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utilitycaster · 5 months

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What would you say are the CR cast's individual weaknesses? I'm always trying to improve for my own games and also curious to see if I can spot them in the episodes.

Hi anon,

This is super subjective, heavily biased towards my own personal likes and dislikes, etc, so I don't think you should per se use this as your own metric, and also a lot of these are not mechanical but more broadly about structure or acting.

Travis: bias immediately begins here; I think he's one of the strongest actors and one of the strongest people mechanically at the table. He also really knows what he wants and likes to do, which, spoilers, is essentially my biggest criticism of almost anyone else; and I think as part of that he addressed what would have been my biggest criticism in the past (namely, a hesitancy towards emotional roleplay which was present in C1 and was very much part of what he proceeded to push his boundaries on with Fjord and in some ways even more so with Chetney). Anyway I think my current main critique is that I would like to see him play a character who really isn't good with melee/is a full caster and I think he's been more hesitant on that, but also, it's valid to have a strong preference for one type of build so like. he can keep doing what he's doing and I will not be mad.

Marisha: I've talked about this before but I think she really needs to do more involved backstory planning that dives into motivations more, or, failing that, simply have very goal-oriented characters. I think that even when there's been vagueness in the backstories of her other characters (basically everyone but Keyleth) their motivations were enough to carry them through, but this has been a campaign-long struggle for Laudna. I will also admit that I find her acting choices as Laudna specifically to be rather overwrought in a way that doesn't particularly, work for me but I have a really strong personal bias towards naturalistic styles. She's also capable of much subtler work, and both Bee and Patia I think showed that off.

Sam: Kind of a weird in-between situation in comparison to the above. I think Sam knows his sweet spot and capacity for humor and so he rarely goes as dark as say, Oscar Grimm, but he is absolutely killing it already over there. In general I think Sam needs to be more willing to leave his comfort zone and push himself more because he can play it a bit safe. I think he does have a sharp learning curve re: complex mechanics (this is why early FCG was rough) exacerbated by the fact that I think he really tends to assume what he can do is way more limited than it is, and I suspect the much simpler Candela system is working to his favor, but like, he does eventually get there and, should we get a campaign 4, I'm going to tape "BE PATIENT WITH SAM, HE ALWAYS GETS THERE" on my laptop to remind me.

Ashley: Bit like Sam actually! I think she can and should go harder on mechanics (and for the most part has been; I think she underestimates herself a lot), and I also think she needs to make wilder choices. Fearne has been a delight in this regard but I want to echo the cast at one of the recent convention Q&As: please push the red button more, please go absolute as hard as you want. Will say her acting is maybe my favorite in the cast.

Laura: ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO PUSH MORE BIG RED BUTTONS. Like...man. I feel this mindset; I don't really play video games other than stupid phone games but I'm That Person who's like "I only have 100 erasers in Two Dots, I must ration them". But I think she's doing a fantastic job with Imogen and my one criticism would truly be Go Bigger And Weirder And Harder. This is why I mentioned her; she was willing to take such massive risks as Arlo, and I think part of that was because it was a short campaign and she didn't feel that need to hold back but like, please, press buttons and take more risks. Her RP is always stellar though. Like, truly, I think Laura, Ashley, and Travis often appeal to my personal taste in acting choices and themes the most, and I just want Laura and Ashley to make similarly wild choices to Travis sometimes.

Liam: This is 100% purely a very me thing; I find he acts like a stage actor (which he is!) when there is a camera like 10 feet from his face and it can at times be a bit much for me, a person who is annoying re: subtlety. When he hits, he fucking hits though. Vax sometimes got a little overwrought for me but when he went quieter it was top notch; Caleb was fantastic because I think he counteracted this tendency; and there's been a couple moments with Orym I haven't loved but so many that I have. Mechanically he is great and while I'm a noted Rogue Disliker, Wizard/Fighter/Cleric are all flawless and much as I'd like to see him play other classes he is valid for his core four choice.

Taliesin: Here is the thing. I think whereas Laura takes a somewhat hesitant, afraid to let her character die stance, Taliesin does in fact have sort of a parallel issue of taking huge risks and then being very pikachu face when his character does die. Big swing of the pendulum in the other direction. However, Taliesin tends to hit on themes I find fascinating, consistently, and has a truly impressive breadth of mechanical skill. Even when I don't like his characters (only happened once) I absolutely respect what he's doing, and perhaps most importantly, he truly does not care what I or others in the fandom think, which makes me respect him more. Like, you know what? Molly isn't for me, and that's valid! Anyway. I hesitate to suggest more caution bc episodes 3x77-78 were so good and I loved all the wild shit Percy got up to (I also loved Caduceus but he was a much more laid-back character by design) but I do think that lack of caution is his weakness.

Matt: Judging more on the basis of being a DM than a player here just for sheer quantity but I think that his two greatest weaknesses are first, communicating highly specific risks (the main ones being the Iron Shepherds and the Otohan fight; you can't do that in pitched combat my man); and for lack of a better way to put it, I do still think he needed more firmness in the character creation stage of c3 and then looser reins during the campaign itself. I've been thinking about this a lot because I think that when I have frustrations with Aabria's style it's weirdly sort of...needs slightly looser reins but in a totally different way, and like, when Matt needs to loosen up, RP moments fall by the wayside and plot is fine, whereas when Aabria needs to loosen up, RP is still stellar but plot suffers.

#answered #Anonymous #cr tag #cr spoilers #candela spoilers

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secondhandnewsradio · 3 years

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SHN INTERVIEW: Sleep Walking Animals

by Claire Silverman

photo: Ryan Hall

Sleep Walking Animals, the indie-folk alternative rock band from Manchester, England, have just released their self-titled debut EP. Since SHN first interviewed the band at the start of the year, they have released two more singles, started playing live shows again as restrictions opened up, and have announced a co-headlining tour around the UK in October. At their EP launch gig at the Fiddler’s Elbow in Camden on the 20th of September, they performed their new music to a sold out crowd.

CS: Congrats on the EP coming out. When we spoke back in February, you mentioned your plans for the EP, so it’s very exciting that it’s here now. How are you all feeling?

Tom: Like it's about time.

Jack: “Angus’ Fool.” “Wild Folk,” and “Dance Laura Dance” are on the EP, so we started recording this EP in October 2019. So it's been a big process, and the EP is kind of about that process.

Tom: We didn't want to release things until we were happy with everything, because we did record enough songs back in 2019 to go on an EP. But in post [production], we were a little bit concerned that they weren't all up to the standard that we wanted. It was our first time in a studio together as well when we recorded those songs, so we needed to practice, we needed to get together more and get more experienced in the studio. Then we ended up going up to Stockport and using a studio called Green Velvet Studios and we laid down five tracks, three of which are on the EP.

Jack: So, yes, excited.

photo: Ryan Hall

CS: Is there an overarching theme across the EP?

