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tilbageidanmark · 13 days

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MOVIES I WATCHED THIS WEEK (#192):

TRANCES (1981) is an infectious documentary about the influential Moroccan avant-pop band 'Nass El Ghiwane'. It's like 'The last Waltz' but in Casablanca. A must for fans of traditional Arabic music.

This was the first film that Martin Scorsese restored when he launched his "World Cinema Foundation" in 2007. My 4th Moroccan film. A transcendental experience [with one caveat: They gave amazing concerts to large, ecstatic crowds - and not a single woman in the audience!] This is the 9th film from the Scorsese's list that I've seen. I must remember to come back to it very soon.

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(Another concert, but of a completely different kind: Andrea Bochelli's LOVE IN PORTOFINO. This is for the folks who like to sit in the square by the water when the evening falls, dressed in white cottons, sip white wine while eating fried clams or seafood pizza, while listening to Bochelli's frothy, sentimental baritone.)

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POOL OF LONDON (1951), my 5th drama-Noir from mostly-forgotten master Basil Dearden. Sailors on leave and a jewel heist, as well as a sensitive interracial romance, the first white and Jamaican relationship in British cinema. Crisp on-location scenes and good character development.

Next: His 'The League of Gentlemen'.

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I've developed an interest in the emerging sub-genre of 'Domestic Workers’, mostly movies from South America and Southeast Asia. Many of these are fantastic; 'Àma Gloria', 'The second mother', 'Lina from Lima', 'Roma', 'The maid', 'Ilo Ilo', 'The chambermaid', Etc.

But I did not expect for the documentary YAYA (2018) to emerge as the most touching of this week's movies. A young filmmaker in Hong Kong, Justin Cheung, turned the camera on his own family, to explore their relationship with the woman who took care of him the first 22 years of his life.

Philippine Au-pairs in Hong Kong are some of the most exploited and abused workers in the world. And while his helper-maid was not mistreated, she gave up her own life to take care of somebody else's kids. Recommended! 8/10.

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FELLINI X 2:

🍿 (I have no idea why I never seen this masterpiece.) LA STRADA (1954), is the sad and poignant story of simple-minded Giulietta Masina, who was sold to 'brutish strongman' Anthony Quinn for 10,000 lire. She's a mythic, Chaplinesque 'Fool' who's being abused and mistreated as she joins him traveling round the countryside in their little freak-show. Until she dies of a heartbreak. Its tragedy is accented by Nino Rosi's sentimental score. 8/10.

🍿 THE MAGIC HOUR (2008), my second screwball comedy [After 'Welcome back, Mr. McDonald'] by Kōki Mitani, "The Best Japanese Filmmaker You've Never Heard Of". A failed bit actor gets a job to play a mysterious hit man, not realizing that the movie he's starring in is going to be 'real'. It's a lighthearted meta-film about making a movie, not unlike 'Day for night', but set in some seaport gangster-land. It's like 'Casablanca' but with a Nino Rosi like score. Includes a cameo of director Kon Ichikawa, the last before his death.

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3 MORE BY KEN LOACH:

🍿 THE OLD OAK, the latest (and probably his very last film) from the 88-year-old socialist Brit. A warm and 'humane' story full of small and heartfelt emotions, it kept me in tears from opening to the end. Ordinary people who suffer in so many ways. The inhabitants of a decaying ex-mining town can barely manage to hang on, and now they have to deal with a group of Syrian refugees - "Foreigners!" - who had lost it all in the war, and are being repatriated to their midst. Loach's films are usually about working-class Brits who's been getting the shaft for generations, and sometimes retain their humanity. And so is this one. 9/10.

🍿 “First they called you a terrorist, they they called you a hero”.

11′09″01 SEPTEMBER 11 is an anthology film from 2002. Eleven filmmakers contributed each a segment of 11 minutes and 9 seconds with different perspectives on the World Trade Center attacks. Some of the productions were better than others. Ken Loach had a Chilean exile in London write a letter to the families of the victims with the story of the Chilean September 11 attack of democracy (1973/CIA/Kissinger/Pinochet). In the Iranian segment, a teacher in a refugee camp was trying unsuccessfully to tell her young pupils about the attack. A poor boy in Burkina Faso imagined that he saw Osama bin Ladin in the market, and that he can use the $25M reward money to help his dying mom. Claude Lelouch told of a deaf French woman who sits next to the TV, but misses the news because she can't hear it. A Bosnian woman goes to the scheduled demonstration about the Srebrenica massacre. Etc. A mixed bag.

🍿 TIME TO GO is his 1989 documentary, pushing for British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. I actually don't know more than the average laymen about Irish history, so I need to take a reading course about the "Troubles" and what brought it.

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Another first watch: TRAINSPOTTING (1996). There were half a dozen films which I avoided until now, because I felt, rightly or wrongly, that they are too distressing: 'Requiem for a dream', Lars von Trier's 'Melancholia' (actually, all his movies), 'Salò', 'Funny Games' (both versions), 'A Serbian film', 'Kids', Etc. But now that I crossed 'Come and see' off this list, I also took a stab at this disgusting Scottish Heroin-chic shite-storm. Now I can say that I saw it too.

Well, I like Kelly Macdonald, and didn't expect her debut in an under-aged sex scene... Another plus, an appropriate use for Lou Reed's 'A perfect day'.

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TIME PIECE, a terrific experimental 9-minute short by Jim Hanson which was nominated for an Oscar in 1965. A rhythmic masterpiece: "Help!" 8/10.

Extra: ROBOT (1963), another prophetic Hanson short, precursor to 'HAL9000'. I'm sure that both these films will be mentioned in his new bio-pic.

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2 EARLY FILMS BY LINDSAY ANDERSON:

🍿 THE WHITE BUS (1967) told of a a taciturn young woman without a name who takes a double-Decker bus tour in a city without a future to experience some bizarre scenes without any rhyme or reason. It includes some surrealistic flourishes (A sudden tableaux of 'Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe', a fantasy about suicide, a long tour in the library where the pompous major keeps complaining about filthy books...). But what is the point of it all?

It was edited by Kevin Brownlow, and filmed by Miroslav Ondříček, But it will mostly be remembered as the film debut of one 30-year-old Anthony Hopkins, as a German Thespian reciting Brecht. 2/10.

🍿 O DREAMLAND (1953) is a macabre documentary short about a loud amusement park in Margate, Kent, and the multitudes of middle class patrons (and their many children) who visit it without much amusement in their eyes. It's melancholy and miserable and dour. 7/10. A fun Fair without the fun. (Screenshot Above).

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"This guy is a one-man crime wave!"

FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE (1926), one of Harold Lloyd's most successful films. Including some great chase and slapstick gags.

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The first time I saw DEREK DELGAUDIO's IN & OF ITSELF, I was blown away. The next 2 or 3 times I thought it was great. There's something that compelled me to return to this Magician-"Mentlist" installation piece again and again. But after 4 or 5 times, i realize what he's doing, and his shtick is not as polished as f. ex. Derren Brown's. Yes, he has a few numbers that looks fantastic (A random audience member picks a random letter from a pile, and opens it to read a personal letter from her dying father... The final sketch where he "knows" what secret cards did each and every member of the audience had picked), but for the rest, he's mostly manipulates us with shaggy anecdotes and tall tales of personal pains. And really, they are not as profound as he wants us to believe they are.

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Hiroshi Teshigahara's HOKUSAI is a 1953 documentary about the woodblock artist, but a bit too old fashioned. I recently saw his 'The face of another', and should have watched 'Woman in the dunes' instead.

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THE SUITCASE was episode 7 of 4th season of 'Mad Men', the exact middle of the series (46/92). I've seen it numerous times, and it's still one of the most emotionally gripping. Jon Hamm will never be as perfect as he was as Don Draper. And it's pretty amazing that he and Peggy Olsen never even kissed, let alone sleep together. 10/10. Re-watch ♻️. [*Female Director*]

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"If there's one thing about me, it's repetition"...

My first by British comedian Steward Lee, his latest LIVE AT THE LOWRY came recommended by Hoots maguire, so here I am. Lee is a different kind of a stand-up: Dry, self-referential, erudite, and circular. His improvisations are jazzy. Recommended.

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2 ALTERNATIVE-QUEER ANIMATIONS:

🍿 THE FINAL EXIT OF THE DISCIPLES OF ASCENSIA (2019) is a strange - and weird - story made by one young Jonni Peppers. It is done very much in the aesthetics, and spirit, of Don Hertzfeldt's 'World of Tomorrow', although it's far from being that coherent. A confused young woman joins an all-women UFO-cult, which, like the Heaven's Gate dudes, eventually "ascends". It doesn't really have a clear message, but it has quiet a few moments of beauty. Peppers is working with Victoria Vincent, whose film 'A dog that smokes weed' I've admired. The two songs she plays are very pretty. [*Female Director*]

🍿 HOW TO FIND LOVE IN AN UNBECOMING AGE, a first film by a young lesbian about hot dating today. Could become a series. 7/10. [*Female Director*]

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3 MORE SHORTS BY FEMALE DIRECTORS:

🍿 3 MINUTOS (1999), a short Brazilian masterpiece. The phone rings in a kitchen, and the answering machine picks it up. A woman's voice is telling him that she decided to leave. Recommended. 9/10.

[This is actually the second film by Ana Luíza Azevedo I've seen. She co-directed 'Barbosa' with Jorge Furtado.]

🍿 LIKE TWENTY IMPOSSIBLES, my first by Palestinian Annemarie Jacir. A small Palestinian film crew is trying to cross a border checkpoint, and is subject to humiliating abuse by the Israeli soldiers. There were other films about the exact topic, the grinding brutality, the hopeless struggle just to stay human - "The cruelty is the point". And this was made in 2003, before the whole occupied territories turned into the big concentration camp it is today.

