VOLUME 76 • ISSUE 17 • AUGUST 3, 2021
PORTLAND STATE’S FREE FOOD MARKET PROVIDES GROCERIES TO THE COMMUNITY SCIENCE & TECH The ethics of CRISPR P. 6
ARTS & CULTURE A review that makes you Old P. 8
OPINION Cancel the Tokyo Olympics P. 9
CONTENTS
COVER BY SHANNON STEED, COVER PHOTOS BY LORI COULTER
NEWS HILL TO HALL JULY 26–30
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PORTLAND STATE CONTINUES TO HOLD FREE FOOD MARKET FOR STUDENTS AND FAMILIES IN NEED
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INTERNATIONAL DIVIDED OPINION ON TUNISIAN PRESIDENT’S POWER GRAB
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SCIENCE & TECH CRISPR ADVANCEMENTS AND THE ETHICS OF GENE EDITING
P. 6
STAFF EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Nick Gatlin MANAGING EDITOR Morgan Troper NEWS EDITORS Conor Carroll Danny O’Brien INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Karisa Yuasa SPORTS EDITOR Eric Shelby SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Ryan McConnell
ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Béla Kurzenhauser OPINION EDITOR Rachel Owen ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings COPY CHIEF Mackenzie Streissguth CONTRIBUTORS Allison Kirkpatrick Analisa Landeros
SPORTS TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL SET TO JOIN THE SEC
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ARTS & CULTURE OLD IS LIKE A MAGIC TRICK
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OPINION THE TOKYO OLYMPICS SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED
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PHO T O A ND MULTIMEDI A MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Olivia Lee
A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood
PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Shannon Steed
STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher
DESIGNER Kelsey Stewart T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Juliana Bigelow Kahela Fickle George Olson
STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com
MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard ’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.
A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.
JULY 26–30 DANNY O’BRIEN
JULY 26: PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL MOVES FORWARD WITH PLAN TO REMOVE THE HOUSELESS POPULATION FROM LAURELHURST PARK
The eviction is led by the Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program (HUCIRP). HUCIRP posted 72-hour eviction warnings around the camp on July 26. The HUCIRP is a municipal group established not to solve houselessness, but to create “service navigation opportunities” for unhoused individuals. The HUCIRP’s recent plan came after rumors that a firearm was found in the camp, which has been disputed by residents of the camp and considered false by Stop the Sweeps PDX, a group dedicated to stopping these types of evictions.
JULY 27: ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS PROTEST ZENITH ENERGY EXPANSION
After Zenith Energy, an oil transport facility in northwest Portland, requested authorization to secure a potential expansion, groups of protestors in kayaks paddled to the company’s facility in opposition to their request. The document in question is a Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS), which is an assessment of whether any proposals for expansion or construction are compatible with Portland’s land-use policies. Zenith is requesting the LUCS in order to build two new railcar unloading platforms. If this were to be approved, the company would then need to request an air permit from Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality. The protestors opposed the proposed expansion due to the already high volume of oil trafficked through the region by Zenith. Protestors also highlighted the risks associated with that oil transportation, including unprecedented oil spills in the event of an earthquake, which the region is overdue for.
JULY 28: CITY OF PORTLAND BANS UNHOUSED PEOPLE FROM SLEEPING IN FORESTED AREAS
With wildfires once again gripping the state this summer, the City of Portland and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty have declared it illegal for Portland’s houseless population to sleep in forested areas. The HUCIRP will be employed to enforce this declaration. Hardesty’s decision was made with the intention of keeping the city’s unhoused people safe from the dangers of wildfire season. With the Bootleg Fire burning over 400,000 acres of Oregon, Portland city officials fear an urban forest fire. This concern led to increased funding for fire management and talks among city officials and Portland General Electric regarding safer protocols in the event that Forest Park were to set fire. Unmanaged underbrush, potentially toxic building materials in the area surrounding Forest Park and human activity all contribute to the concerns being raised about the potential of a fire.
