We have had a big start to the year with movies. This year had some great blockbuster movies such as Black Panther. Black Panther had great cultural impact, sent a strong message about African culture, and also touched on how those who are oppressed are more likely to lash out and try to make things fair. The other purpose of Black Panther was to set up Infinity War.

Infinity War was another great Marvel movie. Marvel had been building up to Infinity War for ten years, and they managed to make it all pay off. Infinity War was great, but it does end on a cliffhanger. That cliffhanger will pay off in May 2019.

Now, we should look forward to the rest of 2018. In summer, the big blockbuster movies will be Ant-Man and the Wasp, Mission: Impossible Fallout, and Deadpool 2.

Deadpool 2 did come out in May, but I will count it as a summer blockbuster. Deadpool 2 was great and very funny. It also sets up the next X-Force movie.

The new Ant-Man movie will serve as one of the two lead ups to Avengers 4 (the other being Captain Marvel which releases in 2019). Ant-Man will probably end up as another perfectly adequate Marvel movie. It will probably be a predictably, funny movie that pleasantly kills a couple hours of your life.

Mission: Impossible 6 should be another movie similar to Ant-Man. I would not be surprising if there is some kind of twist in this next movie, but ultimately it will be another good addition to the Mission: Impossible series. Tom Cruise got injured on another stunt, and the movie will probably be another adequate movie, with some amazing stunts.

We should be ready for another great year of movies. I don’t know where the movie industry will go next, but we should just enjoy this era of comic book movies and spy thrillers. Movies will continue to evolve and it will be interesting to see where they go.

How to Hang a Witch is a fantasy book that is also connected to the real life history of the Salem witch trials. The main character, Samantha Mather, or Sam as she likes to be called, moves to Salem with her stepmother Vivian. Her father is in the hospital, in a coma, but no one knows what caused him to be in a coma.

Sam is descended from Cotton Mather who started the Salem witch trials, and is surprised when she meets “The Descendants” who are also connected to the trials, since their ancestors were of the accused witches. The Descendants are named Alice, Mary, and Susannah and they don’t like her at all, they even glare at her when they are in class.

In the book, Samantha deals with a curse that has killed members of both the witches families and her own family. In order to stop, and break the curse, she needs to figure out how it all started.

When she is looking around, she meets a classically  handsome looking boy who turns out to be the ghost of a boy who recently inhabited the house. Sam finds out that the ghost’s name is Elijah, and that he has a big connection to the curse that afflicts her and The Descendants.

The troubles start when it’s Sam’s first week in school, and she decides to offer pastries to her classmates to try and make new friends, just like her stepmother wanted. The class ends up getting sick and they blame her and her pastries, causing both the class and The Descendants to dislike her. This then leads the others to put Sam on the lists of suspects for all of the deaths going on. Sam later learns secrets about her past and even about close friends and family of hers that relate to her fate and the fate of  her father’s coma.

The author, Adriana Mather, is a real descendant of Cotton Mather who, like in the book, started the witch trials. She also descends from people who boarded and survived the Titanic. Adriana Mather usually uses her familie’s history in her writing; letting other people see through the eyes of her family to get a glimpse of their lives. Adriana Mather also has a second book, much like How To Hang A Witch. This second book of hers, has the same characters but has the plot of Sam being connected to the Titanic.

Many people loved the beginning aspect of Infinity War; how it instantly introduces the antagonist of the entire movie at the start. This movie was so exciting that many people all over the world started to pre-order tickets almost a month before its actual release. Surprisingly, the directors of Avengers: Infinity War, Joe and Anthony Russo, had moved the release date from May 27th, to April 27th. This influenced many people that were already planning to go watch it, get the chance to watch it early.

The main antagonist is known as, Thanos (played/voiced by Josh Brolin), and he drives the main plot in the movie. This movie introduces an enemy to the Avengers that they have never faced before, and they are going to face hardships. Many characters in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) have grown accustomed to their role in the movies and are fan favorites.

