DIALOGUE EDITOR’S NOTE 2014 Restaurant Awards ➜ It’s the No. 1 rule of journalism, an
industry whose rulebook is thicker than Hoover Dam: If you mention a person’s name, get it right. So you can appreciate how mildly aggravated I got many years (and one publication) ago when I would frequently receive mail and phone calls intended for my colleague Max Jacobson. It wasn’t even so much the misidentifcation as it was the fact that—our names notwithstanding—Max and I couldn’t possibly be any different: Max is highly educated and a world traveler; I got through San Diego State and still haven’t even seen Oregon. Max speaks multiple languages; aside from Donde ésta la cerveza?, I speak one. More than anything, though, Max’s job as a food writer required him to possess an adventurous palate that appreciated everything from a casino-cart hot dog to bone marrow. I, on the other hand, gag if I come within 5 feet of steamed broccoli. I take this time to reminisce about Max because this week we present our ffth annual Restaurant Awards (see Page 20); it’s the frst one we’ve completed without Max’s expertise, as he recovers from a severe brain injury suffered December 23. We’re happy to report that Max continues to make steady progress—an aside: For information about the next Chefs to the Max beneft dinner, visit VegasSeven.com/ChefsToThe Max—but his road to recovery remains long. Thankfully, in Max’s stead, we’ve been able to continue to provide unparalleled coverage of the Las Vegas dining scene, thanks to the work of dining editor Xania Woodman, and regular contributors Al Mancini and Grace Bascos. That talented trio led the charge in helping to select and write this year’s 39 Restaurant Award winners. Along with striking photography from Anthony Mair and Jon Estrada, and sleek design work from creative director Ryan Olbrysh, I believe we’ve put together an issue that would make Max’s mouth water. I know I look forward to the day when my alter ego and I can sit down and enjoy the two dishes I wrote about: lasagna and tater tots. – Matt Jacob
THIS WEEK @ VEGASSEVEN.COM
LAST SUPPER AT POPPY DEN
The recent closure of Tivoli Village’s Poppy Den, one of the first restaurants that sparked the trend of celebrity chefs going off-Strip, left a void in the hearts of many local foodies. Read what chef Angelo Sosa calls a “heartbreaking story” at VegasSeven. com/PoppyDen.
REELING REBELS
The UNLV football team’s ugly 58-13 loss at Arizona to open the 2014 season left many wondering what’s in store for the Rebels going forward. Get Mike Grimala’s five takeaways from the game at RunRebs.com/Arizona, and follow the team all season at RunRebs. com/Football.
FOLLOW US! Facebook.com/VegasSeven
MURAL, MURAL ON THE WALL
If you’ve strolled through Downtown in recent months, you’ve probably noticed the murals left over from last year’s Life Is Beautiful festival. Some of the best are on display at Zappos headquarters, and we’ve got your inside look. Browse our online gallery at DTLV.com/ZapposMurals.
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VegasSeven.com
| September 4–10, 2014
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You’ll find 11 varieties of pizza—and maybe even a soul mate—at Pizza Rock.
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Mac-N-Cheese Bacon Burger, Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen & Bar
You could put the words “mac ’n’ cheese” and “bacon” in front of “cardboard box,” and Americans would still be clamoring to eat it. But we’ll be damned if Guy Fieri’s New York Burger Bash-winner isn’t one of the most well-crafted burgers we’ve encountered—one that doesn’t taste like overkill, either. In addition to the pasta and the bacon,
there’s a whole slew of other ingredients in play, including crispy onion straws and the chef’s much-maligned-but-unsurprisingly-tasty Donkey Sauce. Put it all together, and you’ve got a burger that is pretty much Fieri on a toasted brioche bun: larger than life and crazyfull of flavor. $20, in the Quad, 702-731-3311, TheQuadLV.com.
September 4–10, 2014
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
B E ST B U R G E R
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NIGHTLIFE Your city after dark, photos from the week’s hottest parties and a Vegas DJ by way of Israel
Long Live the Double Down The story behind P Moss’ successfully exported bar brand is an actual tale of two cities
The Original: Double Down Las Vegas.
