All posts by Anthony Sousa, Correspondent

Arts and Entertainment, Home Page News Bytes

What’s your cinematic gem?

 

Over the past few weeks I’ve decided to give myself a goal of watching at least 200 movies for the year, as I have a deep love for film and have been trying to catch up with all of these movies I haven’t seen yet. 

Now my love for film has never left, but it is rare (kind of) that I feel so strongly about a movie to the point where I think about it for days on end. 

Recently, I watched Punch-Drunk Love by Paul Thomas Anderson, and it felt like I had discovered something that I had once forgotten, yet loved. A cinematic gem. A sense of joy that is just so comforting it feels like whatever you are watching is something you are so familiar with, yet it is the first time you are interacting with it. 

Since then I have been trying to find a way to put this feeling into words and I got some help from NECC students to tell me what movie had them feeling this way. 

Throughout this journey I have watched a lot of amazing movies from Dune 2, Anatomy of a Fall, and even older ones like Cruel Intentions and Videodrome. Some would even say that most of the movies I have watched recently are arguably better than Punch-Drunk Love, but none have made me feel the way that this movie has. 

This movie is just beautifully shot, while having an amazing soundtrack that just fits so perfectly and it’s about a salesman who is struggling with mental health while going through so many events that shake up his life, one of which is finding love. 

The best way to describe this feeling of joy is like you have stumbled upon something you loved as a kid and it feels exactly how it did the first time, or rediscovering an old song you had forgotten and loved so deeply. 

It just puts a smile on your face like nothing else can, regardless of the context of the movie. 

Curiously, I went around campus trying to find other students who have felt this way about movies before. 

After trying to explain this feeling to them I had the chance to ask three students, “Have you felt this way before with any movie? and If you have, why do you think this one movie stands out?”. 

Lucas Bermudez said, “I think the movie for me is La Haine, just because the message of the movie takes place in such a specific time and place in France its themes and characters relate exactly to how the world is right now, like La Haine translates to hate. The youth of the movie are the main characters but they don’t hate people, they just hate the position they’ve been put in, the position to push back. In a strange way the movie made me feel empowered, like the movie had me saying “Man this is always going to be the way it is these systems are always going to be in place to try and tear people down and I can either accept that and live in this world or fight to change it in a meaningful way,”. 

Another student Matthew Scharn said, “Yes I have with Back to the Future. I don’t know, it has this element about it that speaks to love and family, while touching on all the heart strings while still being able to be a sci-fi movie that just blows you away. It still holds up to today’s standards, the combination of the soundtrack with the way the movie is shot is just perfect.”

Lastly, Rashid Afife said, “The most recent Batman movie changed my perspective on how I view superhero movies, changing how future comic book movies can put a superhero in a real life setting and my expectation of them from now on. The plot was phoneomenal, and the characters’ personalities went along perfectly with how it was written, adding more depth to the movie. I loved the way I felt walking out of that theater.” 

So now I just have one question for you:

What’s your cinematic gem?

Arts and Entertainment, Home Page News Bytes

The Academy Awards 2024: A night filled with exciting moments

 

The 96th Academy Awards, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 10, celebrated the best of the film industry after a stellar year for movies. As it did all throughout last year since it’s release, Oppenheimer dominated the Oscars, taking home 7 Oscars wins. These wins were firsts  for director Christopher Nolan, winning Best Picture and Best Director. Irish actor Cillian Murphy also won his first in the best actor catagoryand Robert Downey Jr. took home Best Supporting Actor, making it his first overall win. 

Poor Things also had a historic night carrying home 4 Oscars in total, with Emma Stone winning Best Actress. Discouragingly, on top of the lack of Barbie love with the Oscar nominations, the Academy continued that by letting the movie walk away with no wins. 

Although one of the most memorable moments of the night was Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie, so at least the fans had that. 

One of the most historic moments of the evening came when Da’Vine Joy Randolph, the Best Supporting Actress winner for The Holdovers, gave a heartwarming speech as she won her first Oscar. Accepting her award she said, “I didn’t think I was supposed to be doing this as a career. I started off as a singer and my mother said to me, ‘Go across that street to that theater department, there’s something for you there… I prayed for so long… I’ve always wanted to be different, but now I realize that I just need to be myself. Thank you for seeing me.’.

