Y'all better thank the FUCK out of Jenny Newman for Brennan's clothing lewks for this new season. She's beloved in the Critical Role fandom for destroying the Bisexuals on the regular when she styles them.
Also MAJOR shout out to Denise Valentine who is the head of @dimension20official's Makeup and Hair department for making Brennan look like THAT
Rookie-Critic's Top 25 Films of 2022:
#1: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (dir. Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, a.k.a. Daniels)
We now arrive at the finish line of the Top 25 Films of 2022. I mean, could it have really been anything else?
There was no reality, no multiverse, in which my #1 pick for 2022 was going to be anything other than this sweeping, zany, beautiful masterpiece of comedically bizarre, but oddly dramatic storytelling. I actually have a really fun history with this film from before it was ever even officially announced. Back in September of 2021, I was newly single out of a 6-year relationship and had started going to a ton of films as a way of spending this massive influx of free time I had just come into. A lot of which, at the time, were free preview screenings of things that were about to come out (generally, my idea of it is they are press screenings that they open up to the public in order to fill the extra seats and word-of-mouth buzz). However, one day I get an email from one of the mailing lists I'm subscribed to asking if I'd like to come to a screening of a new film that hasn't been announced yet. After looking into the details further, it would be a sci-fi film starring Michelle Yeoh and directed by Daniels, and I would have to take a survey before and after the film, as well as sign an NDA and agree to not speak to anyone about it until the time when the film was officially announced and a release date was set. Those were literally the only three pieces of information I was given on the film. I was a fan of the Daniels' previous film, Swiss Army Man, and I generally like Michelle Yeoh, so I decided to give it a go. Why not? I like sci-fi, at worst I will have watched a bad film for free, oh no. So I reserved my spot, signed that NDA, and went to theater the following day for my screening. The movie, as you probably guessed, was Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, and let me tell you I hated that NDA with such a passion those next three months. I discussed in a very limited capacity with those in my immediate circle of family (I believe all I told my little brother that there was a scene where the characters turn into rocks and talk to each other through subtitles and that scene had made me cry), but really I just had to sit on the knowledge of this until it was officially announced in December 2021. I went and saw it opening weekend and remember thinking it was even better than I remembered it being in the test screening.
As far as a review, what is there really to say? The acting is superb across the board, especially from our central three cast members: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu (in my opinion, as much as I love Jamie Lee Curtis, Hsu should have won the Supporting Actress Oscar). The effects and editing are out of this world (universe? multiverse?). The humor never misses and never cheapens a more heartfelt or tender moment between characters. In fact, most of the time the drama and the comedy of everything is weaved in so naturally in a way that's hard to even describe. The entire movie almost defies genre or categorization and refuses to be pinned down into any one box. Ultimately, though, what I think really sets this film apart from everything else that came out in 2022 is that, behind the zany, at times unbelievably off-the-wall beats and gags, is an incredibly small story of a family and their struggles, both with the world and with each other. It's a film that analyzes what it means to be a mother, a father, a husband, a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter. It's a very uniquely Asian story with an Asian identity at its core, but there are things in the film, especially in the way it analyzes the cyclical dynamic of a dysfunctional family, that can ring true for anyone. It's a film that dares you to dream big, but also a film that asks you, gently, to not take the little things for granted. It's a film that asks you to be kind, and that it's ok to give people space when they need it, but even with that in mind, asks you to never give up on those you love. Most of all, this film asks you to love, to give love and accept love in all its forms, because anywhere will be home, anywhere will be enough, if you're surrounded with those that you love. Not only is this my #1 pick for 2022, this is also just, in general, one of my favorite films of all time.
Currently streaming on Showtime.
You can read my original review of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once here.
WINNIE THE POOH: BLOOD AND HONEY 2 (2023) First images
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 is a 2023 British horror slasher film and is obviously a sequel to Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023). The latter cost under $100,000 and took $5.2 million globally.
Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield (Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare; Dinosaur Prison; Rise of the Loch Ness; Sky Monster; Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey; The Killing Tree; Firenado) from a…
Okay but the SETS for all of these photos are so gorgeous, and the costume design??? God it's so *chef's kiss*
YEAH. The costumes and sets for the promos are always some of the MOST fun parts here when the chapters are announced.
Mad props to costumer designer Jenny Newman, costume assistants Vanessa Walton, Chloe Doan, and Lindsey Hamilton, make-up artists Jessica Torres and Dre Ronayne, and hair stylists Alyssa Elliot and Kimberly Distel. They were on chapters one and two, and I assume they make a triumphant return for three.
I'm not sure where they photograph these promotional images and how they're created, but if it's in a way similar to how they design the main set, Noxweiler Ignatius Berf and Flip This Bitch are responsible for set-dressing there with set design by Shaun Ellis.
If You Like We Have Always Lived in the Castle, You Should Try…
The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyn’s
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill
My Sweet Audrina by VC Andrews
If You Like Anne Carson, You Should Try…
These Possible Lives by Fleur Jaeggy
Waiting for God by Simone Weil
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
American Gothic + Girlhood
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Logic by Olympia Vernon
Heaven by VC Andrews
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
Female Friendship — Obsessive, Brutal, Erotic
Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy
When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan La Fanu
Female Mysticism
Matrix by Lauren Groff
City of Incurable Women by Maud Casey
From Virile Woman to WomanChrist by Barbara Newman
The Female Mystic by Andrea Janelle Dickens
Maps of Flesh and Light edit. by Ulrike Wiethaus
On Excess and Asceticism
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Holy Feast and Holy Fast by Caroline Bynum
If You Like The Haunting of Hill House, You Should Try…
White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Antinatalism — Against Being Born
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Tess of d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Trouble with Being Born by Emil M. Cioran
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Aaron Bay-Schuck
Aaron Sorkin
Adam & Jackie Sandler
Adam Goodman
Adam Levine
Alan Grubman
Alex Aja
Alex Edelman
Alexandra Shiva
Ali Wentworth
Alison Statter
Allan Loeb
Alona Tal
Amy Chozick
Amy Pascal
Amy Schumer
Amy Sherman Palladino
Andrew Singer
Andy Cohen
Angela Robinson
Anthony Russo
Antonio Campos
Ari Dayan
Ari Greenburg
Arik Kneller
Aron Coleite
Ashley Levinson
Asif Satchu
Aubrey Plaza
Barbara Hershey
Barry Diller
Barry Levinson
Barry Rosenstein
Beau Flynn
Behati Prinsloo
Bella Thorne
Ben Stiller
Ben Turner
Ben Winston
Ben Younger
Billy Crystal
Blair Kohan
Bob Odenkirk
Bobbi Brown
Bobby Kotick
Brad Falchuk
Brad Slater
Bradley Cooper
Bradley Fischer
Brett Gelman
Brian Grazer
Bridget Everett
Brooke Shields
Bruna Papandrea
Cameron Curtis
Casey Neistat
Cazzie David
Charles Roven
Chelsea Handler
