#you cannot tell me this song is not related to laurent

[burnmywholelifedown]

what did rina sawayama put in hold the girl? cause it keeps hitting like a drug. it's probably the trauma let's be honest.

[popculty]

52 Films by Women: 2020 Edition

Another annual challenge complete!

Last year, I focused on diversifying my list. This year I kept that intention but focused on watching more non-American films and films from the 20th century. Specifically, I sought out Agnès Varda’s entire filmography, after her death in 2019. (I was not disappointed - What a filmmaking legend we lost.) 

I also kept a film log for the first time and have included some of my thoughts on several films from that log. I made a point of including reviews both positive and negative, because I think it’s important to acknowledge the variability and breadth of the canon, so as not to put every film directed by a woman on a pedestal. (Although movies directed by women must clear a much higher bar to be greenlit, meaning generally higher quality...But that’s an essay for another day :)

* = directed by a woman of color

bold = fave

1. The Rhythm Section (2020) dir. Reed Morano - Not as good as it could have been, given Morano’s proven skill behind the camera, but also not nearly as bad as the critics made it out to be. And unbelievably refreshing to see a female revenge story not driven by sexual assault or the loss of a husband/child.

2. Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962) dir. Agnès Varda - If you ever wanted to take a real-time tour of Paris circa 1960, this is the film for you.

3. Little Women (2019) dir. Greta Gerwig - Still my favorite Little Women adaptation. I will re-watch it every year and cry.

4. Varda by Agnès (2019) dir. Agnès Varda & Didier Rouget

5. Booksmart (2019) dir. Olivia Wilde - An instant classic high school comedy romp that subverts all the gross tropes of its 1980s predecessors.

6. Girls of the Sun (2018) dir. Eva Husson

7. Blue My Mind (2017) dir. Lisa Brühlmann

8. Portrait of a Lady On Fire (2019) dir. Céline Sciamma - Believe the hype. This film is a master thesis on the female gaze, and also just really effing gorgeous.

9. Belle Epine (2010) dir. Rebecca Zlotowski

10. Vamps (2012) dir. Amy Heckerling - With Krysten Ritter and Alicia Silverstone as modern-day vampires, I was so ready for this movie. But it feels like a bad stage play or a sit-com that’s missing a laugh-track. Bummer.

11. *Birds of Prey (2020) dir. Cathy Yan - Where has this movie been all our lives?? Skip the next onslaught of Snyder-verse grim-darkery and give me two more of these STAT! 

12. She’s Missing (2019) dir. Alexandra McGuinness

13. The Mustang (2019) dir. Laure de Clermont-Tonnere - Trigger warning for the “protagonist” repeatedly punching a horse in the chest. I noped right out of there.

14. Monster (2003) dir. Patty Jenkins – I first watched this movie when I was probably too young and haven’t revisited it since. The rape scene traumatized me as a kid, but as an adult I appreciate how that trauma is not the center of the movie, or even of Aileen’s life. Everyone still talks about how Charlize “went ugly” for this role, but the biggest transformation here isn’t aesthetic, it’s physical – the way Theron replicates Wuernos’ mannerisms, way of speaking, and physicality. That’s why she won the Oscar. I also love that Jenkins calls the film “Monster” (which everyone labels Aileen), but then actually uses it to tell the story of how she fell in love with a woman when she was at her lowest, and that saved her. That’s kind of beautiful, and I’m glad I re-watched it so that I could see the story in that light, instead of the general memory I had of it being a good, feel-bad movie. It’s so much more than that.

15. Water Lilies (2007) dir. Céline Sciamma – Sciamma’s screenwriting and directorial debut, the first in her trilogy on youth, is as painfully beautiful as its sequels (Tomboy and Girlhood). It’s also one of the rare films that explores the overlap of queerness and girl friendships.

16. The Trouble with Angels (1966) dir. Ida Lupino – Movies about shenanigan-based female friendships are such rare delights. Rosalind Russel is divine as Mother Superior, and Hayley Mills as “scathingly brilliant” as the pranks she plays on her. Ida Lupino’s skill as an editor only enhances her directing, providing some truly iconic visual gags to complement dialogue snappy enough for Gilmore Girls. 

