Tag: Michigan theater

PREVIEW: Michigan Pops Orchestra Concert “Tick Tock, It’s Pops O’Clock”

Sappy Leave a comment

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.

REVIEW: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Sappy Leave a comment

*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.

 

PREVIEW: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Sappy Leave a comment

It’s been a long time since the first Black Panther film came out in 2018; the next film had already been teased at the end of the first movie, and after rewatching it two times I grew increasingly antsy about the release of Black Panther 2. I actually haven’t watched any of the movie trailers and I’ve done a pretty good darn job staying away from spoilers, so I’ll be going into the movie theaters completely blind.

The unfortunate passing of Chadwick Boseman has definitely left a huge hole in both the audience’s hearts and the plot itself. His phenomenal acting as T’challa was one of the highlights for me, and so I feel like the entire time I watch Wakanda Forever I’ll dearly miss him and his character. Although movies tend to take a few years to release anyway, I wonder how much his absence has affected the filming process and how the directors have decided to work around it.

So much has happened in the Marvel Universe with the main turning point being Avengers: Endgame. I’m curious to see how this new movie will drive the direction they will go now after the end of the first generation.

REVIEW: The Music of Studio Ghibli

Nellie Shih Leave a comment

This past Saturday, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra performed a sold-out show at the Michigan Theater. Led and conducted by Wilbur Lin, the orchestra played arrangements of film scores from Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro. 

The concert was a delight. I have grown up watching Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli films, and had been looking forward to this event since the start of the semester. Joe Hisaishi’s scores are particularly successful as not only the main themes are iconic, but each other piece from each film are unique, sweeping, whimsical, full of wonder, and simply beautiful to listen to. 

The Spirited Away arrangement perfectly encapsulated the mystery of the film, as well as the chaos that ensues as the story progresses. It was a treat to watch the orchestra play live, and being able to identify what instruments were playing what. With “Merry-Go-Round” and “Cave of Mind” from Howl’s Moving Castle, I loved hearing the same theme played via different techniques – plucking, or pizzicato, as well as the typical bowing technique I am most familiar with hearing. 

I also appreciated that Maestro Lin spoke between arrangements to discuss themes from the film, noting the differences between the more Hollywood dramatic scores of Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle and the more popular-and-familiar-at-the-time Japanese TV reminiscent score of Totoro. The Totoro Orchestra Stories were particularly joyful as the music is arranged to teach children about the different components to an orchestra – highlighting the woodwinds, strings, percussion, etc. by section before the orchestra as a whole launches into themes from the film. Local music teacher Momo Kajiwara also joined the stage as a narrator in Japanese. 

I had only been to one orchestra performance of a film score prior to this event. At the first event I attended, the symphony orchestra performed the entire score for the third Harry Potter film, with the film playing on a screen above the performers. I often find that when I watch a film or show, I do notice the score, but it is something I have to revisit after watching in order to fully appreciate. Hearing the score isolated from the context of the film with the Ghibli concert allowed me to be completely immersed in the music, and having the films played in the background was not necessary to be engaged and awed. 

And of course, seeing Totoro in the flesh was a welcome surprise:

REVIEW: M-agination Film Festival

Madison Krumins 1 Comment

After two years away due to the pandemic, the M-agination Annual Film Festival made a reappearance at the Michigan Theater this week. The film festival showcased 13 short films, all of them written, produced, and acted by students.

I was largely impressed by the range and quality of these productions. There were a good amount of comedy sketches, some of which fell flat and felt like a group of friends just messing around on camera. Some of them, however, had me laughing out loud in my seat. I particularly enjoyed “Buster,” a gruesome short film about a sentient pet rock, and “Dunked,” a well-executed comedy in which nothing really made sense. There were also a handful of more serious, dramatic pieces, including the spooky, suspenseful short “Familiar,” which I was surprised to find out was partially filmed in my campus residence. I was particularly struck by a piece called “Leisure Activities,” which told a story with no words at all about someone going into the woods to paint. The cinematography and coloring in this one in particular that made this one stand out to me as a masterpiece. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this film festival. The “short” nature of short films meant that we got to see 13 different stories, and there was something for everyone. M-agination created a fun night out–I hope they are able to host their festival next year as well! 

REVIEW: Compartment No. 6

Angela Gosselin Leave a comment

Compartment No. 6, a film by Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen was the kind of film that really makes you forget you’re sitting in a theater. The majority of the film consists of two travelers sharing a cabin on a sleeper train, heading from Moscow to Murmansk, Russia. Laura is a Finnish academic coping with the inevitable dissolution of her relationship while Lyokha is a Russian working-class man headed to make some money in the mines at their destination. Laura is conversely headed to see a set of petroglyphs as a historic endeavor, a trip that her sort-of-but-not-quite ex-partner dropped out from.

 

It feels a little tired to follow the arc of “they can’t stand each other” to “they have a snow ball fight, giggling and red-nosed,” but there’s a sense of sincerity to this film that is impossible to shake. This could very well be due to the fact that I’m not familiar with Eastern European culture and the lived realities of these places, but the setting felt as though it was constructed with a careful and affectionate eye.

 

The train as a center of activity and plot development was fantastic. In such a small space there seems to be an entire world constructed, as the two characters venture throughout various locations within the train. This kind of claustrophobia also lends itself to an accelerated intimacy, both in terms of the visual framing of the characters and the actual plot.

 

I’m still trying to decide how I feel about the ending of this film. I suppose I really mean the final act, as I’m wondering if it was entirely necessary. This section leaves the train and thus shifts contexts in a way that, yes, wraps everything up, but doesn’t quite align with the rhythm of the rest of the film. I think I also would have liked more ambiguity to the way their relationship ends, but at the same time I can’t be mad that this part of the movie finished the story off in a satisfying and sweet way.

 

At the end of the day, though, this film consists of every beat you hope to hit when travelling: interesting and frequent new characters, a feeling of imminent change, and an understanding that everything is so bittersweetly temporary. This movie is well worth a watch, and is sure to remain in viewers’ minds as we all wait for our next train to catch.