MONDAY 

On Monday, the Iowa City Public Library and the UI Main Library Gallery are volleying events back and forth. Starting at 10:30am, the ICPL will host a Chinese Bilingual Storytime with children’s librarian Fang, before becoming a home for youth events later in the evening with a LEGO League Challenger. It is an opportunity to practice the overlapping world of robotics and LEGO in a competitive format. LEGO League Challenger runs from 4:00pm-5:30pm. 

For a graduate crowd, at 4:00pm the UI Library will be hosting a Curated Guiding Tour of Orchestrating Community: The Public Service of Iowa Coordinator James Dixon. This is a tour hosted by co-curators Sarah Suhadolnik and Kate Buehner to celebrate the man behind the podium who helped create orchestras here in Iowa City and all over the world. 

TUESDAY 

Tuesday has worldly opportunities such as another bilingual reading at the Iowa City Public Library!. This time in Spanish, librarian Miriam brings together singing, dancing, and reading into Iowa City every Tuesday from 10:30am-11:00am. Later on at the library, from 4:00pm-5:00pm, the West High Trojan Lions Dance Group from the Asian Students Union for a Chinese New Year celebration. 

Film Scene will also continue to host their Free Tuesdays and Alley Cat will host its karaoke night (21+) 

WEDNESDAY 

At noon, The Englert will host its building tour, where you can explore the historic venue and enjoy some quieter time in this lively building.  

Public Space One and the IC Press Co-Op will be showcasing the wonders of letterpress and screen printing at Iowa’s only community print shop! This event, where you can print your own design, will take place from 1:00pm-4:30pm. 

Prairie Lights will be hosting their first event of Free Week with a conversation and reading from Jake Fournier and his new collection of poems Punishment Bag. From 7:00pm-8:00pm, the Albuquerque based firefighter will be speaking with Alicia Wright, managing editor of The Iowa Review. 

THURSDAY 

The University of Iowa’s Theatre Building will be putting on a Festival of Ten-Minute Plays starting at 2:00pm. This is the 29^th edition of this celebration of undergraduate students and their work, artistically directed by Tony Meneses. 

On the other side of campus at the Voxman Music Building, Lowell Lieberman and Gabriel Kahane for a conversation with Director of Orchestral Studies Kenny Lee. The two composers will continue their weeklong residencies as a concert showcasing some of their work that will be conducted by Dr Lee will follow the conversation. The event will begin at 6:00pm. 

All skill levels are welcome at The Artifactory for a Life Drawing Class from 6:30pm-8:30pm. An opportunity to focus in on some artistic skills with your non toxic medium of choice. This event is dedicated to University of Iowa graduate Phil Dorothy, who loved art and was a big supporter of the Iowa City scene. 

FRIDAY 

Public Space One Northside will be hosting a wild and exciting immersive experience. Using Isadora technology, Dead or Amazing is unlike anything you’ve experienced before. This interactive visual display, that responds to audience movement and sound to alter its exhibit in a 180 degree immersive field. This optical experience was created with mixed media drawings by Ethan Edvenson and video by Charles Borowicz. 

You can take in the sights from one of the tallest buildings in Iowa City, The Vue Rooftop will be hosting Nebraska based singer-songwriter Dage Lee starting at 8:00pm.This busy musical night continues with Jacoozy playing at Gabe’s, John D Neal at Elrays, and another performance by the symphony orchestra at Voxman. If music is not your entertainment of choice, Studio 13 is hosting a drag performance (10:30pm) and AlleyCat’s Comic Cabin Comedy Show (9:30pm). Both events are 19+. 

SATURDAY  

Saturday will be off to a early start in Iowa City. The Artifactory will be hosting a Basics of Drawing Class at 10:00am while Chauncey and Merge will be putting on One Book Two Book Festival. This celebration of children’s literature aims to connect children to books trhough readings, discussions, and even chracter meet and greets with Clifford and everyone’s favorite amphibious duo, Frog and Toad.  

The UI Museum of Natural History will be anchoring the afternoon silent disco scene from 2:00pm-6:00pm. An unorthodox place to bust a move, the museum strives to make it a place to contemplate, ruminate, and gyrate.  

