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mozaikrolez · 4 years ago

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@waterlord asked for A quick & easy plotting guide !!

alright alright alright !!! since you said any muse , i kinda went HAM !! i ended up choosing a bunch & i could go on but i don ’ t wanna overwhelm you with these whacky ideas . i also added mini plots at the bottom of each plotting guide thing . all under the read more !!

My muse(s): rui

Do I know your muse(s): yes | no | a little | tell me more about your muse

Pre-established relationships? yes | no | depends on the relationship

mini plots / ideas :

- i’m really feeling the idea of rui & kiri becoming friends or at least friendly with each other , but that’s something i find happening after a long period of time .

- as a twelve kizuki , it’s known that rui gets a lot more freedom than average demons - so i think he’ll take full advantage of that & ‘ decide ‘ on whether or not he’ll let muzan know about him ( or at least decide on whether he wants to bring him to muzan ) . since muzan see’s everything he does , he is kinda already aware of kiri but he has his priorities elsewhere , so he leaves him to rui

- rui will ( maybe - just a thought ) , may be sensitive to kiri’s abilities or magic ( his gentle & calm nature ) considering most demons with a lot of power can sense certain things about a person ( like whether or not a person is a hashira or has abilities like one ) . he’d feel at ease around him , but this may be odd for him at first . since muzan has a tight grip on the kizuki ( as you know ) his memories are gone but this comfort makes rui feel whole in a way - like he found what he’s missing , or at least found the warm feeling he’s missing , not the concept ( the family ) . the memories of what he’s longing for might start to become invasive , forcing him to confront his past as a human .

- considering kiri is very in tune with humanity given he’s the only omni lord to live among humans as if to be one himself , i can see him finding rui to be very very ‘unpleasant’ to put it lightly . he’d most likely be disturbed by the fact that he eats humans and that there are plenty more demons out there that do this . what compels kiri to further engage with him ( ? ) , many things could ; like wanting to stop him from killing more people , eventually leading kiri to find out that he was once human and that other demons are the same way .

- after finding out , i can see kiri being sympathetic but still not forgiving him for what he’s done . maybe he’ll want to put an end to the man that started it all . plenty of other things can happen as well !!!

My muse(s): muzan kibutsuji

Do I know your muse(s): yes | no | a little | tell me more about your muse

Pre-established relationships? yes | no | depends on the relationship

mini plots / ideas :

- oooof !! ( YES YES YES YES !! ) idk , kinda excited about the idea of muzan coming across something that ( i believe ) would be more powerful than him — especially since kiri’s status as an omni lord is incredibly otherworldly . it’ll be far too much for muzan to comprehend at first , i think he’ll be puzzled with kiri’s existence ... then possibly want to eat him up ( nah nah nah , i won’t let that happen ) !! but he’d be curious as to what eating an omni lead might lead to .

- he’ll most likely want to collect information from kiri about other worlds , other beings & the like . he might even view him as an equal , encouraging kiri to assist him in his journey to become the perfect being .

- while kiri is often depicted as gentle by nature i can see him being enraged by muzan to the fullest . i think it’d be nice to see kiri out in a situation where he’s fact to face with pure unforgiving evil . how would he confront this without gao —- i’d love to explore this idea .

- also , i think muzan being around joker would be funny . he wouldn't attack him or anything ( mostly out of respect for kiri ) but he’d be soooooo annoyed with him .

My muse(s): zenitsu agatsuma

Do I know your muse(s): yes | no | a little | tell me more about your muse

Pre-established relationships? yes | no | depends on the relationship

mini plots / ideas :

- this one would be very funny . now , i’m sure kiri isn’t used to being the one who people hide behind , but with zenitsu that would change . i think they would be a strange mix but something really fun to explore .

- kiri would have to put up with zenitsu’s screams of terror , lol . he’ll definitely be the voice of reason between the two of them & i can see kiri consoling zenitsu a lot . having kiri taking charge in their relationship is something i can see him being capable of . & while zenitsu is as well ( sometimes ) , there definitely some moments where he is too fearful to . in these moments kiri could be there to help him out .

- i think they can balance each other out & encourage each other through tough times . in times where kiri’s in distress & needs some support . zenitsu will definitely be there for him in these times & i think it’d be really sweet .

My muse(s): tanjiro kamado

Do I know your muse(s): yes | no | a little | tell me more about your muse

Pre-established relationships? yes | no | depends on the relationship

mini plots / ideas :

- the sweetest boys becoming friends !!!??? HELL YEA BUDDY !!! imagining these two becoming friends would be the best thing ever .

- i really like the idea of the two hanging out during the night with nezuko & joker & just chilling , since tanjiro loves introducing his sister to new people . tanjiro & nezuko would be fascinated with joker . if this were a combined universe , i think tanjiro would love to participate in buddyfights with kiri . also , if there were any monsters that came to earth illegally , he’d be like ‘ kiri , we gotta do something about this - we have no time to wait for the buddy police !! ‘

- tanjiro would be very supportive of kiri in everyway . he thinks he has a very pleasant scent -- a scent of a really kind & gentle person , something that is hard to come by in most people ( well , it would be vey unique considering he isn’t human after all ) . i can see him treating kiri like a little brother , giving him head rubs n all that . even after finding out his true identity !! also ,,, if anyone dares harm or talk badly about him , tanjiro will headbutt them !!!!

My muse(s): giyu tomioka

Do I know your muse(s): yes | no | a little | tell me more about your muse

Pre-established relationships? yes | no | depends on the relationship

mini plots / ideas :

- giyu needs some fucking friends -- he really does . this poor mans is the only hashira without a pet ( even sanemi has a pet - that scary looking fella ) cuz animals don’t even like him , lol .

- seriously though , giyu would be grateful to have kiri as a pal , or mentor him in a way . he’d be reluctant at first cuz he’s not much of a talker , but since kiri doesn’t have an overwhelming personality , i think he’d warm up to him very easily . giyu would probably hint at the thought of kiri joining the corps just so he could take his place as water hashira cuz he’s an emotionally tired boy .

- also , with joker , i think giyu would be slightly irritated with how much he talks , but if he ever referred to him as a friend giyu would be very happy — accepting his talkative personality & warm up to it .

My muse(s): carmen sandiego

Do I know your muse(s): yes | no | a little | tell me more about your muse

Pre-established relationships? yes | no | depends on the relationship

mini plots / ideas :

- i had a strange idea -- hear me out !! carmen is known for stealing stolen artifacts from thieves & bringing them back to their rightful owners . since buddyfight has a lot of criminals in the series , why not have her help out in intercepting these crimes . it could even be a crime committed by the grim reaper .

- i don’t usually do pre established things ( & you can opt out of this if you’d like of course - or add something else to it too ) but what if carmen met kiri while she was in the middle of a caper . they briefly spoke & got to the bottom of that crime ( could be something involving aibo ) then parted ways . then in the future , they meet again , but kiri is now the grime reaper & stealing from other buddyfighters ???? idk , just a thought i’m throwing out there .

My muse(s): shirou fubuki

Do I know your muse(s): yes | no | a little | tell me more about your muse

Pre-established relationships? yes | no | depends on the relationship

mini plots / ideas :

- there are plenty of angst that could take place between these two . shirou & kiri both share the fear of losing the people they care about . in shirou’s case , it’s because he lost his family after an avalanche hit their car while they ascended a snowy mountain . his parents , along side his younger twin brother ( who he often relied on ) died . because of this incident , shirou developed ptsd & did . i’d really like for these two to find comfort in each other . also ,,, shirou would love to play soccer with kiri & do a whole bunch of snow related things like ; snow boarding & having snow fights !!

My muse(s): shinobu kocho

Do I know your muse(s): yes | no | a little | tell me more about your muse

Pre-established relationships? yes | no | depends on the relationship

mini plots / ideas :

- hoooooooo boy !!! i really would like the idea of shinobu taking on a sisterly figure towards kiri . she has a soft spot for those in need & people with kind hearts . since kiri has been on earth for years , i was feeling that this plot could take place during the events of demon slayer ( or not , i’m up for anything ) . i think she would definitely take him into the butterfly estate & care for him . also .... kiri with a cute butterfly hair clip would give me life !!!!

- don’t want to get too into the ideas i have for this one because it does cross spoiler territory & i don’t want to spoil kny for you !!! just shooting my shot at this idea if you were down !!!

concluding thoughts !!!

oh boy ! i wrote a bunch — i just got excited i guess , lol . i’m glad i was given the opportunity to just spew a whole bunch of random plots at you ! thanks a bunch for letting me ! 10/10 mvp right here !! i could go on , but i won’t — i will not do that , lol ( i can’t help myself ) . exploring things that aren’t in canon is so fun for me & i love it !!! you are the bomb & i enjoy writing with you & i love how much effort you put into kiri !! it’s truly a blessing to see your posts on my dash <3333 !!!

#˗ˋ *ﾟ & ⟶ 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐜𝐞. ／ ooc.#/ !!!!

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chiseler · 5 years ago

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“You Devilish Mummy!”: Mexican Horror in America, 1958-1963

Rosa Arenas

For some people, Cinqo de Mayo means a nacho party platter, a cooler full of Corona, plastic sombreros and a pinata filled with stale butterscotch discs. For a few of us, though, Cinqo de Mayo means one thing and one thing only: Aztec mummies. The sad part of it is that it might actually make much more sense than the nachos.

After Tod Browning and his crew left the set at the end of the shooting day while working on 1931’s Dracula, they were replaced by director George Melford and a Mexican cast and crew. Using the same sets, the same cameras, and a translated version of the script, they worked all night to shoot the Spanish-language version of the film. Those who have seen both tend to agree that the Spanish version is the superior of the two. The cinematography is more vibrant and less stage-bound than the Browning version, the atmosphere is richer (possibly because they were shooting at night), and most important of all, the Mexican Dracula (Carlos Villar) smolders with a sexual energy and menace Bela Lugosi, great as he is, lacks.

