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killedbyfrank · 1 year

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Inside Out Iceberg

Inside Out is an amazing movie with a deep message and a dedicated fandom, or what's left of it. While the movie explores Riley's mind far and wide, it still leaves a lot of questions unanswered, some simple, some dark and complicated.

So I made this iceberg to explore the dark side of Inside Out. The iceberg concept is a metaphorical framework often used to illustrate the idea that what we see on the surface is only a small fraction of a larger, hidden and often disturbing reality.

This iceberg includes some known facts, known and lesser known theories and even a couple of headcanons, just for fun.

The Surface

Emotions Shipping: Just like in any fandom, fans usually ship characters together and Inside Out is no different with ships such as Starnerve, Brickoli, Joyness and more.

Sleeping Quarters: A simple yet difficult question to answer. The emotions are shown to reside in a tiny little house up the ramp in HQ. What's in that room? How big is it?

Glow: Joy and Sadness are the only emotions that glow, with the former being much more visible. A theory states that Joy's glow intensity depends on her mood.

Fanfics: Inside Out has a lot of rich and diverse fanfictions, with a few becoming iconic such as Intercom and An Emotional School Year.

Mind Candy: Some simple but cute snippets of the emotions interacting alone or with each other.

NSFW: Artworks that depict the Inside Out characters engaging in sexual activities or gore and mutilation. Some should be banished to the shadow realm.

Below the Surface

Parents' names: Riley's dad is named Bill, while Riley's mom is named Jill. Nice one, Pixar.

Pixar Shipping: Even those at Pixar ship Inside Out characters together. I wonder if some ship Brickoli...

Surprise?: Surprise was supposed to be in the movie, but was cut off due to being too similar to Fear. Maybe Inside Out 2 will bring it back.

Riley's clothing: Throughout the movie and not only, Riley wears different shirts representing her state of mind. During the first day of school she's seen wearing a yellow jacket, forcing Joy upon her. At the end, her mood darkens, reflected by a black hoodie.

Easter eggs: It not uncommon for Pixar to put Easter eggs and cameos in their own movies. Hard to notice at first.

Advertisement Campaign: Inside Out had a pretty aggressive marketing campaign, sponsoring brands such as Clorox and Subway, even encouraging fanarts. Pixar was trying to hype it up.

Into the depths

Fear & Joy outside of HQ instead of Sadness: Originally, Pete Docter intended to explore Fear, since he as a teenager was mostly afraid.

Alternative Titles: In Latin America, Inside Out is known as Intensa Mente. In Spain, they called it Del Revés (Reverse). In Russia, it is titled головоломка (Brain Breaker), and in China, it is 玩轉腦朋友 (Fun with Brain Friends).

Emotions had names: Initially, Emotions were supposed to have proper human names. Fear for example was known as Freddie and so on. Joy is the only one that kept this idea. In the Italian dub, she's known as Gioia, which directly translates to Joy and is also a proper Italian name.

27 emotions: The movie initially was supposed to have many more emotions. This idea seems to have been picked up again for the sequel. Bad idea.

Unlikable Joy: Joy was supposed to be very unlikable, saying things as "We should spit on that girl's face". This was done on purpose so that the viewer would align with Sadness.

Nightmare Productions: Dream Productions is in charge of Riley's dreams and nightmares as well. In theory, they could give endless nightmares to Riley and all kinds of nightmares. Some may call this sadistic.

Into the Abyss...

The Subconscious: This is where Riley's worst fears are kept. They're locked behind a flimsy wooden door, lightly guarded and protected. This could mean Riley is weak minded or very susceptible to her fears. If everything escaped from there, it would certainly mean apocalypse.

The true villain: Joy's aggressive need of control, leaving behind Sadness, causing destruction within Riley's mind, forcing happiness upon every situation, using a ladder of imaginary boyfriends sentencing them to fall into the Memory Dump... These are just some of the things Joy did throughout her journey. Her philosophy crumbled like a house of cards.

Disgust/Joy rivalry: These two probably aren't the bestest of friends. They often have disagreements, and are the opposite of each other. As shown in some clips, Joy seems to enjoy it when Disgust is having a bad time.

Parents' jobs: We don't currently know what their jobs are, how they maintain the family. I've seen a theory that Riley's father used to be an US soldier, due to his mind resembling a Cold War nuclear submarine.

Genderfluid Riley: According to some individuals, Riley is genderfluid, due to her having different gendered emotions. This is highly unlikely.

Schizophrenia: Riley can actually hear her emotions talking, even see them. She's imagining everything in her mind...

Flesh mech: Riley has no control over herself... she's simply a meatbag controlled by her emotions, not guiding but controlling Riley's every single movement and action. This is especially shown in the "5 seconds rule" clip.

We all are the same: There is no divide between the mind workers and the emotions. The mind workers have probably never even seen them. There's no hierarchy, just work, work endlessly for Riley and nothing else matters. What exactly is everyone working for? What are they driven by? Are they all... expandable?

The Bottom...

Anger is the antagonist: He causes Riley to be angry, he often abuses Fear, yells at everyone, dislikes everything. He indirectly caused Bing Bong's demise by destroying the various islands of personality, making it harder for Joy and Sadness coming back, KNOWING that him touching the console would have destructive consequences. What if he did it on purpose?

Stalinist Dictatorship: Riley, Riley, Riley and nothing else. Everyone works for Riley. Everything else comes second. There are cards with her face on them, her initial on Goofball Island, everyone works constantly, every day, all day for Riley, with possibly no retribution. Endless amounts of workers, in a society where Riley is everything to them, similar to a socialist state.

Emotions can't quit: Quote by Disgust. They were never meant to leave Headquarters. They are meant to stay confined there, without ever having the chance to go outside their residence. Why else would the Headquarters be suspended on the Memory Dump, with one way in and out? There is no escape.

There is no happiness... none. Riley was never truly happy in her life. No happy life with only sad moments in between, but a sad life with only happy moments here and there. The true Riley was the one we saw at the end. Depressed.

#inside out #inside out fandom #inside out disgust #inside out anger #inside out joy #inside out fear #inside out sadness #iceberg #inside out 2

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inbarfink · 4 months

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Okay, so I just found out that I can watch the whole 2015 stage production of ‘Shock Treatment’ on YouTube and, like, I have… so many thoughts and feelings. It really does demonstrate how Shock Treatment’s biggest flaws is just how unfocused and messy and… just needing one or two more rewrites to reach it's full potential.

Like there are a few tweaks to the dialogue that makes the whole narrative a bit simpler and easier to comprehend, the satire is a bit more focused on the core themes, I thought most of the jokes were pretty solid (and the more sexual ones offer somewhat of a stronger thematic link to ‘Rocky Horror’) and now there’s actually Shock Treatment in the plot of Shock Treatment!

I do really like how they tweaked the lyrics of some of the song to smooth over some of the remnant ‘these were written for a very different RHPS sequel and re-fitted into this plot’ weirdness. I especially like ‘I they need some young blood’ and the change to the title line in ‘Looking for Trade Fame’ and ‘Look what I you/he did to my Id” (meaning Farley). Sometimes ya just need to change just one lil' pronoun and the whole-ass song makes a lot more sense.

But the biggest positive change this Stage Version brought is the cast. Because ‘Shock Treatment’ the movie just has way too many characters. Like, look at this compared to RHPS’ cast list.

While this is maybe a natural result of the setting shift from an isolated castle to a whole town, it also leaves a lot of the secondary cast feeling flat and with no real space to develop. Comparing both of Little Nell’s roles is probably the best example. Nurse Ansalong is fun and Nell's performance is great as usual, but she’s just kinda around to be a RHPS nod and so Little Nell has Something to Do in this movie and an excuse to run around in a sexy nurse’s outfit. And these are all noble goals but… well, Columbia was an actual character, as campy as RHPS is, she was a character with emotions and pathos and tragedy and an important narrative and thematic role. Ansalong just never had the time to develop into someone with even a tenth of that depth.

(It also makes ‘Shock Treatment’ waaaay harder to Shadow Cast.)

So the stage version just cutting her out and… basically cutting everyone out except for Brad, Janet, Farley, the two Dr. McKinleys, Betty and Ralph just gives a much better chance for all of these characters to feel like actual people. Campy, exaggerated cartoony people - but definitely people.

Like, we get to spend a little more time on making the manipulation of Janet into a superstar feel more gradual and convincing. Which both help her work better as… basically the Emotional cornerstone of the whole story and make the villains feel more despicable and more competent. Which of course really helps the two Dr. McKinleys since all of Farley’s other minions have been cut. In general they get more opportunity to say funny stuff and can really see how they use their faux psychology and therapyspeak to control people.

....There's some level where I maybe think this script went a little too far in the other direction. That it's kinda disappointing that this Janet didn't never quite go off the deep end like her movie counterpart did. In general this version's slightly more.... grounded vibe - compared to the Movie's kinda Surrealist Nightmare Vibe - is one of the things I feel most conflicted about.

Like on one hand, this kinda campy nonsense world where gameshow hosts committing husbands to mental asylums and living your whole life on a sound-stage are normal is one of the most compelling parts of 'Shock Treatments' satire and it's kind of a shame to lose it... but also this more grounded tone creates a story that it's easier to follow an, more importantly, emotional stakes it's easier to get invested in. I think the Ideal Perfect Version of Shock Treatment’ that Exists Only in My Brain would be, tone-wise, in the middle between the movie and the stage show, but also maybe lean more towards the stage version?

The added details that Brad and Janet’s marriage has been hitting a rough patch because Brad has been fired from his job just as Janet has gotten a promotion (which I think is a detail from "The Brad and Janet Show" draft that was dropped from the 'Shock Treatment' movie?) adds some thematic resonance about the characters dealing with the Changing Times, the idea that Brad might feel emasculated with Janet’s success while has been (temporarily) regulated to the role of a househusband is maybe understandable but it is also understandable why it would frustrate Janet and thus lives her open to the McKinley's manipulations. Again, the characters are still kinda campy, still kinda silly - but having a bit of grounding for Brad and Janet’s relationship does help when this is basically… all the emotional stakes in the story.

