#like pitts is given some character but like... its just barely anything there

[lochrannn]

AU-gust: Some people call me Maurice

Read on AO3

CW: Explicit sexual content, canon typical violence

prompt no 5: Science Fiction

Characters: Lila Pitts, Diego Hargreeves

Relationship: Lila Pitts/Diego Hargreeves

-

Lila is sitting at the bar, twirling the facsimile of what she assumes is supposed to be some grain alcohol around in her glass. It’s amber and it burns, that’s all she can really ask for. But she’s had two already in quick succession so she’s in no hurry to down this one as well.

She’s trying to settle her nerves after the day she’s had, and luckily she found the skeeviest bar at the port, with very few patrons and therefore all she has to contend with is the slightly irritating buzzing of the neon tubes that barely illuminate the place but bathe it in a weird purple light.

And then the automatic door zips open and a far too familiar, tall figure walks in.

Lila rolls her eyes and unsuccessfully tries to hide her face, because the man with his distinct scars, shaggy dark hair, and a thick beard, makes his way straight over to her and sits down on the next barstool over.

He signals the barman for a drink of his own but doesn’t say anything.

It’s not the first time they’ve crossed paths today. No, the fucking Hargreeves, and consequently also the angry fighty one, who is sitting next to her now, almost cost her her loot and did get her shot.

The salvaging game is dangerous and only semi-legal, so she knows the risks and loves doing it anyway, but the fact that recently she keeps running into this stupid group of misfits that claim they are a family somehow, who fly around in their stupidly named ship The Umbrella Academy and are annoyingly proficient, getting there before her almost half the time now, is making her job an absolute misery.

“You here to steal my loot?” Lila asks eventually, quite exasperated with the brooding salvager disturbing her peace.

“Nah,” he says in a low voice, “I know you offloaded that the minute you got back to the port. And I’m not gonna rob you of your money, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he goes on, turning towards her and toasting her in the air.

Lila realises she’s never heard him speak beyond a couple of barked orders to his crew or insults directed at her, when they have been competing for the same abandoned cargo ship. The way he’s speaking to her now feels deceptively pleasant. He has a warm voice that trickles into her ears far too easily.

“What do you want, then?”

“Came to make sure you were alright,” he says simply, not looking at her this time around.

That takes Lila a little by surprise.

Sure, it’s not like the Hargreeves have been particularly violent towards her in their past encounters, but especially the one sitting with her now has, so far, never had any particular qualms about shooting his phaser at her or throwing a knife in her path. Granted, he’s never actually hit her with them, but she refuses to consider that that might be by design.

Also, who the fuck uses knives in enclosed corridors on space ships where you are guaranteed to hit some vital piece of equipment if you just randomly chuck a knife at the wall?

“Why do you care?” Lila asks maybe a bit harshly. It’s not like he shot her himself. Admittedly, they had been lobbing petty insults at each other while trying to race one another to the cargo hold and maybe that had made them a little too distracted to notice the group of far less scrupulous scavengers arriving.

The man next to her smirks into his glass, but doesn’t answer her question.

Instead, after taking a sip of his drink he turns to look at her with big, impossibly dark eyes, some part of her brain informs her unhelpfully, and asks, “That zippy little number you’re flying around in, that’s far too nice a ship for a salvager. Where’d you get her?”

The question is so conversational that Lila answers before she can think better of it. “The Commission? A… uhm…” she hesitates, “a parting gift from my mother.”

“Oh right, so you’re one of those rich kids who go into salvaging for the adventure?”

Lila bristles at the accusation and shoots back, “Oh please, it’s not like we haven’t all heard of Reginald Hargreeves!”

But she doesn’t get a response to that conversational thread either.

Instead the Hargreeves sitting next to her, who apparently is reluctant to acknowledge his patriarch, asks her, “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Lila.”

She decides he doesn’t need any more than that, no point in giving up too much information to the competition, “What’s yours?”

“Diego,” he says and then holds out his hand to her.

When she shakes his gloved hand, Diego holds on to hers for just a little too long and the penny finally drops for Lila.

She’s a tad annoyed that he won’t just come out and say what he’s looking for, but it’s been a little while since she’s had another warm body in her bed and this one’s definitely a very nice body with a handsome face, and he seems clean and so far relatively respectful, and it’s not like she hasn’t thought about him that way before.

She thinks he’d probably end up being scandalised if she just outright asks him if he’d like to fuck her, so she goes with a barely disguised euphemism, “So if you’re that interested in my ship, d’you want to come take a look at it?”

His eyes widen a little, but he otherwise hides his shock at her straightforwardness and after a beat says, “Sure.”

-

“So this is the galley,” Lila says nonchalantly, pointing towards the stainless steel kitchen aisle in her cramped living quarters.

Diego just nods, arms crossed, looking otherwise a little forlorn before they move on.

-

“This is the propulsion reactor,” she says, pointing to the contraption with its bluish glow in the hull of her ship. She doesn’t really care about it and doubts Diego does, and right now she’s entirely distracted by the way he’s standing decidedly too close behind her, but to her absolute annoyance, not touching her yet.

-

“And this is my cockp-”

Lila doesn’t get to the end of her sentence, because Diego has apparently reached the end of his patience with their weird little cat and mouse game as well and wraps his arms around her, crushing her flush against himself so he can fuse his lips to hers.

