Tag Archives: Review

Movies/TV/Theaters

Movie review: ‘The Mist’ (2007)

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By: Kumari Mia Wijetunge

*Warning: This review contains major spoilers for this movie.

Stephen King’s ‘The Mist’ was originally a book written in 1980 as part of his collection called ‘Dark Forces’. The movie was released in 2007, directed by Frank Darabont, it follows King’s original story where a mysterious mist, that coms with terrifying creatures, engulfs a small town. Darabont did change the ending giving a darker twist compared to the original story.

In Stephen’s book the ending was purposefully left open, creating a hunting sense of uncertainty. After escaping the grocery store where they had been hiding, David Drayton, his son Billy, and two other survivors, Amanda and Dan, drove through the mist, hoping to find a safe place free of deadly creatures. As they travel they run out of places to seek refuge and when they eventually pick up a faint word on the radio, “Hartford,” this gives them a feeling of hope that there might be a safer civilization somewhere. However, King leaves the reader with David’s final uncertain thought as they continue driving into the unknown. The fate of characters is unknown, creating a lingering sense of dread mixed with just the slightest possibility of survival.

In contrast, the 2007 movie ending is much darker. The protagonist David, and four other survivors run out of gas as they are in the mist. Believing there is no escape and fearing the worst if the creatures find them, David decides to kill the others including his son. Moments after he does this, the military arrives clearing the mist and saving everyone else. The twist is much more tragic, if David had just waited a little longer they would have all survived.

I personally really enjoyed this movie. Where the movie mostly takes place in the grocery store adds a really stressful and intense environment to the movie and really puts you on the edge of your seat. I would give ‘The Mist’ a 9/10.

You can watch ‘The Mist’ (rated R) on Amazon Prime, or rent it on other streaming services.

Tech/Games

JOYSTiCK Reviews Ep. 13 ‘Pokemon TCG Pocket’ – Poke(r)mon

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By: Daniel Kendle

Hey everyone, welcome to JOYSTiCK Reviews, the only gaming serial to specify that the “i” in our logo IS meant to be in undercase. Now, normally I like to write my articles in a calm, relaxed location, like a farm, or a lakeside resort. But today, in celebration of my subject matter, I’m currently writing these words whilst sitting in my newest point of interest: a casino!

Call me Mr. Pachinko Machine (and soon to be homeless), ‘cause I and others are hitting big here. I mean, you’ve got the man over at the baccarat station, a group of old ladies playing poker, a guy on the floor who’s probably more booze than human at this point…all the makings of a playground of wonder, magic, and cholesterol-induced heart attacks.

However, you may have connected the dots so far, and are currently expecting me to say that today’s subject endorses these barbaric practices. Well, I can’t say my verdict yet, as today we’re going to find out the answer to this controversial question: “Is ‘Pokemon TCG Pocket’ a form of gambling?”

Well, let’s find out! Readers, make sure to lock your wallet with an iron chain and throw away the key, because today we’re examining the game ‘Pokemon TCG Pocket.’

Prior to its release, the app was compared to the relatively-recent fad of NFT’s (non-fungible tokens). These were digital pieces of art that could be bought, and basically became exclusive to that person. They could fluctuate in price, and had the lovely distinction from other forms of art of being real dumb.

The fad died down after a year or 2, thankfully – prices plummeted, and most people stepped away from the practice after realizing this. The fact is that paying for digital pictures of monkeys in hats when you could just take a screenshot of one for free is a bad idea. But in its wake comes this app, which has caused many to wonder whether or not the Pokemon franchise has finally tossed its hat into the NFT ring.

If you’re still confused as to what the game’s contents are, they’re trading cards. The Pokemon Trading Card Game’s been kicking since the 1990’s, equal to the video games in terms of popularity. They’re a global phenomenon, so much so that even your’s truly has collected them.

This year I began collecting the physical cards again; I don’t play the card game itself (though I might try to after playing today’s subject), but I just really like the art on the cards. It’s a hobby that I carefully regulate: I prefer buying randomized booster packs, so it’s important to not dish out ludicrous amounts of dough for a chance at some pricey cards. I’ve seen people get addicted to buying packs, and I don’t want to go down that path.

That leads us to ‘Pocket’ once again. Some already accuse the physical card game of promoting child-friendly gambling, so when you take the medium to a digital front, it’s not a very good look. But today I’m on the defensive, here to explain that things aren’t always black and white.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokémon

Never mind.

Let’s take a look at ‘Pocket.’ The game – or software, as I’ll use alongside synonyms interchangeably – is a 2024 title released to mobile devices this October. It centers around opening packs of Pokemon cards, collecting them, and using them to build decks. These decks can be used in a simplified version of the physical card game, only now able to be played against both online players and computers.

