Category Archives: Movies/TV/Theaters

Movies/TV/Theaters

Review on ‘(500) Days of Summer’

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By: Marina Yang

This is my review of the movie ‘(500) Days of Summer’ by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, produced by Mark Waters. The plot of this movie revolves around two co-workers/main characters, Tom (our protagonist) and Summer (the supposedly “antagonist”). Tom is the typical “lover boy”, falling heads over heels for his “soulmate”, believing love to be like a fairy tale. This is compared to Summer (his “soulmate”), who’s more laid back on the topic of love, and isn’t so serious but has her moments.

This movie is very intriguing as we revolve between the two, not truly knowing if either or both are the “antagonist” of this story; truly shaping people’s different perspectives and ideas on it. The two sides of the story are so simple yet complex, it causes the crowd to be in a dilemma between determining who’s truly in the wrong. Leading to no true answer.

But for me, I would say both are in the wrong and right, we are all humans with our own wants and morals. Tom took the friendly gestures to heart, taking them as signals that she “liked” him, and considered him as a “boyfriend”. While Summer used his devotion towards her for her own wants, only using him physically yet still seeing him as a “friend”. Though I can’t truly blame Tom for thinking like this, he really had no right to go berserk on her behalf and grow obsessive, because she never verbally confirmed the status of dating. But that does not make her innocent either. She played with him knowing he was affectionate towards her, easily being able to skim over conflict and start back at square one. I definitely found myself in a conflict at times throughout this movie, because although I resonated more with Tom, I understood Summers’ perspective too.

Despite my opinion, I would recommend this movie, like I said before it’s intriguing and I believe it could be a valuable lesson for some of us. It contains explicit language and behavior, but it lightly goes over it, so it’s not much of an issue.

I would give ‘(500) Days of Summer’ a 4.5/5. If you want to watch this movie, you will have to either buy or rent it as it is not streaming for free anywhere at this time.

Movies/TV/Theaters

My review on ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’

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By: Kendra Shanklin

*Warning: this review contains spoilers

‘The Recap’

‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ is a horror movie that was released on September 5th, 2025. It’s about a married couple named Ed and Lorraine Warren who were paranormal investigators and also help families get evil spirits out of their homes. The movie is rated ‘R’ for its bloody images, violent content, and terror.

In previous movie’s investigations, they have had bad entities but nothing ever experienced like this before. This movie’s investigation is one of the worst they had and is what brought their careers to an end.

In the first half of the movie there’s a flashback of Ed and Lorraine as they had investigated a haunted antique mirror. Lorraine goes up to the mirror and says to it that she can feel the spirit. When Lorraine touches the mirror she is sent into early labor, and out of nowhere she sees a vision of a demonic entity and her unborn child. She gives birth to her daughter Judy, who is a stillborn child but survives.

In the present day of 1986, Ed and Lorraine are now older and now already thinking about retiring from paranormal investigations. But they get a call from a family about how their daughter, named Heather, is getting haunted by a mirror that she was gifted from her grandparents.

A little while later Heather is about to blow the candles off her cake but magically it blows out by itself. Instantly she blames her sister Dawn. They start bickering but then they brush it off. Then, out of nowhere, the light from above Heather comes down and hits her in the head and she falls to the ground and starts bleeding.

A little while later Heather and Dawn are in the room together and Heather says that she feels weird about the mirror and hates how creepy it is. So they make a plan to take it out to the trash, The next morning everyone is eating breakfast and Dawn says she doesn’t feel good. She starts gagging and throwing up blood; everyone is shocked and screaming.

‘My Review’

When I saw the trailer of the movie I already knew I wanted to watch it because I always loved ‘The Conjuring’, and just scary movies in general.

But one thing I love about this movie is that it shows all the backstories leading up to what happened and even sometimes other backstories from the previous Conjuring movies. But I do wish it has a little more jump scares and things to make the movie more scary like how it is in the other Conjuring movies because it’s mostly just a lot of talking.

But either way the movie was pretty good and it’s based on a true story so that’s what makes it already kinda creepy.

If you like horror movies that are based on a true story and that scare you, I’d recommend this movie for you.

Remember that this movie is rated R because of the blood and terror, so if you’re watching this around children be careful. But overall, I give this movie a 9/10 rating

Thank you a lot for reading this review I really hope you’re willing to watch this movie after seeing my review 🤍You can watch ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, or in theaters.

Movies/TV/Theaters

Movie review of ‘The Truman Show’

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By: Norah Hoglund

*Warning: This review contains spoilers.

Brief Summary

Essentially, the plot of ‘The Truman Show’ is that a TV company adopted Truman as a baby and are filming his entire life through hidden cameras all over this island that he lives on. The whole thing is a set. He does not know this. He thinks he is just a regular guy. The producers staged Truman’s dad dying, which made him afraid to ever touch the water or even go over a bridge.