17. Vagabond (1985) dir. Agnès Varda – Shot with a haunting realism, this film has no qualms about its heroine’s inevitable, unceremonious death, which it opens with, matter-of-factly, before retracing her final (literal) steps to the road-side ditch she ends up in. (I’m partly convinced said heroine was the inspiration for Sarah Manning in Orphan Black.)

18. One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (1977) dir. Agnès Varda – Probably my favorite classic Varda, this film feels incredibly personal. It’s essentially a love story about two best friends with very different lives. For an indie made in the ‘70s, the diversity, scope, and themes of the film are impressive. Even if the second half a drags a bit, the first half is absolute perfection, engaging the viewer immediately, and clipping along, sprinkling in some great original songs that were way progressive for their time (about abortion, female bodily autonomy, etc) and could still be considered “bangers” today.

19. Emma (2020) dir. Autumn de Wilde

20. Black Panthers (1969) dir. Agnès Varda

21. Into the Forest (2016) dir. Patricia Rozema - When the world was ending (i.e. the pandemic hit) this was the first movie I turned to - a quiet, meditative story of two sisters (Elliot Page and Evan Rachel Wood) surviving off the land after a sudden global blackout. Four years later, it’s still one of my favorite book-to-screen adaptations. I fondly remember speaking with director Patricia Rozema at the 2016 Chicago Critics Film Festival after a screening, her love for the source material and desire to “get it right” so apparent. I assured her then, and reaffirm now, that she really did.

22. City of Trees (2019) dir. Alexandra Swarens

23. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) dir. Eliza Hittmann - To call this a harrowing and deeply personal journey of a sixteen-year-old who must cross state lines to get an abortion would be accurate, but incomplete. It is a story so much bigger than that, about the myriad ways women’s bodies and boundaries are constantly violated.

24. Paradise Hills (2019) dir. Alice Waddington

25. *Eve’s Bayou (1996) dir. Kasi Lemmons – I’ve been meaning to watch Kasi Lemmons’ directorial debut for many years now, and I’m so glad I finally have, because it fully deserves its icon status, beyond being one of the first major films directed by a black woman. Baby Jurnee Smollett's talent was immediately recognizable, and she has reminded us of it in Birds of Prey and Lovecraft Country this year. If merit was genuinely a factor for Oscar contenders, she would have taken home gold at eleven years old. Beasts of the Southern Wild has been one of my all-time favorites, but now I realize that most of my appreciation for that movie actually goes to Lemmons for blazing the trail with her story of a young black girl from the bayou first. It’s also a surprisingly dark story about memory and abuse and familial relationships that cross lines - really gutsy and surprising themes, especially for the ‘90s.

26. Blow the Man Down (2019) dir. Bridget Savage Cole & Danielle Krudy - Come and get your sea shanty fix!

27. Touchy Feely (2013) dir. Lynn Shelton - R.I.P. :(

28. Hannah Gadsby: Douglas (2020) dir. Madeleine Parry - If you thought Gadsby couldn’t follow up 2018′s sensational Nanette with a comedy special just as sharp and hilarious, you would have been sorely mistaken.

29. Girlhood (2013) dir. Céline Sciamma

30. Breathe (2014) dir. Mélanie Laurent

31. *A Dry White Season (1989) dir. Euzhan Palcy

32. Laggies (2014) dir. Lynn Shelton

33. *The Old Guard (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood – Everything I’ve ever wanted in an action movie: Immortal gays, Charlize Theron wielding a labrys (battle axe), kinetic fight choreography I haven’t seen since the last Bond movie…Watched it twice, then devoured the comics it was adapted from, and I gotta say: in the hands of black women, it eclipses the source material. Cannot wait for the just-announced sequel.

34. Morvern Callar (2002) dir. Lynn Ramsay

35. Shirley (2020) dir. Josephine Decker

36. *Radioactive (2019) dir. Marjane Satrapi – The story is obviously well worth telling and the narrative structure – weaving in the future consequences of Curie’s discoveries – is clever, but a bit awkwardly executed and overly manipulative. There are glimpses of real brilliance throughout, but it feels as if the director’s vision was not fully realized, to my great disappointment. Nonetheless, I appreciated seeing Marie Curie's story being told by a female director and embodied by the always wonderful Rosamund Pike.

37. *The Half of It (2020) dir. Alice Wu - I feel like a real scrooge for saying this, but this movie did nothing for me. Nothing about it felt fresh, authentic or relatable. A real disappointment from the filmmaker behind the wlw classic Saving Face.

