Cinemann Fall Issue 2016

CINEMANN A FILM AND TELEVISION MAGAZINE

THE FALL ISSUE NO 01

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INSIDE

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MOVIES

20 Brooklyn Nine-Nine

by Benjamin Goodman

04 The Edge of Seventeen

by Maggie Brill

22 Jane The Virgin

by Liana Moroshko

06 Star Trek: Beyond

by William He 08 Popstar: Never Stop Popping

by Armand Dang 10 Eight Days A Week

by Emma Jones

24 Flarrowverse

by William He 26 The Walking Dead Season 7 Premiere

by Charles Wallach FEATURED

TELEVISION 12 Stranger Things

by Sophia Schein

28 80’s Comeback in Film and TV

by Emma Jones

14 The Get Down

by Emma Jones

30 Stephen King Adaptations

by Sophia Schein

16 The Night Of

by Maggie Brill

32 Bad Superhero Films

by Charlotte Pinney

18 Luke Cage

by Ben Vahradian

34 Colonialism Through The Lens

by Zarina Iman

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Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Ades Managing Editor Jasper Cox Content Editors Maggie Brill Zarina Iman Sophia Schein Design Editors Benjamin Ades William He Lisa Shi Faculty Advisor Dr. Deborah Kassel

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STAFF

HAILEE STEINFELD (NADINE) AND WOODY HARRELSON (MR. BRUNER) IN THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN

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THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN

by Maggie Brill

HALEY LU RICHARDSON (KRISTA) AND BLAKE JENNER (DARIAN) IN THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN

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he Edge of Seventeen, set to be released on November 18, 2016, is a coming-of-age comedy starring Hailee Steinfeld as Nadine Byrd, an awkward high school junior. The storyline is centered around the aftermath of Nadine finding out her best friend Krista (played by Haley Lu Richardson) is secretly dating her popular older brother, Darian (played by Blake Jenner). Nadine finds out about their relationship only after walking in on Krista and Darian in bed together. Sexual content, like this, is only one of the reasons why the movie is rated R. This makes The Edge of Seventeen unique for coming-of-age films, which are most often marketed to teenagers and rated PG-13. The film is written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, who will be making her directing debut.

Nadine, who feels betrayed by her best friend, is forced to face her newfound loneliness. She seeks guidance from her witty and dry-humored history teacher, Mr. Bruner (played by Woody Harrelson). Hailee Steinfeld portrays an awkward yet relatable protagonist that seems to have depth and complexity, unlike most portrayals of teenage girls in recent comedies.

If Steinfeld’s previous performances in Begin Again, True

Grit, and Pitch Perfect 2 are any indication, we can expect a well-acted, charming, and compelling character. Will Nadine be the quirky but lovable character we’ve all been waiting for since Ellen Page’s Juno?

The film premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival in September and was very well received by critics. It scored a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 reviews. Does this movie have the potential to join the hall of fame of coming-age-films?

Will this be the iconic coming-of-age film that captures the next generation the way films of the 80’s like The Breakfast Club (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), and Sixteen Candles (1984) perfectly captured the complexities of the teenage experience? Gracie Films, the production company which bought the script, described it as a “John Hughes-style comedy.” John Hughes’ films, like the ones listed above, have proven to be timeless classics that fully embody the 80’s and early 90’s yet seem applicable even in modern society.

It is important to keep in mind the kryptonite of most coming-of-age films: adult writers trying to capture the modern teenage experience despite having grown up under very different circumstances. This phenomena usually results in a plethora of clichés about shallow characters whose complexity is limited to the classic high school stereotypes, like those depicted in The Breakfast Club. The appeal of The Breakfast Club is that the characters, who initially seem to fall into various stereotypes (nerd, athlete, outcast,

etc.), broke through those stereotypes and proved to be much more complex as the movie progressed. In the trailer for The Edge of Seventeen, we see glimpses of some overused clichés, for example the attractive and popular jock and Steinfeld’s line “there are two types of people in the world.” God forbid a movie depicts a jock with actually human emotions and flaws. Hopefully, the movie as a whole works to deconstruct stereotypes and over generalizations rather than perpetuate them.

Although The Edge of Seventeen might not be able to fill the shoes of these classic coming-of-age films that preceded it, the film’s crude take on the teenage experience and its cast imply that it will be a comedy you don’t want to miss this fall.

MOVIES

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STAR TREK: BEYOND

by William He 6

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MOVIES

SOFIA BOUTELLA (JAYLAH) IN STAR TREK BEYOND

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he rebooted Star Trek universe hasn’t always been the best. With Star Trek (2009), J.J. Abrams set the series up in a good place, but Star Trek Into Darkness failed to do the series justice, even with a memorable villain in Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan. This time, with Justin Lin in the director’s seat, Star Trek: Beyond is easily the best of the three in the series. Compared to the last few movies, this film is far more entertaining, yet it is still marred by a lack of character development and a haphazard plot.

The last two films in the series were clearly meant to be taken seriously with plots including events like the destruction of Vulcan. While these intense plot lines created drama that kept the audience watching, they lacked the lightheartedness characteristic of Star Trek. In the previous movies the comedic dynamic between James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) were totally lost. However, what these films did well was character development, allowing the audience to understand the characters and their motivations. Star Trek: Beyond builds on this, spending less time on individual characters and more time on the action and the fun.

Star Trek: Beyond begins with a stereotypical rescue mission gone wrong, harking back to classic Star Trek adventure.

Post-crash landing on an alien planet, with most of the crew captured, Spock, McCoy (Karl Urban), Kirk, and Chekov (the late Anton Yelchin), must find a way to rescue their crew and return to Starfleet, the intergalactic exploration organization that the crew is part of. Even with this stereotypical beginning, the plot twists and turns with genuine surprises; unpredictable betrayals and surprising realizations keep the audience engaged.

In spite of these great plot advances, the movie is filled with holes. Some discoveries, such as the villain’s identity are huge stretches, and the villain’s plot could easily have been foiled. While the lack of realism certainly makes for good fun, it gets old, especially when the dire circumstances of the heroes can be avoided.

With the Star Trek universe always expanding, Star Trek: Beyond introduces new characters. However, unlike past films, they don’t have nearly as much character

CHRIS PINE (JAMES T. KIRK) AND IDRIS ELBA (KRALL) IN STAR TREK: BEYOND

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development. Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a warrior who finds Scotty (Simon Pegg) when he crash lands, is barely discussed. We know little of her past, but we do get to see her skills and her future after the movie. The writers explored Krall (Idris Elba), the villain, even less. His powers remain mostly unexplained, and the few details we learn have little substance and are great leaps.

Nevertheless, this film still manages to dazzle. By the time the credits roll, the film has done one of the best jobs in providing an audience with an engaging, if not entirely flawless, experience. The action is wonderful, utilizing both character background and great CGI to produce high stakes, fun, and visually appealing fights. The dialogue is even more captivating and includes both humor and drama. Even if the conclusion is a tad out of this world (not in the literal sense), it’s by far the best film in the new Star Trek series. Star Trek: Beyond is a film that is definitely worth watching, even with its few flaws, and it will leave you excited for the next installment.

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POPSTAR NEVER STOP POPPING

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MOVIES

by Armand Dang

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ndy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer, collectively known as Saturday Night Live’s the Lonely Island, are notorious for their songs combing raunchy humor with clever wordplay. Some of their hits include “I’m on a Boat” and “Like a Boss.” The Lonely Island released their own movie this past May, called Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, a feature-length mockumentary written and directed by the trio. Although this movie didn’t do too well in the box office, it was not lacking in hilarious moments.

Andy Samberg stars as Conner4Real, a pop sensation who outgrew his former boy band, “The Style Boyz.” The band, formed by Conner and his childhood friends, Owen, or Kid Contact and Lawrence, or Kid Brain, breaks up after a fight between Conner and Lawrence. Consequently, Lawrence retired to a farm, Connor decides to produce his own music, and Owen became the DJ for Conner’s solo act. This backstory serves as the introduction for the movie.

Popstar begins with the release of Conner’s new album “ConnQuest.” After all of the hype surrounding the album, it flops as shown when Rolling Stone gives the album a poop emoji out of five. Upon finding out, Conner says, in one of the most humorous scenes in the movie, “Let’s call it mixed reviews.” In the aftermath of his album failure, Connor’s celebrity life begins to collapse.

