#But in the end I'm happy if the budget goes to a little girl that's what she deserves :')

[sskk-manifesto]

Omg I actually enjoyed this episode quite a bit!!!

[oliveisme533]

I Can’t stop thinking about domesticated Joel with his daughters and tender shit like this. So here you go. Ellie is his foster daughter and calls him both Joel and dad. The girls are both 14. No outbreak

Tommy and Joel finished up at the work site late that Friday. Surprise surprise. He had called the girls to let them know he probably wouldn't be home for dinner.

"Hello?" Sarah picked up

"Hey baby is Ellie with ya"

"Yeah, you're on speaker" Ellie shouted from the other side of Sarah's bedroom

"I'm sorry girls I know I said we would go out tonight, but it looks like I'm not going to be home until after 8 or 9. Y'all take some of the cash that's in my bedside table drawer and walk down to the pizza place if you want."

Sarah and Ellie tried to hide their disappointment. They knew how hard Joel worked and everything he did to keep them happy, healthy, clothed and fed, but there had been several late nights the last few weeks and they missed their dad. "It okay Joel we know it's not your fault" Ellie said "yeah dad don't sweat it" Sarah added.

"You call if you need anything I'll have my phone on me."

Sarah and Ellie exchanged looks of disappointment and also a mutual sadness they felt for Joel. "That man works his ass off for clients who don't give a shit about him!" Ellie said jumping to her feet from where she had been sitting in Sarah's room. "Yeah... I know." Sarah just stared at the wall. "I have an idea!" Ellie suddenly exclaimed. Sarah was used to these outbursts from Ellie. It was actually one of her favorite things about having Ellie as a sister. "How much money does dad have in that drawer?" Sarah shrugged. "I'm not sure let's go see." Ellie ran down the hall. "But what's your idea?!" said Sarah following her into their dads room. Ellie picked up the two $20 bills from Joel's bedside table. "We make dinner for dad and surprise him when he comes home!" "But won't he be home super late.." Sarah said. "Yeah but you know he always is starving when he gets off. It doesn't matter what time it is. You've seen how that man pulls shit out of the fridge at 10 o'clock after an especially shitty and long day at the site." Sarah nodded. "True. And we never have anything good in the fridge so he's always eating gross take out leftovers." "Exactly! So we make some gourmet shit to surprise him" Sarah grinned. "I like this plan, but we don't know how to cook" after much debate they decided the best idea was to just go to the store and see what their budget would get them. In the end they came home with some little potato's, a bag of frozen pre-cooked chicken breast, and a bagged salad. "Does dad even eat salad?" Ellie asked as the loaded their bags into the crate Joel had installed on the backs of their bikes. "I don't know. I've never seen him eat it, but there's a first time for everything." 

Luckily the chicken came with instructions, and Mrs Atler was able to tell the girls how to smash the little potatoes and bake them in the oven and what seasoning to use. The two little chefs were awfully giggly and it took them over an hour to make everything, but they didn't mind. They knew if Joel were home he would tell them to turn down their music, and accuse them of being the silliest girls in the country. At 8 on the dot the girls observed their masterpiece. Sarah had found two tall candles that looked appropriate for a 5 star dinner and Ellie dug through the cabinet over the stove to find a bottle of red wine. "Why do we even have this. Him and Tommy exclusively drink beer like they're a couple of gray jocks" Sarah laughed and said "I have no idea and who knows how old it is." "Do you think wine goes bad?" Ellie asked. "I don't think so...but I don't know how you would tell if it had gone bad" Ellie gave Sarah a look that didn't need any words. "Should we?" Sarah whispered in a giggle. "I mean just a taste to see if it's still good." Ellie said. With great difficulty the two got the cork out of the bottle and brought it gingerly to their lips. "Euggghhhh!" Ellie gagged dramatically. "That's fucking disgusting" Sarah agreed wordlessly, sticking her tongue under the faucet trying to get rid of the taste. Just then they heard the unmistakable sound of Joel's truck pulling into the driveway. They looked at each other with wide, goofy grins. "Should we hide?" Sarah whispered. "And jump out and scare him" Ellie agreed. The girls ducked behind the sofa, trying to stifle their giggles. The key turned in the lock and the familiar sound of Joel's boots on the hardwood followed by "I'm home...Ellie, Sarah?"

"Surprise!" Ellie and Sarah shouted in unison as they jumped up from behind the sofa. "Jesus Christ!" Joel exclaimed clutching his chest. "Are you trying to give your old man a heart attack?" Suddenly his eyes fell to the kitchen table. "Did y'all cook dinner?" He asked somewhat in disbelief. The girls nodded sheepishly. Joel felt a surge of warmth rush into his chest. "You girls didn't have to do this-you know that." He said giving them each a kiss on the head. "We know!" Ellie said cheerfully. "We haven't eaten yet we were waiting for you." Sarah added. Joel looked at his daughter with those warm, brown eyes. "Thank you baby" the three of them sat down and ate. Joel complimented the girls on their cooking. "Damn little ladies, you might need to cook for your old man more often! This is fuckin amazing" Joel said, shoveling food into his mouth. "Hey watch your language at the table" Ellie teased. Joel playfully kicked her under the table. "This is my house, I can swear at my table if I want." Ellie rolled her eyes.

Joel took the dishes to the skink where he found the opened bottle of wine. "What's this?"he chuckled. "Oh we were going to serve you wine but we tasted it and it definitely went bad like 100 years ago." Joel laughed and got a wine glass from the cabinet. "I forgot we had this. It's actually really good." Ellie mimed throwing up which made Sarah laugh. Joel didn't have to turn around to know what was happening. "Ellie you have the pallet of a 6 year old. I'm still buying you lunchables for school- god knows why I do it for ya" "yeah well lunchables are fuckin amazing" Ellie retorted as the girls wandered into the living room. "Language" Joel called from the kitchen. He settled down on the sofa with his girls, red wine in hand. They were already watching "the price is right" which was somewhat of a routine in the Miller household. A way to wind down after a long day. He sat in between his girls with a loud "dad noise" as they called it. Sarah had always been more snuggly then Ellie. Although that was changing Joel had noticed. She had been going to therapy for the last year and he had seen a shift in her in a lot of different ways. She hugged Joel frequently and allowed him to kiss her goodnight. She didn't flinch anymore when he rested a hand on her shoulder to let her know he was behind her or something like that. Some nights when Joel would pass out on the sofa after work Ellie would tiptoe downstairs and come curl up next to him for a little while. She would always fall asleep within a few minutes and he'd carry her to bed and it would be a good excuse for him to actually go to sleep in his bed after putting Ellie in hers. The way his girls took care of him in so many ways, most of which they didn't even realize... it made him feel soft and gooey on the inside and if he thought on it too long his eyes would get misty. Before long he had two sleeping girls on each side of him. He didn't dare move to take them up to bed for fear of waking one. Joel carefully reached for the remote to turn off the TV and then closed his eyes and met himself drift off with the two things he loved most in the world on either side of him.

[alpona]

Geats Episode 12 liveblog

*Spoiler alert as always*

- Michinaga kinda starting to sound heroic.

- so the word game, it's definitely cipher in Jamato plant language.

The writing system looks beautiful btw.

- Btw Ace-kun, do you fall in the old or young category? Lol

- I've seen preview pics so I'm not surprised, but Huh, Ace deliberately got Keiwa's memories returned? It wasn't just accidentally touching an ID core...

And there isn't any rule against letting people touch ID cores on purpose?

- Welcome back, Keiwa's memories!! And welcome back our status quo, I guess...

- yesss! 'IF DGP is a world saving game at all', you finally spill out your suspicion, Ace!

- And we get answer to another old question, so it is possible for eliminated riders to get re-entry after all, without crazy plot twists.

- hmm by the way, Tycoon's return is a lot less dramatic than I expected.

- And welcome back, Keiwa's luck as well. Finding ninja buckle like that. Also probably welcome back to the real story of this season, Tycoon ninja boost love triangle 🤣

- yayyy!! Geats and Tycoon tag team fight is SO cool!!!

- Hmm, punkjack doesn't know the code either... I thought he would...

- ohoho, from being clueless to Ace figuring out punkjack! Guess he's been acting suspicious.

- Tsumuri looks like she's about to cry

- Very convenient how the sword slash was in that position...

- Ace boldly declaring about rebelling against Game master's scheme (in this scheme arc.. why am I pointing this out anyway)

But you know you're also sounding hero-like, Ace-kun?

