Author: Jackson Wheeler

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Stories In Focus

Jack’s Eleven // Excellent Summer Picks

Thank goodness for the reassuring embrace of summer movies. Sure, we complain out in the open about the lack of originality in Hollywood, the market saturation of subpar adaptations and uninspired sequels, but does that really stop us from seeing them anyway? Deep down we’re all hypocrites, and so without shame I am proud to present my list of the eleven films I cannot wait to see from now until August. Why eleven? Because it’s prime, just like my taste in movies.

  1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – The sequel to one of the best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe can’t come soon enough. Anything with Chris Pratt is worth watching anyway. You’re gonna see it anyway so what else is there left to say?
  2. Alien: Covenant – What better way to fill the obligatory big-budget summer horror movie void than with another prequel to the iconic sci-fi franchise? Who knows how it fits into the continuity of the other films in the series but with Ridley Scott back in the director’s chair we can only hope for more of the claustrophobic body-horror greatness its brought us over the decades.
  3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales – This is the latest entry to a hulking franchise whose best days were over long before 2017, or even 2007… But am I excited for a new Pirates movie with Johnny Depp back in the role that defined the actor for a generation of new fans? I mean yeah, I guess… You are too, right? Javier Bardem’s gonna be in it so that’s… something…
  4. Captain Underpants – The iconic Dav Pilkey comic/kids book series touched the soul and laugh boxes of prepubescent schoolchildren the nation over, so of course I’m looking forward to its animated debut on the big screen. With Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, and a supporting cast of famous funnymen and funnywomen, expectations are high, even if the trailer didn’t make it look that great.
  5. Wonder Woman –After some seriously underwhelming additions to the DCEU like last year’s Suicide Squad and Batman v. Superman, Wonder Woman looks like it may actually be a decent watch. Gal Gadot looks great in the role, the story seems compelling enough, the action looks… action-y, so that’s good. Let’s hope this is the one, DC. *fingers crossed*
  6. It Comes at Night – Sort of a wild card, a Jackson Wheeler hot take if you will. A lower budget, but all the same scary looking atmospheric horror flick starring Joel Edgerton and produced by A24, which is one of the hottest indie studios working today. If you’re feelin’ kinda crazy, enjoy a slow burning plot, and want to get spooked, give it a shot.
  7. Cars 3 – I know. I know. I know. It’s Cars. I get it. But it’s Pixar. I know Pixar’s been slipping lately and Cars 2 was the universally agreed-upon low point, but the trailer hooked me. Call it Stockholm Syndrome, but I trust the kings and queens of American animation. I’m willing to give it a shot.
  8. Baby Driver – Any fan of Edgar Wright, of his work on Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, his tight hilarious dialogue, and frenetic camera work, you will likely be down to see Baby Driver his latest project about a young getaway driver who uses music to set up his unpredictable escape routes. Even if you don’t know the director give the trailer a watch.
  9. Spider Man: Homecoming – It’s Spider Man. It’s back with Marvel. All is right with the world.
  10. Dunkirk – It’s the guy who made the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, Memento, The Prestige… Aren’t you a little interested to see what he does with World War II?
  11. The Hitman’s Bodyguard – Ryan Reynolds plays world’s best bodyguard. Samuel L. Jackson plays the world’s best assassin. The former has to protect the latter. Surely, this will be hilarious. The trailer makes me think so, anyway. The number of times the word “m*****f*****” will be said could be legendary.
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Reviews Stories In Focus

Review // Film Festival 2017

Our annual Film Fest is a time to grab your best friends, put on something your parents won’t let you wear to church, and celebrate the diligence and craft of our peers as each new film flashes across the wall. Kudos to C.A.B. of course for choosing professor Gaerte and Steve Dunmire to host. Both performed their duties amicably over the course of the night.

As far as the films were concerned, I will say that I was impressed. After a relatively lackluster showing from last year, and the departure of Film Fest giants like Olivia Graziano ‘16 and Derek Booker ‘16, I had relatively low expectations as far as quality was concerned. But thanks to a fresh crop of talented newcomers my concerns have greatly diminished.

