A&E

Jayla Wright

Staff Writer

Over the summer I counted down the days until I could see my favorite web-slinging hero, Peter Parker, swing into theatres. Recently on October 17, Spider-Man: Homecoming was released onto DVD.

 

I admit that I may be biased as a Marvel and Spider-Man fan, but I had high expectations for this movie. I went into the movie theatre expecting humor, action, and a diverse cast that actually looks like they could be in high school.

If you are unfamiliar with any of the previous Spider-Man movies or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming is about Peter Parker (Tom Holland) trying to prove himself as a worthy addition to the Avengers, a group tasked with the job of protecting the world from evil doers. At the same time, Peter also faces problems unique to high schoolers, such as talking to his crush, bullies, and detention.

What makes Spider-Man: Homecoming different from the rest of the Spider-Man movies is that it’s a fresh take on Spider-Man’s origin story. You don’t have to watch Peter get bitten by a radioactive spider or see (Spoiler) Uncle Ben die again. In fact, Uncle Ben’s name was never even mentioned in the movie.

Unlike past renditions of the heroic wall-crawler (I’m looking at you Andrew Garfield) Tom Holland makes a believable highschooler and an even more believable Peter Parker who delivers sassy one-liners as he webs bad guys.

Tom Holland had big shoes to fill going into the role of Spider-Man, but I think he nailed it. It took three roles and six movies but the wait is over and we now have the perfect Spider-Man. Tobey Maguire played up the shy, nerdy aspects of Peter Parker while Andrew Garfield brought Peter’s sarcastic side to light. Holland combined these things together to make a Spider-Man that just feels right the moment he enters the screen.

If you like superhero movies as well as coming of age stories then Spider-Man: Homecoming is the right fit for you. If you’re on the fence about this movie due to it being another rebooted Spider-Man movie, go see it anyway! This rendition of Spidey may surprise you.

 

Brendan Hall

Staff Writer

Tyler Okonma, better known as Tyler, The Creator, has been a dominant force in Alternative Hip-Hop for nearly a decade. He broke into the Hip-Hop scene with an in your face attitude meshed with no filter. His music portrayed a rebellious teenage angst that was streaked with an abundance of dark humor. All of these things were the reasons that his first two albums Bastard (2009) and Goblin (2011) were devoured by his audience. What made people relate to this album was the nuance he gave to horrorcore influence within his music. He always displayed himself as a person who did bad things but had good intentions.

Tyler’s momentum from the Bastard and Goblin craze eventually led to his 2013 Album “Wolf”. Wolf had similar elements but had incredible production and big-name guest appearances including Pharrell Williams and Erykah Badu. The versatility displayed in the album made it easily one of the most creative albums of that year.

The follow-up to “Wolf” was a disappointing effort that led to a disconnect between him and his fanbase. In theory, his follow-up, Cherry Bomb, should have been his biggest success. It had solid production, and even more notable guest appearances including Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Pharrell. However, this album ultimately failed because there was a lack of Tyler’s introspective rapping that made Bastard, Goblin, and Wolf such an incredible run. Instead, he tried to create feel-good aesthetics in place of heart-wrenching moments he previously had.

However, this year Tyler is back and he has something to say. His 2017 album, Flower Boy, finds the perfect balance between giving the personal details about life and smooth production. On this album Tyler opens up about his sexuality, loneliness, materialism, and also gives a sense of optimism.

The album’s lead single, “911/ Mr. Lonely”, is a pure example of the perfect balance between smooth production and introspective rapping. The song features vocal guest appearances from longtime friend and frequent collaborator, Frank Ocean. It also features an upcoming talent named Steve Lacy, who gave the song life in a memorable bridge. The track starts off as a smooth catchy song, but the beat eventually switches for Tyler to open up about loneliness in an incredible verse, “They say the loudest one in the room is weak that’s what they I assume but I disagree. I say the loudest one in the room is probably the loneliest one in the room, that’s me.”

The formula that made “9/11 Mr. Lonely” a great track is also used on songs such as “Garden Shed” and “Boredom”. In all three of these songs, there are incredibly soothing and upbeat productive carried vocalists on bridges and hooks.Estelle on “Garden Shed”, Anna of the North and Rex Orange County on “Boredom” complement the soothing production with their smooth vocals to match. However, “Garden Shed”, and “Boredom” both reflect personal matters about Tyler. “Boredom” is about him constantly being alone and desiring to do something with importance with someone important. “Garden Shed” is about Tyler’s problem he had expressing himself without fear and may have been about his previous failure to come out the closet.

