Article By: Erin Stevens
At one point, Romantic Comedies were a cinema must-have and a major money maker for studios. But back in 2010, they began to decline into a major slump. A once fun and exciting genre that everyone loved, soon became unable to adjust to the time and overtime outdated. Because of their lack of originality, the rom-coms started to decline at the box office, along with studios not wanting to make an effort to make them. Shockingly a romantic comedy hadn’t been released by any major studio until 2018. But Crazy Rich Asians has stepped in and majorly change this attitude. Not only did it exceed box office predictions, but it made more money than Trainwreck did throughout its entire running time. It even only saw a 6% drop in box office numbers in its second week, compared to Incredibles 2, which saw a 56% drop in its second week. There was a graphic made to compare the amount of money the highest-grossing studio rom-com made each year since 1997. It shows how intense the drop of interest in the traditional rom-com was in the 2010s. Along with showing how well Crazy Rich Asians has been doing in comparison to the highest grossing rom-coms since 1997. Just three weeks into its running in theatres, Crazy Rich Asians already has made more money than American Sweethearts which came out in 2001, Valentine's Day in 2010, Just Go With It in 2011, The Other Woman in 2014, Trainwreck in 2015, and How to Be Single in 2016. There is no doubt that it will rise above many more as it continues.
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Article By: Laramie Ward
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone is a book that follows the life of Samantha McAllister, a junior in high school with purely-obsessional OCD. On the outside, Sam looks just like every other normal high-schooler. What you would never see though, is what goes on inside of Sam’s head every second of every day. She overthinks almost every decision and is fixated on the number 3. She always parks her car when the last number on her odometer is a 3, and she scratches the back of her neck 3 times when she’s nervous. Sam has suffered from this her whole life, and she is terrified of what might happen if anyone ever finds out. Medication, weekly therapy sessions, and lane 3 in the pool at the local club are the things that help keep her OCD hidden from her friends, better known as the ‘crazy eights.’ Sam’s world is forever changed when she is introduced to Poet’s Corner, a small group of people that gather twice a week in a small room underneath the stage in the theater. This small room is a safe place for many. The walls are covered with small pieces of paper, sticky notes, and tops of chicken nugget boxes. Most importantly, no negativity is allowed to enter the room. It’s completely supportive, all the time. When Sam starts feeling more and more like herself in the room, she realizes it’s even better than when she’s with the ‘crazy eights.’ They started calling themselves that in kindergarten, and it stuck. Three group members left as freshmen, and then there were five. Every Last Word isn’t about OCD, it’s about a girl in her junior year of high school who happens to have it. I talked with Fiona Marty, a junior here at Watauga, who has a type of OCD that caused her to hoard when she was younger. She went through extensive exposure therapy, and while it has helped her to, almost entirely, take control over her OCD, there were times in middle school that she had panic attacks whenever she tried to leave the house. ‘If someone is struggling with any mental disorder, you should do what you can to help them. Sometimes the best way to do that is to acknowledge that they have the illness, ask if there's anything you can do, and move on.’ Fiona told me this after I asked her how people should treat those with mental illness when they’ve just met them. One of reasons why Sam won’t tell her friends about her OCD is because she is afraid they will treat her differently. When she tells her new friends at Poet’s Corner, they welcome her as if nothing had changed. Honestly, nothing did change. That’s how it should be. Sam is still the Sam they met a couple months ago, they just know another little thing that makes Samantha McAllister, Samantha McAllister. When I asked Fiona what she turned to on her hardest days, she responded with: “On my hardest days the thing that has helped me the most is when people realize that I’m not ok and choose to stay with me. Some of my closest friends have been the ones that stayed up all night texting me because I couldn't sleep, or who offered to be a shoulder to cry on when I was having a panic attack.” Everyone could learn a little something from this book. Whether or not you choose to have an open mind, is your decision. This book follows the life of a girl who happens to have OCD, and in my mind, that’s how it should be. |