#the peter we have seen so far has slowly matured over the films

[userholland]

you're not racist for not liking zendaya, people are just nostalgic.

so, i have been wanting to bring up this for a while. i do not expect this to blow up or i expect a huge like/reblog ratio. this is a personal rant i've been wanting to give for a while now not only because of how outrageous it is, but how it has also affected my mutuals as well. (and with enough anger, i decided to literally do this so. yeah. my degree is getting put to use.)

a HUGE disclaimer that this is NOT a hate rant nor do i have the intention of hating on zendaya rather i am more focused on how people/fans have been speaking to others when bringing up either her as a person, her acting career and/or regarding her (skeptical) relationship with tom. mainly, these points will be actual reasons why people are slowly losing their interest in zendaya that i've seen brought up or talked about in the last few months. so, this not out of spite, just an increasing amount of unnecessary hate being spread about if one says they do not like her.

please do not blow up my ask box if you're not even going to read what i have to say, and i think it's something that should be said, at least once, and in full explanation than just a quick remark.

overall, the reason why i'm bringing this up is because of the sheer amount of "division" of fans within the spider-man fandom now that the nwh trailer dropped. no one deserves to be harassed or bullied over their preference to a celebrity nor should they be called racist or "someone who does not want to see black women succeed in media, tv, etc." (which i will explain why it's mostly false later). please take this with a grain of salt, but also understand where everyone is coming from aka knowing they are entitled to their own opinion.

1. outgrowing a disney star as she matures / little to no screen time when very promoted.

zendaya is someone we all grew up with on disney channel and for the most part, we all admired her and thought she was one of the best people that came out of the disney industry. i grew up a huge fan of zendaya because she was someone i wanted to be like, we all have those kind of celebrities growing up and she was a good role model.

now, it wouldn't be fair to go off by just her disney acting because let's be honest... all disney acting is overdramatic and not good, and that's really all the young actors can work with when they are given a contract. but for what it was, zendaya was a great dancer and singer in her disney career. she even got to produce her own show & had her own website/youtube channel to post videos of her daily life or hairstyles and cooking videos. she seemed to show a bit of activism as she grew as well. it was empowering to see a successful girl of color take interest in things that mattered to other girls of color. she was this bubbly, fun, and quite an adorable person who seemed to have a lot of passion in her eyes. but, everyone grows up.

as zendaya got older, so did all of her loyal fans so, that means closing the door on her disney life and opening to new and "mature" projects as a young adult. thus, the huge renewed franchise, spider-man, was her first big movie role－ yet she had 2 minutes and 50 seconds of screen time (even less than marisa tomei) and not even the love interest, yet her face AND name were big enough on the poster that you would think she had more lines. laura harrier, the actual love interest, is no where to be found. another factor is that tom holland was not a well known actor at the time, so they probably needed a familiar face in order to get people to say "i'll go see it for zendaya". it sold. it worked.

and of course we want to see our fav, miss zendaya, but for what we got & only for it to be relieved all along that she's mj? (as a new character, michelle jones, not mary jane)..... [opinion] it could have been squeezed into the second film if i'm being quite honest if the budding love between peter and mj weren't one of the main plots of far from home. it seemed sudden that it was revealed she was the new love interest when the role of mj seemed to be a goofy/fun role as one of peter's possible sidekicks in future movies.

there's no avoiding the accusation that throughout the films it seems that ned is becoming less of a main character the further the petermj / t*mdaya narrative is being pushed by both the mcu and shippers. even though mj was more introduced in ffh, she still got her own poster promo while jacob batalon did not. mj went from having 2 minutes of screen-time to 19 full minutes, ned leeds went from 15 minutes of screen-time and cut down to 14:30 in the sequel, less than the amount he was given in the first movie. [ this sudden shift in character stories is not stated or confirmed by marvel or batalon himself, just a theory by fans. ]

since the drop of the spider-man: no way home full trailer, some people do not think the character of mj is deserving of what seems like a gwen stacy parallel, which is understandable considering the big jump her character takes from barely being in the first movie then suddenly peter's girlfriend after the events of homecoming with liz moving + half the population was blipped so, peter & mj's relationship can only be condensed down to a few weeks, maybe 2-3 months.

recently, the dune press was massive knowing that two young talented leads, timothee chalamet and zendaya, were going to play "side-by-side" in a sci-fi movie remake that had an amazing director. everyone expected to see a new dynamic on-screen, yet some people weren't surprised that zendaya got 7 minutes of total screen time of a 2 hour film.

while the argument has been made that chani (her character) has more of a significant part in the sequel of the movie franchise [ set to come out in 2023 ], the question of "why was she bigger than some of the actual main characters?" is plausible. i'll answer honestly... profit from familiarity / knowing the audience that will want to see this movie. same business idea as spiderman: homecoming.

while zendaya did state she was disappointed about only spending a total of 3-4 days on set, it is still surprising for some fans to see how publicized her face/image was and the amount of interviews she had with chalamet yet they weren't in most scenes together within the whole movie.

