#boom ultimate script writer

[the-rewatch-rewind]

The most underrated 1980s teen movie

Script below the break

Hello and welcome back to the Rewatch Rewind! My name is Jane, and this is the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies in a 20-year period. Today I will be discussing number 10 on my list: Embassy Pictures and Monument Pictures’ 1985 adventure romantic comedy The Sure Thing, directed by Rob Reiner, written by Steve Bloom and Jonathan Roberts, and starring John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga.

In his first term at a small northeastern college, Walter Gibson (known as “Gib���, played by John Cusack) is frustrated with his sex life, or rather, lack thereof. So when his high school best friend Lance (Anthony Edwards) sends him a picture from UCLA of a beautiful woman (Nicollette Sheridan) and promises that she’s a “sure thing” – no questions asked, no strings attached, no guilt involved – Gib takes the first ride he can find to California for winter break, even though that means traveling with Alison Bradbury (Daphne Zuniga), who has already rejected his underhanded advances and is on her way to visit her boyfriend (Boyd Gaines). Gib and Alison’s constant fighting finally pushes the driver (“Gary Cooper, but not the Gary Cooper that’s dead,” played by Tim Robbins) to abandon them on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and they are forced to find their own way to LA. Their adventures prompt them both to learn from each other and start to change for the better.

I remember not being very interested in this movie when my mom first got it from the library, and her really having to talk me into watching it. I think I was pleasantly surprised the first time, but it wasn’t until I rewatched it a couple years later that I truly appreciated it and became kind of obsessed for a while. I saw it for the first time in 2004, then eight times in 2006, three times in 2007, once in 2009, three times in 2010, once in 2011, once in 2012, once in 2013, once in 2015, once in 2016, twice in 2019, and twice in 2022. I would have watched it more in recent years, but for a while I only had it on VHS (my sister’s had it on DVD for several years but since we don’t live near each other I don’t have many options to watch her copy, so I did finally get my own DVD of it last year) and it’s very rarely available on streaming services. There was a major boom of teen movies in the 1980s, many of which are still considered classics now, but hardly anybody ever talks about The Sure Thing, and I have no idea why because it is truly delightful.

Most of the people involved in this movie were just starting their careers. Rob Reiner had only directed one movie (This is Spinal Tap) prior to this, and it was both writers’ first feature film, and it was John Cusack’s first starring role. So The Sure Thing has the charms of a low-budget project that everybody’s making because they want to, not because they think they’re going to get rich and famous from it, with the added bonus that many of the actors did become rich and famous later, so you can watch it and go, “Oh look, it’s Dr. Mark Greene from ER back when he had hair” or “Wow, is that a very young Tim Robbins?” But even if none of them had made anything else, this would still be a fun movie to watch because the writing and acting are incredible, especially when it comes to the two main characters’ arcs.

I know the dynamic of a buttoned-down, over-organized control freak paired with a spontaneous, go-with-the-flow goofball has been done to death, but no movie does it better than The Sure Thing. The characters of Gib and Alison are so well developed that they feel like real people rather than a tired trope. Even though it’s fairly obvious from the moment Alison enters the story that she and Gib are ultimately going to end up together, their journey toward that predictable conclusion is never dull. Part of that is because of the obstacles they encounter on their journey across the country, but the main reason is because they were perfectly cast. Apparently both John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga were a lot like their respective characters at the time and therefore brought a lot of themselves to their roles. The whole “shotgunning a beer” bit was added because Cusack mentioned that was something he could do, and that became an important way to show the evolution of their characters and relationship. Initially, Rob Reiner didn’t even want to consider Cusack for the part of Gib because he was a minor, but the casting directors talked him into giving the then 16-year-old a chance, and Cusack’s audition convinced the director that he was the perfect Gib. Producer Roger Birnbaum went to court to have John Cusack emancipated and served as his legal guardian during filming. It is a little uncomfortable to know that Cusack was only 17 at the time of filming while his love interests were 20 and 21 – like, I know the age gap is only a few years, but he was technically a minor and they were technically adults, although their characters were all meant to be 18 or 19, so it’s not like the movie is promoting inappropriate relationships. Yes, it definitely would have been better to cast someone who was over 18, but at the same time, John Cusack does such an incredible job playing this character that I totally understand why they went ahead and cast him anyway. He plays Gib with the perfect balance of kind of a jerk but still kind of sweet that keeps the audience rooting for him while still criticizing his bad behavior. And the way he and Zuniga play off each other is endlessly compelling.

One of my favorite scenes, not just in this movie but in any movie, is after Gib and Alison have been kicked out of the car and accidentally left all their cash in a hotel room, and they’re sitting on the side of a deserted road at night hoping to hitch a ride. Alison finds a stick of gum in her purse, unwraps it, and the second she’s about to put it in her mouth, Gib says, “I’m starving.” So Alison dutifully breaks the gum in half and splits it with him. Then he starts listing other complaints until she can’t take it anymore and snaps, “Can’t you try to look on the bright side?” which of course is the sky’s cue to start pouring rain. In their desperate search for shelter, they find a trailer, but there’s a padlock on the door. Gib starts frantically pounding at the lock, and Alison thinks she might have a nail file in her purse, so she starts searching, and suddenly finds something much better. She tells Gib, “I have a credit card!” He’s so focused on getting into the trailer that at first he doesn’t understand the implications of what she said, and his immediate response is, “Credit cards work on a completely different kind of lock!” And Alison says, “I don’t think you understand: I have a credit card!” “You have a credit card?” “I have a credit card.” “You have a credit card.” And then her face falls as she remembers: “Oh. My dad told me specifically that I can only use it in case of an emergency.” And he just looks at her, soaked from the pouring rain, and deadpans, “Well, maybe one will come up.” And it’s just…so good. The comedic timing between the two of them is utter perfection.

And they’re also very good at having serious moments together. Like right after that scene, when they’re in a fancy restaurant because it was the only place they could find that would take a credit card – oh how times have changed – Gib opens up about where his interest in outer space came from. Earlier in the movie, both with Alison and with other girls, he’s tried to use his knowledge of space and astronomy to impress/seduce women – not very effectively – but here he’s being vulnerable and genuine, and Alison’s reactions show that she recognizes and appreciates that. And then when they finally get to LA and separate, they both do such a great job of showing how much they have changed, while still remaining true to who their characters have been from the beginning. Alison starts to realize that her boyfriend Jason, whose idea of a good time is staying home, playing cards, and admiring the special hangers and flannel sheets, is not nearly as fun to be around as Gib. And after making such a deep personal connection with Alison, Gib starts to question whether an emotionless sexual encounter with the Sure Thing is really what he’s looking for. Neither of them say these things in so many words, but they make it abundantly clear how they’re feeling, and it’s very rewarding as an audience member to see the characters we’ve become so invested in reach that point in their journeys. But they’re also very mad at each other, mostly because they’ve fallen for each other against their will, and it isn’t until they somehow get back to the east coast (we never see how that happens, but I guess it’s not important) that they resolve this tension. And the way they reconcile through a paper that Gib has their English professor (played by Viveca Lindfors) read to the class is an amazing way end the movie. So basically, this is a story about two very well-written, perfectly cast characters who go on an extremely satisfying journey that is just as fun to watch the 20th time as the first.

Now, if you’ve listened to other episodes, or even just read the description of this podcast, you might be a little confused right now. “But Jane,” I can imagine you thinking, “Aren’t you aromantic and asexual? Isn’t this movie all about a character pursuing sex, and then coming to the very amatonormative conclusion that he should commit romantically and sexually to the one person he’s had an emotional connection with? Why would a movie like that be in your top 10?” And you know, those are fair questions. They’re the kinds of questions I asked myself a few years ago, when I suspected I might be aroace but wasn’t completely convinced. And an important step on my path to recognizing that that label truly described me was when I realized that I appreciate this movie from a very aroace perspective. For one thing, it always irked me that the movie ends with Gib and Alison kissing. “Why can’t they end up as friends?” my obliviously aromantic teenage self would lament during the years when I was watching this movie the most. But on the other hand, I had always appreciated the message that forming a genuine emotional connection with someone is more fulfilling than casual hookups with people you’ve lied to and manipulated to get them to sleep with you. So I liked the part about “sex isn’t actually the end all be all of human experience” but I disliked that the conclusion was “but finding a romantic partner is” – could there be a more aroace response to this movie?

And as I thought about it even more, I realized that, even though I’m positive that this was not the intention of any of the filmmakers, there is a way to interpret the character of Gib as being on the asexual spectrum. In the first half of the movie, he does appear to be in constant pursuit of sex, at least at first glance, but a lot of his attempts are kind of halfhearted. You get the feeling that he wants to be able to say he’s slept with a lot of people because his friends and society tell him that’s what will make him cool. He seems a lot happier and more comfortable when he’s stopped trying to seduce Alison, and ultimately, even though the Sure Thing is definitely willing to sleep with him, he decides he doesn’t want that anymore, despite having travelled across the country specifically to have sex with her. Obviously, there are a lot of different conclusions that could be drawn from this. I think a big one is that people who are socialized as boys, regardless of whether they’re asexual or not, are often given a very toxic and unhealthy message about what their sex lives should be like, including the idea that women are objects to be tricked into providing momentary pleasure, and that having lots of sex is what makes you a real man. So it’s rather refreshing to see a coming of age story that shows a young man maturing by actively choosing not to have sex with a woman who is given no name, and is only identified by her willingness to put out. And in some ways I don’t want to encourage the headcanon that Gib is asexual because I think it’s important to show that allosexual men are allowed to say “no” when it doesn’t feel right, and that that doesn’t make them less of a man. But I also think the disconnect between how Gib is expected to feel about the Sure Thing and how he actually feels when he meets her is very relatable to asexual people. Society’s messages about how “normal” people feel about sex and sexual attraction are very confusing to people who don’t feel that way. And I guess what this movie is trying to say is that some of those messages don’t apply even to allosexual people. I just wish it didn’t perpetuate the amatonormative message that sex and romance are vital aspects of the most important relationship in everyone’s lives. In the story that Gib writes to reveal to Alison that he didn’t sleep with the Sure Thing, he reveals that she asked, “Do you love me?” and that for the first time in his life, he knew that those were more than just words, and that if he said it, it would be a lie, so he said no and left. And again, part of that feels very amatonormative, but at the same time, the whole idea of being true to yourself and honest with any prospective partners is a good message for people of all romantic and sexual orientations.

I still hope to find a movie about a journey like this in which the leading man and woman explicitly end up as friends (let me know if you’re aware of one), but I can almost be content imagining that soon after the events of this movie, Gib and Alison realize that they don’t actually like kissing each other but remain BFFs. Hey, it could happen! But that was definitely not the intent, and if you like cute 80s teen romance movies, The Sure Thing is definitely one to check out – if you can track it down. Don’t let my weird aromantic headcanon ruin your appreciation for this romance. I’m not saying this movie was made for aroace people by any means; my point is that realizing I was enjoying this movie in a very aroace way helped me come to the conclusion that I am aroace. And it’s also a great movie aside from all that, as one would expect from this director and cast.

Thank you for listening to me discuss another of my most frequently rewatched films. The Sure Thing was the only movie I watched exactly 26 times in the 20 years I was tracking, and I didn’t watch any exactly 27 times, so next week I will be talking about the movie I watched 28 times, which is widely – and extremely incorrectly – regarded as one of the worst movies ever made. So that should be a fun episode. As always, I will leave you with a quote from that next movie: “Forget ‘herb.’ I never heard of a hit that had the word ‘herb’ in it.”

[marketingprofitmedia]

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[venchisu]

If i am the script writer for DRV3, the victims and blackened will be these: // TW: SLIGHT SPOILERS, THE STORY IS DIFFERENT, THE ULTIMATES IS STILL THE SAME //

PROTAGONIST: RANTARO AMAMI // KOKICHI OUMA ANTAGONIST: MIU IRUMA // ?? CHAPTER ONE: THE FIRST KILLING,DESPAIR IS STARTING > VICTIM: TSUMUGI SHIROGANE (CHOKED ON A BARBED WIRE, LIBRARY, 9:09 AM) > BLACKENED: RANTARO AMAMI (DESPAIR TRIP ADVENTURE! ULTIMATE ADVENTURER'S EXECUTION!) CHAPTER TWO: HAIL THE PRAISE QUEEN, FILLING THE SPACE BETWEEN > VICTIM: TENKO CHABASHIRA (STABBED IN THE CHEST 2X AND STRANGLED BY A KNOT, HIMIKO'S LAB, 5:30 PM) > BLACKENED: ANGIE YONAGA (ART FEST! ULTIMATE ARTIST'S EXECUTION!) CHAPTER THREE: THE BEAUTIFUL DREAM WITH BLOODY LUST, THE BURNS TO THE LAST RUSH > VICTIM: KIRUMI TOJO AND KOREKIYO SHINGUJI (POISONING WITH A HEAD INJURY, CAFETERIA, 6:00 PM AND BURNED ALIVE, GYM, 6:45 PM) > BLACKENED: HIMIKO YUMENO (THE LAST MAGIC SHOW! ULTIMATE MAGICIAN'S EXECUTION!) CHAPTER FOUR: SWEET LIES, A WILL TO SURVIVE UNTIL THE LAST LINE > VICTIM: GONTA GOKUHARA (SUICIDE-OVERDOSE, HIS LAB, 3:00 PM) >(REPLACED) BLACKENED: KAEDE AKAMATSU *BLAMED ABOUT GONTA'S DEATH, STOLE MONOKUMA'S PROPERTY* (DER FLOHWALZER! ULTIMATE PIANIST EXECUTION!) CHAPTER FIVE: PRECIOUS LOVE THAT COMES TO AN END, A SARCASTIC TIME FOR BEING A "FRIEND" > VICTIM: KAITO MOMOTA (POISONED BY A CROSSBOW, THE HANGAR, 8:05 PM) > BLACKENED: MAKI HARUKAWA (ONE KILLING SPREE! ULTIMATE ASSASSIN'S EXECUTION!) CHAPTER SIX: THE LAST CLASS TRIAL, TIME FOR THE MASTERMIND'S DENIAL > VICTIM: RANTARO AMAMI (FRAMED BY THE MASTERMIND FOR KILLING TSUMUGI) > BLACKENED/MASTERMIND OF THE 53RD KILLING GAME: SAIHARA SHUICHI! (SUICIDE - THE ULTIMATE DESPAIR RUMORS! ULTIMATE DETECTIVE AND THE MASTERMIND'S EXECUTION!) > SURVIVORS: KOKICHI OUMA, MIU IRUMA, K1-B0, AND RYOMA HOSHI (Man, Hoshi needs to have a will to live for once and so they became bestfriends!(Ehem platonic Irouma, and canon Kiiruma) THE END OF 53RD KILLING GAME, THANKS FOR PLAYING! (THIS IS JUST AN AU, NO HATE PLS IF YOUR FAV CHARACTER IS DEAD) HEHE, THIS IS SAIOUMA AND IRUMATSU ANGST, MASTERMIND SHUICHI AU😍💃✨

[magnetothehedgehog]

Dimension’s Ridge Announcement!

