By:Leticia bugg-Sam

Plot

‘The 5th Wave’ is an action movie that follows a girl trying to survive and find her remaining family. Four waves of increasingly deadly alien attacks have left most of earth in ruin. Cassie is on the run desperately trying to save her younger brother Sam.

The human race stands on the edge of extinction as the aliens attacks the planet, causing earthquakes, tsunamis, and disease. About half the population didn’t make it through these disasters.

Separated from her family, a teenager named Cassie Sullivan will do anything to reunite with her brother. While she was trying to reunite with her brother, during her journey, she runs into a guy named Evan Walker; a mysterious young man who may be her last hope. They forced each other to trust each other. During her journey, they fall in love with each other and together they fight for survival and against the fifth assault from the invaders.

Cassie Sullivan the Ohio high-schooler armed with an M4 carbine, meets Evan when she emerges from the woods and sees an abandoned gas station. She decides to raid the gas station for food. In the gas station she hears another person and she goes and checks, and the person she sees in there is a wounded man. That man is Evan.

I liked the movie. There was a lot of action, it went fast, and there was also some good suspense. Overall, I would give this movie 7/10.

‘The 5th Wave’ is based on the book by Rick Yancey, and you can watch it on Hulu.

By: Julia Sikorski

*Warning: Minor spoilers

On May 14, 2022, Rick Riordan officially announced that a long-awaited television series adaptation was in the works for the beloved ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians.’ Produced by Disney, season one will cover the events of ‘The Lightning Thief.’

This will not be the first Riordan adaptation. Fox released two ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ movies in 2010 and 2013, but the changed plot lines and aged characters failed to satisfy fans. Since then, readers have clamored for a book-accurate adaptation to give the stories what they deserve.

For those unaware, ‘The Lightning Thief’ was originally written in 2005 by Rick Riordan as the first installment of the ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ books. The five-book series launched Riordan’s highly successful career.

‘The Lightning Thief’ follows twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, who has spent his whole life trying to be a “good” kid. Despite his efforts, however, something has always gone wrong. Shuffled from school to school, he has never lasted at any of them for more than a year. It doesn’t help that his stepfather, Gabe, is abusive towards Percy and his mom, Sally Jackson. Percy never knew his birth father.

When—yet again—Percy works himself in an unexplainable situation at his current boarding school, it seems to be the final domino in an invisible row. Sally tells Percy that it’s time he went to the one place he’ll be truly safe: summer camp. Percy finds this an odd decision. But Camp Half Blood is no ordinary summer camp.

Percy soon finds himself at the heart of events that can be traced back centuries…to Ancient Greece. The gods are still very much alive, and they are angry. With the help of both new friends and old, the responsibility for setting wrongs right falls on Percy’s shoulders. He just has to hope that he isn’t too late.

After several exciting updates, including an open casting call and reassuring confirmations that the writing was going well, Rick Riordan announced who our main hero would be played by. Walker Scobell—who played young Adam in ‘The Adam Project’— joined production on April 11, 2022. Scobell’s casting was followed by those of Leah Sava Jeffries (Annabeth Chase) and Aryan Simhadri (Grover Underwood).

Since then, the cast has expanded to include Virginia Kull (Sally Jackson), Jason Mantzoukas (Mr. D), Megan Mullally (Mrs. Dobbs), Glynn Turman (Chiron), Timm Sharp (Gabe Ugliano), Olivea Morton (Nancy Bobofit), Dior Goodjohn (Clarisse LaRue), Charlie Bushnell (Luke Castellan), Jessica Parker Kennedy (Medusa), Suzanne Cryer (Echidna), Adam Copeland (Ares), and most recently, Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hermes).

Rick Riordan revealed on June 28, 2022, that the show will be of exceptional technical quality. As stated on his website, “[the show has] partnered with Industrial Light and Magic to build a new Volume stage […] one of the most advanced production stages in the world.” Viewers can likely look forward to fantastical visual effects, costumes, and sound design.