Avengers: Infinity War, the third installment of Marvel’s Avengers series, and has been a blockbuster hit! After only a day of its release, Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War had made over $10 million. Surprisingly enough, Infinity War had become the number one movie in the world, making, in total, over $600 million world-wide.

The total cost of making Infinity War was said to be around $300 – 400 million, which is said to make it the most expensive movie in the world. Because Marvel is now owned by Disney, Disney’s creative influence has been increased since they own both the Star Wars franchise and Marvel Studios. According to a box office website, Marvel stock had been down 2.8%, but after Infinity War it was raised to 3.2%. This demonstrates the amount of influence these movies have, in the way people all over the world show interest in movies that portray their childhood, or something they wished to see.

Personally, I loved the movie. I had watched the first movie, created by Marvel back in 2008, which was Iron Man. I loved the comics of Marvel and DC; they influenced my childhood, and to see people bring those characters, those ideas into a cinematic portal I personally love it.

The beginning of the movie was just shocking; to just see Thanos and the Black Order, overthrowing Thor and the Asgardians, that scene is forever engraved in my mind. The emotions put into that scene affected many fans, seeing important characters being killed off so easily and readily throughout the story amazed me.

The entirety of Thanos just made chills run down my spine, they made him as cool as he could be, the way John Brolin portrayed Thanos made me think of his voice when I would read the comics.

Even in the end of the movie, I personally didn’t think that the Russo brothers would make Thanos collect all six Infinity Stones in the first movie.

Overall, I’d give this movie a 9/10 rating. I wanted there to be more of an explanation to certain scenes, like the Red Skull, or the Soul Stone, all these pieces have little explaination behind them. I wanted more, but honestly this movie makes me think who is the bad guys, and who are the good guys, and makes me think of what the next Avengers movie will be.

Wes Anderson’s wonderful new stop-motion animated film is called Isle of Dogs. It’s set in the fictional Japanese city of Megasaki, where a recent outbreak of dog flu and snout fever has pushed Mayor Kobayashi to deport all canines to Trash Island. The mayor’s 12-year-old ward, Atari, pilots a tiny plane to the island, where he is taken in by a motley crew led by the stray Chief (Bryan Cranston), in order to rescue his own dog, Spots (Liev Schreiber). Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Courtney B. Vance, Fisher Stevens, Harvey Keitel, Bob Balaban, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, F. Murray Abraham, Frank Wood, Kunichi Nomura and Yoko Ono also give vocal performances in the film. Like Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, the film straddles the line between child and adult entertainment, but has more than enough comedy, charm, and beauty to satisfy both audiences.

The story is cute and very funny, but not as interesting as Fantastic Mr. Fox or any of Anderson’s recent great live-action films, such as Moonrise Kingdom or The Grand Budapest Hotel. There are two romantic plot lines (one human, one canine) which don’t completely land. In general, I felt that the entire film was a bit too fast-paced. There are a few tender moments between Atari and Chief; they could have been longer and there could have been a few more. So too with the scenes of Spots and his cannibal dog-pack. I wanted more time to enjoy being in Wes Anderson’s world. The director’s preoccupation with sex, alcohol and death is present, and especially humorous as it contrasts with the film’s less-adult themes. Still, Isle of Dogs is a film that will be remembered not for its plot, but for its gorgeous visuals.

On the surface, the film is a stop-motion animated Western pastiche of Japanese aesthetics, but neither the animation nor the pastiche are conventional. The animators use so many different materials (fabric dog-fur, cotton ball clouds, squirming octopus tentacles, scrap metal, colored glass, neon lights, intricately detailed murals) to create a world that is tactile and enchanting. Anderson’s signature symmetrical compositions, knolling, snap-zooms, flat camera movement, and chapter headings contribute to the creation of his fantasy world. These styles are combined in one scene which focuses on the composition of a knolled bento box; what should be boring is unpredictably fascinating. When the dogs brawl, we see a dust-cloud with randomly protruding limbs, as in a Looney Tunes cartoon. Anderson appropriates both traditional Japanese and Neo Tokyo aesthetics for his syncretic style. It transcends mere pastiche because it is unique and self-aware. There are two scenes which feature comical haikus, the second of which is, “What has happened / To man’s best friend / Cherry blossoms fall.” It is clear that Isle of Dogs is not exploitation.