The reason he first became suspicious was that he saw his father dressed as a homeless man, many years after he died, which was, of course, the same actor that had snuck back onto the set. Truman begins to pay more attention to everything and realizes everyone is paying attention to him and doing everything for him. He has to find a way to trick the cameras and escape the island.

Review

‘The Truman Show’ is not a typical movie. The plot is very creative and the movie is a little bit unsettling and weird, but I like that about it. I also liked how captivating it was. I found myself on the edge of my seat a lot because Truman was so close to finding out the truth. I felt a lot of empathy for him because everyone was trying to make him think he was going crazy and he had just lived a whole life of mental manipulation.

I wish that they would have included more about what happened to Truman after he escaped the show, because I wanted to see him reunite with the girl he fell in love with but the movie did not go that far.

Something that didn’t make sense to me was how the producer of the show wanted Truman to come back to the show after he knew the truth. What would be the point of the show then? The viewers only liked it because Truman was not acting and he was real and authentic. I don’t understand why he was talking to Truman and trying to convince him to return to the island.

Overall, this was a very good and intriguing movie. I rate it an 8.5/10.

You can watch ‘The Truman Show’ on Amazon Prime.

Editorials/Student Voice, Movies/TV/Theaters

The ‘Barbie’ movie

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By Kate Tabor

Image created with Chat GPT

The ‘Barbie’ movie, directed by Greta Gerwig, is surrounded by a lot of controversy. For some reason, the exact point the movie was trying to make, went over so many people’s heads.

The movie itself is about the female experience, to put it simply. The societal expectations, the unfair standards women are held to, and the hardships that we as women all face and are not given enough credit for.

Most of the criticism about this woman is centered around the idea that Barbie is a doll with big boobs, and that’s it. She’s something to look at, something for young girls to be inspired by. What’s funny about that idea is the fact that when young girls actually are inspired by Barbie, or any other female icon, they’re criticized for it and beaten down.

What Greta Gerwig has done with the ‘Barbie Movie’ has made so many women and girls feel seen. She actually took Barbie, the women that so many women and young girls look up to, and had her experience what real women and girls experience. She captured exactly what it feels like to be a woman.

Not only that, but she turned it around in order for Barbie, what a lot see as just a pretty doll, and had her be inspired by a real human woman. What I’m trying to get across here, is that no matter who you are, as a woman in this society, you’re going to feel put down by society and its expectations of you. You could be the most beautiful and biggest female icon in the world, and still feel like you’re not enough.

This, of course, is not the only point that stands out in the movie, and most certainly is not the main point Greta was trying to get at, but it’s a very good one.

 No matter how beautiful and great and special you are as a woman, which every woman is, there are always men, and sometimes women, who will try to tear you down. All you need to remember is that every single woman feels the exact same way as you.

Movies/TV/Theaters

Review of ’13 Going on 30′

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By: Sasha Deans

*Warning: this review contains spoilers

’13 Going on 30′ is a romantic comedy and a coming-of-age movie that I really enjoyed watching. It’s about a teenage girl named Jenna Rink who feels awkward and unhappy on her 13th birthday. She’s not popular and just wants to fit in with the “cool kids” at school. At her kind of terrible birthday party, she makes a wish to skip all the hard and embarrassing parts of being a teenager and become “thirty, flirty, and thriving.” Then something magical happens and when she wakes up the next morning, she’s suddenly 30 years old, living in a big fancy apartment in New York City, in the year 2004!

At first, Jenna is super excited. She has a glamorous job at a fashion magazine, lots of stylish clothes, and everyone seems to think she’s super cool. But as she starts living her adult life, she realizes that being grown-up isn’t as perfect as she thought. Even though she has success and money, she also became a person she doesn’t like, someone mean, selfish, and not very nice to others and someone she just never wanted to be or thought she would be. She lost touch with her family and even with her best childhood friend, Matt Flamhaff.

Jenna finds Matt again, and even though he’s all grown up too, she realizes how important he was to her. He reminds her what it’s like to be kind, to love someone, and to be true to yourself and be a good person. She starts to wish she could go back and make better choices. Things get even more emotional when she realizes that she’s fallen in love with Matt all over again but he’s already engaged to someone else!

In the end, Jenna gets another magical chance. She goes back to being 13 again, right after she made the wish. This time, she doesn’t make the same mistakes. She makes different choices and stays close to Matt. The movie ends with a sweet and happy flash-forward where Jenna and Matt are all grown up and getting married. It’s a really nice ending that shows how second chances can change everything.

Some important themes in the movie are:

  • Be careful what you wish for: growing up too fast isn’t always a good thing.
  • Stay true to yourself: popularity and success don’t matter if you lose who you are.
  • Friendship and love are more important than fame and popularity.
  • People can change and it’s never too late to try and make things right.

