#but Maude was particularly styling

[grantmentis]

Maude Poulin-Labelle is drafted by her home province team, PWHL Montreal

[romanceyourdemons]

the big lebowski (1998) is not only a beautifully filmed and scripted movie, but also a brilliant experiment in narrative scale. the intense complication of the story, paying homage both to the narrative and visual style of film noir and especially chandler-style gumshoe detective novels, gives the illusion of an epic story getting at the heart of the american experience. that is certainly the impression the dramatic cowboy framing device conveys. the film seems to subvert the promised epic narrative through the person of its “hero,” jeff “the dude” lebowski, a former hippie and self-identified loser whom the narrator postulates is “possibly the laziest man in all of los angeles.” the epic scope of the narrative seems to be subverted through the loser person of the protagonist, but, as the story goes on, it proves not to be an epic story at all; the story itself is very small, confined to the petty obsession of each character. the dude’s obsession with his rug is particularly clockable as petty, but the millionaire lebowski’s obsession with the appearance of success, maude lebowski’s obsession with her principles, and of course walter’s obsession with his vietnam war service all reduce their actions—and their actions’ scope—to something almost comedically small when compared to the grand story the film’s narrative framing promised. the repeated juxtaposition of the characters’ petty problems and obsessions with war—the gulf war, the vietnam war, the korean war, wwii—seems to echo the similar juxtaposition in cléo from 5 to 7 (1962); however, whereas that film uses the juxtaposition to legitimize the personal magnitude of the character’s problems, this film uses it to delegitimize and draw attention to the pettiness of the obsessions that drive the film. the big lebowski (1998), like many coen brothers films, uses a fast-paced and complex plot to give the illusion of an epic story; it instead draws attention to the true smallness of the scope, parodying its noir genre and resulting in a very entertaining film

[timemachinereviews]

I Watched The Big Lebowski — Am I Part of the Cult?

HELL YES. (Spoilers ahead.)

I’m not entirely sure what I just watched. 

But it was fucking amazing.

The Big Lebowski. Where do I even begin? Well, why not with the fact that I finally watched the damn thing? You don’t need me to tell you how beloved this film is, how it’s one of the biggest cult classics out there. I was alive the year it came out, I had no excuse. Sure, I was in diapers, but that’s still no excuse. I’m kicking myself in the shins right now for not having watched it sooner.

Regardless, I watched it, and the minute I finished it, I knew this was going to be one of those movies for me. You know, the ones you constantly quote, the ones you have dozens upon dozens of conversations about with several different people, the ones you force every movie fan in your life to watch.

I’m not much of a Coen Brothers fan. Before The Big Lebowski, I had only seen one of their other films: True Grit. That was such a long time ago, though, and I don’t remember much — really, the thing I remember most about it is that it introduced most of us to Hailee Steinfeld. However, The Big Lebowski has got me seriously interested in watching more Coen Brothers films, particularly because of how fantastically funny the screenplay is.

Man, this movie is quotable. So, so quotable. I tried to keep note of all my favorite quotes while watching the film but after a certain point, there were just so many, I decided a rewatch would have to be necessary. I’m sure I missed out on a ton, but here are some of my favorite quotes from my first watch:

“I’m talking about the Dude here.”

“It’s down there somewhere. Let me take another look.”

“Yeah? Well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.”

“Her life is in your hands, Dude.”

“Careful, man! There’s a beverage here!”

“The goddamn plane has crashed into the mountain!”

“I dig your style too, man. Got a whole cowboy thing going.”

If you think these quotes are a lot, they’re not even half of all the great quotes present in this movie. According to IMDb, very few lines were improvised and virtually every line, every "man" and "dude," was scripted. That’s insane to me and a testament to just how talented the Coens are at screenplays — but it’s mostly insane to me because the acting in the film felt so natural, I was convinced some of these lines had to be improvised.

Jeff Bridges, especially, owns the role of The Dude. No other actor could’ve played him, which is pretty wild because according to Joel Coen, he and his brother did write for John Goodman and Steve Buscemi, but didn’t know who was going to play the lead role. Mel Gibson was even considered and thank God that didn’t happen, because The Dude was pretty much the role Jeff Bridges was born to play. The way he brings this character to life is absolutely top-notch.

The rest of the cast is a delight too — nearly all of them shine in their roles, delivering their lines with terrific comedic timing and a perfect understanding of their respective characters, but the two particular standouts to me were Philip Seymour Hoffman as Brandt and Julianne Moore as Maude Lebowski. The two aren’t on-screen a lot, but when they are, they’re irresistible — it’s near impossible to not pay attention when they’re talking.

Of course, given the spoiler warning above, you’ve probably already seen this movie, or you just don’t care much about spoilers. Let’s talk about this film’s ending then, where apart from the death of a friend, nothing in The Dude’s life really changes. Everything just kind of resolves itself and The Dude goes on living nearly the exact life he had at the beginning of the movie, presumably never interacting with the majority of the characters he met in this film ever again.

Does this make the whole thing pointless? I can see why one would think that. After all, if the protagonist doesn’t seem to have undergone any significant changes throughout the story, why bother telling the story at all? If, by the end, he’s almost the exact same person he was at the beginning, why was this specific period in his life the one the Coen brothers thought was worth making a movie about?

The way I see it, The Big Lebowski’s whole point is that it’s pointless. There have been plenty of times in my life when something big happens, only for everything to go back to the way it was right after. That’s just how life works sometimes — does that mean these stories aren’t worth telling or remembering?

Of course not. Maybe this film is just a blip in The Dude’s life, an interesting story he tells at parties but one that never really made a big impact in his timeline. (Again, apart from Donny’s death.) Still, he has fun telling this story, doesn’t he? Or at least the Coen brothers do. And we have fun listening to it. Maybe that’s just what life is sometimes — a series of events that don’t seem to add up to any discernible purpose, but we have fun living through them anyway.

But you know, that's just, like, my opinion, man.

P.S. Y’all know that stoner comedy cult classic called Dude, Where’s My Car? Apparently, that title is a reference to The Big Lebowski. I knew it the minute John Goodman said, “Dude, where’s your car?”

[agamemnon-sux]

Ongoing list of D&D characters I've played (excluding characters from pathfinder, GURPS, etc.). Why did this post take me over a year to write.

-Bongo bard (D&D one-shot, autogenerated): simple one-shot character. Update with name if I can find the sheet. Happy-go-lucky, impulsive. Played this game in anno domini 2019.

-Ribble "Turtledove" Itheroy (D&D campaign): this character means Everything to me & my tablemates for this game. Gnome paladin in service of Lady Boldrei, the hearthkeeper, with protector fighting style and oath of redemption. Has a mild temper, a deeply ingrained set of morals and a bleeding heart type of charisma. He's a wide-eyed young man away from his huge family and sprawling burrows on his first quest, and his arc ended up exploring what it means to be taught kindness, empathy, protecting the weak, and self-sacrifice vs what it means to actually apply those values in tense & nuanced situations. He also is about what it means to love and unconditionally care for people who don't always want you around, and who you can't expect to be with forever. I love this little church man and his unending choice to make home, whatever it takes. He also has a Summoned Mount, a big ol chow chow named Yona. I roleplayed so hard on this dude that when Ribble convinced himself he was going to have to die fighting the BBEG I made myself & my DM cry.

-wibble (D&D campaign): Wibble is a ribble retooling using elements that I played with for Ribble but ultimately couldn't make work. I play him in a highly infrequent campaign I do with my brothers like twice a year. He's a forest gnome instead of a rock gnome, oath of the Ancients, and leans much harder into being a silly little fey trickster who operates under his own opaque moral compass.

-Maud Wraithmore (D&D one-shot): much like Ribble, this character wormed her way into my brain and has taken up residence in my psyche. It started with a friend helping me min-max for a one-shot and we ended up with a bladesinger wizard who started with one level in barbarian, plus a little bit of metamagic. To make sense of that, Maud is a variant human kid from nowheresville, grew up by the swamp and wanted out, got into an underground fighting ring when all she had was her rage and her fists, and after that she started leaning into her spark of magic, making deals for scraps of spell instructions and moving into some more performative fighting circles, creating this WWE-inspired wizard streetfighter persona. I've got this idea that she's called back to the swamp by her hometown by some worrying dreams and ends up living in the ribcage of the dead titan that summoned her for a while, which is where she's able to learn most of her formal magic before she goes off and joins the BBEG she works under in the one-shot I made her for (she's evil, by the way). She's got a pretty broad stat spread so of course she has a -2 to Chr. This lady is intelligent and competent and will fall flat on her face in ANY conversation. Fortunately she is somehow able to poorly flirt her way into the heart of the DM's traveling salesperson, Rosie the Tiefling, who she will eventually marry & have a moss dweeb circle of spores daughter (Adelhaid) with. Disaster swamp wizard with a lust for life. Uproariously fun to play. I also have a build I made for a one-shot of Teenage Maud, while she's in the midst of growing her fighting ring reputation and not particularly evil yet besides just being an angsty rage-filled teenage girl.

