#i just used my dvd so the quality is bad but he looks so good

[fauxfickle]

Another month, another info dump of things you already know, or the search for "The Great All-American Pizza Show!"

Last time, we talked about the Citrus Heights commercial produced by Bob Wilkins Advertising Inc and it's potential showing at the Orinda Theatre. The bad news is that I don't know anyone from CA and I don't have anywhere near a big enough platform to spread the word. Was it there? Was it not? We'll never know! Good thing is that the Psychotronix Film Festival is putting on another show in May at Foothill College, also in CA.

But on to other news! I finally got a response from PBS about Ben Wattenberg's segment on PTT. They said they didn't have it so yeah...

I've been looking around for Ben Wattenberg's 1980 and PM Magazine listings on Ebay, hoping for maybe a DVD copy or something but nothing comes up. These aren't really my top priority since they aren't part of TGAAPS but it helps me from burning out looking at a million commercials

Let's move onto the real meat and potatoes, the ads themselves. Starting with the Citrus Heights commercial, I've been doing research on Bob Wilkins' ad company and you'd be surprised how scarce info is on it. His obituary states that he made ads not only for PTT, but Lay-Z-Boy as well. This newspaper from 1981 says that his agency makes over $1M annually and was doing "amazingly well" which makes it all the more stranger that there's so little documentation of it. I also found a house in Oakland, that was used by the company at some point. I won't link the house, the company is so far removed from it and I don't want the people living there to be bothered. Something funny I found while looking on other search engines for traces of BW's agency is that Bing's AI assistant literally uses my post as a source. It's surreal seeing the info I wrote be regurgitated back at me by an AI. Weird...

Now the animated ad! I'll admit, I've been slacking a bit when it comes to looking for this ad, however I found 3 people on Linkedin that worked for Colossal Pictures during the late 70s. Also found out that Adam Savage from Myth Busters worked for (C)P at some point. Hmm, having your company initials be CP wasn't the smartest move in hindsight. Maybe that's why they added the parenthesis.

Something that wasn't found by me :( was a storyboard for one of the live action commercials. From what I've heard, it was posted in the showbizpizza.com discord server and spread from there. In the bottom left it says UBC which I can't really link to anything. I thought maybe it could be a production company, or an acronym, but I've got nothing. Maybe it just says Inc. Bottom right isn't much better, it's completely illegible and the first page of the storyboard is in even worse quality. An exciting find for sure, but not one that really helps me.

Or so I thought! In the end card it says (location tag), not just "Kooser and Blossom Hill". Unlike the radio ad, nothing in here denotes any sort of specific location like having a certain guest star or cabaret act. Sure it uses the Winchester bots, Kooser bots, and Mopsey sisters but people aren't really going to pay attention to whether the backup singers are mops or crows and they probably wouldn't even notice the small diffences between the portrait bots and a cyberamic in a 60 second ad.

Here's my big theory though. Oh yeah, we're getting conspiratorial! Someone asked me about that forum post I discovered that mention a PTT jingle from 1978 - 1980. Way back in my first post, I found that this person was most likely from the Detroit area, and probably didn't see the ads that I thought at the time were only in the Bay Area and aired during early 1980. I thought that because the ads ended around spring and the first store to open in MI was around November, this person was simply misremembering the "Smile America" ads from 1982. It's been a few months, and in that time I've learned probably more than any sane person should know about this campaign, and while looking at the store lists on the Cheese-e-pedia after that person mention the post, I realized something that made me feel like a complete idiot. The first PTT to open in MI was in Westland. I looked up where that was, and low and behold, Westland is A SUBURB OF DETROIT. I felt so stupid but also really happy that this tiny detail actually meant something. My theory is that maybe, just maybe, one of, if not a few of these ads were aired outside CA with the location tags edited for each store. PTT has done that before, so I feel it's not totally out of the picture for them to have done it few years earlier. If this is true, then it expands this search from just CA to Nevada, Utah, Texas, Arizona, Ohio, Colorado, North Carolina, and of course, Michigan.

I still want to keep most my searching in the Bay area, but I think this could lead to exciting things. Or I could be delusional, who knows? Until next time!

#chuck e cheese #pizza time theater #pizza time theatre #the great all american pizza search #the great all american pizza show #lost media #lost commercial #archival #ptt #cec ptt #probably gonna realize i have a thousand spelling mistakes after i post

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (October 9-15, 2022)

Supreme shock sensation of our times: a Godzilla comic released on schedule! Godzilla: Monsters & Protectors - All Hail the King! #1 dropped on Wednesday. I'll confess I forgot about it for a couple of days; your priorities get scrambled when you're recovering from knee surgery. This is a direct sequel to last year's Monsters & Protectors; I don't recommend going in blind. Two big reasons to pick it up: Gabara's debut in American comics (in a dream, natch) and a professional Xilien troll who muses over which reaction .gif he should deploy. Yeah, me too.

Toho released a teaser and this very cool still for the upcoming short Fest Godzilla 3: Gigan's Attack, showing off the Showa Gigan replica suit Shinichi Wakasa built. It's strange to see it opposite FinalGoji (presumably the same stunt suit from last year's Godzilla vs. Hedorah short). I guess it's just his destiny to face Godzilla suits that are barely holding themselves together.

I cannot hope to comprehensively cover the deluge of Godzilla merchandise forever threatening my bank account in this column, but I would like to spotlight this enamel Baragon pin, designed by Christian Gonzalez for Ghost X Ghost. When I saw it my hands simply moved to order of their own volition.

The Dino De Laurentiis King Kong films are getting format upgrades. StudioCanal has a 4K restoration of the 1976 remake slated for November 28, while Umbrella Entertainment is bringing King Kong Lives, long out of print in the States, to Blu-ray on January 18. Neither company is American, but 4Ks don't have region codes and I hear Umbrella Blu-rays are typically region-free.

Probably neither will be a buy for me. The color grading on the 4K King Kong doesn't look great, and the special features don't measure up to the Blu-ray Shout! released last year. I will grant that the King Kong Lives Blu looks like a winner, with great packaging and new special features including a Ray Morton audio commentary. (They had to be new; the old DVD didn't have a thing to mine.) But it's not exactly one of my favorites, and since Shout! recently picked up the rights to it, I'd rather hold out for a version I don't have to import.

Just over a year after it premiered at Fantastic Fest, Iké Boys is out on digital courtesy of (they just keep coming up) Shout! Factory. Hopefully a physical release will follow, because this heartfelt American tribute to tokusatsu doesn't deserve to be buried in the Google Play Store. Set in the last month of 1999, it concerns a pair of Oklahoma tokusatsu geeks and a Japanese exchange student trying to prevent the apocalypse, empowered by the obscure 1969 anime film that predicted it. It's very low-budget and hits a lot of predictable coming-of-age beats, but it's got a good heart and Yumiko Shaku (yes, Akane in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla) classes it up. Also... it's not often I'm pandered to so directly. The director's one of us, to put it mildly.

Big thing are happening on the bootleg circuit... a couple of them last week, but I never posted about them on Tumblr and this is the first installment of this column. Yesterday, Skeweds Translations posted fansubs for What to Do with the Dead Kaiju?, Toei and Shochiku's kaiju comedy with no U.S. release outside of film festivals in sight. The film is catastrophically bad, I'm sorry to say, failing as a satire and as a genre exercise; Day of the Kaiju handled the same premise far better in a quarter of the time. But if you're so inclined, you can find a copy of the movie itself on the cat site... along with a higher-quality copy of Shin Ultraman than was uploaded there previously. I don't know where these things are coming from (Zarab?), but I'm not complaining.

And in the how-can-this-be-real category, a treat for your ears: the recently unearthed Hong Kong dub of Hanuman and the Seven Ultramen. As in Godzilla vs. Megalon, Ted Thomas, Chris Hilton, and Warren Rooke voice many of the characters. You won't believe the words coming out of their mouths—I don't think they did either. Between the child murder, checkmated atheist, and Hanuman's unquenchable thirst for carnage, this was always one of the kaiju movies with the most jaw drops per minute, and it just got better. A VHS containing the dub turned up in Lebanon; @Redcome40977685, @PrissMegaforce, Omayyad, and Elie Al Hajj got it digitized and @spacehunter-m synced the audio up to a fine-looking widescreen version.

#kaiju week in review #godzilla #godzilla monsters and protectors all hail the king #fest godzilla 3 gigan's attack #gigan #gabara #baragon #king kong #king kong 1976 #king kong lives #home video #ike boys #what to do with the dead kaiju? #hanuman and the seven ultramen #kaiju

[panelshowsource]

random thoughts dump of the week bc none of this deserves its own post

coming down from a smol john kearns kick and really enjoyed it, guy has a ridiculously sweet presence and i really like his voice. it also brings me great joy his previous career was working in museums and as a tour guide. i would like that life, i think (i worked at universal orlando for a little bit in 2013 and was always super jealous of the vip tour guides lol). he mentioned on one of his rhlstps that despite winning arguably the biggest (british) comedy awards there are, he never released a standup special or dvd, and he kinda wants to keep it that way so he has something special between him and his live audience — and that really made me sad face. like, my guy, what about those of us who can't see you bc won't leave that damn island. (also ed gamble's new tour having no nyc date felt personal...) in another episode, he talked a little about, in great part due to social media, people want comedians they can know everything about, get the whole look of; comedians who are the same people onstage as off. he's not like that and doesn't really like the idea of that. i think there's a lot to say about that subject but i'll just leave it for now...

speaking of touring ed byrne next week!!! and jimmy and alan carr coming up!! what a fun time :')

speaking of rhlstp and ed, one thing that occurred to me and i thought was quite funny upon listening to his recent episode is that both richard and ed have that self-aware side of them that admits to bitterness, professional jealousy, annoyance with critics/haters, believing they're not as successful as they deserve to be, etc. while it can come off whiney here and there, it's not too obnoxious or anything, i just found it amusing they had this (often concealed or private) quality in common. i might even put jenny eclair in that camp (others too but that's a discourse i don't really wanna start lmao)

if another youtuber, following amelia dimoldenberg (and munya? does he count?), had to go on taskmaster i would probably vote for ollie kendal off of jolly. in my mind he and alex would be genuinely good friends outside of the show

man i miss the horne section podcast so bad

honestly, i'm a little surprised david mitchell doesn't have a podcast. he loves radio, it's not too demanding of a gig, and he's got tons of interests that could make engaging premises for podcasts... i'm sure someone has floated this to him before, so i need the reason why he said no. maybe he was busy with his book. would love a history pod fr

does anyone else ever remember when david mitchell was in rick and morty and just sit back and go O_O also when he was on graham norton with hillary clinton like lmaooo i just love the idea of the booking agents for that show being like "we're having fucking hillary clinton on who can we bring for comic relief who is a household name but not problematic but intelligent but actually funny" i mean they hit the jackpot of course but it cracks me up that that's his brand

did david ever watch succession? rob def did but i need more about it from both of them

sometimes i think about when david accepted his bafta for peep show and the music that was playing while he walked to the stage was "sex on fire" by kings of leon hahahahaha like what who was djing that night fr

where did charlie brooker go

speaking of back in the day — and i do mean back, like 15+ years ago — and my main panel show obsession was buzzcocks, there were a few non-comedians who would come on panel shows who were properly fucking funny, like martin freeman and josh groban, and i'd always pray they'd eventually come on again. and i think at the time the person at the top of my list was professor green. how random is that TT he was just always up for laugh and just so likable. i also LOVED the song "just good to be green" with lily allen in like 2010 lmaooo this really ages me :)

been really enjoying some old angus deayton-hosted stuff, like old hignfy and wilty. i got into panel shows after he'd stepped out of the spotlight, but i remember being crushed when i found out about his scandal. i also remember stephen fry standing up for him and chastising paul & ian publicly after That Episode of hignfy — which absolutely blew my mind, even though stephen has always said what he thinks — and i agreed with him and am not sure even today if i fully forgave paul & ian for how they treated angus. ik he's still here and there, but i wonder if we'll ever see him in any properly notable capacity again

just watched the latest hignfy actually and jack dee pheww he's ageing very nicely let me just say it and pheww emmanuel sonubi please and thank you. also, paul's outfit was quite nice. an enjoyment of the eyes indeed

i've been making a lot of typos in my gifs lately for literally no reason other than not proofreading my rushing and it's embarrazzing i'm gonna do better

speaking of gifs i have NOTHING!!! in my drafts folder. nothing. no content. nothing is made. nothing in the queue. [sigh] sounds like tonight we be bustin it out huh. idk about other gifmakers (i actually don't follow any other panel show blogs, but this isn't necessarily a panel show blog thing, just a regular original content thing) but i don't usually make gifs throughout the week — instead, like, marathon gif like two times a week and build up 10–20 drafts to post throughout the week. if you gif every single day or to keep up with all of the new content, it starts to become a chore, which is never fun :(

speaking of which i probably won't gif outsiders too much because people don't seem to care too much about it + the webrips are just...so ugly in gif form, even at 1080p! it's a dave thing fr, taskmaster used to be the same way -_-

okay here we go into gif mode btw i got some of your requests and will def make them!!

