#Baby John Film Review

[playermagic23]

Baby John Movie Review: BABY JOHN is a mass entertainer which works

Baby John Review {3.5/5} & Review Rating

Star Cast: Varun Dhawan, Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi

Director: Kalees

Baby John Movie Review Synopsis: BABY JOHN is the story of a protective father. John D’Silva (Varun Dhawan), a restaurateur, stays in Alappuzha, Kerala with his daughter Khushi (Zara Zyanna). He dotes on her and is bringing her up with the right values. John forms a bond with Khushi's teacher Tara (Wamiqa Gabbi). Tara takes John's help, without his knowledge, when she rescues a girl and approaches the cops. John is aghast when he learns about Tara’s actions due to his past with the police force. A complaint is filed against a dreaded henchman, Boss (Jaffer Sadiq). Assuming that John complained to the police and that he’s a common man, Boss and his men attack him. But John turns out to be a beast. He finishes them off ruthlessly. Tara sees him attacking the goons and learns that he's none other than Satya Verma, who was once the DCP and the husband of Dr. Meera (Keerthy Suresh). But his confrontation with Nanaji (Jackie Shroff) proves to be a turning point in his life. Hence, he decides to leave the force and live as a common man. What happens next forms the rest of the film.

Baby John Movie Story Review: Atlee's story is massy but also a bit outdated. Kalees's screenplay tries to rise above the plot and is infused with mass moments. However, the writing could have been better. Sumit Arora's dialogues add to the mass touch.

Kalees's direction is commercial. The film is mounted on a huge scale and it has been handled appropriately. The bond shared by the father and the daughter is adorable while the romantic track also has its moments. But the best is reserved for the mass elevation scenes. The scenes that are memorable are John attacking the goons at night, Satya and Meera’s first meeting, Satya searching for Amba (Snigddha Suman) and what happens thereafter. The pre-interval block is when the film goes on another level and it’ll be greeted with whistles and claps. Post-interval, Satya’s meeting with the parents and the shootout at his residence stand out. The scene of Bhima Rane (Shrikant Yadav) and the North Eastern kid is well thought out.

On the flipside, BABY JOHN comes too late in the day as it gives a déjà vu of SIMMBA [2018], JAWAN [2023] etc. The execution is overall satisfactory but in some places, it's haphazard. The product placement of Center Fresh and Astral Pipes is quite in-your-face. But the biggest issue is that of the writing. BABY JOHN is a remake of THERI, which arrived 8 years ago. A lot has changed since then in terms of tastes and trends and Atlee should have aligned the script accordingly. Moreover, the hero vs villain equation is not convincing. Usually, the villain needs to be so powerful that the audience should wonder how the hero would defeat him. But in BABY JOHN, the hero becomes all-powerful once he harms Nanaji big time and doesn’t face consequences from the police department or the government. Nana takes revenge much later. But by then, it becomes clear that Satya can finish Nanaji, whenever he wants. This aspect severely impacts the goings-on.

Baby John – Trailer | Atlee | Varun Dhawan, Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi, Jackie Shroff

Baby John Movie Review Performances: Varun Dhawan delivers a sincere performance and excels in the action and emotional scenes. However, it’s not convincing to show him as a DCP as he seems young for that position. Ideally, there should have been a reason why he managed to rise through the ranks so early in his life. Keerthy Suresh makes a superb debut in Bollywood and has an arresting screen presence. Wamiqa Gabbi, as expected, rocks the show, albeit in a supporting role. Jackie Shroff looks menacing and does a brilliant job. But he’s let down by the writing. Zara Zyanna is adorable. However, a few of her dialogues are not audible properly. Jaffer Sadiq is apt for the part. Shrikant Yadav lends able support. Rajpal Yadav (Ram Sevak) is seen in a different avatar and would be loved by the audience. Sheeba Chaddha (Madhvi Verma; Satya's mother) is dependable as always. Zakir Hussain (Baldev Patil) and Prakash Belawadi (Yashraj Mukherjee) are strictly okay. Omkar Das Manikpuri (Badrinath) and Mona Ambegaonkar (the doctor who tries to revive Amba) are fair. Lastly, Salman Khan’s cameo is quite entertaining.

Baby John movie music and other technical aspects: Thaman S's music is not of chartbuster variety. The title song is the only song that stands out. 'Nain Matakka' is well picturized while 'Pikley Pom' is passable. 'Bandobast' is too similar to 'Zinda Banda'.  'Hazaar Baar' and 'Gudda Guddi' are forgettable. Thaman S's background score is energetic.

Kiran Koushik's cinematography is satisfactory. Anl Arasu, Stunt Silva, Anbariv, Yannick Ben, Sunil Rodrigues, Kaloyan Vodenicharov, Manohar Verma, and Bronwin October's action is violent but works well in a film like this. T Muthuraj's production design is rich. Sheetal Iqbal Sharma's costumes are appropriate while Shruthi Manjari's costumes for Keerthy Suresh are appealing. NY VFXWaala's VFX is superior. Ruben's editing could have been slicker, especially in the first half.

Baby John Movie Review Conclusion: On the whole, BABY JOHN is a mass entertainer which works due to the clapworthy moments, the message, Varun Dhawan’s energetic performance and the cameo by Salman Khan. At the box office, the film will benefit owing to the long holiday period and no competition until Republic Day.

[cinemistery]

Cry-Baby (1990)

[moviesandmania]

ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968) Reviews and 4K UHD release news

Rosemary’s Baby is being released on 4K Ultra HD on October 10, 2023, to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the horror classic. The new 4K Ultra HD package includes a Blu-ray as well as a Digital version and comes packaged in newly commissioned artwork. Meanwhile, here’s our previous coverage of the movie from way back in 2012. Rosemary’s Baby is a 1968 American horror film written and directed…

[thequeereview]

Exclusive Interview: John Waters revisits Cry-Baby for its 4K restoration "I knew about juvenile delinquents because I always wanted to be one"

From reviled underground filmmaker to widely revered, self-proclaimed “filth elder”, John Waters was honoured for his six-decade career with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year just as a major exhibition and retrospective screening series, John Waters: Pope Of Trash, opened at the prestigious Academy Museum in Los Angeles. The latest title from his subversive, colourful and distinctly…

[justforbooks]

David Lynch

US director whose wildly unconventional films burrowed into the unsavoury depths of his nation’s psyche

David Lynch, who has died aged 78, was the most original film-maker to emerge in postwar America, as well as the greatest cinematic surrealist since Buñuel. His understanding of desire, fantasy and dread was unparalleled; the Paris Review called him “the Edward Hopper of American film”.