Lila loses no time in slinging one arm around his neck and wrapping both her hands around the straps of his weapons holster so she can pull herself even harder against him while kissing him back fiercely.

Next thing she knows, Diego twists them around and he slams her into the closed cockpit door, making Lila gasp on impact and Diego uses her surprise to lick into her mouth and tangle his tongue with hers.

A thrill runs up her spine at the prospect that, contrary to her concern after he was too chickenshit to make the first move at the bar, this is apparently not going to be any kind of gentle love making.

They start undressing each other roughly, though to her surprise Diego is particularly mindful of the bandage on her arm covering the phaser burn, and then, when he pulls off his tactical gloves, she is momentarily distracted by his unexpectedly long and elegant fingers.

Without thinking about it too much, she grabs his hand, takes his index and middle finger into her mouth and closes her lips around the base, then painfully slowly pulls the digits out again, making sure to press her tongue against them the whole time.

She doesn’t miss the way Diego’s pupils blow wide and a muscle jumps in his jaw, as he whispers a breathless “Jesus!”

To her delight, she’s apparently given him ideas, because the moment she lets go of his hand, he shoves it down the front of her jumpsuit, the top half of which is pooling low on her hips, past the waistband of her underwear, to drag his fingers along her already wet folds.

He knocks her knees apart with his own, and Lila has barely any time to grab ahold of his broad shoulders before he pushes both long fingers inside of her, reaching deeper than she ever could herself.

For a little while he drives her absolutely insane with every twist of his wrist and curling of his fingers, his lips on her throat, sucking and biting at her pulse, but eventually she gets frustrated. It’s just not enough, so she tells him as much.

“I need more!” she gasps.

Without a verbal acknowledgement, Diego pulls his hand away from her and they get each other fully naked as fast as possible, before he pushes into her with a hard thrust.

And this is exactly what she needs. Stretched to a point just shy of being painful, one leg wrapped around his waist as he slams into her, every inch of him pressed against her body, still holding her flush against the door.

Lila has her arm firmly wrapped around Diego’s neck so she can keep his remarkably soft lips on her own, she’s savouring the feeling of his long fingers digging into her thigh where he’s keeping her steady on her one leg, while she’s gripping the biceps of his other arm, which he has up by her head so Lila can lean against his forearm instead of the hard metal door.

He’s far too good at this and her combative nature takes over for a second and she gasps against his mouth, not losing the rhythm of her own movement, “Don’t think for a second this changes anything! I won’t go easy on you if you try and take my cargo again!”

Lila feels a smirk stretch across his lips where they are still touching hers and for some inexplicable reason, that makes the knot building in the pit of her belly tighten even more.

“As if I wanted you to go easy on me,” Diego growls before he kisses her again deeply and his self-satisfied tone riles her enough for her to bite him sharply on his plush bottom lip.

“Ow! Fuck!” he cries out and then smacks her hard on the back of her thigh in retaliation. It stings bad enough that for a second she can’t breath but, Christ, if it doesn’t almost tip her over the edge.

-

In the end she comes when he has her bent over one of the consoles of buttons and switches, buried to the hilt inside of her, chest flush with her back, his teeth scraping the shell of her ear.

-

And afterwards, for reasons she really doesn’t want to examine too closely, she takes him to her bed so she can fall asleep wrapped up in his arms.

[3hobbitsinatrenchcoat]

Soosly - Week 4 - Family

This monster took forever but I finally got the @soosly week 4 prompt done. Uh... this one needs a content warning so CW Death Mention (its not a major character though don’t worry)

-----

“Anyone seen Soos? I gotta discuss a new display with him.” Stan pushed his way into the giftshop, balancing a box of half-finished taxidermy parts on one arm and trying to hold open the door with the other.

Melody looked up from the register with a frown, hands paused on her end of day count. “I thought maybe you'd pass him on the way in. He went to check the mail a little while ago but hasn't come back yet.”

“Huh.” Stan set down his box on the counter and cracked his back with a grimace. “I didn't see him by the mailbox but we might'a passed each other.”

Melody's frown deepened. “Seems unlikely. Try the back porch if you don't see him near the mailbox. He likes to grab a Pitt and sit on the couch sometimes.”

“Ain't that familiar,” laughed Stan. He nodded thanks to Melody before tucking his hands in his pockets and wandering back outside.

Soos certainly wasn't at the mailbox, or anywhere visible from the gift shop steps either. Stan frowned and thumped down the steps and around to the back of the house. He relaxed for a brief moment as Soos's familiar form came into view, sitting not on the couch but on the steps, shoulders shaking... Stan's blood ran cold and he swore as he saw Soos lift a hand to scrub at his face.

It took every ounce of self-control he had not to sprint across the backyard. Instead he opted for a more casual yet still purposeful stride, scuffing his feet when he got within earshot so he didn't startle the poor kid when he eased down onto the steps next to him. Soos barely looked over, which was a bad sign, and stared sightlessly across the scrubby late summer grass towards the woods with eyes red-rimmed from crying, which was an even worse sign.

“Hey, gumdrop,” said Stan gently after a long moment of silence punctuated only by a quiet sniffle. He hadn't used the nickname in a while but it was all he could think of in the moment. He didn't expect Soos to full-body flinch at being addressed and cut off the are you okay? that Stan had been about to follow up with by holding out what looked like a letter.

