#marie x mace

[atlasstudies]

Rewatching The 355 movie. Those two are never beating the gay allegations.

#still waiting for a second movie #the 355 #mace x marie #wlw characters #wlw #lesbian #marie x mace #movie aesthetic #movies #moviegifs #jessica chastain #diane kruger

[heytheredeann]

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

#the355edit #the 355 #mace browne #marie schmidt #marie x mace #mace x marie #not spn #my edit #multifandom mine #i KNOW i'm probably the only one who gives a shit about them but. THEY

[teleanors]

just rewatched the 355 and there's GOTTA be sumth about the way mace and marie flirted at the end of the movie and then played boys wanna be her by peaches

#the 355 #5 months later they still had too much chemistry for nothing to be done about it #mace brown #marie schmidt #mace x marie #marie x mace

[carladuquette]

just watched the 355, a movie about an international team of female spies, and went to ao3 to look for fics after (as one does). and the ENTIRE first page is fics centered around the secondary boyfriend character. are you kidding me??? there are two women in this movie who are clearly bonding over shared trauma WHILE BEING KICKASS SPIES and all ppl write about is the dude in the background?

i guess i underestimated how into sebastian stan the world is. very disappointed right now. smh.

#the 355 #mace x marie #there are 14 fics abt them #the other 76 are almost all various ss characters x reader #ugh #fanfiction

[madamebaggio]

Marie *looking at Mace*: Uh. I can’t believe I’m gonna sleep with her.

Graciela: Well... You don’t have to.

Marie: No. I’m gonna.

#madame baggio #crackship #gifs not mine #snippet #the 355 #marie schmidt #graciela rivera #Mace x Marie #quote from Brooklyn 99

[fckinwild-kiwi]

Dec. 2nd: A Metal Christmas Concert

Day 2: Helping each other with Chores/Going to a concert or a play together

Here is day two of @comp-lady’s December writing challenge! It’s the farthest I have ever gotten on a writing prompt challenge so this is a very exciting time. I’m feeling very inspired right now! :) Please leave any critique (in a nice way because I'm sensitive) but I would love feedback to become a better writer. <3

Warnings: Swearing (I think that’s it for this one, if not, let me know?) Word Counts: 1.6k+ Words Pairings: Eddie Munson x Reader

“What do you say about accompanying me to a special event tonight?” Y/n asked as she stopped in front of a certain curly-headed boy’s locker. 

“I would love to accompany you to a special event tonight, what’s the occasion?” Eddie responded as he opened his locker to grab his English notebook. 

“I have these tickets to a concert tonight for an artist that I know you’d love to see,” Y/n responded to not give any important information away. She reached down, intertwining her hands with Eddie’s pulling him towards Mrs. O’Donnell’s class.

“Fuck yeah baby, do I know them?”

“You definitely know them,” Y/n said, standing on her tiptoes to press a kiss to Eddie’s cheek before finding her desk. “And I think they’re pretty metal.”

“Yeah?” Eddie questioned, his mind feeling fuzzy and his cheeks warming up at her touch. “I can’t wait to see this concert then, baby.”

“Quiet down, students,” Mrs. O’Donnell interrupted. “Take a seat, Mr. Munson, we do not have all day.”

“You got it,” Eddie grumbled before sitting down as y/n giggled beside him. 

As the school day finished, Y/n gave Eddie a quick kiss before quickly walking out of the school to get into her car. “Please be at my house by 6, Eds! I just need to get ready!”

“I’ll be there at 5:50, sweets!” Eddie responded as Y/n closed her car door to drive off.

As soon as she got home, Y/n ran up to her bedroom to change for the concert. “Sissy, which dress am I supposed to wear?” A soft voice said from her doorway.

“Give me one second, sweet girl! Let me finish getting dressed and I’ll meet you in your room to help you get your special dress on !”

Y/n dressed quickly and went into the restroom to quickly refresh her makeup from the day. Tonight was her five-year-old sister, Macy’s, Christmas recital. They had been learning Christmas carols and jingles for the past few weeks at school and she knew how excited her sister was for this performance.

“Okay, love bug! Let’s get you dressed,” Y/n said, clapping her hands as she walked into her sister’s room. “Mom is going to meet us at the school so we need to get dressed and eat a snack before we go. And I might also have one surprise for you too if you’re really good!”

“A surprise?! What is it sissy?!”

“Let’s get dressed first! I can’t tell you the surprise because it’s supposed to be a secret, silly goose!”

Y/n walked to her sister’s closet, pulling out a red and green sparkly dress that her Mom bought specifically for this occasion, and Christmas of course. Then, she reached into her sister’s sock drawer to grab the frilly socks to wear under her adorable Mary Jane’s. 

“Here you go love bug,” Y/n said, spinning around to her sister. “Let’s get you all dressed up and fed so we can go to your concert!”

“Do you think I could be famous for my concerts one day?” Macy asked. “I want to be a rockstar like Eddie!”

“Macy Mace, I’m sure if you ask the rockstar himself, he might tell you all of his secrets so that you can be a rockstar just like him,” Y/n assured her sister as she got a PB&J ready for her. She was so happy with the fact that her Mom and sister got along with Eddie and they loved him almost as much as she did. As Macy began to munch on her sandwich, they were interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Oh Macy girl, you better get the door, I think it might be your surprise!” 

The little girl squealed before dropping her sandwich down on the table and running towards the front door. “Eddieeeee!” She yelled when the door was opened. 

“Macy girl!” Eddie responded back just as enthusiastically.

“I missed you so much, do you like my pretty Christmas dress?” Macy asked Eddie as she twirled in front of him.

“You look like a sugarplum fairy, love bug,” Eddie said, his eyes crinkling with a smile as he repeated Y/n’s nickname for her sister.

“Macy Mace, let’s go finish your sandwich so we can go,” Y/n said, leaning on the doorway of the kitchen to watch the interaction unfold. 

“Hey baby,” Eddie said, walking towards Y/n as Macy ran back into the kitchen. 

“Hi,” Y/n whispered, reaching out to wrap her arms around Eddie before leaning up and giving him a kiss.

“Mm,” Eddie groaned, before breaking the kiss. “Are we dropping your sister off before the show tonight?”

“No baby, she’s coming with us! Ready to head out, love bug?”

“Yes, sissy!”

“Then let’s go, my loves!” Y/n yelled, grabbing her sister’s coat to help her put it on. After Macy was dressed, Y/n put on her own coat and grabbed Eddie’s hand. “Eds, we have to take my car so that Macy has her car seat. I’ll drive there if you drive us back?”

“Of course, baby,” Eddie mumbled, placing a quick peck on Y/n’s lips as he opened her door for her. “I’ll help Mace into her seat if you want to get the car started and warm?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Y/n said, sitting down in the driver’s seat. After Macy was situated and Eddie was in the passenger seat and buckled, Y/n took off down the road towards Hawkins Elementary School where the kindergarten class was set to perform with the rest of the grade school children. Once they were parked, Y/n looked over at Eddie to find a confused look in his eye.

“Why are we at the Elementary School?”

“To see my concert, duh,” Macy responded as she quickly unbuckled herself to get out of the car. “Sissy, let’s go, I have to make it to my classroom right now!”

“Okay, sweetie, let’s go,” Y/n said, unbuckling herself and getting out of the car. “Eds, can you go find three seats? My mom is supposed to meet us here so I promised to save her a seat.”

“Yeah, of course,” Eddie responded, still looking confused. 

After dropping Macy off at her class, Y/n walked towards the auditorium to find Eddie. Due to the fact that he was wearing his normal attire of jeans, a Black Sabbath tee, and his Hellfire Club jean jacket, Y/n spotted him right away. “So the metal concert you wanted to take me to is your five-year-old sister’s Christmas program.”

“She promised me that it was a metal performance,” Y/n said, smiling as Eddie wrapped his arm around her. 

“I was prepared for some Dio cover band outside of Hawkins, I’m sorry I’m dressed like a freak for this. If I had known, I would dressed more appropriately,” Eddie whispered, his insecurities oozing off of him.

“Baby, no,” Y/n said, turning to look at Eddie. “We don’t want you to change how you look. Macy was so excited for you to be here today. Do you know what she told me before she even knew you were coming? She asked me if I thought she could be famous for her concerts one day like you, Eds. We love you. You’re not a freak, these people just suck. I want you here just the way you are.”

