#But that also factors into my enjoyment of the film

[supercalifragipopculturevomit]

A GUIDE THROUGH DANIEL BRÜHL'S FILMOGRAPHY

Now that I’ve gone through most of Daniel’s works, I thought this table might help those who are about to embark on the same obsessive journey I began months ago. I have no intention of spoiling anything, I’m only hoping this will provide someone a good idea of what to expect and help them in the selection process. Like, All Quiet on the Western Front is an excellent film but I wouldn’t want to watch that when I’ve had a really shitty day and I just need something light and dumb.

I do a 1 to 10 rating to make it as precise and objective as possible but know that some areas will be subject to my personal taste, factors like the mood I was in while watching it, and the oft-faulty machine that is my memory.

Before I get into the sections, let me quickly paint a picture of my personal taste. From Daniel’s works, my top 3 are Rush (2013), Goodbye Lenin! (2003), and Inglorious Basterds (2009). If we get into favorite films of all-time, it would include Parasite (2019), Before Sunrise (1995), When Harry Met Sally (1989), Atonement (2007), A Quiet Place (2018), Amélie (2001), The Dark Knight (2008), Arrival (2016), and Past Lives (2023). I’m always down for a dark comedy, an epic drama/romance, and a psychological thriller.

Now that's out of the way, onto the TABLE SECTIONS:

ROLE PROMINENCE – how much do you see of Daniel in this film? And, no, this has nothing to do with his ass—though that is always a welcome sight.

IMPORTANT – do we learn something from this movie? Are there interesting concepts being explored? Is it relevant? Does it carry a significant message, however obvious? Is it a career highlight for Daniel? These are the considerations for this category.

PAINFUL – are the themes dark and heavy? Is it stressful to watch? Is Daniel tortured into a pulp? Does it tug at your heartstrings? Is the movie deliberately cringey and embarrassing? This section covers a wide spectrum, so you must refer to the other sections to infer if it’s worth the pain. I have a high tolerance for violence and dark humor, what pains me is a plot that goes nowhere, a poor script, or a movie that wastes so much potential. How invested I am with the story and the characters also has a bearing on my rating. For instance, I feel zero empathy for Chris in Cargo because he's an idiot who had it coming.

WATCHABLE – does it hold your attention throughout? Is it enjoyable? Is it something you can watch over and over again? I have to stress that this section is sometimes influenced by my expectations of a movie and, often, by what I need in that moment.

ADDITIONAL NOTES – here I try to add factors that might have affected my viewing experience, further insight into my rating, and other vital (or not-so-vital) information.

p.s. didn't bother watching 2 Days in Paris and 2 Days in New York because I knew he only had a cameo in those.

OTHER RELATED BLOGS:

The Best of Daniel Brühl 5 Types of Daniel Brühl Characters In search of Daniel Brühl movies?

[fantasygerard2000]

Details from Early Versions of Inside Out 2

With the recent release of Inside Out 2 on home video, we get to see the deleted scenes of the film where the plot differs from the final version. This is gonna be a speculative post as I assume what the basic premises are.

From these videos, we can see that the filmmakers had intended to add more emotions before trimming them down to the ones we got in the film.

This was an issue they had in the first film as having way too many emotions would makes things too complicated. The ones that are explicitly named are shown below.

This is not to say that all of them were going to be in the film, but rather only a selected number of them are kept as shown in the finished film.

From the Pool Party deleted scene, the film's premise is generally about Riley's teenage experiences and her struggles fitting in with her peers.

The same scene implies that Anxiety might have always been the intended antagonist. Well, more accurately her alter ego, Self Loathing.

The idea of Anxiety "turning into a monstrous version of her" is almost kept as shown below with an alternative take on her as "Tia".

Another idea even suggests Anxiety is this Kaiju who grows big whenever she/it feels out of control. This idea most likely never made pass development.

The "monster Anxiety" idea was eventually scrapped by remnants of it remains in the film as in the climax where she's spiraling on the console suggests that.

Notably, Self Loathing and Shame, another scrapped emotion who was also the intended main antagonist in a later draft share a lot of similarities.

I already addressed in a previous post about how there are two versions of Shame; a large shadowy creature who resides somewhere in the depths of the mind and an emotion form who almost made it the final film as shown in the first image of concept art above and the "Shame Spiral" deleted scene with Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui, who all four made it in the final film, being present.

A detail shown in three deleted scenes suggest a plot point about Joy "breaking". As in her glow is flickering and she's unable to drive Riley. The other main four emotions are also experiencing the effects of puberty as shown in the concept art below and the Puberty Park deleted scene. Notably, this is absent in the Pool Party deleted scene, suggesting that this idea came later before being scrapped as well.

My best guess is that Anxiety/Self Loathing idea was the first draft with the premise likely being about Joy losing her glow and control of Riley and Self Loathing forcing Riley to grow up by shaming her for being childish. This draft later evolved into a version where the other four core emotions are being effected by Riley's puberty and Self Loathing's motivation being given to Shame, who was a shadowy creature with her own domain and console who Joy later confronts. This then later evolved into making Shame an emotion like the newer ones who had Anxiety's role as the "leader" in making Riley make bad decisions.

The director stated that Shame's removal from the final draft for a variety of reasons; the moral of “Don’t shame yourself” came off as a bit too preachy, it was difficult to think of a way to redeem someone as negative, harsh, and critical as Shame, her attitude brought down the overall enjoyment of the movie, shame isn’t something universal that everyone deals with like the rest of the emotions, and psychologists that Pixar consulted with over the movie even noted that it technically wasn’t even an emotion.

The film's general premise about teenage puberty was toned down as the focus is primarily on Riley's friendship with Bree and Grace. Notably, Grace is shown to be a major factor as shown in two of the deleted scenes above; Riley unintentionally humiliated her at the Pool Party and revealing her embarrassing secret at the Never-Have-I-Ever game, likely resulting a rift in their friendship. This is somewhat kept in the final film with Riley accidentally hitting grace at a hockey match in the climax.

Now, this part I wanna point out the few details on the designs of the new emotions and how they changed during development.

In the Pool Party deleted scene, the new main emotions alongside an early version of Anxiety were Jealousy, Suspicion and an early version of Embarrassment who can speak from the start and a much more posh looking Ennui.

Suspicion's design was originally intended to resemble a spy with one design having multiple eyes before eventually being made into this punk caricature to tie with the film's teenager motif.

Suspicion's role was later cut and more attention was guven to Ennui, who had a more posh design as according to the creators was from the inspiration from french paintings of rich noble people looking bored despite their wealth, which might explain one design of Ennui dressed as a princess.

Ennui was later reworked to resemble a modern and common form of boredom and laziness with the teenager influence centered on her being on her phone.

Jealousy was this short business woman who from the concept art below is mean, petty and resentful.

Jealousy was obviously later reworked into Envy, who still had the negative traits associated with the emotional as shown in these more monstrous designs.

Guess teenagers really are monsters.

Anywho, Envy was later made to be a positive emotion. Her wide eyes and tendency to awe at things are given from another scrapped emotion, accurately named Awe.

Coming back to Shame, there are pieces of her wearing sunglasses. A somewhat neat detail as people who are ashamed tend to avoid eye contact, which might explains one design has her hair covering one eye.

With Inside Out 2 being a big hit, a third film is likely to be inevitable in the distance future. I would love to see more emotions and what dynamic they have but we'll just stick with fan interpretations of these emotions.

Speaking of which, I personally mentally headcanoned that these scrapped emotions are present in a future story; Jealousy representing the negative aspect of the emotion while Envy represents the positive, Schandenfreude being a foil to Joy, and maybe even Shame doing what she does best, addressing the flaws on everything and how the rest of the emotions need to learn from her on how to improve Riley. Heck, why not bring back Pride and Hope who were scrapped from the first movie.

For now, I need to head to sleep and I hope you all have a good day.

[spacetrashpile]

DRACTOBER: DAY ONE

The first day of Drac-tober is upon us! I will be upfront with y’all, the likelihood that these will actually be daily updates continues to slim. I am a college student, first and foremost, but the wi-fi in my dorm has also totally shit the bed, and until that gets resolved (and I don’t know when that will be), watching all these films will be way more inconvenient. But, we’ll see how it all goes!

If you missed the update, I decided to use a random wheel to determine my watch order, rather than the chronological order I listed the films in originally. This film, however, was not decided by the wheel, but by the fact that my roommates really wanted to watch it with me, so it got first dibs.

For the first day of Drac-tober, we will be reviewing… Van Helsing (2004)!

As a reminder, I will be rating each film on two 1-10 scales: its accuracy as a Dracula adaptation, and how much I enjoyed it. This is a different scale than “was it good”. This disclaimer is particularly important for today’s film.

Van Helsing follows Gabriel (I KNOW) Van Helsing, monster hunter for the Vatican circa the 1880s. Van Helsing, played by Hugh Jackman, is peak 2000s eye candy, tragic but amnesiac past and all. He’s sent on a quest to slay Count Dracula and help Romani (not the word they use) prince and princess Velkan and Anna Valerious lift the curse on their family line. This movie includes most of the iconic movie monsters you can think of in some capacity (Dracula and his brides, of course, alongside Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and various werewolves), and is, to say the least, only barely a Dracula adaptation.

