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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years

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The Weekend Warrior August 28, 2020 – THE NEW MUTANTS, BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC, LINGUA FRANCA, CLASS ACTION PARK, THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD, CENTIGRADE and More!

So more movie theaters reopened last week, and while I haven’t monitored areas where those theaters opened for COVID spikes, which we probably wouldn’t see until this weekend or next week anyway, I think things seem to be trying to get back to normal with two fairly high-profile releases, one getting a full theatrical release getting some kind of hybrid of theatrical and VOD. There’s also lots of digital stuff, lots of virtual cinema, and of course streaming ... I mean, you can’t complain that there’s nothing to watch, and there’s even some good stuff in there. So let’s get to it...

This week’s “Featured Flick” – which I’m bringing right back to the top of the column where it deserves to be is – is Filipina filmmaker Isabel Sandoval’s LINGUA FRANCA (ARRAY), which debuts on Netflix today as part of Ava DuVernay’s new distribution initiative, and it’s quite a wonderful indie drama that I can’t recommend more highly. While the film isn’t Sandoval’s first film, it is her first film since transitioning and her first film mostly in English, and it very much deals with both the trans and immigrant experience in New York City. Sandoval not only wrote and directed but also stars and produces the film set in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, playing Olivia, a trans woman trying to navigate her life as a caregiver for an elderly woman (Lynn Cohen) when she gets into a relationship with the woman’s grandson Alex (Eamon Farren). Olivia also has paid an American to marry her so she can get her green card but when that falls through, she needs to look at other options.

At its core, this film is about the tentative romance between Olivia and Alex but it’s such a layered story that beautifully captures that part of Brooklyn and features an amazing supporting performance by the late Lynn Cohen as Alex ‘s grandma Olga, which ends up being a far more pivotal role than may be expected. As much as the film is about Olivia, the film also follows Alex as he deals with his own issues, keeping a job but also how he questions his feelings for Olivia, since he’s surrounded by a pack of toxic transphobic bros. Still, you can’t help but hope that Olivia and Alex’s story has a happy ending despite all the travails they go through.

My main takeway from Lingua Franca is that Sandoval did an amazing job with an incredibly personal story, not only in the writing and direction but also playing Olivia, and I’m so excited to see what she does next, because this is a movie that more than lives up to some of her influences. Either way, this is an absolutely wonderful film that you can watch on Netflix RIGHT NOW.

I also wanted to draw attention to Flavio Alves’ THE GARDEN LEFT BEHIND (Dark Star Pictures), which won a jury prize at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival, because it’s a nice companion piece to Lingua Franco (purely by coincidence) with a few similar elements, despite being a VERY different movie. In fact, I don’t want to spend too much time comparing them, because it wouldn’t be fair to either filmmaker.

This one stars Carlie Guevra as Tina, a Mexican trans woman living with her grandmother, who is in the process of transitioning, but just needs her therapist (Ed Asner) to sign off that she’s ready. She also has a boyfriend, Jason (Alex Kruz) and a couple jobs, one as a ride share driver and she gets a second job as bartender. Her main concern is getting her surgery, although we get the impression that she may not be legal. Either way, that’s not as key in this movie as in Lingua Franca. The movie also cuts between Tina and a young man who works at the bodega named Chris (Anthony Abdo), who seems to have some cryptic connection with Tina, but he also hangs out with a bunch of transphobic baseball players. It’s not quite clear what part he will play in this story, except we assume that maybe he’s closeted gay or trans and wants to keep it secret from his friends. The point is that the inclusion of Chris in the story means that we don’t get nearly as much focus on Tina’s problems since the film frequently cuts away from her.

The ending of The Garden Left Behind, which has won a number of awards at festivals including the Visions award at last year’s SXSW, gets quite dark and quite tragic, but it’s obvious that Alves wanted to make a statement about anti-trans violence and how it affects everyone in that community despite any of us that think that things have gotten better. It hasn’t, and it’s a huge shame, although unlike Sandoval’s film, Alves doesn’t make clear that his film is set in the current Trump era where there’s more hatred. Either way, it’s a fine film with a few minor tonal issues that shows another side to an important and topical story.

Premiering on HBO Max this Thursday is Seth Porge and Chris Charles Scott III’s documentary, CLASS ACTION PARK (HBO Max), which I absolutely loved. You may have guessed from the title that it’s about the Vernon, New Jersey staple from the ��80s and ‘90s, Action Park, one of the earliest and biggest water parks, but also one of the most dangerous places to bring your family for a fun day. I was a teenager in Connecticut during the early days of Action Park so I was all over the commercials, and I vaguely remember going but don’t really remember what I did. The movie starts out in a rather comedic way, helped by the likes of comedian Chris Gethard, but once it gets to the legendary Alpine Slide, a freewheeling luge ride down a concrete track with a cart with brakes that rarely worked, well it suddenly gets a lot less fun or funny. For the most part, the film paints a pretty bad picture of the park’s creator Eugene Mulvihill, and the fact that he seemed to care more about making money than about the safety of the patrons that flooded the park every summer weekend. The film also delivers more than a few gut punches when you realize how many people were severely injured and even killed while out trying to have fun. Either way, this is a fantastic doc that really captures the wonders of a place that so many people remember fondly, or at least those that survived. (I can’t confirm this but I’m almost positive I saw former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in some of the archival footage and considering his age and how long he’s lived in Jersey, I just want to believe that it was indeed him.)

Another can’t miss doc that’s available digitally this Friday (after a nominal drive-in release) is David Darg and Price James’ YOU CANNOT KILL DAVID ARQUETTE (Super), an odd title for a movie that is indeed about actor David Arquette, best known for movies like Never Been Kissed and the Scream movies. He also has another claim to infamy, and that was in 2000 when he starred in the wrestling comedy, Ready to Rumble, and decided to promote it by getting in the ring himself, and angering millions of fans by winning the WCW Heavyweight Championship. Arquette was so loathed due to his antics in the ring that twenty years later, he’s still trying to atone in a way. This doc covers Arquette’s serious efforts to train and get in the proper shape needed to take part in the country’s #1 form of sports entertainment.

This was another particularly interesting doc to me, maybe because I wasn’t really following wrestling in 2000 (just as I’m no longer now), so I missed most of what’s covered in the first few minutes of the movie. I also didn’t really read up about the movie before seeing, which always allows for a better viewing experience, Ed says while writing words he hopes someone is reading.

It’s a pretty fascinating “hero’s journey” (of sorts) that deals with Arquette’s troubles with alcoholism and getting roles, as well as dealing with depression that has him taking ketomine. Some watching this might think he’s crazy to put himself back in the ring, particularly during a scene where he shows up at a backyard wrestling and allows himself to put himself through all sorts of indignities and injuries. These only get worse as he gets into a professional match with many wrestlers still detesting him as much as the fan.

Fortunately, this ends up being a fairly inspirational feel-good movie i.e. Arquette doesn’t die as we assume Mickey Rourke did in Darren Aromnofksy’s The Wrestler, but there are definite real world parallels that makes You Cannot Kill David Arquette quite an entertaining endeavor as a film.

Before we get to the (gosh!) theatrical releases, I want to talk about a few festivals taking place this week and next.

Up in virtual Montreal, the virtual Fantasia Festival, and I apologize that I haven’t been able to see more movies to include in this week’s column just because I just don’t have the time right now with so many releases. (Actually, You Cannot Kill David Arquette is playing as part of Fantasia, so there’s one movie right there!)