“What is this?” Stan asked, and took the paper from Soos when he merely shook the paper. It may have been just his hand shaking, the way his shoulders trembled. “You want me to read it?” Soos nodded, and Stan saw his eyes welling with more tears before he looked away again.

“Jesus,” read Stan, and he had to suppress a snort because honestly, when was the last time anyone had called Soos by his legal first name?

“I've started this letter a hundred times and every formal introduction seems callous, given the circumstances. I wish that we were being introduced in more pleasant times, but you deserve to know the truth. You have two half-sisters in New Orleans.

“Until last week, when your wedding invitation arrived, my sister and I were unaware we had a brother. We suspect that any mail from you was intercepted by our father to prevent us from finding out he had other family. Unfortunately, that brings me to the heart of the matter.

“Dad passed away a month ago. I've included a copy of the obituary if you wanted the information for family records. I wish... I wish we had known sooner, so that we could have told you. [several lines here were covered in a thick line of whiteout and written over again] I did some digging in Dad's office and, if it is any consolation, he kept every letter you sent. They were in the locked drawer of his filing cabinet, but he did keep them.

“I understand if you want nothing to do with us, but if you ever want to reach out I included my email and phone number. Even though I don't know you yet, it is nice knowing that somewhere in Oregon I have an older brother.

“I am truly sorry you had to find out like this.

“Sincerely, Sandy Oaks”

Wordlessly, Stan picked up the crumpled envelope from where it had fluttered to the ground and pulled out a newspaper clipping. The image of a bland white-bread man stared back at him and Stan folded the picture over so he wouldn't have to stare him in the face as he read.

“Harold Greene, aged 58, passed away peacefully surrounded by family last week. He is survived by his two daughters and 2 grandchildren. All who knew Mr. Oak remember him fondly as a hard-working family man...” Stan stopped reading, rage flickering red at the edges of his vision. Family Man? The man who walked out and never visited his son? The man who Sophie Ramirez would threaten to hunt down and maim if you got more than one drink in her? That man, a family man?

Stan sat seething, unable to put into words exactly what he was feeling. He mechanically folded the letter and newspaper clipping, sliding them back into the envelope with a stony expression. Another miserable sniff came from the stoop beside him and he carefully wrapped an arm around Soos's shoulders.

“I'm sorry, Soos.” Stan said quietly and that was really all it took. With a choked off exhale Soos turned and wrapped his arms around Stan, face buried against his shoulder, great wracking sobs shuddering through his body. Stan froze for all of a second before he pulled Soos tight into a hug, one large hand rubbing soothing circles across his back.

“I... I never even met him,” Soos managed to say between wet gasps for air. “I didn't have the chance, and... and now he's gone. I knew his address, I... I could've gone down to see him but it... I waited too long. I waited too long and now I'll never get to... to...” he trailed off in a hicupping swallow, shoulders tense and shaking.

There were a lot of things Stan wanted to say in the moment. He'd harbored a deep, intense anger at the man for many years. He resented how one man could have such a negative impact on such a cheerful, well-meaning soul. He'd never thought he could dislike a man just as much as his own father, but apparently some deadbeat asshole named Harold fucking Greene was neck in neck for that contest. Stan couldn't say any of that in that moment, with Soos' fingers white-knuckling fistfuls of his t-shirt and tears soaking through to his shoulder. Instead he sighed and tightened his arms around the young man, letting long moments pass as he gathered his thoughts.

“I'd like to say the grief will pass, son,” said Stan after a while, not quite aware of his own words as he thought back to his own lonely mourning when Filbrick passed away. The man had been horrible, sure, but he'd still been his father. “It might be a while before you really come to terms with it and...” he stopped, concerned as Soos suddenly froze against his shoulder and then let out a single wheezing laugh. “Uh, you ok there?”

“I...” Soos sat back, cheeks blotchy with tears but a shaky smile breaking across his face. “Here I am crying about a guy I never even met when...” he swallowed and looked down at his own hands as he clenched and unclenched them in his lap. His next words were a whisper Stan had to strain to hear. “When you were really all the father figure I really needed.”

Aw hell.

Stan felt his own eyes start burning and as he blinked a single hot trail wound its way from his eye and settled in the crease of his nose. “For fuck's sake, Soos. Warn a man before you attempt to murder him.” The words came out strangled, and Soos's gaze snapped over to meet his. They held eye contact for mere seconds before they both broke out in somewhat hysterical laughter, arms slung over each others shoulders more for support than anything else.

“I was saving it for a wedding present but I might as well tell you now,” said Stan once they both calmed down enough for words to make sense. “First of all, kid... you really have to read what people hand you to sign. Even if it's me. Actually, especially if it's me.”

“What?”

“Remember those papers I had you sign a few weeks ago that I said were some legal bullshit for the shack since Ford and I had to sort out the 'not being dead' thing? They had nothing to do with the shack.” It was Stan's turn to look sightlessly into the treeline as his heartbeat seemed loud enough to shake the stoop. “They were adoption papers. Turns out all you need to adopt an adult in Oregon is the adult's consent.”

There was complete silence from Stan's left side and he swallowed hard. “I haven't filed them yet, it was a pretty major invasion of privacy and...” His apology cut off abruptly as Soos nearly bowled him over in another hug.