- Everyone using fever buckle

... Fever everywhere... Be careful of covid everyone ... ahem...

- So you can keep trying with the fever buckle? Wait... Then this is a gatcha game ad? lol

-And "please give every rider their respective double forms for once"

- Time to shut up and enjoy the cool action scenes!

- wow, the green screen was so bad in this one scene that even I have to say it. Blew the budget on all the action 😆

- word cipher puzzle time! I like such puzzles a lot. But why's there katakana instead of hiragana for himawari, akebi etc.... Anyway.

Most credit goes to the poor sempai rider who died though.

- Granpa actually got to live! His story is one of the most wholesome one, things went well this episode!

- and everyone's free, happy, waving goodbye! Wow, this is such a happy ending, this episode had such positivity... Sure we're watching Geats? Ahaha😅 it's concerning how I think of tragedy by default lol

- Now that even Michinaga knows about game master's scheme and is curious, things are getting interesting.

- Keiwa's new wish to bring back dead riders. Expected, but there could be some trouble fulfilling this....

- oh hello mysterious botanist-san! Huuh, you wanna destroy DGP now? So I guess he's gone rogue. DGP definitely hasn't been paying him enough, that's why.

Ace has been too nice lately, do some shenanigans next! Trick Keiwa again haha!

Next week, more dgp staff members? Interesting. And a little mysterious girl in white? alright.

[ligayadiaries]

july twenty five

so kanina pagkagising ko i decided to go downstairs and try on some clothes bc i was bored and worried ako na baka hindi na kasya yung mga damit kong nasa closet. i mostly took out shorts and pants na i bought the past 2 months and to my surprise, they all fit me well. yung iba lumuwag tapos yung iba super luwang na haha and then the ones i liked fit me like the shorts were hugging me.

i wore a white croptop para lang malaman ko what color goes with what ganurn tsaka shempre kinareer ko na din kai hello who is there to stop me? lol anyway, ayun nga pumayat na talaga because one of the pants na binili ko last month looked so panget on me to the point na my tiyan was bulging sa front and sa sides which was a no no pero when i tried them on kanina, they were lowkey slipping tapos small na tignan yung tiyan ko huhu i was so happy it made me not want to eat anymore kanina buong araw till the day i die hahahaha

then ayun nga my bf went home tapos we had dinner and since on a budget kami halos fried food yung dinner namin kanina. chicken neck from the kanto with kanto style gravy surely hits the spot hahahaha tapos sinuka ko lang halos lahat ng dinner ko kasini ate waaaay too much without me noticing and parang wala na din akong kinain so nagutom ako ng 12:20 tapos yeah i ate super konti lang pero it makes me konsensya padin.

also to end the day, i bought clothes again from my best friend's shop kasi nalaman ko din pala earlier today na i'm not a 3XL girl anymore. i fit into 1-2XL stuff na which made me a little teary eyes kasi tangina it has been so long na 4XL ako and natuwa na ako nung nagsize down ako but now knowing na malaki na binawas ko, i am so happy. i hope this self progression and self-love ay magtuloy-tuloy na hehe i think yun lang for today haha toodleloo!

[dandaelions]

aespa’s “savage” album thoughts! 🐍😈

from debuting in controversy to rivaling established groups in the span of a year, the meteoric rise of this group has been veeeeeery interesting to witness. though I was initially one of those people with serious doubts about their concept, there’s no denying the powerhouse talent and energy these ladies are bringing to the scene - and the gobs of $$$ SM is throwing at this social experiment. they've definitely got some of the best visual designers working on this and it shows! going into this mini. I'm not quite sure what to expect - everything they've put out has looked GORGEOUS but do they deliver on the music? let's find out...

aenergy - can't quite understand what they're saying (edit: looking at the lyrics...I'm think I'm gonna need a glossary lol) but this is a pretty epic intro...in case you had any doubt what this group is about, now you know! I've never been a huge fan of chant-y verses so not quite digging the "everydaaAAAYYY we get better" but that beat HITS. oh gosh what does this rhythm remind me of?? I swear there's another song with this beat but I can't remember...

savage - intro really reminds me of super m's one (monster & infinity), that's a great build-up going into the chorus which then...goes nowhere...ok...I'm a little confused tbh. I wish the chorus was stronger to match the fierce energy from the verses. man these girls are KILLING it though! YAS THIS INSTRUMENTAL BREAK THOUGH!!! oh wait ok was that a key change? hold on whoa ningning is blasting off and then...it ends?

i feel under- and overwhelmed at the same time with this...like there are elements that are really great but that chorus totally kills the vibe, and don't quite understand the decision to add a key change at the end. everything ends up sounding quite disjointed when put together :/ mv looks AMAZING though so this is where dftf budget went lol jk jk corporation is gonna do what corporations do also props to the members for bringing their all, this is def very unconventional and honestly they sell it. we'll see how this does in the long-term...

I'll make you cry - oh fck. hold up. there's something going on here. the skitzy synth with those staccato verses and drum machine...

ok but that empty beat drop then that EXPLOSION at 1:15!!! THIS HITS!!! YAS I'M JUST!!! love this trap/hip-hop interpretation of a cyberpunk-y video game! I WANNA RACE A CAR TO THIS!!! the girls sound positively dangerous and I can totally imagine them as the protagonists of a futuristic action movie! OH BUT THE BRIDGE!! oh it's so sparkling and WOW they sound so amazing with their lower registers. the mixing actually sounds really incredible in this song, there's a lot going on but it's all balanced really well and all the vocal flourishes and harmonies!! despite the intensity, there's plenty of space for all of the members to shine. OKAY DOKEY I was not expecting that but MAN I was vibing!!

edit: QUEEN KENZIE THANK YOU

yeppi yeppi - the beat is PRESENT. sounds almost like they took a red velvet song and synth-ified it...oh WHOA the section that starts at 1:20 the drum machine!! the beats!! wooooo what a roller coaster ride! actually you know what, this almost seems like something that might've been slated for f(x), this song just gets weirder and weirder the more it goes on...holy SHIZ how much did they cram in here?? I'm just sitting here like 😧 producers really had fun with this one lol. def not for everyone's taste but I think I like it! might have to give this a few more listens...

iconic - ohh all right spy movie-action sequence vibes...heavy rap verses with this one, I'm glad they get to show so many different sides. nice contrast with the pre-chorus there, letting the space expand for a bit before packing the beats right back in. I am half expecting taeyong to drop in for a few lines here lol, sounds very much in nct's alley. lyrically the chorus feels a bit juvenille but I can vibe to it, the chromatic descents add enough movement to keep it going. ahhh the bridge sounds so refreshing! hmm yeah I feel this one!

lucid dreams - just based off the title I'm expecting something a bit more laid-back, and it seems like I'm right! the sustained synths add more mood and atmosphere here...really like the background noise, that's a nice touch! oh it's so nice to hear their voices a little bit more stripped back :) the trap beats are back at it again, except a bit more relaxed here. tempo is still pretty fast though. OOOOHHHH YESSSSS THE CHORUS. YES. sometimes doing less is more, and that's exactly what's working out here. the harmonies really get a chance to shine and they're able to convey so much emotion, paradoxically, by not conveying much at all. nice transition from the layered chorus to the singular vocal line, sonically a very interesting moment. love the shooting star effects and little touches going on in the background! OH THIS BRIDGE! oh wow what a way to close out the album

overall - I AM SO PLEASANTLY SURPRISED!! wow this really delivered some amazing stuff and I am so happy that a lot of this is in the vein of what I like listening to, like trap, synthwave, and electronica. sm back at it again with the weak title tracks, but I am honestly so glad the ladies got some b-sides to show what they're really about. clearly they're got the vocals and the musicality to tackle whatever is thrown at them, and I've really been impressed by them so far. even in the saturated landscape of kpop, this sounds fresh and interesting and PROPS to the producing team!! they brought it!! my playlists grew a bit today, yayyyy :)

[topconfessions]

[Ask] Hi bestie this is more of a personal question I hope that’s okay. But Um I just wanted to know how do you deal with low self-esteem and self confidence issues and if you had any advice for how to deal with it?

tHey hun <3

I've recently realized the dead obvious I've had / still have (am working on it though) a spending - shopping addiction. I used to channel my emotions to buying things and it's recently become apparent I have to stop due to me fuming over the fact I got so much stuff like make-up or whatever (not beauty guru levels of stuff, but more than enough although I am still on the hunt for a foundation I'll call my go to. Pony effect I'll be testing out and praying her foundation is good since her color corrector is amazing) and I learned I missed out on so many experiences and better ways to spend my money via concerts. shows, traveling, experiences etc by channeling my frustrations with life, stress, family mess and work drama into items and collecting (but it pays off cause I'm usually that girl with great outfits and items you won't find the average person having and it's always a conversation starter / confidence booster) so I'm learning I need to just get it out of my system and In january shape up (or finally get on the thot train and start dating again / find a decent non stingy older man to give me a little pocket change so I won't blow through my own LOL. I'm always gift giver so it wouldn't be a using situation but anyways I'm blabbing...)