If you go all the way down to virtual Birmingham, Alabama, you can see some of the movies playing at the Sidewalk Film Festival this week until Monday, which this year includes a drive-in component. I’ve never been to Sidewalk myself but I’ve met quite a few of the people involved with it at the Oxford Film Festival, and there’s a good mix of already-released movies and new indies. It opened on Monday with the doc Banksy Most Wanted and other recent releases include First Cow and The Burnt Orange Heresy, plus lots of classic favorites like Teen Wolf and Teen Witch and lots more. It’s a cool regional festival that I hope to get to someday, just not necessarily in the summer.

I was hoping to catch some of the offerings of this year’s virtual “New York Asian Film Festival,” which plays from August 28 through September 12 with the theme “Women Transforming Film,” opening with the North American Premiere of Rae Red’s The Girl and The Gun, and with an impressive line-up either directed or led by women. I’ll try to watch some of the movies over the next week and try to report back, but you really can’t do wrong with the NYAFF going by past years even with no physical in-person screenings.

After literally years of waiting, Josh Boone’s THE NEW MUTANTS (20th Century/Disney) is finally arriving in theaters in regions where movies are reopened, and honestly, I would love to see this since I’m such a fan of the source material, but who knows if I’ll have a chance. There’s a lot that got me excited from the fact that this would tie into the X-Men movies with the inclusion of James McAvoy – presumably? Has he been in a single ad for this? But also a great cast playing the mutants, including Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Alicia Braga (who is also in The Suicide Squad), Charlie Heaton and more.

Unfortunately, Fox wouldn’t let anyone see this movie before it hits theaters, including the millions of New York and L.A. film critics who won’t have any opportunity to pay to see it in theaters either. Hopefully it’s good and hopefully it’ll turn up on Hulu sooner rather than later, but I don’t even have the heart to try to predict its weekend box office, but probably around $10 million or less.

Also opening in some theaters this week but mainly taking the PVOD route is the comedy threequel BILL AND TED FACE THE MUSIC (Orion Pictures/MGM), once again starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter (and to be honest, I cannot even remember which is which). I also haven’t watched any trailer so I know almost nothing about the plot, but it’s been 29 years since Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, and people are still excited to see this. (At least it’s directed by Galaxy Quest director Dean Parisot, so there’s some hope.) MGM would not allow any critics to see the movie before Wednesday night, and I could only watch it at 10:30PM myself, plus there’s an embargo until Thursday night. And yet, I’ve already seen the movie, over 12 hours before I was supposed to receive the screener, which is completely impossible and something that could theoretically cause complete chaos within the space/time continuum. Whoa.

Mini-Review: I was never a really huge fan of the “Bill and Ted” movies, though I’d seen them both a few times, and I certainly was wondering how they were gonna pull off a threequel nearly three decades later with both Alex Winter and especially Keanu Reeves moving onto bigger and better things. The result is Bill and Ted Face the Music, which brings back a good amount of the talent that made the first two movies, joined by director Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest).

It is indeed almost three decades later and Winter’s Bill and Reeves’ Ted are married to the Medieval princesses they met in the second movie and they both have daughters – Thea (Samara Weaving) and Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) – who are very much like their fathers. In fact, we’re back in their lives as Bill and Ted are giving a speech at the wedding of their former babysitter Missy, who has divorced Ted’s father and is now marrying Ted’s brother (Beck Bennett). If that sounds confusing, then you’re not even close to ready for all the time travel stuff that’s to come.

Their career as Wild Stallynz just never took off as their bass player Death (William Sadler) stole their name, and they’re having marital issues that has them seeing a couples counselor (Jillian Bell) – both of them with their wives.

There’s so much to talk about re: Bill and Ted Face the Music, but if you’ve been waiting this long to see what they’ve been up to, you’ll probably want to know as little about the actual plot as possible. The basic gist of it is that Bill and Ted must save reality which is collapsing on itself, commissioned by Kristen Schaal’s Kelly, who is the daughter of the Great Leader, a role taken on by her mother (Holland Taylor). Bill and Ted need to find the perfect song that will bring the entire world and all realities together. They’re also being pursued by a killer robot, just… because?

One of my biggest takeaways for the movie is what good sports Winter and Reeves are to take part in everything that’s thrown at them, including playing different variations on their characters, and some very funny ones indeed. I was also hugely impressed by Weaving (who I didn’t recognize at first) and Lundy-Paine at their spot-on impressions of their “Dads” to the point where their subplot about trying to put together a band to play their Dad’s song by travelling through time and convincing the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong and Mozart to band up.

There was a time in the ‘80s and ‘90s where movies could just be a fun form of escapist entertainment, and Bill and Ted Face the Music brings that feeling back as it doesn’t seem to care what people think of it – kind of that lovable drunk at the party. Sure, it gets a little corny towards the end when Thea and Billie bring all the elements of their band together, but hey, at least it doesn’t feature an appearance by Smashmouth.

Bill and Ted Face the Music is more silly (and sometimes dumb) fun that is right in the line with the first two movies, but you’re likely to walk away being more impressed by the new generation and how well the filmmakers use Bill and Ted’s family in the mix. I don’t know if I necessarily need more than this, but the movie works better than so many other long-awaited comedy sequels from the past decade or so.

Rating: 7/10

Filmmaker and British TV icon Armando Iannucci make a quick shift into the world of Charles Dickens with THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD (Searchlight), a fairly faithful version of the writer’s classic memoirs of the life of a writer, in this case played by Dev Patel. It’s been a minute since I read Dickens’ book, but Iannucci’s adaptation seems fairly faithful as it follows David (or Davey or Daisy, depending on who is addressing him) goes through a series of homes and jobs, falls in love and meets all sorts of strange characters that he turns into the basis for his first novel i.e. the movie you’re watching.

On paper, it might not be obvious how Iannucci’s normally sarcastic sense of humor might work within Dickens’ storytelling, which has its ups and downs for its main protagonist, but is mostly hopeful. Iannucci’s adaptation is quite ambitious, particularly with the large cast he put around Patel, who isn’t exactly known for his humor. He doesn’t have to worry so much about doing any comic heavy lifting, because he’s surrounded by the likes of Tilda Swinton as his aunt, Mrs. Trotwood; her kite-flying husband, played by Hugh Laurie in possibly his most comic role since Blackadder? Of course, Iannucci brings back his In the Loop ringer, Peter Capaldi in a key role. In all three cases, they make brief appearances but then return later to play a more pivotal role.

The cast is the definition of an abundance of riches including Aneurin Barnard as David’s best friend Jim, Gwendoline Christie, Rosalind Eleazar, Benedict Wong but the most surprisingly funny is Morfydd Clark (St. Maud) as David’s crush Dora Spenlow (and also playing his mother in the early part of the movie? Not too Freudian), whose dizzy laugh and behavior just works splendidly. Similarly, Ben Whishaw play an absolutely hateful Uriah Heep, who continues to plague David and everyone around him.

Like the recent Emma, this is an adaptation that certainly grows on you as it goes along, and that may be because Iannucci never loses sight of the source and doesn’t try to abscond Dickens with his own type of humor. There’s definitely a version that could have been over-the-top and more like a Monty Python adaptation but Iannucci shows a good deal of growth with this adaptation over The Death of Stalin. (Incidentlaly, I also have a crafts review of Iannucci’s movie over at Below the Line.)