University of Iowa alumni Elizabeth Moen will be making her grand return to Iowa City headlining The Englert Theatre at 8:00pm. She is no stranger to The Englert as she opened for Bernie Sanders almost a year ago to date on February 22^nd, 2026. Moen blends a lively show with strong and weaving lyrics that feel are ripped straight from a bestselling book of poetry. Influenced by the greats such as Bruce Springsteen and Wilco, she will be opening up for recent Englert players, The Wood Brothers, in March. 

SUNDAY 

The Englert will be hosting the Iowa City Flea Market from 11:00am-5:00pm as Free Week enters its final day. A great place to find new pieces form a variety of local vendors. This flea market spreads across all levels of The Englert, filling up the stage and aisles with countless items.  

Voxman will be busy once again, presenting two events, The Iowa Honor Band Showcase at 1:00pm and the Center For New Music Ensemble Concert III at 7:30. Sandwiched in between those two events is the continuation of the Ten-Minute Play Festival at the UI Theatre Building and One Book Two Book Festival. 

Iowa City Free Week is offering broad and welcoming lineup of events to hop into. Whether it is music, crafting, expanding your love of film, or anything else, there is no shortage of things to do. Take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to experience what makes Iowa City so special! More information about each event can be found from Think Iowa City.

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Video Game: Dispatch

I have a lot to say about Dispatch but for conciseness’s sake and honest niceties, I’ll be frank. I didn’t think much about this game from the getgo when my manager at work started barking funny little references I didn’t understand, but when I went home, I caved and found something pretty nice. While there are a lot of narrative options I heavily disagree with, that’s the point of the game. Adopting the developers from Telltale Games, AdHoc Studios put together similar “choose your own adventure” elements in this superhero story from titles like The Wolf Among Us and Batman: the Telltale Series. What was put together, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful games to release in the last few years. The art direction is gorgeous and has this great comic book feel that most Telltale titles share, but Dispatch is so bright and colorful and lively like vintage superheroes. There are so many layers to the game and its characters that replaying even with roughly 12 hours worth of content feels new and fresh down to the third or fourth route.

Going online and seeing feedback on this game doesn’t do it justice, because the only way people know how to talk about Dispatch is by saying it isn’t dark enough to be profound like the inverted superhero tropes of Invincible or The Boys. But not everything needs to be dark and scary to have an impact on people. The speculative fiction aspect of Dispatch is meant more to reflect the everyman playing the game rather than be a massive political commentary. The characters act like your average coworkers, and the protagonist, Robert Robertson III (yes, that is seriously what they called him), is just some guy in his early thirties going through a transitional period in his life as he is essentially disabled out of being a superhero. There’s a lot of themes of grief, moving on, and finding peace through either contentment, or malice and revenge. Overall, a beautiful experience, would recommend playing it not only once, but a few times just to surprise yourself by making the “wrong” choices.

-Lee Nienhaus

TV Series: Peacemaker, Season 2

Peacemaker season two released at the tail end of the year, and was a sensation that built off the first season in amazing ways. They developed characters, expanded the DC Universe, and allowed for characters to take on heavy issues while still keeping that comedic element to the show. They pick up after the events of season one, with many members of the 11th Street Kids looking for new work, and trying to discover themselves in their professional and personal lives. The show faces various issues head-on, including themes of belonging, guilt, privilege, forgiveness, and grief. This show is set apart from other superhero media with how it handles its characters. They show honest growth throughout the series, with the start of this season focusing on Harcourt’s growth following the death of her ex, Chris’ dedication to become a ‘real’ hero, and Adebayo’s dedication to be taken seriously in her new job. Overall, the season is done well, with key comedic action and emotions always the centering point of the show. The one critique for the show held by many, is that the ending is seen as anti-climactic and boring. I personally disagree with this. I see the ending as a way to set up the future of the DC universe, and was a great way to wrap up the series.

-Will Clair

DJ Set: HOOCHIE MAMA MIX OF GHETTOTECH JUNGLE BALTIMORE CLUB JERSEY CLUB MIAMI BASS by girlypop princess

Ever had a bad day? I’ve got something to make sure you don’t have any more of those. 

In the year of our lord 2025, following the path set for me by many a screwtape, not to mention a growing fascination with DJ Kicks, Elevator Music, and NTS, DJ Sets occupied a considerable slice of my overall music listening. The internet is truly a wonder in running across such things, the vast expanses of SoundCloud proving my personal favorite- the depths from which this particular gem fell into my possession. An hour of lush, blissful ghettotech to keep your head high and your booty bouncing. I mean, really, what more could one ask? My favorite stretch goes around the 23-minute mark, featuring an absolutely electric jungle remix of Ciara’s Get Up that had me… well, getting up. A wise man once said, “The DJ got us fallin’ in love again,” and I live by that. In 2026, may a DJ help you fall in love again. Thank you, girlypop princess.

