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tiffanys-aus-and-headcanons · 5 months

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Appendix D: Some Pig/One More Final

The first three posts in this series are here.

Undertale was a slightly postmodern children's fantasy movie produced by Jim Henson's Creature Shop in the '80s. Noah Hathaway played the protagonist, Frisk, who went on a long quest to escape from a magical prison inside Mt. Ebott; Frisk's father had thrown them into the mountain, known to be full of monsters, in an attempt to kill them. However, it's suggested that as a human, Frisk is inherently more of a protagonist than a monster can be, and has a vague sort of magical power over them. Toriel's death, which Frisk accidentally causes early in the movie, is commonly listed as a Peak Sad Childhood Moment.

George Orwell wrote The Writing In The Web, a political fable about a cult started by a well-meaning spider. E. B. White wrote Snowball's Farm, a whimsical children's tale about a farm whose animals decide to take over.

Infamously, Emmanuel Goldstein's monologue fills dozens of pages, takes at least three hours to read aloud, and brings the plot of Ayn Rand's 1984 to a screeching halt.

Short story collections and anthologies often keep the same title, author, and spirit, it's just the stories that are swapped out. For example, classic episodes of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone include A Wonderful Life, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, Miracle On 34th Street, and The Sixth Sense. 1983's The Twilight Zone Movie includes segments based on classic episodes Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (directed by John Landis and given anti-war themes), Cocoon, The Poltergeist, and In Search of the Twelve Monkeys (the original starred a young William Shatner). Candle Cove is an episode of Black Mirror.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a 1999 Ben Stiller comedy about a team of low-rent superheroes who theme themselves after public domain characters because they cannot afford licensing fees. The film was well-reviewed, but a box office bomb. It was actually the first film to use Smash Mouth's One Week - the One Week music video is actually cross promotion with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - and it would remain the film most associated with the song until Dreamworks' Happily N'Ever After hit theaters two years later.

The Amazing Digital Circus was a virtual pet game and toy line that struck when the iron was hot on that niche, before being bought out by Hasbro and rebooted a few times in different forms and mediums. Lauren Faust created a long-running television cartoon of it that was a huge smash hit with fandom culture despite the show's clearly very young target audience. The property's canon is all very light kiddie fare; the scariest thing about The Amazing Digital Circus is that for a brief and touchy stretch of time in the early 2000s, it was owned by the Peoples Temple, which was seriously considering turning it into a recruiting platform.

Your cringe unpublished works that you gave up on were almost certainly swapped around with other people's cringe unpublished works that they gave up on. There's lots of upwards and downwards mobility to the scramble, but not usually that much. Exceptions are very rare - like a beggar suddenly being made king, or a god being reincarnated into an ant - but they do occasionally happen. For example, what you know as the land of Oz exists only in the head of a young Milwaukee stoner, who suddenly came up with the idea for an epic graphic novel one day in the 2010s while sitting on the bus, and spent a couple of years absolutely convinced she would eventually make it. (She cannot draw.) Conversely, L. Frank Baum's children's fantasy series, Enormia, which has been adapted and reimagined many times, most notably as audiences' introduction to color film, exists in your world only as a different Milwaukee stoner's overly elaborate backstory for his jerkoff sessions. This kind of thing is much more the exception than the rule, and even such exceptions are almost always much smaller in scope - an obscure stillborn project getting swapped around with an obscure out-of-print novel, or an obscure direct-to-video z-movie.

The True Detectives forum and its many schismatic spinoffs, all of which are devoted to discussing mystery fiction, host literally thousands of Wind fanfics. Many of the writers - perhaps most of them - have never actually read Wind, just other fanfiction of it; next to none of the fics are worth reading. Most Wind fics reuse the original protagonist, Rorschach, but treat him as a generically relatable blank slate. The most common fic format by far is the "altdunnit", a form of what-if scenario in which the mystery that sets off Wind's plot is different in some way.

Rorschach is held by a substantial portion of the fandom to be an egg (a trans woman who has not realized it yet). Wildbow has never endorsed this interpretation, and it doesn't seem to be much on his radar. In recent years, the trans Rorschach portion of the fandom has grown; they don't tend to look especially kindly on Warn, much of which Wildbow wrote as a response to fans (like those on the True Detectives forum) he felt had been too inclined to take Rorschach's side in Wind. Flame wars over Warn's content were constant throughout its serial publication, and made it easily the rockiest experience of Wildbow's writing career.

Some noteworthy and relevant podcasts include Jonathan Sims' The Dresden Files, the Ranged Touch Network's Scott Pilgrim Made The World, Doof Media's Winding Down (later Warning Down), and the McElroy family's The Adventure Zone (an actual play podcast which has currently had three major campaigns, two anthology series, and various one-shots). Film Reroll is still an actual play podcast that runs the basic setups of movies (and occasionally other media) as short tabletop campaigns; occasionally, their version of a movie will be much closer to ours than it is to the version of the movie in their own universe.

Xenobuddy was an early childhood public access show, originally created for the BBC in the late 1990s but later aired internationally. The title character is a small alien puppet who lives on a futuristic spaceship staffed by children (who speak a vague conlang akin to a dollar store Esperanto). At the end of every episode, it gets lost and is found, usually by (harmlessly) bursting out of one of the children. It was very popular with its target audience and much loathed by parents. Edgy ironic fanart depicting the titular Xenobuddy as some kind of dangerous parasite abounds.

Static is a supernatural slasher franchise created by Wes Craven, with the first film, also simply titled Static, released in 1984. The movies concern a group of gibbering neotenous ogre-fae who wake up in the modern day after a long sleep, incorporate televisions into their bodies, and start eating people by sucking them into hellish pocket dimensions. The Screen-Guts collectively are probably in the top five antagonists most people think of when they think of slasher horror.

Toby Fox's ROSEQUARTZ is especially known for its meta take on video game morality systems. The game has a mission-based structure; throughout it, the player is encouraged to take on a pacifist playstyle, championed by the player character's late mother, the title character. However, the Crystal Gems give the player enough autonomy that you are entirely able to take a much more violent tack; doing so has a rippling effect on the game's writing in countless immersively-integrated ways. If the player goes out of their way to be as murderous as possible - the so-called "genocide route" - the differences from the main route grow much more extreme, and rather than gaining allies, you start to lose them, as the Crystal Gems realize what you're doing and one by one turn against you. If you manage to shatter Garnet - it's the hardest and most iconic fight in the game, Megalovania is playing, her Future Vision gets used for all it's worth - then you use your knife to slash at the cosmos, erasing Earth, Homeworld, and everything else. This, Toby Fox is saying, is apparently all you want out of a video game - another toy to break.

Warner Bros still did Space Jam with Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes, it's just that the Looney Tunes in question were Mickey Mouse and friends. They also still did a second one with LeBron James, which was, by God, somehow worse. They put Ms. Frizzle in it.

Walt Disney made his squeaky clean reputation on the back of adaptations of things like Rudyard Kipling's adventure novel The Call of Cthulhu, P. L. Travers' Thomas the Tank Engine, and Erich Kästner's feel-good coming-of-age kidnapping tale about the power of perseverance, Lolita, originally done with Hayley Mills and later remade with Lindsay Lohan.