-Volans (D&D oneshot, not mine): a borrowed character for a last-minute one-shot, a circle of stars Tiefling druid w/ his star map tattooed across his chest and an obsession with immortality. Interesting dude who got me interested in circle of stars for the first time (more on that later).

-Sorrel (D&D oneshot): a Tabaxi way of shadow monk I made for an Oops! All monks! one-shot, and one of my simplest characters personality-wise. I made him on a bootleg online character sheet creator that was mostly in French. His background was anthropologist specializing in... elves, I think? He was just a mildly slippery cat trying to prove his worth as a martial artist, who considered himself more an outsider & documentarian than a direct participant in his life.

-Feverfew (D&D oneshot): Feverfew is a funny case; I made her as an alternate to Sorrel depending on monk party comp, using the limited free options on D&D beyond. They clearly have the same history (why else would they both be named after herbs) but her background is Haunted One. I still had her character sheet up when our RA came by and we strong-armed him into playing for like half an hour, so bam, Feverfew was Real. So, she & Sorrel were brought to the monastery together and they trained until in her teens she had a nightmare so bad it changed her forever (maybe accidentally astral projected into the Abyss or something) and went out on the run, wandering in search of either answers or means of protecting herself, but occasionally still contacting Sorrel (or, in the case of the one-shot, being spectrally summoned to fight alongside her old classmates in a multidimensional Monk Tournament, which sounds way cooler than the game actually was).

-Mira (desert, D&D campaign): MIRA! Miramiramira. This character has everything: she's a crowgirl (crow cowgirl) druid with a rifle who has been stalking the Magnolia desert for the whole of her adult life, killed a dragon once, and has an innate hatred of being infantilized. She's circle of stars and her star map is an intricate embroidery project on the underside of her hat, the result of many long, lonely nights watching the stars. Mira (MiraBile, mee-RAH-bee-lay, btw) was hatched and raised in a traveling circus (owned by two very difficult women who called themselves sisters) and performed with another Kenku, AnDerLwm (OHN-dare-loom) as another "sister act." They were unrelated birds, but AnDi kept Mira safe, taught her most of her words, gave her her name, and was generally the brightest star in Mira's sky, until she disappeared. Mira, still a child, escaped from the circus soon after intent on finding her sister, and picked up her gun skills by long practice and her druid spells from a wandering deputy. Mostly, she watched the stars. For the campaign, her tendency to overhear things she shouldn't gets her looped into a series of fetch quests for incredibly powerful, potentially world-ending artifacts with a secret organization masquerading as a normal organization. Her arc & development revolve mostly around her willingness to trust others to understand her wants/needs and to look out for her, and her recapturing her lost childhood by embracing simple joy and silliness with her companions. She's even learning to play guitar from her warforged friend, a form of expression unhindered by her imitative speech. As her attunement with nature grows, she gains access to divination and seeking magic, which will allow her an understanding of the universe bigger than her missing "sister."

-Mira (islands, D&D campaign): My beloved crowgirl was my PC for more than one campaign; she was dreamed up for this one but played first in the desert (where she is ultimately a better fit...). The islands Mira has a similar backstory but is significantly more driven towards finding AnDi, falling in with her travelling group at the beck of some gods she doesn't understand (one thing that's true about Mira in every universe: gods and religion are near-completely foreign to her. She just Doesn't Get It). She's a grumpy crow lady who never knows when to call it quits. She has spent a lot of time learning how to front, how to deal with civilization without getting killed or mugged or run out of town, and she did her best to pass that information on to some of her companions who had similar trouble with social norms, to limited effect. Funny enough she also learned guitar, this time as a gift from a god to give her some form of social expression (the bass guitar, this time). She died in a scripted TPK to a zealot, that the DM intended to revive us from but we mutually agreed to stay dead. Because that campaign is behind us (rip Styx, the raddest character in the world), I get to decide what happened to that Mira, and I think she probably came back some three hundred years later as a false duragh (a wonderful idea from @/filibusterfrog). She was a restless, hunting soul who died outside of her home forest, and so the land itself would eventually shake her awake and send her on her way, dooming her to wander until she could find her sister. I wonder how that would shake out for her, given what I know about AnDi, but Mira does not.

-Hermés Mercurie (D&D oneshot): bubbly Satyr drag bard that I drew up for a heist one-shot. My beloved. The reason that I could do a Greek accent for like twelve hours before losing it again. A great solution for my DMs calling my characters by female pronouns regardless of their genders. It's important that you know that she's just here for the job. She's just here to get paid, man. She plays like a dozen instruments and can vogue with the best of them. I managed to roll two nat 20s in a row to keep a vampire count distracted long enough with a lute/piano duet for the party to steal the macguffin so that count is gonna remember her forever.

-"Chestnut" the Firbolg (D&D oneshot): the Firbolg, like most of its kin, doesn't really have a name, but its party insists on calling it "Chestnut." It's an unnerving mountain of a person who shouldn't be left alone around still-warm corpses. Absolute savant with a quarter-staff.

-Sid "The Id" Wicked, the priest of the people (D&D oneshot): My bastard son. The priest of the people. As a half-elf son of a wealthy elf socialite put to shame by her fling with a human, Sid grows up contemptuous and irreverent, gallivanting the streets of fantasy London and eventually falling into the newly-reignited cult of Argos, a minor god of vision (Argos's domain is... complicated, but I like to think of him as the god of Witnessing, and of feeds from unsecured security cameras). The cult was meant to just be a front for a bunch of punk-ish street kids to operate behind but unfortunately Sid & his friend Teddy commit to the bit perhaps a little too hard and end up properly pulling Argos from obscurity, leaving Sid a legitimate cleric ready to adventure. Sid is gross, mean, and way, way too excited to get your skull under his elaborately studded boot for someone who has cleric HP. He's besties with the party's bald wizard and makes Pal'leth the githyanki deeply nervous. I only got to play Sid for a brief window, but I've had lots of time to think since about the dreams Sid might start to have after prolonged contact with Argos, the Visions, and how well he might be able to handle that.

But I digress... Sid dresses himself somewhere between a mantis shrimp and an 80s goth rocker. He's got a stupid little French mustache. He carries a once-ceremonial mace that he stole from home into which he's inscribed "pick a god and pray". He's bisexual but he doesn't know that yet. He has a relationship with his mother constantly bordering on violence but he's also the only person in the world who understands her. He dyes his hair black to piss her off and then begs her for money. He says he's the frontman of a band that existed for like six months when he was 16. Literally what's not to like.

-Nizoirse "Nisa," the New (et Hrothgar, D&D oneshot): the instant I found out they had added Verdans to the game I knew I wanted to play one for a one-shot. Additionally, I had agreed with another player prior to create a pair of characters that we could play in-tandem, allowing him to play a private, unexpressive character and lean on my roleplaying skills for the both of us. We landed on a bugbear & a Verdan, giving them camaraderie as goblinoids. Both monks, though the bugbear (Hrothgar) had some prior levels in assassin rogue. She exists in a one-shot world in which most humans vanished from existence in semi-recent history. She woke up in the shadows of the Teeth (a mountain ridge), amnesiac and in an unfamiliar body. She was taken in easily by a nearby monastery and trained in martial arts, meditative grounding, and pottery. The monastery was headed by a'Era the Inquisitive, a curious and kindly copper dragon. She was ambushed by Hrothgar while traveling and subdued him, but recognized in him a hungry, desperate man and invited him to study at the monastery. After many trials of self-denial and physical resilience, she underwent a sudden physical transformation (a Verdan growth spurt, but when you're the only Verdan you know that's not exactly self-explanatory) and became an object of fascination for a'Era; she began training under him directly and received a dragon's name: Nizoirse (knee-ZER-shuh) the New. She & Hrothgar would eventually leave the monastery in pursuit of knowledge and adventure, meet new friends, and make a few interesting discoveries.

Nisa's area of fascination is anthropology, especially of humans-- she associates the disappearance of humans with the mystery of how she came to exist, and pursues cultural knowledge to fill the void of the absolute nil of her own past. She will put the discovery and preservation of knowledge above her and her party's safety. She prides herself on being extremely composed & unflappable, and keeping her emotions from affecting her work. She would fight and die for Hrothgar and cares deeply for the rest of her crew as well, but finds their worldly attachments misaligned and frustrating. I find Nizoirse really compelling, especially her brand of positive nihilism and the fact that she can manifest sick ass dragon wings from her ki.

-Designation 24 (D&D oneshot): I had a few thoughts when making this one-shot character: what if an angel was a robot, and what could possibly be going on in-world with a paladin-warlock multiclass? In terms of characterization and dogma she borrows heavily from Gabriel Ultrakill, because I wanted to play Gabriel Ultrakill, sue me!! I decided she wouldn't have a name, because she's someone who gave up their whole personhood, whole past for a higher purpose, instead she would be designated 24, a number I chose at random. She's a paladin sworn to some sort of angelic order of the sun, which, um. Nobody told me until after about the Solari, a race of sun angels in the D&D cosmology OF WHICH THERE ARE ONLY AND EXACTLY TWENTY-FOUR. She was DESTINED to be.