Now, onto our first scale- is this a good adaptation of Dracula?

No. Of course not. But I did not expect it to be, and as far as I’m aware, it didn’t really market itself as such. Just about the only thing this film had down about Dracula was the Count’s horny tension with literally everyone, but that’s just sort of a given for any film with vampires in it, frankly. Easy 1/10 on the accuracy scale. They couldn’t even get Van Helsing’s first name right.

Now, as previously stated, I watched this film with two of my roommates. This greatly upped the enjoyment factor. First of all, watching my roommates lust after Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale was extremely funny. Second of all, the value of being able to shout, together, in complete surprise at the twists and turns of this movie cannot be overstated. My favorite example is when the credits began, and the dedication to the film was to the director’s deceased father. We were flabbergasted.

This movie was also laughably strange, most of the time. The plot moved quickly enough and was stupid enough that I had fun with it, despite the fact that it had absolutely nothing to do with any of the characters involved in the film. Frankly, the most accurately adapted character was probably Frankenstein’s monster, since he was actually fully articulate (though that’s where most of the similarities to his book counterpart end).

There was also the element of the brides, who are given quite a bit more screen time and motive in this film than in the actual novel. They all have names, which is nice, and while their motive of wanting to bring their children with Dracula to life is… interesting, at least it’s there. There was also a wild amount of homoerotic tension between Aleera (the bride who lives the longest) and Anna (the female lead) which I did not see coming, but did appreciate.

That, however, is where my praise for the women in this film ends. While the brides have names and motivations, a step up from the novel, this movie is not good to its women. They are sex objects, first and foremost (and I suspect this is why the lesbian tension is there at all). They are motivators for the men above all else and literally all of them end up dead by the film’s conclusion. I cannot describe the disappointment and anger that was in the room when we realized Anna died.

There is also, of course, the fetishization and misrepresentation of Romani people present in the film. The script refers to them using the G-slur, for one, but all these supposedly Romani characters are played by white people, and are also getting saved by this random white man. The Romani heritage of the Velarious clan is basically forgotten past the first 30 minutes of the film, and thank god for it, because I know it wouldn’t have been handled well.

All in all, was this, by any stretch of the imagination a good movie? No, absolutely not. But it was a great movie to watch with my roommates on a Friday night. 7/10 on the enjoyment scale.

In conclusion, was Van Helsing (2004) a particularly good film, as an adaptation of Dracula or otherwise? No, absolutely not. But you knew that already. I would, however, recommend giving it a watch if you have friends to enjoy it with and maybe a beer or two. I don’t know if I’ll ever be returning to this film, but I had a great time watching it. It’s score may be a 4/10 overall, but it was a great start to the month.

[arthestron]

Why has so many of the Saw movies gotten such bad ratings from both critics and audiences!? I'm usually pretty critical to movies but I love all the Saw movies so much. Both from a "professional" (directing student) view and from a personal enjoyment view. Only couple of films I'm not too into are Jigsaw and Spiral (Don't dislike them though)... but... the rest of them are pretty awesome. Saw 3D is a little goofy a couple of times- but it's still not bad, in my opinion? I get that many disliked Kramer dying so early on, but the whole Hoffman narrative is so good, and Kramer's "ghost" is playing such an important part through the rest of the story.

I also love how they puzzle the story together piece by piece through the whole franchise. I'm a sucker for storytelling in flashbacks etc.

The characters are interesting and well rounded enough to keep you invested in Saw's sort of storytelling, and the more you look into them, the more nuances you see to them.

Plus also the creative and wonderful work of camera/transitions, colours and practical effects/props through the movies. There's so many details throughout Saw as a whole, and I feel like much is overlooked especially in mainstream media, and by casual horror consumers. Much maybe because of the famous term- gore porn- and the shock factor plenty of people watch it for.

Nah I don't get it. If somebody has a good theory/opinion on why most of the Saw movies have mediocre ratings, then I'm seriously interested in hearing. Maybe people just have bad taste 🙄

Or maybe I'm just crazy and obsessed and overlook the bads cause I'm head- first- deep into this who knows

[the-story-dragon]

How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

I haven't watched this movie in 9 years and in that time I'd forgotten just how epic the movie actually is! 9 years ago, a friend of mine (Anushka) who was obsessed with the movie was hell-bent on getting me to watch the movie series and downloaded the movies onto a USB and forced it into my hands. I ended up watching only the first two movies and I vaguely remember details of them. I've been meaning to watch the third one, but never really got around to doing so. Nine years later a reel on instagram reminded me of the existence of these movies and well, here I am, 21 years old, and watching an animated film about dragons. And I am extremely proud to report that I enjoyed every single second of the movie.

Right from the opening of the movie, to the very end, how the narration ties it all up in a beautiful circle, is absolutely spectacular. The story is solid, with a really good plotline and rare tropes (well, at least during the time of the movie's release). I absolutely love how starkly different Hiccup is from the rest of the Vikings and how the movie shows his identity crisis. It was absolutely breathtaking to see the bond and trust between Toothless and Hiccup develop. Hiccup was finally being seen for who he really was and for the first time in his life, he was not being scorned for it. He was receiving love and acceptance and understanding, unconditionally, for the first time in his life, and all that came from this supposedly dangerous creature that his entire clan had vowed to kill. Hiccup finally has the chance to grow into himself and he does. Whereas he was awkward and wrong-footed when handling weapons, he was confident and sure of himself on the back of a dragon. Where he could get neither his clan nor his own father to trust him or take him seriously, his demeanor assured Toothless enough to give him his trust and respect. Yes, the journey was not easy. But it was really beautiful to watch the two hurt individuals find companionship in the other.

The rest of the characters were also built really well. Despite their obvious flaws, the fact that they were not too stringent upon their beliefs after seeing evidence contrary to said beliefs was a redeeming factor. There were no characters that were detestable. Each had their own strengths and their own flaws. Of course, there were times when I was mad at certain characters for being unreasonable (read, Stoick), but I was able to understand that they were just blinded by their experiences and what they have believed their entire lives. That being said, I don't know if Stoick was a good parent to Hiccup. He did redeem himself towards the end of the movie, but there are two entire movies left for him to screw up. I guess, I'll just have to wait and see.

Hiccup's own brand of sass and humor truly made the even more enjoyable to watch. I can't believe that the target audience for this was kids. I will fight anyone who says that httyd is not for adults.

Overall, 10/10.

100% would recommend. Will definitely re-watch. Adding this to my list of comfort movies.

[notedchampagne]

ok so i haven't been following for SUPER long so apologies if these aren't to your taste or if you've seen them before but ive got a lot of movie recs. a lot of these are pretty dark though so check doesthedogdie

The Handmaiden - you may have seen this before but if you haven't it's a lesbian Must Watch. Gothic Korean thriller

Barbarella - literally one of Gideon's comics. not horror plus it's got Jane Fonda

(ok here are some that are less well known)

One cut of the dead - zombie movie with a twist. the fun factor is off the charts

Dark waters (1993) - nonsensical 90s italian nun horror. some of the most ninth house shit ive seen in my life

Alucarda - nonsensical 70s mexican nun horror. also ninth house core

An American werewolf in London - for the body horror and tragedy enjoyers

suspiria (1977) - one of the prettiest movies you'll ever watch in your life. actually Italian horror from the 70s-90s is always excellent if you want good visuals

Faust (1926) - gorgeous gorgeous German expressionist silent film

Also Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) and The Fall (2006)(not horror) were both costume designed by Eiko Ishioka who was a genius

i could send you approximately a billion more but i'll stop there since i have no idea if you even like horror 🫡 im off to go waste like an hour at work making a letterboxd list of movies to recommend to locked tomb fans

ive seen suspiria! that movie had so many good colors. ive heard of the handmaiden but i have no idea how closely it follows the book itself. if its got lesbians it probably doesnt. other than that thank you!! ill add these to the list

edit: ok i confused the handmaiden for a handmaids tale thanks for clearing it up

[nakedmonkey]

It's halfway through the year! Got any favorite albums/books/tv shows/whatever to recommend?

oh hiii!!! <3

Yeah! I've read a few of books I've really enjoyed:

Elliot Page's memoir, Pageboy (heartbreaking, beware of so many triggers)

Private Rites by Julia Armfield, which I didn't love as much as I loved Our Wives Under the Sea, but it was a solid read. Her style is really beautiful, so it was still enjoyable. It's about sisters, and about living in a world that is essentially dying. The use of rain is super effective here, and provides a haunting, at times claustrophobic reading experience. It really adds to spook factor. It is also very queer, which is all I'm interested in as of late.

A Good Happy Girl by Marissa Higgins is SO good. I love a messy queer girl with many many issues. I've noticed that's sort of a current trend in modern queer lit, I've read tons of it lately, but this was a standout for me. It's about a girl who becomes involved with an older lesbian couple (I believe they're both lesbians) and they have a very interesting dynamic, the three of them.

Death Valley by Melissa Broder. I'd read Milk Fed before this and I didn't love it, but her writing intrigued me enough that I wanted to give this one a try and I actually really loved it! It's really funny and the protagonist is just such a loser (my favorite) - it takes place primarily in the desert. Our lead character is a writer, off on a writing trip that is really an excuse to avoid her chronically ill husband, and her equally ill father. Such a quick easy read, super entertaining.