Hi everyone, With all the rise in Sonic media and the great releases coming up, such as The New sonic game in 2022,the sonic movie 2, sonic prime, and literally anything Idw has been releasing including their new side series “Imposter syndrome”, I am challenged to up my game and release information on my long running project in the works. Especially Since sonic prime and Idw is literally gonna blow out all the spoilers before I do if I don't start releasing stuff first. Since its been happening constantly, I gotta be a step ahead.

So, without further ado, I introduce you to the World of Dimension's Ridge.

Dimensions Ridge is My personal Alternate Universe that seeks to combine all aspects of sonic media. In fact, its super similar to the upcoming Sonic prime, archie and Idw Comics in this regard, with it possibly being a bit more ambitious, or at least equally as ambitious as Idw.

The Series will follow a number of favorite canon and non canon characters alike, but will also their universal counterparts and alternate universe selves.

The Main overarching plot line is that a Existence level Threat is putting everything in jepoardy. This Creature Known as an Existence Eater spreads its influence to a planet by releasing its minions into it, then after enough time, it comes to absorb the planet, thus erasing it from existence entirely, as if it had never been there in the first place. This has been happening for quite a while, until a few people caught onto it. They began leaving messages and warnings to others in a attempt to save them.

Being an existence level threat, this will take the combined effort of every Version of Sonic,Tails,Sally, Eggman and everyone else if they want anything to be left in the multi-verse. This Story is about how they all come together to do just that.

However that is the main plot. The story follows many minor or sub plotlines and stories that all connect and weave into this ultimate narrative. For Stories featuring Sonic and friends, Stories start off in the classic area and work their way into the modern area as the characters develop and mature, so we get to see and live their journey alongside them. For older characters and parents, I wanted them to have a  more staple involvement in the series, even if only at the beginning. Their Adventures as the World slowly slips into chaos can be read in War on Mobius.

While there are Prequels to the beginning of the story, such as the “Rift War.”, the main storylines that kicks off all the other starts is one of my current productions “War on Mobius.”This follows the economical and political collapse following the Recent End of The Rift War and begins the Egg Empire's rise to Power.I would like to mention that The Egg Empire Now consists of the collective versions of Eggman all working together as a family. Egg Fam for short. But we have Great additions such as boom eggman, Ova Eggman, Aosth Eggman, Satam Eggman, Russian Eggman,Eggette, and a few custom additions such as Omelette and Scramble.

Things That happen in War on Mobius will be seen effecting or influencing the states of things in my Classic Era Story “Classic adventures.” and others ones such as “The Freedom Fighters.”

Alongside canon appearances of less known or scrapped characters and designs, such as Tiara and Honey the Cat, Readers can expect appearances of my own characters, both as counterparts to main characters, and also as people who drive the story forward and show interesting and dynamic opinions of their changing world. A few Such ones would be “Tribal Ties” Focusing on the Tribes of Echidnas, Bayblonians and Pangolins Tribes, all of which play a part not only in Mobius history, but also will play a vital part in its future.

After Classic adventures, comes one of my long running claims to fame and a personal favorite of mine from my early script writing days. Zone Runners. This takes place after the Events of Classic adventures and as the world has been influenced by the political unrest in War on Mobius. It follows the Group of People on the East Side of the World as they try to fight back against the Egg Empire, Newly risen Oscillators Group, and The Very lack of Sonic and Freedom Fighter there. This series will also begin unraveling some of the mysteries behind the existence eater and the ultimate narrative. Originally this concept came from the Fleetway comics, and ever since I've been completely inspired to incorporate this into my own series. If anyone was ever on Sonic Amino, they might have seen me post things related to it back in the day.

I also wish to be a more character focused series as a whole, one who focuses on the people collectively as opposed to just Sonic himself. I want it to as if each character us actually a main character and can save the day, and that the day is only won because everyone has done their part, whether powerful or powerless.

To that End, I have many characters stories intertwine, or lead to one another. Some characters will have branching off stories, while others will be closely intertwined, and always interact with each other, regardless of who the story is currently focusing on.

A few I'd like to notable mention is, Shadow's Ark, Silvers Sanctuary, and Heir of Sol. Focusing on the characters Shadow, Silver, And Blaze Respectively.

While I have a lot of other Titles for the stories respectively, I'd just to touch on a few more before I close.

Worlds collide finally answers the question in sonic media about two planets and the dimensional connundrum of sonic rush and sonic 06. While also bringing together multiple characters who were on their own paths, for the collected purpose of setting up how everyone will be needed much later.

Dimension Forces is, a reimagined Version of Sonic Forces, including a whole new team of villains to take on the heroes from our prior stories. I call them: Forever Force. The Main Three Hitters Being the Villains Infinite, Eternity, And Enigma. In this Story we'll get to see Whispers team in action, and also get to see new stories involving Gadget and His Brother Widget, and a host of other rising heroes soldiers and returning cast members.

I also had this Idea that the wisps were able to use their abilities on their own, except in smaller weaker versions then when they had a mobians help.Thus you could call in drill air strikes and other things to help you in battle, and the flew alongside you rather than in containers. I had these idea way long ago, but what do you know Idw beat me to the punch again in rise of the wisps. However I would just like to say before they do it too, that I had the idea of the wisps combining their powers, as if anyone played Sonic simulator, you would know you can actually combine wisp powers. If its the same type, its twice as strong with a bonus effect. If its different, you can combine the strengths of two different powers. Think how eggman used cube with laser in the boss nega wisp armor.

Speaking of Sonic Simulator! Thats another Story I have plans for. Following alongside the events of Sonic colors, Sonic simulator follows the group of hedgehogs abducted from Mobius and sent to eggman's interstellar amusement park as part of an organic experiment to take out sonic. Suggested by The Leader of the Oscillators, These hedgehogs will now have to work together to prove their worth to Eggman and as worthy adversaries of Sonic! But what of their past memories? What will happen if they remember? And if they do, can they escape? Find out! Also its follow up story leads to sonic lost world.

I'd also like to talk about the Idw Verse Mini series I have been working on! Getting Art from the Talented CatRage and getting to voice my Ideas to My Friends as well as My sister, I present my own Miniseries! Mimic's misadventures!

This story takes place between  the events of Idw's Bad guys, and follows mimic's operations and struggles as he tries to complete his missions, and deal with people of similar caliber to himself. Will this mercenary manipulate his way easily out of another situation? Or has the Octopus finally met the one group who will send him back to the ocean? Find out!

Currently, this miniseries has 5 canon issues and one undecided.

1.Ghost Of The North.

2.Into the Spiders Nest

3.Hunt is on

4.Jaws of a Predator

5.Belly of the Beast

undecided: 6.Seaside Escapade.

Currently I am writing the script for Part 1 of Ghost of the North and hope to finish up the Audio drama reading for it soon.

So this is all the stuff I've had in production for the past few years! Along with my co writer Pinky heart.

Please, Please! Reblog or retweet this. It would mean the world to me. Also please! Ask as many questions as you'd like. I'll answer as many as I can, and would love to hear everyone's thoughts and opinions, as well as questions and inquires involving the series.

[mellow-elbow]

Remember this post?

Hey. I’m back and this time I’m ready to talk about the Plot™. Let’s talk about everything Sonic Adventure 3 was supposed to be.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me first introduce this concept with the fact that Sonic Unleashed (2008) was meant to be Sonic Adventure 3, but after heavy criticisms toward the franchise after the flop of Sonic 06 it was scrapped and changed. Sonic Adventure 3 was also confirmed to originally have Shadow and Knuckles, meaning that the plot I’m about to explore has to have important ties to those two characters specifically.

Now then, that doesn’t mean that ideas from the original Sonic Adventure 3 concept weren’t repurposed for Unleashed. As a writer and an avid Sonic lore fan for ~18 years, I’ve taken a good look at Unleashed’s plot and singled out certain elements of the story that seemed like they got washed down to fit the new narrative of Unleashed. It goes as follows:

the corruption of a character important to the main plot (later became the Werehog)

an amnesiac Guardian with forgotten knowledge of the Chaos Emeralds (later became Chip)

geographical locations of importance relating to the lore of the Master and Chaos Emeralds (later became the Gaia Temples)

a dark, ancient power that happened well before the events of Perfect Chaos ~4,000 years ago in SA1 (later became Dark Gaia)

some sort of importance pertaining to the sun and moon

Let’s start with how the plot probably would have involved Knuckles and Shadow. Knuckles is the well-known Guardian of the Master Emerald- but also just as clueless as how he came into the position in the first place, as originally stated in a now-archived character profile on Knuckles. The plot of Unleashed was already heavily centered around the Chaos Emeralds, so it’s safe to say the original SA3 plot had similar ties with the Master Emerald.

Shadow’s is... a little trickier. Shadow was originally meant to die at the end of SA2 but was brought back with various contradicting backstories due to becoming an instant fan favorite. Chances are, SA3 was going to go more in depth on Shadow’s creation and life aboard the ARK- along with how he survived the fall from space at the end of SA2. I’ll go into more detail about how else he would have been important to a possible plot later.

Now then, let’s start analyzing the parts that actually made it into Unleashed. Corruption, Amnesiac Guardian of the Emeralds, temples across the world, an ancient and powerful force that threatens modern day, and the symbolism of the sun and moon.

Sonic, the main character of Unleashed and the franchise itself, is corrupted to where he’s unable to use his normal powers half the time. It takes a toll on his character as he’s, in a way, lost his sense of self and is desperate to restore his original self and powers- eventually he comes to terms with the new abilities of the Werehog, which is an important plot point as well.

Chances are, Sonic wasn’t originally supposed to be corrupted. With several important, reoccuring characters to choose from it’s understandable that Sonic got the short end of the stick when the cast got severely downgraded to Sonic, Tails, and Amy. So, who else with significant importance to the plot was supposed to get corrupted?

Chip. Or, for lack of SA3 plot, whoever was originally designed to be the amnesiac Guardian introduced in the game. A lot of context clues can be pulled from Chip’s character and story as a whole from being happy-go-lucky and interested in the wonders of the world they can’t remember to the importance of Adabat with how it was that specific temple that helped him recall his origins. Seeing that Adabat is also infested with ruins, it’s safe to say that something pretty terrible must have happened there at some point in the past. The originally scripted Guardian must have come from Adabat and, lilke Chip, was supposed to recall their past at it’s temple.

Speaking of Temples

Unleashed introduces Gaia Temples- large monuments meant to reignite Chaos Emeralds should they ever be damaged. These temples must have had greater significance in SA3, as in Unleashed they’re chopped down to all have the same interior and cutscene. My theory is that each Chaos Emerald belongs to a specific continent, but not neccessarily in the order that they’re restored in in Unleashed. Chances are, these temples were originally meant to be Master Shrines that were once a part of an ancient cycle the Master Emerald followed- I know this might seem like a stretch but hear me out:

In this screenshot of a flashback from SA1, we see the Chaos Emeralds aligned in a rainbow pattern- White, Purple, Violet, Cyan, Green, Yellow, and Red. While this can easily be shrugged off as a design choice, it would be more interesting and plot enriching if a cycle of sorts were introduced- such as the Master Emerald relocating whenever it’s damaged (which would explain why it’s suddenly in... Africa (?) in SA2- it would be following the pattern of Angel Island being the White Shrine and the Purple Emerald being the Sandopolis/Mazuri/Egyptian shrine. The Master Emerald isn’t necessarily at a Shrine when it’s introduced in SA2, but try and keep your mind open about this- in Unleashed the main narrative is restoring the Chaos Emeralds... what if it was originally about restoring shrines?

In SA1, Tikal explicitly mentions the fact that during the Echidna conquer the Knuckles Clan had been attacking the holy places of other countries- could she have been hinting at the destruction of Master Shrines to break the cycle and keep the Master Emerald and all of the Chaos Emeralds in their territory to give their clan unlimited power? It would explain why the Chaos Emeralds seem to ‘randomly’ scatter after being used as well- their resting places have been destroyed and they’re lost without a home. A fully functioning shrine with all the Emeralds would give unfathomable power, as seen in S3&K with Hyper Sonic- a form that Sonic can tap into when balance is restored among the emeralds.