“DO YOU MEAN IT, MR PINES??” The yelling was right in his ear but Stan couldn't bring himself to care.

“Of course I mean it, gumdrop. Why the fuck wouldn't I mean it? I had to go talk to a lawyer and everything!” He made a token struggle against Soos' very tight grip before chuckling and hugging him back. “And if you call me, your father, 'Mr. Pines' one more time, I'm going to have some words for you, young man.” The threat was empty and they both laughed a little damply.

“Thanks, Dad.” Soos leaned heavily on Stan's shoulder and Stan pressed a whiskery kiss to the top of his head.

“You're welcome, Son.”

[tribeworldarchive]

Interview with the Script Consultant on The Tribe - Harry Duffin

In this interview, we are pleased to put forward questions to Harry Duffin, the script consultant on The Tribe. You can find another interview with Harry Duffin in his role as the co-devisor of The Tribe by clicking here. We would like to thank Harry Duffin for his time in answering these questions. THE INTERVIEW 1. What is your name? Harry `Running Wolf` Duffin. (Not really, but I was brought up on Cowboy and Indian films, and when I visited Monument valley recently, I felt like I had found my spiritual home.) 2. What do you do (in one sentence)? I supervise the writing of all the scripts for the series. 3. How do you do this? What are the processes involved from start to finish typically? Every month the writing team (currently eight writers) meet for a day and thrash out the stories for the next eight scripts. We all throw ideas in, And it`s up to me to decide which way we are going to take the stories. (There are many different routes to go each time, but someone has to make a decision, right or wrong, or we`d be there all week). For the first series I then went away with the bare outlines, fleshed them Out in more detail and then commissioned individual writers to write one script each. On series two I have two other writers who help me develop the storylines from the meeting, as it was getting impossible to do justice to all the stories and characters on my own. (As the series develops, so does the back story, and it takes more than one brain to keep all the plates spinning). When the writers are commissioned they all send me a scene by scene breakdown based on the outline I have sent them. This is the structure of the episode. A famous writer once said, screenplays are structure, and that`s true. This is the chance for the writer to use their craft in teasing out a story in the most gripping way possible. You know how some people are just natural storytellers? Whether in the playground or the pub, they know how to weave the story to hold our attention. That`s what the writer does with the structure. They can`t change what in the episode, but they can choose how they tell it. After I`ve seen the structure, the writer has about ten days to write a first draft script (about fifty pages in TV script form). I then read that, make notes on continuity, character and the dramatic quality, and try to make helpful suggestions, (if needed). The writer then incorporates those notes in a second draft. Most writers need a second draft `cos none of us are perfect. If the second draft needs a little `tweak` here and there, that`s my job. No script leaves my pc for New Zealand until I`ve approved it. 4. Which other departments do you work with in the process and in what way? Naturally, Ray Thompson, the executive producer and creator of the series Has an input throughout the scripting process. Even though he is based in New Zealand and can`t attend most of the writers` meetings, he and I talk regularly on the phone about the way the series is shaping up, and he will often have brilliant ideas that take us along a route none of the rest of us have seen. (It was his idea for the tribal gathering in series one, for example.) If we want to do something in the scripts that i think may be a problem logistically, I call our production executive in N.Z., Geoff Husson, and talk it over with him. Generally, Geoff comes up with a way of doing the most difficult things. And I think you have to agree that the production values for the series are terrific. The beauty of this series is that there are so few people who have the final say on the scripts. That`s heaven for a Writer or script editor, who often have to suffer (and act on) inane comments by everyone from the office cleaner to the producer`s cat! (Ask most writers who`ve worked in Hollywood, where they have teams of executives, all with their own ideas, and all of whom think they are great writers just because they can write their name on a cheque.) 5. What are the factors that affect and inspire a script or a storyline? Heavens, what a question! There`s loads of factors! Continuity of story and character, balance between short-term and long-term stories, high drama and low comedy ­ that`s where the actors often have the greatest influence. Until you`ve seen an actor on the screen you are writing blind in a sense, because the actor rarely looks, sounds, or even acts as you`d imagined in your head. The actor playing Jack, for example, was a total revelation to us. A wonderful sense of timing for the comic line. So, we write more comedy for him. However, Antonia (Trudy) has a natural affinity with high-drama, so we are steering her stories in a certain way. The actress may want to play comedy, but too bad. Sorry, Antonia, I`m sure you`re a great comic actress too! The same with the rest of the cast. I`m sure youıll agree that we have assembled one of the finest ensemble groups of young actors the world has ever seen. (Don`t let that go to your heads, guys, you`re only as good as your next line!) This is too big a subject to cover here, youıll have to wait until my book on screenwriting comes out!

