#but some of these are so dern interesting

[hadesoftheladies]

FEMALE MOVIE/TV RECS (PART 5 / HORROR & CRIME DRAMA)

got inspired from a recommendation post so decided to make a list of movies and shows with female-centric stories/female protagonists. since i can't post all of the genres in one post, i'll split it into multiple posts and y'all can save or add to the list as you wish. (disclaimer: i have watched most of these, but i only know about the existence of others. not every movie/show on these lists will be my recommendation. my recommendations will be beneath the list with reasons. also some of these are way better than others in terms of storytelling/performance--which is why i'll list my faves separately):

Common Themes:

-Dangerous girls (they ain't innocent)/ girlhood as violent

-Stressed out and melancholic female detectives and authors (lots of drinking/smoking)

-Mothers who've seen too fucking much to play games/I'm a good mother until it doesn't let up

-Women handling shit/getting shit done

-Mothers who didn't want to be mothers but here we fucking are so might as well handle shit

-Evil women who are also unfortunately hot

-Female sociopaths (not always negatively portrayed)

HAVEN'T WATCHED

The Royal Hotel

The Silent Twins

The Kitchen

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

I'm Thinking of Ending Things

Sharp Objects

Killing Eve

Abigail

Heavenly Creatures

A Quiet Place Part 2

Panic Room

Alice, Darling

Blood Red Sky

Rust Creek

The Marsh King's Daughter

Pearl

GOOD STUFF (NEVER WATCHING AGAIN THOUGH!)

Bad Sisters (8/10) (sisters plan to kill their sister's abusive husband)

Yellowjackets (9/10) (love as cannibalism)

Candy (7.5/10) (she's just a killer lol)

Cruella (6.5/10)(help my mom is a narcissist and it's hereditary)

Jennifer's Body (7/10) (boys aren't people lmao)

Bird Box (8/10)

Under the Bridge (8/10)

PERSONAL NOTES

I watched Tragedy Girls years ago, and I remember being grossed out and having a lot of fun as well. If you like Jennifer's Body, you'll probably like Tragedy Girls, too. And if you like Tragedy Girls, you may also enjoy Thoroughbreds. All three have a twisted sense of girlpower.

The Call isn't scary so much as its nerve-wracking and upsetting. It's not gory (although there is violence), but it deals with heavy subject matter. I can, however, promise a satisfying ending. Even though I doubt it would put you at ease.

Horror is my least favourite genre so bear that in mind. I just hate jump scares (because I hate being startled) and I don't like gore though there are times where it doesn't bother me so much. So this is definitely not an exhaustive list on horror recs. Crime is as close as I usually get to such dark stuff so I put the dark crimes, psychological thrillers and horrors together. I don't even want to talk about these that much because I'm nauseous already.

Watch at your own risk.

[renmorris]

actually, there are some alternatives I could try, so interest check

beloved disco mutuals and followers, would you be interested in settling in for a 3hr art house film by david lynch? I won’t say much about the plot but it’s in a similar vein as house of leaves and stars Laura Dern giving the best performance of her career

(CWs include discussion of sexual assault, domestic violence, some brief but disturbing gore, some strobing lights, brief use of the g slur + magic fortune teller tropes, and of course intense unreality and fragmentation of the self)

[astridellejo]

I wanted to have a TDOV Easter egg cracking story ready for today, but my ADHD won. So here's something I hastily put together at the last minute (like I always do).

My personal trans lore below the cut:

I grew up as a child of the 1980s and had absolutely no idea that trans was a thing. All I knew is that the body I had was not the body I wanted. Those thoughts started around 1983 when I was nine years old. I thought it was just a normal part of growing up, and that everyone in the world felt like that. Even in my senior year of high school when I was eighteen years old, I was still having thoughts like, "I wish this wanting to be a different sex and gender than the one I'm stuck with part of puberty would hurry up and finish, because it's getting really old now."

[egg emoji (not actually an egg emoji)]

Again, I didn't know trans was a thing. It was about 1995 when I would finally see actual trans people for the first time on some daytime trash television talk show. At which point I was like, "Wait, what? Oh no. I'm gonna be really bad at that, then. Because I just don't have it in me to be that ostentatious." I just wanted to wear black and sit in a dark corner of a café and draw in my sketchbook.

Now because it was the 1990s, your average cishet didn't grasp the difference between sex, gender, and sexual orientation. (It's 2024 now and most still don't.) So everybody thought I was gay. And I was all, "Well, technically yes. But not in the way you think."

See, my crushes in the early 90s were Winona Ryder, and Laura Dern, and Gillian Anderson. And who I wanted to look like was Gina Gershon in Bound, or Ally Sheedy in High Art. But back in the day, the idea of a butch lesbian trans woman just blew everyone's minds. The idiot gender headshrink (the person I had to get a 'permission slip' from to begin my transition) just couldn't wrap that around his brain. Which is why I only saw him three times before demanding my letter.

Then finally in summer of 2002, I began my transition (after almost five years of roadbumps and occasional self-doubt). I began second puberty and went through the really awkward teenage girl phase of transition figuring out my new self expression while my body slowly morphed into a shape that I was much more comfortable having.

It has now been 22 years since I began my transition and I'm happy to report that now I look more or less how I wanted to look in 1998, but with hair that is almost three feet long. (Ooo! Long haired butch!) Plus that hair has streaks of silver in it now, making it so much hotter!

