#avclub

[kimkimberhelen]

Gene Cousineau: “Little Sally Reed from Joplin, Missouri. What do you want?”

Sally Reed: “To be an actress … it’s all I ever wanted in the whole world.”

This quick exchange introduces Barry’s audience to Sally (Sarah Goldberg) in the series premiere. Her passionate, teary plea rings normally at first glance; she’s a small-town girl with wide-eyed Hollywood dreams. Aw, shucks. Over four seasons, HBO’s grim comedy ingeniously peels back layers to unveil Sally’s discombobulating, deeply human personality. Her unlikable traits—selfish, gravely insecure, a knack for walking over people (including seemingly naive aspiring actor Barry Block)—remain intact as the show nears its end.

By now, though, we know these qualities stem from a marred past: a rotten home life, previous spousal abuse, and a gnawing lack of confidence she desperately wants to cover up. Barry rarely excuses her entitled behavior but slowly sheds light on how her illusory front is a coping mechanism. No wonder she makes the short-lived Joplin as an outlet to process her tragedies. What’s worse? She barely gets time to exist in the world she creates after working hard to achieve it. As it turns out, Sally is the ultimate portrait of trauma in Bill Hader and Alec Berg’s stellar series, which wraps on May 28.

Sally Reed was probably never going to have a happy ending. It’s not because she prioritizes her lofty career ambitions, pushing away anything that gets in the way. Goldberg plays Sally’s goals with such enthusiasm it usually borders on mania, even when she’s sympathetic. It’s a shame she hasn’t won an Emmy for her wrenching yet funny performance. Remember her season two monologue when Barry (Hader) auditions for Jay Roach? Or her season three “entitled fucking cunt” breakdown in the elevator that Natalie (D’Arcy Carden) shares with the world, leading to her downfall? But the professional blinders Sally’s had on for most of Barry’s run is what limits her in the end.

As if her traumatic history wasn’t enough, her entanglement with Barry Berkman worsens everything. He breezes into her life one fine day, drawn into her safe space, when he catches her rehearsing outside Gene’s (Henry Winkler) studio while on a mission. Barry finds solace in it, attracted to the idea of shedding his skin to inhabit somebody who doesn’t have PTSD or a laundry list of crimes. It’s enough to get him hoping for a fresh start. That’s also what Sally hoped for when she moved to Los Angeles after finally leaving her abusive husband, Sam (Joe Massingill).

Season four delves into why Sally deserved to leave her Joplin jail. Sam isn’t the only reason. Her mother is dismissive, flat-out refusing to believe her ex abused Sally, nor does she care that her daughter’s boyfriend is arrested for murder in L.A. “Big whoop” isn’t exactly the expected maternal reaction, and her nice-guy father doesn’t have anything valuable to add, either. It’s clear from the final season’s early episodes that Sally doesn’t have anyone—anyone except for an imprisoned Barry. Her admittance to him in this season’s “bestest place on earth,” that she feels safest with him, is a devastating reality chec

Hader and Goldberg, sitting feet away, separated by a glass barrier, deliver a potent performance in a scene that sells their toxic attachment. She can write all the one-act plays and TV shows she wants, but Barry’s grievously absorbed her identity just when you (and everyone around her) thought she was free of it. Their confrontation in jail is a turning point for the show’s final installments. Her shaky confession sets Barry’s brain aflame. He teams up with the FBI, makes an enemy out of NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan), and escapes prison during a shootout. Ultimately, it launches a new life for the duo in the middle of a barren landscape where they don new identities and shed their skins. Just like the dream, huh?

Barry’s final season jumps eight years ahead with a full picture in episode five, “tricky legacies.” It glimpses into the dreary monotony of Barry and Sally, who go by Clark and Emily now. They shield their child from the real world. It doesn’t mean Sally’s not seething under Emily’s mask. Her pain follows her because she chose to give up the one thing that mattered: her acting dream. Having experienced a shitty upbringing, she passes along the intergenerational trauma to John by parenting similarly to her mom—indifferent, indignant, and inebriated. She doesn’t know where to start nurturing.

It’s not like Barry’s childhood was a prize, so neither of them is good at this, but Sally is on a whole other level. She drops alcohol in his juice to put him to sleep, serves up burnt lunches, and generally wrestles with how to love this human being she gave birth to. In Sally’s expressions, Goldberg displays a tangible aversion to motherhood, a full-bodied disdain for the life they’re responsible for creating. So yes, in a twisted way, she’s a copy of her parent now. It’s a full circle.