Now, in the Ideal Perfect Version of Shock Treatment’ that Exists Only in My Brain, the rift in Brad and Janet relationship would’ve been created by the lingering effects of the events in the Frankenstein's Place. Janet would rather pretend they never happened but Brad is still visibly reeling from that time he got forced-femmed by aliens. And although the events of ‘Rocky Horror' did definitely happen in this version, it’s mentioned as just a throwaway joke (“We’ve been through so much together! Infidelity, homicide, aliens, fishnet stockings… and that’s just the engagement party”). Still, it was a funny throwaway joke - and the promotion-and-firing idea they went with makes thematic sense in this version of ‘Shock Treatment’.

Farley Flavors also get a bit of a ‘boost’ from the trimmed cast but… honestly the changes to his character are the ones I am most split about. Because this version of Farley Flavors is generally better because there’s a bit more… flavor to him. A more visibly wacky personality, a few more gimmicks to him. And when I first saw him I was actually… pretty hyped about him as the main villain.

Because, okay, the main problem with Farley as a villain is that, despite Cliff De Young’s excellent performance, he really is just another Evil 80’s Businessman and that feels a bit bland in the wacky world of Rocky Horror. Like, the whole ‘long-lost twin brother’ twist is supposed to feel like the counterpart to the Alien Twist in RHPS and a parody of stupid soap opera twists in general. But… the thing is that even before we found out he was an alien, Frank was already an incredibly distinctive and unique character. Being revealed as an alien in the last act of the story doesn’t define him.

But since Farley doesn’t have as much going for his character, the stupid parody long-lost brother twist does end up being his defining trait and it makes his whole character feel lackluster because… it’s a stupid parody twist!

But since Twenty-Fifteen Farley is Fairly Far-Fetched right from the get-go this means the twist has more of a chance to feel more like the original Aliens Twist. Plus, there’s bits of dialogue here and there that feel like Foreshadowing. Farley constantly reiterates that Denton is his hometown, and that he’s a self-made man (which connects to the briefly-alluded-to implication that he was adopted into a poorer family than Brad’s and that's the source of his resentment), him saying some very Ominous Things to Bard at the end of ‘Lullaby’

And then…. It turns out this version decided to cut the long-lost twin thing!

Which… honestly I probably should’ve seen coming from the casting choices.

And like, I see the logic here. Obviously the double-casting gimmick does not work on stage, that was supposed to be a parody of soap-opera twists and that element is a lot more downplayed in this version of ‘Shock Treatment’ and like… since this plot point has been already been heavily criticized in the film version I can see why they would want to cut it.

But… it’s not just that I feel like this twist would’ve worked better in this version it’s also that… cutting this plot point and replacing it with nothing just makes Brad - who is already kinda relegated into glorified McGuffin for most of this story - feel like he had even less to do with the plot and makes Farley’s apparent animosity for Brad even more inexplicable and shoddy.

Like, Farley still says he chose Janet ‘because of [Brad]’ so I guess we’re supposed to believe that he just finds Brad to be such a massive lameo that it makes him seethe with a burning hatred of a thousand suns. Which is an even flimsier motivation than that Twin Stuff in the movie.

‘Duel Duet’ always has that problem that it was originally written for two characters with a very powerful well-established rivalry and emotional stakes (Dr. Frank N’ Furter and Riff-Raff) and then had to be transplanted into being about these two schmucks who barely even know each other. And removing the Twin Twist just kinda removes whatever emotional stakes they did have and exacerbates the problem.

.....Honestly, I think the main way to really ‘fix’ Duel Duet is… instead of that one kinda ‘Girl Power’ moment they tried to give Janet that I feel is a bit too heavy-handed and obvious…

Just make ‘Duel Duet’ a Farley versus Janet song!

Like, Janet is unquestionably THE Main Character of the story with the most important emotional journey of all of the characters, she was the core target of Farley’s manipulation and the focus of his schemes, she’s the one who actually got to interact with him and developed any sort of relationship with him, the focus of this scene is on how Janet realizing she has been used by him, she already spends all of Duel Duet physically kicking his ass…

Janet should also be the one to musically face-off against Farley, especially if you remove the only reason why Farley has to hate Brad so much. Like, yeah, she does get to beat him physically... but because this is a musical - the Songs are the thing that gets the biggest emotional and narrative priority. The person who gets to Duel Duet with the Farley is the person who really beats him. And this is really moment that should belong to Janet in this version of the story.

And maybe removing one of the few Things Brad actually gets to do in this plot which is also his Big Musical Number would kinda suck for him, but… well, this version also gives Brad a nice lil’ Triumphant Reprise of ‘In My Own Way’ where he reaffirms his love for Janet and maybe you can expand that into his Big Musical Number and… y’know, if the rift in their marriage was at least kinda about Brad’s insecurities about Janet becoming the Main Breadwinner of the household… Maybe it’ll be a good resolution to his story to embrace being Janet’s little Damsel in Distress?

(I mean, I think this is an element in this musical as it is but.... but you could've leaned into it more!)

And with both Oliver Wright and Macy Struthers cut, that gives more material to make Betty’s character more interesting. Without Oliver, Betty generally gets to talk about her ongoing investigation with Janet - and that means the two of them get to have more interactions and a more visible friendship. And on the other hand, She starts out as Ralph Hapshatt’s cohost, putting on a very Macy-esque false smile and pretending they’re still happily married. It’s a fun, character-specific spin on the whole ‘falsehood of television’ motif of ‘Shock Treatment’.

(Also since Oliver is cut, it means Betty, Janet and Brad sing “Anyhow, Anyhow” as a trio. Which… I think that means they’re gonna have a threesome. And you know what? I support Janet Majors and her two girlfriends!)

And Ralph… really got the biggest boost in personality from the trimming of the cast - especially as most of the singing roles of these cut characters for assigned to him. Like, okay, I think something that’s kind of a problem with the ending of the original ‘Shock Treatment’ is how… unambiguous it is when compared to ‘Rocky Horror’.

Because ‘Rocky Horror’ has a very morally ambiguous cast - pretty much every character has some element that makes them at least a little bit sympathetic and also… well, if not morally wrong than at least an (Audience Participation Voice) ASSHOLE (but also yeah, a lot of them are morally reprehensible even when working against other morally reprehensible characters). And the ending leaves it ambiguous whatever Frank got what he deserves or whatever his death is a tragedy, or some combinations of the two. Not to mention the ambiguity of what happened to Brad and Janet; whatever they’ve been liberated or exploited or corrupted and whatever or not they’re better off being left behind on earth or remaining in Frank’s clutches.

And meanwhile ‘Shock Treatment’ has a VERY clear-cut ending. There is a unambiguous differentiation between the characters who are the Good Guys, and those who are Bad Guys and those who are the Bad Guys’ Gullible Victims. And, like, yeah, all the Bad Guys succeeded in their evil scheme and and are now basically literally rolling in cash

…but literally any character who has any redeeming qualities gets to happily escape this Nightmare Studio while singing a cheery song about sex.

Even Oscar Drill and the Bits, who are quite literally Bit Characters and have very little characterization or connection to our Main Foursome, get to escape. Basically just because what little we got from them made them seem like a nice group of young gays and they never did anything bad.

And all of the people who stayed behind were portrayed as such exaggerated cartoonish bigoted caricatures literally rushing in excitement to get themselves exploited. Nor do we get any moment for our protagonists to show any sort of concern or regret or sadness about these people who they've known all of their lives. So it’s really hard to care about them as, like, Real People who've been duped into being ground down by this awful machine of capitalism and conformism.

I understand the idea that having a wider cast makes Denton feel more like a Town compared to the isolated feeling of the Frankenstein’s Place, and that seeing all of these people fall for Farley’s bullshit in their own slightly-different ways help drives home how prevalent and influential and powerful this capitalist proudly-selfish image-obsessed philosophy really is. But… none of these characters get enough time to develop into anything but shallow parodies of Society. There’s just not enough humanity in them to sell even an ounce of the tragedy of Columbia and Rocky's deaths.

So condensing all of these slightly-different characters into Ralph Hapshatt… that really made him the most complicated and morally-ambiguous character in this whole musical. Because, yeah, he is a self-obsessed sexist asshole driven primarily by a desire for fame and fortune but…

We spend enough time with him to humanize him. To see how he’s struggling with internalized homophobia and how he does have his doubts about what Farley and Co. are doing to his best friends even if his thirst for fame keep winning the moral battle and that said thirst for fame is pretty obviously born from a desperate need for love and validation that this homophobic corporate world just can’t give him.

So when the show ends with him being happily strapped unto to the Shock Treatment device he illegally modified with his own two hands because he just can’t allow himself to refuse a chance to star on TV - on some level this is karma, but it’s also a grim reminder that even if our threesome of heroes are happy and free, this exploitative entertainment machine also 'just got to keep going', just got to keep grinding down other people in the name of mental health, the American family and quality entertainment.

And although we’ve technically scaled down from a whole town to just one guy, this feels so much more tragic because as selfish as Ralph is, and as silly and intentionally-ridiculous as the writing is sometimes, he still feels so much like a person.

#shock treatment #jim sharman #richard o'brien #musical #musical theater #musical theatre #musicals #rocky horror picture show #rocky horror show #rhps #the rocky horror picture show #the rocky horror show #rocky horror #trhps #music

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macawritesupdates · 3 months

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Writing Updates 6/16/2024

Figured I'd give a little update on where things are sitting! JUJUTSU KAISEN REQUESTS

Working on some fic requests still! Have one of the sequel requests hopefully going up today once I get back home. Want to finish up three others for posting as well. I'm nearing 100 requests so...yeah. If you request something, it is in a slow boat to being written 83;;

MY HERO ACADAMIA REQUESTS Thank you to the people who sent a little something in! Got five right now and going to quickly write them and prepare them for posting to start putting toes in that water with a request fic compilation! That one is going to be titled "Into the Multiverse"

LONG FIC UPDATES Careful What you Joke about: hoping to finish the chapter today! Making good progress and working through some heavy action scenes.

