#Also I actually ended up giving Oscar Imbue

[ominoose]

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫-𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞

Summary: Random drabble's about Steven Grant meeting other Oscar Isaac characters. No Marc or Jake co-concious, only referenced. Characters: Basil Stitt, Leto Atreides, Poe Dameron A/N: This randomly hit me and I wanted to write it because it was funny. Used a spinny wheel for it. Also idk if BB-8 can do that but now he can.

London was it's usual muggy, busy self as Steven ran down the street, hoping to catch the bus to work. It had been hard enough to get a job after the Museum Incident, but maintaining a position was proving to be a much harder endeavor between his abnormal sleeping patterns and head mates.

"Oi! Wait, please!" Steven was within touching distance just as the bus sped off, and at the lack of anything to rest his weight on or break his fall, the man found himself tumbling face first into traffic.

☽ 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐭 (Lightningface)

+ When Steven first wakes up in the apartment, his first thought is that he's woken up in a bomb site. The apartment is a mess, furniture and clothes strewn everywhere haphazardly. He's momentarily glad Marc isn't replying in his head, knowing the American would have an aneurysm over the state of the place.

+ Basil is the one to find Steven, jumping up from his spot on the couch and staring at him like he's an alien. The first thought in his mind is that Ricky the Monkey did some crazy magic and brought a clone to replace him. Poor Steven barely has a chance to process the situation before he's trying to calm his scarred, other American look alike down and explain his situation. Nothing manages to convince Basil there isn't some magic going on here, but he stops viewing Steven as an evil replacement.

+ After the initial shock and awkward introductions, they manage to sit down and chat for a few minutes. Basil shares the story of the lightning strike, insisting that its imbued him with magical powers. Steven, bless his heart, immediately believes this and boasts about his own moon powers too.

"You know, I've always wanted to try jumping off the roof and flying, have you done that?"

"Oh no, my mate Marc usually handles that, but maybe we can practice together? Have you got a suit as well?"

"Yeah, it's this paper bag and bed sheet I fixed up myself! C'mon, I have a stool on the balcony-"

"Wait, hang about.... Actually, mate, on second thoughts, lets not."

+ Steven ends up convincing Basil to properly fix his apartment, not just brush away the broken shards and dust. So that's what they do for a while, busying themselves as they theorize on how to get Steven back home with only a handful of brain cells between them. Basil listens with surprising intensity when Steven ends up branching off into Egyptology tangents, and likewise Steven nods along when Basil brings up all the documentaries he'd watched recently. In the end, the apartment does end up in much better shape, and the pair become quite chummy.

"Damn. Thanks for the help... Maybe I did overreact a bit."

"Yeah, it's no problem bruvs, it happens. Surprised the doctors didn't give you anymore meds, though I suppose over here its not like the NHS."

"Oh, no I didn't go to the hospital."

"...You wot?!"

𝐋𝐞𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 (Dune)

+ Coming to on hot, sandy slabs is enough of a trigger point to Steven Grant as they come. Coming to on hot, sandy slabs with weird astronauts in suits pointing space guns at him goes beyond frighting and circles back into 'Shit yourself' territory. Thankfully they seem to speak English. Unfortunately, his high pitched screams and babbling British noises don't make sense to them while they peer down their guns at him with confusion. It isn't until a booming voice draws everyone's attention that Steven gets a chance to breath.

+ Said breath is swiftly knocked back out of Stevens lungs when a wiser, nobler and older version of him walks into the room, commanding the attention of every single space soldier in the room. The man stares down at him as he lays huddled on the ground, curled into himself, and quirks a single well groomed eyebrow at him.

"I am Duke Leto of House Atreides. You have penetrated your way into my home. Who are you?"

"I-I-I'm S-Steven Grant. Of the... Giftshop."

The Duke continues his stony stare at Steven for a few seconds longer before holding out a calloused hand.

"Well Steven of the Giftshop, I think we both have many questions for one another, and hopefully some answers."

+ When Steven finally gets over being starstruck at the dignified, royal version of himself, and when Leto makes the accidental mistake of mentioning that they're billions of years in the future on another planet, Steven freaks out, having a 10 minute long panic attack. When that's over he geeks out instead, asking a million questions about technology, using apologies as commas and full stops.

"Do people still know about Khonshu in this era?!"

"I'm afraid I am not familiar with that name."

"Lucky sod."

+ Leto thinks the strange, weird sounding clone of himself is a schizophrenic long lost cousin, but at lease he isn't trying to kill him over a title. It's not as common in Arrakis, or the general noble courts, to find someone as earnest, honest and willing to learn as Steven seems to be, which earns him a surprising amount of respect from the Duke.

𝐏𝐨𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧 (Star Wars)

+ Waking up in a space ship that's doing somersaults mid-battle while dodging and weaving around beams trying to explode it out of the sky was almost as stressful as waking up on a London bus at 8am. Commendably, Steven didn't scream or cry, but simply had a silent panic attack until a rolling white and orange ball started beeping at him, or rather the ridiculously handsome version of him currently flying the plane.

"Who the hell are you and how did you get on my cruiser?!"

"Bloody hell, not another handsome American me!"

"What?! BB-8, check for a concussion!"

+ After being given a water bottle by the polite little droid, Steven finally managed to calm himself down by the time the ship touch down and the pilot in matching droid colours sprang before him, launching question after question. When he clocked Stevens face, he was speechless, brows slowly knitting over his eyes as he tried to make sense of what was in front of him. Mid stare-down BB-8 nicked the Brits skin, running a quick diagnostic test and beeping the results out to the pilot who's eyebrows swiftly un-knitted at the noises.

+ Taking advantage of the silence, Steven tries to explain himself and his situation, insisting he comes in peace and simply wanted to get home before Donna got another excuse to give him the sack. The pilot finally introduced himself as Poe, the best pilot in the resistance at that, and with a sigh he promised to try and figure out how to get Steven back to whatever galaxy London was from.

+ Poe tries to explain the resistance and the empire to Steven, who in turn compares it to Ammits cult and jointly rants about those who take choice and freedom from the innocent. Poe is happy enough that his weird blood ancestor is with the resistance, even if he does constantly regard him with a quirked eyebrow, wondering how in the universe he managed to evolve from this walking concussion. For a second time Poe is rendered silent as Steven mentions being Moonknight.

"Oh yeah, I've done that too, at least those Jedi blokes doesn't send their jackals after you though!"

"You've... fought? In battle?"

"Course, yeah. Fought off giant gods back to the underworld, stopped the day of reckoning as the souls of the living were flooding the underworld. It was just the other day actually."

"...You killed god?!"

+ Steven absolutely adores BB-8 and Leia, a feeling the bot and all of the resistance seem to happily return, much to the dismay of Poe. Steven's quite flustered from all the attention and questions, leaving Poe to drag him away in a huff, claiming they need to get back to figuring out how to send him home. It feels like a babysitting gig more than anything, but deep down it strokes Poe's ego when Steven ooh's and ahh's at all his resistance tales.

#steven grant #leto atreides #poe dameron #basil stitt #oscar isaac #omiwrites

[dmclemblems]

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW NAESALA DID BETTER THAN TIBARN, RANULF AND SOREN BUT HERE WE ARE.

I had no idea which of those two would be in second/third respectively because I relied on Shinon more than anyone in the Hawk Army in part four and Haar had Oscar for competition in Ike’s group for kill count.

Here’s to my 21st overall completed Tellius file and my 21st total time Oscar has settled into first place.

#Amount of regrets: negative and positively non-existent #I KNEW Naesala would be super far up but MAN YOU DID SOME WORK BOY #Ike is pretty static in like all my playthroughs but I mean tbh #everyone here except Naesala is always in my top five #so it's really a matter of Ranulf Soren and Tibarn typically as for who will get in fifth #Whenever I'm wondering what the placements will be I'm like I WONDER WHO GOT IN SECOND BEHIND OSCAR and I'm still in like part three #Hell I wonder who it'll be as soon as I start my files because I mean. Like. Yeah. #Congratulations on turning 21 first places old Oscar I love you #I wish he was in four more battles bc that number is making me angry tho lol #But still. That's a lotta battles and victories. #Also I actually ended up giving Oscar Imbue #so he was healing sixteen HP every turn LOL #God bless that man and his stat glory #He capped everything except Magic which as you can see via Imbue was sixteen #Imbue + Sol = Heroes Celice level of self-sustain if not more than that #Even though I know Oscar is going to get his unrivaled first place I still always anticipate it and get excited to see it #If you think I'm joking that he's gotten first place 21 times across both games YOU'RE THE FUNNY ONE :D #Radiant Dawn #DCE Comments

[unexpectedreylo]

Here It Is:  My Spoilerific Review/Post Mortem of TROS

When I saw The Last Jedi two years ago, the movie haunted me for days, for weeks, for months.  It inspired the imagination, dragging me into the world of Reylo and reassuring whatever reservations I had about the post-Lucas sequel trilogy.

The Rise of Skywalker haunts me too but more in a “Demon House” kind of way.  It fires up the imagination, but more in the sense that it keeps you up at night thinking of all of the ways it could’ve been better.

This isn’t to say I hate the movie.  I don’t.  It’s not even entirely or mostly bad which is what makes it extra frustrating.  You can laugh your way through a total disaster like “Cats” or “The Room” but a movie with plenty of promise and of talent behind it that makes some bad decisions is tragic.  Especially since this is the closing chapter to a trilogy and the saga itself.

You can see there are bones for what could’ve been a really good, maybe even great movie.  One of my favorite parts was the opener where Kylo Ren literally descends into hell/the underworld to confront the devil for no other reason than he didn’t even want Satan above him, a man who serves no gods or devils.   (That right there is a classic Byronic hero.)  Exogol is a great haunted house/spooky setting.  The revelation that it was Palpatine manipulating him all along was a shocker and makes Ben’s story that much more poignant.  I also really liked the contrast with Rey’s introduction, a beautiful shot of her in the verdant forest floating among rocks as she’s meditating.  She is Persephone in her element (which makes the ending all that more baffling but don’t worry, I’m getting to that).

This sets the stage for the revelation that the two are part of an intriguing concept, a Force dyad, kind of a Star Wars version of soulmates maybe even twin flames.  The two just had to acknowledge the feelings between them, reunite, and take out the Sith trash while Rey finally confronts her own dark side.   I don’t mind the latter concept at all because with the trilogy’s thickest plot armor, I think it’s valuable to put her in some peril and to have her better understand Kylo/Ben.

Abrams also wanted to recapture the feel of 1980s blockbusters like the Indiana Jones films or The Goonies, both made by his old mentor Steven Spielberg.  That’s most palpable when the Space Scoops Troop, er “trio,” falls into quicksand and pokes around an underground cave looking for one of the film’s many MacGuffins.  Abrams does good set pieces and powers them along with snappy dialogue.  Like TFA, it’s peppered with some genuinely funny scenes.

If nothing else, you can’t blame the cast for any of the film’s problems.  Everyone does the best they can with what they’re given and the long-standing chemistry between various pairs (Adam and Daisy, John and Oscar, Adam and Harrison Ford for example) do a lot to serve their scenes.  I think Oscar’s best scene was when he confesses to Leia lying in state that he doesn’t know if he can be the leader the Resistance needs.  It’s an honest, human moment.  Daisy continues to infuse Rey with her natural luminance.  I particularly liked the few quiet moments she has, such as meeting the children on Pasaana or healing the snake.  It shows her compassion and foreshadows healing Ben.

Daisy does pretty well with what she is given about struggling with her dark side.  (Remember, she didn’t write her own screenplay.)  Maybe it’s unpopular to say this but I kind of liked her brief turn as “Dark Rey.”  I have no doubt had she turned dark she would be pretty scary.  Her desire for revenge and fear of her own nature--driven by genetics or not--were intriguing concepts and I thought she tried to make the most of it in her performance.

Ah Adam Driver.  God bless that man.  He brings his considerable A-game 100% of the time no matter what and it shows.  He could sell sand on Tatooine.  I have no idea why they put the mask back on him other than a marketing department decision as I suspected, but taking it off when he’s making his appeal to Rey before she leaps out to the Falcon carries a gravity few people can pull off.  His reconciliation with Han was one of the film’s highlights.  For once the repetitive nature of the script actually worked in TROS’s favor, as Kylo retraces his steps in that fateful scene from TFA and finds a way to clear his conscience.  I also think this was originally meant to help the audience forgive him, especially since right after this he renounces the dark side.  Which makes later choices baffling, which I’ll get to.  Driver’s shiniest shining moment though is when he is once again Ben Solo.  Deprived of dialogue for the rest of the film other than “ow,” he nevertheless manages to convey a different personality that is very much Han Solo’s son.  His fight scene is right out of a 1970s martial arts movie, imbued with determination and sass.  I want to see a trilogy about THAT guy.

