#the last of hs hbo

[colloquialcolors]

gonna write a fucking post about the Winter TLOU section and episode 8 because what ELSE am I supposed to do after witnessing that huh.

As someone very very pleased overall with the adaptation from the game to the show, something I have missed a little is, oddly enough- the hard cuts to black and time jumps after emotionally harrowing sequences or intense moments. After Henry and Sam's deaths. Joel collapsing outside the university. This episode, though, made something about that choice click into place.

For more context- in the game, this section comes immediately after Joel's fall and unconsciousness. The entire section with Riley and Ellie panicking was DLC, meaning the original flow of the story does not provide you with that context, and you might miss it entirely. Instead, the game cuts to black as Joel goes unsconscious with Ellie pleading above him-

and you get the title card. WINTER. It was not winter before. And you are Ellie, hunting. You have been playing this whole game as Joel thus far, and you suddenly, after all that chaos, are Ellie. Hunting in a white blanketed forest. Lighter, quieter, agile and a far cry from the girl yelling, panicked, above Joel.

And this Ellie is capable, at hunting- she already has a rabbit or two, and has just shot another- when she spots the deer, she has some idea of how to track and take it down (hindered mostly by us, the player, adjusting to controlling her). Until the encounter with David, where Ellie asks a little desperately about medicine, you have no inkling on if Joel is even alive, and Ellie being so capable is almost its own negative indicator. As the section wears on, Ellie does a lot more killing in game than she does here- she stabs a nonzero amount of clickers, zombies, and people in the neck during various navigation and escape scenes, shoots the rifle and the bow (miss u bow) with her own kind of proficiency, and reflects many things you have to assume she learned from Joel. The game medium lends itself well to a certain level of capability, of course- even for 14 year olds with bloodied hands.

While the hard cuts to black provide a gut punch I do miss a bit, getting rid of those allows the show to fill in some gaps- especially about these characters in their weak moments, low moments, after the dust has settled and they need to pick themselves up again. It does a lot in humanizing them. Shows them rattled and uncertain and shaken and mourning, instead of dropping us back in after they've picked back up their broken pieces, given the dignity of speculation.

Ellie, especially, is more scared here- more uncertain, more shaky, playacting as Joel rather than successfully emulating him. There is no hard cut where we get to assume Ellie has scraped things together and settled in it. We see her fear, playing out, see her desperation firsthand, before she even sets back out. She is so young. She was young, in the game too, but it is driven home in new and more intense ways, here. She is so profoundly out of her depth.

The uncertainty makes these same victories hit harder, too. Ellie, terrified and horrified and angry, sassing back. Ellie with realization and fear dawning- making the play for the keys, snapping his finger. "Tell them Ellie is the little girl who broke your fucking finger." Ellie, telling him- I'm infected, and now you are too. So many of these lines and scenes are almost verbatim, but it lands differently, with this different context, with an Ellie who is much less sure but still so lethal.

Less, and more. David's entire Fucking Pedophile Shit deal was much less prominent, in game. The overtness of it made things so much worse. So much scarier. Bella's delivery of Ellie's yells and reactions carry an edge of panic, of fear, of raw emotion, brings a scene that was always at 150% up to 300%, until Ellie, screaming, swinging down the knife is an almost physical, visceral catharsis.

In the game, Joel finds here there- pulls her off, pulls her into a hug after she fights him for a moment, the music swelling to give their words to each other privacy as they lock gazes and speak. Here- Ellie pulls herself back to reality. She finishes her catharsis. She realizes, on her own, face spattered with blood, what she's done. She stumbles from the smoke to the clean outside under her own power, on her own.

When Joel grabs her- she fights, there is such audible rage and horror and fear, and it hurts more, it cuts deeper, understanding that fear, the depth of it. Before he spins her around, and the comfort scene is only half a minute longer, but there is so much more to it- more that led up to it, and more in the moment, of Ellie's gaze going from panicked to unbelieving to weak with relief to something heavier.

So few cut aways in the show. no dignity of a timeskip and implied fractures, just bleeding characters, holding onto each other in the snow.

[moon-ursidae]

if i hear returning play when joel and tommy hug i will melt into the floor.

and if i also hear THE CHOICE???? it’s over. no one will see or hear from me ever again. i will have disappeared from this plane of existence.

[flashnthunder]

Miscellaneous tag game

@grumpy-liebgott and @sharkboyandlavalieb tagged me <333 and i am of course a million years late

Favorite place in the world you’ve visited?

inside the us i would say maine, i love the ocean/forest combo it's got going on

Something you’re proud of yourself for?

coauthoring several medical research papers as an undergrad, which is like my one and only flex and it's a nerdy one

Favorite books?

new hampshire- robert frost, the art of being human- michael wesch, ajax- sophocles (yes, only one of these is technically a book ik)

Something that makes your heart happy when thinking about it?

it might be cheesy to say music, but music and my friends <3

Favorite thing about your culture?

from the midwest US (so there's not that much), but i was raised very much in borderline appalachia and the older i've gotten the more i've come to appreciate that as part of how i was raised, so i would say quilting! i was taught to quilt by the women in my family and i still cherish the connection to them through that

When did you join the HBO War fandom? What was the first show you watched?

band of brothers in 8th grade, my history teacher would play it for us and i'm pretty sure he used it in place of actually teaching but he was a real one and also a drill sergeant so i don't think anyone argued with his methods

Have you read any of Easy Company’s books? If so, which ones were your favorite?

have NOT read any BoB books, but i have read most of the ones that inspired the pacific + a shit ton of pacific memoirs in general

Favorite HBO War character and your favorite moment with them?

lip and luz with the dud shell, bull watching out for the younger replacements, the officers in the eagle's nest, and just in general all of episode 8

Do you make content for any fandoms, if so; what sort of content?

band of brothers, top gun, the pacific (hypothetically), mota now it looks like, way back to my roots would be star trek and also whatever was going on with bandoms in hs that is a dark time

Favorite actor/actress and your favorite film of theirs?

oooh idk it changes, but last year i was on an ethan hawke kick- 'adopt a highway' and 'first reformed' are two he's good in (obligatory dead poets society mention ofc)

Favorite quote/s that you wish to share with others?

"Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night." - sarah williams

Random fact your mutuals/followers don’t know about you?

so bad at fun facts uhhh. uh. i am double-jointed in my hands.

If you’re a writer, do you need a beta reader (say yes so I can be your beta reader 🤭)?

i have NEVER had a beta reader and i am simply too scared to ask how it works because i'm not sure anyone should have to be subjected to my writing process but!! always willing to give a new thing a shot

Three things that make you smile?

my dog when she stretches in the sun, swimming in a creek in the summer, sitting in the car with my best friend while it rains

Any nicknames you like?

izzy! i have liked it well enough to all but legally make it my real name, other than that izzy-maye from people i'm close with, or iz/izzers when people are in a hurry

List some people you love to see around on tumblr!

@andromeddog art makes me go feral, @mutantmanifesto killer art that is living rent-free in my mind, @ewipandora MWAH you already know you make my day better on here, @onehelluvamarine has me kicking my feet giggling when they're in my notifs, @terresdebrume lovely writing <3

What would you do during a zombie apocalypse?

foolproof 3 step plan, ready for it? 1- find a good ditch 2- lay down in the ditch 3- just let it happen

idealistically i think i could go chill in the woods for a semi-significant period of time and be alright

Favorite movie?

logan's run (comfort movie, questionable 70s sci-fi), the hunt for red october (always feeling very big feelings on this), arrival, apocalypse now, fury, dead poets society, alexander (like the 4 hours version because im insufferable like that) the old star trek movies

Do you like horror movies?

i love horror movies WITH people you will not catch me watching them on my own, but 100% love love getting to sit on someone's couch and watch one

Tagging:

(no pressure and apologies for any double tagging) @ewipandora @blood-mocha-latte @deputy-buck @lamialamia @blurredcolour @saturnwisteria @staud + anyone i tagged in my answers and forgot to tag down here, or anyone who just wants to do it :)

[suavis]

So many (white) queer people more annoyed that hs is being used for comparison than a show with a black lesbian lead was cancelled 🤨 not surprised with their priorities but jesus they’re just out and loud today, but aaaanyway HBO max is done for so who are we bothering? Hulu, Amazon, freeform, peacock with their new vamp show coming out next month? Where are we putting our energy?

yeah exactly it's so transparent they don't care abt the cancellation they only care that we're dragging them into it </3 when like. it's a comparison that's needed to be made for a long time bc wlw ships are simply never as popular and celebrated as mlm ships! and from what i've heard streaming services can't purchase first kill from netflix but networks can? im not caught up with which network's the most likely to pick it up bc the last time i can remember a wlw show cancelled by netflix getting picked up by a network was odaat. anyone else have an idea of which has a chance of picking it up?

[learningfromlosing]

I remember so clearly that I had friends who were actually jerks in disguise.

I remember so vividly that one of my "friends" I had in HS, who for some reason ended up on the same side of the country as I did look me in the face and ask me what my last act of protest was. Like genuinely made me feel bad that I wasn't marching or some shit.

And then go to a Halloween party at her place where she was dressed as Tim riddle.

She was so snippy when I asked her if we can separate the things we like, like books with the author or musician if they're terrible people and she immediately said Yes in an annoyed voice.

How the fuck are you going to act like I am not doing my part, my agoraphobic ass isn't marching or fucking protesting, and then you whole ass make a costume from one of the worst people to ever write a book and act like you're deserving of asking someone that question and turning your nose up.

I don't listen to Melanie Martinez anymore. I don't watch Hary Puter anymore, I refuse to even spell it right. I don't listen to Chris Brown when that fucking song came out with suicide squad. You absolutely cannot differentiate and say that you can like what you like while liking someone's shit who is profiting off of it. You absolutely know that they made that, who they are, and what they do with the publicity that that piece of material gives them.

I don't fucking give a shit if it's your favorite movies, shows, songs, I literally could play a violin as you cry and try and justify it. Watch another fucking movie. I don't care. If you know what's going on, you know what they do with their publicity, what they advocate for, and you choose to still give them money and notoriety by consuming their material, then you are a part of the problem.

