The Leader April 9, 2024 Issue

hears abortion drug

SUPREME COURT HEARS ABORTION DRUG ARGUMENTS

Lydia Schoessling (she/her) Staff Writer

A lawsuit regarding a drug that medically induces abortion appeared in front of the Supreme Court on March 26.

The legal organization “Alliance Defending Freedom” filed the case against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, alleging the FDA neglected to consider serious safety issues when allowing medical abortions to be easier to obtain. The ADF is the same organization that played a significant role in overturning Roe V. Wade in 2022.

The FDA has rejected these claims, and many leading major medical organizations, such as the American Medical Association, have agreed that the drug is safe.

A medical abortion involves two pills: mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone is the first drug administered, which prevents the hormone ‘progesterone’ from being able to help develop the pregnancy. The second drug administered is misoprostol, which expels the pregnancy from the uterus.

The case only centers around mifepristone, a hormone blocker, failing to address the drug that induces the termination.

The ADF initially filed its case in November 2022 in Amarillo, Texas, where it was brought before a federal judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, who ruled in favor of the ADF’s claims.

In May 2023, the Biden Administration took the ruling to New Orleans, La., where the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on the federal government’s appeal, and the court issued its decision a few months later in August. That decision stated that mifepristone should be available, but the method in which patients can access the drug should go back to what was in place before the FDA began making changes in 2016.

In the aftermath of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling, the Biden Administration asked the Supreme Court to consider the challenges against mifepristone. As the Supreme Court evaluates its decision, the previous rulings are all temporarily blocked. The decision is likely to be released around the early summer.

But what would either ruling mean? If the court rules in favor of the FDA, the Supreme Court will overturn the previous rulings, and mifepristone will remain on the market as before the lawsuit. If the court rules in favor of the ADF, it would overturn the FDA’s 2000 approval of mifepristone.

EU HINDU-SIKH LECTURES HIGHLIGHT LACK OF HINDU POPULATION ON CAMPUS

Sofia Castro (she/her)

Staff Writer

Jai Swaminarayan, and Namaste. In an effort to introduce Eastern religions to campus, the Spiritual Life Council hosted its fourth lecture on the beliefs and traditions of the Hindu and Sikh religions on March 28 during protected hour. Elmhurst University student Samay Rajan Verma covered two of the most important holy texts in Hinduism: The Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana, explaining in detail crucial beliefs of Hinduism such as dharma (duty), atma (soul), and moksha (liberation).

However, the lack of attendance at the lecture begs the question: what is happening with the Hindu population at Elmhurst University?

The last official records from the student body diversity data were recorded in 2019, showing only about 6.1% of students of Asian descent.

Now in 2024, the number has grown with organizations like the South Asian Student Association and the Muslim Student Association flourishing. Yet the Hindu population at EU has seemingly dwindled.

Verma stated possible reasons why this happened. “The stem of the small Hindu and Sikh population may come from history. Historically speaking, the partition of India in 1947 plays

a role in some fear and perception,” Verma stated. “It could stem from that generational fear. Hindu and Sikh students may prefer institutions such as UIC or Loyola.”

Shree Rajyaguru, another Hindu student, would like to see these communities grow at EU.

“I would love to see a group of students building a community for the underrepresented population at Elmhurst University,” Rajyaguru said.

Although there is some tension between the religions, the Spiritual Life Council is committed to creating an environment where everyone welcomes each other’s faiths. They will continue hosting these lectures until May 9.

SUNDANCE COMES TO THE WINDY CITY

Sarah Glees (she/her) Multimedia Editor

Chicago’s film scene continues to flourish as this summer it will become the first city to host a film weekend in collaboration with the Sundance Institute.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is looking forward to this collaboration.

“This collaboration between Choose Chicago, the City of Chicago, and the Sundance Institute is a momentous occasion for our city… This event is a shining example of our commitment to enriching Chicago’s cultural landscape and fostering an environment where the arts can thrive,” said Johnson.

