The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, April 4, 2018 — 5A

 The Weeknd is vulnerable 
on ‘My Dear Melancholy,’

ALBUM REVIEW

‘Flower’ is an underbaked 
try at a teen angst comedy 

“Flower” is like a Betty 

Crocker cake taken out of 
the oven 15 minutes too early 
— guiltily enticing, golden-
brown on the outside, but 
evidently inedible after the 
first cut. With a cast headlined 
by Zoey Duetch (“Everybody 
Wants 
Some!!”) 

and Adam Scott 
(“Parks 
and 

Recreation”), 
the film quickly 
loses its sheen as 
it 
devolves 
into 

one of the worst 
teen edge-fests in 
recent memory. It 
tries to shock the 
viewer into some 
Stockholm-syndrome-esque 
appreciation of an absolutely 
unlikable main character as 
she dances through her twisted 
antics 
to 
some 
forgettable 

radio-pop mix. It’s hollow 
entertainment.

The teen flick follows a 

crude and unusual 17-year-
old sexual extortionist Erica 
(Zoey Deutch) as she deals 
with her new, fresh-out-of-
rehab step-brother Luke (Joey 
Morgan, “Scout’s Guide to 
the Zombie Apocalypse”) in 
her own special way. They 
work together to take down a 
pedophile whose actions sent 

Luke into a downward spiral 
after 
middle 
school, 
their 

actions causing more harm 
than good and leading to a 
blooming but wholly unearned 
romance. 

The film’s most egregious 

issue is its audacity to expect 
empathy for a punishingly 
boring protagonist. Erica is 
written to be a wild, renegade 
teen who takes her town by 

the 
reins, 
not 

taking 
slack 

from 
anyone. 

This 
was 
not 

accomplished. 
On 
screen, 

Deutch tries way 
too hard to be 
edgy 
and 
just 

seems immature, 
which 
can 

sometimes be a 

fine trait in a main character 
if it is used as a touchstone to 
measure future growth (see 
“Rushmore”’s Max Fisher) but 
it doesn’t work here. Instead, 
Erica’s actions and responses 
to 
situations 
become 
too 

familiar too fast. She’s petulant 
and predictable, and she sours 
quickly.

“Flower” 
has 
primed 

some 
comparison 
to 
2018 

heavyweight “Three Billboards 
Outside 
Ebbing, 
Missouri,” 

as both follow a female lead 
who takes it upon herself to 
bring to justice child predators 
in their towns. In a way, it 

suffers from a similar problem. 
While these characters may 
be fighting for a perfectly 
moral and just cause, the way 
they accomplish their end goal 
matters. 
Granted, 
“Flower” 

doesn’t deserve to be in the 
same conversation, but there is 
some trend present. If actions 
of characters in a film were 
supposed to be just a means to 
an end, filmmakers would have 
resorted by now to showing 
found 
footage 
of 
liberated 

prisoners of war walking out 
of American airports and of 
children hugging chronically 
abused puppies as they leave 
humane society shelters. If 
the characters given are too 
unlikable, it doesn’t matter 
what they’re doing, it will still 
be a difficult movie to watch. 
In “Flower,” Erica doesn’t do 
enough to distance herself 
from the actions on screen. The 
movie attempts to humanize 
her 
through 
a 
few 
softer 

scenes toward the end, but 
as your father told you when 
you were losing that fourth 
grade travel basketball game 
by 18 points late in the second 
half: “you can’t get it all back 
on one trip down the floor.” 
“Flower” chucks it up from 
half-court a few times toward 
the end instead of creating 
well-rounded 
characters 

throughout, and just like in 
that basketball game, it doesn’t 
work.