#p #long post

[thessalian]

Thess vs The Beginning of the Holidays

So, the actual performance review.

First thing I got was: "Oh, no, you shouldn't have filled in your parts of the appraisal form during non-work hours! Take that time at the end of the day!" Thus my break before the little bit of overtime has begun twenty minutes early.

Yeah, basically, no end of thanks for all the work I've put in the last few months. The discussion of "This is taking a toll on my physical and mental health" did come up; he does recognise that I am doing myself a bad. So he was entirely on board with sending me a weekly update of what the staffing situation looks like as far as he can tell, so at least I have something to use to moderate my workload, and there was mention of "getting a couple of temps in". I gather they haven't done that yet because they did just move to a new office and there are apparently a few teething troubles, which would be a bad environment to move a temp into. Also we may be getting at least one of the regular staffers back after the holidays, so that's something.

Beyond that, it was the usual "I will accept the 'exceeds expectations' from my managers because my expectations for myself are unreasonable" thing. My willingness to help out, my attention to detail, my communication, and the general quality of my work all got praised. I apparently excel in all areas and am a credit to the department, and they would not be without me. Which I figure is why the "We'll be getting temps in when we get the office sorted out, so we don't kill you". Not to mention the hardware thing. Because most times, it'll take forever to get a request for new hardware through to IT, and management will try to cheap out if they can. Scruffman and Head Honcho, however, are going, "Seriously, if there's anything you need - anything at all that will make your job easier - please, please tell us and we will get it for you. You don't even have to come in to pick it up; we'll courier it to you!" So I am valued. They just don't have a lot of choices right now.

Of course, they could make Temp and New Girl work a little harder, but that's Scruffman's non-confrontational thing and I don't think we're getting that fixed overnight. Though I have to wonder how their performance reviews looked...

Anyway, quick trip to the corner shop for snacks, and then a little bit of overtime (because the girls were slacking again today), and then I will sit down, roast myself a chicken leg, and watch one of my Christmas-gifts-to-myself - I bought myself Repo! The Genetic Opera on DVD. And then maybe video games, if the pain meds kick in and I stop feeling like death warmed up. But hey, at least I have various warm fuzzies, what with good performance review and friend really enjoying the birthday gift I got them and getting to turn off the alarm for a whole week.

It's the little things.

#Thess has a day job

[phoenix]

So, who wants to hear the story of me trying to do my review of Guilty Pleasures?

...Well, too bad, I'm gonna tell it anyways.

But I'm not a monster.

I needed to do this yesterday, because of my best friend's birthday...

So, my best friend's birthday is, well, yesterday. The 27th. Trisk has always posted reviews on the 26th of each month, so when February rolls around, I've always tried to make my review on that day be something that makes me think of him. From something as much as a movie he likes (Rare for our interests to align enough for that to happen, but I got a few out of that), to something as basic as "made in Canada". The connection doesn't have to be much, and it was always just a bit of something that made me smile, nothing more.

About ten years ago, Scott did a movie review show of his own called, Guilty Pleasures Cinema. I gave him the tagline for the show, and designed his logo, and even made a few appearances as Cthulhu. He eventually gave it up because of trying to include clips always led to copyright strikes, and the audience never showed up enough for him to be happy.

So of COURSE, the reason why I wanted to review Guilty Pleasures this week, once I heard about the movie, is obvious.

Unfortunately, the movie is ONLY available on Blu Ray, and Trisk requires DVDs because of my workflow, and creating images. And also, the one rule of Trisk is "I will own the movie". There's only been two exceptions I've made.

But this is a minor issue, because surely someone has it streaming...well, no. Even though a lot of obscure stuff is, not this. Well, surely I can find it through...other means. Again, no, and that's a bit more shocking. I can usually find stuff SOMEwhere somehow. Maybe ripped to YouTube or similar, other elsewhere, but this was just NOT out there. Or it might be, but GOOD FUCKIN' LUCK trying to find something named "Guilty Pleasures". So much porn...

Side note; I mentioned this to Scott, and he offered to look, and I was like, oh no you are literally the one person I can't tell the name to. ;)

The movie might be out there somewhere, but it's not being easy to find.

STILL, I have a Blu Ray player and a DVD burner! I've done THAT before too, but it's a pain in the ass, and there's loss of quality! EXCEPT...this time the recorder picked up copy protection signals and refused to work, no matter what I did.

Time was running out, and I had three choices; play it on my Blu Ray player in the living room, pause every five seconds, walk to the computer in the other room, right up my notes go back, repeat for 110 minutes...because of course I picked a long movie lol.

Choice #2: Scrap it for now, keep working at it, do it next year, and pick another movie REALLY QUICK.

Choice #3: Buy a Blu Ray drive for my computer, and do it that way.

I went with #3, and found a drive that was reasonably priced that I could justify, and then had to play the waiting game.

Scheduled delivery...the 26th. Because of course...oop, no wait, the 28th.

Under ANY OTHER CIRCUMSTANCE, I would have been happy to push it that late, as much as it hurts, but this is literally the one time, in 14 years of Trisk, when it HAD land no later than the 27th.

In the meantime, I had done my first basic watch of the movie in the living room, handwritten down my basic notes I do on that past, transcribed it to a text file, and gotten the post all set up, just needed the bulk of it to be filled in.

And of COURSE there was problems with the delivery. I used my STREET ADDRESS, since it was coming UPS, but they decided randomly to go 'Nah, we're sending it SurePost so it goes to the post office". But I have a *PO BOX* and not a box at my house, for reasons, and when a package with my street address goes to the post office, it adds another whole day, as it gets sent around on trucks trying to find an address they don't feel 'exists'. And they yell a me for sending it to the street address when it comes to the post office...but this is tangenting and I digress.

I scream and upgrade the package to Ground, and yep, it knocks a day off the delivery time, so the drive is at least arriving on the 27th. There should be zero problems of swapping the drive, watching the movie, and doing the thing!

But hahahaha, do you have any idea how fucking difficult it is to get a Blu Ray movie to play on Windows? IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS HARD. DVDs were just ready to go. I know all the reasons why Blus are a pain, and it's so incredibly ridiculous.

The drive arrived around noon, the actual swap was RIDICULOUSLY easy. I didn't even have to unscrew anything.

It then took me three hours of bashing my head trying to get the discs to be recognised and play. And I won't go in depth with THOSE details.

But FINALLY it got working, I chugged my way through the movie, I did the work, and got it posted around 7pm.

At this point, I had been up 30 hours, I'd recorded, edited, posted a podcast, swapped a drive, did tech support, did up an entire Trisk review, and lemme tell ya, I was exhausted.

What a bloody journey for one absolutely ridiculous movie.

The good news is, this does open up a new door for Triskings, since as can be seen here, while I've done a few Blu movies before, they were always a challenge. Now, they're on the same level of ease as DVDs.

#Foenix rambles #Triskaidekafiles

[frostythefrostedfox]

Overanalysing Analysis

Me, sitting at the desk, suit and tie, glasses on: Ladies and gentlemen, today I regret to inform you that I have been overanalizing something that doesn’t needs to be analized to begin with, I completely lost about 3 hours of my life rewatching the same footage over and over, in very bad quality as well, so I could bring you content, not high quality content, quality is sold separatedly as DLC, just content. And that is: The brilliance of the only good parts of Cars 2, The race scenes.

So you better click out of this post right now else you’ll be reading the ramblings of a madman, don’t say I didn’t warned you.

Also, the less quality screenshots belong to the few footage of the Cars 2 DVD, that includes the deleted scenes of the movie.

First of all, the mockup SPEED Network titles and presentation, which resembles the official intro sequence of all FIA championship races, also the fact that they are using 3 official motorsport commentators.

They kept the logo on as the camera goes around as if this was the live feed from any race day. Normally this type of thing is done on the grid as these are the moments that preface the formation lap on any discipline, but I can see why they kept it inside the pits, else the pre-race chatter and the warmup wouldn’t be noticeable, also to cut production time, as pre-formation lap preparations tend to look like this

A bunch of equipment, umbrellas, engineers, media and overall clutter all behind the SC, considering that in Cars everyone is a car (duh, is in the name), this wouldn’ve been hell to fit in without making a random ass huge main straight, or making everyone be so awkwardly positioned on the grid.

Then we get the cars themselves

Francesco, obviously being a Formula 1 car, according to my guess (Source: trust me bro) being a hybrid between the F2004 and the F248 (2006 season), his swaying on the heating is minimal, slow reduced speed and pace on the out so the engine, electronics and brakes won’t overheat.

The GT cars (I actually have no idea who that is supposed to be), strong swaying and quick revving to keep the engine on the mark, as those cars, although specially fitted for racing, are still commercially available cars that you can buy, so keeping perfect temperatures and being “on the zone” at all times is not their main purpose unlike the LMP1, 2 and Formula cars

Next we have “Raoul ÇaRoule“, or, as I like to call him, offbrand Sebastien Loeb, because that’s totally who he is supposed to be, the french flag and the “rally champion” title give it off, considering he is still the one with the most titles in the WRC, which in the Cars universe is called the GRC but for just a name usage and some vague likeness, it just wasn’t worth the money, which is honestly an understandable choice; notice how his swaying is the most pronounced, and his rev periods are longer than anyone else’s, and that’s on point with rally cars, they are high torque high accleeration cars with a very open differential and a loose steering to allow for easy corrections and compensation without overdoing it, as they usually race on ice, dirt and other slippery surfaces that would make precise track-like steering a one way ticket into a tree.

A deleted shot, see the ammount of detail on that Vanquish GT.

Yes, that’s motherfucking Lewis Hamilton, portrayed as none other than a McLaren, as that’s the team he was racing for in 2011.

They even included a DMT/WTC car! And it seems to be a Mercedes CLK.

This shot is just beautiful, I’ll allow my suspension of disbelief to simply take the wheel here as those boxes are too close together and right next to each other, but who cares, the painted-over asphalt like the one in street circuits, the small “belly” at the bottom that McQueen’s tires get as his car-type is on the quite heavy side, the stiffness of Francesco’s tires with the toe in camber at the front wheels, the different tide width for each car, this show is just amazing.

A small shot that we get from McQueen’s POV, you can see the heat thing where it becomes blurry, you can see the details on that (obviously not licensed) LMP1 car with all the details on it, the classic Aston Martin GT body 3 places ahead of McQueen is also a lovely sight to see, with the high wing as they tend to have on GT Competitions.

The starting sequence is a pale where I can see that they put a lot of work and detail on, the rally car and the TOCA cars simply taking off as soon as the lights get green while the GT cars like the Corvette and the Aston Martin taking a bit longer, moving off the grid slower

But as soon as they move forward, they build speed insanely fast, also the huge detail of the Corvette’s bad start as he gets stuck on the first gear and can’t advance until a few seconds later, when he has the McLaren behind him already taking an overtaking line on the left. And don’t forget the AM’s diffusor almost touching the ground.

Another great shot, you can see all of their eyes looking to the left, where the distance to corner indicators are on, everybody looking for their insividual braking point, cars with slower speed but higher acceleration stay on the middle while high aero cars try to go for the inside like the LMP1 as it can brake faster than any other, or Francesco going for the outside so he can do the corner while braking the less, relying entirely on his aero.

Although out of focus, time to appreciate the detail of the back of Francesco, that’s some high detail modelling right there, you can see most of the components and how most of the car is actually empty underneath, you can even see how the suspension moves up and down as he goes thru the track, if I were to be picky the only thing he is missing is the recovery light at the bottom.

A million different lines all based on the specific car taking the turn, TOCA cars going for the inside at all cost so they can accelerate quicker, GT cars preferring a more open line to use the entire width of the track to be less aggressive on the tires as they weight a hell of a lot more.

Now the boxes are also a delight to see

“Gorvette” the GT Corvette gets an F150 (another Ford manufactured car) as its engineer.

A french car, the Citroën DS for the french offbrand Loeb.

A japanese car for the Japanese LMP1 car.

Francesco gets a 250GT Convertible, of course it is another Ferrari, lol

And you can see it on the back of the shot, the Spaniard racer gets a SEAT (possibly a SEAT Leon) as his engineer.

First of all, great lighting and great detail on the track; second, everyone but the rally car is racing on the wrong line, trying to take the path that is the straightest and with the least elevation changes, yet the rally one is the only one that takes the right one, the side with the most camber to help reduce the speed coming into the corner without having to touch too much of the brakes, an enviromental lift and coast if you must, and at the same time it takes advantage of his higher suspension rebound as he has less of a cahnce of bottoming out, unlike literally all the other cars.

OMG Is this Dirt 6?

That’s a pretty good shot right there, a classic “Left 4 DC Tightens, Right 4 Cut Opens”

Those red brakes, THOSE RED BRAKES, Beautiful.

Again, suspension of disbelief taking the wheel because that shot was amazing, but McQueen got the plot armor, do that big of a jump and see how you faceplant the dirt and roll over.

But at the same time, great how the other car is doing it the way it should be done, and even in the next shot you see how it has gained on McQueen by doing that.

The dirt on his body. The sense of speed of the scene. The way the sound echoes. I know this is “average japanese tunnel” but this whole sequence gives me “Monaco Tunnel section” vibes. If only this movie was as great as these shots

Another great backshot, nothing else to say.

Another deleted shot, this is what I meant by Monaco vibes, seeing his wheel so close to the wall and have the sound reflect that by echoing even louder is just great.

Absolute classic TV coverage angle, simply great.

Turn 13 Singapore my beloved, the section is longer than it is IRL and for obvious licensing issues it doesn’t has the metal arch that oversees the straight between 11 and 12, but it even has the small kink right that is turn 12 into the hairpin of Turn 13 just like in the real track

Even on a movie, Lewis is an asshole, brake-switching lanes and not allowing anyone to race on his side of the track, very IC representation of him (and this was in 2011 mind you, even before we saw more his.. interesting... interpretation of the F1 rules, was this some next level foreshadowing?)

Singapore Sling my beloved, I miss you (actually I don’t, I hope you never come back).

Notice how McQueen doesn’t even blinks until he is out of the section, and how every driver that comes moves their eyes from apex to apex

More Sling pics with moving eyes, I love it, also, look at the tyre marks, so beautiful, also that Vanquish nose, so beautiful x2, and lets not forget Loeb in the back doing the most open turns known to man (car?) so he doesn’t has to press the brakes and can just high-rev the entire section like in RXC.

Look at the muddy teardrop, look at the exhaust gas, look at the everything. I’ll never have enough of these low angle sideshots in any Cars movie. Also, mandatory Wangan mention.

You guys really pushing the suspension of disbelief here lol, no way in hell that a NASCAR (insert laugh emoji) car is able to hold back and gain from two prototype racers and and F1 car. Although Francesco is really pushing forward in that shot, but still.

But.

I don’t care, still a great shot, nice to see how much depth and detail is actually there.

He readies it and...

Amazing, as it should be, right on the tail, getting all the reduced drag possible before pushing out into clean air and passing the car like its standing.

Forget what I said earlier, no I am not going all the way up to correct it, if you made it all the way down here you can just pretend that I did, he has the recovery light, and is so pretty, the wing is so on spot, everything really, look at the dirst from earlier, how it splashes back, look at the closeness to the ground, everything is there, absolutely everything.

It’s such a shame that we really only have 1 full race, and the racen is constantly being cut out by some decaf 007 bs that nobody actually cared about; the whole plot of “multinational racing event that is just a big conspiration” was great as it was, because the sport has had lots and lots of those, just the name “Briatore” should be enough to make like 3 movies out of that, and that’s leaving out the lesser known but equally interesting scandals like Multi 21, and the sport defining moments like Jules’ incident (RIP), both the FIA and the FIM have enough drama by themselves to make a movie with this plot interesting enough with just that, racing, cars doing car things like the first movie (Even tho the first one is based off the year-round april’s fools joke known as NASCAR), zero need for Mater to be turnt into a James Bond LARPer

#rant #not sorry #cars #cars 2 movie #cars 2 #cars 2 (2011) #overanalyzing #english teacher moment #pixar #pixar movies

[copiousloverofcopia]

Maybe some fluff with Terzo or Copia where their s/o just curls up and bingewatches Puella Magica Madoka (or any series of your choosing really) with them during their break from tour?

Ok Anon, I will be honest with you...

My friends make fun of me for the fact that I'm a "retro anime snob"...and basically I haven't seen or watched anything released after 2005 😅 with very few exceptions....

That being said I did my best to accomodate your request 😁

Hope it's not too bad 🥰 thank you for the ask!

-Also just fyi, I have a TON of asks I'm working in along with PM requests and my regular chapter fics so be patient with me please 🥰

So here we go this is SFW and the reader is nongendered or gender neutral so all can enjoy a self insert 😁

Too Small Couch

"It's good Papa, I promise." You told him, watching Terzo roll his eyes. Terzo, you, and Copia made your way back to Terzo's Papal suites, a few DVDs clutched in your hands and a skeptical look on Terzo's face.

"Just give it a chance, maybe you'll like it…it does have magic after all." Copia reasoned. Terzo hemmed and hawed all the way inside.

"Hmm…" he mumbled, thinking of ways he'd rather spend time with the two of you.

"Seriously Papa, who are we to deny our lover their one request." Copia said as they entered the room.

The three of you prepared the living area for the night. Copia fluffing up the pillows on the small couch, terzo dimming the lights, and you making your selections as the three of you prepared to binge watch some anime. The first choice of the evening—Puella Magica Madoka. One you had watched so many times before coming to the Abbey, it was embarrassing to count.

Now despite its dark themes, it was a source of comfort for you when you needed a reminder of home. You were feeling homesick a lot lately, especially with Terzo off jet setting the globe. Now he was back and staying for a bit in between legs of the tour. This was the perfect opportunity to indoctrinate them into your obsession.

"If it means that much to you tesoro, then we can absolutely watch." Terzo hummed as he planted a kiss on the crown of your head. Copia smiling and nodding behind you, pleased with Terzo's decision. The three of you snuggled up onto the couch in Terzo's Papal suite.

"You sure we shouldn't watch downstairs, this couch isn't made for the three of us." Terzo pondered.

"It certainly had no problem holding the three of us the other night." You blushed, Copia's eyes widening at the memory–his face even redder than yours.

"True, true." Terzo smiled, beckony you to sit with his finger. The couch was small, yes but the blankets, pillows, and your favorite snack on hand ready for a night of magic, friendship, and just some damn good anime—made it all perfect.

"So Sayaka just becomes a witch over some musician?" Terzo asked, both you and Copia giving him 'the look'. Terzo threw up his hands, unaware he'd done anything wrong.

"Ahhh that scene is coming up, don't spoil it." You chided, but only partly, as you stretched out across them. Terzo petted your head as the three of you watched on, illuminated in the darkness by the light of the screen. You buried your cold feet behind and behind Copia, the perfect human heater.

"Amore, why are your feet always so ice cold!" He yelped, joking forward as you made contact with the bareskin of his back.

"I don't know, why are you always so warm?" You asked with a chuckle in your voice and you wiggled them around against him.

"Like a furnace, that one." Terzo laughed. Copia shook his head, submitting to your whims. The three of you watched together all night long. It was wonderful, the quality time spent together in each other's company. The drama, the darkness, the bittersweet ending all felt deeply.

Copia was a sniffling mess through all of it and there was even a time or two that the 'dust' was getting to Terzo's allergies. It was a simple night, but one to remember. "What do you say we watch some Ghibli now?" You smiled, hiding up Spirited Away.

"Anything for you amore." Terzo said, Copia nodding in agreement. You hopped up to replace the disc and quickly headed back to your lovers. The three of you, snuggling together once more on the too small couch.

#ghost #copia x terzo x reader #copia x terzo x nongendered reader #copia x terzo x gender neutral reader #ghost fan fics #ghost fanfiction #ghost fan fic writers #copia #cardinal copia #terzo #papa iii #papa emeritus iii #sfw fic

[back-and-totheleft]

The Oliver Stone Collection

Long before the advent of DVD, the name Oliver Stone was already synonymous with the term director’s cut. Now, thanks to the wonders of digital technology, the voluble director of ”Wall Street,” ”JFK,” and ”Any Given Sunday” has found the perfect place to unload his vast cinematic attic: the ”Oliver Stone Collection,” a mammoth DVD boxed set loaded with extra scenes, supplemental research, and plenty of conspiracy theories. Recently, the natural born rabble rouser sat down with EW to look back (and to the left) on his collected works — including the mysteriously MIA ”Platoon.”

So where’s ”Platoon”? You know, MGM stiffed [Warner] on ”Platoon” and ”Salvador.” They had a big fight. I don’t know much, I just know there was a lot of bad blood.

Kinda nice having people fight over your work, huh? You could say I’m glad they have some library value, although a lot of people don’t remember ”Salvador.” I know this because the people at MGM said, ”What is it?” But I did a commentary for it. I think [MGM] is going to [release ”Salvador” and rerelease ”Platoon” on DVD] midyear.

Are you a big DVD fan? Any form of preservation is good. And there are so many worthy films they can’t keep up. Museums do good work, of course, but the commercial motivation is the best motivation.

So what version of ”Natural Born Killers” [the R rated version is in the set; the unrated director’s cut is available from Trimark] — and of all your movies, for that matter — do you want the public to remember? I’m not that picky about it. It’s an ongoing process. Think about books: Writers go back to them at various stages of their lives, so there are earlier editions, later editions. I’d never have released a film theatrically without having approved it. So I’ve never had a problem with a studio [cut]. I did have huge problems with the MPAA…. I was okay with the R cut [of ”Natural Born Killers”], but I prefer the director’s cut. I accept the theatrical cut because I made it — nobody replaced me.

Well, you certainly weren’t stingy with the supplements. I wanted to be thorough because my films are often criticized for accuracy, and I’m trying to point out that a lot of research went into them.

So is this the last word on Oliver Stone, or do you foresee future editions? Well, look at ”JFK.” It’s enormous [at 205 minutes]. Other people are talking, people who are very knowledgeable in [the Kennedy assassination lore], even more so than I am, and that opens up the possibility that, yeah, there ought to be [another edition]. Probably in 2010, there will be some new DNA evidence. [Pause] If they’ll let it out.

Speaking of classified information: You were a writer on the original ”Conan the Barbarian,” correct? I wrote a very elaborate script. Paramount saw it and flipped out. It [would] have cost $50 million [to make] at that time. I wanted Ridley Scott to do it. But he chose ”Blade Runner.” And that set us back. I really always strongly felt it could have been a Bond series, 12 pictures, with a great central character if they’d kept the quality up. Ah, it was an outrageous script. I always get approached about remakes.

-Scott Brown, "EW sits down with Oliver Stone," Entertainment Weekly, Feb 9 2001

#oliver stone #entertainment weekly #ew #dvd #dvd collection

[jordoalejandro]

The Thirteenth Annual List of Movies I Saw the Past Year

This was one of the better recent years for film, in my humble opinion. A lot of really excellent stuff at the top of my list. On the other hand, the gulf between the good and not so good films feels more vast this year. Not as much depth.

I think I prefer that though. I like a year where I have more A’s and C’s handed out than a year where everything is a B.

This is also my longest list ever so let’s get to it.

Here’s the list of movies I’ve seen since-ish the last Oscars (3/12/23).

77. The Re-Education of Molly Singer - This feels like a throwback to the bad, cheaply made, straight-to-DVD comedies of the 2000s. Poorly written. Jokes that barely register and often don’t really have a punchline. A janky, cliché filled plot. Forced character arcs. Even the editing feels off. This is the kind of movie that should be 90 minutes (or really 80-something) and it ends up two hours long. Fixing the pacing wouldn’t have saved it but it couldn’t have hurt. Really nothing working here at all.

76. Vacation Friends 2 - I didn’t love the first film but I had some positive feelings about it at least. There was simply no reason for a sequel other than grabbing at cash left on the table. The original was about normal people going through some fairly normal circumstances, albeit slightly heightened for comedic effect. There really wasn’t that much more left to organically explore with them. Thus, this sequel did what a lot of unnecessary comedy sequels do when they are desperate for plot and need to introduce some dramatic stakes: add a criminal element. A random drug lord who can have men with guns chase our heroes. It’s so artificial it immediately lays bare how forced this film is. (This film also does another classic bad comedy sequel thing where it brings back a character from the first film in a way that makes zero sense because they wanted to use the actor again. Here, for some reason, one of the couples has hired an employee from the Mexican hotel from the first film as a babysitter for their newborn on their trip to the Caribbean. You know: a thing that happens.) That alone makes you roll your eyes but it’s not a fatal flaw. It’s forgivable if you can still make it funny. The bigger sin this film commits is that it just doesn’t do anything funny. The jokes are almost nonexistent. They’re barely trying and absolutely none of them land. The original had some humor and some heart to at least make it a decent watch. The sequel is drained of all of that. The weird thing is I can’t say I hated anything in particular here. I just felt pretty much nothing at all through the entire runtime, which is arguably worse. Mark Mothersbaugh’s score was nice though.

75. Fool’s Paradise - It’s kind of fascinating how this film misses every major mark. It wants to be a satire about Hollywood but it’s neither sharp nor insightful. It has a storyline about friendship that is supposed to lead to the emotional climax of the film but it doesn’t ever feel earned. The characters never actually feel like friends in any way and there’s no payoff to their relationship. There’s also a little bit of a Charlie Chaplin homage going on but there isn’t really any delight or charm in it. I don’t know what happened here. Everything is off. The worst part is there are almost no laughs in the whole thing. You could get by a little easier if you could at least nail some good jokes or visual gags or something but there are maybe a few chuckles at best. Even with the crazy amount of cameos by funny people. No one can find a laugh. The film looks nice at least.

