This semester, the Michigan Pops Orchestra chose ‘Time’ as the concept for their concert, meaning the pieces they’ve selected have some kind of tie-in to that theme. On their instagram @michiganpops they’ve advertised OSTs from Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, and Star Trek, as well as pieces from classical composers like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. I’m assuming that they chose timeless classics (heh) that everybody has heard alongside other iconic soundtracks, so it’ll be music familiar to the audience. Full orchestral symphonies aren’t as commonly heard though, so it’ll still be a new experience for a crowd not as well-versed in classical music.
The Michigan Pops Orchestra is one of the only (perhaps the only) ensemble on campus that is completely student run. This allows the performers much more artistic freedom, so each one of their concerts is unique. One aspect of Pops that differs the most from other ensembles is their inclusion of skits and films; I’m not sure what the skits will be, but the films they’ve created will be playing during Jurassic Park and Harry Potter!
Everybody is welcome to attend their concert: K-12 students get free entry, Adults pay $9 per ticket, and University students get discounted tickets for $5.
Tickets will be sold in the Posting Wall at Mason Hall from November 28th to December 2nd and at this MUTO link: mutotix.umich.edu/3688
Don’t worry if you missed these dates, though, because tickets are also being sold AT THE DOOR the day of the concert on December 3rd at 7:00pm in the Michigan Theater.
*There won’t be any spoilers… at least not intentionally*
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever definitely did not unfold as I expected it to. I didn’t think it’d be as good as the first Black Panther, but I’m pretty disappointed in the quality. Letitia Wright (Shuri) truly got to shine in this film and her performance was phenomenal. In my opinion, though, the plot still held back what she is capable of. I look forward to seeing her acting in other films for sure.
I mentioned in my preview that I was curious if the directors might use Wakanda Forever to start building toward a driving plot for the new generation of Marvel, but that didn’t happen at all. None of the other recent Marvel films I’ve seen so far have done that either, though, besides the latest Spider-Man, so I’m not upset with Wakanda Forever in that regard.
What upset me is the storytelling, pacing, and characterization.
I wanted to see how the creators would effectively work around the hole left behind by Chadwick Boseman’s death but the resolution they came up with was very flat. The opening scene was definitely exhilarating and emotional but the transition to the next scene was rather anticlimactic and there wasn’t much explanation provided. Whenever the topic came back up, there weren’t any additional details either as I hoped there would be.
This relates to the problem of pacing I mentioned before: after the initial drama, the rising action was very slow and tedious. I didn’t feel like there was a steady buildup and so once the climax hit we were bombarded with a lot of rushed action and character development, leading to an unsatisfactory falling action as well. Not only that, though; the initial premise for the conflict was pretty promising, but then the conflict itself was rather… interesting. A new character that I thought would be vital didn’t play as impactful as a role that the premise hyped her up for, either, which I found surprising. The ending scenes did somewhat tie back to the opening, but there were a lot of holes left in the plot, especially in regards to the passage of time, and ambiguity for what comes after.
Something I did really like about the plot though is the dynamic difference between Shuri and the elders. We already saw some tension between them in the first film, but it played a bigger role this time as a recurring theme. I think lots of young adults would be able to relate to generational differences, such as scientific vs. spiritual beliefs and progression vs. tradition. I wish they showed more scenes of them interacting.
Overall, it’s not a film I’d recommend for its quality. I also don’t think it’s essential to the Marvel Universe, and perhaps watching it might even take away from the impact that the first Black Panther had. I do think my review sounds rather harsh: I don’t actually hate the film, but it’s just disappointing and not something I’d watch again or recommend to others.
Wendell and Wild was well-wended but a bit too wild…
The cast is quite stacked, including Ramona Young who I knew from Never Have I Ever, andKey and Peele (who I quite comically didn’t realize was Jordan Peele as well, until writing this review). Father Bests, the head of Kat’s all-girls Catholic school, is voiced by James Hong, whose voice is recognizable as Mr. Ping, Po’s adoptive father from Kung Fu Panda. But Father Bests’ familiarity still poked at me. I finally scratched the itch when I realized he looks familiar too: he resembles RBG but if she was a dude and a vampire (Father Bests isn’t actually a vampire, just looks like one).
There’s also quite a noticeable bit of diversity and representation within the cast and characters. The students within Rust Bank Catholic are all people of color. In this world, while race doesn’t seem to explicitly reflect our society’s real relationship with racial tensions and injustice (unless the town council members were presumably white (though we can’t tell in their skeletal forms)), the film points out microaggressions towards the trans community, as seen through Kat’s friend, Raul’s experience.