Along with these fundamentals, you can also finish missions by completing specific parts of the prior activities listed, gaining rewards from doing so. Finally, you can use the Wonder Pick feature to see what other people around the world have pulled from packs. Using one of the game’s “currency” systems, you can spend a few points to be able to randomly select a copy of 1 of the person’s 5 pulled cards. This means that both of you get a card; you don’t steal cards from other people.

To start, I think that the act of opening booster packs is…fine? Every 12 hours you get a free pack, meaning that you get 2 per day. When you select the expansion you want to pull cards from (for now there’s only 1), you select 1 of 3 types of packs, each with different cards.

Finally, you get a circle of packs, in which you choose 1 to open, receiving 5 cards. This system works fine, I suppose. I think that having 3 different types of booster packs in each set is weird, though – in the physical card expansion, each has multiple different packs with different art on the front, similar to the digital ones here. The difference is that each booster, despite the different cover art, has a random assortment of the same pool of cards, which is much larger than the 3 mini-pools in ‘Pocket. ’ It’s a strange choice, and I can’t say I’m a fan; it just makes collecting cards take much longer, since you’re more likely to get repeats. There is overlap with more common cards between the 3 types of packs in the expansion, but the rarer cards are exclusives.

I’ve heard conflicting reports on whether or not the packs generate the cards inside before you open it or after. I’d prefer if they were generated upon opening the booster, but since the game’s so new, I’ll need more time to look into this. If they generate before opening packs, then I guess having the circle of packs you get to choose from makes more sense, but I like that less.

Still, I wouldn’t say any of this equates to gambling necessarily – you can’t directly pay for packs, and the cards you get aren’t exclusive to you; theoretically, there’s an infinite amount of cards a person can pull. They’re not the same as normal memorabilia, where eventually an artificial item of any kind stops being produced. Until the inevitable wheel of time ends, or – more unlikely – ‘Pocket’ and Pokemon as a whole stops being profitable, digital cards will be procured forever.

Going back to the first point for a second, you can’t spend money on the packs. The closest you can do is buy a membership that allows you a 3rd pack every 24 hours. I don’t have it, but I still hold my tongue on calling it immoral. Really, breaking down the software’s transactional components reveals its relative innocence. If people are to accuse ‘Pocket’ of enforcing betting, then they might as well do the same for the physical card game, which, seeing as it’s been around since the late 90’s, is likely a dead argument. The only difference between the digital and physical card games is in the mediums.

In short, the game endorsing gambling is, in my opinion, not true, and never really has been for the card game. In order to be defined as such, the packs would’ve needed to not reward players with anything; basically just taking their money in exchange for a chance at a prize. Instead, we get cards, and on top of that can use them to play a game. And rounding it all off, you can’t buy packs with money and get them for free, with an added option to buy the ability for more free packs.

Collecting the cards is fun, though – it’s part of the reason I have issues with getting them in the first place. A fair amount of card art was recycled from older, physical sets for the digital game’s first expansion, but both the old and new art for cards looks wonderful. In particular, I quite like the Lapras Illustration Rare card, since it’s my favorite generation 1 Pokemon.

This veers into complaining about the booster opening again, but I do think that 5 cards for each pack is much too small. Completing each expansion and trying to pull cards in order to create a deck is hard when the chance for duplicates is high. For some reason, I’m drawn to there being 7 in each pack: the extra 2 would go a long way in helping obtain deck material-monsters. But overall, collecting is a part of the game that I enjoy a ton. It’s fun seeing my count go up, scrolling down my grid, and hyping myself up to try and pull a rare card. Those rare cards often have effects in battle that make them stronger than other comparable cards, so they’re not just pretty, but very useful in ‘Pocket’s’ PVP (player vs. player) meta!

Speaking of which, I said earlier that I don’t know how to play the physical card game, but surprisingly-enough, I think my favorite part of the game is battling others! The simplified mechanics work well for a mobile experience, and it’s clear that the developers intended matches to be quick and exciting, something that you could play in between classes, for example.

I’m not going to go over the rules due to the time, but in short, it’s a lot of fun. If you get the mobile game, you unlock the ability to battle others when your account reaches level 3, so by opening a few packs and completing the built-in tutorial for the match system, you’ll be able to quickly get into battling. I’ve never played them, but I can imagine ‘Pocket’s’ battling system being reminiscent of a slimmed-down version of ‘Hearthstone, ’ or the now-deceased ‘Artifact.’

But again, since it takes so long to obtain a substantial amount of cards to build a solid deck with, it can take a while to get into online matches. Sure, you get some starter decks, but you don’t actually get the cards from them, just a limited amount of times you can rent them.

