#Cameron Oppenheimer

[l-ultimo-squalo]

Samurai Cop (1991) Dir. Amir Shervan

[filmgamer]

Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' is a Riveting 2 Hour Drama, Extended to 3 Hours

Oppenheimer marks Christopher Nolan’s 13th film and his return to the big screen following his contentious breakup with Warner Brothers over the release strategy of his previous film, TENET. This time, Nolan takes on a challenging subject matter in a 3-hour semi-black and white biographical film about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist responsible for inventing the atomic bomb. Unlike Nolan’s…

[saturn-projector]

so accurate ! 𐙚˙⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩

Letterboxd’s Four Favorites: Dead Poets Society Edition

[1-5-1-t]

saw oppenheimer in the theatres today. and yeah the movie was really good and thought-provoking and i lowkey need mr. nolan to release a five-hour version stat, but the best part for me were absolutely the finnish subtitles <3

like the word "naïve" literally has a finnish equivalent, "naiivi", but the translator decided to go with the adjective "sinisilmäinen". meaning "blue-eyed".

like it's said offhandedly in some heated discussion about oppenheimer's moral character and motivations and you're watching it So into it and then cillian murphy comes on-screen like miley_cyrus_blue_eyes.jpg and you're like yeah. myeah that's. yeah that sure is blue. and then you go back to being entranced by rain droplets falling into a puddle. a 10/10 watching experience

[ninaemsaopaulo]

Nina Galdina, crítica de cinema.

[belladonna-miranda]

Is Asking Alexandria more Barbie or Oppenheimer?

I have fallen in love with not just Barbie and Oppenheimer, but also the memes of these two movies as a double bill. Therefore, in anticipation of their new album Where Do We Go from Here next month, I have classified the Asking Alexandria members as to whether they're more Barbie, Oppenheimer, or a mix of both in real life.

Danny: Guaranteed Oppenheimer for his gruff, fierce vocals and full beard. In fact, the cover of their upcoming album gives me hard Oppenheimer vibes! 💥

Sam: Closer to Oppenheimer for similar reasons to Danny although he's the youngest member of the band. 💥

Cameron: Both Barbie and Oppenheimer (Barbenheimer) thanks to his shy, sweet smile despite all those intricately designed tattoos. 💖🖤

Ben: Closer to Barbie because of his sheer dedication to his wife and four children when he's not touring with his bandmates. 💖

James: Guaranteed Barbie because he's the only member of the band without any facial hair, making him look like a tattooed Ken doll. 💖

[blue-boulder]

house md in 2020s headcanons

keep seeing people make these and i thought it was silly, so here’s my contributions:

- house finds wilson’s account on grindr and decides to catfish him. once the jig is up they silently decide to never acknowledge this again

- comphet cameron. nonnegotiable

- foreman has and posts somewhat frequently on instagram threads. nobody finds out because nobody else has threads

- before working at princeton-plainsboro taub specialized in BBLs

- house livestreams DDXs to put more pressure on the ducklings when he feels as though they’re underperforming. he has a decent amount of followers on twitch

- also i’m not sure how hospitals ran during the pandemic but i think at least one DDX during covid was conducted through among us. don’t ask me the logistics of that

- a few of chase’s old musical.ly videos resurface and he gets bullied for it relentlessly

- thirteen was one of the first people to reblog the weed smoking girlfriends post

- house and wilson watch love is blind, the ultimatum, love island, etc etc when skipping clinic duty & place bets on which couples are going to last and which aren’t

- despite dating at the time cuddy went to see oppenheimer and lucas went to see the barbie movie. at the same time in different theatres

- house makes a joke about someone having blue hair and pronouns. also that one post about how he spends two hours researching every pronoun in existence just to use the wrong one on someone would be real

- wilson listens to either broadway soundtracks on his way to work or hozier, no in between. he uses spotify but refuses to look at his wrapped out of fear

[neilperrystypewriter]

my modern “if the poets went on a roadtrip with mr. keating” headcanons:

- mr. keating: drives like a bat out of hell (this man is literally airborne on the interstate)