Everyone on Barry is haunted by their actions, especially with the time jump, so Sally isn’t an exception, of course. Barry wreaked absolute havoc. Gene lost Janice Moss (Paula Newsome), ruined his legacy, and now reappears to chase fame again. As seen in episode six, “the wizard,” Hank has grown a successful business, but had to kill the love of his life to do it. Fuches’ (Stephen Root) friendship with Barry turns sour as he morphs into the Raven. Yet, Sally’s regression is agonizing because she was a lick away from gaining everything she wanted. Instead, she ponders torturing her network boss, kills a man in self-defense, and runs back home, only for everything to crumble again. All this while witnessing Oscar winner Sian Heder work with her mentee, Kristen (Ellyn Jameson), and watching Natalie soar.

Now, she’s drunk and being tortured (note Hader’s prolific direction in “the wizard”) as a man in a ski mask figure shakes up their trailer home. She’s permanently haunted. Janice’s father has captured her partner, and all she can do is call him repeatedly, begging him to come back. With two episodes of Barry remaining, Sally is left alone in her cage to care for John. Does she head back to her hometown to complete the cycle? Or will she return to the city of dreams to find Barry and maybe accomplish the only thing she wants to be in this world? Either way, Sally might not realize it, but she’s already played the role of a lifetime now. It’s wish fulfillment in the worst and most tragic possible way.

#barry season 4 #barry hbo #sarah goldberg #sally reed #long read but a good read #avclub #hbo #bill hader

[jbaileyfansite]

Jonathan Bailey listed as one of the actors who should be the next great romantic comedy star on AVClub [x]

#jonathan bailey #jonny bailey #avclub #bridgerton #crashing #fellow travelers #wicked movie #NEW!

[twiststreet]

#nathan rabin #avclub #i got nostalgic for bookslut this morning #we used to have an internet

[back-and-totheleft]

Rousing bleeding-heart majesty

Oliver Stone employs his hyper-stylized aesthetics for a titanic, from-all-angles portrait of professional football in Any Given Sunday, an all-star 1999 film that brazenly strives for Shakespearean grandeur, thanks in part to the scripting of playwright-turned-screenwriter John Logan. At the center of this gladiatorial gridiron epic is Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino), wearied championship coach of the Miami Sharks, who’s grappling with numerous dilemmas, from the disloyalty of owner Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz) to his lovelorn loneliness to—most crucially of all—a severe injury to his veteran quarterback Cap Rooney (Dennis Quaid). The last of those problems manifests itself in the opening sequence, and sets the stage for the emergence of third-string QB “Steamin’” Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx), an arrogant bad boy who quickly becomes a league and media sensation, even as he slowly alienates his coach and teammates—including Lawrence Taylor’s linebacker and LL Cool J’s running back—with his me-first attitude.

Those are only a few of the issues tackled by Any Given Sunday, which manages to touch upon the myriad ways that money, sex, race, gender, fame, ego, fear, amorality, and greed factor into the sport. Throughout, Stone and Logan critique the league’s shadier aspects (and types of personalities) with North Dallas Forty-grade bluntness. Yet they refuse to outright condemn football for its failings, instead elevating it to the realm of myth, replete with images of players’ silhouettes cast against heavenly clouds, schizoid montages equating modern athletes with former icons, cameos from NFL greats (including Jim Brown, Johnny Unitas, and Y.A. Tittle), and a sequence that cross-cuts between D’Amato and Beamen arguing and scenes from Ben-Hur—followed by an appearance by Charlton Heston, no less.

Stone’s bruising, blistering game footage is some of the best ever committed to film, and his frenzied montages further lend the action concussive energy. Brimming with well-drawn characters and reverence for its subject matter (flaws and all), it’s an epic that captures a 360-degree view of modern football. It also features one of Pacino’s great late performances, all exhausted-king sorrow and inspiration, which climaxes with a motivational speech about life, sacrifice, and battlefield camaraderie. Its rousing bleeding-heart majesty would surely please the Bard.

-Nick Schager, The AV Club, Nov 14 2016 [x]

#oliver stone #any given sunday #avclub

[tularue11]

Reposted from @rthomas470 New article!! #scottcaan #alertonfox #avclub Article by @max_gao Look for link in stories! https://www.avclub.com/scott-caan-random-roles-interview-1850007685 #mcm #mancrushmonday https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnw_E8eJu-1/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#scottcaan #alertonfox #avclub #mcm #mancrushmonday

[isabelpsaroslunnen]

[Original date: 24 June 2016]

First reaction to this: “hm.”