Tom: It feels like it's very much about things that have happened to us in the time it took to put the EP together, and things that have inspired us enough to write about, you know, various introductions to people, to new experiences, illnesses, life events that sparked something within us to try to make a good song out of.

Jack: The whole EP spans across when we started the band in 2018 right up to now, so a lot of the songs are about growth and change. But the songs are about our growth musically as well, which is a nice kind of coincidence.

Tom: “Angus’ Fool” was the first song we ever wrote together, so the EP spans from our first song together to things we were writing in lockdown. So like Jack said it’s a span of two and a half years.

Alex: “Native” was written after we played Farm Fest [this summer].

CS: So now that you have more music out and have started to establish your sound, how did you figure out what genre of music you wanted to make?

Alex: It's funny, you just mentioned “Native” and I think that was the point that pushed us to fatten up the sound a little bit. I mean, the style of the song made us realize that we can push it a little bit more. And we have a few like one recorded songs, which are definitely a lot more rock-y.

Tom: We're inspired by all sorts of different bands as well. And, you hear it said a lot but a lot of great artists steal from other great artists and that's how they become great, so we're taking influences from people that we all listen to. So this is why it's hard whenever anybody asks “so what kind of genre of music do you play?” I can never really answer that because it’s changing all the time.

Jack: But I was saying to Bill the other day, (he's not officially in the band yet but he kind of is. He's the drummer who played with us on Monday) we've never really spoken about what genre we want to write. We didn't speak about influences, particularly.

Tom: We're just going with ideas. We all have our own little pockets of interest that we bring to the table and I think that’s what makes out sound quite unique

Alex: When someone brings something and then all of a sudden there's so many layers on top of it, which are coming from all kinds of different directions. And it's just hard to put your finger on what it actually is. But it's cool and we like it.

photo: Ryan Hall

CS: It seems as though COVID restrictions are kind of mostly lifted here in England. At least, concerts are happening again. What's that been like, through the pandemic till now, and being able to play live shows again?

Tom: It’s been a massive relief, really, it means that we can get out there and get some gigging experience, start playing our stuff live. It's a completely different beast to be in the studio, it’s a completely different skill to have. And the more we do it, the more we’ll improve, and the more people will respond well to our gigs. There is such a massive impact from a live gig that you don't get from sitting down and putting your headphones in and listening to the Spotify track. You get the performance, you get the live engagement with music, and with the people on stage. That's just palpable.

CS: Since you're all performers, you're all actors, how do you think your other stage experience impacts your music?

Jack: That's an interesting one. Because I think the three of us are definitely coming out of acting and want to follow music, solely. Obviously, Tom, you both really well. [Laughter] And Nuwan’s also still following both. It's just something that when we are playing live, and it's going well, and there aren’t any technical issues, that we can just give ourselves completely to that moment. And I think that's easier for someone who has trained to do that, which is kind of what we did at drama school, I guess, to give yourself to the moment,

Tom: Yeah, there are great artists and performers, actors, musicians who haven't haven't gone through a formal training process. I think it's actually more important than training. Personally, I find the two things very different, being onstage as a member of Sleep Walking Animals and being on stage or on screen and being an actor in a role. I think the only similarity for me really, is the fact that when we go on stage as Sleep Walking Animals, I feel myself put on a character. I'm not Tom, I’m whatever else that is.

Jack: John. [Laughter]

Tom: I think we all do that whether we realize it or not. Because we'd be crippled with anxiety and insecurity and all the other horrid things that sort of flood into you when you're onstage performing in any way, you know, those don't happen or they sort of diminish if you put on that guise. So I guess that helps in that sort of transition.

photo: Claire Silverman

CS: You mentioned Farm Fest a bit earlier. What was it and how did it come about? And how was it?

Tom: So Farm Fest is a new, upstart festival that myself and my girlfriend Lottie host and organized. It's on her childhood farm and it's something that Lottie had wanted to do for a long time, to use that land to provide a space for a festival, entertainment, camping. We started it a couple years ago. There was that little bit of time between lockdowns where we got a weird freedom in the summer of 2020 and people felt like it had kind of gone away. Luckily, we all collectively know a bunch of musicians and comedians. It started small and then this year, we did it again. We charged a bit more money for tickets, and we are getting bigger and better. It feels like it's sort of gaining a bit of momentum. And it was the highlight of our year, we got to perform on a mainstage with a great sound set up. For us it was a big crowd to play to who all knew the songs and were singing along. It felt like a real festival, right.

CS: You guys are pretty active on social media, at least on the Sleep Walking Animals account. You guys don't always take things super seriously, which I like. What’s your approach to using social media? What do you think of it?

Jack: I wish we didn't have to. I think we probably all do realize the importance of it because Instagram is pretty much the only way of promoting anything, which is so fucking sad. Yeah. And I thought today, because Joe and I are reading a book about Joy Division and the start of the punk scene stuff, and they didn't even have t-shirts, because they wanted to stick it to the man and that kind of thing. But you just can't do that now. It's just like times have changed and there’s so many bands and so many artists that you have to be on it. Like, it will only be a matter of time before we go on to TikTok.

Tom: As an unsigned band without management or label yet, you know, we're left to do it on our own. Like Jack said, it's our only way of letting people know about our music. We might as well try and enjoy it if we've got to do it.

photo: Ryan Hall

CS: Now that the EP is out, what are your future plans for the band?

Tom: World domination?

Joe: Recording.

Tom: Yeah, more tunes. We've got quite a few unrecorded ones. Keep doing what we're doing, really, following the footsteps of the people and bands and artists who have inspired us. Just keep going with it and see what happens. We're not putting immense amounts of pressure on ourselves. We do it because we love it. We do it because we think our music is worth pursuing. Yeah. Just see where the wind takes us.

CS: And you've got a tour coming up in October.

Jack: Yeah, a UK tour. It’s a co-headlining tour with Polary and My Pet Fauxes. So we're playing in different cities and we're all sharing the headlines slot and supporting each other at the different venues.

Tom: The 17th of October we're playing Leeds at Oporto, then on the 18th at Dublin Castle in London, the 19th we’re in Bristol at Crofters Rights and then the 20th at Night & Day in Manchester.

CS: Good luck for those shows and again, congratulations on releasing your debut EP.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Listen to Sleep Walking Animals’ debut EP here

Follow the band on Instagram Twitter Spotify YouTube

sleepwalkinganimals.com

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nochiquinn · 6 years

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campaign 2 episode 3: the full wizard experience

"show us your mouuuuuth hoooooles"

laura and sam's dice fucking each other over is on brand, honestly

this is starting well

the way these are lit always makes me think they're in front of a green screen even though I know they're not

that whole attack description was in vax voice

"MAKE UP FOR OUR SHORTCOMINGS TALIESIN"

dervish entity

"doesn't make me trust you any more. kinda less, actually."

discord: blood mollydict

he's so shocked

jester is me

hearing them still trying to settle into the voices is great

except travis sounds like a prospector right now

CLICKERS

"I'LL FIGHT YOU IN THE ANUS" travis what

MOLLY DOWN MOLLY DOWN

REZ CANTRIP

"she has a pastry kit"

"I'm THE cleric?!"