I'm going to be 50 in September, which just short-circuits my headmeats. Does that make me a trans elder yet? Or do I need another decade? Whatever. It'll be interesting to see how my midlife crisis plays out.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Happy Transgender Day of Visibility!

(The selfie is from three years ago because I'm too lazy to go take one now.)

[filmcel]

donnie darko - the best movie i’ve ever seen. such an interesting depiction of mental health. it’s interesting fuck the director though he’s a dumbass.

prisoners - THE movie to recommend people. idk anyone who has watched it and hated it. it’s so fucking good . tbh jake is like the least interesting part of the movie he’s pretty ugly. paul dano is the goat. the best movie i’ve seen revolving around some mystery. always on my toes always scared. when u think you know u end up being wrong. it gets u.

zodiac - he’s so cute in this movie and that’s as good as it gets. it’s good for one viewing and that’s IT. it’s very interesting has good sequences. but it’s so damn long. i guess if u wanna argue that it wants u to FEEL how they felt waiting so long trying to catch the zodiac killer id say sure fine but also they never even catch him so what’s the point of the movie. idk.

brokeback mountain - no comment

nocturnal animals - this movie is absolutely insane in the worst way. the two main characters r fuxking deranged. jake’s character is deranged for being like that. his weird revenge thing is so strange and it’s uncomfortable. i didn’t get it i didn’t like it i wouldn’t watch again.

enemy - this fucking movie…. idk how i sat thru it all actually. i’m proud of myself but i didn’t need to put myself thru that. jake is so boring in this. the movie itself is so fucking boring. it’s so weird. it’s so ugly. it looks like shit and it’s shot like shit and i don’t get why bc it’s a denis movie. maybe i’m not smart enough to get it but it sucked dick AND balls.

the guilty - okay. i know this movie isn’t very good. but i watched it and was entertained. it rlly is something you’d catch on the tv while ur at the dentist and get rlly invested in the 30 minutes ur in the waiting room. its nothing life changing but i had a good time

ambulance - HWHSJFJJDJAJAJS. the worst shit i’ve ever fucking seeeeeen. it’s hilarious tho . watch it drunk otherwise u might be bored out of ur mind. this movie is so insanely shot. i remember the billion drone shots. i remember the spleen burst. i remember the goofy shots they did of jake. idk how it got made. idk how jake is in it.

brothers - this movie… isn’t BAD…. i think? it made me uncomfortable. which yeah. that’s the point. but like the scene of tobey like being captured whatever . idk enough about anything but was that offensive in some way? let me know… it felt strange . the movie tho is super hard to watch. it’s cringey and scary. i wanna rewatch to get my full thoughts on it because it was awhile ago . great acting tho.

end of watch - Stupid baka fucking movie. i made my mom rent this shit and im sorry i wasted 4 of ur hard earned dollars. this movie is worth nothing. it’s so racist to mexicans. it’s embarrassing. like the main guy is mexicans and it does all that cringe cholo shit it made me want to claw my eyes out and never watch another movie again.

the covenant - GEHHRDHHFHRHSJZJFJRJEJ the most boring movie of all these honestly. i think i almost fell asleep. jake is in too many military movies actually holy shit. don’t watch this one at all lmfao .

jarhead - this one is the most interesting military movie he’s in but it’s also graphically one of the worst so beware. it rlly doesn’t hold back with trying to be gross and bad. and i understand why. but it does make it hard to watch. it’s shot rlly well though. and the acting is great.

demolition - OH BROTHHERRRRR. i thought this movie would be worth something because it’s one of those u see a lot of clips of online. it’s genuinely so stupid tho. i can barely remember the plot but i just remember it made no sense. ppl keep getting jake for these insane characters except it’s just dumb as shit.

october sky - this is a cute fun movie you’d watch in middle school ^_^! cute little time!!! and it has laura dern so what’s not to like!! maybe a little boring to some tho.

[theweirdwideweb]

I'm sad about Treat Williams dying. I watched Hair a gagillion times as a kid. I'd become interested in him again over the past year after watching him in a Laura Dern movie. Found him on twitter. He seemed like a genuinely happy person. He was always doing cool shit like flying airplanes and being out in nature, always having fun. Dead at 71 in a motorcycle accident is a pretty badass way to go, but he was such a sturdy man. I think he would have had a lot of years left otherwise and vehicle crashes are so horrific. Giving me some death anxiety today. He tweeted like every day and I would always think how much I liked him.

[lindszeppelin]

Omg Omg Omg. First off, loving all of the anons popping off today. I’ve been sleuthing for a few weeks (more on that below) and was already a fan but today feels like justice.

Second, I especially loved hearing about that tweet about an actress losing roles to Kaia Gerber. Not bc it’s a good thing bc it’s too real!! I’m also in the industry and am likely not up for her roles (slightly different demos but not by much) so I can’t commiserate too personally but I have tea anyway bc boy do I know people who have had the misfortune of dealing with her in one way or another.