“I love you,” Eddie said, putting his face in the crook of y/n’s neck and holding her tight. 

“And I love you,” Y/n echoed, tightening her grip around Eddie.  Before long, Y/n's mom showed up and the lights darkened as the kids walked out on stage to begin singing. 45 minutes later, after each class sang a couple of Christmas carols, the students were escorted off the stage. “Please pick up your students at the classrooms. That ends our Annual Christmas Recital, thank you for coming and please get home safely!”

“Honey, can you and Eddie bring Macy home? I need to go back to the hospital and finish my shift, I should be home around 10 o’clock tonight,” Y/n’s mom said as she began to pass out hugs. 

“Of course, Mom,” Y/n responded, grabbing Eddie’s hand as they walked out of the auditorium. Together, they walked down the school’s hallways to Macy’s classroom. As soon as they spotted the door, they could hear the five-year-old shouting. 

“No! I’m telling you, it was a metal performance!”

“No, it wasn’t,” One of her classmates responded. “Christmas songs are not metal.”

“Well they won’t be with that attitude,” Macy responded, as she looked over, she spotted her sister and Eddie in the doorway, her eyes lighting up. “Eddie, do you think Christmas songs can be metal?”

“When you perform them, love bug? They’re the most metal songs I’ve ever heard,” Eddie responded as he walked over to Macy and picked her up.

“See, Clara, I told you so,” Macy remarked. “See you later!”

Eddie, with Macy in his arms, walked over to Y/n before putting an arm around her shoulders and leading the crew out of the school and towards Y/n’s car. 

“You did an incredible job tonight, little Miss,” Y/n said as she sat in the passenger seat and Edie buckled Macy in. 

“Thank you sissy,” Macy said. “Eddie, how many times do I have to perform a concert before I am a rockstar like you?”

“Oh Mace,” Eddie said, his eyes becoming misty as he smiled. “You are already a rockstar, you’re probably a bigger rocker than I am!”

You think so?” Macy squealed. “Do you think I can perform with you, then?”

“I think that can be arranged,” Eddie responded as Y/n took his hand in hers and squeezed it.

“I love you,” Y/n whispered to the boy with shaky breaths beside her his emotions becoming too much.

“And I love you, baby.”

“What about me? I love you sissy and I love you Eddie,” Macy responded, feeling left out as they turned onto Y/n’s driveway.

“And I love you too, Macy girl,” Eddie responded, putting the car in park and turning to look at the five-year-old with soft eyes. “I love you guys so much.”

#Eddie Munson #Eddie Munson Fluff #Eddie Munson x Reader #Eddie Munson x Reader fluff #eddie munson x female reader #stranger things fic #stranger things au #fckinwild kiwi writing #fckinwild kiwi #comp lady domestic december

[arcann]

12 17 22 violence 🔥🔥🔥🔥

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

MACE WINDU. he could chop your fave in half (probably has) and still look more chill than them while doing it. biting filoni every time he tries to include Mace on anything. this man has class.

But aside from that no, most of my faves are shitty. i accept that and if others can't do that with theirs (bc lbr most fandom faves are always shitty), then skill issue.

people i don't like shouldn't like my faves tbh.

mine. my faves.

17. there should be more less of this type of fic/art

girl what is this. a positive opinion. we're being violent here.

reader x fanfiction needs a Huge pushback. at first it felt like a silly gimmick now it's clearly about making the self insert as generic and devoid of any sort of characteristics that make them a person as much as possible and the character being shipped fitting assorted stereotypes that most of the time descend to violently (and yet somehow boring) sexual. they should just write about the mary sue in their minds. they would be happier and not writing something one step away from chat gpt.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

Man i love the origins' deep roads so much. Stupid main plot about Branka aside, the ambience is just so oppressive and scary, even the spiders that did nothing outside the underground act suspicious all of a sudden. Awakening retook it quite well but it was lost in 2 and DAI. I miss when rpgs did that, just put a horribly uncomfortable and long trail on a part of the world you described exactly like that. The zombie hellscape slowly devouring the old world isn't that if you can finish it in 10 minutes with just an easy boss fight.

#thank u jeremiah!!!! 💕💕💕💕

[femslashrevolution]

Popular Pairing List Update

The following pairings have more than 10 recent posts in their pairing tag, and are therefore too popular to be posted on Rarepair Thursdays:

Alex Cabot x Olivia Benson (Law & Order: SVU)

Alex Vause x Piper Chapman (Orange Is The New Black)

Bonnie Bennett x Nora Hildegard (The Vampire Diaries)

Camina Drummer x Naomi Nagata (The Expanse)

Debbie Eagan x Ruth Wilder (GLOW)

Enid Sinclair x Wednesday Addams (Wednesday)

Franki x Taylor Bloom (Love Classified)

Jade Claymore x Kit Tanthalos (Willow)

Jess McCready x Lupe Garcia (Amazon A League Of Their Own)

Katya x Sofia (Goncharov)

Mace Brown x Marie Schmidt (The 355)

Malini x Priya (The Jasmine Throne)

Mariah Copeland x Tessa Porter (The Young And The Restless)

Mon x Sam (GAP)

Natasha Romanoff x Wanda Maximoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Neopolitan x Yang Xiao Long (RWBY)

Nora Grace x Viri Gómez (Skam Spain)

The following pairings have been posted less frequently recently, and have therefore been removed from the popular pairing list:

Abigail x Tallie (The World to Come)

Adena El Amin x Kat Edison (The Bold Type)

Alex Nunez x Paige Michalchuk (Degrassi: The Next Generation)

Amalia True x Penance Adair (The Nevers) 

Andromache of Scythia x Quỳnh (The Old Guard)

Arizona Robbins x Callie Torres (Grey’s Anatomy)

Audrey Jensen x Emma Duval (MTV Scream)

Aurora x Mulan (Once Upon A Time)

Bella Swan x Rosalie Hale (Twilight)

Caroline Forbes x Valerie Tulle (The Vampire Diaries)

Charity Dingle x Vanessa Woodfield (Emmerdale)

Christina Braithwhite x Ruby Baptiste (Lovecraft Country)

Dana x Rachel (Mythic Quest)

Dawn Solano x Wickie Roy (Girls5eva)

Dot Campbell x Fatin Jadmani (The Wilds)

Emily Prentiss x Jennifer Jareau (Criminal Minds)

Fran x Marla Grayson (I Care A Lot)

Jeong Seo-hyeon x Suzy Choi (Mine)

Jester Lavorre x Yasha Nydoorin (Critical Role)

Kate Kane x Sophie Moore (Batwoman) 

Kelly x Yorkie (Black Mirror)

Mencía Blanco Commerford x Rebeka Parrilla (Elite)

Namaari x Raya (Raya and the Last Dragon)

Weiss Schnee x Yang Xiao Long (RWBY)

#femslashrevolution #femslash revolution #sapphic #femslash #wlw #lesbian #bisexual #mod post #popular pairing list #Rarepair Thursdays

[shatterpoints-and-fractures]

SDTCI Skywalkers Headcanons (Spoilers Ahead)

Or, how Queer and mentally ill can I make Padme’s grandchildren?

Spoilers for Something Done To Change It, especially the Yuuzhan Vong War, below:

Jaina Solo: (She/He), Born 5 ABY

Pilot Nerd

Gearhead

Lightsaber Nerd

Only true jock

Excitable, impulsive, protective, best at thinking on her feet

Anakin Skywalker but with the self awareness to notice and actively account for her flaws

Literally called the Hero-With-No-Fear reborn

Basically reinvents Vaapad

Won the Boonta Eve at 16

Racer X alternate persona

Has Beskar armor

Everything she wears has purple

Asexual, greyromantic, bigender (Jay)

PTSD and survivor’s guilt from Yuuzhan Vong War

Marie Antoinette syndrome from brush with Dark Side

Mara Jade’s Padawan

Purple Lightsaber. Artificial crystal

Jacen Solo: (He/Him), Born 5 ABY

Animal Nerd

History Nerd

Philosophy Nerd

Lackadaisical and jokester personality

Kind of a slacker, content to see where the Force takes him

Dresses like Jimmy Buffet

Great cook

Inherited Han’s height

PTSD from accidentally cutting off Tenel Ka’s arm and anxiety

Exacerbated by Force Visions

Best with battle meditation

Ezra Bridger’s Padawan

Green Lightsaber, Kyber Crystal

Really liked by the Living Force

Wants to be a trophy husband

Bisexual

Dead

Living Force doesn’t seem to care. 

