The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: Movies

  • HSU students discover their own spark with “Soul”

    HSU students discover their own spark with “Soul”

    Pixar’s newest animation “Soul” teaches us multiple lessons that can be applied to our lives daily .

    The movie was released on December 25, 2020 and already has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It tells the story of a man named Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) who lands his dream gig at the best jazz club in town. On the way, however, he falls into a dark hole that leads him to the “before life.”

    Throughout the movie, themes of compassion, empathy, and self discovery are discussed. Joe is faced with many challenges that help him rediscover his “spark” or purpose in life. The movie is family friendly that people of all ages will enjoy.

    Rachael Kee, is a junior at HSU majoring in psychology and communications who watched “Soul” with her boyfriend Rowan.

    “I loved the movie,” Kee said. “It had so many subtle but relatable themes throughout the film, which really made me think about my own life and my purpose,” she said. “This movie is honestly pretty emotionally intimate for couples to watch together.”

    “Soul” dives deep into the so-called “meaning of life” by teaching us multiple lessons throughout each character’s experiences. When 22 is put on Earth inside of Joe’s body, they become grateful for the little things in life, as small as just the appreciation of living and the ability to breathe fresh air.

    Rowan Feltges is a sophomore, fisheries major and Kee’s boyfriend who also enjoyed the movie.

    “The animation looked almost lifelike and the story was extremely introspective,” Feltges said.

    He not only enjoyed the visual aspects of the movie but also learned multiple lessons that he can use in his daily life.

    “Your passion does not define you as a person,” Feltges said. “What defines you is the pursuit to make oneself feel happy with life.”

    He emphasized that it’s important to not let your passions turn into addictions.

    “As people change and the world changes, so do our passions. It is how you adapt and overcome these changes to find true happiness and self gratitude,” he said.

    Paola Morgado is a senior majoring in chemistry. She enjoyed how “Soul” showed her that the main purpose of life is to simply live it.

    “My main takeaway from the film was, if you’re good to others, good things will come your way such as, second chances and ‘rediscovering’ your purpose,” Morgado said.

    “Soul” was released on Christmas Day, 10 months into a global pandemic. Though intended to be seen in theaters, Disney+ provides us with a thought provoking, heartfelt, and overall positive film we can watch without leaving our house.

    The movie has gained a significant amount of attention on social media in a short amount of time. It first intrigued Kee with its diversity, music, and psychological aspects.

    “Society tells us to grow up, get a job, and pay taxes, and never really allows us to connect to our souls in our individualistic way,” Kee said. “I feel a lesson that we can all learn from ‘Soul’ is that no matter how ‘lost’ or ‘unworthy of life’ one may feel, all it takes is the exposure of a new friendship or interest to pull you out of the darkness. Thus, don’t stop this crazy journey of life and keep going.”

  • 5 Dystopian Films to Watch Now That You Now Live in One

    5 Dystopian Films to Watch Now That You Now Live in One

    Lock yourself indoors and pretend these films are strictly fiction

    With a deplorable excuse of a federal administration lying through their teeth about having the situation under control, it’s starting to feel like the world is descending into the plot of an apocalyptic or dystopian film. Fortunately, there are quite a few films to compare with the current state of the world.

    1. Equilibrium (2002)

    • Equilibrium (2002). | Image courtesy of Miramax

    “Equilibrium” is a brilliant 2002 futuristic thriller starring Christian Bale in a fascist police state mandates daily medication that eliminates all feelings. “Sense offenders” that refuse their medication are rounded up and disposed of in ovens, and books and other forms of media that might inspire emotion are burned. Subtlety is not this film’s forte, but that’s to be expected when it also boasts brilliantly-staged action sequences where Christian Bale uses his guns as all-purpose weapons. It’s “The Giver” meets “1984” meets “The Matrix.” The fighting style is referred to as “gun-kata,” and its efficiency and balance reflects the tightness of the film’s storytelling.

    2. Snowpiercer (2013)

    • Snowpiercer (2013). | Photo courtesy of RADiUS/TWC

    Did you like Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite” from 2019? If so, you might enjoy one of his previous masterpieces. In “Snowpiercer,” Earth is in the midst of a new ice age, leaving humanity to survive within the confines of a train that runs on a perpetual track. The train spins its wheels around the icy remains of the former metropolitan homes of the billionaires responsible for the crisis in the first place. An extreme contrast in quality of life lingers on the train, which continues to spin its wheels until a rebellion begins. “Snowpiercer” is another brilliant deconstruction of the class divide and inequity that reminds us that we all live in a capitalist country.