38. Mouthpiece (2018) dir. Patricia Rozema - I am absolutely floored. One of those films that makes you fall in love with the art form all over again. Patricia Rozema continues to prove herself one of the most creatively ambitious and insightful directors of our time, with this melancholic meditation on maternal grief and a woman’s duality.

39. Summerland (2020) dir. Jessica Swale - The rare period wlw love story that is not a) all-white or b) tragedy porn. Just lovely.

40. *The Last Thing He Wanted (2020) dir. Dee Rees – As rumored, a mess. Even by the end, I still couldn’t tell you who any of the characters are. Dee, we know you’re so much better than this! (see: Mudbound, Pariah)

41. *Cuties (2020) dir. Maïmouna Doucouré – I watched this film to 1) support a black woman director who has been getting death threats for her work and 2) see what all the fuss is about. While I do think there were possibly some directorial choices that could have saved quite a bit of the pearl-clutching, overall, I didn’t find it overly-exploitative or gross, as many (who obviously haven’t actually watched the film) have labeled it. It certainly does give me pause, though, and makes me wonder whether children can ever be put in front of a camera without it exploiting or causing harm to them in some way. It also makes one consider the blurry line between being a critique versus being an example. File this one under complicated, for sure.

42. A Call to Spy (2019) Lydia Dean Pilcher – An incredible true story of female spies during WWII that perfectly satisfied my itch for British period drama/spy thriller and taught me so much herstory I didn’t know.

43. Kajillionaire (2020) dir. Miranda July - I was lucky enough to attend the (virtual) premiere of this film, followed by an insightful cast/director Q&A, which only made me appreciate it more. July's offbeat dark comedy about a family of con artists is queerer and more heartfelt than it has any right to be, and a needed reprieve in a year of almost entirely white wlw stories. The family's shenanigans are the hook, but it's the budding relationship between Old Dolio (an almost unrecognizable Evan Rachel Wood) and aspiring grifter Melanie (the luminous Gina Rodriguez) that is the heart of the story.

44. Misbehaviour (2020) dir. Philippa Lowthorpe – Again, teaching me herstory I didn’t know, about how the Women’s Liberation Movement stormed the 1970 Miss World Pageant. Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s characters have a conversation in a bathroom at the end of the film that perfectly eviscerates well-meaning yet ignorant white feminism, without ever pitting women against each other - a feat I didn’t think was possible. I also didn’t think it was possible to critique the male gaze without showing it (*ahem Cuties, Bombshell, etc*), but this again, invents a way to do it. Bless women directors.

45. *All In: The Fight for Democracy (2020) dir. Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortes – 2020’s 13th. Thank god for Stacey Abrams, that is all.

46. *The 40-Year-Old Version (2020) dir. Radha Blank – This scene right here? I felt that in my soul. This whole film is so good and funny and heartfelt and relatable to any artist trying to walk that tightrope of “making it” while not selling their soul to make it. My only initial semi-note was that it’s a little long, but after hearing Radha Blank talk about how she fought for the two-hour run-time as a way of reclaiming space for older black women, I take it back. She’s right: Let black women take up space. Let her movie be as long as she wants it to be. GOOD FOR HER.

47. Happiest Season (2020) dir. Clea Duvall - Hoooo boy. What was marketed as the first lesbian Christmas rom-com is actually a horror movie for anyone who’s ever had to come out. Throw in casual racism and a toxic relationship treated as otp, and it’s YIKES on so many levels. Aubrey Plaza, Dan Levy, and an autistic-coded Jane are the only (underused) highlights.

48. *Monkey Beach (2020) dir. Loretta Todd

49. *Little Chief (2020) dir. Erica Tremblay – A short film part of the 2020 Red Nation Film Festival, it’s a perfect eleven minutes that I wish had gone on longer, if only to bask in Lily Gladstone in a leading role.