Prior to the mid-’50s, most American audiences would probably be surprised to learn that Mexico even had its own film industry. That’s when low-budget producers from Sam Arkoff on down recognized the economic advantages of snapping up the US distribution rights to existing foreign genre pictures. It made perfect sense. You didn’t need to hire any directors or cameramen or gaffers. There were no actor hissy fits to smooth over. All you needed to do was dub in some English dialogue that more or less made sense, fit the action on the screen, and approximately matched the actors’ lip movements. Or maybe not, whatever. Sometimes you might want to bring in an editor to try and rearrange a few scenes so the picture and dialogue’ll make more sense to the kids at the drive-in, but even that wasn’t always necessary. Come up with a snappy English title, Americanize some of the actors’ names, and you’re good to go. The important thing is these films could be picked up for a song, and minus a few minor expenses everything they brought in was gravy.

Suddenly US theaters were full of sci-fi, horror, and westerns from Italy, Japan, Spain, and yes indeed, Mexico. Low-budget distributor K. Gordon Murray quickly established himself as the king of marketing Mexican horror cheapies to American audiences, handling films like The Man and the Monster, The Brainiac, Curse of the Doll People, and a whole lotta movies with “Aztec Mummy” in the title. It would be nice to say these films have complex and thought-provoking storylines, that the acting is strong and subtle, that the cinematography is dazzling and the special effects on a par with any major American studio at the time, but that would really be pushing it. A lot of the films were just slapdash, flat-footed remakes of popular American films but with cheaper sets. A few of them do stand out, though, in that even the dubbed and edited versions remain uniquely Mexican, even if they do seem to tell the same story over and over again. And some of them are just plain nuts.

Genre director Rafael Portillo and screenwriter Alfredo Salazar were best known for their Aztec Mummy and wrestling pictures, and in 1958 topped even Santo Meets Dracula with La momia azteca contra el robot humano, translated as The Aztec Mummy Against the Humanoid Robot or, more simply, The Robot Meets the Aztec Mummy.

As the opening narration assures us, the film is based on an “actual experiment” conducted by two scientists from “The Los Angeles University” and verified by witnesses who “signed sworn statements with a notary public” so “there is no question about this story’s authenticity.”

Please keep that in mind.

The film is told mostly in flashback and through voiceover, which is generally a sure sign you’re watching a heavy-handed bit of editorial butchery. The same sort of thing was done regularly to the US versions of Toho films, usually with a mind toward simplifying the story.

Okay, a psychiatrist (Ramón Gay) is mocked by his colleagues when he presents a paper about past life regression, so he storms home and hypnotizes his wife Flora (Rosa Arenas). We slip into a low budget flashback within a flashback as we learn Flora was once an Aztec maiden on schedule to be sacrificed when she runs off with a warrior. The village priests find them, bring them back, and bury the warrior alive after placing a curse on him. Then they fit the old Flora with a gold bracelet and breastplate inscribed with directions to the location of “the secret Aztec treasure.” Then they cut out her heart, which may say something about the effectiveness of that breastplate.

Returning to the first flashback, we learn the evil Dr. Krupp had spied on the experiment and now wants in on it. Nevertheless the good doctor decides for some reason that the best way to prove his theory is to find the bracelet and breastplate, so they all go looking. Lucky for them they find a secret passage under the pyramid that I guess is in their backyard. Moments later they find the ancient temple, the skeleton of the old Flora, and the breastplate which they take home with them. The fun doesn’t last long, though, as the warrior’s mummy shows up at the house, grabs the breastplate, grabs Flora, returns to the temple, and prepares to cut out her heart again. At this point we’re about six minutes into the film.

Then it turns out, see, that Dr. Krupp is really a sinister underworld figure known as The Bat, and...oh screw it. Over the course of the rest of the film we get gangsters, a shootout, hypnotism, a mad scientist, a pit full of rattlesnakes, that mummy again, some Aztec rituals, a few vanishing bodies, a police investigation, a stolen corpse, a stolen brain, and a stolen “machine that uses radium,” together with lines of dialogue like, “oh, you devilish mummy!” and “continuing our search we hurried to the snake pit.” Eventually we even get a robot there near the end (though it’s more of a reanimated corpse wearing a metal suit festooned with some blinking lightbulbs),and it has a brief and slow wrestling match with the mummy.

And all of it, believe it or not, is crammed into a zippy 65 minutes. No, it’s not a particularly good film as the term is traditionally used, but it is a fascinating one. As crazy as it all gets, as big as some of the plot holes and lapses in logic may seem, the craziest thing of all is that you can’t really criticize it for any of that given that it’s, y’know, based on a true story.

Robot Meets the Aztec Mummy is a pretty extreme example of what was coming out of Mexico at the time. Other genre pictures were no less strange, maybe, but a little more sane.

Three years after Bert I. Gordon’s Attack of the Puppet People and 25 years after Tod Browning’s The Devil Doll, Benito Alazraki released his 1961 film Muñecos infernales, better known in the States as Curse of the Doll People.

An archaeologist interested in ancient rights and such and her physician husband (Ramon Gay again) visit an art collector friend who regales them with the exciting tale of his recent trip to Haiti. While there, see, he and two friends witnessed a secret voodoo ritual that included human sacrifice. For all the crazy goings on though, the art collector couldn’t take his eyes off the idol the voodoo priests were worshipping. He thought it would make a fine addition to his collection, so the next day he went back and stole it.

(Given that the story is not told in flashback, just by some guy sitting in an easy chair, I’m tempted to think the whole Haiti angle was an invention of the screenwriter for the American version. Maybe the producer was a little tired of Aztecs by this point.)

It’s not hard to guess that stealing a revered idol from a voodoo temple is not without its repercussions, and sure enough before you know it the children of all the men on the Haiti trip start receiving new dolls in the mail. Real nice, realistic-looking ones too. None of the parents seem a bit concerned by the arrival of anonymous gifts for their children, merely handing the dolls to the tykes and sending them off to bed. After a few cuts to an oddly Mexican-looking Haitian voodoo priest, well you guessed it. the dolls start coming to life and knocking off the parents in ways that can’t easily be traced back as the work of an evil dolly.

The one surprise here is given the budget, the special effects (midgets in doll clothes on oversized sets) are really, really good. Better than Bert Gordon’s, even. It’s just too bad the story around them doesn’t have a bit more zing to it. It’s a little flabby and obvious. Still, you start to get the sense a pattern is developing.

El baron del terror (released in the States as The Brainiac in 1962), directed by Chano Urueta, marked a bit of a break from the simple revenge plot. Oh wait, no it didn’t. But it was still a break from the standard storyline.

As the film opens it’s 1661, a comet has appeared in the sky, and an evil baron (Abel Salazar) is being burned at the stake by Inquisitors for practicing black magic. As evil barons are so wont to do when finding themselves in circumstances like that, he places a curse on all those who condemned him, vowing he would return in 300 years when the comet reappears and kill off all their descendants. The Inquisitors, for some reason, don’t seem terribly concerned by all this and go ahead and burn him anyway.

Cut to three hundred years in the future and true to his word the comet has reappeared and so has the baron, who starts snuffing people who didn’t even know they were related to Inquisitors. Yes, it’s a plot we’ve seen how many times already? But the Brainiac, as the title might hint, does offer a twist or two. First, before he kills his victims the Baron transforms into a kind of hideous horned demon monster (the doll special effects were better). Then during the murders he sucks out his victims’ brains, which he keeps in a big salad bowl in the kitchen. When he lures someone over to his apartment and confirms their identity, all he needs to do is excuse himself to the kitchen for a moment, have a spoonful of brains, and shazam. No more descendant and more brains for the baron.

A year later Ueueta returned to more standard form with La cabeza viviente, aka The Living Head. Here again he opens with a long prologue in which he went to some pains to at least give the illusion of historical accuracy. When a great Aztec general dies, not only is he buried, but so are a few of his servants and a high priestess to help him on his way in the afterlife. That those others weren’t quite dead yet doesn’t seem to matter much. It’s all quite a big to-do.

Cut to 450 years in the future, as an incredibly bad archaeologist and two assistants stumble upon the tomb. First they completely destroy the mummy of the high priestess and shrug it off. Then when he finds the invaluable Ring of Death, the archaeologist immediately announces that he’s going to give it to his daughter, “who likes ugly things like that.” Then after reading aloud the very clear curse that will befall anyone who desecrates the tomb, the trio scurry’s off with the general’s mummified head and the mummy of his servant (the one still clutching the knife). Do they then deliver them to the museum where they can be properly cared for and kept in carefully climate-controlled environments? Well, almost: he brings them back to his apartment and keeps them in the living room.

Yeah, it’s not really hard to see where this is headed. The daughter starts wearing the Ring of Death and gets a little kooky in the head . Then the servant and head come to life and all three of them (the daughter carrying the head) go tracking down the desecrators in order to cut out their hearts.

“I know what you’re thinking,” a police inspector says after the first murder. “But I don’t believe in legends. Or in superstitions either. All I know is that this is a very difficult case.”

That’s the real killer in The Living Head. Even more so than most, the dubbing is miserable, with most of the lines either being non-sequiturs, or so plainly obvious and logical they come out sounding like non-sequiturs. I get the feeling sometimes that the voice actors they brought in were never given scripts, simply shown the film and told to make it up as they went along.

