#Another eden benedict

[carlosyt14]

Y'all can hate me now

[aestheticallypleasinganimeboys]

Benedict - Another Eden

[fayes-fics]

Eden

Pairing: Benedict Bridgerton x fem!reader

Summary: Seeing you with other Bridgerton offspring has an interesting effect on your new husband...

I couldn't resist using a Season 3 gif cos hello.

Warnings: 18+ smut, minors DNI, breeding kink, dirty talk, mutual masturbation, vaginal sex, creampie, ie filthy babymaking. Also, the smut is bookended by fluff; yeah, that probably needs a warning, lol.

Word Count: 4.2k

Authors Note: This is a very belated request fill for @victoriaholland (HERE) and Anon (HERE) about Benedict with a touch of baby fever. I decided to combine the asks as I saw a way to weave them together. Sorry for the delay, but well at least babymaking seems appropriate for spring hehe. Thank you to @colettebronte for being an awesome beta, as always. Err, Enjoy! <3

Daphne’s latest child is beautiful; you delight in his joy as he bounces on your lap, learning the strength of his sweetly chubby legs, little fists wrapped tight around your fingers. 

Looking up, you catch your husband's eye from afar, his stare intense across the gardens of Bridgerton House as you sit under a tented shelter upon a picnic blanket. The rest of the family are scattered around, playing games or chatting, but you are quite content minding the little one while his nanny takes a few moments to eat lunch.

“Is everything alright, my love?” You inquire as Benedict draws closer. 

“Yes… I….” He seems a little flustered. 

“Are you sure?” 

You pull a funny face for the infant, who breaks out into the most adorable infectious giggles that has you grinning from ear to ear and hugging him into your body, swaying with him. 

“Are you alright? Minding the child?” He checks, his voice a touch odd.

“Oh yes. We are more than happy, are we not, my little prince?” You talk in a vaguely silly baby-talk voice, addressing the child in your arms as much as Benedict. 

Again, the child peals with delighted noises and spit bubbles enthusiastically, looking up at Benedict eagerly as much as you do.

“Well, that is wonderful news,” he blusters, and you could swear he is out of sorts, breathless almost. “I shall… leave you to it,” he adds, giving you a bow and then withdrawing as the little one wiggles out of your arms.

“Ignore your Uncle Benedict; he is being a silly billy,” you whisper conspiratorially once the man in question is out of earshot.

The response is babbled nonsense as the child bashes one wooden brick against another.

“I quite agree,” you state sagely before breaking into a goofy grin.

——

“Please?” Hyacinth wheedles.

“No, Hy,” you sigh without even looking up.

“Ugh, you are no fun!” she scowls, crossing her arms defiantly.

“What is all this?” Anthony clips as he strides into the drawing room, Benedict on his heels, as Hyacinth flounces dramatically across the room. 

“Your little sister is angry at me because I will not allow her to drink the punch; it has brandy in it,” you explain cooly.

“Quite right, too!” Anthony chimes as Hyacinth rolls her eyes.

“Listen to y/n, Hyacinth, and do as she says,” Anthony lectures, and you feel grateful for his support, effectively neutering her rebellion. “Despite a temporary lapse of judgment when choosing a spouse, she is otherwise one of the most sensible people in this family.”

“Hey…!” Benedict protests.

“Please…” Anthony withers, twisting towards him. ���Brother, if there is one thing us Bridgerton men know how to do, ‘tis to marry a woman entirely too good for us. And well done on that, by the way.”

You smirk at Anthony’s hilarious way of putting his brother - your husband - in his place, catching Kate’s eye with a wink as she enters the room carrying her baby. 

“Y/n, come and meet the future Viscount; he’s awake at last,” she calls to you. 

You are immediately on your feet and grinning, taking the tiny bundle from her arms and cooing at the sweet little boy. The baby opens his enormous brown eyes and observes you for a second before breaking into a one-toothed grin and happily waving his fists at you.

“Oh, he really likes you!” Kate enthuses, delighted.

“As I do you, little one,” you smile, leaning over to kiss his forehead.

You look up to see Benedict with that same look on his face as earlier. A tempest, almost an energy over his being. It’s almost as if he is… aroused?! Which is most odd.

As you hand the baby back to Kate, giving him one final kiss, Benedict is suddenly by your side. Announcing to the family that there has been a change of plan and, regrettably, you will not be able to stay for dinner, his arm an insistent tug around your waist.

——

“Why did we not stay for family dinner as originally planned, my love?” 

Your question is soft, only just audible over the noise of the carriage as you trundle over the cobbled streets of Mayfair a few minutes later. 

“I decided that we should perhaps dine at ours this evening…” his voice adopting that deeper edge which always causes butterflies in your tummy. His hand lands on your knee, a heavy weight that feels portentous. He slides closer on the bench seat.

“Why might that be?” your ask turns breathy, entirely without you meaning it to.

“I want to be alone with you,” he murmurs, unmistakably pitched to arouse. 

The carriage seems to notch up a few degrees as the rocking motion presses your side rhythmically into his. The sound of the wheels and hooves is so loud. He twists to wrap an arm around your shoulder and pulls your back against his flank. 

“All day today, I have watched you,” he rumbles, hand warming the skin around your clavicle, fingertip brushing in circles. “You are so very good with children, darling. Seeing you so naturally with the babies and how you handled Hyacinth… you would be the perfect mother.”

You blush a little at his praise. “Thank you, my love. I would like children one day. Your children. Imagine a child with your eyes. They would be quite the most beautiful,” you sigh wistfully, leaning back into him, his hand feeling heavier on your skin.

Benedict chuckles modestly. “And what of your beauty? Would a child version of you not be the most fetching?”

You giggle and turn your head sideways to nuzzle against his jaw. “I think we would indeed make beautiful babies together, Benedict.”

“I agree,” his voice a tempting lilt, fingers skating downwards over the swell of your breast now, slipping inside the fabric and making you gasp as he tweaks your nipple. “And I think we should start as soon as we get home.”

“Did seeing me with babies suddenly make you want your own, Mr Bridgerton?” Your hand flexes on his knee as he toys with your breast.

“Oh yes darling, it made me want to take you right there…” he asserts, finally admitting those looks he gave you were indeed pure arousal.

You reach up and run your hand into his hair, fingers flexing on his warm scalp as you pull his face to yours.  “And suddenly, it appears I am no longer hungry for dinner…” you whisper flirtatiously, your cupid's bow brushing his stubbled upper lip.

He groans, and his passionate kiss is plundering, a tingle running over your limbs, just as your carriage comes to a shuddering stop outside your townhome. 

Uncaring of the neighbourhood or any prying eyes, Benedict sweeps you out of the carriage in his arms, carrying you bridal style over the pavement and through your front door.

“My wife and I are not to be disturbed,” he announces crisply and loudly to the staff as you enter the hallway.

Leaving no room for doubt about his plans by pulling you into a searing kiss for all to see before ascending the stairs rapidly. He practically growls as he kicks open the door to your master bedroom door and slams it shut again with his foot. 

“Benedict…” you stammer, heart pounding at how overwrought he is. 