I promised myself that I will stop watching these traumatic films, and I will. But surprise! When the credits rolled, it appeared that this horrible true-to-life documentary was actually "Fiction"! The ugly film was so realistic, that it was a huge relief to discover it was "Only Art". 8/10.

🍿 THE INCREDIBLE THEFT OF CELINE'S BELOVED (2020), a cute French love letter to Wes Anderson. A 14 year old girl receives a surprise package in the mail. It's as if girl herself directed this story. 6/10. [*3 Female Directors*]

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2 EARLY SHORTS BY RIAN JOHNSON:

🍿 I started watching his heist story 'The Brothers Bloom', but couldn't finish it. Maybe I'll do it next week. Meanwhile I tried -

In BEN BOYER AND THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF AUTOMOBILE MARKETING, the voice of Carl Jung approaches a guy taking a shit with an archetypal explanation through the air-filter vent. The topic? The subconscious meaning of car brand logos. Made for $99 in 2001. With Pink Floyd 'Atom Heart Mother' score.

🍿 In THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DREAM ANALYSIS (2003) a young woman dreams somebody else's dreams. A student film that feels like one. 2/10.

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(ALL MY FILM REVIEWS - HERE).

#movies #lindsay anderson #O dreamland #margate #amusement park #Fun fair

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roenters · 19 days

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Thirteen reasons why is a cinematic masterpiece.

**SPOILERS BTW FOR THE ENDING OF THE SHOW AND STUFF SO BASICALLY IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT MAYBE DONT READ**

Thirteen reasons why is a show that knew exactly what it was doing. Sure, it might've taken me a couple years to get around to watching the last two episodes but I've crossed that line now and I think it's safe to say that I thoroughly love this show with my whole heart.

From the get to they do not shy away from harsh, cruel and upsetting topics that for many people: that is their life. The entire show is about all these devastating experiences and how the characters, how these kids/young adults will deal with the situation presented to them. They look at real responses, real issues. The events happen to the characters, the characters aren't just slotted in. There are real, damaging and lasting consequences. As we see in the finale, the horrific events of season one have continued to carry through the entire story. That central point of what started it all. And it was twisted into a good outcome.

The last episode contains Justin's death. I'll admit, I was having a full on breakdown. That shows you how well they get you emotionally connected to these characters. They make you feel as if they're real people because of how relatable they are and it's not the same sort of relatable as 'haha yeah they like the same things I do'. No. It's: they went through a severely traumatic thing and now they've got depression. They're currently dealing with events bigger than themselves and don't know how to cope. And the show explores that in a way that encapsulates the raw emotions people experience when these things happen. And yet, by the end, they'd managed to show the characters graduating. Living life. Surviving. And the end didn't leave you in tears. Instead you saw two friends connecting with each other again. Rekindling their love that had dimmed due to the events, unable to truly be free from the disasters that plagued their minds and emotions. They could just: be. With no worries that we're too big for them. Able to just be together.

It's unlike TV shows nowadays. There's nothing else really like it. Netflix did not cancel it after the first season (long live Dead Boy Detectives) and they most certainly didn't force the creators to shy away from the topics they wanted to involve. That's the nature of the show. It couldn't be done unless Netflix gave it the time and energy it deserved. The episodes are lengthy. The last episode is at least an hour and a half! But that's exactly the time it needed to take the audience through a fulfilling and satisfying ending. No stone unturned, no plotlines left unfinished. We don't see that a lot these days. They also didn't make it run on for too long - neatly wrapping it up and piecing their puzzle together until they had a full picture.

Additionally, I'd like to add a big part of the show is the amazing diversity they showcase and it is integral to how we percieve the characters. I'm not talking race, or sexuality, (although that is very diverse itself) I'm talking about the character's backgrounds. Some come from rich families, some come from poor families, some are close with their parents while others are pushed away and hurt by them. Things like a good security net and positive influences heavily impact a person and that is clearly shown in the show by making characters vastly different and using their backgrounds to show this. We also look at their own personal struggles and how they make characters individual, shaping them into who they are. How they find help, support or lackthereof and what they do as a result of that. It leaves us with a set of very well developed people who will each want to react differently to the situations presented in the show and many, many strong personalities. Each varying and unique.

I could not recommend this show enough. Of course, it's sad. That's because it's real and isn't scared of digging into the truth. But, at its core, you develop relationships to the characters on the screen, caring for them and relating as you watch them tackle the story one step at a time. They become a flurry of emotion and love and hate and actions and impulse and connections and thought and beliefs. They become people. And I think that is a very special thing.

(However, I will admit I didn't really like Ani in season three but- I digress.)

#thirteen reasons why #netflix #i just wanted to dedicate something to the show cause i finished it and i do so love it #can you tell i do media?#had to write that one analysis essay and now im back for round two #13 reasons why #13rw

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thescrapbookingscientist · 5 months

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Bimonthly Media Roundup

-Alien (Movie) - Alien was re-released in theaters so my friends and I went to see it. Still a great movie, Ripley is a badass, the cat survives, the Xenomorph is an incredible design, the building of suspense and set design is great, it's a classic for a reason. My one critique from my ADHD brain is that it would be nice of a few of the longer drawn out set establishing scenes were condensed a bit, not because I'm against suspense but because they went on a bit to long that the suspense turned to boredom for me occasionally. That's a small critique though, the creativity of the alien designs and behavior definitely drowns it out in the long run.

-The Mummy (Movie) - Another re-release in the theater, this was a fun one to re-visit. I mean that in a very literal way, The Mummy is the kind of campy adventure mixed with comedy and slight horror elements that I wish they made more of anymore. Egypt as a setting is severely underused in my opinion and the setting was gorgeous. Speaking of gorgeous so was everybody in this film. I can see why it was such a bi-awakening movie. The romance was cute and well established for the kind of movie it is and there's always something interesting pushing the plot along. It is kinda strange how truly bad the guys trying to prevent people from waking the mummy are at their jobs but that's more of a funny flaw than a serious one so whatever.

- Fallout (TV) - Having fun so far, good characters, fun writing, and the use of flashbacks in storytelling is intriguing.

- In Stars and Time (Video Game) - Watched the full playthrough and I'm definitely interested in seeing more, this is a super charming game with a great concept and some absolutely killer dialogue and scenes (I love you time loop stories). Every character is lovable, Siffrin and Loops designs are fantastic, and the game is full of really interesting lore and mysteries that you can sort of piece together on your own once you understand the rules of this universe. In terms of media I like it does score the perfect five of having good comedy, likable characters, good art,genuine emotion, and fucked up but well explored concepts.

- Dungeon Meshi (Anime) - Fucked Up Monster Lady Hot.

- Six (Musical) - Went to see Six live with my sister and it was a lot of fun, more so than I expected to be honest. The dancing was neat, the outfits sparkly, the whole cast had amazing voices, and while the songs definitely lean into the corniness they are all catchy and fun which I appreciate.

- Pokemon Infinite Fusion (Video Game) - Beat the first Elite Four and absolutely love my team. Currently in Johto having fun building a second one. Highly recommend this game, it's a lot of fun with a lot of extra little quests and fun dialogue on top of the amazing fusion sprites.

- One Piece (Anime) - Finally got to Yamato and yes I do love him. Great design, and he's nice and stupid, great character traits.

- Genshin Impact (Video Game) - Yup.

Listening To: Nonsense Speaker by 000, Tounges & Teeth and Metaphor by The Crane Wives, Six the Musical OST, Ghost by Justin Bieber, Meant to Be Yours by Ryan McCartan, How Did You Love by Shinedown, Stray Italian Greyhound by Vienna Tang, Creep cover by Daniela Andrade, Let's Get This Over With by They Might Be Giants, Dial Drunk by Noah Kahan, and Humans by GEN.KLOUD.

#weekly roundup #my post

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greenb0i · 1 year

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July 2023

It was my britday month and I watched a lot of flims like always. Also yes, barbie is the reason this month is so late. I have a lot of thought that i dont really know how to express.

Flims

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) Dir. Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers

Yes I watched it agine. It still amazing, and i feel like seeing on the big screen adds to the whole thing much more. This is literally the only movie I've seen twice in cinama, and it's so worth it. It weirdly felt quicker to watch, but i think because I knew what i was expecting. But it's still so good. Especially, the ending crdits. I love how they look and how they symobolise every event in the movie. 10/10

Nimona (2023) Dir. Troy Quane, Nick Bruno

I watched this movie hungover and by god it was fucking great. It one of those movie that haven't stop thinking about (at the time of writing this) I just love thinking about the charaters and what they mean to each other, and the theme, and how the movie can explore so much and mean so many different things to different people. I also love the character design as well, and how imo, impove the desgins from the comic. Idk, it just one of those things that make me want to create my own stories 9/10

Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop (2021) Dir. Kyohei Ishiguro

I remember i started this movie when it came out, got like 20 minents into it and i just wasn't into it. Anyway, I restarted it and ended up sobbing like a baby. Frist things first, i adore the colours, that what drew me to the movie in the first place aswell as how the movie animated. Idk, I'm not an expert, but the way the characters move just looked so nice and smooth . I don't know what extaly affected me, i think it has to with the exploration frist love?? idk. Like i said, im still not compltye sure. 8/10

The Report (2019) Dir. Scott Z. Burns

death2American. But ya i just felt so annoyed watching this movie. The movie itself was good, i like a lot of the acting and felt like they are a very cohersive story, dispit it taking place over a good few years and have a lot of movie parts. But ya, I feel annyed and angry that so about what some of the people did and never face any repercussions to what happened. But overall, heavy but interesting movie (7/10)

