Tag: Music

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Provides a Glimpse at the Black Struggle for Basic Respect

The summer of 2020 was an explosive one that in many way mirrored the Red Summer of 1919 with protests and the dark specter of black death spread nationwide and beamed into our homes on the news or…

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AFI Fest: Sound of Metal is an Empathetic Film on Accepting Life’s Challenges and Changes

Adjusting to unforeseen circumstances and tough situations is one of life’s most challenging aspects and something we all must face at one point or another. For those of you reading this film review that have experienced 2020 in…

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The Forty-Year-Old Version of Balancing Expression and Compromise

“And if I’m not creatin art, am I committin a crime?” The tale of the struggling artist who reaches the precipice of success only to face the powers-that-be pressuring them into compromising their vision, putting the artist at…

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Bill & Ted Face the Music Transports Gen X Back to Memorable Laughs

Nostalgia has powered the American box office for the better part of a decade with millennials and Gen Xers clamoring for remakes and reboots that call back to memories of their childhoods. For some moviegoers (including me, full…

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The Audition Touches on Interesting Concepts but Fails to Grasp

Parent-child relationships are often fraught and hard to navigate. Parents often want what’s best for their child, but can often confuse that wish for their own hopes and desires. The Audition follows one such relationship. Anna Bronsky (Nina…

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Don’t Wake Me, I’m Dreamin’: The High Note Sings a Song of Aspirations

Clawing one’s way toward a dream will involve overcoming many obstacles along the way. These impediments may be further complicated by some of the challenges often thrown at people due to their sex, race, gender, socioeconomic status, or…

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Poverty and Family’s Complications Come into View in Take Out Girl

“They say innovation was born of desperation.” “They were poor too, huh?” The struggles of immigrant families are at once well known and oft-overlooked. The pressures that first and second generation Americans feel to help their families overcome…

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Beanie Feldstein and Director Coky Giedroyc Power How to Build a Girl Past Typical Coming of Age Fare

“How do I get there from here?” As Hollywood pushes toward making gains with onscreen diversity, it seems we’ve been inundated with yearly tales of lower to middle class white teenage girls coming of age. Creeping toward market…

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I Will Make You Mine Shows Love is Anything but Black and White

“I’m trying to let you go. What do I know? You left me with all of your things. What will this bring?” Where is the line between love and infatuation? Merriam-Webster defines infatuation as “strong and unreasoning attachment”…

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The Photograph of Traumatic Legacy

Your parents are the first teachers you ever have in life. They teach you how to walk, how to speak, and a host of other basic aspects of human existence that you carry with you for the duration…

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