CatlinSpeak

Iron Man 3, directed by Shane Black

Midway through The Avengers, Captain America and Tony Stark have an argument. Cap asks, “Take away that suit and what are you?” That conflict is never really resolved in The Avengers. Though the two men are able to work together in the big battle of New York, the question still lingers after the credits roll. Iron Man 3 is the spiritual continuation of that argument, taking Tony Stark out of his suit and seeing how he functions as both a man and a hero.

Directed by Shane Black, screenwriter for the classic action movie Lethal Weapon as well as the director for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3 feels different than its predecessors. Iron Manwas the origin story, introducing us to Tony Stark and showing us what made him become Iron Man. It was a funny, relatively low-budget film, and put Marvel films on the map as a studio that could reinvigorate characters. The most important thing was that it had a clear character arc for Tony Stark. He went from being a playboy billionaire who couldn’t care about anyone into someone who could be an actual hero, risking his life to save the lives of many.

Iron Man 3 theatrical poster (Source: Wikipedia)

Then two years later came Iron Man 2. A better title for that movie would be Everyone Gets a Robo Suit and Shoots Each Other with Lasers! It was a loud action movie, but the action never had any emotional depth. It still had the same charming characters and brought in Don Cheadle to replace Terrence Howard as James Rhodes, Stark’s buddy sidekick, and Sam Rockwell as a rival industrialist. It went to an extreme, having almost every major character jumping into an Iron Man suit and shooting other Iron Man suits. It was big and flashy but there was nothing underneath those big beefy robotic suits.

Then came Iron Man 3, which jumped in the complete opposite direction from Iron Man 2. In this 135-minute movie, Stark was in the suit about fifteen minutes (that time does not include a fantastically choreographed fight scene when he has on only bits and pieces of the suit). It felt more grounded, more human. Those words get thrown around a lot, but here it actually means something. We see a man who has everything. Money, a loving girlfriend, a cool best friend, brains, a kickass robo suit, a good job — and he even saved the world. Take all that away, and what is he? Well, when an evil organization uses a virus to make people overheat and explode, that question is answered. We see Stark making friends with a young mechanic kid, who lost his father just like Stark, in a mountain town and building some very imaginative weapons. Even when he has nothing, brains beat brawn. Thankfully, the kid never becomes a substitute sidekick. This isn’t Last Action Hero, another movie Black worked on. The kid isn’t reunited with his estranged father and has to be saved all the time; he serves a purpose and the movie moves on. Every character serves a specific purpose. Don Cheadle and Robert Downey Jr. also emulate some good old Lethal Weapon techniques, with both of them running around an oil rig in polo shirts with guns. The influence of Black’s career is seen throughout these small references, and feels incredibly welcome while still staying somewhat in the background.

In any good action movie, memorable villains are a key part of the equation.  Villains like Alan Rickman in Die Hard, Gary Oldman in The Fifth Element, and Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight all add something that makes them different from a generic villain. They bring both humor and charm to a dark, evil person. Iron Man 3, without giving anything away, had me completely surprised and excited about the Mandarin, played by Ben Kingsley. In the comics, the Mandarin was just a Chinese professor who found ten magic rings, shot people with those magic rings, and was always stopped by Iron Man. He was a boring villain who never seemed to go anywhere. Iron Man 3 changed that, making him much more relevant in today’s world as the leader of a terrorist organization called “The Ten Rings.” He’s a scary guy, seen only through dirty video cameras and terrorist videos. Ben Kingsley gives a terrific performance, slurring his voice and just being a menacing guy in general. He’s ruthless, manipulative, and a killer, and the fact that he is still scary and we don’t even really meet him until halfway through the movie is a testament to Kingsley’s performance.

All in all, Iron Man 3 is the most fun Iron Man movie. The action is well choreographed with shades of ’80s action movies, the acting is as strong as ever with Robert Downey Jr. still stealing the show, and the plot is just comic book-y enough to keep a big comic book nerd entertained while also being accessible to people who don’t care so much about comics. Iron Man 3 comes out of the Avengers strong, keeping the Marvel movies on the upward trajectory they have been on ever since the first Iron Man.

From shoes created from a single thread and shirts made from bacteria-killing fabric to handmade sandals created using all recycled materials, athletic companies are developing scientific advancements to enhance performance and making designs that are more creative and aesthetically pleasing. Never before have sportswear innovations or production methods been changing as rapidly or so in line with the world economy.