Broken in Ways No One Sees: Next chapter also having great progress and should be done soon! It is progressing very well.

Malevolence of Love: Poking at it, just trying to get into the right headspace to start getting this massive chapter written out. It is acting as a major bridge of events and new characters getting involved. Lessons in Accidental Seduction: Sukuna has been unleashed to show that he is a master of ruining people's day to make himself happy and Yuuji had to witness this. It is gonna be fun! Mirrored Lives: Going to rush out a few chapters to start pushing this fic into its final arc. the chapters for this fic tend to be shorter? So easier to get the count up. The Yuuji Files: The next chapter has started to emerge in more detail, but need to go through and lay it out a bit more but soon to start writing! Historically Inaccurate: I'm using on it. Letting it cook. It will be ready when its ready but getting the ingredients together. Shhhh! INCOMING FICS ON THE HORIZON Law Meets Disorder: Still in its outlining phase, but working on here and there. No rush as I want to finish up a few of my other fics before throwing this one out there c: Final chapter count is still TBD Who's a Good Boy?: Had good reactions to the idea, so this fic is greenlit and being outlined. Final chapter count is still TBD Villain by Nurture, Hero by Nature: THE MHA LONG-FIC! The title is going to change.... I don't like it too much but struggling with a title that fits so for now, that's its codename. It is fully outllined with 17 chapters to its name and I'm very happy with the pacing and themes (and unexpected ship!) that the fic holds. Eijiro is the main character and explores the nature of villains, heroes, and anti-heroes in depth.

That Dragon Idea: It is still cooking. It needs more time to go think about itself :b

#Maca updates #Where the writing sits as of today #going to be writing fool this week!#I'm free and must get much done!

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bookaddict24-7 · 7 months

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REVIEWS OF THE WEEK!

EVERY WEEK I WILL POST VARIOUS REVIEWS I’VE WRITTEN SO FAR IN 2024. YOU CAN CHECK OUT MY GOODREADS FOR MORE UP-TO-DATE REVIEWS HERE.

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76. Legacy by Nora Roberts--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

There's truly something magical about reading a Nora Roberts novel--they're fun, sometimes simple, and a great way to pass the time. I'm starting to notice the formula to her romantic suspense novels, but you know what? I will devour them every time.

LEGACY was a good read with some sweet characters and a really creepy serial killer stalking women and hunting them. This is one thing I think Roberts is a little too good at--creating those creepy evil people stalking and threatening to kill the MC.

I loved the dogs in this and how everything came together at the end. I'm glad I was able to give this one a shot!

Will hopefully read more of her books in March!

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77. Love Me Today by A.L. Jackson--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I started LOVE ME TODAY because I have found myself craving more romantic suspense and this one fed that craving pretty well. It had the romance, the smut, the mysterious murderer haunting one of the MCs, and the incredibly adorable kid. Also, the single parent trope? Yes, please.

LOVE ME TODAY wasn't anything mind blowing, but it was such a satisfying read. The FMC was someone who wore her heart on her sleeve and was so pure (not in a gross way, just in a "I will love you no matter what" way), that her personality on the page felt very wholesome. She was a great foil for the MMC, who was the epitome of dark, broody, and jaded.

While I did enjoy their romance and their interactions with the tiny human, I thought the nickname the MMC had for the FMC could have been...better, or at least not repeated as much LOL. The spicy scenes were sometimes cringe because of the repetitive use of the nickname.

Really, really enjoyed the murderer reveal. Also, now I want to read the next one in the series because it's another trope I love.

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78. Villain and the Geek by L.C. Davis--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

That ending and the fact that the next one doesn't have a release date yet? Ahhhhh!

These are short, emotional, smutty, and addicting books. I devoured the first series near the end of the year last year and was thrilled to see that this one was coming out so soon after I finished book 1 in the sequel series. I want more! I want to get some answers and I want to see Constantine spoil the hell out of Devon because he deserves that.

I'm not going to lie, I love the whole emotional aspect of this book. It's like a punch to the heart to see how Constantine treats Devon, knowing it's going to bite him in the ass.

I need more and I'm sad the next book is supposedly the final instalment in their story.

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79. The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Incredible. Absolutely incredible.

I don't know what I was expecting from THE BOOK OF DOORS, but it wasn't the twisty way everything connected. Or the way the characters were written and grew so much with the story. Brown absolutely killed it with this book and I definitely want to keep an eye out for his next books now.

THE BOOK OF DOORS is a book about magic, yes, but also about love, family, friendships, and grief--the power of letting go and how sometimes, even if we have the power to change things, it's sometimes best to leave things as they are because of their impact on us. Brown's book had so much more depth than I was expecting and I'm here still recovering from it all.

The amount of times I was left with my mouth open because of a revelation, or a turn in the storyline? Phew.

I highly recommend this one, even if the friend of the FMC was annoying LOL. She grew, too, as a character, but man I wanted to slap some sense into her LOL.

Definitely add this to your TBR! You may or may not want to cry a couple of times, too.

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80. Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

FANGIRL DOWN is the first book I've read by Tessa Bailey in a long time and I have to say, I'm both surprised and impressed! I think this is going to be the perfect summer read for anyone looking for a light, quick, and sexy summer read.

The dynamic between the two characters worked fantastically and their communication level was *chef's kiss*. I also appreciated the inclusion of a main character with diabetes. Although I don't have diabetes myself, it was great seeing that representation in a romance novel.

The FMC was a badass, even if she was sometimes stubborn to the point of it being a bit frustrating. I loved how she handled the people around her in her new famous role. I extra loved that any simple issues surrounding that world didn't become any main issues in the book. I liked that Bailey focused on the couple and their growths as people.

I know nothing about golf, so it was interesting reading about a romance that featured it--it was strangely refreshing that it wasn't another hockey, or football romance.

I do recommend this one, if not for the great characters, then for the smutty good times.

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81. Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I'll admit that it took me a bit to get back into this universe with DEAD IN THE FAMILY. I think because a lot seemingly happened between the last book and this one. I'm sure there are short stories and novellas, but I didn't read them so jumping into this one was like jumping into a deep end I didn't even know was there.

But when I finally DID get back into this, I actually found myself really enjoying it. Sookie is growing super jaded as she gets older and I'm actually enjoying that because it's more realistic. There's a scene where a character comments that the Sookie from a year ago would drink something without a second thought and now she's all worried. I like this because Sookie has seem some Shit.

I also really liked this one because it dealt a lot with grief and familial connections. ALTHOUGH, this is also creepy af with some of the themes and one new character. That made me incredibly uncomfortable.

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Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts?

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Happy reading!

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randomrichards · 2 years

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THE TOP 10 BEST FILM OF 2022

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

GLASS ONION

Rian Johnson proves he’s still got the touch with another subversively comedic addition to the Knives Out franchise. He delivers the twisty mystery, unique characters, and witty dialogue we know and love from the predecessor. There are side splitting gags galore from the characterizations (Dave Bautista as an MRA influencer who still lives with his mom) and the dialogue (“Please tell me you don’t think sweatshops are where they make sweatpants”).

DECISION TO LEAVE

On the surface, Decision to Leave is a modern film noir about a kind detective who develops an infatuation with a femme fatale after her husband falls off the top of a mountain. But as you would expect from a Park Chan-Wook film, the film becomes something much more.

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Decades after the original best picture winning classic, Edgar Berge adapts Erich Maria Remarque’s classic anti-war story of a small group of eager young Germans who enthusiastically sign up to fight during WW1 only to be destroyed by the horrors of war. Many films show the devastation of war and its traumatic effects, but this film showcases the terror of being in the battlefields.

PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH

Puss competes against a group of baddies to reach a wishing star in the sequel nobody asked for that ended up being way better than it had any right to be.

First, it uses Spider-Man: Into the Spider verse’s animation technique to create an animation style that resembles illustrations come to life and create some dazzling action scenes. It also gives Puss some unforgettable villains ranging from the hilariously sociopathic Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney) to Dreamwork’s most terrifying villain the Wolf (Wagner Moura). Finally, it gives Puss some depth as he is forced to confront his mortality and how his obsession with his legacy has kept him from forming meaningful connections.

TAR

Cate Blanchett gives one of the year’s best performances as a narcissistic and well-respected composer whose actions eventually comes back to haunt her.

THE TOP 10 LIST:

10) THE MENU

Satirical Comedy and unsettling horror make strange bedfellows in this unique tale of a Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), an average woman who joins her foodie boyfriend (Nicholas Hoult) to an all exclusive dinner led by renowned chef Julian Slowick (Ralph Fiennes). What they don’t know is that Julian plans to deliver some just desserts for his latest customers.

The plot plays like a mystery. With each dish served, we try to guess what Slowick’s got planned for these elites. And Slowick’s motives grow more and more unsettling. It’s best to go in knowing as little of the movie as possible.

The actors are more than game for their respective performances. Fiennes is unsettling as a stern perfectionist who has a bone to pick with all of them. Taylor-Joy makes the perfect audience surrogate as she calls out the absurdity of the food arrangements. The rest of the cast play into the caricatures of their characters from Hong Chau as Slowick’s fanatical waitress to Janet McTeer as a pretentious critic. Hoult in particular relishes his role as a devoted know-it-all. Just the scene of him crying over tasting bread accompaniments without the bread is sure to bring a snicker.

This film ruthlessly mocks the elitist foodie culture. Most of the customers care more about the status than the meal, never just enjoying the dishes. With each dish, Slowick calls the customers out on their privileges.

Available on Disney+

9) THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

In a small village in WW1 era Ireland, Padraic Suilleabhain (Colin Farrell) and Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) spend their days enjoying glasses of Guinness at the local pub. But then one day, Colm decides he doesn’t like Padraic anymore and cuts him out of life to focus on making music. But the daft and offended Padraic can’t seem to take a hint much to Colm’s annoyance and Padraic’s spitfire sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon) chagrin. The locals aren’t much help, with many prying to know more about this incoming feud..

