REVIEW: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Phillip Wachowiak

Do not be deceived–Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is depressing. What begins as an off-beat comedy escalates slowly, but surely to a moving climax, and finally to a bittersweet ending. I don’t cry during movies, but this one made me want to cry more than The Fault in Our Stars.

Warning aside, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is an absolute must-see film.

The plot: “We follow Greg, a high school senior who is trying to blend in anonymously, avoiding deeper relationships as a survival strategy for navigating the social minefield that is teenage life.  He even describes his constant companion Earl, with whom he makes short film parodies of classic movies, as more of a ‘co-worker’ than a best friend. But when Greg’s mom insists he spend time with Rachel – a girl in his class who has just been diagnosed with cancer – he slowly discovers how worthwhile the true bonds of friendship can be.”

I was pleasantly surprised multiple times at the little eccentricities–the parents walk into Greg’s room and he frantically attempts to close his porn windows, conversations touch upon sexually assaulting fluffy pillows, strange and exotic lunches, etc. Anyone who felt awkward or different in high school can relate instantly to this film. It captures the imaginative, uncertain energy of being a senior in high school without all the banal school tropes that you’d find in something like Glee.

If nothing else, watch this film for the camera work. It’s impossible to miss the ridiculously wide angles and outrageous telescopic views and swinging camera, and it makes you feel like you’re adventuring along with our characters.

After watching the film, I wondered why we don’t see more creative approaches to camera movement and lenses. Compare Me and Earl and the Dying Girl to any Hollywood blockbuster and the shot selection of those high budget films seems so much more stale in comparison.

Finally, the acting can only be described as on-point. Each of the main characters delivers a genuine and heartfelt performance, but it’s the supporting actors that really shine. Molly Shannon plays Rachel’s mother, who copes with the sickness of her daughter with hilarity. Nick Offerman (who plays Ron Swanson in Parks and Rec) plays against type as a strange, introverted father. Lastly, Jon Bernthal (of Walking Dead Fame) plays a badass history teacher.

If you only get to watch a handful of movies this summer season, make Me and Earl and the Dying Girl one of them. The trailer is below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qfmAllbYC8

 

PREVIEW – AFTER A SCREENPLAY BY TRICIA WILLIAMS

keshav

Tonite at 8pm, join SAC Honors student and screenwriting sub concentrator Tricia Williams at CC Little 1528 for a reading of her new screenplay, “After”.

“After” is a comic re-imagining of the classic fairytale Cinderella, set in early 1900’s London. This is a great opportunity – the UM SAC department is one of the strongest writing programs in the country, taught by well established Hollywood screenwriters who can break down how to tell a compelling story the same way a scientist can break down the contents of an atom.

Tricia’s reading and Q&A promises to be a hilarious twist on a fairy tale – a genre which Hollywood has been re-imagining as of late, and will offer insight into how the process of writing a story is far more accessible than you might think.

 

TWilliams Flier

REVIEW: The Merry Widow

Alexandria Strother

Saturday evening the Michigan Opera Theatre’s production of Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow started more than a few minutes late – but for good reason.  April 8th marked David DiChiera’s 80th birthday, and as founder and artistic director of Michigan Opera Theatre, DiChiera brought opera to Detroit in 1971 helping to begin the rebirth of a city torn apart by riots in the 1960s. So before the curtain was raised, Ron Raines led the audience in a rendition of Happy Birthday after Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan called DiChiera “a visionary who helped transform Detroit” and DiChiera’s grandchildren wheeled out a birthday cake complete with a lighted candle waiting to be blown out.

The celebration continued as the curtain was raised, revealing the party that is taking place at the beginning of the opera. The set, designed by Utah Opera, and the costuming was consistently a highlight of the show. In the first act a large ballroom was built with white drops glowing a light pink framing the stage and a grand staircase. Principles and choristers were all dressed in crisp white and black creating a uniform visual picture, but at times making the principles blend in a little too well. When a man entered stage left during the opening number in a bright red vest I assumed he must be a man of significant dramatic importance as my eyes were immediately drawn toward the red among a sea of white. Alas, he was a non-singing, non-speaking extra playing a butler and wearing a distracting vest which, in hindsight, seems much better suited for the burlesque scene of the third act.

