#you are told how to feel about a character through contexts theyre shown in. this is how you tell a story

[website-com]

devastating: the feminist essay didnt actually watch the movie

[festeringfae]

i honestly cannot believe this movie introduced a plot like 10 minutes ago about separating the girls so they don’t catch the gay and now the girls are literally naked bathing together in a bathtub and we are not shown how or why this is allowed to happen and i know, i KNOW, it is never going to be addressed

this is just. not one of the ways i expected heavenly creatures to be bad, you know? they interviewed 40 people! they have diaries! i did not think a problem was going to be fucking CONTINUITY!

i mean one thing thats nice is that im barely creeped out anymore im just annoyed so thats sort of phobia conquering, but also i know saying that has jynxed it, especially since Kate Winslet has been both the most horrifying and cringe-inducing character, and shes been offscreen awhile but shes back now. you know. IN A BATHTUB.

Ok an adult did notice they were in the bathroom together but only when they were taking, like, photographs or something or maybe cutting their hair, idk, but the fact that a) hankypanky is a word spoken about a thing they could have been DOING IN THE BEDROOM and not them getting caught IN A BATH TOGETHER and b) that they were alone long enough to take a bath together and not get caught.....the hulme mom is rightfully telling her husband to calm the fuck down but i feel like theyre gonna paint her as an apathetic sex vixen again which just like STOP

ok not necessarily sexual but they really had her say “im sure its perfectly innocent” and then jump cut to them grabbing valuables to sell so they can move abroad to live together so like YEAH U DEF JUST IMPLIED IF U R WORRIED ABOUT YR GIRLS BEING LESBIANS AND DECIDE TO BE CHILL ABOUT IT THEY WILL ACTUALLY STEAL YOUR VALUABLES TO RUN OFF TOGETHER AT AGE 14 AND MAYBE ALSO MURDER ONE OF THEIR PARENTS

Weirdly i think this is where i tuned in and also its both weird that they still demonstrate the girls having “real”/explicit crushes on the men (not even in a diary entry!) but also juliet suggests for the first time irl “simply murder” for their wives, and because its juliet its not a first hand source and ive noticed a pattern of juliet suggesting things first/being the leader to the Melanie Igor and its like??? is that supposed to be a statement on class? is it what is suggested by history? is it a thing in the diary they just don’t quote, like. These Are Key Details About the Why and the story does not appear to be a whydunnit which i guess is what i assumed so WHAT! IS! THIS! STORY! ABOUT!

oh my God, this is exactly where i tuned in at 15, and other than the backstory about the assault (which went??? nowhere for some reason??), the TB context, and maaaaybe the gay concern, there is. absolutely nothing the story told me in that previous hour and 7 minutes that explains or drives us toward the actual action/plot, which is them deciding to move to hollywood and....i feel like thats relaed to the mom killer plan? this movie literally could have been 45 minutes, is what i’m saying. 60 at most. which like......what would those 45 minutes be ah yes other than the intro/establishing scenes MOSTLY JUST THE DIARY. JUST DO A DAMN DOCUMENTARY CENTERED AROUND THE DIARY AND CONDUCT INTERVIEWS TO GIVE FURTHER CONTEXT,, PETER JACKSON! YOU HAD TO DO THE INTERVIEWS FOR THIS ANYWAY AND YOU KNEW HOW TO MAKE A DOCUMENTARY AT THE TIME! WHAT THE FUCK!

also again im sure there was a REASON, if not a good one, that the girl’s grades slipped and so they felt threatened and decided to run off to hollywood but to avoid suspicion sucked up to their parents, but since WE ARE NEVER TOLD WHAT THAT REASON IS it’s just like.......why go through the effort to steal all the stuff and run off to hollywood NOW when u could just suck up and fake it until they graduate? like we’re told their grades are failing and that they think theyre smarter and more important than everyone else, but we never see them venting to each other about that or lamenting how they think its a trial to think about english class when all they wanna do is think about fantasy world instead. CHARACTERIZATION! RISING ACTION! ANYTHING!

oh my God, why is the juliet’s mom is a slut “subplot” back. how is this RELEVANT.

