The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Monday, September 26, 2016 — 5A

Classifieds

Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

ACROSS
1 First assassin to
attack Caesar
6 Marvel Comics
mutants
10 Folk singer Joan
14 Arctic or Indian
15 Bit of trickery
16 In the style of, in
ristorantes
17 End that “I face,”
in Sinatra’s “My
Way”
20 Feudal laborer
21 Popeye’s Olive
22 Given to giving
orders
23 Grounded Aussie
birds
25 Twirl or whirl
27 Gentlemen’s
partners
30 It has 32 pieces
and a 64-square
board
34 Surrounded by
35 __ accompli
36 Often rolled-over
investment
37 Prepare to fly
41 Kind
42 Self-images
43 Gold bar
44 Vital phase
47 Decadent, as the
snobs in a historic
Agnew speech
48 Blessed
49 Get-out-of-jail
money
50 Drinks with
floating ice cream
53 Windy City
summer hrs.
54 Jersey or
Guernsey
58 Broadway do-or-
die philosophy,
and a hint to the
ends of 17-, 30-,
37- and 44-
Across
62 Informal negative
63 “No __!”: “Easy!”
64 Brief
65 Activist Parks
66 Words meaning
the same thing:
Abbr.
67 Furry swimmer

DOWN
1 Emergency
shelter beds
2 Throb
3 Fortuneteller
4 The jolt in joe?

5 “Give me __!”:
start of a Hoosier
cheer
6 Diagnostic tests
7 Ponder (over)
8 Top-left PC key
9 Modern, in
Munich
10 Twirled sticks
11 “That’s a shame”
12 Yale alumni
13 Madcap
18 We, to Henri
19 Grand slam
homer quartet,
briefly
24 Prefix with hit or
store
25 Backs up in fear
26 Cats and dogs
27 Eye surgery
acronym
28 More than
enough
29 Foolish, in slang
30 Easily tipped
boat
31 Burn slightly
32 Rye grass
disease
33 Try, as food
35 Swimming in pea
soup?
38 Hand out cards
39 Coffeehouse
connection

40 Like airplane
services
45 California peak
46 British
balderdash
47 Food, in diner
signs
49 Buffalo Wild
Wings nickname
based on its
initials
50 Marquee name
51 Cincinnati’s state

52 Family rooms
53 “Let’s get goin’!”
55 Chimney sweep’s
sweepings
56 Passed-down
knowledge
57 __’acte:
intermission
59 Covert or black
doings
60 Droll
61 Chinese menu
general

By Lila Cherry
©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/26/16

09/26/16

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Monday, September 26, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

WWW.CARLSONPROPERTIES.-

COM
734‑332‑6000

FOR RENT

‘Fleabag’ and flashbacks

TV COLUMN

I

’ve never really lost any-
one close to me. Two of my
grandparents died when I

was really little, so I hardly remem-
ber them. My cat died my senior
year of high school, but we had
seen it coming for a while, so by the
time it happened it felt anticlimac-
tic. The closest person I’ve lost is
my piano teacher of six years, who
passed away earlier this year. I was
a little sad, but we had drifted apart
in the three years since I’d worked
with her, so it didn’t hit as hard as
it could have.

But, to a certain extent, we all

know what loss feels like. We feel it
during break-ups, or when we stop
being friends with someone. Some-
times we even feel this vague hole
inside us that we’re not sure how to
fill, and we can’t remember when it
formed or what was there before.

In the raunchy British com-

edy “Fleabag,” which came to
Amazon Prime on Sept. 16, Flea-
bag’s life is filled with loss of all
kinds. Her mother, who died two
years ago, has been replaced by
an abhorrent stepmother who
repeatedly squashes any chance of
Fleabag bonding with her father.
She doesn’t get along well with her
sister, a woman whose affection
she desperately craves even though
they’re completely different. The
little café she owned with her best
friend Boo will go under unless she
secures a loan. And oh yeah, about
that best friend: she recently com-
mitted suicide, leaving Fleabag
more alone than ever.