I visited Tuan Le, an independent shoe designer and Catlin Gabel parent, to learn about how he translates the newest technologies and demands of companies into creations. His office was light and quiet despite his recent move there. In the back room I found piles of cardboard boxes filled with all of Le’s past sketches and examples of the shoes he has designed. First he showed me a one-of-a-kind bright green running shoe that weighed 6.2 ounces, which he created for a professional triathlete. Although you could see influences from other shoes, the pair looked unique. They were made for Zoot, a Spanish brand currently focusing on creating a reputation by dressing professional athletes. Tuan had just received these shoes and soon he would be working on a mass-produced version for sale to the public.

Behind the couch I sat on was a wall of shoes that he created in the past. Ugg boots, the original Rebook with Velcro straps, and eccentric running shoes were among them. We began discussing his philosophy about designing shoes.

Le says that it was the world economy and globalization that change the way companies manufacture their shoes. “It’s not about making a product better, like run faster or jump longer. It’s about what’s easier to manufacture.” International labor prices are increasing because the workers, he says, “are asking for the same things all of us are asking for: they want a house, clean water, air, and a place for their kids to grow up.” He picked up a pair of bulky baseball cleats and described to me the process by which they were made. He says,“130 peopled touched these shoes,” but now, “everybody and Nike especially are trying to make shoes with as little labor as possible.” In designing shoes his main priority used to be wasting as little fabric as possible, but now he also has to keep in mind the number of people required to build the shoe in a factory. He now tries to design shoes that require “as little stitching as possible, and as much automation as possible.”

While Nike and other large corporations decided to develop new technologies to cut down on the price of labor, smaller local companies that Le works with are trying to bring the construction back to Portland. “Many years ago the whole business left the U.S. to Asia because it was cheaper, and now I thought it was just about time to come back again.”

Le worked with the Portland-based shoe company Keen to build a factory on Swan Island. Keen invested in two German machines that cleanly build shoes. Unlike large overseas factories, there are few workers and the employees are highly skilled in order to operate the machinery. I had the opportunity to visit the factory with Le and received a tour from the owner. The industrial walls were painted yellow and covered with words that represent Keen’s philosophy, and an American flag was hung in the middle. The people working at the factory were extremely proud of their innovated facility, which made shoes humanely, environmentally, and efficiently, all in the United States. Although not all of the individual parts of the shoes are made at the factory, they are assembled and prepared there for distribution. This involves prepping the upper for a sole, attaching the sole, and cleaning up the shoe to be sold.

Keen uses a unique German process to create and attach the sole. The upper is placed onto a blue foot that is lowered into a sealed mold. Three different liquid chemicals are combined and then injected into the mold that harden and expand, creating a sole attached to the shoe due to pressure. Any extra rubber scraps can be melted down and reused again, wasting almost nothing. This production of the sole is highly efficient and environmentally friendly. All of the stitching is done in India, but someday Keen hopes to bring the entire process to the United States.

Back at his office, Le told me about another brand that has also been at the forefront of environmental innovation. Twenty years ago Portland’s Deja Shoe developed a sandal created from recycled materials. Ahead of their time, they went bankrupt, but recently Le offered to help them restart. Part of Le’s Buddhist philosophy is to always be working on a project, which he does without asking for anything, so when the owner of Deja Shoe approached him he agreed to help because “her goal was true and her aim was true. I am a Buddhist and so I help without anything in return.” Together they developed a flip-flop from recycled objects that is hand stitched in Portland. “You can look at it and know that it was lovingly handmade; when it looks so perfect it is not so cool. When you see the wrinkle, the folds, you can tell that there was labor involved.”

Nike, on the other hand, has to continue to innovate and change their products depending on the trends of the season and the demand of the consumer. Because of the large scale and changing designs their factories remain overseas and the construction becomes even more automated, moving away from the handmade look of Deja Shoe.

I visited the bustling headquarters of Nike, where I talked about the design and innovation process on a world scale with designers Jason Gonzales and Carmen Zolman. Although there are innumerable differences between large corporations like Nike and smaller businesses such as Keen and Deja Shoe, Nike has seen changes where products are manufactured. Businesses around the world are moving out of China due to rising labor prices and, as Zolman says, “things are shifting more to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Turkey. A lot of other countries are talking about Africa. I think that it will continue to be a cycle around the world; we talk about in the industry the day that the cycle will come back to the United States.”

Because of cost Nike will never be able to use 100% recycled materials like Deja Shoe; however Zolman says, “Nike has been at the forefront of the environmental processes.” They have made it a policy to use 5% organic cotton in every cotton product that Nike manufactures and use recycled polyester.