Overall, Riordan seems to be pleased with the shape that the television series is taking. He and his wife, Becky, are both producers, and Riordan has expressed that the production team as a whole is “A group that knows the books, understands the importance of making longtime (and brand new) readers happy, but also making a show that feels fresh and surprising in the best ways.”

Filming is currently taking place in Vancouver, Canada and is expected to run through mid-January, with an uncertain release date of early 2024. Season one will consist of eight episodes.

There are high hopes all around for this television series, and I look forward to seeing whether they will be met. Until ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief’ is released, you can watch Disney’s teaser for the show on YouTube, linked below.

For more information, please visit:

• https://rickriordan.com/news/ – https://youtu.be/Y3gF6Duh_z0

By: Kaylen Fuentes

*Warning: contains spoilers*

The television show ‘One of Us is Lying’ first premiered October 7th, of 2022. The series is based on Karen M. McManus’ book ‘One of Us is Lying’ which was published in May of 2017, followed by the sequel ‘One of Us is Next’ published in January 2020.

Season 2 of ‘One of Us is Lying’ premiered October 20th, 2022. After leaving off on a cliffhanger at the end of season 1, fans had been waiting a little over a year for the release of season 2.

The TV series ‘One of Us is Lying’ follows the story of 4 high schoolers who were framed for their classmate’s death after being the only ones left alone with him moments before he died of an allergic reaction. The show follows them trying to figure out what happened to their classmate and who framed them for his death. However, this season, after figuring out who was responsible for their classmate’s death, they try to cover up another and keep their secrets hidden.

At the beginning of season 2, a new antagonist is introduced by the name of Simon Says. Simon Says knows the club’s secrets and what really happened to their classmate Jake. The group killed Jake out of self defense and vowed to keep their heads down, tell no one, and not speak to each other to look less suspicious because they knew the police would suspect them, and they didn’t want to get into even more trouble. Which is where last season ended off. But this season, Simon Says comes out saying that they have proof of the club’s involvement with Jake’s murder. All through this season, Simon Says makes the group do dares which if they don’t go through with, they will have secrets they don’t want revealed out, They also blackmail them into doing some of their work to make the club look even more guilty.

I’ve seen many people on social media confused on why season 2 doesn’t follow the entirety of the book ‘One of Us is Lying’. My thoughts are that season 2 follows what happens between the ending of the first book and what happens in the sequel ‘One of Us is Next’ following different kids from the same high school as the students from ‘One of Us is Lying’.

This season deals with romance, discovery and of course mystery. One of my favorite plot points this season was getting to learn more about a newer member of the club, Janae. They open up about their gender identity and how they don’t feel like a boy or a girl, as well as letting their girlfriend and the rest of the club know how they feel. I think this representation is important because it gives others who are watching this show insight on how to deal with your emotions and feelings as well as learning about how to deal with friends who open up to you about their gender identity. 

However, one thing I didn’t like about this season is it was slow paced, as well as the unnecessary plot points that did little to nothing for the story. One example of this is there was an entire episode dedicated to a character: Vanessa. Vanessa is the club’s number one enemy, she used to be Addy’s best friend until in the first season the secret was revealed that Vanessa’s boyfriend TJ, cheated on her with Addy, and ever since Jake’s “disappearance” Vanessa has always linked the club to it. In Vanessa’s episode, it is told from her point of view, of her figuring out a ton of things we (the watchers) already know. To me this felt unnecessary because there could have been much more interesting things happening other than rewatching and learning about things we already knew.

The season ends very abruptly and of course on a cliffhanger which sets the show up for a season 3, leaving many fans asking what happens next because many people don’t see how the cliffhanger connects to a possible 3rd season. This season was slower paced, in my opinion, and there were a few plots that didn’t make sense and didn’t do much for the story. 

Overall, I rate the 2nd season of ‘One of Us is Lying’, 3.5/5 stars.

