#i used to not like jodie foster much

[mkatznelson]

Jodie Foster in The Mauritanian (2021)

[yippee-optimistically]

wip of a s2 teens lineup/desktop background bc i have been so fixated on stardew valley i forgot the finale is coming out TOMORROWW dangitt !!!! and some spare doodles ^_^

norm from 52 ^

jodie and baby taylor ^ bc i desperately wana think hes a nice grandpa .. and i thought nicky mentioned him visiting ?? idk. :(

and also a cass and baby taylor ^ he makes me sick

[weclassybouquetfun]

Variety's Actors on Actors lineup has been announced.

Surprising absolutely no one, BarbenHeimer unites again with a Cillian Murphy and Margot Robbie team-up.

A Zodiac/Avengers reunion with Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”) & Mark Ruffalo (“Poor Things”)

A THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA reunion with Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”) & Anne Hathaway (“Eileen”)

An ALOHA reunion between Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) & Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”)

*B-Coop, you may not get an actor nod, but you most definitely deserves Best Director recognition for MAESTRO.

EUPHORIA costars Colman Domingo (“Rustin,” “The Color Purple”) & Jacob Elordi (“Priscilla,” “Saltburn”)

*While Colman was excellent in RUSTIN, and I would love for him to get nominated for that, THE COLOR PURPLE as the performance for me.

SHAME reunion with Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”) & Michael Fassbender (“The Killer”)

*Carey is sensational in MAESTRO and I hope she and her team don't push her for Supporting because she is quite frankly the lead. She even has top billing over Bradley Cooper. He has always asserted that the film is more about Lenny and Felicia and it's more her story.

MORE ACTORS. MORE AWARDS SEASON TALK

A THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT reunion between Annette Bening (“Nyad”) & Julianne Moore (“May December”)

*May December wasn't to my liking and surprisingly Charles Melton was wonderful. But I'm all about NYAD and if Bening isn't nominated for Best Actress it will be a crime.

Disney Princesses Halle Bailey (“The Little Mermaid”, “The Color Purple”) & Rachel Zegler (“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”)

*The struggle to hide that pregnancy is real.

Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”) & Taraji P. Henson (“The Color Purple”)

*He's the lead in AMERICAN FICTION but he gave RUSTIN the punch it needed in his small role.

Greta Lee (“Past Lives”) & Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers”)

*ALL OF US STRANGERS was very affecting. I thought it too navel-gazing at first, but it blossomed over me much later.

Natalie Portman (“May December”) & Paul Mescal (“All of Us Strangers”)

*Mescal was in the film CARMEN directed by and conceived by Portman's philandering husband Benjamin Millipied. The screening happened before his affair allegations came out, but after the Q&A someone commented to me that Benjamin and his lead Melissa Barrera looked too comfortable with each other and bet they had slept together at least once. I just chalked it up to him being French. But maybe?

Alden Ehrenreich (“Fair Play,” “Oppenheimer”) & Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”)

*I've been a fan of Ehrenreich since the wretched BEAUTIFUL CREATURES so I love all the attention and acclaim he's getting. But male voters hate weak male characters (which is why I'm worried that Leonardo DiCaprio will be snubbed for his performance in KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. Every man I've spoken to about it hated his character - not because of his actions - but because he was weak and stupid. And Leo's character has nothing on Ehrenreich's soppy Luke. There's a meme about people being weak in the knees and needing to stand up. Nah, Luke needed to sit his ass down.).

However, Da'Vine Joy Randolph seems to be a lock. The trio of Randolph, Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa in THE HOLDOVERS deserve any nominations they may receive.

My fantasy Best Supporting Actress list is

Da'vine Joy Randolph (THE HOLDOVERS)

Danielle Brooks (THE COLOR PURPLE)

Jodie Foster (NYAD)

Rosamund Pike (SALTBURN)

Penelope Cruz (FERRARI)

*If Apple is running Lily Gladstone as Supporting (which they shouldn't because she's a lead), then I would swap out Foster for Gladstone. If Gladstone isn't in Supporting, then Cara Jade Myers as Anna in KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON would be my swap.

[tweedlebugged]

Squinting at the latest dndads episode suspiciously and poking it with a stick. Because on the one hand, it definitely feels like something sus is going on under the surface here and Anthony’s going to pull the rug out any minute now.

On the other, this is a show called Dungeons and Daddies and you kind of have to accept on admission that the characters can and will twist the logical rules of the universe into a pretzel in service of a really good goof. So there’s no way to tell right now what seems a little weird For the Drama and what seems a little weird For the Bit.

Take Jodie. Last season he was this badass demon and objectively the most put together dad, and now he’s this kind of pathetic loser trying to get back with his ex. His ex who he’s definitely been broken up with for over two decades at this point, given that he was already dating Scam during the Church of the Doodler stuff only a few years post season 1. And he was a really involved dad who is obviously disappointed in Nicky for not being part of Taylor’s life, but also he seems totally indifferent toward Hermie and pinches his nose when he has to be near him? It’s weird! And he acts so eager to use these kids and is VERY obviously trying to manipulate them—the whole chosen one thing tbh, and giving scary “secret” information and telling her she smells so super evil when she’s just…not lol—but then gets worried and tries to stop Scary when she does something that will actually hurt her. Officer Foster sir what the fuck is your deal?

But also—Jodie the cringe fail King of Hell is hilarious and Jimmy could just have been leaning into that new persona because it’s good radio. And it was! So who knows!

And Glenn. We know he canonically helped found DADDIES and was working to take down the Doodler (fighting at the Church, putting in the super fast elevator) and Nicky continued to be involved for years after, so clearly the Close/Foster family cared about the Doodler stuff at one point. So how did Glenn end up with the Doodler’s anchor and why is he maiming children to keep them from getting it? Children he should probably recognize and care about at least a little! (Although to be fair Taylor and Link are both still wearing skull masks)

But ALSO—and I say this lovingly—Glenn does have a slight history of being a selfish garbage man, and even though his character grew a lot by the end of season 1 it still wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility for him to have looked around after his friends were gone, realized all of his loved ones were actually safe, and decided to fuck off to do cool things in hell instead. Especially after the other kiddads betrayed Nicky. Anthony did say that he’d let the players decide what happened to their characters, and while I don’t know Mr. Frederick Wong personally “fighting 666 demons in mega hell with the love of his life” does have the exact vibe of an ending he’d choose for Glenn.

