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Review of How It Ends

Honestly, it’s difficult to write a science fiction film––if you’re working within a patriarchal & white framework. All of it has been done already: from saving damsels from distress, to (white and rural) citizens getting up in arms, even to the eerie ambient soundtrack that sets the mood. Unfortunately, the Netflix original film How it Ends directed by David M. Rosenthal falls into this framework which ends up coming off as uncreative and, to be frank, slightly boring.

The film begins with the protagonist Will Younger (played by Theo James, of the Divergent series) traveling to Chicago to meet the parents of his partner, Samantha Sutherland (played by Kat Graham of The Vampire Diaries) in order to ask for their blessing to move to another state to begin their own family. The first scene is in fact of Samantha getting a sonogram but somehow that doesn’t raise the stakes since we don’t get to know any of the characters at all. Samantha leaves for their new home in Seattle, while Will not only gets into a fight with his father-in-law, Tom Sutherland (played by Forest Whitaker), during dinner but misses his flight to reunite with his love. It’s during the FaceTime call between Will and Samantha that we begin to get hints of something being wrong, reinforced by Samantha also stating those exact words before the call mysteriously gets disconnected.

After learning that all flights were cancelled and communication lines are down, Will and Tom decide to take a roadtrip to Seattle in order to “save” Samantha from whatever catastrophe is going on in the Western side of the country.

It’s about 2047 miles from Chicago to Seattle, roughly a 30 hour drive without the close calls and obstacles of desperate people trying to kill you for gas. With the obstacles, the film follows the pair driving for about a week; day by day, night by night, cliché by cliché.

During that week, the pair ends up being chased by a cop car, breaking some ribs, passing by shocked and wounded rows of people walking along the highway, as well as stopping by at Little Crow Indian Reservation where they meet Ricki (played by Grace Dove, of the Revenant). Ricki, an auto mechanic, joins their party, exchanging her auto repair skills for $2000 and a ride to California.

Although most of the dialogue is trite, a lot of Ricki’s lines ring true. “We’ll survive this longer than you” was one that hit. We, meaning Native people because, quite frankly, we’ve survived many apocalypses, we’d survive another. It’s in these tiny moments where the film plays with sci fi themes instead of falling into them. After indirectly being the cause of the death of two people, Ricki’s subplot ends as she takes her bags and leaves the two men behind. It’s her stare, playfulness and emotional outburst of guilt which makes Ricki a memorable and enjoyable character to watch.

It’s not to say the acting of Theo James and Forest Whitaker is unenjoyable however, since the film revolves around them, it’s more apparent that depth is missing to their characters. We never learn who they are, what they aspire to do, or what they think of this entire mess of a catastrophe. Their characters are connected by and to Samantha and even that connection is feeble. Samantha enters and exits, without us really caring. 

In turn, their journey starts and ends on an uninteresting note, not to mention awkward. What makes the film slightly interesting are tiny moments of playfulness, mainly through interactions with Ricki, as well as the cinematography, stunts and effects.

Watch How it Ends on Netflix.

Director: David M. Rosenthal

USA

2018 

113 min.

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Jeb’ël Skin Regimen

In the photos above, I did my morning regimen. Also wearing Maybelline eyeliner, Media W Eyebrow liner, a bit of lipstick, and absolutely no foundation. No filter either ;) it looks fuzzy bc I screenshot it from a video. 

After having taken a small break from IG (to maintain my sanity), IG got a new feature which allows friends and followers to anonymously ask a question to a page/person through their story. I obviously had to try it out. And one of my closest friends asked me what my skin regimen is “cause you’re always glowinggggg” and, like, I had to answer.

I immediately appreciated this question since I do care about my skin. Note that I didn’t say that I care about my skin being clear. If you see my stories and posts, and if you’re fortunate enough to see me in person, you know that I am not perfect. Sometimes my skin is really clear and other days I have cyst like pimples on my temples (like right now) or flaky skin or blackheads on my nose or just huge amaca sized bags under my eyes.