In the Heights (2021) Dir. Jon M. Chu

I really like this movie. I remember when it came out, i was so hyped, i just kept watching the first song over and over again. And i still think it is such a good movie, i love most of the song, esaliy abula song. Everything about that whole song was amazing and started crying during it. It just one of those movies that i forget about, but I love rewatching. (8/10)

Barbie (2023) Dir. Greta Gerwig

I really loved this movie. I saw it twice. It just a movie that i found so fun. Like everyone, i love the costume and the sets and just everything thing about the movie. I love the massage behind it, but at the same time, i feel like there is so much more it could say. It's a movie that i feel like i make me want to read more into feminism movement to see why some poeple dislike the movie (not for the stupit reasons, but the valid ones) with what it has to say about gender. Overall, I would say I really like it, and it probably gonna be a movie. I come back to watch over and over again, and my opinion will probably change the move I watch it (7/10)

Books

Biography Of X by Catherine Lacey

I ughh I really like this book. It was just so interesting to read about this fictionalised artist and this alternative version of history. It felt like it could be something that was real, and I think that due to how the well the auther blend and changed history in small or massive ways. It just so good, I love all the character who apper, the obsession of it, the explore of love and unhealthy relationships. God damnit I could write so much about this book, but then ill be spoiling it 4/5

Songs I love

Bug like an angle-Mitski

Rush- Troye Sivan

Malmo-Mook

Pulp-Lime Garden

Wishing Well-Screaming Females

#greens monthly reveiws #movie review #book review #across the spiderverse #spiderverse #nimona #words bubble up like soda pop #in the hights #barbie movie #barbie #books #biography of x #Mitski #music recs

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haveyoueverplayed · 1 year

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We Finished Grandia!

Jellybi Final Impressions:

I give this game a resounding “...uhm.” I can see it having been a great time for a much younger version of myself, maybe like 12-16 or so – teen Jellybi was a big fan of Bishounen Villains Who Do Face Turns and would have greatly enjoyed Mullen’s arc regardless of the general lack of buildup or plot scaffolding around it. But the rest of the story, um... left a lot to be desired.

I felt like the end of the game kept harkening back to a lot of themes and elements that simply hadn’t been properly established, like the greed and folly of humans and their rift with the spirits that resulted from that. If that was set up anywhere, it never really registered or sank in for me, but they kept harping on it like it was a major throughline of the story. They had 40 hours of gameplay to set that stuff up! But outside of exposition dumps, it didn’t seem to really be there. Did we ever meet any spirits or learn a concrete thing that humans did wrong to prove themselves unworthy? If we did, I must have missed it, I guess.

The biggest issue I had with the game, though, was the Justin/Feena pairing, in which she is handed some sort of idiot stick that turns her into a fawning damsel, and the broader way in which building Justin up as a hero seemed to happen at the expense of the other characters. It didn’t feel like he ever actually grew or learned anything, but rather that everyone around him just started stanning him and acting like he was an amazing hero and the only one capable of taking any actions that mattered to the world.

This was at its worst when Gadwin joined the party and seemed unaware that Feena or Sue existed and kept crediting the party’s victories to Justin exclusively and proclaiming Justin a “real man” every ten seconds, but seemed to carry through with Feena’s crush on Justin making her extremely um, deferential to him out of nowhere. Writing Sue out also felt abrupt and cynical, like they needed to ‘get her out of the way’ for this bad pairing to flourish.

Overall this stuff left a bad taste in my mouth that made it hard to enjoy the rest of the game, though it remained aesthetically appealing and fun to play with the ever-present promise of unlocking new, more ridiculous magics around every corner. Also, Liete was a delight and the things I liked about her remained relatively untouched by any of the Weird Justin Hero Vortex nonsense.

GRANDIA 1: Jellybi’s Final Ratings:

Art rating: 4/5: I continued to love the character art throughout the game, and it kept serving up really nice, quasi cinematic sprite animations during key moments. Great enemy designs too for the most part. I wasn’t quite as... impressed by the sprites for the final boss battle sequence as I was expecting, but I liked the candy-colored wires or veins or whatever the first form of Gaia had going on.

Battles rating: 4/5: Loved the battles. I think that if the game had had better music and sound design, these would have been some of my favorite RPG battles ever. (The voice acting around spellcasting and stuff was great, but the music was meh and the enemies often made annoying, repetitive noises). I think I did have a little bit of FOMO in the end that the spell discovery system was kind of opaque so it was hard to know if you had unlocked everything or how to get the ones you might have missed, though it’s possible some googling could have resolved this question, I was just too wary of spoilers to try.

Mechanics rating: 2/5: Exploring, though, was not fun, and the game seemed padded out with tons of unnecessary dungeons that were essentially just transitional locations between cities and wherever you actually wanted to be going. The way the camera and “compass” worked did not really help with navigating the landscape, and there were a lot of navigation-based puzzles that were difficult because of poor game design rather than fun and enriching to resolve.

I think I ended up giving the controller to Tex probably like 75% of the time because I just didn’t want to be Lost in Monster Infested Environments for the amount of time the game wanted me to be. The 3D world seemed kind of half-finished, and interaction with basic objects like “ropes you need to climb” often felt like they just barely worked and required a lot of trial and error to figure out if the object was interactable or not.

Story rating: 2/5: I really ... didn’t like the story in the end. I felt like I spent about 30 hours waiting for the story to begin, and then when it finally did, everyone acted like An Epic and Satisfying Plot had already happened and was time to wrap everything up in a tidy, unearned bow. It’s certainly possible for me to like a story LESS (Grandia 2 is a good example), but it felt like nothing really got set up properly despite ample time to do so, and the majority of the runtime was wasted on random puttering around the world doing what felt like sidequests.

Why was there no followup on Sue having a mysterious monster pet? Why was Feena a Secret Icarian when, compared to Sue (the mysterious orphan with an unexplained monster pet), there was nothing particularly mysterious or odd about her past? What does it mean to be a Secret Icarian in this society, anyway? Why didn’t we find out what the Evil Army was trying to do until three seconds before Mullen found out it had been a lie and needed to change sides? Did Rapp accidentally kill his parents by polishing their limbs off while they were stone before everyone got un-petrified? Did we ever actually find out what happened to Justin's dad and why he had the spirit stone in the first place to give him? There were so many missed opportunities in the plot!

Vibes Rating: 4/5: Despite it all, this game gave me happy RPG feelings to play! Again, if I were younger, and either more into the story to hang on every scrap of exposition detail or more inclined to fill in the holes with my own imagination, I probably would have loved it a lot more.

#grandia

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dsolis140 · 1 year

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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Movie Review

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is is a masterpiece that exceeds the already high expectations and surpasses upon its predecessor. Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson and writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are able to builds upon what was established in the first film and expand it with every single element, from the animation and world building that deepens the characters, and is able to be a perfect middle chapter that concludes its own story while also being part of a larger narrative that sets up the next film.

For starters, the filmmakers outdid themselves in terms of the already groundbreaking animation that pushes the boundaries and limitations of what animation can do. Every frame in this film is a work of art that should be framed in a museum. It is given so much passion, love, thought, and care within it. It is gorgeous, visually stunning and breathtaking. It is able to mix different animation styles in brilliant fashion that adds so much to the narrative and world building, making every different multiverse, every different environment feel unique and distinct while perfectly complimenting one another. This is a prime example of how animation is not a genre, but a medium of art that can be used for effective storytelling.

It is able to tell a brilliant narrative that balances humor and emotional weight. It delivers on the incredible humor that we have grown to love from the first film that is able to have narrative purpose, especially by turning my favorite joke of the first film, the “bagel” joke, and make it an essential part of this narrative. At the same time, it tells a very mature story, one that is filled with emotional and mature themes of family, struggle, acceptance and responsibility that explores each of the characters and their motives. It perfectly balances a great mixture of character and plot, where the plot drives the characters and vice versa. The film does an excellent job of making sure that we are spending time with the characters, given them time to process their problems, and stay with them in their more emotional moments.

No where is this best seen than through the character development of Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy. The film starts out with Gwen Stacy, serving as one of our main protagonist, and fleshes out the character that sets her up with a complicated, rich, emotional and satisfying story arc that directly impacts the narrative. Meanwhile, we are able to see how more confident Miles Morales have become as Spider-Man while also wrestling with how it affects his education, his relationship with his family, and accepting one’s own potential and self worth within this Spider-verse. Each of the characters are given their own depth, dimension, personality, and growth that explore what being a hero means to them.

The film is able to deliver a fresh and unique spin on multiverse storytelling. It is one that is not only able to make excellent use of cameos, references and easter eggs throughout that will make any Spider-Man fan jump up with glee and joy, but also use it for narrative purposes, using them as a way to deconstruct the Spider-Man mythology. It is able to take a meta-commentary of what it means to be Spider-Man: the weight, sacrifice, choices, the notion of fate and destiny, and most importantly, the power responsibility that comes within it that is central to the main themes of the story. It explore the different philosophies and perspectives that people have on what it means to be be Spider-Man, and the impact that it has had in their own personal lives and those around them.

In the end, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a masterpiece. With groundbreaking animation, a brilliant narrative that balances humor with storytelling, excellent character development, and delivering a fresh, unique spin of the multiverse concept, the filmmakers are able to deliver the best film of the year that not only will win Best Animated Feature, but should be nominated for Best Picture. It is the Spider-Man film ever made. It is one of the best multiverse movie ever made. It is one of the best comic book movies ever made. And it is one of my favorite movies of all time.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ STARS (5/5 STARS)

#spiderman #across the spiderverse #into the spider verse #movie review #miles morales #gwen stacy #miguel o hara #peter b parker #bagel #multiverse #spider man across the spider verse #best animated feature #best picture

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maverick-werewolf · 2 years

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NEW BOOK - Tales of Wulfgard, Volume I

Newly revised for 2023, Tales of Wulfgard: Volume I is a collection of short stories. All have been edited, revised, and expanded, and one of my stories - “Hunted” - has been completely rewritten and greatly expanded to better accompany another of my Wulfgard story collections, The Hunt Never Ends.

