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Thursday, June 3, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS

“A Quiet Place Part II” struggles in comparison to its predecessor

Album Review: Bruiser Brigade - TV62

After over a year-long break 

from movie theaters, I went to see 
“A Quiet Place Part II,” thoroughly 
expecting my first foray back into the 
theater to be an enjoyable experience. 
Unfortunately, “A Quiet Place Part II” 
disappointed. 

To be fair, I had high expectations. 

The first film was thrilling (even to 
someone like me who usually can’t 
handle scary movies and jump scares). 
Writer and director John Krasinski 
(“The Office”) had a lot of interesting 
reasons to make a sequel and I wanted 
more than anything to have my first 
back-in-the-theaters film blow my 
mind. 

But “A Quiet Place Part II” just 

seemed to be missing something — 

and I’m pretty sure that missing piece 
was John Krasinski’s character, Lee. 
The film opened with a flashback 
from before the events of the first film, 
which captured my attention quickly. 
Having seen the first film and knowing 
all too well the importance of sound 
and silence, I was hyper-aware of every 
single noise I heard in the film — Lee’s 
footsteps, the rustling of a plastic bag, 
the hum of the news on a television, 
the sounds of an idyllic kids’ baseball 
game. I was enthralled by this scene 
that seemed to be the antithesis of “A 
Quiet Place”’s dark, muted tones and 
nearly complete silence. Too quickly, 
though, the film reverted back to 
where the end of the first film left off — 
with Lee’s family trekking through the 
woods in silence and trying to survive 
the attacks of the monsters (or aliens?) 
that were attracted to sound. 

In many ways, this film was too 

similar to the first, making it feel like an 
unnecessary addition or extension of a 
film that ended on a pretty good note. 
On top of that, the characters were 
too unbelievable, making it easy to fall 
out of the film’s world. Evelyn (Emily 
Blunt, “Mary Poppins Returns”) 
is still a caring mother in an awful 
situation, trying to help her kids in the 
best way she can. However, she makes 
decisions that are completely out of 
character for a mother putting her 
children first. Her eldest son, Marcus 
(Noah Jupe, “Wonder”) is as timid as 
he was in the first film, but seemed to 
make worse decisions than he had in 
“A Quiet Place,” including leaving his 
baby sibling alone in order to explore 
his new ‘home.’ Regan (Millicent 
Simmonds, “Wonderstruck”) struck 
out on her own to try to save her 
family (although it’s not made entirely 
clear how she planned to do that). 

Simmonds’s performance, enhanced 
by her communication through sign 
language, is moving, just as it was in 
the original film, but her character’s 
flawed 
decision-making 
made 
it 

difficult to pay attention to anything 
else. 

Finally, the new addition to the 

“Quiet Place” cast, Emmett (Cillian 
Murphy, “Inception”) is perhaps 
the most confusing part of the 
film. Presumably present to fill 
John Krasinski’s character’s shoes, 
Emmett tries to help the struggling 
family survive. But his character’s 
inconsistencies are too difficult to 
ignore; he starts out willing to sacrifice 
the family for his own benefit and safety, 
and ends up being Regan’s greatest 
ally. The shift in character comes too 
quickly and thus feels unrealistic and 
unbelievable. Murphy’s performance 
as Emmet is good — commendable, 

even — but the role was written in 
a way that made it difficult for the 
audience to garner any sympathy for 
him or see him as anything more than 
a poor man’s substitute for Krasinski’s 
heartfelt performance as Lee.

If you enjoy the suspense and jump 

scares that a film like “A Quiet Place” 
offers, you’ll probably enjoy the sequel 
whilst watching it. But the second 
the credits start rolling and you start 
actually thinking about what you just 
watched, it all falls to pieces. 

In all honesty, this film didn’t need 

to be made. Perhaps the anticipation 
that the film’s various release dates 
created made people’s expectations 
even higher, ensuring that any version 
of “A Quiet Place Part II” would fall flat, 
but I can’t help but think that with the 
way the first film ended, any attempt to 
continue the storyline and expand the 
universe would end on a sour note. 

Detroit-based rap group Bruiser 

Brigade are virtuosos of immersive 
hip-hop. Led by rapper Danny 
Brown since 2012, the collective 
weaves the narratives of what may 
appear to be disparate musical 
talents into a thoroughly enjoyable 
listening experience. 

