ARTS
6
Thursday, August 8, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
There’s a saying that no one has
your back like family. Through the
good, the bad and the ugly, the peo-
ple who have been by our side from
the start are (hopefully) the ones
we can turn to when the going gets
tough. With endless ways to define
what makes a “family,” it would
seem nearly impossible to capture
the essence of the word in just one
film. That said, by illuminating the
universal inescapability of our roots,
in “The Farewell,” director Lulu
Wang (“Posthumous”) commendably
depicts the power that the people
who raise us and the places we call
home have over us all.
While navigating the trials and
tribulations of young adulthood,
independent and witty Billi (Awkwa-
fina, “Crazy Rich Asians”) learns of
her beloved grandmother Nai Nai’s
lung cancer diagnosis. Torn apart at
the news, Billi is in disbelief over her
family’s intentions not to tell Nai Nai
(Shuzhen Zhou) she is fatally ill. As
the extended family gathers together
in China, under the guise of Billi’s
cousin’s faux wedding, their reunion
is bittersweet, with each family
member anticipating the loss of the
adored family matriarch. Though
opposed to the family consensus,
Billi promises to bite her tongue and
play along with the fabrication, her
heart set on enjoying what little time
she has left with Nai Nai.
Central to the film’s success is the
pure, loving bond between Nai Nai
and Billi. Despite the generational,
cultural and lingual gaps between
them, their connection is incred-
ibly strong. Awkwafina’s personable
humor and Shuzhen Zhou’s embodi-
ment of Nai Nai’s matriarchal yet
warm temperament is a dynamite
combination. Their relationship gives
the film focus, a point of reference
that we graciously grab onto while
confronting the complex overlap of
funny and tear-jerking moments.
When we look at Nai Nai and Billi,
we don’t just see a grandmother and
a granddaughter. We see a friendship,
an attachment that is built on care,
trust and love, not just shared blood.
While the film’s core revolves
around the intricacy of familial love,
the underlying narrative of Billi’s
self-discovery journey holds a sig-
nificant role. Born Chinese but raised
in the U.S., Billi’s visit to see Nai Nai
pushes her to face the duality of her
identity, as well as others’ percep-
tions of that duality. When checking
into a hotel her first night in China,
the concierge lights up at the revela-
tion that Billi is from the U.S., prob-
ing her about whether it is “better.”
Billi awkwardly deflects the ques-
tion, answering that neither the U.S.
or China is better, but both are differ-
ent. Though the context of the scene
is quite lighthearted, Billi’s response
holds a lot of depth. She has unbreak-
able ties to both countries, with some
pieces of her rooted in America and
others eternally belonging to China.
Neither is superior to the other
because both are, in their own ways,
home.
“The Farewell” reminds us that
familial love, like love in all its forms,
is messy. Though there are times that
it pulls at our heart strings, there are
others where it makes us belly laugh.
The mixed emotions we feel per-
fectly tie into the complex feelings
of grief, nostalgia and joy that the
characters are grappling with. Filled
with moments of beauty and sorrow,
“The Farewell” may conjure up a
few laughs, or even make you shed
a few tears. One thing is certain
though: When the lights go black,
you’ll definitely want to give your
grandma a call.
‘The Farewell’ is at once
sorrowful and beautiful
SAMANTHA NELSON
Daily Arts Writer
FILM REVIEW
Hip hop’s most beloved boy
band is back on the album roll-
out circuit for their upcoming
record GINGER, and they’re
here in full form on “I BEEN
BORN AGAIN”: All six vocalists
on the track, a bass-booming
beat from in-house producers
Romil
Hemnani
and
Jabari
Manwa and a gritty black-and-
white music video accompany-
ing the single.
The
track
starts
with
a
breathy
and
blood-curdling
intro that turns
the
group
dynamic on its
head once you
realize it’s bear-
face delivering
the sinister lyr-
ics.
Although
BROCKHAMP-
TON
switched
up
their
for-
mula in 2018,
bearface is still
the most unde-
rutilized vocal-
ist, making his
appearance
on
album-closing
ballads
and
the
occasional
bridge or chorus. Hopefully this
teases more new bearface cuts
to come.
Layers
of
instrumentation
make waves on this beat, but it’s
as if each sound pops in and out
to give the others time to shine:
piano keys, an ominous synth,
record scratches, chants and
claps and kicks and hats over
a booming bass. It’s densely
packed without being overbear-
ing, cartoonish but a little bit
creepy — almost reminiscent of
“The Grim Adventures of Billy
& Mandy.”
Lyrics have been in tighter
focus on more recent releases for
the band, and here is no excep-
tion. Kevin Abstract’s verse is
intensely personal as usual. He
continues to talk about a lot of
the things he spoke on in iri-
descence and his solo release
ARIZONA BABY. Joba’s voice is
eerily pitched for a chopped and
screwed sound, and his abstract
lyrics are silky smooth.
Afterward the beat breaks
down and an out-of-place bridge
echoes, “You oughta be ashamed
of yourselves.” Matt Champion
closes the song with a catchy
outro, but Dom Mclennon and
Merlyn Wood don’t add much to
the track — in fact, Merlyn man-
ages to make it weird in his brief
appearance when he says, “She
so bad I let her touch my butt.”
It’s a goofy line and a mental
image nobody asked for. (“Mer-
lyn, what the fuck?”)
One of the musical elements
that garnered BROCKHAMP-
TON so much love
on their SATU-
RATION
trilogy
is catchy hooks,
the kind of cho-
rus
that
wraps
its words around
your brain. The
group
scrapped
their
sticky-
sounding
hooks
for more experi-
mental
song
structures on iri-
descence. A catchy
hook is absent on
“I BEEN BORN
AGAIN”
too,
a
sign that GINGER will continue
to switch up the formula, exper-
imenting with their sound and
structure.
While
“I
BEEN
BORN
AGAIN” shows that the chem-
istry is back and all the boys
are showing up to bat, it’s easy
to miss the old BROCKHAMP-
TON formula. Long gone are
guarantees of a catchy hook
from Kevin, or show-stealing
verses from Matt and Dom.
While the track still holds up,
it’s hard not to think about it: If
Dom and Merlyn’s quick verses
and the bridge were cut and the
song had a proper hook instead,
the whole song would land so
much stronger. It’s good that
BROCKHAMPTON
continues
to experiment — the SATURA-
TION formula would get old
after a while — but this track
shows they still haven’t nailed a
new dynamic.
Brockhampton’s
been born again
DYLAN YONO
Summer Senior Arts Writer
SINGLE REVIEW
‘I BEEN BORN
AGAIN’
BROCKHAMPTON
RCA (Question
Everything)
A24
The Farewell
A24
The State Theatre