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(02/14/08 5:00am)
Noah Baumbach's newest film isn't a great dysfunctional-family drama like his first major success "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," which he co-wrote with Wes Anderson, nor did it quite meet the expectations fostered by his last movie "The Squid and the Whale," as a result of a few missteps. Still, interesting characters go a long way toward mending this film's flaws.\nThe movie starts with a rickety train ride that introduces Margot (Nicole Kidman) and her quirky son Claude (Zane Pais). Both are traveling through rural New York to visit Margot's sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who is days away from a second marriage to a guitar-strumming lay-about named Malcolm (Jack Black). Margot and Pauline's relationship is strained, and the family tension waxes and wanes in the days before the ceremony.\n"Margot" doesn't focus on extraneous details, which only serve to reflect and highlight characters' personal turmoil. Scenes are spliced in without transition, just as Margot manically switches trains of thought and Pauline makes irrational decisions about her love life. Even Claude has inherited a bit of a capricious personality, leading his mother to speculate that he is autistic. \nUnlike the female leads, Malcolm serves no cinematic purpose other than that of a schmuck, literally and figuratively, for the two women to rub off on. Also, as he does in most movies, Jack Black strips to his skivvies and prances around with his beer gut preceding him by at least three frames -- an almost-good-enough reason to stay away from "Margot."\nAnd maybe I'm being puritanical, but this movie included much pointless nudity and sex, not just Black's. It's hard to believe a woman would take the time to put on pants and a shirt but then walk around without buttoning the shirt. Having Kidman simulate masturbation on-screen also seems like a cheap way to illustrate her character's mental loneliness. \nMuch is awry in this movie, but the interactions between Margot, Pauline and Claude -- at times darkly humorous, infuriating and never dull -- push "Margot" toward watchable. The Ryder's cheap ticket prices help, too.
(03/21/07 4:00am)
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Moments after Texas A&M defeated Louisville to reach the regional semifinals, Acie Law was crying with joy. Aggies coach Billy Gillispie walked up to his star point guard and said, “Didn’t you believe me?”\nWhen Gillispie took over at A&M three years ago, he told Law the Aggies were going to win sooner than anyone expected.\nA victory against Memphis (32-3) in San Antonio on Thursday will send the Aggies (27-6) to their first regional final, a step no one saw coming after A&M went 0-16 in the Big 12 in 2003-04. Least of all Law, a freshman that season.\nHe was skeptical of Gillispie’s vision and considered leaving when the new coach implemented workouts that resembled boot camp. But Law stuck it out, and ultimately realized his demanding coach was right.\n“This season is something he promised me,” the 6-foot-3-inch senior said.\nAlong the way, Law understood that Gillispie had a plan for him, too – to make him the cornerstone of a resurgent team.\nLaw is a finalist for the Wooden and Naismith awards, given to college basketball’s best player. He led the Aggies in scoring, assists and steals this season, but he gets no special favors from Gillispie.\n“I like the fact that he treats me like one of the guys and he doesn’t make it easy for me,” Law said. “He believes that even though I’m getting all this attention, that I can go further. You feel good inside when you play for a person who believes in you and continues to push you to get better.”\nLaw has taken Gillispie’s tough love and produced all year, especially late in close games. A player from Penn, the team A&M ousted in the first round, called him “Captain Clutch.”\nLaw averaged 6.9 points in the last four minutes of Big 12 games. He sank a 3-pointer and two free throws in the last 24 seconds of A&M’s 69-66 win at Kansas on Feb. 3. Three weeks later, Law hit a 3-pointer to force overtime and another to force double overtime in a 98-96 loss at Texas.\n“He’s developed a great talent,” Gillispie said. “People ask how guys perform like that in the clutch. First of all, you have to be a really good player to do it time and time again. A bad or mediocre player might do it once, luck into it or whatever.\n“A guy like Acie, you have to be very talented and you have to have great confidence. He has both of those things.”\nMelvin Watkins, Gillispie’s predecessor at A&M, said that when Law played for Kimball High School in Dallas, he already had a natural feel for the game.\n“He had a calming presence whenever he had the ball,” said Watkins, who resigned after the Aggies went 7-21 in 2003-04. “But you also had the feeling that when he had the ball, something special might be about to happen.\n“He could make plays you can’t teach,” said Watkins, now a Missouri assistant. “If you could, you’d teach all your kids to make them.
(02/11/03 5:20am)
LOUISVILLE, Ky -- Rick Pitino listens to the laughter, and it reminds him how much he has changed.\nLike so many basketball coaches, he has made one stop after another, always ready for the next job. Now at Louisville, he takes time to look around.\nPitino certainly likes what he sees: a No. 2 ranking and the country's longest active winning streak.\n"The biggest mistake I've made in my life is you get so wrapped up in future games, you never really appreciate the journey," he said. "Now, I'm old enough to understand I have to appreciate this right now."\nWith the Cardinals, Pitino has transformed a fallen program into a winning team, as he did at Boston University, Providence and Kentucky. He is a long way from his NBA days with the Knicks and Celtics, where things did not work out as well.\nLouisville (18-1, 8-0 Conference USA) has won 17 straight -- the program's longest streak since it won the 1986 NCAA championship. The Cardinals' next game is at Saint Louis on Wednesday.\n"The whole thing has caught me offguard," Pitino said. "I'm excited about it, but then I realize it could end tomorrow night."\nThe fun started long before the Cardinals became the talk of college basketball.\nIn mid-December, they were unranked with a 2-1 record when they headed to New York, where Pitino grew up, to play Seton Hall. The night before the game, Pitino took his team to a party hosted by Norman and Susan Scott, New York doctors and longtime friends.\nA small jazz band was playing, but the Cardinals soon became the main act, serenading the guests.\n"We probably laugh more as a team than any team I've ever coached," Pitino said.\nAnd it doesn't stop. Even when he turns serious, he's laughing again before long.\nAfter the Cardinals won 72-69 at Tennessee on Jan. 25, Pitino made an impassioned speech in the locker room. When he was finished, freshman Francisco Garcia approached the coach with mock seriousness. "Coach," he said, "we love you, too."\nPitino burst into laughter.\n"I've had more fun coaching this team than I've had in a long, long time," he said after last week's 77-71 win over Cincinnati.\nIt's not just the victories. Pitino said he would be enjoying this season even if the Cardinals hadn't exceeded his wildest expectations.\nBut they have.\nThe turnaround actually began in January 2002. Help arrived from the most unexpected place Kentucky, the program Pitino restored to prominence from 1989-97.