‘One of Us is Lying’ season 1 and 2 are now available to watch on Peacock.

By: Stephanie Caballero Benitez

K-pop, is a music genre that has gained lots of attention and popularity. In this article I will be discussing the newest group of HYBE: NewJeans. 

HYBE is currently one of the biggest ruling companies in the K-pop industry. HYBE was founded in 2005 by the current chairman Bang Si-Hyuk. HYBE, back then known as “Big Hit Entertainment” was a very unsuccessful company. The company only started gaining popularity in the year 2015 with their K-pop group BTS which is a worldwide known boy group. Since then the company has taken many talented people and turned them into what are called “K-pop group Idols”. 

The group NewJeans debuted on July 22, 2022. This girl group began their pre-debut around October of the year 2019. After 3 years of training, HYBE began to announce the debut of their new group. Their debut song “Attention”, for the album ‘New Jeans’, came out on the same day as their debut, July 22. 

The song “Attention” gained popularity quickly just as the group did. Some people believe that this is because of the company they are under. Others believe that they have talent and gained their platform by their own talent. With people stating their opinions online on the group it had begun to gain more popularity.

Later on, more songs for their debut album ‘New Jeans’ came out. It consisted of 4 songs: 

• Attention
• Hype boy
• Cookie
• Hurt 

Out of all of the songs in the album “Hybe Boy” and “Attention” have done the best as they were used by K-pop fans on ‘Tik Tok’ which made them well known. Their songs made it to the Billboard Global chart with “Attention” at No. 82 and “Hype Boy” at No. 116. 

NewJeans consists of 5 members: Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein. This group is made out of girls with a wide range of age, with their youngest member being 14 and their oldest 18. 

Just as other K-pop groups, NewJeans sold a physical album. Theirs was a little different as it didn’t come in a box but instead in a bag that came in colors red, white, and black. Their album bag consists of the bag, a pin-up book, a CD, and photo cards. 

Overall, this girl group has done very well in the K-pop industry considering their age and how short of time their pre-debut was.

For more information, please visit: 

• https://kpop.fandom.com/wiki/NewJeans
• https://hybecorp.com/eng/company/artist

By: Semaj Carter

‘Scream Queens’ is a show about sorority girls named Chanel Oberlin, Chanel #3, and Chanel #5 They were named this because Chanel couldn’t remember their names. I also think it’s a sense of ownership and an example of how Chanel sees the world.

*Warning: spoilers ahead*

Season 2 opens up as a recap of season 1. The season was about the “Red Devil Killer”, who chased down the sorority girls and killed their “friends”. One of them, was Hester Ulrich, who was behind the Red Devil Killings, and framed the Chanel’s, who then were sent to a mental hospital.

I think the first season shows the privilege of the Channels as white women because Chanel murdered the housemaid for the sorority house and got bailed out immediately without questions or punishments. The Chanel’s get a job as doctors and get to have their TV show even though they’ve never studied or majored in a medical university. A quote from one of the characters named Wes Gardner, kind of explains it all “Even if they fail they succeed”.

One thing I would like to address is that they treat Chanel #5 like she is not logical or she’s so weird and crazy, which I know is just for comedic relief, but I just find it so entertaining how she’s the only person that’s the closest to normal and everyone treats her like she’s not.

A mystery about this show that has been bothering me for a while is that Chanel #3 hides her ears with earmuffs and I have always wondered what is so bad about her ears that she has to hide them.

I think this show should’ve gotten a season 3. I might be wrong, but I heard many people say that it got canceled yet when I research it online it says a season 3 is coming out. I can agree with people when they say that Chanel is a very horrible person, she’s racist, ableist, and very self-centered, the only reason I like her as a character is that she’s the most authentic and interesting one besides Kathy Munch, A.K.A Dean Munch, one very underrated character. I also think another character that deserved a lot more screen time is Zayday Williams, played by Keke Palmer. I fell in love with her character ever since she first appeared on the show.

