Over the course of the past few months, three of the new movies I saw in theaters that stood out to me were Love Lies Bleeding, Problemista, and Civil War. Those three movies are each quite different in terms of genre, plot, themes, and other aspects, but they are all A24 titles that I love. A24 is a production company, but A24 is also its own distributor. That means that they’re an independent entity in the sense that they’re not owned by a larger company such as Disney or Warner Brothers. A24 is no stranger to Hollywood success after winning the Oscar for Best Picture in the years when movies such as Moonlight and Everything Everywhere all at Once were released, and I honestly feel as though some A24 titles is at times having success in putting their movies with original stories with social relevance in front of the same audience as some of the more mainstream blockbuster franchises that get talked about a lot.

Love Lies Bleeding is about Lou (Kristen Stewart) and Jackie (Katy O’Brian), as they fall in love in the midst of lots of turmoil related to Lou’s dysfunctional family and Jackie’s journey as a bodybuilder. With that turmoil comes lots of graphic violence. Something that makes Love Lies Bleeding stand out to me in a different way than most A24 titles is its lack of obvious social relevance. That is not a criticism, but I think most A24 movies are very creative while still thematically having a lot to say about whatever timely social topics are present in the given movie. Nonetheless, Love Lies Bleeding is intense to watch. I was worried for Lou and Jackie in what they were going through, and I felt an adrenaline-rush that I haven’t felt while watching a movie in a years. Love Lies Bleeding is worth a watch; whether you’re a fan of the cast or A24 itself, this movie excels at its extraordinary suspense!

Problemista follows young man from El Salvadore living in New York City named Alejandro (Julio Torres). Alejandro aspires to design toys, but he’s having visa trouble as an immigrant in New York. Throughout the movie, he goes on what I would call a journey of self-discovery as he works very hard to find a job that will allow him to stay in the United States. Problemista is a comedy. Throughout the movie, it proves to be a well-done immigrant story directed by Julio Torres (Alejandro himself), while also demonstrating some eccentric story-telling with certain scenes illustrating how the present plot is figuratively playing out in Alejandro’s imagination. I love Problemista, and all I will say about the ending, is that I love how things turn out for Alejandro.

Civil War is directed by Alex Garland. He directed Ex Machina (2015). Civil War follows Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), a troubled journalist making her way to Washington D.C. alongside some colleagues. It takes place in the midst of a dystopian modern civil war in the United States when several alliances such as the Western Forces (California and Texas) have risen up with their own army in an effort to overtake the federal government in D.C. where the President (Nick Offerman) has assumed the power of a dictatorship in his third term. I would imagine that lots of viewers would find Civil War to be difficult to watch as it may be disturbing for people who work in a job where they worry about politics in the age of today’s divisiveness. I still think Civil War is a good movie all things considered, and it has an ending that is likely to really leave audiences wowed.

A24 is breaking barriers in the independent film industry. If you haven’t seen any of the A24 titles (new or old) mentioned here, then they’re definitely worth checking out!

This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.

We recently chatted with Northern Essex Theater Coordinator, Brianne Beatrice. Check out the interview below!

Shaun Hood: Before we get into what comes next for NECC Theater, I just want touch on the recognition from the Kennedy Center that you and your students have been receiving recently, as well as another great run of “Hurricane Diane.” First of all, to quote Rita Moreno, congratulations on your tour de force! I also know that it was recently made known that Mirrorajah Metcalfe won a national award. What do you have to say regards to Mirrorajah’s award, and really just looking back at that journey as a whole from this past year?

Brianne Beatrice: “Hurricane Diane” has been an unbelievable process and journey. Having done the show now three times, originally back a year ago in the spring, and then having submitted that production to the Region One American College Theater Festival, and it being selected as one of the top six shows in the region. The region spans Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York. I was really, really proud of that show and they performed it at Region One. It was highly received by the audience and by the responders from the Kennedy Center. Then, we came back, we performed a revival of the production at the top of the semester, and we recently found out that Mirrorajah won Outstanding Actor in a performance, being in the top three in the country. So, all eight regions, only three actors were recognized in the country, and Mirrorajah was one of them with her performance as Diane in “Hurricane Diane.” It’s amazing. I am absolutely elated. I feel that her win is a win for the entire production as a whole, and her being the leader of that show.