"there's no vanilla extract or sprinkles"

throw it in the lake

I'm so glad travis is smart now

hellfart

laura is so fucking cute

no. travis no.

I love taliesin's shirt

"you hop on your mustang" "shelby" traVIS NO

"this is definitely not going to backfire let's go"

"I arrange the bodies like they were having a romantic tryst" me playing skyrim

"she's all about shady shit"

I am very attached to the way caleb says beau's name.

okay I'm a big nerd BUT with the size of that thing and how far it jumps wouldn't it have like. ditches for footprints? just huge impressions where it shoved its weight off?

if you've been awake for less than two hours it's still morning

is this like grog hiding money in the bag of holding

"I shove the book down near my dick where she won't want to go after it" "I'm not afraid of dicks."

"she's not your sister anymore"

can. can jester not read?

"CALEEEEB we're BORED, tell us a STORY"

travis' FACE

"so it's all in the delivery of the seamen, is what you're saying"

"I mosey away"

I have a vague idea that jester can't read. or at least not well.

also laura's hair is really cute

make a roll to metagame

rocks fall from the sky, land only on caleb somehow

"she's eaten him twice"

real friends crowdfund your wizardry

they killed matt game's over

"you look like a princess" GUYS YOU CAN'T DATE IN EVERY GAME

"there's that bullshit again"

"can he tell who did it?" "no" "that's wonderful"

"you can't make me vax again, it won't work"

"playdoh! we've got playdoh!"

caleb, the Smelly Alchemist

I want that in my hair so baaaaad but I can't braaaaid

(I have basically beau's exact hairstyle)

"that's SO offensive"

"fucking anime actors" okay GAARA

"then why were you with the carnival?!" "because I'm WEIRD"

"AS AM I" five people at once: uhhhhhhhhh

"it's a nordic seven"

fuck that guard in particular

me going grocery shopping for my parents

NOAH matt no

"no aerator?" my favorite running joke

marisha's angry noises at her roll

what did sam SAY

tbf nighttime is the only time I would go to the beach

travis' choked little "kentucky"

mirelurks

NERDS

beau startled the witch!

at 12:45 matt really

"that's why we're holding hands?" like you need a reason

DON'T YOU GASLIGHT THAT BABY

light!

CHILDREN AND OLD PEOPLE

"if I move I am dicked"

el toad from hell-o

travis is so happy about having a spell dc

twice in one episode!

"you're a bard? what the fuck?"

I know I've said this before but if the roll matches the AC then it shouldn't count as a hit. it matched the armor class. the armor is performing as intended.

cool clerics don't look at explosions

"I cover caleb's body with mine" I'm not crying you're crying

marisha and travis are becoming my favorite table buddies

he fires it out of the pommel that's so fucking cool

blubberous

IMPS FALL EVERYONE DIES

"GIT"

matt stop fondling talisen's snitch

beau knocks the girl back out

"there's a convention around the imp right now"

caleb, waking up to nott's rescue breaths: put me back

I have three different molly-based emotions right now

1. "thank you, you did the right thing"

2. protecting toya

3. like he's holding a baby

jester don't give nott a panic attack

I can't wait for them to drag the fucking dead fiend back to that poor guy's boat

CUTES

marisha's face at being denied a level up

#critical role #critical role spoilers #spoilers #reaction post #crititag #liveblog

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neglectedrainbow · 7 years

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Olivia Puckett as Zoe Murphy

Here, I’m gonna analyze and describe Olivia Puckett’s performance as Zoe Murphy, and the ways in which it differed from Laura Dreyfuss’s. Enjoy!

First of all, Olivia Puckett is a blessing to us all. I love her so much (have you seen her Instagram stories?!) you all have no idea. She was so sweet, so good.

I’ll start from the beginning. Instantly, right as she entered during “Anybody Have a Map” her differences with Laura Dreyfuss were evident. She slouched in her chair, her foot giggling under the table. Also, with Connor, her dialogue was lighter, in a way. She delivered the “He’s definitely high” line almost jokingly, like she was just this younger sister poking fun at her brother. It wasn’t disapproving and harsh the way Laura’s delivery felt.

Even while they were exchanging “Fuck you’s!” they seemed more like siblings messing around than two extremely damaged teenagers taking out their anger on each other. It honestly felt like a normal sibling relationship. She wasn’t even yelling, and neither was Mike Faist. It wasn’t mean or anything. It was. Good.

Even when she marched off the stage, proclaiming that she’d leave without Connor if he doesn’t spead up, I felt as though she wouldn’t leave without him. Like that was yet another joke. No big deal. Like she’d wait in the driveway for him to come, and maybe give him a bit of a hard time about it all later, but that they’d laugh about it next week or something.

Then, she met Evan. She rushed over to him in the middle of WTAW, and he instantly recoiled, his shoulders turning inwards, his eyes on the ground, his hands twitching. She seemed genuinely concerned. Her voice was low, and she seemed to purposefully stay away from him, almost fearful of scaring him, while simultaneously wanting to be closer.

When she called Connor “a psychopath,” it sounded like she was angry with Connor for pushing Evan, who obviously didn’t deserve anything, but wasn’t disgusted or hateful. She didn’t sound like she hated Connor. Or even really disliked him. Just has a stereotypical teenage sibling relationship that’s a bit edgy.

When she walked away-- “Okay...Jose…” --she turned around and looked back at Evan before leaving, almost fondly. It almost gave me the impression that this crush was requited, and perhaps had been for some time. That Evan’s love for Zoe wasn’t one-sided, that Zoe didn’t grow into liking Evan throughout the musical, but actually, in fact, liked him before it even began.

She entered, again, before “For Forever” and I could see a physical change that occurred in her during the 10 minutes or so she was off-stage. I could almost see her lose Connor, in that entrance. As she noticed Evan’s presence, she didn’t ask “Why is he here” like “Why is this weird kid in our house” but more like “Why is Evan, who I talked to in the hallway a few days ago, here?”

Throughout the dinner before “For Forever,” she did this leg jiggle again. Which was. So fascinating. She had these particular ticks, ones which almost mirrored Evan’s. They seemed like two pieces of the same pie, in their own peculiar way. Simply, if Olivia Puckett announces one day that Zoe Murphy has a minor anxiety disorder, I would believe her in a heartbeat.

When she retorted about good times with Connor, saying that “There were no good times!” she didn’t sound like a possibly abused sibling. She sounded almost angry with herself, as though she was wondering why she didn’t notice something was wrong with Connor, as though she wished she’d tried harder. She didn’t sound like someone who was wronged and was furious, she sounded like someone who was remembering her entire childhood and trying to pinpoint where everything went wrong.

