Remembering Unleashed

By ANDY CARROLL
UNLEASHED STAFF
May 1, 2009. This date was going to offer one of the toughest “goodbye” moments of my senior year: The due date of my final Unleashed column.
But now, with the ending of the Unleashed program, which was in its tenth year, May 1 is now a day I will spend simply on a school service immersion trip in New Orleans, with columns and deadlines no longer on my mind.
As was the case with many of my fellow teenage staffers, the announcement that Unleashed had been terminated came as a sudden and heartbreaking surprise.
Sure, we no longer had our Tuesday section, but I had always thought that the end, if it was to come this year, would be upon completion of the school year, not on a seemingly random and insignificant Friday in February.
Granted, this year was always bound to be the last one for me, as I am headed for college in the fall. But now, what would have been my senior column is no longer just a reflection on my three years as a reporter and columnist; it’s also partly an obituary for Unleashed, something I didn’t expect I would write.
Lately, there has been a lot said about the legacy of Unleashed. From a broad perspective, there’s no denying that this legacy involves bringing the words and opinions of local teenagers to the public, and offering young writers a look into the world of journalism.
But Unleashed isn’t confined to just one legacy; there are many, each one relating to the individual writer.
For me, Unleashed was a life-changing experience. I have come a long way from the shy and awkward freshman I was when I first joined the team nearly three years ago, and much of that is due to how this program helped me to find my voice, both inside and outside the many features, reviews and columns I wrote.
The first article I wrote for Unleashed was a feature on teen volunteer work, which took me months to complete. Though a neutral take without opinions is necessary in newspaper feature writing, there was still such an incredible anonymity to it; anyone could have written it.
Today, anonymity isn’t something that figures into my writing. As a columnist for the past two years, I got the chance to voice my opinions and present part of myself to readers — and in doing so, learned a lot about myself.
I’m no longer that shy kid who hides himself in anonymity. Thanks largely to the confidence and revelation of ability I’ve gained through my writing, I have found my voice as both a writer and a human being. I can’t even begin to speculate on how different the past three years would have been without Unleashed.
When I attended the final team meeting last month, it was perfectly clear that I wasn’t alone in this way of thinking. Though tears weren’t shed and the spirit was mostly upbeat, there was no doubt that this program would be sorely missed, even for those of us seniors who would have been out the door in a matter of months anyway.
In the entire time I was part of Unleashed, I always worked with a group of peers that was dedicated and passionate, about as far from that stereotype of disrespectful and disinterested teenagers as people can get. For all the writers past and present, this wasn’t just another fun, little afterschool activity; it was a chance to break that stereotype and show the community just what a group of talented and driven teenagers could do.
For the past 10 years, I’ve participated in Unleashed as both a young reader who aspired to be like the older high school students whose work was in the paper and as a staffer seeing my own work in print as well as the work of people I know and talk to.
The one perspective that, at least for now, I will not get to take is that of an older reader, removed from the program, reading the work of younger writers. The section has had so many breathtaking articles over the years that I don’t doubt that I would have continued to be amazed by the work of future staffers.
But as it is, Unleashed has reached its end. And in this end, I realize just how incredible an opportunity was available. This wasn’t some little school paper; it was the Big Leagues, “The Show.”
Unleashed’s ending comes amidst the continuing downward spiral of print journalism. The idea that I may be describing newspapers to my children as a relic of the past is no longer some absurd fantasy.
But the power of words will never die, nor will their ability to deeply move us.
I call on readers to remember all the young people who have worked on this program for this past decade, and to never forget the ways that journalism can move and change all of us.
And I address my final words as a columnist for the Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team to any other young writers reading this: Don’t stop. Never stop.
I know that so long as there is but one more breath in my body, I never will.

• Andy Carroll is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends La Salle High School.

‘Unleashed’ staffers cope with finality

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF
Mia Walsh isn’t ready to attend her last Unleashed meeting.
She’s been on the team for three years and had considered following in the footsteps of her two older sisters and applying for next year’s student editor position.
She won’t have that opportunity. Unleashed — the award-winning youth program at the Yakima Herald-Republic — is ending.