2. she plays the same roles (as of now) aka it doesn't matter that she won an emmy.

she's had roles in greatest showman, spiderman: ffh, malcolm & marie, HBO's euphoria, the OA and most recently, dune & spiderman: no way home while also having voicing roles in childrens' movies such as smallfoot (zendaya is meechee) and the space jam sequel as the iconic lola bunny.

now... if you don't already see a theme in zendaya's physical roles, look a little more on the surface of all of them. it's no lie and not unseen to almost everyone that she always plays the "too cool to care" character in most of her acting.

rue bennett, michelle jones, and marie can all be compared to being the same character. the basis of a cold, bare-faced character with a monotone voice who tries to be emotionless until provoked, has a rough backstory (2/3 are being a semi-recovering drug addict) and someone who subconsciously pushes away the people they like because they are too scared to care. this character has not only had trust issues from others who have wronged them, but they has some mystery to themselves－ enough that the audience can either hate them for being unnecessarily angsty or love how blunt and quick-witted they are. it's common trope used in media, not just zendaya's way of portraying her characters.

important to say that no one is saying winning an emmy is easy!!!, but there was much speculation that zendaya won because of how well-liked she is. her performance as rue bennett was amazing, a bit more emotionally driven than most of her acting, there's no doubt in that. she even admitted how she feels connected to the character of rue in some way & wanted to take same levinson's personal story about addiction and treat it respectfully. but, people still questioned the nomination, wondering if because she was a hot, relevant and talented young person contributes to that award when winning nothing huge previously [ since she was the youngest person to receive that award as of 2021 ].

"And she [Vernieu] argued vehemently to showrunner Levinson that the series needed the magnetic good-girl Zendaya to draw in the audience, giving them someone familiar to make them feel secure within a challenging contemporary milieu that often feels too authentic for comfort." stated by casting director, mary vernieu in an Indiewire interview in 2019 about the casting of euphoria.

zendaya, herself, even said, "Essentially [Levinson] said that I was on a mood board for Rue, like he had put me on this thing for Rue," she explained. "And I was like, 'No he didn't. There's like, no way. There's nothing I've done for you to ever think that I could do that.'"

it was never confirmed she had the most likable vote, but speculated by some, especially when the other women in her category were much older than her and in award winning series with previous seasons (killing eve, the crown & ozark).

interviewed by collider magazine with sam levinson, she is asked what she was planning to do after the first season of euphoria wrapped. she says how euphoria felt like home to her and that she'll miss it & wants to be a more open actor, but ends with, "But it’s gonna be hard because this is such a special experience. You don’t get to play people like this often. It’s just a special thing. So, I don’t know what I’m doing. Thank god I have Spider-Man." This statement can be seen as something relatable of an actor or just knowing her luck, either way, she knows she has a safety net/enjoys spider-man.

where zendaya has always shined most is in fashion. not specifically modeling, but choosing the brands she wears and having a personal relationship with her stylist. in whatever she wears, everyone agrees that no matter what she wears, she has the body and struts the pose. but, it's really the only thing some people can say that they think she is expert in.

3. the feuding of t*mdaya... and the eruption of racist comments / the problem with shipping celebs / how hollywood pr is a profit driven business within its own industry.

while the other points have been proven more as fact, this is where the drama has exploded the most in recent months. drama that no one wants to deal with when simply what happened is they allegedly started dating.

for years, people and fans accused tom holland and zendaya having more than just a friendship. once a small, innocent joke that holland made about having a crush on zendaya turned into an ideal pairing that fans latched on to for the next 4+ years.

i'm not talking just about people who thought they were cute together, but i'm speaking about those creating dedicated pages to stalking any time that both tom and zendaya were together. all of these can be seen on instagram, twitter, tiktok and tumblr while also tagging tom and zendaya in their photos. not only does it cross a line of safety, but also privacy for the two when stories of their friends are screen-shotted by random "fans" only to post to a wider audience to the users own theories.

after denying multiple times that they themselves were not dating, in july of 2021, there were sudden pap pics published of them kissing in a car. while shippers have tried to prove someone (another shipper/fan) anonymously paid for these pictures, there is tons of speculation that this was the start of a spider-man pr relationship. not only are they're millions of followers for these accounts, but there are also trending tags (most likely since 2017).

for example: on tiktok, the #tomdaya has 893.3m views and on instagram, the hashtag is used 298k times. it's not unseen or surprising how it's always been talked about/vouched for before they were seen together + fueling the tag when the papz pics dropped and quickly spread around the internet.

with these, allegedly, candid pictures came a storm of mixed opinions and boy, was it messy, to say the least. a number of accusations were made of the two's sudden connection, including that the funko pops for spiderman: no way home came out later that day or that both of their previous movies, cherry + malcolm & marie did not do well in viewings, ratings and reviews.

hollywood has proven time and time again that it is a business within a business. pr teams, more likely than not, contact the papz because it is their job to publish big news. "According to Rolling Stone, it's likely that 90 percent of the paparazzi photos in Los Angeles are taken in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills -- specifically at celebrity hot spots." A HuffPost article from 2014 posted. so evidence/statements like this can leave people with different opinions on pr relationships, so it shouldn't be so far-fetched to believe that some people believe and don't.

[ this isn't a rant to prove t*mdaya as fake. i'm taking sources that i found about hollywood media and stating facts. do not say it is bias because i don't mention tom's gq article specifically mentioning their sudden relationship. ]

while we'll never know what couples throughout time were and weren't pr, it wouldn't be strange for papz to get called while other family members and friends agree to a contract of said relationship, they are usually never forced to do something they don't because they have the money and management. this is a fact that people have to keep that in mind-- in order to not slam "non-believers" and saying it's false or using the excuse "i know how the business works".

[ this is not truly fact, but been circling around lately, ] some fans have also noticed the attention to "details" on both holland's and zendaya's instagram pages. while tom has posted zendaya a handful of times from july to this november, zendaya has not posted about holland, other than in temporary stories. holland is referred to as "zendaya's hype man" which makes some fans upset since he, as well, is an actor and should be more than a zendaya fan page. basically what i'm saying is, some people think this is all zendaya driven while tom gets nothing in the end.

papz or otherwise, it will still wrong to invade the privacy of both. this is not an opinion, it's something everyone should know. if you respect tom and zendaya so much, as a couple or not, don't ask for their whereabouts or if they're with one another 24/7.

besides the i told you so's and invasion of privacies, the one that stuck out to me the most was that stans/shippers seemed to use the argument that "if you don't like tom and zendaya together, you're racist" or "if you dont like zendaya, you're racist" which brings me to the actual topic of this whole thing. not everyone who doesn't like zendaya is racist & using that it is racism as an excuse is unacceptable and misused.

it's not only abusing what racism actually is, but not an actual reason to say someone dislikes a celebrity. not to mention, i've seen this brought up by more white people than others (again, this is just from what i've seen) who don't/shouldn't have the right to say it unless with true evidence of said racism. shippers gear toward the argument of, "you're just jealous of zendaya because she's dating tom and that's why you don't like her" which is also not true, for the most part. no one wants to see tom or zendaya bitter, lonely and unhappy, but to, once again, falsely accuse others of this with no backup of said accusation is a far reach.

nevertheless, both are weak and immature responses to someone simply saying "i dont like zendaya". people and fans have to have different preferences or the world wouldn't go round. i'm not encouraging any kind hate toward either of them. it's the lack of respect toward others in each fandom that is very disheartening and toxic over celebrities who they, will probably, never be friends with / get to know since they like to defend them as if they do personally know both tom & zendaya (couple or not). i'm also not saying to abuse celebrities for their pure kindness, just know the boundaries they ask you to set.

no one, absolutely no one should have to sell /manipulate others on the idea if zendaya and tom (or any celebrities, for the matter) are dating or not or using racism as a "valid" excuse. both ways are toxic enough and they don't deserve to have their every move photographed or written down. and no i am not saying this was provoked by either tom or zendaya, they are not in charge of the way their fandom decides to act because it doesn't reflect on their characters.

conclusion !

i know this was titled "you're not racist for not liking zendaya" but i think it all simmers down to that let people like who they like and dislike who they dislike. no one has a choice on who admires who or who thinks is an amazing / terrible person or couple. i'm not saying that celebrities aren't human or don't or do deserve anything given to them, but they don't own your world nor do we know them.

i don't know if anyone needs to hear it, but changing your appeal of celebrities can be seen as a part of growing up. it's loosing a flame they once had because they seek out different celebrities who have similar or attractive qualities.

[book-dragon-etcetera]

Why Mantis and Loki should be a thing; fight me (please don’t I swear I’m nice).

What makes a good relationship subplot? Actually, scratch that – this is the MCU, we don’t go for mediocrity – what makes the best relationship subplots? It can vary, but my favourites, the ones that keep me digging and digging, coming back every time I think of a new angle (you’re in the fandom tags, you know what I’m talking about) always tie into the wider story. They feed character growth; allow new concepts to be explored; fit in with and in some cases represent the greater themes of a story.

In case you haven’t guessed, I’m going to be arguing that Loki and Mantis could be something along those lines. Something great. One of the best, most interesting relationships of modern screenwriting. I know, okay!! I know, it feels weird as anything – it’s taken me a while, too. But bear with me, and worst-case scenario, you’ll have a new take on a fascinating pair of characters.

Before I put the two together though, I feel like I need to do a little character study for Mantis. So far, she has had little to no clear development and without serious thought of your own, she seems entirely one-dimensional; two at best. In case you have not plugged hours and hours of thought into a character with barely ten minutes of screen-time, here are some of my thoughts, free of charge 😊. Incidentally, the interpretation I take to enhance my viewing experience (and add suitably crippling levels of angst :D ) ties her in perfectly with Loki’s story and character.

More Than Just a Bug: A Minor Study

What we know: Mantis has spent her whole life in servitude to Ego a massively powerful being, intent on taking over the universe, who sees all other life as inferior, insect-like (hence the name ‘Mantis’ – happenstance in the comics, derogatory in the films). Whether she has ever met anyone else is unclear, and until we actually see her talk about it, we’ll never know. Going by her comfort in talking to the Guardians, and also the fact that she anticipates the result of Ego’s meeting with Peter, I’m going to assume she has, but more specifically, that they were Ego’s other children.

Imagine this, if you will. Mantis, since her childhood, has been intermittently exposed to Ego’s offspring. They appear, are doted on for a few days, and then vanish as suddenly as they came. Not having been delayed by the Ravagers that collected them (as Peter was), they are all young children, with strong but changeable emotions. As such, they fit Ego’s narrative of universe full of mindless beasts, unthinking and impermanent. If Mantis were not an empath, able to feel their distress and confusion at the kidnapping, they would have no impact on her at all. As it is, they give her no epiphany, but rather a slow sense of unease that grows over time, as child after child is reduced to a pile of bones in a cave.

Her uncertainty must of course be hidden from Ego, who may be too narcissistic to imagine she could ever turn against him, but would certainly kill her if he saw her doubts, so she separates herself from the feeling. Her outer self remains uncomplicated and pliant, still attempting to please her adoptive father-figure, while her inner self languishes in steadily deepening turmoil. She dissociates to survive, until she almost believes it herself.

Now let’s try looking at her scene with Drax, where she touches his arm by the flower-filled lakes, through this new lens.

BEWARE. THIS SCENE WILL BECOME SIGNIFICANTLY MORE PAINFUL IF YOU ASSIMILATE THIS INTERPRETATION.

To recap: Mantis has spent her life in a state of slowly growing unease over the pain, suffering and subsequent deaths of Ego’s many children. Her only comfort has been his assurances that all other life is meaningless, and as such their suffering weightless. By Mantis’s own design, this inner struggle has been buried deep, totally inaccessible. Therefore, she goes into this scene entirely intending to allow Ego to kill the Guardians, and if Peter is successful, the universe.

Alright, here goes:

So, Mantis seems normal (normal??) for the first section. She reacts suitably when Drax calls her ugly, and then when he argues that it’s a good thing. When he mentions his lost daughter, she makes a joke (incidentally the sort of play-a-crooked-thing-straight joke that Loki might enjoy), but then Drax compares his daughter to Mantis, calling them both ‘innocent’, and she makes this face when he isn’t looking at her.

This is not a naïve look, and I don’t think it’s meant to be. The tiniest edge of that inner guilt, her natural empathy for the terrible fates of Ego’s children, is bleeding through against her will, brought to the surface by a father mourning the loss of his daughter. Wanting to understand, and partly in fear of what she might find there, she reaches for his arm.

When she feels his grief, she is physically affected, taking large gasps of air with glittering eyes. It’s easy to forget, but in some ways, Drax is the most emotionally developed of the Guardians. He had a wife, and daughter, and a home. He’s lived through what most of us would determine a normal life, and reached middle age. Quill, Gamora, Groot – they’re all younger than him, and therefore less emotionally developed. (I have no idea what age Rocket is, but at least by maturity he can certainly be added to the list.) This level of experience is where Drax’s moments of unexpected wisdom come from. He is a fully realised person with all the complexities and regrets that come with age, something Mantis has never felt in anyone except Ego. And he is mourning his daughter.

When she touches his arm, Mantis is feeling one of the worst losses, the deepest hurts that a person can ever experience, even dulled by years: the loss of a child. But for her, it’s even more than that. It’s personal. She realises in that moment that on the other end of every one of Ego’s children was someone like Drax, feeling what he felt. That they were still out there in the universe, mourning the sons and daughters that Mantis had met. It tilts her world on its axis, and we get a close-up to watch it:

This is her guilt, her worst fears validated. She can no longer use the ‘we’re just insects anyway’ justification to excuse the cavern of bones. Every tiny doubt she has ever had now has an explanation, and it means she has grown up complicit to atrocities she couldn’t even recognise. Upset, and guilty that he still believes her innocent, she turns immediately to Drax, knowing she can no longer stand by do nothing. They are interrupted by Gamora before Mantis can explain, so later that night, knowing she cannot bear being complicit yet again to murder, Mantis wakes Drax and betrays Ego, despite her fear and love for someone who has been (literally) her whole world.

Go watch the scene thinking about Mantis's guilt, I dare you. I did, and it hurt me.

By the end of GotG2, we have a Mantis still conditioned to serve the father she has now killed. His teachings have left her with crippling self-doubt, and a sense of personal inferiority that as of yet we have not seen her question, despite a truly incredible level of power (subduing first Ego – an actual planet – and then Thanos; I’ll go into her frightening Gamora later), and her own heroism. She is incapable of being righteously angry at Ego, because righteously implies right, something it does not occur to her that she might have. And she hides it all, because over the years she has built an unconscious self-defence mechanism which allows her to control people’s actions towards her by seeming harmless and sweet. The ultimate deflector of aggression.

What her motives and feelings might be now she has found her freedom, I also have some thoughts on, but that is a topic for another day (possibly a Loki including day, hmm?). I feel like it’s important to mention that, although this is a dark interpretation, that doesn’t mean I think Mantis is a dark character. There is inherent darkness in the horror of her past, but some of the best and brightest people in the world are people who have been to hell and back, and come back kinder for it. One day, when she has learnt some self-worth, and ditched the clothes that she wore as a slave to a monster, I think she could be one of the best, most impressive, and nuanced heroes we have ever seen.

[ohstardust]

Are We Gonna Finish What We Started?

REQUEST: from @wardley10 You and TGC are in a bar and you’re chatting. You’ve kissed in the past but not gone any further. You’re mostly friends. But tonight you’re a bit tipsy on wine, chatting in a bar, he looks cute, you try to hold back but can’t so you give him a peck but then he deepens it.They go back to her apartment to watch a film where they cuddle and maybe a couple of kisses there but no further. See what the future brings. A/N: This came from one of our many Twitter chats that suddenly escalated and I came out with this. Hope you enjoy! Thanks to @outofworkactress for the film recommendation too, I didn’t think about how perfectly it fit until I began writing (and watched it a bunch of times and fell in love with the film all over again). Title: Selfish Love by Jessie Ware My Tom playlist can be found on Spotify (x)

The early autumn afternoon had cast a dull wash through the young woman’s shared flat but it didn’t affect her mood or deter her from the tasks and errands she had planned for the day. If anything, she quite preferred this weather because she didn’t feel guilty spending the day indoors. She’d just stepped out of the shower and was towel drying her hair when her phone vibrated on the countertop, the shrill sound of a generic ringtone startling Y/N. Somewhat inclined to ignore her device, she scanned the screen for a worthy name and half grinned at the sight of Tom GC and a ridiculous drunken photo of her friend and herself. She supposed he was worthy enough.

