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blackbatcass · 4 months

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how would you rank bat-children from bruce's least favorite to favorite? also i'd say do the same for ollie's kids but he would kill himself if you made him do that (mia still his fav though)

oh my god you guys do want me dead💀

I'll be honest, i don't think there's much value to be found in 'rank-the-favorites' discussions. like the honest answer is 'it depends' and i just don't think it's productive. I do think that in most cases wrt relationships with bruce, dick is always going to come out on top. as i've said those two are just on a whole other level. they Know Each Other in a way that no one else will even come close to. I don't think it's controversial to posit that actually raising dick from childhood adds a layer to the relationship bruce has with him that really can't be replicated with anyone else. like...jason was with him for 2-3ish years as a tweenager, cass and tim were adopted in their mid teens. meanwhile bruce was effectively dick's parent from age 8 onwards.

I also think the timing is something that would be almost impossible to replicate. dick entered the picture very early into bruce's years as batman. bruce was the one solid thing in dick's life after his parents died. they were literally each other's crutches through all that emotional turmoil and became, for better or for worse, extremely codependent. all that to say, dick and bruce's relationship is just so crazy insane that pretty much nothing compares. he just has the advantage. you can't recreate the mind bogglingly deep connection 25 yo bruce had with 8yo dick grayson it just can't be done.

on the other hand, cass also has something with bruce that can't be replicated by anyone else: she is Exactly Fucking Like Him. she is his carbon copy. they Get each other's rock-solid convictions & moral code sooo deeply. fandom tends to use this as evidence to point towards cass being the favorite child, but like as greta mysterycitrus has eloquently said in the past, she is exactly like him (derogatory). bruce obviously loves cass deeply, that is his daughter, but I don't think having that relationship with her is always easy for him. her existence points out some uncomfortable truths about himself that he doesn't always want to confront. I mean... if you were to meet yourself as a seventeen year old it would probably be weird as FUCK lol. I especially think the fact that cass has killed someone really fucks with his head and forces him to reevaluate his own morals/worldview.

and like...I don't think he always treats cass fairly. we see it over and over again in bg 2000. he thinks he knows what's best for her because he sees himself in her, but the things he thinks are best for himself are Not Healthy to say the least. he intentionally keeps himself at a distance because he initially did not want that close, father-daughter relationship with her: it was strictly batman and batgirl. and he thought that's what she wanted/needed. but being so singlemindedly driven to a cause with no boundaries or normal life is not exactly the best way to go for a teenager. so I think those two had a lot to figure out when the dust settled.

I have much fewer thoughts about jason, tim and damian simply because they are not my blorbos like dick and cass are lmfao. i do think tim deserves a whole lot of credit for stepping in to save bruce and helping when bruce was at his lowest. like. that was obviously NOT easy lol. bruce and tim are interesting because bruce held himself back from being a father to tim for so long, when jack was still in the picture. but when it comes to a head and tim gets adopted, it's just...natural? like there was nothing else that could have happened there? I am honest to god not the biggest tim fan and have not read enough of his comics to talk intelligently on him any more than that lol. but I do know bruce loves him very very much and would be lost without him<3

jason....jason. I mean what is there to say lmfao. if your dead teenager turned up and started mass murdering what would you do. I think it's pretty obvious to say that losing jason was soul-crushing for bruce and permanently changed him as a person; we see those aftereffects in his relationships to people like tim, steph, and cass. jason will never stop being his son, and bruce will never stop loving him. but things will never be the same again. I don't think jason's actions post-resurrection will ever be justifiable or forgivable to bruce. like even if jason woke up one day like 'suddenly i'm cured of being a villain' I don't think he would be welcomed back with open arms or anything. jason is a murderer. he has killed like a fuckton of people in cold blood. that is something that will never be okay with bruce. grappling with loving your son versus your son being a murderer which is antithetical to everything you have spent decades building...that's rough buddy. is that controversial? idk i spend as little time as possible thinking about jason todd

I think it hurts bruce to look at damian sometimes because he just can't stop seeing talia. I think he loves damian deeply but it isn't always easy. that whole timing of final crisis was just so messy that they didn't get off to a super smooth start and had to do a lot of work rebuilding that relationship. I think damian has to reconcile his childhood hero worship of bruce with the actual very flawed man which isn't easy. it has been a LONG ass time since i've read damian's comics so that's about all I got.

IN CONCLUSION! This is very long and I absolutely did not answer your question sorry. but these are kind of my cliffnotes thoughts on each of the wayne kids' relationships with bruce.

and yeah if you tried to get ollie to rank his kids he would knock himself out with a boxing glove arrow

#ask #at the end of the day the answer for everyone is: It's Complicated! :D

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aalghul · 6 months

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Nice post about Roy I like how kind your response was. But yeah as a Roy fan I find the idea that he would hate anyone but the man who killed his daughter to be silly. Cause like thing is Roy has a line till he doesn’t. Like you said Roy draws a line for himself with Cheshire but he never ever 100 percent commits. Even after the bombing and her holding a gun to Lian and threatening to shoot her while trying to escape prison, in his time with the League he still is hinted to love her and still lets Lian visit her. Flash forward to now they are still on again off again lovers/enemies. The old Titans ‘Roy breaks up with Cheshire’ story was written like it was the full end of their relationship but DC loves that concept and in comics they will always come back.

With Mia or people hurting his family Roy would not care at the end of the day unless that family member died sorry. Roy forgave a woman who babysat Lian and helped terrorists kidnap her and then broke his leg in an attempt to kill Cheshire. No he didn’t just forgive her he offered to let her keep babysitting Lian saying he didn’t think he had the right to judge anyone.

People other than Roy say he belongs in the light but Roy kind of hates that about himself and actively denies and resists it because he thinks the dirty work is the real important work. He worked in fantasy superhero CIA for years and even killed for them, left and made the Outsiders, initially didn’t want to leave and basically stayed till the last second till his mental health gave in, joined the League and didn’t actually have a great time with the group or ever really believe he belonged, had a horrible ending with that group and became a straight up villain after the ROA fiasco and worked on a team of villains all of whom except Slade he expressed some sort of sympathy for.

Roy just doesn’t give up on people and kind of really wants to do antihero work and tries to again and again. The age/maturity thing kind of gets it but that only matters where you connect Roy and Jason, they are peers and work together in some fashion off screen for a year in Outsiders, put a ROA recovering villain Roy with really any post UTRH Jason save Morrison Jason and you could write an intergenerational friendship arc easy.

People forget but before 52 first started a lot of people wanted a Jason Roy book. It was floated around as an idea for ages and rumor was even Winick made a pitch but can’t confirm. When 52 was first announced a lot of people thought not only that RHATO made sense and only Kory didn’t belong but thought the comic had real potential. And really it might have since Roy and Cheshire at one point would not have made sense for either character and notably everything about their relationship happened off screen. We give things a pass because of how well the stories are written. I think most issues with comics are people moralizing about the characters and saying they would never do this or that when 9 times out of 10 the writer just shat over the execution of a concept and the writing as is was shit.

-- i’m just going to include my thoughts down here --

I agree with everything you said about Roy just not being the person who holds a lot of hatred for people. He comes off as strict and even angry sometimes, but at heart, he’s one of the most understanding characters.

I always took Roy’s failed attempts at being an anti-hero as proof that it’s not what he’s meant to do. He keeps trying because he sees his sympathy and desire to do more as a sign that he needs to get his hands dirtier, but each time leaves him with the realization that he can’t be doing that type of work. He was reluctant to leave the Outsiders because he didn’t want to abandon them, that’s why he does leave as soon as Ollie provides funding for them (which he also does specifically because he knows Roy wouldn’t leave, no matter how much he wanted to, otherwise). The Outsiders did end in Roy himself realizing he couldn’t stay there.

I think Roy has always worked best in the various Titans teams he’s been part of. Unfortunately, Teen Titans (2003) set a new status quo with enough of the original Titans leaving and the team working under the leadership of younger members even when more experienced Titans were present. So we could never really go back to the titans as they were in any of the iterations prior to that.

I don’t think Jason and Roy worked together for a whole year; it was just Jason reaching out to Dick, and then subsequently teaming up with him and Roy to give them information of Black Lightning. Which definitely worked to let Roy know the type of person that Jason is (i.e. not a villain), but it was also very much through Dick, so it would again be a reminder of the time that Jason, as a child, teamed up with Roy and the others. Roy’s affinity to taking a guiding role when he works with team members significantly younger than him is just such an important part of who he is that I can’t get past it. I don’t mean to say that Roy’s going to treat Jason like a child, but that there’s going to be a significant gap between their friendship as compared to the friendship that post-flashpoint gave them. Roy is just at a completely different stage from Jason, who is essentially just beginning to catch up on life as a teenager. That difference can’t be ignored easily.

I didn’t read comics back then (and was also a very little kid lol) so I didn’t know about that being something people wanted back then! It must be disappointing to see how it’s turned out.

At the end of the day, I personally think that Roy and Jason could work together very well short-term, and then it would have to end in them walking their separate ways because Roy can never stay in the dark too long, whether he admits it or not. I get what you’re saying about good execution making all the difference, though! I just want to stay as consistent to Roy’s character as possible, so Jason and Roy as best friends/a long-term anti-hero duo never quite works out.

#submited by #anonroyfan #and there is also the fact that a lot of roy's writing post lian's death was just. bad. lazy at many parts #i hope this is coherent bc there are a lot of words and i proof read none of them

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sporkberries · 1 year

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Hello! Do you have any recommendations for Roy Harper reading? I'm not bothered about which continuity or where, just if you had a suggestion for where you think he's best 👀

If you wanna go back to some older stuff you can check out the silver age green arrow comics and Teen Titans 1966, I'm not the BIGGEST fan of TT 1966 but it does have some cute and funny moments. I mainly read Bronze Age to Modern age so we'll go with that moving forward. Green Lantern(1960) #85-86 This is Snow Birds don't fly and Roy's most iconic story, It introdcues Roy's struggle with heroin and is pretty sympathetic to addicts which was QUITE the big deal at the time. I also think its important for to me say Ollie is not the best parent in this one, he reacts out of anger and is incredibly upset with both Roy and himself for Roy's addiction. OLLIE DOES LOVE ROY AND IS USUALLY QUITE A GOOD PARENT, THIS IS ONE MOMENT THAT DOES NOT DEFINE HIM OR HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH ROY. MUST READ not just for Roy but for comic book history in general Action Comics(1939) #32 This one is a small one shot thats post snowbirds. Roy is on his own but it shows that he and Ollie still care about eachother and that Ollie really misses Roy. The New Titans(1984) #20-21 THE REVEAL OF LIAN'S EXISTENCE !!!!! ALSO JADEROY!! also itty bitty robin Jason is in this story. ABSOLUTE MUST READ Action Comics(1938) #613-618 I LOVE THIS STORY I LOVE THIS STORY I LOVE THIS STORY. It hurts me but i love it... Jade and Roy and Lian... It also shows how Roy ended up getting Lian. other than that I will say no more... ABSOLUTE MUST READ Titans(1999) #1-2 Lot's of Cute content with Roy and Lian here. I wouldn't consider it an absolute must read but again its fucking adorable so i recommend it. Titans(1999) #6 Donna Kyle and Roy beat up a Nazi with a tragic backstory or whatever, meanwhile Lian is being babysit by someone her mom has personally affected.

