#we all have at least a few films that aren't great that we like surely lmao

[cassmouse]

Saw Back to Black (2024) tonight and I'm not going to lie to y'all. I actually quite enjoyed it like it was a decent film- not at all perfect and the most accurate or like. y'know. thing in the world obviously but I actually found it enjoyable for the most part

Also I saw it with my mum and she was sobbing literally five minutes in during that Fly Me To the Moon section

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Stuck Between a Jock and a Metalhead

Summary: Nancy, on a whim, decides to visit Steve at Scoops Ahoy, which leads to her overhearing confessions from Steve that leads her to think about the decisions she's made. A few days later, she decides to come back. She finds him being hit on by the town freak. What's a girl to do? Oh, get stuck in a freezer with the both of them.

TW for SA. Yes, even though Jonathan didn't touch her, it was a form of sexually violation. We don't bring this up enough or the fact that Nancy shoved her feelings about it aside and then slept with him after being convinced to. It wasn't fair to all parties involved, but most importantly, Nancy and Steve, that this was how they started out. Yes, Steve was violated, too. I will be addressing that in another chapter. If you're going to do this in fiction, address it so all parties can have closure. Anyways, this chapter is dedicated to my fellow SA victims. Yes, I am a victim of SA, and some of my feelings bleed through there. This is for me and others like me. I also felt like I needed to do it for Nancy and her character, whose agency is constantly being taken away. She was in control when she slept with Steve but not when Jonathan took her picture and it was certainly in question when she slept with Jonathan. People always flip it around so Jonathan doesn't look quite so bad. Sorry, this is so long. I hope I did Nancy justice.

Chapter One - Chapter Two - Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Jonathan wanted to give Nancy her stuff back, which was awkward, to say the least. Unfortunately, he got called into the Hawkins' Post when Nancy showed up, and so, he left her with Will. It was another awkward moment. What do you say to the person who's older brother you dumped?

"I'm glad you and Jonathan are able to be friends," Will said.

"What? Oh, yeah, me too," Nancy said and paused. "You're not upset with me for breaking up with him, are you?"

"No! I mean, it sucks but if things aren't working out between you, you shouldn't make yourselves miserable trying to make it work," Will said. "Jonathan told me some of what happened, not all of it, and he's glad that it went the way that it did. It could have gone much worse. The fact that you still want to be friends with him means something to me, too. I'm glad that he'll have someone to hang out with who isn't me."

"Yeah, me too," Nancy said softly.

"Of course, I understand if it's still awkward. If you want to leave before he comes back, he said your stuff was in a drawer in his room," Will said.

"That'd be great, actually. I promised Holly I would take her to the mall. I thought I would surprise her with an old friend," Nancy said.

"Steve?" Will asked.

"Yeah," she said and turned to head towards Jonathan's room.

"Nancy?" Will asked.

"Yeah?"

"You're a great big sister," Will said.

Nancy was grinning from ear to ear when she entered the room. While it was true that Dustin was her favorite and apparently, Steve’s as well, she did have a soft spot for Will, too. Nancy hummed thoughtfully as she looked around the room. She pulled out the bottom drawer of Jonathan's desk. Nope, she didn't see anything that looked like it belonged to her. Just to make sure, she pressed her hand to the back of the drawer. Nancy frowned when she came into contact with a small cylindrical object. Curious, she pulled it out. It was one of Jonathan's rolls of film. She wondered what was on here. Her curiosity won over, and she unrolled it, holding it up to the light. Her heart stopped. No, these photos were destroyed. Jonathan wouldn't still have copies? The proof was in her hand, though. He had somehow kept them.

She vaguely heard the front door open and the sound of Joyce's voice filtering in from the other room. Nancy knelt on the floor, still clutching the evidence in her hand. Everything had happened so fast then. . . Will went missing. . .Barb went missing. . . There was a monster on the loose, and she didn't have time to think about Jonathan taking those pictures. It wasn't just of her. It was of Tommy, Carol. . .Steve. She thought back to their argument in the woods.

"You said I was saying something, and that's why you took my picture," Nancy said.

"I saw this girl trying to be someone else. It was like you were alone or you thought you were, and you could just be yourself," Jonathan had said, and as she thought about it, that was fucking creepy.

You were alone, or you thought you were. No, there was someone in the bushes taking a picture of her most private intimate moment.

"That is such bullshit," Nancy had told him. "I am not trying to be someone else. Just because I'm dating Steve and you don't like him - "

"You know what? I just thought it was a good picture," Jonathan said.

So, him saying earlier before that he shouldn't have taken that photo that had been just bullshit? The more Nancy really thought about it, the more she realized how wrong it all was. . . How wrong Jonathan was and how he wasn't even sorry for taking that photo. He had invaded her privacy, not just hers but Steve’s as well. She felt sick to her stomach. She had slept with someone who didn't care about whether or not her privacy had been violated and who didn't understand the boundaries he had crossed even with his reason for doing it. Keeping the copies of the photos had proven that. And she had gotten mad at Steve for breaking his camera when he was just defending her and himself. She thought about Jonathan's hands all over her, and she wanted to be sick. She kept pushing it away, pushing it down and pretending like what Jonathan did wasn't that bad. She had gotten mad at Steve for wanting to pretend that everything was okay for one night when it was really her who was pretending and laying it all on Steve, too.

"I saw this girl trying to be someone else."

"This isn't you, Nance."

Why wasn't it her? Why was sleeping with Steve. . .being with Steve wasn't for her? Why couldn't everyone see that it didn't matter what it looked like on the outside to them? On the inside, Nancy wanted to be with him. . .wanted to make love to him. It only mattered what she wanted, what Steve wanted. They made the assumption that she didn't really want Steve, and without even really realizing it, she started to believe it, too. She had always been a planner when it came to the things that had mattered to her. She had planned on being with him the moment he started talking to her. She had made plans to sleep with him. All that she wanted was for it to mean something to him, and it did. When she told him to stop, he did. When it came down to it, Steve had made sure that it was her who made the first move when it came to initiating sex because he knew she felt more comfortable taking control and he wanted it to be what she wanted. . .the way she wanted it.

Sure, she had feelings for Jonathan, but she hadn't planned on sleeping with him. . .on acting on her feelings because something had been holding her back. It hadn't been just Steve, but it had been the most important part. She had been slightly drunk that night and filled with a euphoria that her plan to take down the lab was going to work. . .that she was finally going to get justice for Barb. She had wanted it to be Steve beside her. She had been set on believing that she had been settling for Steve, but maybe it was the other way around. Maybe she was just settling for Jonathan. God, she was an awful person. The sound of Joyce walking down the hallway with Will broke Nancy out of her thoughts.

"Why are you here without Jonathan?" Joyce asked.

"I'm not alone. Nancy's here. Jonathan had gotten called to the Post. Nancy came here to collect her stuff," Will said.

"Oh, that's always tough," she heard Joyce say, and then she popped her head into the room. "Nancy, honey? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Really," Nancy said weakly.

"I would believe that if you weren't crying," Joyce said.

Nancy hadn't even noticed it until she had pointed it out. She touched her cheek and realized it was wet.

"Oh, I am crying," Nancy said. "He kept this."

"What is that? Is this one of Jonathan's film strips?" Joyce asked. "Full of sentimental photos?"

