Mount Hood

“Three Billboards” wins big at the BAFTAs

Zoë Strickland | Editor-in-Chief

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts held their annual award ceremony on Feb. 18.

According to the BAFTA’s website, the organization hopes to, “bring the very best work in film, games and television to public attention, and support the growth of creative talent in the UK and internationally.”

The most recognized film of the night was by far “Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri.” The film, which originally hit theaters in the United States on Nov. 10, took home five of the nine awards it was nominated for most notably, Best Film and Most Outstanding British Film. “Three Billboards” also took home Best Actress, which was awarded to Frances McDormand for her role as Mildred Hayes and Supporting Actor, which was given to Sam Rockwell for his role as Jason Dixon.

“Blade Runner 2049” and “Darkest Hour” were tied for the second most awards received, both being awarded two of the eight they were nominated for. “Blade Runner 2049” won awards for cinematography and best visual effects. “Darkest Hour” also took home two BAFTA awards. Gary Oldman won Leading Actor for his role as Winston Churchill, and the film was awarded best Makeup and Hair undoubtedly because of the impressive job done with transforming Oldman into Churchill.

“Get Out” actor Daniel Kaluuya was awarded the EE Rising Star Award, which is the only award that the public votes on. According to the BAFTA website, the award “honours a young actor or actress who has demonstrated exceptional talent and ambition and has begun to capture the imagination of the British public.” More recently, Kaluuya also starred as W’Kabi in “Black Panther.”

Other take-homes for the night included “Coco” for Animated Film and “Baby Driver” for Editing.

The next big award show to hit the screens will be on March 4, when the 90th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, heads to Hollywood. The Oscars will cap off award season until it reopens with the People’s Choice Awards in September.

Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu

Photo by: Latimes.com

Review: “Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life”

Ashton Newton | Freelancer

The Wombats first made a name for themselves with their 2007 single “Let’s Dance to the Joy Division,” unafraid to blend high energy music and vocals with dark, real themes. Through their first three albums, they set themselves up as a band that’s relatable and great fun to listen to.

Their newly released fourth album, “Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life” is a bit of a disappointment compared to their previous work. The high energy that The Wombats are known for is still there, but their lyrics and themes fall flat.

The first two singles that The Wombats released off of the album, “Turn” and “Lemon to a Knife Fight” were met with positive critical and fan response, so they generated a lot of buzz for the album, but those two songs are the two most memorable on the entire album. “Lemon to a Knife Fight” is catchy, fast-paced and was an exciting release over the summer. “Turn” takes things a little slower, a song about enjoying the little things. Both songs represented everything great about The Wombats.

The rest of the album still sounds like The Wombats, but I was left feeling like something was missing. They innovated a bit with their sound, this album being much more bass-heavy than their previous work, but I still felt like I’d heard all the themes already in previous songs.

The song “Lethal Combination” simply adds to the growing list of Wombats lyrics about getting blackout drunk. “I Only Wear Black” had me spending the entire three minutes anticipating the end. The imagery of melting ice cream in “Ice Cream” was distracting and took away from the meaning.

There are some positives to the album too. Their bass-heavy songs sound fresh and new with the same energy they’ve had in previous work. “White Eyes” is a fun song that, although the lyrics are a bit cheesy, is catchy and replayable. “Out of My Head” can only be described as groovy, it’s hard not to start moving with the beat.

“I Don’t Know Why I Like You but I Do” is the best mix of meaningful lyrics and catchy music. Being the final song on the album, they definitely end it on a high note, but it’s not enough to make up for the mediocrity that fills most of the album.

There’s something in this album for everybody. If you like The Wombats already, chances are you’ll enjoy the album. If this is the first time you’ve heard of The Wombats, please don’t start here.

Contact the author at anewton15@wou.edu

Photo by: http://thewombats.co.uk/

Review: “Text Me When You Get Home”

Zoë Strickland | Editor-in-Chief

“Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship” is a title that seemingly holds a lot of weight it takes up a lot of physical space and uses words that denote heavy meaning. However, the title seems to be the only part of this novel that consistently does so. I had higher hopes for Kayleen Schaefer’s print debut.