STEPHEN SATARINO

Daily Arts Writer

DIABLO ENTERTAINENT

“Flower”

Diablo 

Entertainment

State Theater

FILM REVIEW

When The Weeknd released 

Starboy in 2016, he wanted 
to become a pop star. He 
shed his old R&B persona, 
cutting 
his 
signature 
hair 

and strangling his old self to 
death in the “Starboy” music 
video. He armed his album 
with A-list pop producers and 

buzzworthy features like Max 
Martin and Kendrick Lamar. 
His efforts paid off — Starboy 
placed several songs on the 
Billboard Top 40 and scored 
him 
another 
number 
one 

with the album’s title track. 
With frequent comparisons 
to Michael Jackson, it seemed 
like we had a new, darker 
Prince of Pop. But the release 
of My Dear Melancholy, almost 
two years later, indicates the 

old Weeknd survived. The EP 
is exactly what I’d expect after 
his reinvention: a mix of pop 
influences ingrained into the 
classic drug-induced R&B that 
jump-started his career.

Although 
his 
three 

mixtapes, 
which 
combined 

to 
make 
Trilogy, 
were 

groundbreaking 
in 
their 

hazy and electronic R&B, the 
lyrical themes grew repetitive 
over the course of three tapes. 
The Weeknd sings about sex 
and 
drugs 
without 
really 

specifying which drugs he’s 
using and which people he’s 
having sex with — at times, 
it can seem braggadocious 
and 
immature. 
However, 

with My Dear Melancholy, 
The 
Weeknd 
feels 
more 

intimate and authentic, like a 
personally addressed letter. 
Since stardom, The Weeknd 
has had two long-term and 
high-profile relationships: one 
with model Bella Hadid and 
another, more recent, stint 
with singer Selena Gomez. He’s 
had adult relationships and 
experienced real heartbreak. 
On 
“Wasted 
Times,” 
The 

Weeknd 
references 
two 

relationships, 
reflecting 
on 

the lost time spent with a past 
lover. The production borrows 
from Starboy, with its heavy 
snare and vocal distortion, 

while burying The Weeknd’s 
voice under synth layering 
and smoky vocals that made 
Trilogy so emotive.

On Melancholy, there’s also 

moments of new, vulnerable 
Weeknd. “Call Out My Name” 
— the opening and likely best 
track — finds The Weeknd 
exposed. 
With 
minimal 

production and a slow-burning 
intro, the track depicts The 
Weeknd begging a lover not 
to leave. The syllables of the 
chorus as he sings “Call out 
my name” are drawn out and 
imploring, shedding light on 
his wounded heart.

But, 
like 
other 
Weeknd 

projects, the EP is top heavy, 
trailing off towards the end. 
“Hurt You” sounds like the 
“Starboy” beat repurposed for 
the typical “I’m unemotional 
and sex-driven” Weeknd tune. 
“Privilege,” the closing track, 
builds well but climaxes on 
a forgettable chorus about a 
heartbreak-driven drug binge.

Despite a few lackluster 

tracks, My Dear Melancholy, 
is The Weeknd at his most 
vulnerable 
and 
genuine. 

Like the title, the project 
feels addressed to someone 
specific, allowing us third 
party listeners in on a private 
conversation with him and a 
lover.

DANNY MADION

Daily Arts Writer

“My Dear 

Melancholy”

The Weeknd

XO/Universal 

Music

XO/ UNIVERSAL MUSIC

In its fifth season ‘Silicon 
Valley’ is back in its groove

As someone who grew up 

in Silicon Valley, the HBO 
show 
of 
the 
same 
name 

always felt uncannily more 
like a documentary than a 
comedy. From the get go, 
“Silicon 
Valley” 
has 
been 

astute satire of the Valley, a 

place where obscene amounts 
of money and a somewhat 
overzealous 
sense 
of 
self-

importance produce a uniquely 
idiosyncratic 
environment. 

Ironically, the show has been 
enthusiastically 
embraced 

by the very demographic it 
relentlessly pokes fun at. Walk 
into any startup office or CS 
building at any university and 
you’ll find that our (speaking 
as 
an 
engineer) 
affinity 

towards the show’s humor is 
not entirely dissimilar to a 
12-year-old’s 
towards 
toilet 

humor. Guaranteed guffaws 
at popular sound bites such 
as “this guy fucks” or “middle 
out” illustrate how “Silicon 
Valley” has transcended into 
being a possibly niche, but still 
hilarious cultural icon.

