#but billy and jason are. very on par with one another in terms of the micro aggressions they committed and the level of antagonism

[ginalinettiofficial]

idk i just don’t trust ppl who say “billy is a racist abusive piece of shit” but then turn around and reblog jason content like. okay if u have that opinion that’s your prerogative but it’s MY prerogative to point out that it’s weird af to feel that way abt billy and NOT abt jason

[oneshortdamnfuse]

The Duffer’s early characterization of Billy as a racist bully is a problem, and not because Billy didn’t actually say or do anything racist. It’s because their supposed “inspiration” picked from IT (specifically Henry Bowers) and their push for Billy to have more overtly racist lines is not appropriate for the story they were telling. At all. I go back and forth over whether or not it would have been better for Billy to be this one dimensional villain, like Jason Carver was in season 4. However, given the type of story they were telling I am glad that we were given the opportunity to see a “bully” type character who had a backstory that explained his motivations. It added layers to his and Max’s character. It made the fight against the Mindflayer more dramatic and compelling. That being said, as an abuse survivor whose ACE score is an 8, it was still hard to watch and even harder dealing with the fandom fallout that is still stuck in the mindset that Billy is basically the Duffer’s version of Henry Bowers - something they never truly accomplished.

Stranger Things is not IT, no matter how many nods they try to give to it. IT is inspired by real racist and homophobic violence in a small town. Stranger Things does not touch upon either of those things with any authenticity, and it was never meant to. It doesn’t mean that fans can’t or shouldn’t care about those things. However, there is absolutely no good reason why the Duffers should have been faithful to their original vision of Billy being as overtly racist (using slurs, even) and violent as Henry Bowers because it serves no narrative purpose other than to traumatize characters and vicariously viewers with minimal long term consequence to the plot. This is not IT. They spend more time on this show tormenting abused people than they ever do addressing systemic hate. So fans should not treat it like IT, and they should certainly not treat Billy as another Henry Bowers or act like he’s ever done anything on par with that character’s actions when there is no canon proof of that.

My ongoing problem with the Duffers is that they don’t utilize trauma in a thoughtful way that connects to the overall theme. They are writing a generic good over evil story, which is okay but it’s not what people inflate it to be. Instead trauma is like decoration. You are meant to look at it and maybe it will evoke some feelings but it is just decoration. Stephen King’s IT is not that. Trauma is integral to the plot of the book where an entire town is not made “sick” by supernatural experimentation but rather the systemic hatred and disregard for life that is pervasive in their community. Henry Bowers is symbolic of that hatred in his words and his actions, which is why he becomes a willing pawn of IT unlike Billy who is taken against his will and forced to relive his trauma. For Henry, this union is liberating and exciting. Henry never stops, either. He never backs down. He is unrelentingly racist and homophobic, as opposed to Billy who leaves Max and her friends alone after a single incident. Henry also never feels bad about what he does, unlike Billy who dies apologizing.

Any time fans justify their feelings towards Billy using the Duffer’s words, I can’t take them seriously because their vision re: his characterization was never realized and it’s a good thing it wasn’t. They wouldn’t handle it, and you know how I know? The very scene where he attacks Lucas has minimal narrative consequence despite the way it made fans feel. Like I said, it’s just for decoration. This is not Henry Bowers. This is not IT. They never intended to explore racism in any meaningful way, just like they’re dragging their feet in terms of queer representation four seasons in. It. Is. Just. Decoration. Instead, we got to see fans cheer as they made Billy suffer and die while his trauma was put on full display after doing heinous things against his will. That’s not a villain’s satisfying end. That is a tragedy. It’s extremely sad, and the season 4 finale as well as the overall lack of emotional maturity in this fandom has not only reopened the wound of seeing his trauma mocked but rubbed salt in it with every screenshot of the Duffer’s words that gets reposted.

I cannot reiterate enough that trauma is decoration to the Duffers, which isn’t just evident with Billy but I digress. Yet, some fans hang on to their shallow words like everything they say or suggest is narratively true and fully realized. I can think of no better example of this than when fans say Billy is homophobic because Henry Bowers is homophobic, even though there’s no evidence he is and in fact Billy is called a f****t by his father. Just absolutely no critical thought there. If I don’t stop somewhere I will never shut up about it but to this day it makes me unbelievably angry to see anyone dare make comparisons with IT and Henry Bowers when that’s not what Stranger Things is about no matter how much they borrow aesthetically from Stephen King. Being critical of Billy is fine and encouraged by me, but not when you’re using it to make ridiculous claims or simply justify hating abuse survivors. We’re not all good little survivors who are soft and demure, but we still deserve a chance to heal. You don’t need to be a jerk about people who wanted that for Billy.

[moronic-validity]

Slashers Ranked: Spelling and Handwriting

-Billy Lenz: 5/10. He's not going to win any spelling bees anytime soon, but he's satisfied with his abilities. As for handwriting? Let's...not talk about it.

-RZ Michael Myers: 6/10. Okay listen. He can spell. His handwriting though? Yikes big guy. If his handwriting was legible, you'd be able to figure out what he was writing

-1978 Michael Myers: ???/10. What are you? A cop? Michael knows he can spell, but it's apparently none of our business

- Bo Sinclair: 6/10. Once again with the handwriting.... I've always liked the hc that Bo is a voracious reader. Like I really like it. I think that because he reads, he's also a fairly solid speller. His problem? His handwriting looks a hell of a lot like his dad's

- Vincent Sinclair: 3/10. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just think that Vincent writes too quick to double check his spelling. He probably knows how to spell, but you'd never be able to tell because he'll scribble his typo ridden note to self, then go back to doing what he was doing.

- Lester Sinclair: 7/10. Lester's score comes from the fact he works for the state. Does this mean he's going to win any spelling bees any time soon? No. But he can spell well enough to fill out whatever stupid reports have to be filled out.

-Jason Voorhees: 5/10. Listen, Jason can't spell for shit. He really does work at it. Most people can't tell that Jason can't spell because he'll use synonyms. You only really realize it when he gives you a grocery list that says 'popcorn seeds' instead of popcorn kernels.

-Brahms Heelshire: 9/10. The little shit can spell, okay? His parents probably made sure of it. And is handwriting? You expected childish scrawls considering his behavior, but it's actually very neat and almost pretty.