Anakin Organa: (They/Them), Born 9 ABY

Pilot Nerd

Gearhead

Politics Nerd

Really wants to help and save everything to their own detriment

Starts out kinda cocky and takes the Force for granted

Real prodigy

Designated Heir to the Throne of New Alderaan

Fashion Icon

Great leader and orator

Physically & Emotionally wrecked by the Yuuzhan Vong War

Comes out with chronic pain, PTSD, and immense survivor’s guilt. 

Burned out gifted kid

Somehow both Burr & Hamilton as a Senator

Nonbinary, queer bisexual

Ikrit’s Padawan

Indigo Lightsaber. Corusca Crystal

Hates sand.

Ben Skywalker: (He/They) Born 14 ABY

Droid Nerd

Martial Arts Nerd (Lightsabers included)

Taller than both his parents

Real Mama’s boy

Sassmaster extraordinaire

Full first name is Obi-Wan

Hello There is a given.

Loyal and forgiving

Very cunning for his age

Weirdest mix of Jedi philosophy & Smuggler philosophy

Surprising mind for business

ADHD and on the Autism spectrum (stims with Lightsabers)

Insane Lightsaber combatant 

Force sensitivity is technique over brute force

Graysexual demiromantic

Imposter Syndrome

Ahoka Tano and Cal Kestis’ Padawan

Shmi Jade Skywalker: (She/Her) Born 21 ABY

Force Nerd

History Nerd

Inherited her parents’ lack of height

Freckled, red hair resembles an explosion

Prankster and Peak Creepy Girl representation

Doesn’t like violence and doesn’t carry a lightsaber

Has a Kyber crystal

More a Light Side influenced Dathomiri Witch than a Jedi

Possesses the unique ability to communicate and summon the dead.

Shmi, Obi Wan the First, and Mace Windu are her favourites

Connection to Unified Force, incredibly powerful

Looks up to Talon Karrde

ADHD and anxiety

Calmed down by ship movements

Taught by Kirana Ti and Merrin.

#Star Wars #Star Wars AU #Disaster Lineage #Padme Naberrie #Skywalker Family #Something Done To Change It #Long post #Jaina Solo #Jacen Solo #Anakin Solo #Ben Skywalker #Shmi Jade Skywalker(OC)

[little-miss-buffy]

top five fave characters of all your fandoms.

//Jeez this is tough

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

1. Buffy

2. Spangel (Spike and Angel)

3. Three way tie between Willow, Giles, and Xander

4. Dawn

5. Glory

Angel

1. Angel

2. Wesley

3. Cordelia

4. Gunn

5. Tie between Fred and Lorne

Titans

1. Sebastian Sanger

2. Dick Grayson/Nightwing

3. Rachel Roth/Raven

4. Gar/Beast Boy

5. Kory Anders/Starfire

The Vampire Diaries

1. Dafan (Stefan and Damon)

2. Bonnie

3. Jeremy

4. Caroline

5. Elena

The Originals

1. Klaus

2. Elijah

3. Hope (red-headed Buffy)

4. Tie between Marcel and Hayley

5. Tie between Freya and Rebekah

The Defenders

1. Matt Murdock/Daredevil

2. Jessica Jones

3. Luke Cage

4. Danny Rand/The Iron Fist

5. Claire Temple

The Avengers

1. Thor

2. Tony Stark/Iron Man

3. Peter Parker/Spider-Man

4. Black Panther (T'Challa or Shuri)

5. Wanda Maximof/Scarlet Witch

Guardians of the Galaxy

1. Gamora

2. Peter Quill/Starlord

3. Groot

4. Rocket

5. Nebula

Star Wars

1. R2D2

2. Luke Skywalker

3. Lea Organa

4. Han Solo

5. C3PO

Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

1. Anakin Skywalker

2. R2D2

3. Obi-Wan Kenobi

4. Mace Windu

5. Padme Amidala

Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (yes, it's there)

1. Ben Solo

2. Rey

3. Finn

4. Nambi Gima ( @sonofmikaelael knows who that is)

5. C3PO

X-Men

Logan/Wolverine

Jean Grey/Phoenix

Charles Xavier/Professor X

Erik Lensher/Magneto

Storm

Once Upon a Time

Emma Swan

Regina Mills

David Nolan/"Prince Charming"

Mary Margaret Blanchard/Snow White

Killian Jones/Captain Hook

#malka lisitsa #//mun asks

[kiwikipedia]

oh lord bejesus this is gonna be a lotta stuff (thank u for the tag @certified-anakinfucker )

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have wips. (You can make your own post or reblog this one!) I have deemed that this isn’t just for writing either. Sketch titles? Comics? DnD campaigns? If you have an unfinished project, it counts!!

STAR WARS (Fics):

Welcome To Ground Zero (OCs, Padme Doesn’t Have A Good Time lol)

Solidarity and Serenity (Cody x Bultar oneshot)

Sunrise ( xover with Mortal Kombat, Hanzo and Arvid (OC))

Duty to What’s Ours (Mace Windu doesn’t just bring a Jedi Task Force to Geonosis)

The Truth Is More Than What Meets the Eye (OC, Mari Gildow)

POKEMON (Fics):

Even the Gods Cowered Like Dogs at What They Had Done (Dad Clay and the Nimbasa Trio ft Clay going to get Ingo Back from the Past)

FATE (Fics):

Wind Beneath Our Wings (xover with the Hobbit)

Infinity ≠ Zero (xover with JJK, The Truth of the Matter AU Verse)

Commuovere (Andersen talks through his thoughts a lot, Hassan-i-Sabbah is an odd but welcome listener)

VARIOUS ART:

Arvid Cairn Redesign (SWOC, Arvid Cairn)

Temple Guard Bunk (SWOCs, Syo, Mari, Ashe, Hakra)

Orcin Nauta Concept Art (SWOC, Orcin Nauta)

The Guardian Emote (Stray, Guardian)

No pressure Tags: @purgetrooperfox @spacerocksarethebestrocks @timpaxew @milf-plokoon @milfreva @maulpunk

#kiwiki tag game

[grigori77]

Movies of 2022 - My Pre-Summer Rundown (Part 2)

The Top Ten:

10.  THE 355 – my cinematic year kicked off in what I thought was thoroughly fine style with a rip-roaring, star-studded spy thriller which was clearly intended to start a franchise which I’d totally be up for since it’s everything I love to watch – hard-hitting, visceral action pinned to a genuinely compelling plot powered by a quintet of strong women who take on a patriarchal establishment and beat it at its own game.  Clearly it wanted to shake-up the status quo and as far as I’m concerned it pulled it off in fine style  … NO WONDER, then, that it’s been (largely) roundly reviled by critics and tanked at the box office, much as previous attempts for similar ends such as the intended Ghostbusters and Charlie’s Angels reboots did a few years back. I thought we’d gotten over this, guys! Come on … it’s a criminal shame, because this is SUCH great movie.  Jessica Chastain heads the cast as tough-as-nails CIA operative “Mace” Browne, out for blood after a botched operation in Paris to acquire a potentially devastating piece of terrorist-tech results in the death of her partner and friend Nick Fowler (Sebastian Stan).  Given a second chance at tracking down the device, things get complicated when a clandestine conspiracy is revealed and Mace is forced to team up with retired MI6 officer Khadijah Adiyeme (Lupita Nyong’o), rival German BND operative Marie Schmidt (Dianna Kruger), Colombian DNI analyst and psychologist Graciela Rivera (Penelope Cruz) and Chinese MSS agent Lin Mi Sheng (X-Men: Days of Future Past’s Fan Bingbing) to beat the bad guys and clear their names after they’re all framed as terrorists themselves.  All five of the film’s badass leading ladies have been given impressively memorable and thoroughly well-written characters with plenty of potential for growth and character development not only throughout this film but in what now looks like an extremely unlikely franchise future (even Fan who, despite coming into the action quite late, immediately makes QUITE the impression and builds on that groundwork admirably throughout the latter half of the film); similarly, Stan once again proves what a mighty screen talent he is, while there’s an enjoyably reptilian turn from Jason Flemyng as the film’s Big Bad, international crime boss Elijah Clarke.  While this was advertised as a relentlessly-paced, breakneck thrill ride, the action quota is actually somewhat more restrained here than on some of its more established peer franchises (like Bond and Mission: Impossible), but what IS on offer is, correctly, very much in service to the intelligently written story, and the film certainly doesn’t scrimp on the thrills when it DOES decide to get our adrenaline pumping, delivering some suitably robust set-pieces that punctuate rather than drive the agreeably pacy plot.  Former X-Men writer Simon Kinberg acquits himself admirably here, but like his previous crack at directing it really is starting to look like Hollywood just has it out for him, since Dark Phoenix ALSO got a critical and release-debacle-based financial mauling it really DIDN’T deserve.  This is a cracking spy thriller with a killer premise and exceptional cast of characters which deserves far more respect than it's received – altogether this is a film which needs a SERIOUS reappraisal.  Give it a chance, guys, it REALLY needs it …