    3. Looper (2012)

    • Looper (2012). | Photo courtesy of Alan Markfield, Looper, LLC

    From Rian Johnson, director of the best Star Wars film, comes an exciting thriller in which time travel is possible, but outlawed. Gangsters send victims back in time to be killed by a hit man until he becomes the target. Unlike most time travel films, this one accepts and plays around with many of the potential paradoxes of time travel and stages scenes only possible in films with time travel. It takes great advantage of the strengths of its cast, as all Rian Johnson films do, and is a whole lot of fun, as all Rian Johnson films are. All of them.

    4. Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

    • Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017). | Photo by Giles Keyte, courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

    OK, this one takes place at the time that it was made, and isn’t particularly dystopian, but to be fair, it’s about a group of rich vigilantes, who already killed the entire Obama administration in the previous “Kingsman” film, “The Secret Service.” Thus, they are indirectly responsible for the Trump presidency, which is a major part of the plot of this film. Now investigating a foreign cartel with a monopoly on drug trade, they discover the cartel’s plan to poison cannabis users and hold the planet hostage so that drugs will be legalized. In the real world, this would just mean that Big Pharma takes a huge share of the market and kills their business. But in the Kingsman world, it means a healthy helping of flashy action helped out by an Elton John appearance.

    5. Planet of the Apes (1968)

    • Planet of the Apes (1968). | Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox

    Before the Andy Serkis trilogy and the underwhelming Tim Burton effort was the original 1968 classic, “Planet of the Apes.” It watches more as an extended “Twilight Zone” episode than a futuristic adventure film, and it is superbly well-crafted, with intricate and detailed sets. The chemistry between the humans and the apes is a wonderful tone balancing act that offers plenty of ideas on race relations. And its brilliant twist ending goes down as an all-time classic.

  • Why the Oscars Lack 2020 Vision

    Why the Oscars Lack 2020 Vision

    The Academy Awards are broken—here are some ways to fix them

    The nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards were recently announced in the lead-up to the ceremony, which will take place Feb. 9. The nominees are, for the most part, very easily predictable to anyone who is familiar with the kind of films that tend to win Oscars or other similar awards. That isn’t in itself a bad thing, but it does raise the question of how relevant the Oscars really are, and if they really live up to their supposed purpose of granting the “highest honors in filmmaking” to the “best films of 2019.”

    In recent years, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been under its fair share of criticism for its notably conservative and traditional values. Indeed, the Academy does seem much more inclined to nominate and award reassuring, easily accessible films and blockbusters than they are to consider better, but less successful films.

    A film has to play for at least one week in a theater in Los Angeles County, and its theatrical release has to be the first time that it’s shown.

    Of course, as with all aspects of art, the quality of any film is subjective. But the choices made by the Academy, which is comprised of around 6,000 industry professionals, invite the questioning of their practices.

    The criteria for a film to be considered by the Academy is extremely limiting. For starters, a film has to play for at least one week in a theater in Los Angeles County, and its theatrical release has to be the first time that it’s shown. It can’t be shown on television, released to DVD or Blu-ray or streamed before that.

    Nominees like “Marriage Story” or “The Irishman” would have instantly been disqualified if they hadn’t been shown in theaters before being made available to stream on Netflix.

    This might not sound like a major obstacle at first, but that’s mostly only true for American films with a wide release. Having a decent budget and big names attached doesn’t hurt a film’s chances either. Any independent or foreign film that can’t secure a release in one area of one country is instantly not considered, regardless of how good the reviews are.

    This is just one of several of the Academy’s rules for eligibility, but it’s the most easily-understood example of how limiting the criteria is for one of the most prestigious awards a film can receive.

    Even getting past the extensive list of rules, the Academy is known for usually nominating specific types of films. On this year’s list, only two of the nine Best Picture nominees, “Little Women” and “Parasite,” are not predominantly made by and starring white men, who have been the center of the majority of films that the Academy tends to nominate and award. This is a circumstance that has been the case due to both the criteria for Academy consideration and because the Academy’s board is comprised of, in large majority, white men—a point that is often made into memes with the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.

