Arts and Entertainment
Slicked-Back Success in STC’s Fall Musical, Grease
STC took on the beloved 1950s musical Grease and left nothing to be desired, from vocal aptitude to comedic props and a vibrant band that left the audience “All Choked Up.”
How Democracy Dies: Mussolini: Son of the Century
Mussolini: Son of the Century is a chilling exploration of how fascism thrives on contradiction, performance, and the seductive power of populist rhetoric.
The Studio Reminds Us Why We Love Movies
By Kabir Madan
The Studio is a brilliantly poignant dive into film that features a sublime ensemble and inventively crafted episodic arcs, but its over-the-top antics frequently take away from the show’s meaning.
Orpheus for All: James Ehnes and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
By Maggie Miao
James Ehnes and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra recently gave a free concert at Carnegie Hall, which was as spectacular as one would expect from this outstanding pairing.
Peacemaker… What a Joke
By Kabir Madan
Although Season Two had great character moments and an interesting premise, the uneven pacing significantly held it back. 11
When Objects Dream: Man Ray and His Art from Another World
By Ruby Kennedy
The work of Surrealism founding father Man Ray is on display at the Met, from rayographs to cinepoems, and it shines a light on what purpose art was serving after World War I.
Kinhaven Music School Semester Program, an Innovative Classical Music Initiative
By Maggie Miao
Kinhaven Music School’s new Semester Program immerses high-school musicians in a unique experience where they can receive high-level music instruction while maintaining a regular academic schedule.
Mad Max x Hugh Glass: Chaos, Revolution, and Paul Thomas Anderson
By Kabir Madan
The positives clearly outweigh the negatives, due to the amazing cast and direction, as well as the overall experience through the storyline and entertainment.
The Conflicted Wit of Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend (2025)
By Sofia Sen
Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend falls flat with unoriginal lyrics, overused sensual themes, and a confused direction that backtracks her past success
Weapons Hits its Target
Weapons, directed by Zach Cregger, is a zingy, funny, yet spine-chilling horror movie that exceeds expectations and serves to delight viewers.
The 2025 MTV Video Music Awards: Some Deserved, Some Not
By Sara Bhuiyan
The 2025 VMAs was a ceremony full of amazing performances and some questionably picked award recipients.
PlayAsia #5: End of Summer Albums
With the end of Summer comes new music: new releases from Asian music artists to add to the playlist.
Big Thief’s Double Infinity: Exploring Love and What Can’t Be Said
By Mira Anant
Big Thief’s new album Double Infinity is a raw, exploratory folk-rock record that embraces imperfection and contradiction, using Adrianne Lenker’s intimate lyricism and the band’s loosened sound to explore love, memory, and the beauty of the unknown.
Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) Was Pretty Fantastic
By Emi Shimada
Fantastic Four: First Steps creates a visually-stunning, heartwarming viewing experience featuring some writing missteps.
Caught Stealing: Old Tropes in Old New York.
Caught Stealing is a contradiction: both a clichéd crime flick and a surprisingly layered performance piece.
The Metamorphosis: Lorde’s Transformation in Virgin
By Mira Anant
Lorde’s Virgin represents a bold, experimental reinvention of her sound and themes, blending vulnerability, gender, body awareness, and mature introspection while diverging from the familiar tones of Melodrama and Solar Power.
The Sydney Sweeney Ad: Our Thoughts
By The Arts & Entertainment Department
In a rare moment of consensus for the department, our esteemed artists and entertainers share their general skepticism about the cultural significance of American Eagle’s recent ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney.
Snails, Seahorses, and Modernist Pottery
In 61 stunning works, Making it Modern explores how turn-of-the-century European ceramicists took the ideas of the modernist movement and married them with the traditions of pottery.
Playlist
By The Arts & Entertainment Department
School’s back and our phones, laptops, and other internet enabled devices are all gone. With their New York Times and Spotify apps locked away in a velcro pouch, Stuyvesant students have returned to using The Spectator as their main source of news and entertainment.
The Bear Season Four: A Slow-Cooked Return to Form
By Kabir Madan
Although the latest installment resolves many of Season Three’s flaws, and delivers a more mature tone, it’s still unfocused, largely because the restaurant—once the show’s anchor—is pushed to the wayside in favor of many scattered and tedious storylines.
Justin Bieber Redefines His ‘Swag’
By Sama Daga
With SWAG, Justin Bieber trades teenage bravado for a quieter, more honest portrait of adulthood and love.
Look Up!
