spoiler warning for monkey man?
i'm probably never going to be able to stop talking about monkey man but let's just start with the ending.
Characters who can't outlive their narrative destroy me. But here's the thing – I think traditionally we do a poor job conveying the point of the trope. It'll read more like this character, who's only ever wanted to accomplish one thing, dies immediately after they accomplish it – and what's left is a story with a character-sized hole in it. It feels mostly like despair and hopelessness because it feels like the character never got to experience peace. The character, so wrapped up in anger, fear, sadness, etc – never experiences just being on the other side of this chasm they built for themselves.
There's a critical difference between characters who can't outlive their narrative and characters who won't. Characters who won't outlive their narrative can still have dreams, plans – the heartbreak is real because they saw a life for themselves on the other side and they'll never get to experience it. But most of the time we treat characters who can't outlive their narrative in the same way, and filmmakers trust that we as the audience suspend our disbelief and hope for the characters to have an epilogue.
Bobby/Kid/Dev Patel never had plans for what's next. We saw barely-there flashes of who he must be outside of his avenging mission, enough to cobble together this idea that yes, he deserves so much more. But it was evident from the first second of this film that there was nothing waiting for him on the other side. Bobby/Kid/Dev Patel could have never survived the narrative. There was no reality of an after for him after he avenged his mother – no practical way for him to build a new life. But in those last seconds, when he turned to the mural depicting the carnage of Hanuman and he had the far-away thought that it was over, we saw Dev Patel channel this relief in this doomed character.
We as an audience exhale with the character, we feel the release from his duty the same way he does.
He falls, the camera follows his center of gravity, and the screen cuts to black. The narrative begins and ends with him. He begins and ends with this narrative.
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Not that this is important to anyone else haha, but it is important to me. I’ve seen The Marvels 12 times in theaters at this point, only missing last Thursday for BOSS and then Saturday to watch Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. Now I have to go about 5-6 days in a row without seeing it (unless my plans fall apart tonight and then I’m seeing it again lol), and honestly I don’t know how I feel about that. 😅 I know I can’t convince my parents when I go home for the holiday to go see it again, and I guess I could pirate a cam version, but it just feels so right to go see this movie every night after work lol. I know it’s a very minuscule thing to say I can’t do this for a certain amount of days, and I knew it was coming and that I’d have to slow down eventually, but it’s become the thing I look forward to every night. I find comfort, fun, relatability, and it’s just what I need right now, and to not have that is gonna feel really weird, especially since I already feel weird about the thought of it. It’s currently my biggest hyperfixation that’s not going away soon (along with Brie Larson, I’ll be honest haha). I know I’m probably speaking into the void lol, but does anyone else get this weird, uneasy feeling when you’re pulled from your main hyperfixation and can’t focus on it as much as you’d like to? The Marvels has become so much to me in such a short amount of time, and I feel bad for going home at this point because I know that almost 24/7 when I’m there I won’t be able to see this movie, which is automatically gonna make me think about it more. I feel like I’m rambling at this point haha, but I just wanted to put it into words.
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hi so I have seen the Barbie movie three times and I have so many feelings about it.
First of all, my inner undiagnosed autistic child is screaming with glee. I loved dolls and had a book on the history of Barbie. I also had numerous Barbies, including two who I made girlfriends except I didn't know that gay people were a thing so that was a really funny realization. I also was a raging feminist (still am actually) and read books on feminism.
Second of all, oh my god. oh my god. oh my god. That was literally a cinematic masterpiece. I know that phrase is tossed around a lot but it is. Also the sheer feminism that doesn't tear men down while also not comparing women to men. It's not that women can be as good as men, or better than men, but that women are amazing in their own right.
Third of all, trans Barbie! Hari Nef plays doctor Barbie and is a trans woman, so trans Barbie!
Fourth of all, all three times that I saw it, when that one character said, "I love women," I said, "Me too." I miss my girlfriend.
Also, Ken needs a boyfriend and Barbie needs a girlfriend.
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I can't stop thinking about The Wolf from "Puss In Boots." I know he's supposed to be (one of) the villain(s) but his character is just so cool. 🐺
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i just want you all to know that me making four posts about Paul appreciation day was me reigning it in
I initially was gonna do like… maybe twelve? 😅😆
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listen there really was just something about how in the book, snow’s 3-page descent from hesitant lover boy to deluded psychopath happens entirely in his mind. lucy gray gives him no indication whatsoever that she suspects him, that she’s going to leave or betray him. he’s just sitting quietly in the cabin waiting for her to return when that seed of calculated suspicion, which he has needed to survive the capitol, takes a hold of him and chokes the life out of any goodness left inside him. it really drives home your terror as a reader that “oh my god did he kill her? did she escape? what happened to her? why would he even think that?” in a way that when the movie had to adjust for visualization it lost some of that holy shit this guy has lost it emphasis.
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Just discovered that Travis Ruiz, one of the Mario Movie's artists, had posted more concept art online.
And...
I am in love.
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"You don't remember your name?
No, but for some reason I remember yours."
SPIRITED AWAY (2001), dir. Hayao Miyazaki
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