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glenngaylord · 1 year

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Swoosh! - Film Review: Air ★★★★

I’m not the world’s biggest sports fan, although give me two weeks of Olympic Games and I’ll watch almost every solo event. I enjoy watching people push past their own limits, seeing the years and years of training right there in the focus of their hard stares and that beautiful release when they stick their landings. Team sports, however, trigger me, sending me right back to gym class where the dumb jocks would knock me down onto the basketball court surface for a rousing game of “Trip-A-Fag”. I’d always get up, brush myself off and adopt a “You guys!” attitude, but inside, I died just a little bit each time. So is it any wonder I can only stomach the halftime show at the Super Bowl or watch a graceful gymnast execute a perfect dismount as she vies for the gold?

Despite all of the past trauma, I still enjoy a good sports movie. When Jimmy Chitwood promises to make that final winning shot in Hoosiers, he’s swearing a blood oath to all of us hoping for a better tomorrow. Is it possible to look at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s entrance steps without thinking of Rocky and the promise the title character represents?

The same feeling, I thought, must be true for any sports fan who first tried on a pair of Air Jordan sneakers and recognized what it meant to step into the shoes of the most legendary basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan. In Ben Affleck’s fifth feature as a director, Air, he, with debuting writer Alex Convery, explores the incendiary time in 1984 when Nike sought to sign the then little known basketball player to their company, changing forever the way athletes participated in the profits of products to which they attached their names. It may be your typical David vs. Goliath story, but it’s still a tremendously fun triumph nonetheless.

The story gets told through the lens of schlubby Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon, a far cry from his 2007 People magazine Sexiest Man Alive days, and relishing every bit of it), a sports marketing executive for Nike who we meet as he scouts players for his company’s flailing product line. He has a career going nowhere fast and needs to prove himself. Desperate to compete with the much more popular Adidas and Converse brands, Vaccaro faces an uphill battle when met with a dwindling budget and CEO Phil Knight (Affleck), who doesn’t think they have much of a future with basketball shoes at all. Vaccaro’s fellow marketing pals, led by the wonderfully deadpan Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) don’t seem to have one good idea, until one evening, Vaccaro watches footage of a young Michael Jordan, replaying a particular shot over and over. Something about the way Jordan handles himself clues Vaccaro into the fact that he was witnessing a once in a generation player.

Vaccaro springs into action willing to go all in on Jordan. He confers with fellow exec Howard White (Chris Tucker, delightful here) and decides to break some rules to get what he wants. That includes bypassing Jordan’s Agent David Falk (Chris Messina) and going straight to Michael Jordan’s parents, wonderfully played by real live spouses, Julius Tennon and Viola Davis. While Davis delivers a strong performance and gets to the heart of what really matters, that those who get taken advantage of, be they athletes, artists, writers, or any number or people who are not the 1%, deserve their share of the pie, for me, it’s Messina who nearly walks away with the whole film. His Falk, who spends most of his time on the phone, delivers some of the funniest and filthiest arias of anger I’ve heard since Paul Newman put on his hockey gear in Slap Shot. Matthew Maher also proves memorable as Peter Moore, the designer of the original Air Jordan prototype and who arguably came up with the name. His scenes crackle with the awe of a man who loves his own creativity.

Air has that uncanny ability to maintain suspense despite the audience already knowing the outcome. The entire film has a natural quality which feels like it was made back in the 1980s, like some long lost journalistic procedural. It has this understated aesthetic thanks to Robert Richardson’s unfussy cinematography, William Goldenberg’s well-paced editing which flies by yet allows for grace notes, Francois Audouy’s perfectly muted production design, and especially Charles Antoinette Jones’ costume design, which hilariously nails every pleat on Damon’s khaki’s and every shade of purple on Affleck’s track suit.

As we follow Vaccaro on his journey, I started to feel something for him and the other characters. Even though this is a story of a corporation trying to stay afloat and probably screw over a young fledgling athlete in the process, it spoke to me about the dream of excellence, of talent, of Black excellence, of breaking the rules to go after what you want. Every character in this films pops and has a chance to shine. Other standouts include Marlon Wayans in a brief scene as a former coach who dispenses great advice to Vaccaro, and Affleck himself, who brings a prickly yet bohemian quirkiness to his big boss character.

If I had to gripe about anything, and I hate to because this is one funny and sweet film, it’s the fact that it has a surplus of endings and still misses out on one. Earlier in the story, Bateman’s character sets up something so emotional, I was certain it would get paid off in the end. I imagined it in my head, knowing when I saw it, I would cry. In fact, I get teary-eyed thinking about it even now. Yet, the filmmakers decided not to include it, opting instead to overplay their hand with 10 other endings. Oh well, all is forgiven when you can get a guy like me to stand up and cheer for a sports movie like Air.

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troubatrain · 3 years

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four times matthew was a fuckboy + one time he wasn’t

a/n: a repost from my old blog!

You didn’t hate Matthew Tkachuk. Hate is a strong word and you were too polite to hate anyone. But you definitely weren’t keen on the new company your friend had been keeping since she started seeing Matthew’s teammate, Noah. You were just different. You liked safety and rules, and Matthew put most of his energy into breaking every rule possible. He was a rat, and he didn’t give a damn who knew. You were a romantic, and you’d watch Matthew take a different girl home frequently, and you could only imagine what he was like on the road. He was a straight up fuckboy, and you’d just prefer to be as far away from him as possible. Besides the strong differences between each other, you really didn’t hate him - until, maybe, right now.

“I would never date Y/N,” Matthew scoffs at your best friend, Hannah, “She’s got a stick up her ass, all the time.” “I don’t have a stick up my ass Matthew,” You bark back, “You’re just a shitty person, and I don’t want to date you either.”

“Why? Am I not your type?” Matthew snarks back, “I’m everyone’s type.”

“No Matthew, egotistical professional athletes who don’t know anything besides hit and skate aren’t my type,” You say, “Hold an intellectual conversation with anyone and I’ll be impressed.”

“You know what, forget I mentioned it,” Hannah tries to interfere, but the way Matthew’s blue eyes were narrowed at you, his nostrils flaring out just a little bit meant it was too late and you were well on your way to spending the rest of the night arguing with Matthew.

“I don’t need to hold bullshit intellectual conversations to get laid Y/N,” Matthew grumbles, “I’m sure that’s only what terrible guys you probably date do.”

“I don’t date terrible guys,” You defend, but deep down, he was actually right about that. You were nearing the end of six months of being single since your last relationship ended and dating wasn’t going - well.

“Oh, I forgot, you probably only date boring guys,” Matthew huffs, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to find someone who isn’t boring.”

Matthew stomps away, looking back to give you one more smirk that made your skin crawl. You couldn’t stand his smug smile, or the fact that he constantly gave you grief for being a good person. Or the time he accused you of thinking you were better than everyone because you were smarter than them.

“I can’t believe there was a point in my life where I thought you guys could be friends,” Noah says, shaking his head at the verbal battle you and Matthew just had, “I thought I could set you guys up - to date.”

“Why do you all think that?” You ask, looking at your friend and her boyfriend with actual concern.

“I don’t know, you’re sweet and nice and he’s not,” Noah shrugs, “It’s kind of cute.”

“Yeah, like imagine if you were the one to tame him,” Hannah says, wrapping her arm around her boyfriend's bicep while he pressed a kiss to her head - a reminder that you didn’t have that. Your eyes move to Matthew at the bar, while a girl was under his arm in less than five minutes.

“I don’t think anyone’s taming that monster,” You say, pointing to the man in question.

II.

When the weekend finally came around, you found yourself in the same situation you were in the week before. Matthew gave you daggers across the table while Noah and Hannah tried to convince the two of you to put your differences aside and be friends. Except, you didn’t want to be friends with Matthew, because you knew exactly how he treated his “friends”. In the past week alone, you’d watched him while he escaped a morning after with someone who happened to live in your building. You had the worst morning of your life when you stepped on the elevator only to meet with the face of the devil himself. You halted, stepping into the elevator and shaking your head at Matthew - asking him if he was leaving or your worst nightmare of him moving into your building was happening. He told you he was escaping from a booty call, his words not yours, and then joked about moving in just to bother you. You started bickering in the elevator, and then it made you late for work. That snowballed into missing an important meeting and you were cursing Matthew internally for the rest of the day.

“I just don’t understand why you both keep pushing this,” you shout, gesturing between Matthew and yourself, “We are not friends.”

“Yeah, she’s right,” Matthew agrees, for the first time since you’d been introduced to each other.

“Why is that the only thing you’ve ever agreed on?” Hannah asks, looking sincerely concerned at the two of you.

“Because his opinions on everything else are terrible,” You say, walking over to the bar to go get yourself a drink. You can feel a large presence behind you and you turn around to be met with Matthew’s smug smile again, “You can’t just leave me alone.”

“I’m getting another drink, not everything is about you,” Matthew remarks, flagging down the bartender far easier than you could have. He orders you both a drink, and you decide to just take it - too tired to argue. While you were waiting you scanned the bar, only to spot your ex boyfriend across the bar.

“Fuck,” you mutter, grabbing Matthew’s attention.

“God what did I do now?” Matthew groans, and then he follows your eyes, “Do you know that guy?”

“Uh, yeah, he’s my ex,” You say, dropping your drink, “Can you tell Hannah I left.”

“Wait no-,” Matthew says, grabbing your arm and pulling you closer to him, “I’m going to leave after this, I’ll take an Uber with you.”

“Are you going to drop me off then go hook up with whoever lives in my building?” You ask, crossing your arms and looking at him.

“I’m going to get you home safely and whether or not I leave the building is none of your business,” Matthew argues back, his eyes flickering up to look behind you and a protective arm snakes around your waist.

“Is that Y/N?” You hear your ex’s familiar voice, and suddenly Matthew’s arm made more sense.

“Oh, Alex, hi,” You say, trying to ignore the burning sensation you felt under Matthew’s touch, but your anxiety about seeing your ex disappeared almost immediately, like with Matthew there nothing could hurt you.

“How are you?” Alex asks, “Is this your boyfriend? I didn’t think you’d move on after me.”

“Yeah,” Matthew cuts you off before you could deny it, “We were just heading out, you know we’ve got plans for the night.”

Matthew gave Alex a wink and a look that said not to fuck with him and grabbed your hand, pulling you out the bar. A part of you was pissed, like he’d just told your ex boyfriend that not only were you dating you were leaving your night out early to fuck. But a part you didn’t care about it, Alex was the worst, and even in that second he reminded you why you broke up in the first place, because he never stopped talking down to you.

“I can’t believe you dated someone who talks to you like that,” Matthew says, pulling out his phone to call an Uber, “Your taste in men is terrible.”

“Well he thinks I’m dating you, so my taste is terrible,” You say, sliding into the car once Matthew opens the door for you.

Matthew slides into the other side of the car, getting your Uber driving and asking him how his night is before turning to you, “Do you really think I’m that awful?”

Okay, yes, it was sweet that he protected you. Yes, it felt nice to have his arm around your waist. Yes, it was great to have your ex think you’re currently seeing a member of the Flames. Yes, it was nice that he’s taking you home. And yes, the way he spoke to the Uber driver when you got in was actually more polite than you assumed he was to strangers. But, none of that meant he was a decent human being - at least not to you.

“I mean you’ve never given me a reason to think otherwise,” You say, shrugging.

“I’ll give you a reason,” You heard him mutter, but his face said he didn’t want to talk about it, so you let it go until you rode up the elevator to your floor in silence.

“Hey Matthew,” You say, voice small, “Thanks for getting me home, and for before, I owe you one.”

“I don’t think you want to be indebted to me,” Matthew says, his signature smirk gracing his face.

“One favor, nothing sexual,” You wave your finger at him while the elevator closes, sending him to whoever he was meeting on a floor above you.

III.

You were swearing off men. That was it. You were sitting in a restaurant in the city, in a dress that made you look straight up hot, across from someone who made Matthew look like a saint. Paul was a friend of one of your coworkers, who raved about her friend who was intelligent and kind. Intelligent, yes definitely. But kind? At the moment that seemed far fetched. He’d spent the entire dinner talking about himself, and when you finally got to talk about yourself, he was just condescending and rude. You’d suffered through dinner, declining his invitation home. You heard his hollers about much of a tease and how uptight you were. You walked home, on a mission to get home and pretend this date never happened. Then you’d pass a bar you’d been to with Hannah a few times and decide to stop in - in need of a well deserved drink.

“There’s no way you should be here alone, dressed like that,” You can hear a familiar voice behind you and you turn around to meet Matthew’s face who was currently checking out your ass while you leaned against the bar.

“You’re not in charge of me,” You bark back, sipping on the drink you’d gotten, “What are you doing here?”

“I was supposed to meet Noah out for a drink, but he canceled on me when I walked in,” Matthew says, “Why are you here?”

“I was on a date,” You frown.

You really, really, really, didn’t want to admit to Matthew that you’d had a bad date. You were pretty sure he got laid more than anyone you knew and there was no way he wasn’t going to make fun of you for having a terrible date.

“Was it that bad?” Matthew asks, “Or are your standards just way too high?”

“There’s nothing wrong with having standards for yourself, you should try it sometime,” You defend, “But, he spent the entire date talking about himself.”

You bite your lip, looking at Matthew in front of you. Sometimes, when the light caught him just right and he wasn’t being a total douche you could be reminded why he was such a fuckboy in the first place, he was cute as hell. You hated how attracted you were to him sometimes, especially after the way he had protected you from Alex the other night. He didn’t know why you didn’t want to see him, but he was there regardless.

“You should stay,” You declare, biting your lip and looking at Matthew.

You swore there was a twinkle in his eye, he grabbed himself a drink and hopped onto a barstool while you sat next to him. It started with small talk, you confessing that you were sure Hannah made Noah stay in because she told you he wasn’t spending enough time with her. To which Matthew said that was the exact reason he didn’t do relationships. Then you moved to bickering about how you loved the idea of love and the fact that Matthew turned himself off to it actually made you sad.

“You just need to see it from my perspective,” Matthew tries to explain, “No one sees past all of this NHL bullshit anyways, so, I’m just taking advantage of it. Admit it, you thought I was a dick when before you met me?”