The Reylo scenes are, well, until it goes south, wonderful.  Some of us would’ve  preferred a lot less fighting but I see it as mostly Rey trying to deny herself and Kylo not being sure if he really wants Rey to turn to the dark side.  (On that note, I wish we’d seen Rey’s vision of sharing a throne with Kylo rather than just hear her talk about it.)   As I predicted, the turning point of the relationship came after the lightsaber battle on the Death Star wreckage.  I find it interesting that Kylo hesitates to kill Rey--partially because of his mother’s influence--and it’s she who could’ve killed him.  She immediately recognizes the dark side was turning her into something she didn’t want to be and nearly costs her the man that deep down she loves.  She heals him completely and along with her confession that she would’ve taken Ben’s hand, his soul is nearly healed by the power of love alone.  Which makes the film’s later choices baffling.  If you think about it, Ben’s turn is even more dramatic than Vader’s.  Vader chose his son over the Emperor at the last minute, some inkling of his light still there shining through at the right moment under duress.  Ben flat out rejects the dark side of his own volition.  That is pretty powerful.  Which makes the ending far more painful.

Rey and Ben’s one big romantic moment was tender and sweet and that was a pretty good kiss.  We finally get to see Ben’s big toothy grin.  Even though we all hate it, Driver did an amazing job conveying first his sorrow over Rey, then his relief, his joy, his love, and finally his strength leaving him.

Visually, the film looks great.  I think J.J. did an even better job shooting this film than TFA.  Adding to the visuals is the fabulous art direction.  They hired supervising art director Paul Inglis immediately after his previous flick Blade Runner 2049 came out, and that decision paid off.  This leaves the film with a number of beautifully-rendered scenes, whether it’s the haunted house scary underworld beneath Exogol, Kylo Ren’s starkly white quarters, the landscapes of Pasaana, the stormy seas around the Death Star II’s wreckage, the shot of Rey hesitating in the Star Destroyer’s hangar before leaping out to the Falcon, or Rey meditating among the floating rocks during her introduction.

I liked D-O and Babu Frick.  I even liked the lady who complimented Kylo’s helmet.  

Where do I start having problems?  The first time I saw the movie the scenes with Leia didn’t bother me but the second time I saw it, it was far more apparent they wrote around the bits of footage they had left.  It was a valiant effort to make Carrie Fisher part of the last film she never had the chance to perform in but it didn’t feel organic.  Since Leia dies during the movie anyway, I don’t know why having her pass away offscreen in between TLJ and TROS is less merciful to the audience than having her body lie beneath a sheet for half the film.  No wonder Billie Lourd skipped the premiere of this flick.  I couldn’t take it if it were my mother either.

On my second viewing, the Resistance base scenes started to get on my nerves.  Maybe it’s because I got tired of looking at the same group of like 10 people over and over.  Maybe I was annoyed that the only purpose of those scenes was to earnestly spout exposition.  Now, exposition is important.  I’m surprised Abrams, notorious for not bothering with it even if it’s necessary, even did this much.  But there was something about George Lucas’s Rebel base scenes that made these people look and act like guerrilla soldiers.  Maybe it was Lucas’s experience shooting films with Navy guys as a student, or his documentary style.  Abrams’s Resistance behave more like college students and activists than soldiers.  

But TROS’s biggest problems lie in its breakneck pacing and its writing.  Parts that should’ve had greater emotional resonance don’t because it moves along too fast.  I would’ve sacrificed one of the set pieces/action scenes or chuck one of the pointless new characters for the sake of deepening the relationship between Kylo and Rey or showing us more Ben Solo.

Some of the characterizations seemed off.  I know a lot of fans are deeply unhappy Rose Tico didn’t get to do much but I was surprised to see her in it even to the degree she was there.  What gets me about the whole Rose thing was her relationship with Finn is totally forgotten FOR NO REASON.  Really, why drop it?  There was no narrative purpose for doing so!  

General Hux is totally wasted in this film, reduced to little more than a cameo.  Sure it might be a surprising twist that “I am the spy!!!” (LOL) but his reasons for it are totally OOC.  He might despise Kylo Ren but to the point of helping the Resistance?  This is the guy who cheerfully blew up the Hosnian Prime system and wanted to blow up more.  He’s evil, a psychopath, a true believer in the First Order.  He might give the Resistance a tip that would result in embarrassing Kylo Rey and use that to start a coup against him but just helping the Resistance out of petulance and spite?  Nah.

Poe tries in this film to be a combination of rogue and deadly earnest idealist, but you generally don’t find those two qualities in the same person.  One second he’s talking about smuggling space dope, the next second he’s saying stuff like “Good people will fight if we lead them!”

Finn, God love him, is reduced to largely running around yelling, “Reeeey!” and eagerly trying to tell Rey something but the film never really got around to what it was.  It wasn’t until a Q&A session that Abrams revealed Finn was trying to tell Rey he was Force sensitive (something that should’ve been developed over the course of the trilogy).  Abrams had time to show us a random lesbian kiss for representation points, but no time for Finn to tell Rey he was Force sensitive?  Huh?

The story not only contradicts the previous films--I wonder if Abrams even saw his own movie TFA much less anything else besides the OT--it contradicts itself throughout.  Palpatine’s return is never really explained and his motives with Rey keep changing.  MacGuffins are added on top of MacGuffins with side missions thrown in.  Chewbacca is blown up then he’s miraculously alive on another transport we didn’t see.  Abrams and Chris Terrio didn’t just add to Rey’s origins, they blatantly spackled over it and TLJ’s overall message.  Discovering one is of evil origins is a gothic storytelling trope but really, it should’ve been developed since the first film so it doesn’t feel like whiplash from something else.  Everyone keeps telling Rey don’t be afraid of who you really are, but Rey ultimately does nothing but run from who she really is.  With each reversal, retcon, or contradiction in the film, it leaves a mess.  We’re supposed to believe Rey was better off sold to Unkar Plutt than be with her not-so-bad parents?   Who the bloody hell had sex with Darth Sidious?  You mean to tell me Luke and Leia knew all along Rey was a Palpatine but they never bothered to say anything and somehow they had more confidence in her than in their own flesh and blood?  Oh while we’re at it, I noticed the second time I saw the movie they straight up gave away Ben’s death before it happened!  WTF?  “Leia saw her son’s death at the end of her Jedi path.”  It seems like Luke and Leia were resigned to Ben’s fate as some horrible destiny that couldn’t be changed but Rey was still an open book to them.  That’s so stupid and really fellow OT fans, how does this respect our childhood faves?  Han comes off as the only decent person in this thing.

Rey and Ben taking on the Emperor was a great applause moment, the dyad unified against the ultimate evil.  For the most part it was fantastic...until The Yeetening.  Two things annoy me about the remainder of the conflict against Palpatine.  One, Rey and Ben should have destroyed Palpatine together.  If Rey could do it on her own then what the hell did she need Ben for?  He could’ve sat out the rest of the movie at Starbucks and remained alive while Rey killed Palps on her own.  There’s no point to their combined power because it wasn't necessary.  Two, while poor redeemed I-turned-back-to-the-light Ben was crawling up the pit with no help from anyone, every good guy we ever knew of in Star Wars, even from the cartoons, is giving a voice over pep talk to Rey.  (It seems cheap too since we don’t see the characters.  Avengers Endgame did this kind of thing far better.)  How about if the pep talk was given to the BOTH of them?  That Anakin Skywalker, the man Ben had idolized, had time to say “wakey-wakey” to his tormentor’s granddaughter and not his own grandson is appalling.  The third thing is while Darth Vader defeated Palpatine with the love for his son and his long-gone wife, Rey defeats Palpatine simply with power.  Rey and Ben’s love for each other could’ve been the force that defeats the Sith once and for all but for some reason it doesn’t occur to Abrams and Terrio.

I could’ve forgiven most of this--the jar of Snickles and all--had they got the resolution right.  But they didn’t.

ROTJ and ROTS’s endings were masterful.  ROTJ gives you an idea of what trajectory our heroes were likely to follow:  Han and Leia were going to end up together, Luke was going to bring forth the next generation of Jedi.  ROTS sets up Obi-Wan on Tatooine, Yoda on Dagobah, Leia on Alderaan, Luke on Tatooine, Darth Vader on a Star Destroyer, and poor Padmé on her way to Star Wars Heaven.  I have no idea what happens to Finn.  Maybe he’ll train with Rey.  Maybe he’ll go to college.  Maybe he’ll backpack through Europe.  I have no idea.  His story just stops.  Same deal with Poe.  Aside from getting shot down by Zorii, what’s he going to do?  The film gives zero indication.  It goes from the Free Hugs session to Rey squatting at the old Lars homestead.

The biggest crimes though occur to Ben and Rey.  Ben’s death sucked all of the air out of the film.  Yes, it’s beautiful that Ben loved Rey so much and so selflessly he was willing to surrender his life for hers.     It’s beautiful that it never mattered to Ben who Rey was, whether it was “nobody” in the last movie or the granddaughter of his tormentor/enemy in this one.  Had the Palpatine concept been there all along, there would’ve been something sweet about healing the rift originating in the prequels.  But I wanted Ben to live.  I wanted for once for someone to address the issue of atonement but Terrio and Abrams were too lazy to bother.   If The Grinch could be redeemed AND find atonement with those he wronged in a 30 minute Christmas special with commercials, then why not Ben Solo in a 150-minute movie?  

I could have lived with a sacrifice arc though had it been handled correctly.  But they flubbed it big time.  The sacrifice isn’t honored at all.  He just dies, he vanishes as Leia’s body vanishes, and he’s “never to be seen again.” Or mentioned.  Rey barely reacts on camera.  It’s as though reviving Ben from certain death, choosing good over evil, making a valiant attempt to save his girlfriend armed only with a blaster, and giving his life for hers weren’t valued by anyone.  The movie didn’t give a damn.  When Vader died in ROTJ, he at least had final words with Luke who then burns Vader’s remains on a pyre.  We see Anakin restored to his true self join the Force Ghost crew at the end of the movie.  We got none of this with Ben.

It’s also the most frustrating and disappointing disruption of a romantic arc since 1980′s “Somewhere In Time.”  In that film, Christopher Reeve travels back to 1912 and finds true love with Jane Seymour.  Everything is going great and Reeve’s character has made the choice to stay in that time and marry Seymour.  Then he pulls out a 1979 penny and is sent “back to the future” as Seymour screams.  At least that film though had the decency to reunite the love birds in the afterlife.  Which might explain why the movie still has a cult following to this day.  Tragic love stories always make sure there’s some kind of catharsis for the audience.  Rose takes Jack’s name, lives her life as he asked her to do for him, tells his story, and reunites with him when she dies.  Romeo and Juliet are united in death and the healing of their respective houses begins.  Even Padmé got a state funeral and had the legacy of her children.  There was no such catharsis for Rey and Ben.

Rey ends up right where she started:  alone and in the desert.  She got the Dorothy ending, there’s no place like home.  But the difference is Dorothy is a child not yet ready for the big scary world and the answers to her problems weren’t out there but right where she was.  Rey is a grown woman.  She should’ve been treated like one.  Instead she is deprived of her lover/soulmate and while such a separation should have been painful, it doesn’t even register.  She has a “found family” but they’re not there with her.  She’s in a home others tried to escape from, haunted by ghosts instead of being among those she loves.  Taking the Skywalker name seems tacked on, as though they realized if the name is to live on somebody needed to take it.  Why not then just have made her Han and Leia’s or Luke’s daughter in the first place?  It’s worse when you remember it’s a Palpatine who’s usurping the name.  Or when you realize she’s still hiding who she is.  

Here’s what would’ve been better.  Rey tells the Resistance about the pure selflessness of the Skywalkers and she wants that to be the core value of the new Jedi going forward, where every new student was going to learn their story.  Then we see her anywhere but Tatooine, happy and surrounded by students of all ages.  Maybe Finn training too.  She sees the approving Force ghosts of Leia, Luke, and Anakin.  Then Ben, clearly a different entity, materializes beside her.

Or something, anything other than what we got.

It’s as though they kept making story decisions without giving any thought at all to their implications.  They tried to do too much while being lazy about it.  They went for expedience--copy pasting ROTJ when convenient--over meaning.