Titans(1999) #8-13 JADEROY!!! JADEROY!!!! LIAN!!!! Deals with the aftermath of the previous rec. Also some DonnaRoy which is admittedly cute. This story kinda covers all the moral complications of Roy and Jade and Lian. How Jade's crimes affect them all, as well as how Roy feels about Jade. I would consider this one a must read. Titans(1999) #21-22 Aftermath of previous rec, Chesire is being held to be tried. I realize a lot of these recs are relate to JadeRoy and Lian but they are so important to his character. If you enjoyed the previous story read this one, but i wouldn't recommend it in a vacuum. Titans(1999) #30 More JadeRoy, I am predictable. This is Jade's trial. If you like the previous two storylines read this. It makes me sad it makes me emo I love Jade so much and she went through so much and it doesnt excuse here actions but it still hurts. Roy makes a decision. Roy appears prominently in The Outsiders but i haven't read it all yet so i can't speak on it. Green Arrow(2001) 1-10 This is an ArrowFam MUST READ. Ollie returns from the dead, mia is introduced, Ollie and Connor, and Ollie reuinites with Roy and Dinah. It's very good. Green Arrow(2001) #16-21 General ArrowFam goodness. Ollie and Roy Goodness. Just,,, emotions.... Ollie is Roy''s dad... I weep...

Justice Leauge of America(2006) #1 Roy and his Uncle Hal :). Also Roy joins the JLA

There's more probably but this list is getting pretty full. These are also all in chronological order so :333. as a sort of anti- recommendation if you want to read an absolutely awful roy that is horrible in every way and want to be mad about it read rhato. its awful!

#spork says stuff #reading recs #roy harper #jade nguyen #jaderoy #lian harper #arrowfam

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insomniac-jay · 4 months

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I'd love for you to go into more detail about the Watchers and their direct relationship with the Bat Cauldron. We know they are their opposed foes but what is the one-one bitterness like?

After all, Jonah is significantly younger in comparison to Bruce so I imagine Bruce froths at the mouth a bit about being beaten by someone younger and less trained than him.

That last part is sending me because Jonah probably wasn't even born when all the major stuff in the first few years of Batman's career was going down

I want to preface this by saying the Watchers are meant to be the "anti Batfam". They may not have the money, connections, and access their more established counterparts have but they have one thing the Batfam doesn't: stability. If there's a problem, they come together and work to solve it. Very little infighting goes on in their ranks and if it does it's usually petty and quickly resolved. It makes them have more in common with groups like the Titans, Central City Rogues, and others who consider themselves a family.

Now onto their direct relationships.

Jonah and Bruce have the most bitterness between them as leaders do. Think of it as Mr. Incredible and Syndrome if he didn't become evil and instead became a rival hero type relationship. One of the best ways I can make them vastly different is how they operate within Gotham. While Bruce, and Batman overall, have become synonymous with Gotham; Bruce doesn't really know the city. He's the son of billionaires. Jonah, on the other hand, does. He knows all the shortcuts, nooks and crannies, everything.

Bruce may have book smarts and age on his side but Jonah has street smarts and experience on his.

There's also how they deal with their rogues gallery. Bruce sends them to Arkham but let's be honest Arkham isn't doing shit to actually help them. And to be honest I think a lot of them are just fine being criminals unless they get bored.

Jonah is willing to help his rogues get help as long they want and need it. He's seen plenty who need help but don't want it (i.e. the Imai couple, Starlet) and those who both want and need it but don't know how to go about it (i.e. Killer Cupid).

Another parallel is Jason and Vicia. Ah, Jason and Vicia. The things that make your coupling both shocking and sensible at the same time. I told another mutual this once so I'll say it here: Vicia is fanon Jason but well written and a woman. One thing that connects them is their relationship to violence. For Jason, violence is power and force (example is how he attacked Mia Dearden to try and get her to join him). It's how he gets his point across. How he makes a statement.

To Vicia, violence is a tool, a weapon. She's knows what it does to people, how it changes them because she dealt it out during her time as a runaway and was on the end of it when in juvie. It's also the reason why she's not a fan of Batman's unnecessary violence against nonviolent offenders.

Jason had loving parents (I do not accept Willis or Catherine Todd slander here) but lost them meanwhile Vicia had loving parents that lost her. Jason was adopted by Bruce to protect him from the same violence that ultimately ended up taking his life. Vicia ran away from home to protect her family from the violence her being a Metahuman would bring.

Last but not least: Duke and Jahzara. Another polarizing yet makes sense couple.

They have a preestablished rivalry from the school track team. When they're the Signal and Fatale, that rivalry is heightened. Thing about both of them is that they're trying to prove themselves to their respective organizations. Jahzara has a lot of prove as the only human in the Watchers, Duke wanting to prove himself capable as the only Metahuman in the Batfam. Jahzara is continuously improving herself for the long run.

#asks #a mutual has emerged

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kiwikiwiandkiwi · 2 years

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Hi! Fairly new larrie here. Can I ask why you don’t like Olivia Wilde? It makes sense for the relationship to be for publicity, in which case I assume they are both getting what they want out of the deal? I was wondering if I missed something

Oh boy, you must be really, really new here.

For starters, it's hard to like someone who is actively helping closet a person, you know?

I think this stunt was a hard blow to a lot of us. When DWD was announced, everybody was thrilled, I was over the moon, Harry was going to act again, this time in a thriller directed by a woman with an incredible cast, so people were happy. Then came the news that Olivia and Jason had split up (and I even remember seeing people joking that they'd put Harry and Olivia together after that) and yet, even after so many signs (that so many of us failed to notice) that this stunt was happening, it still caught us by by surprise. And thus started the worst stunt Harry has ever been a part of.

People were angry and disappointed the minute the first pics of them came out. It was a pandemic and they were in a wedding, she's older than him, she was in a position of power over him, it looked like he did an under the table deal for the role (Harry hadn't been in any film other than Dunkirk back then), not to mention Harry had been moving further and further away from his het and womanizer image, especially with the Vogue cover where he was in a dress and also with the TPWK mv. So, yeah, no one was happy with it.

And since the beginning nobody believed in this "relationship", not even his het fans (with exceptions, of course, but still). Their teams tried to sell this stunt with pap walk after pap walk, and when people started calling out how fake it looked (and also because it was in the middle of a pandemic) they toned down with those, and the ~~organic sightings~~ started. And a pattern also begun. Fans would say Harry and Olivia were always far from each other, then there would be a new set of pics where Harry had his arms around her, or that Harry looked miserable with her, and in the next pic he was smiling (looking miserable still), and so on. And this was happening all the time! If Harry having a beard wasn't annoying enough, they were throwing this stunt down our throats all the fucking time, and almost two years later (!!!) we are still having to deal with this, they won’t let us take a breath. She's in almost every show he has, in between the shows now it's almost certain we are gonna get ~~blurry~~ pictures of them walking around on the most public places they can find (but HEY, they are a private couple, please respect that). And let's not forget that Harry knows how to go MIA.

And all this is happening because of DWD. It's promo. Olivia made a huge deal with Warner (can't find the post right now, sorry) and she's doing everything she can to promote this movie - except for believing in her own talent and ability as a professional director. She has been relying on Harry’s womanizer image and on his fans by making them believe they get to watch him having sex and going down on a woman in theaters. That's literally how she has been selling this movie. You can see by the way the other actors don't talk or post much about it. Because Olivia made it all about her and Harry. And I get it. I too would be upset if something I worked hard on was reduced to that. Even Florence is speaking out about it now (the Harry x Olivia x Florence dynamic is a whole other thing that just goes to show how bad this whole thing has been).

And there's also the whole fiasco between Olivia and Jason dragging their kids into this already messy mess. And also the fact that Olivia is a bad person in general (should've answered with just that instead of making a huge ass post about it lol), calling herself a feminist, but doing the exact opposite of what a feminist does, claiming to be an ally which LOL she's literally helping closet Harry, and she also compared her directional debut as her coming out of the closet, etc, etc... She wants to sell an image of her being cool, a mom almost in her 40s that doesn't let that define her, after all she’s dating a rock star!! She’s having fun! Fuck society for saying older women can’t have that!! And well, I’m all for that… but the truth is that it just comes across as embarrassing and desperate.

So yeah, I guess this sums up a little bit. Of course Harry is not free of charges here (this is an interesting post about it), even though we can't know why he agreed to this whole thing, we have to accept that he did agree to be a part of it somehow. All I know is that Harry's goals are very different then hers (and he has proven to be a good person over and over again). This is going to be just another stunt in Harry's pocket but for Olivia... I'm not saying she's going to be unsuccessful, but she needs this movie to do well, which even though the whole story and script looks messy and all bad in general, the movie still might be a comercial success, and that is her goal at the end of the day. But she won't always have Harry to carry her name around. And as far as I'm aware, she hasn't done anything since DWD and doesn't even have any other project on her near future. Right now, she only has DWD to promote and the way she finds to promote is.... by going to another concert. LOL. She's literally only relying on Harry.

What a wasted opportunity, huh? She had all the elements to have a huge successful movie and yet... She chose the easy way out. Using a big name like Harry to get attention to the movie, making sure to link herself to that big name and making everything about her... But I guess that's what being greedy and self-centered does to you.

#asks #holivia #dwd promo #olivia wilde #i feel like there's so much more to be said lol

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redjaybathood · 3 years

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Whats your perfect end game relationship between Jason and the bats? Ignoring dc’s ability to do proper development of it, how would you like their story to end? And then, how would you like the canon relationship to end? I don’t know if I’m being clear, but basically your personal fantasy vs making most of canon

This is not going to be anything groundbreaking, but I want Jason to separate himself from the 'fam' part of Batfam.

But don't get me wrong. I see all these posts about how Jason doesn't deserve to be in Batfam because he kills, or in other ways not good enough. Because he shot Damian or beat up Tim. Because Cass would have never be able to accept him. Because.... Ultimately, what I believe is going on with these posts, is people don't like him as a character and don't like him interacting with their character, or even having more 'screentime' than theirs, or any 'screentime' at all.

That's not why I don't want him with Batfam.

Family part of Batfamily is pretty much a fandom concoction; if it's in comics from the last ten years or so, it's fanservice with little to no build-up or consequences. It's not just Jason; I see, like, posts with panels from recent Robin - i couldn't even bring myself to read it because it made me feel very tired. I don't think Dick sending Damian on his way to participate in murder competition is in any way sweet... But hey, with pretty much everyone else, there is a chance that DC can make them a family without rewriting their character to make them worse.

Which is what happens with Jason almost in most Batfam stories. Hey, Urban Legends? They dumbed him down to prop Bruce. They write him as still deeply yearning for familial affection from people he either doesn't actually know, has poor relationship with, who he hurt and it was never dealt with on page, or who hurt him - but that was okay because it was his fault. Yes, RHATO #25, I am talking about you.

At first, I really sympathized with that. Because it's very common, and something I was in some ways still struggling, at the time. But DC doesn't allow him to grow past that, which is frustrating. At some point, you want to see a person who escaped dysfunctional family, but managed to build new long-lasting ties and healthier relationship with people. But DC gives and DC takes away - Roy and Kory are not with him anymore, neither Artemis and Biz, and he's left, once again, to strive for recognition and acceptance of someone who would never accept him as is.

So, I want him out of Batfam. He can keep doing the Outlaws thing, or join other teams, or even let him, I dunno, marry Roy and join Arrow fam and have a very awkward conversation with Mia - or get him a ring to join Lanterns, or heck, team him up with Talia, for real this time! But yeah, Batfam is not good for him, from the narrative perspective. I said what I said.