You have never seen him like this. Commanding, crackling with an energy that has your body simmering. He is usually so sweet, affable, and kind. Every time you have been intimate since your wedding night a few weeks ago, he has been a complete gentleman: loving and so very tender. The grip he has had on you tonight feels different. This is something primal—like a switch has been flipped at a basal level in his being.

He places you down onto your feet before the roaring fire, his face intense.

“Wife…” The way he says it makes you feel a flush creep over your skin.

“Husband…” you respond in kind, belly fluttering with excitement.

“Take off your dress,” he orders, his dilated pupils shining in the firelight.

This is new. Usually, he is the one to remove it slowly and softly from your body. 

“I cannot, the buttons…” you confess, signalling behind you. You would need your ladies' maid to unhook them from between your shoulder blades.  

He moves closer, seeming so much taller; his ragged breaths dance in the tendrils of your hair as he reaches around behind your shoulders. With a rough tug that makes you startle, he tears the fabric asunder, the sound of tiny pearl buttons skittering across the polished wooden floor behind you as you gasp in surprise.

“There…” he smirks dangerously, “problem resolved.”

You are speechless as he withdraws a pace, looking at you expectantly. You follow his order, a slight quake in your hands as you push the frayed dress down your body, still a little shocked by his strength. Then you reach for the crisscross lacing of your stays, feeling the weight of his stare as each loop relents, his eyes hungry, his body heaving with deep breaths his fitted jacket taut with each inhale. You peel the item away, leaving just your thin white cotton chemise.

“Rip it too,” you plead before you realise it, enthralled by this assertive demeanour.

With a noise in the back of his throat, he takes a pace forward again, and you stare up at him, enchanted. He grasps the fabric above your breasts and then rips it loudly from your chest all the way to your ankles, the sound echoing up the walls. Again, his strength has your knees weak. As the torn pieces flutter from your body, you want to bathe in the hungry sound he makes as he realises you are clad only in white knee-high silk stockings, no underwear to be seen, the warmth from the fireplace swirling around your intimate area. 

As you stand almost naked before your imposing husband, him still fully dressed, there is a knot low in your gut. But it’s not fear; it’s something else entirely—desire. Trembling, breathless and wanting. An elemental wish to be thoroughly taken.

He steps forward, eyes glittering, and his fingers plough roughly between your legs, making you gasp.

“Eden,” he proclaims, his fingers snagging over your swollen pearl of a clit with almost rough strokes, the callous where he holds his paintbrush abrading your folds. “A wonderful, lush, wet garden. Just waiting to be planted.”  His words are hypnotic and low, questing fingers being coated with a dewiness that is entirely of his making.

“Please…” you whimper, squirming on his touch, captivated by this version of your husband, wanting to submit to him, a burning need low in your belly. His fingers slide faster, making a lewd, wet noise. 

“Are you going to let me?” Benedict croons. “Plant my seed inside you?”

Until now, he has always been careful to complete outside your body. A slightly bereft feeling every time - the wonderful moment cut short as he leaves you suddenly empty, a warm splash upon your thighs, tummy or spine. The idea he will stay inside you is alluring in a way you don’t fully comprehend.

“Yes, please, husband,” your nipples puckering almost painfully against the wool of his lapels as he crowds into you. 

“Good. Get on that bed right now,” Benedict orders roughly, pointing at your four-poster bed as he tugs off his jacket.

You scramble to obey. Feeling under a spell. Being naked save your stockings feels illicit as you lay back into the soft pillows and watch as he undresses, staring you down the whole time. 

You slide a hand between your legs instinctively as more of his toned body is revealed. He growls at the sight, you biting your lip and watching him, his torso bare, his trousers clinging to his shapely legs, to his swollen cock. He bends to remove his shoes, and the sight of his broad shoulders flexing is enough to make you moan. As he stands back up and hooks his elegant fingers around the trouser buttons, a smug look on his handsome face that he is doing this to you.

“Husband…” you call out to him, writhing on your fingers shamelessly now, one hand shooting up to brace your movements against the headboard, flushing warm down to your toes.

With a few dextrous flicks, the buttons relent, and his trousers drop to the floor. His naked body is always a delicious sight, but tonight feels more, every sense heightened, moaning again as he takes a step towards you, thigh muscles flexing, his cock standing proud to attention.

Again, a soft plea falls from your lips, your eyes raking every plain of his tempting form, feeling yourself swell under your fingertips.

“Not yet,” he clucks, the arrogance somehow more beguiling as you bite your lip. “I think I want to watch you come, my darling. All by yourself. I hear female pleasure can aid with conception after all.”

“Will you not touch me?” you petition, reaching your other hand imploringly towards him.

“No darling, I shall watch,” his lopsided grin deadly. 

He wraps a strong fist around his own cock, pumping slowly, a bead of moisture gathering at his tip, glistening in the candlelight as he does. 

“Now, use both hands, please. Place your fingers inside yourself,” Benedict instructs as you blindly follow, a languid buzz in your brain—you would do anything he told you to right now.

Planting your feet squarely on the bed, you drag your ankles up higher towards your bottom, letting your legs fall open wider to give him a better view as your other hand slides down. You plunge two fingers into yourself, your hips canting off the mattress with a staccato breath at the sensation of yourself, so hot and tight.

“That's right,” he endorses, a leisurely movement of his hand up and down his cock as he watches you from a few feet away. “‘Feel yourself, darling. Tis paradise, is it not?” that trademark rumbling voice skittering over your skin, goosebumps raising down your arms just at the tone. 

“Come closer,” you appeal breathily, wanting to smell him, feel his heat, his flesh—anything.

He shakes his head, smirking wider as his refusal spurs you on, desperate to come. Mewling as your fingers speed up, one circling your clit, the others buried as far as you can, wishing instead it were his long, graceful fingers reaching places you are unable. Watching him squeeze his own cock hurtles you fast, already aroused from the moment he slid a hand into your dress in the carriage. 

Unable to fight the tide in your body, you screw your eyes shut and call out his name as your pussy starts to convulse around your own fingers, toes curling into the sheet, your muscles all going stiff, your hips again raised as you feel the tide break. A gush of wetness runs down your palm and your bottom cheeks as your mind floats away. Distantly, you can hear him speaking, but it’s fuzzy as you flop back down, sated, your legs going flat, too shaky to balance.

You startle as a warm hand circles the wrist of your fingers still inside yourself, bringing you abruptly back into the room. Benedict looms over you, his chest heaving, that power still there.

“What was that?” your query drowsy, lips dry.

He chuckles richly. “I said that was spectacular,” he repeats, bemused. “But also that I want you to paint your nipples with your arousal, my love, for me,” he commands, tugging your hand so your fingers slide out of yourself.

You do as bidden, still floating down from the high, smearing your own warm juices onto your puffed areolas.

“Perfect..” he intones.

In one swift, athletic move, he mounts the bed. You cry out as his warm mouth encloses your left nipple, groaning lewdly as he licks you clean of your arousal, his tongue a heavy, warm, wet weight curling around your sensitive bud, his lips tugging gently, reawakening those synapses only just recovering from your orgasm. 