Anyways, Designation 24 is a giant heavily armored woman with flaming sword and shield. She follows a goddess of cleansing fire and ancient pacts (unnamed at this time but in fact another facet of Boldrei), and was trained in a secretive ultra-militaristic cloister of angels, her Sisters. She doesn't fly nor is she particularly fast but she does a kind of threatening lumbering teleport. She has an ongoing issue where the very sunfire that fuels her will rip through her, pouring from the gaps in her armor and burning her awfully in the process. She thinks in the past few years that she's been in closer contact than ever with her God, but when you're staring into the brilliant fire in front of you it's nearly impossible to tell that the Voice you're hearing is coming from the deep, cold shadows pooling behind you...

Under the helmet she looks exactly like Rorshach from Watchmen. I <3 you scary dyke of all time.

-Sycorax Font-of-Tumult (D&D campaign): oh, my boy. My baby... Sycorax is a fairy & a wild magic sorceror. They were born from a condensed pool of chaos and immediately stood up, dusted himself off, and became a low-level politician utterly and disastrously outspoken against the king. He had enough sense to be an activist generally within the law, but got themself in immense trouble when a wild magic surge went haywire at a demonstration and disfigured one of the king's generals.

Sycorax is an idealist, finds it hard to sit still, and is very difficult to tell no. They believe that the ultimate forms of good include small joys, whimsy, and regicide. If you leave him in a room full of people long enough he WILL start a riot and it doesn't really matter to them what it's about. There's a brief period where they wild magic surge himself down to about 3 inches tall and bright blue, which messes with his relationship to their physical body for the rest of his life. He figures out eventually that the robot they've been traveling with is constructed from the same chaos he bubbled out of and immediately latches onto it as their sworn brother.

They're dead, by the way. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to the campaign's finale session so I asked the DM to kill me. Sycorax was shot clean through by never-before-seen assault weaponry during a capital riot, and guided their party and the remaining protestors to a safehouse before succumbing to the injury. His last words were "what a wonderful thing it is to be alive" before dissolving back into the chaos he was born from. And yet they linger; in every oil-slick shine on the ground, in every flickering shadow, in every murmur of unrest and its following outcry for change. In every cicada's song rests Sycorax, waiting to be the crack where light gets in.

-Ethel of Sunspring (et Frederick, D&D oneshot): Another one-shot character I built in tandem with another player, in this case my brother! We decided it would be fun to play in-game siblings and wrote up Ethel and Frederick of Sunspring, both warlock multiclasses who belong to the Nightwatchers, a local cult following a Lady Umbra, a historic nighttime vigilante (Robin Hood style) who was powerful and beloved enough to ascend to demigod-hood. They were two orphans who grew up together and Frederick mainly pursued the Arcane (divine sorcerer, fey-touched) while Ethel, the more grounded of the two, pursued martial excellence (samurai fighter, devil-sight).

The DM pulled a fun trick on us for this one-shot; we knew the party knew each other in advance, but we showed up and he said "okay, you've all known each other for decades at this point, you're all elderly and live in a retirement community together" which is so much fun, it instantly made Ethel (and everyone else) into cool ass grandparent adventurers taking on One Last Job. So you get this old-lady rōnin type character with otherwordly red eyes and impeccable aim. And she and her brother are still constantly messing with each other and conspiring amongst themselves. We need more grandmas who kill people in media.

-Posey Lanier, "the Jester" (D&D oneshot): Posey is the nomenclative punchline in a rule-of-threes joke involving a trio of pink tieflings (Mowzie, Rosie, Posey, the worst cousins in the world who you should never trust with anything, most especially your money. Rosie is the one who's married to Maud!). He calls himself "The Jester" and wears a blue and white porcelain Venetian mask with a jester's outfit to match. He's a rake rogue (a "swashbuckler" if you're nasty) with an especial talent for mockery; if you need a guy eviscerated in public but without any bloodshed, the Jester is your guy. He's genuinely mean, but at least he's genuine! Except also not genuine at all, since he's a sneak using Batesian mimicry to convince you he's some kind of bard.

Whatever the dynamic was with the one-shot's fairy mead crew was borderline polycule. I'm convinced they all sleep in one heap in the middle of the floor. He's especially sweet on one of the crew's druids (Rivari, I think, but it could have been Yinner. I really should start putting down player names when I make these lists) and has been roped into collecting a great many botanical field samples at personal expense that way. Posey occupies the Faceless archetype, and so goes between the Jester alter ego (loud, exuberant and deliberate) and Posey-as-himself, who is lank, reserved, and generally kind of a bummer. These days, he's the Jester most of the time. It's all fun and games with Posey until the jingling of bells ominously stops.

-Ken'renaq (Pathfinder 2e campaign): I said I wasn't gonna talk about my Pathfinder characters but that was over a year ago and I would like to tell you about her. She's from my brother's campaign & he has a really fun set of player races (essentially re-categorizing all the humanoids into elvish or goblinish) including a handful of beastfolk, one of which is bearfolk, the Takiaq. Ken'renaq is a champion (Pathfinder Paladin) who is surprisingly sneaky for a fully grown brown bear wearing armor. She follows the Liberator cause which means she respects the hell out of people for making their own decisions and demands freedom at all costs (weirdly enough, this campaign is also about regicide. Even here, Sycorax haunts the narrative). She's friends with Solid Snake from the metal gear solid franchise. I don't remember a ton about her background because we haven't played in months and I can't check my character sheet outside of Foundry.

She's just Ken.

-Doctor Flichard "Flinch" Underfoot (D&D oneshot, sort of): a wonderfully eloquent friend of mine could only describe Flinch as a "little creep" and I couldn't agree more. This guy sucks so bad. I got to drop in for a session on the campaign my old group had been playing for the last year as a weirdly pathetic lackey to the Big Bad. As with many of my characters, he's just a string of keywords that I've smushed together into a person: he's a bard but his performance skill is university lecture on planar cosmologeology, a field in which he was a premiere researcher. He had a psychic Incident 400-something years ago in an attempt to "open his mind" that left his head permanently cracked open to the psychosphere and him vulnerable to predatory thought entities (and gave him some sick ass lightning scarring cause. duh) and made him into a psychic halfling vampire who doesn't need brain juice to survive per se but just kind of likes it. He has a strong Jersey accent and says shit like "in my salad days". He's been living in Hades for at least decades and his coworkers have been stiffing him out of some of his pay because he sucks and because he's the only one that's not a yugoloth. My siblings and I spent so long laughing at shitty halfling names when I was trying to make him. I wish him as well as he deserves wherever Banishment spit him out.

IMAGES TIME

Ribble (& Yona!)

Maud, Maud & Mira pride art

Sorrel (left)

Mira

Hermes

Sid

Nisa

24 (insanely sick commission by @bedrock-to-buildheight)

Sycorax

[dankusner]

“F*** You!” Kristen Stewart...

Romance for the Ages 

Rose Glass’ Saint Maud follow-up revels in Eighties pulp 

Sometimes, a movie needs room to breathe, slow down, and take stock. 

Love Lies Bleeding, the second film by Rose Glass, is not one of those movies.

It’s a propulsive, energetic love story by way of 1980s-tinged pulp, a wild ride that deserves to be seen on a big screen and with the biggest crowd possible. 

In her 2019 debut feature, Saint Maud, Glass showcased an aptitude for stories about obsession and magical realism. 

In Love Lies Bleeding, she cements her voice and gift for capturing these themes in the loudest way possible.

The script – credited to Glass and Weronika Tofilska – centers around Lou (Kristen Stewart), a manager at a gym in the desert. 

Lou leads a solitary life, flitting between clean- ing up messes at the gym and returning to her apartment and cat. 

She politely declines the affections of Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov),a regular who can’t take a hint, and stays as far away as possible from her menacing arms-dealing dad (Ed Harris). 

It’s a simple, lonely life that cracks open when bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian) comes into town. 

Lou and Jackie’s romance comes on fast and intense. 

Soon enough it will get bloody, too.

Love Lies Bleeding wouldn’t work without the incredible performances at the heart of the story. 

Stewart and O’Brian smolder together as two people who can’t help but be drawn into each other’s orbit, no matter the conse- quences. 

Their chemistry is powerful enough to carry the film along its wild, twisty path. 

The rest of the cast is equally compelling and fun. 

Harris, for instance, oozes menace and sleaze from every gesture and action (his cos- tuming and makeup, which includes a long mullet-like wig, doesn’t hurt either). 

Anchored by these outstanding performances, Love Lies Bleeding steps on the gas and rarely lets up for its entire 104-minute runtime.