Y/N pulled her bath towel tight around her and sat on the closed lid of the toilet seat before answering, “Hello sunshine.” “Hey, how’re doing?” despite so few words being spoken, she could tell the man wasn’t himself, she hadn’t heard him so weary in a number of months. “I’m doing good, you however don’t seem to be your chipper self. What’s wrong?” “My head’s just a bit all over the place at the minute,” Tom paused for a moment, sounding unsure or debating what to say next, “Are you free this afternoon? Few drinks at the pub, a catch up?” “I’ll be there in an hour.” “Knew I could count on you.” They’d been friends for the past three years, introduced by their mutual friends whilst in their late teens and had the kind of relationship that could stand a month of no contact but still allow them to pick up where they left off with no trace of absence. It was no secret that they would turn to each other in times of need, they connected in a way they couldn’t do with others, maybe it was maturity or simply being on the same wavelength. “It’d be a waste of a good friendship if you couldn’t, mate.” “Thank you.” Y/N could hear the smile creeping into his voice, something she didn’t allow herself to think about every time it happened. “Put your happy face on and the first one there gets the round in.” Tom gave a small laugh, knowing her too well to know she wasn’t joking and made a mental note to arrive fifteen minutes earlier, “Deal.”

By the time late afternoon had settled itself, the clouds had started to break and the sun appeared in a beautiful hazy glow. Peering through one of the pub windows, Y/N caught sight of Tom sat at a corner table towards the back of the main room, his head propped up on his right hand and his left occupying itself turning a beer mat over and over and over. She was determined to see a smile on that handsome face before the evening was through. Pushing through the front doors of their local, she acknowledged some of the regulars with a smile and saw Tom’s face brighten as she came nearer. He embraced her tightly for a minute or so, glad to have her there and to clear his head, she’d always been his voice of reason. Y/N held him at arm’s length for a moment more, taking in the sight of her friend and offering him a small smile to comfort him, “Hello stranger.” As she took a seat opposite the man, she mentally recalled the times she’d seen him behave in such a way or look so apprehensive, the accounts were so few and far between, that she began to worry a little more than she already had been. But as usual, she refused to let it be known when she had been called upon to right a situation, Tom needed her, and she needed to get to the root right away. Tom took a mouthful of his pint and scrubbed at his forehead with his fingers before settling his gaze on the woman opposite him, grinning at her. “You’ve got that fake smile on your face, love. I know you better than that, remember?” Y/N sipped on her wine and waited for Tom to begin, never one to push a subject but rather let others speak on their own terms, she had the patience of a saint and the ear of a listener. Tom had always admired how she could subtly coax someone though. “Can we not just have a normal chat first? Let me bore you to tears, later?” “It’s up to you, I’ve got nowhere to be.”

“It’s only a small role but it doesn’t make it any easier, y’know? Like, it’s a film about Tolkein, but regardless it’s still a film set so it’s still nerve-wracking.” He nervously bit at his thumb, a habit he had when he wasn’t feeling all too comfortable which Y/N was quick to stop him doing, pulling his hand from his mouth and placing it on the table between them, her hand staying atop of his. “Plus, The Last Post is so close to finishing being aired which is making me a little bit sad, you spend all this time on a project and then when it’s all complete, and out there for everyone to see, you feel a bit lost at the end of it.” Tom’s head dropped to their clasped hands and gave a small smile, curling his index finger around hers. “That makes sense, I can’t imagine how strange it must feel. It’s had an amazing reception though, you should be proud. I know I am.” Without raising his head, he replied with a genuine, “Thanks, means a lot to me to hear you say that.” “It makes me understand why you enjoyed theatre so much though, you get to relive that character night after night, you can change elements of it for different audiences.” Tom took another gulp from his pint before pulling his fingers through his now blonde again locks, “Yeah exactly, and that’s why I feel so silly. I should be happy and grateful and enjoying all of this– and I am, don’t get me wrong, I love it-  but I’m just getting those pre-filming jitters and I’m so bloody nervous.” “That’s natural though, love. You’ve been on one film set in your life, you’ve only experienced this once, you’re not supposed to be a pro at it. I’d be more concerned about that head of yours if you were perfectly fine and not nervous at all.” He laughed and shook his head as she pressed her free forefinger to his left temple and he could feel his worries and concerns subsiding. “No, I know, it just feels even more daunting than Dunkirk did though, that’s what’s so barmy about it all. I think- at least then I knew there were a bunch of lads all in the same boat as me,” he laughed as Y/N snorted at the unintended pun and he shook his head, “we’d all been relatively new to it. But I’m worried I won’t make the right impression, or something silly like that.” “You’re just worried that you’ll fuck up in front of Lily Collins,” she giggled as he lightly kicked her ankle in his favourite old faithful brown boots beneath the table, “I know you too well Thomas Glynn-Carney, nothing gets past me.” “Is that so?” he playfully side eyed her and quirked his eyebrow with his glass raised to his lips. “Damn right it is,” she drained the remainder of her wine glass and grabbed her purse from her bag, standing from the table, “another one?” she questioned, pointing at his empty pint glass. “Please.” Tom’s fidgeting had subsided and he was starting to feel calmer, whether that was the effect of alcohol or his friend, he wasn’t too sure. Either way, he was grateful for a distraction from his own mind. She was back at the table within a few minutes, drinks in hand and a few packets of crisps clenched between her teeth which she flung onto the table after the glasses had been set down. “Mind the slober.” “I love a good bag of ready salted crisps sans Y/N’s spit.” She rolled her eyes and dramatically wiped the packets with the sleeve of her jumper to appease the man, “Pipe down mate, or you can get your own.”