Ah, but this is merely a taste of what’s out there in terms of Mexican horror. We haven’t even considered the Santo pictures yet, and there are hundreds of those. I’m not sure if the likes of Robot Meets the Aztec Mummy would really enrich anyone’s appreciation or understanding of Mexican independence, but there are doubtless lessons to be learned here. Namely, should you happen to find some neat stuff in a sacred temple next time you’re in Mexico, for godsakes just leave it there, no matter how cool it is. Those Aztecs mean business.

by Jim Knipfel

#Jim Knipfel #The Chiseler #Robot Meets the Aztec Mummy #Brainiac #The Living Head

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red-applesith · 7 years ago

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I love your meta works! I have a question regarding the interrogation scene in TFA. Why do you think Rey was so calm? Her first question is 'where am I?' and she sounds relatively collected given the circumstances. I imagened myself in her position. Strapped down to a chair, facing a massive guy in a mask. I would expect to be raped and be in utter panic. She only tears up much later. Do you think she's just not as easily scared, or is Ben not as intimidating to her as a 'monster' should be?

Thank you for your kind words!

Daaamn, that’s a REALLY good question! I think there’s much to say about that.

Context

First of all, when watching the movie (or any movie for that matter), it’s essential to make the distinction between what the character knows and what the audience knows.

It’s especially crucial with Star Wars because the audience knows or expects a great deal more than the characters themselves about the world they inhabit.

And that’s why fans tend to make connections between characters or events that are not connected in-universe.

Recent example: Rey’s parentage.

Rey must be Luke’s daughter!

Jyn Erso is Rey’s mum.

Qi'ra is Han’s love interest, and Rey’s mum, meaning Rey and Kylo are half-siblings!

It doesn’t matter if the timelines don’t align. Fans WANT to find connections and connect the dots.

In movies, especially in The Force Awakens, some things are meant to only make sense to the character at this point of the story (every single line spoken by Kylo Ren for instance) which leave us, the fans, speculating to no end.

However, to speculate, we need specific tools, which brings me to my second point.

What are the tools in our possession as an audience to understand Star Wars?

1. Star Wars legacy and tie-in materialOn top of their knowledge of the Star Wars stories that came before, Star Wars fans have access to supplemental content such as books, games, TV series and an extensive database to feed their theories about a character’s motivations or background. Doesn’t matter if some of that is not canon anymore. Some basic concepts exist.

That’s why Reylo fans correctly predicted the Force bond. We labeled Rey and Kylo the new Bastilla and Revan because the parallels existed and from there, the Force bond made perfect sense.

2. Codes and conventionsIn every form of art, ‘there’s a way to do things,’ codes and conventions that give us some clues about a character’s true feelings or where a story is heading. That’s why some movies are predictable while others have a shocking, unexpected ending. That’s also why ‘genres’ (romantic comedies, horror movies, thrillers, etc…) exist.

In movies, codes are what brings meaning to what’s going on on-screen, while conventions are more about how things are done.

And the truth is, there are many codes and conventions the audience understand instinctively, even if they never studied Media Studies 101.

Why is that? Because those codes emerged over the years, and as the audience saw them on-screen over and over again, they became part of our culture. For instance, imagine a character in a bathroom opening a medicine cabinet. How many of us expect to see the reflection of a menacing figure in the mirror as soon as the character closes the cabinet? (answer: a lot)

Another good illustration of that phenomenon is that meme:

But I’ll go back to that later; first I want to discuss one last point before getting into the breakdown of the interrogation scene.

3. The viewer’s experience/baggage

There’s one last tool we use as an audience: Our personal experience/feelings/bias.

That one is the most contentious because for obvious reasons, no two human beings have the same life experience, ambitions, or fears, and art is one of the most subjective human concepts. We all react differently to images and situations (Wonder what fuels nerd wars or ship wars? Look no further.)

Dynamic of the interrogation scene

Okay, let’s get into this for real.

Do I think Rey is afraid of being raped?No

Why?Because I don’t think that rape is a concept she’s ‘aware’ or afraid of.

Okay, some might think this is a bold statement, but let me explain my reasoning.

First of all, in Force Awakens, Rey’s Survival Guide and Before the awakening, we see a glimpse of Rey’s life on Jakku, and we know she’s been pretty much alone all of her life. Despite that, she’s not afraid; Not afraid to rescue BB-8 from Teedo, not afraid to refuse to sell BB-8 to Plutt, not afraid to fight Plutt’s thugs.

>> Rey isn’t afraid to say no to male figures.

If Jakku were a place where women are sexually exploited or mistreated, Rey would react very differently to these situations, wouldn’t she? She would hide and keep her head down at all time. That’s clearly not the case here.

Now, picture Jakku and Niima Outpost, especially in the movie. It’s hot and dusty, like Tatooine. Plutt is an asshole, like Watto. But do we see slaves in skimpy outfits or any sleazy bar? The answer is no.

World building 101: Jakku and Rey’s early life is sexless.

It doesn’t mean Rey is ignorant about sex; it just says she has no reason to associate danger or punishment to sexual violence, she just has no frame of reference for that.

And I believe that’s a very deliberate choice from the writers. In both TFA and TLJ, Rey and women, in general, are not sexualized. Even Bazine, who is the ‘femme fatale spy’ of The Force Awakens is clothed from tip to toe. And when we see boobs in TLJ, we see the Thala sirens and the weird lady in the casino with the floating dog.

(Btw, it’s super interesting because TFA and TLJ draw a lot of parallels with the previous movies obviously, but the exciting thing to study is what is missing.

For instance, even if we don’t know who Maz is, it takes no more than a scene in TFA to understand what she’s not: Maz’s castle is not Jabba’s palace. There are no cruel games, no slave dancing for the male gaze, etc…)

Is the audience afraid on behalf of Rey?Yes

Why?We didn’t grow up on Jakku. For us, sexual violence is real and female suffering and sexual exploitation a staple of our entertainment and culture.

Narrative codes taught us that female characters restrained to metal chairs do not belong to romantic comedies; they belong to horror movies and stories about serial killers. Our brain is conditioned to recognize such patterns, and it’s entirely reasonable to be afraid for Rey at that moment.

Is Kylo talking about sex?I don’t think so. But I think Lawrence Kasdan and J.J. Abrams knew that the audience was going to understand it that way.

Code and conventions:

‘That this is not the face of a villain threatening sexually our hero:’

Let’s compare with Javier Bardem’s character, Raul Silva, in Casino Royale

Code and conventions:

‘Yeah…That’s more like it.’

Codes and conventions are amazing, I love them

Why?In Force Awakens especially, Kylo is the writers’ puppet. His lines are the most meta of them all: What Kylo says and what he means are two very different things.

Is Ben intimidating to Rey?To an extent, yes, but not as much as Kylo/Ben is intimidating to us, the audience, and maybe not for the reasons we think of. Also probably not as much as he’d like to be, to be honest.

Seeing how Rey reacts when she’s with Ben/Kylo is essential to understand her character AND the nature of their relationship.

Now, to analyze her reactions, we need to separate what we know of Kylo Ren at that point and what Rey knows.

We witnessed him killing Lor San Tekka and giving the order to kill the members of the Church of the Force, but Rey didn’t; she doesn’t know who he is, except that he followed her in the Forest and he uses the Force.

Last thing she remembers:

Code and conventions:

That’s not how you carry a prisoner Kylo. What school of villainy did you go to?

Also, as established earlier, Rey isn’t easily frightened.

When Rey wakes up, Kylo is squatting a few meters away, watching her. As far as she’s concerned, she’s not in immediate danger. (Let’s be honest; if she’d opened her eyes and found him sniffing her hair or trying to cop a feel, her reaction might have been different tbh.)

Code and conventions:

Kylo, Y U not doing what you did with Poe??

Next, she initiates the conversation, asking with defiance where she is.

How she speaks to Kylo isn’t that different to how she speaks to Teedo and Plutt. Perhaps she’s assessing the situation at that moment. How is he going to react?

Kylo’s response and reaction gives her two clues:

He calls her a guest, not a prisoner.

He answers her question (He doesn’t shout, doesn’t stay silent, doesn’t ask her to shut up).

From the get-go, Rey is already -relatively- in control.

Code and conventions:

Usually the kidnapper is in control. You’re really bad at your job, Kylo.

Rey, you’re doing great, continue like that.

Next, she mentions the mask. What does Kylo do? He removes it.

Code and conventions:

Okay… What’s going on there?

Once again, even if she’s retrained, Rey is the one in control.

Once the mask is off, you can sense a shift in her body language. She’s not scared; she’s embarrassed and confused.

Code and conventions:

That is not how you react when you’re scared.

Then, Kylo tries to get into her head and things get tough. That’s when she starts crying.

Suddenly she’s lost the control. The things she’s never talked to anyone? Kylo is finding out and she’s embarrassed about it. Embarrassed because she’s a very private person, embarrassed because she has secrets, embarrassed because her defiance is a mask, and probably embarrassed because Kylo is cute and she doesn’t know how to process what’s going on.

Some people want to argue that the whole scene is a metaphor for rape, but it’s actually closer to someone finding a teenager’s diary and reading it out loud.

Rey is very private and obviously having her inner thoughts exposed brings back lots of bad memories.

Arguably, that’s when Kylo discovers her parents:

But as I said earlier, Rey isn’t easily frightened and she fights back.

Code and conventions:

Rey is no damsel in distress or victim! She will have none of your bullshit.

Rey orders Kylo to get out of her head and what happens? He immediately moves away from her.

That’s where they start fighting mentally and she gets into his head instead

And she wins!

^ That’s the face she sees before Kylo goes running to Snoke.

Code and conventions:

That guy isn’t a threat.

>> During the whole scene, Rey might be restrained, but she’s the one in control.

So overall, Rey knows that she has nothing to be afraid of when Ben is around because she’s had the upper hand since the beginning. Now that she’s been into his head, she also knows that he’s more afraid than she is.

Also, she still has no idea what he did before they met, nor does she know what he’s about to do.

Sure, it’s open to personal interpretation but let’s look at Finn and Rey when Han and Ben are talking.

Finn is scared because he knows Kylo Ren. Rey is curious because she doesn’t think Ben has the guts to kill Han.

TL;DR: Rey isn’t scared because Kylo isn’t scary to her.