So is Glenn under the influence of the anchor somehow? Is he actually one of the Likely family in disguise? Or is Freddy taking full advantage of being Glenn again to play out this character to its logical and EXTREMELY funny conclusion? Impossible to say!

And finally Agent Schmegan and the FBI. All that work hunting Nicky to the point that he had to abandon his family and stalking Taylor until they had an opportunity to draw out his dad, all so they could capture Nicky and torture him into letting them into hell. And now suddenly all they needed was text message permission from some random unrelated teenager and they could open a portal themselves? That’s fishy! And they had special weapons designed to take down Nicky, who said if they ever captured him his dads would be dead, but now Jodie can fight them all by himself without much issue? Feels a little like a scam, actually!

BUT ALSO—the 12 soccer players have been tied to the FBI since the FBI was introduced, and it makes sense to play out those stories at the same time. And since you can only go to hell once, bringing the FBI there now could take them out as a threat to Nicky. Which is more a narrative move than a comedy beat but would still be very funny when he loses his excuse to be an absentee dad and has to actually interact with Taylor. And his ex wife. And her new boyfriend.

This post isn’t going anywhere, the episode just reminded me why trying to theorize about Dungeons and Daddies is like trying to connect a conspiracy board with silly string (affectionate)

[thessalian]

Thess vs The Shooting

About recent news: I'm not going to enjoy the next few news cycles very much? But while this might be problematic short term, I don't think it's going to be the disaster people say it is. At least, not if everyone follows the advice that has been given all along - don't decide your vote doesn't matter, don't decide that third-party protest votes will be your best course of action, just vote and vote blue.

Here's why:

Look, at this point, everyone that's going to vote for Trump is going to vote for Trump no matter what - there is no getting them off that particular Titanic. Marginals? I'm sorry, but Trump does not appeal to marginals. Trump appeals to ... well, MAGA types, and there are a few too many of those. Getting shot at does not make one a viable political candidate, no matter how many people talk conspiracy.

And let's face it - Trump is not going to pull the "Biden conspired to have me killed" card. Not because he doesn't want to (and no one's going to gainsay it because the man who allegedly fired the shots is apparently dead), but because it would probably have that stupid decision the Supreme Court made about what kinds of immunity a president has being relevant sooner than Trump wants it to be. He wants to be able to pick up that tactical nuke that the Supreme Court dropped outside the White House. If anything, if he gets the presidency, he's going to pick it up and use it to round up political enemies "for his own protection" because "he got shot at once, you know". But that entirely relies on his being elected. Which, because of the above, can be stopped by the simple method of a bunch of people actually getting out and voting blue in November.

Plus ... seriously, this is going to eat a couple of news cycles and die no matter how hard Trump tries to capitalise on this. He's currently yelling that America must "stand united" when he's the one who went to such lengths to deepen the divides in the first place, but at the end of the day, it's a piece of news, and most of the news will move on. The ... I don't remember what the American equivalent of GB News is (the one that's worse than Fox), but that one'll run conspiracy theories for as long as it's allowed, and it'll be all over Truth Social and probably Twitter, but news cycles are way different than they were when I was a kid. They blow up fast and blow over faster, and this probably won't be any different.

Basically, I'm not going to panic. I'll keep a half an eye on it, but at the end of the day, news is theatre at this point. It's "what makes good TV" or whatever. It's put together by people who believe (sometimes rightly) that the populace has the collective attention span of concussed goldfish and about as much memory capacity. There's a lot we don't know, and news outlets will spend a fair bit of time analysing what we do know (and why we aren't able to know more, and I'm looking at the ones who apparently killed the alleged shooter, because now we can't ask that individual the kinds of questions that would indicate whether it was politically motivated or it was just like that guy who shot at Reagan to impress Jodie Foster). But after they've wrung out the last bits of information, it's going to fade away no matter what Trump does to keep it alive. And he's basically painted himself into a corner there because he's got that whole "toxic masculinity" thing going on and any attempts to drag out how brave he was in the wake of being shot at after the fact? They're going to look like whining.

But it's going to be a fairly gross week in the news while this gets processed, I'll give you that. I just can't afford to panic until the world proves me wrong about how shit like the news works.

Anyway, life goes on. (I admit to some very uncharitable thoughts about that whole situation in the immediate, though. I generally find it distasteful to wish death on anyone, but I do admit to being uncharitable enough as a person to have a few exceptions, if you see what I mean. But I'm not going to harp on about it at the end of the day because it doesn't help.)

[lunarrosette]

Survey Results Finally!!!

Ok! So before the whole breakdown I wanna address a couple biases and shit. So I posted this on tumblr and on a couple dndads discord servers I'm in, notably the patreon server, both of these almost definitely caused some bias in stats particularly in patreon subscription and most used social media to engage with. That said it could have been posted elsewhere (which I’m totally fine with and actively encourage the bigger and more diverse the sample is the better) but I only posted there because I wanted to minimize potential non-fans taking it and I don’t have a twitter. I also added the question of whether you have relistened and your race, ethnicity, and nationality later (as it was suggested and i thought it was a good addition) so the sample is not the full amount of people who took this survey and is smaller than other question therefore less conclusive of the dndads fanbase as a whole.

I got a total of 142 responses (and the survey is still open) so let break down all that

There were 65 questions in total, while I’m not going to break down every single one I will break down most of them

Majority listen on spotify with patreon coming in a close second, the small individual answers are a mix of a combination of two or more platforms or platforms i forgot to add/didn’t know existed

A little over half of the fandom is apart of the patreon but still remember that there is a bias in this question because of where i sent the survey

Majority of the patreon is subscribed to the EX-L level (like me!!) with EX in a pretty close second (other is apart of EX because i forgot what is was call when I first made it)

Ron comes in a very close 1st between him and henry for favorite season 1 dad

Grant takes 1st in another pretty close one between him and terry for season 1 son and surprisingly Nick Foster actually got votes! (/j)

Scam likely with quite the lead as a fan favorite NPC

Now favorite episode was one I had to track separately because I set it as a free response but her are the top 4 favorites:

In 4th with 13 votes Episode 42 Henry’s Father and the Chamber of Secrets In 3rd with 16 votes Episode 56 S.W.A.P. (SWitched Ass Papas) In 2nd with 17 votes Episode 44 Deck Picks In 1st with 23 votes Episode 61 Death of a Salesman