JULY 29: GOVERNOR DECLARES HEAT WAVE STATE OF EMERGENCY
Under pressure from Portland’s recent heat wave, Governor Kate Brown declared a state of emergency for 23 counties, including Multnomah and Washington counties. Following this declaration, five cooling centers were opened from 12–9 p.m. on July 29 and 30. These cooling centers changed locations, after the June heatwave, in an effort to prioritize residents put at risk from the heat. One cooling center was established in north Portland, one on the central east side, two in east Portland and one downtown. TriMet offered free bus rides to passengers traveling to these cooling centers, but only if temperatures reach 100°F. Temperatures had only reached 97°F on July 29 and 99°F on July 30.
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 3, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
NEWS
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PORTLAND STATE CONTINUES TO HOLD FREE FOOD MARKET FOR STUDENTS AND FAMILIES IN NEED A WELCOME SIGN POSTED NEAR A FREE FOOD MARKET IN JUNE 2019. COURTESY OF LORI COULTER
CONOR CARROLL Portland State’s Free Food Market (FFM) will be providing groceries and pantry staples to students, families and anyone else in need of assistance on August 9. The event takes place at the PSU park blocks, near Shattuck Hall. It’s open to anybody, and students don’t need to show proof of income or need in order to access it. PSU hosts the FFM on the second Monday of every month. Food distribution is from 9–11 a.m. Students should bring their own bags, as the FFM does not provide them. All patrons and volunteers must wear a mask/face-covering and maintain at least a six-foot physical distance from others. Lori Coulter is the office manager of PSU’s Transfer & Returning Student Resource Center, and serves as one of the co-chairs for the Committee for Improving Student Food Security (CISFS). Coulter has been on the committee for the past four years. “The Free Food Market is a partnership between the [CISFS] and the Oregon Food Bank (OFB) that brings free fresh produce and pantry staples to PSU students and the greater community,” Coulter said. “This partnership is an effort to increase student access to healthy
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NEWS
food options and to reduce student food insecurity,” Coulter explained. “We started the Free Food Market on campus primarily to support our PSU students, however, [the] Free Food Market is open to anybody.” Patrons don’t need to show proof of income to access the FFM, and the FFM only collects minimal data to report to the OFB. Coulter said this includes “the patron’s zip code, the number of people in their household that they cook and share meals with [and] whether it is their first time accessing our Free Food Market.” “Additionally, to help tell the story of student food insecurity at PSU, we also ask patrons if they are a student, a faculty or staff member or a member of the community [not affiliated with PSU],” Coulter said. The OFB provides all the food distributed at the FFM each month. They receive food from a variety of sources, including partnerships with regional farmers, the United State Department of Agriculture, grocery stores and other food producers. “Free Food Market celebrated its 6th anniversary this past April,” Coulter said. “Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were one of the largest free food markets in the state of
Oregon, serving 350 to 400 families each month.” In addition to the FFM, PSU students can access a variety of other food assistance resources on campus, for example the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). “We have a group of trained SNAP application assistants who can answer questions or help a student complete an application to receive funds from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” Coulter stated. “We also offer emergency meal vouchers,” Coulter stated. “Students who are experiencing a food or financial crisis can receive a limited number of meal vouchers that they can use to get into Victor’s in Ondine [Hall].” The emergency meal voucher program is designed as a temporary solution while students get connected to more long-term support or resources, such as applying for SNAP, shopping at the PSU food pantry or accessing the FFM. Students face difficulties like food insecurity or houselessness at a higher rate than average members of society. Rates of food insecurity and houselessness are even higher within PSU’s Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) community. The PSU Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC) con-
ducted a study of student food and housing insecurity in the fall of 2019. The survey was administered in fall 2019, and all students and employees enrolled or employed at PSU were invited to participate. A total of 3,511 students (15% of all students) and 1,017 employees (28% of all employees) participated in the survey, according to the study. The research found that 44.6% of respondents experienced housing insecurity in the 12 months prior to completing the survey, 16.1% experienced houselessness in the 12 months prior and 47% experienced food insecurity in the 30 days before the survey. Moreover, the BIPOC community experienced “high rates of basic needs insecurity,” the study stated. “In particular, Native American students were almost twice as likely as White students to experience homelessness. They also had the highest rates of food insecurity, 66.4%.” HRAC conducted a follow-up survey of 166 students on their basic needs insecurity to consider the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdown. However, the updated study’s sample size and demographics may not entirely match those of the initial survey. The COVID-19 updated survey
found that 64.5% experienced housing insecurity since March 2020, a nearly 20% increase from the initial survey. It also found that 20.5% experienced houselessness, and 55.4% experienced food insecurity. Both these percentages increased due to the vagaries of the pandemic, including the effect on the BIPOC community. This data is consistent with previous surveys conducted by the CISFS, as well as national student food insecurity research conducted by The Hope Center at Temple University. PSU will continue to hold the FFM on a monthly basis. The event is typically supported by volunteers. “Right now, volunteers for our Free Food Market are coordinated through the Oregon Food Bank,” Coulter said. “As we continue to move back to our pre-COVID operations, the Committee for Improving Student Food Security will start coordinating volunteers to help with various aspects of [the] Free Food Market.” Those interested in volunteering can sign-up on the Oregon Food Bank’s website. For readers who are interested in financially supporting the FFM and other CISFS initiatives, they can make tax deductible donations to the CISFS through the PSU Foundation.