Exalted by Anna Dorn. this was unexpectedly fun to read! It's about the 2 most annoying women on the planet. Shallow, self centered, selfish etc., and they're obsessed with astrology. I feel that's all I can say without spoiling anything but I loved it. Hilarious book. Since reading this, I've read Dorn's first book, and I didn't love that one, primarily because I started to see a pattern in the author's material that I haven't decided I like yet. it seems like all her books are set in LA, and they all exist in either the same universe or a sort peripheral/parallel universe to one another?? Not sure. BUT as a stand alone book, it was solid. Currently reading her latest. We'll see.

(a lot of white ladies in this rec list i'm noticing. If you have any recs by queer authors of color, I'd love some pls!)

Film: I have been really immersed in horror lately. I've been finding the distance from reality very comforting and these have been the standouts in past months:

The First Omen. My god. So good! So refreshing and bold. A gorgeous homage to 70's horror. Definitely recommend.

Birth/Rebirth. Wow wow wow. I LOVED this. Such a cool film. I'm such a huge Judy Reyes fan, and I've always really enjoyed Marin Ireland, and they fucking ATE. Their chemistry is amazing in this, the writing is great. I haven't been this excited about a new director since Rose Glass. I'm pumped to see what they do next!

TV: Currently obsessing over Interview With the Vampire. Gorgeous flawless bloody show. Can't say enough good things about it. And Under the Bridge!

Thank you for the ask, doll! xoxoxoxo

(curious to know what you're reading these days! Your taste is unmatched)

ETA: as far as music goes, I've been revisiting some older albums. The Colour and the Shape by Foo Fighters, all of The Walkmen, early Interpol, and some early Bette Midler with splashes of Chappell Roan <3

[unityrain24]

Saw your tags about Star Wars, it seems Star Wars stans and modern MCU stans are two peas in a pod. :/

im not entirely sure which tags you were referring to, because i have reblogged several starwars posts with Tags, but honestly, the mcu and starwars really are two peas in a pod. And im honestly surprised there isnt more comradery/comparing between the fandoms

both started out as, while definitely not "high art" or anything, legitimately good enjoyable films, with relatable characters the audience could feel empathy and compassion for, exciting new powers and places, fun and adventurous stories, and more, which instantly became beloved classic that people thought about with nostalgia and pleasantness. And they were and by people who cared and the people who watched them were compelled to care and create communities.

But then both franchises saw a shift, from making films from a passionate and moneymaking point of view, to purely making films from a moneymaking point of view. While star wars saw this happen with the franchise being picked up a few years after to make sequels, the mcu's shift happened more gradually, since there was no time in-between making movies.

now, while i would not consider myself a StarWars Fan, my sister and cousins most definitely were, so i had to watch basically everything in order to keep a conversation with them (not that i didnt enjoy it, i quite liked it and all the lore, it just didnt hold the special place in my heart that thing i consider myself a Fan of do). I've watched the movies, the clone wars series, rebels, the mandalorian, etc all the way through. It's been a while since i was keeping up with everything, so forgive me for not having quite a comprehensive understanding and opions of it as i did say, 3-4 years ago lol.

But the starwars sequels are a lot like the latest phases of the mcu. While i cant remember if they explicitly go against any prestablished canon like the later mcu phases do, they definitely go against the spirit and point/purpose of the original (and even prequel) films.From what i remember, the sequels also had went through several different directers and had direction and script changes and was a whole mess, so even the three films were sort of inconsistent or at the very leat felt oddly-thrown together (<-i may be wrong on the specifics of that its been a while. but it was something along those lines). Also like the later phases of the mcu, they relied a lot on the "nostalgia factor" with not only easter eggs but bringing back old ideas, concepts, plots, even characters, since it "worked so well the first time," when really what the "first time" did was think of new things, present old things in new ways, and tell make art from a place of passion, community, and connection, rather than a "whats the least i can do to make the most money" mindset formula (a point brought up a lot by @therese-lokidottir on many of their recent mcu critiques).

Starwars, unlike the mc, did have a brief period of "redemption" where it looked like the franchise would be saved and given back to the hands of people passionate about starwars, stoytelling, and film, with stuff like the final season of clonewars, the mandalorian, and a few other things. That was a great time to be a starwars fan. I wasn't even a fan, and it was kind of magical for me. But now it seems like they are back of the capitalist art-destroying path, hard. They have been pumping out series after series after series (once again going for the "nostalgia" thing, bringing back the clonewars artstyle, several beloved characters, and more), but it all feels so hollow. The stories feel more like they are just putting in a whole bunch of "wow, thats so shocking" and sewing them together with "hey i loved that character!". The costuming and makeup is absolute trash. The worst by far is hera (an alien character from the animated Rebels series, showing up live-action in Ahsoka). It is hideous. I have seen cosplays of her better than what the actual multi-bullion-dollar corpoation disney with all the best resources put on that screen. The costume looked like it was from spirit halloween, the makeup looked patchy and strange, they left out simple details of her design, and all the colours were Off. Examples:

Hera in Rebels:

Hera Cosplayers (x and x):

Hera in the Ahsoka Series: (it is like. seriously disconcerting to me)

and again, the costuming was not the most pressing point. Its actually relatively low on the list of points of everything bad with current starwars. But its good for a visual example. My sister and my cousins loved starwars. Passionate. Ahsoka was one of my sister's favourite characters. She couldnt even get though a full episode of ashoka. I havent heard anything new of starwars from our cousins, either. And we see eachother relatively often. I havent watched a new starwars thing in like... forever now. And it seems like neither have they. And not because they got sick of starwas, i can tell you that. They got sick of the new starwars being pumped out and shoved down their throats where the only things that resembled what they had loved were twisted into something else. Which, at least in my experience, is far, far worse than if they just ended things ubruptly and unfairly. At least mutilated corpse can rest.

The mcu's decline was, again, more gradual, like boiling a frog. Thor ragnarok is where i would probably pinpoint the beginnings though. I didn't like it at first, because it was out of character, sort of reversed elements of the character's well-developing character arcs , narratively picked on some characters more than others, etc. But, it was still a well-beloved film by many, in-universe explanations for why the characters, arcs, and plots were so different could be plausibly thought up, it was fun and unique, and i could make myself ignore the bad parts and focus on the good and enjoy it for a while. But by the time the loki series came out? There wasnt even any of that anymore. No passion. No community. No love of art. No respect for the previous artists and their art, that the new makers were supposed to honour and continue. While ragnarok's morals of the story could be a little iffy at times (attempting to critique colonialism/imperialism, but falling flat because mocking loki for dismantling it; making jokes at points of the film where it was a little inappropriate), the loki series was straight up horrifying. Perhaps most noteably, fucking. GLORIFYING AND EXCUSING/SYMPATHIZING FASCISM??? and labeling genocide as a "necessary evil?" (though, once again, that was not the only immoral "moral" the series preached). Disgusting. And the MCU is pumping out way more films than starwars, and seem far deeper in the money-lust trenches too.

either way, both are suffering and both are bought by disney (and oddly, both keep giving more and more screentime to the fascist characters. but at least starwars isnt romanticizing it like the mcu is...)

and it hurts so much when something important to you is taken from you, and twisted, and ruined, and its mutilated corpse is hung up on string and paraded around as a puppet before your eyes, and burned into your mind even when you finally tear yourself away. And then swarms of people thinking your ridiculous for caring so much about something so unimportant, and others defending the very monstrosity that did this.

But its not ridiculous or silly or inferior to be attatched to a fictional character or fictional world or fictional story or whatever. They can provide comfort, and ways to explore and understand and even come to terms with yourself (or even others!) (and can be especially important coping mechanism for mentally ill people!). And art is a such an innately human thing, for us to express ourselves, and communal art (like film!) is a tradition across humanity and time!

And with the whole thing with people these days defending/denying what capitalism is doing to art, and denying the notion that art has any influence or effect on "real life"... why are these such absurd concept to you, that you liken to some crazy conspiracy theory? Are you really so blind as to not see it happening before you? Is the blindfold over your eyes really so soft it feels like nothing there? They say a bird who doesnt know its in a cage thinks its free. These people seem to think that drastic, unfair, unjust, immoral, inequal changes and systems are only things of the past. And often, the past doesnt feel real. Dinosaurs and the roman empire and some genocide in some faraway land in some faraway time can at times seem just as unreal as mythical creatures and stories. And even if such terrible things were to happen now, surely theyd be able to see it coming. But things like this dont change in an instant. They are gradual. Like boiling a frog. You dont notice. And even if things arent the worst they can be, and never become the worst they can be, they are still bad. Things arent required to be certified the worst of worst in order for change to be allowed to happen. The worst of the worst isnt even a thing.

Our art is being taken from us. We are being overworked and underpayed. Our whole lives are dictated by how "valuable" we are. Our environments are being polluted and decimated and our planet is becoming more and more inhospitable. Racism and queerphobia and ableism and more are taking lives. And none of those things are at the very worst they can be. They could all be much, much, much worse. But we shouldnt just sit around and be grateful its not worse and do nothing more, nor should we deny anything is wrong at all. If you had cancer youd want to do what you could to get better. If you If broke your leg youd do what you could to make it better. Even if you just accidentally cut your hand or finger while chopping vegetables, youd bandages it up. We always should try to make things better.