- neil: in the passenger seat trying to teach mr. keating that google maps is easier than an actual map + has to turn down the volume of the music constantly bc mr. keating can’t hear anything (“you take a left up here-“ “WHAT?” *cranks music down* “YOU TAKE A LEFT UP HERE, CAPTAIN”)

- todd: got left at the gas station (they did turn around and get him but he just stares out the window behind the drivers seat the whole time in silence—still upset)

- charlie: behind the passenger seat on the aux and playing the most god awful music you’ve ever heard in your life (i feel like he would play a lot of underground music that no man has ever heard before except the artist that created it)

- knox: in the back complaining about the bad WiFi signal bc his awful selfies won’t go through to Chris (she definitely blocked him)

- meeks: in the back as well + binging on the snacks he brought with and watching a movie from the screen on the back of a seat (let’s be honest, he’s watching oppenheimer)

- pitts: “LOOK IT’S A COW” every 5 minutes (also in the back)

- cameron: locked in the trunk somehow?? (mr. keating isn’t aware bc they told him cameron was busy that day)

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

medialog august-december 2k24

i was like, should i just abandon this and start fresh in 2025... but no. also i'm putting this behind a cut bc it is long but it's shorter than it sounds bc LOL working 7 days a week is not conducive towards having the brain space to interact with a bunch of new art!!

watched

ponyo - THIS IS THE CUTEST MOVIE IN THE WORLD!!! miyazaki/ghibli is a big blind spot for me bc as a kid i was like "but i want anime to be pretty, like sailor moon..." so i never got into kiki or totoro (very stupid but again i was: A Child) and then as an adult, this is embarrassing, i tried to watch spirited away and just literally didn't get it. i was like, i am so confused about what is happening and what emotions i am supposed to be feelings. and i know that spirited away is a movie for children and this makes me stupid. but i have never pretended not to be stupid. anyway i would die for just about every character in this movie and when i watched it a second time to make nick watch it i was so full of tenderness for how lovingly it captures what it's like to be a small child who has a small creature to take care of that i felt like i could explode!

deadpool & wolverine - i think if i had been in a better mood when i saw this movie i would have disliked it more but as it was i was in a HORRENDOUS mood and, basically, had a good time. funny to watch this, the Superhero Movies Isabel Has Never Watched Cameo Show (literally i had never watched an x-men other than first class, in which wolverine only appears to say fuck off, or either of the two deadpools), and still get to experience the same OMG IT'S HIM rush as everyone else did, but for matthew mcfadyen. the guy next to me was like "i love channing tatum" when channing tatum showed up and like, same.

trap - great movie to see with a group of like 10 people with whom to giggle the whole time. josh hartnett understood the assignment and his dad-vibe era is soooo much hotter to me than his twink years ever were (not always the case for me! but between this and how hot he was in oppenheimer i've really warmed to him...). i think it's nice that m. night shyamalan loves his daughter so much. ladyraven has a ballad with the line "faustian trade-offs" which caused me and no one else in the theater to laugh real loud. her music is pretty bad but tbh in an era when people want to put chappell roan on the A-list i'm not even mad. it was funny trying to figure out her niche though because like the vibes are obviously supposed to be taylorish (the cabin onstage... lmao) but the music was giving... idk, ariana? also it's just inherently funny to make a movie premised on the fact that it would be really easy to narrow down who the serial killer is by identifying the adult men at a pop girl concert + this movie REALLY captures the vibe during the opening act no one gaf about a pop event concert, like i saw 5SOS open for 1D and that's exactly what it felt like

popstar: never stop never stopping - rewatch, duh. is this the funniest movie of all time? it's gotta be up there, right?

josie and the pussycats - also a rewatch, duh. love everything about this but most of all the soundtrack, the songs are legit incredible, no fictional band has ever had better music (rip adam schlesinger who contributed some songwriting!!!). first time rewatching this movie since figuring out some Stuff and understand now that rachel leigh cook needs to be on the Oh Those Were Gay Feelings. That's What That Was list. (rosario dawson too, but i already got there with her.)

vice - really incredible to think it would be possible to fuck up a movie about how dick cheney is basically satan but somehow mckay managed. christian bale is a professional though, i feel like we don't appreciate enough that no matter how bad the movie or how stupid the writing he's out there giving an absolute top tier performance every single time.

