Friday, Oct. 29

MUSIC | The Ying Quartet

Violins, viola and cello, all with the last name of Ying, will perform Arensky’s Quartet in G Major, Op. 11; Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 5, Op. 92; and Brahms’ Sextet in B flat Major, Op. 18 among others. Tickets available from the Harvard Box Office. Free. 8 p.m. Paine Hall, Music Building. (JJH)

FILM | Viva Chile M…!

¡Qué fantástico! The third annual Boston Latino International Film Festival will be coming to Harvard this weekend, with numerous English subtitled films screened just about all day long every day from Oct. 29-31. Among the noted films to be screened is ¡Viva Chile M…!, which takes a journey through the sociocultural and political issues of the past 70 years in Chile and the U.S. Renowned Latin American writer/activist Fernando Alegria visits such hot topics as socialism, the Latino Revival and overthrown Chilean president Salvador Allende. Tickets $8. 9:10 p.m. Also screening at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 30th. Harvard Film Archive. Visit bliff.org for more info. (MCB)

VARIETY | Apollo Night

Harvard Black Students’ Association’s “Apollo Night” is sure to be the best variety show on campus this fall. The show, promoting artistic creativity in the Harvard community, will feature song, dance, poetry, step teams and musical performances by a broad array of student ethnic and performance groups. First-years, bring your parents to prove that Harvard students are not just a bunch of geeks without rhythm. Tickets available from the Harvard Box Office. $7; BSA Members $5. 7:30 p.m. Lowell Lecture Hall. (KMM)

BOOKS | Tommy Lee Book Signing

You read Pamela Andersen’s Star: A Novel, now read her ex-hubby’s authorial debut. Tommy Lee, former drummer of Motley Crue and current ambiguous VH1 persona, will be signing his Tommyland at a B&N in Boston. Meet Dr. Feelgood in person. Free. Barnes & Noble, 660 Beacon St., Boston. (KMM)

Saturday, Oct. 30

BOOKS | Cornel West

The ex-Harvard professor will be getting ready for election day by reading from his new book, Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism. West argues that if America is to become a better steward of democratization around the world, we must first wake up to the long history of imperialist corruption that has plagued our own democracy. Sponsored by the Harvard Bookstore. 7:00 p.m. First Parish Church, 3 Church Street. (JJH)

MUSIC | Things That Go Bump in the Lite

Glee Club Lite, the a capella leg of the all-male Glee Club will be performing in their annual Halloween Jam, Things That Go Bump in the Lite. Costumes are encouraged, and they promise the treats will be better than whatever they’re serving next door. Special guest On Thin Ice. Tickets $10, $5 students and senior citizens. 8 p.m. Lowell Lecture Hall. (JJH)

MUSIC | Bach Society Orchestra Fall Concert

Bach Soc’s superb classical concerts never fail to please, and BSO Fall Concert 2004 should be no exception. At this you might see the next Yo-Yo Ma in his/her formative years. Featuring Alexander Brash ’06 as conductor; Toni Marie Marchioni, oboe; Francesca Anderegg, violin. Tickets available at the Harvard Box Office. $8 general, $6 for students and senior citizens. 8 p.m. Paine Hall. (KMM)

MUSIC | A Halloween Double Feature

The Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones along with the Callbacks put on their Fall Jam with the theme “A Halloween Double Feature,” but the 3-hour concert hopefully won’t scare you into never wanting to hear a capella again. The real question is whether they will sing “Walking in Memphis” one more time this fall. Tickets available from the Harvard Box Office. $10; students and seniors $7.  8 p.m. Sanders Theatre. (KMM)

FILM | Latino Public Broadcasting Panel Discussion

Among the free events of the Boston Latino Film festival will be a panel discussion with Latino Public Broadcasting on the topic of “How to Finance Your Documentary with Public Funds.” Free admission and refreshments will follow the unquestionably worthy discussion for anyone interested in documentary filmmaking. 5:45-6 p.m. Harvard Film

Archive. (MCB)

