#actors are acting directors are directing

[misstwisted]

raaaaant time

so, I am very upset over the new Menéndez brothers series that came out. If you’ve seen it, you probably know why. Before I go into this, if you don’t know about this case, the menendez brothers had murdered their mom and dad in 1989 as self defense, fearing of them soon murdering them themselves, after suffering years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by their parents hands.

for context I am a long time supporter of these men. I’ve known about this case since I was around 12 (unsupervised internet access, lmao) and I supported them then and I support them now.

This series is fucking disgusting. And not just because of the atrocious, disrespectful, and weirdly comedic relief portrayals of these traumatized men, no no no, it also of course just had to include sexualization and Incestuous fetishization of them. I was SO EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE watching these scenes. I’m sure it’s all supposed to show how their father had fucked up the brothers relationship and how he blurred the lines for them of what’s appropriate and not appropriate to do with your family, but this crosses a god damn line. It’s possible I’m also giving this dumb fuck director too much credit. Idk if it’s just me, but this feels like a writers barely disguised fetish moment. So many scenes felt like the start of a porno, and at times DID BECOME A PORNO!!!!!

I remember so many times of me yelling out loud in shock “WHAT IS THIS SHOW????”

the dialogue is trash, the pacing is trash, the portrayal is trash, etc. The only part I personally think was great was when they recreated the footage of Lyle and Erik walking into court. When I was watching it I felt they really looked and acted like the brothers at that moment. And the fact it’s surrounded by such garbage is sad. It really felt disconnected from the other episodes and scenes because of how much I enjoyed that little moment. And they weren’t even talking or anything.

There’s only like one word I could use to describe a lot of the scenes, especially the sexualization scenes, which is: unnecessary.

Gotta be honest, I really wanted to like this show! Thought it could bring back attention on this case again. Show empathy towards them. But no, I had to watch two actors portraying real life traumatized brothers kiss each other.

I am seriously wondering now if Ryan Murphy wanted two actors with romantic/sexual chemistry casted on purpose for what seems to be some sort of fantasy of his.

I started this show YESTERDAY, I am halfway through episode 7 right now. I wanted to see if it’d get better, and it just never did. But honestly? It’s my fault. What did I fucking expect from a Netflix series that’s directed by the guy who made GLEE? I’m still mad now, but I can’t even describe how even more upset I was yesterday watching it.

I legit could probably go on for days about how disrespectful this show is, and good on Erik for not being afraid to call it and the directors out.

It’s in vain to say this, because obviously they’ll never see it, but: Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan you two are pieces of utter dogshit. What about any of this was a good idea? You guys deserve to be sued for thinking this was okay. You deserve it for making Dahmer, and you deserve it for making this. I don’t even wanna SAY all the horrible things I think about you guys. All i hope is nobody ever hands you two a god damn camera again. Sincerely go fuck yourselves.

I know I’m being a dramatic little bitch again for the 100th time but this is truly horrendous. This isn’t just a story you can add shit to and get creative with, guys, this is their LIVES. These are real human people with dignities and families that care about them. They’ve been disrespected enough, the fact that they were sentenced to life in general just shows how little people empathized with them.

This audacity of this being made. This very serious story of trauma being turned into this weird comedy show.

what is this RPF, Ryan Murphy? ARE YOU BORED??? How about you go make a actual fucking difference? Cause you know what, Erik and Lyle are, and they’re the ones who’re incarcerated!

that’ll be all.

[thewalrusespublicist]

Two of Us Play: Thoughts or 'This Could Mean Nothing: The Play'

I saw Two of Us and I have thoughts. and feelings. Frustrated feelings.

What I liked: the mental health angle, the details, the research, the bones of the story and the acting for the most part (good actors, poor direction basically).

What I didn't like: First off the script needs work. At the minute it plays more as a spot the reference rather than one coherent story. This doesen't feel like convo between friends but a recap of Beatles lore with no train of thought that gets satisfyingly resolved and whilst hitting off the movie beats rather than building to them. The pay off feels less like a cathartic journey and more 'cool it's Mclennon I guess..'. Next the chemistry is off, the two leads don't feel like platonic soulmates/best frenemies and they don't fly off of each other as John and Paul did. Instead the energy is super low, even in their heightened fight scenes it doesn't feel like two people duking it out. There's no screaming and shouting, it's like two old but never that close friends going from awkward to semi awkward and back again repeatedly without ever hitting any moments of sizzling connection. This I think is partially to do with the 'nice Paul' characterization, which please lord can it end! Let our beloved alpha bitch be beloved and alpha bitchy, it's good for his skin AND MORE REAL.

I think the chemistry/energy problem is linked though to the main problem and the elephant in the room: the 'latent' homosexuality. Latent is probably the best word for it, but that's only because of the play's fear of its own implications. To be clear, with a slightly more daring director unafraid of the material, the latent would be BLATANT. The dialogue is BLATANT. John's wordplay is loaded with suggestion: 'best fuck you've ever had', 'you should have married me' and there's a closeness when they are singing on the piano which was 👀👀. The 'I love Paul' badge is also there with a 'lucky Paul' comment that COULD have built to a potentially interesting character moment. But they just fly over these bits like they haven't been said. The candlelight dinner as well that John puts on for Paul is by its nature loaded, as is John offhandedly calling him 'my love' when fiddling with the stereo during that scene.It's so casual that it feels like an accidental slip on John's part. But nothing is made of this, no pause, shift in the air, comments, nothing. This was the worst with the KISS which was initiated by John and yes, way way way too long for it to mean nothing and the Epstein jokes are completely omitted. Its a wild moment, but the play can't seem to handle what they've just laid down so just ... skates past it. Its like HAHA WEIRD RIGHT THEY JUST KISSED ANYWAY ROOF SCENE.