VegasSeven.com
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USUALLY, A BUSINESS LAUNCHES in New York City and, if it’s successful enough, it opens an outpost in Las Vegas. Dos Caminos and Il Mulino, Coyote Ugly and the Carnegie Deli, Tao nightclub and Rao’s—all were born in Manhattan and fourished there before dropping a sister property in Las Vegas. But one local business moved boldly in the opposite direction. The Double Down, Las Vegas’ venerable punk-rock dive bar since 1992, opened a location in New York’s East Village in spring 2006. Why? “New York is the capital of the world! Everything happens in New York,” explains Double Down owner P Moss. Gotham City glory was one reason, but there was also the urge to swim against the tide. “We were the only place that went the other way,” Moss continues. “At the time, everyone was moving out to Vegas—restaurants, bars, clubs. They got all kinds of cash incentives from the casinos, free rent,” he adds, “I wanted to do the opposite.” So the Double Down moved to a place where space is at a pricey premium and the Byzantine licensing regulations make Las Vegas’ laws seem as simple as the bar’s house rule of “You puke, you clean.” First, there was the New York state ban on smoking—those who need nicotine are driven to the front sidewalk or back patio. And,
September 4–10, 2014
PHOTO BY P MOSS
By Lissa Townsend Rodgers
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NIGHTLIFE 34
of course, no video poker. In New York City, patrons may not dance or “move rhythmically” according to a longstanding and long-loathed cabaret license law; however, New York’s Double Down is allowed to show the collection of old VHS pornography that the original Double Down has been denied by Nevada gaming regulations. Aaron Morris, a drummer who has lived in New York and Las Vegas and is a patron of both bars, says, “the Vegas Double Down is unique. There’s nothing like it. In New York you can fnd a similar bar within a few blocks.” And the Double Down is an easy ft in the East Village, a neighborhood that once hosted more than a dozen noisy, sticker-covered punk-rock bars. As luxury housing and designer boutiques have replaced the original hangouts, the Double Down is the new kid that keeps it old school. Years ago, I played Las Vegas tour guide to my former professor/editor and the dean of American rock critics, Bob Christgau, and took him for a beer at the original Double Down. After a few minutes, he looked about in recognition and declared: “This is the Las Vegas CBGBs.” Being in a city of 80 museums and 60 universities has brought a slightly more East Coast boho vibe to the newer Double Down: The mural
features Dizzy Gillespie and scenes from La Dolce Vita and, this being the Village, you may fnd yourself sitting next to a guy in red-framed glasses who manages to drop James Franco’s name three times in less than 10 minutes. But even while absorbing local color, the New York version sticks close to the original recipe. The daytime happy hour draws a gang of regulars that, in a certain late-afternoon light, might be Cheers as fltered through Ramones Mania and The Road Warrior. There are the murals oozing vividly across every wall; the lovingly hand-scrawled signs advertising bacon martinis and Ass Juice shots; the bathroom door that doesn’t lock right; the windows which—wait, what?! Windows? Yes, the NYC Double Down has windows, giant ones that take up almost the entire front of the building—a prime spot for that archetypical New York City sport of people-watching, but an oddity in a bar known for its Stygian gloom. “It’s pretty well shaded by the buildings surrounding, so it doesn’t get really bright in there. Then again, it ain’t that dark of a bar to begin with,” explains Rex Dart, who is a regular DJ at the Vegas Double Down, and has DJ’d the NYC spot’s anniversary parties. Given that they won’t let you in until noon, and will throw you out before sunrise, the windows aren’t as traumatic as
they would be in Las Vegas, but they’re off-putting to some who are used to the timeless darkness of the original Double Down. “It’s been a tremendous success,” says Moss of his New York outpost, where plans for the eighth anniversary festivities are already under way. The
transplant of the slightly-forbiddingon-the-outside-but-entirelywelcoming-on-the-inside vibe of the Double Down seems to have taken root. “Both places are staffed by what feels like my family,” Dart says. Or, as Morris simply says, “It’s a great fucking bar.”
