By Dalton DeStefano ’16, Arts and Entertainment Editor   Many movie critics have put 2015 down in the books as a  “weak year” for cinema. Many of the “prestige directors” (think Steven Spielberg or Ron Howard) released films to a lukewarm response. Unlike last year with Boyhood being lauded by everybody, there isn’t as much passion among film…

By Samantha Sidi ’16, Arts and Entertainment Editor  British singer, songwriter, and pop star Adele has once again sparked a cultural phenomenon through the release of her new album 25. Within the first week of its release, 3.38 million copies of 25 were sold, breaking the previous record of ’N Sync’s No Strings Attached, which sold…

By Dalton DeStefano ’16,  Arts and Entertainment Editor Nothing drives the American movie industry more than cold hard cash. Over the past decade alone, we have seen the rise of the reboot (in which studios simply remake a previous film in order to have an already established name brand behind their product), the rise of…

By Tyler Friedman ’17,  Staff Writer   When you first hear their music, you would guess that they’re a polished, experienced indie-rock band consisting of four or five members. In reality, The Brazen Youth consists of two 17-year-old boys from Old Lyme, Connecticut, Nick Lussier and Charles Dahlke, who record all of their music in a…

By Emma Hoffman ’16, Staff Writer Some of us know Shia LaBeouf from the Disney Channel’s Even Stevens. Most of us have seen him sprint away from CGI robots in three out of four of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies. Recently, he has shed both his Disney and action hero personas for what seems like the…

By Samantha Sidi ’16, Arts and Entertainment Editor With the upcoming airing of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, it is hard not to reflect on the way that these Victoria’s Secret Angels influence women. The show features around 40 Angels who model from the Victoria’s Secret and PINK, the brand’s line that is marketed towards young…

By Chris Pyo ’17, Staff Writer The arts program at Newark Academy is one of the defining characteristics of NA life. Many students actively engage in their musical studies outside of school through participation in groups and ensembles that are not affiliated with NA. This past November, in a festival that lasted four days, seven members of the NA…

By Cindy Xiong ‘17, Staff Writer Featuring “shipwrecked twins, mistaken identity, gender, drunkenness, and a touch of maliciousness,” as Mr. Jacoby described, this year’s fall drama – Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night – is everything you could want in a play. It centers around a pair of twins, Viola and Sebastian, who were separated in a shipwreck. Viola disguises herself as a boy and…

By Dalton DeStefano ’16, Arts and Entertainment Editor Over the past couple of years, Jennifer Lawrence has gone from a relative unknown, working on small independent movies, to one of the most lauded actresses today. Aside from her magnetic screen presence, it is her charming girl-next-door personality that has turned her into one of the most…

By Oluwadamilola Oshewa ’16, Staff Writer White feminism is a term used to describe feminism that fails to acknowledge intersectionality—the intersection between issues of gender, race, socioeconomic status, etc. White feminism ignores the experiences of women who are not white, cis-gendered, and heterosexual. Not all white people who are feminists are white feminists, but the…