Zolman says that Nike cannot innovate as quickly as smaller companies do because they must test things extensively to ensure that everything will be successful over time and will do, scientifically, what they say they will. However, she also said that she has seen changes in the design process itself. Nike is focusing on “designing in 3D,” so instead of designers being limited by drawing, they create and work with materials to generate ideas. The “makers” trend is popularizing the crafted and handmade. Nike is struggling because “it’s no longer cool to have the big mass-market machine-made thing, people want something small and crafted,” says Zolman. To combat this, designers are working with new materials to make products unique and crafted-looking.

Zolman spoke about how she visited Andy and Bax, the military surplus store, to find an old military dry duffel bag, which she used to make an armor-inspired jacket. She also showed me a pair of shorts made from a parachute. These garments are purely for inspiration and try to push the envelope of what can be created from unlikely materials. She pointed to a black windbreaker jacket with militaristic leather-like detailing that had been inspired by the duffel bag shell that she created.

A difference between the designers at Nike and Le is their involvement in production after the company approves a design. On the return from the Keen factory, Le pointed out how in large companies the glamorous design process is often separated from the grueling world of factories and manufacturing. A designer who defines trends and decides how fashion will innovate may never see the actual process in which the shoe is made and experience the lifestyle of people in far off countries stitching the shoe together in an assembly line. For Tuan, seeing where the shoes he creates are made helps him become a better and more conscientious designer.

Although Nike and other large corporations play a huge part in how the fashion world changes, it is the smaller companies that are able to propel innovation, redefine the production process, and direct design.

Check out some photos! 

Shoe 1

Keen welcomed us by decorating a white board (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 2

The uppers being prepared to have a sole be attached (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 3

An upper that has just been steamed in prepartion of having the sole attatched (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 4

The machine where the upper and blue feet are mantled (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 5

The upper being lowered into the sole mold (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 6

The chemicals are expanding and hardening created the sole of the shoe, the black ooze coming out of the mold is the excess liquid rubber where the mold was injected (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 7

Because the rubber dries so quickly it can formed into all sorts of things! (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 8

Hannah, our old CatlinSpeak editor, trying her hand at cutting off a scrap of excess rubber (which will later be collected and melted down) (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 9

Cleaning up any finals pieces of rubber (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 10

Spray painting the sole black to make it shinier (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 11

The final line of shoes are being inspected for quality before being boxed and sent to the distribution center (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 12

A machine that test how many times a sole can be bent (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 13

This machine simulates the aging process so the researchers can see what the shoe will look like in 15 years (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 14

A water leakage test. There are sensors inside so the shoes which will indicate when water has leaked. The boots are being bent repeatedly and the water is died red so they can see where the water leakage is at the end of the experiment. (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 15

Force is being applied to the steel toe of a workout to see how much pressure it can take. (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shoe 16

This machine is pulling where a piece of rubber and sole where glued together to test the strength of the bond. (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Jacket

The shell jacket made from an old military duffel bag (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Shorts

A pair of shorts made from an old parachute hand sewn by Carmen (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

Zoot shoe

Zoot Shoe – the Zoot running shoe that Tuan designed (Photo: Mary Whitsell)

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In science-fiction blockbusters, world-building is where the real meat is. Usually in the first act of a good futuristic science fiction movie, a director will set the scene for the world the audience is about to find themselves in and establishes the rules.

In Oblivion, that world-building is very well done. A sense of uncomfortable monotony and unease is expressed early on and helps to set the tone of the film. Still, like so many good-looking sci-fi movies, everything eventually turns into a giant, explosion-riddled battle for survival.

Tom Cruise and Andrea Riseborough star as a couple living in a massive spire built in the destroyed vestige of New York City. 50 years prior, Earth was attacked by aliens called Scavengers, or “Scavs,” and the war that eventually drove them off left Earth a shadow of its former glory. Humanity has been driven to turning the oceans into fuel for giant ships bound for Saturn’s moon Titan.

(Source: wikipedia.org)

Cruise and Riseborough are some of the last people on guard duty, protecting these massive ships from the last remnants of the Scavs, while also reporting to mission controller Melissa Leo, a mildly sinister lady whose evil intentions you can see coming from a mile away.

Oblivion looks great. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, whose last movie was the controversial (and also beautiful) Tron: Legacy, the art style is simply inspiring. Environments shift from sparse, clean looking, utopian settings to organic, dirty, and somewhat welcoming scenery. Both come off as completely real and are a testament to both the directing and the cinematography from Claudio Mirana, who also worked on Tron.

However, Tom Cruise is still there. There’s nothing here to really distinguish him from his roles in Minority Report or Mission: Impossible. He briefs the audience on his emotions with voice overs telling us he’s sad or in love. He also keeps repeating a poem by Thomas B. Macaulay about death, in which he tells us he’s gonna pull through.  He never really brings any real character to the role, sleepwalking through gorgeous post-apocalyptic landscapes.

All in all, Oblivion looks fantastic. It just isn’t hiding any depth underneath all that beauty.

The story of Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play in Major League Baseball, was one of the most important moments in the American civil rights movement.

42, the new Jackie Robinson biopic written and directed by Brian Helgelend, struggles in its attempt to paint the picture of the influential baseball player, as it is held back by the generic conventions of the sport while also trying to bring to light the terrors of racism.

Brian Helgelend, whose movies range from L.A. Confidential to Payback and The Order, approaches Jackie Robinson more as the legend rather than the man. The film takes away from the danger and menace of the time period when Robinson broke the color barrier and excelled as a player.

The poster for the new Jackie Robinson biopic (Source: Wikipedia)

The way the movie portrays the racism of the era seems too subdued for a PG-13 movie, although the prejudice is definitely still there. Robinson, played by the excellently casted Chadwick Boseman, faces many barriers on his journey with the team.

These include being refused service in a Philadelphia hotel, hate mail and death threats being sent to his team, a gas attendant denying Robinson and his black teammate’s entrance to a non-colored bathroom, coaches and teammates in general being just plain rude and nasty.

It’s impossible to not be inspired by the way Robinson pushes through this hate and be a great ballplayer. He receives tremendous support from his future wife Rachel Isum, played by Nicole Behaire, and Brooklyn Dodger executive Branch Rickey, played by Harrison Ford (whose acting comes across like he’s doing a bad Tommy Lee Jones impression).

Still, all the hate seems rather relaxed. There are only brief glimpses at the actual violence and bias that permeated this time in American history and so Robinson’s success, while amazing, is made to seem, unfortunately, less impressive.

This spring break I visited London and learned that the idea of British food being “tasteless” is simply not true. Below is a photo essay examining the many foods from many different nationalities I experienced when I crossed the pond.

From Garfunkel’s Restaurant (a chain of restaurants found almost everywhere in the city): the classic beef meat pie with a twist--the pastry is not filled with the meat, but is in the bowl underneath. A tasty mix one can make themselves. Served with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables.

The meat pie mid-meal.

Also from Garfunkel’s: fish and chips. The skin is left on the cod, allowing for more flavor to be trapped. Served with tartar sauce and mashed peas, know as ‘mushy peas’ in the UK.

Classic pub food from The Spice of Life. A series of bangers with mustard and served family style.

From Bibimbap Café--traditional Korean soup with green onions, seaweed and tofu. In the background is kimchi.

The titular dish of Bibimbap Café -- bibimbap. It’s served the traditional Korean style, with bean sprouts, hardboiled egg, spinach, and spicy beef, with rice underneath.

The ‘50s style menu from Muriel’s Kitchen.

From Muriel’s Kitchen, eggs benedict served on a ‘50s vintage plate.

A traditional English breakfast from Muriel’s Kitchen -- beans, bacon “slab,” mushrooms, fried egg, and a banger. Served with toast and tea on the side.

From Khan’s Restaurant: tandoori chicken on fresh onions. In the background are side vegetables, and to the right is garlic naan bread.

Close up on the naan from Khan’s.

From Khan’s Restaurant, lamb biryani (spiced rice and lamb dish).

From Milan Café: thin crust pizza with prosciutto ham.

On Easter Sunday, we decided to get dim sum at Diya. Pictured here are vermicelli noodles with beef, green onions, and scrambled egg. To the right is traditional chile sauce.

From Diya, crab dumplings.

From Diya, sticky rice in a lotus leaf.

The interior of the sticky rice.

Lastly, I tried a British take on the American diner at Byron’s, which heralds “proper hamburgers.” Pictured here are the heavily battered onion rings. In the background is the “Byron burger,” with special sauce and bacon.

An aerial view of the milkshake from Byron’s. It was very thick, filling, and delicious.

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(The Host poster from Wikipedia.)