9.  NIGHTMARE ALLEY – Guillermo del Toro is one of my favourite filmmakers of all time, and one of the things I love most about him is his innate understanding of the inherent truths about the cinematic monsters he frequently portrays in his works. Some of his most interesting thematic material comes when he examines the horrors that his NON-supernatural characters are capable of, but until now the only time he’s genuinely FOCUSED on inherently human monsters was in 2015’s Crimson Peak – sure, it had proper ghosts in it, but the actual threat was very much from the film’s living, breathing flesh-and-blood characters.  His latest offering has embraced this principle to a far greater degree as he adapts William Lindsay Gresham’s none-more-dark novel about morally grey grifters and carnival sideshow charlatans in World War II America, Bradley Cooper delivering what might be a career best turn as voraciously ambitious and inherently talented con-artist Stan Carlisle, who rises through the ranks working the sideshow acts in a lowly travelling carnival before finally striking it big when he goes it alone in a one-man psychic act in Buffalo, New York, with the increasingly reluctant help of his disillusioned girlfriend Molly Cahill (Rooney Mara).  When he comes to the attention of influential high-society psychologist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), she opens the door to a business opportunity which has the potential for MASSIVE financial rewards, but also a truly ruinous fall from grace if Carlisle doesn’t play it JUST RIGHT … del Toro’s always has some pretty palpable darkness in his movies, but he’s never tackled subject matter so genuinely jet black in its pitch before, the film wallowing in some seriously murky waters as we follow an already morally questionable protagonist as he digs down into the most thoroughly reprehensible depths of his own meagre soul, as well as the heart of an uncaring society as irredeemable corrupt as he’s in danger of becoming.  This is NOT an easy film to watch, several times testing the resolve of even the strongest viewers, but the rewards on offer for sticking with it are vast – this is another gold-plated work of art from an immensely talented filmmaker at the very height of his game, and it deserves all of the Oscar buzz it got, even if it ultimately missed out on that coveted Best Picture gong (much as del Toro was snubbed for a directing nomination this time round).  Cooper is a genuine revelation here, suitably seductive but still thoroughly slimy as an already shady guy who becomes progressively worse as his success grows, while Rooney’s definitely the only true bright light in the cast as the sweet innocent he takes for a ride who ultimately gets wise just a little too late; Willem Dafoe once again piles on the creepiness as suitably unpleasant geek show barker Clem, while Toni Collette and David Strathairn are both excellent as Zeena and Pete Krumbein, the fading psychic sideshow act that teach Carlisle his craft, and Del Toro’s The Shape of Water star Richard Jenkins is far more complex than he first seems as Ezra Grindle, the potentially lethal mark that he underestimates to such dangerous degrees.  The REAL standout star of the film, however, is Blanchett, who captivates and repulses in equal measure as an ice-cold psychopath who deserves to go down as one of the all-time great femme fatales of cinema.  This is DEFINITELY going to be the year’s darkest film, I don’t see ANYTHING unseating it from this dubious honour, but it’s also an immensely rewarding viewing experience, incredibly intelligent, breathlessly edgy and unbelievably tense from its creepy opening to its ruinous ending, and every inch as surprisingly seductive as its untrustworthy lead character, the truest film noir to come along in a very long time indeed …

8.  AMBULANCE – Michael Bay’s cinematic output in the last ten years in particular has been very interesting.  It’s like he’s going through phases as he’s trying to work out how he wants to go forward as his style “matures” – 2013’s Pain & Gain was, like all his previous output, big, loud and definitely flashy in the most indulgent way, but it also had something somewhat serious to say, given its origins as an (admittedly genuinely BONKERS) actual TRUE STORY.  Then came the fourth Transformers film, Age of Extinction, widely regarded as THE VERY WORST of the bunch, and rightly so.  But then he turned right round and did something COMPLETELY SERIOUS when he tackled a much less OTT but far more emotionally charged and potent true story in 13 Hours: the Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which is a genuinely masterful piece of work which I personally regard as his VERY BEST FILM. Then he went and did ANOTHER Transformers movie with The Last Knight, which was more of the same – juvenile, disjointed in plot and narrative and pure over-the-top indulgence – and yet, somehow, it was just a little bit BETTER than much of what had come before all the same (actually getting close to the quality of his first, still BEST, instalment).  Most recently he went to Netflix to create something which was clearly always INTENDED to be over-the-top and indulgent, but this time saw him actually getting it RIGHT, like he did on The Rock – 6 Underground, a thoroughly enjoyable action-packed escapist romp with Ryan Reynolds effortlessly holding court like he always does.  Anyway … Bay’s latest feels like something else entirely, somehow managing to sit VERY comfortably in the middle ground – once again, it’s big, loud, flashy and DEFINITELY indulgent, but it’s also one of those rare things for a Michael Bay film, because it’s anything but dumb.  Sure, it’s got a REALLY simple premise – veteran marine Will Sharp (Candyman and The Matrix Resurrections’ Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his dangerous livewire adoptive brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal), the sons of a notorious LA bank robber, pull off a spectacular high-stakes daylight heist but are then forced to hijack an ambulance and its inhabitants, skilled but jaded EMT Cam Thompson (From Dusk Till Dawn’s Eiza Gonzalez) and her patient Zach (Mrs Fletcher’s Jackson White), an LAPD patrolman wounded during the robbery, which leads to a crazy cat-and-mouse chase through the streets of Los Angeles – but there’s clearly some real intelligence behind the script.  The plot is surprisingly smart despite it clichéd nature, the characters all impressively well-written and skilfully developed over the course of the film, and the twists are rewardingly effective when they come.  Sure, Bay keeps throwing the camera around like a lunatic, sometimes chucking in some genuine vertigo-inducing drone shots PURELY because he can, I think, but this time it just seems to ramp up the excitement factor as he does one of the few things he’s always really excelled at – crafting properly BLINDING action sequences – over and over again.  Certainly the second unit and stunt teams really earned the big bucks on this one, every car crash, crazy jump and desperate manoeuvre executed with astonishing precision made all the more impressive because it’s immediately obvious that there’s NO CGI AT ALL being used to pull any of this stuff off.  Refreshingly, though, Bay doesn’t scrimp on the character work at all here, screenwriter Chris Fedak’s impressive work doing a lot of the heavy-lifting so the uniformly excellent cast can just concentrate on BEING their characters for 2+ hours – Gyllenhaal is a ferocious, tightly-wound force of nature who’s both antihero and antagonist throughout the film, while Abdul-Mateen II is, as usual, electric in every second of his screen time, investing Will with wounded intensity and conflicted complexity as a desperate everyman stuck in this impossible situation because he’s just trying to help his family, and Gonzalez holds her own against these two craft-MASTERS with incredible skill and determination as a world-weary, disillusioned blue collar worker who finally rediscovers the passion she once had for her work under the most extreme circumstances; Garret Dillahunt (Fear the Walking Dead) and Keir O’Donnell (American Sniper), meanwhile, both shine as a winningly spiky odd-couple as LAPD SIS Captain Monroe and FBI special Agent Anson Clark, the polar-opposite cops thrust together in the race to hunt the Sharp Brothers down, and The Walking Dead’s Olivia Stambouliah frequently steals entire scenes with a single withering putdown or quirky aside as LAPD surveillance wizard Lieutenant Dhazghig.  Sure, this ain’t a perfect movie, Bay still not FULLY jettisoning his off-the-wall and rather off-colour sense of humour, which still surfaces in a few scenes, and it’s still VERY overblown, but these are small quibbles when a film is THIS enjoyable, visually impressive, pulse-pumping exciting and truly unforgettable. Definitely leaning into the camp of Bay’s more worthy films, this is another cracker that once again proves he’s a director who really can DELIVER when he actually TRIES.

