The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, March 8, 2017 — 5A

‘Logan’ transcends genre

In latest iteration of Wolverine film series, ‘Logan’ manages to buck 
expectations, separating itself from other superhero films

To label “Logan” — the 

third in a trilogy of films 
centering on Hugh Jackman’s 
(“Les Misérables”) Wolverine 
— a “superhero movie” is to 
dramatically undervalue it. It 
surpasses the rest of the genre 
in a way that no film since 
Christopher 
Nolan’s 
2008 

masterpiece 
“The 
Dark 

Knight” has, and 
it 
possesses 
a 

confidence 
and 

willingness 
to 

break away from 
the norms of its 
contemporaries 
that makes it a refreshingly 
unique experience. “Logan” is 
not just a superhero movie. In 
some ways, maybe, but more 
so, it’s a western, a character 
piece and a moving study of 
violence, fatherhood, aging 
and redemption.

Make no mistake, “Logan” 

is an incredibly, oftentimes 
uncomfortably, 
violent 
and 

intense movie. It has plenty 
of the requisite action scenes 
that dial the blood and gore 
up to eleven, fully taking 
advantage of its R-rating. But 

where a film like “Deadpool” 
might use this over-violence 
for laughs, “Logan” is more 
interested with how it affects 
its 
leads, 
particularly 
its 

titular 
character. 
Even 
in 

its most violent, gruesome 
moments, “Logan” makes a 
remarkably mature statement 
on how violence can poison a 

person, regardless of whether 
the death is “justified.” This 
is clear from scene one: The 
life Wolverine has lead, one 
dominated 
by 
death 
and 

brutality, has finally taken its 
toll on him. He is a broken man 
holding onto the pain in his 
past and eventually using it to 
hurt himself.

In his last movie as Logan, 

Jackman 
brings 
that 
pain 

to life with his most weary, 

nuanced 
portrayal 
of 

the 
character 

to 
date. 
He 

is 
backed-up 

by 
a 
pair 
of 

equally 
superb 

supporting 
performances 

courtesy of Sir Patrick Stewart 
(“Green Room”) as Professor 
X and newcomer Dafne Keen 
in the best big screen debut 
a child actor has made since 
Jacob Tremblay in “Room.” 
Stewart is heartbreaking as 
he reprises the role of Charles 
Xavier, also for the final time, 
playing him as a man who has 
seemingly everything right yet 
still has had everything taken 
from him by age. The scenes 
he shares with Jackman are 
some of the most dynamic in 
the movie, and their father-
son relationship has never felt 
more heartfelt and real.

Keen 
plays 
Laura, 
a 

character destined to break 
out in the same way “Stranger 
Thing” ’s Eleven did last year, 
a girl who will gut a man one 
minute and serenely ride a 
mechanical horse the next. It is 
through Laura that the theme 
of violence reveals itself once 
more, as Logan recognizes 
the young girl heading down 
a similar path to the one he 
took. Where Jackman’s scenes 
with Stewart were focused 
on the pasts of the two 
characters, it is with Keen that 
Jackman finds Logan’s hope 
for redemption in his future, 
and the result is some of the 
most 
emotionally 
poignant 

storytelling the X-Men series 
and the genre at large has ever 

seen.

Performances and powerful 

thematic 
subtext 
aside, 

“Logan” still manages to set 
itself apart from its genre 
and series through its style. 
Its 
main 
characters 
may 

have superpowers, but the 
film still feels more like a 
western than anything else. 
The 
score, 
cinematography 

and even costume design all 
recall last year’s “Hell or High 
Water.” References to God 
and spirituality that dot the 
script present a motif that is 
a definite departure from the 
rest of the series, and could 
have felt like too radical a 
change had they not meshed so 
well with the western stylings 
and themes.

Everything 
taken 
into 

consideration, 
“Logan” 

is 
a 
triumph. 
Its 
subtle 

performances, powerful script 
and unique style all work in 
service of a deeply human story 
about superhuman characters 
desperately 
searching 
for 

atonement and paradise in 
a world that offers no hope 
that either exists. Even as the 
film flawlessly deconstructs 
Logan, it is obviously crafted 
with an enormous amount 
of love and respect for the 
character 
that 
permeates 

every frame. Whether it is 
taken as a superhero movie, 
an X-Men movie, or a western, 
“Logan” shines. It is the best 
any of those genres have to 
offer, nothing less than a 
masterpiece.

20TH CENTURY FOX.

JEREMIAH VANDERHELM

Daily Arts Wrtier

Four seasons of ‘Americans’

In 
celebration 
of 
“The 

Americans” 
fifth 
season 

premiere, The Michigan Daily’s 
TV editors found yet another 
excuse to rave about the series. 
Fair warning: Spoilers lie ahead.

Is “The Americans” timely 

now?