#reylo #reylo meta #kylo ren x rey #rey x kylo ren #kylo x rey #rey x kylo #MyMetasAndTheories

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kpopchangedme · 7 years ago

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L’Opéra: Overture [Part I]

The arrival of a man from your past right before the curtain goes up leaves your mysterious music teacher unsettled and spiteful during your big debut.

Protagonists: Im Jaebum - You - Park Jinyoung

Rating: NC-17

Genre: Romance - Drama - Love Triangle - Childhood Friends - 1880s!AU

Words: 4.1k

Lyly’s note: Yes, this is the first complete chapter, but the prologues of the two male protagonists, Jinyoung and Jaebum, are already out. Check them out in the Mini-Masterlist. Enjoy ;)

L’Opéra [Mini Masterlist]

“NO-NO-NOOO!” You drop on your knees to avoid the decorative flowers flying in your direction. “I said I won’t stand things like this ANYMORE!” Meg and Raoul help you up, dragging you away from the center-stage fury.

“COGLIONE!”

She turns to point at you, blinded by rage, the dramatic hair piece standing on top of her head wobbles dangerously. “How can I sign when that stupida ballerina can’t even stay in her spot!”

You feel Madame Giry’s hand on your shoulder, you know she has your back. For once, the mistake was not yours. You were standing at your exact spot when Carlotta threw her hands back “acting” and hit you. Then she went ballistic for the tenth time since the beginning of the rehearsals. To be fair, you’re not exactly a great dancer, you never had much interest in ballet, so you make a lot of mistakes. If the fault was reproach to you by any other actor you’d assume it to be a sincere misunderstanding, but everybody and their mother knows that Carlotta is simply hysterical.

The chief repetiteur, M. Reyer, holds his temples glaring at her from afar. She’s a lot of work to say the least. The rest of the cast and dancers start to practice amongst themselves, already forgetting about the Italian diva’s anger. It’s a usual spectacle for you, but being the attention of her rage is something new. The maestro excuses himself and his orchestra, explaining they’ll rehearse on their own since they need time to get ready for tomorrow night.

Tomorrow is opening night, the première of a fresher version of the famous Opera house. At least, that’s what they are advertising; M. Firmin and M. André. It’s to make people believe that the new owners have change something. However, all they did was ask about the cost of things and wonder how to make more profits with less of everything. Ever since the tragic death of Joseph Buquet, a chief stagehead, it’s been hard to hold on to the crew and actors, they all leave. The curse of the Opera Ghost they say. Quite a reputation for a legendary Opera House, he’s the reason why they sold it to these business men and they intend to make the most of it.

You wish you could leave too, you think this as you watch Carlotta repeatedly hit a poor extra’s head with her fan. You’d leave if you’d have anywhere else to go to, but at 20 years of age, you’re an unmarried orphan with no name nor fortune. You’re lucky Alice Giry, a life-long friend of your father and in charge of this corps de ballet, remembered him enough to care for you. When Carlotta takes a step in your direction again, Madame Giry pushes you aside to face her in your stance.

“Signora, I think we should practice the aria of Act III.” She hits the floor twice with her cane to catch bystanders’ attention. “I’m sure the cast would be most delighted to hear your rendition of Elissa’s solo…”

People cheer to appease the ire of the soprano, smiling if she can witness their expression, but wincing if she can’t. Everybody who must enjoy Carlotta’s extravagant singing techniques everyday secretly dreads the prospect of her solos.

“AH!” The singer straightens her hair, giving you a last disgusted glance. “If you insist, I must oblige!” She giggles pleased, as though the aggressive turmoil everybody witnessed never was.

She turns to face M. Reyer, waving her hand threateningly to get her cue, when she opens her mouth again there’s an inaudible collective sigh.

___

“This isn’t real” Jaebum tells this to himself over and over, still, panic fills him when he hears the slow footsteps coming closer. The man comes to a stop to his left, finishing his speech. Jaebum hears people’s curious murmurs all over. He wants to recoil with every fiber of his being, but he fights it. He needs to eat tonight, he can’t be punished again. Instead of gripping to his bag, he lets the man rip it from his head, in a theatrical grand gesture.

Instantly, the light of the torches blinds him, making his eyes tear up in pain. The sudden brightness is caustic, painful and mean, Jaebum hates the cruel unforgiving light.

Somewhere to his right, a little girl lets out a strident scream, frightened by the sight of him while the others just gasp in horror. He represses the urge to cover his face and stares at the ground instead, completely frozen, waiting for his eyes to get accustomed to the intense luminosity. This isn’t new to him, he’s used to this. Jaebum knows what comes next. Just wait, a man will be the first one to start to laugh; they usually are the most amused by his show.

When one finally does, Jaebum darts his black eyes on him, wishing he could kill him with his glare. A few ladies around take a step back, afraid, but they know he can’t reach them. After a moment they join in, laughing wickedly, only then does Jaebum start to memorize every trait of their faces, what clothing they are wearing, what society they belong to. They don’t know, because they don’t care about him, but the boy never forgets a face.

“Is it human?” The little girl who screamed earlier hides behind her parents frightened when Jaebum turns her way. She stands on that horrible side, so she had the most impressive show when the man revealed him. She widens her green eyes when she realizes the monster seems to understand her words and points at him, tugging at her mother’s hand for reassurance. She looks around 8 years old, slightly younger than Jaebum, with long blond locks. He furrows his gaze, knowing he will never forget that round peachy perfect face. He mentally adds her to his list.

“Only half…” His guard sucks on his cigar while passing a hat around, accumulating small coins. “Half-human and half-demon.”

Jaebum recoils to the opposite side of the cage when the scary man glances his way, disgusted. He feels his stomach turn, if he’d eaten something that day, he’d definitely throw up at the sheer fear that fills him. He thinks that man is the only true demon in this room. Already, people are looking elsewhere, losing interest. The little girl is gone now, everybody’s moving on to the next show, forgetting they just witnessed the atrocity of Jaebum’s existence. That’s his favourite moment, when he’s allowed to pick up his bag and hide. Alone again, he sits back on the cold ground, clutching the humid cloth around his face. The comfort of the linen on his distorted features is only for a short moment though. He knows better; others will be coming tonight, they always do.

Jaebum wakes up in terror, gripping his soaked sheets. He knew this wasn’t real. The nightmares still come every night, even after over a decade. He lies back, purposefully breathing in and out slowly to calm his heartbeat. When the fear becomes nothing but a dull ache, he gets up to wash his face with cold water.

He’s used to this; Jaebum knows he won’t fall asleep again. He might as well climb out of his hole to survey the rehearsal, see what trouble you’re getting into today. He smiles, appeased.

He’s there, watching, when the lead actress accidentally slaps you across the face. Carlotta Giudicelli, that Italian bitch is on Jaebum’s list. Has been ever since she came to his Opera House to damage his eardrums with her vocal excessive and useless cades. He glares at her from his high perch, hiding in the security of the shadows above the rehearsal. She hates you, he’s almost sure of it, she always makes sure to bother you. He knows she’s not especially kind to others either, but he doesn’t care about them, you’re the only one on his mind.

That’s why he almost loses it when he witnesses the altercation. After that, she goes mad, gets completely crazy and starts yelling at everybody. You have to duck down when she throws something at your head and a male dancer helps you up. Jaebum clenches his fists, no man should touch your arms like that, it doesn’t matter if he means well. You’re not his. He lets pure anger boil his blood. If it usually scares him how powerful and tempting his hatred can get; today it doesn’t, because it’s about you.

Slowly, he gets up and lets it take over, lets it consume him. He observes as Carlotta repeatedly hits a man with her fan, he didn’t do anything, just had the misfortune to be at arm’s reach. She takes a step your way, but Jaebum isn’t looking down anymore. He’s gone, he wants to scare her, she needs to calm down, know her place. He knows what needs to be done for you.

___

“The what?!” Richard Firmin claps a hand over his mouth in horror.

“The moon, monsieur…” The nervous young stagehand grimaces. “It fell on stage during rehearsals, this morning.”

“How is that even possible?” Gilles André, his business partner, yaps at the poor boy. “Weren’t you at your post? Who’s in charge of the set?”

“Me, M. André… It’s just…” He glances at Madame Giry, next to him. “I’m new and I wasn’t there… But, the um- the P-Phantom cut the ropes.” Both owners roll their eyes in perfect unison.

“The Ghost did this…” M. Firmin starts.

“The Phantom did that…” Completes his counterpart. “We’ve been here for a while, we don’t believe in ghosts and we have yet to see this revenant!”

“Messieurs!” The young boy pales even more. “I-I’ve seen it. There is a ghost, he’s very real. He appears from thin air d-dressed in a black cloak and prowls in the shadows above the stage… His face is c-covered by a-”

“Allons, garcon!” Madame Giry interrupts him. “Nobody’s saying that what you saw isn’t real. Messieurs, be careful about what you wish to see. The Opera Ghost is not someone to be taken lightly…”

“Was anyone hurt by the… moon?” M. Firmin waves her concerns away with his hand.

“No, but Carlotta stormed out.” She purses her lips, trying to cover the smile creeping the corner of her mouth. “She said you are amateurs that can’t keep the superstitions of the locals from interfering with her art.”

“Catastrophe!” M. André presses his hands on his cheeks, shocked. “The show is sold out tomorrow night and we lost our prima donna! Should we go after her? Crawl?”

“One of my ballerina can sign like a nightingale, monsieur.”

“A ballerina?! Taking a lead role? Let’s crawl!” M. Firmin nods.

“Who’s the dancer?” M. André asks with interest and when he sees the look on his partner face, he shrugs. “You can’t possibly think of cancelling or crawling, Richard.”

“Mademoiselle y/n, she’s an amazing soprano. If you let her show you, you’ll be more than pleased.” Madame Giry presses on. “She had a rather, well… gifted teacher.”