You could tell the writers didn’t care much about Zayday and when they got tired of writing for her character they just kidnapped her. In the first season, she was kidnapped by the Red Devil Killer, and in the second season, she is kidnapped by the Green Meanie who was just a copycat of the iconic Red Devil.

Anyways, this is my quick opinion the ‘Scream Queen’ characters in season 2. I hope this article made sense and helped you form your own opinion of the characters and such. Overall, I would give it a 6/10. If you want to watch ‘Scream Queens’ it is available on Hulu.

By: Julia Sikorski Roehsner

Warning – spoilers

Fans of the original ‘Hocus Pocus’ movie, which was released in 1993, to great success, were likely excited by the announcement of a sequel. ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ was confirmed as in production in December of 2020, and was released to Disney+ on September 30th of this year.

‘Hocus Pocus 2’ runs about an hour and 45 minutes long. Its story line picks up three decades after the events of the first movie and is set in the present day—with a quick visit to Winifred Sanderson’s past in 1653 Salem.

The viewer learns that she was banished from the town after she refused to consent to a marriage arranged by the despicable Reverend Traske. To avoid separation, Winifred and her sisters, Mary, and Sarah, venture into the nearby forest, into which the people of Salem are too scared to pursue them.

There, the sisters encounter Mother Witch. At first wanting to eat the girls to preserve her youth and beauty, she stops when she senses Winifred’s witchly power.

Mother Witch gifts Winifred a magic spellbook—recognizable as Book from the first movie—as it is Winifred’s sixteenth birthday, but warns her to never cast the power-gaining spell of Magicae Maxima. She also makes the mysterious comment that a witch is nothing without her coven.

The flashback ends, and the viewer is soon introduced to a new cast of characters. First and foremost is a teenager named Becca. Not only is it Halloween, but it is also the day of Becca’s sixteenth birthday. She and her friend Izzy are preparing for their customary night of fun celebration, though without the company of their third friend, Cassie Traske, who has become distant in the wake of her new relationship.

The two girls pay a visit to their favorite magic shop, located in the former home of the Sanderson sisters, and Becca receives a candle as a birthday gift from the store owner, Gilbert. Per tradition, the pair then venture into the forest.

Upon lighting the candle, Becca and Izzy discover that the 1993 banishment of the witches—now a local legend—was not so permanent after all; the candle turns out to be another Black Flame Candle.

Winifred, Mary, and Sarah are back once more.

Thus begins an evening full of adventure and twists and turns as Becca and Izzy do their best to escape the Sandersons and get rid of them once and for all.

Pulled into the mix are Gilbert, who turns out to have tricked the friends and is now facing the consequences, and Cassie, whose father is the spitting image of his ancestor—Reverend Traske. There is also an appearance by the familiar corpse, Billy Butcherson. And, of course, what is Winifred Sanderson without her beloved Book?

It’s only one night, but a lot can happen in one night when there’s magic involved.

Perhaps controversially, I found ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ pretty enjoyable. Common complaints that I’ve heard about it are that it’s not up to the standards of the original ‘Hocus Pocus,’ that it lacks that same feeling of Halloween spookiness, that it’s disappointing that more of the original cast didn’t return, and that the plot itself was boring.

I can understand these complaints, but they were things that didn’t bother me personally. I am not a longtime fan of ‘Hocus Pocus,’ so nostalgia was less of a factor for me when watching ‘Hocus Pocus 2.’ I also didn’t mind that it was aimed at a wider, and potentially younger, audience.

I particularly liked the cinematography and editing. The scenes were crisp and clean, and the coloring followed a consistently pleasing color scheme.

Overall, it was a light and comedic watch.

However, there were a few moments where I found myself frustrated at the characters for not realizing the obvious, and some of the scenes felt a bit forced, both in storyline and in acting.