One of my favorite parts about Schaefer’s book is that it relies on quotes in the same way it talks about friendship every piece used from a book, article or person works together to support Schaefer’s encompassing claim that the cultivation of friendship should be as important, if not more important, as the cultivation of romantic relationships.

The stories about other women, namely Schaefer’s mother, provided some depth to how friendships have changed over time, and how they may look different to people of different ages. However, I had problems with the overall amount of representation in the book. Seemingly, most of the quotes and stories being offered were from middle-class white women. Though the insights added to what Schaefer was trying to say, including people from a variety of different races and classes would’ve presented a well-rounded look at how the dynamics of female friendship may change when presented with different struggles.

While “Text Me When You Get Home” had points that were relatable, I found that it often boxed-in readers by primarily showing only Schaefer’s viewpoint or promoting intangible ideas of friendship like the ones shown on TV. The book uses large amounts of external quotations, but the stories themselves are primarily centered around the author’s own experiences. As someone who couldn’t relate to a lot of Schaefer’s experiences most notably of which is an entire chapter devoted to her joining a sorority and leaving it once she found a significant other I immediately felt closed off from the narrative of the book.

Admittedly, I knew I wasn’t going to truly enjoy “Text Me When You Get Home” after I read part of the introduction. It proclaimed both that female friendships are superior to friendships between people of different gender identities, and that women who prefer to be friends with men do so because they feel threatened by other women. While I agree that this sometimes be the case, it fundamentally doesn’t align with the majority of my belief system.

Claims like these made it so I never fully felt comfortable with the narrative that was being presented. If the writer’s goal is to highlight the bond that exists in female friendships, one of the primary ways of conveying that bond shouldn’t be through the bashing of other types of relationships. Similarly, the binary way in which she refers to relationships immediately leaves out an entire facet of the way in which other people experience them.

“Text Me When You Get Home” starts out with a strong point that one of the larger ways to differentiate “female friendships” it that they oftentimes use more external ways of showing affection, like telling friends to “text me when you get home.” I was expecting this to be the basis of what would inevitably be a comprehensive look at how friendships have changed and progressed over time. While there was a little bit of discussion around that topic, Schaefer instead focused on personal anecdotes and recounting how female friendships have been shown in popular culture.

At face value, this book is good. The writing is strong, the narrative is fairly insightful and it’s obvious that the writer is passionate about what she’s writing about. However, the writer’s meager attempts at inclusivity fails to represent a full-fledged view of what modern female friendship means to people of all identities.  

Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu

Photo by: Penguinrandomhouse.com

 

The people behind the people that changed the world

Sam Dunaway | News Editor

Clever, complex and filled to the brim with emotion: prepare for a journey through time in Western’s newest production, “The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence.”

The play, written by playwright Madeleine George, centers around four different characters named Watson: the supercomputer that became a “Jeopardy!” champion, Sherlock Holmes’s faithful sidekick, Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant who helped build the first telephone and a modern-day computer repairman on the search for companionship.

Senior and Bachelor of Fine Arts student Stephen Nielson portrays all four Watsons throughout the show. When asked what his favorite thing about this show is, Nielson commented, “This show is really cool to me because it’s this story about wanting to be helpful … It’s very fun to be able to use me as a starting point for a character like Watson, who is so weird and varied.”

Modern-day Josh Watson is hired by a local politician Frank Merrick, played by sophomore Bill Evans, to spy on Merrick’s ex-wife Eliza, portrayed by sophomore Selena Moreno. The stalking quickly turns into an emotional love affair between Eliza and Watson.

The play consistently jumps from 2011 modern America to 1889 Victorian England where another Eliza meets Sherlock Holmes’s trusty sidekick, John Watson. A third timeline in 1931 involves a radio interview between a third Eliza and Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant, Thomas Watson, on the invention of the telephone. The complex storyline ties three centuries together and makes the audience consider the underlying characteristics that make us all human.

“This show is about the people behind the people who change the world,” Director and senior Western student Matthew Miller explained.