For werewolf fans, this book includes two stories focusing on a werewolf/werewolves/lycanthropy and my own fictional takes thereon! Be sure to check it out!

Tales of Wulfgard, Volume 1 is a collection of stories by brother and sister Justin R. R. Stebbins and Maegan A. Stebbins, set in the dark fantasy world of Wulfgard! There are 5 tales, each exploring the background of a particular important character of Wulfgard.

Available for purchase here on Amazon in both ebook and paperback!

Details on each story below:

"Speak No Evil" - Whisper's Tale - by Justin -- Whisper has never lived anywhere except the City - never even been beyond its walls. She knows it like the back of her hand, knows the long faces of its dark buildings like the faces of old friends - almost her only friends. But there is a new gang in town: a shadowy cult kidnapping young street urchins for an unknown purpose. And Whisper becomes one of their victims.

"A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" - Chris's Tale - by Maegan -- On a lonely farm on the far northern frontier of the Achaean Empire, a young boy is born with stark white hair - a sure sign of witchcraft and sorcery. His loving parents protect him and keep him hidden from the sight of other people, who would surely see him killed for his dangerous abilities. But the fearful locals are not the only thing the family has to worry about: something lurks in the shadows of the forest near their home. Something with a taste for blood...

"Potential Energy" - Lord Plutarch's Tale - by Justin -- The House of Plutarchus is one of the oldest and most powerful families in all of the Achaean Empire. But its youngest son, Septimus Plutarch, wishes to make his own way in the world. With great care, he begins planning a life of power and prestige, and more importantly, independence. But one day he makes a discovery about himself that brings all his plans crumbling down... and opens up a new, far more dangerous path to even greater power.

"Hunted" - Caiden's Tale - by Maegan -- Since before recorded history, the ancient organization known as the Venatori have protected the people of the Achaean Empire from the threat of creatures far more powerful than any man: monsters. Even Caiden and Gwen - both highly trained hunters - find themselves outmatched when confronted with one of the deadliest beasts in the mortal realms: a werewolf. It will take all their experience and cunning to survive.

"Wake Not the Sleeping Bull" - Jörgen's Tale - by Justin -- Jörgen the Lone Bull is a proud son of Northrim, despite being an orphan. He wants nothing more than to protect his home from conquest by the ever-expanding Achaean Empire. After fighting skirmishes against them for years as an outlaw, he finally joins a Northern army willing to take the fight to the Imperials directly. But Jörgen finds that real war is not quite as glorious as he had hoped, and he may never be able to go home the same man he was before.

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cosmignon · 2 years

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reposting the drow drawing that I posted a couple days ago so that I can include my doodles of his team mates

You've got Bronco the drow, Justine the eladrin, and Syd the wood elf! They're on a quest to explore the new world built on the bones of the destroyed old world, and on the way they want to create an epic play/song that tells the story of their travels

They were the NPC group that my team of dragon-aligned characters met up with a few times, and I love them very much

full image descriptions under the cut:

ID #1: A set of sketches showing off Bronco, a drow man in a spider themed suit of plate armor, which has spiders and thorns adorning it. To the left there is a version where he is wearing a sleek helmet over his face, and a version where his helmet is gone, revealing his eyes and bushy hair. On the right is a short comic where Bronco looms over the shoulder of a little kobold woman, Gladys, as he says nothing. Gladys is extremely nervous, and Bronco keeps smiling until he eventually breaks into laughter. He kneels down to Gladys and says "I'm sorry - ha ha - I'm just fucking with you. My name's Bronco, I'm normal." Gladys responds "O-OH! OK! I was going to ask..." End ID.

ID #2: Sketches of Justine, an elven woman holding a large axe behind her back. She has 4 variations on her hair and transparent cloak based on the four seasons, from left to right: spring, summer, autumn, winter. Her hair grows longer for each season, and her hair and cloak change colors. End ID.

ID #3: Sketches of Syd, a thin elven woman wearing various bardic and punk rock inspired outfits. The bardic outfits are a set of big puff pants and a leotard with jingling bells on the wrists and ankles, while the punk rock outfit is a tattered prom dress with fishnet tights and arm length gloves. In all three sketches she is holding a piccolo and has long, messy hair. End ID.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #dice funk #dicefunk #character design #art #artists on tumblr #thefinearts

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our-flag-means-death-ao3feed · 1 year

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Take Me As You Will - An OFMD Queer as Folk SMAU

by debbienovotny

In Pittsburgh, PA, Stede Bonnet, a "failed" painter working for his father's art gallery as an executive assistant, is freshly divorced, freshly out of the closet, freshly on the market. He's eager to explore this new side of himself, so he hits the town looking for hook-ups for the first time in his life.

As Stede's first night on Liberty Avenue is coming to an end with no luck, he is spotted by Edward Teach, the "local legend": if you set foot on Liberty Avenue, you're probably going to end up in Edward Teach's bed. Or on his kitchen table, or against a wall, or on the floor, or in the shower-

Everyone knows who Ed is - well, almost everyone: Stede has never heard of Ed before.

Ed has already decided he's taking Stede home.

Words: 3337, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Our Flag Means Death (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F, M/M

Characters: Stede Bonnet, Blackbeard | Edward Teach, Israel Hands, Roach (Our Flag Means Death), Lucius Spriggs, Black Pete (Our Flag Means Death), Spanish Jackie (Our Flag Means Death), Oluwande Boodhari, Jim Jimenez, Wee John Feeney, Frenchie (Our Flag Means Death), Edward Bonnet | Stede Bonnet's Father, Stede Bonnet's Mother, Edward Teach's Father, Edward Teach's Mother, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Original Child Character(s), Alma Bonnet, Louis Bonnet, Mary Allamby Bonnet

Relationships: Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet, Israel Hands & Roach (Our Flag Means Death), Black Pete/Lucius Spriggs, Mary Allamby Bonnet/Doug/Evelyn Higgins, Wee John Feeney/Frenchie, Oluwande Boodhari/Jim Jimenez, Anne Bonny/Mary Read

Additional Tags: alternative universe, Queer as Folk AU, This gets VERY explicit, Edward Teach is Brian Kinney, Stede Bonnet is Justin Taylor, Age Difference, But not creepy like in the original show, Izzy is Michael, handjobs, Blowjobs, Anal Sex, Ass to Mouth, bathroom blowjobs, Sex as a way of communicating feelings, Edward Bonnet is an Asshole, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Dads are just horrible overall, The mothers are loving and caring, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Crying, Edward Teach is a father and doesn't know how to deal with it, Edward Teach is also in love with Stede Bonnet and doesn't know how to deal with that either, Recreational Drug Use, Alcohol, Psychological Trauma, Childhood Trauma, Other Additional Tags to Be Added

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/46751488

#Our flag means death #ofmd #https://archiveofourown.org/works/46751488

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hamliet · 2 years

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Hey I love the way you talk about Qaf I was curious what your thoughts were on Mel and Lindsay's relationship did you enjoy them together, think they should of ended up together in the end?

Yes and yes. I loved them. Their relationship was lovely, and Melanie in particular was a character I resonated with. But, admittedly, the writing of their relationship in season 4-5 was probably also my biggest writing complaint for the show as a whole. The affair plotline was a rehash of season 1, and as I've said before, it's to the show's credit that it did not ruin their characters because it absolutely could have. But, it still wasn't handled well.

Basically, for Lindsay and Melanie, the writing just wasn't as tight as it could have been. Sometimes the themes and character moments just weren't given the nuance and breathing room they needed to resonate. It was a lot of... well, lazy "and then" connections between plot beats. "Lindsay starts working, and then she meets this man who hits on her" when you could actually connect the plot points with "but" or "because" explicitly, which is what the writers did with other plotlines. It doesn't even have to be a direct plot reason, but instead a thematic one, and you've got to highlight these thematic connections instead of leaving them implicit. "Lindsay's struggles with her identity and how she fits into society continue because she starts working again, where a white man with a fetish for lesbians starts hitting on her" is a lot more compelling. QaF was not a thematically subtle show, so make it explicit instead of implicit.

Lindsay's arc was about her grieving her not being the daughter her parents wanted while forming her own family, which is a lovely arc and set her up as a great foil for Justin and for Brian. She was constantly struggling with the idea of what she should have and what a family looks like. Think the plot with Guillaume, where she almost marries him for visa/financial reasons but without any real love. Lindsay's struggles with what a family should look like continue in season 2, but she's more assured and confident. She doesn't take her sister's insults and proposes to Melanie at her sister's third wedding, marries Melanie, and tells her parents off after they reject her yet again. Season 3 Lindsay has her sharing some wisdom with Brian about working to get Justin back, helping Melanie get pregnant, and establishing her own career in art... but then we get sidetracked.

Her brief affair with Sam--which is founded in having to play the sexist game--could have worked for her arc. But it just wasn't given the breathing room it needed. Her choosing to have sex with a man--a man who viewed her as a conquest, as a goal to change her sexuality--was degrading and upsetting to see, and this could have been explored with empathy and nuance... but this aspect isn't ever explicitly addressed.

