The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Tuesday, September 10, 2019 — 5
Despite its herculean ambition, “It Chapter
2” retains none of the contagious charm of the
original. And make no mistake about it; this movie
is ambitious. “Chapter 2” fires on every cylinder at
its disposal, with twice the budget of “It”and an
A-list adult cast as the aged-up Losers’ Club. Still,
the original film’s quirky, light-hearted appeal
is replaced by a tedious slog that manages to
retroactively worsen the first movie.
“Chapter 2” follows the seven members of
the Losers’ Club 27 years after their traumatic
experience with the hilarious demon clown
Pennywise. When Mike (Isaiah Mustafa, “Horrible
Bosses”) learns that murders are happening in
Derry that mirror the pattern of those from his
childhood, he gets the gang back together to end
the clown for good.
Unfortunately, the performances of the adult
Losers’ Club are hit or miss. Jessica Chastain
(“Molly’s Game”) and Bill Hader (“Inside Out”)
excel as Beverly and Richie, bringing to life a
layer of character development that felt genuinely
special in relation to their younger counterparts,
Sophia Lillis (“Sharp Objects”) and Finn Wolfhard
(“Dog Days”). One notably disappointing cast
member was James McAvoy (“Split”) as Bill, the
leader of the Losers. Capable of an actor as he is,
everything McAvoy does in “Chapter 2” feels like
part of a different movie. It’s not just that he’s
overacting — it feels like he’s overthinking, too.
He exclaims painfully when other characters
are speaking quietly, he yells in full sentences at
his most intense. And neither the unintentional
comedy of his performance nor the nuance of
Chastain’s can distract from the general clunkiness
of the script.
In “Chapter 2,” there really is no such thing
as subtlety. Every jump scare is more fantastical
than the last, and after the 10th effects-driven set
piece, the horror of it all becomes a drag too. The
film trades the impact of its scares for a hollow
goofiness. Where the first installment peppered
in comedy to make the horror more digestible,
“Chapter 2” finds its jokes in the absurdity of
that horror. Muschietti’s use of CGI is partially to
blame. The visual effects team was in the position
of a kid in a candy store, encouraged to stretch
their monsters to creative breaking points. And as
much I can appreciate the film’s foray into realm
of Tim Burton, there’s a point where zany just
isn’t scary. Sure, there were shudders, jolts and
occasional yelps in the audience, but there was
mocking laughter equally present during the film’s
gravest moments.
Part of the charm of “It” was how breathless and
contained it felt. The story happens almost entirely
in the summer of 1989, nailing the identical vein of
nostalgia on which the series “Strangers Things”
thrives. Yet, for all the care the first chapter takes
in immersing its audience in a single summer,
“Chapter 2” is a temporal collage. Flashbacks
are half-baked character notes, often occurring
within the timeline of the first film. Moreover,
where the perspective of “It” felt limited to only
the characters we care about, “Chapter 2” detours
wherever it pleases. Both of these choices make for
a far more sprawling, far more exhausting journey.
The contrast between the two halves of the
story is a fascinating case in how the financial
backing of a franchise affects its identity. “It”
emits a vulnerability that goes beyond the
adorable chemistry of its child actors. The first
chapter feels genuine, investing its emotional core
above everything else. It’s one of the reasons the
movie reached so many audiences. The creative
minds behind “Chapter 2” were aware of its likely
success, discarding the finale they had intended —
the one they seemed to promise us as an audience
— for a numbingly zealous procedure, a mere
performance of emotion.
A very honest, very true review of ‘It Chapter 2’
DREAMVILLE / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
FILM REVIEW
How many releases these days
have accompanying mobile games?
In the early and mid 2010s, these
types
of
things
ran
rampant,
especially in the film industry — to
build hype for a film, studios would
commission a mobile game to be
made to better explain said film.
Blockbusters like “The Dark Knight
Rises” and “Terminator: Genesys”
both released mobile games in
conjunction with each film’s release.
Since then, however, mobile gaming
has fizzled out and this trend has all
but come to an end. Until it was time
for Earthgang to release their latest
album Mirrorland.
When
Earthgang
released
Mirrorland, they also released a
mobile game. How many other
musicians have done this? The game,
in which the goal is to defeat bad guys
in levels themed after their latest
albums from Rags to Mirrorland,
won’t blow anyone’s hair back, but
is enjoyable for a couple of minutes.
The fact that the group decided to
do this proves that members Olu and
Wowgr8 aren’t interested in doing
what every other rapper is doing.
They aren’t just breaking the mold
— they’re making a new one, and
Mirrorland goes on to bolster this
claim.
After
countless
delays
and
setbacks, Mirrorland is finally out
this month, and it was well worth the
wait. Its songs capture the energy
and spirit from the group’s previous
releases, but with a new level of
polish and poise. Olu and especially
Wowgr8
display
astronomical
growth,
in
both
their
vocal
performances and lyrical ability. On
the album highlight, “Top Down,” the
two are at their breeziest, absolutely
floating over a bombastic, bass-
heavy beat produced by Childish
Major. What is most noteworthy
about this song and Mirrorland as a
whole is the dichotomy between Olu
and Wowgr8. Where Olu bounces,
Wowgr8 slides. The two rap about
similar things like running from the
police and old flames, but hearing
how differently each man attacks
the same beat is nothing short of
amazing. It’s like they’re two sides
of the same coin.
Mirrorland’s first handful of songs
are lighthearted and fun, but the
album’s midsection begins to turn
inward, beginning with “This Side,”
a track that attempts to make sense
of the group’s celebrity status and
the woes that come with it. The men
continue to build on these themes
on “Swivel” through “Blue Moon,”
climaxing at the fantastic “Tequila.”