Now, we all know that classifications do really well when introduced in Young Adult fiction (See H*gwarts Houses, Greek/Roman Demigods, Owl House Covens, etc.) and it can be easily implemented in the Sonic franchise as well. Not only with the Master cycle, but with the Chaos Emeralds themselves. There’s been a few confirmed powers linked to the emeralds such as Chaos Control and Chaos Blast- Chaos Control allows users to warp between space and time as seen in SA2 and 06 while Chaos Blast- introduced in Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)- allows users to release a large burst of power as a defense/attack mechanism. Chaos Blast is linked with a fiery red which could link it to the red Chaos Emerald. Red symbolizes passion and strength; it’s color is usually meant to warn us of danger, meaning it’s linked to both our primal fears and the instincts we’ve developed to survive over years of evolution. I’d like to introduce the concept of these powers being blocked if their emerald is damaged in any way- meaning Chaos Blast wouldn’t be accessible via other emeralds if the red one was damaged. I’d also like to link these emeralds to their specific Guardian, meaning that if their Guardian is damaged in a way that would prevent the cycle to continue, the emerald could die out as well. If you’re wondering if these Guardians would exist in the game then have no fear becuase they WOULD and 85% of them are characters we already know and love (I will NOT introduce all of them because I Do Not Wish To Spoil It, but this is definitely where Shadow would play a bigger part like I mentioned before). There is, one, however that we don’t know and that’s because they were reimagined as Chip for Unleashed- the Guardian for the green Chaos Emerald from Adabat. (I ended up making a fan character for this role as you can see in the last installment, but it would be lame of me to force an OC into the game if given the opportunity).

Let’s move on before I go any further into crazy fan-theories. A main villain would need to be introduced- something that Dr. Robotnik/Eggman would want to get his hands on in hopes of conquering the world (a trope we’ve seen before with Chaos in SA1, the Ultimate Lifeform in SA2, and Dark Gaia in Sonic Unleashed). Chaos was, essentially, the first domino to fall over in the pattern introduced in the Adventure games. They were only a small speck in the bigger picture though, as we see that Gerald Robotnik must have taken some inspiration from the stories and depictions of Chaos and created the BioLizard in hopes of harnessing the energy in the Chaos Emeralds. He would later get the idea from an unknown source to instead create a synthetic Hedgehog user, possibly from studying the well-known mural in S3&K’s Hidden Palace Zone:

But there’s something else in this mural we all seem to be forgetting- what is the big figure holding (possibly) the Master Emerald? Well :)) I’m glad you asked. I believe this was originally meant to be the main antagonist of SA3 who eventually became Dark Gaia in Sonic Unleashed. Some sort of powerful being that had some sort of forgotten knowledge pertaining to the Master Emerald.

But there’s more. The Hedgehog-like creature is surrounded by a golden aura, but it isn’t the only one. Behind the creature are 6 smaller aura’s seeming to try and attack the antagonist while it’s preoccupied with the hedgehog. This could depict seven Chaos Guardians using the energy of the restored shrines, all seven Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald to become Hyper Versions of themselves in order to defeat this powerful being. So, who could it be? If Chaos introduced the BioLizard and they were both defeated, what could possibly be hinted at in SA2 that would introduce the main villain for SA3?

Well.

OKAY OKAY HEAR ME OUT

We know very little about King Boom Boo and he seems to be a pretty unforgettable character for a reason. There’s something about him that must have been important for a future game. Granted, a lot of this levels design is taken from Sandopolis-

(See the light/dark triggered ghosts from Sandopolis in S3&K vs. King Boom Boo being weakened by light in SA2; see also Egg Golem from S3&K and SA2)

-which also leads us to the Lava Reef zone which then leads to the Hidden Palace Zone- the location where the Master Emerald is first introduced (assuming that these are all the same place) . Could it be possible that the Hidden Palace Zone was once the original and only location of the Chaos Emeralds? What could have possibly happened to that kingdom for it to be buried and haunted for an unknown amount of time? Personally, I believe King Boom Boo committed the ultimate taboo of the Sonic universe and tried to harness the power of all the emeralds to power his kingdom- much like the Echidna’s tried to do and were ultimately punished for as well. History has a funny way of repeating itself like that. Only this time, in modern day, the power hungry monster is Eggman who’s been trying harness the various ultimate powers the Chaos Emeralds can grant. In SA2, we’re also introduced to the concept of a synthetic Chaos Emerald- a fake that can grant a user the link to use other Chaos Powers mentioned previously, but not an infinite power source like a genuine Chaos Emerald. It wouldn’t surprise me if this concept was meant to be further explored in SA3 and present multiple dilemmas for it’s plot. Nevertheless, there’s something about King Boom Boo and the concept of making a deal with the devil that is rather captivating.

Finally, let’s talk about the sun/moon aspects in Unleashed. Obviously these symbolize dark and light, good and evil, yin and yang. There will always be something to fight for and something to fight against. SA3 was meant to have the battle to end all battles. Sonic and six other powerful beings were supposed to work together to fight the greater evil and restore peace and balance until the next Eggman scheme. There was supposed to be something important that would happen once peace was restored. Things were supposed to go back to the way they were before the Echidna’s began conquering and pillaging the world ~4,000 years ago.

Now, obviously I’m ignoring the lore of a LOT of games (modern Sonic games made after SA2, most notably) and this is because there is a hidden plot among these few games. Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) is nine sonic games in a trenchcoat and was only made because of the fandom loving Shadow. Sonic 06 has always been a standalone game from the original series, The Chronicles series aren’t even made by the same people from the Adventure series, etc. Although, I would still like see characters from these games make an appearance.

Anyways... did I do it? Is Mr. SEGA gonna bust into my house and kill me for knowing too much or will he kiss me on the lips soft and smooth and let me turn this concept into a reality? The choice is yours.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Insights From the Talk Dead to Me Podcast

Okay, I teased everyone over the weekend that I’d have a lot to talk about today, and here it is. There was SO much interesting information in this podcast. 

New Mexico Symbolism

TD isn’t by far the only ones to connect the New Mexico symbolism. On the podcast, they talked extensively about that and about how it will probably play into the sequel. One theory they had (and I hope they’re wrong) is that they think Aaron will get Rick’s comic book death. They think it would mess with Daryl’s head so bad, it would “run him out of town.”

Personally, I don’t think Daryl would leave JUST because Aaron died. For all the reasons many of us have already talked about (him taking care of Judith and RJ, etc). If anything, I think it would make him want to stay more and look after Gracie as well. I really don’t want Aaron to die, though. Unfortunately, it would make sense for him to die, what with him being such a heavy Beth proxy so often, but I’d really like him and Beth to meet first. Just my head canon, but I can’t help it. And they may have a point about Rick’s CB death, given that Aaron has already lost his arm. 

Why Extended Seasons Instead of Just Doing S12?

You know how I keep saying it’s weird that they’re doing this massively extended S11 rather than just breaking it into S11 and S12? Yeah, this podcast told me why, and it makes perfect sense. In a nutshell: many of the actors’ contracts expire after S11. AMC doesn’t want to renegotiate everyone’s contract for only one season.

And that’s something I’m positive has changed. If they were going to season 15, they would have just renegotiated the contracts, no problem. But since they’ve decided to end it now, it would have been WAY more inconvenient. And the people on the podcast made a good point, saying that if the actors’ agents find out the show REALLY NEEDS them for one final season, they’re gonna come back with astronomical demands. And given the state of the world, covid, etc., those kinds of monetary demands really could tank the final season. So, I’m glad to know that. It makes tons of sense.

Let’s Talk AMC’s Social Media Practices

So, several of these people who do the podcast correspond with AMC regularly for social media reasons. They talked about how they’ll often press the AMC representatives they talk to for more information. For the most part, they get the same, vague promises we all get from Gimple. “We’re working on a script.”  Or the classic, “I don’t know any more than you,” crap. But these podcasters said things might have changed logistically with the Rick Grimes films as well. You know how back when Rick left, Gimple said they’d be doing a 3-film trilogy? Well, apparently, people have begun to notice that ever since then, and especially since CoVid, any time anyone close to the shows references the Rick Grimes films, they talk about them in the singular, not the plural. The Rick Grimes FILM, not the Rick Grimes films. And the podcasters think it’s because the show is playing it by ear. Due, again, to financial concerns, maybe they’ll just make one film and see how well it’s received before deciding to make another. Obviously, I disagree with that idea. I do think things might have changed, the same as them ending the series after S11, in that they might use something other than films to continue Rick’s story. But I think they have a specific story to tell and they’re going to tell it, one way or the other.

I also think they got a bigger backlash about the films than they were expecting. People really threw tantrums about the idea of having to pay money to see it in the theaters. People are just used to getting it free on TV, and I think the reaction took tptb by surprise. Anyway, now with CoVid, and theater attendance WAY down, and heaven only knows where we’ll be in a year, it wouldn’t surprise me if AMC and Gimple are rethinking that tactic. Maybe they’ll only do one film and then segue Rick into another series. Either his own, or the Daryl/Carol one. Kirkman ended the comics in the summer of 2019. That was AFTER Rick’s last episode. So I’m willing to bet that all the changes and shuffling started as soon as the comics ended. However it happens, it does show that more than one thing is being shuffled behind the scenes due to CoVid. But listening to this gave me a huge epiphany that I became illogically excited about, lol. It was nothing they said, but just me thinking through the implications of all of this. I’ve always believed Rick would return in some way. And even though I’d be totally cool with him having a reunion with his kids in one of the Rick Grimes films or whatever, I’ve always had a sense that he would return to the series, despite them telling us he wouldn’t. Well, as I said yesterday, the idea of him returning seems much less likely now that we know they’re ending after S11. But…something occurred to me. Gimple has adamantly said Rick won’t return to the TWD series. He’s never said anything about him not moving to any spinoffs. *mic drop*

Thoughts About the Daryl/Carol Spinoff

Nothing too groundbreaking here, but they did say that the Donnie shippers are super frustrated, which I’m sure is true. They said the Caryl shippers are happy, but not too over-the-top happy about it. (Their words. I really couldn’t say whether that’s true or not.)

They also said that, given how much the show has told us there won’t be romance between them, it will either be the ultimate reward for the Carylers (if they get together romantically) or the ultimate tease (if they don’t).

So, my point is that, outside the hardcore shippers at least, most of the fandom isn’t really thinking this is going to be a romance thing with Carol and Daryl. And because of that, they’re wondering where the show could possibly go with Daryl and Carol. Like, they’ve explored their relationship as far as they can and they’re questioning whether this series revolving around them will be worth watching.

Now, if we didn’t know what we know or hadn’t theorized what we have, I would agree whole-heartedly with that. There has to be more to this spinoff than just Daryl and Carol running around killing zombies together. Even the GA is a little confused about this and thinks there must be more to the story. And, you know, there will be.

Coda Replay (And We Didn’t Even Realize It!)

This came together for me from multiple sources. I have an Ask in my inbox that I haven’t answered yet. It’s from a Nonny who obviously wrote in when the big news broke. He/she says that AMC announced the end of the series and the spin off…and then deleted the post. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, because it doesn’t seem to me like anything’s been deleted. At least on Twitter, the post with the press release and the announcement is still pinned to the top of the account. And probably different click bait sites have reported on it. So they don’t seem to be trying to hide it. I didn’t really know what to make of that, except maybe one of the posts was deleted for logistical reasons (typo or something) and then reposted, and the Nonny just thought it was suspicious when really, it wasn’t. Then I listened to this podcast. And guess what? One of the clickbait sites that was slated to give the announcement, IGN, posted it like two hours early…and then deleted their post.

One of the women they talked to used to be a social media manager for AMC. She isn’t anymore, but she worked for AMC for several years. And they asked her about the “leak.” She said that she felt badly for the company that leaked it early. She said when there’s a big announcement like this, there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of moving pieces behind the scenes. Basically, AMC has a whole network that they coordinate to release the news all at the same time. So, it didn’t surprise her that someone, every so often, messes it up and releases it early. It’s just a lot people and moving parts to keep track of. So like maybe, if they were supposed to post the announcement at 8am central time, maybe they posted it at 8 their time, which was too early. That sort of thing. And okay, I guess that makes sense. But there’s just one problem with that explanation. The EXACT same thing happened with this announcement as happened with Beth’s fate in Coda. One of the companies released it too early.

(I’m sure this is the post Nonny means that was deleted: because it was released too early.)

That’s why, the day the news of the show ending broke, people were talking about “rumors” of TWD ending before the official announcement was made. Between that, and all the references we’ve seen (‘bringing characters back from the dead,’ and ‘the six episode coda,’) I just don’t think I can believe in good faith that this was a coincidence.

A little more about AMC social media accounts.

This just confirms what we’ve suspected for years. This woman said she was one of many social media managers. But all that means is that she “managed” several of AMC’s social media accounts. As in, she posted on them and interacts with fans and comments.

She in no way, shape, or form had any say about what was posted or when. She specifically said that such things were WAY above her paygrade. She suspects that such decisions went all the way up to Gimple and Kang. Like there’s someone who follows them around, and when one of them says something needs to be posted, that person texts all the social media managers and they post it. Boom. The writers 100% control what goes out on social media. What it is, what graphics to use, how it’s worded. Everything. #TDforthewin!

She also said that if someone leaks the news early, everything is reconfigured and they quickly shore up to protect the narrative and make sure everything is correct and appropriate. Very interesting.

He also asked her if she thought IGN did it intentionally or on accident. She was obviously being careful not to throw too much shade, but you could tell she definitely thought it might have been done intentionally. Oh, and also? The podcast guy said he knew about the leak because he had to wait until a certain time (I want to say 8:30 am, but I don’t know which time zone) before he posted about it. AMC told him what time and he made sure not to sleep in so he wouldn’t miss it, but he logged on and people already knew because of the leak.

So once again, even this podcast, who claims not to be directly affiliated with AMC (even though they totally are) is getting posts, directions, etc. from AMC. And that’s important with what I’m about to tell you, because the people on this podcast have definitely mentioned Beth in suspicious contexts more than once. And this podcast was the farthest thing from an exception.

Talking About Beth Randomly

That leads me to my final and the biggest thing that stuck out to me about this podcast. Let me first say that I generally like the podcasters and their attitudes toward the show. For one thing, none of them are pro-Caryl. Most of them like Carol all right, but don’t want her and Daryl together romantically. Obviously, I like that.

Unfortunately, they were kinda being punks about Beth in this episode. They went on a little TD-bashing session. As I said the other day, they didn’t mention TD by name or anything, but it was more of a “did you know there are people out there who think Beth is alive?” kind of thing. And they were being really sarcastic about what they thought about that. But the entire discussion still felt SUPER suspicious to me. They were talking about the OTHER spinoff. Not the Daryl/Carol one, but the “Tales of the Walking Dead” one where they’ll tell the back story of deceased characters. One of them asked who the others would like to see back stories of. Out of nowhere, one of them yelled, “Beth!” Seriously. Out. Of. Freakin. Nowhere. And then they basically started making fun of TDers. They talked about how there really are people out there who think she’s still alive. Then one of them said “those people” think that Beth had a twin sister we never knew about and she’s the one who got shot and Beth is still secretly alive. I had to chuckle and shake my head at that. Maybe there’s someone, somewhere in the fandom who thinks that, but I’ve never even heard anyone argue that before. Have you? He then called people who believe that a great big pile of stupid. So yeah, obviously they were being punks. But the conversation about Beth went on and on. One of them said they hoped AMC did a Beth back story in that spin off series, just to mess with the heads of the people who think she’s still alive. And then someone else replied that she doesn’t have a back story to tell because we know it all already: farm, prison, Grady. (I’m sorry; who’s one big pile of stupid to NOT notice the missing 17 days in S5?) Even though they were basically laughing at us, it just felt really deliberate and contrived. And then, one of the women says, “I hope she shows up in The World Beyond.” Seriously? After that, they finally kind of went, “Anyway…” and moved on. But they didn’t even mention any other names in answer to the question about who else they wanted to see back stories for in that second spin off. They ONLY talked about Beth. I siriusly sat there with my jaw hanging open because again, it just came out of nowhere, and they mentioned her—extensively—in conjunction with BOTH spinoffs AND threw in TWB. Just saying.

You know how I said earlier that they claim  not to be affiliated with AMC, though they totally are? Well, technically these people are part of Skybound. (Upper left corner of the picture below.) So in that way, they aren’t directly AMC. But we all know Skybound has posted MANY suspicious things about Beth over the years. And as I established above, they’re definitely being fed what to post by AMC. 

So I feel like that applies here as well. It’s almost like AMC told them to mention Beth in some way, even if it was by way of making fun of people who think she’s alive. So they found a way to bring her up in conversation. And hey, maybe these podcasters really don’t know about Beth’s return. Maybe they think AMC wants them to make fun of or dismiss the idea of her return. But either way, they contrived a way to talk about her, and they would only have done that if AMC told them to.  Okay, I’ll shut up, now. That podcast just totally rocked my world. Thoughts?

[aion-rsa]

Memento and the Significance of Sammy Jankis

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

“Have I told you about Sammy Jankis?”  

On March 16, 2001, Christopher Nolan announced himself to the world with the US release of Memento. Not that everyone heard him straight away.

Despite garnering rave reviews on the festival circuit, Nolan’s mind-bending jigsaw puzzle of a movie failed to land a major distribution deal in the States. In the end Newmarket Films, the independent production company bankrolling the project, took the plunge and distributed it themselves. 

Memento went on to earn more than $45 million at the US box office from a $4.5 million budget – a huge sum for an independent film.

Within five years, Nolan would move on to bigger and Bat-er things, but Memento remains among his most ambitious and effective films to date. A non-linear neo-noir that doubles up as a psychological thriller, it’s a film that continues to offer up subtle surprises on repeat viewing.

Guy Pearce takes centre stage with a mesmeric performance as Leonard, a man with short-term memory loss trying to track down his wife’s murderer. His pursuit is hampered by an inability to create new memories. 

It’s a similarly disorientating experience for viewers who must piece together Leonard’s story while it plays out in reverse order. Allied to this is the story of Sammy Jankis, played by Stephen Tobolowsky, which intersperses that of Leonard’s and plays out across a series of black-and-white scenes shown in chronological order. 

Narrated by Leonard, from an apparent recollection of a case he took during days as an insurance investigator, like our protagonist, Sammy also claims to be anterograde amnesiac – and that’s not all they have in common.

The film continues to alternate between the two narratives, with Leonard obsessively telling the tale of Sammy to anyone who will listen, before the two stories eventually converge in a climax where their shared plight becomes painfully apparent. 

Despite its modest budget, Memento boasted an impressive cast. Pearce had shot to mainstream fame with LA Confidential a few years earlier while Joe Pantoliano, who played Leonard’s helper/fixer Teddy, was an established figure in the business along with his co-star from The Matrix, Carrie Anne Moss.

There was even a role for future Sons of Anarchy star and Nolan favourite Mark Boone Junior as the underhand manager of the motel where Leonard lives. Tobolowsky more than held his own though. 

A seasoned character actor, by the time Memento came around he had enjoyed a memorable turn in Groundhog Day as the hilariously grating insurance agent Ned Ryerson. But it hadn’t been without its drawbacks in the years that followed.

Tobolowsky explained to Den of Geek: “The good news and bad news of being Ned in Groundhog Day is, guess what? You’re going to be Ned in Groundhog Day for the rest of your career. A lot of times when people are in comedic roles and want to do something more dramatic, it’s not available to them. Especially with something like Groundhog Day. An actor like me could get an opportunity to be in a drama but it might not work out because the audience would still see Ned Ryerson. Not this role. Sammy Jankis was so remarkably different.”

Landing the role of Jankis proved remarkably different too, starting with Nolan’s script, based on a short story written by his brother Jonathan called Memento Mori.

“My agent called me up and said John Papsidera, a casting director, wanted me to take a look at this script. John had a reputation for doing really unusual and generally good movies so I was very happy to. A standard first draft script is usually around 120 pages before a producer or director gets their hands on it. Because of the way it is formatted, one page should equal around one minute of screen time. I got the screenplay for Memento and it was like the Old and New Testament combined. I had never seen a script so big. I don’t remember the exact page numbers but it was in the 300s.”

Having seen his fair share of scripts over the years, Tobolowksy was apprehensive about reading what looked like the equivalent of “Gone with the Wind times ten.”

“I was thinking to myself ‘Oh God, this is going to be terrible. ’I even said to my wife, ‘ I know it’s going to be awful. It’s three times longer than normal but I’m going to read it just to be a good sport.’ I start reading and I’m halfway through and my wife comes in and I’m saying ‘damn it, damn it’ and she says ‘Terrible?’ and I say ‘No, so far really great but there’s no way these writers can continue at this level. It’s going to crap out by the end.”

“I get to the end and I throw the script across the room and my wife hears me, comes in, and says ‘Terrible?’ and I say ‘No, quite possibly the best script I’ve ever read.’” Nolan’s script was unlike any Tobolowsky had read, bringing the filmmaker’s vision for the movie to life in stunning detail.

“Chris and Jonathan wrote it in a way where they describe exactly what the camera is doing. Everything was perfectly described and you got a picture of the movie in your head, backwards and forwards in time. It was mind-blowing. I called up my agent immediately and said I had to meet Chris Nolan. I had to talk to him about Sammy Jankis.”

Despite few lines, the role of Sammy was a significant one. A part that much of the film’s plot ultimately rested on. Determined to make the role his own and shake off the ghost of Ned, Tobolowsky met with Nolan knowing he had a unique selling point when it came to the role. 

“I said ‘Chris, I didn’t come here to read for you. There’s nothing really for me to read, but this is what I want to tell you: this is quite possibly one of the best screenplays ever written. You are going to have actors all over this city that will want to be in this. However, I am going to be the only person that wants to be Sammy Jankis who has actually had amnesia.’ 

Chris said: ‘You’ve had amnesia?’ and I was like ‘Yes, and this is how it happened…’”

Tobolowsky explained that during surgery for a kidney stone, doctors had used an experimental drug in place of the standard anesthesia.

“I’m a big guy, like six foot three and 210 pounds, so they gave me a new drug that they had been using on bigger people. It means they are able to give instructions to the patient like to get up on the operating table, rather than have orderlies lifting them. The patient performs the task and then forgets it had happened. It worked the same with the pain.”

It led to what he describes as “drug induced amnesia” as the medication worked its way through his system. “I would be in my living room and then boom! It was like I was just born. The worst was when I was standing over the toilet and suddenly didn’t know if I was about to pee or if I had already peed. Fortunately, I heard my wife yell ‘you finished ten minutes ago!’”

The description of his ordeal was enough to convince Nolan he was the man for the job – but that was only the start of the challenge for Tobolowsky.

“It was the most difficult part I have ever played in my life. When you are an actor, the thing that moves you through a scene is your motivation. But when your character can’t remember anything, you don’t have that.”

In order to better portray Sammy’s damaged mind, he began by breaking down the character’s actions into behaviors marked as either old or new.

“There are the old, every day, behaviors we don’t think about like making breakfast. The rote nature of that behavior means you might do it quickly, almost mechanically. Then there is the newer stuff that takes longer because you are trying to understand what you are doing for the first time. 

“I had met people who have lost their memory, through Alzheimer’s or an accident, and noticed how these old behaviors were still familiar to them.”

This attention to detail was not lost on audiences.

In one small but memorable moment, Sammy greets Leonard at the door of his home with a look Leonard initially believes to be recognition and proof he is faking his condition.

It’s only later, when Leonard begins to understand his own plight, that Nolan has us revisit that same look, only this time with the realisation Sammy’s expression is instead one of desperate hope with that complex duality perfectly conveyed by Tobolowsky.

“That look was about putting out a message saying ‘I am sorry I may know you, so I don’t want to embarrass myself or you by acting like I don’t know you,’” Tobolowsky explains.

Later, after Leonard has rejected Sammy’s insurance claim, his wife, played by Frasier star Harriet Sansom Harris, decides to test the theory for herself by having him administer shot after shot of insulin, in the hope he will realise his mistake before she suffers a fatal overdose.

It’s then that we see Tobolowsky channeling the mechanical, emotionless actions of old, going through the motions of giving his wife the shot, as he has always done, oblivious to the tragic implications for both characters.

But Sammy is oblivious, with Tobolowsky’s emotionless, robotic approach to the repeated injections – something he has done for years – adding a layer of tragedy simultaneously to both characters.

“We all worked it out together in the moment. You let the truth emerge from the scene in the moment the camera is running.”

However, the true significance of Sammy in the wider story of Leonard only fully emerges later in the film after the latter’s revelatory encounter with Teddy.

It’s Teddy who reveals that he has been using Leonard to kill criminal associates. He claims to have tracked down the real “John G” behind the murder of Leonard’s wife years ago and, most tellingly, that Sammy’s story is actually Leonard’s, created to absolve himself of guilt. 

Which begs the question: Are Sammy and Leonard simply one and the same person? And, if so, did Leonard kill his wife by accident?

While some degree of ambiguity remains, Tobolowsky says such notions played into Nolan’s decision to include a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment where Sammy, holed up in an old folk’s home, is for a brief flash, replaced by Leonard. 

“Chris played with the idea on set. He said he had an idea for a moment where he would replace me with Guy. He wanted to try that out. That was determined while filming, the idea of the switch, which cements the idea of the two characters being one and the same. 

“Chris was mining the depths of his script in the moment, which takes nerve as an artist.  “

Reflecting on the experience, Tobolowsky only has positive memories of his experience on Memento, and the commitment shown by Pearce – particularly when it came to the tattoos that serve as reminders to Leonard of his past and forgotten present.

“Guy Pearce was just magnificent,” he says. “Every day, he would be in the chair getting those tattoos put on or removed. There would be long make-up breaks to get them adjusted perfectly and Chris would have it so that we would be shooting while Guy was in the makeup trailer.”

“Chris was a fabulous director to work with. Full of good humour and insight. The entire shoot was filled with energy and fun and that came from the top. I knew right away I was working with somebody very special. Chris takes chances.”

Tobolowsky holds his experience on Memento in the highest regard.

“When you do a lot of shows and movies, the idea is not how many you can squeeze in, it’s about which ones mattered to you.  The work you did that affected you as a person and an artist. Something like Memento is profoundly affecting with the questions it asks.

“What haunts me about Sammy Jankis was that idea that if you cannot remember what you do, both your sins and your blessings, what kind of hell are you in?  That final scene where Sammy is the old folk’s home, there is this question: Is he at peace? If you don’t know what is happening to you, what is your life? And what happens to Leonard? 

He also credits the film with changing his career for the better.

“After I did Memento, I was considered for all sorts of roles that I wouldn’t have been before. It broke the Groundhog Day mold and showed what I was capable of. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“There have been so many movies I have been in. Some terrible, some mediocre and a few classics. It always comes down to the script and director. Memento is one of the good ones. It’s a masterpiece. There’s nothing quite like it.”

