Entertainment

Q. When did you realize you wanted to work in television?

Every once in a while, a great actor that has been around for a long time gives a high caliber performance that reminds you of why they are so good at their craft. In a nutshell, they solidify why they are masterful at transforming into characters. We’ve seen this with Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and Daniel Day-Lewis. This year, the actor that joins the ranks of those brilliant performers is Leonardo DiCaprio.

Students Weigh in on the Contenders for Best Picture

There are some things we all know to be true: the sky is blue, a pizza party is the best kind of party, Bey Hall is always unnecessarily hot, and you can’t make everyone happy.

On Jan. 31, millions of Americans tuned in to FOX to watch what was going to be either a hit or a miss. Grease Live, which aired Sunday and starred Aaron Tveit and Julianne Hough as Danny and Sandy respectively, was just the push America needed to get their dancing shoes on.

40-year-old Australian singer-songwriter Sia released her seventh album, This Is Acting, on Jan. 29. Sia is known for her compelling voice and her outstanding abilities as a songwriter, and is most recognized for her hits “Chandelier” and “Elastic Heart” from her sixth album, 1000 Forms of Fear.

With the Oscars coming up very soon, I couldn’t help but notice that one of my favorite movies of the year went completely under the radar—and not only to the Academy, but also to the entire public. Grabbing only a mere three Oscar nominations, Quentin Tarantino’s new film, The Hateful Eight, contained everything one can hope for in a Tarantino film: malicious characters, excessive blood and gore, an intense climax, and dialogue so funny and natural sounding that any actor can have a ball with it. This new “who-done-it” murder mystery takes place in a snowed in haberdashery in Wyoming during post-Civil War America, where eight unlikely visitors are forced to spend a whole night with each other. Questions about race, capital punishment, war, and loyalty to one’s family brings these characters to violent ends, and the story culminates in a third act that kept me on the edge of my seat and guessing the whole way.

The University’s men’s basketball team has captured the attention of mainstream media, and now the squad has its own theme song written by Monmouth students. Andrew Boxman and Guy Battaglia, who both recently graduated from the music industry program at the University, were approached by Chair of the Music Department, Joseph Rapolla, to write a song for the team. The two took on the challenge and had the rap-rock anthem called “Heart in the Game” written and produced within two weeks. At the home game against the Marist Red Foxes on Jan. 24, Boxman and Battaglia, along with other Blue Hawk Records representatives, handed out free downloads of the song to every fan in the stadium.

The dinner scene is the bane of all screenwriters and filmmakers, and if it is not, it should be. Yet, there is such a scene near the beginning of Carol, the new film by the extraordinarily talented Todd Haynes, and it is wonderful. Elegant and refined housewife Carol (Cate Blanchett) is sharing a meal late at night in a secluded restaurant with department store worker and aspiring photographer Therese (Rooney Mara). In this scene, Carol asks Therese if she lives alone. Therese smiles for a second and says “No.” Then her smile fades a little, and she looks away as she begins her sentence: “Well, there’s Richard…”

If you have ever heard of the app Beme or the HBO series The Neistat Brothers, you might know someone by the name of Casey Neistat. He is a 34-year-old YouTuber and filmmaker who pretty much broke the internet last week with just one YouTube video. Neistat resides in New York City, and his location is a key factor in what makes his content on YouTube highly interesting and different than anything else on the site.

Room is a film of about captivity in many more ways than one. Based on Emma Donohue’s 2010 novel, the story follows Joy, a kidnapped young woman, and her five-year-old son Jack before and after they escape from the 11-by-11 room in which Jack has spent his entire life. The isolation of Joy, known more prominently by Jack and the audience as “Ma,” is both physical and mental: kept in a miniscule garden shed for seven years and having mothered the child of her kidnapper, Ma is left to find solace within her own mind, even after she returns home. The most impressive and rewarding case of escaping captivity, however, is that of Brie Larson and the industry attention she’s now owed.