“When I heard, my heart stopped, and even now I can’t fully accept it,” said the Davis High School junior who turns 17 today. (Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009)
The struggling economy and a newspaper industry in transition have caught up with the Herald-Republic and its 10-year-old teen program, according to newspaper editors.
“It was a hard decision, but when asked to look for areas to cut in the newsroom budget, the next biggest expense outside of staffing and wire services was Unleashed,” said Interim Editor Barbara Serrano.
The Herald-Republic isn’t alone. Newspapers across the country are re-evaluating their budgets.
“What we’re seeing across the industry is downsizing, and sometimes the (teen) section’s demise is a byproduct,” said Sandy Woodcock, director of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation in Arlington, Va.
Regionally, the Vox, the monthly teen publication at the Spokesman Review in Spokane, is slated to publish its last print edition in June.
“It’s a shame these programs are going away. Our communities need them,” said Erin Daniels, who runs The Vox program.
Adriana Janovich, who has been coordinating Unleashed for the last six years, will continue working as a reporter for the Herald-Republic once the teen program concludes at the end of this month.
“It’s a cutback like you’re seeing in larger area papers and is not reflective of the success or failure of Unleashed or its staff,” said Herald-Republic news editor Jeff Garretson, a co-founder of the program.
Downsizing in the newspaper industry is twofold, Serrano said. The first issue is the current economic recession. Another major factor is that more people are getting information from the Internet. Faced with declining advertising revenues, many newspapers are reassessing their budgets, and often teen sections are considered a luxury.
The expenses for Unleashed include a part-time student editor, correspondent pay for student reporters, photographers and illustrators, pizza and pop at monthly team meetings, and movie passes. The Herald-Republic also dedicated staff time from Janovich, a staff photographer and assignment and copy editors.
While Serrano assured the Herald-Republic isn’t in “crisis mode,” the newspaper still needs “to make cuts so we can stay healthy and nimble and expand our reach.”
When Unleashed staffers learned of the cutback earlier this month, students and their families expressed disappointment.

“My heart just sank,” said Andy Carroll, an 18-year-old senior at La Salle High School and a three-year Unleashed reporter and columnist. “I had just turned in a column the day before, and it crushed me that (Unleashed) could just be done.”
Yvana Iovino’s three daughters — Elizabeth, Diana and Mia Walsh — have all worked on Unleashed.
“I realize the economic problem for journalism and newspapers, but I still think you need to raise a future generation to do that work, to cover stories, because we will always need the exchanging of ideas,” Iovino said.
Unleashed, started in 1999, was published as its own section on Tuesdays until last September, when teens’ work was integrated into the main pages of the newspaper.
Unleashed’s roughly 30 team members were selected in May and were two months shy of finishing their yearlong commitment.
“The sooner you make these difficult and often disappointing decisions the more quickly you can move forward to implement those savings to meet today’s economic reality,” said Herald-Republic Publisher Michael Shepard.
The last team meeting takes place Wednesday night and the program is slated to wrap up by March 1. Students will have a couple of weeks to complete stories and other assignments.

• Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She is a senior at Eisenhower High School.