The ending accomplishes what no other Star Wars film has done to me in 42 years of being a fan...it broke my heart and fulfilled my worst suspicions about where the ST was going to end up, largely due to its deflating ending and terrible denouement.  It leaves for me and many other fans a big gaping open wound, not closure.  

Ultimately the sequel trilogy’s biggest flaw is that there clearly was no plan.  What we got was a billion dollar game of exquisite cadaver with no real design for characters, their arcs, the story, or even what message these films are supposed to have.  Every decision was based on the director’s own ideas along with corporate meddling.  So we get conflicting ideas and blatant spackling over what the last director didn’t like. Was Kylo Ren meant to be a guy we love to hate or a lost boy we want to come home?   Was Rey a heroine we can all aspire to be or a lost princess of darkness?  What the hell was the point of Finn or Poe?  What does this add to the saga overall aside from more stuff?  Who are these films even for, old OT fans or young fans?  I believe it’s this lack of a plan that has generated so much confusion and bitter internet wars among fandom.  

#reylo #tros review #spoilers #rey #ben solo #kylo ren #ben solo deserved better #rey deserved better #we all deserved better

[back-and-totheleft]

Romantic, freewheeling, containing fathoms

IT'S early in the piece but maybe the best way to explain the allure of Oliver Stone’s romantic, freewheeling autobiography is to tell you how one of my best friends took on the experience.

My mate, a self-confessed Stone nut, downloaded the audio version of Chasing the Light - as read by the author - and then proceeded to drive around Cork city with the Oscar-winning director and screenwriter for company. “Love how he paints a picture of post-war optimism in New York circa 1945-46,” he messaged me. “Take me there...” Throughout his storied but turbulent career, Stone has certainly taken us places - the steaming jungles of Vietnam, the (serial) killing fields of the American heartland, the fervid political theatre of El Salvador, the grassy knoll. Even if we didn’t always like the destination, more often than not it was worth the journey.

Reading Stone's words in Chasing the Light, it’s impossible not to hear that coffee and cognac voice. The words roll from the page, sentences topped off with little rejoinders, just about maintaining an elegant flow. Drugs are mentioned early and often, while the word “sexy” features half a dozen times in the opening chapters alone. As in his best movies, Stone displays a positively moreish lust for life, at one point referring to how the two parts of the filmmaking process, if working well, are "copulating".

The book tells the story of the first half of his life, up to the acclaim and gongs of Platoon, and it’s clear that his own sense of drama was underscored by his family background, which is part torrid European art flick, part US blockbuster. His mother, Jacqueline - French, unerringly singleminded - grew to womanhood during the Nazi occupation of Paris. She downplayed her striking appearance as the jackboots stomped the streets but quickly scaled the social ladder, becoming engaged to a pony club sort. Enter Louis Stone.

Considerably older than Jacqueline, Louis quickly zoned in after spotting her cycling on a Paris street. In no time Jacqueline has jilted her fiancée (who, remarkably, appears to have turned up as a guest at the wedding), Oliver is conceived and one ocean crossing later, William Oliver Stone is born.

This family contains fathoms, Stone's father straight-laced and Commie-hating on the surface, yet a serial adulterer (even threesomes are mentioned) and positively uxorious towards his own mother. "It was sex, not money, that derailed my father," he writes. Louis's infidelities nixed Jacqueline's American dream, and Oliver’s with it. Jacqueline ultimately cheats on Louis, not simply via a fling but a whole new relationship, and with a family friend to boot.

What’s even more interesting is Stone’s reflections on *how* it was dealt with. Already dispatched to a boarding school, he learns of the disintegration of his family down the phone line. It has the coldness of some of the best scenes from Mad Men, children of the era parceled off to the side even as momentous events in their home life detonate in front of them. As things veer ever more into daytime soap territory, Louis then tells his son he's "broke", echoing the impact of the Great Depression on his own father's business interests.

By now, Stone is unmoored. He has secured a place in Yale but blows it off for a year and heads to Saigon to teach English: "I grew a beard and got as far away from the person I'd been as I could." On his return he decides he is done with academia; he'll be a novelist in New York, much to the distaste of his father. "That's why I went back to Vietnam in the US Infantry - to take part in this war of my generation," he writes. "Let God decide."

And here we are at the pivotal moment in Stone's adult life. Plunged into the strange days of 1968 in the jungle, he recalls a scene in which his patrol group comes under attack, imagining itself surrounded. Time elides and a metre may as well be a mile, explosions going off everywhere and bullets flying amid paranoia and uncertainty that borders on the hallucinogenic. "Full daylight reveals charred bodies, dusty napalm, and gray trees."

Tellingly, Stone focuses on this arguably cinematic episode while other incidents in which he is actually wounded don't receive the same treatment. By the time he leaves Vietnam he has served in three different combat units and has been awarded a bronze star for heroism. So many of his peers were drafted, yet he had decided to go. You never get a direct sense that his subsequent career is in any way a type of atonement, yet it is never fully explained. "Why on earth did you go?" he is asked. "It was a question I couldn't answer glibly."

From this point on, Chasing the Light mainly becomes a love letter to the redemptive power of the cinema, pockmarked with acerbic commentary on Hollywood powerplays. Stone's firsthand experience of jungle combat gives him a sense of perspective that no amount of cocaine or downers can ever truly neutralise, and it also imbues him with a sense of derring-do. At NYU School of Arts, his lecturer is Martin Scorcese, an educational home run. Watching movies is a place a refuge, writing them a cathartic outlet. It leads to visceral filmmaking, beginning with his short film Last Year in Vietnam. That burgeoning sense of career before anything else brings an end to his first marriage - "'comfortable' was the killer word". The seeds are sown for the plot that would germinate into Platoon.

As he moves past the relative disappointment of his first feature, Seizure, the big break of writing Midnight Express, and then onto the speedbump of The Hand, his second movie, Chasing the Light becomes a little more knockabout, though no less enjoyable. Conan the Barbarian, for which he wrote the screenplay, became someone else's substandard vision, Scarface a not entirely pleasant experience as his writing efforts move to the frosty embrace of director Brian de Palma. Hollywood relationships rise and fall like scenes from Robert Altman's The Player. His second marriage, the birth of his son, the slow-motion passing of his father, and all the time Stone is chasing glory on the silver screen.

By his late thirties it feels like he's placing all his chips on Salvador, a brutal depiction of central American civil war based on the scattered recollections of journalist Richard Boyle and starring the combustible talents of James Woods and John Belushi. His own high-wire lifestyle is perhaps best encapsulated in his reference to Elpidia Carrillo, cast as Maria in Salvador: "Elia Kazan once argued against any restrictions for a director exploring personal limits with his actresses, and I wanted badly to get down with her," he writes with delightful candour. Yet ultimately "I convinced myself that repression, in this case, would make a better film." Note: in this case.

Salvador was a slow burner, not an immediate critical or commercial success, but then in the style of a rollover jackpot, it started climbing the charts just as Platoon is about to announce itself to the world. Despite some loopy goings-on, that shoot in the Philippines had never gone down the Apocolypse Now route of near-madness, the drama mainly confined to warring factions within the production team. Ultimately, Platoon was the movie mid-Eighties America wanted to see about Vietnam. The book finishes in triumph, Stone clutching Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture.

There are piercing insights and inconsistencies dotted throughout. Stone lusts after good reviews but rails against the influence wielded by certain writers, such as Pauline Kael. He makes frequent reference to his yearning for truth and factual accuracy, yet hardly raises a quibble with The Deerhunter, the brilliant but flawed movie by sometime ally Michael Cimino which - particularly in the infamous Russian Roulette scenes - delivers an entirely concocted depiction of North Vietnamese forces. But then again, Stone revels in what he says is the ability to "not to have a fixed identity, to be free as a dramatist, elusive, unknown."

We've come to know him more in the decades since - through the menacing Natural Born Killers, the riveting but wonky conspiracy of JFK, the all-star lost classic U-Turn, even the missed opportunity that was The Putin Interviews. As my friend, who is the real authority, correctly observes, Chasing the Light is also weighted with nostalgia for a time when political dramas and anti-war films were smashing the box office, something hard to imagine today.

The second volume, if and when it arrives, will surely make for good reading - or listening. Buckle up your seat belt and take a spin.

-Noel Baker, “Oliver Stone’s freewheeling autobiography tells the story of the first half of his life,” Irish Examiner, Jan 17 2021 [x]

#chasing the light #oliver stone #reviews #book reviews #books #irish examiner

[thefilmsnob]

Glen Coco’s Top 10 films of 2019

2019 was one of the better movie years I’ve experienced. It was no 2007 or 2013--we all know that--but it was pretty damn good. People who say ‘they just make crap nowadays’ probably aren’t really into movies and are definitely out to lunch. Dammit, now I want lunch. Anyway, here are my picks for the ten best films of 2019 which, as always, follow my runners-up and the traditional bonus track...There’s always a bonus track. 

Runners-Up

-Bombshell

-Booksmart Full Review: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/185427895290/booksmart-out-of-5

-Ford v Ferrari

-The Irishman

-Joker Full Review: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/188571262775/joker-out-of-5

-Parasite

-The Peanut Butter Falcon

-The Two Popes

And here are my top 10!

#10b. (Bonus Track) Avengers: Endgame

Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, the rest of Hollywood

Maybe, like some people in the industry, you don’t consider Marvel films to be ‘cinema’. Well, that’s a legitimate and long debate for another time. But, you can’t say that weaving a narrative through 22 related films isn’t an impressive feat. That’s what Marvel Studios did and with the help of the Russo Brothers, and despite the countless moving pieces, they ended this chapter of the franchise almost perfectly with just the right balance of action, human drama, twists, turns and some surprisingly poignant moments. If you didn’t get goosebumps--and maybe even pee your pants a bit--when those portals opened up at the end, bringing to mind Gandolf’s triumphant entrance into the Battle of Helm’s Deep, then maybe movies just aren’t for you, my friend. 

Full Review: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/184694412545/avengers-endgame-out-of-5

#10. Marriage Story

Director: Noah Baumbach

Starring: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson

Ironically, Marriage Story is actually about a divorce. But, writer/director Noah Baumbach imbues this civil-turned-nasty separation with all the complexity and aggravation that come with being married with child. He treats the divorce like the grueling process you’d expect it to be, one which involves real, flawed people whose needs and desires don’t align, making the situation increasingly distressing for all parties involved. In turn, Driver and Johansson make this distress increasingly palpable for the audience until it feels like we’re in the room with them during one of their several heated arguments. Both actors give some of the best work of their careers, yet it still may be overshadowed by Laura Dern and Ray Liotta who shine as the two ruthless lawyers representing them. Baumbach has been churning out these gems for years, but his latest, which may be his most accessible, may also be his best so far. 

#9. Jojo Rabbit

Director: Taika Waititi

Starring: Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson

What do you get when you mix Nazi Germany, the ghost of Hitler and a poor Jewish girl trying to survive the second World War? You get one of the funniest and most touching movies of the year, of course. The surging writer/actor/director Taika Waititi, who specializes in quirky films filled with quirkier characters, hasn’t made the typically grim melodrama about Nazi Germany nor is he doing anything close to promoting Nazi culture. Instead, he uses the tale of a young boy who attends a Hitler Youth training camp to highlight the absurdity of this horrible movement while promoting tolerance. He delivers this powerful message by introducing a young Jewish girl who seeks refuge in the home of Jojo and his mother, played by Scarlett Johansson (who clearly had a good year). This leads to Jojo’s crisis of conscience which is complicated by his imaginary friend...who happens to be Adolf Hitler! Yes, the movie is different.

#8. Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie

It’s no surprise that Quentin Tarantino would make a film about 1960s Hollywood starring one of the most prestigious celebrity trios in the business; the guy’s passion--obsession even--for film is unmatched. Here, he uses the medium to take a horrific moment in history like the murder of Sharon Tate at the hands of the Manson Family and gives it the stereotypical Hollywood happy ending. In doing so, he showcases the wish fulfillment of the movies and their power to comfort us with optimism while simultaneously warning of their ability to shelter us from our cruel reality. DiCaprio and Pitt give brilliant performances as characters who add to the perception-vs-reality theme, DiCaprio playing the huge movie star full of anxiety and doubt in real life who relies heavily on his stunt double, Pitt, who’s the actual confident hero. All this and much more takes place in a meticulously recreated Hollywood of the ‘60s that sweeps you up in nostalgia and immerses you in a world of make-believe.