Normal with fan favorite season 2 PC with almost half of the fandom

Terry Jr (surprising to me I love him but ig it's the silent majority cause i never see much about him) is first place

Very unsurprisingly hermie the unworthy for 1st place, bitches love this gay theatre kid but it is a little surprising the amount of a lead he has

Another one I had to by hand but the top 4 favorite season 2 episodes are

In 4th place with 5 votes, a 4 way tie between: Episode 22 Army of Tree, Episode 4 Barf Bum Movie Men, Episode 12 Scary Movie 2, and Episode 9 Debate Me Cowards

In 3rd place with 6 votes, Episode 5 Dance Dance Revelations (surprising to me as it’s not the part of the dance with Lark and Sparrow and Normal’s crisis)

In 2nd place with 8 votes, Episode 11 That thing? You Dude

Unsurprisingly in 1st place, the episode that I’ve heard some people say is one of the best episodes of Dungeons and Daddies, with 50 votes, Episode 23 Alright

Ron takes overall favorite

Hermie surpasses (one of) his father for favorite NPC

Jodie wins as the guest PC, which kinda surprises me

Oakworthy wins as the most popular ship, most of the thin slices are variations of “I don’t ship” and some less talked about ships

The majority of fans don't have a preference between season 1 or 2

At the Mountains of Dadness is the most popular piece of bonus content

The majority of the fandom have relistened to the podcast

The subject of Jodie, almost everyone liked how Jimmy played him but the views on his character are a little different. Many poll takers said he grew on them and the majority of the fandom seems to feel neutral to positive to him. A lot of people said he was a good narrative foil to Glenn (I agree!!) and that he’s “funny as fuck” (i also agree) however some people also voiced dislike him do to messing up the timeline, being a cop, messing up Nick’s character, and just the plotline he was apart of. Lots of ACAB in the responses.

Lots of funny responses on this one:

Asexual bitches and queer bitches love dungeons and daddies (I'm an asexual bitch myself) there was a whole one (1) fully cis het allo survey taker.

The fanbase skews pretty heavily to the younger side with the majority of the fandom being 18-25 and a huge majority if you just look at it as 25 and under.

Non-binary bitches love dungeons and daddies (I’m a non-binary bitch as well)

Huge majority of fans are neurodivergent with most thin results being a variation of “I don’t know, somethings probably wrong up there”

Anxious bitches love dungeons and daddies (i am an anxious bitch)

Majority of people who responded are white, however this question was implemented later and only has 62 responses.

Most fans got into dungeons and daddies from word of mouth, typically from friends or mutuals online

Relationships with fathers are mixed. A decent amount say good, some say bad, but a lot can be put as complicated. A good amount of people used parallels from dungeons and daddies most often grant and darryl.

Your dads cool as fuck

Relationships with moms are also mixed, but a little more drastic(?). The positives are generally stronger but the negatives are also more negative.

Most sibling relationships are good! However there were a decent amount of responses stating the relationship was distant

Majority of fans are from america but there's a good variety from all over.

Majority of the fandom interacts through tumblr (this still is one with bias)

Majority of fans say their experience with the fandom has been very good

Majority of fans make some for of fan content

Oaks are very big on the fandoms kin lists, especially normal

Most common fandoms: NADPOD TAZ D20 TOH MCYT/Minecraft DHMIS OFMD PJO TMA

Most common past fandoms: Danganronpa Sanders Sides TMA MCYT/minecraft Homestuck TAZ Voltron FNAF Theatre Cartoons (ex. Gravity falls, infinity train, TOH, ect.) Undertale Harry potter PJO

Fave fan creators: ajaystillblue Kineticallyanywhere Braindos Nick-close Awnrii Critdeeznuts Nolassolace Cerealforkart Tortelliniboi Oddkid on Ao3 Midnigtartist SandrC Submergedmemory Koszmarnybudyn Harveydoesart Roolt Coolestclowns Blu3boi Nojaloarts Sapphicx Mrslikely Almondcroissantsandink

Popular headcanons: t4t henry and mercedes Trans nick Generally gender queer/gnc oaks Season 2 teens autistic Ron autistic Basically all the season 1 sons dated each other at one point (queer friend group moment) Taylor uses mobility aids (notably a cane) Bi ron

Specific headcanons I really like (if any of these are your feel free to reblog as to claim them) I think Samantha likes to dress very colorfully while Ron is on the plain side, except when she gifts him an accessory that is just as colorful as she is, and while it clashes w/ the rest of his wardrobe he treasures it because he loves her lots Walter owns chickens and he grows herbs around their pen as a natural pest repellent Glenn is a sex-favorable asexual The shortest one I can fit here is that Glenn has a lot of stick n poke tattoos that are all made by Morgan (which disappeared after the verdict) and lark has bpd Yeets skateboard is a prosthetic Terry is the only son to go to therapy AROACE SPARROW <333 Hermie rights in Cursive like an asswhole Jewish Terry Jr and Samantha

Cats are by far the favorite animal in the dndads fandom with 35 votes

And the top three favorite colors are Blue with 23 votes Purple with 30 votes Green with 39 votes

Most common recs The Magnus Archives TAZ NADPOD Just Roll With It Self care (hydrate, sleep, take care of yourself) Mob Psycho Bears in Trees Malevolent Dndads fanfics (on ao3) OFMD WWDITS Will wood Ride the cyclone The Crane Wives

Oddly specific recs

[allergictocolor]

Character Profile - Pugsley Addams

“An energetic monster of a boy about nine years old - blondish red hair, popped blue eyes and a dedicated troublemaker - in other words, the kid next door. Genius in his own way, he makes toy guillotines, full size racks, threatens to poison his sister, can turn himself into a Mr. Hyde with an ordinary chemical set. He is, nevertheless, easily controlled by Morticia, though Lurch and Gomez keep their backs to the wall at all times when he is around. His voice is hoarse.” - Chas Addams

Charles Addams originally wanted to name him Pubert, but the TV producers balked at the idea, thinking the name too bawdy for television. He instead settled on Pugsley, the name of a creek in the Bronx.) The name Pubert would of course be used many years later for a third child in the film Addams Family Values.

Far more devious in the comics, Pugsley on TV was instead portrayed as curious but not necessarily bright. He’s 8 years old in the pilot, but they amend this to 10 years old in the second episode, a few years older than Wednesday. 