Sunday, Oct. 31

MUSIC | Trick or Treat: Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra

Mozart’s Prelude to Don Giovanni, Britten’s Soirées Musicales, Stephenson’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Ives’ The Unanswered Question, Haydn’s Finale from Symphony No. 89 in F Major and PDQ Bach’s Eine Kleine Nichtmusik are just some of the offerings in this fully filled program. Isaiah Jackson conducts. There will also be a free pre-show half-hour of chamber music at 2 p.m. and a post-concert classical music singles club wine & cheese reception, for a minimal fee and with limited membership. Tickets $9-$45, $7-$43 students and seniors; $5 off WGBH members; rush tickets available. 3 p.m. Sanders Theatre. (JJH)

FILM | Tire Die (Toss A Dime)

This film, which started out as the documentary project of students at The Escuela Documental de Santa Fe and was produced in 1960, has gained much respect already as the first Latin American social critique, in its vivid portrayal of the impoverished and forgotten residents of Buenos Aires’ barrios. A panel discussion with legendary Argentinean filmmaker Fernando Birri and Harvard professors Jose Antonio Mazzoti and Doris Sommers will follow the screening of the film. Free. 12:50-2:20 p.m. Harvard Film Archive, Room B04. (MCB)

FILM | 107 Street

Set on the streets of New York, this Latino Film connects the lives of different ethnic and social groups who live in New York City through three different vignettes: “The Domino Players,” “The Secret Miracle” and “Point of View.” A nosy main character named Marcos links all three of the vignettes by eavesdropping on a telephone conversation, and in doing so, relaying the universality of the human experience. Free. 1:30 p.m. Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street. (MCB)

Monday, Nov. 1

MUSIC | Avril Lavigne

Midterms making you want to unleash your inner bitchy teenager? Scream along with Canadian pop-punk sensation Avril Lavigne, fresh from cutting a track for the Spongebob Squarepants soundtrack, and touring with Butch Walker. Really, Ec 10’s not that “Complicated.” Tickets $32.50-$37.50; call (617) 931-2000. 7:30 p.m. FleetCenter, (KMM)

Tuesday, Nov. 2

PERFORMANCE | Dia de los Muertos: The Day of the Dead

Celebrate the traditional Mexican holiday celebrating departed ancestors with live performances, refreshments and music. Cohosted by the Consulate of Mexico in Boston. Free. Limited seating. Mohiganga performance 5:30 p.m. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Reception with live music 6:30-8 p.m. Peabody Museum, 11 Divinity Ave. (JJH)

Thursday, Nov. 4

THEATER | Before It Hits Home

“Before It Hits Home” is the intensely powerful story of the last months of the life an African-American bisexual jazz musician and the dangerous double life he leads. The play’s broad range of sexual, cultural and medical themes will be sure to move anyone. The winner of the Helen Hayes Award for best new play is be presented by BlackCAST and will run for only one weekend. Tickets available from the Harvard Box Office. $6; $8 at the door. 8 p.m. Shows also Friday, Nov. 5 and Saturday, Nov. 6. Adams House Pool Theatre. (KMM)

THEATER | Peanut Butter and Juliet

Ever wanted to know how peanut butter and jelly was created? Find out in the musical comedy “Peanut Butter and Juliet” by the Currier House Drama Society. The world premiere of the show combines the stories of two great loves—Romeo and Juliet and PB&J—and sets them in the time of a Southern interstate sandwich shop feud. This comedy should be appetizing…or appalling. Tickets available from the Harvard Box Office. $8; students and seniors $5; children 8 and younger free. 8 p.m. Currier House Fishbowl, 64 Linnaean Street. (KMM)

BOOKS | Ha Jin

The National Book Award winner will be reading from War Trash, his new novel. It is a powerful, unflinching story that opens a window on an unknown aspect of a little-known war—the experiences of Chinese POWs held by Americans during the Korean conflict—and paints an intimate portrait of conformity and dissent against a sweeping canvas of confrontation. 6:30 p.m. Harvard Bookstore, 1256 Mass. Ave. (JJH)