Working toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts in technical theatre, Miller is passionate about directing. “Directing is a weird art. It’s different from painting where you just do the thing by itself and people see it. With this, you are taking other peoples art and making sure it all fits together in the best possible way. It’s kind of like a giant puzzle.”

Miller described his favorite thing about this show: the hidden heros. “We look at Thomas Watson, who assisted Alexander Graham Bell in the invention of the telephone. And John Watson who is Sherlock Holmes’s fictional assistant. Everyone knows who Graham Bell is, not everyone knows how important Watson was to that. As someone who usually works behind the scenes and doesn’t get seen the same way actors do, this show speaks to me on that level.”

“The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence” will be performed at Rice Auditorium on Feb. 8, 9, and 10 at 7:30 p.m. and at 2 p.m. on Feb. 10. An interpreted performance is on Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. The show runs about two and a half hours long and is $8 for students, $14 for general admission and $10 for seniors, faculty and staff.

Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu

Photo by: Paul F. Davis

Review: “I Like Fun”

Darien Campo | Designer

Why is the world in love again? Why are we marching hand in hand? The ambassadors of love have brought us a brand new record for 2018: They Might Be Giants brand new album “I Like Fun.”

John and John’s 20th studio album further cements their place as one of rock’s most delightfully eclectic bands. While usually “experimental” music is confrontationally so, the Giants have spent over 30 years perfecting their own unique flavor of songwriting that invites listeners as much as it intrigues them.

The opening track title, “Let’s Get This Over With,” almost feels like the mission statement for the record. From the first note the Giants hook us with those catchy piano chords and bring us through a 15-track journey of non-stop pop energy with no filler tracks left. Each song sounds equally and lovingly crafted as if it were the lead single. And honestly, most any of these tracks could work as the single, the songwriting quality never seems to dip at any point as most pop records tend to do usually around the 66 percent mark of the record.

“All Time What” proves once again that John Flansburgh secretly wants to be in a pop-punk band. “Lake Monsters” ends in one of the catchiest refrains about mass hypnosis ever written. “By the Time You Get This,” a letter to the future, is my favorite track on the album. I’ve never heard a song before that can inspire equal parts feelings of positivity and utter defeat. The record starts with high energy and carries that through for 13 songs until “The Greatest,” which is the first breather we get. The song feels like a Damon Albarn pastiche, and Flansburgh’s vocals perfectly capture that quiet power. The bizarre music video starring Nick Offerman is well worth the watch.

It wasn’t until the chorus of “Last Wave,” the final track, that I realized what a morbid record I had just listened to. I immediately spun the album a second time to discover the grim themes and lyrics that had been hidden by bright and poppy instrumentation.

“I Like Fun” follows in the path of previous Giants records like “Mink Car” and “The Else” with its relentlessly catchy songwriting masking darker lyrical tones. This is my favorite Giants record since 2013’s “Nanobots.” The only issue I had with the three albums that came out compiling their 2015 Dial-a-Song tracks is the lack of cohesion within the album. “I Like Fun” tells a cohesive, though esoteric, story that brings the record together into one full piece.

If you’ve never listened to the Giants before, they have once again cut a record that is just as good a place to start as any other. They are a persistently memorable and haunting songwriting duo, unmatched in their unique sound and always outdoing themselves. “I Like Fun” is a record full of love, fear and pop that feels “complete, completely, completelier.”

Contact the author at dcampo13@wou.edu

Photo by: theymightbegiants.com

A family tree of podcasts

Stephanie Blair | Staff Writer

In 2010, three brothers sat down to make a podcast in order to stay in regular contact after two of them moved a couple states away. The podcast: “My Brother, My Brother and Me.” The hosts: Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy.

Fast-forward to 2018, the McElroys have established an enormous audience and created dozens of podcasts. Mainly playing on their comedic skills, the brothers have toured around the country multiple times, gotten a shoutout in the lyrics of Hamilton and garnered an audience of thousands upon thousands.

And while their main show is a comedy/advice show, the McElroy family of products has something for everyone. For a sampling of their shows, read on.

