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For college students, high school is mostly out of sight and out of mind. Present day situations call for present day attention, and that usually means putting aside irrelevant memories and experiences from years past. But they’re still there—and On My Block captures both the good and the bad that comes from looking back on what we all experienced.
As we continue to see the mass production and commercial success of true crime television, it's becoming safe to say that true crime has dethroned the romantic comedy genre as audiences' favorite form of guilty pleasure television. Although it's not entirely clear why so many of us enjoy delving deep into the horrifying worlds of real–life killers, convicts, and victims, entertainment companies like FOX, HBO, and Netflix have certainly taken notice. They continue to satisfy our thirsts for blood, gore, and drama in the form of quick, binge–worthy miniseries like Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story and Making a Murderer. The latest addition to the true crime TV dynasty, Hulu's The Act tells the absurd life story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and the murder of her mother, Clauddine 'Dee Dee' Blanchard. The unique circumstances surrounding the crimes of the Blanchard household make The Act an equally horrifying and heartbreaking experience that is sure to make your stomach turn.
How exactly do you turn a convoluted, high–frequency trading fiber–optic cable development scheme into a compelling, fast–paced thriller? If The Hummingbird Project is any indication, chances are you can’t. Not to say that the jargon–laden drama with buddy–movie tendencies is an all–out failure, for it hits a handful of high notes and occasionally edges on effective dark humor. However, while some risks do pay off in the end, and I mean the very end, The Hummingbird Project has a difficult time getting off the ground as the true thriller it seems to want to be.
Even before its release on March 15, Five Feet Apart was embroiled in controversy. From a misguided influencer campaign to worries about the romanticization of in–patient life, the film has had a rough go of it. These criticisms were amplified by the sheer star power this film held for its teen audience: Haley Lu Richardson of The Edge of Seventeen starred opposite of Cole Sprouse of Riverdale, both under the direction of Justin Baldoni of Jane the Virgin. The movie seems tailor–made for lovestruck young girls and boys, the kind who swoon over teeny–bopper Instagram stars and wield social media as their greatest weapon.
Cable television has always been seen as somehow less prestigious than movies: a step down, even. This is due, at least in part, to the astronomical pay–grade difference between the two mediums. Apart from a handful of powerhouse series like the Big Bang Theory or Modern Family, television provides actors with far less "big bang" for their buck than movies typically do. Resultantly, we don't see movie stars do television (save for the rare miniseries) unless it’s a desperate attempt to revamp their careers.
Netflix has officially released the highly anticipated third season of the Emmy award–winning reboot, Queer Eye.This season we're following the Fab Five—Tan France (the fashion guru), Antoni Porowski (the food and wine connoisseur), Jonathan Van Ness (the grooming specialist), Bobby Berk (the design whiz), and Karamo Brown (the culture expert)—as they travel through the Midwestern city of Kansas City, Missouri to offer advice and make people over from the inside–out. This is the reality TV series' best installment yet—and this is why.
When it comes to making audiences uncomfortable, sometimes movies go beyond the canon of horror film antagonists and confront people with the very worst of their own humanity. In the case of Gasper Noé’s Climax, uses a mind–bending cinematic style that replicates the chaotic, nightmarish experiences of his tormented characters. Climax delivers on a premise that could have easily produced a hollow, superficial film capturing what might happen if a group of people accidentally drinks LSD–laced sangria at a company party. However, the film’s fluid, observational cinematography captures the narrative layers of a world of illuminated passageways, echoing with screams and thumping music, while the film’s ensemble cast act out a terrifying drug–induced fantasy. Climax should have been a terrible film, and though it may be a disturbing one, it is mostly just a gloriously uncomfortable imagining of our most unsavory impulses.
It’s International Women’s Month this March, an incredibly important time to advocate and support the fight for gender equality. To celebrate this monumental and difficult time period in current events and history, here are a few films that you can watch to celebrate the strength and resilience of women everywhere.
“Free food, free movies, free ideas,”—that's how Ethics professor Jonathan Moreno aptly describes the upcoming Penn Bioethics Film Festival.