He made his debut with the experimental Eraserhead (1977), shot in sooty black-and-white and set in a churning industrial landscape where a man with a tombstone-shaped pompadour tends to his mewling, reptilian baby. From the first frames, Lynch mapped out a cinema of the subconscious that thrived on its own dream logic and nightmare imagery. It shaped everything he did, including his masterpiece Blue Velvet (1986), in which an innocent young man (Kyle MacLachlan) discovers a human ear and is drawn into the sleazy, violent world of a psychopath (Dennis Hopper) and a terrorised torch singer (Isabella Rossellini).

That film introduced into the archetype of cosy small-town America some potent notes of scepticism and revulsion that have never been dispelled.

This project to burrow into the unsavoury depths of his country’s psyche continued with the television whodunnit Twin Peaks, co-created with Mark Frost, which ran for two series in 1990 and 1991 then spawned a big-screen prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992). The show returned 25 years later in a bold but often harrowing and impenetrable third series that, despite being made for TV, was voted the best film of 2017 by Cahiers du Cinéma and Sight & Sound magazines. To preserve the spell cast by his work, Lynch refused to be drawn on explanations. Asked what the third helping of Twin Peaks was about, he replied: “It’s about 18 hours.”

He exposed the horrors lurking beneath apparently placid exteriors, and found beauty in the quotidian, the industrial – “I’d rather go to a factory any day than walk in the woods” – or the repellent: “If you don’t know what it is, a sore can be very beautiful.” For all the darkness of Lynch’s vision, his films could also be extremely funny, peppered with verbal and visual non sequiturs, skew-whiff line readings, slapstick violence and comic embarrassment. The mix of folksy naivety and elusive strangeness in his work extended to his persona and even his wardrobe: 1950s-style slacks and blazer, and a shirt buttoned to the gullet.

He drank a milkshake in the same diner (Bob’s Big Boy) every day for seven years between the late-70s and mid-80s. Watching him on set, the novelist David Foster Wallace observed: “It’s hard to tell if he’s a genius or an idiot.” The musician Sting, who starred in his science-fiction adventure Dune (1984), called him “a madman in sheep’s clothing” while Mel Brooks, who produced Lynch’s second film, The Elephant Man (1980), described the affable director as “Jimmy Stewart from Mars”.

Though his films were wildly unconventional, Lynch was still nominated three times for the best director Oscar. (He won an honorary Oscar in 2019.) Wild at Heart (1990), a road movie marked by baroque violence and homages to The Wizard of Oz, won him the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and he was named best director by the same festival in 2001 for Mulholland Drive, a warped neo-noir thriller about an aspiring actor (Naomi Watts) whose dreams of stardom disintegrate horribly after she befriends the amnesiac survivor of a car accident (Laura Harring). Developed by Lynch from his own butchered TV pilot for a series rejected by the ABC network, Mulholland Drive was one of his most seductively strange pictures.

But linear narrative was not beyond him, as he proved with two deeply moving films based on real events: The Elephant Man, about the severely deformed Joseph Merrick (“John” in the screenplay) paraded as a circus freak in the Victorian era, and The Straight Story (1999), in which an elderly man travels 300 miles on a riding mower to see his ailing brother. Both earned Oscar nominations for their lead performers (John Hurt and Richard Farnsworth respectively), which served as a reminder that Lynch’s skill as a director of actors could sometimes be obscured by his extraordinary imaginative powers.

He was born in Missoula, Montana, to Edwina (nee Sundholm), known as Sunny, who occasionally taught English, and Donald Lynch, whose job as a research scientist for the US government’s Department of Agriculture dictated the family’s peripatetic lifestyle. When Lynch was two months old they uprooted to Sandpoint, Idaho, and by the time he was 14 they had moved a further four times.

He described himself as a “troubled” child who was quick to intuit that all was not well. “I learned that just beneath the surface there’s another world, and still different worlds as you dig deeper. I knew it as a kid, but I couldn’t find the proof. It was just a feeling. There is goodness in blue skies and flowers, but another force – a wild pain and decay – also accompanies everything.” The aftertaste of that memory can be found throughout Lynch’s work but particularly in the opening of Blue Velvet, where a montage showing schoolchildren, roses and white picket fences gives way to shots of insects thrashing in the undergrowth.

Having shown an aptitude for painting since adolescence, Lynch began studying art at the age of 18 at the Boston Museum School, then dropped out after a year to travel to Europe with his friend (and future production designer) Jack Fisk, only to return to the US a fortnight later. He got on better at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, where his canvases took a darker turn (one work, The Bride, showed a woman performing an abortion on herself). It was there that Lynch met Peggy Lentz, a fellow student, who in 1967 became the first of his four wives. Together they had a child, Jennifer, and there have been almost as many attempts to link the pressures of youthful parenthood to the plot of Eraserhead as there have been theories about what exactly that film means, with its flying sperm-like creatures, roast chickens that writhe when sliced, and a balloon-cheeked chanteuse who lives behind the radiator.

He had his first solo exhibition in 1967, the same year he made his debut film work, the one-minute loop Six Men Getting Sick. He received a grant from the American Film Institute to make his 34-minute 16mm featurette The Grandmother (1970), in which a neglected child grows an elderly companion from a seed. The film combined jerky stop-motion animation with live-action footage, and showcased the sound design work of the great Alan Splet. Along with Fisk and the composer Angelo Badalamenti, Splet would become one of Lynch’s most vital collaborators.

