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A Movie Full of Soul : A Review

2/26/2021

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by Emilie Rush

There are very few things in life that emotionally equalize people like Pixar movies do. Mothers, glimpsing ahead to the moments when their babies leave for college and the great unknown, tear up at Toy Story 3 (Pete Docter, 2020). The heartbreaking opening montage of Up is bound to tighten the chests of even the biggest, strongest Dads. Ratatouille captured the hearts of teenagers and young adults across the world thirteen years after it’s original release, filling the 2020 pop culture scene of whispers of a quarantine musical. 
From A Bug’s Life, to The Incredibles, to Wall-E, Pixar has proved that they don’t just make movies, they make memories. Watching Pixar movies was a definitive part of my childhood. I remember watching Brad Bird’s The Incredibles for the first time, sitting on the floor of my grandparent’s living room, surrounded by my cousins. When I think of Wall-E I remember being home sick from school, covered in blankets on the couch, sipping on a cup of orange juice as the movie temporarily distracted me from my illness. A Bug’s Life was too scary for me when I was young, after watching it, I was plagued by roach infested nightmares. The magic of pixar is that they made these mundane moments, spending time with my family, staying home sick, having bad dreams special, thanks to the magic and nostalgia of their films. 
It’s no different with their newest installation Soul. The film tells the story of New York local, and aspiring Jazz musician, Joe Gardner, after an unfortunate accident sends him on a one way ticket to the “Great Beyond”. But Joe isn’t ready to say goodbye to everything his life might have been, and decides to masquerade as a soul counselor in the “Great Before” to get back home. He is assigned the troublesome task of helping a wayward soul named 22 find her spark so that she can finally live a life of her own, launching an adventure that asks the viewer big questions (and suggests it’s okay not to have the answers). ​
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Jamie Foxx plays Joe Gardner, and I think he did a wonderful job. In fact,it was so well done I forgot it was him while I was watching. Foxx has an expansive comedic filmography, and while Soul has those funny moments, it’s definitely out paced by the emotional tone which I was worried Foxx wouldn’t be able to handle. Luckily Foxx glides effortlessly through the emotional highs and lows of the script, transforming into Joe Gardner as with exceptional ease.  
Tina Fey voices the incorrigible 22, but unlike Foxx and Gardner I’m not sure this was a perfect fit. Fey is a very widely known actress, with a unique comedic style (probably thanks to her time on SNL), and I found it very jarring within the context of the film. Foxx let Gardner have the opportunity to get deep and raw, but I felt like Fey held back a little bit. There’s a scene at the end when 22 reaches the resolution of her plotline, she’s ready to go live, and the moment feels flat. Although one of the trademarks of Pixar films is bright lively characters, 22 felt less like her own person, and more like a tiny animated version of Tina Fey herself. 
As I sat down to watch this movie one Friday night over December break with my parents, I wasn’t expecting to be quarreling with myself about humanity’s capacity for free will and purpose as the credits rolled, but now, even two months later, I still am. Pixar movies are marketed to children and families, but Soul proves that older audiences can find just as much value in a colorful, somewhat cheesy, animated film as kids. 
It takes more than the perfect shots, the perfect editing, the perfect sound mixing, to make a great movie. And all of that unspoken leftover magic is something that Pixar, and Soul really double down on. ​
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Affecting Only the Rich, or the World? : Possessor Analysis

2/22/2021

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by Samantha Shuma
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The future of technology is a daunting thing. What new gadget will bring the world to its knees? Its intellect becomes unmatched, or it can make people into something completely outside the scope of what humanity should be capable of. Possessor (Brandon Cronenberg, 2020) brings the unethical and drab side of what technological advancements could have in store for us. The main story focuses on taking one’s consciousness into the body of another for the sake of committing untraceable crimes. This affects high value targets, select individuals who have a role in wealthy society. However, the film’s world reveals another evil, one that affects a larger population. This accessible technology shapes the way civilians work and take the element of treating employees well out of the question for large corporations. 

This analysis contains spoilers for Possessor, which covers a variety of horror and gore. Reader discretion is advised.
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The film’s focus is Tas, a hired assassin for a secret organization. She does her killing not with her own hands, but with the hands of other people. As the title of the film implies, Tas ‘possesses’ a person close to the target, kills the target, then disconnects from the possessed by killing herself. This is done through a technological process, involving an implant being placed inside the host body and Tas is connected via a large headset. There, her consciousness fuses into the host and she has control over the host’s movement, and the original consciousness (belonging to the host’s body) is suppressed. The main hit of the film is against John Parse and Ava Parse, with the host being Ava’s boyfriend, Colin. John Parse is the owner of a data collecting company, his daughter being the next in line to own the company. Tas is put on the job because of Ava’s step brother, who hopes to take over the company once John and Ava are out of the picture. Problems arise during Tas’ hit when the connection between Colin and herself is not established properly. Colin’s consciousness takes control of himself while Tas is still inside him, making the completion of the hit spiral out of her control. 