I think ’13 Going on 30′ is funny, sweet, and kind of magical. It teaches some really good lessons, but it also has fun music, cool clothes, and funny moments. I would recommend it to teenagers and adults and kids of the 90s because they would definitely relate because it shows how growing up isn’t always what you expect, and being a good person matters more than anything.

You can watch ’13 Going on 30′ on Netflix.

Getting To Know/History, Movies/TV/Theaters

The tale and tour of Annabelle

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By: Jooney Freddieson & Aalovely Lor

Image created by Starryai

In paranormal history, there are many haunted objects around the world, but Annabelle the doll is the most captivating worldwide. Her legend included real-life investigations, movies, and as of recently, public appearances.

Behind the movies of Annabelle lie a backstory rooted deeply into Ed and Lorraine Warren’s paranormal research.

Ed and Lorraine have investigated over 10,000 cases of paranormal activities and originally presented their findings in Catholic schools. Ed was a self-taught demonologist and Lorraine was a medium. Together, they founded the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) in 1952.

Annabelle, originally an innocent Raggedy Ann doll, was gifted to a nursing student named Donna, by her mother in the 70s. Donna and her roommate started to mess with the doll, leaving it in different positions and even making it a tradition to scare each other.

However, their fun came to an end when they began noticing strange occurrences around her living area: the doll would change positions, move to different rooms, and leave notes behind, none of which Donna or her roommate had any knowledge of causing.

Donna and her roommate concluded that it was just their vivid imagination and dismissed the occurrences but questions started to arise when the doll’s movement became more pronounced—like shifting its arm entirely or relocating more often.

Donna, believing that she was targeted by demonic forces, flew to a renowned medium. They soon discovered that the doll was inhabited by the spirit of a young girl. Donna allowed the young girl to stay and even started to treat the doll like an actual child, often buying the doll clothes, toys, jewelry, and candy.

The haunting soon turned malevolent after attacking multiple times through paralyzations and scratches appearing over the chest.

After realizing the spirit was more than just an innocent child, Donna contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren—the paranormal investigators.

The Warren’s determined that the doll was in fact taken over by a demonic entity and its goal wasn’t to haunt people but to possess a human host.

They took Annabelle to their Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, preventing further harm. She was placed in a glass case with warnings not to touch, and it quickly became one of the most dangerous items in their museum.

The story of Annabelle gained popularity after its feature in ‘The Conjuring’, leading it to have its own spin-off series that begins with ‘Annabelle’.

The movie versions featured a porcelain doll, but the real Annabelle is a soft stitched Raggedy Ann. Despite the difference in visuals, the legacy remains the same.

After Lorraine’s death, the museum closed, and Annabelle remained inside. But as of 2025, Annabelle has begun going on tour as part of the traveling exhibit called “Devil’s On The Run Tour”, visiting various cities throughout the U.S.

The tour began in May and is scheduled to be on tour throughout the summer, allowing horror movie enthusiasts to meet the real Annabelle.

According to NESPR, the Annabelle tour was created in response to those with questions and in hope of funding the museum.

The tour brought concern to religious figures saying they shouldn’t treat the doll like a “novelty”, stating that it was disrespectful to provoke the doll after knowing the risks. But organizers of the tour have claimed that all participants were careful and all events were handled with caution.

This tour brought attention to social media, especially Tik Tok and Instagram. Many videos and post made about the tour gained millions of views, with people sharing everything from selfies to behind the scenes.

For more information, please visit:

Movies/TV/Theaters

Review on the movie ‘MA’

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By: Sasha Deans

‘Ma’, directed by Tate Taylor and starring Octavia Spencer, is a psychological thriller that blends teenage rebellion with creeping dread in a small-town setting. At first glance, the movie seems like a typical teen drama: new girl in town trying to fit in, high school parties, and awkward crushes. But it quickly takes a sharp left turn into something much darker and more disturbing.

The story follows Maggie, a seemingly sweet and well-behaved girl who’s just moved to a small town with her single mom. She’s adjusting to a new school, new friends, and the usual teenage awkwardness. Maggie is introduced to a group of classmates who are more outgoing and party-oriented. At first, she turns down an invite to hang out, choosing to stick with her mom instead. But when her plans fall through, she decides to give it a shot and go out with them just once.

That one night quickly snowballs into something much bigger when the group crosses paths with Sue Ann, a middle-aged woman who at first seems like any other local. They meet her outside a liquor store and, after some hesitation, she agrees to buy them alcohol. What starts off as a random favor turns into an open invitation to party at her house, in the basement, to be exact. She gives them rules: stay in the basement, don’t go upstairs, and one person stays sober. At first, the teens think they’ve hit the jackpot. A cool adult who’s not only letting them drink but giving them a place to do it safely? What could go wrong?