-Thomas Hewitt: 10/10. Luda Mae made sure that Thomas could spell and not only can he spell, he has the best handwriting out of any slasher on this list second only to

- Bubba Sawyer: 10/10. Depending on which line you follow, Bubba had either Verna or Drayton on his ass about spelling and handwriting through his entire childhood and well into adulthood.

- Pavi Largo: 2/10. He can not spell for shit. That being said? He has beautiful swirling handwriting. "Pavi, you know there's an e in the word heart, right?"

"Do I kare?"

- Luigi Largo: 9/10. Really neat handwriting and really solid spelling. He handles a lot of contracts and he takes great pride in it.

- Amber Sweet: -1/10. She'll text you and blame autocorrect if there's a typo. Her actual handwriting is nearly illegible and she can't spell.

- Graverobber: -8/10. Fuck you, Fuck you, Fuck you. Graverobber had really neat handwriting and it's completely legible, but then he mixes numbers in with the letters because fuck you, that's why. Spells like a late 2000's scene kid.

-Amanda Young 5/10. She really does have decent handwriting and her spelling isn't bad. She's honestly just middle of the line here.

- Leslie Vernon 3/10. Okay listen, I hc Leslie as dyslexic (I'm also dyslexic, let me have this) and sometimes spelling is really hard. He knows what he's trying to write, his handwriting is good, but bless this man, his spelling is not great.

- Charlie Hewitt: you would think, as another one of Luda Mae's boys, that he would also have good spelling and good handwriting. You'd be wrong. 5/10. Charlie didn't care much for the lessons and he can spell and his handwriting is legible, but it is no where NEAR Thomas's level.

- Drayton Sawyer: 9/10. His handwriting isn't as good as Bubba's, but his spelling is definitely on par. He takes a fair amount of pride in his penmanship.

- Asa Emory: 7/10. Please hear me out here. Asa has really neat handwriting and can spell scientific names all day long. Technical terms? No problem. Do not ask him to spell the word refrigerator. He can't do it.

-Daniel Robitaille: 8/10. Okay so I saw the original Candyman very recently and my gut instinct is that he can spell and that his handwriting is really really good. And no, not just good for having a hook hand. Good. Period.

- Lawrence Oleander: 6/10 or 1/10. I imagine his handwriting as very neat when he's calm and the scrawling of a mad man when he's not. As for spelling? He's fairly good at it when he's focused on what he's doing.

- Strade: It's complicated/10. Okay so here's my thought process here. Strade is a serial killer. My guess is, he changes up his handwriting every now and again. Sometimes he's an elite speller with carefully swirling letters, and others, it's chicken scratch where ds and bs and ps and qs all look the same. The general consensus is that Strade writes however it suits him and the situation he's in.

[vacation-grif]

What kinda feelings?

A LOT, ACTUALLY. Like I said before, the RTNY group was telling me to skip it because it wasn’t a good season, and I want to express how much I wanted to just form my own opinion, only to end up agreeing with them in the end. Let me break this down as best as I can now that I am on my PC. I mean no disrespect to the director and writer, as well as the cast and crew. Honestly, I’m worried that my opinion makes me feel like a boomer at this point.

First off, if anyone was going to tell me that I’m going to have headaches over bright flashing lights and colors over a Red vs Blue series, I wouldn’t have believed you. As I said before, they should’ve just called this “Red vs Blue: Epilepsy Warning THE M0VIE”. I understand that they are using the Unreal Engine, because my god the graphics on this is INSANE. But everything is...too bright. TOO. BRIGHT. Everything has a lens flare no matter where the camera turns, and with the high paced action, all the lights and colors, it HURTS.

-

Next, this is a fully CG-animated season. We haven’t had one like that in SUCH a long time, and this is the first in the 20-ish years of Red vs BLue. When I was a kid who didn’t have a cellphone, I could only imagine what Red vs Blue was like when my best friend would play it over our landline on a weeknight before we would go to school the next day. And I would come over and be like, HOLY SHIT. IS THIS FUCKING HALO?! So imagine my excitement when after 8 years of Red vs Blue using Halo 1 to Halo 3 assets, you see a Warthog just crash through the walls of Valhalla, something you’d never see in a Halo game. A fully animated scene of Grif running over Washington (hell yeah), and an angry Washington outside of his game model just climbing onto the hood of the car and shooting at Grif through the windshield at pointblank range. Then cut to episode 10 of the same season, Tex makes her triumphant return, fully animated instead of her Halo 3 game model. And in the last two episodes of the season, you get OUR VERY FIRST FREELANCER VS FREELANCER FIGHT. You find out this was the work of the late Monty Oum (rest in peace), and until Season 10, Red vs Blue was THE HIGHEST POINT OF YOUR FUCKING LIFE.

Then we go to Season 12 where the animation post Oum (he was working on RWBY at this point but iirc this was just before he died) was choppy at best and didn’t feel right until Season 13, where within the one year the animation team REALLY stepped up. And this actually carries over into Season 17, Singularity, where it became more animation and less game effects, or rather it was balanced. It wasn’t extravegant like Oum’s works, but given that these are the Simtroopers, some Freelancers, some Mercs, and time gods, it felt par for the course. It felt right.

We cut now to these upgraded graphics, which felt like when you were playing on your Xbox 360 and you jsut FUCKING SHOT into the Xbox One. It was, as you would say, unreal (lol). But it felt...off. The first two episodes, the entire action didn’t feel like what you spent 16 seasons watching. It felt like a whole another beast entirely. With the use of super powers, you would think oh the Freelancers had that! Yes, but those were all suit enhancements. These...didn’t feel like it. Zero’s and Phase’s teleportation didn’t feel like something that Fragmented AI can control. Shatter Squad’s at least felt more at home. 

The models themselves were a bit off too. Choppy at best, but understandable given that they were using the Unreal Engine. But you notice that they do a lot of hand on hip pushed out to the side type of thing a lot? Everyone does it. Except Raymond, West, and the big dude. Like the SASSY STANCE. Also, there was way too much power stance. Where if your feet were shoulder width apart, it was a bit wider, and also the pelvis was out a little more. A bit weird. Finally, everyone has an ass. Everyone. Even West. West has an ass, it was like, everyone was dummy thicc and the clap of their ass cheeks was alerting Viper.