After earning acclaim (and some awards) with his Hollywood features Seven Psychopaths and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, writer/director Martin McDonagh returns to his roots and reunites his In Bruges stars Farrell and Gleason. McDonagh brings his trademark dark comedy to a folksy environment from his biting dialogue (“If punching a policeman is a sin then we may as well pack up and go home”) and surprising violence.[1] It also fits into McDonagh’s reoccurring theme of men who are unable to handle emotional moments like mature adults. While it can be devastating for a friend to sever ties with you, but Padraic can be clingy. Colm isn’t helping matters by threatening self-mutilation. Farrell and Gleason’s performances prevent these two from being unbearable. Farrell stands out by bringing a childlike eagerness and naivety that makes Padraic likeable.

At the same time, McDonagh regards these characters with empathy. He shows as much understanding for Padraic’s gratefulness for his simple life as he does with Colm’s need to create a legacy through his music.

Also, McDonagh does an excellent job of creating a sense of environment with the village. There’s also a strong sense of community in this village, with everyone knowing each other. There is also a unique set of personalities in this village, from the eccentric old Mrs. McCormick (Sheila Flitton) to the timid Dominic Kearney (Barry Keoghan). This simple area feels like a warm and inviting home many would like to live in.

The Banshees of Inisherin is a dark delight.

8) THE BATMAN

Who would have thought that there’d be a Batman movie that could pull off the feel of a David Fincher film? But Matt Reeves (along with co-writer Peter Craig) surprises the world with DC’s answer to Se7en and Zodiac. He brings the world a young Batman (Robert Pattison) in his second year who attracts the attention of the Riddler (Paul Dano), whose killing off key political figures in Gotham City. As he tries to get to the bottom of the Riddler’s murders, Batman comes to realize how corrupt Gotham’s world truly is and is forced to confront the sins of his father.

After two dark and gritty reboots of Batman and a post-pandemic world, this version really needed to impress. And it didn’t disappoint. Reeves delivers refreshing takes on every aspect of the iconic franchise. Gotham City has never looked seedier than it does in this film, with endless rain, decaying infrastructure and array of street gangs. This Batman we get is a young man who has let his Batman persona consume his life to the point where he barely has anything to do with Bruce Wayne.[2] But the most surprising update is the complete reinvention of The Riddler. This villain goes from being one of most mocked of Batman’s rogue’s gallery to being a Zodiac-like menace who seems to be constantly 10 steps ahead of everyone[3].

All these characters work because of the performances. Pattison proves himself a worthy Batman whether he’s interrogating Oswald (Colin Farrell) or taking down an army of muggers. Paul Dano weaponizes his everyman looks to hide an intimidating and sociopathic genius behind the green mask and distorted vocals. Farrell goes beyond the heavy makeup to create a ruthless, fast-talking version of the Penguin. Zoe Kravitz’ performance is probably the most comic accurate portrayal of Catwoman, especially when it comes to her dynamic with Batman. That’s not even getting into how Jeffrey Wright and Andy Serkis perfectly capturing the essences of Jim Gordon and Alfred respectively.

There’s also way more focus on the Detective aspect of Batman than in most versions. While we do see him in some kickass action scenes, for the most part, we see the World’s Greatest Detective use his sleuthing skills to solve the Riddler’s twisted riddles and investigate crime scenes. This brings more focus on the intrigue of the mystery.

And that score. That glorious musical score. Michael Giacchino delivers an epic, booming score worthy of joining the batman scores provided by Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer.

It’s not a perfect movie. The biggest problem is the running time, which can lead to some dragging scenes that will be too much for some audiences. But the strengths of the film make up for these flaws. Here’s hoping Reeves keeps this up for the inevitable sequel.

Available on Crave

7) BOILING POINT

Writer/Director Philip Barantini seems to have taken a lesson from Uncut Gems on how to make a film feel like a relentless panic attack when he made Boiling Point; a tense drama about a stressed-out head chef (Stephen Graham) trying to get through the busiest night of the year.

Barantini and cinematographer Matthew Lewis make the risky move of shooting the whole film in a single take. It is easy for this to become gimmicky, but they use it effectively to emphasize how stressful it is to work in a restaurant. As the camera moves across the kitchen and into the dining area, it’s clear there’s no escape from the stress not even when head chef Andy Jones heads to his office to try and catch his breath. The rumbling of the kitchen as Andy sits alone in his desk makes it clear he has nowhere to hide.

Barantini also keeps the stress going by surrounding the environment with multiple clashes. The dishwasher’s upset that her replacement is hours late. The sous chefs and head waiter are at each other’s throats. Andy’s co-owner has invited a critic to dine with him. Barantini does an excellent job of balancing the multiple storylines within the short 92-minute screen time. He even manages to create some satisfying set ups and payoffs. One perfect example is a reoccurring arc with one chef whose constantly being told to roll up his sleeve. The revelation behind this arc with stay with you.

Boiling Point has a phenomenal cast who all deliver compelling performances as they scream over each other trying to get their point across. Usually typecast as the villain, Graham delivers his best performance as a man trying to keep it together while his life is going down the tubes. He makes you feel his hopelessness and overwhelming strain as he downs bottles of whisky, trying to get through the day. Even at his most self-destructive moments, you feel for him.

The result is a drama that does a better job of keeping the audience at the edge of their seat than most thrillers wished they could.

6) RRR

With the growing interest in Tollywood films, RRR makes the perfect gateway drug. Rarely in recent years has there been an action film so unapologetically epic as RRR, which has broken into the mainstream.

As with many Tollywood action films, Director S.S. Rajamouli, co-writers Vijayendra Prasad and Sai Madhave Burra along with the cast and crew take every element of the epic action flick and turn them all up to eleven. In a time when there is a call for more flawed, relatable protagonists in movies, RRR gives us a duel of superhuman action heroes performing impossible feats of agility. The opening scenes alone have rebel leader Komaram Bheem (NT Rama Rao Jr) chasing a wolf and a tiger and misguided soldier Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan Teja) leaping over a fence and fighting a whole crowd to capture one suspect. Let’s see the Fast and Furious franchise have its heroes leap over a bridge on a motorcycle or a horse and swing on a rope carrying the Indian flag to rescue a boy from a fire.

While there is a pressure for films to keep any messages nuanced and subtle, RRR serves as a three hour middle finger to the British Empire. That empire is embodied by the mustache twirling Scott and Catherine Buxton (Ray Stevenson and Alison Doody) who literally kidnap a little girl and kill the mother in the first scene. There would have been a danger of the villains being cringe, but Stevenson and Doody savour their villainy like a classic Disney villain. Even they get in on the over the top violence, with Mr. Buxton firing a machine gun while flying out a crashing car. It makes their downfall more satisfying.

If that isn’t enough, RRR also has musical numbers as epic as the action scenes. They manage to appear in the unlikeliest of moments like a motorcycle/horse race and one character being tortured with a whip. Most notable standout is a dance off between the heroes and one snobby British soldier.

But at its core, RRR is a story about a friendship between two men who don’t realize that one’s supposed to arrest the other and a tale about a tribal leader on a mission to rescue a little girl from rich captors. The fact this film makes us care about story and keep the audience hooked over its long screentime shows the power of this epic.

Available on Netflix

5) THE NORTHMAN

After taking the horror genre by storm with The Witch and The Lighthouse, writer/director Robert Eggers gives us something completely different with The Northman. In contrast to his previous low budget A24 arthouse horror flicks, Egger’s latest is a big budget epic historical action flick. It may be his most accessible film, but that doesn’t stop him from bringing his boundary pushing style into this film.

The Northman is Hamlet-like revenge tale of Almeth (Alexander Skarsgaard), a Viking prince who seeks vengeance on his uncle Fjolnier (Claes Bang) who kills his father King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke) and marries his mother Queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman). After years in exile, Prince Amleth disguises himself as a slave and enlists the help of an enchantress (Anya Taylor-Joy) to bring down the King Fjolnier the Brotherless.

Eggers brings a refreshing take on the Viking historical drama with his trademark style. Like his previous films, Eggers (along with his co-worker Sjon) goes out of his way to make his stories as historically accurate as possible. As a result, we get the ugliest side of the Viking life. The images of people in chains makes it clear that Amleth’s family owns slaves. When Amleth’s in exile, he joins a group of Vikings in pillaging and terrorizing innocent people. In one horrifying scene, those Vikings trap women and children in a cottage and burn it down. Keep in mind that the protagonist watches this happen.

What’s strange is that Eggers also includes fantastical moments that draws from Norse Mythology. The result is otherworldly imagery of Amleth meeting with the Seeress (Bjork). It doesn’t seem like this should work, but somehow these elements make strange bedfellows.

Unlike his previous films, Eggars doesn’t go for historically accuracy with the dialogue. As a result, the audience has a better grasp of what the characters are saying. The dialogue is still kind of Shakespearean but just enough to the characters are still easy to understand.

Of course, the action scenes are awesome with the blood and dismemberment you expect from an R-rated movie with Vikings. It leads to a most metal ending with Amleth and his uncle going head-to-head in a volcano in their birthday suits.

With this film bombing at the box office, it’s doubtful Eggers will ever have the means to make a film as epic as this one.

Available on Crave

4) GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO

2022 was the strange year where we got three Pinocchio movies in a row. After listening to Pauly Shore butcher lines and Disney butcher their original classic, most moviegoers knew Guillermo Del Toro’s stop motion version would be the best one by default. But even without the other two films, there would still be major anticipation for Del Toro’s first animated feature film. With his trademark fleshed out mythology, creative character designs and compelling storytelling, many expected him to perfectly capture the macabre tone of Carlo Collodi’s tale. What we got is a refreshing take on the classic take on the wooden boy who longs to be a real boy.