"I wouldn't call them sentimental," Nancy scoffed.

"May I see?" Joyce asked softly.

She really didn't want to, but she knew Joyce, and she knew how determined she could be. She released the roll into her hands, biting her lip. Joyce held the strip up to the light. Nancy watched her pale considerably, and she rolled it back up. Joyce turned to Will, who was standing in the doorway looking concerned.

"Will, go into your room and blast the music," Joyce said. "I don't want you to hear any of this."

"Mom - ," Will started to say and she gave him a look.

Will looked at Nancy and then wandered off toward his room. A moment later, they heard the music blasting.

"Do you drink coffee?" Joyce asked softly.

"Yeah," Nancy said.

Joyce helped her off the floor and walked her into the kitchen. She started the coffee and placed a box of tissues in front of Nancy. The roll of film was placed on the table, and honestly, it felt like it was staring at Nancy. Suddenly, Joyce set a steaming mug in front of her.

"Do you want me to call your mom?" Joyce asked softly.

"What? No, I'm okay," Nancy said.

"I understand if you wanted to press charges against Jonathan," Joyce said gently.

"Press charges?" Nancy asked.

"For taking those photos of you with Steve. That was Steve’s house, right? The night Barbara died?" Joyce asked. "Look, when Hopper gets busy with work, he usually comes over to complain about Mike and El. If you feel that it's what you need to do, I'm not going to be mad at you, sweetheart."

"I couldn't do that to you and Will," Nancy said and sipped her coffee.

"So, what do you want to do?" Joyce asked.

"I just want to move forward, but I need time to let myself feel all of this. When Barb died, I tried so hard to pretend that everything was alright, that what he did was okay because, in a way, it led to us finding Will. We knew what happened to Barb. I pushed what he did to the back of my mind. He captured me in my most intimate moment. It was my first time with Steve. . . With anyone," Nancy said. "And the bigger picture was Will and Barb. It made it easier to focus on that and push everything else aside. It was too much on top of everything else."

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart," Joyce said.

"I understand, I think, why he did it," Nancy said.

"You do?"

"He spends so much time behind the camera that he can't see the boundary line, and in some way, I think he uses that to keep people at arms length but at the same time, trying to get to know them. And I understand that he probably doesn't even know that he crossed a boundary, that it's harder for him to recognize that. He uses the camera to push people away, and sometimes, in doing so, it hurts them because it's easier to do the wrong thing in order to protect yourself from being hurt. I think if he just steps out from behind the camera, he'd get a clearer picture," Nancy sighed.

"I noticed that too," Joyce said softly.

"I know all of that and know he wasn't intentionally trying to hurt me, but he did. He crossed a line, and I just need time, I think, to be around him again," Nancy said. "I don't know how to do that, considering I work with him."

"You leave that to me," she said, patting her hand and squeezing it gently.

"I think it wouldn't have been so hard right now if I hadn't acted on my feelings for him," Nancy said.

"I think it would help you if you talked about it with someone. It doesn't have to be your mom, but it might be better if it was," Joyce said softly.

Joyce didn't say anything else, just squeezed her hand as they finished drinking their coffee in silence. A moment later, they heard Jonathan come through the door, and judging by the sound of his voice, Hopper had arrived at the same time that Jonathan did. They immediately noticed the tension in the room.

"What's going on? Nancy?" Jonathan asked, and she refused to look at him. "Is that my film? Did you go through my things?"

"Oh, getting mad about your invasion of privacy is not something that you want to do right now, Jonathan Byers," Joyce said.

Nancy's jaw clenched, and her cheeks flushed with anger. She picked up the film, stood up, and chucked at him. It bounced off his head and landed near Hopper's feet.

"You asshole! You kept copies of the photos!" Nancy shrieked.

Joyce placed her hands on Nancy's arms, rubbing them in comfort.

"Nancy, honey, I got this," Joyce said.

Hopper picked up the film and unrolled it, held it up to the light.

"Jesus," Hopper said, and his jaw clenched, his eyes looking at Jonathan in anger. "Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you would be in if anyone else found these? Do you have any idea what you did to Steve and Nancy by taking these photos? Do you know what this photo is?"

"It's just a picture, and I forgot I had them," Jonathan said.

He actually looked guilty, and Nancy wondered if he actually felt bad about taking them or that he got caught.

"They're just pictures," Jonathan repeated.

"Considering both Nancy and Steve were underage at the time. . . You were, weren't you?" Hopper asked, and Nancy nodded. "That's child pornogrophy! Even if Nancy didn't charge you, I would still have to arrest you for that alone. Not to mention taking the photos of the other kids involved without their consent. I could add harassment charges to that as well as trespassing. With what a hard ass Steve’s dad is, he could throw everything at you, and he would have the resources to do it, too."

"I was looking for Will," Jonathan said defensively.

"The minute you started snapping these photos is the minute that you stopped thinking about Will, so don't use your brother to try and escape the fact that you fucked up," Joyce said and sighed.

"Do you want to press charges?" Hopper asked Nancy.

"No, I just want to go home," Nancy said.

She suddenly realized that she wasn't all that angry right, she was mostly just tired. Just so drained of everything. Maybe she'll be angry later.

"Hop, do you want to take Nancy home, please? I want to talk to Jonathan," Nancy said.

"Sure," Hop said and looked at Nancy softly as he pocketed the film. "Come on, kid."

The first few minutes of the ride back home was a silent one at first.

"You going to be okay, kid?" Hopper asked.

"I thought it didn't bother me what he did. I thought it was Steve who was overreacting when he broke Jonathan's camera, but maybe it was me who was underreacting. I want to forgive him, but I think I need to feel everything that I've been pushing away right now," Nancy said. "In time, I think I will be okay."

"I've seen you take on anything. You're one of the strongest kids I know," Hopper said. "You're definitely going to get through this. You got someone to talk to? I'm terrible at giving advice, but I've got two ears."

Nancy laughed as she thought about Steve and Eddie.

"Yeah, I've got friends," she replied.

They fell into silence again as she thought about what she was going to tell Steve and Eddie.

"So, Steve broke Jonathan's camera, huh? Good for him," Hopper said, and Nancy laughed. "You know, I have to ask Steve, too. I'm not going to arrest Jonathan either. I can't with the pictures that are also on the film."

"I know," Nancy said softly. "Steve would never tell his dad, by the way. He hates his dad."

Once they made it to her house, she climbed out of the vehicle and thanked him before entering her house. Karen was busy doing laundry, so Nancy quietly climbed the stairs to her bedroom, where she threw herself onto her bed. There was a tiny knock on her door, and she smiled when Holly's blonde head popped into the room.

"Nancy?" Holly asked, and suddenly Nancy remembered that she was supposed to take Holly to the mall.

"I'm sorry, Holly, I know I was supposed to take you to the mall, but I don't really feel good right now," Nancy said. "Can we do it tomorrow?"

"Okay! I'll be right back," Holly said.

When she came back, her arms were full with her blanket, pillow, and stuffed rabbit. She threw them on the bed and struggled to climb on up.

"What are you doing?" Nancy asked.

"Moving up my nap time, duh," Holly said. "You can snuggle with Bobby since you don't feel so good."

Nancy smiled as she held her rabbit to her chest while Holly snuggled into her side. God, she wanted to stay like this forever. She couldn't wait to spend time with her tomorrow. It will be a brand new day and one step closer to a new beginning.

