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Lara Rosenbach

Staff Writer

Courtesy of Yahoo!

Bones and All

I hadn’t heard anything about this film until I went to see it with a friend—my first time at the new-ish AMC Fashion District theater in Center City. This might’ve been because it didn’t sound like any movie I’d seen before. 

Bones and All is directed by Luca Guadagnino, who also directed the movies Call Me By Your Name and The Protagonists. Set in the mid-1980s and based on the book by Camille DeAngelis, the movie centers around Maren, a young girl living with her father in a trailer park. She—along with many others—is what’s called an Eater, aka, a cannibal. Eaters are perceived as outcasts, but only because they choose to live that way. To the average person, an Eater is just a normal person.

If you think this movie involves watching people eat one another, you’re right. The whole movie is focused on the reality of the world, and how cutthroat it can be (he took this literally). The film is scattered with scenes of Maren and others eating other humans, and Guadagnino asks the audience to slowly desensitize themselves to the stigma that comes with cannibalism. I thought this was an incredibly interesting approach to a coming-of-age film. As the film went on, I didn’t know who to ally myself with, or if there is anyone I should be invested in at all. Every character’s backstory, especially Maren’s boyfriend, Lee, who we meet much later in the film. His life is rich with trauma. It is hard to find a reason to wish good things for Maren.

The choice to set this film in the midwest was great, because no one really thinks of traveling through endless farmland and corn fields, when there are much more interesting sights you could have characters see. But I feel that the land was a reflection of the feel of the movie; abandoned, left bare, a land that fades into the background, that we don’t want to see on screen, when the Pacific Coast is much more beautiful to look at. 

Maren and Lee are much the same, character-wise: Maren is a timid girl who’s on her own, which no one really pays any mind to, while Lee is closed-off and trusts no one. They never really open up to each other, which is the cause of all of their quarrels, and the reason that Maren goes off on her own for a while. Their characters truly leave you wishing for the kind of normality that you would see in any other romantic film. However, this isn’t your average romance.

However, I don’t quite get the purpose of Sully’s character in the movie. He is the first other Eater that Maren encounters. First first introduced as an eccentric but compassionate old man, and acts almost as a mentor figure for Maren. He later takes the form of a myriad of other figures to help advance the plot—such as a desperate stalker yearning for some kind of companionship. Apart from a way to show Maren the dangers of trusting strangers and to make Lee the martyr Guadagnino pictures, I don’t see much point to him as a character.

The movie was truly a disturbing watch. However, I found myself unable to look away from any of it. The way Bones and All delivered the haunting warning of the (literal) dog-eat-dog world was the most disturbing, yet heartwarming way I’d seen yet. I would recommend this movie to anyone who’ll enjoy a dark, twisted story, both a teenage romance and a bloodbath.

Lara Rosenbach

Staff Writer

Courtesy of Arts Commented

The Fabelmans

I wasn’t sure what to expect when saw The Fabelmans in Washington with my mom and grandmom. All I knew was that it was the semi-autobiographical story of Steven Spielberg’s life, a famed director whom made many movies I’d enjoyed, such as Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Jaws, and E.T. 

I’m happy to report that the movie did not disappoint. 

The film centers on the life of Sam Fabelman. After seeing the movie The Greatest Show on Earth as a kid, which contains a climactic train crash, he becomes obsessed with recreating the scene, begging his parents for a train set for Hannukah, to use as a prop. His mother, Mitzi, lets Sam use the camera to record the crash in secret. 

 Speilberg focuses on different ways movies can be used. They can be fantastical, like when Sam roped his Boy Scout friends into acting in a Western and a war movie. Filmmakers can explore the more technical side of moviemaking, like when Sam buries wooden planks so that when actors step on them, it appears as though they are being hit by bullets, or when he pokes holes in the actual film itself with a pin, creating little bursts of light that look like muzzle flashes. Film can also reveal reality; When Sam discovers a secret that could tear apart his family, he makes two films, one showcasing his family’s happiness, and the other the bitter truth. I felt incredibly connected to Sam because of how I could relate to him, being Jewish and having a love for movies and moviemaking myself. 