The Sundance Institute, which was founded

by actor and filmmaker Robert Redford in 1981, is most notable for its yearly film festival, The Sundance Film Festival. The mission of the organization has been to support and discover independent filmmakers from across the world.

Karen Cardarelli of the Chicago Alliance Film Festival commented on the festival scene.

“We have an incredibly dynamic and inclusive film festival scene here and look forward to collaborating with the Sundance Institute to ignite and inspire Chicago audiences,” Cardarelli said.

The city’s film scene is one that’s continued to grow with the popularity of shows such as “Chicago Fire” and “The Bear,” which both

shoot in the city and at Cinespace Studios. With more than 50 festivals each year, Chicago is at the center of the world’s filmmaking community, making this event a high-profile addition to Chicago’s film events.

From June 28 to June 30, the city will come alive with a celebration of independent artists. The event will specifically feature screenings of four films from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, including Q & As with the filmmakers, a masterclass, and a short film program for emerging and underrepresented filmmakers. There will also be a panel discussion at the Chicago Cultural Center and a presentation about the Sundance Institute, including how to apply to their various artists programs and labs.

GRAPHIC BY Rachel Fratt

EU DIGITAL MEDIA STUDENTS ‘FEEL THE BASE’

Lily Morgan (she/her) News Editor

Elmhurst University digital media students are giving young musicians their time in the spotlight, partnering with a nonprofit to help bring a special project to life.

The BASE Chicago is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago’s West Side that is working to combine sports and academics to make a positive impact on the lives of students and their families. While they are sports-based at heart, they couldn’t pass up a melodic opportunity when Jeremy Renner and Disney+ rolled into town to give them the surprise of a lifetime.

As part of his show “Rennervations,” Renner repurposed an old tour bus into a music studio on wheels, so that students who participate in The BASE Chicago’s music programs would have a chance to record and produce their original songs.

That’s where Kristyn Jo Benedyk came in. Benedyk, the head of the digital media department here at EU, was working on the advisory board for The BASE and began dreaming up a way they could fully utilize the studio-on-wheels and turn it into arts-based programming.

“I am a big believer in looking around at what resources you have, and that could be time, talent, financial, anything. Then looking around your community and asking, “Where can I put these resources to use to make a difference?” said Benedyk. “And that all came together in a phone call to the head of The BASE that I believe went something like this, ‘So I have this crazy idea...’ luckily The BASE said yes.”

Project “Feel the Base,” partners EU digital media students with middle school students from the Leif Ericson Academy in West Garfield Park, sponsored by The BASE Chicago. These students, all with an ear for music, take their ideas for original songs, write them, record them, and produce music videos to go along with them.

Through the direction of digital media professors John Klein and Benedyk, EU digital media students have been providing their

time, resources, and knowledge to assist in designing and directing the music videos tied to the songs, helping the Leif Ericson students bring their visions to life.

Sarah Glees, multimedia editor for The Leader, is a producer for the music videos and said she’s thrilled with how the project is coming along.

“I feel like being a producer is just like you’re a cheerleader for everyone. So I’m always just like, so excited for them and getting to see what they do,” said Glees, reflecting on the work they’ve done so far. “I love getting to help make that happen.”

Currently, the project is in the filming stage, with both sets of students coming together to bring the songs to life after a few months of work, writing, and recording. Benedyk says they are gearing up to begin post-production, preparing the music videos for their premiere this summer.

“THE PROJECT IS HIGHLY FULFILLING AND THAT IT HAS BEEN A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR BOTH SETS OF STUDENTS TO COLLABORATE.”

Klein said the project is highly fulfilling and that it has been a great opportunity for both sets of students to collaborate meaningfully.

“The Elmhurst students who are directing the music videos or who are on set for the music videos, helping out, I feel like they have grown so much as people and as creative people,” Klein said. “I also think they’ve gotten to really see how important and how valuable it is to the middle school students that they’re helping out.”

Klein continued explaining this impact.

“For some of these students, this is like a real taste of college on some level,” Klein explained.