Glass has a real flair for capturing the com- pulsive, sometimes dangerously hot intox- ication of love. 

The way the camera lingers on Lou and Jackie makes it clear their love is inescapable; whether they’re in the throes of passion or blowing up incriminating evidence in the desert, the intimacy of a close-up is crucial to communicating their desire.

It’s a desire that has a cost, as this review has hinted at. 

Yet, it seems to be the point the film is trying to get across too. 

Jackie, hopped up on steroids, has moments throughout the film where she magically bulks up, Hulk-style, and has outbursts (both justified and fueled by terrifying hallucinations). 

She confesses to Lou at one point that she’s hurt people before. 

In a movie that’s anything but grounded, there is a soft center at the heart of this obsessive, violent love story: the search for acceptance. 

It’s unexpected, and some people might not read this right away, but it’s there, even amidst all the bloodshed and pulp.

The all-out Love Lies Bleeding is a love story that won’t work for everyone. However, for those who can revel in the blood-soaked, complicated, sapphic delights that make up the backbone of the film, the saga of Lou and Jackie will be one for the ages.

(A-) LOVE LIES BLEEDING Gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart) falls for bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian), who is passing through town on her way to chase her dreams in Las Vegas. But their love leads to violence and entanglement with Lou’s criminal family members in this gritty but darkly funny crime noir. Also starring Ed Harris, Dave Franco and Jena Malone. R (for violence and grisly images, sexual content, nudity, language throughout and drug use). 104 mins. In wide release.

THRILLER

LOVE LIES BLEEDING

A- 

. The first time we glimpse Jackie (Katy O’Brian) on screen in Love Lies Bleeding , it is not particularly auspicious. 

But we haven’t yet seen Jackie through the eyes of Lou (Kristen Stewart), and that’s the only gaze that matters in this film. 

When Lou — a gym manager — catches sight of Jackie prowling among the weight machines, skin gleaming, her powerfully muscular body reflected in the mirror, it’s like director Rose Glass is letting us in on a lusty little secret. 

Lou’s desire is so palpable you can smell it, and, lucky for her, the feeling is mutual.

It’s 1989 in an anonymous Southwestern town, and Jackie is only drifting through on her way to a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas. 

Even in the desolate gym parking lot, Lou and Jackie’s chemistry is explosive.

But the reality of life in this small, rough town carries an insistent, inevitable darkness. 

There are Lou’s battered sister Beth (Jena Malone) and Beth’s philandering, abusive husband JJ (Dave Franco). 

There are the FBI agents who would really like to talk to Lou about her estranged father, Lou Sr. (Ed Harris), who owns the gun range where Jackie has picked up a few waitressing shifts. 

There’s Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov), a ditzy, nagging townie, who pops up, keening for attention, at the worst times.

There are too many connections and coincidences swirling around them, and as Lou and Jackie collide sexually, a bloodier collision looms on the horizon: sheer ominousness telegraphed in Lou’s red-drenched flashbacks.

The film takes a wild swing in the third act that may puzzle viewers expecting something more grounded and gritty, but it makes perfect sense when seen as an auteurist choice from Glass, who imagines an ending that is astonishingly, even shockingly, optimistic before slamming us back into the dirt.

Love Lies Bleeding is darkly funny, with humor baked into almost every line reading and scene transition. 

Stewart takes capably to the crime and the comedy, while O’Brian brings an otherworldly, even alien, quality to her role.

[tommyb-productions]

Critical Definition: Film Authorship

An auteur comes from the French word for Author and in the context of film, is the theory that each director has a distinct style of filmmaking. It is somewhat like how different book writers have different styles of writing, linking it to the word author. “The concept of authorship emerged parallel to that of subjectivity and marked the recognition of individual agency and intentionality in the production of artworks.” (Maule, 2008 Page 13) The text goes on to explain how the concept of film authorship arose in 1950s French filmmakers who had certain temperaments that influenced how they made films. The idea then spread to the rest of Europe and then to North America. Maule then explains how the concept took off among the contemporary filmmakers of the 1960s and beyond. Throughout the text, Maude describes many attributes of filmmaking that an auteur will choose to use, certain types of shots, music choices, production methodologies, or even socio-cultural rituals related to the film. Whatever the choice is for an auteur, it should be recognizable. This will often then feed into the marketing latching onto the director's name to make it a big deal in trailers and posters, sometimes to the point that it overshadows the actors of the film. The latest work from several authors; ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023, Nolan), ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ (2023, Scorsese), and ‘Last Night in Soho’ (2021, Wright), had their names prominently featured in their marketing often listing their previous films.

Edgar Wright is particularly notable for his use of eccentric camera movement, use of sound and continuity, and call-backs and foreshadowing. (McQueen, A. 2013) The elements of sound are taken to an almost extreme level in his 2017 feature Baby Driver. Call-backs and foreshadowing are used to great effect in Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World’s End (2013).

Christopher Nolan's 'signatures’ that mark him out as an auteur can be his preference to shoot on film as well as a particular interest in science and mathematics. His science fiction films often center around a key piece of technology and delve into the practical applications of said technology. He also has a particular interest in time and how it works, often manipulating time through the edit (Dunkirk, 2017; Oppenheimer, 2023) or having the characters use the manipulation of time to their advantage (Inception, 2010; Tenet, 2020) (Robbie, 2021).

In Summary, film asterism is about a director having a certain style that they use in any of their films, it can be anything from genre-specific films, a particular method for lighting a film, or even having the same car make and model appear in every one of their films (Sam Rami). As long as there is something that sets their work apart from the work of other auteurs, their work can be considered unique and thus specific to them.

Sources:

Maule, R. (2008) Beyond auteurism : new directions in authorial film practices in france, italy and spain since the 1980s. Bristol: Intellect. (Accessed: November 6, 2023).

McQueen, A. (2013) “'bring the Noise!': Sonic Intensified Continuity in the Films of Edgar Wright,” Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, 7(2), pp. 141–165.

Dubois, D. (2021) “Cruising the Hyper-Real Highway: Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver,” Journal of Film and Video, 73(1), pp. 48–58. doi: 10.5406/jfilmvideo.73.1.0048.

Goh, R. B. H. (2022) Christopher nolan : filmmaker and philosopher. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic (Philosophical filmmakers). Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=3070228 (Accessed: November 15, 2023).

[edublogsworld]

New York's Most Creative Clothes Store: You Can Find Anything You Want!

New York's most innovative clothing store might be the perfect place to go if you're looking for a new wardrobe and a space that is elegant. The store is known for its affordable clothing and low cost of goods. However, be prepared to wait for a long time, particularly on weekends. Harold and Maude: The owners of this Brooklyn boutique source their clothes from all over the world. Recently, they've started a new collection featuring Japanese textiles. The store is located in Bed-Stuy and sells vintage college t-shirts and t-shirts. Another boutique that is cool in the neighborhood is What Goes Around Comes Around with locations on the Upper East Side and Soho. They are famous for their rare and vintage designer goods. Forever 21: This store has always been a popular choice for teens and young adults. Fashionable and bohemian styles are available. You will find some cute accessories and shoes here. The store is located on Broadway avenue, which runs between 45th and 46th Streets. If you're looking to buy new clothes This is the store for you. All your clothes are available for a fraction of the price. Sample sales They aren't a joke in NYC. Sample sales are an enormous deal for fashion-conscious women from the upper east. They'll fight for the chance to get their hands on Reformation dresses Rebecca Minkoff bags, Caroline Constas ' dresses, and Spiritual Gangster tees. These sales were frequented by some of Micheal's most close friends. Old Navy: Old Navy is another brand offering low-cost fashions. Old Navy's Time Square store has three floors. There's the clearance section, sale section and even a "Clearance" area in which you can pick up the best price on last season's fashions. The New York's Most Creative Clothes Market: Whatever you'd like, it's possible! New York City's shopping culture is unrivaled. In every neighborhood, you will find numerous shops to choose from. If you're seeking trendy clothes or a chic designer clothes, there's a shop for you. H&M: H&M is the most popular destination for hipsters. Located just from 42nd St., it offers 41 fitting rooms as well as many affordable clothing items. The brand sells anything from shoes to clothing to home products and beauty products. Some of the most affordable items are as low as $10! There are two locations for H&M: Times Square and West Village. The store is open Monday through Friday, from 10am until 10pm on Saturdays and Sundays between 11am and 8pm. Assembly New York specializes in Japanese brands, and its clothing line is distinctive and wearable. You can spend anywhere from $130-$700 on the item you want or an attractive accessory for just the cost of a few dollars. The jewelry at Assembly New York is also fashionable and the distinctive designs will be in your closet for many years to be. New York's Most Creative Clothes Store! From vintage furniture to retro clothing, you can discover what you're searching for in this store. The rack of new arrivals is one of the most popular locations to get bargains. The best quality merchandise is snapped up very quickly. You can also browse the record store for bargain vinyl records, as well as check out the cool artwork displayed on the mezzanine. It is located close to Union Square. The L train stops at Union Square. You can stroll into the store from any station. Think Closet - Located in Brooklyn, Think Closet is a vintage-style clothing store that's located near the 2 subway line. The store opened in 2006, and it has expanded to over $120,000 a year. It offers a wide assortment of vintage clothes at affordable prices that range from $5 to $30. Some accessories are also available. You'll find something to suit anyone, regardless of what your budget. The Meatpacking District A trendy retail area, is hip. The area was once a warehouse for industrial use however, it has become an exciting area that is filled with trendy restaurants and stylish shops. In this area, you can find the best designer clothes. You'll find the perfect gown for you, or exclusive furniture items for your home here.