The post Memento and the Significance of Sammy Jankis appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/30SAPVO

[beevean]

So I watched the movie

What can I say that hasn’t already been said? It was good! Not a masterpiece by any means, but cute and enjoyable.

I was right about the plot - it’s not a Sonic movie, it’s a movie with Sonic in it. But, much like the games, it was obvious that the writers focused more on the characters than the actual story. Surprisingly, my favorite part was the middle one - the beginning was a little slow and the ending was too fast, but the “road trip” part was the most engaging and funniest one.

Sonic was simply adorable <3 easily one of the cutest iterations of the character since the Classic era. He was much more emotional than the canon version, and even sad, but for most of the time he’s pretty believable as a younger, inexperienced Sonic. But more importanly, I guess the full movie confirms that this Sonic is way more powerful than canon Sonic. Like, at the end, that spectacle of lightning... that looked like something usually reserved for Super Sonic. Holy crap, now I’d love to see the two have a friendly race.

Eggman Robotnik was... well, what I expected from Jim Carrey. He was a nice blend of the good ol’ doctor we know and love and Jim Carrey Carreying it up. I wouldn’t say he carried the movie like many thought (Sonic did, by far), but I bought him as, again, a younger Eggman who still doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. Also he’s super cool with his gloves and holograms, he had so many good shots. (and that dance scene? *chef kiss*)

Surprise surprise, Tom was even better than I hoped for! Which, I admit, wasn’t much. The trailers absolutely did not make him justice, he was legit funny in certain scenes, his character arc was good, and the guy is both strong and smart. After the bar scene, he developed a strong chemistry with Sonic.

As for the minor characters... 

Maddie was cool and also a more fleshed-out character than I thought (that cake scene made me laugh), but I wish she interacted with Sonic more - basically she was the Blue Oni to Tom’s Purple Oni to Sonic’s Red Oni.

Agent Stone was okay, his best scene was already spoiled by the trailers (the one where he brings Robotnik coffee) , but ultimately he was so overshadowed by Robotnik, which is a pity.

Longclaw was the most egregious example of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character I’ve seen in a long time - she was Sonic’s mentor, she sacrificed herself to protect him, she gave him those powerful Rings... and she had maybe 5 lines at best? She wasn’t mentioned again? Does Sonic even remember her, let alone miss her?

The sister-in-law whose name I forgot... why the fuck was she even there? Why does she hate Tom so much? Does she hate white people or policemen or something? I have no idea but that was a waste of a good actress and maybe 5 minutes of movie. (her daughter on the other hand was a cutie and had another of my favorite jokes)

The way the music was used was good too! I know many people loved Boom during the bar fight, but I’m still not over Don’t Stop Me Now and especially Friends. Tunes of Anarchy is my new earwoom! And at the end there was a snippet of the original Green Hill, and I wanted to scream. (although now I wonder why they cut Gotta Go Fast, if they were going to keep Green Hill anyway)

The major negative, aside from the cliché storm that was the plot, some of the jokes... not only they kept the “child in a bag” joke, but that random fart joke just to reference Sonic’s love for chili dogs? Yyyeah...

Also, this only matters to me lol, but the Italian dub was so good! As far as I know, it’s the only version where Sonic kept the save VA as the games, and man, much like Roger Craig Smith, as long as he’s given a decent script he’s pretty convincing as Sonic. But I can’t wait to re-watch it in English to enjoy me some Ben Schwartz.

So overall? 7.5/10. Not very memorable if you’re not a Sonic fan, but the best word I can use is “charming”, which is a far cry from what we all thought this movie was going to be one year ago. Took them almost 30 years, but we finally have a ‘90s Sonic movie!

Also some spoilers down below!

SPOILERS

Sadly I got spoiled the mid-credits scene just before the movie started (some random kid spoiled it to his friends and I was within earshot lmao), but it got me hyped for a sequel! My boy Tails is here! I’m still not used to that design, though, but maybe I will. If Tom and Maddie already adopted Sonic, they sure can adopt his lil bro.

As for Eggman’s ultimate fate... unpopular opinion, but that was almost harsh? Like, okay, I get the irony, he hated every human around him so now he’s stuck on a deserted planet and lost his brilliant mind, but that final shot of the mushrooms on top of mushrooms... kinda gave me anxiety. Now I’d love to see him back.

[9worldstales]

INTERESTING POINTS TO PONDER FROM INTERVIEWS 3

Interviews might not remain forever available or not be easy to find so I’ve decided to link them and transcribe the points I find of some interest so as to preserve them should the interview had to end up removed.

It’s not complete transcriptions, just the bits I think can be relevant but I wholeheartedly recommend reading the whole thing.

And of course I also comment all this because God forbid I’ll keep silent... :P

Title: Kevin Feige (President of Production at Marvel Studios) On Set Interview THOR; Read a Massive Interview Done on the Soundstages of THOR!

Author: Steve Weintraub

Published: Dec 10, 2010

BEST BITS FROM THE INTERVIEW

ABOUT THE ULTIMATES INFLUENCING THE SCRIPT

So you guys aren’t taking from The Ultimates standpoint where there is supposed to be a recreated Asgard on Earth.

Feige: There’s some… No, is your answer. But there is certainly influences of the [J. Michael] Straczynski run over the course of the film. It is, as I said, Kirby/Lee, for some aesthetic and characters, Simonson for aesthetic and characters, and Straczynski for our inspiration of the Earth-bound stuff, but not Asgard floating above.

Question about the comic art we saw earlier. It’s a lot of the classic Thor panels up there, but he definitely has more of an Ultimate comics look. Were any of the Ultimate comics consulted or were those books consulted for this look?

Feige: I don’t know about consulted, but we certainly pulled and looked at all of the renditions. Frankly, the Thor costume you see is closer to the JMS comics than the Ultimate comics.

So none of the actual artists or writers are active consultants on this?

Feige: We wanted to talk with [Olivier] Coipel but he was just too busy. Walt [Simonson] and Joe [Michael Straczynski] were, and Stan [Lee]. The way we usually do.

ABOUT THE WORLD OF “THOR”

What’sthe difference between the comic book look and the historically Nordic…

Feige: The comic book wins, in most cases. We’re going with the theory in the comics which is there, in your face, and sometimes it isn’t, that these are being who live in another realm, who live on another planet, who had a way to travel to here and has travelled here in the past. Specifically, a thousand some odd years ago, in which the locals interpreted them as gods and started mimicking some of their clothing and some of their helmet and weapon designs. But they didn’t have access to the building materials that Asgardians did so they made it out of wood and horns and fur. That’s not a whole lot of this movie, but that’s a lot of the backstory that we’re coming from. Which is why Odin’s bed, there, for the Odin sleep, yes there’s sort of a Viking-esque [feel]. The head of the bed there, the Viking-esque longboat ends. But they weren’t inspired by the Vikings, the Vikings were inspired by them.

This has a lot of elements that are probably a little more difficult to get onto the screen to combine with Spider-Man and the other Marvel things. How much of a consideration is that with managing and combining all these universes?

Feige: Well we’re not combining Spider-Man but we are… it led us to the movie we are making. That consideration you brought up led us to the film we’re making. The theory behind it and the science behind it. Was it Arthur C. Clarke or Asimov who said, “Technology significantly advanced would be indistinguishable from magic.” That quote is what we used a lot and continue to use with all of this. Something that looks like magic to us, but it’s not magic to them. That is where we are coming from and when these worlds eventually collide, it will be in a pretty scientific manner. Not a boring scientific manner, I hope, but in a cool one.

On that note, you did say that science is basically going to be mistaken for magic, and you are hot to trot for Dr. Strange, so is that how you are going to try to ease audiences into this other kind of realm beyond just the superhero stuff?

Feige: Yea. Absolutely. I mean, most of our characters are rich enough that they can carry their own movie. Instead of just combining them together at first, we do want to introduce them in a movie, and within each of them they will break open other avenues. Iron Man is entirely about tech. Hulk starts the break open the idea of biological enhancement which clearly goes into Cap. This cracks into the cosmic and other worlds. Dr. Strange will eventually get into the supernatural.

Producer Craig Kyle: Once you step inside the observatory, you basically tell Heimdall where you want to go. The sword Heimdall uses is not only used to defend Asgard, but it’s also the key to this device. We looked at Tony Stark and that movie, Iron Man had holograms and was stepping inside virtual worlds. Asgardians have kind of “been there, done that” when it comes to that kind of stuff. So for them to send you across the universe it’s as easy as turning a key. It’s why it’s a system of gears and wheels. It’s a machine. Their technology is only as sophisticated as it needs to be to do extraordinary things. Once you’ve said you’re going to go, the outside of this building begins to spin around, while the inside is stable and the rainbow bridge pumps energy inside this place. Then this major steeple that fills up the top here begins to lower and it points in the direction of the destination of the world you choose to go to. You step out on the edge and BOOM! You’re fired across the universe. You get the rainbow bridge when you arrive or leave Asgard, but when you want to get from this side of the universe to ours, you need to step through this gun that will fly you across the universe.

ABOUT THE FROST GIANTS

Feige walked us into another room filled with artwork and images of the Frost Giants.

Feige: Early versions of the...frost giants play a major role in this movie. What you’ll see today are legacy versions of the frost giants. Some of it will be in the movie, and some of it will be enhanced through Digital Domain. So these are early molds. We wanted there to be practical frost giants for the actors to interact with, we have a wonderful actor named Colm Meaney* who plays one of them. I think a lot of his stuff and his face we wanted to be him. A lot of them will be further enhanced from what you’ll see today.

Does this character have a specific name or is he just referred to as a frost giant?

Feige: He has a name. I’m not going to tell you what it is but he has one.

* (I think Feige actually mean Colm Feore, who played Laufey, as there’s no Colm Meaney in the cast and Laufey is the only Frost Giant who has a name)

ABOUT CHRIS HEMSWORTH AS THOR

Feige: Thor is not here today. Do not judge the Thor double as Thor. When Chris is Thor, well, let me just say there are certain individuals who begin questioning their sexuality. [laughs]

MY TWO CENTS

Well, for start this confirms my feelings that people expected a “Thor” based on “The Ultimates” and I bet they made the trailer in that way to use this expectation and raise viewers’ interest.

It also confirms what said in other interviews by other people, that Feige was interested in giving “Thor” a scientific look... though I’ve to say in the final product there’s very little of it.

And this also confirms my feelings Frost Giants were meant to be more than what we just got. I mean, in “The art of Thor” they mentioned how they wanted them to be characters, not monsters/creatures, but in the movie they seem to be there mostly to be killed and be considered monsters by the Asgardians. So it’s nice to know they originally were meant to be more... although it’s a pity this more disappeared somehow.

I really, really really would love to see the very early plans for “Thor”. I know of course of the old script that had been shared and on which the novel “Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One: Thor” is based but, well, call me greedy but I would love to see the previous ones as well, and especially look at how they were planning to handle the Frost Giants. It’s a pity their role had been cut so much.

Last but not least, this is not the sole interview in which I get the feeling Marvel was more interested in Chris Hemsworth/Thor for his look than for anything else.

I mean, okay, he’s very nice to look at to say the least and this is something I surely apprecciate but sometimes I wish they cared more about his character and his interpretation than about his body. He’s not in the story to be just an eye candy after all... but whatever, maybe that’s just me.

On a sidenote it’s not the first time I see Feige mentioning “Doctor Strange” way before the movie was done (we’re in 2010 here, “Doctor Strange” will be released in 2016) so it seems he really wanted to release it.

[brokehorrorfan]

Blu-ray Review: Dolly Dearest

From Hollywood to independents, the film industry has always been quick to capitalize on one movie’s success with a cycle of imitators, and the horror genre is perhaps more guilty of this than any other. From classic monster movies to the zombie boom to the slasher cycle, everyone wants a piece of the pie. 1991's Dolly Dearest is a direct result of that mindset, arriving in the wake of Child's Play and its first sequel.

After an excavation of presumed Mayan ruins in Mexico unleashes an ancient evil, the Wade family - father Elliot (Sam Bottoms, Apocalypse Now), mother Marilyn (Denise Crosby, Pet Sematary), son Jimmy (Chris Demetral, Sometimes They Come Back), and daughter Jessica (Candace Hutson, The Land Before Time) - relocate from Los Angeles to reopen a nearby doll factory where the malevolent spirit is dwelling.

Jessica quickly takes a liking to one of the dolls, and the feeling is mutual. The demonic Dolly begins to manipulate the young girl as people around the family die. Marilyn and the rest of her family race to end the terror before they lose Jessica forever. Rip Torn (Men in Black) pops up intermittently in a thankless role as an archeologist to spout expositional nonsense while slipping in and out of a nearly unidentifiable Mexican accent.

Dolly Dearest is little more than a pale imitation of Child's Play with a slight Poltergeist influence peppered in for good measure. Writer-director Maria Lease (a script supervisor on the likes of Better Off Dead and Boston Legal) admirably attempts to outdo one possessed doll with multiple possessed dolls. (It wasn't until Child's Play's seventh installment, Cult of Chucky, that we got multiple Chuckys!) These scenes featuring a slew of Dollys running amok in the factory are highlights of the film, but the concept is ultimately underutilized.

The doll itself is objectively creepier than Chucky, if only for the fact that it looks more lifelike; Dolly is less Cabbage Patch Kid, more American Girl Doll. While the animatronics aren't as advanced as its bigger budgeted predecessor, Dolly causes her fair share of damage. Ed Gale - the little person who doubled Chucky in Child's Play, along with Howard the Duck and several more - also played Dolly. It's charming, but the film is unable to overcome the issue that every scene without the doll - of which there is an abundance - is quite dull.