While I think there's nothing in canon that would make it (Jason leaving Batfam) impossible, I think DC is going to milk Jason&Batfam for a long while still. Because that's a safe choice, because a lot of fans really loved BUL, because because because. The best I could hope for in canon, is for him not to lose his edge (not edginess!) when he is written with other Batfam characters. And maybe some actual on-page development? A road trip with Steph, a two-people con with Cass, an annual where Jason and Damian just hang out and talk about their dad problems and mom problems and sibling problems and friends, and vigilantism, and how being Robin affected them in all the best and worst ways... Thinking about it, add Stephanie to this one too.

Like, if they try to fit the square peg in a round hole, at least they should make an effort. Which, thinking about it, is also out of realm of possibility. So... Probably, best case scenario if he's still competent during Batfam team ups, and Batfam isn't outright derisive of him.

#jason todd #asks #batfam

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iron--spider · 4 years

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I woke up at 3am yesterday to watch The Devil All the Time and I’ve been thinking about it since. I’m gonna put my thoughts and feelings and a review of sorts behind the cut, because I am gonna talk about it freely, so there will be spoilers! So don’t click if you don’t wanna see. I’ll also be discussing the content of the film and I know that might bother people, so that stuff is in here, too! And it’ll be really long because you know I can’t shut up.

So, I loved it. I loved it loved it loved it. I read the book a long time ago when I first found out Tom was gonna be in it, and the only problem I had with the book was that the POVs would change in the middle of a paragraph lmao, but other than that I thought it was pretty perfect. I knew the movie was gonna be pretty brutal, because the book is brutal, so I was prepared.

-BUT I think the critics HIGHLY HIGHLY exaggerated how bad the content was. Like, seriously, they acted as if this was gonna be a Saw movie. I was preparing for blatant, horrific gore, but it didn’t live up to their dramatics at all. There’s blood and nasty situations, but every single episode of Game of Thrones is worse than this movie, as are most episodes of any crime drama on a paid network. I actually thought they were super, super tactful of all their horrific shit. The dog death was off screen and the shot of the body (described by the critics as literally traumatic) was so quick (enough to shut your eyes) and in the dark. I also argue that particular moment is extremely important for Arvin’s journey, because it’s the moment he truly turns on his father and turns on religion entirely, and he carries it with him his whole life (it’s what he flashes back to when he says “I know what my daddy did” because it’s the marker of all Willard’s mistakes) and it winds up being one of the last things he does before he leaves everything behind. Burying Jack’s bones. So, like, I despise dog death or any animal death in my entertainment, but it’s important here and handled well. And all the worst death scenes are either extremely fast (Helen’s and Gary Matthew’s) or shown in negative (all the photos). I think Bodecker’s headshot with Bobo is probably the worst and is also pretty quick. I don’t know if this means I’m a jaded bitch, but God the way they were all whining and crying, I thought it’d be a million times worse. It could have been, with the book’s descriptions, so it was actually pretty tame. Lenora’s death affected me the most and they cut away from that, too. I guess it’ll still bother some people, but there are many, many mainstream things that are far more violent and gory than this was.

-I thought it was a beautiful movie. I never mind films that are slightly slower but I love ones that use their time to lay things out and really show us what’s going on, build the ambiance and the relationships. I loved the narration (which I was worried about), and it really made me feel like we were visiting a moment in time that was important. Like something that was written and should be learned about. Rumors in a town you’re passing through. The ghosts of past trauma and transgressions looming over everyone that’s left.

-I liked the changes they made with Roy and Theodore because I thought that storyline kinda meandered in the book and I’m glad that Roy was actually gone the whole time and not just neglecting to come back to Lenora.

-The only real complaints I can make, I’ll get out of the way here: I wanted a little bit more time with Carl and Sandy. Carl was really creepy, but he could have been much creepier. In the book he was the one looking at the pictures constantly, Not Sandy, and that really showed that he was the one with the sickness, the one pushing them forward and orchestrating it all. I thought they did well with showing how Sandy deteriorated in her efforts with him through the years, but I would have liked to see a bit more of their personal lives together and her fear of him and her genuine feelings about what they’re doing, because the book goes into that a lot more. I also wasn’t a fan of Lee finding the picture early and knowing some about what they were doing, because I liked how it was a surprise to him in the book and yet he still did all he could to cover it up. And lastly, in the book there’s a scene with Arvin after he kills Sandy and Carl where he’s in a motel and he takes like 18 showers because he can’t get the grime of what he’s done off of him, and he looks at the picture and has a nightmare about killing Sandy, and I really would have loved if they’d kept it in. It would have been another ‘acting’ moment for Tom, and it would have been nice for us to see his direct trauma and reaction to everything that’s piling on top of him.

-BUT that’s it. I loved pretty much every single other thing and decision that they made. The cinematography was TOP NOTCH. You could tell they filmed on 35mm film, you could see the grain, and it really, really added to it. Antonio Campos is a very skilled director and I trusted him at the helm of this story. Everything looked so authentic, all the sets and the costumes. The soundtrack and score were AMAZING and enhanced the film. Technically it was just perfect in every regard to me.

-Acting! Acting! God this was like...a massive testament to the casting department and the talent of these people. Everyone was on their A game. Bill Skarsgård has been on my radar since Castle Rock (which I recommend to everybody, both seasons) and he was so natural and great in this role. Haley Bennet was absolutely adorable as Charlotte, I loved her cute face and her sweet relationship with little Arvin. Riley Keough was so great as Sandy with the limited amount of time she had, and Jason Clarke is one of my favorites but he was unrecognizable in this as creepy ass Carl. Harry Melling was a far cry from Dudley Dursley and he did a great job with his screen time, too. Same with Mia Wasikowska, who didn’t have much to do (same as poor Helen in the book) but she was able to garner our sympathy anyway. Seb Stan was slimy and gross but he pulled it off so well. Eliza Scanlen has been one of my favorites since Sharp Objects (another one that’s brutal as hell but I recommend it, she’s so scary) and she was so, so great here. Robert Pattinson was ALRIGHT, everybody talks him up over this but he felt a little hammy to me and a little too over the top, but there’s no denying his talent.

-Now, the reason we’re all here. Tom. My God. As soon as it was over I just didn’t know what the hell to do, I didn’t even know how to....go on, lmfao. We all know he’s talented, that’s why we’re here, that’s why we love him, but his performance in this is just BEYOND all that. Beyond comprehension. The man is only 24 years old and he’s out here outacting people who have been in the industry for longer than he’s been alive. He is SHOCKINGLY good. I knew he’d be perfect for Arvin as soon as I read the book, but he just completely embodied this role in a way that I couldn’t have imagined. He doesn’t show up in the movie until about 45 minutes in (which doesn’t hurt it because of the strength of the leadup, Bill’s performance and the performance of little Arvin’s actor) but God, as soon as he’s there the whole thing comes to life in a way that it hadn’t before. Tom is literally just a shining light, and he draws your eye in every single scene he’s in, and when he’s not there you’re wondering when he’s gonna come back. Arvin, to me, is a very complex character—he has been inherently changed by how his father twisted religion in his childhood, how deeply he betrayed him by his behavior, but he still has a kind heart and a protective streak and the need to be strong despite the pain nearly breaking him apart from moment to moment. Tom is just outrageously good at portraying all Arvin’s little nuances, how he clenches his jaw, how his voice breaks when he’s afraid or trying to convince someone of something or get his point across, how his hands tremble after he’s done something he wishes he didn’t have to do, how his whole body wilts when he realizes he’s emulating his father. And his eyes. Tom can do so, so much with his eyes that it’s unbelievable. He tells you so much with just a simple look, a glance, a wince, a long blink. I’m not exaggerating when I say he’s just an absolute revelation in this, he cements his place in Hollywood with a firm hand and a tender look, and I will not be forgetting what he did here anytime soon. There’s a reason that everyone called him out for being so stunning in this. He is magnificent. He has a gift.

-I wanna say, in particular, how much I love Arvin’s relationship with Lenora. Their lives were both marked by such tragedy and pain and Arvin just took up the torch of protecting her from the moment he said hello as a child. He wants so badly to be tough, and he IS, but there’s just miles and miles of love in this boy’s heart, and it manifests itself for his family—for his uncle, for his grandma, but for Lenora in particular. I loved how he just showed up when she was being harassed and just ran in there without thinking, and it’s purely devastating that he was out taking care of her bullies while a worse predator was cornering her. The scene where she was sick wasn’t in the book but it was a beautiful addition. Tom sometimes wears this very open, unguarded, honest expression, and this is the only scene in which he shows it, and it really expresses the love between them and how much she means to him. Arvin didn’t find Lenora’s body in the book, but it was the right change for them to make. Tom was devastating here, and that pain and that moment truly fuel every second of his journey through the rest of the film. “My Lenora”. The saddest siblings. Both Eliza and Tom did so beautifully with this relationship and I hope they work together again.

-Favorite acting moments for Tom: when he’s in the car in the rain after beating up the bullies, when he’s in the church crowd and realizes Preston is insulting his Grandma (the way his face changes oh my GOD), when he finds Lenora, when the cop comes to tell him Lenora was pregnant (this is just....so damn good), when he was telling his uncle to look after his Grandma, THE ENTIRE CHURCH CONFRONTATION (the way he trembles when he’s trying to get his attention, how he speaks the whole time, how he slowly gathers his strength), when he thinks Sandy has shot him, the moment where he’s over Lee’s body and just....pleading with his eyes for him to listen and realize what he’s done. And the last scene, in the car, all the emphasis on his face....once again, he can do so, so much with a look, with his eyes. Someone called out the beautiful last shot in the film, and of course, it’s Arvin’s sleeping face. And it was so beautiful (and devastating, to think of him enlisting. Tom draws so much sympathy that you just want Arvin to have a normal life so badly. He deserves it, he does, but will he get it?)

-Last thing I’ll say, I really loved how, despite turning his back on religion, that God seems to be protecting Arvin the whole time. He’s terribly afraid confronting the preacher and that could have easily gone badly, especially when he tosses the book, but Arvin was somehow able to get a shot off and get the upper hand. And with Carl and Sandy, he senses something is off immediately once they pull off the road, and he would have absolutely been killed had Carl not switched out Sandy’s bullets for blanks. And in the confrontation with Lee, he once again shoots at the same time as him, shoots without looking, and manages to come out unscathed and on top. A few spoiler reviews pointed out that the last person that picks Arvin up is supposed to be a Jesus-like figure, almost like he’s finally been saved. It hurts that everyone around him that he loved is almost forsaken by God, but he himself is protected. It’s such a complicated commentary on religion throughout the entire piece, but it’s so interesting and engrossing.

So I’d recommend this movie to anyone that loves movies, loves Tom, can deal with a gritty story that takes its time laying out all the chess pieces. It is definitely heavy subject matter but it doesn’t go overboard with the horror as it easily could have. Yes, there are triggers to look for, but the critics hugely over exaggerated how awful it was. I can probably go get time stamps for certain things if people wanna ask me after reading this, but if you can get through a Tarantino film or any HBO drama, you can do this. And Tom’s performance is one for the ages and not one that deserves to be passed over or downplayed. It is beautiful and heart-wrenching—a magnificent turn that displays his monumental ability to reach out and guide you into any world he decides to make his own.

I loved The Devil All the Time.