-

Next, voice acting. I...absoultely could not stand the voice acting. It was completely over the top, overdramatic, over exaggerated. Granted, I’m a singer, a perform, but I’m not exactly a good actor myself in the few shows I’ve actually done. It felt like watching an anime. When you wtach something with dialogue of your own language, you can tell when you feel something is to over the top. If you watch something of a language you don’t speak, it’ll go over your head, unless you start to speak that language, and you speak to people who speak that language, then you start to pick up what is regular speaking and what is acting. When an anime gets dubbed, most times, the voice actors tend to over dramatacize in the same way the Japanese due, and some times it works, most times it doesn’t. This is because the Japanese way of acting comes from kabuki theater. When English dubbers do that with this weird over emphasized emotions, it is extremely offputting.

In some places, the voice acting is poorly done. Jen Brown’s performance from just getting out of a hospital to giving an expositional lecture about the new cast in literally 5 seconds of time was...off. Carolina should’ve had more time to recover, especailly after losing Washington, one of her closest surrogate family, she felt...a little too calm and normal. Not like the Carolina who was hesitant but trying her best to be a whole better person (see the Paradox Arc, S15-17). It was jsut quick shift, and now she’s making snarky remarks in that Jen Brown voice she does (my god step on me please) and also being a mother hen. Also, she really calls Washington David way more this season than she ever did before that.

Fiona’s performance was shaky at best in my opinion, I don’t know her very well outside of what everyone says. All I know is that sometimes, the way she emphasizes some of her lines don’t fit the situation very well. I think East/Phase was a lot better done than One imo. But she was mostly angry and competitive.

Raymond is the textbook definition of what I hate about taking a character’s role and making it their entire personality. Think of it like watching Power Rangers, and all of their roles is just defined by the shit they say. Jason is the jock, Kimberly is the pretty girl, Trini is......I’m not gonna lie, I don’t...know what to classify Trini, Zack was the cool guy, and Billy was the nerd (Tommy was Jock II also the rebel/loner). Raymond reminded me a lot like Billy, where Billy was defined by being so smart, half of his dialogue was just look at me, i’m fucking smart, let me use all of these big words. Half of Raymond’s dialogue was, look at me, i’m the tech guy, I’m nerdy and loveable, it felt like it was too over the top of trying to stand out. By the end of the season, after East’s big reveal, I started to like him a lot more because he knew what was more at stake. I want to say that my initial impression of him was immature at best.

West was too stiff. Just.. Too stiff. I get he’s old. But show some emotion, please.

Why am I emphasizing on this more? When you listen to the dialogue of RvB, and then you listen at this, even with the return cast of Carolina, Washington, and Tucker, the direction was different. I think it’s because of the new medium with Zero being all super animated like an action, where RvB was just a bunch of net videos that you’re gonna laugh at with well timed jokes. It was super casual, but also super real. Geoff and Gus and everyone else aren’t big actors or anything, but that’s what made it feel real. That’s what made RvB feel like its own thing.

-

In terms of writing, I get that this is RvB meets FnF (Fast and Furious). But I honestly feel that it doens’t belong. The story of Shatter Squad vs Viper would have been a lot better if it didn’t have the RvB name tacked on. It’s such a cool concept, but given what RvB was before, the tonal shift is jsut too great, especially when you only have 3 of the previous cast returning.

Speaking of, what happened to Tucker?! What happened to the guy who became a leader? Responsible? Not as arrogant? Maybe playfully arrogant at best, but not stroking his ego? What happened to HIS SWORD? Did they forget how Tucker’s sword works? That it only works IF HE DIES? Tucker didn’t die, and yet Phase was able to use his sword (which by the way is now hers). One of the earliest stories/gags of RvB and they just...retconned it and threw it away! Also, Tucker’s voice acting did NOT match the scene at all. It’s like watching a video game that was localized from Japanese, and the dubbers spoke too fast before the character could finish. Tucker moves outside of his dialogue and there is this weird seconds of silence. That...that was just a BAD return for him.

-

My final thought is that, if RvB Zero is not...the RvB I grew up with. Maybe the jokes are dated, but the memories of what RvB was is still real. This just...doesn’t feel like RvB anymore. This should have just been it’s own show, it’s own story, replace Wash and Carolina and Tucker with new characters, it just wasn’t their place to be in this.

The only thing I liked about this? I’m glad Danielle (I’m assuming this is how you would spell her name) didn’t go AWOL and returned to the team. I actually really liked her the most next to Axel. She was done dirty, but she still held on to that one bond she had as East that Zero didn’t give her as Phase.

-

I know this is probably not a great opinion, and I really hope that Rooster Teeth finds the ground they want this series to go in. Sometimes, you have to try new things, or else staying stagnant will make it go stale. It’s all about trial and error. I don’t know how everyone else feels about Zero, how the new audience and the old audience feels. RvB as a whole wasn’t perfect. They had their down moments. But when you feel that way for an entire season...it’s a problem.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND March 29, 2019  - DUMBO, UNPLANNED, THE BEACH BUM, HOTEL MUMBAI

This is going to be another weekend where I haven’t really seen any of the wide releases except for a few that opened limited first. Next week will probably be the same as I head to Las Vegas for CinemaCon and will miss most of the bigger press screenings.

Sadly, I would have loved to have seen Tim Burton’s DUMBO (Disney) in time to review it for you, as I am generally a fan of Disney’s classic animated movies (vs. the Jeffrey Katzenberg wave from the ‘90s, most of which I still haven’t seen), as I am a fan of Tim Burton and much of the cast of this one. It includes Michael Keaton and Danny De Vito, both reuniting with Burton after Batman Returns, and Eva Green, who has appeared in a few of Burton’s recent movies… AND she once called me a “pervert.” (The story is funnier if I don’t explain why.) But the story of Dumbo is classic Disney in the sense that it reminds me of all the wonders of watching movies as a kid filled with joy and awe… as opposed to now where I always feel a sense of dread, wondering if a movie will be half as good as it hopes. Anyway, I’ll see this on Thursday night and maybe write something Friday if I’m up to it.