Despite that hiccup, battles are enjoyable, along with the rest of the game. ‘Pokémon TCG Pocket’ is a software that, even with flaws, is a fun way for someone to collect and play the card game without necessarily having to spend money. With its simpler battle system that creates quicker matches, the game is a great way for people, whether they’re veterans or newbies to the franchise, to connect with and have fun with friends and family. ‘Pokémon TCG Pocket’ is out now for Android and iOS devices, and is free to play – unlike these here casino games. In the time you’ve been reading, I’ve been kicked out. Turns out that puppeteering and hacking a digital poker game into always folding each turn warrants defenestration. It’s not my fault I couldn’t see the big red sign at the building’s entrance reading ‘DO NOT CHEAT:’ I’m colorblind!

But you know, maybe all of this talk about gambling and “rigging the system” is futile. As I sit here, wet and glass-covered while a troupe of rats gnaw on my left big toe, I think that maybe getting into hysterics about the humanity of casinos is pointless. Maybe instead of arguing for or against this fallacy of the human experience, we can enjoy life for what it is, ignore it, and live on stronger without the temptations of greed. And maybe we can enjoy battling with and collecting cards in ‘Pocket’ without delving into frantic eulogies about NFT’s and the safety of the children. I give ‘Pokemon TCG Pocket’ a 7/10, and look forward to continuing enjoying it – now without the burden of guilt, and instead the hedonism of connection with others.

I’ve been Mr. Whatshisname, thank you for reading today’s JOYSTiCK review, and since my bank account’s digits have receded into the negatives, for dinner tonight I’ve got a pair of rats who’ve got a skillet and oven with their names on it. Take care, and I’ll see you next time.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Elf’ movie review

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By: Lily Sheldon & Sophie Elmstrom

*Warning: This review contains spoilers.

The movie ‘Elf’ is a comedy Christmas movie starring Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell. It was directed by Jon Favreau and was released on November 7th, 2003. This movie is a fan favorite amongst many Christmas fans and we will give you a rundown.

The movie starts when Buddy the Elf (Will Ferrell) is accidentally transported to the North Pole as a baby and raised with Santa’s elves. One elf (Bob Newhart) in particular stands up and becomes Buddy’s “father”. Buddy realizes that he doesn’t fit in when he starts towering over the elves, so he travels to New York to find his real father (James Caan). Santa (Edward Asner) gives Buddy a warning ahead of time informing Buddy that his father is on the naughty list and Buddy is determined to fix him.

Buddy goes through quite the journey while he is walking to New York City, including a scuffle with a local raccoon. Once Buddy arrives he soon realizes that people aren’t as nice as they seem to be. He visits his father’s office in the Empire State Building but Buddy is quickly kicked out by the security. With nowhere to go Buddy finds himself at the store Gimbels and gets mistaken for a worker at their Christmas area. He meets Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) who shows a cold personality towards the Christmas season and is just at her job for the money.

Buddy learns that Santa is visiting the store the next day and spends all night setting up decorations for “Santa”. Buddy then causes a brawl when he realizes this mall Santa is not in fact the one he knew in the North Pole. Buddy goes to jail and his father picks him up with resentment towards him, but he gives in and takes Buddy to get a DNA test where they soon discover that Buddy is in fact his real son.

Once Buddy finds a place to stay with his father and brother he begins hanging out with Jovie a lot more and introduces her to why Christmas is the best holiday. They soon fall in love with each other.

Walter, Buddy’s father, works as a publisher and gets fired once Buddy runs away from home and he has to leave his meeting to search for him. Michael (Buddy’s half brother) is concerned and scared for his safety while he and Walter frantically search for Buddy. While on this search, on Christmas Eve, Santa’s real sleigh crashes in Central Park, and Buddy and his family are left to save Christmas. In order to save this holiday they must make the holiday spirit come back to life as this is how Santa’s sleigh is powered. Many people in the park begin to sing Christmas carols and it generates enough energy to power his sleigh. Christmas is saved and Buddy makes a book about his adventure to New York with his father’s publishing company. Buddy marries Jovie and they bring their newborn to the North Pole to visit Papa Elf.

This movie received 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 7.1/10 on IMDb. Some audience reviews loved the humor aspect of the movie, and the light-hearted feel. People also really enjoyed seeing Will Ferrell as Buddy, as they think he fit the role very well with his humor. Reviewers think that this is one of the best Christmas movies out there and it will put you in the holiday spirit with a smile on your face.

Overall, we rated this movie a 10/10. It is very funny, and a classic Christmas movie. We have both watched this movie countless times, and it never fails to keep us entertained. We think the story line is very unique and that they casted the movie perfectly. This movie gives us more Christmas cheer every time we watch it. We are so glad to have this heart-warming comedy for the holiday season.

You can watch ‘Elf’ on Hulu.