Video source

[suburbanbeatnik]

I was reading up on Napoleon II because your posts about him got me interested, and found out there's a quite well-regarded play about him by Edmond Rostand (of Cyrano de Bergerac fame). Have you read it? And if so, what were your thoughts? Did you like it, was it true to what you've read about the actual Franz, etc.? Did you feel like Rostand did justice to his story?

Thank you for reading my posts! I'm so glad my biography recaps are getting people interested in Franz. I really appreciate it. :)

Truth be told, I've avoided Rostand's L'Aiglon until now because late Victorian drama makes me break out in hives. But I read it, just now, just for you! So I could actually say something about it! And... well...

It might have been well-received back in 1900, but the whole play's aged about as well as milk. It was written as a Sarah Bernhardt vehicle, and IMO there is very little of Franz in the main character: it's Sarah Bernhardt grandstanding, from beginning to end. (I've watched a lot of her movies-- many of them are on Youtube-- and she has a very distinct delivery and style, which is replicated faithfully in the play.) On the whole, I found it tedious, affected and extremely melodramatic. There's not a lot of depth to any of the characters, just lots of florid speechifying (and it even rhymes in the original French, God help me). Franz yearns to be like his dad and rule France. Metternich is a royalist Snidely Whiplash. Prokesch is a faithful sidekick. Countess Camarata is Cool Action Girl and Marie Louise is a shallow twit. I mean, sure, these depictions aren't so far off from reality, but it would have been nice to have some degree of complexity and nuance.

Rostand did do some research, and there are some flashes of wit and insight. I particularly liked this speech here:

I like that "but," I hope you feel its value! Good Lord, I'm not a prisoner, "but"—that's all! "But"—not a prisoner, "but"—that is the word, The formula! A prisoner? Oh, not a moment! "But" there are always people at my heels. A prisoner? Not I! You know I'm not; "But" if I risk a stroll across the park A hidden eye blossoms behind each leaf. Of course not prisoner, "but" let anyone Seek private speech with me, beneath each hedge Up springs the mushroom ear. I'm truly not A prisoner, "but" when I ride, I feel The delicate attention of an escort. I'm not the least bit in the world a prisoner, "But" I'm the second to unseal my letters. Not at all prisoner, "but" at night they post A lackey at my door—look! there he goes. I, Duke of Reichstadt, prisoner? Never! never! I, prisoner? No! I'm not a prisoner—"but"—!

This rings true to me-- and there are some fun scenes where Franz confronts his mother and his grandfather. But then the play devolves into an improbable plot to free Franz where his cousin Camarata dresses up like him and they switch places, and there's a climactic scene where there's a showdown with the chief of police on the field of Wagram, and Franz has a vision of all the men who died at Wagram, and then he's forced to join his own Austrian regiment after he almost attacks them in his delirium. Okay then.

He dies in the last act, and all his family show up to attend his death, which is so far from what actually happened I wanted to go back in time to punch Rostand. While he was dying, Franz actually was deserted by his family, and his mother had to be badgered to show up, which she did at the last minute. (In fact, Franz thought he wasn't dying because his tutor Dietrichstein wasn't there. Dietrichstein claimed Franz was just like a son to him, but left, like everyone else, to leave Franz attended only by servants.) It was all so grim and awful, and this was just... a typical Victorian death scene, out of Camille or Uncle Tom's Cabin. I found it underwhelming as well as infuriating.

There's also the issue of the role was written to be played by an actress (Sarah Bernhardt in Paris, with Maude Adams taking over the role in New York). As I was reading it, I couldn't help but think how much the real Franz would have hated this. He was always chomping at the bit to prove himself as a soldier and go off into combat-- the play leans hard into the depiction of him as a pretty, tragic, frustrated martyr, and I don't think he would have liked that. His depression, his bitterness and rage are all sugar-coated. His stoicism is non-existent. Even his greatest quotes (like the famous "Ma naissance et ma mort, voilà toute mon histoire. Entre mon berceau et ma tombe il y a un grand zéro") are gussied up and drawn out in an elaborate set-piece involving his cradle being physically brought to his death-bed. It's bizarre and frankly a bit tasteless.

I think the play would have been stronger if Rostand had downplayed the fantasy swashbuckling elements, but I guess that was his brand. Personally, I think a psychological thriller about grooming and abuse would have been more apropos for Franz's life, but I'm a 21st century person with 21st century tastes. L'Aiglon is definitely a product of its time, no more, no less.

Anyway, thanks for the ask! Sorry about the rant. 😬

[the-pale-goddess]

Hope you’re having a lovely day today! I’ve got some questions for you regarding Ethan and Tiffany <3

As a music lover, I’m curious about their music taste. If they were in charge of the music anywhere, what would play? What’s in their respective playlists and what are their favorite songs?

Avy!!! Omg, as a fellow music lover I was so thrilled to answer this ask 💌 Thank you so much for thinking of me and my babies, ILY ❤️❤️❤️

It’s a bit longer than expected because I can’t shut up, sorry ksbskbskbs

Tiffany’s heart will always beat to rock. But she also enjoys quality pop, some rap and r’n’b. Anything that just sounds right, you know? She’s addicted to music and cannot imagine a day without it.

Her love for rock’n’roll was borrowed from her eldest sister, Tavy. While her family assumed it would be a temporary fixation, Little Miss T has proven everyone wrong.

Inspired by my beloved Maud @blossomanarchy, I went a little extra and created a playlist with some of Tiffany’s all time favorites:

The list was much longer, but I figured I need to condense it a bit lol

As a child, Tiffany was exposed to classical music through dancing and her mother (a piano teacher) and it quickly became a part of her. After she quit dancing, that sentiment got buried deep for years. It was Ethan who brought it back. Much to his delight, he finally found someone to enjoy opera with.

She’s always up to date with alternative/indie rock music and enjoys discovering new artists like some cool European bands no one knows about.

While Ethan has no sympathy for the modern tunes and genres, all the mainstream popular songs only give him a headache, he finds Tiffany’s main rock playlist ‘bearable’ as it contains a lot of evergreens he used to hum daily when he was in high school, reminding him of his youth. Nothing too punk rock though, that vibe was always waaaaaaay too specific for his taste and I don’t picture him as that kind of rebel (because it wouldn’t be, you know, very Capricorn of him).

I think we can all agree that classical music with a side of iconic jazz is Grumpsey’s signature style.

I don’t really see him having a favorite song? Though he enjoys music, Ethan isn’t a frequent listener. Unlike Tiffany, he doesn’t deem it essential to his routine. To him, music is a form of relaxation, and he rarely finds time for that.

In my HC, he has a collection of rare vinyls just because he can kdhkddkb But still, he prefers the live performance.

He doesn’t have Spotify (or any other streaming app for that matter), but sometimes uses Tiffany’s when they’re on the road and she offers a change of tune for the sake of his sanity lol

The genre he loathes the most is rap, but he is forced to tolerate it since Tiffany vibes with it sometimes. And when she does…It’s an entire performance. He’s particularly familiar with Doja Cat. Against his will, obviously. But that dick’s 10/10, so T just can’t help herself jsvjsvjsvsjv

Another life-changing moment was when Tiffany sang Like a Prayer to him. She made him understand what the song is really about…If you catch my drift 👀

[tiesthatbind-tf]

I have two new questions: Wouldn't Onyx Prime be African because of Eukaris more closely related to African traditions? And what would your version of Cyclonus look like and what ethnicity he would be?

Nope! Because I'm not using the extremely convoluted history IDW has for the characters/world before the main story. Onyx here is not Shockwave in disguise, he's much closer to the Aligned/Fun Publications version of the character. Eukaris exists but it's sort of a central homeland state created specifically for Beast Men where all variants of them would receive equal treatment (This is due to the fact that even in places where some of them were well-accepted, others were not, as an example Bird-style beast men being revered in Japan as 'Tengu', while fox-style beastmen were always pegged as tricksters and bear-style Beastmen were outright demonised outside of Ainu culture).

Beast Men in Ties That Bind are also not associated with a single culture or people.

There's actually a whole page dedicated to the explanation for Beast Men and Eukaris in this AU, I'll include it under a cut since it's long (TW for mentions of Human Trafficking and general dehumanization).

I haven't as of yet decided anything on Cyclonus!

