Category: Arts

REVIEW: I NEVER CRY

Jack Taylor Welsh Leave a comment

Spoilers ahead.

 

Isolated in the basement of my house on a Saturday night, I try to tune out the pounding music that somehow manages to penetrate the two small windows separating me from fun. The rage of the closet light that won’t turn off is getting to me, so I waste no time in beginning my foray into the Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival, by way of Piotr Domalewski’s I Never Cry.

I Never Cry is a long awaited film for the “Euro-Orphans:” the kids whose parents left countries like Poland to work in the Western powers of the UK, Ireland, France, etc. The film’s protagonist, Ola (Zofia Stafiej), is one of these kids. When her father dies in a construction accident in Ireland, she must leave her mother and disabled brother behind in Poland to retrieve his body. With only a backpack and a dwindling pack of cigarettes, the 17-year old girl bounces around Dublin, doing her best to thwart the different levels of bureaucracy that stand in the way of her father. Ola’s story is one of amusing despair, as she drinks around Dublin and desperately clings to the few cigarettes she finds (12 euros for a pack of cigarettes? No thanks). In this search, Ola finds she knows very little about her father, and the mission gradually becomes about understanding him rather than finding him.

In stories about grief, by now it’s a cliché for the characters to spend the course of the narrative soothing their loss by trying to figure out who the deceased “really was;” if I’ve lost you already with my trite summary, I’m sorry.

But where Domalewski succeeds in this film is the subversion of that trope, because for Ola, she can’t seem to find out anything about her father. From the man at the hiring agency, to her father’s boss, to his roommates, Ola gets nearly nothing of significance about her father. The most she learns about her father is from his mistress, a hair-dresser scraping by who shows him a framed picture that Ola’s father drew of her—“he likes to draw.” And that’s it. That’s the most we learn of Ola’s father. Domalewski holds the man of the narrative’s longing at arm’s length, trapping us in Ola’s feeling of ignorance, of lostness.

The Euro-Orphan does not get a conventional redemption here. Instead, after discovering that her father’s mistress is pregnant, Ola gives the mistress the money that her father left Ola for a car, with the hope that she uses it to go to makeup school and get a better job. Her dreams of a car mean an escape—but realizing there is no escape from her cycle of poverty, she defers her dreams to the next generation. Like Ola, the viewer isn’t left with much hope with regard to the story at hand. But we must hope with Ola that her gift to her father’s future child pays off. At best, we hope with Ola for a do-over, for a kid that has a better life in a better place.

Psych 101 tells us that between ages 40 and 65 is the stage of development in which we worry about our contribution to society, to the next generation, to the things that will outlast us. But, with our legacy ever-present in the social media era of recording everything we do, I think it’s easy to find ourselves wondering at younger and younger ages, “what world do I leave my kids?” For the generation of “savers,” I Never Cry is a brutally realistic picture of what we have to sacrifice for the rest of humankind.

PREVIEW: I Never Cry

Jack Taylor Welsh Leave a comment

From the ever-growing Polish film scene comes Piotr Domalewski’s sophomore feature project, I Never Cry, a story of a young Polish woman who must make a journey to Ireland in the hope of retrieving the body of her recently deceased father. Domalewski rides on the success of his feature debut Silent Night, which won Best Film at the Polish Eagles, Poland’s equivalent of the Oscars. While Silent Night comically explored the life of a poor Polish family, I Never Cry seems to be more intent on chronicling the coming of age of a woman in European society—from the “Second World” of Poland, to the highly westernized nation of Ireland. For the American viewer, we are provided an opportunity to observe life off the American island, on a continent where another country is a two-hour drive away and one has no choice but to construct their identity across the borders of a global community.

 

I Never Cry is featured in the 27th annual Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival, hosted virtually from November 6-8 on the Michigan Theater’s Virtual Movie Palace. The festival has historically provided a platform for Polish cinema to gain wider recognition in the Ann Arbor area and, ultimately, the United States.

Review: RBG

Lucy Leave a comment

The RBG documentary follows the legal life of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, from her days as a young lawyer all the way to her time on the Supreme Court. I was very moved by this documentary to an extent that I did not expect, and I encourage anyone (especially women) who do not know about the profound change that she brought about in this country to watch it.

First off, I did not know the extreme injustices in the law education and job field that she had to endure as “being a woman was an impediment”. I could not believe the laws that were in place that discriminated against women when she was getting an education and beginning to work in the legal field. I feel like after watching this movie there is an extremely large amount of things in my daily life I have taken for granted in terms of the equality of women in the education system and beyond. Justice Ginsberg forged a path and formed laws that protect women in ways that I did not know she orchestrated, like allowing them to attend an all male military school, including them in service as jurors, and hundreds of other federal laws that discriminated on the basis of sex.

The documentary also commented on her day-to-day life and some more personal aspects other than her impacts in the legal world. I was amazed at how she burned the candle at both ends, caring for a 14-month old child while still in law school full time, and raising a family as she became a more prominent and important lawyer, especially while she was working for the ACLU. She also worked extremely hard at every case she was part of, working until early in the morning until apparently 4 or 5 am. Even into her older life when serving on the Supreme Court, she would stay up working and then go to the court at like 7 am.  Her husband and family described how she had to literally be pried away from her work at the office, with her husband sometimes coming to physically bring her home to have dinner and go to bed.

Moreover, the documentary had a lot more instances of Ruth herself talking about her life or commentating on major events than I expected. I really enjoyed hearing things from her point of view. My favorite part was when they asked her to watch the SNL skit that parodies her, which made her laugh very much. She was also so cute, with specific neck laces for dissenting or majority opinion, as well as a dry and clever sense of humor.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching the documentary and I would recommend. It is terribly disheartening to know that she is no longer around to help the Supreme Court see right and wrong and come together on a decision, and I can only hope that the future looks like what she imagined: with equality for all people under the law.