Chloe Fineman
Chris Fischer
Chris Jericho
Chris Rock
Christian Carino
Cindi Berger
Claire Coffee
Colleen Camp
Constance Wu
Courteney Cox
Craig Silverstein
Dame Maureen Lipman
Dan Aloni
Dan Rosenweig
Dana Goldberg
Dana Klein
Daniel Palladino
Danielle Bernstein
Danny Cohen
Danny Strong
Daphne Kastner
David Alan Grier
David Baddiel
David Bernad
David Chang
David Ellison
David Geffen
David Gilmour &
David Goodman
David Joseph
David Kohan
David Lowery
David Oyelowo
David Schwimmer
Dawn Porter
Dean Cain
Deborah Lee Furness
Deborah Snyder
Debra Messing
Diane Von Furstenberg
Donny Deutsch
Doug Liman
Douglas Chabbott
Eddy Kitsis
Edgar Ramirez
Eli Roth
Elisabeth Shue
Elizabeth Himelstein
Embeth Davidtz
Emma Seligman
Emmanuelle Chriqui
Eric Andre
Erik Feig
Erin Foster
Eugene Levy
Evan Jonigkeit
Evan Winiker
Ewan McGregor
Francis Benhamou
Francis Lawrence
Fred Raskin
Gabe Turner
Gail Berman
Gal Gadot
Gary Barber
Gene Stupinski
Genevieve Angelson
Gideon Raff
Gina Gershon
Grant Singer
Greg Berlanti
Guy Nattiv
Guy Oseary
Gwyneth Paltrow
Hannah Fidell
Hannah Graf
Harlan Coben
Harold Brown
Harvey Keitel
Henrietta Conrad
Henry Winkler
Holland Taylor
Howard Gordon
Iain Morris
Imran Ahmed
Inbar Lavi
Isla Fisher
Jack Black
Jackie Sandler
Jake Graf
Jake Kasdan
James Brolin
James Corden
Jamie Ray Newman
Jaron Varsano
Jason Biggs & Jenny Mollen Biggs
Jason Blum
Jason Fuchs
Jason Reitman
Jason Segel
Jason Sudeikis
JD Lifshitz
Jeff Goldblum
Jeff Rake
Jen Joel
Jeremy Piven
Jerry Seinfeld
Jesse Itzler
Jesse Plemons
Jesse Sisgold
Jessica Biel
Jessica Elbaum
Jessica Seinfeld
Jill Littman
Jimmy Carr
Jody Gerson
Joe Hipps
Joe Quinn
Joe Russo
Joe Tippett
Joel Fields
Joey King
John Landgraf
John Slattery
Jon Bernthal
Jon Glickman
Jon Hamm
Jon Liebman
Jonathan Baruch
Jonathan Groff
Jonathan Marc Sherman
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Steinberg
Jonathan Tisch
Jonathan Tropper
Jordan Peele
Josh Brolin
Josh Charles
Josh Goldstine
Josh Greenstein
Josh Grode
Judd Apatow
Judge Judy Sheindlin
Julia Garner
Julia Lester
Julianna Margulies
Julie Greenwald
Julie Rudd
Juliette Lewis
Justin Theroux
Justin Timberlake
Karen Pollock
Karlie Kloss
Katy Perry
Kelley Lynch
Kevin Kane
Kevin Zegers
Kirsten Dunst
Kitao Sakurai
KJ Steinberg
Kristen Schaal
Kristin Chenoweth
Lana Del Rey
Laura Dern
Laura Pradelska
Lauren Schuker Blum
Laurence Mark
Laurie David
Lea Michele
Lee Eisenberg
Leo Pearlman
Leslie Siebert
Liev Schreiber
Limor Gott
Lina Esco
Liz Garbus
Lizanne Rosenstein
Lizzie Tisch
Lorraine Schwartz
Lynn Harris
Lyor Cohen
Madonna
Mandana Dayani
Mara Buxbaum
Marc Webb
Marco Perego
Maria Dizzia
Mark Feuerstein
Mark Foster
Mark Scheinberg
Mark Shedletsky
Martin Short
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Mathew Rosengart
Matt Lucas
Matt Miller
Matthew Bronfman
Matthew Hiltzik
Matthew Weiner
Matti Leshem
Max Mutchnik
Maya Lasry
Meaghan Oppenheimer
Melissa Zukerman
Michael Aloni
Michael Ellenberg
Michael Green
Michael Rapino
Michael Rappaport
Michael Weber
Michelle Williams
Mike Medavoy
Mila Kunis
Mimi Leder
Modi Wiczyk
Molly Shannon
Nancy Josephson
Natasha Leggero
Neil Blair
Neil Druckmann
Nicola Peltz
Nicole Avant
Nina Jacobson
Noa Kirel
Noa Tishby
Noah Oppenheim
Noah Schnapp
Noreena Hertz
Odeya Rush
Olivia Wilde
Oran Zegman
Orlando Bloom
