces in supporting cast, including Joel McHale from E! Network and NBC's new comedy Community. George Clooney also makes the credits as an executive producer. This was a fun movie to sit though and I found plenty of laughs to be amused by. Damon totally nails his role, and is obviously one of the most versatile actors in the game. You can wait til it hits DVD but this sly comedy is a film worth seeing though the last 20 minutes seems at times rushed and at times drawn out too far. Hey, maybe your business law professor will assign it. We can dream right?

Rating: 2.5/4

Rated R for language.


The Informant! Trailer

Zombieland

I don't really venture into this genre too often. I think the only zombie movie I've seen is Shaun of the Dead. It's not my cup of tea. When I heard about this new knock on a zombie flick, I was understandably hesitant. I did some looking into it and when I saw that it had the likes of Woody Harrelson (Kingpin, No Country for Old Men), Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland, The Squid and the Whale), Emma Stone (Superbad), and Abigiail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, Definitely Maybe, My Sister's Keeper), I became a little more optimistic about seeing this. Once the trailers and TV spots started making it's way to computers and televisions everywhere, I became ridiculously interested in seeing it. Needless to say I was pretty giddy when I was waiting through the ads and previews, and I was not disappointed once it was showtime.

Zombieland is about the struggle of the remaining humans on earth to fight off the attacking zombies and stay alive. The story is narrarated by one of those lucky guys named Colombus, played by Eisenberg. He is the typical awkward hero we've come to recognize in most movies these days. He is the next Michael Cera for comparison's sake, but he is actually way better and has a much brighter future ahead of him. Nonetheless, he is on a trip back to his hometown when he meets Talahassee, who is also on a journey of his own. His mission in life is to find the last remaining Twinkie on earth. They end up joining forces because there is nobody else around, and they might as well hang out while time permits. While they are on a search for the last remaining Twinkie, they encounter two girls named Wichita and Little Rock, who end up tricking the guys into thinking one of them was bitten by a zombie, giving them the opportunity to steal the guys' truck. They end up crossing paths later on and when they realize that they will get nowhere on their own, they team up in the fight against the zombies. They then head cross-country, killing zombies that come across their path, all while trying to keep each other as safe as they can be, hoping that they will survive this.

This movie was solid. Like I said before, this genre isn't geared towards my liking, but I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. The first few minutes were actually a little bit scary, but when it's mixed with the impressive timing of Jesse Eisenberg, it actually is enjoyable. The movie never loses steam because of the chemistry of Eisenberg and Harrelson. It was one of the first things that I noticed watching this. They were the perfect fit for these roles. For a zombie movie, this was phenominal. You will get all the entertainment you need, and you will get way more laughs then you could have imagined. A must see.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-cIjPOJdFM