It’s hard to watch The Host (the recent adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s novel of the same title). Not because it’s bad (though it certainly is bad), but because it honestly could have been pretty good, and all of that potential was squandered.

Director Andrew Niccol uses a distinct style that creates a chilly, unemotional atmosphere. As the director of Gattaca, one of the best science fiction movies in the last 20 years, Niccol could have added so much to a movie plagued by poor screenwriting.

Even the lead actress, Saoirse Ronan, the star of movies like Atonement, The Lovely Bones, and Hanna, could have improved the film through her usual sincerity and depth, but the entire effort simply fell short.

Ronan stars as a delicate but gutsy teenager who is one of the last members in a resistance against a quiet alien invasion. Most of humanity has been replaced with creatures called “Souls.” Humans become injected with these souls and they start to fade away, becoming aliens trapped in human bodies that really love white power suits and chrome-plated cars.

In the opening scene, Ronan is captured by the aliens and injected with a soul. What happens next? You guessed it! The determination to reunite with her uncle (William Hurt), little brother (Chandler Canterbury), and lover (Max Irons) keeps her from fading and she returns back to the human resistance.

 In one of the strangest twists ever written in the young adult fiction genre, the soul inhabiting Ronan’s body falls for another guy (Jake Abel). There’s also the antagonist soul (Diane Kruger) who is hunting Ronan after she escapes the soul compound.

 The main problem with the movie is that it changes tones so quickly. In one scene Irons is gently telling Ronan that she doesn’t have to have sex with him and then almost immediately afterward Abel is telling Ronan’s personality to leave so he can get with her body while the soul is in control.

 The Host has the same creepiness that pervaded the other Stephenie Meyer novel-turned-movie-series, Twilight. It tries clinging to a theme of passion triumphing over all and yet, just like the souls in the movie, the film comes off as a soulless, mechanical mess.

(G.I. Joe Retaliation from Wikipedia.)

I was excited to see the G.I. Joe sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation. I was never into the cartoons or toys as a kid, but I loved that the first movie was so self-consciously silly. It had a somewhat fun plot with man-eating Nano machines and a memorable villain played by Christopher Eccleston, who brought a lot of charm.

 Yes, there were too many characters and it was hard to care about any of them, but it had a spirit of adventure that was pretty redeeming. It was also the first big Channing Tatum movie I saw, and it won him a place as one of my favorite current actors.

 Retaliation bears a stark contrast to its predecessor. In Retaliation, Tatum dies in the first 20 minutes. This sequel crushes all of the happy memories with a swift kick and multiple close-up shots of Dwayne Johnson’s muscles fighting nameless evil grunts.

 The plot this time is nothing like the first. Following the first film’s cliffhanger ending, the President of the United States (Jonathan Price) is kidnapped and replaced by Zartan, a master of disguise (Arnold Vosloo). The G.I. Joes are set up in a raid recovering nukes from Pakistan that leaves most of the group dead except for Roadblock (Johnson), Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki), Flint (D.J. Cotrona), and Snake Eyes (Ray Park). This ragtag group of soldiers travels from Pakistan to the Himalayas to the White House in order to stop some incomprehensible plot involving nuclear weapons and the bombing of London.

 This movie is the epitome of the term “style over substance.” The one redeeming factor in this sequel is the great use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) for certain fight sequences.

 In one memorable scene, Snake Eyes, the good ninja, fights a bunch of bad ninjas (without any clear motivation) while running on the side of a Himalayan mountain. There’s fluidity to the fighting that is just entertaining to watch.

 However, that’s not enough to redeem the movie’s mediocre storylines and its inappropriately nonchalant treatment of mass death. The general laziness of the plot gets in the way of what this kind of movie could be: complete escapist fun.

Since the ‘60s, there have always been big names in comics like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Recently, another figure has gained prominence in the world of comic books. Jonathan Hickman, known for his work on the Fantastic Four and Secret Warriors, has been given not one, but two of Marvel’s flagship titles, Avengers and New Avengers.

Hickman’s almost meteoric rise to fame started with The Nightly News, a six-issue comic book series he drew and wrote in 2006. After a series of small projects with Marvel, he collaborated with Brian Michael Bendis, one of the biggest names in comics in the past ten years, on the critically acclaimed Secret Warriors.

The cover of Avengers #1. (Source: IGN)

Marvel has recently pushed to have more stories that revolve around grand epic science fiction adventures. Both of Hickman’s new titles are based on alternate universes and the idea of life and death. In Avengers, the first story arc focuses on three aliens trying to speed human evolution billions of years into the future and create new life.