Nabokov's extremely controversial literary classic that has defined the idea of the unreliable narrator is Father's Trap, from the perspective of a man who plots to obtain custody of both of his daughters for nefarious purposes. Most publishers ignored Nabokov's instructions not to depict the twins, Lisa and Lottie, on the cover. Stanley Kubrick and Adrian Lyne have directed mediocre film adaptations, and songwriting team Lerner and Loewe did a musical that was a legendary flop.

The Japanese fashion movement is Gothic Pollyanna, after an otherwise-forgotten series of penny dreadfuls about a cute, cheery, rules-minded young girl who is, despite appearances, an insane criminal. Minor character Bonesaw in Alan Moore's Worm Turns also clearly hearkens back to the Pollyanna stock character.

The DEA was a prime-time soap opera about the ongoing "war on drugs"; it ran for eleven seasons from 1982 to 1993. Its plot focused on federal agents working at the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and especially partners Hank Schrader and Steve Gomez and their families. It is mostly remembered today for its downer ending (in which the treachery of late-show villain Walter White, or "Heisenberg", gets the leads killed, and he escapes from justice), and for its far-more-acclaimed spinoff series Better Call Saul, which also ran for eleven seasons from 1993 to 2004, functioning as a prequel, midquel, and sequel to The DEA.

Between The DEA and Better Call Saul, Kelsey Grammer played crooked lawyer Saul Goodman for twenty consecutive years of primetime TV, first as featured comic relief and later as a leading man. (He also guest-starred on the mostly-forgotten Mall Cop, establishing that it, too, was set in the world of The DEA and Better Call Saul.) Better Call Saul won more than a dozen Primetime Emmys. Peri Gilpin received several of these for her performance as Kim Wexler.

St. Elsewhere was a film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan in the late 1990s; it was highly acclaimed and successful, and established Shyamalan in the public eye as a skilled auteur with an affinity for twist endings. The film's final scene reveals that its main setting, St. Eligius Hospital, exists entirely within the imagination of an autistic boy, Tommy Westphall, as he gazes into a snowglobe. The so-called "Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis", which posits that this same twist applies to most of fiction due to a network of crossovers, was invented by a Saturday Night Live sketch shortly postdating the film's release, in which an amnesiac Charles McGill (from Better Call Saul) wakes up in St. Eligius, attended to by a cast of characters who are more concerned with their own nonexistence.

After rising to prominence as a writer, storyboarder, and composer for Pendleton Ward's Science Time (where she established the Summer/Jessica relationship that would come to define later seasons), Rebecca Sugar got to make her own cartoon, Henry Ichor. Set in a recently post-apocalyptic but strangely cheerful world, Henry Ichor concerns a young teenage boy who is conscripted as a mech pilot due to his rare and innate ability to link to the powerful Evangelion mecha. (His preferred Evangelion is eventually revealed to be a form of his late mother, the reason he can do this in the first place.) Henry turns out to be a vital asset in protecting humanity from the monstrous "Angels" that frequently threaten it, and is surprisingly emotionally mature for his age. However, the adults around him (especially his father, Gennady) frequently push him too far, especially considering his generally noncombative and pacifistic nature. There is much interpersonal drama and much singing about it, with a very vocally trained cast. After several seasons of slow buildup, the show was forced to suddenly rush to its ending in only a few (infamous) episodes after an arc where Henry had a romance with an Angel in male human form. Henry Ichor The Movie and an ensuing miniseries, End Of Henry Ichor, helped bring the show to a more thematically satisfying conclusion.

Although he has played a creative or consultant role in many animated projects, Alex Hirsch is best known for the one he was actually the showrunner for, Disney Channel's smash hit Sunnydale. Focusing on a small California town constantly plagued by supernatural threats, Sunnydale generally followed a simple monster-of-the-week format, but kept audiences on the hook with teases at a deeper underlying mystery. The show almost didn't get a season two, as Hirsch found working with Disney very tiring, but he was eventually persuaded; season two ran through the rest of Hirsch's ideas at a faster pace, and concluded the show with the leads graduating from Sunnydale High.

For a brief historical moment, Daron Nefcy's show, Ender vs. the Space Bug Army, looked like it would become the successor to Sunnydale, keeping Disney Television Animation prestigious after Sunnydale ended. However, though Ender drew in a big crowd, and lasted almost twice as long as Sunnydale, it was not ultimately as well-received. EvtSBA is a children's space opera, wearing its Starship Troopers (Joss Whedon) inspiration on its sleeve, but also clearly copying some (superficial) notes from Philip Pullman. Set in a future where mankind has come into violent conflict with bug-like aliens, the show follows unbearably smug boy supergenius Ender as he is sent to military school to prepare for interstellar warfare. The show has an extremely cutesy and hyperactive tone; typical filler episodes include the one (generally taken as meta about fandom drama) in which Ender's siblings' futuristic internet arguments prove instrumental to the survival of the human race. Later seasons get a bit more serious, but focus heavily on shipping. The show is infamous for its ending, in which Ender, for his final exam, destroys the Formics' home planet and releases a psychic signal that eradicates the Formic race. Although the show explicitly notes that this includes many individual Formics who we have previously known as sympathetic characters, it is nonetheless played as a happy ending in which a hostile colonial power is defeated. Ender has ended the war; he has beaten the Space Bug Army.

"Meugh-Neigh. 'Meugh' like the cat, 'neigh' like the horse." "Does it mean something?" "No answer; none at all."

Orson Scott Card is an extremely prolific author of speculative fiction. Although it isn't as close to his heart as the Steel Gear series, in which he got to flex his military sci-fi muscles and allegorically retell stories from his faith, he is undoubtedly best known for Ishtar's Curse. Initially a short story and later expanded into a full novel, the plot concerns young Princess Ishtar, or Star, heir to the heathen fairy kingdom of Meugh-Neigh. (In later novels, she changes her name to Bethlehem Diaz, or Beth.) Spoiled and destructive but magically talented, Star is sent to twentieth century Earth so she can develop the wits and the strength of character to be a viable wartime leader for her people - or at least so she can be kept out of the way. After several years of personal growth and magical misadventures with companions she met on Earth, a more grounded Star devises a spell to erase the magic that makes up the bodies of most of her throne's enemies. This plan works, and merges Meugh-Neigh into the Earth as a small and ordinary European country. However, though her subjects are eager to celebrate her for this, Star is devastated when she realizes that she has killed trillions of innocent spirits, and, seeking to atone, she takes on the title of Speaker for the Dead (also the title of the book's first sequel). Although it's frequently ranked highly in lists of fantasy novels of the twentieth century, Ishtar's Curse has received some harsh criticism, with the standard line being that Star is an idealized fantasy of a repentant Hitler figure, and that the text presents excessive justifications for her actions. The story has also been called a reactionary response to Wilde's The Little Mermaid. After more than twenty years, a film adaptation of Ishtar's Curse was released in 2009, starring Dakota Fanning, to mixed reviews. The box office took a further hit due to a boycott campaign, after Card's views on homosexuality (and, relatedly, his membership in the LDS Church) became widely known. In the end, it lost the studio a lot of money.