aliens - sorta half-watched this one but idk i feel like me and james cameron just don't vibe. not as incredible-looking or cool as the first one.

godzilla minus one - really really cute!!!!!!

jurassic park - rewatch on the big screen, still slaps the hardest of almost any movie ever

twentieth century - this is i guess nominally a screwball comedy (howard hawks, 1934, for those of you for whom that means something) but it's about these two toxic theater people who are horrible for and obsessed with each other and it's... darker... than my experience of that genre has usually been. in a way that sort of works in its favor partly because it just gives it a certain interest and partly because the gender politics of screwballs can be so dark themselves so it's kind of a relief that this one lacks the cognitive dissonance of pretending this all isn't horrible? idk. it's a weird one. but i liked it, on balance. there's a (pretty funny tbh) running gag about suicide threats and a really bananas third act plot that comes out of nowhere... great performances across the board and some real bangers dropped into the screenplay!

the substance - i didn't, like, love this, and i think a lot of common criticisms of it are right, but some are also very silly (guys i think the director knows nothing about the morning exercise show makes sense... i don't think she was going for a realistic depiction of 21st century celebrity...), and i did have a good time for the most part (the last 30 minutes is gross in a way that doesn't do it for me... but i know it does it for some people and those people deserve movies too...) and respected its commitment to its own bit, as well as the fact that it's basically a fairy tale (a woman who lives in a tower makes a bargain with a force she doesn't really understand to regain her beauty...). oh also i liked that the thing that drives the back half of the plot is essentially the idea that you simply cannot have a 22 year old's body without also having to contend with a 22 year old's dumb dumb stupid ass piece of shit idiot brain. haven't seen a lot of people comment on that aspect of it but it was like my favorite part!

female trouble - people throw out the word iconic a lot but like what else is there to say? rude, disgusting, occasionally genuinely offensive, mostly (for me) delightfully so... really great to watch with a crowd that would whoop and cheer for I'M SO GLAD I HAD AN ABORTION and THE WORLD OF THE HETEROSEXUAL IS A SICK AND BORING LIFE... also like it's really key for the way this movie functions that divine is a fat drag queen that most people do not consider the pinnacle of beauty but it's incredibly clear that john waters and this movie does... like divine's constant proclamations of her own gorgeousness are in a kind of inherent tension with the average american's disagreement with that sentiment but in a way where it's like, if you disagree you are an idiot and this movie is not yours. she's so hot in this it's crazy!!

michael clayton - i wanted to watch a talky thriller-ish movie and the men of the ringer podcast network literally never shut up about this one so i gave it a shot and it delivered! clooney predictably great but i had no idea tilda swinton & tom wilkinson were in it and they are both also awesome, as is merrit weaver in a small but very well cast role

venom - you can sort of glimpse the movie this movie would be if it weren't shackled to What A Superhero Movie Is Now / loosely to the MCU even though it pretends it's not, and i bet that movie would be a lot of fun!

black christmas (1974) - perfectly done urban legend horror with an interesting little pro choice streak, great cast, camera work so perfectly spooky and tense even i noticed how well it was done, makes good use of the cinematic potential of christmas lights. i really liked that this movie is short and a slasher but all the characters in it feel very well drawn even though we don't spend much time with almost any of them... reminded me that this is actually possible to do and i should be harder on movies that don't do it!

black christmas (2006) - nowhere near as good as the first one, but it is, uh, absolutely bugfuck crazyass bananapants start to end. my favorite of many deranged writing choices in this movie is that the sorority mother makes them all open their secret santa every year with a gift for the murderer who killed his family years ago in this house and then when one of the girls' townie boyfriend is like "this is the house that used to freak us out when we were kids" the sorority mother is like, "why?" ?????????? ok!!!!!