The soundtrack by Alexandre Desplat, who has now done the soundtrack for Anderson’s four most recent films, as well as last year’s The Shape of Water, follows the same pattern. It includes Taiko drumming, themes from Kurosawa movies (Seven Samurai, Drunken Angel), a few pieces of classical music and some psychedelic music from the 1960’s.

Some have accused Wes Anderson of racism for his appropriation of Japanese aesthetics and his apparently stereotypical portrayal of the Japanese people in the film, which is alleged to include a (sincere) “white savior” narrative. The first claim is groundless; Isle of Dogs is transformative and its aesthetic is totally it’s own. There is more merit to the second claim, however, and while I was watching the film I agreed. The Japanese accent is mockingly exaggerated and the most of the Japanese characters are totally flat besides their irrational and virulent hatred for man’s best friend. In this situation, Tracy Walker, a naively confident foreign exchange student, appears to be mutts’ only hope. However, when she and her classmates march on stage to protest dog-deportation during one of Mayor Kobayashi’s Hitler-esque speeches, her visa is publicly revoked and she is hilariously humiliated. In the end, it is in fact Atari who saves the day. Rather than perpetrate a “white savior” narrative, as Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times claims, Tracy’s storyline is in fact a critical parody of those narratives.

On another level, Isle of Dogs is a film made specifically for the Japanese people. As Moeko Fuji explains in her article for The New Yorker, “What ‘Isle of Dogs’ Gets Right About Japan,” the mostly-untranslated Japanese dialogue features many jokes and references that would only make sense to natives. Also, the amount of Japanese people involved in the production of the film is unprecedented. When critics like Will Toledo of Car Seat Headrest calls it “racist” and “infuriatingly bad,” he fails to see how Isle of Dogs intentionally pokes fun at white people like him who think they know how a realistic portrayal of Japanese culture should be.

On the other hand, a few critics have overrated the film’s political impact. CJ Johnson of ABC Radio wrote that, “Anderson’s looking at war, retribution, notions of nationality and nationalism, isolationism, culture and individualism.” I don’t think it’s that deep; maybe I’m missing something.

★★★☆

On the Netflix show On My Block, there is a character named Olivia; a Mexican girl whose parents were deported.

There are screenshots of Ronni Hawk, Olivia’s actress, openly supporting Trump. She once tweeted “go @realDonaldTrump please bring America back!!!” In the early morning of when Trump was elected, she also tweeted two American flag emojis and one heart emoji.

Not only does she support Trump, but she also is not Mexican herself; she is white. On My Block has been praised for its near all person of color cast, but the crew still cast a white woman to play a Mexican character.

There is irony in having a Mexican character, whose parents were deported, being played by a white woman who supports Trump. Mexican people were just one of the many minorities targeted by Trump during his campaign and through his current presidency.

Many people have called for either Olivia to be killed off, or recasted, as this news about Hawk has surfaced. Not only does it play into misrepresentation, and the disadvantage minority actors face to play roles made for them, when a white person is cast instead, it also plays into this irony of such a progressive and diverse show supporting a person who believes in the oppression that Trump’s administration brings about.

Many fans have gone to Twitter to voice their opinions on the future of the character Olivia. Some want a recast, and others want her to be killed off. Many people have called for fans to stop supporting Ronni Hawk because she supports Trump and auditions for Hispanic roles as a white woman.

Since season 2 of the show has not come out yet, the fate of Olivia and Ronni Hawk has not been revealed.

