By Mark McClain
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/23/18
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
10/23/18
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Tuesday, October 23, 2018
ACROSS
1 Colorist’s concern
4 Light brown pear
8 Hillary Clinton,
née __
14 Horace’s “__
Poetica”
15 “The Mammoth
Hunters” author
Jean
16 Low-scoring tie
17 Big wheel, briefly
18 Controversial
coal-extraction
method
20 Wine lover’s prefix
22 Sport shown on
TV Japan
23 Beer extraction
gadget
24 Dues-paying
participant
27 Spanish lady
30 Acquire
31 Isle of Arthurian
legend
33 Woodland deity
36 Developmental
insect stage
39 Luau accessory
40 Broadside
accidents
43 A, in Augsburg
44 Small stores
45 Rather nasty
46 “__ Fideles”: carol
48 Corrode, with
“away”
49 Macy’s section,
e.g.: Abbr.
50 Format for some
tournaments
57 “__ y Plata”:
Montana motto
59 Bit of talk show
self-promotion
60 Opal of the
comics, to Earl
Pickles
61 Meal suggested
by the starts of
four long answers
65 Deli salmon
66 Philadelphia
campus
67 Building lot unit
68 __-ray Disc
69 Volkswagen
family car
70 Rough file
71 Some ER cases
DOWN
1 Wreaked
condition
2 One of the
archangels
3 College sports
channel
4 Music majors’
degs.
5 First stage
6 Blood bank
supply
7 Upward trek
8 Film genre prefix
with com
9 Words after work
or sleep
10 “Gracias”
response
11 Common people
12 Raggedy doll
13 Eldest of the
“Little Women”
19 Author of eerie
stories
21 Delivery MD
25 Least
26 Shankar on the
sitar
28 Interminably
29 Ouzo flavoring
32 Poughkeepsie
campus
33 Place
34 Put up with
35 Symphonic
stories
36 British john
37 European peak
38 Dr. Jekyll creator’s
monogram
41 “Burlesque”
co-star
42 Being hauled to
the garage
47 Sundress
features
48 Lawn
maintenance
tools
51 Maker of Cajun
Shrimp nail
polish
52 Like the “funny
bone” nerve
53 Never, in
Nogales
54 “The Hobbit”
hero
55 Bluffed-out
words, perhaps
56 Connection
58 Sooner St.
61 Car care brand
62 Pot contents
63 Police rank:
Abbr.
64 Weight-training
unit
Nearly every day when I came
home from middle school, I would
turn on the TV to find that TNT
was once again airing “Charmed.”
Though the show originally aired
long before I had progressed
from the likes of Disney and
Nickelodeon,
I
found
myself
drawn to its reruns. What more
could a 13-year-old girl ask for?
Witches, demons, love stories and
three powerful sisters — it was a
helplessly cheesy series I couldn’t
get enough of, and I’m not the only
one.
The mention of the original
“Charmed” conjures a memory in
many people — mostly women —
of watching it with their moms, at
sleepovers or just by themselves
when they were home sick from
school.
Perhaps this nostalgia is what
inspired The CW to bring it back
— its feminist-centric reboot of
“Charmed” has just premiered.
There are some differences: The
women of the original “Charmed”
were
updated
to
the
much-
younger Mel, Macy and Maggie.
Notwithstanding
the
name
changes, the series plot remains
pretty much the same: Two of the
girls find a sister they never knew
they had, their mother is dead
and there are demons constantly
hunting them.
The pilot quickly establishes
the personalities of each of the
girls: Maggie, the youngest (Sarah
Jeffery, “Shades of Blue”), is
an incoming college freshman
looking to rush a sorority; Mel,
the middle sister (Melonie Diaz,
“The First Purge”), is a stern
graduate student heavily involved
in feminist activism. Mel and
Maggie lived together with their
mom their whole life, so they are
shocked when after their mom’s
death, Macy (Madeleine Mantock,
“Age Before Beauty”), a brainy new
hire at the college nearby, shows
up at their door telling them she’s
their sister.
From here, the show follows
the traditional “Charmed” route.
The sisters meet the cheeky
whitelighter Harry (Rupert Evans,
“The Man in the High Castle”)
who explains to the charmed ones
that they are powerful witches,
just like their mother, and that he
has powers of his own. This sets
the main conflict of the pilot, with
the sisters deciding whether they
want to accept their magical fate.
With all of the similarities
to the original “Charmed,” the
reboot had to make some changes
to establish itself as something
new. This comes through the often
heavy-handed “wokeness” that
permeates the pilot. Some of the
representation comes naturally
— all three sisters are women
of color and the fact that Mel is
openly gay is less of a plotline than
a simple detail. The show does
not want you to forget how woke
they are, delivering such lines as,
“Being a witch is a full pro-choice
enterprise,” and slipping in a dig at
Donald Trump.
