#matt ferrell

[iamtryingtobelieve]

I Think George Lucas Gonna Sue Somebody Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) Dir: Kevin Smith

[teaganrae15]

literally me💕

[nathalieskinoblog]

[bumblebeeappletree]

How Waves Could Quietly Overtake Solar & Wind. Every crashing wave delivers a pulse of power. Add them all up, and the ocean carries more energy than the roughly 30,000 TWh of electricity generated globally in 2023. But for decades, wave power has been a sea of broken dreams. But in 2023, buoys from a Swedish company called CorPower survived record-breaking 60-foot waves — and kept sending clean power to the grid. With costs plunging and the first full wave farms on the horizon, a decades-old dream might finally be about to break through. So the question is: Is wave energy finally ready for prime time — or will it be just another shipwreck in the history of clean power?

Watch the mentioned video How We Solved Renewables BIGGEST Problem    • How We Solved Renewabl...  

Watch How Magnetic Cooling Is Breaking All the Rules    • How Magnetic Cooling I...  

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.co...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecided...

Follow-up podcast:

Video version -    / @stilltbd  

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[crascet]

Honest Thoughts: The Penguin

So, I absolutely love Reeves' The Batman. First movie where I repeatedly watched it a total of three times within the same year. It is absolutely fantastic and is probably up there with The Dark Knight as my favorite Batman film (I haven't seen Mask of the Phantasm, and I heard that's the best Batman film, but I promise I'll watch it as soon as I get it). Now as it is the beginning of a new cinematic universe for the Reeve's Batverse or just the Reevesverse, there would be some spin-offs and of course the eventual sequel with Part II coming out in 2026. As for spin-offs, there has been two of them, or at least one of them being canon. Th first being the DC Black Label series, "The Riddler: Year One" that follows the origins of Paul Dano's Edward Nashton from his childhood in one of Gotham's rundown orphanages to his adulthood and him discovering the corruption of Gotham and his terroristic ways as the Riddler. It's a pretty good series that is also written by Dano himself to give a more authentic feel for the character, although I have heard that this series might be non-canon, but I did enjoy this series as I really loved Dano's performance in the movie, especially in that Arkham interrogation scene. And now, there was the release of the Penguin series on Max that started last month just had its finale last Sunday.

Spoilers for the series itself, so if you haven't seen it yourself. Also, this isn't really much a review but rather just showing my thoughts on the show, hence "Honest Thoughts."

I should probably start by saying this: there is absolutely NO good guy in this show. There is a protagonist and an antagonist in here, but they're not heroes at all. Starting with Oz Cobb, which sidenote: yes, I know that there are some people that are mad that his last name isn't Cobblepot, but I always headcanon that as Cobblepot being an ancestral name that was then shortened down to Cobb when Oz's ancestors immigrated to the U.S. so there. Now with the name debacle aside, Oz is a scumbag. He is the worst character in this show with what he does to get more power, but when you watch the show, there will be times where you may sympathize or even cheer for him, but that's the sort of thing with him. He's a massive manipulative, megalomaniac that wants what he wants while pretending to be selfless to those around him. he would say how joining his gang would be beneficial to you and will help the lower class in how "Gotham belongs to us!"... before shooting you and tossing your body under the bus, just so he can make a quick escape. Now at first glance, there could be some merit to why he does this as he could've done it just to have his mother live a better life while making her be safe, especially since she's suffering from dementia. So maybe there is a noble cause to this, right? And then in episode 7, it revealed that Oz killed his two brothers as a kid, just so he can stay much closer to his mom and that his loving relationship with his mom is way creepier and disturbing than it seemed. It also doesn't help that his mom actually figured out that Oz killed her two sons and never said anything about and even thought about having someone kill him. AND TO TOP THAT OFF, that excuse may be false as he still denies that he killed them, even after knowing his mom found out the whole time. Meaning that this whole journey is just him being the most delusional and selfish guy who just wants more power to himself. There's also just the fact where he just gets lucky at times that just gets lucky out of confrontations, he's a cunning guy which why there's times where his metaphorical dominoes he sets up falls down as part of his plan, and then there's that time he gets out of a fight because his opponent gets a heart attack. There is just so many ways he seems to get caught and possibly get killed, but those moments never come to him. Colin Ferrell did a great job being oz again, he was already great in The Batman and seeing him come back is fantastic.