His favorite pastime is playing with explosives of various sizes, which was not in the comics, but follows the theme of possibly putting others in danger. At one point, the missiles he fires off from the house attract the attention of the government, who mistake them for UFOs, leading to a sitcom-typical hilarious misunderstanding. Later iterations of Pugsley continue to enjoy explosives, using them to help his family in the 2019 animated film, and to go fishing in the 2022 Netflix series.

Just as the comics established his omnipresent striped shirt, they also provided one of the first plotlines in the 60s TV show. In the second episode, Pugsley horrifies his family by joining the Boy Scouts. The inspiration came from a comic captioned “Well, he certainly doesn’t take after my side of the family.”

They also took inspiration from a comic where he had various signs in his bedroom, clearly stolen from work sites and dangerous, condemned areas. In the show, he has at least one replica of one of those signs, and several others based on the concept. Not content to merely blow up model trains like his father does, this boy definitely wants to cause some real world mayhem.

The 60s TV Pugsley has some strange inventions, like a disintegrator gun and an anti-gravity gun, which he apparently built himself. He also helps Gomez construct a computer called Whizzo, and a robot named Smiley (played by Robby the Robot, which made a stunning number of appearances on TV and in movies after its creation for Forbidden Planet). He clearly has the mind of an engineer, but he’s also sometimes portrayed as not very good at academic subjects, implying that he’s perhaps something of a savant.

I believe that Pugsley continues to be the older child in the 1970s animated series, but I have not watched it. It’s only really worth mentioning because the person who did the voice of Pugsley was, as I mentioned in another post, a 10-year-old Jodie Foster. 

In the 1990’s, Pugsley is suddenly younger than Wednesday, though I’m not sure whether they outright state the children’s ages at any point. They’re close enough in age to perform together in a school talent show, spraying the unhappy audience with fake blood in a Shakespearean performance they seem to have written themselves.

He still engineers contraptions, but he’s portrayed as gullible, believing pretty much whatever Wednesday tells him. When they torture each other, there’s no malice to it. It’s simply how they play. The only malice evident is when a third child, the aforementioned Pubert, enters the scene in the second film. Wednesday tells Pugsley that when their parents have a third child, they need to get rid of one of the existing children. They then set up a number of devices meant to get rid of their new baby brother. Once they’re sent away to camp, they’re a team. It’s Pugsley and Wednesday against the world.

The musical portrays Pugsley as much younger than Wednesday. As you may have noticed, it’s hard to talk about Pugsley without talking about his relationship with his sister. In the musical, he worries that Wednesday getting married and moving away will mean that she’ll stop torturing him. It’s not just how they play, but how they bond.

The 2019 animated film sees Pugsley struggling with a rite of passage called the “Sabre Mazurka”. It would be logical to assume that he’s 13, the typical age of a rite of passage, but he’s overtly shown to be several years younger than Wednesday, who’s less than 13 years old. The last time the whole Addams family was together was 13 years ago, at their parents’ wedding. So maybe a boy in the Addams family undergoes this rite of passage at the age of ten.

There was something that kind of bugged me about Pugsley, but I couldn’t put my finger on it until the 2022 Netflix series. How do a dark-haired Spaniard and a dark-haired femme fatale have a blond child? It’s genetically improbable, though not completely impossible, especially in a family that includes a walking hairdo and an animated hand. But I think casting Latin/Hispanic children for both Pugsley and Wednesday made sense, especially with Luis Guzmán as their father.

The Netflix version of Pugsley is far more timid than previous incarnations, solely to give Wednesday someone to save early on. I’m hoping that in season two we’ll see more of the flair and gusto that makes an Addams an Addams. He has potential. He’s definitely weird. He just needs a little more bite.

[slaygentford]

the jdcu: a comparative analysis in fact and fiction

several months ago I watched the netflix program mindhunter. this was a normal experience until I found out it is based on a memoir -- the work of 77 year old ex FBI agent John Douglas (jd). indeed, he is the man behind every behavioral analyst character youve ever seen, most notably jack crawford of silence of the lambs/Thomas Harris's novels, which consulted him personally.

I could not believe that those jds -- jack crawford and far more, as it turns out -- were based on the same man that jd of the show mindhunter was based on. mindhunter tv's jd is like if m3gan was a gay keebler elf. his girlfriend tells him to use his womanly wiles on murderers to get them to talk! and he does so -- the harlot! I was stunned. 77 year old ex FBI agent John Douglas consented for this little freak to be his eidolon forever on netflix? who even IS John Douglas?

and so I am compelled by intellectual curiosity to ask: by watching all jds ever committed to screen, can we qualify the multitude that is jd? and, after hearing John Douglas speak on John Douglas in his own words, can we decide who among the many is the most accurate fictional depiction? to conduct this study which is a really good use of my time, we begin by sorting the fictional jds into two categories: slaygent and hard boiled detective. after this, we will compare them to jd in his own words -- that is, his memoir and his masterclass.

mindhunter tv: let us begin where the problem first surfaced. much has been said about patient zero holden ford. a youthful thirty, he begins a career of seducing real life serial killers to learn about their behavior and so forth. many times I asked: girl what kind of interview is this? in the interest of time I will simply say that this evil roomba created and defines the slaygent category.

silence of the lambs: the next logical move. here we encounter the original and most famous fictional jd: jack crawford. despite a strong effort to manufacture chemistry with jodie foster, he is sadly still a man. three words I would use to describe this jd are Svelte, Serves in a trenchcoat, and Succinct. he falls in the middle of the slaygent/hard boiled Venn diagram.

manhunter: this jack is adorned with a rare and compelling mustache. in one scene he shouts, AND I'D DO IT AGAIN! I was not paying attention at this point to what he would do again but I did not doubt he would do it. no dignity, all exhaustion. hard boiled.

Hannibal nbc: jack crawford receives a much needed reboot! Laurence fishburne gives a nuanced and honestly moving performance of a man for whom meaning is unraveling one day at a time. this jack is sartorially aware but practical, and remains empathetic despite his painful job. hard boiled

the alienist: dr laszlo is our first sherlock holmes* archetype -- somehow this has not cropped up before now. with his difficulty relating to people, his lovely coat with a fur collar, and his genuinely sharp observations, laszlo alienist emerges as a dark horse slaygent.

*due to its original publication date, Sherlock Holmes and successive properties are not relevant to a John Douglas study.

criminal minds (& related procedurals): cm's david rossi, along with his counterparts across other networks, are unilaterally hard boiled.

though hardboiled jds prevail in quantity, slaygents are not necessarily an anomaly. now the moment of truth: is the real jd a holden ford or a jack crawford?