Chapter Five

[asha-mage]

I've been reflecting on it for a few days and I think my problem with the assertion that Moiraine is 'taking' Siuan's scenes/character arc because she is having to navigate the world without the One Power is that it's like saying she's 'taking' Rand's character arc by driving those she cares for away as a trauma response and justifying it to herself with it being to 'protect' them.

Like, on one hand I get it. People are frustrated we aren't getting as much Siuan this season as they wanted, but I think it's jumping the gun to say that her arc is being handed to Moiraine, not least because I don't see Moiraine's lack of saidar lasting much longer.

The books are full of characters paralleling each other in interesting ways, and having mirroring sometimes directly matching story beats. It makes sense to give Moiraine a stronger arc, especially one that will parallel Siuan's later on: It fills in the space from Moiraine being absent for most of The Great Hunt, it touches on a lot of the key themes of the series (the relationship between people and power, the importance of duty, the strength of people to keep fighting even when all seems lost), and it will makes the events of the Shadow Rising and the Fires of Heaven a lot more impactful when they come to pass.

We already know Siuan's going to have a bigger role in season 3, and I'm not sure even if Sophie was available for filming more in season 2 that it would have been a good idea to include a whole arc for her. Already the show is jam packed right now, straining to accommodate all the entire cast, especially when you remember that COVID restrictions at the time where limited the number of people who could be in a given scene. Someone, likely several someones, would have had to be cut to make room for a Siuan arc this season: and likely not a minor character or an antagonist either. I don't know that the show would be better for it if we had less Perrin or Egwene in favor more Siuan, especially given it's far to early to do more then forehsadow her main plotline: the Tower Coup.

Basically, I wish people would trust the show runners more, especially when they have earned it by showing time and time again how much love and care they have for this series, and have some patience to let the story evolve the way they did with the books.

[mygreatadventurehasbegun]

My Favorite New-To-Me Movies of 2023

Women Talking

This movie won the Oscar of Best Adapted Screenplay and deservedly so...it's scenes are so tightly written and delivered so beautifully by the incredible cast of actresses, that it held my attention for the entire runtime. Every performance was fantastic, and I wish at least one of them had received recognition from the Academy...personally my vote would have been for Claire Foy, but any one of them could have walked away with a nomination.

Pearl

This was such an interesting horror flick...the saturated color palette, the extreme bursts of violence and of course, the magnificent performance by Mia Goth. She was absolutely fascinating to watch...the character of Pearl is so desperate to leave her home and to become a star that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

While I consider this to be one of the best movies I've seen this year...it's not necessarily one I'd ever want to watch again. At least not in the near future...because this movie is bleak. During the Great Depression, a group of people sign up for a dance marathon with the hope of winning the prize money. All the characters are so compelling and interesting to watch. Absolutely recommend watching it, especially for Jane Fonda's outstanding performance...but you might finish the movie a bit depressed.

Deathtrap

Man, this movie is fun. It's the kind of movie that I can't say too much about, because the plot is so full of twists...but the basic idea is: A famous playwright, coming off a string of flops, learns that his former student has written a surefire hit play, and he conspires to murder his student and take the play as his own. And you have Christopher Reeve wearing some fantastic sweaters.

Sweet Smell of Success

This movie is so good, I don't even know where to start. The performances, the writing, the cinematography...it's such a perfect example of a noir film (especially one that doesn't focus on a murder or a detective). I wasn't sure what to expect when I started, but from the moment I pressed play, I was completely engrossed.

The Last of Sheila

I really caught up on my murder mysteries this year...and The Last of Sheila is a really great one. Another movie that I can't say too much about because of it's twisty plot...but I will say you can definitely see how it influenced Rian Johnson for his Knives Out films. Also, this was co-written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim!

Catch-22

I blind bought this one after Alan Arkin's death...I had never seen it, but thought it seemed like a fun enough film to take the gamble on. And boy, was I right! While I can see why some critics didn't love it back then, this movie is so wonderfully bonkers, I can't help but love it! The witty dialogue, clever shot composition and excellent performances by a massive cast make this movie a real treat!

Home Before Dark

This was a very random find for me...I actually just came across it on TV when it was starting and decided to stick with it (just like the olden days, get off my lawn). And while the movie itself isn't perfect, I was completely drawn in by Jean Simmons' performance. Her character has just returned home from a stay at an asylum, and while she tries to reacclimate to life at home, we start to see her lose it again...but we aren't sure if she is actually being pushed towards that breakdown intentionally. It has a few shades of the movie Gaslight, for sure.

The Collector

This may have been my favorite new-to-me movie of the year! It is such an intense and uncomfortable film, with amazing performances by the two lead actors and an ending that I did not see coming. Given the story and the setting, I could almost see this easily being turned into a stage play...I'd love to see a theater try and capture the claustrophobic feeling you get when Miranda is trapped in that cellar.

A few honorable mentions are: All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), The Thin Man, Sound of Metal, Persona and Somewhere in Time (this one mostly for the melodrama, lol)

Here's to more movies in 2024!

[finnoahsource]

These haters and antis live to misconstrue and drag for no real rhyme or reason but Noah has been living his best life for the past 6 months with his real friends and not industry actor friends who could not even post or stick up for him

and you knooow they're mad as hell that he's doing great 😭 they're obsessed, actual fan behavior but they can't even see it. noah did the right thing. stepping away, saving his peace and taking control back.

I personally wouldn't be too hard on his costars, he is at the very least with them almost every day for 6 months being offered in person love and support. some people doubt that they're being friendly, or faking it, but that's very chronically online thinking that I encourage people to break out of. he is fine on that set 💛 even amybeth who is vocally pro-palestinian (and thus beloved by the performative activists) interacts with his instagram posts (as recent as 3 days ago!). filming came at literally the perfect time, he needed this distraction. I'm sure he's being guided and educated and soothed.

I also think people need to understand hollywood has always operated a certain way, a selfish way. people aren't showing support for noah not because they don't care about him, but because they don't say anything about the current event at all. anything they're guided not to by their teams, they're saving their own careers. some might like a pro-palestinian post, or add something informative to their story but that's literally not good enough, that's not substantial considering their influence - noah's called for peace twice which is more than some others have done lol. but that bare minimum is good enough for those noah antis because it means their fave is "safe" from criticism. the silence from their faves is acceptable (it's not) because it means they can keep believing their fave is an angel and don't have to worry about a ~cancellation era~ <- what they actually care about, not the genocide.

I know we see other cast members hanging out, but I still don't see that as leaving noah out. he's being strategic with his sightings because the past few months were still way too soon to go back to normal. we saw noah learnt that lesson in dec/jan trying to post to tiktok again and he ended up having to leave. I put no weight on caleb's throwback post (notice how everyone focused on the fact noah wasn't in an s1 era pic instead of the fact he posted a pic with obama who... as far as I'm aware is well criticized by activists in recent years and had done some not great things during his time in office). and that comic con line up with the three boys, that finn dropped out of anyway, so that's okay now lol.

hollywood is known for "let things blow over". by the time of s5 press it should have died down a decent amount. noah might eventually interact with something pro-palestinian, or some other damage control to soften the lead up, but he may not. regardless, cast will interact with him, they're not cruel. they know noah better than any performative anti ever will. twitter will be hell, sure, but twitter and social media is not a reference for the whole world despite what they think in that echo chamber.