Nonetheless, I was quite 

worried 
going 
into 
season 

five. Season four was easily 

SAYAN GHOSH
Daily Arts Writer

the 
series’s 
weakest, 
with 

Pied Piper going frustratingly 
nowhere during the course 
of 
the 
entire 
season 
and 

Richard Hendricks (Thomas 
Middleditch, 
“Kong: 
Skull 

Island”) going from lovable 
awkward nerd into a character 
that was at too many points 
simply painful to watch. The 
satire still had its edge, but it 
seemed like the show’s magic 
was just about running out. 
Was the show just overstaying 
its welcome?

Thankfully, the beginning of 

season five has me cautiously 
optimistic. We find the team 
without Erlich Bachmann (T.J. 
Miller, “Deadpool”) for the 
first time after a disappearance 
in Tibet, and although Erlich 
is one of the show’s most 
notable characters, I wasn’t 
quite miffed by his departure. 
By the end of season four, he 
was just a cheap source of 
crude humor, a deadbeat who 
had little relevance to the plot 
or progress of Pied Piper. It 
turned out that T.J. Miller in 
real life was becoming a bit 
too much like the character he 
played, forcing the writers to 
strand him in the mountains. 
Oh well. Anyway, season five 
sees the group move into a 

new office, and throughout 
the course of the first few 
episodes, 
welcome 
a 
large 

group of engineers.

And to that I say: finally! 

Pied Piper is finally actually 
making some progress. One 
of the aspects of season four 
that was so frustrating was 
the feeling that the show 
didn’t have to be quite so 
cyclical. The possibilities for 
conflict 
and 
comedy 
with 

a larger team as Pied Piper 
expands are limitless. While 
Richard 
is 
still 
hopelessly 

unfit as a motivator and CEO 
(an early scene has him give 
a ridiculously cringeworthy 
speech to his new employees), 
he shows glimpses of a Silicon 
Valley staple many viewers of 
the show are expecting to pan 
out: the transformation from 
being a brilliant, dopey coder 
to a ruthless businessman, aka 
Hooli CEO Gavin Belson (Matt 
Ross, “Captain Fantastic”).

Belson is brilliant as ever, 

with a renewed zeal to destroy 
the upstart Pied Piper. The 
show continues to excel at 
his characterization as well 
as incorporating new gags, 
including a recurring bit that 
involves three new coders the 
team dubs “stallions, each one 
more magnificent than the 
last.” Each time the stallions 
are 
mentioned, 
sentimental 

music plays while the camera 
pans 
to 
three 
disheveled 

engineers 
rubbing 
their 

eyes while squinting at their 
laptops. While Dinesh (Kumail 
Nanjiani, 
“The 
Big 
Sick”) 

and Guilfoyle (Martin Starr, 
“Spider Man: Homecoming”) 
have not developed as much as 
I would like, their interactions 
are as snide and petty as ever, 

and characters such as Laurie 
Breem (Suzanne Cryer, “The 
Cloverfield Paradox”) remain 
as perfect imitations of some 
of 
Silicon 
Valley’s 
more 

unusual personalities. Jared 
(Zach Woods, “The Post”), one 
of the show’s most intriguing 
characters, continues to drop 
some truly disturbing lines 
which lead me to think he grew 
up in a weird cultist/Neo-Nazi 
family.

Meanwhile 
in 
Erlich’s 

absence, Jian Yang (Jimmy O. 
Yang, “Crazy Rich Asians”) 
takes over and hatches a plot 
to “inherit” his wealth. While 
Jian Yang is hilarious in short 
bursts, it is worrying that 
the show has set him up to 
potentially be a main villain of 
sorts. At the moment, he still 
feels stuck as a caricature.

“Silicon Valley” is back, 

sort of. Early on, season five 
is 
encouraging, 
actually 

stimulating the idea that Pied 
Piper will grow and encounter 
a 
new 
set 
of 
problems. 

However, as I stated before, I 
remain cautiously optimistic.

HBO

“Silicon 
Valley”

Season 5 Episodes 

1-3

HBO

Sun. @ 10:30 p.m.

I was quite 

worried going 
into season five. 
Season four was 
easily the series’s 

weakest

TV REVIEW