As the late afternoon progressed, everything felt normal and natural again, Tom was back to being his happy and chilled out self, and Y/N was providing the banter to carry on with the joviality. It felt such a relief to see a smile on the young man’s face again. Tom’s head was tilted downward as he spoke, the soft and carefree smile playing on his lips as he glanced between his glass and Y/N. He consistently ran his finger around the rim of the glass, his eyes lazily slipping shut every now and then when he laughed. Y/N wasn’t quite sure when her gaze had fixed on his lips, they were looking plumper and fuller as he found his voice, talking and talking to her mostly attentive ears. She couldn’t deny how beautiful he looked when he was relaxed and content, there was this certain aura around him that radiated, and the dimming sun was pouring through the window and highlighting him. The more she focused on him, the more she noticed the stunning blue of his irises, brought out by the pale blue button down shirt he was wearing. It has been a long time since she’d thought about him like this, this wasn’t them, not really. He wets his lips with his tongue as his fingers card through his hair once, twice, his fingers separating as they glide through the soft and smooth thick hair. It feels almost too much, but she feels fuzzy and warm watching him. She doesn’t realise she’s slightly reached over the table to touch his arm until she’s done it, and his eyes are focused on her with a half inquisitive, half amused smile. Tom’s sentence peters off into the smoky haze of the pub when he notices her slowly inching forward, trying so hard not to concentrate on what may or may not be about to happen. There’s every trace of hesitation as she kisses his bottom lip very gently, it’s been a very long time and she’s not so sure she should be doing this. His eyes are fixed on looking down at her, his lips unmoved and only slightly parted from his last words, his breathing shallow. Y/N feels somewhat foolish and moves away from him gently, she wasn’t pushy, nor was she willing to make him more uncomfortable. Perhaps she ought to have known better. But she catches his intense gaze, the bright shade drawing her in again and she throws all caution to the wind, giving him one last chance. As she kisses him again, she raises her hand to gently stroke his jawline, thankful when he reciprocates and gives her his kiss. Something felt different this time, they’d done this a few drunken times in the past, both too consumed with various spirits, adrenaline and friends who were bad influences, but this time it was a few drinks down the pub, just the pair of them. This time there was no real excuse. He was so tactile this time, as his soft lips pressed against hers, he felt warm and his thumb stroked across her jawline and along the shell of her ear, caressing her skin. Tom’s eyelids fluttered shut and Y/N could feel his eyelashes on her cheek. His hand slipped to her neck to pull her closer as he gave her a final peck and pulled away just enough to rest his forehead against hers. The lazy smile on his face brought one to hers instantly and she felt so high and content. Y/N brushed the back of her knuckles across his cheek and grinned as he tried to tilt his head to kiss her hand. “C’mon you lump, let’s go to mine and watch a film and I’ll make you all the tea you can handle.” She reluctantly pulled away from him and grabbed her bag from the floor before standing up. When she turned back to him he was still sat there with his legs parted and back relaxed into the cushioned back board of the seat with an amused smile. “Yes Miss.”

Tom comically scoffed when she browsed her Netflix list and settled on Love, Rosie, his grin overtaking his face as he tried to hide under the soft material of one of the few blankets draped over them on the sofa. Y/N laughed and pushed on his shoulder, pretending to be offended by his faux indignance and pressed play on the video. “Did you choose a Lily Collins film on purpose?” Tom rolled his eyes once he realised the lead actress and jokingly shot her an accusatory look. She snorted into her mug of tea just as she was about to take a sip, “I swear I didn’t even think about that, call it a happy coincidence?” He shook his head before sipping his own drink and nudged her ankle with his toes, “Idiot.” “You’d be lost without me Glynn-Carney,” she gave him a knowing grin and turned her head back to the television, “now shut up and enjoy this.” Tom had seen all too many films with Y/N over the years and had grown accustomed to her knowing the dialogue from an obscene amount of films, however he almost choked on his drink when she recited a line with the same nonchalance as the character delivering it onscreen. “Ohhhh Alex, where did you learn to do that?” “You’ve watched this film far too much, such a loser.” He teased all the while brushing his hand through her hair, her head rested on his chest and their legs intertwined as they lay across the sofa. “Shut your stupid mouth or I’ll shut it for you.” “Promise or threat?” Y/N lifted her head and looked up towards him with a raised eyebrow, surveying the coy and challenging smirk on his face looking down at her and she simultaneously wanted to punch and kiss it off. “Fuck o-“ neither were sure why Tom swallowed the rest of her insult and kissed her, lines were blurring again and this was too frequent but the hand already on her head pulled her closer and he was sure he’d figure this out later. After she pulled back she grimaced at him, “That was rude, I was trying to tell you to fuck off.” “Shut up and watch the film or you’ll be cuddling a cushion, you insolent child.” “Make me a fresh brew and I’ll make you breakfast in the morning.” His eyes widened at the placement of the implication of her words this late in the evening but he lazily pulled himself away from her with a kiss to her cheek of confirmation. “I’m not sleeping on the sofa again,” he groaned as he handed her scalding mug on the coffee table, tea made just how he knew she liked it, milk no sugar. Just another thing they’d learned about each other over the past few years that came naturally to them. He took a sip of his and placed it beside hers before settling back onto the chair and pulling her back onto him, chest to chest. Y/N looked as though she was giving the idea some thought and sighed, “I’m sure I can give up a bit of my bed if you’re extra nice to me.” “And just how nice do I have to be?” “Father-Christmas-Easter-Bunny-Tom-Hanks nice.” Tom laughed incredulously, “I can’t believe you just quoted the film in conversation.” “Hush,” she grinned, this time silencing the man beneath her in a bruising kiss. It was messy, and heated and perhaps it shouldn’t be happening but the act was addictive between the pair of them and they relished in the comfort they gained from the other. In some ways, the pair were exactly like Rosie & Alex, 2 best friends with a deep-rooted connection that always draws them back to one another. Maybe one day they’ll have the real life fictional ending that the characters do, or perhaps this is where their friendship will lie for the next some years. Only time will tell.