“You can see some of these middle school students who are like, this is like the time of their lives, they’re living their best life.”

Eric Davis, executive director of The BASE Chicago, said that around the time he first started talking about a collaboration with Benedyk and EU, The BASE wasn’t sure they would have the manpower to place programming in the Leif Ericson Academy.

Ultimately, though, Davis said the decision was a no-brainer.

“Within the swoop of one day, we went from 300 some-odd kids to 800 kids,” Davis said. “Because we adopted Leif Ericson School and said, no, we’ll give the programming. We’re in the community. It’s important that they see us. And we figured that we would just figure it out.”

Three years ago, the Leif Ericson Academy was better known as the Leif Ericson Arts

PHOTO BY Star Herring

CONTINUED FROM Page 4

Academy, but their funding was ultimately cut, leaving students with a love for art but no outlet through which to express their creativity.

Davis mentioned that this project helped give them that outlet.

“They weren’t able to do arts programming,” Davis said. “So it was almost like a godsend that all of this came together. To say it was amazing, doesn’t give it enough credit.”

Davis also commented on the impact the project has had on everyone involved.

“It’s been heartwarming,” Davis said. “It’s been impactful for our kids in the West Garfield Park community, but I think it has been equally as impactful for the students from Elmhurst University.”

Davis continued, “I think what we’ve done here is we’ve created a prototype of what arts can look like in schools, not just here in Chicago, but across the country. Having young

people tell their story about their community humanizes them, it empowers them. I think just organically coming together with open hearts, that’s what created this. If Elmhurst University and The BASE and Leif Ericson School sat down and discussed this and said, ‘This is what we’re going to create,’ we would have never created this.”

Klein is similarly grateful for the way the collaboration has taken shape and wants to thank EU for its support.

“There’s no way we could have made this project what it is, but we’ve had such support from the administration to have the equipment that made this program possible,” Klein said. “I think it speaks to how quickly the digital media program is growing and how much more we hope to grow it with similar kinds of activities in the future.”

According to Benedyk, there are already plans in place for taking the program to the next level.

“We already have talked about the ways we plan to grow the program,” Benedyk said. “For example, we are partnering with The Recording Academy next year, and we recently met with a record label about releasing the students’ songs.”

The seven music videos the students collaborate on as part of “Feel the Base” will premiere at the Music Box Theatre on June 5.

Benedyk is looking forward to their release. “Everyone on June 5 is going to be absolutely blown away by these music videos,” said Benedyk. “These are MTV-quality videos our EU students are making, and I can’t wait for the rest of the world to be in awe of them the way I have been watching them throughout this process.”

Tickets to the “Feel the Base” premiere event are free and available on the Music Box Theatre’s website.

ELMHURST UNIVERSITY TO BE PART OF “CICADA-POCALYSPE” THIS SPRING AND SUMMER

Brynn Rubacky (she/her) Staff Writer

This spring and summer, everyone will be able to see and hear a major event happening in Illinois: the arrival of two periodical groups of cicadas coming to the state simultaneously for the first time in 221 years.

Elmhurst University will see the Brood XIII cicadas crawl from underground starting in mid-to-late May during this rare natural event. It will be the first time the campus has seen this volume of cicadas since the spring and early summer of 2007, and they will be visible throughout all of Dupage County for around a month and a half.

Senior Isabella Jozwiak expressed her concern about the cicadas disrupting EU’s outdoor graduation ceremony, which will be held on Saturday, May 18.

“I had no idea this was even happening,” she said. “I hope it wouldn’t disrupt the graduation ceremony, but if there are as many as people say, it could.”

This concern is raised as the Brood XIII cicadas are expected to hit the northern parts of Illinois in late May 2024, according to Dr. Gene Kritsky, a Dean at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati in a 2023 press release.

While the northern part of Illinois will only see Brood XIII, southern parts of the state are expected to see the periodical emergence of Brood XIX. These broods have not been above ground together since 1803 and won’t again until 2245.