#7. Knives Out

Director: Rian Johnson

Starring: Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer 

Yes, there have been many murder mysteries. No, Knives Out isn’t just like the rest of them. Writer/director Rian Johnson does a masterful job at crafting a labyrinthine story that’s just complex enough without overwhelming and strikes a perfect balance of suspense and comedy. Featuring one of the greatest casts assembled in 2019 playing a dysfunctional family of despicable yet intriguing individuals of means, the story is full of truly surprising twists and turns and, more crucially, some well-integrated and astute social commentary. This isn’t a two-hour lecture, though; the film is undeniably entertaining. The stand-out here is detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig with a delightful southern drawl and an attention to detail that rivals Sherlock Holmes. Craig transcends his James Bond persona while the film itself transcends a genre. 

#6. 1917

Director: Sam Mendes

Starring: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman

If this were a few years ago 1917 would be, without question, my #1 pick. However, as the long, uncut tracking shot has become more common over the years, it’s also lost a bit of its luster; 2014′s Birdman, one of the best films of the decade, also had the appearance of a single take. Nonetheless, to make a war film, with all its tricky choreography and pyrotechnics, look like one long take is still a phenomenal achievement and an absolute marvel to behold. And, although it obviously couldn’t be filmed in one shot, Sam Mendes and master cinematographer Roger Deakins still had to shoot long takes and stitch them together digitally while stealthily hiding the seams. It all helps tell the story of two young soldiers tasked with traversing treacherous territory to warn a Battalion of British soldiers about an impending German ambush. We follow the pair in real time amidst a story of remarkable bravery, enhanced by the fact that we’re with them every step of the way, at once experiencing everything they do up close while being reminded of how removed we really are from the danger they face.

#5. Uncut Gems

Director: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin Garnett (hey, why not?), Julia Fox

There are several talented actors in Hollywood who’ve gained a bad reputation for poor career choices. Ben Affleck and Will Smith come to mind. Perhaps the king of this group is Adam Sandler. He’s excelled sporadically in movies like Punch-Drunk Love and The Meyerowitz Stories, but he gives a truly Oscar-worthy performance in this--ahem--gem. As Howard Ratner, he’s a gambling addict who runs a jewelry store in New York’s Diamond district when he gets his hands on a rare Ethiopian black opal which he hopes will help pay off his many debts. In fact, he owes so much to so many people that he struggles to keep track of it all and we cringe every time he does. The tension builds to an almost unbearable level as a host of dangerous men seek payment. If that’s not enough, he’s on the verge of a divorce as he continues seeing a mistress who’s also his employee while owing $100 000 to his own criminal brother-in-law. If you were stressed just reading that, try watching the movie...or being Howard himself. The Safdie brothers don’t let up either, filming it like a documentary to add to its realism and immediacy...as if it needed that extra boost.     

#4. The Lighthouse

Director: Robert Eggers

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe

The first thing you notice watching The Lighthouse is that half the screen is missing; Robert Eggers, who also wrote and directed The Witch, shot the film with a 1.19: 1 aspect ratio, making the picture square, like an old-timey photograph. It feels limiting at first until you fully appreciate the feelings of confinement and anxiety it evokes. That’s important in a film about two lighthouse keepers, or wickies, who are forced to live together in insanely grungy and cramped quarters of a lighthouse on a remote island off the coast of New England. Considering the harsh conditions and the fact it’s a horror film, they soon clash and seemingly lose their grip on reality which manifests in macabre images and supernatural occurrences. Or does it? Ha! This is one of the most unique and beautifully filmed movies of the year with the grainy black and white 35mm making it seem like it was made closer to the late 19th century, when the film takes place. Like many recent horror films, this one relies more on mood and imagery than jump scares and is buttressed by only two actors who give award-worthy performances. Alright? So, go to hell; Pattinson can act.

#3. Little Women

Director: Greta Gerwig

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Timothee Chalamet, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern

You might assume that Little Women is a stuffy period piece and even unnecessary considering it’s the seventh adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s iconic 1868 novel, but the prodigious actor-turned-writer-turned-director Greta Gerwig is too adept in her craft to settle for conventional story-telling. She gives this classic story a fresh, modern take with a non-linear approach and a feminist angle that enhances without overwhelming. Like her work on Lady Bird, she keeps scenes brisk and to the point with decisive cuts. She also adds her unique wit and snappy dialogue. Every conversation, no matter how superficial, leaves you enraptured. So, too, do the characters; it’s a pleasure following these complex girls through the ups and downs of their lives as women of little means and even fewer rights. They’re portrayed by a stellar cast, particularly Jo March who’s played by Saoirse Ronan, perhaps our greatest sub-30 actress. This may be a little movie about little women, but the payoffs and sheer enjoyment are truly grand.   

Full Review: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/190231754125/little-women-12-out-of-5

#2. Us

Director: Jordan Peele

Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke 

I know it’s blasphemous, but I might be the only person on Earth who not only thought Get Out was a tad overrated, but that Jordan Peele’s second feature, Us, is the superior picture. It’s easy to look at this film as merely a unique take on the slasher genre, but it’s so much more than that. Like any good horror, it’s creepy as hell, but it’s also brimming with foreshadowing, symbolism and metaphor. There are three or four ideas that Peele sets up at the beginning that seem disconnected to the story, yet they each have a specific purpose and when that becomes evident, it’s incredibly satisfying. Even more impressive is how Peele turns a movie about a vacationing family encountering their doppelgangers into a brilliant commentary on the current state of America, specifically in regards to class division and its relation to the Nature vs Nurture debate. And the movie’s neat twist at the end isn’t just added for shock value; it’s actually the final puzzle piece and essential in conveying the film’s message. I struggled with ranking Us at #1 or #2, but its over-reliance on slasher film action around the mid-point (a minor flaw) was the deciding factor. It’s near-perfect, nonetheless.

Full Film Interpretation: https://thefilmsnob.tumblr.com/post/184073868405/interpreting-jordan-peeles-film-us

#1. Midsommar

Director: Ari Aster

Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter

If there’s one thing for which the 2010s should be known, it’s great horror films, a refreshing development after decades of mediocrity. But, just like movies in general from the ‘New Hollywood’ ‘70s, horror films are more creative and ambitious than they’ve been in ages thanks to a handful of visionary filmmakers. Three out of the top five entries are horror movies and that’s saying something.

Midsommar is a mesmerizing horror film that hearkens back to the 1970s when the genre relied more heavily on atmosphere and pacing and sheer creepiness than on jump scares and gimmicks. It takes one hell of a talented writer/director to make a movie shot almost entirely in daylight feel so utterly sinister, but Ari Aster, who also made the acclaimed Hereditary, does just that with ease. What’s more, the film contains no monsters, nothing supernatural and an astonishingly minimal amount of violence, yet when we do see bits of blood and gore, it’s a complete shock to the system. What Aster does rely on is his mastery of lighting and framing to produce images that are unexpectedly eerie.

This is a movie that starts with a group of anthropology students looking to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime festival at a commune in the Swedish countryside and ends in an unspeakable nightmare. It’s a long and sometimes grueling experience that steadily snowballs into horror, but that slow burn is crucial for this delightfully nerve-wracking series of events. Oh, and it’s also a breakup story...possibly the scariest breakup story of all time. It’s certainly the best film of 2019.     

#2019 films #top 10 of 2019 #movies #movie review

[kali-tmblr]

Why is Penny Back?

"The Greatest Kingdom" caused much of the RWBY fandom to erupt with joy over having Penny back from the scrap heap. Unfortunately this joy was immediately followed by a host of paranoid conspiracy theories about why she came back. I want to examine three popular reasons that I think are bad, and offer up six alternative reasons that I think actually have some credibility.

Let's look at the bad reasons first:

1) To die again. Good writers don't pull the same stunt twice in the same story to the same character. A lot of fans won't put up with writers repeating themselves once within a story, and almost all of them will revolt if they repeat two things in a story. So, even if they ARE going to repeat one thing, they're likely to save it until a lot later, when the stakes are a lot higher and the audience is less likely to revolt, and that one repeat isn't likely to be Penny's death.

2) To be hacked. Penny wasn't hackable in her first iteration, and I think we can safely assume that after a hacking scare Atlas's greatest cyberneticist has made his robot daughter even less hackable now. You'd have an easier time hacking Ironwood's heart monitor. That said, there is a related concern, but we'll get to that later.

3) Fan pressure. As often as this excuse gets thrown up, I have yet to see any credible evidence of fan pressure changing the writing of this show. Nor would outside pressure be necessary, for reasons I will go into later.

Now let's consider six alternative reasons for Penny's return, from least to most likely. The first will examine her physical features, the second and third her role in relation to Team RWBY, the fourth and fifth will look at the reasons for her creation by the Atlesians, and the final one will look at the reasons for her creation by Monty Oum and CRWBY;

1) Heightened senses. The scene in "Black and White" where Penny points out that Blake has cat ears under her bow didn't just convince the remaining members of RWBY that Blake was indeed a Faunus. Indeed, it wasn't necessary for that purpose; they already knew that she was a Faunus. But it also told the audience that Penny has heightened senses. Maybe she has heat sensors that detected the heat signature of Blake's cat ears, maybe something else. We never saw her use those heightened senses again in the first three volumes, but there's no reason she can't use them to reveal something our characters need to know now.

Now let's look at her two potential roles in relation to Team RWBY:

2) Native Child Guide. RWBY is exploring new territory and needs a Native Guide. Jaune and Ren served as the Native Guides on Volume 4, with Qrow serving as an acerbic Native Guide in Volume 5. We already saw in "The Greatest Kingdom" that Weiss may have been too sheltered to serve as a completely reliable Native Guide.

But Penny would not only be a Native Guide but a Native Child Guide. Professional anthropologists love to work with Native Child Guides when studying cultures, for a crucial reason. Children will tell you what's really going on with a combination of bluntness and naivité that no adult can match. Perhaps there is something in the kingdom of Atlas that Team RWBY needs to see through the eyes of a child.

3) Innocent. Also known as the Rookie, the Newbie, or the Audience Identification Figure. The Innocent is the reverse of the Native Child Guide. Instead of giving information to the protagonists that they need to hear, they get information from the protagonists that the audience needs to hear by asking the obvious questions the protagonists already know and may or may not want to admit.

While Penny served briefly as the Innocent in "Black and White", Jaune was the Innocent for most of the Beacon arc. Then he matured out of the role and Oscar served as the Innocent for the Mystral arc. It may be that Penny returns to this role in the Atlas arc.

If so, I will miss Oscar serving as the Innocent, as I think he did it very well. But if he's not serving as the Innocent, that will mean one of two things. Either he is maturing out of that role and into another role, or he is the subject of the questions the Innocent needs to ask. ("Who is that cute boy? Are you dating him?")

But, remember when I said there was a potential problem similar to hacking? Innocents, because of their lack of people knowledge/skills, are especially vulnerable to manipulation. It's not necessary to go through the layers of security to hack Penny if you can straight up manipulate her. That's something to keep in mind.

Now let's examine what Penny's creation tells us about the Kingdom of Atlas. The difference between Penny and the other robots is that Penny has an Aura. Only living beings have an Aura. So where did Penny get her Aura from? There are two possibilities:

4)The Relic of Creation. Most fans are assuming that we'll have to go through the rigamarole of finding the Winter Maiden, escorting her to the portal, etc. etc., but we've already done that story. I highly doubt the Relic of Creation is currently sealed up in it's designer cubbyhole. Ironwood's m.o. is "Resources are meant to be used" so I fully expect to find the Relic in a lab in the middle of Mad Science Mountain with wires sticking out of it. And, given that the Relic of Knowledge is attended by a Blue Fairy, it may be that the Blue Fairy of the Relic of Creation brought Penny/Pinocchio to life and gave her an Aura for Piedro/Gepetto. That would certainly be an awe-inspiring demonstration of the power of that Relic. And if that Relic also has a three uses/century limit on it as well, it might also curtail that Relic's future use in the story.

The secondary evidence for this theory is how panicked Ironwood sounded on the scroll with Ozpin when the Fall of Beacon started. The Grimm invasion didn't scare him, he was panicking over Ozpin finding out about Penny. "Ozpin, the girl, I -- I can explain!" Did you break a promise and use something you weren't supposed to use, Jimmy?