Dolly Dearest has been handsomely restored in 2K from its 35mm interpositive for Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, which includes reversible artwork. The discs features new interviews with Crosby and Gale. Child's Play shockingly never comes up in Crosby's 14-minute piece, but she discusses a female director's unique approach to horror. Gale addresses the Child's Play connection as well as explains that he is uncredited due to the effects people not wanting to share the recognition. He's a real character; the featurette is only 8 minutes, but I'd gladly watch an entire documentary about his career.

Dolly Dearest will be released on Blu-ray/DVD on May 26 via Vinegar Syndrome.

[kimberlyannharts]

OKAY i know i’ve talked a little bit about MMPR #46 previews but we’re making it official now

- mild warning: i get kinda ranty about tomkat (specifically tomkat’s portrayal in the books, not the ship itself) down near the end of the post, so if you like tomkat and/or sotd, you might wanna turn around now

- [beyonce voice] EVOX??????????

- you see kim’s attitude here?  yeah get ready for more of that this entire preview is her seriously at her fucking limit 

- [record scratch] yup, that’s me.  you’re probably wondering how i got into this situation

- THUNDERCATS HOHHHHHHHHHHH (also is this the first time we’ve really seen the white tigerzord actually since the s2 stuff started...............weird)

- kim:  mom who yells at the coach 

- tommy:  dad who brings the orange slices at halftime

- tommy accused of horny on main 

- okay i made that mom/dad joke earlier but they’re really establishing kim as the regular parent and tommy as the fun parent h e l p 

- actually wait while i’m on that topic i’m gonna get a little serious now.  i don’t really talk about sotd for my own sanity but honestly to me these couple of panels really highlight the disparity between how boom portrays tomberly’s relationship vs tomkat’s

- in these panels tommy and kim are without a doubt a duo.  tommy is obviously the leader of the team and ultimately made the final decision to end the training session but kim was also directing the team and pointing out what needed to be better.  and now here (as well as in the next couple panels) they’re pretty much acting as each others’ sounding board with how to best direct the team.  so while it’s not explicitly stated i think it’s safe to say kim is the second-in-command   

- furthermore despite tommy’s leadership, powers, and kim’s comment about him being a “one man army” he specifically comments about how BOTH he and kim can handle goldar.  not just him, but the both of them.  and considering the smile on his face, he almost seems downright EXCITED at the possibility of them taking down goldar together (probably considers it another date, the horny bastard).  the point is, he obviously considers them a duo and a team, and what’s more an effective one 

- what’s also important to me here is that kim is allowed to have an opinion about tommy’s methods - most importantly a NEGATIVE opinion about tommy’s methods.  she’s not shouting, they’re not fighting, but she IS firm in her stance that what tommy’s doing is stupid and not right for the team as a whole.  just because they’re together that doesn’t mean she automatically goes along with everything he does, or even keep her opinions to herself.  not only does this establish a more well-rounded dynamic, but also establishes them as individuals.  we also see this in the first issue of the MMPR/TMNT crossover, where kim vocalizes her frustration with tommy randomly going off the grid and keeping secrets, and is able to talk with him face to face about it before realizing and accepting that this is something important to him that he feels he has to do (keep in mind that they’re not even DATING in the crossover)   

- meanwhile, SotD (and by extension DiD, considering that episode was partly an advertisement for the book, let’s be real) shows that despite being literally MARRIED tomkat is not a duo.  kat is his emotional crutch and mother of his son, but tommy barely includes her in his actions or decision-making, nor does it seem like he even wants to.  the entire mission to find jj is barely gone over with her before he leaves and teams up with......some other random lady to whom he opens up to about his past and in turn she fills him in with jj’s feelings (literally WHY WASN’T THIS CHARACTER KATHERINE I DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS DECISION AT ALL).  she shows up in the book to give him a pep talk, immediately leaves, barely gets filled in on something happening to jj, comes back in the final fight (with just a gun instead of morphing like literally EVERYONE ELSE IN THE FIGHT), supports tommy again, and the book ends.  there isn’t even the smallest callout for tommy about leaving her high and dry while he gallivants across the universe on a wild goose chase.  she’s his “wonderful wife” there to support him and that’s it.  in DiD kat is barely acknowledged by tommy after she’s been missing and found strapped to a table, they share no dialogue before she leaves and he stays to fight his robotic double or whatever that was, and they share no dialogue afterwards (and for what it’s worth, jdf and cs added in the handhold.  it wasn’t in the script).  

- it just feels like that, despite them being married, the writers don’t allow tommy and kat to be a team like they do tommy and kimberly.  and that’s frustrating considering how we’re supposed to believe that tommy and kim are just a high school relationship that would inevitably break up but tommy and kat are marriage material.  bc right now tommy and kim have more screentime as parents discussing how best to raise their kids than tommy and kat do 

- also it’s been a year but i still don’t know what “tomkat style” means.   

- whatever.  anyway

- me about to make terrible posts (such as rants that have no bearing on the actual issue) while my followers huddle in fear 

[mobius-prime]

194. Sonic the Hedgehog #126

Tossed in Space (Part One): Red Chaos

Writer: Benny Lee Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

While everyone on Mobius may believe that their greatest hero is dead, we know that that's not the case. Sonic the Hedgehog has, in fact, been transported by a miniature black hole to the opposite side of the universe, and is snoring away on the surface of an alien planet. The place looks barren at first, but there's more to this planet than meets the eye…

Sonic finally wakes up, and is immediately alarmed to find himself surrounded by a bunch of ant-like alien beings jabbering at him in a garbled language (no Indiana Jones ride script this time though). He runs away, trying to remember how he got here and ultimately coming to the conclusion that destroying the Dial transported him somewhere else instead of killing him, and that it's vital for him to find a way back home to let his family and friends know that he's okay. His thoughts are interrupted by a loud boom, and a swarm of dragonfly-like aliens invade the walker vessel, attacking the ants. Sonic takes his chance to escape, not wanting to involve himself, but his heroic tendencies win over his selfish ones and he runs back to knock out the dragonfly aliens, much to the delight of the ant aliens.

So! Turns out we've landed on the planet Thoraxia, homeworld of the Blodex. Their mortal enemies are the Bzzzz, who believe that they should be the only ones allowed to fly and therefore do their best to enact an outright genocide against the Blodex any time they try to develop air or space travel. This means that they have never heard of Mobius and thus can't provide directions, but a trading vessel will arrive from off-world tomorrow, on which Sonic can hitch a ride to hopefully find a way back to his planet. With nothing else to do for now, Sonic accepts a tour of the Blodex's capital city, and discovers to his shock that a statue in the center of the city is holding six Chaos Emeralds - except they're red!

Now this is actually quite interesting. So far, in the preboot universe, Chaos Emeralds are numerous on Mobius, and exclusively green. This is the first inkling we've gotten of any emeralds existing anywhere else and in any other color. The existence of these emeralds actually becomes a major plot point later on, so keep this in mind, but for now, Sonic retires to his hotel room, with much to think over. He briefly becomes discouraged at the sheer enormity of the task in front of him - finding a way to navigate entire galaxies to return home - but just as he gets ready to go to bed, an army of Bzzzz fly into the city, led by their queen! Sonic knows he can't fight them all on his own - but remembering the six red Chaos Emeralds, gets an idea.

Woo, go Super Sonic! I mean, you did just straight up murder a bunch of sentient living beings, but eh, they were trying to kill everyone anyway. Super Sonic lands in the middle of the city… right next to Sonic, who is shocked at seeing a golden doppelganger of himself…

Tossed in Space (Part Two): Hog & Superhog

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

Also, this is where things get a little weird. For whatever reason, this issue is split into two separate parts right in the middle of an otherwise cohesive story. Now, this hardly unusual seems - almost every single story in the comic is split into chapters, sometimes with their own individual names - but this is actually considered an entirely separate story for the purposes of this arc, with the next issue beginning with Part Three. It even has its own entirely separate credits box, but the only difference is that Karl Bollers is actually taking credit for his own work now. Really, it's a pretty strange decision on their part, but eh, we can roll with it.

Anyway, yeah! Turns out that trying to use the red emeralds to achieve a super transformation manifests Sonic's super form as its own separate being, with a will of its own. And unfortunately for Sonic and the Blodex, this version of Super Sonic takes after his Fleetway counterpart. Super Sonic begins flying around and destroying random buildings for fun, so Sonic, after helping rescue some citizens caught in the chaos, races after his evil twin to stop his rampage.

Oh, so you're one of those types of edgelords, eh? Super Sonic tries to destroy the planet's twin moons with a burst of energy purely to cause more global chaos, but Sonic tackles him. However, of course, Sonic in his ordinary state is no match for his own super form, and Super Sonic begins to beat the tar out of him. Things are looking bad, but if you'll remember one important detail about how super transformations work…

And good riddance! I hope y'all are ready for some more weird space adventures with aliens, because that's all the next few issues are about as Sonic makes his way back home.

[holyfunnyhistoryherring]

[Text in comic:

Finding Batman

Written by Kevin Conroy

Drawn & colored by J. Bone

Lettered by Aditya Bidikar

Adaptation editor Arianna Turturbo

Editor Jessica Chen

Exactly thirty years ago, I ventured into an audition for a character I knew little about, in a medium I had no experience in. His flawed humanity, his overcoming life's challenges, his having a public face and a private one – all these characteristics resonated with people.

I often marveled at how appropriate it was that I should land the role. As a gay boy growing up in the 1950s and '60s in a devoutly catholic family, I'd grown adept at concealing parts of myself. Of putting aspects of myself in a separate box and locking it away.

Perhaps I'd outgrow them, I thought. Perhaps I could change, I prayed. This was the early 1970s. Stonewall had just been an event on the evening news. The trill of watching gay men fight back was tempered by the ridicule they received in the press. Better to wear a mask, I thought.

At the same time, my family situation was deteriorating, with a wildly alcoholic father, a schizophrenic brother, and parents divorcing.

It all came to a head when my father was found in the woods bleeding to near-death in his car from a self-inflicted knife wound, and empty bottle at his side. Not being able to face him after what he'd done, my mother send me to the hospital in her stead.

With no family support to rely on, I had to get a scholarship to any school I hoped to attend. Juilliard offered that opportunity. The competition was fierce – any flaw or weakness magnified. An attitude settled in for me that I was on my own.

After school, I went through the standard struggle of any young actor in NYC – various survival jobs, multiple auditions. I began to book regional theater jobs and off-Broadway. All the while aware that the business – though peopled with gay agents, producers, directors, and writers – was very unforgiving towards gay actors.

In order to work, the mask had to be fixed. But I refused to spend my life alone just to facilitate a career. So while I would not deny who I was in my private life, I kept it quiet professionally. Of course, nothing stays secret in theater, so word got around... especially when I played a few fairly high-profile gay roles.

Just as I'd began to feel comfortable in my skin, I started to hear stories of actors I knew developing a rare form of cancer – purple lesions on their skin, debilitating pneumonia, and ultimately... death.

These previously strong, energetic men seemed to disintegrate overnight. I hoped it wouldn't affect me.

The friends began getting it, my agent, his assistant, actors I knew and admired. Funerals became common.

A whole generation of men, my generation, was suddenly at risk of contracting what became known as AIDS. What had been unthinkable suddenly became my new reality.

Then came an unexpected and embarrassing moment, I'd been shooting a mini-series on location. One night after a very long and difficult day, we gathered at the lobby bar of our hotel. The place was packed. As I walked in, one actor who'd obviously been there a while announced to the room in a booming voice – Hey, it's the faggot! Get in here and join us!

What to do – laugh it of? Confront it? I decided to ignore it. "I've got an early call tomorrow. Just wanted to say goodnight."

Discomfort on set followed and eventually passed... but I would always be "other" no matter what I did.

Years later, a real eye-opener happened. For three weeks I'd been shooting a film in a gritty downtown neighborhood of LA with a grueling schedule of six PM to six AM. I was exited about the character – a man who slowly devolves over the movie, becoming more and more unhinged. The challenge was not just getting into the head of the man, but also to portray his disintegration while shooting the script entirely out of sequence.

I had dissected my script into different stages with distinctly colored pages and pens – one color for his physical injuries, one color for his psychological state of disrepair, one color for his emotional life, another for his wardrobe disintegration, with notes for what had immediately preceded each scene so I knew where I was coming from.

"And that's a wrap!" "Thank you, everybody. You've been terrific." "Hey, Kev!

Hope you don't mind, took a peak at your script – fascinating stuff." "Oh, thanks. Yeah, I needed a road map to track–" "Sure. Sure! What are your plans after this?"

He said there was a TV pilot he'd been working on – a buddy cop show. He felt I was perfect for one of the leads and wanted to know if I could stay in town in case the network wanted to meet me, but he wouldn't know for a couple of days. I needed to visit the east coast fairly soon, but since I was sort of on my own schedule, I told him okay. I called my brother, Chris, the next morning to explain that I was delaying my trip.

It wasn't easy to maintain a house back in Connecticut for my brother to live in while I worked regularly in L.A. but it was the house we'd grown up in. My father had left it to me to look after for Chris as I acted as his caretaker.

It was an ideal way to keep him out of the hospital and on his meds. He loved living in that house. Thankfully, he had a wonderful psychiatric social worker named Gerry who would check in on him. Things only broke down when Chris went off his meds... which was not uncommon.

Three days went by and I still hadn't heard from the producer, so I called his office and left a message reminding him that I was waiting. The next morning, I tried the producer's office again. I was fine with nothing coming of this, I just had to know whether I was free to leave. But he never returned my call.