PHOTOS BY P MOSS
September 4–10, 2014
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Clockwise: the stage at Double Down Las Vegas; the bar at Double Down New York; and a mural in the New York location.
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
DRAI’S NIGHTCLUB The Cromwell [ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
PHOTOS BY TOBY ACUNA, BOBBY JAMEIDAR AND JOSH METZ
September 4–10, 2014
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Sept. 5 Helena spins Sept. 6 Makj spins Sept. 7 Sundrai’s with DJ Crooked
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
LIQUID Aria
[ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
PHOTOS BY TEDDY FUJIMOTO
September 4–10, 2014
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Sept. 5 Fluid Fridays with Greg Lopez Sept. 6 DJ Spider spins Sept. 7 #SocialSundays with DJ E-Rock
A peek inside the world of a real-life mystery diner
September 4–10, 2014
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By Al Mancini
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LET’S CALL HER JOSEPHINE, after Josephine Baker, who spied for the Allies during World War II. Because revealing her real name would cost Josephine her job. Like me, she gets paid to visit top restaurants and report back on her experience. But while my name and my face are widely known in the local food-and-beverage world, virtually nobody in the industry knows who Josephine is. And while I write for newspapers and magazines, she works for a company that gets paid by restaurant owners to spy on their own employees. Josephine won’t tell me the name of the company she works for, because she would likely be terminated if I called and asked about her. (In case you couldn’t tell, this is all very secretive stuff!) But she shows me her permit from the Private Investigators
Licensing Board that allows her to serve as a mystery diner. Better yet, she shows me an assignment form from her employer (with its name redacted) that demonstrates exactly what she needs to fle. The form is eight pages long. It begins by asking for the time and date of her reservation, her table or check number and the name and description of the hosts, servers, bartenders and manager. She then has to fll out about 200 questions regarding her experience: making her reservation, checking in, getting a drink at the bar and dining. They range from commenting on various employees’ behavior and appearance to whether the busser asked permission before removing food from the table to the freshness of beverage garnishes. And, Josephine clarifes, these aren’t
simply “yes” or “no” answers. “I have to write a long narrative. [For example], ‘I called on this date. It rang three times. Abby answered the phone. She had a kind tone in her voice.’” To make sure she gets it right, she covertly texts herself notes throughout her meal about things such as when her water arrived and how long it took her waiter to visit the table. That’s clearly much more detail than you’ll fnd in any of my reviews— or any professional review. So I could only hope Josephine is well compensated. Sadly, she informed me, mystery dining isn’t something one does for the money. “I get reimbursed [for the meal], plus $30,” she told me as my draw dropped. “So basically I get to eat for free. But let me tell you, it’s way more than $30 worth of work.” Of course, when your assignments
ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO
DINING
Cloak-and-Dagger Dining
include dinner with a guest at restaurants the likes of Carnevino, B&B Ristorante, China Poblano, Jaleo and STK, those free meals are a pretty nice perk. With a schedule of one or two assignments a week, Josephine clearly eats better than most. And if she continues working for this company she could very well progress to reviewing luxury hotels both inside and outside of Las Vegas, or even cruise ships, which would mean some pretty nice free vacations. But as I read over all of the forms, I’m struck by her need to name every employee, or at least provide a detailed description of their appearance. When I write a negative review of service, I never name names. Nonetheless, I always feel a little guilty when I hear someone has gotten fred for something I wrote. How does it make Josephine feel that she could be costing people their jobs? “Like shit,” she responds bluntly. As a result, she says, when a dining room is slammed, she might overlook a minor infraction. “I never lie on my evaluations,” she insists. “But if it’s something very minute that I can leave out, then I will, if it’s going to possibly hurt somebody’s job.” If you think you can handle the stress, and the intense attention to details, there are plenty of companies on the Internet hiring mystery shoppers and diners. Personally, I’ll stick with this magazine.
A&E
CONCERT
ALBUMS WE'RE BUYING 1 Opeth, Pale Communion
2 Atmosphere, Southsiders
3 Ariana Grande, My Everything
4 Various Artists, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1
5 Wiz Khalifa, Blacc Hollywood
According to sales at Zia Record Exchange at 4225 S. Eastern Ave., Aug. 24-31.