Brendan Walsh’s CENTIGRADE (IFC Midnight) is the type of high concept survival two-hander that I have enjoyed in the past, as it puts Vincent Piazza and Genesis Rodriguez in a car in the middle of the wilds of Norway where they’ve been frozen shut into their cars with little in the way of food.

Being IFC Midnight, I was thinking this would be more in the horror vein, but it’s barely a thriller as we watch this couple, Matt and Naomi, wake up to find their car completely covered in snow with no way of getting out and little chance of survival. Also, she’s eighth months pregnant, which could also be a problem.

There’s so much about this movie that I normally love but watching this couple squabble for the first hour of the movie and then for the developments that happen after that. Again, I don’t want to spoil anything if you’ve already decided you want to watch this but the movie is very uneven, and it’s hard to even figure out how they got into such a predicament because we meet them inside the car. Every once in a while, the camera goes outside to show the snow-covered Norwegian tundra, but this is an aggravating semi-thriller that really tests your patience since you can’t figure out how they’re going maintain this for a full thirty minutes.

I will say that the movie’s ending almost makes up for everything you have to endure before that, but with so many better movies in this vein -- you’ll hear a lot of comparisons to Frozen – not the Disney one, but Adam Green’s thriller – and last year’s Arctic, starring Mads Mikkelsen – Centigrade just never lives up to the high-concept premise it begins with. It’s probably fathomable that this is based on a true story. It’s just not a very interesting one.

I was pleasantly surprised by Greek filmmaker Minos Nikolakakis’ ENTWINED (Dark Star Pictures), maybe because I once again didn’t read anything about the movie before I watched it. It stars Prometheus Aleifer as Panos, a doctor who arrives at a small Greek village to be their first local doctor, and he meets a young woman named Danae (Anastsia Kiddi) who is seemingly abused by the violent old man she lives with. Things aren’t always what they seem.

Without saying too much about how Panos’ story plays out after we meet him talking to his half-brother George (John de Holland) at a funeral, we then follow him to the village where he nearly hits Danae with his car. As a doctor, he feels the need to step in and help her, as she’s clearly being abused by this brutish man with a long beard, but he then becomes … wait for it… entwined with her!

There’s a lot I enjoyed about this movie, but most of all is the fact that it follows great gothic horror traditions like the work of Mario Bava or Czech filmmaker Juraj Herz, particularly his 1978 version of Beauty and the Beast. You see, Entwined isn’t horror as much as it’s dark fantasy with a tinge of the erotica as Panos finds him trapped with this beautiful young woman and unable to get back to the village, while George tries to reach him with no luck. Nikolakakis doesn’t use a lot of visual FX to create the sense of dread that Panos must feel as he becomes trapped and seemingly in love with this woman who is obsessed with keeping a fire in her house burning brightly. Without giving any more away, if you go into this not expecting heavy doses of Western horror but more of a gothic fable, then you should enjoy this crafty first feature from a filmmaker that should shine more light on his country’s cinema.

The faith-based historical drama FATIMA (Picturehouse) from Italian director Marco Pontecorvo, may be more of an acquired taste, although it’s getting more of a high-profile release. Set in Portugal in 1917 at the heigh of World War I, it tells the story of three young children from the village of Fatima who tell people they’ve had an encounter with the Virgin Mary. At a time when Portugal was fraught with many anti-religious sentiments in the government, these kids tell the masses that show up that the Virgin Mary wants them to pray and repent for their sins for the terrible war to end.

I knew going in that this might not be my kind of movie, just because I have a hard time believing all this faith hoopla, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expected, mainly because it’s a beautifully-shot film, but the problem is that so much of the story relies on the three child actors, and there’s so much pathos and over-acting that it’s hard to take anything seriously. Probably the best parts are the present day story-framing sequences between Harvey Keitel and Brazilian legend Sonia Braga (playing the adult version of the main girl, Lucia), but the movie really depends very much on you believing in things that you may not believe in, just like so many other faith-based films.

I don’t want to completely throw Fatima under the bus, because I think some people will find it to be watchable and quite enjoyable. It’s not a complete train wreck, but it just spends so much time going over the same points with very little new to add as it goes along.

I was gonna review Matt Eskarandi’s HARD KILL (Vertical Entertainment) when it was meant to open last week, but the movie is so bad that Vertical decided to skip its theatrical release and just dump it on digital along with most of the Emmett Furla productions, starring the actor who just doesn’t give a shit anymore, Mr. Bruce Willis.

Actually, this is an action movie starring Jesse Metcalfe (from Desperate Housewives) as Derek Miller, a former soldier called upon by Willis’ Dayton Chalmers to protect him because his company Chapterhouse has discovered something called “Project 425,” and a week after watching this movie, I could not even begin to tell you what that is, except that every time someone said those words, I couldn’t help but start cracking up. Even worse is that they’re trying to keep this thing from a terrorist known as “The Pardoner” (Sergio Rizzuto) which leads to a lot of conversations where most of the actors seem to have trouble keeping a straight face. It’s like no one making this movie realized what a bad movie they were making.

Otherwise, here isn’t a ton to say about this action movie which mostly takes place in a giant warehouse that doesn’t seem to care that it’s just a giant warehouse but it goes back and forth between shooting guns and talking about the two things in quotes above. The writing is bad, the acting is even worse – I mean, the fact that former WWE star Eva Marie comes off the best amidst all the macho posing. As might be expected, Willis is in the movie about as little as he has to be in order to get a paycheck.

Essentially, this is another one of those VOD-sasters that we used to get so many before COVID hit and every movie released was just mediocre since all decent movies just got delayed until theaters reopened. It’s just such a poorly-conceived movie that it’s shocking that it even got financed. Oddly, it shares a cast with the one and only movie produced by MoviePass Films, 10 Minutes Gone, and not just Willis but Texas Battle, Rizzuto and Swen Temmel, which makes me wonder what happened there. Did Willis bring all of them on this movie? Was it a two-for-one? It’s definitely a mystery especially since the movie is so bad, and that movie wasn’t that much better, but this possibly one of the dumbest movies I've seen this year.

I was hoping to watch the Brett Haley-directed ALL TOGETHER NOW, which debuts on Netflix this Friday, and I’ll probably try to get to it since I’m such a big fan of his work from The Hero to Hearts Beat Loud and others. Haley is a really great filmmaker at getting great performances out of his cast, so I’ll be curious to see what he does with younger actors like Auli’l Cravalho (the voice of Moana!), who plays Amber Appleton, a high schooler with musical aspirations who has to overcome personal hardships. More importantly it co-stars an absolute legend in Carol Burnett and the incredibly funny Fred Armisen, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. (If I have time to watch it on Weds, I’ll try to add a review here.)

Opening virtually via the Film Forum in New York is Werner Herzog’s new documentary, NOMAD: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BRUCE CHATWIN (Music Box Films), which is about (you guessed it) Bruce Chatwin, who honestly I never heard of, but I didn’t get too far into the movie to find out, cause it was pretty effin’ boring. I guess if you’re interested in Bruce Chatwin, you should check it out, If you have no idea who he is, then Google it. Sorry!

Apparently, the Other Music doc that played last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, directed by Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller, comes out this week, and I would have loved to have seen it, not because I ever frequented the New York City alternate music store but just cause I’m curious about it now that it’s gone.