heretic - hugh grant is a fucking movie star. i love sophie turner and the other girl was good too. sort of loses steam once the "actually" scary stuff happens because horror movie shenanigans are hard to make as scary as the situation of two young and not very experienced girls slowly realizing they are trapped in a house with a man who just keeps pushing the boundaries of the social contract a little further, but i had fun

the apprentice - not a good movie but a great viewing experience for those of us who have reblogged in our lifetimes approx. 1 million combined gifsets of sebstan and jerbear... like yeah those are my guys and my guys did great :) i think my favorite thing about it as a movie (other than the way the "look" of it updates with technology, which is a cooler idea i wish had been used for a... better movie?) is that it really beats home the aspect of trmp wherein he has no social skills at all and has never felt authentically comfortable in a group of people in his entire life, which is something i think we should culturally be meaner to him about

gladiator - dumb (affectionate) movie magic. russell crowe has so much movie star charisma while looking so much like Just Some Guy it's literally crazy. when he kisses the little dolly of his wife who's about to die ;_;

raising arizona - miracle movie, can't believe i'd never watched this before. the coens' control of their tone is so incredible to see so early in their work (still gotta watch barton fink one of these day). incredible cast, gorgeous colors, so funny, so weirdly sweet, when it finished i felt like i'd watched a magic trick

erin brokovich - watched this for the first time since high school and like what else is there to say but Queen Icon Legend Slay? i am speaking of course about steven soderbergh but julia is pretty fucking incredible too.

conclave - i'm gonna be real i feel like the hype got to me a lil with this one because it's not as bitchy and fun as i feel like i was led to believe... also requires more buy-in re: the moral direction of the catholic church than i anticipated. however it does have its moments and it's nice to see some of our best actors being good at their jobs and it looks great!

the philadelphia story - i found this movie so delightful to watch that for a moment i really thought she might run off with jimmy stewart at the end and not get back tamed with her abusive ex..... but such was the power of the hepburn/stewart chemistry in that one drunk garden scene that i found myself totally incapable of actually integrating the gender politics of this one into my feelings towards it... like i just couldn't be mad at a movie that gave me a scene that made me want to scream JUST KISS!!!! the most anything has since the first time i watched "cooler"... do you know what that is? for me to bust out "cooler" as a comp? my god... i understand why my friend has been like that about hepburn our whole lives and am also now fully baby jimmy stewart pilled

gladiator ii - the consensus is right on this one: not as good as the first, paul mescal is no russell crowe, but denzel really ate. my friends and i laughed out loud at almost every single denzel scene. we're so lucky to have him.

wicked - bad movie of a bad musical, fundamentally misunderstands the function of songs in a musical and thus shoots every single musical number abominably, as ugly as you've heard, we are not advanced enough technologically for me to emotionally invest in CGI Goat Voiced By Peter Dinklage, but ariana deserves an oscar. the prettyboy was pretty good too. orivo can really sing but her acting was kinda giving Distressed Pixar Mom for me although i'm happy to add this to john m chu's many crimes.

out of sight - the romantic premise of this movie is CRAZY but george clooney kinds of sells it actually because and not in spite of the fact that he's one of those curious Incredibly Handsome But Not Very Sexy actors... like you believe that she wouldn't really hold a grudge against him locking her in a trunk with him, because, what, clooney's gonna act untoward? no... not him... j. lo joins andie macdowell as an actress out of whom soderbergh somehow coaxes a much better performance than experience would lead you to believe she is capable of. shockingly stacked cast of pros doing great, INCREDIBLE production design - banner movie for characters costumed to match or complement their interiors!!!

burlesque - dr. sam from new girl fucks stanley tucci in this movie... i literally can't stop thinking about that. xtina maybe has the all time highest ratio of vocal chops to charisma, she has the screen presence of a recurring character on a cancelled WB drama and then she opens her mouth and you're like, damn. i would watch an 8 season HBO sitcom of cher and stanley tucci running a failing burlesque club. at one point i said out loud "chekhov's air rights." great time

logan lucky - "what if steven soderbergh made a heist movie but decided to put his coen brothers hat on and, also, cast channing tatum as a divorced dad who wants to support his daughter's dreams but is seriously wigged out by pageant culture?" yes please. absolutely. adam driver almost never acts in movies i actually want to see but he really is one of the real ones.