Stress is inevitable as an artist and most especially an anxiety-prone, perfection-driven, growing and glowing artist living in New York City, the eye of the vortex, we commonly know as capitalism. It’s hard not to be stressed when the world is literally melting and burning, all at the same time in different places, affecting us all. The stress is real so there is no doubt that the millions of tiny pores on your body and face will be affected by it all too. After all, your skin is literally alive and it needs to be taken care of and protected from harsh sun rays, pollution, harsh winds, pollution….

I try to be as gentle and patient with my skin as possible. If this week I have major pimples, well, my body knows best. I try my best to trust the processes in my body. If the process this week results in a whitehead gala on my forehead, so be it. I rather be patient then add another layer of makeup or stress because the person I’m going on a date with might be bothered by this pimple. If they are, I’d be bothered by their presence and let. their. trivial-asses. go. Respect, prioritize and learn about the processes of your body.

With that being said, I take care of my skin every day for my own inner peace. It’s less about looking good than it is a regimen to de-stress and de-toxify after a long day. A friend commented on my IG story saying that they used to be “that annoying person whod be like “my skincare routine is splashing water on my face🤷🏽‍♀️”” I used to be that person too; it was during the time when I could play 90+ minutes of futbol without taking a break between halves. A lot of things have changed.

At this point in my life, walking out of the house without anything on, not even sunscreen, is horrifying. I always have 50+ SPF sunscreen on when I leave the house. Even if I’m going out to the deli or to walk my shih tzu-child, I still make sure I have sunscreen on. Trust me, I love my brown skin and getting browner makes me binkey with joy but I will not go down from 50 SPF. I just don’t play with UV rays and skin cancer. Also, as you age, so does your skin. What worked when you were nineteen probably will not work for you (me) who is seven years older.

My type of skin:

Oily t-zone

Sometimes dry cheeks and dry laugh lines

Blackheads on nose and sometimes cheeks

Sometimes whiteheads on forehead

Tiny papules near sideburns

Very rare but sometimes get nodules on cheeks and temples (I go to my dermatologist for help for that)

Does not easily scar

Pretty sensitive (a little extra dirt can make my face irritated)

I’m going to start my skin care regimen by describing what I do at night time. This is the most important and enjoyable aspect of my routine. I low-key look forward to taking all the grime and slime off from that days schedule.

With that being said, my regimen may not work for everybody. If you do end up using a product I use and your skin reacts negatively to it, you should stop using it. Obviously people who have severe acne/skin condition should consult a dermatologist/doctor first. I ain't trying to get sued here.

Also, please keep in mind that I am using all products that can be bought. I do want to move towards more natural ways of taking care of my skin. This is just my process at the moment. Also, if you like more matte looking skin, this won’t be for you, tbh. 

FACE WIPES

I recently started using Yes to Tomatoes Detoxifying Charcoal wipes. The wipes are black so its kind of hard to tell if you’ve cleaned anything off. They’re also not soft wipes, they’ve got a bit of texture to them, which I like because I feel like I’m exfoliating a little bit. It’s been a few weeks so far and my skin hasn’t reacted negatively towards it. I use them every night to remove my make up.

FACE WASH

Cetaphil. Usually I get lazy and just move onto toner after the face wipes. Whenever I feel like my skin is a bit flaky I use a bit of Cetaphil and scrub gently with my loofa (which is an exfoliant). That’s all I do for exfoliating. Probably not the best way to go about it. I would probably suggest buying a small loofa for your face, only. But sometimes I’m just like fuck it.

TONER

As I said in my IG story, I used the Clinique Toner 1 for sensitive skin. Yes, it is a little pricey (15 bucks) but that shit works. Toner 1 is for sensitive skin and does not have any alcohol. I use a cotton ball and gently but firmly cleanse my cheeks, in an up and outward movement. Then I move to the temples, forehead, nose, chin, above the lips and, I never, ever forget, my neck, front and back and all around. I typically completely use one large cotton ball to get all the grime out, sometimes two.