50. First Cow (2019) dir. Kelly Reichardt – I know Kelly Reichardt’s style, so I’ll admit-- even as I was preparing for an excellent film, I was also reaching for my phone, planning on only half paying attention during all the inevitable 30-second shots of grass blowing in the wind. (And yes, there are plenty of those.) But twenty minutes in, my phone was set aside and forgotten, as I am getting sucked into this beautiful story about two frontiersman trying to live their best domestic life.There is only one word to describe this film and that is: PURE. I’ve never seen such a tender platonic relationship between men on screen before, and it’s not lost on me that it took a woman to show us that tenderness. Reichardt gives us two men brought together by fate, and kept together by a shared dream and the simple pleasure of not being alone in such a hard world; two men who spend their days cooking, trapping, baking, and dreaming of a better life; two men who don’t say much, but feel everything for each other. The world would be a much better place if men showed us this kind of vulnerability and friendship toward each other. Oh, and it’s also a brutal take-down of capitalism and the myth of the American Dream!

51. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) dir. Patty Jenkins - My most-anticipated film for the past two years was...well, a mixed bag, to say the least. Too many thoughts on it for a blog post, so stay tuned for the upcoming podcast ep where we go all in ;)

52. *Selah and the Spades (2019) dir. Tayarisha Poe

I hope this gives you some ideas to kick off your new year with a resolution to support more female directors!

What were your favorite women-directed movies of last year? Let me know in the tags, comments, or asks!

[dearanemone]

Omg the song asks is literally made for you. 5,6,8,9,10 or 11! And while you’re at it, please do rec me some new music?? 🥰😘

!!!!!! so many!!!! I love you!!!!! so mochi!!!!!!!!!

anything about music gets me to *heavy breathimg* and *screaming bird* because la PASIÓN. ❤ ❤ ❤ tysm my dear.

Q from this post.

5. a song you can relate to

Right now I’m getting strong mari vibes from Hate Myself by dodie.

Oh, so illogical, I'm not magical, I can't read your mind / But how can you not hear the whole conversation? / I have, sitting still with a brain on fire / I know, it's a me-thing / Eyes closed - isn't helping? / When you go quiet, I hate myself

The brain on fire bit got me hard.

❤ ❤ ❤

6.  a song that reminds you of your favorite book

Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush reminds me of Wuthering Heights more than the actual song inspired by the book does lol. It also reminds me of Linger a lot. ;eye-moji;

You don't want to hurt me / But see how deep the bullet lies / Unaware I'm tearing you asunder / Oh, there is thunder in our hearts / Is there so much hate for the ones we love? / Tell me, we both matter, don't we?

(My fav part is when she goes ‘Come on angel, come on darling, let me steal this moment from you now. Come on angel, come on, come on darling, let’s exchange the experience’)

and

I have one three for Captive Prince too. Exeunt by The Oh Hellos make me think of the storyline between the end of Book I and Book II.

Now, I am not the fool I was when I was younger / Crocodile eyes, I have seen how you hunger / Fluttering your lashes, like ashes and embers / Warm and bright as fire devouring timber / No, I cannot trust what you say when you're grieving / So, my love, I'm sorry, but still: I am leaving

Then we have Thus Always to Tyrants which I always imagined playing during  the last part of Book III, when the Regent is beheaded and everything is chaotic.

Where I go, will you still follow? / Will you leave your shaded hollow? / Will you greet the daylight looming, / Learn to love without consuming?

Lastly, there is Dear Wormwood, but that makes me think of Laurent’s life and character development. (and a bit of myself, too)

There before the threshold / I saw a brighter world beyond myself / And in my hour of weakness / You were there to see my courage fail / For the years have been long / And you have taught me well to sit and wait / Planning without acting / Steadily becoming what I hate

ok I let myself go with this one, I’M SORRY.

❤ ❤ ❤ 

8. the best song from your favorite album

This is not fair. I have so many favourite albums. One of my favs from 2020 was SAWAYAMA by Rina Sawayama. Top 1 song (for me, at least) is Bad Friend (and boy does it remind me of Linger!Nicaise)  It’s so poppy and has that sort of cyberpunk retro feeling with the synths in the background almost competing with Rina’s high notes. It’s SO good.

I'm so good at crashing in / Making sparks and shit but then / I'm a bad, I'm a bad, I'm a bad friend / So don't ask me where I've been / Been avoiding everything / 'Cause I'm a bad, I'm a bad, I'm a bad friend

❤ ❤ ❤ 

9. a song that makes you want to cry

All good songs make me want to cry. Sometimes I listen to a song so good I feel like I’m going to burst into tears or throw up or both just because I get this feeling at the bottom of my stomach. A mix of excitement and admiration and awe and unaltered, raw love.