Hideaki Anno is best known for the classic smash hit anime he made for Studio Gainax, Einstein Goliath Nestorian, a psychologically intense deconstruction of martial arts shonen like Yoshiyuki Tomino's Dragon Ball. Einstein Goliath Nestorian concerns a mystery man known only as Saitama, who finds that he has become dissatisfied with life and alienated from the world after only three years of training have enabled him to easily surpass any physical challenge. The original series is known for its sudden, surreal, and clearly budget-driven ending, although this was quickly alleviated with a similarly surreal but more definitive finale movie. Although many Western anime fans often think of Einstein Goliath Nestorian as pretentious and ultra niche, it was actually a huge mainstream hit in Japan, with a colossal franchise of adaptations, merch, and spinoffs (notably including a series of Retrain films, which began as extremely close shot-for-shot remakes of the original series but wound up spiraling into a very different updated timeline).

Previously most noteworthy for his 2003 visual novel Oreimo, Gen Urobuchi was tapped by Shaft for their extremely successful and acclaimed anime Ohayou Hana!, hailed as a deceptively dark deconstruction of the teen idol genre. The plot concerns a girl, Saionji Mayuri, who leads a double life, being of little note at school, out of costume, but spending much of her time as #1 idol Hana. Her mental stability begins to deteriorate as she realizes that the adults in her life - especially her father, himself a former idol - have groomed her to serve as a drugged and hypnotized propaganda mouthpiece for a shadowy conspiracy. She winds up in the worst of both worlds as her ensuing breakdown, and her handlers' response to it, destroys both of her lives and brings ruin to those she cares about. In addition to the popularity of the actual anime, many of its songs became decontextualized J-Pop hits. The idol anime genre would then receive a glut of edgy lesser imitators, like Love Live: School Idol Project, Cheetah Girls, and magical girl fusion Symphogear. Although the original Ohayou Hana! was a self-contained twelve-episode story, it received a sequel movie shortly thereafter, Ohayou Hana! Rebel!, which ended on a cliffhanger that has still not been resolved over a decade later. The upcoming Ohayou Hana! MK Ultra! is expected to get things back on track. An abridged series originating on 4chan, focusing on cropped screencaps from Ohayou Hana!, called the title character "Miss Ohio", producing the memetic tagline "being Ohio is suffering".

Zack Snyder first came up with the idea for Madoka around 2000, a long time before he'd actually get to make it; he put the project on hold in 2006 to make his adaptation of Worm Turns. He developed the idea with his wife Deborah and a cowriter, Steve Shibuya. Inspired by the Disney Princess phenomenon, as well as Naoko Takeuchi's Pretty Cure (one of the few anime that had already become a hit in the States), Snyder wanted to tell a coherent story about fights between magical girls who could make anything happen, who could make any fantastical world or visual appear. In Snyder's film, we follow Madoka Kaname, a teenager attending a Catholic school in Los Angeles. Madoka and her friends are approached by a strange young woman who goes only by "Mommy", and her animal companion (a CGI-ed up squirrel-cat thing), QB. They offer to make the teens into "magical girls", granting them one wish each in exchange for a life devoted to spiritual warfare. (Another mysterious new girl, Lilly, urges them not to take the deal in the strongest possible terms.) This turns out to be a scam; QB is pitting the magical girls against one another for his own reasons, and in the end, every magical girl and her wish gets corrupted. Despite much of the film's plot being a horrific bloodbath - the MPAA demanded a lot of cuts to get it down to a PG-13 rating - there is a happy ending; Madoka finally makes her own wish and uses it to topple QB's whole system. Madoka isn't often discussed nowadays but it was a major discourse bomb when it came out in 2010, alternately being called misogynistic Orientalist trash and a subversive feminist masterpiece. Snyder, for his part, often notes that QB is intended as an allegory for exploitative forces within the entertainment industry that treat young women as disposable resources with an expiration date; this is already clear to anyone who's watched the film, which is not exactly subtle in its symbolism. He also explains that the film sexualizes the girls in an effort to shame the audience, to get people to understand that they are objectifying the characters in the same way that QB does. The soundtrack's got a really cool ethereal cover of Nine Inch Nails' King Nothing on it, which is probably the most remembered part of the film today.

Selena Gomez became a star by playing Violet Parr on Disney Channel's superhero sitcom The Incredibles. While the show was initially a very throwaway villain-of-the-week affair whose leads had to keep their powers hidden from the public and their caped escapades secret from the government for self-explanatory comes-with-the-genre reasons, it would eventually unfold that the show was set in something of an X-Men-style dystopia where superheroism had been outlawed and supers oppressed by the government as a potential societal fifth column.

Brad Bird directed one of Pixar's most celebrated films, Wizards of Waverly Place; it was Pixar's first film with a predominantly human cast. Disney was hungry for a fantasy property after losing a bidding war for the Luz Noceda rights. It had strong populist anti-eugenic themes, with an elaborate wizarding hierarchy of antagonists who seek to remove the Russo family's magic as part of an effort to curb wizard overpopulation. The sequel came more than a decade later, and wasn't nearly as good.

In addition to Worm Turns, Alan Moore is notable for the heavily metafictional comic Pagemaster, about a boy, Richard, who finds a magical library that contains all stories that have ever been or could ever be told; he becomes lost and imperiled in assorted pieces of historically noteworthy literature (initially ones in the public domain, though later volumes would start using legally safe serial-numbers-filed-off versions of modern stories). The 2003 film, in which Sean Connery played the librarian in one of his last film roles, is widely regarded as a terrible, deeply-toned-down adaptation that didn't grasp the tone or themes of the original story at all; it only covered the first half of the first volume, in which Richard meets "genre spirits" who wish to sort all stories into rigid categories. In a later volume, Pagemaster Millennium, an aged Richard Tyler, who has since taken on the mantle of librarian himself, meets a teenage girl, heavily implied to be Luz Noceda, who has also become lost in the library. She has become corrupted by an eldritch book, or "Necronomicon", written by "the Wrong Author", heavily implied to be the devil (and/or Hugo Astley, an Aleister Crowley caricature from W. Somerset Maugham's The Winged Bull). Flushed with demonic power and enraged by what she's become, a monstrous Luz tears through the library in a blaze of hellfire, seeking to destroy all of literature and the world. It is only through the intervention of the Fat Controller - heavily implied to be God - that Luz is defeated; he mercifully erases her by hitting her with a train, and laments what she became.

#queued post #the scrambled timeline #I tinkered around with the ordering of these entries so much that I guess this is a scrambled post for the scrambled timeline #credit to hieronymous-botch for the Alex Hirsch's Sunnydale idea #credit to Lorelei for the Orson Scott Card's Steel Gear idea

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luxthestrange · 2 years

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TWST Incorrect quotes#351 Adult Film~

Then...It was the 3rd years class turn-

Yuuka*After they reviewed the SAME info with the 1st and 2nd years to the 3rd years, Sees that You got the projector ready and dim the lights of the classroom*And so now We're gonna watch...a kinda adult film~Do you think you boys are mature enough for that?~

3rd-year students*Think they are FINALLY catching a break*OH MY SEVENS YES!?I can't BELIEVE this is happening...