“Why do you always taste like heaven?” his dusky question is rhetorical, his breath gusting over your sternum as he swaps to your other breast to meter out the same treatment. He has you moving under him again as he settles his body over you more firmly, your hips tilting up to feel his hard cock graze your inner thigh. “I wonder if you will still taste like heaven when you are heavy with my child?” he hums thoughtfully as he teases your nipple with the tip of his nose, one hand cupping your empty belly. “I dare say even moreso, ripe like a vine, bearing fruit…” That sonorous voice teases over your skin as he moves slowly upwards to nuzzle your neck. “My fruit….” he adds, possessive as he sucks your earlobe into his mouth, so loud now right by your ear.

His hands wind around your thighs as he shuffles position so he is kneeling between your legs, his ropey thighs spread wide under yours…

“Are you ready for that, my love?” he pauses until you nod almost imperceptibly; you squeak as he suddenly hauls you down the bed, hips onto his lap, your pelvis now higher than your head upon the sheets. Your stockings unfurling down your legs where he quickly plucks at the ribbons holding them aloft.

“Good, because I am more than ready for you,” it almost sounds like a warning.

Then, with a solid thrust, he spears into your body, the invasion toe-curling, your fingers grasping his muscular forearms that are clamped around your waist. It is a primal position, and he begins to thrust with no mercy, his cock feeling huge and heavy, a strong weight that drags heavily over your walls as your pussy clings to him. Your eyes flutter closed as you whimper his name, powerless to do anything but take his thrusts, draped across his lap as you are.

“Look at me,” he demands raggedly. And you do, his handsome face contorted with effort as he slams into you, a little bead of sweat forming on his brow. “Look at me while I fuck a baby into you, wife.”

He’s never spoken to you like this before, clipped, harsh. It seems appropriate that he would be almost desperate in an act so elemental, so of the earth—to create life. Stoking a fire deep in your core that is a clarion call for him, a frisson running over your skin at the idea you are being impregnated. Bred.

You know neither of you will last long with this almost frenzied coupling, the tendrils of your arousal already swirling so soon after your last, his near-brutish handling precisely what you need, your swollen pearl slammed into his flat abdomen with every stroke he takes. The sheets roll under your shoulder blades as he keeps the same position, your hips high, a mounting that you cannot and do not want to escape, knowing he is leaving fingertip bruises around the dip of your waist, marks you will carry secretly with pride just for him.

You moan his name, so close again to that ephemeral bliss, thrashing your head from side to side as if willing the pleasure to break and wash over you.

“Come on, come for me, milk me, darling. Take what you need, take my seed,” his voice a deep wrecked purr, the lines of his body tense, craving release as much as you.

That command is what breaks the dam for you, an almost violent ricochet fanning out from where you clench around him, his cries muffled behind the rushing noise in your ears, every part of you convulsing in a pleasurable wave. And then, in a floating haze, for the very first time, you feel your husband come inside you, a warm bloom that coats your walls. It's an intoxicating feeling; you never want him to come anywhere else ever again.

“That's it, well done, my love,” he croons, eyes still shut as he shudders with little aftershocks, not leaving your body—as if he wants to stay inside you always.

——

As the embers in the fireplace glow white, you lay in post-coital bliss, bodies dewy from exertion. Benedict rests his head upon your stomach as you card your fingers leisurely through his hair.

“Do you believe we may have made a baby, darling?” he hums, pressing his ear to your belly button as if listening for a heartbeat.

“I am certain of it, husband; you were so very thorough with your attentions,” you assure as he takes your hand in his, lacing your fingers together. “I hope our baby has your face,” you opine.

“Even if it is a girl?!”

“Thou art as pretty as thou art handsome, Mr Bridgerton,” you quip.

He laughs, carefree, crawling behind you and pulling you into a spooned embrace. “Be careful with such provocation, wife; I may not be done with you after all,” he jests idly. “I, on the other hand, hope our child looks like you, even if it is a boy.” he posits, crowding into your back, his lips warm on the shell of your ear.

“Why?” you laugh, frowning, twisting to look back at him.

“So that I may love them as much as I do you,” he breezes nonchalantly as if what he says is not the sweetest thing you can imagine, causing a tart, sudden spike of want through your body, even as you lay sated.

“Be careful, husband,” you volley back, coquettish. “Or I may not yet be done with you.”

There is a sharp, approving intake of breath, and his hand slides low from your belly into the thatch of hair at the apex of your thighs.

“Is that a promise” he rumbles, your gasp loud as his fingers expertly drag against your clit.

“It is whatever you want. Just do not stop,” you rush out, your hand curling around his bicep, feeling a rigid mass slide hot against your bottom. “Again, husband,” you appeal breathily. “Impregnate me again.”

“With pleasure, wife,” he growls, surging into your body with a force that again steals the very breath from your lungs.

The pinkish light dawn is streaking over the ceiling above when you both finally succumb to sleep after many more vigorous attempts at babymaking. The last one, perhaps the most desperate, you pinned against the headboard, him fucking into you so hard from behind that a jagged crack appears, spidering up the wall from where the bedframe slammed into it. A flaw which he steadfastly refuses to get fixed, claiming it to be the most profound art—a souvenir and ode to a momentous night.

——

9 months later

Benedict’s lips mash against your sweaty brow as he keeps lauding you with praise, excitement and pride evident in his every word. You flop back onto the bed, exhaustion deep in your bones, your body turned inside out, hurting in a way you have never known.

But it was all worth it.

What feels like only moments later, in your shattered, addled state, the doctor and nurses depart. Your husband perches on the bed next to you, his face a picture of wonderment. Holding not just one but two bundles of joy in the crooks of his arms. One girl, one boy—fraternal twins.

“My love, we have created the most beautiful creatures on all of this earth,” he attests partisanly, his voice profound with emotion, his eyes pinging from one swaddled face to the other as they sleep soundly.

You shoot him a watery but ironic smile. “I suppose, dear husband, that is what happens when you spend a whole night impregnating me. You succeed twice over.”

His brow raises pointedly, his tongue shooting out to pass over his bottom lip. “Are you suggesting next time around, wife, we keep going for three days straight? So that I may have a brood of eight by the time we are done?” Deploying his bedroom voice that he knows full well makes your knees weak.

“Do not say such things in front of the children!” you chide, swatting his knee where it touches your thigh. “And no, I am not carrying six of your progeny at once; that is simply preposterous!”

“Four?” he petitions with a wink.

You roll your eyes affectionately, settling back into the mound of pillows. “A maximum of two at a time is my final offer, Benedict Bridgerton,” you respond drolly.

“Entirely reasonable,” he chuckles contentedly, dropping a kiss onto each of their foreheads before handing both to you so delicately, as if they are the most precious bundles in the world. 

Which to you both, they are.

Join my taglist HERE

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[ghoulpoole]

when we lose another sibling

CONTENT WARNING: death. proceed with care and be kind to yourself.

when we lose another sibling

(and we surely will),

i want you to go outside

and cry

and cry

and cry

and cry.

when we lose another sibling

i want you to scream 

at the top of your lungs:

THEY DID NOT DESERVE TO DIE.

when we lose another sibling

i want you to shout yourself hoarse

at this vast 

indifferent abyss:

IT DID NOT HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS.

when we lose another sibling

i want you to gather flowers

and palm fronds

and fill the street with mourning.

when we lose another sibling

i want you to say their names.

when we lose another sibling

i want you to give the world

a warning:

THINGS WILL NOT BE THE SAME.

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

SAY THEIR NAMES.

Over the past year, these trans and nonbinary people died under violent circumstances in the United States.

Eden Knight - 3/12/2023

Siyah Woodland - 3/24/2023

Ashley Burton - 4/11/2023

Koko Da Doll - 4/18/2023

Banko Brown - 4/27/2023

LaKendra Andrews - 4/29/2023

Om(e) Gandhi - 5/16/2023

Ashia Davis - 6/2/2023

Chanell Perez Ortiz - 6/25/2023

Jacob Williamson - 6/30/2023

Fernielle Mary Mora - 7/6/2023

Onyx John - 7/16/2023

Camdyn Rider - 7/21/2023

Jean Butchart - 8/4/2023

DéVonnie J’Rae Johnson - 8/7/2023

Luis Ángel Díaz Castro - 8/12/2023

Lovely Page - 8/16/2023

Thomas ‘Tom-Tom’ Robertson - 8/17/2023

Alexa Andreevna Sokova - 9/5/2023

Codii Lawrence - 9/5/2023

Bre’Asia Bankz - 9/5/2023

Kylie Monali - 9/7/2023

Charm Wilson - 9/8/2023

Sherlyn Marjorie - 9/17/2023

YOKO - 9/19/2023

A’nee Johnson - 10/4/2023

Chyna Long - 10/8/2023

Dominic Dupree - 10/13/2023

Lisa Love - 10/17/2023

Nova Dunn - 10/17/2023

Skylar Harrison Reeves - 10/20/2023

London Price - 10/23/2023

F.L. “Bubba” Copeland - 11/3/2023

Kejuan Richardson - 11/14/2023

Amiri Reid - 11/14/2023

Kejuan Richardson - 11/14/2023

Shandon Floyd - 11/15/2023

Savannah Ryan Williams - 11/29/2023

Amber Minor - 12/24/2023

Meghan Riley Lewis - 12/27/2023

Kitty Monroe - 1/1/2024

Tristan Bustos - 1/25/2024

Nex Benedict - 2/7/2024

Ash Clatterbuck - 2/27/2024

Righteous TK “Chevy” Hill - 2/28/2024

Reyna Hernandez - 3/8/2024

Diamond Brigman - 3/16/2024

Alex Franco - 3/17/2024

Meraxes Medina - 3/19/2024

AND THOSE WE NOW NAME.

[ramsashi]

My LIs from Romance Club

Sails in The Fog: Sebastian???

Moonborn: MAX!! OH GOD HE'S SO COOL!!

My Hollywood Story: Mike

Queen in 30 Days: Queen in 30 Days: I used to like Adam, but he started to creep me out in the final season, so now I'm aiming for Richard and Leonard for the achievement. LMAO

Shadows of Saintfour: Luke Morring (or should I call the bootleg version of young Leo DiCaprio? LMAO. TBH, I wanted to have Ethan as the main LI. too bad, he was not even a casual LI.

Wave Patrol: Jake (I initially wanted Alek, but he's in jail for a long time?? How can an FBI agent wait that long for his freedom?)

Seduced by The Rhythm: Hiro (I broke up twice with Charles because of him. lmao)

Chasing You: Alexander Nielsen (EDWARD & CHRISTOPHER were tempting!!)

Heaven's Secret: NO NEED TO PURSUE ANOTHER LI, STAY LOYAL TO HIS MAJESTY, LUCIFER

Legend of The Willow: KAZU ALL THE WAY <33

Path of the Valkyrie: Now is Ullr (I didn't know that I have to stay single to pursue Thor. I'm going to replay this book)

Rage of the Titans: Adrian (the old flame is still on fire 🔥)

Sophie's Ten Wishes: SEXY BENEDICT <33

Sins of London: Not impressed that much with Glasthyn, Should I replay this book to pursue Sherlock?

On Thin Ice: Dom

Arcanum: Liam, my softie heart <33

Gladiator Chronicles: SO HARD TO CHOOSE A LI in this book. I ended up with Paulina, now I want to pursue Stortia

Heart of Trespia: Wyatt, my softie boy

Kali: Call of Darkness: Amrit (although I've tried to pursue Killian or Ratan to the end, I failed)

The Flower from Tiamat's Fire: Niall

Theodora: Lawrence!! replaying this book 3 times, only ended up choosing Lawrence all over again.

The One Volume 1: Deshawn

PSI: UGH...I'M NOT SURE WHICH ONE I LIKE THE BEST NOW. KAY OR JONAS??? I MEAN...ALL OF LIS are COOL. I'M REPLAYING FOR IVO NOW.

Vying for Versailles: FIRST LI IN RC UNIVERSE THAT MADE ME HEAD OVER HEELS, ALEXANDRE. He's still the best compared with King's romance path. I'm now looking for a happy ending with Prince

The Desert Rose: ADIL!! But now I'm replaying for pursuing Zain, then perhaps Mustafa and Jack in the future. I'm also curious to explore Zain or Adil's disloyal storyline. This book has really made me feel conflicted about my choices.

Heaven's Secret 2: STILL LOYAL TO LUCIFER. I've also had Astaroth's ending.

Elite Tag: Karl, now replaying for pursuing Daniel's ending

The One Volume 2: BEN!! HAHA LAST-MINUTE DECISION TURN AWAY FROM JOEL

Dracula: A Love Story: I'm not sure who I'm going to pursue in this book. I might end up with Hasan in the end. I mean, I was getting bored with Vlad and Leo's routes 🫠

Love From Outer Space: Never expected that I'd pursue an Alien Prince. lol

Hell and High Water: CHAND!! OH MY GOD. HE'S SO BEAUTIFUL!!

Song of the Crimson Nile: So, once upon a time there's this man named Livius, but then there are Ramesses and Set also

Chasing You 2: Still Alexander. I mean...his cgs are way too hot compared with the first book

Love, Sin & Evil: Tony is still the best I guess?

W Time Catcher: THERE'S LUCIEN...BUT WAIT, THERE ARE RENATO AND ONYX ALSO.

Kali: Flame of Samsara: No need to choose another LI, just RAM my baby

Garden of Eden: Seonghwa <33

Soulless: Walter is such a softie baby, my heart melts for his big puppy eyes. but then there's this bickering man named Vincent 🤭

Astrea's Broken Heart: Not sure which LI i'm going to end up with. I mean, they're all gorgeous!! the closest one may be Raphael??

Heaven's Secret: Requiem: GREG AND CAIN. I'M TORN BETWEEN THEM!

