In case you missed Tony Award-winning playwright and singer Stew last night, you have another chance tonight! Don’t miss out on a homage to the art and activism of James Baldwin in a music and theater experience through a contemporary commentary on Baldwin’s 1955 collection of essays on being Black in America. Notes of a Native Song is an irreverent and spirited rock ‘n’ roll song cycle that uses Baldwin’s work to explore race, love, class division, and politics through an exciting mix of rock, jazz, and soul. Catch Stew & The Negro Problem at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre tonight at 8!
Category: Lifting Voices
PREVIEW: CSEAS Film Screening–Thai Movie Night. How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) / ‘พี่ชาย My Hero’
As we come up on our long-yearned for Thanksgiving break, it can be hard to stay focused without occasionally giving our minds some time to rest. People are simply not meant to exist as machines that continuously churn.
Grease your gears with another great selection of film in CSEAS’s Thai Movie Night series. This time it is the intriguingly-titled How To Win At Checkers (Every Time). It tells the story of a recently orphaned young boy as his older brother and new caretaker must submit to the country’s draft lottery. The troubling uncertainty and personal growth of the brothers raises questions about the justice of the structure of society.
The movie will be presented at 7pm on Thursday, November 21 in 1500 North Quad (the Video Viewing Room in the Language Resource Center). There is no charge for admission.
REVIEW: Parasite
Parasite is a film best seen going in with no prior background information; I’ll say that first. Once one does have the chance to experience this film, it becomes very evident why it has garnered so many awards and positive reviews.
This movie is a perfectly orchestrated descent into total class warfare. What begins as a sort of heist film with comedic points becomes a gruesome thriller, sucking in the audience into a shocking and layered story of privilege, identity, and sacrifice. The story is well-paced and original, showing the way a family from a lower-class background infiltrates and profits off of an unsuspecting upper-class family. So much is said about the way class functions, whether that’s through a metaphor like living in a basement versus a semi-basement versus a modern home or in a symbolic device of a club-like gift meant to bring about wealth.
In terms of cinematography, the film aesthetically is simply beautiful to watch. There are some points where I found myself struck simply by the artistic style of Parasite. An especially jarring example for me was in the contrast of two sequences towards the end of the film: one being a family saving their personal belongings from their flooded home and thus spending the night in a shelter with other affected families, and the other sequence being a privileged young boy waking up in a sun-soaked, clean tent after deciding to camp out on his family’s perfectly manicured lawn for the evening. The thematic meaning of this juxtaposition was distinctly amplified due to the dutiful attention to light, composition, and color in these shots. The rest of the film has plenty of examples like this, where firstly one feels awe towards the beauty and complexity of the visual and then, due to the striking image, one finds meaning that goes beyond plot.
The performances in this film were crucial to adding dimensionality to the conflict and avoiding binary definitions of characters, their motives, and their actions. All the actors and actresses were extraordinary, but Song Kang-ho’s performance as Kim Ki-taek, the father of the Kim family, was especially powerful. There’s so much behind his character that comes through in his expressions and tone, especially when the film reaches its twist. In an emotional scene with Choi Woo-shik, who plays his son Kim Ki-woo, he speaks of the futility of planning anything in life. His performance here says so much implicitly about his character’s difficult life and what it means to persist in a world where one is perpetually marginalized, and it’s both amazing and devastating to watch.
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This review may seem like simple praise, and that’s because it is. In a time where franchise films are finally getting critical attention outside Rotten Tomatoes praise, Parasite offers an excellent example of what films should be getting space in theaters. This film is not only technically executed with precision and style, but it is an important piece of work that speaks to today’s alarming social and economic disparities.
REVIEW: Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Let me start off by saying, most of this movie was not what I was expecting at all, and it was wonderful. I was so worried about the cliche of a movie about a transgender woman, but it was so real, and not cheesy at all (at least in terms of sexuality). It was still cheesy in lots of other, good ways. Just as a reminder, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the story of a transgender woman and her botched sex change surgery, trying to achieve stardom while searching for love. Let’s unpack that a little.