Idia: Y-yeah man I didn't know they're allowed to show us stuff like that!

Cater*Hums is feeling iffy*...Mmh I dont know guys...this feels sus...like a trap

Trein*Refilling his wine glass*Huh well...Glad to know at least SOMEONE is not completely stupid today...

Yuu*Winking at them*WE'RE GONNA WATCH THE MIRACLE OF LIFE!~,FILM ABOUT A LIFE BIRTH!~ENJOY!~*Hits the play button*

3rd-year students:...WHAT-AAAAAAAOOOOH!?

Idia: OMS WHAT IS THAT!?!*covering his eyes but the...SOUNDS...*

Trey:...Um...I believe that is referred to as..."Crowning"...SIR'S WHY?

Crewel*Recording their reactions smiling at him*Um~For Y'all to suffer...so I can LAUGH MHAHAHA!~

Vil & Rook: Alright men, the gentlemen' way would be at least we can do is watch this all the way thru... it's the least we can do..given we will never ever have to actually DO THAT*Both also disturbed by it but they take a breath, Rook being sure to remain smiling*

Yuuka*Snaps fingers and points at him with a smug face*EXACTLY!

Idia*Waking up after he fainted*Ok I think im doin' better-*Sees the video eyes roll back and falls to the floor again*

Lilia*Looking at him, and turns to the teacher...also wanting to join them in the drinking and laughing at the younglins*Idia fainted again!~

Cater*Looking at the straight-faced Leona & Malleus*DUDE'S HOW ARE YOU WATCHING THIS SO CALMLY!?

Leona*Completly unphased looking at the birth, learn this at a very young age, drinking from his water bottle that has "Respect Woman Juice"*...

Mal*Beside him also has a straightfaced beside him arms crossed looking at the film*...

Malleus Draconia INTERNALLY*Silently screaming on the inside*

Its the "ENJOY~"That sends rollin'...Malleus now can't look at female humans in the eyes without apologizing-

Part of 3:

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scotianostra · 10 months

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Happy Birthday to the actor Tony Curran born 13th December 1969 in Glasgow.

Tony took to acting while still in his teens, he recalls the days in the Scottish Youth Theatre with Gerard Butler. Young Anthony Curran went on to attend the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama before gaining notoriety with a prominent role on the BBC series This Life. He would go on to make a name for himself in movies with a sci-fi/fantasy bent, like The 13th Warrior, Blade II, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Beowulf, of his small screen credits, our old favourite Taggart returns after not appearing on Kenneth Cranham’s CV yesterday!

Curran has made a name for himself in over the Atlantic in a number of US shows which include, Numb3rs, Medium, 24, Sons of Anarchy and Elementary. His most notable appearances over here have been in the ITV series Ultimate Force, Dr Who, as Vincent van Gogh , and more recently in the E4/Netflix original series Crazyhead.

Tony appeared in the 2018 Netflix film Outlaw King about Robert the Bruce and the Wars of Scottish Independence, where he played the part of Aonghus Óg of Islay, ( Angus Macdonald) chief of Clann Domhnaill. Back over in the states he has recently been in Ray Donovan, which is a great series series and few episodes of the CBS show SEAL Team. He also turned up in the mini series, Your Honor, which also stars the excellent US actor Brian Cranston of Breaking Bad fame, it’s great hearing Scottish accents in US shows, don’t you think?

Tony is another guy I follow on twitter, the guy has a heart of gold, I remember he tweeted “Me and my lass woke up this morning temperatures dropping compelled to help our homeless, loaded up some blankets pillows clothes, sweaters jackets, I’m sure we all have stuff we can donate, it all helps.” He was then out on the streets handing them out to the homeless, Tony was involved in a charity weekender with all funds raised going to St Mary’s & St Alphonsus and the great community work they do. He has in the past played charity football matches in Glasgow.

In the past couple of years Tony has been playing Despero in the Super Hero series The Flash, Tony has also appeared in the US movie, Two Deaths of Henry Baker where he plays a town Sheriff, this year he appeared in the US crime series The Calling, the show has some good reviews on IMDB with a 7.1/10 rating, and in an episode of the US show For All Mankind

Last year Tony appeared in a homegrown project. The two part “series”, Mayflies is set in a Scotland and Manchester in the 80′s Martin Compston co-stars along with new Shetland star Ashley Jensen, it is on BBC1 on December 28th. The show is based on a novel by Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan's book of the same name. It tells the story of Jimmy (Compston) and Tully (Curran) who ignite an “unforgettable friendship” defined by music, films and their shared rebellious spirit in a small Scottish town in the 1980s. if you haven't seen it, please look it up, and keep the hankies close by.

In the past couple of years Tony has appeared in a couple of US series, an unexpected second season of Your Honor and Secret Invasion.

On fame Tony commented;

"I've been lucky. I don't for a minute take for granted the good fortune I have had. You don't like to get ideas above your station, especially a boy from the south side of Glasgow."

#scotland #scottish #history #actor #television #cinema #happy birthday

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world-of-wales · 9 months

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─ • ✧ CATHERINE'S YEAR IN REVIEW : JULY ✧ • ─

4 JULY - Catherine attended Day-2 of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at Church Road. She first saw Katie Boulter Vs Daria Saville match on Court 18. Afterwards, she joined Roger Federer to watch Ryan Peniston Vs Andy Murray in the Royal Box on Centre Court. 5 JULY - Catherine and William featured in a series of photographs and short film as they attended a Tea Party to celebrate the NHS's 75th anniversary at St. Thomas Hospital. The Duchess of Rothesay and Prince William attended a Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication to celebrate the Coronation in St. Giles' Cathedral. Afterwards, they witnessed an RAF Fly-past from the Palace of Holyroodhouse. 6 JULY - Catherine and William attended Royal Charity Polo Match at the Guards Polo Club. 14 JULY - Catherine and William along with George, Charlotte and Louis were received by Air Marshal Sir David Walker (Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucestershire) at the Royal International Air Tattoo at Royal Air Force Fairford. Afterwards, Catherine visited the event's Techno Zone. 15 JULY - Catherine attended the Ladies' Final of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at Church Road. 16 JULY - Catherine was accompanied by William, George and Charlotte to the Gentlemen's Final of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.

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the-celluloid-correspondent · 5 months

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Challengers: Everything in Life is Tennis, Including Sex. A Review

Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach, turned her husband into a champion. But to overcome a losing streak, he needs to face his ex-best friend and Tashi's ex-boyfriend.

Have you ever met someone who makes their entire personality about a single thing and devotes their entire life to it? And what happens when three of these people who are obsessed with tennis get stuck in a sizzling love triangle? Ladies and gentlemen may I present to you Luca Guadgnino’s Challengers. A dazzling and smoking-hot romance that will turn everyone on.

We follow Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), a former tennis champion who has hit his thirties-slump after a string of injuries and losses. Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), his coach, and his wife sign him up for a minor league Challenger, to boost his confidence. However, emotions and sexual tensions rise as Art’s former best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend, Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) signs up for the competition as well while cosplaying as a starving artist tennis player who is down on his luck.