7 Brothers: still having my eyes on the sweet vanilla Grant

And the Haze Will Take Us: I laid my eyes on Ozar (of course) and Volot

The Thunderstorms Saga: I might pursue Tai in this book. TOO BAD, THEY DON'T MAKE LADY TENNERLY AS AN LI.

[supercalifragipopculturevomit]

RUSH (2013) Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda

Though I've already seen Daniel in several movies over the years, it was this role that made me see him in a whole new light. It sparked the obsession of needing to know everything about him and seeing everything that he's been in. It's what got me into the fandom and back into Tumblr after years of major fan-girl inactivity. That was 6 months ago. The insanity has abated a little bit now that I'm running short on fuel but it's still ongoing.

This biographical sports film written by Peter Morgan (The Crown) centers on the rivalry between Formula One drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda in the 70s. Not a fan of F1 or sports in general—nothing against either, just zero interest—but this character-driven film, much like Ford vs Ferrari, had me at the edge of my seat the entire ride. And it surprisingly has one of the best meet-cutes and accidental wingmen I’ve seen yet.

Brühl delivers an Oscar-worthy performance in this role. For someone who needed a lot of convincing he could do the character justice, he truly went above and beyond. For one, he befriended and studied Lauda, the iconic F1 figure he was portraying. No easy feat considering Lauda being, well… Lauda.

In interviews, Brühl recounts the story of the memorable invite he got from Lauda to meet in Vienna. This would be their first meeting and Lauda told Brühl outright that he should only bring hand luggage so he can piss off if they don’t like each other.

He would end up staying a few days and buying additional clothes.

He also spent a month in Vienna to nail the accent, making sure to capture the arrogance and irony innate to it. And although he got driver training for the role, he also considered the tiniest details like which went on first: helmet or gloves? There was also the tricky business of looking graceful entering a tiny F1 car—a bigger challenge for Chris Hemsworth who plays Hunt—but an obstacle all the same.

All the hard work paid off. Rush was well-received by audiences, critics, and the F1 world. The first time Lauda saw the film he went, “Holy shit, that’s really me”. Lauda’s friends thought he did voiceover work for it. Director Ron Howard was so pleased with Brühl’s performance that he went out of his way to show an unfinished cut of the movie to the producers of The Fifth Estate (2013). This gracious act would land Brühl the co-lead role opposite Benedict Cumberbatch.

Now, 10 years later, he is shooting another film with Howard called Eden. It's a survival thriller with a star-studded cast that includes Jude Law, Ana de Armas, and Sydney Sweeney. In early 2024, he's also releasing Race For Glory: Audi vs. Lancia, another racing film, but this time with Burnt co-star Riccardo Scamarcio.

***

Most of the text comes from this older, much longer post: The Best of Daniel Brühl

[ohem1111]

rownan and colette had an amazing anniversary vacation in cuidad enamorada. it was the first time fully away from the baby but they were still able to make the most of it despite the emotions that came along with leaving eden for the rest of the trip.

having eden was the greatest thing that’s ever happened to them but they do NOT want to have another so they were slamming their birth control this trip. they were woohooing all over the place 🫣

on their last morning of the trip rownan made them eggs benedict and some coffee to keep themselves awake on the way home after the night they had.

previous || next

[helplessavacado]

Prompt 17: Vespertine (relating to, occurring, or active in the evening)

Archangel Uriel at the gates of Eden after driving out Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:24)

Another archangel with a flaming sword, except I decided not to draw the flaming sword because I was tired and it would complicate the pose!! The angel that guards Eden wasn't given a name, so it's been attributed to several angels over the years (Jophiel, Micheal, Aziraphale from Good Omens, etc). The angel was also said to be a cherubim, buuuut we're gonna ignore that because I wanted to complete the archangel cast. Yadda yadda yadda, This Is My Story I Can Do What I Want, moving on!!

Uriel, my boy!!! He's one of the archangels that isn't really acknowledged all that much, so I figured it would be appropriate to give him a middle-child role in the Heavenly hierarchy. He's not a warrior like Micheal or Khamuel, not a messenger like Jophiel, and not a healer like Gabby or Raphael. He's a guardian, a lovely middle ground, just between Heaven and Humanity. I love him very much and I'll be developing him as soon as I find the free time

Ninth day, seventeenth prompt, see y'all on the nineteenth with "Benediction"

[piracytheorist]

More German dub!

"Only with elegance will our world become an Eden."

I actually wonder what's Henderson's opinion on the "forbidden fruit" thing and how that would translate to their metaphor of the garden of Eden. What's "forbidden" to him in such a way?

Anya: I have to pick my nose. Loid: I'm wArNinG YoU

Whoa, calm down there drama king.

After the animal crisis was over, Henderson here told the Forgers they would be delaying the interviews long enough so they could go back home to fix their appearance. I wonder, is that just an improvisation of the dub, or do the English subtitles hide stuff of the original Japanese from us?? 👀👀

"She is terrifyingly perceptive."

I'd love to see how terrified he'll be when he finds out exactly why she is so perceptive :)

This just says "What are you saying?!" but the way the voice actor said it XD I burst out laughing. But I ain't gonna make another video for the German dub like I did with the English one, I only have so much patience for video editing XD

Loid actually laughed out loud when Anya messed up that Benedict name. It was just like, a short, nervous laugh, but still it was perfectly audible.

In that moment Loid said "Ach, Anya" (basically "Oh, Anya") and the addition of that exclamation caught me by surprise. It made him look softer, in a way. Especially since it came right after his shocked (and slightly guilty, imo) face after seeing Anya so upset over possibly having failed the interview.

"And I should thank you for your effort."

Again, is that an improvisation or does the Japanese text actually include that stuff and us mere mortals non-Japanese speakers will just never know???

[sweet-vanilla-sims]

Year 1587 Part 2: 

Philippa had kept quiet about her news in Talia’s tome but she had been spending quite a bit of time with the locals now that her daughter was older and well, she found herself expecting once more. Though this time she wasn’t eagerly anticipating her child after her last experience. She was terrified and for the most part tried to ignore her expanding belly but she also hoped for the safety of herself and unborn child. 

Thomasin began to relax around her son now that he was older than his sisters had been and enjoy parenting now that she was less concerned about Elric taking ill or just passing in his sleep. 

Parnell was concerned about her sister though, Philippa was constantly on edge but having been there about the health of Elric until recently Thomasin figured that she was just scared after she had almost died during her last labor. While the sisters wished they could help soothe her mind, they too were scared of losing their sister or another niece or nephew or both so they kept to themselves.

Good news spread through the family as the famine came to an end with a healthy yield of crops. As well as news that Cuthbert was a cousin to a boy, Benedict also had a new cousin from his uncle and his new aunt, William and Eden Ernest had a daughter and Marielle had turned eighteen. At the very least the year ended on a good note. 

