November Staff Picks

Inanna Carter

Golden Hour: Part. 2

I’m a K-pop girlie through and through, and I’m more than happy to say my latest obsession is ATEEZ. After listening to their song “Bouncy (K-Hot Chili Peppers)” at least fifty times throughout the year, I proceeded to become a casual listener until “Crazy Form” popped up. Considering I’m still in my post-concert depression months after seeing them live, it’s safe to say I like their music.

ATEEZ’s latest album, Golden Hour: Part. 2, released on November 15, and I can’t get enough of it. I hyperfixate like crazy, so I’ve mostly been listening the title track, “Ice On My Teeth,” but my favorite part about ATEEZ is the diversity in their music. If you want something more hip-hop, “Ice On My Teeth” is perfect. The music video is gorgeous, and all my ATEEZ head canons are coming true. But this is a different type of music they’ve been working on, and their past albums have a much different vibe. No matter what your favorite music genre is, I urge you to listen to some ATEEZ. I guarantee you’ll find something you adore.

Nate Ragolia

The Substance

Fans of body horror classics like David Cronenberg’s The Fly and James Gunn’s Slither can rejoice for Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance perfectly melds gore, humor, and trenchant social commentary. The film follows Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) a one-time Hollywood ingenue and Oscar-winner who has transitioned from acting to hosting a TV aerobics show. On her 50th birthday, she’s fired by a shrimp-spittle-slime ball network executive (Dennis Quaid) who makes it no secret her age is the reason. Distraught, Elizabeth has a progressively worse day that leads her to a young nurse who offers her a flash drive containing information about the titular Substance. After injecting the mysterious medical miracle, Elizabeth’s life is transformed and a younger version of her has a new lease on life in the spotlight… but this is a horror film, so things get messy, sticky, bloody, and gross quickly and frequently.

Director Coralie Fargeat does an impeccable job capturing the gore and viscera, and hearkening back to giallo films like Argento’s Suspiria, and even Kubrick’s The Shining, but what’s most incredible is how she employs the male gaze and its voracious and wolf whistling consumption of the female body to enhance the tension and pervasive exploitative energy. Not only do we spend long shots taking in the nude bodies of Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, Fargeat also actively deconstructs the women as sex objects, where the focal points of breasts and crotches and butts are montaged to remind us of our cultural failure to really see the whole person comprising the women we exploit. This exaggerated, force-feeding of the male gaze pays off in an ending that pulls no punches. If you thought Carrie had a bloody conclusion, The Substance will ask you to hold its beer.

Kaitlin Lounsberry

Wicked

I’ve been a Wicked fan since 2004, a year after the musical premiered on Broadway staring powerhouse duo, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. I was 10 the first time I watched the musical in Chicago and it become a pivotal moment for my childhood. Fast forward 20 years and those same overwhelming feelings exist as Wicked, the movie not the play or the book, finally comes to the silver screen.

Originally whispered to be in the works in 2010, Wicked shifted from director to director until it finally settled with Jon M. Chu in 2021 and shortly after came the casting announcement of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. It was also announced the film would be split in two, forcing fans to wait even longer for the conclusion of this story. Though there were some additional setbacks due to COVID-19 restrictions and the SAG-AFTRA strike of 2023, Wicked finally hit theaters mid-November. And was the wait worth it? Yes, yes, 100%, yes. As someone who has seen the musical more times than I can count and read the book that inspired it all, I like to think I’m a fairly good judge of this adaptation.

Grande and Ervio embody Glinda and Elphaba earnestly and with the care and attention lovers of the musical expect for the iconic duo. Their vocals harmonized in such a cosmic way it’s as if they were destined to star opposite the other. Supporting actors Jonathan Bailey, Marissa Bode, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Bowen Yang, and Jeff Goldblum exhibit the same zest for their characters as Grande and Erivo. It’s evident the amount of care and consideration Chu put into every decision made in the creation of the film. It is magical, in the most simple and complex ways you could imagine. I cried, as did most everyone around me, as the titular song, “Defying Gravity” closed out part one. I’m not sure how much better I’ll fair emotionally when part two is released November of next year, but I’ll be waiting, eagerly and heart full, to be changed for good.

Dominic Loise

Sunflowers

Sunflowers by Keezy Young could be presented as a companion read to my previous selection of A Fox In My Brain by Lou Lubie. Both biographical graphic novels have the writer/artist exploring mood disorder and destigmatizing the conversations around the classifications and public perception of bipolar disorder. With A Fox In My Brain, Lubie deep dives into the diagnosis and misdiagnosis of her cyclothymia as she goes through therapy and mitigates life. Sunflowers presents to the reader the feeling of cycling and Young’s experiences with bipolar 1 disorder. 

Young starts Sunflowers with the feel-good period of hypomania and through color palette and line breaks portrays their feelings as their personal narrative slides into disconnection associated with mania. Young maintains an organic shift of hues as they begin exploring the psychosis stage. Here, their word blocks are tight, like bricks stacked together, to give the sense of someone behind a wall of racing thoughts while imagery outside the dialogue is out of focus, showing the inner self cut off from the tangible world. 

Young doesn’t shy away from the feeling of darkness that comes with bipolar 1, but they also present a pathway of mental-health awareness and address the stigma associated with bipolar disorder. I read and connected with Sunflowers just after an out-of-state move. My self perception at this time was focused on how I would need to start again with a new talk therapist, psychiatrist, and being away from my core support group. I feared all the work I had done on myself was slipping away with the stress of a move and selling/buying a home. Feeling disconnected from all that, this graphic novel helped remind me I wasn’t alone as someone with bipolar disorder, I wasn’t starting over with my mental health, and I was continuing to heal in a new place.

I am truly grateful that Keezy Young’s Sunflowers was the first thing that I unpacked to read in my new home.

Sunflowers is published by Silver Sprocket.