6. Can you describe a typical working day - what is your routine? Typical working day? I`m usually at my desk before eight, sometimes much earlier if I wake up in the dark with an idea to make a problem in a script work. No point in making a mental note and going back to sleep, it`ll be gone in the morning. I work all day with a brief break for lunch, and a walk (or swim) in the morning and afternoon. Exercise is one of the best ways of revitalising the brain. Sitting down all day is the worst way to create. I`ve had some of my best solutions to a clitch in a script when walking by the sea, or through a park (preferably empty). I usually finish when my wife, Chris, calls me for dinner, around seven. That`s if things are working well. If not, it`s back to work after dinner, and no wine till I`ve finished! The work is reading scripts, liasing with writers, polishing final drafts to E-mail to N.Z. trying all the while to keep the stories for about sixteen episodes spining in my head. It`s easy to miss an important character point If you don`t keep referring back to earlier scripts. When there`s a problem (when isn`t there?) I work weekends too. That`s a pain for my wife and my friends, but for me, it isn`t work, `cos this series is a joy to work on. And I think it shows all the way through the production. Pride. 7. Are there any ideas or approaches that you considered but did not use in The Tribe? If so, what are they - and why were they not used? Yes, there are some subjects that are just too edgy for the age-range. I won`t go into details, but we did develop a storyline for one character, and even wrote the scripts, and then ditched it. It was a series in itself, and a very dark one at that. Maybe in series twenty [or thereabouts] we`ll dig it out again. Other than that, weıll use anything thatıs appropriate, and that pushes the envelope a little if we can. Production time pressure means having to make decisions and stand by them. With our schedule there`s not the luxury of going back time and again. Some people think we were crazy to kill Zoot, for example, but once we`d done it, we couldn`t turn back the clock, and it`s given us masses of great material That will only really come into its own in series two. A brave decision that is paying off, in diamonds. You wait and see! 8. Time - how long typically does a costume take to make? Or a script to write? First draft script, nine or ten days; second draft two or three days more. So about two weeks in total. 9. What`s your favourite thing in the tribe you have contributed to and why? Too difficult a question. What do you like best? I like some of the intense emotional scenes I`ve helped create, because our young cast play them so well. Do you remember Trudy, desperately trying to get Bray to make a commitment to her? Or Salene confessing to Trudy she left her to die? I sat on my couch with a box of Kleenex! Being a teenager is a time of very intense emotions, both highs and lows, and I think our series reflects that brilliantly. Am I blowing our own trumpet too much? Maybe I`m just a teenager at heart.

10. Do you have any heroes or heroines in your field - if so, who are they? Anybody who can make a living and survive some of the appalling treatment That is often meted out to writers in television. And William Goldman, Woody Allen, and have you ever read David Mametıs screenplay of `Glengarry, Glenross`, or seen the film? Pure magic! 11. How did you get into your field? When you were younger, did you always want to do what you do today? Fifteen years jobbing in theatre as a stage manager, designer, director and, finally, a writer. What you might call an overnight success. I learnt what craft I have by reading, watching plays, films and, of course, television. But I`ve wanted to be a writer since I was ten and won second prize in a school essay competition. I wonder what the winner`s doing now? 12. What advice would you give to people who wanted to do what you do? Nowadays there are tons of media, film and writing courses for students, but There`s no substitute for having an instinct for drama. I`ve worked with too many script editors, in particular, who can spout all the current jargon about writing, but haven`t an ounce of dramatic feeling in their entire body. If you love drama, if you spend a lot of your days creating scenarios about your life (or other peoples`), most of which never turn out the way you had planned, then you probably have the instinct. From then on, it`s just hard work. Read a lot of plays and screenplays from Checkov to Tarantino. Watch a lot of films in particular. Talk about them with friends (and not just about how gorgeous Brad Pitt was!). That way, even if you donıt make it as a writer, you`ll have a lot of fun! Final word. If you haven`t got the skin of a rhinoceros, forget it. You`ll need that, and very good friends who don`t mind getting soggy shoulders on a regular basis. 13. Can you give any statistical or trivia facts about your role and Involvement? I tried to calculate once how many words I`d written as a writer and gave up. All I can say is, if I had a pound for every one of them, I`d finance the third series of `The Tribe` myself! The writing team are just itching to get into it. It`ll be sensational, or my name`s not `running wolf`. 14. What`s your favourite episode - or moment in the tribe - and why? Favourite episode? The next one. I can`t wait to find out what happens!

[thismoviefucks]

THESE MOVIES FUCK - JANUARY 2020

I watched ten movies this month. Let me tell you what I thought.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968, dir. Sergio Leone) is a movie that tells you who it is right up front. The opening 15 minutes of this legendary spaghetti Western are paralleled in their perfection only by the other 150, establishing the tone for the whole movie; an excruciatingly slow, tense and beautiful crawl through the arid, picturesque blank slate of the desert. There is very little action in this movie, and not much in the way of dialogue. There doesn't need to be. Sergio Leone's direction, Ennio Morricone's music, and the subtle performances of a young Charles Bronson and a playing-shockingly-against-type Henry Fonda, among others, all congeal into a movie you could probably watch and love even if the dialogue wasn't there at all.

A Fistful of Dollars (1964, dir. Sergio Leone) is one of those movies that's more influential than it is good. It's undeniable how massive of an impact this movie left on film, from practically inventing a lot of what became the Spaghetti Western to launching the career of a young Clint Eastwood, but in my eyes this is a pretty weak movie. A low-budget remake of the classic Kurosawa jidaigeki picture Yojimbo, there's definitely a lot of charm here -- you can already see Sergio Leone's style in its infancy, and Clint Eastwood is as fantastic as ever in his portrayal of the Man with No Name here -- embodying that classic mysterious drifter archetype seemingly effortlessly -- but to my eyes there's just a lot missing here that makes it a sort of drab experience, unfortunately. Still worth a watch, and still very much recommended if you're interested in the history of low-budget film or the history of the Western in general.

