One of the most anticipated albums of the year, Swedish House Mafia released their debut album Paradise Again on April 15. This would be the group’s first album since the announcement of their reunion in 2021.
The Lan Yun Blue Orchids presented their Spring Showcase on April 16. Though the on-campus dance group is devoted to learning and performing traditional Chinese dance, they add a twist of modernity by dancing to songs that are popular in China today. This was the group’s first time hosting its own showcase, which also featured performances from the Yong Hang Lion Dance Troupe, Music Dynasty and the Hopkins Oriental Music Ensemble (HOME).
Everything Everywhere All at Once, directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, (collectively known as Daniels), is an indisputable triumph that combines a heart-wrenching story with some of the most bizarrely brilliant action I have ever seen.
It was a cool Sunday night when two other dames and I walked into the darkened theater. Our sneakers padding along the carpeted floor made no sound, but heads turned to watch our entrance. They knew we were looking for trouble. What kind, you ask?
The Hopkins Film Society presented Whodunnit, a screening of six famous feature-length murder mysteries and selected shorts, for the 2022 Hopkins Film Festival during the weekend of April 8 to 10. The Film Society chose the weekend’s theme as a group, deciding between other interesting theme suggestions, including “red flag” movies.
The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) hosted poet Chen Chen as part of its Heritage 365 Cultural Experience on April 8. The event was sponsored by Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Celebration and consisted of a reading followed by a Q&A session.
Visitors to Shaffer Hall’s basement might find themselves pausing at the odd sight of floor space dedicated to a shallow gravel pit. Some might have moved on without a second glance. Senior Evan Morris, however, stopped to take a picture of the pit, which he generously described in an interview with The News-Letter as a rock garden.
Released March 25 on Disney+, Olivia Rodrigo’s driving home 2 u (a SOUR film) tries to depict a sentimental homecoming for the celebrity but falls flat with its contrived authenticity. The film follows Rodrigo as she drives from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, a trip she took many times while writing her debut album SOUR. The star stops at various locations along the route to perform the songs that appear on SOUR.
After two desensitizing years of “unprecedented times,” who knew it would be the Academy Awards, of all things, that would remind me what it felt like to be shocked?
Filled with friendship bracelets, chokers, stickers, pads, the Electric Slide and tween magazines, Turning Red is one of the most #relatable portrayals of adolescence that has ever awkwardly gyrated its way onto screens.
It is a tendency of manic cinephiles like myself to believe that we know exactly how a movie is going to be before even watching it. While others jump with excitement when they see their favorite actor dressed in a cape on a poster crowded with superheroes, most of us see another movie with an overused plot and a steadily stalling formula.
After Yang is a science-fiction movie that follows the efforts of a family to repair Yang, an unconscious android who it treats as a son. The movie was written, directed and edited by Kogonada and stars Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith and Justin H. Min. It is based on the short story “Saying Goodbye to Yang” by Alexander Weinstein.
Released on March 4, Hulu’s new thriller Fresh, directed by Mimi Cave, follows the story of a young woman disillusioned by the modern dating scene. The film comments on the serial consumption of bodies from a romantic, sexual and even literal standpoint.
Feel-good and retrospective, Léon’s third album Circles was released this past week on March 4. The Swedish singer’s junior album leaves us with a hint of nostalgia and a desire for transformative change. Léon, whose real name is Lotta Lindgren, utilized the sounds of contemporary synth for her album, in some cases going as far as sampling ‘80s synth for her dance tracks.
Movies can be great or they can be terrible, but in my experience, most are just adequate. These adequate ones might not affect us as deeply as the great one, or grant as much material for jokes as the terrible ones, but sometimes they can be precisely what we need: an escapist, fun ride. Keeping that in mind, I can’t think of a more appropriate adjective for Death on the Nile than just perfectly adequate.
On Wednesday, Feb. 16, the first installment of jeen-yuhs, Netflix’s three-part documentary about Kanye West, was released. Titled “act i: VISION,” the film curates an image of the American Dream seen through West’s relentless perseverance to make it in the music industry and his first taste of success.
2022 is Zoë Kravitz’s year for playing lead female roles in cinema. While most people are anticipating her appearance in The Batman this March, Kravitz has received a lot of praise for her performance in the new HBO Max thriller Kimi. The movie, which was released on Feb. 10, is set in a dystopian pandemic world where surveillance capitalism is at its peak.
The Barnstormers presented the 2022 intersession show, She Kills Monsters, a humorous yet touching exploration of death, family and societal expectations, over the weekend of Feb. 18 – Feb. 20.
After what has seemed like a never-ending dearth of live music and theater these past two years, live performances are finally returning. While livestreams and Zoom performances were certainly better than nothing, there really is nothing like sitting in an audience, watching a story come to life in the same room as you, feeling music reverberate throughout your body and just immersing yourself in a theatrical experience.
There’s something alluring about the snowy, small-town quality of New England. Often in media and art, we’ve painted it as a white, picturesque region attached to a childlike innocence — a sort of coming of age.