Nine years after aliens first land on Earth, all governments have been taken over by spiky alien “legislators” (as they call themselves), and all human life is under constant surveillance in the form of neck–implanted, trackable bugs. Captive State, released March 15, follows several main characters in one long, highly confusing espionage plot. Rebelling against the alien takeover are Rafe Drummond (Jonathan Majors) and a gaggle of nameless faces, and supporting the aliens is William Mulligan (John Goodman). Caught in between is Rafe’s brother, Gabriel (Ashton Sanders).
Marvel’s first female superhero origin story is finally here: Brie Larson stars as extraterrestrial Kree warrior fighting a war between her people and the evil, shape shifting Skrull people. All the while, she struggles with keeping her emotions in check at the direction of her Kree comander, Yon–Rogg (Jude Law), and working through recurring snippets of her past life that she can’t quite piece together. After a mission goes bad, she finds herself on Earth in 1995, where she meets future SHIELD director, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and enlists his help to end the war with the Skrulls. She eventually uncovers her true identity as U.S. air force pilot Carol Danvers and realizes her true power to become Captain Marvel.
Netflix is more than just a streaming service. Conceived initially as a DVD rental business, the company has grown far past its initial model and is now best known for producing and streaming its own original series and movies. The business model raises questions around the nature of film production, movie theaters, and how we view the medium as a whole. Steven Spielberg thinks that Netflix’s artistry is nonsense.
2019 is the year to acknowledge the existence of video–game–to–live–action movies: Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is slated for release on May 10, and Sonic the Hedgehog for Nov. 8. Regardless of their future successes or failures, these two movies have the hefty task of bringing nostalgic, beloved worlds and characters to life.
Horror has always been treated as somewhat of a lesser genre. '90s and 2000’s horror, for example, is famously formulaic. At best, horror movies seemed like a way for the stars of teenybopper television to prove they could "act" with a capital A, and for studios to make a quick buck unfettered by the laws of good or logical cinema. Simply put, they epitomized the term “B–movie”.
Comedian Ricky Gervais has always been a controversial figure. His typical brand of humor is mocking, and can come across as insulting. In hosting the Golden Globes on four separate occasions, he consistently received hotly mixed reviews, seeing as his performance was largely based on the ridicule of many of the celebrities in the audience. However, his routines can also be sharp and hilariously relatable rather than mean—sometimes. Unfortunately, his newest Netflix Original After Life, released on March 8, crystallizes his resentful attitude, but without any of his redeeming wit.
In the morning of Friday, Feb. 22, Claire Sliney (C ’21), a former beat reporter for The Daily Pennsylvanian, went to class until 11 a.m. By 1 p.m., she was headed to the airport for a 3:55 p.m. direct flight home to Los Angeles. But this wasn’t an ordinary visit.
Spring break is over and we are back at Penn once again. If you're still looking for some binge–worthy Netflix to further procrastinate all the work you put off, look no further—Studio 54 is the flick for you. This sultry documentary with vintage vibes adds to Netflix’s expanding repertoire of captivating nonfiction films, and makes it mark as an ode to New York’s vibrant 1970’s nightlife. From its killer disco soundtrack to outstanding collection of images depicting boatloads of celebrities—from Michael Jackson to Andy Warhol to Elton John, dancing, singing, and hanging from the ceiling (often topless)—it’ll make you nostalgic for a time period well before your living memory.
The comic–to–screen phenomenon is in full swing, and the newest example is The Umbrella Academy, a new Netflix series that dropped on Feb. 15th. But in a world filled with the teen series cliches of Riverdale (still love it though), the action–packed saga of Marvel, and the spooky, satanic realm of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the darkness and dysfunction of The Umbrella Academy offers a refreshing take on visual media inspired by comics.
When I walked into the theater last summer to see Incredibles 2 with my friends, I had already heard about Bao, the animated short film that accompanied it. After all, it's hard to ignore when your last name appears as the title of a project by a major film studio.
Survival movies: you get it. Man vs. wild, life vs. death. Setting? Somewhere excessively cold/wet/hot. Arctic is a survival movie with all the typical elements, but the execution of it all pushes it beyond the rest.
Solutions by The State News