Kind of a side note, but I promise it ties back in: Lindsay's insistence that she is a lesbian despite having had sex with two men at that point (Sam, and years ago Brian) isn't really debatable imo. Labels are just--what we use to communicate. They don't always fit in certain circumstances. I do wish the option of bisexuality had been brought up in the show instead of treated like Lindsay had to choose one or the other, but if Lindsay says she's a lesbian, she's a lesbian.

There could have just been a lot more done with this. Lindsay's final confrontation with her mother about her sexuality in season 5 is good, but if the writers wanted to, they could have explored this label issue, could have explored Lindsay's fears of not fitting in with what constituted a nuclear heterosexual family or even her worries about what having sex with a man meant (granted, this would have been a bit ahead of its time, but it could have been done). Her self-hatred could have been dealt with more directly, which would have been more meaningful.

Melanie, as I said, was kind of a favorite of mine. The butch lesbian lawyer turns out to be actually extremely sentimental and bighearted. She helps everyone out legally no matter the request, wonders about the existence of their child before they're born, etc.

Mel's drive for success made her a good foil to Ben and to Brian, and again, more could have been done here (especially given Ben's arc in season 4 with the bug-chaser and pushing Michael away when facing rejection over his writing). They also could have done a lot more with the whole "playing the game" arc, and with Mel's own career issues and drive to keep working despite having a risky pregnancy. They could have directly foiled Melanie's desire for professional success and acceptance with Lindsay's for social acceptance. To an extent they did, but it just could have been more explicit and thus resonated more. They also could have maybe more directly addressed the issues with misogyny even in queer circles and how that affected both Mel and Linds in their careers and family choices.

Melanie being so hurt by Lindsay cheating with Sam didn't quite sit right with me because, well, Mel cheated in season 1, so where was her empathy there? You could explain that--again, I actually think it makes sense--by showing how Melanie, too, was afraid of not being chosen, but you do have to actually explore this instead of leaving your audience to connect the dots. It just--could have been explored more. Instead of the ensuing custody battle in season 5, I would have liked to see Lindsay and Melanie try to work out their issues a bit more directly, with talk about what Lindsay's affair did to Melanie's self-esteem and her own identity.

The ideas weren't bad, but the execution was just way less rich than it could have been.

#ask hamliet #qaf #queer as folk #melanie marcus #lindsay peterson #lindsay x melanie #sam auerbach

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setzappersto-pew · 3 years

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StarKid and Musical Score #2

Pop culture parodies tread fine lines to avoid copyright violations, especially when it comes to music. Some go for a certain mood or genre to evoke the source. Holy Musical B@man! is a great example. Nick Gage and Scott Lamps used strictly synthesizer and an electronic drum kit. They made great use of the standard synthesizer sound, calling to mind ‘80s new wave electronic music; a darker electric guitar sound to capture the gritty Batman from The Dark Knight or The Killing Joke; and light and playful bell tones, representing the innocence of Robin or perhaps the campy silliness of the ‘60s Batman TV show.

When it’s a parody musical of a musical, the challenge is even greater. Enter Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier.

There’s not a lot of interstitial music to set the scenes, but what little there is excels with capturing the mood, like the eerie strings and woodwinds coupled with sporadic percussion during Aladdin’s breakdown near the end. Instead, Twisted features a large number of songs to fill its 2.25 hour runtime, so I’m going to focus on the instrumentals of those for this post. The instrumentation for this show includes keyboard, drums, guitar/bass, violin, cello, flute, clarinet, and alto/tenor saxophone. It’s a much bigger and more varied band than any StarKid show had before or since.

The endeavor that composer A.J. Holmes, accompanied by incredible lyricist Kaley McMahon, set out on was to evoke not only the source material, Disney’s Aladdin, but also other Disney movies of the same era and the Broadway musical Wicked. The Disney references are all over the place, including the Disney-fied StarKid logo. The latter was accomplished via the title (Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier vs. Wicked: The Untold Story of a Wicked Witch), the album cover, the method of role reversal (a villain posed as the hero of their own story), and even a direct reference to the book. But A.J., along with orchestrator Andrew Fox and music director Justin Fischer, took it a step further with several songs to give the audience a truly immersive and magical experience.

To keep it simple, I’m going to link each song--or most, as some I can’t quite figure out--to another Disney or Wicked song that A.J. was likely, or even obviously, taking influence from. The similarities are often in the instrumentation and tempo; chord progressions and adjacent melodies; or lyrics and character situations.

Not a song, but the opening music evokes the haunting strings and bells in the opening of Beauty and the Beast to a tee. Like...it’s a dead ringer, obviously in purpose.

“Dream a Little Harder”: An opening ensemble number like “Belle” from Beauty and The Beast. Introduces the protagonist and the surrounding characters with a sweet and tremulous flute at the beginning and bouncy strings throughout. Lyrics mirror each other, i.e. “Fuck you” = “Bonjour”...Nick’s favorite line, “Marie! The baguettes! Hurry up!”...they all hate Ja’far vs. they all think Belle is weird. Belle is even part of the ensemble, telling Ja’far to keep his “fat face out of the mother fucking book”! It’s a pretty obvious comparison.

“I Steal Everything”: “One Jump Ahead” from Aladdin is the obvious parallel in orchestration, melody, tempo, lyrics, character situation...everything.

“Everything and More”: Again, an obvious parody of “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid. Same gentle yet sweeping melody, same lilting tempo paired with vocals timid one moment and powerful the next, lyrics exploring desire for more.

“A Thousand and One Nights”: This one was a little harder, as really none of the Disney princesses have duets with their princes. But I think it pairs well with “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King, at least after Timon and Pumbaa have their moment! The back and forth between lovers talking to themselves about the other has a similar feel. Honestly, this song is pretty original and yet manages to evoke Disney love song perfectly without copying any. The gentle melody, sweeping yet sweet orchestration, and the dialogue really sell it. They knew it was the love song because they went ahead and parodied the cheesy pop covers that ‘90s Disney movies are known for with a true bop performed by Britney Coleman and Carlos Valdes.

“Orphaned at 33″: Perhaps the reprise of “One Jump Ahead”? It’s slower and more melancholy and has similar chord progression and crooning vocals. Maybe “Go the Distance” from Hercules? Both are songs of sadness and longing, but StarKid’s Aladdin is far more pathetic and creepy than Hercules. EDIT: “Proud of Your Boy”, which was cut from Aladdin and put in the stage show, is absolutely the reference here! Again, a song of sadness and longing and self-pity and lamentation of a bad childhood...and StarKid’s Aladdin is still more pathetic. Musical parallels: similar chord progressions, embellishments, instrumentation, time signature, tempo, etc.; starts with delicate notes and Aladdin just talking (this starts at 46 seconds in “Orphaned at 33″, after a prelude); lilting and tiptoeing melody in the middle (1:56 for “Orphaned”, 1:08 for “Proud”); powerful sustained vocals and sweeping winds and strings to finish. I know this song was in the back of my mind, but it just wasn’t coming to me. Thank you @hatchetfieldtheories and @melchron for helping me out!

“Happy Ending”: The last half, at 1:50, really reminds me of “Defying Gravity” from Wicked, specifically at 5:15. The quiet and tense music make way for powerful vocals and are just waiting to burst forth for a showstopping ending. Both songs are also Act 1 closers. I can’t really place the rest of “Happy Ending”, but it all reminds me of Wicked with the powerful rock guitar and drums paired with cinematic strings. Plus, I always love when multiple melodies come together as reprises, most often as Act 1 closers!

“No One Remembers Achmed”: A sillier version of “Gaston” from Beauty and The Beast. The spurned villain’s cohorts are pumping him up and singing his praises! Both melodies are jaunty, though with different instrumentation...Twisted’s featuring sillier sound effects and goofy xylophone.

“Take Off Your Clothes”: A sexier version of “A Whole New World” from Aladdin. Slightly modified melody, and obviously the lyrics, but it’s exactly the same.

“The Power in Me”: A solemn and sweet farewell duet between friends like “For Good” from Wicked. The delicate woodwinds and strings sound similar to the gentle synth in “For Good”. Vocal performances are cautious and tender at first but quickly become strong and confident. “You are the power in me” and “I have been changed for good” follow almost the exact same rhythm.

The titular song has many facets, so I’ll detail them here:

Opening to 1:03 and 5:55 to the end = “No Good Deed” from Wicked, with the same intense strings and percussion. The whole situation and lyrics match, with both Ja’far and Elphaba deciding to just be antiheroes because no one sees them as heroes anyway. “I’ll be twisted, it’s my turn” matches “No good deed will I do ever again” and “I’m wicked through and through”.

1:10-2:06 = “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid...it’s Ursula, so of course...but also, the woodwinds and keyboard mimicking brass evoke the same bouncy yet menacing rhythm, akin to an evil polka.

2:07-2:50 = “Be Prepared” from The Lion King. Obviously, it’s Scar’s moment...but also, they have similar deep and primitive drums and woodwinds.

The rest of the songs (”Sands of Time”, “Golden Rule”, and “If I Believed”) I couldn’t really place, but they still evoke the source materials. “Golden Rule” has a classic musical theatre ensemble number feel, with fun strings and woodwinds and delightful choruses; the reprise turns it on its head with menacing piano and bass. “If I Believed” is another take on an “I want” song; the flute and cello pair very nicely together to support Dylan’s soulful voice.

My next post in this series will likely be about the Hatchetfield series: The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, Black Friday, and Nightmare Time. There’s a lot in between, like the AVP Trilogy, ANI, and Starship, but the music for those stands out less to me. They’re great, don’t get me wrong, but I think that the score is not what makes them special. The Hatchetfield stuff, however...is intense.

Thanks for reading!

