DOUBLE TAKE

Low-level passions seethe sedately as the Massasoit College of Art prepares for still another exhibition by untalented Prof. Preston Mattson, Chair of the Painting Department. Local gallery owner Mike Rabkin announces that he won't show Preston's work anymore, and Preston's wife Ellen seems too self-absorbed to stroke him. Acerbic student/part-time janitor Hank Vinnio cuts up Preston's work behind his back—and cuts him socially to his face—but it's Hank who gets his throat slashed in the department's studio. Oleskiw (Murder in Mellingham, 1993) skewers the Mattsons so devastatingly that you wonder why she's wasting her time with the forgettable supporting cast.