Category: Lifting Voices

REVIEW: The Half of It.

niezi 1 Comment
The Half of It opens with Plato’s Symposium as Ellie recounts Aristophanes’ creation myth. It begins as a film of poetic quotes about love, of loneliness and endlessly searching for another half, built on the foundations of archetypes and classic storylines like this. This movie is another succession of Cyrano de Bergerac, another story about high school, another experience about the desperate longing of unrequited desire.But within these frames, the characters give nuance to adolescence in Squahamish. Ellie, Paul, and Aster – enveloped inside their own private worlds that rotate around the different constants of their lives – feel the pains of growing up in different ways. They experience the loneliness of being misunderstood or unseen, of wishing for a greater life that’s both intensely moving and frightening to them.

Ellie is created with particularly fine lines, strokes that paint a complex person. She’s characterized by her experience as being “other,” as an Asian-American immigrant in a predominantly white town, an atheist in a church community, a girl who is in love with another girl. These subjects are explored carefully, and there is no right answer to anything. Most of the moments where Ellie grows are quiet and simple, without the cinematic flair of teenage romcoms.

The film uses its created environment well, the town framing most of their interactions, as we see Ellie and Paul again and again in the same places, each layer of the story adding another dimension to Squahamish. Despite the repetition, the cinematography is quite beautiful at times; there’s the scene where Aster and Ellie swim in the groves, talking about intangibly vast things as they float in the water, light and trees all around them.

The second half of the movie veers into more complex character interactions. While the setup of the first half builds steady momentum, the denouement still has to tie together issues that are only brought up in the latter half. The ending has mixed pacing as a result of this, with some plot points that are resolved in a timeframe that feels natural, while others come on more suddenly.

Towards the end, there’s a tonal switch too, where the film ultimately decides it’s not about “getting the girl,” and while romance is important in The Half of It, the movie becomes more about the seduction of a happier life, the romancing of the start of their adulthood. Their unrequited desires move beyond an individual and towards the world and their futures.

The Half of It encapsulates the longing for another half, whether it’s a person, or a dream, or a life. Despite the fine details added to the characters and their surroundings, the film catches the universal feeling of the uncertainty in those seconds before you reach out and make your move into the world you’d envisioned for yourself.

Check out The Half of It on Netflix today.

REVIEW: The Plot Against America

Nellie Shih Leave a comment

The Plot Against America is a new HBO limited series based on the 2004 novel of the same name by Philip Roth. The series is an alternate history following a working-class Jewish family living in New Jersey as Charles Lindbergh wins the Presidency over FDR. Lindbergh is most known for completing the first solo transatlantic flight, his belief in eugenics, as well as his Nazi-reminiscent views on race and religion.

 

The series will consist of six episodes, the first having premiered on Monday. Critics and viewers have already drawn parallels to the current political climate, with celebrities-turned-politicians and America being taken over by hatred. As the source material was initially interpreted as a commentary on the second Bush administration, it’s interesting that the text is still relevant 16 years later. However, the series almost tries too hard to remind viewers that many individuals today can relate to this anxiety and grief. For example, the father of the family says “But we’re American,” in response to a radio broadcast of one of Lindbergh’s speeches. This rhetoric is very on-the-nose, as well as a very present-day thing to say. The line was evidently added in to jump out at viewers, but it comes across as too jarring and trying too hard. Critic Ani Bundel who has seen the series in its entirety has said the show would be more poignant if it were more subtle: “HBO’s refusal to respect the audience’s intelligence to make the connections themselves erodes the impact the series might have had otherwise.”

 

Ultimately, this isn’t to say the series doesn’t have any potential. Although there is a stereotypical tough guy character, many of the other characters provide varying insights and opinions on their situation. For example, the older son of the family, sees Lindbergh as a pilot and hero. His parents provide an interesting dynamic: the mother grew up as a member of the only Jewish family in her area whereas his father had never felt uncomfortable about being Jewish, and denies the rise of fascism in the US.

 

We will see whether the show picks up in the next few episodes, how it will conclude, and if its message gets lost along the way. The Plot Against America airs on HBO every Monday at 9PM.