#tom holland #arvin russell #the devil all the time #text post #LONG #I’M SORRY

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palmett-hoes · 4 years

Note

Do you have any fan casts or strong takes/feelings on the foxes’ appearances? Fandom tends to use the same Pinterest models, which feels wrong to me.

i do in fact! i've actually been meaning to make a post about how i choose to write all of the foxes' ethnicities anyway

but yes i absolutely agree that the typical pinterest model types u generally see on edits is not how i see any of them. nor is reece king or froy gutierrez or lucky blue smith one of my FCs for anyone

for a lot of them i don't necessarily have a single specific FC so much as i have like,, a general impression of features that i will see on various different people, who all may look wildly different from each other or who may not even look how i see the character as a whole but do have a specific feature i associate with them. mostly it boils down to the Energy i get tbh and that's just a Feeling i cant even explain

fun fact im a tiny bit face blind so that might account for some of why i'm so all-over about this

may as well go chronologically. some of them i definitely have more thoughts on than others

1. Dan

ethnicity: Afro Native (Sioux)

features: medium dark skin. buzzcut, killer fade. she often styles it in waves. she's very butch, wears a lot of basketball and cargo shorts, tank tops and flannels and jerseys, hiking boots. skinny but muscular, with a very rectangular body shape. defined jaw. probably like 5'4 or 5'5

FC/Energy: sometimes i get some dan energy out of janelle monae but more butch. lotta dan energy out of samira wiley. lashana lynch

2. Kevin

ethnicity: a lot of things tbd, but he's pretty multi-ethnic. i like the idea of kayleigh being half- or a quarter-japanese in addition to irish because it gives her more of a reason to go to japan for her undergrad. wymack is from d.c. which is a majority black city for its actual residents, but i also like the idea of him being Pasifika/Hawaiian. HOWEVER - and this is pretty important to my read of kevin's character - he's white passing, and has been mostly treated as a white guy who tans his whole life, like occasionally asked if he's italian maybe. learning that his father was a Distinctly Not White Man was a big shock to him.

kristin kreuk, lindsay price, phoebe cates, and marie digby are all half-asian actresses i base kayleigh on

i suppose i base his story partially on broadway actress carol channing, who revealed publically that she was a quarter black when she was like 80 years old. though maybe wentworth miller, a biracial actor who knows his father is black but also doesn't know him, is more accurate to kevin's story. then keanu reeves is a white passing actor with asian ancestry

also none of these people look anything like how i picture kevin lol. kevin is just like,, a guy. handsome ig. but kind of in a CW character kind of way

actually

kevin looks exactly like young jason momoa

3. Andrew

ethnicity: kayin/karen from myanmar

features: fat and muscular, very wide and heavy. this blog is basically all andrew body type refs. medium-olive skin, has a bit of a greyish tinge that makes him look a bit eerie or unhealthy. deep set, droopy eyes; looks so tired. flat face with a low-bridged nose. crooked teeth, especially his canines. natural hair black-ish but he bleaches it light blond. has the beginnings of martial artist punching callouses in his knuckles

FC/Energy: holy shit the characters i feel have Andrew Energy are all over the place. pedro pascal. babe ruth (yes fr). oddjob (harold sakata) from goldfinger. the jinn (mousa kraish) from american gods. gaear grimsrud (peter stormare) from fargo. takeshi kovacs (joel kinnaman) from altered carbon. and i wanna be clear, it's these characters specifically, and generally NOT the actors outside of that specific role. except pedro ❤️

4. Matt

ethnicity: cuban

appearance: matt has more of an Energy than specific features to me rn. that energy is Warm. he has that Warm bro jock dude energy. kind of a marvel hero build, hunky and muscular. very rectangular face. has this haircut:

5. Aaron

i get to cut myself some slack and not go AS in depth about aaron because he and andrew are identical twins

ethnicity: kayin/karen from myanmar

appearance: similar build to andrew, less confident and casual posture and body language. less apathetically murderous and more emotive expressions. better teeth bc his mom took him to the dentist. yes also bleaches his hair

celebrities: probably a lot like the difference between the characters and the actors. andrew is the characters and aaron is how the actors actually look. idk ive never looked at someone and thought 'hey! looks like aaron!'

6. Seth

ethnicity: have been going with half-vietnamese. considering looking into various south asian possibilities like pakistani

appearance: string bean build. that's all i have to offer

7. Allison

ethnicity: allison's very up in the air for me. she and seth are the two foxes i feel fine with being white, but im committing to having no white foxes sooo. i would say i generally see her as either half-middle eastern or chinese

appearance: plus sized and hourglass shaped. heart shaped face. taller, like 5'8 or 5'9. she has a pretty fraught history with her appearance and her parents payed for/pressured her into getting a nose job to have a 'prettier' nose. she also bleaches her hair blonde. she gets it done at a salon tho the twinyards do it in their bathroom

FC/Energy: elle king and nadia aboulhosn are my main inspos for her, esp body type but nadia esp in Vibes

8. Nicky

ethnicity: multi-ethnic. his mother is southern mexican Indigenous, possibly oaxacan. his father is mixed white/kayin

appearance: definitely takes after his mother while his father is white passing. dark brown skin, warm undertones. slightly stocky build. tall ovular head and thin aquiline nose. he's kind of just,, the opposite of the twins ig, so like their facial features look very different, which is a big part of why people don't make the connection between him and the twins alongside the difference in their skin tones, heights, and builds. nicky's build and features are very vertically-oriented, with a tall head, narrow-set eyes, thin nose with a high bridge, etc. the twins are horizontally-orienged, with broad, flat faces, wide-set eyes, wide noses with a low bridge, etc.

FC/Energy: yalitza aparicio, not a guy but one of the few Mexican Indigenous stars in the film industry and i really like her features for nicky. she's oaxacan

9. Renee

ethnicity: Black. african american

appearance: plus sized, circular/apple body shape. round face. dark skin. microlocs to a bit past her chin, bleached white and dyed at the ends. she and allison go to the salon together. femme but plain style, a lot of blouses and long skirts, practical shoes. knuckle callouses. about 5'6

FC/Energy: dominique fishback. tracie thoms, esp in RENT. gabourey sidibe. nicole byer, but not in Energy. brandy, for some reason, probably bc i think she has very serene Energy and is a little bit otherworldly. like if brandy played arwen or galadriel from lotr it would make perfect sense to me, and that's the Renee Energy™️

10. Neil

ethnicity: mixed. Black/Jewish on both sides. his father is polish ashkenazi and afro-brazilian. his mother is Black British and algerian jewish

appearance: very... sharp. like sharp all over. does that make sense? sharp features, sharp face shape, sharp angles to his body. he's got what i vaguely think of as a 'basketball build' not meaning tall but meaning very rangy and angular and lean. all limbs. seth has a similar build. lighter brown skin. he has waardenburg syndrome which is actually where he gets he gets his eye color, and his eyes are very large and widely spaced as well. freckles freckles freckles. freckles everywhere. 4a hair but at least during canon it's not very healthy and thus the curls aren't well-defined. he grows it out long enough to tie back and starts taking better care of it in post-canon. wonky, slightly crooked teeth, with a gap between the fronts

FC/Energy: now neil i actually have a ton for. mostly models which im a lil ashamed of bc i do try to draw more from athletes. alton mason is a main body type ref. mugsy bogues is good to see what i mean about the basketball build without the height. here're the boys: cykeem white, luka sabbat, désiré mia, Leo Hoyte-Egan, dylan hasselbaink, this beautiful stock photo model i've never been able to track down

i think about him every. goddamn. day.

in terms of like,, real ppl and not models: corbin bleu, especially during Jump In. figure skater elladj balde. rayan "ray ray" lopez from mindless behavior. A$AP Rocky a lil bit, maybe i just like his hairstyle idk

two more models i think are important: carissa pinkston and ralph souffrant

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roseworth · 4 months

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You are both an Arrowfamily and Jason Todd fan account so I thought you would be the best person to ask this but: What do you think the Arrowfamily members opinion on Jason are?

ooooh i love this question.. i think a lot of people jump straight to "they would hate him" because of his fight with mia but!!! i don't think thats entirely true!!!!! some of them would hate him but not all of them </3 i feel like the people that claim they would all hate him have a fundamental misunderstanding of the arrows and what they stand for, not to mention deliberately misconstruing what the the jason & mia fight actually was and pretending it was a lot worse than what actually happened. but thats just my opinion

ollie absolutely would hate him though lmao. he would never get over the fact that jason kidnapped, fought, & tried to blow up his daughter. no forgiveness ever. if jason HADNT fought mia though i think ollie would like him or at the very least tolerate him. ollie very clearly has no issue with murdering bad guys (as seen in ga88) and would be completely on board with anyone who goes out of his way to fuck with batman constantly <3 also in my humble opinion ollie shouldve been a cosmic mistake in countdown due to him coming back to life because parallax put him back together, which would have been hilarious and would absolutely have ended in them getting along (until jason goes through like his fifth breakdown in that book, because he would absolutely lash out at ollie after watching that one version of bruce die. but thats a whole separate tangent)

dinah also would hate him for trying to kill mia, but probably not as intensely as ollie. but even without that issue i dont think dinah would like him, mostly because hes the worst and i dont think dinah would have the patience to put up with him. she wouldnt have a huge problem with the killing (she wouldnt NOT have a problem with it but i really dont think it would be an unforgivable issue for her), but she would just think hes kind of an asshole about it and she wouldnt like him at all. i also think theres a panel somewhere where jason says that dinah told him she hates him personally?? idk ive only seen screenshots of it but i think its funny so im incorporating it into my belief system

with roy... i feel like there are so many people that see rhato and swing to the opposite side of the pendulum and say that roy would hate jason but i dont think thats true at all. im a rhato hater because that is Not Roy so we're disregarding that, but i still think they would get along tbh! given that roy is deeply in love with a serial killer i think that the people who say he would hate jason are misunderstanding who roy is. i think when theyre both in character they actually have personalities that would mesh well together and they COULD get along really well. i dont see roy having a Big Problem with jason killing people (he would try to stop him from doing it but murder wouldnt be a dealbreaker for roy) so i think its fair to say they would actually get along!!! but i bitch and complain every time they show up in the same panel because now the damage has been done from rhato so i dont want them to interact in canon. only in the secret world in my head. in regards to jason fighting mia, i dont know how to say it but,,, i dont think roy would have a huge issue with it. he certainly wouldnt be happy about it but also he wasnt there so i feel like all he would know about it was that jason kidnapped mia one time but mia was fine. honestly i think that he would be more interested in brothers in blood bc dick would def mention that jason murdered people in a nightwing costume then turned into a tentacle monster and tried to eat someone but dick forgave him anyway. and once he hears that suddenly the mia thing seems inconsequential in comparison

with connor... i cant lie im a little biased because connor is a member of my dream outlaws team but i really think they would at least kind of get along! connor is not the type of person to hold a grudge at all so once mia forgives him (which ill get into in a sec) connor wouldnt have a problem with him. he WOULD have a problem with jason killing people but he's close with eddie so clearly he doesnt have that much of an issue with working with people who have killed before as long as they dont kill in front of him. and i think that jason has a healthy respect for anyone who can beat him in a fight and because of that he would not kill anyone when hes around connor. i also think that connor and jason would never fight because connor would never throw the first punch and jason would never start a fight that he knows he cant win (but thats once again a whole separate tangent). basically i dont think they'd be besties or anything, i dont think theres a world where they'd ever even consider themselves friends. but i do think they'd get along well enough to not hate each other

okay now finally mia. kind of a controversial take but i really think she'd forgive him for kidnapping her! she absolutely would not forgive him IMMEDIATELY because it fucked her up so she would be pissed about it for a while, but also? i think she completely understood what he was trying to do. he wasnt really hurting her specifically (like yeah he hurt her but he made it a fair fight and he wasnt beating down on her or anything. she also hit him so it evens out) and he was actually trying to talk TO her and relate to her. and it was working!!! he didnt force her to do anything except fight (in a fight where he untied her and gave her her weapons), so once she got some distance from the event i think she'd forgive him. it would take a while for her to actually forgive him enough for them to actually get along, but i genuinely think they would. theyre extremely similar people and i think they would really be good friends if given the chance, but it would take a looooong time for mia to be comfortable enough to be around him enough to consider him a friend since the fight definitely fucked her up. but it is possible for them to eventually be close, and i think they could be really good friends

honorable mentions: - i dont know emiko well enough to know for sure (i havent read new52 or rebirth green arrow so i havent read much with her </3) but from what i know i think they would get along - lian would have no opinion of him whatsoever. at most she sees him as her uncle's brother. i truly dont think she'd care enough about him to form a positive or negative opinion about him - i dont like sienna so i dont want to acknowledge her but for the sake of the post. she doesnt like jason because dinah doesnt like jason and she says "i hate everyone that black canary hates <3" - cissie is not a member of the arrowfamily but she wouldnt like him because she absolutely would have an issue with any murderous vigilante given that she almost killed someone one time and had a huge breakdown, so anyone that kills people for the Greater Good and continues to do so would not sit right with her - i have absolutely no basis for this but shado would hate him for no reason. no specific beef with him about his morals or his actions, she just wouldnt like his vibes. sorry to talk about rose (no im not) but she would see rose hanging out with jason and go "im so happy for you and your ugly fucking boyfriend im serious" - eddie and jason would get along like a housefire. there is not a doubt in my mind that they would bond instantly (ok not instantly because they both hate everyone and would probably start with trying fight each other. THEN they would bond) and it would be catastrophic for everyone involved 🫶

ok i think thats everyone. or at least everyone that matters. never forget that all my opinions are 100% correct at all times

