There are no better words than punch, drunk and love to describe Adam Sandler’s film resume to date. Most of the time, he gets drunk (Billy Madison), punches people (Happy Gilmore), and falls in love with a girl who does not like him (every movie he’s ever been in). What better way to combine these words than in the film that will change Sandler’s career forever, Punch-Drunk Love?

Long time Sandler-hating critics have been giving him high marks for this movie. Punch-Drunk Love is easily his best acting performance yet, but what no one over 25 seems to understand is that he was never bad before.

Whether he is beating up Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore or acting his heart out in Punch-Drunk Love, Sandler has the ability to ooze his personality into a role, making the character become him, instead of vice versa. His past movies never impressed critics, probably because older film enthusiasts don’t find things like a slow-witted football player tackling his college professor during class to be life-affirming.

Punch-Drunk Love is sure to satisfy these critics. Sandler is funny with stopwatch precision, and downright scary in other scenes. His boiling rage is showcased perfectly by writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson, leaping past any of the other filmmakers he has worked with. For once, Sandler is not in an “Adam Sandler movie.”

Anderson is certainly not a mainstream director. His last two films, Boogie Nights and Magnolia, were critically acclaimed and won notable awards, but did not slay with the popcorn-guzzling moviegoers. It is ironic that Anderson would partner with Sandler, whose movies make hundreds of millions in profit, but are hated by critics and road-kill outside of the MTV Movie Awards.

What Anderson has done, basically, is create a super-quirky twist to the normal Sandler plot. In Punch-Drunk Love, Sandler plays Barry Egan, a normal guy with abnormal problems. Barry is very reserved due to growing up with seven sisters. He is na

Jerry Seinfeld sits next to Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, promoting Comedian, a new documentary about him. Seinfeld tells Leno that they are about to witness a historical moment in television history. In a few minutes, he tells the host, two people sitting next to each other talking will introduce a clip from Comedian. The clip features the same two people sitting next to each other talking.

Sure enough the part of the movie they show is of Seinfeld and Leno chatting away in a little room. Leno claims to not even know about the camera, which is doubtful since he looks right at it while talking. Still, this is what the movie’s about. People sitting in little rooms talking.

The documentary follows Seinfeld’s attempts to create a new stand-up act from scratch after retiring his famous “Who are these people?” schtick. As a parallel to Seinfeld, it also shows up-and-coming comedian Orny Adams, who jumped around comedy clubs in New York before signing his first development deal. If the point of this movie was to show the plight of the stand-up comic, it succeeded brilliantly. Adams takes us through a tour of his apartment, where he has drawers and cabinets full of jokes and screenplays and one-liners. Seinfeld devotes most of his time to testing out his new material at the same clubs which usually feature newcomers like Adams.

The difference between the two men seems slight at this point, except Seinfeld has hundreds of millions in the bank and Adams is struggling to live without a development deal. It’s actually sad at times to watch Seinfeld and other established comedians like Leno, Colin Quinn, Chris Rock and Bill Cosby, and their addiction to entertaining. Seinfeld has a massive fortune and a newborn daughter. Leno tapes The Tonight Show nightly. Cosby is in his mid sixties. Yet all of these comedians still travel the country, leaving behind their families, because of their desire to entertain. They complain how hard it is, and get mad at the audiences when they aren’t responsive. Still, they can’t give it up.

To most people, stand-up comedy looks like a pretty attractive job. Sure, it seems nerve-wracking, but they get to travel, meet other people and make a lot of money. Comedian destroys that idea completely. It’s not a very funny movie, although it has its moments. It’s just fascinating to watch, since it’s really the first of its kind. There must have been other documentaries on comedians before, but maybe Seinfeld’s fan base allowed this one to get a wider release and more recognition.

Anyone going to see this movie expecting another episode of Seinfeld or a funny stand-up session is in for a big surprise. Comedian is thoughtful and clever, showing the perfect moments from a year of footage to shape the story. Anyone who has ever been curious about stand-up comedy should definitely check out this film. It answers Seinfeld’s old question perfectly: “Who are these people?”

Shawn Wines can be reached at shawnwines@aol.com.

Chapped fish lips.

When looking at Frederic Nakache’s photograph, it may be difficult to prevent your stomach from churning. Within the Daniel Azoulay Gallery, this is one of 38 pieces for its Untitled show. So how can one rate the degree and quality of creativity in this art show? I would say, only 19 images contain any thought-provoking works.