I’m less likely to see UNPLANNED (Pure Flix), a movie that I’m shocked even exists, let alone is being released into 1,000 theaters. This is almost like the polar opposite of the great Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake in that it’s a biopic about Abby Johnson, a Planned Parenthood clinic director who was so shaken by witnessing her first abortion (not her own) that she became an anti-abortion activist. Besides sounding like something out of Jordan Peele’s upcoming The Twilight Zone show, it’s also horrifying to think that the Pro-Life crowd is now trying to recruit the Christian Right to their cause through movies, one that received Pure Flix’s first R-rating, no less.

After premiering at SXSW, Harmony (Spring Breakers) Corine’s new movie THE BEACH BUM (NEON), starring Matthew McConaughey and a typically oddball cast including Snoop Dog, Zak Efron and Jonah Hill, will also open wide this weekend. I’ll probably try to catch this just cause I’m so curious about Corine’s oddball auteur sensibilities. Spring Breakers was actually a bit of an anomaly, and it was one of his few movies I actually liked, compared to something like Mister Lonely, which I found unwatchable despite its similarly-odd cast, which included Werner Herzog.

Then there are two movies expanding nationwide this weekend, both of which I’ve seen and enjoyed, the first of them being Anthony Maras’ directorial debut HOTEL MUMBAI (Bleecker Street), a terrific ensemble piece starring Dev Patel, Armie Hammer and Jason Isaacs – three actors I truly love – about the terrorist attacks on the luxurious Hotel Taj in 2008. I was really impressed with how Maras and his cast and crew tell this harrowing story that’s not quite on par as Peter Greengrass’ United 93 but has a similar impact as you watch it and see how these amazing people came together to prevent even more people from dying. I also should point out that the primarily Indian cast beyond Patel are also excellent, showing there’s a lot of talent coming from India that have yet to break out in a big way Stateside.

Focus will also expand Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s drama The Mustang into an unknown number of theaters, and I also recommend this movie if you have an opportunity to see it. It’s a wonderful movie starring Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone) as a convict who finds a way to fight against his anger issues and violent tendencies by training a wild horse in the prison’s program. Since I haven’t seen the other three movies above, as of this writing, I recommend seeking out Hotel Mumbai or The Mustang if they’re playing wherever you live.

LIMITED RELEASES

I was a bad boy this weekend and didn’t watch any of the screeners I was supposed to watch, so that means I’ve only seen one of the movies opening in select cities this weekend, and that was Kent Jones’ DIANE (IFC Films), which played at Tribeca last year where it won two awards. It stars Mary Kay Place as a Massachusetts woman named Diane, who puts most of her time into helping others in her big family over herself while also dealing with her son Brian’s (Jake Lacy) ongoing addiction that has him going in and out of rehab. Personally, I found it a slog when I saw it at Tribecalast year.

Opening in New York (Village East and Alamo Drafthouse, the latter a part of their Drafthouse Recommends series) and L.A. (three Laemmle theaters)  is Sophie Lorain’s French coming-of-age comedy SLUT IN A GOOD WAY (Comedy Dynamics), a movie that I haven’t gotten around to watching the screener, as of this writing, but what a great title, huh? It stars Marguerite Bouchard, Romane Denis and Rose Adam as three teenage girls exploring their first taste of freedom, all three of them in love with the guy who works at “Toy Depot” – a sex shop -- where they each apply for part-time jobs.

Also opening in select cities is Alison Klayman’s documentary THE BRINK (Magnolia) which follows former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon through the 2018 mid-term elections as the controversial Breitbart founder tries to reinvent himself by getting involved in the European Parliamentary Elections of 2019 with his “global populist movement.” I’ll be curious to see how this compares to Errol (The Fog of War) Morris’ American Dharma, which premiered during film festivals last September but (as far as I know) still hasn’t been released yet. I’m not even sure it found distribution but Bannon is not a very popular figure among American liberals (for good reason), so I can’t imagine many critics would approve of either film.

This week’s Saban Films’ offering is Sarah Daggar Nickson’s thriller A VIGILANTE, starring Olivia Wilde as an abused woman who sets a course to help victims rid themselves of their domestic abusers while also hunting down her husband, whom she needs to kill in order to truly be free. It will play in select theaters Friday after a month on DirecTV.

Downton Abbey director Michael Engler reunites with Downton writer/creator Julian Fellowes who adapted Laura Moriarty’s bestselling book The Chaperone (PBS Distribution Masterpiece Films). The amazing Haley Lu Richardson (Split) plays Louise Brooks before she became a movie sensation in the ‘20s and is just a student in Wichita, Kansas. When she is sent to New York to study with a dance troupe for the summer, her mother requires a chaperone, a role taken on by the by-the-books Norma Carlisle (Elizabeth McGovern).  This witty period piece opens Friday at New York’s Landmark West 57 and Quad Cinema and then expands to L.A.’s Laemmle Royal, Playhouse 7 and Town Center 5 on April 5.

The Discovery Channel is also giving Ross (Born into Brothels) Kauffman’s new documentary Tigerlanda release in New York on Friday just a day before it premieres on the cable channel Saturday. It’s a film about a group of Russians trying to protect the last Siberian tigers from extinction, and it’s produced by Fisher Stevens of the Oscar-winning The Cove.

Cocaine Cowboys director Billy Corben returns with the doc Screwball (Greenwich), another film set in Miami, this one that looks into Major League Baseball’s doping scandal and how it affected New York Yankee’s Alex Rodriguez. It opens in select cities following its debut at TIFF last year.

The makers of The ABCs of Evil, Tim League and Ant Simpson, return with The Field Guide to Evil, a horror anthology featuring short films by eight (actually nine) foreign horror filmmakers telling folktales about myth and lore, including Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio), Can Evrenol (Baskin), Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz (Goodnight Mommy) and Agnieszka Smoczynska (The Lure). I missed this movie at Fantasia last year (‘cause I didn’t go) but it will be opening in most Alamo theaters (about 40 nationwide) on Friday.

This week’s Bollywood release, opening in about 100 theaters nationwide, is Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s thriller Super Deluxe (Prime Media), the second film from the director who won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film at the 59thNational Film Awards in India. It’s a film about how fate messes with the life of a group of people, as fate is wont to do.