SH: It’s also a win for the college, pushing the arts at NECC! Is there a showcase coming up for any of your current semester classes? If yes, tell us about it!

BB: Yeah, we always do a showcase at the end of the semester. It’ll be in early May. I’ll do a showcase for the directing class, and we’ll do a showcase for acting theory and practice.

The directing showcase will be a variety of scenes directed by, starring the students in the directing class. For the Acting Theory and Practice class, there will be a combination of both scenes and two contrasting monologues, which is what they learned throughout course, and they’ll be presenting that to the audience.

SH: I know that Summer Theater is coming up, and it seems to be a fan favorite among lots of students. As for students here at the college who are looking to fulfill some credit requirements over the summer, why should they take summer theater?

BB: Summer Theater is a wonderful class that focuses on script analysis and understanding how to put a show together. So, what we do is we begin the process of learning, acting, and then also delving into a specific play that I will choose, and then teaching the students how we begin the process of concept work, design work, and basically, how to put a show together, what it means from beginning to end. How do we go from a script all the way to lights, costumes, the entire performance, and the audience? That’s what Summer Theater is. It’s a really fun, exciting time, and I hope that many students will join me for summer theater starting next month.

SH: I know you love “Wednesday” on Netflix. Obviously, a lot of people do too, but what’s your perspective on Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams and the series’ first season both in terms of “Addams Family” lore, and an artistic perspective?

BB: That’s an interesting question! I love Jenna Ortega. I thought she was wonderful in the show. I think she’s a fantastic actor, and I love “The Adams Family.” I loved the original, and I like it even more that she’s in it. I thought she brought a really interesting take to the role that has sort of launched her career. I also think that Ana Barrera – who was in “Hurricane Diane” – resembles her.

SH: Do you have a favorite Broadway show? Is there anything at all that you want to say about any recent Broadway happenings that you know of?

BB: Actually, last week I saw my best friend, Jay Carey, is the PSM, which is the production stage manager for the show, “Company,” currently in Boston. His husband, Christopher Deangelis, is actually in the show and I saw the production and it is absolutely riveting. I was aghast watching this performance. It’s still in Boston right now at the Opera House. So, if anybody’s interested in seeing “Company” by Stephen Sondheim, it is a really, really, really solid production.

SH: I’m not an actor, but I love the arts because movies and TV and stage shows make me feel! I’m also just really fascinated by Broadway and movies and the entertainment industry as a whole.

Most recently, I really enjoyed learning about the Broadway musical, “How to Dance in Ohio,” and its autistic cast members who played autistic characters, and now its Autism Acceptance Month! Sadly, How to Dance in Ohio closed after only a few months on Broadway, and I was not able to attend a performance. However, since the show started getting promoted on national news on TV around the time when it opened on Broadway, I have been much more comfortable about talking about me being on the Autism Spectrum. Not everyone who knows that I’m on the spectrum also knows of “How to Dance in Ohio, “but I still feel recognized in watching the interviews with the cast and crew as well as clips from the show.

As a college professor, what is your perspective on representation on the stage?

BB: I think that theater is a means to heal, to change, to inspire people, and to grow more comfortable with who we are. It’s humanity in its essence! I love representation on the stage. I love that this vehicle can help people understand humanity and where we are, and who we are, and different cultures, different races, different people, and different communities. I think that that is one of the greatest things that theater can contribute to an audience and to help an audience understand topics or grow to understand themselves more as a means of watching a production.

SH: Is there anything that you’re working on or that NECC Theater has coming up that you’d like our readers to know about?