The animation is also above par. During a set visit from Screen Rant, Henry Selick said, “It’s not all lubricated imagery, perfectly done, that’s just like every other Hollywood CG film.” Yet this somehow makes the animation feel crisp and meticulous, a step even higher than the high-quality claymation of Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas. I first noticed this during a shot of ice sloshing under the wheel of a car transporting Kat from prison to her new school. The sound along with the depth / detail of the crunching ice was extremely satisfying.
The detail put into the visuals and worldbuilding of Rust Bank was also highly appreciated. From the snowy setting to the hellish creatures, to the wardrobe. The fits felt familiar — from the pooling nuns robes to the schoolgirl skirts and blazers with safety pins cutting through them — yet held an edge. Kat’s fashion is very in right now, though a friend pointed out that her vamped-up, rebellious school uniform felt unrealistic and erroneous of punk culture couture, much of which came out of d.i.y.ing the stuff of second hand stores and rummage sales.
I guess what felt off about the movie was its rating. As a PG-13 stop-animation film on Netflix, just from looking at the cover and synopsis, it presents as a spooky movie for kids. Upon finishing the film, it still seemed like it was meant to be a children’s movie (maybe more for tweens), because of the lack of curse words or other PG-13 things. It felt like the movie had been planned and made that way, but the rating was hiked up last minute because of the dark comedy and subject matter (demons). Maybe the demon brothers Wendell and Wild getting high off of their dad’s hair cream, the juvenile justice system, death, and Kat’s parents’ business that got burnt down (a brewery) also took part in the heightened rating.
A few elements of the script and plot resolution also felt a bit too easy. Kat getting a hold of her power after “owning her memories” and saying to her monster, “I’m in control of my life now, not you,” felt a little cheesy and too forward. The ending – family reconciled, Klax Korp finished, whooo victory! – is packaged up a little too nicely, especially because of the film’s multiple threads. The story opens up too many conflicts in the first half, but couldn’t tie up those loose ends within the 1 hour and 45 minutes, without tackling them in a way that felt forced. Maybe demons and the prison industrial context were a little too much to handle. Jordan Peele’s storyline and dialogue are usually his strong suit, so this felt a little disappointing. I had very high hopes because of the household names, and felt like all of the anticipation wasn’t lived up to. As my friend said, “Maybe he’s better with real people.”
But overall, Wendell and Wild was a cool film to watch, especially on Halloween weekend. Just wouldn’t watch twice.
2:40 pm • Saturday, November 5, 2022 • State Theater
Simona was a lovely and in-depth documentary exploring the life of Simona Kossak and the marks she left on family, friends, and the broader Polish environmentalist community. A biologist and environmental activist who spent most of her life secluded in the Białowieża* Forest, one of Europe’s last old-growth wildernesses, Kossak’s story is told through conversations among family members, friends, and former colleagues, accompanied by archival photos taken by her life partner, Lech Wilczek.
I appreciated the candidness with which most of the interviewees discussed Kossak’s life. In particular, the ongoing conversation between Ida Matysek (the film’s main narrator) and her mother, Kossak’s niece, created an overarching narrative for the film that focused more on Kossak’s personal relationships with her family than her scientific career or activism. By balancing this narrative with insights from Kossak’s professional acquaintances and friends, not only did I gain a holistic understanding of how Kossak engaged with the world around her, but I learned about the dark as well as light sides of her history.
One of my favorite themes throughout the film was Kossak’s emotional connection with the animals in her care, which the film often represented as intensely maternal. I came to understand that history would be remiss to say Kossak had no children–the devotion she demonstrated for the animals she raised was no less than that of a mother for a human child. In one heartbreaking story, Kossak raised a lynx she named Agata, who was killed in an domestic accident when Kossak’s partner, Lech Wilczek, lost his balance and dropped a bundle of firewood on top of her. Kossak canceled all engagements and grieved for months, and the incident also strained her relationship with Wilczek as if they had experienced the loss of a child.
Photo by Lech Wilczek; from Opowieść o Niezwyczajny Życiu Simony Kossak by Anna Kamińska, published by Wydawnictwo Literackie, Krakow 2015.
I am left with questions about Kossak’s affection for animals as compared with her love for the forest at large. As a biologist, her interest was in animal behavior, and in her activism much of her work dealt with preserving the diversity of animal species existing in the Białowieża Forest. I am curious about whether she was equally devoted to the conservation of plant life in the forest. One of the stories included in the film was about her efforts to save dying chestnut trees around the school where she worked, but the film framed these efforts more based on her partiality to the trees for sentimental reasons than for environmental reasons. Much of my reading on the subject of forestry and conservation lately has dealt with the importance of trees in global ecosystems, and I know research on the social relationships between trees is gaining more traction in the scientific community as of late. I wish I could hear Kossak’s take on these issues, and see how she would engage in activism against the accelerating deforestation of her beloved Białowieża Forest today. If I can ever find English editions, I hope to add her books about the forest and her experiences there to my shelf.