The Drama category was definitely dramatic so we’re off to a good start. The winner, Between Two Pines directed by and starring Meredith Guffey ‘17 follows its director through a mystical wood as she searches for a better cell phone signal. I was personally more of a fan of Jakin Rintelman 17’s Lotted, which tracks the emotional and psychological toll that the guilt of losing a significant other has on its protagonist. Both had great bits of editing, but I do think that Lotted succeeded in telling a more cohesive and engaging story even if the theme of death has been way overdone. To all future Houghton filmmakers, people do not have to die for there to be drama in a story. Death can certainly be done well, but I’ve been going to Film Fest for four years and in every single one there has been at least one film about the death of a girlfriend. I’m used to dogs dying in movies, #letthegirlfriendslive.

The Sorrow Estate deservingly won the Best Music award for the video of their song “Faces and Places” featuring everyone’s favorite vocalist who we wish hadn’t transferred out, Laura Johnson ‘17, and filmed by Jonan Pilet ‘17. Though the lip-syncing didn’t always match the singing in the video it was beautifully shot and struck a nice tonal balance between the music and lyrics.

Next came Best Animation, one of my favorite categories just because of the pure creativity behind each project. And while Robert Kuchar 17’s minimal absurdist project A Day in the Life of Ian brought me all kinds of joy, I agree with the Academy’s decision to honor Emma Carpenter 18’s The Kite War as the superior film. It had a great aesthetic and style to it. The colors were vibrant and the story was really cute; sort of like Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree if the tree was a little bit creepier.

Best Comedy went quite deservingly to Dreamemes. If you haven’t seen it, you owe it to yourself to drop some acid and give it a watch. Any lover of memes and frantic editing should love Benny Munkittrick 18’s short film. I laughed the hardest at his, but the other two entries, The Note and The League of Extraordinary Shentlemen are both great in their own rights. This might have been the strongest category. Don’t actually do acid, please.

Lars Ljungolm ‘20 walked away with a few awards on the night, one for Best Cinematography rightly going to Show Reel and one for Best Short. I’m biased in my admiration for Lars’ work, but I am confident that as of right now he is the best videographer on campus. His style is distinct and his composition of shots is unmatched, so I look forward to seeing how he matures as an artist over his next three years, even if I may not be around personally to see him at Film Fest.

If there were any snubs, I’d say that Judith Marklin ‘17 was one of them. To Be Nepal and I Caught This Morning specifically; these two films were gorgeous. The latter, I Caught This Morning had some of my favorite shots of the whole night. The diversity in locations, in lighting, in subjects; it was a mood, a special feeling that it evoked. I wish Judith had won something because considering the entirety of her body of work, it would be her films and their internationally transcendent subject matter that most closely embody the pinnacle of filmmaking that Houghton has to offer.

I wish I could describe the rest of the films in greater detail and credit the other artists for their contributions, (Melissa Maclean ‘17, Melissa Maclean, Melissa Maclean) but to see every film for yourself you can watch them on the Houghton College Film Fest page on YouTube.

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Opinions

Discussing Sexual Assualt

Take Back the Night, Houghton’s annual weeklong examination of the effect of sexual assault across college campuses, is fast approaching. Discussing a controversial topic is hard. We all know this. Nothing worth talking about isn’t. Take Back the Night will attempt to encourage dialogue that seeks to explore the relationship between victim, perpetrator, and bystander. More broadly, the event examines the ways in which men, women, boys, and girls, by reasoning together, can address the issue in a more holistic way. The goal is to promote unity and to understand sexual assault as not merely a “women’s issue.” The language we use when discussing sexual assault is important, as it is with all matters pertaining to injustice. Such a dialogue should be engaging and accessible to an audience that may not fully understand the extent of the issue. It is of the utmost importance to avoid using language that risks alienating key members of that audience.

No one would disagree that sexual assault is a huge problem. It is an atrocious, dehumanizing act that robs victims of their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. However, like all matters of injustice, the mere suggestion of sexual assault can elicit a variety of powerful responses. Preconceived notions run wild, and speculation about the victim’s character begins to form.. Again, no one would deny that sexual assault is anything less than horrific, but our reactions are not always appropriate to the situation.

