The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, March 10, 2017 — 5
‘Rise’ and LGBT issues
On Friday June 26th, 2015,
the justices of the Supreme
Court of the United States ruled
that same-sex couples had the
right to marry nationwide,
sending
the
country
into
a state of celebration and,
in
some
places,
fervent
opposition.
Although
the
White
House
may have been
lit up in rainbow
lights that day
in
solidarity,
the
SCOTUS’s
decision
wasn’t
unanimous;
it
was a 5 to 4 vote. Ever since
then, the rights of the LGBTQ
community have been under
assault, in situations that both
do and do not receive national
attention.
“When We Rise,” ABC’s
four night TV special, begins
in the ‘70s to tell the story of
a few individuals who were
fighting
for
these
rights,
which did not end with the
right to a marriage certificate.
These years were by no means
the beginning of the struggle
for the LGBTQ community,
but a time in which issues
surrounding sexuality — and
the right to love and/or sleep
with someone of any gender —
were receiving more national
attention than ever before.
It travels through time to
the beginning and growing
fear of the AIDS crisis, often
focusing on cities. While most
of the people themselves are
fictionalized — though the
show does follow the story of
Harvey Milk’s rise, fame and
assassination — the challenges
that
they
face
feel
more
relevant now than ever.
At times, the stories in
“When We Rise” are woven
together with precision and
delicacy; at others, they are full
of schmaltz and
sentimentality
(it
includes
the line “Your
summer of love
turned
into
a
winter of heroin
a long time ago.”)
In the opening
episodes
the
show reveals the dislike and
exclusion
of
lesbians
and
other queer women in certain
groups in the women’s rights
movement. But the rendering
of this feels like a tongue-in-
cheek move; the women who
voice those views sound more
like the white women from
“The Help” whose ideas are
also framed to be laughed at
at times, rather than people
with
harmful
views
who
were fracturing a movement.
However, the writing of the
show captures the flipsides
of issue like these with more
accuracy: the reluctance to
associate
with
terms
like
lesbian or dyke even if there
is a personal connection to the
connotations. A few quiet but
powerful scenes show a black
man’s progress in fighting
racism in the military while
still having to deal with the
pervasiveness of homophobia
—
all
while
keeping
his
sexuality a secret.
The writers of the show are
more successful in showing
how the struggle for LGBTQ
rights was impacted by and
affected by other movements
for social progress — the
Women’s Rights Movement,
the Civil Rights Movement
and the Antiwar movement
— than it is in showing
complications
of
personal
stories in such a short amount
of space and time. While the
performances are fine, they
skew
towards
feeling
like
those hokey reenactments in
historical documentaries.
“When
We
Rise”
isn’t
always the heart-wrenching
drama that it often tries to
be. It’s overtly sentimental,
several makeout scenes are
awkwardly
high-school
worthy, and there are subplots
revolving around the lesbians
that feel more like a joke’s
punchline than an attempt
at a real story. But the show
does get a few things right:
the momentum of youth, the
importance of physical spaces
for queer communities, the
fierce pride and joy of loving
acceptance — and, perhaps
most chillingly, the shock that
a gunshot-like sound makes
in the middle of an upbeat
scene
because
we
already
believe that someone would
threaten the safety of those
involved because of their quiet
happiness.
ABC
SOPHIA KAUFMAN
Daily Book Review Editor
‘Fall’ & the millenial condition
The film adaptation of Lauren
Oliver’s
YA
novel
“Before
I Fall” is the philosophical
“Groundhog Day” for the selfie
generation
that
pensive
teens
have been waiting
for. Director Ry
Russo-Young
(“Nobody Walks”)
ensures that the
young adult flick
goes
beyond
the
overused
YOLO
theme
and approaches the familiar
plot with a certain nuance
that many teen movies lack.
The film follows Samantha
Kingston (Zoey Deutch, “Why
Him?”), who seemingly has
it all: the douchey boyfriend,
the giggly clique and the legs
of Gigi Hadid. Sam realizes
that her life may not be as
flawless as it seems as she
relives the day leading up to a
fateful car accident again and
again. Throughout her déjà vu
adventures, Sam shifts from a
selfish queen bee to a caring,
mindful friend.
At the film’s start, Sam and
her posse are unbearably basic.
They
Snapchat
everything,
they shriek one too many
times and they say things like
“bae” and “Should I post this?”
