The Batman Proves We Don’t

Matt Reeves’ The Batman, starring actors Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz, was released on March 4.

Courtesy of DC Comics

Kushagra Kar Editor-in-Chief

It’s a f**king drag at this point. People have been making Batman films for what feels like forever. You’d think there’d be enough at this point. But I suppose there is just something about a mysterious detective of the night that captures the imagination of thrill-seeking audiences, not to mention huge box office numbers. Somewhere out there is a voice in a pitch meeting saying, “Let’s make another one,” and that person really needs to shut up.

Matt Reeves’ The Batman, released on March 4, 2022, is the latest attempt at offering a new take on the Dark Knight, but I keep wondering if it was worth the effort. The film stars Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, and Paul Dano. Before I get to its major issues, I admit there were elements of the film I did enjoy. I thoroughly enjoyed Pattinson in the role of Batman and completely bought into his tortured, creepy, and emotionally raw take on the character. He brought so much gravity and edge to the Bruce Wayne character and delivered a quality of performance to rival any Batman actor prior. The soundtrack was haunting, mysterious, and appropriately fear- or hope-inducing to suit the moment. Costumes, set design, makeup, and prosthetics contributed to the goth aesthetic echoed in the script, not to mention an especially seedy feel for Gotham City. An incredibly talented team of people worked on this film, but were tragically let down by the drab writing and directing of the film’s visionaries.

The Batman is a three-hour-long film stuffed to the brim with villains and subplots that go nowhere and add no value to the viewing experience. The Penguin, Carmine Falcone, and The Riddler struggle for screen time and the title of primary antagonist, yet none of them ever display a clear motivation for their choices and general villainy. I maintain that Colin Farrell as The Penguin was despicably miscast and an unnecessary addition to the film; constantly playing second-fiddle to a more interesting performance by John Turturro, who plays Carmine Falcone. Paul Dano was great, but his Riddler was so obviously inspired by Heath Ledger’s Joker and the film didn’t even try to hide it. Fans of The Dark Knight will be crying foul at the near-identical artistic choices for The Riddler’s camera recordings that foretell Gotham’s reckoning, citing everything from dialogue to cinematography.

Dialogue actually accounts for the majority of this film’s embarrassments, with most bits coming across as either cheesy or striving for the pretension of a better film. Incessant voice-overs representing Batman’s inner monologue resulted in tonally dissonant scenes where every plot point is spelled out for the audience. Instead of trusting the filmmaking itself or the audience’s intelligence, everything is spoken as opposed to shown. For a crime thriller, the film is disappointingly liberal with its vocalization of clues and twists, altogether butchering any mystery or angst that could have otherwise been there. I was neither surprised nor inspired by any of the supposedly big reveals of the plot, and frankly, I was continually disengaged by the constant chatter of the characters. The worst of it all was the repeated use of the word “vengeance” to characterize Batman’s motivations, reaching a head when both Catwoman and The Penguin use the word to mock Batman. Despite the lack of intentional jokes, the film ended up oddly campy and juvenile, which was especially disappointing considering how seriously the whole enterprise takes itself.

Then there’s the plot, which was contrived and messy. I honestly cannot clearly track the progression of events and am unable to pinpoint what the cause and effect of different things were. Despite Pattinson and Kravitz’s chemistry, their romantic arc felt shoehorned. It distracted from Catwoman’s already packed storyline of seeking revenge on Falcone, finding her friend, stealing a bunch of money, and taking care of her cats. There was so much happening constantly, which is ironic because I was drop-dead bored for a lot of it. The additional consequence of this hectic writing was the dreadful underdevelopment of Alfred and Bruce’s relationship. After two hasty scenes of Bruce mistreating Alfred, we’re somehow supposed to care when the iconic butler nearly dies, and rightfully so. But, because no one expected him to croak so early in a potential franchise, there were no stakes at play for anyone.

The unjustified runtime and rather clumsy execution of this film are symptomatic of shoddy directing. There was a lack of prioritization in both the screenplay and characterization, and a lack of faith in the medium of visual storytelling. Everything was overexplained, overwritten, and ended up being unrewarding and uninspired despite the abundance of talent on this production. If Warner Bros. decides to make a sequel — which of course, they will — a better director needs to helm that project. This isn’t the movie Gotham deserves and is certainly not the one it needs right now.

COMIC Oberlin Activism, Then and Now

Ananya Gupta, OC ’21 Reprinted from The Oberlin Review (April 5, 2019)

Continued from page 10 that are 40-50 feet long. It also includes two films that I made over Winter Term. One was an installation in a hallway in the basement of Warner called ‘Stuck.’ The other is called ‘Masked Play.’ I made the installation using chairs and partner dance work. It’s very much an interdisciplinary show of movement, art, film, and projection.”