“You are a dick,” You joke, “But yes, I may have passed judgement, that doesn’t mean everyone else thinks that.”

“Trust me, they do,” Matthew takes a sip of his beer, “Girls, fans, even my family sometimes, they just can’t see past the whole rat thing.”

You bite your tongue from telling him that if he stopped playing like a rat, people probably wouldn’t say that. Mainly because he was playing in the NHL and I’m sure your opinion on his play didn’t matter much. But also because whatever he was telling you sounded like something he didn’t talk about very much, it intrigued you. You don’t talk much about it further, a couple of people who were fans coming over and insisting you took shots with them. A few rounds of drinks later, you were drunk and Matthew’s hand had found a permanent place on your lower back.

“Ready to go?” Matthew asks, a chill running up your spine when he whispered in your ear.

Maybe you were lonely. Maybe you’d had too much to drink. Maybe you’d found the one part vulnerable part of Matthew and it made you soft. But something possessed to look him in the eyes and demand he took you home. And after asking you four times if you were sure, you were on your way to Matthew’s apartment with him, his lips on yours.

IV.

You slipped out of Matthew’s apartment after that night long before he woke up. Your walk of shame took you back to your apartment and that was that. You’d only seen Matthew once since, and while you were sitting next to Hannah in the stands at the Saddledome, he’d sent you over a wink and you thanked your lucky stars that Hannah wasn’t paying attention. You knew Matthew wasn’t going to let your moment of weakness be forgotten, you just hoped he didn’t embarrass you. You shook your head at the thought, which had been taking up your brain for most of the week. Your thoughts were broken by a heavy knock on the door, and you opened to reveal the person who’d been taking up most of your thoughts.

“What are you doing here?” You ask, but you knew the answer was whichever one of his girlfriends, and you meant it to be plural, lived in your building.

“I was on my way to see someone but I thought I’d stop by,” Matthew smirks at you, “I have a favor to cash in.”

“I told you nothing sexual,” You counter back, despite the fact that you’d been under just a few nights ago.

“As much as I want to relive the events of the other night,” Matthew says, looking your body up and down, “I need an actual favor.”

“What?” You ask, crossing your arms.

“I need you to be my date to this event the Flames are doing,” Matthew sighs, as if he really didn’t want to ask.

“I’m sure there’s a line of girls who want to do that,” You say, wondering why Matthew needs you to go.

“I need to bring someone I can trust not to embarass me,” Matthew grumbles, “You’re smart, and you can hold a conversation with a bunch of our front office guys.”

“You want me to go and make you good?” You ask, trying to get exactly what he was asking you to do.

“Yes,” Matthew says, “I need you to make me look good. Can you do it?”

You should have said no. You should have said no. But, you said yes. You knew it was a bad idea, but the bright smile that graced Matthew’s face when you said yes almost made you forget that he was headed up to a booty call when he left your apartment. Something you realized he could only get away with.

Matthew wasn’t a bad date. He’d gotten to your apartment on time. Fed you with way too many compliments while his hand was rested on your thigh on the ride to the hotel ballroom the gala was at. Now, his hand had found its place on your back, while you wooed his coach into thinking Matthew was a decent human being. Really you should have paid overtime for how good you were doing. You’d met the entire Flames front office, charming each of them into thinking their player wasn’t sleeping around when he most definitely was.

You finally pull away from the conversation, latching on Hannah once she was finally in reach.

“You’re working like doubletime,” Hannah jokes, “How’d he convince you to do this?”

“He didn’t tell you what happened?” You ask, assuming his big mouth spilled the beans to Noah, at the very least.

“He never said anything,” Noah shrugs.

“I ran into my ex, and he pretended to be my boyfriend so he’d go away,” You admit, “Then he took me home and I told him I owe him one.”

“See? I knew he wasn’t all bad,” Hannah muses. You thought about what Matthew had said that night you slept together, about how people had presumptions about him he could never change so it didn’t matter. You’d actually thought about it frequently since, and it really made your heart ache for him. It bothered him, it had to.

“He’s not all bad,” You admit, outloud, really just so you could convince Hannah not to pass judgement on him without telling her what he’d told you.

“Hey, we can head out if you want?” Matthew asks, coming behind you. You nod, excited to be going home at a decent hour after a long week of work.

You were silent for the entire car ride home, your eyes constantly on Matthew for the entire ride.

“Would you stop staring at me?” Matthew asks, his eyes not leaving the road, but somehow his hand found your thigh, giving it a squeeze.

“Do you think you’re a bad person?” You ask, it was something you couldn’t stop thinking about. You didn’t understand Matthew, you didn’t think anyone actually did, but you wanted to figure him out so badly.

“Is this about what I said the other night? It wasn’t that deep Y/N,” Matthew sighs, “I’m not that deep.”

“Do you think that or have you been told that?” You ask, and you knew you were getting somewhere because you could feel his hand tense up.

“Are you always this annoying?” Matthew deflects.

“No,” You sigh, “It’s just, Hannah said something about you not being all bad and it bothered me.”

“A little criticism isn’t going to hurt me,” Matthew says, throwing his car into park so he could walk you to your door, “I’m not really a good guy either.”

You pout, leaning against the elevator. You were close to getting him to just open to you. His walls were tall and they were definitely thick but you might have been slowly chipping away at him.

“Thank you for doing this tonight, it meant a lot to me,” Matthew says, his hand rubbing the back of his neck while you stood in your doorway. A part you wanted to pull him inside by his collar and have your way with him, but you knew once was one thing but twice was going to be another. You bite your lip, debating it for a second, “Thinking about inviting me inside.”

“How did you-?” You start to ask before Matthew immediately cuts you off.

“You’re practically eye-fucking me,” Matthew jokes, “You won’t invite me inside though, because you know if you sleep with me twice you won’t be able to stop.”

You jaw drops, because he was right, “That’s hardly true.”

“I can read you Y/N, you’re like an open book,” Matthew smirks, “For the record, I don’t know if I’d be able to shake you either if we did this again.”

With that sentiment Matthew was headed down the hallway, turning just one more time before he hit the elevator button.

“Matthew?” You call out, “Are you going up or down?”

The question was burning. You just wanted to know why he was frequenting your building. Whoever was up there and why she could get Matthew to keep coming back. You were a little jealous, that he’d rejected you to go see her.

“That’s none of your business,” Matthew muses, giving you a wink and stepping into the elevator.

You were annoyed, and you thought about walking back outside to see if Matthew’s car was still there. That would make you a crazy person so you laid in bed while it ate you alive. That was, until you’d received a text from Matthew of his bedroom, and a sly comment about how you might have recognized his place. While it was smug and irritating, it did make you happy that he was home and he was alone.

plus one

You felt like an idiot. You stood at the bar next to Hannah, listening to her rant and rave about something Noah did while you watched Matthew flirt with some girl by the bar. You didn’t know why you thought maybe he could turn over a new leaf. That maybe you were getting somewhere with him. But, everything went out the window the second your eyes were on him. You decided he was dead to you, he had to be. You excuse yourself from Hannah, giving Matthew one more look before stomping out of the bar. You could hear his shouts behind you while you walked down the street, your apartment too far to walk but if you stopped you’d be forced to speak to him.

“Y/N! Where are you even going?” Matthew finally catches up to you, and you curse your shorter legs for stopping you from outrunning him.

“Away from you,” You say, “You can go back to your little friend, that’s your life Matthew, I get that now.”

“Come back to my place, I need to talk to you,” Matthew pleads, and you knew you were only a block away from his place. You sigh, nodding and following him down the street.

Matthew’s apartment felt different than it did the night you’d slept together. You were tossing off your clothes in a drunken haze and you never realized how empty his place felt. It was cold, and in some serious need a curtain and throw pillow. It was a metaphor for the current state of it’s resident.

“Okay talk,” You cross your arms, “Explain to me how you do this to every girl, make them think there’s a part of you that’s decent to only be an asshole to them in the end.”

“I’ve never told anyone what I told you,” Matthew confesses, “I thought, maybe, you’d be into me. Then I realized if you were, I was only going to hurt you. You don’t deserve that, so if I push you away, you’ll be happy.”

“Clearly, I’m not happy,” You say, pointing to the frown that was very present on your face, “Listen, I like you, I don’t know why or how you crawled into my life but I want to be with you - the real you. I want that vulnerable man that told me he thought everyone judged him. I want you to prove to me you are that man.”

“I can do that,” Matthew nods, his hands resting on your cheeks. He captures your lips in his for the most tender kiss you’d been given. It was full of love, and full of feeling.

“I want you to prove it,” You say when you finally pull away, your forehead resting on his.

#matthew tkachuk #matthew tkachuk imagine #my writing #nhl imagine #nhl imagines

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gotmymindsetonyou · 3 years

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Reviews for Every Movie I Watched in March+April

Kinda fell off on watching movies after January due to some mental health shtuff, but I’ve slowly been getting back on that horse and I wanted to talk about the movies I’ve seen, so here we are. Take my number ratings with a grain of salt, they’re mostly off the cuff and giving a movie a numbered grade is pretty arbitrary anyway.

March 1: The Wizard of Oz (1939) dir. Victor Fleming - 9/10

It is STUPID how good this movie is for 1939. I really do like almost everything about this movie, from the fun characters to the bright and colorful set design to the iconic music. In fact, the only parts of the movie I don’t like are that ugly ass Cowardly Lion and those godforsaken Munchkins.

March 1: Kick-Ass (2010) dir. Matthew Vaughn - 8/10

Even when Matthew Vaughn is bad, he is still amazingly fun, and this movie is by no means a bad movie. Nicolas Cage gives the best performance, I love his delivery on some of his lines. This movie is so much fun y’all. Just watch it, you’ll have a good time. (And yes, I know both Quicksilvers are in this, you don’t have to tell me)

March 13: There Will Be Blood (2007) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson - 10/10

This is a fuck-you movie. This movie curb stomped me, spat in my face, and told me I’d never make it in this industry. I don’t need to tell you this movie is incredible, ‘cause if you’ve seen it you already know, and if you haven’t you are seriously missing out.

March 14: The Philadelphia Story (1940) dir. George Cukor - 7/10

I had a hard time deciphering how I feel about this movie. I watched this for a Classic Film course, so I had a couple days to listen to and share some deeper analysis, and I feel like this film is actually pretty good. I don’t have any strong feelings on it, check it out if you like classic film.

March 14: Moulin Rouge! (2001) dir. Baz Luhrmann - 8/10

This movie is bombastic as hell, and even if this is a bad movie, it’s a good movie in my soul. Ewan McGregor, please return my calls.

March 15: The Ruthless (2019) dir. Renato De Maria - 5/10

I guess this movie just isn’t for me, I don’t know. I really do like Riccardo Scamarcio in this movie, but that’s the extent of the really good things. I was on a “Santino from John Wick” kick, I can’t really explain it.

March 20: The Host (2006) dir. Bong Joon-ho - 9/10

Bong Joon-ho has never disappointed me once, and I don’t think he ever will. This is one of the best monster movies I have ever seen (granted I don’t think I’ve seen a lot of monster movies). Watch this movie, it has a wonderful heart and a wonderful monster.

March 20: Citizen Kane (1941) dir. Orson Welles - 10/10

Anything I can say about this movie has already been said, so I’m going to leave you with “I wrote a paper on this film and got a C so fuck this movie” and call it a day.

March 27: Sound of Metal (2019) dir. Darius Marder - 9/10

I am so glad a watched this movie. Riz Ahmed gives an award winning performance if only he hadn’t been competing against Anthony Hopkins. Paul Raci is also really, really good in this movie, and I don’t think that’s mentioned as much, and I think it should be.

April 6: Casablanca (1942) dir. Michael Curtiz - 9/10

I did not think I would enjoy Casablanca as much as I did, but yeah. This is a great movie. I wanna go on record and say Humphrey Bogart is not tall, he is 5′8″. He wears pumps in this movie and they’re really funny to look at.

April 10: Dr. No (1962) dir. Terence Young - 7/10

This was my introduction to the Bond universe, and I thought it was a pretty good way to get me into the character of James Bond. Sean Connery is the strongest part of this movie as Bond. It is by no means a perfect movie, some aspects are extraordinarily outdated. But as a first crack this movie gets two thumbs up from me.

April 18: The Godfather (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola - 10/10

This film is truly something special. I am lucky that I was able to experience the story basically blind (I knew about some specific plot points and some famous lines, but for the most part this was all new to me), and I was extra lucky that I got to watch it with my dad. Being able to watch The Godfather with someone who has a deep love of the genre and the film itself is something that enhances almost every movie going experience. The Godfather is one of the greats.

April 19: Mank (2020) dir. David Fincher - 6/10

I am not in love with this movie. I don’t hate it, but I don’t particularly like it either. The production design is great, and as a general appreciator of classic cinema I liked those aspects just fine. There’s just something in here that’s preventing me from fully liking this movie.

April 21: Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) dir. Shaka King - 9/10

The only way I can describe this movie is “important.” King gives us a story of a often left out part of the Civil Rights movement, and it’s a story that everyone should be aware of. Fred Hampton was only 21 when he was assassinated, and yet he left such a mark on the fight for racial equality. Daniel Kaluuya absolutely deserved his Oscar win, he is a dream in this film. This is an uncompromising, tragic, and endlessly relevant movie.

April 23: The Father (2020) dir. Florian Zeller - 10/10

Yeah I cried. Anthony Hopkins is... I don’t think his performance can be summed up in words. It’s heartbreaking, everything about this movie is soul-crushing.

April 24: Promising Young Woman (2020) dir. Emerald Fennell - 8/10

(You can tell I was cramming for the Oscars at this point) It is really hard to review Promising Young Woman. It’s incredibly polarizing to the film community, and it’s also polarizing in my own opinion. I really don’t know how I feel here, all I know is my feelings are strong. Also every time Bo Burnham was on screen I had a big stupid grin on my face, I can’t wait for his new special to come out.

April 25: Nomadland (2020) dir. Chloe Zhao - 9/10

What a beautiful experience. This movie, on top of being absolutely gorgeous, has such a wonderful soul that completely shines through Zhao’s directing. There’s a monologue about maybe a half hour in that describes so succinctly the beauty of nature, and as someone who lives in a much more urban area of the world, it’s a description that I don’t get to see that often in my life. That’s why I love film. If Promising Young Woman made me angry at the world Nomadland made me fall back in love with it.