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 3, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
KARISA YUASA Tunisian President Kais Saied announced on July 25 that he would assume executive authority, after suspending Tunisia’s Parliament for 30 days, and with a new prime minister, after dismissing Prime Minister Hicham Mechichi, according to Al Jazeera. “We have taken these decisions…until social peace returns to Tunisia and until we save the state,” Saied said. The controversial decisions came after protests about the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic took place in several cities. Protestors demanded the removal of the Prime Minister and the dissolution of Tunisia’s Parliament due to issues with vaccine distribution and spikes in COVID-19 cases that worsened economic issues. Tunisia has reported more COVID-19 deaths per capita than any other African country. In the capital city of Tunis, police were seen using pepper spray against protestors who were reportedly throwing stones. Protestors stormed the office of the Ennahda Movement, the dominant party in Parliament. Videos showed smoke coming out of the offices and reports of damaged computers and other
equipment were seen. Ennahda accused “criminal gangs” inside and outside the country of attempting to “seed chaos and destruction in the service of an agenda aimed at harming the Tunisian democratic process.” Several arrests were also reported. “Our patience has run out [and] there are no solutions for the unemployed,” said Nourredine Selmi, a protester in Tunis on July 25. “They cannot control the epidemic...They can’t give us vaccines.” Former Health Minister Faouzi Mehdi decided to establish temporary, walk-in vaccination sites that were set to open on July 20 and 21, during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha. This was the first time sites would be open to all adults. Large crowds and insufficient capacity led to chaotic scenarios. According to AP News, some locations reported confrontations between citizens seeking vaccinations and health officials attempting to enforce measures. Doors and windows being smashed and assaults on medics and paramedics at vaccination sites were also reported. “Look at all the people,” said Ali ben Haj, who was making his third attempt to receive a vaccination at a site in the city of Kairouan. “Why
DIVIDED OPINION ON TUNISIAN PRESIDENT’S POWER GRAB PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 3, 3, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
all this? What have we done? You authorities, if you cannot find solutions for us, let us search for solutions ourselves.” After a visit to the vaccination site, Mechichi fired Mehdi. Social Affairs Minister Mohamed Trabelsi was placed as head of the ministry, solely in a caretaker capacity. A day later, Saied placed the Tunisian military in charge of managing the country’s pandemic response. Following Saied’s decision to dissolve Parliament and remove Mechichi, members of Ennahda held a sit-in outside Parliament on July 26, while the building was surrounded by the army. Supporters of Ennahda and President Saied clashed with each other, according to Reuters. “I warn any who think of resorting to weapons…and whoever shoots a bullet, the armed forces will respond with bullets,” Saied said. In addition to his other decisions, Saied lifted immunity held by members of Parliament. When two allegedly corrupt members of Parliament were arrested on July 30, opposition party members accused Saied of attempting a coup, a claim which he denies. “I know the constitutional texts very well, respect
them and taught them and after all this time I will not turn into a dictator as some have said,” Saied, a former law professor, was quoted to have said. “Tunisia’s president must uphold all fair trial guarantees for everyone and must not use his judicial powers to settle political scores or to conduct purges of critical voices,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. Hours after his announcement, Saied spoke with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken who encouraged him to “adhere to the principles of democracy and human rights” and “maintain open dialogue with all political actors and the Tunisian people,” according to AP News. Despite the country’s lack of regular economic or political stability, Tunisia is often viewed as the only democratic success story from the region-wide Arab Spring uprisings that began in Tunisia a decade ago, according to BBC. “[Tunisians] will not be silent on any tyrant,” said Omar Oudherni, a retired Tunisian army brigadier and security expert. “Doing what is good will receive support. If [Saied] wants dictatorship, the people will sweep him up, as they swept up others.”