Pasha Kovalev
Pattie LuPone
Paul & Julie Rudd
Paul Haas
Paul Pflug
Peter Traugott
Polly Sampson
Rachel Riley
Rafi Marmor
Ram Bergman
Raphael Margulies
Rebecca Angelo
Rebecca Mall
Regina Spektor
Reinaldo Marcus Green
Rich Statter
Richard Jenkins
Richard Kind
Rick Hoffman
Rick Rosen
Rita Ora
Rob Rinder
Robert Newman
Roger Birnbaum
Roger Green
Rosie O’Donnell
Ross Duffer
Ryan Feldman
Sacha Baron Cohen
Sam Levinson
Sam Trammell
Sara Foster
Sarah Baker
Sarah Bremner
Sarah Cooper
Sarah Paulson
Sarah Treem
Scott Braun
Scott Braun
Scott Neustadter
Scott Tenley
Sean Combs
Seth Meyers
Seth Oster
Shannon Watts
Shari Redstone
Sharon Jackson
Sharon Stone
Shauna Perlman
Shawn Levy
Sheila Nevins
Shira Haas
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Tikhman
Skylar Astin
Stacey Snider
Stephen Fry
Steve Agee
Steve Rifkind
Sting & Trudie Styler
Susanna Felleman
Susie Arons
Taika Waititi
Thomas Kail
Tiffany Haddish
Todd Lieberman
Todd Moscowitz
Todd Waldman
Tom Freston
Tom Werner
Tomer Capone
Tracy Ann Oberman
Trudie Styler
Tyler James Williams
Tyler Perry
Vanessa Bayer
Veronica Grazer
Veronica Smiley
Whitney Wolfe Herd
Will Ferrell
Will Graham
Yamanieka Saunders
Yariv Milchan
Ynon Kreiz
Zack Snyder
Zoe Saldana
Zoey Deutch
Zosia Mamet
[ID: A tweet from Jenny Newman @.Jennernugen which reads: “The 4 stages of cosplay trolling - 1."oh yes" 2."oh no" 3."oh well" 4."might as well" Happy Halloween, @.executivegoth! 😈” There are four pictures. The first shows Jenny by herself dressed in cosplay of Jamie, Taliesin’s character from the Monsterhearts oneshot. The next three are very similar to each other and show Jenny with Taliesin. Taliesin is first appearing unenthused by her costume choice, then accepting the inevitable, then embracing it, following the progression of the caption. /end ID]
My Twelve Favorite (Children’s) (Chapter) Books (in no particular order and without regard for genre or intended age) and then some
Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones. If you are looking for perfection (and if you love fantasy), you will find it here. This also serves as a placeholder for the rest of Diana Wynne Jones’s body of work. You can’t go wrong with anything she wrote, although I do have my favorites. The audiobooks read by Gerard Doyle are fabulous.
Tashi and the Big Stinker by Anna Fienberg and Barbara Fienberg . It was like this… (The whole series is phenomenal; picked this particular one because it’s my kids’ favorite of the lot). Probably written for children on the younger side (quite a bit younger, lol) but that’s never stopped me…
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. If you want your heart torn out in less than a hundred pages.
The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, by Nancy Farmer. Each time I read this I find it just as thrilling as the last time.
The Grey King, by Susan Cooper. While each book in this series is spectacularly written, this one is particularly haunting. Again, be prepared to have your heart torn out by the roots.
Is Underground by Joan Aiken. An absolute gem by one of the most wildly inventive and fantastic authors to ever write for children (which obviously is saying a lot).
Lionboy by Zizou Corder. A favorite in this household. The audiobook is – chef’s kiss.
Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. This book also serves as a placeholder for Roald Dahl, whose mastery goes without saying. The audiobook read by Peter Serafinowicz is terrific.
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope. Perfectly crafted. (lol cw: quite sweet heterosexual romance)
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Every time I read it, I love it all over again.
The Superlative Horse, by Jean Merrill. What is the price, and what is the value?
Captain Underpants, by Dav Pilkey. One of my kids' favorites, and mine too. The later books get a bit convoluted, but this one is so much fun.
Runners up (again, in no particular order): Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, Keeper of the Isis Light by Monica Hughes, The Moon in the Cloud by Rosemary Harris, The Brilliant World of Tom Gates by L. Pichon, Dorrie's Magic by Patricia Coombs, The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy, The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, Holes by Louis Sachar, Jack Holborn by Leon Garfield, Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Merlin’s Mistake by Robert Newman, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary, Grandpa’s Great Escape by David Walliams, The Changeover by Margaret Mahy, Sabriel by Garth Nix, An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden, The Kidnapping of Suzie Q by Martin Waddell, The Adventures of Odysseus by Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden, You're a Bad Man Mr. Gum by Andy Stanton (the audiobook read by the author is wildly hilarious), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling, Knight's Castle by Edward Eager, The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit.
I consider all the stories listed above to be treasures.
Barbara Howard | Becca Palmerstone | Beckett Mariner | Becky | Becky Todd | Bella Crawford | Belle Newman | Betty | Billie the Reaper | Bilquis | Bisma | Blackfire | Bo | Bobbi | Bow Kid | Bree Matthews | Bumblebee
C
Caprice Winters | Carmen Eguiluz | Carol | Carol Lockhart | Carole Clarke | Catherine Halliday | Catty Noir | Celeste Bisme Lyons | Celie Johnson | Chantelle Blades | Charlotte Page | Cherise | Chondra Unkrich | Clash | Claudia Grant | Cleo Sowande | Cleopatra Jones | Cobra | Coffee | Cocoa Cookie | Coco Conners | Coco Monvoisin | Condola Hayes | Conny Spalding | Cressida | Cynthia Rose Adams
D
Daisy Grant | Damita | Dana Mythical Quest | Darli Dagger | Dayna Mellanby | Death of the Endless | Deja Pearson | Delilah Benson | Denise Hayworth | Denise Johnson | Diana Freeman | Doc McStuffins | Doctor Slone | Donna Siren | Donna Meagle
E
Ela | Elektra Abundance | Elena Felton | Ella McFair | Elzora | Enchantress | Erin Cortland | Esi Jiwe | Esther Hopkins | Ethel Peabody | Evangeline Williamson | Eve Doll
F
Fanta | Farah Black | Felicia | Foxxy Love | Fringilla Vigo
Ikora Rey | Imane Bakhellal | Imani | Imani Izzi | Indra | Inquisitor Reva | Irene Federic | Iridessa | Iris Watkins | Ironheart | Isis
J
Jack Starbright | Janai | Jane Amphibia | Jane Hayward | Janie Egins | Janine Teagues | Jasmine TD | Jasmine Davis | Jean Peterson | Jennifer Sisko | Jenny Jackson | Jenny Pizza | Jessica Crashing | Jessica Williams | Jill TUA | Jinna | Joana Coelho | Joanna Crawford | Jodie Landon | Jojo Williams | Jolene | Jonelle Abraham | Jordan Armstrong | Jordan Moore | Josie McCoy | Juanita Benson | Judith | Julia Freeman | Juniper Andromeda | Justine Dancer
...
I ran out of time. LOL. I’ma work on it tho...
I got 2 jobs. Sometimes, I’m not gonna have the things I intend to bring.\
If anybody want me to tag them whenever I finish actually making this list, just leave it in the replies and I’ll tag everybody once I finish K-Z characters, hopefully before the month is over.