To this day, I’m deeply torn over Xanth (despite liking Incarnations of Immortality better). I’ve never thought Piers Anthony a particularly good writer, and he has the depressing anti-ability to start each series on its high point and get worse with each book. Xanth was always a fairly shallow farce that essentially repeats one joke—the literalization of puns—over and over.

That said, I did read it well past the age bracket the author talks about. I only discovered the books when I was thirteen, actually.

I’d had a near-fatal asthma attack and was hospitalized for a week, then isolated inside my air-filtered room for three months. In the hospital, I had exactly one book—Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey, which I’d been given over the summer and was re-reading when I went into the hospital. (That’s another, uh, problematic text, though McCaffrey was a much better writer and less fratboyish about her issues in any case. I adored Lessa and re-read it countless times.)

And while I was still hospitalized, my father bought a box of twenty-odd Xanth books to give me something else to read.

I did read them, and I enjoyed them, despite not really caring for farce. But by “them,” I mean the editorialized version in my head more than what’s actually on the page. I completely agree with the horrorshow that is the Chameleon arc; I would skip over her scenes as much as possible on re-reading. Iris is written in repellent terms, yet I loved the character, and her daughter Irene after her, along with Trent, Vadne, Jonathan, and Murphy.

I’m not quite as harsh on it as the article writer (I don’t think the downplaying of the critical importance of magic in-world is really in good faith), but fundamentally, I can’t disagree. The Xanth I loved wasn’t the Xanth that Piers Anthony wrote, so much as a mentally corrected Xanth with its intolerable aspects excised or ignored, and its good parts vastly amplified.

The good parts do exist, however, which I feel the author largely ignores. As a reader, it’s fair for the pervasive and disgusting misogyny to blot out everything else, but as analysis … eh. Partly, I’m sure, this is sheer nostalgia, although I did re-read my favorites (Castle Roogna, Night Mare, and Man from Mundania) through high school and as late as my early twenties, with progressively less enjoyment—but still, some enjoyment. There’s never been a jarring re-read where I discovered the relentless misogyny, since I recognized it all along; it just became a little worse each time.

I haven’t re-read any Xanth books in years, and I don’t really have any intention of doing so. But there were concepts thrown in there that I still find compelling. The basic concept of a world where mages aren’t a special elite minority and magic pervades every aspect of life—I thought that was fascinating. At least as far as I read, Xanth was never remotely a “normal” story + fantasy in the way that similar things often are, but its own strange reality, down to the bones. I’d never encountered that before; everything I’d read was “x but with dragons” or “x but with magic” or “x but in space.” You could call Xanth “Florida but with magic,” but that doesn’t begin to touch how utterly bizarre it is.

I didn’t care for the puns, but some of the consequent powers were things I’d never have imagined and found incredibly engaging, most successfully with Magician Murphy, at once a joke character—his power is inflicting bad luck, i.e. anything that can go wrong, will go wrong—and one of the most nuanced villains in the series. I was interested in the social structure hinted at in a world grounded on magic and degrees of magical power. He shows people with “spot on the wall” talents (trivial and pointlessly specific) to powerful but sharply restricted ones (as with Bink’s father Roland) to sub-Magician ones like Vadne’s and Irene’s, to the sheer variety among the world-class Magicians and Sorceresses (transformation, illusion, bad luck, zombies, clairvoyant tapestries…).

These are small things, weakly executed—“(some) good ideas, bad execution” is how I’d describe Anthony in a nutshell—and yet they brought excitement and interest to my life when I was sick and unhappy and lonely. The inevitable longing for all those things that fascinated me in Xanth without the baggage of … well, Xanth, is what drove me to try writing a fantasy novel of my own. That project has grown far beyond its roots in “like Xanth but no puns and none of the icky sex stuff and it’s about heroines and princesses and ruling queens all the time,” but it’s been my main outlet for many years.

In the end, I know how profoundly gross and offensive Anthony’s novels are. Yet I do think there are legitimate reasons beyond “comic fantasy” that they became so popular, which this article very much skates over. And, personally, I can’t help feeling grateful for them, nonetheless.

#the glacier speaks #korë blogging #artist: piers anthony #text: xanth #artist: jason heller #text: revisiting the sad misogynistic fantasy of xanth #avclub #artist: anne mccaffrey #text: pern #ch: lessa #ch: chameleon #ch: sorceress iris #ch: queen irene #ch: king trent #ch: vadne #ch: magician jonathan #ch: magician murphy #ch: roland of xanth #long post #isabel talks #sff chatter

[isagrimorie]

I regret checking the AVClub review of Ahsoka episode 5, especially this bit:

It’s almost like the episode didn’t spend copious time showing a young Ahsoka dealing with the traumas of war and her fear of only passing on the knowledge of being a soldier and weapon to a child.