DISC SCAN
Upcoming albums on Andreas Hale's radar … Lupe Fiasco and his lyrical dexterity will look to remind the industry about his ridiculous talent with his Tetsuo & Youth album. Meanwhile, Chris Brown’s X will attempt to sustain the buzz the recently incarcerated singer gained with the smash hit “Loyal.” SEP
16
Theophilus London offers a little too much excitement Boulevard Pool at the Cosmopolitan, August 28 rapper/songwriter who entertained fans with a genre-defying 12-song set. London debuted three new songs from his upcoming album, Vibezz, and he channeled his inner Michael Jackson by dancing with fans and inviting ladies onstage. London’s singing shined more than his rapping, though he seamlessly switched between the two during “Flying Overseas” and “I Stand Alone.” Unfortunately, London’s charisma and energy away when he invited the entire audience onstage—causing a scuffle with security and cutting his set short. It was fun, it was wild, but most
September 4–10, 2014
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got the best of him as he tried to excite the tiny crowd, which consisted of more people sitting poolside than standing. Things got carried
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WHAT I LIKE ABOUT POWER POP Get your skinny ties! The Rock of the ’80s tour brings the Romantics (“What I Like About You”), the Smithereens (“A Girl Like You”), Marshall Crenshaw (“Someday, Someway”) and Tommy Tutone (“867-5309/Jenny”) to Eastside Cannery on Sept. 5 ($15-$35).
GREAT OUT OF COMPTON Word is that Kendrick Lamar will release his follow-up to 2012’s magnificent good kid, m.A.A.d. city later this year. In the meantime, Lamar returns to the Cosmopolitan’s Boulevard Pool on Sept. 6 ($55) as part of Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat Weekend.
ON SALE NOW I think Tenacious D cofounder Kyle Gass looks just like Frank Black from the Pixies. My friend thinks he looks like Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Draw your own conclusions when the Kyle Gass Band plays a special Halloween show at Hard Rock Live on Oct. 31 ($15-$20).
PHOTO BY ERIK K ABIK/ERIKK ABIK.COM
“This is our pool party. This is a meet and greet. Let’s make this one intimate,” said the gaudily dressed Trinidadian-born, Brooklyn-based
importantly, it was entertaining. ★★★✩✩ – Ian Caramanzana
Las Vegas-raised Ne-Yo throws his fedora into the mix of R&B’s elite with Non Fiction, while Fashawn’s The Ecology looks to make a smart man out of Nas, who signed the Fresno, California, rapper to his Mass Appeal imprint earlier this year. SEP
A&E
ART
Entrance Interview A studio visit with a Vegas newcomer reveals her love of desert space, speed and sky By Jenessa Kenway
September 4–10, 2014
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SHE JUST MOVED HERE FROM LOS ANGELES,
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but don’t be fooled by her former area code: Rachel Stiff is an artist born and raised in wide-open spaces. She grew up in Grass Range, Montana, where “there were more cows than people.” Her undergraduate and master’s degrees are from the universities of Montana and Arizona, respectively. Hers was a 10-month sojourn in L.A. before the call of open spaces beckoned once more. “The earlier the cooler,” we agreed, settling on a 9 a.m. visit to her studio garage space located at her home near Red Rock Canyon. The foor was tiled wall to wall with paint-smirched cardboard, and a large pile of paint tubes massed in the center. The mildish, heated-pool warmth of a Vegas summer morning flled the space as we chatted on a paisley couch facing a trio of Stiff’s paintings.
[my romantic partner] was here. Vegas seems like it’s a good place to work and a good place to get outside. Your painting “Long Distance” reminds me of nature, with its hazy pink and neon orange mist sliding past jutting gray angular shapes. Do outdoor activities get into your paintings? For sure. The sort of problem solving that you have to do in rock climbing, I just take it into all aspects of life. Like, “How am I going to get out of this one? I don’t want to fall. I’m scared.” I have to work through being scared; it’s just like life.