TUNISIAN PRESIDENT KAIS SAIED, CENTER, SPEAKS WITH MEMBERS OF THE ARMY AND POLICE FORCES IN TUNIS, TUNISIA, ON JULY 25. SLIM ABID/AP IMAGES
INTERNATIONAL
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KELSEY STEWART
CRISPR ADVANCEMENTS AND THE ETHICS OF GENE EDITING RYAN MCCONNELL In late June 2021, it was announced that researchers have effectively treated a genetic disorder inside humans using CRISPR therapy placed into patients’ bloodstreams. CRISPR is an acronym for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” a naturally-occurring genome editing system in bacteria, repurposed by scientists. The news has made shockwaves around the medical field as the technology has the potential to dramatically improve human health. Genetic mutations account for more than 6,000 human diseases. Curing these have been extremely difficult and expensive, and not all diseases are curable with even the most recent advancements within gene therapy. Currently, there are two main ways gene therapy is conducted: somatic cell gene editing and germ-line gene editing. Somatic cell gene editing involves editing matured cells within a human body. This kind of editing would not become hereditary, but does cure diseases for the afflicted individual. This is the only method to alter cells within a developed human body. Germ-line gene editing involves editing cells such as sperm, eggs or embryos. This technique would allow any genetic modifications to be passed down to any future generations. This means that the editing process only needs to occur among a few independent cells, rather than
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trillions of cells found within an adult human. Before the recent breakthrough in gene editing, CRISPR was used by removing affected cells from a patient, editing out the mutations in a lab and placing them back into the body to replicate. An example of this is curing sickle cell anemia through editing and infusing bone marrow cells. The alternative method is to use a process known as Adeno Associated Virus, or AAV gene therapy. This method actually takes an artificially created virus with the “healthy” genes implanted inside, so that the virus itself infects and delivers the healthy genes to a patient’s cells. This is the current method for curing diseases such as Spinal Muscular Atrophy. What makes this new advancement in CRISPR technology so novel is the method of deployment. This process injects CRISPR therapy directly into the bloodstream, so that it can make edits directly to the affected cells without invasive surgery or using AAV gene therapy. The difficulty with direct CRISPR therapy inserted into the bloodstream has been attempting to figure out how CRISPR can correctly target and edit only the affected cells necessary. This new medical trial was successfully able to inject CRISPR into the patient’s bloodstream to target and edit the affected cells in their body from a genetic disorder, paving way to what could be an entirely new process to cure genetic diseases.
The ability to genetically edit human individuals is at the core of ethics within the medical industries, and, while the recent advancement is something to be celebrated, there are concerns about approaches to ethical gene editing and deploying such technology in the right hands for the right reasons. One end of an extreme was a scandal involving He Jiankui, a Chinese researcher who made claims of a successful birth with the first geneedited twin girls. He has since been jailed and received international condemnation for the dangerous and unethical research experiment. Another concern involving gene editing revolves around self-proclaimed “biohackers,” individuals without prior educational experience who perform genetic editing techniques either on themselves or on other living species, such as plants. Both situations signify the most important question to consider with gene editing: regulation of use. Dr. Bryan Cwik, a bioethics philosophy professor at Portland State University, spoke with Vanguard to discuss the ways scientists can approach gene editing in an ethical way. “The first thing to ask is, which ways work best?” Cwik said. “Are there advantages or disadvantages when treating this class of disease? These are ways to think about responsible gene editing.”
Advancements in gene therapy are still extremely elementary, and cannot cure all types of genetic diseases as we currently understand them. Cwik explains that diseases with no deterministic link and complex etiologies should not be considered for this kind of research. Deterministic link is a technical term used by the medical industry to explain the types of connections certain genes have with diseases. Spinal Muscular Atrophy is an example of a disease with a deterministic link; if an individual has a specific genome inside their cells, they will have the disease. These types of genetic disorders are ones suited for current advancements within gene therapy treatments. Other diseases, however, have complex ways with which they might be constructed in the body, or the ways in which a disorder is afflicted within an individual, known as etiology. Schizophrenia is a prime example of a disease that has genetic roots, but has complicated factors; scientists don’t fully understand what triggers it. These advancements mean great news for medicine and individuals who suffer from genetic disorders such as Huntington’s disease. Others still require much more research before enough can be done. If we are to advance in gene therapies, we must be extremely cautious as to how research should be continuously conducted, and who has access to tools that constitute gene therapies.