It’s almost like we, the audience, didn’t get hit with the realization oh— damn, Ahsoka was a kid!

She was so small! And she had to go through a lot of harrowing engagements!

Maybe that’s one of the reasons why Ahsoka isn’t gonna train someone into becoming a Jedi unless they choose it and know what they are getting into!

Maybe that’s why.

#ahsoka spoilers #star wars ahsoka #ahsoka tano #ahsoka 1x05 #that’s the last time i go to avclub

[mifhortunach]

#important chris lore - deep from the avclub archives lol #ppp #the sopranos #posts just 4 me :)

[mathlann]

Partial offense I guess but there is something I notice particularly with certain sci fi fandoms of a certain time where the original work will be, imperfectly, for its time, parodying or critiquing some negative political ideology (fascism, orientalism, colonialism etc) and become known for that. And the fandom will adopt "X is actually a critique of Y" thing rote but because nobody actually reads theory/actually understands the og ideology/ is interested in looking outside their own internal biases, they can't actually elucidate how exactly the work communicates its ideas. Which then means I have to read stupid takes about how "*faction or character* is a deconstruction because they're sad about the atrocities and don't actually have agency in not doing them (Bonus Points if Visions are involved)!!!! This is very deep and other characters shouldn't be mean to them about this." And I—

#AVClub comment section when I catch you #but also this about my longterm Fandom of Choice which is fitting because its also influenced by [thing] so #ugh

[alias-milamber]

Sometimes, you see things you are suprised you didn't see on Tumblr first:

[AVClub: Kristen Stewart gets buff vengeance in this trailer for Love Lies Bleeding] : There’s not a single thing about the premise for Saint Maud director Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding that does not sound awesome: It stars Kristen Stewart as the manager of a gym who falls in love with an aspiring bodybuilder named Jackie (Katy O’Brian) who gets involved with a bad crowd—specifically the criminal father of Stewart’s character, played by a longhaired Ed Harris (Ed Longharris). Together, they embark on some kind of quest for vengeance while dodging bad guys and law enforcement guys.

#a24 #a24 films #av club #love lies bleeding #Youtube

[crow-caller]

Hello! I hope you're doing well. I've enjoyed your book reviews on YouTube for the past six or so months (finished The Blessed/Precious Blood a couple hours ago), and they've gotten me a little curious. To my understanding, you do or at least did post book reviews on your blog, some or all of which you went on to turn into videos. As someone who wishes to try his hand at writing book reviews, I was wondering if you had any advice, insights, or sage wisdom into the craft based on your experience. I understand if you'd prefer not to answer, and my apologies if this is something you've already been asked.

Thank you very much for reading, and I hope life treats you well!

I've talked about it a bit before, but only briefly when drunk. It's very annoying on tumblr to search archives anyway. This was the breadth of my advice:

"When I first started, my strategy was a very solid one: divide and conquer. It can be hard to understand your thoughts on a book until you understand it in parts. I usually did it as : premise, plot, characters, writing, other details. Dividing into sections can help put words to feelings you may struggle with. Earlier reviews usually fell into this format, ish. Nowadays I usually put it mostly into a plot summary, discussing issues as they come u— I find this smoother. But really, making sections is incredibly helpful and can really assist in finding your “voice”."

I've been writing reviews for several years now. Like since 2016 actually, I did it first formally as an assignment for uni and was previously writing shorter reviews on goodreads because with my memory issues, I would find I totally forgot half the details of what I read a few months later. This was especially annoying for series!

Reading reviews is a first good step. You don't have to take notes- it's just helpful to read how other people review things, in general. You'll naturally notice stuff you wish they talked about more or where your opinions might differ- it's good to read reviews of stuff you have experience with and don't.

I'd definitely suggest reading say, a negative review of a movie you love and a positive review of a movie you hate. Or book, or whatever. See how the argument is made and where you think the reviewer is being an idiot. See where you wish they went into more detail or where they were caught up on something pointless. I think it can be way more helpful than just reading opinions you agree with!

But also do that. And try different formats and people- I used to read a LOT of AVclub reviews for tv shows and movies I never watched, and reading different styles of review helps.

Honestly, it might be good to even look at my early reviews versus recent and see how I've grown! Even though I normally don't really advocate my oldest stuff as it's just. not as good. But check out Relic and then The Commandment and you might notice some stuff in how I've improved.

