Movies
Courtesy of Toho

The Night is Short, Walk On Girl Is Absurdly Fun

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A carp-stealing tornado, an underwear thief, the god of the used book market, the sophist dance and erotic woodblock art: all in one epic night. The Night Is Short: Walk On Girl, which won the Japan Academy prize for Animation of the year in 2017, is unlike any film you have ever seen. It follows two students, known only as “the senpai” (meaning “the senior”) and “the black-haired girl,” on two separate, intertwining adventures that take place over the course of one surreal night in Kyoto. The senpai, who is hopelessly in love with our heroine, chases after the black-haired girl, who is always one step — or several — ahead of him. The movie opens at a party at which both of our main characters are in attendance.

Arts & Entertainment
shannon-purser-sierra-burgess-is-a-loser

Sierra Burgess is a Loser is a Loser

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Being a teenager is hard. But making a movie about being a teenager is even harder. Sierra Burgess is a Loser is Netflix’s latest attempt at creating creating a coming-of-age romantic comedy, a genre they are desperately trying to break into. Sierra Burgess falls solidly middle ground compared to their other recent efforts. It’s certainly not nearly as bad as Netflix’s summer hit The Kissing Booth — an absolutely awful 110 minutes of my life that I will never get back.

Arts & Entertainment
Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

The Predator Doesn’t Live Up to Its Name

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In an early sequence of The Predator, government agent Will Traeger (Sterling K. Brown) and Dr. Casey Brackett (Olivia Munn) facetiously debate about the titular creature’s Earth-given name. Dr. Casey believes the beast should be christened to the more appropriate moniker of “sports hunter,” given the fact that the creature likes to toy with its prey before finally killing it. To this, Traeger quips “we took a vote… and predator’s cooler right?” His surrounding entourage immediately erupts in unanimous affirmation and Casey sighs, accepting this shallow verdict for the sake of quiet. For such a chaotically and sloppily arranged film, this sole moment of introspection took me by surprise. I imagine a permutation of this very conversation played out between director Shane Black and execs of 20th Century Fox while the former pitched his story.

Arts & Entertainment
Nicolas Cage on the set of Mandy.

Jesus Freaks: Mandy Is a Bloody Good Time

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Ruby: Man, that was wild. It’s going to be hard to get that image of the demon with a knife where his dick is supposed to be out of my head. What do you think the movie is about, though? To me it seems like there’s not much depth to it, since the revenge story has been told too many times. Varun: I love revenge films. I don’t think they get old.

Arts & Entertainment
Simon (Nick Robinson) and Abby (Alexandra Dripp) in Love, Simon.

YANG | Creating the New Normal

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I’m not the type of person who watches one movie after another on long-haul flights, and usually spend the better part of the sixteen hours sleeping. The trip back from Hong Kong before the beginning of this semester ended up being one rare exception, however, because there was a crying baby in the seat next to me. I had no choice but to cycle through all the MCU movies they had (thank God), and afterwards, set my eye on a movie I had deliberately avoided seeing in the spring — Love, Simon. Despite putting the movie’s soundtrack on repeat the moment it came out, and despite promising every one of my friends who went to opening weekend and raved about it afterwards that I would go see it, I never did after watching the trailer. You would think that as someone who loves rom-coms and never shuts up about representation, the premise itself is enough to make me want to go.

Arts & Entertainment
Courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing

Searching Is a Flawed But Wholly Original Thriller

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Searching is a refreshing film. Although the plot isn’t as graceful as I expected it to be, the movie serves up enough novelties to redeem it. Unfolding entirely on a desktop screen, the movie is about a father, David Kim (John Cho), looking for his missing daughter, Margot (Michelle La), through a police investigation. It’s no typical search, though; Asian-Americans can imagine what it might be like if their father decided to set out on a mission to save his daughter. Google spreadsheets are happening.

Arts & Entertainment
Courtesy of RLJE Films

Join the Legion: Interview with Legion M CEO on Upcoming Film Mandy

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The Sun: What is Legion M’s involvement in the upcoming film Mandy starring Nicolas Cage? Paul Scanlan, co-founder and CEO of Legion M: We’re one of the investors, partnering with SpectreVision, Elijah Wood’s production company, and RLJ, who is distributing the film in the United States. Sun: What can we expect from Mandy? PS: Have you seen the trailer? Sun: Yes.

Arts & Entertainment
Noah Centineo and Lana Condor in To All The Boys I've Loved Before.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before Is a Guilty Pleasure Without the Guilt

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From the moment this Netflix Original begins, with Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) imagining herself wandering through an idyllic field with the boy of her dreams, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before screams “self-indulgent romance fantasy.” It’s the quintessential teen rom-com: there’s the shy main character, two pouty Hot Boys (Noah Centineo and Israel Broussard) and the crucial misunderstanding that forces her to pick between them. Every character is addressed by their full name and speaks in Tumblr-ready quotes (“Josh Sanderson, I liked you first. By all rights, you were mine.”) Add a fake dating plot, a hair-flipping jealous mean girl and a supportive rebel best friend, and you’ve got a full-blown cliché. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is tropey and cheesy and gooey, but in a good way. It revels in its purest rom-com moments because it knows exactly what it is.

Arts & Entertainment
Courtesy of Focus Features

BlacKkKlansman is a Trump-Era Triumph

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BlacKkKlansman is oozing with 70s vibes, from the afros to the costumes to Terence Blanchard’s rich, R&B-based score. And yet director Spike Lee is hyper-aware of the history that preceded the film’s central story as well as the time period in which it is being told. The first character to appear on screen is a right-wing propagandist bumbling through his lines, played by none other than Alec Baldwin, who impersonated President Trump himself on Saturday Night Live. Like the film as a whole, the casting choice is more than a little bit on the nose, but it is also suitable for a 2018 political climate that doesn’t exactly call for subtlety. In that same vein, an opening title card tells us that “Dis joint is based on some fo’ real, fo’ real shit” — the story is so nuts that we probably wouldn’t believe it were true otherwise.

Arts & Entertainment
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Crazy Rich Asians Reintroduces a Revolutionary Leading Lady

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It’s been a long way back for Michelle Yeoh. The Malaysian Chinese action star who gained renown for her stunt work on a string of popular Hong Kong action films in the 1980s entered a new pantheon when she played the main love interest in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 1997. It was a movie where people glided through the landscapes of China and spun proverbs. It was as if David Lean directed The Matrix, but instead of a frumpy, aged man and heavy CGI, it was the work of an unknown director named Ang Lee and the female leads that carried the film. But it was Michelle Yeoh’s performance, filled with manic restlessness and fierce action work, that redefined what an Asian actress could accomplish on the silver screen.