‘Slumdog’ stands as a marvel of storytelling

By ANDY CARROLL
LA SALLE HIGH SCHOOL
Every once in a while, a new movie arrives bearing an experience so refreshing and rewarding that it’s hard to describe its power in words.
“Slumdog Millionaire” is the latest of that type of movie.
Set in contemporary India, the film is the story of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), an 18-year-old who grew up in the slums of Mumbai. When we first see Jamal, he is being tortured by police inspectors. The reason? That night, Jamal appeared on the Indian version of the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and won 10 million rupees, with only one question remaining for the grand prize of 20 million rupees, an unprecedented event.
As we find out later — thanks to the nonlinear fashion in which the story is told — the host of the show believes there’s no way this “slumdog” could have made it so far without cheating.
But as Jamal assures the inspectors he didn’t cheat. He didn’t need a formal education to know the answers; he knew them because of life experiences. He also assures the detectives that his reason for appearing on the show had nothing to do with money.
The reasons he knew the answers — as well as his intention for being on the show — are revealed through his life story. After being orphaned, he and his brother Salim shared a close relationship with each other as well with an orphan girl named Latika.
Throughout the years, the brothers go from working for exploitative businessmen as children to scamming tourists at the Taj Mahal as teenagers to the brothers’ separation when Salim (Madhur Mittal) decides to work for one of Mumbai’s top gangsters.
Throughout this time, Latika (Freida Pinto) remains constantly on Jamal’s mind. Over the years, he loses her and gets her back time and time again. It becomes clear that she is the motivation for his actions because, as he says, she is his destiny.
Jamal (Ayush Mohammed Ismail and Tanay Chheda as the character in his younger years) portrays one of the easiest protagonists to pull for in quite some time. He’s such an earnest and endlessly determined character in spite of the adversity that he faces that sympathy comes all too easily. The combination of the tribulations he faces and his likeability make it tough not to root for him to fulfill what he believes to be his destiny.
“Slumdog” stands as a marvel of storytelling. The events of Jamal’s life — as well as revelations made during his interrogation — are paralleled with the questions on the show. This approach, though a little hokey on paper, works extraordinarily well.
As the tension increases on the show, so does the drama in the flashbacks. Though you know Jamal will make it all the way to the final question, you remain on the edge of your seat thanks to the compelling story being told in flashback.
But as a rags-to-riches tale, “Slumdog” has its share of dark and grueling moments to go along with any smiles and laughter. After all, the opening scene of the movie depicts Jamal being violently interrogated, and that’s only an appetizer for darker material to come. Like protagonists of Charles Dickens’ novels, Jamal comes to find happiness only by beating all the odds stacked against him, and it’s these moments of darkness that make his successes all the more rewarding to watch.
As I was watching “Slumdog Millionaire,” I couldn’t help but think of what a fresh and energetic experience was unfolding on the screen. Director Danny Boyle, the man responsible for “Trainspotting” and “28 Days Later,” has always been among the most intriguing men working in the industry, and all of his talent is on display here.
The movie moves along with boundless energy, and the enthusiasm that Boyle and his creative team have for their craft is evident in every frame. Not once does it feel like they’re going through the motions. Their hearts are wholly invested in the material; that’s something not seen often in any movie.
But no amount of words can truly do this movie justice. It’s not just a movie; it’s an experience. And this is an experience that should be had by all, in spite of the R-rating hypocritically doled out by the Motion Picture Association of America Even at its most grueling, it’s no worse than the typical PG-13 action flick).
Even though it carries a much smaller production cost than most big studio efforts and has a lack of big names in front of the camera, it stands taller than every other movie currently playing at a theatre near you.
And though it starts dark, it ultimately has you leaving the theatre feeling like 20 million rupees.

Andy’s top 10 movies of 2008

By ANDY CARROLL

UNLEASHED STAFF

It was a year marked by economic crisis and promises of change. But as times began to look gloomy, Hollywood once again stepped in with movies that provided entertaining escapism and blistering power.
Of course, for all of us in Yakima, the cinematic riches of 2008 will continue to give in 2009, as numerous widely acclaimed pictures have yet to reach the area. Among these are “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Wrestler,” “Gran Torino,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk” and “Revolutionary Road.”
But even without those films, I have seen some excellent and highly memorable movies in the past year. All but one are either already available on DVD or currently playing locally at Yakima Cinema. And all are worth checking out, as they are among the cream of this year’s cinematic crop.

10. “TROPIC THUNDER” — Part action comedy and part showbiz satire, Ben Stiller’s latest comedy is as smart and scathing as it is funny. But as funny as Stiller is as the action star, he is upstaged by Robert Downey, Jr. as “five-time Oscar winner” Kirk Lazarus, a man who takes his craft too seriously — and caused a pre-release uproar as a white man playing a black man.

9. “AUSTRALIA” — One of the year’s most underrated pictures, “Australia” is a beautiful, old-fashioned epic that combines the romance of Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman with the coming-of-age story of an Aboriginal boy amidst World War II and the stolen generations. Do yourself a favor: Catch it while it’s still playing on the big screen.