Rambo: Last Blood (2019, dir. Adrian Grunberg) is a movie that left me massively conflicted; on the one hand, I want desperately to love the unapologetic throwback to '70s exploitation cinema (in particular, vigilante movies, low-budget spaghetti Westerns, and good old-fashioned splatter) that this movie clings to -- but on the other hand, it fully embodies all the worst elements of those movies and combines them with a pathetic excuse for a plotline, underdeveloped characters, and shoddy effects work. When I think Rambo, I think "Sylvester Stallone in the jungle, mowing down hordes of nameless mooks; this movie, conversely, feels more like a Chuck Bronson Death Wish movie than any of the previous Rambos, and carries all the baggage of that wave of '70s vigilante movies, the good and the bad. The way this movie portrays Mexicans makes me think it was written by a Fox News boomer, and given that Sly is in his 70s it totally might be; to be slightly fair to him this movie was apparently written before the excellent fourth Rambo movie, and its already-tired-in-2010 plotline has aged like milk since then. Not to mention the women characters in this, which are little more than props and only serve to give John Rambo a reason to kill everything in his line of sight, and have no personality beyond "morality pet for 70-year-old veteran guy". So I'm not sure how I felt about this movie on first watch. It is a love letter to all the great low-budget cinema that made loose cannon cowboys and renegade cops cool again, but doesn't seem to have learned at all from the 40 years since then.

For a Few Dollars More (1965, dir. Sergio Leone) is, for my money, the definitive spaghetti Western. Lee van Cleef and Clint Eastwood turn in classic performances as the quintessential badass bounty hunters kicking ass on the Mexican border. I love, love, love bounty hunter stories, and this is one of the great bounty hunter stories of all time -- though, don't try to follow the plot too closely, as it is definitely a bit of a mess, though it's at least a fun one. The first hour or so of this movie is basically all setup, whether that's setting up Clint Eastwood's character, setting up Lee van Cleef's character, them meeting in the bar, them trying to one-up each other, etc. But, once the plotline does kick in, it's a great time, with the villain El Indio being played by the great Gian Maria Volonte (who was also in A Fistful of Dollars), a giggling madman who leads a gang of bank robbers and has a brutal quickdraw hand. The scene in the church, where El Indio murders a man's wife and baby offscreen for selling him out and then forces him into a quickdraw duel, is one of the truly great scenes in Western history; this, also, is where you can see the classic elements of Sergio Leone's style begin to play out -- the extreme close-ups, the drawn-out tension, and of course the bombastic score by Ennio Morricone. And that, finally, is another thing that needs to be noted: this has perhaps one of Morricone's greatest scores; the main title theme is a classic piece of spaghetti Western music, up there with his similarly-incredible scores for Leone's next two pictures. To put it simply: if you like cowboys, if you like Clint Eastwood, or if you just plain like badass motherfuckers doing badass shit, this movie is a must fucking watch. Highly recommended.

Reviewing Parasite (2019, dir. Bong Joon-Ho) without spoiling it is pretty much like holding a hand grenade in your bare hands, so I am going to keep this as short as possible: This movie is at once hilarious and tragic. This movie is a sometimes-brutal satire of capitalism that pulls very few punches. This movie has convinced me that I need to watch Bong Joon-Ho's other stuff as soon as I can, and finally the important part: This movie deserves all of the hype it's been receiving. Highly, highly recommended.

I recently rewatched Kill Bill (2003-04, dir. Quentin Tarantino), and while it definitely isn't one of my favorite Tarantino joints, it's aged pretty well over the last 15, almost 20 years. A doting pastiche of all the '70s exploitation classics Quentin has made a living off his love for, everyone knows what Kill Bill is: A wedding rehearsal in Texas gets shot up -- massacred, in fact. 4 years later, the Bride rises from her coma and decides to get revenge by killing every one of the people that did it: members of an elite assassination team, led by her ex-lover Bill. There's a lot to love here: arterial sprays, limbs flying, white-bearded asshole kung-fu masters, entire scenes in Mandarin, the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, and all the rest. There's also copious amounts of gratuitous shots of Uma Thurman's feet (because, you know, Quentin Tarantino is a bit of a creep), and some absurdly campy dialogue writing (Uma Thurman calling everyone "Bitch" is the big one, it sounds so unnatural) that I can't quite tell whether it's intentionally or unintentionally cheesy. But overall I think this movie is still worth watching in 2020. It's at least as good a use of four hours as Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet is, and unlike Hamlet this has a decapitation in it.

Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019, dir. Quentin Tarantino) may not be my favorite Quentin Tarantino film, but it's almost certainly his best one. It's unlike pretty much anything he ever did, a slow-burn character-driven drama that barely has a central plot at all. Some people say this movie is "about" Charles Manson, but that couldn't be further from the truth; largely, this movie consists of a slice-of-life examination of the late career of an "aging" (read: in his thirties) actor and his best friend and stunt double, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt respectively. Manson and his acolytes only figure into maybe 25 minutes of the movie, 15 or so of those being the climax of the movie where the only real "action" in the movie takes place. I think the slow, low-key nature of this movie plays to Quentin's strong suits far more than just about any of his other movies do: he is at his best when he's writing conversations between the characters he puts so much love into creating, and as far as that goes I'd say this movie puts him in the same league as Mamet. So, if you have 3 hours spare, I'd say this is worth your time and attention for those 3 hours. Check it out.