I feel like i’m supposed to be horrified by juliet’s preoccupation with the macabre but its like a of all ive met a goth person before b of all it makes sense given how shes literally been in hospitals all alone at lengths of a time that shed romanticize it c) see point a but specifically: she kinda just talks like Katya.

HOW IS THIS THE FIRST TIME WE’RE SEEING HENRY/JULIETS DAD HAVING ISSUES AT HIS JOB WHEN ITS THE DRIVING FORCE THREATENING TO TAKE JULIET AWAY, PRESUMABLY? WHAT WAS THE POINT IN INTRODUCING ALL OF THOSE OTHER THREATS ABOUT SEPARATING THEM PURPOSEFULLY EVEN LIVING IN THE SAME PLACE THAT WAS TRULY NEVER ACKNOWLEDGED BY ANYONE AGAIN WHATSOEVER? JUST TO DO SOME COMMENTARY ON LESOPHOBIA THAT I CANNOT FATHOM THE INTENTION OF? THATS THE ONLY THING I CAN THINK OF AND IM NOT EVEN CONFIDENT ABOUT IT BC WTF IS GOING ON. I never got why people were swearing The Hobbit movies were bad when they claimed the LOTR ones were cinematic genius but the thought of the director of THIS movie having to decide what to split and change into two whole movies with new plot elements..........Godspeed, you poor,poor nerds.

look, i dont want to be heartless while this man who is a real person is openly weeping about losing his job while his wife is cheating on him in the next room and his only child is shortly going to murder someone. that being said. the introduction of this element of the story is so ridiculously random and shoehorned that it literally FEELS LIKE the point in a documentary where a new context is introduced to events we already know about. like i not only WANT multiple peoples interpretations of how he experienced this and how it impacted later events, i literally FEEL LIKE the talking head section is gonna switch heads in a second and some lady who knew him from church is gonna say something like “he seemed....different after that” or whatever. i have gone from wanting this to be a documentary to just plain stymied that it isn’t. WHO IS LAURIE? IS HE A BOARDER? I think so. WHY DOES SHE NEED TO STILL BE IIN THE BATHTUBE TO FINISH WHAT SHES WRITING? she doesn’t have a look or anything that conveys “oh shit i took my notebook into the bath with me to get this thought down but i lost track of time and i haven’t washed my hair yet”

also with all this sexuality stuff is no one worried shes in their masturbating?

also-also NOW people are worried about the length of baths??? after SHE TOOK A BATH WITH JULIET AT THE HULMES??? we also still don’t know fucking why pauline is losing wait or if its related to her mental health or even her emotions towards the thing happening outside of the consequence of her not being well enough by her moms approximation also for a movie thats supposed to show like the Real Story of who these girls really were, this animosity towards her mother seems to be coming from fucking NOWHERE, and it doesn’t help that she has had on FULL HORROR MOVIE CREEPY CHILD TERRIFYING STEWING SCOWL the whole movie, so there’s no slow shift from relatable teenage annoyance and hyberbolic “i could kill you!” feelings to legit murder feelings. like a diary entry that was just “mom was being annoying again and so i rang deborah becausei simply had to ltell someone who would listen with a sympathetic ear. i really hate my mom” doesn’t have any kind of build to that last sentence, or casual teenage cadence because its in front of more diary entries about being mad at the mom. it is literally just. full angry ghost child face being read in a way where YOU CAN HEAR. THE CAPITAL LETTERS. THROUGH GRITTED TEETH. like. where is this coming from?? and if the movie doesn’t know, why isn’t the horror based in how you can’t know where its coming from, sometimes theyre sweet and sometimes tehy aren’t?? i just realized the getting up early to do all the chores thing went. absolutely nowhere. they didnt run off for hollywood the next day, they didn’t talk about it again, nd pauline specifically mentioned acting cheerful, which she has clearly given up here since improved/cheery disposition is one of the things her mom tells her she needs before shell be allowed to go to the event she wants to go to at the end of the week. like WHY ARE THINGS HAPPENING? what is ANYONE’S motivation about ANYTHING? what does this have to do with matricide?????