74. 65 - Ultimately, it’s a bore. It’s a lot of walking through the jungle and occasionally being attacked by dodgy CGI dinosaurs. The action isn’t very compelling. Nor the visuals and music. Nor the story. Really standard lone wolf and cub stuff. Adam Driver tries but he’s given very little to work with. It’s a step above a Syfy channel film – in budget and quality – but not a huge step.

73. Meg 2: The Trench - I started this one up thinking, “Well, I saw the first one, I might as well watch the sequel” and about twenty minutes in, I realized I wasn’t sure if I actually did see the first one. I certainly didn’t write about it. I might have watched it on HBO? Or maybe it’s one of those films you don’t actually need to watch to know exactly how it goes down beat by beat. Speaking of films you don’t actually need to watch to know exactly how they’re going to go beat by beat: Meg 2: The Trench. There are moments in this film where it realizes it’s a stupid movie and leans in and those are the best parts of the film. Page Kennedy is the only person who is at that right level throughout the whole film. Mostly, though, the movie comes off like another bad Syfy channel film, in writing and especially in CGI. It’s one of those films where nothing looks real. Not just the animals and the sets. It’s so overbearing you can’t believe in the props they’re holding. It’s so much that you actually see past the CGI in your mind's eye and see all the blue screens the actors are standing in front of. Not great for the immersion of it all.

72. About My Father - A couple of nice moments (it has a smidge more heart than I thought it would) but it’s not really funny or sharp or surprising in any way. A lot of flat scenes.

71. Ferrari - You see the title and think it’s going to be a story about the car Ferrari, right? At least half about the cars? But no, it’s really like 80% about the man Ferrari. And the man Ferrari? Not that compelling. Lots of family drama. Mostly uninteresting. Some driving, which is done well but not as good as you’ve seen in other movies (including other period piece movies made within the last five years that have Ferrari in the title). It rolls along like that for a while. And then there’s this one scene that occurs near the end that’s completely unhinged (I’m trying to be subtle to avoid any spoilers but anyone who has seen the film knows exactly which scene I’m talking about). Even though this scene is based in truth, it’s not cohesive with what we’ve seen for the previous 100 minutes. It certainly snaps you awake like no other part in the film, so there’s that at least. Then it goes right back to the family stuff and then it ends. I’m sure there’s enough interesting, unique stuff in Ferrari’s life that it could sustain a biopic but what we got was mostly his relationship drama and that’s not particularly captivating. Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz are decent in this but not great in any kind of way that would merit awards or special recognition.

70. Plane - It’s basically exactly what you expect from a 2023 Gerard Butler movie called Plane. It’s a functional action thriller that doesn’t do anything (action, character, dialogue, humor) particularly well but pieces one thing to the next and gets to the finish line.

69. Killers of the Flower Moon - There are a couple of scenes that happen early in the film: Robert De Niro’s character and Leonardo DiCaprio’s character do some scheming, and then some Native Americans are killed. I hope you enjoy these scenes because they will be repeated over and over and over and over again for the next two hours. Does it ever get interesting? No, not really. Because at its core, the film is a murder mystery-type story and we’re witnessing the entire thing from the perspective of the murderers. Are these murderers at least clever or intriguing or sympathetic in any way? No, not really. They’re dullards who get away with things because no one cares that Native Americans are being murdered. ("You're supposed to feel that frustration!" Fine, but I could probably get there in half an hour. You don't need to drag me through mud for two hours.) The final hour of this behemoth is the law and order part of the show, which is so slow it drove me to near rage. I came right up to the edge of literally shouting at the film to move along. It’s a shame that there’s apparently no one left in the entertainment industry who can tell Martin Scorsese to not make three and a half hour movies. This is a film that is technically sound, at least, and that’s why it’s not at the bottom of the list. It looks good, the writing is fine, the acting is fine (the actors don’t really get a ton to do which is weird because there is so much goddamn time to do stuff!). But it’s just so impossibly long that it becomes an endurance test more than anything, and in doing so, destroys any potential chance for me to care about what is happening in the film or to the characters. I think there’s a good story in here, one I might be interested in watching, if it’s told in, let’s say, two-ish hours. Watching this film, I found myself only wanting it to end already.

68. The Flash - Some decent pieces hidden throughout – a few clever bits or jokes, action sequences, and emotional moments – but more stuff that doesn’t work than does. An unsatisfying plot. An overload of terrible CGI to the point where it often looks like you’re watching a PS3 level video game cutscene. Cameos and Easter Eggs that are jammed in so poorly that there’s no joy in them. Mostly though, it’s just an irritating film. The dialogue often tries too hard to force a laugh. A lot of broad, lazy humor. And worst of all, Ezra Miller’s Flash, the center of the film, is flat out annoying. His awkwardness is turned to 11 and he comes off more like a romantic comedy heroine (I’m too clumsy to get my life together!) than a superhero for the first act of the film. Everything gets even worse when the teenage version of the Flash shows up and behaves, for some reason, like an eight year old hopped up on sugar. It’s not just grating, it’s bad for us as an audience to immensely dislike the film’s main character. This is a movie that feels like it was pieced together from too many visions (including producers demanding more cameos because the other studios do it) and ultimately, it’s a big mess.

67. The Machine - There’s at least some plot though it’s not particularly strong. It works well enough to keep the movie moving along. Serviceable action. The big issue is there are only a couple of genuine laughs and that’s all you’re really looking for here so to be so lacking in that department is a huge issue for the film. An okay plot and serviceable action is not enough to get by. It’s supposed to be really funny and it just isn’t.

66. Good Grief - It has its moments of humor or dialogue but just doesn’t get there for the most part. I think the writing was lacking. Not enough humor, drama isn’t gripping, emotion isn’t there. This plot was fertile ground for a good dramedy but it simply does not capitalize.

65. Polite Society - This is a movie that should be fun and breezy but it’s unfortunately very bad at maintaining any kind of momentum. The final act in particular drags horribly, gaining steam and losing it almost immediately several times, making a 1:40 movie seem much, much longer. A few good moments scattered throughout and definitely some style to it, but overall the humor and action are nowhere near the quality they should be for this to work.

64. Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire - Really generic sci-fi. You’ve got your farmer type rebels and your fascist military army and your laser rifles and CGI aliens and the one hero who can save the universe, but she’s got to pull together her ragtag group to do it. Fine. I can forgive generic if it’s executed well but this is all pretty dull. The characters aren’t interesting, heroes and villains alike. Nor the dialogue. The plot is a standard "get the team together" plot but the heroes just go place to place and have people join them without having to actually do much. Mostly they show up, watch a new character do some sci-fi business, and then that character goes “Okay, let’s go.” Even the action isn’t very good, which is generally Zack Snyder’s strength. The film is interesting to look at, at least, so he hasn’t lost that from his arsenal. But this is supposed to be the jumping off point for a new Star Wars type universe thing and I just don’t see it. I don’t care about any of the goings-on with these characters or this world. There’s nothing here that makes me even the slightest bit enthusiastic for like a dozen movies and spinoff TV shows and video games or whatever.

63. Priscilla - This is the newest addition to the “various scenes from a sad famous woman’s life” collection. It has a little bit more life to it than that but not much. Technically solid. Good looking, good music, fine acting performances. But this feels like a movie made as a direct response to Elvis because his relationship with Priscilla was a bit creepy and, in theory, it does deserve further inspection. The problem is, in practice, when you’re actually watching a two hour film about it and you’re like, no, I guess I really don’t care about any of this. For what it’s worth, the actual Priscilla (an executive producer on this project herself) doesn’t seem to fall on one side of the debate or the other too strongly. The film seems to be sending the message that there was good and bad, that the fame and drugs certainly made things worse and ruined their marriage but, well, the whole thing also ends with “I Will Always Love You” playing so… it’s complicated, I guess? I appreciate it exploring the issue as gray but then that really highlights the “who cares?” of it all. I can’t shake the feeling this was a whole film dedicated to telling me a relationship with Elvis that started when you were a child is kind of weird. Okay. Got it. Thanks.

62. You Hurt My Feelings - Too many scenes that don’t really go anywhere and too many exchanges with no punchlines. It makes it feel like the film is stretching to make its 90 minutes. There are some interesting ideas and some funny bits in here but simply not enough in terms of character or dialogue or plot.

61. A Good Person - It never reaches a level of emotion or poignancy to truly be worth the journey, especially because the journey, at its core, is a generic addiction story (read: a melodramatic, repetitive cycle of relapse and recovery). Florence Pugh is good as always and Morgan Freeman does nice work, but the film as a whole just never gets there.

60. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget - I don’t really remember the first one. I saw it in theaters as a child and have generally positive feelings about it but that was also two-plus decades ago so I can’t say with any certainty if I liked it or if I just liked being unburdened by age. Anyway, though this sequel is fine, it doesn’t seem to me as good, in writing and style, as the original. (Or maybe it is. Again, I can barely remember.) This is a fine movie for children and I’m sure children would enjoy it. It’s not really anything that appeals to me.

59. Shazam! Fury of the Gods - A couple of funny bits (Djimon Hounsou actually gets most of the better laughs, stealing the few scenes he’s in) and serviceable though not exactly enthralling action, but it still mostly feels like an uninspired sequel. Middling villains and a plot it’s hard to connect with. A lot of murder of innocent people that doesn’t mesh with the otherwise more lighthearted tone. Two movies in and they still haven’t figured out how to make the adult and kid versions of Shazam seem like the same character. It’s a little closer in this one than in the first but adult Shazam acts like an eight year old and kid Shazam (who is 17 years old, not eight) is more serious. You feel like they’re two entities and not the same person. If I had to point the finger, I’d say it’s probably Zachary Levi’s fault. Maybe adult Shazam’s lines might match better with different readings but he plays it very much like a small child and it’s off. The director should probably be on top of this, too. All of this sounds more negative than it is. It’s mostly forgettable fluff but it’s easy enough to watch and not hate. It’s just that it’s also not going to interest anyone outside of fans of the first film.

58. Down Low - Some decent laughs but about as many misses as well. Not funny enough for what flows, plotwise, as a sort of standard dark comedy.

57. The Creator - A good looking film, in cinematography and production design. Slick. But it just could not get me to care about the characters or story. Another sci-fi flick that falls right into your typical lone wolf and cub story. It tries to provide a few cute moments to get you to buy into their relationship but mostly hopes you’ll just accept it because our main character is protecting a “child.” While that is usually enough to go on in most of these types of stories, the child here isn’t really a child. It’s a stand-in for something much more gray. The film hopes you won’t examine that gray area very much if the child says something sweet every now and then. I could maybe get there if the whole thing was executed better but our main character is only sometimes compelling and his relationship with the cub feels more obligatory than earned so I spent the last half of the movie not particularly caring if they succeed or not.

56. Nyad - There’s some of the decent stuff you expect in a story about battling nature (and yourself) to do something incredible. And the relationship between the two leads is strong (so is their acting). But the movie itself isn’t incredibly interesting as a whole. Mostly because it’s a lot of swimming, then getting hurt while swimming, then resetting, then more swimming. And repeat. Nyad goes through a The Revenant-esque series of ass kickings to the point it becomes almost humorous. Also, and this is probably mostly a personal thing, but I don’t really care about feats like this, swimming long distances and such. Of course, there are plenty of films that are about things I don’t care about and I was made to care about them by the film. Nyad never really did enough to get me to buy into why I should care whether or not she can do it. In fact, they often make her such a miserable, unlikeable character that I sometimes found myself rooting for the ocean. The problem is, if you’re not bought in to the glory of the achievement, then you’re really just watching swimming.

55. The Color Purple - I haven’t seen the original but I had a general idea of what it’s about and I sort of formed a version of the film in my head and now, having seen this version, I think I was pretty close. Lots of melodrama about being a woman and Black and poor in the South in the past. It’s not fun! This version has music, at least. A lot of enjoyable songs. Great performances (in singing and choreography). They’re the high points of the film by far and keep things lively. Honestly, another song was something to look forward to when you’re caught in the trauma and sadness parts. It’s a visually strong film as well. Good acting, with Taraji P. Henson, Fantasia Barrino, and especially Danielle Brooks doing strong work. All that said, I write a lot of these reviews and get to the end and say something like “this is coming off more negative than how I actually feel about the film.” This is sort of the opposite. All of this sounds more positive than how I felt about the film. Despite my enjoyment of the musical bits and appreciation of the acting, the film is a lot of dull melodrama. Maybe primarily that. That’s why it’s around here on the list.

54. The Super Mario Bros. Movie - I enjoyed the incorporation of musical themes from the game and some of the Easter Eggs. It’s a pleasant looking film. Colorful but not overwhelming. Is this just stuff I like about the games, though? Maybe there’s credit, at least, in the movie knowing what to pull from the games. Jack Black was good as Bowser. I’m just listing things now. It’s very much a decent kid’s movie: pretty straightforward story, basic jokes. That’s fine. It’s good to have movies for kids that aren’t torturous, but I don’t have kids so I don’t get a ton out of this.

53. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom - It’s mostly a mess. Most of it is CGI’d to hell, so much so that you start to question whether Jason Momoa is even real. The action scenes aren’t very interesting and neither is the plot. There’s a lot of flat acting in it, too. It’s not what you would call a good film. But you know what? There’s actually a decent amount of enjoyable stuff in here. Some funny lines and gags (though many that do not work). And much of the second act has Momoa reuniting with Patrick Wilson’s villain/brother character from the first film and they have a little buddy comedy thing going that works surprisingly well. Their chemistry is good. Momoa himself is very charismatic. He’s trying. He just has very little to work with. The fun stuff in the film is simply not enough to save it but it at least prevents it from being a train wreck and makes it not a miserable watch.

52. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial - Well directed, well written (it’s based on a 1950s play which is based on a 1950s novel so it’s mostly adapted but it’s been modernized well), well acted. William Friedkin was a masterful director, and he’s able to mostly keep the film moving and the energy up. Ultimately, though, it does end up feeling like the straight up play adaptation that it is. 95% of the film takes place in one room and it’s essentially a dialogue-only film, and there’s only so much you can do to prevent it from slowing down, even as an expert director.

51. Past Lives - There’s some strong acting and good writing in parts. Moments of brilliance (mostly in the last half hour) but I need more overall. Humor, drama. Something. I’ll settle for more dialogue. It’s a movie with a lot of walking and sightseeing. Very long takes with very few lines. I appreciate letting a moment breathe but, well, let me put it like this: it's a 105 minute movie and I looked up the screenplay and it’s 85 pages long and the dialogue within is written twice, one in Korean and once in English. That’s not an equation that adds up to a fast (or really even medium) paced film.

50. Gran Turismo - Decently directed. The action scenes are well shot and have good energy. David Harbour is very good, turning what might be a cliché curmudgeonly mentor character into a charming curmudgeonly mentor character. He takes really basic lines and imbues them with some life. That’s sort of the problem with the whole script, though. It’s very basic in both plot and dialogue. (There are tons of lines that are just describing what’s happening. “Gotta catch this guy!” “Make the turn!” It’s not the worst thing but once you catch it, you don’t stop hearing it.) There are parts of this film that rise above its base level of basic-ness, but not too many.

49. Dumb Money - Credit to the filmmakers for taking a story that doesn’t really lend itself to a plot nor have any real heroes and crafting a watchable film out of it. It’s entertaining enough and has a few laughs. The second act is very repetitive as they run through the hold or sell question like half a dozen times. I don’t know if this is valid as film criticism because it’s based on me knowing a lot about this story in real life but I found myself rolling my eyes at much of the film and its attempts to oversimplify and create heroes. That’s the issue with telling a story that just happened. The full fallout of the story hasn’t occurred yet. Some of the things in the film have already aged poorly. There’s a title card at the end saying what happened to some of the characters and one says a character was still holding GameStop stock waiting to sell. The stock is like 80% lower now than it was at the peak this film presents. She’s screwed. She’s not a real person, but she does represent a lot of real people who did get caught up in the excitement of this thing and got left holding the bag when it stopped working. Again, I debate with myself if that’s a legit way to criticize a film, so I’ll put that aside and just settle on this being fine.

48. No Hard Feelings - The story, the characters, the comedy: certainly could’ve been better but still passable. They all come together to make a solid enough film with a few laughs but nothing extraordinary.

47. Strays - It has some laugh out loud moments but most of the humor is more “hah.” than actually funny. That’s a problem for a film like this which is really about the jokes more than anything. There is some heart to the film but I don’t know if it’s a strength of the writing so much as an exploitation of our feelings about dogs. That is, show us a dog being sad, then being happy, and their faces and our brains do most of the work. It’s a nice effort to try and create some depth in a film that’s mostly about dogs cussing and humping things, at least.

46. Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game - Cute and cleverly told. It has some good moments and a likability to it but not enough drama to really carry it over even its 90 minute runtime. It basically tries to get by on being cute and cleverly told and that can only get you so far. It’s solid if not spectacular.

45. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - Just okay. It just doesn’t have the life the first two films in this series had. It misses the groundedness of those films and those side characters. A lot of time here is spent setting up the Quantum Realm and its factions and showing it all off but it’s hard to really care about all these new characters or this world which reads like a generic alien world and never feels more than a giant load of CGI. A lot could probably be forgiven if it was funnier but while it has moments of humor and creativity, it goes too long in between to forgive its weakness in other areas.

44. Rustin - A decent, if straightforward, civil rights biopic. A very strong performance from Colman Domingo at the center. Not a lot of surprises but it moves well enough for a biopic.

43. Champions - It’s a film about a curmudgeonly, washed up basketball coach who has to coach a team of young adults with learning disabilities. If you hear that premise and immediately build the film in your head, you’re probably at least 80% right. It’s done well, though. It has some heart and a few good laughs and moves well enough. I would’ve liked it more if it was funnier or tapped into something more emotional, but as is it’s decent enough.

42. Lift - It’s a sleek heist film with a decent score and it moves well which makes it quite watchable even if it’s not exactly a great film. It’s very clunky. The writing isn’t fun enough. Only really Billy Magnussen and Vincent D’Onofrio are given characters with some personality. They aren’t written particularly well but the actors make them work by leaning in. The rest of the team doesn’t offer a whole lot. Kevin Hart seems miscast. He’s playing a veteran criminal (think George Clooney in the Oceans movies) but he doesn’t fit the role well and he’s given almost nothing funny to do. More action than anything, which is not his wheelhouse. The main heist isn’t plotted particularly sharply. It sidelines most of the team at the halfway point so Hart and Gugu Mbatha-Raw can have an action romance style third act. Again, it’s not great. More than a handful of weird choices. But it didn’t exactly stop me from enjoying the ride, so I can’t really ding it too badly I guess.

41. Bank of Dave - Cute, sweet, kind of simple. Nothing too surprising. Could be funnier. Based off a true-ish story (as it says) and a lot of it feels movie-fied (some parts egregiously so) but it still mostly works and you can watch it and feel good.

40. Blue Beetle - It’s a DC origin film that’s about on par with the first Shazam. It shares some of the highlights and issues with Shazam, as well. Highlights: some good humor, fun character interactions between the heroes and the side characters. Issues: action is just okay, some darker tone shifts that don’t jibe with the lightheartedness in most of the rest of the film. The villain in this film was much weaker than Shazam but the soundtrack was much better and more memorable. Xolo Maridueña is a more charismatic lead, too. So, some give and take but I’d rate them around the same quality level.

39. Linoleum - Some interesting stuff for the first 80% of the film but a bit slow. An excellent finale, though, that sort of saves everything. In that sense, it’s sort of the opposite of a film like Don’t Worry Darling, proving a good ending can really make or break you. Linoleum’s strong, moody, emotional finish ties everything together and sheds light on what we’ve seen and makes the whole thing feel worthwhile.

Are you still with me? We’re about halfway there. Grab a snack. Let’s do a quick mid-list documentary break.

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is a creatively edited, sometimes difficult to watch film about the actor’s life with some strong emotional moments throughout. Parkinson’s is a hell of a disease.

The Eternal Memory is another touching, heart-wrenching film. Also not an easy watch but it finds a way to inject love and beauty into something quite bleak. Alzheimer’s is a hell of a disease.

Okay, let’s get to the top half of the list, which is longer than some previous whole lists. Why did I do this to myself?

38. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. - A cute and snappy coming of age story. Doesn’t talk down and doesn’t get too melodramatic. Some sweet moments, some funny moments. I would imagine it probably hits harder for women but I can appreciate the quality of the work.

37. The Killer - Very stylish, as David Fincher does. It moves well. Michael Fassbender is very good in the role. Tilda Swinton has a good bit role, too. It’s fun as a sort of neo-noir experience but as a story it’s not incredibly fulfilling. The setup is fun (the opening sequence which gets you right inside the killer’s mind is the high point of the film), then you get the inciting incident, and then four revenge chapters which are different enough from one another to stay fresh but not entirely compelling overall in a storytelling way. It’s similar to John Wick in that sense, though it’s a bit more artistic and less action-y than that.

36. The Marvels - Funny. Good characters. Iman Vellani, who was strong as the lead in her MCU show, does an excellent job here, able to still stand out even amongst bigger acting names. There’s a power swap thing between the three leads that is inventive and creates for some very fun action scenes. The villain is entirely forgettable, though, and the story isn’t really there either. Plus, the film is structured in a weird way. It sort of skips a first act and jumps right into act two, which makes it feel a little bit unsatisfying. Not necessarily unsatisfying as in letting the viewer down, but unsatisfying in a way that makes you feel as if you’ve just watched an episodic adventure rather than a full satisfying film story.

35. Extraction 2 - A strong follow up that shares the same strengths and weaknesses from the first. Action is really well done. There’s a 20+ minute one-shot early in the film that’s so impressive and long it almost feels arrogant. Like, it just keeps going to the point where you start thinking enough already. It also kind of makes every action piece that follows feel like a let down. Chris Hemsworth is good in the role again. The weakness, like the first, is in the story. It’s mostly there just to give reason for our heroes to run around and kill bad guys.

34. Tetris - Presented in a really clever way. It moves well. It’s movie-fied for sure and you can absolutely feel it, but it’s in service of making what’s likely a pretty dry story into something more thrilling and effective.

33. Nimona - Great looking animation. A good story. Funny. Solid voice acting. It’s mostly for children but an adult can watch it, too, and appreciate some of the jokes and not be miserable.

32. Leo - Not every bit lands but there are some very good ones that produce genuine laughs. It has some heart and sweetness to it, too. Adam Sandler does solid voice work. A lot of songs, some good, some weak. Like Nimona, a cute film for kids that parents can watch and get something out of as well.

31. May December - A fascinatingly dark film with notes of sharp satire. It’s not the most thrilling film but it keeps you engaged. Well written and directed. Well acted. Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore are good, of course, but Charles Melton is excellent as well.

30. Elemental - A well done, insightful story about immigrants. The romance story was fine but didn’t really hook me. I enjoyed the film as a whole but it just didn’t hit me in the emotions like so many Pixar films do. A good film but not one of their best.

29. John Wick: Chapter 4 - A little too long to the point where even the action scenes, which are the main attraction, start to overstay their welcome. You start to go “Okay I get it, let’s move on.” Still, the action is very well done. Fun locales. A good looking film. Even a few bits of well-employed humor. I think it’s my favorite since the first one and perhaps the best one of the series but I also say that knowing that this series is very much four movies that are fun while you’re in the ride but leave your memory almost immediately after. They are what they are.

28. Maestro - Really impressive acting from Bradley Cooper and especially Carey Mulligan. Strong directing and visuals. It’s almost told in vignettes, which makes it kind of dreamlike. Some of the vignettes really work but a lot hit your sort of standard biopic pieces and don’t do as much. Overall, it’s solid.

27. Somewhere in Queens - Decent writing, decent acting, with Laurie Metcalf giving a nice performance. Complex, nuanced characters. It’s a good family dramedy with a little bit of humor and emotion.

26. Saltburn - It’s delightfully dark and keeps you interested, even if it sort of reaches an ending that, while not bad, doesn’t land with the sort of punch you want it to. There’s something missing in character motivation and plotting that makes it feel like it’s missed the mark. Still some fun performances (especially Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike) and excellent cinematography and design. It works as is. It just feels like there was potential for this to be more and it didn’t get there.

25. Bottoms - Very funny, very silly. I think my main problem is that it’s such a hyper-heightened reality the film takes place in that when it comes back down to Earth and tries to have some human drama it makes me roll my eyes. Having football players kept in a cage in history class and also a sincere best friends argument feels like trying to have your cake and eat it, too. Still very fun though when it sticks to the over the top satire, which is the majority of the film.

24. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - I think part of the problem is the original three were so good and ended so perfectly, it’s really hard to find a story to make further adventures worthwhile. This one is fine, but it just doesn’t get all the way there. It doesn’t quite measure up, in basically every sense. The action, the humor – they’re there but just not totally up to par. The other thing that is a little off is that this feels very much like a modern action movie, like someone doing Indiana Jones years later. There was a pulpiness to the original three that made them feel less plastic and that’s missing here. Even with its faults, I still think this is a good film. John Williams’ music is still great and Harrison Ford still has the charisma, and there are moments where you feel the magic again. Just not enough to string together a fully great film. It leaves a better taste in my mouth than Crystal Skull, at least, even if it can’t live up to the original trilogy. Maybe it never had a chance.

23. Theater Camp - Very cute, often funny. It pokes fun at theater kids and actors but in a loving way. A sweet movie that’s an easy watch.

22. Quiz Lady - A very endearing film. Sweet, silly, funny. A little bit of heart, too. There’s certainly room for it to be funnier or more original but it works and has some good bits and fun performances.

21. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves - Lots of fun. It has solid action pieces and good humor. Importantly, it finds ways to do fresh things with a sort of standard fantasy story and keeps it entertaining throughout. The writer/director team of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley did this with their last film, Game Night, too. Take a premise that could be kind of bleh and get creative. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just write a sharp, funny script.