What’s special about “Fleabag”

isn’t the plot itself. There are count-
less shows about strained familial
relations and the grieving process;
Amazon’s other new series, “One
Mississippi,” is another good one.
What’s special about “Fleabag,”
even more than its razor sharp
sense of humor and Phoebe Waller-
Bridge’s amazing central perfor-
mance, is the way it uses formal
elements to convey the unique
symptoms of loss.

Central to all of this is the way

Fleabag breaks the fourth wall,
addressing us with raised eyebrows
and Jim Halpert-esque reaction
shots even while she’s still being
spoken to. Breaking the fourth

wall isn’t uncommon in comedy,
especially in this age of mocku-
mentaries, but there’s something
especially powerful about the way
this show uses it. It only gradually
becomes clear that Fleabag is hop-
ing her imaginary audience will
fill the void left by her distant fam-
ily and, most prominently, her best
friend. We are a poor substitute for
Boo; we can listen and conspirato-
rially share in her hilarious obser-
vations about the weird world she
lives in, but crucially, we can never
quite respond.

A listening ear can also be a judg-

mental one, though, and despite
Fleabag’s relative shamelessness
about sex and manners, there’s a
deep sense of guilt that pervades
her demeanor, exploding into the
forefront in the season finale. It’s
clear that Fleabag harbors signifi-
cant shame about how she treated
Boo in the time leading up to her
suicide, and when she needs us the
most, our silence comes across as
judgment instead of understand-
ing. The camera following Fleabag
begins to feel intrusive and cruel,
like we are the killer in a horror
movie, an embodiment of her emo-
tional demons chasing her.

Possibly the most effective ele-

ment of “Fleabag,” though, is its
flashbacks. In most series, like
“Orange is the New Black” and
“Lost,” flashbacks are of uniform
length, structured to tell minia-
ture, contained stories from char-
acters’ pasts to give us insight about
who they are. In “Fleabag,” how-
ever, flashbacks happen organical-
ly, whenever something reminds
Fleabag of an old memory with
Boo. It’s one of the most authentic
depiction of flashbacks I’ve ever
seen; they vary in length, some-
times lasting full scene-length,
sometimes just a few seconds and
in one particularly brutal instance,
only a split-second. You can feel
the flashbacks happening in real
time — when there’s a particularly
long scene from Fleabag’s past, she
seems to zone out, only yanking
herself back to consciousness when
the memory is complete.

The flashbacks again exemplify

that “Fleabag” understands loss
better than any other show this
year. There’s no closure to be found
for Fleabag, only haunting, painful
reminders of the friend she lost.
Memories that used to be happy,

comforting and pure have been
tainted by the agony of the present;
there’s nothing more heartbreak-
ing than watching Fleabag and Boo
doubled over laughing. Reviews
always use the phrase “you’ll laugh
and you’ll cry” when referring to
comedies with dramatic under-
tones, but the phrase is never so
true as in “Fleabag,” when every
hilarious moment in the past has
an equal and opposite reaction.
The most joyful moments are the
most tragic.

Anybody can understand that,

even if you haven’t lost someone in
that way. When I think about happy
moments from my childhood, they
make me smile, but they also make
me sad that I can’t go back. There’s
something inherently devastating
about considering the past; innocu-
ous moments you never thought
twice about become rosy with the
sheen of nostalgia, and you start
missing everything just because
you don’t have the option to go
back. Sometimes I’ll have a split-
second flashback of myself just
walking down the hallway in high
school, and suddenly I’ll be ach-
ing from how much I miss it, even
though it’s not a particularly note-
worthy moment.

Life is filled with flashbacks,

even if they’re not as fully formed
or structured as most TV flash-
backs are. There are tons of images
I can think of that make me wish
I could revisit an old memory:
our high school parking lot as my
friends and I pull out on the last day
of school, fluorescent green-gray
lights in a building across the street
like something from a David Finch-
er movie, the taste of almonds as I
double over laughing in a kitchen
at 2:00 A.M., my own incredulous
groan at something cheesy Carrie
Bradshaw said. All these memories
wash over me, provoked by random
words.

