Page 6 October 11, 2018 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
By Roz Templin, Library Assistant,
El Segundo Public Library
“Still Lives” is the name of an art exhibition
presented at a Los Angeles museum in this
mystery/expose of the local art scene. Artist
Kim Lord photographed herself modeling as
real-life murder victims (The Black Dahlia,
Nicole Brown Simpson, etc.) and then produced
paintings from those sessions. The opening
gala looms … then the artist disappears!
Maggie Richter is a former journalist now
working at the Rocque Museum as the in-house
editor. The exhibit is especially upsetting to
her for several reasons. She has broken up
with her boyfriend, who is now the artist’s
gallerist and new significant other. Maggie
also has a secret in her past that involves
a murder for which she feels responsible.
When Kim Lord goes missing, Maggie starts
an investigation of her own that leads her to
secrets her co-workers have been keeping too.
The L.A. art scene is startling in this
novel’s realistic depiction. We learn what
each museum employee does; the director,
exhibitions manager -- even the trials and
tribulations of the construction crew. They
have workplace gossip, financial woes, a
misguided vision for the museum’s future
and warring factions representing its present.
Maggie follows the clues she finds and
each leads her to pieces of information she
would rather not deal with – and yet she feels
powerless to stop her search.
The city of Los Angeles is almost a character
here: there are descriptions of landmarks
(Angels Flight, the Angelus Temple), trendy
bars and restaurants, and an evening of horseback
riding featuring Hollywood’s legendary
Sunset Ranch. Maggie and her friend Yegina
navigate the streets, underground garages
and back alleys as they live their lives in
the Big City.
When the museum board chair Janice Rocque
hires her own private investigator to locate
the vanished artist, the employees seem fearful
what he might find out. Does everybody
have a reason to “get rid of” Kim Lord? Is it
personal or does it stem from the gory images
she created that disturb and titillate? Should
Maggie keep her own investigation quiet or
should she partner with this PI?
Author Maria Hummel worked as a writer
and editor at the Los Angeles Museum of
Contemporary Art (LACMA), so that’s why
the world she creates in her novel rings so
true. She knows this world and is willing
to reflect those experiences back into her
characters and their situations. Real-life artists
like Cindy Sherman and Ed Ruscha are
name-dropped and a variety of opinions about
the contemporary art scene of both coasts are
given through a myriad of characters. This is
a believable background for this story, mixing
glamour with crime and teasing the reader
with inside information and suspenseful action.
Come into the library and allow our staff
to show you our newest arrivals. Our new
calendar of programming is available and
we look forward to seeing you at the Author
Fair on Saturday, October 20. •
Entertainment
Check It Out
Still Lives by Maria Hummel.
Roz Templin
Film Review
Still A Star is Born Review: An Lives by Maria Hummel
Emotional Musical Supernova
By Morgan Rojas
for www.cinemacy.com
Since making its debut at the Venice Film
Festival a few short months ago, where it
received an 8-minute-long standing ovation,
the remake of the 1937 musical A Star Is
Born has been feverishly anticipated by fans
worldwide. Starring Lady Gaga like you’ve
never seen her before, A Star is Born is a
fantastically observant and delicate movie
musical and a wonderful remake of the 1937
classic of a timeless love story but with a
2018 modern twist.
Jackson Maine (Cooper) is rock n roll’s bad
boy -- a swoon-worthy crooner on stage, but
a heavy drinking and lonely man when off
of it. During a spontaneous visit to a latenight
bar, he meets the alluring Ally (Lady
Gaga) and upon hearing her rendition of “La
Vie En Rose,” he immediately falls under
her spell, seeing the potential in her music
even though she doubts herself. As the supportive
partner we all aspire to have in our
lives, Jackson encourages Ally to live her
dream and speak her truth -- not just as a
singer, but also as a songwriter. Gaining
notoriety very quickly from her undeniable
talent, Ally skyrockets to fame but loses her
authenticity as she bends to conventional pop
star tropes while Jackson watches from the
sidelines. Ally finds herself at the peak of her
career at the very same moment Jackson is at
rock bottom, and their personal circumstances
prove to have heartbreaking consequences.
A star was born in 1986 and her name, or
the name the entire world knows, is Lady
Gaga. In a role made famous by Barbara
Streisand, Lady Gaga – born Stefani Joanne
Angelina Germanotta – is one of the only few
artists who could successfully pull off the allencompassing
and demanding role of Ally by
singing, dancing and acting so effortlessly that
it makes one think this was the role she was
born to play. This isn’t Gaga’s first foray into
acting, as she won an Emmy in 2016 for her role
in American Horror Story. But what surprised
me most was how she completely transformed
into Ally: Gaga gets lost in Ally’s insecurities
and body shaming, and it’s hard to imagine
her as a celebrity superstar at all. If A Star is
Born proves anything, it’s that it is time we
take Lady Gaga seriously as an actor.
A Star is Born’s conventional story is alluring
to every generation, it being a classic fairytale
and our protagonist a singing Cinderella. But
with Bradley Cooper, assured and showing his
directorial skills, along with one of today’s
biggest pop culture icons in the lead role,
this emotionally charged, cinematic knockout
proves that it can stand on its own and is sure
to inspire the next generation of movie and
music lovers.
A Star is Born is rated R for language
throughout, some sexuality/nudity and substance
abuse. 135 minutes, Now playing in
theaters everywhere. •
A Star Is Born, image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
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