The last time we checked 

in with our favorite couple, 
we were safely ensconced in 
a markedly different political 
climate, to say the least. Sure, 
Trump was a thing back then 
(and I guess he is now, too?), 
but when season four of “The 
Americans” 
premiered, 
the 

political 
landscape 
at 
large 

wasn’t nearly as concerned with 
The Russian FederationTM as 
it is at present. It’s fascinating 
to consider the contemporary 
relevance of a show that initially 
— to summarize generously 
— casually functioned as an 
exercise in humanization, as 
a fairly pointed critique of 
decades of American hostility to 
that cold country up north.

OK, relevance might be too 

extreme; this is a spy thriller 
show about KGB operatives 
posing 
as 
an 
all-American 

family, after all. But perhaps 
it’ll change the way we watch 
it. Normally, it’s the metaphor 
and character work that hits 
uncomfortably close to home; 
now, the foreign policy that 
once seemed laughably outdated 
has been showered with a 
liberal dose of “just kidding.” 
This renewed context, which 
has repurposed the show as, on 
a surface-level, more current 
than 
it 
originally 
seemed, 

is more than a little eerie — 
nonetheless, hopefully it’s a 
jolt of ratings vigor for a series 
that is criminally underseen 
yet 
massively, 
maddeningly 

brilliant.

— Nabeel Chollampat, Senior 

Arts Editor

Another kind of love story
Let’s 
talk 
about 
love. 

Apparently, it’s not that simple 
when you’re an undercover KGB 
officer living in ’80s America. 
Who would have thought? In 
fact, love, or rather the illusion 
of it, is just an arrangement 
for Elizabeth and Philip when 
we first meet them in season 
one. 
Their 
white-picket-

fence marriage is a spectacle 
solidified by two children and 
a travel agency, completing an 
anything-but-suspicious picture 
of American suburbia. But, like 
any good love story, this is just 
the beginning. 

The generic, heart-shaped 

box of Dove chocolates brand 
of love isn’t what you’ll find in 
“The Americans.” In fact, by 
definition, happily ever after is 
practically impossible. When 
emotionally 
(and 
sexually) 

manipulating others is part 
of your job description, those 
unwritten rules that govern 
a successful partnership are 
pretty much obliterated. But 
that’s 
exactly 
why 
I 
keep 

coming back for more of Philip 
and 
Elizabeth’s 
relationship: 

Its complications are totally 
unprecedented which, in turn, 
examine what it really means 
to know someone at their core. 
After four seasons, I believe 
that they really do love each, 
although what that means for 
them is (hopefully) different 
than what it means for most 

people. Amidst all the lies, 
secrets and general twistiness, 
the duo play on such a dynamic 
range of emotion, colored in 
nuances and metaphors, that 
their love is still somehow 
relatable.

On a tangent, Matthew Rhys 

and Keri Russell are together 
in real life, and I’m a little too 
excited about it.

— Danielle Yacobson, TV Beat 

Editor

Subversion of gender roles
There’s little else we can do 

here at The Michigan Daily 
to evangelize for Keri Russell 
and Matthew Rhys than to 
keep telling you how amazing 
they are at what they do. So, 
for posterity: They’re amazing 
at what they do. What is 
consistently 
mind-boggling, 

however, 
is 
the 
ease 
with 

which their two characters can 
play with, subvert, undercut, 
obliterate 
any 
assumptions 

about presupposed gender roles 
— especially for a show set in 
the ’80s.

At first glance, there’s an 

easy categorization to make: 
Elizabeth is the cold, calculating 
murderer while Philip is the soft, 
reluctant father. The problem 
is, that’s just a bad take. The 
two principals are so complex 
and dynamic that pinning them 
down on either sides of a binary 
is an exercise in futility. Both are 
capable of unspeakable cruelty, 
and both are capable of tender, 
understated 
warmth. 
What 

binds them is an unwavering 
loyalty to their family. Elizabeth 
is not the standard ’80s-era 
housewife, nor is she that 
cliched 
overcorrection 
of 
a 

heartless female killer; Philip is 
the affable dad with a nagging 
reluctance to keep committing 
crimes in the name of the 
Soviet Union, but he’s also a 
man who is forced into morally 
questionable 
scenarios 
and, 

despite his misgivings, carries 
them to completion. Take, for 
instance, the unsettling sex 
scene between Elizabeth and 
“Clark” in season three. It’s 
disturbing, challenging, a splash 
of cold water for anyone who 
assumes to know how to classify 
these two protagonists. Philip 
turns horrifyingly violent, and 
the scene ends with Elizabeth 
crying on the bed. We know the 
sexual history between these 
two, and we know, specifically, 
Elizabeth’s 
own 
traumatic 

experiences. And so, Clark asks: 
“Is this what you want?”