[multimetaverse]

Andi Mack 3x12 Review

Ex-Factor was a good ep that dealt with a very important topic though some of the subplots dragged. Let’s dig in!

Positives: 

When Andi Mack is good there’s really no other show like it. Jonah revealing that his family had to declare bankruptcy and lost their house was the kind of moment that the show does so well. It was addressed in an empathetic, understanding way but it wasn’t sugarcoated

The brief moment of Jonah wolfing down the free breakfast Amber gave him really packed a punch in all that it implied. Who knows how many times he’s shown up to school hungry these past couple months; it’’s horrifying but it’s all too real with the single largest group of people living in poverty being children. It’s such a shame that the ratings are so low and that so few people are seeing story lines like this

And I liked the duality we see with Jonah. Yes he’s close to the GHC but he’s not as close to them as they are too each other because he doesn’t have the history they have with him and as they later learned he lives a lot of his life away from them

Amber really shined this ep; she knew exactly what Jonah is going through in a way that no one else can

Buffy would make quite the detective; she had Jonah and Amber dead to rights though she was missing some context

I liked that Bowie said that the Red Rooster was too small of a business to hire Jonah; it’s true to real life where there are no quick and easy solutions to such problems

The amusement park was great; though Disney probably regrets it now that $19.4 million budget was really put to good use

Loved when Celia called her Melinda but wasn’t a fan of anything else related to Miranda and Morgan

I’ll give the show props for the Jamber kiss being a big twist

Peyton’s dad was funny; not a fan of those shorts though

I liked this cold open quite a bit. It was a nice little slice of life of the GHC and that it was filmed in a real middle school art room makes it so much better. And a nice little set up for Andi further exploring her art which we know happens later in 3c

Nice to see the GHC in Andi Shack again, I feel like it’s been so long since they were all there

Bex just deciding to not mail the invites as if not having the wedding won’t drastically change things is very in character; she’s always run from conflict

Negatives:

The Miranda scenes really dragged. Letting Morgan get attached to Bowie when they had only been dating for a little bit was bad parenting but her letting Morgan play her disappearing game like that really crosses a line. At the end it kind of looked like this was part of her plan to get Bowie back which is insane

I found it odd that Bowie never checked behind the stage curtains in the back room and the cut from Bowie looking for Morgan to the other scenes than back to Bowie looking for Morgan made it seem like hours had passed which was sloppy editing

Not a good look to include clips of Jibby in the previously on. They’ve almost certainly already broken up off screen before this ep but the audience really needs to hear that in 3x13 otherwise Jonah looks like a cheating scoundrel 

And for that matter confirmation that Wuffy is officially sunk would be good before Muffy launches again. For a show about 14 year olds there sure are a lot of messy, messy relationships: Jonah liking Andi while dating Amber who was cheating on him, Buffy basically homewrecking Machel to end up with Marty, Jonah breaking up with Libby only to immediately get back with Amber

I do think the wish reveal would have had more impact if the audience had any reminder of it since 3x02. I’m reminded of what that anon told me after 3x09 that the major love interests never go more than 3 eps in a row without appearing; obviously long term story lines can be spread out but going 10 eps without a single mention is just too long especially for a kids show

The Jamber kiss was a good twist but one that I don’t think the audience will like. I have faith in that the show is intending to explore what made their relationship toxic and why it’s not a good idea for them to get back together but it’s understandable at this point that much of what’s left of the audience doesn’t trust the show

Looking Ahead:

I’m not sure that the Beck family endgame is. There’s only 9 eps left and realistically their problems are going to take years to solve. The best place they could end up is them getting an apartment of their own and slowly getting back on their feet. Mrs. Beck at least is still slated to appear and it will be interesting to see what brings the Becks on screen

For that matter I wonder if there’s anything they can do to make Amber’s situation better; she’s in 7 of the remaining 9 eps so there’s time to do something with her