Therefore, I give ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ a three and a half out of five star rating. As mentioned earlier, you can watch this movie on Disney+

By Leticia Bugg Sam

About ‘Prey’ the movie:

‘Prey’ is about a girl named Naru and she’s a skilled warrior of the Comanche Nation.
She fights and protects her tribe against the most highly-evolved predators on earth.

Naru has a brother named Taabe and a mother named Aruka. Naru was invested into finding out who was the Predator ever since she was a little girl. She’s been keeping track of the Predator when it comes to earth and when it leaves, and what it does while it’s here.

She liked hunting but the more she liked hunting the more she wanted to hunt down the Predator. Everyone in her tribe doesn’t think that she can be a good hunter or can hunt at all.

One day when she was old enough, she decided to hunt the Predator but before that she had some practice and the taste of revenge before hunting it.

Characters:

Naru: Naru is a girl who’s a skilled warrior of the Comanche Nation. Her father died to protect his family when she was young in the movie and we never got to meet her father, or ever hear his name. His death was important because she wants to take revenge for his death.

Predator: The Predator is a creature that the tribes call the Predator. The Predator kills and takes out anything that gets in its way. The Predator is like half creature and half robot. He/she can go invisible so that people can’t see him/her. It’s weakness is when he/she doesn’t have its mask on it can’t really see or do anything without it.

Brother of Naru, Taabe: Taabe is a warrior of the Comanche Nation which means that he protects and hunts for his family. Though he was supportive of his sister, he didn’t really believe her when she talked about the Predator.

Naru’s mother Aruka: The mom is a woman who stays home and takes care of her family. She is also a woman that helps the tribe and makes medicine. She taught her daughter how to use medicine that she later uses in her fight against the Predator.

I would give this movie a 9/10. You can watch it on Hulu.

By: Manny Ochoa-Reeve

A broke high school teacher with cancer has a daughter on the way and needs to cook meth to provide for his family. The hit 2008 AMC show ‘Breaking Bad’ is popular again! If you go on social media you will most likely hear about this show. I watched it and I wanted to see what all the hype was about.

This TV show follows a high school teacher in New Mexico who has been diagnosed with cancer. He’s running out of money with the hospital bills, a baby on the way, and a disabled son. There’s no way he can make enough money from being an underpaid chemistry teacher. In order to make money, he starts using his chemistry knowledge and teams up with a former student to cook meth so he can start making money. At first, it’s going well and nobody is suspicious, but just like any TV show, this has many twists and turns.

A fan favorite, and my favorite part of the show, is the character development, because the characters change so much after the experiences they’ve had. Each character has their own personality without anything being confusing and stupid. If you had told me this was a documentary about a drug dealer, I would believe it because the characters and acting are so good.

Something really interesting about this show is that the characters come up with an idea, but you don’t know what that idea is, so then you can follow along and try to find out what will happen next. This aspect of the show adds so much mystery and tension to the show and when the writers reveal the outcome of the plan, it gives you a good or bad emotion, depending on the outcome of the plan.

The only thing that I can think of to make this show better is the pacing. The show has lots of big events that happen and whenever there’s nothing going on it can get boring. Whenever something really big happens in the story, and then tension just dies down, you get bored because of nothing happening.

I think that this show was a nine out of ten because of all the detail. The plot and characters made the show what it is today. Seeing the characters evolve and interact with each other really made the show for me. For all these reasons you can really see why this show is all over the internet.

By: Leticia Bugg-Sam

*Warning, spoilers and talk about suicide*

The TV show ‘Reservation Dogs’ took place in Oklahoma and is about four indigenous kids talking about how they want to go to California for better lives, but things take a wrong turn.

The four kids, Willie Jack, Bear, Cheese, and Alora, were on the reservation for a long time; there were five in the group before they called themselves the “Reservation Bandits”.

Let’s talk about the characters in the show and their lives.

They’re a family as the four grew up and called themselves family. Alora didn’t really have that much regular family. She only had an Auntie and an Uncle and her Grandma. We don’t know what happened to her father, but her mom, well, she passed away when Alora was little.

