Squid Game Season 2 – Bianca Sugunasiri, Staff Writer
Dec. 26 marked the release of director Hwang Dong-hyuk’s highly anticipated Squid Game Season 2. The show revolves around the titular “Squid Game,” which extorts the vulnerabilities of financially struggling Korean citizens by offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win a fortune. Accepting the offer lands contestants in a game that has them gambling with their lives. The extortion of the weak is nothing new, but the game’s twisted design features a series of traditional Korean children’s games with gruesome stakes: Elimination by death.
Season 2 veers away from the shock factor of Season 1 to a layered plot that is both horrifying and psychologically intriguing as characters are forced into impossible decisions. Innocent individuals turn murderous as their desperation turns to greed. The impeccable acting elevates the plot with visceral portrayals of pain and torment. Each character displays inconsistency in the morality of their actions. Lee Byung-hun‘s portrayal of Hwang In-ho was particularly mesmerizing. In-ho, one of the masterminds (The Front Man), inserts himself into the game and befriends tragic hero Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), who seeks to undermine the twisted organization. At times In-ho appears genuine in his support of the players’ successes, inviting the audience to question the integrity of even the most abhorrent characters.
The perfect blend of horror and satire, Squid Game Season 2 investigates the good, the bad, and the gory of the human condition in a way that will have you binging the series in a week (or 48 hours, as I did).
Squid Game is available on Netflix.
The Good Whale – Tamiyana Roemer, Staff Writer
Oscar Wilde once argued that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life,” and the podcast The Good Whale exemplifies this concept particularly well.
When Keiko starred as the titular orca in the 1993 Warner Bros. classic Free Willy, he became a beloved global icon. So when it was revealed that Keiko was dying—largely due to the sub-par facilities in which he lived—the public outcry was remarkable. Keiko’s millions of adoring fans, led by armies of impassioned children, inspired a massively ambitious operation in which well-meaning experts butt heads over what it truly meant to free Keiko. In six episodes, host Daniel Alarcón delivers Keiko’s journey from Mexico to Norway through a lyrical line of storytelling alongside immersive, atmospheric scoring. His interviews with Keiko’s former trainers and advisors are both compelling and conflicting, reflecting the infighting that defined the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation.
I was devastated by a whale’s setbacks and elated over his achievements. Keiko’s tale is one of hope and dedication, but it is also a reminder of human fallibility, amidst even the best of intentions.
A Gentleman in Moscow – Isobel Bray, Contributor
Based on Amor Towles’s 2016 book of the same name, A Gentleman in Moscow is an emotional short series set amidst the changing political landscape of 20th-century Russia. We follow Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov (Ewan McGregor) in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. Rostov, a member of the deposed aristocracy, avoids execution—and is instead sentenced to spend the rest of his days in the luxurious Metropol Hotel. The story captures the unique environment of post-revolutionary Moscow with beautiful cinematography.
The series shines in its combination of vivid characters and self-contained setting. It is mostly filmed in the hotel, creating a simultaneously comforting and claustrophobic atmosphere. Very few scenes take place outside and are mostly given in flashbacks: The viewer gets to experience Russia as Rostov does, from within the confines of the Metropol.
McGregor delivers a charismatic and emotional performance, blending the Count’s elegance and humour with grief and melancholy. We not only follow the Count’s life but the many characters that move in and out of it. The hotel guests and staff are loveable and eccentric, both in their own stories and the parts they play in Rostov’s—teaching him valuable lessons along the way.
A Gentleman in Moscow is an immersive story of resilience and friendship, perfect for adding warmth to the dark winter months.
A Gentleman in Moscow is available on Paramount+ or for free on CBC Gem.
Space 1.8 by Nala Sinephro – Annabella Lawlor, Staff Writer
Crickets and chirping birds underscore the crunching of coiling leaves beneath feet; plucked harp chords and brassy notes creep into view. Harpist and synth composer Nala Sinephro explores the concavities of the auditory universe in her 2021 ambient jazz record, Space 1.8. This wondrous ambiance is alluring, mysterious, and intense. Its entrancing rhythms placate the senses, hushing anxieties with whooshing melodies and electrified synthesizers.
With each song like a different constellation to be observed, Sinephro’s atmospheric landscape transports listeners to unearthly dimensions. Nubya Garcia’s outstanding saxophone performance on “Space 4”—her only appearance on the record—traipses through the star-lit sky, dancing through nebulous psychedelia and drifting debris.
Sinephro and ensemble effortlessly capture the curiosity, peril, and looming unknown of space exploration. Its seeming simplicity is rather a complex mastery of the ambient soundscape; Sinephro’s work is a stunning study of what lies beyond our world, inviting listeners to imagine this orbiting, threatening, and immense environment.
Children of Men dir. Alfonso Cuarón – Charlotte Hayes, Arts & Entertainment Editor
Although it was released in 2006, Alfonso Cuarón’s dystopian film Children of Men, based on the P. D. James novel, feels eerily prescient as it imagines the not-so-distant future of 2027. Set in a world reeling from an infertility pandemic and societal collapse, the story unfolds in a chaotic Britain. When Theo (Clive Owen), a jaded bureaucrat, is unexpectedly contacted by a former lover, he is drawn into a desperate fight to protect humanity’s last hope.
On a technical filmmaking level, Children of Men is unparalleled. Despite its existentially heavy premise, the film delivers some of the most breathtaking action set pieces of the 21st century. One standout scene involves a flaming car ambush in the woods, followed by an anxiety-inducing motorcycle chase—all within the first 45 minutes. This heart-pounding sequence, one of the most intense 20 minutes I’ve ever experienced, is just the beginning. The film maintains its relentless pace, constantly raising the stakes and leaving no room for the characters—or the audience—to catch their breath. With world-ending stakes and viscerally intense action, it is impossible to look away, even for a moment.
The eerie accuracy with which the film predicts—or at least mirrors—global events of the late 2010s and early 2020s only enhances the brilliance of its script. Most notably, it highlights how pandemics can incite systemic violence and discrimination against marginalized groups. In Children of Men, the infertility crisis leads to a government program aimed at deporting immigrants under the guise of protecting ‘British jobs’ for ‘real citizens.’ This fictional medical emergency becomes a haunting allegory for how fear and scarcity can drive authoritarianism, xenophobia, and the erosion of fundamental human rights. Children of Men doesn’t just envision a dystopian future—it forces us to confront the fragile foundations of our own society and the devastating consequences of their collapse.