Later in the day, I went to visit a friend in the hospital, who was in the last stages of AIDS. He was a casting director who'd always championed my work. We were exactly the same age and grew up just a few miles from each other in those middle class suburbs of Long Island. Both from irish families and catholic schools and drawn to the theater. Parallel lives that hadn't intersected until L.A. Now I was part of a group of friends that took turns by his bed as he drifted into the clouds of dementia.

He had written a play about being gay and living with AIDS in Hollywood. One of us had gotten the idea to tell him it was going into production and we needed him to direct us. We each assumed a role and pretended we were in a rehearsal for his production.

I tried to reach the elusive producer one last time. I'd decided if he still wasn't available, I'd just head back to see Chris. The phone clicked and the producer's voice came on...

"Hey faggot, how you doing?!" That gut gut punch again. Like in the bar so many years before with the drunk actor.

"So, we're not going to need you. I went in there and pitched you and, man, the reaction was not what I expected at all. I mean, wow. There's a lot about you I just didn't know. Honestly, you could have warned me before I got my ass handed to me.

Look, just a heads-up between us? You can forget that network – they'll never hire you for a lead, so have a good trip. Good luck, okay?"

I was completely stunned. I was lost. I just sat staring into space. Staring into a void that spanned twenty years. The twenty years since I'd moved to NYC as a seventeen-year-old to start my acting career at Juilliard.

The twenty years I'd been fooling myself that I could ever compete in this business. That I could have a public and private life. The twenty years I'd wasted thinking I'd be anything more than just another "faggot".

I went to Connie the next day. I'd put off seeing Chris for long enough. When I got to the house and rang the bell, there was no answer. I rang again. Nothing.

I had a key but tried to respect Chris's sense of privacy by letting him answer the door. Nothing still. So I opened it myself. The thick smell of cigarette smoke enveloped everything inside. "Chris?"

"Whuh? Who's there? ...Who's there?" "Chris? Get up. Come on. Get up..."

"What? Get up! Who's up?! It's all about Nixon – Nixon and Ehrlichman. Screw you! Screw you!

You Faggot!"

I felt something within me snap. The way he'd hissed those words just tore through me.

I called the psych ward, called Gerry. It would be complicated, but it was time for Chris to be admitted back in.

Then I got a call from my voice-over agent about a new series at Warner Brothers – Batman: the animated series.

I walked in and met the creative team of Bruce Tim, Andrea Romano, Eric Radomski, and others. They talked me through the character.

Explained how young Bruce Wayne had seen his parents murdered in front of him in Crime Alley. How he had formed dual personalities to deal with the agony of his childhood.

A mask of confidence to the world... and a private one, wracked by conflict and wounds. Could I relate to that, they asked. "Let me just try to get into the head of the man and see where I go."

I imagined myself as young Bruce witnessing my parents attacked and crumbling in front of me. I saw them lying in their blood in the filth of Crime Alley.

I saw my own father lying drunk in a pool of his dried blood. As Bruce, I held them, comforting them in my arms... as Kevin, I cradled my bloody father as he struggled for life.

As Kevin, I held Chris, cradling him as he raved at the voices plaguing him. As Bruce, I felt disoriented and lost, not sure of my identity as my parents were cruelly wanked from me. I felt disoriented and lost as an actor whose identity was being wanked from him.

Was I my public face or my private face? Had I made too many compromises? My heart pulsed, I felt my face flush, my breath grew deeper, I began to speak, and a voice I didn't recognize came out. It was a throaty, husky, rumbling sound that shook my body.

It seemed to roar from thirty years of frustration, confusion, denial, love, yearning... Yearning for what? An anchor, a harbor, a sense of safety, a sense of identity. Yes, I can relate. Yes, this is terrain I know well. I felt Batman rising from deep within.

End text.]

"It seemed to roar from thirty years of frustration, confusion, denial, love, yearning...yearning for what? An anchor. A harbor. A sense of safety. A sense of identity. Yes, I can relate. Yes, this is terrain I know well. I felt Batman rising from deep within." -"Finding Batman" by Kevin Conroy (from DC Pride 2022)

In memory of Kevin Conroy, I'm reposting his story in his own words. We were so lucky to have Kevin share a piece of his soul with us through playing Batman for over thirty years, and his loss is heartbreaking for an entire generation who grew up with him as our Batman. I'm incredibly grateful to have lived in a world where he got the opportunity to play that role for us for so long and in so many different productions. RIP to a good man, a legend, and one of the most iconic voice actors of all time.

[whateverthedragonswant]

I love how Jensen keeps mentioning the sexual/physical factor for this "relationship" even though he talks about how much work he and Katheryn put into their ending scene in the finale to make sure it hit the emotional points they both felt it was supposed to. It reminds me so much of another sales pitch...:

Kit: "It's ultimately two people who fall in bed together that maybe shouldn't."

Considering how that relationship turned out, should this show somehow magically get a season 4 despite some of the worst TV writing I've seen in ages, I don't see it being a "true romance". No wonder Jensen and Katheryn had to really work to hit the points they wanted to make the scene work - they were doing their best despite the crappy writing for this show and doing the writers' jobs for them (before an actor would come in to perform the scene and do what they were hired to do I mean).

So either this relationship is all about physical attraction (like Jonerys was according to the bts of that show) OR Jensen, Katheryn, and the show think THIS is what the "fans" are hoping for from that relationship based on all of the social media craziness they have seen. And either one doesn't bode well for that relationship.

Especially when:

-- Elwood Reid (x) - who literally said in another interview he's giving the fans what they want and mentions 'physicality' needing to be earned aka this relationship is all about the two good looking actors playing them, a certain section of fans only care about seeing their characters bang on screen (*cough* AA's *cough cough*), and they know it & in order to try to stay on air/get another season, they're giving into fanservice which is why the drag out and cliffhanger finale so you'll come back for another season and the executives see that (while allowing the actors to do whatever they need to in order to feel satisfied in doing their jobs and what makes them happy aka the whole 'Katheryn and I talked about it. We talked about that a lot more than I think normal. She and I usually come in guns blazing, we’re ready to go, and we can hit those script notes and do our job. But this scene took a little bit more kind of ironing out just from the emotional standpoint where we wanted to land and how we wanted it to go from A to B and B to C.' - Jensen and Katheryn are trying to make it something with substance while they know what the real expectation is from these fans & what Elwood and this show are trying to give this section of fans: sex)

"There was a moment there, and there was a connection there, and there were clearly sparks. But do we need to play it out in a graphic sex scene?" - Jensen

"Or would you have rather seen, like, boom, kiss, and the bedroom door flies open, and we’re just hungrily attacking each other, and we fall onto the bed, boom credits?" - Jensen

"A kiss wasn’t necessarily needed for the moment of, “OK, the walls have just come down. The lines are certainly being crossed, but let’s not jump across the line. Let’s tiptoe for now until we figure out what this is.” I thought that was a nice way of doing it in a way that wasn’t scratching that itch that everybody wanted to scratch so much, you know what I mean? I appreciated it, but I could also see why people were like, “Oh, come on, give us the goods.” - Jensen

"And I thought it was a deeper, richer way of going about it in the fact that it was less just, oh, here’s two adults that are attracted to each other, and so let’s start making out and head of the bedroom, and more about, this is a friend who clearly there’s chemistry there, and she wants to know about my backstory. Maybe it’s now time to drop those walls down and start opening up to this person — which we know when you do that, that just leads to more things. So I think had there been 15 more minutes of the episode, we probably would’ve seen Beau leaving the next morning." - Jensen

"But with these two actors and the way they were able to play it, that's why we waited until the very end there to kind of give the audience that reward. That's something that if we did get another season, we would really turn the volume up on, and the actors were completely with me on that. It's funny—they were reading the fan comments online and the reporting, and they're like, "Maybe we should get there quicker." I'm like, "No, no, no. It gives us a place to go if we get another season, and the audience is already leaning into this relationship. They already want it to happen, so let's just hold off on it a little bit longer." - Elwood

So basically this all boils down to this:

AA Equation: Beau + Jenny = Sex, which then becomes Elwood's own equation: Beau + Jenny = Sex = Ratings

That's literally what it boils down to.

If this show gets another season and Beau is somehow still involved and you get the whole Beau/Jenny "relationship", prepare to be disappointed.

P.S. Feel free to thank your local AA's for this gem. Cassie, the WOC main character, was pushed to the side in the story (and screen time) for this garbage because Elwood and Co saw how badly they were drooling over Jensen and how badly they wanted to see Jensen and Katheryn roll around in bed together so they could fantasize being in Katheryn's place, and he was desperate enough to hear the loud roaring of the AA's on social media and latched onto it as a last minute measure to keep his show on air, hoping it would increase ratings. (Spoiler alert: it didn't)

[thefilmsnob]

Glen Coco’s Top 10 Films of 2021

Consistent with the chaotic times in which we find ourselves, the film landscape has become a complete mess. Release dates are tentative, films premier at home the same day as in theaters (or four months later) and the particular streaming service where they arrive is anyone’s guess. But, amidst the logistical tumult, filmmakers continue to craft some great motion pictures. I don’t like preambles as much as I used to, so I’ll just get on with my top 10 films of 2021...after the runners-up and the standard bonus track...there’s always a bonus track.

RUNNERS-UP

-C’mon C’mon

-CODA

-Don’t Look Up

-Licorice Pizza

-A Quiet Place Part II (Full Review)

#10b. (Bonus Track) Nightmare Alley

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Willem Dafoe 

Missing out on the official Top 10 list for departing from the astonishing carnival setting too soon and dragging a bit in the second act, Nightmare Alley still deserves mentioning for its impeccable production design. Even when writer-director Guillermo del Toro’s scripts fall short, he makes up for it with stunning visual storytelling, exemplified here with richly detailed and colourful images of a 1930s carnival, contradicted later in the film by gorgeous art deco designs of city buildings. With a brilliant cast led by Bradley Cooper, del Toro maintains a disturbingly eerie atmosphere throughout despite eschewing his signature fantasy elements, producing a chilling, if imperfect, film noir that takes the viewer through dark corridors (figurative and literal) while examining the worst impulses of human nature.

#10. Tick, Tick... Boom!

Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Starring: Andrew Garfield

If conquering Broadway while also acting in and composing music for films wasn’t enough, Lin-Manuel Miranda has now made Tick, Tick... Boom! and you’d never guess it was his directorial debut. The film stars Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson, the playwright and composer of the smash hit Rent who sadly died the night before its off-Broadway premier. The film jumps back and forth between 1992, in which Larson performs the titular rock monologue that Miranda uses as a storytelling device, and 1990, in which the exhausted artist prepares for the workshop of his passion project Superbia, works at a diner, tries to maintain a relationship and strives desperately to be successful before turning 30. The movie’s seemingly unending action involving constant movement between time periods and within space, with no shortage of singing and dancing, might feel a tad busy, yet it perfectly captures that relentless creativity, passion and even frustration of the ‘starving artist’. Garfield is nothing if not a passionate performer and he sells every moment of both Larson’s mental anguish as well as elation with every fiber of his being. This is truly a whirlwind of a film.

#9. The Power of the Dog

Director: Jane Campion

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee

The great Jane Campion’s latest film is a western, to be sure, but instead of celebrating the genre’s classic traits, she scrutinizes them while shrewdly subverting the genre in the process. By telling a story about a miserable ranch owner who torments his brother’s new wife and her effeminate son, she critiques the idea of toxic masculinity and its harmful effects on, not just the targets of this behaviour, but the toxic individual himself. This film is a masterclass in subtlety, with a script that reveals its complex characters, their motivations and the various, often shocking, plot developments without spelling it out for the audience. A smart viewer will understand how, for example, a character’s repressed homosexuality can lead to isolation, jealousy, resentment and ultimately the exacerbation of toxic behaviour. This psychological thriller is set amidst Ari Wegner’s gorgeous shots of the New Zealand countryside filling in for 1920s Montana and the brilliant Jonny Greenwood’s appropriately disturbing score that compliments a character dynamic already brimming with tension.

#8. The Last Duel

Director: Ridley Scott

Starring: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck

Let’s just get this out of the way: casting famous American actors as French knights using quasi-British accents is an odd choice but nowhere near unprecedented. Yes, it sounds strange at first, but you’ll quickly forget it as you’re swept away in the engrossing social commentary set during the middle ages. Yet, even if this is a time long passed, the themes are sadly still relevant as we’re given three different perspectives of what may or may not be the rape of a young woman. We see some events multiple times, but it never feels monotonous and some parts are different enough that we reevaluate how we feel about the situation and characters, one of whom shifts from a man of honour to a dirt bag right before our eyes. Accents aside, the acting is superb and includes a surprising turn from Affleck who’s a riot as the corrupt and debaucherous Pierre d’Alencon. Ridley Scott’s been inconsistent for a while, but he knows how to put a great historical epic on screen which he does here with grandiose sets and costumes, not to mention the titular last duel forming the film’s climax which is expertly staged and unapologetically brutal.

#7. King Richard

Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Starring: Will Smith, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton, Aunjanue Ellis

Will Smith has been in so many mediocre films that you might forget he’s a great actor. He gives possibly his best performance to date in King Richard as the father and coach of the young girls who will become two of the greatest tennis players ever: Venus and Serena Williams. With the help of director Reinaldo Marcus Green and writer Zach Baylin, Smith vanishes into this character who he portrays as a complex human being, by turns an honourable, nurturing father and a stubborn, sometimes selfish, old man. But, that’s what elevates what could’ve been a cookie-cutter biopic to an insightful character study and a great example of what a sports movie can achieve with powerful performances, excellent pacing and honest dialogue that doesn’t pander. Some have criticized the film for focusing on the male behind two female athletes’ success, but if it means providing a rare layered and positive portrayal of an African-American father then it’s a sound compromise. That said, the film doesn’t forget about the sisters nor their incredibly supportive mother, all played by excellent actors who make us root for this family whose members consistently excel despite so much working against them.