Mindhunter (book):

while reading this book I began to feel...discomfited. and not just because it's 400 pages of self aggrandizing ghostwritten prose. something was wrong. it wasn't until, in the last five pages of the gauntlet, that it all cohered.

jd and his wife separated because work kept him away, because he barely knew his children, and because when his daughter skinned her knee he couldn't find much empathy for the scrape because of the shit he saw all day. this isnt the unmarried antisocial slaygent ford who began our odyssey. this isn't even the stylish and heterosexual Jack Crawford of silence of the lambs, nor our mustachioed manhunter. a man who lacked empathy for his child? whose marriage crumbled? who thinks shrinks are dumb as hell? whose main recourse in difficult moments is to remind himself that serial killers are nothing but "inadequate losers" -- of no inherent interest to him outside of their contributions to his noble mission to stop serial killing?

whatever answer remains, however unfuckable, is the truth: holden ford -- and indeed any slaygent -- has never been John Douglas at all. even jack crawford is barely a jd himself. we've been overlooking the real jd all along. and he was right under our noses. hiding like the adder, right in plain sight.

the bill tench paradigm shift

a chain-smoking vet whose wife leaves him because he thinks their kid sucks? an unapproachable asshole clinging to his slippery moral high ground?

target locked.

but make no mistake. this is not yet a victory. if bill tench was right before us all along, then how many jds did I overlook with my narrow definition of a jd??? has hubris bested me again? who will we find now that the truth is blown open before us? how will we wrangle this new data into a useful paradigm? what does paradigm actually mean and can I use it in a sentence like that? questions we must answer.

I propose an ontological compromise. if we set slaygent at one end of a spectrum and the true jd at the other, we may examine all jds and potential jds without compromising the integrity of the real/tench jd, AND without ignoring the fact that slaygent ford is BILLED AS jd. indeed, slaygent and jd CAN coexist -- it is only that their differences must be accounted for.

below are MANY, though not every, possible jd.

now to the final frontier: www.masterclass.com, where for the low low price of 100 dollars you can access celebrities just verbatim reading from their memoirs. literally just verbatim reading from them. like I'm not joking like you could just go to fucking barnes and noble.

mindhunter (masterclass by jd): the discovery of this masterclass was a windfall in my work (thank you cj). now, at last, to the knowledge gleaned. jd (real) is man with white hair and a very slight New York accent. he is well fit for his age with minimal male pattern baldness. he confirms everything we have discovered regarding the bill tench paradigm shift; gruff, to-the-point, sardonic. even his controlled mannerisms are tenchian.

and so I must ask: from whence did the slaygent archetype spring? and why did jd consent for the scary keebler elf to be his proxy? despite the depth of my work, I cannot access the mind of this man, nor the circumstances which gave rise to these anomalies in the continuum.

still. in the indefatigable spirit of jd himself, I feel a theory nipping, nibbling at my ear. I mentioned sherlock holmes before, and now some unwanted voice within me calls out that very name. is it Holmes who shapes the slaygents into his image, even from beyond the grave? has all of this been a prelude to the real work -- the work of examining and classifying every Holmes committed to screen?

like vercingetorix, exhausted by the struggle, here I toss down my arms. with or without me, though, the jd quest continues. what doors remain unopened? what slaygent homunculi lay in wait behind them? and what will become of us, if we knock?

[bluesilkwing]

Mom Opinion (tm) on Assassins is in!!!! Also Dad Opinion! And Brother Opinion!

(thank you for the clear footage @bumblingest-bee)

My mom said it was a good show, but I think she was definitely a little disturbed. (Who can blame her?) She said she was a bit extra unsettled because at one point she actually worked for Jodie Foster, so the whole Hinckley thing felt close to home. She liked the Balladeer-Oswald double casting.

My dad thought it was disturbing to say the least. When I said the reason I love it so much was because it makes us see ourselves in at least one assassin, and then after the show we have to live with that, my dad was basically like "yeah that's why I didn't like it." he also said that "it was a good show, but I don't want to talk about it now. I need to process it." which I understand. He called the Balladeer-Oswald casting brilliant.

My brother said this was a very weird thing to be obsessed with.

[agentnico]

Longlegs (2024) review

His legs aren’t THAT long, jeez.

Plot: FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes an unexpected turn, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again.

Before we get to the movie itself I must applaud Neon for giving this film such a stellar marketing campaign. Most common complaint about modern day trailers is that they show too much of the movie. They’re essentially summaries of the entire film, giving away every major set piece, with the whole narrative showcased from beginning to end, leaving little to the imagination. Makes one wonder why even it’s worth seeing the actual movie when you’ve already essentially been spoiled. Hence why Neon’s advertising strategy for Longlegs stands out so much. Throughout the last half of the year they have been releasing small 10 second untitled cryptic teaser snippets that intentionally left the premise vague, as discontinuous editing was employed to display snapshots of brutal murders, ominous world building and nightmarishly surreal images of primal fears including snakes and blood. In fact, those teasers didn’t even show the film’s title, just the release date. Then there were the billboards that had a phone number that, if you called, you’d get to hear Nicolas Cage. Speaking of Cage, again the teasers don’t really show him at all, allowing for the build up of his mysterious character to be left till the audience were in the cinema seats. Then when the early reviews came out, praises were hailed as well as comparisons to Silence of the Lambs, so naturally expectations were high.

Unfortunately, the truth is much more disappointing: Longlegs is just another run-of-the-mill, albeit well-executed, serial killer film. It’s evident that director Oz Perkins took inspiration from the aforementioned Silence of the Lambs, as well as the ambiance and possession themes of David Lynch’s iconic series Twin Peaks. However unlike those films there is a lack of urgency or mythos here, with the FBI agent feeling somewhat unimportant to the grand scheme of the story, and Maika Monroe’s acting is as plain as a cardboard. That shtick worked for her in 2014’s thriller The Guest, as there she played a moody teenager, however in Longlegs she simply comes off wooden. Look, all I’m saying is she’s no Jodie Foster. There too is a lack of backstory or explanation in regards to the supernatural elements, and I feel like the film wouldn’t have hurt having an extra scene or two to delve deeper into Longlegs’ powers and his origins.