Some areas of the state, such as Central Illinois, will see both broods very close to each other, but historically they have never crossed paths. It’s still unsure whether that could happen this year.

This double emergence is expected to bring billions of cicadas to the state. Other states will also be affected by these periodical cicadas. Parts of Wisconsin, Indiana, and Iowa will see the same brood as northern Illinois.

Cicadas are classified into two groups. According to the University of Illinois extension about insects, annual cicadas visit the state

every year, while periodical cicadas such as this year’s emerge in periods of 13 and 17 years. There are three species that emerge on a 17year cycle and four species that emerge on a 13-year cycle. These periodical cicadas only have a lifespan of about a few weeks. Their emergence is staggered, so we will see them for about six weeks.

The annual cicadas are also referred to as “dog day” cicadas and show up later than periodical cicadas. We will see these cicadas hit the area during the “dog days” of summer after the periodical cicadas emerge. The cicadas will not do any harm to humans or animals; however, they can damage trees, specifically trees that are newly planted. This is due to female periodical cicadas laying eggs, causing damage to smaller trees and branches.

Scientists are urging people to enjoy this natural phenomenon because it isn’t going to happen again in our lifetime.

BALTIMORE BRIDGE COLLAPSE LEAVES THE COUNTRY REELING

Jose Benitez (he/him) Staff Writer

Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge collapsed on March 26 after a cargo ship struck a pillar, leaving two injured, three bodies recovered, and three people still missing and presumed dead.

At around 1:30 a.m. that morning, a container ship departing the Port of Baltimore lost power and struck a pillar, which caused the bridge to collapse. This incident has caused massive delays and the deployment of search parties. The catastrophic event was captured on video leading to much online speculation.

According to authorities, the crew onboard the ship was able to issue a mayday call moments before colliding with the bridge so that traffic

could be diverted, saving countless lives. However, a pothole repair crew of eight were on the bridge the moment it collapsed. Two have been reported to have survived, one with injuries. Donation pages dedicated to the workers affected by the bridge collapse have been established.

Port and road traffic are affected by delays although reroutes are already being discussed such as trucks, rail, and tunnels for other methods of transporting containers to their destinations.

The disaster has since gone viral on social media, with users saying the event is something “straight out of a horror movie.” For example, the film “Final Destination 5” was trending on X following the collapse as users pointed out similarities and the surreal nature of the

bridge collapsing.

This event is not the first of its kind as back in May 1980, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Fla. was struck and a large portion collapsed, which resulted in 35 fatalities.

On April 5, President Biden visited the site. He expressed his grief and condolences to the families of the repair crew and everyone affected.

He pledged federal support in the clean-up and rebuilding of the bridge.

“Your nation has your back,” Biden stated.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is managing bridge debris removal, and there are currently many talks about how to approach a clean-up operation. However, no timeline or cost estimate for clearing is available at this time.

EDITORIAL

RATING RATEMYPROFESSOR’S RELIABILITY

Nearly 3,000 students at Elmhurst University will be meeting with advisors, asking friends, and browsing online catalogs for their next semester’s academic adventure. One key tool many will also swear by is the website RateMyProfessor.

RateMyProfessor is a free online platform that allows anyone to anonymously review colleges and universities, as well as their professors based on various criteria including course intensity, student interest, and even the attitude of a professor. Users are also given the option to write a short comment to attach to their review, completely anonymously.

Some students refuse to register for classes until they’ve read the RateMyProfessor review for their planned courses. Anecdotally, members of The Leader’s Editorial Board remember being told they should disregard anyone telling them not to use RateMyProfessor.

This does beg a question: how reliable is this website? It’s completely open to the public, and it’s completely anonymous as well. What’s stopping a professor from writing their own reviews? What’s stopping a student who strongly dislikes one professor from writing

hundreds of fake negative reviews? What’s stopping one student’s single review from significantly skewing a professor’s score? It’s about what one would expect. The website provides guidelines for posting on its “Help” page and does contain a moderation team of some sort, but they do not scan or proofread the reviews written, primarily focusing on checking reports and violations submitted by the site’s users instead.

