Month: January 2008

Unavailable on DVD in the U.S., this 1959
British noir classic reunites director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene, the
sly duo who gave us The Third Man and The Fallen Idol, also classics. Here,
Alec Guinness plays James Wormold, a British vacuum cleaner salesman stationed
in Cuba who is enlisted as a spy for
Queen and country. Concerned that he is going to lose this prized position,
Wormold concocts a story about secret rockets, using vacuum cleaner circuit
diagrams to fool the British Secret Service into believing he’s onto a Russian
missile scheme. Shot entirely in Cuba-Castro’s government was, at the time,
eager to encourage a film that portrayed a corrupt Batista regime.

Parkway Theater, 4814 Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis;
612-822-3030.

What is it? Debuting for the first time in
Minnesota and unavailable on DVD, What Is It? is Crispin Glover‘s 2005
directorial debut (lately he played Grendel in Beowulf). The movie is described
by its director as "being the adventures of a young man whose principal
interests are snails, salt, a pipe, and how to get home as tormented by an
hubristic racist inner psyche." Starring Michael Blevis, a young man with Down
Syndrome, and Mr. Glover as a deus ex machina in a fur trenchcoat and flowing
locks, the film also features a fellow in blackface, a bevy of naked women in
elephant masks, and snails aplenty. What is it? Armed with slideshow and
commentary, Glover will be on hand to explain. No one under eighteen will be
admitted.

Oak Street Cinema, 309 Oak St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-331-3134.

When
IKEA opened here a couple of years ago, critic Glenn Gordon contributed a fine
piece to this magazine that carefully and wittily assessed the design quality
and craftsmanship of the Swedish behemoth’s furniture. Now Gordon has put
together (with co-curator Laurel Bradley) his own showroom of sorts, with
furniture makers, sculptors, and industrial designers from Minnesota,
Wisconsin, and Michigan. Of course, these are tables, cabinets, desks, and
lighting of a whole different order, ranging from the ultra-modern designs of
Thomas Oliphant, Blu Dot, and George Mahoney to more traditional work from
Linda Sue Eastman and Clifton Monteith‘s contemporary take on the folksy
bent-willow tradition. You won’t find any pancakes with lingonberry sauce, but
the show in itself is worth the trip to Northfield.

Carleton College Art Gallery, 1 N. College St.,
Northfield; 507-646-4469 or 507-646-4342.

This
show was organized by the National Museums in Berlin, and comes to Minneapolis
via Boston. Weber, for his part, is a New Yorker-a doctor who’s no doubt made a
splash among collectors of Japanese art, having assembled what we’re told is a
world-class collection of objects-ranging from the twelfth century to the
twentieth-in just ten years. Ninety-five of those works make up this show:
scrolls and painted screens, lacquered bottles and ceramics, kimonos and
Buddhist calligraphies. In other words, pace yourself for this one.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis; 612-870-3131.

If
you want to piss people off, claim that Dave Grohl has written and performed more
great music than Kurt Cobain. It’s true: While his stuff may never be as
transcendent as Cobain’s, the Foo frontman and ex-Nirvana drummer has soldiered
on in superior fashion since Cobain’s ’94 suicide, delivering a remarkably
consistent string of quality discs. (One by One is the lone clunker among the
seven Foo records.) The latest, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, ranks
with the first disc on In Your Honor as the band’s finest work, containing the
Foo hallmarks of dynamic crescendos (a whisper-to-a-scream capability to rival
Aerosmith); gritty, punk-pop hooks; underrated, passionate vocals; and the
occasional affecting ballad. Plus, in whatever incarnation Grohl slaps
together, the Foos have always been able to deliver the goods in an arena-sized
venue.

7:30 p.m., Target Center,
600 First Avenue North, Minneapolis; 612-673-1600.

The
co-founder of Los Hombres Calientes, young Irvin Mayfield has over the years
abetted the impeccable precision of his trumpet lines with increasingly
emotional long-form compositions. How Passion Falls in 2001 was his personal
response to the first time his heart was broken, and Strange Fruit, recorded
four years later, is an incendiary tale of a lynching arising out of an
interracial romance. For the latter, Mayfield assembled a seventeen-piece orchestra
of New Orleans-based musicians. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, they have
become an ongoing nonprofit organization and are currently on tour playing
Mayfield’s latest opus, the as-yet unrecorded Rising Tide, about that epic
storm that flooded New Orleans and took the life of Mayfield’s father and
dozens of others.

8:00 p.m., Orchestra Hall,
1111 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis; 612-371-5656.

Last
time Charlyn Marshall played Minneapolis, her set was half songs and half
nervous chatter, owing to the notorious self- consciousness that occasionally
overshadows the subtle beauty in her music. But her 2006 triumph, The Greatest,
has given the shy and sad kid a renewed sense of confidence that will only be
further buttressed by her pro backing band, The Dirty Delta Blues. Expect
plenty of The Greatest, along with a generous assortment of masterfully
evocative tunes from her new Jukebox, which, like The Covers Record from 2000,
consists of stark interpretations of an array
of old classics. If nothing else, count on the beguiling Marshall to
deliver more bangs for your buck.

First Avenue, 701 First Avenue North, Minneapolis; 612-338-8388.