What: a Polish comedy/drama film, brought to Ann Arbor by this weekend’s annual Polish Film Festival
When: Saturday, November 5, 9:00pm
Where: State Theater
Tickets: available on the State Theater website, $9.25 for students
Czarna owca, or Black Sheep, is a Polish drama and comedy about a family falling apart at the seams. Magda and Arek have had a successful marriage of 25 years, and are now living with their adult son, Tomek, and his girlfriend Asia, while taking care of their aging father. However, a series of secrets and revelations soon cause chaos, prompting each character to confront their own closely-held desires and fears, while finding ways to mend the tears ripping apart their family. At least, that’s as much as I could find out from the few online synopses available for this film in English. Much of the plotline remains a mystery to me, and I look forward to discovering this family’s secrets alongside the characters this Saturday night.
Content Warning: mentions of rape and sexual assault
Perfect Blue is an anime that follows Mima, a young woman who leaves her pop trio to launch her acting career. As Mima is forced to shed her “good girl” image through disturbing scripts and marketing moves, she is increasingly harassed by fans, and ultimately begins to lose her grip on reality. The film explores these themes of the unreasonable expectations of fame, stalking and parasocial relationships, and the exploitation of young breakthrough actresses through the lens of an unreliable narrator.
As the film progresses, the narrative becomes less and less clear; timelines are muddied, certain scenes are repeated back to back with slight but key differences, and once hallucinations interrupt the film’s established unreality, nothing can be taken as fact. There could be very long pieces written that theorize what truly happens in the film versus what Mima hallucinates, but I believe the point of the film is to show the extreme to which Mima is pushed by showrunners, her management agency, and the public. The film utilizes its nonlinear sequence of events effectively to highlight the twisted nature of the entertainment industry, the horrors new actresses are put through in order to be taken seriously, and how Mima’s own agency and identity spiral out of her control.
That being said, the graphic nature of the film must be called into question. For context, Mima’s managers begin to question if her becoming an actress was worth leaving her music career as she is only booking small roles with very short lines. Then, one day, she is presented with a huge breakout moment that will surely get her recognition for her acting abilities – via a rape scene. Mima accepts the role, but the staging of the scene is so upsetting that even characters in the film comment on its nature. They are not allowed to film in an actual club “due to what they’re shooting,” and it is later suggested that the filming of the scene was so traumatic that Mima feels as if the event actually happened to her. Of course, this is a perfect example of how many new actresses are treated, and it is clear what kind of toll this can take on someone forced to perform such a scene.
However, what is questionable is the execution of this criticism. The rape scene is very long and Mima’s distress is very visible and very audible – it is very, very disturbing and overwhelming. And when the scene is compared to the way violence is handled in the film – a serial killer’s kills are primarily offscreen, though gore and fight sequences are shown – the rape scene feels extreme. There is almost an obsession in media with building suspense by hiding and revealing what happens rather than showing the effects of trauma, and building character. And in Perfect Blue, it is clear the focus was meant to showcase Mima’s deteriorating mental state and need of support, but there are ways to handle such subjects with more care – perhaps the way Never Sometimes Rarely Always suggests what may have happened to its protagonist but focuses on her denial into the beginning of her healing process, and the near impossibility of her ability to receive proper care. Even Last Night In Soho – which I thought lacked a certain depth needed to say something beyond “men can be bad” – shows the before and after, the glamor and idealization of fame that leads to a change in character and behavior, but it never shows an event in such graphic detail that Perfect Blue does. Even one of the most recent episodes of House of the Dragon shows a huge improvement in the treatment of such topics from the original Game of Thrones series to the current series – a rape is not shown, the word is never said aloud. All that we see is sympathy for the victim, but the bleak reality that she must keep the event to herself as she is of a lesser status than the perpetrator and is therefore subject to more scrutiny, and a mother and victim’s disappointment in her own son and perpetrator.
My criticism of the film is not that the film should have had a happy ending for Mina or that it should have sugar coated the horrors of what happens to her and many actresses, but that in order to take a stance criticizing the treatment of newcomers to the entertainment industry, a piece of media does not have to treat its characters the same way. To handle such topics more gently and with the understanding that an audience can imply what has happened shows more expertise in portraying this subject on screen. Trauma is not needed to establish backstory, especially at the expense of character development, not does it need to be explicitly spelled out in order to be effective.
