film review

“Eye opening, psychological torture” is how director Alejandra Paz would describe her sophomore short film _Niveles. _It was in 2023 when Paz, a Cinema Studies major and graduate of the University’s Class of 2023, was inspired to make this film. She was struck with inspiration while filming _Los Ojos, _her first short film, in Knight Library. While carrying equipment in the library’s golden elevator, she remarked on how cool of a location this would be to make a short film, associating the gold of the elevator with money, and how the elevator could represent different social class and working class levels.

“Do you know when civilization ends? It’s when stupidity is accelerated.” I think stupidity could easily be replaced by selfishness here, but either way this sentiment rings true in contemporary American society as much as it did in France during 1977. People are so caught up in their prescribed livelihoods that they’re unable to recognize what they’re actually doing. Our young protagonist, Charles, recognizes this fact, but rather than accept his absence of control over the situation, he finds himself in an endless loop of despair and lack of solutions rooted in modern livelihoods being directed towards the attainment of money.

Released in 1971, the Belgian film Daughters of Darkness is an interesting example of queerness in the horror genre. I watched it on recommendation of my dad, a film guy who knows my love of everything lesbian and vampire. From the start, I was intrigued by the spare opening credits, white text on a black background. They are accompanied by a haunting, empty melody plucked out on electric guitar. The combination creates a feeling of emptiness and foreboding.

Content Warning: Movie spoilers

On Christmas Eve 2021, Netflix released the latest film from comedic writer-director Adam McKay, Don’t Look Up. The film, written and directed by McKay with David Sirota (a former Bernie Sanders advisor) receiving a story credit, follows two Michigan State University astronomers, Dr. Randall Mindy (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and PhD student Kate Diabiasky (played by Jennifer Lawrence), who discover a comet that will impact the Earth in six months and is large enough to cause a mass-extinction event.

Art by R. Bliss “Dune (2021) is a good movie” is not a controversial idea, and for good reason. It’s a well-made movie, and an excellent adaptation of a seemingly unadaptable book. I’m a woman of simple taste; if a movie has cool visuals and a good score, I’ll enjoy every second of it, and Dune (2021) delivered. Every shot was gorgeous, and the music added an incredible sense of atmosphere.

Wes Anderson debuted his tenth feature-length film, The French Dispatch, at the Cannes Film Festival in July before it was released theatrically on Oct. 22nd. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the picture’s release to be pushed back by a year, and it was certainly worth the wait. The film, written and directed by Anderson, is an anthology of short vignettes, each of which focuses on a different reporter’s story for the eponymous French foreign bureau of the fictitious Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun newspaper as the last issue is prepared.