Arts & Culture

CHARI | On “Coraline”, Self-Reflection and Our Favorite Childhood Media 

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I got my first tattoo last year. It is a small button, only slightly larger than a quarter. When consulting with the artist, I specified that I wanted a button with four holes in it, like in Coraline. “Oh, you also want one of that movie?” He gestured over to a heavily tattooed man sitting in the front of the shop. “Jake, show her your leg.” Jake (I think his name was Jake, I honestly don’t remember) pulled up his left pant leg to reveal a full color portrait of Coraline’s titular protagonist, complete with blue hair and the top of her yellow raincoat.

Arts & Culture

“Atomic Heart”  — Unpolished, But Still A Gem

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When the first teaser of Atomic Heart was dropped back in July 2017, the first impressions of the game appeared to show great potential — a Bioshock-esque, charming role playing game of another apocalyptic world, filled with wacky but cool retro-futuristic technology and hostile killer robots (because who doesn’t love fighting killer robots?) With every trailer that the developer, Mundfish, released, the more the hype around the game grew. From a fairly barebone alternate universe RPG, the trailers began to show a game rich in lore and world building, teasing jaw-dropping sceneries of a futuristic-looking Soviet Union and fascinating, uniquely designed robots. When the game finally released on Feb. 21, the hype was at an all time high. But now, nearly a month later, what happened to Atomic Heart?

Arts & Culture

‘Everything Everywhere’ at the Oscars

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The Everything Everywhere All at Once sweep at the Oscars shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who’s been familiar with the race for the past six or so months. It’s been in the driver’s seat the whole time, and the ceremony proved to be the coronation that most expected, with few other films finding their place on the stage. Sweeping every above-the-line category in which it was nominated, the film has now entered Oscar history as one of the most decorated films ever at the Academy Awards. Such an honor couldn’t have happened to a stranger film, representing at once one of the first genre exercises recognized, an absurdist comedy with a distinctly contemporary sense of humor, and a film with a diverse cast about the Asian-American experience. It’s been quickly canonized and attributed classic status, but how good really is it? 

The opening sequence to Everything Everywhere is spectacular, easily the best in the entire film.

Arts & Culture

The 2023 Academy Awards Return to the Mellow Ceremony We Know Them As

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The 2023 Academy Awards marked the 95th anniversary of the annual award ceremony, and unlike last year, the night was calm and drama-free. The previous year’s ceremony gained attention for the “slap heard around the world” when Will Smith, who won “Best Actor” later that night, slapped actor and comedian Chris Rock on stage while he was presenting an award. This year’s Oscars were much more mellow, with celebrities on their best behavior and no real surprises as far as who took home awards and who left empty-handed. Of course, host Jimmy Kimmel made a few references to last year’s drama in his opening monologue, but luckily, nothing like that incident was seen this year. Instead of being overshadowed by scandal, this year’s ceremony celebrated some deserving and historic wins across all categories.

Arts & Culture

Oscars 2023: The Best of (most of) the Rest

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In my quest to review all of the Best Picture nominees at a rate of one film per week starting with the beginning of the semester and leading to the Academy Awards, I neglected one fact: The date of the Oscars. Unfortunately, as I recently realized, I am now out of time to write and publish the remaining few reviews in such a time span. As such, this article will cover three of the remaining nominees, excluding one which is the presumptive winner and another which is an optimistic hedge (you may guess which is which). Those articles should be coming next week, and if neither film ends up as the actual best picture winner, I apologize. 

Triangle of Sadness

There was a period of time (somewhere between the 1950s and 1970s or so) when European anti-capitalist satires were some of the best in film. I refer mostly to the brilliant exploits of Luis Buñuel, but also to a more general satirical inventiveness, even including such terrifying classics as Salò.

Arts & Culture

Are Hippo Campus’s Best Days Behind Them?

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On Feb. 21, Hippo Campus released their new single “Kick in the Teeth,” a quick bite of a song that is less than three minutes, yet feels too long. The single comes in anticipation of the indie rock band’s new EP Wasteland, which will be released on April 14. “Kick in the Teeth” feels lazier than the band’s usual summer sound; could it be Hippo Campus ready to try a new style, or a sign that they’ve run out of creative steam? “Kick in the Teeth” sounds like it was written in a class on how to write a song — I got sick of it after only getting through the first half of this article.

Arts & Culture

“Left Behind” Recap: The Last of Us

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Last Sunday’s episode of The Last of Us titled “Left Behind” served mainly to give the viewer insight into Ellie’s mysterious past. The viewer knows Ellie is different, not just because of the antibodies coursing through her blood, but because of her ability to find joy amidst the surrounding shrapnel. “Left Behind” takes us to the quarantine zone, where some normal aspects of life like school take place — albeit more militantly than normal — even with the threat of impending infection. The viewer finds Ellie to be almost as bold in the past as she is in the show’s main timeline. 

Her classmate Bethany learns this when she berates Ellie for her slow running pace and reminds her that her missing best friend Riley (Storm Reid) is no longer around to fight for her. Upon mention of her bestie, Ellie clocks Bethany squarely in the face without much thought.

Arts & Culture

Conversation with a Curator: The Cornell Arts Biennial

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Futurity — an alluring and daunting prospect — requires us to orient ourselves toward the unexpected and brace for new events, experiences and sensations. It was an exciting year in art, and, importantly, art at Cornell was no exception. Among the most memorable shows was the 2022 Cornell Arts Biennial, a selection of installations and exhibitions featuring wide-ranging artistic mediums and a number of artists and collectives. The works powerfully reflected on eras current and future, transforming futurity into art with a spirit of collaboration and optimism. Professor Timothy Murray, Department of Comparative Literature and Literatures in English and Director of the Cornell Council for the Arts, was the curator of the 2022 Cornell Arts Biennial.