-The reason not a ton of tweets like the one mentioned exist is because people who work in the industry have to unplug. Going on Reddit or something to read about show business gossip is not the relaxing time it is for those not in the industry, ya know? And the last thing you wanna see online is some untalented offspring eating at Nobu or shopping in Beverly Hills while having access to roles and directors and more while we go unnoticed in our acting classes and- if we’re lucky- bit parts on shows or landing that tampon commercial 😖. Social media users also cling to their favorites with rabid fever, so why risk getting our experiences gaslit bc some fan thinks we’re “haters” or strangers who lie on the internet. Also, some stuff is too specific to a project and it’s unsafe to spill tea ( either bc it’s too identifying and we can’t burn bridges or bc of contracts stipulations-sometimes you can’t say ANYTHING about a project until it comes out and even posting anonymously isn’t necessarily safe.) That said, with the strikes I think more of us are bored and online more and- speaking for myself- am looovvvving finding content like your blog and some other sources bc it’s validating to see not everyone thinks Kaia Gerber is a great actress all because her mom is famous or whatever. Like we in the industry have issues with her, but when she keeps getting cast in things it messes with our sense of reality ya know?

- I know writers who are FURIOUS at their words being spoken by these nepo “actors.” Writers rarely have power with castings (unless maybe they wrote a movie that they are directing or created the show and are the head writer. And even then there’s sometimes other political stuff at play…it sucks) so it’s heartbreaking to actors when parts go to people who can’t even act like humans. Look, I’m not saying American Horror Story is amazing and hasn’t gone downhill, but it started fine until they kept doing stunt casting and jumping ship! (Again, writers only have so much power. They take the jobs they land, but the show runner decides where the plots and themes of a season are coming from. Meaning many talented writers write for bad projects bc they a) have to take a job and b) can only do so much depending on what’s outlined for the season- if that makes sense.) Hollywood is brutal but seeing some famous spawn phone in the work and bastardize their words and plots is just the sour cherry on top. Every writer I know HATES, nay RESENTS Kaia Gerber the most out of alllllll the little nepo babies bc of how truly awful she is. If they ever get to rise up in the ranks and get more power (like becoming a show runner), they all hope to have enough power to blacklist that sorry excuse for an “actress” from their projects as revenge. And frankly, best of luck to them and I hope they succeed.

- Kaia is also not exactly as warm and friendly to everyone on sets unless you’re, you know, Laura Dern or of some importance to whatever the project is. She’s not a bitch throwing cell phones but she does not give a fuck about anyone not in power…and it shows. I sadly know a few people who had the misfortune of working with her and she was not interested in having real talks with anyone not important. Multiple sources from multiple projects have told me that. Only unkind people act that way bc they can’t keep up a facade when under the stress of filming. And I’m not talking one or day off days…consistently uninterested in anyone who does not have power. Many people more famous than her treat everyone the same on sets…just saying. People need to stop assuming she’s nice bc she what, doesn’t act like a total brat on red carpets? Everyone can act nice when there’s a camera around, c’mon people. What you see in interviews is not reality!

- Responding to another anon, sure Austin should join the strike pickets. He doesn’t have to post on social media but others would do it for him and it would show support, even if it’s a touch performative so many week in. (I know this is an Austin safe space so I’ll refrain on saying more.) That said, I’ve picketed a bunch and have yet to see a celebrity. Most days it’s the actors and writers who are not famous striking, but when famous ones show up it makes the news and genuinely helps with morale. Yes, of course sometimes they show up but not even close to as much as the little people do. I wish more famous people would, but when the nepos don’t…it’s even more insulting. They literally bought their way into much of their success (even if bribes don’t happen for roles c’mon, do you know how expensive a publicist is? We know all about the nepos before they hit the catwalk or land their first role bc they hire people to do PR, which gives them an even bigger leg up in addition to the connections they already have). These nepos do not care they are out of work bc they have other things they can do and still have financial security. It’s just insulting. And I think the original anon was speaking to Kaia mysteriously making news for walking her dog when she has a movie coming out she can’t promote. I’m not sure but I don’t think Austin has any movies for a moment so it’s not as egregious that he isn’t doing that this week ( unless I’m missing something, which I may be bc I don’t follow him much). The least these nepos could do is support the little people who are actually impacted by the strike. It’s proving how little they care about the industry and how unaware they are or how hard it is (we’re striking because we’re not being paid enough!) One social media post is a joke- especially since she was on one of the few projects that got an exemption!! She can’t act, she gets to act in the strike anyway (with exceptional people, btw), and then goes to Nobu instead of the picket lines? Please. That’s how I read the original anon at least (and loved their support so thanks if you see this!) and I don’t care for the second anon picking a weird fight about it. If Austin has struck work then fine, they’re right, but if not it’s not the same thing- at least not at this moment.

TL;DR- Thanks for all of the posts today. It was a good and validating read after a hard summer. Keep sharing why Kaia needs to be canceled! I don’t even believe in cancel culture and think it rarely sticks, but I’m willing to make an exception for Cindy’s entitled spawn who brings absolutely nothing but headaches all around. If nothing else, let’s encourage her to go back to school if she’s so “scholarly” with…is it romance reads in her book club? I genuinely don’t understand it and don’t want to but geez, that girl needs perspective outside of Hollywood for a few years and I hope she gets it somewhere (school or otherwise) bc that’s genuinely the best thing that can happen to her. I pray for the day she stops getting cast and my friends do instead.

omfg anon, whoever you are, i love you endlessly and i honestly don't have any words. this post should be sent around to the ENTIRE FANDOM because some people need to wake up.

