The latest polarizing film from Apichatpong Weerasethakul was a unique highlight of the Milwaukee Film Festival
By Collin Chesak, Current Staff
I fell in love with film over the pandemic, and finally, after two and a half years of attempting to become a cinephile, I was able to visit my first film festival. The 2022 Milwaukee Film Festival was the first in two years to have in-person showings, and being a high schooler in Wisconsin, it was my first real opportunity to visit a festival.
After a large amount of hype and advertising, the third installment of the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise was released April 15, to surprisingly weak box-office numbers.
With “The Batman,” Matt Reeves delivers a brutal bat noir that is more emotionally potent than intellectually challenging. The movie seeks to be more of an elaborate epic than the intimate character drama of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. Instead of giving him the arbitrary origin story, Reeves introduces Batman like a stoic western character, down a long hall out of the darkness.
Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” lacks comedy and depth
By Collin Chesak, Current Staff
The Academy recently gave “Don’t Look Up” four Oscar nominations including Best Picture. However, if audiences are looking for an award-worthy film, they should look elsewhere.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” overcame the worries of many, using past characters and ultimately leading to a fulfilling conclusion in Marvel’s Spider-Man trilogy.
“Dune” director Denis Villeneuve dazzled the doubters by overshadowing a risky $165 million price tag with a box office run that now nears the $400 million mark.
One area student has gained behind-the-scenes experience at the Bend, West Bend’s historic theater that survived the Great Depression and now a global pandemic.
With Marvel’s conclusion to the third phase in its superhero film franchise, it seems that there is limited room to move forward and keep its audience engaged.
After “Nomadland” earned six Oscar nominations and rave reviews from critics, I decided to see for myself if the movie deserved the attention it was getting.
Area teachers and former video store clerks ponder what Family Video’s closing means for the culture of film viewing
By Elise Marlett, Editor in Chief
It’s the end of an era.
As of February 28, all Family Video locations across the country are permanently closed, including the location in West Bend. With Family Video being the only remaining video rental store in West Bend prior to closure, local movie lovers must accept a transition from discs to streaming. For many, the transition prompts deep feelings of nostalgia as the culture of film viewing has changed so drastically in the past decades.
Netflix recently released “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,” a series that expands the creative world of 1982’s “The Dark Crystal.” That begs the question, how does the new show compare to the original film?Continue reading →
While the whole world lined up to see the ever-anticipated “Avengers: Endgame,” one West Bend student opted to save her money.
In the past decade, there have been 22 hit films released in the massively successful Marvel Cinematic Universe, but East High School senior Grace Peplinski has never seen a single one. Below, Peplinski explains how she lives life without superheroes. Continue reading →
While most kids will be spending their summer hanging out with friends, one West Bend trumpet player will be touring with a distinguished music group.Continue reading →
The face of visiting orchestra director Walter Muelling can be found in a beloved WBHS mural
By Lily Mottet, Current Staff
West Bend High Schools orchestra students never imagined the man painted in their classroom was based on a previous student. Or that the student would return to West Bend 13 years later.Continue reading →
Sci-fi show wastes its potential for political allegory
The CW’s “Roswell, New Mexico” is another attempt to keep the “The Vampire Diaries” magic going. Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about the series’ political message. Continue reading →
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: “An upstanding cast of police officers find out that there’s someone in the force who’s corrupt, but as they dig deeper into the case, they find that the corruption goes a lot further up the chain than they bargained for.” Continue reading →
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