Lot of freaking out in the tag over next ep. Presumably Cyrus wants to say yes to TJ’s idea (I wonder if it is Salt & Pepper or something else) but then tells him he can’t but then Andi tells him he can do it with TJ but it’s too late because TJ decided to do a costume with Kira instead as the dribble shirts look last minute. I’m sure we’ll see the Mount Rushmore costume but maybe the GHC won’t be as happy with their accomplishment as they thought they would be

We know Cyrus and TJ and Kira filmed some scenes earlier that week so that’s probably at the park where we see Cyrus and TJ. Maybe TJ has befriended Kira off screen. Thankfully Raquel always posted when she arrived in and left SLC so we know that after her two days of filming for ep 13 she only filmed one day for ep 15 and then one day for ep 21. So she’s not getting very much screen time or development. 

Is Cyrus going to be sad or jealous when TJ ends up doing the costume with Kira? Maybe but how much attention Disney will allow on Tyrus at this point is an open question. Certainly a part of her role is to be a female chaperone for the Tyrus scenes since Buffy has more important things to do but even in that role there just won’t be much time for her. I’m more interested to see if there will be a look back at some point or some other confirmation of Cyrus’ feelings at least

How the show is going to get from a Jamber kiss in ep 12 to Jonah singing You Girl to Andi in 3x20 I don’t know. It does look like they’ll start on that road next ep; if Amber has to vie for Jonah’s attention it must be with Andi

Nice to see Marty again; I’d imagine we’ll get a Rachel mention. Wild that they’re sinking Machel just 4 eps later

I hope to god that the Bexie drama doesn’t lead to the ep ending on an ‘Um’

It’s very funny to see in part why Josh was so quick to shut down a Tyrus bench kiss in 3x21 because I can only imagine how high people’s hopes would have gotten after this ep. That the show was able to have a Jamber kiss for an end of ep cliff hanger suggests to me that they would have been able to get more kisses approved; if they were only allowed one I really don’t think they would have used it for Jamber. We’ll see if we get a Muffy kiss or another Jandi kiss

[sharksfood]

spoilers for Ralph Breaks the Internet (Wreck-It Ralph 2)

SO i was going to wait to record my thoughts on Ralph Breaks the Internet until after i finished my homework but i cant stop thinking about it!!!

anyways, I saw RBTI on Tuesday night in 3D and it was AMAZING!! i mean, both the movie by itself and how it looked in 3D. i loved that they put in a nod to those movies that took 3D to the fullest potential with stuff coming at you from the screen, when Ralph was throwing the football into the air.

BESIDES THAT i LOVED this movie!!!! i’m no negative nancy when it comes to sequels and i had been wanting a WIR followup since the first one came out!

but to get the biggest aspect out of the way, i was not always on board with the plot of Ralph and Vanellope going into the Internet. when I first heard the movie announcement and the whole Internet aspect it didn’t totally make sense to me. I mean, I originally thought the gang going into online games was a good mix between Internet and video games (since WIR revolves around video games). However I quickly changed my mind, especially since they WOULD be going into online/mobile games.

My initial reaction to the movie as a whole was EXTREMELY POSITIVE!!! I loved how the animation looked, the fact that we got an introduction on what Ralph, Vanellope, Felix, and Tammy (Calhoun) had been up to since the last movie, and that everything including the arcade had changed in basically real time. That last part was a bit sad too, especially with how few games were left in the arcade and that it seems business was not as good for Mr. Litwak as it used to be. BUT this movie, especially the beginning, was like catching up with an old friend after a long time apart! WIR means so much to me and I was so glad Disney took the time to connect to those who’d seen and loved the first movie.