am i shocked that people in the industry are fed up with kaia? absolutely not. i have read a couple of small blind items in the past that have mentioned her bitchy behavior. and while there weren't many of these accounts coming forward, it was those in the whole pile of good publicity surrounding her that always stood out to me more. it's so easy to fake being nice when you want to rub elbows with important people to get a foothold in the acting door.

im also so incredibly sorry that you and your fellow actor peers are even going through this strike right now. it's horrific and it should never have happened. it's the little people that already struggled to get jobs in the first place to get by that worry me more than some A list celeb that can't work on another movie but can chill in their nice house until the strike ends.

people that have creative type jobs and that work for their passions are always getting shafted by society. we shouldn't have to suffer because we don't want the typical corporate career. too many actors work their asses off to go to 100 auditions and are lucky to book maybe one thing in a blue moon while working day jobs at cafes or something. im sure it can feel depressing and degrading. you guys just want your big break, and to pay the bills while working your dream job. and im sorry that people like kaia gerber steals the work from right under your feet without a second thought. AND she butchers the roles she in, making the whole thing a farce.

im so glad you decided to come over here and talk about your experiences. honestly i hope more of your actor and writer friends speak out about the injustices. if you don't have a blog of your own i'd suggest making one now to document your feelings. who knows, it might get around and in the right hands of people to promote it ona grander scale. the regular media is barely covering the strike as it stands. we need to see that you guys are continually being shafted left and right.

and hey, i hope that more A List celebs picket with you guys on the front lines. it helps to make the headlines. thank you again for your commentary <3

[thealmightyemprex]

Alfred Hitchcock August Family Plot

This Month I am planning to film in some of my Hitchcock gaps ,starting with his final film

In this 1976 film,psychic Blanche (Barbra Harris ) has been hired to find the long lost nephew of the wealthy Julia Rainbird (Cathleen Nesbit ),unaware said nephew is a kidnapper named Arthur Adamson(William Devane) who thinks Blanche and boyfriend George (Bruce Dern ) have stumbled upon his criminal activities

So I always heard this was a lesser Hitchcock film,only notable for being his final film ....I disagree this was a ton of fun,I really enjoyed this .I honestly think the reason why its not more loved is cause it is Hitchcocks final film,people expect an amazing finale to his career and might be disappointed it is a fairly light film,but that didnt bother me

The film is a dark comedy/thriller ,and I'll adimit as a comedy its not that funny but it is definately fun and as a thriller its really suspenceful.There is a rather entertaining car chase

The supporting cast ,especially Cathleen Nesbitt as an elderly rich woman and Ed Lauter as a murderous associate of Adamson are really good

What I like is the film centers on two couples ,one down on their luck basically con artists,and the other two sucessful kidnappers,and its interesting to see the diffrence between the two relationships

Karan Black is verygoood as the sort of reluctant villain ,very hesitant to get her hands dirty .I think she is good but wish there was more of her

William Devane is excellent as the main villain.A greedy jewler not afraid to kidnap or murder to get what he wants .I had recently seen Marathon Man with him in it,and with these two roles he impresses me as an actor

Barbra Harris in this as the psychic is fun,she does have great moments but in some scenes she can over do it a little

The best performance for me is Bruce Dern in a rare heroic role ,and this is my favorite Bruce Dern movie .I love the scenes of him investigating and I adore his and Harris's relationship

Overall Family Plot is a fun watch,not a masterpiece but a hoot ,reccomended

@ariel-seagull-wings @filmcityworld1 @the-blue-fairie @angelixgutz @scarletblumburtonofeastlondon @amalthea9 @princesssarisa @theancientvaleofsoulmaking @marquisedemasque @themousefromfantasyland

[skunts-own-truth]

The first Saturday off I’ve had in a good long while is finally here, and with it the first session of my group’s Rogue Trader game! Since my last post about it, I’ve actually had a player drop out, but that still leaves me with a party consisting of a Rogue Trader, a Kroot, an Explorator, a Voidmaster, and a Navigator. Losing our Seneschal isn’t great, but we still have more than enough players to make the game viable.

This session will focus on player character histories and their relationships with each other. We know some bits already, but we’re going to be setting some ideas into stone. Once we’ve done that, I’ve spent the week highly modifying the RT demo adventure “the Forsaken Bounty.” The skeleton of the story is the same- a lost ship has been scouted by passing Imperial Navy ships, the ship is a vessel that once belonged to the RT’s dynasty (ours is the Mifune Dynasty,) and the local sector Administratum has granted our RT with a Writ of Claim over the discovered vessel with the condition that the RT themselves must be the first person from the dynasty’s salvage group to set foot aboard the old boat. Everything else has been changed, and some extra chunks have been added to make it feel like a full meaty adventure.

Other Warhammer related news from me-

I went ahead and got some Battlefleet Gothic minis off of Etsy. Not only because I’ve always wanted some dern BFG minis, but also to help with distance and positioning in Rogue Trader. I usually don’t use maps or minis when I GM, but when it comes to ship combat (naval or void,) I usually like to have something on the table to represent what side a boat is facing each turn. If this leads into my wife or any of my pals playing some BFG with me too, heh, net win for Dustyn.