April 25: Minari (2020) dir. Lee Isaac Chung - 8/10

Watching Minari is like being gently set on fire. My feelings aren’t as strong as they were for Nomadland, and I don’t have much to say, but I still adore this movie and think it’s worth watching.

April 26: Singin’ in the Rain (1952) dir. Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen - 8/10

I think my film teacher puts it best in describing this movie as “just so stinkin joyous.” That’s what this movie is, it’s joy put to film. I love how you can clearly see the excitement over making film that comes through in older movies, I feel like you don’t really see that anymore.

April 28: Some Like It Hot (1959) dir. Billy Wilder - 7/10

As glaringly outdated this film is, I still managed to have a pretty good time with it, although I can totally see why the plot could put some people off, or even make them outright dislike the film as a whole. Marilyn Monroe playing a ukulele made me feel very seen. (This is my first Marilyn movie as well!)

April 29: Snowpiercer (2013) dir. Bong Joon-ho - 8/10

CHRIST this movie is intense. The best part of Snowpiercer is it is engaging as hell. Unfortunately I had to duck out about three quarters of the way through to get some dental work done, but rest assured under different circumstances I would have been glued to the screen from start to finish. The premise is chilling (ha ha, get it), and the subplot of class disparity is also really compelling. If you know me you’ll know that I love me some John Hurt, Song Kang-ho has been great in pretty much every movie I’ve seen him in, TILDA FUCKING SWINTON rocks every scene she’s in. My only real problem here is sometimes Chris Evans is a bit hit or miss for me, I really like his performance at times, and I like it less at others. It has been cool to see him grow as an actor over the years, you can definitely see his improvement in more recent movies. In any case, I stand by my previous statement, Bong Joon-ho has never disappointed me once, and I don’t think he ever will.

#movie review #Film Review #i combined two months to give myself more content #but i think i might have given myself too much content #there's a lot in here

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salvatoreschool · 3 years

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‘Legacies’ Kaylee Bryant on How Playing Elena in the Salvatore Musical Helps Josie

Get ready for Salvatore: The Musical on Legacies, a play being put on by the town’s high school for the young and gifted in an homage to the Vampire Diaries franchise. And its lead role of Elena (Nina Dobrev in Diaries) is none other than Josie, played by Kaylee Bryant.

“I was definitely apprehensive and nervous at first because obviously Elena was what started it all,” Bryant tells TV Insider. “But I’m so glad I got the opportunity to, in a weird way, embody Elena, whether it be by Josie-proxy or not.”

Here, Bryant takes us inside the musical and talks happiness ahead for Josie.

What did you want to bring to the role of Elena?

Kaylee Bryant: The reality is Elena is Josie’s aunt, so if you were taking your aunt as a character, how would you do that? It was fun to add the extra layer of working with Ben Levin as Stefan [originally Paul Wesley] since Jed, who he usually plays, had a huge crush on Alyssa Chang, who Josie killed recently.

Can embodying Elena help Josie in some way with what she’s been going through?

When I was told Josie was playing Elena, I was a little confused, very much like Josie is. I didn’t see much relation between them, but the more I dug into it, as Josie does, the more I realized they’re constantly trying to figure out what is best for themselves as well as everybody around them, and finding that balance. It very much helps Josie come to terms with her next steps and what she needs to do to be healthy.

What can you preview about the monster-of-the-week?

It isn’t a physical battle, it’s more of a battle of wits. It involves this school a lot more than the average monster.

Is there a specific moment from The Vampire Diaries you were excited to do?

The most iconic line that came out of The Vampire Diaries was “Hello, brother” by Damon [originally played by Ian Somerhalder] to Stefan and [vice versa], so we have an entire song called “Hello, Brother” with Ben Levin and Chris Lee [who plays Kaleb] that I get to be a part of. It’s such a catchy song.

How has Josie’s dark magic chapter changed things between her and her sister Lizzie [Jenny Boyd]?

Their relationship is a beautiful thing because it’s so flawed yet so perfect. Even though Josie did awful things to Lizzie, Lizzie stays by Josie’s side no matter what. The fact Lizzie steps up and says, “You’re done casting, my sister needs to play the lead,” says a lot. Their dynamic this season is very much about Josie coming to terms [with things] and maturing, and Lizzie learning to be OK with that.

Josie’s relationship with her father, Alaric [Matthew Davis], had to change as a result of what she does, too.

Absolutely. Alaric really steps up and says, “I’m here as your father as much as I am your headmaster, if not more so.”

So, will she find happiness in her love life?

[Let’s just say] I really hope the fans are as excited as I am to see Josie in a new relationship with somebody they don’t know.

Will Josie continue struggling with using her magic?

That’s pretty much her entire arc the beginning of Season 3. She gave up her magic but is still living in a school filled with magic, and if we know anything about what Kai Parker [Chris Wood] went through, magic isn’t just something she deals with like a regular witch. It’s more like something she’s addicted to — once she starts, she can’t stop. Her friends and family are used to her being the answer to all of their magical problems that once they realize she isn’t there for them in that way, there’s a whole other level of readjustment for everybody.

How would you want Josie portrayed in a Legacies: The Musical?

I don’t know… We were all left to our own devices and had so much fun that I hope if that ever does happen, whoever plays Josie just has a really good time.

Legacies, Thursdays, 9/8c, The CW

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christianstevefinnell · 3 years

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THE MAN OF SINPART I: THE PROPHECYby David Vaughn Elliott We are all sinners. Yet, one man in all history is singled out as "the man of sin... the son of perdition." Not a lovely description. Why talk about him? Yet, the Word of God does talk about him. Most students of Scripture, past and present, see a connection between "the man of sin" of 2 Thessalonians 2 and the "little horn" of Daniel 7. They also see a connection with one or more of the beasts in Revelation 13 and with "the great harlot" and "Babylon" in Revelation 17 and 18. From ancient times, these outstanding prophecies have been lumped together under the common title "antichrist." In spite of such agreement, views regarding the fulfillment vary widely. Is this enemy of God someone in the past, present or future? The most popular view today, futurism, says that he is yet in the future. To the opposite extreme are a growing number today, preterists, who believe that he is a relic of ancient history. Howbeit, for hundreds of years, the vast majority of Bible believers unswervingly proclaimed that "the man of sin" is a present reality. WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE? Since there are so many conflicting views, why bother to try to figure out who "the man of sin" is in 2 Thessalonians 2? To ask that question betrays an ignorance of the text. This is not just some idle study out of vain curiosity. Eternal issues are at stake here. Number One: Christ versus "the man of sin" (verses 1-3). It is our Lord Jesus Christ on the one side, and "the man of sin" on the other. Paul assures his readers that Christ is coming, but that "the man of sin" is also coming. The best and the worst. The Son of God versus a son of the devil (verse 9). Nothing less is involved than the eternal battle between the forces of good and evil. The eternal battle between God and Satan. Number Two: "not shaken" versus "falling away" (verses 2-4). Some people think the study of prophecy has little to do with "practical" Christianity. How much more practical can you get than holding fast or falling away? The problem is that many believers think that "falling away" relates only to drunkenness, adultery, forsaking the assembly and the like. However, Paul speaks of being "shaken" by not knowing if "the day of Christ" is past or future. Paul speaks of "the falling way" which involves "worship" in "the temple of God." We need to investigate what this is all about. Number Three: "the love of the truth" versus "not receive the love of the truth" (verse 10). Love God. Love Jesus. Love your brother. Love your spouse. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Also--love the truth. To some people, "love" means "sex." To others, "love" means "unconditional acceptance" of whatever another person believes or does. Enter "love of the truth." That love is not at all popular in our relativistic-materialistic society. It is not at all popular with the do-it-if-it-makes-you-feel-good club. If you love the truth, you will search for it as diligently as for a hidden treasure (Proverbs 2:1-4). Number Four: "truth" versus "deception," "delusion" and a "lie" (verses 10,11). Living the Christian life is more than morality. It has to do with what we believe. It has to do with truth versus error. In the Garden of Eden, it was God's truth versus Satan's lie. It still is. Eve wanted the "freedom" of "choice." Paul tells Timothy that Eve was deceived. So are millions today by "the man of sin." We are not dealing here with idle prophetic curiosity. We are dealing with nothing less than the issue of truth versus lies. Jesus is truth. Satan is the father of lies. That is what this prophecy is all about. Number Five: "saved" versus "condemned" (verses 10, 12). Eternity is involved in "the man of sin" prophecy. Saved or lost; blessed or condemned. Many Christians sidestep various issues by retorting: "Well, it isn't a matter of salvation." However, the issues of this prophecy are very much "a matter of salvation." This prophecy has very much to do with understanding the characteristics of those who are saved and those who are condemned. The issue is live and real. Number Six: holiness versus "unrighteousness" (verse 12). Yes, morality does count. You cannot believe right and live wrong. At issue here are those who have "pleasure in unrighteousness." Reminds us of "lovers of pleasure" in 2 Timothy 3:4. Sin is fun; you had better believe it. Fun now; pay later. If it were not fun, why would people bother with it? Moses chose to suffer with the people of God rather than "enjoy the passing pleasures of sin" (Hebrews 11:25). "The man of sin" has to do with fun religion. Fun because you can have one foot in a church and another foot in the world. They "worship" yet have "pleasure in unrighteousness." These are six solid reasons why "the man of sin" prophecy merits serious study on the part of every person who cares about his relationship with the God of the universe and His precious Son. MUST BE BASED ON SOUND DOCTRINE The interpretation of prophecy must always agree with sound doctrine. Example: if Christians are no longer obligated to keep the Sabbath, then the seal of God in Revelation 7 cannot possibly be Sabbath keeping. The doctrinal issue must be settled before attempting to interpret prophecy. The prophecy at hand has several doctrinal issues that must be clarified in the light of New Testament Scripture. Among the most important issues is the meaning of "the temple of God," since that is where "the man of sin" will sit. WHICH "TEMPLE OF GOD"? Six centuries before Christ, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia devastated the temple in Jerusalem. Howbeit, three great prophets of God, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel, foretold the rebuilding of Jerusalem with its temple. Ezra and Nehemiah recorded the history of the fulfillment. Nevertheless, Daniel and Jesus prophesied the destruction of this second temple. That was powerfully fulfilled in 70 A.D. (See Index by Subject, especially under heading "70 Weeks of Daniel 9.") There is not one Bible prophecy foretelling a rebuilding of Jerusalem's temple after its destruction in 70 A.D. Those who claim the temple will be built again at some future date base their views solely on inference. Their arguments run like this: "Since the man of sin will sit in the temple of God, the temple in Jerusalem has to be built again in order to fulfill that prophecy." What proof is there that "the temple of God" in 2 Thessalonians 2 is to be a physical temple in physical Jerusalem? Indeed, there are at least three reasons for rejecting that interpretation. First is the fact already mentioned that no Scripture makes a direct prediction of rebuilding after 70 A.D. Secondly, one must consider the nature of the Jerusalem temple in the New Testament. Everyone understands that the temple in Jerusalem was the temple of God when Jesus arrived on the scene. Jesus himself said of the temple, "Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" (John 2:16). It was in the temple that animals were sacrificed and their blood shed for the remission of the people's sins. However, Jesus came into the world to offer His own body and blood as the perfect sacrifice for sins. Thus, at the moment of His death, God acted in an unprecedented manner: "Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked" (Matthew 27:51). In this graphic fashion God declared that when Jesus died, He was finished with that physical temple. Following the rending of the veil, the term "house of God" never again refers to the temple in Jerusalem. A physical temple has not existed now for over 1900 years. Any physical temple built today would be a slap in the face to Jesus, who shed His blood to do away with the temple's animal sacrifices. The second temple, which existed in Jesus' day, was once the temple of God and then ceased to be. A third temple, if built, would not for one second of time be a temple of God. This brings us to the third point. Notice how clear 1 Timothy 3:15 states it: "that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." Scripture could not say any more clearly what the "house of God" is today. God's church. The same is true of the expression "temple of God." Examination shows that after Jesus' death, "temple of God" never again refers to the physical temple in physical Jerusalem. Rather, it refers to the church of God. It seems that our brethren in Corinth were not quite clear on this point. Thus Paul asked them, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and [that] the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). Today we would ask people a similar question: "When you study prophecy about the 'temple of God,' do you not know that since Jesus' death the people of God are the 'temple of God'? Do you not know that the 'house of God' is the church of God?" This is sound doctrine. Using sound doctrine as the basis for the study of prophecy, the careful student of the New Testament will realize that when 2 Thessalonians 2 speaks prophetically of "the temple of God," it must be a prophecy about the church. Something very bad is going to happen to Jesus' church. WHAT IS APOSTASY? There are more doctrinal issues that must be clarified in the light of Scripture before attempting to find the fulfillment of "the man of sin" prophecy. The matter of the "temple of God" is only the first. Second, there is the question of the meaning of the expression "the apostasy." Actually, several versions make it clear when they render the word "the falling away." That is exactly what apostasy means. A man can not fall from a cliff if he has never been on the cliff. A child cannot fall from a train she never boarded. Since this prophecy has something to do with "the temple of God," the church, it is therefore predicting a falling away from the true church. It is a prophecy about apostasy, a prophecy about a departure from the faith "once for all delivered" (Jude 3). The prophecy cannot be talking about Judaism, because it preceded the church of Christ. It cannot be talking about Islam, because it is a wholly distinct religion unrelated to the Gospel of Christ. We have to study church history to search for "the falling away." Notice also that the prophecy is not about just any falling away. It prophesies "the" falling away, "the" apostasy. That would seem to tell us that to find fulfillment we must look for the most important false church in all history. Connected with the idea of falling away is "the lawless one." That is to say, he would turn his back on the law of Christ and establish his own laws. A person is a "law breaker" for breaking just one law. However "lawless one" conveys the idea of someone who repeatedly and in large measure opposes the commandments of the New Testament. This prophecy, then, is not dealing with just any slight variation from the true Gospel. It foretells a departure of major proportions. Paul wrote this more than 1900 years ago. Before thinking that "the man of sin" might be future, a believer must search 1900 years of church history to see if the prophecy has already been fulfilled. It is only when people ignore 19 centuries of Christianity that they can be deceived into thinking that fulfillment is in the future. ONE MAN OR A GROUP OF MEN? Third, there is the question of how many people are involved. The text says "the man" of sin. However, in Bible prophecy, one person often represents an entire body of people. For example, most students agree that the four beasts in Daniel 7 represent Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome. Each beast represents an entire empire. Daniel 7 clearly says as much. In verse 17, it says "Those great beasts, which are four, [are] four kings." Yet, in further exposition, in verse 23 it says, "The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth." So, a beast represents a man and both represent a kingdom. This Bible symbolism is not nearly as strange as some seem to think it is. Ever hear of Uncle Sam? What about the elephant and donkey representing the Republicans and Democrats? This same type of symbolism is found in Revelation 17. Who would argue that "the great harlot" is a prophecy of a red-light-district prostitute? Indeed, the prophecy itself clears up any doubt when verse 18 says, "And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth." One woman represents an entire city. She represents especially the power of the leaders of that city to exercise control over many nations. Both Daniel and Revelation thus make clear that a prophetic individual may well represent an entire city or an entire empire, especially the governmental powers. A MATTER OF RELIGION Fourth, "worship" is involved in this prophecy. Whatever political power he may have, "the man of sin" is a religious figure. He presents himself as God. Moreover, he does this in the temple of God, which is the church. God does not want just any religion. The very first murder in the human race was for religious motives. "The LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry" (Genesis 4:4,5). The first sin of Cain was not murder, not even hate for his brother. Cain's first sin was false worship. The Bible is filled with accounts of religious conflict. Jesus, for example, told the Samaritan woman, "You worship what you do not know" (John 4:22). Jesus said of the religious leaders of his day, "in vain they worship Me, teaching [as] doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9). "The man of sin" is all about false worship. MIRACLES BY SATAN Fifth, the apostate church here foretold would be "the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders" (2 Thessalonians 2:9). This eliminates many apostate people and organizations as candidates for "the man of sin." "The man of sin" works miracles. Satan working miracles is nothing new to the Bible. As early as the time of the Exodus, Pharaoh's magicians were capable of duplicating Moses' signs of turning rods into snakes, of turning water into blood and of producing a plague of frogs (Exodus 7:8 to 8:19). Yes, Moses by the hand of the Almighty outdid them. However, make no mistake about it. These pagan magicians worked real miracles. There are numerous ways God's people can distinguish between the miracles of God and the miracles of Satan. One way is exactly that recorded in Exodus 8:18: "Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not." They had worked many miracles, but they came to the point where they tried again and they failed. Anyone who tries to work a miracle and fails is not of God, no matter what other miracles he has worked. Because God's miracle workers do not fail. They do not blame other people for their failures. Sixth, do not overlook the fact that "strong delusion" (verse 11) is a part of the picture. Do not expect the people of the world to be convinced easily that some false church is "the man of sin." Do not expect the ecumenical movement to believe it. Do not expect those who put unity above purity of doctrine to believe it. "The man of sin" is very religious, he works miracles, he seems to many to be the true church of our Lord. Multitudes will be deceived, strongly deluded. STARTED IN PAUL'S DAY Paul made it clear that in his day "the mystery of lawlessness is already at work" (verse 7). Therefore, in searching for the fulfillment of this prophecy, we must look for some principle, some spirit, some activity that was already at work in the first century. It makes no sense to start our search with the year 2000 and work backward. It makes even less sense to theorize about some future possibility. How can we believe that something, which was already at work in Paul's day, has not been able to break out into the open for over 1900 years? Rather, the sensible thing is to start our search with the first century and move forward in time. We must examine the movement of church history from its origin. We must search for something that was already working in Paul's day that in time became the full-blown apostate church. When we find that, if it fulfills all the details of the prophecy, then we have found "the man of sin." DESTROYED WHEN JESUS COMES Verse 8 of our text is very clear: "the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will... destroy with the brightness of His coming." Clearly "the man of sin," the antichrist, comes before Jesus returns. Strange as it may seem, the popular futurist view says just the opposite and uses this text as a basis. "They" say that the antichrist will be manifested in all his power after the "rapture." Futurists accomplish their twist by making "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (verse 1) as one event, "the day of Christ" (verse 2) a second event, and "His coming" (verse 8) a third event. They claim the text teaches four events in this order: the rapture, the man of sin, the tribulation and the Second Coming of Jesus. Did Paul say all that? "They" claim that the "coming" in verse 1 is "the rapture" and that the "coming" in verse 8 is "the Second Coming" seven years later. However, the Greek word for "coming" in the two verses is identical. If they are two different comings, then verse 1 is the Second Coming and verse 3 is the Third Coming. However, since no one accepts the idea of a third coming, "they" avoid such an expression. Instead, they invent the theory of "two phases" to the "second" coming. (See Insight #78 for a full treatment of "The Rapture.") At this time, the discussion will be limited to 2 Thessalonians 2. Their theory holds that "the day of the Lord" (or "day of Christ") is neither the Second Coming nor the Third Coming. Rather, they say, it is something in between. As in the case of "temple of God," they lean heavily on Old Testament usage while sidestepping New Testament usage. Without leaving 2 Thessalonians 2, let us examine the question. In verse 1, Paul introduces the topic for discussion: "the coming of our Lord Jesus." Now if that is "the rapture," it is the only verse from verses 1 to 12 that speaks of the "rapture." In such a case, "they" put Paul in the position of saying he would talk about one topic but instead he talked about another. But if you take "the day of Christ" (or "the day of the Lord") in context, then certainly "the coming" of our Lord Jesus Christ is "the day" of our Lord Jesus Christ. In verses 1 and 2, Paul is simply saying that in regard to Jesus' coming, don't think that it has already happened. Verse 3 says why they should not believe that: because "the man of sin" must come first. Verse 8 explains that the man of sin will be destroyed by the "coming" of Jesus. Obviously, therefore, "the man of sin" comes before Jesus comes. Now, if the "coming" in verse 8 is not the same "coming" as in verse 1, then Paul said he was going to talk about one thing but tricked us by talking about another thing. These then, are the things to consider about "the man of sin" prophecy before ever going beyond the Biblical text. Once we have learned all we can from the Bible itself, only then are we ready to launch out into history in search of fulfillment. (Scripture in the preceding article is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)

