Film

QUICK CHANGE
Dir: Bill Murray and Howard Franklin
Warner Brothers, 1990

It's hard to believe that, for a time, it looked like Bill Murray's career was going to end up in that section of the foul showbiz sewer reserved for Saturday Night Live alumni. He started off promisingly, with hits like Tootsie and Ghostbusters, but soon he hit rockbottom with a spate of late-80s stinkers like the putrid Scrooged.

When Quick Change came out, it quietly announced a new Bill Murray to the world � a smarter and funnier actor. It wasn't a big hit but it taught Mr Murray to appreciate the value of working on a smaller scale.

Quick Change, on the surface, is a quirky bank robbery caper. Mr Murray's character, Grimm, is a thoroughly unhappy New Yorker who wants to escape his city and his job. He decides that a bank robbery is his only way out; he has two willing accomplices in his girlfriend Phyllis (Geena Davis) and the dim Loomis played by Randy Quaid.

The brilliant bank heist goes off without a hitch, but the tough part is leaving the city. Throughout the film it's the city itself � not the bumbling police � that the criminal protagonists must struggle with. Things like an unwaveringly by-the-book bus driver, who will only accept exact change, do far more to stand in their way than Chief Rotzinger (Jason Robards).

Curiously, this cult classic is one of the few Bill Murray films not available on DVD.
� Abe Konigsberg

You might also like: Rushmore and Lost in Translation

Pop

THE DOORS
The Doors
Elektra, 1967

The Doors need little or no introduction. As one of the most influential psychedelic rock bands of the 60s, their legend is solid. The fact that they were such an influence on American rock music may also be their downfall. Already overplayed, overhyped and overexposed, Oliver Stone's wildly over-the-top 1991 feature film on the band didn't do them any favours.

But regardless of the Hollywoodization of The Doors, the music still remains. Their self-titled 1967 debut is a perfect example of the ingenuity and groundbreaking creativity that made this band what they were. The Doors combines Jim Morrison's sinewy and seductive vocals with Ray Manzarek's hypnotic drone-like organ playing. Together their music has a particular patchwork texture that's accented by soft guitar riffs. The album catapulted the California quartet into the spotlight with the massive hit "Light My Fire." The Doors also offered some subtler tunes like "The Crystal Ship" and the 11-minute ode to eternity, "The End." The album was a massive commercial hit but was also an experimental foray in psychedelic sounds and textures, and beat poetry.

Doors trivia: the band name was Jim Morrison's idea, taken from The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley's book on mescaline.
� Carla Sparks

You might also like: The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Electric Ladyland

Book

FIFTH BUSINESS
Robertson Davies
Penguin, 1992 (First published in 1970)

A stone in a snowball sparks a fantastic chain of events that wreaks havoc in the lives of the inhabitants of the small Ontario village of Deptford. This seemingly innocuous beginning fails to allude to the incredibly complex journey that unfolds in Fifth Business, the first installment of Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy.

Undeniably the masterwork of this Canadian author, Fifth Business revolves around one burning question: who killed Boy Staunton? Each book in the trilogy tackles this question from a different angle based on the view of one of the main characters. In Fifth Business, we see the events unfold through the eyes of Dunstan Ramsay, a Deptford schoolmaster. Dunstan's life is inextricably linked with that of the murder victim, Boy. Guilt and competition bond these childhood companions, who were both friends and rivals. Mr Davies attempts to show us both sides of human nature � good and evil � through these two very different characters. While Dunstan values spiritual growth, Boy only has eyes for material and monetary possessions.

The fictional town of Deptford was modelled after Mr Davies' boyhood home in Thamesville, Ontario. Having experienced it himself, his portrayal of small-town culture hits pretty close to the mark save for a dramatic touch, reflecting Mr Davies' love for the theatre. However, he dramatizes the residents' dreams, good intentions and bad choices without becoming sentimental and satirizes them without seeming cruel.

Robertson Davies likened Fifth Business to "a spiritual autobiography," and explained that his novel is "not as young men would do it. [It's] not a sweating account of the first time I backed a girl into a corner." It has to be said that he employs a pretty interesting means of narration in the book: the entire story is told in the form of a letter written by Dunstan.
� Felix Ansel

You might also like: The other two books in the Deptford Trilogy, The Manticore and World of Wonders