babygirl - one of those movies where i can understand lots of things that didn't work for people but i, personally, was completely rapturous the entire time because i wanted a movie where i could walk out saying "nicole kidman did that" and i got that AND ALSO (a) a story about a perfectionist who hates herself and (b) sex scenes that are funny and weird and awkward and warm and human. that's so many things i love happening at once, i will happily forgive and overlook any flaws. i really just loved how much the two of them are actively figuring this thing out as they go and how that's embarrassing and goofy and also sweet and fun. plus nicole kidman really did do that, i mean, like, my god... my god....

fantasmas - you have to watch fantasmas... why haven't you watched fantasmas yet... i really struggle to imagine the person who would follow My Dumb Blog but not be into fantasmas... "the gay ones don't draw dicks, they draw eyes"... julio torres is the voice of a generation

the franchise - not quite as much of a banger as i wanted to be but likable enough, & i'm a sucker for showbiz jokes (jokes about insecure actors, etc.), although i think chris ryan had a point on the watch pod when he was like, the thing about the satire elements of this show are that if you know anything about the actual production stuff on superhero/franchise movies it's hard to satirize because like, the real stuff is actually just that crazy... there's a running thread about the overworked VFX guy and it's kinda funny but also like, well this lines up more or less with what those teams have actually said... anyway. i want to say i'm a lil bummed it didn't get renewed nonetheless but also i forgot until i was typing up the list of things to document here that i had never gotten around to the season finale, so i guess i can't really honestly claim to be that bummed lol. (watched it while washing dishes - pretty good!) did love daniel bruhl as a sensitive artiste director being soul-crushed by the studio machine though! that guy's great.

read

r. o. kwon, exhibit - this one's tough. ultimately, there were actually a lot of things i liked about this book. it had some moments that felt really human and well observed (when the protagonist says something about how usually orgasms aren't worth the guilt and then says she knows she's letting us down and her paramour says who's us and the protagonist says all women... that's funny and real and not unrelateable to me for different reasons!). the bones of it were i think ultimately solid - like yeah she's terrible at communicating but ultimately the book is about her running away from the hard fact that her husband wants a baby and she doesn't and the psychology holds water throughout, i think. (also a funny paragraph about how she knows how to cook but mostly subsists on like handfuls of nuts and bread dipped into olive oil or whatever and then she's like "and you thought i could raise a child?"... also relateable...) i REALLY related to the idea of being a person who simultaneously has the memory of experiencing the loss of faith in god as genuinely, actually traumatic and also being like "btw my family might be cursed by vengeful spirit, it's a whole thing, but i gotta try to talk to her before i do this because she kind of gave me the idea," and i really liked that the book didn't spend any effort on reconciling these two things because... i mean iykyk, like i really can't explain beyond "sometimes that's what it's like" - AND i also liked the ultimate reveal of that storyline and how it tied into the core character work of the main plot. plus the whole thing is like the "trying stuff out sexually as a vehicle/metaphor for owning your whole self" thing that i (a) have enjoyed writing in fanfiction and (b) really loved watching in babygirl lmao. unfortunately the writing was the most annoying tryhard I Get It You Have An MFA ass prose i have ever encountered... i complained about this at the time but it's craaazyyyy to use the word "mirific" three times in a ~200 page novel lmao. deranged. calm yourself. i also felt like the dialogue was really bad although i guess i can't totally rule out that this is a book about artists and artists actually are that annoying? idk though... it didn't feel stylized it just felt weird... who says "tippled"... so, ultimately i couldn't say that i "liked" this even though it had elements i admired or enjoyed.

naomi klein, the shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism - as i mentioned at the time, very enamored of its framing device in a very popular nonfiction/thomas friedman lite kinda way, but when it's not doing that (which luckily is most of the time), this is an informative and well explicated accounting of the horrors milton friedman has unleashed upon the world. i liked her fundamental argument that you can't politicize along economic grounds horrors committed under communism but not do that for capitalism, which has sort of seeped into general internet leftist thought (a testament to the success of this book) but which i appreciate more having seen how she builds her case.

the red nation, the red deal: indigenous action to save our earth - read this for a mutual aid book club that never happened lol. at the end of this book they're like "well probably none of this is new in the climate justice conversation but we don't think things have to be new to be valuable" and like... on the one hand true... on the other hand if you're even vaguely aware of climate justice discourse... not a lot here is new. i also, perhaps unpopularly, have become kind of a... idk... i mean when people are like "we can't solve climate collapse without dismantling capitalism" these days my reaction is basically "well one of those things might happen in the next two hundred years and it's not dismantling capitalism." i'm not like a tech-zealot but a... tech-realist? idk. this is not what i want to be true but it is my honest accounting of the situation. so, any argument that's like "step one: dismantle capitalism" is... it's just not where i'm at these days.

patrick radden keefe, say nothing: a true story of murder and memory in northern ireland - there are no doubt quibbles or political issues to be had with this book, a story of the troubles focused largely on a particular group of IRA members operating in west belfast in the early 70s - as an idiot coming into this subject basically cold, i would have appreciated slightly more grounding in the political situation leading up to the swelling of violence in this period - but, damn, this book is fucking mesmerizing. keefe really brings the people involved to life, particularly the young IRA members at the heart of his chronicle, and while it's clear he doesn't condone all their actions, my own sense was that he was more interested in truly understanding and making clear their own understandings of their motivations & understanding of themselves & ethical framework than he was in passing judgment (and i also definitely felt like he had a certain admiration for the integrity of someone like brandon hughes or dolours price, who were always willing to own what they did and why they did it, and a genuine disdain for how fucking crazy it is for gerry adams to rebrand as a peacenik when literally everybody knows he spent the early 70s telling people to plant bombs lmao). (also having read empire of pain... he definitely holds the sacklers in lower esteem than the IRA, lol.) the final chapters of the book also touch on the really fascinating difficult question of how you morally reckon with the revolutionary violence you did if the revolution you did it for never came to pass - this is the heart of why his fellow ex-IRA comrades feel so betrayed by adams, who has left them to shoulder the burden of that guilt alone while pivoting to the compromise they once agreed would not suffice which was part of the reason for all the violence, and it is something i think about a lot as someone who would not self identify as a pacifist and thinks the historical record leaves no doubt that sometimes violence is necessary for change but nonetheless feels very reluctant to endorse specific acts of revolutionary violence in theory. thrilling and thorny, ultimately i would say deserving of all the accolades i learned after reading it has apparently received lol.

patrick radden keefe, the snakehead: an epic tale of the chinatown underworld and the american dream - not quite as tremendous-feeling as say nothing, but that's mostly because that's a crazy high bar; this is a really fascinating look at the human smuggling trade (& other organized-ish crime) in NYC's chinatown in the 80s/90s, including the middle aged woman who was at the heart of much of it. contains: some totally deranged gang warfare stories; a really fascinating look at the weirdness of chinese immigration policy in the 90s, when china's one-child policy pushed normally anti-immigration republicans to switch on this issue for pro-life reasons (the one child policy... maybe the one thing every american politician shares the same view on, for different reasons?); interesting background on fujian, the high-outmigration region of china from whence many of the principles in this story came; an accounting of an insane boat journey gone so wrong that at one point after the would-be migrants have been trapped in a harbor off the coast of africa (i forget which country), when they finally leave, two of them decide to stay because the chinese restaurant they've opened is doing so well. i keep thinking about the fact keefe highlights that of the hundreds of doomed migrants on this hugely traumatic journey who wound up deported after crash-landing, nearly all of them eventually made their way back to the US.

kazuo ishiguro, nocturnes - my first ishiguro since my teen ishiguro phase (a concept that should really be regarded the way that teens getting into heavy metal and grunge is in pop culture e.g. a sign to check in on their mental health lmao). didn't love these but i can't tell if that's because i prefer ishiguro as a novelist or because i'm just bad at reading short stories... also to be fair there were at least 2 ishiguro novels i read back then and was like "the fuck was that" lol. some very funny moments and a lot of like, amusing portraits of unlikable people, and i do love his style, which is like, a pathologically conversational first person that years of reading since has taught me is much more technically difficult than it looks, but ultimately it felt pretty slight.