Spielberg’s cinematography is gorgeous. One of the most amazing parts of the movie is two intercut scenes; in one, Sam cuts together the camping footage to show what his mother has been hiding, while at the same time, in another room, Mitzi passionately plays the piano while Sam’s dad Burt watches from afar. The camera spins around, illustrating the emotion that Sam is feeling: the image of what he thought were his parents falling apart and the realization of what he saw in one. 

Sam’s character is an unflattering portrayal of Spielberg himself; Sam’s uncle Boris comes home and tells Sam he’s an artist—however much he loves his family, he’ll love making movies more. This same idea repeats later; when Mitzi and Burt are getting a divorce his sister comes to his room, wanting to be comforted, and instead, Sam brushes her off and asks her opinion on his film. And in creating a movie of his senior class’s beach trip, Sam gave every person in the class an opportunity to shine. Even though Sam despises his bully, he still films him in an extremely flattering way. He asks Sam why he filmed him like that when he treated him so horribly, and Sam says he doesn’t know. I believe Sam put the movie above his feelings toward his tormentor, because he is an artist first.

This movie was a beautifully acted piece of cinema, and Spielberg’s harshness towards his own character only added to the realism of the film. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to watch a kid figure out he’s an artist and pursue his dreams, above anything else.

Lara Rosenbach

Staff Writer

Courtesy of “The Red Ledger”

On September 16th, Do Revenge was released. After seeing countless videos mocking and praising it, I decided to form my own opinion. Before viewing, I put together a checklist in my head of what makes a good movie: great character design, a cohesive plot, and originality. Would Do Revenge pass the test?

In the first act of the film, we are given the plot: Drea (Camila Mendes), high school queen bee, with a seemingly perfect life and future, gets betrayed by her boyfriend. She becomes unlikely friends with transferring senior Eleanor (Maya Hawke), who is haunted by her past. Throughout the film, the two of them work together, pulling increasingly elaborate stunts to take down their enemies.

The film mainly takes place at Rosehill High. This truly beautiful campus—actually Oglethorpe University in Brookhaven, Georgia—is one of the few things I liked about the movie. A second were the outfits. I thought the costume design was superb. Drea wears form-fitting, flattering dresses, while Eleanor hides in baggy t-shirts, highlighting the two protagonists’ differences in personality. 

Unfortunately, this is where my praise for the film ends. This movie is essentially a tweaked version of Mean Girls—which I love—, and the characters in this film are downgrades of those archetypes; Drea is cut out of the same mold as Regina George—the manipulative ruler of her school—and Eleanor is a cloned Cady Heron—the new girl who befriends the queen bee by pure luck. For both of them, there are two shallow romances that follow the same arc: love, fight, ignore, make up. Their characters do change, but the fact that it happens so late in the movie, and that those differences often get forgotten in the script, shows that the characters are just shells, not real people

The most fleshed-out character in the whole movie is Max (Austin Abrams), Drea’s boyfriend. He is the only character with dreams and pain; although he rules over the whole school, he wants none of it—his dream is to become a photographer, and travel the world. This is illustrated via the many photos he’s taken that decorate his room. Personally, I was happiest with his character, although his thoughts and feelings often did not reflect his personality. I did feel as though the writers didn’t utilize his desire to break free from Rosehill’s status quo, and craft a different ending. His motives as an antagonist seemed unfounded, to say the least.

The plot is easy enough to follow and the pacing, though uneven, still delivered the plot in a clear way. However, I really wanted to see something original from this movie in terms of plot design. I stayed for Max’s redemption, but the twist is predictable for anyone who’s seen a lot of high school movies. The acting is good; however, the dialogue is often overly dramatic for how low-stakes the situation actually is. The movie is hand-fed to you on a silver platter, which is something I’m just not here for. 
If you are someone who likes high school dramedies, you might like this movie. Or at least, the scenery. But if you only have time for one movie, watch Mean Girls instead.