I love Nicolas Cage. He’s one of the greatest actors working today, and truly is one of my favourites as he manages to elevate any film he is in to another level. As Longlegs he is fantastic. They use his expressionistic style of acting very cleverly here, by making him quite over the top with his voice, but done is a creepily eerie and weird way and scenes with him are great. However, as per the marketing and the first half of this movie, Longlegs is mostly hidden from the view of the audience. We see corners of his face or him blurred out in the background, and I feel like that mystery added to the hidden uncomfortable nature of his character. So when we do finally get to see him, Cage is on top form however the make-up department have given him this mask to wear and it looks really cheap. Evidently they had a limited budget with this film, but that’s why the technique of showing a bit less worked more than showing the entire thing, as he does look kind of goofy. Also, Cage is really under-used here. Already mentioned about the lack of backstory, but also in general he’s only in maybe 3-4 scenes but isn’t allowed space to delve too deeper into the demonic mindset of this character.

I do appreciate Oz Perkins’ directing style, as the cinematography was solid and he has some fun with changing the aspect ratio throughout the film to create a sense of claustrophobia, and each scene is filled with that unsettling sense of paranoia, however the movie does suffer from a slow overdrawn pace, and the central mystery in reality is so predictable you can guess what’s happening a mile away. Then when the movie ends fairly abruptly, there’s definitely a lack of satisfaction when it’s over.

It does feel that due to the effective hyped up marketing and the comparisons to Silence of the Lambs have built this movie up to being something truly spectacular, when in reality it’s an okay serial killer flick with elements of the supernatural that has moments of greatness, primarily due to Nicolas Cage, even though, again, his legs aren’t even that long.

Overall score: 6/10

[cowboyjen68]

Anon Ask

If I may ask, who was your “butch awakening” if there was such a person in your life? Like, a person who inspired you to embrace butchness?

Answer: I think it was probably a combination of women on TV and in the movies, like Jo (straight in real life) from The Facts of LIfe and Tatum O Neal(also straight) in The Bad News Bears, Kristy McNichol (lesbian) in Family and Jodie Foster in Freaky Friday (and just about everything else she was in--lesbian) who let me see that other tomboys existed outside my small world.

In 1995 or so I was attending a festival for the second time with my first girlfriend (a femme) and my friends. I was helping a woman who was a bit older than me and she experiencing some health issues. After carrying her things to a pile she invited me to sit under the shade with her and get a cold drink. She said (and I remember these worlds clearly) "You are just the cutest butch, thank you for helping me".

The only other person to refer to me as butch (that I knew of) was my femme girlfriend and I just assumed it was an affectionate term she was using for me to be sweet and I didn't really think I could be truly butch like the other butches I knew from the festvial and from bars and in my life.

When she said that I was amazed. A stranger clocked me as butch and said so. It was at that moment many dots were connected. Much of the butch experience for me is being recognized as a masculine women. The outside world sees me As a female who is not doing "woman" quite right according to the standards of our culture.

We can't hide our butchness so we either embrace it or fight it, the latter not ending well and often proving impossible. Being butch and seen as such is pretty effortless. We just go outside. LOL

I don't require any outside validation for my butchness because I am solid in who I am but it did take recoginizing that the people around me see me differently due to the way I move, the space I take up, my "energy" for lack of a better term. That woman so many years ago changed my life without even knowing by making me aware that I was not wrong about thinking my experiences were a bit different than woman who were more feminine than me.

It was my friends and my personal interactions with many people, those who liked me and those who didn't, that taught me my masculinity, my butchness does not make me "different from other girls" in a bad way. I get to be a woman and maculine. A butch. And with luck and my personality I am grateful to be sort of a positive ambassador of butches in my local community.

Edited to correct my mistake. It was Tatum O Neal in Bad News Bears

[eddiediazismyhusband]

Gonna be copying @lenaboskow for a second to actually motivate me to finish the fics i have in my wips by creating an emoji game.

Send me an ask with an emoji from one of my wips down below and I will give you a quick blurb from the wip so that i will actually have a reason to write more for them

🎄- the christmas fic: buck and eddie spend christmas with the diazes in Big Bear, and a misunderstanding and assumptions made by pepa cause chaos to ensue

👨‍⚕️- the nurse!eddie fic: after returning from afghanistan, eddie becomes an ER nurse, eventually moving to LA where he meets buck when the firefighter comes in to be treated for smoke inhalation

🚁 - the marital problems fic: as buck faces the stress of stepping into the role as captain of the 118 after bobby retires, things in the diaz household grow strained as buck suspects eddie is cheating on him, as well as complications with their surrogate, and chris getting mixed up with a bad crowd

💍 - the 5 times everyone gets annoyed at how blind Buck and Eddie are of their feelings for each other plus 1 time they realize how wrong they all were about that fic

💔 - the im a monster for writing this fic: when buck gets a devastating diagnosis, he and eddie must grapple with the fact that they won’t have as much time with each other as they had hoped, and buck has to say goodbye to his family.

✈️ - the flightplan crossover: a crossover/fusion fic based on the movie Flightplan starring jodie foster- When Eddie is returning to the US to bury his wife, his son Chris goes missing on their plane. As tensions rise while the crew searches for the boy, suspicions arise as to whether or not the boy was ever on board.

🏝️ - the plane crash au: an au based very loosely on LOST (like a if you squint you see it); this is a long-term project that is still in the early planning phase, so replies for this fic will be blurbs from the chapter synopses rather than actual excerpts from the fic as i have not yet begun writing the actual fic itself.

[obsessionnostalgia]

Claire Novak fic recs: yeah, I was trying to reblog something every time I found a new one but its too disorganized so now it lives here. You have a Claire Novak rec? i want to read it.

Where the Heart Is by goldenraeofsun

Features a time-traveling Claire hanging out with Sam and Dean circa season 7. There's angst. There's Claire hooking up with a diner waitress. There's Claire having self-worth issues. There's Claire making fun of Dean to his face. All the good stuff.

Like a Duck, He Fits the Bill by golbygloom

Claire Novak and her budding attachment to the guy who isn't her dad but wears his face. The angst of having to get out of your own way to make connections with others.

Let Me Come Home by prosopopeya

Deancas-centric but Claire Novak is a POV character, struggling in foster care and the uncertainty of whether her uncle (Cas) will get his shit together in order to take her in. The Claire and Dean parallels are strong.