Her Grandma, in season two, passed away, and her Auntie wasn’t around much. Her Uncle also wasn’t around much.

Willie Jack, she had her mom and her dad but her brother passed away.

Bear had his mom, but his dad left to be a native rap artist and so he just had his mom.

Cheese, it doesn’t say if he had any family in season 1, but later on in the season, he meets a old woman in the hospital and so now he calls her Grandma.

Why they called themselves that.

They called themselves the Reservation Bandits because they steal things, but they do it for a good reason. On the reservation, they’re poor; they don’t have money. There are not that many jobs around there so the four decided to steal things and go to a person who gives them money to see if that stuff is viable.

One thing that was viable was copper; copper and street lights. Another thing that they stole was a chip truck and plenty of other things.

You may think to yourself “Why don’t they just get a job?” Well, where they live which is Oklahoma, on the reservation, they didn’t have plenty of jobs, or jobs that pay good money, and some of those jobs you have to have experience to get the position, and none of them had that experience. So that’s why they decided to start stealing things, and that’s the way they got money.

Now, let’s talk about how there were five in the group.

Well, before the TV show started, they started off as five, but as you get into the show there is an episode called “Hunting” where they start to talk about Daniel, which is Willie Jack’s brother. The reason they didn’t start off with Daniel in the show, was because Daniel, well, he had a rough life and his parents were fighting. He was going through a lot of things, like bipolar depression, and his parents fighting, that all affected him until one day he decided to give up life and attempt suicide. It was very sad, that’s why now, during season 1 and 2 there is only four.

They all decided they wanted to leave Oklahoma and go to California. Well, first it was Daniel’s idea to go but when the word got out, they all decided to go to California. But when Daniel died, they still decided to all still go for Daniel, and for better lives.

But that all took a wrong turn in the last episode of season 1.

Overall, I would rate this show a 10/10. You can watch it on Hulu.

By: Julia Sikorski Roehsner

The Riverview Theater is not your typical movie theater. Based in Minneapolis’ Longfellow neighborhood, Riverview Theater was established in December of 1948. Since then, though all projection and sound equipment has been updated, the building itself still reflects those mid-1900s.

Unlike many movie theaters, the Riverview has just one screen. Among its distinctive architectural features are an open-spaced lobby with couches, a copper drinking fountain, marble countertop tables, and a proscenium.

Concessions include popcorn, soft drinks, and candy. Popcorn is made fresh daily with real melted butter. All prices are extremely reasonable.

Not able to fit a movie into your schedule, or planning a fun stay-at-home night? The Riverview welcomes patrons to stop in whenever the theater is open to buy concession items to go, with popcorn one dollar off usual prices.

Though the theater was forced to close down in the middle of March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic–not reopening its doors until late May of 2021–the owner, Loren Williams, offered popcorn, slushies, and candy to go throughout the lockdown and placed inspirational quotes from movies and actors on the marquee.

Riverview Theater is constantly showing new movies that cater to all ages, both recently released movies and second-runs. Favorites of the past include ‘Everything, Everywhere, All at Once,’ ‘Thor: Love and Thunder,’ ‘Encanto,’ and ‘Frozen II.’

One of their biggest coming attractions is a Hitchcock Film Festival, beginning September 30th and ending October 6th. Classic thrillers will be shown multiple days throughout the week at varying times. Tickets are on sale now for just $7, discounted to $5 for seniors and students, as well as attendees of any Tuesday showings.

Included in the Fest are ‘Psycho,’ ‘The Birds,’ and ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much.’ It is an occasion you won’t want to miss.

The Riverview Theater isn’t just a movie theater; it’s a beloved and heavily supported part of the community. New customers are always appreciated and welcome.

The theater is within just fifteen minutes driving distance from Highland Park Senior High.

For more information, please visit:

• http://www.riverviewtheater.com/