What I have learned about low self esteem is when you step out of your home and your immediate community....NOBODY knows you. Nobody is aware of your issues, your insecurities, how you are feeling (unless you show it on your face easily or are visibly upset) and nobody knows of your history at home i.e if you have shitty family members, friends, BF or GF, Lonely or figuring your sexuality out. When you put yourself in environments, activities and situations that you are not used to being in, situations / locations that bring you out of your comfort zone, you begin to see you are being judged and precieved based on how you control yourself and present yourself.

It's all you and even though it can be hard to manage your self confidence you get infinite 2nd chances to rite the wrong mistakes you've made or those feelings of not fitting in, not being good enough, being judged, feeling lost etc.

I'm heavy on treating myself even with limited money if I'm in a pinch. Many with low self esteem or confidence issues forget to treat themselves. Go get that cookie or starbucks sweet drink as a splurge to make yourself feel better. Don't have the money but wanna feel pretty for a bit? Wanna try new things on budget? most clothing stores even high end will allow you to try stuff on, look at stuff, test it and touch it or give you little samples like fragrance samples or spritz of fragrance. Go and just try it on privately. Window shop. Order a nice meal for yourself you never tried but always wanted to. Consider adopting or picking up a stray pet if you can afford it and have the freedom to do so. Even if the music is a million years old and out of style, listen to those old songs from 80s or 2000s that make you happy.

Do one little thing a day to yourself you wish you had a friend in your life to do to you, really it goes a long way.

Going to the gym or working out can be a drag and exhausting but please give it a try. Planet fitness is cheap and always easy going I recommend going during the morning or later at night or on week days. I've gained weight and my eating is a mess cause I've eaten out too much past few months, but when I got into the gym at Golds It was just me in the zone and it really takes so much worry off your chest. Don't feel pressure to go crazy on the machines like everyone else. I take walks around town at safe times by myself and play good music in my ears.

Laughter and joking really helps with confidence. You don't have to be a comedian but always be willing to hear people funny stories or tell something yourself without worry. I work with someone who would be considered "4D" "weird" nerdy" very T.O.P in personality he just does random dances, movements and nerd stuff but he seems secure although silent and people allow him to be who he is.

We are all struggling with something but that means we are not alone . You have to wake up one day and say today is the day where I take baby steps to just wanting the best in life. It will show sooner or later love.

and this is your confidence booster alert :)

(yeah sana is totally my twice bias now it seems so enjoy LOL)

but I hope this helps. if you need a list of specfic things or another approach, come back again and I'll approach this differently. For me I don't understand people who just feed off of and live off very depressing self depricating aesthetic and stuff. It's relatable and I get it, cool for a bit, but it really posions your mind and spirit. Most simple advice I can give you is never be that person who walks into the room or speaks to someone just handing your misery over on a plate. Don't do that. it's not good for you and people see that, they dont respect it and unless you luck out meeting kind nature people to help they'll see you as a sinking ship instead of a cruise they want to join :3

ALSO LEAVE SOCIAL MEDIA ALONE the primary objective of social media now has changed so much it's sad. it's no longer about feel good connecting and sharing with ones you love, it's about impressing people you don't know and showing you aren't a loser to look and feel validated. Just leave it alone and if you are someone with 100-200 followers or even 50 followers on any social media you are not a loser and probably more geniune than your 5,000k - 15k friends.

I also encourage to find a way if possible even on apps to chat with people of other races. I won't put people into a box but I notice when I meet with some asian guys not so much the home bred asian americans, they are always more shy than I am and self concious. Always telling me how nice I am as if they expect to be treate dlike dirt or overlooked. it really hits home that there is always someone out there who is struggling more than you. When you find a friend who needs your help and help them you will see a change in your life for the better.

[josnhoes]

Mammon and Asmo seeing their sweet MC who is soft and motherly get honestly pissed off to the point of crying? Like she is always there to help people, brings comfort, and always seems to be happy or at least calm. But someone pushes her too far?

Is this me? Did I send this? All jokes aside thank you for the requests and I hope you enjoy. I'm going to go with MC getting made because the demon bro in question is insulted in front of MC. 

Warning the word Wh*re is used once in relations to Asmo. It is not censored in the writing.

Mammon: 

-Sadly Mammon getting insulted is a fairly common thing. And everytime it happens you've always been there to pep him back up, be it kind words, some soft attention, little gifts, or a favorite snack and a hug. 

-He's never said it to you but it has meant the world to him. Though he could tell the insults hurt you almost more than it did him simply because you cared about him. The thought of that alone makes him tear up. Sometimes it's easy to forget people can care for you when all they do is insult you. 

-He's used to seeing you; a smile on your face, or the occasional frown when you thought no one would notice. Everyone had just become accustomed to the idea of your never ending patience and care. Him the most because you had been his big supporter. also You may or may not be giving him some help budgeting and dealing with debts

-But one day a random student went too far in Insulting Mammon. He didn't care but you? Something ignited in you. And you went off tearing that demon to pieces with words and a flurry of insults that the brothers were pretty sure couldn't come from you. And believe me his brothers were watching, the whole class was. 

-He seriously considers the idea that he is hallucinating this whole thing or was having a bizarre dream. 

-But once the tears start coming his heart breaks. You were crying for him. Him of all people and demons! 

-Before the other demon could do anything he came in and scooped you up taking you to a little hide away spot he used to ditch class. 

-It was his turn to comfort you. And he wasn't going to fumble this. You were HIS human. HIS sweet, big hearted, foolish human. 

-This is also the moment he realizes he's in love with you. 

-Hold you and lets you cry it out like he had done on you a few times. 

-He thanks you for standing up for him and once the sniffling stops teases you about how bad ass you were. But once you're calm and smiling he asks you not to do that again. He didn't want to lose you because you blew up on the wrong demon. 

-Goes out of his way from then on to check on your well being beyond what he already did. Maybe someday soon he'll work up the courage to confess. 

Asmo:

-He is used to people fawning over him and singing his praise. People throw themselves at him and how could they not? He was beautiful and he could bring out those dark desires with just a glance. 

-But you never had that issue. You would just laugh off his attempts at seducing you promising him "maybe someday, but for now come try this cake. It's strawberry!"

-He noticed the way you treated his family. Like they were your own family, you had helped everyone in your own little ways. And his brothers and himself had never been better. Even Lucifer looked a tad less stress since you had been helping him by bringing meals and organizing things. 

-He once saw you use the line "I'm not made I'm just disappointed in you." On Levi and he swore the otaku was going to cry. Not that Asmo blamed him. Your kindness made it so people wanted you to be proud of them. 

-When it came to him, you listened to him rant and rave about anything and everything that was going on in his head. Not even judging him once when he let a few insecurities slip out. Better yet you told no one. 

-You helped him pick out new make up shades and always made time to have a 'girls night' with him. 

-Actually jokingly has called you mom and mommy dearest. Because the way you stumble in surprise makes him laugh. 

-So when you erupted after some demonic fling of his insulted him by calling him a whore he was shocked. 

-People called him that all the time but it was like a badge of honor at this point, more so with the whole Avatar of Lust thing. 

-But still it felt good to have someone stand up for him. 

-Led you away slowly as soon as he noticed you tearing up. Before you are aware of it you're in a hallway outside of class and Asmo is cooing at you. Laying on the praises and scolding you at the same time. "No need for tears dear, they'll dry out your skin. Come along lets get you cleaned up."  Asmo could be a mom friend too. 

-All in all he uses the crying as an excuse to spend the night with you doing his new skin care routine and getting you to talk about those emotions you bottled up. 