Ongoing

THEATER | The Rocky Horror Show

In case you just can’t do the “Time Warp” at the Saturday night performances at the Harvard Square Loew’s, try The Footlight Club’s live version of The Rocky Horror Show. Leave your water pistols and rice at home, the producers want to keep the historical Eliot Hall in good condition. Call (617) 524-3200 for more info. Tickets $21. 8 p.m. Running Oct. 29 through Nov. 13. Eliot Hall, 7A Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain. (KMM)

SCULPTURE | Bronze Sculpture

Mather’s Three Columns Gallery is featuring new work by Brady Bonus, Murray Dewart, Peter Haines, Larry Pollins, Robert Schelling and Joseph Wheelwright. A range of contemporary bronze castings will be on display. Exhibit opens Nov. 1, and there will be a reception on Nov. 3. Mather House, 10 Cowperthwaite St. (JJH)

THEATER | Balm in Gilead

Joe and Darlene are a young and idealistic pair who find themselves in the proverbial den of thieves—an assortion of thieves, shady characters, and miscreants assembled in an all-night New York City coffee shop. Follow their story as the couple faces temptation and danger in their urban predicament. Presented by the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club, world-renowned Visiting Director Scott Zigler guides the production. Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. $8 (groups of 10 or more $7 apiece). Through Oct. 30. Loeb Main Stage, 64 Brattle Street. (MAB)

VISUALS | X

Architect Alejandro Aravena presents X, his largest United States exhibition featuring ten projects. The exhibition also presents the entries for the Elemental competition for the design of public housing projects in Chile. Gund Hall Gallery. (JSG)

VISUALS | Dependable Objects

The Busch-Reisinger Museum presents an exhibition of sculpture by artists who were ambivalent toward the media. “Dependable Objects” presents the works of German artists beginning in the 1960’s including works by Franz Erhard Walther, Hans Haacke, Charlotte Posenenske and Gerhard Richter. Through Jan. 2. The Busch-Reisinger Museum inside The Fogg. (JSG)

VISUALS | To Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty

The Winthrop collection has traveled around the world and is back at the Fogg in the exhibit “To Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop.” The exhibition features painting and sculpture by such artists as Blake, Degas, Gericault, Ingret, Monet, Pissaro and Renoir. Fogg Museum. (JSG)

Movies

Around the Bend

The redemption of a long-estranged parent is hardly a novel plot in contemporary cinema; it has congealed to the point where every hug, tear and clumsy montage seem carefully choreographed. Refreshingly, Around the Bend reveals an organic push and pull that approaches the mostly shapeless narrative of real relationships that is only reinforced by the subtle performances of popular screen legends Christopher Walken and Sir Michael Caine. (WBP)

First Daughter

Some teen movies are so bad they are great. First Daughter is not one of these. It’s just bad. Katie Holmes stars as Samantha Mackenzie, the daughter of the president (Michael Keaton), who yearns for a normal life. She leaves for college, where she realizes quickly her dream will be hard to achieve, but luckily meets and falls for her hunky resident advisor, James (Mark Blucas). There are some phenomenal moments in the spirit of the great teen movies of yore, but sadly not enough to carry the audience through. Ultimately, First Daughter takes itself too seriously and is not compelling enough to be serious. (EMK)

The Forgotten

The Forgotten has the makings of an intelligent paranoid thriller, but I found nothing spectacular or terrifying in it, only government agents scrambling to hide a conspiracy and scrambled plot lines trying to hide a lack of creativity, despite the guarantee a seemingly competent cast should offer. Julianne Moore’s Telly Paretta is a likeable everywoman. Her therapist (Gary Sinise), is appropriately authoritarian, while her husband (ER’s Anthony Edwards) appears to be phoning in his support from another planet. They are too hampered by the product they’ve been asked to deliver to hope to redeem it. (ABS)

Friday Night Lights

The clichéd line is never uttered, but without listening very carefully, you can hear its echo throughout Friday Night Lights: In Odessa, football is a way of life. And, as is quickly shown, the only way of life for residents of this small Texas town, where state champions become legends and those who fall short become mere pariahs rejected even within their own families. Though American society worships successful professional athletes, the cult following earned by 17-year old high school seniors is for the most part less widespread. Director and co-writer Peter Berg rightly devotes more time to the Panthers’ trials in their daily lives—how they survive in the face of such intense scrutiny—than their gridiron exploits to underscore that this isn’t just a game but a profession. (TJM)