We deserve to have our art continue to be art. Just as we deserve all the much more pressing areas of our lives to be better too

Anyways, marvel and starwars really are two peas in a pod. And that pod is with other pods, and the plant those pods share is film. Or perhaps even art as a whole. The mcu and starwars are just really good examples of whats happening right now, because not only does it feel like perhaps its hitting them the most, but also because since they are such large franchises, you can really see and document the progression of whats happening with each instalment.

two peas in a pod :( <3

[lesbiancolumbo]

hey sydney! i just found out that i'll be going to LA for a conference thing this summer and i was wondering if as the resident old hollywood enjoyer you have any recommendations for some film-related sightseeing i could do in my free time? thank you 🫶 (ps. i reread some of your ssos fic the other week and was yet again rendered speechless by the evil homosexuality of it all. thank you queen!)

hello!!!!! i definitely have some recommendations for you. i'm not sure which parts of LA you'll be in - most of this stuff is in the hollywood area and i'll make note of which things are a little farther off/harder to get to.

obviously the big touristy thing is gonna be the hollywood walk of fame - if you've never been to LA, you may as well walk down it and ooh and ahh at the stars lol. but there's a couple of cool things on hollywood & highland that don't get enough attention... one is the max factor hollywood museum. you should absolutely go and check it out, they have so much preserved old hollywood memorabilia. it's like four floors of stuff and it's so much fun. just down the street is a great old bookstore called larry edmunds. not sightseeing technically but like, worth popping in regardless. i bought a john cassavetes poster there and larry told me as i was buying it that it belonged to john himself, and as that interaction was happening, my now best friend in the whole wide world eddie muller was signing copies of his book behind us. you never know who you're gonna run into there!

if you are a big elliott gould fan, you can walk a little ways up highland and turn onto a street called camrose and the really cool building phil marlowe lives in in the long goodbye is right there. you can walk right up to it and look at it. i also think there's another museum right across highland from that building but can't confirm if it's any good.

okay. if you're not a cemetery freak like me, skip this section. still with me? cool. go to hollywood forever. in the summer they do film screenings there and this is very cool. but it's also a great first hollywood cemetery to go to as it's very open and encouraging about people being there and taking pictures and looking at graves. now.... if you have access to a car or want to take an uber, go to westwood memorial in westwood instead. it's tucked in the middle of a very busy neighborhood but it's a quiet and absolutely beautiful little place. say hi to my beloved burt and marilyn and john and peter and dorothy for me. <3 now if you REALLY wanna be a freak and you have a car, go to forest lawn glendale. go to the great masoleum and see our beloved liz taylor...... glendale is a large ass cemetery and VERY beautiful, worth it for the views alone. lots of people are there are well. (sidebar: DM me if you really want to go to some cemeteries and find people, i've been to all these locations many times and can help you out)

i've heard the warner brothers tour is VERY fun but haven't gotten to go yet! the academy museum is great too. if you're going to be out near westwood the billy wilder theatre at the hammer museum is (if i recall correctly) still offering completely free admission and they show great stuff so check that out. if you really love film noir, i know there's a company that does driving tours (these take up good chunks of the day though), but you can also just....... with a car, drive up and look at the double indemnity house lol.

let me know if there's anything specific you are looking for or want to see... but the big stuff is covered, i think, especially if you haven't done much hollywood sightseeing, etc.

have a blast! let me know what you end up doing!

[iohourtime]

Ryosuke Yamada: SIDE B - Change

anan 2347

(There is some paraphrasing of the original article. Please let me know if there are any errors.)

Note: This is part 2 of a 2 part interview. You can read “Side A - Expression” here.

Yamada Ryosuke has been involved in various forms of expression, but there is one thing that he has cherished above all. That's the job of an actor. When he participated in his first drama “Tantei Gakuen Q” at the age of 13, he discovered the enjoyment and had been passionate [about acting] since then.

“I simply like this genre of work and this feeling of love has never changed since my first drama. With respect to acting, I have to become someone I haven’t seen or know before, and to do that, I have to think hard about who this person is and why he feels this way. However, the time [thinking about these things] is fun. The feeling is like when I just made a new friend and it is really nice to spend time with that person. I’d wonder about the kind of person he is, and the more I find out, the more interested I am. I think [the process of discovering a new character] is close to that. If this character is a historical figure, I can do research into the history and background of the person; if this character is fictional, I can make it up using my imagination.”

What comes to mind is a character in the movie "Moeyo Ken" released two years ago - Okita Souji, a genius swordsman of the Shinsengumi who is said to have died at the young age of 27. While there is a strong impression of him as someone with a tragic fate, but as played by Yamada san, who smiled innocently as he committed brutal murder without hesitation, his innocence was more intense than his fragility and was realistically portrayed.

“That movie was special. I think a big factor was that I was staying in Kyoto during the filming, so I was able to immerse myself in the real thing the whole time. When I went back to Tokyo, I was only doing group activities or recording variety shows, so there was little time to return to reality, and I felt that my sensibilities were gradually sharpened. I got so caught up in the role that it became normal for me not to drink or eat anything during that time, and I got sick... It was something I have never experienced on set before.”

The reason why he was so absorbed in his acting work was because he had tasted moments that shook him just by thinking about them.

“Just like with today’s shoot and when I was on set, there were moments when the actors, the camera operators, the lighting team, the audio team… and everyone involved were completely engaged as they worked together. It was the best feeling when I encountered these [moments] and I feel like I'm desperately trying to relive these moments again."

Because he valued his acting career, I wanted to ask him about his position as an idol. Perhaps because of this title, there are times when his acting is viewed with prejudice.

“I think it's more because I'm a Johnny's rather than being an idol, but I accept that as my destiny. There are hindrances with being a Johnny's, but on the other hand, there are things I can do because I'm a Johnny's and I think that's a huge benefit. If I don't want others to complain about me, I can only silence the discourse with my abilities. In fact, some of my senpais have done exactly that. On the contrary, it is only due to my own lack of ability that I can not do it. The idea is rather simple."

In the midst of such a conversation, he casually said, "Being an idol may be your vocation."

“Since I don’t know much about the world outside of [the entertainment industry], I won't be able to use [my skills] out there (laughs). However, since I've been an idol for a long time, I'm good at presenting what is needed [of me] in an instant. Although I also have a clear idea of what to do. However, what is asked of me is not always the same, so it is important to keep track of [the requests] and that is quite difficult. If I don't study how to present myself properly, I might not be able to do it. I've been conscious of that since I was small, so I'm good at it."

For example, during a live performance, your image is projected on the large screen at the venue.

“Basically, there are about 15 to 20 cameras installed at a live venue and the “switcher” decides when to cut one camera feed and switch to another. The other day, the switcher praised me, saying, "It's amazing that no matter what situation, no matter where the camera is faced, Yamada kun can find and look at it 100% of the time." I haven't been very conscious of this up till then, but if he said so, it must be true. Nowadays, cameras have a light that turns on when it is live, so the moment it lights up, I can find it in about a second no matter how large the venue. I want everyone at the venue to enjoy the show equally, whether they are sitting in the front row in the arena section or at the stands at the back of the dome. When [the camera] happens [to face me], I can interact through it so it can be seen by a lot of people, and I think that will be fair to everyone who has come [to the concert]. So when I think about that (including the technique), I feel that [being an idol] is my vocation."

However, he has been active since his early teens and there were times when he resisted being an idol.

“But it's work. It's amazing to know that there are people who are happy because of our hard work, right? I've thought about quitting several times in the past, but I still haven't quit, so I guess that's what I want to do after all."

He is the type who obsessively pursues things that he likes from the start. Gaming is something that exemplifies this. Among the games he’s enthusiastic about is "Apex Legends" and he reached the highest rank of Predator in February this year. Only the top 750 players in the world can attain the Predator rank. [T/N: Ignoring the 14+ hours of live streaming when he got the predator rank, he also just streamed for 9+ hours in the morning I wrote this part. Obsessive sounds apt.😅]

"Simply speaking, I find gaming fun. Especially when I’m playing with the pros, my motivation shoots up and I feel like I need to get better and I want to get better. After all, I want to do well. I want to be good at acting, I want to be good at dancing, and I want to be good at singing. Once I'm hooked, I want to taste and see the same thing all the time, so I keep doing the same things and that's not a problem. In my mind, rather than hard work, I feel like this is what happens when I pursue what I want to do.”

He started a gaming channel on YouTube called “Leo’s Playground” (Leoの游び場) two years ago, which is now a popular channel with about 860,000 subscribers. [T/N: I just checked and it’s now at 924,000 subscribers.]

“Regarding this, I am just really enjoying myself. I’m not conscious of being watched, it’s like I’m revealing my private life (laughs); it is really just a hobby. There are people who enjoy watching it, new fans are also increasing, and that’s a plus for both myself and the group, so I'm really grateful for this era. For me, I’m glad I can show my kouhai’s that there are other paths like this."

Yamada san said that since last year, there has been a big change in his approach to work. He used to think more about the group than anyone else and take the lead, but he said he's become more focused on himself.

