#If I Die In America

[themnmovieman]

The 11th Chicago Critics Film Festival

This year’s lineup at the Chicago Critics Film Festival promised an extraordinary experience, and it certainly delivered -- here are my reviews.

May 3 – 9, 2024 – Music Box Theatre CCFF Reviews Writing about film for more than ten years has allowed me to cover movies from blockbusters to indies.  It’s also allowed me to attend major events like TIFF in Toronto and Sundance in Park City, Utah. Traveling around the country is a huge privilege, but it’s nice to know a short plane ride (or slightly long car ride) can also get me to a terrific…

[pitterpatterletsgetater2]

I haven’t seen a lot of talk about this, and I know we’re all emotionally/mentally exhausted in the USA with rights being stripped, but I think this is important. She’s a brave fucking woman, who is no longer allowed to speak for the people she represents.

Much like the Pearson and Jones expulsion, this is a flagrant move against democracy. However unlike P&J, she wasn’t expelled, just not allowed into the House meetings and not able to speak. She can vote, at least, but…that’s not much in a republican majority.

[nectorbruise]

So, I’ve had the thought of “what if Max never intercepted the bullet, and Peter did die.” Because I’ve never been happy a day in my life. This image of Peter shot and the LIB coming in and possessing his body to take Max and Peter away has been haunting me for a few weeks now, sooo….

I did this on Medibang pro, which I haven’t touched in years, but yknow what, I had a good time! Sorry about this one.

[fellthemarvelous]

It pisses me off to see the way some Star Wars fans are so dismissive of Reva, Third Sister.

She's complex. She's interesting. She's clever. She's intelligent. She's strategic. She's conflicted. She's traumatized. She's scared. She's angry. She's a survivor.

The Obi-Wan Kenobi series literally opens with her and her friends watching one of her Jedi mentors get gunned down by clone troopers during Order 66.

She was a FUCKING CHILD!!! They were in the middle of a lesson when the clones walked in and started shooting everyone!! These were Anakin Skywalker's troopers and they were executing every single Jedi around them.

These children had NO idea what was going on. They were scared and they tried to run to safety.

We remember this scene from Revenge of the Sith and we all immediately knew what it meant.

These are the same bodies that Obi-Wan Kenobi found when he and Yoda returned to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant after having to kill so many of Anakin's clone troopers just to survive.

These are children that the Jedi Council wasn't there to save.

Palpatine snuffed out the light of the Jedi in one swift act of terrorism and then blamed the Jedi for their own genocide after taking over the entire galaxy.

And in times of war, the weakest among everyone always suffer the most.

This is what Reva, Jedi youngling, remembers most about the end of the Clone Wars.

Anakin Skywalker, hero of the Clone Wars and former padawan of the great Obi-Wan Kenobi, murdered all of her friends and injured her.

She had to play dead amongst the dead bodies of her friends, and that's how she survived. She witnessed Anakin Skywalker murder all the Jedi in the temple with no one there to stop him because the other Jedi Masters were being executed in a war they had never wanted to enter into in the first place.

She blames herself for not being able to save her friends because she wasn't strong enough to fight back. No youngling was ever going to be strong enough to stand against Anakin Skywalker. She wanted revenge against Anakin Skywalker, and she was just as desperate to get to Obi-Wan Kenobi as he was. She wanted to kill Anakin Skywalker just as badly as Darth Vader wanted to kill Obi-Wan.

She was alone in a galaxy that tortured and executed surviving Jedi. She spent ten years plotting her revenge against Anakin. She was angry at Obi-Wan for not being there to stop Anakin, and rightfully so.

The Republic fell. Reva and her friends were left unprotected. She was the only person she relied on because everyone else failed her. She was only a child when she lost everyone.

And it's clear she was conflicted by her role as an Inquisitor. She doesn't have the training the other Inquisitors do because she volunteered to be an Inquisitor while all the others were tortured and terrorized into falling to the dark side. She only wanted access to Anakin so she could get justice for what he did to her and her family.

Unlike Anakin, Reva couldn't find it in herself to harm a child. She was seeking revenge solely against Anakin Skywalker. Luke and Leia are the same age she was when she watched her friends and family die in front of her.

Yes, she was prepared to torture Leia, but she consistently hesitated, and when Tala walked in, Reva turned away. She stopped. Yeah she was mad, but she didn't have to go through with it. She'd already planted a tracker on Lola. She was already planning on allowing them to escape so she could locate their secret base. She just needed to bait Obi-Wan. Her plan worked perfectly, and she didn't even have to hurt this child who was annoying the shit out of her (not realizing she was dealing with Anakin Skywalker's offspring).