As important as conversation around this issue is, many men are unwilling to participate in dialogue with proponents of social change because they feel that admitting the problem could make them complicit in the culture that surrounds assault.  No one wants to feel targeted, but these feelings are often due to a misunderstanding of the argument. However, part of that misunderstanding stems from exclusive language that can delegitimize the experience of men.  Such language is unhelpful, and removes a voice from a discussion that direly needs multiple perspectives.

The way we react to being told there’s a problem is important. By flying to Twitter or Facebook to rant, we very rarely achieve anything of real substance. Hearing a buzzword in an argument, lecture, or chapel and tuning out because of some perceived loss of the speaker’s credibility isn’t productive. It stifles progress and builds up barriers. By refusing to take part in a conversation we risk drowning out real change and we open the door to more of the same: misconstrued arguments, the alienation of key demographics, and language that divides rather than unifies.

This has to be avoided at all costs. Where sexual assault is concerned, there are challenging systemic problems that have to be addressed. For example, why are the perpetrators of sexual assault overwhelmingly male? Where in the male developmental process does the behavior that fuels it begin to show? This is a conversation meant to be had by men and women,  so that together, we can advocate for an end to sexual assault.

Seminars, surveys, and informational videos certainly communicate a clear message against harassment and improper behavior, but their effectiveness is hampered greatly by their oftentimes dry execution. We need more than that if we expect to see a change in the way society deals with sexually based offenses. Critics of the seminar/survey method call such measures like sensitivity training a mechanical response unlikely to amount to substantial progress. What many psychologists and activists recommend instead, is leadership training and tying the issue back to the initial point of the value of communication.

By holding ourselves to higher standards, by governing closely the words that leave our mouths, and by holding others to those standards accordingly is how a culture begins to change. Martin Luther King Jr. cautioned, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” He urged his listeners to not sit idly by while their brothers and sisters marched in the streets, but to make their voices heard. Individuals against sexual assault share the same vision.

Jackson is a senior political science major with minors in Spanish and business administration.

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Opinions

Marching For My Own Reasons

“Look, honey, those girls are going to march for your rights.” Those were the words spoken by a beaming mother, to her smiling daughter, no more than seven years old, upon seeing five of my friends en route to the Women’s March in Washington D.C. Seeing this mother’s unassailable pride for her daughter in such a quiet moment, so far removed physically and tonally from the organized chaos of the protest, carried the most weight in my heart. Right there, I saw that what my friends and I were doing mattered to somebody, and it gave me the deepest satisfaction knowing it was coming from a place of such hope and love.

I attended the march because I believe quite strongly in the empowerment of women, driven by my own hope that my sister, my cousins, my female friends, and (Lord willing) my future daughters and nieces will grow up with the confidence that they could conquer the world – metaphorically at least. That was my reason for being in Washington two weekends ago, but I quickly realized that externally, my own rationale had been misinterpreted. Suddenly, I was being told that because I was a willing participant in the Women’s March, I was now a supporter and willing participant in the advancement of causes X, Y, and Z by matter of association; by proxy, all because I showed up to a march not anticipating the full implication of my being there. I find this concept ridiculous.

What I find the most ironic about this claim, in relation to the march in particular, is that the backlash facing its attendees has come exclusively from conservative sources, the same ones that have been so vehemently opposing claims by the left that a vote for Donald Trump was a normalization of racism, sexism, xenophobia, and so on and so forth. You know the spiel. I find that claim by the left to be similarly flawed. It’s a discussion for another time.

The irony here, however, to assert that being an active participation in a movement is somehow equivalent to supporting all aspects of said movement is an argument I find to be mostly unpersuasive. Isn’t the world too complicated for one political party to claim a complete moral authority on its behalf? Every issue deserves careful consideration and detailed examination. To assume that a coalition of any kind will be able to place all of its members in nice, tidy boxes is an unrealistic expectation.