#listen. i think the arrow fandom tends to try to fight against the arrows being put down by the bats by pushing in the complete opposite wa #so after a thousand posts of 'jason should join the arrows' or 'ollie is the worst because rhato said so' they start saying the opposite #that all the arrows hold a deep resentment for jason #but... the arrows are honestly pretty forgiving #killing isnt a dealbreaker and neither is fighting their family #ollie is not that forgiving* though so he wouldnt get over it ever. but everyone else might #*by this i mean forgiving of people that hurt his kids. he can forgive other people but hurting his kids is a cardinal sin #i think it especially bothers me when people say it about roy #i see so many posts of 'roy would actually hate jason because he tried to kill his sister!!!'#and?? honestly thats a pretty good indication to me that they dont understand roy SORRY #jason todd #arrowfam #<- SORRY i hate to be the person to put jason in the arrow tags but thats my organization tag 😔#dc

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letterboxd · 3 years

Photo

Spectacular Spectacular!

On the twentieth anniversary of its explosion onto big screens, Ella Kemp high-kicks into the Moulin Rouge! once again, accompanied by screenwriter Craig Pearce and a chorus line of jukebox-musical academics and swoony Letterboxd fans.

“You’re always writing for yourself, for the film you want to see. I like all kinds of different films and I think teenage girls do too.” —Craig Pearce, Moulin Rouge! co-writer

This is a story about love. A love born at the turn of the twentieth century in an iconic Parisian cabaret and brought to life in 2001 on Australia’s most spectacular sound stage. A valentine to excess, greed, fantasy and, above all, to the fundamental Bohemian ideals: truth, beauty, freedom and love. This is the story of Moulin Rouge! and how it still burns bright, two decades on, in the hearts of romantics all over the world.

The film, a fateful love story between penniless writer Christian and dazzling courtesan Satine—played by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman—premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 9, 2001 and opened in New York and Los Angeles cinemas only weeks later, on May 18. Cast and crew fought hard to get it there: unimaginably, writer-director Baz Luhrmann’s father passed away on the first day of filming, and Kidman’s then-marriage was in turmoil. “There were times of beautiful moments, but there were times where we were like, ‘This is so hard’,” Luhrmann recently told an Australian journalist.

And, though this seems strange to say in a world that has since welcomed Mamma Mia!, Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, making a movie musical early in the millennium was a high-risk pursuit. Luhrmann again: “‘Musicals will never be popular again’ … I can’t tell you how many times I was told that.”

“It’s part of a cycle,” explains Dr. Eleonora Sammartino, an academic specializing in contemporary American film musicals. “It came after a period in the 1990s where musicals had disappeared from the big screen.” Lisa Duffy, Letterboxd member and Doctor of Hollywood Musicals, agrees: “Films coming out [that year] were a lot more dour, so this was a real gamble.”

Nobody understood this gamble better than the film’s co-writer, Craig Pearce, who has been Luhrmann’s close friend and professional partner since the pair were students together. Moulin Rouge! is the third and final entry in what we now know as their red-curtain trilogy, alongside Strictly Ballroom (1992) and Romeo + Juliet (1996).

“Baz had been thinking about the parallels between the Moulin Rouge and Andy Warhol’s Factory,” Pearce recalls. “Places where artists congregate, where it’s more than a place, it’s a petri dish of creativity. Like The Factory, and Studio 54, the Moulin Rouge was a place where the old and the wealthy pay a lot of money to hang out with the young and the sexy.”

At the end of the twentieth century, however, the Moulin Rouge wasn’t all that great (the original had burnt down in 1915). Pearce recalls: “We went to Paris in 1999 on a research trip and discovered, to our horror, that the Moulin Rouge now is just a hideous tourist trap. So we had to go on this journey to find out how this amazing creativity—artists and dancers and musicians—came out of what now feels like this tawdry girlie show.”

With the location and period locked in, Pearce and Luhrmann worked to find the story’s driving force. “This movie wouldn’t work without the exclamation point,” writes Adelaide. Pearce is the first to admit this: “It’s saying it’s Moulin Rouge, but it’s not that one. What we’re trying to do is heighten truth, but you have to start with that underlying truth,” he explains. “It’s not casting around for ‘what would be a cool idea’ because you never come up with one. It’s never as interesting as the truth. Like, there was an elephant in the garden of the Moulin Rouge. And why does that matter? It matters because there are certain inherent logics in the way human beings operate.”

“It's a musical of recycled parts. It’s a story which, beat for beat, has been told for centuries. It’s a staged show drawn from the lives of the characters themselves… This is a film [that] is bold enough not just to say that all art is about finding your own meanings behind someone else’s ideas, and that all art is just copying and stealing, but that this can be totally valid and authentic. When Nicole Kidman sings ‘Your Song’ to the Duke, she’s stealing from the writer, and Luhrmann is stealing from Elton John. But when Ewan McGregor is singing to Kidman, it’s the most magical moment you could possibly imagine. That’s what makes ‘Moulin Rouge!’ a true masterpiece. Cinema has never been more fake, and cinema has rarely been more real.” —Sam

Moulin Rouge! borrows from all over. There are hints of La Traviata, of Cabaret and of Émile Zola’s Nana. There were Toulouse Lautrec’s paintings (John Leguizamo tremendously embodies the painter in the film), Baudelaire and Verlaine’s literature, Jason and the Argonauts, Homer’s Odyssey, and the revues of the 1920s and ’30s. “Moulin Rouge! really embraces that vaudevillian component,” says Dr. Hannah Robbins, a Broadway and Hollywood musicals specialist.

Craig Pearce and Baz Luhrmann writing in Paris (1998) and New York (2019). / Photos from Luhrmann’s Twitter

“This genre lends itself to repetition and fragmentation,” Sammartino expands. “It’s part of the syntax of the musical and has always been, this idea of borrowing from other sources. This doesn’t take away from the daring postmodern approach Moulin Rouge! is defined by, it’s simply further proof that it’s, well, a very good musical.”

Above all else, the core of Moulin Rouge! is inspired by the myth of Orpheus of Thrace and his doomed love affair with the beautiful Eurydice, whom he followed into Hades after she died. “The show must go on, Satine,” the nightclub’s impresario Harold Zidler grimly tells his star, as their world begins to crumble. “We’re creatures of the underworld. We can’t afford to love.”

It wasn’t the first time Pearce and Luhrmann had looked to ancient mythology. Strictly Ballroom’s mantra, which tells us “a life lived in fear is a life half lived” owes everything to David and Goliath. But with the Orphean myth, the screenwriters were looking to dig deeper, to find something much darker. “The Orphean myth is a romantic tragedy in its essence,” Pearce explains. “David and Goliath is more youthful, and it’s about saying that belief can conquer anything. But as you get older people get sick, they die, and life is about resilience and finding ways to embrace the hard things in life and move forward.”

That might sound antithetical to the all-singing, all-dancing nature of the movie musical, but the genre has been trying to tell devastating stories like Moulin Rouge! for decades. “Hollywood is rarely interested in buying and remaking stories with devastating endings as much as stage musicals are,” Duffy explains. (See: Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera.)

This reluctance can be traced back to the classic era, during which there were rules about the ways a musical could end under the censorship laws of the Production Code. Simply put, they had to have a happy ending. (Which also led to a fair amount of bizarre deus ex machina to guarantee a nice, cheery final act).

But then in the 1960s the Code fades away, and Hollywood starts engaging with violence, sex and explicit trauma on-screen. “We have much more freedom in the contemporary era to have people die explicitly,” Duffy says. “And that’s why we keep returning to Moulin Rouge!: there’s the explicit negotiation of our entry into the fantasy world, and then we’re devastated, and the curtains close and we’re in reality again.”

“It’s one of the great 21st-century films. Baz Luhrmann is only good when figuring out how to make historical periods of excess into contemporary displays of grotesquerie, somehow turning great films (‘French Cancan’) or great literature (‘The Great Gatsby’) into tacky Technicolor vomit that somehow understands the underlying sorrow of the material better than any serious-minded adaptation.” —Jake

The red-curtain trilogy has a distinct set of rules: one, the viewer must know how the film ends from the start; two, the story must be set in a heightened world; and three, it must contain a device that keeps the audience awake at all times, whether that be ballroom dancing, scattershot Shakespearean dialogue, or pop songs.

“Part of the appeal of the artifice is that it gives the audience permission to say, ‘This isn’t real, you’re about to see a fantasy, and that’s okay,’” Duffy says. “The pleasure is the fantasy of it. The whole film is us seeing how Christian is imagining what happened—and the musical is the most extreme genre that allows such imagination.”

The point was never to temper the elaborate, hyper-aware fakeness of it all, but to really commit to it. Says Robbins, “Musicals are ultimately artificial and exclusively constructed. And that’s what Moulin Rouge! achieves and quite a lot of films don’t. It goes, ‘This is where the story is going, this is the energy, this will be played in the soundtrack.’ There’s a deliberate thought process there.”

Luhrmann recently said: “The way we made the movie is the way the movie is.” An under-explored aspect of Moulin Rouge! is how the whole affair, with its ‘Spectacular Spectacular’ musical-within-a-musical device, is an insider’s guide to the mechanics and politics of making ‘big art’. How money can control both the art (the dastardly Duke insisting on “his” ending), and the artists (Satine is never told she is dying, because she is the golden goose upon whose shoulders the success of the company rests; Christian is likewise left in the dark, because he is the scriptwriter who needs to finish writing the show. Both are wrung dry for their talents).

There are shades of Luhrmann in Zigler, the impresario juggling cast, crew, investors and opening dates (Moulin Rouge! was originally slated for December 2000). Christian and friends in playwriting mode are surely Pearce and Luhrmann themselves, searching for the most economical way to say “the hills are vital, intoning the descant”.

And, from the show-within-a-show rehearsals, to the bustle of the backstage, to the gun-chase through the wooden bones of the fly tower, the production details are Catherine Martin to the very last diamante. Nobody does daring bedazzlement quite like ‘CM’, Luhrmann’s fellow producer and life partner. Electricity was the new, exciting thing in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century and this film was lit.