So, can Cristin Milioti get an Emmy for Best Lead Actress or at least a nomination, because holy crap, she is fantastic as Sofia! Starting as a simple revenge story against her family as they did nothing for her when she was sent to Arkham because of her father framing her for the multiple murders of female workers in the Iceberg Lounge that he actually committed as well of the death of her mother. There was her brother, Alberto, who actually shows up during visiting hours and telling her that he would get her out of there, although I do have a theory that he may be in on it too and was just saying that, so he won't end up like Sofia or worse. But I guess I won't know if that's true since Oz killed him in the beginning of the series. Sofia then kills her whole family, only sparing her cousin's daughter so she could live a better life away from the Falcone family, while Sofia becomes the new head of the crime family. HOWEVER, Sofia then realizes how when she was trying to make her young cousin stay in one of those rundown children's home with her not revealing that Sofia killed the Falcones (which is a "better" option than letting someone else go there and kill her) that Sofia is not that different than her father at that point. So, she ultimately decides to say screw it all and just leave Gotham after she kills Oz, only it to end with Oz and the rest of the gangs that work for him to kill Sofia's men and Oz frames her for all the gang wars in Gotham, which then ends with Sofia going back to Arkham, essentially full circle for her. Sofia is by far the most tragic character here in how she just wants to break free from the corruption in Gotham and how she won't change anything even if she tries hard enough, only for her to just stay in this living hell. She was also the main focus of my favorite episode in the whole series with episode 4, C'est Anni (if that's how it's spelled), that is about her first time in Arkham as well as her mass murder of the Falcone's. Also, shoutouts to the make-up and costume designers in the show for Sofia's transitioning in looks from a cleaner look during the flashback to how she ends up looking as in the show, with her frazzled hair and scars, just a dirtier and more weathered look. I also just liked her dresses and coats as well.

And then there's Vic. Poor, poor Vic. The heart of the whole show and the audience surrogate in viewing this big dark world of Gotham. The one person who can see some good in Oz and is still loyal to him, helping out with whatever he wants in the name of finally being remembered from this city. The one who can call Oz family after the death of his family from the citywide flood in the beginning of the third act in the Batman and would sacrifice everything for him, including breaking up with his girlfriend. All for it to end up with Vic to get killed by Oz himself. A pretty sad yet completely expected way for him to end up since again, Oz doesn't care about anyone, even those close to him. In the end, Vic was just another victim in this whole thing.

One final shoutout to Clancy Brown as Sal Maroni here. Clancy Brown is one of my favorite character actors, he is just great in everything. I mean c'mon, he was the best portrayal of Lex Luthor in Superman: TAS and the Justice League cartoons in the DCAU, of course he's great!

Great show, 9/10. Give Milioti her Emmy, she freakin deserves it. And can't wait for The Batman Part II in 2026 and whatever other series is being set in this universe as well.

[neoatlantiscodex]

How Self-Healing Solar Panels Could Change Everything

Solar panels are largely crystalline structures grown in labs.  They’ve found a way to use the energy from the sun to cause the crystal to melt and regrow, in place.  This dramatically increases the lifespan of solar arrays, which is especially important in space.

Runtime:  14:42

[chickflickswithgabbyandamy]

Season 3, Episode 3 | Mystic Pizza (1988)

It's the episode Gabby and Amy were born to make! Mystic Pizza brings together Amy's Connecticut childhood with Gabby's Portuguese heritage in one delightful autumnal coming of age story. Listen up as we spill our knowledge!

https://chickflicks.libsyn.com/mystic-pizza

[astridhoff03]

Barbenheimer

There will be never again such a cinematic event like Barbenheimer, there will also never be such movies that have such incredible and intense storytelling. So Creative and spectacular at the same time. These movies are very different from each other but they have one thing in common, both want to tell a story with a deeper meaning. The Soundtracks are fabulous and as unique as everyone in this world. They really nailed it, every bit of every single detail in this unique movies. They are in my opinion one of the best movies of our time and some of the most creative ever. I‘ve rewatching both at the same time, because for my they just belong together, not only because of the Barbenheimer trend but also the stakes they set for the future of the cinema. I will also point out some Special things I noticed while rewatching. With Oppenheimer you really feel the weight on Oppenheimers shoulders as the bomb fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the feelings in this movie is so incredibly intense and powerful. Oppenheimers Releationship with Kitty is also very interesting, you can really feel how strong she is and they have gone to hell with each other. It’s very different to the relationship he had with Jean, but I felt the whole time that Kitty is more healthy for Oppenheimer himself. With Barbie it’s quiet different, its visually Candy for the eyes and I love how Margot Robbie portrays Barbie. My favorite scenes will always be when Barbie sits on the bench and feels for the first time all at once, then America Ferreras iconic speech and last but least when Barbie becomes finally human. But in my opinion the best part of the Barbie movie was Will Ferrell, Michael Cera as Alan and the bromance powerballad of the Ken’s.

