Reviews

Bo Burnham’s popularity is suddenly on the rise from his new Netflix special called Inside. However, Bo Burnham does not only create hilarious comedy specials, he also wrote and directed a movie called Eighth Grade! Eighth Grade stars a young, awkward girl named Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher). Kayla is finishing up her last week of a bad eighth-grade year. She must deal with her crippling social anxiety, the pressure from kids at school, and her lack of self-confidence.

Starr Carter, a sixteen year old black girl, is forced to attend a neighborhood party at Garden Heights. Despite being born and raised in Garden Heights which mainly has black residents, Starr feels disconnected from her friends there ever since attending William Prep, a school consisting primarily of white students. During the party, Starr reunites with her childhood friend Khalil Harris. However, the party ends abruptly after gunshots from a nearby gang fight erupt. Khalil offers to take Starr home, but on their way back they are pulled over by a police officer. Khalil questions the reason as to why they were pulled over, but the officer refuses to answer which causes an argument.

We’ll Fly Away” is a story about Luke and Toby. They are seniors in highschool and have been best friends since childhood. Both characters live with thoughtless and abusive families, so they create a plan to move on. Luke having a careless Mother and her boyfriend, lead Luke to often take care of his younger twin-brothers. Toby deals with his alcoholic father, who often beats him. Their escape plan is with Luke having a scholarship at a University to wrestle, and Toby’s plan to go to the same school in Iowa. Even though Toby hasn’t quite figured out how he will pay for his tuition. Only in the end, to find themselves making lifelong decisions that will end in catastrophe.

This book has an important message but I found it a bit slow moving and very depressing. I learned a lot about the high rates of cancer amongst Indigeneous people
near oil sands and how horrible they were treated. No one seemed to care that their water and food sources were contaminated. Instead of fixing the problem, the oil
companies bribed them with jobs and unnecessary items.

really liked this book because I like books that take classic fairytales and add a twist. In this book, two best friends Sophie and Agatha find out firsthand where all the missing
kids in their village have gone when they get kidnapped too. The School for Good and Evil takes kids and trains them to be either heroes or villains in the fairy tales that
everyone has read. Sophie is the most beautiful girl in their village. She wears pink dresses, does good deeds and wants to be a storybook princess. Agatha, on the other hand, wears all black, seems unclean and is disliked by most people in the village. She seems like a perfect match for a villain.

Beastars volume 2 is centred around the drama club’s play, and the actions of the club members. The story follows Legoshi, a timid member of the production crew, and his struggles to interact with people, and help bring the play to life. His first task is simple, to get flowers to decorate the venue, but there he meets someone unexpected, who might make his task more difficult.

This movie takes place in Nevada and starts out with a huge destructive thunderstorm. 10 people are gathered in a motel in the middle of nowhere, with the phone broken, broken walls, and pipes that are leaking. As the story progresses they start to slowly figure out that something is seriously wrong with the place and people start disappearing out of nowhere which leads to a lot of suspense and fear. At the same time in another setting, A serial killer is being treated by a doctor and things start to go wrong there too. 

It follows is a movie about how a curse has to be passed down from people to people like a disease and whoever has it, they have to pass it down to someone else. The name “It follows” is because the demon follows you when you have the curse. When the main character, Jay, gets the curse passed down to her, she starts seeing things and gets haunted and no one seems to believe her when she tells them about it. She then somehow needs to figure out how she is going to prove to everyone that she is being possessed and needs to pass it down to someone else.

It Follows

David Robert Mitchell

Monami Ghosh, Grade 11

I give this movie a 1.5 out of 5

            It follows is a movie about how a curse has to be passed down from people to people like a disease and whoever has it, they have to pass it down to someone else. The name “It follows” is because the demon follows you when you have the curse. When the main character, Jay, gets the curse passed down to her, she starts seeing things and gets haunted and no one seems to believe her when she tells them about it. She then somehow needs to figure out how she is going to prove to everyone that she is being possessed and needs to pass it down to someone else.

            I personally did not like this movie at all, I had high hopes for it as it seemed to be interesting and have an interesting plot but it was the exact opposite. The storyline was undeveloped and seemed to be an incomplete thought. The audience didn't really get an insight into the characters and didn't get to know them at all so there was nothing for the audience to relate to. The plot did not make sense at all and there was not really meaning to it at all. There was no reason why things were happening and most of the time the event before did not even correlate to the next. The movie had many places to be good, there were various scenes that it could have picked up from and could have become a very interesting movie that was worth watching but that moment never came, the climax or exciting event never really occurred.
            I would not really recommend this movie to anyone, as I personally did not like it, but people who like horror movies would enjoy this type of film. This movie includes a lot of possessions and demons and some jump scares once in a while so one who likes those elements could potentially enjoy this movie.