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(02/23/16 9:58pm)
By Brooke Schmidt
Staff Writer
For the past few weeks, it has been almost impossible to go on social media without two words popping up everywhere: “Gilmore Girls.” For those who are unfamiliar with the show, “Gilmore Girls” is about a young mother and her daughter living in a small town in Connecticut. Of course, that doesn’t even scratch the surface, but it is more or less the starting ground for the plot. “Gilmore Girls” is a show known for its fast-talking, pop culture references and a host of swoon-worthy boyfriends. It will be rebooted in all of its glory through four 90-minute specials on Netflix, and so far, every major character other than Melissa McCarthy’s Sookie will return. Altogether, this is extremely exciting news for long-time fans and should serve as a push to get new viewers interested in the show, as well.
If you’re planning on re-watching or even beginning “Gilmore Girls” for the first time, there’s no better companion than the highly-regarded recap comedy podcast “Gilmore Guys.” The podcast is hosted by Kevin Porter and Demi Adejuyigbe, a long-time fan and a first-time watcher, respectively. They recap every episode alongside a guest from the comedy world, adding their own flair along the way. Currently, the podcast is in its sixth season, but that doesn’t mean you have to start there! You can start at the beginning and listen to them after each episode you watch. It adds a delightful and vibrant commentary to an already colorful show.
What makes “Gilmore Guys” so appealing is that Porter and Adejuyigbe are truly big fans of the show. In each podcast episode, they discuss the cultural references and fashion looks in the corresponding “Gilmore Girls” episode through segments called “Pop Goes the Culture” and “The Fashion Report,” while also recapping major events and plots. The podcast is part analysis, part comedy as the duo brings on first-time watchers and longtime fans within the comedy world to join the show. One comedian of note is beloved television and film jerk Jason Mantzoukas. He’s been a huge fan of “Gilmore Girls” for years and it’s hilarious to hear him make up raunchy plots for each character.
While the podcast is truly enjoyable on its own, what makes it even better are the bonus episodes, which feature interviews with actors, writers and crew members who worked on filming the show. So far, Liza Weil (Paris), Jackson Douglas (Jackson), Yanic Truesdale (Michael) and Scott Patterson (Luke) have appeared on “Gilmore Guys.” Those episodes shine an interesting light on the behind-the-scenes process of making the show, and while they don’t have the normal flair of a “Gilmore Guys” episode, there’s nothing more exciting than listening to Luke or Paris speak for almost two hours.
At the end of each episode, Porter and Adejuyigbe create their own rating of each episode using objects or weird lines from the show, and then sing the “Gilmore Girls” theme song. Hearing the familiar words of Carole King — “Where you lead, I will follow” — sung and beatboxed by your favorite comedians rekindles the joy of watching each episode. Whether you’re new to “Gilmore Girls,” watching it for the 10th time or you just want something to listen to while walking across campus, “Gilmore Guys” is the podcast for you. I’d rank it 10 out of 10 cups of coffee.
(02/02/16 9:24pm)
By Brooke Schmidt
Staff Writer
Many Oscar-nominated films often have an underlying agenda. They want something from you, whether it’s money or emotional investment. “Brooklyn,” however, is not one of those films.
The film is an honest tale of a girl uprooted from her home in search of a better life, where she finds friendship and love, only to be taken back home due to tragedy. But that’s just the basic plot. As a viewer, I found myself instantly enthralled from the moment the first scene began until the final credits rolled.
Unlike many high concept films, “Brooklyn” is a simple story. Saoirse Ronan plays Eilis (pronounced Ay-lish), a young woman who leaves her beloved sister and mother in Ireland so she can search for prosperity in America. As the name of the film suggests, she winds up in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she must deal with events entirely out of her comfort zone. While the story eventually becomes romantic after the introduction of Emory Cohen’s character, Tony, Eilis is the main focus. Even when she must choose between two men, she is really choosing between two homes — the one she’s made in America and the one in Ireland where she was born.
Now that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has nominated “Brooklyn” for best picture and Ronan as best actress in a leading role, more people are becoming aware of the movie. Months earlier, “Brooklyn” was an indie film not many people knew of that opened at Sundance Film Festival. Yet, the film offers so much more than people give it credit for.
The wardrobe and production design are flawless, outfitting both the cast and the scenes with period-accurate beauty. The cinematography is equally as beautiful — it’s a true joy to look at — and that further emphasizes the romance. Whether it’s the romantic nature of the time or the romantic elements of the story, the cinematography and overall design really emphasize this quality.
“I never would have thought I’d get as emotionally invested in (‘Brooklyn’) as I was, but I got more than a little choked up,” Matt Atchity, editor-in-chief of Rotten Tomatoes, wrote in his review. “And I found myself, in the third act of that movie, getting really anxious, and then I realized I was really invested and really worried about the choices that Saoirse’s character was going to make.”