Laura’s Zoe seemed like a young person who suddenly lost control over seemingly everything in her life, someone who was almost drowning. Olivia’s Zoe seemed like a young person who had just temporarily misplaced control, someone who was floating just above the water’s surface.

During “Requiem,” Olivia cried, actually cried, which is something Laura definitely did not do.

The whole “You were not the monster that I knew” thing was much less believable. But the “You’ve given me my brother back. Thank you.” thing at the end of “You Will Be Found” was so. much. more. believable.

I really felt for Olivia’s Zoe. “Requiem” was when I started crying fully during this performance, rather than during “You Will Be Found” (which normally what gets me). I felt her loss so deeply and profoundly, like she was taking the whole audience on this journey with her.

She truly seemed to mourn Connor, to have loved her brother. She seemed so devastated during “If I Could Tell Her” that she never got to tell Connor what she thought.

It was just a different kind of loss.

As well, her relationship with Evan was so vastly different. She seemed to be more interested in him specifically and less interested in his connection with her brother. At the end of “You Will Be Found” when she kissed Evan the second time, she kept a hand on his when he pulled away. When he kissed her back, she wrapped her arms around him and like hug-kissed him. In the boot, with Laura Dreyfuss, Evan leaned Zoe into her back on the bed.

The opposite happened here, with Zoe really taking control of their kissing, pushing Evan into the bed.

Also, during “Only Us” she put a hand on either side of Evan’s face and held him so softly when she sang “We can’t compete with all that” rather than motioning with one hand (see: Laura and Ben’s performance of “Only Us” on Seth Meyers). There was a part where she sat on Evan’s bed and Evan kneeled before her, and she held both of his hands between hers.

They held hands whenever they were together after that, honestly. During “Only Us,” Zoe normally kisses Evan once, at the very end of the song. Here, Olivia kissed Ben three (3) times. Twice while singing and once at the end of the song.

I cannot over-exaggerate the softness in her eyes when she looked at him. In all honestly, y’all, I felt myself really loving their relationship, which isn’t something I did beforehand.

With Laura’s Zoe, I never would recommend Zoe and Evan being together for their own health. With Olivia’s Zoe, if they had met under different circumstances, if Evan hadn’t lied, I firmly believe that they could’ve had a healthy and happy relationship.

And the kegger skit!!! OMG!! She did the same dorky voice that Evan did with “til your mom gets home” when she said “in three hours!!” and they laughed. They laughed a lot.

It was so interesting to see almost Ben’s reactions as an actor to what Olivia was giving him. This was only the second time they’d ever done the show together in those characters, and it must’ve been so unusual to what he had been doing for the past hundred or so performances.

Zoe was so sweet? And? So strong? And never once mean to Evan? With Olivia, the whole “you don’t have to keep saying sorry….I was a little impressed, you ruined it” thing wasn’t as weird? It didn’t feel uncomfortable. It felt like: Zoe liked soft Evan, who apologizes all the time, she just wanted him to be comfortable enough around her to not feel like he had to apologize, rather than wanting him to change.

She felt like a young girl, who had suffered an immense loss, who was coping as best as she possibly could. She wasn’t some semi-popular girl who Evan liked purely because he thought she was hot (neither, of course, is Laura’s Zoe, or any form of Zoe, in fact). She was a multi-dimensional person who existed in her own right outside of anyone else. There was no room to see her as anyone else.

When she found out about Evan’s lie, it was almost more devastating.

I would have believed her if she had said she loved Evan.

Laura’s Zoe was angry and possibly depressed. She was desperate to grab a hold onto anything in her life, her life which was quickly spiraling out of control before her eyes. There, Evan seemed like the perfect person to grab onto, someone that was malleable and almost willing to be controlled.

Olivia’s Zoe felt in-control, like she knew what she was doing and knew where she would be in ten years, she just wasn’t there quite yet.

She obviously loved Connor and was mourning his death, but there didn’t seem to be as much guilt involved.

In her final scene, where she met Evan at the orchard, she, like Evan, seemed to have also gone through a metamorphosis. She seemed to have grown so much, and she held her head higher, too, just like Evan. To me, Zoe is a lead character, sharing the female lead title with Heidi Hansen, rather than a supporting character.

I love Laura Dreyfuss with my entire heart and soul, and her Zoe was a very particular character as well. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact differences between her Zoe and Olivia’s Zoe, because they are both truly incredible. Both woman are powerhouses of whom I will forever be in awe. Both portrayals make Zoe a fascinating, dynamic, complex, female character, one that is much, much more than a love interest or plot point. She, in some aspects, feels like the beating heart of the show. It’s hard to put my connection with her into words.

Again, like I said with Michael Lee Brown’s Jared vs. Will Roland’s Jared, neither performance was better. Both are heart-wrenching and powerful and conveyed a message to the audience, reached out and grabbed our hearts in their hands. Both are incredible. Just very, very different.

Essentially, Olivia Puckett’s performance was incredible. Unbelievable actually. Any desire to not want to see the understudies is pointless and wrong, let me tell you. This entire cast and entire crew are the most talented people I’ve ever seen.

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wbwest · 7 years

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New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/07/14/west-week-ever-pop-culture-review-71417/

West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 7/14/17

So, I saw Spider-Man: Homecoming. Unlike most of you, I didn’t love it. I really liked it, but didn’t love it. Part of the issue stems from the legacy of Spider-Man films. I kinda hate how every star has delivered a great performance as Spider-Man, yet the minute the roll is recast, fans with short memories start saying the last guy was “shit”. People love ragging on Tobey Maguire, especially after Spider-Man 3, but he was really good in those first two movies. There’s a Spider-Man for every generation, and he was the Spider-Man we needed in 2002. Sure, he wouldn’t work so well now, but to compare his movies to Homecoming is basically apples to oranges. I also kinda hate when people say “They finally got Spider-Man right!” Um, Tobey already got him right. Andrew Garfield, in his own way, got him right. And Holland is getting him right. For now. They’ve all brought something special and unique to the table, and I think it’s unfair to discount that because there’s some new, shiny thing to take your attention.

All that’s to say that I liked Homecoming, but it didn’t really offer anything new to me. I felt the same wide-eyed wonder seeing Holland do the ferry rescue as I did when Maguire did the same thing with the train in Spider-Man 2. Some might call that an homage, but it just felt…familiar.

What did I love? I loved Tony being there. I felt like there was just enough Tony Stark without the film becoming Iron Man 3.5. It’s always good to see Happy, and this movie did more with him than most of the Iron Man films ever did. I especially love movie Happy since comic Happy is no longer with us (sad trombone). I loved sexy, younger Aunt May, but I’ve loved Marisa Tomei ever since she filled out her college application wrong and ended up at that Black college. I loved the running joke of all the guys commenting on how hot she was. It’s a new concept for May, but it works. I loved the Miles Morales Easter egg (I won’t spoil it here if you didn’t catch it). I loved Not-Ganke (For those not in the know, Ganke is the name of Miles Morales Spider-Man’s best friend, who looks EXACTLY like actor Jacob Batalon), even if I don’t know why they insisted on calling him “Ned Leeds”. I loved that Damage Control was officially revealed. Keaton was great, even if he’s not an Adrian Toomes that I recognize. The Liz Allen swerve was cool, ’cause I really didn’t see that coming.