Desperate, Connor is willing to try anything from a proposal involving a pack of wolves, to stage gimmicks like holograms and flashy lights. The only thing he won’t do is reunite with “The Style Boyz.”

The movie also includes guest appearances from celebrities like Usher, DJ Khaled, Nas, Justin Timberlake and many more. The celebrity cameos make the movie much funnier. At one point in the movie, Usher attributes his stellar dance moves to the song “Donkey Roll” by “The Style Boyz.” Later in the movie he performs the odd dance associated with the song. DJ Khaled, when reflecting on Connor’s song says, “This guy right here, he’s gonna make it big.”

Popstar was highlighted with a memorable soundtrack, made by the Lonely Island. Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer, a group of nerdy guys, appeal universally to today’s youth, creating songs with a hip-hop inspired swagger. Their songs tend to have the beats and melodies of normal pop songs, and

ANDY SAMBERG (CONNER) IN POPSTAR: NEVER STOP POPPING

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are often very good. The only difference is that the lyrics tend to be vulgar and part of a joke. In the song “Mona Lisa,” for example, the trio calls the painting “an overrated piece of sh**” and continue to bash the painting for the rest of the song. Unexpected, this twist and others like it add to the hilarity of the song.

Samberg plays his part perfectly; his trademark goofiness and personality prove to only enhance his performance. When talking about how something took place for about ten seconds, Connor says, “That’s a third of the way to Mars!”

His manager Harry, corrects him, “Conner, for the last time, Thirty Seconds to Mars is the name of a band, not a fact.”

Though some parts of the movie are slow, the endless jokes and hilarious songs get audiences through it. Overall, I highly recommend Popstar.

It is extremely funny; once you start you won’t want to stop watching.

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EIGHT DAYS A WEEK

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MOVIES

by Emma Jones

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he line for Ron Howard’s Eight Days A Week showing at New York’s Independent Film Center stretched all the way from the theatre, past a seedy tattoo shop, and nearly down to Grey’s Papaya at the end of the block. A man shouted “When I say ‘The,’ you say ‘Beatles!” and whirled his phone in a panning shot of the shouting, adoring line.

Part of the joy of Eight Days A Week really was just seeing it. I experienced a theatre of smiling older couples, teenagers in patch-covered leather jackets, chattering tourists, people in jeans and people in pinstripe suits sitting right next to each other.

Featured in the film is a segment of commentary by Whoopi Goldberg, wherein she says, paraphrased: “It didn’t matter that I was black or that I was weird, or whatever. I could still be a Beatles fan.”

That is the spirit of Eight Days A Week. It is a documentary that chronicles the Beatles’ touring years in their early career—1962 to 1966. This has often been thought of as the era of the bowl cuts and the matching suits, of “she loves you” and “I want to hold your hand.” But what Eight Days A Week proves is that the “touring years” were the most formative of the band’s career. Revolver did not simply pop into existence after John Lennon took a bunch of LSD; the Beatles’ style evolution largely came from their experiences touring.

In the millennial generation’s view of the Beatles, there seem to always be two bands, the cute mop-toppers and the long-haired prophets. But the reality is that both of those musical styles were and are the Beatles.

Ron Howard celebrates that the true greatness of the Beatles as a pop act was how they interacted with

pop culture. At times, they railed against it, at times they begrudgingly or happily conformed to it, but they were always shaping it as their popularity escalated. Eight Days A Week shows new audiences how Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr, under the leadership of their manager Brian Epstein, created the norms for pop acts, especially in the world of concerts and touring.

Although Eight Days A Week provides a window into the characters of the Beatles and the narrative of the touring years, its crown jewel is not its storyline. The film features extensive amounts of re-mastered footage from the years it covers, including a completely re-mastered

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and audience in pop culture in general.

Eight Days A Week is still showing at independent theatres around New York and is available on Hulu. It is a celebration of not only the way the Beatles shaped western popular culture, but the sheer joy the Beatles brought to everyone who listened to them. It’s hard not to laugh or smile learning that all of the band used to sleep piled up in the same room or that they had a rallying cry of “To the toppermost of the poppermost!” when resolve got low during touring. Time stretches on, but Eight Days A Week shows us that some things are never forgotten.

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full recording of the Beatles’ legendary concert at Shea Stadium.

The re-mastered footage is a double-edged sword, because by showing the audience details of the performers themselves it is giving the audience something that those present at the actual concert never had. It puts the audience both in the minds of the Beatles and in the eyes of the screaming girls caught up in Beatlemania. Howard beautifully highlights the paradox of the Beatles as people and the Beatles as stars, and explores the relationship between not just the Beatles and their fans, but performers

MILLIE BOBBY BROWN (ELEVEN) IN STRANGER THINGS

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TELEVISION

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STRANGER THINGS

by Sophia Schein

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very once in a while a show so special comes along that it transports us to that nostalgic place we often yearn to be.

Stranger Things is a sci-fi horror series that was released this past summer by Netflix.

In only eight episodes, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer were able to create a storyline that is both tender and terrifying. It is set in a small and sleepy Indiana town in the 1980s where not much is supposed to happen. But it does. And, not only to the four geeky Dungeons & Dragons playing friends, but to the entire town.

This show is so worth watching that I will try my best to not divulge the plot. Will, Mike, Dustin and Lucas are in middle school where they are pretty much the typical middle school nerds; they are interested in computer science, science fiction and playing games in the basement of Mike’s house. When at school, they are pushed around and teased by the popular crowd, one

MATTHEW MODINE (DR. MARTIN BRENNER) IN STRANGER THINGS

of whom is later redeemed for both sincerely liking Mike’s sister, Nancy, and being brave enough to fight the demon he encounters when he goes to apologize to Nancy for having acted like a jerk to her around his friends.

Nancy, her hunky boy crush Steve and Will’s brother Jonathan make one unlikely team, yet they are able to self organize and lure the demon out of the woods where they believe he is hiding Will. Will’s mother, who has increasingly become more and more erratic and emotional since Will’s disappearance teams up with the alcoholic police chief Jim Hopper to search for her son. Will’s best friends, while super smart and obviously care deeply for him, are the unlikely saviors until they join forces with a very strange girl- Eleven.

Beyond the adventures that each group embarks on to find and save Will is raw emotion felt by each character. Not only for the loss of their friend, son, brother or neighbor, but for the every day life experiences they endure. Joyce, played

by Winona Ryder, is Will’s mother. She is a single mother, who works in retail probably making minimum wage, and is barely able to provide for her two sons, yet there is a bond and understanding among them that makes them solidly depend on one another. Even after Joyce appears to have lost it and believes she is speaking to Will through the walls and electrical wires, Jonathan supports her in his own way. His crush on Nancy gets him in a jam with her and her popular friends, but

DAVID HARBOUR (JIM HOPPER) IN STRANGER THINGS

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in the end Nancy is able to see that behind his camera and long hair is a sensitive and kind person. Nancy does not leave her hunky boyfriend for Jonathan but instead they join forces with him to battle the monster that has taken Will. In the meantime, Joyce was able to show the police chief that her theory of where Will might be is possible, and they embark on their own adventure to find him.

Neither of these newly formed teams can compete with the connection that ties Will’s buddies to each other and to the strange girl, Eleven, they meet along their way to finding and saving Will. Their quest is filled with brilliant problem solving moments, bold scientific undertakings, and the supernatural and telekinetic powers of Eleven. She is both powerful and fragile, and while at first only Mike is completely trusting of her, Will’s friends in the end are able to form such a bond with her that let her lead them into the alternate dimension described as “the Upside Down.”

Their journey turns them into courageous bike riding heroes that remind us of E.T. Their easy rapport, which is filled with humor, romance and deep friendship, is reminiscent of the Wonder Years. They are able to confront rogue and corrupt government officials, mad scientists and devious monsters in ways that are clearly influenced by Steven Spielberg and Stephen King.