I fell pretty hard into an Inquisitor hole. Read the rules, made a party, read some of the premade adventures. My buddy Nick, our local Dark Eldar player, talked with me about it for a while and became immediately interested at the idea of controlling what is essentially a full RPG party in a tabletop skirmish game. So even if I don’t get a bunch of players for this one, I know at some point good ol’ Nick has my back. We’d just need one more player. I’d probably GM, but I wouldn’t mind controlling one of the warbands myself.

I’ve also gone and finally finished Ravenor Rogue. Took me years to do it, I don’t know why. If I were to hazard a guess it’s because I read new releases pretty regularly, and get distracted easy. But finally, one of the biggest gaps in my Black Library reading has been filled. I’ve read nearly everything at this point! Only a few things I haven’t touched, like the Ultramarines omnibus stuff, post-3rd edition AoS stuff, and a couple of Warhammer Fantasy novels I haven’t been able to get my hands on. There’s more to the list of BL books I haven’t read, but at this point I have read most of the entries, probably to my own detriment.

I’m reading the Magos now. I’ve already read this one, but I haven’t gotten to the Bequin books yet, so I thought I’d read this one as a refresher first. Once I knock this one out, I’ll read the two Bequin entries, and probably take a small break from Warhammer books to read some classic literature for a bit. I’ve been itching to read Moby Dick and finish the Count of Monte Cristo.

[mostlygibberish]

"Jurassic World? Not a fan."

I liked the part with the bullet time.

I'd say that I'm not sure what the point of Jurassic World Dominion was, but like the rest of this trilogy, it clearly exists to profit off nostalgia for better movies.

The concept of dinosaurs now living freely around the globe was barely explored; There was about a five minute montage of dinosaurs attacking random people and making human lives generally worse. Instead they spent most of the movie in, get this, a large park built to contain dinosaurs which ultimately failed to contain the dinosaurs. This is what, the sixth time now?

What little plot this movie actually contained was weirdly focused on giant locusts instead of dinosaurs. For some reason the villain had been keeping these genetically modified super locusts around, even though their existence was evidence he wanted suppressed. He then arbitrarily decided to light them on fire after the protagonists had already gotten away with one. Despite being very flammable they were barely affected by being engulfed in flames, so they just flew around lighting his whole park on fire.

At the end of the movie they stopped the giant locusts by releasing a genetic virus that… did something to them I guess? The science guy just said "I can spread change from one locust to the entire swarm", without giving any details. A news report at the end praised him for his "use of a pathogen to alter the locust's DNA", again not actually explaining what it did to them or how it helped at all.

There were about two dozen characters and none of them were interesting, the action set pieces were either offensively stupid or just dreary, and the movie ended with a nonsensical, non-sequitur speech about co-existence with dinosaurs. The stuff about Isabella Sermon being a clone was as uninteresting as last time and her performance was remarkably bad, just making the same vaguely concerned expression regardless of what was happening in the scene.

The return of Laura Dern and Sam Neill felt as hollow as Jeff Goldblum's brief return in the last movie, and he was back to do nothing in this one too. There was this really bizarre scene where Dr. Grant risked his life for his hat, as though that was an important facet of his character or something like he's Indiana Jones? Also he sounded like he was poorly impersonating Liam Neeson. The fact that the villain was the guy Nedry met at the start of Jurassic Park stood out as an especially pointless callback, even among a sea of pointless callbacks.

The most strikingly bad aspect of this movie was the editing. Characters would be in different positions and poses between immediate perspective changes, making it clear that the thing had been chopped to all hell. None of the action scenes had danger or urgency, and the way every shot had like fourteen people in it excluded any potential sense of threat to an individual character.

What else can I complain about? Their cargo plane had three seats but one of them was an "ejector seat", complete with permanently open hole in the roof above it and a handheld device that tracked the position of the seat, presumably to be used by one of the two people who didn't have ejector seats and would probably die in the crash.

Chris Pratt pointed at a map of the park and asked "Where is that?", as though he wasn't literally pointing at map that showed where it was. Oh yeah, and this was the extended edition that allegedly improved the movie in some way.

Another bland, soulless cash grab. Just terrible.

[quinnkdev]

MfLDoP #3 - Inland Empire

Not the Disco Elysium skill, the David Lynch and Laura Dern film!

@sev-wildfang and I sat down together this evening to watch it. We were unsure at the beginning - still finding our footing in its tonal and technical idiosyncrasies - but soon we got extremely into it, and both left it saying it may be our new favourite movie.

Having recovered from the adrenaline rush, jury’s kind of out on that until I give it a rewatch. What I do know is that it’s my new favourite thing Lynch has participated in - moreso even than Twin Peaks.

More under the cut - spoilers throughout.

Inland Empire may just be Peak Lynch for me. Here is where his work culminated, and from here, it scatters out again. Having seen Twin Peaks: The Return earlier in the pandemic, I loved a lot of what it was doing, but felt it was bogged down by its connections to what came before, as self-aware and critical as it was about them. Sev said it after our watch - Inland Empire is free of any sequel baggage, it gets to be itself: Self-contained and decently long, but not so long that it becomes drawn-out.

There is a lot to love about Inland Empire’s cinematography - at least if you can take that kind of thing for what it is, not what it’s “supposed” to be. For one, the frame rate of the version we watched was unedited: The film was 60 FPS, which was immediately noticeable in a perturbing way.