Some may point this out as a
glaring flaw in the show, but as
someone that used to watch the
original “Charmed” religiously, I
have to disagree. You don’t go to the
network that airs such mindless,
guilty-pleasure
television
like
“Riverdale” looking for a top-
quality show. Nobody is going to
turn on “Charmed” expecting a
high-caliber script and Emmy-
award winning acting. The viewers
are going to be people just like I was
— mostly young, mostly female,
mostly looking for something
to entertain them. And if that
thing just happens to be a show
that promotes true sisterhood,
progressive feminism and modern
pro-women movements, I see no
problem with that.
‘Charmed’ revamp brings
little to the witchy series
SAMANTHA DELLA FERRA
Daily Arts Writer
TV REVIEW
THE CW
‘Bad Times’ conjures ’60s
nightmares and dreams
Nestled in the pine woods not
far from Lake Tahoe stands the
El Royale Hotel, a palace of kitsch
bisected by the Calif.-Nev. border
where guests can choose which
state they would like to stay in. In
the ’50s it was quite the happening
place, but today it stands silent and
empty, taking only the occasional
guest — a monument to a bygone
era of bright-eyed American
optimism. This is where writer-
director Drew Goddard (“The
Cabin in the Woods”) lays his
scene in his new film “Bad Times
at the El Royale.” Set over the
course of one night, the film
follows six strangers, the only
guests at the eponymous hotel.
Among them is an aging priest
(Jeff Bridges, “Only the Brave”),
a
travelling
vacuum-cleaner
salesman (Jon Hamm, “Tag”) and
a struggling jazz singer (Cynthia
Erivo, “Widows”). Each of these
people has a secret, and as the
night drags on, the guests will
learn that not all is as it seems at
the El Royale.
I won’t mince words: “Bad
Times” was the most fun I’ve had
watching a movie all year. From
start to finish, the film crackles
with energy and an ever-building
momentum that doesn’t let up
until the credits roll. This is
largely thanks to the film’s uber-
talented cast which features
incendiary performances from
both its established A-listers and
its up-and-comers. Particularly
impressive are the performances
given by Bridges and Erivo.
Bridges brings surprising depth to
his often gritty exterior as Father
Daniel Flynn, a priest struggling
with the onset of dementia. Erivo,
meanwhile, gives the powerhouse
performance of the film as
Darlene Sweet, a jazz singer who
never found her big break. Erivo
all but disappears into the kind
hearted but jaded singer who’s
seen far too much injustice in
her lifetime; she plays Darlene
with energy, empathy and an
unmistakable hint of rage at a
world that has never seemed to
give her a moment’s rest.
Throughout its nearly two and
a half hour runtime (which, mind
you, never once feels drawn out
or tedious), the film draws on a
number of stylistic inspirations
ranging from the pulp serials
and B-movies of the ’50s and ’60s
to the character-driven action
stylings of Quentin Tarantino.
That said, to simply call the film
a tribute piece and leave it at that
would be wildly underselling the
directing and storytelling chops of
Drew Goddard. Unexpectedly one
of the most visually enthralling
films of the year, Goddard’s
camerawork takes the audience
creeping and swerving through
the cavernous El Royale, no
doubt a nod to Stanley Kubrick’s
iconic tracking shots in “The
Shining.” What’s more, Goddard
masterfully weaves a story that
reaches a thematic depth which
elevates the film beyond being
just another style-over-substance
venture. Goddard isn’t looking to
merely replicate his favorite pulp
films; he has got something to say.
Running through the film
like the bright red line that runs
through the middle of the El
Royale is an exploration of binary
choice. American society is all
about binary choices: Coke or
Pepsi, Apple or Android, liberal
or conservative. But, Goddard
asks, do any of these choices really
matter? Does the outcome truly
differ, or is the appearance of
choice merely a tool with which
to placate the everyman in a world
that is moving increasingly out of
his control? The El Royale’s entire
business model is based on selling
guests the (meaningless) choice
between a room in Nev. and a
room in Calif. This is where “Bad
Times” truly separates itself from
the pack in terms of “homage”
films;
Goddard
writes
with
purpose and intent. The film is all
about illusory facades — choice
where there is no choice, kindness
where there is hatred. It’s for this
reason that the gaudy retrofuturist
stylings
of
the
’50s
should
serve as the perfect aesthetic
backdrop for the film; beneath
the mask of post-war American
prosperity and optimism lay a
nation plagued with xenophobia,
nationalism and racial unrest.
Behind
Dwight
Eisenhower’s
clean-cut military polish lay a
government committing human-
rights atrocities around the globe.