Voting for a president, for example, can be an extremely tough judgment call. Our most recent election shows what happens when both leading candidates are burdened with checkered pasts and a handful of policies able to cast dark shadows over the whole of their campaigns. Voters faced a moral conundrum in 2016, unparalleled in recent memory, stuck with a choice many likened to “choosing the lesser of two evils.” This goes beyond the proverbial “skeletons in the closet,” beyond “grab ‘em by the pussy,” and beyond shady corporate ties. Not every Trump voter wanted the wall, not every Hillary voter shares her position on abortion, but both groups of voters exist. Did they sacrifice their morality and intellect by making a thoughtful, no doubt difficult calculation by selecting a candidate who they fail to align with on every issue down the ticket? I certainly don’t think so, but is it messy, of course.

When I showed up to the Women’s March, I was there for my own reasons, realized beautifully by the image of a mother wanting nothing less than the world for her daughter, full of hope that she would grow up capable of being exactly who she wants to be, untouchable by whatever malevolent forces that be that would have her believe she is deserving of anything less. There was a bevy of other causes represented at the march. I was on board with some, not so much with others, but they didn’t speak for me. I speak for me. Don’t call me what I’m not.

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Stories In Focus

Film Review: Manchester By The Sea

One of the best things about the recent film Manchester By The Sea is the way that its plot meanders so patiently. It is in no rush to jump to hasty conclusions or unnatural climaxes – which, unfortunately, is likely what many audience members will hate about it. But to fully appreciate what director Kenneth Lonergan is doing, to experience the portrait of grief he is painting, and to feel its depth and breadth so fully, to do so in any way other than the painstaking, reserved, and measured approach it takes would have done the film a major injustice.

Manchester By The Sea is another creation from the Damonfleck vault (Matt Damon is producer on the project), evidenced by the depiction of Massachusetts blue-collar life, and, of course, the inevitable exploitation of words that have r’s in them. Mentions of “StAH Trek” and “ShAHk attacks” abound, but more than the superficial in-jokes audience members love to hear in movies about New England, Lonergan has created a film designed to move beyond clichés and skin-deep relatability. This one you can feel down in your bones if you let it. It doesn’t follow the conventional story beats for characters going through the grieving process. It doesn’t pull happy endings out of thin air. Coping mechanisms have to be discovered and there are no guarantees that everyone will.

The story is concerned primarily with Lee, Casey Affleck’s character, his performance of which there is far too much to say than could feasibly be discussed in this review. Without giving too much away, Lee is called back to his hometown in Manchester-By-the-Sea after the death of his older brother Joe (played in flashbacks by Kyle Chandler) who had suffered a prolonged bout with congestive heart failure. Lee by extension then becomes the sole guardian of Patrick, Joe’s fifteen-year-old son. Basically, everything is a mess and no one wants any part of the situation. That much is obvious and easy to understand on paper. But the beauty of Manchester’s story is in its revelation of details. Information tumbles out slowly and always at the peak of tension, much the same way as it would in a taut crime thriller. We can only infer the baggage that Lee carries with him. We know that it’s there. We can see it in his eyes, in the way he moves, and speaks. But we’re only told when the director decides to let us in on the horrible secret.

Everyone has seen bad movies (and even good movies) that rely on communicating plots and storylines through clunky exposition and forced dialogue. Lonergan knows that his audience is not too dumb to fill in the gaps. When Lee gets a phone call from a doctor to tell him of his brother’s passing there is no cringey “What?? My brothAH’s dead?!?!?” There is no scene like that. That is not who Lee is. That is not how Lee reacts to things. It is brilliant moments of subdued acting and characterization that add so effortlessly to Manchester’s tortured but grounded aesthetic. No one creates more of these moments than Casey Affleck. He is just as incredible as every critic has claimed. It’s rare to see any character in a film communicate such immense pain with such minute gestures and minimal dialogue. If Casey Affleck is top Oscar priority as far as awards go, the screenplay is a close number two, and maybe shouldn’t even be that low.

To be clear, Manchester By the Sea is not a sadistic two-hour tearfest. Far from it. It has great moments of levity; scenarios where you can relax your shoulders and just inhabit the world that Lee and his nephew live in. Both actors play off one another as only family members do when they are young enough to laugh at the same jokes. Their relationship is more than just the cornerstone of the movie, but of each other’s lives. They need each other so clearly, but, like everything else in Manchester, this too is temporary; a Band-Aid to be torn off after the scar tissue has closed up and hardened again, never truly getting the time or care to heal. These are working-class Boston men, after all.