    “Little Women”, while receiving nominations for Best Picture, Best Lead Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Costume Design, did not receive any nominations for Best Director or Best Cinematography despite being an incredibly strong film in those categories. An article by Vulture explained how these rare films being nominated cause them to be, possibly unfairly, depended on to please all their demographics.

    “I will say that Greta Gerwig and the film are put in the impossible position of having to represent all things to all women when she became the ‘presumptive representation of all-female directors,’” Angelica Jade Bastien said. “No film can shoulder such a burden.”

    Defenders of the Academy—those who are perfectly content with the nominations—will claim that it’s simply a meritocracy—that the nominations truly represent the best films of each year with no barriers.

    However, the numerous barriers, biased board and skewed representation severely limit which films are considered for one of the most widely recognized honors a film can receive. However, unintentionally, this influences how the film-going public decides what they want to watch and how they interpret what they watch.

    Until the Academy gets some new blood into their board, stops immediately disqualifying films and more frequently overcomes the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, their choices will never fulfill their ostensible purpose.

  • International festival reels universal film into Humboldt

    International festival reels universal film into Humboldt

    Student-run Humboldt International Film Festival hosts film from across the globe for 51 years.

    The longest running film festival entirely managed by students is hosted in the heart of Humboldt every spring.

    Humboldt International Film Fest is open to any film submissions from around the world and combines international film with local film lovers and artists.

    Screenings will begin Wednesday, April 18 and will continue for four days with the Best of the Fest screening on Saturday, April 21. Four final categories include experimental, narrative, documentary and animation.

    A reappearing character in the animation category has been The Bum Collective’s 10-foot, one-eyed, orange monster, Lilly. Lilly Monster was originally drawn up in Calgary, Canada by Xstine Cook’s kids and has developed into a family-run series.

    Cook’s three children, along with her sister’s three daughters, have been making animated shorts since 2010 and have participated in the festival for seven years. The first animated short of the series, Lilly’s Big Day, was drawn and voiced by Cook’s 3-year-old at the time.

    This year, they submitted the film Lilly and the Baby, the most recent adventure of the monster babysitting a human child.

    Cook said she was pleased by the reaction to the previous films by the Humboldt audience.

    “There were all these stoned people and they all got the jokes,” Cook said. “It’s for kids, but they all were laughing.”

    Aside from a class in the film department at Humboldt State, the festival is a campus club that anyone can join and contribute to. Students in the FILM 260 class and club participate in pre-screenings of festival submissions, judge each one and decide on which ones make the final cut.

    Over its 51 years, the Humboldt International Film Festival has moved venues. Held for the first time in 1967 at the Sequoia Theater (currently the John Van Duzer Theatre), the festival has expanded to a yearly, four-day celebration of international film at Minor Theatre.

    Maddy Harvey is a senior film major at HSU. Harvey has been involved in the International Film Fest since 2016 and this year, she is the co-director of entries.

    Harvey says this year, the festival received more than 195 films from 22 countries around the globe.

    “It’s really interesting to see how different countries and cultures express themselves through film, how different stories are told,” Harvey said.

    French exchange student Joanna Cottel is part of the film class at Humboldt State and has loved her experience planning the festival.

    “I have been part of organizing other film festivals in France, so I when I saw this one, I was like, hell yeah!” Cottel said.

    Cottel says as an exchange student, she is proud to be participating in the festival.

    Screenings will be divided into four days based on categories, and will begin at 5 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 for each day and $10 for the Best of the Fest screening on Saturday, April 21.

    “Even though the festival is international, the heart of it is in the Humboldt community,” Harvey said.

  • This week in entertainment

    This week in entertainment

    By | Liam Olson

    Movies and Television

    “Venom” possibly to be a Horror/Sci-fi Film

    Sony Pictures is currently planning to film a new movie centered around one of the most famous villains in the Spiderman universe, Venom. Not much is currently known about the film. All that is known is that according to the casting website, myentertainmentworld.com, the film is listed as an action/horror/sci-fi film and that it will be filmed in the fall of 2017. It has also been confirmed by Sony that the movie will not be connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which the new upcoming “Spiderman Homecoming” movie will take place. It is currently being speculated that the “Venom” will be R-rated due to the precedent of R-rated superhero movies with “Logan” and “Deadpool”. “Venom” is set to release in theaters on October 5, 2018.