5) Aura Transfer Technology. Ever since we heard Ironwood give his speech about wanting to protect soldiers in "A Minor Hiccup" I have believed that the original concept behind Penny's robot body was to help badly injured soldiers. The fact that Ironwood himself turned out to be a badly injured soldier only reinforced this belief. Then the other shoe dropped when we saw the Aura transfer pods in "Fall". Atlas already had the technology to, as Qrow put it, "Capture it (Aura) and cram it into something else", and not just the Auras of injured soldiers but of magic wielders. It's interesting that Qrow said some THING else and not some ONE else, as if the ultimate goal of the project was to end the confusion over where a Maiden's power went by permanently housing them in robot forms. Later, I wondered if Ironwood wanted to try this with Oz as well, and perhaps even to capture Salem's essence and store it permanently in some kind of containment field. I don't think any of these ideas are especially good, but they do have a distinct mad scientist/control freak vibe that suits the ambiance of Atlas.

At first I thought Penny was Piedro's dead daughter, whose Aura was transferred to a robot as happened in Astroboy. But after Jinn the Blue Fairy of Knowledge showed up I realized that the Blue Fairy of Creation might have simply been able to imbue a robot with Aura as happened in Pinnochio and Pygmalion. On a practical level, it doesn't matter which way it happened. Either way, Penny is proof of concept that robots can successfully contain Auras, and that is an important story beat.

And that brings us to the last and most important reason why Penny came back, the reason why Monty created her in the first place:

6) Androids Are Cool.

RWBY lives and dies by the Rule of Cool. Androids are cool, so, as detailed in the Official Companion, CRWBY made one. Remnant's tech level was about right for them to be starting to tinker with AIs, so why not? It would also allow the writers to explore story beats involving the implications and complications of AIs that they had already examined in other Rooster Teeth productions. Nor is there any need for fans to pressure the writers to bring Penny back when the pressure would be generated by the writers themselves.

All in all, there's a lot of story opportunities that open up with Penny back, and I look forward to exploring them.

[persistenceofmendez]

congestion // solo

Cristina usually felt her anxiety in her stomach, heavy enough to wreck her appetite. She had not previously realized that she carried all of her despair in her chest. The crushing despair was worse- feeling as if she could not breathe when the worst of her feelings took hold. It took so much willpower to get through the day without collapsing in a miserable lump.

The library helped, but only just. Some days she picked up the biggest book in a section and read from cover to cover. Other days (the best days, when she felt like herself and determined to succeed), she took careful notes on a particular topic, trying to see if a lifepath would stick. On days when she did not want to think at all, she brought her laptop and made miserable money doing ad hoc data entry tasks. On rare days, she would give up on being focused and dedicated; stupid viral videos, fiction for children, jokebooks... anything to keep from feeling like a waste of space. The weekends were for the dog and self-help podcasts.

One day, Cristina did not feel like going to the library at all. It took her an entire hour and a half to realize that the tightness in her chest was caused by some sort of illness rather than simply being a fount of misery. She did not want to spread her sickness, and she did not feel like consulting with a medical professional either.

But now she needed to find the Vick’s VapoRub. Apart from assisting in clearing up any chest congestion, Cristina hoped that its powerful stench would prove distracting. But where had she put it? She could not remember the last time that she had used it, and in a sickness-infused haze, started to tear up the master suite to find the stuff. She wished her memory was perfect sometimes, so that she would not have to let herself and everyone else down with any imperfections.

The medicine cabinet proved disappointingly unfruitful, although she did take some cold medicine. She also made note of the nighttime version of this cold medicine in hopes of knocking herself out more easily later on. But no Vick’s were in sight.

Soon after, Cristina nearly got stuck underneath the bed trying to extricate the contents. She remembered to use magic to clear up some of the dust underneath, but forgot that she could retrieve objects without having to physically go underneath. And then the dog thought that the object that she did end up finding (an old-fashioned film canister that Cristina could not remember seeing before) was a new and exciting toy. 

Panicking, Cristina opened up the nearest compartment that she could find, and chucked the canister inside. The little canister made a dull *PLONK* noise when it hit the inside of Kara’s bedside table drawer. This did not sound like a particularly wooden noise, so Cristina leaned in to investigate. Oscar the dog also attempted to see what was going on, but Cristina gently nudged him off of her leg.

Cristina had expected something enlightening when she looked inside, but it was really just a book.

“I don’t know what I expected,” Cristina told the dog, who tilted his head to one side in response.

Scooping up the dog because he was the only reason she bothered to go home in the middle of the day, she continued to peer at the drawer and book. Should she read it? Should she sniff it? Would she be able to sniff it? Why was she suggesting sniffing as a logical course of action? What was even wrong with her brain?

She used her free hand to pick up the book. It had a little dust on it, so Cristina was relieved that she had not decided to sniff the book after all. Curiously, she flipped it open, and was met with something shiny. Oscar barked at it, and Cristina could not interpret whether this was a ‘want to put the shiny object in my mouth’ bark or ‘I know what this is’ bark. She had not actually learned to speak to animals, so Cristina had to investigate for herself.

Her first idea was that this was a magically imbued item/ Her next thought was that Kara had been planning to propose to somebody else that wasn’t her, but that made no sense either.

Cristina closed the book, put it back where she had found it, and closed the drawer. Her chest felt tighter than usual, and she was sure that her illness was not to blame this time. So she cried, and cried, and cried because she was too out of her own head to remember to keep her emotions in check. Feeling and doing were simply too difficult to attempt at the same time.

#p6

[thelondonfilmschool]

“LFS imbued me with a sense of passion and wonder for filmmaking that I’ve carried with me.” - LFS Alumnus Yiannis Manolopoulos

Interview by Sophie McVeigh | Photo by Paul Stephenson

Greek cinematographer Yiannis Manolopoulos graduated from London Film School three years ago and has since forged a flourishing career in the industry, with his work on an LFS graduation film recently selected by the British Society of Cinematographers Emerging Photographers event. We talked to him about life in London, what it takes to be a success in the industry, and what filmmaking has in common with military service …

Sophie McVeigh: Could you tell me a little bit about your background before LFS?

Yiannis Manolopoulos: I’m from Athens and my first degree was in Philosophy and Economics, so it had nothing to do with filmmaking. I always wanted to do filmmaking, but for different reasons I never took that route. After I did my undergrad in York, here in the UK, I went back to Greece and went into the army because it’s mandatory there. Then I did a Masters - I wanted to do filmmaking but for several reasons that didn’t end up being so. I went to NYU and did Project Management, then I went back to Greece and I was working in a publishing house but filmmaking was always eating me away. So there came a point where I realised that I had to do it. I started doing some classes in a school in Greece, I did some directing classes, some cinematography classes, I did some shorts. And then I decided I needed to do it properly. So, I applied to LFS, which is known as one of the best filmmaking schools.

S.M: Was your focus always on cinematography?

Y.M: Yes, from Term 1 really, it was. I was always interested in photography and the visual aspect of storytelling – how to use symbolism, how to use colour and light to tell a story and create emotion. From the beginning I was always geared towards camera and light. I think that just came from films, watching films as a kid, going to the cinema. I was a kid of the 80’s, so I was in the VHS revolution. Besides having cinema on the weekends, my brother and I would rent five or six films and stay in for entire days and watch them back to back. I was always in love with film.

S.M: You graduated in 2014.

Y.M: Officially, yes. I graduated as a cinematographer. I shot my first grad film at the end of the 5th term which was the end of the second year in 2012, but then I kept shooting grad films.

S.M: Everybody needs the cinematographer?

Y.M: Yeah, it’s a good place to be! You have so many directors and people wanted to work with me and I was happy to shoot different things. So, I kept shooting grad films until almost a year and a half later and I submitted a portfolio of many films. I graduated in 2014.

S.M: Was it always your plan to stay in London after you graduated?

Y.M: Not really, I didn’t have that specific goal in mind, it was just learning the craft and doing it, basically. I just wanted to go wherever the projects and the work is. I mean, that’s one of the things that I got from LFS, it’s like a network. Coming out and graduating and being an alumnus, I’ve got people that I keep working with, like directors that were in my term or a few terms above or below, and we do projects together again and again. It tends to gravitate around London and the UK and around the school because of those connections.

S.M: Is there any other reason why you think London is a good place to be for the kind of work you’re doing?

Y.M: It’s also the industry. In Europe I think it’s the biggest and the more voluminous in terms of jobs, job availability and demand.  And the language element, for me, because I speak English and Greek so it’s easy for me to work here versus going to, say, France or somewhere. I’ve been here permanently since 2010, it’s been seven years now.

S.M: Can you tell me about your career since graduation?

Y.M: During the last year of my being at LFS, because I love operating so much and I thought it would be a good development for me as an operator, I did some Steadicam courses and became a Steadicam operator. My career has taken two parallel paths, basically. I work both as a Director of Photography, mostly on drama and I’ve done a few commercials and music videos, and then I work a lot as a Steadicam operator as well. Being a DOP, you are basically responsible for the image of the projects, that being light, camera and frame. So that has a more directorial and over-arching responsibility over the project, and being a Steadicam operator is basically operating on a specific kind of rig, it’s a speciality kind of operating. You would be hired in by other DOPs to do those speciality shots. In terms of career, I’ve been fortunate enough to have that Steadicam angle to be able to keep shooting more and more projects, and then be able to do more passion projects. I want to do drama and my goal is to do features. That way I can be more involved in low-budget or no- budget shorts and keep shooting and developing my craft, and at the same time I’ve got some connections so that I can do more paid projects and commercials. I’m fortunate enough to have some of my work being recognised. I had the Panalux award (Yiannis was the recipient of the LFS 2014 PANALUX award for Cinematography) and this year I’ve been selected to be BAFTA crew. That means you’re part of a network of filmmakers, be that directors, producers, crew, camera crew, sound crew, who collaborate and share knowledge. There are different events and networking events that we attend, there are different kinds of workshops. I’ve been asked to sit in on one-on-one meetings with students and talk to them about cinematography, and also I’ve been in workshops taking advice from seasoned cinematographers. It’s a kind of community to help you move along. It’s been very rewarding so far. And recently I’ve been selected for the BSC Emerging Cinematographers panel, which was a great honour. Actually, it was with a grad film from LFS that I shot, so that’s great. In terms of career I’m inching towards my goal because I’ve been asked to shoot a feature as a DOP at the UK unit of a film called Utopia that shot in Afghanistan and India. I was very fortunate enough to be part of this very good production which got picked by the Afghani government to be submitted for the foreign Oscars submission. And then I’ve also been involved in a few other feature projects as an operator. The most notable would be Notes on Blindness, which is a very nice documentary which was BAFTA nominated, and then it won the Cameraimage Frog for Best Cinematography.

S.M: Does being involved in something that was long-listed for an Oscar open up a lot of opportunities?

Y.M: It’s a good thing to mention, to get your foot in the door and get people to pay more attention. In general, I find that the industry is very saturated. There’s a lot of people doing the same thing and it’s an over-abundance of cinematographers and camera people, and at the same time we also have this culture of distraction and there’s a low focus point. When you get people to see or talk about your work, usually you get 10 or 20 seconds to give your show reel and your website. So, having something like that to put up front and having some awards hopefully gets producers and directors or any future collaborators to pay more attention to what your work is. Hopefully it rises more to the top among the multitude of amazing work that is out there.

S.M: So, in this saturated environment, what advice would you have for a student leaving LFS who wants to be a successful cinematographer?

Y.M: I would say, I mean I think it’s the only way to do it but at the same time it’s kind of counterintuitive advice – if you want to get into an industry you have to have good material. Basically, you have to do good work. That’s the only thing that should matter to you, that you always deliver the best possible result and service. It’s not only about the film being good, it’s also about your attitude on set – how you work with directors and producers, how you behave. That all counts, because, as everybody knows at LFS, it’s long hours, it’s working very closely with people, so it matters, your people management and how you carry yourself on set. Always try and do your best because you’re always remembered by your last project. The industry works in a way where there are no interviews, there is no sending CV’s or going through the normal process that usually gets you a job. The way you get a job is either someone knows you and knows your work, or you get mentioned by someone for your work. The only way for one of those two things to happen is that the last thing you did was really good, so people will remember it. You always have to be at your best. That means, I think, shooting as much as you can. You might aspire to get to a level but you always do work and it never really reaches it – you always feel you’re lacking. That, I think, is the process – you keep shooting and you keep doing it. There’s a great quote by Ira Glass (host and producer of This American Life) that says more or less that. In your creative life there’s a phase where your work never reaches your expectations. And you just need to keep grinding away, and at some point your skill level and the quality of your production will reach your aspirations. So, you just have to keep shooting. I said it’s a bit counterintuitive because that means that you have to get involved with a lot of low-budget or no- money projects which sometimes lead you to compromise, because you have these aspirations but then there’s no budget because it’s an expensive art, filmmaking. There’s no budget for the right equipment, or the right amount of time, the right locations to get everything you need right! So, it’s a kind of push and pull – trying to do good work with no resources and trying to rise to the top so that you can have the resources and do the work that you want to do.