Like Atchity, I found myself cheering and yelling and crying over the film. Viewers can’t help but to root Eilis on throughout every point of the film, including when she finally leaves Ireland and gets a new job in America. The connection that the audience develops with Eilis makes the scenes when she’s presented with difficulty gripping. Eilis is such a sweet girl and as an audience, we experience her triumphs and tribulations with her. This intimacy creates a bond between protagonist and audience. Seeing her succeed makes it feel as if you have succeeded as well, and that’s a beautiful and necessary relationship in a film.
While there is little chance “Brooklyn” will win any of the Oscars for which it was nominated, it is a beautiful film that deserves to be seen by the masses. It’s worth it just to watch Ronan’s incredible performance, if not to see the beautiful cinematography. Ronan fits the role like a glove and it is truly a sight to see.
(04/23/15 7:55pm)
By Brooke Schmidt
Staff Writer
After a long year of anticipation, HBO premiered the first episode of “Game of Thrones” on Sunday, April 12, to its millions of fans across the world. From its inception, the show has garnered a place in the hearts of its viewers due to the intricate storylines, well-developed characters and gratuitous amounts of nudity.
It would be a lie to say that the nudity wasn’t a draw for most people at the beginning of its run. Now, however, the show has turned into a cherished time of the year where people see their favorite characters massacred from the comfort of their homes.
Last season ended with a bang — and several deaths — which made the season premiere even more exciting. We left the series following Tyrion’s (Peter Dinklage) double murder, Jon Snow’s (Kit Harington) heartbreak and Stannis’ (Stephen Dillane) takeover, amongst many other things. Many of those plotlines were picked up by the premiere, but there are several characters left out from the moment we last saw them — mainly a certain Arya Stark (Maisie Williams). We last saw her boarding a boat to Braavos, but she was gone from this episode. She will probably be featured in the second episode, and we will hopefully figure out what happened to her once she sailed from the shore. Excluding Arya, most of the main characters were focused on during the course of the episode. Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) even made an appearance, which bodes well for future storylines.
Throughout the episode, a large majority of the sequences feature events in King’s Landing as well as Jon Snow’s plight at the Wall. In King’s Landing, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) has the first ever flashback in the entire series. The showrunners revealed last year that they would break their flashback rule, and they did so with beauty.
The flashback showed a young Cersei having her fortune told by a frightening old woman in a dilapidated hut in the woods. It was both creepy and fulfilling, as any “Game of Thrones” flashback should be. It gave further insight into Cersei’s deepest fears, humanizing her while also turning her into a desperate creature. Her fears mainly consisted of being removed as Queen to have a younger, more beautiful woman replace her. Basically, this was nothing new to intuitive fans, but it was an interesting scene and expertly shot.
The young actresses did a beautiful job and, as usual, the production value was on par with any “Lord of the Rings” type big-budgeted film. All of Cersei’s scenes throughout the episode fixated around this theme of losing everything she holds dear, from her father and sons to her crown.
Along with Cersei in King’s Landing, the episode featured the Wall pretty heavily. Politics of the new Lord Commander were discussed, but that was not the main focus. It was, instead, Stannis’s desire to rule the Wildlings. In order to take control of Westeros, Stannis decided the only course of action was to force the Wildlings to fight under his command. One person really stood in the way of that: Mance Rayder (Ciarán Hind). Rayder, truly, is the only capable ruler throughout the entire series thus far. People follow him because they love and respect him, not because they fear and resent him which is a common theme throughout the other rulers. The only other similar ruler was Renly Baratheon (Gethin Anthony), but he wasn’t respected nearly as much as Mance and could never command such an army.
In the end, Stannis gives Mance an ultimatum: bend the knee or die. And thus another strong, interesting character dies before we can understand them further. In the best scene of the entire episode, Mance refuses to bend fealty to Stannis. Instead, he is led to be burned alive on a pyre. Jon Snow, in another effort to make the entire female population love him, puts Mance out of his misery with an arrow to the heart. While audience members got a taste of Mance’s personality, I truly wish we could have gotten the opportunity to see him challenge Stannis as a ruler. There is a good chance that Snow’s action may make the Wildlings swear fealty to him instead of Stannis, but such events will be shown next week — or never, depending on my predicting skills.
What does this say about the entire show? Everything is hitting the fan. Tyrion may be helping Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke); Sansa (Sophie Turner) is going somewhere with Petyr Baelish (Aidan Gillen); Brienne and Podrick (Daniel Portman) may be going to find Sansa, but no one is really sure; King’s Landing is full of deceit and lies (but that’s not really new); and Jon Snow creates another reason that he should be King.