As the night drew to a close, attendees reflected on the transformative power of film to inspire, educate, and unite audiences worldwide. With promising new voices emerging and established talents continuing to push boundaries, the future of cinema looks bright and full of possibilities. 

When Christopher Nolan was accepting his first Oscar for Best Director he said, “Movies are just a little bit over a hundred years old. Imagine being there a hundred years into painting or theater,” he continued. “We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here, but to know that you think I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me. Thank you very much.”.

The 96th Academy Awards left a lasting impression (especially seeing a nearly nude John Cena on stage), not only for its celebration of cinematic excellence but also for its embrace of innovation, and inclusivity. 

As the film industry continues to evolve, the Oscars serve as a beacon of inspiration and a reminder of the enduring magic of the silver screen.

Arts and Entertainment, Home Page News Bytes

From Dreamhouse to drama: “Barbie” film snubbed at the Oscars

 
Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie talk to each other in a scene from the movie Barbie.
Ryan Gosling as Ken and Margot Robbie as Barbie. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Barbie had a stellar year getting eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and being the highest-grossing film of 2023 making more than $1.4 billion worldwide, yet somehow two of the most pivotal parts of the movie failed to be recognized. Back on Jan. 23, social media were in a frenzy trying to make sense of the lead actress, Margot Robbie, and director Greta Gerwig being snubbed from their categories even though the movie itself was nominated for best picture. How does that make any sense? 

What is crazy about it is the fact that this couldn’t have even been scripted better. We have a movie that is partly about how women can still look back fondly on their childhood toys and be part of a new, better, more modern, more feminist-leaning era, yet this Oscar snub feels so dated. America Ferrera and Ryan Gosling, both got nominated for their roles in the movie, and even though the movie got a lot of Oscar nominations in general, it just feels like they missed the most important nominations.  

Some people might not care, or might say that even if they were nominated they probably wouldn’t have won anyways because of the competition, but it’s the nomination itself that says a lot about the past year we had in movies, it is a part of the history that is the truly important part about the Oscars. You are being held in high regard amongst others that have all put their best foot forward for their projects, and to be left out of that when you have left such a big mark on the movie industry is such an odd choice by the Academy.

When Gosling was nominated other than thanking the Academy for the nomination he went on to say, “But there is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally-celebrated film. No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit and genius. To say that I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement. Against all odds with nothing but a couple of soulless, scantily clad, and thankfully crotchless dolls, they made us laugh, they broke our hearts, they pushed the culture and they made history. Their work should be recognized along with the other very deserving nominees.”. 

Campus Life, Home Page News Bytes

Quest for the Presidency course offers opportunity to examine elections

 

Looking for a free elective course for next semester? Well, this course might be for you: Quest for the Presidency. This is a course only offered every 4 years, which explains the process of running for president from the announcement of candidacy through the general election. This course is great for students with an interest in history and politics as it is a discussion based course going over everything going on with our current election, and will help students better understand the intricacy of a general election and will also help them make a more educated decision when we all have to vote next fall.

I had the chance to talk to the Professor of the course, Richard Padova, and we went over what this course will actually get into and what he hopes the students can take away from the course.

He says, “What we do is we look at the current presidential election, and that forms a good part of the weekly discussion, like who the candidates are, what issues they are running on, and what are the issues out there that the public is asking to be addressed. The other part of the course is an overall history of presidential elections and campaigns of our country, from our very first election up until now, because it was done a lot differently in earlier times than the way things are done today.”

When asked “What should students expect to come away with after taking this course?” Professor Padova replied, “ I hope that students come away from this class, at the very least, having a better understanding of our system here for how we elect our leader, because it is unique for better or for worse. We have to understand it, if we’re all going to be voters selecting our next leader as this person will impact our lives for years to come.”.

If you are undecided on what your schedule is next semester, consider talking to your adviser and seeing if it’s possible to fit in History 255 as a course as it counts as a free elective, history/government elective and a liberal arts elective as well. The prerequisites for the course are English 101 or Reading and writing 090. Next semester this course will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays at 12:30-1:45 on the Haverhill campus.