The Grudge

The camera stumbles upon a door, it bursts open, the hand of the dying woman drops, a guttural boom blasts from the sub, and that $4 bucket of flat Diet Coke resting patiently at your side becomes fizzy and fresh on your lap as you jump—hard. It’s these moments—when some random horrific element comes from nowhere—that make the first act of The Grudge, Hollywood’s latest attempt at remaking a foreign blockbuster, extremely enjoyable. Yet tension gives way to torpor as the first act crawls to a close: the slow reserved pace that initially generates blood-curdling moments soon begins to retard the motion of the film. Even the highly anticipated surprise ending becomes an “Oh, okay” moment instead of a “Wow, no way, that’s his father?” one. The movie, then, becomes a woeful drudge of cinematic excess: it’s cool simply for the sake of being cool. (BJ)

I Heart Huckabees

Albert is unhappy and he isn’t sure why. Sadly, we never care. The root of Albert’s malaise, I think, is that he has sold out. He has entered into a partnership with Huckabees, a chain of K-Mart-like stores, to throw some muscle behind his coalition to save a local wetland. Russell’s sly appropriation of American corporate-speak provide the best moments in the Huckabees script: therapy would be unbecoming for a corporate executive, so Brad rationalizes his sessions with “existential therapists” by insisting they are “pro-active and action-oriented.” While all of the characters in Huckabees seem primed to arc from ironic distance to grand, tragic catharsis, Jude Law alone provides the emotional proximity the film coaxes you into longing for and then so cruelly denies. (DBR)

Ladder 49

Ladder 49 headlines Joaquin Phoenix as firefighter Jack Morrison and John Travolta as Mike Kennedy, captain of Ladder 49 in the Baltimore Fire Department. Despite the hero worship of firefighters post-Sept. 11, the film is in fact touching and sometimes gently funny, tracing one man’s trials and tribulations—as well as honors and accolades. Phoenix is fantastic, but Travolta has an airy nonchalance totally incongruous with the seriousness of some situations. Director Jay Russell creates an familial world of jovial camaraderie sweet and good-natured enough to overlook its implausibility. It may not be a movie about real fire fighters, but it is a movie about real people. (MH)

The Motorcycle Diaries

The Guevara characterized in Walter Salles’ seductive new film The Motorcycle Diaries is a far cry from the iconic figure, sporting beard and beret, found in so many dorm rooms and poetry lounges. This is Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (Gael García Bernal) in his mid-twenties, before he was Che. The film picks up Guevara’s life in 1951 as he embarks with his compatriot, Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna) on his travels—powered, initially, by the eponymous motorcycle, of course—bound for the southern tip of South America. He is a far more accessible figure, and his journey radiates a certain lost-soul aura to which even a hardened capitalist could relate. (ZMS)

Primer

Primer, the directorial debut of Shane Carruth, lacks any narrative thread, but essentially is a story about four broke, thirtysomething engineers who create a mysterious box in their garage that defies scientific rationality and seems to give them inexplicable control over life. Two members of the group, Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan), decide to probe what potential their creation might have: They explore the commercial possibilities of time-travel for a few hours each day, encounter dreadful mishaps in a Scooby Doo-esque fashion and finally, things end quite badly, with the audience, plot and characters in a state of sheer confusion. If Carruth proves anything with his film, it is that sci-fi movies dealing with the tenuous nature of the time-continuum need Christopher Lloyd. (KMM)

Raise Your Voice

Yes, you will sit amongst 8-12 year-old girls and painfully awkward older men who, surprisingly, come alone. Yes, her group of friends includes a sassy black girl, a goofy white guy, and an ambiguously ethnic love interest. But Hilary Duff, star of Raise Your Voice, surprisingly sheds her Teen Disney roots, giving an uneven yet charming performance as Terri Fletcher, small-town girl whisked away from commonplace and complacency when she lands admission to the prestigious Bristol Hill School of Music in L.A. You’ve undoubtedly seen Raise Your Voice before: this film is formula-driven, from typical start to predictable finish. But no matter how many times Duff clips her lines or awkwardly over-acts her most intense scenes, the film somehow recovers. Despite its reliance on ham-fisted elements to a garner a reaction, Raise Your Voice pulls off moments where palpable, genuine emotion pumps from the screen. (BJ)

Shall We Dance?