I'm just really glad noah has had so many friends around him and no shortage of fun and love during this time 🩵

[panelshowsource]

i agree that the podcast really is so interesting — and imo it's a lot of plain gossip and tv criticism masked as "professional insight", which i live for lmao — but there are times she is really too much... she often mocks or eye-rolls things in a way that, again, doesn't feel constructive and comes off as very rude. mean girl energy. it also bothers me how she will talk at richard instead of engaging in a back and forth, and sometimes that turns into an episode in which she speaks 80% of the time. then again, as content cycles throughout the year, sometimes what's on/hot atm is just more in her wheelhouse than his, so we just have to wait for new taskmaster, new bbc comedies, new doctor who, whatever interests him, and then hopefully he'll have even more opportunities to shine... i do cherish when he gets a chance to speak lmao

but fr take a shot every time she says "a friend of mine who works at _______ told me blah blah"

i'll work on tracking that down!! it would be fun to watch more of them 😋

aren't they too much? i was just thinking how amazing would it be if they were a pair on pointless celebs ...........

you know how once you notice an actor then suddenly you start to see them everywhere? (especially on uk tv which is not as big a pool as you'd think it would be...) that was me and charlotte ritchie! it was like wow this girl is everywhere!

anyways, i'm not sure what her aims are atm... she's done quite a bit of comedy but am i the only one who thinks she would body a crime series? or something like broadchurch?

glad you got a chance to catch my response and watch some fun things! i was thinking a little more about what else to recommend, and i think if you enjoy the quirky nature of repertoire then you should check out huge davies, and if you enjoy the storytelling format like greg davies typically does then you should try out dara ó briain and russell howard (maybe the 2021 lubricant special to start) :) enjoy!!

hahaha this is funny... it's a good question 😅 there are a few reasons... he's good bantz! he doesn't take himself too seriously, laughs at himself, can be teased, isn't mean spirited. people really appreciate that. plus, he represents a lot of people who aren't otherwise on tv — not primetime bbc, at least. there starts to be an issue when he just...doesn't try, doesn't contribute. he's fallen asleep on like three different shows? didn't he just...not show up to the second-half of his bakeoff special? often he's got nothing to say? mo really carried the convos on his talk show, his teammates carried him on bfq, and so on. he just doesn't seem to have the interest or perhaps the stamina (orrr perhaps the respect) for long records 😅

anyways, he was being pushed for a little while, but that appears to have stopped. he's hasn't been around too much lately 🤔 (tho ngl idk what he's up to!)

yesss this is a great video and i'll link it here in case anyone wants to check it out! it reminded me that i really need to seek out his celeb hunted episodes hahaha

when the news came out he would be playing an 'egon spengler type' i was like yep lmao

he and ed mention quite often how many auditions they go to, especially james, for big movies like wonka and ghostbusters — no surprise to me imo! especially since it seems he's focused on films over tv 🤔

can't say i saw ghostbusters tho i'm sorry 😭

WELLLL now that it's out how have you been enjoying it? 😊🥰 where is your review, anon !!

susie dent gifs are high on my list, working on those for this week for sure!!! it's just...how to choose...she's just too pretty....

but i love ALL of your suggestions, duly noted 😍

—

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[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Takia & Rhys are platonic friends, so i'd rather not watch a sex scene BUT scattered clothes/waist-up naked bed cuddling/jumping each other when the Passion Grows Too Great/overheard moans etc. would all be excellent. Also maybe a scene right after they have sex, where Ed's snoring & then it pans over to Stede whose expression is just 🤩🤩 like when Arnold Schwarzenegger loses his virginity in Twins.

Not to be like, a sex worker on main, but this is such a weird take to me.

Like first of reason it's a weird take is, I've done a fake sex scene in a filming situation before (it was for a friend's art school project as a teenager and it lasted exactly 10 seconds so it was like not serious or comparable) and trust me acting in a sex scene is not very much like having sex. And unlike what I did there's gonna be a whole intimacy coordinator and set choreographer and all that shit on set which is gonna make it even less like having sex. Like from what I gather through the grape vine if there's a blackbonnet sex scene is season 2 like what I described what happened was they took the worlds stiffest weirdest blanket that was specifically frozen into one position, and then there were like 5 people sitting just of screen in those directors chairs pausing it every few minutes to make sure everything that's happening is above board, and they're wearing jeans under that blanket, and Rosie Darby and Rita Ora are also off screen in a chair just to make sure it doesn't get to narsty (i've heard of actors spouses sitting in on sex scenes before Idk if that's standard practice but it's a thing I've heard of). So a sex scene is not sex let's just start there. You're on a set with a bunch of fucking cameras, nobody is touching anybody else's junk, they will literally make fake prosthetic junk for them to touch before they let the actors touch each other, and nobody is actually even naked. Like even in episode 8, the least sexual nudity ever, Buttons the character may have been butt fucking naked but Ewen Bremner had one of those skin color tape on g strings that makes you look like a ken doll down there.

The second reason it's a weird take for me is, as someone who has done sex work before... truly getting paid to fuck a platonic friend sounds like a dream scenario. Like that sounds like the most normal scenario I can think of. Like you would already care pretty deeply about each other's comfort level, you would be able to get passed the awkward "so uh, hi I'm ___ I guess we're having sex now" thing because that's your buddy you know them. You can meme with each other to diffuse the tension. Absolute best case scenario. Like that's not what's happening here because like I said they're super not having sex, but I were watching a porno the actors being platonic friends IRL would not ruin it for me because that sounds like literally so much chiller than fucking a stranger for money to me.' I prefer a John I've seen before personally. (not that those two types of sex work are the same)

The third reason this is weird to me is because... we've like, seen them kiss, presumably we want them to kiss again. But that is where the acting is real. Does them being platonic friends ruin the kiss for you too? Because they actually kissed each other. Unlike a sex scene that would not be fake.

The final reason is, like I said, we're not watching Rhys and Taika have sex because they didn't have sex (for this). But we are watching Ed and Stede have sex. Ed and Stede are not platonic friends, so the people you're watching have sex (Ed and Stede) are very much attracted to each other.

TL;DR: Any sex scene they would do on OFMD is all smoke and mirrors. Even if they literally showed us a dick going into an ass (which they're super not gonna do) that is prosthetics, ass molds and cgi. So Rhys and Taika being platonic friends who aren't attracted to each other irl should be of no object. If you would prefer to see a scene like you described rather than a full blown sex scene that's fine, but Taika and Rhys being Just Friends is quite possibly the most nonsensical reason to not want to see it. It's fine to feel weird about seeing sex on tv like that's ok you don't have to come up with some reason.

[purplekoop]

FINALLY saw Mutant Mayhem, and it was really good!!! I might wanna give it a second watch later along with other Turtle stuff rewatches and do a more in-depth review then, but I'll say the spoiler-free highlights now.

The obvious striking thing is the film visual style, which going in I knew broadly as "like Spider-verse", but that feels like a gross oversimplification for this movie's fantastic look. It's a mix between grungy realism, rough sketchiness (my mom said it looked like one of my drawings, which, yeah I'll take it), and oddly some vague claymation vibes? The turtles especially feel like chunky molded clay in the best way. It's a super cool style that definitely stands out on its own but still feels thoroughly Ninja Turtles despite not quite looking like any one individual prior incarnation. A bit of 2012 with the grungy blockiness, a bit of Rise with the vibrant expressive animation, and a heaping dosage of just general "this would've been the coolest thing ever in the 80's."