This can lead to some foul play. After browsing the website for some time, students may notice a handful of professors, particularly those teaching “Area of Knowledge” or “Tag” classes, having many reviews phrased very similarly, often using the same first or last sentences and noting the same key points each time.

Of course, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that these reviews really are real students. The primary concern of many students taking general education courses tends to be whether or not they have a lot of homework and how easy the exams are. When reviewing a course where your main observations were exactly that, it’s hard to deviate too far from the standard.

Should RateMyProfessor be trusted then?

Even if there isn’t any foul play, EU is not a very large school. Most professors on EU’s RateMyProfessor catalog have 10 or fewer reviews.

Why do people trust Wikipedia? Anyone can edit that website, and though it isn’t very difficult to check a page’s references or view an article’s contributing editors, do people really?

We trust Wikipedia because it has a critical mass of users. There are enough people that use the website, both as contributors and as readers, that the general public can safely rely on the website, at least for very general or broad information.

In this way, RateMyProfessor is very similar. Until end-of-semester course reviews become publicly accessible for students, RateMyProfessor is the only semi-reliable source of student course feedback in one place that is easily

accessible online. Students have accepted this platform as their public resource and as such, have collectively decided to keep it relatively accurate.

Conversely, EU is a small university. With roughly 3,000 undergraduate students and only so many classes a student can take, one strongly negative or strongly positive review can skew the overall score of a professor. Two, three, or four can wildly affect that professor’s score. The only way to stop this is for students to be proactive in contributing to the site themselves.

With students using RateMyProfessor as a baseline for their course selection, it should be extremely important for all students to write a genuine and honest review for the classes they take. It only takes a minute or two per professor. The more reviews that are written, the more accurate a professor’s rating becomes, and the more students can shape their EU experiences in the ways they want to.

GRAPHIC BY Rachel Fratt

THE ORIGINS OF THE ILLINOIS VINTAGE FEST

Lydia Avery (she/her) Staff Writer

A brisk but sunny Saturday in March. After parking in the grass lot, you hop out of your car and join the constant stream of people moving up the hill toward the event center. The door swings open, and the music and hums of a hundred different voices pour out. Welcome to the Illinois Vintage Fest 19’.

On March 23 and 24, I attended the Illinois Vintage Fest for the first time alongside hundreds of other attendees. The building was filled with a warm and inviting atmosphere, feel-good songs, and each person had a child-like wonder on their face as they made their way from booth to booth.

Couples held hands, friends goaded friends into buying that coat that they really wanted, and children got their first taste of the magical world of vintage clothing.

Despite all attempts to resist and simply be an observer, I went home with a vintage skirt for only $20, which in my experience was a deal.

After leaving the venue Sunday afternoon, I wanted to peek behind the curtain and hear more about how this all came to be. Cut to a few weeks and one fascinating interview later, and I have the real story behind the Illinois Vintage Fest, thanks to one of its founders, Shayne Kelly.

On Easter Sunday, Shayne Kelly joined me via Zoom for an interview where he gave me the history of the Illinois Vintage Fest. Kelly shared the story of how he went from selling vintage clothes out of his parent’s garage to hosting over 100+ vendors in the DuPage Event Center.

Kelly graduated from Lewis University in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design.

During school, Kelly said he transformed his degree into “being kind of this Swiss army knife of marketing.”

Post-graduation, Kelly worked at RE/MAX Ultimate Professionals where he handled marketing for a couple of years until he went to work for CD One Price Cleaners in November 2019.

Cut to April 2020, when he lost his job. “I didn’t really leave,” Kelly said. “It was more or less due to COVID. I had no choice at the time.”

After losing his job, he said he “applied to over 600 jobs, had over 100 interviews and nothing.”

With little else to do, he took the extra money from his severance pay and went daily to different thrift stores and other secondhand places with his friends to find and buy cool old clothes.

Then came the Black Lives Matter movement during the summer of 2020.