[shadyb00ts]

A Chromatica Review

So I never really use Tumblr, but when I do go on here, it’s pretty much to review something long-form. As you can tell from my profile picture here, and from my glowing review of ARTPOP from 7 years ago, I am and have always been a Gaga stan. Just read the melodramatic first paragraph of my ARTPOP review and you’ll get the gist of how much I idolize this woman. Well, idolized. Past tense.

That’s not to say I suddenly hate Gaga–I’m still going to follow her career and listen to whatever she puts out. There have just been several factors this past year that have changed my perspective on how I view her, this album being one of those factors. But I’ll get to those later. First I just need to lay out all my issues with this album.

Yes, this is going to be that type of review, so if you’re a fellow Gaga stan that isn’t able to criticize her work, this probably isn’t for you. Otherwise please read to the end if you can, because this is honestly about more than just the album.

Issue #1: The Mismatch Between Music & Aesthetic

When the cover of the album came out, I was so gagged. Like, just look at it! It’s striking, and Gaga has rarely ever disappointed me when it came to visuals. Actually, I can’t even think of any visual choices she made in previous eras that disappointed me. Even in the Joanne era, the pink cowboy hat became iconic and all of her aesthetic choices fit with the overall vibe of that album cycle.

So naturally, when she revealed to us the new visual direction she was taking for Chromatica, I assumed it would give us some insight into how the music would sound. The aesthetic of this era always gave me grungy cyberpunk and heavy machinery tease. When I look at the album cover for example, I can hear a song produced by SOPHIE in my head, the clink-clank queen herself. (There were rumors that Gaga was going to or did work with SOPHIE but that was never confirmed, unfortunately for us.)

For those unfamiliar with SOPHIE, here’s Ponyboy, which was most recently used in the ad campaign for Beyoncé’s Ivy Park clothing line.

That was the kind of production I was more or less expecting when taking the visuals into account; dark, metallic, basically similar to ARTPOP’s production (to be honest ARTPOP sonically fits better with the Chromatica aesthetic; think about it). 

But what did we get? Light, garden variety dance pop, a stark contrast to what the album cover and the promo images teased us with.

In the album, we get these orchestral interludes that are beautiful but don't really mesh that well with the actual tracks. The songs don't have any orchestral elements by themselves, so the interludes felt a bit misplaced to me. I wish they'd incorporated more of that into the individual songs, so that there could be an orchestral through-line to give more cohesion, like what Ariana did in her album positions by using strings. However I will say, the transition from Chromatica II into 911 remains unmatched.

I get that the album is supposed to sound happy, that it was her returning to her “dance pop roots” and singing about serious topics like mental health over happy-sounding beats, because it’s supposed to reflect her current mental state. I get all that. But if that was the case, I think she should’ve gone with a different visual direction to match. Personally I wish she went a different direction musically instead, but even if it was just the other way around and she changed the aesthetic of this era, my opinion of the album would probably improve slightly, cause at least there would be cohesion between the visuals and the sonics.

I look at that album cover, and promo images like the one below, and then I listen to songs like Fun Tonight or Plastic Doll for example, and there’s a noticeable dissonance there. 

You might be thinking “why are you so hard on her for this?” and I guess it’s because I’ve always held Gaga to a high standard when it comes to how she links those two elements. Think of every era she’s had in the past, and you remember how the visuals always just worked with their respective albums.

And that’s before I’ve even talked about the videos. Oh lord, the videos.

Issue #2: The Videos Are Lackluster (Except For 911)

It started with Stupid Love, the lead single. I had mixed feelings about that song in the beginning, but because I was so thirsty for new music from Gaga at the time, I played that song like hell when it leaked and it was on rotation for a good while. But when Gaga premiered the Stupid Love video, I’m not going to lie; I really didn’t like it.

The whole “shot entirely on iPhone” schtick really did the video a disservice. I’m sorry but it had to be said. If I imagined the video with a higher budget and more of a plotline as opposed to just being a dance video, I think it could’ve worked a lot better and been a decent introduction to not only Chromatica the album, but this fictional world/planet that she’s created. Which by the way, she didn’t really deliver in that regard either. 

The concept of Chromatica being a fictional world could have been expanded on further; she could’ve showcased all of the different factions (I know they were called “tribes” at first but that’s appropriative so I’ll call them factions) and perhaps had an overarching storyline about how these factions are at war, and it’s Gaga’s job as one of the “Kindness Punks”, as she calls it, to bring everyone together for a rave.

This is why I will always say it: Chromatica needed to be a visual album. Just imagine the storyline I mentioned just now being turned into a full-length feature, and now imagine the album’s orchestral intro playing as they’re essentially opening the gates to Chromatica and Gaga discovers this world for the first time, and then it goes into the first song Alice where she’s meeting all the factions and getting acclimated to her surroundings.

Honestly I could go on and on cause I have thought about this for SO LONG now and I’ll never shut up about it. It’s just such a missed opportunity cause the concept was just begging for a visual album. Anyway sorry for my tangent: back to the Stupid Love video.

The whole “shot on iPhone” gimmick really was unfortunate. Like she really ruined the quality of a music video because she wanted that Apple check??? Come on, Gaga, there could���ve been some other way to secure that check.

And then there was the Rain On Me video, which definitely have visuals that are a massive improvement from Stupid Love because it was professionally shot and cinematic. But even that was another purely dance video with not much in the way of storyline. Not that storyline is always required for music videos, but I think specifically when it comes to Chromatica, not having storylines in the M/Vs does a disservice to the overall concept.

I guess my issue with these two music videos, but mostly Stupid Love, is that Gaga isn't fully utilizing her COIN. Like she's successful enough to the point where she has budgets for these videos and can go all out, but doesn't. She has the capacity for extremely high production value, but up until 911, the last video she did that had that level of extraness was G.U.Y. I miss the days when her music videos were an event. I still remember where I was and what I was doing the exact moment the Telephone video came out. That's impact.

Taylor Swift I think is somebody who really knows how to blow her budget on a video. Look What You Made Me Do may have been a terrible song, but I always thought the video was sickening.

Anyway, I have no notes on 911. She's a masterpiece. If there was a music video category at the Oscars, I'd be campaigning for it right now.

Issue #3: Any Other Girly Can Do This

The thing I always loved the most about Gaga's music was that nobody was doing it like her. Everything she put out always felt like it was distinctly hers and hers alone, it's unmistakable. Even in Joanne, despite that album being a major departure from what she normally did.

I know Joanne is a very polarizing album, even for Little Monsters, but personally I've always loved it. Joanne was an album that I always knew she would make and I thought was essential to her career and body of work. Despite her straying away from pop for a more earthy, grass roots sound, it still sounded very much like her music. Even from the first track, Diamond Heart, her DNA is all over that.

It's difficult to explain what exactly I mean when I say there's a certain signature "Gaga-ness" or that she has a very specific DNA injected into her songs. If you've been a fan of hers for a long time or followed her career, you probably understand what I'm referring to. It's the way she laughs maniacally in the beginning of ARTPOP on Aura, how she says "I don't speak German but I can if you like, OW!" and proceeds to recite broken German on Scheiße, how she invented the phrase "disco stick", literally the ENTIRETY of The Fame Monster.

These examples probably give you the gist of what I'm trying to convey. Gaga is fucking weird. She has always been fucking weird and I love that so much about her. And her brand of weirdness was so specific that if any of the other pop girls tried to do what she did, it would have been cringey as hell. To me, the most disappointing thing of all with this album was that this weirdness that was so uniquely hers was missing.

It's there in brief moments, in tracks like Sour Candy, 911 and Babylon, but most of the album doesn't really sound like her music. It sounds like songs that she wrote for other people, like her old unreleased stuff. OG Little Monsters probably remember songs like Second Time Around and No Way. These were leaked unreleased songs that Gaga had written for other artists, and even though they were absolute bops, they didn't sound like her. They weren't supposed to.

A similar feeling I had was when her song The Cure came out a few years ago. I genuinely thought that was something she wrote for someone else, cause even though it was a solid pop song, it absolutely had zero Gaga-ness and any current pop girl could sing it. This pretty much encapsulates how I feel about the majority of Chromatica.

I was gonna say it sounded like songs that were written for Ally, her Star is Born character, but I think even those pop songs from the soundtrack sounded more Gaga than Chromatica does. 💀 I can easily imagine Hair Body Face being on The Fame.

Final Thoughts

It's funny that the last review I had posted on here before this was my review of Kingdom Hearts III. The Kingdom Hearts game series is something that's very near and dear to my heart, and I waited a wholeass decade for the third game to come out. And then it did, and I was so disappointed.