In 1972, Lynch began work on Eraserhead. The shoot lasted five years, with regular pauses whenever the production ran out of money; Lynch would then supplement the budget with cash from family and friends (Fisk and his wife, the actor Sissy Spacek, were among those who donated) and by working odd jobs, including a paper round. After his marriage broke down, he also slept in the stables where the film was being shot. When it was finally released, Eraserhead was received with bafflement in many quarters, and with a slow-dawning fanaticism by those who caught it in the midnight movie slots at cinemas in the US, where it played, in some cases, for several years consecutively.

The film attracted the admiration of the poet Charles Bukowski and the musician Tom Waits, and went on to influence film-makers including Terry Gilliam and Darren Aronofsky, the Coen brothers and Stanley Kubrick, who reportedly screened it to the cast and crew of The Shining to put them in the appropriate mood.

During the early stages of production on The Elephant Man, Lynch’s attempts to design the complicated makeup failed catastrophically. But the finished film, with makeup by Christopher Tucker, a clammy feel for Victorian England and some unmistakable Lynchian touches (such as the main character’s birth in a giant ball of smoke), was an outstanding success. It melded the director’s sensibility with compassionate, classical storytelling, even if it did play fast and loose with the facts (the real Merrick, for instance, took a healthy cut of profits from being exhibited).

Lynch’s next project, an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sprawling space epic Dune, was the only one of his films to escape his control entirely, and to be released in a form not approved by him. He was unsuited to the rigours of blockbuster film-making, and his attempts to wrestle Herbert’s many-tentacled narrative into coherent shape were doomed. The film was an expensive flop – Lynch called it “a fiasco” – but it still contained astonishing sets, costumes and sound design. And it introduced Lynch to MacLachlan, who played the bland hero and would become the director’s on-screen alter ego, the Mastroianni to his Fellini, in Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. In the latter, MacLachlan played the coffee-and-cherry-pie-loving FBI agent Dale Cooper, whose dreams guide his detective work as strongly as any physical clues.

The experience of making Dune left Lynch drained and depressed. “I was almost dead,” he said. “Dune took me off at the knees. Maybe a little higher.” He amused himself by contributing a four-panel comic strip, The Angriest Dog in the World, to the LA Reader newspaper; it ran for nine years, during which time his drawings of a dog chained in a yard remained unaltered and only the text in the speech bubbles changed.

His fortunes were revived, along with his right to final cut, with the sumptuous and terrifying Blue Velvet, a project he had been planning since before Dune. The novelist JG Ballard called it “the best film of the 1980s – surreal, voyeuristic, subversive”.

Wild at Heart could only look frivolous by comparison, despite game performances by Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as the lovers on the run. But Lynch was back at the height of his powers with the first series of Twin Peaks, which began with the discovery of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) washed up dead and wrapped in plastic. It altered television irrevocably, paving the way for shows such as The X-Files and Lost, True Detective and The Killing; David Chase also cited it as an influence on The Sopranos.

That enthusiastic reception made it all the more bruising for Lynch when Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was widely panned. In its focus on the days leading up to Laura Palmer’s murder, the film sacrificed the quirkiness of the series in favour of an intense mood of violence and suffering, and it was several years before the picture was reappraised more positively.

Lynch’s next film, Lost Highway (1996), was a profoundly unsettling thriller that hinged on an audacious narrative fracture: one moment a jazz saxophonist suspected of murder is sitting in his prison cell; the next he has vanished and the guards find in his place a young mechanic who has no idea how he got there. The film was steeped in deadpan humour and violent imagery (there is a memorable death-by-coffee-table), as well as nausea-inducing high-speed driving footage that would be subverted comically in his next movie, The Straight Story, which never exceeded 4mph.

Acclaim for The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive restored Lynch to his late-80s standing – the latter went on to be voted the best film of the century so far in a poll of critics conducted by the BBC in 2017. His last film, Inland Empire (2006), was concerned, like Mulholland Drive, with an actor (Dern) suffering a breakdown. But at three-hours-plus and with an unusually ugly visual style (it was shot by Lynch on a handheld Sony digital camera), as well as a meandering narrative interrupted occasionally by a rabbit sitcom complete with laugh-track, it offered little of the compensatory seductiveness of the director’s other films.

That said, Lynch was not alone in feeling that Dern deserved an Oscar nomination, even if his decision to express this view by sitting on a Hollywood street corner with a cow and a poster of the actor’s face was more unorthodox than the usual method of taking out a full-page ad in the trade papers.

With the exception of the third series of Twin Peaks, Lynch devoted the rest of his days to painting, music and writing, while resisting suggestions that he had retired from film-making: “I did not say I quit cinema. Simply that nobody knows what the future holds.” Among the albums he released was the avant-garde blues collection Crazy Clown Time (2011). He also worked with the journalist Kristine McKenna on the memoir Room to Dream (2018), in which her biographical chapters about him alternate with ones in which he muses on what she has written and adds his own reflections, and gave an uncanny performance as the eye-patch-wearing, cigar-smoking film-maker John Ford in the final scene of Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical coming-of-age drama The Fabelmans (2022). Though initially reluctant to take the role, he was persuaded by Dern and by Spielberg’s assurance that there would be a large bag of Cheetos waiting in his dressing room. “Any chance I can, I get them,” Lynch said.

He was a passionate advocate of transcendental meditation, writing and speaking at length on the ways in which it had helped his work and enabled him to “catch fish” – his favourite metaphor for the creative process. (“If you get an idea that’s thrilling to you, put your attention on it and these other fish will swim into it.”) The clarity engendered by meditation was perhaps at odds with the gnomic quality of much of his work.

Last year, he revealed that a lifetime of smoking had left him with emphysema. “I can hardly walk across a room,” he said. “It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head.”

He is survived by his fourth wife, Emily Stofle, whom he married in 2009, and their daughter, Lula; by a daughter, Jennifer, from his first marriage, which ended in divorce; by a son, Austin, from his second marriage, to Mary Fisk (sister of Jack), whom he married in 1977 and divorced in 1987; and by Riley, his son with Mary Sweeney, who edited and produced many of his films from the 1980s onwards, as well as co-writing The Straight Story, and whom he married in 2006 and divorced the following year.