Some were concerned that following her substantial work with heavy Wagnerian repertoire Deborah Voight would struggle in a lighter role with its share of coloratura. However, her performance Saturday night put any and all doubts to rest. Her coloratura did not come as easy as recordings of Joan Sutherland or Beverly Sills in the role but her superb acting expunged any flaws one may have found with her performance vocal. Regal and charming while always mischievous, Voight stole the heart of each and every audience member.

Performing along side Voigt were Roger Honeywell (Prince Danilo), Richard Suart (Baron Mirko Zeta), Amanda Squirieri (Valencienne) and Aaron Blake (Camille) who all gave strong performances. Honeywell, a tenor, struggled to project some of the lower notes that the role of Prince Danilo required but marvelously soared through the higher passages. Suart sang well with strong diction, but his monologue at the beginning of the second act was lost without a single hard consonant. Squirieri and Blake proved a remarkable pair and I was at a loss for which of the performances I preferred musically or dramatically. Squirieri masterfully sang through the difficult passaggio sections and Blake’s voice resonated throughout the theatre with impressive clarity.

The production that director Kelly Robinson and conductor Gerald Steichen presented Saturday night was a testament to all that David DiChiera has done for opera and for Detroit. A fun, yet touching piece, The Merry Widow had me dancing in my seat and wondering what MOT will do next.

REVIEW: The Prison Creative Arts Project Gallery Show

simoka

The Duderstadt Gallery on North campus recently featured the art of prisoners from around the area who engaged in 2D work in pencil, paints, and other mixed media, to even 3D sculpture work. The art show itself is an annual event recognized nationally. The show has featured in the past over 500 pieces of art and around 250 participating artists. The art work features those both in and out of the prison system, or those who have connections to the prison or criminal justice system.

This year’s art show was up from March 25-April 8. The work was on a more prolific scale than I thought coming in. Art work was installed from floor to ceiling, and skill levels were on a similarly large scale. Something that stood out to me was that members of PCAP would come and engage in workshops with prisoners but all supplies for the art had to come from the artist themselves. Without any precedent except for a call for submissions, the content of the art ranged from scenes of prison life, to more abstract images, to mythologically-based images. Many of the 2D works featured faces, either portraits or faces of other people.

I was also surprised that most of the art had the little red dot sticker indicating that the piece had sold. Prices ranged anywhere from in the $40 range to $400. Not only was there a red sticker, but a yellow sticker indicated a communication or letter had been written to the artist by someone either interested in purchasing the art or simply interested in giving feedback on the work. I thought that this was the most unique part of the show. It opened a form of communication between artist and viewer that normally doesn’t occur, in a gallery setting but also between prisoner and non-prisoner.

Leaving the event I looked up more information on the PCAP website. As a result of this engagement with prisoners, the amount of art made in Michigan prisons has greatly increased, and sometimes prisoners are engaging with fellow inmates to encourage art-making. I found the show to be a really eye-opening experience to just how much talent there is outside of formal art education, and how great an opportunity something like the PCAP art show provides for viewers but also the artists as well.

REVIEW: The Cherry Orchard

simoka

The Cherry Orchard was the last play written by 19th century writer Anton Chekhov. Chekhov, famous for his short stories on the day to day life of Russian’s upper middle class, is today considered to be an influential figure on short story form. His writing focuses on individual’s responses and behaviors to quotidian life in Russia, with an emphasis on how their views of reality change responses.

The Cherry Orchard revolves around one family in Russia returning to their estate in the country after a hiatus to Paris. The estate features an idyllic orchard, which is beautiful but holds tragic memories and not known for producing a crop that can turn a profit. There are many people living in the house now, the many daughters of the mistress of the estate, as well as servants, and suitors too. When the family returns to the estate, it is evident that the estate must be sold. Not only does the plot concern the selling of the estate, but the more relevant focus is on how each character responds to the debt and the necessary auctioning of the estate. The mother, or mistress of the estate, is the most shaken by the selling of the estate. Amongst all the characters, she is the most oblivious to the dilemma and the direness of the situation, and this causes all the other characters to constantly reflect back on the mother and her denial of the situation.