-Evan Raefield

Movie: Sinners

Released in April of 2025, Sinners took the film industry by storm, impressing both critics and audiences alike, rated with a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. And its reputation precedes itself. The movie is a vampire tale, blending southern gothic horror, drama and musical elements. It explores themes of racial oppression, ancestry, colonization, culture assimilation and spirituality. The film follows main character, Sammie as he abandons his duties as the preacher’s son and runs off to join his cousins, the Smokestack Twins, who want to open a juke joint of their very own. The twins are war veterans and gangsters who return to Mississippi in the hopes of giving back to their community. 

“Stack”, also known as Elias, is the approachable and outgoing brother, often depicted in red. Elijah, whose nickname is “Smoke”, is the serious and cynical brother, dressed in shades of blue. Together, they purchase a venue, gather materials and recruit musicians, cooks and dancers. During the opening night however, Sammie’s musical talent, which is so powerful it can transcend time and connect ancestors, attracts the attention of bloodsucking vampires who seek to harness that power. Therefore, the main characters must come up with a plan to survive the night or die at the hands of the supernatural evil that needs nothing but an invite to ruin their lives. 

Coogler really nails this film as both a horror and a well-developed drama: the characters are realistic and complex, the premise is simple yet effective, the vampire folklore is handled with expertise, and the cinematography is gorgeous. A standout moment in the film is when Sammie’s performance invokes different generations of musicians/performers, and as they join the fun, the screen extends beyond the standard widescreen and envelops the entire picture. It marks the transition to the second half of the movie and raises the stakes and horror elements without us even noticing it. Additionally, Sinner’s casting was exceptional, with the actors all giving award-worthy performances. Overall, it’s a beautifully crafted vampiric horror movie that is absolutely worth the watch.

-Clara Carrion

Video Game: No, I’m Not a Human

This year, I seem to have become the de facto video game journalist for the KRUI website. If you know me at all, you know I’m woefully unqualified for the position. I have no reputation as a gamer, having only started getting into gaming this year, and I’ve only played a measly few games that I got for free on Steam. In fact, my favorite game of the year, Trioskaz’s No, I’m Not A Human, is one I haven’t even played myself. I’ve only seen it played, over and over, by various streamers.

For those not familiar, No, I’m Not A Human centers around a dreary apocalypse: the sun is moving closer to the Earth, making daytime unbearably hot. Simultaneously, strange beings dressed in human skin (called Visitors) are emerging from the ground, trying to gain entry into people’s homes and murdering anyone they find alone. You just so happen to live alone. So, against your better judgement, you start accepting people in off the street who are searching for shelter from the sun. Except some of those people might not be people. So now you’re an investigator, trying to determine whether the people you let in at night are actually human or an alien Visitor in disguise. This is the main mechanic of the game, listening to your companions’ stories and checking them for signs that they might be Visitors. But the information you’re getting about what makes someone a Visitor is shaky at best. Visitors allegedly have red eyes, dirty fingernails, and perfectly straight teeth. But what if a human spent the night crying? What if a Visitor washed their hands? What if a human recently went to the dentist? There’s no foolproof way to tell if someone’s a Visitor, meaning you’re often forced to convict without enough evidence. Either that, or you let more innocents die.

The game’s art style and writing only heightens the tension of its premise. It’s tempting to decide who to let in based on looks alone, or maybe their general attitude. But, in this game, everyone who approaches your door, Visitor or human, looks uncanny. Not even humans look human, meaning your gut instincts on who to trust will often lead you astray. It’s hard to tell who’s honestly being nice and who’s faking it; every character has unique and well-written quirks, regardless of whether they’re human or Visitor.
When creating any piece of media, it’s hard to make your audience feel the specific emotion that you want them to feel. But I and every other person who has played or watched this game knows exactly the strain of paranoia that No, I’m Not A Human depicts so well. This is a game that will make you question everything. It will give you a piece of information, then immediately contradict it. It will introduce you to a sweet, lovable character, then force you to shoot them in the face before they kill again. In times of true unprecedented crisis, the only choices you can really make are shots in the dark. But who are the stray bullets going to hit?