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gokinjeespot · 3 years

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off the rack #1316

Monday, March 8, 2021

Coming up on a year since the pandemic started. I hope you're all healthy and safe. I am hopeful that vaccines will be deployed widely and help us all feel less anxious. I am fortunate enough to be one of those people who is happy as a bug snug in a rug while self isolating. I do really miss my dear friends and family but hugs can wait until we're all vaccinated.

My thanks to Doug for lending me these comic books to read.

Batman Annual #5 - James Tynion IV (writer) James Stokoe (art) Clayton Cowles (letters). It's the origin of Clownhunter and it's not very original. If I had to pay $4.99 US I would have passed on this and lived with leaving a hole in my Batman collection. If you're not familiar with this new vigilante, he's an Asian teenager named Bao who decides he's going to kill the Joker and all of the villain's sycophants. The reason he becomes Clownhunter (and killer) is very mundane. I wish they could have come up with a new motivator. Maybe the philosophical discussion about what to do about the Joker might interest some fans but I found this story quite tedious. I also didn't like the way Bao and his parents were portrayed. Did they really have an Asian saying "Ah, so"? Yes they did on page 8. Shades of Charlie Chan, Batman. I was not offended, just disappointed.

Batman/Catwoman #3 - Tom King (writer) Clay Mann (art) Tomeu Morey (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). I was thrilled to see the town of Port Orange, Florida mentioned on the first page. My pal Al lives there. It's also where Selina finally catches up with the Joker and does what Batman never did. I love this Black Label book taking familiar characters and treating them in a new and interesting way. Here's a future where Selina has survived her husband Bruce's death and their daughter Helena is the new Batwoman. Now I wait to see how mother and daughter deal with the Angel of Death.

And now, more Future State books.

Future State: Robin Eternal #2 - Meghan Fitzmartin (writer) Eddy Barrows (pencils) Eber Ferreira (inks) Adriano Lucas (colours) Pat Brosseau (letters). The consequence of Tim Drake/Robin being dunked in Lazarus resin is that now he's immortal. Whoop-dee-doo. Not only is this a boring Robin beats up bad guys issue but the art lacked any logical perspective. This issue takes place on a train but you would think it's in a huge building based on the art. I know it's comic books but I hate when one doesn't make visual sense. I think that's just laziness.

Future State: Kara Zor-El Superwoman #1 & #2 - Marguerite Bennett (writer) Marguerite Sauvage (art) Wes Abbott (letters). This 2-issue fairy tale was not meant for old farts like me and Doug. With it's soft pastel colours these books should have included glitter and bubblegum flavoured lip gloss. Maybe young tween girls will like this. The moral of this story is "no one is born wise".

Future State: Dark Detective #3 - Mariko Tamaki (writer) Dan Mora (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Aditya Bidikar (letters). There are not one but two Batmans in this issue. You've got Bruce in his new capeless costume but here he's wearing a trench coat to give that fluttering effect, and then there's the new guy in the Bat suit, cape and all. The "uh-oh" point of the story hits here when the bad guys discover where Bruce is hiding out. The Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Carmine Di Giandomenico (art) Antonio Fabela (colours) & AndWorld Design (letters) Grifter story concludes here too with a double cross and a whole lot more of Helena/Huntress. This is my favourite Future State book so far.

Future State: Superman of Metropolis #1 & #2 - Sean Lewis (writer) John Timms (art) Gabe Eltaeb (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). If you're wondering how a grown up Jonathan Kent takes over for his dad as Metropolis's protector then these two $5.99 US books will satisfy your curiosity. The villain of the story is an evolved Brainiac who is a big multi-mouthed ball now. Metropolis is shrunk ala the bottle city of Kandor, the citizens go nuts but Jon returns things back to normal in the end with the help of Kara/Supergirl. I don't know why Kara's a girl in this story and a woman elsewhere. Each issue has two back-ups so you get your money's worth. One features Mister Miracle and the other the Guardian. They are both dealing with bad things inside the bottled Metropolis. You won't miss much if you don't read them. The Mister Miracle story "The Metropolis Menagerie" is done my Brandon Easton (writer) Valentine De Landro (art) Marissa Louise (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). The Guardian story is brought to you by Sean Lewis (writer) Cully Hamner & Michael Avon Oeming (art) Laura Martin (colours) AndWorld Design (letters). This one got me excited because a villain wants to throw Jimmy Olsen off of the Daily Planet building.

Future State: Catwoman #2 - Ram V (writer) Otto Schmidt (art) Tom Napolitano (letters). Read this to find out if Catwoman saves the lives of the people on the train. You will also find out if Bruce is freed from the bad guys. Talia Al-Ghul appearing is the deus ex machina in this story. I like the new Cheshire and Onomatopoeia is always fun.

Future State: Superman: Worlds of War #2 - Phillip Kennedy Johnson (writer) Mikel Janin (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) & Dave Sharpe (letters). In "The Many Deaths of Superman" the Man of Steel fights in the arena of Warworld where Mongul resurrects him after every death match. It's the typical brutal battle scenes and super villain gloating. What's more compelling is an old newspaper story that Clark Kent wrote that inspired a young woman who travels to Smallville. I was totally confused by the three back-up stories featuring Mister Miracle, Midnighter and the Black Racer because they were not very good. I am a completist and have to finish what I start. I could have stopped reading after the $3.99 US main story in this bloated $7.99 US comic book but my obsessive compulsive nature wouldn't let me. It's a character flaw I wish I could change.

Future State: The Next Batman #1 - John Ridley (writer) Nick Derington (art) Tamra Bonvillain (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). All the teasers for this book hyped the fact that this Batman is black. You won't get the secret identity in this first issue but there are a bunch of likely candidates. Lucas Fox is a possibility but it's confusing because he's a bad guy in another Future State book. This is another $7.99 US book with back-ups. These are more coherent than the ones in Future State: Superman: Worlds of War.

Future State: Outsiders by Brandon Thomas (writer) Sumit Kumar (pencils) Sumit Kumar & Raul Fernandez (inks) Jordie Bellaire (colours) & Steve Wands (letters) gathers together some old Batman associates helping Gotham City citizens escape persecution by the Magistrates outside Gotham City's borders. Get it? It was nice seeing Katana in action.

Future State: Arkham Knights by Paul Jenkins (writer) Jack Herbert (art) Gabe Eltaeb (colours) & Rob Leigh (letters) gathers together some of Batman's rogues gallery to fight the oppressive Magistrate. Two-Face, Mr. Zsasz, Dr. Phosphorus, Killer Croc and other ex-inmates of Arkham Asylum are being lead by an armoured Astrid Arkham. It's super villains being super heroes.

Future State: The Next Batman #2 - John Ridley (writer) Nick Derington (breakdowns) Laura Braga (art) Arif Prianto (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). We learn the secret identity of the new caped Batman in this issue. It's Lucas Fox's brother. He has a brother? This also has three new back-up stories.

"Batgirls" is by Vita Ayala (writer) Aneke (art) Trish Mulvihill (colours) & Becca Carey (letters). Batgirl/Orphan Cassandra Cain gets locked up in the Magistrate Detention Facility where both good guys/white hats and bad guys/black coats are incarcerated. She got caught on purpose because her mission is to find Oracle and Batman and free them. She gets help from Spoiler who is queen of the inmates. In this reality Cass is way more articulate than she used to be. I didn't like that. I also didn't like that in the other Future State stories the Magistrate foot soldiers have a shoot to kill order for any masks that they encounter. Why are all of these masks alive? Anyways, this part ends with the white hats and black coats forming an alliance so Cass can get on with her mission.

"Gotham City Sirens: Ladies' Night Out" is by Paula Sevenbergen (writer) Rob Haynes (breakdowns) Emanuela Lupacchino (pencils) Wade von Grawbadger (inks) John Kalisz (colours) Becca Carey (letters). Catwoman and Poison Ivy spring a domestic droid named Dee Dee (get it?) from servitude and they have a night on the town at a bar. The bar is run by Sam Bradley and both super heroes and villains can imbibe in peace. Fans of Sex and the City may like this. Not a lot of drama until the last page when the joint is raided by Magistrate goons and major characters are shot.