Veronica is a new horror movie that was released on Netflix. There is a rumor that it is the scariest movie ever made. It is based on a true story, and it is said that only 1 out of 100 people can watch the whole movie. Experts are saying that it can kill weak hearted people. It is in the genre of “found footage” horror movies, and is doing pretty well right now.

During the eclipse, Veronica and two of her friends decide to play with a Ouija board. That was a serious mistake that they all will regret. The Ouija board opened a door for a dangerous spirit/monster/demon to come through. Veronica was the last one touching the cup, so she was the one who got possessed. Her friends stopped talking to her and Veronica didn’t know why.

While their mom works at a bar all day, Veronica is mostly at home with the kids, and that is usually when the spirit likes to strike. It was disguised as their dad, but soon the kids seen the sinister side of the monster. Multiple times, Veronica tried to ward it off and was successful but in the end she dies protecting her family.

Veronica is based on a true story about a unsolved case of a young girl in Madrid, in 1992, named Estefania Gutierrez Lazaro, who mysteriously died after using a Ouija board. Police were never able to crack their investigation. This made the movie a little bit more scary because you can’t shake it off and say it was fake; it was something that really happened.

While watching the movie, it was creepy, it wasn’t scary, it was just really weird. And the song they used n it, had nothing to do with it, which just made me laugh while watching the movie so Veronica wasn’t scary.

By Piper Gallivan and Alivia Arredondo

Spyhouse is a new coffee shop in the Highland area, just over a mile from school. This is the first expansion of a very popular location in Uptown Minneapolis. We wanted to see what all the hype was about and check it out.

Spyhouse had a very cozy and modern feel to it. For a few years, it has been known as a very hipster coffee shop in Minneapolis that is Instagram famous. This is understandable as it has a very cool color scheme and mugs that are recognizable from the Minnesota outline on them. They have the perfect blank walls for pictures, and there are also plants placed here and there. The building is pretty small, about the size of a large classroom, so it could easily be overcrowded on a busy weekend morning. It is the perfect kind of vibe for a study session alone or with friends.

Due to the fact that the Spyhouse is a coffee shop, it did not have actual food on the menu. However, you can choose from a selection of pastries that are located in a case in the front. There is a long list of coffees to choose from and a variety of teas. If you’re looking for a nice coffee or tea, the Spyhouse menu is guaranteed to have it.

We ordered a chai tea latte and a chocolate croissant. Both of these were very good, and we recommend them. The latte was sweet, but not overwhelmingly sweet, and it was very warm, but not too hot that it burned your mouth. The chocolate croissant was also very sweet and tasted very good when accompanied by the chai tea latte. It tasted fresh, and not like it had been made days ago. It also wasn’t very messy like many pastries tend to be.

The food and drinks of this cafe were also very aesthetically pleasing, which is a plus. Many people nowadays love to photograph their food, and this food was overall pretty to look at. It wasn’t messy, and the mugs were really cute along with the good lighting from the windows.

The customer service was very pleasing. When you walk into the door and start to order your food the workers there all seem to be really hipster and cool. They wait there for you to decide what you would like patiently, while at the same time, they are filling up coffee orders or are working the cash register. This contributes to the chill and hipster vibes from the cafe. When you are ordering, if you have any questions or concerns, the workers there are very open to answering your questions and making your coffee just how you want it. Once your drink is ready, they will bring it to the station where you pick it up, and make sure everything is in order and how you ordered it, before you go sit down. After the meal, once you’ve placed your dish in the dish bin, they will politely wave goodbye as you leave, if they get the chance.

Overall, we had a positive experience at Spyhouse. It has proved to be a good environment to chill with your friends or work on homework. It did not have a great variety of things to order, and the drinks did not really stand out, but the food was very good and the location was hard to beat.

The Maze Runner trilogy is an amazing movie series which stars a main character named Thomas, who goes through the struggles of trying to find out who/what WCKD is. Unknown to the boys who travel through the maze with Thomas, each step they take into discovering who/what WCKD is, the closer they are to either freedom or dying.