Other major high point is just how... exceptionally pleasant the movie is. It's arguably the most light-hearted Turtles incarnation to date, even beating out Rise in terms of friendly vibes... well, barring the bottom-shelf swears and on-screen puke, personally could've gone without the latter but oh well. From the moment we see the turtles we get to see how much this movie appreciates the mundane, with dialogue, visual details, and quick gags that just... I dunno, feel natural? Like, this movie pulls of an astounding amount of reference humor that feels like it'd be irritating if it weren't so believably honest. Yeah, if they were teenage brothers they would say Mikey's head looks like a mix between Hey Arnold and Stewie Griffin. Of course they would. Also the "cringy" music choices rubbed me the right way too, again this movie's tone is so sincere that I can't help but love these too. My mom also specifically cited this as a high point. The "pleasant vibes" praise extends throughout the movie, but I think going fully in-depth on that point would require spoilers. Rest assured, this movie's an exceptionally feel-good watch.

I guess only critique is one I saw coming but because I was dodging spoilers I didn't have the full expectations for. I heard vaguely that there were gonna be a lot of classic mutants showing up for this movie, hence the title I suppose, but I was worried it was gonna be a Spider-Man 3 kind of situation where it'd be constant bad guys that don't leave much individual impact. Which... is both true and not true for this movie. It's not THAT detrimental by any means, but I do still wish the individual characters got to do more. I like what they do get to do, but only a couple actually get to do much, even Bebop and Rocksteady barely have a few lines despite being THE mutant bad guys and having some of the biggest celebrity voices. I think maybe even two or three of them could've been cut and their presence wouldn't have been missed, but I can also appreciate the novelty that these characters probably wouldn't get a big screen debut otherwise. I dunno, maybe I'm just petty these are all classic picks and aren't new characters from my eras of turtles. Fishface for the sequel, come on folks if I believe then you can too.

On that note though, I am hoping that obvious sequel bait goes somewhere, because this movie deserves it. I wanna see this incarnation again, which... I mean I'm pretty sure did well enough to where it's already in the works? If Spider-Verse is gonna be a trilogy (still haven't seen Across yet btw) then this movie certainly deserves at least one followup.

But yeah, great movie! I think I do have to put this as my favorite TMNT movie ever now, so uh... sorry to the original two live action movies and none of the others.

(also I was gonna do a season 1 review of TMNT 2012 but I started it a while ago right as I finished it early in January but then it got overwhelming and I didn't have as much as I wanna say so I don't know what I'm doing with that yet, I might move on to season 2 but idk there's still a lot I wanna say about the show but I still don't know the format. Also expect Things I Love #4 about a completely unrelated show I'm due to finish a rewatch of soon)

[bill-needle]

I have a few questions to ask the Needle himself (I’ve never done these before so this shall be fun)

1. Do you have a favourite movie? If so, what is it?

2. What is your relationship like with Guy Caballero?

3. Do you have any fun facts about yourself?

(I hope I did it right) 🥲

Alright, let's get into this:

1. Okay. You probably don't know this, but the question of "favourite movie" has been a thorn in my side for my entire career - life, even.

My issue is: what information, exactly, are you trying to glean with this question? You don't ask a question without expecting a certain kind of answer, and with something as both nebulous and personal as a "favourite", well, anything, you're inviting the question's recipient to skip broad-grinned through a field of landmines.

Are you trying to initiate casual conversation? Gauge my taste in film? Judge my mettle as a critic, through any number of unstated measures? Or are you just wanting to find out if my favourite movie is your favourite movie, too?

(None of this is directed at you, specifically. I'm sure you're a wonderful orb)

So no, respectfully, I don't have a favourite movie. That established, what I said about Raiders of the Lost Ark still stands. Have you heard they're making another one? I'm sure it's gonna be great.

2. What? Who told you that we have a relationship?

...oh I see what you mean. Yeah, we've worked together pretty closely on some ventures. Caballero is a shrewd businessman who understands what it takes to keep a station like SCTV running in the cutthroat network world. And sometimes, he enlists the help of our station's finest to assist in his plans.

For better or worse, Guy may be my closest friend here at SCTV. Though I find it unlikely he'd say the same of me. I don't know if he's loyal to anyone, or anything, besides the success of his station.

On top of that, he's still never clarified the Bob Clark situation. I'm keeping an eye on him.

3. While I wouldn't say that any fact about myself is particularly "fun," I suppose my interest in ham radio is somewhat amusing. People seem to laugh when I bring it up, at least.

It's remained more of a hypothetical interest, really, though I do plan on pursuing it in the near future. I wonder if that Todd fellow could help me out in that department - I know he's SCTV's "video man," but surely he's worked in radio in the past, right? In between all those cameras and monitors, you figure there aren't a few transceivers tucked away?

Honestly, I just dread the thought of talking to him. We operate on different wavelengths, you could say. Still... I do need more connections around the station.

(And don't worry about "doing it right"; I have no clue how this works, either)

[concoctionboy]

So, I'm still exploring the mysterious tower east of Lofiathan, but at least now I have company; at @smg34-shipper's suggestion, I asked Xil, the purple guy I met in the last room, to come along with me. (I'm pretty sure Xil isn't human—besides the purple skin, he's got claws—but I'm not sure what he actually is. Is that a rude thing to ask someone?)

[EDIT: For anyone just joining this or who wants to review what happened so far, I've made an Expedition Masterpost with a summary and links to the relevant posts.]

Anyway, we just entered a new room, so here's a new map; we're in the room to the lower left:

So this room is just completely overgrown with moss and fungi. I mean, okay, not literally completely overgrown; there is a narrow path between the two doors that is relatively clear. But everywhere else, there's just huge growths of moss and fungi. Great pillows of green moss. Mushrooms taller than I am. Giant shelf fungi along the walls.

There's also water in this room, though not as much as in the last. There's a waterfall, but it's much smaller than the one in the last room, which explains why I couldn't hear it through the door, especially over the much louder waterfall in the last room. The water doesn't form large pools here; it just flows in a narrow stream until it drains out through a small whirlpool in the far corner. There's a little bridge where the stream crosses the clear path through the room, though honestly that's kind of unnecessary; the stream is narrow enough that it wouldn't be hard to just step over it.

There are too many different kinds of moss and fungi in this room for me to describe them all, but there are a few that stand out. Near the center of the far wall is what I assume is a big man-eating plant, and the reason that I assume that is because it looks pretty much just like the generic man-eating-plant design from movies and games: you know, the Audrey-II/piranha-plant "big chomping mouth on a stem" kind of thing. The biggest mushrooms are in the northwest corner of the room; they're in all different colors and they reach all the way to the ceiling and a few of them actually reach up through holes in the ceiling that I guess were made there specifically for the mushrooms to reach up through? In the northeast corner are some mushrooms that aren't nearly as big but are notable because they have little holes in them that are kind of arranged like doors and windows, like there's something living in them? And in the southeast corner is the biggest lump of pillowy moss, which is moving very slightly and I don't know why.