8. “IRON MAN” — It was a great comeback year for Robert Downey, Jr., and it was this high-flying superhero flick that kicked it all off. Downey is perfectly cast as weapons manufacturer-turned-superhero Tony Stark in one of this year’s most entertaining performances. With plenty of action and comedy to go around, this is a crowd-pleaser that delivers.
7. “IN BRUGES” — One of 2008’s best-kept secrets, this buddy action-comedy provides dark comedy, bloody shootouts, and a reflection on the value of life all in one big package. Colin Farrell is at his best as the conflicted hitman Ray, who must wait with his partner (the hilarious Brendan Gleeson) in the medieval town of Bruges, Belgium, which he comes to despise with every fiber of his being.

6. “CHANGELING” — The most frightening movie of the year wasn’t a horror movie; it was “Changeling,” the drama that featured Angelina Jolie as a woman whose sanity is questioned when she claims that the missing boy returned to her is not actually her son. It also deals with the gruesome Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, in which children were brutally murdered. The fact that the movie is based on actual events (and real people) makes it all the more terrifying.

5. “FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL” — Can a raunchy comedy really be this high on the list? In this case, the answer is a resounding yes. This is an uproarious and strangely sweet comedy about a man (the hilarious writer and star Jason Segel) recovering from a break-up and finding love again. It has everything from the standard R-rated gags to a “Dracula” musical. No movie in 2008 made me laugh harder.

4. “DOUBT” — This is a spellbinding adaptation of the award-winning play. Meryl Streep is excellent as the nun who accuses a priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of misconduct with an altar boy in the 1960s. Fellow stars Amy Adams and Viola Davis are also excellent as a nun stuck in the middle and the mother of the boy. It asks tough questions and will have you thinking and talking about it long after it ends.

3. “THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON” — The latest from director David Fincher (“Fight Club,” “Zodiac”) is a stunningly beautiful movie about a man who ages backward. Brad Pitt is in fine form as the title character, and Cate Blanchett is great as the woman he loves. Visually stunning, entertaining, heartbreaking, and moving all at once, it is an excellent movie not to be missed.

2. “WALL-E” — Pixar has always been ambitious, but its latest is their boldest and best work to date. Though it tackles numerous contemporary messages, it never loses sight of the odd but effective romantic pairing of robots WALL-E and EVE. It works with strange concepts, but when the year’s most effective movie relationship is between two robots whose dialogue is limited to beeping noises, “brilliant” and “unforgettable” are just two of the superlatives that apply.
1. “THE DARK KNIGHT” — No 2008 movie stands taller than this Bat-sequel. It goes beyond just being a superhero movie with its powerful ensemble acting and story that dares to ask questions about choice and whether Batman is truly a hero or just a vigilante with blood on his hands. Entertaining, powerful, and thoughtful all at once, “The Dark Knight” is not just a superb blockbuster, but a masterful film. It is the crowning achievement of 2008, and its final twist has me waiting in breathless anticipation for the next installment.

— Andy Carroll is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends La Salle High School.

Don’t miss “Benjamin Button”

