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PREVIEW: Jukebox the Ghost @ The Blind Pig

April 11, 2017April 11, 2017 kjwuzhere Leave a comment

Do you want to go to a concert Friday night but don’t feel like shelling $40 out for tickets to see a rapper you don’t care for? Then come see Jukebox the Ghost at The Blind Pig this Friday. Their music is primarily upbeat pop, but has influences from other genres such as punk, gospel, and soul. It’ll be an interesting clash between their music and The Blind Pig’s grunge aesthetic, but nevertheless, I’m sure the band will utilize the intimate space to it’s full potential.

Tickets are unfortunately sold-out, but you can try to find some on Facebook or through other third-party ticket-selling sites.

REVIEW: M-agination Film Festival

April 11, 2017April 11, 2017 kjwuzhere Leave a comment

After a brief delay due to technical difficulties, the festival was quickly underway. A total of sixteen student films were shown at this festival and the run-time was approximately three hours. There was a brief intermission, but transitions between films were otherwise kept short. M-agination board members only gave one little talk–the rest of the event was entirely films. Almost every film was fantastic and they covered a wide variety of genres, so despite the lengthy runtime, the event was quite enjoyable.

Unfortunately, it would be impossible to give an individual review for each film shown, so I will stick to the highlights, and discuss some films that stood out to among an outstanding collection of films:

Cheater: This was the perfect movie to start off the festival. The plot of Cheater is that, well, a student is attempting to cheat on his exam, but the execution of this relatively simple idea is masterful. Things begin with an edge-of-your-seat-intensity that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror movie or spy thriller, and from there, the “action” builds and builds in both intensity and ridiculousness, until by the end of the film we’ve witnessed a mental breakdown, a phone chucked across the room, and a even a guy getting stabbed in the eye. Satire is a difficult art to master, but this movie hit all the right notes and the entire audience was laughing nonstop.

Jam: Taking us in another direction of ridiculousness, there was Jam, a movie which involved a man killing people so he could make jam from their blood. The film was entirely in black and white with the exception of the jam which provided a somber splash of color. It was well-shot and the narration was excellent. Although disturbing, it was too strange–cannibalistic jam eventually became a global obsession–to be threatening. The film filled it’s role as “that one super weird film” quite well.

Millenia: Many of the films at the festival were comedies or, at least, comedic. Dramas are a far more difficult feat, but Millenia pulled it off. The film revolved around two college students feeling isolated from their community and peers, who go around narrating their hopelessness until finally meeting at a party. Despite some moments of cheesiness (“welcome to the mind of me”), the film overall does a wonderful job of realistically depicting depression in college students. Furthermore, it was easily the most gorgeous film shown at the festival–it gives viewers a new appreciation for familiar Ann Arbor.

Anna Garcia Does a One Woman Play: This one was my personal favorite. For a film that has essentially one character (Anna Garcia), it does an amazing job at keeping viewers engaged. The premise of the film is that Anna Garcia arranges to do a one woman play, and to have a documentary about herself doing the play, and there’s just one little problem: she doesn’t have a script or any idea what her play will be about. Viewers watch as Anna desperately scrambles around Ann Arbor, trying to get other people to write her play. It’s funny, it’s meta, and it’s even got a bit of heart.

The Little Grebe: As the only animated film at the festival, this film immediately stood out. Though the animation was no Pixar, its painted style and simple movements made it beautiful. However, the real draw of the film was the narration. On screen we saw a little bird floating through the debris of a drowned city as we listened to the narrator telling its story as one that her mother once shared with her. The story of the bird was simple, but the emotional intensity of the actress playing the narrator elevated the piece beyond the confines of the story. It isn’t the story of the bird that makes this film great so much as it is this story of a girl who was told said story.

Low Expectations: Unlike the other things shown at this festival, this piece wasn’t a film but a pilot episode to a sitcom. The sitcom follows three college roommates as they navigate love and other hardships on a college campus. It was hilarious and real, but also hyper-aware of itself.