“Your protégée?” M. Firmin turns back to her, intrigued. “The child of the famous musician?”

“Yes, I’m afraid my adoptive daughter seems to be born to sign rather than dance.”

“Yes… Well, she has been there for the entirety of the preparations…” M. André insists, hopeful.

“Very well then! Let’s hear that voice, bring her to us.” His peer concludes, resigned.

___

Meg is putting stage makeup on your face while you sit in front of the imposing mirror decorating your tiny room. The numerous candles brightly illuminates the room and stretch eerie shadows on the walls around.

“Still, it feels like she’ll storm back just in time for the show.” You tuck at a strand of your hair and your best friend slaps your wrist.

“Stop messing with my work of art!” She smiles but her voice is firm, her tone commanding like her mother’s. “I don’t think they’d let her after she ran out like that!” She plucks her lips for you to do the same and paints bit of rouge on them. “Mom says that the messieurs didn’t know what to do when they heard… They panicked until she mentioned you could do it.” You bite the interior of your cheek, can you? “I didn’t know you could sing like that, you’re amazing y/n” Meg’s praise sounds more like a reproach for hiding it from her.

“Thank you. I’m very nervous, although…” You clutch the sheer fabric of your petticoat between your fingers. “I-I’ve been practicing for a while… Meg, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this!” Only 5 hours are left before the curtains open.

“Of course!” Meg powders your neck and chest for the tenth time, while she leans in, her gorgeous features catch the light. You’ve always been secretly jealous of her appearance, she’s everything a ballerina ought to be; petite and dainty. Everything a man ought to desire. You, on the other hand… “You definitely found your field, you’re way better at that than dancing!” She laughs, the sound pure and melodious. “Everybody was amazed by your abilities at rehearsals today. Tell me, who’s teaching you?”

“But… About Carlotta… Do you think she’ll be mad at me?” You avoid answering and watch her shrug as she works her own hair into a tight practical bun.

“Probably, I mean…” She winces. “Mom says she did it to make the new owners crawl, but they refused to cancel. She wanted to feel irreplaceable and yet, here you are, filling her shoes after just a day! But y/n…” Meg grabs your hands, earnestly. “Does her sentiment really matter if you can be out there? Center stage?”

You turn your head to look at the many flowers already piling on your small bed and desks. Meg is right. This is what you always secretly wished for.

___

“I-I’m so sorry, Vicomte…” At the apology, one of his eyebrow raises in curiosity. “La Carlotta is not here…” He eyes the young maiden in front of him like she’s speaking a foreign language.

“How is that possible?” He takes a step back to look around the dim lit stone corridor and back at the many roses he’s holding in his hand. He just wanted to visit the lead actress and tell her he’s looking forward to having dinner together afterwards. “I was told this is her dressing room, isn’t she getting ready?” He reaches in his pocket for his watch to get the time. Only an hour to go before the show. A terrible thought sprouts in Jinyoung’s mind. What have those two business fools done to his Opera? Lost his Prima Donna? His gaze widens and the young dancer he stopped to ask questions looks at her feet, nervous.

“Um- She left yesterday, monsieur.” When she raises her eyes again, he notices the blush on her cheeks and her moist pink lips. She’s beautiful, gorgeous in a more-than-perfect kind of way. Jinyoung gulps, unfortunately he doesn’t have time to flirt with a ballerina.

“Wait-” He shakes his head in disbelief. “The first Act starts in less than an hour and we don’t have a lead actress?” A pure disaster, he knew those gentlemen were ticking bombs when he accepted to become the new mécène of the Opera.

“Oh! We have an Elissa.” The girl seems taken aback by his casting question, she glances at the roses in his hand, intrigued. “I thought you were just looking for Carlotta…”

“Who’s playing her?” Jinyoung’s jaw drops, how could they have already replaced a lead soprano?

“Y/n Daae, a ballerina.” She lifts her head and smiles proudly, nearly taking his breath away. “My best friend, we danced for years together. Are those flowers for her?” Jinyoung stares for a long second, his head completely blank.

“Yes…” He breathes out. Y/n, it can’t be you. Jinyoung searched everywhere when he got back home after that. “Y/n you say? A singer?” He shakes his head. You couldn’t possibly have been hiding in here, at a mere 15 minutes by feet of his Paris residence. Impossible.

“Yes, she’s part of the corps de ballet but surprised everybody by stepping up for the role. Excuse me, monsieur, I really have to join the dance crew, now.” The girl turns to leave, but Jinyoung grabs her arm to stop her.

“Wait.” She freezes to stare at the Vicomte’s hand on her white skin, but he doesn’t care about how rude he’s being. “Daae … Is she… Maybe related to the famous violinist?”

“His only daughter.” The girl nods and tilts her head in curiosity when the Vicomte’s face drains of blood. “Do you know her?”

“I…” Jinyoung lets his arm fall back, in shock. He clutches to his roses like his life depends on it. “I don’t t-t-think I have the p-pleasure.”

___

40 minutes to go.

You take a deep breath, studying your own reflexion. You don’t look like yourself. Your hair is held back with some curls falling messily on your bare shoulders and perfectly framing your face. Your eyes look twice their usual size, expertly painted by Meg and your rouge lips stand out the most. The shimmering powder she sprinkled all over your cheekbones, neck and chest makes you appear paler, almost ethereal. The dress you are wearing is probably extremely expensive, you toy the fabric between the tip of your fingers. The only thing you hate about it is the corset, but you must admit it makes your breasts and waist look way better. A blush colors your cheeks when you think this. You shake your head to get rid of your discomfort. You were never one to catch a lot of male gazes, but it’s impossible to deny you look very attractive tonight.

Twirling to see the edges of the dress follow you in the mirror, you try to laugh to calm yourself. Is this what you’d look like if you could have married him? Would you wear shimmering gowns and attend rich, impressive dances regularly? Does he? Your smile dies on your lips. It’s not often that you catch yourself thinking about him. You usually don’t let yourself think about this sort of things.

Thinking only makes you dream of a greater life and dreaming always ends up making you even sadder. But what is tonight if not a crazy dream?

“Are you nervous?” The Voice resonates in your tiny room and you jump, taken aback.

“Yes, very.” You bite your lips, tasting the bitterness of your makeup.

“Don’t be. I’ll be there the whole time.” It pauses, hesitating, and you smile before it goes on. “I’m very proud. You’ll be amazing.” You sigh; already feeling a bit more relaxed by your teacher’s presence.

“You’ll be with me the whole time?” You ask and bring your fists to your hips, frowning while staring at yourself in the mirror. “Do you promise?”

“Yes.” There’s a hint of amusement in the Voice and the corner of your lips curl into a cunning grin. After five years, you’re almost certain it can see you. It often reacts to your grimaces or what you’re doing. “I’m…” When it goes on, there’s a new longing to it. “I’m always with you.”

You smile with all your teeth this time, you wish for it to be true. You truly want your angel to always be with you. Your lips part to confess to this, but you’re stopped by Meg’s entrance.

“Y/n, are you alone?” She whispers excitedly.

“Meg, what are you doing?” You glance around, nervous she might have heard It. “You should be with the ballet; your mom is going to kill you!”

“I know…” She hovers hesitantly between the half-open door behind her and you. “The new patron of the Opera asked to meet you…” You stop breathing, the new benefactor? Is he angry at you for taking over Carlotta’s part? “I really need to go, but can I let him in?” You nod, taking a deep breath before turning to your mirror, too nervous to look directly at the door.

It’s through the glass that you study him as he walks in, he freezes when his eyes find yours. He stands there, expressionless, unaffected and stoic under your gaze and you must hold your desk to stay up on your feet. He’s dressed very elegantly. His black hair pushed back and a crimson bow tie closes his black shirt, contrasting with his porcelain pale skin. You gasp in surprise, but he simply blinks twice before tilting his head to the side to formally greet you.

“Hi, I’m the Vicomte de Chagny, new benefactor of this Opera House. I wanted to come in and congratulate our lead actress before the beginning of Act I.” His tone is cold; an unfamiliar sound contrasting with his all too familiar features. You just stand there, silenced by shock, that precious voice of yours completely gone You’re vaguely wondering how you’re expected to sing tonight if it never returns when he clears his throat.

“Judging by your welcome, I’m assuming you weren’t aware which county the Vicomte becoming your mécène was from.” He smiles, the gesture looking calculated. “How very amusing, I had no idea the daughter of a musical genius was living her life concealed here. It’s an agreeable coincidence really, I believe my late father was a big admirer of yours.”

You gulp at the hidden bitterness in his words; this is how he chooses to act after all this time. You should be careful, aware of ranks and places. Still, against better judgement, when you open your mouth, you address him the way you would have 5 years ago.

“I see you’re still a little child, Jinyoung.”

___

You’re phenomenal, he can’t keep from smiling. He’s unsurprised by your triumph tonight, he never expected anything less from you. Still, you’re captivating him. His gaze follows you on stage, hypnotized by your everything. He watches the glitters on your skin catch the light, listen to your voice in wonder and studies the fluidity of your movements.

Tonight, Jaebum’s filled with pride. He can’t think of a happier moment in his drab life than seeing you shine like this. Shine for both of you.

His eyes flicker to the blackness of Box 5, emotions switching abruptly. He’s supposed to be sitting there, comfortably enjoying his show, but instead he sits in his usual spot above the stage. The previous owner of the Opera always left this box empty, at his demand. The new ones though, ignored his letters. It means that Jaebum will have to make sure his legend precedes him, enough for them to do as they’re told by fear of reprisals.

He saw who took his Box, he clenches his jaw, angry; that arrogant new benefactor. Benefactor, he always hated that term. Being born in a high ranked family automatically makes you a good person for spending money you haven’t gained yourself. How tasteless.