It's not just studying though. The best method is really just getting started. When you read/watch/play/whatever something, review it. Start with a skeleton (Plot, characters, world) and get better at linking each subject fluidly. Finding an easy transition is hard but great practice for thinking about something as a whole. Reread your reviews, not just before posting but a few months after the fact.

A lot of my own style is based purely on what I'd most value in a review and I'd suggest you center your work on a similar concept. I wanted long, very detailed reviews that spoiled all the ridiculous twists of books I was never going to read. Not enough people provided that, so I did it myself.

Anyway hope it helps!

#sometimes theres asks #going through askbox #writing advice #yewchube

[alwaysthequietones]

SERVANT SEASON 4 RUPERT GRINT REVIEWS (based on the first 3 episodes)

Harry Potter alumni Rupert Grint is a revelation as Dorothy’s alcoholic brother Julian. He may provide the comic relief, but he’s also on an intriguing redemption story of his own. (....) The horror elements are amplified further too and that dark, sarcastic humor returns, thanks to a stand-out performance from Rupert Grint. -readysteadycut

First out of the gate and – potentially this show’s biggest asset – is Julian, who has graduated from wealthy hard-drinking brother to Dorothy into part-time lover to Leanne over three seasons. Skulking beneath the conniving characterization, any memory of Grint’s former fame is buried in a shallow grave out back. - wegotthiscovered

The chemistry between Free, Ambrose, Kebbell, and Grint continues to be vitally important as this story begins its final season, and all four are at the top of their game in these three episodes. - joblo

Julian (Rupert Grint, always fantastic) has relapsed, trying to figure out where he fits in the family unit,... - rogerebert

Sean and his brother-in-law, Julian (a terrific Rupert Grint),... - AVclub

#rupert grint #servant #season 4 #reviews #I'll update this if more come out #m night shyamalan #apple tv+

[draconicrose]

This is apparently a good sci-fi movie that went completely under the radar.

"The Creator takes place in a future world where the American government has declared war on AI. When a former special-forces operative (John David Washington) learns that his late wife (Gemma Chan) may be alive and well in enemy territory, he signs up for a military mission to infiltrate a research base and destroy a weapon that could end the war for good. The weapon, it turns out, is an extraordinary AI in the form of a little girl (Madeleine Yuna Voyles)." -- Via AvClub

#science fiction #sci fi #movies #the creator #john david washington #gemma chan #madeleine yuna voyles #Youtube

[cassiopeialake]

this is so real avclub writer sulagna misra. why IS he named frank?? even in the book i wondered this

#station eleven

[jay-auris]

Hi I just wanted to tell you how much I love and admire your fic!! Ive been reading it all day and can't seem to put it down. I skipped going out tonight so I could keep reading it. I love love love the world you created: I feel like I can really see Coventry. And you've just absolutely nailed the characters' voices, but you're also fleshing them out in a way the show never will. Your story feels like a safe, warm hug. I love the references to therapy, all the queer characters, and the attention you pay to the cops' shitty and discriminatory behaviour. You also write like a film theory grad student. Either you have a couple of degrees in this, or you've done a huge amount of research. Thank you for all the work you've poured into this fic!! It has made my day, and I just want you to know that I'm getting a huge amount of joy out of it.

SO MANY LOVELY COMPLIMENTS SKSJDJFKJFKSKD Thank you so much! I'm flattered that you skipped having a night life one evening for my lil' old fanfic. One of my favorite parts of writing is world building, creating a place that feels lived in, with a history and physical presence that is just as interesting to inhabit as the story itself is to follow. And in order to do that, I couldn't shy away from the social realities of what the characters might face, which, by nature of the canon, the show is able to poke at but never really forces us to sit with. Part of the joy of fic for me is getting to go to those darker places that the show can't or won't. I love that, in spite of all this, the fic still feels like a warm hug to you!

I'm laughing at the film theory grad student comment; my background is in mental health, but I have one of those kinds of brains where I absorb information like a sponge about a wide range of things. Film analysis is one of those areas where I've spent far too many hours watching YouTube video essays, reading the AVClub pre-Gawker media era, and in general being fascinated by and learning as much as I can about the art of filmmaking. Laszlo got good use out of the last 10+ years of a hyperfixation. In another life I might have gone that direction, who knows! If I ever get a novel published and they adapt it to film, I will be in the writer's room if they let me 🤣

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope to get the last few chapters out soon 😊

#alethophobia

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

I just read that Barbie is supposed to come onto streaming Sept 5th. That was fast. It was the AVclub so I think that's semi accurate. I guess we'll see 🤞

#barbie #barbie movie