By ANDY CARROLL
UNLEASHED STAFF
Each of us fears getting older and the changes that come with age. But would that attitude be different if our bodies got younger instead of older as the years pass by?
That idea is at the center of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a fantasy drama about a man whose body ages backward rather than forward. With huge star talent, a $150 million production budget, and some of the heaviest Oscar buzz of any picture this year, high expectations have been placed on the film.
And what is delivered is a film both grand in scope and intimate in the ways it displays and develops its characters. Most importantly, it serves not only as a crowd pleaser, but as an emotional reflection upon life and the experiences that ultimately define us.
Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is a man who has a most unusual condition. When he was born in 1918, he had the physical condition of a man on his way to the grave. Abandoned at the doorstep of a retirement home by his scared father (his mother died in childbirth), he is taken in by a young woman named Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), one a worker at the home who’s believed to be incapable of giving birth to a child of her own.
As the years go on, Benjamin’s physical condition continues to improve and he continues to look younger and younger.
Before and during his teenage years, two crucial things happen to Benjamin. The first, in 1930, is his introduction to Daisy Fuller, a girl several years younger than him who will go on to become the love of his life. The second, which occurs in 1936, is the beginning of a time aboard a boat as a seaman, which takes him to an affair with a married woman (Tilda Swinton) in Russia and eventually into a night naval battle during World War II.
When Benjamin returns home in 1945, he finds that many of the residents of the retirement home have since died and Daisy is now a fully grown woman (Cate Blanchett). Over the next few years, as he becomes younger and she becomes older, Benjamin falls in love with Daisy, a relationship that comes to have its ups and downs throughout the next few decades. Benjamin knows that he will continue to love Daisy when she is old and gray, but will she still love him when he is a child?
The complications of age are dealt with often in the film, through Benjamin’s condition as well as traditional aging patterns. Most of the time, it is done so with poignancy, though there are numerous occasions where it is intended for laughter.
From the beginning, death is an issue in Benjamin’s life. It is brought up that he must suffer the burden of watching people not only die, but lose their physical prowess with age. While it would seem that Benjamin would have the opposite, going into his prime late in life rather than early, he instead fears getting younger because it means he will not be able to experience it with the people he cares about.
The aging contrast between Benjamin and Daisy is an added element that makes their relationship all the more intriguing, but also heartbreaking.
Visually, the film is a sumptuous feast for the eyes. Visual effects and makeup are used to change the ages of both Pitt and Blanchett. Thanks to this remarkable work, the physically younger Benjamin bears a stunningly realistic resemblance to a younger Pitt, while the techniques used to age Blanchett as an 80-year-old on her deathbed make her look unrecognizable. The cinematography is also stunningly beautiful, while the sets and costumes change appropriately with each new decade covered within the film.
The most surprising performance comes from Pitt. His turn here is surprisingly restrained and free of the expected emotions. Despite all the death around him, he is never once shown crying onscreen. Some will feel that his work is a little too cold, but it is a solid move that fits in well with the nature in which the story is told. (We come to know Benjamin better through his story than through his actions.)
Blanchett shares excellent chemistry with Pitt, and holds her ground with a performance that is emotionally affecting in its own right. Because of the bond they share, every bit of joy and heartbreak feels so real. Henson’s role as Benjamin’s adoptive mother, though small and mostly finished after the first third of the film, is an adorable one that will give viewers plenty of reason to smile.
Oddly enough, “Benjamin Button” is directed by none other than David Fincher, a man whose directing credits include hard-edged films like “Seven” and “Fight Club.” “Sentimental” isn’t a word that one would expect to associate with Fincher’s work, but he never backs away from the sentimentality of this film, and the effect is a moving experience rather than a schmaltzy one.
Its message about appreciating the beauty of life and the opportunities we take (and those we don’t) is a powerful one that can connect with viewers young and old. This is a beautiful and moving film not to be missed.

— Andy Carroll is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends La Salle High School.

Holiday greetings are in the cards

La Salle High School seniors Lorena Russell,17, left, and Aubrie Widhalm, 17, right, make Christmas cards to send to troops in Iraq. The art classes at La Salle took worked on this project during October and November. Photo contributed Brother James Joost, La Salle High School principal.