The world of “Bad Times” exists
to serve its story and its message,
not the other way around.
Genre films are often dismissed
by critics and cinephiles to the
point where the label has become
almost condescending. With “Bad
Times at the El Royale,” Drew
Goddard proves that production
value, creative ingenuity and
attention to detail need not be
reserved for the latest Oscar-
winning drama from Tom Hanks
and company. The film deserves
to be discussed as more than just
a genre-homage, and if this film
doesn’t generate any buzz come
awards season, it will have been
a criminal injustice. A complete
thrill-ride from start to finish with
a thought-provoking message to
boot, “Bad Times at the El Royale”
is undoubtedly one of 2018’s best
releases.
MAX MICHALSKY
Daily Arts Writer
20TH CENTURY FOX
FILM REVIEW
“Bad Times at
the El Royale”
20th Century Fox
Goodrich Quality 16
There’s a music venue about
15 minutes away from my home
called Ravinia Festival. It’s a
beautiful outdoor space tailor-
made for an ideal summer
evening sitting on an expansive
lawn listening to the BoDeans or
assorted almost-corpses from The
Beach Boys. Naturally my family
buys a cheese plate or two, packs
about 40 blankets and candles and
heads to Ravinia for a night every
July.
When I think of these nights, I
think of cargo shorts. I don’t know
why. It could be that most of my
memories from Ravinia seem to be
lodged firmly between 2004 and
2007. It might be that most of the
old people I was with at Ravinia
were, in fact, rocking cargo shorts.
More likely, in recounting some of
my earliest cultural immersions of
any form, I’ve confounded a North
suburban Chicago music venue, a
timeless look and those above me
who introduced me to music.
That’s how we end up here: at
parents, and music. Because both,
together, mean a lot to many.
Formative listening is one of
my favorite things. I realize it
might be tender or sensitive for
some folks, but I also think it’s
very healthy for the soul — even
to just think about. It’s something
I do often, and it’s something I
think you should do too: Listen to
your mom’s music every once in a
while.
I’m not really sure what that
means either, but for the purposes
of this exploration, allow me to
walk you through my mother’s
music.
Ever
heard
of
Joan
Armatrading? I hadn’t either,
until she soundtracked my mom’s
weekly Mah Jongg games in our
kitchen during my elementary
years. I don’t particularly enjoy
Joan Armatrading’s music, but
I enjoy hearing about my mom’s
Joan Armatrading tradition: Each
year, when Armatrading plays
Chicago, she heads to the City
Winery (apparently a real place
where things happen) with the
same friend (who may or may not
exist) who has been accompanying
her to Armatrading concerts for
years. I really like the sentiment
and story. Joan Armatrading
is, consequently, a good dose of
medicine.
More
digestible?
Mary
J.
Blige. There’s a song she sings
— it’s called “Just Fine” — that’s
impossible, physically, to resist
tapping your foot to, and before
you know it, you’re dancing at
5:00 p.m. on a Friday again,
because Shabbat is imminent
and the table needs to be set up
before the grandparents arrive.
That vignette might have been
me exclusive. But that’s what my
mom listens to, so I listen too.
There comes a point in the road
— not a metaphorical road, a real
road — where you need to break
it down. If you’re my mom, this
is most of the time. If you’re me,
this is rare. If you’re human, you
listen to Valee’s “Womp Womp,” a
new favorite for my mother. When
drives to the grocery store become
parties
and
drivers
become
dance circle commandeers, this
is where we turn. It’s where my
mom turns, at least, and for that
I am thankful. It’s fun to womp
womp. If you’re buying the womp,
don’t stress over its source. Your
dad’s music? Sure. Siblings, aunts,
uncles, grandparents too. If your
best friend has stuff you like, go
for it.
Much of this column has been
thematically
centered
around
different types of proverbial
“resets.” I haven’t done this on
purpose, but the trend also kind
of makes sense. As I’m nearing the
end of my writing process for this
piece, my mind is consumed by
worry about my lack of ideas for
future columns. I’m also thinking
about which frozen Trader Joe’s
meal I will heat up for dinner,
why I will choose taquitos for
the second night in a row and
how I’d like to stay away from a
column with a “how much other
work I need to do” cliché. But now
there’s way too much meta going
on, which is probably even worse.
Ultimately this column will need
to end with jumbled thoughts
before opening Spotify to propel
me through my next chunk of
work. I have the Sunday Scaries,
I’d like a semblance of familiarity
amidst other general chaos and
I need an excuse to listen to Van
Morrison.
JOEY SCHUMAN
Daily Health & Wellness Columnist
HEALTH AND WELLNESS COLUMN
I like to listen to my
mom’s music
“Charmed”
Series Premiere
Sundays @ 9 p.m.
The CW
6 — Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com