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THE GET DOWN

by Emma Jones

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y father once described that as a teenager in New York stepping off the subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn in the late seventies was like arriving on a different planet. One of Netflix’s newer original series, The Get Down, explores a similar feeling; New York in 1977, a city politically divided, ridden with crime, fires, and blackouts. Between the South Bronx and Manhattan one seemed to cross into another universe. However, although The Get Down is a rich period drama that explores one of the most tumultuous times in history, it is also the story of one boy struggling to figure out where he belongs and who he should be at a time when those questions are overshadowed by gunshots and the record scratches.

The Get Down’s protagonist is one Zeke Figuero, played by Justice Smith, a Puerto Rican boy with a talent for poetry and rhythm. The series begins with a clash between Zeke and a semi-professional (or at least as professional as possible) graffiti artist and aspiring DJ, Shaolin Fantastic. Shaolin is looking for a “wordsmith” for his hip-hop tracks, and Zeke is unsure how to harness his talent. Together with Zeke’s friends, Boo-Boo, Ra-Ra, and Dizzee, Shaolin and Zeke make musical magic surrounded by the ruins of the South Bronx. Soon, hip-hop becomes the vehicle for Zeke to discover the talent he has.

Another central player is Mylene Cruz, the daughter of a minister who dreams of another kind of music entirely: Disco. Mylene is the object of Zeke’s affection, but is unreceptive to him because she is afraid he will never leave the Bronx.

That’s the catch. Mylene is the symbol of a musical form that represents something beyond the Bronx. She will do anything to leave her dying neighborhood that is South Bronx and rise to disco stardom. Whereas hip-hop comes from within, disco comes from above. Thus, Shaolin abhors Zeke’s love for Mylene, but as Zeke and Mylene are drawn closer together, so are hip-hop and disco.

This union culminates in a scene

CAST OF THE GET DOWN

CAST OF THE GET DOWN

CAST OF THE GET DOWN

CAST OF THE GET DOWN

where Mylene’s newly released disco track’s “get down part” – the titular musical device that is played during the wildest moments of a party – is the key to Dizzee, RaRa, Boo-Boo, Zeke, and Shaolin’s most important track.

The Get Down is described as a “musical drama” and it blends the climax of the characters’ personal journeys with the monumental moment in music history that it’s portraying: The merge between hip-hop and disco.

The Get Down is the brainchild of director Baz Luhrmann, who also directed Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby. However, he certainly did not do it alone: playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, historian Nelson George, rappers and Grandmaster Flash and MC Nas were some of the driving forces behind the show. It’s full of classic Luhrmann moments such as blood spattering a disco ball as it spins, the camera swirling and shaking as cocaine is snorted to and fro. But the tremendous influence of Grandmaster Flash, a character within the show himself, is evident everywhere. The details of the music, the location, and even the characters’ worldviews themselves are so vivid, lending to the authenticity of the entire show.

Nelson George describes the show best in an interview with Voice: “Everyone back then, whether they were a disco diva or a kid from the Bronx, was

seeking to rise above reality and be as bold and bad as their imaginations. The show’s mission is to present them as they saw themselves: as superheroes in their world.” It’s an ambitious mission for a television series, but The Get Down pulls it off.

In watching The Get Down, you experience a myriad of emotions from the beautiful cinematography and the deep, complex writing. It’s sort of a perfect storm coming from the minds of Grandmaster Flash, Baz Luhrmann, and others. It is powerful, it is sometimes funny, it is sometimes disturbing, and most of all it is authentic. You are transported to the South Bronx in the seventies. The Get Down is immersive to the point where one feels such intense empathy for the characters that it can be moving and a little scary.

And while The Get Down is the story of what’s now forty years ago, it makes relevant political statements for our world. One of its central conflicts is the dichotomy of being black in America—to play the white game and win or to be true to who you feel like you are? It sports a cast of almost entirely black and Latino actors and provides a window into an often whitewashed history. And that’s what it is, really, a story making history. The Get Down is available for streaming on Netflix.

TELEVISION

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TELEVISION

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THE NIGHT OF

by Maggie Brill

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he Night Of, an eight part HBO mini-series, seemed to have everyone on the edge of their seat this summer, anxiously waiting for Sunday night to be able to watch the next episode. The series lasted almost the entire summer, with the first episode premiering on HBO on July 10th and ending on August 28th with over two million viewers tuning in to the finale.

The show, based on the BBC series “Criminal Justice,” stars a Pakistani-American college student, Nasir Khan, who is accused of murdering a young woman, Andrea, on the Upper West Side. Nasir, played

by Riz Ahmed, has no memory from the night of the murder, causing him to question his own innocence throughout the series. While in a jail cell, Nasir enlists the help of John Stone, a low-level lawyer who’s barely seen the inside of a courtroom. John Stone, played by John Turturro, has no idea what he is getting himself into. Given the young woman’s affluent background and Nasir’s nationality, the case becomes a huge media spectacle. While Nasir awaits trial, he becomes consumed by prison culture and develops a drug addiction.

The series is dark and suspenseful, revealing the intricacies of the New York City judicial system and its flaws. We see how a young college student unable to afford bail is transformed into a criminal while awaiting a trial for a crime he most likely did not commit. Nasir is constantly urged to plead guilty by lawyers trying to use the media attention of the case to draw attention to themselves. We also see Nasir and his family being judged in the public eye as guilty before the trial even begins.

The first episode of the series, entitled “The Beach,” is probably the strongest and most eventful.

Nasir steals his father’s taxi to go to a party and on the way a mysterious young woman gets into his cab.

Enticing him with drugs and sex, Nasir goes with her to her apartment. Later, he wakes up with her in bed next to him brutally stabbed to death, with no recollection of the night before. Nasir flees the scene only to get pulled over for a traffic violation minutes later. As he sits in the police precinct with the murder weapon in his jacket pocket, the imminent discovery of the knife is nerve racking.

After the first episode, the show moves very slowly. If you are someone who likes fast-paced action, plot twists, or cliffhangers at the end of every episode, this show is probably not for you. Most of the large plot developments happen in the first and last episodes, leaving something to be desired for the viewer in the intermediate episodes. However, that’s not to say the quality of the script, the acting, and the character

RIZ AHMED (NASIR ‘NAZ’ KHAN) AND MICHAEL KENNETH WILLIAMS (FREDDY KNIGHT) IN THE NIGHT OF

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chooses to ignore this evidence and continues with the trial, trying to protect her own reputation. At this point, you are fuming with frustration at the prosecutor’s unethical tactics and willingness to jeopardize Nasir’s future. The jury deadlocks, and the prosecutor finally realizes that the newfound evidence is substantial enough to drop charges against Nasir.

In many ways, this ending feels unsatisfying.

A deadlocked jury and a new suspect suddenly being revealed in the last episode seemed like a cop out. At the same time, I think the idea behind the ending was to serve as a commentary on the judicial system. In real life, things don’t always wrap up with a perfect little bow. That’s especially true here where no one involved in the case seems to escape unscathed. Nasir continues to use drugs upon returning home after being effectively declared guilty in the public eye.

Throughout the series, we sit with frustration at the flaws within the system as we watch the brutality of prison culture, the seemingly incompetent NYPD officers, and the emotional and financial burden a trial can bring on a hardworking family.

Although the show was marketed and created to be a stand-alone miniseries, due to the show’s overwhelmingly positive reception by critics and audience alike, there is a possibility that HBO will create a second season. HBO’s president of programming has expressed a desire for the show to continue and possibilities are being considered by the writers.

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development are not incredibly well done.

After the premiere, the next couple of episodes are filled mostly with the logistics of charging Nasir with homicide and investigating the crime scene.

Nasir is processed at Rikers Island and is forced to learn quickly who to trust when he becomes targeted by other inmates. For protection, he is forced to form an alliance with a powerful inmate, Freddy. Nasir’s experience in prison is painful to watch. Over the arc of the series, he transforms into a drug smuggler and user, shaving his head and tattooing his body.

In the meantime, the three other narratives focus on John Stone, Nasir’s inexperienced lawyer who is struggling with eczema, the NYPD detective in charge of the case, and Nasir’s family. John Stone’s character is captivatingly quirky and brilliantly played

by John Turturro. Both Stone and Detective Box, a soon-to-be retired police officer who tries to prove himself on his last case, investigate the mystery of the night in question. The other focus is on Nasir’s parents who heartbreakingly struggle with financial issues, their perception of their son, and public judgment.