[jalapenohoney]

books that raised me

books i passed on:

the mysterious benedict society 

thoroughbred: a horse called wonder (from the riding academy)

labyrinth (borge’s) (from angel)

bathroom reader 

all the light we cannot see

the writings of edgar allen poe (from angel) 

uglies 

paper towns 

looking for alaska 

all the bright places 

rissa bartholomew's declaration of independence (honestly great)

geronimo stilton (i had soooo many, damn near all of them)

the 39 clues (travel inspo)

canterwood crest

cinderall cleaners - change of a dress

pillage (dragons?)

we the animals (i would've kept this one but i got it from the library; so fricken good)

east of eden (steinbeck man)

lolita (ugh)

to kill a mockingbird

books to keep with me:

dear dumb diary (absolutely formative)

sisters grimm

when you reach me (re-read at least 10x)

the awakening (more like my awakening amiright)

cinder (obsessed) 

the name of this book is secret 

island of the blue dolphins 

persepolis 

may bird (i was may bird / may bird was me)

ender's game 

one flew over the cuckoo's nest 

the sun also rises (just drinking wine and eating lunch and not having sex)

the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime 

listen 

the book thief 

night 

bathroom reader (the better version than the one on the previous list) 

the grapes of wrath (okay steinbeck i see you) 

manhattan beach (from noah)

red wheelbarrow (from ucsc) 

The natural history of the of santa cruz campus (never actually read but was definitely supposed to) 

under the sea wind (another book i was supposed to read a definitely didn't but it was written by rachel carson so that's pretty cool) 

milk and honey 

the catcher in the rye (love telling boys they're so holden caulfield)

the princess academy (top 3 book for life)

the last kid left (it was alright tbh i didn't love it) 

the woman in cabin 10 (love a mystery)

[weclassybouquetfun]

Mads Mikkelsen and DRUK (aka ANOTHER ROUND) wins big at the European film awards taking Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenwriter/s ( Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm) and Mikkelsen bested Viggo Mortensen (FALLING), Luca Marinelli (MARTIN EDEN), Goran Bogdan (OTAC (aka FATHER), Elio Germano (VOLEVO NASCONDERMI aka HIDDEN AWAY) and Bartosz Bielenia ( BOŻE CIAŁO aka CORPUS CHRISTI).

Luca Marinelli stan nation is shooketh!

I really thought you had it, bello Luca.

And for all the critical love MARTIN EDEN is receiving, MARTIN EDEN wasn’t Italy’s Oscar submission, instead the documentary NOTTURNO, beating out Eduardo Ponti’s THE LIFE AHEAD starring his mother Sophia Loren

 and Roberto Benigni’s live-action PINNOCHIO.

The show must go on so despite lockdown, award shows have gone forward virtually and the only one that didn’t make me cringe was BAFTA TV’s because they had every nominee make an acceptance speech and send it to them so that if they win, their speech would air. I prefer that other than watching these poor actors dress up to sit at home and lose with no afterparty to drown their sorrows. 

One of my favorite virtual BAFTA TV speeches belonged to actor/writer/director Will Sharpe who won Best Supporting Actor for GIRI/HAJI.

Sharpe wrapped up directing LOUIS WAIN starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy.

(Sharpe was a day player in an episode of SHERLOCK).

He is now prepping for directing the HBO/SKY series LANDSCRAPERS, replacing director Alexander Payne. The series reunites him with his FLOWERS star Olivia Colman.

No word on the filming of the second series of the comedy DEFENDING THE GUILTY, which pairs Sharpe with another SHERLOCK alum. 

Katherine Parkinson (Kitty Riley)

[fayes-fics]

3 Fics game

Rules: Look at your own fic masterlist and choose a max of 3 fics that you would assign to the following categories.

Personal Favorite(s)

Somewhere Only We Know

Mrs Bridgerton

Are We Friends?

All modern AU, that's weird. 🤷‍♀️

Unusual: different from your usual style

The Things We Do For Love

Enthralled [OC version]

Text fics: Texutal Encounter, The Belgian Chocolate Affair, Three Dot Symphony

Yes, I know I cheated with that last choice 🤷‍♀️😂

Underrated: you like, but didn’t get much attention

Enthralled

Many Things

Sorry it's a tie: Portrait and Waking Up

Inexplicably popular: you don’t think are that great, but are liked

Eden

Making an Heir

Kinktober 2022: Breeding Kink

Damn tumblr loves breeding kink

Mild Cringe: you have considered taking down

Skinny Dip

Call Me

Refuge

Most memorable to write (and the reason)

Sonnet #29 - first ever fic

It Had To Be You - adapting an existing story

When The World Is Free - swept me up into a different world

Fluffiest

Our Cottage

Comfort

To Know You

Angstiest

Not my specialty, so not that angsty tbh

Goodbye, Hello

The Things We Do For Love

Safe

Smuttiest/Kinkiest

Almost all of mine are smut, so I've gone kinkiest. Which is tricky, as one person's kink is another person's day-to-day. I went with ones that, while I was writing, I was concerned I might get “this is too much, I’m out” comments.

Kinktober 2022: Temperature Play

Kinktober 2023: Milking

Today’s Lesson

Funniest

Moments: Like Father, Like Son

Textual Encounter

Coitus Mahemium

Atmospheric

Err, wow, this is a tough one. I'm sure I'll disagree with myself here later.

Electric

Hippy Benedict: Original Drabble and Sequel Fic

Succour

Hall of Fame: you’d probably be remembered for

Jeez… none? This feels like a question for readers, not me, lol.

Second Son

A Beneficial Arrangement

Moments maybe? Idk..

This was tough to narrow down, but fun!

Not tagging anyone, but have a go fellow writers, if you wish! 😁🧡

[coffeetillthecoffin]

Mibo Bakery, Mount Eden

Drink pictured: Flat white ($5)

Finally got to visit Mibo, which is a sister to Benedict's in Eden Terrace, which is another favourite of mine! They serve BeSpecialty Coffee which was delicious and I really liked the leafy exterior. 🍂 They don't have a lot of seating, a few inside and some more outside, but luckily when we were there, it was not raining and the outside seats were free. Would definitely go back for the delicious coffee and to try more pastries! 🥐

[historyhermann]

Behind the Screen: Asian and Latin American voices of fictional librarians

From left to right: Benedict Wong, Ashly Burch, Joey Haro, Elaine Del Valle, and Kenn Navarro

There are Asian and Latin American actors who have voiced many librarians in fiction over the years. Part of understanding fictional librarians is understanding those behind the screen and this article contributes to that. Part 1 of this series focused on Black women and men who voice fictional librarians.

This post is reprinted from Pop Culture Library Review and Wayback Machine.

In this part, I am profiling Asian and Latin American voice actors who voiced librarians.

About the voice actors

There are many talented voice actors who aren't White men or White woman, who comprise the majority of those who voice animated librarians, especially in Western animation. These talented voice actors include Benedict Wong as Wong in What If...? episode ("What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?"), Ashly Burch who likely voices an unnamed librarian in a We Bare Bears episode ("The Library"), and Joseph "Joey" Haro as Mateo in Elena of Avalor. Specifically, Burch is of Thai descent, Wong is of Hong Kong descent, and Haro is of Cuban descent (and is gay).