naomi klein, doppleganger: a trip into the mirror world - klein takes on, like, "the wellness to alt right pipeline" is an oversimplification but topics in that neck of the woods, inspired by the wack ass shit constantly being tweeted by Other Naomi (wolf), with whom klein is frequently confused on twitter. this is an inherently very funny premise for a book and a lot of what klein says is in my view pretty accurate, and some of her literary/theoretical musings on dopplegangers as a Thing are interesting to read, plus the whole thing is on topics of interest to me, aka Alt Right Derangement And Weird Shit People Are Up To Online. however..... so klein says that she herself was very offline until covid happened, basically, and so if you have been online longer, and especially if you have been actively reading stuff about Weird Shit People Are Up To Online, then this book is basically a smart person catching up with topics you yourself already know a lot about. so in a funny way i found this a more enjoyable read than the shock doctrine, because it's less of an unrelenting fucking bummer about human evil and suffering, but it was also less enriching, because she didn't really bring any new insight to topics that, again, are probably in the top 5 of Post Headlines I'm Most Likely To Click On. like yeah, deranged alt right types are using the language of social justice and inequality and bodily autonomy to further their various causes... tru... i mean it is tru... i also think the fact that her default is a Not Online person who only changed her vibe after covid makes her a bit more of an internet doomer bc she doesn't viscerally get the nontoxic value possible to find in Online through diligent curation lol. but i do think it was a solid accounting of the subcultures and and ideologies she explores so like i said i basically liked it and if you're less tuned into weird internet radicalization currents than i am you will probably find it informative!

suzanna clarke, piranesi - i don't even know what to say about this one, probably tied with tender as my favorite book i read last year (strong fantasy year for me i guess). it's so crazy that suzanna clarke wrote jonathan strange & mr. norrell, the most perfect book of all time, and then did this, which is also the most perfect book of all time, in a completely different way. her gift for atmosphere and voice is second to none and in this one she uses it to draw us into caring so deeply for a narrator who can't even remember his own past - the book in some ways is a mystery and the doling out of information is perfectly paced but the reason it works is because we just love this guy because of how much he loves the universe. the final chapter expresses something about survival & upheaval & change (&, sure, trauma, if you want) that, as i said before & will come as no surprise, is so so so precisely keyed into an idea so deeply important to me... ahh! just sublime!

v. c. andrews, flowers in the attic - book club!! this book is CRAZY but there's only two real things i want to say about it: (1) a lot of what's totally deranged about it is that on the one hand, it has the most gothic novel ass set-up ever - horrible incest house of dark secrets and shame, children literally living in an attic, physical decay, etc. etc. - and on the other hand in all other respects its sensibilities are the most american 70s suburban ass thing, so that it's like, a gothic novel where the evil mother goes to secretary school and the kids watch sitcoms and cut construction paper in the secret attic... like, the tonal clash is soooo crazy, it's incredible; and (2) ok so like by the time it happens you 100% want those siblings to fuck. like. you just do.

suzanna clarke, jonathan strange and mr. norrell - counting this as last year even though i read the second half in january lol. ummm best book in the world. third time through and i genuinely think it gets better every time. most purely pleasurable reading experience of all time.

stephanie mccurry, confederate reckoning: power and politics in the civil war south - ditto re timing (technically i have like a couple pages of this one left and a few more quotes to post lol). i picked this back up as a comfort reread after the election and it slaps so hard it's crazy. love to read about how a bunch of war-losing loser traitors lost in no small part because it's hard to wage war as a modern state committed to resisting the tides of modernity!!!! sucks 2 suck!!!!!

listened

maude latour, sugar water - i'm kind of obsessed with maude latour not in terms of being obsessively in love with her music, although i think she's very good, but because she's my go-to example of someone out here doing girlpop toiling away in the spotify minds unremuneratively who i would easily and even gladly swap fame-wise with basically any of the pop girls in our current rising class (thinking of olivia/chappell/sabrina... none of whom are like terrible - well ok i have yet to hear a chappell roan song i think is actually good lol but i guess she can sing and it's nice that she's gay - but also alleged newcomers like tate mcrae? addison whoever? madison beer? these are not real people stop trying to act like they're real people! ladyraven ass pop girls...). she just makes really solid, well written, inventive but still catchy pop. i returned to this short album a lot more than i expected to, often thinking i wanted to hear just the first song (a standout) and then realizing i was happy to let the rest play through. also gay stuff, if you care about that.