The storyline doesn’t speed up until episode 6, when other possible suspects are finally introduced: Andrea’s stepfather and a creepy hearse driver. The trial begins in episode 7 as violence and power dynamics in the prison escalate. In the finale, the trial continues, but Detective Box discovers security footage that points to a much more plausible suspect. The prosecutor

MIKE COLTER (LUKE CAGE) AND SIMONE MISSICK (MISTY NIGHT) IN LUKE CAGE

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LUKE CAGE

by Ben Vahradian

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estarting his life in Harlem after being given super strength and unbreakable skin from a sabotaged experiment, Luke Cage must confront his past while being the super hero that Harlem needs him to be. Initially, Cage, in the original Netflix series, is trying to keep a low profile while working for ex-gangster turned barbershop owner, Henry “Pop” Hunter, and as a dishwasher at the nightclub Harlem’s Paradise.

Only a few characters, including Pop, know about Cage’s powers as he tries to keep them hidden from the rest of the world because of his past. Luke Cage, formerly known as Carl Lucas, breaks out of a maximum security prison in Georgia, where he was wrongfully incarcerated, using powers that he obtained during an experiment at the prison. Cage avoids getting entangled with criminals; however, after the murder of his closest friend at the hands of notorious gangster Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes’ men, he decides to take down some of the most powerful gangs in Upper Manhattan. Taking on Cottonmouth’s gang, Cage becomes a target for Stokes’ cousin, corrupt politician Mariah Dillard.

Despite his work to fix the city, he learns how easily the city blames Cage for multiple murders he didn’t commit. Throughout the series, Cage struggles

to prove his innocence and combat the gangs and criminal elements in Harlem.

Originally created in 1972 by the Marvel franchise, the character Luke is the first AfricanAmerican superhero to have his own comic book series and now his own show. Actor Mike Colter, who first played Luke Cage in the 2015 Marvel Netflix series Jessica Jones, plays Luke Cage in Marvel’s Luke Cage series. Different from many other superheroes, Cage doesn’t have a colorful costume; instead, he wears an ordinary hoodie, often tattered with holes from bullets. The show comments on race, politics, and activism. In the latter part of the season, people wear Cage’s symbolic tattered hoodie to protest the police’s attempts to arrest Cage. Another important issue that the series touches on is corruption and the role it plays in government and the police department. Part of what makes the show so realistic and special is that it is able to replicate Harlem’s unique atmosphere and culture during the 1970’s, specifically its music.

Race is also an important aspect of the show in its ability to embrace the substance of Harlem.

Mike Colter is able to effectively portray Luke Cage’s soft-spoken, thoughtful, and pacifistic personality, while still embracing Cage’s ability to be physically imposing and confident. You would expect no less from a person who is able to take a bullet to the face without flinching. The antagonists of the show, Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes, played

by Mahershala Ali, Mariah Dillard played by Alfre Woodard, and Hernan “Shades” Alvarez played by Theo Rossi, also effectively portray characters who

are manipulative and power hungry, concerned with only their own situation. Simone Missick, portraying NYPD detective Misty Knight, an ally of Cage, conveys a strong sense of justice and moral compass in her depiction of Detective Knight. Erik LaRay Harvey takes on the role of a personal enemy from Cage’s past, Willis “Diamondback” Stryker and captures his sociopathic, power-hungry personality. Colter and the supporting actors display the characters’ struggle for control of Harlem and Cage’s hope for a community where people can live peacefully and where the neighborhood can thrive. This show takes a very different approach than any previous Marvel superhero series and was successful in portraying the character Luke Cage and setting of Upper Manhattan.

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ANDY SAMBERG (JAKE PERALTA) AND STEPHANIE BEATRIZ (ROSA DIAZ) IN BROOKLYN NINE-NINE

BROOKLYN NINE-NINE A

by Benjamin Goodman

t the end of season 3, Brooklyn Nine-Nine left us with Captain Raymond Holt held at gunpoint on the 99 precinct roof, by his ex-partner, Bob Anderson. To save himself, Holt sent an emergency message to our favorite cop, Jake Peralta.

Soon enough, the whole squad came to the rescue, putting Bob behind bars. However the squad didn’t celebrate for long. Jimmy “the butcher” Figgis, Bob’s boss and Jake’s arch-nemesis, was still on the loose, forcing both Jake and Captain Holt to leave Brooklyn and enter witness protection.

Season 4 begins with Jake and Captain Holt living in Florida, under the pseudonyms of Greg and Larry. They have had no contact with the 99 precinct for 6 months, which includes Jake’s girlfriend, Amy, and Captain Holt’s husband, Kevin. Sick of leading average lives in Florida, Jake and Holt decide to get themselves out of witness protection by tracking down Figgis. Consequently, we get many exciting and hysterical scenes between the always serious Holt and clownish Jake. Simultaneously, the precinct has moved passed the loss of Jake and Holt; rather, they are focusing on their new Captain CJ, who, we soon realize, is completely unqualified to be a Captain,

leading to more amusing antics.

Though the first few episodes of season 4 left the audience a bit disoriented, due to the new location and character pseudonyms, the episodes still had the hilarious trademark banter that has sustained the show’s high ratings. In the first few episodes, we see Maya Rudolph act as Jake and Holt’s handler for the Witness Protection Program. Every few days she asks both of them to meet her in an abandoned lot, and to talk about their lives. She asks questions about how they are assimilating into their new lives, Jake as an ATV seller and Holt as an arcade worker. Adding Rudolph’s comedic genius to the first few episodes made them that much more engaging.

The trailers for Season four gave us a sneak peek at the exciting season ahead and so far the show has not disappointed. As of now, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is more action-packed and hilarious than ever before. Witty jokes and crazy plotlines continue to keep viewers en-gaged.

This season is promising to be as comedic, entertaining, and fun to watch as previous seasons. Brooklyn NineNine has remained as funny as it was in the first season.

This said, I have faith in Andy Samberg to continue to produce amazing work, like he’s done before.

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JANE THE VIRGIN

By Liana Moroshko

GINA RODRIGUEZ (JANE VILLANUEVA) AND ANDREA NAVEDO (XIOMARA VILLANUEVA) IN JANE THE VIRGIN

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right up until the point when Rafael appeared in her life.

As Jane and Rafael started seeing more of each other during their work shifts, the more they both realized that they were falling for each other.

Michael, on the other hand, was experiencing problems with work and his love life. With a crime investigation at the Marbella, the hotel where plastic surgeons are illegally changing the faces of people, he spent a lot of time trying to find the criminals involved, while also trying to save his relationship.

From the beginning of the show, each episode starts with Jane as a curious girl exploring the small peculiarities of life. As the episode progresses, the narrator brings the small moments of Jane’s past to the present. The narrator’s voice, which is heard throughout each episode, adds an interesting touch to the suspense, drama, and romance that is seen throughout the show.

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any of you may underestimate this show based on the title, but as the saying goes, never judge a book by its cover. The basic plotline consists of the main character, Jane Gloriana Villanueva, getting accidentally artificially inseminated during her visit to the OBGYN. The doctor, who inseminated Jane, found his cheating wife in bed with someone else. This upsetting turn of events caused the doctor to hear the wrong information and mix up Jane with another patient. Later that day, Jane faints on the bus and receives the news that she is pregnant.

From there the whole story begins with Rafael: Jane’s baby daddy, playboy, and hotel owner of the Marbella.

See, Jane was originally in love with Michael who she met during her 21st birthday party. He showed up at her house during his regular police duty. At first glance, they fell in love and things went well from there,

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by William He

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ack in 2011, when The CW first started airing Arrow, nobody expected DC’s first TV series to be such a huge hit, and riding on that momentum, DC debuted three new shows: The Flash in 2014, Legends of Tomorrow in 2015, and Supergirl in 2015 as well, all to critical success.

However, the past 5 years have not been a joyride.