“You’re a real sucker for a happy ending, aren’t you?” Tom asked in the early hours of the morning in the blackness of her bedroom with their cold feet pressed together for warmth. “So are you.”

[s0022496a2film-blog]

1 - Post R.

Collated Quotations

Mark Olsen (2001) Zoolander. Sight and Sound, December, 60.

1.    “The fact many eminent fashion companies were happy for their products to be ribbed in this way further underscores the timidity of the satire.” 

 2.   “Stiller took risks with his first films… he plays it far safer with Zoolander: parodying the pretensions of the fashion industry is much like shooting fish in a barrel.” 

 3.   “Their [members of the fashion community] presence only reminds us that everyone, including those being made fun of, are in on the joke. No harm, no foul – that would seem to be the guiding principle underpinning this lame satire.” 

 4.   “With his latest film, in which he also stars as dim male model Derek Zoolander, Stiller spoofs the excesses of the fashion industry.” 

Andrew Sarris (1962) Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962. Barry Keith Grant (ed) Auteurs and Authorship. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 35-45

1.    “The three premises of the auteur theory may be visualised as three concentric circles: the outer circle as technique; the middle circle, personal style; and the inner circle, interior meaning.”

 2.   “The auteur theory itself is a pattern theory in constant flux.” 

 3.   “The inherent bias of the auteur theory magnifies the gap between two films.” 

 4.   “The temptations of cynicism, common sense, and facile culture-mongering are always very strong, but somehow, I feel that the auteur theory is the only hope for extending the appreciation of personal qualities in the cinema. By grouping and evaluating films according to directors, the critic can rescue individual achievements from unjustifiable anonymity.” 

Roger Ebert (1994) Reality Bites Review and Film summary. Roger Ebert Reviews, February 18th [Online]. Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/reality-bites-1994  [29/09/17].

1.    “The friends are about as inane and boring as most people are while goofing off in front of a camera, but what’s remarkable is how badly the footage is shot.” 

 2.   “Troy slowly undergoes a predictable change of heart, and the outcome will surprise anyone who has never seen a movie before.”

 3.   “What interests me about the film, which was directed by Stiller … is how blind it is to its own realities”

 4.    “The problem, I think, is that movies like this aren’t made up from scratch; they’re fabricated out of other movies, and out of old and shop-worn conventions.”

Roger Ebert (2001) Zoolander Review and Film summary. Roger Ebert Reviews, September 28th [Online]. Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/zoolander-2001  [29/09/17]. 

1.    “There have been articles lately asking why the United States is so hated in some parts of the world. As this week’s Exhibit A from Hollywood, I offer ‘Zoolander’” 

 2.   “I wanted to forget but the movie kept making me remember.” 

 3.   “The movie is a satirical jab at the fashion industry, and there are points scored, and some good stuff involving Stiller.” 

 4.   “I also admire the ruthlessness with which ‘Zoolander’ points out that the fashion industry does depend on child labour.” 

Marco Chacon (2008) Tropic Thunder Review and Film summary. Flick Direct, August 18th [Online]. Available at: http://flickdirect.com/movies/movie-reviews-detail.aspx?id=110&movie=tropic%20thunder&type=1  [02/10/17].

1.    “I'm not overly impressed by throwing the kitchen sink at the audience when it comes to trying to generate laughs.” 

 2.   “By contrast, Tropic Thunder doesn't have guts where it really needs them, making its satire a dull blade.”

 3.   “If you over-think Tropic Thunder you probably get what you deserve--but the movie has a promise it just never quite achieves.” 

 4.   “Having seen Tropic Thunder, I can safely say that whatever the writers (of which Stiller was the primary) say, they were, unquestionably, making fun of mentally-challenged people.”

Peter Travers (1994) Reality Bites. Rolling Stone, February 18th [Online]. Available at: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/reality-bites-20110214 [02/10/17].

1.    “Even when Reality Bites stoops to being glibly ingratiating, it gets the behavioural details right.”

 2.   “The film shows a keen understanding of the anxiety that lies beneath the banter. It's both hilarious and horrific to watch Lelaina face the challenge of the job market.”

 3.   “Reality Bites is at its smartest when it stays messiest, when Stiller can't resist squeezing in more good stuff.” 

