Student Reviews | Part 1
A newspaper can't be a newspaper without reviews! Two of the Hunter-Gatherer writers have come together to write reviews for every new release! Take a look below!
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Written By Ameila Cordero
While You Were Sleeping Review
'While You Were Sleeping' (1995) is a romantic-comedy starring award-winning actress Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) and Ben Pullman (Independence Day). The film is set during the holidays in the winter in Chicago.
The film is about Lucy Moderatz (Sandra Bullock), a lonely CTA employee who rescues her crush from an ongoing train (Peter Gallagher). However, when rushed to the hospital, Lucy's life turns upside down as the stranger's family mistakes her for his fiance. Things become even more complicated as she meets his brother and falls for him (Ben Pullman).
When stumbling upon While You Were Sleeping, I expected it to be a super light rom-com. However, as I watched this film, I noticed how romantic comedy is a blanket to hide the fact that it is more than a rom-com. This film is a slice of life that covers subjects surrounding the death of a family member(s), mental health, and loneliness. The character Lucy Moderatz shows us that wanting to be loved is okay. She experiences love from a family she could not have since Lucy was born; her mother died when she was a baby, and her sick father died a year prior. There were many scenes from Lucy that stood with me. One of the scenes begins when Jake tells Lucy she is not alone since she is with Peter, to which Lucy replies, "I do not have anybody." Lucy is in a fake engagement with fake in-laws, emphasizing an even greater sense of loneliness since nothing is genuine. She feels comfort but at what cost? Towards the end, Lucy tells Peter (Peter Gallagher) that he saved her life when she met his family. Lucy spent most of her life without knowing her mother and later attended to her sick father, who passed. She shut herself off from the world because there was no one there to listen. Lucy worked on holidays since she didn’t have a family to go home to. Until she met Peter's family, who took her in and always encouraged her to attend their parties and dinners.
This film will stick with me, not because of the cute romantic moments between Jack and Lucy but because they understood the importance of companionship and the negative aspects of loneliness. It taught me that it is okay to be wanted. I highly recommend this film if you ever want to laugh and cry and jump up and down because you just saw Jack and Lucy smile at each other. If you enjoyed this movie, I recommend 'You've Got Mail.' If you want random rom-com recommendations, you should try 'When Harry Met Sally' and 'Funny Girl.'
Written By Melanee Leveille
NewJeans: Kpop’s Latest and Biggest Sensation
NewJeans is a Korean-Pop girl group under Hybe Entertainments' subsidiary label: ADOR. The group debuted on August 1st, 2022 with their mini album “NewJeans 1st EP ‘NewJeans’” The group features 5 members, Danielle, Miji, Haerin, Hanni, and Hyein. The group sold over 262,800 combined copies on their debut day, surpassing Le Sserafim, another one of Hybe’s girl groups.
In my opinion, one of the things that made NewJeans stand out from other groups is their lore and concept. Lore isn’t anything new with K-pop groups; almost every group has at least one song with a story behind it. However, NewJeans’ lore is exceptionally well thought out and extensive. Their concept is mainly about being young and having fun, garnering inspiration from the 2000s. This is shown through their music, fashion, and videos. They also have their own app called “Phoning”, which is an app where you can get to know the girls and view videos, pictures, and unseen teasers, as well as be alerted when a new song or album will be released. NewJeans is meant to reflect the importance of actual jeans, as Min HeeJin explains, “Just as jeans have withstood the test of time and found popularity among everyone everywhere, here’s to NewJeans becoming an icon of a generation”.
One of their most recent releases, Ditto, features two different music videos: Video A and Video B. Video A follows Heeso, a character created for lore, putting in a taped compilation of her high school days documenting her friends, the members of NewJeans. We never see her face, as the camera covers it. The video ends with the group nowhere to be found, and in all the locations that Heeseo had been shown recording the girls, it was just her standing with her camera. A popular theory is that the video is meant to symbolize the relationship between idols and the fans, that oftentimes the viewer becomes so immersed with the lives of the idols that as an outsider looking in, it’s almost as if you’re looking at nothing. There are countless theories for the meaning of the song, and with the inclusion of their most recent track, “OMG”, the theories only grow larger and more complex.
If you usually don’t listen to genres like K-pop, I’d urge you to give it a try. NewJeans takes many elements of the 90s and 2000s trends in their fashion and aesthetic. Their music features elements of electropop, R&B, and moombahton. The K-Pop genre goes way beyond NewJeans, for example, BoA, one of the first idols. There's something out there for everyone, like rock, pop, and hip-hop. Even though K-Pop is not for everyone, you will never know if you never try it.