Music/Concerts

“Thick of it” by KSI

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By: Samson Belihu

KSI, a famous British rapper, released a song called “Thick of It” in early October 2024 connecting it to his life. It got a lot of attention for its catchy rhythm and people created their own videos with the song acting out how the song goes especially the part that goes “From the screen, to the ring, to the pen, to the king…”.

Let’s break down how that line probably connects to KSI’s life.

“From the screen”: Likely referring to when he started out as a YouTuber and he gained much fame through his video.

“To the ring”: Here, KSI is talking about his venture into boxing, where he participated in high-profile matches, including going against his fellow YouTubers and celebrities.

“To the pen”: This part is when he’s talking about how he wanted to be a musician, and that’s exactly what he became. He wrote songs that he personally was able to express himself through his lyrics.

“To the King”: This symbolizes how he has succeeded in many fields as a “king” of the industry.

The song “Thick of It” is a hit, but not for the reason he wanted it to be. A lot of people find it as a funny song, and social media has transformed it to how they felt, from a life story, to a catchy humorous song.

Many people have added their own twist to their songs. This includes a 1950’s version, 90’s Rap song version, Rock song, pop version, Kanye West version, and many more doing whatever they can to add their own pizzazz into the song.

In my opinion, I find the original song very catchy, and also a bit humorous only because of the way social media has shaped the song. KSI is very talented when it comes to many things, but when you publish songs on social media you have almost no control over how it’ll transform into an amazing song or just like this song, pretty catchy with the twist of it being funny.

Movies/TV/Theaters

Movie review of ‘Twilight’

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By: Max Cahoon & Norah Hoglund

Overview

We did a review on the movie ‘Twilight’. The movie came out in 2008. It’s based on the book ‘Twilight’ by Stephanie Ann Meyer. The 2 main characters, Bella and Edward, are played by Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The movie is 2 hours and 10 minutes long, which is pretty average for a movie.

Summary

This story starts off by the main character, Bella Swan, introducing herself. She is moving from living with her mom in Arizona to living with her dad in a small, rainy town in Washington called Forks. She immediately notices the Cullen family at school, a family of adopted children with a local doctor as their father. She notices how beautiful and graceful they all are and is curious about them. She goes to her next class and sits next to Edward, one of the Cullen boys. He doesn’t talk to her and tries to stay as far from her as possible, and she wonders what she did wrong.

He doesn’t show up to school for 2 months, until one day he comes back and talks to Bella in class. He says he wants to be friends with her, but it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to be friends with him. They start talking to each other more and she notices strange things about him. His eyes change colors, his skin is very cold and he doesn’t want her to touch him, and when Bella almost gets hit by a car, she notices he got from very far away to right next to her in a second and blocked the car from hitting her.

He won’t tell her anything. She and her friends visit the beach on the Quileute tribe reservation and she hears one of the boys there mention the Cullens. She decides to ask a boy she knows about the Cullens, and he tells them the legend the tribe has about them being vampires.

The next Monday, she confronts Edward about it and it’s true. Edward explains that his family doesn’t drink human blood, only the blood of animals. He also admits that Bella’s blood was the most appealing he had ever come across and he had a hard time not killing her. Even so, they now love each other and she trusts him enough to believe he wouldn’t kill her.

They start acting like a normal couple would, and then one day Bella went with the Cullen family to a vampire baseball game. Another group of vampires came and found them, and these ones did drink human blood. The Cullens tried to hide Bella but they found out she was there. One of them was a tracker named James, and he hunted down humans. He wanted to hunt down Bella now.

The Cullens split up and Bella goes with 2 of them to Arizona while Edward and his brother and father go hunt James. In the end, he finds her in Arizona and tries to kill her, but Edward gets there in time to save her. She has a broken leg and lost a lot of blood. Edward sees how dangerous it is for Bella to be with him, and it’s clear he thinks leaving her would be the best option.

Review

This movie was very intriguing. There were a lot of small conflicts that intertwined with the main one, like the fact that Bella was so appealing to Edward and Edward’s family thought it was a bad idea. It also kept you wanting to see what was going to happen next.

The main conflict wasn’t introduced until pretty late in the story, but it was very intense. The story didn’t come to a full resolution.

The acting was pretty bad in our opinion. It was very corny and way too dramatic at times which got very tiring to watch.

Overall we rate this movie a 7/10 and would recommend it to anyone that is interested in drama, romance, and vampires.

You can watch ‘Twilight’ on Amazon Prime.

Books/Art, PRIZM

“We’re Alive” review

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By: Munira Ahmadad

*Warning: this review contains spoilers for the short story “We’re Alive” (located in the PRIZM section of the Plaid Line)

“We’re Alive” is a short horror story written by HPSH student Daniel Kendle, and this article is a review of it and a discussion of my thoughts about the story.

The short story begins with an unnamed narrator in a jungle, they’re inside a garden sanctum when they watch a monstrous creature made of the jungle’s organic life become animated. Initially the being is referred to as the jungle’s newest creation which led me to think it never existed before, but it’s soon described as ancient and something of a folk story. The narrator watches, petrified and intrigued as it moves towards them. Spores surrounded them as they stared at each other. After the narrator’s reluctant escape, a month later, they remain haunted by the interaction with the garden’s monster and become unable to function normally. After dreaming of being with the creature in a physical and emotional loving bind, we see the narrator lose their grip on reality and by the end they harm themself with a crazed desire to return to the garden.

The story truly succeeds at providing the descriptions necessary to paint a detailed visualization of the scenes in the story. I don’t read much horror, but the narrator losing their grip on reality is a relatively common trope. After reading through, I wondered if the inspiration for this work was “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe since both use obsession as its element and have narrators you know next to nothing about. The plot itself reminds me of “The Black Cat”, also by Edgar Allan Poe.

One of the very first things that made me feel iffy while reading through was the literary diction. Written in the narrator’s perspective, they describe how they felt, what they did and thought, and what was going on. Since it’s all in past tense, I assumed this was a retelling of what happened, which explained the dramatic storytelling style. But as the speaker describes their loss of sanity due to their growing obsession, it seems as though readers are going along with the scenes at the same time as the narrator. This makes the descriptive writing come off as pretty verbose. The flowery language is prioritized over the plot which makes the first time reading through unsatisfactory, especially since the goal of the story was to capture the essence of what an all-consuming obsession feels like.

Speaking of the goal of the story, the attempt at disorientating storytelling by the narrator did not invoke any feelings of repulsion, suspense, or horror in me. It’s very tell-not-show, like instead of showing us the fear the narrator was experiencing during their interaction with the monster via description (hands shaking, heart pounding, stomach churning), we’re just told directly by the speaker that they were afraid. The conflicting feelings the narrator had towards the garden creature was very clear, to the point it feels tedious. Scary stories aren’t supposed to hold the reader’s hand and walk them through the entire thing.

For all the time spent making sure the audience was absolutely certain the narrator had an obsession, they aren’t given much of a reason to care. When we have an unnamed narrator of unknown origin, you’d assume their narration would give you more information of who they are and their personality as you read along. However, in this short story the narrator’s identity didn’t seem to matter. We’re given vague ideas about the characteristics of this person, such as their acutely aware of their flaws, immediately scorning their humanity and views themselves as a “mangy ape” in the presence of the monster that becomes their obsession. They call themselves a hedonistic wretch, and we just kind of have to take their word for it.

Overall, though, I liked reading this. Because I have my own bias against horror, I wasn’t the target audience, and so I probably didn’t enjoy it as much as someone who likes horror. I think the author definitely is a skilled writer and has the descriptive skills to create vivid imagery for the reader to enjoy. I feel as though Kendle would be an excellent fantasy writer and I hope he continues to share more of his work. This review was for fun and from the perspective of a reader despite my criticism, which itself may be flawed.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND’: REVIEW

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By: Charlotte Bistodeau

‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’ was released in 1984 and was Hayao Miyazaki’s first ever film he did. It’s also the first ever film I watched by Miyazaki followed up by ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ and the like.

‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’ is a post-apocalyptic fantasy based in a world covered in plants that make up the Toxic Jungle. Nausicaä is a princess who loves her people of the Valley of the Wind and would do anything to protect them. But she also loves the insects of the Toxic Jungle and knows that harming them would only hurt her people.

‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’ has got to be my favorite movie and I must have watched it over twenty times. From the writing to the screenplay, I love it all. The story is about a girl, Nausicaä, who is taken as captive and ends up in the middle of a feud between two other empires, Tolmekia and Pejite. In the end, she ends up getting back to the Valley of the Wind and stopping the Ohmu, an insect from the Toxic Jungle, stampeding across the land destroying everything in their path. I love Nausicaä’s character and what she believes. She is strong and caring and she would do anything to protect her people, even if it meant dying.

I also think that my favorite sound track from any of Miyazaki’s films has to be from this movie. All the songs convey different feelings that you can really feel.

I also have to talk about the voice acting. I have watched it in the original Japanese and the English version and I have to say, surprisingly, the English version is better. Nausicaä’s voice in the Japanese version is extremely small and baby like, which doesn’t suit her at all, while in the English version she sounds like an 18-year-old girl, which she is. The audio quality is also way better and also the subtitles on the Japanese version are really bad. For example, there is little emotion and some of the sentences don’t make any sense whatsoever. It’s one of the only films where I like the English dub better.