Being shot on 2000s-era digital cameras, a constant air of hyperreality sat on everything: It felt like we were looking at a documentary, or at somebody’s wedding recordings - not a film. It felt more real than Lynch’s movies ever did, and that’s what made it horrifying.

Usually, you get to pat yourself on the back a bit, after viewing a Lynch film, and say: “Nothing this nightmarish could ever happen in the real world. People don’t act like that.” That, of course, is a lie we tell ourselves to be able to stash away the discomfort over very real problems often featured in those films- But for a hard-to-describe reason, seeing the characters and their perturbing actions displayed in 60 FPS, and with the aesthetic of a home video, puts them in a different, more immediate light.

Speaking of light: An important motif in the movie. It’s frequently used to determine era, location, mood, psychological space and otherwise. Hell, near the end, somebody is shot with a gun that shoots light - not as in a laser, but as in a spotlight that manages to kill a character.

Another thing that lent the film more flavour, and I think improved it for me, was some of the stage-like set designs featured in it, as well as the fact that it, unlike most other David Lynch-directed movies, didn’t exclusively take place in the U.S. Something about seeing European actors on-screen speak a European language (Polish), and some scenes - apparently - being shot in a European city made it all less drab and uniform, stand out from the others. Lynch’s Americana is nice and all, but it’s good to know that he has - at one point at least - done something else, too.

Laura Dern’s performance was intense! Not exactly nuanced, but very intense. Often, she was just reacting to things, and her face-acting for those close-ups was pretty challenging, if occasionally excessive. The coolest stuff from an acting perspective is mostly front-loaded in the movie, when she, playing Nikki Grace, plays a character as Nikki Grace. Lying while lying is always tough; she does it pretty well, and even later when her performance turns more reactive, it occasionally returns.

Plot was this movie’s least interesting aspect - at least what was intelligible of it on a first watch. The usual skewed portrayal of women rears its head, sudden violence, ableism... It’s more subdued than in other Lynch movies, but it’s still there in parts of the plot, and as elsewhere, it’s been used by Lynch so frequently that it becomes hard to know whether he is condemning or reveling in what he’s portrayed.

Finally, the ending it left us with was... interesting? In a strange way, it felt like what we were seeing was a happy end, though why we felt a sense of closure from it, neither Sev and I could - at first - say. The ending felt pleasant, and like an appropriate come-down after the tour-de-force before it.

Absolutely would recommend.

[pynkhues]

Do you have any thoughts on nepo babies denying that they had any privilege or dismissing it. I just read an article with lilly-rose Depp where she said he doesn't want to be called a nepo baby. would love to hear your thoughts?

Oh gosh, you made me look up the article, anon.

Speaking of internet opinions, has she heard about the whole “nepo baby” conversation? She laughs dryly: “I’m familiar.” Depp sounds resigned to it, which is maybe all one can be in her situation. “The internet seems to care a lot about that kind of stuff. People are going to have preconceived ideas about you or how you got there, and I can definitely say that nothing is going to get you the part except for being right for the part,” she says. “The internet cares a lot more about who your family is than the people who are casting you in things. Maybe you get your foot in the door, but you still just have your foot in the door. There’s a lot of work that comes after that.”

She does find it “interesting,” however, that she rarely hears anyone refer to a man as a nepo baby. “It’s weird to me to reduce somebody to the idea that they’re only there because it’s a generational thing. It just doesn’t make any sense. If somebody’s mom or dad is a doctor, and then the kid becomes a doctor, you’re not going to be like, ‘Well, you’re only a doctor because your parent is a doctor.’ It’s like, ‘No, I went to medical school and trained.’” Ever careful, she’s quick to add that she is by no means comparing her own work to that of someone in the medical field. “I just hear it a lot more about women, and I don’t think that it’s a coincidence.”

Well, for starters, I don't like her weaponising gender to deflect here at all, because I think this is an area where the internet actually is fairly 'equal opportunity'. Hell, the first people that spring to mind when I think of 'nepo babies' are Brooklyn Beckham, Scott Eastwood and Sam Levinson.

But yeah, if she believes the people casting don't care about her name, she's drunk the Kool-Aid.

I actually don't have a problem with legacy careers. It makes sense to me that children who grow up around a certain industry would develop an interest or an aptitude in it. Hell, in some ways I relate. My parents both work in creative industries (although on a much, much smaller scale, haha), and gosh, in my mum's case, her mother was a local opera singer and actress before she had children, so it's arguably three generations of women working in storytelling, performance and entertainment between my grandmother, mother, and my sister and me.

That does come with drawbacks, sure, but the benefits far outweigh it and to pretend that they don't is frankly absurd. I mostly work in a different medium to my parents, but I grew up around storytelling and conversations around industry that gave me a level of insider knowledge that people who grew up outside of it don't have. I'm also aware that I have been to, and still go to events with them that put me in a position where I can network in a way a lot of people have to work for.

None of this means that I get work off the back of that, but while other people are trying to find a way in the front door, I know I'm already in the building.

And again, I'm on a much, much, much smaller scale than Lily-Rose Depp.

Nepotism in her case doesn't get her 'foot in the door', the door's being held open for her, and to act like she carries the same burden as others trying to break into the industry for simply stepping through that doorway is absurd to the point of delusion.