The Lighthouse (2019, dir. Robert Eggers) is one of those movies that I really am going to need to watch again, but just on first watch: This is abjectly horrifying, and one of only a few movies to genuinely make me uncomfortable and uneasy watching it. To call this movie "scary" would be sort of a misnomer: I'm not "scared" watching these two men going insane, but I am filled with a deep and utter sense of dread as the whole thing proceeds. The atmosphere reminds me most of Vargtimmen, Ingmar Bergman's classic psychological horror masterpiece, with some definite Eraserhead elements thrown in the mix too, along with the period-accurate linguistics and creeping unease of Eggers' last movie, The Witch, which was his debut. We live in a damn great time for horror cinema if people like Robert Eggers and Ari Aster can put out their first two features and have all four of the movies be the magnum-opus level masterclasses in misery and terror that they are. There's clearly some stuff hidden deeper in this film's cracks and crevices that I couldn't glean from my first watch, but even without the stuff I inevitably missed, I highly recommend this movie.

The Irishman (2019, dir. Martin Scorsese) is Scorsese's masterpiece (I think I *like* Goodfellas more, but this is clearly the better movie), and possibly the greatest gangster movie, full stop. At turns an epic, a subtle, quiet drama, and a crushingly dark portrayal of the Mafia, I have never felt more tense watching a movie that isn't trying to scare me in my entire life. There is no romanticisation or pulled punches here. The violence in this movie is few and far between, and it is always, always shocking. Gunshots in this made me tense up and jump, a reaction that I cannot say I've had to guns in any other movie. And the last hour of this movie -- chronicling the demise of Jimmy Hoffa and its repercussions -- is the best thing Scorsese has ever put to film. An unbelievably beautiful work of film. Highly, highly recommended.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966, dir. Sergio Leone) is not the perfect masterpiece I expected it to be, but is certainly a damn great film nonetheless. There are some who would call this the greatest Western ever made, and I certainly can see some reasons why that would be the case: fantastic performances from Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, an iconic and classic soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, and one of the greatest final 20-30 minutes of a movie of all time. The hype kinda overblew it for me, though, because even with all the great stuff going for it, this movie has some slightly damning flaws that bring it down a little bit for me, namely the second act being as sluggish as it is; this movie is 3 hours long, and it starts to drag a little bit during the second act. Additionally, I thought it was a strange choice to not develop any of the characters other than Tuco beyond a few key aspects: Clint is calculating, stoic and the fastest gun in the West, and Lee is a sadistic, greedy monster. Tuco (Wallach), at least, gets some more character development, in the scenes where Eastwood and Wallach are at the church nursing Eastwood back to health. I'll definitely need to see this one again sometime soon, but in my eyes I'd rather watch either Once Upon a Time in the West or For a Few Dollars More than this one. Still though, undeniably massively influential and still definitely worth watching. Check it out.

There’s my opinions. See you next month with ten more.

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Jeff York on The Establishing Shot: JEFF YORK’S PICKS FOR THE 10 BEST FILMS OF 2019

Original caricature by Jeff York of the cast of PARASITE (copyright 2019)

The latter half of this year was so chock full of excellent films, I knew I’d have a difficult time narrowing my best of the year to a mere ten choices. Among the movies I loved that just missed the top were FORD V. FERRARI, THE TWO POPES, GWEN, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME, THE FURNACE, OPHELIA, TOY STORY 4, HAIL SATAN, THE REPORT, and LITTLE WOMEN. If I did a top 20, they’d be on it.

So, what did make my top 10? Here are my picks for the best films this year:

1.) PARASITE Directed by Bong Joon Ho Written by Bong Joon Ho and Jin Won Han It’s great to see this Korean movie getting all the accolades it’s racking up. Rare is a foreign film that gets so much buzz. PARASITE is practically a shoo-in for Best Foreign Film and might just give plenty of American films this year a run for their money as Best Picture at the Oscars. (I’m talking to you, Quentin and Marty!) Bong’s masterpiece works best if you know little going into the cineplex to see it. I’ll simply say that the plot concerns a Korean family of four conning their way into working for a rich family of four and the film’s title comes from how both groups feed off the hospitality of each other. This dark comedy skewers caste systems and economic injustice, yet remains a fiendishly witty entertainment with some of the best camerawork, production design, and ensemble acting of the last decade. I’ve seen it three times and want to see it again. It’s that incredible.

2.) PAIN AND GLORY Written and directed by Pedro Almodovar Pedro Almodovar has been making classic films about the human condition for over four decades, and PAIN AND GLORY represents all that has gone before while hinting at a mellower filmmaker looking to the future. Almodovar has always been emotional and big, with colorful sets, twisty plots, and outrageous characters. Much of that is still here, but it’s a mellower work. The aging movie director at the center of the story (Antonio Banderas, never better), representing Almodovar undoubtedly, feels less anger about the past and more hope for the future. It’s a moving meditation on aging, one that made me tear up in sadness, but also in joy.