But the implications also aren't consistent as the whole thing is too attached to the 'Paul is a jilted victim' angle. It's Paul who is jealous of Yoko, but save a line about being surprised about Linda, John seems neutral (weird considering its JOHN making the overtures and was IRL not Linda's biggest fan). The ending is the strangest for this. They have the SNL thing like in the movie but it's weirder as Paul is CRYING. OBVIOUSLY CRYING. CAN HEAR AUDIBLY FROM A DISTANCE CRYING. The whiplash of John throwing down these implications and suggestions to just ... nonchalantly giving a hand grip goodbye and ignoring Paul's tears after going on this whole journey together is WEIRD and makes him look like a user and a selfish, insensitive prick. Like bestie your bestie is crying you can call Yoko back??? Also the end is meant to be a love you to both each other and their wives but Paul's is clearly to mostly John and John's feels mostly to Yoko. It's not a good look on John and its not a good look on his relationship with Yoko (yh John could free himself from the prison he's made for himself and was about to but the darn Yoko pull is just too strong guys). Again this would be sort of sad but fine if it was Paul making the overtures or there were no overtures but it isn't and there are! John is both the mooning would be romancer and the unavailable ex. Once again nuance and coherency (as well as Paul and Linda!) are sacrificed for the traditional John and Yoko angle. Wholeheartedly, it feels like there has been a layer of implication added onto the script, a layer which means that the original elements of the script would need to change to work but they haven't done it so you have this Frankenstein's monster of a traditionalist narrative fused with loaded suggestion.

So yeah, I think the whole thing had a lot of potential as a play but the script needs an overhaul, the actors need better chemistry and if you are going to go there, for gods sake GO THERE.

[thewayuarent]

I just need to talk more about amount of work actors from Only Friends do. And I want to talk about Book specifically. I saw this

and it makes me think. Firstly, I’m sorry for Book and hope he’s okay. Secondly, he’s doing such an amazing job.

The thing is, Only Friends is a messy story with very grey characters. It’s also a very much drama more than anything. Young adults figuring their way to life, growing up and making mistakes.

This is as far as I know (I can be mistaken) the very early experience with such dramatic roles for most people in the cast. First and Khao have a lot of it - 55:15, Not me, The Eclipse, Moonlight Chicken like come on I do understand why they want comedy for now - but the others? Not so much.

Book is most known for his roles with Force in classic romantic comedies - Enchante and A Boss and a Babe. And while I do think that comedy is very underrated genre in case of how hard it is to make it funny, I do understand that comedies require less emotional effort.

I watched ABAAB and I loved it, Book’s acting there was great and on point. But I am amazed by him in Only Friends.

And it is very much about personal taste, but I do think that Mew is one of the hardest characters to play. The hardest one is Ray btw - and it’s both cause of his complicated personality and the fact that he is drunk almost all the time. The physicality Khao needs constantly support while acting 50 different emotions is so freaking hard.

But Mew is the character that requires a lot of mental energy and work. And that’s because - as @wen-kexing-apologist perfectly explains here - Mew doesn’t know who he is. So Book has to play a character who doesn’t have a strong sense of himself. He needs to play a character who constantly changes his identity cause of external factors.

And I can only imagine how hard it is for Book’s mentality. We see Mew behaving quite differently with different characters in the show. He constantly changes not only his appearance but also voice tone and mannerism and it is so fascinating to watch.

And this is no actual point in this post except of me praising the work people put in Only Friends.

Force nailing both arrogant ass and wet puppy behavior.

Mark is stealing his drama performances.

Neo is so good at every second of being Boston.

No one beats First in his micro expressions.

It’s just so good to see the great work all actors and directors do.

I’m amazed.

[moonkhao]

WE ARE | EP16

[thoughts-of-a-stagemanager]

Conversations with Lighting Buddy….had to share, hope you all are doing well! ❤️

[street-corner-felines]

Zero Day (2002)

[gwensy]

gonna be annoying in the tags

[whatislifebesidesrehearsal]

Director, about actors: We could just spray them with water if they break the bunk beds

[finexbright]

for fuck's sake the reason harry isn't doing much promo for my policeman isn't because he's a queerbaiter or whatever but because the one time he did speak about the movie he said something so profoundly gay and hashtag relatable about hiding your identity and sexuality and the yearning that comes along with it that everyone was confused how this 'straight' man knew so much about being gay

[filmcourage]

How Writers Can Meet Their Characters - Matthew Kalil and Angelique Pretorius

Watch the video interview on Youtube here.

[juniestar]

I hate that millennials took anyone who looked a little funny and acted awkward and turned them into megastars bc now fifteen years down the line these actors are still super famous with no range or value outside of the “look, there’s kate micucci/charlyne yi/zooey deschanel!” cameo

[pop-punklouis]

-

[obviouschild2014]

I get it now btw kenny b wants what olivier had sooooooo bad but his hamlet didnt accomplish in four hours what the 1948 one did in half that. Didnt have a little dancing poodle either. SAD!

[repurposedmeatlocker]

Some of you people don’t know what you are talking about.

[sovamurka]

Just watched Фишер tv-series

Not me being horny again about Ivan Yankovsky

Listen, I don't understand how but somehow we came to the point where my entire generation is in love with him, his father (+ his wife Oksana Fandera) and his grandfather (rest in peace, Oleg Yankovsky, we still miss you so much)