This whole process of possessing someone is not done through consent, but by kidnapping the host and forcibly placing the implant into their brain. By the time they wake up from surgery, consciousness transfer has already been completed. Seeing that Colin fights back against Tas, it can be safe to assume that the host is aware of what is happening but is unable to stop it. This process of possession goes beyond coercion and manipulation of brainwashing someone. It streamlines the process by having the consciousness of someone willing to commit murder inside of you, and once the process has begun it is impossible to disconnect without destroying your body. All that is left for the host’s consciousness to do is watch in despair as their body is destroyed by their own hand. It goes without saying that this whole experience is immoral, with the host living through horrible events that ultimately causes the death of innocent people (both the hosts and Tas’ targets). Hosts are unwillingly subjected to being possessed. One day, Colin is hanging out with Ava, getting ready for dinner. The next he is kidnapped, has a device implanted into his brain, and he wakes up with someone else at the wheel. Unable to move or speak of his own will, he is trapped, forced to witness his world fall come apart by his hand. The string of events Colin goes through ends in death, which was inescapable the moment Tas took over him. The film agrees with this sentiment, sharing its views through character reaction and character consequences. This mainly happens through Colin, who fights against Tas for the control of his body. Tas and Colin undergo immersive mental strain, concluding with Colin having his own murderous impulses and killing Tas’ family. Tas is left with nothing, Colin ultimately dies, no one wins. Even the company Tas works for loses as she fails to fulfill the hit on John Parse. The lesson 'villains never win’ is shown here, illustrating how using this technology does not yield good results.
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Colin’s suffering is at the forefront of this film, as he’s the first host to fight back. The technology making this all possible is incredible, yielding the unethical possibilities of ‘possession.’  However, this is technology that isn’t widely accessible. While the implications are grim, it does not affect a large population. However, the film presents another kind of technology, one being used by the public. Colin works at John Parse’s company as a data collector. Watching an array of visual media, he must take notes on a particular visual in the image, such as the kind of curtains or color of furniture. He does not work in an office, rather a room that could be equated to a sardine can. Rows of people sit on benches in a dank, windowless room. Colin takes a small seat among them. They are packed together, all mumbling their observations. The feeling of claustrophobia demonstrates horrid working conditions. However, workers are complacent due to their means of working, a virtual reality headset. Once Colin puts on the headset, we see the trap these workers are placed in. While they are cramped together, the headsets show them in a wide space, simulating their own private offices, with an open window and modern decor, with the perspective of sitting at a desk, and a monitor displaying the media they must make notes on. There is a disconnect between what the eye sees and what is reality. Although this is only a small portion of the film, it demonstrates something that is more of a realistic horror. This kind of technology isn’t far from reach, VR headsets are something that is already available for public use. It is mostly used for playing games and for streaming content, but it could easily be implemented in a working environment. It is completely possible for workers to be placed in horrible working conditions of a sweatshop while wearing VR headsets that show them otherwise. In Russia, we already do this for cows, having them wear headsets to have them believe they are somewhere else for the sake of yielding better milk. It is not a stretch to see this being done for people for the sake of producing a larger quantity of completed work. We see that Colin doesn’t take this use of technology well, as he becomes sick and isn’t able to work. But he is the exception, as his co-workers seem content enough as they diligently collect data.

The present seems to be reaching ever closer to how we see the future of technology. We see VR reality in Possessor and realize it’s a future that isn’t that far away. It may have a price tag or be on store shelves, but it is something that people could develop and soon impact the world. What will be the advancement that tears us apart or leaves us in worse state than what we currently in? Will it allow us to do more than what should be possible? Sure, the ability to posses someone may seem far fetched, but the reality that nurtured this advancement is not. Incorporating VR headsets into the working environment can have damning implications, which Possessor introduces to us in just a portion of it’s runtime. The main story focuses on taking one’s consciousness into the body of another for the sake of committing untraceable crimes. This affects high value targets, select individuals who have a role in wealthy society. However, the film’s world reveals another evil, one that affects a larger population. This accessible technology shapes the way civilians work and take the element of treating employees well out of the question for large corporations. 

Work Cited: 
“Russian Cows Get VR Headsets 'to Reduce Anxiety'.” BBC News, BBC, 27 Nov. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50571010. ​
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Sound of Metal: A Review

2/12/2021

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by Mason Leaver
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Minor Spoilers for Sound of Metal
     Part of the joy of watching films is the effect they can have on you long after you’ve left the theater or turned off the television. Sometimes this effect is just reflecting on how unbelievably good a scene was, or a performance, or the film as a whole. But I think many people would agree with my conviction that the best films are the ones we think about far down the road, the ones that leave us with something to wrestle with. Something to ponder. These films can often make us uncomfortable as we watch them in the theater, as we are coming to terms with the questions the film raises in real time. But after we walk out of the theater, we’re left to continue to ponder the questions the film raised. One great example of a film like this is Sound of Metal (Marder, 2020). Sound of Metal is a film that captures what I love about cinema- it is a technically polished film, with a solid plot and great performances, that leaves you thinking long after you’ve turned it off. 
    Sound of Metal focuses on Ruben, the drummer for a metal duet, alongside his girlfriend Lou, who plays guitar and does vocals. Ruben and Lou’s act is extremely underground- they’re living out of an RV, with no crew except the two of them, playing shows in tiny venues to small but devoted audiences. In other words, they’re barely scraping by, but they’re loving every moment of it. However, things start to go awry as Ruben begins to rapidly lose his sense of hearing, until he is totally deaf. Unable to play the drums, Ruben joins a deaf community for recovering addicts, where he will learn sign language and be supported by other people struggling to come to terms with their new condition. Over the course of the film, Ruben is repeatedly forced to reevaluate what is important to him, and he becomes a better person as a result. 
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Ruben learns sign language at the deaf community.
   Riz Ahmed stars as Ruben, and he gives a deep, vulnerable and meaningful performance. Watching Ruben’s loss was heartbreaking, and watching as Ahmed depicted his transformation and growth was a delight. Riz Ahmed is an actor that I think is often underappreciated. He consistently gives very good performances- he shines in everything I’ve seen him in. For instance, his roles in Nightcrawler and The Sisters Brothers were both challenging, and he excelled in them. His performance in Sound of Metal is no different, and he ought to be recognized for it, hopefully with a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars this year. 
    Of course, a review of Sound of Metal wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the sound design. Obviously, it’s crucial that a film about losing one’s hearing reflects this trauma, and Sound of Metal does it wonderfully. On a technical level, the balance of the sound and the effects the sound design team used to create the sense of losing hearing works perfectly. And while the technical mastery is impressive, what makes it even more impressive is how director Darius Marder (who previously wrote 2012’s The Place Beyond the Pines) manages to use this sound design to communicate emotion and progress the story. The sound of the film often changes perspectives. At times we are able to hear all sound occurring in the scene (while Ruben is losing his hearing), but at other times we are not given any sound except for the most muffled noises, putting us into Ruben’s perspective. The party scene towards the end of the film is one of the best examples of this switching- we keep shifting from one perspective to another, showing how isolated Ruben feels. Sound of Metal will almost certainly be nominated for the Best Sound Editing Oscar, and I think it’s likely that it will win. 
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Riz Ahmed as Ruben
   Sound of Metal is a film about disability, resilience through loss, addiction, relationships, religion, and more. Because it covers so many deep and complicated themes, it lends itself to being thought about long after the credits have rolled. And of course, the film’s premise forces you to ask the question- “What would I do if I lost my hearing?”. Sound of Metal forces us to confront these questions and to see just how difficult and traumatic that experience can be, but it also shows us the communities that are built up around these issues. The film also compels it’s audience to take an honest look at the ways in which society is not accessible to those with disabilities, and asks us how we could make the world better for everyone. It’s a film that rejects simplicity and demands thoughtful reflection. It’s worth a watch, and can be viewed on Amazon Prime. 
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Happy as Lazzaro: A Dystopian Parable

