#k-stew | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cursepoem · 1 year

Text

Year in Review 2022 — Part 1 — Performances, Line Readings, Moments, etc

Honorable Mention: Whatever Kristen Stewart is doing in Crimes of the Future It’s just such a strange, twitchy performance full of very intentional choices, from the space she inhabits in the frame to the contorted line delivery. Everything about the performance is physical, spatial, which should not be a surprise coming from Cronenberg. But for all the film’s graphic obsession with bodies, K-Stew’s performance enacts the subtler questions and implications the film seems to pose. The way she looms and hovers until she’s right up in Viggo’s face, a second later sticking her fingers in his mouth, her whole performance is operating within this strange proximity where she is both unknowingly distant and completely in your face, invading your space and stripping you of any consent or privacy. It’s a joy to see her deliver something like this, to see her in such a specific mode.

3. Anne Hathaway blotting her tears in WeCrashed I was hesitant to consider any TV here, but this is just such a powerhouse moviestar performance. And as much as i wanted to limit this post to line readings (“I have decided for now to consciously contain my answer in a chrysalis” could easily take this spot), this moment cuts through the chaos of everything surrounding it with such welcome clarity and empathy. I know it's some cliche, thespian-ass shit to even say, but the pathos she’s able to cull from her subject, the humanity and tenderness with which she renders her, is jaw-dropping throughout the series. This is a real person, who against the foregone conclusion of the show’s premise is necessarily portrayed as a farce and who in any other actor’s hands would inevitably succumb to caricature. Hathaway plays her with dignity, and beyond that, mines her own vulnerability for this resounding, oddly triumphant moment. And the best part is that this performance is by no means without humor. It’s laugh-out-loud funny (and we’re laughing at her, not with her, by the way) even somehow in this moment. It just takes a rare talent like Hathaway’s for the joke to not be a cruel one, for it to be made all richer by the emotional work she’s putting in. It’s like she’s the only one who understood the tone of this show.

2. “Rum and Shampooooo” — Margaret Qualley in Stars at Noon The jury (me) has long deliberated whether Margaret Qualley is actually talented or just rich (both can be true), and the second of Denis’ two films this year doesn’t exactly tip the scales, though it does find her in precisely the register where she really flourishes. And while not the best thing that Stars at Noon gave us (that, my friends, would be Midnights) this delivery is perhaps my favorite inexplicable moment of the year. Let me set the scene: Qualley’s character, an American journalist stranded in a simmering Central American police state on the verge of political upheaval, has just gone to the market with her mysterious companion, played by Joe Alwyn, to purchase precisely two items: rum and shampoo. Cut to a closeup of an al fresco table. A bottle of rum and a bottle of shampoo hit the surface with a unison thud, Qualley’s hands still wrapped tightly around each. The camera slowly moves up as we hear her sing, in a sultry, lilting tone, “rum and shampooooooo.” It is playful, singsong, but also strikingly genuine, dead serious. Her head weaves and cranes and she holds the last syllable, draws it out gently, confidently, making eye contact with Alwyn all the while until the camera pans over to him as he takes a long pull from his beer bottle, wet with condensation. It is truly a feast for the senses. It would take one out of the movie entirely, if said movie wasn’t already such a fever dream, somehow both meandering and stagnant, thick with humid tension but inescapably empty. (Don't get me wrong, I loved it.) That is to say, it is as if these four notes, this melodious strain ascribed around a minor 3rd were some collective aural hallucination, or some strange jolt into the dreamworld that reminds you that our earthly measures of reason and logic have no use here. And just as sudden, the scene continues in earnest as Alwyn’s character orders another beer. No attention is drawn to Qualley’s ballad, it goes unaddressed. It has not left my mind, however, and is not soon to.