Del Toro (alongside codirector Mark Gustafson and co-writers Patrick McHale and Matthew Robbins) perfectly balances capturing the story’s dark tone and core storyline while changing many elements of the story. This Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) is a lot closer to the disobedient troublemaker of the original story than Disney’s sweet but gullible character. Like Collodi’s tale, this story has our hero causing grief for his creator/father Geppetto (David Bradley), being led astray by crooks and trouble making teens only to suffer the repercussions before the climax of trying to escape from inside the whale. It even includes both the Christian undertones of the original story and even its dark comedy (among them a reoccurring gag of Sebastian the Cricket (Ewan McGregor) constantly being squashed.) It also borrows a bit from the Disney version with the Blue Fairy (Tilda Swinton) bringing the puppet to life and the cricket trying to guide him.

But this film also makes a lot of changes from the original story. First, Del Toro sets the film in Italy during Mussolini’s reign. Not only does this fit into Del Toro’s reoccurring theme of life under fascism, but it brings nuance to the original story’s message of obeying your parents. While the film does have Pinocchio deal with consequences for misbehaving, the film also shows the dangers of blinding obeying those in power and makes the case that disobedience is necessary when it involves doing the right thing. The film also fleshes out the characters to bring complexity. While Pinocchio is still a disobedient troublemaker, he also has his heart in the right place and will stick up for others. Geppetto is a broken man grieving the loss of his dead son Carlo (also Mann). Sebastian is a wannabe writer who makes his home in Pinocchio’s chest. Del Toro also brings in an array of unique characters from ruthless ringmaster Count Volpe (Christoph Walz) to terrifying fascist enforcer Podesta (Ron Pearlman). All the actors do excellent jobs of making their characters engaging, especially Mann.

Co-Director Mark Gustafson perfectly brings Del Toro’s trademark style into the animation world, resulting in some unique visuals. Pinocchio has never looked more wooden with spiky wooden hair, tiny black dotted eyes, and multiple nails in his back. The Blue fairy aka the wood sprite (also Swinton) is this otherworldly blend of Hari Krishna and a mermaid. Death is this sphinxlike creature in a world of blue sand. What’s most notable is how the settings and character design resemble classic storybook illustrations come to life.

The film is also a musical, with songs created by composer Alexandre Desplat alongside Del Toro and lyricist Roeban Katz. The old timey style perfectly serves to further the narrative and reveal more about the characters, but they don’t stand out the way Encanto’s songs did. The one exception is “Ciao Papa.” When Pinocchio pours his heart out to his long distant father, you can feel that longing so much it may bring you to tears.

No wonder many see this as the front runner for the Best Animated Feature Oscar.

Available on Netflix

3) AFTERSUN

Most filmmakers try to make their films memorable. Aftersun is a rare film that feels like a memory.

On the surface, it’s a simple story of a single Dad (Paul Mescal) and his daughter (Frankie Corio) taking a trip to a Turkish beachside resort. There is no real plot. No central conflict. It’s just segments of a father and daughter on vacation. At least, that’s what it seems like at first. Hidden in plain sight are signs of the father hiding some personal pain from his daughter.

In her debut feature, writer/director Charlotte Wells takes us into segments of this vacation, even replaying some moments on camcorder. The result is a film that feels like we’re entering the daughter’s memories as she tries to understand her father.

The strength of Wells’ filmmaking is how she avoids the temptation to dramatize any element of the plot in favour of making it as naturalistic as possible. Never does she make it clear what the dad’s going through. You only get the most subtle of hints. She only applies any artistry with the ending that will stay in your mind long after the credits roll.

That’s helped by the performances by the two leads. Mescal and Corio bounce off each other perfectly, making us believe they are an actual family. They both also maintain low key naturalization throughout the film.

Put all these together and you get an unassuming drama that stays with you long after the credits roll.

2) (TIE) BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND, GOLDEN DELICIOUS AND YOU WILL LIVE FOREVER

I admit that I have a habit of putting ties in my lists, not helped by me including a three-way tie in this one. But these 3 films have so much in common that I felt they deserve to be put together. Well, that and these are probably the least known films on this list, and I feel they deserve more attention.

All three are Canadian films centered on LBGT teens who move into new locations, which leads to developing deep relationships. They’re similar yet different. The most important commonality are the compelling stories of relatable, flawed young people trying to fit into their world and figure out what they really want in life in the process.

First, we have Before I Change My Mind. Set in 1987, the movie centres on Robin (Vaughn Murrae), a non-binary preteen who moves to a small Albertan town from the US with their father (Matthew Rankin). There are of course questions from the students what Robin’s gender is. To fit in, Robin tries to befriend the school bully Carter (Dominic Lippa). On one hand, it makes it easier for Robin to form friends. On the other, it leads to Robin making misguided decisions.

Director Trevor Anderson and co-writer Fish Griwkowsky capture the everyday life of preteens as they make snide comments during music class, pick fights with each other and just hanging around in the living room. What makes this film special is how it captures the difficulties of being a preteen. Robin and their classmates try their best to fit in with their peers. Sometimes it can be found in healthy activities like hanging around in the mall. Other times it comes from misguided decisions including sneaking into their parents alcohol or in one student’s case, completely changing his personality after being bullied.

The film also captures the frustration of dealing with emerging emotions you have no understanding of and now healthy means of channeling them. That’s especially true with Robin who has no idea of their own gender identity since non-binary wasn’t a common term in the 80s. As a result, they become targets for fellow classmates who keep demanding to know if they are a boy or a girl.. Being non-binary themselves, Murrae makes the audience feel how lost Robin feels. Anderson and Griwkowsky do an excellent job of using subtext to capture this feeling. And they never offer any easy answers.

There are also some funny moments in the film. When gym class separates the boys and girls, Robin sits in the middle. Robin and Carter try to convince a drag queen (dressed like Madonna) to buy them beers. But the comedic high point is the school’s disastrous rock musical rip-off of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Next, we have Golden Delicious. Jake (Cardi Wong) seemed to be living the perfect teen life as a basketball player whose relationship with his girlfriend Valerie (Parmiss Sehat) is popular on social media. But he finds his life turned upside down when new student Aleks (Chris Carson) moves next door. As Jake and Aleks both train for the basketball team, Jake is forced to confront the pressure his father George (Ryan Mah) places on him.

Director Jason Karman (through Gorrman Lee’s screenplay) channels his youth to capture the pressure of having to live up to expectations. Jake tries his best to please his father, despite not being the best skilled in the team. Georges’s pressure is embodied by the old, decaying basketball hoop he forces Jake to practice on. Through Aleks, Jake’s confronted with the fact that he has never learned to live for himself.

Lee also fleshes out Jake’s family, who is dealing with their own pressure. George and his wife Andrea (Leeah Wong) are trying to keep their Chinese restaurant afloat, but the stress of running the restaurant has taken its toll on Andrea. When their daughter Janet (Claudia Kai) discusses her interest in being a chef, Andrea tries to forbid her. Janet has her own arc where Janet tries to create her late grandma’s dishes. This family feels so achingly human and relatable.

Of course, there’s excellent chemistry between Wong and Carson as their characters build from a friendship into a relationship.

And finally, we have You Can Live Forever. Rebellious teen Jaime (Anwen O’Driscoll) is forced to live with her aunt Beth (Liane Balaban) while her mother recollects herself after her husband’s death. Beth is a Jehovah’s Witness whose husband Francois (Antoine Yared) hopes to be the leader of his congregation. While being forced to attend sermons, Jaime develops a friendship with fellow devout Marike (June Laporte). Soon that develops into something more, which is risky in a homophobic fringe community.

A romantic film like these lives and dies on the chemistry between the leads. When two leads have such differing personalities/worldviews, it’s very important that the two leads have convincing chemistry for the relationship to make sense. O’Driscoll and Laporte pull that off beautifully, conveying a warm intimacy between Jaime and Marike as they hide in plain sight with little intimate gestures. It helps that both actresses make their characters feel like real people. O’Driscoll portrays Jaime as a typical teen whose big glasses and grunge wardrobe hides a slightly rebellious teen frustrated at being stuck in a situation outside of her control. Laporte makes Marike a timid girl devoted to her religion yet forms an infatuation with Jaime. Writer/Directors Mark Slutsky and Sarah Watts avoid the temptation of melodrama in favour of grounded empathy. They allow us to understand what Marike finds in her faith while showing how it can be stifling for Jaime.

All three deliver achingly human stories of young people trying to find what they truly want in life.

1) EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

In a time when franchises consume movie theatres, Everything, Everywhere All at Once came out of nowhere to deliver an everything bagel the zeitgeist can sink its teeth into.

Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) finds herself dissatisfied with her life as a struggling Laundromat owner, further aggravated by her goofball husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), her contentious relationship with her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) and her overly critical father (James Hong). If that wasn’t bad enough, she’s being audited by the IRS, forcing her to deal with an austere IRS agent (Jamie Lee Curtis). Suddenly, Evelyn finds Waymond possessed by an alternate version of himself and Evelyn’s tasked with saving multiple universes from the mysterious and all powerful villain known as Jobu.

The Dynamic Duo of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert already proved their originality with their music video Turn Down for What and their feature film debut Swiss Army Man. Who would have thought they could create an existential tale of a mother daughter relationship involving googly eyes, hot dog fingers and a ratatouille parody?

As you expect from the Daniel’s previous works, it delivers on the weird and hilarious imagery (often involving leud objects). One minute, Waymond is gluing googly eyes on everything, and the next he’s taking down security guards with a fanny pack. That’s just one of many examples of the creative and well-choreographed fights scenes the Daniel’s have in store for the viewers. Only they could image fight scenes either involving Waymond intentionally giving himself paper cuts or henchmen trying to shove a trophy up where the sun don’t shine.

With moments like these, you would never expect anything profound in the film. And yet, the Daniels somehow balances these silly moments with deep, philosophical themes. Evelyn comes to realize how the little choices she made in life can have major outcomes after glimpsing versions of herself as a famous actress, a kung fu artist and a chef. Her journey also forces her to reexamine her perceptions of her husband and reconcile her relationship with her daughter. The battle between Evelyn and Jobu shows how perception can alter how one handles the meaningless of life. It’s surprising how deep this film can get.

The result is a cinematic miracle that delivers a truly unique experience.