A necklace worn by Satine as a gift from the Duke was made of real diamonds and platinum. Designed by Stefano Canturi, It was the most expensive piece of jewellery ever specifically made for a film, with 1,308 diamonds weighing 134 carats, and worth an estimated one million dollars. Needless to say, Martin won both costume and production design Oscars for the film.

Also among the film’s eight Academy Award nominees: editor Jill Bilcock, about whose singular craft there is a recent documentary. Her breathless, kaleidoscopic cutting (also deployed in Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet) dropped us right on the dance floor; one 65-second sequence contained a boggling 85 cuts. And this is on the back of her superbly judged opening, a scene that repeats itself as she places Christian at both the start of his love story, and its devastating aftermath—heartbroken, unshaven, self-medicating, reaching for the words to begin making sense of his loss.

“I wondered, for the first hour of this, how Baz Luhrmann had managed to balance such in-your-face stylistic audacity while maintaining a genuine feeling of care for the characters and their struggles—is it all down to Ewan McGregor’s wonderfully earnest face, or the way Nicole Kidman’s smouldering-temptress persona is worn down by one of the most charming cinematic uses of Elton John’s ‘Your Song’? But as the ‘Elephant Love Medley’ transformed into David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’, I stopped caring, I just swooned.” —Kat

If electricity was the thing that drove the kids wild in the 1900s, the internet was on everyone’s minds in 2001. We were just figuring out how to juggle tabs and text people. The real magic dust sprinkled throughout Moulin Rouge! is, obviously, the cacophonous soundtrack, which made sense to our collective, fragmented consciousness.

“No other musical of the modern era has so perfectly captured the sense of spinning an iPod wheel every 45 seconds to play something else,” writes Jake of the medley of songs by David Bowie, Fat Boy Slim, Nirvana, Police, Elton John, Rufus Wainwright, Madonna and many others.

Luhrmann and Pearce stopped at nothing to get every single track from every single artist they wanted. The journey took more than two years, and some bodies were left at the side of the road. “You constantly have to kill your darlings,” Pearce sighs. RIP to Rod Stewart’s ‘Tonight’s the Night’, The Rolling Stones’ ‘Under My Thumb’, Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’ and Fifth Dimension’s ‘Up, Up and Away’. (Hot air balloons were big in 2001.)

"We wanted the music to be modern, because we didn’t want it to feel like a fusty, crusty world,” says Pearce. “We wanted to find the universal modern parallels that have existed since time immemorial.” But it wasn’t just about finding the most popular songs at the time. “The structure had to be driven by the needs of the story,” the screenwriter explains. “The musicals on film that tend to fail are the ones where the music feels like a film clip. If it’s not serving the emotional needs of the story, you very quickly check out and it becomes boring. With good musical storytelling, it builds and builds to a point where you can’t do anything but express yourself through song.”

Has there ever been a more desperately romantic promise than when Christian starts telling Satine he doesn’t have much to give her, before nailing that one perfect high note to reassure her that his gift is his song? Why, yes: when the mirrored love stories of Christian and Satine, and of the penniless sitar player and the courtesan in ‘Spectacular Spectacular’, meet at their dramatic peak, with ‘Come What May’. (The film’s only original song, it had been submitted for the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack by writers David Baerwald and Kevin Gilbert.)

“Moulin Rouge! was successful because it was using songs from different ages and periods, appealing to different audiences with something they could have a connection to. So it wasn’t just boomers, not just millennial or Gen X,” says Sammartino. “Something like Rock of Ages, for example, was much more narrow in terms of the kind of music you needed to like.”

“This film is a dramatic bitch and I love her.” —Mulaney

‘Moulin Rouge!’ co-writer and director Baz Luhrmann.

There is a pattern to our most emphatic reviews for the film: they come from relatively young people, who mainly identify as women. It’s something critics anticipated back in 2001. The New York Times wrote, in a fairly ambivalent review, that “young audiences, especially girls, will feel as if they had found a movie that was calling them by name”. We don’t have time to fully dig into the antiquated notion that “low art” (the publication’s quippy headline for that review was “An Eyeful, an Earful, Anachronism”) is aimed specifically at women, but surely we have to ask the question twenty years on: does anyone still think this could possibly be true?

“You’re always writing for yourself, for the film you want to see,” says Pearce. “I like all kinds of different films and I think teenage girls do too.” And let’s remember, it was Harry Styles who said of the broad demographic of his fanbase back in 2017: “Teenage girls—they don’t lie. If they like you, they're there. They don’t act ‘too cool’. They like you, and they tell you.”

Robbins: “The rom-com has made the connection between song and emotional display about female pain. The Emma Thompson crying to Joni Mitchell kind of lineage has tempered musicals—people think that’s what Mamma Mia! is: women and mothers and daughters and feelings.” Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a lot of musical-related data suggesting a broader scope. “When I went to see Frozen on Broadway, kids of all genders were wearing Olaf costumes, much more than princess ones. That is not the narrative Disney would like. And when people gender musicals and think of the princesses franchises, they don’t look to the fact that The Lion King and Aladdin were more successful.”

There has been an undeniable effort to reel male audiences in to see 21st-century musicals. On Hugh Jackman’s welcome, flamboyant career pivot (surprising to anyone but Australians), Duffy says: “Casting Wolverine in Les Misérables and The Greatest Showman is very, ‘See, manly men can do it too!’” Let’s not forget that Ewan McGregor had gotten his big break as freewheeling heroin addict Mark Renton in Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting just six years prior to playing Christian.

Indeed, says Duffy, “more of my male friends have seen Moulin Rouge! than other musicals. The MTV tone might have been significant, and there was the ‘Lady Marmalade’ music video—the fact you have all these beautiful pop stars writhing around in corsets. And just having David Bowie on the soundtrack is like, ‘Okay, this isn’t just girl music.’ Pop music offers an easier way to move past the stigma of show tunes.”

Crucially, Robbins notes that all of this prejudice, and the effort to tear it down, is speaking to, and about, a very specific—cisgender, heterosexual—subsection of audiences. “I always wonder where the critics think the queer audiences are. I do wonder if there’s a cis-het vibe going on that has even more to do with it, reinforcing that norm rather than actually focusing on young girls as an audience.”

I asked my interviewees whether they thought, twenty years on, that Moulin Rouge! would be better received today—and which parts of our contemporary cinematic and musical fabric owe a debt to Luhrmann’s jukebox wonder. “We’re more receptive but we have specific demands,” says Robbins. “And today’s musicals sink or swim on whether they meet those demands. So The Greatest Showman is the Moulin Rouge! of now. I think people would be lying if they didn’t say that the cinematography in Moulin Rouge! hasn’t affected almost every movie musical that has been made since. We wouldn’t have ‘Rewrite the Stars’ if we didn’t have ‘Sparkling Diamonds’.”

Duffy agrees: “So many things that come after you can draw a line directly to Moulin Rouge!—Pitch Perfect, Rock of Ages, Happy Feet… but most significantly, Glee would not exist without this movie. The jukebox musicals of the 21st century owe everything to Moulin Rouge! and the blueprint it lays down.”

Among the films that premiered at Cannes in 2001—David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher—was another kooky little number: Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson’s animated Shrek. Two jukebox musicals in the same prestige film festival, at a moment when the genre was considered deeply uncool? What a time to be alive!

If the last eighteen months have taught us anything, it’s that we film lovers enjoy nothing more than a comfort rewatch of our favorites. Moulin Rouge! and Shrek (and French Shrek) delivered untold comfort in the pandemic—but they had also soothed us much earlier, in the months following the unspeakable tragedy of the 9/11 attacks.

“For me it was very much a comfort film,” recalls Duffy, who had discovered Moulin Rouge! as a fresh-faced eighteen-year-old, during her first year away from home, studying in New York. “Part of that was rooted in this really traumatic thing that had happened, and all of us wanting to escape into this fantasy world as much as possible.”

Luhrmann said, in his recent Australian interview, “I love to see people united and uplifted and exulted. It’s a privilege to be a part of helping people find that.” As life outside our homes resumes, Moulin Rouge! will very much be part of a return to exultant living. The live musical—interrupted by Covid—opens in Melbourne in August and on the West End and Broadway in the fall.

Pearce last saw the film on a large screen in a derelict warehouse in London, at Secret Cinema’s interactive, carnivalesque spectacular. “I have to say, I was really proud of the film,” the screenwriter says, finally letting himself speak fondly of his accomplishment well over an hour into our conversation.

“I mean, some people liked it back in the day, but you’re never really satisfied with your work. You just tend to see the things that could have been better. But seeing the love for the film was really, really emotional.”

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Craig Pearce is currently producing ‘Pistol’—a biopic miniseries on the Sex Pistols, directed by Danny Boyle—and his next film with Luhrmann is a biopic of Elvis Presley, with Austin Butler playing the king of rock and roll. Additional thanks to Dr. Eleonora Sammartino, Lisa Duffy and Dr. Hannah Robbins.

#moulin rouge #moulin rouge!#baz luhrmann #catherine martin #nicole kidman #ewan mcgregor #children of the revolution #truth beauty freedom love #musical #movie musical #jukebox musical #paris #australian director #letterboxd

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aalghul · 3 years

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so hard to be both a jason and tim stan in this economy... can't look at any fan content about the both of them because it's literally all wildly out of character and/or demonizes jason or damian

RIGHT. I say I love Tim and then never talk about him because, honestly, I’m not willing to put up with whatever a big portion of his fan base is. I don’t need repeat what we all know about fanon Tim being the most annoying thing ever, but it genuinely makes me not want to talk about Tim. Every Robin has had insecurities about their position and especially as someone worth Batman’s time (including Dick, very prominently). Tim was independent by choice, not because he was forced out of the family at any point. The fact is that he was not Bruce’s son for the longest time and he was okay with that; in fact, he loved his dad very much and didn’t want Bruce in his place at first. Which is another point: Tim’s parents. People are free to project as they like and I’m not going to go telling anyone off for making them horrible parents, but it’s not canon. They were neglectful and definitely bot good parents, and Jack’s recovery did bring issues from him, but their love for him wasn’t questioned. I don’t mind portrayal of his parents being cruel parents that don’t love him, I guess, it’s not the worst; it’s just boring and simplifies his relationship with them. This does not mix well with any character.

Fanon Tim always comes at the expense of every other character involved: Kon is an idiot, Jason is a hardheaded brute, Cass is Tim’s bodyguard with no other purpose, Dick is a bad big brother that chose Damian over him, and Damian…God. He is almost always the brat that needs to be put in his place for being heartless and arrogantly thinking he’s Tim’s superior, etc. and it’s like, do you never get bored? Yes, it’s incorrect characterization, but moreover, are these people not tired of acting like this 10 year old ruined their fave’s life? I see it more with Damian, but it definitely does happen with Jason too, where he’s this evil, failure Robin but good thing Tim’s better and everyone actually likes Tim. Or maybe that’s just actual, garbage canon I’m remembering.

I’ve read quite a few Titan’s Tower AUs, so I’m definitely not judging here but I really do loathe the idea that Jason walked in ready to kill a kid on Talia’s word like the idiot he is. Firstly, Talia did not set Jason off on anyone, she only ever gave him the resources to do what he wanted. Leave her out of your white boy messes. Secondly, Tim would not be alive if Jason was there to kill him at all. It’s fairly simple to tell that’s not Jason’s intent if you just read the actual TT issue. Further, if Jason really were here to kill this kid, why would a few tears stop him? Oh, right. Lazarus pit. Because the evil Talia didn’t teach him how to control that and actually all of Jason’s actions are because of it. And they lived happily ever after. Jason also didn’t just walk in here unaware that Tim isn’t adopted, his parents travel a lot etc. He did his homework and knew everything about Tim before he walked in. He just flat out did not believe that Tim had made himself Robin, rather than Bruce just having him ready as an option after Jason died. The whole fight being acknowledged annoys me, and I know this one isn’t fair because it’s canon, because it’s the beginning of Jason’s manchildification, but also because Jason would never hurt a kid just to hurt them. His duel with Mia is proof of that.