By ANDY CARROLL
UNLEASHED STAFF

As families come together stateside for the holidays, the realities of war continue for the soldiers serving in Iraq.
So when art classes at La Salle High School began making Christmas cards to send to the troops, it wasn’t just another assignment.
The project started with Jamina Jones, La Salle’s 53-year-old art teacher. She came up with the idea following a discussion with a friend who had made 25 cards for troops stationed overseas.
“I thought that if a friend can produce 25 cards, the class can produce several hundred,” Jones says.
In early October, La Salle’s two afternoon art classes were given precut 4.5-by-6-inch and 6-by-9-inch cards, and asked to create a card that could be sent overseas.
Each class voted on the top six designs. And for the next month, the classes reproduced these designs, adding their own individual twists.
“It was interesting to see all the kinds of different personalities the cards had,” says Ryan Kilseimer, a 17-year-old La Salle senior.
Each student was required to make a minimum of nine cards, but many students made as many as 15. The cards themselves were left blank on the inside so soldiers could write messages and send them back home.
La Salle art students produced just over 600 cards. And they weren’t alone. A group from Yakima’s Church on the Move and Jones’ middle school art students from St. Paul Cathedral School also worked on the project. In all, these different groups produced nearly 1,000 cards.
But Christmas cards are not the only heartwarming items being sent overseas. Fifty packs of gum and bags of hard candy are also being mailed, just in time for Christmas.
“It was fun to make cards for troops, and I hope it makes their holiday,” says Samantha Summers, a 17-year-old La Salle senior.
According to Jones, the project was not just about making cards. It was an opportunity to think of the challenges facing the men and women who are serving the country: separation from loved ones, the possibility of death or injury, and not knowing what the next day might bring.
“I wanted (students) to know that there’s a world outside of their own … that needs prayer,” Jones says.
The project also incorporated service-learning, in which students are given the chance to learn while being of service to others in the world around them.
“It’s great when an activity comes from compassion and serves a need, and is also a lesson in the subject being studied,” says 47-year-old Brother James Joost, who serves as both the principal and a teacher at La Salle.
The project connected with students, particularly 18-year-old senior Katie Roy, who knows people currently serving in Iraq. She says making Christmas cards is practical.
“With how expensive they are, it’s helpful to actually have someone make them,” Roy says.
Christmas isn’t the end of the art project. Jones says her classes will take one day each month to make general cards to send to the troops.
So far, she says, she’s received two e-mails in response. The first was a message of gratitude and blessing.
The second, Jones said, summed it all up in just one word: “WOW.”

• Andy Carroll is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends La Salle High School.

“Australia” is a beautiful epic

By ANDY CARROLL
UNLEASHED STAFF

Leave it to Baz Lurhmann to direct a movie as outside today’s Hollywood mold as “Australia.”
After unleashing the 1996 re-imagining of “Romeo and Juliet” and the 2001 anachronistic musical “Moulin Rouge,” Lurhmann delivers a large-scale epic with a $100 million price tag and a length of nearly three hours.
Like “Romeo and Juliet” and “Moulin Rouge” before it, “Australia” is a financial and creative gamble, particularly since historical epics haven’t fully been in vogue on screen since “Gladiator” dominated the box office charts and Academy Awards eight years ago. But Lurhmann rises to the challenge by making a movie that both hearkens back to the grand epics of decades past and stands on its own as a captivating new vision.
Lurhmann, a native of the title country, uses the World War II era as the backdrop for the movie’s sprawling story. Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) is a British aristocrat overseeing Faraway Downs, the vast expanse of land in the Outback she owned with her late husband. The land is worked by Aboriginal servants and a mixed-blood rugged adventurer called The Drover (Hugh Jackman). Among the Aboriginals is the child Nullah (Brandon Walters), with whom Lady Ashley begins to share a close bond, particularly after the tragic death of his mother.
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Clint Eastwood works masterfully behind the camera, and Angelina Jolie delivers a career-best performance in “Changeling”