Available on Prime Video

[1] When Colm threatens to cut off his fingers if Padraic talks to him again, you know a finger’s going to come off at some point.

[2] So consumed that he only has around 3-4 scenes as Bruce Wayne. It’s funny. In his Godzilla reboot, he barely showed the iconic monster on screen. For The Batman, we get all the caped crusader we could ever want.

[3][3] He also seems to be doing a better job of getting rid of corruption than Batman is.

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danthediamondminecart · 15 days

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Hi! So I spent a few hours thinking about these questions, and here are the questions I'm mostly want to ask.

1. In the RBB Superheroes AU, how do the heroes transform from their hero attire to their civilian attire and back to their hero attires again

2. Amongst the RBB characters, which one is your favorite or which character do you have fun writing lore about

3. Will your RBB Madoka Magica AU, have a Season 2 fanfic

4. Who is the Champion in the RBB Pokemon AU

5. Are there any canceled RBB AU'S that you have

6. How do you mostly use Russo's powers regarding his sword of truth, and what does he uses the sword of truth mostly for

Sorry for the huge amount of questions, but I'm generally just so curious! I hope you don't mind 😅

LETS GO TIME TO RAMBLE ABOUT MY AUs!! Please do keep sending me questions about them - I love to answer and I have so much to say despite barely posting about them.

I'm going to put my answers under a cut, because they're LONG:

It hasn't been mentioned anywhere yet, but in-universe, Jackeryz and Sanna are in charge of making the heroes' outfits presentable, durable and adaptable - including whether they can be quickly changed into or not. Some of them, like Fracture and Riptide, can afford to keep their costumes under their regular clothes or somewhat shrunken under their clothes, so that they can change into their superhero outfits in an instance. Others, like Phoenix and Complexicon, can't do this - they have to change clothes at home, so instead they have easy routes to get home if something happens. (Well, Kreek doesn't really leave his house, but you get the gist.)

Tanqr and Kreek. Individually and as a duo. I love thinking about those two's dynamic, AU or not, how their morals conflict, what might get them to be friends and sympathise with each other as well as what might get them into a serious argument. They're narrative foils, I nearly wrote a whole video essay on them (i did not get past the intro), I love their dynamic so much. I am so normal about them, and I live to see them beat each other up for sport.

No. I've lost motivation for the AU. I did consider revamping it, but I don't have the time for that and have other AUs to focus on. For now though, the AO3 port's notes will (eventually, when i actually update the AO3 port) go into depth as to what the planned 'sequel' was going to be.

TanqR. To give a little hint, he's a formal guy who just loves battling, and is far more serious than the man he beat out to become Top Champ. He also has a strange connection with the villainous team...

I'm not sure what you mean by 'cancelled'. If you mean "currently not working on/making content of", that's a vast majority of my AUs, but they all still exist and hold a dear place in my heart even if they will never see the light of day outside of my private chats. The only AU I suppose I've properly 'cancelled' is the Robloxian Paranormal Archives iteration of the TMA AU, but that just got revamped into Top Of The Food Chain.

There's a bit more depth on Russo's specific powers here, but generally, he uses it for intelligence and interrogation purposes. He can use it to get people to tell him the truth, or to snoop out secrets in a room. It is surprisingly effective use his sword to threaten someone, and then use its power, so that person is forced to reveal how scared they are. He prefers to use it over his Resonators, because those take a lot more energy out of him and mind control is really hard.

#yandan answers #yandan rambles #rb battles #rbblr #rb battles au #rb battles superhero au #chronicles of the finalists #rbb pokemon au #ig that can be the tag for it #headcanons

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captspaceface · 11 months

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Back from seeing The Marvels! Initial braindump ahead.

Let me first start by saying that it was…fun?

But man, I feel like it suffered from the same problem as all recent Marvel releases...pacing. I feel like this was too rushed and potentially edited down to a point where it kind of hindered the film. There wasn't enough time spent with quite a few pivotal moments (especially the heavier moments because GOD FORBID MARVEL YOU LET SOMETHING BE HEAVY WITHOUT BREEZING PAST IT IMMEDIATELY). This could have been fleshed out more in certain areas. It was too surface-level to me which is disappointing but this is a universal Marvel issue though so nothing new here.

Brie + Teyonah + Iman had great chemistry. Loved every bit of it. I mean the training montage was cute.

Fight choreography was fun to watch (effects were a little rough during all the switching though).

IT'S NICE TO SEE FURY BE SILLY AGAIN. He's only like this with Carol and I love it so much but I still wanted more of those two. Their little banter/argument on the ship was hilarious I just wanted more of them because I love their dynamic so much.

Goose is a goddamn menace.

Dar-Benn, while another forgettable villain...I get her motive but still murder. Again, I wish she was fleshed out more because she really did have a legit reason to be pissed at Captain Marvel

Valkyrie/Carol was total fanservice AND I DON'T GIVE A DAMN. YOU GOT ME. FANFIC WRITERS TAG ME I WANT IT ALL. THERE WAS NOTHING STRAIGHT ABOUT THAT MOMENT. I NEED DETAILS NOW LADIES.

Guys...I'm just going to say it. I hated the Aladin (Aladna? what was it called? THE WATER PLANET) scene. It was just too cringe for me. Not a fan.

I KNEW Carol was on Earth with Maria while Monica was blipped. It didn't make sense for her not to be. But again, thanks to that good ol' Marvel pacing, WE JUST BREEZED PAST THIS PIVOTAL REVEAL AND I AM STILL ANNOYED ABOUT IT. Also? Endgame haircut reason confirmed.

Oh and Goose being with Maria the whole time...ugh my heart.

Kamala recruiting the Young Avengers is adorable and I LOVE THAT KATE IS FIRST MY GIRL I'VE MISSED HER.

I wish I could get excited about X-men but I don't trust Marvel right now.

Carol wrestling with the consequences of her actions (and the damage she’s caused, being known as “annihilator” across the universe and the guilt that comes with that)…again, I wish they would have spent more time with this because that's a central character attribute of hers that should be explored deeper. There’s so much meat there and I’m just left here starving. Like, the moment when she yells at Kamala about how they have to save as many Skrulls as they can which isn’t all…that’s a big-time Captain call that once again, has consequences and fallout. THIS IS THE CONTENT I WANT. Maybe if she had her own proper sequel which we probably won't ever get now. Do I sound bitter?

I'm seeing it again on Saturday (is it bad I don’t really feel compelled to though now) so now that I know what happens maybe I can settle and enjoy it more? I don’t know. Like I said in the beginning, it was fun, light, charming…but overall? This came across too superficial to me. I mean I’m not asking for a 3 hour movie just more depth. I just love Carol Danvers so much, I’ll always want more okay??

Before I wrap this up though, SPECIAL SHOUTOUT TO WARDROBE. THANKS FOR ALL OF THE CROPS TOPS AND THOSE DAMN RED GYM SHORTS. YOU DID A GIRL GOOD.

#britt talks films #the marvels spoilers

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zalrb · 1 year

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The tvd movie would be a romance with the twist of vampires. *a better twilight

ok the original ask:

Anonymous asked:

If tvd s1 was a movie what parts of stelenas story would you have kept for it to still feel as profound as s1.

well assuming that there are multiple movies, i would stop at 1x17 and make it a cliffhanger, where the movie ends with elena giving stefan her blood and he saves her and it's all fine and they're lovey dovey but the last shot is of him ravenously drinking from blood bags. if the movie is done right then that ending would be gut-wrenching.

to streamline everything instead of the tomb vampires kind of just being around and then kidnapping stefan to torture him etc. etc. the final act would be the tomb vampires about to devour the town, stefan/elena and friends are going to stop them, stefan gets merked in the midst of the fight and elena feeds him her blood.

i'm thinking of this as less what i would cut from stelena and more what would i cut from the other things that happen in season 1 that would reduce stelena's time and the first thing would be delena.

damon can still come back to revive katherine and the tomb vampires and kill people all over town and he and stefan can still have history over katherine but he doesn't have to be "falling" for elena. if we want to give him depth so he's not just a cardboard villain it would be through making his story with katherine stronger.

katherine and elena also don't have to look alike so we can skip the whole elena leaves/damon kidnaps her/stefan worrying georgia thing. if we want to keep that stefan had watched elena before coming to mf then i would keep it as stefan saved elena's life and bounced then he checked in to see if she was doing OK and then wanted to meet her.

elena being adopted can also go, so isobel doesn't need to be a storyline either.

there doesn't have to be elena/matt tension which is barely there anyway. in fact matt doesn't have to be there at all. neither does tyler. unless you want the sequel to include werewolves. idk.

i think it's also about streamlining things. stefan saving elena's life wouldn't be a reveal to the audience anyway, it would have to be incorporated from the very beginning where it would, like, start with elena dreaming about the car crash in quick flashes and then her just waking up in the hospital and then stefan's perspective a bit later on, maybe he's on the bridge and it's a quick flashback to the same night where he hears a car crash and vamp speeds and it can happen in bits and pieces until stefan tells elena what happened and he would tell her because damon, who would be bitter about stefan finding love while katherine is still in the tomb and bitter about what went down with katherine in 1864, would twist it to make it seem like something else and she confronts him about it as opposed to her being like why do i look like katherine etc. etc.

i would also have to streamline the breakup because it's "i can't be with you stefan" and then stefan kills vicki for elena and she's still 'i can't be with you but i can't lose how i feel about you' and then lexi shows up and lexi is like yeah you're totally into him then damon kills her then it's elena is all talk to me then stefan's like you were right to stay away from me then he saves bonnie then she's like i can be with you then he's like i can't be with you i'm leaving town then she's like i love you and that would take too much time

so i would have to combine it: stefan is like i can't do this, elena does a mini speech about how there is a part of her that wishes etc. etc. but she can't lose how she feels about him, he says no it's too dangerous.

this can go different places, this can happen at the end of the second act/beginning of the third and there's a period of separation shown through MONTAGE

tomb vampire war breaks out, elena is in trouble, stefan has to save her, gets merked, blood scene.

or it can be an attempted breakup before they have sex so they never actually have a period of separation in this movie.

i also think things like the vampirism reveal would be like elena does see things that she can't explain but she knows that he's a vampire when he saves a life in front of her so we can get to the heart of what kind of person/vampire stefan is quicker.

