Welcome to award season 2017! It’s Golden Globe Sunday which marks the first big award show of 2017. November through January is always a great time for movies and television, and my goal every year is to see as many of the nominated films and TV shows as possible. This year was more difficult being in my first semester of college, but so far I’m been able to check a few off my list.

Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge, Deadpool, La La Land, Arrival, Fences, War Dogs, Stranger Things, The Crown, and This is Us are all of the Golden Globe Nominees that I’ve seen. It’s actually more than I had thought, but there are still so many movies and tv shows that I want to see!
Based on my limited sampling of the nominees I can categorize them into Great, Okay, and Not Great. I didn’t see anything that was terrible, but I would consider this season to be somewhat underwhelming when compared to last year’s selection (The Big Short, Spotlight, the Revenant, etc).
So, “the Greats,” which are still a work in progress as I make my way through the noms, are Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge, Arrival, and Stranger Things. If there was an award for most depressing movie ever made, Manchester by the Sea would win hands down, and would probably never be usurped. Aside from the ridiculously tragic plot that gets worse even when you think it’s impossible, Manchester by the Sea was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. I’d be surprised if Casey Affleck isn’t rewarded for his incredibly moving performance (Nominated: Best Performance by an Actor – Drama). Arrival was also a favorite, but when they went towards a more fantasy approach (Spoiler: she starts time traveling in the end… I think…) the film lost a lot of it’s credibility and intensity and started to get a bit cheesy for my taste. When they were focusing on communication and different responses to the alien invasion I was totally on board. Up until the end it seemed realistic enough for a movie about aliens landing on Earth, and that was the most intriguing aspect.
The “okay” category is abnormally large this year. Like I said, I’m just not as entertained, if you will, by this year’s choices. Deadpool, War Dogs, The Crown and This is Us definitely get spots in this category. However, my opinions on television aren’t very strong as I never really think critically of television. Deadpool was a great comedy, but I had almost completely forgotten about it and had never imagined it would be involved with the award shows this year. I guess I never think about the summer blockbusters making it through to the New Year, but it was definitely worthy of a spot in the comedy/musical categories. I’m actually happy that an actual comedy is featured in this category, when so many times there are movies featured that are the last thing you would think of as a comedy.
Time for the “not greats.” Fences and La La Land. Unpopular opinion: I hated La La Land. Maybe it’s unfair of me to judge due to my preexisting distaste for musicals, but I could barely sit through the whole thing. It takes a lot for me to get bored or restless during a movie, so on the rare occasions that that happens, it usually means that it didn’t hold my interest at all. Now I’ll acknowledge that it was beautiful. The colors, scenery, and cinematography in general was stunning, but that was pretty much all I liked about it. Ryan Gosling (The Nice Guys…10/10 would recommend) and Emma Stone are some of my favorite actors, but lets be honest. They can’t sing. So many “cringey” moments and feelings of second hand embarrassment were induced by their performances which was a bummer because I love them. Also the songs…not a fan. I did like the instrumental parts, but the lyrics were forgetful and annoying. Maybe I’ll give it another chance…everyone is raving about it and I’m sure it will take several awards, but right now I’m still anti La La Land.
Okay, so I’ll stop here since I could keep going on and on. Hopefully I’ll be able to watch the actual award show… the amount of neglected reading I have for women’s studies makes that highly unlikely but I’ll give it a shot. Also, Jimmy Fallon is hosting which seems more promising than past hosts (second hand embarrassment is a very real thing and I am extremely sensitive to it).
I’ll make predictions for the top categories based on what I’ve seen. Hopefully by the Oscars I’ll be able to make more educated predictions.

Best Drama: Moonlight (Haven’t seen it but based on what I’ve heard there is little doubt it will win.)
Best Comedy/Musical: La La Land (yikes)
Best Actor Drama: Casey Affleck
Best Actress Drama: Amy Adams
Best Actor Comedy/Musical: Collin Farell
Best Actress Comedy/Musical: Emma Stone

(Nocturnal Animals, The Lobster, and Jackie are first on my list as I try to catch up in time for the Oscars…stay tuned. 🙂 )

It feels strange to write to you like this. After all, I did not really know you by your true name. No, I, like millions of others knew you from the silver screen first. I didn’t watch the original Star Wars Trilogy until I was in high school. Like all teenagers, I was convinced that it would be too child-like, too unsophisticated. Somehow, you could take this fantastical premise and fill it with wonderment and imagination. You were our Princess, unlike any we had seen before. Leia may have been royalty, but she was also a rebel. When Han and Luke burst into her cell, she shows that she is more than able to hold her own in a fight, entirely usurping both Luke’s and the audience’s preconceptions. In the second and best movie of the trilogy, it is always the relationship between Leia and Han that captures my attention. It was a romance that didn’t apologize for its nostalgic charm, because your caustic vulnerability made it surprisingly refreshing. In the middle of an enormous galaxy, Leia was a beacon of defiance against both the Galactic Empire and stale Hollywood stereotypes.