Predictions aside, this episode was an incredibly strong start to another exciting season, and fans are already clogging the internet with discussion and speculation. However, when does the show ever follow fan speculation anyway? Well, fans shall see next episode if their predictions have come true. For now, the biggest question remains: Who shall be the next to die?
(11/18/14 7:59pm)
By Brooke Schmidt
Staff Writer
“Dear White People” is a very divisive film, but it’s one that we need now more than ever due to its polarizing but satirical take on an urgent topic. Focusing on four African-American students at a predominantly white Ivy League school, the film attacks everyone with a satirical gaze. It makes fun of people who are too quick to blame everything on racism, people who deny racism still exists, people who perpetuate the stereotypes and people who recognize its presence but won’t do anything to fix it.
In “Dear White People,” the four main characters are Sam White (Tessa Thompson), Troy Fairbanks (Brandon P. Bell), Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams) and Colandrea ‘Coco’ Conners (Teyonah Parris). Each character represents a different stereotype that black people face: the overly radical activist, the popular guy who gets along with everybody, the nerd and the preppy queen bee who wants the spotlight. Why does the film highlight these characters? They are all involved, in some way, with the heinous “ghetto” themed party held on their campus.
In Feburary 2010, the University of California-San Diego held a “ghetto-themed” party. Yes, you read that right. They had a party where they told people to come as their personal depiction of what it means to be “ghetto.” At this party, there were copious amounts of people in “blackface” – where they painted their faces to look dark-skinned – and had stereotypically African-American themed cocktails and drinks. That may sound like something straight out of the 1950s, but such parties happened at several well-known universities throughout the next few years, such as Penn State and Dartmouth.
The aforementioned party was displayed on screen, and it was one of the most repulsive scenes on film this year. Before then, I didn’t think anybody could be so racist today, but the blackface and grills adorned by these privileged Ivy League students proved otherwise. The crux of the film focuses on the mystery of who was involved in the party. As it turns out, everyone in their own way supported or influenced the party through subtle means or more conniving strategies. Related to this issue, the filmmakers touch on the oversight and nonchalance of school administrations in regard to important issues. After the past few years of administrations being called into question about issues of sexual misconduct and race relations, this topic has never been more relevant.
These four students are the center of the film as they interact with each other and with the school community in humorous yet meaningful scenes. The trailer alone showed how funny this film was going to be, but I don’t think anyone in the theater was prepared for the raucous laughter created by a few scenes.
While the filming was slightly subpar and some of the acting was only alright, the film itself made a lasting impact. When critics talk about this film, they don’t criticize or praise the makeup of the film but of the social tones instead. The only reason such a film succeeded was due to the satirical take on a pressing, normally very serious issue. Take the time out of your day to see “Dear White People” in order to educate yourself on still-present issues and to have a good laugh along the way.
(11/06/14 2:27am)
By Brooke Schmidt
Staff Writer
“St. Vincent” follows a young boy named Oliver (newcomer Jaeden Lieberher) as he befriends his vulgar, older neighbor Vincent (the remarkable Bill Murray), learning many life lessons along the way. While the premise sounds like a cheesy, feel-good film, “St. Vincent” contains deeper layers than advertised and has critics speculating a future Oscar nomination for Murray.
Even when Vincent does despicable acts, such as taking young Oliver to a bar or introducing him to a prostitute (Naomi Watts), the audience cannot help but sympathize and care for him. For every single bad action or yelled curse word, there is another equally beautiful action. When Vincent reveals that he has a wife with Alzheimer’s, whom he visits every week under the guise of being her doctor and doing her laundry, the hearts of audience members collectively break.
Nobody else but Murray could pull off such blurred lines in such a lighthearted way. Murray shines in the second half of the film when, recovering from a stroke, Vincent must re-learn how to speak and perform normal activities. He is bitter but helped along the way by everyone around him because they see him for what he truly is: a modern-day saint.
Young Jaeden Lieberher (Oliver) and Murray have incredible chemistry in every scene they share. One scene in particular stands out: When Oliver enrolls as a new student in Catholic school, he is constantly picked on by bullies. After seeing the harassment in action, Vincent teaches Oliver to fight for the next time the bigger kids attack him. As a result of a rousing game of dodgeball, Oliver’s nose bleeds after the bigger kid pelts a ball at his face. He lets out a wild yell and attacks the bully with the move Vincent taught him, and a look of pride shines on his face.
Lieberher acts with finesse, something very difficult for today’s child actors. In fact, he acts better than many of the current teenage actors trying to get their footing in the industry.
All aspects of “St. Vincent” give reason for the Oscar buzz around the film. For a feel-good film, the cinematography is on point with soft hues and seamless coloring. The supporting cast of Naomi Watts as Vincent’s prostitute and Melissa McCarthy as Oliver’s mother enhance the story, as well. They act beautifully in roles different from anything audiences have seen them in before, which makes the film more of a treat.