S.M: You’re always relying on someone else’s vision for the project as well.

Y.M: Yes, which in another sense, for me, is the great part about it because I jump from project to project and I get to share different visions and talk with directors that have different ways of thinking and working. And then you translate that through your own filter into a visual language. So, you always find something new. It’s a craft that makes you grow every time because it’s new challenges every time and new ways of approaching things. So, I would say don’t get discouraged and just keep shooting. And it will get better, I hope!

S.M: You’ve worked on a lot of international projects – was that something that was always important to you in terms of sharing different visions, and was that part of your reason for coming to LFS?

Y.M: It’s something I cherish and that I really embrace. I look at a project more favourably if there’s travel and it’s international because you get to see different cultures, different people, different ways of thinking. Different light, which I’ve found is very interesting. I’ve shot in Iran, I’ve shot in Lebanon, in Greece and Italy. The light is different every time, and it’s a great surprise. But that was not the goal, really, and that was not one of my main prerequisites for coming to LFS. My main reason was the interdisciplinary nature of it. Because I came from a non-filmmaking and non-photographic background, I found it very worthwhile that I was able to go through all the steps and assume an editor’s role, a director’s role, a sound person’s role, and understand what the process is throughout. I think that’s made me a better collaborator now because I can understand all the departments and how they work, and I can talk better with everyone. That was the main reason – it was less of a steep learning curve into filmmaking. Although, having said that, it was still very intense coming in and them just throwing everything at you! But it’s great.

S.M: What kind of qualities do you need to do your job?

Y.M: Another nice quote I read on a website, which a gaffer had put up, was that to always have work in filmmaking you have to have two out of three things: be on time, be good at what you do and be fun to work with. So, if you have at least two out of three you’ll always be employed. Filmmaking has the kind of structure that you find in the military – you have this kind of pyramid of responsibility, and it has long hours and this group mentality where everybody works together. And I think punctuality is an important thing to take out it. If you’re always on time and reliable, that’s really good. That’s one thing, the other is be good at what you do – love it, have passion for it and give everything to it. And the third is, I think we mentioned it – 12 hours in a hot studio with everyone, if you’re grumpy or you’re particular … you have to have good people skills and give leeway to relationships so that you’re fun to work with.

S.M: Did your time in the army help you with that?

Y.M: I like to think people skills and punctuality are things I had anyway! (laughs)

S.M: What projects are coming up for you in the near future?

Y.M: At the moment it’s a busy November. I have two short films I’m prepping – one is an LFS graduation film, actually. People from LFS know me and have seen my work and keep coming back, which I’m very fortunate to have. Another is a short film with another director I’ve met. I have a music video which I’m doing Steadicam on. I have a content commercial which I’m DOPing. And then I’m also doing four days on a feature which has some pick-ups – I did some B Camera for a low-budget feature, they’ve done assembly and they need some pick-ups. The original DOP is back in the States where he’s from and can’t come so they asked me to do it. That’s what a busy month looks like. From month to month it really changes. It’s been quite a busy summer but there are months where you could have just one job or a couple of Steadicam dailies, and then a month like this which is kind of crazy.

S.M: Do you find you have to say yes to everything because you don’t know when it’s going to be a quiet month?

Y.M: Not really, for me it always comes down to the content. It starts with the script and the story or what the commercial is, what it’s about and how the treatment is and what we’re going to shoot. I have to be invested somehow in that - either I love the story or the subject matter, or I’m attracted to the vision or find that visually I can give something. If there’s nothing in the material that I can relate to then I can’t really adhere to what I said before and actually make it good. I have to be invested in it. It’s also important to have good working relationships, so if it’s a director or producer that I know I can work well with, that’s also very good. There’s been projects that I’ve turned down because I just couldn’t relate to the material, or sometimes I could relate to it but because the calendar was full I knew that I couldn’t give my best, so I would have to pass.

S.M: If you were to give advice to a student thinking of coming to LFS, why would you recommend the course?

Y.M: I think it’s the infectious culture of passion for film that’s the most important thing. Coming in, we would work very long hours and everything else in my life during those two years was in the back of my mind. The forefront was, “What project are we shooting, how are we doing this?” That’s all in the process of learning, and it leads you to discover new things – technical things, or theoretical things or creative things. And you discover things about yourself while you’re working with others. Being in the space with everyone having this kind of mentality imbued me with a sense of passion and wonder for filmmaking that I think I’ve carried through with me.

You can follow Yiannis’s work at http://www.yiannismanolopoulos.com/.

Yiannis is from Athens, Greece. His first feature film as a Director of Photography, "Utopia", was longlisted for the 88th Academy awards, as the 2016 Afghanistan foreign film submission. He is a member of Bafta Crew as well as a member of the Association of Steadicam Operators. His work was recently selected for the BSC Emerging Cinematographers (https://bscine.com/news?id=227)

#filmmaking #utopia #athens #iran #bsc #cinematography #cinematographer #filmtalent #filmstudies #londonfilmschool #bafta #baftacrew #steadicam #passionforfilm #gaffer #international #academy awards #filmindustry #panalux #emerging photographers

[tediousoscars]

2018

Predict-o-meter: This year: 8/12; Total: 99/119 (83%)

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and friends beyond the binary: It is time once again to set aside our daily woes and discuss all things Oscar.

This year’s class of 8 Best Picture nominees is extremely solid. There are no real clunkers, but, in my mind there are 4 soaringly great films, 3 solidly good films, and one … problematic film that is both great and not so great. We’ll get to that.

But keep in mind that even though I am using my traditional Contenders/Pretenders bifurcation there are no films below that I would recommend you avoid. They are all very good.

- THE CONTENDERS -

Black Panther. The beauty of this film is that it works so well on so many different levels. If you are simply looking for a blockbuster spectacle to munch popcorn to, you will not be disappointed; it totally works on that level. And even though it is the 18th(!) installment in Marvel Studios’ Cinematic Universe of inter-related films, “Black Panther” may be enjoyed on its own in isolation; if you have never seen another Marvel movie (Really? What is WRONG with you?) you won’t feel at all lost. And that is all well and good; I love a good blockbuster as much as the next guy. But that won’t get you Oscar Nominations. For that, we need to dig a little deeper. On the next level down, it’s just a really good movie. Great characters who are well-developed and three-dimensional, a compelling story told with humor and drama in equal measures, gorgeous cinematography and costumes that bring an imagined world to life, and an all-star cast of talented actors who are clearly giving it their all. The heart and soul of “Black Panther” is the fictional land of Wakanda: a central African nation hit with a meteor in the distant past that provided ancient Wakandans with access to vibranium, a near-magical metal that allowed them to develop advanced technology well before the rest of the world. Technology that they used to hide themselves away while developing ever more advanced weapons and transportation, including the technology that turns their tribal King into the titular super-powered protector. And herein lies the central conflict of the film: A Wakandan spy on assignment in Oakland in the 90s becomes disillusioned by the disparity between the safety and comfort that Wakandans enjoy and the degradation and oppression faced by members of the African Diaspora across the globe. When he is taken out by Wakandan authorities he leaves behind a young son who grows up hell-bent on avenging his father, but also determined to complete his father’s mission of using Wakandan technology to uplift all those of African descent. This isn't the standard “Good vs. Evil” we’ve come to expect from superhero movies. It’s a more nuanced “Isolation vs. Engagement” discussion of the best way to allocate scarce resources for the greater good. At its greatest depth “Black Panther” is a thoughtful exploration of themes of racism and oppression, violence and statecraft, retribution and forgiveness that stands up to critical analysis. In interviews with the cast and crew it is obvious that they were very cognizant of the fact that with Wakanda they were essentially creating from whole cloth an African mythology that could play a role comparable to that of Camelot in the Anglo-Saxon imagination. They took this responsibility very seriously and were determined that everything associated with “Black Panther” be of the highest quality. They succeeded spectacularly. No matter how deeply you choose to look at this film you will not be disappointed. It succeeds on every level.

Bohemian Rhapsody. This story of iconic stadium anthem band Queen and their mercurial frontman, Freddy Mercury, was told with the full cooperation of the surviving band members, and one of their conditions was that it not have an R rating. This has led to some consternation and gnashing of teeth over Mercury’s legendary excesses being watered down. But I thought that the device they used was effective: Rather than show the actual debauchery the film focuses on the morning-after detritus. Mercury staggers blinking through a maze of prone bodies and over-turned furniture, empty glasses and bottles scattered hither and yon, cocaine residue coating every horizontal surface. But the film isn’t primarily about Mercury’s rock star life; it’s about the band and how they worked together and became a worldwide sensation despite significant headwinds - watching the label guys turn up their noses at the eponymous song (soon to become one of the most beloved rock songs of all time) is choice. Everything here is well done. The story unfolds naturally, the performances are all solid, and the insight into the inner workings of the band are illuminating. Yes, they have the unavoidable family squabbles, but for the most part it isn’t about ego, it’s about the music. They fight for their own individual interpretations and priorities, but they all share a common vision of what Queen should be, and that is the organizing principle for their conflicts, at least during the band’s formative period. It’s all entertaining and engaging and good, maybe even very good, but it’s just not great. Until, at the very end, a choice is made by the filmmakers that turns on the after-burners and vaults the film into the stratosphere. After an ill-fated attempt at a solo album, a chastened Mercury beseeches the band to get back together for Live Aid, the bi-continental music festival for African famine relief that was the biggest music event of its era. A typical movie would handle this either with a quick montage of the various songs played in the set, or perhaps, one single entire song. But for this film they recreated Queen’s 20-minute Live Aid set in its entirety; note for note, move for move. And they imbue the performance with the knowledge - not known to the general public at the time - that Freddy Mercury had been diagnosed with AIDS (at a time when this was a death sentence). It is breathtaking. Rami Malek is favored to win Best Actor for his turn as Mercury, and this climatic, thrilling set is a big part of the reason why.

The Favourite. This is not your typical costume period piece about palace intrigue. We are used to tropes in which strong, formidable women connive behind the scenes to manipulate the men in power to do what they want. But this is the court of Queen Anne of England (Olivia Colman), so a woman is already in charge. Or she would be if failing health and mental instabilities didn’t prevent her from being effective. Enter Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), childhood friend and sometime lover to the Queen, Sarah rules the roost on behalf of the Queen and does her best to steer the ship of state in the direction that she, and her stalwart Duke of a husband, sees as best. And it is all going swimmingly until Sarah’s cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives impoverished and disgraced by some disastrous antics of her father's. Sarah graciously takes Abigail under her wing out of familial loyalty, but is soon out-maneuvered and her young cousin takes her place at the Queen’s side and in her bed. This is all entertaining enough, but there is a fascinating subtext. Though Sarah does love the Queen, it is her over-arching love of Britain that drives her to seek and wield power. By contrast, Abigail has been rich and she has been poor and she has decided that being rich is better. So all of her machinations are aimed solely at personal gain. The interplay between these three characters - Anne, Sarah, and Abigail - is so intricate and expertly portrayed that all three of the female leads have been nominated for their roles. And it’s not just a question of great acting; the film is visually interesting as well. Typical depictions of royal courts in film are brightly lit to highlight the garish colors of the clothes and tapestries that abound. Here, though, the film is shot using mostly natural light. The relatively muted tones and deep shadows serve to augment the feeling of stealth and intrigue that often accompanies a simple passage through a hallway. Great performances, compelling art direction, and a (nominated) screenplay that crackles with snark, “The Favourite” is an enjoyable romp that manages to provoke a few thoughts along the way.

Green Book. At it’s core “Green Book” is a road movie with a well-trodden premiss: Two characters with nothing in common and a healthy disdain for one another are forced by circumstances to drive across the country, mayhem ensues, and they become fast friends. We’ve seen it a hundred times, but I’m not sure we’ve ever seen it done this well. Dr. Don Shirley was fastidious, refined, educated (the “Dr.” comes from multiple Ph.D.s), erudite, and a virtuoso pianist with unique style and flair. Frank Anthony Vallelonga Sr., better known as Tony Lip, was a guido street-brawler from the Bronx with a strong moral code that didn’t always align perfectly with a strict interpretation of the law. He wasn't in the Mob, but he was certainly Mob-adjacent, and could have been made at the drop of a fedora if he’d chosen to. And they were real people. In the film Tony is hired to be driver/fixer to Dr. Shirley on a 2-month concert tour. And right there you have the makings of a perfectly serviceable buddy road trip movie. But wait, there’s more. Dr. Shirley happens to be Black. And gay. And the tour is through the Deep South. And it’s 1962. This is fraught territory, and there is great potential for the film to slip into awful stereotype or maudlin sentimentality. But the screenplay - written in part by Tony’s son Nick - navigates this minefield with deft courage. Tony evolves from a casual, thoughtless racism to a deep respect for Dr. Shirley, both as a man and as an artist. For his part, Dr. Shirley moves from disdain for Tony’s uncouth nature to grudging respect for his tenacity, loyalty, and unique ability to see through a problem to a solution. And eventually respect turns to affection, which is all very predictable, but as with any good road picture it’s about the journey, not the destination. And this journey is laid out in a thoroughly entertaining, natural, and believable fashion (Nick swears that every event depicted in the film actually happened). This is movie-making at its finest.