“Sawbones”

If you’ve ever wondered how we figured out that we should use mold to treat an STI, this show is for you. In this podcast, Dr. Sydnee McElroy takes her husband Justin and their listeners through “all the odd, weird, wrong, dumb and just gross ways we’ve tried to fix people over the years.” She’s smart and he’s funny, you get to laugh, learn and cringe — that’s the show. As just a taste, a scientist once drank cholera-filled poop water in the name of science and that’s not the grossest thing they’ll tell you about.

“Bunker Buddies”

Lots of people worry about what they’ll do after an apocalypse, but few make a weekly podcast discussing it. “Bunker Buddies,” is hosted by Travis McElroy and Andie Bolt and, as their show summary says, “they’re not preppers, they’re comedians” which lends the podcast some levity in the face of a grave subject. For people who like practical information and like to worry about everything, this show may prove cathartic. Some potential apocalypse scenarios that Travis and Andie have covered are: an alien invasion, a robot uprising, the Rapture and the sun suddenly disappearing and leaving the world in an eternal night.

“Wonderful!”

Each week, for a little under an hour, Griffin and Rachel McElroy take turns sharing things they find to be wonderful. There is no other criteria for what can be featured, which has resulted in albums, poems and french fries being shared. It’s a show about enthusiasm and positivity and because the two record this podcast while their infant son sleeps, their voices tend to be lowered which is quite soothing. Whether you’re into ASMR, looking for something to fall asleep to or just enjoy positive conversation, this is the show for you. It’s really wonderful!

“The Adventure Zone”

The premise of this show is a little harder to convey; it’s a podcast where the McEl-brothers play Dungeons and Dragons with their dad, but it’s not even a little bit about playing Dungeons and Dragons. Through the development of the show and the relationships that the hosts play on while making decisions in-game, the Boys made a story that captured their biggest audience yet. If you don’t know anything about D and D — perfect. At the beginning, neither do they. Get ready to cry about high fantasy characters and their tragic backstories.

Contact the author at sblair13@wou.edu

Photos by: Maximumfun.org

See more movies with MoviePass

Darien Campo | Designer

I love movies. A lot.

The problem is I’m not able to see a lot of newer movies until they hit one of my preferred streaming services. And by that point, it’s usually been spoiled or I’ve lost interest. Going to the movies is prohibitively expensive, natoonline.org puts 2017’s average ticket price at $8.97 ­— a record high. With some theaters charging up to $17 for a ticket, it’s no surprise that the Hollywood Reporter recently revealed that theater attendance in 2017 reached a 27-year low.

I should know, for as much as I love movies, until recently I barely ever went to the theaters. But I just discovered a subscription service that offers a fantastic deal for those who want to see more flicks on the big screen.

MoviePass is a service that allows moviegoers to watch one movie a day — for only $10 a month. The service is powerful and easy to use. When users sign up, MoviePass mails a member debit card to their address. Users then sign in to the MoviePass app on their phones and travel within 100 yards of a theater. Once the app detects they are in range of a theater, users can reserve a ticket for whichever film and showtime they wish. MoviePass places money on the card, which can then be used to purchase the ticket as usual.

I went from going to the cinema only a few times a year to seeing 10 movies in the past month —12 if you count seeing “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and “Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri” twice each. I’m excited to be back in the theater seat watching the most recent films as they come. I’m engaging with films more frequently than I have in years, and I’ve even been taking chances and trying out films I normally wouldn’t due to ticket prices.

Most theaters in the area accept MoviePass, including Independence Cinema, Cinnebarre, Salem Cinema and Regal Lancaster.

Hollywood gets a lot of guff for its constant sequels and reboots, but after getting MoviePass I’m happy to say that there are plenty of fantastic films being lovingly crafted today. Below I’ll list some recent films I highly recommend you go check out, 2017 was a wonderful year for film. If you’ve been wanting to get back into the cinema circuit, MoviePass is a subscription service that’s well worth a Hamilton a month.

Contact the author at dcampo13@wou.edu

Photo by: Moviepass.com