One of the most endearing moments of the album comes on the opening track “Foreword”. Tyler starts off the album giving quotable one-liners consistently. It may have been one of his best rapping performances in his career and of the year. In these verses, he contemplates if he can get to his creative desires, and still be the face of individuality that he has been known for.
One of the most notable lines is when he asks, “How many cars can I buy till I run out of drive? How many drive can I have, until I run out of road? How many road can they pave, until I run out of land,”

Despite the seriousness, the album still offers moments where the subject matter is not as heavy and is just fun for the listener. A perfect example of this is on the A$AP Rocky-assisted, “Who Dat Boy”. This song offers an energetic vibe that would make it ideal for live performance. Rocky and Tyler have a fantastic chemistry and the song can provide the listener with an image in their head of them recording this song hyping each other up to kill their verses.

The other more lighthearted tracks are “See You Again” with Kali Uchis (who he uses perfectly on the hook) and “Glitter”. Each of these songs shows off Tyler’s singing abilities which weren’t seen before on previous projects. Each of them also has good structure and earworm choruses. However, “See You Again” offers a production that starts minimal and eventually becomes extravagant during Tyler’s rapping. “Glitter” has production that mostly serves to complement his vocals in a minimalistic expression.

The album still mostly consists of subject matter that is deep into his personal life. “I Ain’t Got Time” marks a significant part of Tyler the Creator’s career where he opened up about his sexuality (“I’ve been kissing white boys since 2004”). What is notable about this is that most of the track does not mention his sexual orientation aside from that one line. He also states this boldly and proudly in the song giving it a sense of pride into of being a confession.

The final moment in the album where Tyler let the listener hear his reflective side on the track “November”. The song centers around his nostalgia of simpler times he had with friends before the fame. He also shows paranoia on the opening verse worrying how his music and his image would be received by a mainstream audience (“What if my music is too weird for the masses? And only known for making tweets more than beats”). The song also makes a creative decision to include people, mostly Tyler’s friends, describing what their “November” (essentially euphoria) was. This track is one of the best songs on the album and one of the most engaging songs of his career. However, despite the overall excellence of the album it still has its flaws.

One of these flaws is the track placement of the song “Glitter”. Despite it being a well-executed song, the decision for it to come after a personal song like “November” gives it a lack of a transition. It would be smarter for “Glitter” to come before or after “See You Again” because of the similarities that these songs have.

The 3rd track, “Sometimes”, should have completely eliminated because it is a filler skit that adds nothing to the album’s experience and disrupts the flow.

And the final flaw to mention on the album is “Dropping Seeds” with Lil Wayne. The problem with the song isn’t the execution it’s the structure. Wayne had an incredible feature, but it came on a song that was less than a minute in length. This had potential to be on par with some of the best racks of Tyler’s career if he had made this a full song instead of a short-lived interlude.

However, these minor flaws aren’t nearly enough to ruin such a well-done project. Flower Boy shows immense growth as an artist and great creativity. It is by far his most focused work to date which makes it a contender for album of the year. This project likely cemented Tyler The Creator’s legacy as one of the most endearing voices in Alternative Hip-Hop.

Avi Cantor

Staff Writer

To say that Broward County, Florida native XXXTentacion is eclectic is an understatement. The 19-year-old artist draws influence from Nirvana, The Fray, Papa Roach, Kings of Leon, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, Lil Wayne and Blood on the Dance Floor.

 

His music is a clear reflection of these influences. Using a lo-fi blown out aesthetic-where he purposefully lowers the sound quality in the production of his music-he effectively exhibits raw emotion while weaving in and out of genres like hardcore and alternative rock, trap music, indie and even pop. He also addresses a diversity of subject matter including anything from sexual conquest to depression and heartbreak to even gruesome violence. All of these topics form his eclectic image but also play crucial roles in his life.

XXXTentacion also known as just X is a self-proclaimed “pretty boy” who has announced to the world that he is swimming in women who want to engage in sexual acts with him. This “pretty boy” nature stems from his childhood when his mother, despite mentally abusing him on occasion, would comment regularly on how handsome he looked and dress him inexpensive clothing. However, this attention from women has caused some problematic events to occur.

One woman whose identity has been concealed by the Florida police department for legal reasons-that he allegedly dated in May 2017 has pressed a variety of charges against him including aggravated assault of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness tampering. According to the woman, he started abusing her just two weeks after they started dating. Some accusations include him threatening to penetrate her with a barbeque implement, locking her in a room for two days, threatening to kill her, and much more. Unfortunately, this is far from the only run in X has had with the law.