🔔 David Keith Lynch, director, born 20 January 1946; died 16 January 2025

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[realuity]

an entirely biased review of all of the original killers in dead by daylight

okay so I don‘r play DBD. frankly, I’d rather shuck myself like a cob of corn than subject myself to whatever nonsense rhe game’s playerbase is up to. the lore’s not my thing and some of the character choices make me wrinkle. but I like horror things and I have a vague understanding of how they play. and I have some opinions. so i’ll throw them here.

thsi only includes the original guys made for the game. no liscensed visitors! (If you are wondering though I like myers and pig for their gimmicks and xenomorph because I love women)

evan macmillian - the trapper

i am excruciatingly neutral on this guy. he is kind of John Killer, which makes sense for how much I dgaf, but still. his mask is cool as fuck, but his lore really doesn’t resonate with me. trapping is a fun gimmick but apparently he lends himself to a lot of campy playstyles, which doesn’t sound too fun. he just exists to me.

philip ojomo - the wraith

this guy’s just really downright miserable. he doesn’t even wanna be here. he just wants to work at a Denny’s and live alone with a cat or whatever. invisibility is neat and the big stupid bell ring for whenever he does it is really funny though. cool guy I just feel bad for his existence

max thompson jr - the hillbilly

iunno this guys concept and lore just rub me the wrong way. just feels tone-deaf. much like wraith i think we should just leave this guy alone and let him farm in peace. he’s had a rough go of it. letting him be just some normal guy would make everything feel less. ew.

sally smithson - the nurse

how does she see out of that thing.

jokes aside she’s another i don’t feel strongly about. apparently she’s pretty meta due to her teleportation shenanigans, but otherwise she doesn’t catch my eye. I’m sorry women

lisa sherwood - the hag

really strong design-wise. really neat looking fungus plant lady. another one that really doesn’t wanna be here. like holy hell ma’am. maybe she and billy can go grill things together away from killing people for a big spider demon. otherwise I’m neutral on her too.

herman carter - the doctor

oh YEAH baby. this guy’s my MAN. he’s a complete SHITHEAD and is TERRIBLE and he’s very fun to watch. Electroshock Andy over here is the giggliest guy on campus and has some really funny builds and gimmicks and is also unreasonably complicated. jumpscare doctor is so fucking funny plus electricity themes are cool even if it is the endlessly fucked up existence of electroshock therapy and military-funded abuse, but what is horror without being a little slice of messed up reality? I never want to go near this man in my life.

anna - the huntress

I like her!! she’s pretty and fucked up. i like predator/prey motifs and she’s got a nice voice. my fav thing about her is the existence of orbital huntress. hilarious as hell. you can just cross-map bean someone with a hatchet to their skull. fuck yeah.

jeffrey hawk - the clown

he’s not even the cunty jester or joyous giggler kind of clown. he’s a freako with a thing for fingers that drugs people. i don’t want to be anywhere near this man in my life. fun short film though. damn good horror villian I just. ewwwwwwwwww

rin yamaoka - the spirit

she should be allowed to kill people actually. literally just some kid as far as I know. i’d be pissed off too if my dad got so fucked over by a company that he started killing people. living in the scary dimension and stabbing people sounds like a way better time than that. saw someone cosplay her once at a convention too and that was pretty neat.

the legion

genuinely wonderfully funny concept. these lot are just some kids that kill people as a hobby. they have a logo and listen to mixtapes while doing it and all. they’re spy mains that think they’re hot shit. the title is unreasonably cool for what they are. the fact they just have to like lie down and take a moment to go wheeze after using their ability is great too. they forgot to pack an inhaler or four to the scary dimension

adiris - the plague

frankly unreasonably badass design. ancient mesopotamian preiest that just like.vomits on people. i'm not too invested in whatever she's up to religion-wise i just think the fact she horfs up blood as a projectile weapon is sick as fuck. the censer as a melee is cool too

kazan yamaoka - the oni

this is the spirits great great peepaw or something aparently. i do love the aestehtic of traditional japanese masks i just wish the mask here had the big ol' eyes and bigger teeth. he hits people with a big club too i guess. neutral on this bloke.

caleb quinn - the deathslinger

IRELAND MENTION LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

otherwise this is a sick guy. old freak who got fucked over by capitalism so hard he decided to build a gu and shoot people with a harpoon about it. plus he's a cowboy. consideirng my biggest interest right now is great god grove, i am predisposed to liking cowboy motifs. also he's really funny in the 2v8 gameplay ive seen you literally just go fishing

talbot grimes - the blight

his main gameplay loop involves ramming into walls like an idiot before hitting someone with a big stick. i guess thats what the infection from hollow knight does to a guy. my only other strong opinion is that they shuould make his rushing running scream be the scotland forever voice clip

charlotte n' victor deshayes - the twins

can this game be normal about facial differences for two fucking seconds . anyway te concept is neat i guess and i like how kicking the infant is so tempting within this game that theres apparently entire meme playstyles based aroud baiting people into kicking the baby, thus getting them out of position for you to go hit them with your scythe

ji-woon hak - the trickster

shame that yet another title that couldve been used for a cunty jester has been taken. oh well. at least we have this guy who's pretty neat. a whole thing based on the k-pop industry is a rlly oddball choice for a horror game, but i dunno i've heard that said industry can get pretty fucked and exploitative. also i like neon colours a lot. the whole bit with him making his synths out of samples of his victims which he goes on to put into his work is really neat i think. hes kinda just some guy though

carmina mora - the artist

alright. her design is really neat and i like all the ink and strong red and black colours and her weird claw hand she turns her hand into. but she is possibly the funniest design slip-up ever. she's chilean and from chile and her major thematic throughline is crows. apparently, chile is like, one of the only countries to not have crows in it. lmao

the dredge

dredge!! dredge my friend dredge!! one of the three Creatures Buddies, dedge is like so fucking cute to me. thats a puppies dog. sure this puppies dog was formed from a dark fucked up ritual spawned from a jonestown situation and is the amalgam of hundreds of people stuck in a high-control cult enviornment, but consider that they're a puppies dog. i think if igave them a sugar cube things would be ok

tarhos korvács & the wacky bunch - the knight

i mean, cool ass concept of a murderous knight and his buddies all being played at once. i'm otherwise neutral. not really a medeival fan, but they're cool i suppose.