Future State: The Next Batman #3 - John Ridley (writer) Nick Derington (breakdowns) Laura Braga (art) Arif Prianto (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). This is the "uh-oh" moment in the story where the hero is felled by the villain. A wounded Batman is attacked by the murderer he's trying to bring to justice. I saw that coming.

I like the change with Black Lightning in the Outsiders back-up.

I like the art in the Arkham Knights back-up even though the dialogue is eye roll inducing.

Future State: The Next Batman #4 - Jace/Batman lives, as if that was in any doubt. This story would have been a lot more interesting if Bruce/Batman was really dead. Even if the Future State line of comics dies out this Next Batman is a cop out. The Batgirls story ends with Cassandra/Orphan saving Barbara/Oracle and the Resistance gaining ground on the Magistrates. The Gotham City Sirens story ends with Catwoman and Poison Ivy helping the Resistance get an advantage in their war with the Cybers thanks to Dee Dee.

I admit that I was sucked in by the hype for this mini. The Next Batman being black intrigued me. The story itself was meh and I would not have missed anything by not reading it. I was not engaged as a mature reader but I think someone in their teens might like all the stories in these four issues.

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goodnewsus · 4 years

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#READ MORE at. steve-finnell.blogspot.com

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milkchu · 5 years

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❝anyway the wind blows❞ four.

Summary: (Y/N) Mercury’s journey of love, fame, and pain, alongside what would become one of the most legendary bands ever, Queen.

Pairing: Borhap!Queen x Reader, eventual Brian May x Reader

Warnings: Swearing, suggestive themes, kinda short

A/N: sorry if i haven’t been posting, i’m graduating soon and been taking care of college stuff so sorry if this chapter is quite short !!! happy reading! 💓

{previous chapter} {next chapter}

“This is shit!” Roger complained at the fake drum set.

Paul then walked in together with the manager, calling out, “(Y/N), boys!”

You turned from talking to Matthew, walking towards the manager.

“Look, chaps, it is going to be playback. Lip sync’s all that’s required.” The manager said before Roger chided, “We do know how to play our instruments.”

You then walked nearer to the manager, pushing your face closer to his, to his discomfort, “You want me to lip sync?”

“I don’t understand why we can’t simply perform live,” Brian said.

The manager shook his head, “The audience will never know the difference.”

“We’ll know the bloody difference!” Brian deflected.

“This is the BBC, that’s how things are done around here, all right?” The manager warned, “Don’t be a nuisance,” He continued, giving you a stern look before walking away.

You tried to get him back before Paul stopped you, “(Y/N), it’ll be great.”

Rolling your eyes, you turned to your boyfriend before he said, “You’ll just have to make sure no one’s looking at your lips,” He smiled cheekily.

You smiled back at his comment, pecking his cheek before walking towards the stage.

The four lads were then complaining about the whole situation, just making fun of the manager.

“This is the BBC,” Brian mocked, before John replied, “I’m relieved.”

Brian adjusted his guitar strap, “Well, you would be.”

John held his hand up, “No, perfect performance.”

She's a Killer Queen

Gunpowder, gelatin

Dynamite with a laser beam

Guaranteed to blow your mind

Anytime

Even though you were lip-syncing, Matthew could see that you were still a stellar performer, even with just the way your body moved on stage.

Paul could see that, too.

Before you knew it, you were going to different places you’d never thought you’d go to.

Japan was amazing, all the places were amazing, it was so surreal seeing all those people scream out your name.

And you were glad to spend it with your three best friends.

Drop of a hat she's as willing as

Playful as a pussy cat

Then momentarily out of action

Temporarily out of gas

To absolutely drive you wild, wild

“What was it like singing for all those people?” Matthew asked softly, both your half-naked bodies pressed against each other on the couch.

“When I know they’re listening, when I know I really have them. . .I couldn’t sing off-key if I tried,” Your eyes landed on the framed picture of your mother on a table nearby before continuing,

“I’m exactly the person I was always meant to be. I’m not afraid of anything.”

Matthew gazed at you lovingly, smiling at the way you were saying those things. He knew you were so passionate about what you do and he didn’t want to change that.

But, right now, he wanted to make sure that you never forget him and his heart will always be yours.

Kissing your naked shoulder, Matthew then started to move away from his position, trying to get up from the couch, “I have something for you.”

He held a finger to you, “Don’t move,” Before getting up from the couch, peeling away the blanket.

You chuckled, adjusting your position to admire all the work you’ve done to his naked back.

Turning back to you, hands behind his back with his knees on the floor, his eyes stared at you with the most loving gaze before he breathed in, “You’re the love of my life.”

Smiling at him, your fingers started to fiddle around his chin, caressing it softly.

He then pulled out a dark blue box from his back, your smile immediately falling.

Opening it, the box contained a small, dainty diamond ring shaped like a heart.

Gasping, you sat up in shock before whispering, “Matthew.”

Breathing in once more, “I want you to know that I’m very proud of you and. . .I love how you give your all every time you perform on stage. You’re the most passionate and loving person I’ve ever met in my life, and I don’t think I’ll ever find someone like you.”

Feeling your eyes pool with tears, you sniffed before your boyfriend continued, “Just promise me. . . when you wear this, always remember that. . . My heart is forever yours.”

“Oh, I promise,” You sniffled, before he took your finger and finally placed the ring.

Staring at the ring in awe, you whispered, “I’ll never take this off, I’ll always remember you when I’m on stage,” A tear fell down your cheek, “I love you, Matthew.”

Matthew swiped his thumb against your cheek, wiping away the fallen teardrop, “I love you, (Y/N). You’re going to do such great things.”

Before he could even press his lips against yours, the door to your flat slammed open, revealing your three band mates and some girl.

Matthew hurried to sit beside you, grabbing his shirt to put it on and button it up.

“Your phone’s off the hook,” Roger said, as he put the phone back.

“This is Crystal,” He pointed towards the brown-haired girl beside him before she corrected him, “Cheryl!”

“Oh, that’s right, my mistake,” Roger said, as he started to walk towards your table with drinks on it.

“Where’s your loo?” ‘Cheryl’ asked, before Matthew answered her, “Uh, just down the hall.”

You stared at the three lads that had just walked in, not even caring about your almost naked body clad in just a short silk nightie, in slight annoyance, “Oh, come on in, make yourselves at home. Don’t mind us.”

The two other lads just sat down on the couch, a bottle of champagne in Brian’s hand for some reason.

The guitarist couldn’t help but notice a little sparkle on your ring finger, and he swore he felt a tug on his heart as he realized it was a ring.

Shaking his mind away from the thought, he tried to get the bottle open before looking over to Matthew, “Hello, Matthew, how’s your mum?”

“Yeah, pretty well, thanks,” Your boyfriend replied, still trying to button his shirt up.

Brian nodded, “Good,” before you butted in, “What’s going on, Brian?”

“Well, if you’d answer your phone, you’d know already,” He said, as he gestured over to your phone.

You shook your head, still feeling a tad annoyed at the fact that they literally ruined your moment, “This really isn’t a good time, guys.”

Brian then sighed, before saying, “John Reid called today, he has a little tour in mind for us.”

“It’s not little, Brian,” Roger beamed before continuing, “He’s booked us a tour of America!”

Still trying to process the information, Roger added, “The album’s hit the charts in the U.S.!”

Realizing what your blond friend had just said, you stared at the space in front of you in utter shock, whispering, “Oh, yes!”

Turning to Matthew, he let out a chuckle before turning back to your bandmates, “Yes!”

The three then laughed at your reaction, before you stood up from the couch, pulling them all into a group hug.

While hugging your three favorite lads, Brian cheered,

“It’s happening!”

atwb taglist; @yoonlatte // @alexfayer // @everything-you-dont-wanna-be // @itsametaphorbriansblog // @marequeenii // @killer-queen-xo // @jedi-dreea // @achernarsaa // @nevaeh-potter15 // @banana-tree-freddiemercury // @rogertaylorssunglasses // @pyrotechnic789 // @mirkwoodshewolf

others; @icantgetnorelief // @b-hardys // @spideyyypeter // @hunterswearingplaid

pls send me a message if i forget to tag you!

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jomalley-ferrisbueller-final · 4 years

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A Closer Look at Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes, 1986)

The 1980s was the time of the teen film, with a number of iconic teen films coming out during that decade. One that has become a staple of the classic teen film is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes, 1986). Ferris’ legendary day off has become a dream for teens then and now still being quoted today within the halls of high schools around the country.

Bueller didn’t hit the big screen in the summer of 1986 without its fair share of long and tedious production issues. Director John Hughes took a lot of his inspiration from his own life growing up. Raised in Chicago, this city becomes the setting for a majority of his films. In fact, there are even websites that pinpoint exact locations all throughout Illinois where Hughes shot classic movies such as Bueller, The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985), and Home Alone (John Hughes, 1990). Looking at Buller specifically, a lot of aspects of the film reflect John Hughes. Ferris’s bedroom is created to look very similar to how Hughes’ room looked when he was a teenager, scenes for the film were shot in the hallways of his former high school, Glenbrook North and the character Ferris Bueller is actually based one of Hughes’ friends from his childhood with the same name. Edward McNally, a childhood friend of Hughes wrote an article for The Washington Post honoring the late director. As far as being named “the inspiration” for Bueller he is quoted as saying:

“…for years I was relentlessly pursued by a remarkably humorless Glenbrook dean about attendance, pranks and off-campus excursions -- and because my best friend was in fact named Buehler -- I've spent an inordinate amount of my life being unfairly accused of serving among the inspirations for Ferris Bueller.”

Looking at the production of the film, there were many different things that went into its creation. It only took three months to shoot the film between September 9, 1985, and November 22, 1985 which might not seem like a lot compared to how long shows or movies take to shoot today, but since a lot of their filming locations existed within miles of each other it was pretty easy to get everything shot in a short time. During the filming, John Hughes took some inspiration from Ferris on his impressive way to get the impossible done. The parade scene was shot during Chicago’s annual Von Steuben Day Parade. The float that Ferris is on was actually created for the film and was put in the parade route without the parade officials being aware of what was going on. With there being a real parade Hughes was able to get genuine footage of thousands of people enjoying a beautiful day in Chicago. When they needed to shoot more of the parade scene a week later, around 10,000 people showed up for the filming answering the call made on radio stations for extras to appear in a John Hughes film. In this scene, Ferris is featured lip-syncing the famous Beatles song “Twist and Shout” which came with its own set of issues. Paul McCarthy did not like the fact that Hughes had added the brass element to the song to make it seem as though the band was playing it at the parade. When John Hughes insisted on the Beatles song be used in the film, they ended up having to pay EMI $100,000 for the rights and allowance to change the song. While Hughes was adamant about some of the production decisions, they all proved successful in skyrocketing the film to one of the most fondly remembered films today.

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The marketing for the film was very straight forward. There were a couple of articles written about the film in both the Daily News and well as The New York Times talking about the movie, giving an unbiased explanation of the film to promote it. There were also several 30-second commercials giving hints at Ferris’ crazy day off. Appealing to the teen audiences that Hughes is trying to relate to, the announcer narrates over scenes of the film saying, “it’s about life, it’s about liberty, it’s about the pursuit of recreation”. This phrasing attracts teenagers to the film because that is what they are looking for – freedom from the norm.

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Looking at the posters for the film it features many different slogans such as “One man’s struggle to take it easy”, “Because life is too beautiful a thing to waste”, “Leisure rules”, “While the rest of us were just thinking about it…Ferris borrowed a Ferrari and did it…all in a day”. Similar to the commercials, these phrases draw the teenager in because that type of thinking is really appealing to them.

A teenager stuck in the rut of high school wants nothing more than to skip school and live out an amazing day with their best friends. This mentality is what brought teens to the theaters to live through Ferris.

The summer of 1986 saw a lot of hit films. Buller had some tough competition seeing films such as Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986), Aliens (James Cameron, 1986), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Leonard Nimoy, 1986), and The Karate Kid Part II (John Avildsen, 1986) all hitting theaters in 1986. In the United States and Worldwide Box offices, Bueller placed in the top 10 of both lists sitting in the number 10 spot for all 1986 films. The budget for the film was an estimated $6,000,000 and not only broke even but made money-generating $6,275,647 during their opening weekend of June 15, 1986. Bueller, made nearly all of its money from domestic box offices bringing it $70,136,369 and only $1,469 in international box offices. Looking at the reception of the film it is easy to see how it was in the top 10 films of 1986.

Roger Ebert was one of the top movie reviewers of his time up until his death in 2013 after losing an eleven-year battle with cancer. Writing reviews for The Chicago Sun-Times for over 40 years, he became the first film critic to receive a Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. In 1986 he gave a review of Bueller and is quoted as saying “Here is one of the most innocent movies in a long time, a sweet, warm-hearted comedy about a teenager who skips school so he can help his best friend win some self-respect.” He talks about the plot of the film and ends his review by saying “…the film's heart is in the right place, and "Ferris Bueller" is slight, whimsical and sweet.” With Ebert’s review coming out on June 11, 1986, it’s easy to see that Bueller won over the hearts of teens and adults alike wishing that they were able to have a day off like Ferris did.

The non-critical reviews of this film are all pretty similar, it is regarded as a film of the generation that holds against the test of time. On Rotten Tomatoes, of the 728,405 user ratings, the average audience score is a high 92%. One “super reviewer”, Brendan N. is quoted as saying

“Classic cult film and a must-see for all generations. John Hughes created a lot of the teenage angst or coming of age films in the 80s and Ferris was quite possibly his greatest creation. Watching this on the big screen last night was a dream come true but having a film like this remaining so timeless does not hurt. The film is full of heart and the charm of Matthew Broderick is what elevates this from becoming just your average teenage comedy. I wish they would make more fun and creative films like this; no one tackles such a fun concept without falling into clichés and crude jokes. John Hughes created something truly special here. 12/11/2018.”