In the first movie, Thomas shows up in the Glade surrounded by a group of boys. The Glade is a pasture in the middle of a maze that serves as a shelter to the boys. The boys are lead by a leader named Albi, who as said by Newt, was the very first to arrive to the glade.

Thomas later meets the boys, and he finds both enemies and friends within the group of boys, and finds a connection with a boy named Chuck who serves as a sort of younger brother to Thomas.

Later on, Thomas learns of the “Runners” who roam the maze, and memorize each and every part of the maze, and try to find a way out. They are specially chosen to run due to the fact that they need to be fast and intelligent.

A girl shows up in the maze later on, with a note saying, “shes the last one.”

Grievers, who are a machine and monster mixed creature, that roam the maze at night, start coming out in the daytime, and Albi gets bit and dies.

Thomas doesn’t follow the rules that are laid down for him, but in doing so he finds out the secret of the maze.

(SPOILER)

Thomas and the boys including Theresa (the girl) escape the maze and it turns out that WCKD was the corporation that put them into the maze. The movie ends with the boys leaving the maze in a helicopter.

The second movie, The Scorch Trials, starts in the the facility where they put the boys to rest, but the boys don’t know that WCKD is part of the group that rescued them at the end of the last movie.

Thomas then tries to escape the facility, but he starts getting flashbacks of him and other children in tubs. He then realizes he was a part of WCKD as a scientist, along with Theresa.

Thomas makes a break for the exit as soon as he finds out the corporation who saved them was WCKD. The boys escape and travel into the Scorch, which is an area that challenges the boys in new ways.

Thomas and the boys, including Theresa, meet new characters who help them escape the dangers of the both WCKD and the Scorch.

As soon as they think they escaped WCKD, Theresa calls in WCKD. They come in, and a shootout takes place which leaves people injured. One of the boys is taken by WCKD, while Theresa leaves voluntarily.

In the last movie, I won’t spoil much! But I’ll give a short summary. The Death Cure starts with a train delivering kids to WCKD getting raided by Thomas and the gang. Thomas fails to get the missing boy, but does succeed in releasing some kids. WCKD then tries everything in their power to get Thomas back, since he holds to the key to curing the Flare Virus.

Overall, since The Death Cure just came out, I cannot say much, but it’s sad to see a trilogy that was popular, and an emotional journey for fans end. But I’ll say it ends on a good note.

Phantom Thread is Paul Thomas Anderson’s most recent film, starring Daniel Day-Lewis in his supposedly final role. Set in the London couture world of the 1950’s, it follows the turbulent romance of Reynolds Woodcock (Lewis), an obsessive fashion designer, and his muse and lover Alma (Vicky Krieps). Like the dresses Woodcock’s sewers meticulously craft, Phantom Thread is a work of fine beauty.

The first thing to notice is the atmosphere. The cinematography is, as one would expect of an Anderson feature, elegant and gorgeous. The camera seems to float through the various living rooms, sewing rooms, and spiral staircases in the Woodcock mansion. Or, in one incredible scene, it is fixed to the back of Woodcock’s car as he drives through the English countryside. Jonny Greenwood’s lyrical soundtrack plays in the background for nearly the entirety of the first 30 minutes, and for much of the rest of the film. Phantom Thread feels like a dream. As Mark Kermode has pointed out, Phantom Thread plays like a modern fairy tale, with its dresses and magic charms.

Rarely in film, and especially in dramas, are the aesthetic elements, image and sound, so masterfully composed as to be totally enjoyable on their own, despite plot. But, Phantom Thread’s aesthetic value is comparable to that of any art film. The simplicity of the film’s first act led me to believe that this would be the biggest compliment that I could pay it, but as the film progressed I realized that I was sorely mistaken. Phantom Thread is not only a beautiful movie, but a captivating drama.