OK, now for the things I didn’t like. They introduced a good swath of Spidey’s rogue (Mac Gargan, Shocker), all at once as Vulture’s gang, only to be relegated to ancillary characters and henchmen. I know the MCU has a “Villain Problem” of wasting their villains, but this just takes the cake.

Now, this is gonna sound stupid, but I spent a good amount of time trying to reconcile the MCU timeline in my head. The movie starts immediately after Avengers, jumps 8 years to Captain America: Civil War, and then to the present day, which is shortly after the airport battle where Spidey debuted. Now, a big part of Act 3 is the fact that Vulture wants to steal a bunch of Avengers/Stark Tech on Moving Day – when everything was being moved from Avengers Tower to the upstate facility. Now, Tony’s rich, so it’s not like he can’t own multiple properties, but why is Moving Day happening NOW? I mean, the upstate facility debuted at the end of Age of Ultron, we saw it again in Ant-Man, and everyone seemed to be pretty moved in by Civil War. So, why the delay in moving everything up there? Does Homecoming maybe not take place when we think it does? Well, we know it’s post-Civil War because Cap’s hilariously referred to as a war criminal by gym teacher Hannibal Buress. If it were just a thrown away reference, I wouldn’t care, but the whole final action piece is based on this Moving Day concept. Anyway, I think it’s fair to say I probably wasn’t in the right headspace for this movie if that’s where my brain was going.

Oh, and the thing I hated most: that effing MJ reveal! First of all, it accomplished nothing. It was corny, and it was executed just as poorly as when The Dark Knight Rises did it. Secondly, at the end of the day, her name is MICHELLE, not MARY. You can call her “MJ”, but that does not make her Mary Jane. And to be honest, the movie would’ve been fine without her character. While she was funny, it seems like she was woven into the movie solely to make that hamfisted name reveal at the end.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll watch this movie a bunch more once it hits the premium channels, but I just didn’t fall in love with it as much as a lot of you did. I’m really sorry about that, too, ’cause I really wanted to love it. Something just didn’t work for me entirely, and I can’t put my finger on it exactly.

Things were heating up in the news world this week. Back when NBC announced they had hired Megyn Kelly from Fox News, Today co-anchor Tamron Hall abruptly quit, reportedly because her contract was about to expire. Industry insiders, however, believe it was because it was rumored that Kelly would be given the third hour of Today – where Hall was currently the co-anchor of Today’s Take. Well, that’s somewhat true, as this week it was revealed that Kelly’s show will premiere September 25th, and will feature a live studio audience, like a traditional talk show. It will, in fact, occupy the third hour of Today, sandwiched between the regular Today and the Kathie Lee & Hoda hour of Today. Not to be outdone, it was also announced that Tamron Hall is developing a daytime talk show with Weinstein Television. It’s also believed that, in several major markets, this talk show will go head to head with Kelly’s daytime show. Now the race is on to see which one of them earns the coveted “Fake News” label first!

In other television news, CBS announced an upcoming animated special called Michael Jackson’s Halloween, which sounds kinda sketchy. Apparently, it’s about two Millennials (there’s THAT buzzword), which is basically to say “two shits too young to appreciate the King of Pop’s music”. Anyway, they meet at a party, end up at a weird hotel, and crazy stuff happens – all capped off by a dance number by an animated Michael. If you ask me, he already contributed his greatest gift to the Halloween industry: “Thriller”! Unless this is just a one-hour animated version of “Thriller”, I don’t think the world needs this. Somebody tell his mama to stop letting his estate make crap like this.

Things You Might Have Missed This Week

John Cho joins Fox’s The Exorcist next season. While some are all, “Yay, representation!”, I’m like “Why the F is Sulu doing television?!” Well, I guess since Kumar’s already doing television…

In a move that’s somewhat baffling to me, Lucy Liu will direct the season 2 premiere of Netflix’s Luke Cage

Speaking of Netflix, Bojack Horseman season 4 will premiere on September 8th.

Fresh of the Boat dad Randall Park has been cast as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jimmy Woo in Ant-Man & The Wasp

Netflix has also renewed the Castlevania animated series for a second season

Jeremy Renner essentially broke both arms while filming the movie Tag, though it’s not expected to affect production on Avengers: Infinity War.

Smallville‘s Lois Lane, Erica Durance, is taking over the role of Alura from Laura Benanti on Supergirl.

Despite flopping in North America, the Baywatch film is on track to make $100 million overseas

Showtime is planning a sequel to the hit lesbian series The L Word. If it were up to me, it’d be called The K Word, and it would be about non-binary gender Millennials as they make their way through NYC, but nobody pays me for these ideas, so…

After 27 years of voicing Kermit the Frog, it was revealed that Steve Whitmire was fired back in October, and it currently lobbying to get his job back. Apparently, it’s not east being Steve.

In probably the biggest TV news this week (at least for the geek set), it was announced that AT&T Lily herself, Milana Vayntrub, has been cast as Squirrel Girl in Marvel’s New Warriors on Freeform. I cared NOTHING about this show until that announcement. It still doesn’t really inspire any confidence for me, as I don’t know if the superhero comedy genre works on television (see Powerless), but I’m definitely more inclined to check it out than I had been prior to the announcement. I mean, who doesn’t love that chick?! I love her in the commercials, I loved her in Other Space, and I even loved her as a bitchy ex-girlfriend in Love. Here’s hoping this leads to the big break she deserves. It was a slow entertainment news week so, ya know what, Milana Vayntrub had the Breas…I mean West Week Ever.

#Batman #DC #Marvel #Movies #Music #Politics #Pop #Race #Star Trek #Television #West Week Ever

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furederiko · 7 years

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He's your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man...

I initially thought I would not get a chance to see this at the theatres. So I felt somewhat lucky that I've been fortunate enough to see it yesterday, on the first viewing, of its premiere day(although I had to skip the 3D due to the ticket price)! Unfortunately, it wasn't that good of an experience, unpleasant even. I mean, that's what I got when I pre-ordered a ticket late in the game: I had to sit really close to the giant screen. I'm feeling the result now... exhausted watery eyes and stiff neck. Also, it's currently still school holiday, so I was seated between teenagers and kids who... either couldn't stop chomping food loudly, kept asking questions throughout the movie, or... just didn't have proper ethiquette towards older people. Gosh, that awkward moment made me feel really 'old' and 'out of place'. Thankfully, the movie itself was the complete opposite to that annoying real life situation. So in a way, well worth the patience I had to endure during the screening. Okay, enough chit-chat, let's get to the review now!