Since its release in 1986, Bueller, has remained a pivotal teen film for multiple generations. In 2016, Bueller turned 30 years old and Chicago celebrated the only way they knew how to: with a Ferris Fest. People were able to visit his heavily decorated bedroom, recreate the scene where Ferris pretends to be Sloan’s father picking her up from school, and of course a recreation of the famous parade scene featuring Twist and Shout. While this is more of a high scale remembrance of the 1986 film, you can see other companies paying homage to Bueller. During the 2017 Superbowl, Dominos aired a commercial where they recreated the infamous scene of Ferris racing home to get there before his parents find out he skipped school. Stranger Things (Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, 2016—) actor Joe Keery plays Ferris but this time he is racing home because his Domino’s pizza tracker just sent a notification to his smartwatch informing him that his pizza is about to arrive. When asked about the commercial the executive vice president of creative direction at CP&B said "This being an iconic movie we knew we had to pay homage to it and not deviate, not change it and put our own kind of spin on it outside of using Joe Keery and maybe making it a modern adaptation,".

Below you can see the original scene and then Joe Keery version.

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It can be agreed that this film has been relevant way past its release date. But why is that? Frances Smith looks to understand teen films as a whole and why they become so iconic. In her book Rethinking the Hollywood Teen Movie: Gender, Genre, and Identity, she explores this question and more. In Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010), the main character Olivia (Emma Stone) struggles to identify with the “hook up culture” happening around her within the high school hallways. She looks to the eighties to fantasize about a better life.

Whatever happened to chivalry? Did it only exist in Eighties movies? I want John Cusack holding a boom-box outside my window. I want to ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist in the air because he knows he got me just once. I want my life to be like an eighties movie.” (138-139)

To this Smith says:

This voiceover and the corresponding images reference Say Anything (Cameron Crowe, 1989), Can’t Buy Me Love (Steve Rash, 1987), Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which is presented for its musical number. With the exception of Sixteen Candles, all of these films center on male characters who, though cheeky, are portrayed as sexually innocent. The gestures to which Olive refers are particularly telling. Having her life ‘directed by John Hughes’ appears to involve her engaging in ostentatious courtship rituals in which the female partner is the grateful recipient of male affection, however dubious the circumstances in which it is bestowed.

Olivia dreams of having the production that teen heartthrobs would perform for their love interests. This is one reason that Bueller has remained so relevant today. No matter how the culture changes, everyone wants someone who would be willing to show the world how much they love them.

Another reason that this film has remained so relevant today is because of the underlying theme within the film is something that will never go away. The drive to find yourself and get out of your small town to explore is something that will always be a shared feeling among teenagers. In Kimberly M. Miller’s Clueless Times at the Ferris Bueller Club: A Critical Analysis of the Directional Works of Amy Heckerling and John Hughes she says

A fine example can be found in the response to the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which received criticism for being too similar to Risky Business (Paul Brickman, 1983), as well as “lacking in irony,”10 and yet Ferris has become ingrained in the popular culture—even being ranked number ten on Entertainment Weekly’s “Fifty Best High School Movies” list (2012),11 in addition to being quoted by teens who see Ferris as a role model of “cool” despite the nearly thirty years that have passed since he took his day off.

Teens idolize him for doing what they have always wanted to do so they are able to live through him and his amazing day off.

Overall, Hughes has delivered a number of teen films that lasted well past their release date and will continue to be relatable in the future. Bueller is the perfect example of this because its underlying themes will never go out of style. Everyone wants to be a “righteous dude” and live their lives with the carefree regard for the rules that Ferris showed us back in 1986.

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calzona-ga · 6 years

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We are headed into season 15 of Grey’s Anatomy. It’s officially my longest relationship, and I oddly feel quite proud admitting that fact. From declarations of love to tragic deaths, Shonda Rhimes has proven that she knows how to combine a hard-hitting medical drama with a little bit of comedy and a whole lot of romance.

Speaking of romance, who do I need to beg to bring back Scott Speedman as a series regular? Surely Dr. Marsh needs Dr. Grey to check on his kidney, right? And perhaps hang around Grey Sloane Memorial for a few years to do his own surgeries? I’d sign that petition. All day. Moving on.

Thanks to a few weddings and a shocking pregnancy announcement during last season’s finale, this season looks to be as juicy as ever. Here’s everything you need to know before the two-hour premiere on Sept. 27:

Amelia and Owen Remember Amelia’s huge brain tumor? The one she had for ten years that may have caused all of her erratic behavior? It was thankfully cut out, but now Amelia wonders if Owen fell in love with Brain Tumor Amelia. Owen thinks the idea is ridiculous, but that doesn’t stop Amelia from distancing herself from him. Their marriage crumbles as a result.

What’s a guy to do? Why foster a child, of course. When Owen quickly figures out that kids are a full-time job, Amelia is happy to lend a helping hand. She’s also happy to stick around when she learns that the baby’s mom is a teenaged alcoholic. Amelia invites her into the house, and a charming little dysfunctional family is born. Owen is living his dream. Sort of.

Meredith and Nathan Ugh. If Abigail Spencer wasn’t so cute, I’d hate her character Megan for screwing up Meredith’s relationship with Nathan. Megan is Owen’s sister and Nathan’s fiancé who served in the military with them but has been presumed dead for ten years. Guess what? She’s not dead! And she’s headed to Grey Sloane with a medical emergency. Look alive, everyone.

Are we glad that Megan survived her time in Iraq? Sure. Is it annoying that Meredith had to save her from her weird abdominal injury? Of course. It’s just a wee bit irritating that Meredith is finally open to loving someone again and she has to take the high road when Nathan looks at her with sad yet hopeful eyes, begging her to understand that his “big love” is miraculously back in his life. “If it were Derek, I would already be gone.” Classic Meredith.

Owen and Teddy Owen takes off to Germany to see Teddy in person, ready to give it a go. All is well until Teddy learns that Owen just slept with Amelia five seconds ago. No sir! He high tails it back to Seattle and resumes his awkward arrangement with Amelia, because it will never happen with Teddy. Owen hops back on that bandwagon, owning the chaos.

Naturally, Teddy shows up out of the blue and is handed the interim chief position on a silver platter. She accepts. Oh, she’s also preggers. Presumably with Owen’s love child. Put another log on the dysfunctional fire, please.

Miranda and Ben Miranda is tired of being chief, so she hands those reins over to Teddy after a quick interview. The heart attack she experienced has her thinking twice about life, her son, and her hunky husband.

Oh yes. Ben (played by Jason George) is hunky. He’s also starring on Shondaland’s Station 19, which debuted in the spring. Both bounce back from fire station to hospital, but their love is grounded. I’m glad Bailey will no longer be stuck behind a desk pushing papers.

Harper Avery For starters, Harper Avery dies and Jackson gets a bajillion dollars as a result. He anonymously slips the hospital some money to host an innovation contest. Everyone is on board, but it’s Meredith and Jo who win. It has something to do with a polymer and growing liver, and both are stoked.

There’s just one glitch: Meredith must acquire a patent that belongs to Ellis Grey’s former best friend, Marie Cerone. She hard passes which sends Meredith into a deep dive to figure out what is up with Marie.

It turns out, Harper Avery had several acts of sexual misconduct filed against him back in the day, and Jackson’s mom covered it up by paying major settlements to the women. One of those women is Marie Cerone. Bailey shuts down the research project, and Jackson changes the name of the Harper Avery Foundation to the Catherine Fox Foundation to protect his mother’s name. He also promises to retain, repay, and rehire all the women who were affected by Harper Avery’s mistreatment.

Jackson and Maggie Sarah Drew, who plays April, had a whirlwind of activity in her final episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. She walks away from God, parties way too much, sleeps around, reunites with her ex-fiance Matthew (whose wife was lost in surgery), and ends up in a car crash that sends her plummeting into an ice cold river.

When Matthew is brought into the hospital, Owen figures out that April was with him, so he leaves the ER and somehow finds her at the scene of the accident. Yay! Except she’s sort of dead. Boo. It’s a good thing she’s at Grey Sloane where lots of people on staff have been dead before, including Meredith, who barks, “Warm dead is dead dead.” Maggie finds a pulse and April is alive again. Yay!

Arizona and Sofia Poor Arizona can’t catch a break. She knows her daughter Sofia is not happy in Seattle and struggles to figure out a plan. Luckily, her mentor Nicole Herman, in the form of Geena Davis, offers Arizona a partnership in creating the Robbins-Herman Center for Women’s Health. In New York. Where Callie lives. Done and done.

I’ll miss you most of all, Jessica Capshaw.

Jo and Alex Jo and Alex always had a rough go, thanks to Jo’s miserable ex-husband Paul. He’s the worst in all the ways. When he arrives at Grey Sloane, Meredith and Alex save the day by advocating for Jo, and Paul leaves undeterred with his new wife. Moments later, Paul is brought into the ER with major injuries. It was a hit and run. Did Alex hit him? Did the wife? Does it matter?

The doctors save Paul, which does nothing for his horrible character. He tries to attack Jo while in recovery, slips, hits his head, and is immediately brain dead. And since Jo wasn’t divorced from him yet, she gets to decide if she wants to pull the plug. Which she does. Right after she donates all of Paul’s organs.

Now Jo and Alex are free to marry! They are also free to enjoy a quickie before the ceremony. In true Grey’s form, they get locked in a shed with a dead guy. Fun times.

The day is a disaster. April accidentally sends everyone to the wrong church. The on-site wedding coordinator goes into anaphylactic shock. A drunk DeLuca kisses Meredith. And when the reverend shows up to marry the happy couple, no one can find the bride and groom.

This doesn’t stop some people from their happily ever after. April and Matthew step up and tie the knot. They are headed off to do mission work for the homeless. Good-bye, April!

And finally, once Alex and Jo are rescued from the shed and its ghost, Meredith gets ordained and marries her two friends on the back of a ferry.

Who’s ready for season 15? How do we feel about the new doctors in town? Will Meredith ever get another love story? Do you think Jackson and Maggie will make it? Or will something dramatic happen in the first episode?

Great. I just jinked them.

#grey's anatomy #season 14 #season 15 #Meredith Grey #nathan riggs #Owen Hunt #Teddy Altman #amelia shepherd #arizona robbins #sofia robbin sloan torres #jackson avery #Maggie Pierce #Miranda Bailey #ben warren #EW

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peggy-faces · 6 years

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Mad Men rewatch: Season 1, Episode 1: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

I finally got around to doing this months after I said I was going to start. Don’t say I never keep my promises.

I’m still trying to work out a good format for these recaps/reviews. Having watched this episode so many times before I’m not really sure how to approach this with fresh eyes but I’ll give it a shot. Bear with me, this is a learning process.

This episode is essentially just “24 hours in the life of Don Draper(with some Pete/Peggy hijinks thrown in)”. I genuinely love this and it is the perfect way to be introduced to these characters.

I won’t focus much on Don right now because there’ll be plenty more opportunities down the line, but the thing that struck me in this specific episode was the emphasis on Don’s age compared to Pete and the “younger guys”. 34 is basically a baby by today’s standards. Pete is only 8 years younger than him! Perhaps(?) the role was intended for a man in his 40s but they cast Jon Hamm instead?

A weird thing that’s always bugged me about the pilot. The show seems to set Pete up as someone who wants to take Don’s job. But Pete’s an accounts guy who never really shows that much interest in being in the creative department in the rest of the show.

Also, I’m still not totally sure what was up with Don’s “It’s Toasted” speech. That slogan has existed since the 1910s. Either Mad Men was attempting to retcon history or Don was using it as an example of a good slogan? The commentary tracks seem to suggest it was the former.

Meanwhile, a certain mousy working class girl from Brooklyn is starting her first day of work at Sterling Cooper. Peggy is my favourite fictional character in anything ever and I unironically adore her despite her faults so I’ll definitely have more to say about her in the future especially about her relationships with Don and Joan. But now I’d like to focus on her relationship with Pete.

In the closing moments of this episode, Pete shows up at Peggy’s apartment and she allows him inside, presumably so they can have sex. First of all, how the hell did Pete get her address in the first place. Secondly, Why? Why did Pete go to Peggy of all people? Why did Peggy fuck him? Let’s take a look at their previous interactions in this episode.

1. Pete insults Peggy’s appearance and insinuates that she’s sleeping with Don.

2. Pete lies to get into Don’s office and gets Peggy into trouble with Don on her first day of work.

I like this episode and I do like the Pete/Peggy arc throughout the show and they normally have amazing chemistry together. But this scene feels so inorganic that there was a lot of speculation that Pete and Peggy knew each other beforehand because that would at least make more sense than what we got.

Fun fact: according to the shooting script for this episode(easily Googlable if you want to read it), Pete arrives at Peggy’s apartment at 9:45. Which means Pete’s bachelor party must have ended at 9 at the very earliest in order for him to get to Brooklyn in time. What bachelor party ends that early in the night? And Pete must have spent chunk of time finding Peggy’s address WHICH, AGAIN, WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW HE EVEN FOUND. I like imagining Pete wandering around Brooklyn drunkenly asking random people where “Peggy” lives.

We’re also introduced to Ken, Dick, and Harry. Yes, Paul Kinsey’s name in the pilot was originally Dick but it was changed when it got picked up by AMC. Ken is the weird sleazebag and Harry is the married guy who does seem somewhat decent compared to Kinsey and Ken. Weird how things change, isn’t it? Paul’s the pretentious guy. At least that never changed.

And then, of course, there’s Sal. Hey, did you know that Sal was gay? If you didn't, you probably missed the numerous “subtle clues" that were dropped throughout this episode. And by subtle, I mean so blatant that the only way they could have been more unsubtle is if you could hear Matthew Weiner screaming "heeeeeeeeeeeeee's gayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" in the background of every shot Sal is in. The most notorious example of this is when Sal randomly drops the line “we’re supposed to believe people are living one way and secretly thinking the exact opposite? That’s ridiculous.” It doesn’t feel organic to the conversation at hand, it just sounds weird. But if you look closely into the reflection in Sal’s eyes you can see Matthew Weiner patting himself on the back and congratulating himself on being such a genius.

But the most cringeworthy line of dialogue in the entire episode goes to: “It’s not like there’s some magic machine that makes identical copies of things.” Which is the sort of line you’d expect in an SNL parody of Mad Men, not the actual show.