Speaking of Jason and kids, let me bring this back to the topic of Damian being demonized. It’s always “I came back to the family to tell you guys that you all suck for being mean to Timmy” when (A) no one is doing that (B) Jason is not about to yell at an actual child for Tim. He’s also not going to yell at Dick for being an awful big brother because he *checks notes* rightfully told Tim he was in a mentally unwell state and passed his mantle on to the 10 year old that just lost the father he had spent his entire life dreaming of meeting.

#this isn’t even mentioning the incest shipping #I went off topic a bit sorry anon #I hate it when characters I like deviate so far in fanon because who are you? I didn’t order this #mara rambles

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woah-were-halfway-there · 4 years

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I’m just thinking about the wedding scene you wrote in part 2 of along for the ride 🥺 don’t feel like you have too, but would you be able to write another little scene of them on their wedding day 🥺🥺🥺

Here you are, my dear! Hope you enjoy ☺️

Word Count: 2k cause idk what a little scene is apparently

Your wedding reception was filled with guests. The entire space was decorated to the nines and filled with people you loved, but you just couldn't stop glancing at Auston. Your husband. And he knew it too.

The two of you were finally married, and you simply couldn't get over the fact that you're going to be spending the rest of your life with the man you love the most. It felt surreal, but you loved every minute of it.

"You're staring," Auston spoke up and chuckled, snapping you out of the little daze you fell into. "Like the view?"

"Don't act like you don't love the attention," you retorted before moving to take a sip of the wine that rested on the table in front of you. "But yes, my husband is looking mighty fine right now."

At that, he chuckled and leaned over so that the two of you could share a kiss. The two of you had sure done a lot of kissing since the ceremony concluded and couldn't think of a reason to stop; so, you just kept it going.

"Maybe we should make a game where every time they kiss, we all have to take a drink," one of Auston's groomsmen, a longtime friend from Scottsdale, spoke into a mic from the end of the wedding party table and caused the entire room to erupt into laughter.

"Do you want to be an absolute write off before midnight?" Mitch asked loudly from his spot a few seats left from Auston, earning more chuckles.

"Good point, maybe not," the groomsman replied with a smile, before kicking off the speech portion of the evening.

The next half an hour basically consisted of you and Auston getting chirped by your entire wedding party. Sure, they made a lot of jabs at how mushy the two of you can be, but they also just made you feel so loved at the same time.

"I remember the night Y/N called me in a full on panic saying she thought she was catching serious feelings for Auston," Steph explained during part of her speech and sent you a knowing look.

"And I remember bracing myself for the rollercoaster ride this was bound to be as soon as Steph told me what Y/N told her," Mitch chimed in for his part as he stood next to her. "And it has been a wild ride with these two, but in the best way possible. Look at them, they're a whole married couple now, and I couldn't be happier about it."

"These two are soulmates, and they've never been afraid to show it," Steph added. "And I think I speak on behalf of many people in this room when I say that Mia is going to grow up feeling the love they share undoubtedly. She couldn't have lucked out with better parents who adore her as much as they adore each other."

Although each speech before Steph and Mitch's made you overly emotional, theirs was the first one that made you shed a tear as you glanced over to where Mia sat, cuddling with Ema at a nearby table. She seemed so content and didn't have a care in the world; you couldn't help yourself from just sitting there and smiling as you watched your daughter.

Auston noticed this and wasn't long in leaning closer to you and squeezing your thigh before the two of you finally got Mia's attention and waved to her.

Alex and Breyana made the last speech. It consisted of them explaining how happy they were for their brother for finding his person, and how they've considered you to be a sister for years; it was just official now. You cried during that one too.

After the speeches concluded, music started playing, and everyone slowly made their way to the dance floor. Once people had warmed up a little bit, and you downed another glass of wine, the MC announced that you and Auston were about to share your first dance, making you nervous all over again.

You'd never been a fan of being the centre of attention, and the fact that it was your wedding day didn't change that. Standing in front of everyone at the ceremony was nerve-wracking enough, but at least you had a group of people you loved dearly up there with you. Now it was really about to be all eyes on just you and Auston.

But, at least you had him.

"Ready?" He asked as he walked up to stand beside you, causing you to jump slightly at his sudden presence.

"Not really," you admitted while shaking your head. "I'm probably going to trip on the way to the dance floor."

"Good thing I'm here to catch you then," he replied with a wink and linked his hands with yours so he could guide you through the crowd of guests. "I've got you always."

As the two of you made your way to the middle of the dance floor, your nerves gradually diminished just by Auston being there. Once the two of you were face to face, you rested one hand on his shoulder, and he did the same but on your waist. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see everyone watching the two of you from around the dance floor and instantly felt your chest tighten, but then Auston used his free hand to hold onto yours and bring it up to his lips; effortlessly bringing your attention back to him.

"You good?" He asked as the two of you finished getting into position.

"I think so."

"If you get nervous, just focus on us. As if we're the only ones here."

At that, you smiled, and soon the intro of You and Me by Lifehouse started playing from the speakers. "Deal."

What day is it And in what month? This clock never seemed so alive

Once Jason Wade’s voice started singing, you were instantly hit by a wave of emotion, and weren't long in letting Auston pull you closer to him because of it. The lyrics to this song hit you hard every time you listened to it, and this time was no different.

'Cause it's you and me

And all of the people with nothing to do Nothing to lose

You then rested your head against Auston's chest as the two of you continued swaying to the music and let your eyes flutter shut as you thought back over the years you've spent with your husband.

I'm tripping on words You got my head spinning I don't know where to go from here

From the outside, yours and Auston's relationship never seemed easy. With such a demanding career of being an NHL player, as well as being the face of an entire franchise, sometimes it seemed like the odds were against the two of you. Distance, opposite schedules, and miscommunication provided a strain on your relationship at times and did make things very difficult. However, there still was not a single doubt in your mind that regardless of the tough times faced, the years you've spent with Auston have easily been the best. At the end of the day, it was always you and him.

And it's you and me And all of the people And I don't know why I can't keep my eyes off of you

Steph was right when she said you and Auston were soulmates. You had met your match with him. He was a person that could infuriate you like no other, but also someone you could never imagine life without.

Auston had all the missing pieces you seemingly could never find and flawlessly completed the puzzle your heart had spent years trying to figure out. He was your best friend, your person, your soulmate… and there was nothing that could ever make you question that.

There's something about you now That I can't quite figure out

Being in that moment with you was surreal for Auston.

When he first asked you to be his girlfriend all those years ago, he was prepared for you to say no. It's not easy being in a relationship with someone who's always on the road, but you didn't care and dived in headfirst, proving to him that he was worth taking risks for.

He never took that for granted either and always silently thanked whoever it was that decided you were meant to be in his life. Because you were. You were the other half that made him whole, the mother of his child, and the person who made his life so much better just by being in it.

Everything she does is beautiful Everything she does is right

As the two of you continued dancing in your little bubble as the final chorus played through, you felt extremely content thinking about how with Auston is where you are meant to be, forever. And he thought the same.

The entire wedding day was your vow to one another that the two of you were exactly where you were supposed to be, with each other. And even though a wedding wasn't needed to prove that, it was sure nice to share those feelings with loved ones and celebrate them in the best way possible.

What day is it? And in what month? This clock never seemed so alive

As soon as the song was over, you and Auston held on to each other for a second longer before moving away, just to pull the other in for another kiss.

"I love you," Auston stated while leaning his forehead against yours. "More than I'll ever be able to explain."

"You don't need to," you told him and reached up to straighten out his boutonniere that shifted from you leaning against it. "I already know. And I can only hope that you know I feel the exact same way."

"I do know," he answered and placed another peck to your lips just before the two of you were surrounded by wedding guests ready to take dance along to the next song.

You soon found yourself dancing along to Def Leppard with Auston's sisters before Mitch and Steph made a whole scene out of joining the three of you as they yelled along to the lyrics of Pour Some Sugar On Me.

As you spent time with them, along with other members of your bridal party and wedding guests, you couldn't help but notice that Auston seemingly vanished. As a couple of songs played out, you couldn't help but glance around to see where he went, but it wasn't until the DJ started playing My Girl by The Temptations that you got your answer.

There was a small break between the people dancing and in came Auston, carrying Mia and singing to her as they swayed their way towards the middle of the dance floor. You had to stop what you were doing just so you could watch the two together, not being able to prevent the enormous smile that formed on your lips as you did so.

It seemed that others were intrigued by what was going on as well, and they joined you and observing Auston dance along to the music while Mia had her arms wrapped around his neck, holding onto him tightly and giggling like crazy as he sang about her being his girl.

Even Ema and Brian joined to see what the commotion was about and wasn't long in pushing you towards your husband and daughter to join in on the fun.

Once Auston saw you approaching, he extended an arm out so that once you were close enough, he could pull you right in and continue swaying with you and Mia in his hold. He started singing "my girls" instead of the actual lyrics, and Mia wasn't long in reaching towards you to be held for a little bit before having to leave to go to bed.

Everything about the moment was perfect. And you couldn't help but think with a smile about how this was bound to be how the rest of your life was going to feel too.

#concepts #auston matthews imagine #auston matthews fanfiction #nhl imagines #nhl fanfiction #nhl rpf #auston matthews imagines #aftr

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lucyreviewcy · 5 years

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Hobbs and Shaw (2019) Dir. David Leitch

Let me begin by saying that I am incredibly biased in favour of this movie because it was apparently made just for me. Personally. I have never seen a movie more obviously tailored to my tastes, so don't expect me to treat it fairly when someone clearly spent a long time monitoring my Facebook page to figure out how to make the perfect movie for me. Honestly when I rewatched the trailer before viewing, I legit teared up. And people say there’s no benefits to owning a Huawei phone.

Also, just an FYI, it was directed by one of the co-directors of John Wick and that’s why the fight sequences are brilliant but it still makes sense.

It could be very easy for this film to be a total hot mess. It is also very easy to engage with this film with an ironic eye-roll and be like “I mean it’s stupid but I guess that at least it knows that.” Please don’t do the latter. This is a big budget action flick, if you’re embarrassed to watch a big budget action flick then… why? These movies are fun, and while the storylines and action sequences might be preposterous, they’re consistent with the world of the movie and the franchise in general.

It’s established pretty early on in the franchise that if you can drive a car you’re essentially an invincible wizard. Learn that truth, remember it, and the films will make sense. This is a series of movies that is 80% redemption arcs, with villains turning into heroes all over the shot, and the occasional storyline retcon to bring back a dead hero that was a fan favourite. These movies have been being made for almost two decades, so they’re not without fault (they’re actually quite useful as a chronicle of shifting social values over the last 19 years. Compare Vanessa Kirby’s character Hattie in Hobbs and Shaw to Mia in The Fast and Furious for just one example of the progress that’s been made within this franchise.) These movies are imperfect: all I ask is that people don’t act surprised that they enjoyed a movie that’s mostly enormous men solving crimes and kicking ass, because guess what: millenia of culture have taught us that HUMANS ENJOY THIS STUFF.