Overall, the festival (despite it’s length) was a great showcase of some amazing work. I plan on attending next year’s festival and I recommend it to everyone.

PREVIEW: M-agination Films

April 6, 2017April 6, 2017 kjwuzhere Leave a comment

IF you’ve ever wanted to see the great work your fellow students are producing, come tonight (4/6), to the Michigan Theater for M-agination. The event features many student films and is certain to have something for everyone, and best part yet, it’s free! Doors open at 7:30 and the show begins at 8.

REVIEW: Claudia Rankine

January 20, 2017January 20, 2017 kjwuzhere Leave a comment

Rackham Auditorium was nearly a full house for Claudia Rankine’s reading/lecture. She was introduced by a professor, who gave a wonderful recount of Rankine’s work, along with the state of race relations in America. On Rankine’s Citizen, which focuses on various incidents which might be described as “microagressions,” the professor commented that “the way racism structures our world, there is nothing micro about it.” This combinatorial discussion of both Rankine’s work and racism would be the status quo for the rest of the talk.

With images of Citizen projected behind her, Claudia Rankine began her talk. It consisted of readings interspersed with discussions about why she chose to do this or why she used this image or who this artist is. The audience got a feel for not only what the work consisted of, but how it came to be.

When she read, she sounded as if her voice was reaching out from the void, as if there was a great distance between her and you. It was like listening to someone speak from a underwater cave. By all means, it was fascinating simply to listen to listlessly–doubly fascinating when you considered the words she was speaking. She read a few sections from Citizen, which is made up of stories and anecdotes, some hers, some stolen, about being black in America. The end of one of these vignettes, which described her driving while her passenger said some offensive things, struck me as particularly beautiful: “it is also that you have a destination that doesn’t include acting like this moment isn’t inhabitable, hasn’t happened before, and the before isn’t a part of the now as the night darkens and the time shortens between where we are and where we are going.”

One of the more interesting stories she told about how the artwork in her book ended up there was the story of the image depicted above. If you do not recognize it, this is an edited photograph and in the original, several black men were hanging from the tree. When Claudia Rankine first attempted to use the photo, she found the process not as easy as for other historical photos. The owners of the photograph do not allow for it to be republished and distributed just to anyone out of fear that those people will use it to condone lynchings. So, Rankine had to call them up and explain to them that she was not a white supremacist, and after some back and forth, they let her use the image. Then, when she called back to ask if her she could edit the photograph to take out the black bodies, they agreed readily–to them, the black men hanging were the sight, the point of the photo, but to Rankine, it was the white people gathered beneath that are the real sight. It is the celebration of death, not the death itself, which makes this image so awful.

To end her lecture, Rankine played this video (note: contains graphic imagery).

REVIEW: La La Land

January 19, 2017January 19, 2017 kjwuzhere Leave a comment

The movie opens with a traffic jam on an L.A. highway which quickly turns into a song and dance performed by those stuck in the traffic, before settling quietly on our two main characters as they also wait in this traffic. This kind of grand outburst, followed by relative normality is the modus operandi for the film. Like most musicals, this singing is not commented upon, but otherwise, La La Land is not like most musicals.

Everything is vibrant. Every outfit is a color that pops. Every setting is swathed in bold hues. Nothing in this movie is ever dull. It can be harsh on the retinas–they don’t get a break for two hours–but otherwise this color madness works to La La Land‘s advantage. One of the great strengths of the film is how it manages to portray emotions not as some inner, personal machinations of the mind, but outside the body and into the world. In the first half of the film, what we see is how falling love feels. And though Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone’s acting is stupendous, the great, sweeping emotions of the film are portrayed in great, sweeping gestures. There is nothing subtle, nothing quiet about this work. It is like listening to a lovely scream for two hours straight.