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 3, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
ERIC SHELBY The University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma football teams plan on leaving their conference—and have officially accepted invitations from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) to join in 2025. The Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners are currently in the Big 12 conference and will not be renewing their grants of media rights in 2025, when their contract expires. Both schools border each other with the Longhorns based in Austin, Texas and the Sooners based in Norman, Oklahoma. In order to leave the Big 12, both Oklahoma and Texas must pay a $76 million buyout to the Big 12. The switch to the SEC will be a dramatic one. With the two powerhouses of the Big 12 leaving, the conference may fold and the eight teams left will have to move to other conferences. This isn’t the first time the Big 12 has lost schools. The University of Colorado Buffaloes left the conference in 2011 and left for the Pac-12. Historical rivals of Colorado, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, also left in 2011 for the Big Ten conference. The Mizzou Tigers and Texas A&M left in 2012 for the SEC. To make up for their losses, they added Texas Christian University and the Mountaineers of West Virginia to the conference. This resulted in the crumbling Big 12 having 10 schools as we know it today, which now will be back to eight schools when Texas and Oklahoma leave. The realignment could have other schools thinking they should attempt to make moves, too. The University of Colorado could potentially move to the Big Ten and reignite the old rivalry between Nebraska. Since the other Big 12 schools could be without a conference, the Pac 12, the conference containing Oregon and Oregon State, could potentially grab schools like the Red Raiders of Texas Tech or the Horned Frogs of Texas Christian. This does not mean that every team has to choose a conference, however. Schools can also be known as independents, meaning they are not owned by any conference, and still be successful. Brigham Young University, which finished their season 11-1, or Liberty, finishing 10-1, are independents. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish became independent in 1978 and has been doing just fine—winning 12 seasons in the last 13 years and winning the national championship in 2012.
Both Texas and Oklahoma have an overall winning record against SEC teams with Oklahoma at 110-49-8 and Texas 19192-9 all-time against the SEC. Oklahoma ended their season 9-2 last season and won the Big 12 for the sixth consecutive year. The Sooners also have seven national titles as a program. Texas on the other hand ended their season 7-3 and won their 10th bowl game in the last 12 years, in addition to six national titles. Rivalries will be nothing new to these new schools joining the SEC. The undisputed dynasty of the Alabama Crimson Tide has met Oklahoma multiple times in the playoffs, and now will face off for a potential playoff spot. Texas and Louisiana State have a short history, but a tight one. The Longhorns lead the all-time series 9-8-1. When the Texas A&M Aggies left the Big 12 in 2011, their 127-year-old rivalry with Texas slowly died out. The Longhorns owned the Aggies in the series all-time 76-37-5. Maybe there was a reason why the Texas A&M left. What does all of this realignment mean for Portland State football? Nothing much. The Viks have only played one Big 12 school and one SEC school since 2003. The last game was a close battle in 2019, with SEC school Arkansas, losing 20-13, shy of one touchdown to tie the game. While both play Division I football, PSU is in the Big Sky conference which is a different subdivision than the SEC and Big 12, therefore, they do not play each other often. The SEC is already a strong conference with teams like 13-0 Alabama Crimson Tide, 9-1 Texas A&M Aggies, 8-2 Georgia Bulldogs and 8-4 Florida Gators. This will make the SEC expand from 14 schools to 16. Oklahoma and Texas will fit in perfectly with their rekindled rivalries and dominance over many schools. These changes could lead to possible changes to the college football system, like how the playoffs are held. Instead of four schools in the playoffs, usually one team representing their conference, they may expand it to eight—or maybe more—to recognize the talent of other schools. Having one school represent the SEC would seem unfair, but it’s also unfair to have the SEC to dominate the playoffs. But we don’t have to worry about that until 2025. Texas and Oklahoma are changing the stage and the future of college football, maybe for good.
TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL SET TO JOIN THE SEC TWO POWERHOUSES OF THE BIG 12 CONFERENCE LOOK FOR MORE COMPETITION AT THE SEC
CUTOUTS OF FOOTBALL HELMETS FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AND UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, AND THE LOGO OF THE SEC. ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 3, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
SPORTS
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AARON PIERRE IN HIS ROLE AS BRENDAN/MID-SIZED SEDAN IN OLD. OLD/UNIVERSAL PICTURES
OLD IS LIKE A MAGIC TRICK M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN RETURNS WITH A TOUR-DE-FORCE THRILLER BÉLA KURZENHAUSER For the past two decades, M. Night Shyamalan has steadily put out a new film almost every other year, with most of his defining work being psychological thrillers like Signs and Split. After spending the last several years working on films in his acclaimed Eastrail 177 trilogy, Shyamalan has returned with a new supernatural thriller, Old, and it’s arguably his best film in years. Like most of Shyamalan’s work, Old starts with a simple premise. Four groups of people travel to a tropical resort for a weekend getaway, and are directed to a private beach off the coast. Upon arriving, they quickly discover that not only are they unable to leave the beach, but time passes much faster, as their kids age by years in just a manner of hours. This minimalist setup turns a day on the beach into a ticking time bomb of suspense and drama as the film’s ten characters struggle to cope with their rapidly changing environment while their fuse quickly runs out. Despite such a simple and almost gimmicky hook, Shyamalan is able to work wonders with the idea, using its malleability to shape a myriad of unique plot beats and scenes that continually one-up themselves. The world of Old is airtight and ironclad, with every bit of scientific mumbo-jumbo acting to perfectly seal the film’s rules into place. It feels engineered to be plot hole-proof, with every possible leap of logic being explained and validated by Shyamalan’s ruthlessly efficient screenplay. This is the first of Shyamalan’s films since 2013’s After Earth that isn’t an original story of his, as the plot was adapted from the 2013 Swiss graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters. Shyamalan’s extremely inventive and expressive visual style makes Old feel
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very much like the piece of sequential art it was derived from. Cinematographer Michael Gioulakis’ camerawork is a perfectly-executed ballet of panoramic shots as the camera effortlessly glides between characters and scenes, with the beautiful 35mm cinematography causing the tropical scenery to pop off the screen with rich color and depth. Shyamalan’s self-admitted Australian New Wave inspirations are palpable, with the rocky outcroppings and hills surrounding the beach feeling comparable to the mystical and terrifying depictions of the Australian bush seen in films like Walkabout or Picnic at Hanging Rock. Breathtaking direction aside, Old is yet another showcase of Shyamalan’s proficiency at crafting wonderfully balanced, tight and well-paced thrillers. Once you get past the slow, albeit short, opening, Old is a relentless rollercoaster ride that doesn’t let up a single time throughout its 108-minute runtime. From front-to-back, the narrative is stitched together elegantly like a sprawling tapestry, structured with precision and restraint. Shyamalan keeps his cards close to his chest, strategically placing them on the table like a casino dealer, so that each and every trick is pulled off to the greatest effect possible. Despite not being a murder-mystery, Old feels akin to a classic whodunit, playing out like a chess game as each piece is slowly moved into place. These characters are merely pawns in Shyamalan’s game, and each of them is juggled and balanced delicately throughout the entirety of the film. This is not a surface-level thriller and the depth seen in each character is evident of that. Each is rounded out with their own personal history and occupation, and the connections between
family members allow for an additional layer of emotional drama to steep in the background. Outside of two genuinely dismal performances by Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie, the cast excels, with reputed actors Gael García Bernal and Rufus Sewell providing standout performances. Early on, it’s revealed that the inhabitants of the beach are all afflicted with their own illness or disorder. On one level, this acts as yet another addition to the many empathetic portraits of disability and individualism in Shyamalan’s filmography. Yet when combined with the additional time-bending sleight of hand, the rapidly decelerating condition of the film’s characters allows for a truly terrifying and thrilling experience. Make no mistake: Old is not a horror film, but it is ultimately about the scariest plight of all—getting older. These characters, who once felt young not even an hour ago, now feel older and weathered, with the gauntness and age of their visages settling in as time passes. They lose shreds of their senses and of their sensibility and it’s all tied together marvelously by the moving and pitch-perfect performances by most of the cast. Old is a fantastic film, one that should redeem Shyamalan from even the most ardent of his critics, and is perfectly representative of his strengths as a director. It’s yet another elegant step in his return to small, enigmatic thrillers after his string of blockbuster flops like The Last Airbender and After Earth. There are so many memorable scenes in Old and each time recalling the film makes it even better. After watching it twice in theaters, there is no doubt it is sure to make its mark as one of the best films of the year.