adriana imai - the skull merchant

alright she was definitley spawned from the result of a gaggle of designers throwing concepts at the wall and trying to shove them into a pile. a cut-throat millionare who kills ceos for fun, a comic book hero brought to life into a villian by the author's daughter, and a sci-fi high-tech conniving surveillance master murderer. i can respect that mish-mash design philosophy a lot but i'm otherwise also neutral. her little claw arm contraption thing is fun though

hux-a7-13 - the singularity

i really, really like hux! i'm a sucker for evil AI, especally one that's also getting into bioengineering and meaty mechanics. for a heartless killer who's hellbent on the kinda cliche goal of becoming the ultamite lifeform by assimilating others genetic info, he's actually kind of a smug snarky cunt. he calls people worms for no reason. he literally calls people annoying for screaming in pain. i think he and p03 would get along disastrously.

the unknown

one banger to the next. unknown here is a wriggly strange mass that's a love letter to creepypasta, urban legends, found footage and perhaps even the more recent development of analog horror. a squirmy fella who steals voices and fucks over anyone who comprehends them. doesn't even wanna be in the scary spider dimension if i recall correctly. i love the disjointed voicelines that come across as them mimicking whatever they've heard, but they're definitley like.. sapient. i think they have a dashing smile and a lovely crawl.

portia maye - the houndmaster

um. hi. hii hello ma'am. hellou. hi.

this is the newest addition, and she's a doozy. scotish pirate lady with a big ol' dog she loves very much. i don't know much about her.. but apparently her dog's breed is like, a notably loyal and strong one used as a guard dog/ and the lady herself? oh my god she's so fucking pretty. the gold and red on the coat. her badass knife cane. im quaking in my boots for a variety of reasons. i don't find her scary, don't find any of this lot traditionally scary, but yknow. she/s still sick as hell.

[sinclairstarz]

for the cinephile byler truthers. i made the party’s modern au letterboxd accounts

in my head mike wheeler is the film bro cinephile of the party. hes a big brad pitt fan and fincher is his favorite director if you even care.. dirty dancing would be in his top 4 if he was honest. he went to see dune cause hes a scifi nerd, ended up hating it so much and complained about it to will but still gave it 2 stars cause it was pretty. did leave a very mean review. very critical rater but mostly leaves high ratings because he just doesn’t watch things he doesnt wanna see.

alternative movies i considered putting: pulp fiction (5 stars), the killer (1 star), se7en (5 stars), across the spiderverse (5 stars), nope (5 stars) , the batman 2022 (4 stars), once upon a time in hollywood (5 stars), inglorious basterds (5 stars), the matrix (half a star)

the thing is so good and he has a poster of it on his wall in canon so it felt right. it just feels wrong not to do ghostbusters (plus its one of my favorite movies…) and yall need to hear me out on brokeback 😭😭😭 ur telling me he wouldnt bawl his eyes out??? ur wrong. will byers is a jake gyllenhaal lover. he watches dirty dancing a lot for mike, and loves ghibli movies a lot. he cried during rain man. honest rater but doesnt take it too seriously, mostly 4/5 star ratings

alternatives: saltburn (half a star), asteroid city (5 stars), blackkklansman (5 stars), the force awakens (3.5 stars), the perks of being a wallflower (4.5 stars), back to the future (5 stars)

rogue one because lucas has taste. its the best star wars movie, if u care. he would love how fun and goofy ghostbusters 2 is. in my head Wes Anderson is like the party’s claimed director and they all watch his movies together and do marathons because the weirdness, comedy, and emotional commentary is a perfect mix for them. so. bottle rocket. lucas’ favorite wes anderson is the grand budapest hotel if u wanted to know. he rates things pretty highly and isn’t super critical.

alternatives: dodgeball (5 stars), scream 5 (4 stars), the matrix (3 stars), good will hunting (5 stars), jurassic park (5 stars), die hard (5 stars),

likes making lucas watch gone girl on valentines day and telling him shes gonna do that to him next time he annoys her. v for vendetta is her favorite romance movie and shes a big marvel fan (in a cool way. kind of .) but thor ragnarok is probably one of her fav marvels, along with spiderman far from home and iron man. i just know she watches Casino Royale and decided she hated James Bond and then ended up watching all the Daniel Craig Bonds with Mike and loved Skyfall so much. the song is on her playlist and she did cry after No Time To Die.

Alternatives: Superbad (5 stars), baby driver (5 stars), bottoms (5 stars), 10 things i hate about you (3.5 stars), scream (5 stars), kill bill (5 stars), lord of the rings: the return of the king (1.5 stars)

also a bit of a film nerd. i considered giving him a star wars and i know in my heart he’d probably have empire somewhere in his top 4. but star wars is lame and i wanted to give him se7en so he fucking gets se7en. he knows john wick is objectively dumb but he doesnt care hes just here for a good time. the party probably watched saltburn together and all fucking hated it. I just know hes a kurosawa nerd and always goes when the local theatres do very rare special showings of his movies.

alternatives: baby driver (4 stars), the ewok adventure (5 stars) hot fuzz (5 stars) harry potter and the sorcerers stone (4 stars) legally blonde (5 stars) spirited away (5 stars) dazed and confused (5 stars)

she likes movies that make her feel all warm and fuzzy and hopeful. i wanted to give her breakfast club, but i think she’d honestly like sixteen candles more (even though breakfast club’s better). she cried at almost every movie in her top 4 and makes max rewatch juno with her like once a month. she gives most movies 5 stars unless she really hates them, and loves any movie thats fun to watch, even if its bad. she likes movies with pretty girls and fun colors.