PREVIEW: RBG

Lucy Leave a comment

RBG is a documentary honoring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s live and legacy in the justice system. It follows her from being a Supreme Court Judge through her life and her unprecedented popularity as a pop culture icon. Magnolia Pictures is offering it in their virtual cinema for just $7.00, and the proceeds all go to the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation in support of their Women’s Right’s Project. Ginsberg actually was one of the project’s co-founders back in 1972. The $7.00 includes both the purchase of the film (not rented) and a long-form Q and A session with the award-winning directors of the documentary, Betsy West and Julie Cohen, which was filmed earlier this summer. I am excited for this film because I think it is a great way to honor the passing of RBG earlier this year, and I think it will be a great documentary as well!

You can purchase the film to watch here: https://magnoliapictures.vhx.tv/checkout/rbg-michigan-theater/purchase?purchase=1

REVIEW: Nectar

kayrenee Leave a comment

From “Harlem Shake” originator and YouTube star to R&B and lo-fi singer-songwriter, Joji’s entertainment journey has been anything but predictable. Now, with the release of his sophomore studio album, Joji demonstrates that he is certainly not finished evolving and growing as a music artist. Nectar’s soulful, floating sound encompasses expressions of longing, heartache, joy, and distress.

“Ew” opens the album with a melancholy tone that seeps into every subsequent track. This track speaks directly to a former lover, and its self-deprecating lyrics contribute to the heavy feeling of heartbreak. Its soft falsetto later gives way to an intensifying instrumental section, and as the strings and piano swell, their harmonies become ominous and unsettling.

“Sanctuary” feels more hopeful and less despondent than many of the other tracks. In an album where much of the vocal performance is in a high falsetto, the lines “Not anyone, you’re the one / More than fun, you’re the Sanctuary” stand out. Joji sings these lines in a lower register with a rich vibrato. This temporary shift in vocal delivery makes these lines sound distinctly warm and loving.

The album does feature some more upbeat, lighthearted sounds, like in “Daylight,” “Tick-Tock,” and “Gimme Love.” Yet, amidst these cheerful beats, pensive and melancholy lyrics complicate their meanings. “Gimme Love” begins with a catchy, poppy sound, but the first verse reveals a sense of woundedness. Joji sings of vivid memories that are now hurting him, preventing him from healing and moving on. About halfway through the track, the beat abruptly shifts to a slow, dreamy sound that reflects the desperate tone of the lyrics. Joji paces his delivery of the last line of the song, with each word ascending higher and higher until the last word gets wrapped up in a musical crescendo. This last line, “But I can’t let you go,” feels like a candid confession.

Joji also features other artists on the album, such as Omar Apollo, Lil Yachty, and BENEE. “Afterthought,” the collaboration with BENEE, brings in more narrative storytelling than is present in other tracks. The verses reflect on moments of tension in a past relationship while the chorus recalls the joy associated with that lover. The lines “So lost in these diamonds / So lost in this paradise” speak to the beautiful memories, but they are immediately followed by the line “Don’t speed on that highway.” Perhaps it is cautionary. Joji may want to relive memories to be reminded of what blissful love feels like; but sometimes remembering how happy you used to be just intensifies how lonely you feel now.

Joji brings the album to a close with a powerful ballad. In the second to last track, “Like You Do,” Joji’s full vocals are offset by intermittent, unsettling instrumental harmonies that reinforce the desperation that comes through the lyrics.

Nectar has been critiqued for some inconsistency in instrumentals, as well as a lack of complexity in the latter part of the album. Despite this commentary, however, I think most of the songs carry a valuable genuineness that feels incredibly comforting. Joji sadness, interspersed with tainted sunny memories, serves as a reminder that heartache can feel inescapable and draining. But everyone goes through that sometimes. Nectar reassures us that these feelings are human.

REVIEW: Takács Quartet (UMS Digital Presentation)

hcobrien Leave a comment

This past Friday I chose to stream the Takács Quartet’s digital presentation from the comfort of my room. As live concerts are not currently an option, musicians have had to become crafty media producers, recorders and videographers, and I was impressed with the decisions the quartet made. This program, spanning a little over an hour, was charming, and told a story weaved through one piece to the next.

Instead of playing a typical program of 2-3 full string quartet works, the group decided to select movements from Mozart, Price, Bartók, Coleridge-Taylor and Debussy string quartets and character pieces. Each player offered a snippet of information about the movement to be played, and what made it fun to play as a quartet. As a listener I got a taste of more music spanning from classical to modern, which I typically would not get from a live performance. I do miss being in the room, hearing the musicians breath and move together, but I appreciated the quality and care that was put into this digital presentation.

This concert, in conjunction with the pre-concert talk with professor Kira Thurman, featured works not programmed and performed often including Florence Price’s String Quartet in A minor and Coleridge-Taylor’s Five Fantasiestücke, Op. 5. I thought it was important to take away from the conversation and performance that these works are not hard to get our hands on. They are ready and available, but were not accepted as part of the “classical music canon”. As a musician, I appreciated the call for performing artists to recognize how we can do more to play these works because they are beautiful and were pushed away for so long.

One of my favorite pieces on the program was Price’s String Quartet, the Andante movement. Set in the middle of the program, the piece served as a point of reflection. The melody reminded me of spirituals, much like the music Dvorak also drew from in composing his music. It was serene and drew me in *even through the computer:)* I was also drawn to the second violinist Harumi Rhodes’s playing. Her tone was warm and she played with palpable intensity that made me wish I was in the Chautauqua auditorium in Boulder with them.

I really enjoyed this presentation and if you would like to check out more online events that UMS is hosting throughout the rest of 2020, I have attached the link below!

Season