Admission Status: Accepted

Mia Zanzucchi

Admission is a heartwarming yet comedic look at the insanity that is the Ivy League university admissions process. Depicting the best of the best all competing for a desk at the number one university in America, and the crazy hoops they go through, high school seniors will relate to the back bending (literally) applicants shown throughout the movie. Yet somehow, amidst all the clever jokes and light mockery of the world of Ivy League schools, director Paul Weiss (About a Boy) manages to tell an unexpected and emotional back-story about a mother looking for the son she never knew.

Tina Fey (Mean Girls, 30 Rock) plays Portia Nathan, a no-nonsense, traditional admissions officer at Princeton University. She’s up for a huge promotion, has a perfect “simple” life, and is perfectly content with stagnant, consistent life. Enter John Pressman (Paul Rudd, Dinner for Schmuchs), a “single dad, traveling the world with his kid doing good” (which of course he has screen printed on a t-shirt) and a teacher at a newly established alternative high school. He brings Princeton to his school specifically for self-proclaimed autodidactic (he teaches himself by reading books constantly) Jeremiah Balakian (Nat Wolff.) John believes Jeremiah to be the son that Portia gave up for adoption years ago. Soon, Portia finds herself going against the strict rules of Princeton admission, marking a boy with a 1.3 GPA as high-consider to the number one school in America.

While it’s no Mean Girls, this hilarious look at the ruthlessness of Ivy League parents blends together very well with a mother’s search for not only her son, but her son’s well being. I am of course a huge Tina Fey fan, and contrary to a few online reviews, didn’t feel like the film dragged. Based on the novel of the same name by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Admission is definitely a movie to at the very least wait-list. 

Warm Bodies

Mia Zanzucchi

Warm Bodies (or, Nicholas Hoult: Never Blinking, Always Pale) is a zombie thriller/romance/comedy that somehow manages to form a cohesive movie. In an apocalyptic America overrun by zombies, we meet R (Nicholas Hoult, X-Men: First Class), an undead corpse that hoards obsessively in an abandoned airport. R is an exception to all the zombie stereotypes. Except for the being undead, the eating people, and of course, the weird walking.

Enter Julie (Teresa Palmer, I Am Number Four), part of a human team sent past the huge concrete wall surrounding what’s left of the human race to retrieve medicine from an abandoned pharmacy. It’s there that R and Julie cross paths. R feels an instant connection with her, or as much of one as a grunting zombie can have. Soon, they find themselves caught in the middle of a battle between humans, the almost-alive-again-undead, and ruthless creatures known as “Bonies” who were once corpses, who were once humans.

This bizarre mix of romantic comedy and apocalyptic thriller is brilliantly hilarious, mushy gushy when it should be, and packed full of action. Nicholas Hoult is the perfect zombie. His vow to never blink sounds terribly difficult, but made for a killer zombie. Based on the book of the same name by Isaac Marion, it’s no doubt the best (granted, it’s the only) zombie movie I’ve ever seen.

Two Looks at Les Mis

Matthew Liversedge

8/10 stars

Bringing Les Mis to the big screen was ambitious, to say the least. No one could doubt the magnitude of the project after seeing the cast line-up. But even with so many star actors and actresses, bringing the popular musical to the movie screen was a dangerous gamble.

When Les Mis the musical first appeared in London in 1985, critics disapproved of turning a piece of literature into a musical production. But following record box office sales, the production has run continuously since that time, making it the world’s longest running musical.

Similarly, it’s hard to imagine a musical, intended to be performed with all the emotion that comes with live performance, being turned into a big-screen hit. But Les Mis met with great success as a movie as well, grossing hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide and winning three Golden Globes as well as eight Oscar nominations.

Sure, Les Mis has its problems. Not all the characters were played by Broadway singers, and not all the songs followed Les Mis the musical. But in the end, Les Mis is a success, just like the musical and just like the book, because it effectively captures Valjean’s passionate cry for grace in the face of the law. Singing need not be perfectly in tune or in time for us to recognize Fantine’s desperation, Javert’s hate, or Eponine’s love.

In a way, Les Mis’ imperfections demonstrate exactly what Victor Hugo wanted us to realize: that forgiveness of fault is greater even than obedience to the law.

Daniel Gallutia

6/10 stars

Les Misérables, the story of multiple characters from all walks of life each yearning for purpose within the corruption of society, was released on the big screen this past Christmas and has acquired an overwhelming positive reaction from the public, mostly for the ability of the movie industry to overdramatize drama, if such is possible. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of musicals becoming movies for a few simple reasons. First of all, theatre is meant to encapsulate the audience with an alternate world in which they become apart of the production and sense a connection with the actors on stage. Within a movie, the connection is less personal for we become more prone to being numb of feeling for the movie industry simply feels, universally, less pure in principle. Most importantly, a theatrical performance varies with each showing, which portrays the indeterminate qualities of theatre and legitimate emotions that are evoked from these performances.

I humbly respect the cast and producers for their attempt at a “raw” creation where there is little sound editing or vocal auto-tuning. However, I question whether this can justify the movie’s existence. It seems that people are more entranced with the fact that “Wait, Russell Crowe can sing?” (Which I still question even after watching the movie.) And then they worry less about the themes of social injustice and the necessity for love and compassion that is intended to test the audiences’ perception of society. To add, the special effects merely diminished the original purpose of the musical and the novel by Victor Hugo in its overproduction. Overall, in my opinion, this movie seemed unnecessarily made and did more injustice to the musical then justice. (pun intended)

Oscar Predictions

Mia Zanzucchi

On Thursday, January 10, the creator of “Family Guy” and “Ted,” and the 2013 Oscar host Seth MacFarlane announced the official Oscar nominations for this year. The Academy Awards will be presented live Sunday, February 24th on ABC-36. Here are my predictions for the big races!

Best Picture-
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Personal Pick: Silver Linings Playbook
Prediction: Argo

Actress in a Leading Role-
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Personal Pick: Jennifer Lawrence as Tiffany
Prediction: Quvenzhane Wallis as Hushpuppy

Actor in a Leading Role-
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight
Personal Pick: Denzel Washington as Walker “Whip” Whitaker
Prediction: Daniel Day-Lewis as President Abraham Lincoln

Best Director-
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Michael Haneke, Amour
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Personal Pick: Ang Lee’s Life of Pi
Prediction: Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln 

Fan of award shows? Be sure to check out the 55th Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 10th starting live at 8 pm on CBS-27.

December Media Review: The Dark Knight Rises

Andrea Cox

In the final movie of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight Trilogy,” eight years after Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) gave up the role of batman he must put on the suit one last time to fight Bane (Tom Hardy), a villain determined to show Gotham that the city has been corrupted by the police. In the end when it seemed like there was no hope for the city, Batman appeared for the last time, along with Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, AKA Catwoman, in order to save the city from his own creation. It was an appropriate ending to the trilogy. I give this movie 4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars.