The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Monday, January 13, 2020 — 5A
If a show tells the same story as the one
that it rebooted, then one might rightly
ask why reboot it at all. By now, 1994 was
26 years ago. It’s often not the case that
what was relevant in 1994 still holds up
in 2020. Thankfully, “Party of Five” left
1994 in the past and caught up with 2020
in a solid, if somewhat bland, reboot.
Instead of the white, middle class
Salinger family, the reboot follows the
lives of the five Acosta children, who are
thrown into a furor after ICE shows up
to their parents’ restaurant. While Javier
(Bruno Bichir, “Che”) has papers for all
his employees, he and his wife do not. Six
weeks later, Javier and Gloria (Fernanda
Urrejola, “Narcos: Mexico”) are being
held at a detention center while the five
kids struggle to maintain their home life.
Beto (Niko Guardado, “The Goldbergs”)
fights to keep the restaurant afloat,
while previously-perfect Lucia (Emily
Tosta, “The Resident”) lashes out in
class. The eldest Acosta, Emilio (Brandon
Larracuente, “13 Reasons Why”), tries to
prioritize his aspiring music career over
his family until he’s forced to move back
home and look after his siblings. Despite
Emilio’s best efforts — which amount to
paying a top-notch immigration lawyer
with money he didn’t really have to take
his parents’ case — Javier and Gloria are
deported back to Mexico, while the kids
are left in America to fend for themselves.
In the ‘90s version of “Party of Five,”
five siblings attempted to hold their
family together after they lose both their
parents in a car crash. The 2020 version
holds a candle to the original. I believe it
has some merit as its own entity. The show
comes along in a wonderful era, helping
usher in more TV that better reflects our
diverse society. “Party of Five” joins the
company of “Atlanta,” “Black-ish” and
“Fresh Off the Boat,” plus plenty others,
that attempt to present stories that are
both diverse and introspective.
The show is more than politically
relevant. In an age where immigrant
children are being held at the border in
cages, a show with a focus like that of
“Party of Five” is needed, and perhaps
even imperative. I think it’s important to
understand that the Acostas are indeed
victims of a broken system, yes, but
they are not only victims. The parents
are small-business owners, while their
children are math-whizzes and musicians.
I’m a bit worried the show will become
so absorbed in its own calamities that it
forgets the Acostas are people: ones whose
experiences are not only their tragedies,
but also their individualities. The Acotas’
experiences are deeply American. This
should be expressed more explicitly.
On the bright side, the show is carried
by strong pacing and a solid cast. While
many
writers
might
struggle
with
penning a precocious child, Valentina
(Elle Paris Legaspi, “Animal Kingdom”)
is just the right amount of quippy — and,
not to mention, at a 9th grade math level.
Likewise, Lucia’s lashing out is believable
and restrained. The pilot is fast-paced and
efficient, with the parents being arrested
by ICE and losing their court hearing all
in the same episode. At times, the show
might benefit from a calmer pacing,
taking more time to give the characters
scenes in which to reckon events instead
of simply responding to them. But I must
admire the way the show positions itself
so quickly.
By no means is “Party of Five” bad. As
far as reboots go, it’s on the stronger side.
I cannot give it enough credit for its timely
update as well. That being said, the pilot
left a lot to be desired. There are strong bit
and more than enough groundwork that
could turn into something special. But its
strengths don’t stop it from being more or
less standard, well-produced television.
Here’s to hoping “Party of Five” hits its
stride soon.
‘Party of Five’ gets a relevent update
TV REVIEW
In the spring of 1917, German forces in France’s Western
Front retreated en masse, moving the front line back miles in
Operation Alberich. On their way out, they were ordered to burn
every building, crop and animal deemed potentially useful to
their British enemies. German generals deemed it a successful
operation, but Allied leaders lambasted the scorched earth
warfare as barbaric. To the soldiers involved on both sides,
however, Operation Alberich was just another day in hell. “1917”
takes us there.
The movie throws the viewer into the inferno of World War I
with the thunderous force of an artillery blast. George MacKay
(“Captain Fantastic”) and Dean-Charles Chapman (“Game of
Thrones”) play the two leads with endlessly complex yet subtle
performances. These characters grab the viewer’s heartstrings
and pull them with white knuckles all the way through No Man’s
Land, on a desperate mission to save thousands of lives.
The unrelenting, unpredictable story is more survival horror
than war flick, eschewing the nationalistic pitfalls that even the
best war films (ie. “Dunkirk” and “Saving Private Ryan”) fall prey
to. “1917” shows that war isn’t celebratory, necessary or heroic.
It’s total apocalypse. The movie is presented in one take, a literally
unblinking look at one of the worst and most momentous periods
of history when war became fruitless, complete and mechanical
destruction. Director Sam Mendes (“Skyfall”), composer Thomas
Newman (“Skyfall”) and cinematographer Roger Deakins (“Blade
Runner 2049”) have created a revolting, pulse pounding hellscape
that, out of context, would likely be called a fantastical creation.
Yet this is no Mordor. In “1917,” nightmare is everyday reality.
Bodies are buried in mud, frozen in rubble and draped in barbed
wire, skin peeling to reveal stark white bone. Shrieking artillery,
popping rifle fire and droning airplanes are permanent fixtures of
the landscape, echoing through miles of charred desolation that
was once quaint towns and green pastures.