7.  THE CURSED – some of my favourite horror movies are films that snuck in under the radar to become cult hits, or simply stuck to the shadows to become secret weapons of the genre, uncut gems known to a lucky few who always recommend them to likeminded genre fans when they get the chance.  This immensely impressive indie horror from writer-director Sean Ellis (The Broken, Anthropoid) is another great example of this particular phenomenon, and I’m sure it’s destined for some small cult status somewhere down the line.  The plot is … STRANGE, but in a very good way, and there’s a lot here that I really shouldn’t give away because it’s better to let you just ease in and discover it on your own - suffice to say, this is an intriguingly offbeat take on the classic werewolf trope, set in late 19th Century France (albeit with a mysterious coda set during World War I’s Battle of the Somme) but shot in England with a largely British cast and thoroughly OOZING with a genuinely palpable doom-laden atmosphere of pregnant dread teeming with hazy mists and overcast skies.  Narcos’ Boyd Holbrook pulls off a surprisingly decent English accent as he smoulders with restrained, broody intensity as John McBride, a haunted pathologist who goes to an isolated French village to investigate a succession of animalistic killings which may be the result of a curse laid upon the community after the brutal eradication of a group of Roma travellers some years before.  There are allusions made to the legendary Beast of Gevaudan throughout, which formed the inspiration for the enjoyably oddball cult classic Brotherhood of the Wolf, but this is a very different breed of horror cinema – moody, understated and deliberately slowburn, parcelling out its scares and impressively visceral violence with cool restraint throughout while building to a feverish climax that brilliantly pays off the groundwork meticulously laid through its two hours, while the inventive use of some very icky physical effects has crafted something pretty unique to this particular sub-genre.   Holdbrook makes for a tragically fallible hero here, while Kelly Reilly brings restrained, wounded classiness to the film as Isabelle, the wife of complicated, brutish landowner Seamus Laurent (a restrained but potent turn from Rogue One’s Alistair Petrie), whose pig-headed short-sightedness seems to have doomed his community, and Amelia Crouch (Kate, The Last Dragonslayer) thoroughly impresses as the Laurents’ daughter Charlotte, whose younger brother Edward (Rocketman’s Max Mackintosh) was the first bitten and therefore first cursed.  Ellis has crafted a magnificently subtle masterpiece of the genre, playing an understated long game that pays off magnificently, and what resulted is one of the best indie horror movies I’ve come across in years.  I look forward to whatever he does next.

6.  THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH – this adaptation of one of my very favourite William Shakespeare plays is a particularly notable milestone in cinematic history, because for the very first time, writer-director Joel Coen has made a feature film without his ubiquitous filmmaker brother Ethan having anything to do with the project.  That being said, Joel’s always been such a dominant force on the DIRECTING side of the Coen Brother’s output that, if you didn’t know this, you’d never know Ethan was absent on this one, because it’s still EVERY INCH a Coen film.  It’s also Denzel Washington’s first time working for either Brother, but he’s SO magnificent as one of the greatest fictional villains OF ALL TIME that you won’t have any idea WHY they never worked together before.  He’s absolutely MESMERISING as Macbeth, the doom-courting Thane of Cawdor, who decides to murder his way to the throne of Medieval Scotland after receiving a very tempting prophecy from a trio of creepy-ass witches right after a decisive battle sees him get one hell of a royal promotion – Washington sizzles and sears in every scene, whether he’s smouldering with pregnant understated menace or exploding with un-righteous fury as Macbeth is haunted by gruesome ghosts or egged on by his scheming, ambitious wife.  Coen-regular Frances McDormand matches him in every scene as the DEFINITIVE Lady Macbeth, particular as she crumbles spectacularly once the guilt of what they’ve done starts to weigh her down; Brendan Gleeson is typically grand yet cuddly as ineffectual ill-fated King Duncan, while Harry Potter star Harry Melling continues to prove that he's grown up into a truly DYNAMITE star-in-the-making as his untested but prematurely put-upon son Malcolm, The Boys’ Alex Hassell is obsequious but complex as duplicitous young nobleman Ross, and Straight Outta Compton’s Corey Hawkins makes for a suitably strapping and dynamic Macduff (ALWAYS my favourite character in the play and EVERY adaptation). Joel Coen has once again dropped a blinder on us, solo-effort or not, making Sakespeare’s text breathe in fresh and interesting ways while he weaves a beautifully bleak and haunted visual spell, unleashing compositions on us that recall the subtly unsettling weird mundanity of American Gothic art or the surreality of German expressionist cinema, especially in the film’s very unusual interpretation of the supernatural, as well as framing the story’s bloody and decidedly non-glamorous violence with an almost clinical detachment which perfectly complements the gorgeously stylised world he’s built, all of it topped off with an unsettlingly lowkey atmospheric score from regular Coen collaborator Carter Burwell.  Thoroughly deserving all the immense acclaim it’s had heaped upon it, this has definitely proven to be one of the year’s early surprises and one of its most downright exquisite works of art (so far).  Most important of all, though, Joel’s taken what’s always been a definitive Shakespearean villain and turned him into one of the all-time GREAT Coen protagonists ...

5.  BELFAST – Kenneth Brannagh’s an interesting duck.  As an actor, I love his work, he’s consistently impressed me over the years, blowing me away with some truly spectacular performances, whether in his favoured territory (essaying Shakespeare) or doing something fun and different (such as The Road to El Dorado), or even just providing some solid support to other stars in a smaller role (Dunkirk instantly springs to mind); as a director, on the other hand … yeah, the results have been mixed at best.  For every masterpiece like Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Thor or Murder On the Orient Express, he’s also brought us dreck like Dead Again, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or (gods help us) Artemis Fowl, and a fair amount in the middle ground that’s either kinda meh or actually not too bad if you just go with it (Hamlet, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and Peter’s Friends are certainly ones I actually kinda liked).  Approaching a new release, therefore, is always a trepidatious business, you never know what you’re gonna get … so you can probably imagine my surprise when his OTHER latest offering (JUST preceding the aforementioned Death On the Nile) ACTUALLY turned out to be the very best feature I’ve ever seen from him.  Then again, this is BY FAR his most personal film to date, Brannagh going RIGHT back to his roots with a semi-autobiographical story which is HEAVILY based on his own personal experiences as a boy growing up in the titular city in Ireland at the height of the Troubles, specifically during the August Riots of 1969.  The film is told largely from the point of view of nine year-old Buddy (newcomer Jude Hill), the younger son of a small working class family living on a mixed denomination street, who find themselves in the middle of a powder-keg when anti-Catholic resentment starts to boil over in their neighbourhood.  His dreamer “Pa” (Jamie Dornan) is looking at the possibility of a brighter future for him and his family if they move abroad to greener pastures, but forceful and pragmatic “Ma” (The Beauty Inside and Ford V Ferrari’s Catriona Balfe) just wants to stay put, and both are forced to make hard choices that directly affect the family’s future as the Troubles start to impact their lives as a whole.  Dornan and Balfe are both exceptional throughout, Balfe in particularly shouldering a lot of the film’s heavy lifting with spectacular skill and undeniable talent, while Dame Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds warm our cockles and pluck at our heartstrings in equal measure as Buddy’s grandparents, two people who are clearly still deeply in love even in the twilight of their time together, and Merlin’s Colin Morgan brings a charged menace to proceedings as the film’s nominal villain, Billy Clanton, an up-and-comer in the local sectarian movement who wants Pa to join The Cause.  Buddy’s the undeniable beating heart of the film, though, Hill instantly showing he’s gonna be a star in the future as he essentially brings a young Brannagh to life, a deeply imaginative boy who loves movies and science fiction (especially Star Trek) but is struggling to find his place in the world and what’s going on around him.  The director shows as much skill with his writing as he does behind the camera, weaving a compellingly rich tapestry out of a deceptively simple storyline and bringing some genuinely palpable, fully realised characters to vital breathing life (although I guess he had STRONG inspiration to draw from), as well as paying frequent, loving respect to all the massive influences he’s drawn from over the years, from the films he grew up with (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and One Million Years BC among others) to the music his parents taught him to love.  The resulting film is a powerful and rewarding viewing experience, a clear labour of love which is equal parts dramatic, moving, heart-breaking, warmly funny and deeply inspiring.  Brannagh wins our hearts by wearing his on his sleeve.

4.  KIMI – we were already getting movies about the COVID outbreak and the resulting chaos that the Pandemic’s wrought upon us around the world as early as late 2020, but for the most part it’s largely been small, under-the-radar indie stuff.  Now we’re starting to get BIG stuff, and the latest from Steven Soderbergh is one of the most impressive offerings I’ve seen to date.  Written by thriller cinema extraordinaire David Koepp (Carlito’s Way, Panic Room, Stir of Echoes), this is a spectacularly taut and blissfully streamlined suspense thriller that not only brings the impact of the Pandemic into sharp perspective, but also our growing overreliance on smart device technology and social media – altogether then, fertile ground for a socially-conscious filmmaker like Soderbergh, who essentially PREDICTED all the shit COVID just put us through with 2011’s terrifyingly prescient outbreak-thriller Contagion. The Kimi of the title is the latest creation of the film’s fictional tech conglomerate Amygdala and its visionary CEO Bradley Hasling (Derek DelGaudio), an all-encompassing smart speaker which revolutionises the technology by taking the potentially controversial step of having live human moderators overseeing its operation instead of AI in order to cut down on potential voice recognition-based cock-ups. The film’s main narrative focuses on one of these moderators, Angela Childs (Zoe Kravitz), whose long-standing social anxiety and agoraphobia have been immensely exacerbated by lockdown to the detriment of many aspects of her life.  Then one day, a routine review of some of her daily moderations uncovers something deeply disturbing – what sounds to her VERY MUCH like a break-in and the murder of a Kimi owner.  Under pressure from Amygdala to bury the information but driven by her own conscience and personal trauma from a similar incident, Angela decides to take matters into her own hands instead … this might be the best performance I’ve EVER seen Kravitz deliver (which is definitely saying something when we just saw her PERFECTLY embody one of my favourite comic book characters of all time), as she invests Angela with twitchy awkwardness but also fierce, unshakeable determination when faced with truly insurmountable obstacles, creating one of the most refreshingly compelling and resourceful lead protagonists I’ve come across in cinema so far this year, and since big chunks of the film are a one-woman show with many of her interactions with other characters playing out through phones and computer screens, this means she largely DOMINATES the film. That’s not to say there aren’t other great performances in this – DelGaudio does a lot with quite a small part, while there are excellent turns from Byron Bowers (The Chi, Honey Boy) as Angela’s occasional casual friend-with-benefits, Terry, who wants to become something more to her, Devin Ratray (Blue Ruin, The Tick) as Kevin, a fellow shut-in neighbour, and Rita Wilson (Runaway Bride, The Good Wife) as Natalie Chowdury, an executive with Amygdala to whom Angela attempts to blow the whistle on her findings.  Soderberg and Koepp have crafted a spectacularly suspenseful thriller which expertly ratchets up the atmospheric dread of Angela’s situation from the slowburn scene-setting start to the fraught and harrowing climax, the film’s determination to keep its focus squarely on Angela meaning that we’re right there in the thick of it with her throughout all her anxiety, paranoia, terror and downright feral fight for life.  The end result’s one of the best films either Soderbergh OR Koepp have delivered in a good while, and definitely the year’s top big screen thriller (so far, anyway).  Not bad for something which was inspired by and executed entirely in the midst of COVID.

3. TURNING RED – Disney/Pixar’s latest offering is also one of the most deeply personal films they’ve ever produced, with writer-director Domee Shi (who made the spell-binding and evocative Pixar short Bao) making a hell of a splash as the first woman EVER to land a solo direction credit on a Pixar feature with what’s essentially a fictionalised account of her own experiences as a teenage girl growing up in Toronto, Canada.  The result is a film which feels far more emotionally truthful and infinitely resonant that ANYTHING I’ve ever seen EITHER studio deliver before, perfectly encapsulating what it must have felt like to be a 13-year-old girl in 2002 (while I am mostly of the other gender, I too was once 13 and VERY unsure of myself, so I remember only too well how unbearably hard, hectic and downright UNWIELDY that part of my life could feel at times).  The 13 year-old girl in question here is Mei Lee (a DEEPLY affecting performance from newcomer Rosalie Chiang), the only child of a Chinese couple in Toronto who run their family’s temple, which is dedicated to their ancestor Sun Yee, a powerful sorceress who once harnessed the spiritual power of the red panda in order to protect her daughters.  For much of her life Mei has put her own personal feelings on hold to be everything her overbearing mother Ming (Sandra Oh, once again putting in a palpable turn full of deep heart, soul and frequent observational comic GOLD) wants her to become, and she’s become a straight-A student because of it, but as she starts to grow up she’s discovering there’s more to life than just good grades.  Specifically 4*Town, a five-man boyband (yeah, I know) that Mei and her three girlfriends – confident tomboy Miriam (newcomer Ava Morse), stoic and deadpan Priya (Never Have I Ever’s Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and diminutively hyperactive bundle of barely-contained-malevolent-energy Abby (newcomer Hyein Park) are thoroughly obsessed with, who the quartet discover are coming to play a concert in Toronto … JUST as something awakens in Mei, and she suddenly finds herself stricken by a deeply strange supernatural affliction – specifically, whenever her emotions run out of control, she turns into a giant red panda.  She’s told that her family can perform a ritual to help her remove the panda spirit (which turns out to be on THE SAME NIGHT as 4*Town’s performance), but in the meantime she must learn to control and restrain the panda or it’ll be that much harder to exorcise.  But as the concert approaches, Mei and her friends hit upon a unique solution to help them earn the money for four tickets in time, which utilises the panda’s runaway cute factor and makes Mei realise that maybe she doesn’t actually WANT to get rid of this part of herself … there are definitely a lot of interpretations that can be derived from the phenomenon at the heart of the story, but whether it’s about teenage girls first learning to come to terms with a certain feminine bodily function or not, this is THE most powerful and, if I’m honest, downright ENTERTAINING film about growing up as a teenage girl I’ve EVER experienced, a GOOD DEAL better than all those sometimes genuinely vomit-worthy teen comedies and dramas I’ve found largely preferable to avoid over the years.  Of course it definitely helps that ALL the characters are SO well realised, beautifully derived from what are, clearly, Shi’s own friends, family and personal experiences when she was going through (most) of what we’re witnessing here – Mei and her friends are THOROUGHLY lovable (not least Abby, who became one of my VERY FAVOURITE characters of THIS ENTIRE YEAR within a few minutes of us first meeting her), while Ming is the perfect embodiment of helicopter mums the world over, but in particular that specific kind of Asian mother who seems determined that their only child will grow up be something truly exceptional to the exclusion of ALL ELSE, and as a result she’s very nearly the actual VILLAIN of the film but at the same time has clear, strong redeeming features which make us feel very deeply for her.  Shi and co-writer, playwright Julia Cho, have crafted a deeply affecting but also frequently riotously comical, thoroughly chaotic piece of work, injecting plenty of joyful mirth and madness into proceedings to compliment the massive amounts of heart and emotion on display, and the gloriously designed, beautifully realised early Noughties Toronto setting has been lovingly captured through Pixar’s typically rich and lively animation.  Sweet, spicy and perfectly evocative of its subject matter, this is WITHOUT A DOUBT one of the two studios’ finest collaborations to date.  Simply wonderful.

