Author Archives: Elias Little

About Elias Little

I'm a sophomore in engineering majoring in Operations Research & Information Engineering. I'm an engineering ambassador, on the hyperloop project team, and a member of Anything Goes – a musical theater group. In my free time, I love learning new things, discovering music, and playing cello and guitar.

Power in Beautiful Simplicity

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Kiki’s Delivery Service is a wonderfully beautiful film that showcases many of the struggles of being a teenager. The film has a relatively straightforward, linear plot, but this benefits the film by allowing the viewer to focus more on the characters and challenges that pop up throughout the film, instead of having to keep track of a convoluted plot. Many of the challenges that Kiki faces in the film revolve around newfound independence.

From having to leave home, to accidentally losing a delivery, to forgetting how to ride her broom, Kiki is faced with a multitude of problems that she, for the most part, has to figure out on her own. While she certainly has people who help her, the problems primarily rest on her shoulders. By the end of the film, Kiki manages to solve all of the challenges. This shows to the viewer, that even if you have to navigate new surroundings and are faced with unique challenges, with some resilience, and a little help from some friends, you can solve any problem that comes your way.

When wrapped in a beautifully animated film, with an amazing soundtrack, this makes the message even more accessible for the younger audience that it is aimed at.

 

The Consequences Start Now

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The Human Element did a fantastic job at illustrating the current human cost of climate change. Whenever I think about the dangerous consequences of climate change, the first thing that comes to mind is always the rising sea levels from all of the glaciers and polar ice melting. Images of cities like Manhattan, Miami, and Houston all submerged several feet underwater come to mind. But when I think about this, I also picture this happening 100+ years in the future, not now. Although there certainly are effects that can be seen today, I primarily think of the long-term effects of climate rather than the immediate short-term ones.

This is the governing motivation behind this film. It clearly showcases the immediate costs of climate change that we are already paying for. From the people living directly on the Virginia coast to the firefighters who are already having to work overtime, to the coal workers who are rapidly losing their jobs, individual people are already bearing the consequences of climate change.

Films and other media like this are extremely important because we desperately need to sound the climate change alarm bells even louder than they already are.

Demons & Angels

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In the final two episodes of The Queen’s Gambit Beth faces both all of her worst demons and meets all of the angels present in her life. In the penultimate episode, she prepares with Benny for the competition in Paris, but while there she has a few too many drinks with Cleo. This results in her being late and unprepared in her match against Borgov the next morning. This defeat sends Beth into a downward spiral, which she had already been on the brink of the past few episodes. Eventually, after a few of her friends trying to reach out, and walking away from a local tournament, Beth gets an unexpected surprise: Jolene shows up at her house. Jolene is exactly what Beth needed. Beth has been consumed by her new life, and Jolene is the perfect reminder of her youth before all of this started.

Jolene’s impact extends much further into the final episode. Although she brings sour news that Mr. Shaibel has died, going back to the orphanage and seeing that he had been keeping news clippings of her winnings showed Beth that she actually had a lot of people who cared about her and her achievements. This push, with the help of Jolene, is exactly what Beth needed to get back on her feet and prepare for the competition in Russia. In the final tournament, after several days of play, she runs into Townes who really helped give her the support and confidence going into her last match against Borgov. She also receives a call that morning from Benny, Henry, and others that are all in New York trying to help her. This show of support from all of her friends is exactly what Beth needed in order to win her match against Borgov. She felt supported, realized that she did need the help, and wasn’t reliant on the pills in order to win, thus completing many of the major themes present throughout the series.

Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8

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Episode 5 of The Queen’s Gambit is all about how Beth deals with and comes back from her defeat against Borgov. The episode opens with a flashback to when she was a young child with her biological mother, and it serves to show us how far she has come and that she has continued to push forward in other parts of her life outside of chess, something we could all use a reminder of from time to time.

Much of the episode is spent with Beth learning and improving with help from her friends. Harry Beltik spends several days helping to train her before eventually insisting he is no longer able to help her. Then Benny humiliates Beth in a number of rounds of speed chess before later losing to her in the tournament. Beth’s repeated losses against Benny is really important because it drives home the point that she can lose when she so often talks as if she can’t. Though it is a tough pill for her to swallow, it is crucial if she wants to defeat Borgov. This is also a great lesson for anyone: if you’re overconfident about something, the only way to improve is for someone to show you you’re wrong first.

Russian into Trouble

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The primary focus of this episode was “Russian.” The episode opens with Beth attending a college class to learn to speak Russian. Most of the episode also revolves around Beth preparing to play against Borgov, the Russian champion (and the only player who she’s afraid of). Also, in the middle of the episode, Beth plays Georgi, a (very) young Russian boy. After playing for several hours, they decide to continue the game the following day.