2/7/2021

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By Ravi Ahuja
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Note: This analysis contains spoilers

          A family crowds around a room, celebrating the engagement of a young couple. There is barely anything to eat and even less to drink, but the room is still full of quiet contentment and a sense of community. Although the actual familial lines are fuzzy, there’s no doubt that this group is a family, pulled together by hard work and their collective experience. During the day they harvest tobacco, thresh wheat, take care of sheep, and do whatever else needs to be done in order to survive and make a profit. They have no one else to rely on. Despite their daily hard work, with women, children, and the elderly all doing what they can, they are visited the next day by a man who tallies up their harvest and their expenditures and sadly announces that their debt has only increased. The man, Nicola, is the partner and accountant of the Marquess who owns the land, an estate called Inviolata. The 50 or so people who live there are only sharecroppers scraping by off the portion of the harvest that is theirs. Among them is Lazzaro, a young man with no parents and a persistently happy disposition.
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The family stands around a room with Lazzaro (Adriano Tardiolo) illuminated in the center
           Despite the hard work, Lazzaro always does what is told of him with no complaint or hesitation, never even letting the smile slip from his face. Life is just as simple as it appears on the surface for Lazzaro. He desires nothing more than friendship, which Tancredi gives him. The rest of the workers abuse him, having him do any menial or undesirable tasks, not allowing him any break or small luxury. And yet, Lazzaro’s response is to seek more ways to help others, always volunteering his assistance to anyone who seems like they need it, even if they have hurt him or don’t deserve it. He is nothing less than a saint, albeit a simple-minded one.
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Lazzaro  and Tancredi (Luca Chikovani) playing with a slingshot
          Happy as Lazzaro starts with a romantic depiction of rural life, where poverty is overshadowed by the simple pleasures of life in the countryside and having a close-knit community. The movie is shot on 16mm film and formatted with soft rounded edges to add to this warm nostalgic feeling, reminiscent of old polaroids and viewfinders. It doesn’t take long, however, for the audience to understand the reality of poverty. Life is not just simple and charming, but dangerous and hard. The family isn’t just missing some conveniences, they have little food or proper clothing or bedspace. With each passing scene, the illusion of an idealistic pastoral life is stripped further away. Their poverty is only exacerbated by the contrast between their lives and that of the Marquess when she comes to visit Inviolata along with her children.
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The Marquess (Nicoletta Braschi) and Tancredi watching the workers
          The Marquess’ house on the hill is filled with every luxury and convenience, with the laborers making and serving multiple course meals for her family of four. The beautiful furniture and drawers of silver cutlery seem almost offensive after watching the farmers unscrew lightbulbs to share between rooms. The Marquess smokes cigarettes while watching the farmers work, literally looking down on them from out her window. Her house looms in the background of several outdoor scenes, constantly acting as a reminder of her presence and position over the workers. In a conversation between the Marquess and her son Tancredi, it becomes clear that the farmers do not know that they are working in illegally bad conditions, but the Marquess makes it clear that she does not see what she is doing as wrong. She tells Tancredi, “Human beings are like animals. Set them free and they realize they are slaves locked in their own misery. Right now they suffer but they don’t know.” When Tancredi responds skeptically, she points out the window to Lazzaro toiling away, telling Tancredi “I exploit them, they exploit that poor man. It’s a chain reaction that can’t be stopped.” This view of exploitation as a natural and inevitable process and of human nature as indelibly cruel appears constant through the movie. The strong take advantage of the weak, and the weak survive by taking advantage of the weaker. There is no room to show compassion. The only exception to this rule is Lazzaro, who always does what is right no matter the personal cost. 

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The farmers threshing wheat while the Marquess and her daughter watch
          When the police respond to a missing person call and arrive at Inviolata to discover the illegal sharecropping operation, there is at first a feeling of hope and relief. Finally, the poor farmers have been let out of their cycle of debt and hard work, and will be welcomed into a fairer, modern society. The harsh truth is that the farmers are even poorer and worse off living in the city than they were at Inviolata. Homeless, jobless, skill-less, they have no way of integrating into the modern world. The government is no help to them, proudly stating in a news article that the farmers have been placed in safer housing, while they squat in an abandoned lot. The surviving farmers are much more alone in the city, and have to resort to stealing and scamming rather than be able to work the land. Again, only Lazzaro remains immune to the corruption of the city. 

          The shift of setting to the city also makes clear the importance of nature, retrospectively making Inviolata seem charming and beautiful again even with the knowledge that their simple life was difficult. They were poor in the countryside yes, but they are poorer still in the city, and their extreme poverty is made even worse by their removal from nature and their community, the only things they’ve ever known. Lazzaro is strongly thematically connected with nature throughout the film, appearing more comfortable outdoors than under a roof. Even when rain comes, he seems content to stand outside while everyone else seeks refuge. Lazzaro can easily find fruit growing to feed Tancredi when he’s hungry, while Tancredi cannot. He is the one who identifies the vegetables growing as weeds in the city, allowing the farmers to regain some connection with the land. Despite the horrible poverty the farmers experienced at Inviolata, the movie does grant that a connection to the natural world is a gift.  