I'm not talking about children. I'm not talking about people who don't know the whole story. I'm talking about people who are fully aware and doing it anyway. You get no sympathy from me. You can't justify it to me in a way I can understand. It's wrong. Period.

Watch another fucking movie. Listen to another fucking song. There's so much out there that there is no reason for you not to. You're a part of the problem if you are fully aware of what you're doing and continue to do it anyway even though you know what they're doing with that money you're giving them watching their movie on HBO max.

[srepgames]

The Game Awards 2023 revela sus nominados.                                       

Publicado por SrepGames

The Game Awards, la celebración de fin de año de la industria del videojuego, ha revelado hoy sus nominados para 2023, con Alan Wake 2 y Baldur's Gate 3 a la cabeza con 8 nominaciones cada uno. La impresionante lista de nominados de la edición de este año, que celebra los juegos, estudios y creativos más innovadores de la industria del videojuego de 2023, incluye 112 juegos, personalidades, equipos y eventos diferentes que abarcan multitud de géneros y plataformas.

Los nominados a Juego del Año de este año son Alan Wake 2 de Remedy Entertainment, Baldur's Gate 3 de Larian Studios, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 de Insomniac Games, Resident Evil 4 de Capcom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder de Nintendo y The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom de Nintendo.

Tras la introducción de la categoría de Mejor Adaptación en 2022, el cruce entre juegos y cine/tv sigue profundizando. Este año están nominadas a Mejor Adaptación las siguientes películas y programas de streaming: Castlevania: Nocturne (Netflix), Gran Turismo (Sony Pictures), The Last of Us (HBO), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Illumination/Universal Pictures) y Twisted Metal (Peacock).

Nintendo es el publisher más nominado en The Game Awards en 2023, con 15 nominaciones en toda su cartera combinada, seguido de Sony Interactive Entertainment/PlayStation, con 13 nominaciones, Xbox (incluidas Bethesda y Blizzard), con 10, y Epic Games, el publisher third party más nominado, con 9. Los nominados a The Game Awards son seleccionados por un jurado global de más de 100 medios de comunicación e influencers de todo el mundo.

En 2022, The Game Awards registró la cifra récord de 103 millones de retransmisiones en directo. The Game Awards 2023, la décima celebración mundial anual de la industria de los videojuegos, se transmitirá en directo de forma gratuita a través de más de 30 plataformas digitales de vídeo diferentes, como YouTube, Twitch, Steam, Facebook, TikTok Live, X, WeChat Bilibili, Huya, DouYu, Xiaohongshu e Instagram Live.

Por segundo año consecutivo, los espectadores podrán participar del show a través del servidor oficial de Discord, lo que incluye la posibilidad de votar por los nominados a The Game Awards 2023 en las semanas previas a la gala. Además, los miembros de Discord pueden unirse a la watch party en directo el 7 de diciembre para ver el show y reaccionar a los ganadores en tiempo real.

A partir de hoy y hasta el 6 de diciembre a las 18.00 hs (horario del Pacifico), los aficionados podrán ayudar a elegir a los ganadores de todas las categorías a través de una votación en la página oficial y en el servidor oficial Discord de The Game Awards. En China, los fans pueden votar por sus favoritos en Bilibili, WeChat y Xiaohongshu.

La producción ejecutiva de The Game Awards corre a cargo de Geoff Marcon Keighley y Kimmie Kim. LeRoy Bennett es director creativo y Richard Preuss, director.

Aquí la lista completa de nominados:

Juego del año: ・Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games) ・Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) ・Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) ・Resident Evil 4 (Capcom) ・Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo) ・The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)

Mejor dirección: ・Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games) ・Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) ・Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) ・Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo) ・The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)

Mejor adaptación: ・Castlevania: Nocturne (Powerhouse Animation / Netflix) ・Gran Turismo (Sony Pictures) ・The Last of Us (HBO) ・Super Mario Bros. Movie (Illumination / Universal Pictures) ・Twisted Metal (Peacock)

Mejor narrativa: ・Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games) ・Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) ・Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (CD Projekt Red) ・Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix) ・Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Mejor dirección de arte: ・Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games) ・Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks / Bethesda) ・Lies of P  (Round8 / Neowiz) ・Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo) ・The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)

Mejor partitura y música: ・Petri Alanko (Alan Wake 2) ・Borislav Slavov (Baldur’s Gate 3) ・Masayoshi Soken (Final Fantasy XVI) ・Shuichi Kobori (Hi-Fi Rush) ・Manaka Kataoka (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom)

Mejor diseño de sonido: ・Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games) ・Dead Space (Motive Studio / EA) ・Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks / Bethesda) ・Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) ・Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)

Mejor actuación: ・Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI) ・Cameron Monaghan (Star Wars Jedi: Survivor) ・Idris Elba (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty) ・Melanie Liburd (Alan Wake 2) ・Neil Newbon (Baldur’s Gate 3) ・Yuri Lowenthal (Marvel’s Spider-Man 2)

Innovación en accesibilidad: ・Diablo IV (Blizzard Entertainment) ・Forza Motorsport (Turn 10 Studios / Xbox Game Studios) ・Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks / Bethesda) ・Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) ・Mortal Kombat 1 (NetherRealm Studios / WB Games) ・Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)

Juegos de impacto: ・A Space for the Unbound (Mojiken Studio / Toge Productions) ・Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc / Focus Entertainment) ・Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP) ・Tchia (Awaceb / Kepler Interactive) ・Terra Nil (Free Lives / Devolver Digital) ・Venba (Visai Games)

Mejor juego en curso: ・Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment / EA) ・Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red) ・Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix) ・Fortnite (Epic Games) ・Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)

Mejor soporte de comunidad: ・Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) ・Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red) ・Destiny 2 (Bungie) ・Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix) ・No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)

Mejor juego independiente: ・Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive) ・Dave the Diver (MINTROCKET) ・Dredge (Black Salt Games / Team 17) ・Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio) ・Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios / Thunderful)

Mejor nuevo juego independiente: ・Cocoon (Geometric Interactive / Annapurna Interactive) ・Dredge (Black Salt Games / Team 17) ・Pizza Tower (Tour de Pizza) ・Venba (Visai Games) ・Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios / Thunderful)

Mejor juego para móviles: ・Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis (Applibot / Square Enix) ・Honkai: Star Rail (HoYoverse) ・Hello Kitty Island Adventure (Sunblink Entertainment) ・Monster Hunter Now (Niantic / Capcom) ・Terra Nil (Free Lives / Devolver Digital)

Mejor juego de VR/AR: ・Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital / Sony Interactive Entertainment) ・Humanity (Enhance Games) ・Horizon Call of the Mountain (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) ・Resident Evil Village VR Mode (Capcom) ・Synapse (nDreams)

Mejor juego de acción: ・Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (FromSoftware / Bandai Namco) ・Dead Island 2 (Dambuster Studios / Deep Silver) ・Ghostrunner 2 (One More Level / 505 Games) ・Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks / Bethesda) ・Remnant 2 (Gunfire Games / Gearbox)

Mejor juego de aventura: ・Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games) ・Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment) ・Resident Evil 4 (Capcom) ・Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Respawn Entertainment / EA) ・The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)

Mejor RPG: ・Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) ・Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix) ・Lies of P (Round8 / Neowiz) ・Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio) ・Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda)

Mejor juego de peleas: ・God of Rock (Modus Games) ・Mortal Kombat 1 (NetherRealm Studios / WB Games) ・Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (Ludosity / GameMill Entertainment) ・Pocket Bravery (Statera Studio / PQube) ・Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)

Mejor juego familiar: ・Disney Illusion Island (Dlala Studios / Disney) ・Party Animals (Recreate Games) ・Pikmin 4 (Nintendo) ・Sonic Superstars (Sonic Team / Sega) ・Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo)

Mejor juego de simulación/estrategia: ・Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (WayForward / Nintendo) ・Cities: Skylines II (Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive) ・Company of Heroes 3 (Relic Entertainment / Sega) ・Fire Emblem Engage (Intelligent Systems / Nintendo) ・Pikmin 4 (Nintendo)

Mejor juego de deportes/carreras: ・EA Sports FC 24 (EA Sports) ・F1 23 (Codemasters / EA Sports) ・Forza Motorsport (Turn 10 Studios / Xbox Game Studios) ・Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged (Milestone) ・The Crew Motorfest ( Ivory Tower / Ubisoft)

Mejor multijugador: ・Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) ・Diablo IV (Blizzard Entertainment) ・Party Animals (Recreate Games) ・Street Fighter 6 (Capcom) ・Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo)

Juego más anticipado: ・Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix) ・Hades II (Supergiant Games) ・Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio / Sega) ・Star Wars Outlaws (Massive Entertainment / Ubisoft) ・Tekken 8 (Bandai Namco)

Creador de contenido del año: ・IronMouse ・PeopleMakeGames ・Quackity ・Spreen ・SypherPK

Mejor juego de esports: ・Counter-Strike 2 (Valve) ・Dota 2 (Valve) ・League of Legends (Riot Games) ・PUBG Mobile (LightSpeed Studios / Tencent Games) ・Valorant (Riot Games)

Mejor jugador de esports: ・Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (League of Legends) ・Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut (CS:GO) ・Max “Demon1” Mazanov (Valorant) ・Paco “HyDra” Rusiewiez (Call of Duty) ・Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk (League of Legends) ・Phillip ”ImperialHal” Dosen (Apex Legends)

Mejor equipo de esports: ・Evil Geniuses (Valorant) ・Fnatic (Valorant) ・Gaimin Gladiators (Dota 2) ・JD Gaming (League of Legends) ・Team Vitality (Counter-Strike)

Mejor entrenador de esports: ・Christine “potter” Chi (Evil Geniuses - Valorant) ・Danny “zonic” Sorensen (Team Falcons - Counter-Strike) ・Jordan “Gunba” Graham (Florida Mayhem - Overwatch) ・Remy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam (Team Vitality - Counter-Strike) ・Yoon “Homme” Sung-young (JD Gaming - League of Legends)

Mejor evento de esports: ・2023 League of Legends World Championship ・Blast.tv Paris Major 2023 ・EVO 2023 ・The International Dota 2 Championships 2023 ・VALORANT Champions 2023

[tiki-tequila]

i’m lowkey not rlly tipsy but i just thnk it’s crazie that like. the idea that libras rarely truly ever sever ties ring thru BC this guy i talked to in HS is trying to talk to me again and while i’m not rlly feeling it i’m def going off the vibes bc 1-i haven’t been on a date in toooo long and 2-idk i wanna see what he’s worth atp. But ik i won’t take him seriously

Also the last of us on hbo max is so good. Sososo good. I got my mom watching with me lmao

[rootsmachine]

okAy the lovely @gaysuperhell tagged me in this here are some thoughts!

