Maria Leonino

Ariana Grande has pleased her fans once again with her latest album, “thank u, next” when it was released on Feb 8, 2019.
Grande released a chart topping album six months ago titled “sweetener”, but the latest album has topped the Billboard 200 charts for the last two weeks.
Three of her songs from her new album are ranked in the top three for Billboard 100, which has broken the record of “The Beatles” from fifty years ago.
“thank u, next” is a twelve track album containing songs of all different genres, themes and meanings. Some of the most recognized songs include “7 rings,” “thank u, next,” “imagine,” and “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored.”
Multiple songs on the track are hinted at her relationships, more closely related to her ex fiancée, Pete Davidson and her late ex boyfriend, Mac Miller.
“ghostin” is a slow, sad love song that takes a closer look into why Grande and Davidson ended. She explains how she is upset over Miller, but promises Davidson they will overcome their hard times.
When Miller passed away of an overdose while Grande was engaged to Davidson, the death of Miller took a toll on Grande and Davidson’s relationship and they broke up. “imagine” is another song that symbolizes Miller as if they never broke up and were still living in a perfect world together.
Although Grande focuses on mainly Davidson and Miller, “thank u, next” is a song that recognizes all of her past loves. Grande thanks Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez, Miller and Davidson because they have all taught her a valuable lesson. Thanking them helped Grande get over each relationship and become a stronger, better version of herself.
Grande has had time to focus and reflect on herself, so songs such as “needy,” “in my head” and “NASA” are revolves around Grande saying she is needy, needs space and over thinks her relationships. “7 rings” is one of her most popular songs on the album, which also focuses on her work ethic for receiving what she wants.
The rest of the album includes “make up”, “bloodline”, “bad idea”, and “breakup with your girlfriend, i’m bored”. Lastly, “fake smile” is an underrated song talking about how Grande has struggled over the past few months and does not want to fake her smiles anymore.
Overall, Grande’s music has had huge successes over the years, but the “thank u, next” album has skyrocketed her career in many ways.

Abigail Kuhns
Happy Death Day 2U, the sequel to Happy Death Day, was released early last week and people everywhere are rushing out to see it. Both movies are spin-offs of the original film Groundhog day.
In 2017, the first Happy Death Day was released where the main character Tree must relive her murder over and over, not to mention it was on her birthday. Throughout the movie she dies 11 times and wakes up in the same place every time.
With the help of fellow college student, Carter, she discovers her killer in order to stop the continuous loop which leads into the sequel.
In the beginning, it is Carter’s roommate, Ryan, is the one who starts to live one day over and over; however, the tables quickly turn back to the main character Tree. She must discover the true source of loop while finding her second murderer with the help of science.
According to Rottentomatoes.com, 65% of viewers said they enjoyed the first Happy Death Day while 67% of viewers who have seen the second movie so far said they enjoyed it.
Despite what the majority stated, I liked the first movie a lot more than the sequel.
Creativity was a positive factor of the movie because of the ways she died and how she she had to make a choice of living in the past or moving on with the future.
The animations in the second movie were amazing and the attention to detail was spectacular, but other than that the movie was not really exciting.
Happy Death Day 2U was way too predictable because of the first one and the storyline needed more of twist to differ it from the first.
Both times the creators have tried to make the movie scary but not too horrific and I think they are doing a poor job. The movies are not fearful and just plain cheesy.
Overall, I would give Happy Death Day 2U a 5/10 rating based upon the animations, creativity, plot and horror factor.

Hannah Bartels
“On the Basis of Sex” is a film that many people are rushing to see, especially women. Everyone loves a good story of self fulfillment and finding happiness in working for justice. This movie is about a very famous and important women’s right activist that gave women nearly all of the rights that they have today: Ruth Ginsburg.

According to biography.com, Ruth was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1933. She earned a bachelor degree in government from Cornell University in 1954 and was first in her class. She married Martin Ginsburg the same year and had a daughter named Jane. Shortly after, Ruth and Martin enrolled into Harvard as a law students where Ruth faced the challenges of raising a child while working for her law degree.

In 1956 Martin was diagnosed with cancer and Ruth attended all of his classes for him, taking notes so he could continue his education from home. He recovered fairly quick and began working in a New York law firm. Ruth later transferred to Columbia Law School where she also graduated first in her class in 1959.

Despite Ruth’s incredible academic records and achievements, she still faced constant discrimination throughout her life as a lawyer. She brought six landmark cases on gender equality to the Supreme Court and was later appointed by Bill Clinton into the Supreme Court. “On the Basis of Sex” does an outstanding job of highlighting Ruth’s many achievements and her journey fighting to give women rights in a world of men.

In the movie, the discrimination Ruth faced as a woman in an almost all male law school is depicted and how she had to earn her name and place into society. She learns an important life lesson from her daughter that listening, is equally important as speaking. She also learns that it’s important to listen to the younger generation (i.e. her daughter) and opinions from other people.

The movie also shows the battle that Martin had to face with cancer and how hard Ruth worked as she filled in classes for her husband, attended her own, and raised a child. Eventually, Ruth picks up a case that upholds the possibility to change the game for all women and must fight harder than she has ever before.

In the end, there is a scene that shows the real Ruth Ginsburg walking up the Supreme Court house stairs and it left many people with joy. This movie is a beautiful story of how hard work pays off and that real happiness comes from the things you do to help others.

Despite all of the great aspects of this movie, it is somewhat challenging to follow due to the amount of political terms used. The movie also movies at a fairly fast pace and requires people to have the ability to catch on quickly. The movie can seem like it drags on for some time because it tries to show how much pressure Ruth had to face and how my barriers he had to break through to earn equality for women.

“On the Basis of Sex” is the kind of movie that leaves you thinking and inspired. It makes you see the world from a different perspective and makes you compare our world today with Ruth’s world then. It really makes you see how powerful and critical the constitutional right to speech is for all American citizens and how big of an impact you can create with it. Freedom of speech is a right that people must hold onto and cherish and “On the Basis of Sex” does an incredible way of showing why.