“Me being a Black man, I wanted to help, but I couldn’t leave my house because my family members are immunocompromised,” Kelly said. Looking for another way to contribute to the cause, Kelly decided he could sell some of the clothes he had been buying and donate the proceeds. He set up a garage sale and was shocked by the 700 people who showed up at his parents’ house.

A portion of the proceeds went to an organization called The Prison + Neighborhood Arts/ Education Project, which works with prisoners in Statesville to get them access to classes about a variety of subjects, including the arts. Kelly felt that the PNAP was the perfect group for him to support since they were working to improve the lives of incarcerated people.

“Obviously, with the prison complex system, a lot of the inmates are people of color,” Kelly

explained.

After the success of his first garage sale, things started to take off. They had their first event, which they originally called Joliet Vintage Fest, right in Kelly’s front yard, where 10 of his friends all set up and sold clothing in a group garage sale.

“Then out of that spurred Illinois Vintage Fest, which then spurred Prison City, which then spurred heyday,” said Kelly.

When asked about the naming of Prison City Vintage, Kelly said that it was “derived from a few things, the Blues Brothers, which is what Joliet is known for, and its prisons, which is what Joliet is also known for. It’s not a bright spot in Joliet’s history, but it cannot be erased.”

Kelly explained that the name also has a connection to his dad who was “a victim of the war on drugs, he also was in Statesville for a short period of time.”

Bearing the name is not always easy, as Kelly said they “have caught some flak from people, so it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.”

Some people even go as far as to imply the name is in poor taste or virtue signaling. Kelly values helping others over his own personal profit or gain, and he sees the potential in Joliet and wants to help it grow by building more businesses like his own Prison City Vintage.

“That amazing city that I know is down there somewhere deep inside, but it just needs some help,” Kelly emphasized, noting that he is hopeful after the election of Joliet’s new mayor.

After getting to know one of the founders — hearing his story, learning of his heart for his cause, and feeling the community that is so naturally fostered at his events — I plan to continue attending more events in the future.

PHOTO BY Lydia Avery Shoppers browse Illinois Vintage Fest.

THE HUNGER OF REVENGE: A REVIEW OF DEV PATEL’S DIRECTORIAL DEBUT: “MONKEY MAN”

Sarah Glees (she/her) Multimedia Editor

A young boy sits cradled in the arms of his mother as she tells him the story of a half-human, half-monkey God named Hanuman, who, like the young boy, was always hungry. One day Hanuman saw the sun rising and, with hunger in his eyes, saw it as a ripe fruit to eat. The King of the Gods, Indra, punished Hanuman for his mistake, striking him dead with a thunderbolt. Hanuman was revived, however, and the thunderbolt from Indra made Hanuman as powerful as Indra himself. “Monkey Man” is the directorial debut of Dev Patel (“The Green Knight,” “Slumdog Millionaire”). Patel not only brings his all in this film as a multihyphenate director, writer, and producer, but also continues to prove his unmatched acting abilities in his captivating performance as the Monkey Man.

The film follows the character of ‘Kid’ or Monkey Man, a young, impoverished man who decides to leave behind his career of fighting as the character of the monkey, who is unfavorable to the other fighters and, as a result, loses each fight. Monkey Man finds his way into working at a luxury hotel in the city where he ends up having to face trauma from his past and is set on a path of revenge.

Spoilers Ahead.

The tension in this movie is some of the best I’ve seen in an action picture. While some of the action sequences were on the verge of running too long, the structure was tactful in having brief resting moments in between fight sequences to rebuild that tense feeling. The fight and training sequences also had a remarkable level of choreography that matched up with the background score to set it apart from a typical action feature.

On the note of the sound, this film truly takes the music and score to a new level of sophistication with its haunting, yet powerful motifs–matched perfectly with song choices such as “Monkey Man” by the Rolling Stones, and “Beware of the Boys (Mundian To Bach Ke)” by Panjabi MC and JAY-Z.