Momentarily forgetting about the Opéra, he glares at the dark Box. Who’s that man? There was once a time when Jaebum couldn’t care less about who financed his Theater. Today, however, he finds himself overflown with unhealthy curiosity. He was there when that man interrupted your conversation, hiding behind the one-way mirror in your room. He saw your expression and heard everything, but he still can’t understand what happened.

After you talked back to him, the man left claiming you needed to get ready to go on-stage. He didn’t even leave his roses behind. Jaebum’s eyes narrow. Who does that conceited aristocrat prick think he is? Barging inside your dressing room and disrupting you before your big performance. Even worse, the encounter was wholly inappropriate. Meeting a lady alone in her room is not something a gentleman should be doing, and the stupid blond ballerina left so fast that there was no one to chaperon. What if someone saw him leaving and got bad ideas. He suddenly pales; what if that’s exactly what this disgusting Vicomte was there for? Without really meaning to, he growls under his breath. It wouldn’t be the first time a mécène tries to get intimate with a lead actress. Jaebum won’t allow it, ever.

This Jinyoung embodies everything he isn’t, and he already vehemently hates him for it. He’s rich, lavish, handsome, sheltered…

But worst of all, he seems to belong to your past. You shared something and perhaps he knows a part of you that Jaebum doesn’t.

His eyes dart down to the stage again, he observes you for a long minute.

No, Jaebum won’t allow this man in your life, ever.

L’Opéra [Mini Masterlist]

#kpoptrashtag #got7 #jb #jinyoung #im jaebum #got7 scenarios #got7 reactions #park jinyoung #got7 fanfic #got7 smut #jb scenarios #l'opéra #jinyoung scenarios #got7 imagines #sfw

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hug-your-face · 7 years ago

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Alien3 Was A Bad Film Because...

...Hick and Newt die at the beginning, and Ripley dies at the end. There’s “no catharsis.”

Okay, that’s a reason to not like it. We can all have our feelings about a film, but don’t say it’s objectively worse than some other film because of how it made you feel. For good sci-fi films, for good horror films -- for any genre except “family” or “rom com”, maybe -- it’s not required that that they give good feels or even closure at the end.

A zero-sum ending is hard to pull off well. There’s a difference between an effective dark ending and pure nihilism; and I agree with Ebert that nihilism for its own sake isn’t deep.

But IMHO (see what I did there?) a zero-sum ending, done well, can actually be more powerful than simply balancing sad with happy, because it invites us to consider more complex forms of resolution. Pitch Black, The Thing, possibly The Exorcist, or even Attack of the Crab Monsters are flicks without the triumphant survival of the protagonists at the end, and to me they hit harder because of it. Not in the bleak nihilistic way of Se7en, but in a counterbalanced way: monster dead, human dead, sometimes that’s what happens.

Even Alien ends up that way, from a certain point of view. I always thought this passage from ADF nicely summed up how I felt at the end:

I didn’t like Alien3 when I first saw it. I was not at all pleased, no way. But I kept coming back to it. And once I got over what I had expected from it and began to look at it in its own right, it has (ha) grown on me.

To me, the film’s resolution isn’t one of individual survival. It’s the mixed emotions of loss and triumph. Because individual death was against a greater, collective survival. At the time the film came out, the Ultimate Lose vs. the alien wasn’t mere death; it was letting the alien get into the hands of the Company, and thence to Earth.

My perspective on the “Alienverse” differs from fans who never knew a world where all 4-6 “Alien” films didn’t already exist in a boxed set. I, like the audiences for which the films were made, saw each one as it was released, never knowing if there would be another. That’s a different style of media consumption than today where a 3-part epic movie series is made from Tolkien’s cute little Hobbit book; where on-demand Netflix series are available for binging; where franchises are the new normal and sequels are expected.

In that light, yes: why the hell would this one episode do such violence to the characters from the previous part of the series? And how can it end that way when we know that the crooks just get their dirty hands on a queen later? What a cheat! It just doesn’t fit in! At least Resurrection was campy!

So I ask you to consider this: try Alien3 in the context in which it was made and released.

Try to mentally erase the other films and just… watch it on its own merit.

You’ll have some recollections of a sci-fi film from over a decade ago that looked like nothing anyone had ever seen before, and had people running out of the theatre. You’ll remember an action film from 6 years ago with space marines kicking alien ass. You’ll know the beast has two sets of teeth and it lays its spawn in people’s chests. Everyone knows that. Ferris Beuller knows that.

And those films left an impression on you — maybe you even re-watch the videotapes from time to time and you’re eager to see what else could possibly happen in that universe, with that creature.

But that’s all you know.

Okay? All in that early-90′s frame of mind? Good, now settle** in for this phantasmagorically gorgeous, gothic, redemptive tragedy. A tale of a beast from the depths of our psyches and a woman whose entire life has been taken over by that beast.

And watch as, with almost no tools and no friends, she finally brings the story to a close… through her will. On her terms.

Then try to tell me that, in comparison, Resurrection was not JUST something that left you FEELING better at the end, but is actually a better film in its own right.

IMHO (there, I’m doing it again) Alien3 is the deepest of all the Alien films. Even if it’s not my favorite.

**(NOTE: Directors cut, not theatrical cut, required here.)

Tagging @you-almost-convinced-me-im-real, whose post inspired this one; @littleirishfables whose comment inspired that post, and @thenostromofiles for another 70s-era Alien fan perspective.

#alien #alien3 #alien:resurrection #ref #long post #mine #Actually if you think about it Alien:Isolation follows this path somewhat #We see a light shine on Amanda but we dont really know her fate #and shes lost literally EVERYONE in her search for her mother #and all she got was a message #on reflection there are definitely some 90s values present in this film too #in some ways we should be glad we've transcended them so far

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior September 25, 2020 – New York Film Festival, THE WAY I SEE IT, KAJILLIONAIRE, STUNTWOMEN, MISBEHAVIOUR and Lots More!

A mite bit late this week, but it’s another busy week of movies though considerably less than usual in terms of ones I have any interest in watching. Oh, wait, did I say that out loud? Yup, we’re getting to that point after six months, even though I did go out to Jersey City to see The New Mutants on Saturday. It was fine. I didn’t hate it. Josh Boone didn’t rape my childhood.

Before we get to the new releases, we’ll start with the New York Film Festival (NYFF), since that just kicked off on Thursday night with Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, which is one of five relatively shorter movies he’s made as part of his “Small Axe” anthology that will eventually air on Amazon Prime. Maybe they’ll get some kind of theatrical release then but who knows? I’ve always kind of been up and down on McQueen’s work, loving his early movie Hunger, but then being mixed on his next few films (including the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave) but then loving Widows from a couple years back. There is no question that McQueen is a true auteur in terms of filmmaking, although sometimes he loses track of the storytelling in order to get artsy, and that’s the case with Lovers Rock. It essentially takes place in and around a “Blues Night,” basically a rowdy house party fully of music and dancing and singing, but as much about the meeting of Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn’s Martha and Micheal (Blue Story) Ward’s Franklyn at this party. It’s a fairly short “film” of just over an hour that beautifully captures the music and dance of the time, although it also gets a little too “arty” as tends to be McQueen’s wont. I don’t want to spoil too much about what happens, but I think mileage will vary on this one.

There are two more chapters to be shown at NYFF, spaced out by a week each-- Mangrove and Red, White and Blue – and I’m interested enough in what McQueen has to say about this West Indies heritage and some of the stories he’s telling within the series.

Other movies that have screened for critics already including Sam Pollard’s doc MLK/FBI, which as one can probably can figure out is about the FBI’s attempt to discredit King and take him down as leader of the protesting that led to the eventual passing of the Civil Rights Act. I feel like I knew a lot of what was in this movie from other films, and I didn’t really find that this added much towards my appreciation of King than what already existed. Honestly, I liked Pollard’s other film, Mr. Soul!, which he co-directed with that subject’s daughter.There just feels to be something more personal there compared to the rather clinical MLK/FBI.

At least that has a much stronger narrative than Song Fang’s The Calming, starring Xi Qi, which is the type of movie I almost definitely would have walked out of a press screening annoyed that I was dragged up to Lincoln Center, because it’s very much like some of Hong Sang-Soo’s worst work or some of the work of Zhangke Jia, both who regularly play the New York Film Festival. Sure enough, Zhangke produced this film, so that explains that.

I decided not to even bother with Cristi Puiu’s three-plus hour period piece Malmkrog. I was a fan of his earlier films The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Aurora, but there just isn’t enough time in the day to see if this one goes anywhere. It’s the kind of thing that I could oddly justify sit in a movie theater and watch, but sitting at my laptop? No, thank you.

I also ended up watching Pedro Almodovar’s English language debut, the short film The Human Voice, starring Tilda Swinton as a woman who buys an axe at a hardware store and walks around a colorful and elaborate set with a dog, and then she gets into a long dramatic conversation (mostly yelling) over the phone with her lover or ex-lover. So yeah, basically a great showcase for Swinton, who we already know as a fabulous actor, and for the movie’s production design and cinematography. I guess I’m a little mixed on this. At least it’s only 30 minutes long?

There are a number of other festivals going on, including IFP Week in New York, which used to be one of my go-tos in terms of screening more obscure stuff between TIFF and NYFF – it’s where I saw Barry Jenkins’ Medicine for Melancholy one year and a few other cool movies since. But over the past few years, it seems to have less and less of interest, and I’ve barely paid attention to what’s in the cards with its shift to virtual. Either way, it’s going on now and through Friday.