2.  THE NORTHMAN – over the last few years, writer-director Robert Eggers has been getting under our skins to magnificently unpleasant effect through his subtly unsettling arthouse horrors, The Witch and The Lighthouse.  When we heard he had another movie in the works we started preparing ourselves for another skin-crawling mind-troubler of a horror movie, but he’s taken an intriguing leftfield swerve and really surprised us with his third feature, a dark, edgy and subtly fantastical retelling of the legend of Amleth, the Viking prince who became the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.  As a boy (played by impressive newcomer Oscar Novak), Amleth witnesses the murder of his father, King Aurvandill (Ethan Hawke), at the hands of his uncle Fjölnir (The Square and Dracula’s Claes Bang), who then usurps the throne intended for Amleth and with it his mother, Queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman). Amleth flees, swearing to avenge his father, kill his uncle and save his mother, but when we next encounter him many years later (now played by Alexander Skarsgaard), a berserker raiding the lands of the Rus, it’s an oath he seems to have largely forgotten, at least until a chance meeting with a mysterious seeress (Bjork) reminds him in Eggers’ typically unnerving fashion.  Suitably inspired, Amleth disguises himself as a slave and secretes himself amongst a party destined to be shipped to the Icelandic land of Fjolnir’s underwhelming exile, where he now rules over a far less impressive kingdom than he once intended.  Through canny strategy and subtle magical assistance, Amleth begins to torment his uncle as he tightens to screws in the build-up to his vengeance, but as he draws closer to his goal it begins to become clear to him that things may not actually be that simple … this is a singularly stunning feature which PERFECTLY encapsulates everything that’s so great about Eggers’ filmmaking style while also effectively repackaging it as something completely fresh and new to what he’s brought us before as he takes all the tricks he so keenly fashioned through his previous horror ventures and sets to them to ruthlessly efficient and thoroughly fiendish effect in what is surely destined to become known as the greatest Viking movie of all time, or at least the most interesting.  Skarsgaard is SPECTACULAR here, by turns understated and downright FEROCIOUS depending on the needs of the story and Amleth’s own personal plot, but he also crafts a character who’s far more complex that just a spiteful, vengeful warrior out for blood; Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), meanwhile, brings subtly fierce feistiness to proceedings as Olga of the Birch Forest, the enslaved Slavic witch that Amleth forms a conspiratorial bond (and eventually more) with in his quest, Bang and Kidman both skilfully subvert expectations of their characters as the story progresses, and both Hawke and The Lighthouse’s Willem Dafoe deliver brief but potent performances in their early scenes which sear great impressions on us that resonate throughout the rest of the film.  As with his previous films, this is as much about mood, atmosphere and some truly jaw-dropping visuals as it is about its dark and twisting labyrinthine central plot, but this is still BY FAR Eggers’ most refreshingly coherent and linear film, even if there are times when it seems to turn into some kind of strange (but admittedly deeply compelling) cinematic fever dream, and the characters are all impressively well-developed and three-dimensional, quickly making us root for or hate them according to requirements before the ingeniously crafty script sometimes turns things on their head to frame them in a new and startlingly different light.  This is as powerful, inventive and downright DOOM-LADEN as we would ever have expected from Eggers, but also definitely THE BEST film he’s brought us so far, and as he goes on this is going to be a really tough one to beat …

1.  THE BATMAN – another year, another Batman movie, it would seem.  But this one … somehow, this one feels a little different, a little special.  Frankly, THAT is actually something of an understatement … yeah, basically, Dawn of/War For the Planet of the Apes writer-director Matt Reeves’ long-gestating (and certainly long-awaited) reboot of DC’s flagship superhero franchise (originally intended to be part of the increasingly problematic DCEU canon but now, thankfully, cut loose so it can be its own thing) has actually turned out to be THE VERY BEST Batman movie outside of 2008’s simply DEFINITIVE The Dark Knight.  Perhaps this take’s most notable (not to mention most controversial) choice was in the casting of its Bruce Wayne/Batman – Robert Pattinson, the admittedly precocious young wunderkind who’s been working VERY HARD INDEED to distance himself from the godawful memory of Edward Cullen but still hadn’t quite managed to fully evacuate the stink of his tenure on Twilight … until now, at least. Turns out, he’s PERFECT for the role, especially in THIS version – this incarnation is JUST starting out, still finding his way as he tries to become the Dark Knight Defender that the nightmarish, corrupt, deeply FUCKED UP city of Gotham desperately needs to rescue it from its inexorable slow descent into criminal hell.  This Batman is still very fallible, still learning his craft, and the police don’t trust him yet, they’re openly hostile and always right on the verge of turning on him as he tries to insert himself into investigations with only one man on his side – Gotham City Police lieutenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), perhaps the one good man in a genuinely rotten police force, who’s as determined as his mysterious vigilante “friend” to save his city.  Certainly they’re all Gotham’s got as a brutal murder kicks off a fiendishly Machiavellian game of homicidal cat-and-mouse as newly emerged villain The Riddler (Paul Dano) begins to dig up a twisted web of lies and conspiracies that’s long held the city in the grip of criminal purgatory, spurring the fledgling Batman into a desperate investigation which inexorably leads him to dark and troubling revelations which hit uncomfortably close to home as some truly terrible long-buried truths are finally uncovered.  Matt Reeves and co-writer Peter Craig (The Town, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Top Gun: Maverick) have delivered a screenplay which not only makes this one of the best written superhero movies ever, but just a downright masterpiece of a film, PERIOD, but Reeves’ simply AWESOME direction deserves just as much praise here because every scene has been crafted to flawless precision and shot with an uncommonly artful eye too (certainly cinematographer Greg Fraser, known for the likes of Zero Dark Thirty, Rogue One and Dune, deserves a big dollop of the credit too).  The cast are uniformly phenomenal too – there are FAR too many blazing bright star turns in this to name, but the standouts include Wright himself, noble, steadfast and forthright as the most honest cop in Gotham, John Turturro as a surprisingly seductive mobster kingpin in the role of Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gotham’s enjoyably sleezy and hopelessly corrupt district attorney Gil Colson, Colin Farrell, COMPLETELY unrecognisable and therefore able to just ACT HIS SOCKS OFF as the very best and DEFINITELY most faithful take on Oswald Copplepot/the Penguin we’ve had to date, a low-down, brutal thug with delusions of grandeur, and of course Reeves-regular Andy Serkis, taking Bruce Wayne’s faithful manservant Alfred Pennyworth in an intriguing new direction as a former soldier and reserved man of action in his own right, while Paul Dano’s clearly having the time of his life as the Riddler (I also fully applaud the way they’ve fully embraced the alternative take on the character from the Hush run of the Batman comics, which finally gives this villain REAL TEETH), playing things subtle and close to the chest in his earlier appearances before he’s finally unmasked and allowed to fully unleash in typical showstopping style.  The film truly belongs, however, to our new Batman and Catwoman – Pattinson largely plays the role in quite an understated way, but it’s a performance BRIMMING with deep nuance and subtle layers, perfectly pitched to highlight this Bruce Wayne’s somewhat isolated upbringing and deep-seated underlying trauma, which manifests in his suitably awkward public image, while when he’s in the suit (which is, of course, how he spends the majority of the film) he’s quietly menacing and thoroughly ODD in the best way possible; Zoe Kravitz, on the other hand, is PERFECTLY cast as Selina Kyle, investing my very favourite comic book antihero with just the right mix of sultry, sexy fire and sass and a ferocious determination to never be owned by ANYONE, and even LOOKS perfect with her spot-on short hair, sharp claw-like nails and genuinely preternatural feline grace (yeah, I thought Anne Hathaway was fantastic and pretty definitive in The Dark Knight Rises, but Zoe has thoroughly trumped her in this).  Altogether this is an essentially perfect package that effortlessly brings the Dark Knight and his hellish Gotham City to life just as effectively as Christopher Nolan did in his seminal trilogy – the design-work is on-point throughout, the action sequences are phenomenal (that insanely awesome car chase in the rain may well be this year’s best set-piece, although there’s also an incredible fight scene, lit ONLY with machine-gun muzzle flashes, which comes impressively close), the plot twists and turns like few others I’ve seen, dropping some genuinely AMAZING rug-pulls that I TRULY did not see coming, and Michael Giacchino’s incendiary score is a MASTERCLASS in low-key dramatic brilliance.  Most importantly, though, this is the first Batman film that genuinely gets the psychology of its central character COMPLETELY RIGHT, and I truly look forward to seeing what Reeves, Craig, Pattinson and all the rest do with the already greenlit sequel when it comes (hopefully it won’t take anywhere near as long as this one did to finally reach our screens).  If it’s anywhere NEAR as good as this it'll be GOLD …

#movies 2022 #the 355 #nightmare alley #ambulance #ambulance movie #the cursed #the cursed movie #the cursed 2021 #the cursed 2022 #the tragedy of macbeth #belfast #belfast movie #kimi #kimi movie #turning red #the northman #the batman #the batman 2022

[recentlyheardcom]