    Source: ScreenRant

     

    Popular Anime Shows Returning in April

    For all those anime fans out there. Multiple popular animes are returning for their second seasons in the month of April. After three years, the long-awaited season two of the popular action, post apocalyptic anime “Attack on Titan” airs on April 1. On the same day, the successful 2016 superhero anime “My Hero Academia” airs. Two other well-known animes “Berserk” and “Eccentric Family” will air their second seasons in the second week of April.

    Source: IGN

     

    Music

    Adele might not tour ever again

    During her Auckland, New Zealand performance for her 15-month “25” tour, Adele said that she may not tour ever again. The Grammy winner told the crowd that she was not very good at touring but she tours for all of her fans. She thanked the crowd and her fans for their support but she is excited to return home to England.

    Source: TIME and The Guardian

     

    The Growlers Performing at Humboldt State

    On March 30, The Growlers will be performing in the Humboldt State University West Gym as part of their City Club Spring Tour 2017. They are going on tour after the release of their most recent album, City Club. This is not the first time The Growlers have performed at Humboldt State University. The Growlers have performed in Humboldt during the 2015-2016 school year.

    Source: AS Presents

     

    Video Games

    “Destiny 2” Announced

    Well-known video game developer Bungie confirmed that the sequel to their popular action, first person shooter game “Destiny” will release in 2017. The title of the sequel was revealed in a tweet featuring a poster/logo picture. The game, “Destiny 2”, is set to release in the fall of 2017. So far it is known that character powers and equipment from the game, “Destiny” will not transfer over to “Destiny 2” and the planets that players are able to explore will be larger than the previous game. Although “Destiny” is a console only game, it is speculated that “Destiny 2” will release on both consoles and PC.

    Source: GamesRadar

     

    “Mass Effect Andromeda” Animation Issues
    Mass Effect Andromeda released on March 21 with multiple animation issues. Developer of Mass Effect Andromeda, BioWare, is aware of the issues and are currently working on fixing the issues. Some of the issues include squad members spawning on top of players and not listening to player instructions. Not only that but audio is known to cut out and when the player runs in a zigzag pattern, there is a chance that the player can end up in an “unintended animation state”.

    Source: GameSpot

  • “Logan” movie review

    “Logan” movie review

    “Logan” is the final story of Wolverine, the claw wielding mutant reprised by Hugh Jackman for the last time. The movie  is based on an original story written by director James Mangold, who directed the previous 2013 Wolverine movie, “The Wolverine.” Wolverine’s final chapter is more like a Western than another installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, taking a slower pace to show the tragedy of aging heroes.

    The movie shows Logan (rarely ever mentions Wolverine) as a broke and drunk Uber driver in El Paso, Texas that hides out on the other side of the Mexican border with the former leader of the X-Men Charles Xavier (reprised by Patrick Stewart). A former nurse pleads Logan to take a girl up north from the experimenting facility she was raised in, Transigen. The nurse gets killed by the people pursuing the escaped mutant children and wants the girl that the nurse took. It is quickly revealed to be Logan’s daughter Laura (Dafne Keen), who was bred with his DNA. Being chased by Transigen, Logan takes Laura and Xavier on the pursuit for a safe haven for mutants called Eden.

    “Logan” is the second R-rated comic book movie 20th Century Fox released since the release of the largely popular, “Deadpool”. This rating really shows in the fights, often criticized as being sanitized for a PG-13 audience. Instead of deep cuts from the past X-Men movies, “Logan” shows many decapitations, amputation of limbs, and direct head shots. You want claws through the brain? You get claws through the brain. Laura does not spare anything less, being trained as a weapon since birth, and kills many people with her tiny claws.

    Unlike the previous Wolverine movies, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” and “The Wolverine,” “Logan” follows closer to a Western movie. James Mangold has some experience in the Western genre with directing the “3:10 to Yuma” reboot and the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line.” There is no singular definition of a Western movie, but “Logan” references classic Western tropes. Taking place on the Texas/Mexico border, later on the country road, this movie shows the decline of Logan. He still has great strength, but he gets tired after fights. He is apprehensive of fighting others and has many regrets of all the people he has killed. Logan does not heal as fast as he did in the past, showing his scars and the infected pus where his claws come out of his hands. Xavier is frail and ill, occasionally suffering from seizures that affects everyone within several hundred feet with temporary paralysis. Logan has to help Xavier take his medication and get in and out of his wheelchair. Logan and Xavier talk about the dead members of the X-Men, sounding similar to any mention of dead friends or partners in previous Westerns. Seeing these men fragile, aging, and regretful follows the likes of classics like “True Grit” and “No Country for Old Men.”