 4.   “You may think Reality Bites is just a bunch of white kids sitting around whining. If so, what's your glitch? It's also pure entertainment.”

Bilge Ebiri (2017) Will Ben Stiller’s characters ever grow up?. Vulture, September 26th 2017 [Online]. Available at:  http://www.vulture.com/2017/09/will-ben-stillers-characters-ever-grow-up.html [10/10/17].

1.    “Look at Zoolander (2001), in which his dopey, veteran male supermodel goes back home to coal­ mining country, only to be met with his working class family’s derision and disapproval.” 

 2.   “Think back to Reality Bites, his 1994 directorial debut, made before he established his comic persona: There, he played a reasonably good looking, gainfully employed young TV executive who dated Winona Ryder’s confused, recent college grad; his very stability seemed to be his main appeal.”

 3.   “Over the years, Stiller has found a way to merge this surface plainness with a sense of inner, neurotic torment. He is a fascinating in-between type – a man who has often assumed the responsibilities of being an adult without achieving the emotional maturity required of it…That’s the secret of Ben Stiller’s success: He connects with a universal sense of inadequacy within us all.”

 4.   “There’s another fold to all this, of course, which is that Stiller’s characters usually have to defeat their insufficiency and fear of adulthood. To put it another way, they have to overcome their innate Ben Stiller-ness in order to succeed.” 

Dyer, R. (1992) Only entertainment. London: Routledge.

1.    “This distinction remains with us – art is what is edifying, elitist, refined, difficult, whilst entertainment is hedonistic, democratic, vulgar, easy.”

 2.   “Populism has crept back, for the logic behind this is that as long as people enjoy it (or rather, as long as ‘very many people’ turn it on) it doesn’t matter much what it’s like.”

 3.   “If we see entertainment from the point of view of the providers, then we are asking questions like, How do you distract people from the horrors of everyday life?” 

 4.   “Leisure time can be defined as time that is not obligated, and leisure activities can be defined as activities that are non-obligatory.” 

Hodgson, B. (2017) The Elusive Auteur: The Question of Film Authorship Throughout the Age of Cinema. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Co.

1.    “In Sarris’ second line (The Far Side of Paradise), many of his listed directors combined director/producer functions at various stages of their careers in order to exercise creative autonomy.” 

2.   “The superior craftsman label may be applied to those directors who established a solid, prestigious and continuing base for themselves under the studio system.”

 3.   “The superior craftsman’s filmmaking skills and professionalism were subordinated to the studio’s purposes by the manner in which they harnessed star performance, enhanced dramatic effect, and assuredly executed narrative conventions in line with Hollywood protocols.”

 4.   “The journeyman represents the cement upon which the studio production machine was built. He had modest ambition in terms of status within the system, and generally wanted to acquit himself with a reasonable degree of directorial competence.”

Dyer, R. (1998) Stars. London: British Film Institute.

1.    “It is certainly possible to establish, as ‘auteur theory’ enjoins us, continuities, contradictions and transformations either in the totality of a star’s image or in discrete elements such as dress or performance style, roles, publicity iconography.”

2.   “…a star, in films, publicity and promotion, is a semiotic construction and the fact that that construction exhibits continuities does not prove that the star as person is responsible for them. S/he may be, but also may not be.”

3.   “In the case of images and/or performance, there may be stars who totally controlled this, or only contributed to it, as a part of a collective team or just one disparate voice among many.”

4.   “If one contemplates them as authors, then one is brought up against the problem in a slightly different form – the relationship often problematic, between self and expression.”

Matthew Bernstein (2006) The Producer as Auteur. Barry Keith Grant (ed) Auteurs and Authorship. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 180-189

1.    “An individual producer on certain films could be an auteur, because he provided a strong personal vision that informed the films conception, scripting, direction and editing”

 2.   “Perhaps the most fruitful way to think about producers and their relation to creative work is as a brand name, much as today’s auteur-directors are marketed to the movie going public.”

3.   “Hollywood recognised the value of the auteur as a marketing brand. While the studios maintained the same division of labour as in the classical period, the director, whose creativity was constantly suppressed, was now given considerable creative freedom as the classical era studio system crumbled.”

4.   “If any one person could be accused of insisting that a film’s storyline, characterisation, and plot development be generic, it was the producer... If a studio denied the director the right of the final cut, it was the producer who wrestled the film out of the director’s hands.”

Graham Petrie (1973) Alternatives to Auteurs. Barry Keith Grant (ed) Auteurs and Authorship. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 110-118

1.    “It is no longer going to be enough to assume that the director’s contribution is automatically of major significance; equally, it will be necessary to avoid the dangers of replacing one culture hero by another and launching into “The Cameraman as Superstar” and solemn studies of the personal vision.” 

 2.   “The flaw in the auteur theory is not so much its assumption that the director’s role is of primary importance as its naive and often arrogant corollary that it is only the director who matters and that even the most minor work by auteur X is automatically more interesting than the best film of non-auteur Y.”

 3.   “[Creators are] those who, in all or most of their completed films were able to do all or most of the following: write, chose or collaborate closely on the script; have a decisive voice in the choice of actors and technicians; direct; produce or work closely with a sympathetic producer; edit or supervise the editing.” 

 4.   “Good and even great films have been produced in circumstances where directorial control has been negligible, or where other contributions have played an equally significant role; a major concern of film criticism should now be to discover how and why this should be so.”

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