Texas has two film festivals starting up this week, the more prominent one probably being Celebration of Fantastic Fest, which as can be expected is a virtual version of the annual Fantastic Fest, which I’ve heard is one of the best genre festivals in the country, showing some of the best of previous fests’ midnight tracks as well as many premieres. It will kick off on Thursday with Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor, which Neon will release a week from Friday, and then there’s a combination of new and vintage genre and horror films. You can see the full schedule here, as it runs for one full week and then through October 8, closing with Jim Cummings’ The Wolf of Snow Hollow. The opening and closing night films are at the Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane, but all the other movies being offered free to anyone in the country, and then there are a few events like the annual Fantastic Feud, which is available to watch worldwide. Some of the film’s to try to catch include Chad Faust’s Girl, starring Bella Thorne; French filmmakers Ludovic Boukherma & Zoran Boukherma’s Teddy, and Amelia Moses’ Bloodthirsty.

Not too far away in Waco, Texas, the Deep in the Heart Film Festival runs for the next couple weekends. Nothing really jumped out from this year’s line-up, but only because I haven’t seen any of the movies being streamed. What’s great about regional film festivals like this one is that they’re “discovery fests” where you can go and watch a lot of smaller indies by filmmakers who you may not hear about since they don’t have “ins” at the big festivals where they’re guaranteed placement.

Before we get to this week’s new movies, I wanted to draw special attention to a movie from last week, I didn’t get a chance to watch before posting the column, and that’s Dawn Porter’s THE WAY I SEE IT (Focus Features), an amazing doc about former White House chief photographer Pete Souza, whose amazing career working in the White House under Presidents Reagan and Obama led him to becoming a conscionable objector to the current Trump regime by using social media to throw shade. In fact, Souza’s most recent photo book is called Shade, and it collects his social media posts and tweets of some of his amazing photos of Obama during his 8 years in the White House. This is just an amazing film from the director of John Lewis: Good Trouble, which came out earlier this year, and this one does just as much to show Obama’s humanity (and actually, the fact that Reagan had a lighter side we rarely saw in public) but also to contrast those two Presidents with the monster we have in the White House now. I immediately bought Souza’s book after seeing it, and I’m hoping more people will learn about him through this film. This might already be gone from its limited theatrical release by the time you read it, but it will air on MSNBC on October 9 at 10PM.

Because I like to start or continue with the good, I will follow up one great doc with another one, and that’s April Wright’s STUNTWOMEN: THE UNTOLD HOLLYWOOD STORY (Shout Studios), which is fairly self-explanatory. It builds on the ideas in Mollie Gregory’s 2015 book and has interviews and anecdotes from some of the youngest and newest in the stunt field to some of the legends, like Jeannie Epper from the Wonder Woman and Bionic Woman TV shows, and Donna Keegan, who has been almost all of the coolest ‘80s and ‘90s action movies including Robocop, True Lies and others. Narrated by Michelle Rodriguez, the movie mixes the actual stuntwomen like Amy Johnston, Jennifer Caputo, Debbie and Donna Evans and Michelle Jubilee Gonzalez with a few directors like Paul Feig and Anne Fletcher. (Before you ask, Zoe Bell is mentioned but doesn’t actually talk about herself or her career on camera.) I just really enjoyed hearing these stories and learning more about a profession I really don’t know much about. I definitely recommend this doc to anyone who wants to know more about film history and the behind-the-scenes stuff. (I also wrote a feature on this movie with interviews with three of the stuntwomen from the movie over on Below the Line.)

Focus Features is also releasing Miranda July’s new movie KAJILLIONAIRE, presumably at one point on PVOD but now theatrically as well after picking it up at Sundance where there were rave reviews for it. It stars Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger (yes, that one) and Evan Rachel Wood as a family of thieves who are always planning their next grift to get the $1,500 for their overdue rent. It’s then that they meet Gina Rodriguez’s Melanie, and bring her into their plans, much to the chagrin of Wood’s “Old Dolio,” (Yes, that’s the name of her character – don’t ask!), who already has issues with her parents not showing her the love a child usually expects.

You know, I absolutely loved July’s earlier Sundance film You and Me and Everybody We Know, so hearing that she was making a heist movie and one with such an interesting cast definitely made me curious about Kajillionaire, which got absolute raves out of this year’s Sundance. It just sounded like it could be very cool, and I genuinely have been a fan of both Evans and Jenkins for a long time. I wasn’t nearly as familiar with Rodriguez’s work on Jane the Virgin, but I definitely became a bigger fan of her after this movie.

If you’re familiar with July’s other work, you know that she’s first and foremost an artist and maybe can be considered a bit of a performance artist with film being just one of her mediums. Being familiar with some of her past work might prepare you for how strange Kajillionaire is, especially in the set-up when we meet the Dyne family – Robert, Theresa and “Old Dolio” (ugh) – and we learn about their suitably quirky lifestyle of trying to con people out of money in order to pay their aggravated landlord Stovik (Mark Ivanir). When we meet them, they’re three months past due, and Stovik has had enough, so they have to come up with a quick scheme. “Old Dolio” has an idea to scam an airline, and during this plan, they meet Rodriguez’s bubbly Melanie, who is keen on joining this strange family, for one reason. Robert seems more interested in Melanie for sexual reasons.

Going into Kajillionaire realizing how strange July tends to go with her material – whether it’s the Dyne’s living space or their general behavior – I still had trouble getting past not only the name of Evans’ character but her entire dour, emotionless and ultimately monotone performance. (Imagine Evans auditioning for the role of Bill or Ted in a female remake, and that’s her character.) Evans is such a vibrant performer and maybe she wanted to play down her looks that are played up on HBO’s Westworld, but this character goes so far into the world of July’s headspace that I’m not sure who could possibly relate to her. As with much of July’s work, there are elements that people can relate to, possibly the way Evans’ character doesn’t feel the love from her parents that they immediately give to Melanie, as well as the sapphic bond that develops between the two younger women, but it’s all wrapped up in the most cockamamie attempt at a weird remake of The Grifters possible. Except that the Dynes are really bad scam artists, and the movie as a whole never really goes anywhere.

On the other hand, Rodriguez is almost the polar opposite of Evans, being vibrant and with a big personality and so many more layers, and she almost saves the movie at times. Otherwise, I had high hopes for Kajillionaire and was extremely disappointed, because July has yet to deliver on that earlier film I loved so much, and this is no different.

Honestly, I have no idea why Brad Pitt’s Plan B, let alone Focus Features, shelled out money for this movie thinking it might make them money, as there’s just nothing sellable about it… not the cast, not the premise and certainly not the overall tone. I guess this will be one I will never figure out. (Even so, if you like Jenkins, at least there’s another movie with him out this week, but that one isn’t much better unfortunately.)

On the other hand, one of the nice surprises of the week was Philippa Lowthorpe’s MISBEHAVIOUR (Shout! Factory), starring Keira Knightley as Sally Alexander, a young woman going to university who falls in with the Women’s Liberation Movement of London and their plots to disrupt the 1970 Miss World competition due to the way it depicts women. The movie also stars Jessie Buckley as one of the pluckier young women trying to take down the “patriarchy,” Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Miss Grenada, Rhys Ifans as Eric Morley, who runs Miss World with his wife Julia (Keeley Hawes) and… here’s where it gets weird… Greg Kinnear as Bob Hope.

As far as the latter goes, the movie opens with Kinnear’s Hope performing for the troops in Vietnam for the USO, and I honestly had no idea it was Kinnear, nor did I realize it until about Hope’s third appearance and I finally looked it up and realized it w as him.

But Hope is a very small part of the movie that focuses on three specific women, all real people, as played by Knightley, Buckley and Mbatha-Raw. Alexander is a divorced young woman with a daughter who is trying to get through life with some help from her disapproving mother, but she’s also adamant about being able to break through the glass wall and meeting Buckley’s Jo Robinson and her group of rebellious young women gives Alexander the motivation to do something.

On the one hand, Misbehaviour is a quaint British period piece, much like a lot of Knightley’s previous films, but it’s also another important story from the struggle of women to get equal rights that seems appropriately-timed to current times. It’s as pretty amazing story what the Womens Lib movement got up to in terms of trying to hijack the Miss World competition – watch the videos, this really did happen, though slightly modified – where young women were literally treated like eye candy or meat. What I particularly enjoyed was that the movie didn’t just focus on Alexander or Robinson, but actually oscillated from the various characters in the story as they would come together on the fateful night.

I was already a fan of the three female leads, so seeing them in a movie together was quite grand, and while Kinnear may have been oddly-cast as Hope, the movie isn’t really about him. I actually liked seeing Ifans playing a very different character, more boisterous and with a different accent, as he adds to what ended up being a fairly entertaining movie that deals with a lot of different things, including the controversy over having a white and black contestant from South Africa decades before Apartheid was abolished.

Philippa Lowthorpe, best known for The Other Boleyn Girl, does an amazing job pulling all of these pictures together but never losing sight of the real women who are being portrayed and the amazing story they had to tell. Misbehaviour is a great example of how a message movie can be done in a thoroughly entertaining way without putting off potential male viewers.

On Wednesday, Netflix begins streaming ENOLA HOLMES, an adaptation of Nancy Springer’s Y.A. book series about Sherlock Holmes’ sister, played by Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger Things. Her brothers Sherlock and Mycroft are played by Henry Cavill and Sam Claflin, their mother is played by Helena Bonham Carter, and it’s directed by Harry Bradbeer, director of Fleabag and other British series. Methinks that Netflix is hoping this will be another franchise for the streaming giant. The film takes place in 1884 England with Enola waking on the morning of her 16th birthday to find her mother having vanished. Her brothers choose to send Enola to a finishing school but instead, she goes looking for her mother in London and falls in with a young runaway named Lord Tewksbury (Louis Partridge) to unravel a great conspiracy.

I never really became a fan of Stranger Things – more due to the lack of time than interest – so I haven’t really been generate much of an opinion for Millie Bobby Brown except for her role in Godzilla: King of Monsters. That said, I DO have an opinion on Sherlock Holmes, as I’m a huge fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, and that’s partially what drove my interest in this adaptation of Nancy Springer’s Y.A. twist.