By The Arts & Entertainment Department
The Arts & Entertainment Department curates a James Gunn–style playlist that reimagines a Stuyvesant student as a superhero, mixing hip-hop, rock, trap, and alternative vibes!
Its a Bird! Its a Plane! Its Superman (2025)!
By Kabir Madan
Although Superman falls into many modern superhero flick cliches and plot points, its uniquely hopeful and positive messaging makes it a breath of fresh air in an era of superhero-fatigue.
Ring, Ring, Ring, Tyler Has a New Album Out!
Tyler the Creator released his newest album DON'T TAP THE GLASS, an upbeat call for listeners to dance and step away from the realities of the world.
Lilo and Stitch: Changed For the Better or For the Worse?
By Sara Bhuiyan
The Lilo and Stitch live-action remake changes the plot of the original film, but do the changes make the film better or worse?
Rot and Rain: A Season of Decay in The Last of Us
By Sama Daga
The Last of Us Season Two is a bold, brutal dive into grief and revenge that trades comfort for raw emotional honesty.
Lust for a Deceased Head: Richard Strauss’s Salome at the Met Opera
By Albert Shen
Opera review for Salome at the Met
“Scandinavian” Scarves and More: The Erasure of South Asian Influence on Western Fashion
By Mira Anant
The frequent appropriation and rebranding of South Asian influence in fashion without acknowledgment reflects a deeper issue of cultural erasure, highlighting the urgent need for genuine appreciation, historical recognition, and ethical collaboration.
Tempered Rebellion in We Live in a Society
JPEGMAFIA and Flume came together in the EP We Live in a Society for an artistically unbalanced collaboration.
Bread, Brotherhood, and Bracknell: Reviewing the STC’s The Importance of Being Earnest
By Kabir Madan, Oscar Scribner
STC’s Spring comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest, was a triumphant, laughter-filled production that emphasized the promise of Stuyvesant’s future productions.
Grime, Gloss, and the Death of Post-Sovietism
Gvasalia’s latest stunt with Balenciaga marks the surgical erasure of Post-Soviet culture he once championed, replaced with an austere, corporate elegance.
F1: Cliché Yet Thrilling
By Molly Gupta
A review of F1: The Movie (2025), a film that is entertaining and enjoyable, despite the cliché plot and shallow relationships.
Lilo and Stitch: Changed For the Better or For the Worse?
By Sara Bhuiyan
The Lilo and Stitch live-action remake changes the plot of the original film, but do the changes make the film better or worse?
Rot and Rain: A Season of Decay in The Last of Us
By Sama Daga
The Last of Us Season Two is a bold, brutal dive into grief and revenge that trades comfort for raw emotional honesty.
Lust for a Deceased Head: Richard Strauss’s Salome at the Met Opera
By Albert Shen
Opera review for Salome at the Met
“Scandinavian” Scarves and More: The Erasure of South Asian Influence on Western Fashion
By Mira Anant
The frequent appropriation and rebranding of South Asian influence in fashion without acknowledgment reflects a deeper issue of cultural erasure, highlighting the urgent need for genuine appreciation, historical recognition, and ethical collaboration.
Tempered Rebellion in We Live in a Society
JPEGMAFIA and Flume came together in the EP We Live in a Society for an artistically unbalanced collaboration.
Bread, Brotherhood, and Bracknell: Reviewing the STC’s The Importance of Being Earnest
By Kabir Madan, Oscar Scribner
STC’s Spring comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest, was a triumphant, laughter-filled production that emphasized the promise of Stuyvesant’s future productions.
Grime, Gloss, and the Death of Post-Sovietism
Gvasalia’s latest stunt with Balenciaga marks the surgical erasure of Post-Soviet culture he once championed, replaced with an austere, corporate elegance.
An Impossible Mission… One Last Time
By Kabir Madan
While Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) is weighed down at times by heavy exposition and clunky plotting, these flaws are negligible compared to the emotional payoff and jaw-dropping action.
Slicked-Back Success in STC’s Fall Musical, Grease
STC took on the beloved 1950s musical Grease and left nothing to be desired, from vocal aptitude to comedic props and a vibrant band that left the audience “All Choked Up.”
How Democracy Dies: Mussolini: Son of the Century
Mussolini: Son of the Century is a chilling exploration of how fascism thrives on contradiction, performance, and the seductive power of populist rhetoric.