In the performance at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater, put on by the cast of the Rude Mechanicals, a student acting organization, the text was realized more fully as the intimate lens into human character that Chekhov’s work seeks to create. The play begins in an abstract manner. While audience members still chat, the cast starts to enter stage one by one. After five minutes had past, maybe five or six characters had taken the stage, engaging with the set or with each other in silence. The audience had hushed now, and a low humming sound was playing from the stage. As the whole cast took the stage, each seemed to be trying to embody the personality of their character through different positions and in silence. I thought the approach of not officially having a curtain open was an interesting way to initiate the beginning of the play, but I was confused by what happened next. As all the members lined up at the front of the stage and stared motionless into the audience, suddenly the music cut and they all screamed in a sort of joyful shriek and proceeded to run about the stage. Some people took apart some of the set, running around with it. Others leaped in the air, shouted, overall making the stage into a questionable space. It made me think about whether this was to be part of the play, and what the purpose of the initial solemn introduction was.

Eventually the cast quieted down and resumed their characters. It was a distinct transition and made the beginning of the play that more striking. No one had said anything yet, the characters will still anonymous, and yet the audience had been shocked and silenced into paying attention. If there is any critique to be made of the way this play started, it would be that the personalities of the many different characters are hard to really make distinct in a way that makes the contrast with the loss of in-character acting not as successful to the audience.

As there were many characters, each was introduced through scenes with only a few of the characters present. The pay did a good job of contextualizing the characters and their identities from the start. Scenes felt like they spent a lot of time in one moment, almost as if trying to mimic real time. A conversation would take place in what appeared to be a living room and it felt like so much was said, and each of the characters on their own had so much to say, that the scene was to last the length of a five hour long fire-side chat, though this was not actually the case. This is the same feeling felt while reading Chekhov’s work. He details conversations with so much information and naturalness of character that scenes feel very much like a conversation taking place in real life. Often times even going beyond what might be expected in a normal conversation, the dialogue between characters expanding to make up for any lack of context an audience or reader might feel.

The play overall was an interesting experience for me personally. I had never read this play before, but I am familiar with Chekhov’s work. I found that actors taking on the roles of characters in a Chekhov play, and probably one of his novels as well, is a laborious task. Dialogues are lengthy and to keep engaged with the spoken word requires a lot of emotion. I left the play feeling glad to have finally gotten to see a Chekhov play.

REVIEW: Walk the Moon

musickim

Oh my soul, the concert I attended Tuesday evening must have been the most spiritual, uplifting, heart-warming, concert I have ever attended. If you were not in the audience of the Fillmore Tuesday night, I truly believe you missed out on something special. Something only a few of us here were lucky enough to witness. But worry not, there will be another chance. Like me, you should already be looking into the next Walk the Moon concert and desperately trying to find front row tickets. Every ounce of sweat you feel come off the band is just another step closer to heaven.

I seriously believe this group has some of the most inspiring souls I have ever had the chance to be in the presence of. Every song was so much more than just some notes traveling through the room. They poured their hearts into every word and were living their music, revealing to everyone what life really is through every word they sang. This is exactly what a concert should be. You forget about everything else in your life except the music and the people around you. Then, after you leave the concert hall, you feel like you have just been told the meaning of life, knowing exactly how to approach the world, realizing you can of course deal with all the annoying little things of your daily routine.

Their music reminds you how happy you can be, if you just focus on the good side of life. As Nick (the lead singer) told everyone in the Fillmore to release all the bullshit we have in our lives and give up on everything outside of the now, you could feel the entire audience loose a million tons of stress. Everyone suddenly forgot why they had been worrying about that essay they had to turn in, or why they were worried about some Facebook post their friend made that day. Even the politics of the day faded into the distance. What we felt in that moment can only be expressed as pure ecstasy. And no ensemble has been able to do that for me quite in the same way Walk the Moon did.

I think many of us have given up on the idea that musicians aren’t jaded by the money, lifestyle, or fame, but I truly believe Walk the Moon may be one of the last groups left that truly just loves music and wants to move some people on this Earth. Another one of my favorite bands, Johnnyswim, convinces you of the same thing. I don’t believe I will ever tire of listening to their music because of this reason. You can’t help but feel more connected to the Earth and just smile because you are happy to be alive when listening to their music. I cannot stress how much this concert meant to me, and I highly HIGHLY encourage you to go see them live if you ever have the chance. They are totally worth the money, and you will not be disappointed.

 

WTM