#starkid #rewatchers1000 #twisted: the untold story of a royal vizier #holy musical b@man #disney #wicked #sk musical score

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boys-night · 3 years

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Mickey and Ian - communication, sex, and relationship styles, post 11x07

Here’s my take on how Ian and Mickey relate to sexuality and relationship styles, thinking mainly about 11x07, but also looking more broadly at the series and including HoS. If you’re not interested in incorporating 11x07 in your version of canon, ignore this! I enjoyed 11x07 but I understand people have different ways of seeing Ian and Mickey’s relationship. I’m also doing the classic meta thing of taking seriously exaggerated/comic/contradictory elements in the show because that’s how I roll.

Super long post under cut.

I’ve been reading Sexuality: A Graphic Guide by Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele which is where a lot of the following ideas and terminology come from. I’ve also been looking at Meg-John Barker’s free relationship zine on their website rewritingtherules.com. I highly recommend their work, including the podcast they have with Justin Hancock, The Meg-John and Justin podcast (although MJ has left now and it’s called Culture, Sex, Relationships, but you can check out the backlog!)

They think about sex and relationship styles using various models including monogamy/polyamory, allosexuality/asexuality, romance/aromance etc. They look at these different facets of sexuality/relationship styles as complicated continua rather than binaries which shift over time. They also write about sexuality on an action/identity spectrum, communication strategies around relationships styles, and the windows into relationships. Here, I’m looking at all of these things thinking about Ian and Mickey’s relationship and as individuals within the relationship.

The monogamy/polyamory continuum

I’ve seen a bit of debate about how to label Mickey and Ian’s relationship on the monogamy/polyamory spectrum and I think it’s a pretty complex question especially considering those labels mean different things to different people and that relationships shift a lot over time. While labels like these can be useful, they can also be rigid and restrictive in their own ways.

Some terms that come close-ish to what they say they’ve decided in 11x07 are monoamorous and polysexual, considering they aren’t at all interested in romantic connections outside of each other but are up for sex (in a broad sense) with other people. But these terms don’t account for the agreement that they’re only exploring sex with other people when they’re together.

As people have pointed out, some of the boundary setting around exactly how they’re involving other people in the relationship is left off-screen, and also they’re not necessarily going to form identities around how they act in one episode. I’ve also seen people suggest reading their relationship style as monagamish and/or that what they do with other people is part of kink/play. I think these make sense in different ways and that in 11x07 Ian and Mickey definitely focus more on what they do (action) rather than who they are (identity) in regards to monogamy/polyamory.

In 11x01, Ian’s focus is more on identity. He sets up a binary choice between being monagamous or not in their relationship. 11x07 indicates they’ve moved through off-screen discussion into a much more personalised arrangement with more focus on actions allowing for flexibility over time. In 11x07, we see them agree on rules: sex in a broad sense is allowed outside of the primary partnership, love isn’t. They keep negotiations ongoing (e.g. in the bedroom, in the furniture store), and there is an indication that these rules could change over time.

I’d love to read/explore more about the ways in which this approach has changed over the course of the whole show. At the start of their relationship, definitely prior to s4, they have much more implicit rules about who they can have sex with, and those implicit rules become problematic in s5, when they realise they’re not completely on the same page regarding them. They bring up clashing ideas around the rules when Mickey’s leaving prison in s10 too. In s11, their relationship becomes more intentional, with these rules stated aloud rather than assumed.

The action/identity continuum in regards to gay sexuality

On a slight tangent, I think there’s a comparison to be made here to how they relate to sexuality (specifically gender of attraction) and the idea of gay identity, which seems to develop in the other direction. For Mickey especially, for a long time having sex with men was something he did rather than something he was, and that’s gradually somewhat shifted over the course of the show. There’s so much more that can be explored here, for instance, about how the action-based approach is much more acceptable within the hyper-masculine environment he was raised. Terry also approaches it this way when talking about prison sex, for example. According to this very oppressive social script, having sex with men in certain circumstances can be OK but claiming that as part of who you are is absolutely not.

But I also want to stress, I don’t think either approach to gay sexuality, looking at it through actions or through identity, is inherently better or worse. These different lenses on sexuality also intersect with class and levels of education. As explored in Sexuality: A Graphic Guide, the identity approach is also relatively a very modern way of seeing sexuality (late 20th century). Gender of attraction is also only one facet of sexuality (which includes amount of sex you want, type of sex, sexual roles etc.) but its now often regarded as the only or most important facet of sexuality. The identity-based approach is much more acceptable within the more aspirational/middle class settings they interact with in s10 and s11. In these seasons, Mickey and to a lesser extent Ian aren’t completely willing to accept it wholesale. I like how, for example, even well after “coming out”, Mickey often still approaches sexuality through actions rather than identity, e.g. his response to the woman at the flower shop asking if he’s a homosexual: “He is, I just like having another man’s dick up my ass.”

However, I also think it’s cool/interesting how Ian and Mickey both move towards and embrace various parts of mainstream gay identity in s11 too, and a large part of that involves combatting the sexism, femmephobia, and hypermasculinity with which they were raised, e.g. of course, singing and dancing to Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande in the bathroom.

You could also look at the different ideas about the origins of their gay sexuality in HoS through this lens. Mickey goes for a psychological/behavioural approach (based in like early 20th century sexological theories); Ian goes for a born-this-way, biological/genetic approach (popularised in the 1980s as part of gay pride movements).

Mickey’s approach is very old school (definitely a way of thinking that reflects his upbringing), which assumes straight is the norm from which gay deviates, to do with Freudian theory/the idea of homosexuality as pathology. He doesn’t, for example, seek to use the same model (Fiona’s bad relationship history) to explain why Lip is straight. Ian’s approach (”not because I was born this way?”) reflects his investment in the intractability of sexuality related to his strict opposition to conversion therapy models and the idea of being gay as a choice. It also reflects the way he reacts negatively/disbelievingly to Debbie’s more flexible sexuality (in s8?). While obviously it’s fucked up/impossible to force people to change their sexuality and it’s perfectly reasonable for him to define the origins of his own sexuality however he wants, this approach risks excluding more fluid experiences of sexuality.

Again, Mickey’s approach is more behavioural/action oriented and Ian’s is more identity oriented. They both seem pretty willing to shift their ideas around this though (especially Mickey, who potentially is just regurgitating old stuff he’s heard without thinking). The concluding thought is that Ian is gay because he likes Mickey’s d, lol.

Individual differences on sex and relationship continua

I really like the detail that Ian doesn't want to have sex and be friends with anyone else aside from Mickey. In 11x07, he doesn't want to make friends with the guys in the locker room although he's down for repeat sexual experiences which suggests he thinks he forms romantic attachment through a combination of both sex and friendship. It seems like it's important to him in his negotiation with Mickey that they don't form romantic attachments outside of their own relationship.

This relates back to the 87% thing in HoS where Ian says he tends to get at least slightly attached to everyone he has sex with and Mickey has 87% of his heart. Mickey doesn’t like the 87% thing at all but I reckon it outlines a really interesting difference between the two characters in regards to relationship styles. It indicates that Ian is comfortable with a slightly less mononormative way of doing nurturance/care than Mickey, while Mickey seems to initiate more of the polysexuality than Ian in 11x07. (Although of course, we don’t see how Ian would react if Mickey were to tell him he’s got 87% of his heart! -- but this is a very difficult to imagine scenario).

Sex is a big part of their relationship for both of them. Both Ian and Mickey seem pretty allosexual (e.g. they feel sexual attraction for other people generally), but Mickey is possibly even more so than Ian. Mickey also maybe falls on the aromantic/grayromantic spectrum (once again, the labels can be really useful but I don’t want to be too prescriptive/rigid). Ian seems to be more alloromantic, with a capacity to experience romantic attraction to a whole bunch of people. For him, sex and romance seem to be more interconnected in all cases although he can definitely separate the two (especially when thinking about transactional sex etc).

But I think it's more complex than that. For instance, Mickey reserves certain sexual acts for just between him and Ian and its clear that they have both intimacy and exploration in their sex life. From the outset, Ian and Mickey’s relationship involves exploration and excitement with sex, and provides a freedom to explore their sexualities in regards to sexual roles and kink. It’s clear that Mickey values the safe space Ian specifically gives him in this regard from very early on in their relationship. There’s a parallel here with the bathroom Gaga/Grande scene where Ian’s instinct isn’t to tease or make fun of Mickey but support him embracing more stereotypical gay behaviours and/or more fluid gender roles to the ones he’s grown up with outside of sex too.

Also it might be useful to complicate the idea of romance itself which is a really difficult idea to pin down and which seems to mean different things for both of them. I love the stress on friendship in 11x07. Friendship and also family connection play such key parts in their relationship with one another and the way in which they are attached, arguably even more so than traditional models romance. Both HoS and the Hopper painting discussion are interesting to think about in regards to the ways Ian and Mickey think about the concept of romance differently and the ways it intersects with or differs from their ideas around friendship/family. I like how Mickey’s willing to see getting a coffee together as romantic in a positive way for instance after Ian explains that it’s about togetherness in hard times. While maybe Mickey sees Ian’s suggestion of having a bath together as awkward/weird because he views it more as trying to live up to a social script of what is “romantic”.

Communication strategies around relationship styles

In s11, Ian and Mickey’s relationship is very entwined, and, in comparison to Tami and Lip, for instance, they disclose a lot to each other. Ian asks that they tell each other everything, and although Mickey is more resistant to that initially, he becomes much more forthcoming with his feelings in s11 (around Terry, around moving to the West Side, around becoming a parent).

While I appreciate Ian’s role in initiating more communication between the two of them, I felt sorry for Mickey in their initial discussion in 11x01 in re “monogamous or not”. The turning over the paper method is a pretty binary way to open up a discussion about a very charged and complicated thing.