Sibling status (younger, middle, older, only child...) i’m the oldest! (tho i do have a twin, so we are like .... Joint Oldest)

How long have you been stanning for a shocking fact about me is that when i was a child watching this show for the first time, i was a reluctant dean girl but most of my memories around supernatural are about meg and ruby, the closeted lesbian that i was!!

Favorite Sam era - not to be uhhhhh contrary but HONESTLY his arc towards the end of the series, where he is becoming at Peace with himself and with his life and growing into a leadership role ... fucking murders me <3

Favorite spn season, but if the only criteria was Sam’s hair - im that bitch who likes sam’s season 8 hair, sue me

Favorite Sam-centric episode - All Of Them but uh: i know what you did last summer, sacrifice, peace of mind, american nightmare, carry on

Any ships you may like to mention - honerable mentions to samruby and samcas 

Favorite song you would/have put in a Sam playlist - at the moment let’s go with ‘joseph better you than me’

If you could steal one thing from Sam’s wardrobe, it would be - that jacket from the later seasons

Complete the sentence: If Sam cishet, then WHY.... - demon blood queer allegory!!??!!

Favorite unhinged Sam moment - all of season 4 babey

You must have some intense headcanons you need to talk about, tell me one Sam hc that drives you insane - i Wrote this fic but: sam doesnt get his drivers license until he’s a senior in hs, and he 100% does it so he has some form of legal ID for financial aid applications, but doesnt tell dean & dean has a great time teaching him to drive until ... Sam Leaves. idk if ive summed this up well but anyways! it makes me insane. also religion major sam winchester, psych major jess moore. 

Tell me something about the hbo Sam that lives in your brain - i unfortunately cannot remember any of this

Oh no, the writers forgot to give Jess a personality! Now it’s up to you. Tell me, what was Jess like - psych major jess moore! i have few thoughts about jess but one of them is that she rushes a sorority and a Thing for the school newspaper but the newspaper just .//..... refuses to run her story so she’s just in a sorority now. i think this is a plotline on veronica mars actually but .. dont care <3

Biggest injustice Supernatural commited against Sam (be as brief or as ranty as you desire) - literally everything < 3

And finally, just say something about him that makes you smile - idk! that one scene in season 8 or whatever where he has a ponytail! that!!

i think most of my mutuals have done this already but: if u havent and u want to !! here Is me tagging you whether we are mutuals or not

[destinyc1020]

Hbo said no more than 3 season there is only so much you can do without it being boring and repetitive plus rue center the whole thing but I think it only last for two

Yea, keeping the show to only 2 or 3 seasons seems smart to me. Pretty soon some of the cast won’t even be able to pass as HS students lol. 😂

[euforia]

omg a thank you hug to @immortalink for tagging me 💖 rules: tag 10 followers you want to get to know better

name: vihra

gender: gen..der? gen...z ha gotcha :DD i don’t mind any pronouns

dominant planets: astroseek says mercury, moon, saturn=uranus

dominant signs: cancer....capricorn....... .scorpio.............. .... 

dominant house: 10/11th, depends on the hs

dominant element: water. i need earth dom people that can pay me to take care of me

mbti type: enfp 

height: 5.7

age: 16. posts on here be like “:< i miss being sixteen” and i half-cackle half-cry at the romanticizing like what  ??? what?? damn

wallpaper on my phone: none rn (using a grandmaesque nokia) but my desktop wallpaper is this princess mononoke fanart i love

house: preferably (ok ravenclaw)

ever had a crush on a teacher: yeeahh so my primary school teacher is to this day the most beautiful woman i’ve met. even though i was too little to have a “crush” on her, i notice her in a lot of the women i feel attracted to now. she is a Taurus (+ rising, yes, the lips too) living alone in a literal cottage and babying kids for a living. i also fall for authoritative men with heavy saturnian/mercurian energies who preach knowledge at all times like my parents are both teachers leave me alone 

coolest halloween costume: uuh poor&punk so i never dressed up excessively 

favorite 90’s tv show: i haven’t seen any except a bit of twin peaks, i love verano azul but i think thats the 80′s? i welcome recs (please) as i just recently started watching shows (please)

last kiss: around february to a person i didn’t want to kiss at all and i need another kiss to fix it so bad. it really feels like my last kiss lmao

have you ever been stood up: no but i admit to doing it often out of paranoia

favorite pair of shoes: a pair of dirty ass sneakers that i wear so much their podmetka(????) ripped and with them on i feel like a rebellious victorian younker that’s been restlessly running away from everything while surviving on the mercy of strange women. also the heels im about to buy 

have you been to vegas: a girl can dream

favorite fruit: hear me out when you bite into whatever and it drips around your chin and down your wrists and you suck in a massive amount of juice and lean forward so it doesnt stain any clothes, this is what i look for in fruit. peaches melons pears gigantic plums and strawberries, july nectarines etc as long as my mouth is full in a single bite

favorite book: what............the brothers lionheart is my go-to and true answer to this terrible question

stupidest thing you’ve ever done: worst would be consenting to a certain interpersonal dynamic despite my intuition telling me to run

all time favorite shows: a:tla is my comfort show but i don’t really have any adult faves. until very recently i didn’t find myself thoroughly interested in shows, i rarely finished any or i skipped eps to get to the finale and then watched them later in depressive episodes just bc i didn’t have to keep a close eye. whenever i get my hands on hbo or something i watch killing eve and sense8. so again! tell me some series 

last movie you saw in theaters: man that was so long ago it took me a legit minute to remember but it was an experience :D i went to see frozen 2 with my little sisters, but we very accidentally entered the hall without buying tickets; my babes proceeded to protest, panic and whisper “we’re going to prison” during the entire movie lmaoo. we all cried at some point  

i tag @midnightwitcolor @midsummerpuck @imparable-babydoll and @tootpootwoot

[selfreflect2022]

January 3, 2022

Well back to work. I will say that I enjoyed spending the past 3 days at home with not much of anything to do. I mean, there is stuff to do, but we had no desire to do anything but just veg out on the couch and watch TV and spend time with each other. I did my nails with the nail color my son picked out for Christmas. It's pink and not a winter color, but who cares.

I started thinking about Chernobyl, the miniseries we watched on HBO Max. In the end of the series it said that 300,000 were misplaced and told the move was temporary. Again, my thoughts came rushing in as to how it would feel to lose everything. I've started over before, picked up and move, but I've always moved with my stuff. I've never just moved without having anything to take with me. The thought of losing my most cherished memories, pictures, my son's baby book, my HS and achievement diplomas. Things like this are irreplaceable and I think I would be more devastated at losing that than anything else. Again, I think this is the fear that I am having. I have to work at not feeding the fears that I have.

So, what's in store this week. I have to take my son to the library. He hasn't had books to read in quite a while so time to get some. Also, I'm getting back into reading myself. In 2021 I read 34 books. Of course this is physically reading and audiobooks. I have found the joy in reading, to escape a life that is not my own and to live an adventure through the pages of a book. The first book I'm listening to is House of Gucci. Not that I'm into fashion or anything, but backstories intrigue me. How, when, why, and where a person was back then to make them who they are today.

Another thing happening this week is that I need to start getting financials together. We have enough to purchase another investment (rental), but again "fear" is making me worry that we will get a tenant that won't pay and blame it on COVID or omicron or whatever other pandemic out there. I'm not going to journal much about the pandemic. I find it to be an exhausting topic with no real solution or agreement. It's either you view things my way or your the enemy. It's just sad.

Otherwise, it'll be an interesting year. Two houses across the street from me when up for sale and are under contract. The market here is crazy, with people outbidding each other, high prices, crappy homes that need work. So, curious to see what the new neighbors will be like. When we first moved into the neighborhood " The Originals" (people that have been here since their houses were built), and yes that's how they introduced themselves, have all moved away except one. And now R & B, the last "Original" wants to be friends. I don't really care to be close with them, she's very nosey and he's a bit off. He works in a jail as a deputy or sherriff or something, but he's just off. My other neighbors D & J are nice. They came to the hospital when my son born and have always been attentive to my son and to us. We've spent holidays together, summers, birthdays, hiking, and BBQs together. They are kinda like a parent figure for us being that we don't have any family here. Well we have the Old Man that lives two doors down, but he's socially not interested in being a father, grandfather, father-in-law figure.

Yes, my father-in-law lives two doors down from me. That's a whole another story. He's getting his COVID booster and the flu shot today. Interesting to me that this man has never been to the doctor, drank and smoked for 50+ years, has let his teeth completely rot and doesn't take care of himself, but is getting a booster and flu shot. Maybe its because he's 71 he's realizing that he can go and to get it. Who know.

I have to start getting ready for work and start my day. Till next time...

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 12/11/20 - MINARI, THE MIDNIGHT SKY, LET THEM ALL TALK, WILD MOUNTAIN THYME, PARALLEL, WANDER DARKLY and More!

Honestly, I almost didn’t write a column this week for reasons I’ll probably be ranting about for a few more months, but the long and short of it is that I’ve now been writing movie reviews for 19 years, as well as writing a weekly column through most of that time, and I’m kind of sick of working my ass off, usually for very little money, and just not getting anything out of it.