Cameron’s performance will combine her two passions: dance and psychology. In the last few months, she conducted a department-wide survey, the results of which inform the structure and narrative of her piece.

“First, I conducted a campus-wide dance survey of the entire Oberlin dance community,” Cameron said. “I collected about 60 responses, which I think was the final number. And there were eight open-ended questions all pertaining to dance. From those written words that people sent me, I created the almost 40-minute-long show that we’re putting on this weekend.”

Although Cameron and LaRiviere will be showcasing their pieces for the same event, the performances differ greatly from each other.

“The shows are completely opposite aesthetically,” La Riviere said. “Jewel’s is 100 percent on a different page than my show. But I think it’ll be really fun for the audience to be able to see two such different but engaging pieces.”

In reflecting on the ethos of the Dance department, LaRiviere noted that the faculty prioritizes student choreography.

“The department really pushes student creation,” LaRiviere said. “I feel like every year that I get older, I get more and more courage and knowledge and experience to create my own work. It feels very supported by the department.”

Associate Professor of Dance Alysia Ramos described the Dance department as a non-prescriptive, open environment where students are encouraged to design their own paths.

“I was really interested in teaching dance in a liberal arts environment, rather than a conservatory,” Ramos said. “I am really interested in students who do interdisciplinary work or who have other interests outside of dance, too.”

Ramos’ statement highlights the life-blood of Oberlin’s Dance department, as it primarily serves students who do not commit to a major. In fact, there are currently only a handful of Dance majors in the department. However, many students who dabble in the Dance department regard their experience as one of the most memorable throughout their college career.

“There’s a lot of people who end up accidentally minoring in the Dance department because it’s really easy to pick up a dance minor,” LaRiviere said. “One of my friends had taken samba, hip hop, ballet, and contemporary twice and ended up with a minor just because she kind of fell backwards into the Dance department and had never really taken a dance class before coming here.”

For LaRiviere and Cameron, majoring in Dance was always the plan, though both are multi-disciplinary students. LaRiviere shares her major with Biochemistry and Cameron with Psychology, a shining example of the Dance department’s interdisciplinary principles.

Au Milieu and Dance Stories are set to begin at 8 p.m this Friday and Saturday. They are sure to be a beautiful and original showcasing of the hard work and passion that runs throughout Oberlin’s Dance department.

Student Play At the End of the World Explores Connection in Times of Tragedy

Continued from page 10 the 20th century.

“When I started the play, it was a lot more about this metaphor of the end of the world,” Senese-Grossberg said. “But I think doing this production, it’s felt like it’s way more about Jewishness and, specifically, the Holocaust.”

Senese-Grossberg hopes the play will bring to light Jewish issues she encounters in her own life. For Senese-Grossberg, intentional erasure of identity, particularly during the Holocaust and subsequent American assimilation, defines the modern Jewish experience.

“If you don’t feel safe being Jewish and you feel like being Jewish is going to impede you or your children moving forward, especially integrating into American whiteness and a white middle-class society, then you’re not going to teach them Yiddish, you’re not going to give them Jewish names, and you’re not going to send them to Hebrew school,” she said.

For this reason, she believes it is important to bring discussions of Jewish identity in tumultuous times to the Oberlin theatrical audience and beyond.

Production-wise, At the End of the World went through a process that was far from ordinary. Written near the end of 2019, original production for the show stalled when students were sent home as the world’s focus drastically shifted toward public health.

Over the course of the pandemic, Senese-Grossberg and her team continued working on the piece, rehearsing, and producing the radio play in place of a live performance. However, upon returning to campus in the fall, the team began to imagine a way to revitalize the project in its originally intended format. Their solution was to turn the play into a Winter Term project, giving the whole team time to focus intently on production. Shapiro-Tamir says she saw this as an excellent opportunity.

“Having this as a primary focus over Winter Term, for me, was really wonderful,” she said. “I got to go deep and become really close with these people, and spend my work day with them, but also had a few hours in the evening to take care of myself and nurture other aspects of my life.”

College second-year and stage manager Ryan Beatty was also happy with the work that was done over Winter Term.

“I’m proud of the lights and the sound and the costumes and everything,” Beatty said. “I think they look really good. I don’t think they’re necessarily changing the artistic vocabulary of theater at Oberlin, but I do think we put together a really good show.

College fourth-year Sophie Falvey, who plays JuFourth-year Justin Pelofsky plays Edward/Ezra in At the End of the World.