Renowned indie distributor Jeff Lipsky’s seventh feature as a director, The Last (Plainview Pictures), will open in New York at the Angelika and CMX New York on Friday, then will expand to other cities including L.A. on April 26. It involves a large Jewish family of four generations learning that their 92-year-old matriarch, a Holocaust survivor (Rebecca Schull) has a secret that shocks the entire family.

Opening in L.A. at the Laemmle Music Hall is the Holocaust drama Sobibor (Samuel Goldwyn Films) from reputed Russian actor/director Konstantin Khabenskiy (he appeared in Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted and Nightwatch), playing Soviet prisoner Alexander Perchersky, who led a rebellion at the Nazi’s Polish death camp Sobibor in 1943 in order to escape, freeing hundreds of Jews.

As a counterpoint to Unplanned, there’s Josh Huber’s romantic comedy Making Babies (Huber Brothers) about a couple played by Eliza Couple and Steve Howey who spent five years trying to have kids, so they start exploring other medical and spiritual ways to conceive a child. The movie also stars Ed Begley Jr. and the late Glenne Headly and will open in select cities.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Besides playing at the Egyptian in L.A. (see above), John Lee Hancock’s THE HIGHWAYMEN will be available on the Netflix streaming service after playing in select theaters for a couple weeks. I finally caught it last week, and really enjoyed it. It stars Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as former Texas rangers Frank Hamer and Maney Gault, recruited by the Governor of Texas (Kathy Bates) to hunt down and kill Bonnie and Clyde, whose crime and killing spree has gotten out of hand. Hamer and Gault travel across stateliness trying to find them, following the different clues left behind. This is definitely my kind of movie, not just due to the subject matter, but also seeing such great actors as Costner (possibly the last of the bonafide movie stars?) and Harrelson taking on such great roles to show a different side of the story than the one mostly known from the Warren Beatty movie. I really enjoyed both actors’ performances and the general tone of the film, although I do feel that it was a little too long and drawn-out and not in a good way ala David Fincher’s Zodiac. But it does pay off, and it’s a shame that more people won’t be able to see this on the big screen because the film looks great due to the cinematography by John Schwartzman. I’ll also give a shout-out to my pal Johnny McPhail who plays the farmer who witnesses one of Bonnie and Clyde’s brutal murders. Rating: 7.5/10

Also, Friday sees the return of Santa Clarita Diet for its third season, again with Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant. 

LOCAL FESTIVALS OF NOTE

The big festival starting in New York this week is the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual New Directors/New Films, which always has interesting stuff although it’s definitely getting more indie and esoteric in recent years. It kicks off tonight with Chinonye Chukwu’s prison-set drama Clemency, starring Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge, which recently won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. The festival’s Centerpiece Is Alejandro Landes’s Monos, another Sundance prize-winner, starring the wondrous Julianne Nicholson as an engineer who travels to the South American jungle and is taken captive by teenage guerillas. The Closing Night film on April 6 is Pippa Bianco’s Share– ALSO a Sundance prize-winner! – which deals with sexual assault and the role of the internet, something which seems very relevant and pertinent. There’s a lot of interesting foreign films and a good amount from women filmmakers in this year’s line-up, which you can read more about here.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

This weekend, the Metrograph begins its Total Kaurismäki Show, as in Finish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki, who has been making festival-winning films for almost 40 years and has YET to have a film nominated for an Oscar. This Friday, the series begins with some of the director’s lesser-seen ‘80s movies Hamlet Goes Business  (1987),Calamari Union  (1985) and Crime and Punishment (1983), as well as Shadows in Paradise  (1986), Ariel  (1988) and then the 1990 film The Match Factory on Saturday. This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph  offering is Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner: The Final Cut  (1982/2007) and Playtime: Family Matinees (which has become my idea of comfort food in terms of cinema) is showing Abbot and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  (1953). Sadly, I’ll be out of town on Tuesday when the Metrograph is presenting Claire Denis’ The Intruder (2004) with a QnA by Ms. Denis who will also introduce No Fear, No Die (1990) right afterwards. (If you also can’t make this night then never fear as BAM is beginning a full-on Denis retrospective, which you can read more about below.)

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Tarantino’s reopened rep theater continues to kill it with a single screening of Mike Nichols’ 1966 film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, on Weds. afternoon. This week’s double features are John Boorman’sPoint Blank  (1967) and The Outfit (1973) on Weds. and Thurs., Fellini’sLa Strada (1954) – one of my personal faves – and Il Bidone  (1955) on Friday and Saturday, then the ‘30s musicals Dames and Footlight Paradeon Sunday and Monday. The weekend’s one-offs are midnight screenings of Kill Bill Volume 1on Friday and the comedy anthology Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) on Saturday. The weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is The Black Stallion (1979) and there will be a special 20thanniversary screening of the Wachowski’s The Matrixon Monday. Tuesday night’s GRINDHOUSE double feature is two directed by Roger Corman -- The Trip (1967) and The Wild Angels (1966).

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Bob & Wray: A Love Story continues with a double feature of Virtue  (1932) and Viva Villa (1934) on Weds., a reshowing of Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon (1937) on Thursday as well as a Fay Wray double feature of Once to Every woman (1934) and They Met in a Taxi  (1936). Friday sees a reshowing of the double feature of The Mystery of the Wax Museum and The Vampire Bat, both from 1933, and a double feature of Lee Tracy movies, Doctor X (1932) and Carnival  (1935). On Saturday, there’s a special screening of the early Fay Wray film The Wild Horse Stampede with piano accompaniment, plus a double feature of John Ford’s The Whole Town’s Talking  (1935) and Frank Capra’s  You Can’t Take It With You  (1938), both written by Robert Riskin. This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is the Disney animated classic Bambi (1942).

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Besides a Weds. double feature of John Lee Hancock’s new movie The Highwaymen with his 2002 baseball film The Rookie starring Dennis Quaid, the Egyptian begins Noir City: Hollywood – The 21stAnnual Los Angeles Festival of Noir, running all weekend. It begins Friday with the double feature of Trapped (1949) and The File of Thelma Jordon  (1950), continues Saturday with Appointment with Danger (1951) and Shdow on the Wall (1950), Sunday is Sudden Fear and The Narrow Margin, followed on Monday by City That Never Sleeps and 99 River Street from 1953 and on Tuesday with Playgirl and Hell’s Devil Acre, both from 1954. (This series will continue next week as well.)