Director Peter Chelsom’s new movie, Shall We Dance?, has a dance card full of big-name actors but leaves its audience with little except bruised toes. A remake of Japanese director Masayuki Suo’s 1996 film of the same title—from which it imports most scenes and some dialogue—the movie ultimately seems as bungling on its feet as many of the characters it portrays. John Clark (Richard Gere) wants to ballroom dance. In Suo’s Japanese film this is understandably mortifying because, as a voiceover tells us at the outset, “In a country where married couples don’t go out arm in arm…the idea that a husband and wife should embrace and dance in front of others is beyond embarrassing.” Chelsom never explains what makes ballroom dance equally taboo in 21st-century Chicago. He tries to plug this plot hole subliminally instead by making Miss Mitzi’s look a lot like a brothel. Nevertheless, it’s hard to salvage a bungled plot with neon lighting and sweaty-palmed patrons. (NJH)

Stage Beauty

The film suffers from a haphazard and disorganized structure; the shaky cinematography is positively migraine-inducing; and the “mood” lighting simply worked to obscure any attempt to discern what was happening. Stage Beauty opens with Maria (Claire Danes) standing wistfully in the wings while watching a performance of Othello’s Desdemona by her employer, London’s “leading lady” Ned Kynston (Billy Crudup). She mouths his lines with practised passion, for despite a ban on female actresses in public theater, Maria—surprise, surprise—harbors ardent aspirations for thespian glory of her own. The filmmakers missed a golden opportunity to exploit the subtle human side of a fascinating historical moment, instead creating an unconvincing hodgepodge of hackneyed aphorisms. (JHR)

Team America: World Police

The new Trey Parker and Matt Stone production Team America: World Police is a delirious send-up of the international save-the-world action genre spoofing every movie from the Star Wars trilogy to Knightrider to The Matrix and unsympathetically mocks every public figure from Michael Moore to Kim Jong-Il to, curiously enough, Matt Damon. And they do it with puppets. Unlike most politically-motivated comedies these days, there’s no clear slant towards either the left or the right. Team America is a throwback to the kind of movie that casts the establishment as the good guy and everyone who goes against them are either evil or woefully misinformed. While, to many, such a theme may seem ironic, what makes this movie so pertinent and vital is the fact that this unthinking good-vs.-evil mentality may be more widespread than we’d like to believe. On the other hand, this movie also tells me that beating the hell out of puppets is funny. (SNJ)

Woman, Thou Art Loosed

Woman Thou Art Loosed is a misnomer. Titling this film Movie, Thou Art Disturbing, Depressing, Not Very Uplifting Nor Powerful At All! would be far more appropriate. The main character, Michelle (Kimberly Elise), is raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of twelve, and cannot reconcile her painful past with her spiritual quest for God. To Elise’s credit, she does as much as much as possible with such a weak script. On her time in jail: “I was getting raped in the shower and a woman was pulling my leg, just like I’m pulling yours.” This movie should not be released in theatres. It should be overnight Fed-Ex’d to Lifetime, where they can show it over and over again in their next “Girl Has a Troubled Childhood, and Her Life Is Filled with Rape, Drugs, Prostitution and Murder Movie Marathon.” (TBB)

—Happening was compiled by M.A. Brazelton, Theodore B. Bressman, Mary Catherine Brouder, Julie S. Greenberg, May Habib, Nathan J. Heller, Jayme J. Herschkopf, Steven N. Jacobs, Bryant Jones, Emily M. Kaplan, Timothy J. McGinn, Kristina M. Moore, Will B. Payne, David B. Rochelson, J. Hale Russell, Zachary M. Seward.