Rec from kerryweaverlesbian:

no such thing as a unique experience by @astralpenguin

A 15 year old Claire meets the (now older) little girl who was possessed by Lilith for a long time. Neither of them realise this element of connection for quite some time. Tons of empathy and understanding. These two feel so much like complex teenage girls, and also the dramatic irony is incredibly fun. One of the best fics I've read all year

Rec from carhengeapocalypse:

Another rhinestoneangels (@pinknatural ) fic fatherisms

Claire is a baby when Jimmy agreed to be Castiel's vessel and Dean steps in to help take care of her. The timeline jumps around and the story is told in snippets and it's very good

as if death itself was undone by microcomets

Claire confronts a human Castiel in a grocery store.

Claire heaves a deep, bone-weary sigh. “Here I am, consoling an ex-angel using my dead father as a meat-puppet on his self-esteem issues. I should write a book or something.”

everlasting by entropic_saudade

Claire wants to have a permanent mark of her and Kaia’s love. In order to do the stabbing safely, she helps Dean bring Cas back from the Empty so he can heal her.

gifts given & words unspoken by rhinestoneangels

Short: Dean and Claire make cookies after Castiel brings her back to the bunker, injured. Some implications at this point, Claire is more family to Dean than Mary. Set in season 12.

coming out by dicklessthewonderclown

Short, Dean POV conversation on a drive with Claire where she comes out as wanting to date Kaia and also admits (by accident) that Dean is a kind of sort of maybe father figure to her.

A Christmas Miracle (for someone else) by bitterred

Set post-canon, mirroring all the "Cas is dead and Dean is depressed" fics, Claire Novak finds a cat during the holiday season.

i'm sorry i'm the one you love (no one will ever love me like you again) by monsterfatigue

Kind of weird that Claire decided she was in love with Kaia even though they had barely known each other. After Kaia comes back from the Bad Place, nothing is simple. Claire isn't sure why she thought it would be.

This Is A Love That Lasts Forever by HeddersTheOwl

Another fic where Claire being friendly with the angel that wears her dad's face is complicated.

"You look too much like him. It's not fair. You're not him." 

meteor site (our hearts collision) by sobsicles

Claire has religious trauma laced with homophobia. Kaia doesn't want to be anyone's nightmare.

the way a dad should by fleeceframe

Dean and Claire are driving back to Jody's when Claire needs to stop because her period has started. (Side note: i was SURE that part of the reasoning for carrying tampons/pads in the impala was going to be partially related to the fact that they're sometimes good for wound care, in that the products are designed not to grow bacteria.)

i don’t know nothing (and that’s fine) by halfwheeze

Claire Novak meets Magda Peterson, the psychic girl from 12.4 American Nightmare, and likes her so much it makes Claire look stupid. Look at that, they have matching religious trauma: "When Castiel-" she pauses, remembering that his name isn't carved into the internal dialogue of every girl with religious trauma from here to Texas, "the Winchesters' angel, I don't know if he was with them when they got you- when he came to Earth, he needed a vessel. A human strong enough to hold an angel, with strong enough faith to allow them in and allow them to stay." That's what the Winchester Gospels said about them anyway. Castiel just said that they needed to believe. They were special. Believers. Bullshit. "When Castiel came to Earth, he took my father. And then, when my father told him he couldn't stay anymore, Castiel approached me. Being a vessel, it's passed down in the family line. The blood. The body. All they need is the body. And I was a kid. He might as well have been God. So I said yes. And my father took him back. If you think about it, it's my fault that my dad is dead."

Bartenders Love Me by clusterjam

Claire Novak doing her Dean-coded thing: hustling in a bar, flirting with the bartender, and oh yeah: angst about whether her dad would approve of her.

Subject: Dean Winchester Is Dead by angelszn

There aren't enough fics about Claire finding out Dean (or Cas) are dead. Dean Winchester is dead. Dean Winchester is dead, and Claire got the news in an email of all things. As if the gravity can be contained in the tiny black letters on the screen. It didn’t even seem possible. 

patricide of the lowest order by angelszn

This one's dark (Major Character Death tagged) -- Castiel killed Claire's father, after all, and what is Supernatural but a series of revenge plots?

two steps on the water by orpheuscas

Claire in the aftermath of being cured of werewolfism. Heavy dose of "Dean is basically Claire's dad now" included.

she'll say she got the map from me by 13zepptraxx

Hey you know that episode where Dean goes back in time and hangs out with his mom? He tells her, "No matter what you hear, or what you see. Promise me you won’t get out of bed." but then an angel wipes her memory? What if Claire went back in time after Dean died because she was sick with grief and basically did the same thing?

[chat-rouge-et-bleu]

i don't know how to feel about the Christmas ep cos om the one hand i enjoyed it which could be said to be the only real goal of watching a show, but on the other hand so many elements frustrated me. realistically that is my whole opinion, but autism has decreed tis not enough and so i must waffle!

i like that the first solo scene of ncuti he's in a club in a kilt just going for it. so often new doctors are introduced straight away with the companion and not alone and so it's nice to see a doctor regenerate and his first action to be go out alone and explore his new body and his new reality and just kind of let loose, though im not sure he'd be such a good dancer after a day of being but I'll allow it. the outfit changes and slightly more 'out there' pieces do point to the showrunners trying something new with dressing the doctor and having it be more self expression and less a strict uniform (like do the previous doctors just have duplicates of their outfit hiding in the tardis??), it's an element of the show that has annoyed me before and I'm glad to see it be altered.

with ruby it feels like they're trying to go for a more matt smith era companion wherein the companion herself is mixed up with the story much deeper than just being along for the ride; but there is no way her family could afford that absolutely stunning flat and no way they could maintain it to such a high standard with a constant stream of foster children coming in and out. bring back rose era companion houses where they just live on some estate and drink tea, the set design of ruby's flat ruined the immersion as there's no way that could be real. she doesn't come across as a real woman with real struggles, she's so obviously a character and so obviously going to be the companion from the very start because her hair is always perfect and her house is spotless and her outfits are freshly ironed every scene. doctor who works for me when you juxtapose the alien doctor with normal people and normal scenarios (it's not done as well in the case of graham and jodie but still present, he lives in a house that looks like a house and eats food there and it seems lived in. though i must admit i know that house in real life as it is near a place i regularly hung out as a teenager so i may be a tad biased there).

the main other thing that doesn't make sense is why they introduced the idea of those gloves and their being on 3% only to not use that to further the plot. felt like a chekovs gun but then it wasn't relevant again so just broke immersion instead of being impactful.