Overall, I rate this movie a 10/10 but I might be a little biased. The only real complaint would be that they did skip over some parts in the book, which Miyazaki wrote. But it doesn’t take anything from the movie, probably because Miyazaki was the author of the book and one of the directors of the movie.

You can find the movie on Max, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube TV, and Google Play Movie. You can also purchase the Blu Ray/DVD set for 15 dollars at Target. In any case, I would recommend the movie to anyone, young or old.

Books/Art

‘Scythe’ book review

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By: Kimberly Mascote Rangel

‘Scythe’ is a novel set in a future where humanity has conquered death. Disease, war and misery are things of the past and people can live forever. However, to control the population a group of people called Scythes are tasked with gleaning or killing others.

The story is about two teenagers Citra and Rowan, who are chosen to be Scythes. They must learn the art of killing and understand the weight of their responsibilities. Throughout their journey they do intense training.

Neal Shusterman creates a fascinating world with complex characters and thought-provoking themes. The book explores the value of life, and the nature of power, and the characters make their struggles feel real.

The plot is fast paced and full of twists, keeping readers intrigued. The writing is clear and engaging, making it easy to follow the story. Shusterman’s world building is detailed and imaginative, giving a vivid backdrop for the characters’ adventures.

Overall, ‘Scythe’ is a thrilling and thought provoking read that raises important questions about humanity and mortality. It’s a must read for fans of dystopian fiction and anyone looking for a story that challenges the way we think about life and death. I give this book an 8/10.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Frozen’ (2010) movie review

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By: Sophia Elmstrom & Lily Sheldon

*Warning: this review contains spoilers

This title may sound misleading, but this is not what you think this is. The movie ‘Frozen’ is a psychological horror made in 2010. It was directed by Adam Green, and stars Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers, and Emma Bell. ‘Frozen’ is rated R and is very violent. This movie would not be suitable for young people or if you get grossed out easily.

Here’s a rundown of the plot. ‘Frozen’ features two young men, Dan and Joe, and a young woman, Parker. Parker and Dan are dating and Joe and Dan are best friends. The three decide to go to a ski resort to enjoy a day on the slopes. On the night of their last day, the friends convince the ski lift operator to let them on the lift for one last run down the mountain. The operator went on break and a new guy came to take his place. The operator told the new guy that there were still 3 skiers who needed to come down. The second operator mistakes 3 mingling skiers for Dan, Parker, and Joe and he shuts down the chairlift, leaving the 3 friends trapped. To make matters worse, the ski resort was closed for the whole weekend.

The friends start to get worried and realize they will be there for the whole night if not the whole weekend. The 3 call out for help, and they see a snow plow arrive under them, but it fails to notice the stranded group on the lift. The group realizes they are going to have to find a way down the mountain.

Dan jumps off the lift in an attempt to get help, and breaks his legs once he realizes how far down it really was. With Dan now unable to move, Parker and Joe try to find a way down to help him. A pack of wolves soon arrive and Joe and Parker are unable to help him, so they have to listen helplessly as their friend gets torn apart by the wolves.

The next morning, Joe tries climbing on the chairlift cable to find a way down. He makes it to the support pole and climbs down. The wolves come back but he fights them off with a ski pole. Joe slides down the mountain on Dan’s snowboard, but the wolves follow.

Now Parker is alone on the ski lift, and she tries to escape by getting to the support pole. As she stands up on the chair, the bolts disconnect and the lift falls a little, and now is hanging on by a single wire. Parker jumps off and is able to take the fall, but the lift then falls on her ankle. Parker pries the chair off her foot, and crawls down the mountain to find help. She gets to the street and flags down a car to take her to the hospital. Parker is relieved to finally be rescued and to get home safely.

This movie received a 63% from Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.5/10 from IMDB. We believe this is way too high of a rating and think that this movie was truly very bad. Many people say it reminds them of a movie they have seen before, ‘Fall’. We have seen this movie and agree that it is very similar, almost like they copied the plot of ‘Fall’ which follows two girls who get stuck on a telephone pole. Many other reviewers rate this movie 5 stars out of 5 and say they loved the movie. This movie was too gory for our liking and was just a bad plot line. Although it was very psychological and kept us wondering the entire movie we just do not get why people gave it such high ratings.

Overall, we rate this movie a 2/10 because the plot was boring and way too violent with many scenes involving very descriptive noises and images. We disagree with all of these ratings and we do not understand why people liked this movie so much. You can watch ‘Frozen’ on Prime Video.

Music/Concerts

‘The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We’ album by Mitski – Background information

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By: Christine Yang

Information about the album:

The album ‘The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We’ was made by the artist Mitski. The album was released on September 15, 2023, which was her comeback and recent album after releasing an album called ‘Laurel Hell’ in 2022. ‘The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We’ has eleven songs in the album. One of the songs in the album was one of the biggest hits after the release, and the song was “My Love Mine All Mine” with 560 million Spotify streams.