The final game of the tournament between Art and Patrick serves as a bookend to the film’s narrative. Throughout the film, interwoven flashbacks and flashforwards navigate the intricate web of the characters’ love triangle, akin to the rhythmic volleying of a tennis ball between players. Much like the intensity of a final match in a tennis tournament, Challengers has an unstoppable and frenetic energy, albeit occasionally veering into confusion. You are constantly on the edge of your seat from the pounding and pulsating synthwave/techno score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Sayombhu Mekdeeprom's innovative cinematography pushes boundaries, whether by placing the camera within the tennis ball's perspective or beneath the court, capturing the raw intensity exuded by the talented ensemble cast. From the glistening sweat of Hollywood's finest to the kinetic action on screen, Challengers delivers a visual and emotional experience unlike any other.

While some may find it disappointing that Challengers lacks explicit sexual content, the film compensates with an abundance of erotic tension and a palpable atmosphere that more than suffices. Even innocuous scenes, such as two "best friends" sharing churros in close proximity, exude a homoerotic undercurrent that underscores the intricate power dynamics within the trio. These moments offer a revealing glimpse into the competitive desires driving Art and Patrick's pursuit of Tashi, while she deftly manipulates their affections to serve her own ends. Through these interactions, the film skillfully unravels the complex interplay of ambition and desire that will ultimately shape their destinies. Whether it's Tashi's vicarious living through her husband's tennis career or Patrick's conflicted relationship with his own athletic prowess, Challengers adeptly navigates the intricate psychology of its characters, laying bare their vulnerabilities and motivations with finesse.

Despite their characters' somewhat underdeveloped nature, the ensemble cast delivers performances brimming with fervent intensity. Mike Faist captivates with a physically charged portrayal that evolves from vigor to a melancholic resignation, embodying the struggles of navigating the pitfalls of early thirties ennui. John O'Connor exudes devilish charm as Patrick, skillfully balancing between ineptitude and magnetic unpredictability, keeping audiences on edge with every twist of his character's whims. Zendaya commands attention as Tashi, exuding a commanding presence that borders on intimidating, deftly manipulating her male counterparts to fulfill her desires. The palpable chemistry among the trio ignites the screen, infusing the film with a smoking-hot dynamic that adds an extra layer of intrigue to their complex relationships.

Challengers serve up a riveting and provocative exploration of love, ambition, and rivalry amidst the competitive world of tennis. Director Luca Guadagnino crafts his most accessible and captivating work yet, seamlessly blends provocative themes with sheer entertainment. The film ignites with an irresistible allure, evoking visceral reactions and stirring emotions within viewers. Unapologetically seductive, Challengers basks in its own sensuality, embracing its innate allure with unbridled confidence.

My Rating: A

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tinyreviews · 4 months

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Tiny Review: The Gentlemen. Exciting, intriguing crime rollercoaster.

It’s a very masculine, British movie. Cleverly written, good at building anticipation, baiting each scene. Full of tension and twists. I enjoyed it a lot. MUST WATCH!

The Gentlemen is a 2019 action comedy film written, directed and produced by Guy Ritchie, who developed the story along with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, Colin Farrell, and Hugh Grant.

#the gentlemen #guy ritchie #matthew mcconaughey #charlie hunnam #henry golding #michelle dockery #jeremy strong #eddie marsan #colin farrell #hugh grant #british movies #comedy movies #crime movie #thriller movies #2019 movies #movie review #must watch

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chimichangasanddoorknobs · 2 months

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🎬 Benoit Blanc's Review: Deadpool and Wolverine (2024) 🎬

{AIN'T NOBODY ASK FOR THIS BUT HERE YOU GO, translation below}

Lay-dees and gentlemen, gathuh 'round, fo' Ah have just witnessed a cinematic concoction most peculeeyuh and enthrawlin'—"Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)." Now, whut we have heah is a film that defies convenshunal categorizayshun, a verra-tuh-bul gumbo of genres and tones that, agaynst all odds, forms a dee-leck-ta-bul dish.

Plot:

The plot, much like an intricate tapestry, weaves tuhgethuh time travel, inter-dimen-shun-al es-capades, and a most curious partnership. Deadpool, po'trayed with the usual irreverent flair by Ryan Reynolds, and Wolverine, brought to life once more by the evuh-gruff Hugh Jackman, find they-selves entangled in a mission to thwart a villain of considerable men'ce. While the narr'tive may twist and turn like a windin' country road, one finds oneself more delighted by the journey than concerned with the destination.

Action:

The action sequences are, to put it mildly, a spectacle to behold. It is as if one has placed a ballet within the confines of a tempest—grace and brutality entwined. Deadpool's acrobatics and Wolverine's raw powuh form a dichot'my of chaos and precision that is nothin' short of mesmurizin'. Each clash, each skirmish, is a symphony of violence and virtuosity.

Comedy:

Ah, the humor! It flows as freely as the Mississippi Rivuh, cuttin' through the tension with sharp wit and a devil-may-care attitude. Deadpool's penchant for breakin' the fourth wall, for addressin' the audience directly, creates a meta-humor that is both disarmin' and delightful. Wolverine's more taciturn demeanor provides the perfect foil, resultin' in a dynamic that is as entertainin' as it is endearin'.

Performances:

Ryan Reynolds, as Deadpool, is in his element, deliverin' lines with a rapid-fire cadence that leaves one both amused and awestruck. Hugh Jackman, as Wolverine, brings a gravitas and intensity that grounds the film's more outlandish moments. Together, their chemistry is palpable, their banter a dance of words that is as compelling as the physical combat.

Overall:

In conclusion, "Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)" is a film that defies simple description. It is a riotous blend of action, comedy, and heart, a roller-coaster ride that leaves one breathless and exhill'rated. It is, if you will, a cinematic feast that satisfies on multiple levels. Whether you are a devotee of these characters or a newcomuh to their es-capades, this film offuhs somethin' for ev'ryone. So, mah friends, do partake in this delightful piece of entuh-tain-ment, and prepare yo'selves for a most extraordinary experience. 🕵️‍♂️✨

Enjuh the movie, deah readers, and remembuh: sometimes, the journey is far more fascinatin' than the destination.

TRANSLATION:

Ladies and gentlemen, gather around, for what I have just witnessed a cinematic concoction most peculiar and enthralling: "Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)." Now, what we have here is a film that defies conventional categorization, a veritable gumbo of genres and tones that, against all odds, forms a delectable dish.

Plot:

The plot, much like an intricate tapestry, weaves together time travel, interdimensional escapades, and a most curious partnership. Deadpool, portrayed with the usual irreverent flair by Ryan Reynolds, and Wolverine, brought to life once more by the ever-gruff Hugh Jackman, find themselves entangled in a mission to thwart a villain of considerable menace.

Action:

The action sequences are, to put it mildly, a spectacle to behold. It is as if one has placed a ballet within the confines of a tempest—grace and brutality entwined. Deadpool's acrobatics and Wolverine's raw power form a dichotomy of chaos and precision that is nothing short of mesmerizing. Each clash, each skirmish, is a symphony of violence and virtuosity.