The Avengers team (the very group in the popular movie of the same name) must fight back against the extraterrestrials. The beginning of the New Avengers is about alternate earths crashing into each other and wiping out entire universes, killing everything and everyone. The first words of the New Avengers series are “First, there was nothing. Followed by everything.”

In a recent interview with Comic Book Resources, Hickman said, “Since New Avengers and Avengers are closely related, we’ve got this kind of super-structure for where we’re going down the road.”

In terms of where he takes the series, Hickman said, “At this point, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do for the bulk of the ‘Avengers’ and ‘New Avengers’ issues, but I’m leaving myself a lot of room to play, for things to grow, for me to fall in love with different characters and let them shine and to just have a really good time.”

This new emphasis on large-scale science fiction from Marvel is an important part of the recent MarvelNOW! Initiative. With writers like Hickman at the forefront of this new era, the future seems bright indeed.

In Beyoncé’s HBO documentary, “Life Is But a Dream,” the so-called Queen of Pop reassured upwards of 1.8 million viewers of her role as a female powerhouse. The documentary produced by, narrated by, and starring Beyoncé allowed the star to paint an image of herself that she knew would please her audience and add to her exponentially growing popularity.

From snapshots of her childhood in Houston, to sneak peeks of her grueling work process and dramatic performances, nearly the entire film depicts the star in a positive light. Beyoncé claims at one point that she “[thinks] people have an idea in their heads about entertainers [and] celebrities … [they] feel like their lives are so perfect, and it’s really hard to go through painful experiences when you are in the public eye.” She ironically pleads to be seen not as a product of the music industry, but as a sensitive artist and a human being.

(Graphic: Marina Dimitrov)

Beyoncé does reflect, if briefly, on a major struggle that she has faced. She says: “It’s difficult being a woman. It’s so much pressure, and we need that support sometimes. We’re all going through our problems, but we all have the same insecurities and we all have the same abilities and we all need each other.”

Feminist messages of power are delivered soulfully in Beyoncé’s chart-topping songs such as “Single Ladies” and “Run the World (Girls),” but in her documentary the issue was barely covered.

Beyoncé should have been more adventurous in her film. It is too bad that she was not courageous enough to dig deeper into issues such as feminism. She merely focused on events that were meant to display that it’s not easy being a performer and businesswoman, but the performance instead seemed to portray a charmed life.

The New York Times reporter Alessandra Stanley calls Beyoncé’s film “an infomercial” and claims that the “documentary doesn’t really convey what life as a celebrity is like, but it does say a lot about how this celebrity would like to be seen.”

This documentary is recommended for those who were not satisfied by the amount of Beyoncé provided by the Super Bowl and who are thirsty for more Beyoncé, but not for those seeking to learn about life behind the lenses of paparazzi.

Eating gluten-free is a fun challenge, and I have found some of the best and tastiest gluten-free baking mixes for desserts! Some mixes are flops and others ­­are delicious treats. So don’t go and try all of the mixes available. Save some time and keep reading to see which ones are the best.

Gluten Free Cake (Photo: generalmills.com)

Betty Crocker gluten-free yellow cake mix is one of the most phenomenal and scrumptious cakes you will ever have, and you may not even realize it’s gluten-free. Some other mixes are dry, but this cake is moist and fluffy and worth every bite.

You can also add anything to the batter. Fruit and chocolate are great additions, but feel free to try many of the amazing combinations possible for a fun baking experience. This cake will bring a smile to your face and joy to your tummy.

Bisquick Gluten Free Pancakes (Photo: generalmills.com)

Bisquick gluten-free pancakes are one of the only gluten-free pancakes I will eat. Other baking mixes are bland and dense, but Bisquick has created a mix that is easy to make and delicious.

Other mixes can only be tolerated with additions in the mix, but with Bisquick it’s entirely unnecessary, as you can have the perfect simple plain pancake, although that’s not to say that adding blueberries or chocolate chips is a bad idea. Try these easy-to-make and heavenly-to-eat pancakes.

365 Gluten Free Brownies (Photo: surefoodliving.com)

The Brand 365 has made a gluten-free brownie mix that is a delight in your mouth. This mix is a great one to have handy in your pantry for any time you want. These brownies are not only fun to eat but also to bake. Baking these brownies is great activity to do with your friends or family. After you have had fun making and baking these divine treats, grab a plate and dive into a world of chocolate delight as you bite into these rich brownies.