So from the map I'm pretty sure the far door from this room should lead back to the room where I first entered this level through a crack in the ceiling, which means both doors out of this room lead back to rooms where I've already been. I guess I could go down the whirlpool, although I don't think Xil could go with me if I went that way—though if he knows the tower it's possible he could go to wherever the whirlpool leads by a different way and meet me there. I could also maybe climb up the big mushrooms and through one of the holes in the ceiling to the room above, though there's not much space between the mushroom and the edge of the hole so it would be a tight fit—I mean, I could get through it easily because I could just flatten myself into a thin film of liquid, but again Xil might have to get there another way.

So, again, anyone is welcome to give suggestions as to what I should do next:

Go back to the pool room

Go through the far door to the south room where I first entered this level

Go down through the whirlpool

Climb up the giant mushrooms through the holes in the ceiling

Take a closer look at the waterfall

Take a closer look at the bridge

Take a closer look at the man-eating plant

Take a closer look at the giant mushrooms

Take a closer look at the mushroom houses?

Take a closer look at the moving pile of moss

Something else? (The choices I list aren't exhaustive; they're just examples—you're free to suggest something I haven't included)

[outrunningthedark]

“Also, can I just be CLEAR that I don't think Marisol is the endgame as of right now? Showing up at the start of the season for whatever purpose doesn't mean she can't be gone by like, week five”

Sorry in advance because I’m not saying you absolutely said as fact she’s coming back but have we got confirmation she is yet? Or is this still just based on your assumption she’d be the one likely to come back (I just wanna make sure I didn’t like miss an announcement or something that’s all 😅😅)

Me personally I keep going back and forth on who it would be. Because N does at least have a little more “establishment” compared to M, and with so few episodes to waste for season 7 having that base ground already there might help…. However like you’ve said before, Eddie is the one between the two that typically is established as having their LI have nothing to do with the 118. So they could continue that trend. Or maybe Tim will just say we have 10 episodes let’s just pretend they were both fever dreams and are gone and *hand waving distraction* with a really cool big disaster lol.

No announcement yet! We're just waiting for filming to start at this point - possibly today (the 3rd) with holiday festivities officially in the rear view? Thank you for understanding that I've never said I have evidence or facts to back up Marisol being back at the beginning of the season. But it IS something I feel strongly about because of the things I've outlined regarding Buck and Eddie's individual histories and the fact that, honestly...I have no faith in ABC to "demand" the transphobe got the boot. Lest we forget that Cocoa remained employed despite her blatant homophobia? Or the fact that the big "worry" from Buddie fandom for a couple years was that Disney controlled *everything* and would tell 9-1-1 to tone down anything gay/say no to Buddie? But now that the show is actually on the network ran directly by Disney...the people above in rank are looking out for the LGBTQ+ community? How does that work? I totally get what you are saying about Natalia having the established "place" in Buck's life whereas Eddie was just getting to know Marisol, but I think that's what works in Marisol's favor? This was suggested to me by someone else and I think it's a great point: We can say Natalia is a poor fit because of her occupation, or because of how she reacted to Buck's chaotic life, or her thinking what he'd been through was "cool". But Marisol? What do we know about her? What's her job status besides a DIY-er? How does she feel about Eddie having a preteen? How does the 118 feel about her? Will we actually see Buck around her, unlike Ana? As I said in the post you referenced, she's not the endgame in my eyes, and it's because we know nothing. Is she the long term plan? Is she a placeholder just so Buck and Eddie aren't single at the same time again? My gut says it's more so the latter at the moment, at least for part of the season because a whole 10 episodes with NO movement is not gonna help the "allegations" nor will it allow the new(er) audience to become invested in the personal lives of the characters the way they will be for Bathena and Madney and Henren.

[lionsdendoodles]

Actually rant of the day since this is something I'm extremely passionate about Is this a vent?? I mean, could this count as one? Shrug. Wall of text incoming. So! This is why I think Jaws is actually a good movie but had horror used after the fact in the absolute wrong way. Stupid disclaimer thing ig: I love sharks to death and the bias against them makes me very sad, because they're actually very nice animals. So! Jaws. I rewatched the movie last year when it was being re-aired at a local theatre in 3D. I went into it, knowing this was the movie that made people mortified of sharks, at least moreso than before. According to a few articles I read: "In the years following the film's release, the number of large sharks in the waters east of North America declined by about 50 percent." Horror and fear is a very powerful thing, obviously. It effects how we react and treat specific scenarios almost all the time. With Jaws treating well, Jaws as a big monster, a huge killing machine, audiences would obviously start to fear it when watching the movie. Now as a movie antagonist? This went absolutely perfectly! Great writing to build suspense and really get the audience hooked on what that thing is gonna do next. However, it's a matter of how that fear continued that was the bad thing. There was an ichthyologist in the movie, who actually knew his stuff for the time quite well. Doing research on sharks out of pure passion myself, nearly all of the things he said held up very well to how sharks act today. Most sharks aren't very violent, or will go after humans most of the time. In fact, there are usually around 5-10 shark deaths per year. Sharks, once biting a human, usually can tell that what they're eating isn't their typical diet, and just let go, unless they're absolutely starving. This is why a lot of attacks are simply bites, rather than someone getting completely eaten. Compared to lets say, alligators, crocodiles, hippos, other big water creatures, which can go from 10 (in terms of alligators), to 500 (in terms of hippos) deaths a year? That's definitely saying a lot. Heck, even in terms of land animals, cows kill more than sharks do, though you don't see any big horror movies about giant killer cows, now do you? If I had to explain how a shark really acts? They're just big curious puppies. If they don't know what something is, they'll put it in their mouth. They won't go out of their way to attack something unless they're sure it's food, or if it's a threat to their territory. Some divers have actually managed to get quite friendly with sharks as well, petting them and whatnot, without at all getting bit. This does vary on species, such as if you're surrounded by bull sharks, which are some of the most territorial and violent sharks out there. However sharks like basking sharks, nurse sharks, and leopard sharks are some of the least dangerous out there at all, and are just a little curious as to what this new thing in the water is. In the movie, there's actually quite a lot of information shown about how sharks act through books that the main character reads as well. All of this information is also mostly true! The Ichthyologist makes a point as well that most sharks aren't as big as jaws. He assumes a great white, however with the size that Jaws is in the movie, I can have my doubts. In fact, he also states that sharks don't act like Jaws does either. It's clear a lot of care went into actually researching sharks for this movie, so that does lead me to wonder exactly what went wrong. Did the horror aspects of the movie just overshadow all of the information, or did that information fly over a lot of the audience's heads? Regardless, while sharks may be dangerous at times, it does make me sad how the perception of sharks changed due to this movie, despite how good it actually is. I'm very passionate about the ocean and the creatures in it, and hopefully one day, I can help be one of the people to stop that stigma against those sharp teethed sea puppies

[msclaritea]

Directors, stop saying there's no CGI in your movies | Creative Bloq

"There was no CGI in Oppenheimer, right? Nor in Barbie. That's the impression that's been given about two of the biggest movies of the season. There's been a reaction against visual effects and it seems to have become something of a fashion for filmmakers to boast that they made their films the 'old-fashioned way'. 