There's also Elaine Del Valle as Val the Octopus in Dora the Explorer episode ("Backpack") who is Latine, and Kenn Navarro as Flippy in Happy Tree Friends episode ("Random Acts of Silence") who is a Filipino animator. Additionally, there is Emanuel Garijo as Kaeloo in French in Kaeloo episode ("Let's Play at Reading Books"). Doug Rand voices Kaeloo in the English dub, and Domenico Coscia in the Italian dub, to name another character. As it turns out, Navarro is one of the creators of Happy Tree Friends, while Valle is known  as the actor and writer of an one-woman stage play she created: Brownsville Bred. Garijo has done French voice work for years, while Rand has done English voice work, while I couldn't find anything on Coscia.

Another person worth mentioning is Vivienne Medrano, a Latine animator of Salvadoran descent who created the animated shows Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss along with a video for her webcomic Zoophobia. She voices Sarah in Nico Colaleo's series, Too Loud, replacing Julia Vickerman, who was racked by controversy following allegations that she engaged in pedophilia, after beginning her series, Twelve Forever, which was sadly cancelled by Netflix after the end of its first season. The reason for its cancellation is not known.

It is also highly probable that Janice Kawaye, an actress of Japanese descent who has voiced characters since 1983, likely voices the librarian in Totally Spies episode ("Totally Switched"). Kawayke has voiced characters like Couchpo in Edens Zero, Shiori in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, Jenny / XJ-9 in My Life as a Teenage Robot, and Sara in Invader Zim, to name a few characters she has voiced.

An additional late entry to this list is Jenny Lorenzo, who presumably voices the skeleton librarian, Eztli, in an episode of Victor and Valentino. Lorenzo is known for her role as Lupe in the same show, but she has also voiced Choo Choo and Spooky in Jellystone. She is a Cuban-American actor known for her work on We Are Mitú and is a co-founder of BuzzFeed's Pero Like, becoming a viral sensation for her Abuela character, and what her IMDB page calls "relatable, Latino-based content seen through the comedic and nostalgic lens of a 1st generation Cuban-American."

Another additional entry is Danny Trejo. He voices Bobby Daniels, a bad-boy librarian in an episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee. Trejo, who is of Mexican descent, is best known for his role as Isador "Machete" Cortez in the Spy Kids franchise films. In terms of animation, he voiced Enrique, Victor Velasquez, and other characters in multiple King of the Hill episodes, along with assorted roles in El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, The Cleveland Show, Young Justice (as Bane), Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel, and Tangled: The Series (as Wreck Marauder / Malice Marauder). He also voiced characters in Big City Greens, Elena of Avalor, 3Below: Tales of Arcadia (Tronos), Victor and Valentino, and The Casagrandes.

About the characters

From left to right: Wong, unnamed librarian, Val, Flippy, Kaeloo, Sarah, unnamed librarian, and Eztli

As I described Wong, he is the first librarian shown in the series What If...?, trying to guide Doctor Strange, warning him that tinkering with time will threaten the entire fabric of the universe, but he cares little. Even so, he later helps the good Strange train to fight the evil Strange. Unfortunately, he has less of a role in the episode as the other librarian, Cagliostro. Luckily, he has more of a role in the live-action films, as Jennifer Snoek-Brown has written about time and again.

The librarian in the We Bare Bears episode, on the other hand, is stern, has some characteristics of a spinster librarian, professional work attire, wanting to do her job and following the rules. I concluded that she is probably overworked and exhausted, something you don't always see when you see depictions of librarians in animation. She also is helpful to patrons, even letting them sleep in the library, which I found surprising. Mateo, on the other hand, is a wizard and royal advisor to the show's protagonist, Elena. He bucks stereotypes of Latine people, not shushing people at all, remaining as helpful as he can instead.

Val the Octopus is a minor character in Dora the Explorer, having a variety of odd jobs like running a cash register, driving a mail truck (or an ice cream truck), being a lifeguard, or a librarian. She is the latter in the episode ("Backpack") and is vary courteous to Dora.

Flippy in Happy Tree Friends episode ("Random Acts of Silence") is perhaps the most murderous librarian I have ever seen in animation to-date. This not unique to this episode, as he often causes other characters to die on purpose. Despite this, he seems to die very infrequently during the run of the series.

Kaeloo is the protagonist of Kaeloo. She is the guardian of the place known as Smileyland and has an ambiguous gender. And in the episode "Let's Play at Reading Books" she acts as a librarian, attempting to shush people and get them to listen, even though this is a failure.

Sarah in Colaleo's series, Too Loud, is a new librarian who joins Sara and Desiree (going by a different name for much of the series), brought in to help out with the library. While Sara nor Desiree are big fans of her at first, they come around to her, and she becomes more of their friend as the series moves forward, helping with librarian matters.

Librarian in Totally Spies episode ("Totally Switched") is one of the most interesting librarian characters in fiction that I have ever seen. Due to a personality switcher, which switched her personality with that of a wrestler, she becomes buff and even throws a patron across the room. She is later shown listing weights and doing jump rope. Hopefully she becomes a stronger librarian and better to her librarian.

Another entry is Eztli in the Victor and Valentino episode "An Evening with Mic and Hun". In the episode, Victor and Valentino, who are in the underworld, have to get past Eztli, a skeleton librarian, who shushes them. Victor won't stand for this, while his brother, Valentino comes up with a plan. This is disregarded as the librarian is smashed by a boulder and they get the extra skeleton arm she is holding. In the episode, she is also shown putting a book on a cart and stamping a book with a past due stamp, with the fee of one soul.

One final entry is Bobby Daniels in an episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee which is aptly named "Bad Boy Bobby Daniels". In the episode, Molly, her father, and Scratch go to the Mewline Public Library to find the Bad Boy of Brighton, Bobby Daniels, to help her elderly friend. They attempt to turn Daniels "back" into a bad boy but it doesn't work and they let him stay as the librarian. Later, Bobby and Patty get together after Molly put in a false book delivery notice. Their love ends up blossoming and it seems that he is taken away from his library job.

That's all for this post! Until the next one!

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[sweetsmellosuccess]

The Best Films of 2020

The 15 Best Films of 2020

Normally, when I assess a full year of cinematic offerings, I consider both sides of that coin  —  the outstanding entities, and the least successful —  but the year of our lord two thousand and twenty provided more than enough misery for all of us, I do believe. Ergo, in my own small way to bring better vibes into the universe, for this year’s round-up, I’m staying solely on the positive tip, highlighting those films whose unfortunate release date during the Year of the Hex shouldn’t preclude them for being fully appreciated. Let’s take a year off from negativity and schadenfreude, shall we, and just stroll amongst the poppies and bright sunshine of some of the best releases of the year.  

15. The Invisible Man

“Leigh Whannell’s film is thoroughly modern in approach and sophistication, but the film it most reminded me of was made back in 1944. George Cukor’s Gaslight starred Charles Boyer as a loathsome husband who attempts to convince his already anxious wife (Ingrid Bergman) that she’s going insane by secretly rearranging things in their house and taking things from her so she thinks she’s always misplacing them. He preys on her emotional vulnerability in order to mask his own pathology and emotional detachment. The effect is absolutely enraging: Onscreen, he’s one of the more hateful villains ever committed to celluloid.”