This mainly came as I crossed 200 reviews for the year a few weeks back. As I was preparing to write this week’s column, Rotten Tomatoes, where most of my reviews have been available as FREE content for the past 17 years, decided to upgrade a number of critics to be “Top Critics”… but not yours truly. I have a lot more to say about this but don’t want to waste any more of my time or anger right now. I will be wrapping this column up and taking some time off for a month in January and deciding whether I want to keep wasting my time every week for no money and little feedback. It really just isn’t worth it anymore.

Fortunately, I saw a few good movies this week, and more than a few bad, so let’s start with one of the good ones, shall we?

This week’s “Featured Flick” is Lee Isaac Chung’s MINARI (A24), which like Nomadland last week will get some sort of virtual cinema release in New York and L.A., presumably that can be seen across the country. It will then get its official release on February 12, 2021.

The movie stars Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead as Jacob, a Korean father who brings his family to an Arkansas house in the middle of nowhere in the ‘80s, hoping to start a farm. His wife Monica (Yeri Han) is not happy with this decision but their kids Anne (Noel Cho) and David (Alan S. Kim) try to adjust to the new life. Things aren’t going well but then Monica’s mother Soonja (Yuh-jung Youn) shows up, that just adds more pressure on Jacob, and the kids, especially David, who hates the quirky older woman who acts nothing like a grandmother.

I’d been hearing about Minari going all the way back to its debut at Sundance, and though I remained skeptical, I finally saw it a few months ago an again over the weekend, and it’s one of my favorite films of the year, probably Top 5. To me, it’s somewhat in the vein of The Farewell, my number 1 movie of 2019, vs. the Oscar Best Picture winner, Parasite. It’s a very personal story for Chung who based some of the experiences on his own childhood, which once again proves the adage that if you’re going to write a movie, make it personal since that’s the most likely to connect with others. (Not always true, but it was great advice when I was given it.)

It takes a little time to understand why Minari is so beloved, since Chung takes an interesting approach where we see various scenes that don’t necessarily seem to tie into some sort of plot. Characters like Will Patton’s ultra-religious zealot who seems to be a bit lost when Jacob takes him on to help with his farm. Otherwise, we see various character interactions as things get tenser and tenser between Jacob and Monica, who are fighting all the time. Although the drama does get intense at times, there’s a lot of joyful and fun moments, particularly those involving the wacky grandmother and her dysfunctional relationship with her grandson. I also enjoyed the relationship between the two kids where Anne is always protective of her younger brother, who has some sort of heart illness. 

It's a beautiful movie with an equally gorgeous score, but it’s really in the last 20 minutes or so when we start to see where Chung has been going with all these seemingly disparate elements, which builds up to a wonderful ending. Yeun is terrific, and the fact he reminded me of my own father -- we’re neither Korean nor have I ever been to Arkansas -- shows why his subdued performance is so effective. Overall, the film proves that however many awful things life might throw at you, your family can always fix things. I love that message, and I hope others will find and love this as well.

After its one week in virtual cinema, Minari will get an expanded theatrical release starting February 12… hopefully, New York City theaters will be open by then and I can see it in a theater.

Film at Lincoln Center in New York also is starting its 49th annual “New Directors/New Films” series, which was delayed from March, although being virtual, the movies in it can also be viewed nationwide for the first time. I feel like a lot of movies that were scheduled to play ND/NF ended up being released already but there should be some interesting things in there.

George Clooney’s latest film THE MIDNIGHT SKY is based on Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel Good Morning, Midnight, in which he plays Augustine, a scientist dying on his own at the Barbeau Observatory in the Arctic, who has to warn a group of astronauts returning to earth that it’s no longer safe for them to return.

Clooney has made a lot of good and great movies over the years, so that I’m one of those people anxiously ≠waiting for him to make something great again after the disappointment of Suburbicon. Midnight Sky is definitely one step forward and a few steps back, as it’s impossible not to think of previous Clooney movies like Solaris and Gravity, as well as The Martian and Passengers and Ad Astra. Yes, we somehow have gotten to the point where every year there’s some sort of space movie, and while Midnight Sky at its best is better than Solaris or Ad Astra (sorry, but I was not a fan), there’s enough that’s so quizzical and confounding I’m not sure people will be able to follow what’s going on.

Much of the first half of the movie involves Clooney’s Augustine alone at the Artic base interacting with a little girl (Caoillin Springall) who is completely silent. If it’s ever explained what the girl represents, I must have missed it. There are also flashbacks to Augustine’s earlier career as a scientist and explorer played by a somewhat only semi-impressive Clooney kinda look-alike in Ethan Peck.

The best moments of the movie involve the crew of astronauts on the spaceship Ether, including Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo, who are in a relationship, Demián Bichir, Kyle Chandler and Tiffany Boone, as they deal with various issues. This is really where comparisons to Gravity and The Martian are earned, but that’s such a mighty quintet of actors that these sections are far more interesting than sullen bearded Clooney with his young ward. The production design and visual FX in these portions of the film are also quite impressive.

The Midnight Sky throws a lot at the viewer but then tries too hard to be quizzical and enigmatic about how all of it ties together until the very end. I feel that some of Clooney’s more mainstream fans will be quite confounded and possibly even disappointed. The Midnight Sky is Clooney taking a swing and only partially connecting, and it might require multiple viewings to feel like it’s a worthy addition to his filmography.

Either way, The Midnight Sky will open theatrically in select cities this week and then be on Netflix on December 23, just in time for depressing everyone on Christmas!

Also hitting Netflix streaming this week is Ryan Murphy’s musical THE PROM, which I reviewed last week. It’s great, I loved it, and can’t wait to watch it again!

Next up is Clooney’s pal Steven Soderbergh, whose new movie LET THEM ALL TALK, will premiere on HBO Max this Thursday, December 10. It stars Meryl Streep as renowned writer Alice who is called to England to receive a prestigious literary award. Since she doesn’t fly, she’s booked on a cross-Atlantic trip on the Queen Mary II ship. Alice decides to bring her old friend Roberta (Candice Bergen)—whom hasn’t spoken to her in three decades--and Susan (Dianne Wiest) as well as her nephew Tyler (Lucas Hedges) to serve as her assistant so she can focus on her writing. Little does she know that her young agent Karen (Gemma Chan) is also on the ship hoping to find out what Alice is writing about with the help of Tyler, who is quite smitten with her.  

I’m not sure where to begin with one of week’s films that I probably had the highest expectations and ended up leaving me with the most utter disappointment. I wasn’t really that crazy about last year’s The Laundromat, and I’ve generally found Soderbergh’s work to be hit or miss over the last few years. I loved his thriller Unsanefor instance, and the Magic Mike movies were fun. This one, written by author Deborah Eisenberg, is just plain boring for most of it, offering nothing particularly interesting or insightful, as it’s basically another movie where Streep is playing a character who moans about how difficult her life is and how much better everyone else has it. I mean, if I wanted that shit, I’d spend more time on Twitter than I already do. And then there’s Hedges, one of my favorite young actors over the past few years, who seems to have fallen into a niche playing

In fact, my favorite aspect of the film was Gemma Chan, who plays a character with far more depth and dimension than normal, although much of her role is just to spy on Alice and fend of the subtle advances by the much younger Tyler. The two actors have some fun scenes together, far more lively than anything involving the older actresses, but you always know where it’s going. It’s kind of awkward and painful to watch Hedges bomb so hard. (At least he fared better playing a similar role in French Exit, but in that one, his love interest was Danielle Macdonald.)

The movie looks good with Soderbergh handling his own camera duties and cinematography as usual, and it’s scored with the same hipster jazz he might have used in one of his Ocean movies, but the movie just goes on and on and on, and it hs one of the most “what the fuck?” moments you’ll see this year.

If you can imagine one of The Trip movies without any of the laughs or the delicious food porn…but on a ship, that’s basically what you end up with. More than once while watching Soderbergh’s movie, I was ready to abandon ship.

And from pretty bad, we go to much, MUCH worse. Do you know what thyme it is? It’s WILD MOUNTAIN THYME!!!

John Patrick Shanley adapts his own play Outside Mullingar into a film that will be released in theaters and On Demand by Bleeker Street this Friday, and believe me, its biggest problems isn’t some of the awful Irish accents on display, but they certainly don’t help. Emily Blunt plays Rosemary and Jamie Dornan is Anthony, childhood friends who live down the street from each other in their Irish farming community. When they grow up, Rosemary’s father dies leaving her with a plot of land that forces Anthony and his father Tony (Christopher Walken) to have to use a gate to get to their home. Remember this gate, because it’s going to be mentioned so much over the course of the movie, you’ll wonder why the movie wasn’t called “Wild Mountain Gate.” (It’s actually named after a song that Blunt’s character sings for no apparent reason.)

First, you’ll have to get past the odd choice of the very non-Irish Walken in a key role as the dead narrator of the story with that aforementioned horrid accent. It won’t take long for you to start scratching your head how a noted playwright like Shanley could write such a horrible screenplay. Soon after, you’ll wonder how he convinced someone to finance making it into a movie. I’m normally a pretty big fan of Blunt, but this movie and role might be one of her biggest missteps as an actor to date. As a child, Rosemary was told by her father that she was the White Swan in Swan Lake, so of course that will lead to

It’s not long before Jon Hamm shows up as one of Anthony’s distant relatives who also has interest in Rosemary’s plot of land – nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Pretty soon we’re thrust into awkward love triangle rom-com that falls somewhere between Leap Year and The Holiday. Not exactly something you’d expect from the filmmaker behind the drama Doubt that produced multiple Oscar nominations for the cast, eh?

Instead, Shanley ends up trying to foist the… I don’t want to call it chemistry. What is the exact opposite of chemistry? Between Blunt and Dorman with one long boring conversation after another. At one point, they’re having a romantic chat about suicide, the next Anthony is telling Rosemary that he thinks he’s a honeybee. I mean, what the holy fuck?

Honestly, the whole thing is just grueling to watch, because you wonder how so much talent could falter so badly, particularly Shanley? Even the recent Shane MacGowan doc was a far more romantic take on Irish farming than this could ever possibly be.