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

On Saturday night, BAM will start a new series called “Beyond the Canon” (pairing a classic with a more recent film which it inspired) with a double feature of Anna Rose Holmer’s The Fits (2015) and Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). At the same time, BAM is kicking off Strange Desire: The Films of Claire Denis, which will run until April 9 and will show some of the French filmmaker’s best films, including Beau Travail (1999), White Material  (2009), 35 Shots of Rum and more recent films like her upcoming English language debut High Life, starring Robert Pattinson.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

On Thursday, MOMI is having a special presentation of Alexandre Rockwell’s 1992 film In the Soup, starring Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci, Seymour Cassel, Jennifer Beals, Carol Kane and Jim Jarmusch as part of the 9thAnnual Queens World Film Festival with Rockwell in discussion with former director (and QWFF Spirit of Queens honoree) David Schwartz. To prepare for Mike Leigh’s fantastic new film Peterloo, MOMI is also presenting Past Presence: Mike Leigh’s Period Films, showing the master’s earlier films Topsy Turvy (1999), Mr. Turner (2014) and Vera Drake (2004). It will include a preview screening of Peterloonext Wednesday with Mike Leigh in person!

IFC CENTER (NYC)

I guess Weekend Classics: Early Godard is continuing this week after all with a 35mm print of Weekend (1967) while the winter season of Late Night Favorites ends with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain (1973) as well as David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001).

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: B is for Bacall continues with Douglas Sirk’s 1956 film Written on the Wind on Weds, Vincente Minelli’s Designing Woman  (1957) Thursday and Young Man with a Horn (1950) on Friday.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

This week’s Friday midnight offering is Mandy director Panos Costamos’ 2010 debut Beyond the Black Rainbow.

Next week, it’s a doozy of an April opener with Warner Bros’ Shazam! taking on Paramount’s Pet Sematary and the STX drama The Best of Enemies trying to pick up any remaining scraps of business. I’ve only seen one of them.

[rugbyleague2017-blog]

#Australia Rugby League 2017 Live Stream Online

CHANNEL 7 wants to take rugby league television broadcasting into the future. The 2017 Rugby League World Cup broadcaster plans to build on Channel 9 and Fox League’s world class NRL broadcasts — and they have weapons up their sleeve to take the rugby league television experience to the next level when the tournament kicks off on Friday with the Kangaroos taking on England at AAMI Park. Seven’s head of sport Saul Shtein has revealed the key areas where the network believes it can transform rugby league into a national broadcast event. The network has already committed to showing matches live into Melbourne on Seven’s primary channel and are committed to broadcasting the Kangaroos matches live into Adelaide and Perth on its 7mate platform. The gamechanger is the Network’s 7Live app, which show every match of the tournament live.

Watch Australia Rugby League 2017 Live >>>>

Schedule: Rugby league - World Cup

Australia  vs England

Friday 20:00 AEDT

 27 Oct,2017         

“It’s not just on Channel 7, it’s on the screens of Seven. This is the changing world and we’re embracing it.”It may be the gamechanger, but it is also just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how Seven’s coverage plans to improve on Nine’s iconic NRL coverage.SEVEN has been busy behind the scenes building a star-studded line-up for the Rugby League World Cup — all while being locked out of recruiting NRL identities tied to Fox League and Channel 9. Shtein says the network is thrilled to have headhunted a war chest of rugby league commentary talent to be headlined by former NSW State of Origin coach Laurie Daley and Seven News personality Jim Wilson. Their line-up includes Benji Marshall, Mark Geyer, Brett Kimmorley, Gary Belcher, Ryan Girdler, Scott Sattler and Andrew Ryan and Brent Tate. The play-by-play commentary will be provided by Seven regular Mark Braybook and popular rugby league radio callers Andrew Moore and Dan Ginnane. Mel McLaughlin, Renee Gartner and Allana Ferguson will also feature as commentators and presenters throughout the tournament. Shtein says the network has worked hard to build a team that is not “too blokey” and will appeal to a wider family audience.“Importantly, for us, it’s one thing to say this guy is a great athlete, but it doesn’t mean that it translates into them being a good commentator,” he said.“It still comes down to your communication and analysis. One of the things with our commentary team is that we wanted a team that commentates well together – how they are going to work with their play by play commentators and their other commentators?

“You have to remember a number of the high profile and experienced commentators and even production crew are working for Fox or for Nine and aren’t available, but there are plenty of other very experienced operators both in front of and behind the cameras that we believe will be at least on par with what Australian viewers are used to seeing.”CHANNEL 7’s AFL broadcasts remain the envy of sport-programming in Australia and the network is hoping to bring a key part of its AFL colour to the Rugby League World Cup and the Women’s Rugby League World Cup. Shtein says Channel 7 is committed to giving viewers a greater broadcast experience by making their coverage about much more than what is happening on the field. The impact of social media in sport means many viewers are reaching for their phones to check Twitter during play — Seven wants to bring the social media experience to its live telecasts. The network plans to bring social media posts and conversations to its broadcast through its commentary team and graphics.“It’s a different way of presenting the full coverage because there is more going on then what’s on the screen,” he said.“What’s happening on social media? What are people talking about? Already in the AFL, if an incident happens, players watching at home get on social media and talk about it. That’s what people want.”The network’s other strategy to bring a greater experience to live rugby league coverage is its commitment to attracting a wider audience. The network makes no apology for its decision to style its coverage towards potential rugby league newcomers.