They briefly chat about American drive-in movies, which really helps to humanize Georgi since he is so young. This is also important in showing that the Russians have a human side, and aren’t complete robots like Borgov has been described up until this point. The next day, although Beth did end up winning, she also admits that he is the best player she has ever played, continuing the theme that the Russians are her biggest threat.

Beth does finally play Borgov but is forced to resign to him finally showing the audience what Beth had been afraid of the whole time: Borgov is better.

I think the most important thing to gather from this is not that Beth was right, and Borgov could beat her, but seeing the different sides of your opponent. Up until this episode the Russians had more or less been described as being extraordinary and a threat to Beth if she plays them, but this episode really helped to show that there are other sides to her opponent. Using a young kid also helped bring out these other sides, in particular empathy, so as not to continue to frame the Russians as the ultimate threat, but show they are also human and do make mistakes.

The Rising (But Human) Star

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This episode really showcased Beth’s abilities as she quickly shot up through the ranks. From regional matches, all the way to the tournament in Las Vegas it initially appears as though Beth is unstoppable. She wins all of her games, many of them with a laughable amount of ease. She also develops a much stronger relationship with Townes in this episode. In a particular moment, it teeters on becoming something more romantic but is interrupted and then quickly devolves back into being focused on the business at hand: chess.

While everything up until this point has been easy sailing, the latter half of the episode really showcased that Beth is still vulnerable, both romantically and in chess. There are three main events that slowly revealed that she wasn’t the perfect chess player. 1) Admitting she is afraid of Borgov 2) Benny catching a mistake 3) Losing the game to Benny. Each one progressively reveals more, like ripping a bandaid off.

This episode played a really important role in helping to humanize Beth. It showed more of her personal/romantic life, while also showing that she still has much to learn in chess despite most of her games up until now being a piece of cake.

A New Beginning, This Time With Chess

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In episode 2 of The Queens Gambit, we see Beth get adopted from the orphanage and meet her new parents. While I’m sure it’s never easy to get a new family and move into a new house with people you barely know, it was particularly difficult for Beth. Her parents only seemed vaguely interested in her, with the father seeming downright annoyed at her presence, and the mother, while not seeming annoyed, wasn’t entirely enthusiastic either. This episode also continued to show Beth’s resilience though. She was able to deal with whatever came her way, whether it be a new family, starting at a new school, or trying to play chess despite the strict lack of support for it. Her determination though proved itself. After successfully entering, and winning, the tournament with a cash prize, her mother’s attitude quickly changed. Although it was unclear whether she was simply interested in the money, or because she was genuinely impressed with Beth’s talent is yet to be seen though. Either way, Beth’s determination allowed her to gain support for her chess ambitions.

A Troubled Introduction

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In the first episode of The Queen’s Gambit, we get a look at the troubled past of the protagonist, Beth Harmon. The very beginning of the episode starts with Beth waking up late, appearing to be hungover, and rushing down to her chess match. This is not the behavior one would typically expect from a world-class chess player. The rest of the episode is the beginning of the explanation for this: her difficult childhood. After surviving a car crash and being sent to an orphanage, Beth is given pills (tranquilizers) which starts her addiction and substance abuse.

She also first learns to play chess from the janitor, Mr. Shaibel, and it quickly becomes clear that she is naturally curious and talented, insisting that he teach her more. One point that I really enjoyed in this episode was when Beth snuck out of the movie showing to steal more of the pills after they stopped giving them to her. During this scene, the music perfectly aligns with the events transpiring and it built up the suspension until she is caught and collapses from taking too many pills. This dramatic ending after also highlighting her natural abilities when first learning chess defines the talented yet chaotic character that is Beth Harmon.

Hope Yet for the United Skates

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Before watching United Skates, I had maybe an inkling of what the roller skating culture was, my mother talked about roller skating a lot when she was a teenager. But beyond that, I simply thought of it as something fun to do, akin to bowling, or better yet ice-skating. I had no idea how meaningful and impactful the culture really is.

While watching the film, however, I was surprised and in awe at how rich the culture surrounding roller skating was. It was both amazing to see how the Black community was able to express and enjoy themselves through roller skating, and heartbreaking to see how this culture that I was only just finding out about is also on the verge of extinction. The culture itself is a wonderful mixture, of sport and dance set to infectious music that is an inseparable part of it all. Everyone was also so incredibly dedicated to sustaining the culture, going as far as traveling hundreds (if not thousands) of miles to participate in an event.

All of this is at risk though, as more and more roller rinks are being closed across the nation. And of the ones still remaining, many of them are on the brink of closing. This film also came out in 2018, and given the pandemic, I’m sure many more have closed since then. This felt like discovering Notre-Dame for the first time when it was on fire. Let’s just hope that this culture can survive still intact after the damage it has suffered, like the church.