3.) BOOKSMART Directed by Olivia Wilde Written by Emily Halperin, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman For me, the biggest surprise of the year was BOOKSMART, an incredible coming-of-age film that eschews several teen movie clichés in favor of smarter truths and more genuine laughs. Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) are two seniors about to graduate who’ve been responsible, stay-in-their-lane types the whole time. On graduation eve, they decide to act out of character and attend a raucous party. Of course, craziness follows them throughout the evening, but while the set-pieces are hilarious, it’s the bonding between the girls that sticks with you. And how nice to see a teen comedy where the female leads didn’t need boyfriends or get punished severely for their mishaps. They’re too smart to let that happen, and so is this movie.

4.) MARRIAGE STORY Written and directed by Noah Baumbach If anything, Baumbach’s stunning character study should’ve been entitled DIVORCE STORY. That’s the crux of the film as two good people find that they’re no longer good together and must start anew. Charlie (Adam Driver, incredible) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson, almost as good) are an experimental theater director and his star. How fitting that the arcs that each will go through in this drama will require constant improvisation. The New Yorker Charlie, used to being in control, must learn to let others run the show. Nicole relishes being out from under her ex, but he’ll always be in her life nonetheless as the father of her son. Even with vicious divorce lawyers doing their best to make things ugly, the film manages to stay positive, finding sympathy for both parties and hoping they each find a better path.

5.) KNIVES OUT Written and directed by Rian Johnson Rian Johnson is a filmmaker who likes to usurp genre and formula. He set his detective noir BRICK in a high school and twisted the STAR WARS formula into the unpredictable THE LAST JEDI. In KNIVES OUT, Johnson riffs on Agatha Christie’s style of drawing-room whodunnits, all-star casts, and an eccentric detective solving the puzzle. It’s a clever mystery, but also a hilarious satire of one. Daniel Craig was loose as a goose playing southerner PI Benoit Blanc while big names played the vicious offspring of their rich, dead patriarch (Christopher Plummer, unmatched in playing salty, yet sophisticated seniors.) It’s no small feat making a movie like this work and Johnson’s crowd-pleaser may have just been the most satisfying studio film of the year.

6.) PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE French filmmaker Celine Sciamma’s love story is as much about art as it is about a painter and subject becoming lovers. Marianne (Noemi Merlant) is tasked with painting the mercurial Heloise (Adele Haenel) for her wedding portrait in an arranged marriage. Their wariness of each other turns into bonding over art, free-thinking, and zigging when the world would have you zag. It also portrays the difficulty of truly seeing what’s standing in front of you, whether it’s a subject to paint or a person to understand. Sciammna takes her time, letting the pot slowly boil, but when it does, look out! She also does amazingly clever things with the camera, escalating its movement as the women become more and more passionate together.

7.) 1917 Directed by Sam Mendes Written by Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns War films are inherently dramatic with the stakes being life and death. This film dials up that trope by having two men tasked with having to save thousands. British forces during WWI get intel that warns them of a regimen about to walk into a German trap. Two young lance corporals (George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman) are given the horrible task of running on foot across enemy lines to get the new orders to the 1600 troops. The race begins, with the camera accompanying them every step of the journey, shot to be perceived as one, uninterrupted shot. (All the more to make it seem scarily real, natch.) It’s a nail-biter, to say the least, as we are right next to them through bushes, streams and cannon fire. War is hell, sure, as this film proves, but it can also make for one incredibly exhilarating and unique experience in the cinema.

8.) THE FAREWELL Written and directed by Lulu Wang In a year of so many superb films put forth by female directors, Wang’s autobiographical one is a clear standout. In her story, a Chinese-American family learns their grandmother only has a short time left to live. They decide not to tell her the bad news. Instead, they concoct a fake family wedding to gather everyone together for one big celebration – – before she dies. What could go wrong? Their well-intentioned scheme generates daft shenanigans, some of the funniest farce on film this year. As the family can barely keep track of their lies, and blunder through awful toasts at the wedding, Grandmother starts to put two and two together. Few films can juxtapose laughs against tears so successfully, but Wang’s did, and her triumph ended up being the feel-good film of 2019.

9.) I LOST MY BODY Directed by Jeremy Clapin Written by Jeremy Clapin and Guillaume Laurant How’s this for a weird animated movie pitch? A disembodied hand searches for its former owner, and in turn, discovers the complicated and tragic life of the man it was attached to. Indeed, that’s the premise of this adult-themed gem from French filmmaker Clapin. The stark illustration style, the haunting music, the expressive voices of Dev Patel and Ala Shawkat for the American translation – it all made for an eerie ride through a TWILIGHT ZONE-ish tale of painful memories. Available right now on Netflix, it’s absurdist, violent, scary, romantic, and never less than mesmerizing.

10.) AD ASTRA What is it with space exploration and family issues? GRAVITY and INTERSTELLAR both had astronaut protagonists tortured by losing family members. So does AD ASTRA as its astronaut (Brad Pitt) is sent out to retrieve a renegade father (Tommy Lee Jones) gone AWOL on the outskirts of the galaxy. As he journeys, Pitt’s military man discovers a great deal about the dad he never knew and gains insights into his own failures back on Earth. Most surprisingly, he learns how readily duty can get compromised by politics and corruption, even NASA. It’s a haunting tale, writ large on the big screen where the scale was ginormous, as were the regrets of the main character.

If you want to read the original reviews of my selections, just look for them here in the archives of The Establishing Shot, or at Creative Screenwriting magazine online where I’m the film critic.

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