Photo courtesy of Clarissa Heart

lia, enjoys participating in Oberlin’s creative theatrical atmosphere. “Because the culture around theater here is so self-motivated, it becomes, at a certain point, hard to pin it down,” Falvey said. “I think that’s the wonderful thing about college theater … the look of it is always going to be changing.”

The play follows the stylistic tradition of American realism, an artistic movement which encouraged theater to be didactic, while also bringing a unique voice to the stage. It ruminates on the human condition in times of conflict.

“If you want to see three people try to figure out how to live in a world that is so much like ours, maybe you’ll learn how to live in the world yourself a little better,” Senese-Grossberg said. “I don’t think they know what to do, and neither do we, but hopefully we can come to the same space for a few hours and try to figure it out together.”

Zoë Martin del Campo Contributing Sports Editor

Second-year women’s lacrosse attacker Audrey Koren has made it no secret that she’s playing to win. Only three games into the season, Koren has already been responsible for 12 goals. This is Koren’s first full lacrosse season as last year the team only played four spring games. Outside of athletics, she is exploring various passions at Oberlin while majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Hispanic Studies. This summer, she’ll be working in a neuroscience research lab at Stanford University.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How long have you played lacrosse?

I think it’s been 11 years now, I started right when I turned 8 years old.

Why did you choose Oberlin?

For as long as I can remember, I really wanted to play lacrosse in college. When I was younger, I had a big university mentality, but then in high school I started looking at smaller schools and recognized how liberal arts schools have a perfect balance of small class sizes, the ability to have relationships with professors, research opportunities, and athletics. Also, fourth-year midfielder Annie Payne went to my high school and we were teammates. When she went to Oberlin, I decided to look as well. When I visited, I fell in love with the school.

How does it feel to have your first full collegiate season?

It’s been really fun and special. We were so fortunate last year to get those four games, and it was a bit of a teaser for myself and everyone else on the team. I think it made us hungry, excited, and eager to put in the work for the full season. It’s definitely made us appreciate every little moment more because we know what it’s like not to have it. Overall, it made us work harder and motivated us a lot.

You’ve had an amazing season thus far, what do you attribute your success to?

Honestly, my team, our overall work ethic during practice, and the support system we’ve built. Our coaches help run an offense where everybody gets a moment to shine and we’ve learned how to create those moments for every person. And then there’s the comradery that we have on the team; we’re all best friends and a big family. We wouldn’t feel comfortable trying different things in games if we didn’t know that we had our teammates to back us up if a mistake happens.

What are you looking forward to for the rest of the season?

Our team has the potential to go really far in the league. Right now we’re ranked fourth, but I think that we will get even better and work to be ranked higher. The goals are to win the league and go to the tournament afterward. I’m excited about our potential, spending more time with my team, and just being a new Oberlin lacrosse player. I think that this is the best team that Oberlin has ever had and it’s also the youngest team, which is exciting. We have great leadership from our older players and our younger players have an incredible skill set. That’s exciting for a lot of us because these past games have been the first collegiate games that we’ve really played in. As we get more experience and the older players get back into the groove after not playing for so long, I think we’re going to have a winning season and hopefully set some records.

Outside of lacrosse, what are you interested in?

I’m a Neuroscience major and Hispanic Studies minor on the premed track, so most of my time is spent on school and lacrosse. I’m also a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee

Audrey Koren.

Courtesy of GoYeo representative. I’ve recently gotten involved with the One Love Foundation, and I’m now a school ambassador for them. The program focuses on spreading awareness about healthy and unhealthy relationships and different steps to take. I’m looking forward to getting involved with research in the future and studying abroad next fall in Spain to finish up my Hispanic Studies minor.

College Basketball Fans Ready for March Madness

Courtesy of Paul Sancya

Matt Rudella

One of the greatest sporting events of the year, my personal favorite, is once again upon us. The time of Cinderella stories, upsetting blue bloods, buzzer-beater endings, and brackets being busted: it’s March Madness time. Last year, we saw the Baylor University Bears take down the Gonzaga University Bulldogs to win their first championship game. With consistently edge-of-yourseat anticipation until the clock hits zero, it’s hard not to love March Madness and all the crazy upsets that come with it. In anticipation of another month of insanity and hopes for a perfect bracket, I asked some fans around campus what their predictions are and which teams they’re pulling for.

Assistant Men’s Lacrosse Coach Drake O’Neill currently thinks the University of Kentucky is going to win it all and that players Oscar Tshiebwe and Kellan Grady will be key factors in the team’s success. Some other teams he likes are UCLA, Auburn University, the University of Houston, and his personal favorite, the UNC Tar Heels.