Karen Thompson’s “Control Freak” puts the viewer in a position to see a photograph of a woman literally restraining her inner wolf. Surrounded by the vivid reds, oranges, yellows, greens, and browns among the leaves and greenery, the woman appears content, yet an angry wolf tries to break free from within her body. The piece is stunning and intense, leaving the viewer bewildered, which makes for quality art.

Another piece is a black-and-white photograph of a demolished opera house-it offers a feeling of calmness in the mist of destruction. David Ottenstein chooses an active angle where shadows are seen overlapping one another to form various shades of gray in order to bring to life his photograph, “Hyperion Theater.” This Victorian opera house ironically intermixes classic elegance with modern components. A new brick wall is faintly noticeable behind the side of the theater that is completely torn down. The photograph shows beauty through ruin as well as the appetite and aesthetic quality of devastation.

Other highlights include photographs by Bernadi Roig, Harvey Zipkin, Meg Pukel, DA, and Elena Ehrenwald.

Untitled runs through Nov. 23 at the Daniel Azoulay Gallery, 3900 A NE 1st Ave. For more info, call 305-576-1977.

Erin Wright can be reached at ewright@umsis.miami.edu

Cuban music filled the air as the bright, vivid colors shouted from all over the walls at Friday’s opening of Jovenes Talentos at Cernuda Arte, featuring five talented Cuban artists in their twenties. Sinuh

An interview with hungry rapper Fat Joe once again took Life & Art into the swank Loews Miami Beach Hotel, and this time I was frisked in a dark suite by four men. After they checked my notebook for “razorblades” and made sure the pen I brought (in my hair) wasn’t a weapon, Fat Joe came out in his underwear and sat down on the couch with me.

He flipped off New Jack City to watch Gladiator, during which Dre, one of his producers, enlightened him with the knowledge that the word “maximum,” originates from main character’s name, Maximus (a definition I was unaware of).

As I sat beside him in glorious awe, he began drinking red potato soup – sucking on the leftover potatoes and spitting them out – passed on the rice, and opened up a dish containing a (non-Fat Joe) forearm-size fish. As he sat on the couch (still in his underwear), he told me that I had five minutes left. Half an hour later, I had learned quite a bit about a man whose music, up to this point, has made my long car rides more entertaining. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you…

Fat Joe: …Versace’s good, but I prefer platinum and Chanel cologne.

Q: I’m not asking that. Where do your loyalties lay? (Loyalty is the name of the new Fat Joe album)
FJ: My family and my Terror Squad crew.

Q: How loyal are you to being fat, Joe?
FJ: (slurping down soup)
I wasn’t thinking of loyalty, they called me Fat Joe as a kid. I always want to represent being Fat Joe – from the Bronx. Loyalty is the greatest quality within a person.

Q: How loyal were Relativity and Atlantic? (The two labels to which Fat Joe has been signed)
FJ: Record labels aren’t loyal.

Q: Do you think M.O.P. ever listens to R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly?”
FJ: I think so. All rappers get rapped out.

(M.O.P. and R. Kelly were featured together on the Fat Joe album J.O.S.E. On M.O.P.’s most successful album, Warriorz, they spit the venomous lyrics, “What’s up with these R&B cats nowadays, wearin’ do-rags an’ braids?”)

Q: What do you think you are best at doing: Rapping, managing Halftime (his boutique), cutting hair (he has a barbershop) or running your clothing label (FJ560)?
FJ: My music, man.

Q: What do you think of Garth Brooks, (he has sold millions of records due to the loyalty of his country fans)?
FJ: He does country. I could walk into a restaurant…

Q: How loyal do you think the fans of pop music are?
FJ: [Those] fans run with the new thing all day. Hip hop music always likes young, new…

Q: Is your loyal crew made up of friends who respect you because you did your own thing?
FJ: I don’t know who my friends are – they change like the wind. Life is full of surprises.

(Right around this point more food was eaten. Joe and Dre discussed a chain not having enough diamonds in it and how they are going to contact a jeweler in New York to fix it)

FJ: …Dre call downstairs, see if they could bring up some salt.