On Demand and digital this Friday and then right to DVD and Blu-ray next Tuesday is M.J. Bassett’s ROGUE (Grindstone Entertainment/Lionsgate), starring the one and only Megan Fox (remember her?) as “battle-hardened mercenary O’Hara, leading a squad of soldiers on a daring mission to rescue hostages in remote Africa, until they have to face a gang of rebels and a horde of hungry lions. Oh, Megan Fox, we miss you so much from your Transformers days. No review screeners for this one, so obviously too good for the likes of me.

Let’s get to some of that Virtual Cinema next…

First of all, Film at Lincoln Center has launched its very own Virtual Cinema platform where all its curated content will live, including virtual screenings for the upcoming 58th New York Film Festival, will live. There’s a pretty cool slate of films on there now including last week’s Son of the White Mare and Route One/USA, but also classics like the restoration of Claire Denis’ Beau Travaile (1999), Tsai Ming-Liasng’s The Hole (1998) and more. This Friday, Belgian filmmaker Bas Devos’ 2019 movie Ghost Tropic will be added.

Down at the Metrograph, they’ve added Laurie Anderson’s 1986 concert film Home of the Brave, which you can watch by joining their Digital Membership, although it will only run through Friday. On Friday, it will start an Ulrike Ottinger Retrospective, showing the film work of the German filmmaker, beginning with his 1979 film Ticket of No Return. On Sunday, it will begin showing two of the shorter films by Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty (Hyenas), new restorations of Le Franc (1994) and The Girl Who Sold the Sun (1999).

Launching through Kino Lorber’s own Virtual Cinema (to help the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens and the Laemmle and Lumiere theaters in LA and others) is Hupert Sauper’s portrait of Cuba, Epicentro, which won the Jury Prize at Sundance for World Documentary. Also opening in Virtual Cinema this Friday and on Digital, Streaming, VOD, whatever you want to call it on Tuesday, September 1, is Dan Partland’s doc #Unfit: The Psychology of Donald J. Trump, and honestly, you can’t get much more self-explanatory than that title.

Other movies I just wasn’t able to get to this week include Still Here (Blue Fox Films), Driven to Abstraction(Grasshopper Films), The Blech Effect (Virgil Films), One Man and His Shoes (Shout! Studios), The Faceless Man(Freedom Cinema) and Through Greenland (Topic). The sad fact is that there are just too many movies being released

On some of the other streaming services, you can catch GET DUKED! (Amazon Prime) and Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe (Disney+), but I just couldn’t get to those either. Also, Amazon wraps-up its drive-in series tonight (Weds) with “Movies To Make You Laugh,” screening Coming to America and Girls Trip.

Next week, I think Tenet might finally be coming out in America, but don’t quote me on that!

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!

#Movies #Reviews #TheWeekendWarrior #TheNewMutants #BillAndTEdFaceTheMusic #HardKill #Fatima #LinguaFranca #ClassActionPark #YouCannotKillDavidArquette #ThePersonalHistoryOfDavidCopperfield

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realanimeguru · 7 years

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hey you posted something about "i rec anime. its what i do" (as a funny guide to troubled birds edit!) and i would love some! i am not really familar with anime to be honest because alot of fanservice (sexulation of kids! and queerbaiting! but no representation!) really hinderd me, but i want to expend my horizon/not judge a whole big media form on this. i love team feels (serious power of friendship/love saving the day? sign me up) aka shaman king, digimon, yu gi oh. a newer one i loved was

contin: a newer one i liked was sweetness and lighting (almost no fanservice, did not go the teacher/student route! sweet kid! a big found family!!) i tried Izuetta the last witch - because i heard it was gay but broke it off because of the adult woman fondels teen girls chest-joke. also if possible no world war 2 stuff, i find that a very sensitiv topic that is almost never handled with grace.

first of all thank you very much for the message!! i love recommending anime (especially to new comers). :> second, i’m sorry if this is late, tumblr doesn’t tell me when i get new asks and there’s no dates on when they’re sent either.

i agree quite a lot honestly, that’s the kind of stuff that turns me away from a lot of anime too. but while there is a lot of that stuff there’s also a lot without so hang in there if you can, there’s a lot of anime gems to be watched.

March comes in like a lion. March is about a young, depressed shogi player and essentially overcoming that depression and trying to make it as a professional shogi player. it’s a slice of life drama with amazing visual story telling and expressive figurative language. this anime can make you feel very warm and fuzzy. the family feels are definitely there since the three sisters essentially adopt Rei and better yet there’s no fanservice.

Haikyuu!!a volleyball sports anime. the characters have really dynamic personalities and it’s as funny as it is interesting how they interact with one another, so much so that it still has the potential to be enjoyable even if you hate sports. it’s more shounen like yugioh and digimon than March is. there’s no fanservice but that’s partially because there’s hardly any female characters. a lot of people ship the boys, which is totally okay to do, but that’s not the creator’s intent and they’re all just friends (so no queerbaiting is what i’m getting at here.)

The King’s Avatara Chinese anime i enjoyed recently. it’s about a bunch of adults who play mmorpgs competitively for a living, the main character being the best of them since he’s been playing for 10 years. the main appeal of this is watching this guy beat and/or trick these other stuck up, haughty professionals and bringing them down a notch. and then rounding up his own team of weirdos and bringing down those pros together. some of the girls’ avatars are videogame-esque (therefore have kind of revealing outfits,) but the actual girls look like adult women and are treated as adult women.

Tsuritamaanother sports anime (fishing this time) only it’s got a lot of sci-fi elements as well. it has that close group of friends saving the world thing going for it too. it’s a weirder experimental anime so i’d say give it at least two episodes before deciding whether you’ll watch it or not. again, not a lot of female characters so no fanservice, but some scenes could be interpreted as queerbaiting? Haru and Yuki actively live together and Haru likes physical affection a whole lot.

Hunter x Hunter most like Shaman King as an action adventure shounen series. team saving the world feels. it can get bloody and also very sad though so beware. it’s mainly about this 11 year old kid, Gon, trying to find his father who left him, but there’s so many sub plots and side adventures that findind his dad takes a back seat to other more interesting things. a little fanservice-y but very rarely (if you like this you can also check out Yuu Yuu Hakusho which was created by the same person and has similar story telling, haven’t watched it though so i can’t say anything on fanservice or queerbaiting)

for actual gay representation, that’s not weird and fetishy, you could try these things as well:

Doukyuuseia quiet slice of life about two boys in high school with very different lives. it’s slow and calm feeling. it has some really cute, funny moments as well.

No.6gonna start by saying the novels are better but it’s the anime that made me want to read the novels so i’ve gotta give it props for that. it’s set in a dystopian future and Shion, one of the lead characters, lives in a very authoritarian city who is later rescued by Nezumi. it can be horribly morbid. alongside the fact that Shion and Nezumi eventually develop a romantic relationship, there’s also a trans boy/nonbinary kid named Inukashi. they’re implied to be afab but they only ever refer to themself with masculine or nongendered pronouns.

Maria Watches Over Us i’m kind of blindly recommending you this, since the only girl gay things i’ve seen have been either queerbaiting or bad. however a person’s who’s opinion i trust said this was a solidly written romantic drama. so there’s that.

that was quite a long list i know, but if you like some of these and want more please let me know!! i’d be happy to help :>

#anime recommendation #recommendation #anime rec #anon #reply #Anonymous

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years

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Sundance 2019: The Wolf Hour, Selah and the Spades, Adam, Premature, Sister Aimee

Naomi Watts further proves that she's one of the best with "The Wolf Hour," a largely one-woman show directed by Alistair Banks Griffin that takes place in a sweaty, anxious New York City during the Summer of Sam. Watts is a major factor to the charisma of this movie, expressing her character’s isolation and anxiety; she makes each mysterious buzz on her apartment all the more nervous, and her conditions are the more visceral.