“There was a time last year when I felt a little out of sorts. I cannot say more about that but after going through that, I thought I should take better care of myself.”

And at this time, he is turning 30.

“You may look at me like this (laughs), but isn't 30 years old a proper adult? It's the age when I have to look at myself and think about how to live. Up to now, I have been thinking about how to give back to the group through my solo activities. As a result, I have chosen not to do some jobs or things. But from this point on, I don't think I’ll make it too complicated and simply go “I’ll do it because I want to do it” or “I won’t do it because I don’t want to do it”. I think I should prioritize myself more. Of course I'll continue to do activities for the group and the fans, but it has always been a 70/30 split, where 30 were things I did for myself, so I'll try to reverse the ratio. I don't know if this choice will turn out to be good or bad, but I'm going to give it a try anyway." [T/N: About damn time.]

[tentacledwizard]

tumblr user tentacledwizard reviews: Employee of the Month

 

  So recently [read: a few hours ago], @cgtg hosted a sort of movie night. The movie was Employee of the Month, starring Dane Cook. I joined it because I am always willing to expand my cinematic repertoire and also cgtg’s Davekat stuff is really good. Like I don’t even ship Davekat that much but their content is excellent. And the Sandler rap perfectly encapsulates my opinions on Adam Sandler as an actor, because ever since my dad played Billy Madison my life has been ok I’ll just do the review now.

So okay, I was prepared to have an ironically good time. I was convinced the movie would be 100% shit tier, just like Dave Strider said. But I should have known that Dave is not a reliable source. Because this movie was fun. I had a great time. When it comes to official reviews, I’ve seen mainly lukewarm/frosty attitudes towards Employee of the Month but *clears throat* Whatever. 

Now, those who know me know of my passionate love for Home Depot. And if you didn’t know about this, now you do. I wrote a Home Depot/necromancy story in like 7th grade. Home Depot is paradise on earth. You could survive a zombie apocalypse in there. It has everything you need for survival- shelter, crops, energy drinks, etc. This movie basically takes place inside a Home Depot. I forget what the store was actually called. It doesn’t matter. You just need to understand that I love Home Depot so I will generally enjoy movies set inside Home Depots. That was a pretty big factor in my enjoyment. Never mind the fact that this was filmed inside a Costco.

Now onto the actual movie. By rom-com standards, is this a good rom-com? Ehhh. No. The main romance between Dane Cook and “Blond Tart” was half-baked. I saw nothing that distinguished the fair-haired love interest from the other rom-com love interests before/after her, except maybe her big ears. The pair had like nothing in common, mainly because I don’t really know about their interests? Gotta say that Dane Cook had far more chemistry with the other blond tart (aka the antagonist). I wasn’t rooting for the main couple. This is also partly because of the movie’s intense homosexuality. I am not even kidding. Their date was cute though, I just wish they actually had some things in common and we learned more about the love interest.

So basically the plot is that this guy Zack (Dane Cook) works at Fictional!Home Depot and he seems like kind of a “slacker.” He is rivals with a smarmy blond Eminem cousin named Vince (Dax Shepard), who seems like a “stand up guy.” Obviously he is a douche bag who flirts with everyone in a very unprofessional way. There’s some kind of subplot about the store trying to beat another retail place. Then this new employee (Jessica Simpson) waltzes into the place. (I could say she “breasted boobily,” but nah.) Her name is Amy and she allegedly has a thing for employees of the month. So Zack falls in love, but obviously Vince starts making some moves on her. Now Zack has to win Employee of the Month to get the girl, or else Vince will. (There was nothing to worry about though, he dates Amy without even getting the position yet. Also Vince is super awkward/gay.) 

So let me just bullet point this. I’ll cover the characters/plot points/romance plots.

CHARACTERS:

Zack: The main character, Dane Cook. For everyone watching, there was this process of thinking oh no he’s cute and then falling in love with him. Look, he is actually pretty cute. I don’t make the rules. That dorky smile of his is great. He does have his flaws, like being focused only on his own problems. Dude just apologize. But they do get addressed. He’s a pretty good main character, and he really knows how to treat a girl. Home Depot date? SIGN ME UP. That’s going to be me some day, ok? I will meet some dude who shares my love for Home Depot and together we will wander the dusky aisles filled with all manner of appliances. Welp I kind of lost the plot. Anyway he has great date ideas. His little yellow car thing is a complete travesty but I will let it slide. Jorge has the better yellow vehicle but of course he does. Jorge is gangsta. 

(guy has that Kubrick stare)

Vince: The main antagonist besides the nebulous “corporate.” At first he seems like a blond flashlight that draws in the ladies like moths. He truly seems like a suave douchebag. As the movie goes on, you learn that this is untrue (the “suave” part). He is really awkward. Probably the only person in love with him is my main guy Jorge (Efren Ramirez). More on that at ten. Anyway, Vince is really good at cashiering. He does an unprofessional little circus act with the products that makes the ladies allegedly swoon. He gets Employee of the Month many, many times. Can Zack possibly usurp him?? Who knows! So yeah, Vince is a sopping and pathetic fellow. At some points you want him to shut up, but at other points you feel this deep well of pity for his plight. Negative points for using the r-word once >:( but also hey this is 2006. 

Amy: Uh. Ummm. Well she seems very friendly and… like a love interest. Uh… I’m sure there has to be more to her. Right? Oh well. Her big ears are pretty cute. Sadly, she doesn’t exactly have a personality or agency over the plot. I don’t really like plots that are just two guys fighting over a girl, except that turned out to not really be part of the movie so it’s fine. At least she called out Zack when he was being stupid, but that was mainly just to milk some drama. I think she and Lily should date.

Jorge: Jorge, the man that you are. Look, he is amazing and I cannot lie. What even is a salmon churro? The entire chat was yelling every time he was on screen. He first appears as Vince’s lackey, and he mainly helps out Vince with his various sabotage attempts. But he turns out to have more depth than that. He is like a short bug. He is willing to stab an old lady. Jorge is what we call “gangsta.” Everything he does is cool in a Jorge sort of way. He really made the movie. You can fight me on this. 

Lily: The Human Resources manager. Okay, so she doesn’t have dialogue (I think) but I wanted to include her here because she is cool and really pretty and I had a minor sexuality crisis once she arrived on screen (it happens every other day. Don’t worry about it). I like the lily in her hair. She was so real for accepting a bribe and eating that Butterfinger. <3

Grandma: She could be referred to as feisty. You could also say she’s bisexual. Kudos to her for keeping it real with Zack. The “seed of love” speech was…really dubious!

Boss man: Whatever is going on with him, it’s very gay. He outright says that he thinks/has thought about kissing guys. Maybe there’s something between him and the policeman? Anyway, I feel pretty bad that his older brother emasculated him. Not much else to say. He’s not exactly a paragon of professionalism, which is what makes this movie fun. He totally wants to be the fatherly boss but he fails. His lackey’s name is Dirk. Strider reference? You know it. (This was made 3 years before homestuck started).

BOSS Boss Man, aka Corporate Incarnate: Boss Man’s big brother, in the age sense. Okay, this guy kind of scares me. He is way less relaxed than Boss Man, and he certainly can drub people with canes. He runs a tight ship, so obviously he won’t stand for the main character mayhem going on. 

Iqbal: I don’t remember a ton of stuff about him, but he is like a lot of my family friends. He deserves good stuff because he had to put up with Zack’s crap for longer than necessary. Do I have to cover every single character? How about we move onto the main thing: shipping. It’s not really the main thing, but I'm going insane over it so for me it is.

SHIPS:

  Oh man okay, here we go. I already covered my very few thoughts on Zack/Amy so here are some ships that I find interesting.

Zack/Vince: Basically, the plot of the movie revolves around these two and their rivalry. I kind of doubt their hate is platonic. At one point Vince compares them to a pair of “old gay sailors.” Zack’s face really says it all, honestly:

Their scenes together had a ton of sexual chemistry. Intense Kubrick stares. Toreador-ish mop fights. Breaking into the other person’s house to make them late for work. You know. Like that. We all agreed that they are best summarized as “toxic yaoi.” Essentially, they are kismeses. Also, Vince is a complete mess around Amy but seems way more comfortable antagonizing Zack. I don’t think Zack is really into Vince, but it’s an interesting thought.

Vince/Jorge: Now this. THIS is the true romance of the story. You think I’m kidding? This is pretty much canon (or at least heavily implied). Where Zack and Vince had some sexual tension, these two have a Home Depot’s worth of romantic tension. They have so many little moments, like when they just kind of solemnly listen to music in a car (which turns out to be a bookend). They’re constantly around each other, and their relationship actually has an arc. Vince starts out kind of using Jorge as a henchman, but then Jorge goes against that. There’s a temporary breakup, and Vince kind of loses it. He has no one to talk to now. But he’s willing to pull himself together and give Jorge the space he needs to think things through. And THEN they have this big moment where they get back together as equals and it’s beautiful and okay it’s easier to just show you. 

(Previous image) Here we have Jorge helping Vince with his dorky-ass heelies because Vince is trying to be a coolkid like Zack.