But while wonderful to watch, this lack of moments where viewers can take a moment to breathe, to digest can leave us feeling overwhelmed. Worse, it can leave us feeling unattached to these characters. We are not a part of what is happening. This movie exists outside us, outside of our reality, in a world that plays by different rulebook. We are disconnected from it. This is Hollywood reality–this is where two people with big dreams can fall in love and continue to pursue, continue to work for their passions. The hopelessness of such pursuit never fully sets in, never becomes the main focus of the film. Though we might see Emma Stone crying about how she’s not sure she’s good enough to make it, we can only shake our heads and think Emma, you’ve already made it. It’s a movie about love and it’s a movie about dreams, but most of all, it’s a movie about Hollywood, and in true Hollywood fashion, this fact supersedes the rest. Ultimately, this film is a love letter to Hollywood…from Hollywood.

Your own reception of the film will probably depend on how much of a romantic you are. If you have fallen in love, truly fallen, or at least dream of such things, then you might find yourself swept along with the madness. If you haven’t, then well, be prepared to find yourself standing outside the hype.

The movie will continue to play at the Michigan Theater. Student tickets are $8.

REVIEW: Manchester by the Sea

January 17, 2017January 17, 2017 kjwuzhere Leave a comment

If you’ve made it this far in life without ever losing somebody, then consider yourself lucky. But if you, like most people, have lost someone, expect to see that grief portrayed with eerie and acute detail in Manchester by the Sea. The movie begins with the death of Lee Chandler’s brother who has left Lee in charge of his teenage son. From there, the movie follows the two as they navigate their grief, both shared and individual, and Lee works out their living arrangements. There is a reality to the plot of the movie–you could see it happening to someone you know for it is easy to see how the complications of death extend beyond the moment, beyond the dying and into the living, the very real and physical aspects of the struggle to relearn normal.

But besides just the situation being realistic, the way the film handles it is also real. When Lee goes to the hockey rink, where his brother’s son, Patrick, has practice to tell him that his father is dead, the camera’s focus is not on Patrick’s face. Rather, viewers experience two views: one, where Patrick is viewed speaking to Lee from the perspective of the remaining hockey players; and two, the hockey team watching the two speak, knowing it has something to do with his father, knowing that it is serious, but not certain quite how serious, if this is it. Then, when one of the players informs the coach that the man speaking to Patrick is his uncle and that the only reason his uncle ever comes to Manchester is when Patrick’s father is in the hospital, we see the coach, who only moments before was yelling at Patrick, skate over there and give a Patrick an awkward side-hug. The scene is not sentimental. It is not sweet. It is not hard-hitting tragedy. It is uncomfortable. Movies tend to portray these moments as dramatic and profound and huge–but, finding out your father, who was known to be suffering from a fatal heart condition, has finally died is not surprising or shocking, but rather the end of a long struggle, and you are horrifically sad, but you are also tired and relieved. And your entire team watching as you find out, your coach hugging you in a rare instance of physical intimacy, is not a supportive environment. It’s draining, it’s another mask you have to wear, another group of people you have to pretend to.

The film is full of moments like these. Scenes where the emphasis of the grief is not placed on the sadness, but the reality, the awkwardness of grieving. Still, this doesn’t take anything from the sadness of the film. Those moments hit just as hard, if not harder than they would otherwise. Besides, there are other scenes where all sound drops out, where we watch the characters interact with only the extremely intense, classical soundtrack playing in the background. Everyone in the movie is such an excellent actor (see Casey Affleck winning the Golden Globe for his role as Lee) that these scenes manage to be emotionally rich despite the lack of dialogue. In fact, its absence might even make them better.

Don’t be totally deceived however, for this movie is not all gloom and darkness. There is humor. Characters joke with each other and teenagers are sassy in a genuine way. Sometimes the awkwardness is funny, even if tinged with sadness. Like life, characters experience ups and downs, wins and losses. Like life, it hurts sometimes.

Go watch this film. It’s really, really, really sad, but also, really, really, really good. It should be playing at the Michigan Theater for the rest of the week and student tickets are $8.