Enola Holmes begins with a rather strange whimsical tone, as Enola constantly breaks the fourth wall and talks to the viewer, but it eventually falls into a steadier rhythm that’s much more palatable. If you’re into the mystery aspects of the Holmes lore, you may be a little disappointed by some of the simple word games concocted for this Holmes’ investigation, but it more than makes up for it with some fun fight and action sequences that made me think this would have been great as a theatrical release. (Just by being on Netflix, I’m sure it won’t have a problem finding an audience.)

All in all, I generally liked Brown in this role; she reminds me a little bit of a young Saoirse Ronan, so she clearly has a lot of potential. I wasn’t as crazy about some of the other casting, including Cavill as Enola’s older brother, nor the cutesy romance stuff with Partridge, but I know I’m also not the primary target audience for the film either. Still, coming so soon after Armando Ianucci’s David Copperfield adaptation, this generally pales in comparison. Probably the biggest bummer is that Helena Bonham Carter barely appears in the movie at all, which seems like such a waste of talent, although her scenes with Brown are some of the best in the movie.

Enola Holmes will find its fanbase for sure, and while it might not be the best or strongest iteration of Holmes, as much as a fun girl-friendlier spin on it, there’s no doubt that it’s perpetually entertaining.

Lena Olin and Bruce Dern star in Tom Dolby’s THE ARTIST’S WIFE (Strand Releasing) in which Dern plays crotchety artist Richard Smythson, whose poor beleaguered wife Claire (Olin) is now living in the shadow of her celebrated artist husband, giving up her own art career, but now having to deal with his memory losses and deteriorating behavior.

Claire (Lena Olin) lives a quiet domestic life in the Hamptons as the wife of celebrated artist Richard Smythson (Bruce Dern). Once a promising painter herself, Claire now lives in the shadow of her husband’s illustrious career. While preparing work for his final show, Richard’s moods become increasingly erratic, and he is diagnosed with dementia. As his memory and behavior deteriorate, she shields his condition from the art community while trying to reconnect him with his estranged daughter and grandson from a previous marriage. Challenged by the loss of her world as she knew it, Claire must now decide whether to stand with Richard on the sidelines or step into the spotlight herself.

Watching this, it’s almost impossible to not be reminded of the excellent The Wife, starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce, but this is a different film from The Wife despite having similar themes of a woman who has allowed her own life and career to come second to that of her husband.

This is first and foremost a showcase for Olin, who at 65 years old, still looks amazing but also gives a fantastic performance, one unlike any we’ve seen from her in quite some time. A lot of the film deals with her character reuniting with her husband’s estranged lesbian daughter (her stepdaughter) Angela (Juliet Rylance) and her son Diego, who is being taken care of by a hunky manny named Danny (Avan Jogia). They all get together for Christmas, and Richard’s behavior just gets worse and worse as Claire vacillates between worrying about him and being infuriated by him.

Sure, it’s a little predicable at times but still a decent little film from Dolby that includes a number of incredibly touching and even some weepy moments. I ended up liking this film way more than I thought I would from the premise and my own preconceived notions of what this movie would be.

The Artist’s Wife is a really nice movie – and honestly, another one I’m shocked isn’t being distributed by Sony Pictures Classics! It’s far better than The Leisure Seekers, for instance, not only in dealing with early-stage dementia but also in the way women often have to put aside their own aspirations to help their elderly spouses through it.

Richard Jenkins also stars in Andrew Cohn’s THE LAST SHIFT (Stage 6 Films) playing Stanley, who has worked at the fast food restaurant Oscar’s Chicken and Fish in Albion, Michigan for over 35 years, but he’s planning to leave to go take care of his mother in Florida. Hired to replace him is a younger lad named Jevon (Shane Paul McGhie), who has just been let out of jail and needs the job to fulfill his probation.

I’m not really sure who this movie is intended since Jenkins plays such a sad sack slacker that I’m not quite sure who might be drawn to his character, and other than his relationship with Jevon, which definitely falls into the Finding Forrester school of movie cliches, I’m not sure that the film offers much else. Ed O’Neill does appear in the film as Stanley’s best friend, but he seemed to be playing down his role as to not steal any of Jenkins’ spotlight.

Much of the movie deals with the odd characters and situations Stanley and Juvan experience on the job, but it feels like such a hodge-podge of ideas thrown together without a suitable and conclusive arc for either character. Also, Stan is kind of a jerk, and there were only so many jokes about his mother’s bad memory – probably due to dementia -- I was willing to put up with. It’s just hard to fathom what Jenkins saw in this role or movie other than to allow the lesser-known McGhie shine a bit.

The Last Shift is a movie that tries to be a comedy without ever being particularly funny, and it just comes across like a flat and rather mundane attempt that never really goes anywhere. (Note: Days after this review was posted, I was informed that the screener link I watched did not have the final music cues and mix that the filmmaker intended. With that in mind, I will make an effort to rewatch the film when I have the film’s final version.)

A few docs of interest this week (other than the ones mentioned above) include Laura Gabbert’s doc OTTOLENGHI AND THE CAKES OF VERSAILLES (IFC Films), which follows Yoam Ottolenghi as he puts together a huge gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the opening of an exhibit about Versailles. Ottolenghi decides to bring together a number of pastry chefs from all over the world, including Dominique Ansel (inventor of the Cronut), Dinara Kasko and more to recreate the look and feel of Versailles through a series of pastries and desserts. Honestly, I really don’t have that much to say about the movie, which is only about an hour 15 minutes and still feels long. It basically just documents the preparation for the event and the event itself, and the whole thing just seems rather pretentious and high-falutin’, and more like the movie that might play at Lincoln Center than anywhere else. It will be playing in theaters (but probably not Lincoln Center) as well as on digital and cable VOD. (I told you I didn’t have much to say about it.)

Premiering on HBO (and presumably HBO Max) on Wednesday (today!) is the first part of Alex Gibney’s AGENTS OF CHAOS, a two-part documentary by the Oscar-winning documentarian about the Russian interference in the 2016 election. Another example of a movie that just wasn’t something I cared to watch right at this minute, despite being a big fan of Gibney’s excellent investigational skills in terms of getting to the bottom of a subject. The first part airs tonight (9/23) and the second part airs tomorrow night (9/24).

There’s also Ric Burns’ doc OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE (Zeitgeist Films), which will premiere exclusively as part of Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema on Wednesday (today!). I really tried to get to this, but there’s only so much time in the day especially with NYFF, and everything else going on in my life right now. I do hope to get to it, and maybe it will be like The Way I See It or Mr. Soul! and I can talk more about it in a future column. Burns’ doc essentially covers the work of a neurologist and storyteller called “the poet laurate of medicine,” who talks about his struggles with drug addiction, homophobia and a medical establishment that only began to appreciate him decades after some of his work. Sacks is also known for writing the book on which the Robin Williams movie Awakenings is based, but otherwise, I never had really heard of him before or any of the people interviewed. Again, I’ll try to get to this soon, because he sounds like an interesting man for sure.

If the title of Mike Gunther’s ROGUE WARFARE: DEATH OF A NATION (Saban Films) makes it sound like it would be as a video game, then you probably aren’t aware that this is actually an action trilogy with Stephen Lang playing “The President,” who I guess is the villain of the piece. Will Yun Lee plays one of a team of elite soldiers who must put a stop to detonate a deadly bomb in 36 hours. No review screeners for this one, which will be in theaters, on demand and digital this Friday.

Oddly, advance screeners were also not available for Tate Taylor’s action-thriller AVA (Vertical Entertainment), starring Jessica Chastain, which is a movie I was curious about since I’ve generally liked most of Taylor’s previous films – The Help and Get On Up more than Ma or The Girl on the Train. This is the spy thriller he’d been talking about making for a while, and it costars John Malkovich, Common, Geena Davis, and Colin Farrell. What it doesn’t have is screeners for review. It must be fantastic!

Again, lots of movies this week, but I just don’t have the time or mind to spend nearly as much time watching some of them before writing this. There’s many more docs, including Jay Sebring…Cutting to the Truth (Shout! Studios), the Netflix doc Kiss the Ground, yet another doc called Red, White and Wasted (Dark Sky Films), We Are Many (Area 23 Films), Myth of a Colorblind France (First Run Features) and Public Trust (Patagonia Films). There’s also even more non-docs in I’ll Be Around (Indie Rights), LX2048, Foster Boy and Shortcut (both also from Gravitas Ventures), The Swerve and Dead (1091). See what I mean? A ridiculous amount of movies this week and even more next week. Who can possibly watch, let alone review them all?

If there’s one thing I truly miss in this pandemic is being able to go over to my local movie theater, the Metrograph to catch whatever they’re showing, but they’ve still been killing it with their Live Screenings digital series. Tonight, the Metrograph is screening Shona Lynch’s debut political doc, Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed, which follows Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy rep Shirley Chisholm, who became the first person of color and first woman to seek a major American’s political party’s nomination for President, as she fought ridicule and racism. On Monday, Metrograph will present “Matador Records - Revisionist History,” which is a celebration of the artist on the indie label that kicked off in 1989 and released records by the likes of Liz Phair, Yo La Tengo, Pavement and Sonic Youth. Monday’s premiere will include introductions by Matador’s Gerard Cosloy and Chris Lombardi and Yo La Tengo and will be made up of a series of short films and videos. Friday, the Metrograph starts a Robert Kramer retrospective with his 1969 film Ice, and honestly, I don’t really know much about Kramer so not sure what else to say.

Next week has so many frickin’ movies that if I start watching them all without sleeping for the next week, I probably won’t get to all of them. Either way, there’s no Wonder Woman 1984, so you can blame Governor Cuomo and the assholes railing against movie theaters reopening for that one.

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

#Movies #reviews #NewYorkFilmFestival #Stuntwomen #Digital #VOD #Streaming #EnolaHolmes #misbehaviour #TheWayISeeIt

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