Can you deal with the consequences?

-Bailey Vergara

World Cup Qualifier Match: Hungary v. Ireland, Nov. 16th

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is taking place across 16 cities in North America this upcoming summer, and boy am I excited. One of the final rounds of qualifiers for the UEFA (European) teams occurred this past November, where 12 nations have fully qualified, 26 have been eliminated, and 16 will continue to the vicious UEFA playoffs in March to compete for the 4 final available slots. Hungary hosted the final match for both Hungary and Ireland on November 16, 2025, neither team able to fully qualify, but both contending here for the playoffs. Hungary needed only a draw to move on, while Ireland needed a win.

At just 3 minutes, Hungary scored the first goal to set their immediate daunting lead. The match continued scrappy from that point on, high energy and desperation from both teams charging their playing. Neither country is favored to make it into The World Cup, with Ireland’s most recent appearance in 2002, and Hungary’s in 1986. This time around, both teams have strong players carrying national hopes on each side, Ireland’s hero with two goals against Portugal just three days prior, Troy Parrot, and Hungary’s captain the Liverpool star, Dominik Szoboszlai. The qualifiers are an incredible series of matches to see these fierce teams as they scrap it out, and play with a kind of energy and madness that really makes the game special. It’s not a clean or perfect match from either team, but that kind of toe-to-toe brawl into a last minute, game-deciding hattrick goal is the pure vision of drama that’s special to The World Cup.

Ireland will continue to the playoffs after the unbelievable last minute score from Troy Parrot crushed Hungarian dreams 2-3. They will face The Czech Republic on March 26, 2026. If they win, Ireland will need to beat Denmark or North Macedonia during the playoff final to finally advance to The World Cup

-Pauly

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I have not read the book, nor do I know Yoder herself, so I was truly watching the film with fresh, unbiased eyes. I remember watching a sneak preview of the film a few months back, with it having a large focus on what the title implies, a mother turning into a dog, the beastliness surrounding motherhood, and a lot of imagery of raw meat. What I was actually met with when watching the film was more of a banal stream of thought, with dog imagery intermittently sprinkled in. There are a few shots of something close to body horror: Amy Adams growing fur, a tail, fangs – but rarely does the film actually delve into the idea or character of Nightbitch.

Instead, the movie is dragged along by monologues about motherhood, more so about how a capitalist society treats mothers as a whole or comparing them to goddesses than truly delving into any ideas of motherhood being animalistic. The film also introduced characters that never fully develop, such as a group of young moms who turn from stereotypes used for satire to Mother’s best friends. Father, Mother’s husband, is disdained by Mother for most of the film for his unequal role in parenting and lack of support he shows Mother, only to have a sudden realization at the end of the film that he needs to be a better parent and partner, where then Mother and Father act like nothing ever happened.

Overall, the film gives us a little bit of everything, and a whole lot of nothing. It lightly taps into the dog and goddess metaphors, marriage dynamics, the idea that raising a child takes a village, and the importance of art, but never sticks to a plot point long enough to be meaningful. It is tonally a mess. You’re never going to replicate an entire book in a 1 hour and 38 minute film, so the filmmakers should have either gravitated to a singular plot idea and produced a film around that, or leaned more into adopting abstraction and made this an art film, rather than trying to be Hollywood friendly.

Embracing the idea that motherhood is a violently transformative experience requires more than a few brief moments of body horror and a handful of dialogue lines, constantly interrupted with platitudes on feminism and quips taken right from a late night sitcom. All of the pieces were there, Yoder is a great storyteller and Amy Adams is a fantastic actress, but when put together, there is no bark and no bite.

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The winner of the 2024 Refocus Film Festival Audience Award was The Count of Monte-Cristo (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo), a new film out of France based on Alexandre Dumas’ literary classic. I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t actually read The Count of Monte-Cristo, but this film made me want to read the book. Pierre Niney does an amazing job embodying Edmond Dantès and the sets of the film are breathtakingly gorgeous.

The Storm is a 2024 release out of China by highly acclaimed animator Busifan. The film uses 2D animation to mimic traditional Chinese ink paintings, resulting in gorgeous pastel backgrounds which make the film worth a watch all on their own. It follows Mantou (translated as Bun in English) and his father Daguzi (Grain) as they search for magical silk in a haunted ship which Daguzi believes will free them from poverty.