Watts plays June, an author who has essentially holed herself up in the apartment of her late grandmother. There’s an air of chaos outside, with a serial killer on the loose who terrorizes women that look just like her. Every now and then, someone mysteriously buzzes her apartment, making her all the more uncomfortable, and us too. Watts has a peacefulness when she is not disturbed, but then a vivid sense of chaos when it comes to watching the violence unfolding on the streets below her. The cinematography by Khalid Mohtaseb captures the darkness and the griminess of the apartment, ambitiously dangling the film over the edge of being too bland but finding specific light and texture to make the film visually dynamic.

Griffin's script works through a great deal of atmosphere in some of its passages, and threatens to be inert if not plotless in some passages. But it gains energy when it needs to by bringing in additional characters played by the likes of Emory Cohen and Kelvin Harrison Jr., and slowly revealing the past that has made her afraid to go outside. Watts is so strong in this part that even an exposition-heavy moment in which she watches her previous self in interview still contains nuance, mystery.

The atmospheric ambitions of the story only falter by the end, as “The Wolf Hour” doesn’t wrap itself up with brilliance in its 15 minutes. But as “The Wolf Hour” is engrossing for much of its anxious timeline, it’s the inner journey Watts provides that sticks with you most of all.

“Selah and the Spades” tells a story of high school factions, building a world out of a quintet of high school cliques in a fancy boarding school. In the style of “Dear White People” and “School Daze” before it, the story centers on a group of kids getting caught in some dirty business, and making up their own rules. Selah (Lovie Simone) is the leader of a group called the Spades, and she incorporates Paloma, a new member into her group (Celeste O'Connor), younger and more naive, but malleable. Paloma becomes our surrogate into the goings-on and the power struggles.

“Selah and the Spades” shows a great deal of promise for writer/director Tayarisha Poe, who demands your attention with style and story in her directorial debut. Some sequences can really pop, as with a center-framed monologue in which Selah talks about her agency as a cheerleader. But the inconsistent energy makes its more dialogue and plot-driven fragments about drug-dealing feel like a crash from a sugar rush.

More than its sporadic practical effects (like a stairway covered in glasses of different-colored water, or neon lights in the woods), the film’s most consistent style comes from former Ebert Fellow Jomo Fray’s cinematography. He elevates the reality of this story through tilted angles, negative space, and the center framing. It’s a great example of how cinematography can influence storytelling, and how being thoughtful with framing can affect how the overall presentation lingers.

“Adam” is a headache of a movie, however great its intentions. Here’s the pitch: a young cisgender white kid named Adam (Nicholas Alexander) goes to New York City to spend the summer with his older, queer sister Casey (Margaret Qualley), and witnesses the LGBTQ+ scene. But he pretends to be a transgender man when a queer woman (India Menuez) he’s smitten with is convinced he’s trans. We spend much of "Adam" waiting for his ridiculous, insensitive lies to be called out.

If your eyes rolled out of your head reading that, that’s fair. This premise (adapted by Ariel Schrag from her book) very likely wouldn’t work at all if it didn't prominently feature so many transgender actors, or if it hadn't been directed by a transgender director. Thankfully, this is not the mean-spirited sex comedy that could have been made from a similar concept in previous Hollywood eras. But "Adam" is a textbook example of the quandary behind progress with representation—does a movie make up for its shallow center focus by showing people on-screen who rarely get the screen-time, giving them cinematic lives? Or is “Adam” still just as bad because we spend so much of it with a nauseating protagonist?

“Adam” is given a smoothness from promising director Rhys Ernst, making his directorial debut. The film is always in control of its tone, whether it's in the studio teen comedy-esque beats, or cringing moments in which the dunderhead nonetheless learns a bit more about someone else’s life experience. But it just becomes so cringeworthy to see Adam become the main focus of the story, especially as the side characters reveal themselves to be more interesting and frustrating. Adam takes a clumsy journey to enlightenment, but at what cost? I wanted more of the characters outside of his cheap con, like his sister Casey, new confidant and Film Forum employee Ethan (Leo Sheng), temporary roommate June (Chloe Levine) and other characters who appear in the parties, clubs, and campgrounds that Adam navigates.

I have no idea who will find this movie offensive, but at the end of the day I do think the film deserves an audience—a far-reaching entity like Netflix should pick this up—so that viewers can at least see a whole bunch of actors who are talented but also gravely underrepresented in film. I can’t wait to read the critical and supportive pieces that are bound to be written about it.

“Premature” is an excellent showcase for future-star Zora Howard, who co-wrote this script with director Rashaad Ernesto Green. It largely concerns a summer in the life of Ayanna (Howard), a 17-year-old girl who is intelligent and focused, and has an electric group of friends we sporadically get to hang out with. Ayanna's life is thrown for a bit of a loop when she meets a music producer Isaiah (Joshua Boone), a slightly older man who seems worthy of her time, and quickly woos her. The film emphasizes the romance of their relationship with its Kodak 16mm cinematography, which offers a dreaminess to the scenes of them sharing intimate New York sights with each other, and a great classic grain to its flat-out sexy passages.

As the script takes place in the different days of Ayanna, sometimes it can force along its conflicts with convenient timing, like when an ex-girlfriend of Isaiah’s suddenly pops into the frame. But for the most part, the story works through some of its potential melodrama with finesse and truth, making some of its more developments feel like normal affectations of Ayanna’s most dramatic summer yet.

As it gently moves from one major life experience to the next, Green and Howard are the crucial forces that help make “Premature” feel so wise while telling its delicate story of coming-of-age. The movie gets its charisma from its lived-in moments, the scenes that are filled with her friends razzing each other, or show Ayanna finding ways to take on the world's latest curve ball. Like the love expression Ayanna later co-writes for Isaiah, “Premature” is a tender ballad—not just about love but age, opportunity, timing—that gets stuck in your head.

“Sister Aimee” is inspired by bizarre a true story, but it doesn’t take full advantage of the incredible factors within it. Anna Margaret Hollyman plays the evangelist and swindler Sister Aimee, who, as this story goes, raised a bunch of money from people by pretending to heal people, and then faked her own death in 1926. But this script from co-directors and co-writers Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann takes a less exciting approach to her disappearance, and reveals bits of her past in flat scenes where characters are interviewed by police. There is also a surprising focus on a badass woman named Rey (Andrea Suarez Paz), who helps Sister Aimee and her lover in their journey to Mexico, but the character details exist as if to fill in time.

There’s a lot of missed opportunity here, especially with how the story admits in opening texts that it is playing with fact and fiction. The script is more about the getaway of an enigmatic con-woman, trying to be light on its feet and dysfunctional like a Coen brothers period piece, and it just doesn’t have as much energy. "Sister Aimee" hits its desired absurdist note when Hollyman gets a song-and-dance number, but that's at the very end. But it's too late, as "Sister Aimee" is far from the film you had originally hoped it would be.

from All Content http://bit.ly/2DXCnmZ

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prideguynews · 6 years

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The ‘gay small movie Oscars’, the Iris Prize, is occurring in Cardiff, Wales as I article this. The 6-working day celebration of LGBT+ movie is centred about its justly prestigious Iris Global Prize. This is the most valuable LGBT small movie prize in the planet, worth £30,000, which lets the recipient to make another small. The initial of the 35 films in opposition have now screened, and after additional it is an eclectic and interesting bunch, covering a variety of themes about sexuality, gender and additional.