#stelena #stefan salvatore #elena gilbert #the vampire diaries #dobsley

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bombontheevilcat · 4 months

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Tactics Ogre Reborn: My Little Anecdotes Turned Accidental Character Rant?

(wall of text warning)

Recently finished my first playthrough of Tactics Ogre Reborn and I feel the need to gush so enjoy this as I throw it into the darkest depths that is my tumblr. I (kinda surprisingly) really enjoyed this game (honestly I love tactics games and story-heavy games so I really don't know why I was so surprised in the first place ^^''), I wouldn't call it perfect by any means, I do have quite a few issues I'd like to touch on (Palace of the Dead say hi) but like it is really good, def recommend (also out of context spoilers?)

Having just completed the main story’s chaos route with the princess ending (I think it was called that), it’s a lot to take in. I think the story and characters really shined in chapter 2 and chapter 3 but I was a little bit disappointed in the resolution in the final chapter (4), A lot kinda happens but there is a lack of character drama since protag-boy Denam is mostly alone and it being my first time through a lot of the bigger plot points felt a little lost on me (kind of my fault though cuz I got burned out in chapter 4 because of the amount of side-content and especially *The Palace of the Dead*, I’m getting to you). One really nice detail I think is the character notes you get after every battle or cutscene, it doesn’t just add details about your characters but villains, antagonist and just generic units you have to kill (say Yay!). It really gives you the sense that everyone has their own life and it makes it that much more painful when you have to take others.

Character-wise I enjoyed the cast a lot, I both like and dislike the fact that you have to go out of your way to learn about the side characters though. It did make every detail more rewarding and memorable but at the same time I would have liked *some* indication as to how I was suppose to know beforehand? Like, take Arcylle’s backstory with Leonar being locked to in-battle dialogoue which can be missed or just accidentally cut short if you finish the battle too early, and that’s just one of many. This is not the game for people who need a perfect playthrough cuz you will lose your mind.

My personal favorite characters were the Four Phorena Sisters (especially Cistina and Sherri), Arycelle, Hobyrim, Cressida and Catiua. I kinda desperately wish we had a proper resolution to the Sisters since they are kinda built up in chapter 2 and 3 but nothing ever happens, they never get to talk with each other once they’re finally together again, that would have been a great ending scene instead of just three silent characters and one pursuing the main character, which didn’t really add anything (other than sequel-teasing I guess? Whoops). I wish more time could have been dedicated to those kinds of interactions, I would have loved a support-like system, or just more optional scenes thet aren’t obscured, to flesh out the characters even more. Still I think it’s impressive how they manage to make you think so much about the characters and want to learn more about them despite the lack of dialogue or story around them. Also not saying I want more dialogue for dialogue’s sake but I want to see proper resolutions to character arcs that were teased throughout the story.

Similarly I think Catiua deserved better. She’s a really interesting character being led astray by insecurities and being kind of selfish, only really caring about herself and her family, but I think that makes her a very human character. I think the moment with Denam where she realizes just how strong their bond is, “blood be damned” is really sweet but 4 her character development does a 180* way too quickly. It feels a little unearned having her “queen persona” yap on about duty and people when she herself didn’t learn anything about that in the story we see. It would have added more to her character if she was allowed some agency when she joined the dark knights, kind of like Vyce’s pathetic walk to doom.

I do wonder though if some of my complaints will be rectified in other story routes cuz it could definitely be possible that they split up some story events or things change so much that some characters become more relevant in the main story? (but in that case just take it as a complaint about the Chaos route specifically idk)

I almost forgot to rant about the palace of the dead which is a 100 floor dungeon (which is ridicolulsly long, 24 hours, I’m no christian but jesus christ) that I walked into blind, proceeded to lose my mind cuz it was never ending, only to find out I was 50% through it and got to stubborn to quit so then I dropped the game for like months (only really doing a few battles every now and then) but I finally freed myself this week, it is no more, never attempt this. Your one reward for beating the boss is one 30 second ending scene being alterted (anything for you Cressida <33 //but not really) and an item that skips the dungeon which…thanks would have liked that beforehand but I will take it for the postgame dungeons.

Also slight note but having looked up some character details I found out the naming of the characters is based in goetia mythology (specifically the names of demons) but not all characters match their derived demon. Arycelle starts out as air-based in the game but her name is derived from Alloces who is associated with fire? smhsmh

#Didn’t really talk about the gameplay in general but it was good #wished we had more enemy variety tho #+ some of the endgame/postgame magics kill everything before you need strategy #(Cistina and Catiua where teleporting goddesses of destruction the way they wiped the battlefield)#I’m so adding Cistina and Caitua to my cosplans tho #my queens #my adopted daughters #they are my pookies of death and destruction #with family issues I might add- how could I resist #def playing the rest of the main story but for now I'm just happy going through post-game #oh also class building is really fun that's what made palace of the dead bearable for me- I just switched character builds a bunch #tactics ogre #tactics ogre reborn #tactics ogre let us cling together #bombonwastherereadytocry #jrpg #also when I first read catiua's name I could not stop thinking about katya so maybe that's part of the reason I felt so attached to her idk #also also the jp voice acting was really good but um some of the groans where <<'' sus

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joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 5 months

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Well, after a rewatch that made me realise I fucking hate the original series, today I watched Kyoukai no Kanata's sequel movie - a movie I remember quite fondly for its improved character writing and storytelling over the show, and even 6 years later still remember particular scenes with a genuine fondness. But I hated the show this time, so what was gonna happen with the movie? Well the answer is...

I liked it! This score hasn't actually changed from what I gave it 6 years ago, despite the original dropping so far, but yeah no, positive feelings by and large.

Picking just one screenshot from the movie for this post feels hard honestly - it's got a lot of really striking visuals. But this one is a vibe.

But anyway yeah this movie is just like, pretty good, really. The most notable improvement is in the dialogue - it's not constantly begging the audience for laughs from trashy light novel jokes and instead lets itself breathe and even marinate in the darker tone that actually makes up most of the series' appeal.

Honestly that fact alone basically saves the writing completely, but it doesn't just stop there, and instead actually goes the distance with trying to write its characters as characters and giving them meaningful personality and motives and feelings and desires and reactions to the world around them.

Akihito was already pretty good and they basically just make him better here with a conflict about what he should be doing regarding Mirai. Mirai is given amnesia and it actually works in service of her character and doesn't feel like it erases her growth up to this point nor is it used to just recap her initial arc. Mitsuki is still the weakest link, mostly just wanting to be nonspecifically stronger, but she really is better when she's not written how she is in the show. And Hiroomi has the biggest glow-up of all - his new position as head of the Nase family immediately dials up parts of his character that were underexplored initially and offers new depth by way of him fighting the pressure to live up to his older sister. Shit's just good - fix the dialogue and the main cast and suddenly Kyoukai no Kanata is just a solid time.

I'd also say the movie is helped by being way more about something than the rest of the show. Right at the beginning it establishes the value of memories and connections and how they offer happiness to people, and right up to the end those themes are what the movie is exploring. It's not next-level writing or anything and the original show offered a lot of the same themes, but I just think they're given a more central focus here that lets the movie feel like more of a complete thing.

Granted it's not all improvements - Miroku is still such a non-character of a villain even with his attempted backstory at play here - and I actually think it could've beneffited from being longer, because as it stands Akihito saves Mirai and then the entire plot just kinda stops, movie's over now. But between solid character writing, a clearly defined and explored set of themes, lots of very cool action setpieces, and most of all making me give a shit, I think this movie deserves that 7/10. And I'm glad it did. Because I didn't want this rewatch to turn into an "I hate everything about Kyoukai no Kanata" thing. The movie surviving my wrath and even turning around my opinion on all the characters is something I'm genuinely grateful for. Nice time. I can call this rewatch worth it for this movie alone. Swag.

#kyoukai no kanata #20.4.24

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heart-of-the-morningstar · 1 year

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SPOILER REVIEW FOR ACROSS THE SPIDER VERSE BELOW THE CUT

1000000/10, best movie, go see it immediately, Spider-Man my beloved 💖💖💖

- The Visuals

• Holy shit guys, this might be THE best animated movie ever created. They took the visuals and art styles from the first movie and cranked it up to 10,000!!

• Seeing all the Spider people in different art forms had my eyes glued to the movie, there were so many Easter eggs and nods to other popular Spiders, I know I didn’t see them all!

• The backgrounds were absolutely gorgeous! My personal favorite being the ones from Gwen’s universe, almost every shot had different colors in the background and it was just mesmerizing!

• They did a fantastic job distinguishing each universe from one other by using different color schemes and art styles, even when some of them looked similar, you could tell there was something different!

- The Characters

• They definitely go all in on character development in this film, they wanted to give everyone more character and personality and backstory. We’re missing a few of our Spider friends from the first film but they’re replaced with some new faces!

• Miles, the absolute GOAT, was such a great protagonist in this film. We spend a lot more time with his family this time around and they didn’t shy away from the slow and heavy moments. His mom even gets more of a role in this movie and she was great! He’s only 15 y/o in this movie and absolutely outsmarted every single other Spider at one point which was great to watch! There’s a plot point in the movie concerning Miles that will absolutely break your heart 😭

• Gwen gets a lot more screen time than in ITSV, she’s a stand out character in this movie! We get to see the relationship she has with her dad and get to go more in depth about how she lost her Peter! And I’m happy they didn’t rely too heavily on the romantic aspects between Gwen and Miles, but they touched on it and it was incredibly sweet!

• Miguel O’Hara my beloved!!! (I’m an Oscar Isaac stan, Moon Knight was the best Marvel tv show, fight me on it, lmao) I wouldn’t consider Spider-Man 2099 a villain, but he made a very good antagonist to Miles, he was very threatening! He didn’t get a very in-depth back story but you were given just enough information to sympathize with his pain. Something seemed fishy about his story, maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I’m hopeful they dive into it more in the sequel!