The final plot twist of this episode is that we find out that Don is *gasp* married. Yes, this was actually supposed to be a plot twist. But I guess finding out that the dude who just claimed love was invented by capitalism has wife and kids would be pretty shocking if you don’t know what’s coming?

This is getting kinda long so I’ll touch more on Betty, Joan, and Roger in later instalments as they don’t get much to do here, as well as Rachel and Midge.

Random Observations

I really like the very brief interaction between Roger and Joan. I don’t know if there were was already plans for a secret relationship between the two, but it fits in well.

Elisabeth Moss seems to be affecting some sort of mild Brooklyn accent in this episode that doesn’t exist in the rest of the show. Kinda weird but it does make sense that Peggy would try to hide her working class background later on.

Is this guy in the opening scene Pete? Because he looked like Pete when I was watching it on Netflix but when I put in the DVD to listen to the commentary, he didn’t look like Pete anymore. Pete’s evil twin? Pete’s non-evil twin?

Commentary tracks

There are two commentary tracks for this episode. The first has Matthew Weiner and the second has director Alan Taylor. There wasn’t really anything particularly juicy so I just wrote down the BTS stuff that sounded interesting.

The pilot script existed for five years and Matthew Weiner used it as his writing sample when he applied for jobs.

Weiner was planning to play the role of the judgmental gynaecologist himself. Make of that what you will.

This is the only episode of Mad Men actually filmed in New York. The bar in the very first scene is a real bar in Harlem called the Lennox Lounge.

It took them a long time to cast Jon Hamm, partly because Taylor didn’t believe a man that handsome could be interesting.

Taylor calls Midge the most modern person in the show. Her apartment is a real artist’s studio on 57th street. They were warned it would be impossible to shoot there because it was on the seventeenth floor and only had a tiny elevator and no space for equipment. They built a set based on this apartment when they started filming the show in California.

The traffic sounds you hear in the scene where Don wakes up after sleeping with Midge are real New York traffic sounds.

The actors for Kinsey, Ken, and Harry felt they had to bond so they went out to drink together every night. At least that’s the excuse they used.

If you look carefully at the end of the elevator scene with Peggy and the guys you’ll see Rich Sommer(Harry Crane) walk off to the right because he had mistakenly thought they’d already cut. Classic Harry.

Taylor says the scene with Lucky Strike was very reminiscent of Bewitched and I agree, which is why I initially described Mad Men as “Bewitched with less magic and more adultery” when I was first started watching.

Something weird I noticed: Alan Taylor only refers to Matthew Weiner as “the writer”. Bad blood? Can’t remember his name? Guess we’ll find out in the inevitable Mad Men BTS tell-all someone writes in ten years.

The strip club was a real retro-style strip club in New York.

They’d almost completely run out of money by the time they shot the scene of Don on the train so it’s basically just a piece of plexiglass with water dripping down it.

Taylor says he dislikes the use of the song Caravan but I actually really like it.

Overall, great episode, albeit one with some glaring flaws. I give it 7 Scowling Petes of 10.

#tupf mad men rewatch

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haroldgross · 5 years

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New Post has been published on Harold Gross: The 5a.m. Critic

New Post has been published on http://literaryends.com/hgblog/oscars-2019-final-call/

Oscars 2019 - Final Call

Since the nominations, there have been a slew of awards given out that may or may not be predictive. The Annies, The Eddies, PGA, Art Directors Guild, SAG-AFTRA, Directors Guild, BAFTA.

I will say it is one heck of an open field in a lot of categories, which is exciting. It speaks to a volume of talent. Of course, this also means a lot of people who are really good at what they do will not be going home with statuettes. But that’s the biz.

THE MAJOR AWARDS

Actress in a Leading Role

Yalitza Aparicio, Roma Glenn Close, The Wife Olivia Colman, The Favourite Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

This is one of those rare times where I wouldn’t be upset by any one of these people winning. They were all great performances, and all very different. To my mind, it is between Colman and Close. But McCarthy was also excellent and Aparaicio may have some momentum (and was a wild card for me in terms of getting on the list). And, of course, Gaga. Close has yet to win, so that may get her votes, but Colman’s performance is just so funny and powerful, it may win the day…and her movie was much better received.

My choice: Glen Close Likely win: Olivia Colman

Actor in a Leading Role

Christian Bale, Vice Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody Viggo Mortensen, Green Book

This is by no means a lock for Bale, but he so disappears into his role that it is astonishing. I am not a huge Bale fan, but he had me utterly mesmerized and not even able to see him under all that makeup. In terms of the field, only Dafoe’s name surprised me, though that last slot was somewhat open.

My choice: Christian Bale Likely win: Christian Bale

Actor in a Supporting Role

Mahershala Ali, Green Book Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me? Sam Rockwell, Vice

Supporting roles are hard to pin some times. These were all good performances, though I think Elliott isn’t necessarily to the same level (and I didn’t expect him on the list over Chalamet), nor was Rockwell’s performance that brilliant, though it did win me over as it went on. But Mahershala Ali was incredibly affecting and Richard Grant, equally so, but with much less screen time. That said, Green Book is hitting headwinds due to aspects unrelated to the movie…but which are likely to affect its chances in any category. And while Driver is excellent, the character just never really got to fully develop for me.

My choice: Mahershala Ali Likely win: Richard E. Grant

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams, Vice Marina de Tavira, Roma Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk Emma Stone, The Favourite Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

This is a brutal field. Stone and Weisz should have to mud wrestle for the win here and that is likely going to split the vote. Tavira was solid, but it wasn’t break-through and I was surprised to see her here rather than Clare Foy. Adams was also really good, but felt in the background most of the time…even though she really wasn’t.

My choice: Rachel Weisz (but only because I had to pick one) Likely win: Regina King

Adapted Screenplay

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen BlacKkKlansman, Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins A Star Is Born, Eric Roth and Bradley Cooper & Will Fetters

Again, so much to consider here. BlacKkKlansman was a great movie, but, like Green Book, it remade the facts freely. Which is fine, but that is being used as a wedge against Green Book, so not sure how to parse that effect. Star is Born is a great reinvention of the story, but it isn’t brilliant, however entertaining. I am surprised that Black Panther didn’t make it on, even though I didn’t think it should. I’m still behind on the other two at present, but hope to close that gap…but in the meantime I can make some guesses.

My choice: Can You Ever Forgive Me? Likely win: If Beale Street Could Talk

Original Screenplay

The Favourite, Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara First Reformed, Paul Schrader Green Book, Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly Roma, Alfonso Cuarón Vice, Adam McKay

Another interesting field. Green Book was one of the best films I saw this year. It was unexpected and complete. Favourite is hugely popular and darkly funny, but I think flawed. Was expecting Stan & Ollie and Eight Grade over Roma and First Reformed, but that was a tight race. However, of the remaining choices, Roma’s script is just too spare in comparison and Vice a bit too political and nauseating, while First Reformed is just too dark. So…

My choice: Green Book Likely win: The Favourite

Cinematography

Cold War, Lukasz Zal The Favourite, Robbie Ryan Never Look Away, Caleb Deschanel Roma, Alfonso Cuarón A Star Is Born, Matthew Libatique

Roma for me. Hands down just a beautifully shot film. The others are nice as well, but Cuarón’s use of the camera was just brilliant and the result gorgeous.

My choice: Roma Likely win: Roma

Directing

Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite Alfonso Cuarón, Roma Adam McKay, Vice

I’d have said this was Lanthimos’s to lose if it weren’t for the ending of his latest film. It is a brilliant bit of satire; just not a perfect one for me and some of the movie just doesn’t fit well together. Roma is brilliant on so many levels, but a bit self-indulgent in its direction. Vice is great, but mostly about the editing and script (and some performances). BlacKkKlansman, however, is really all about the performances, keeping you engaged without making you turn away. Lee had the hardest task and executed it well…and it’s been years since he’s had a shot.

My choice: Spike Lee Likely win: Spike Lee (though it may well go to Lanthimos)

Best Picture

Black Panther BlacKkKlansman Bohemian Rhapsody The Favourite Green Book Roma A Star Is Born Vice

I don’t even know what this category means anymore. Is it by what’s popular, what’s fun, what’s brave, what took the most skills? So, crap shoot.

My choice: Green Book Likely win: Roma

THE NEXT TIER AWARDS

Animated Feature Film

Incredibles 2 Isle of Dogs Mirai Ralph Breaks the Internet Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Nothing in the intervening time between nomination and tonight have changed my opinions. Add to that its near sweep at The Annies and Spider-Man should walk away with this award.

My choice: Spider-Man Likely win: Spider-Man

Foreign Language Film

Capernaum (Lebanon) Cold War (Poland) Never Look Away (Germany) Roma (Mexico) Shoplifters (Japan)

Shoplifters would have been my early bet here, but Roma is truly a great film and has huge momentum and a ton of noms. Those who have no interest in voting for it for Best Pic are likely to balance that by voting for it here. It may well cost Roma as Best Pic ultimately that the safety valve exists.

Likely Win: Roma

Documentary Feature

Free Solo Hale County This Morning, This Evening Minding the Gap Of Fathers and Sons RBG

How Won’t You Be My Neighbor and Three Identical Strangers missed this list, I don’t understand. However, this is the field we have to work with. But I’ll also admit I’ve not seen the majority of the nominees. Given the current state of politics, however, I’m going with our SCOTUS rep.

My Choice: RBG Likely Win: RBG

Documentary Short Subject

Black Sheep (The Guardian) End Game (Netflix) Lifeboat A Night at the Garden (Field of Vision) Period. End Of Sentence

Likely Win: no clue yet

Animated Short Film

Animal Behaviour Bao (Disney) Late Afternoon One Small Step Weekends

Likely Win: no clue yet

Live Action Short Film

Detainment Fauve (H264 Distribution) Marguerite (H264 Distribution) Mother Skin

Likely Win: no clue yet

THE TECHNICAL AWARDS

Production Design (production; set)

Black Panther, Hannah Beachler; Jay Hart The Favourite, Fiona Crombie; Alice Felton First Man, Nathan Crowley; Kathy Lucas Mary Poppins Returns, John Myhre; Gordon Sim Roma, Eugenio Caballero; Bárbara Enríquez

My choice: Black Panther Likely win: Mary Poppins Returns

Costume Design

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Mary Zophres Black Panther, Ruth Carter The Favourite, Sandy Powell Mary Poppins Returns, Sandy Powell Mary Queen of Scots, Alexandra Byrne

Period pieces abound in this list, but so do some inventive futures.

My choice: Black Panther Likely win: The Favourite (though Mary Poppins could sweep in)

Film Editing

BlacKkKlansman, Barry Alexander Brown Bohemian Rhapsody, John Ottman The Favourite, Yorgos Mavropsaridis Green Book, Patrick J. Don Vito Vice, Hank Corwin

I’ll say again, all of these films have solid editing, but only one lived and died by its edits: Vice. However. Vice wasn’t even nominated for an Eddie this year, so the fact that Bohemian Rhapsody and The Favourite won there wasn’t much help. And, of course, this is one of those which could become either part of a sweep or a consolation prize. But I’m sticking to my guns on this one. From a story-telling point of view, I didn’t think either of the Eddie winners came close the impact editing had for the remaining nominees. And of those, Vice was the only one to use the craft to enhance the story rather than to just shock or move it along.

My Choice: Vice Likely win: Vice

Original Score

Black Panther, Ludwig Goransson BlacKkKlansman, Terence Blanchard If Beale Street Could Talk, Nicholas Britell Isle of Dogs, Alexandre Desplat Mary Poppins Returns, Marc Shaiman

If old-school Hollywood wins out, Mary Poppins will be a runaway. It is certainly one of the more classic and evident scores in the field, and complex while trying to maintain and reflect on the original. Music certainly pushed along the tale in Isle of Dogs in an engaging, if repetitive, way, and the others were more subtly supported.

Likely win: Mary Poppins Returns

Original Song

“All The Stars” — Black Panther “I’ll Fight” — RBG “The Place Where Lost Things Go” — Mary Poppins Returns “Shallow” — A Star Is Born “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” — The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

There is only one song here that has any traction to my mind. It isn’t perfect (and story-wise it shouldn’t be) but just try to get it out of your head.

Likely Win: Shallow

Visual Effects

Avengers: Infinity War Christopher Robin First Man Ready Player One Solo: A Star Wars Story

Despite the wealth of blockbusters here, one is infinitely better than the rest in scope and seamlessness…

Likely win: Avengers: Infinity War

Makeup and Hairstyling

Border, Göran Lundström and Pamela Goldammer Mary Queen of Scots, Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher and Jessica Brooks Vice, Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia DeHaney

Typically, I’d stay the period piece would get this hands-down, but Vice has magic in its blood with its makeup and hair, completely remaking its actors and capturing the period perfectly.

Likely win: Vice

Sound Editing

Black Panther Bohemian Rhapsody First Man A Quiet Place Roma

My choice: A Quiet Place Likely win: Bohemian Rhapsody

Sound Mixing

Black Panther Bohemian Rhapsody First Man Roma A Star Is Born

My choice: Bohemian Rhapsody Likely win: Bohemian Rhapsody

#Movie Review

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missanthropicprinciple · 6 years

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Super-long rant-review post about Werewolf of London (1935) with images and spoilers...

I love Werewolf of London, this 83-year-old film. It’s got some problems typical of 1930s Hollywood, but I still find a lot of value in it.

The setting, the moonlit hills of Tibet. Accuracy? not so much.

Apparently the “Tibetans” are actually speaking Cantonese...and the white actors are clearly not speaking anything. 30 years before Star Wars and it honestly sounds like they’re speaking Ewok...but it’s just gibberish. I think the only realistic part of this scene is the fact that there actually are bactrian camels in Tibet. At least it’s quite well filmed.

The sequence where Dr. Glendon (Henry Hull) is attacked by the werewolf is really eerie and holds up well.

The actual bite is so quick but if you screencap that second it’s creepy AF.

Despite the attack, Dr. Glendon gets his coveted “Mariphasa Lupina Lumina” flower (sadly, completely fictitious) and heads back to England.