BB: Yes. I absolutely want everybody to know that “Hurricane Diane” is going on a tour! It will be released, more dates will be released, but we have collaborated with Merrimack Repertory Theatre. At the end of June, Hurricane Diane will perform, NECC Theatre will collaborate with Merrimack Repertory Theater. NECC Theatre will also collaborate with the Firehouse in Newburyport in October, where they also picked up Hurricane Diane.

In a week or so, Mirrorajah Metcalfe and I, again, we’re going to DC to get her award, her recognition at the Kennedy Center. At the beginning of May, there will be auditions for our fall NECC production, which will be a play called Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker. Please take a look out for those audition dates. Follow us @necctheatre on Instagram for all the information that you need.

This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.

The Observer is proud and excited to share our interview with Northern Essex celebrity alum Tom Bergeron. We chatted with him about TV hosting, what it’s like having Haverhill roots, and more. Check out the interview below!

Shaun Hood: Do you have any advice for students who enjoy – or hope to someday start – hosting events and/or TV shows?

Tom Bergeron: Well, I think one of the things I did during my brief tenure as a student at Northern Essex was to take some theater courses. I always think that’s a great idea. Anytime that you’re thinking of entering a career that puts you in front of the public, one of the best ways to overcome any kind of stage fright is to get on a stage and take some theater courses and find your comfort zone and things like that. So that would be my key advice. If there are any opportunities, either at the school or beyond, to be in sort of a presentational mode, it helps to build that muscle.

SH: Yeah, my first big hosting experience was when I recently moderated with Broadway performer from the cast of “Hamilton.” Most of what I’ve been doing as an aspiring journalist is writing on websites, but I’m starting to enjoy hosting and event planning.

TB: Good! Congratulations, that’s a good start.

SH: Here at the NECC Observer, I have written about the Oscars a handful of times. Have you ever attended the Oscars? What thoughts did you have on this year’s ceremony and winners/nominees?

TB: I’ve never attended, but interestingly enough, the other day, I was exchanging emails with Jimmy Kimmel congratulating him for what I thought was another fine performance. To connect it to the first question, I’ve seen Jimmy for years in his various hosting roles, and to see the comfort he brings to what is arguably the most difficult stage on the planet, The Oscars, is really something. Because previously, there were people like Billy Crystal, or before your time, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, who could take that stage and were just completely comfortable in their own skin and had the audience, and were willing to risk jokes that might bomb. However, coming from that comfortable zone, which Jimmy has certainly gotten to, it makes performing a lot easier and more fun to watch too. You don’t want to watch somebody who’s having flop sweat because it just makes you as an audience member uncomfortable, right?

As far as the winners and such, I thought the show was produced probably better than any recent Oscar telecast.

SH: That’s what I’ve been saying!

TB: I thought the device of having former winners in different categories, address this year’s nominees, was, in a lot of cases really touching and funny.

SH: Yeah, especially after the SAG strike.

TB: Yes, absolutely. I think that it was a celebration of movies and the ability to get back to work.

SH: I liked how it was done like that specifically in the acting categories, because we were seeing actors supporting actors.

TB: Yeah, and in a lot of cases, either the people speaking to the nominees were friends of theirs, or like Rita Moreno and America Ferrara, there was a sort of a common link of heritage there.

SH: As a “Walking Dead” fan, I LOVE Yvette Nicole Brown. She is pretty much the celebrity queen of all “Walking Dead” fans. I understand you co-hosted a telethon with her. What’s it like working with someone as funny as her? Are you a “Walking Dead” fan? If so, have you ever discussed “The Walking Dead” with Yvette?

TB: Here’s a confession. I have never seen “The Walking Dead,” not one episode. So, you’re telling me something I didn’t know about Yvette.

SH: Oh, you didn’t know that about Yvette?

TB: No, I didn’t. We’ve been friends for years and worked together now and then. We did the telethon for two years in a row to raise money for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, the campus of which is not far from where I am here in California. Interestingly enough, Shaun, in about four hours from now, despite the high winds that are blowing outside, I’ll be going to the campus. Unfortunately, Yvette is shooting something else, so she can’t join me, but I’ll be going there to engage in a “Three Stooges”-like pie fight.