Comedy:

Ah, the humor! It flows as freely as the Mississippi River, cutting through the tension with sharp wit and a devil-may-care attitude. Deadpool's penchant for breaking the fourth wall, for addressing the audience directly, creates a meta-humor that is both disarming and delightful. Wolverine's more taciturn demeanor provides the perfect foil, resulting in a dynamic that is as entertaining as it is endearing.

Performances:

Reynolds is in his element, delivering lines with a rapid-fire cadence that leaving one both amused and awestruck. Jackman brings a gravitas and intensity that grounds the film's more outlandish moments. Together, their chemistry is palpable, their banter a dance of words as compelling as the physical combat.

Villain:

The antagonist of our tale is a figure of intrigue and menace, a foe who challenges our heroes both physically and psychologically. This villain is not merely a cardboard cutout of evil but a character with depth and complexity, adding a layer of richness to the proceedings.

Overall:

In conclusion, "Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)" is a film that defies simple description. It is a riotous blend of action, comedy, and heart, a rollercoaster ride that leaves one breathless and exhilarated. It is, if you will, a cinematic feast that satisfies on multiple levels. Whether you are a devotee of these characters or a newcomer to their escapades, this film offers something for everyone. So, my friends, do partake in this delightful piece of entertainment, and prepare yourself for a most extraordinary experience. 🕵️‍♂️✨

#deadpool & wolverine #deadpool #benoit blanc #daniel craig #marvel #mcu #wade wilson #ryan reynolds #wolverine #logan howlett #hugh jackman #deadpool movie #deadpool movie review

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thenightling · 5 months

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My review of Asylum's Monster Mash: How Asylum managed to do what Univeral Studios Dark Universe could not

Last night I watched the new Asylum mockbuster, Monster Mash. What is Asylum? And What is a Mockbuster? A Mockbuster is a low budget knock-off movie of a film that is either already a blcokbuster hit or anticipated to be a hit. When Pacific Rim came out Asylum released a Mockbuster called Atlantic Rim. When Dracula 2000 came out, Dracula 3000 aired on The Scifi Channel. When Morbius came out, Asylum made Dracula: The Original Living Vampire. Sometimes the connection to the blockbuster they were "inspired by" is very slim. Asylum was founded twenty-five-years-ago to make mockbusters of high budget, blockbuster, and mainstream scifi and horror films. A lot of Asylum's creations have been released on Syfy (Formerly the Scifi Channel) as Syfy original movies. Most Asylum movies are either made-for-TV or direct to DVD / Blu Ray / Streaming. One season of the Netflix incarnation of Mystery Science Theatre were all Asylum mockbusters. This year there was a highly anticipated vampire movie called Abigail. The plot was about the daughter of a crime boss (heavily implied to be Dracula all along). The daughter gets kidnapped and it turns out her kidnappers are actually her intended victims. So Asylum released their own Mockbuster called Monster Mash and managed to release it two weeks before Abigail came out.

And what a treat this Monster Mash was! It was so delightfully corny! So wonderfully bad. I actually loved it. This was a so-bad-it's-good movie. There are other films called Monster Mash, including a semi-Juke Box musical. This is the only one from 2024. I think I liked Asylum's Monster Mash more than the 2012 Dario Argento's Dracula, which until now, was my favorite campy, bad Dracula movie. My nickname for Dario Argento's Dracula is Mantis Drac because Dracula transforms into a giant female preying Mantis at one point with very low quality CG effects. In Monster Mash, Dracula's daughter is kidnapped by Boris (A rather simple minded but sweet hearted Frankenstein monster) serving the evil Dr. Frankenstein, who wants to use Dracula's daughter as bait to lure out Dracula. Dr. Frankenstein is dying and wants to transfer his consciousness to a new monster, an utterly indestructible monster- supposedly. Dr. Frankenstein wants to use the parts of all the classic monsters including blood from Dracula, skin from The invisible Man, the heart of Rameses The Mummy, and the limbs of an immortal werewolf. Werewolves in traditional folklore, and the original Universal monster movies actually were immortal except when it came to silver.

The movie has minimum gore and suspense (except perhaps where Dracula almost kills his daughter's slave girl). It's tame enough where I think it could work for a child's first introduction to the classic monsters in a horror setting. (You know, outside of cartoons like Hotel Transylvania). I liked it a lot. For an Asylum film there was limited low-quality CG except once Dr. Frankenstein's creation came to life. That's when Asylum brought it its trademark low quality SFX.

The movie was not just a mockbuster of Abigail. It also felt like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but with the classic monsters. There were aspects that reminded me of House of Frankenstein. Dracula's daughter even had wanted a cure for her vampiric condition, like in the Universal monster movie, Dracula's daughter. There are a lot of nice, subtle, homages to classic monster movies. You realize pretty fast that the classic monsters are the heroes of the story (even though Dracula does occasionally snack on a hapless damsel). And I found myself delighted through the corny cheese. THIS is what Universal studios should have give us with their promised Dark Universe. THIS was a classic monsters version of Avengers and with the campy cheese of an asylum mockbuster it was actually fun. It was charming. I usually have difficulty sitting through an Asylum mockbister, let alone want to watch it again. This one I would happily watch again. It was fun. It was cheesy, good, fun. I liked it. I liked it a lot. Honestly, the actor who played Dracula was so much fun in this, Asylum doesn't deserve him. He deserves to be in something better but man, he made the movie. It was the sort of corny movie you might imagine Peter Vincent from the 1985 Fright Night starring in. Much like a classic Hammer Horror movie you can't quite tell what country it's set in or even what time period. There's almost a fairytale-like quality to it. An agelessness that is nostalgic and also refreshing.

This is, hands down, my favorite Asylum Mockbuster. Honestly, I loved it. If I had kids I'd have probably used it as their first horror film exposure to the classic movie monsters, not too scary, yet also well paced and the characters are likable. It was cheesy, corny, fun. I want to see more monster movies like this. THIS is the sort of film Universal Studios Dark Universe should have produced for us. Somehow Asylum managed to give us what Universal should have. It's rare that I say something like this but Universal Studios take note. The low budget mockbuster did what you wanted to but could not. I liked this so much I want Asylum to make a whole franchise out of it or even a TV series. I'd watch the Hell out of Dracula and his team of monsters trying to be the heroes. This was some damn good brain candy. My harshest complaints are that I prefer articulate and intelligent Frankenstein monsters like in Mary Shelley's novel but as this creature was named Boris he's obviously a homage to the zeitgeist Universal Studios tropey idea of the Frankenstein Monster. Also there's an odd moment where Dracula's daughter (named Elisabeta as a nod to the Bram Stoker's Dracula movie) comments about how she can read minds (with the aid of psychometry) but Dracula cannot read minds. I find this particularly odd since psychic abilities are some of his more common powers, even in films where they forget his ability to turn into Bat, wolf, and mist. Other than these petty details I loved this movie. It was very bad but very fun, a deliciously cheesy monster movie.

#Monster Mash #Asylum #Asylum films #Asylum pictures #Asylum movies #Asylum 2024 #Dracula #Frankenstein #The Invisible Man #Griffin #The Mummy

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agentnico · 6 months

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Late Night with the Devil (2024) review

Nothing beats retro 70’s demonic haunting. It was a simpler time…

Plot: Johnny Carson rival Jack Delroy hosts a syndicated talk show ‘Night Owls’ that has long been a trusted companion to insomniacs around the country. However, ratings for the show have plummeted since the tragic death of Jack's beloved wife. Desperate to turn his fortunes around, on October 31st, 1977, Jack plans a Halloween special like no other- unaware he is about to unleash evil into the living rooms of America.

