Shrill, Hulu’s latest original comedy, is as liberating as it is entertaining. The show, which aired on March 15, 2019 stars Saturday Night Live (SNL) actor Aidy Bryant as Annie and is based on Lindy West’s memoir Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman, in which West tackles taboos surrounding periods, abortions and the fat-shaming she faces as a plus-size woman.
It seems that we have now reached the peak of creative drought in movie names: All we need is one pronoun and voila, problem solved! First there was Him, Them, Her, It and now, Us.
I’d never heard of the film Wild Strawberries before The Charles Theatre put it as the most recent choice for their weekly Revival Series — a Swedish film from 1957 about a grumbling old man isn’t something I’d bet money on enjoying. But as with most Revival Series selections, I left the theater with a feeling of gratitude, an opinionated argument for going to random screenings and texting everyone in my contact list to “immediately go watch the most underrated movie of all time.”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: T-Pain is back and in a big way. After his victory on The Masked Singer and the release of 1UP, his latest project, T-Pain has ventured on a national tour. The very first show of the tour was held last Wednesday at Rams Head Live!, and I, an intrepid News-Letter reporter, was lucky enough to go.
I came away from Dean Lewis’ concert having learnt three things. Firstly, that all the best artistic inspiration comes from spending time in London. Secondly, that diamonds are definitely made under pressure. And thirdly, that Dean Lewis’ voice is even more beautiful in real life than it is over Spotify, which is something I truly didn’t think was possible.
It first came to Instagram. Perhaps the three brothers were all sitting in the same room and pushed the “share” button all at the exact same time. Perhaps Nick wanted to reinforce the dominance he’s been slowly establishing since 2013, and he posted the first picture. Even more likely, perhaps Kevin wasn’t even told about their new song coming out until he saw the other posts. But no matter how it happened, what matters is that it did: The Jonas Brothers are reunited, and they’ve released a new single called “Sucker.”
We’ve seen a lot of comebacks in the past few months. Lil Wayne was the first, and perhaps biggest, with the unlikely release (and even more unlikely success) of The Carter V album. Recently, we also saw Big Drako, AKA Big Soulja, AKA Soulja Boy push himself back into relevancy through sound-bite laden radio interviews, outrageous Instagram stories and the sale of illegal overpriced game consoles.
As the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to center on a female superhero/protagonist, Captain Marvel has been placed in the unfortunate predicament of having to justify its existence. Prior to its release, the film was subjected to a fairly significant smear campaign online, to the point that review website Rotten Tomatoes was forced to block users from leaving negative reviews before they even had the chance to see the film. Having actually watched the movie, I can confidently say that Captain Marvel is a perfectly average superhero flick. It might not rise to the heights of Black Panther or Thor: Ragnarok, but Captain Marvel is an enjoyable, if somewhat shallow, film and a fine addition to the MCU canon.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, who also directed the film himself, is a story about resilience, family and the power of knowledge. But above anything, it is also a real life story that deserves to be shared with the world. This is exactly the reason Ejiofor, upon reading William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer’s novel, immediately decided to claim its film rights, as he explained in an interview on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
A quintessential part of the American dream is our unyielding belief that with enough determination, we can make something out of nothing. It was the dogma behind con men, investors, entrepreneurs and pilgrims. Even though that fantasy is no longer true for most people, the possibility that someday our lives will change for the better has never left us.
How To Date Men When You Hate Men. No, that’s not an advice column. That is the title of humorist Blythe Roberson’s first book, a collection of comedic essays about the dilemmas of dating men in a modern world. I went to Bird in Hand on Saturday, March 9 to ask Roberson this question in person at her reading of the book, where the urgency for the answer increased exponentially when I, ironically, found myself sitting next to an old, white man with boundary issues.
After Daniels’ address, the Beta Zeta Chapter of Hermandad de Sigma Iota Alpha, Incorporada (SIA), the sole Latina-based sorority at Hopkins, gave energizing performances of various songs and dances. The Lan Yun Blue Orchids, a traditional Chinese dance group, followed SIA and swayed across stage to more soothing music, adroitly wielding multicolored parasols with unyielding smiles.
As we wait in anguish for the latest Pitchfork article to tell us how to feel, we’ll have to simply listen through Hozier’s newly-released and long-awaited album Wasteland, Baby! without the influence of music’s great minds. Instead you can get my humble opinions. As a disclaimer, I have been excited to hear this album since Hozier dropped the Nina Cried Power EP in September 2018, named after what would be the resounding first song on his album.
“I haven’t seen this many Asians in one room other than a computer science class,” a friend next to me said as we awaited the kickoff of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. To be honest, I hadn’t ever even heard of it nor Wong Fu Productions until I went to the opening ceremony.
I first heard Blood Orange in high school when 2016’s Freetown Sound had just come out and the single “Best To You” was circulating around as a critical darling. It was like nothing I’d heard before: a tightly composed R&B ballad over a background of lush dance electronics — a melody that stuck in your head. It was, for lack of a better term, the sexiest song I’d ever heard. I immediately fell in love with the song and then with its composer, Blood Orange’s front-man Dev Hynes.
The music video that will never fail to leave me visually stunned is that of Solange Knowles’ “Cranes in the Sky,” directed by Alan Ferguson and Knowles herself. I recall watching it as a senior in high school, replaying it over and over to take in the energy of the incredibly subtle but loud images.
Hey you. Yes you, reading this article. Are you average? Are you dull? Do you get asked to take pictures but never get to be in them? Do people generally ignore you?
It is often quite easy to relegate sitcoms to the realm of silly TV shows, purely there for our mindless enjoyment. Often, that is what they are on the surface. In part because of this very role, they are able to take advantage of their platform to counter our expectations and examine society with directness and insight. The usually lighthearted tone of most sitcoms lends any serious topics even further heft by virtue of contrast. We can be reminded that even in spaces that bring us the most enjoyment, the world is not perfect, and we should not assume that it always will be.
As part of the ongoing Tournées Film Festival, the Department of German and Roman Languages hosted a viewing of Jaguar on Sunday, March 4. The festival aims to expose students to the full breadth of the French cinematic experience, and Jaguar is a particularly interesting and diverse inclusion. The film depicts life in the states that comprised French West Africa during the end of colonial control and the onset of independence, and it provides a complex interpretation of the de-colonization. It is a lovely film that has left behind a legacy of inspiration and more than deserves its spot in the festival’s lineup.
Having read some of poet Simon Armitage’s works, I was excited to see him read his poems in person on Tuesday, Feb. 26 as part of the Albert Dowling Visiting Lecturer reading series organized by the Writing Seminars Department. Little did I know that the readings would surpass my already high expectations by miles due to the astonishing range and impact of Armitage’s work.