Along the way, Mantou and Daguzi find themselves in the center of a longstanding feud between Lumin guardians trying to preserve nature, and members of an opera troupe haunting the ship. Both groups are united in that they blame the greed of humanity for their fates. The film explores themes of change, grief, and letting go, and is appropriate for all ages, but is better suited for older children or young adults who have a solid understanding of death and grief.

The Falling Sky (A Queda do Céu) is a film about Brazil’s indigenous Yanomami people, loosely based on Davi Kopenawa’s book The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman. Though classified as a documentary, the film is moreso a video essay, and features a combination of artistic shots of the sky and trees, a black screen with narration, and documentation of Yanomami rituals and daily life. The film is heavy and thought provoking, focusing on environmental destruction and the disturbance of indigenous daily life by capitalist society.

Ghost Cat Anzu is an adorable rotoscoped Japanese film focusing on a schoolgirl named Karin, her grandfather, and a giant ghost cat named Anzu, as they navigate life together after Karin’s father abruptly leaves her at her grandfather’s temple, trying to escape debt collectors. Karin, with the help of Anzu and other local forest spirits, processes her grief surrounding her mother’s death and father’s disappearance. The film does have a lot of cheap and childish humor like bad puns, but when I saw the film, the theater contained only young adults. There were multiple times where they all erupted in laughter. I think the film can be enjoyable for all audiences, but it is definitely a children’s film. Ghost Cat Anzu has a theatrical release starting November 15th.

I had the privilege of seeing the U.S. premier of Savanna and the Mountain (A Savana e a Montanha), a film focused on Covas do Barroso, Portugal and the towns prolonged battle with a British mining firm. The film has quite a surprise at the end, or at least it was a surprise to me, and includes fantastic original music composed by a member of the town. I loved the filmmaking and musical score of Savanna, and the film had me thinking about the impact my personal consumerism has on towns like Covas do Barroso long after the film was over. If I had to recommend seeing just one film that was played at Refocus, it would be this.

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As the two attempt to reconnect with the show, aspects of their realities begin to shift, causing them to suspect the “The Pink Opaque” as more than just a show, wherein they soon discover that it is a reflection of their internal realizations about themselves. The two leads in the show, named Isabel and Tara are posed as symbolic representations of Owen and Maddy, being that they are tangible embodiments of what they could be.

The show itself epitomizes the abstract feeling of having something within you that is yet unknown, that you strive to reach for, only to have a figurative weight pull it back down into you to shut it out and bury it. Eventually, it is established in the film that the line that separates their reality from “The Pink Opaque” is more blurred than ever, at which life is expressed as one TV show watched through the lens of one’s own eyes, as a mirrored truth of actuality.

Mr. Melancholy is depicted as the main antagonist in the show, and is an entity that takes away their hearts. Alongside The Big Bad, another entity who accentuates their perception of death, the show explores the sensations of still being physically alive, yet being left with the all-consuming feeling that a part of you has passed away. As a subtext presents itself, closely correlated to the queer identity and being a person of color, the film explicates the suffocating brawl of having to repress and stomp out certain dimensions of the universe that stretches out within you.

Glowing with effervescent fluorescence, the film is packed with surreally existential dialogue and stunningly luminous visuals, which all come together to form this glittering pursuit of finding the self. Alongside this, the piece also addresses youth’s tendency to seek attachment to facets of pop culture, such as fandoms, as a vehicle of comfort in this tumultuous world. Accompanied by Justice Smith and Brigette Lundry-Paine’s poignantly moving acting and Alex G’s bittersweet and saccharine soundtrack, Schoenbrun came up with a film so stirring and lachrymose that I found myself crying at the end of the film, having needed hours to myself to recover from what I had just seen.

In the final scene of the film, we see Owen undergo a moment of catharsis which leaves him splitting himself open, to unearth the parts of him that have always remained hidden. But then, the film comes to a sudden closure, as Owen frantically tells everyone around him, “Sorry about that from before.” It extends the systemically induced feeling of obligation to apologize for our complex natures as multi-layered individuals. Ultimately, Schoenbrun with this movie has summarized the horrors of what it is like being alive, in the gifted medium of a film, to which now, I do not need to explain.

‘I Saw the TV Glow’ is currently playing at FilmScene in Iowa City, as of June 4th, 2024.

The 500 Club seeks to provide concise film reviews and criticism at around a cool 500 words for your viewing pleasure.