By ANDY CARROLL
UNLEASHED STAFF

By definition, a changeling is a child who is secretly exchanged for another. But a secret exchanging of children is just one of the many real horrors addressed in “Changeling,” Clint Eastwood’s latest film.
Released at the end of October — and the start of a particularly slow awards season in Hollywood — “Changeling” is a mature and unsettling film that takes its viewers down paths not adequately hinted at in the trailers.
“Changeling” is based on the true story of the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, which actually occurred in California in the late 1920s, and involved many of the names featured in the movie. The fact that the events depicted in the movie are inspired by actual events only makes it more unsettling.
The time is 1928. The place is Los Angeles. And the focus is a single working mother, Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie).
Christine works for a telephone company during the day and cares for her young son, Walter (Gattlin Griffith), at night. She returns one night to discover he is nowhere to be found. Thus begins a months-long search to find the boy.
By what at first seems to be a miraculous turn of events, police inform Christine they have found her son in Illinois. But upon seeing the boy, Christine knows he is not Walter. But the police, wanting to avoid further negative attention from the press, insist the boy is indeed Walter Collins, even though Christine has physical evidence, the testimonies of others, and her own motherly instinct saying otherwise.
After pestering police, the officer in charge of the investigation (Jeffrey Donovan) has Christine sent off to a mental institution, where she gains even more knowledge of the corruption evident within the city’s police force.
Meanwhile, police detective Lester Ybarra (Michael Kelly) is looking into a case involving a minor named Sanford (Eddie Alderson), who immigrated illegally from Canada and claims to have been involved in a series of brutal murders in Wineville, Calif. He tells Ybarra his guardian Gordon Northcott (Jason Butler Harner) forced him to participate in abducting and killing young children in the chicken coops on his farm. Could the missing Walter Collins be connected to the case?
In the dramatic thriller, Eastwood works masterfully behind the camera. The tension can be felt from the very beginning, welcomed by an eerie score (also the work of Eastwood) and grayed cinematography. Eastwood ups the ante as the story advances, eventually showing particularly disturbing scenes within the psychiatric ward and the coop in Wineville.
Though the film contains few instances of onscreen violence, it earns its R-rating by instead presenting some of the most unnerving scenes of any movie this year. Without resorting to a hardcore display of gore and eviscerations, “Changeling” manages to deliver very creepy and frightening moments, something not many period pieces can claim. Though the film does let up as it comes to a close, it remains a film capable of having its viewers biting their nails as their hearts pound.
Jolie delivers a career-best performance, playing against her type-casting and discarding her standard sex appeal for a highly mature and affecting performance. Proof of her incredible range can be seen in the extreme contrast between Christine’s self-presentation of a sane woman in an alien world with her Oscar-winning role in 1999’s “Girl, Interrupted,” in which Jolie plays an out-of-control sociopath.
But Harner and Alderson are also great in the film’s most disturbing roles. Though both are Hollywood unknowns, they execute their roles with just the right amount of creepiness and disturbed loss of innocence, respectively.
Most filmmakers lose steam as they get older, but 78-year-old Eastwood has only gotten better in his old age. “Changeling” is Eastwood’s fifth film in six years (with “Gran Torino” on the way in December), and it is a worthy addition to a recent résumé that includes films like “Mystic River” and “Million Dollar Baby.”
“Changeling” is a haunting and powerful drama, and one of Hollywood’s best offerings in the past few months.

— Andy Carroll is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends La Salle High School.

Homemade Joker good for grins

By ANDY CARROLL
UNLEASHED STAFF

Throughout Halloween, I had a smile on my face.
This smile was not natural, but rather a crooked one painted on the sides of my lips. And instead of inspiring a happy mood in the people around me, it gave off a freaky vibe.
That’s because this smile was part of my costume: The Joker, as played by the late Heath Ledger in the recent Batman film “The Dark Knight.”
At 18, the celebration of Halloween has mostly passed for me. I dropped trick-or-treating upon starting middle school, and the tradition of dressing up in costume went out the door as well.
However, Halloween is one of the few days on the La Salle High School calendar when acceptable attire differs from the usual no T-shirts and no denim dress code. Prior to this year, I had not taken advantage of this opportunity.
But, being a senior and having the perfect idea for a costume unfold before my eyes on the silver screen, I had my costume picked out on the hot July afternoon when I caught the first showing of “The Dark Knight.”
And evidently, I wasn’t alone. Finding an actual costume became an impossible task, as I had delayed my search until the week of Halloween. But, in the spirit of a true can-do optimist, I got to work on a “homemade Joker.”
The only thing I had to buy for the outfit was the makeup and temporary spray-on hair coloring. For the rest, I looked to my own wardrobe, using the basics of Ledger’s costume in the movie as inspiration.
The final outfit consisted of the cargo pants I wear to school every day, plus a royal blue short-sleeved dress shirt and tie with an old school shirt (also royal blue) pulled over it with sleeves rolled up to vaguely resemble the vest that Batman’s top nemesis wears over his own shirt and tie in the movie.
It wasn’t a top-rate Joker outfit, no doubt, but the onslaught of royal blue led me to joke that I was “La Salle’s very own Joker.”
While the outfit itself may have been a bit on the weak side, the makeup did not disappoint. I sprayed my hair green and applied the red makeup on both sides of my lips, the black around my eyes, and the white around the rest of my face.
In 20 minutes’ time, the transformation was complete: I was The Joker.
Throughout the day, I received compliments and comments along the lines of “Dude, you’re really freaking me out,” which I’d add into the compliment column as well. My vocal impression — most often in the form of Ledger’s oft-quoted “Why so serious?” line — added to the effect.
During a break, one of my friends challenged me to speak in that manner for the rest of the school day. Five minutes and a loss of recollected movie lines later, I lost that challenge.
On the whole, I really enjoyed myself. Not counting the last couple of years that I trick-or-treated, when I went as an athlete, this was the first time I had dressed up for Halloween since slipping on an Anakin Skywalker costume nine years ago.
Just as I had waited for and soaked in the fun of dressing like Casper the Friendly Ghost, the blue Power Ranger and Anakin in my younger years, I had a blast walking around campus dressed as an incredibly popular movie character for a day. With the days of trick-or-treating long behind me, it’s crazy costuming that remains.
The fun ended with the final bell, when I opted to remove my makeup so I wouldn’t send other drivers into panic attacks upon seeing my face in the rear-view mirror.
While still in full Joker garb, though, I was asked if I had a plan for Halloween night. Fortunately, I still had one more Joker line in me:
“Do I really look like a guy with a plan?”