In his lab, Dr. Glendon lives out his mad-scientist aesthetic surrounded by some high tech equipment. He even gets buzzed by his wife on what is basically an old-timey FaceTime device that lacks audio. Even though we know it’s superimposed footage it’s fairly seamless.

Next we get a little portrait of a marriage. He’s working on an experiment with flowering and artificial light and his wife Lisa (Valerie Hobson) wants to know what the hell he’s up to. He’s secretive and she’s understandably annoyed. But she calls him “dear old bear” which is quite sweet but ironically hints at the animalistic transformation to follow. He says that after the experiment he will try to be more “human” but we know that ain’t gonna happen.

Henry Hull’s accent. It needs its own paragraph. It’s not bad for someone from Louisville, Kentucky, and in fact sometimes it’s really amazing, but other moments it crosses your mind that the dialect coach was out sick that day of shooting. He enunciates very strongly. His jaws much have hurt him a bit. He’s fun to listen to though and you gotta give the guy credit because he doesn’t shy away from being über-Brit.

Enter Lisa’s old childhood sweetheart Paul, played by the adorkable yet suave Lester Matthews. He and Lisa, whom he refers to as “Lee”, reminisce about their joint childhood exploits.

Cue Dr. Glendon’s jealousy:

Understandably, Dr. Glendon is quietly dying inside because he hates all the socializing that comes with being a world-renowned botanist. Seeing another man making his wife smile does not help his mood.

Lookit ‘em; holding hands for heaven’s sake. Aunt Ettie also likes to stir up trouble and add to Glendon’s jealously which isn’t very nice of her.

Side note, Dr. Glendon has some tricked-out plants:

Now we meet Dr. Yogami (Warner Oland).

Warner Oland, who was often cast as Asian characters because he “looked Asian”, was actually Swedish. (One would think that 80 years later this casting of white actors in non-white roles would have come to an end but we’re still dealing with this crap.) While Oland is a fairly good actor, he’s still NOT Asian and it would have been so much better if they had cast Sessue Hayakawa as Yogami as he was not only gorgeous but a better actor.

However, Yogami is implied to be Chinese or Tibetan and Hayakawa is Japanese. Still, if the character was stated as Japanese it would have been perfect. Ironically, later on in the film Aunt Ettie keeps calling him Yokohama which is the second largest city in Japan. And I can’t find the surname Yogami anywhere. I can find Yagami and that’s a Japanese surname, not Chinese or Tibetan as far as I can tell. Oh, Old Hollywood and your stomach-churning whitewashing.

Dr. Yogami says that they met before in Tibet...in the dark. He’s giving him a really big hint that he’s the one who bit him (...either that or he’s implying they met for an evening liaison). Dr. Glendon is trying to piece it together.

Dr. Yogami says, “The medical term is ‘lycanthrophobia’.” WRONG. The medical term is lycanthropy, if being a werewolf was actually real. (The uncommon thing were people grow all the excess facial hair is hypertrichosis.) Clinical lycanthropy is a rare psychological condition that is linked to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and/or clinical depression. (More on that later.)

Here’s a cap of Dr. Yogami intimately stroking Dr. Glendon’s injured arm while making hella awkward eye contact. As modern viewers we may or may not have a strong impulse to read this as somewhat sexual, or maybe as an identification of repressed homosexual desire. Lycanthropy in literature and film mythology has occasionally been used or identified as a metaphor for homosexuality.

In a world where stabbing yourself with a plant gets rid of monthly hair growth. I’m curious to know why it looks like his stabbing it into a dorsal metacarpal vein and not the palmar (inside) side of wrist....medical side of Tumblr help me out here. Maybe they just wanted to feature the hairy hand.

Dr. Yogami essentially asks Dr. Glendon for a blossom of the glow-in-the-dark flower to save his soul (and his fellow botanist as well), albeit in a cryptic way. He says “But remember this Dr. Glendon, the werewolf instinctively seeks to kill the thing it loves best.” Sadly, Dr. Glendon thinks he’s full of crap and ignores his warnings despite knowing that stabbing himself with this rare flower magically makes his moon-grown hand-hair disappear. Dumb or in denial?

So of course Dr. Yogami steals not one, but two flowers. For two of the four nights of the full moon. Technically there is only one night of full moon at any given time but I’m going to give this a pass. Maybe during the time that the moon is still almost full, though waning, it still have the power to change man into the “satanic creature.”

Meanwhile, skeptical Dr. Glendon does a little lycanthropic research:

Lisa drops by and asks him to join her and Paul at a society party but he pegs out or course, and then adds a jibe about not wanting to hear anymore childhood memories. Is the werewolf infection making him bitchy or is he just like that? Hard to tell.

Lisa is hurt. But he says she should go out and enjoy herself. She tries to show him this brocade he bought her but he flips out when she turns on the lights. Presumably being a werewolf makes you sensitive to light.

He responds with the “I put some medicine in my eyes” routine and they clearly don’t buy it.

Seems fake, but ok.

I feel like this is one of many allusions to depression in this film: sensitive to light, wanting to be alone, disliking small-talk and society parties, general introversion and distrust of others. We get a sense that he’s kind of this way anyway at the core of his personality but the werewolf contamination has made that all worse.

Dr. Glendon may be a jerk but it’s hard not to feel sympathy for him. He really does love her. She’s still too annoyed to reciprocate.

Even his cat’s pissed at him.

When animals start rejecting you, ya know you got problems.

And lo, he thought, “oh shit.”

The moonlight transformation sequence is quite simple by today’s standards of physical and special effects, but it’s still effective. Using the shadows to break up the footage isn’t fooling anyone, especially nowadays, yet it has a kind of fluidity that makes it oddly very evocative.

A word about Jack Pierce’s makeup. Believe it or not it was originally going to look like this:

Oink oink. Thank heavens someone talked Jack into a more minimalist look. Jack Pierce, known for his incredible work on films like Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), and The Wolf Man (1941), to name but a few, appears to have been a tad stubborn depending on the actor he worked with. He had a great relationship with Boris Karloff as far as I’m aware but the harmony working with Hull didn’t last long. There was a rumor going around that Hull was super vain and didn’t want the makeup to obscure his face. The truth of it was there are a couple scenes when Lisa and Paul both recognize him and if the werewolf makeup was applied too heavily, this part of the plot just wouldn’t work. Apparently Hull went over Pierce’s stubborn head straight to Carl Laemmle to fix the problem. The book Universal Horrors: The Studio’s Classic Films, 1931–1946 by Tom Weaver and John Brunas has more on this. (And in the Svengoolie intro to the film featured on ME TV.) The incident paid off because the final makeup was stellar.

That awkward moment when someone steals your flowers:

Suddenly filled with jealous rage...

...but wait lemme just put my hat and coat on first. If he does that when he’s full-on werewolf can you imagine how much time it takes for him to get ready normally? Diva.

The obligatory party scene...

...with a comic interlude from Aunt Ettie who drunkenly says to “Dr. Yokohama” as she calls him, pointing to a dodgy district visible from her flat, that people there would “knife you for a shilling.” But then they hear the howl of a “lost soul” which is the chilling call of Dr. Glendon and it’s time to go inside.

Drunk lady trope scene. No point in rescuing her she already made a fool out of herself but off they run:

There is a ring of sadness to Aunt Ettie’s drunk scene because she says “she gets so nervous.” Hello social anxiety. She is a tad obnoxious as a character but this part makes her seem so much more sympathetic.

“A-woooooooooooo!”

Ok, that’s not a dog.

Dr. Yogami is quaking in his spats at this point.

Even though you know that this is Dr. Glendon, this remains creepy. Who hasn’t thought of a monster clawing their way into your bedroom late at night? They really milk the suspense in this scene.

Lisa is offended by Dr. Yogami’s seemingly sexist and controlling behavior but in reality he’s trying to save her life. He knows that Dr. Glendon is on the loose and can probably smell her and will likely kill her. But she goes up to comfort her friend anyway.

Cue the “you just had a bad dream” scene. For once Ettie isn’t full of hogwash.

Poor Ettie. Seeing a werewolf will sober you up pretty quick.

Mr. Hyde? Oh wait, wrong movie.

Apparently all young women of a lower class looked like Hollywood starlets back then. Pretty stylish.

This is why I don’t have a Tinder.

Dr. Yogami executes an A+ facepalm. His wrist-leaning skills are classic. 10/10:

I mean, what did he think was going to happen? You can’t blackmail a guy who’s in denial about being a werewolf, it doesn’t work. But then, if he left one flower there you wouldn’t have a second act.

Paul says that it might be a werewolf attack. He’s almost joking but he makes the suggestion anyway. His uncle, head of Scotland Yard no less (now that’s convenient) thinks this is ridiculous.

Meanwhile Dr. Glendon reads about how he accidentally murdered a woman last night:

“You’re being utterly hateful, Wilfred.” She sees that he’s not happy and we all know that he’s past the point of no return. Someone has already died. His bitterness at her relationship with Paul is exacerbated by this revelation. But he doesn’t storm from the room or hurt her. He actually acts like an adult, says he’s sorry, and says that he will go out horseback riding with her after all. A lot of reviewers don’t like his character but I find him continually sympathetic.

Again, it’s a realistic portrayal of a marriage. Dr. Glendon “forbids” his wife to go out on a midnight horseback ride with her ex. As sexist as his I’m-the-man-putting-my-foot-down-with-the-wife routine is, he has a couple genuine reasons for acting this way. He’s worried about her safety cause he knows the moon is gonna make him crazy and he could unintentionally kill her in a fit of jealous rage. And of course he’s ticked off that Lisa is galavanting around with another man. She in turn is appropriately angry with his controlling remarks without having good reason for his concern...plus she wants to prove a point that he’s not making enough time for her in their marriage.

Mrs. Moncaster explains how decking her “dearest friend” Mrs. Whack was an appropriate action to take in the sake of business.

Dr. Glendon calls himself “Singularly single, madam. More single than I ever realised it was possible for a human being to be...” Which seems to evoke qualities of his situation and depression. He feels so isolated.

He prays that this transformation won’t happen again but it does.

“If I ran the zoo I'd let all the animals go” - Dr. Seuss. This is Glendon’s way of causing a distraction so that he can attack another woman but it’s also symbolic of him releasing his inner animalistic nature.

Ya gotta appreciate the special effects:

Dr. Yogmai hails from the University of Carpathia. Here to represent.....an institution that I’m fairly certain doesn’t exist. Unless they mean Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University but that wasn’t established until 1940. Still, he’s a professor of botany so that’s cool. Kind of like Professor Lupin.

Presumably, Dr. Yogami goes to Paul because he’s well connected and he wants to prevent Dr. Glendon from doing anymore damage.

A+ usage of the scary uplighting effect.

Dr. Glendon instructs a servant to lock him in until sunrise. Oh the upper-classes and their odd demands.

Paul still loves her. Duh. She can’t reciprocate because she’s married.

Those bars are toast.

Henry Hull does a great job of prowling with just the right balance between animal and man.

Now that’s a scream:

Paul to the rescue.

Paul recognizes Dr. Glendon. (Thanks, Mr. Hull.)

Dr. Yogami’s rooms “smelled like a kennel" when they found the mutilated maid. Yuck. Did he pee all over the room? Not something anyone likes to think about for too long. Especially the head of Scotland Yard. Just look at his face.

Paul digs through the trash and finds the discarded flowers.

Maybe Paul should work for Scotland Yard instead of his uncle.

Hey how was your trip? So, Hawkins (J.M. Kerrigan) doesn’t think it’s odd that Dr. Glendon is hiding from the police? Does he even know why? Did Glendon tell him “hey I’m a werewolf and I accidentally killed people?” or does Hawkins just give him a pass like “it’s his life and none of my business.”? Well, as the scene suggests, Hawkins clearly does not know because he’s confused by how important this damn flower is to Dr. G.

I have to say, I get this excited about my sweet peas every year so I totally identify with his reaction. #humor

How does he even get into the lab?! Dr. Glendon needs better security or just, ya know, locks.

Somehow Glendon doesn’t see Yogami tip-toeing down the steps. How bad does your peripheral vision have to be?!

"You brought this on me that night in Tibet!” (You don’t say.)

The problem with stealing a plant that only blooms as the moon emerges is that the werewolf might kill you mid-transformation. Exhibit A:

They were both doomed anyway.

Dr. Glendon goes looking for Lisa.

Lycanthropy makes Dr. Glendon strong. Those chintz curtains and flimsy doors are no match for him.

Paul also lacks clear peripheral vision, apparently. Funny how ya don’t see a werewolf perched above a door you’re about to go into.

With all that jumping off buildings, werewolves must be prime candidates for knee replacement surgery.

More great uplighting to do justice to some remarkable makeup:

“It’s Lisa!”

Who the hell is Lisa?

Maybe he remembers at this point. Hard to tell.

A regular bullet does the job. The myth that a werewolf can only be killed by a silver bullet most likely dates back to the legend of the Beast of Gévaudan, in which a humungous wolf is killed by a hunter named "Argent" which is Latin for silver, who uses a gun loaded with silver bullets. The filmmakers clearly don’t feel that this is a necessary part of this movie’s mythology. And in a way, this is a good decision because it makes the werewolf more pitiable and certainly less mythological. If a werewolf has most of the same vulnerabilities as a human, most of the same human rules of existence apply because werewolves are not semi-indestructible. It also just makes werewolves more human and more sympathetic. Werewolf!Glendon is basically afflicted with a kind of disease that could hypothetically be explained by medical science; he isn’t some mythological beast.

We can presume his soul is saved. “Thanks...thanks for the bullet. It was the only way. In a few moments now, I shall know why all of this had to be.”

“Good-bye, Lisa. Lisa – good-bye...I’m sorry...I couldn’t have made you...happier...”

(This is immediately followed by the sound of my heart breaking.) Seriously, this isn’t a guilt trip like he thinks Lisa is some overly-needy wife. He knows that he’s not always equip to give Lisa what she needs out of a relationship. He genuinely feels bad. It isn’t because of the lycanthropy, he was like this before, as a scientist. Did he have depression anyway? He might have. He really does love her and they have an understanding. This is probably some of the best acting in the film, the way that Hull delivers his lines and the look on Valerie Hobson’s face tells you so much.