The song concerns the stresses of life
and dealing with them with vices like
tequila. It features a Latin-inspired
beat and a guest verse from T-Pain
in which he discusses his alcohol
dependence and its downfalls.
After “Blue Moon,” the album
begins to lull. The sounds get tired,
and the songs begin to feel overly
long, proven by the abundance of
features that attempt to spice things
up. “Stuck” is a stunning track, but at
this point in the tracklist, its length
and tempo make the album drag.
However, closing song “Wings,” an
uplifting cut about working hard and
being proud of yourself, picks things
back up and ends Mirrorland on a
high note.
If anything, Mirrorland proves that
Earthgang doesn’t care about their
image. They want to do what they
want to do, and it pays off. Wowgr8
and Olu have crafted an album that
showcases their outer and inner
selves, often doing so in the same
song. While the setbacks and delays
were a nuisance, the album was well
worth the wait because Earthgang
continues eschew the mold and stay
to true to exactly who they are.
Earthgang take hard look at
themselves on ‘Mirrorland’
MUSIC REVIEW
JIM WILSON
Daily Arts Writer
On a February day 32 years ago, a
beam of glitter from space crashed into
a home in El Salvador and Julio Torres
was brought into existence. You might
recognize the otherworldly comedian
from his work as a writer on “Saturday
Night Live,” his crafty witchiness
starring in and co-creating HBO’s “Los
Espookys” or his most recent HBO
comedy special, “My Favorite Shapes by
Julio Torres.” Torres’s comedy is unlike
anything you have ever seen before
in this time, dimension or universe.
He spends his stand-up, for instance,
mostly sitting down behind a playful
conveyor belt in a silver jumpsuit and
clear slippers a la one particularly
forgetful Disney princess, highlighting
as his special’s name promises — his
favorite shapes. Torres disassembles
the staleness of the classic stand-up
routine and reconstructs it with grace
and care. “My Favorite Shapes” is the
kind of comedy I want injected into
my veins or stirred into my coffee. It’s
the kind of comedy you don’t know
you need until you’ve had it. Have you
ever experienced that magical moment
where you go from having not seen your
favorite movie to having seen it? It’s
like you can’t imagine your life before
and now your life is better after? That
is what watching “My Favorite Shapes”
for the first time feels like.
Like most good things in this world,
“My Favorite Shapes” was born at
the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (see
“Fleabag”). I think that one of the most
admirable aspects about Julio Torres is
his dedication to his art. He has a need
to show us his shapes because it has to
be done and he absolutely must do it.
It reminds me of the famous Hillel the
Elder quote (or what Ivanka Trump
attributes to Emma Watson) — “If I am
not for myself, then who will be for me?
But when I am for myself, then what
am “I”? And if not now, when?” But for
Julio Torres: “If I don’t tell you about
my favorite shapes, who will? And if
not now, when?” He even explains this
further through a phone call with his
mother as special begins: “I need to
show them. If I don’t, I don’t know that
anybody else would.” Torres has to do
this special and we need to hear him.
“As I was preparing this show,” Torres
says, “and deciding which shapes were
going to go in which order, and I was
weighing out the pros and cons of all of
them. I thought ‘Oh, I’m sorry, is this one
of the many good jobs that I’m stealing
from hard-working Americans?’ Look,
I’m just doing it because no one else was
doing it, and it needed to be done.”
Within “My Favorite Shapes” Torres
shows three shorts narrated by the
likes of Lin Manuel Miranda, Ryan
Gosling and Emma Stone. The shorts
are dramatic and absurd, reminiscent
of Torres’s writing for such “SNL”
sketches as “Papyrus” and “Wells
for Boys.” Miranda voices a cactus
inhabiting the home of his deceased
predecessor, Gosling tells the emotional
story of one existential racing plastic
penguin
and
Stone
questions
her
purpose as a massive stiletto whose role
is to display smaller shoes. Everything
about Torres’s aesthetic is the opposite
of what stand-up comedy has made
itself into. In an interview with The
Atlantic, Torres says of performing
“It’s all drag, anyway.” “Comedians like
the idea of presenting that they were
just wandering down the street having
their musings and then they wandered
onto the stage,” Torres explains. He
challenges the concept that comedians
are average joes with witty stories — he
is first and foremost a performer.
In an act of radical self-awareness
Torres
acknowledges
the
wacky
uniqueness of his craft with careful
consideration. “I have often been called
too niche,” he declares at one point in
his special as the camera zooms in on
his fingers delicately placing a crystal
into a miniature chair, “To which
I’ll say, I have no idea what you could
possibly be talking about.” Julio Torres
is an avant-garde modernist of comedy,
deconstructing
and
reconstructing
humor like Marcel Duchamp did with
the ready-made or Gertrude Stein with
the novel. If the future of comedy looks
like Julio Torres, I think we’re in good
shape.
Becky Portman: An
ode to Julio Torres
HUMOR COLUMN
BECKY PORTMAN
Daily Humor Columnist
Torres disassembles the staleness
of the classic stand-up routine and
reconstructs it with grace and care.
“My Favorite Shapes” is the kind of
comedy I want injected into my veins
or stirred into my coffee.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
ANISH TAMHANEY
Daily Arts Writer
Mirrorland
Earthgang
Dreamville
How many releases these days have
accompanying mobile games? They
aren’t just breaking the mold — they’re
making a new one
It Chapter 2
The State Theater
Warner Bros. Pictures