Ladies and gentlemen, please do not adjust your television sets, for there is a new found-footage horror film in town from the indy circuit, and it might just breath the right amount of fresh air into an oversaturated genre. Personally I’ve never been a major fan of found-footage. I hear folks raving about the original Blair Witch Project yet all I watched was a bunch of guys running around the woods screaming endlessly for no reason. Additionally the shaky-cam element can be so dizzying and sickly that I truly end up questioning the entertainment value of it all. There are exceptions to the rule of course. 2008’s science fiction invasion popcorn flick Cloverfield was tons of fun, as it provided a genuine experience of what it would be like if you were thrown right into the middle of monster attack in the millennial age. There are also some genuine scares and the found footage format worked really well with the film’s themes. I too enjoyed the 2020 black comedy Spree, where Joe Keery’s driver goes on a murder spree whilst constantly filming himself in hopes of becoming a viral sensation. It may not be a five-star ride, but it earns its tip for being a well crafted and inspired effort. To be fair, The Visit from M. Night Shyamalamadingdong was enjoyable piece of horror involving creepy grandparents. Okay, maybe I do enjoy found-footage flicks, but as long as they are decently made and that format style supports the narrative in a cohesive and advantageous way.

With Late Night with the Devil, ideologies of faith and the paranormal are challenged through the lens of the late-night TV format. Think how the 1976 Network analysed the corruption of the television industry, and how the camera can influence the politics and beliefs of those watching, Late Night with the Devil does the same but with the supernatural. Presented as a rediscovered master tape of a notorious Halloween late night special, it feels like we’re watching an actual talk show in real time, and the 70’s inspiration is in full display here from the grainy monitor display to the costumers to the special effects. It truly feels like we’re looking into a time capsule of the past, and that this all really happened. Again, found-footage as a filmmaking style works when it serves the purpose of the narrative, which in this case it does. It is a shame then that the movie in its finale loses the found-footage element and instead opts for the shock value by showcasing a dream-like vision of one of the characters. Granted at the time of watching the ending it did give me a “what the fuck” reaction that the movie was going for, but looking back this sequence did hinder what otherwise was a fantastic piece of creepy unique horror.

Performances across the entire cast were great and really dedicated. Wonderful to see David Dastmalchian finally get a leading role, as he’s always been a stand-out supporting performer, whether he was polka-dotting in The Suicide Squad, or stealing the comedic limelight from Paul Rudd in the Ant-Man movies, or being a haunting presence in every Denis Villeneuve epic. Dastmalchian is a true scene stealer, and at age 48 it is shocking that only now he finally gets a lead role. Regardless he is fantastic as Jack Delroy, as he balances the charming charisma of a late-night talk show host whilst also showcases the inner demons of this character, still mourning the recent death of his wife, as well as his eagerness to become relevant again after consistently losing ratings. From the quivers in his voice to the fear in his eyes, this is a really juicy showcasing role for Dastmalchian and one that is sure to be a memorable one when looking back on the actor’s rich filmography. Ingrid Torelli as Lilly the possessed survivor of a Satanic cult was truly creepy and unnerving. From her voice changes to her awkward movements, she truly felt unnatural, or dare I say supernatural, and her strangeness was at times even comical, but also really uncomfortable. Ian Bliss as Carmichael Hunt, a paranormal sceptic, too gave a powerhouse performance, delivering lines with prowess and was a truly commanding presence. Rhys Auteri rounds up the cast as Gus the announcer of Jack’s late night show, acting very befit of, say, a Higgins for Jimmy Fallon or a Guillermo for Jimmy Kimmel. He very much embraced the role as Dastmalchian’s side-kick and provided some solid light-hearted comedy to the proceedings.

Late Night with the Devil is a true delight for horror enthusiasts, with some great use of old-school practical effects evidently inspired by 1982’s The Thing, solid sound design that harkened back to that era of television, and enough unsettling moments of suspense to entertain and shock. Minus a couple of cheap electrical sparks there isn’t any CGI used which is refreshing, and overall visually the retro element was truly delightful. Again, the ending does scratch some heads, but overall this is a refreshing piece of campy horror, with a showcasing performance from Dastmalchian. In this you can truly put your faith on.

Overall score: 7/10

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tilbageidanmark · 29 days

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MOVIES I WATCHED THIS WEEK (#190):

Jeanne Moreau X 2:

🍿 First watch: MR. KLEIN (1976), my third by blacklisted Joseph Losey (after 'The servant' and 'Modesty Blaise'). An intelligent mystery about mistaken identity. Privileged art dealer in occupied Paris Alain Delon benefits from the misfortunes of his clients who must liquidate their collections at fire sale prices. That is, until he's suspected of being Jewish himself. One of Delon's best roles.

RIP, Alain Delon!

🍿 THE ADOLESCENT (1978), one of the only 3 movies directed by Jeanne Moreau, was a delightful coming-of-age French bonbon. In the summer of 1939, just before the outbreak of the war, a 13 year old girl is vacationing in a small village near Avignon, and falls in love with a young doctor, 20 years her senior. And then her mother, full of sensual energy, has an affair with him instead. (Suzanne Lindon re-worked the same story in her wonderful 2020 'Spring Blossom'). Thematically it was a bit thin, but the pastoral landscapes, accordion score, and nostalgic haze were catnip to any Francophile worth his Vin Rouge. Simone Signoret plays the grandma, and there's one explicit naked scene of the young girl. 7/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

I AM GRETA is a terrific 2020 documentary about Greta Thunberg, the then-17 brave crusader. It was made by somebody who had close personal access to her from the very beginning of her journey. I admired her steadfast heroism from the first weeks of her school-strikes in Stockholm, and was deeply-moved by her ascent into a global icon and torch-bearer environmentalist. And of course, she reminded me of Adora, both physically and in spirit. It's a very personal experience to me. What an legend. 9/10.

It must be devastating (to her, and to us) to look back today at the enthusiastic movement that she inspired, and recognize that it didn't amount to jack shit. (Screenshot Above).

🍿

Bergman X 5:

🍿 BERGMAN, A YEAR IN A LIFE (2018), another documentary of another complicated Swede, is the best biography about the legendary filmmaker. It focuses on 1957, a year in which he directed both 'The Seventh Seal' and 'Wild Strawberries', as well as television play and 4 massive theater productions. He also had 5 simultaneous relationships, and spent a month in the hospital, suffering from stomach ulcer and mental exhaustion. It paints an honest portrait, warts and all, of a truly iconic 'artiste', and one who enjoyed, from this point forward, the recognition and worldwide admiration as a one-of-a-kind genius. But also a selfish, lonely 'Erotoman', a megalomaniac workaholic, and a power hungry autocrat. (Also, a Nazi sympathizer until at least 1946). Essential viewing to all Bergman fans. 9/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿 TORMENT ("HETS") (1944) is a love triangle between fallen "shop girl" Mai Zetterling, a good looking student who falls for her her, and a sadistic Latin teacher who tortures them both. It was the very first Bergman screenplay which was produced, and he also directed some of the exterior scenes. A good review - here.