NOTE: This is a spoiler-free review. At the very least, it was written with that thought and intention in mind. So there's still a possibility that it contains some implicit spoilers. With that said, feel free to proceed cautiously, okay! *wink*

They should've called this SPECTACULAR Spider-Man. Seriously. Because it's indeed one! A movie that felt small and stand-alone, but firmly incorporated the titular character VERY nicely in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Afterall, that's what 'Homecoming' is all about, right? The movie began following the aftermath of 2012's "The Avengers", it then picked up right in the middle of last year's "Captain America: Civil War" for a brief minutes (featuring some fantastic larger-than-life cameos), before it became its own thing following the conclusion of that amazing Berlin Airport scene. And then several months later...

There's an honest good reason why Marvel Studios appointed Tom Holland as the new Peter Parker. And that's because it's going to be extremely hard to picture anyone else but him to embody both Peter and Spider-Man after seeing this movie. As proven over and over again with their movies, the studio certainly isn't messing around when it comes to casting. Holland IS Peter (not to mention a striking resemblance to young Stan Lee), and that's just one of the key ingredients that made this movie so captivating. There's an earnest youth-innocence exuberating from this version. An excitement that we haven't seen in both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's version. Not saying both were bad (theirs got pushed to adulthood too soon, I say, thanks to the actors being much older), but this one got the personality of comic book Peter in the most perfect way. Also, have I mentioned that Holland is HOT? He's so easy on the eyes, that I wouldn't doubt his Peter would make anyone (men or women, young or old) swoon. Assuming I got my memory right, I think he and his six-pack were the lenghties shirtless fan-service scene of all MCU movies so far. Thank goodness the actor's 21 years old now, otherwise that sentiment would sound really inappropriate. Pheew!

He's Peter in the most charming and geekiest way. Smart, sweet, sometimes overwhelmingly curious, but also an underdog who is ridiculed at school. Who once again reminded you, that hey, nerds CAN be true heroes too! Yes, that's the best of all! Just like the deepest inner desire that some of us shared, he's just THAT eager to become a hero. He's a dreamer, who looked up to the Avengers, and wanted to do good to be among their ranks. But being 15 years old, a student in a high school, things weren't as easy as one might think. When he has classes and after school programmes, would he even have time to be a crime fighting hero? One that placed his life on the line numerous time, while deep inside, still struggling with the sensibilities and struggles of growing up? That's what this movie succeeded to explore, making it feel... 'different' to the previous MCU movies.

The supporting characters, were also fantastic. Marisa Tomei's May Parker, was more of a sexy older sister than an elderly aunty. It's a modern change that felt just right for her, especially in this era of feminism. But as always, she was also Peter's emotional anchor. Particularly in one scene that... well, I'm not spoiling anything, but let's just say, had Holland showcased his specialty in moving dramatic performance. Those who had seen "The Impossible" would know, that Holland could really made it possible. On the other side of the table, Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark played out as the kind of mentor, big brother, or surrogate father that Peter aspired to. Peter tried so hard to please his good side, and in a way, that's one of his focus in this movie. That's why his presence could be felt looming around the background. Contrary to what people assumed though, Tony wasn't in the movie that much. It was Jon Favreau's Happy Hogan who actually spent more screentime and connection with Peter. So nope, before you accuse Stark of stealing another character's movie, that's not the case. He had just about right amount of screen time, and the movie was wholly Peter's from start to end.

Jacob Batalon's Ned was a charming chubby sidekick. He's as excited as Peter, and shared a sweet chemistry with him that would make you wish you're their best friend too. Not trying to sound racist, but it's nice that we're getting another support character that's not black. I mean, that's certainly a pattern in the first two Phase of the MCU, right? Laura Harrier's Liz was the love interest, who as always, ended up becoming a damsel in distress at some point in the movie. Zendaya's Michelle on the other hand, was the weird girl who's out and about, and seemed to be tailing Peter for... unknown personal reason. She didn't have much to do, but likely because she's being set up for expanded involvement in the sequel(s). Tony Revolori's Flash was Pete's bully, but not in the way you think. He's a modern-type 'hater' who harrassed people with words and attitude, and not through muscle. And then there were other minor characters, filling up the school as either students (Abraham Attah, Tiffany Espensen, Michael Barbieri, etc) or teachers (Martin Starr, Selenis Leyva, Hannibal Buress, Kenneth Choi, etc), building up a truly diverse looking environment. It might feel like a crowded cast, but really, most of them only had small participation in this movie. But you know what I really love about the portrayal of this high school? That in a technology-based MCU, science IS the cool thing. For crying out loud, even the cool kids were the smart achiever ones, and the Academic Decathlon's its MVP! Unlike the typical high schools we saw in various TV shows (filled with actors sometimes too old to be students), this one personally felt more at home. Looking familiarly similar to the place I've went to all those years ago, it sure didn't take a while before nostalgia slowly kicked in.

One might argue that the villains weren't really 'that threatening' here. Particularly the Shockers: Logan Marshall-Green's Jackson Brice and/or Bokeem Woodbine's Herman Schultz. They felt like lower-tier 'bad guys', especially when compared to say... Ultron, or Loki, with their global-level annihilation ambitions. Nevertheless, Michael Keaton's Adrian Toomes was a truly intimidating antagonist, who would conquer the scene with his chilling presence. He firmly sit as one of the best MCU antagonist we got so far, just NOT the way you might think. In a strangely relatable way, situation somehow forced him to be one, placing him on the other side of the law. Not just him, but his crew as well, because most of them couldn't even be considered 'evil'. There's a moral ambiguity of why Toomes did what he did, an amazing angle that made him different to previous bad guys. You'll particularly see about this during the third arc. I sure would love to see more of him in the future, but Keaton's only contracted for one movie so far. Beside, without being too oblivious, there's a high possiblity that Michael Mando's character will be taking that spotlight in the sequel. Likely alongside Michael Chernus' Phineas Mason, who was the technical-brain of the Vulture.

Thanks to these antagonists, the action-pieces, while making such grandiose spectacles as usual, felt different this time around. It was intense, nervewracking, and many other emotions I couldn't describe. Surprisingly, it put me on the edge of my seat most of the time, due to how personal and sometimes intimate they were. There's a desperation in these scenes that made my heart racing, a sensation that strangely reminded me of that last battle on "Civil War". Perhaps because this Spider-Man is young, and that he made honest mistakes that led him into trouble instead? Or because his life and those around him was truly put in jeopardy every single time, as if jumping straight into a tank full of sharks? A real sense of danger? I couldn't tell. One thing for sure, you might think you've seen it all from the trailers (which are still best avoided, IMHO), but there's way more to that. I can assure you, the complete sequences were still unexpected and shocking to watch.