1. “You don’t love me, you annoy me” — Rebecca Hall in Resurrection Rebecca Hall continues her run of the most unapologetically difficult characters in contemporary cinema. A self-described masochist when taking roles, here the paranoiac pangs of past trauma contort her into an increasingly hateful creature as any hint of hope is eclipsed by her refusals of rationality. Throughout much of the plot, we aren’t sure whether to take what we’re being told at face value, if we’re to believe Tim Roth’s sinister monologues. Much of the discomfort of the film is in the not knowing whether we are in a realm of mystical realism, or if we’re being set up for a cheap twist with a late reveal that it was all in her mind, or something. Thankfully, the latter is not the case. It's just that what we’re being told, what we’re being led to believe, is such an absurdly twisted fairy tale that you want the world of the movie to give us some out, some way to contend with or navigate a narrative that is too awful to take at face value. Hall’s performance offers no such respite. She becomes transformed by it, and watching her begin to show all the psychic seams, gaunt with dread, cements us firmly in a nightmare we cannot wake up from. Some of the most harrowing moments are between Hall’s character and her daughter, the horror and hopelessness she feels once her mother is too far gone and she cannot even begin to comprehend why. She calls the man who she thinks is Hall’s boyfriend (a married co-worker Hall casually fucks on the regular) to stage something of an intervention, at which Hall is aghast, offended even, on a number of levels, at no point registering her daughter’s pain and innocent desperation. Then, when she encounters this man on the street outside her apartment, she runs him down, screaming, to the cold concrete. He protests, and eventually confesses “I love you,” to which Hall summons all of the cruelty and disdain in the world in her response: “You don’t love me, you annoy me.” The delivery is so deft, and the line so succinctly encapsulates this delicate perversion of perspective. What this man believes is love has been cut down and diminished to an irritant, something that simply happens to Hall’s character rather than something real and felt. She so swiftly and mercilessly reduces his outpouring of emotion and reveals it as empty, misguided, selfish even. Any time “I love you” is used as an excuse, a diversion, a placeholder for something otherwise left unsaid, it should be met with this response, with this level of ire.

#year in review 2022 #movies #film #crimes of the future #kristen stweart #k-stew #cronenberg #wecrashed #anne hathaway #stars at noon #margaret qualley #claire denis #resurrection #rebecca hall #year in review

6 notes · View notes

trashyeggroll · 1 month

Text

Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart for Them (2024)

#katy o'brian #kristen stewart #oh my #see this is how they should have looked in the movie 👀#k stew #kstew #love lies bleeding #love lies bleeding movie #love lies bleeding a24 #1k

4K notes · View notes

l3irdl3rain · 2 months

Text

Valentine is going to eat me out of house and home. He’s had breakfast, lunch, after lunch snack, and now an after after lunch snack

#my post #valentine

846 notes · View notes

emiliosandozsequence · 7 months

Text

ash, tracy k smith / flowers in the attic: the origin (2022) dir. declan o'dwyer & robin sheppard

169 notes · View notes

mirchoff · 1 month

Text

some things i did not notice on my first watch of love lies bleeding because i was too busy staring at kristen stewart:

the foreshadowing of the program on the tv of a larger man about to swallow a tiny dude

the gun range being called “louville”

lou’s last name being langston and jackie’s last name being rambo (rambaugh?)

i did in fact hear the “good girl” in the bathroom scene this time around

jackie wanting to go to california (and them presumably ending up there…. hello ao3)

#i could also talk about k stew’s mannerisms with her fingers in particular #and how much i love lou man i love that tiny little guy #love lies bleeding

39 notes · View notes

welcome-to-the-end-of-eras · 23 days

Text

Pulleyverse Characters as ATLA Benders

Mori: If any one of the pulleyverse characters were to be the avatar it would definitely be Mori, but if he weren't the avatar I think he would be an earth bender who specializes in metal bending. Like I think he would have so much fun making little metal sculptures and moving structures and stuff like that, not unlike the Beifongs in LoK. So combining those ideas, he'd be an avatar born in the Earth Kingdom who very much does not want to be the avatar.

Shenkov: He's definitely a fire bender, no question. He has that classic fire bender strength and honor routine basically engrained in him from a young age, and I feel like he could be pretty accomplished as a fire bender, but again he probably wouldn't want to do much fire bending. He'd kinda be like an Iroh situation; was and could be the strongest person in the room if he let loose, but all he really wants is some tea.

Joe: Water bender, and a damn good one too. He really mastered the calm meditative nature required of a water bender, (the man stared blank faced at a ticking bomb two feet from him, for Christ's sake) but he can also be really ruthless about it too. I don't necessarily think he would be a blood bender or anything like that, but he would definitely be able to pull the freezing rain thing like Katara.

Missouri: He would also be a water bender for the same reasons as Joe, but I think he would in fact be a blood bender. In the world of ATLA, blood benders are very widely feared, and for good reason, and I think Missouri would absolutely be capable of using something like blood bending to instill fear in people. He wouldn't like doing it of course, but he could and would if necessary.