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 3, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
RACHEL OWEN “What do we want?” shouted Satoko Itani at a protest in Tokyo on July 23. “Cancel the Olympics!” the crowd of protesters yelled back. To say that the 2021 Summer Olympics Games are controversial would be an understatement. But, with rising COVID-19 cases, a growing collection of angry Japanese citizens and a city put into massive debt, it’s clear that the Games should not have happened. The idea of hosting the Olympics right in the middle of a global pandemic is just preposterous. According to the Olympics official website, a series of countermeasures have been put in place to effectuate COVID-19 safety. These measures include restrictions on spectators, insurance of health monitors and consistent COVID-19 tests. Despite these actions, a growing number of athletes and employees have tested positive. Furthermore, the entire metropolitan area of Tokyo and Osaka are in a state of emergency. Hosting the Games is only making it worse by prolonging and exacerbating an already prevalent health crisis. The pandemic isn’t over. We can’t just all go back to “normal” again. The Games are not safe and having them right now was not a smart idea. The citizens of Tokyo didn’t even want the Games to happen. The build up of contempt from the citizens of Tokyo has incited protests that have occurred just outside of the Games. Citizens of Tokyo are angry. For months, they have been cited saying that they don’t want the Olympics to happen. According
to a poll run by Japanese news outlet The Asahi Shimbun, 83% of those surveyed were against hosting the Games, with 43% wishing that they were canceled and 40% wishing that they were delayed. In addition, the Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association, an organization made up of about 6,000 primary care doctors, advised the Games to be canceled. Hosting the Olympics is not only a health disaster, but an economic disaster, as well. A Japanese government audit estimated that Tokyo spent $28 billion on the Olympics overall. Without the spectators, there is no tourism, and thus no cash flow into the country. Economist Andrew Zimbalist estimates that the Games will lose $35 billion. Comparing this to the 2016 games, Rio De Janiero spent a total of $13 billion putting up the Games and, in return, lost only $2 billion. Tokyo has set themselves up for a much larger deficit. Tokyo is losing money to host something that could have easily been canceled or postponed, just as citizens of Tokyo demanded. So not only is hosting the Olympics Games pushing the spread of COVID-19 and the Delta variant, but it is also causing financial complications within the country that is hosting. This year’s Games are also tough on the athletes competing. The entire world was put under stress from this pandemic, and the athletes are not an exception. That kind of stress on your mind weighs on your body and trying to push through and do so much athletic activity is not healthy. Now, in the middle of the
Games, that stress has built up and hindered their performances. Simone Biles is a perfect example of this when she withdrew from the gymnastics floor final and a shot at gold. Similarly, Olympic tennis player Novak Djokovic threw his tennis racket after losing a chance to medal. It is not unreasonable to think that participating in the Games was detrimental to the mental health of not only both Biles and Djokovic, but the mental health of possibly all the other 11,090 athletes competing. Without the fun of spectators being there to cheer on their team, the Olympics are just not the same. In a time of such darkness, we are all looking for ways to feel joy again. The Olympic Games were supposed to help us find some normalcy. Unfortunately, the desolate arenas look more like a middle school swim meet than a congress of world class athletes competing in the name of themselves and their country. Yes, the Olympics are important and it’s fantastic that we continue to do them. But now is not the time, nor is this the way. We should have pushed them aside and remembered that, as a world, we were all going through the same thing—and that should have brought us together more than the Olympic Games, but we continued to ignore it. Proceeding with the Olympics is a danger to our health, a danger to the citizens of Tokyo, a danger to Japan’s finances and a danger to the athletes. It isn’t benefiting the world in the ways that it has before. The Tokyo Olympics should not have happened.
PROTESTORS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THE TOKYO OLYMPICS NEAR THE NATIONAL STADIUM IN TOKYO, FRIDAY, JULY 23. KANTARO KOMIYA/AP IMAGES
THE TOKYO OLYMPICS SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 3, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
OPINION
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