Fourth-year men’s soccer player Ryan Kim has been supporting the University of Illinois for a while and sees them going all the way to the top this year.

“I’ve been a lifelong fan, so I have to back the Fighting Illini for March,” he said. “We are the Big Ten regular season champions, and this was the first time since our Final Four 2005 team. We won arguably the toughest conference in the country, so I am confident in our abilities.”

Like O’Neill, Kim is excited to watch Tshiebwe from Kentucky. He also says not to overlook Kofi Cockburn from Illinois or Jaden Ivey from Purdue University.

“I’ve loved watching all these guys play this season, and they will definitely be must-see players in March,” Kim said. “I do like Kentucky, [University of] Arizona, and Purdue as some other favorites to win March Madness.”

Some Blue Devils fans might hate to hear this, but O’Neill believes that Duke University will have a disappointing performance in the big dance and has his eye on some underdog teams that he thinks could make it through this year.

“I think [Duke will] have a Sweet 16 exit with the pressure of Coach [Krzyzewski] leaving being too much to handle,” he said. “For underdogs, I’m going with [the University of Tennessee at] Chattanooga, Wright State [University], and Iona [College]. Chattanooga’s overtime conference championship buzzer-beater win will help give them a boost of momentum for the tournament.”

O’Neill also says to keep an eye on Silvio De Sousa for Chattanooga, and not to underestimate the Mountain West Conference, which he believes has some great “under-the-radar teams” like Colorado State University and Boise State University.

“As a Boise native, I’m definitely looking for Boise State to make a big run,” he said. “I think they have what it takes behind star player Abu Kigab.”

I think we also need to keep an eye on Murray State University. Not many people are familiar with the Murray State Racers since they play in the Ohio Valley Conference, but they’re 30–2, ranked 19th in the country, and just won the conference tournament. They are led by OVC Player of the Year KJ Williams and have a top 25 offense and defense in DI at 79.3 points per game and 62.3 points allowed. I could definitely see Murray State upsetting a No. 1 seed as the No. 8 or 9 seed and going to the Sweet 16 or Elite 8.

Second-year men’s lacrosse player Ben Johnson is a die-hard UNC fan, and he sees them as a sneaky contender.

“I’ve always been a big fan [of UNC] since the 2016 championship loss, when they lost in brutal fashion to Villanova [University,]” he said. “But I think [players] Armando Bacot and Caleb Love have what it takes to make some noise and get to the Final Four.”

When asked about his other favorites that he thinks could be contenders, Johnson mentioned some heavy hitters.

“Despite what I just said, I like Villanova,” he said. “They have a lot of experienced, scrappy guards like Colin Gillespie, and experience is very important in March Madness, especially as you progress through the tournament and get in more high-pressure situations.”

Similar to Kim, Johnson likes Purdue and Jaden Ivey and seems to think he’s the best player in college basketball.

Jaden Ivey has turned a lot of heads in the regular season and for good reason. Ivey is a projected top-five NBA draft pick and has been compared to budding superstar Ja Morant.

First-year men’s lacrosse player Jonas Taylor-Lilliquist has some strong ties to college basketball, speicifically Seton Hall University.

“My dad is the athletic director at Seton Hall, so I’ve been following them very closely all my life, and I think they’re very dangerous this year,” he said.

There’s no question that Taylor-Lilliquist is a die-hard Pirates fan. In fact, I had to pull him away from their first round Big East Tournament game for this interview. When I asked what separates Seton Hall from the rest of the pool, Taylor-Lilliquist presented some strong points.

“We’re a very good defensive team, we’ve beaten a lot of high-ranked teams, and we have a great blend of veterans and young talent,” he said.

We’ll see if the Pirates can make some history this March and bring home some hardware for the TaylorLilliquist family.

Personally, I think Auburn is going to be the last one standing this year. They have all the components that they need to win, most notably two Player of the Year candidates — projected No. 1 draft pick Jabari Smith, who has an average of 17.1 points per game, and defensive standout Walker Kessler, who averages a staggering 4.5 blocks per game. With the strong guard play of K.D. Johnson and Wendell Green Jr. and the great coaching of Bruce Pearl, I don’t see anybody stopping this team. Don’t be surprised if this group gets revenge for their 2019 Final Four loss and takes it home.

We can make all the predictions we want, but at the end of the day, nobody has a clue who’s going to be dancing in April, since March Madness is one of the most unpredictable events in sports. After all, the odds of getting a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. And that’s the beauty of it — you truly never know what’s going to happen next. All you can do is sit back and pray that your team makes that magical run and cuts down the nets.