Gale: They're very much an air bender. They're very calm and meditative when they need to be, and that is how they prefer to be, but they could definitely pull a Yangchen and just go buckwild if they needed to. And I feel like of all the pulleyverse characters, they're the least attached to their "earthly desires" (and that is relative bc none of these mfs are detached at all). Plus imagine them having a fuckin MAMMOTH as their little companion buddy instead of a bison!!! A big ass flying mammoth!!!

Valery: I honestly think Valery would be a non bender. He's all for science and everything like that, and of course benders can be scientists, but I feel like he would spend a lot of time studying what makes people able to bend instead of being a bender himself. If I were to choose one element for him I would probably choose fire, but at the end of the day it makes the most sense to me if he were more interested in studying bending.

Merrick: Earth bender. There is no other answer for him that earth bender. He's very grounded and stable in his character, but also undeniably strong. His arc about overcoming the "weakness" he feels after his leg gets messed up honestly is very reminiscent of Toph to me, and I feel like he would absolutely take the time and learn from the creatures of the earth to become an incredibly powerful earth bender. Also adding in him being a mentor for Mori and it's just >>>

Raphael: I feel like he would also be an earth bender tbh. Like he just so ardently respects the land he lives on and constantly learns from his environment to adapt, especially considering he can't always rely on the people around him, so he would turn to learning from the world around him. If I were pressed to choose another one I think he could also fit into the fire bender role, but I prefer the earth bender interpretation tbh.

January: He honestly could be a non bender too, but the Sokka kind of non bender who takes the time to learn actual fighting moves from all of the nations and become just an incredibly powerful fighter on his own. I feel like he would be especially inspired by air nomad moves being a dancer and all, and that would be the way he bonds with Gale which I think is vvv cute.

Thaniel: he has stumped me this entire post, which is very odd considering I think about this man at least five times a day, and the best conclusion I think I've drawn is he'd either be a non bender or an earth bender. So probably then a non bender born in the earth kingdom, because he does embody the earth kingdom ideals of maintaining outward strength and balance in life, but not necessarily the actual ideals of an earth bender. And tbh he seems like he couldn't give less of a fuck about bending.

#this took me longer than expected and I reserve the right to change my answers later #the way I normally make these posts is by stewing on the ideas throughout the day and then putting all of my ideas out in a mad dash #it is to quote the mars house 'projectile autism'#but I was asked personally this morning to make this and I don't have a lot of time today so this is what we're rocking with for now #and I'd happily do it again bc I love making these and I love atla #the watchmaker of filigree street #the lost future of pepperharrow #the bedlam stacks #the kingdoms #the half life of valery k #the mars house #twofs #tlfop #tbs #tk #thlovk #tmh #natasha pulley

24 notes · View notes

fluffydice · 4 months

Text

Was thinking about how Akechi doesn't have a psychic-related metonymy for me to refer to him with, but then realized "childhood best friend" was not only suitable, but also painful in the right context. Ergo, the best option

#im cooking up words in my evil story stew #saiki k #fluffy writes a fic

38 notes · View notes

homosociallyyours · 2 months

Text

Made a successful comment on a lesbian meme page, so yeah I'd say things are really looking up for me at the moment

#200 people? liking my comment? it's more likely than you'd think #jk it's incredibly rare which is why I'm making a post about it #also to be clear things are NOT looking up for me lol but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#also the post was someone sharing that k stew snl skit from a few years ago #where she and vanessa bayer have a sapphic love moment over totinos pizza rolls #truly one of the few times the superbowl has ever felt relevant to me #edit: we're up to 300 I've arrived pals

20 notes · View notes

female-malice · 4 months

Text

I wasn't interested in watching the Popular Teen Lesbian Movie but I've see plenty of gifs. And it's wild to see those actors at awards shows looking totally glossy, hypertrendy, and hyperfeminine.

Ah yes. Make a feature length film where the audience gets to laugh at the lesbian loser stereotype. Then take off the costume and be glossy, feminine, chic, and successful. Great stuff 😐

#I respect K Stew because she looks more dykey in real life than she does in her movies

16 notes · View notes

soft-jihyo · 2 years

Text

I’m so TIRED of watching movies with Aubrey Plaza where she’s set up as the perfect lesbian love interest but then the main character doesn’t choose her in the end

#spin me round #addicted to fresno #happiest season #and like okay I loved spin me round but it had a really boring beginning #and then the kat thing is just like never resolved #which bothered me #but at least Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza made out #and im not actually that upset about happiest season either bc she was never supposed to be a love interest for k stew #they just had mad chemistry

278 notes · View notes

gaaaaaaaayypr · 16 days

Text