Q: Are you ever going to go back to how it was when all you did was bust a flow, Joe? (“Flow Joe” – the first single from his first album, Represent, topped Billboard’s Hot Rap Singles Chart.)
FJ: The last album I ever record, I’m gonna leave the way the way I came in, strictly hardcore, rhymes, no part – on some shit.

Q: So, now, you’re just making music by living your life?
FJ: No doubt.

Q: How long do you think people need to rhyme about their success before it motivates other people to succeed on their own?
FJ: Um, Um… People just rap about what they wanna rap about. Jay-Z can’t be rhyming for money anymore, nigga’s worth like three hundred million. He’s doing it for power, money and fame – it can’t be the money.

Q: Um?
FJ: India.Arie likes the simple things…
[takes a large bite of avocado]

FJ: …but business is business.

[after swallowing half his bite, starts to rap]

FJ: Same different songs about the same ol’ things/ But when you’re rich ain’t nothing to do but f**k and hang/ Eat good, spend money, cop trucks and chains/ Keep our ladies looking good while the touch the ring.

Q: OK, so what you are saying is, if you are in the position to get it, you may as well get it?
FJ: Exactly.

Q: So, is that what loyalty is all about?
FJ: When niggas get money the game is just so diluted. Talib Kweli, that’s just his angle of milking the market, acting as if they’re the pure form.

[one of the friskers hands Joe his cell.]

FJ: Who is it? Joe Bentley? Yo, yo! I wanna go out tonight.

[Another frisker looks at Joe’s last bite of food. Joe darts his eyes at the predator.]

FJ: Will you leave my shit alone?

[everyone talks about going out to b.e.d. or Opium for a while.]

FJ: That’s my man who got 17 Bentleys, his name is Joe Bentley.

Thanks Fat Joe.

Sven Barth, UM’s Skateboard Club President can be reached by big_sven@hotmail.com.
(Ed. note: Please Fat Joe, don’t hurt him).

Following the explosive launch of the Electroclash festival in October of 2001, thousands of New York hipsters-post-punk wannabes wearing skinny ties and blue hair dye or bisexual fashionistas that may or may not have listened to bands like Suicide and the Velvet Underground in the 80s-ignited the movement into its very own genre of music that’s buzzing loudly in glossy magazines and other trend-setting media. The group Adult., coined to be the “husband and wife purveyors of vocal-oriented electronic punk-pop” by eye.net, eschew this electroclash hype, explaining that record companies and New York art gallery strong-hands simply foresaw the expression to be a marketable term and went wild over bands like Fisherspooner and A.R.E. Weapons.
Now, this “high concept” combining 80s electro and 70s punk and new wave with gaudy fashion, computers and sexually unabashed stage performances appeals to hip youngsters disillusioned by the mish-mash of money, politics and media elbowing them in the chest. They find prudery and taboos like homosexuality to be obsolete and Peaches, n

Is hip hop violence back on track after the 2Pac and Biggie tragedies? Run-DMC member Jam Master Jay was murdered on Oct. 30 while working in a New York studio. Police are still investigating the crime, but the funeral service will be held today in Queens. Moreover, three days after Jay’s death, a rap music promoter, Keneth Walker, was mysteriously shot and killed.

The city of vice is the backdrop for this season’s new TV Show, CSI: Miami, which decided to run their sniper episode despite the tragic events in D.C. The story focuses on a forensics team looking for an attacker shooting innocent victims from a Miami high-rise. Eye execs okayed the episode date for Nov. 18 after the alleged snipers, John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo, were arrested. CSI: Miami is the highest rated new show this season and ranks fifth among all prime-time programs.

Howard Stern, E!’s shock jock with a puckish taste for the publicly unmentionable, is executive-producing a remake of the crude 1980s teen sex comedy, Porky’s. He also plans on overseeing an updated version of 1979’s Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. “As a producer, and being immature, obviously [these films] give me the opportunity to bring more stupidity and childishness to a whole new generation,” Stern said in a statement. He added: “If I say to an audience, particularly my audience, this is ‘Howard Stern Presents…,’ it means something to them. It means that it’s going to be crazy. It means it’s going to be different, and they know I’m not going to be giving them any schlock.”

After Metallica’s frontman James Hetfield returned “fully recovered” from rehab, saying that the experience was “challenging” and “gratifying”, the group is currently choosing among 30 recorded songs for their new album, which they expect to finish in January and which might be released in late spring. They also still haven’t replaced their bassist and producer Bob Rock played the basslines during recording.