— Nabeel Chollampat, Senior 

Arts Editor

Not just another teenager
Coming of age — a horribly 

vague 
expression 
flung 

around far too frequently — 
is nevertheless what makes 
teenagedom 
so 
universally 

cinematic. 
We 
hear 
“high 

school,” and we expect to 
witness a variety of awkward 
“firsts” and an inevitable social 
commentary on what it means 
to grow up. “The Americans,” 
however, 
doesn’t 
bother 
so 

smother teeange Paige Jennings 
with the typical, melodromatic 
angst. Even before Paige was let 
in on the whopper of a family 
secret, she was no ordinary 
sneak-out-of-the-house, smoke-
a-joint-behind-the-bleachers 
kind of kid. A genuine curiosity, 
instead, is what catalyzed her 
gut-wrenching 
discovery 
of 

her parents’ true identities, 
and has continued to challenge 
the narrative’s explorations of 
ideology, morality and truth. 
But curiosity killed the cat, 

right?

Paige has always stirred the 

pot in the Jennings household. 
Remember 
when 
she 
told 

Elizabeth and Phillip, both 
sworn 
atheists 
discretely 

attempting to subvert their 
children to Soviet communism, 
that she wanted to be baptized 
in the church? Yeah, that didn’t 
go over well. But it was the first 
true depiction of her outstanding 
grit that continues to surprise 
and subvert expectations of the 
community-action driven, doe-
eyed girl who snooped around 
the garage when nobody was 
looking in the first season. Now, 
on the other side of the façade, 
Paige’s 
previously 
steadfast 

morality begins to blur: She 
emotionally 
manipulates 

Pastor Tim (who is somehow 
still alive) to keep the family’s 
secret and uses her sexuality to 
wriggle out information from 
FBI Agent Stan’s son. These 
tricks of the trade, all-too-
familiar in Elizabeth’s work, 
are a melancholy reminder of 
how twisted the whole thing 
really is. Yet, with a poignant 
maturity 
and 
relentless 

questioning, Paige also captures 
a brand of “growing up” that 
is, well, normal: The inevitable 
disillusionment 
children 

experience when their parents 
are revealed to be something 
less than absolutely perfect.

— Danielle Yacobson, TV Beat 

Editor

Who’s 
“good” 
on 
“The 

Americans”?

Four seasons in, and I still 

don’t know if we’re supposed 
to 
empathize 
with 
Philip 

and 
Elizabeth. 
They’re 
our 

protagonists, yes, and we’re 
intrinsically rooting for them 
not to die — but are they “good 
people”? 
Whatever 
moral 

calculus one has to compute to 
come down on either side, our 
central couple has, objectively, 
done some truly messed up shit. 
Philip’s deeply uncomfortable 
seduction of a teenager in season 
three is a squirm-inducing run 
of ethical complications, for 
both Philip and the audience; 
Stan and Nina’s illicit romance 
was a no-win situation for both 
of them (one more than the 
other, I guess); and Elizabeth’s 
heartbreaking betrayal of Young 
Hee and her family is horrifying 
in its perversity.

But 
none 
are 
more 

emotionally 
wrenching 
than 

what was done to our poor, 
sweet, lovable idiot Martha. It 
was funny at first, watching 
a blatantly oblivious woman 
get strung along to the point of 
literally getting married to a 
Philip in a bad wig. But as the 
vultures’ circles grew smaller 
and the stakes grew higher, 
Martha’s predicament became 
something to cry for instead. 
We (and Philip) were forced to 
reckon with the profound and 
fundamental loneliness a person 
must feel to endure what she did. 
We grappled with the continued 
and consistent devaluation of 
her person, until everything 
came to a head and, fittingly, 
this woman who had nothing 
else in her life was shipped off to 
her unknown fate in Cuba. Were 
we implicit in Philip’s / Clark’s 
moral bankruptcy? In cheering 
for 
their 
survival, 
are 
we 

culpable for turning a blind eye 
to the horrible things Elizabeth 
and Philip are forced to do to 
ensure it? “The Americans” asks 
uneasy questions of its viewers, 
but it’s impossible to look away.

— Nabeel Chollampat, Senior 

Arts Editor

FILM REVIEW

“Logan”

Rave Cinemas, 

Goodrich Quality 16

20th Century Fox

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN 

WRITING FOR ARTS?

Email arts@michigandaily.com for 

an application. Questions/concerns? 

Don’t hesitate to reach out.

Everything taken 
into consideration, 

“Logan” is a 

triumph

FX

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

To label “Logan” 

a “superhero 
movie” is to 
dramatically 
undervalue it

NABEEL CHOLLAMPAT

Senior Arts Editor

DANIELLE YACOBSON
Daily TV/New Media Editor

&

TV NOTEBOOK

