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I KNOW RIGHT. THIS LINE HIT ME HARD.

"I don't drink."

Well, you will by the end of this, buddy.

And then when I finished the book, I was a fucking mess. OF COURSE HE DRINKS. I AM SURPRISED HE IS ALIVE BECAUSE I WOULD UNALIVE MYSELF IF I WENT THROUGH WHAT HAYMITCH WENT THROUGH.

haymitch saying “I don’t drink” hahaha so funny I have a gun in my mouth

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I felt this. I will age but my favourite characters never will. And yeah, I used to look forward to turning their age.

the fact that i'm no longer the same age as the protagonists of novels and films i once connected to is so heartbreaking. there was a time when I looked forward to turning their age. i did. and i also outgrew them. i continue to age, but they don't; never will. the immortality of fiction is beautiful, but cruel.

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haymitch: love is love <3

clerk carmine: yeah, but not your love. get AWAY from my niece.

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THE BEAR, 02.06 + Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson

(sugar version)

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I LOVE HAMA SO MUCH.

Warrior poet 💛

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website

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This movie mean so much to me. Because when the lockdown started, I tried to be upbeat about it.

But just like Bo Burnham, as it dragged out, my mental health spiralled too.

And for me, watching this was cathartic because I recognised myself in Bo Burnham. I ended up crying in the end because I felt it so heavily. I was not okay even if I pretended to be.

And it's what made me realised that I was not okay. And I needed to do something instead of pretending I'm all okay.

Inside by Bo Burnham has a very interesting distinction between the first and the second half of the movie

The first half of the movie is full of funny skits and different made up characters (the White Woman, the Unpaid Intern, Bezos, Socko) because that's what Bo does on stage. That is simply what he is used to, he thought this was going to be something fun and quick he could do in a few months, and it would just be a recreation his usual shows but from home, easy right?

Until he turns 30

It's easy to see that, after the intermission, there are no silly characters or skits anymore. The only ones are the Internet, which is a more complex character, and Bezos again, but as a small attempt of keeping with what he was doing in the first half of the movie. But most of the songs are so personal and deep in a way that was barely scraped in the ones in the first half (Look Who's Inside Again or 30, which are also in the middle, closer to the second half). This is not a fun and quick thing anymore, and i'm not only talking about the movie. The quarantine has been around long enough that Bo has had to spend his birthday stuck in his house alone. The panorama has changed completely.

The quick decline of his mental health and the signs of anxiety and depression are clear as day now, when before they were disguised between jokes and weird phrases. This is not a joke anymore. This is not two weeks at home and then everything is normal again.

He tried to hide behind skits and comedy, but even inside of his house, he can't do it anymore. Everybody knows.

Everybody knows

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I love your review because I completely agree with it.

Also spoilers here so please do move on if no one wants to read spoilers.

Yes, I absolutely hated that Peris was given a bigger role. Personally, I didn't think he landed well for Specials. Like he didn't look menacing or predatory as a Special.

I never realised about Tally's original intention to go to The Smoke. And what you said made perfect sense. Tally's intention was selfish. She wanted the surgery. So she was just doing it to get the surgery. But the movies changed that and made her more selfless than she actually is and..... that does ruin Tally abit.

Because it's her guilt that will get to her again and again.

It's also her guilt and shame that will be the reason that her brain rewires itself.

So to take something so pivotal from her, feels off. So you are absolutely right.

And yes, I do take offense to the fact that the Specials aren't established so easily. And this is weird. Because if they intend to proceed, the Specials should have been established properly.

I do agree that the pacing is really fast.... but I felt like they had no choice because it was a movie. So I'm really not sure how this would have been fixed.

But yes, I do agree with you completely!

Uglies - Movie Thoughts

On a whim, I decided to start re-reading the Uglies series a couple months ago -- so imagine my surprise when I found out it was getting a movie! Said movie is now out, and it was interesting to watch with the book being so fresh in my head.

Overall, it's... eh. It's not a complete train wreck, the way most critics seem to want you to think, but it is fairly bland and uninspired. It's a very watered down version of the book. It also has the misfortune of feeling like yet another a Hunger Games wannabe, despite the original book pre-dating that series by several years.

Spoilers for everything under the cut.

What I Liked

Based on reviews, I seem to be in the minority here, but I thought the cast was pretty good. People seem to hate Joey King as Tally, but I thought she was fine. Brianne Tju is easily the best in the cast, stealing the whole damn movie as Shay. Laverne Cox also gives an excellent performance as Cable, though I do think she should not have been given that role for other reasons (which I'll get into later).

I've also seen complaints that the characters aren't ugly enough. They talk about how ugly they are and point out their specific ugly features, when they don't actually appear that ugly. And I think everyone complaining about that is completely missing the point. The "Uglies" aren't actually ugly -- they're just normal people, who've been conditioned to think their imperfect features are hideous.

I was honestly unsure how the Pretties would be visualized -- in fact, I wondered if the book would just be fundamentally unadaptable because of it -- but they did a fairly good job. I think leaning on CGI and unnatural affectations was the right way to go. All the Pretties have this uncanny quality to them that suits the story perfectly.

The overall production design was solid as well. I like how Uglyville is all gray concrete and muted tones, while New Pretty Town is shimmering golds. Then upon reaching the Smoke, all the colors of nature finally come through. I do think that could have pushed that last one a little bit more, but it still works well.

Apart from that, I don't really have much to shout out. It's competently written, well-performed, well put together. I know it doesn't sound like I have much praise, but it is a competent movie.

