A lot of people dislike the timing of Northwestern’s Fall Quarter, and if you ask me, it is twice as bad as you think it is, because the start of our year corresponds with the annual cinematic sump tank that is the time between summer blockbusters and autumn award season. Welcome back, Wildcats.
While we can usually find solace in the music and television sections of our Monday Morning Hangover, this week we might not have such luck. But maybe a young comedian from Massachusetts can save us? Let’s see what we are still feeling from the weekend.
Movies
The weekend box office saw a lot of variety – you could watch Liam Neeson kick ass, Denzel Washington kick ass, a group of overly-attractive young people kick ass, or even Idris Elba kick ass. Most people watched Denzel Washington kick ass. Because he really kicks ass.
Trailer of the Week goes to David Fincher’s Gone Girl, which releases next weekend. To be honest, I thought the book was sort of a letdown (too dependent on its twist, lazy ending), but Fincher’s track record is terrific, and rumor has it the author has changed the book’s ending exclusively for the film. Consider me sold.
And hey, if quality movies are not your thing, then you can always go check out Nic Cage in Left Behind, a blatant faith movie that weirdly does not seem to want to be a faith movie. Seriously, watch this trailer – the movie is absolutely about the Rapture mentioned in the Christian bible, but all we have in the ads are vague end-of-the-world references. I hate when faith-based movies do this. In this one it feels like they are trying to trick viewers into seeing a classic Nic Cage actioner (Which begs the question, is that even an effective marketing tactic anymore? Did Nic Cage ever have a corner of the action market?).
Television
The Simpsons/Family Guy crossover happened on Sunday night. While it was technically a Family Guy episode, the real stars here are the Springfield residents. These guys are entering their twenty-sixth year on television (when they premiered, Ronald Reagan was in the White House), and there are now more than 500 characters in the Simpsons universe. Amazing.
Chris Pratt hosting SNL this weekend was less exciting, strangely. I am not sure if it was any fault of Pratt’s, but the writing just did not seem to be there. For its fortieth season, it was a fairly uninspired start. It seems that for years now SNL has had a lot of trouble integrating new cast members. I asked around the old fraternity great room when I was writing this, and the only person we could name aloud from the current cast was Bobby Moynihan. Weird and sad to see the show go on like this.
Music
Want something not sad, though? Enter Bo Burnham. The 24-year-old comic has been a favorite around the NBN newsroom for some time now, and his classic tune “Repeat Stuff” launched a new video this week. It is terrific. It is hilarious. It brings new elements from the original live performance (from the excellent special “what.” – available on YouTube) and retains the spawn-of-Satan spirit that made it such a hit with fans. I love this guy – you are hard-pressed to find a more creative comedian working today.
Northwestern
Well, if you happened to be out between the hours of, say, 12:00 and 4:00 last night. It kind of looked like this. Welcome to your first Hangover, 2018.