Well, a lot, as it turns out.

One of the strongest parts of ‘Ma’ is Octavia Spencer’s performance. She’s known for playing warm, empathetic characters, so seeing her take on such a twisted and unpredictable role adds an extra layer of tension. She plays Ma with such complexity you can sense there’s pain and trauma behind her actions, but that doesn’t make her any less terrifying. She shifts between friendly and frightening so fast that you never really feel safe when she’s on screen.

Visually, the movie does a great job of creating contrast. The bright, energetic scenes of teens partying clash with the dark, confined space of Ma’s basement. The further the teens fall into Ma’s world, the more unsettling everything becomes. The film uses silence and music effectively to build suspense, and there are moments that genuinely make your skin crawl not from jump scares, but from the slow, psychological unraveling of the situation.

Personally, I found ‘Ma’ to be a unique take on the thriller genre. It’s not your typical horror movie, it’s more about mood and tension than blood and gore. It plays with your expectations, especially with how it sets up Ma as a kind, slightly awkward woman and then peels back the layers to reveal something much darker. It also makes you think about how people carry emotional scars and how dangerous it can be when those scars are left untreated.

I do agree it kinda has it’s more cheesy parts though the movie is slow and the gore/scary stuff doesn’t happen to the very very end which gets kind of annoying if your a frequent horror movie watcher.

If you’re looking for a thriller with a strong lead performance, unexpected turns, and a creepy atmosphere that sticks with you after the credits roll, ‘Ma’ is definitely worth watching. Just be warned you may never look at a friendly stranger the same way again. I rate it a 3/5

You can watch on Netflix!

Movies/TV/Theaters

Review on the new Netflix show ‘Forever’

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By: Nereida Dominguez Remedios

*Warning: This article will have spoilers

The new Netflix show named ‘Forever’ is about this teenage boy named Justin Edwards (played by Michael Cooper Jr.). Justin goes to a party and reunites with his childhood friend named Keisha Clark (played by Levied Simone).

The first episode of ‘Forever’ starts off with Justin wanting to ask his parents Dawn (played by Karen Pittman) and Eric (played by Wood Harris) if he can go to a party. When he does go to ask, he can hear that his parents are fighting. When he walks in the room his parents go silent and when he asks to go out his mom automatically says no but his dad says yes. He listens to his mom and goes back into his room.

A couple of minutes later, his dad walks in telling him he can go. When he gets there, he realizes he is one out of two Black guys there after he sees his friend. They hang out and after a bit, his friend leaves. When he gets up, he realizes he see this beautiful Black girl and when she comes up to him he realizes she was his closest friend in elementary school. After a bit of talking, he asks her on a date and after a while they decide to go to the movies. When the movie is over, Justin finds out about a scandal that happened at Keisha’s old high school.

After watching the first episodes I was automatically so invested into the shows I couldn’t stop watching it.

In the show I really enjoyed watching the relationship between Justin and Keisha where you see them blooming together and then changing into a toxic relationship, then getting older and realizing they belong together, even though they’re going to different colleges.

Overall, watching ‘Forever’ for the first time was the best decision I have ever made. I really enjoyed it and I found it very interesting seeing Keisha and Justin’s relationship develop. Ten out ten and I would definitely recommend this to others.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Andor’ season 2

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By: Evie Beaumaster

The show ‘Andor’, is one of the many Star Wars shows that are available on Disney +. This show is a part of the ‘Rogue One’ storyline, and it follows Cassian Andor, one of the main ‘Rogue One’ characters. There are 12 episodes in season 2 that follow Andor on his adventures for the resistance.

This show was highly anticipated by many Star Wars fans, and it did not disappoint most people. On Rotten Tomatoes the show is rated at 97%. Critics say that this show continues the spark that we got from season one. It is praised for its story and acting and I would agree.

‘Andor’ takes place before the movie ‘Rogue One’ and follows the past of Cassian Andor before we see him in the movie. This season brings us closer to Andor and parts of the Star Wars universe that we haven’t seen before. In the first season we saw Andor become closer to the rebellion and become an important figure in the rebellion. We also see more development for characters from the original trilogy and ‘Rogue One’, such as Mon Mothma and Orson Krennic. 

This show has very unique cinematography and there are many landscape shots that show us more of this unique world. We see some new planets in this show as well, which help expand the Star Wars universe for fans. The music and darker lighting help set a dark mysterious theme for this show which really carry on to the character’s reality because most are just fighting to survive.

From the great success of season 1 comes yet another show of ‘Andor’. Many thought that season 2 had large expectations to live up to and I think that this show did a pretty good job. The music, cinematography and lighting all remind us of season 1 and it helps build on season 1. I would personally recommend this show and I think it’s one of the best series that has come from the Disney takeover of Star Wars.