In the end, just like James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" that arrived three months ago, the sensation of "Spider-Man: Homecoming" was a little difficult to properly describe. Both movies had some jokes and humors that didn't land with the audience I was with, but mostly because they were lost in translation. "Vol. 2" felt personal to me, but "Homecoming" also felt relatable in many ways. It's all kinds of emotions, a roller-coaster as one would expect from an MCU movie. And this movie was a down-to-earth adventure for the web slinger, that's still loaded with plenty of surprises one after another, big or small. It even saved one really GOOD one at the closing minutes of the movie!

Devoted Marvel fans will be thrilled with how Spider-Man is perfectly captured, while gleefully scavenging those many easter eggs sprinkled throughout the movie. Ones that connected to the larger MCU, or those teasing what might be coming ahead (Angourie Rice's Betty Brant and Donald Glover's Aaron Davis, to name a few). Meanwhile, general audience will be delighted to see this, as a genuine high school movie disguised as a superhero one. A coming-of-age movie, where its lead character learns to deal with the challenges of being young, his lack of experience, responsibilities of being a hero, and the cost of trying to do good. As shown by Peter's powerful decisions in several key scenes of the third arc, it's also a movie that reminded its young (both by age or at heart) viewers to never lose sight of what's important: kindness and compassion. All I can tell is, that director Jon Watts truly nailed this movie, and now I can't wait to see him progressing with the same 'everyday hero' magic in the upcoming sequel (set for 2019).

The collaboration between Marvel Studios and SONY to include Peter Parker in the MCU was like a dream come true to Marvel fans. More than that, it truly has been proven to be THE right decision. Here's hoping they will further extend this wonderful deal to the future, because I honestly feel, Spider-Man is where he's supposed to be. HOME...

Overall Score: 8,5 out of 10 PS: It's common sense for an MCU movie, that there will be post-credit scenes. And as publicly reported, this movie had two, with one of them teasing for the sequel. That second one, though?! Dang it... it's a sweet 'cap off' that will leave you smiling as you walk out of the theatres. Seriously, don't miss out on that! LOL.

This review had gone through minor adjustments and corrections to make some points clearer on July 6th, 2017, 09:10AM (local time).

#movie #marvel #Marvel Studios #spider-man #Spider-Man: Homecoming #review #awesome #melancholymoments

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movietvtechgeeks · 7 years

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Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/wind-river-mudbound-hero-shine-day-3-2017-sundance-film-festival/

'Wind River,' 'Mudbound,' 'Hero' shine for Day 3 2017 Sundance Film Festival

Day 3 of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival saw some buyer action as Netflix scooped up the Jeff Orlowski, Chasing Coral documentary which looks at the state of the world’s coral reefs. This was the filmmakers follow-up to Chasing Ice, which looked at the melting ice caps. Chasing Coral had a lot of interest and bidders but Netflix made it’s second purchase this year being the highest bidder.

Wind River made news before the festival began after the Weinstein Company decided not to distribute it making worldwide rights go up. It was easily one of Jeremy Renner’s best films, but it still hasn’t been picked up yet.

Mudbound

For the second time in her rising career, director Dee Rees brought the house down at an Eccles Theatre premiere. Following her debut feature, Pariah, which played opening night in 2011, she came back with a primetime Saturday night bow of Mudbound, an ambitious but assured film about two families living uneasily on the same Mississippi farm during the tumultuous 1940s. The Jackson family works tirelessly and thanklessly as sharecroppers on land owned by the McAllans, Memphis transplants who struggle to adjust to the hardships of rural life. When World War II breaks out, one young man from each family leaves for an extended period of time, and then they both return as changed people to a culture of racism and degradation that hasn’t changed at all.

Suitable for a film that offers six distinct points of view, the post-screening Q&A allowed the cast and crew to describe their own personal connections to the material, as well as to one another. Author Hillary Jordan said that her novel, which was adapted for the screen by Virgil Williams and Rees, was loosely based on her own family, whose stories of owning a farm in the Deep South were passed along to her when she was growing up. Rees said, “There was a lot of there there” in Jordan’s book, and she was eager to “explode it out” for the screen. That partly included imbuing the material with her own family history.

“My grandmother was born in 1925 in Louisiana, and her parents were sharecroppers. She said she wasn’t going to be a sharecropper, that she wanted to be a stenographer,” Rees said, a detail that made its way into the film. “My maternal grandfather fought in World War II, and my paternal grandfather fought in Korea. Both men were from the country—one from rural Tennessee, the other from Louisiana. They both went away and came back and didn’t quite get what they should have gotten.”

Jason Mitchell, who plays Ronsel, a decorated sergeant in Europe who suffers racist abuse the moment he returns home, also connected deeply with the material, and with Ronsel’s resilience in particular. “I’m from the Deep South, my grandfather fought in the Korean War, and I always wanted to do a movie like this,” Mitchell said. “But I never wanted to do it with a character who put his head down, who ran and was afraid. I feel like there’s so much more to stand for as a black man even if it means your life. So when I saw this character I was like, yo. It blew my mind. The character felt right, and I think we did something right.”

Actresses Carey Mulligan (whose career took off in Park City in 2009 with her turn in An Education) and Mary J. Blige (the singer-turned-big-time-actress, thanks to this performance) talked about how they finessed playing characters who operate with a certain degree of mutual respect despite an obvious power disparity. The two had never met before working on this project together, and Mulligan said that on the first day of rehearsals, Rees put them across a table from each other, looking each other in the eye, “and it was awkward.”

“Right, because you were so tight,” Blige said, eliciting laughter from the audience. “It was very real. She didn’t come in trying to be my friend. She came in just like I came in, like, ‘Who are you?’ And then you’re like, ‘Oh, I love you.’ You know how it goes.”

“It got less awkward and then it felt very real, and interesting,” Mulligan said. “Mary is always really, incredibly truthful to act with. She’s just open.”

“As women we have a bond. This thing that people understand about each other—what it takes to be a woman,” Blige said. So we understand each other, and that’s what makes us connect. And that’s where the chemistry comes from, because automatically, if another woman is not being catty, and she’s open, the relationship is going to just fly.”

When a member of the audience asked Rees what advice he had for filmmakers just starting out, her answer resonated with what she accomplished with this film. “Don’t start with a message. Start with character. Start with a character that won’t get out of your head,” she said. “When you start out trying to leave a message I think it pushes people away. The thing I liked about this film was the opportunity to look at all of these relationships, these families constantly bouncing off of each other. Find characters that you love, find material that you love, and keep finding the core. That’s what makes people feel something.”

Wind River

Having written the much-praised screenplays for Sicario and Hell or High Water, Taylor Sheridan makes a persuasive debut as director with Wind River, a sometimes stark, often brutally violent mystery about the search for the killer of a young woman whose body was found on a Native American reservation in the snow-covered mountains of Wyoming.

In his introductory remarks at the premiere of the crime drama on Saturday, Festival director John Cooper confessed his surprise about the director’s work—it is so accomplished, he couldn’t believe Sheridan didn’t already have dozens of films on his résumé.