Full Review

14. The Killing of Two Lovers

“From the opening sequence, with a distraught, estranged husband standing over the bed of his wife and her new boyfriend with malice in his heart, and a gun in hand, the film spirals out into incredibly well structured compositions, taking us inside and outside of David’s recurring psychosis, utilizing a bevy of techniques: The framing shrinks down around him, the sound gets muffled, as if underwater, save for the incredibly unnerving metallic sound of cables being stretched taut, and the sickening kathunk of a heavy car door slamming shut.”

Capsule Review

13. Another Round

“Typically, Vinterberg avoids simple conclusions  —  and God help us all if this film gets picked up by a U.S. studio and remade with, say, Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, and Chris Rock  —  providing more or less equal examples of the delirious fun drinking with your friends can be (the film opens with a group of high schoolers gleefully doing “lake races” whereby teams compete to drink a case of beer while running around the nearby body of water; and closes with the same teen crew, and some of their teachers, whooping it up in celebrating their graduation); and the horrorshow it can become (one teacher ends up peeing the bed, and on his wife in the process, another wakes up bloodied and out of it in front of his neighbor’s house), leading to very real and horrible consequences.”

Capsule Review

12. Soul

“Co-director Pete Docter is the creative force behind many of Pixar's best titles, having a hand in the Toy Story franchise, WALL-E, Up, and also directing Inside Out, a brilliantly moving treatise on the subject of emotional upheaval. This film, which he co-wrote and made along with fellow co-director Kemp Powers, is his first film back at the helm since that high-water mark, and he has again dug into the fertile earth of our mortality and come back with a particularly vibrant crop.”

Full Review

11. The Burnt Orange Heresy

“Based on the novel by Charles Willeford, the film briskly moves through its paces, clouding the waters with the schemes of duplicitous men, who have sold out any love of art for their greater obsession of cash and prestige. A literary thriller in the vein of The Talented Mr. Ripley, it’s become a genre all too rare in the era of blockbuster bravado. This film will remind you what a mistake that is.”

Full Review

10. Lovers Rock

“In the course of the party, the fuses blow while the house DJ is spinning Janet Kay's "Silly Games," a fan favorite at the time. Undaunted, the guests continue dancing away, singing the lyrics a capella in delirious unison, as McQueen's camera swirls around the living room as if nothing happened. Such a heartfelt moment of unbridled togetherness, putting into distinct bas relief the sense of community we've been denied as a species in 2020, feels like a benediction, an epitaph for the year, and a salve for what we've all been so desperately missing.”

Capsule Review

9. Time

“Ostensibly, it’s about the strain of incarceration on even the most grounded of families (an experience naturally disproportionate for POCs); but, on a deeper level, it’s also about the manner of our use of the limited number of revolutions we get to enjoy situated on this earth. It is a profound knock-out.”

Full Review

8. New Order

“Meet the new boss, only in Michel Franco’s damning portrait of a society locked forever in cycles of oppression, revolution, and new oppression, it makes no difference who you are, what your belief system is, or whether or not you subscribe to a moral set of ethics.”

Capsule Review

7. Dick Johnson is Dead

“Utilizing stunt people and special effects, Johnson kills her father off a number of different gruesome ways, as a means of softening the blow of actually losing him as his mind slowly slips away. This eventually culminates in a final gambit, both acutely painful and deeply moving, in which our sense of things gets seriously upended. As Johnson put it during the post-screening Q&A, the film serves as a “doomed experiment trying to keep my father alive forever.” This film won’t make him immortal, alas, but it does make him indelible.”

Capsule Review

6. Martin Eden

“Marcello packs the film with offbeat bits and pieces of other films, including strips of what appear to be vintage home movies, sometimes in juxtaposition to what Martin is feeling  —  a group of kids swinging wildly from the bar of a fence, to a full galley ship taking in water and suddenly sinking like an iron ingot – which adds a more winsome, timeless element to the narrative. It’s clearly set in the past, but avoids being too dependent on that particular sense of place and time. Martin is a young man, at first, just coming into himself, and the actions he takes, what he goes through, the film seems to suggest, would be similar in any age.”

Full Review

5. Minari

“The film is certainly charming, but that’s not to diminish its straightforward approach to its characters’ plight. It doesn’t shy away from their difficulties, and as a result, it doesn’t cheat towards smarmy emotional closure.”

Capsule Review

4. Collective

“The breath of hope in the film, when the inept Minister of Health resigns, leading to the placing of a new, emboldened director who works quickly to clean the quagmire left by his predecessors, is just as quickly expelled after the next round of elections, in which the Social Democrat party  —  the very ones in charge of this catastrophe in the first place  —  gets re-elected with an even greater majority than what they had before. A perfect reflection of what happens when a government is allowed to exist without any meaningful oversight, other than from a bedraggled press and a disenchanted electorate.”

Full Review

3. First Cow

“Reichardt, a naturalist at heart, is not known much as a humorist, but there is a lightness to her screenplay -- co-written by Jonathan Raymond, her frequent collaborator, who wrote the original novel upon which its based -- that keeps it as sweetly airy as one of Cookie's fried confections. The two friends are so out of step with their surroundings -- the party of men Cookie initially travels with are little more than brutish thugs, and the fort upon which they end up is no better -- they almost had to find each other. They are reunited in the local bar of the fort only because literally every other patron runs out to egg on a brawl between two loutish combatants.”

Full Review

2. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

“Hittman’s eye for detail and emotional complexity  —  her characters can rarely articulate anything they’re experiencing  —  is incredibly acute, and she pulls tremendously understated performances out of her two leads.”

Capsule Review

1. Nomadland

“Perhaps no American director since Terrance Malick has made more of the collapsing light of dusk and twilight than Chloe Zhao. Much of her new film, which stars Frances McDormand as a transigent woman (“not homeless, houseless”), who traverses back and forth across the west in her beat up live-in van, doing seasonal work, takes place in that particular kind of vibrant half-darkness that shrouds the desert and its mountains with a magic kind of mystery.”

Capsule Review

Other Worthy Mentions: 7500; Assassins; Bacurau; Beanpole; Beginning; Black Bear; Bloody Nose Empty Pockets; Boys State; Come Play; Emma; Gunda; His House; Horse Girl; I Am Greta; Jacinta; La Llorona; Let Him Go; Limbo; Mangrove; Mayor; MLK/FBI; One Night in Miami…; Palm Springs; Possessor Uncut; Red, White & Blue; Relic; She Dies Tomorrow; Shirley; Shithouse; Shiva Baby; Some Kind of Heaven; Spring Blossom; Swallow; Tenet; The Dissident; The Invisible Man; The Nest; Sound of Metal; The Vast of Night; The Viewing Booth; The Way I See It; Vitalina Varella; Welcome to Chechnya

Inexplicably Underrated: 7500; Shithouse

Biggest Welcome Surprise(s): The Vast of Night; His House; She Dies Tomorrow

The Best Two Films I Saw This Year, Period: Satantango (1994); Harlan County, USA (1976)