The scenes themselves were also shot with precision and clear intention. One shot in particular that stands out in my mind is towards the end when the Monkey Man is faced with his enemy, and the shot tilts to reveal a reverse of the two of them perfectly outlined in the mirrored ceiling above.

Unfortunately, other shots in this film didn’t live up to this meticulousness. During the fight scenes specifically, the camera would often shift to handheld, which led to very jarring and disjointed shots typical of a basic action film. “Monkey Man,” for the most part, set itself

apart as an action film in so many other ways that I wish they’d chosen to use more unique shots during the action sequences.

The plot also felt shallow and incomplete. The character of Monkey Man, for example, ends this film exactly where he starts. He’s sought revenge; however, there’s a lack of change in himself. This is a challenge when having a god or savior-like character as a protagonist as they aren’t meant to go through much change, but rather change the world around them. The movie ends before it’s clear if any change has happened as a result of his actions.

Another element of the plot that I found disjointed was the scenes where Monkey Man is “finding himself” in the commune. While the scenes such as the training montage are fun and feature the amazing sound design this film excels in, it lacks urgency. By this point, Monkey Man has already proven himself as inhumanly strong and someone who can’t seem to be kept down for long, making this moment where he’s being encouraged to get back up and keep up with his training anticlimactic.

“Monkey Man” overall is a truly fascinating revenge film that in many ways sets new expectations for the action genre. I’m biased in my love for Dev Patel as an actor, however, this film gives me a lot of hope for what he might go on to accomplish as a director.

DUNE PART TWO: WHERE DOES IT GO FROM HERE?

Rianna Capizzano (she/her) Staff Writer

After finishing both “Dune: Part One” and “Dune: Part Two,” I couldn’t help but want more. Both films left me on the edge of my seat, ending with cliffhangers about what’s to come for the next movies. That being said, the review to follow is mixed and might leave a sour taste in the mouth of some readers. Fair warning, there will be spoilers.

The Bad

I’d like to start with what I did not like about Part Two. My biggest critique is that this movie was incredibly long — two hours and 46 minutes — especially considering it’s the second installment of a trilogy. There were a lot of scenes that could have been cut from the movie as they were useless in developing the plot and felt more like fillers that did not need to be there.

The time from those unnecessary scenes could have been used to lengthen other scenes of note, specifically the final battle between the

Fremen, Imperial Forces, and the Harkonnen. The battle felt rushed, and the Fremen defeated the Harkonnen and the Sardaukar with an unrealistic ease.

With the Harkonnen coming in hot with elite soldiers and masses of weapons, compared to the Fremen being led by teenagers and other dogmatic fighters, you would think the Harkonnen would put up more of a fight.

However, one standout scene for me was the fight scene between Feyd-Rautha and Paul, which was spectacular, especially seeing Paul nearly succumb to his enemy. Though the movie depicted Feyd-Rautha as a psychopathic murderer, it seemed that he was almost pushed to the side and not nearly as relevant as he should be, which was confusing, to say the least.

What also confused me was how he seemed to have honor for whom he was fighting, as he did in the arena on his birthday as well as in the final fight with Paul. Harkonnen’s are portrayed as bloodthirsty killers, yet the movie gives an honorable spin on the cannibalistic lunatic.

There really was no further explanation as to why they did this in the film, but there wasn’t a lot of explanation about why a lot of things happened the way they did. Especially the random gruesome murders of the Harkonnen people done by their elites.

What really set me off was how many irrelevant famous people were cast. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love every chance I can to see Timothée Chalamet on my screen, but this is about all of the other actors and actresses that were cast in the movie as well. When I saw Anya Taylor-Joy on tour with the cast, I was excited. I loved her in “Queen’s Gambit” and “Peaky Blinders,” but to have her in the movie for practically a minute made me laugh.

Don’t even get me started on Zendaya, she’s an amazing actress; however, I do not think she fits the badass role she was cast in. Her facial expressions when portraying sadness or pain felt repetitive, which goes for any project she’s been cast in, such as “Euphoria” or the MCU Spider-Man films.