Again, I don't actually have a problem with nepotism itself, I think it's given us some wonderfully talented people - Laura Dern, Jane Fonda, Chris Pine, Alexander Skarsgård and Tracee Ellis Ross spring immediately to mind - but to pretend that nepotism doesn't give you the benefit of networks, knowledge and opportunities to breakthrough is ridiculous.

In that sense too, I actually don't even think society or the internet cares about nepotism if you're good at your job. No one uses it against the people I listed above for instance, it's only used against those who don't seem willing to acknowledge their privilege or put the effort into learning the job, which having watched a few things Lily-Rose Depp is in...well, all I can say is her and Sam Levinson seem like a match made in nepotism hell, haha. I don't think I'll be watching The Idol.

[bethrnoora]

6, 9, and 13 for the fandom violence asks, for whatever fandom strikes your fancy 👀

6 - which ship fans are the most annoying?

ok basic answer i know i know but some of the most vocal r3ylo fans are truly odious

9 - worst part of canon

gonna keep with the star wars theme here. most of the execution of the ideas in last jedi and rise of skywalker if im being honest. admiral holdo included in that unfortunately she's just kind of a nothing character and a waste of laura dern imo

13 - worst blorbofication

HMMMM this is an interesting one. i think it's kind of conditional bc i do generally enjoy silly/cute content of any character so it's hard to say. regardless, i dont go here but i think it's weird that people decided to blorboify dudes from *checks notes* the chernobyl show? like the show about the 1986 nuclear disaster?

in terms of things im actually into i feel people get a little uwu-y over michael myers and some other classic slashers which is like FINE because it can be funny but sometimes it's like. ok guys this is a little more than i feel like is necessary here and i dont super want to hear your reader imagines

[byneddiedingo]

Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren in Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964) Cast: Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Martin Gabel, Louise Latham, Diane Baker, Alan Napier, Mariette Hartley, Bruce Dern. Screenplay: Jay Presson Allen. Cinematography: Robert Burks. Film editing: George Tomasini. Music: Bernard Herrmann. Marnie, once dismissed as just a stew of melodrama and pop psychology, has undergone a wholesale re-evaluation in recent years, though some of it was spurred by revelations about Alfred Hitchcock's sexual harassment of Tippi Hedren. Now it's often seen as not only one of his most revealing films about his personal obsessions -- second perhaps only to Vertigo (1958), which it much resembles -- but also one of his greatest. (No other Hitchcock film has been made into an opera performed at the Met.) Its champions include the New Yorker's Richard Brody and filmmaker Alexandre Philippe, who has compared Hedren's performance to that of Isabelle Huppert in Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher (2001). I wouldn't go that far. In fact, the most I'm willing to say is that Marnie is a very odd duck of a movie, one that just thinking about for a while can give me the creeps, especially in these times when each day seems to bring a new revelation about powerful men and their treatment of vulnerable women (and men). That's why the key to Marnie seems to me not so much Marnie herself but Mark Rutland (Sean Connery). Hedren is very good in her role, fully playing up her character's ever-present self-consciousness, born of being the constant object of the male gaze. But the film turns on an actor's ability to make something both credible and meaningful of Mark's obsession with Marnie, his persistence in trying to treat her disorder, and the breakdown of his endurance when he rapes her. I doubt that even Hitchcock's most gifted leading men, i.e., Cary Grant and James Stewart, could have brought off the role with much success. Sean Connery brings his Bondian smirk to the part, which heightens our sense of Marnie's fear of men, but also undercuts what should be at least a plausible interest on his part of treating her illness. There's no gentleness in Connery's performance, so that even Mark's attempts to win her over -- buying her beloved horse, for example -- look like power plays. But Marnie's response to Mark is equally perverse: After the rape, she tries to drown herself in the ship's swimming pool, and when he asks why she didn't just jump overboard, she replies, "The idea was to kill myself, not feed the damn fish." Not only is the reply nonsensical but it also underscores the truth: The idea was obviously to let herself be found, either to be rescued or by her death to score another point against men. So it's clear that Marnie is the kind of film that invites exhaustive comment, which is not exactly the same thing as saying it's a great film, or even a good one. To my mind, it's a showcase of Hitchcockian technique without heart or wit. It has some fine touches, such as the scene in which Marnie goes to rob the Rutland safe and we watch as she goes about it on one side of the screen while on the other a cleaning woman comes closer and closer to discovering her. Once again, Hitchcock makes us root for someone who's doing something we should disapprove of, but there's also something overfamiliar about it: We saw something like it in Psycho (1960), when Norman tries and almost fails to sink the Ford containing Marion's body in the swamp. But there it was an important alienating moment; here it just seems like a trick to build suspense in a film that doesn't particularly need it. It's style for style's sake, the essence of decadence, and Marnie may be Hitchcock's most decadent film.