Fun fact: Warner Bros. had released Barbie at the same day as Oppenheimer, because they were mad at Christopher Nola for not releasing Oppenheimer under Warner Bros.

[theguywithaplan]

List of Films Turning 20 Years Old in 2024

The Alamo (the one with Dennis Quaid)

Alexander ((the Alexander the Great biopic directed by Oliver Stone and starring Colin Farrell)

Alien vs. Predator

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

The Aviator (the Howard Hughes biopic directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leo DiCaprio)

Barbershop 2: Back in Business

Before Sunset

Blade: Trinity

The Bourne Supremacy

The Butterfly Effect

Catwoman

Cellular (an action-thriller starring Kim Basinger and Chris Evans)

The Chronicles of Riddick

Closer

Collateral

Dawn of the Dead (the remake directed by Zack Snyder and written by James Gunn)

The Day After Tomorrow

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

Downfall

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Fahrenheit 9/11 (the Michael Moore documentary about how the Bush administration handled the aftermath of September 11, as well as their handling of the Invasion of Iraq)

50 First Dates

Finding Neverland (a biopic about J. M. Barrie, the guy who wrote “Peter Pan”. Barrie was played by Johnny Depp)

Friday Night Lights

Garden State

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Hellboy

Hidalgo

Home on the Range (one of Disney's most often forgotten animated movies)

House of Flying Daggers

Howl's Moving Castle

I Heart Huckabees

I, Robot

The Incredibles

Kill Bill Volume 2

King Arthur (the one with Clive Owen)

The Ladykillers (the remake of the 1955 movie of the same name directed by the Coen Brothers)

Layer Cake (the first movie directed by Matthew Vaughn, who would go on to direct “Kick-Ass” and “Kingsman”)

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

The Lion King 1 1/2

The Machinist (the movie where Christian Bale lost like 60 pounds)

The Manchurian Candidate (the remake of the movie of the same name starring Denzel Washington)

Mean Girls

Million Dollar Baby

Miracle

Napoleon Dynamite

National Treasure

The Notebook

Ocean's Twelve

The Passion of the Christ

The Phantom of the Opera

The Place Promised in Our Early Days (the first film directed by Makoto Shinkai)

The Polar Express

Primer ((the time travel movie where you sit in a box for 12 hours and be back in time 12 hours. I think.)

The Punisher (the Thomas Jane one)

Ray (the Ray Charles biopic)

Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Saw (the 1st one)

Scooby-Doo 2: Monster Unleashed

Seed of Chucky

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Shaun of the Dead

Shrek 2

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Spanglish

Spider-Man 2

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie

Team America: World Police

The Terminal

13 Going on 30

Troy

Van Helsing

The Village

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

How successful would Armando Álvarez…

Would you like to submit a character? Click this link if you do!

[rainingmusic]

Porno for Pyros - Bali Eyes

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

GONE FISSION

Opening in theaters this weekend:

Oppenheimer--This biopic splits time the way its hero splits the atom. Narrative is fissionable to writer-director Christopher Nolan; he skips back and forth between episodes of Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) as a bumbling student, then as a philandering rising star in the new field of quantum physics, then as the determined yet haunted lord of Los Alamos, then as a post-bomb martyr to '50s era red-baiting. It glides along smoothly through its fractured scheme, beautifully shot by Hoyt van Hoytema in black and white and varyingly muted shades of color depending on period and point of view, and pushed along by a solemn Philip Glass-esque score by Ludwig Göransson.

Often crowned by a horizontal wide-brimmed preacher-style hat that makes him look like Brad Dourif in Wise Blood, Murphy uncannily captures the bursting, wide-eyed, near-ecstatic face that we see in photos of Oppenheimer. But he manages to give the performance a human dimension, with everyday foibles and touches of humor. He's not a pageant figure.

Murphy carries a star presence. But he's very ably supported by a huge, colorful gallery of star character players: Robert Downey Jr. as AEC Chairmen Lewis Strauss and Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence and Benny Safdie as Edward Teller and Tom Conti as Albert Einstein and David Krumholtz as Isidore Rabi, Oppenheimer's menschy colleague who makes sure he eats and nudges his conscience, and Matthew Modine and Casey Affleck and Kenneth Branagh and Rami Malek and Alden Ehrenreich, to name only a few.