They do seem to complement each other in this regard though with Ian generally more keen to initiate conversation but also getting more trapped into binaries, narratives of normativity and should-stories. While Mickey totally still projects an image that is informed by local expectations around masculinity and white supremacy, he’s also a rule-breaker in many ways and doesn’t have the same desire to conform to what society perceives to be “normal” (thanks HoS), especially behind closed doors and within his relationship with Ian (“liking what I like don’t make me a bitch”). @fiona-fififi had a really good point in the tags a while back about how Mickey’s investment in their wedding and its success might have spurred Ian on further to embrace more normative ways of doing relationships. This is super interesting, and also makes me think just about how being married itself prompts Ian to think about taking a more active role in pushing the relationship further up the relationship escalator and in pushing for more communication around these steps in general.

There’s also something to be said about pressurising each other in 11x07, especially when they jokingly(?) threaten each other with sex with other men if both of them aren’t around. I doubt they were making these suggestions seriously but it definitely doesn’t strike me as the most consensual method of communication. But there’s parallels here with generally using sex as a bargaining chip earlier on in the season. Ian seems to do that after having exhausted his attempts at trying to have conversations around money/monogamy etc, as a tried and tested way of getting Mickey to engage with him. And it definitely reflects using sex with each other and sex/relationships with other people (e.g. s3 Angie/Ned, s10 Byron/Cole) as modes of communication in earlier seasons. It kind of makes sense that they still have these habits in s11 even if they are no longer the primary mode of communication.

Ian and Mickey relied so much on implicit communication in the early seasons and they have highly developed nonverbal ways of communicating. I don’t want to say that either verbal or nonverbal ways of communicating are inherently better than the other. They seem to understand each other on a deep level, which is really cool, but people have pointed out can make them think they don’t need to verbally communicate when they do, because they assume that they’ll understand one another and be on the same page. It’s super interesting to see them maintain that deep connection and continue to use nonverbal cues while also adopting more explicit and intentional communication styles in s10 and s11.

The windows of their relationship

The fandom is always bringing up how Ian and Mickey leave the doors open when they bang, lol, and also making fun of how much Ian overshares. I think this is v fair but it also strikes me as pretty healthy that he wants people to see into his and Mickey’s relationship, especially in his discussions with Lip. But Ian’s got plenty of people around him who can see and help when things get tough.

In s11, it’s great to see Mickey get closer to the Gallagher family and see various members defending him or taking his side in arguments, but he definitely does have less of an on-screen support system than Ian. (I wish that they had developed his and Sandy’s relationship in s11). I think the aftermath of the City Hall incident in s10 really reveals this particular imbalance in their relationship. On one level, Mickey moves in with Byron as a reaction to being hurt and even maybe a strategy of revenge/manipulation, on another, he doesn’t really have anywhere to go aside from the Gallagher house when/if he needs to get away from Ian. Also, the way he retreats back to the Gallagher house when he can’t deal with the Westside is an interesting development of this in s11.

Ian’s need to share stuff about their relationship is kind of exciting considering his history of being unforthcoming about his relationships (and his history of being in a lot of secret relationships), as well as how difficult he found it to talk about Mickey while Mickey was away. But there is a different problem with ongoing talk around privacy and boundaries here too (Mickey doesn’t want Ian to chat about how he’s not into rimming!). Although to be fair, Mickey also chats about a lot of explicit sex stuff with strangers.

Although they do ultimately decide against pursuing the pretty inorganic way of making friends in 11x07, Ian’s desire to make gay friends who he can talk to about relationship stuff makes sense in terms of the way he has been pushing for a more intentional relationship with more communication and more explicit discussion and compromise this season (and last season too). It also intersects with an idea of him/both of them going further to embrace gay sexuality as an identity.

It’s interesting that Mickey’s the one to initiate this decision through ribbing Ian about his relationship with Lip. Why’s Mickey doing that? Is it just to be a little shit or is he also trying (subconsciously?) to activate Ian in some direction? (And also, maybe there’s a parallel there to getting their apartment in the west side, where Mickey’s the one inadvertently introducing Ian to the idea by pushing for them to go play in the pool).

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There’s a lot here which is just scratching the surface of thinking about Ian and Mickey’s relationship in the context of these different sexuality and relationship continua. For e.g. it would be really interesting to think more about this stuff in terms of shifting sex roles and kink exploration. Of course it’s all up for interpretation and I am sure I am highlighting areas that I’m personally interested in and inadvertently projecting myself/my own preferences and styles into this discussion. Very down for disagreements and discussions if other people are interested and manage to read all of this, lol.

#Ian x Mickey #Gallavich #shameless meta #shameless 11x07 #sexuality #relationships #Meg-John Barker #shameless s11 #Ian Gallagher #Mickey Milkovich #why did i write all of this?#Shameless HoS

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dontcallmecarrie · 3 years

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Ohhh I’d love to see the Doom POV!!! Justin X Doom has my vote

Loki would be cute too, much drama with the avengers

Honestly? This snippet mostly summed up my take on Victor von Doom in this AU, and I'm not sure how in-character he is considering my main reference base for him is the 2005-7 movies and a handful of comic book panels.

Apologies for any inaccuracies, I'm playing very fast and loose with how I would have made him fit in the MCU. Plus this AU's turning out a lot, lot fluffier than I'd originally expected, too, considering the original premise was supposed to just be 'SI-OC as a villain protagonist, let's see where it goes!' and not much else.

Okay, so if we're talking about potential crushes, then it's obviously very one-sided at first [because Justin's brand of obliviousness has him younger-sibling-zoning anyone remotely his age for the longest time].

After all, these two met in boarding school, and were only physically reunited years later but if we're exploring how this ship would work, here's how I think it'd go:

Victor von Doom didn't think much of his study buddy, at first.

Because at first, he just wanted a quiet place to read, and most other children his age were rowdy and kept trying to get him to play with them, or tried to pick childish fights over nothing, and he had no patience for anything of the sort because he was here, at boarding school instead of with his family, and he'd heard the whispers of growing tensions and he knew they'd sent him away for his own safety but that didn't mean he had to like it.

So he mostly kept his nose in a book, and focused on his studies, and just generally tried not to think too much about what was going on in his home country.

If that meant he was a bit more snappish than the average child, he didn't particularly find it in him to care. Sure, this place was lauded as where the social elites sent their spawn to network from an early age, so what?

...as such, he didn't expect to make any friends.

But he did, starting from the moment they wordlessly agreed to share the alcove because there weren't many other quiet places to study for the upcoming exams.

From there, what Victor would have expected to be a one-off turns into a strange sort of routine as they meet up week after week from then on, giving each other a brisk nod as they pull out their books and set to work.

It's...surprisingly nice, having someone to study with. Victor's not certain how old his companion is, but he's quiet and hardworking and generally less draining to be around than most children their age.

Their first conversation is several months after they've first met, when Victor didn't notice he'd forgotten to grab a pencil for his worksheets and his...schoolmate[?] lends him a spare.

From then on out, their friendship is something gradual, something comfortable. Victor's companion respects boundaries in ways he hasn't really seen outside of his family— is sensitive enough to his moods that he knows when to change the subject, and when Victor's struggling to articulate his feelings and just needs time to do so.

...it's one of, if not the thing Victor misses most, when he gets pulled out of boarding school.

Because after that, things only go downhill from there.

Latveria's civil war was... bloody, let's just leave it at that.

Brutal, with a laundry list of factions and alliances that were forged and broken from one breath to another and Victor hadn't set out to be the leader of his faction— but it wasn't like he had any other choice.

He was one of the last surviving members of his family, if there was any hope that his country would be anything other than a fragmented mess then he had to step up.

Even if that meant a teenager was the face of one of the most eminent factions of this damn war, someone nobody really took seriously, and if Victor hadn't had years of seeing his oldest friend's charisma at work then he honestly has no clue how he would've managed to get as far as he had.

And then things escalated even more, and Victor honestly hadn't expected to live to see the end of the fighting, let alone what came after.

One of his advisors was the one to suggest making one last attempt at buying their weapons through a vaguely legitimate source; nobody with any sense was selling to their region, but the black market favored some of their biggest rivals and things were getting desperate enough that Victor signed off on it.

It was a long shot, and they all knew it.

...as such, that first shipment of Hammer Industries weapons took them all by surprise.

Victor had never set out to become the new leader of Latveria.

But here he was now, loved and feared and reviled around the world and he doesn't know where to go from here, but... the fact that he's alive to even be able to think about a future after the war was an incredible boon as it was.

Now that he is where he is, he can afford to think about more than just surviving from one day to another, and apart from working on rebuilding Latveria, he's also got some personal projects going on.

Such as finding out who came through at the eleventh hour, because now that he has the time and space to look a gift unicorn in the mouth he's realizing just how many laws must have been broken for those first few shipments to have gotten there.

The paper trail is a dead end, but once Victor starts poking around it should be so, very easy for him to get answers.

After all, Victor was a warlord-now-technically-dictator with access to black-ops personnel and honest-to-goodness death squads, getting intel on what he wanted should not be this hard. Sure, Hammer Industries had good information security, but... apparently, Hammer Senior wasn't the type to get involved in this sort of mess, which meant Victor had no idea who was responsible and he wanted answers—

In the end, one picture is all it takes.

Actually— when he'd first seen the picture, Victor had been in the middle of a meeting with some of his most trusted advisors and generals.

...suffice it is to say, nothing productive got achieved after he recognized the face of the heir of Hammer Industries, once he realized he'd never actually gotten his childhood friend's full name.

