The tagline for Sean Wang’s first feature length film Didi, “For anyone who’s ever been a teenager,” couldn’t be more accurate. The film follows Chris Wang, a 13-year-old Tawainese American, as he goes through his last summer before high school in the mid-2000s.
The Arts & Entertainment section is starting a new tradition by sharing our summer soundtracks. You’ll see that we are far from single-minded; our picks range from soft bedroom pop to harsh, experimental hip hop. If you can’t find your niche, well, all that’s left is for our talented writers to make their case.
Four letters on a slime-green square. That’s all it took for Charli XCX to define the vibe of an entire summer. Brat was a moment to be sure — one that Generation Z and millennials ate up with unprecedented voracity when the album first came out.
Whatever your aesthetic needs, we hope you can find something to watch, read or listen to. My personal recommendations are the Thai drama How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, the quirky speculative novel Sky Full of Elephants (which mainly speculates what America would look like without white people) and English singer-songwriter Suki Waterhouse’s second studio album Memoir of a Sparklemuffin.
As a new semester begins, so too does the search for new entertainment. Whether you’re looking for things to fill your ears or eyes, or just something that isn’t mindless, the Arts section is here with a curated list of media for you to check out.
Kendrick Lamar outpaces BBL Drizzy (Toronto rapper-singer Drake) in what has become the greatest hip hop feud of all time. Despite the unsubstantiated accusations which still have yet to be proven true or false, Kendrick has successfully out-sold and out-performed Drake. Don’t believe me? Let’s go track for track.
Despite the ignorant complaints from around Homewood campus, Flo Milli shows out and leaves a lasting impression at the annual Spring Concert. Stunning visuals and empowering hip hop seem to eleviate the culture of negativity at Hopkins.
On the final day of Spring Fair, WJHU radio puts on a gritty show under a gloomy sky, showcasing the talented student rock groups which litter Homewood campus.
How many different textures can you see in a night? How many patterns and shapes? How did the designer think of this? Was this show everything they imagined? Is this something you could ever even imagine without seeing it first? These were the thoughts running through my head as I sat, dazzled, in the audience of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)’s 30th Annual Benefit Fashion Show.
The Tortured Poets Department makes one thing clear: Swift is not bringing anything new to the table. And maybe that’s what some of her fans want from her: consistency, reliability and predictability. But when compared to artists who are experimenting and bringing new life to the music industry, like Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, SZA and Ariana Grande, Swift starts to fall flat.
There is one specific thing Fast Five and Twilight: Breaking Dawn — Part I have in common... any guesses? Both cult classics and box office hits were set partially in Brazil. Characters danced, infused themselves in the beautiful scenery and spoke terrible Portuguese when they claimed to be fluent. Both films indulge themselves in Brazilian stereotypes and are popular portrayals of Brazilian culture around the world. Yet, Prime Video’s new film Música aims to set itself apart from the rest.
This week’s picks include Challengers, a film featuring Zendaya and directed by Luca Guadagnino, Real Americans, a novel by Rachel Khong, St. Vincent’s newest LP, All Born Screaming and “Sound of Nature,” a live musical performance and exhibition at George Peabody Library as part of the “In the Stacks” concert series.
Senior Staff Writer Alicia Guevara gives her thoughts on the JHU Barnstormers’ latest production, Be More Chill, a sci-fi, high school musical.
As the weather starts to get warmer, the end of the semester is finally in sight! This week, there’s a wide range of arts and entertainment to enjoy — from the highly anticipated new Taylor Swift album to a movie about a family of Sasquatches living in the woods.
Answering Kendrick Lamar’s viral diss on producer Metro Boomin and rapper Future’s collaboration album, We Don’t Trust You, Drake throws another bomb in a leaked diss track, which accuses Lamar’s past record label Top Dawg Entertainment of extortion.
Hopkins is often, unfairly, considered a STEM-focused school. And yet, on an almost weekly basis, I have witnessed and been deeply impressed by students on this campus engaging in art that is endlessly creative, thoughtful and even experimental. Studio North is an organization on campus that I think very few have heard of. But for those in the know, it is a deeply passionate and close-knit organization of students who devote themselves to film and the craft of filmmaking.
JHU Theatre’s performance of Galileo, by Bertolt Brecht, leans not so much into the old tradition of Brecht productions, instead using certain Brechtian elements in tandem with a general attention to character and suspenseful action.
From becoming the first Black woman to reach number one on the Hot Country Singles Billboard Chart to having 2024’s most streamed album on Spotify in one day, Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER has had nothing short of a fiery debut. Her reintroduction to the country genre in the second of her three-act album project came from a long, thoughtful journey — but the effort was well worth the wait.
Last month, the film Problemista was released in theaters. It stars and is directed by Julio Torres. The story centers around a young man named Alejandro who, after losing his job in a cryogenics company, has one month to find another job and sponsor before his work visa in the United States expires and he is deported.
In Love Lies Bleeding, Kristen Stewart embodies Lou, an exhausted but competent part-time gym manager, part-time crime scene disrupter. Lou is a reclusive lesbian and estranged daughter of a crime lord in her New Mexico hometown. In the midst of the grunt work of her daily life, she falls in love with Jackie, a bodybuilder new to town, who frequents the gym Lou manages. Before long, the two find themselves entangled in an all-consuming relationship that begins to fracture as the two enter a world of unbelievable violence.