One of the nicer surprises of the week is the sci-fi thriller PARALLEL (Vertical), which will be in theaters and On Demand this Friday, and it’s likely to be missed by a lot of people who would enjoy it. Directed by Isaac Ezban from a screenplay by Scott Blaszak, it follows four young people working in the tech sector of Seattle who discover a mirror in a hidden section of the house they’re renting that apparently allows them to experience other dimensions and other versions of their lives. Soon, they’re experimenting with different ways they can make money and achieve fame, although not all of them are cool about how they’re doing it.

Although Parallel opens like a home invasion thriller featuring the great Kathleen Quinlan, we soon learn that it’s a red herring before we meet the quartet of young entepreneurs working on a parking app with an almost impossible deadline. When they find the mirror that leads into an alternative dimension, they immediately start to experiment with figuring out what is happening exactly, and once they do, they realize they can make money by stealing from “alts” i.e. other versions of themselves. Soon, their success starts driving them insane with a desire for even more money and power.

Ezban’s movie benefits from a talented mostly unknown cast, including Martin Wallstrom and Mark O’Brien as boisterous alpha males. Georgia King’s artist Leena is far more than a love interest, although she does become an obsession for one of them eventually – and man, does she remind me of a young Reese Witherspoon. British actor Aml Ameen plays Devin, whose father committed suicide after being accused of corruption, and he’s also wary of some of the activities his friends get up to. There’s also the quartet’s main competitor Seth who gets suspicious of their success as they start producing all sorts of incredible technical inventions.

Parallel is a pretty twisted sci-fi movie that in some way reminded me of the ‘90s thriller Flatliners and even Primer a little bit, but the mirror aspect to it also will draw comparisons to Oculus, one of Mike Flanagan’s cool earlier movies. It doesn’t take long for the twists to start flying at the viewer, and once they do, your mind will be boggled and not necessarily in a bad way. I wouldn’t want to even begin sharing some of the crazy places where the film goes, but even gore fans won’t be disappointed by some of it.

It’s a real shame this terrific movie has floundered without distribution or deserved attention for so long, because there’s absolutely no question in my mind that Jason Blum should be talking to Ezban and Blaszk about doing something together. Parallel is the type of quality high-concept thriller Blumhouse thrives upon.

Another nice surprise this week was Ekwa Msangi’s FAREWELL AMOR (IFC Films), which debuted at Sundance earlier this year and barely got any attention, which is a real shame. It’s expanded from her earlier short, and it’s about an Angolan immigrant named Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), who is reunited with his wife Esther (Zainab Jah) and daughter Sylvia (Jayme Lawson) after 17 years. As they share a small New York apartment, Walter and Esther try to rekindle their romance while Sylvia tries to adjust to an American school.

Msangi’s film opens at Newark airport where the small family is reunited, Walter not having seen either wife or daughter in a decade and a half. He’s working as a cab driver, and he’s ready to rekindle the old flame and meet his daughter who was only a baby when he moved to the States. (Little does Esther know that Walter was in a relationship with another woman, a nurse who isn’t too happy about having to leave Walter’s life.)

One of the things Msangi does to keep things interesting is that she splits the film into three sections, one for each character that focuses specifically on them, and the story gets infinitely interesting as we learn more about each of them. Walter is somewhat at odds with doing the right thing by his wife and daughter, who is wanting to explore her love of dance that her ultra-religious mother forebids. For some reason, I thought Sylvia’s section would be the most interesting as she deals with the trials of being a teenager, but then Esther’s section shows her to be a far more layered character we might have assumed earlier. She also befriends a neighbor woman played by Joie Lee that helps her expand. The thing is that all three are clearly good people, and you never feel as if one is doing something bad in relation to the others.

Farewell Amor is a quiet but beautiful film that explores an immigrant story in a far different way than we’ve seen before. It’s a discovery film, and I hope people will not just presume it won’t hold their interest. It’s a wonderfully relatable human story, similar to Tom McCarthy’s The Visitor.

Sienna Miller and Diego Luna star in Tara Miele’s psychological drama WANDER DARKLY (Lionsgate), playing Adrienne and Matteo, a couple who recently had a baby. After they get into a horrible car accident while arguing, they end up revisiting the highs and lows of their relationship as Adrienne believes either she or Matteo or both are dead.

This is a surprisingly stranger film than I expected, delving into the supernatural not quite in the way as something like Wes Craven’s Serpent and the Rainbow or Jacob’s Ladder, but having a few elements in common. Although I haven’t seen Miele’s other films, this one feels very much like something Drake Doremus might have made to the point where I’m not sure I could say I fully understood what was happening from one moment to the next. The film seems to be exploring a couple’s relationship through a horrible tragedy but does in a strange way.

With the emotional performances by the two leads being enhanced by an amazing score by Alex Weston (who also scored The Farewell last year), Wander Darkly is more than anything, a performance piece with a decent script and further proof Miller continues to be one of the most underrated actresses working today. Despite those great performances, the movie’s strange premise might be too metaphysical and intense in execution for everyone to be along for the entire ride. In that sense, I probably liked last week’s Black Bear just slightly more.

I reviewed Steve McQueen’s ALEX WHEATLE (Amazon Prime Video) in last week’s column, and that will hit Amazon Prime this Friday, but I think I’m going to save Education, the last film in his “Small Axe Anthology” for next week’s column.  I was also hoping to review Tom Moore and Ross Stewart’s WOLFWALKERS (Apple+) this week, since it premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, but I just couldn’t get to it. Story of my life.

I’m not sure if I could tell you how many of the Ip Man movies I’ve seen over the past 12 or so years, many of which I saw at the New York Asian Film Festival, but Ip Man is indeed back after last year’s Ip Man: The Finale, but that’s because IP MAN: KUNG FU MASTER (Magnet/Magnolia Pictures) is part of the spin-off prologue series starring Dennis (Yu-Hang) To, who looked enough like a younger Donnie Yen to start a whole sub-franchise. This one is directed by Liming Li, who is also directing a Young Ip Man: Crisis Time prequel movie that presumably stars someone younger than both Yen and To. Got it?

Okay, maybe this needs a little more explaining, although the nice thing about Kung Fu Master is that it works perfectly fine as a stand-alone in case you’ve never seen any of the other movies. This one takes place in the ‘40s as Man is a police captain in Foshan, dealing with the ever-present gang known as The Axes.  He’s framed for murder when the leader of the gang dies in prison, and his daughter, Miss Qingchuan (Wanliruo Xin), wanting revenge as she takes over the gang. Ip Man has other issues like being disgraced as a police officer and then the arrival of the Japanese army who have their own agenda. Ip Man ends up donning a mask to become the Black Knight to fight crime in another way.

I make no bones about my love of martial arts films when they’re not stupid or hoaky and sadly, the Donnie Yen franchise was getting by last year’s so-called “finale.” Kung Fu Master starts out with an amazing action scene of To fighting off what seems like hundred of axe-wielding gangsters, and it barely lets up, constantly throwing interesting and thoroughly entertaining fights at the viewer. Eventually, there’s a bounty on Ip Man’s head with whoever kills becoming leader of the Axes, but he has other issues, like his wife giving birth to their baby boy, just as the police chief and force shows up to arrest him. Cutting quickly between childbirth and kung fu action is just one of the interesting things Director Li does to make his Ip Man debut.

The resemblance between Dennis To and Donnie Yen is more than just facial as his wushu techniques are equally impressive, and sure, there’s a few more dramatic moments between Ip Man and his wife, but it’s Xin’s Miss Qingchuan who ends up being more of a formidable counter to To in just about every way, including a few fight scenes where axes are flying through the air.

Ip Man Kung Fu Master is fairly short, less than 90 minutes, but it still feels long because it feels like it finds a good ending, and then tacks on an epilogue and then another one. There were times I thought it might end on a cliffhanger to set up Ip Man’s inevitable next movie. The abundance of evil antagonists Ip Man must fight in this one tends to become a bit much, but it’s hard not to be thrilled by the martial arts on display and Li’s terrifically stylish visuals that keeps the movie interesting.

Ip Man Kung Fu Master will be available digitally Friday through a variety of platforms.

Filmmaker Adam Egypt Mortimer, who released Daniel Isn’t Real last year, returns with ARCHENEMY (RLJEfilms), starring Joe Manganiello as Max Fist, who claims to be a hero from another dimension that fell to earth. He ends up spending time with a teen brother and sister, Hamster (Skylan Brooks) and Indigo (Zelee Griggs) who want to clean the streets of the local drug syndicate, led by The Manager (Glenn Howerton from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). It’s a strange and quirky dark superhero movie that includes appearances by the likes of Paul Scheer and Amy Seimetz, and though I ran out of time to review, I do have an interview with Mortimer at Below the Line.

Time to get to some docs, and there are definitely some you’ll want to check out, although I don’t have as much time to write that much about them, and some of them I wasn’t able to watch yet.

Another great doc out of the September festival circuit is Ryan White’s ASSASSINS (Greenwich Entertainment), which follows the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, half-brother to North Korean leader Kim Jon-un in 2017 at a busy airport in Malaysia by two young women. Although the two women had never met before, they were jointly charged with attacking the North Korean ex-pat with a lethal nerve gas called VX but White’s investigation takes him all over South-East Asia trying to get answers to how the two women were tricked into committing the assassination. This is a pretty masterful display of doc filmmaking by White, not just in the sense of the way the story is paced and edited like a good political thriller, but it’s one that keeps the viewer invested even as the last act deals with the trial of the two young women and the bond that forms between them.