I also remember where I was when I learned that you had passed. I had just woken up, but as I scanned my phone, I swore it was like I was still trapped in a nightmare. Some might say that it is silly to react this way to someone you only ever saw in the movie theater or on daytime talk shows. Frankly, I don’t care. I am not sure you would either. After all, you had an acute sense of the power of celebrity. You never sought the spotlight, instead it effortlessly chased you. That is what made it especially special when you did choose to embrace the bright lights. You brought awareness to social issues by willingly exposing your personal struggles with drugs and mental illness. There are so many celebrities that seem to chase fame crassly. You managed to achieve a universal presence in our lives, just by being yourself. Your honesty was always impossible to ignore.

It was a very solemn breakfast that day. My sister and I had first watched Star Wars together. We even started a new tradition two years ago, of going to the theater to watch every new release together. We didn’t eat much that day preferring to talk. There was a surreal quality to that conversation, to that entire morning. After all, memorializing the dead is always a difficult task. Everything fades too quickly, flickering like a mirage in front of our eyes. Everything feels transitory, as if I could blink this reality away and exchange it for another. I guess that is why I’m writing to you still. I hope that you knew how much you meant to all of us. I hope that it wasn’t painful. I know you are in a better place now. Hopefully, we will meet again, in a galaxy far, far away.

 

Sincerely,

Corrina Lee

About 43 miles away from the University of Michigan is Detroit, otherwise known as the Motor City. You can commute downtown for a trip to the DIA, a game at the Joe Louis, or a slice of the nightlife. Many clubs and Greek Life communities hold events at venues in the city. Whether you are going alone or with a group, the opportunities are limitless. I ventured to the heart of the spoke wheel intersections in downtown to a place known as Campus Martius Park. Here, they provide ice skating throughout the cold spell in the Midwest every day including weekends and holidays. From the rink, I happened to notice the Quicken Loans building, particularly the two blocks jutting out the side of the structure.

Tell me, why did the architect place these two blocks there? And why are they different sizes? Some may find the randomness displeasing, perhaps unsettling to the eye. Evenness seems correct. This idea could have stemmed from the human body itself; it displays symmetry in its image. We shape glasses to be two identical lenses to fit our eyes. What if we started wearing one round lens and one square lens? Or monocles? Parallelism with shapes reduces chaos and can be satisfactory, so one may try to further understand an object when its appearance isn’t as organized.

In art, there is no such thing as “correctness.” Being difference is what makes it an art. If we went around seeing paintings with literal interpretations of the same thing, or buildings of the same architecture, the world would be uniform, but it would be boring. Asymmetry makes can make a piece unique and beautiful.

 

Panic.

Exams are coming.

However far you run or blissfully ignore them, there is no way to escape their presence. You can see them in the steady stream of students swallowed by the library doors. You can see them in the coffees, the Red Bulls, the drawn tiredness of students who studied too long into the night. I can feel them now, as I hurriedly type. Should I be studying? Probably. Even a temporary respite feels like a betrayal. I won’t fail, can’t fail now, there is too much on the line. It is the culmination of weeks of studying, papers, endless reading assignments. So, I keep my eyes open, even when they yearn to slide shut. It may be 2:00 in the morning, but I don’t care. There is a strange adrenaline running through my veins. The type that only comes from absolute dread as I sense the monster approaching ever closer. I should have known when I first discovered the operating hours at the UGLi. I should have known when there were two therapy dog sessions within one week. I should have known after midterms. But the characters in a horror story always run into the abandoned asylum despite every glaring warning sign.

So, run.

But you can’t escape.

I hope that this gets easier because the tests certainly never stop. I thought the spelling tests in third grade were the biggest challenges, until I confronted the SAT. After approximately seven SAT study guides, there was AP testing and endless college applications. Tests are the perfect representative of a society that has grown more scientific, calculated, and objective. They are impartial, uncompromising, which is why we put so much faith in them. They give us clear black and white answers instead of relying on undependable humans to judge intangible qualities. They play on our need for approval. They are proof that we are talented, worthy, valuable. Unfortunately, they are also temporary bandages, a solution in disguise, because there is always another one. Although, tests may try to rank our best qualities, but I don’t think they bring out the best in us. I look around and hope that no one is judging me when I turn my back. I measure my conversations carefully in case that it is more than a conversation. It is a subtle paranoia that scares me as much as any haunted house.

It can’t be stopped.

I still wish I had a chainsaw.

So why do I keep trying to live up to these arbitrary standards? Like a trained seal, I keep jumping through the hoops for the treat that never seems to come. I know the answer that I’m supposed to give, the one that has been ingrained in me. It’s for the knowledge, the joy of learning. But ever-growing pit in the bottom of my stomach seems to disprove that theory entirely. I am perversely glad for the lack of clarity though, only to prove that life is not a test with clear rights and wrongs. I know I should be studying right now (Or at least sleeping….it is 3 am in the morning after all). My brain is gasping as I race to the finish line. This tortuous cycle is almost over. I’m glad we’re here together.

I collapse into sleep.

Peace.