For starters, the movie includes a super cool, modern (for 2001) insertion of drawings and visual moving art into the film. The art helps explain several of Hedwig’s songs and personal history through abstract sketches that came in and out of the actual movie scenes incredibly fluidly. This was not something I knew would be part of the film, and I loved how it helped illustrate her earliest memories. They also displayed some of her hardships through these illustrations that definitely came across much more classily and understandably in picture form than they might have if they were just regular scenes in the movie.
The music was definitely also a highlight, if not the best part of the whole film. I really enjoyed the very broad range of emotions and outfits (on both Hedwig and the rest of the band) that accompanied each different song. While they were all rock songs, they still had that element of theater-style music that helps to continue the story, and I thought that was an interesting combination of genres.
The storyline and emotional intensity of the plot absolutely came through, which can be very difficult when adapting to a movie from a live show. Although I think some of the more subtle messages of the storyline of Hedwig’s love life might of gone over my head, I still definitely understood each character’s feelings for each other, and their relationships were often complicated and intriguing. That being said, I definitely did not understand the ending of the movie at all. While I don’t want to spoil it, I will say that it is confusing to say the least. I am not really sure how Hedwig ended up feeling or who she ended up with romantically, if anyone at all. Her turbulent relationships were not always completely clear, and it did feel like I was missing some information, especially on the relationship she had with one of her fellow band members. Perhaps the musical contains more information or more scenes that help to explain what seemed like some plot holes.
In any case, the movie absolutely captured my attention from start to finish, and was definitely one of the ones where I was able to forget about anything except the storyline unfolding. It was an absolutely wacky story, but somehow it totally worked with the characters and actors on screen. It was funny, sad, thought provoking, and engrossing, and now I want to see the musical on Broadway even more than I did before! I would highly recommend this movie for anyone who wants both a unique and provocative watching experience.
PREVIEW: Parasite
You only ever see your own life fully. We are ignorant of any moment, large or small, that occurs beyond our limited eyesight. It is a breadth of ignorance too enormous to ever be acknowledged. There are billions of human lives, living and dying, and we can only feel one. Yet, inevitably, those other lives will push and pull on our own. Collisions between lives, then, are unexpected. You will never know who is significant until your self-centered perspective, so carefully cultivated, is in shambles all around you. In the film Parasite, the Kim family hope to use that same egocentric, obliviousness to trick the rich Park family and climb up the economic ladder. But they are, after all, subject to that same blindness. The collision between the two families, then, is a fascinating one, even more so because of the director and writer of the film, Bong Joon-Ho (Snowpiercer). Parasite is currently showing at the State Theatre. Tickets can be bought online or at the box office ($8.50 with a student ID).
PREVIEW: Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a movie first released in 2001 about the life of a German emigrant living in a trailer in Kansas. She is the victim of a botched sex-change operation, and the movie follows her, as an “internationally ignored” rock singer, as she searches for stardom, and maybe even love.
The movie originated as a Broadway musical, and was eventually translated into film. John Cameron Mitchell starred in and wrote the musical, and he also stars in and directed the movie as well. I have always had this musical on my bucket list, especially after Darren Criss became the star. And if I can’t see the musical, the movie is the next best option!
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is playing at the State Theater on Friday (Nov. 8) and Saturday (Nov. 9) at 10 pm.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p9mPhGo1j0
Friday tickets: https://secure.michtheater.org/websales/pages/TicketSearchCriteria.aspx?evtinfo=647021~c76be4f4-22b5-4bed-a89c-7def863b8c53&
Saturday Tickets: https://secure.michtheater.org/websales/pages/TicketSearchCriteria.aspx?evtinfo=647022~c76be4f4-22b5-4bed-a89c-7def863b8c53&
Just a side note: This movie is rated R for sexual content and language.