CONTINUED ON Page 11

GRAPHIC BY Rachel Fratt

CONTINUED FROM Page 10

What I will say is I feel that this movie was solely based around Paul becoming the Lisan al Gaib and did not focus on spice production, space travel, and just spice in general. I can understand that Paul becoming the Lisan al Gaib was extremely important to the plot; however, when the Emperor came into play as the overseer of spice and who got to rule it, we hardly got any details! Let alone only seeing Christopher Walken for maybe five minutes and four lines. Everything just seemed rushed, yet the movie was almost three hours long.

The Good

To start with the good I have to bring up the wardrobe and set. It was incredible to see how different the costuming for this film was–exceedingly better than Part One. I say this because of just how unique each character’s ancient house is shown to be through their wardrobe, symbolizing what the houses stand for. The

massive jump of Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) being conservative, well-mannered, and polite in her attire from her time being an Atreides, to her embracing her full Bene Gesserit self, and becoming the Reverend Mother of the Fremen with the symbols bestowed upon her through markings was just incredible.

Besides the impressive wardrobe choices, the cinematography was also just insane. I felt the power dynamic going between the gardens of the Padishah and Arrakis, it was as if my own mood swayed when the audience was shown the different scenes. This mood change included the terrifying scenes from the Giedi Prime, which showed the true evil that the Harkonnens harnessed. From the sun creating their world black and white, void of any color, to everyone uniformed as one with the same intentions found throughout the Harkonnen people.

I will conclude with how powerful this movie really was. Many have said the book to the movie translates well, more so than any other book-to-movie franchise, which is always wonderful to hear. This feedback leaves me intrigued to read the books and create my own parallels between them.

Judgment

All in all, I think this franchise has a lot to fix before the creation of the third movie, “Dune Messiah.” That doesn’t mean they haven’t made incredible improvements since the first movie, especially in terms of costumes and cinematography. I will say that the only other thing I wanted to see from this movie was a more satisfying ending — it left me wanting more by the end. Nonetheless, it is far better than Part One, and my review should not shun anyone away from watching this captivating movie on screen.

WONKA: AN AMAZING PREQUEL, EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS

Michael Nicholson (he/him) Staff Writer

If you’re a fan of either movie adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic novel, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” then you sure won’t want to miss this amazing backstory. What appears to be an obvious cash-in on the surface turns out to be a passionate, heartfelt, and intriguing prequel with some good twists that I wouldn’t dare spoil for those who haven’t seen it.

The story is about the various trials Wonka faces to achieve his dream of selling great-tasting chocolate to the world, though, to say what they are would be major spoilers. Along the way, Wonka befriends a little girl named Noodle who helps him to overcome the obstacles he faces.

One particular twist at the very end is admittedly pretty predictable, and you’ll know it when you see it. Think of “Kung Fu Panda” as a hint, which is similar to the big twist near the end there.

Arthur Slugworth is a major villain in the story, and he has a pretty interesting backstory. There is also an obvious villain who you’ll also know when a certain character makes an ominous

remark (who you’d never tell was a villain before the remark) but aside from that, these twists caught me by surprise.

The songs are awesome and have a Broadway feel, similar to “The Greatest Showman.” They also drive the story and don’t feel like filler in any way. These are great songs, ranging from incredibly catchy to magically wondrous. There’s also a great backstory to the Oompa Loompas.

The colors are great, too, making this film look as visually appealing as an animated film. In a time when sequels and remakes plague Hollywood, this is a breath of fresh air. It’s not just a soulless cash-in as it would ostensibly appear on the surface.

The story is intriguing with plenty of (mostly) great twists that I didn’t see coming, a legitimate investment where I wanted to see how everything would play out, great villains, great music, and a great heart. There’s just a sense of specialness to it that could easily be compared to seeing “Tangled” in 2010.

I loved it, and the issues, if any, are nitpicks. Give this one a go if you’re tired of sequels and remakes because it indeed stands out from the crowd.