Characters in Paul Thomas Anderson’s films never have simple (or healthy) relationships, a fact which becomes invariably more important as each film progresses. Consider Eddie and Maggie’s Oedipal romance in Boogie Nights and Daniel and H.W.’s abusive father-son relationship in There Will Be Blood. From a dramatic point-of-view, this is Anderson’s greatest skill as a filmmaker. His stories begin archetypal, but progress by subverting those very archetypes.

Phantom Thread follows this pattern. It is ostensibly a love story, but its perverse developments and sickly romantic ending lead us to reconsider love itself. In a Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross, Anderson is asked if he “sanctions” the actions Alma takes in order to get closer to Woodcock, and if he considers Alma and Woodcock’s relationship to be in any way “healthy.” Anderson responds that he is, “Groovy with love of all kinds.”

Anderson is not a psychologist, but a poet. If we are to appreciate Phantom Thread as a work of cinematic poetry, we must focus on the impression that it makes, and not on its underlying morality, which may very well be sick. We must not worry about justifying the beauty of Phantom Thread. Instead we should focus on appreciating it.

The film ends with a montage of Alma and Woodcock’s life together beyond the movie, and the multiple false endings within it create a sense of unending love and beauty. If this ove is unrealistic or even sick, it is at least beautiful. With Greenwood’s soundtrack in the background, it is reminiscent of the film’s beginning, creating a satisfying circular structure, at least aesthetically.

Lastly, it should be mentioned just how “funny” Phantom Thread is. Woodcock’s fussiness, and Alma’s waywardness, create a dynamic that is hilarious and adorable in its immaturity. Cyril, Woodcock’s deathly serious sister and business partner, also provides comic relief, as well as deep insight into either star. The stars act like two children, which may be why they are so likeable even when they do the most evil things.

So, Phantom Thread succeeds on all fronts. It is a feast for the senses and for the heart. I agree with Mark Kermode that it is, in fact, Paul Thomas Anderson’s greatest film yet.

★★★★ out of four

On Sunday night, Phantom Thread received one (for Best Costume Design) out of the six Academy Awards it was nominated for. It lost in the Best Picture and Best Director categories to The Shape of Water and its director Guillermo Del Toro, respectively. Though Phantom Thread deserved to win both, I am not totally unsatisfied with those results. The Shape of Water is a very good film, and Del Toro a talented director. Daniel Day-Lewis losing to Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) in the Best Actor category, however, was incredibly disappointing.

By: Sagal & Aniso

Black Panther is a really good movie. It is a Marvel movie, based off of the Captain America: Civil War movie. Most of the characters were introduced previously on the Captain America movie.

The majority of the characters were African American. The movie stood out because most of the cast was black, which made many people excited for its release.

The visuals of the movie were another reason why it was a major movie. The country Wakanda, where the movie takes place, is a beautiful country, and it’s special because Wakanda was never colonized. Wakanda has great natural resources like the healing plant they have. The people in the community have respect for each other and will fight for their country if necessary.

Our favorite character is Shuri, the sister of T’Challa/Black Panther. In the movie, she is really funny and outgoing. She worked a lot in the laboratory creating really cool things like: suits, imaginary cars, and planes. She’s very intelligent and she really loves her brother. She loves working with the stuff she created, and also loves messing with her brother.

Shuri and her brother have a really strong bond. There was a scene where Shuri was fighting Eric, and she was losing, and Eric tried to kill her. T’Challa saw what was going on, and ran over and started to fight Eric. He does not like people messing with his sister, and he proved it in that scene.

Eric is the “enemy” in this movie. Eric challenges T’Challa (the current king) for the crown to be king. When Eric was little, T’Challa’s dad killed Eric’s dad and left Eric behind, fatherless. That’s where all the hatred and revenge comes from.

To find out who gets hurt, and who gets to be king, you should go watch the movie. We personally think this movie is great, and should have a sequel.