20. Red, White & Royal Blue - This is my token “sweet gay romcom that I have a tough time being objective about” pick. I get one of these every few years or so. It’s a very cute film with some decent humor and good flow. Sort of your standard romcom fare but it’s executed well. Should it be this high on the list, quality-wise? No, probably not. It’s not that much worse, but it’s, objectively, not that great either. I enjoyed it enough, however, to bump it up here. And it is my list after all.

19. Wonka - Like Paul King’s Paddington films, this is much better than you expect it would be or than it really needs to be. Also, like the Paddington films, this is still mostly a movie for kids so it’s only going to go so far for me. But it’s quite a delightful film. Some clever lines and gags. Good songs, though nothing iconic that will stick long term. I have to stop doubting Timothée Chalamet. When I first heard of this, I thought it was going to be a mistake, but he’s so damn charming that he’s able to pull it off. He dives headfirst into this role and gives it his all and it pays off.

18. You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah - It’s similar in theme to Are You There God? but mixed a little with Mean Girls and flavored incredibly Jewishly. I found it to be a sharper, funnier, and more modern approach to those themes. The nepotism of it all is a little gross (it’s crazy that Adam Sandler’s immediate family all won major roles in this film he produced after what I’m sure was a thorough audition process) but Sunny Sandler is, in fact, quite good in the role so you can forgive it.

17. Anatomy of a Fall - Smartly written, well acted. Sandra Hüller gives a strong, subtle performance at the center of the film and Milo Machado-Graner is great in a supporting role. The film does feel a little bit like an intense, fleshed out episode Law and Order though. There’s an hour of courtroom drama in the middle that’s engaging but also mostly dialogue on dialogue. It’s similar to The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial in that there’s only so much you can do to dress that up. It’s a film that doesn’t spoon-feed you, which I appreciate. It’s confident in its ambiguity and it lets you decide where you fall, pun absolutely not intended.

16. Air - Sharp writing, moves well, good acting. Matt Damon and Viola Davis are especially strong. (Damon delivers a speech near the end of the film that is particularly affecting.) Nothing groundbreaking. Just a really well done sports/business story.

15. Next Goal Wins - Sweet, funny, and some heart as well. The story has some clunkiness and there are definitely some misses amongst the many jokes in the film, but a lot more that works than doesn’t. Michael Fassbender is very good and Oscar Kightley is excellent as the surprising heart of the film. It gives you everything you want from a feel good sports film.

14. Oppenheimer - Some great stuff but also simply too long. The film is paced well enough for a three hour film but it likely didn’t need to be three hours. The most compelling stuff, as you might imagine, is the creation and moral implications of building a world destroying bomb. Interpersonal affairs, while interesting enough still, are much less so. Good acting from Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr., who really are the only ones to get enough screen time in this giant cast to truly make their mark. (I would argue though, if you wanted to trim an hour from this film, you could probably pare down Downey’s role almost entirely.) Good directing and writing, taking what might be very dry material and keeping it enthralling.

13. Barbie - I really like how many wild swings this film took for being a big budget film based on a worldwide property. Interesting characters. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling do great work in their roles. Sharp writing. More than a few laugh out loud jokes and gags (though also a handful that fall flat). It does veer into too silly territory at some points and drags a little here and there but is able to recover, usually by taking a sharp left turn you don’t expect. Its messages are laid on thick but it’s playing to a certain younger audience so I’ll roll with it. A couple of nice humanist moments as well (which is something Greta Gerwig excels at including in her films) though nothing in the film that really cut through me emotionally.

12. Blackberry - A fairly straightforward rise and fall story of a tech company but particularly well done. Fun, smart, doesn’t drag. Good music, good style. Glenn Howerton in his wheelhouse as a barely restrained maniac and gives an excellent, memorable performance.

11. Rye Lane -  Smart, sharp writing. Strong performances from the two leads, David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah, who have great chemistry. Fun direction and editing. It rolls right along for about 75 minutes, tells its story, and then ends. This is another film where it’s like: is this, at its core, just a very cute rom com? Yes. But while it’s not reinventing the genre it is a great execution of it.

10. All of Us Strangers - A truly beautiful, haunting film about love and loss and the things we wish we could say. It’s very artsy so it certainly has its slow points where moments just breathe and breathe, but its high points are so damn high. It’s like an emotional assassin. Several scenes, especially in the back half, that just nail you right in the heart. It’s basically a four actor film - Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, and Claire Foy - and each of them puts in just tremendous work, all worthy of being on my top five individual performances list.

9. Society of the Snow - “Alive - Now with real Latinos!” It’s a pretty straightforward survival film about a story that you’ve likely heard of and so there aren’t really a ton of surprises but it’s expertly made. Shot well, acted well. Tense and thrilling. Aided by a beautiful score from Michael Giacchino. It’s a brutal story but one that’s also about sacrifice and strength and hope. It’s a simple theme but it lands well, puns still completely unintended.

8. Poor Things - Absolutely fascinating from a visual and musical standpoint, as Yorgos Lanthimos does. His directing is truly excellent and matches great with Tony McNamara’s sharp writing. The film is just a bit too long. You can feel it gaining and losing momentum in the back half. Mark Ruffalo’s scenes are definitely the best in the movie and the others, while generally good, are just not as strong (with Willem Dafoe’s scenes being the strongest of the rest). Excellent acting performances from Ruffalo and Dafoe and especially Emma Stone at the center of this wild ride.

7. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - A fantastic sequel, on par with the first. Smart, funny, emotional writing, good voice acting. The visuals are excellent but often have so much happening on screen you can’t focus and have to just kind of glaze over and let it go. It’s fine – you never really feel lost – but it’s also kind of sad because there are interesting details happening that you almost literally can’t catch without stopping the movie. I was really loving this film until the final minutes. Without giving too much away, I’ll just note it basically concludes on a “to be continued…” note, stopping at what feels like the mid-point of the third act. It’s an ending that doesn’t not work but movies that end like that leave a bad taste in my mouth. Set up threads for the next film, sure, but don’t leave me hanging completely. Don’t make me leave your film with a groan. The ending was obviously not enough to make me hate the film, hence why it’s way up here on the list, but it would’ve been higher with a more complete one.

6. Leave the World Behind - A fascinating neo-paranoia thriller that’s masquerading as an apocalypse film, which is very meta in itself. It has a lot of interesting things to say about us as a society, which risks it getting preachy, but it walks the line by telling the story in a really engaging way and never sacrificing plot for message. Good acting, smart writing, and interesting directing. It doesn’t force you to a conclusion but presents you with some ideas and lets you decide.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 - A little overstuffed but other than that a really wonderful end to this trilogy. James Gunn brings the humor, the music, the emotional beats, the action. He writes these characters and their interactions so well. I don’t know how or if this series will continue, but whoever takes it over will have a tremendous challenge trying to match Gunn. It would have been a travesty to have not let him come back and close out this chapter for these characters, and I’m so glad they got one last ride under his direction.

4. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One - It feels like there should be another dash or colon or something between Dead Reckoning and Part One, right? But that’s how they list it. I think they got self-conscious about already having too many punctuation marks in the title. One more would look ridiculous. The night after we watched this film the first time, we were going to watch another film that we’d been putting off (it appears on this list, much lower) and all I could think while navigating towards the other film was how much I just wanted to watch Dead Reckoning again instead. That’s the kind of film this is. It energizes you. It makes you want to come back for more. The action sequences are fantastic, as always. The humor is there. The visuals. The music. The franchise has had issues with villains (generally its weak point) and making the main villain of this arc a nebulous computer program isn’t really helping to remedy that. (Esai Morales is fine but unremarkable as the human face of that program.) The decision to make the villain an AI that can manipulate essentially anything adds a really nice dose of paranoia to all the proceedings but also requires a lot more heavy exposition and makes the film much more heady. Making you think a little more isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a film, but is it the right choice for a Mission: Impossible film? I’m not sure. It’s maybe better for these films to just have a MacGuffin and keep things moving. Still, this film’s nearly three hours fly by and despite it being a “part one,” it tells a full enough story to be satisfying.

3. Asteroid City - The music, production design, and cinematography are excellent as always with Wes Anderson. Strong acting from the whole ensemble in small pieces and a surprisingly strong performance by Jason Schwartzman at the center. Smart writing as well. Fast and very funny, and then movingly poignant. It’s a little inaccessible in parts. The plot is purposefully all over the place and it can make it quite difficult to parse exactly what’s going on at first glance, but I think the greater message still comes through and in a deeply emotional way, in my view at least. It really worked for me.

2. American Fiction - Tremendous writing. A strong, smart, very funny satire about media mixed with a moving family dramedy. Great acting performances all around but especially Jeffrey Wright, who is excellent as the film’s anchor, and Sterling K. Brown, who delivers a very strong supporting performance, embodying a character who’s both funny and deeply pained. Everything about this movie works.

1. The Holdovers - I guess the theme of this year’s list is “brilliant execution.” No other film for me embodies that theme this year more than The Holdovers. Yes, the film is your sort of standard “curmudgeon bonds with young person who melts his heart” tale but it is executed flawlessly. It finds the right tone immediately and never lets it slip. A pitch perfect mix of humor and drama. Heart and sorrow. Very human. Sharp writing. Brilliant acting all around. Paul Giamatti is fantastic. The too smart for his own good sad sack who is actually a human being underneath the layers of protection he puts between himself and other people. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who, if this blog’s search function worked, you could find me singing the praises of for years, once again turns in an excellent performance. I’m so glad she’s getting big-time recognition. Dominic Sessa is great, as well, and it’s very impressive that he’s going toe to toe with these other two established actors and sticking right with them. The core three characters’ stories unfold so beautifully throughout the film, getting you to empathize with them slowly and naturally. It’s filled with great music and great visuals. You feel yourself in New England in the 1970s. I think the thing I can say most in favor of this film is that I just didn’t want it to end. It’s such a warm, wonderful story that I was actually disappointed when I felt it turning from act two to act three and starting to wrap up. In a year where I’ve complained over and over that a lot of these films are too long, this was the one film I could’ve spent much, much more time in.

Time to do some individual awards.

Best Actor

5. Jason Schwartzman, Asteroid City 4. Barry Keoghan, Saltburn 3. Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers 2. Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction 1. Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers

Best Actress

5. Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall 4. Natalie Portman, May December 3. Margot Robbie, Barbie 2. Carey Mulligan, Maestro 1. Emma Stone, Poor Things

Best Supporting Actor

5. Paul Mescal, All of Us Strangers 4. Willem Dafoe, Poor Things 3. Glenn Howerton, Blackberry 2. Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction 1. Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things

Best Supporting Actress

5. Julianne Moore, May December 4. Rosamund Pike, Saltburn 3. Claire Foy, All of Us Strangers 2. Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple 1. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Best Directing

5. Emerald Fennell, Saltburn 4. J. A. Bayona, Society of the Snow 3. Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things 2. Wes Anderson, Asteroid City 1. Alexander Payne, The Holdovers

Best Writing

5. Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie 4. Tony McNamara, Poor Things 3. Wes Anderson, Asteroid City 2. David Hemingson, The Holdovers 1. Cord Jefferson, American Fiction

And now let’s look at the ACTORS WEB:

What a nightmare! Here’s a fun fact about the making of this graphic: I almost cried and gave up on it four or five times! I saw too many movies with too many big casts this year. A terrible mistake on my part.

Okay, that’s more than enough for this post. It’s over. We made it.

Enjoy the Oscars.

- - - - -

Read More:

Annual Lists of Movies I Saw the Past Year

#reviews #annual lists of movies I saw the past year

[here4theheartbreak]

Omg! How does it feel to have the swaggiest bag and photocard holders in the world? I really need a photocard holder. I'm carrying around Seonghwa in my purse like he's my wartime sweetheart. 😅

I'm actually enjoying the chill — often sad — birthday songs. But I never thought about it like that?? It IS supposed to be a celebration/party~! Jongho, drop us a banger with a sexy beat in October?? Failing that, Wooyoung pull through?? I know he can do it! That Studio Choom 'Bad' is forever engraved into my brain.

It seems like San gets so passionate about things so fast? I feel like he'd argue for something SO mundane like it's the most important thing to him in the entire world. What an endearing, but also potentially hilarious, quality to have! And I'm suddenly having flashbacks of the Wanteez 'that's my rabbit~!' 🐰😂

They DEFINITELY had to give something to Jongho for that dinosaur video. I can feel it. They OWE him now. He's so funny though. So often, I think he might actually be the funniest member and that's a hard crown to reach for in such a funny group of men!

Exactly! THAT is what I want KQ to understand. Yet they continue to miss both the point AND the mark. (And they're making it very hard/nearly impossible for new fans to get into them.) If they just make more merch available, it will get bought up so fast and so consistently. And that would give them a MUCH larger profit margin — and all without their artists' labour. Also, yesss to more international fanmeets and fanevents. Honestly, I'd like the company to monitor them more closely though, like make it so the same people don't win over and over and over. Please, let them meet new faces.

My fankit literally just arrived about two minutes ago. Ahhh, I'm so excited to open it!