I’ll have more about this film over on Below the Line sometime very soon, but it hits theaters and virtual cinema this Friday and then it will be on PVOD on January 15

I saw Seamus Murphy’s doc PJ HARVEY: A DOG CALLED MONEY way back in March when it was supposed to open at New York’s Film Forum, but it’s finally getting a virtual cinema release there. Murphy travelled across Afghanistan, Kosovo and Washington DC with singer/songwriter PJ Harvey as she prepared material for her 2015 album, The Hope Six Million Project, which she produced with Flood and John Parish as an installation at Somerset House where people can walk by and view the recording process.  This is an amazing doc that allows you into the process of writing for an amazing recording artist who has given Murphy and the viewer unprecedented access into her creativity. I had fully lost track of Harvey over the years, even though I was a huge fan of hers when she first hit these shores – in fact, I saw her play a concert where Radiohead opened for her… and there as another band (Gallon Drunk) after them! Because of that, I wasn’t familiar with the album, but I just love good music docs, especially ones that take us behind the scenes of a talented artist, and Murphy has created quite a fascinating film even outside the recording studio, whether it’s following Harvey around (narrated by her own poetic observations) but also with commentary by others they encounter. I found the Washington DC segments particularly interesting, since that’s the one place where I’ve spent the most time.  An absolutely fantastic doc whether you’re a fan of Harvey’s or not.

Also playing in the Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema this week is Thomas Balmés’ SING ME A SONG, the filmmaker’s second doc set in the Himalayan village of Bhutan that’s been isolated for centuries. He returns to update on Peyangki, the 8-year-old Buddhist monk from his 2014 film Happiness, now a teenager who has fallen under the sway of technology including pop music and smartphone games, as he begins a WeChat romance with a young singer, which makes him consider leaving the monastery.

Also premiering on Netflix this Friday is Jim Stern and Fernando Villena’s doc GIVING VOICE, tying into the streaming premiere of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom next week. It follows six student actors auditioning for the August Wilson Monologue Competition, which brings thousands of students from twelve U.S. cities together to perform the Pulitzer Prize winner’s work.

Joshua Faudem’s doc THE LAST SERMON (Gravitas Ventures/Will Kennan) follows the director and Jack Baxter as they follow 14 years after making their 2004 documentary Blues by the Beach, in which the two ended up in a terrorist attack by British Nationals on Mike’s Place, a bar next door to the National Embassy on Tel Aviv. This event sends Baxter and Faudem across Europe to refugee camps and mosques in order to understand the essence of Islam and the truth about the international terrorists that almost killed them.

Drew Barrymore plays a dual role in THE STAND-IN (Saban Films), directed by Jamie Babbitt (But I’m a Cheerleader). While under normal circumstances, Wild Mountain Thyme would have been the dog of the week, then this movie came along. Yikes. Barrymore plays Candy Black, a comedy star best known for her pratfalls in bad movies (ala Melissa McCarthy). She also plays Paula, Candy’s much sweeter and almost identical stand-in. Candy is a nightmare to work with and after a fall from grace, she holes herself up in her Long Island Estate for five years, while Paula’s own fortunes falter without having that work. I’m sure you can figure out where it goes from there.

Yes, folks, we have what is now one of the worst iterations of a Tale of Two Cities not made by Barrymore’s frequent co-star Adam Sandler, although there are times where you wonder if she is actually playing a version of Sandler with Candy. Eventually, either Candy or Paula or both decide that Paula can take Candy’s place in her attempt to return to work, but the results are just far worse than The Hottie or the Nottie, as Paula also stands in for Candy on dates with the man she’s fallen in love with online through their love of woodworking. (I didn’t make that up.) You almost always know where it’s going and can’t help but groan when you’re right.

Basically, there’s one Drew that’s glammed-down and the other talking in an annoying wispy voice, so there really isn’t getting away from the awfulness even for a second.The thing is that, like the worst comedies, The Stand In is not funny, and it’s sad to see a decent director like Babbitt being dragged into this one. It’s just a terrible overused premise that’s executed quite poorly. Not only that, but the movie also co-stars TJ Miller, who has fallen so far from grace himself, that it’s shocking to see him in another movie.

Besides guaranteeing Barrymore a double-dose Razzie nomination, The Stand In also leaves her with cow shit on her face, much like her character.

Movies I just didn’t have time to get to this week:

Funny Boy (Array/Netflix) Gunda (NEON) Safety (Disney+) Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (HBO Max) 40 Years a Prisoner (HBO Docs) Through the Night (Longshot Factory) To the Ends of the Earth (KimStim) Rompan Todo: The History of Rock in Latin America (Netflix) The Wilds (Prime Video) Nasrin (Virgil Films) Finding Ying Yin

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

[ungoliant88]

Throwback to the Game of Thrones season 8 episode 1 premiere at Finnkino Tennispalatsi - Helsinki, Finland last Monday night. Thanks again @hbonordic for the invite. 💖 Can't wait for the second episode of @gameofthrones!!! - #gameofthrones #got #hbonordic #hbo #tv #tvseries #tvserie #tvsarja #finnkino #tennispalatsi #hs #helsinginsanomat #hsnyt #cinephile #nerd #geek #filmbuff #finnishgay #gay #gayboy #instagay #instaboy #helsinki #finland #aquaman #dc #dccomics georgerrmarti #vip (paikassa Finnkino Tennispalatsi) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bwgk0m4BlAW/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1spwlib85c9et

[hsews]

After Deontay Wilder retained his heavyweight world title by brutal 10th-round knockout of Luis Ortiz in a fight of the year contender on March 3, he again called for a unification bout with Anthony Joshua.

Four weeks later, Joshua unified three of the four major belts by decision against Joseph Parker and said in the ring he wanted Wilder next for the undisputed world title.

Their showdown looms as easily the biggest heavyweight fight in years, and it is, along with the Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez middleweight title rematch, the biggest fight boxing has to offer. But after months of talks between the camps for a fall fight, not to mention bickering over myriad issues — some big, some small — the fight has been pronounced dead for 2018.

Golovkin-Alvarez II, contentious as the negotiations were, was finalized. Not so for Joshua-Wilder.

Instead, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said Wednesday that he will move to finalize a fight between Joshua and the dangerous Alexander Povetkin, one of his mandatory challengers. He said that’s because Wilder co-manager Shelly Finkel failed to return the contract with comments that was sent a week ago, causing the WBA to tell Hearn it was out of patience and time waiting for the Wilder fight to come together, so it ordered Joshua-Povetkin.

“We’re fighting Povetkin in September and we’re looking at multiple venues and dates,” Hearn said. “We have a deal with Povetkin agreed to, but it’s not signed yet.”

Povetkin’s camp confirmed that to ESPN.

Hearn said the fight will take place Sept. 22 or Sept. 29 at one of London’s major stadiums, Wembley, Twickenham or London Olympic Stadium.

Hearn said DAZN, which will soon launch a sport streaming service in the United States and in May finalized a long-term deal to carry Matchroom Boxing cards in the U.S., was making a “major play” for Joshua and that if they make a deal the fight will kick off its slate of boxing events. Hearn said he’ll also talk to HBO, Showtime (whose deal with Joshua expired in March) and Top Rank/ESPN.

Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs), 32, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, likely will move on to a fall fight, possibly against Joshua knockout victim Dominic Breazeale (19-1, 17 KOs).

Wilder took to Twitter early Thursday morning to express frustrations with the Joshua camp’s move to fight Povetkin, calling the British heavyweight boxer “not a stand up guy.”

“We’re disappointed, but we’re not surprised,” Finkel, who turned 74 on Wednesday, said about the deal falling apart. “Deontay and I thought about this, that they weren’t going to do the fight. We’re disappointed. We wasted a lot of time.”

Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn told ESPN on Wednesday that Joshua’s WBA-ordered fight with Alexander Povetkin will take place Sept. 22 or Sept. 29 at one of London’s major stadiums, putting on hold a high-profile showdown with Deontay Wilder. Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Should Joshua, (21-0, 20 KOs), 28, and Wilder both win, Hearn said he’d like to still make the big fight for April 13 at Wembley Stadium, where Joshua drew a British-boxing record crowd of 90,000 for his 11th-round knockout of former longtime champion Wladimir Klitschko in the consensus 2017 fight of the year.

This brings an end to the arduous efforts to make Joshua-Wilder for the fall, though each side has accused the other of not really wanting to make the fight.

Hearn initially offered Wilder $12.5 million to fight Joshua in the United Kingdom. Wilder’s camp made a counter offer of $50 million — the figure Joshua publicly said he wanted for the bout — for the fight to take place in the United States.

Hearn never responded but then raised the Wilder offer to $15 million. Wilder agreed to the money and to fighting Joshua in the UK. Finkel received a contract late last week that said he would return it to Hearn with comments Friday, which drew Hearn’s ire.

“I immediately thought what a load of bulls—. I spoke to my dad [Matchroom boss Barry Hearn]. He said, ‘They’re playing games.’ When Finkel said, ‘We’ll get it back to you on Friday — six days later — the WBA said enough’s enough. Shelly knew the WBA was calling me every day. Tuesday, I spoke to Joshua and he said, ‘We’re not getting into any purse bids, losing any belts, we’ll fight Povetkin and then Wilder.’ … If you have a so-called manager that received a contract and you want the fight so bad for $15 million and the undisputed title, and you don’t read that within 24 hours and have it back within 48 hours, you’re doing your fighter a disservice.”

Hearn said he had already staved off WBA president Gilberto Mendoza for nearly six weeks by getting extensions in order to finish the Wilder deal before Mendoza ran out of patience and said he would order the Povetkin fight days before Finkel said he would return the contract.

“Forget the fact that six days later they haven’t come back with any comments,” Hearn said. “When Finkel sent the email on Sunday he knows the points they want to raise, yet they tell us they’ll send us the comments on Friday. On what planet does that make sense to anybody? Shelly says, ‘They made a bulls— offer and we decided to accept. He didn’t want to do the deal. This deal is not expired, though. This deal is available to sign today, tomorrow, next week, probably in a month. So for all the bulls— about how we’re running, why don’t you call our bluff and sign a contract, and I will sign quicker than your ink will dry [for an April fight].”

Said Finkel: “If he said I have to have it back by Wednesday he would have had it back.”

Hearn said he contacted Wilder directly on Tuesday night about the situation.

“I sent a personal email to Deontay and I said to him I’m very disappointed your team did not come back to me with comments on the contract. We hope we can get this fight over the line and we look forward to receiving a signed contract or comments as soon as possible [to fight in April].”

Hearn said he offered Wilder two options in the email.