The post The 500 Club: Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow” appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Both mediums are very complimentary of each other. Music serves as an aid to amplifying visuals, while visuals function to apply music with more expressive, evocative, and poignant character. The two combined create an entirely sensual experience that leaves the viewer with ardently vivid demonstrations of emotion and thought. In my opinion, the perfect scene comprises of a shot with passionate narrative and equally moving and stirring musical themes and elements.

Music is not only a background component of the scene, but it also operates as the instinctive guide that leads the audience in terms of flow and motion within the storyline. The musical feature is essentially what dictates and determines what following events will unravel. In a way, it allows us to be aware and conscious in advance of what is about to unfold. It’s a foreboding kind of warning or prediction that allows the audience to know the direction that the film is about to take, long before it moves that way.

I’d like to think of it as composers centering and revolving the music around plots, where the music is able to convey the story on its own through the sound’s embodied atmosphere and ambience. Why I think film scores and soundtracks are so especially important is because we fail to recognize its merit for its role in the translating of sentiment and intensity. Music after all is a universal language. 

The first movie soundtrack that I had really enjoyed, so much so that I had even purchased a copy of it on vinyl, was Nicholas Brittel’s orchestration for the Barry Jenkins film If Beale Street Could Talk (2018). There was one track in the album named “Agape”, which plays during a scene in where Tish (played by Kiki Layne) talks about the momentary instance she realized she loved Fonny (Stephan James). She says, “We were a part of each other. Flesh of each other’s flesh which we so took for granted that we never thought of the flesh. Yet, it was no surprise to me when I finally understood that he was the most beautiful person I had seen all my life.”

Tish recites this dialogue over Britell’s score, as a frame of them appears where they are in a moving subway train, staring deeply at each other’s exterior. I would listen to this specific track a lot. It even become my top song on Spotify for a while. The stunning magnificence of this album amazes and fascinates me for its capacity to be brimming with such profuse lust for life.

Soon after, I found out about Emile Mosseri, who had done the scores for Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari (2020) and Miranda July’s Kajillionaire (2020). As I had watched Minari during my senior year of high school for a class, I was immediately compelled to download its score after hearing the album’s outro track play over the scene of the Yi family’s farm burning down. In this dramatically touching scene, we see the Yi family lose everything they worked so hard for, signifying the collapse of their American dream. As the outro track poses itself to be tenderly delicate, the musical personality of the scene is complex and intricate in its spirit and energy.

Minari ending scene. Image via Midstory

As for the Kajillionaire score, I adore the track, “Infinite Love“. It plays in the film after Old Dolio (played by Evan Rachel Woods) and Melanie (played by Gina Rodriguez) emerge from staying in a pitch-dark room. Here, Old Dolio says in a speech, “I think it happened right away. Right after that first big noise. We died. This is just how it’s gonna be forever. Just us, in blackness. You can’t believe it because you were married to life, hooked on it. I wasn’t hooked so it’s not such a big deal to me.” After this segment, Old Dolio enters a convenience store and starts to see everything mundane and earthly as mesmerizing and captivating. A viewed perception toward reality, shifted.

I also consider myself an avid fan of Jon Brion. He is the composer for the soundtracks of Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017) and Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004). The Lady Bird soundtrack holds a particularly distinctive place in my heart as this was what I had been listening to before boarding the plane for college. It’s similar to Lady Bird when the track “Leaving” plays over the scene where Lady Bird’s mother drops her off at the airport as she leaves to attend UC Davis.

In Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, the track “Theme” plays over Joel (played by Jim Carrey) waking up and going on with his daily life. He says in a voice-over, “Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap. I ditched work today, took a train up to Montauk. I don’t know why. I’m not an impulsive person. I guess I just woke up in a funk this morning. I gotta get my car fixed.” In this monologue, he mourns the existence of Valentine’s Day. With the score still playing, Joel has his first encounter with Clementine, as she walks past him by the beach’s coast, symbolizing what would then be a tumultuous journey of trying to forget each other.

Scores and soundtracks like these persist in reminding me of how impactful and influential cinema and music have been in my life. The aforementioned composers make life all the more colorful and vibrant through the wondrous meshing of visuals and sound. Earlier this year, I delved further into the discography of Hans Zimmer, who I would argue is one of the best when it comes to the mastership of film soundtracks and scores. From this exploration, I came to the conclusion that he was right when he had claimed that “anything can be musical sound.”