SH: So is it like a snowball fight, but with pies?

TB: That’s a good way to describe it, a snowball fight with pies. They do productions there, because they have a lot of retired people from various parts of the business, and when I heard they were going to have a pie fight, I said, “Count me in.” We don’t have snow here in Southern California, so you have to use pies!

SH: Back in high school, I felt much less engaged with both academically and socially with only a few circumstantial exceptions, and I feel as though most of that was me perceiving my surroundings to be a very shallow environment. What I love about college is getting to know faculty, staff, and students, all of whom I share common interests with, which is why I love the depth and community aspect of the college setting. Did you ever have any similar feelings as a college student at Northern Essex or elsewhere, or was education more of just a steppingstone of minimal value for you?

TB: To be honest, I became a student at Northern Essex when I was already working full-time at the local radio station in Haverhill, WHAV. I had started working for them in my senior year in high school part-time, and then when I graduated high school, I was able to work there full-time. Originally, I’d planned to go to Emerson College in Boston to get a degree in broadcasting, and after that to try to get a job in radio, but I already had a job in radio, so I thought, “I’ll just stay here and keep doing this.” Then, my boss at WHAV, who was not happy that I was going to forsake college, threatened to fire me if I didn’t go to college. So I took some courses at Northern Essex. So, I went to Northern Essex to take theater courses and English courses, things like that at first just to avoid being fired.

Ultimately, to your point, I made some really good friends there and friendships that really fueled some aspects of my entertainment and performing career for years later.

SH: As a student at Northern Essex, I really appreciate you being here with me for this interview, and since you responded to me saying that we could move forward with this, it has seemed to me like Northern Essex is – even if only to a certain extent – a part of your Massachusetts roots that you still carry today. What other parts of Haverhill or other significant Massachusetts memories are still close to the forefront of your mind?

TB: Oh, quite a few! I’ll be back in the area next week, as a matter of fact. My sister and her family all live in or near Haverhill. I spent a number of years in Boston TV and radio starting in 1981, well before you were born. Then, I moved on to New York and LA and national venues. Boston and Haverhill are very important parts of my growth and continued enjoyment. I have family and friends and great memories there.

SH: Getting back to show business, you have talked about being fired from “Dancing with the Stars” in connection to getting lied to by bosses and not wanting political figures on the show. Piggybacking on the Oscars, what do you think of social commentary in movies and on TV, such as but not limited to, the feminist themes in “Barbie,” the satire in “American Fiction,” 

rities delivering political remarks intertwined with award acceptance speeches, or even celebrities like Lady Gaga campaigning with presidential candidates at their rallies? Do you think there’s a fine line that show business shouldn’t cross?

TB: One of the things I really, really, really hate is when people will say, “Stay in your lane. Just entertain us. Be a dancing monkey!” I think that’s ridiculous. I think we are citizens first, and performers second. Any great art, be it a film or a painting or a novel or whatever, has to have some takeaway. I think the “Barbie” movie, as you mentioned, was powerful stuff as well as a lot of the other imagery and such in the movie. In many movies. If people don’t feel that as citizens we can express ourselves and if entertainment is only an expressionless vehicle, then it’s like eating candy and getting no nutrition. So whenever I’ve been trolled online by somebody saying, “Just host TV shows, Tom,” basically I block them.

SH: Is there anything you have coming up or that you’re currently working on that you’d like our readers to know about? Also, do you have any closing remarks for all of us here at the Observer and the rest of Northern Essex?

TB: I’m at a nice point in my life where I can pick and choose what I dabble in. William Shatner is a friend of mine. He and I came up with a story that was turned into a screenplay and option by a production company here in LA. So, that may or may not go forward. One of the ripple effects of the strike is that there’s been a lot of retraction of production. Some projects that had been green lit are either being paused or outright canceled. So, we don’t know if our very nice screenplay will ever be a movie, but we’re hopeful in doing some writing and things of that nature.

