Taylor Speyer

Licorice Pizza was definitely my most anticipated film of the year, and it did not disappoint.

Hanukkah’s proximity to Christmas has encouraged attempts at making it more mainstream. In recent years I’ve seen menorah spotted pyjamas and singing dreidels in stores.

Located in the city that is known for never playing itself, UBC’s Vancouver campus has been disguised as everything from Nazi Germany to a high school to even multiple different science fiction universes.

With the common theme of finding beauty in the forgotten, or the private, both films spoke to the festival’s theme of “queering the self.”

Huddled in my plane seat trying to watch movies, my mind was still preoccupied by all of the unknowns that come with this year’s unusual return to campus.

Between Zoom classes, I’d walk around to get some fresh air, only to discover that campus was a shadow of what it used to be.