alternatives: barbie (5 stars), legally blonde (5 stars), inception (2 stars), heathers (5 stars) pretty in pink (4.5 stars (she was mad andi didn’t end up with ducky)) my neighbor totoro (5 stars)

in conclusion if you haven’t seen They Cloned Tyron (2023) go watch it it deserved the oscar

[maudeboggins]

End of Year Review Every year I like to create a review of media I consumed. Here is 2024:

Books: In 2024 I read 68 books. My favourites were:

Clyde Fans (Seth, 2019)

Brother (Ania Ahlborn, 2015)

The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride (Daniel James Brown, 2009)

Revenge (Yoko Ogawa, 1998)

Audition (Ryu Murakami, 1997)

Piercing (Ryu Murakami, 1994)

Coin Locker Babies (Ryu Murakami, 1980)

Life is a Banquet (Rosalind Russell, 1977)

Rosemary's Baby (Ira Levin, 1967)

I'll Cry Tomorrow (Lillian Roth, 1954)

A Kiss Before Dying (Ira Levin, 1953)

The Beast in the Jungle (Henry James, 1903)

I read 7 books on Arctic and Antarctic exploration (1 fiction). I read 3 books on Garbo. I read 12 Japanese books. I read 7 graphic novels. I read 15 non-fiction books.

Films:

I watched 437films in 2024

Favourite new to me films:

The Vampire Lovers (1970)

Horrors of Malformed Men (1969)

Strait-Jacket (1964)

Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

The Body Snatcher (1945)

The Youngest Profession (1943)

It Started with Eve (1941)

The Cowboy and the Lady (1938)

The Black Cat (1934)

Cleopatra (1934)

After Tomorrow (1932)

Love Me Tonight (1932)

Lucky Star (1929)

Favourite Re-Watches:

Ninotchka (1939)

Jezebel (1938)

Favourite new release: La Chimera

Favourite actors of the year:

Lupe Velez, Marion Davies, Clara Bow, John Barrymore, Gary Cooper, Sylvia Sidney, Greta Garbo, Jeanette Macdonald, Norma Shearer, Goria Swanson, Rochelle Hudson, Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing

[hwdownandout]

Barbara Stanwyck by Bert Longworth for Baby Face (1933).

The now-iconic pre-Code film about a woman who uses sex as power to advance her career came from an original story written by Warner executive Darryl Zanuck under the pseudonym Mark Canfield.

In a harshly negative review, NY Times critic Mordaunt Hall implied that Zanuck lost his job at WB in April 1933 because of the fight with censors over Baby Face’s more blatant sexual themes but others have pointed to an internal salary dispute with Jack Warner.

The film was said to be instrumental in the enforcement of the Hays Code. "Blue and nothing else," wrote a critic for Variety. "Anything hotter than this for public showing would call for an asbestos audience blanket."

Barbara wears her Orry-Kelly gown in a still from Baby Face (1933) and stars in the filme with co-star George Brent. The film was the third of five films they made together. Trivia: A young John Wayne had an early minor role as one of Lily Powers’ conquests in the film.

[Source]

[princesscatherinemiddleton]

The Princess of Wales’ Year in Review: February

February 1st - A video was released of the Princess of Wales and "Shaping Us" Campaign Champions February 2nd - A video was released of the Princess of Wales at St Johns C of E Primary for the "Shaping Us" campaign. Photos of the visit were released on January 28th. Later that day, photos of the Princess of Wales and Roman Kemp were released in advance of the release of a video February 3rd - A video was released of the Princess of Wales and Roman Kemp speaking about the early years and mental health February 4th - Kensington Palace released a photograph of Catherine as a baby with her father, Michael Middleton. Catherine was later seen watching George play football with their dog, Orla February 6th - The Princess of Wales visited St John's Primary in Bethnal Green to launch Children's Mental Health Week, as part of her work as Patron of Place2Be February 8th - The Princess of Wales, Patron of Captain Harpreet Chandi's Solo Antarctic Expedition, visited Landau Forte College February 9th - The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall visited Cornwall. They visited the National Maritime Museum Falmouth, before visiting the Dracaena Centre February 19th - The Prince and Princess of Wales attended the British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Festival Hall February 21st - The Princess of Wales visited Oxford House Nursing Home February 22nd - The Princess of Wales, Joint Patron of the Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, held an Early Years Meeting February 23rd - The Princess of Wales, Patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, received Ian Hewitt at Windsor Castle. That afternoon, she received Major General Christopher Ghika (Regimental Lieutenant Colonel) and Lieutenant Colonel James Aldridge (Commanding Officer) in her role as Colonel of the Irish Guards February 25th - The Prince of Wales, Patron of Welsh Rugby Union, and the Princess of Wales, Patron of Rugby Football Union, attended the Six Nations Rugby Match between Wales and England February 28th - The Prince and Princess of Wales undertook an away day to Wales. First, as Joint Patrons of the Royal Foundation, they visited Brynawel House Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Centre; there, they announced a new project as part of a series to leave a lasting impact. The Royal Foundation brought together national and local organisations to support the design and build, and provide funding, tools, plants, seeds and materials for landscaping. Next, they visited Aberavon Celtic Leisure Centre before finishing by opening the new patient room at Wales Air Ambulance

[lyledebeast]

"Ok, it's not a good movie by any means, but Jason Isaacs is fabulous in it."

A concise and accurate review of at least 100 films and shows.

Roman Castevet in the Rosemary's Baby miniseries has everything you want in a Jason Isaacs villain . . . and not much else. It goes very hard for the romance between Rosemary and Guy, which is deeply unfortunate because Guy is every bit as smarmy and boring in this version as in 1968. John Cassavetes at least had the excuse of it being 1968; idk what this guy's deal is. Zoe Saldana is good. She's one of the producers, so clearly this is a project that meant a lot to her, and it shows. She could've done more with better dialogue. Some of the dialogue. Yikes.

But as I've said, Jason is incredible, and so is Carole Bouquet as his sinisterly seductive wife Margaux. The series is worth watching to the end if only for two specific shots. One has Roman sitting in a chair petting the loud-ass Oriental cat. Another has him standing by the window with his hands in his pockets in a pair of pants that fit . . . correctly.