The post Film Scores and Soundtracks, an Overlooked Aspect of Cinema appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The film is led by the delightfully strange Bella Baxter (played by Emma Stone), who under the wing of Dr. Godwin Baxter (played by Willem Dafoe), who she refers to as “God”, was brought back to life after she had attempted suicide after finding out she was pregnant. Godwin switches out her brain with the brain of her unborn-child, which results in Bella having an infant-like mind. With themes of experimentation, the film easily positions itself as something that reminds us of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but instead if under the mold of Barbie. This is as we follow a resurrected woman in desire and curiosity to explore the world in the hopes of finding and reuniting with herself through the discovery of life and existence’s means.

Image via The Los Angeles Times

Liberated and free, Bella goes on an expedition through Lisbon, Alexandria, Marseille, and later on Paris alongside Duncan Wedderburn (played by Mark Ruffalo), who is one of her suitors next to Max McCandles (played by Ramy Youssef). In Bella’s ventures, she learns about such concepts like socialism, in which she grasps a new approach toward living, unfettered and unconfined by the various areas of the societal hierarchy. While being away, Godwin takes on Felicity (played by Margaret Qualley), who is under similar circumstances to Bella.

However, Bella’s crusade soon comes to an end as she needs to return home after being alerted that Godwin is apparently dying. She goes back home, and plans to marry McCandles. This plan is interrupted by the abrupt entrance of her former husband from her past life, General Alfie Blessington (played by Christopher Abbott) who entraps her in his mansion and demands her to subject and submit herself to his powers. Bella finds a way to escape him and afterward returns to Godwin who passes away while in the support of Bella and McCandles. 

The film is tenderly poetic as it humors its ever-profuse introductions to metaphors and symbolic allegories to the idea of living life within one’s rules, choices, and control. Bella Baxter re-enters life in the ways she wishes and wants. In Bella’s words, “It is the goal to improve, advance, progress, grow.” Madame Swiney (played by Kathryn Hunter) in an earlier scene describes Bella as “a woman plotting her course to freedom.” 

“Poor Things” is currently playing at FilmScene in Iowa City, as of January 1st, 2024.

The 500 Club seeks to provide concise film reviews and criticism at around a cool 500 words for your viewing pleasure.

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The film is a book-to-screen adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel of the same title. The book was met with praise upon its publication in 2015 under Penguin Press and received the PEN award. This was alongside other short-listings that had lauded the work for its Alfred Hitchcock like approach in style and form. In Oldroyd’s movie adaptation, he is able to capture this essence of being unsettling and eerie as the film utilizes the thriller genre in ways that are magnetically stirring.

The film follows the main protagonist Eileen Dunlop (played by Thomasin Mckenzie), a 24-year-old who works as a secretary at a male juvenile correctional facility in a mysterious town in Massachusetts. She gets to know Rebecca Saint John (played by Anne Hathaway), a Harvard derived psychologist who enters the staff of Eileen’s workplace. From the very start of their first encounter, Eileen finds herself to be completely fascinated and transfixed by Rebecca’s presence, in which later on, they grow and develop a fondness for each other.

Image via KQED

The foundation of their relationship ends up centering itself around the puzzling case of one of the inmates at the prison, Lee Polk (played by Sam Nivola), who both Eileen and Rebecca are convinced had killed his father in much more profound circumstances than what had been formerly established. Alongside this conflict, Eileen also confronts internal battles with her father Jim (played by Shea Whigham) who struggles with an addiction to alcohol as a result of her mother’s death, and his failed career as a policeman. Early on, the unstable, flimsy dynamic that poses itself between Eileen and her father is conveyed on screen, which later on, leads Eileen to using him as a last resort.

Throughout the film, it contains imaginary shots of Eileen utilizing a gun to her own content. Within these sequences, we eventually land upon scenarios in which she ends up actually pulling the trigger, under heightened conditions. Rebecca involves her into a messy situation with Lee Polk’s mother (played by Marin Ireland), one that she had no choice in but to handle and manage herself.

The main premise of the plot finds itself to revolve around Eileen’s want of running away to New York with Rebecca, in which she feels she needs to go through these measures in order to be able to do this. What is most engaging in this film is the unnerving, though enigmatic bond that forms between Eileen and Rebecca, to the degree that both start to mesh and meld into becoming the other.