Opinion, Uncategorized

Unraveling Israel vs. Palestine

 

 On October 7th, 2023, Hamas militants unleashed one of its deadliest attacks in Israel in years. As of October 21, about 1400 Israelians have been killed from the attacks from this terrorist organization and they claim that they will stop at nothing until their one goal is reached, “The destruction of the State of Israel”. Since then, many governments have rallied behind Israel, which has been continuously dropping bombs on Gaza, flattening neighborhoods, and killing at least 4300 Palenstinians. Professor Stephen Russell, an NECC faculty member, says that he is “shocked at the level of violence that we have been seeing.”. But why is this all happening?  

On October 23rd, I attended a presentation that was being given to the faculty and students at NECC by history Professor Stephen Russell, where he gave us background on what is really going on between Israel and Palestine and how it all led up to this point. Professor Russell talked about how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dates back to the end of the nineteenth century. In 1947, the United Nations decided to partition Palestine into two countries, the Jewish state of Israel, and the Arab state of Palestine. Israel agreed to the partition but many Arab residents felt that this partition unfairly favored the Jewish population and violence soon broke out.  

In 1948, the state of Israel was established. Almost immediately the Arab league, a group of surrounding Arab countries, rejected this partition and attacked. This is known as the First Arab-Israeli war, Israel fought back and after 9 months of conflict, its armed forces occupied a lot of  the land designated to the Arab state of Palestine. The original plan for a Palestinian state was dismissed. This was a big victory for many Jewish people, but approximately 720,000 Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes and many took refuge in the Gaza strip and the West bank. Tension between Jews and Arab muslims in the region would continue for decades.  

 Fast forward to 2006, a militant Islamist group, Hamas, won the Palestinian legislative elections and it started to govern the Gaza strip. This terrorist group were known for their violent methods such as suicide bombings and calling for the destruction of Israel. Hamas and Israel have been violently clashing ever since. The purpose of this isn’t to condone or justify these kinds of actions, but to understand why it happened because if we don’t, it’s more likely we will never see an end to this.  

For the past 16 years, the life of the Palestinians in Gaza has been described by the secretary general of the United Nations as “Hell on Earth”. Gaza has been under an Israeli siege so severe that it’s often called “the world’s largest open-air prison”. Cutting off their food supply, and fuel resources, and controlling them to a point where many people that were born in Gaza have never even left, or have seen a fellow Palestinian from the West bank.  It has been so severe that the UN had warned Israel back in 2012 that if the policies in Gaza didn’t change, this tiny strip of land and the most densely populated places to live on Earth that now holds 2.3 million people, would become unfit for human living by 2020. It is difficult navigating through this conflict without knowing both sides of and having an understanding of why everything is happening, rather than just picking sides like social media wants us to. 

After the presentation I had asked Deyanarah Gutierrez, an NECC student, what she had heard/seen about this war prior to the presentation and she said, “The presentation was the most information I’ve gotten so far. Most of the stuff I have seen are from social media like the pictures and video compilations of  the violence, and stuff I haven’t been able to get out of my head. It’s hard to process what’s going on.”

I had asked another NECC student, Chris Drew, the same question and he said “I saw people post pro this side and pro that side, and saw my friends take a stance and I would read it and I’m like I don’t even know what’s happening.”. This just shows how important this presentation, even though it was only 25-30 people in the room, was so important. Now the ones that were there have a better understanding of what is happening and can inform others without bias what is really going on.  

The only thing we can hope for is that the violence comes to an end soon, because at the rate that Israel is going at, it is scary thinking about the future of Gaza. We hope for peace even though we know it is hard to achieve based on the history between the two, it is something that we have to keep hoping for.  

Professor Stephen Slaner shared these thoughts with an email to  the Observer after the talk.

“Prof. Russell’s comprehensive talk October 23 on the war in Gaza seriously understated the gravity of the present situation,” Slater wrote.  “While it is true that nuclear weapons are not being considered, Israel’s policy amounts to genocide.  Here is an assessment by respected journalist Seymour Hersh:  “Netanyahu’s attitude, as assessed by the intelligence analysts, I was told, amounts to a determination ‘to wipe out Hamas.’  One knowledgeable official told me that ‘Gaza City is in the process of being turned into Hiroshima with no nuclear weapons used.'”
“One step that can be taken is to urge our Congressional representative to support H.Res. 786: Calling for an immediate deescalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine.  The bill has one sponsor and 17 co-sponsors,” Slaner wrote.