The “Flarrowverse,” a term coined by fans to describe the universe of DC shows on The CW, has had its ups and downs. The main character of Arrow, Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, has no supernatural powers, but is rather a man who happens to both be at peak physique and have a lot of weapons skills. Arrow Season 1 was the story of a man crusading to make his city better by targeting the rich and corrupt as well as street crime and the occasional assassin. The relative realism of both the hero and the enemies featured in Arrow kept Arrow a grounded in reality and allowed it to be a much more gritty show, giving us access to Oliver’s emotions and inner conflicts behind the man shooting a bow and arrow. The inclusion of flashback scenes showing us the true beginnings of the Green Arrow also helped give viewers more insight into the character. However, as the show goes on, it gets increasingly less realistic, gets darker in Season 2 with a well-developed villain in Slade Wilson/Deathstroke (not to be confused with Wade Wilson/Deadpool) and serious struggles for Oliver including deaths in the family, and then gets lighter again for the next two seasons. However, the lighter tone also comes with a decreased quality in the show, and Arrow would stay the black sheep of the DC TV family until the Season 4 finale with a well-made, epic showdown between Oliver and Damien Darhk that resulted in Oliver returning to his roots and killing Darhk. In the current Season 5, Arrow has returned to its roots with Oliver dealing with gang crime, reforming his team, and balancing life as both the Green Arrow and the Mayor of Star City. This has been a good change; the show is focusing more on plot and character development than on spectacle and awe, something that was much needed in Seasons 3 and 4. From the beginning, part of the appeal of this show is also the fact that we were

looking at an obviously flawed man who had nothing superhuman about him dealing with the problems that we never could; perhaps Arrow wasn’t meant to give us hope like other superheroes in modern media, but it certainly has returned to its legendary roots. While it so far hasn’t been completely equal in quality to Season 1 several weeks into Season 5, I can say with confidence that it is certainly an improvement over the last two seasons, and at this moment in time is the best show of the four so far this fall.

The Flash is also back for a third season, after the full ramifications of its Season 2 finale. At the end of Season 2, Barry ran back in time to save his mother.

When Barry returned to the present, both his parents were alive. However, Iris and Barry didn’t know each other at all, Cisco was a billionaire that didn’t want to help superheroes, and other characters all had their lives changed. Barry’s attempt to fix his creation of this world known as “Flashpoint” by running back in time yet again to return things to what they once were did not succeed, and that journey has literally given the show a soft reset, with changed character relationships (not as badly as Flashpoint, but there’s evident differences), the inclusion or removal of entire characters, such as Tom Felton’s Julian Dorn, and a whole new kind of villain. Dr. Alchemy is unlike any villain we’ve seen before in any superhero media in the past decade and a half, with the ability to give people powers based off who they were in the Flashpoint timeline. Currently, this new universe now exists as the mainstream CW universe instead of solely as a separate universe. Arrow has felt some effects of the Flashpoint with minor character changes in so far minor ways, and

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Society of America. The little central plot development has been good at setting up the eventual central plot; the Legends are now facing the combined forces of Damien Darhk, last season’s Arrow villain (Oliver might have killed him, but that was in 2016. Darhk is still alive in all the time periods before that), and Reverse Flash, the former of which could live forever and the latter of which has all of The Flash’s powers. While we don’t know much except that the two have been messing up history wherever and whenever they show up, such as attempting to nuke New York in World War II. Whatever their endgame is, in a universe this large and diverse, filled with everything from a vigilante with a bow and arrow to the aforementioned team of legends that can almost play god, it has to be grand.

As with past seasons, crossovers can be expected between these four CW shows. In the past, we saw Flash and Arrow as well as Flash and Supergirl crossovers, with minor cameos in Legends of Tomorrow. This year, all four shows will be having a huge crossover event starting later this year, where the Legends, The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, and potentially some other heroes will team up to take on the Dominators, a fictional alien race that in the comics had the ability to manipulate their genetics, giving their race all sorts of powers. If the Dominators are building off of their comic origins, then this is sure to be an enemy that none of them could have taken on alone, and I’m willing to bet that the collective audience will have their minds blown.

The past few seasons of the Flarrowverse weren’t the greatest, with a lot of energy being dedicated towards starting new shows instead of focusing on retaining the quality of the existing shows. Now, with each show at least one year in, DC has gotten its act together and is now putting forward its four best feet on The CW. This year, we can expect that Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow will become not just essential superhero media, but essential TV for all audiences.

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it may also have a role in Supergirl. For obvious reasons that will be talked about later, Legends of Tomorrow has so far not received any impact, though the multiple timelines is certainly an interesting idea for a future plot.

Supergirl moved to The CW to join its fellow shows this year, and the inclusion of Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman has given the show new life. New problems for Kara arise in both her work and superhero life with her new boss, challenges of reporting, and new enemies that are showing up to threaten National City. While the villains haven’t been heavily developed yet, they’re still providing an intriguing narrative for the show.

Supergirl is also exploring social acceptance, with a major plotline of the series being Alien Amnesty Act, a federal decree allowing aliens to reside within the US legally. Delving into social commentary, the Act is giving Supergirl both a moral and literal fight, with advocates for both sides acting out for their beliefs. With these new changes, it’s going to be fun to watch Supergirl evolve in its new home. While Supergirl hasn’t gone totally into the classic truth, justice, and American way mantra that has been a core of the Superman family for years, this show will definitely be interesting as superpowered parallel of American politics and society.

When Legend’s of Tomorrow ended last year, Vandal Savage was defeated, the Time Masters were gone, and nobody knew what the continuation of the plot would be since the original mission was completed.

In an unsurprising twist, the plot now has the Legends as a team of “time cops,” protecting history as the world knows it from outside agents looking to change it. The relative lack of a central plotline in the first couple of episodes has allowed the team to explore multiple time periods, enemies, and plots, such as medieval France and feudal Japan. However, the slow process of setting up a central plotline in each episode is going well for the show. The pace allows us time to get introduced to Nick Zano’s Nate Heywood/Citizen Steel and the Justice

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN (NEGAN) IN THE WALKING DEAD

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THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 7 PREMIERE

by Charles Wallach

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n Sunday, October 23, America tuned into AMC to watch one of the biggest reveals in television history. The premiere of the Walking Dead’s seventh season was watched by 17 million people, and it was heartwrenching and emotional for almost everyone.

The finale of the sixth season left the viewers with Rick and the gang helpless and on their knees before the powerful Negan. Negan, along with his massive crew, captured Rick’s group and gave them an ultimatum: Join us or Die. However, there was catch: in order to flaunt his power and establish his dominance, Negan decided to kill one member of the group. Using “Lucille,” his baseball bat covered in barbed wire, Negan beats the life out of someone’s brain until it becomes pulp. The question is: who died? That is the cliffhanger that viewers were left with. Over off-season, cast members were sworn to secrecy, but promised that this episode would “make people cry” and “change the show forever.”

SETH GILLIAM (FATHER GABRIEL STOKES) IN THE WALKING DEAD

Not one peep was let out, which intensified the feeling of the premiere.

Teased through trailers with small snippets of footage, the premiere of the seventh season picked up immediately where it left off. Rick’s face, covered in the blood of Lucille’s victim, was empty and stunned. The only thing Rick could mutter were the words, “I’m gonna kill you… Not today. Not tomorrow. But I am gonna kill you.”

Negan then dragged Rick into the RV and took him on a ride for them to get to know each other. The victim still unknown to the audience at this point, Negan made sure his dominance was established by forcing a depleted Rick to retrieve the axe from the pit of zombies in which it was thrown into. As Rick slay numerous amounts of “walkers,” we got quick flashbacks of the previous night. With every zombie he killed, a new memory flashed backed to the beating his friend took. Once Rick reached the hatchet, we finally got the full story of that night, which was dark and gruesome; Negan beat Abraham’s brains to death. As soon as the group watched their friend’s head demolished and body collapse, Daryl, the group’s bad boy, jumped at Negan.

As if viewers had not taken enough of an emotional beating due to Abraham’s gruesome death, Negan’s next action left viewers in tears with their jaws dropped. To show the group that retaliation against him was not going to be tolerated, Negan swiftly turned around and jammed Lucille straight into Glenn’s head. Glenn, who is an expectant father, a beloved husband to Maggie, and a character on the show since the pilot, was brutally battered. What separated

NORMAN REEDUS (DARYL DIXON) IN THE WALKING DEAD

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this episode from the other 83 was that this was gruesome, dark, and graphic. Viewers watched as Glenn’s brains crumbled and eyeball popped out of the socket. In his dying moments, Glenn muttered the words “I will find you” to his pregnant wife, Maggie.

In a brutal turn of events, we went into the premiere thinking one beloved member of the group was going to die and came out with two. Over the six previous seasons, we became close to each member of the group and their storylines, which is why each death is taken so heavily. We are as close to every character as they are to each other, which is why some consider the characters of The Walking Dead to be like family. We see their every move, their emotions, their reactions, their successes, and their downfalls. Losing two beloved characters in such a horrible fashion makes you feel like you’ve actually lost someone. Abraham was not only a leader in the group and community, but he provided comic relief during tough times. We watched him grow as a character since his arrival in season four as he opened up his story to us. Glenn’s death was especially tough because he was with us since the very pilot. Without Glenn there would be no show because he was the one to save Rick when he was first trapped. When we first met him, Glenn was a young former pizza delivery boy, who was just at the right place at the right time. From the pilot to the premiere of season seven, we watched Glenn overcome his fears, find his true love, grow as a man, and become an expectant father. Both Glenn and Abraham will be missed dearly by both America and those involved in the show. The show is rumored to get much darker, with many of the main characters undergoing deep characteristic changes. One can only wonder: Where does the show go from here?

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80’S COMEBACK IN FILM AND TV

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by Emma Jones

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ost of you reading this article probably weren’t alive during the 80’s. As much as I loathe to admit it, I unfortunately was not a teenager in the eighties either. My parents have tried to convince me many times that there was really nothing cool about the 80’s—your chunky glasses just made you look like a dork and Winona Ryder had a nervous breakdown in her twenties. But still, I and many other millennial adolescents persist: There is just something about the eighties.

This obsession is present in film and television more than ever. Netflix’s Stranger Things, which premiered its first season on July 15, is one of the most prominent examples. It is a clear homage to the horror and sci-fi crazes of the eighties. It stars Winona Ryder, darling of the late 80’s and early 90’s, and embraces the campy, small town horror of 80’s flicks like Twin Peaks. The cast of kid characters, who are on both personal and supernatural quests, mirrors Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me, one of the most powerful films to come out of the eighties.

Stranger Things plays on nostalgia for 80’s media, a time when good and bad seemed more clear-cut and the gritty, hyper-realistic approach of the new millennium had not even come into existence. There is a distinctly home-y feel to the “small town horror” genre of the 80’s, and perhaps that is why they are so unsettling: they have a distinctive vibe of feeling like they could happen to you, which Stranger Things captures. As horror has evolved, it has become much more situational and protagonist-driven than setting and tone based. In the vein of Twin Peaks, Stranger Things ingeniously uses one of the hallmark storytelling techniques of eighties horror.

In a completely different genre, The Goldbergs, an ABC family comedy about a young boy growing up in the 80’s, has dedicated central episodes of its upcoming season to being homages to specific 80’s teen movies. The eighties were the dawn of the “teen angst” movie: Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and most famously The Breakfast Club. The Goldbergs is a show already documenting, in something of a satire, the particularities of family life in the eighties, and the season premiere shows the Goldberg kids going into high school in the year The Breakfast Club first came out.

Thematically, this episode has Adam Goldberg realizing that although everybody wants to be a rebellious, wise-cracking hero like Judd Nelson, most people have soft-spoken and nerdy Anthony Michael Hall in there somewhere. Nobody

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is a cliché. The Breakfast Club is a movie about extremes, and trying to live to one of those extremes is completely missing the point of the movie, which is that everyone— even the people you don’t understand, which is in Adam’s case his overbearing mother—deserve to be given a chance.

The Goldbergs is a show about examining nostalgia, as it is literally based on Adam Goldberg filming his childhood in the 80’s, and throughout the show’s canon it both satirizes and pays homage to the things that made pop culture in the eighties so great.

More broadly, X-Men: Apocalypse is a recent film that uses the political and social climate of the eighties as its backdrop. As X-Men is a franchise that deals heavily in allegory, most of the references to the 80’s are political.

Magneto is internationally infamous for having attempted to assassinate Richard Nixon, which ties the mutants’ statuses as pariahs into the uncomfortable post-Nixon political climate of the eighties. It was hard to find rebels inspiring when the country so desperately needed stability in the wake of Ford and Carter.

But on a lighter note, X-Men Apocalypse celebrates the pop culture that made the 80’s fun and plays on viewers’ nostalgia. Wolverine, who in the series’ canon was experimented on in the 80’s, appears briefly as an easter egg to fans of the series who are familiar with its deeper lore. A deleted scene from X-Men Apocalypse shows the characters playing against each other on arcade games that were at their peak of popularity in the 80’s, an irony when the X-Men universe deals with such advanced technology.

There is a kitschy feel to the whole thing. And that’s what all 80’s homages feel like: A nice, kitschy nod.

The 80’s were complicated—No more or less so than the new millennium. Have movies inaccurately glorified an era, giving a new generation false nostalgia for a portrayal of a time that never really existed? It’s hard to say. “It’s the Breakfast Club,” Adam Goldberg explains to his father in the trailer for The Goldbergs’ premiere. “What does that mean?” his father asks. Adam shrugs and answers, “Nobody knows.”

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STEPHEN KING ADAPTATIONS

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by Emma Jones

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t’s a simple fact that some books are easier to adapt into movies than others. In order to adapt a book, the narrative of the book has to be translated into a screenplay that has some semblance of the convention for the narrative of screenwriting: the three-act structure. Movies and books are different mediums that convey narrative differently, and a book adaptation that is objectively, completely perfect is impossible. This is also why fans of Stephen King’s It and The Dark Tower have been pouring their anxiety into angry forum posts over the past few months.

The question of narrative translation becomes very worrying when looking at Stephen King’s larger novels being adapted to film. One of the defining factors of King’s storytelling style is that he makes use of multiple kinds of internal and external conflict, which merge together to create a central conflict. A book like The Shining is so good because it is the story of Jack Torrance’s very personal, very internal conflict quite literally becoming the external conflict as his descent into madness merges with the madness of the hotel. This transition from inner to outer conflict is incredibly difficult to capture on film, and that was King’s problem with Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining. King thought the conflict was entirely external and the inner character growth was never connected to the progression of the external conflict in Kubrick’s film.

But The Shining is a story with a small cast that has a short narrative with easy to define arcs. In the past year, Stephen King’s It has been taken on by director Andrés Muschietti and The Dark Tower has been taken on by Nikolaj Arcel. These two books only follow conventional storytelling structure if it’s been stomped on, put in a blender, and methamphetamine has been pumped into it.

Both deal with the very obvious motif of an external conflict—in the case of It the fight against Pennywise and in The Dark Tower the quest for “the Tower.” These are both ingeniously written novels, because they both start with an external conflict that seems simple but reveals itself to be much more complicated as the characters’ internal conflicts effect the external conflict. Unfortunately, this makes both It and The Dark Tower both incredibly hard to adapt into film narrative.

Being completely honest, Nikolaj Arcel has a much greater challenge in adapting The Dark Tower. It is a single book, whereas The Dark Tower is a seven book series plus a companion novel, a comic universe, and nods and connections to almost all of the rest of the Stephen King canon. The story of The Dark Tower at its most simple is this: A man in a world other than our own is searching for something called The Dark Tower, which holds the fabric of time together. He has been doing this for a long time and he can no longer do it alone. But The Dark Tower is much, much more than that. It is a meta-narrative on storytelling itself—tropes and structure especially, a commentary on the nature of fate, and a celebration of Stephen King’s universe. It shocks, confuses, amazes, and inspires long conversations about how to interpret it.

To adapt The Dark Tower is almost as hard as finding the actual Dark Tower. There is simply so much nuance and substance to it that creating a film narrative without constant exposition feels

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easy to overlook the book’s nuance and make it into a more conventional horror film. Carey Fukunaga originally was set to direct the movie and had ventured out of the conventional narrative for horror film by creating something that matched the book in its length and depth, but it was deemed too ambitious and Fukunaga stepped away from it. Andrés Muschietti, who directed the 2013 supernatural film Mama, took over the project. While Muschietti is good at films that unsettle and scare, Mama is a 90 minute story with a three-act structure. Its style of storytelling gives easily defined exposition, point of attack, inciting incident, midpoint, third act twist, and all that. The narrative of It is much more complicated and King fans fear that the things that make It so compelling will have to be sacrificed. But this fear could be unfounded; Muschietti has storyboarded nearly every scene and publicly posted a few—even if it is not the right story necessarily, he is dedicated to that story. The upcoming film stars Bill Skarsgård of Hemlock Grove and Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things among others.