    The movie directly refers to Western classic “Shane,” about an aging gunslinger who stays with a family and a young boy who looks up to him. A clip of the movie appears in “Logan,” where Xavier reminisces watching it as a child with Laura. While on the road, Logan, Xavier, and Laura stay with a farming family after saving their horses and truck, similar to the family in “Shane.” If Logan is Shane, then Laura is the young boy who cries out Shane’s name as he leaves into the sunset. That young boy can also be anyone that loves Wolverine, in the story and in the audience. The tragedy is seeing Wolverine, a symbol of masculinity and hero to many people, not being able to fight with his mutant strength that everyone praised him for.

    Comic book fans will enjoy “Logan” as a formal send off of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine after 17 years of donning the claws. People who don’t follow every X-Men movie could understand the characters’ regrets of the past. Anyone who like Westerns, or any movie about the humanity of heroes, will understand and relate to the story and Logan himself.

  • Announcing the 89th Academy Awards

    Announcing the 89th Academy Awards

    The nominees for the 89th Academy Awards have been released. There are nine titles nominated for the Best Picture category.

    The Best Picture nominees are strong this year, including “Hacksaw Ridge”, a movie about a WWII US army medic, and “Hidden Figures”, a historic drama about the African American female mathematicians that put astronaut John Glenn into space. Other nominated films include “Moonlight”, a unique coming of age story, and there is possibility of a modern day musical, titled “La La Land”,  winning best picture.

    “La La Land” has 14 nominations, tying with “All About Eve” and “Titanic” for the record of the most Oscar nominations. It has two nominations in the category for Best Original Song.

    This year, “Arrival” and “Moonlight” both have eight nominations. Both are unique films in their own respect. “Arrival” is an intelligent sci-fi film about communicating, not fighting, with aliens. While “Moonlight” follows the journey of a young African American individual. The movie shows emotions with subtlety and compassion.

    A few of these oscar nominated films are still in theatres. You can catch them while they’re still playing. If you missed any of these films on the big screen, Richard’s Goat Tavern is featuring several nominated films in their miniplex.

  • A review on “Tickled”

    A review on “Tickled”

    When I first read about “Tickled” on a random online movie list, it sounded so unusual that I knew I had to see it. What I didn’t know when I bought my tickets at the Richard’s Goat Tavern’s Miniplex was that the film is a strange conspiracy thriller about a fetish.

    David Farrier, a journalist from New Zealand, is the director of the film. Farrier usually covers lighter stories. He has interviewed young Justin Bieber, Trent Reznor and has made a small documentary about the national anthem of his home country.

    Farrier came across a video on Facebook about competitive endurance tickling. The video featured men in Adidas jerseys tickling a clothed man strapped to a repurposed doctor’s chair. He is then shown being tickled with an electric toothbrush in slow motion.

    Farrier immediately messaged the tickling talent agency responsible for the video, requesting an interview in hopes of procuring the next great story. However, he was quickly met with homophobic slurs and a request to stay away from the company and its participants. He later received multiple lawsuits and threats. This only fueled Farrier’s curiosity about the history of tickling fetish videos and who the talent agency truly was.

    Lawyers from the tickling talent agency were aggressive and told Farrier that he could not film them in the New Zealand airport even though it was legal. The only person who was willing to talk about the tickling industry seemed to be mildly off-putting.

    The documentary doesn’t necessarily focus on the people being tickled because it was very difficult to find interviews of the participants due to their fear of their mysterious bosses.

    Many of the participants responded to the tickling talent agency’s ads in hopes for quick cash and paid travel expenses. However, these people were later humiliated and threatened in their outside lives by the same company who hired them, similar to the threats and lawsuits Farrier received from the tickling talent agency. One ex-participant, a former high school football coach, was threatened by the tickling talent agency to have his tickling videos sent to his family and his workplace. The tickling agency later sent the video to the school the man was working at anyway, causing him to lose his job.

    Seeing this movie in a full theatre of about 20 people highlighted the audience’s reactions to each twist of the film.

    “Tickled” is the perfect movie to show your friends if you’re looking for something a bit different with hints of thrill, peculiarness, comedy, and uncomfortableness.