How are you holding up in the heat? I have no AC. The heat in the studio is defnitely a factor right now. It slows down progress some, but mostly I just push through. I still drink hot tea instead of cold drinks. I sort of like the mild suffering, but it can get a bit draining.
As a newcomer, what are your impressions of Las Vegas’ art scene? What I have discovered in the short months of living here is that there are many dedicated artists with good support from quality galleries. When I frst got here, Mark Brandvik was having his show [Volume Control] at Vast, and it was really cool for me. Before moving, I attended some UNLV MFA shows as well. What I found there represented a very solid art department. Las Vegas art is strong and is building momentum.
What brought you to Las Vegas? I sort of missed open space, and
Do any of the paintings you’ve done since moving to Las Vegas show
your shift from L.A. to Nevada? The one Shannon [McMackin] has at Vast is the frst painting that I made here. But also, this one is the follow-up to that. [She points to a painting hanging across from us containing a brooding blue and brown sky with bits of pale yellow cloud hanging over ranges of red and purple. It brings to mind recent Nevada summer storms.] What feature of the Nevada landscape has stood out most to you? It’s been a lot about what the sky is doing for me here. It’s so huge! Also, just the way the city sprawls and how you can travel across the landscape so quickly. In L.A., you were always stopped; there was always some complication. Here, it’s just space and speed and sky. That’s really coming into the paintings. It’s like velocity. Wooosh! But also how many different manipulations of the landscapes there are between here and Henderson. Green patches of manicured neighborhoods and then you’ll drive to where the desert is just being itself, then to areas of construction. ... That kind of stuff makes an impact on the way I’m painting. Being here, I’ve realized I’m a landscape painter, although abstract. I’ve really just owned that. I’m a landscape painter … now everything’s got gravity. How do you view the constructed landscapes of the Strip? From outside town, I see Las Vegas as a tiny set made of human things. Bright lights, the observation wheel and the Stratosphere all seem like fgurines set against the vast desert. It sometimes feels so fctional, almost like a fantastical city. … Most of all, I love the idea of man-made glitz delicately resting in the palm of a giant desert.
South Korean power-violence? You know I want some, which is why I’ll be in the mosh pit at 9 p.m. September 7 at the Dive, where My Man Mike will maul everyone in earshot. This explosive trio released a raucous 10-track album last year called Will You Marry Me? that wickedly weds thrash-metal riffs with punk-rock attitude. The lyrics are in English, and right now my favorite song is the hilariously titled “Hey Man, I Found Viagra on the Street,” about the perils of swallowing random pills. Also on the bill: Portland punkers Piss Piss Piss and local acts Unfair Fight, Sheep on a Cliff, In Fugue and tongue-in-cheek rockers Time Crashers. Santa Cruz, California, rockabilly three-piece the Chop Tops will chap asses and eardrums at 9 p.m. September 8 at Triple B. These guys have a real garage-stomping vibe, and I love the hot guitar licks and cool vocal harmonies in “My Curse.” They’re obviously big Carl Perkins fans, which earns them points in my rock-critic gradebook. Anyone who’s attended Viva Las Vegas probably knows the Tops well. Also on the bill: Las Vegas psychobilly trio Dead at Midnite and Henderson country-core quartet The People’s Whiskey. Baton Rouge, Louisana-born black-metal ensemble Barghest is slated to bludgeon suspecting headbangers at Cheyenne Saloon at 8 p.m. September 9. If there had been any justice, the music made by these delinquents would’ve appeared in HBO’s dark crime series True Detective, because Barghest emanates the vilest, scariest evil. Taking their name from a goblin monster in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the band’s new CD The Virtuous Purge has caused me to lose more than a few nights of sleep what with all the blast-beats, brutal bellowing and blistering guitar. I pray Barghest’s set list will include crucifying cut “When the Cross Points to Hell,” because I like it when music frightens me. Your band releasing new music? Email Jarret_Keene@Yahoo.com.
