Ironically, with Halloween around the corner, there’s only one hot-ticket horror film to announce this week: Terrifier 3 — a classic thrasher set on Christmas Eve in a sleepy, little town — is worth to add to your rotation of Halloween classics. But my excitement lies with the two comedies releasing this Friday: The Apprentice, a film covering Trump’s New York real-estate business back in the ‘70s and ‘80s; and Saturday Night, which recounts the events leading up to the first airing of Saturday Night Live.
If you want more suspense, you can certainly read: The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak and This Cursed House by Del Sandeen. Both feature unraveling secrets and disturbing revelations. My personal pick for listens this week is La Femme’s Rock Machine, a trippy, ‘80s synth pop project with a thick French accent.
I highly encourage everyone to go visit Gilman 50 this Sunday for the Film and Media Studies Faculty Showcase. It’s an incredible opportunity to see another side of Hopkins and to show our support for the thrilling work by the Department of Film and Media Studies.
Thanks everyone for reading, and I hope you can find something to enjoy. See you next week!
To watch...
The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abbasi — Oct. 11
It is quite the badge of honor for a satirical film to get a cease-and-desist letter. It’s even more of an honor to have your entire film stalled by the former president of the United States. This satirical film on the rise of former President Trump’s New York real-estate business in the ‘70s and ‘80s, with the help of the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn.
Saturday Night, directed by Jason Reitman — Oct. 11
On the 49th anniversary of Saturday Night Live’s first show, Reitman recounts the story of how an ambitious group of young comedians and writers altered the history of live television.
Terrifier 3, directed by Damien Leone — Oct. 11
On one peaceful Christmas Eve in the cheerful town of Miles County, Art the Clown comes out to play. Perfect for the start of October.
To read...
The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak — Oct. 8
From the bestselling author of Hidden Pictures, The Last One at the Wedding is a suspenseful work which follows a father trying to save his daughter from her sketchy fiancé, Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech-billionaire.
This Cursed House by Del Sandeen — Oct. 8
In this debut novel by American writer Sandeen, a young, Black woman named Jemma Barker escapes her haunted life in Chicago by moving in with the Duchon family in New Orleans. The Duchons, while Black themselves, begin to look down on Jemma for her darker skin, and the protagonist begins to uncover disturbing secrets about their past.
The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel — Oct. 8
Sobel, an acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Galileo’s Daughter, is releasing an in-depth biography of one of the most famous women in the history of science.
To listen...
Glorious, by GloRilla — Oct. 11
The cover art of rapper GloRilla’s debut studio album, Glorious, looks like a classic ‘90s R&B cover: the intense close up, the shadowed background, the gold earrings with an artificially gleam. The most recent single, “Hollon” follows suit with its rhythmic string-synths, but everything else about GloRilla — including her second single off the album, “TGIF” — is highly contemporary and looking to make an original impact.
Beautifully Broken, by Jelly Roll — Oct. 11
In a recent interview with TODAY, rapper Jelly Roll described the message of Beautifully Broken as “redemption and hope.” At the heart of it, Beautifully Broken is a reflection on the pursuit of fixing oneself and recognizing the beauty in our faults.
Rock Machine, by La Femme — Oct. 11
The psychedelic, synth-pop, trippy-as-hell La Femme is taking another stab at their timeless pop, which has proven to be incredibly versatile since their debut project Psycho Tropical Berlin in 2013. Rock Machine is showing a lot more ‘90s pop and a lot less French as the group looks to reaffirm their place on the international stage.
Live events...
Film and Media Studies Faculty Showcase at Gilman 50 — Oct. 13, 2–4 p.m.
Senior Lecturers John Mann, Jimmy Joe Roche, Adam Rodgers and Karen Yasinsky will screen their work in Gilman 50.
Verona Quartet with Alexander Fiterstein at Leith Symington Griswold Hall — Oct. 8, 7:30–9:30 p.m.
The Levi Family Distinguished Visiting Artist — the Verona Quartet, which is made up of violinists Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro, violist Abigail Rojansky and cellist Jonathan Dormand — will be performing Osvaldo Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 with Associate Professor and Chair Alexander Fiterstein on clarinet. Free admission.
Mozart and Schumann at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall — Oct. 13, 3 p.m.
Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena will conduct Lucas and Arthur Jussen from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as the piano duo performs the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Robert Schumann. Check the link for specific ticket prices.