It took four films for the Fast and Furious franchise to really nail its format, and this is a whole new ungainly arm for the brand to try and control. However, the film begins with clear, concise exposition of the stakes, the villain and the characters involved. Vanessa Kirby as the fantastically ruthless Hattie, an MI6 agent, injects herself with a supervirus in order to keep it out of the hands of big bad nasty organisation Etheon. Etheon then try and catch her. Meanwhile, security services from the US and UK team up to catch Hattie who is being framed for the deaths of her team. As a result, Hobbs and Shaw must work together. Oh and they’re also being pursued by half-robot super soldier Idris Elba, who wins all the prizes for living up to the most surprisingly evil character name: Brixton Lore. Why does that combination of words even sound evil? It should just mean “the myths surrounding an area of South London…” My friend lives in Brixton and I don’t know if there’s any kind of special Lore there, are there Brixton kelpies that come out after dark and help you avoid puddles of vomit on your walk home? I’ve gotten sidetracked…

A movie with Dwayne The Rock Johnson is now pretty much officially a movie that makes bank. Skyscraper (a.k.a. Big Die Hard) was an absolute corker. Pairing Johnson with Statham, star of The Meg (a.k.a. Big Jaws) can only mean one thing: this movie is going to be BIG. It doesn’t disappoint on that front. The team travel the globe at an impressive pace, each big fight is set against an exciting new location, ending with an elegant showcase of Samoa. I don’t know how Samoan people feel about the way their country is represented in this movie, but if it’s anything like how I feel about the way they’ve represented London then it’ll be “Huh, sure is less traffic in their version of Samoa.”

As we travel with our enormous be-muscled pals, we’re given the chance to get to know Vanessa Kirby better.

Reader, I loved her.

As I’ve already mentioned, I like to think that the Fast and Furious films are a really good chronicle of how far Hollywood has actually come with things like gender representation. And while there’s a slightly awkward forced love story in this movie involving Hattie, and she’s definitely about 17 years too young to have been a child at the same time as Jason Statham (FYI he was doing this when she was literally two years old), but in movies you suspend your disbelief. My disbelief duly dangling from the ceiling, I loved the way that Kirby’s character was put together. It is her choice, at the start of the movie, to inject herself with the virus and risk her life to save humanity, that drives this entire plot. She gets Hobbs and Shaw out of multiple sticky situations. She’s rude, she’s deadly, she’s a lot more than you would have expected a female character in this kind of movie to be even as recently as 2009. We also see no more of her flesh than we do Statham or Johnson’s: WHAT A TREAT.

There are of course the obligatory random shots of ladies’ butts at a party but anyone who is a fan of the franchise knows that unfortunately this is a trope of the genre, I hope they grow out of it one day.

This movie, for me, has everything: car chases, big fights, mad stunts, a bit with a recognisable brand name from my country that made everyone in the audience go “Huh, yeah, Greggs.” The storyline is clear and concise, the characters explain what is going on regularly enough that you don’t lose track (this is why I love a 12a, they keep reminding the kids what’s going on between all the explosions and jokes they don’t quite get).

TO SUM UP: I enjoyed this movie so much, but that was a given. I didn’t expect to love Vanessa Kirby as much as I now do, and the cameos that I will not spoil literally made me so excited I made squeal noises.

#Hobbs and Shaw #movie #review #fast and furious #vanessa kirby #jason statham #dwayne the rock johnson #david leitch

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douxreviews · 6 years

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Star Trek: Discovery - ‘Brother’ Review

"Space: The Final Frontier. Above us, around us, within us. We have always looked to the stars to discover who we are."

By nature I love brevity: Star Trek: Discovery takes a long, clean breath of fresh air in this big, bold premiere that sheds the burdens of Season One and lets them roll down the hill behind.

Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled in 2005. And in the Fall of that year, as shows premiered, fans were faced with a sad reality: for the first time in 28 years, a new season of Star Trek was not among them. And for 12 years, this continued. And then we Discovered a new frontier. Breaking the silence of more than a decade, Star Trek: Discovery was a sign that Trek was not dead.

But of course, it was not without its flaws. Discovery Season One had issues with its tone and its dialogue. The crew, above and beyond their stilted, grandiose speech, rarely seemed like a family, or even a group of people who like each other. And the levels of anxiety and brooding were at dangerously high levels. We're talking Superman from Batman v. Superman levels of anxiety and brooding.

The fans pointed out these issues, though the good parts still remained (excepting the 'fans' who actively went out of their way to be openly hostile towards the series, its creators, and its viewers). And the team behind Discovery listened. 'Brother' benefits from a light and relaxed tone that feels like the lifting of a heavy curtain. The crew speaks in a generally human and natural manner, and they work together like a tight family. Brooding is nowhere to be seen, and the anxiety present is of a different sort than the cloud of deep worry that permeated Season One. Instead the viewer felt more of an empathetic concern about the characters and their lives.

The first and most immediate effect of 'Brother' is, in fact, to distance the show from its past mistakes. Associating these issues with the influence of Captain Lorca makes a lot of sense from a story perspective, even if the creators' insistence that all the darker elements were only a result of him doesn't quite sit right. From the outset, Captain Pike makes it clear that he is very different from Lorca. Everything about his manner and bearing suggests a completely different man from Jason Isaacs' power-hungry warmonger. But Pike is no Kirk, either, as one might anticipate. Anson Mount gives his Pike a humility and a grounded feel that Kirk never quite developed.

The other proverbial elephant on the starship is the presence of Spock. Though the adult version of our beloved half-Vulcan does not appear, his importance in the events of 'Brother' and the impact the mere allusion to the character has on the series is clear. We learn that he and Burnham's strained relationship is the result of her decisions, not his. It's clear she views him and his legacy as an oppressive force in her life, perhaps as a standard she could never live up to? There's a great shot that really sums this up, when young Spock makes his holo-dragon. The dragon moves toward Burnham, and roars at her, and Spock walks in through its mouth. I think that's how she sees Spock.

Sarek and Burnham's conversation about reverence also factors in. This show has decided to include a character that most fans undoubtedly have a lot of reverence for. But to make him a useful character, with an arc and a purpose, reverence is not enough. The massive weight of Spock's impact on Star Trek and the fans' adoration of him will be a problem that Discovery will have to deal with.

Moving to our regular cast, I loved how they were dealt with here. The other side of Lorca's effect on the Disco crew is that such a major and personal adversary has brought them together and made them rely on each other. All of the returning cast felt like a family around each other, and their interactions made the ship feel like a real workplace run by a real team. This is a major improvement from last season.

It looks like Burnham's journey this season will be thoroughly intertwined with Spock's. I look forward to seeing her relationship with him and how it develops, but I do hope they give her a role to play apart from and outside of the shadow of her foster brother. Likewise, Stamets seems overshadowed by the impact of someone else. Everything around him reminds him of his lost love Dr. Culber, and he's having a very hard time dealing with it. It seems like the end of this episode was enough to get him at least a little bit excited about science again, though it's unlikely that this is the end of his plotline about leaving the ship. With Wilson Cruz brought on as a full cast member for this season, it'll be interesting to see where this goes.

Tilly and Saru don't seem to have much in the way of an arc yet, but I'm sure this will change. I expect most of Tilly's story this season will have something to do with her enrollment in the Command Training Program. Saru mentioned his sister Siranna, from the Short Trek 'The Brightest Star,' and the showrunners have stated that we may see other Kelpians this season, so expect to see a visit to Saru's home planet of Kaminar sometime in the future. Maybe siblings will continue to be a theme this season.

Overall, 'Brother' was a pretty epic way to kick off the new season. It's fun and engaging, with a lot of potential. I can't wait to see where we go from here.

Strange New Worlds:

This section will record the planets the Disco visits and the places they go. Not a whole lot of that in this particular episode.

New Life and New Civilizations:

Here I'll keep track of all the new species, ideas, and cultures the crew encounters. Again, nothing in the way of that here.

Pensees (Thoughts):

-Mia Kirshner (Amanda) looks a lot like Amy Adams. She also really resembles Amanda from TOS, so that's nice.

-Stamets has a botanist friend aboard the Enterprise.

-In keeping with the Trek tradition of altering the intro, we have some brand new graphics added to the opening theme.

-Regulation 19, Section C allows a higher-ranking officer to take command of a starship in one of three contingencies: 1. An imminent threat; 2. The lives of Federation citizens are in danger; 3. There is no more qualified officer available to deal with the situation.

-I love Doug Jones' Saru walk. It's just so much fun to watch.

-That's the first shot we've gotten of a turbo lift running through a starship in all of Trek, if memory serves. Pretty cool, too.

-Another Alice in Wonderland nod. Also, holo-candles.

-Sarek mentioned that he's reached out to Klingon High Chancellor L'Rell (Mary Chieffo), and she had no explanation for the red bursts either.

-The Captain goes on the away mission, in true Trek tradition.

-There was a bit of Spock's Jellyfish ship from Star Trek (2009) in the design of the pods they flew.

-How cool was the pod sequence? Also, it was admittedly rather satisfying to see Olson Connelly get his comeuppance when he failed to pull his chute crashed and died because of the dumb risk he took.

-One of the ads loaded at the wrong time when I watched this the first time. The long ad break split a shot in half.

-I liked Reno (Tig Notaro). The idea of using an engineering approach to medicine is interesting, although I wouldn't want to be one of the first patients it was tried on.

-The Red Angel is still very much an unknown. I partially expect it will have something to do with the Klingons, if not only because they seem from the trailers to have a big role to play.

-The asteroid material wouldn't beam up. That's intriguing. It may be the key to fixing the spore drive, too, as it looks from the trailer that we'll be jumping again this season.

-'Not every cage is a prison, nor every loss eternal.' That's very interesting, and it has a lot of significance for Pike.

-It makes sense that the crew of the Enterprise would have issues with sitting out the war while on their five-year mission.

-The Disco's new Doctor is named Dr. Pollard.

-One of the names in the credits was 'Matt Decker.'

-A lot of references to faith/religion and related subjects in this episode. I don't think it's necessarily significant, but I thought it was worth noting.

-Alex Kurtzman directed this episode. I thought he did a great job; maybe he should stick to that instead of the whole coming up with ideas thing. I'm still baffled by the seriously weird and unsettling bits about Klingon anatomy from Season One.

Quotes:

Amanda: "I bless you, Michael... all my life."

Pike: "Do not covet thy neighbor's starship, Commander."

Pike: "Why didn't we think of that, Connelly? Think of all the syllables that gave their lives."

Pike: "Sometimes it's wise to keep your expectations low, Commander. That way we're never disappointed." Advice to the audience, perhaps?

Tilly: "I put her in a Utility closet, and I put you in there. I'm drunk on power."

Stamets: "Tilly, you are... incandescent. You're going to become a magnificent Captain because you do everything out of love. But I need you to repeat after me. I will say..." Tilly: "I will say..." Stamets: "Fewer things." Tilly: "Fewer thi- okay."

Sarek: "Spock has great reverence for his mother, but reverence tends to-" Burnham: "Fill up the room." It's the shot of Burnham's fairly empty quarters just as she interrupts that sells this one.

Pike: "Detmer - fly... good."

Pike: "I was expecting a red thing. Where's my damn red thing?"

Pike: "Spock asked the most amazing questions. It's completely logical, yet somehow able to make everyone see that logic was the beginning of the picture and not the end."

Burnham: "There are so many things I wish I'd said to you; so many things I want to say now. I'm too late, aren't I? I can only pray I don't lose you again... brother."

A strong, solid premiere. 5 out of 6 damn red things.

CoramDeo is interested in things.

#Star Trek #Star Trek Discovery #Michael Burnham #Saru #Sylvia Tilly #Paul Stamets #Christopher Pike #Spock #DIS #Disco #ST:Disc #Star Trek Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

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