 

Sources:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/03/plot-against-america-hbos-alternate-history-series-is-too-stuck-on-the-present/

https://www.jns.org/opinion/mining-for-hate-in-the-plot-against-america/

 

REVIEW: The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Joseph Patrick Raney 1 Comment

Available through Amazon Prime Video, I recommend, for the audience’s consideration, Joe Talbot’s directorial masterpiece, The Last Black Man in San Francisco. This gem of a picture places itself in definitive rank with some of the greater films in Studio A24’s arsenal, with a portrayal of hope like that of The Disaster Artist, a restrained desperation to live well like While We’re Young, an awe-filled richness of color palette like that of The Florida Project, and the pain of family brokenness in a fashion similar to Mid90s. The trailer alone accurately represents the craftsmanship poured into this project, with cinematographically-sharp imagery, a speechless array of colors, and a somber yet familiar loyalty to the legacy of San Francisco.

This film centers around two friends, Jimmie and Montgomery, in the wake of this city’s gentrification. Montgomery is a poet working to better his craft, and Jimmie Fails dreams of repossessing a Victorian Mansion once built by his grandfather. Jimmie possesses an assured and quiet vibrancy, while Montgomery is of a sweeter, more analytical spirit; however, the ties that bind these two comrades are their individual and collective hopes for the future. A heart-warming feature of this film is the childlike nature of these two characters, and their graspings towards the good and the beautiful, as those who have seemingly lost a piece of their boyhoods due to homelessness, parentless-ness, or a lack of belonging. A movement of this film represents Jimmie and Montgomery as they struggle with being outcasts from the local group of black males who are portrayed as emotionally-aloof and hyper-masculine. Jimmie and Montgomery do not only fail to feel at home in their family circles, but are ridiculed and excluded by their old friends who belong to this group.

Great tragedy strikes when Kofi, an old friend of Jimmie’s and member of this group, loses his life in a shootout while trying to prove that he is intimidating and worthy of esteem. This tragic loss of life is the implicit product of extreme social pressures against authenticity that are pushed by the leaders of this posse. This seems to call into question the necessity and healthiness of friendships that don’t encourage you to be authentic. From this death, you see several posse members develop into a willingness to express vulnerability and heartbreak over the loss of their friend. This, and more, seems to critique the superficial standards for contemporary friendship, and also acts as a stark contrast to the brother-like, vulnerably-open relationship that is between Jimmie and Montgomery. These two are set apart from the crowd, because they dare to be authentic, and possess the courage that is to embrace suffering that inevitably is hand-in-hand with the raw joys of life.

This film is a burgeoning triumph, not only because it showcases the quietly-accompanying pain that is often present in our day-to-day lives, but paints a picture of the beauty in the mundane, simple hopes for one’s future. The viewer will be in great company as they resonate with the vein-ed question woven into this film: Who am I to be if there is nowhere to belong? Consistently throughout, this picture possesses a bravery in its storytelling as it fervently struggles to settle on a clear sense of “home.” What is home? Could it be the Victorian Mansion with a mysterious past, or simply a reassuring friend who offers companionship for the road ahead? The audience of this film will not only take pleasure in its craft and color, but will be convicted of the need for authenticity, alongside the encouragement that is a shared understanding in that they are not alone in feeling misplaced from time to time.

PREVIEW: The Captive

Kellie M. Beck Leave a comment

The Residential College Players, better known through campus as the RC Players, is presenting their first full-length play of the semester, “The Captive” this Friday and Saturday, at 8:00p both days, in East Quad’s Keene Theater! Originally written in 1926 by French playwright, Edouard Bourdet, the three-act melodrama was shut down after 160 performances on Broadway because the lesbianism portrayed in the play was considered “obscene”. The story depicts a young woman, Irene, who is hopelessly and painfully in love with the unseen character, Mdme. d’Aiguines, despite her imminent engagement to a young gentleman, Jacques Virieu. Her love for Mdme. d’Aiguines keeps Irene captive, in more ways than one.

Be sure to stop by the Keene Theater this weekend to catch this one-of-a-kind performance!

.

REVIEW: Hometown Hero (Chink): An American Interior

Shannon Z Leave a comment

As I stepped with socked feet onto the fabric-covered flooring of installation piece Hometown Hero (Chink), I was struck with an eerie and unshakable sense of familiarity. No, not from the hand-upholstered, Confederate flag recliner, or the country karaoke sounding from the plush TV – save for the artist’s face in the video recording, the 3-part installation itself was essentially free of any immediately recognizable, East-Asian motifs. So why did my experience feel closer to a revisit rather than a shocking introduction? I told myself that it must have been the culturally ingrained, practiced motion of taking one’s shoes off before entering a living space, or maybe the intimately homey experience of padding around a carpeted floor with the TV streaming white noise.  