NIGHT MOISTURIZERS

Yup. I use Clinique. It’s funny because I wasn’t going to Macys to buy this but dang those saleswomxn. They sold it to me BECAUSE THEY KNEW I’M IN LOVE WITH GLASS SKIN. I DIDN’T EVEN HAVE TO SAY IT. THEY JUST KNEW.

I must also say that I utterly love South Korean beauty trends. Many of the beauty products/trends that occur here in the US like BB / CC creams, glass skin, etc. were actually created in South Korea and popularized there first. Why do I love their stuff? Because they prioritize taking care of your skin and making it healthy, not just making it appear healthy.

Glass skin or mul-gwang is the type of skin that is smooth, flawless and poreless. Additionally, it has a glowy sheen which makes the skin appear dewy. I love this finish because it prioritizes a skin care regimen that works for you and does not focus on make up.

I honestly love eye makeup. Foundation on the other hand, I tend not to wear as much anymore since I feel like all the foundations I’ve tried clogs my pores. Clogged pores just leads to more acne.

Despite the acne, you can still achieve glass skin. Its all about figuring out what makes your skin react negatively to something and what you can use to moisturize to get that dewy look. When I realized that touching my face caused me to break out, you bet I halted my hands from ever reaching my face.  

Also, you don’t need to be light skinned to have glass skin. Pretty damn obvious. Literally any skin color can achieve that dewy look of glass skin, its just about figuring out what products and remedies work for you.

Back to Clinique. I bought the small jar of Moisture surge which came with Clinique All About Eyes cream and Moisture Surge overnight mask—all of which I praise. I take a quarter size amount and dot it on my face and spread it in an upward motion. I also dot the eye cream around my eyes. Lastly, once or twice a week, I place the Overnight mask. You should be left with your face looking pretty dewy. Maybe even to an excess. The key is to not touch your face. Just don’t. Let the product soak into your skin, not your dirty ass hand oil.

I then read a little, pray and fall asleep, without any technology around me to disturb me. Well, that’s on a good day. If I’m hella tired, I would just go straight for Cetaphil and toner. A little bit of Moisture surge and that’s it.

ONCE A WEEK ROUTINE ADD-ONS

So once a week I use:

Yes to Tomatoes Charcoal Paper Mask. Its mainly for acne prone skin but they also have face masks for other qualities like anti-aging, firming, etc (I haven’t tried those yet). Once you place it on your skin it starts to tingle which means that its working to detoxify your skin from impurities! I love me a face mask, especially when I have my de-stressor show playing in the background (I’m basic, I watch Friends. Ugh I know). I typically put on the face mask after I cleansed myself with the face wipe/face wash and toner. I do not remove the juices after I remove the face mask, I pat them into my skin with the backs of my fingers.

Occasionally I do use natural face masks that I make at home. If people wanna read about that, I can write about that in another post.

Also once a week, I use Earth Therapeautics Clari-T Pore Cleansing Strips to get rid of blackheads. It contains tea tree oil which to this day is one of my favorite oils besides Vitamin E oil, castor oil….They are paragon free and contain no mineral oil, no lauryl/laureth sulfate, and no artificial colors. They don’t do animal testing. I bought this at Whole Foods for like six bucks, which isn’t a bad price for 10 of them.

IN THE MORNING…

it’s pretty simple.

I wash my face with water. Sometimes I use the toner, if I feel like I didn’t get it all the night before. Sometimes I use Cetaphil. 

Then I use Nivea FROM THE BLUE TIN CAN. NOT PLASTIC. TIN. I remember the huge ass blue tin can, always in the bathroom of my families apartment in downtown Brooklyn back in the 90’s. And if you look at my families skin in family photos, they’re fucking flawless. 

MUL-GWANG BEFORE IT WAS MUL-GWANG.

I place a quarter size on my face IN AN UPWARD MOTION and then some sunscreen, usually between a button and dime size. I always put a bit extra on my nose because I have a flat face and my nose sticks out. I don’t want to get sunburned! And just because your skin isn’t red, does not mean its not sunburned. Again, I do not play with UV rays!

I don’t usually wear foundation but when I do, I use Smashbox Camera Ready BB cream. Let your skin and pimples breathe and just be. Don’t try to cover them up, it’ll only make it worse.