I thought of that sensation when

I watched “Fleabag”: the feeling
of being assailed by unwelcome
memories, memories that are so
sad because of how happy they
are. “Fleabag” illustrates that loss
isn’t just about missing someone
you love. It’s about missing every
moment from the past, no matter
how small.

Rosenstock is thinking about

the taste of almonds. To give him a
handful, email bdrosen@umich.edu

BEN ROSENSTOCK

Daily TV Columnist

Forget the classroom, lecture

hall or library and abandon it for
a
non-traditional,
co-learning

workspace filled with educators,
students, intellectuals and locals.
Sound good? I know I’m in.

The
Detroit

City Study is a
co-learning work-
space located at
the University of
Michigan Detroit
Center,
designed

for people inter-
ested in engaging
in academic dis-
courses in a non-
traditional
way.

At the Institute of
the Humanities on
Tuesday, the team
behind this project will present
feedback on their six-week sum-
mer pilot and reflect on their aca-
demic incubator composed of 12
Ph.D. students across numerous
departments.

In addition to the incubator,

the team worked on collabora-
tive research projects in teams
and evaluated how to make the
research more available to all types
of learners. Tuesday’s event will
also serve as a way to envision the
future of this project and encour-
age more people to take part in
the movement towards collective
learning outside of the classroom.

“At its most basic level, it is a

co-working space, built around
the work of education and learn-
ing,” said Rackham student Shira
Schwartz, the project director. “It’s
about creating more space for peo-
ple to come together as a commu-

nity through learning: to meet one
another, share interests and work,
gain support and collaborate.”

Many of the students involved

in the launch are working on dis-
sertations and various projects in
Detroit. Their initial goal was to
cultivate new working spaces out-
side the borders of an academic
institution.

“It was open to

anyone,” Schwartz
said.
“You
didn’t

have to be a student
at a specific school.
You didn’t have to
be a student at all.
The idea is when
you come into the
space you become
a student in some
ways and encourage
co-learning among
different types of
people.”

The project, she said, is moti-

vated by the deep need to rethink
education in Detroit, as well as
across the nation. The team behind
the Detroit City Study believes that
for education to be “re-thought,” it
must be “re-placed.”

“ ‘Re-place’ means rethinking

the place of education itself and
the spatial dynamics of learning,”
Schwartz said. “Where can learn-
ing happen? And how can chang-
ing up the space of learning impact
the kind of knowledge and the
relationships that are generated
therein?”

However, she noted that the

team does not intend to restructure
the educational system in the city.
Instead, they want to offer a new
type of learning space that projects
similar goals to education within
the school system. The graduate
students believe that the devaluing

of education is happening every-
where, and creating a co-learning
space encouraging all types of
learning is one step towards fixing
the problem.

Schwartz outlined three lay-

ers that compose the concept of
co-learning. First, it is a social spa-
tial structure, where people can
come together and share in learn-
ing. Next, co-learning occurs on
a mission level, meaning coming
together to break down boundaries
between the University and out-
side community.

The third layer of co-learning

is a group study, which involves a
specific topic that the group stud-
ies together to gain new knowledge
in a way that differs from a typical
school environment.

“Essentially, what we try to

break away from is doing frontal
presentations, but rather, empow-
ering people with the actual mate-
rials that are being discussed,”
Schwartz said. “A lot of the work
over the summer was working on
transforming Ph.D. research into
a form that could be digestible and
something that people visiting the
space could chew on themselves,
rather than just being lectured at.”

The project specifically focuses

on fields in the humanities and
social sciences and addresses how
to make graduate education more
engaged and relevant towards
these subjects.

“If these are pathways to under-

standing humanness and all of our
most pressing concerns around
our humanity, shouldn’t these
disciplines have the most to say?”
Schwartz asked.

The team behind the project

believes these studies do have the
most to say — they just need to be
given a platform.

BAILEY KADIAN

Daily Arts Writer

UM team to reflect on co-working

Detroit City Study offers new methods of academic discourse

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

Detroit City

Study

Tuesday 12:30-2

p.m.