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Lazzaro cleaning trash from the abandoned lot the farmers live on
          Happy as Lazzaro is not shy with its critique of capitalism, highlighting the constancy of its exploitative nature. Exploitation and ruthless human rights violations in the name of profits sometimes feels like something from a bygone era, when slaves worked plantations and children worked in factories. The world is surely much fairer today, where children go to school rather than work and everyone is ensured a minimum wage for working. The truth is that the Marquess is right, at least about the inevitability of exploitation within capitalism. It changes in execution and label, but the profit motive remains too important for exploitation to ever truly leave. Slaves became sharecroppers, factory workers became sweatshop workers, and capitalism keeps generating profit. Exploitation is not an evil exclusive to the rich either. When survival depends on profiting by any means, exploitation becomes the natural way of things. Concepts like justice and morality are valued less than money. The marquess is not the only villain in this story, just the richest one. Everyone is selfish and exploitative. The scene where Nicola, the accountant and partner of the Marquess is auctioning off labor contracts perfectly exemplifies the brutal spirit of selfishness that one must have to survive. Groups of immigrants take turns driving down the price of labor in order to secure money and work for themselves. And while it ends up hurting all of them to compete for labor, it is the only real option they have if they want to survive. The farmers too rely on exploitation, scamming the rare people who show them compassion and empathy. Not even the church is immune to this selfishness, refusing to allow the farmers to stay and listen to music for free because they are holding a “private function”. Only Lazzaro remains pure and honest. 

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Lazzaro walking through the tobacco field
          Lazzaro is the foil to this cynical view on human nature. The marquess insists that he too must participate in the cycle of exploitation, that he takes advantage of someone else, but he never does. He helps others purely out of the goodness of his heart, and harbors no resentment even to those who have betrayed him. Lazzaro is a clear messiah figure, showing the other characters and the audience the ideal human attitude and an alternative to the selfishness and greed around him. If everyone were a Lazzaro, exploitation would not have to be the inevitable nature of capitalism. But it is clear how hard such a world would be to reach. Lazzaro is more miraculous than real. Like Jesus, he is brought back to life; like Daniel in the lion’s den, Lazzaro is untouched by the wolves in the wilderness ; like David taking on Goliath, Lazzaro takes on the Bank armed with only a slingshot. And like the saints who died for their faith, Lazzaro too dies at the hands of a mob for doing what he believes to be right. Lazzaro doesn’t end up saving the world, his family or Tancredi. He ends up being exploited and killed. Doing the right thing doesn’t pay off in a society that incentivizes doing the wrong thing. Still, he does seem to inspire some change in the farmers who take him in in the city, showing them how to be at least a bit more selfless and compassionate. The farmer Lazzaro is closest to, Antonia, goes from not even buying a one euro beer for Lazzaro to being willing to spend 80 euros (all of their money) on pastries to thank Tancredi for inviting them to lunch. Even when they are refused at the door because Tancredi forgot about his invitation, Antonia is still willing to leave the pastries as a gift. A true act of Lazzaro. 

          It seems that Happy as Lazzaro encourages a similar shift towards compassion and generosity. While there are times that survival does depend on making money at any cost, this is only ever true of the most exploited people in the movie. The Marquess does not need to exploit the farmers as she does in order to live. She exploits only because she has learned to value money above all else. Selfishness and immoral actions breed more of the same in one’s own life and in the lives of those around them. But Lazzaro proves that the same is true of selflessness. Goodness is just as contagious as evil. The problem is that selflessness is a revolutionary act in a society that preaches rugged individualism, and compassion is seen as a weakness to take advantage of. Despite the sad fate of Lazzaro and the other tragedies depicted throughout, Happy as Lazzaro shows many beautiful moments of intimacy and real human depth that can’t help but bring some hope that the world doesn’t have to be this way. The woman who stops and helps Antonia and buys her antique cigarette holder shows that Lazzaro isn’t the only one capable of being altruistic. Yes she gets taken advantage of, and anyone willing to show compassion must also accept that as a risk. But greed and exploitation is not a part of the human condition, despite what the Marquess says. Working against societal conditioning is hard, but the only way to ever make it less hard is to do it anyways and get society to begin to slowly change. Just begin asking yourself: what would Lazzaro do?


          Happy as Lazzaro is available for streaming now on Netflix (US).

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Big Monsters But Little Character : Monster Hunter Review

1/29/2021

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by Samantha Shuma

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Stepping into the unknown can be a difficult task and sometimes impossible for people to overcome. What happens when you do not have a choice, or even a single notice as to when your life will change forever? The main crew of characters in Monster Hunter (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2021) find out as they are thrust into a terrifying new landscape, and audiences watch as they adapt or perish. The action sequences are entertaining, presenting an engaging balance between a monster being easy to kill and overpowering. Although the monsters feel like a real challenge for the characters, they do not seem impossible to beat. This allows the audience to be hopeful for the characters’ success while still making their victories worthwhile. When it comes to the fighting, characters earn their victories, dying if they don’t meet up to the challenge. There is a sort of authenticity in these fight scenes that makes the characters and their situations compelling. However, this authenticity is tarnished by the use of verbal and non-verbal communication throughout the film. This is a blockbuster whose potential for character relationships is not fully realized. Overall, the film is an entertaining watch, but when it comes to engaging story elements there is much to be desired.

The rest of this review contains spoilers for Monster Hunter, reader’s discretion advised.

While trying to recover another unit, Natalie and her unit are transported to a different world. These worlds overlap each other, the only door between them being the Sky Tower, an ancient building protected by horrific beasts. We get to know the unit and their relationship. They sing songs about the army and pick on each other. Other than Natalie, the members of the unit don’t get much screen time. Instead of getting to really know each character, we get a sense of how they have worked together in the past. It is a good attempt at making the audience care about these characters, but none of the characters or their performances are memorable. They cross over in the new world early on in the film. Even with excessive weapons, the monsters that inhabit the new world kill most of the unit, leaving Natalie as the only survivor. The lack of character depth for most of the unit comes down to lack of time the film allows for these characters to live, making the bulk of the cast forgettable and underwhelming.
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​The characters we spend the most time with are Natalie and the Hunter. The Hunter is a native to the new world, having cultural norms and language that are alien to Natalie. Monster Hunter missed a great opportunity to implement non-verbal communication. For most of the film, Natalie works with Hunter to get to the Sky Tower. There is a language barrier between them, their character interactions often foster confusion as they try to figure each other out. At first, non-verbal communication is used. Natalie introduces a hand signal for food and water. But that is the scope of their non-verbal communication. Most times, they are speaking to each other in their own language, which the other does not understand. Towards the end of the film, they meet the Hunter’s crew-mates, and one of them just happens to speak English, removing the chance for interesting communication from happening at all. This makes the film slow in pace and makes their coordinated actions less believable. Monster Hunter has an excuse to use moving images to convey non-verbal communication. Having each character be interested in creating their own visual language would have shown their willingness to cooperate to strengthen their personal relationship. Natalie’s stay in the new world could’ve taken months or years in the movie’s universe, possibly having Natalie and Hunter understand each other completely through signals and cues. Natalie’s character development would have been more impactful while enforcing the message of adapting to overcome obstacles.