For my body, I don’t use lotion anymore. I just rub Vitamin E oil into my skin (thank you Sushana for that tip). Honestly, I haven’t seen my skin this naturally healthy and vibrant. There are a lot of brands in our local hood beauty stores; you just gotta try which one works best for you. So far, my skin has reacted lovely to Cococare. 

Eat healthy, lots of veggies. Drink water, lots of water—water is life, after all. Exercise (and make sure to wash your face with water after a good work out. Don’t let the sweat just dry, that will also irritate your face). And if your face gets a little too dewy, I just use Boscia Green Tea Blotting linens, to soak up the extra juicyness around my laughing lines, nose and forehead (thank you Kat for putting me on). 

And that’s it :) Jeb’ël* skin!

*beautiful in Kaqchikel

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Thoughts on El Mar Nos Mira de Lejos

Lately, I’ve been more inclined to listen to sounds compared to lyrical or melodic music. Not sure why, I guess I’m really trying to silence any other noise apart from the constant chatter of priorities and responsibilities in my head that I want to dedicate my time to. I frequently Youtube search beach sounds and listen to an hour to two hour long videos. Despite having grown up in New York City, I frequently forget that I’m so close to the water. I forget how we are literally surrounded by bodies of water, so huge that it connects us to different places so distant and yet not at all too far.

(We live on a huge island and I laugh because I would never rep “Long Island” (more so because of the dominant white narrative it portrays despite having a huge Central/Latin American population as well as two Native reservations. Thank you to friends from “Long Island” who constantly break that white dominant narrative and who are doing the work in telling their own stories. It’s always a good reminder that we really aren’t the minority. They are)).

I seek out these videos because the sounds of water lapping against the sand, of seagulls lounging on air, of the wind, are prioritized. The quality of most Youtube videos however aren’t the greatest. Despite that, I close my eyes and I tend to fall asleep. As I do, I try to remember the salty smell of the water, the tension around my ankles as I make my way to the shore, the sweat that accumulates on my nose, the coolness of wet sand.

When I heard the sounds of El Mar Nos Mira de Lejos I didn’t have to try to imagine these sounds or smells. It connected naturally to it as I saw the documentary--as I heard the documentary. Directed by Manuel Muñoz Rivas (Spain/Netherlands, 2017), the film ruminates around a beach off of Spain’s coast, which is famously known for a semi-mythical ancient city buried beneath it’s cream colored dunes. The documentary closely follows the life that lives off of its shores.

The opening scenes places black and white images of this place, detailing a bit of its history to the backdrop sound of the whistling wind and the bass of the ocean. We never learn the names of the people we encounter, and the one we do we hear very briefly. Nor do we learn about their ambitions or dreams beyond a tired stare through a window screen or one filled with yearning and affection directed towards a visiting friend.

Place is the protagonist of the documentary and the intimate shots of the morphing sand, the critters that roam through the dunes, the men who continue to excavate, who sing drunkenly and gather pine cones in the morning, are its interviews.

The documentary sees beyond the sunset of this beach, focusing on the shadows of the golden hour and all that occurs under an orange moon. Similar to every shot taken, sound is also given the space to fulfill its own timbre and pitch. Every sound is accentuated as if the bells on the horse carriage are ringing right by our ears. The culture of this coastline city is told through sound.

I am not quite used to watching slow cinema; it takes me a couple of tries to actually dedicate my time to watching a film that lingers in a moment instead of cutting, cutting, cutting. I find this interesting since I would like to think that I appreciate the beauty of details, more so in literature though. I enjoy when writers linger on a small detail that speaks to the importance of that person or moment or whatever. Talk about the gables of a home for five to ten pages, I’ll be right there with you. Or maybe description of the lunares of a face, take me away.