This 12 months the screenings of the shorts have been brought together into thematic groups, so choose a glimpse below to see our feelings on the Iris Prize Global Shorts from Day 1 of the fest.

Wild Beasts (Villdyr)

With Close friends Like These

The initial screening brought together a selection of films centring on strategies of friendship, having in the two the positive and the adverse.

Wild Beasts (Villdyr) Director: Sverre Kamme In the snowy isolation of rural Scandinavia, a group of young teens are hanging out, figuring out their lives and making an attempt to find anything to do. However, one particular of the boys may well have sensation for his male good friend that he does not very totally recognize and is not guaranteed how to convey. Wild Beasts is an intriguing and properly shot movie that manages to capture the uncertainties and damaging impulses of adolescence, wherever young people today usually glimpse for a sensation of management in the improper areas. However, when properly observed, the movie could have carried out with digging a small deeper into what is genuinely likely on amongst these people today. That stated, it certainly does not outstay its welcome and has a couple of emotionally resonant times. 3.five out of five

Pink Tablet Director: Xiaoshan Xie China has a odd and challenging to get the job done out mind-set to gay content. In latest several years some Chinese films have been banned or cut prior to release in their homeland to get rid of LGBT-themed scenes, when other people have been authorized out unscathed. Equally, there have been gay-themed films that Chinese authorities have permitted to be screened at worldwide festivals but not at household, when conversely some films (and filmmakers) have been pulled from overseas competition line-ups. I say this not for the reason that it took place to Pink Tablet, but for the reason that I believe it claims anything about the context of how anything like this movie can get designed and the planet it comes from.

In it, a teenage girl’s lifestyle is upended when a homophobic classmate publicly reveals a website page from her diary, which demonstrates she has sensation for another female. Just one of her male classmates still demonstrates curiosity in her, and he may well be inclined to go to serious lengths to make her ‘normal’. Inspired by accurate occasions, Pink Tablet is a provocative and complex movie, wherever its doable to examine items in various methods that give a distinct spin to occasions. For illustration, you could see the primary boy in the movie as wrestling with his individual sexuality, or just as a peaceful but decidedly straight young gentleman. In truth, distinct viewers at the Iris screening took it distinct methods. It guarantees that even when it goes to some darkish areas it hardly ever feels gratuitous. 4 out of five

Three Centimetres Director: Lara Zaeidan Final 12 months a one particular-shot movie won the primary Iris Prize. Three Centimetre is also just a one shot but usually takes on distinct issue make a difference and a distinct, possibly unforeseen, venue. The entire thing usually takes position in the gondola of a ferris wheel in a decaying enjoyment park in Beirut. Four young feminine pals go for a experience, with one particular specifically loud, mouthy female dominating the conversation with discuss about how you do not shed your virginity if its only in three centimetres. When the conversation turns to acquiring about an ex by wondering of them being gay, it results in one particular of the women, Marwan, to appear out. This revelation will get an array of reactions, from worry to anger to dismissal.

Smartly designed, the one particular-shot mother nature of the small movie could have appear throughout as an affectation, but immediately turns into integral to the small and significantly less distracting than it could have been. The Lebanese placing also provides to the movie, so that as a western viewer it troubles perceptions of the middle-east and also make you mirror on the similarities and variation amongst reactions to somebody coming out in distinct nations. 3.five out of five

Don’t Connect with Me Bro (Nenn Mich Nicht Bruder) Director: Gina Wenzel A feminine soccer workforce is baffled when a boy demonstrates up for exercise, right until Cheyenne discovers that new boy Dany is actually transgender. Dany commences to befriend some of the male soccer players, including Cheyenne’s boyfriend, Josh, and he hopes that Cheyenne will maintain his key. Though he immediately starts to find acceptance in this ragtag, chaotic and relatively violent crew, a sense of threat hangs in the air due to what the other boys do not know, and the electric power Cheyenne has about that. This German small productively results in a sense of menace that grows as it goes on.

Some may well choose problem with regardless of whether it is rather stereotyping young ‘chavs’, or certainly regardless of whether its stunning and relatively disturbing times border on exploitative, but it certainly has an impact. It also does a very good work of looking at the reckless and damaging impulses of youth, and the threat of electric power imbalances among all those who do not recognize duty. 3.five out of five

Calamity

Gender & Relatives

The next screening focussed on gender difficulties and films featuring transgender characters, and additional specifically their connection with loved ones.

There You Are Director: Lisa Donato Jessica requires to go household to see her dying grandmother. However, when she is now residing as a trans female, her loved ones have generally acknowledged her as Jason. In buy to check out to mix in in the course of this challenging situation, Jessica attempts to determine out how to go for a boy once more. When she will get household her mother is as challenging as generally, but other people may well have unforeseen reactions. Penned by and starring trans actress Jen Richards, I observed There You Are most interesting for causes that genuinely should not be interesting at all. In the movie the way the emotional character beats and shifts get the job done is carried out in a rather mainstream design, to the issue wherever the most cynical viewer could see it as a small sentimental. However, it is still very rare to see this carried out with trans stories, which tend to be dominated by arthouse outlooks and a focus on the adverse sides of the trans encounter. There You Are demonstrates that possibly just as important are the stories that show a small additional hope, not the very least that in contexts like this it will help underline that trans people today are part of ‘us’ and not just a ‘them’. 4 out of five

Profane Cow (Vaca Profana) Director: Rene Guerra This is one particular of all those films that I can imagine leading to massive arguments amongst viewers who could glimpse at it in radically distinct methods. Nadia is a trans female who’s been mainly acknowledged by her neighborhood in a weak part of Brazil. Just one of her pals has a modest baby she wants to adopt out, so Nadia agrees to choose the baby, satisfying her prolonged held dream of motherhood. However, items get sophisticated when the birth mother has next feelings. It’s certainly an intriguing and at instances provocative movie, when delves into the concept that the longing for motherhood significantly transcends the actual physical means to have a baby, as nicely as the point that the actual physical means by itself does not make you a very good mother. However, the way it does it is perhaps problematic.

Although I do not believe it is making an attempt to propose that trans people today are in essence doing the role of somebody who’s a distinct gender than the one particular they ended up assigned at birth or that they are ‘weirdoes’, but the movie does perform into all those stereotypes at instances, not the very least when Nadia decides to wear a pretend baby stomach. This and a couple of other difficulties signify that when the film’s surface area is trans-positive, beneath it could be viewed as significantly additional problematic. 2.five out of five

Calamity Administrators: Severine be Streyker, Maxime Feyers Middle-aged couple France and Lucien return from a crack to unexpectedly find their son Romain and his new girlfriend Cleo in their household. France insists they stay for evening meal, as she wants to fulfill her son’s new appreciate curiosity. What none of Romain’s loved ones know while, and what he hadn’t wished to convey to them nonetheless, is that Cleo is a trans female in the early times of her ‘treatment’. When they realise this the loved ones does not know what to do, as it is a situation none of them has at any time even contemplated.