In some ways, Wind River, which is titled after the rugged reservation on which it takes place, serves as the completion of a trilogy of Sheridan’s previous work exploring the American frontier. Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), a wildlife tracker haunted by the death of his own daughter years earlier, is forced to team with a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) to uncover the truth about the young woman’s murder. Sheridan has again created a forceful drama melded with memorable characters, realistic dialogue, and scenes that go in unexpected directions, often resulting in explosive violence.

Sheridan explained that he chose to make his helming debut with Wind River because the story is deeply personal to him. “I was trying to find an entertaining way to highlight atrocities that exist in an area in the world that most people don’t know about, where some very dear friends of mine have suffered,” he revealed. “I couldn’t risk another director interpreting that vision differently. If it failed, it had to fail on my shoulders, and if the mission was misinterpreted it would be because of me.”

He succeeded, it seems. Actor Gil Birmingham, who plays the father of the murdered woman and is one of many Native American actors in the cast, noted that he appreciated that Sheridan’s film addressed a rarely discussed statistic that approximately 2,000 Native women have gone missing or have been murdered during the past decade. “The resources to solve these things [were] reflected in the film in a very realistic way,” he stated.

The Hero

It’s a role that only Sam Elliott could play, and director/screenwriter Brett Haley confirmed that he and co-writer Marc Basch wrote The Hero specifically for the legendary mustachioed actor, noting, “There’s no other man on earth who could’ve played Lee Hayden.”

After a decades-long career as a Western movie star with an iconic voice, Lee finds himself doing radio commercials for barbecue sauce and not much else, besides smoking weed with his friend and drug dealer, Jeremy (Nick Offerman). But when he finds out he has pancreatic cancer, he goes in search of a way to make meaning of his life before he dies. He dreams of making one final movie; he tries to patch up his relationship with his long-estranged daughter, Lucy (Krysten Ritter); and he begins dating a much younger woman, Charlotte (Laura Prepon).

The age disparity between Lee and Charlotte is reminiscent of Haley’s previous film, I’ll See You in My Dreams, about a friendship between an older woman and a younger man. After the premiere screening of The Hero, Haley explained that he is drawn to stories about older people in part because of the ageism in Hollywood and in the world. He also told the audience that he didn’t want this romantic relationship to be seen as the typical scenario in which an older man goes after a younger woman.

“Marc and I really tried to make this a specific relationship. …It challenges you and it might be like, that’s weird, that’s different, but that’s what I want you to be thinking about. Why is it so weird or different? … I try not to judge too much and I try to just ask questions.”

The premiere drew many of the Festival’s more grownup crowd, and several attendees thanked Haley for his depiction of aging people, complimenting him for beautifully capturing something that is rarely seen on screen, and something that spoke to them directly. Elliott, in turn, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to play a role like this, which doesn’t come around very often.

Haley revealed that he didn’t just have Elliott in mind for the movie; he also wrote the part of his ex-wife for Katharine Ross. And he was lucky enough to get every one of his top choices for the other main roles in the film. When the cast members were asked why they were drawn to this project, Nick Offerman joked, “Brett got a hold of me and said, ‘Would you like to play Sam’s boyfriend?’” and with that, he passed the mic.

The Yellow Birds

Four years after his acclaimed debut film, Blue Caprice, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, French filmmaker Alexandre Moors returns with his follow-up, the intense Iraq War drama The Yellow Birds. Based on a novel by Kevin Powers, which was adapted for the screen by David Lowery and R.F.I. Porto, The Yellow Birds tracks two young men, Murph and Bartle (Tye Sheridan and Alden Ehrenreich), from boot camp to battle ground, where they face extreme combat, tragic losses, and the unpredictable behavior of their sergeant (Jack Huston). Thanks to recurrent flashbacks, it becomes apparent that Bartle is holding onto a secret from the final days of deployment, a secret that might help explain why his fellow soldier has gone missing.

During the post-screening Q&A, Moors said that when he read Powers’s book, he “was crying by page ten.” When asked how he accomplished the realistic battle scenes, he said his goal was less realism than communicating the strong emotional impression the powerful material made upon him. “I wanted sometimes to go beyond reality,” he said. The war scenes were shot in Morocco, with the cast and crew relocating to, and immersing themselves in, the remote desert region.

“It was hard as hell to shoot,” Sheridan said. “But I’m so happy we shot it there. At times I did feel that isolation, being in a foreign land, and not speaking the language. I think that really translates to the screen.” Sheridan also described several nights during which the actors pitched their own tents and camped out under the desert stars.

“We went to a boot camp for about two weeks, which got us into a pretty tight unit,” Huston added. “It gave us the slightest glimpses into what it might be like to prepare yourself for war, and gave us a newfound respect for guys who actually go and do fight.”

“For those two weeks during boot camp, we just became brothers,” Sheridan said. “It’s easy to see how you can form those bonds when you have nothing but the guy standing to your right or your left.”

Chasing Coral

Five years after Chasing Ice, his documentary about melting glaciers, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, environmental activist/filmmaker Jeff Orlowski returned to Park City with another, equally valuable nonfiction film about climate change. Chasing Coral records underwater expeditions by a group of divers, photographers, and ocean scientists who set out to provide visual proof of coral bleaching, the destruction of coral reefs.

Orlowski creates a stunning narrative that focuses on Zackery Rago, a self-proclaimed coral nerd, and Richard Vevers, a former ad man who left his advertising career to become an underwater photographer, traveling to reefs around the world over the course of three years. The two team with various marine biologists and battle technical malfunctions and nature to record the unprecedented 2016 coral bleaching event at the Great Barrier Reef’s Lizard Island off the coast of Australia, ominously noting that 22 percent of the reef died during 2016 due to global warming and pollution.

Utilizing the first time-lapse camera to record coral bleaching, the film offers visuals of rarely seen underwater life that are breathtakingly beautiful.

Following the screening, the film’s team of scientists joined the director on stage and were unanimous in their praise for the documentary and the possible impact it will have on taking their decades of work to the next level. “This has to be the path that will get attention from the world,” one said.

Orlowski stated that he hopes Chasing Coral will serve as a call to action and plans screenings of the film in cities around the country. “We want this film to be a tool,” he said. “With our resources and team, we hope to develop the infrastructure to support campaigns in cities and states across the country. We want to go broad with existing groups and really deep in places where we can have the most meaningful impact and leverage.”

Chasing Coral was picked up by Netflix after a rather heated bidding war kicked in after it’s premiere. Orlowski commented, “This project has been a labor of love for so many years. We wanted to make sure that our film found the right home, especially given the global scale of this story. In partnering with Netflix, we’re excited about working together to make a huge impact around the world.”

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#Chasing Coral #Featured #Garrett Hedlund #Jeremy Renner #Mudbound #Sundance Film Festival #Wind River

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