What at first is an irritating
representation of today’s teens
soon becomes a scarily accurate
portrayal of this generation.
While Sam is evolving with
each rendition of her last day,
her friends are stagnant. No
matter how much she grows
one
day,
her
buddies make the
same
immature
remarks the next
day.
Yet,
the
friendship of Sam
and
her
clique
goes far beyond
the surface level.
While other teen movies may
focus on the romantic, “Before
I Fall” brings some much-
needed attention to the value of
friendship for the average teen
girl.
“Before I Fall” manages to
capture Sam’s personal growth,
while allowing her to develop
relationships
and
storylines
with her surrounding cast of
characters, all within the frame
of one repetitive day. From
the loving gaze of a childhood
crush
to
the
unapologetic
sexuality of the token lesbian,
from the relentlessly bullied
misunderstood loner to the
adorable little sister with a
lisp, Sam attempts to mend the
relationships she has failed
to foster. Sam is, at the film’s
beginning, self-absorbed and
cruel, but after repeating the
same day the same way, she
realizes
something
needs
to
change.
What
begins
as
confusion
turns
into
indifference, then anger. Only
then does Sam decide to take
charge of her fate and make her
last day a worthy one.
What
“Before
I
Fall”
accomplishes is Sam’s struggle
to discover what she needs to
change in herself and in her
relationships in order to end
the cycle that afflicts her. Sam
becomes
increasingly
more
aware of her shortcomings
with each rendition, leaving
everyday a little wiser. While
the film is a loop of the same
day, Deutch turns what might
initially feel mundane into
a captivating narrative. Her
performance
adds
layers
of
depth
and
sincerity
to
her
character’s
struggle,
making Sam’s redemption an
endearing one. Sam’s growth
is the hallmark of the film,
leaving viewers satisfied by
her metamorphosis, yet the
ending is exactly that — an
ending. What the audience fails
to realize at the film’s finish is
that Sam is in fact reliving her
last day, the last day before she
fell. Sam’s path to discovering
empathy is paved with the
lessons she has learned and
the love she has gained, yet the
viewer still craves redemption
for Sam after February 12th.
TV REVIEW
“And We Rise”
ABC
6 episode mini-
series
OPEN ROAD FILMS
REBECCA PORTMAN
For the Daily
FILM REVIEW
‘Refugees’ humanizes
It takes a certain type of
genius to write endings the
way Viet Thanh Nguyen does:
with candor, poetic grace and a
haunting emotional spark that
sticks. In his newest collection
of short stories, “The Refugees,”
Nguyen’s endings
don’t
merely
slap
on
some
haphazard
finishing touches;
they ripen each
story’s
content,
leaving them to bloom and
tickle the mind even after the
book has finished.
“Black-Eyed
Women,”
the first story of the book,
is
a
satisfying,
immersive
introduction
to
Nguyen’s
style. It follows a Vietnamese
ghostwriter who lives with her
aging mother; the two women
are visited by the ghost of the
writer’s
brother,
who
died
years earlier when the family
was fleeing the war. Nguyen is
intimately masterful in the way
he describes the awkward first
meeting between the sister,
now a middle-aged spinster,
and her brother’s waterlogged
spirit, who swam for years to
get to America. As the details
of her brother’s death and
the circumstances of that day
are revealed, the suspenseful
buildup to the story’s broiling
emotional
climax
is
heart-
stoppingly memorable, at times
difficult to read and persistently
hard-hitting.
The
stories
in
“The
Refugees”
have
several
common
themes
—
family,
alienation, independence and
personal growth — but the book
never feels repetitive. This is
due in part to
the
drastically
different
main
characters
and
situations
that
live in each story
world,
from
a
woman whose ailing husband
mistakes her for a former lover
to a young man with a host
family comprised of a gay couple
adjusting to life in America.
Many
of
the
stories
also
involve strained relationships
between parents and children.
Sometimes the problem is due
to a generational conflict, and
other times it’s more influenced
by culture, but the pain and
anger depicted is immediately
understood by anyone who has
ever argued with their parents
(or their children!).
Most
characters
in
the
book
are
either
related
to
an
immigrant
or
an
immigrant themselves. “The
Refugees”
implores
readers
to remember that, in the end,
refugees are people. Nguyen
delicately balances relatable,
fundamentally human conflicts
with cultural identity issues
that not everyone may have
personal experience with.