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National News

National // Donald Trump Wins Presidency

In spite of poll predictions, Donald J. Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States, a shock most jarringly felt by the Hillary Clinton campaign, who at times led by double digit polls during the campaign season, according to CNN.

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

States like Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and North Carolina, states that had been expected to fall decisively blue, fell in Trump’s favor, carrying him fairly easily to the necessary 270 votes in the Electoral College, the New York Times reported. Protesters gathered in response to Trump’s election, with crowds in Los Angeles stretching for several miles according to CNN. Sanders backed the protests in an interview with USA Today, and stated, “We have a First Amendment. People are angry. People are upset. And they want to express their point of view that they are very frightened, in very, very strong disagreement with Mr. Trump, who has made bigotry the cornerstone of his campaign.”

Trump managed to tap into the heart of the white, working class,  a demographic that proved substantial enough to secure him the presidency. Hillary Clinton, however, struggled to recapture levels of voter turnout that President Obama relied so heavily upon in the two previous elections, according to NPR.  Perhaps most surprising of all, was the amount of minority support the Republican candidate was able to secure. PBS reported that after weighted consideration of building “The Wall,” after the soundbites denouncing illegal immigrants as “criminals and rapists,” Trump still managed to secure 29% of the Hispanic Vote. In 2012, Mitt Romney mustered 27%, by comparison, according to PBS.

The results of this election could be a definitive end to the influence of the Clintons in left-wing politics according to the Wall Street Journal, with the general public deciding twice that they do not want Hillary Clinton as Commander-in-Chief, having also lost the democratic nomination to Barack Obama in 2008. Her struggles to build trust with Americans, dismayed by her use of a private email server during her tenure as the Secretary of State and acceptance of six and seven figure paychecks for corporate speaking engagements failed to galvanize independent voters to her cause, the Wall Street Journal stated.

An America that just eight years ago had pioneered the arrival of its first African-American President fell just short of rallying to elect its first female to the office, instead electing a man whose derogatory remarks toward women have been widely recorded and scrutinized. Many felt that such talk would disqualify a presidential candidate from taking office.

Healthcare, immigration, abortion, the economy, ISIS, relations with America’s allies and economic partners were only some of the most pressing matters for voters, according to Politico. Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump said he was reconsidering his stance on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act after his meeting with President Obama. Trump’s stance on immigration has continued to develop as well. He told CBS on “60 Minutes” he plans to deport or incarcerate up to 3 million undocumented immigrants. He also said his promised wall may include “some fencing.” “For certain areas I would [build fencing], but certain areas, a wall is more appropriate,” he said. “I’m very good at this, it’s called construction.”

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Reviews Stories In Focus

Review // SPOT (Mostly) On

Fall SPOT is as much a part of Houghton culture as are lanky white boys playing the acoustic guitar, so naturally this year’s show was hyped to be the perfect sendoff for Homecoming 2016. Having experienced six of these during my tenure as a student, as both performer and audience-member – overall, I’d call this one a success, though sure, there may have been a number of missteps over the near-ninety-minute running time.

puple-and-goldHosts, Sarah Duttweiler ‘17 and Travis Trotman ‘17, exuded a palpable energy onstage, doubling down on their peppy “Purple vs. Gold” theme. They did the whole “shoot a video of the hosts frantically racing to SPOT, making it to the chapel, and then entering through the aisle doors as the video ends” thing, and as overdone of a concept as that may be, I couldn’t help but smile watching the two of them shimmy up to the stage in all of their wavy-armed, leg-flailing enthusiasm. Their overall contributions to the show were minimal as far as skits were concerned, but they did handle the job with a whimsical nonchalance.

The acts were a mixed bag, as has come to be expected. It is surely no easy task to cobble an act together in the three weeks between the first day of classes and the week of auditions, much less one that is original, funny, and well-orchestrated all at the same time. While several acts managed, only two of those conditions there were certainly a handful of acts that had me gasping for air between fits of laughter.

