Category: Arts

Green Book was a good movie. I laughed multiple times, felt emotionally connected with the characters, and left feeling uplifted. However, Green Book was a film made for the early 2010s that just cannot find its place in 2019. I went into the theater on a Tuesday night after Green Book has been showing at the State for over three months expecting to have the place to myself, but it was almost full. People are still flocking to see this movie and it is a strong contester in several fields for the Oscar’s coming up this weekend. So what do I have against this well-loved film?
After conversations over the past few years have sprung up about representation of minorities on the big screen we have seen more movies with minority casts and those movies are being better represented by the top awards shows. Three of the movies nominated for best picture at the Oscar’s focus largely on Black characters and issues (Green Book, BlackkKlansmen, and Black Panther) which is surely a move in the right direction. However, Green Book is the least progressive of these three films. What makes BlackkKlansmen and Black Panther such important, compelling films is their feature of Black main characters, focusing on empowering tales, made by Black directors and screenwriters. These are all the ways in which Green Book is lacking. In Green Book the main character is a white man (hence Viggo Mortenson’s nomination for best actor and Mahershala Ali’s nomination for best supporting actor), the Black character is used as a vessel to humanize the main, white character, and the film was both directed and written by, you got it, more white men. Green Book is not about sharing the story of a fantastic, highly-educated, queer, Black, virtuoso pianist who fought the barriers of his time; Green Book is about another white man from the 1960’s and how he moved past his biases. To make things worse, Dr. Don Shirley’s family have come out saying that Green Book falsely represents his life and the nature of his relationship with his driver. The movie makes Tony Vallelonga into a hero, playing into the white audience’s white savior complex and their desire to feel a bit less problematic in today’s world.
The film industry will not make progress toward being a more inclusive and representative space until it learns that representation means much more than the presence of minorities; representation means featuring minorities as complex, main characters in stories told by their peers. When we see more of these films represented in the top awards shows the academy can finally say that they are truly representing the American audience in a way that is not tokenizing. The Oscar’s should be recognizing the amazing films that are paving the way for American cinema. If Beale Street Could Talk is a perfect example of a gorgeous film that features an almost entirely Black cast, is based on a book written by a Black man, was directed and adapted for the screen by a Black man, and represents race relations of the 1960’s in a nuanced way. Another film that was snubbed by the Oscar’s this year is Sorry to Bother You. This movie was unique and compelling, quickly formed a cult following, and easily should have earned a nomination for best original screenplay.
While I enjoyed Green Book, I simply cannot say it was a great or progressive film and I will be highly disappointed if it wins best picture at the Oscar’s this Sunday. The American audience is ready for good movies that empower minorities, we saw that when Black Panther shredded box office records last spring. Now, it is Hollywood’s job to make sure we get movies that can stand up to that legacy. Personally, I would love to see a movie that showed Dr. Shirley’s path to becoming a world-renowned pianist and delved into the complex nature of being a queer black man in 1960’s.

Image courtesy of the State Theater.

I don’t know much about Japanese film and what I do know relates mostly to the world of anime, reminding me of my frightening brush with Spirited Away as a child. So, when I went into the cinema to see Shoplifters, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Over the summer, I facilitated English conversation circles through the English Language Institute on campus and found myself talking about foreign film quite a bit. During one conversation with a Japanese graduate student we talked about the difference between American and Japanese film styles. As he pointed out, American movies are often centered around entertainment which they can do with the budgets to support CGI, international sets, and large casts. However, Japanese film, as he described it, is lower budget and often focuses on human relationships. Shoplifters was a prime example of this account.
Shoplifters follows the complicated relationships of this hodge-podge Japanese family and their struggles to survive. As the film unfolded, I learned more about each of the characters and what brought them to this family. This small apartment of misfits was brought together by circumstances often stronger than blood. The complexity of these relationships and the circumstances that brought the family together gave each complexity and depth, however, it also made the story a bit difficult to follow. Between the characters’ many overlapping histories and the barrier of language translation I struggled to ascertain the histories of each character without a little help from a film buff friend. I left the theater questioning the exact nature of the grandmother’s relationship to Aki or the main couple. And who had the couple buried in the past?
Despite these questions and minor confusions, I was still able to fully enjoy the complexity of their interactions and relationships. One of the most enjoyable aspects of the film was the way in which the film slowly unraveled, revealing another aspect of the backstory while simultaneously moving the plot forward. The movie was just a bit long and slow for an American viewer that has seen her fair share of rom-coms and Marvel sequels. However, I still found the film incredibly enjoyable and look forward to seeing how it does once Oscar Sunday comes around.

Image courtesy of the Michigan Theater

Bravo Bravo Bravo! Congratulations to the School of Musical Theatre for putting on this fantastic show. It was so original, unique, talented, and incredible that I went back on Sunday to see it a second time. To sum up this performance it is classic Broadway songs performed in the american musical styles of gospel, jazz, pop, and rhythmic blues. The students got to work with the composer Michael McElroy himself, which explains why it was so good.

I was surprised when what looked like 50 students walked onto the stage to perform the first song “Answer Me” from The Bands Visit. Most Broadway songs are sung by one or a couple of people. Also, the instruments accompanying the singers consisted of one guitarist, one bassist, one pianist, one cellist, and a percussionist, not a full orchestra by any means. I was curious if having so many people sing the Broadway songs would make the music lose it’s Broadway character and the meaning originally intended by the original composer. This did happen with a lot of the songs, but new character and new meaning was put back into the songs with the re-composition, and the students did a great job adding their own flair to every song.  Most of the songs performed throughout the night featured closer to 20 students, which is still a lot for the Broadway songs they were performing.

I most enjoyed the songs where all the students were on stage, I felt these songs were the most powerful. Every song performed was great, but some stood out. “Answer Me” was sung with a hushed whisper sound, but the crescendos were perfect and the buildup ignited what felt like a flame inside of me. “Luck Be A Lady” was performed by a small group of six guys, and was one of my favorites of the night. The harmonizing in the song was stellar, there was a big range of high to low, and the song still accentuated every individual singer’s voice. The two guys who had short solos during this song killed it with their high voices. They weren’t singing in falsetto, but it was still a higher pitch than I could ever achieve. “Silver Lining” was sung wonderfully by a group of five and was the only song to feature a guitar solo, which is important to me as a guitarist. “Defying Gravity” was the strongest song. It wasn’t just loud, it was powerful and got me feeling excited. “You Will be found” was the most gospely song. The girls and guys seemed to face off with two back to back songs, “Love to Me” performed by the guys and “Journey To The Past” performed by the girls. I think the girls did a better job.

There was no stories, props, or scripts, but this didn’t mean it wasn’t a very visual performance. All the students were wearing different outfits and there were choreographed dances. The best dance was during “A Whole New World”, this was a ton of fun to watch. There were so many different personalities on stage. Some students were singing with a giant smile while others furrowed their eyebrows. Some students did a lot of acting while they sang with strong facial movements, while others just seemed to sing with a straight face.

Genuinely awesome performance.