It's perhaps understandable that, amid the explosion of AI image generation, the idea of making something without computer assistance is becoming attractive again. But it's not true, visual effects artists say. If Barbie used no CGI or VFX, why does the film have such a long list of visual effects artists in the credits? (and those are just the ones that got a credit).

This tweet is for @guardian and Shaad D'Souza: If you bothered to watch Barbie until the end credits you would have discovered that the film, which you claim has ‘almost no CGI or VFX’ has a credit list of 207 VFX artists and 5 VFX companies. Please also note that 3 out of the 5… pic.twitter.com/5bodtvGuPHAugust 3, 2023

The filmmaker and VFX supervisor Hugh Guerra wrote a post on Twitter in response to a Guardian article that was headlined '"It’s exactly as they’d have done it in the 1910s": how Barbenheimer is leading the anti-CGI backlash'. The article had commented on a spate of recent films using practical effects and prosthetics instead of CGI.

"If you bothered to watch Barbie until the end credits you would have discovered that the film which you claim has 'almost no CGI or VFX’ has a credit list of 207 VFX artists and 5 VFX companies." He said that three out of five companies listed had missing credits, so the complete number of artists would be longer. "Just like Oppenheimer and Mission Impossible, these films have hundreds of invisible VFX and CGI," he added.

Guerra's tweet provoked comments from VFX artists who worked on the film, including some who didn't get a name check in the credits. "People have no idea how broad the term 'VFX shot' is. There is no movie made today without VFX," one person replied. Someone else suggested "'Almost no CGI' tends to mean 'good CGI'. 'Almost no VFX' just doesn’t even really mean anything."

I watched it a few days ago, it's full of vfx 😂 The virtual production LED counts also as VFX, artists worked in Maya for the environment and I don't know how many used unreal 5. "Almost no CGI", really sad August 4, 2023

Some have suggested that it's a great compliment for the quality of the visual effects in the films if reviewers can't tell that they aren't real. However, others raise concerns that the so-called 'VFX-backlash' downplays the importance and contribution of VFX artists to film, which can provide an excuse to cut budgets, leading to poor VFX, which ends up being what people think VFX is.

"It's so sad to see how underappreciated VFX artists are. Especially since studios are being sucked dry and then when the effects are “subpar” they blame it on the artists without having any context," one person wrote. "VFX artists have given us some of the most iconic moments in cinema."

You all know how this started, don't you? It came from competing studios like Warner Bros Discovery just to use against Disney, as an attack on the quality, and an attempt to downgrade the value of superhero films...at least, the ones that came from Disney. Heaven forbid you find anything wrong in Snyderverse 🙄

The psychological effects to fans everywhere, to look forward to a film, only for a horde of corporate trolls online, tearing it apart, piece by piece is not fun, not cool and shouldn't even be legal. That damages a competitor's film in such a scummy way. I'll say again, it wasn't like that when I was younger. We could like what we wanted to. There weren't a bunch of raving lunatics trying to spoil a good time. As an aside, I'm sure the inevitable damage to the special effects industry was also a very big consideration.

[icharchivist]

Hello fellow European,

I feel your grievances about the localization of Disney movies. First of all, I like most German dubs, they do great jobs, we have great voice actors and usually there's a lot of effort put into things. I generally feel that they hold up in a lot of cases. But I also noticed that in recent years, they got super lazy about the songs, especially. Like. They don't even rhyme. I almost liked it better when they altered the meaning slightly (like they did with most Renaissance movies) to make sure it stays in the meter and rhymes. Let It Go in German is a travesty

So I started mostly watching the movies in English, so as to not tear out my hair and then checking the songs out later

I gotta say, there was an uptick in the quality of Encanto, those songs were good again and I'm glad

However, the most interesting discovery of today is that one, yes, the French version of Zero to Hero is superior, I admit defeat, the German one is fine but not great, but, more importantly. There's no German version of I'm Still Here at all.

They just used the English song. That's so fucking lazy. I couldn't believe it at first, they've never done that, but maybe since Disney had basically given up on the film they weren't ready to put in effort? Or since nobody was singing it in-universe, they left it in like a music video?

But they translated other songs, like every song from Tarzan has a German version that's in the movie. Funnily enough, Phil Collins sang those as well. But those aren't diegetic either, so there's no excuse

So yeah, that's currently driving me insane

Happy Summer Belial anniversary though

HELLO DEAL EUROPEAN!!

i've heard the German songs were pretty decent in general but i didn't know that it seemed to take a dive in quality tho D:

i think the same reason as to why there was a dive in quality with French dub probably applies: less time in between the release of the English movie and the Dub for the translators to actually do their work.

Before the Internet became big enough for torrent movies to become a thing, at least with France, there was at least a 6 months period between the release of the movie in English and the release of the translated version in France. So it meant for 6 months, the translators AND the voice actors had a lot of time to work on their things and make decisions and stuff.

Once torrent became super big and it became easy to find a movie as it was just released in English with subs online (or, in case of French, having a French Canadian dub ready at the time of the release of the movie while our dub studios weren't ready yet), it became necessary for the European releases to align as close as possible to the English releases of the movie.

It means that any work of translation and voice acting were all in pre-production along with the work of the English studios, and it also means that it is less likely to rework on your translation or acting because everything has to be done quick to adapt to the ultimate release. If an English production would make a sudden cut right before release of the movie in English (like it was the case for Frozen and stuff), the adjustment for the French version has to be immediate.

I would be willing to bet the same thing happened to German releases.

Translation and re-dubbing are jobs on their own that takes a lot of time to be reworked, and it's typically the type of things that suffers from a rushed job.

The dive in quality in translation really started happening around that time where movies became a worldwide release event rather than allowing a few months for translators to do their jobs.

I still have some raising eyebrows moment looking at old translations at times, but it's clear people worked on it with like, intentions and meaning on their own. But once you look at mid 00s project and onward a lot of the most questionable decisions can easily be given to "the translators were hella rushed."

I also really dislike the French version of Let It Go, but in Frozen at least the one that REALLY annoyed me and missed the point to me was Love Is An Open Door, which was translated Love is a Gift. Which is like. Bro. Sweetie. It's a girl singing about how love must be an open door because she's traumatized by the way her sister has literally and metaphorically closed the door in between the two of them since forever. Come on. And other details of this song that drives me insane.

Encanto's french version... i watched the movie in French but i honestly don't remember the lyrics or song. I just remembered thinking the flow was extremely awkward in French though.

VERY GLAD you like the French version of Zero to Hero tho, i'm obsessed by how good it is personally, it's really rare i genuinely think a French song is doing a hell of a good job.

however, shocked to hear the Treasure Planet song wasn't even something they translated. It might not have been something Jim himself was singing but it was an important song for the flow of his character, which is why i hate the French take on it so much for just patronizing him while the whole point of the song is "i'm sick of being patronized". But not even showing the meaning of this song in German? That's such a shame.

I know in France we had another problem with the fact that it was a superstar's son who was tasked with making the translation and the whole mediatic buzz around the movie was all about the fact this famous guy did the song in French and put his own spin on it. Considering how often in the 00s they just kept the English song without changing it in some movies, i'd say the only reason Treasure Planet's song was translated is bc they had that one star to do it for them honestly. God this movie was really sabotaged from the inside at this point.