​The depth of Monster Hunter’s characters and themes do not go beyond generic action movie conventions. There are some missed opportunities when it comes to uniquely portraying the story through visuals. The character focus of the film was the relationship between Natalie and the Hunter. Having them learn unique ways of communicating would have strengthened their relationship while reinforcing the themes of adapting and the power that comes with multicultural communication. To just turn your brain off and watch some warriors fighting monsters can be an enjoyable experience. But if you are looking for something beyond that, there is a lot to be desired when it comes to character development and thematic depth.
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Rebecca Review

12/11/2020

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By Zoe Leininger
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Rebecca, Netflix’s new release from director Ben Wheatley, captures the visual richness of gothic literature and translates it to the screen. Based on the 1938 novel Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, which was also made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940, this film gives new life to the familiar people and places of the original story. Actors Lily James, Arnie Hammer, and Kristen Scott Thomas give remarkable performances. The generous use of low-key lighting, stunning colors, and snippets of non-linear editing in key places give the film a timeless feel that embraces the mystery and thrill of the gothic genre. 
Lily James is the heroine of the film who, with no first name given to us, is referred to as simply Mrs. de Winter after she marries Maxim de Winter (Arnie Hammer). As she tries to get used to her new place as the mistress of Manderley, Maxim’s estate, she finds herself constantly battling to get out from the shadow of the former Mrs. de Winter (the title character Rebecca) who died not long before. She feels that she is constantly being compared to Rebecca and found wanting by both her husband and the staff of the house. Kristen Scott Thomas’ character, Mrs. Danvers the housekeeper, in particular is fond of Rebecca and seems from the start to be against the new Mrs. de Winter. 
The opening of the film uses a voiceover narration straight from the beginning of the novel. The dark, shadowy blues and ominous reds of the narrator’s dream of Manderley soon give way to yellows, greens and oranges in a scene which looks back in time to show our heroine on vacation with her wealthy employer, Mrs. Van Hopper, in a lovely, sunny and bright Monte Carlo. Here she meets Mr. de Winter who she falls in love with and marries by the end of the week. The colors in this scene are vibrant and bright showing the hope she has of getting out of her monotonous, meaningless life and being able to see the world. 
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Mrs. de Winter (Lily James) and Mr. de Winter (Arnie Hammer) in Monte Carlo

When she enters the house at Manderley, a sudden downpour dampens the colors that accompanied the drive to the house. Our first introduction to Mrs. Danvers is in a front room lit only by the big windows on one wall, casting half of her face into shadow. This use of low-key lighting along with the dark clothing she has on and Kristen Scott Thomas’ austere acting connects her back to the ominous introductory narration and gives us the hint that she is what makes this idyllic life darken to the point that it haunts our main character’s dreams. 
While I really enjoyed the use of color throughout the whole film, one scene in particular struck me as well done in this regard. After talking with Maxim’s friend Frank (Tom Goodman-Hill) about Rebecca, the heroine goes into the mysterious wing of the house where the first Mrs. de Winter used to live. The whole suite is an icy blue that washes out our main character and matches her sweater to the point that it almost absorbs her into the walls. She is just another object in this house that still in so many ways belongs to Rebecca. This is a visualization of the kind of person the dead woman is later revealed to be. 
​We already know at this point that the heroine feels as though she is being compared with Rebecca. She thinks that Maxim is still in love with his dead wife and tries to be what she believes he wants. She is sitting in front of the mirror in Rebecca’s room that is edged with sharp, twisted black metal and is listening to Mrs. Danvers muse “I wonder what she’d think about you?”. The visual presentation of the room gives a glimpse into the inner thoughts of the characters that draws on the intense interiority and emotion of the original novel’s style. 
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Mrs. Danvers (Kristen Scott Thomas) and Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca's room
As mentioned above, the film starts out at the end of the story and then the narration backtracks to show us how we end up there. It eventually circles back around at the end of the film with a scene of Mr. and Mrs. deWinter after they have left Manderley and the color scheme changes from the fiery estate and the frigid sea to the same warm yellows of the scene in which they met. 
This style of playing with the timeline is shown in another way in two places in the film. In the beginning right after she has just had breakfast with Maxim for the first time the editing cuts back and forth between the same two shots of her standing and watching him walk up the stairs away from her and her going back to her room and collecting herself. Her mind keeps wandering back to what just happened and it is shown through these quick flashes of editing. The same thing happens near the end when the camera cuts between shots of her getting ready and her going to the courthouse for the trial. This time she is steeling herself for what will happen. She is ready to take control of her own life rather than the other instance of this where she keeps looking back. 
Overall this was a very enjoyable remake of the classic novel. The  sophisticated use of color and lighting, combined with the strong narration of a woman trying to find her place in a new world for her makes for a great film. I remember reading the book in my tenth grade English class and watching this now gave me just the same feeling. I highly recommend giving it a watch, even if you aren’t familiar with the earlier versions of the story. 