- THE MISFIT -

Roma. The problem with this film is that from a technical perspective it is a mind-blowing masterpiece, but from a narrative perspective it’s a little slow and sparse, if I’m feeling generous, and downright boring if I’m not. Director Alfonso Cuarón is a shoo-in to win Best Director for his brilliant technical work here. Shot in large-format digital black and white the film looks crisp and clean throughout. But what is more astonishing is the rich, vibrant world that Cuarón uses as a backdrop for his story, which would otherwise be small and fairly claustrophobic. Brass bands randomly march down side strides, people are shot from cannons, and lavish weddings take place in the background of what would otherwise be simple scenes with a few lines of dialog. This takes a 30-second scene of dialog - for which 6 takes could probably be done in an hour - and turns it potentially into a 3-day budget-busting ordeal because of the logistics of getting 150 people in place and properly lit. And he does this over and over again. It must have directors, cinematographers, and producers dropping their jaws, but none of this effort and virtuosity drives the plot forward one millimeter. The largely autobiographical narrative (one of the young boys presumably represents Cuarón as a child) centers around Cleo, an indigenous domestic working and living in the home of a well-off doctor in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City circa 1970. There is drama as Cleo deals with an unexpected pregnancy and the doctor abandons the family in favor of a young mistress, but the action plays out languidly through a series of “slice of life” vignettes. You learn a lot about the daily routine within the household - putting children to sleep, cleaning up dog poop - but precious little about the inner lives of the characters portrayed. Each year movies are nominated for Best Picture that are not nominated for Best Director. I think a strong case can be made that “Roma” should have reversed this trend. Cuarón’s Best Director nomination is richly deserved, but overall this film is not Best Picture material. It is a movie made for people who make movies. If you are a film student or an aspiring director it is a must-see. But casual movie-goers looking for entertainment should probably look elsewhere.

- THE PRETENDERS -

BlacKkKlansman. “BlacKkKlansman,” like “Green Book,” takes on themes of racism through the recounting of an incredible real-life story. In this case our hero is Ron Stallworth, a young, ambitious detective with the Colorado Springs Police Department. As the Department’s first Black officer, Stallworth is given an assignment to go undercover and attend a campus rally by Kwame Ture, a firebrand leader of the Black Power movement. Finding that he likes undercover work, Stallworth impulsively reaches out to the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with an eye towards infiltrating the group. Over the phone he plays the part of white supremacist to a tee, but when he finagles a face-to-face meeting he quickly realizes that maybe he hasn’t thought this thing through. With the help of fellow detective Phil “Flip” Zimmerman (Adam Driver in a nominated role), Stallworth embarks on a Cyrano de Bergerac-esque escapade in which he talks to the Klan - including Grand Wizard David Duke - over the phone while Flip meets them in person. Director Spike Lee (nominated) has been known for his fireworks around issues of race in the past, but here he adopts an almost journalistic tone, presenting the story without hyperbole and letting the facts speak for themselves. This sounds laudable, but it actually serves to make the film feel a little … bland. Especially when combined with a very muted performance by John David Washington whose Stallworth always feels like he’s just trying to get through this scene before someone realizes he’s not supposed to be on set. Neither of these issues is enough to tilt the picture over into “bad” territory - it’s definitely interesting and entertaining - but they are enough to kick it out of Best Picture territory.

A Star is Born. There seems to have been a pact made with the Old Gods that in each generation the greatest female performer of her time must remake a version of the 1937 film “A Star is Born” starring Janet Gaynor. In 1954 it was Judy Garland, in 1976 it was Barbra Streisand’s turn, now, in 2018, the mantle falls to Lady Gaga, who was nominated for her efforts. By now the story is familiar: established star at the peak of his fame takes a talented ingénue under his wing only to watch her career take off while his crumbles. Bradley Cooper stars, directs, and worked on the screenplay; he was nominated for his portrayal of the gravel-voiced Jackson Maine, and for the screenplay, but not for his direction. Cooper’s Jack is an alcoholic with a troubled past, but is also a talented singer-songwriter and modern-day troubadour. When Gaga’s Ally - whom he plucked from obscurity singing torch songs in a New York City drag bar - starts to achieve success as his wanes, it is not simple jealousy that drives him off the deep end. He objects to the WAY she achieves success. In one of their first conversations Jack tells Ally, “There are lots of people with talent. But having something to say and being able to say it in a way that makes people listen? THAT’s special.” So when Ally starts writing catchy pop songs and performing on stage with backup dancers (à la Lady Gaga) Jack is perturbed, but is characteristically incapable of expressing his concerns without sounding unsupportive. So he bottles up his feelings and turns to the bottle. Both Cooper and Gaga give fantastic performances and there are several numbers that Gaga performs that are transcendent (I see big things for that girl). It’s definitely a solid film, and Gaga’s songs are worth the price of admission, but it just didn’t rise to the level of greatness in my mind.

Vice. There has been a bit of a hot streak of transformative performances portraying real-life political figures. I’m thinking particularly of Daniel Day-Lewis’ Lincoln and Gary Oldman’s Churchill. But in both of those cases the figure in question had pretty much faded from living memory. Not so with Dick Cheney, George W. Bush’s “Vice” President. Christian Bale (nominated) IS Dick Cheney to such an extent that if it weren’t for scenes depicting a young Cheney early in the film I don’t think I would have been able to identify the performer as Bale. It’s astonishing. And Amy Adams (nominated) is nearly as good as wife Lynne Cheney. But there is more to this film than just an epic performance by the leads. Director Adam McKay made his name with screwball comedies like “Anchorman” and “Step Brothers,” which most decidedly did not garner him Oscar nominations. But he turned a corner with 2015’s “The Big Short,” which did. Now he’s back and nominated again with “Vice” and, as with “The Big Short,” though he is swimming through serious waters he has not forgotten his comedic roots. “Vice” is by turns hilarious and infuriating, sometimes both at once. Given the current state of our politics the W era has taken on a warm glow of nostalgia for a time when, even if we didn’t agree with our leaders, we could sleep safe and secure in the knowledge that at least they weren’t actually agents of a foreign government. But “Vice” dredges up some of the seedier behind-the-scenes aspects to remind us that using Executive Privilege to undermine democracy is sadly nothing new. I probably should have liked “Vice” more than I did - Sam Rockwell’s (nominated) turn as W is not to be missed - but for some reason attempts to use the power of the presidency to  subvert the intentions of the Founders just doesn’t seem as quaint and jovial as it once did.

So which SHOULD win?

For me it comes down to “Black Panther” and “Green Book.” Out of a top-to-bottom very strong class these two stand out in my mind as the ones that are really hitting on all cylinders. From direction and cinematography, to acting and art direction, to just straight up story telling, these are the most well-rounded of the bunch. And while I do love me some “Black Panther” (Wakanda forever!) I have to go with “Green Book” for its added layers of emotional resonance.

But which WILL win?

I said above that “Roma” is a movie made for people who make movies. Well … guess who votes for the Oscars? People who make movies. “Green Book” is actually in the running, but appears to be a distant second. I’m going with “Roma,” which would be the first foreign language film in history to win Best Picture.

Best Actress - This appears to be a two-way race between Glenn Close for “The Wife” and Olivia Colman for “The Favourite.” I’m going with Close.

Best Supporting Actress - It appears as though my favorites from “The Favourite” will be shut out, as this seems to be between Regina King for “If Beale Street Could Talk,” and Amy Adams for “Vice.” I’ll take Regina King.

Best Actor - When I saw “Vice” on 12/27/18 I walked out of the theater and tweeted: ‘Bale’s gonna win Best Actor. You heard it here first.’ And I still believe that’s what should happen. And it just might, but now it seems that Rami Malek has the buzz for “Bohemian Rhapsody.” (Did I mention that they shot the epic Live Aid set on THE FIRST DAY OF SHOOTING?) I can’t quibble too much; he was great too. I’m jumping on the Rami Malek bandwagon.

Best Supporting Actor - Mahershala Ali (“Green Book”) will need to clear off some more space on the mantle.

Best Director - Alfonso Cuarón in a runaway. I have no quarrel with this, just with Best Picture.

Best Cinematography - Alfonso Cuarón for “Roma.” See above.

Best Foreign Language Film - This hardly seems fair with “Roma” poised to become the first foreign-language film to actually win Best Picture, but … “Roma.”

Best Animated Feature - “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” Seriously, if you haven’t seen this do yourself a huge favor and check it out.

Best Original Song - “Shallow” from “A Star is Born.” As an added bonus the song actually plays a key role in the plot and is performed in its entirety in the film.

Best Original Screenplay - I am really pulling for “Green Book,” because it’s a great story, but also a great story-behind-the-story, with Tony Lip’s son penning the screenplay. But it looks like “The Favourite” will win.

Best Visual Effects - “Black Panther” is unlikely to win Best Picture, but Marvel should take home an Oscar here for “Avengers: Infinity War.” (Actual winner: “First Man”)

That does it for this year. Until next year keep your popcorn warm and your soda cold.

[downinfront]

“Pirates of the Caribbean” sprints dutifully toward the horizon

For all the theme-park tie-ins, goofy catchphrases and freewheeling action, the Pirates of the Caribbean moves ran pretty dark as far as family-friendly franchises go. Allegiances shifted on a dime, characters were murdered and resurrected as needed, and while the ass-backwards swashbuckling of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) had its yuks, there was always a kind of frantic desire for survival running throughout each of his increasingly improbable adventures. These movies were always a bit deeper, and darker, than they appeared to be, and six years after 2011′s woebegone On Stranger Tides, it’s a fair bet to say there might be treasure found in them yet. But despite an enticing setup, the fifth entry in the series, subtitled Dead Men Tell No Tales, settles mostly for surface trappings and reflections of former glory.

That sounds harsher, perhaps, than it should. On a certain level, it’s hard to knock a Pirates movie at this point for giving you exactly what you paid to see, and Dead Men Tell No Tales offers up a well-crafted remix of the franchise’s greatest hits. Depp slurs and swans as Captain Jack, while Geoffrey Rush (who was always low-key the best thing about this franchise) makes a meal of the magnificent scenery as his frenemy Barbossa. Elsewhere, a famous actor (this time it’s Javier Bardem) is transformed into a CGI monstrosity; a famous rock star (this time it’s Paul McCartney) cameos as a member of Jack’s family; two young lovers played by relative unknowns (this time it’s Brenton Thwaites, late of Gods of Egypt, and Kaya Scodelario from the Maze Runner movies) trade witty banter; and maritime mayhem ensues as all parties pursue a mystical MacGuffin that will oh no I’ve gone cross-eyed. (In Dead Men’s most overt nod to the originals, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley return for about five minutes apiece after sitting out On Stranger Tides, though only one of them gets any lines. You can probably guess who from the trailers.)

If you yearn for a return to the full-bodied adventure of Pirates 1-3, this one is probably for you, which is ironic considering the movie is, on paper, a complete and total effort to take the franchise somewhere new. In the director’s chair, Dead Men Tell No Tales boasts the Oscar-nominated duo of Joachim Rønning and Epsen Sandberg (Kon-Tiki), and they bring with them a sumptuous visual palette that’s unmatched by anything in the franchise. Its central conflict has a much darker setup, too: Not only is Jack penniless and washed-up at the movie’s beginning, this is the first time he’s placed against an enemy he’s actually killed.

That the movie ultimately leans back into what’s tried and true and doesn’t even stick the landing is somewhat deflating, but in fairness, it’s not entirely accurate to say Dead Men Tell No Tales is bad. The first 45 minutes or so are a blast, even. Following the return of Bloom’s Will Turner -- Thwaites plays his grown son and is on a quest to liberate him from a sinister curse -- Rønning and Sandberg stage a preposterously fun sequence wherein Captain Jack absconds with an entire bank, then follow it up with a bench-clearing melee during a botched execution. But things start to sag a bit when the action pivots from Jack to the villainous Captain Salazar (Bardem) who’s vowed revenge on Sparrow after their last encounter left him transformed (though it’s never made clear exactly how) into a waterlogged ghoul.