i think if the goblins weren't a christmas special i would have been pretty disappointed with them, they are rather silly and they sing (which everyone i watched the show with visibly cringed at) and i just don't think they would have worked at all as a mid season episode; they need the context of christmas to work. as a silly episode on christmas day to introduce the new doctor and set up some plot points for the series for me that was OK as it wasn't really about the goblins, it was about introducing ncuti's doctor and ruby. maybe a more serious episode would have overshadowed these new characters (or maybe given them a chance to prove themselves better?). the first episode of any new doctor is a tricky one and i can see why they would choose a villain like that to show off how the new series is slated to be more camp and colourful than previous series.

i must stop waffling now, but it seems like they have more of an idea of where they want to take ncuti than they did when they first introduced jodie. i still think the showrunners did her dirty when she could have been so fun and different, honestly i would have loved if the energy they've given ncuti had been given to jodie. if I'd been strictly male for hundreds of years (though they have since retconned that) and i woke up female i would have fun with it, much more than they allowed jodie to have fun with it. goodbye

[noneedtoamputate]

Miscellaneous Tag Game

Thanks for the tag, @ronald-speirs.

Favorite place in the world you’ve visited?: Australia

Something you’re proud of yourself for?: For making it through a difficult time in my life with a greater understanding how hard life it and a greater compassion for people

Favorite books?: Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy, The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, Say Goodnight, Gracie by Julie Reece Deaver

Something that makes your heart happy when thinking about it?: My child's hugs and a night in my 20s when I was in the car with my friend and "Dancing in the Dark" came on when we were at stoplight and we started singing at the top of our lungs with carefree abandon. A car with people in their 50s next to us laughed and cheered us on. Now that I am closer to their age than the age I was when I was in the car, I understand the joy they felt at watching us.

Favorite thing about your culture?: Americans are weird that we consider ourselves from somewhere else. My great-grandparents were from Eastern Europe, and my favorite thing about that is the food. My favorite thing about being American is diversity we have here, and Independence Day. I know it's not poltically correct to say one loves Independence Day, but I do. Parades, baseball, day drinking, cookouts, fireworks - Americana all in one day.

When did you join the HBO War fandom? What was the first show you watched?: I joined the fandom rather recently in the summer of 2023, but I watched BoB when it first aired. I just watched The Pacific over the summer.

Have you read any of Easy Company’s books? If so, which ones were your favorite?: I've read Band of Brothers and bits of pieces of others. My favorite is "Easy Company Solider" by Don Malarkey. I just borrowed "Helmet for My Pillow" on audiobook read by James Badge Dale.

Favorite HBO War character and your favorite moment with them?: I can't pick one favorite, but one of my favorite moments is when Tipper goes along when Luz pretends to be Major Horton. He wants to laugh so much.

Do you make content for any fandoms, if so; what sort of content?: I am in the middle of a series called "Every Beautiful Thing" featuring Chuck and an OFC in postwar San Francisco.

Favorite actor/actress and your favorite film of theirs?: I love Tom Hanks ("A League of Their Own"), Jimmy Stewart ("It's a Wonderful Life"), Ingrid Bergman ("Casablanca") and Jodie Foster ("Silence of the Lambs")

Favorite quote/s that you wish to share with others?: "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." -Gloria Steinem

Random fact your mutuals/followers don’t know about you?: You want me on your trivia team.

If you’re a writer, do you need a beta reader (say yes so I can be your beta reader 🤭)?: I've never had a beta and would be happy to let anyone read my WIP.

Three things that make you smile?: Finding money in a coat pocket the first time I wear it in the fall, little kids trying to play baseball or softball, a really cold beer on a hot day

Any nicknames you like?: My dad used to call me Pumpkin when I was little.

List some people you love to see around on tumblr!: There are so many, but some people off the top of my head are @xxluckystrike, @the-cinnamontography-is-amazing, @dcyllom, @latibvles, and @jump-wings.

What would you do during a zombie apocalypse?: Find the best people and do what I can to earn my keep in their group

Favorite movie?: Too hard to pick one but two of my favorites not listed above are "The Sound of Music" and "Hoosiers." I recently watched "1917" and the way the it was filmed like one continuous shot was really innovative.

Do you like horror movies?: I don't like slasher films, but I like psychological horror films. My husband made me watch "The Shining" about ten years ago, and it scared the crap out of me,

[50books50movies]

Longlegs

Can a thriller be scary if it doesn't even try to hide its cards? Can you justify the obvious twist through conjectural justification that the obviousness is the point to building the dread of the inevitable? Is that just giving a movie that fumbles how it handles the third act revelation too much credit?

I went in wanting to like the film first off of the strength of the marketing and second off of my affection for Maika Monroe. Monroe plays FBI special agent Lee Harker with a twitchy distance that reads as neurodivergence. She gives Harker a presence, and her lankiness makes sense with Harker's personality. Unfortunately, Monroe isn't given much to show Harker's interiority. The film is structured for comparison with The Silence of the Lambs and thus Monroe's Harker with Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling, and though we see more of Harker's past, we get less insight into how Harker navigates the world around her. Harker's relationship with her job and her superior, Agent Carter, never rises beyond perfunctory.

There is a lot of effective, creepy mood-establishing camerawork from director Osgood Perkins and cinematographer Andres Arochi, and the costuming and set design have a lot of retro tactile charm. There is a purulent yellow filter over the film, and even the Satanic panic that the film takes absolutely serious resonates with the moral panic I remember over Magic: The Gathering's very existence and cards like Demonic Tutor and Unholy Strength. Kiernan Shipka returns to collaborate with Perkins again after The Blackcoat's Daughter and gives an unsettling performance.

There is also the Nicholas Cage-shaped elephant in the room. I found his character more silly than scary, though Cage devotes himself fully to the performance. It feels like he's channeling his audition for Jeremiah Sands from Mandy in his performance here.

Returning to the earlier question, I don't think Perkins intends to use the lack of mystery as a way of generating the dread of the inevitable. Perkins's script positions the revelation as a significant event for Harker and the film, and the way the revelation is told to us feels like we are supposed to be taken off guard by it. Instead, due to the economy of characters, there isn't much doubt about who the murderous accomplice is.

That said, the obviousness plays into the straightforward way that the film treats Satan's power as a force in the world. We are not invited to doubt that a demonic power is causing the family annihilators to murder their families throughout Oregon. There is something refreshing about that, but that's just not enough.