Arts - The Dartmouth

Arts

Review: ‘Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood’ an affectionate satire

By Shera Bhala | October 4, 2019

Welcome to 1969 Hollywood. Retro buildings, vintage cars and neon signs line Hollywood Boulevard. Men dress in bell bottoms, patterned shirts and turtlenecks with blazers. Women wear miniskirts and vinyl, knee-high boots. Flower children don bohemian outfits of the counterculture movement. The Quentin Tarantino-directed movie “Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood” pictures these vintage scenes through rose-colored glasses.

Arts

‘The Politics of Pink’ explores notions of femininity, fragility

By Mia Russo | October 3, 2019

When someone mentions the word “pink,” what images come to mind? Maybe you picture a little baby girl in her light-pink nursery, pink-frosted gender-reveal cakes or the new millennial pink that covers dorm rooms and stores across the country. Whatever you think of, it is most likely related to girls and traditional femininity.

Arts

Review: ‘Hustlers’ exemplifies female reclamation of power

By Nicole Aboodi | October 1, 2019

“Doesn’t money make you horny?” Ramona (portrayed by Jennifer Lopez) whispers this to newcomer Destiny (portrayed by Constance Wu), as she leaves center stage, bathed in dollar bills. In the film “Hustlers,” Ramona immediately establishes the primary foundation of the film: the intertwined web of money and sex.

Arts

Student Spotlight: Joelle Park '19 applies her creativity in film

By Lucy Turnipseed | October 1, 2019

Maybe you have seen her give a tour of her dorm on YouTube or heard about her stint on the red carpet of the Video Music Awards this summer. Joelle Park ’19, who is in her final term at Dartmouth, is by all accounts zealous and innovative — founding and maintaining her own Youtube channel titled “Joelle,” which has over seven thousand subscribers, is just the start.

Arts

Review: "It: Chapter 2" surpasses prequel in thrill and quality

By James Cronin | September 27, 2019

As a Dartmouth student, the end of summer can be a pretty lonely time. With almost all other colleges starting the last week of August, the stretch between when home friends leave to the journey back to Hanover can be a slow and painful one. I am on campus now, of course — and it would be an understatement to say that my schedule is just a bit chaotic — but when I lived in a ghost town for those couple weeks, I had nothing but free time.

Arts

Review: Ford v Ferrari has great acting, dampened by predictable plot

By Willem Gerrish | September 26, 2019

It’s hard not to enjoy certain moments of pure thrill — the rapid descent of a rollercoaster, maybe, or a hard-won victory on the athletic field. Director James Mangold’s new film, “Ford v Ferrari,” draws upon one of such thrills: the roar and rush of high-speed driving. Shown at Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center for the Arts as part of the annual Telluride Film Festival screenings, “Ford v Ferrari” is a riveting piece of car-focused filmmaking wrapped up in an underwhelming but ultimately solid narrative envelope.

Arts

Sankofa Danzafro tells story of Afro-Colombians through dance

By Elizabeth Garrison | September 26, 2019

Tonight and Friday night, the Sankofa Danzafro dance troupe will perform its show “The City of Others” in the Moore Theater at the Hopkins Center at 7:30 p.m. Through the art of dance and music, “The City of Others” tells the powerful story of young Afro-Colombians who are struggling to combat the historical legacy of slavery and racism in Colombia.

Arts

Review: Netflix’s new film ‘Tall Girl’ aims high, falls short

By Lex Kang | September 24, 2019

Netflix’s “Tall Girl” is a film that I will carry in my heart forever. I have never in my life felt such burning hatred for a movie before, and for setting that record — for teaching me that I am capable of hating a medium of art that I love so dearly — “Tall Girl” is special to me.

Arts

‘The Matrix’ series may lose interpretive malleability with new film

By Sebastian Wurzrainer | September 24, 2019

Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of “The Matrix” this year, Warner Brothers recently announced that Lana Wachowski — the elder of the Wachowski siblings behind the original classic — would be reuniting with actors Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss to direct a fourth “Matrix” film.

Arts

Review: Taylor Swift’s ‘Lover’ tells stories of love and loss

By Mia Nelson | September 20, 2019

Taylor Swift. The name of one of America’s most successful musicians conjures up images of cowgirl boots, sparkly dresses, Twitter feuds and boyfriends. Often the mere mention of Swift induces a chorus of eyerolls or sighs of disgust. Very rarely do conversations about Swift mention her enormous success as a musician, including the fact that her most recent album “Lover” became 2019’s best-selling record in just a week.