So you know what happened after that? What helped me deal with my disappointment of that game was my anticipation for Chromatica, or at the time it was still called LG6. I had no idea I would feel the same exact way about this album the way I do about KH3. Now when I think of both of these things, I'm mostly frustrated by all of the potential and the missed opportunities, but I also look at them with a certain fondness. I had fun playing KH3, and I also had fun listening to Chromatica, despite both of them disappointing me overall.

In the beginning of this review I said that there were certain factors that have stopped me from idealizing Gaga too much. Firstly it's because I'm much older now, and secondly it's due to the sheer state of the world this past year. The pandemic really precipitated the fall of celebrity culture, and all of that made me really examine how putting someone on such a high pedestal can be damaging in the long run.

Gaga is a human being and I haven't agreed with everything she's done, particularly how she handled the whole R. Kelly situation back in 2013. And also the simple fact that she's a white woman, we know how a lot of the time they can't help but show their asses and are bound to disappoint us in some way. I'm forever grateful for her artistry and how she saved my life when I was a suicidal little eighth grader, but I'm also going to hold her accountable for any of her mistakes, and I'd be ready to stop supporting her entirely if anything she does ever goes too far.

Now I stan artists for fun. It's not healthy to idolize them to the point of revering them. I mean, I like to make jokes like that about Beyoncé, like "no way on Beyoncé's green earth", etc. But even she is just a person that we shouldn't deify for real.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Chromatica being a lackluster album and era ended up being a good thing, because it helped me grow out of idolizing celebrities too intensely. Chromatica was pretty much the best disappointment I've ever listened to.

If you've read all the way to the end, thank you! Writing this was very therapeutic but also stressful; this is a second draft cause Tumblr fucked up my first post. 😭

Anyway, SAWAYAMA & Ungodly Hour are albums of the year. Argue with the wall.

[accidentalrabbit]

HEY RIVAL, I LOVE YOU

(short film)

Vietnam 2021

RANK: B

A-pairing: Duong x Phuc

Other character(s) i enjoyed: Chau

Overall review:

Hey Rival, I Love You is probably the most interesting application of a love triangle with girl antagonist that i've seen in a BL, which surprisingly helps make up for a myriad technical sins the show commits.

The plot: Chau dates Duong. Chau dates Phuc. Duong and Phuc find out she's playing both of them, and then while plotting to expose her cheating, they fall in love and end up cheating on her. It's a true chaotic bisexual love triangle, and it gets splashed all over social media when they all start exposing each other. They both dump her (obviously) and start dating without her baggage killing the vibe. The end!

This story has solidly decent acting with a hit-or-miss script, shows off good character interactions with a surprising amount of suspense, and actually makes me enjoy the antagonist girlboss Chau simply because she's evil in a new and interesting way (and also is very funny whenever she feels cornered). Duong and Phuc have solid chemistry.

That's really all i have to say about the overall content, in terms of what i liked about this short film. It's fairly basic, but i enjoyed it! Now, that being said,

I had a good time, but:

Not gonna lie, she's looking kinda rough. Similar to the problems of other low-budget pandemic-era Vietnamese projects, Hey Rival, I Love You suffers from dodgy audio, spartan set design, and a dearth of extras. (Unless everyone here goes to the world's most exclusive school, there should probably be more than like eight students.)

The writing and editing also fail to impress, which is a little bit disappointing for a short film that already has tighter margins for wasted moments or nonsense explanations. It's kind of egregious that Duong and Phuc spend any time arguing about whether or not to expose Chau in the second act, because it's the reason they get together in the first place and there's really no reason not to, which the film confirms when she catches, records, and outs them. Then they expose her anyway, because duh. (It would have been funnier if, at the end of act two, the three of them exposed each other at the exact same time, and then in the third act they'd have to figure out a way to navigate the fallout together. But we hate to see a girlboss winning, i guess.)

Conceptually, there's still a lot to love here, and i do enjoy it! Unfortunately, the follow-through (for understandable reasons) leaves something to be desired.

Character(s) entitled to financial compensation: Everybody at this school getting whiplash from the drama between these three. Imagine getting this absolutely scalding tea watching their Instagram stories in homeroom. I'd be inconsolable.

Conclusion: This is one of the worse shows, technically speaking, that i've seen, and yet it has a charm about it that i'm willing to buy into despite its flaws. The writing has its moments, the actors do more or less enough with relatively little, and the leads get a happy ending. There are worse ways to kill thirty minutes, and i don't regret this one.

And up next i'll take a second look at Second Chance (2021) to see whether it really deserved a first one. (It did i'm sorry for being rude.)

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Worship”

Written by: Haley Mancini, Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboarded by: John West, Angela Zhang

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Not worshipping this one, that's for sure.

Salesperson: It's a beautiful sunny day, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, we got Townsville's largest donut-shaped diamond on display, and there's not a supervillain in sight!

No, this isn't a Narrator monologue, but it sure sounds like one. All it really needs is a "The City of Townsville", but apparently, that's optional in this show. A saleperson is showing off this one-of-a-kind diamond shaped like a donut, and he decides to tempt fate by specifically saying there's no supervillain in sight.

Sure enough, two supervillains arrive: the Fashionistas. They're able to bash through the walls, persumably through Barbarus's raw strength. They really don't do any joke about the donut shape, but they do talk about how they kidnapped their best friend. It's a play on "a diamond is a girl's best friend", which we know because Bianca actually had to explain it.

The salesperson refuses, so they use some perfume. Suddenly, he’s happy to get rid of it! She then talks about how this is such a lifesaver for her, wearing the jewel like one. They can’t even stay consistent; is it a donut, a best friend, a baby, or a life-saver? What is the name of this perfume, according to a female voiceover that says its name every time it’s used?

Worship. Just as the bottle says, it brainwashes people into doing their bidding. This is essentially what they did in Fashion Forward; the only difference is that it's a perfume that hypnotizes people rather than a scarf. That almost distracted me from noticing that Barbarus apparently forgot her lipstick for this shot. Almost.

And yes, this voiceover and text happens every time Worship is used, just so you don't forget it! It's almost like it's trying to use it on the viewer. It's not working.

But first, Dateline: Townsville, hosted by one of the generic newscasters from previous episodes. This episode is constantly interrupted by these newscasts, and all I can think of is that this is their way for this show to have a narrator without bringing back the Narrator.

The Fashionistas break in the newsroom to give him a little bit of Worship, and the newscaster starts to praise them as these great people. This looks like the start of a running gag, but we'll see how that goes.

The Powerpuff Girls finally confront the Fashionistas after they rob an armored car. They sure took a long time to actually fight crime in this episode! Bubbles is wowed by the armored car, because she's like that "I Love Lamp" guy from Anchorman. Blossom is sarcastically wowed that they're up to their old tricks! Either this is a sign of continuity, or they're just referring to how they're stealing stuff.

There is one reason to believe the latter: they decide the best course of action for these people is to just stay perfectly still while they spray perfume on them. Apparently, they didn't watch the news.

This perfume ends up being stronger than that rainbow that somehow didn't affect them in Painbow, since it affects them pretty well. Under the effect of the perfume, they fly off and grab every Ruby in Townsville to give to these fine fashionable women. They didn't even get told this, they immediately knew what they wanted to do.

Eventually, the perfume wears off, and the Puffs realize that they just helped the Fashionistas steal. Bubbles is worried that they're becoming too helpful, but Blossom corrects her and says it must have been that perfume that made them do it. Buttercup has an idea.

Buttercup: What are we going to do, cut off our noses? But our faces would look terrible without one!

I would imagine this would be an okay joke about how the girls don't have visible noses, but it doesn't really work when the show decides to give them nostrils for this one scene. Sad to see that return.

The episode reboots, possibly recovering from a fatal lack-of-nose-related error. We cut to a shoe museum, where the main attraction are glass slippers owned by Cinderella's...horse. Yes, with that pause, because the joke isn't just that these were owned by a fictional character known for losing her shoes. It's that these shoes belong to a animal owned by a fictional character known for losing her shoes.

Barbarus breaks through the walls once again, who would have guessed that "breaking through the walls" line in the intro seems to refer more to the Fashionistas than the Powerpuff Girls themselves, and they ask for the shoes.

Tour Guide: We can't afford another robbery, we're on a shoe-string budget!