The fact that the entire space is hand-sewn jumps out at me; under artist Valery Jung Estabrook’s skillful hands, everyday “soft” objects turn steely, while “hard” objects are revealed to have soft and sagging underbellies. The “lazy boy” recliner decorated with the image of a Confederate flag displays these juxtapositions most prominently; though the surface is composed of velvety chenille, soft-to-touch and associated with comfort, the repellent flag imagery strongly dissuades the viewer from touching the furniture.

Even so, the recliner dominates the space, sending chilly tones throughout the warmly lit interior. Other striking plush components include the ‘pillow guns’, a set of three flaccid rifles mounted to the wall, and the ‘Born & Bred Beer’ beer cans casually littered on the recliner’s side-table. Chenille fabric, what the majority of the installation consists of, is immediately distinguishable through its tufted, caterpillar-like texture and iridescent appearance. These characteristics make the textile a popular choice for sofas, baby blankets, and other items that make direct contact with the skin. Needless to say, I was fascinated with the artist’s approach to materiality and her manipulation of sensory elements with chenille that served to contradict and even amplify the viewer’s psychological responses to derogatory imagery.

In a reflection about the title, Hometown Hero (Chink), Estabrook refers to the painful addition of the racial slur as a necessary component “… in order to have an honest discussion about the America that I know.” Her statement propelled me towards a question that I, and likely many others, have faced constantly while navigating ‘the Asian-American experience’: why the America that we know appears so dependent on the home that we say we know. I do not share Estabrook’s experience growing up in rural southwestern Virginia; what I do share are similar feelings of alienation upon being subjected to the white gaze – even at home, we are foreign spectacles singing along to the jaunty tunes of assimilation, while America reclines in a chenille chair, crushing ‘Born & Bred Beer’ beer cans in silent assent.

 

 

REVIEW: Hometown Hero

Sabrina Nash 1 Comment

If you took a moment to step out of the abrasive Michigan cold and into 202 South Thayer, you might also get the feeling you were stepping into the living room of any family in America. This is the first impression that the Institute for the Humanities’ latest exhibit provides. The space of the interior is small, homey, and inviting: a worn armchair slumps before a flickering TV, nestled atop a plush rug. The area is peaceful and dim, inviting you to sit down, take a load off, relax. However, just one more look may put you on edge; something sinister swirls around the sleepy scene, something not quite right. In an instant it hits, the glaringly obvious: the well worn chair is not upholstered with plaid, or gingham, or any fabric you’d expect, but instead, horrifyingly, with a Confederate Flag.

As I came to this realization, a strange feeling settled into my stomach. The space is a portrait of middle class America gone eerily wrong, while remaining hauntingly familiar. I believe this difficult truth is exactly what artist Valery Jung Estabrook aims to capture in her installation, titled “Hometown Hero (Chink): An American Interior.” Growing up an Asian American in Virginia, Estabrook’s work seems to reflect her desire to maintain a Southern identity while acknowledging that her home state is not a universally accepting place.

Upon closer inspection, the room only becomes more unsettling. It is beautifully crafted, hand sewn by Estabrook in chenille. Everything is plush, down to the crumpled beer cans, and the rifles limply mounted to the wall. This choice in medium suggests the space as something tied down, as if the room had grown roots. Its refusal to budge seems to reflect the nature of the traditional, antiquated Old South that Estabrook hoped to portray. Sewn portraits of Confederate soldiers dot the walls, only strengthening this message. Like everything else in the room, they are slightly fantastical: General Jackson’s head floats inches above his shoulders, and Lee is adorned with a faint halo. A southern cityscape hangs as well, its innocuous presence contrasting with the eerie romanticization of the Confederacy.

While the entire room suggests nostalgia for antebellum America, scenes on the television reflect how this longing for the past affects Estabrook. Clips on the TV depict the difficult relationship Estabrook has with her race and her Southern identity; one such video is a Twinkie commercial, “Twinkie” being a derogatory nickname for Asian Americans. Perhaps the video that captures Estabrook’s question of identity best is one of the artist herself lip syncing Tammy Wynette’s famous southern ballad, “Stand by Your Man.” In a blond wig with dark roots, singing an iconic country song, Estabrook embodies the struggle of balancing her Southern identity with her Asian heritage. Haunting and hypnotizing, this performance tied together the message of the entire installation.

Even after two viewings, I don’t feel I’ve picked up on every meaningful detail that the installation includes. Although the effect of the chenille coating the room is interesting in itself, the piece only becomes more moving with Estabrook’s history and story. I highly recommend viewing this homage to an America that we wish to forget, but one that is still instrumental to our history. “Hometown Hero (Chink): An American Interior” will be on display through March 12th. A visit can save you from the chill outside while still sending a chill down your spine.