There is one, though. And maybe you’ll recognize it from the soundtrack of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (!!!!) and also the soundtrack of How to Get Away with Murder. It’s No Fate Awaits Me by Son Lux and Faux Fix. I can’t even begin to explain the goosebumps. The build up of the freaking string section???????????? GOD, JUST STAB ME.

So, no fate awaits me (Without you, without you, without you)

❤ ❤ ❤ 

10. a song that makes you feel young

The Adults Are Talking by The Strokes.

They will blame us, crucify and shame us / We can't help it if we are a problem

❤ ❤ ❤ 

Last but not least,

11. a song that means a lot to you

I Couldn’t Be More In Love by The 1975.

I could've been a great line, I could've been a sign / Overstayed my time, say what's on your mind / Maybe I'll rely on all the things that I did right / Because I'd give you all the years of my life

It takes me back to long, lonely winters spent going back and forth with the metro in Budapest. I was so miserable, and I kept thinking, ‘But what about how I feel? What about my happiness? What about everything I’ve done and everything I continue to give? Is it all for nothing?’

❤ ❤ ❤

It was SO HARD to choose songs for this and I’m so sorry it came out to be so long. Please please please listen to all the songs I mentioned and I’d be more than happy to even send you MORE songs ;evil-laughter;

Much love to you, my darling.

[signelchan]

for that characters post do your boy kaito and your girl maki, and then to switch things up do Kjelle Fire Emblem

of course you’d ask all three of these

questions found at this post

doing them in order, so starting with Kaito!!

favorite thing about them - I hate how aesthetically pleasing this disaster human is, but damn it he’s easy on the eyes okay once you get past the bright colors and all that

least favorite thing about them - the fact that he’s part of that clusterfuck known as chapter 5 and people wrongly interpret him because of that

favorite line - the impossible is possible! all you gotta do is make it so!!

brOTP - him and Shuichi? is this even a question??

OTP - IS THIS EVEN A QUESTION?? but seriously I would die for mmhr thank you good night

nOTP - pair him with Kok//ichi one more time I swear

random headcanon - in a non-canon setting, Kaito isn’t as much of an overly positive guy, but that’s because his damn point gets across a lot easier when it’s not do-or-die for everyone!

unpopular opinion - Kaito is actually a good character and no amount of derailing him to make others (cough cough look at chapter 5) look better should be able to do damage to him.

song i associate with them - if I said any other song I’d be lying

favorite picture of them - there’s too many but a joke answer is his sprite with the thumb up, you know the one

okay that’s him, Maki time now

favorite thing about them - I would literally die for one Maki Harukawa?? I cannot pick one favorite thing about her, I love everything from her design to her character development to her personality

least favorite thing about them - the way the fandom treats her

favorite line - do you want to die?? 

brOTP - her and Kaede, or her and Shuichi, or both!

OTP - see my answer for Kaito, it’s the same

nOTP - look, I don’t really think of shipping her outside of, like, Kaito and maybe Kaede or Shuichi if necessary, anything else would fit into this category

random headcanon - contrary to what...a lot of the fandom seems to think, Maki really doesn’t like children and has zero desire to have her own, even though they always love her and she could easily find a hunk of a man to have them with.

unpopular opinion - Maki is the best character in v3, and maybe the series, and her development is paced perfectly

song i associate with them -  gonna be real with you, I can’t think of any songs other than the one I put for Kaito

favorite picture of them - oh shit I don’t know, they’re all perfect?? here’s the one I had signed by Erica Mendez, though

last one!! time to switch to FE and answer these about Kjelle!!

favorite thing about them - her design, full stop

least favorite thing about them - her lack of respect in the fandom

favorite line - it isn’t her saying it, but Severa’s line about her abs has lingered with me this long and it’s not going away

brOTP - her and Owain, because...yeah, it’s a romantic support line but the whole...potential relation thing...

OTP - do I have one? probably her and Severa tbh. a close second would be her and Laurent, but

nOTP - I don’t think I have one?

random headcanon - no matter who her father is, Kjelle is not afraid to tell him what’s up if he even starts slightly getting degrading towards women, and she can and will out-work any father she may have. what a babe.

unpopular opinion - she’s my favorite second gen FE:A character, isn’t that unpopular enough?

song i associate with them - because of a fic I wrote, this song

favorite picture of them - her official art where she doesn’t have her armor, like swoon