“I said I will give you $5 million to make a defense of your title in America in September or October on DAZN before entering the Joshua fight in April. Therefore, it was a two-fight deal for $20 million,” Hearn said. “But I told him you don’t have to take two fights. You can do your own thing in the fall and then go right into the Joshua fight in April.”

Finkel said he was concerned that even though there was talk swirling in the media about an October or November date for the fight in the UK, no specific date or location was included in the contract. He also was surprised that rather than a two-fight deal for a fall fight and a rematch, there was only language in the agreement giving Joshua the right to a rematch if he lost but with no consideration to Wilder if he lost.

“I have never heard of a rematch clause one way for this kind of fight,” Finkel said. “This is a monster fight and we expected the contract to be like the Klitschko contract [which had mutual rematch considerations]. If Eddie wanted to make the fight he would not have put a one-way rematch clause in there. And to send a contract without a date and site? When I asked on Sunday, he never gave it to us. To me, that’s how you do things if you don’t want to fight. There was no deadline [stated for the Povetkin fight], otherwise we would have gotten back to him sooner.

“I’m not talking about what I said or he said. I have the paperwork, the emails to show what he said. He makes up whatever he wants at the time because he has Joshua and he thinks it gives him credibility and people want to believe him.”

Said Hearn: “Only if Anthony Joshua loses is there a rematch, and it would be in America with a 50-50 split. That was in the written terms.”

Finkel, who has brokered dozens of major fights involving Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Manny Pacquiao, Klitschko and others, continued, “Here’s the bottom line — in March, Joshua fought. He said, ‘I’m fighting Deontay next, period.’ Couple of weeks later he said publicly, ‘Give me $50 million and I will sign tomorrow.’ We give him the $50 million [guarantee] and he said, ‘Prove to me it’s real.’ I said, ‘Send us your lawyer’s number and we will call him and prove it.’ Eddie said to send a contract and we said accept the deal and we will send the contact. They never said they accept the $50 million. Then they send us this lowball offer. We sent them a term sheet that gave all the details of the $50 million and they never responded.”

Hearn said even though Joshua will be favored, he’s worried about the fight with Povetkin (34-1, 24 KOs), 38, a 2004 Russian Olympic gold medalist. Povetkin, twice caught using performance-enhancing drugs, only lost by decision to Klitschko in 2013.

“Massive danger. I don’t like the fight,” Hearn said. “I think it’s a mad fight to take with the Wilder fight at the door, but that’s AJ. He thinks him and Povetkin is a great fight, a great statement and he’s one of the best heavyweights. He’s not taking easy touches waiting for Wilder. By fighting these guys, Wilder can’t say he’s afraid to fight him.

“It’s in the hands of Deontay Wilder. So every Instagram video he posts saying Joshua doesn’t want the fight, shut up. Come back with the comments on the contract and we’ll work it out [for April].”

Said Finkel: “Eventually, Joshua’s going to have to fight us.”

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[yahoo-shutdown-corner-blog]

Cleveland Browns to be featured on 'Hard Knocks' this summer

The Cleveland Browns are hoping to open up a new era this season with a bevy of young, talented draft picks and multiple splashy veteran offseason acquisitions. And now their every act will be followed by a camera crew.

HBO’s “Hard Knocks” is headed to Cleveland, as first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Baker Mayfield will be the center of attention as the Cleveland Browns are featured on “Hard Knocks.” (AP)

Will become official later today: Browns selected to be featured team on this summer’s Hard Knocks, per source.

Bonus Browns, more Mayfield.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 17, 2018

The Browns confirmed their selection for the hit HBO show on Twitter.

OFFICIAL: @HBO’s Hard Knocks is coming to Cleveland

Details » https://t.co/uNR3nL6U3k pic.twitter.com/tQ06pqyTfn

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) May 17, 2018

What are the Browns’ biggest storylines on ‘Hard Knocks’?

It won’t be hard to get excited about this announcement. Even though the Browns are coming off an 0-16 season, are 1-31 over their past two seasons and haven’t won a playoff game since 1994, there are a ton of storylines to follow.

The team just drafted quarterback Baker Mayfield with the No. 1 overall pick. In a draft class full of potential future franchise quarterbacks, Cleveland selected a mobile, 6-foot-1 gunslinger, and he’s had some issues off the field as well. Mayfield is a big personality, supremely confident and a perfect fit for this type of show.

Mayfield isn’t the only rookie who will immediately be a key part of this rebuild. The Browns took cornerback Denzel Ward with the No. 4 pick and added running back Nick Chubb in the second round. Those are some of the biggest names out of the draft, but with six picks in the first four rounds, the Browns are expecting many early contributors.

The team also made several other flashy offseason acquisitions: Wide receiver Jarvis Landry will immediately step into the slot as one of the game’s best yards-after-catch players, and quarterback Tyrod Taylor will provide veteran leadership for Mayfield. Carlos Hyde, fresh off a 938-yard, eight-touchdown year with San Francisco, will look to take over at running back.

Joe Thomas, the future Hall-of-Fame left tackle and bedrock for the franchise for the past decade, retired earlier this offseason. There is a gaping hole at left tackle and in the locker room that someone will have to fill.

Head coach Hue Jackson is in for a key season. He’s 1-31 as Browns head coach, and the front office will need to see progress if he wants to retain his job. Two seasons ago, then-Rams head coach Jeff Fisher was relieved of his duties months after “Hard Knocks.” Joining Jackson is new offensive coordinator Todd Haley, imported from division rival Pittsburgh. How those two minds mesh will almost certainly be a key plot point.

The development of last year’s first-round rookies — defensive end Myles Garrett, safety Jabrill Peppers, tight end David Njoku — in their second offseason will feature heavily. Garrett, last year’s No. 1 overall pick, registered seven sacks in just 11 games.

Wide receiver Josh Gordon — who opened up to GQ in a fascinating and mind-boggling interview in November 2017 — is back for a full season. That alone is a terrific reason to watch. He’ll also be a key part in helping mentor fourth-round pick Antonio Callaway, a talented yet troubled University of Florida product who missed all of the 2017 season.

It contradicts GM John Dorsey’s earlier comments

Roughly two weeks ago, Browns general manager John Dorsey was on ESPN Cleveland 850 and said the following:

“I don’t believe we’re on ‘Hard Knocks.’ I don’t think there’s anything good that comes out of ‘Hard Knocks,’ but we’ll see.”

Dorsey, 57, is in his first year as the team’s GM and is overseeing a lengthy rebuilding process. For a team that has struggled so much on the field, it’s a reasonable stance to want to be distraction-free. But it seems that Dorsey will have to deal with HBO’s camera crew regardless.

Dorsey, Jackson endorsed ‘Hard Knocks’ when it became official

After voicing his negative opinion of the show, Dorsey backtracked when it became official that the Browns were selected. From Cleveland’s media release:

“Like many, I was reluctant about being the featured team on Hard Knocks but once we sat down and talked about it as an organization, I feel a lot better and understand why the time is right. Hue and I both feel like this team is in a good place and that we are in the process of building something that will lead to success. Being a part of Hard Knocks will give our fans the opportunity to see how passionate the people in our building are about winning and how excited we are about getting to work and preparing for the 2018 season.”

Jackson, heading into his third year as the team’s head, also added the following:

“I’ve been a part of Hard Knocks and when you experience it first hand, you come to appreciate the inside look it really gives fans. We are excited about what we are building within our organization and feel good about the progress we have made this offseason. Being able to bring our fans in so they can get to know our players and our organization in a different way will be a huge positive for us. I want people to see how much our players and coaches care, how hard they work and how badly they want to win for Cleveland. This will be a great opportunity for our team.”

What teams have been on ‘Hard Knocks’?

Here’s a list of teams that have been featured on the HBO series and their records the ensuing season:

2001 Ravens: 10-6, made playoffs 2002 Cowboys: 5-11, missed playoffs 2007 Chiefs: 4-12 missed playoffs 2008 Cowboys: 9-7, missed playoffs 2009 Bengals: 10-6, made playoffs 2010 Jets: 11-5, made playoffs 2012 Dolphins: 7-9, missed playoffs 2013 Bengals: 11-5, made playoffs 2014 Falcons: 6-10, missed playoffs 2015 Texans: 9-7, made playoffs 2016 Rams: 4-12, missed playoffs 2017 Buccaneers: 5-11, missed playoffs

When does ‘Hard Knocks’ with the Browns debut?

NFL Films’ 30-man crew will descend on Berea, Ohio for Browns training camp, recording over 2,000 hours of footage. The first episode will open on Aug. 7 at 10 p.m. ET, and new episodes will release every Tuesday after.

More from Yahoo Sports: • Tennis star attacks umpire’s chair after upset loss • Raptors may have posted the most awkward tweet ever • 25-year-old arrested for posing as HS basketball star • Giants star makes damning claim about MLB umpire

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior Home Edition May 29, 2020 – I WILL MAKE YOU MINE, THE HIGH NOTE, HBO MAX and more!

Before we get to any potential theatrical releases – there aren’t many (if any?) this week  –  today is the day that HBO MAX launches! I hope to add it to the streaming section below, but since it’s a newborn baby launching today, it will get the lead in this week’s column…

Some of the HBO Max original programming at launch will include On the Record, the new doc from The Hunting Ground and The Invisible War directors Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, which looks at the story of music exec. Drew Dixon and her decision to be one of the first women of color to come forward about being sexually assaulted by Russell Simmons. I’ll freely admit that I haven’t watched this yet, but my friend/colleague Candice Fredrick did this amazing interview with Dixon and the other subjects for Shondaland, which you can read right here, and it’ll make it obvious why  (like Dick/Ziering’s previous docs), this one NEEDS to be seen, even if you don’t have a horse in this race.

Anna Kendrick will be starring in new romantic comedy anthology series called Love Life from Sam Boyd, each season which will follow a different person from their first to last romance. I hope this is better than Kendrick’s Quibi series.