It's available on Tubi!

[strictlyfavorites]

AUDIE MURPHY

Section 46, Grave 366-11

He wanted to join the Marines, but he was too short. The paratroopers wouldn't have him, either. Reluctantly, he settled on the infantry, and ultimately became one of the most decorated heroes of World War II. He was Audie Murphy, the baby-faced Texas farmboy who became an American legend. Murphy grew up on a sharecropper's farm in Hunt County, Texas. After his father deserted the family, he helped raise his 11 brothers and sisters, dropping out of school in the fifth grade to earn money picking cotton. He was 16 years old when his mother died, and he watched as his siblings were doled out to an orphanage or to relatives. Seeking an escape from this difficult life, Murphy enlisted in the Army in 1942 — falsifying his birth certificate so that he appeared to be 18, one year older than he actually was. 

Following basic training, Murphy was assigned to the 15th Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division in North Africa. First entering combat in July 1943, during the invasion of Sicily, he proved himself to be a proficient marksman and a highly skilled soldier. He consistently demonstrated how well he understood the techniques of small-unit action. Murphy landed at Salerno, Italy to fight in the Voltuno River campaign, and then at Anzio to be part of the Allied force that fought its way to Rome. Throughout these campaigns, Murphy's skills earned him advancements in rank, because many of his superior officers were being transferred, wounded or killed. After the capture of Rome in June 1944, Murphy earned his first decoration for gallantry.

Shortly thereafter, his unit was withdrawn from Italy to train for Operation Anvil-Dragoon, the invasion of southern France that began on August 15, 1944. During seven weeks of fighting in that successful campaign, Murphy's division suffered 4,500 casualties, and he became one of the most decorated men in his company. But his biggest test was yet to come.

On January 26, 1945, near the village of Holtzwihr in eastern France, Lt. Murphy's forward positions came under fierce attack by the Germans. Against the onslaught of six Panzer tanks and 250 infantrymen, Murphy ordered his men to fall back to better their defenses. Alone, he mounted an abandoned, burning tank destroyer and, with a single machine gun, contested the enemy's advance. Wounded in the leg during the heavy fire, Murphy remained there for nearly an hour, repelling the attack of German soldiers on three sides and single-handedly killing 50 of them. His courageous performance stalled the German advance and allowed him to lead his men in the counterattack which ultimately drove the enemy from Holtzwihr. For this, Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest award for gallantry in action.

By the end of World War II, Murphy had become one of the nation's most-decorated soldiers, earning an unparalleled 28 medals (including three from France and one from Belgium). Murphy had been wounded three times during the war. In May 1945, when victory was declared in Europe, he had still not reached his 21st birthday.

Audie Murphy returned to a hero's welcome in the United States. His photograph appeared on the cover of Life magazine, and actor James Cagney persuaded him to embark on an acting career. Still shy and unassuming, Murphy arrived in Hollywood with only his good looks and — by his own account — "no talent." Nevertheless, he went on to make more than 40 films. His first part was just a small one in the 1948 film "Beyond Glory." The following year, he published his wartime memoir, "To Hell and Back," which received positive reviews. In 1955, he portrayed himself in the movie version of the book. Many film critics, however, believe that his best performance was "The Red Badge of Courage," director John Huston's 1951 Civil War epic based on the novel by Stephen Crane. 

Murphy retired from acting after 21 years, and subsequently bred race horses and pursued various business ventures. But he struggled financially, due to gambling and unsuccessful investments, and he declared bankruptcy in 1968. Murphy suffered from what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder, experiencing headaches, depression and nightmares; he once said that he could sleep only with a loaded pistol under his pillow. In 1971, at the age of 46, Murphy died in the crash of a private plane near Roanoke, Virginia.

Audie Murphy is buried in Section 46, just across from the Memorial Amphitheater. A special flagstone walkway has been constructed to accommodate the large number of people who stop to pay their respects to this hero. 

Medal of Honor citation:

"2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machinegun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy's indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy's objective."

[starry-mist]

S6e13 thoughts:

Right I forgot to do these. So I’ve watched the episode twice and honestly I didn’t love it, but reading other reviews I think I may need to watch a third time because apparently there was a lot of stuff I didn’t notice. I think I went into it expecting it to be more of a Sarah episode than it was, so I set myself up for a bit of disappointment.

From the article I read a while back about them filming in Hamilton (which is where Makenna’s “apartment building” is actually located, not Toronto) I assumed it was John and Diesel filming there. Then realizing that Mayko had also filmed there, I figured Charlie and Rex would somehow join Sarah. It was kind of weirdly cut and I feel like maybe there were edits made once they saw the start-of-season fan backlash over the constant siloing of Charlie and Rex. I don’t know. It felt choppy and the Toronto trip felt unnecessary but it could have been an actor availability thing.

I wonder if the “aren’t you supposed to be flying” line from Charlie to Joe was meant to be a reference to Kevin guesting on SkyMed (apparently for several episodes, IDK what the story was though as I have only watched part of s1 of that show.)

I’m still annoyed about them going all the way to “Toronto” and not showing any of Sarah’s family, but it wouldn’t have worked with the plot.

I love Charlie and Sarah being soft in hospitals.

Sarah hanging out on the swings with coffee is my new happy place.

I still need more Charah. I’ll do a post-ep because I want some Sarah feels over Andrew nearly dying. Also I would like Sarah and Makenna to be friends. (Also I half-expected Sarah to be delivering Makenna’s baby.)

Anyway, season of side hugs continues. It’s not much, but I’ll take it.

Next week: Looks intense. Maybe some Charah? And Rex in danger again…oof.

[roosterbox]

A Quiet Place Day One “Review”

Okay, so

Such a good movie! I’m putting the rest of this under a cut, just in case. Spoilers ahead!

The EMOTIONS. Hell, MY EMOTIONS. I fucking cried, man. These characters were incredible. I wish Hospice Nurse guy could have lived, but yeah. I figured he was toast, mainly because I know how these story beats work, but also because the hype was focused on Lupita and Joseph. Which… fucking fair. They were both amazing.

