madam-o

[madam-o]

*grabbing mlm shippers by the shoulders* guys nobody needs to be the twink. nobody needs to be the sub. nobody needs to be the femboy. they can both be big fat hairy men who bask in each others masculinity or they can both be unspeakable monstrous creatures with inhuman genitalia it’s okay I’m holding your hand. Let me show you the way

[madam-o]

The number of incelly comments I read about Beetlejuice/Lydia where the take is that Beej is the morally superior one because he held up his end of the bargain twice while Lydia did not (because women are deceitful b-words, amirite fellas) is truly maddening, especially since it's not just incels saying it, it's regular fans as well. I mean, if I have to tell you why that's a bad take, well, you'll probably never get it. He's a stalker and a creep and he's been trying to coerce her into marriage since she was a kid.

I mean, I still totally ship them, but still.

[madam-o]

I love Squirrel Girl. She's frickin adorable and hilarious. She has a squirrel companion named Monkey Joe ffs. But there's this thing with her character where her design is always either utterly goofy or way too sexualized. There seems to be no middle ground with her. And she pretty much never looks the same twice. It's kinda...vexing.

[madam-o]

It’s so dark in the court room! Let’s fix that.

[madam-o]

😘

[madam-o]

[madam-o]

[madam-o]

He's about to become a beetle smoothie ( >- >) 🪲

This is a bit of a mix & match of different versions of them: the OG movie, the sequel and the cartoon (never seen the musical tho). Is this Lydia herself as a ghost, Delores posing off as her or just Beetlejuice's own little nightmare...? 🧐

[madam-o]

I did a Glindiator double feature last week (I dislike the term "Glicked") and it's truly weird how well those two films go together. Both are fantasies about fighting government corruption and lies (very timely), they just do it in opposite, aggressively gendered ways. They're also both highly entertaining movies that run a bit too long.

I enjoyed Gladiator II enough on its own merits to not wish I was watching the first Gladiator instead, but I still don't see the point in including Derek Jacobi for like 2 minutes in each film and not actually have him do anything. It's like hiring Ian McKellan to pop in for a cameo in the middle of your fantasy epic. The cast was perfect though. No idea if any of them will get nominated for any "serious" movie awards, but they should be.

Wicked was...Wicked. It's good for what it is, which is an extremely abbreviated adaptation of a fairly dense novel featuring several catchy songs. Everyone is 35ish playing 18ish, which is fine on stage but kinda weird up close on camera. I wish there was more time taken for the development of characters like Boq and Nessa. Speaking of Boq, whenever I saw him I couldn't help but regret the choice to make all the Munchkins into curly-haired gingers because that particular look wasn't doing Ethan Slater many favors, plus I really wished I was watching a young, twinky Alex Brightman instead.

I was surprised by Ariana. I expected her to steal the movie, but honestly her Glinda felt a bit vapid and silly, and Cynthia Erivo absolutely walked away with the whole thing instead. My god, did she look and sound utterly gorgeous. In interviews she might be a bit of a weirdo (same for Ariana), but she's a fucking STAR when she's up on that screen.

Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard is pure ingenious casting. He's magnetic and sinister in equal measure. I was also impressed with Fiyero, who is usually not terribly interesting as a character, but here he was cute and amusing.

It was about as perfect as a musical movie adaptation can be. It sounded and looked fantastic, like it was made by someone who actually likes and understands musicals, for a change. More like this, please. Also I'm hoping for some major rewrites to beef up Act 2. It's gonna need it.

[madam-o]

but, honestly, who am I to talk? I’m just as embarrassing as anyone else

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[madam-o]

It's time for the first Death Generator done from bed: Beetlejuice, the 1991 NES game from LJN!

[madam-o]

Oh dear lord, they look so exquisitely 80's. That's some serious Siouxsie Sioux and Sid Vicious energy right there.

i made a new beetlejuice

[madam-o]

[madam-o]

There's actually a cut song from the show called "You Can Only Work With What You Get" where Lydia spots something on Beej's face and asks if it's herpes and he confirms that, yes, it is. So you're onto something there.

i love your beetle posts and your juice thoughts. please share them

what if beetlejuice's green stuff on his face isn't mold or moss but green herpes

[madam-o]

The Substance (spoilery commentary)

A lot of people seem to be missing a major point of The Substance. Elizabeth and Sue are NOT separate entities. They are one. But Elizabeth doesn't want to be herself, she wants to be Sue, who is Elizabeth's idealized memory of her past self mixed with her current self-loathing. So she is suffering under the delusion that she is two separate people.

We know this is true because the movie keeps reminding us (and Elizabeth/Sue) of this over and over again. The kit instructions and disembodied voice on the phone try to hammer the message into her brain that she must remember that they are actually one and the balance between them must be respected, but to no avail. Because she chooses to not accept the totality of her person, including the frailty and inevitable transformation of her flesh, she self-destructs.

[madam-o]

Horror scopes. Part 4