They're all entertaining, but two in particular jolt the movie to life: Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer's joyless lover Jean Tatlock and Matt Damon as the practical-minded, professionally unimpressed Leslie Groves, representing us laypeople in his deadpan, flummoxed scenes with Murphy. For a while it seems like Emily Blunt is underserved as Kitty Oppenheimer, but near the end she gets a juicy, angry scene opposite AEC lawyer Roger Robb (Jason Clarke), who has underestimated her.

Other than maybe a few too many scenes of the young "Oppie" having visions that look like the psychedelic mindtrip at the end of 2001, there was no point where I found Oppenheimer less than absorbing. Few would suggest that this ambitious, superbly acted, superbly crafted film isn't a major, compelling work, a vast expansion on Roland Joffé's watchable but modest Fat Man and Little Boy from 1989. If Nolan's film isn't quite completely satisfying, there could be two reasons.

One is that trying to arrive at a moral conclusion about this movie's hero seems impossible. Put (too) simply: on the one hand, Oppenheimer won World War II for the good guys and checked fascism (not checkmated it, alas) for more than half a century. On the other hand, his invention has the potential to ruin the world for everybody. Both can be true, and the ambiguity is unresolvable.

Another problem with the film, however, is a matter of simple showmanship. Back in 1994, James Cameron brought his silly action picture True Lies to a point where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis kiss while, far in the distance, we see a mushroom cloud erupt on the horizon. Triumphant, but then Cameron pushed his luck, piling on one last struggle with the villain in a Harrier jet. I remember thinking (and writing) at the time that when your hero and heroine kiss in front of a mushroom cloud, the movie is over.

Oppenheimer, obviously a very different movie, is uneasily structured in the same way. The scenes leading up to the Trinity Test at White Sands in 1945 are riveting, pulse pounding. The explosion and the immediate aftermath, ending the war in Japan, is a stunning dramatic climax.

But then the movie keeps going, for another hour or so, detailing the war of spite and will between Strauss and Oppenheimer, and the revocation of Oppenheimer's security clearance. It's interesting, provocative material in itself, but it seems a little petty and trivial after the "I am become death; destroyer of worlds" stuff. Given Nolan's supposed consummate skill at scrambling sequence, couldn't he have somehow structured the movie to end with a bang and not a whimper?

Barbie--Something is rotten in the state of Barbieland. As this, her first live-action feature begins, our titular heroine finds herself haunted, right in the middle of raging dance parties at her Dreamhouse, by thoughts of death. Still more alarming, when she steps out of her pumps, her feet go flat to the ground.

To be clear, the Barbie in question, played by Margot Robbie, is "Stereotypical Barbie," the blond, inhumanly thin and leggy iconic version of the Mattel doll. She shares the relentlessly cheery pink-plastic realm of Barbieland with countless other Barbies of every race and body shape and profession, all happy and accomplished and untroubled and mutually supportive. They're dimly aware of us in the "Real World"; they believe that their own harmony has created an example that has led to female empowerment and civil rights over here.

The Barbies also share Barbieland with Ken (Ryan Gosling) and countless variant Kens, as well as Ken's featureless friend Allan (a perfectly cast Michael Cera). But the guys exist entirely as accessories to the relatively uninterested Barbies. Ken's unrequited fascination with Barbie makes him subject, unlike the Barbies, to dissatisfaction.

Barbie goes for advice to "Weird Barbie" (Kate McKinnon), whose hair is frizzy and patchy and who's stuck in a permanent split. She's told that her troubles come from the dark feelings of somebody who's playing with her in our reality, so she sets out on a quest to the Real World, emerging in Venice Beach. Barbie connects with a mom and teenage daughter (America Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt) whose relationship is strained; she's also pursued by the all-male board of Mattel, led by Will Ferrell. Ken, meanwhile, learns about our patriarchy, likes what he hears, and heads back to Barbieland alone to institute it, with himself at the top.

Mattel was founded in 1945, the same year as the Trinity Test, and there are probably feminist social critics who would argue that Barbie, invented in 1959 by Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler (well played by Rhea Perlman in the film), has wreaked only a little less havoc on the modern psyche than Oppenheimer's gadget. Even though I'm in exactly the right generational wheelhouse (I was born in 1962), my own childhood experience with Barbie was very limited, and thus so were my nostalgic associations with her.