Joseph, baby boy 🥺😭😭

I can’t fault Eric even a little bit; if I was in his shoes, I would have reacted the EXACT same way. World goes crazy? Find the nearest adult and follow them around like a scared puppy. Especially if they’re a cat person. Probably would have asked to hold her hand too, but he was slightly braver than me, lol. I mean, if I’m truly the only competent adult present, I can try my best to pull everything together, but generally? Terrified little bunny, no good in a true crisis.

Also, she gives him her sweater. IT WAS HER DAD’S SWEATER. That’s when the tears started pouring, lol. And ERIC LIVED, holy shit. I won’t lie, I was pretty convinced that he wouldn’t. Just because it’s typically my luck, to have my favorite character die. And I knew going in that he would be my favorite, by virtue of being played by my boi. Also, Joseph is an incredible onscreen crier, damn. Every time he gets emotional, I do too. Please someone protect that sweet boy 🥺😭

Schnitzel is an incredible cat actor - no cat I’ve ever known would have put up with any of this, lmao. I figured he would survive too. Not just because we got that (very spoilery) shot a few days ago of Joseph in the yellow sweater, holding the cat, obviously from the ending (which also spoiled that Eric would probably live too, of course). No, I didn’t think they would kill the cat just on a hunch. Despite the first movie being very famous for killing a child in the opening scene, I knew in my heart that Frodo was safe.

I want to see so much more of these characters, even though Sam was obviously doomed, if not from the creatures than from her illness. But Eric and Frodo though… Part of me says “No! *whacks hand with a ruler* Leave it!” But still… I don’t want to leave them yet.

My only real criticism is that, for a horror movie, I didn’t find it all that scary. Maybe it’s just the premise in general that doesn’t scare me that much. If I eventually watch the other two movies and don’t find them scary either, I’ll know that’s the case. Not a dig against John Krasinski or anyone else who wrote/created it, but it’s hard to truly scare me with horror movies anymore - I’m too much of an old hat at this. Good tension and build up though! That scene with Eric and Frodo in the sort of nest-like area? Damn, son. Good stuff.

Overall, absolutely great film. Lupita and Joseph are amazing, and have superb chemistry, and I hope they do more films together eventually. Schnitzel is a good boy and deserves many, many delicious cat treats. And, thankfully, you don’t need to have seen the other two movies to understand what’s happening. That was a slight concern of mine, lol.

8/10

Recommended!

[thatrickmcginnis]

BERNIE WORRELL, Toronto, 1987

I became a Parliament-Funkadelic fan before I heard a note of their music. It was 1977, and I was reading my brother-in-law's copy of Rolling Stone, which contained a concert review of the P-Funk Earth Tour at the back of the magazine. I saw the costumes and the spaceship and despite Toronto radio being nearly completely P-Funk-free at the time, I thought this looked like it must sound amazing. When I finally found my way to hearing something by George Clinton and his band(s) - I think it might have been "Flash Light" but I'm not sure - I wasn't disappointed, and when I started taking photos I made it my mission to get a portrait of anyone who was involved in the P-Funk universe. First up, and quite without expecting it, was keyboardist Bernie Worrell.

I had, of course, seen Bernie Worrell as part of the extended Talking Heads filmed by Jonathan Demme for Stop Making Sense. P-Funk were on something of a hiatus in the '80s, so various members of the group were appearing in all kinds of situations, and Worrell showed up in Toronto as part of the Golden Palominos - drummer Anton Fier's art rock/indie supergroup. Worrell was born in New Jersey and was an accomplished musician, studying at Juilliard and the New England Conservatory of Music before a meeting with George Clinton inspired him to move to Detroit and become part of the collective of musicians recording and touring as either Parliament or Funkadelic or both.

I shot precisely four frames of Bernie Worrell, who I nervously approached during soundcheck at the El Mocambo, a Toronto club, knowing that I only had a third of a roll of 120 film left in my Mamiya C330. The stew of influences I was processing as a young photographer included Francis Wolff's work on the covers of Blue Note albums, and while I might not have been able to explain it at the time, I was definitely paying homage to (or ripping off, depending on how you look at it) Wolff's work on records by John Coltrane, Bud Powell and "Baby Face" Willette. I'm not sure these photos - the whole of the shoot, as of this post - have ever been published outside my old blog. Bernie Worrell died of cancer in 2016.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

Thanks for the tag @greencloakedfae

Three Non-romantic Duos [in order of chronology of exposure]:

1) Kate Todd and Tony DiNozzo, NCIS (the later season canon survival AU can kiss my ass)

2) Syenite/Essun and Alabaster, The Broken Earth Trilogy

3) Lola and Francis, Reign

A Ship That Might Surprise Others:

I honestly don't think my ships are ever going to surprise anybody really, but maybe Barbara Howard and Melissa Schemmenti, Abbott Elementary

Last Song:

Oh that's easy, lol, I've been reviewing my playlists for to make a mixtape for my baby cousin, so the last thing I listened to was "u" by Kendrick Lamar (OBVIOUSLY this was immediately preceded by "i" because to do otherwise is sacrilege to me)

Last Film:

Lmao I don't watch movies, so this'll take a minute. I think that unfortubately there is a REALLY solid chance that the last movie I watched was John Tucker Must Die

Currently Reading:

[Fiction] Libba Bray's The Diviner's series

[Non-Fiction] Anarkata's Move Like Mycorrhizae - Some Suggestions For Praxis

Currently Watching:

For the drama - Reign

For the quality - Dimension 20 Misfits and Magic

For the sleep-inducing absurdity - Designated Survivor

Currently Consuming:

A truly unfathomable amount of heritage crafting technical/critical exploration, including a lot of history bounding garment making, manual wood carving and carpentry techniques, wild-crafting ecological management, and nutritional studies.

Currently Craving:

Fluidsssssssss, my guy I am so dehydrated rn lol literally spent the day looking up how to get IV therapy

Tags if they wanna:

@loreofthejungle

@emrylurkeroftheloch

@nerdomancer

@headspace-hotel