I’ll admit I was a little nervous with how they’d handle the Internet, especially for a fictional universe thats based on the real one, like WIR. I knew they’d have to create fake websites and video games and what not to fit the plot and because of licensing rights. I’m also glad they did this because if Yesss were the algorithm for actual BuzzFeed or YouTube I don’t think they’d let anyone forget that. plus that would be too 4th wall breaking in my opinion. and this movie did A LOT or meta/4th wall stuff. I dont think any of the references or hints or real-world tie ins were annoying or over the top, it was the right amount for me. they could have made everything fictional, but that would fail to hook people. it was the right amount of fiction and real-life.

that being said, I do think some of the things Ralph, Vanellope, and Yesss accomplished couldn’t work in the real world. What bothered me is that any video of Ralph showed him as 3D, like how he looks in Sugar Rush or in the Game Central Station. Yes, that is how he looks “inside” the games and from other video game character’s perspective, but does that work for humans? Maybe it wasn’t explained very well, thats all. WIR is at times a little hard to wrap my head around. But then again, not everything needs to be explained or completely realistic, since, you know, video game characters are not able to coexist in each other’s games or buy stuff from Ebay.

the new characters was SO GOOD especially Yesss, Shank, and Knowsmore (to me anyways). I would have liked if the new characters had interacted with each other on screen more (like Yesss and Shank are friends but you wouldn’t know that without each of them saying so). also the Disney Princesses were adorable and actually more plot-related than i thought they’d be!

the biggest surprise for me is how much importance the movie gave to Vanellope for being a princess, i mean, she got a song and everything! To me she never gave her princessship much mind, since she only wanted to be a racer. by the end of the movie she was farther from being a princess than before. but i think this was intentional and why we got the scene with the other princesses in the first place, Disney wanted to show that there’s no one way to be a princess. obviously Pixar addressed this with Merida, and I think Moana is a good example, too, but Vanellope really is the least-princessy princess. I’m also glad that they didn’t make her song or voice too cute/pretty, it fit with her character, personality, and dream!

the part of this movie that my most impactful for me was the message and eventually plot structure of how Ralph and Vanellope’s friendship was addressed. WIR means a lot to me is many ways, but the fact that romance or blood family isnt the main relationship dynamic is huge.  I mean, I can’t think of many Disney/Pixar movies that do this, and even those that do, friendship is just a subplot. Ralph and Vanellope becoming friends, protecting one another, even in the face of their differences is one of the main messages of WIR (the other being self-acceptance and following your heart). RBTI took this further with the message of how friends can grow, drift apart, have difference dreams, become too attached, and build negative friendships based on anxieties. I’ve NEVER seen this in an animated movie, and it hit me pretty hard.

so with anxiety in mind, I really liked how Vanellope’s glitching was utilized, i mean since she now has a general control on it, she doesn’t glitch out as much. the only time she does in RBTI is when she wants to or when she’s super anxious. its almost like a physical symptom of her having a panic attack. (on a personal note, Vanellope’s glitching was the main thing that helped me get over my fear of glitch, so that relation to anxiety and fear is very meaningful to me) but Vanellope’s anxieties were very different from Ralph’s, which is good! they both struggled with being accepted within their games in the past, and part of that still lingers, though now, especially for Ralph, it manifests in anxiety over their friendship. I really like the direction that Disney/Pixar has taken with some of their movies recently in that the main antagonist is not a villain, but rather an emotion or conflict anthropomorphized.

as for the characters, Ralph and Vanellope were PERFECT. Vanellope is my favorite and she was just amazing. Their characters were the right amount of the same from the first movie and different, since there’s been 6 years for them to grow. I’m also really happy that Felix and Tammy were in RBTI, though I wish they were in it more. I mean, this was Ralph and Vanellope’s movie, but most of Tammy’s appearances were just for comedic affect, in my opinion. They also seemed way different, but I guess that’s marriage? It’s as if their character-specific dialogue and quirks were toned down. Maybe after a second viewing it’ll make more sense to me.

My only other complaints are that when Ralph accidentally finds the comment section of BuzzTube, his reaction and that whole scene didn’t add much to the story. I think it was important, especially given Ralph’s past, but it was so short. Ralph seemed to have forgotten all about it after the scene ended. The comments and toxic parts of the Internet play a much bigger role than that, so I wish it was addressed better. I also thought it was weird that we didn’t get any clear context as to why Mr. Litwak got Wifi in the first place. I mean, I assumed it was to get an online presence for the Arcade, but i don’t think that was actually addressed. Of course thats a minor thing compared to my previous comment. 