BEAST MEN

A new subset of humanity which occurred during the Quintesson Invasion, Beast Men (Homo Bestia) were the product of genetic experimentations on humans and animals alike by Quintesson scientists in the early days of the invasion.

The exact nature or reason behind these grotesque experiments have yet to be fully understood but from what little has been translated from salvaged texts, it is believed that they were conducted to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of earth’s indigenous lifeforms and to create a robust ‘working animal’ for strip-mining and slave labour purposes by combining traits between them.However much of the early experimentation yielded less than satisfactory results; The Beast Men despite their enhanced strength were often wilder in nature and even more defiant than standard humans, with some unable to adapt to their heightened senses causing them to lash out at all stimuli.

Many were terminated as failed experiments while others were kept incarcerated as stock to continue Quintesson research to fine-tune the process.However, many still managed to escape through concerted combined efforts between themselves or were liberated by rebels later on between 1930 and 1945. They took part in the Second Quintesson War under the leadership of Owais Naseem, one of the thirteen heroes of the war and a Horse-Man (Centaur).

The most populous subset of Beast Men comprises of Canids, which make up 20% of their entire demographic due to their purported usefulness as huntsmen, guardsmen and even ‘pets’ to the Quintessons.This is followed by felid (15%), ruminant (15%), avian (10%), rodentia (10%), oceanic (10%)  and others (17%).The rarest type of Beast Men are Insectoid (3%). They usually feel a strong affinity for nature and most commonly reside in South America, Africa, Asia and their established ‘homeland’ of Eukaris.  They are least found (outside of government-commissioned Cold Constructs)  in the USA, France and the UK.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF BEAST MEN

Beast Men are classified into three categories according to a worldwide government census, mostly based on the level of visible mutation.

Class A (‘Humanoid’) Accounts  for 15% of Beast Men.

Mutations are recessive/subtle, mostly centered around eyes, ears. Occasionally will sport claws.

Due to their mostly human appearance, they are better accepted by society with some reaching fame due to their perceived safe but ‘exotic’ looks.

Little to no limitations on personal rights. Mixed marriages with standard humans are allowed but heavily frowned upon due to presiding fear that, as they are still carriers of the animal gene, their mutations will pass down and could become more dominant in their children.

Little to no animal instincts.

Class B (‘Mix’) The most common class accounting for 50% of all Beast Men.

General public perception tends to vary from mild distaste to full on disdain.

Their physiology tends to be animal-like wrapped around a human frame. Anatomy remains mostly human (eg: Having paws or claws, but relegated to human-size and shaped hands or feet).

Allowances made for public transport/spaces with conditions.

Mixed marriages with standard humans banned in most countries.

Overlaps can occur with Class C.

Mild animal instincts.

Class C (‘Feral’) Accounts for 30% of Beast Men.

The class facing heaviest persecution due to their completely non-human appearance. Human traffickers have been documented selling them to hunting parties and reserves.

Full animal traits, including major to full coverage of fur/feathers/scales, tails, teeth, digitigrade legs, etc. Will occasionally sport ‘distorted’ anatomy (like elongated arms for flight or running on all fours) or missing anatomy altogether (legs for snake-men) to better support animal physiology.

Not allowed in public transport and spaces unless clearly designated.

Mixed marriages with standard humans banned in most countries.

Strong animal instincts, however level of intelligence/emotional empathy remains the same as standard humans.

Class D (‘Shifters’) The rarest class, accounts for 5% of Beast Men

Are an offshoot of Class B and C individuals who have the ability to fully shapeshift into animals.

The phenomenon is still being studied.

BEAST MEN IN SOCIETY

Despite their role in helping to win the war, the relationship between Beast Men and modern society is shaky, with a majority of them suffering some form of discrimination from governments and people unwilling to make concessions for them in modern living and personal engagements.

Like Cold Constructs, many of them are seen as second-class citizens who find it hard to rent property due to landlords who insist on a ‘no animals’ rule being applied to them (thus pushing most of them into redlined districts and neighborhoods). Most forms of public transport also bar them entry due to the ‘hassle’ that accommodating all subsets of them would invoke.

More so, the ‘non-domestic’ variants of them are often seen as dangerous or unpredictable due to their enhanced sensitivity to stimuli which would otherwise not affect a ‘normal’ person (and there have been cases of people deliberately overloading their senses to force them to react in a violent manner), and this limits the job market for them as well.

Metropolitan cities, particularly in western countries, place heavy restrictions on their movements in public; Establishments and businesses are allowed to refuse them service or bar them entry if they are seen to be a threat or if the facilities are (often deliberately) not built to accommodate them.

Violence against them is a regular occurrence despite laws being passed to combat the issue and most Beast-Men will only go out in public with a chaperone or in groups for protection from harassment.

Worse yet are the cases of illegal hunting of Beast Men, whether for game or their body parts, which sees a steady demand in the black market.

However, the case isn’t the same in all countries; In many areas of Africa and Asia, certain subsets of Beast Men are mostly accepted as members of modern society.

Snake-Men are a welcomed group in Thailand due to their resemblance to mythical Naga, while Tiger-Men are seen as protectors and a symbol of courage in Malaysia.

Bird-Men receive adulation in most South and South-East Asian countries due to their resemblance to the Garuda, while the same can be said for Japan which sees them as Tengu.

Lion, Leopard and Panther-Men find similar acceptance in African nations, which sees Lion-Men in particular to have been royalty in a past life.

Scotland stands out among western nations due to its granting of full-class citizen status to Wolf-men, affectionately known as ‘Wulvers’, particularly in the Shetland Islands which in turn sees a high population of them compared to other European nations.

That said, as not all Beast Men subsets are accepted to the same level even in countries that accept certain types, a Beast Men-centric state that levies the same rights and acceptance for all subsets, Eukaris, was established in 2004 via extensive terraforming on Queen Maud Land in Antartica.

[albertserra]

What is cinema / genre ?

i think anon meant like. 'cinema' as in art/arthouse film, typically more serious in tone and style - think hereditary or saint maud, whereas a genre film would be something like event horizon or host or the saw franchise. im not particularly fond of the categorization since it comes w a lot of negative connotation for genre vs inherent positive connotation for 'cinema'. when you can have a really shitty arthouse movie (the lighthouse) vs a really good genre movie (vhs 94) for example

[antiquatedplumbobs]

#3 please!!!

Oooh good question!

3. where do you get inspiration?

I get my inspiration from different places, particularly for different things. I read a lot of historical novels so a lot of my storytelling style comes from that medium.

Anne of Green Gables is one of my absolute favorite book series out there, I've reread it multiple times and used to watch the 1980s movies on repeat. I feel like the general vibe of my story comes from those books, wholesome and realistic? I also really enjoy Lucy Maude Montgomery's other works, particularly The Blue Castle and that's certainly an inspiration.

My story is meant to take place in historic New England, so a lot of my inspiration for that comes from where I live. I live in Maine, so I take a lot of inspo from buildings I see around me everyday and history that I know personally of the area. I try really hard to be geographically and temporally realistic with my story as it's a way for me to explore the history of my home.

When it comes to builds I get inspiration from a variety of visual medias, Red Dead Redemption has definitely inspired some of my more recent builds, but TV shows will too in addition to buildings I see around me. All of my New Englandesque builds are based off buildings I have seen in person.

Thank you for the ask, this was so much fun to think about!!

[aro-kai]

⚠ Spoilers for Mask of Shadows ⚠

Heyo @linseymiller , first of all if ur reading this I'd like to say hi and also THANK YOU so very much for writing the first published book I've actually gotten into in--gods, a year at least, probably two or more. I got spoiled by Ao3 and its quick free fic and easily guaranteed queer rep--incidentally, being spoiled by its ability to let me tell authors directly how much I loved their writing led to me writing this post, so. Fic comment style author ish void shouting commence!

I used to be that book a day kid, y'know, back bf fanfic, and I am happy to announce that Sal and their exploits took me back to it. (First in a day book I've done for fun in idk probably years! Thank you for letting me visit my childhood again!) I picked it up by chance, got hooked in by the word "they" on the back cover, and then just. Got sucked in. It was a Delight

I love all of the characters, it was honestly a well developed cast. Sal in particular, unsurprisingly--I myself have a wobbly gender so I latched onto them pretty quickly. I love their morally grey-ish-ness, it never really felt forced or "edgy", and tbh if I were in their place undoubtedly I would also be strongly inclined towards murder. It's--I love the way you balanced their lack of shame for it with this acknowledgement of loss? They were neither so remorseless that they no longer saw any that they killed as people nor quailed at the thought of taking a life--the way they took death as just another facet of existing, which isn't particularly bad except for the pain and blood spilt, was this beautiful balance that I really appreciate. Also their competence! Was Amazing! They balanced these /super/ impressive skills w things that they still def struggled w. I loved their relationships w the other characters as well, and the contrast bw those they allied w w out particular affection or trust to the ones like Maud and the Hand where they just gradually became closer thru bickering. (Love Maud, she's def in my top three faves.) and Sal's romance w Elise was also really sweet! even tho romance isn't particularly my thing--which brings me to my next point!