Bardem himself is tragically underused -- Salazar is a one-note avatar of revenge, though hearing him gargle “Yack Sparrrrrrrow” is a persistent delight -- but the CG department does some serious heavy-lifting here. Bardem’s hair floats in midair like a drowned man’s, bits of bone jut from the back of his head, black ooze seeps from his lips and his crew, who are lovingly photographed being burned alive, are mostly made up of the charred remains. (One guy is just a floating hand.) But for all the energy of Bardem’s performance, the movie never does anything interesting with him, nor does it find a way for the other characters to do anything interesting with him; he is, simply, uninteresting, which is a shame given what Bardem’s done with one-off villain appearances like this.

What the script does do, however, is tee the actors up to do what they do best, and they rise -- sometimes a little too dutifully, but still -- to the call. Truth be told, most of them could play these roles in their sleep, and some of them seem like they are. But it’s not often that the filmmakers can’t find a way to make something work. That’s admirable on the directors’ part, but it also means that the big action finale ends up being as hollow as it is kinetic, a case of the everyone mistaking zany action for satisfying resolution. Which isn’t to say they don’t push hard for it. There’s a death that is, I think, ill-advised, followed by a post-credit sequence teasing a return that holds promise should Part Six materialize, and not one minute of it feels as earned as it should.

You can’t help but feel that this is due to a misreading of the franchise’s appeal by the filmmakers. True, Gore Verbinski caught lightning in a bottle with Depp-as-Sparrow the first Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003, and the irreverence of that performance is what pushed that film into the Oscar conversation. But Verbinski also imbued that movie with an old-school robustness (That score! That scenery! Those cheekbones on Orlando Bloom!) and a genuine respect for his characters. When their fortunes rose and fell, it felt earned, or at least exciting, because the audience knew what they had been through. Dead Men Tell No Tales reads like someone bought the Curse of the Black Pearl DVD, skipped to each of the action scenes, decided to make that movie and fill in the blanks on the fly.

If there’s one thing it absolutely gets right, though, it’s the casting of the lovers. Thwaites and Scodelario crackle with the same kind of chemistry that Bloom and Knightley struck in the original movie, and they quickly become the best thing about this one. That doesn’t seem to be an accident. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales toys with the idea, for the first time, that the pirate’s life is a finite one, and that eventually all the swashbuckling has to come to an end. It seems as though the story is priming us, sometimes explicitly, for a passing of the torch. But of course, Captain Jack Sparrow is once again roaming the seas by the movie’s end, so, like everything else here, it’s an interesting concept that doesn’t get taken nearly far enough.

All of this doesn’t leave you nearly as hopeful for a potential Pirates 6 as the filmmakers would probably like you to be. It certainly doesn’t seem like Pirates can re-capture the old magic like it so explicitly wants to. But at this point, it’s best to follow what has turned out to be Captain Jack’s most prescient pearl of wisdom: Take what you can.

#pirates of the caribbean #pirates of the caribbean: dead men tell no tales #pirates of the caribbean movie review #pirates of the caribbean 5 #pirates of the caribbean: dead men tell no tales movie review #movies #movie review

[mdye]

Whether as James Bond or as Roger Moore, Roger could always be relied upon to help a lady in distress. I treasure a scene he played as he escorted Native American activist Sacheen Littlfeather to the wings of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stage following her appearance apparently to accept (but as it turned out, decline) Marlon Brando’s Best Actor statuette at the 1973 Academy Awards.

It was a bit tense since there had been audience boos, but she had completed her task graciously and courageously. Roger considerately had a reassuring hand at her elbow, but she was steady, having served Brando’s purpose and that of the plight of Native Americans with dignity. I had gone to meet Roger in the stage right wings, near the elevators which rose to the press rooms above.

Roger was long a client of my and my late partner Jerry Pam’s PR firm. A dozen or so members of the PR branch of the Academy watched the show in a holding room and divided up taking the winners and presenters up to the deadline press photo rooms and then to press conference in the electronic media and print press rooms. Because Roger was a client (as were Michael Caine and virtually every actor with a British accent since Jerry was Brit to the bone), this one was mine. As Ms. Littlefeather caught her breath, Roger and I discussed the alternatives and decided that there was no function for him in the press rooms. He and Liv Ullmann were presenters who very expressly had not presented. The Oscar was somewhere else, and his presence with Ms. Littlefeather in photos would only scramble the meaning of this moment in Oscar history. He would head to his seat. And, so, he wished her well in completing her task. Roger really had a way and a smile to put people at their ease.

It was at this moment that fate and Academy’s schedule of events for the evening interceded in the form of a six foot six security guy, who saw two other guys who were about to screw up the Academy’s stated (it was right there on the time-line sheet that he flashed us) plans for the evening. He grabbed my upper arm because I looked suspiciously like the troublemaker and I was pointing Ms. Littlefeather toward that elevator.

Let me explain first that Roger was always a friend in need and a friend indeed. Jerry and I had just started handling Sidney Sheldon’s first novel, “The Naked Face,” because his debut in the book world simply hadn’t taken off like Sidney’s Oscar-winning screenwriting career had. Jerry and I had devised a plan to announce that Roger Moore, the screen’s reigning 007, was acquiring the book for his own production company. “And how much am I acquiring it for?” Roger inquired, not that he didn’t trust us. “Nothing,” Jerry replied, “acquired can be done without any financial obligation.” Roger, with his great sense of why-not?, was game. The beauty of it was that having his first book about to be made by the contemporaneous James Bond gave Sidney a good running start on PR for his second book which turned out to be the biggest worldwide bestseller in decades, “The Other Side of Midnight.” Sidney’s sudden ownership of the bestseller lists put a lot of cred into Roger’s “acquisition” of the now number one author’s prior page-turner. Eventually with all of these positive forces interacting, Roger actually went ahead and made that film. That’s how publicity hustle does make the world go ‘round. Roger did it as nutty favor for two friends, which I suppose he did a lot in his life. Sir Roger and Sir Michael (their knighthoods still to come) co-hosted many crucial charity fund-raisers Guttman & Pam produced. Roger’s ready compassion benefited a lot of people including millions of third world kids he helped in his long and devoted years as UNICEF Ambassador. He did it all with such style and humor, the qualities which imbued and distinguished his Bond. We’re talking a guy with natural grace and lavish humor.

So, getting back to the stage right wings of the Dorothy Chandler, suddenly there’s this not-so-friendly-or-jolly tuxedoed giant challenging our plan to get Brando’s surrogate to and through the high-energy press rooms which lay immediately ahead. “She’s gotta stay here,” this fellow commands. His reason for the gotta is that it is planned that all of the winners will gather on stage at the finale to sing “God Bless America” in a tribute to John Ford. Roger and I explain to him that while it’s true that John Ford is very possibly the greatest director (and arguably most humane) who ever held a megaphone, it is also true that in his films he has probably killed more Native Americans than George Custer. This is not computing for this guy, who is trying to herd us back to the stage. “She’s not an Oscar winner,” Roger emphasizes, “do you see her holding any trophy?” “Yeah, but she made a speech,” the guy insists. “Yes,” Roger says, almost at smile’s end, “and did you HEAR that speech?” “A speech is a speech.” One thing the gods of the stage have is good timing. Suddenly a flat (a piece of scenery) is knocked over somewhere, and our security guy turns to see what the problem is, possibly also needing his alert devotion to duty. Roger gives me a nod, and Ms. Littlefeather and I take off for the elevator. The security guy turns and immediately espies this act of civil disobedience. He makes a move toward the elevator, but Roger... obviously trying to get out of his way... manages to stumble into it. From the elevator, so slow to close, we watch Roger and this guy doing what looks like a samba on the cable-crossed floor. Finally, the guy breaks free and runs toward us yelling, I swear to God, “Where you taking that Indian?” Behind him, as the doors slide slowly shut, we see Roger smiling and giving us a gentle wave of bon voyage.

Bon voyage, Roger.

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[spryfilm]

“Allied” (2016)

War/Thriller/Drama

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis

Featuring: Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Jared Harris, Simon McBurney and Lizzy Caplan

Max Vatan: “Heard a lot about you, saying you were beautiful… and good.”

Marianne Beausejour: “Being good at this kind of work is not very beautiful.”

War films have been a staple of Hollywood for over a hundred years, for the most part they work, they have told stories of pre, ante and post war situations thay have resonance through the ages, whether this is because some have been ‘boys own’ adventures or they delve into why mankind must continually fight for their place in the world is not clear, there a truly a multitude of reasons they are still being made.

This new film from writer/director Robert Zemeckis is a kind of throw back to classic war films with hints of action and thriller genres implicitly available for the audience to enjoy. For many years the director had been heavily involved in the motion capture 3D world of cinema that has led to many breakthroughs in technology. His last two films, “The Walk” (2015) and “Flight” (2012) were dramas heavily imbued with CGI effects – they seemed like an attempt to marry heavy drama with some kind of CGI spectacle. “Flight” was easily the more successful with a modest budget that garnered lead actor Denzel Washington with an Oscar nomination and a worldwide box office gross of US$160 million. “Allied” was not the critical or box office success that he had hoped for, with a much larger budget and decreasing returns for the studio. It’s a shame because this is not a bad movie, just not a great one from a director who still has much to give and create.

The film is initially set in 1942 during World War II, Royal Canadian Air Force intelligence officer Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) travels to Casablanca in Morocco to assassinate the German ambassador. He is partnered with a French Resistance fighter named Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard), who had escaped from France after her resistance group was compromised and killed. The mission goes well and they both escape. Max asks Marianne to come with him to London and be his wife. The two get married, settle down in Hampstead, and have a baby girl named Anna.

A year later, Max learns from the Special Operations Executive that Marianne is suspected of being a German spy, having adopted her identity after the real Marianne was killed in France. In order to test their suspicions, SOE run a ‘blue dye’ operation: Max is ordered to write down a piece of false intelligence at home, where Marianne can find it. If the information is picked up from intercepted German transmissions, Max must personally execute her, or be hanged for treason. Max is told otherwise to act normally.

When a film arrives with a cast that includes Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Jared Harris and Lizzy Caplan is directed by Zemeckis and takes place during World War II there are some pretty high expectations that are in place even before you start to watch the film. The film starts well but hampered by what is, putting it mildly, a pretty formulaic script the film descends into a bit of mess – at one point it wants to be a complex melodrama about spies who really don’t know who to trust and then descends into the most predictable thriller.

There is some chemistry between the leads as they are left to carry the film to it’s bitter end. Pitt seems to be playing the a-typical against authority American who doesn’t trust anyone around him and comes up against the prim and proper English hierarchy- a very played out trope in cinema history that is a bit tiresome to see once again.The supporting cast is great led by the inimitable Jarod Harris, as the officer in charge, who steals scenes like the professional he is. I love seeing him in whatever role he plays – he inhabits them, he also reminds me of a Timothy Spall type, which is the highest compliment I can make. The only casting issue I had was with Lizzy Caplan who seems to be overplaying and overacting her part as Pitt’s sister – I always thought she was a pretty good actress but her part here  seems to be changing my mind.

Now don’t get me wrong this is not a bad film, in fact it is very good which has to be laid at the feet of Robert Zemeckis, someone who has been making films for over five decades and knows how to tell a story as well as where to place the camera for maximum effect. Once again though my feeling is he wants to deliver the maximum bang for his back special effects wise, this he does perhaps too well, taking his eye off the minutiae of the actual story. There were some parts of the film that seemed odd, the so obvious hand double when Pitt is shuffling cards, as well as Cotillard giving birth outside during an air raid. The film is filled with stereotypes, tropes and archetypes so if you don’t mind that or have not seen a film set in England in World War II then this might be the movie for you.

Despite all this I would recommend seeing the film just for a fantastical look at a couple of spies during World War II that have more to hide than they ever let on. If you want to see Pitt really shine in a spy film then re-watch “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (2005), a nice variation and full of great action.

“Allied” is released on DVD and Blu-ray next week.

Brad Pitt plays Max Vatan and Thierry Fremont plays Paul Delamare in Allied from Paramount Pictures.

DVD Review: “Allied” (2016) "Allied" (2016) War/Thriller/Drama Directed by: Robert Zemeckis Featuring: Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Jared Harris, Simon McBurney and Lizzy Caplan…

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