With El Mar Nos Mira de Lejos, it took me about two days to finish the film--and I watched it a third time to remember the details. (I tend to start films near the end of my day so my attention span is already shot and unretentive). To the films defense, it is not the slowest of slow cinema there is. There are moments in where shots indulge, but there are actually quite a fair amount of cuts, especially towards the end where the documentary positions our protagonist(s) besides the more “developed” side of the coastline. It’s the stillness of the shots that took me a bit of getting used to. It wasn’t hard since so many of the shots actually say something within their stillness; there is so much beauty within the frame, within the composition, so much shadows playing where the documentary’s eye lingers.

Almost midway into the film, we forget the beach we are on. The men are outside of the frame, the birds, the insects, the dog, too. Are we suddenly watching a desert from a distance, are we seeing giant dunes dissolve from afar? This symbolizes the film for me: the passage of time as seen both within a hourglass and outside of it, without the glass, a natural keeper of time. This harbour city of Tartessos, important in ancient times, now dunes upon dunes where old men continue to dig for a hint of its now buried glory. I think of this city where I live, on this side of the Atlantic, this harbour city of grand importance to the present world and wonder if someone in the future will think of finding an inkling of what the “Big Apple” used to be. Or will they, will we, be able to see trees upon trees, dunes upon dunes, rivers flowing freely/uncovered, clean beaches and hear the wind as it speaks, as it sings? Will we, like the men, dig and dig and dig—and fail—, or leave the land alone to contort itself as it pleases? The land, rather the sand, we see, shifts without requesting for permission. As the film shows, the land speaks and, maybe, time speaks a bit louder.

El Mar Nos Mira de Lejos (The Sea Stares at Us from Afar)

Manuel Muñoz Rivas

Spain/Netherlands

2017

93 min.

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Aggretsuko Review: Retsuko Is My Inner Core

Counting to ten to wake up in the morning. Riding the train during rush hour. Overbearing bosses and coworkers. Friends that have your back. Hang overs. Adorable animals walking upright in human clothing. A streak of death metal. All of this is encompassed in Aggretsuko, a new anime produced by FANWORKS, Inc. and based on the Sanrio character Retsuko, a twenty-five year old red panda, who works a draining accounting office job.

Retsuko--Blood Type A--hopes to contribute to society as any hardworking and “good citizen” would want to do. But after entering the workforce, Retsuko gets a harsh reality check and realizes that being a “model citizen” while working in the corporate world comes with a wide variety of challenges.

As a mammal who goes in and out of the corporate world, I could relate a lot to my fellow sweet-mannered (arboreal) mammal. The anime displays common and, at times, infuriating scenarios in a office setting like working overtime, exhaustion, misogyny, messy office drinking parties, even falling head over heels for a coworker.

Retsuko’s reactions and coping mechanisms to her hostile environment are hilarious and reaffirming in a way; they state that in moments of patriarchal and capitalist toxicity, fatigue and frustration are not only okay but can be expressed in whatever way feels right.  

Her secret and the pulse of the anime is her singing death metal in karaoke booths and elsewhere to destress. Equally as important, she sings death metal when she feels “triumphant.” 

In a moment of rage after witnessing her bosses and co-workers laziness, she finds refuge in her jobs bathroom. Standing on top of the toilet seat she screams:

“Lightning, grant me your vengeance

Hit my boss’s golf club - find your mark!

Lightning, grant me your vengeance

Hit the flunky’s golf club - find your mark!

Lightning, grant me your vengeance

Hit the witch’s head as she runs!

Strike them down!

Strike them down!

Strike them down!

Strike them down!”

As abruptly as she turned into a death metal sorceress, she pops back into her chibi self and says, “Okay, back to work.”

When have we not felt the need to scream into a microphone and melt the faces off of our soul sucking bosses and leech-like coworkers? As a fellow twenty-five year old, although I’m a Gemini unlike Retsuko who’s a Scorpio--her birthday is November 6th--I wholeheartedly felt every single screeching note of her songs.

Which brings me to one of my final comments: can Retsuko put out an album and, perhaps, put out some music videos too?   

Aggretsuko’s first season consists of ten fifteen-minute episodes, making it a great starter anime for those who aren’t neck deep in otaku culture and knowledge. 

Catch Retsuko go through the corporate world with a mic in her hand on Netflix.