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THIS WEEK: A SELECTIVE GUIDE

GROWING PAINS, THE NIGHT SKY AND THE DOCTOR IS IN | July 29th 2008

The Walker Art Centre

Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE

Our guide to what's on around the world, compiled by Ariel Ramchandani

SIXTEEN CAMERAS

The geek, the jock, the rebel, the heartthrob, the princess. This stereotypical taxonomy of an American high school has been enacted on screen for decades. But are these tropes authentic? Look no further than "American Teen", a new documentary from Nanette Burstein. The real students that make up the film all manage to abide by these archetypes, sometimes painfully so (they are even labelled accordingly on the film's website). According to the LA Times, Burnstein, an Academy Award nominee and acclaimed documentary filmmaker ("On the Ropes", "The Kid Stays in the Picture"), shot 1,000 hours of footage of high school seniors in Warsaw India. She trained her lens on the five who fit neatly into cinematic categories and who maintained "strong narrative arcs." After a strong debut at Sundance, the film has been released in some big cities, earning praise and scorn for being either unreal or too real. The footage does seem too linear to be true at times, and the ease the youngsters have in front of the camera is unnerving. A.O. Scott in the New York Times points out that "The contrivances of 'American Teen'...become tokens of authenticity. This is the kind of movie the people in it might have made." ~ A.R.

"AMERICAN TEEN", from July 25th in American cities

AIN'T NO SUNSHINE

No need to go south for the sun this summer: head north for the total eclipse on August 1st. All morning (GMT), the moon will cast its umbral shadow in a 250km, two-minute band across Canada, the Arctic, Russia and Siberia, ending in Henan province, China. Book a spot on an Arctic icebreaker or a polar “flightseeing” tour above the clouds, or stay at home for the partial eclipse over much of Europe and Asia. ~ CAROLINE CARTER

SOLAR ECLIPSE, August 1st

DR JOHNSON REDEFINED

Every biographer of Samuel Johnson must face up to the fact of Boswell, and Peter Martin’s life--the first in 30 years, published for the tercentenary of Johnson’s birth--comes out swinging. While Boswell portrayed a clubby, larger-than-life, brilliant talker, Martin paints another Johnson alongside him, tortured by self-doubt, guilt and inherited depression; melancholia, thought Johnson, was “the general disease of my life”. His prayers, meditations, and diaries--most of which Boswell never saw--are full of fears of madness, and Martin argues that much of Johnson’s work and travel was a kind of desperate bulwark against it. Depression was not, of course, Johnson’s only affliction. He was scarred by childhood scrofula, had bad eyesight and hearing, was subject to tics and compulsions that some now think indicate Tourette’s and OCD; he was born in poverty and spent much of his life fighting to make ends meet. This is an old-fashioned book. Not for Martin the speculations and post-modern tricks of recent biography: he begins his stately progress in Lichfield, where Johnson was born, and ends in Westminster Abbey, at his grave. Few would withstand comparison with the prose of both Boswell and Johnson, and Martin is not one of them. But he is thorough, sympathetic, and balanced, and knows that the great flawed jewel here is really Johnson--arguing, writing, drinking, wandering the streets, lighting the way with wit, immense intellectual charisma, and pure courage. ~ AIDA EDEMARIAM

"SAMUEL JOHNSON: A BIOGRAPHY" by Peter Martin, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, July

HOW THE OTHER 90% SHOULD LIVE

What good is the newest aerodynamic bicycle or shiny uber-fuctional coffee machine if 90% of the world's population has no use for it--and is more concerned with drinkable water, a place to sleep or their next meal? “The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%,” explains Paul Polak, chairman of International Development Enterprises. In a review of Polak's book "Out of Poverty", The Economist praises him as a man who "scorns poverty experts who profess to know more about the subject than the people who live it." His hands-on approach to design is captured in "Design for the other 90%", an exhibition now on at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Centre. The show features an inventive range of objects capable of providing shelter, cleaner water and better healthcare in the developing world. Some of these solutions are simple, others technical, but many are also simply cool. (Many will gaze and ask "why didn't anyone think of that before?"). The Walker Centre has two events this week to compliment the exhibition: a panel discussion on Thursday and a family art project this Saturday, when admission is free. ~ A.R.

DESIGN FOR THE OTHER 90%, through September 7th, The Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis

THE DOCTOR LANDS IN DENMARK

It’s the Prince from another planet: David Tennant--easily the best-loved Doctor Who since Jon Pertwee--is landing his Tardis at the Royal Shakespeare Company this summer, to take the lead in Gregory Doran’s production of “Hamlet”. It’s a sharper piece of casting than you might think. Tennant’s major key may be zesty, endearing comedy, but he’s adept at the darker minor chords of the emotional scale--think of his hitherto angry, comically impulsive victim of brain injury weeping with loss at the end of Tony Marchant’s 2007 BBC drama “Recovery”, or the almost-normal, stalker boyfriend he played in ITV’s chilly Nicci French adaptation, “Secret Smile” (2005). He also has an impressive theatre pedigree, including a fevered, mesmeric Jimmy Porter in a 2005 revival of “Look Back in Anger” for the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum, and several successful outings for the RSC before that, including a well-received Romeo in 2000. Most promisingly, his interpretation reminded several critics of Hamlet--albeit a moody teenage version. In an RSC interview, Doran himself expressed faith that his star will shine at the “forlorn…melancholy and very witty” aspects of the character, with the reservation that “there are areas of [Hamlet’s] melancholy and reflection that David may have to tackle”. He should have more confidence: Tennant has always excelled at lightning emotional U-turns, the motor that drives the role (Robert Lindsay, arguably the greatest Hamlet of the 1980s, had something of that same quicksilver nature). Though we’re not able to travel in time, the omens look good. All together now: “Hamlet--look out!” ~ ISABEL LLOYD

"HAMLET", through November 15th, Courtyard, Stratford

Picture credit: Sierra portable light mat, 2006 Designer/Manufacturer: Portable Light Team, KVA MATx United States, 2006 Woven aluminium textile, recyclable PET, flexible photo-voltaics, semi-conductors, flexible wireways 28”h x 14”w x 1”d (unfolded), 12”h x 14”w x 1”d (folded)