The way that Michael Carpenter declaimed “Smack it” again and again, reading Beyoncé’s 7/11, with equal parts drama and articulation had me absolutely rolling, regardless of the fact that I’d already basically seen the act several times before (and once again that night, strangely enough). The Impractical Shen Men skit was something I’d hoped to someday see in SPOT, and it did not disappoint. I’d love to see it again a few more times, next time maybe outside of Houghton or at another college campus (Roberts, let’s go). But my favorite act of the night had to be Bad Anniversary Presents, its success resting squarely on the shoulders of Ian Smith and Luke Duttweiler. Their originality, wit, and delivery easily made it the highlight of the show. Ian Smith, if you’re reading this, I would happily watch an act of you reading ingredients off the side of a cereal box. Kudos to you, sir.

Comedic acts aside, while Laura Johnson’s voice may have been noticeably absent from this fall’s SPOT there was certainly no lack of singers to fill the void. The pipes on some of these people, my word. Their voices were beacons of hope. Their voices were islands I wanted to live on. They were lighthouses I wanted to swim to. They were silverback gorillas in the Cincinnati Zoo and I wanted to protect them. All who sang, bless you. Now… there were a lot of you and variety is the spice of life, but there was admittedly an overabundance of singing acts, and some did fall a bit flat as a result.

Some acts, unfortunately, fell inordinately flat. Watching swing dancing is like watching the Presidential debates. When everything’s going well it’s a decent watch, but more often than not we spend the whole time waiting to see if something terrible is going to happen. It’s stressful. My favorite part of the Hannah Montana skit was watching a gangly freshman dancing up in front of the stage trying to cut a jig. And then there was THAT act. Yeah. That one. All I’m saying is that it would be great to stifle too much further tongue on tongue action moving forward to Spring SPOT, Snow Patrol notwithstanding (Just kidding guys, congrats on the new relationship).

Overall, it was fine, to me, a net positive. Inoffensive hosts, some hilarious skits, some amazing performances, and another fabulous turn by the SPOT band (Never stop, SPOT Band), were enough to balance out some of the cringier moments sprinkled throughout. It was a good night as far as good nights in Houghton are concerned, and for that I’d call it a success.

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Reviews Stories In Focus

What to Watch This Summer

#10: Finding Dory – Finding Nemo continues to hold up as one of Pixar’s best, most vivid, and heart-warming films making this Dory-centered sequel one that audiences have awaited for years. The lovable blue tang’s search for her parents could easily be the next smash-hit for Pixar, provided it has something new to offer beyond simply living off the success of its predecessor.

#9: Warcraft – Warcraft with its name-recognition, big budget, and competent director, is seeking to upend the notion that all “Video Game Movies” have to suck. Its CGI-heavy story about the ongoing war between humans and orcs is given a boost of legitimacy with Duncan Jones’ name attached, having established a notable track record with films like Moon and Source Code, definitely making this one to look out for.

#8: Sausage Party – Seth Rogen’s hard R-rated animated comedy is about a talking sausage who’s trying to warn his fellow food-based friends about what really happens when humans take them home from the grocery store. Fans of Rogen’s crude humor are likely to enjoy this one, just know that it is not for everybody. Do not take the kids unless you want them learning some fun new words.

#7: Suicide Squad – DC’s lack of a sense of humor in their films is something Suicide Squad aims to fix, reintroducing the Joker and a number of Batman villains for Ben Affleck and the rest of Gotham to worry about. After such a mixed response to Batman v. Superman, DC needs a slam dunk here. The trailers have been promising. If Suicide Squad can actually deliver then Marvel may have to start paying attention.

#6: The Conjuring 2 – Ed and Lorraine Warren continue their paranormal investigations, counseling a young girl in London who is being tormented by another evil spirit. Horror movie sequels usually fall way short of their predecessors and The Conjuring set that standard pretty high, but if the trailer is any indication of 2’s overall quality then none of us are sleeping for weeks.

Kubo-and-the-Two-Strings-The-Garden-of-Eyes-1 copy#5: Kubo and the Two Strings – From the director of Coraline and ParaNorman, Kubo and the Two Strings looks beautiful. A young boy sets out on a quest to defeat a vengeful spirit, armed with only his friends and his small, important-looking guitar…thing. Anyone familiar with Travis Knight’s other films will be familiar with Kubo’s distinct, vivid animation. It is a unique looking film with plenty of character to sustain the film beyond simple aesthetics.