Calamity is a small which is shut to outstanding. The decision to focus on the mother and to flesh her character out so that we know she is not happy and stuck in an unfulfilling standing quo guarantees the movie avoids the melodramatic. Equally, the short’s humour will help to carry the viewer into the characters’ encounter. It also properly contrasts the appreciate and contentment of the young lovers with the emotional desert of the moms and dads, so that France’s desire for items to go back again to ordinary is not just about transphobia but also about validating the staid selections she’s designed in her lifestyle. However, there are a few far too many times wherever Calamity can’t very stability its loved ones tale with its self-consciously filmic times and an unevenness in its technique to a heightened fact. Although its still a very good movie, I did experience that it could have been additional. 3.five out of five

Michael Joseph Jason Scott

Masculinity

The closing screening of Iris Prize Shorts on Day 1 of the competition focused on difficulties surrounding masculinity.

Crashing Waves Director: Emma Gilbertson A extremely small small, Crashing Waves right away stands out for the reason that most of it is expressed via dance. Two young gentlemen (who, for want of a superior term would be classed by some as ‘chavs’) fulfill just outdoors some substantial-increase tower blocks on an internal-city housing estate. The tensions and doable connections amongst them appear out via dance, which in the beginning looks like it may well explode into violence or as a substitute could erupt into enthusiasm. But even when dancing the gentlemen simply cannot escape the planet they stay in. The movie is only four-minutes prolonged, but it lingers in your thoughts partly for the reason that it is so unforeseen and partly for the reason that it is extremely nicely carried out. Dance is usually filmed terribly on display, but Crashing Waves realises that the digicam is also a dancer and not just a window/lens. As a final result, it pulls the viewer into this sensual pas de deux. 3.five out of five

The War Place Director: Ben Hantkant Each 12 months at Iris there is at the very least one particular movie that absolutely flummoxes me and I experience like almost everything about it has flown about my head. The War Place is one particular of all those videos. I’m not even one hundred% guaranteed I can properly explain what it is about, but it sees a young gentleman dealing with lifestyle in the Israeli Army and the pressures and strategies of masculinity and bravado it areas on conscripts, especially if that form of machismo does not mirror who they are inside of. However, the entire thing usually takes areas in a form of darkish, dreamlike fantasy of projections and online video installations, as nicely as toy army gentlemen and efficiency art.

It’s the form of movie that will speak to some and get their brains performing, when other people will be still left absolutely cold. However for me it is the latter. I also speculate regardless of whether Israeli navy company is one particular of all those items which is challenging for outsiders to properly recognize with no having lived in the region and being familiar with the cultural and societal context of nationwide company. As this is a movie about it that is so open up and experimental, it leaves few openings to let outsider to properly get inside of. Although possibly I just want to enjoy it a few additional instances. 1.five out of five

Michael Joseph Jason Scott A gentleman hooks up with a guy on the web and invitations him round to his New York condominium. The visitor looks keen to maintain items nameless and get to the bedroom ideal absent. However, every single gentleman may well have distinct strategies about what they want to get from the fulfill, with one particular wondering about their long term and another considering anything significantly darker. Michael Joseph Jason Scott (titled immediately after the names one particular of the gentlemen guesses could be the other’s) is a additional clear-cut and easier enjoy than many of the other Iris Prize shorts.

That is not to say it is straightforward while, just that it is additional very easily accessible. Quite a few viewers customers will be capable to relate to problems about who you are inviting into your household, as nicely as the hope and feeling of prospects when you believe you have designed a connection with somebody. Although there are a couple of times, specifically in direction of the end, that could have benefitted from a small additional subtlety, it is still an pleasing enjoy. 3 out of five

Wren Boys I’ve viewed Wren Boys a couple of instances now and each individual time I genuinely want to like it. This is, immediately after all, a movie that acquired a Greatest Brief Film BAFTA nomination and a British Independent Film Awards Greatest British Brief nomination, as nicely as screening at the likes of Sundance, the BFI London Film Pageant and SXSX. However, every single time I’ve viewed it, it is felt to me unfinished and a small far too delighted with alone, and which is not for the reason that of its open up ending. I can recognize why many do like it while, as the concept at the rear of it and how it attempts to unpack that are attention-grabbing. The basic set up is that it is Boxing Day, and an Irish priest in County Cork is driving his nephew to jail to see one particular of the inmates. I won’t say a lot additional as part of the way the movie works is a gradual unravelling of the assumptions the viewer can make about who these people today are, as nicely what other characters are wondering and assuming about them. It also attempts to offer with a region trapped amongst an previous, rigid, Catholic, dogmatic way of being, and a new, enlightened region that has gay marriage (and certainly now has a gay chief). Even so, for me it works superior in concept than exercise, especially as a couple of its ‘twists’ experience like relatively hassle-free sleight of hand. 2 out of five

Something About Alex (Anders) Director: Reinout Hellenthal Something About Alex is a challenging one particular to discuss about just for the reason that the primary thing any viewer is likely to want to talk about about it is also a main spoiler. Alex has developed up on a farm but is upset when he discovers his sister and her boyfriend are transferring absent to the city. Realising that almost everything will improve, Alex finds it increasingly challenging to cover his accurate feelings. The movie works nicely just as what in the beginning seems like it could be a coming out tale, but in direction of the end it turns items on its head with a main twist, so that when we’ve been viewing the ‘truth’ it may well not be as other people perspective it.

Something About Alex is based about what is actually a rather straightforward concept, but it is a challenging one particular to pull off. It is while a extremely intelligent way to appear at the difficulties it is dealing with from a distinct angle, in methods that may well be easier for the viewers to empathise with than additional normal methods of accomplishing it. Even superior is that it is carried out in an very easily accessible and nicely put together way, assisted by a very good efficiency from the young direct. For me it was the greatest movie of Day 1 of Iris. 4.five out of five

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

Connected

The post Iris Prize Festival LGBT+ International Short Films 2018 – Part 1 (Short Film Reviews) appeared first on PrideGuy - Gay News, LGBT News, Politics & Entertainment.

#gay #gay news #lgbt

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roughentumble · 6 years

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a freaky and disorienting thing is that ive realized that, as i accept more and more that i am a trans guy and thats ok, the more i sympathize w/ male characters that are just........ objectively The Worst. like i suffered through the ENTIRETY of Just Friends(2005) for Ryan Reynolds, and-- actually, hold on a sec, before i get back to the point i gotta take a quick sidebar to explain the pain, the TORTURE that is Just Friends, the 2005 film starring Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart, and written by Adam 'Tex' Davis.

i had to watch it muted for like 90% of the film. the intensity of the “cringe” aspect of this film that bills itself as a “cringe “”””comedy””””” was so off-the-charts that i physically could not stop myself from vocalizing my discomfort through groans and screeches. i would mute the film, turn the screen away, play on my phone for a minute because i literally could not handle seeing the rest of the scene, only to turn my computer back around and find it STILL ON THE EXACT SAME SCENE. i skipped entire swathes of the film. it literally got to the point that i could not handle what was happening and i just--

i gave up! i gave up and i just skipped forward until i found scenes i thought i could handle, or that featured two people Talking instead of some Event Happening, and i’d watch that, and then the scene would change and i’d be in Suffer Town again, population 1: me. Me is the only inhabitant of Suffer Town. so much of the movie hinges so thoroughly on like-- like. A Person Failing At A Thing They’re Good At. and it made me want to die. i think this movie gave me depression, on top of my preexisting depression. it squared my depression.