#6. Spider-Man: No Way Home

Director: Jon Watts

Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Marisa Tomei

On paper, this film might seem like gimmicky fan service, but to believe that would be to underestimate Marvel Studios. Even if you’re wary of the corporate franchise film model, you have to give credit to this company; No Way Home is the 27th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet it’s still wildly entertaining, surprising and charming while continuing to connect to the other films in the franchise. Equally impressive is how a movie with so many characters and twists (no spoilers!) can maintain such a high level of coherence and a strong focus on character. In fact, despite all the moving pieces, this is actually one of the more poignant films in the series with huge emotional stakes. Director Jon Watts and writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers handle some very emotional scenes with tact, allowing them room to breath and time to sink in. They also show a willingness to take risks, a rare practice in this genre. Altogether, the film offers a perfect opportunity to get cozy, pig out on popcorn and escape reality for a few hours. Lord knows we could all use that!

#5. The Card Counter

Director: Paul Schrader

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe

Paul Schrader’s 2018 masterpiece First Reformed was overlooked by both audiences and awards voters and the same is true for The Card Counter. The writer-director excels at telling stories about deeply flawed and tortured men (Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver; Ethan Hawke in First Reformed) and he does so again with the exceptional Oscar Isaac who gives such a measured, disciplined performance, not just at times when he’s quiet and withdrawn but also during intense moments when he becomes a scary force of nature. Due to his controversial military past, a young man seeks his help with a plan to torture and kill a former army major who was known for his horrific interrogation methods. These are shown in flashbacks that feel more like nightmares; we view the acts through ultra-wide ‘fish eye’ lenses and hear pounding heavy metal music. As usual, Schrader peals back the layers of the story gradually and amps up the tension to an almost unbearable level. But, most importantly, he earns our complete investment in Isaac’s character and whether he’ll maintain his current situation as a successful gambler, sparing himself and the boy from a life of violence, or be an accomplice to a brutal act of revenge.

#4. Dune

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Stellan Skarsgard, Josh Brolin  

Leave it to Denis Villeneuve, named director of the decade by the Hollywood Critics Association, to take a novel that many have called unfilmable--the awful ‘80s adaptation strengthening that argument--and make his version an aw-inspiring spectacle and indeed one of the best films of 2021. Unlike the original that loses you with a data dump in the first five minutes, the new version introduces you to this world and all its elements gradually and with a variety of strategic methods. It also helps that a handful of some of the greatest actors in Hollywood have assembled to lend their talent and credibility to this project with the prodigious Timothee Chalamet in the lead role. Most impressive, however, are the wondrous visuals; despite working with a seemingly baron dessert setting, Villeneuve brings it to life with gargantuan space ships, labyrinthine structures, giant deadly sand worms and various factions of people with elaborate weapons and armour. Thankfully, the wide shots and lingering camera allow us to marvel at these images instead of taking them for granted. Dune is a prime example of what a blockbuster epic can be when craft and imagination take precedence. *Note: Could’ve used more sand worm.

(Full Review)

#3. The Tragedy of Macbeth

Director: Joel Coen

Starring: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand

William Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted countless times but rarely are they so striking and brimming with creativity. This is Joel Coen’s first film without his longtime collaborator and brother Ethan and he eschews their trademark dark humour while maintaining his mastery of the craft, making one pitch perfect decision after another. The most obvious one is casting Denzel Washington in the lead role, a subversive choice but the right one. The actor, who the New York Times critics named the best of the 21st century, works his magic, changing convincingly from a loyal and weary soldier to a murderous, power-hungry madman due to the ramblings of three witches and the coaxing of his conniving wife played by the peerless Frances McDormand. Coen shot this gem entirely on a sound stage with the final product at once feeling like a theater production yet utterly cinematic. This is done with the help of cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, exploiting shadow, fog effects and black & white gloriously, enhancing the story’s suspenseful, occasionally nightmarish atmosphere. These elements combined with very simple yet effective angular stone sets produce a sort of otherworldly feel appropriate for this supernatural tale. 

#2. West Side Story

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez

Often when we think of someone like Steven Spielberg, an institution in film for decades, we take them for granted, forgetting how great they really are. I was not excited to see West Side Story, the second film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. Maybe it’s because I saw another New York-based musical In the Heights earlier in the year or because the film lacks big names or because the idea of dance-fighting confuses me. Whatever the reason, it was quickly forgotten as I was being taken away by the true spectacle that Spielberg put on screen. Believe it or not, this is his first musical, yet he takes an otherwise chaotic series of events and dance numbers and makes it all completely comprehensible. The love story’s charming and the performances are great, but what he does with the routines is pure visual poetry, completely vibrant and full of energy. Even static, dialogue-heavy scenes are filmed with a sharpness that gives the movie a fantastical quality. The film’s highlight is a beautifully choreographed scene set at a dance in a gymnasium, involving virtually the whole cast plus extras. It starts with a continuous steadicam shot that seamlessly transitions to a cable cam shot as the gym doors open that brings us up into the air, providing a birds’ eye view of the the action before plunging us back down into the sea of dancers. It’s a wonder to behold. 

#1. Spencer

Director: Pablo Larrain

Starring: Kristen Stewart

It’s appropriate that the late Princess Diana, née Spencer, is played by Kristen Stewart. Both women are shy, beautiful, talented, anxious, liked by many, ridiculed by many more, in the news for the wrong reasons. But if you’re expecting a standard biopic about this complex figure or stringent historical accuracy, look elsewhere. Pablo Larrain’s transcendent work of mostly fiction is too ambitious, unique and mesmerizing for the typical formulaic, decades-spanning account. Instead, it’s set over three days beginning on Christmas Eve at the Queen’s Sandringham estate during a turbulent point in Diana’s marriage. We’re shown how isolated and anxious she felt at the time, stuck in a remote house with cold, unloving in-laws, her only friend the Royal Dresser, Maggie, played by Sally Hawkins. We’re given an intimate look inside the tortured mind of Diana whose experiences are so surreal at times that it’s hard to discern between hallucination and reality in this psychological thriller that’s arguably a horror story; with the brilliant Jonny Greenwood’s sinister score, it definitely sounds like one. At the center of the horror is Kristen Stewart, giving the best performance of her underrated career, capturing Diana’s distinct mannerisms and vocal traits while easily gaining our sympathy. Perhaps the most satisfying part of the film is its final sequence, a deeply moving denouement that allows Diana to break free and enjoy a sense of liberation, a happy ending gifted to Diana the character but one that Diana the human being sadly never received.

[sanjuno]

from the tone of ur mcu/got fic it seemed like u really hate or at least disiked steve, how come?

Woo boy, okay. So first things first. Let’s clarify the statement. Steve Rogers, aka Captain America is a character that has been re-imaged several times dependant on the universe he’s in. Classic and Silver Age Steve is okay. I’m kind ‘meh’ about Steve in 616 and Ultimates.

MCU Steve is everything wrong about American superheroes distilled into one storyline. And it’s not just one thing, it’s many things that build up until I want to set him on fire for the good of the world and all the poor, impressionable fanboys in it.

My issues with Steve in the First Avenger are:

MCU Steve refuses to accept any dissenting opinions and his first resort is always violence instead of debate. He’s manipulative in that he verbally antagonizes people so that they “throw the first punch” so he can feel justified in “standing up to bullies”.

MCU Steve glorifies active military service to the point of outright refusing to support the army in a way he’s actually capable of succeeding at and instead commits treason (lying on the enlistment forms) rather that applying for a support role. To say nothing of the danger Steve’s fellow servicemen would be in covering his ass if he did actually manage to lie his way to the warfront. Plus he completely ignores the fact that Bucky was drafted, which means that Bucky did not willingly enlist.

MCU Steve took steroids that had the proven, recorded side effects of increased aggression, sociopathy, and psychosis in every known survival case.

MCU Steve never finished basic training, and thus never even made it to the rank of Private. He’s never been employed by the US Army. “Captain America” is a stage name, not a real rank. If anything, Steve was a consultant employed by the SSR to deal with Hydra and only Hydra.

My issues with Steve in The Avengers are:

MCU Steve is isolating himself and refuses to take care of his own mental health and stability. He expresses obsessive behaviours and rigid thought processes that make it easy for the Hydra agents embedded in SHIELD to gaslight him about people and the operation of modern society. In short, Steve is ignorant and uneducated in a way that he could easily change but refuses to despite have unrestricted access to the resources he needs, and so any failures or bad judgement calls on his part as a result of his ignorance are on his head. Self-education is the responsibility of every thinking person who wants to interact with the wider world.

MCU Steve doesn’t know how to accept specialist opinions, as proven by his distain for Tony and Bruce’s work in the lab so they can track down the cube. Again, distain for cerebral pursuits such as engineering or computer sciences because there’s no visible effort to show for it aside from the results that are produced once the actually work is over.

More attempts to provoke people into violence when MCU Steve is losing an argument because he doesn’t have the facts to back up his statement.

Takes off on a road trip, but when the hell did MCU Steve have the time to get a motorcycle certification or driver’s license? Does he even have a source of income? Second instance of lawbreaking confirmed.

My issues with Steve in The Winter Soldier are:

MCU Steve has no proof that Sam isn’t a Hydra plant when he goes for help, just a gut feeling. Sorry, but background checks are a thing you need to do before sharing classified information for a reason. Operational security is nothing but a dream at this point.

Doesn’t call Tony to get the Helicarriers shut down. Why? Tony has made multiple public statements that Stark tech in the hands of terrorists goes boom!

Yes, there were Hydra agents in SHIELD but dumping the database just meant that all the good, actually SHIELD agents are the ones who got burned. How many active or retired agents and their families got killed because of that info leak? That’s like burning down your house because you saw a spider.

MCU Steve fucks off and doesn’t go to the hearing, and he never actually gets debriefed about what went down. Once again Steve disrespects governing authority and the due process of laws put in place to protect the public. (Because Bucky, and I’m so sick of that mentality.)

My issues with Steve in Age of Ultron are:

MCU Steve hasn’t told Tony that his parents death was a murder but accuses Tony of lying to them. Tony never lies, he doesn’t have enough of a self preservation instinct to bother lying. But Steve is covering up a murder and still somehow thinks he’s a moral authority.

Blames Tony for Ultron when it’s obvious that (a) Bruce was helping and (b) alien magi-tech bullshit was at fault. Plus JARVIS is dead and Steve doesn’t care despite the fact that it’s obvious Tony is grieving.

Identifies with Wanda, known Hydra volunteer who only switched sides because she was going to get killed by Ultron otherwise. Trusts Wanda’s word over Tony’s, when Wanda’s goal has always been to messily murder Tony and she set an enraged Hulk on a city full of civilians with the intent to kill everyone there. 

Throws the shield when he gets to Tony’s lab while Vision is being born, so yet again violence is the chosen option instead of debate.

My issues with Steve in Civil War are:

MCU Steve is still so ignorant of modern politics that he thinks the UN is a government. Also refuses to respect the right of sovereign nations to say “no” to having the Avengers cross their borders. If Steve wants to operate against human organizations instead of just the random alien invasion then he needs to have oversight and a proper command structure. Otherwise he’s just another extremist pushing his personal agenda on the populace. And that’s the definition of terrorism.

MCU Steve fucks up Bucky Barnes’ chances of being acquitted of Hydra’s crimes when they escape custody by blowing through the anti-terrorist task force and collapse a transit tunnel on civilians during the midday commute. Until that point everything Bucky did was could be filed under Bucky being non copus menti as a result of the Winter Soldier programming and the deliberately, maliciously cultivated PTSD triggers implanted by Hydra. But that chance is gone now because Bucky Barnes was the one “in control” when they fucked up the airport and beat up Tony.

MCU Steve lies to Clint and Scott about the reason they’re fighting. Steve says they needs to stop the other Winter Soldiers from being set loose and that the Accords will stop them from acting, but in reality it all boils down to saving Bucky. Meanwhile everyone on Team Cap gets labelled an international criminal in the end and chances are they aren’t going to be able to go home for years even if they’re very, very lucky.

Bad laws are argued in court and amendments get made if a law infringes on the civil rights of the people it impacts. But MCU Steve doesn’t obey the laws, he has never obeyed the laws, and so he has no fucking goddamned clue about how to work inside the system to get what he wants peacefully. Cue more punching his problems.

LYING OR WITHHOLDING INFORMATION ABOUT A MURDER CASE IS OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE AND IT’S A CRIME, STEVE.

Breaking people out of prison when they have, in point of fact, broken the law, IS A CRIME, STEVE.

So in summary, MCU Steve is a violent, delusional bully who likes to be the centre of attention and has never believed that the laws apply to him. It’s especially grating because the script writers keep trying to make him a sympathetic character but all I can see is some jacked up white boy on steroids whining because it’s not fair that he needs to be a decent, law-abiding human being. Due Process, Workplace Health and Safety Regulations, Harassment Policies, things like that. Also, Steve and Wanda are actually close to the same age in life experience according to the MCU storylines but he marginalizes her and denies her agency by saying she’ “just a kid”, which is the most bullshit patronizing expression of a superiority complex I’ve even seen in media. And that’s why I don’t like MCU’s version of Steve Rogers.