I lovvvvve Good Omens the book. But I haven't watched the series yet. I keep meaning to... but I never seem to actually do it? I annoy myself, because I know I'll love it. 😂

Ohhhhhh, you should definitely make an idol photocard tarot deck! It sounds like so much fun, even just as a little project?? If you do, you'll have to show me/tell me. I'm so interested in who you'd choose for what card!

THAT PHOTO OF SAN. CHOI SAN, WHY?? WHY IS IT ALWAYS YOU?? 😩💕

Let's see, what's been happening in Tinytown lately..

🌸 Jongho is injured again. 😩 I hope he gives himself time to get better, even if it takes months. I know he probably won't. Because he'll want to be back doing shows, with the other members, singing for atiny. But it would do him so much good to let it heal properly. It's so risky to his long term health. I know it's his choice at the end of the day, but I hope he sees a doctor who pushes for it.

🌸Queertiny are winning again? Apparently this is from the photobook dvd — featuring the pride, lesbian, bi, and trans flags??? That's our Ateez~! 🌈

🌸Talking of. Wooyoung taking photos in front of those rainbow crates/boxes? What a cool looking backdrop! I also would not have been able to resist...

🌸I'm excited about the tour? They get to see new countries and see more evidence of their global impact. And fingers crossed for some of those long YT lives where they're just eating and chatting for hours. Seonghwa and Hongjoong, I'm looking at you two!

Okay, I'm going to open the kit now~!

ahah this is the full bag - I have very little room left for pins, I need to stop collecting. i did move some of my photo card holders into the bag just because they were clicking around and I am afraid to lose them lol.

Aww that’s a cute picture of him tho! I don’t have a bigger wallet, just a guy’s like traditional bifold leather one so I don’t have any place to put a pc in mine 😂- I do need a new wallet tho and have considered a bigger one since I mostly shove it into my bag anyways so, idk tho. I used to carry one in the back of my phone case but I have a big sticker there (a UK based queer artist - also the one that did the 2 pins I have at the top of my bag, Heteronormativity is a Plague and Satan Respects Pronouns; here in the US there was a big fuss during pride month with this artist’s stuff and Target, the conservatives got it pulled from shelves bc it was “satanic” (none of the Target ones were this - they were all set pastel, love is love type things) - so I decided to buy from his shop instead of Target for pride instead lol

I like chill songs but they also make me wanna cryyy lol - if they’re happy so am I but yes, please, drop something less melancholy. Can still be slow! Just not gloomy lol. See Wooyoung is so back and forth like Ughhh Bad killed me, but then I watched his other dance performance of 1-800-273-8255 and I may or may not have cried for 10 minutes solid lol

San is so disproportionately passionate about things and I love that so much. He’s such a sensitive person like, the slightest upset really seems to hit him and make him speak up which is a beautiful thing, he seems like someone who really wouldn’t stand to let someone get pushed around, but also a sad thing - because being so empathetic and sensitive can be tough sometimes. But they all seem to support each other well, so I am sure he’s got enough members around to keep him from getting too lost in the feelings.

Jongho is 100% the funniest member purely because of how his humor hits. It’s very sudden, out of the blue and very dry, which is right up my alley. He uses intelligence and sarcasm as humor without being overly mean about it, and it’s such a delightful contrast to some of the other members’ more juvenile jokes or physical humor. The group really does have it all in every way.

Oh my fucking god don’t get me started on the serial fanmeet callers omfg. My friends and I firmly think there should be a limit, like max 1-2 calls per comeback, let new fans get a chance. Because what happens is it’s all these big GOMs that take advantage of the situation and keep the calls to themselves rather than giving back to the people that HELPED them get them. I am friends with a couple smaller GOMs here in my state and what they do is if they win more than one or two calls over a comeback, they end up raffling off the extra call(s) to their buyers - so anyone that wants to have their name added who’s bought from the GO that the call is from gets a chance to get their name drawn. I think that’s so much more fair and I feel like other GOMs should do that, esp the ones that do have 200+ albums per order and pretty much a guaranteed fancall.

Oh the series is so delightful. I haven’t watched season 2 yet - I’m hesitant bc I’ve heard it ends sad and with the current Hollywood writer’s strikes it’s a question mark on when the next season will be out - but I will watch it soon, I have every reason to believe it’s just as good as the first though, Gaiman being so deeply involved in it helps a lot. He’s such a good writer, one of my favorites. I’m going through s1 with my kiddo slowly.

I saw that about Jongho, poor thing - It seems to be connected to his earlier injury. Those meniscus tears are awful to heal from without surgery - and even with it it can be tough bc of how much stress his legs are under for his job; hopefully he’ll be able to take some time off like you mentioned. After this concert tour hopefully they can all take a short hiatus/break and recover before the next one. (I know I’m wishing for a miracle but)

Ahh I saw that little clip on twt with the hearts! I love it. you can’t tell me they don’t know what that means, they have enough editors ffs. I’m so excited to get my summer photobook (which is what these seem to be from I think?) It’s in the process of shipping so I am eagerly awaiting V_V Patience is not my strong suit lol.

And Wooyoung with the boxes was so good, I loved it, I think I saved one and put it in my lockscreen rotation on my phone lol

What did you think of the kit???

#answered #ask #daegu-flowjob #long post

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony’s Stupid Daily Blog (236): Mon 7th Nov 2022

The last few times I went for a run I got exhausted really quick and I had to stop several times to get my breath back. I didn’t want the same thing to happen this time so I decided to take it really slow. So slow that I must have looked like my ankles were tied together by a pair of invisible handcuffs. I’ve decided to start picking a random podcast to listen to just before I run and hopefully I’ll be treated to great stories and introduced to new things. Tonight I listened to one about missing people. I don’t know why but whenever I watch of listen to true crime shows I only seen to go for the ones covering cases I already know about. I’ve consumed just about every documentary / podcast / tv show there is covering the Yorkshire Ripper / Wearside Jack (and was a little bit disappointed when they didn’t allow me to have this as my specialist subject when I went on Mastermind. So I told them I wanted my specialist subject to by Only Fools And Horses and then just answered questions about the Yorkshire Ripper to spite the producers which made for a confusing episode: “Who starred as the dim witted road sweeper Trigger?” “A hammer and a knife?”). Mid way through the run I saw that there was a peddle bin lying in the street. Are there people so stupid that they don’t realize that you keep the bin and throw out the rubbish. Does the person who threw this away have a big pile a garbage in the middle of their kitchen? Also when do you decide the time is right to get a new bin? The bin itself doesn’t get dirty because it has a bag inside it which is the thing that gets dirty. Maybe the guy had gotten so far in recent years that he realized this bin could no longer cope with the amount of empty pizza boxes and cans of Coke so he needed to get an upgrade? If I still did Emergency Questions like Richard Herring does I think “What is your favourite bin you have ever owned?” would be a perfect addition. The only bins I can remember owning other than the big one I have now were a tiny wicker one which never got used because I had a proper silver pedal bin which I put next to the smaller one…which makes one wonder why I got the smaller one in the first place. Perhaps I was thinking of having a small, medium and large bin and I would allocate my trash based on its quality similar to how medals are assigned at The Olympics. So a box from a really delicious pizza would go in the big bin (The Gold Bin), the plastic covering from a DVD that was just sort of alright (Hot Tub Time Machine, something like that) would go in the Silver Bin and the wrapper from a chocolate bar I tried that turned out to be rank like a Double Decker or something would go in the small Bronze Bin. Although this could be problematic because what if I bought a huge TV which turned out to have a shit picture quality? The ginormous box the TV came in would need to be wedged into the tiny Bronze Bin. Also what if I had something that was okay to eat like a jacket potato with coleslaw from the cafe round the corset but only ate half of it and put the other half in the Silver Bin and than the next few things I had were either really good (gold bin) or really bad (bronze bin). That jacket potato would be the only thing in the silver bin for ages and my room would fucking stink. Given that all this bollocks was going through my head the entire time I was running I frankly think it’s a miracle I wasn’t run over.

[awesomephd]

Watching Through My Collection: Day 9/36

Spider's Venom (1971) aka Venom aka The Legend of Spider Forest

Day 8 / Day 10

Despite the Wikipedia page being under the name Venom and the IMDb page using The Legend of Spider Forest, I'm leading with the title used on the copy I own.

It was so obviously a digitization of a low-quality VHS recording that I let my curiosity talk me into watching this twice to see what it should actually look like.

CW: Spiders, Nazis, consent issues, a generous dose of T&A

Editing really is everything. Formatting and audio, color balance- it's all a vital part to how a story gets expressed. Nothing proves that quite like the blast from the past this DVD was for me.

The brightness contrast is so bad it distracts from how washed out every other color is, dialogue is constantly lost for being too soft or covered up by ambient noises, and the whole thing has very obviously had massive chunks on both sides of the screen cut off.

The strip of static distortion across the bottom of the screen really drove home how much the copy I own had been recorded straight onto VHS without any reformatting.

These are the same scene.

Less than a movie, my copy of Spider's Venom is a historical artifact in the study of home video distribution.

But beyond the fun, weird history lesson I got out of this experience, once I found a version I could actually see and hear, it's actually a pretty fun thriller about Nazis and folk stories.

It opens with the strangest flashback? establishing scene? dream sequence? of a man and woman skinny dipping and going to fuck in the woods. It's shot in a sort of lime green monochrome with the light turned up to 11 and then a starburst filter thrown in. (In my copy the color is so bad it's more of a pale blue and there's even more contrast. I couldn't even see pubes like I could in the original.)

Unfortunately, after they do it, the guy gets poisoned by spiders and dies, but then again that's just what you get for being ass naked in a forest. Get arachnids on ya.

We then get to follow a random English painter named Paul on vacation/artistic retreat in the mountains of Germany where he runs into the girl from the opening and she totally just decides to get him wrapped up in a Nazi scheme. She tampers with his camera film so they think he's a spy and in a later scene totally kills the actual spy.

There's actually a sort of gothic romance that happens between the two of them. She believes she's cursed so that spiders kill any guy she loves, and the locals who see her running around the forest call her the Spider Goddess, but he hasn't died yet and he just wants to stick with her. Sadly, instead of just having there be a Spider Goddess who summons spiders, they reveal by the end that it had all been the scientists doing experiments on her- following her in the forest and killing everyone who gets too close.

The potential was there!

The movie invokes aspects of a folktale in other ways too- other than the romance. For starters, Paul has so many fucking outfits where he wears a wide belt over top his fucking t-shirt and pants. With his calf-length black boots and pants tucked in them, he looks like a little prince!

Then there's the antagonists. It's a good thing the only synopsis my DVD had to offer was that Nazis are trying to make nerve gas out of spider venom, because otherwise it'd be really hard to have any idea what their deal even is until the reveal at the end. Honestly, I would have never even known they were Nazi scientists- but I guess in 1971 you just needed Germans doing death experiments to be enough to broadcast Nazism.

The single woman among the Nazis, daughter of the sawmill owner helping fund the experiments and one of the ones that thought Paul was a spy, also has just the weirdest sexual encounters with him.

She breaks into his room to look at his camera film too and when she gets caught, I guess decides to fuck him as a distraction? It's a very sudden shift in the scene and I swear they look so much like they're wrestling naked I can't believe sex scenes got away with this. Then, after the obligatory guy-in-over-his-head-gets-ambushed-and-left-tied-up-by-the-henchmen scene, she finds him tied down in the forest and just straight up rapes him. He ends up untied and casually cuddling her afterward, but it didn't start off that amicable.

Weird things are just always happening in this movie!

There's the one henchman that's like 2nd in command and he doesn't even want to be a Nazi or anything! He kills the sawmill owner and plans to run away with some Bosch paintings they were using to fund the spider venom experiments. (I also thought he was like a very old man until I watched the regular version and could actually see his face.)

Hieronymus Bosch paintings are a subject of much conversation for how little they appear in most of the plot. They get mentioned as missing a ton, then off-handedly revealed to being used to fund the Nazi experiments, then Paul tries to steal them and sneak off with his not-actually-cursed Spider Goddess, Anna, and then they burn up with the house at the very end.

Also at the end, as Paul and Anna have managed to escape and he says they're finally safe, she says "no" and just walks casually back into a burning building. Wish I could come up with a reason why they made that be the ending.

All in all, it's a weird, fun crime thriller with a bit of gothic romance thrown in and a healthy bout of nudity and some balls to the walls editing choices. Whole back-and-forths in dialogue between headshot and music crescendos that cut off a good few seconds before a scene cuts, and Anna's scientist father in a wig at the end for no reason right before he dies.

I love it. I might buy a newer version that'll actually be watchable.

#nick is a dangerous man #collection reviews #the legend of spider forest #spider's venom 1971 #the legend of spider forest 1971 #spider's venom

[agustd3]

♡ j-hope is the best ♡

#dailybts #btsgif #min yoongi #yoonseok #memories of 2020 #i just used my dvd so the quality is bad but he looks so good #bangtan

[hotwaterandmilk]

Asamiya Kia's first artbook in 20+ years hit shelves this week and for once my copy arrived fairly quickly. Titlted Réunion, this book covers the artist's entire manga career from well known 90s titles like Silent Möbius and Nadesico right through to his more recent efforts like JUNK and Kanojo no Carrera. If you're looking for any of his anime art you won't find it here, this is exclusively for his printed media (and you can find his older anime work released under his actual name, Kikuchi Michitaka, in older artbooks like “The Next Generation”). If you're a fan of his manga however, you're in for a treat as this is a fairly comprehensive release.