On 
their 
sophomore 
album, 

TV62, released earlier this month on 
Bandcamp, the group continues to 
flex their knack for storytelling. The 
16-track amalgamation of Detroit 
hip-hop veterans and rising stars 
alike teems with humor and biting 
tales of hard-edged upbringings and 
life experiences. Following their first 
unofficial album, Reign Supreme, 
streamed in 2018 exclusively on 
the gaming platform Twitch, TV62 
welcomes back old talents from its 
previous project like Danny Brown, 
Fat Ray and ZelooperZ, while 
opening the door to newer features 
like J.U.S and Bruiser Wolf. Unlike 
Reign Supreme, which incorporated 
Brown’s iconic animated flow on 
almost every song, Bruiser Brigade’s 
latest album takes on a more even-
handed distribution of airtime. Yet 
the group’s dedication to painting 
vivid portraits of Detroit street 
life and the city’s storied cultural 
richness remains unchanged. 

In its opening clip, TV62 begins 

with an audio snippet from a 

WGPR-TV 
announcement, 
the 

first Black-owned TV station in 
the United States, based in Detroit 
and serving as the inspiration for 
the project’s title. The following 
track, “The Dopest in the Building,” 
follows Bruiser Wolf and his trials 
with drugs and poverty. Wolf’s 
delivery may be cartoonish, but 
his subject matter is anything but. 
He details the cyclic nature of 
drug dealing and addiction with a 
sunny timbre, quipping, “Product 
of my environment / Victim of 
circumstance / Supply it if you buy 
it, from bricks to grams.” 

Although arguably the most 

vocally similar to Brown, Wolf 
etches 
out 
his 
own 
path 
of 

unorthodox delivery nonetheless. 
Wolf brings his sharp wit to the 
table as well, supplying some of the 
funnier lines on the album. On the 
track “Your Gone,” he references a 
sinister yet memorable Michigan 
news story from last year, rapping, 
“plottin’on a white girl like them 
guys that tried to kidnap Whitmer.” 
Wolf’s dark repartee and balanced 
staccato mannerisms separate him 
from his peers, further reinforcing 
Bruiser Brigade’s ability to shine 
light on its individual talents without 
sacrificing the connectedness of the 
wider project. 

Fat Ray, a seasoned professional 

in Detroit’s underground rap scene, 
delivers his own distinctive flow on 
tracks like “Superhero” and “Juice.” 
With 
a 
more 
straightforward 

delivery, 
Ray’s 
smooth 
babble 

mirrors the classic narrative-heavy 
nature of ‘90s hip-hop, a contrast 
that works surprisingly well with the 
more experimental idiosyncrasies of 
Brown and ZelooperZ. 

On the tracks “Dylon,” “Welfare” 

and “The Ends,” Danny Brown 
reminds the listener of his ability 
to deliver masterfully weird and 
often 
crude 
commentary. 
The 

entire project drips with Brown’s 
avant 
garde 
instrumentation 

style, with clear parallels to his 
sixth and most recent solo release, 
uknowhatimsayin¿. Perhaps one of 
these moments unique to Brown on 
the album is the final track, “The 
Ends,” which can only be explained 
as Renaissance Faire meets sleek 
hip-hop funk — who knew a flute 
could go so hard?

Brown collects an executive 

production credit on TV62, and 
there’s no doubt that his influence 
seeps into the project’s sonic 
developments 
as 
well 
as 
the 

establishment 
of 
the 
Brigade’s 

physical body of members. Yet 
Brown is not the singular voice 
shining on the album, making it 
clear to the listener that Bruiser 
Brigade is very much a collective 
effort. 

Intermittent clips of laughter and 

lively conversation among Brigade 
members throughout the project 
only adds to the obvious chemistry 
between the artists. It’s as if the 
listeners have been welcomed into 

the studio themselves, the mic 
traveling around in a circle to catch 
energetic freestyles and raunchy 
jokes alike. Afterall, a group that 
could think of the line, “All my 
rules scientific, bitch feed me Fig 
Newtons,” has to have some kind 
of wildly entertaining brainstorm 
sessions going on behind the scenes. 

TV62 is personal and carefree 

rapping at its finest. Yet even with its 
easy-going undercurrent, it remains 
a disarmingly witty and technically 

polished 
project. 
With 
the 

establishment of Bruiser Brigade 
Records earlier this year, members 
like J.U.S, Bruiser Wolf and Fat Ray 
have released critically successful 
solo projects alongside their work 
with the Brigade. It’s apparent that 
Bruiser Brigade represents a new 
chapter not only in the musical 
endeavors of its members, but in the 
wider bounds of a hip-hop world 
seeking autonomy and untethered 
creativity. 

Album cover from Bandcamp page

SABRIYA IMAMI

Daily Arts Writer

 NORA LEWIS
Daily Arts Writer