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Lovecraft Country, the Monsters of 1950’s America

12/4/2020

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by Landen Kennedy
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    Lovecraft Country is an HBO original show based on the book of the same name. With Jordan Peele and JJ Abrams serving as two of the show’s producers, I was pretty sure what the show would look like: lots of sci-fi and horror with a healthy dose of social commentary mixed in. The show is exactly how I imagined it would be, and proves once again that science fiction and horror are some of the greatest pathways for bringing social commentary to audiences.
    The show mainly follows Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Johnathan Majors), his love interest Letitia “Letti” Lewis (Jurnee Smollett), and his father Montrose Freeman (Michael K Williams). These three characters are surrounded by a world of side characters including Letti’s sister, Tic’s relatives, and many villains and monsters throughout the show’s ten episode runtime. Though Tic, Letti, and Montrose are the focus of the show overall, often smaller characters will get moments or even whole episodes to shine.
    Lovecraft Country is based on a popular book of the same name by Matt Ruff. The storyline of the show is not as linear and continuous as I had imagined it would. Instead, the episodes tend to follow a kind of “monster of the week” formula with overarching plot points connecting them. For example, one episode involves shape shifting as its main premise, then another involves Tic’s time in Korea during the war. The first couple of episodes set up a premise that was very interesting and when the episodes started to become more individual, I started to become less engaged with the show overall.
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A lot of CGI was used to create the monsters, portals, and magic that make up the sci-fi component of the show. Sometimes these effects look natural and realistic. The portal used to time travel looked visually interesting, however, the monsters and blood effects could sometimes look unrealistic and jarring. For television, there is an understanding that a smaller budget is used per episode, so the effects sometimes have to sacrifice quality for budget, however, it does not change that sometimes the CGI takes the viewer out of the experience.
     The most surprising aspect of this show is its graphic portrayal of violence. When dealing with monsters and magic, violence is to be expected, however some of the ways in which characters are killed are brutal. Monsters with giant, toothy mouths devour victims,shapeshifting via magic is a bloody and grotesque process, and many people are just killed in normal ways like bullets or fire. It can be a little hard to watch at points.
    The show can also be hard to watch because of the real-world issues it discusses. The show is set in the 1950’s and follows a group of black protagonists who encounter racism at every turn. The first episode sees the group travelling to a little-known town to scope out how safe it is for black travelers to stop. They discover that it is not safe at all and encounter a group of police officers who tell them the town is a “sundown town.” This means that black people are not allowed to be within the town limits after sundown. A tense drive to the town limits with mere moments before sundown ends with the first monster attack of the show. It is scary and bloody, but throughout the show we understand that the real monsters are not the literal Lovecraftian horrors that stalk our heroes, but the racism they endure from real people.
    Lovecraft Country is a clear reference to H.P. Lovecraft, a famous sci-fi/horror author who is known for his racist ideas. The show, and the book it is based on, aim to reclaim the enjoyable science fiction monsters and ideas that Lovecraft wrote about, but in a way that promotes equality rather than division. It is an important reclamation of enjoyable content, especially in a day and age where division seems to be the norm. The show can delve into some pretty deep ideas while using the sci-fi imagery.
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Letti’s sister, Ruby, deals with a magician who can allow her to shapeshift into a white woman. She is able to get a good job at a store and walk down the street without anyone looking at her twice. It is a dream come true until the other white store workers start talking about a black employee. She has to decide how to react when the store owner confronts her about the situation, which ends in some violent revenge on the part of Ruby. It also shows how uncomfortable she is in her black skin, that she would rather turn into a white woman only to have her white skin fall off in grotesque, bloody heaps every few hours, only to shapeshift again.
    Lovecraft Country  may have been lacking in the visual effects and plot, but what it says about society and American history are important. The show tackles issues that are evil, but also real. By reclaiming the Lovecraftian subgenre of sci-fi and horror, this series  is able to put an enjoyable twist on the works of a racist, even if influential, writer. I can recommend the show if you are able to stomach some brutal and grotesque violence, especially if the social commentary will make up for the otherwise horrific violence.​​​
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How Saving Zoe Adresses Online Sexual Exploitation

11/30/2020

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By Zoe Leininger
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Film is a medium that is able to address social issues in ways that are engaging to audiences. Based of the 2007 novel by Alyson Noel, Saving Zoe is a film that tackles the scarce talked about issue of sex trafficking. The presence of online sexual exploitation makes the film extremely relevant, even years after the book it is based on was published. The producers of the film, sisters Vanessa and Laura Marano and their mother Ellen Marano, partnered with an organization called Equality Now to be able to tell the story and market it correctly. Although it is a fictional piece the film resonated with survivors of sexual exploitation when it was shown to them and is successful in raising awareness about this issue that is often kept quiet (Equality Now). The premise of the film and the way the mystery is revealed gives a lot of insight into the way sex traffiicking and its victims are percieved. 
Saving Zoe is a crime drama centering around a highschool freshman named Echo (Laura Marano) who is investigating the circumstances around her older sister, Zoe’s (Vanessa Marano), death. The death was ruled a murder when Zoe’s body was found in her boyfriend’s car after she had borrowed it to go to a modling photoshoot with a man who claimed to be a photographer. The case was closed after ruling that this man is the one who murdered her. After finding Zoe’s diary Echo finds out things about Zoe that make her think that there is more to her murder than everyone thinks. She sets out on a mission to find out who her sister really was and what really happened in the days leading up to her death. 
    The plot focuses on the relationship of the two sisters and how Echo deals with the grief and trauma of what happened. The actresses’ portrayal of the girls is poignant and relatable because they are sisters themselves. In an interview with Hollywood Life they talk about how cathartic it was, having had a lot of loss in their lives, to work on a film together that is primarily about grief and the process of working through it (Hollywood Life). That personal emotional connection is very evident in the performances.
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Zoe (Vanessa Marano) and Echo (Laura Marano) get ready for school
The storyline of the film draws parallels between the character’s lives by playing around with reality and time as Echo learns more about her sister’s murder. A scene in the beginning shows us the two girls in the bathroom getting ready for school. Zoe is putting on makeup as Echo watches her and then tentatively does her own, trying to emulate her sister. Zoe gives her advice, saying to use two sprays of perfume. They ride on the same bus to school, sitting apart from each other. They walk down the hall of the school together, Zoe smiling at everyone and Echo more somber. Right after Echo remarks “you never let anything get to you” she is stopped by someone who offers condolences about Zoe and the image we see of Zoe fades away. The Zoe we get to see is one who lives only in Echo’s mind and is the image that she has of her older sister who she gradually finds out she didn’t know as well as she had thought. She goes into Zoe’s room and sees her sitting on her bed and calls her stupid for believing that the man who killed her was a photographer and tells her that she “got what she wanted” because now she is famous. 
As she reads the diary we are shown flashbacks of the events in Zoe’s life that she is finding out about. In these flashbacks we see Zoe drinking at a pool party when she is supposed to be looking for a summer job. In a reversal of the presence of Zoe in Echo’s life after she is dead, we see a phantom Echo standing and watching the events of Zoe’s secret life. This visual representation of the two separate timelines that make up the film (Zoe’s murder and Echo’s investigation) show not only how little the two really knew each other but also how much Zoe’s death hurt Echo and how much she looked up to her sister and was convinced there was more to her death than just being stupid about meeting a stranger. 

