#movie narratives

[lungthief]

listen. i know it's not 2014 anymore and i know it's just a throwaway line and that the russo brothers didnt intend for marvel action blockbuster captain america the winter soldier to become the tragic gay love story that never was but man. having steve say "it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience" in a conversation about romantic relationships right before the bucky reveal is so cruel. it's not just about steve and bucky obviously having the shared experience of being "out of time," it's the fact that they've both been stripped of their humanity in opposite directions. steve is a legend, he is an american hero and a national icon before he is a human being the same way that bucky is a weapon and a killing machine before he is a human being. steve knows that anyone who falls in love with him in the 21st century fell in love with captain america first, and that's just not him. but then the one person who knew him first and knew him best and loved him (not captain america, that little guy from brooklyn) so much he died for it is alive, impossibly. and it's a miracle because he's back and it's horrific because he's back under the worst possible circumstances. but to steve, the winter soldier is worth tearing the world apart for because he's always been bucky first. they find each other and suddenly they're human again. and maybe, despite it all, being "out of time" becomes a blessing, because in this century they'd finally be allowed to love each other the way they've always wanted to. like real people do.

like. no. the captain america trilogy isn't about two queer men traumatized and alienated by war and modern life rediscovering and reclaiming their humanity through their love for each other. but. i mean. it couldve been

[brother-emperors]

something. about. the horror of being sent on an impossible (death) quest and obligations and hospitality politics. the trauma of not having a home, and then the trauma of being in a house that becomes actively hostile to you, one that would swallow you whole and spit out your bones if you step out of line. all of this is conditional, your existence continues to be something men want gone.

it's about going back as far as I can with the perseus narrative because there's always a version of a myth that exists behind the one that survives. the missing pieces are clearly defined, but the oldest recorded version of it isn't there! and there's probably something older before that!! but it's doomed to forever be an unfilled space, clearly defined by an outline of something that was there and continues to be there in it's absence.

and love. it's also about love. even when you had nothing, you had love.

on the opposite side of the spectrum, this is Not About Ovid Or Roman-Renaissance Reception, Depictions And Discourses On The Perseus Narrative.

edit: to add to the above, while it's not about Ovid, because I'm specifically trying to peel things back to the oldest version of this story, Ovid is fine. alterations on the Perseus myth that give more attention Medusa predate Ovid by several centuries. this comic is also not about those, either! there are many versions of this story from the ancient world. there is not one singular True or Better version, they're all saying something.

Perseus, Daniel Ogden

Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation, edited & translated by Stephen M Trzaskoma, R. Scott Smith, Stephen Brunet

[ligbi]

So there was a french animated film about the friendship between Icarus and the Minotaur last year and I was supposed to hear about it on the bird app?

I mean it’s literally not streaming anywhere yet nor does it have a home media release at this time but I would like to get hyped in hopes of one of those things happening eventually.

It has a good style! I would like to see the tragedy! 

[lorephobic]

“the class commentary in saltburn was shit” WHAT CLASS COMMENTARY???? NOT EVERY MOVIE WITH RICH PEOPLE HAS TO OR SHOULD HAVE CLASS COMMENTARY. EMERALD FENNELL KNOWS VERY WELL THAT SHE IS NOT THE RIGHT DIRECTOR FOR A MOVIE ABOUT CLASS COMMENTARY WHICH IS WHY SHE DID NOT WRITE A MOVIE ABOUT CLASS COMMENTARY.

[situationalirony13]

spoiler warning for monkey man?

i'm probably never going to be able to stop talking about monkey man but let's just start with the ending.

Characters who can't outlive their narrative destroy me. But here's the thing – I think traditionally we do a poor job conveying the point of the trope. It'll read more like this character, who's only ever wanted to accomplish one thing, dies immediately after they accomplish it – and what's left is a story with a character-sized hole in it. It feels mostly like despair and hopelessness because it feels like the character never got to experience peace. The character, so wrapped up in anger, fear, sadness, etc – never experiences just being on the other side of this chasm they built for themselves.

There's a critical difference between characters who can't outlive their narrative and characters who won't. Characters who won't outlive their narrative can still have dreams, plans – the heartbreak is real because they saw a life for themselves on the other side and they'll never get to experience it. But most of the time we treat characters who can't outlive their narrative in the same way, and filmmakers trust that we as the audience suspend our disbelief and hope for the characters to have an epilogue.