No, put more emphasis on that line! Some people might have missed that joke. One spray of the perfume, and he just hands them over. Somehow, they missed the opportunity to make a joke about how they don't fit. I mean, it is Cinderella.

The Powerpuff Girls manage to show up before they're able to run off this time, this time, their "noses" are covered up. Bubbles decides to cover her ears with them, too, because she's the silly one! Most of the humor is in episode is just to make Bubbles conform to the stereotype of her hair color.

Bianca knows that these noseplugs are going to stop them from actually winning. I will say this is a little clever: they use it on the crowd, and say something on the lines of "we can't stop the Powerpuff Girls, but maybe they can!"

Somehow, they interpret this as suddenly get some pitchforks and torches, and chase the Powerpuff Girls out of Townsville. They don't even command them to do anything. It's like they forgot how their own plot devices work!

The Reboot Puffs get scared off by this, and the Fashionistas run off with the shoes. Yes, because this group of eight people are going to stop these superheroes that can lift buildings full of people. Considering a previous episode had the Powerpuff Girls get bashed by the ordinary human of the two, that's not too far off.

We get another news bulletin from Dateline: Townsville, detailing their plan that they somehow have gotten. They have a blimp named the Bikini Bomber, and I am glad to know that they didn’t forget the Fashionista’s last names. This blimp has a giant vat of Worship to spray on everyone in Townsville to make them their slaves. Again, this was their plot in Fashion Forward. One thing I should mention is that the newscaster is no longer under the spell of the perfume. They could have made these news segments an okay running gag, but we got the “silly Bubbles” jokes instead.

This time, the Reboot Puffs were watching the news, but all they can do is lament that they can’t do anything to stop this from being the worst day ever. I can think of a few worse days, actually, and I don’t just mean the day they make up where they apparently fought a sludge monster at a vomitorium. It had to have been made up; it involved fighting a monster and apparently winning.

Proving even more that the reboot's Professor Utonium is a terrible parent, this random stranger just barges into the house. Thankfully, she's not here to kidnap them, she's here to pretend to not want to help the girls with their situation...and then doing it anyway. I could see where this character could go.

She's a rival perfumist who made a perfume named Divine. This perfume was stolen by the Fashionistas, and turned into the mind control formula. She will not help the Powerpuff Girls, because that's her running gag. That, and they use a music track that ends up being louder than her voice at one point.

...and we get either a parody of those weird perfume ads, or the show just gave up. It has it all. We see our lovable Sitcom Dad swimming in a pool, showing off a six-pack that he has to fill this episode's muscle quota. We see Blossom going back in the Ada Lovelace costume, which seems to only be used to have a girl in a pretty dress. I'd say that's an insult to Ada Lovelace, really. Also, lots of random stock images of animals, most of which aren't even necessary.

It's not all random, as there is a slight theme near the end: we see the same Sitcom Dad swimming in green water and turning into a stock image of a fish, and then a slideshow of garbage. There are a few shows that come to mind when I think of "slideshow of garbage", and you can guess what show I'm thinking of at the moment.

This was all leading to the Powerpuff Girls' new fragrance: Disgust. How fitting. They're going to use this to counteract the perfume. Speaking of which, here's Buttercup summing up what just happened in the previous scene.

Buttercup: What just happened? Did anyone else's brain just go artsy-fartsy?

More of the "fartsy", really. See, if we point out our segments are pointless and nonsensical, that makes it not pointless and nonsensical! The Powerpuff Girls go into the Bikini Bomber. They decided not to use their noseplugs, for the episode's benefit. The confront the pilots of this dastardly blimp, only to be called out by the Fashionistas standing right behind them.

One of the biggest jokes of the episode, and it's just something stolen from Airplane. Using these blow-up autopilot balloons as a distraction, they start spraying more Worship. So, here were the Reboot Puff's options:

a. Avoid the cloud, and take out the Fashionistas with a spinning back kick.

b. Fly up to the vat and stay perfectly still while the perfume cloud hits them right in the face.

Huh, should have picked A. They do try to resist it this time, possibly trying to use the same power that made the hypnotizing BFF bracelets not work in Frenemy. It doesn't work, and now they're praising them again. We suddenly cut to a shot where some people point at the blimp and say how fashionable it is. Clearly, that was important.

Bianca tells them to give them the vial, so they can persumably throw it in the garbage. They could have told Bubbles to do it herself, but instead, Bianca tells Bubbles to do what's best for them, and she interprets this as throw the vial into the vat. It took me a few viewings to figure out how this makes sense, and all I could gather is that the perfume doesn't overwrite that they still see the Fashionistas as villains. I think.

Thanks to that, we get this lovely shot of a blimp covering Townsville with what looks like fart gas. I'd like to say this was intentional, but if it was, they would not resist adding the fart sound, too.

Right before this gas hits them, we see the Mayor having a press conference dedicating a whole day to these villains that robbed the city throughout this entire day. It's here where they do have an explanation to why the Powerpuff Girls had to watch the news instead of getting a call on their new fancy phones: because he had a visit with them.

Much like the newscaster, neither the Mayor nor the crowd seem to be under the effects of the perfume, but he was going to go through with it anyway. This would make a lot more sense if Worship's effect was permanent and Disgust was the andidote, but as shown by both the Puffs and that newscaster, that's not the case.

We cut to yet another Dateline: Townsville segment, this time finally giving this episode the fast pace it really needed. The blimp gets caught on a radio tower, the Fashionistas parachute down to an angry Disgust-fueled mob. They could have just had cops arrest them when they landed on the ground, but that would be a sad reminder that the Powerpuff Girls don't just bash crooks into jail anymore.

I will say this: there is an okay joke involving a smoke bomb at the end with Nostrilla Dupont. Yeah, they waited until the very end of the episode to finally give that perfumist a name. It would have fit a lot better in the episode that actually used smoke bombs as a running gag, but I'll take any quality I can find.

Does the title fit?

They may have considered a double meaning, with the name of the perfume used in the episode and the way it makes everyone worship the Fashionistas.

How does it stack up?

I could see this plot doing well, since even this show did a better "Fashionistas hypnotize people" episode, but the slow pacing and constant interruption with the newscasts just does not do it for me. I like the idea, and the character of the week is pretty fitting, so I can't do the joke that this episode did my job for me, but it's a pretty low Neutral.

Next, will this reboot improve if my favorite Reboot Puff, relatively speaking, gets multiplied three times? Probably not.

← Not So Secret Service ☆ Blossom³ →

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 10/8/21 - NO TIME TO DIE, THE RESCUE, MASS, LAMB, NIGHTSTREAM, and More

It's a very special week here at the Weekend Warrior because October 10 will be my 20th (!!) anniversary as a film critic and the 20th anniversary of me doing a weekly movie preview column, mostly about box office but also with reviews and other stuff. Pretty cool, huh? (I’m celebrating this occasion by writing this column to the music of Public Enemy’s Apocalypse 91 which is 30 years old this month.)

Of course, this column wasn't called The Weekend Warrior in the early days, as I was instead doing "Half-Assed Analysis” at a long-gone Hollywood Stock Exchange fan site called HSJ.org. But then, it was a conversation with Mirko P. from ComingSoon.net (R.I.P.) that got me on the track of changing the name to "The Weekend Warrior" even though it would be a year before I would actually bring it to ComingSoon for 12 ½ wonderful years. The column has gone through a number of transformations and evolutions and iterations over the years, sometimes it being called something different just 'cause I didn't want to go through the ordeal of explaining to one of my bosses at a website that "The Weekend Warrior” is my own, and if I leave, it goes with me.

Anyway, I have taken a few weeks off over the years, particularly earlier this year when it just didn't seem a good time to be trying to predict box office, and I was starting to get burnt out on reviews. Now, the column is kind of back to being mostly about box office but with a few reviews, which is how I've always intended it.

Who knows if I'm going to continue this on that much longer, because honestly, there's no money and very little reward, and it does take a lot of time to write this up each week, especially with all the work I have to do for Below the Line. Anyway, for now, I'm going to keep it going, and we'll see how it goes. But Happy 20th Anniversary to me, and I can promise you… there won't be 20 more. NO FUCKING WAY.