[sketching-shark]

Hi again! Clarification anon - and you answered it perfectly (and also thank you tumblr gods for being merciful this day with my asks). I totally get it now - having read jttw myself I can't help but agree the actual meat of the book isn't exactly kid friendly lol. I was more or less thinking of the end and I think that was where my confusion was. You make a great point with the lmk's group's lack of knowledge of the og contents. It does really make me curious what they (the lmk writing crew) plan to do going forward - there's so much good literary potential there! (Sorry I'm a huge nerd about this stuff). Thanks again - I really appreciate it!! ❤️

No problem anon! I’m glad that you felt my answer satisfied :)

But haha YEA you know the more you go through Xiyouji the more you become surprised that more horror movies haven’t been based off of it because gosh dern there is a LOT of not so nice stuff going on in there ranging from child murder to salt-the-earth war tactics. Just thinking back on it this work contains some of the most intense scenes of body horror I’ve ever encountered in literature. For example (WARNING WARNING GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS AHEAD) when a tiger yaoguai rips its skin off & fights as this bipedal monstrosity of meat and fangs (because apparently for this guy tearing off your skin gives you a power-up lmao) or when Sun Wukong cuts open his chest & starts pulling out what seems like an endless variety of hearts because he’s searching for his “evil” heart but he doesn’t find it (it seems to be a metaphor about how evil is something that you make the choice to do rather than something you inherently are). Like man when I decided to read a work of great Chinese literature I did NOT expect those kinds of scenes. But then again given that many other great classics like the Iliad contains numerous graphic descriptions of warfare such as guys getting their disemboweled guts caught in charging horses’ legs and getting dragged along the ground like that I shouldn’t have been surprised lol. 

I’m fully aware that the WAY something is taught and/or described can really influence how people think about it, but to this day I’m often left baffled that a lot of classics are described as boring when besides presenting a multitude of interesting themes and ideas many contain far more shocking scenes than you would even catch on HBO these days awefawesfaw.

[rookie-critic]

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022, dir. Colin Trevorrow) - review by Rookie-Critic

Jurassic World: Dominion was straight down the middle ok. It abandons entire plot lines for giant swaths of the film before coming back and trying to conclude them as more of an afterthought. Also, speaking of afterthoughts, the dinosaurs are quite literally a secondary concern away from the main plot line, which revolves around some giant locusts and Maisie Lockwood, the little girl from Fallen Kingdom. Blue, possibly the most interesting thing from this new Jurassic trilogy, has maybe 5 minutes of screen time, which is a huge bummer and slightly insulting to the audience that's been made to like this velociraptor enough that she's used as a way to sell these films. As much as I like Bryce Dallas Howard, I'm honestly over Claire, and by extension Owen. I'm starting to realize that Chris Pratt is really only good at playing a certain character (*cough*Star-Lord*cough*). It's a bad sign when your two lead characters were only halfway interesting in the first World movie, and past that they've been mostly just boring. Additionally, try as they might, they still managed to under-utilize BD Wong's Dr. Henry Wu, who once again seems like he's going to be very important, but ends up with minimal to barely any screen time. I'll give them credit for trying slightly harder with his character in this installment, but it's too little too late.

So, with all that working against it, let me also mention what I felt like worked in this one. Firstly, what a genius move to take the smallest character from the original film, Lewis Dodgson (just imagine Wayne Knight shouting "DODGSON! DODGSON! WE GOT DODGSON HERE!!"), and make him the primary antagonist of the film. Brilliant move, and even more brilliant getting Campbell Scott to play the role. Also, the new characters, Mamoudou Athie's Ramsay Cole and DeWanda Wise's Kayla Watts are welcome additions to the cast, and their performances are bright spots in the movie. Finally, and this should be the main takeaway here, the original trio is back! Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm are all back together and, I will say this with full confidence, they keep this movie from being a train wreck. Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum's chemistry is undoubtedly electric, even after almost exactly 29 years to the day. The entire first half of the film, every single time we'd cut back to whatever Owen or Claire were doing, I would just think "can we get back to Ellie and Alan's story line, please?" Looking at them when they're all on screen together again for the first time in almost three decades has a certain degree of undeniable greatness to it that makes it hard to hate.

In summation, would I recommend this? The short answer is not particularly, but if you've invested time in watching all of this franchise, you can commit another couple of hours to seeing the old crew back together again. That part is so worth it.

Score: 5/10

Currently streaming on Peacock.

A+ for putting feathery boys in this one. D- for them not really getting to do much.

[felicereviews]

Silent Running (1972) 89 Minutes, Rated G

Gotta give this one a shout out and a brief explanation of how I found it. The book '100 Cult Films' has Blade Runner listed at about this point. I don't care for Blade Runner. Oh sure I liked it just fine when it came out and expected to still like it but I watched it a few years back and realized it's boring.

So I did some googling on sci-fi cult films and found Silent Running. I never heard of it, don't know why it's called Silent Running but I liked it. Maybe the visual look of the film could have been better but this is some of the first space housing and drones to be in a movie - I think they made a good go of it.

Bruce Dern is on a space station with a crew of guys. They maintain the only remaining forests inside space stations since the Earth cannot sustain the forests. They get the order to nuke the whole operation and go home, where ever that may be. The crew wants to go home and wants to follow orders but Bruce Dern says no man. And he stands up to the crew and reprograms the drones and the redirects the ship and figures out how to save his little patch of forest. It's an interesting narrative. I liked it and Bruce Dern does a good job.

Here are some movies that copied. The Martian, Star Wars, and Battlestar Gallactica. Probably more but I'm no expert.

Douglas Trumbull directed. He only directed one other feature length film, the Natalie Wood / Christopher Walken movie, Brainstorm. Otherwise Trumbull spent his extensive career in the visual effects department pioneering the look of films like Blade Runner and Star Trek. He knew what he was doing - I'm glad he got a chance to direct this film.