OKAY, back to my original point. or like, a mixture of explaining The Film, and explaining why my own reaction to it startled me so much. anyway.

so, ignoring the intense amount of Suffering you’ll have to live through if you’re bound and determined to watch ryan reynold’s entire filmography and you get to this monstrosity, the gist of the plot is thus: ryan reynolds plays a man who was a Stock Dweeb Character in high school. overweight, very low self-esteem, “uncool” hobbies, a very uncomfortable fixation on the one pretty girl who is nice to him and hangs out with him(who herself is dating a Stock Jerk Jock Football Player, who we’ll call SJJ, because I can’t remember his name and he doesn’t matter). on their graduation night they throw a party, he signs her yearbook with a Love Confession, and intends to give it to her.

something something The Yearbooks Accidentally Get Swapped, something something She Reads The Wrong Note And Goes “Um. Wtf My Dude????”. cue him going “NOO I DIDNT WRITE THAT WHAT? WHAT? WAIT OH NOOOO!!!”. cue him running downstairs and seeing SJJ reading his confession aloud to a chorus of twittering classmates.

so yeah, he’s embarrassed, the whole school’s laughing at him because of Course. he runs from the party yelling that he’s going to “be somebody” and also something about how the rest of them will never be anybody. ya’know. that usual thing you see Generic Stock Nerds saying when their feelings are real hurt in movies.

cut to the future. he looks like ryan reynolds in 2005, so, you know. Really Fucking Good. like, Only Reason To Watch This Garbage Film levels of good. like, They Should Have Given Him Shirtless Scenes As Payment For Me Sitting Through The Rest Of It kinda’ fine. anyway. he’s hot and beautiful and is a talent manager for celebrities. he’s all rich and attractive, and he’s a complete sack of garbage to women.

he’s actively horrified of the “friendzone”(im cringing right now just writing the word. its so awful) and he’s really not interested in women above a surface level. we see a woman at a bar who’s clearly his date telling him that he’s the Worst and that he needs to see women as people. as she talks he is disinterested at best. she walks away and another lady, who’s overheard the conversation, looks him up and down and decides she doesn’t really care what he’s like because he’s pretty, they flirt, and suddenly he’s been broken up with and acquired a NEW date in the span of about a minute of screentime.

he gets women basically wherever he goes, because he’s only really interested in a specific type of person and(i promise this is the last time i say it) because he looks like 2005 ryan reynolds.

so because of some Plot Devices, he ends up back in his hometown and unable to get a plane out. he sees SJJ who is now a washed-up drunkard who wears his old varsity jacket around because Of Course. ryan finds him offputting, as do i, and it’s one of the few nearly funny scenes in the film, just because i enjoy juxtaposition and so(despite it being the most boilerplate, run-of-the-mill, dull point to make in a film) it actually was something i didn’t hate to see.

he also sees Pretty Girl From High School. they semi-hit it off. she’s shocked that he looks Like That(i know i promised not to mention it again but it’s a legit plot point this time leave me alone), he’s shocked she still looks Like That. they agree to get food the next day.

ryan acts like a bit of a dick, name-dropping celebs he works with left and right, and getting really aggressive when a waitress drops off a plate of his old usual(a really fattening pancake... thing. it looked gross tbqh.) and like, ok, so, i just, here’s where i--

okay. okay. okay. okay. in Ye Olde Days, i wouldve written him off as a douche, and hated him, and, i. i

i couldnt help but, feel, SO bad for him???? like. okay. he just. he had NO self-esteem as a teen. he felt extremely bad about himself, for a TON of reasons, so he literally ran away and reinvented himself entirely and, found a marginal amount of enjoyment from his life???? like, was he happy? no. but he was... he hated himself a little less maybe? he worked really hard to feel good about his body, he worked really hard to get a job he felt any semblance of pride in, he worked REALLY hard to eventually get to a place where he could feel... literally anything positive at any point. he genuinely truly put in real effort to become healthy and have a good career.

and then he, he gets stuck back at his old house, and people are trying to force him to eat food that makes him feel awful and then mocking him when he gets defensive about it, he gets injured and needs to go back to wearing his retainer again, he openly fails at a BUNCH of stuff that he’s specifically been working REALLY FUCKIN HARD AT, for YEARS, because he was insecure about being bad at it in high school(like ice skating, he’s really good at it now because he sucked in high school and he wanted to overcome that), and then also receives more mocking for failing at it, and. you just.

you’re watching someone who was at the bottom of a pit of despair, who clawed tooth and nail at the clay walls of their misery-prison in order to haul themselves all the way up to the lofty height of “misery pit again, but different this time”, as they get caught in a downpour that completely erases all their progress and they slide right back to where they started. you see him completely regress and it K I L L E D me. he gets stuck back in a place where every single flaw he tried to overcome is just! shoved! back! on him! all over!

and, yeah, he’s. not great to women. he’s not beating them or anything, i don’t think he treats them SUPER badly, or actively thinking of them as lesser. but it doesn’t change the fact that he is BAD to them, and he thinks of all interactions with attractive women as transactional. and thats TERRIBLE. but i just!!! i cant help myself man i cant stop i just i look at him and all i feel is like!!!!!!!

leave him alone!!!!!!!!!!! get the boy therapy or something!!! dont tear him down like this!!!!!!! we cant just tear someone down every time they make a semblance of an attempt at being Not Miserable!!!!!!!! just!!!!! he doesnt need this, man!!!!! hes literally just The Saddest Person with The Lowest Self Esteem Of All Time, so he uses his newfound ability to find people willing to sleep with him, as a way of raising his self esteem. is he the Best Person? not on your life. but he’s just! a sad little man! who’s trying his best! i dont wanna see him torn to shreds, man. i just want him to realize that his self-worth doesn’t have to rely entirely on whether or not he’s sexually appealing.

because at the end of the day, i think that’s his major problem??? his own self-worth is so thoroughly wrapped up in whether he perceives himself as someone who’s sexually appealing to others.

which like! fuck you! thats considered a Big Problem and So Sad when it’s a girl, if she feels her only self-worth comes from being sexually attractive to men, but, it feels like every time i see a dude goin thru somethin similar, its like “oh hes just a Bad.” and i get it, not only do men have the societal power in this equation, but also when theyre dealin with this same problem, dudes tend to externalize it in really unhealthy and sexist ways, and im not. im not saying every sexist dude just needs a manic pixie dream girl to waltz into his life or some shit!!! im just!!!!!!!!!! idk!!!

i just cant stop sympathizing w/ the dude. and wanting him to get Help. and suffering immensely when i see him literally regressing into a place of misery right before my very eyes.

when really all i was supposed to get from the movie is “man was Fat and Gross. he grow up 2 b Sexist Womanizer. now he see old crush and learn Sexism Bad. then kissy”

#long post tag #LIKE. this is simply one example #i still generally go ''nah hes a Dick'' but ive been. more and more. just bein like #''but...................... b- but........ tht poor guy :(''#and im so lost. i feel like im in a wind tunnel of confusion #maybe this is a Healthier way to be and maybe im just Maturing and this happens to be coinciding with like #getting more comfortable w/ saying im trans and acknowledging im A Dude #so idk. but. still. life is weird and bad and i dont understand #maybe im loosing the Female Perspective. maybe in a month i'll be an incel complaining about Femoids #(im joking)

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