Bobby/Kid/Dev Patel never had plans for what's next. We saw barely-there flashes of who he must be outside of his avenging mission, enough to cobble together this idea that yes, he deserves so much more. But it was evident from the first second of this film that there was nothing waiting for him on the other side. Bobby/Kid/Dev Patel could have never survived the narrative. There was no reality of an after for him after he avenged his mother – no practical way for him to build a new life. But in those last seconds, when he turned to the mural depicting the carnage of Hanuman and he had the far-away thought that it was over, we saw Dev Patel channel this relief in this doomed character.

We as an audience exhale with the character, we feel the release from his duty the same way he does.

He falls, the camera follows his center of gravity, and the screen cuts to black. The narrative begins and ends with him. He begins and ends with this narrative.

[thethiefandtheairbender]

How To Train Your Dragon (2010) / The Dragon Prince (2018—?) / The Sea Beast (2022)

+

[howlerbat]

Dracula and his pet solicitor through the years

[itz-darktrax]

Ghost In The Shell (1995) - City

[starlesscitiess]

heyyyyy sooooo i just watched nimona and of course being me i have to get aro about it and i am Still Thinking about the moment where ballister says “she’s my friend” and ambrosius replies “aren’t i more than that” and the thing that’s great about it is that he’s in the wrong. yes the two do get back together romantically at the end but this line, its reception in context, and the subsequent emotional core of the movie reject a hierarchy with romance at the top. like. this is a line in a scene where ambrosius is explicitly antagonising our main character, being manipulated by the main villain, and himself using the relationship between himself and ballister in an emotionally manipulative way, whether deliberate or not. in this context, the romance is not the highest or purest form of love, it is not above criticism, and it is certainly not ranked above the friendship. the relationship at the centre of the film is that of ballister and nimona, the one that bal prioritises — both in this moment and throughout the film — is nimona. they are Friends and Family (and of course evil coworkers) and that is the most important thing in the whole entire world. i love to see it <3

[angee1011]

So, like. Had more time to ruminate on it. And Across the Spiderverse is what a story about a super-powered kid should be. It’s a story about this kid who wants to be a hero more than anything. He is a hero. But he’s a kid too. And he says, “Why can’t I save everyone?” Why can’t he? What is the point of being a hero if you don’t try to save everyone. And then movie sits you (the audience) down and spells it out: you see all these kids? Yeah, they’ve LOST the people they love. It’s a sacrifice for being this way. *shrugs* That’s just how it is, kid. And we can’t change it because we lost that fight already.

And Miles. Oh man, this kid. He’s says, “Fuck that. I write MY story and no one else.” And then he’s an anomaly and he wasn’t even supposed to BE the hero.

And you stop. And you think. That’s the point. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re supposed to be the hero. You choose it. It’s not destiny. It doesn’t matter if the spider bit you or someone else. What matters is that you’re a kid and you’re gonna save the people you love no matter what because that’s what you choose to believe in.

Idk, man. Maybe stories about heroes should be more about hope and love and defying expectation and less about the tragedy of giving up everything for the sake of the world. Maybe some times you DO save everyone. You know, as a treat.

[deathbutwithfuzzyanimals]

Literally insane how Danny Phantom DCU crossover has more fics on AO3 than many smaller fandoms. This makes my best friend very mad when I point it out. It is also hilarious the number of people writing fics for the crossover fandom who have consumed neither source material and just know what they’ve read in fanfic. The people who built this fandom from the ground up really went ‘let’s make an entirely new media that people will consume and build upon and enjoy that has more plot and analysis of Danny Phantom than the actual tv show’. Truly the goncherov of fanfiction. West doesn’t exist. Red Huntress never had a name. There was a single episode about an ‘ice core’ that was never mentioned again and now ghost cores have almost consistent usage. Anyway I just appreciate the beautiful fandom that is to Danny phantom and DC comics what heathers the Musical is to Heathers the movie.

[crazyexshiper]

What if this was his life: rising whenever, catching his food for the day, and hanging out with Lucy Gray by the lake? Who needed wealth and success and power when they had love? Didn’t it conquer all?

Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

[formosusiniquis]

any cosmo girl would have known

“Oh she did it for sure.”

“Steve!”

“Ten bucks, Bobert, don't give me that look last time we agreed double or nothing.”

“No,” Nancy insists. “This isn't Murder, She Wrote or Scooby-Doo or Columbo-”

“You saw who did it in Columbo at the beginning,” Eddie reminds.

“I know it's an awful show.”

Robin and Steve remain in sync enough to each get a hand on his shoulder to keep him from getting on the coffee table to defend the only good cop show in existence.

“I'm only pointing out,” she rewinds the VHS taking it back the two or three minutes they'd talked over before stopping it completely, “that this is a movie, not a drama with a repeated format that Steve can pattern recognition into predicting.”

“You haven't seen it already, right?” Robin asks. “The one rule of Monthly Middle-Aged Movie Night is you have to pick a movie none of us have seen.”

“No, I haven't seen it already. If you'll all remember when I asked you each to go see it with me I got,” he points to each of them in turn. “‘Wouldn't you rather see Tomb Raider?’ from double VHS, prestige cinephile and ‘That's too much pink for me, baby, you know I have that intolerance, maybe Rob or Nance will go?’ from my emo-isn’t-a-phase husband. And ‘I'm a little busy with this new story, Steve,’ from Nancy, the only one of you with a real excuse.”

“Some feminist you are, Birdie.”

“I don't want to hear it from you. I watched two of the blandest men alive pursue Renee Zellweger while the screen writers tried to convince us she was homely because you ‘forgot’ you had band practice.”

“You said you liked it!”

“It grew on me, but sometimes you just want to see a woman in a tank top. And I won't be shamed by the same man who cried during Beauty and the Beast.”

“I went with my sweet baby Lucy Joan, you miserable hag,” Eddie says, “and they turned that hot werewolf into a boring looking man.”

“You weren't into that? Look at who-”

“Why am I getting made fun of? Can we finish the movie?”

“No, I'm not going to let this be another Sixth Sense situation,” Nancy says, holding the remote hostage, she knows no one will try to take it from her.

“Ugh don't even bring that up,” Eddie groans, “Dustin still mentions it in at least one letter a year.”

Nancy nods, prim and proper, “Exactly, so tell us right now why you think she did it, then we'll play it again.”

“Chutney, the daughter,” Steve corrects, “have you even been paying attention? Her hair's permed.”

“And press play,” Eddie shouts.

“No,” Robin smacks his hands as he makes his ballsy play to reach around her for the remote. “Show your work, Dingus, even I didn't follow that one.”

“I don't always like the movies everyone else picks but I at least watch them. Her hair is permed, she said she was in the shower. She would have had to have been washing her hair if she didn't hear the gunshot and she has a perm.”

“You can wash your hair with a perm,” Nancy points out.

“You would know.” Eddie snarks, fingering the ends of his own hair.

“You can't wash a fresh perm, you'll fuck up the ammonium thioglycolate. Then you're out forty bucks and you've got limp hair. She killed her dad and lied about being in the shower.”

“Press play,” Eddie decrees again, leaning in close to Steve's side to purr, “it's pretty sexy when you go all hair care detective.”

His hand starts to slip below the blanket. “This is how we ended up with Lucy in the first place,” Steve reminds him, just under the sounds of the courtroom drama picking back up. It doesn’t stop Eddie’s hand from wandering until the movie’s climax starts getting closer, and Eddie’s attention is captured just like Robin’s and Nancy’s.

“Unbelievable,” Robin says, when Elle cites the perm salt.

“Never again,” Nancy swears, when Chutney screams her confession.

“Lucy’s been asking for a brother or sister,” Eddie flirts, as Elle reveals that any good Cosmo girl could have solved it.

No more movies with mysteries or twist endings for a while, they all agree, Robin can’t afford to keep betting against Steve.

[noknowshame]

I really don’t think we’ve sufficiently discussed the implications of how jesus christ superstar (1973) fucking ends

[saintofdaggers]

Peter Strahm haunting the narrative of Saw VI

// Wikipedia on pyrrhic victories / Mr.Kitty - Destroy Me / Joshua Jennifer Espinoza: Things Haunt //

[historicalfictionenthusiast]

And they were rivals 💅