The last thing I noticed is that the main conflict of the movie, the steering wheel of Sugar Rush breaking and how they’d need to buy a new one or Sugar Rush would be gone for good, was introduced too soon. I think this was done because there was so much content to get through within 2 hours, and I know that the main premise was involving the Internet, so staying in the Arcade would defeat this purpose. It’s just that to me it all sort of fell into place a little too easy and fast. Also, Vanellope feeling trapped in a boring loop of her game and other feelings from the characters in the beginning were told rather than shown. I know already mentioned that I thought certain things weren’t “explained” well enough, but I mean that like, both visually and through dialogue. With the emotional parts of the movie’s conflicts, I think those developed well once Ralph and Vanellope got into the Internet, but it seemed “presented” almost at first. Again, I only saw it once and its not totally fresh in my mind anymore, so maybe after seeing it again it’ll clear this up.

okay so as for the aesthetic and animation of RBTI it was GORGEOUS!!! I love how Disney/Pixar can take things like the Internet or your brain (like in Inside Out) and turn them into working cities/structures that are creative and make sense! I really like that Pop Ups are maneuvered by sentient beings like street salespeople, since the feeling of online popups and ads is the same! Also, the Dark Web being the underbelly of the Internet “city” and all the avatars are dressed like theyre in Incognito mode is amazing. i also LOVED the viruses, since they looked like gross, scary, creepy fictional bugs or visual germs (they reminded me of Osmosis Jones in a way). How the viruses functioned, at least the Insecurity Virus, made sense for how I think most people imagine computer viruses to act. I honestly don’t know how that stuff happens, and I bet Disney knew most of their audiences dont either, so they took some artistic liberties with that in mind. But the virus was a clever plot device because it literally detected insecurities, both in that Ralph/Vanellope were insecure about their friendship, and neither of them “belonged” in the Internet.

ANOTHER THING is when Shank and her crew had to fight the Slaughter Race players, the distinction between player and NPC was clear and funny. It felt very GTA to me. How they handled Slaughter Race in general was great, since it was obviously a violent video game, but they didn’t tone it down too much to loose that feeling. I think it would’ve been cool to see cars and buildings “update” like they do in some games, too. OH the way that the Virus Ralphs joined together to make the Giant Ralph and that they kept moving to make the entire thing kinetic was SO CREEPY BUT COOL!!! that must have taken forever to animate.  I also noticed that on the Giant Ralph the little virus dudes were like laying down or posed a certain way to give the impression of different textures or colors on Giant Ralph, which is amazing!!! the filmmakers and animators paid so much care to the look and feel of this movie and it really paid off.

okay last few things before I forget: all of the main characters were great examples of positive and negative personality aspects that real people could reflect on. Ralph felt so much more openly emotional and body positive than in the first, which for a dude character is great!!  Vanellope has always been a great example of a girl who likes “tomboy” or “masculine” stuff but still likes cute and “girly” stuff (i mean she obviously wasn’t into the whole princess thing but she found her own way around it!). Felix and Tammy in RBTI were obviously an example on how married couples can still love each other just like the day they met! Did i mention how much I love Yesss? I love her SO MUCH!!! she wore a different outfit/hairstyle every time we saw her, she was fun and smart and over the course of the movie grows to actually care about Ralph and Vanellope beyond their Internet fame. the MUSIC was fantastic as always, and I love Imagine Dragon’s song and the Julia Michaels rendition of Vanellope’s song on Slaughter Race.

Just like the first one, this movie was funny, heartwarming, emotional, and really fun!! I hope it gets all the recognition and love it deserves. I can’t accurately say if I like this one of the previous better, since I’ve only seen it once. HOWEVER I ma really glad that Disney has made a lot of merch for RBTI since the first one got barely anything. All in all, I loved Ralph Breaks the Internet!!!!

P.S. Did yall see the after credits scene?