Songs:

“Bug Like an Angel”:

The process of the track, “Bug Like an Angel” has mainly four chords throughout it (chords: d flat major, a flat major, e flat major, b flat major) because the song is about addiction, and Mitski wanted to show it in a musical way that addiction is basically a cycle that you’re just kind of stuck in, it being repetitive over and over which doesn’t end, so the intention behind having the same chords repeating hopefully leads the listener to think what it’s about. Mitski also wanted a little twist/change by having the vocals in the middle of what we think is the chord progression; she wanted that twist to give a feeling of being off balance because the song is about addiction which isn’t a balanced state.

She started creating the song by having a descriptions so it’s easy to paint a picture in the listener’s head; she wanted the picture of someone drinking something out of a glass and which there’s stuff left. While they are drinking out of it, they realized there’s a bug stuck at the bottom of the glass, and because it’s stuck it looks like there’s an angel in the sky. She chose the angel reference so it can set the tone since later on in the song she says something about God and devils, which is supposed to give the listener the option to take two main meanings (positive or negative, pessimistic or optimistic) away depending on what they want out of the song.

After the the description Mitski wanted the protagonist to say something about themselves as an introduction, later on in the song there’s a choir part coming out of nowhere to be the first big emotional moment saying the word “family” with a whole choir out of nowhere, to evoke that sort of intensity with a choir as well. Then it goes back to the corporation and then the second verse, which is a spot to bring another character in and have the protagonist, who we know, point them out saying like, “Hey what’s the matter? You’re looking like a sticker stuck on a floor somewhere”. Which basically means like the person doesn’t look like they’re having a good time, like they look sad, despondent, and that phrase basically brings back to Mitski thinking stickers were so important to her when she was a kid, and how sad it’ll be if some kid’s precious sticker was stuck on a floor and couldn’t get it off. Basically, this brings up how the protagonist faces challenges which make them suffer, and that’s where the “God and devil” reference shows up, saying “is the suffering from God or the devil”, in the third verse. And that’s how the song “Bug Like an Angel” was created.      

“Buffalo Replaced”:

“Buffalo Replaced” is a track that was supposed to give an idea of how the album, ‘The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We’, is like. The track specifically— Mitski and her producer, Patrick Highland, was really inspired by ‘The Velvet Underground’. While the inspiration was added at the beginning of the song, Patrick also added keyboard sounds at the end too, which added something beautiful at the end, in Mitski’s opinion.

“Buffalo Replaced” might be about being dependent/leeching onto someone, and having struggles without the person that you rely on. 

“Heaven”:

“Heaven” is meant to exemplify the little time someone has with the person they love, and to cherish that time and leave the issues of the world outside the room to enjoy the beautiful love they share, Mitski has stated.

“Heaven” was an old song, but the beginning of the song sounded different than how it is now, because the older version didn’t have the swing that it does currently. Mitski was fine with that version; it just didn’t feel like it stood out as much alongside the other songs she wrote that have the same rhythm, so it sat for awhile until she and Patrick tried to figure out how to make it sound on a record.

The first demo version they did actually was right after they recorded “Be The Cowboy” in Philadelphia. That demo version had more of a Patsy Cline swing to it, which is closer to what it is now. The problem was that the track didn’t really have an album that it fit into or in the ‘Laurel Hell’ album so it sat some more, but eventually made the album ‘The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We’.

Since the track was such a romantic song, they wanted to do it with a whole orchestra and a sweeping Old Hollywood sound. They found an orchestrator, Drew Erickson, who did works with popular artists. Erickson orchestrated for “Heaven”, and then Mitski’s team recorded the orchestration part.

“I Don’t Like My Mind”:

The lyrics in ‘” Don’t Like My Mind” are literal and self explanatory, which the listeners can get the grip of what the song is about. The song could be about trying to distract yourself from negative thoughts and using stuff to cope with those things; it can also mean you not wanting to be alone with your thoughts due to negativity.

The production process for the demo was made right after she and her team recorded “Be The Cowboy”, and was also recorded in Philadelphia. The track in the song ended up being easy to make because it was similar and the end result was similar to the demo they made way back then. So, her team just kept the guitar track from the demo.

“The Deal”:

The song started by misinterpreting a Maria Mitchell poem, “How Charming is Divine Philosophy”. The poem is basically about how you discover more about the world and you while going on a midnight walk by yourself. One line in the poem, “There’s a deal to be learned on a midnight walk, when you take it all alone” Mitski misread it as, “There’s a deal to be made on a midnight walk when you take it all along” and before she realized the error she made, she thought it was an interesting thought: like what kind of deal can you make on a midnight walk?