On a lighter night, there’s a new series of Looney Tunes Cartoons, a series of 11 to 12-minute cartoon collections featuring all your WB favorites. While I was mildly dubious about new cartoons, apparently WB has been making these for a few years although they’ll now be migrating over to HBO Max. Some of the first toons will include a couple Porky Pig-Daffy Duck shorts: “Curse of the Monkeybird” and “Firehouse Frenzy”; another one called “Harm Wrestling,” pitting Bugs Bunny against long-time nemesis Yosemite Sam, and another Bugs one called “Big League Beast.” These new toons definitely have their own identity and charm and are pretty clever with wackier modernized cartoon violence ala “Ren and Stimpy” or maybe Adult Swim would be a more current reference. The series is exec. produced by Peter Browngardt, and I don’t think regular Looney Tunes fans (or cartoon fans in general) will be too disappointed by these offerings.

There’s also the Not Too Late Show with Elmo, which looks cute, but it’s definitely veering more towards the TV side of things than movies, at least for now.

Something rather strange and interesting happened leading up to this week’s “Featured Movie,” but it involves an introductory story: Just before the lockdown on March 12, I went out to see Emily Ting’s great new comedy, Go Back to China on its very last day in New York theaters. One of the actors in the movie, Lynn Chen, seemed vaguely familiar but I couldn’t figure out where from. Sometime after that, I started seeing a few tweets about Alice Wu’s 2004 film, Saving Face, which I thought I was one of the only people who knew about it, having covered it 15 or 16 years ago. This led to a Twitter conversation about Wu’s new Netflix movie, The Half of It, which made me realize that Chen was one of the two leads in Saving Face. One thing led to another and besides learning about Wu’s new movie, I also found out that Chen’s own directorial debut would be coming out soon. That movie, I WILL MAKE YOU MINE (Gravitas Ventures), is now available digitally and on DVD/Blu-ray. Got all that? Good. So that’s what I’m going to write about next.

Chen’s directorial debut is an interesting black-and-white romantic dramedy, but you really need to go into it knowing that it’s also the third part of something being labelled, “The Surrogate Valentine Trilogy,” based on two indie comedies directed by Dave Boyle. I did not know this the first time I watched Chen’s movie, which may be why I was so confused about the relationships between three Asian-American women with a musician named Goh Nakamura (who plays himself in the film). Once I watched the previous movies, Surrogate Valentine from 2011 and Daylight Savings from 2012, things became a LOT clearer.

Both those movies were quirky comedies mostly based around Nakamura’s day-to-day, but they also had romantic undercurrents with three different women over the course of the two movies: Lynn Chen’s best friend Rachel, “the professor” Erika (Ayako Fujitani) and fellow singer-songwriter Yea-Ming (Yea-Ming Chen, also playing a version of herself). It’s immediately clear that Chen’s movie is going to focus on the three women, but it my not be as evident who these women are or their relationship to Nakamura without having seen the previous two films.

The movie takes place five years after the previous one, so Chen is taking the Linklatter “Before” trilogy approach, at least in concluding the overall story with a few players from earlier movies also making apperances. Erika and Yea-Ming are still polar opposites with Erika’s moodiness being increased by the death of her father and having to care for her five-year-old daughter (Ayami Riley Tomine).  Yea-Ming is still single and ready to mingle, while Rachel is now married but she is still reminiscing about Goh, who she long ago put in the friend zone despite his feelings for her.

Both the previous movies were left hanging with no real answers, so it’s quite respectable for Chen to take the reins in trying to answer some of the unanswered questions. The general idea is that all these women are still thinking of Goh, and you’ll have to watch the movie to see which one he ends up with, if any. (Not too sure how I feel about all these beautiful women chasing after the mopey Nakamura, but like the “Before” movies, you’ll be quite invested after seeing the other two movies.)

Nakamura is an incredibly talented musician, songwriter and singer (as is Yea-Ming) but not a particularly expressive actor, especially in comparison to a seasoned pro like Chen. As a director and co-star, she does a better job getting a performance out of him than Boyle did, although her character’s arc is more about dealing with her cheating husband Josh. Chen maintains the quirky humor of the earlier movies without involving as much of the bro-ness of the characters around Nakamura. Putting the focus on the three women trying to discover themselves and figure out what they want in life just makes her film a far more enjoyable experience as a whole, especially as we get to see them interacting with each other.

I particulary like this movie on its own merits due to the very funny and talented Yea-Ming Chen (whose own musical project is called DreamDate). She clearly has the best chemistry with Nakamura, but I Will Make You Mine gains so much more knowing the characters’ history together, even if those relationships were not necessarily the focus of the previous two films. There’s no question Lynn Chen has a solid future as a filmmaker, as she takes the ideas and characters introduced by Boyle’s films to a far more emotional level. I recommend watching the entire trilogy, which hopefully Gravitas Ventures will put all in one place (like a collection of all three movies with a soundtrack CD?) someday soon. In the meantime, you can find out where you can watch I Will Make You Mine on the official site, so do check it out!

I had been pretty interested in Focus Features’ new film, THE HIGH NOTE, which will be available via PVOD this Friday, mainly because it was directed by Nisha Ganatra, who did such an amazing job with last year’s Late Night. This is a very different movie, maybe more commercial but also not quite as much my thing, which is odd since it’s set in the music business, which is almost definitely my thing.

Dakota Johnson stars as Maggie, personal assistant to legendary soul singer Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross from black-ish), but she would rather be a record producer. Maggie hs been practicing by doing an edit on a live album for Davis who is being drawn by her manager (Ice Cube) to take up a Vegas residency ala Celine. Soon after, Maggie meets Kelvin Harrison Jr’s David Cliff, an aspiring singer and songwriter who she decides to take under her wing, without letting him know she’s actually a personal assistant.

Written by Flora Greeson, her first produced screenplay, it’s almost immediately apparent this movie came about due to the success of the 2018 remake of A Star is Born, which did so well despite winning only a single Oscar for song.  There are a few hurdles the movie had to overcome right away, the first being my general “eh” feelings about Johnson as an actor, but then there are also serious credibility issues of a Hollywood personal assistant getting away with HALF the things Maggie does in the movie. There is definitely an aspect of the movie that reminded me of Working Girl, one of the movies that made Johnson’s mother (Melanie Griffith) a household name, but this sort of “everything works out for the white girl” just seems kind of stale and played and maybe a bit out-of-tune in this day and age.

The High Note is barely a drama and more of a romantic dramedy and while the songs are decent, there’s very little way that this can be deemed any sort of “musical.” There’s also the whole “white savior” thing in play where Maggie is there not only to save Grace’s flagging career but also trying to help David make it big. Harrison is as good as he’s been in almost every role, and that seems almost wasted among the other okay performances.

The thing is that The High Note did eventually win me over, oddly with a pull-the-rug-out twist that for some reason I didn’t see coming. There is a cuteness aspect to it that makes it palatable, if not always entertaining, but I definitely expected more and better from Ganatra for her second feature. It makes it that much more obvious what Mindy Kaling brought to the table as the writer/producer on Late Night.  

Next up is John Hyatt’s documentary SCREENED OUT (Dark Star Pictures), which is probably rather apropos right now as it deals with something very prominent and timely: our addiction to our devices. The movie follows Hyatt and his family who go through their own journey of dealing with screen addiction. It will be available in the US and Canada this Friday. I really couldn’t get too far into this movie, since I generally hate docs where the filmmakers turn the camera on themselves, and I’m not talking about Morgan Spurlock or Michael Moore so much, as those who make these movies about themselves without having too much to offer the viewer.

Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema adds two new repertory films this week: Philip Borso’s 1982 film, The Grey Fox, starring Richard Farnsworth (in a new 4K restoration) and Andrei Ujică’s 1992 film, Videograms of a Revolution.  Film at Lincoln Center’s own virtual cinema adds Mounia Meddour’s Papicha (Distrib Films) about a university student during the Algerian Civil War who is studying French with an interest in fashion so she defies religious conservatism to design dresses for her peers. The film won the César Award for Best Female Newcomer and Best First Film, and was a selection for the recent “Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.”

STREAMING AND CABLE

Netflix’s big launch this week is the new series from The Office (American version) creator Greg Daniels (his second new one in the last month!), SPACE FORCE, a comedy based on the Trump military initiative that reunites Daniels with Steve Carell. He’s joined by John Malkovich, Jimmy O. Yang, the late Fred Willard, Ben Schwartz, Noah Emmerich and more, so we’ll see if I like it more than the Amazon series, Upload. (Granted, I’ve only seen one episode of that.)

I’m semi-flattered that Hannah Gadsby named her second Netflix comedy special, Hannah Gadsby: Douglas, after me, but honestly, I’m one of the few people who never really understood the appeal of her as a comic. She just seems like a snarky Australian who just happens to also be a lesbian, but I dunno, maybe I’ll like this one more?

Fernando Frias’ Mexican teen drama, I’m No Longer Here (also on Netflix), is about a young street gang in Monterrey, Mexico who get into a feud with a local cartel, forcing the leader to migrate to the United States.

Also, I’ve heard good things about Andrew Patterson’s THE VAST OF NIGHT, which will be available on Amazon Prime, this Friday. It stars Sierra McCormick as Fay Crocker, a switchboard operator in 1950s New Mexico, who discovers an audio frequency that can change their small town forever. It sends Fay and a radio DJ named Everett (Jake Horowitz) on a scavenger hunt into the unknown.  This movie played a lot of genre film festivals last year after debuting at Slamdance, and I generally enjoyed it, since it has a very different vibe of other thrillers, even period ones. The two leads are so cute together in the film’s opening scene, you’ll definitely want to see where things are going, and the dialogue is particularly good. Maybe the movie isn’t as direct in its genre elements as others, but it goes to interesting places for sure.

Also, the We Are One: A Global Film Festival is supposed to start this week, running for a week from this Friday to June 7 with proceeds going to benefit COVID-19 relief funds with programming curated by a number of film festivals including Tribeca, the New York Film Festival, Berlin and others. You can see some of the programming here, and the festival will run starting Friday on the YouTube channel.

Next week, more movies (mostly) not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!