actuallyirish

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GO BACK TO AMERICA…

THIS IS THE OTHER DAY AFTER THEY MADE LOVE IN PARIS

TZP WHAT DOING

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Wait.. ONE.. SECOND… when was this.. WHY WAS IT NOT IN THE MOVIE.. what… IS THIS THE MORNING AFTER PARIS… WHAT THE FUCK.. I WANT ALL THE FOOTAGE NOW PRIME…

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I will NEVER be calm about the hands on the dock…, NEVER… Alex is so happy and wants to play with Henry so much…

RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE dir. Matthew Lopez

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Fucking eyelashes..

"Um," he says. "How do you get a turkey to gobble?"

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taylor reading the book 😭

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aaaand nick reading the book too 🥺

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what if I set myself on fire?

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Excerpts from Alex and Henry's emails

+ Bonus:

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GIVE US THE EXTRA SCENE…. GIVE US PEZ AND BEA….

matthewmichaellopez July 18, 2022. Day 22 of Production. #rwrbmovie #bts

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Just had my birthday, so I have a stupid amount of Amazon gift cards went to go look at their merch… and their merchants stupid an awful…. but they’re selling the sad hoodie… should I buy the sad hoodie… 

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Tell me about this kiss. Did you like it?

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I… can’t… stop…. Watching… this…. I…. Just… can’t….

Alex's hips in this scene. That's all.

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This is disgusting… just gross… (reblogs immediately )

RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE (2023)

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Okay… do I now pause the movie where the Cornettos scene should be and watch that like it’s part of the movie?!

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primevideo: We present to you: The Cornetto Scene. Happy one week since #RWRBMovie came home.

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Okay so here, I think, is why I think Red, White and Royal Blue succeeds spectacularly as a romcom, and actually to me is a better-than-average take on the genre.

First, the leads have absolutely scorching chemistry. They are incredibly believable as two men absolutely infatuated with each other. They each kiss like drowning men shown water, right down to how each grabs at the other, at hair or back or neck and face.

They each have developed their character having a specific characteristic even when flirting or kissing. Henry grabs Alex's hair, for example, every single time, in a way that makes it clear he spends serious time thinking about that hair.

Fair enough, Henry.

They also do something even goddamn better.

They are friends. They are believable as two people who could actually get along long enough to fall in love.

They are allowed to become FRIENDS.

They are given time to get to know each other before they get physical. You can feel their interest in each other growing. And, to my opinion, you can tell that Henry is feeling Alex out through texts to see if the interest might be reciprocated even though he thinks it can't possibly be.

One thing that kills me about romcoms is how the leads will have witty "sexy" banter but don't seem to actually like each other. They are enemies who fall into bed but aren't really believable as lovers.

Henry and Alex are believable, because they... Well. They're impossibly silly even when tearing at each other's clothes. They have awkward moments.

They laugh.

Alex laughs in bed. He holds Henry in a way that is romantic, openly so. Henry is overcoming the conditioned hesitation and avoidance he has, his smiles and warmth and laughter come with rare vulnerability - Alex is a man who throws himself head first into life and has no such compunctions in the moment. He laughs because this is awesome and Jesus Christ, Prince Henry is too hot to be real.

They like each other, they stumble, they laugh.

But also, another reason this works so well?

The sex scene isn't scorching.

Watching the sex scene felt realistically intimate. It felt like I had walked in one real people and needed to leave. It was intense in a way that felt like something I maybe wasn't meant to see.

It was filmed so well. So much romanticism and deeply felt adoration in a simple grasping of a hand, the look in soft eyes, a hand pressed against a back. The edge of a knee just in frame. Looking up and looking down.

It felt like we walked into their room during and saw them both laid utterly bare.

Henry's look of vulnerability and nerves and pleasure, Alex looking slowly over his face to take it all in. Moving slowly, then, when everything they do before this is hurried or hidden.

It works as a romcom because you believe 100% these two men could get to like each other, fall in love, and stay that way.

You believe Henry's very real terror of rejection from the public because he already knows his family, beyond his sister, will reject him. You believe that Alex is a headstrong idealist who is sure that you can bulldoze through any wall too tall to climb.

And you believe that between the two of them, they can find a way around the wall entirely.

This movie is a master class on how a movie can get you to suspend so much disbelief if the leads sell their characters. The importance of believable chemistry.

And also... Isn't it nice to see a queer love story in a world that is, in some ways, just a few shades better than our own?

P.S. you cannot tell me Stephen Fry did not chew the goddamn scenery in circles all around everyone during his single scene. That man was having a ball.

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It’s me, hi, over-reading it’s me

Welcome to today’s “Jen is on her meta, spiralling bullshit” entry. I make no apologies for this - anyone who has followed me for more than two minutes will know this is very much my thing.

I get yelled at in a LOT of tags as a result.

ANYWAY. On my daily rewatch I had to pause at the hospital because it hit me.

“All right, what else? It couldn’t have just been the conference… Oh my god it is. It is, isn’t it?” “Don’t minimise it.” “How could I possibly? It’s already as minimal as it gets.” “It was my first foray into the world as a public figure and I was really scared, and you could have helped me and you didn’t.”

It isn’t minimal though, it never was for Alex. The comment about it being his first foray into the world was something and enough of an explanation as to why Alex has held on to this resentment, but there is more to it, more he doesn’t share in that janitor’s closet.

But even though Henry dismissed it as “minimal as it gets”, he shows that he accepts it wasn’t for Alex and he apologises for being a prick, offering his own explanation for his actions. But not in the “so you should forgive ME” kind of way. Just in the “I hope this helps you understand me” kind of way.

Later, in a hotel bed in Paris, Alex will tell Henry how he wants to do more. How helping people, making a difference, using his platform and his visibilty means so much to him. Being the kind of person that his dad didn’t get to see growing up. Henry will tell Alex that he’s learning. And he is.

Later, Alex emails Henry and expresses his fears about letting his mother down while on the campaign trail in Texas, and Henry reassures him, tells him that he understands what he’s saying (so he doesn’t minimise them this time) and makes it clear how proud he is. Because he has learned that Alex’s fears can consume him and they are very real and valid to him.

Later, in the gardens of Kensington Palace, a broken-hearted Henry will ask his sister if what they do makes any real difference. Because he has learned what this can mean to someone and how he has this gift in his position and his status.

Later, he will ask Alex for time so he can learn how to be brave, because he wants his love for Alex to be a part of his written history. Because he has learned that putting yourself into the world is a terrifying thing and sometimes you need to ask for help with that.

Later, the first thing he will ask Alex is if he is OK, because he has learned to ask, to not just focus on his own emotions. (Which given the Melbourne Climate Conference was literal months after Arthur’s death, Henry is once again going through some Serious Emotional Shit™. But now he asks.)

Later, he will tell his brother and his grandfather that he is not going to hide who he is, who he loves, for the sake of maintaining the traditional royal image out of fear that he won’t be accepted by the people. Because he has learned that there is love and support out there for him to be who he really is.

A moment after, he will take Alex’s hand and walk out onto the balcony in front of the crowd waving the LGBTQIA+ flag. Because he listened and he learned and it won’t be minimal to someone else.

Henry was so focused on himself and his feelings in Melbourne, and he ended up hurting someone that he came to love so deeply and completely. And while what he did during that first night party was understandable - grief is overwhemingly powerful and almost never gracious - he learns that what he does matters. How he is seen matters. How he interacts with people matters.

In a janitor’s closet in a hospital Henry asks the question which changes the course of how he starts to see everything. He listens. He learns.