Arts & Culture

Though Flawed, Emilia Pérez Wins Awards Aplenty

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With 26 wins and 33 nominations, Emilia Pérez has been basking in award glory. The musical crime comedy written and directed by Jacques Audiard premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2024, and then hit Netflix on Nov. 1. The musical pieces are primarily in Spanish but feature English as well, and the film stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofia Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz. 

The film begins with Rita Castro (played by Zoe Saldaña) an under-appreciated and overworked lawyer working in Mexico on criminal cases, who has been contacted by Mexican drug lord Manitas Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón) for a job. 

After putting a bag over Rita’s head and taking her to an unmarked location, Manitas asks Rita to help him become a woman. Rita is to find the surgeon and help Manitas fake his own death in Mexico and find a new home for his kids and wife.

Arts & Culture

SOLAR FLARE | All I Want for Christmas is…

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The countdown is on. Adrenaline courses through your veins as we barrel toward the final stretch, and yes, finals. You probably curated a detailed playlist for your Thanksgiving break commutes, but now a new one is needed as the grind resumes. Something has to stop the days from blurring together as you guzzle Celsius and grapple with the reality of 4:30 p.m. sunsets. Just a few more weeks, and you’ll be free — at least from the grips of seasonal depression (for now).

Arts & Culture

Overpade’s Soundtrack to a New Generation 

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I’m sitting in the basement of the Lodge Co-op, sinking into the rips of a couch, when enters the ethereal Overpade. Immediately there is an electric pulse that zings around the room, and the band excitedly moves to welcome them. Introductions are made, and we venture up the stairs, out of the shadowy basement, stumbling upon a pillow forted living room. Blankets spear the air held up by long tree branches, and a light illuminates the fort from the inside out. We settle down on the squishy pillows littering the floor, getting ready to open the Pandora’s box that is September’s Spirit.

Arts & Culture

The Art of Deception 

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In the beautiful city of Pisa, Italy, a chilling exhibition took place a little over a week ago in the heart of a historic palazzo. Passersby could stumble upon an art show featuring 450 works by renowned artists like Gustav Klimt, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol and others. A beautiful day, right? But what if I told you that every single piece was a fake? Not just poorly made replicas, but high-end counterfeits — scarily authenticated by experts.

Arts & Culture

TEST SPINS | Mariah Carey: ‘Daydream’

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Thanksgiving is over, and whether we want it to be or not, it is officially Mariah Carey season. It’s debatable whether that season starts right after Halloween or Thanksgiving, but there’s no denying it now — it’s time. In recent years, Mariah Carey has essentially become synonymous with Christmas music and the holiday season, with smash hits like “All I Want for Christmas Is You” blasting right back into the charts nearly every year. I, like most other people, can appreciate her for this; There must be something special about her and her music if songs she made almost 30 years ago are still being resurrected to the point where they top the charts. But I’d like to make a case for the rest of Carey’s discography — namely, her 1995 album Daydream.

Arts & Culture

Spotify Wrapped and the Marketing of Personal Image

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With this year’s Spotify Wrapped expected to drop in the coming days, users around the world are preparing to view and share their listening stats. In anticipation of the annual event, now is a better time than ever to evaluate the positive and negative effects of Spotify Wrapped on music culture. 

For those unaware, the audio streaming provider Spotify introduced Spotify Wrapped in 2016. Each year, in late November or early December, Spotify offers users statistics on the total amount of time they spent listening to audio on the app as well as the artists, songs and genres they listened to the most. Spotify presents this information in an easily shareable format, thus allowing users to post their results on various social media apps. The event serves as an extremely effective marketing campaign, with posts by users essentially acting as free advertisements for the streaming service.

Arts & Culture

F1’s American Gamble: Tradition Meets Transformation on the Las Vegas Strip

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Formula 1 has always been considered a European sport, steeped in tradition and exclusivity. While every year, the driver with the most points at the end is crowned the “World Champion,” and the races do occur across 21 separate nations in five continents, the DNA of F1 nonetheless is and always has been distinctly European. In the wake of this past weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, however, I think it’s become clear that this European grounding has eroded. F1 has finally managed to attract Americans. F1 is now courting the United States with a vigor unseen in its history.

Arts & Culture

Someone Please Save the Movie Musical: On ‘Wicked’

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Some critics are calling Jon M. Chu’s Wicked adaptation “the best movie-to-musical adaptation since Chicago and Mamma Mia.” This may be an indictment of the movie musicals of the last 15 years rather than an endorsement of the film. Chu’s Wicked (2024) is a big swing and a miss, capturing the content of the stage musical but failing to hit on all of the beats that make it so great. Wicked had to follow in the huge footsteps of its Broadway predecessor, which starred two of Broadway’s most iconic actresses, paid back its production budget in a year and became one of the longest-running Broadway shows in history. Not only that, but the film also acts as the prequel to one of the most important movies of all time, The Wizard of Oz. It is often falsely said that The Wizard of Oz was the first color movie, and while this is not true, it utilized the vibrant Technicolor film process in an era where black and white was still dominant.

Arts & Culture

‘Gladiator II’ Takes Us Back to Rome, Or Somewhere Like It

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To preface, I am not a history buff. I have not studied Roman history to any great extent, yet I am a lover of the original Gladiator. In fact, I was first introduced to the glories of Rome by my father, who is also a fan of Gladiator and its epic tale of Maximus Decimus Meridius. When I heard of the release of a sequel, I was wary. I’m here to tell all lovers of the stunning classic that Gladiator II falls short of expectations, failing to match the original precisely because it reaches too far.

Arts & Culture

SOLAR FLARE | Grateful for Good Taste

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The hallowed halls of Cornell are starting to feel emptier as students trickle out for Thanksgiving break. Honestly, I think we’re all beyond excited to get away from Poll Everywhere for a while. 

Despite being grateful for my life here, I’m finally heading home after eight months away, and as “self-care cringe” as it might sound, I can’t wait to take a moment to ground myself. As an avid solo traveler, I love a good travel playlist — one that strikes the perfect balance between songs that make you strut on the airport walkway and those that have you reflecting on life while crying in your car. As a pre-break farewell, I want to share what’s on my playlist as I mentally prepare myself for the 24+ hours of travel. Will I be fantasizing about the mouthwatering fusion Korean-Thanksgiving meal my mom will be making?