It plans to build interest in the tournament with a simple mantra of focusing on presenting the characters in matches that will engage people into watching them compete.“It’s important that we actually explain to people, who might not even be NRL fans, who the characters are,” he said.“They are not robots, they are people with personalities.“Our job as a broadcaster is to broaden the appeal and grow the audience.”Seven also promises to have all the usual “bells and whistles” technologies that feature in Channel 9’s and Fox League’s coverage, including referee cam and spider cam.“Rugby league coverage in Australia is at a world class standard,” Shtein said of its network rivals. “We’re extremely confident that we will at least be on par with what we have planned.”IN the grand scheme of things, whenever Australia lose it’s good for international rugby league. The Kangaroos are the colossus of Test football. In the last 10 years they’ve lost to New Zealand five times, drew with them once and beaten everybody else they’ve played, accumulating a 39-5-1 record against all opposition. Since Great Britain beat Australia 23-12 in the 2006 Tri Nations the closest the Poms have come to beating the Kangaroos was a 16-12 defeat in the 2014 Four Nations. In the 21st century, Great Britain/England have three wins against Australia from 24 attempts. France are the only other team to have ever beaten Australia and the last time they did that was in 1978. The French lost 52-30 to Australia in 2004 and that match is the closest any tier two nation has come to beating Australia in the last 20 years.The Kangaroos deserve a lot of credit for their continued supremacy, especially over the last 18 months after it looked like New Zealand had well and truly overtaken them in 2014-15.

But Australia, as good as they may be, are the schoolyard bullies. They’re the big men on campus, the unstoppable force, the Death Star, the favourites in every game they play and every game they have played in the last 20 years. They’re the prohibitive favourites for this World Cup and it would take something truly shocking for anyone else to get the prize. But if someone else did, if New Zealand or England or Tonga could somehow claw their way past the green and gold juggernaut, it would give international rugby league a serious shot in the arm. It’s no coincidence that New Zealand’s 24-0 thumping in the 2005 Tri Nations final was followed by victories in the 2008 World Cup, the 2010 Four Nations and the 2014 Four Nations. No one Kiwi player appeared in all four matches, it was a true generational shift.Another New Zealand win would be a boost, but an England World Cup win could be one of the greatest moments in that country’s rugby league history. Rugby league in England is in a tough spot. It has the history and the tradition and the fanatical support in the north but the clubs are perennially short of cash and the struggle to move beyond the game’s birthplace has been tough. The Test side hasn’t won a tournament since 1972 and even then it was on a count back. They haven’t made a World Cup final since 1995. It has been a tough few decades for the Lions, first as Great Britain and then as England. A win would give the game in the UK some much needed wider exposure and provide success-starved England sports fans some desperately needed glory. It would be the kind of win the fans would remember for the rest of their lives.New Zealand footy people will talk about the 2008 World Cup final for as long as the game is played. The haka before the match, Billy Slater’s gaffe that lead to Benji Marshall’s try, the decisive penalty try to Lance Hohaia, the match-sealing score to Adam Blair, the scenes afterwards — they’re iconic images of New Zealand rugby league.And if Tonga somehow, someway, manage to win it all? Forget about it.

It would be the greatest day in international rugby league history. Jason Taumalolo would become an all-time footballing legend. They would rename islands after him. If Australia win, and they probably will, its just one more tournament victory. Another win among many. Special and unique in its own way without a doubt, but without the singular significance of an England or New Zealand victory. That’s not to denigrate the achievements of the Kangaroos by any means. The team that romped to victory in the 2013 tournament was among the finest ever to leave these shores. This time around there’s a truly fascinating mix of the old guard and the new generation — Mal Meninga’s squad has a fun mix of grizzled veterans and hungry youngsters.The likes of Cameron Munster, Michael Morgan and Tom Trbojevic making their mark on the Test arena is a recipe for a good time and the return of Billy Slater promises to be a treat. This will also be the final time we see Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk all play together, a gift many fans won’t appreciate until its over. Australia will play some brilliant football on their way to a probable victory, and no matter the result they’ll be appointment viewing because they are the best in the world. But things are better for Test footy when they lose. Mal Meninga is one of Test football’s champions, a true believer in the importance of the international game. Ironically, the best thing he could do for Test footy would be to fail.

SQUAD: Slater, Smith and Cronk are the only players backing up from the 2013 World Cup while 13 return from last year’s Four Nations winning side. There are still a host of spots up for grabs, most notably at five-eighth. Cameron Munster, Michael Morgan and James Maloney will all compete for the right to partner the big three and each has a compelling case- Munster plays with them at club level, Morgan was the best half in the NRL this season and Maloney has the representative experience in the halves.

Best XVII: 1. Billy Slater 2. Dane Gagai 3. Will Chambers 4. Tom Trbojevic 5. Valentine Holmes 6. Michael Morgan 7. Cooper Cronk 8. Aaron Woods 9. Cameron Smith 10. David Klemmer 11. Boyd Cordner 12. Matt Gillett 13. Josh McGuire 14. Cameron Munster 15. Jake Trbojevic 16. Jordan McLean 17. Tyson Frizell

Random Australian Fact: Australia used to play many club sides on their tours to New Zealand and Great Britain and France, a practice which has sadly fallen by the wayside. The last time one of these club sides beat Australia was in 1989 when Auckland scored a 26-24 victory.

Prediction: We’re taking Australia to win it all and beat England in the final.

[junker-town]

What to expect from Tiger Woods in his return at the Farmers Insurance Open

We’ve waited 17 months to see Tiger Woods back on the PGA Tour. Now he’s set to play four times in five weeks. From the best case to the worst case, here’s what to expect at Torrey Pines.

The little hit-and-giggle game last month doesn’t really count. Sure, it was nice to see the Big Cat playing golf back in front of a camera in the Bahamas but this week marks the return of Tiger Woods to the PGA Tour. The Farmers Insurance Open first round on Thursday will come 521 days after his last official round on the PGA Tour, August of 2015’s Wyndham Championship.

This week’s event at Torrey Pines, a place Tiger knows so well and where he’s dominated, does not carry some great weight for Woods. This is not the Masters. But that doesn’t mean we won’t watch and dissect it shot by shot. It’s hard to know what we’ll get from Tiger after such a long layoff, but here we go back-and-forth on some of the best and worst case scenarios (and what it might mean for the future) at Torrey Pines.

Best Case

Kyle: New Cat is same as the Old Cat, and he wins his first real PGA Tour event he’s started since the 2015 Wyndham Championship. With a swing and body reconstructed for the fourth decade of life and freed up from subpar Nike equipment (yes, I said it), Tiger’s primed for more sustainable success than we’ve seen since the Perkins Restaurant & Bakery era. If he’s able to shock the world and win against all odds at Torrey Pines, would you really...