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
KOREAN PUNK, CALIFORNIA ROCKABILLY, BAYOU METAL
A&E
MOVIES
EXPLORING EVER AFTER John Lithgow and Alfred Molina star in this touching meditation on love and its hurdles By Michael Phillips Tribune Media Services
SOMETHING WONDERFUL HAPPENS IN the fnal minutes of Love Is Strange. A careful, humble examination of a marriage opens up emotionally, thanks to co-writer and director Ira Sachs’ use of a lullaby, Chopin’s “Berceuse Op. 57 in D-fat major.” From the moment a supporting character at last allows himself to grieve the loss of a loved one, up through the ensuing 11 or 12 exterior shots, photographed on the streets of New York alive with renewal and young love, a good flm transforms into a very good one. Many will be moved to tears by Love Is Strange, which Sachs earns the hard way: not by amping up the dramatic situations, but by grace notes and quiet spells cast by the right actors. Co-written with Mauricio Zacharias, who worked with Sachs on the earlier feature Keep the Lights On, Love Is Strange is extremely simple in its outline. It begins with Ben and George, readying themselves in their Manhattan apartment for the day ahead. It is a momentous one, though typical of Sachs’
Wedded bliss: Molina and Lithgow play newly homeless newlyweds.
understatement, quietly so. Ben and George are tying the knot because the state now allows them to, and because they’ve been together nearly 40 years. And they love each other. Then life intervenes. George, the one with the full-time job and the insurance, loses his job as a music teacher at a Catholic institution because to the church an arrangement is one thing but a public declaration of homosexual love is another. The couple’s apartment goes on the market, and Ben and George fnd themselves seeking the kindness of strangers and temporary quarters. Nobody has the room to take both in, so while they search for a cheaper place to live, the men make do with separated lives. George bunks with neighbors, young NYPD cops who are given to parties. Ben, who paints, lands with his nephew’s tense family in Brooklyn.
“It’s probably just a week or two. We’ll fnd a new place, very soon.” The way John Lithgow reads this line—he plays Ben, with tenderness and reserve—you know it’s wishful thinking. Husband and husband talk on the phone and see each other when they can. George doesn’t like being the fusty house guest; Ben, meantime, takes the lower bunk in his nephew’s bedroom and becomes the boy’s confdant as he navigates a rough patch. What’s lovely about Love Is Strange is Sachs’ skill at reminding us that life can so easily turn into an extended rough patch. The director does so in a plaintive, easygoing way. Alfred Molina plays George, wonderfully, as a man of patience and fastidiousness. While the flm may be discreet to a fault in its depiction of a longtime couple’s feelings for each other, neither is it coy about what it takes to cross the 40-year line.
September 4–10, 2014
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SHORT REVIEWS
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The November Man (R) ★★★✩✩
Pierce Brosnan plays Devereaux, an ex-agent who was once nicknamed “The November Man” because of his lethal nature. Here’s a humorless, muddled, bloody and generally unpleasant thriller about a man sucked back into The Business because somebody needs his help. Or somebody knows something. That’s one of the problems with this Roger No Way Out Donaldson film. It leaves us with no clear sense of who or what to root for. That makes November Man another sad refugee of August, the dumping ground of mediocre movies.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (R) ★★✩✩✩
Devotees of the 2005 Sin City and its halfway point between “real” and digitally illustrated sadism will be happy to revisit this outlandishly scuzzy urban hellhole—now in 3-D—with its crazed, revenge-fueled antiheroes. The same directors reunite for Sin City 2, gathering actors and characters from the first picture, among them Mickey Rourke as Marv, the vigilante protector; Jessica Alba as the zoned-out stripper; Bruce Willis, as the ghost of her savior; and Rosario Dawson, as the queen of the prostitutes.
If I Stay (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
Artfully assaultive, If I Stay is better than average young-adult material, adapted from Gayle Forman’s 2009 novel about a teen cellist experiencing true love, a terrible car crash and magical realism. Chloe Grace Moretz is Mia, a cellist aiming for a Juilliard tryout, growing up in an idyllic, funky Portland, Oregon, household. By senior year, Mia has fallen hard for a slightly older boy in a band of great promise. Fate intervenes in the form of a wintertime car accident, which leaves two members of her family dead and two more hanging in the balance.