Before we get to this week’s theatrical releases, I feel the need to mention the first of a bunch of October horror film festivals, as NIGHTSTREAM will begin on Thursday and run through Oct. 13. This is an amazing streaming horror/genre film festival that was instituted last year by four festivals, the Boston Underground Film Festival, the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, the North Bend Film Festival, and the Overlook Film Festival when all four were cancelled due to COVID. Some of these are still happening this year as physical in-person festivals but Nighstream continues on. Some of the guests at this year’s Nightstream are The Green Knight director David Lowery; Akela Cooper, who wrote the recent James Wan horror film, Malignant; horror and special make-up FX legend Greg Nicotero, who is also the showrunner on the Creepshow anthology series, and more.

There are so many movies and events going on in the week of Nightstream but some of the highlights include the World Premiere of Jefferson Moneo’s Cosmic Dawn, Scott Friend’s feature debut, To the Moon, and the Virtual Premiere of Scott Barber’s doc, This is Gwar, as well as much more.

You can see the full list of movies here and learn how to get a pass at the official site.

Let’s get to some other movies hitting theaters...

Obviously, the big release of the weekend and maybe the month is the 25th James Bond movie, NO TIME TO DIE (MGM), once again starring Daniel Craig in his final outing as 007, his fifth movie in a run that started with Casino Royale in 2006 and 15 years later, it’s coming to an end.

Obviously, this being Craig’s last stint as Bond is a big draw for the movie, but there are other interesting things to note First, it’s directed by True Detective’s Emmy-winning director Cary Joji Fukunaga, who is making his biggest budget movie to date, having started with smaller films like Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre, and then getting more attention for his festival favorite, Beast of No Nations, starring Idris Elba, who for a while, people seemed to want to play the NEXT Bond.

Much of Bond’s colleagues and friends from past movies are back including Naomi Harris as Moneypenny, Ralph Fiennes as M, Ben Whishaw as Q, but it also brings back Jeffrey Wright, who was introduced as Felix Leitner in Craig’s first film, Casino Royale, and also a few people from the last Bond movie, Spectre, which wasn’t received as well as the previous one, Skyfall. (More on those things in a bit.) Christoph Waltz played Blofeld in Spectre (for better or worse), and he’s back, as is Léa Seydoux, who played Bond's love interest, and actually she continues said role but brings more to the plot.

The new cast is pretty significant, starting with Oscar winner Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) as the new arch-villain, Safin, and actually, there’s also a new 007 in Lashana Lynch, who replaced Bond after he retired from MI6. There’s another “Bond Girl” (if you don’t mind the outdated trope) in Ana de Armas, who previously starred with Craig in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, which feels like it was made 500 years ago but actually has a sequel shooting as we speak. In fact, Armas seems to be getting the best notices from everyone who writes about the movie, even though her section probably isn’t more than 15 minutes long.

I’m not going to say more about the plot. You either don’t need to know it in advance cause you’re seeing it anyway or you don’t WANT to know anything, and good for MGM for being able to keep the plot and lots of stuff secret despite the movie being delayed for 18 months due to COVID.

That’s right. No Time to Die was probably one of the first movies delayed due to COVID, and it definitely wasn’t the last, but MGM (and EON Productions) really stuck to their guns, and didn’t allow a streamer to come forward with millions and millions of dollars to put James Bond on streaming. (Granted, Amazon did come forward and ended up buying MGM outright earlier this year, and we’ve yet to see how and when that will come to fruition. As far as I know, Amazon has nothing to do with MGM’s 2021 releases, of which there are a few still to come.)

Actually, the fact that MGM is releasing this one on its own is an interesting point in itself, because it’s been almost 20 years since the studio has done that with Pierce Brosnan’s last Bond film, Die Another Day. In the time since then, MGM has been co-distributing its films with other studios until fairly recently -- the last four Bond movies were released by Sony Pictures. I’m not gonna throw shade at MGM, because they’ve been doing a fantastic job with No Time To Die, essentially marketing the movie once back in early 2020 and then again for its final release spot this Friday. In between, the movie has moved a number of times as COVID just kept ambushing its planned release date. Any weaker studio (like, say Sony) would have just sold the movie off (as Sony has done many times over the past 18 months until finally having a theatrical hit with Venom). Interesting how that works out, huh? MGM took over Bond, and now it’s releasing the new Bond a week after Sony’s biggest 2021 hit, essentially killing its chances at having a decent second weekend.

Others are seeing how well Venom did and are assuming that the box office is back, and that Bond can do even BIGGER numbers, but you need to take a few things into account, including something called REALITY. And it comes from the wonderful box office archive site, The-Numbers.com, which I have been using for those 20 years mentioned above.

Up until Daniel Craig took over the role, the biggest opening for a Bond movie (not accounting for inflation) was Brosnan’s Die Another Day with $47 million. Casino Royale opened with just $40 million in 2006, but it proved to have significant holiday legs as more people discovered it and decided that the new direction of tougher and grittier and more violent action was for them. It made $167 million domestically and $594 million globally. A few years later, Quantum of Solace had a much bigger opening of $67.5 million but made almost the exact same amount domestically -- the reason? People didn’t like it as much as Casino Royale, so it was more frontloaded.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Sam Mendes took over the 50th anniversary Bond movie, Skyfall, four years later, and that was generally as well received as Casino Royale, so that it set a new opening record for the franchise with $88.3 million and OVER A BILLION worldwide. Woo! Three years later, Spectre was going to introduce two classic Bond villains, Blofeld and Jaws (played by David Bautista) but it once again wasn't received that well, and it opened lower with $70 million and “only” made $200 million domestically vs. the $300 million of Skyfall. It still made over $879 million globally, but a final movie for Craig was always going to happen.

Now I’m going to talk about why I don’t think No Time to Die is going to break the opening record set by Skyfall, and believe it or not, it's not because of COVID. This is the thing. Bond clearly peaked with Skyfall and then it dropped down with Spectre, and that movie wasn't that well-received either by critics or fans with 63% from the former on Rotten Tomatoes and 61% from audiences. That is basically Quantum of Solace numbers and down from Skyfall's 92% and 86%. You take that disappointment and then you add six years, which is how long it's been between Bond movies, and you have a lot fewer people interested in shelling out money to see another Daniel Craig movie. There's no way around the fact that people are just burnt out on Craig and maybe Bond himself, and it really would take a huge wave of positive reviews to get them back.

Also, and unlike Venom, Bond is about as white as you can get in terms of a fanbase. I'm sure there's some African-Americans and LatinX movie fans who enjoy the action and stuff, but do you think you would see the entire James Bond collection in their Bluray libraries? I'm sure there are some, but they may be outliers, because Bond is the kind of Baby Boomer anti-woke un-PC franchise that the Millennials have been warning you about for years. It also doesn't have as big a female fanbase as other franchises (like Marvel) so that's another audience that might not rush out to see the movie. Sure, some changes have been made, including additions like Lashana Lynch or as she's better known, "WHO?!?!?", and de Armas, as well, but it's still the same old James Bond. Fukunaga just didn't try hard enough to make the necessary changes, or maybe he wasn't allowed to, because EON's Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. WIlson still hold very tight reins on the Bond films. Whatever has been done may not just be enough and who knows how many will want to see No Time to Die just to give Craig a glorious send-off? There's also the matter of No Time to Die being almost an hour longer than Venom -- longer run time, less screenings, less money per screen. It's simple math.

I already reviewed the movie for Below the Line -- I liked it but had some issues -- and it’s sitting pretty at 83% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a good sign for getting the interest of fans to return to theaters for a movie that won’t be available on streaming on VOD for quite some time, I’d imagine.

I’m feeling generally bullish (or is it bearish?) on No Time To Die, especially with how much better Venom: Let There Be Carnage did last weekend compared to my prediction (OUCH!) but I’m also keeping track of that REALITY I mentioned before. Not just COVID on this one, but also opening the movie earlier overseas where the movie can be easily bootlegged and put on piracy sites for people who just don’t want to chance it at movie theaters yet. (I’m going to be writing more about this soon, but I have seen probably 100 movies or more in theaters since they reopened in NYC, and I get tested regularly. I have not tested positive for COVID once.)

The movie has done very well overseas, scoring $121.3 million in its first weekend, but I still don’t think it will open over $80 million in North America. But I do think it will be close, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it opens somewhere between $75 and 80 million.