It is important to keep in mind that Stephen King is not a perfect writer.

Even coming from the perspective of a longtime, diehard fan this is true. In both It and The Dark Tower there are scenes that are crude or awkward or just plain unnecessary.

The psychology of adaptations is that fans claim to want perfect representations of their favorite stories, but often what they want is a perfect movie representation of their favorite stories, not the literal story playing out in front of them. Kubrick’s inaccurate adaptation of The Shining is infinitely more well-liked than the ill-fated miniseries with King’s screenplay.

In addition, book-to-film adaptations are never easy. However, stories with traditional narrative structures like The Hunger Games or Harry Potter are much easier to make into good movies. Stephen King’s books are often thousand-page epics that take risks in narrative structure and use inner conflict as a plot device so much that putting them into the language of film feels near impossible. After all, adapting a book to a film or vice versa is quite literally translating between two languages of human understanding. As anyone who has ever used Google Translate knows, sometimes things get lost in translation.

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impossible.

One way to look at Arcel’s upcoming adaptation is that it isn’t really an adaptation but a retelling. The Dark Tower exists in a universe where parallel worlds are everywhere and the idea of alternate reality is embraced.

The end note of the series makes use of this idea, and King has stated that Arcel’s Dark Tower can be looked at as an alternate continuation of the original. King also has worked on the script and in production every step of the way. But even so, many fans have found fault with the film adaptation. The reality of The Dark Tower is that it is just not something that can lend itself well to film.

Arcel casts Idris Elba in the lead role of Roland Deschain, Matthew McConaughey as the adversary Walter O’Dim, and newcomer Tom Taylor in the role of Jake Chambers, the only member of Roland’s “katet” introduced in the first novel. The film is an ambitious project, but with the star power of its cast and the guiding hand of Stephen King, it is possible to create something that can mirror the Dark Tower thematically if not exactly in its story. The only thing one can do with a Dark Tower film is appreciate it for what it is and admire what it is trying to do.

It has a smallerscale storyline, but the challenge of It is the novel’s unconventional narrative structure.

The novel is the story of a group of children growing up in the idyllic town of Derry, Maine, and their lifelong struggle against demons of both a supernatural and personal nature. It flashes between past and present and within the two storylines, and then flashes between the external conflict of Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Or the titular “It”) and the internal conflict of the characters’ lives. The genius of It is that, despite being one of the most famous horror novels of all time, it is nowhere near conventional horror.

The “monster” of It is almost a conceptual manifestation of the much more fear-inducing monsters in the characters’ real lives. It takes the supernatural aspect and places it in the characters’ real life conflict. For example, It kills Bill Denbrough’s brother and establishes Bill’s lifelong insecurity and guilt. It feeds on fear, for example Eddie Kaspbrak’s fear of his overbearing mother, Richie Tozier’s fear of what others think of him, and Beverly Marsh’s fear of her feminine identity.

The main problem with adapting It is that it is

BEN AFFLECK (BATMAN/BRUCE WAYNE) AND HENRY CAVILL (SUPERMAN/CLARK KENT) IN BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

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BAD SUPERHERO FILMS

by Charlotte Pinney

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he demand from studios looking to make their millions off comic book movies and from fans always looking for the latest installment of their favorite heroes and heroines has started to force the creation of superhero films. A trend of quantity over quality has begun to surface, as studios have started to create these films for profit. These movies are some of the most profitable in the business, and their sequels often almost double in revenue, with Marvel comics now worth more than both the Star Wars and the Harry Potter franchises. Executives throw money at these projects hoping to make an easy buck without taking the time to flush out a proper script or find the right director. Consequently, superhero movies as of late have been hastily put together disasters, which disappoint dedicated fans but seemingly please the masses.

Let’s begin with an example of one of these underwhelming movies, the hot garbage pile of overplayed clichés, tropes, and lazy writing that is X-Men Apocalypse. Allow me to start by saying I am a big fan of the X-Men. A lot of people weren’t too excited for this prequel reboot, but the first installment X-Men: First Class put most fans at ease. Directed

by Matthew Vaughn, First Class gave us a satisfying origin story and our first picture of the new cast portraying classic

characters.

It is essentially impossible for Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and James McAvoy (Professor X) to execute a bad performance, so they were, of course, fantastic. Then came X-Men: Days of Future Past, another hit. It connected back to the original movies and simultaneously gave us some more naked Hugh Jackman (who doesn’t like that). In spite of all its strengths, the sequel-prequel franchise has a glaring issue in regards to its timeline.

In Apocalypse, the characters jump forward about 10 years in between each movie, while the actors obviously have not. With the actors only aging a couple of years in between each movie, it’s hard to believe that Jennifer Lawrence aged twenty years in between First Class and Apocalypse, especially when the actors wear no make up to make themselves appear older. The franchise’s inability to incorporate the passage of time in their movies ends up undermining a lot of narrative and creates some pretty substantial plot holes.

Now, moving onto the characters. To sum it up, Apocalypse is another one of those fun disposable blue Marvel villains that everybody loves.

Apocalypse has been dead for thousands of years, since the age of ancient Egypt, yet he stays alive because he is seemingly some sort of god among mutants. When

he wakes up in modern times, he, like many other villains before him, believe all of humanity is up to no good, so he decides to just murder everyone for a clean slate. The writers of the movie must think it is seemingly impossible to think of a more creative motivation for a villain than murdering on a whim or to avenge dead loved ones.

The protagonists of this film are a young Jean Grey, who has telekinesis and psychic powers much like Professor X, and Cyclops, who basically shoots one big laser out of his eyes. These two straight white characters and the romantic plotline between them could not be more predictable. Part of the reason First Class was so good was because it focused on the origin of the main characters, Magneto, Mystique, and Charles Xavier, and created an new dynamic between them. Something about these new young mutants in Apocalypse and the messy plot line give the movie a sense of stagnation. This movie feels like it was just a remake of First Class with worse actors and a lazier script.

Although another article on this movie comes out every week despite its premiere over six months ago, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is extremely relevant when discussing bad comic book movies. With Ben Affleck taking on the role of Batman in this film, everybody was a little bit nervous, but I was rooting for

him, and I’m sad to say he did exactly what everybody was expecting him to do. Yes, Christian Bale is a tough act to follow. Bale brought new depths to the character of Bruce Wayne, revealing the true motivation to Bruce Wayne’s actions showing the inner conflicts of the dark knight. However, Ben Affleck was just Ben Affleck in a chunky suit two-dimensional billionaire who fights crime because he can.

The movie begins with yet another rendition of Bruce Wayne’s sad orphan origin story because it gives the audience meaningful exposition and provides insight into the mind of a dark and twisted man- oh wait sorry just kidding. Zack Snyder, the director, just wanted to get some meaningless metaphorical shots of pearls falling into a rain gutter, my bad. To add to this pseudo-intellectual beginning, the narration, written to sound deep and introspective, resulted in Batman sounding like a goth kid writing in their diary about how nobody understands them.

The terrible writing continues for the rest of the movie, causing the plot to be absolutely unintelligible. I honestly couldn’t write about it if I wanted to. I spent half the movie trying to understand what happened in the last scenes. A movie can have the most intense action scenes possible, but it can not survive without the proper script to support it.

Even the title of the movie is misleading, in the entire movie we only get one fight scene between Batman and Superman, and its equally unexciting. Instead of choreographing a solid fight scene, the writers relied on kryptonite to weaken Superman.

However, all of these flaws cannot compare to the unbelievably terrible and confusing ending.

Following Batman and Superman’s reconciliation for fighting over nothing, the writers throw in a vicious creature whose background is badly explained by Lex Luther.

The fight between the two heroes and the monster commences, and Wonder Woman joins the action out of nowhere. The scene is intense and loud, but the audience doesn’t really care because we met the monster a minute before the scene. What makes climactic fight scenes engaging is that the whole movie builds up to that moment; the audience is usually invested and rooting for the good guys by the time the final showdown begins, but in this movie the writers laid no foundation for the big scary worldending monster. Consequently, no one is totally invested or interested in the final fight. Rather than understanding the motivation and conflict of the two title characters, the writers recklessly attempted to create a plot twist that only added to the confusion of the story.