The former member of the XXL Freshman class started acting violently towards others as early as the age of six. He attacked a man who attempted to abuse his mother by biting the flesh off the man’s arm while holding a shard of glass over his throat. From there, he was expelled from at least two schools, put into a behavior/correctional facility than a boot camp for nine months, sent to a youth detention center for a year on gun possession charges and during his first stint in an adult prison nearly murdered a man for looking at him while he was changing. X’s multiple run-ins with the law were part of the reason that he started to spiral into depression, a concept that he displays frequently in various songs.

X has been releasing songs about depression for much of his three-year career. Many were stunned when X released his first studio album about depression. This may have been due to the success of his chart-topping hit ‘Look at Me’ that dotted lines like ‘can’t keep my [penis] in my pants’ and ‘you put a gun on my mans, Ayy, I put a hole in your parents’. But to X’s core fan base, this was no surprise. One song called ‘KILL ME (Pain From The Jail Phone)’ reveals how he spiraled into depression through heartbreak: “Kill me now, numb the pain, this is just the start, Run away, run away from my broken heart”, he moans.

Even though artists’ depression in music has been talked about for decades, XXXTentacion turns a new leaf when talking about this disease. Instead of just highlighting his depression, he uses his music to help others deal with their depression. This was one of the main focuses of 17, as explained in an introductory track called “The Explanation”.

“Here is my pain and thoughts put into words, I put my all into this, in the hopes that it will help cure or at least numb your depression,”.

This line is later punctuated with a three-word statement that allows the listener to live and breath what X is describing. He says ‘I love you’ at the end of the track with such raw emotion that it solidifies 17 as something more than an album. X is literally illustrating the inner workings of himself as a person.You as a listener are “literally entering [XXXTentacion’s] mind”.

The next track on the album illustrates the tragic suicide of X’s close friend, Jocelyn Flores. Jocelyn Flores is one of the most successful songs off of the album-peaking at No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. The less than two-minute song samples the last clip of music ever released by underground music legend, Shiloh Dynasty, who was rumored to have committed suicide. Shiloh’s voice is haunting on the song and sends goosebumps down your arms within seconds. Her vocals matched with X’s harrowing story creates one of the most powerful and chilling songs on the album.

But Shiloh’s voice wasn’t only displayed on Jocelyn Flores. X used two other samples using Shiloh’s voice for the songs ‘Carry on’ and ‘Everybody Dies In Their Nightmares’. Both songs appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts.

Then there is the undeniable ‘hit record’ that every great album has. For 17, that record is ‘Fuck Love’ featuring Canton, Ohio native Trippie Redd. Trippie’s notorious strained vocals pleading “Baby I need you in my life” on the song’s hook underpinned by booming 808’s create a blend of gut-wrenching heartbreak and catchy club song. This blend immediately launches the song into stardom. ‘F**k Love’ has racked up over 37 million plays on Soundcloud and peaked in the Top 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

According to Hot New Hip Hop, a media outlet for up and coming rappers, 17 by XXXTentacion was expected to sell anywhere from 65,000 to 70,000 copies in its first week. However, due to X’s intensely loyal fan base and how much the album resonated with audiences (including rapper Kendrick Lamar), the album sold nearly 90,000 copies in its first week. The project’s sales shattered Empire Distribution record for an artist’s first-week sales numbers. The album even allowed XXXTentacion to negotiate a six million dollar contract with Capitol Records.

 

 

Eric Valenti

Staff Writer 

 

  I went and saw “The Mountain Between Us.” I had seen the trailers for the movie and the movie’s description. It appeared to be a movie that has a deep plot between two characters but also has a realistic look on what would happen if you were stranded on a frigid cold mountain. I expected the movie to have a cold and lonely tone, but the movie turned out to be more of a warm-hearted love story.

    I saw the movie in an AMC theater in New Jersey. When the movie began, I watched as characters were set up and relationships were explained. The movie was pretty typical, it didn’t do anything that was unique in terms of filming techniques. The acting is really what held the movie together, the emotion and chemistry between the two main characters is the main reason to see the film.

    The movie follows a journalist, Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) who is trying to get to Denver for her wedding and a surgeon, Dr. Ben Bass (Idris Elba) who is trying to get to a patient in Denver but their flight has been canceled. The journalist finds someone who can fly them to Denver and the plane ends up crashing on a snowy mountain.

   In the beginning of the film, I was really excited to see the movie, I had seen a lot of survival movies like “Cast Away” and “Apocalypto,” and these films created a feeling of loneliness and made a bond between the audience and the main character where if they died, you felt like you died. The Mountain Between Us didn’t really do this for me.