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Echo imagines Zoe walking with her down the hallways

As Echo tries to find out more about her sister, she slowly becomes more like her in her looks and actions. She uses a line from the diary to talk to a boy she likes. She dresses in Zoe’s clothes to get into a party with Zoe’s friends. The physical differences between them become less as she starts curling her hair and using more sultry makeup. Her friends are disturbed by it a little, but we quickly see that this is an act to get her closer to the people she suspects are responsible for what happened to Zoe. 
When her digging reveals that Zoe had been drugged and raped on film and the meeting with the “photographer” was an attempt to get the video erased Echo has to find a way to make everyone aware of what the circumstances behind her murder really were. In a scene where her family meet with a therapist to talk about Zoe’s death Echo breaks down. She screams at them for not noticing what she didn’t notice until she read the diary. She states that Zoe wasn’t naive and there must have been more to it, a direct opposite to the accusation she makes earlier that she got what she wanted. 

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Echo appears in Zoe's diary scene
The slowly revealed horrors around how Zoe was exploited and blackmailed show the way that victims of sexual crimes are often blamed in some way for making wrong choices. In one of Zoe’s flashback scenes as she is in the middle of trying to get the video of her rape off of the internet she says that if we learn from our mistakes then they can’t hurt us. What Echo learns is that Zoe’s death wasn’t from a mistake. It wasn’t her ambition to be a model or even the sexual pictures that she posted to the internet previously that led her into a dangerous situation. It was a friend who betrayed her to terrible people who make a business out of exploiting young girls. 
This film takes on issues of sisterhood, grief, and sexual exploitation while offering a gripping murder mystery. While the plot of the film is a murder mystery and the topic of sexual trafficking isn’t revealed until late into the film, it highlights the problems with how the issue is treated in society. The Marano women had been working on developing the book into a film for over ten years (Hollywood Life) and the end product is well worth the time put into it. 
    

    
Laura and Vanessa Marano. “Saving Zoe and Equality Now”. Equality Now, 2019.
Stagnitta, Ali. “Laura and Vanessa Marano Educate Fans in ‘Haunting’ Story of Grief and Sexual Exploitatation, ‘Saving Zoe’”. Hollywood Life. 18 July, 2019. https://hollywoodlife.com/2019/07/18/laura-marano-vanessa-marano-saving-zoe-interview/
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Fire Force - A Review

11/27/2020

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​The world of Fire Force changes forever when a supernatural phenomenon called “Spontaneous Human Combustion” begins to happen to random people. Similar to a plague, citizens are set ablaze and turned into aggressive creatures called “Infernals”. However, there are people who, instead of turning into mindless fire zombies, are able to manipulate the flame instead and preserve their human form. To combat the powerful infernals, humans began creating special fire forces composed of the pyrokinetic individuals gifted with the power of flame.


​Fire Force, or Enen no Shobutai (炎炎ノ消防隊), is a Japanese animation series directed by Yuki Yase. It tells the tale of a young boy named Shinra, a pyrokinetic just recruited by Special Fire Force Company 8. Shinra earns the nickname “Devil’s Footprints” since he has the ability to ignite his feet at will. This technique allows him to dash or fly, using flame the same way a rocket does. As the plot goes on, Shinra quickly discovers that he has a lot to learn when the flames which come from his feet cannot always defeat the enemy.
Fire Force was adapted from the manga Fire Force by Atsushi Ōkubo and produced by the studio David Production in November 2018. It was aired on Funimation in July 2019. The second season of Fire Force has already begun airing, re-igniting the fan’s passion for the show. 

The story follows the classic structure of a shonen anime (anime targeted for boys), but also brings in a lot of fresh aspects. For example, like many other shonen anime, the main character lost his entire family at a young age and is doomed to a tragic backstory. However, as the plot continues, the audience learns that his brother, previously presumed dead, is actually alive and well. The only problem is that his brother is working for a hidden but powerful faction whose goal is a mystery to be discovered.


​Fire Force’s animation quality is extremely good and is a step up in quality compared to the other shows released during its time. The battles, instead of being filled with mindless cuts and explosions, are more like harmonious dances bathed in flame. Even the setting of each scene is a work of art. Almost every frame in an episode could be used as a wallpaper.
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The character designs are also a great example of high-quality animation, as each individual character has a place to shine in the show. Although the characters have unique looks, they also have unique personalities, quirks, and abilities. Each pyrokinetic uses flame a different way, so each character has a different fighting style that suits them. For example, the main character Shinra is only able to produce fire from his feet. However, his peer Arthur is able to condense the flame into a sword similar to a lightsaber from Star Wars. Arthur is an interesting character who is extremely powerful in the correct circumstances. If he can envision himself as a knight, he is able to fight on par with the most powerful enemies. However, if that image in his head cracks or breaks, then he loses all self-confidence and suddenly becomes weak.


​The sound design of the series pairs very nicely with the animation. Every single burst of fire has a distinct sound, which changes based on the density and the impact of the flame. When the fire is shot forward like a laser, appropriate sounds are played at the same time. The sound effects and music paired with beautiful fighting sequences effectively immerses the audience within the scene.


​Most anime TV shows only use one or two composers for music in order to keep the theme uniform. However, music from Fire Force is produced by various different artists such as Kenichiro Suehiro, Mrs. Green Apple, and Aimer. These Japanese artists are well known for their previous works from different animations.

