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Summer Spectacles

Throughout the summer months, students often look to fill their free time with some entertainment, whether that’s through television, movies, music, or video games. This summer brought a plethora of hits, from sequels to reboots, and even a couple originals to freshen the field. We chose the best of each category released over the summer, with a few honorable mentions for each category.
Summer Spectacles
Best Movie: Deadpool and Wolverine
Best Movie: Deadpool and Wolverine

Deadpool & Wolverine was perhaps the summer’s most anticipated movie. The Deadpool name comes with
a promise of raunchy humor, a skewering of the traditional superhero formula, and a plethora of cameos, and this film delivers on those promises.

While Ryan Reynolds as the wisecracking Deadpool is great like always, the return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine gave the story a different feel than the previous two films.

Jackman’s Wolverine, who is from a universe where he failed to protect his X-Men team, is a great character for Deadpool to play off, making the movie feel something like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles with superheroes.

Deadpool, now integrated into the multiversal chaos of the MCU, gets to make jokes about the lackluster reception of previous Marvel movies, variants of
himself and Wolverine, and meet a variety of forgotten characters from the past Marvel movies.

The movie was a love letter to the Fox superhero movies and the fans that have followed them since the beginning. No
surprises will be spoiled here, but it reaches the heights of the previous Deadpool films and even goes beyond in many areas.

(Credit: Marvel Studios)
Honorable Mentions: The Bikeriders and Longlegs

The Bikeriders is a movie that might not fit the typical summer blockbuster. It follows the members of a motorcycle club called
the Vandals as it starts out small, eventually expanding from a gathering of people who reject conformity to a stereotypical “one-percenter” gang. It is inspired by the book of the same name written by Danny Lyon. The cast is full of great actors, led by Austin Butler (Elvis) and Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), along with many more.

Longlegs is a horror movie that, instead of going for the cheap jumpscare, worms its way under your skin and stays there for the entire runtime. The film follows FBI agent Lee Harker as she tracks the serial killer known only as “Longlegs” who leaves coded messages at his crime scenes. Nicolas Cage as the titular character is uniquely disturbing, and this is one of the top horrors of the year.

Best Music: Short n' Sweet
Best Music: Short n’ Sweet

While she’d had a long music career before, Sabrina Carpenter catapulted into newfound fame after opening for Taylor Swift on the recordbreaking Eras Tour. Short n’ Sweet is the definition of a summer hit – light, breezy, and most of all fun. Is the phrase “that’s that me espresso” complete nonsense? Sure, but it’s a joyful and fun escape from more realistic problems. “Espresso,” “Please Please Please,” and “Taste” are the songs that will likely get the most attention, but almost every song on the album is filled with naughty wordplay and shots at guys who wronged her.

(Credit: Island Records)
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