Sachs works by way of a clean progression of scenes, photographed with supple exactness, treating his characters democratically. Ben’s nephew is played by Darren Burrows, his distracted wife by Marisa Tomei (always a pleasure) and their son by Charlie Tahan. Sachs leaves their story in the hands of this vulnerable boy. What he sees in his uncle’s marriage is something he can’t fnd at home. Do not expect dynamic flmmaking from Love Is Strange. It’s about other things, and Lithgow and Molina are splendid, their eyes full of wisdom and experience. Progress can be measured different ways. Sachs measures it scene by scene, and by the way family and friends talk to one another, whether the subject is real estate or real love. Love Is Strange (R) ★★★★✩
By Tribune Media Services
The Giver (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
In the dystopian future of The Giver— director Phillip Noyce’s film version of the 1993 Lois Lowry best-seller, which remains a staple of the young-adult shelves alongside The Hunger Games and Divergent books—books and music are banned, as are “stirrings” of a sexual nature. The world according to The Giver isn’t above killing off elders and unhealthy newborns by the hundreds, a sinister plot point. But The Giver gives off an air of wearying familiarity, without much in the way of design wiles or cinematic wonder.
The Expendables 3 (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
Let’s Be Cops (R) ★★✩✩✩
The leitmotifs in Expendables 3 involve fist-bumps (Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham’s primary means of communication) and that old action standby, the teamassembly sequence. Director Patrick Hughes shot most of Expendables 3 in Bulgaria. The climactic and semi-endless assault features tanks, helicopters, motorcycle stunts only a digital effects specialist could love and some terrible staging and editing. Even so, the movie’s less a failure than a shrug, and it’s pleasant in a numbing way to see everybody again, killing, killing, killing.
The laughs are loud, lewd and low in this spoof of cop “buddy pictures.” Jake Johnson of TV’s New Girl is paired with Damon Wayans Jr. in this farce about two losers losing their way through L.A., a tough place to be a single guy with zero status. Next thing you know, they’re walking the streets in uniform with fake guns and fake name tags. Co-writer/director Luke Greenfield (Something Borrowed) lets what few laughs there are land. Johnson’s timing is sharp, and Wayans has that Wayans way with dopey under-reactions to crazy situations.
What If (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
Into The Storm (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
Get On Up (PG-13) ★★★★✩
Guardians of the Galaxy (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
What If brings up the distinctions among wit, jokes and robotic banter, and this romantic comedy has a bit of the first and a few of the second, but it’s largely a case of the third. The script, adapted from the play Toothpaste and Cigars, does a few things right. We sense potential in the early meeting, at a party, of a med-school dropout (Daniel Radcliffe) and an animator (Zoe Kazan). From there What If contrives the usual reasons for the leads to come together. Why did the film’s charms elude me? I felt arm-twisted by What If, for all its tossed-off verbiage and wisecracking.
Everything about Get On Up, a provocatively structured and unusually rich musical biopic, is a little better than the average specimen in this genre. What Tate Taylor (The Help) achieves in his James Brown story works as inventive showbiz mythology. Most moviegoers will simply want to know if Chadwick Boseman, who played Jackie Robinson in the biopic 42, has even a quarter of the fierce charisma and a tenth of the dance moves of the man he’s playing. And yet the actor, like the film, works in a stealthy way. Get On Up hits all these high points.
In the spirit of Sharknado 2, Into the Storm goes into blender mode and mixes its elements of wind column terror, smoothiestyle. Top-billed Richard Armitage, an Englishman doing his best generic heartland dialect, plays a widower with two teenage boys struggling to connect with their father. But Into the Storm, directed with bland efficiency by Steven Quayle of Final Destination 5, reminds us that unless a movie establishes certain baseline levels of human interest, it runs the not-unentertaining risk of coming out squarely in favor of its own bad weather.
Like the ’70s cassette mixtape so dear to its hero, Guardians of the Galaxy scavenges all sorts of “greatest hits” precedents to come up with its own summertime fling. It’s looser, scruffier and more overtly comic than the average Marvel action fantasy. And despite the usual load of violence, the film owes its relative buoyancy to Chris Pratt as the wisecracking space rogue at the helm. Pratt seems to be growing into a quirky action hero before our eyes, the way Robert Downey Jr. did in the first Iron Man.