And then we have that whole moment over there. They’re holding hands! (Hurt/comfort moment tbh)

THEIR VICTORY DANCES?? HELLO?? This is adorable i can’t

Okay, this is blatantly romantic. The words “please, come home” imply that they share a home. Perhaps they are even… roommates? But look, the normally rude Vince is actually being considerate. And he calls Jorge “homes.” Jorge normally calls him that!

Full access to the cashier’s lounge? Jorge you mad lad. 

Awww-

Okay I gasped aloud at this part. They are married. Or like they will be at some point in time. “It just feels right” yeah they are SO married. Look at the height difference. They are everything, as of four hours ago. This is cinema.

I can’t do this man why did I start reviewing this. They use each other’s pet names. Shit. Fuck you, Dane Cook movies. I hate feeling emotion like this.

yes, Jorge and Vince were the real romance subplot all along. They’re literally the last scene of the movie.

Look at the smile on Jorge’s face. Jegus. This ship is everything. These two were the real emotional core of the movie. Without them, I’d just be like “eh whatever at least it was fun.” But damn, they really delivered on the romance subplot.

Uh… Yeah I can’t really think of any other ships that I like. Vince/Amy sucks and they had nothing to say to each other. I like the idea of Amy/Lily, though! I think either of them could make employee of the month. I guess Amy/Zack is good for now though.

OTHER THINGS:

That clubhouse is awesome. Probably a big hazard considering it’s on top of that big shelf. But hey I want a Home Depot buddy lair too!

Vince saying he can get a little anal…. >:? Sir what.

Amy’s really out there auspiticizing for Zack and Vince huh? She deserves good things for having to put up with that

Why did it suddenly turn into a sports movie for a few minutes? Why were they playing softball against another hardware store? We may never know.

Banger soundtrack. 10/10.

And that’s a wrap everyone, catch me crying over the hug or making “ironic” fanart of Dane Cook and co. I really enjoyed this and I will hopefully be there for the next flick. Wow I wrote a lot about this movie. Uh. Consider it ironic, I suppose.

[bimboficationblues]

I'm going to also hit you with a 🔥 le ciné

well my computer crashed and I lost an effortpost I made about the history of cinema as an engine of racecraft so I'll just boil it down to "more than other expressive medium, film has been fundamentally entangled with racism and productions of race as concept throughout its history - both in the narrative history we tell about film, and material constraints like colonial prohibitions on African cinema - encoding these values into our ways of seeing, and I don't think the medium has really reckoned with that."

anyway some actually spicy unpopular opinions that aren't just preaching to the choir (i.e. my contempt for the scoundrel Robert Zemeckis):

Oldboy is not only mid I think it is Park Chan-wook's worst film

most Hayao Miyazaki movies are overrated and his personal reputation is disproportionate to the actuality of the man

Aliens is the second worst of the original tetralogy (this assessment changes drastically if we factor in the prequels)

the horror-comedy is an underrated genre - truly wretched when done badly (basically everything Samara Weaving has been in) but really fun when done well

Brokeback Mountain is bad

Wes Anderson is overhated as a director

I think Everything Everywhere All At Once is enjoyable but I dread whatever the directors/writers make next because I think they have juvenile middlebrow sensibilities

My worst theater-going experience ever was Mamma Mia 2

[spacetrashpile]

DRACTOBER DAY FOUR: LOVE AT FIRST BITE

Welcome back to Dractober, where I watch and rank one film adaptation of Dracula for every day in October! I'll be ranking each film on two one to ten scales (was it a good adaptation of Dracula and did I enjoy it?) and giving the film a final score at the end by averaging out the other scores.

Today's film is Love At First Bite (1979) staring George Hamilton as Dracula who, after being evicted from his Transylvania castle, travels to New York to pursue the only woman he's ever loved, who's been reincarnated into a model. Also, I did actually watch this movie on the fourth, but I watched it in a triple feature movie night with my roommates, and then instantly went to bed, so you're getting two reviews today once I watch my next film.

Let's get into it!

So, if you couldn't tell from the brief description, today's film is a parody and comedy film. As such, the "is this a good adaptation of Dracula?" question seems very easy to answer.

No. No it is not!

However, this is somehow the first film I've watched this month that actually included Renfield, so at least there's that as a point towards it. He even eats bugs and rodents!

However, immediately negating that point, there's the whole reincarnated lover thing going on with Dracula and Cindy. I was hoping beyond hope that she wouldn't be Mina reincarnated, but alas, she was. Shakes my fist at the sky. I've established this is one of my least favorite Dracula adaptation/Dracula inspired story tropes and it did make me go "GOD DAMNIT" aloud when he said it, though it thankfully only came up like one time after that.

So, on the Dracula adaptation scale, I'll be giving this film a 1/10. Certainly some of the characters were there! That's about it though!

Now, did I enjoy this film? Yes! Yes I very much did!

This was another film that has my enjoyment upped by the fact that I watched it with my roommates, but it was also very solidly funny on it's own merit. George Hamilton was a really funny Dracula, and Richard Benjamin, who played Jeffrey Rosenburg (Abraham Van Helsing's grandson and Cindy's therapist/uncommitted boyfriend) stole almost every scene he was in.

I would usually use this portion to summarize the film and talk about my favorite parts, but I think that style is generally more suited to drama films or films that are actually trying to be adaptations. With this film, I think you can get from the one sentence summary what this movie is and if you'd be interested in it at all. But I can confirm, this was a lot of fun.

Honestly, I might be giving this movie a 9 or 10 for enjoyment, if not for one notable factor. There are about four scenes in this movie that are just... straight up racist. These are all very weird and uncomfortable scenes centering around various Black minor characters, and they're basically only in there to make race jokes. These scenes are, thankfully, easily skipable and pretty short, but I wish they just hadn't been in the film at all.

There were also a few gay jokes and occasional moments of misogyny but honestly the gay jokes were (to me) a little funny, and the misogyny was significantly better than some other movies I've already watched this month, so it was significantly easier to brush off.

Overall, I had a really good time watching this movie and it was mostly extremely funny. However, those few random racist scenes took down my enjoyment, for obvious reasons. So while this could have gotten a much better score, I'm going to knock the enjoyment score down to a 7/10.

In the end, Love at First Bite gets a 4/10. Nonetheless, I do recommend it if you're looking for some campy and fun comedy this Halloween season! Just... put on fast forward in a few scenes.

[tjemegames]

HSR: 2.4.1 AS, 2.4.1 PF, & 2.4.2 MoC Recaps

Another patch has come and gone which means it is once again time for me, your resident yapper, to talk about my endgame experience.

As previously mentioned in my last EGC recap post, the format for these has changed; I’ll be walking you through my thoughts and feelings for the last cycle of all three modes in this post. The sections were drafted out on the days that I completed the challenges (unlike past recaps), so you’re getting a better insight this time around.

I’ve also started filming my clears for the highest level of each mode because it seemed like a fun thing to include: the videos are meant to be a visual representation of my struggles/triumphs within the hardest parts of endgame. These videos are not guides; they’re just the raw footage of my completion runs, and solely intended for the enjoyment of anyone who might be interested in that type of thing. The videos are hosted on my YouTube so I’ll embed all three of them here (the section headings will also lead to them just in case something glitches out) for quick access.

As always, apologies for the image distortion: long photos and Tumblr do not mix well.

Alright, with all that out of the way, the yapping begins under the cut!

2.4.1 Apocalyptic Shadow

Dominated Evils was a very fitting name for this cycle of AS. Overall, it wasn’t very difficult to complete; I got my twelve stars within a total of three challenge waves!

I probably could’ve finished with two waves, but I decided to try the follow-up buff; relying on Aventurine was not the way to go here, I should've changed to the basic atk + additional dmg to weakness broken enemies buff. I won’t lie to you, DHIL dying (I wasn’t paying attention to my shield duration) and Hanya being slower than Tingyun during my initial attempt were also large factors in needing to reset. Once my relics were adjusted accordingly, I was able to put in a decent attempt.

Aventurine was very helpful for resisting Kafka’s domination and avoiding being frozen by the elites. I'm glad that the eff res buff from his shields worked in my favor on this side; if DHIL had gotten cc’d it would've set me back even more than I already was with the bad plays I was making. I should've reset when I messed up my rotation at 1655 AV, but I was being stubborn, so it is what it is.

Here are the builds I used for IV-I:

The Doomsday Beast felt much easier to deal with. Not sure if it’s because the team was better or simply because I was able to dispel any cc that happened with Gallager. The ease could also have been attributed to the fact that I didn’t have to think about skill points (thanks to Boothill’s e1) and knew exactly how my rotation was going to go regardless of how things played out. At the end of the day, this side carried the overall run and, ultimately, got me 27 points over the score that I needed to get. I could always try again to see if a better score is attainable, but I’ve already gotten the rewards so there’s no incentive left to make that worthwhile.

These are the builds I used for IV-II:

800 jades down, and two more endgame modes left for this cycle. Hopefully we’re in for another queen sweep!

Oh hey, look who’s back. Aha. So, there may not have been any incentive to try for a better score, but that didn't stop me from being motivated into doing so by the DHIL clear one of my discord friends did. Since I'm not usually one for “casual gaming” (which is not causal in the slightest), I only gave myself 12 reset attempts to achieve as high of a score as possible on IV-I:

First three resets: +203 points, bringing me up to 3198

Next three: +97 more points, taking me up to a grand total of 3295 (yippee!)