She went to Tatooine to kill Luke, but she couldn't. She hunted him down without bothering to kill Owen or Beru. She only cared about one thing. Getting justice for what happened to everyone she had been unable to save at the end of the war. She was only a child, and when she realized she was about to kill a defenseless child just to get revenge, she couldn't do it. She saw her face when she looked down at Luke and cried when she realized she couldn't do it.

She was so horrified by what she had been prepared to do and returned him to Owen and Beru alive. She fell to her knees and sobbed because she thought she failed her family in the end.

Obi-Wan was there for her this time. He reminded her that by showing mercy, she was giving her friends and family peace. She was not going to become the monster that Anakin Skywalker was.

Obi-Wan helped her and reminded her that she gets to decide who she wants to be from this point forward. She refused to become Anakin Skywalker, and a weight was finally starting to be lifted from her shoulders. A weight she had been carrying for ten long years.

She did what she thought she had to just to survive. She had only been a child with no guidance because everyone she loved died. She survived by joining the ranks of the enemy so she could plot her revenge. Obi-Wan showed her mercy at the moment she needed it most. He wasn't angry with her. He was compassionate. She survived Order 66 just like he did, but she had been defenseless when they were thrust into a galaxy that tortured and killed Force sensitive individuals and those who helped them. He had failed Reva during Order 66, and he wasn't going to fail her this time.

She is getting a second chance at finding her path in life despite the bad things she did. Everyone deserves a second chance. She was robbed of her childhood and had to grow up overnight. She had to learn how to survive. And that's exactly what she did. Just not in the way she expected.

[rainbowsuitcase]

I know the "I understood that reference" moment is played for laughs and like Steve is being stupid but he just. He looks so fucking proud of himself. He's such a dork and it's so sad.

He's living in a world that feels familiar sometimes, that he recognizes sometimes, but that is also so different. The architecture, the fashion, the technology, the food and the drinks, and the way people talk.

The language must have evolved some, there are words we use that we don't even realize are references, that we think must have always been there but they weren't.

The pop culture is different, the movies and the music and the arts in general.

Maybe Steve feels like he's living in another dimension, in a mere shadow of the world he came from, and here's fucking Wizard of Oz.

That movie came out in 1939, he probably saw it when it was brand new, he might have read the book.

And finally, there's something he recognizes. Something from his world, something he knows and understands.

He's a lost puppy jumping at everything that looks vaguely like home. He's desperate for it. And he's played for laughs for it, by the movie and the characters around him.

[average-hua-cheng-fan]

open discussion: in what part of tgcf would it be funniest to put a cornetto ad?

the tragic parts, yeah, okay, but imagine hua cheng leaving bride xie lian with only a strawberry cornetto to remember him by.....

[chickenlittlefan]

I’m so cringe I genuinely need to die and never come back

[cowboy-robooty]

this is what i imagine if germany and america were friends like all the fanfictions say (for context they faked their deaths and everyone thinks they died)

[mutuallyassureddevotion]

what's up rusame fandom

[hellonerf]

getaway car ownerkun OK my head hurts a little bit

[ldr-is-my-life]

“light me up like the 4th of july” 🎀🇺🇸

[cinnagrrl]

in my past life i was a little farm girl falling in love with a cowboy, picking strawberries for my huckleberry

[bamsara]

hot take but i think if someone's parent(s) have died the government should support the remaining child/adult children with financial stuff to the age 26 (the age it is for other adult children to remain on their parent's healthcare plans, car insurance, ect) because I should not have been paying bills or losing healthcare at 17

[james-p-sullivan]

[super-marvel-dc]

Me to Bucky whenever I see or think about him

*Pictures from Pinterest*

[martianbugsbunny]

BITCH they had a WHOLE LOTTA NERVE to SPECIFICALLY HAVE STEVE SAY "bro, it's hard to date when nobody has shared life experience with u"

......IN THE MOVIE WHERE THE GUY WITH SO MANY SHARED LIFE EXPERIENCES SHOWS THE FUCK BACK UP. THE GUY WHO LIVED IN 1940S NY WITH HIM. THE GUY WHO SERVED IN WW2 WITH HIM. THE GUY WHO GOT THE SUPERSOLDIER SERUM LIKE HE DID. THE GUY WHO MANAGED TO STILL BE ALIVE AND LIKE THIRTY IN THE 2000S JUST LIKE STEVE. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING. WHY WERE THEY SO STUPID