           There were a lot of times where one the characters nearly died but I don’t really have a connection with the characters. The beginning set everything up fairly quickly and did it so that didn’t seem forced.  There were times in the film where things began to drag because they focused on the love between the two characters and they didn’t leave the crash site for like 30 minutes of the film. Towards the middle when they finally left things were trying to kill them left and right, starvation, falling from a cliff, drowning or even a mountain lion. These parts are what kept the film going and had the audience in an awe. The ending without any spoilers is a little confusing but is heartfelt.

   The movie was more of a romantic movie rather than a thriller. The love story is touched on within like 15 minutes into the film and the characters establish that there is something more than friendship here. The parts with death were really great, that sounds weird but it’s true. Whenever a character was in trouble you got sort of nervous and you knew they couldn’t die already but for some reason, you thought: “Maybe they will die, is this the end?”

    After the film, I left with a feeling of confusion and slight dissatisfaction. I’ll admit it: I kinda wanted someone to die. I wanted to feel something else besides fear for the character, I wanted to feel the loneliness that the movie endorsed in the trailer. No one has really been talking about the film and no one seemed interested in seeing the film, the theater had roughly 20-30 people.

    If you’re looking for a film about love and overcoming the hardships of nature, then this is the film for you. But if you’re looking for a film that makes you feel lonely and makes you appreciate the little things you have, then The Mountain Between Us” is not the film for you.

  Overall, the movie is a great, heartfelt love story with touches of deadly situations, teaching us the cliche moral that “love conquers all.” The reason I say this is because we have tons of movies that follow this idea, I mean like we get it, love is great and it’s so powerful. I want to hear like survival of the fittest or kill or be killed. I wanted something that separates this film from all the other romance movies.

 

Lauren Nicolella

Staff Writer 

   Skam is a Norwegian teen drama show that involves issues of religion, sexuality, relationships, and mental illnesses. It began in 2015, but their fourth and final season was released in June of 2017. Each of the seasons revolves around an individual, going deeper into their life, relating their problems to the whole group of friends that eventually forms during the first season.

   These seasons revolve around Eva (Lisa Tiege), Noora (Josefine Frida Pettersen), Isak Tarjei (Sandvik Moe) and Sana (Iman Meskini). They all are somehow tied into each others problems, whether it is to support or reassure so that everyone is at a point where they are stable enough to continue on through school.

   My friend Charlotte recommended me to watch the show, and I kind of blew it off for a while until this summer when she pushed for me to try it again. Needless to say, I got hooked. When I first started watching, I had no knowledge of what it was about, and eventually caught on to the way it was being led.

       I really enjoy how the directors used actual teenagers for the cast, them being 17-18 when it first aired. It gives an authentic and more relatable aspect since they are not using actors who are already in their late 20s. The show is apart of their teenage years and the drama is very interesting and kept me intrigued when I was watching it.

     My personal favorite is season two, having a focus on the character Noora and how she slowly adapts to her new group of friends and potential lover. Everything is so incredibly adorable, with how there is a growth in not only character but what happens among the group of friends.

    During episode 8 of season 1, (without giving any spoilers), Noora’s boyfriend William was not interested in her friend who was desperate to be in a relationship with him for all of the wrong reasons: money, his looks, and because he was older. At first Noora would argue and avoid William, but eventually, he would not leave her alone due to the fact that she stood up for her friends and for what she believed in.  

   The scene where she first has a one on one interaction with William was when Noora was cheering up her friend Eva, by singing Justin Bieber and he walks up behind her to ask her out. She basically dismissed him and made him leave, and that was when it all began. Compared to his relationship with her friend who was interested, there was a very intense interest and a will to fight for Noora to make her date him, but it was in a romantic way.

  Something noteworthy that I noticed was the fact that hooking up with others is such a big deal, especially with the constant party life each individual is involved in. Everyone tries to get with older girls and guys so that they can get more attention to themselves and their runs buses. These Russ buses are for graduation, and everyone parties on them and tries to gain sponsors so more people are involved on your bus instead of someone else’s.

   Everyone’s sense of style is very enjoyable and I was kind of surprised that even the extras seem to have great taste in clothes. These outfits consisted of layering cute winter jackets and sweaters, as well as having a 90’s influence with boots and high waisted blue jeans.  I actually found articles and tried to keep what Noora wore in mind while I was shopping because I admired it so much.

   Overall, I think someone should watch this if they are interested in a teen drama and if they are into foreign shows. Skam is a great example of an introduction into shows that are not from America or are not in English because it has a great storyline and is super relatable.