Last six: absolutely abysmal, I got endlessly cc’d and DHIL/Tingyun got obliterated every other run

Sadly, I couldn’t get to 7K points like I had been hoping, but I’m still pumped to have gotten as close as I did. And, on top of that, taking a second crack at IV-I allowed me to get new (shorter, far less embarrassing) footage of my DHIL clear. Doing so meant that I had to re-edit and re-upload the video for it; that was probably for the better though, nobody needed to watch me poorly battle Kafka for twelve minutes...

Anyway, that’s officially a wrap on AS for this patch!

Um, hey again. When I was reviewing the challenge data for the last set of attempts, I realized that I never changed my chosen buff for the first side (please hold for the internalized screaming at my unintentional self-sabotage.) Naturally, I gave AS one more shot with the correct buff equipped:

First reset: +46 points, bringing me up to 6973

Final reset: +153 points, making a grand total of 7126 (yippee! but with more excitement)

Over 7K points achieved! I'm free, for real this time. Can't believe I let the casual gaming demons get to me for Apocalyptic Shadow of all things. I think it's safe to say that I've sufficiently played though this mode for this patch. I'm interested to see what they do with the next one. My money is currently on having to fight Yanqing. We'll see if I was right about that in the next one of these.

What’s poppin’? It’s been two weeks, and I found myself back in AS because I rolled a great new piece for my resident dragon boy, Mr. Daniel Heng, the cuntiest dragon on the silver rails. I can’t add the build showcase here—I’ll hit my image limit early if I do—but trust me when I say it was a solid upgrade: the head rolled well enough to bump me up by 51 places on the SeeleLand leaderboards. I’m currently ranking in the top 1% of DHIL players (in my area) using the same build—number 26 to be exact! The new ranking motivated another set of runs out of me and I was able to increase my overall AS score by 102 points:

IV-I: Kafka vs e2 DHIL, e2 Hanya, e6 Tingyun, e0s1 Aventurine (3515 points)

IV-II: Doomsday Beast vs e2s1 Boothill, e1s1 Ruan Mei, e1 Bronya, e6 Gallagher (3713 points)

Totaling out for a final grand score of 7228 points with 25 cumulative challenge attempts! Great stuff, a genuinely fun time: Apocalyptic Shadow is quickly working its way towards being my favorite of the endgame modes. Since I’m quite satisfied with how everything played out, that’s a wrap on this section!

I also recorded a Honkai: Support Rail bonus run of IV-I with E4 Dan Heng (4-star) if you’re interested in seeing that!

2.4.1 Pure Fiction

Words of Deceit was [redacted colorful complaining]. I didn't think it was possible for my hatred towards PF to increase, but here we are. I’ll admit that it was partially my fault for being both sleepy and hangry. I’d argue that it was mostly the whimsicality's fault for being rather ineffective overall, felt like sabotage to me. It's fine though, I managed to obtain all twelve stars within ten attempts (yippee!)

Clearing this time around would've been a lot worse without team suggestions from discord—big shoutout and thanks to the folks there for their encouragement and assistance!

So, this PF was the fastest I've ever cleared. It was also the most frustrated I've been whilst playing this mode. Usually, the struggle only applies to stage IV; this time around, stage III was the reason for my infuriation. I sincerely don't know what came over me, but I was malding enough to have to force myself to go back to sleep. I tried four different teams and couldn't hit 60K points: the closest I came was just over 59K and that was with all of my focus and Frankensteining together better builds for every character that I tried to use. It was tragic to say the least. Ultimately, sleep, food, fresh eyes, and the 8th attempt were the saving graces that allowed me to move on to the true challenge, stage IV.

Stage IV took significantly less tries; I only ended up taking two attempts to get the three-star clear! Aside from having to change my buffs and making sure that my speed tuning was right for IV-II, I didn't have to put in all that much effort. Still a bit baffled by that if I'm being honest: I thought I was in for a very tumultuous experience considering how the previous stage had gone. Thankfully, that was not the case, and I can move on from this for the time being.

These are the builds I used for IV-I:

Some of Herta’s stat information is incorrect because she was actually lvl 60 at the time of this run; Fribbels only generates maxed out showcases and I wanted the pictures to match. :)

These are the builds I used for IV-II:

Not the best, not the worst. I got it done and that's really all that matters. Another 800 jades added to the Sparkle funds!

Well, well, well, look how the turn tables. Hello again, it's been a few weeks since wrapping up my clear. I pulled Sparkle, motivating me to go back into PF for some casual gaming (I know, two endgame modes in a row—I've stumbled down a dark path this patch.) This third round of attempts went much worse than I was hoping for. I did manage to get a better clear, so I decided to have that be my representational video instead. It took so many tries that I'm afraid to go look at the updated info on Hoyolab. I think it's better for my overall happiness and sanity if I let that remain a mystery—high score chasing at its finest (I have so many regrets. Why did I do this to myself?)

In the end, I was able to increase my score by 4129 points:

IV-I: Kafka vs e1s1 Ruan Mei, e0 Seele, e0s1 Aventurine, e6 Herta (40000 points)

IV-II: Cocolia vs e1 Bronya, e6 Asta, e6 Gallagher, e6 Serval (27805 points)

I went through a good amount of team lineups, relic swapping, buff changing, and character upgrading to make this happen. Desperate times called for desperate measures, I was so hung up on getting a better clear that I leveled Herta to 80 and 6/10/10/11'd her traces. I had not planned on doing that for at least a couple more patches since her relics are still a bit trash, but it was the most effective option that I had at the time. Doing so made getting to 40K points on IV-I possible, which was most of the point increase, so I'd say it was worth it.

Now, IV-II was painful. I can't explain my thought process here because there wasn't really one to begin with. Serval gaming is fine for what it is. I genuinely do not think that it was possible for me to hit 30K on this side at all. Don't doubt that I tried every sensible double dps comp that I could, because I did, and failed miserably. Swapping Aventurine and Gallagher didn't work; using Sparkle didn't work; hell, even stealing the entirety of Seele's team didn't work! I don't know what else I could've done… and I'm over it, so we're moving on.

At the end of this excursion, I don't have anything good to say about PF. It does not spark joy for me. Hopefully that changes some day; Himeko will save me once she decides to grace me with her presence, she is the vital unit that I am missing to achieve greatness. Until then, I'll just have to ride with it. I'll keep working on my characters and, eventually, clearing will go better for me.

That's a wrap on this section. I'm 1000% burnt out on PF after this whole ordeal. I don't want to think about it anymore.

2.4.2 Memory of Chaos

The Big Sleep was a snoozefest: I got all twelve stars without any resets this time around! And I four-cycled floor XII for the first time! You absolutely love to see it. I can't believe that just nine months ago I couldn't even get through floor VIII without wanting to cry from frustration. Oh, how the times have changed.

Since this challenge flew by with ease, I don’t have much to say about it. I was a big fan of the buff this time around; I love it when the buff is universal and aligns with pretty much anyone I want to play with. I foresee a lot of casual gaming in my future.

With the help of my newest addition, Sparkle, I was able to clear the first half with renewed efficiency. Daniel and Hanya have been separated after nine months of partnership, it feels so good to no longer have to hyperactively think about my skill point usage. I knew that Sparkle was going to be a large upgrade for my DHIL team, but I didn’t think she would shave off four cycles worth of turns (and I haven’t even finished her build yet! Like huh??? She’s great, I’m a big fan.)

Here are the builds I used for XII-I:

The second side faired just about as well as the first. Boothill shredded Aventurine down before he even got the chance to take me into a showdown. As much as I love Aven, I hate his boss form, so it felt incredibly satisfying to enact my revenge on him after struggling so much against him the first time he was introduced into endgame. No more are the days of having to make Jingliu brute force her way through the dice rolls (thank the Aeons!)

These are the builds I used for XII-II:

Another one for the books! Got the final 800 jades for this patch, this time to be added to the Feixiao funds (yes, I’m pulling for her now. You may call me a hypocrite this once. I will be betraying Danny boy by going for a new and improved wind hunt unit. This is a stain on my pride as a four-star Dan stan; unfortunately for him, Feixiao’s hot, clever, strong, one hell of a badass General with dope animations and a back tattoo that fucking glows, brother. What kind of gay would I be if I didn’t at least throw a solid 50 or so pulls in her direction? Have you seen the lesbian kryptonite of a banner lineup that’s coming in 2.5?? It’ll be a miracle if I go into 2.6 with any savings at all!)

Surprise, surprise, the prodigal gamer returns. Did you really think I was going to one and done this mode after casual gaming all patch long? Not much to report aside from going back in with my original teams to try for a cleaner run. My efforts were well worth it, I managed to shave off a cycle from my original clear, netting me with my first ever three-cycle in MoC 12 (yippee!)

Whoop whoop! We're officially wrapped on all the endgame modes for 2.4! What a yapfest this was, I cannot believe I prattled on for this long. If you made it all the way here, thanks for sticking with me until the end. I'll catch y'all in about six weeks for the next recap.