Even so, this nutty fantasy, directed by Greta Gerwig from a brilliant script she wrote with Noah Baumbach, made me laugh from its inspired first scene to its Wings of Desire finish. Narrated in the droll, arch tones of Helen Mirren, it manages to come across as both an ingenious pop-culture lampoon/celebration and an unpretentious but surprisingly heartfelt deep dive into the implications of the Barbie archetype. I wasn't a big fan of Gerwig's 2019 version of Little Women, but here she builds her world with the freedom of, well, a kid playing with dolls, but also with the confidence and adult perspective of an artist.

Not everything in the movie works; in the second half the narrative gets a little lost at times in some very strange musical numbers/battle scenes, and the whole thing comes close to going on a bit too long. And it's hard to say just who this movie is for. It hardly seems intended for little girls; however smart, they're too young for the commentary about female identity to mean much to them yet. It seems more like it's meant for adult women with both a fondness for and an ambivalence toward Barbie.

No doubt there are those who would also complain that, however witty and self-effacing, the movie amounts to a feature-length commercial for the brand. But in the age of Marvel and other such franchises, it seems a little late to object to this.

The revelation in the film is Margot Robbie. It seems ridiculous that she's able, in the role of freaking Barbie, to give a performance of such subtlety and nuance and shading and quiet, unforced wistfulness, but she does. And she gets to deliver the best last line of the year.

Theater Camp--Joan, the founder of "AndirondACTS," a slightly gone-to-seed theater camp in upstate New York, has fallen into a coma. The job of keeping the struggling camp afloat falls to her decidedly non-theatrical "crypto bro" son Troy. Meanwhile the devoted instructors work with the exuberantly happy campers to mount the shows, including an original musical about the life of poor comatose Joan (Amy Sedaris). Needless to say, all does not go smoothly.

The creators of this Waiting for Guffman-esque "mockumentary" comedy, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, Ben Platt and Noah Galvin, know the world they're depicting well; all of them have been doing theater since they were small children. Gordon and Lieberman co-directed, from a script by all four; Platt and Gordon play Amos and Rebecca-Diane, the utterly enmeshed, co-dependent acting instructors and Galvin plays the low-profile tech director.

They capture the camaraderie and the sense of belonging that theater can give kids, and their affection for that world is unmistakable, but they're careful not to get too sentimental. The envies and resentments and passive-aggressive denigrations among theater folk, especially at this often professionally frustrated level, are vividly represented.

Getting laughs from the self-important vanities of theater people is pretty low-hanging fruit, I suppose, but Theater Camp is nonetheless often hilarious. The film also manages to get a little deeper at times, touching on the irony that while theater can create a haven and a community for misfit kids, this can generate its own clannishness and exclusionary snobbery, as in Amos and Rebecca-Diane's coldness toward the imbecilic but well-intentioned Troy, charmingly played by a sort of poor-man's Channing Tatum named Jimmy Tatro.

The real joy in Theater Camp, of course, is the acting: Platt, Gordon, Tatro, plus a few vets like Sedaris, Caroline Aaron and David Rasche bring the material to life. But as Glenn, the long-suffering backstage drudge who really ought to be onstage, Noah Galvin, who replaced Platt on Broadway in Dear Evan Hansen, is the revelation among the adults in the cast. He's a knockout.

The revelation among the kids playing the campers is, well, pretty much all of the kids playing the campers. There are some real singing, dancing and acting prodigies in this company. If there was a real theater camp somewhere with this kind of talent, their shows would sell out.

[nathalieskinoblog]

[bumblebeeappletree]

How This TRULY Omni-Directional Wind Turbine is Genius. Small wind turbines, or SWTs, have low efficiencies that rarely justify their high costs. They also have to contend with the same kinds of considerations that your typical turbine does, like noise, vibration, environmental impacts, and aesthetics. In closer proximity to people, these factors are that much more important (and difficult) to nail. There’s a lot of high-speed winds in major cities, and someday soon wind turbines might be integrated seamlessly into your surroundings. How can SWTs turn windy city streets into an opportunity? When can apartment dwellers start to produce their own wind energy? And why was one SWT company inspired by a NASA rover shaped like a beach ball?

Watch How This Mechanical Battery is Making a Comeback • How This Mechanical Ba...

Video script and citations:

https://undecidedmf.co...

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:

https://link.undecided...

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - / @stilltbd

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

[girl-of-ink]

NEW LUDO THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[neoatlantiscodex]

How This TRULY Omni-Directional Wind Turbine is Genius

Wind turbines are finally catching up to Waterworld.

These turbines are designed to be used on a small scale, with wind coming from any direction, (in 3 dimensions).  This is because wind is often 3d in urban environments.

We would still need neighbourhood-level power storage to make this viable.

Runtime:  11:24