Both of these films are truly missing the careful attention to detail that a lot of other movies in the same genre have. Take Marvel, for example, are their movies perfect? No, but they are flushed out and leave the viewer satisfied for the most part. The great thing about Marvel is you can watch any movie without any context and still enjoy it. The more you know about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) the more enjoyable it becomes. You find little reference to different characters in each movie and understand how every new character fits into the MCU. The other two beasts in the superhero industry, Fox Studios, and DC, have worked to create connections between their movies too, but more often than not their movies lack the attention to detail that makes so many Marvel movies so successful.

In the end, every movie is a snowflake. Sometimes the perfect script, director, and actors come together to make something incredible, and sometimes, not so much. After these two movies, we can only hope that Logan, the new Wolverine movie, is as amazing as its trailers, and the Wonder Woman and Justice League movies are equally as great, and Tom Holland restores our faith in SpiderMan. Though, I am morally opposed to casting British people as Americans, seriously can we please stop doing that?

FEATURED

CINEMANN / Fall Issue

33

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COLONIALISM THROUGH THE LENS

CINEMANN /Fall Issue

FEATURED

by Zarina Iman

F

or decades, white actors and actresses have been donning “yellowface” to provide their films with either authenticity or comic relief. However, now that more and more people are seeing yellowface — using makeup and prosthetics to “look Asian” — for what it really is relying on is a racist caricature meant to silence actual Asian people, directors have opted to simply turn Asian characters into white people. With the growth of this equally problematic trend the question becomes: Why do directors and producers feel they can’t cast Asians? The answer is arrogance.

White directors never fail to mention that Asian characters aren’t relatable. To them, we’re the “other.” Whether we’re eating monkey brains in Indiana Jones or fighting with our demanding parents who want us to become doctors, like Mike Chang in Glee, Asians are commonly seen as an exotic group of individuals who don’t quite fit into western society. On the other hand, white actors, according to filmmakers, have the unique and almost magical ability to personally touch every single person no matter their race.

White filmmakers truly believe their experiences are relatable to everybody and will attract larger audiences, even though there are approximately 1.5 billion East Asians on Earth, and two thirds of the world’s population is Asian.

In fact, white actors think their acting skills are so superior that they can better play Asian people than real life Asian people — yes, we actually exist, shocking, I know. Consequently, Asian people are left with movies like Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a film lauded by many even today, in which Micky Rooney physically adopts the persona of Holly Golightly’s Japanese neighbor with taped eyes and buck teeth. While this is one of the more famous occurrences of yellow face, it was not the first, nor the last. Her appearance as an Indonesian man in the 1982 film, A Year of Living Dangerously, won white actress Linda Hunt an Oscar, an award that only three Asians have ever won. This phenomenon is not caused by a lack of talent among Asian actors, although white producers want us to believe that.

“I can’t mount a film of this budget… and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such,” Ridley Scott said in a weak attempt to defend his casting of all white people in his film Exodus, which flopped tremendously. Max Landis, screenwriter for Ghost in the Shell, a Japanese story of a Japanese woman, starring Scarlet Johansen, expressed the same sentiment a bit more eloquently. “There are no A-list female Asian celebrities right now on an international level,” Landis said in a youtube video that explained his decision. However, Fan Bingbing, Lucy Liu, Priyanka Chopra, and Aishwarya Rai, among others may beg to differ. (One might also want to note that Landis initially wished to use CGI to make Scarlet Johansen look Asian.) Not only are these justifications outright lies, but they propagate the idea that only white actors have the luxury of being inexperienced and cast in major movies.

Asian actors and actresses can’t gain star-power when they aren’t given the opportunity to star in blockbuster movies. If

EMMA STONE (NG) IN ALOHA

SCARLETT JOHANSSON (MOTOKO KUSANAGI) IN GHOST IN THE SHELL

MICKEY ROONEY (MR. YUNIOSHI) IN BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S

CAST OF FRESH OFF THE BOAT

the casting directors of A Time to Kill hadn’t taken a chance on Matthew McConaughey and placed him among a starstudded cast that included Samuel L. Jackson and Sandra Bullock, would he be as famous as he is today? Probably not, and that’s the problem. By playing it safe or rather playing it white, filmmakers are denying Asian actors and actresses a chance to demonstrate their talent. As a result, skilled Asian actors are shunted to the side, as white actors take Asian roles, like Benedict Cumberbatch in Dr. Strange, a character who was Asian up until the moment Disney decided to make a movie about him.

Currently, one of the only ways Asian stories get told in television and movies is if the story centers around a white protagonist, thereby creating a new form of colonialism, where the guns are replaced with cameras, and instead of taking Asian resources, white people are taking our stories. To filmmakers, Asian experiences and stories are irrelevant, unless they relate to white people. This self-centered worldview has resulted in dozens of white savior films where a white person is the only one who can save a group of people of color. These films are set in Asia, but barely focus on the continent’s actual inhabitants.

In the case of Dr. Strange, the main character, now white of course, travels to Asia, where he gets lost in its mysticism and is taught ancient secrets by Tilda Swinton, pretending to be an old Asian man. With a plot reminiscent of the migration of American hippies to India, where they wanted to appropriate a culture and religion they did not understand, Dr. Strange is nothing new.

What is probably the most unforgivable part of this century-long snafu is white actors’ unwillingness to apologize.

Upon hearing that his blatantly racist yellow-face portrayal of Asian people was found offensive, Mickey Rooney was apparently very hurt. He then stated, “Those that didn’t like it, I forgive them.” His downright refusal to admit any fault has laid the foundation for people to justify the modern covertly racist treatment of Asians in film. After forcing a black character to dress up as a geisha, a common figure in traditional Japanese culture, in her show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Tina Fey responded to protests by doubling down on her racism. Refusing to respond to any criticism, she created a second episode in which she villainizes a group of Asians

from the imaginary group “Respectful Asian Portrayals in Entertainment” or R.A.P.E. for short, a problem in itself. Upon seeing the yellow-face firsthand, the fictional group realizes they were wrong about protesting. This heinous excuse of a joke can only be funny if you place it into the context of how most white people react when being called out: defensive and childish. Prior to this, Fey had written black-face into 30 Rock’s plot three separate times. Naturally, Fey’s actions had no longterm repercussions.

However, not all perpetrators are nearly as vile. Emma Stone, who played a woman of mixed Chinese, Hawaiian, and Caucasian descent in the box office bust Aloha, actually apologized. Her apology may in all honesty be the only time a white person has openly apologized for white-washing (casting white actors as Asian characters) and yellow-face. While I and I’m sure other Asians are grateful for her apology, she cited her part in Aloha as a teaching moment. Why must her learning that yellow-face is wrong come at the price of a role being stolen from an Asian actress?

Despite large-scale filmmakers, it can be argued that the movie industry is taking a step forward, Shows like Fresh off the Boat and Master of None are normalizing the idea that Asian families are a part of America’s dichotomy, but there is always room for improvement.

Asian Americans and Asians in general deserve better.

Some are applauding the creators of the Mulan live action movie for looking for an Asian actress, but why applaud a fish for swimming? There is absolutely no excuse for white-washing or yellow-face in an age where Asians make up a majority of the world population. We shouldn’t feel lucky when a character is cast as an Asian; we should be expectant and entitled. Asians aren’t simply a background for a white person’s foreground; we each have rich cultures and richer stories.

Constance Wu, who plays Jessica Huang on Fresh Off the Boat, said it best, when she told Time Magazine, “I wouldn’t say that just visibility is important. I would say visibility as the stars of a show is important. That says that our stories matter.

We’re not here to do the taxes of the white person, or to be the chipper best friend to the white person. It’s important to see Asians in those leading roles because it changes what I’m calling the anglo-heteronormative status of TV.”

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CINEMANN / Fall Issue

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LATE CINEMATOGRAPHER IN MEMORIAM VILMOS ZSIGMOND LATE ACTOR GENE WILDER

COME WRITE FOR CINEMANN! COME WRITE FOR CINEMANN!

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