While every film is flawed, “St. Vincent” masks its faults by putting beauty, heartbreak and joy at the center of the film. Any awkward moments are quickly superseded by the nearly perfect scenes that follow. Having premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, many are saying that this could be Murray’s second Oscar nomination and that “St. Vincent” is his best film in a decade. However, the question is whether the Oscar buzz will have any merit. Audiences worldwide will have to wait until January to find out.
(03/25/14 8:17pm)
As an enthusiastic fan of the short-lived “Veronica Mars” series, I have been waiting in anticipation for the film release ever since the now wildly-infamous Kickstarter campaign reached its fundraising goal.
For those who don’t know, “Veronica Mars” was a television series that premiered in 2004 and was cancelled in 2007 after only three seasons. It followed high school student Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), who solved mysteries with her friend Wallace (Percy Daggs III), the biggest mystery of all being the murder of her best friend Lily Kane (Amanda Seyfriend). Ever since then, fans of the series have increased dramatically and, just last year, they funded the almost $6 million needed to create a movie.
With that said, many people who are not fans of the series complain about its lack of widespread appeal. However, this movie was made by the fans for the fans. Director Rob Thomas had this in mind when he wrote the screenplay and all the actors were thrilled to be part of such a meaningful project. There would have been no production without the fans, and they were keenly aware of this.
The “Veronica Mars” movie takes place 10 years after the series premiere, where Veronica is about to take the BAR in New York City. However, as she is interviewing for an extremely prestigious job, she gets a call from her old flame Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), pleading with her for help. Trouble always seems to find Logan, but now he is in even more trouble than he’s ever been, for he’s been accused of murder. With Veronica’s help, they must track down the actual killer and clear Logan’s name.
The movie kept the balance of wit, mystery and heartbreak that the show was loved for. Old characters return, some of whom were announced prior and others just appear as a great surprise.
There are many great father/daughter moments between Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni) and Veronica, and there are many brooding glances between Logan and Veronica — their love is “epic” after all.
Abundant throughout the film are references to the television show and the resurrection of great relationships between Veronica and the supporting characters.
The only complaint I had with the entire film falls in the mystery plot. Somehow, Veronica comes to conclusions about the events of the murder with little evidence to support her claims. The show contained many moments of Veronica huddled over school records and chasing after leads, so whenever conclusions arose, it was feasible. However, some of Veronica’s ideas in the movie were surprising and out of left field. While it’s understandable that things probably had to be cut to make the film length manageable, I think some of her conclusions were just a bit too, “Where did that come from?” for me.
As a whole, the movie is shot beautifully and the actors fell in well with their old parts, even though it has been 10 years since the series first began. It has everything I love and remember most from the show, with a reasonable absence of some key figures or motifs. Overall, the film is definitely worth a shot if you’ve watched the show, and if you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for?
(02/25/14 5:01pm)
Singer-Songwriter duo A Great Big World released their first full-length album, “Is There Anybody Out There,” in December of 2013.
The band is comprised of Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino. Both members attended New York University together as music business students.
Axel is originally from Fair Lawn, N.J. and was featured at the College’s campus radio station last year for their show exposing local artists.
What originally paved their way to fame was the hit television show “Glee” covering their song “This Is the New Year.”
Since then, their other song, “Say Something,” has gained a recent upward spike in popularity due to the addition of Christina Aguilera. Originally recorded as a solo, the new duet version premiered on “The Voice” last fall and was exposed to listeners who may not have heard of the band prior.
What resulted was a boom in radio play and a huge jump in iTunes sales, making the song one of the most popular for the last quarter of 2013.
What makes A Great Big World so enjoyable is the sheer variety found throughout the album. Yes, it is very much a pop album, but there are many layers found within.
The lyrics are dynamic and well thought out, appealing to many audiences.
Songs such as “I Don’t Wanna Love Someone Else” reveal the heartfelt nature of the band and showcase the pure talent behind the lyrics and vocals. Other songs, such as “Rockstar” and “Land of Opportunity,” showcase their fun side with upbeat pop melodies.
The mix of slow and fast-paced songs break up the monotony that would exist if they pigeonholed themselves to the stereotypes of the pop genre.
Throughout the album, a medley of different sounds are present, which adds to the growing appeal.
In some songs, the band is reminiscent of Fun., while others are evocative of Owl City, who are both very popular and have unique sounds.
For right now, “Say Something” is the song they are known for, but I can see many singles becoming popular in the near future due to their wide appeal.
A Great Big World definitely has a bright future ahead of them in the music industry, and I cannot wait to see where they end up.