The 500 Club seeks to provide concise film reviews and criticism at around a cool 500 words for your viewing pleasure.

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A major concern for the guild had been actors’ residuals, which are compensated payments made toward actors if the media they had been previously involved in had been reused. With the streaming service community being more prominent in recent years, these residuals have undergone a significant decrease. Starting rates have lowered for the remittances that they receive.

In conjunction with this issue, the matter of AI had also been raised. With AI’s rapid proliferation, policies haven’t yet caught up with how to protect actors’ rights to compensation whenever their work is utilized in the context of AI. As AI becomes more of a prevalent occurrence across industries such as the one of film and television, the union had demanded for there to be a greater sense of consent for when it comes to its usage of actors’ talents and identities. Those partaking in the strike had called off appearing in publicized platforms, alongside engaging in existing, and ongoing projects.

Image via the Los Angeles Times

The strike lasted a total of 118 days, ending on November 9th, 2023 after the approval of a tentative agreement that had included newly-updated provisions for the actors’ service practices and management. These provisions consisted of increases in minimum wage, streaming bonuses, set restrictions and regulations on the use of AI, as well as better conditions with regards to healthcare and pensions. For reference of a more detailed account of the agreement’s inclusions, you can look at a full, detailed summary of what the new agreement covers here.

As AMPTP had called this their “last, best and final offer,” actor Kevin E. West had stated that the deal is “not perfect” but had also added that “nothing is.” Actor and SAG-AFTRA executive vice president Ben Whitehair called the agreement a “massive win.” AMPTP had said that this agreement “represents a new paradigm,” and that “it gives SAG-AFTRA the biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union.” With this negotiation, one can conclude that the deal signifies the protection and support of actors within the professional field so that the industry can continue to flourish within healthy, good spaces. 

The post An Update on the SAG-AFTRA Strike, and What the Tentative Agreement Offers appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The film is based on the 2017 true crime book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, which depicts the incessant murders of the Osage people in 1920s Oklahoma. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, a dim middle-aged white man who travels to Oklahoma to live with his brother and uncle, William “King” Hale, played by Robert De Niro. Soon after Ernest arrives at his uncle’s cattle ranch, he learns of the Osage community and their lucrative oil rights. Mollie Kyle, played by Lily Gladstone, is an Osage woman whose family has rights to that oil money. King encourages his nephew to woo and marry her to access her family’s wealth. The rest of the film deals with the conniving and killing directed at the Osage community to feed the greed of the opportunistic white interlopers.

Martin Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth did a good job returning the audience to Ernest and Mollie’s relationship throughout the film. Their new romance is portrayed as budding and innocent during the film’s first quarter. But the audience senses Ernest’s impure motives. Innocence wears off as the film progresses with more focus on family and the dying Osage. “Do you still love me?,” a sickly Mollie asks her husband after sensing an emotional distance. Ernest exemplifies how love cannot, in fact, conquer all. In this case, greed overpowered love from the very beginning. 

Racism also impacts relationship dynamics in the film. Prevalent in Mollie and Ernest’s relationship, it is also present in the majority of white and Osage interactions. King, Ernest’s uncle, is a perfect example. Despite being the mastermind behind Ernest’s ruse with Mollie and her family, he is a leader in the community who has befriended many Osage residents. However, not enough to stop him from betraying them. 

The biggest problem with the film is the representation of the Osage population. In their own story, they were minimized to the point that the story centered around the white power players. This is a story about white men capitalizing on Osage people’s vulnerability. All of the Osage characters, except Mollie, are underdeveloped. Despite this, it is appreciated that this is a film about a hardly discussed chapter of American history. It feels like a step in the right direction for cinema.   

The outstanding performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone were the primary reason I loved the film. We know that DiCaprio is one of the best actors to date, and in this movie, we see why. His ability to embody complex and diverse motives is remarkable. I was pleasantly surprised by the relatable strength Gladstone, a relative newcomer to larger productions, shows as Mollie. The authentic costumes and realistic set design transport the viewer to the rural 1920s America. This film is an investment at almost three and a half hours, but it is visually stunning, moving, impactful and worth your time.

‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is currently playing at FilmScene in Iowa City, as of November 13th, 2023.

The 500 Club seeks to provide concise film reviews and criticism at around a cool 500 words for your viewing pleasure.

The post The 500 Club: Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” appeared first on KRUI Radio.