Arts

Telluride at Dartmouth brings highly anticipated films to campus

By Elizabeth Garrison and Macy Toppan | September 19, 2019

Starting this Friday, the Hopkins Center will be showing advanced screenings of six films from the acclaimed Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, beginning with “Ford v Ferrari” and ending with “The Climb” on Sept. 26. Every year, Telluride at Dartmouth presents an opportunity to see much-anticipated films months before they come to theaters.

Arts

Q&A with Pass By Catastrophe musician Zach Plante ’18

By Veronica Winham | September 17, 2019

Alumnus and musician Zach Plante ’18 has taken his passion for music coast to coast and is set to release his first extended play record with the band Pass By Catastrophe on Sept. 27. Plante, who plays bass, guitar and piano in Pass By Catastrophe, is accompanied by Dexter Simpson, Max Kilberg and Sam Silverman. The band produces rock, indie rock and pop rock that is, according to Plante, reminiscent of the past but with a new modern twist.

Arts

Review: ‘The Goldfinch’ fails to live up to novel’s standard

By Lauren Segal | September 17, 2019

When word broke that Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Goldfinch” would be adapted into a movie last year, I sighed and dreaded the worst. There is something sacred that is destroyed when a much-beloved novel makes its on-screen debut. Movie adaptations of novels rarely do their written counterparts justice. Instead, they bury them in piles of scathing reviews and Rotten Tomato ratings that sully not only the film’s reputation but also that of the novel (for example, “The Hunger Games”).

Arts

Q&A with Jeff Sharlet, author of Netflix-adapted ‘The Family’

By Lex Kang | August 16, 2019

In his two books “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” and “C-Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy,” English and creative writing professor Jeff Sharlet takes deep dives into the political influence of the Christian organization known as “The Fellowship” or “The Family” both within and beyond the U.S. Recently adapted into a five-episode Netflix docuseries titled “The Family,” Sharlet’s shocking exploration of the entanglement of church and state focuses on high-profile politicians from all over the world who had personal connections to Doug Coe, the former head of the organization. In an interview with The Dartmouth, Sharlet discusses the Family, his experience investigating the organization, as well as the process of adapting his literary work into a new medium.

Arts

Review: HBO’s ‘Euphoria’ presents a diagnosis of Generation Z

By Jordan McDonald | August 9, 2019

In the Drake-produced HBO series “Euphoria,” Generation Z is diagnosed and deified. Drawing attention to teen sex lives, drug abuse, family troubles and identity crises, “Euphoria” defines a generation by its most dramatic manifestations. The show’s narrator, lead and Gen Z translator Rue Bennett, played by former Disney Channel star Zendaya, is a biracial teenager struggling with drug addiction and the loss of her father.

Arts

Review: "The Bachelorette" finale ends on a problematic note

By Savannah Miller | August 2, 2019

This isn’t necessarily something I’m proud of, but over the past few weeks, I have joined a group of my friends to hate-watch “The Bachelorette.”

Arts

Review: Blood Orange explores uncertainty in latest album

By Madison Wilson | July 26, 2019

The epilogue to “Negro Swan” explores feelings of anxiety — about growing up, relationships and feeling isolated — in a series of feature-filled vignettes.

Arts

Review: Aretha Franklin’s musicality astounds in ‘Amazing Grace’

By Madison Wilson | July 19, 2019

“Amazing Grace,” the 2018 movie about the two days spent recording Aretha Franklin’s bestselling live album of the same name, showed at the Hopkins Center for the Arts last weekend. The movie is a true feat, resurrecting footage taken at the event in 1972 but unavailable until now due to technical problems in which video failed to sync with the sound. Finally, in this incredible film, we are able to see the Queen of Soul perform her album “Amazing Grace” at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles.

Arts

Review: 'Stranger Things 3' is an electric revival of the series

By Maria Harrast | July 12, 2019

On Fourth of July weekend, I powered up my laptop, logged into Netflix and clicked on the big, bright banner advertising the release of “Stranger Things 3.”

Arts

Review: ‘Ma’ fails to be a horror film, let alone a good horror film

By Savannah Miller | July 5, 2019

Typically, disappointment has shaped my experience with horror movies. I watch them expecting to be scared and they wind up making me laugh more than some top-billed comedies. Incohesive plots, stupid characters and cliché twists are far too prevalent in most commercially successful horror films. I wish I could say this spring’s latest horror film, “Ma” was any different, but the most credit I can give the film is for its self-awareness — “Ma” knows just how campy it is.