For Tarzan/Phil Collins's soundtrack movies tho it's totally because Phil Collins himself is a madman (respectfully) and is the one who insisted on singing the songs in as many languages he could. He's an outlier and shouldn't be counted as to why some disney that are non-diegetic gets translated and others don't.

Very glad to be sharing this very unique type of frustration that is just "wtf were the translators thINKING"

and Happy Summer Belial Day Release To U Too o7

[firespirited]

Vesper 2022 aka Vesper Chronicles in french. 2/10 abysmal, truly abysmal except for a few plant designs.

I kept getting déjà vu, certain I'd seen this film before. I probably have seen every single dystopia cliché and the decor/colour grading was so familiar. I could have told you it was franco-belgian with a large influence from something eastern though wouldn't have guessed lithiuanian, I was thinking polish or serbian. Obviously it's unrelentingly grimdark.

Spoilers and spoilers for Prospect 2018 at the end. Readmore for long ramblings.

There are two not actually sexual assaults that are filmed as if they were. General worst of humanity instead of people working together type film. By the time we'd drudged through multiple tropes I really dislike, I hated everyone involved in this film except the girl and i hope they don't work again. Hateful film that will crush a bit of your inner spark.

// I get the impression a lot of the reviewers who'd seen this on netflix had not been exposed much to european cinema: it has all the grime and gore of a classic olden times tale with some interesting plants. Please go watch La Cité des Enfants Perdus which has an actual soul at the heart of the green grime. We have dozens of films and tv shows that look like this 'unique' world. //

The world building falls flat as soon as you consider anything concrete: the food must come from harvests but where, clothes must come from animals and looms but where? The plants are carnivorous but how are they alive if there's nothing to feed on. It's just fitting your worldbuilding to look cool for a plot device: lady's plane crashes, she's found being eaten by plants and it looks gnarly. Beyond that? Plot device for plot sake, circular logic.

I could list twenty other similar bad writing moments most of them for pivotal scenes.

The film takes the path of consistent suffering and bleakness until it's implied that the world might be different from now on.

I decided to watch this film blind after seeing it on a list of recent female directed films. I assumed it was american or british. Big mistake!

You can expect about 75% of certain european female writer directors to be 'one of the boys', leaning in to more gross out, ultra violence or sexual content. They are the type to sign polanski support letters and hire actors disgraced in the USA.

It's hard to describe in terms non western continental europeans will understand. It's empowerment feminism meets white feminism but stuck around 1968 not 2006 with sexual attitudes that embrace teens with adults, not sane and consensual bdsm, lots of long debunked Freud.

They make films even better than the boys for sure but it's not remotely feminist in both what is depicted and what is inflicted on the female viewer. You could say at least we get female protags but the 'empowerment' feels more shallow than the music video for The Prodigy's Smack (spoilers for a very nsfw video: it's a lesbianbro asshole not a dudebro asshole)

Some people thought the ending implies the protag goes on to great things and I have no idea where they got that from: no leverage, no lab, no family. She has started the spark that will change the world but she'll have to find a blood broker to see the next harvest. She would have been better off with a guardian than so alone so soon with nothing to sell except blood and her eventual womb.

The few women of colour and lesbians directing or writing tend to have quite different vibes or offset bleak realities with moments of joy. (look carefully for a photo before making assumptions: born in north africa/middle east doesn't mean they aren't white and even whiter in their gaze in films set in brown or black countries)

Gay directors tend to do grimdark or sad sack rich people... just with gay sex. Uh yeah I'm not a fan of most french cinema right now but then again, that's a view shared by quite a few actresses and women who just want 2 hours of escapism.

It reminded me a lot of Prospect 2018, except despite it's deeply bleak story Prospect ends with them both having a new family unit, reason to live and partner who'll watch their back. Vesper has no-one. This was a poorly thought through initial cool concept that decided to throw every gross concept and trope against the wall, add dose after dose of misery then act like there was a happy end.

Please watch Nausicaa of the Valley of the wind for biopunk with heart, careful plotting, a designed biosphere, violence and gross bugs but always for a purpose.

[deafmangoes]

An Album of Christmas Carols - 1

Growing up it was a household tradition to watch at least four or five adaptations of Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol each December (with a bonus round in June). As a result, I know both the book and many of the film adaptations pretty much by heart.

So at this festive time of year, I would like to educate you, dear reader, on the many different adaptations of this literary work out there and why they're all equally awful/brilliant. Over this week I'll do posts on a few of my favourite ones, comparing their differences and basically just gushing about things I enjoyed in my childhood.

"Scrooge" (1970, Albert Finney)

This musical adaption of A Christmas Carol was one of the household favourites and featured such heart-warming songs as "I Hate People" and "Thank You Very Much (For Dying)", the latter of which is accompanied by a freed debtor tap-dancing on Scrooge's coffin as it's carted away, prompting a parade through Camden Town.

Ghosts? Ghosts!

The best part of any film adaptation of this book is how they handle the ghosts. This one comes tearing out of the gate with no less than Alec Guinness (you know, Obi-Wan Kenobi) as Jacob Marley, who not only steals the first act but gets an amazing encore during the (entirely original) scene at the end of the film where Scrooge straight up goes to Hell.

The filmmakers decide to just skip trying with Christmas Past (who, if you aren't aware, is described in the book as looking like an androgynous, age-defying being too brilliant to look at directly and very much on fire). This film went with... Female Scrooge.

And don't get me wrong, she's great. She's sassy, sarcastic and takes none of Scrooge's bullshit, like any ghost should. Her section of the film takes up between a third and half the runtime, though we do get Fezziwig eating the scenery for a good chunk of it.

Christmas Present is up there as one of my favourite takes on the character. He's jolly but has an edge of deadly seriousness behind him, and an indisputable authority - so much so that he peer-pressures Scrooge into getting drunk in the first five minutes. Like his book counterpart, he delivers blistering retorts to the old miser and talks down to him in the way I imagine a very long-suffering parent does to a child.

It's difficult to get Christmas Yet To Come wrong, but yet somehow I still feel this film managed it. Yes, sure, it's a spooky and mysterious dude in a robe, woOoO, but it's just so... drab. They do (spoiler) briefly reveal themselves to be a skelling-ton towards the end of their haunting so there's that.

Highlights & Humbugs

The songs are actually a lot of fun, and Albert Finney does a very good job as Scrooge, particularly in contrast to a very cheery, clearly laudanum-fuelled Bob Cratchit. Marley's haunting is spot-on, even including the ghostly hearse that drives through Scrooge's hallway, often left out. Past, Present and Future all do their jobs ably, and the section where, again, Scrooge goes to Hell is so good I feel like Dickens should retroactively add it to the book. Maybe we can slip a quill and some paper into his coffin.

And, as I noted above, you've got people tap-dancing on Scrooge's coffin. It's great.

My main gripe about it is actually Scrooge himself: Albert Finney's portrayal really ramped up the 'shabby Scrooge' look to emphasise his miserly attitude, which I always feel is at odds with how a successful Victorian businessman would dress, no matter how much he wanted to save money.

Some of the songs do go on a bit too long, such as Tiny Tim's award-bait warbling that forces you to look upon this buck-toothed angel for what feels like an eternity:

Unfortunately he survives.

All in all, I give this version of the Christmas classic 7 Humbugs out of 10. It's a solid entry and still worth watching, but have the mince pies and sherry handy for when it drags on a bit.