• SPIDER-PUNK, HOBIE BROWN OMG, what a fantastic new addition, he’s such a fucking anarchist and it’s great! He speaks in a thick cockney accent and I love his rebellious nature, he don’t give two shits about what anybody thinks! His character’s look might be the most impressive in the film, apparently it took animators 3 years to make him look the way he did!!

• Pavitr Prabhakar, baby boy, sunshine!! He’s a little cocky but in a cute way! His home of Mumbattan was SO GOD DAMN COLORFUL! I honestly wished he had more screen time because he was super funny and HIS HAIR, SO FLUFFY AND SOFT!!!

• Everyone’s favorite Peter B Parker makes a return! I can say he didn’t have as big of a role in the film as ITSV but he was still great regardless! And now he has a baby girl named Mayday!! And he kept trying to show everyone pictures of her like an actual new parent would lol.

• Jessica Drew is also a new character! She was super badass with her Spider Cycle! AND she was pregnant the whole movie which is even more badass! (Also, side note, when Gwen asked about her pregnancy, I really appreciated that Jess said that they she didn’t know the sex of the baby instead of saying gender, it was small but I liked that little detail!)

• Spot, the main villain of this movie (and the next) was interesting! If I had any real complaints about this movie, it would be that Spot was not in this movie as much as I hoped. I understand why because this is the first part of a 2-part movie, but by the end of the movie, he shows up and I was like “Oh yeah, Spot, where the hell has he been??” But he technically is a character we’ve seen before (I don’t wanna say who because it’s actually funny who he turns out to be!) He starts out being kind of goofy but he gets very threatening!

• There are bunch of other minor characters that I won’t go too deep into but my favorite minor character had to be Ben Riley, he was made to be super over dramatic and stated really obvious things while he was on patrol, got a few laughs out of me!

- The Plot

• Babes, the story is so good in this. I don’t want to give EVERYTHING away cuz I want y’all to see it for yourselves but I will say that this is a 2-parter! There is a “to be continued” at the end of the movie just so you’re prepared!

• The basic premise is that the Spiders have to take down Spot because he’s hopping to different dimensions, making himself more powerful. Spot has a personal grudge against Miles and wants to take away everything from him. You can tell from the trailers that Miles is trying to defy Miguel and what he’s doing, which ends up going in a very suspenseful direction! Again, not going to spoil everything, but it’s just such a great story!

• Like I said, they focus more heavily on family dynamics in the sequel which I loved! More time with Jeff and Rio which was nice to see, Rio has a great talk with Miles during the movie and it was so heartfelt! Gwen and her dad have a few scenes together too, it’s a really great relationship to watch unfold. Gwen and Miles have some great character moments together, but of course it’s not all positive!

• The dynamic between the different Spiders is a blast as well! I was never bored with this movie, it kept me engaged even during the non-action sequences because they did a great job making you care about these characters!

• This movie clocks in at almost 2 1/2 hours but I promise you, you’re not gonna feel that time. I did not want this movie to end! They throw so much at you but at the same time, you’re gonna leave wanting more!

• Where this movie ends is…wow!! I can say I definitely didn’t see it coming until a few seconds before they revealed what was going on, and I sat there and just went “oh…oh no…” for the last 10-15 minutes lol. And apparently the sequel will be out next year! And thank God cuz I could not wait another 3 years!

• A heads up! There aren’t any end credit scenes so you don’t have to stay for those! The only thing that happens after the initial credits is text appearing saying “Miles Morales will return in…” and it gives you the next movie title (won’t say what it is!)

- Miscellaneous (mostly Easter eggs and cameos)

• There were so many GOD DAMN Easter eggs in this film, it’s insane! I know I’ll have to watch it a few more times if I want to catch everything the put in here! There is def one cameo that stands out above everything else (I won’t say who, but you’ll know when you see him 😏)

• They actually showed very brief scenes from Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s movies which caught me completely by surprise, but I sure as shit was happy about it!!

• They don’t show any scenes from Tom Holland’s Spider-Man (which I understand cuz Marvel 🙄) BUT they make two references to it, one with a line from Miguel and with the cameo I mentioned previously!

• The Spectacular Spider-Man had a fucking voice line and I almost passed out, like I watched the shit out of that show, I was so happy he was included! They also showed the PS4/PS5 version of Spider-Man which I thought was pretty funny!

- Final Thoughts

• Peak cinema! The story, the characters, the visuals…all incredible! Go watch it right now immediately!!

#me #review #spider man #spider man spoilers #spider man across the spider verse #spider man across the spider verse spoilers #across the spider verse #across the spider verse spoilers #smatsv #smatsv spoilers #atsv #atsv spoilers #movie review

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keire-ke · 2 years

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Why is Way of Water

Avatar Way of Water was terrible, but in very interesting ways. It's better than the first one in that it's less paint by numbers, less white-saviory, and less boring (also less voice-over, thank god), but also worse in that it's a hot mess of everything under the fucking sun. It should either be one hour shorter or five hours longer, and it's not a good thing.

IDK maybe someone should go and check in on James Cameron, because this movie felt like he wasn't sure if he'd be able to make all seven sequels, so he tried to cram all of them here. As a result I'm not even sure what the movie wanted to be about, because we had, in no particular order, protecting family, rich are evil, difficulty of dealing with change, family: nature or nurture, humans are bad, but also humanity is in a crisis, also some humans can be good, is it better to run from conflict or to face it, the curse of being the middle child, Jesus was a lil' weirdo when you think about it, killing can be good, actually, societal consequences can be unfair, marines just gotta punch something.

None of it was done with any depth or well.

There were things I found absolutely enraging:

You have two parents: the father, who is thy commanding officer, and also the sapient planet that encompasses all

Neytiri was underutilised to the point of pain. I don't recall if she was even allowed to have a relationship with her own children beyond screaming for them occasionally. The movie starts with a voice over by Jake Sully, which eh, if you must. However, most of the events of the movie affect Neytiri much more profoundly than they affect him, so centering on weakens the overall impact. Most of the attempted themes are about family, but throughout Jake treats his family like a precious resource he needs to protect for himself, so it's pretty shallow, giving me serious John Winchester vibes. Every time one of the kids said "sir" to their father I was expecting something to come out of it, like "I'm the chief, so it's appropriate in battle, but now I am no longer that, we need to re-examine our relations". Spoiler: nothing did.

Meanwhile, Neytiri, a member of a species whose community ties are reinforced by their very real deity, is there upending her whole life and severing ties to her community, she's dealing with the inclusion of aliens in her family, as the (prospective) shaman it should have been her role to be the spiritual leader, alas.

Colonel Evil Marine

Are you fucking kidding me, what the fuck. That was some bullshit, start to finish.

The technology to upload memories into avatars kinda... invalidates the whole program from the first movie? If that's possible (and there was no indication this was something only just invented), shouldn't this be done for all potential avatar operators? In case they die from, IDK, extreme mental strain and/or random bar fight.

Why would he want to be cloned as an alien in the first place?

It's not entirely unbelievable he went from a commander guy who was willing to do everything to get his job done, to a single-minded revenge machine (although... yikes), but the fact that somehow he was able to commandeer all the resources for his personal revenge?

The subplot with the son... I mean. What a weird, heavy and meaty plotline to shove onto a background character and a two-bit villain.

Unobtainium 2.0

Yeah... what. What was the point. That ties into nothing, does nothing. I swear it's like James Cameron heard about whaling for the first time during brainstorming phase, and just needed to add it.

The unobtainium from the first movie is mocked as a MacGuffin, but for however clumsily it's explained there, it's a synecdoche for the source of conflict: humanity needs resources, Pandora has resources. Even without the background information that it's apparently for space travel and magnetic properties we can understand the idea.

Here it's a magic anti-aging serum worth millions for a small vial, ergo it's for rich individuals, but that's not the conflict we get introduced to earlier, which is, to wit, "Earth is dying, humanity needs to move".

The space Jesus and the rape jokes

So run this by me again: Sigourney Weaver was not uploaded into her avatar because she died during the transfer, avatars are not transferable, so instead of burying both bodies they... put the avatar... in storage...? Also she got mysteriously impregnated? And the kids joke about their (presumably) friends and mentors... raping the corpse?

The resulting child is able to straight up control the planets biosphere with her mind. Cool.

The kids

I rather liked them, which is impressive! Child characters are hard to pull off. Aside from the smallest one, that one was entirely pointless. Certain aspects were unclear, like at some point we're expected to believe that the middle child feels like he's a disappointment to his family because... why exactly? He gets the others in trouble, sure, but it's not like he actively fails at something, other than following (somewhat arbitrary) rules. He's already a warrior by the tribe's standard (I presume, by the fact he is involved in the attack early on), but he gets grounded like a child? His subplot with the whale suggests he's uncomfortable with societal rules, doesn't understand them and wants to do his own thing, except he very clearly isn't and doesn't, he gets in trouble for disobeying the letter not the spirit of the rules. He doesn't even get a proper "well done son guy", and his "reconciliation" with Jake is teaching him the water tribe skills, which would matter more if a) Jake was at any point having trouble with adjusting to living in the water, b) the skills were what was the problem.

Spider was fascinating. First, who did his manscaping? I demand to know! But jokes aside, if not about Neytiri the movie should have been about him.

The whale

Go whale! I'm team whale.

The way of water

Sure would be nice if we got to see more of the practices of the water tribes, instead of montage skipping to action scenes.

Aesthetics

Very beautiful. My only complaint was the Sigourney Weaver character, her face was too uncanny valley for me.

Music

Present.

Overall

I was really mad when I walked out of the cinema, and I had a hard time enjoying the visuals because there were just too many concepts to be absorbed and then disappointed by. There's so much in here that could have been a great movie! Or three! But like so many current blockbusters it feels like this movie was written by an AI, words slapped on a page, superficially connected and making sense, but the number of fingers does not add up to a hand.

#avatar way of water #kk watches movies #curmudgeonly little kk

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