The song “The Deal” can mean wanting your life to be like someone else or your expectations of yourself, and being willing to give or do anything for your ideals.

“When Memories Snow”:

Mitski got the idea of the music for “When Memories Snow” by playing the piano and experimenting with chords inspired by a show instrument, Japanese Shō (doesn’t follow the Western traditional music rules), which can be heard at the end of the song. The song has two parts inspired by Western movie soundtracks and British invasion rock. The song also pushed Mitski out of her comfort zone because most of her songs are quiet/soft which is an easy range for her.

“When Memories Snow” could be about putting the past behind you and focusing on making new paths/memories, and how the past will always be there to either drag or lift you up.

“My Love Mine All Mine”:

“My Love Mine All Mine” is about how to love is the best thing Mitski ever did, and how beautiful it is. According to a quote from Mitski, this song is better than any song she wrote, material possession she gained, or achievement. Mitski also wishes that after she dies, that the song leaves behind this beautiful love in the world.

Mitski’s first moment of the creation of the song started when she was carrying groceries and singing “my love, my oh my”, which she used that part and recorded everything, that’s how the song “My Love Mine All Mine” started/was created.

“The Frost”:

For the song “The Frost”, the producer, Patrick, and Mitski knew that they both wanted to draw from ‘Americana’ from classic country, folk, and old time music. This made them think they needed a band that was versed in those genres much more, and they were able to successfully find one. They even got Brooke Wagoner on the piano, who also did piano on Mitski’s album ‘Laurel Hell’ from 2022. Mitski and Patrick knew that they wanted the song to be live or have an acoustic feeling to it, so they had to rehearse with the whole band for a day then recorded all the songs they did together the next day.

The song can mean being left behind or falling out with someone, and that the friendship/relationship being put behind or forgotten, also not being able to move on from that person. 

“Star”:

“Star” was also an old song, but it started when Mitski went to her friend’s house, playing her acoustic guitar and just started messing around with the track. In the beginning it sounded different from what the track is now currently, the first demos her and her producer made were trying to do a “carpenter thing”, and the demo kind of had the type of swing they looked for.

But the demo felt a bit too happy so they tried a different version that was the same chords but sort of more of like “slow core” or “red house painters thing”, which also didn’t work either and they eventually figured out what’s not working is that there were so many chords per phrase.

They switched to adding a drone just the sustained tonic in the start of the song, and that ended up sounding really good so they built off of that so it started simple with just a sustain, and they decided to keep building off of it, and they took inspiration from Scott Walker at the end of the day.

Both, Mitski and her producer, wanted to add a little subtle orchestration to keep building on it, so they had their orchestrator, Drew Erickson, compose for strings that’s just very subtle, and they also took some parts of the orchestration to support the song instead of taking the spotlight.

The song “Star”, describes two people who are no longer in love, but continues to care about each other partly in memory of the love they had.

“I’m Your Man”:

The process of making this song included Mitski writing it on an acoustic guitar. When she wrote the first half of the song she thought the song was short after listening to it so she had to figure out a way to lengthen it, but the problem was that she didn’t want to add other parts (ex. chorus, bridge, etc). Even though she didn’t want the song to change she decided to add choral voices, which required her getting a choir that sang “yo ho”, that was inspired by pirates and gave her a more masculine feeling that basically led to the intention behind the song. That process also gave the name of the song, “I’m Your Man”.

The song is coming from the perspective of a man in Mitski’s head, basically it’s like the voice of a patriarch in your head because “we” all live in and were raised in a patriarchy. The “masculine voices” in your head depends on, not depending on what gender you are, but in a way of interacting with male figures in your life, and all the messaging you’ve received from the culture and the patriarchy around you. And so the song is to give a voice to that “masculine voice” in Mitski’s head to either help her bring into peace with it or free it up a little bit. This also was inspired by the story of the Buddha and how the Buddha was disturbed while being in peace, but how the Buddha was still kind to their “enemy”.

Mitski wanted to try something similar by just letting the patriarch mind to basically say whatever or doing whatever, which is where the song came from and what the song means too. 

“I Love Me After You”:

During the process of “I Love Me After You”, Mitski made a mistake of recording herself of just playing it on an acoustic guitar and singing along. After she listened to the demo over and over, she tried to figure out how the end result track should be, but she struggled of how it should sound.

After she brought it to Patrick, Mitski just wanted the song to just be acoustic guitar and voice since she was so familiar with it which also made her like the song like that. But she knew deep down that the track had potential and how she was just getting in her way, so eventually Patrick convinced her to do the version that it is today. He wanted the song to be like you’re crawling through something slow motion. In terms of making it, they made it faster and slower to get that feeling to see how it can get to that image.

“I Love Me After You” can be about finding freedom from moving on from a failed relationship.