[finchers-ipad]

as a fight club and will graham enjoyer, what are your thoughts on ednort’s will graham?

omg i love this ask. listen, i love ed norton when he has good directon, drive and a complex character i think he can give a really great performance. so i don’t know what the fuck he was doing playing will graham. it is one of the most lifeless and straight up boring performances i’ve seen him give WHEN THE CHARACTER IS SO RITCH I DONT UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED. his interpretation (as well as the writers and directors, because this can’t be just his fault) is that will is this typical run of the mill straight and driven cop who is stressed out with the tooth fairy case but kind of just because it’s a stressful job that keeps him from his wife and kid.

from what i understand, because i haven’t watched ‘manhunter’, is that the red dragon film introduced the fact that will and hannibal knew each other prior to hannibal being caught. this, to me, is really fun and interesting and they could have made this an integral part of both of their characters and strengthened and complicated their relationship (which we see done absolutely BEAUTIFULLY in season 3b of NBC’s hannibal). but no. it feels like anthony hopkins and ed norton are two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together whenever they are on screen together. for example in the opening scene where they are supposed to be collages and somewhat friendly as will is in hannibal’s house THEY FEEL LIKE FUCKING STRANGERS. ed norton is soooo reserved as will which frustrates me because we have seen him do more. he should have given the same character performance as the narrator in fight club as he did with will graham in red dragon. it didn’t even need to be to that standard but idk he needed to do more, especially with his empathy because it’s just so brushed off. again i know this is at fault of the writing and directing too but oh fuck it annoys me.

i know ed nortons and hugh dancys will graham’s are very different also because of their different story’s and that has to be said HOWEVER the shows interpretation of hannibal and will’s relationship is so much richer (not even factoring in their queerness). to me, hugh dancy’s view of will’s relationship with hannibal is “after everything you have repeatedly put me through, after discovering all that you are, you continue to be the only person who has and the only person who could understand me even though i can’t always admit that and don’t always want that”. BUT edward norton’s view of will’s relationship with hannibal is “you betrayed me when i put my trust in you and i resent the fact that i need you now” which really doesn’t hit the fucking same.

there’s this really cool video essay ( https://youtu.be/PA1zrO3YQmk?si=dTsKzwTFiGSMAApN ) that says something like “will isn’t supposed to be a straight man, he’s not supposed to be as smooth as ice, he’s supposed to be a fucked up little freak” which i whole heartedly agree with. this is mainly to do with the writing again but you can see ed norton his holding himself back, he looks like he doesn’t believe the words coming out of his own mouth. especially in the scene where the red dragon has a knife at his sons throat and he’s shouting at him. literally the most diluted performance i’ve ever seen him give i think.

especially when i watched the show before any of the movies so i was so excited that my interests overlapped, then was disappointed that he played will so strangely. anyway one of my only pros of his will graham is that it was during his early 2000’s phase of being blonde which i enjoyed. and also ‘red dragon’ keeps the line about hannibal wanting to eat wills heart. the rest…burn it. i feel like i could talk about will and hannibal’s relationship in ‘NBC’s hannibal’ till my face turns blue and a die from lack of oxygen. where as i can barely scrounge a few thoughts together about their relationship in ‘red dragon’ that aren’t just how dry it is. this is a testament to the writing of the show but also to mads mikkelsen and hugh dancy’s chemistry. it feels (to me) like anthony hopkins was given the impossible task of living up to his performance in ‘the silence of the lambs’ especially when his screen time was doubled and then edward norton was given the impossible task of filling in the position of clarice starling that audiences were craving, which just left me wanting more from his performance.

[fibula-rasa]

Watch More Movies Notebook: July ‘24

Favorite New-to-me Films of the Month

(listed in order pictured above, L to R)

READ on BELOW the JUMP!

Highlights and Shadows (1938)

[letterboxd | GEM]

Industrial film commissioned by Eastman Kodak made by James Sibley Watson Jr. It’s not especially common for people to watch industrial films for entertainment—though if you grew up in the kitsch-crazed 1990s US, you may be more open minded to how enjoyable they can sometimes be. Highlights and Shadows has no kitsch or camp factor (Shake Hands with Danger (1975) it is not) but it is beautifully constructed. That comes as no surprise, really, since the project was headed by Watson, who previously made the avant-garde classics The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) and Lot in Sodom (1933). Aside from the exquisite cinematography and optical effects, I appreciated the film’s shared focus on finely-engineered technology and its human element—at one point even including a shot of a janitor at work.

——— ——— ———

Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie: Black Dream Hole (1995)

[letterboxd | imdb]

In the final film accompanying the 1990s Sailor Moon series, Chibiusa makes another weird friend. This time it’s Perle, a fairy working for an evil space queen who wants to steal the power of children’s dreams for her Black Dream Hole. This is my favorite of the Sailor Moon films we’ve watched because it has heavy Little Nemo vibes! 

——— ——— ———

A Day in Santa Fe (1931)

[letterboxd | imdb]

A charming entry in the discourse of the city symphony genre. I’m a big fan of city films, but hadn’t heard of this one before reading Lovers of Cinema this past month. Initially I wrote a whole page of notes about this film and how it sits in conversation with the films that inspired it, but decided that should be a bigger conversation for another time here on the blog! That said, A Day in Santa Fe is a often cheeky response to the urbanity of most of the other city films and, if you’re familiar with the genre, it’s worth checking out.

——— ——— ———

Bewitched Matches / Les Allumettes ensorcelées (1913)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Short part-animated/part-live action from Émile Cohl. Three girls invite a witch into their home hoping she will tell their fortunes. When their father comes home, he rudely kicks the witch out and she places a curse on his matches, of all things, which take on a life of their own.

——— ——— ———

Manhandled (1924)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Swanson was such a complete movie star. Contemporary critics of Swanson’s silent film work seemed to think her appeal was entirely based on her ability to wear extravagant outfits well, but she had the skill to do a little bit of everything. It was fun to see a film where Swanson gets to mix relatability, dramatic skill, comedic chops, and, of course, a chance to wear some wild getups. 

All in all, it was an enjoyable film and Swanson has good chemistry in particular with Lilyan Tashman and Frank Morgan. However, I did find the conflict between her and her boyfriend at the climax to be a little forced (it feels like he knows her better than to jump to such rude conclusions, no?)

——— ——— ———

Rich (1983)

[letterboxd | imdb | UCLA Youtube]

A student film by UCLA alum S. Torriano Berry and restored by UCLA graduate student Gabz Norte. What a cool project to have current students restore the work of former students! While Rich is very much a student film, I found it to be thoughtful and wholesome in equal measure. (I do have a soft spot for films shot in and around Watts tho!)

——— ——— ———

The Salvation Hunters (1925)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Josef von Sternberg’s first film as a director, which I also watched because of Lovers of Cinema. Very cool how Salvation Hunters plays at social commentary with the devices of typical Hollywood storytelling and story flow almost bordering on dream logic. In some ways it felt like a presage to Fellini’s work. In short, I loved it.

——— ——— ———

The Devil’s Dance / La Danse du diable (1904) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

Very short dance film about a little green devil (who might be fart powered?) and the visions he summons. Visual interest added by Velle shooting entirely from an overhead angle.

——— ——— ———

My Brother’s Wedding (1983)

[letterboxd | imdb | Kanopy (US)]

Watched this film after logging Rich on letterboxd, as another user had brought up this My Brother’s Wedding as similar to Rich. It’s always interesting when artists working the same time/place/industry will weigh in on subjects relevant to them in their own unique ways, but convergences and divergences of perspective emerge. Anywho, the neo-realist element was really well executed and I appreciated all the bits of character-based humour both as enhancement of the realism and as variation of tone. (TBH I was hooting every time the 30-year-old Pierce started wrassling with his elderly father! Like, it’s funny, but it also communicates where Pierce is at in his life and his dynamic with his parents!)

——— ——— ———

As always, if any of these films catch your eye, but you need specific trigger/content warnings, don’t hesitate to ask for them!

——— ——— ———

Monthly Round-up

I apologize for how informal/unedited these notes are for my favorite new-to-me films this month, but I’m playing catch up since I spent the beginning of the month ill! Said illness is also why my Salomé cosplay and essay isn’t up yet! 

I spent most of the past month researching and—though it remains to be seen if it will be for better or worse—my Salomé work will probably be in two parts. The first part will likely be up in the next few days! I ended up discovering so many interesting things behind the most commonly repeated ideas about Salomé that it would be way too much for one post!

As I mentioned in the notes above, I read Lovers of Cinema this past month and it gave me quite a few ideas for posts. One of which will likely be up this month: a watchalong a la the “Film Comedy’s Eves” post from a few months back. It’s a very accessible read if you’d like to learn more about the world of avant-garde/independent/experimental cinema of the US in the first half of the 20th century! 

Now, while I spent most of my blogging time this past month falling down numerous research holes, I did manage to put some themed gif and still sets together:

Sun, Moon, and Feather (1989)

[which I talked about in last month’s round-up]

Manhandled (1924)

Losing Ground (1982)

La Danse du diable (1904)

Highlights and Shadows (1938)

Blue Blood / Sangue blu (1914)

Lot in Sodom (1933)

——— ——— ———

Well, thank you all for your patience with the Salomé cosplay getting so drawn out, and stay tuned for part one soon!

Happy viewing!

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