Nearly two dozen House Republicans voted against a short-term government funding bill proposed by Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday, part of the ongoing feud between the Speaker and his party’s conservative wing.The vote marked an embarrassing defeat for McCarthy as he presses attempts to keep the government running before current funding runs out this weekend. The bill was already expected to fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate.These are the 21 Republicans who voted against the measure:Andy Biggs (Ariz.)Biggs rallied against any use of continuing resolutions, short-term funding bills, in a Daily Caller op-ed earlier Friday.“Because House Republicans did not timely produce a budget as required by law, ‘they,’ the leaders of the Uniparty, began championing their preferred budget mechanism, the CR. CRs have only made the American economy worse off,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.Dan Bishop (N.C.)Lauren Boebert (Colo.)Ken Buck (Colo.)Buck lashed out against GOP leadership in a CNN interview Thursday night.“For this entire year, House Republicans leadership has known about the September 30 budget deadline. There is no reason why we couldn’t have a fully funded government by now. The American people are rightly frustrated,” he said on X.Tim Burchett (Tenn.)Eric Burlison (Mo.)Michael Cloud (Texas)Cloud called attempts at a continuing resolution part of “political games” in a statement released just before the vote.“We have known this day was coming. Yet here we are in late September, with some in leadership using shutdown politics as a mean of pushing a Continuing Resolution,” he said. “While such political games may have been successful in the past, it will not work this time. We have to keep our word. It is time to do what we said we would do.”Eli Crane (Ariz.)Matt Gaetz (Fla.)Gaetz specifically objected to funds for the Department of Justice and support for the war in Ukraine as reasons not to support the vote in a RealClearPolitics op-ed Friday.He has been one of the most vocal Republicans against McCarthy’s funding attempts and has floated threats to oust McCarthy from his Speakership.Paul Gosar (Ariz.)Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.)Greene lamented Congress’s odd work hours and limited fall schedule in a lengthy statement on X before the vote, saying a more rigorous workweek would lead to a funded government.“Imagine if Congress started to function like a successful business instead of a failing government playing the same games no matter which party is in charge,” she said. “Things have to change.”Wesley Hunt (Texas)Nancy Mace (S.C.)Mary Miller (Ill.)Miller cited a need for immediate action in voting no on the funding measure, instead of delaying a full budget.“I voted no on the ‘CR’ continuing resolution because I will not be part of the process to kick government funding down the road until the holidays, when Senate and House ‘insiders’ will agree to ram through some massive omnibus with Ukraine funding behind closed doors,” she said on X.Cory Mills (Fla.)Mills argued that passing a continuing resolution is akin to going back on the promises the GOP made to constituents earlier this year.“I will not support DC status quo of a CR, Minibus, or Omnibus in lieu of us doing our jobs,” he said on X. “We need vast cuts, key reforms, and an economic strategy to tackle the GDP/ Nat Debt ratio. That’s why I voted NO on the CR/ ACT. I am open to working together and stay day & night to get the job done.”Alex Mooney (W.Va.)Barry Moore (Ala.)Moore called on his colleagues to work overtime to get a full budget passed instead of a short-term measure.“It has been 26 years since Congress passed all 12 appropriations bills. In order to impact policy and cut spending, we need to follow the statute and reject the status quo,” he said on X. “I am committed to staying in Washington as long as it takes and working with my colleagues across the conference to advance the 12 appropriations bills that curtail our out-of-control spending and help American families fight Biden’s 17 percent inflation tax.

”Troy Nehls (Texas)Andy Ogles (Tenn.)Matt Rosendale (Mont.)Keith Self (Texas). For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

[xprojectrpg]

This Day in X-Project - July 13

PHASE 2

2015: Scott gives Jean advice on car shopping. Monet posts inviting people to join her at the gym. Amadeus Cho leads Angel, Gabriel, and Arthur on a chase through NYC; they finally nail him down and convince him to come to Xavier's. Gabriel complains about Amadeus macing him and asks Clarice for an eye exam. Quentin meets his new roommate (Amadeus) and is severely unimpressed. Jungbrunnen: Wade updates the rest of X-Force on North’s condition and what happened to him; Wade, Marie-Ange, Doug, and Emma meet to discuss North's potential mental state as well as the few loose ends allowed to blow in the wind until they tangle themselves up.

2016: Maya posts about setting up a Pokemon Go trip to the woods. Laurie posts about a dementia vaccine that’s being developed. Cecilia posts about not tending any Pokemon Go related injuries. Jessica posts about going old school, and playing Pokemon on her 2DS.

2017: Hope shares her plans for the summer. While recovering from food poisoning, Rogue and Jean communicate via a walkie-talkie. Gabriel and Domino get to know each other better while working a job. Wanda and Kyle hang out in his suite. Warren offers to pay for Lorna’s wedding.

2018: Sins of the Father: Tandy's powers go out of control, and Topaz feels a kick of magic right before it happens; she talks to Amanda, and they agree it's time to hit the books; Amanda emails the rest of the magic crew for research help; Laurie posts about the three curse victims, and tells everyone to keep an eye out. Kitty posts about missing New York.

2019: Fear in the Dark: Two teams of X-Men go to the fight club; Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Marvel Girl, Wolverine, Blink, and Dust are inside and see the trademark Asgardian hammer box in the main ring; Nightcrawler tries to teleport it out but is unable to and winds up fighting the champion, Craig Hollis; Wolverine and Blink see Skadi and D'Spayre in the crowd and overhear their plan to use the fight as a way to find the Worthy for the hammer; before anyone can act, the hammer box is broken and Hollis revealed to be the newest Worthy, Angrir; Scott’s team try to subdue Angrir and evacuate the crowd while Marvel Girl stops the roof collapsing, but lose the three bad guys in the crush; outside, Dominion, Xavin, and Spectrum are also on crowd control when they are confronted by Skadi, D’Spayre and Angrir; they fight, but Skadi and Angrir combine their hammer forces and escape; as the X-Men are leaving, Iron Man, Hawkeye and Black Widow approach them wanting to combine knowledge, but an emergency call forces them to all go to the Triskelion, which is under attack by all of the Worthy, plus the Dweller, who are after the last hammer; Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Dust and Spectrum join Iron Man against Nerkkod and Mokk; Dominion, Marvel Girl, Xavin and Captain America face Angrir and Griethoth and in the vault room, Cyclops, Hellion, Blink and the Hulk try to stop Kuurth, Skadi and the Dweller from getting to the hammer; during the course of the fight in the vault room, the Dweller is knocked out by Cyclops and teleported to the mansion, but the hammer box is broken and the Hulk becomes Nul; the bad guys teleport away and the X-Men head home; Jean and Amanda successfully combine forces to try and lock down the Dweller enough for Tandy to resurface.

2020:

2021: Arise, X-Man: Darcy helps Laurie attend physical therapy and they have a difficult conversation in the car. Matt posts about being old and creaky. Jubilee brings Kyle to a nightclub, where she fills him in on their status in a fake dimension.

2022: Darcy wonders how much she'll get murdered if she brings spray tea in a can to work.

#this day in xproject #plots #plot #xprpg #xproject #phase 2 #rp #rpg

[madamebaggio]

Mace *whispering to herself*: Mace Schmidt.

Khadijah *passing by*: Just ask her out already, for fuck's sake.

Mace: I'm working on it!

#madame baggio #crackship #gifs not mine #snippet #the 355 #mace browne #khadijah adiyeme #Mace x Marie

[labellenouvelle]

7 NUNS FROM DUBLIN

Seven Dominican nuns from a Dublin convent came to New Orleans in 1860 to help educate a growing Irish population. Within a month of arriving, the sisters had opened St. John the Baptist School for Girls, with an enrollment of 200.

The following year, the New Orleans Female Dominican Academy on Dryades Street was chartered and three years later, the sisters purchased Mace Academy in Greenville, near Audubon Park. A new campus for the academy, at Broadway Street and St. Charles Avenue, was built starting in 1882.

The Dominicans operated two separate girls’ schools until 1914, when the two programs merged and became St. Mary’s Dominican High School. A college, St. Mary’s Dominican College was also located with the high school at 7214 St. Charles Avenue.

n 1963, the high school was moved to 7701 Walmsley Avenue, where it remains today.

The college remained at the campus on St. Charles Avenue until 1984 when it was closed and sold to Loyola University, which uses it for its law school.

The high school now enrolls about 1,000 students – still all girls, but not all Irish.

                                                  ---------- ----------

Offered here an original  invitation card to a Dramatic Performance for Sunday and Monday , January 7th and 8th , 1883  at the corners of St Charles and Broadway.   Great gift for the local history buff or alumni. Frame, hang and display. 

Item No. E4983-12

Dimensions: 3.5″ x 2.25″

SOLD  

504.581.3733 / t

[email protected] / e  

#antiques #ephemera #new orleans ephemera #historic new orleans #dominican academy #st mary's dominican convent #st mary's dominican high school #old new orleans #magazine street