Now when I say "if you're a fan of his manga" that really is loaded, isn't it? Look I'll level with you, Asamiya's manga art has changed significantly over the years to the point where his early works like Saimebi and Vagrants look vastly different to Corrector Yui and Spe-Ope! He was also an early adopter of digital processes in the 90s and more recently increased his use of reference photos in his doujinshi releases too (like, to an obvious degree). All of which impacts how his work has evolved over time.

To put it simply, there's 288 pages of art in here and depending on which works of his you like, you’re either going to see the 4400 yen price tag as a bargain for all the great art from series you love or a rip off for all the mediocre art from series you don't care about. I'd have to say I sit probably between the two, while I'm not a huge fan of the way Asamiya's art has evolved he did still help create some of my favourite series. So while a lot of his recent work just isn't for me, I was satisfied with the amount of early artwork here that did tick my boxes.

Anyway, good things about this art book:

A shitload of pictures. Like there is PLENTY of art here which makes it heavy to ship but worth it if you’re keen on having a lot of his art in one place.

The book covers most major releases (manga, DVDs) from each title, including more recent ones (so you have original 90s book art from Compiler but you also have the cover Asamiya drew for the 00s DVD release of the series).

Quality paper, quality printing -- honestly the work looks good.

Comments from Asamiya for each illustration that give you an idea on the background behind each pic (like when he was first testing out effects in early Photoshop or what inspired a particular pose). It gives you some insight which is nice.

There are some rare pieces of art represented here that you won’t find in good quality anywhere else (the Kiddy half-naked in jeans pic, for example, has never been published in quality like this before).

Bad things about this art book:

Not nearly as comprehensive as it could have been. Don’t get me wrong I like that Saimebi QD is included here (for posterity if nothing else) but the section on the original series is rather lacking. Off the top of my head there’s no Saimebi bunkobon covers included, no kanzenban covers included, no DVD covers included, etc. This goes for most of the bigger series featured in this book (Kanojo no Carerra doesn’t have a fraction of its overall art here). I’d honestly have preferred they split this into two books to give the bigger titles more representation because argh, we could have had it all!

Far too many lovely pictures ruined by being placed across the spine. Why do publishers insist on doing this? There’s some incredible art for series like Corrector Yui and ALL the Dark Angel manga covers that are spread across two pages to their absolute detriment. Hate this practice (see above in the pics for a gorgeous Saimebi spread that’s ruined by this placement).

There is some overlap between older pics from art books GAIA and VENUS, but there’s also a lot missing from this era. Again, points off in terms of comprehensiveness. (But I do have to say the quality of this book remains vastly superior to the old ones.)

Overall though look I’m very happy I purchased this to get what I got. The pictures from series I like look amazing and even the ones I don’t care about as much are nicely represented. My gripes are really just wistful desires for more of what we have and better organisation, none of which are exclusive to this release.

So my advice is that if you like Asamiya and want to own a collection that covers all his major manga releases, get this book.

#meta #ramblings #photo #photo: hotwaterandmilk #silent möbius #silent mobius #steam detectives #corrector yui #kanojo no carerra #compiler #dark angel #merch #merchandise #asamiya kia #kia asamiya #art books #writing this in my lunch break #so excuse any fuck ups #will definitely be scanning the correyui content at least #since so much of it hasn't been released properly before #not sure about the rest #but yeah

[haleigh-sloth]

An art analysis nobody asked for:

No thoughts, just...

This picture lives in my head rent free right now. I already made a post with this picture in it but I wanted to make another and explain why this makes me so happy. 

As an artist, my favorite thing about reading manga is that you get the narration along with the VISUAL representation of the narration. To me, manga, comics, stories told in this format are the most enjoyable because there isn’t much left to the imagination as far as visuals, but there is a lot left up to interpretation. You can interpret the facial expressions, statements, shading, body poses, everything in a manga panel the way you feel fits the story, but you don’t have to struggle to imagine what a character looks like or what action they are making like you would with a book. (Reading is great don’t get me wrong, I’m just expressing my reasons for loving manga so much)

All manga series come with art pieces that don’t occur within the story. This can include separate prints, official merch, and even volume covers!. These pictures don’t exist within the actual story, but instead exist to give off impressions, get fans hyped up, and sometimes foreshadow future events. But official art pieces very rarely, if ever, spoil major events for the story. 

Now seeing this picture makes me SO HAPPY because it’s truly the start of a turning point in the story. Last chapter was a big deal. Midoriya has a new goal to work toward. And while I did think it would take a little longer to reach the story’s final arc/act/whatever you wanna call it, I’m not dissatisfied with the fact that it’s being dove straight into. I am an impatient woman, so I am pleased (Although I am worried about story-telling quality suffering a bit? But I think Hori knows what he is doing for the most part-I believe in him). Anyway, I just want to examine some past official art pieces/volume covers that have corresponded with certain points in the story as it came out, so as not to spoil anything.

If saving Shigaraki was Horikoshi’s plan all along, he could have been putting out art to indicate as much, but spoilers! Instead, we got pieces like this:

This is a DVD cover I believe. But it corresponds with a big moment in the story. Reminding us of a terrible crime he and the league committed (kidnapping), emphasizing his villainy (and our other two important villains). 

We have several volume covers that don’t paint him in the best light, but instead emphasize negative characteristics:

These emphasize him as an enemy. We don’t even see his whole face, just his red eye. (red is usually associated with evil!)

Then we get a little more personal with Shigaraki, and by personal I mean we see his face:

In this one he’s underneath. Still framed as “bad”, “evil”, “lurking beneath, plotting something”.

This one, in my opinion, is very light hearted in a way. It shows the LOV, together just...hanging out, being themselves. But The events that take place in this volume aren’t light hearted...at all...lol This cover corresponds with a turning point in the story. A dark turning point at that.

This has got to be my favorite. Yum. Seriously though, this is clearly a depiction of him mentally spiraling. It corresponds with him uncovering his traumatic memories. This cover doesn’t have a positive connotation to it. But again, we’re getting more personal with our main antagonist. 

In my opinion, this is where I saw a bit of hope in the art:

Look, Shigaraki clearly looks like an enemy here. I get that. But there are a couple of things here to be noted:

The coloring style for this picture is different for a reason. Both are painted in different color palettes than we’re used to. Orange and pink don’t indicate good OR bad, for either side. Deku’s hand being held out is very telling. Now I remember when this piece came out, I don’t remember exactly which chapter it was released with, but it gave me ominous vibes. I’m sure to most, it was a typical “hero vs. villain” image. To me, it was the beginning of the change in dynamic. Standing back to back is a pose you usually see with partnerships--positive ones. Two characters standing back to back to show solidarity. That, coupled with Deku reaching out, gave me a positive feeling for the story, even if the chapter at the time wasn’t OBVIOUSLY reflecting it, like it was last week. 

But now we have this new piece. There’s no facing off against each other, there’s no fighting, they’re not even looking at each other, but they’re still connected because of what they’re holding in their hands, and their matching positions. (NO--THIS IS NOT ME CONDONING THE DFO THEORY DON’T EVEN START). Deku’s future is going to involve AFO. He’s going to have to fight him (I assume right now with aid from Shigaraki). I’m not looking into Deku holding his picture any further than that. Now Shigaraki holding a picture of All Might is painful and sad, but also sweet, and hopeful. 

It’s so sad because...well..All Might should have saved Shigaraki, a long time ago. But he didn’t. Shigaraki HATES All Might, we know this. Before he found his TRUE conviction (destroying everything and starting over) his initial goal was to just straight up kill him. However, the sad part about this is I believe Shigaraki hates All Might because deep down, this whole time, he was subconsciously hoping and wishing All Might would come save him. I’ve been thinking about that for a long time now, because on more than one occasion, EARLY in the manga, Shigaraki had taken notice of Midoriya also:

I mean at first glance this can be taken as villainous. “I need to learn more about him so I can defeat him”. But to me, from the GET GO, this was always just sad. His first encounter with Midoriya he immediately got All Might vibes from him, which brings me back to Shigaraki truly wishing AM had saved him long ago. To me in this panel looking at baby All Might, he’s still wishing and hoping that he’ll somehow get saved-deep, DEEP down (like so deep down he isn’t even aware of this desire to be helped).

Bringing it back to the color spread...it’s sweet and hopeful because even though it isn’t AM doing the saving, Shigaraki has been noticed by All Might’s legacy, finally, and help is on the way. **also peep how Shigaraki’s pinky is lifted, so as not to crumble the picture :,)** I really REALLY love this new piece because it’s the first one of Midoriya and Shigaraki (my favorite character) where there isn’t violence or fighting, but a taste of the hopeful ending we’re heading toward.

#bnha #bnha spoilers #bnha 306 #shigaraki tomura #tomura shigaraki #tenko shimura #shimura tenko #midoriya izuku #izuku midoriya #deku #bnha art #art #bnha official art #bnha meta #rants #gran torino #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #mha #mha spoilers #bnha leaks #mha leaks #bnha manga spoilers #bnha manga #all might

[brighteststar707]

Wordless ways to say "I love you" - Jaehee

#4: Making their favorite meal when they are having a hard day

💫

It had been an unusually tiring day at the café. Even Jaehee, who usually managed to keep herself composed, looked weary. At around midday one of the espresso machines stopped working, leaving you with a queue of impatient and angry customers. You felt like half the city had woken up in a bad mood that morning. To top it all off, the third batch of modified puff pastry that your girlfriend was testing for a new dessert had failed.

It was with a sigh of relief that you served the last customer of the day, mustering up your remaining strength to give them a smile and wish them a good evening.

“That must have been the longest day in history. I thought it was never going to end,” you say, coming out from behind the counter to lock the door and flip the sign to read CLOSED.

Jaehee hums in agreement, rinsing off the last mug, “I’m glad it’s over now. I can’t remember the last time I was this tired.”

Wiping her hands dry on her apron, she also emerges from behind the counters to sink into a chair. She rests her head on her hands and looks around the room slowly. You know she’s surveying what needs to be done tomorrow, making lists of inventories and expiry dates in her head.Her diligence never fails to impress you. It’s one of the first things you loved about her, one of her qualities you admire the most.

You quietly cross the room and put your hands on her shoulders, rubbing small circles with your thumbs where you know it starts to ache after a stressful day.

It's rare to have the café so quiet. In the morning, you usually have a playlist full of your favorite songs playing. Singing along as you drink your morning coffee and set up the café energizes you. During the day, it’s full of the noise from customers and more recently, the ambient music that Jaehee says improves business. With just the two of you, the space feels smaller somehow.

“Seven replied to my message and said he should be coming over tomorrow before opening time to fix the espresso machine - I had to promise him a fresh pain au chocolat as payment, of course.”

“That’s good. Tonight I will have to look into what went wrong with the latest pastry batch.”

“Don’t let it get to you, my love. Puff pastry is so delicate, it’s normal to not get it the first time around. This batch was definitely an improvement from number one and two.”

“Thank you for saying that. It’s easy to get frustrated when these things fail. Now, shall we get started on cleaning up?”

You dip down to quickly plant a kiss on her cheek, "Yep. I can't wait for us to get home tonight. Zen DVD and dinner on the sofa, here we come. "

Cleaning up the café is monotonous work that always goes by surprisingly quickly. It’s not long before you’re finally ready to leave for the night. Before you close up the kitchen, you go and retrieve a small box from the fridge.

“What’s that?” She asks.

“It’s a surprise! I’ll show you when we get home,” You reply with a smile.

You’re both quiet on the walk home, processing the day’s events. When you get home, you both settle down and get comfortable. You’re deciding on which DVD to put on when she remembers your promise.

“Are you going to show me what’s in that box now?”

“Well, I was going to save it for after dinner, but since it’s been a long day, I’ll show you now. Close your eyes and hold out your hands. I'll be right back.”

You quickly go to the kitchen and open the box. Inside there’s a few coffee cream puffs, freshly baked this morning. You know she usually disapproves of eating the pastries you bake for the café, but you feel like today can be an exception.

You return to the living room and put the plate in her hands. She opens her eyes and almost immediately perks up at the sight. You know these are one of her favorite desserts. You settle next to her on the sofa, draping a blanket over you both.

“I saw how you were looking this morning when they were in the oven, I thought having some just this once won’t hurt us,” You say.

She kisses you before fixing you with a warm smile.

“Thank you, my love. I’m lucky to have you with me. You make these long days worth it.”

💫

Prompt list

#okay maybe it's a slight deviation from the prompt #but it's fineeee #VD prompts #mystic messenger #jaehee kang #mysme jaehee #cheritz #jaehee x reader #my writing