Aromantic Emerald aromantic Emerald aromantic Emerald I was so freaking Pumped holy shit any time à character is aromantic I simply burst out in Feelings I'm already Attached in a matter of like two sentences gods I hope nothing happens to her

Also! im still mad at u abt Ruby how Dare I just decided he was one of my faves very cruel of you /lh (mostly) Liked the back story tho! That was Neat

I did not keep much track of the numbers (Sal not building close relationships w most of them was appreciated I would've failed) but I did enjoy Five as their foil-ish. Both on a quest for revenge after trauma brought on at a similar age by similar circumstances, etc. I must say I did appreciate the "just bc a character has a Tragic Padt doesn't automatically make them a good person" thing. That needs to be said more often. Sure baby Five didn't necessarily deserve to have that happen, sure he had a narrative parallel thing, but that doesn't change the fact he was a Dick to the nth degree. Torture, murder, classism, and to top it all off transphobia? Fucking hell fuck off man.

(Also, the lack of major institutionalized homophobia/transphobia? A breath of fresh air goodness not enough ppl in fantasy take advantage of that goddammit you can make this world whatever u want why the /fuck/ would you put that shit in all of them sure those stories need to be told but gods can I not read abt ppl like me in a book w out it being depressing? C'mon. Anyway appreciate u <3)

Anyway, prolly gonna go read the second one now (and potentially figure out a way to put this comment into goodreads acceptable format lol), I'm very pumped to see Sal go on their revenge quest, worried for Elise, looking forward to Maud being an icon, and also super emotionally attached to Emerald despite knowing almost nothing abt her (we share an orientation that's Enough Im latched on, I'm jumping, she's mine now). May or may not comment more here later! Either way thank you again so much for the story, hopefully you know this already but ur awesome, Very appreciate!

[gelatinocomics]

"The Maud Couple” Is Good, Actually

[ID: Pinkie Pie, Maud, and Mudbriar stand outside in the daytime, looking at each other. Pinkie is smiling and talking with her hoof raised, while Maud and Mudbriar stare back blankly.]

In my experience, The Maud Couple (S8E3) is generally an unpopular episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic due to the introduction of the contentious character Mudbriar. It's understandably unpopular among the queer fans, who hate to see a shoehorned-in hetero relationship, and some neurodivergent fans who might take issue with Mudbriar's portrayal of autism.

These are legitimate grievances, but I think people don't give this episode a fair shake. I've put some thought into it, and I ended up taking a positive message away from this episode, even if it wasn’t the one intended by the writers. I'd like to delve into my feelings on the episode, which might help you better appreciate an underappreciated character.

[ID: Starlight Glimmer, wearing a mining helmet, smiles and looks behind her. In front of her there are large yellow, blue, and green gemstones embedded in a cave wall. Maud and Starlight’s reflection appears in every facet of the gemstones. Maud looks down as she talks.]

"Another reason I like rocks – they don't exclude you if you're... different than other ponies." (S7E4 Rock Solid Friendship)

Maud Pie is undeniably neurodivergent. Since her introduction, fans on the autism spectrum found lots of things to relate to: her lack of tone regulation in speech, her special interest, and her general difficulty in following the social rules that neurotypical people take for granted. In her first appearance, the Mane 6 found Maud difficult to understand, and none of them could get along well with her. The one thing they could agree upon was their love for Pinkie Pie. Pinkie grew up with Maud and they have an unbreakable bond. It’s a running joke in the show that while other characters struggle with Maud’s oddities, Pinkie finds nothing unusual about her.

The Maud Couple saw the introduction of Mudbriar, Maud’s boyfriend who she met offscreen. However, in his first scene, we don’t know his relation to Maud; he’s just an abrasive character that Pinkie can’t stand. Pinkie is shocked to discover that Maud would fall “in like” (Maud’s words describing her relationship with Mudbriar) with someone like him.

The irony of the situation is that Mudbriar is shown to be just like Maud. Maud says they have a lot in common, and they’re happiest when discussing their special interests. Later, Starlight (already established to be good friends with Maud) points out that Mudbriar sounds just like Maud, and Pinkie has trouble accepting that. The rest of the episode is about Pinkie learning to respect her sister’s love for Mudbriar, even if she can’t personally understand it.

[ID: Pinkie Pie wraps Maud and Mudbriar in a hug as they all sit together on a clifftop. The sun is setting behind them. Maud looks at Pinkie and smiles, while Mudbriar looks blankly at Pinkie.]

“Technically?! You’re right!”

Those are the facts of the episode. If Maud is such a popular character, why do so many fans have a bad reaction to Mudbriar? Is the episode wrong in portraying them as the same?

For starters, I think it’s notable that Mudbriar was not initially a sympathetic character in this episode. His first appearance has him severely aggravating Pinkie Pie, and the audience can easily sympathize with her. It’s a clever bit of writing that gives the audience the same exact struggle as Pinkie throughout the episode. The trouble is that many fans don’t feel satisfied by the end, and they can’t embrace Mudbriar the way Pinkie does.

Let’s take a look at Mudbriar’s behavior. Unlike Maud, he has a habit of correcting people over any little technicality. He brings the conversation to a halt when someone speaks with any ambiguity or inaccuracy, even something mundane that most would overlook as a normal and expected part of conversation. In fact, it seems to be his primary mode of communication. Like Maud, he doesn’t follow the typical rules of social interaction, which can make his conversations awkward and unpleasant.

Mudbriar’s behavior can be particularly off-putting to anyone who has experienced something like it. People who engage with internet communities have probably seen their fair share of pedantry-- an obsession with details that's frustrating to anyone trying to carry on a genuine conversation. I’ve seen Mudbriar’s behavior compared to “mansplaining” and Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory, a character often cited as poor autistic representation (I can’t comment on this since I haven’t seen the show). The neurodivergent audience might not appreciate seeing an autistic character portrayed as annoying and abrasive, since that’s not how autistic people want to be seen.

[ID: Mudbriar and Pinkie Pie are standing in Pinkie’s party cave, with piles and shelves of party supplies in the background. Pinkie aggressively pushes her snout in Mudbriar’s face and scowls at him. Mudbriar looks down at her with a slight grimace.]

Mudbriar isn’t easy to get along with.

I’ve been very careful to avoid describing Mudbriar’s behavior as arrogant or rude, as it might initially seem. There’s a reason for this: Mudbriar is well-intentioned and never does anything mean. Despite the way his correction habit might come across, he never says anything to imply that he thinks he’s superior. He doesn’t look down on anypony. He genuinely tries to be helpful. He never even reveals any dislike for Pinkie Pie. Whether you would describe him as polite or rude is pretty subjective, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any real evidence that he’s condescending. Watch the episode again with this in mind, and you may find that Mudbriar is a much more pleasant character than you thought.

It’s pretty clear that his conversational habit has nothing to do with a sense of superiority. It could be better described as a simple quirk. He might genuinely have difficulty reading ambiguity in conversation, so he needs to find clarity before proceeding. It’s unfortunate that this quirk makes him come across as unpleasant, not only to neurotypical people, but also to other neurodivergent people who can’t vibe with this style of communication. But at least he found somepony who understands.

[ID: Maud and Mudbriar are standing outside in the daytime. Maud smiles at Mudbriar, who is talking happily with his eyes closed.]

Maud has no issue with Mudbriar’s constant corrections. In fact, they’re happiest when correcting each other.

So what does this say about his autistic rep? Well, every autistic person will feel differently. We certainly won’t all be able to relate to Mudbriar’s specific portrayal. But I’m sure a lot of autistic people can relate to being misunderstood for the way we talk or emote, for people reading extra meaning into our manner of communication that just isn’t there. I won’t say MLP:FIM is the most progressive show when it comes to autistic rep; there’s plenty to be said about its neurotypical perspective, consistently treating its autistic characters as a narrative “other”. But there’s plenty to appreciate as well.

This is the message I took away from this episode: at times in your life, you’re always going to meet someone with an experience you can’t quite understand or relate to. You may even be unable to get along with them for whatever reason, and that’s fine. Just give them a fair chance to be themselves without assuming the worst. This is a message I’ve taken with me everywhere, not just for neurodivergence, but for every way that people can be different from one another.

Is this the message that the episode writers intended? It’s hard to say. Pinkie Pie gets a lesson from her sisters about how people can be like geodes, and where Pinkie only sees a crusty exterior, Maud might see a glittering gem. It could be as simple as that. And you could argue that the writers failed to endear the audience to Mudbriar by the end. If they did, would that serve the message better or undermine it?

The Maud Couple can be a challenging episode to enjoy, but I like a good challenge, and I ended up enjoying it more once I took the time to think about it. And if you’ve read this far, I’m hoping that even if you can’t enjoy Mudbriar that much, you can at least appreciate what he stands for.