Without knowing if any of the movies below might be going wider (but highly doubting it), here’s what the weekend Top 10 might look like. Actually, let’s make that the top 8 cause last week’s #9 and 10 were so odd and I have no idea if anything is expanding wider, as I write this:

1. No Time to Die (MGM) - $76.5 million N/A

2. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Sony) - $31.5 million -65%

3. The Addams Family II (MGM/UA Releasing) - $9.3 million -45%

4. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Marvel/Disney) - $ 3.5 million -43%

5. The Many Saints of Newark (New Line/WB) - $2.1 million -55%

6. Free Guy (20th Century/Disney) - $1.3 million -45%

7. Dear Evan Hansen (Universal) - $1.1 million -57%

8. Candyman (Universal) - $700,000 -47%

I think there are just way too many great movies to pick just one "Chosen One,” but since I probably should decide, I'm going with Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's new documentary THE RESCUE (National Geographic). You may remember Jimmy and Chai from when they won the Oscar for Free Solo, and their latest is just as good. The rescue in the title refers to the 2018 rescue of an 11-kid Thai soccer team called the Wild Boars and their coach when they became trapped in the Tham Luang caves in Northern Thailand, as the annual monsoon season hits early, flooding the caves in which they’re exploring.

To fully understand how they got trapped, you have to have some idea of the structure of this underground cave system, and this film does a great job explaining how the monsoons create flooding in the caves and how much harder it is to get someone out of them when the rain just won’t stop. Two British cave divers, John Volanthen and Richard Standton, are called in to survey the situation and figure out if there’s a way to get the dozen trapped out alive, as time keeps passing until it seems like those kids are trapped without food longer than any human can survive. Seemingly, thousands of locals and foreigners come to the caves in hopes of helping, whether it’s trying to pump out water or dig new tunnels to try to find where the kids are trapped (which is a difficult task in itself).

There’s a good chance you were watching the news and you know the results of this elaborate and daring cave diving rescue, but you definitely don’t know how the plan was developed and pulled off until you actually watch it as it’s taking place. The underwater and cavern footage of the kids and their saviors is absolutely second to none, and it’s hard not to get emotional in the way Chin and Vasarhleyi assemble the footage with the music.

The Rescue is an amazing movie, maybe as good as the duo’s previous one, Free Solo, and it may be the best recapturing/documentation of an important news event that I’ve seen in recent memory.

I was seriously close to having multiple "Chosen Ones” this week, because there are a few other very good movies, including Fran Kranz’s directorial debut MASS (Bleecker Street), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and deservedly received mass praise and stellar reviews. I don't want to say too much about the movie, because its emotional power may lay in not knowing too much about it in advance. The simplest plot is that it involves two couples meeting in the room of a church to have an important face-to-face about a difficult subject, one that needs resolution and absolution from both parties. If you like great writing and amazing performances, than the work of Reed Birney and Anne Dowd (as one couple) and Jason Isaacs and Martha Plympton (as the other) will make this movie a can't miss.

Again, without getting too deep into what the couples discuss, Mass is written and directed similar to one might do a 90-minue one-act play, but it begins with us seeing the people who work at the church trying to set up the room where this eventful tete a tete will take place. It’s surprisingly witty and even elicits a few laughs from Breeda Wool, who is so nervous and awkward about the meeting that’s about to happen.

When the two couples arrives, that’s where we really get into it, but it still starts out slow, a re-aquaintance phase between the two couples, who clearly have a difficult past, try to get through the niceties before getting into the serious conversation at hand. And here is where I’m gonna put a HUGE SPOILER IN HERE FOR THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.

As with so many movies, Mass deals with gun violence and the survivors of the types of school shootings we’ve seen far too many times in the last two decades. Isaacs and Plympton’s son was killed by the other couple’s son, who turned the gun on himself. It creates this dynamic where both couples have lost a son they loved, but Dowd and Birney are put in a spot where they have to try to explain their son’s behavior and if they saw that he was capable of such violence before the shooting took place.

The actors are all terrific, and while you might think a dialogue-heavy movie with four actors sitting at a table might not do much for you… well, first of all, you can go see No Time to Die if that’s more your speed … but Kranz’s direction is more than just getting these emotional performances out of his actors but also capturing it on film and editing it to best effect. There’s even an imperfection to the camera work, sometimes focusing on one actor while another is talking, that makes this long conversation feel even more authentic, as if you’re a fly on the wall in that room.

Again, the writing and performances and direction of Mass makes it one of the most powerful dramatic works this year. I’d love to see any of the four main actors get awards attention, but especially Dowd and Isaacs, who have been so deserving of awards love for a very, very long time.

Icelandic filmmaker Valdimar Jóhansson's LAMB (A24) is a very different movie, this one starring Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason as Maria and Ingvar, a couple living on a sheep farm (or rather, a lamb farm -- I honestly don't know the difference) who make an incredible discovery when a lamb gives birth to a child they decide to raise as their own. Invar's brother Pétur is not only not impressed but he thinks they’ve gone crazy, but there’s a lot of far more nefarious things going on in and around their remote and isolated farm.

This is a really fascinating film, one that’s fairly subdued but Johansson and his cinematographer (Eli Arenson) beautifully capture the vast landscapes of Iceland and gives us a real idea of how remote and isolated the farm where it mostly takes place is. He also does a great job building on the mystery of this child and the tension that surrounds where it came from, and yet, I’m not sure I’d consider Lamb to be horror, even if A24 is maybe marketing it in that direction. Really, it’s more magical fantasy mixed with character drama, and Rapace is just great as always, really impressing me with her skills delivering baby animals and driving a tractor.

If you dig a bit deeper, you’ll discover that Jóhansson wrote the screenplay with one “Sjón,” an author who has contributed to Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (one of my favorite musical movies) and also wrote The Northman, Robert Eggers next movie.

This is a terrific debut by Jóhansson -- I have an interview with the director over at Below the Line, too -- and it will be highly interesting to see where he goes from here.

I was hoping to watch and review SOUTH OF HEAVEN (RLJEfilms), the new movie from Aharon Keshales, the co-director of the fantastic Israeli thriller, Big Bad Wolves, which stars Jason Sudeikis, Evangeline Lilly, Mike Colter, and Shea Whigham, but I fell foul of a lousy screener and just didn't have tie to watch it before writing this week's column. Sudeikis plays Jimmy, a convict who has served 12 years for armed robbery who gets early parole, and he swears to give his childhood love Annie (Lilly), who is dying from cancer, the best final year of her life.

I also didn't get a chance to watch Russian filmmaker Evgeny Ruman's comedy GOLDEN VOICES (Music Box Films), which opens in New York and L.A. this weekend. It stars Maria Belkin and Vladimir Friedman as Raya and Victor, the Soviet Union’s popular film dubbers who have been translating film classics into Russian for decades. When the country collapses in 1990, the Jewish couple decides to move to Israel in hopes of finding employment. When she answers a help wanted ad looking for “pleasant voices,” she ends up working as a phone sex operator catering to the Russian community in Israel while he falls in with black market film pirates.

I also just haven't gotten around to JUSTIN BIEBER: OUR WORLD (Amazon), directed by Michael D. Ratner, which seems like the fourth or fifth documentary about the global superstar, this one that goes into the making of his 2020 New Year's Eve concert after a three-year hiatus atop the Beverly Hills Hilton for 240 invited guests and millions via livestream. It will stream on Amazon Prime Video this Friday.

A couple horror movies streaming this week are THERE’S SOMEONE INSIDE YOUR HOUSE (Netflix), the new movie from Patrick Brice (Creep), which hits Netflix and involves a masked assailant targetting a high school graduating class to expose the darkest secret of each victim, forcing a group of misfits to band together to stop the killings.

Shudder gets V/H/S 94 (Shudder), the latest anthology horror movie made up of five installments, directed by Simon Barrett, Chloe Okuno, Ryan Prows, Jennifer Reeder, and Timo Tjahjanto. I haven't watched it yet but that's quite a rogue's gallery of horror/genre filmmakers there.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video are the next two installments of this year's batch of Welcome to the Blumhouse movies, Axelle Carolyn's The Manor, an eerie tale set in a retirement home and starring the legendary Barbara Hershey, and Ryan Zarazoga’s Madres about a young Mexican-American couple having their first child in ‘70s California where he’s sent to work on a farm where the wife finds a talisman and a box with belongings of the former resident. Both of them debut on Amazon Prime Video this Friday, too. Also, you can read my interview with Ms. Carolyn over at Below the Line.

Other movies that just didn't fit into my schedule this week include:

ASCENSION (MTV Documentary Films) VENGEANCE IS MINE (Vertical) PHARMA BRO (1091) KNOCKING (Yellow Veil Pictures)

Next week’s wide release is David Gordon Green’s horror sequel, HALLOWEEN KILLS!