“The Refugees” is almost
disarmingly
realistic
in
its
candid depictions of imperfect
lives; it’s easy to forget that
the stories are fiction and read
them as a collection of memoirs.
“Fatherland” recounts 23 year
old Phuong’s excitement when
Vivien, her stepsister from her
father’s first marriage comes
to visit Saigon; the first contact
the two have ever had. Because
she grew up in Chicago, Vivien
is glamorous, wealthy, and
successful, everything Phuong
wants to become. But when
Phuong finds out that Vivien’s
“perfect” life is actually a
facade, she’s left to deal with
the
rubble
of
her
broken
expectations, a process that
reveals her inner strength to
herself and the reader.
Nguyen reminds us that
regardless of where we are
from,
human
beings
react
to conflict in the same ways.
When faced with those who
are unlike us, it’s important not
to close off, as Carver learns
when he struggles to reconcile
with his daughter in “The
Americans,” and not to judge
too quickly, as Phuong realizes
in “Fatherland.” The best we
can do is to keep an empathetic,
open mind.
SAMANTHA LU
Daily Arts Writer
“The Refugees”
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Grove Press
BOOK REVIEW
“Before I Fall”
Rave Cinemas,
Goodrich Quality 16
Open Road Films
‘Pass’ and life after loss
From the opening pages of
“This Too Shall Pass,” it’s clear
that this book is more than what
meets the eye, and definitely
a book not to be judged from
its cover. The summary on the
book explains that the story
follows Blanca,
a
40-year-old
mother of two
who
is
now
having to cope
with the loss
of
her
own
mother through dementia, but
this sells the story short. At first
this seems like the book would
be a harrowing experience for
the reader; however this is
entirely not the case. This book
is a treasure trove of witty
insights, with a very modern
take on living with loss.
Translated from the original
Spanish — and set in Spain —
reading this book feels like a
lovely trip to the Mediterranean
with a few friends. Despite
the sombre beginnings, and
Blanca’s constant referrals to
“you,” her deceased mother, the
book maintains an unusually
optimistic tone. Blanca is a deep,
real and quirky main character,
and despite the brevity of the
book, her insights on the world
are
both
inspirational
and
intelligent. Her interactions
with other characters in the
book are unusually brief, and
no quotation marks are used;
instead dashes indicate the
start of speech, and the end has
to be inferred by the reader as
there is no clear change from
the end of a character talking
to Blanca’s personal thoughts.
This
quickly
draws
the
attention back to our heroine’s
inner monologues, which are
the highlight of the book, and
definitely more interesting that
what
the
side
characters have
to say.
The
entirety
of
“This
Too
Shall
Pass”
feels
like
an
in-depth character analysis of
the main character, more than
a romance or tragedy. Blanca
stumbles through encounters
with lovers and ex-husbands
in several scenarios, but these
men are just fleeting moments
before we are returned to
Blanca once again pondering
her
relationship
with
her
lost
mother.
Although
this
may seem to distract from
the current events, it is these
flashbacks
and
ponderings
that are really the highlight of
this book. Through these we
learn the convoluted history
between
Blanca
and
her
mother, and throughout the
book these emotions of loss
and conflicted love between
mother and daughters serve
to create a lovely mosaic of
the history between the two
women.
Because
the
book
is written from the author’s
own experience of losing her
mother, it is easy to see where
the emotional inspiration came
from; at times it feels like the
reader is peeking into a diary.
This book is a completely
uplifting
and
eye-opening
experience, as it goes through
emotions that many people
may
not
have
experienced
themselves, and shows how
there’s always a way out of
the other side of hardship.
Regardless of the reader’s age,
it’s incredible insightful and
all the characters offer small
tidbits into their lives. Blanca
is a wonderful protagonist
that isn’t perfect in many
ways, but her bumbling and
convoluted ramblings make her
compassionate and someone
who you’d want to get a beer
with. The book never feels
dragged out, and the ending
is open for interpretations;
it doesn’t feel like it has a
conclusion. It is both wistful
and upbeat and fits the theme
of the hopefulness that the
book carries with it.
MEGAN WILLIAMS
Daily Arts Writer
“This Too Shall Pass”
Milena Busquets
Hogarth
BOOK REVIEW
From the opening
pages, it’s clear
that this book is
more than what
meets the eye