• Andy Carroll is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends La Salle High School.

God is a “Loving Being”

By ANDY CARROLL
UNLEASHED STAFF

“What do you believe?”

This very broad question was recently posed to my religion class at La Salle High School. After watching an old video featuring teenagers from six different religious backgrounds talking about the faith in their lives, we were required to complete a project answering that question with written and visual work.

Even though it might seem simple, it’s a tough question to answer because it all eventually comes to an intimately personal answer.

Throughout my life, my faith has meant a lot to me. This was always my parents’ intention, hence the reason they brought me to Sunday morning services from the time I was 13 days old and sent both me and my sister to Catholic school.

Between elementary and middle school at St. Paul Cathedral School and high school at La Salle, faith has also been an integral part of my education. I’ve always had to take required religion classes in addition to all the regular ones.

I’ve had the chance to think about my faith daily because of the religion classes I’ve taken at school. But my faith cannot merely be summed up in the fact that I attend church services or Catholic school. There are always the personal underpinnings that lay at the heart of any person’s beliefs.

The foundation of my beliefs is, of course, that there is a God. I believe that God is a loving being, and that there is a purpose for every event.

Part of the reason why it has not been incredibly difficult for me to believe that God exists is because of the intricacy of all the events that occur.

Whenever something bad happens to me, my gut reaction is to wonder why and wish it had never happened. But with time, I tend to look back on those kinds of moments and see all the good things that never would have happened had it not been for that one tough event.

Some would say that such a thing is merely chance at work. But when I see how connected everything seems to be and how purpose-driven life is, I can’t help but believe that there must be some higher power pulling the strings.

When it comes to the expression of my faith, I tend to be more introverted. I’m not the kind of guy who tries to slip snippets of his faith into every conversation or one who exuberantly joins in with the gospel choir. For me, having faith and feeling sound about it is assurance enough.

Because of the school environment I’m in, I don’t find it that difficult to talk about my faith with my classmates. In fact, it’s usually a requirement during our religion class.

As I prepare to finish high school and move on to college, my faith life remains within the center of the action. As of this moment, every university I am considering applying to is a Christian one.

It can sometimes be difficult for teenagers to talk about the role faith plays in their lives. Our beliefs are among the most personal things about ourselves, and aspects can embroil controversy and heated debate if nerves are hit.

However, I do believe that faith is something that every person should examine within themselves. Regardless of the specifics of our individual beliefs, we all have stances on these issues. Knowing where we stand can help us realize a great deal about ourselves.

Regardless of the state of the times I go through, I always find it comforting to know that I have my faith to fall back on.

— Unleashed columnist Andy Carroll is a senior at La Salle High School.

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