[puts on monocle]

[puts cigar in mouth]

[lights]

expect anything different?

Brendan: That was a highly entertaining revue and best case argument, but here on planet Earth, even the best case scenario cannot be an actual win, right? It’s fantasy, and because it’s Tiger, we might entertain such fantasy more than we’d care to admit with any other player. I think the best case scenario for Tiger is a top 10 finish. Maybe he’s in what we in the golf media like to call “contention,” that constantly malleable term that could mean you’re doing pretty ok out there.

But does that mean he’s going to win? No. The best case would be playing in the third or fourth-to-last tee time on Saturday and Sunday, finishing 8th and under-par, and catching a jet to Dubai in good health for take two.

Tiger’s driver is not reliable yet and this rough, both off the fairway and up around the green, where he’ll have to chip from, is gnarly for such an early season regular PGA Tour stop. Tiger’s been away too long and he’ll get an up-close look right away at what he needs to do to make up ground when he tees off with Jason Day and Dustin Johnson on Thursday afternoon. It may be a little overwhelming to watch those two, No. 1 and No. 3 in the world right now, launch rockets into the La Jolla sky.

The best case is just being around on the weekend and posting a backdoor top 10, while showing NO signs of the chip yips.

Worst Case

Kyle: We’ve seen this go bad before. The last time Tiger teed it up for early season golf in the winter out west, it was a disaster. No good Tiger fan, hater, or biographer will be forgetting his front nine 44 (!) at TPC Scottsdale in 2015. Of course, that was also two years ago. The short game issues that seemed to plague him at that time looked relieved in the Bahamas in December, but there’s far more cameras and attention this week. Can his short game hold up?

Brendan: Yip. Yip. Yip. YIPPPPP. This is the worst case scenario, now and for the rest of Tiger’s career. More than the health issues, the chip yips scare the hell out of me if I am a Tiger fan. There may not have been any sign of them in his start last month at the Hero World Challenge, and he hid them for most of the summer of 2015, when we saw him last.

But the yips are always there, deep down in some dark recess of your golf soul and always capable of popping back up to destroy your golf psyche at any moment. There’s no predicting when they may come back. They may never conspicuously materialize again, but that doesn’t mean they went away.

We often hail Torrey Pines as a course that Tiger has owned throughout his career. It’s one of those handful of venues like Doral, Firestone, Bay Hill, and Muirfield where he’s racked up a majority of those absurd 79 PGA Tour career wins. There are many good memories here, no doubt. But it was also the scene of perhaps the lowest moment of his golf career (note: on the actual course!). After yipping the ball all around the greens in the most embarrassing fashion at TPC Scottsdale in 2015, Tiger showed up a week later at Torrey searching. We saw him hosel rocket ground balls on the Torrey Range under the watch of Pat Perez and Billy Horschel during practice.

He’d yip a few more in his first round just a day later, then withdraw in the middle of it after grimacing in pain throughout. The blame was assigned to some “deactivated glutes,” an all-time Tiger explanation that added to the ignominy of that brief Torrey stay.

The worst-case is obviously something that approximates that last visit to this venue. It can’t be that bad, but it would go something like a missed cut with the continued wildness off the tee and several signs of the chip yips as he tries to play out of some testy lies around these Torrey Pines greens. Even the biggest Tiger cynic or hater shouldn’t want this.

What’s realistic?

Kyle Robbins: Tiger likes the dramatic, and I think after the troubles of early 2015, it would have been too much for his ego to come back too early and suck. He seems to have also reached a point of self-security in life, where he’s far more comfortable off the course than ever before with his new TGR ventures and so forth.

What point am I making? I think if Tiger didn’t feel like he really had it together, he wouldn’t play this week. That’s exactly what he did at the Safeway last October. Now, I think he’s ready.

Though I’m not reading too deep into anything anyone does at Albany, Tiger looked the part at the Hero World Challenge. He may have stumbled at the end and finished near the bottom of a small leaderboard, but isolated doubles & big numbers were mostly the cause.

But the birdies of his stellar third round, his refined swing, his better equipment ... it all leads me to believe making the cut this week is easily attainable, and a Top-15 finish would be a major realistic success.

Brendan: I am with you Kyle on the optimistic side this week (we’ve written too many sad and so very depressing Tiger things in recent years). I took more good than bad away from that week at the Hero. There will be sloppiness off the tee that probably keeps him from actually contending against a field with many of the best players in the world. That will keep some of those double bogeys on his scorecard.

I think Tiger is in a good place, however, and ready to make the cut in his first real PGA Tour event since August of 2015. Given that layoff and the despair of recent years, a made cut is a success. I think he plays the weekend and finishes somewhere between 20-25th at Torrey Pines.

Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images

This first stretch back may mean more for the next 10 years of his career than we realize.

What does this week mean for the future of Tiger’s career?

Brendan: Not much. I think the next five weeks may have a more outsized impact than we think, but this very first week should not matter much for the rest of Tiger’s career, which is hopefully another decade. I think if he has an awful week, there are several easy and understandable reasons to explain it away. Now if the next five weeks, which includes four starts, an uncharacteristically rigorous stretch for Tiger, are a total mess, you worry that Tiger might devolve into the “there is no light at the end of a tunnel” phase we got around this time last year.

Every shot is shown. Every round is analyzed blow-by-blow. No one plays under this microscope. So four bad tournaments in a row becomes a much, much larger burden and seems like four months. Tiger says he never cares what outside “noise” may be surrounding his game, but he has to feel it and knows the scrutiny is intense. This week’s result is not important — you can’t get too discouraged in your first start back. But I do think there is more riding on the stretch that starts now than we may realize.

Kyle: You shouldn’t read too much into January golf. But I think this week could have a huge impact on what remains for Tiger if things go south. The last time Tiger was teeing it up on Tour early in the season, he looked dang-near like a 15-handicapper skulling it to-and-fro across the greens. This week matters for Tiger’s confidence. He needs to know and believe he can still come out and Do It. Something around just above or below the cut line is just fine. Throwing it in the tank and flirting with DFL might have him questioning if it’s worth playing this game anymore.