What I'm Mixed On

By far the biggest change from the book is Peris becoming a Special. And I'm torn on it. On the one hand, it does make him a bigger part of the story -- he's honestly not much more than an inciting incident in the book. It gives him and Tally a unique arc that's probably the strongest through-line in the story. On the other hand, the Specials as a concept are so under-cooked (more on that later) and the actor is so bland that it still doesn't quite land the way it's supposed to.

What I Didn't Like

The pacing of this movie is by far its worst issue. We are flying through this plot. There is no time for anything to breathe, for characters to develop meaningful connections, for the bigger moments to feel earned. Some things do make sense to condense -- Tally's journey to the Smoke would have been incredibly boring without her internal monologue, so condensing most of that into a montage makes sense. But I do feel we lost too much. That's where a lot of Tally's characterization comes out, where we can see her bravery and ingenuity -- none of that comes across in the movie.

A lot of important beats are rushed. Tally agreeing to help Dr. Cable is over in a flash. It feels like Tally's in the Smoke for all of fifteen minutes. Tally and David barely interact, so their relationship has no real stake. Everyone is kidnapped by Special Circumstances, and then rescued immediately after. I almost think a 5-6 episode mini-series would have worked better -- but that might have introduced the opposite problem, where everything takes too long.

The movie also has frequent montages that don't really work. It seems like they were trying to show the passage of time, but it just makes everything feel even shorter.

The beginning of the movie has an exposition problem, as well. It opens with a montage explaining the entire setting... before leading into several scenes that also explain the setting through dialogue. We get fed the same details about the surgery and the Rusties and the flowers at least three times at the start, and it gets grating.

As already mentioned, Tally is pretty severely underwritten. In the book, she has a distinct personality and a unique presence. In the movie, she's just the main character because she happens to be the main character. Her intelligence and resourcefulness are pretty much gone.

I also think changing her motivation for going to the Smoke did her a disservice. In the book, Tally goes to the Smoke so she can have her surgery, and because she's convinced herself that Shay needs her help. In the movie, Dr. Cable tells her that the Smokies have a weapon, and she will be saving lives by helping to find them. I think giving her a more selfless motivation robs her of her character arc. She always comes across as someone trying to help, who wants to best for other people, rather than someone who had to consciously learn that.

The Specials are barely even a presence. I'm not sure they were even directly called Specials. People who hadn't read the book would never realize that there was an entire separate status of person here. You never see their disturbingly beautiful faces or their terrifying strength. Considering how pivotal the Specials are to the overall story, especially in the later books, it's really odd not to see them properly established here.

Like I said, Laverne Cox gives an excellent performance as Dr. Cable... but I think they should have thought twice before casting a trans woman. It's not necessarily that there's a trans woman in the villainous role, but that there's a trans woman in the villainous role who specifically wants to force people to have surgeries to brainwash them. Like... did the optics of that really not occur to anyone? At all? I think Cox could have played David's mother, instead.

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Yup, this is me.

Me: oh hey that book series i was really into as a kid got made into a movie. I guess I'll check it out and probably be really normal about it.

Me ten minutes later:

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I never realised this and omg, they are right.

SO MUCH RESPECT FOR SCOTT WESTERFELD

Props to Scott Westerfeld for setting himself the task of writing a trilogy in limited third person perspective featuring the same character with progressively more personality-altering brain damage.

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THANK YOU.

HUNGER GAMES IS REVOLUTIONARY.

AND SO IS UGLIES.

DO NOT PIT THEM AGAINST EACH OTHER.

ENJOY BOTH LIKE THE CONNOISEURS THAT WE KNOW WE ARE.

Also re: Uglies - It's laughable when people dismiss it as "a Hunger Games ripoff" because like...

A) Uglies predates The Hunger Games actually (books I mean)

B) Why is it only certain genres get ridiculed for sharing similar messages/themes but not others? Like last time I checked there are a million and ten spy movies that are exactly the same for example, but heaven forbid we get two YA dystopian revolutionary stories?

Stop pitting two bad bitches against each other, etc.

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SAME SAME SAME. I ENJOYED MYSELF.

The pace was a little fast but it's everything I wanted as a fan.

I’m so pleased about the Uglies movie. I’m genuinely so pleased. The hoverboards fold into boogie boards. The colors and the hoverstruts and the near augmented reality nature of Pretty Town. The gorgeous scenery on the journey to The Smoke. The way we can see people balancing and nearly falling off their boards sometimes. The sound effects with the Specials was a bit goofy but honestly I don’t even care. It looked good, it kept the major plot beats from the book, and I had fun. And that’s all I care about.

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THISSSSSSS

to every critic who claims that the Uglies cast is too attractive to be playing the "ugly" characters and it doesn't make sense for them to calling themselves ugly for having completely normal facial features:

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This scene was perfect. This is truly Tally and Shay.

"And everyone is exactly who they're born to be. They're free."

Brianne Tju as SHAY & Joey King as TALLY Uglies (2024)

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You know I watched Julie and Julia movie.

And in that movie, Paul said that he and Julia were eating as friends but by the end of the dinner, he suddenly realised that it was Julia. It has always been Julia.

And I realised that how fortunate I am to understand how this feels.

Just like Paul, I knew it was you. And it has always been you.

When had I realised?

The moment I looked at my previous relationship and I said to myself, ah, it should have been like this instead. What a waste.

And from now onwards, I will no longer make that comparison with you because it is a waste.

You are golden.

You are the best I will ever have.

How fortunate am I to even have found you.

I do hope I don't regret saying this haha

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YUP. SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT

HIS FUCKING FACE

He's like 😐

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xiaohua’s hobbies over the years: gardening, cooking, reading, having a cup of tea in the evening while watching the scenery, feeding the puppy (hulijing), and now — teasing the puppy (xiaobao). 🤭