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What kind of clients come into your studio? Who wants to be body painted? People fnd our website (SkinCityBodyPainting. com) and realize they want Skin City to be a part of their Vegas experience; they want to get body painted and then hit the clubs and parties. We also get a lot of really wonderful clients who come from small towns all over the country who don’t have a body painting studio nearby. Maybe it’s a schoolteacher from Iowa who wants to be Wonder Woman. We paint her, we pamper her with professional hair and makeup that she’s never had done before, and then she gets a full photo shoot out of it, too. It’s really fun to help people’s fantasies come true.
Robin Slonina September 4–10, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
The owner of Skin City Body Painting and producer of Game Show Network’s Skin Wars on living canvases, shy wives and working with Mystique
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By Geoff Carter How did you get started painting on people, instead of walls and canvases? I was babysitting Todd VonBastiaans’ gallery in spring 2006 when this gorgeous, tall woman walked in with a slightly shorter man; it was Maria Gara (the SnakeBabe) and Steve August, the magician. They asked
me, “Ooh, are these your paintings?” I had displayed some of my paintings behind the counter, and I said “Yeah.” They said, “You know, our body painter just moved to Los Angeles, and we need someone to paint Maria like a snake for a gig on Saturday.” This was, like, a week away … and like every
good freelance artist, I said, “Of course, I can do that.” Then I ran home, got online and tried to figure out how to do it. I did a test-paint on my friend Mara, who was a scuba diver at La Rêve. That was the first body painting I ever did in Las Vegas, and it took me about eight hours. I can do it in four now.
Has anyone ever gotten painted just for a photo shoot, and then changed his or her mind about not going out in public? That’s pretty frequent. Even if they didn’t have plans to go out originally, once they see the paint and the effect it has on the people around them, they pretty quickly decide to go out. Most people end up hitting the clubs in their body paint. We always use pasties, of course; we’re careful that we’re not breaking any laws and sending people out topless. You’re on TV now. How did the Skin Wars project come together? Many, many production companies approached me over the years, and for me it was just a matter of waiting to fnd the right partners for this process. When Michael Levitt and his partner Jill Goularte contacted me, I was instantly impressed by their passion for the art and all of the research they did to educate themselves about body painting as a fne art. Together, we scoured the
SKIN WARS
Airs 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Sept. 24 on Game Show Network. SkinWars.GSNTV.com
country for the best talent that we could fnd. I imagine that includes your host, Rebecca Romijn. What was it like working in the presence of Mystique? Rebecca was amazing. She’s the most iconic body painted actress in history, I would think. She did three X-Men movies as Mystique, in which she underwent six to eight hours of body paint. She has such an intimate frsthand knowledge of what it takes to get body painted, so her attachment to the art form is very real and very organic. She’s also super brainy and very, very funny, and we had a lot of fun cracking each other up on set. Strange to think that even she had a frst time under the brush. How do you overcome a frst-timer’s nervousness about being painted? Well, the most nervous customers we have are the wives who are getting body painted because their husbands made the initial call. So, I think a lot of times it might not only be the woman’s fantasy, but her partner’s. I really enjoy putting those people at ease and making them feel special and beautiful in their own skin, because we don’t just paint supermodels; we paint normal bodies. It’s sometimes a challenge for women in this culture to feel beautiful in their own skin. Through painting this second skin of paint on top of them, they’re able to fnally look in the mirror and see their own beauty, even if they’re not perfect models. Does the same prove true when wives make appointments for their husbands to get painted? You know, we have yet to have a wife call and get her man an appointment. It’s pretty much always the other way around. I’m ready! The phones are open for all those women calling to get their husbands painted like the Hulk or Superman.
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
SEVEN QUESTIONS
What about that frst experience grabbed you? I realized how much more fun and vital it was painting a living being. I love the social aspect of it. It’s fun to watch your artwork get up and move around. Mara went from feeling tired and being a little self-conscious to suddenly inhabiting the snakeskin and moving with it. I was instantly hooked, watching it transform her.