🍿 WILD STRAWBERRIES was made by a 39 year old man and perfectly captured the mindset of a really 'old' man, a bitter and resigned man at the end of his life. Of all the thousands of great movies made, this is the one nobody will object to when calling it a 'Masterpiece'. An immaculate 10/10. Re-watch ♻️.

🍿 KARIN'S FACE, a 14-min. visual poem from 1986, composed of still photos of his mother Karin, the most important woman in his life.

🍿 MINNS NI? ("DO YOU REMENBER?") is a quick mash-up of clips from 170 Swedish films, including many of Bergman's. The concept was better played in 'Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen'.

🍿

My 18th terrific film by Agnès Varda, SALUT LES CUBAINS. After her 1963 visit to Cuba, she composed a poetic montage out of the 4,000 still photos that she shot over there. A beautiful homage to the faces and the spirit of the people as well as the revolution. Narrated by herself and Michel Piccoli, and with great music score. I watched it in the original French. 9/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

Ali Abbasi is an Iranian-Danish filmmaker, who directed 4 features so far. After seeing his 'Holy Spider' last week, I wanted to continue with the rest of his work. BORDER (2018) is an inventive folklorist tale about a woman with a Neanderthal appearance who works for the Swedish Border Service. She uses her feral sense of smell to sniff out people's fear, guilt and shame, for example when they hide child porn on their phones. It's a dark and disturbing story which starts with an unusual premise, but ends as a weird body-horror fantasy about forest trolls and changelings and what-have you.

As a completist, I was planning on seeing his debut feature 'Shelley', which looked like a 'Rosemary's Baby' re-boot out in the country, but I'm not in the mood for another Horror Nordic. Instead I'll just wait for his upcoming Trump Origin story, 'The apprentice'.

🍿

"Don't kill anyone unless you really have to."

GREEDY PEOPLE, a new, twisted black comedy in the Coen Brothers mold: Bumbling characters turn small time crooks by making one worst decision after another. A surprising fun ride, with a specific small island community feel. The title only comes up at 24:00 min. and the defining dog murder falls at exactly the mid point of the story. The initial reviews were not that great, but I enjoyed it very much for fulfilling its genre requirements. 8/10.

🍿

OCEAN WAVES (1993), a lesser known Ghibli Studio film about two student friends who both fall for a new girl who just transferred to their school. Not a typical Ghibli drama of a teen romance, with flatter anime style, but still an understated, whimsical score.

🍿

"The continent is peopled almost entirely by homosexuals..."

DANCE FIRST, my 3rd fictionalized film by British director James Marsh, (after his much better documentaries 'Man on Wire' and 'Project Nim').

A deferential, melodramatic and uninspiring Samuel Becket biopic. I dislike filmed literary biographies in general, and I hated this boring, affectatious one in particular. I don't particularly care for Gabriel Byrne high-brow/low-brow acting style, and I definitely couldn't stomach the dude who played his younger self. The fake inner monologue, the horrible attempt at bringing James Joyce back from the dead... It was excruciating to sit through.

🍿

Michigan J. frog X 2:

🍿 “Hello, my baby; hello, my honey; hello, my ragtime gal.”

ONE FROGGY EVENING, a 1955 Chuck Jones cartoon which introduced the all-singing, all-dancing frog, but who does it only when it feels like it. Based on a Cary Grant movie from the 40's.

🍿 First watch: Mel Brooks Star Wars parody SPACEBALLS, the inspiration to 'Black Mirror' USS Callister. But I never saw any Star Wars or Star Trek movies, and it just wasn't very funny. The jokes were on the 'I Love URANUS' bumper stickers level, and Stephen Tobolowsky as a gay trooper. 2/10.

Colonel Sandurz was much better when he later played Rabbi Nachtner.

🍿

2 by young Canadian documentarian Carol Nguyen:

🍿 NO CRYING AT THE DINNER TABLE (2019) is a simple, yet powerful, family interview. Vietnamese family, father, mother and sister, opens up for the first time about private traumas they each carry with them. Then they listen to the recorded conversations together. 8/10.

🍿 NANITIC (2022) is another simple and sensitive look into the psyche of a young girl who is spending the day with her Vietnamese grandma, as she lays on her death bed in the living room. 8/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

2 by another young Canadian, Justine Gauthier:

🍿 DEATH TO THE BIKINI! (2023) an award-winning short about a rebellious 10-year-old girl who refuses to start wearing bikini tops when going to the water park. Like the Jeanne Moreau film above, it features nude scenes of the unapologetic prepubescent girl.

🍿 "...So, there's only a living room and a kitchen and a bathroom?"

THE APARTMENT (2018), a newly-divorced mother spends the first weekend with her two kids at her new small apartment. Sad. 8/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

Philips Cinema / Parallel Lines had a contest in 2010 where 600 filmmakers created shorts using only six lines "What is it? ... A unicorn... Never seen one up close before.... Beautiful."

THE GIFT (2010), one of the only few science-fiction shorts I love. A messenger delivers a mysterious box to a rich man in dystopian Moscow. A frequent re-watch ♻️.

THE BURIED is a 'Breaking Bad' final scene at the desert.

25 of the finalists are on YouTube.

🍿

A few more shorts:

🍿 In THE HAIRCUT (1982), busy executive John Cassavetes has only 15 minutes to get a haircut, but he gets the best one of his life. It includes a manicure, pedicure, shoulder rub, shoe shine, romance, and a performance by The Bangles. Directed by Susanna Hoffs' mother. [*Female Director*]

🍿 PAS DE DEUX (1968), my second by Canadian Norman McLaren (after 'Neighbors'). A ballet short with Romanian pan flute music score.

🍿 Only my second by D.W. Griffith, THE MUSKETEERS OF PIG ALLEY (1912). An early gangster movie, starring Lillian Gish

🍿 FUNERAL AT NINE (2022), a beautiful short directed together by 6 animators. Three brothers deal with grief differently.

🍿 THE COOK is like a Swiss 'Ratatouille' but with weed instead of food, and also it's just a dream.

🍿

IT'S A GOOD LIFE (S3E8) is my fourth-ever 'Twilight Zone'. I wonder how much of the American mindset of 'Magical Thinking' was born out of it. Or did the 1950's paranoia and crushing conformity produce this sense of 'Normalcy' threatened by the mystic, the bizarre, the 'odd'? 'Everybody must always smile, and think good thoughts.'

🍿

"...So I reached out to my local militia..."

AMERICA'S RIGHT-WING RADICALS is a new, German documentary about the military veterans who are systematically building a functioning shadow army ready for a civil war in the near future. Trumpists, Nazis, fascists and racists united for one glorious holy fight, to get rid of the Jews, the blacks, and the poor...

🍿

Throw-back to the Adora Art project:

Adora with Alain Delon.

Waiting for Godot Adora.

Adora with Greta Thunberg.

Seventh Seal Adora.

Ballerina Adora.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here).

#movies #adora #greta #greta thunberg #i am Greta #Skolstrejk för klimatet

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