Overall, Fire Force is a classic shonen anime that anyone can enjoy. The storyline is filled with adventure and excitement. The fight scenes are gorgeous, paired with breathtaking art, allowing the scene to pull the audience into the world of Fire Force. Now more than ever is a great time to watch the show, especially since the second season was just released.
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Songs From the Second Floor: Exploring the Existential Pains of Being Human

11/23/2020

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By Ravi Ahuja
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A clerk latches on to the legs of the boss who has just fired him, dragging slowly along the floor. His former coworkers look on through cracked doors through the hallway as he screams “I’ve been here for 30 years!”. 
A lost immigrant looks for a man outside an office building and is assaulted and stabbed by a gang of xenophobes as a crowd stands by looking on.
An unemployed furniture salesman is haunted by one of his dead creditors and a teenage boy hung by the Nazis.
Almost nothing connects these events except that they take place in the same bleak and cold city in Sweden. The only other connecting threads are the same feelings of alienation, absurdism, nihilism that pervade the entirety of Songs From the Second Floor. The first film in Roy Andersson’s so called “Living” trilogy, Songs From the Second Floor cares little about narrative structure or character development, focusing almost entirely on asking philosophical questions about what life is like for us humans who have to live it. 
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The furniture salesman (Lars Nordh, center) stops by a cafe after his business burns down
Watching this film is an experience similar to watching one of Charlie Kaufman’s later movies, especially Synecdoche, New York or I’m Thinking About Ending Things. Themes and concepts are introduced in bits and pieces through a combination of philosophical dialogue and surreal events. Although there is no one central message to the movie, the movie always seems to be portraying a very absurdist-existentialist view of life through one allegory or another, as if each scene or vignette is a variation upon the theme. A massive traffic jam lasting for days on end is described as “chaos… that just goes on without anyone being able to give a reasonable explanation”. The owner of a furniture store that has burned down says that he shouldn’t need paperwork to prove that a pile of ash was (and still is) a chippendale sofa. “A chippendale is a chippendale” he says, “even if it doesn’t say it on paper! You are who you are, whether or not someone takes note of it”. The ideas and dialogue in Songs From the Second Floor are much less cryptic than they are in Kaufman’s work, although no less substantive and open to interpretation. 
Aside from the pervasive existentialist themes, there are also anti-capitalist ideas throughout, specifically critiquing society’s prioritization of money over art. The previously mentioned furniture salesman frequently visits his son in a mental institution, who he claims has gone insane from writing poetry.  Every time he visits, he invariably ends up shouting at him and becoming agitated at his refusal to respond and behave rationally. Ironically enough, the salesman is often the one that gets restrained by the staff there, yelling to his son, “Life is a market! It’s all about buying things you can sell with an extra zero. Everyone in the world understands that but you!” even while he is being dragged away. Indeed, there is a feeling throughout the film that much of the hopelessness and absurdity we face in modern society comes from an obsession with money. A crowd of stockbrokers move slowly through the city in the background of several scenes, flagellating themselves as they march. At a high level board meeting, a crystal ball is passed around for the executives to peer into while they wait for someone to find some very specific papers detailing some arbitrary business numbers. As if in response to this bizarre capitalistic attitude, the “insane” poet is comforted by his brother, who tells him that even if it seems that no one cares about art anymore, there are still those that do, and their time will come again.
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A host of businessmen prepare to go on vacation
It would be a mistake to assume that this film is only concerned with philosophy however. There is a very important visual component that helps establish a certain mood and feeling in each scene. The sets are as meticulous as they are depressing, using a palette of sickly greys and greens and browns. There is a great deal of care in the framing and blocking of every character, door, and prop. Interiors are either cramped and claustrophobic or massive and empty. The camera moves only once in the entire film, a slow tracking dolly shot that still keeps the frame relatively static. Each scene is done in one take with no cuts, which combined with the consistently static wide shots makes them feel more like living paintings than film. 
Although he is never explicitly mentioned in the film, the work of Peruvian poet César Vallejo is present throughout and highly influential, with Songs From the Second Floor even being described by IMDb as “A film poem inspired by... César Vallejo”. The movie opens to a quote by him, “Beloved are the ones who sit”, a quote which is then repeated several times in the film along with several of his quotes. Although the context of his quotes may change their meaning, they seem most often to be used in Songs From the Second Floor to celebrate the ordinary and the mundane, the everyday pains that humans face. Taking a certain sense of pride in experiences such as catching your finger in a door or having a torn shoe in the rain has a rebellious effect. By turning the sufferer into someone beloved, by experiencing a satisfaction in pain, life’s existential torture is transformed into an experience worth having.
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A magician (Lucio Vucina) performs a trick on stage
Although it would be hard to interpret all of Songs From the Second Floor many vignettes, or analyze all of its themes, there are a number of recurring motifs worth mentioning. The passive act of observing and being observed is everywhere through this film, with characters occasionally glancing right into the camera. In one instance both the characters on screen even stop eating their dinner to stare right at it. Many scenes contain crowds of people who say and do nothing as they look on at horrifying acts of violence. The victim is often the only one speaking, crying out for help. The feeling is one of helplessness and isolation, as if one is being examined in a zoo exhibit. 
Old age and time also continually recur as themes. Almost every character in this film is old, or at least middle-aged. The one child that is shown gets ritually sacrificed for the benefit of a crowd of seniors. A speechwriter talks about a general who is celebrating his 100th birthday, for which he has written a speech. “Life is time, and time is a stretch of road. That makes life a journey. Tradition is our map”, he tells his taxi driver. The general who has lived for so long and collected so much wisdom and experience is supposed to be a guiding force for those younger than him. In truth however, he is a senile old man trapped in his bed. Whatever wisdom he once had is now long gone. As sure as we are that our life is made stable and safe by our traditions, that we know what we’re doing, the reality that Songs From the Second Floor tries to convey is that we are on a journey with no map. 
    To be sure, this is another film that is not for everyone. Songs From the Second Floor is idiosyncratic and confusing at times. The pacing can feel slow for someone expecting a normal three act structure. It shows the ugliness and pain rampant in our lives, without the happiness that goes with it. It is however, more accessible than other highly conceptual movies due to its bite-sized vignette structure and short runtime. Someone seeking to begin exploring the world of “art films” would find a good starting place in this film. 
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