As I walked into sophomore Peter Morell’s home, I was overtaken by his various collections. Peter’s movie posters are the result of his love of film. A filmmaker himself, Morell draws inspiration from the like of Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Stanley Kubrick. Absurdity and the postmodern ideals of perception have colored this young mans approach to life and work. His own film, Brave American Vengeance, reflects just this.

Brave American Vengeance is the tale of Vice President Walter Mondale, who must succeed the assassinated Jimmy Carter and stop the Soviet invasion. This film makes skillful and light commentary on jingoism and cliched film tropes. To make the low fidelity quality of this movie work, Morell embraced it, using obvious shortcomings as humor. All this was brought to fruition by an all star cast. Brandon Carraway in particular managed to bring Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to life.

So, needless to say, it is film central at the Morell household. Proudly on display are posters from Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, Dr. Strangelove, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also featured is a poster from the recent hit Django Unchained, and a previous Quentin Tarantino title Pulp Fiction, which received the biggest poster of all. Morell’s burgeoning medieval interest has also led him to pursue the collection of illuminated manuscripts. These monastic treasures feature elaborate calligraphy, mostly of a religious nature. “They really bring out the Aquinas in me”, said Morell of his newfound interest, “Though I wish I could find some real ones”.

As these antiques are awful expensive, and have immense historical value, Peter has not yet attained any real ones, but he does have replicas! “Yes, they can be found at various gift shops”, Morell told me, “but you cannot replace the real thing.”

This broad range of interests is shaping one of the most high profile entertainers at McLean High School. In my opinion, Morell’s fame may soon rival Damian Leverett’s, or Sean Helm’s.