Institute for the

Humanities,

Osterman Common

Room

Free Admission

FILM REVIEW

TOUCHSTONE PICTURES

“Our faces are too big for this photo frame.”

“Titanic,”
“The
Notebook,”

even “The Fault in Our Stars:”
these films all end in a famil-
iar sob-induced migraine and
salt-crusted cheeks. “The Light
Between Oceans”
is a newcomer to
the genre of heart-
wrenching dramas
of love and loss.
But this film offers
more artistry and
more
complexity

than any of its pre-
decessors, making
it a masterful piece
of art and a must-
see for those seek-
ing emotional release.

“The Light Between Oceans”

is the story of a lighthouse keeper
and his wife, who rescue and keep
a baby that washes up on their
island shore, purposefully choos-
ing not to look into the baby’s
original home. After five years of
familial bliss, the couple is forced
by guilt and circumstance to come
to terms with reality and face the
true, grieving mother of their
child.

The film is a breathtaking piece

of artwork. Comprised heavily of
still landscape shots taken off the
coast of Western Australia, each
scene looks like an oil painting,
with soft colors that melt togeth-
er in smooth compositions. The
result is a collection of shots that
create a gorgeous, pastoral land-
scape of the lighthouse island, one
that is both serene and lonely. As a

movie about a lighthouse keeper,
light itself is a major element of
the film’s cinematography. Direc-
tor Derek Cianfrance (“The Place
Beyond the Pines”) masterfully
manipulates natural light to add
a delicate, dreamy effect to every
scene. The light is both soft and

pervasive, enhanc-
ing the physical
and
emotional

aspects of the char-
acters in subtle but
powerful ways.

Also an active

agent in the film’s
success, the score
is a moving collec-
tion of sweeping
piano pieces that
intensify the emo-

tions of the characters. Composed
by Alexandre Desplat, it’s no sur-
prise that the score is incredible —
Desplat is a master composer, with
a repertoire that includes “The
Imitation Game,” “The King’s
Speech” and “The Danish Girl,”
among others. The entire artistic
effect is one of intense beauty and
intense solitude.

The acting is also spectacu-

lar, as one would expect with a
trio of Academy Award winners
and nominees. Playing the lead-
ing couple, Alicia Vikander (“The
Danish Girl”) and Michael Fass-
bender (“Steve Jobs”) prove once
again that they are masters of
their class. Both deliver powerful
performances through subtlety of
emotion, moving mountains with
a single change in expression. The
pair act across a vast emotional
spectrum, moving through new

love to shattering loss to choking
guilt. Their chemistry is palpable
due to their bottomless talent and
is perhaps enhanced by the fact
that they’re dating in real life (God
bless this world).

Rachel Weisz (“Youth”) also

delivers a genuine and heartfelt
performance of a mother grieving
for her lost daughter. With skill,
Weisz portrays an understandable
desire to get her daughter back
that shifts to a heartbreaking con-
fusion over what lies in her daugh-
ter’s best interest. Both Vikander
and Weisz delve into the complex
and layered emotions of mother-
hood, dealing with the devastating
effects of miscarriage, grief and
the salvation a child can bring or
the destruction it can leave in its
absence. The women work not as
opposites or enemies, but as moth-
ers with vastly different, yet strik-
ingly similar perspectives.

The complexity in “The Light

Between Oceans” lies in the
absence of an antagonist. Each
character must work through
their own conflicting desires
and senses of morality in a dif-
ficult and painful struggle for
happiness and fulfillment. The
film is about selfishness and
the unintended consequences
that come from following one’s
desires, yet it also showcases the
power of love that binds people
together in unbreakable ways.
This movie will make you heave
with heart-wrenching sobs for a
solid two hours in an agonizing
but ultimately liberating experi-
ence, which is all one can really
ask for.

SYDNEY COHEN

Daily Arts Writer

‘Oceans’ is a compelling love story

Vikander, Fassbender and Weisz lead new romantic masterpiece

A+

“The Light Between

Oceans”

Rave & Quality 16

Touchstone

Pictures