arts // no. 8 Just another sequel? > ‘Blade Runner 2049’ film review Jillian McMullen Staff Writer kk he first time I saw the original Blade Runner, I was about 10, at the home of my mother’s best friend, and it played in the background as I waited for dinner. I remember flashes of Deckard wandering seedy streets but not much else, my 10-year-old attention probably elsewhere—that is, until the final scene. I distinctly remember being captivated by Roy’s final poetic lines, delivered in the pouring rain. This memory remains one of the first times I recall being conscious of a film’s artistic aesthetic, so I’ve always held the cult film in high regard. When I learned that Warner Bros. was planning a sequel I was pretty skeptical about how it would “live up” to the legacy. I’m not often someone who thinks sequels are necessary or even constructive plot-wise: Usually they don’t add a lot of complexity to the story arc and, more often than that, they’re simply made by producers grasping at straws, trying to cash in on the first film’s success,. In my opinion, this usually just ends up perverting the authenticity of the original artistic production. So, when I entered the theatre last week on one of my few days off, I had my reservations. And, when I left two and a half hours later, I felt relatively satisfied. The story is set 30 years after the original in a dystopian Los Angeles, where bioengineered humans known as replicants are used as slaves to the human population. One such replicant, Agent K—played by Ryan Gosling—is a blade runner, someone who euphemistically “retires” older generation replicants. The retiring of one of these rogue replicants sees K stumbling upon the bones of a long-dead female replicant, one who seemingly bore a child. Replicants are thought not to have souls because they are not truly “born,” but this discovery threatens to disrupt the hierarchy based on this narrative. The majority of the film follows K in his investigation to find the human-replicant child. The film’s cinematography is arguably its greatest success and where it trumps the original. Roger Deakins maintains the dark grittiness of the 1982 version, imagining the outskirts of Los Angeles as an infinitely sprawling wasteland of artificial farming, with its city core saturated with massive advertisements projected on mega-skyscrapers. The CGI work is also spectacular, namely for Joi, K’s holographic companion. There is a particularly remarkable scene where she is projected onto the body of another character, as a way of “making her real.” Where the film falls short is the plot. While the original meaningfully deals with tensions over the relationship between present and future, the only question this film seems to grapple with is the structure of humanity, which seems rather obvious in a film about theotherpress.ca Still from ‘Blade Runner 2049’ via endgadget.com engineered life. It sometimes feels like the filmmakers are beating their audience in the head with a stick that has “who can have a soul” written on it. What is really missing in the writing for me is one of those captivating moments like the original had with Roy’s death. Without spoiling the ending, the film, as I suspected, falls into the “sequel trap” of leaving more loose ends than is really reasonable, so I suspect another film might be in the works. Ultimately, I did enjoy the film. While it doesn’t carry the philosophical weight that makes the original resonant even today, Blade Runner 2044 is visually stunning and a testament to the amazing things filmmakers can do with technology. A thorny teenage murder mystery > Theatre Department presents ‘Concord Floral’ Caroline Ho Arts Editor he Theatre Department’s upcoming show Concord Floral promises to be relatable for just about everyone, even if most of us have never stumbled across a dead body in a greenhouse. Concord Floral, written by Canadian playwright Jordan Tannahill and directed by Kathleen Duborg, is about a group of 10 teenagers hanging out in an abandoned warehouse for suburban fun, until two of them discover a body. Based on the medieval novel The Decameron, the play follows the teenagers as they sift through their stories to untangle the mystery. The Other Press spoke with some of the cast last week about the production. Etella Keenan, who plays a character named Forever Irene, summed up the story enigmatically: “It’s a murder mystery with a twist.” Assistant stage manager Katelyn Cyr said the story and its small- town teenage vibe reminded her of Pretty Little Liars when she first read the script. All of the 10 characters are connected to another in some way, although they aren't exactly a single clique of friends. Some of the characters are related by blood, while others are linked through friendships, shared interests, and other, subtler bonds. However, according to the cast and crew, the interpersonal dynamics shouldn't be too hard for an audience to follow because they come together in such a natural and relatable way. “This show feels like the characters are real people, because real people don’t stick with the same five friends all the time,” said Kel Freeman, the show’s stage manager. Christian van Geyn, who plays John Cabot, said he expects audiences will find a lot of parallels to their own relationships. “On top of people probably being able to relate to one or more of the characters, when they see the whole ensemble working, I feel like there are times when you can relate to connections between characters too. You go, ‘Oh, that’s how I used to talk with my friend, or ‘T knew this kind of person in this school.” The characters aren't all just teenagers, either. Six of the characters are named after species of roses—harkening back to the floral theme of the show. The other four are named after, and also play, non-human animals and objects. There’s Fox, for example, played by Maddie Severyn: In some scenes she’s the human, and in others she’s the fox, with traits of the latter influencing the former. Severyn said it’s been a little tricky dividing the two roles, adapting ‘Concord Floral’ cast photo by Kel Freeman her movement to each while also allowing the slyness of the fox to seep into the human character. Kayla Krishna, playing Greenhouse, also said it was at first a bit of a challenge to figure out how literally to act as an object, but the play is very well written and works it in smoothly. Eclectic as this assemblage of characters is, it also gives each of the actors an equal chance to shine. Everyone in Concord Floral has a story to tell, and everyone has at least one monologue over the course of the play. “When you look at them all standing there at the beginning they're all clearly teenagers. They’re all clearly an ensemble. But then there are the segments of magical realism where they step out and tell individual stories in their metaphorical character,’ said van Geyn. Severyn said this ensemble cast has been one of her favourite parts of working on the show. “No one has a greater part than anyone else, so we each got to explore who we were and how everyone was equal,” she said. This sharing of the spotlight is also unique in Concord Floral because, unlike most plays, every actor is on the stage in every scene. There’s no backstage and no curtains; the actors sit in chairs on the side when they're not directly part of the action, but they’re still visible and in character for the entire 80-minute show. Although Tannahill’s script is originally set in Ontario, the Douglas Theatre Department has adapted it, with permission from the playwright, to Langley, BC. As Keenan explained, the cast did a lot of research into different regions of Metro Vancouver before deciding on Port Kells as an area with all the right elements of suburbia— highways, farmland, development, and plenty of greenhouses. The show even contains references to SkyTrain stations, driving home the relatability of the setting and the story to audiences. This familiarity is further reinforced by the characters’ clothing, carefully chosen to reflect modern local fashion, said Freeman. “The costumes shouldn't look like costumes. It should look like all of our characters walked right off the street and came in to do the show.” Gel ecole MaKe MNT Te KOLB OCT ay 3 to 10 in the Douglas College Studio Theatre, on the fourth floor of the New Westminster campus. Tickets are available at concordfloral.bpt.me.