The Studio Reminds Us Why We Love Movies
By Kabir Madan
The Studio is a brilliantly poignant dive into film that features a sublime ensemble and inventively crafted episodic arcs, but its over-the-top antics frequently take away from the show’s meaning.
Orpheus for All: James Ehnes and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
By Maggie Miao
James Ehnes and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra recently gave a free concert at Carnegie Hall, which was as spectacular as one would expect from this outstanding pairing.
Peacemaker… What a Joke
By Kabir Madan
Although Season Two had great character moments and an interesting premise, the uneven pacing significantly held it back. 11
When Objects Dream: Man Ray and His Art from Another World
By Ruby Kennedy
The work of Surrealism founding father Man Ray is on display at the Met, from rayographs to cinepoems, and it shines a light on what purpose art was serving after World War I.
Kinhaven Music School Semester Program, an Innovative Classical Music Initiative
By Maggie Miao
Kinhaven Music School’s new Semester Program immerses high-school musicians in a unique experience where they can receive high-level music instruction while maintaining a regular academic schedule.
Mad Max x Hugh Glass: Chaos, Revolution, and Paul Thomas Anderson
By Kabir Madan
The positives clearly outweigh the negatives, due to the amazing cast and direction, as well as the overall experience through the storyline and entertainment.
The Conflicted Wit of Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend (2025)
By Sofia Sen
Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend falls flat with unoriginal lyrics, overused sensual themes, and a confused direction that backtracks her past success
Weapons Hits its Target
Weapons, directed by Zach Cregger, is a zingy, funny, yet spine-chilling horror movie that exceeds expectations and serves to delight viewers.
The 2025 MTV Video Music Awards: Some Deserved, Some Not
By Sara Bhuiyan
The 2025 VMAs was a ceremony full of amazing performances and some questionably picked award recipients.
PlayAsia #5: End of Summer Albums
With the end of Summer comes new music: new releases from Asian music artists to add to the playlist.
Big Thief’s Double Infinity: Exploring Love and What Can’t Be Said
By Mira Anant
Big Thief’s new album Double Infinity is a raw, exploratory folk-rock record that embraces imperfection and contradiction, using Adrianne Lenker’s intimate lyricism and the band’s loosened sound to explore love, memory, and the beauty of the unknown.
The Sydney Sweeney Ad: Our Thoughts
By The Arts & Entertainment Department
In a rare moment of consensus for the department, our esteemed artists and entertainers share their general skepticism about the cultural significance of American Eagle’s recent ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney.
Snails, Seahorses, and Modernist Pottery
In 61 stunning works, Making it Modern explores how turn-of-the-century European ceramicists took the ideas of the modernist movement and married them with the traditions of pottery.
Playlist
By The Arts & Entertainment Department
School’s back and our phones, laptops, and other internet enabled devices are all gone. With their New York Times and Spotify apps locked away in a velcro pouch, Stuyvesant students have returned to using The Spectator as their main source of news and entertainment.
Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) Was Pretty Fantastic
By Emi Shimada
Fantastic Four: First Steps creates a visually-stunning, heartwarming viewing experience featuring some writing missteps.
Caught Stealing: Old Tropes in Old New York.
Caught Stealing is a contradiction: both a clichéd crime flick and a surprisingly layered performance piece.
The Bear Season Four: A Slow-Cooked Return to Form
By Kabir Madan
Although the latest installment resolves many of Season Three’s flaws, and delivers a more mature tone, it’s still unfocused, largely because the restaurant—once the show’s anchor—is pushed to the wayside in favor of many scattered and tedious storylines.
Justin Bieber Redefines His ‘Swag’
By Sama Daga
With SWAG, Justin Bieber trades teenage bravado for a quieter, more honest portrait of adulthood and love.
The Metamorphosis: Lorde’s Transformation in Virgin
By Mira Anant
Lorde’s Virgin represents a bold, experimental reinvention of her sound and themes, blending vulnerability, gender, body awareness, and mature introspection while diverging from the familiar tones of Melodrama and Solar Power.
Look Up!
By The Arts & Entertainment Department
The Arts & Entertainment Department curates a James Gunn–style playlist that reimagines a Stuyvesant student as a superhero, mixing hip-hop, rock, trap, and alternative vibes!
Williamsburg’s Disappearing Canvases
Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg unveils a living museum, where street art combines history and creativity onto walls threatened by development and erasure.
KPop Demon Hunters: Celebrating Korean Culture
By Rachel Hong
Despite its questionable name, KPop Demon Hunters stands out as one of the most impressive films of the summer, celebrating Korean and western culture.