#4: Pete’s Dragon – The original Pete’s Dragon was a middling Disney movie with its standout feature being the melding of a live-action world with a two-dimensional dragon. That feature no longer feels like a gimmick today, but the trailer for this summer’s remake looks simply incredible. So close on the heels of Jon Favreau’s Jungle Book adaptation, to see Pete’s Dragon be given blockbuster treatment in such lavish fashion makes it look like another fine addition to Disney’s catalog.

#3: Swiss Army Man – Swiss Army Man is a dark comedy about Hank, (Paul Dano) who’s been stranded on a deserted island and finds a dead body (Daniel Radcliffe) that’s been washed ashore. Hank discovers that he can not only speak to the body, but he can use him for essentially any necessary task, plausible or surreal. It is completely bizarre and seemingly impossible to describe the film briefly. It is better just to watch the trailer and appreciate how strange it really is.

#2: The Lobster – The Lobster is an odd indie flick where single people are arrested and sent to retreat centers where they are required to fall in love within a 45-day window. If they cannot, those people are turned into animals, literally. It’s a quirky, dark comedy with an unsettling tone and critics are already raving about it.

#1: Captain America: Civil War – Marvel has outdone itself every year and Civil War is being called the best film in its lineup. Captain America vs. Iron Man, Liberty vs. Security. This is a film that provokes just as much thought as it does adrenaline. It is a visual spectacle foremost, but it also considers morality in a way that most superhero movies, heck, most movies fail to address. Oh, also Spider-Man is in it. You cannot forget Spider-Man.

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Reviews Stories In Focus

Marvel, DC, and the Battle for Longevity: A Review of Two Studios

Superhero movies have enjoyed an enviable run the last several years at the precipice of popular culture. Their prevalence in the mainstream, especially as of late, has been attributed to the use of serialization as Marvel’s and now DC’s method of organizing their release schedules. Both studios have taken a variety of comic book properties and put them all under one roof, building what is referred to as a “Shared Universe”, where each individual franchise is able to stand alone to be enjoyed on its own merits while simultaneously feeding into the stories of others, contributing to the development of an overall joint-storyline.

MarvelDCThis is nothing new for Marvel. They kicked off the serialization boom in 2008 with the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, the first two additions to their “Cinematic Universe”. Even that early on, their first several films alluded to a promise of something great on the horizon. They hinted at some event that in a pre-Avengers world would have been difficult to imagine. Many on Marvel’s current roster of superheroes would be completely unknown to the average person ten years ago (Ant-Man? Star Lord?) further highlighting their ability to make great movies regardless of who’s attached to the project. Marvel’s most worthwhile endeavors have also been their riskiest ones.

DC has been trying the same thing. Having seen the overwhelming critical and financial success of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, it was inevitable they would want to attempt something similar. But while Marvel had years to grow their universe organically, refining their filmmaking formula with each release, DC has been stuck playing catch-up. Results thus far being relatively lackluster.

Marvel isn’t at all superior to DC in terms of source material. Christopher Nolan’s Batman films are some the best that the genre has to offer (DC!). While their grittiness and darker tone worked for them, Marvel has instead built its track record on films that may appear more light-hearted by comparison. It doesn’t mean they don’t also explore dark thematic content but composition-wise, their releases are a stark contrast to the dourness of something like The Dark Knight. Marvel’s films feature larger-than-life characters, sharp, witty dialogue, vivid set pieces and explosive action scenes. Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the Avengers films have closely embodied this formula but deviated from it enough to make each distinct in its own right, achieving excellent results.

Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice certainly have positive qualities. They are suitably cast, well-acted, and look great on a technical and aesthetic level. However, when it comes to telling a simple, compelling story, DC falters. To be fair, their shared universe project currently has only those two films in its body of work but their common thread, director Zack Snyder, seems unlikely to be able to move either franchise forward in any meaningful way.

Snyder’s frustrating tendency to over-prioritize visuals and special effects while neglecting things like script and character development continue to hurt these films. The unfocused structure of Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman and the  uneven pacing throughout are problems not even unique to DC. Repeated viewings of Iron Man highlights how slowly the plot can drag in the second act and how it leaves the story out to dry. The difference is that while Marvel’s films have their issues, their sense of humor, script, visuals, and characterization are usually enough to counterbalance the negatives. DC’s first two films may be truly cinematic, but their lack of heart and substance prove to be the biggest hindrance to their quality.