In some scenes, especially those set in a burning medical city
at night, the grandiose, insane destruction is almost beautiful,
like a supernova that rips galaxies apart in a flurry of color
before flaring into total darkness. Yet even in the face of this
devastation, miraculously preserved pastoral landscapes emerge
and disappear like portals to a different, peaceful world. In “1917,”
dairy cows graze quietly next to farmhouses crushed by shellfire,
and a river babbles through a thicket of green trees, then into a
smoldering city filled with dead bodies. One sees the beauty that
war obliterates, giving the film’s gut punch of a plot broader
stakes that make it all the more terrifying.
“1917” grapples with the plague that is total warfare, right
where it all began. What does a time like 1917 do to the people who
inhabit it? Some soldiers buckle and cower, while others embrace
the carnage. Perhaps most tragically, the majority simply become
numb. MacKay’s character says he hates going home, because it
reminds him that he has to go back to the trenches. Total war
isn’t just confined to the battlefield. It destroys everything and
everyone in its orbit, maybe indefinitely.
As 2020 dawns, more than a hundred years away from 1917, the
futility and unstoppable destruction wrought by modern warfare
shows no signs of stopping. Somehow, leaders can’t or don’t
notice that behind every operation on a map are terrified men
and women, most of whom just want to survive and come home
to their families. “1917” isn’t just thrilling, unforgettable cinema.
It’s an urgent warning from a century ago that, as thousands of
American troops head across the sea again, could not be more
vital.
World War I drama ‘1917’ is explosive, urgent cinema
ANDREW WARRICK
Daily Film Writer
FILM REVIEW
Japan’s Yellow
Magic Orchestra
Few
musical
acts
can
convincingly
claim
they
influenced the birth of several
genres
and
sounds
that
transformed
from
local
to
global phenomena. Fewer still
can straddle the line between
relentlessly
innovating
and
experimenting
with
new
sounds and technologies while
maintaining pop sensibilities that
allow them to sell out stadiums.
The Beatles, Kraftwerk and The
Velvet Underground all fit this
mold, but you may not have heard
of the Tokyo-based band Yellow
Magic Orchestra, who may be the
most influential of them all.
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yukihiro
Takahashi and Haruomi Hasono
were all prolific, skilled session
musicians in the Tokyo music
scene when they met and formed
the group in the late 1970s. Each
member of the group was heavily
interested in the series of new
synthesizers and drum machines
introduced by companies like
Moog and ARP. Together, they
formed a coherent union of their
individual experimentation.
The
band’s
early
albums,
including the self-titled debut
and the 1979 album Solid State
Survivor, are early examples of
synthpop, featuring an intriguing
mix of earnestness and kitsch,
taking a Japanese perspective
on
Western
Orientalism
to
fruitful
effect.
Even
more
interesting than the musical/
hardware innovations that the
group
pioneered
were
their
philosophical musings, especially
on Solid State Survivor. While the
explosion of new technology in
music brought about excitement, it
also introduced a new set of fears.
Tokyo was quickly becoming one
of the most “futuristic” cities in
the world, and while the growth
of companies like Sony during the
time helped boost the country’s
economy to unseen heights, there
was always the feeling that the
new technologies could lead to an
alienating dystopia.
This
potential
technology-
fueled
dystopia
would
be
explored for decades to come,
from musicians like Burial as
well as influential anti-capitalist
writers including the late Mark
Fisher. However, one of the
earliest tangible results of YMO’s
influence in this aspect was the
development of a new genre in the
suburbs of Detroit, a city in which
new technology and automation
destroyed nearly half its citizens
livelihoods. Techno, as it was
later
dubbed,
distilled
these
anxieties into a type of music
known for its cold precision,
devoid of swing and soul, yet
still human. Derrick May, one of
the genre’s creators, mentions
YMO alongside Kraftwerk and
England’s Ultravox as the key
influences on its early sounds,
before it would go on to become
one of electronic music’s biggest
successes.
In
stark
contrast
to
the
dark sterility of techno, YMO
also influenced the type of
“hyperpop” embraced by idols in
Japan and Korea in the 1980s and
well beyond. Outside of Japan,
tracks like “Firecracker” from
the self-titled were sampled by
artists ranging from 2 Live Crew
to Mariah Carey as well as artists
in the Bronx during the early
days of hip-hop. “Behind the
Mask,” on Solid State Survivor,
was covered by Eric Clapton
in 1987 and earlier by Michael
Jackson
during
the
Thriller
sessions when famed producer
Quincy Jones introduced it to
him.
While
Jackson’s
cover,
which incorporated his own set
of lyrics, did not make the final
cut for Thriller due to copyright
issues, it was eventually released
in 2011 in the posthumous album
Michael.
WORLD MUSIC COLUMN
SAYAN GHOSH
Daily World Music Columnist
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
MAXWELL SCHWARZ
Daily TV Writer
“Party of Five”
Pilot
Freeform
Wednesdays @ 9 p.m.
I’m only a bit worried
that the show will
become so absorbed in
its own calamities that
it forgets the Acostas
are people, ones whose
experiences are not only
their tragedies, but also
their individualities.
The movie is presented in one take, a
literally unblinking look at one of the
worst and most momentous periods of
history
“1917”
The State Theatre, GQT Quality 16, Ann
Arbor 20 + IMAX
Universal Pictures
“1917” isn’t just thrilling, unforgettable
cinema. It’s an urgent warning from
a century ago that, as thousands of
American troops head across the sea
again, could not be more vital
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
UNIVERSAL PICTURES