I will mention – I think you can still find this on YouTube – I addressed the graduating class of Northern Essex some years ago prior to “Dancing with the Stars.” I think at that point I was doing “Hollywood Squares” and “America’s Funniest Videos,” and so I used those shows as a device to offer life advice to the graduating class. So, you can check that out online.

On the night of Monday, April 25th, I finally got to see Kelsy Karter perform live here in Massachusetts!

Kelsy Karter is a singer-songwriter, who released her debut album in October 2020. The album, titled Missing Person, features lots of modern rock melodies, including Karter’s hit track, “Liquor Store on Mars.” Karter gained a lot of attention when she posted a photo of herself with a fake face tattoo of Harry Style’s face. Fans of both Karter and Styles believed that the tattoo was real at the time, and after some time, Karter revealed that the tattoo was fake and that it was a way to promote her single,

“Harry,” which is a song about Harry Styles. That’s something that helped get Karter to where she is today.

Throughout the past few weeks, Karter has been touring the U.S. with King Mala and Animal Sun. The concert was at The

Middle East in Cambridge. Unfortunately, King Mala was unable to make it to the east coast for this particular show. Local band Condition Baker opened the show instead.

Once Condition Baker finished their set and got the crowd hyped up, Animal Sun took the stage and got everyone ready for the great Kelsy Karter.

Per usual, it’s likely that Karter did not disappoint fans with her heavy rock songs, as well as covers from other artists like Billie Eilish’s song, “Happier than Ever.” While performing her song, “Catch me if you Can,” Karter quickly turned around with her back facing the audience, and jumped backwards for the audience to catch her and get her back onto the stage!

At every show throughout the tour, Karter awards a framed pair of pink panties to whoever she feels deserves the “best dressed award!”

This is a good way for Karter to encourage fans to be their true selves and show how much her music has meant to them by dressing in a way that’s very expressive.

Karter closed the show by singing my favorite song of hers, “Liquor Store on Mars.”

Check out my interview with Kelsy Karter on Fandomize Media!

See my video of Karter performing “Liquor Store on Mars” at the Middle East in Cambridge here.

The 2022 Oscar nominations have been announced, and so many of the most incredible performers and filmmakers of the past year are getting the recognition that they all deserve as artists. Best Picture nominees include comedy “Don’t Look Up,” a movie about a comet heading directly toward Earth, which serves as a satirical take on climate change and the actions that need to be taken against it. Another nominee in that category is “Drive My Car,” a Japanese movie that follows a stage director who loses his wife, and eventually forms a strong bond with his driver. Other Best Picture nominees include “King Richard,” “Licorice Pizza,” “Belast,” “Dune,” “Nightmare Alley,” “The Power of the Dog,” “West Side Story” and “Coda.”

NECC Liberal Arts Professor Kim Lyng, has seen a few of the nominees for the “Animated Feature Film” category, “They were all great and my kids can’t stop singing ‘We don’t talk about Bruno’ from Encanto.” says Lyng, “I have to admit it’s a very catchy tune and they sound great singing it!”

Lyng also watched “tick, tick…BOOM!” and “West Side Story.” When referring to “West Side Story,” Lyng says, “I know the film didn’t do as well as expected at the box office so it’s nice to see it getting accolades at the Academy Awards, especially for actress Ariana DeBose, the cinematography, and Spielberg’s directing.”

A notable snub that disappointed me personally when the nominations were announced was Lady Gaga not getting nominated for her role in “House of Gucci” as Patrizia Reggiani. Gaga has worked so hard to be an actress; she has said many times that she “wanted to be actress before she wanted to be a musician.” I also feel as though this role as Patrizia was a much more advanced role than Ally in “A Star is Born,” the movie that Gaga starred in in 2018.

The 2022 Oscars will be hosted by Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Skyes, and will air on March 27th at 8:00 PM ET. All Oscar nominations are listed at oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2022.