All the best superhero movies, the ones that leave an impression are the ones that speak to the heart and not the eyes. It’s cutesy, but it’s true. I may use a still from Man of Steel as my phone’s wallpaper because it looks good but I don’t own the movie on DVD. Between that and say Guardians of the Galaxy which one would you want to watch again? Hopefully choosing between Marvel and DC won’t always be this easy.

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Review: #OscarSoSatisfying2016

The Oscar’s have been maligned for many things: “They’re too long”, “No one’s even seen the Best Picture nominees”, “The host won’t be funny”, “If Leo’s not winning, I’m going to bed”. Year after thankless year these criticisms are levied against the Academy in its putative inability to accurately reflect the interests of “The Average Moviegoer”, to honor the films that people actually care about. As if those allegations aren’t jarring enough on any given year, the familiar flak has been all but eclipsed by the ongoing and widespread allegations of prejudice within the film industry, Hollywood’s behind-the-scenes racism supposedly has been responsible for the lack of diversity among this year’s very pale nominees.

oscars-2016The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in a move undoubtedly made to appease those disappointed with the #OscarSoWhite controversy, decided to invite edgy stand-up comedian Chris Rock to host. Thankfully enough for both audience and Academy it turned out to be a smart move. The Academy, to its credit, held up a mirror and allowed itself to be subjected to a healthy dose of reality that they may realize how difficult it has become for minorities to penetrate the upper echelons of Hollywood.

Rock’s opening monologue was as funny as it was poignant, even becoming wincingly uncomfortable at times when some jokes began to feel less and less funny and more and more unsettling in the truths underlying them. Of course, some punchlines missed their mark, as is customary (see above, standard complaint #3), but the continual presence of the energetic host and several others throughout the night who managed a laugh or two kept the admittedly overlong ordeal moving along at a relatively brisk pace. More than most, this year’s Oscar’s experience was an introspective one, the audience having to grapple with several complex issues, not only of race, but of sexuality, big business, and the environment, to name a few of the accompanying themes that manifested themselves as the show went on.

All that taken to heart, the Oscar’s are still, by their nature, an awards show meant to honor excellence in cinema and in that department the presentation went off largely without a hitch. Two female first-time nominees walked away with the Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Brie Larson winning the former for her role in Room, and Alicia Vikander securing the latter for her performance in The Danish Girl. Always-the-bridesmaid-never-the-bride Leonardo DiCaprio finally (FINALLY) won his long-awaited Best Actor Oscar for his visceral performance in The Revenant. Both the film’s director and cinematographer, Alejandro Iñárritu and Emmanuel Lubezki taking home awards in their respective fields as well.

Cleaning up in nearly every category it was nominated was 2015’s best reviewed blockbuster, Mad Max: Fury Road. The action movie titan didn’t win any “major” awards per se but did manage to come away from the night with six Oscar’s for Achievement in Film Editing, Hair and Makeup, Production Design, Sound Mixing and Editing, and Costume Design, the film being more than deserving of such accolades.

The show was not without its upsets, however, the distinction of Best Actor in a Supporting Role causing the biggest stir of the night. Mark Rylance won the award for his role in Stephen Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, many believing Sylvester Stallone’s emotional return to the Rocky franchise in Creed being the superior performance. Pixar collected its eighth Oscar for Best Animated Feature for Inside Out many critics wondering beforehand whether the more mature, Charlie Kaufman film, Anomalisa with its existential gravitas and unique romance made it a more deserving candidate.

While Mad Max did not win the coveted Best Picture Oscar, Spotlight, the little film that could and did, was the most welcome upset of the night. The emotionally compromising story of the group of Boston Globe journalists who worked tirelessly to uncover the Catholic Church’s involvement in the molestation of children was not only the year’s best film but its most important one. Perhaps, it’s telling that both Spotlight and this year’s Oscar’s share the admonition that when it comes to securing justice, it is genuine perspective that seems to be key.