[ID: Pinkie Pie and Mudbriar are standing over a table in Ponyville. There’s a log wrapped up in gift wrap between them. They are smiling and shaking hooves with each other.]

[aic-asian]

The Young Emperor Akbar Arrests the Insolent Shah Abu’l-Maali, page from a manuscript of the Akbarnama, Basawan, 1585, Art Institute of Chicago: Asian Art

This is a page from the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar), a lavishly illustrated manuscript commissioned by the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) to document the history of his rule. The scene depicts the emperor at age thirteen, three days after his accession. Seated on a gold throne placed on a carpeted platform, Akbar watches as his late father’s favorite is arrested for his insolent behavior toward the young emperor. The setting—a tented encampment pitched in a garden—is significant, for Akbar spent much of his reign on the move. Through his active campaigning and strong administrative skills, he greatly expanded the Mughal Empire, consolidating and securing it for his successors. In addition, he was a great patron of the arts, initiating a new style of painting and establishing a vast atelier and library. One of the new themes the emperor encouraged was the painting of historical manuscripts such as the Akbarnama. Commissioned in 1589, it was written by court historian and biographer Abu’l Fazl between 1590 and 1596. Simultaneously, a workshop of about fifty artists illustrated the text. Basawan, the designer of this painting, whose signature appears in the lower margin in red, was one of the studio’s leading painters. He was particularly skilled in portraiture and is known to have painted the faces of the young emperor and the two other figures in front of him: the regent Bairam Khan, who is standing, and the disgraced Shah Abu’l-Ma'ali, who crouches in a red robe. He also painted some of the nearby scenery, which attracted his interest; each painting was collaborative work and could take up to a month to complete. Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection Size: Image: 32 × 19.3 cm (12 5/8 × 7 9/16 in.); Outermost border: 33 × 19.6 cm (13 × 7 11/16 in.); Page: 34.4 × 20 cm (13 1/2 × 7 7/8 in.) Medium: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/76816/

[chiseler]

Hammett Made It Easy

To put it bluntly, it is simply, humanly impossible to watch Roy Del Ruth’s original 1931 film version of The Maltese Falcon without drawing comparisons and parallels with John Huston’s much more popular (if not exactly “timeless”) version from a decade later. After all, in many fundamental ways the films are a nearly identical match, scene for scene and line for line. Almost, anyway. Enough so that you’d notice.

The fault for this lies squarely on the shoulders of author Dashiell Hammett. whose 1930 novel made straying from the original source material extremely difficult. The sharp dialogue, the snappy pacing, and the already cinematic scene structure are all so very good that there was little reason to go messing with it. In fact, as the story goes, when screenwriter John Huston made the decision to move into directing, Howard Hawks gave him a copy of the book as a potential first project shortly before Huston left on a vacation. Huston handed the book to his secretary and told her to type it up in script format. She did, and it was that initial version straight from the book that was green-lighted by the studio—even before Huston had had a chance to read it.

Huston later made a few minor changes and additions, but one has to wonder if ten years earlier screenwriters Maude Fulton and Brown Holmes didn’t work much the same way, given how much of the 1931 film’s dialogue reappears verbatim in Huston’s—with the notable exception of the Shakespeare quote that closes the latter (a line supposedly suggested by Humphrey Bogart).

Granted, Huston’s film runs twenty minutes longer than Del Ruth’s spiffy 80-minute number (for a number of reasons, including a much larger role for the hapless gunsel Wilmer and an extended final sequence), but nevertheless if you remove the script from the equation, comparing the two films becomes much easier. At that point the remaining important factors are the directors and their styles, and the casts and their performances.

By 1931, Del Ruth was already well underway in a directing career that would find him making comedies, musicals, dramas, Westerns, and even the occasional horror film. Although comedies were his real forte (he would soon direct Lee Tracy in Blessed Event), taking on something like the Hammett novel was not that unusual. He was not a particularly remarkable director, and stylistically his films resembled most other standard films of the day. The scenes were quick, the camera was static, he didn’t have much time for pizzazz. As was the case of so many of the films of the era, his pictures often resembled filmed stage plays. He was on a tight schedule, and as soon as he finished one he had to be on to the next in a couple days. In the end he crafted an entertaining, well-told story, and that’s all the studio and audiences were looking for.

Meanwhile, The Maltese Falcon was going to be Huston’s directorial debut after having solidly established himself as a respected screenwriter. Some of the suits at Warner Brothers were hesitant to let him make the leap, so he had to prove to them he could do it, and approached the film with the kind of energy and big ideas you find with so many first-time directors. Although the film wasn’t as flashy and inventive as Citizen Kane, Huston did pull out a few tricks, like the famed seven-minute take, and the camera work was fluid and energetic. Even if audiences didn’t notice a number of his little flourishes, it was still a very confident film. More importantly, it was an entertaining, well-told story—and that’s what the studio and audiences were really looking for.

(It’s worth noting, however, that Huston’s version was much tamer than Del Ruth’s—perhaps for obvious reasons. In Del Ruth’s version there’s no pussyfooting around the fact that Sam Spade really is having an affair with his partner’s wife. Nor is there any question what happens after Spade accuses Ruth Wonderly/ Brigid O'Shaughnessy of only using money to buy his allegiance.)

What Huston really had on his side was, if not star power exactly, then at least a handful of familiar faces. It might have been Sydney Greenstreet’s film debut, but audiences certainly recognized Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook, and Bogart. Up until this point of course Bogart had only been a character player, but his star was definitely on the rise, and broke with this film.

Del Ruth, on the other hand, was working with an armload of good, available B actors. Most of them worked regularly, but they weren’t exactly Joan Blondell or Douglas Fairbanks.

It’s in looking at the performances of the two groups that the real differences between the films arises. Take the character of Sam Spade, for instance. Bogart’s performance as the womanizing, sharp tongued private dick always struck me as stiff and stagey—you can almost hear him thinking of each gesture before he makes it, and each line before he speaks it. There’s something tangibly artificial in his performance, the feeling that we really are watching an actor, and moreover one who’s not trying very hard.  Or maybe one who’s letting his stage training get the better of him, thinking the dialogue alone will carry the day. I of course love Bogart, just not here, particularly.

Ricardo Cortez (in reality the NYC-born son of Austrian immigrants) portrayed a much looser, more easy-going Spade, always ready with a quip and forever chasing skirts. He gives a much more relaxed performance that often borders on the straight comic. In spite of the fact that Cortez is much more comfortable in the role, it seems, his Spade is almost out of place here, smirking his way through a double murder investigation.

Seen today, Greenstreet’s   Gutman seems so unique a performance that it immediately became iconic, and a character and performing style he would go on to recreate for the rest of his career. It seems unique anyway, until you see Dudley Digges Gutman from a decade earlier. The similarities between the two performances are shocking. The intonation, vocal tones, the side mutterings, the laughter, the gestures, even the facial expressions are so nearly identical it’s almost as if Greenstreet studied  Digges’ performance closely and decided to recreate it for the remake. Strange thing is, for American character actor Digges, it was a unique role quite unlike anything else he’d played before or would play again. Unless you care to argue that the spirit of the true Kasper Gutman inhabited both actors (and then stayed in Greenstreet), it’s a mighty remarkable coincidence.

One of the more interesting distinctions can be seen in the character of Spade’s secretary, Effie Perine, and more specifically it boils down to a single line reading.

In one of the first and most famous lines of the film, Effie informs Spade that a new client is waiting to see him. In the Huston version, bubbly Lee Patrick says, “You’ll wan to see this one anyway—she’s a knockout!” She seems awfully enthusiastic about it, happy to encourage her boss’s assorted flings. It seems a little odd, but then she spends the rest of the film running errands for Spade and we never give her another thought.

In Del Ruth’s version,  Una Merkel’s Effie does not smile and does not chirp when she says dourly, “You’ll want to see this one anyway. She’s a knockout.”  There’s so much stifled bitterness, frustration, and jealousy in the line that we can read her entire character—almost her whole life—in those few words. And for the rest of the film, whenever Spade asks her to run another errand or do another favor, we know what she’s thinking when she agrees. Thanks to Merkel, Effie becomes the one honestly tragic figure in the entire story, with the possible exception of Wilmer.

As Gutman’s henchman and punk, far be it from me to compare anyone with the great Elisha Cook, Jr.—unless of course it’s the equally great Dwight Frye. Sadly Frye has been given very little to do here except look sullen and angry. In fact he’s only been given a single line of dialogue (“I’ll fog him”). Still, he’s always fun to watch—though admittedly not as much fun here as Cook, who gets to give Bogart a vicious kick in the head.

In the end and over time, the choice of which, if either, version is superior is a simple matter of taste. It does become easier to understand, though, why in the 1950s Del Ruth’s version was redubbed Dangerous Female in order to distinguish it from Huston’s.

by Jim Knipfel