The less said about his reaction to the picture, the better, too: Victor's advisors had seen him at his best and at his worst, why they'd freaked out so much was anyone's guess.

So what if he'd kept it, after the meeting was over? Those looks were uncalled for!

Victor owes Justin more than he can name— so when there's a ghost of a chance to reconnect, he takes it.

Regrets were had.

Everyone at the UN summit looked at him, and he gritted his teeth as he faced off against seasoned politicians twice and thrice his age and he knew what they were expecting, knew they called him a dictator where his country called him a hero and neither of them wanted him here but Latveria had to re-enter the international sphere somehow so they were stuck with him.

Until Zemo got his act together and finished that international relations course, at least. Oh, and got out of the habit of shooting his problems, that too.

Victor had managed to get them diplomatic immunity, but that'd be a hard sell.

...it's funny. Latveria's civil war was over, but... he found himself at odds as to where to go from here.

It's funny, how the more things change, the more they really, really don't.

Victor had been a quiet and antisocial bastard back in boarding school, surviving a civil war hadn't exactly done much for his temperament either.

Or his social skills, for that matter.

And just like always, Justin's mere presence was weaponized sunshine.

...Victor never stood a chance.

#No Hero [Downward Descending]#I got an ask!#Naught replies #replies

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i-watch-too-many-movies · 3 years

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5 Favorite First Viewings of July 2021

Quick note: Hi everyone, I'm back, things have honestly been getting better for me, and I'm glad to be on this site full of cinephiles, people that are too horny, and cinephiles that are too horny. I'll be more active on here. But anyway, let's talk about some movies.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) (dir. Russ Meyer)

CW: Abortion mention

What a picture. What a gorgeous, sexy, horrifying slice of what Hollywood and star life can do to a bunch of bright-eyed young people looking for success. Also is a critique of how macho nature can ruin friendships and romantic relationships with total ease. I was obsessed with the scene transitions, like Pet pouring pancake mix onto a plate after the abortion scene, or Kelly singing after someone screams before their murder in the opening scene.

Great, campy flick with exceptional music too.

Deep Cover (1992) (dir. Bill Duke)

Laurence Fishburne plays Russell Stevens, a Cincinnati police officer who hopes to do well by the community, to make a difference. He’s traumatized by the death of his substance-abusing father, and wants to make sure that he can help the people of his own town. He goes undercover on assignment as a drug dealer, where his boss orders him to take down the kingpin. Stevens realizes the police’s own failings while on assignment. The racist abuse he takes from Agent Carver, and the realization that the police department is protecting drug kingpins like Gallegos and Barbossa. Giving drugs to Black kids and Latinx kids so there will be less of them. The cops are no different than the drug kingpins looking to make filthy amounts of money.

Fishburne’s performance is excellent, as Stevens feels he has to maintain a stone face so he doesn’t get caught by Jason or Barbossa or any of his cronies, but also he maintains a stone face to try and hide his emotion, his trauma. But when he gets pissed, Fishburne acts it beautifully, as is when he has to deliver a funny quip to counter Jason’s douchebaggery. And the production design, holy fuck, the sets and the lighting.

A perfect neo-noir for the HW Bush years, arguably one of the most timeless commentaries on the era, as well as the police as a whole.

Fast Five (2011) (dir. Justin Lin)

I was torn between including this or Furious 7, but I ultimately went with Fast Five because it felt like an important turning point in the series, it's a great heist film, and it reached the same chaotic highs and genuinely excellent filmmaking that I had been waiting for since 2 Fast and Tokyo Drift.

Fast Five opens where Fast & 4ious left off. Dom is hauled away to prison on a bus. Mia and Brian drive in their high-tech cars and knock the bus over, helping Dom escape. The title drops. Fast Five. It’s such an intense yet short action scene, and dropping the title immediately after it lets the viewer know that this movie is not fucking around. It’s arguably gonna be more intense and insane than the previous one.

And it is. The filmmakers made the decision to use a lot more practical stunt work for the film, and as a result, it leads to, so far, the best action in the entire series, since 2 Fast and Tokyo Drift. It’s not just how it’s shot or edited, it’s the geography of the locations, the rooftop chase echoes the rooftop chase of Jackie Chan’s masterwork Police Story, particularly the way each character bounces from top to top.

And of course, there’s the silliest moment in the movie, the one that matches the intensity and kineticism of a film like 2 Fast, which is driving the Reyes’ bank vault throughout the street, getting chased by corrupt cops.

I know we make fun of Vin Diesel for saying “family” all the time in these films, but there’s a reason we remember him saying all of these impassioned monologues. Because he’s unbelievably sincere, and has so much love in his heart for every single person in the room. Anytime he delivers a speech to any of them, it’s genuinely heartwarming.

This is the film that finally shows La Familia in their best environment, which is working together, in a movie genre that allows them to work together, which is a heist film. And a great one at that.

Last Days (2005) (dir. Gus Van Sant)

CW: Mention of suicide

Several films have been made about legendary rock artist Kurt Cobain, and for good reason. He is one of the most tragic figures in rock and roll. A tortured genius who has written and performed classic song after classic song with his band Nirvana. He was called the voice of a generation, and helped change the face of mainstream alternative rock music as we know it. But with that fame, and all of those expectations came a worsening depression and further drug abuse, and his eventual death. But most of the films about Kurt Cobain ask one question which gets under my skin way too much:

“Who REEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY killed Kurt Cobain?”

It was him. He did. And it’s okay, I’m sad too. Thinking that Kurt Cobain was murdered is completely ignoring the depression that he faced. And despite Last Days being more inspired by the death of Cobain rather than actually about it, it feels much more honest than the conspiracy documentaries on his death, wanting to leech off of his dead body.

This is the last installment of Gus Van Sant’s “Death Trilogy”, the previous two installments being Gerry (2001), and Elephant (2003). While I have not seen Gerry, I have seen Elephant though, and love that film for its minimalist, raw nature, and its boldness for not romanticizing the school shooter or the lives they had taken. Last Days falls into that trap once, as I don’t agree with the shot of Blake’s soul climbing up a ladder, that always struck me as cheesy in a film that is anything but.

Last Days is similar to Elephant in terms of the way it is filmed. Its usage of long takes, and still shots of characters doing various things, such as Blake playing his guitar behind a drum set. The way these moments are shot is similar to a Chantal Akerman film, particularly Jeanne Dielman. Where the acts of the mundane are the stars of the film. Blake wanders around an empty house, and the viewer can feel the pain, not just through Michael Pitt’s acting, but from the house itself. Its decay, its paint peeling from the walls, from the soft glow of the lamp that lights his face.

I say this is the most honest film about Kurt Cobain, because, despite the characters technically being fictional (the main character who looks, walks, and acts like Cobain is named Blake), this film focuses on the mental state of a person before they eventually take their own life. They’re still working, still making music, still trying to talk to friends and bandmates, but the depression lingers on. Not once does this film try to make you believe that someone else killed him, because you can see the signs of his own suicide taking place just through the film’s excellent cinematography by Harris Savides, showing his mental state only growing worse through the production design.

And it’s empathetic with him. There’s no judgement for leaving rehab, there’s no finger-wagging at him or the people he was with, there’s just a silent prayer at the end of the film, hoping that he is in a better place than he was.

Sometimes you don’t need to show every event that led you to where you are, all you can show is the moment, which also makes this better than most biopics as well, as it never feels messy or muddled, just showing one moment of Blake/Kurt’s life.

I really loved this film, and I’ll be writing about it in full soon.

The Village (2004) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

The Cracked.com/Channel Awesome audience stuck in 2012 will tell you that this was the beginning of the end for Shyamalan. That this was when people stopped taking him seriously, that this was when he became more of a punchline because of his twist endings.

But why?

The Village was released in 2004, deep in the Bush administration, during the early stages of the Iraq War. The leaders of the time were talking about imaginary boogeymen, terrorists that would attack the civilians if they could. Because of 9/11, politicians could get away with these false ideas with the majority of Americans fully believing them. The boogeymen in The Village are “The People We Don’t Speak Of”, monsters attracted by the color red. Yet we find out that they are all costumes made by the Elders of the land, designed to prevent people from going outside the land. They rule by fear disguised as love. They’ve gone through their own traumas through the deaths of their family members, but they’ve decided to completely abandon the lives that they’ve had and have their children living lies.

9/11 impacted American life by teaching citizens to live primarily by fear, to not trust anyone but their own people. And yet, post-9/11, all that increased was not “coming together”, but hate crimes against South Asian people. The rage white Americans had felt led to conservative politicians pushing fear-mongering agendas, and said white Americans blindly accepted. The outside world was progressing, but too many people were fine with living with further conservative politics only regressing American life further and further back, all for the illusion of safety. Meanwhile, the only threats to them were not the brown citizens outside of America they were so afraid of, but the white elders, the white politicians.

The Village explores these fears so eloquently, all while having a terrifying atmosphere, an enchanting score, and brilliant sound design. I enjoyed this movie very much.

Other viewings I enjoyed:

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) (dir. Mike Judge) (re-watch)

Blow Out (1981) (dir. Brian de Palma) (re-watch)

Clueless (1995) (dir. Amy Heckerling) (re-watch)

Furious 7 (2015) (dir. James Wan)

The Long Goodbye (1973) (dir. Robert Altman)

Lupin III: The First (2019) (dir. Takashi Yamazaki)

Unbreakable (2000) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan) (re-watch)

Velvet Goldmine (1998) (dir. Todd Haynes)

The Visit (2015) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

#favorite first watches #these movies are (chef's kiss)#beyond the valley of the dolls #russ meyer #deep cover #bill duke #fast five #justin lin #last days #gus van sant #the village #m night shyamalan

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