sabrina carpenter, short n sweet - like it's all very competent and espresso deserves its flowers but who cares? who could possibly ever care? i've been SUCH an antonoff apologist and please please please is the first song where i felt like i was hearing him as his haters hear him, it sounds like shit. there are better moments and worse moments, some ok lines, she can sing, etc., but where's the vision? where's the personality? nothing to grab on to.

beabadoobee, this is how tomorrow moves - beabadoobee is obviously talented and intelligent and her music sounds enough like a kind of music i like that i always feel like i should like her more... but i think she's a little too stripped down and sophisticated for me. that said "ever seen" was one of my top songs of 2024, total absolute BANGER

charly bliss, forever - doesn't quite live up to the heights of young enough, but given that young enough is a strong contender for my favorite album of the past decade, i'm not really sure it could. this one is pop-punkier and very hooky lots of fun, and i just love eva's taffy-pull voice and wanna listen to her sing anything. also it has a song that sounds so much like a pop punk version of a kesha song it's legit uncanny to me.

pom pom squad, mirror starts moving without me - big step up from their last album, IMO, and i liked that a lot too! ambitious in an interesting way but also lots of fun. this one also has a song that at points sounds so much like a kesha song it's crazy, as does a 2023 album i was recently listening to by underscores... i feel like we're living in a big post-kesha moment and i don't know if anyone is appreciating it enough...

pale waves, smitten - i agree with pale waves that "what if avril lavigne got really into shoegaze and was also gay" is a great idea for an album. really pretty production on this one!

070 shake, petrichor - my friend dave was like "this album might be bad but i'm obsessed with it" and i listened out of solidarity and was like, i don't like this but i can understand why you specifically would. friendship!

charli xcx, brat and it's completely different but it's still brat - i never really listen to enough albums to justify having an album of the year but something about the release of the remix album really opened up the whole project to me and i was completely obsessed with it for a while and still love it. track by track most of the remixes are not quite as good as the original track (although some, like caroline polacheck's gorgeous turn on everything is romantic, are definite upgrades), but something about the spirit of generosity that infuses the project, the way it makes it all feel like a project more than an album, the sense that charli has thrown this party and she's invited up and coming spanish rapper bbtrix alongside ariana grande, the way it's less disciplined than the album proper but more expansive, at some points grimier and clubbier and at other points more emotive and romantic... idk. feels like a whole world. the so i remix alone, like - releasing a sad song about your friend who died, and then releasing a faster song about all the fun shit you used to do, that sounds more like a song your dead friend would have produced, is one of the most loving acts i have ever seen committed through art and it made me cry even though i never connected with SOPHIE's music bc i'm not really cool enough to be into hyperpop. rooting for charli at the grammies even though i know it's not gonna happen lmao.

other

jenny holzer at the guggenheim - there was a jenny holzer installation at the guggenheim!! it was really cool!! i finally understood something @rgr-pop said years ago about how it matters that she is a visual artist and her words (incredible as they often are as words) appear physically in a space. it is in fact Different, to see them in a space. in addition to The Classics (i got so fannishly excited spotting IT IS IN YOUR SELF INTEREST TO FIND A WAY TO BE VERY TENDER lmao), the installation also included a lot of her more recent and more overtly political stuff, some of which engaged specifically with the bush ii administration & iraq/afghanistan, which made for intense viewing given that i happened to go right around the time i read the shock doctrine (as did spotting the one about how mothers who have a reason to cry should do so in public....). jenny holzer is great! so glad i could experience that!

[fanfoolishness]

The Music of Jedi: Survivor

Last night I went to the Grammy Museum for an event celebrating the Jedi: Survivor score!  Sometimes living in Los Angeles has its benefits.  It was an evening with composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab, as well as their recording engineer Alan Meyerson, moderated by Jon Burlingame.  I took copious notes throughout so I could share them with you all :) All quotes are paraphrases, I’m not that quick a note taker.

My husband and I settled into our seats, me vibrating with excitement as the lights dimmd.  I was already hyped to hear the composers talk about my favorite game and their process for scoring it, but then my jaw fell out of my head because who strolled up on stage but fucking Cal Kestis himself, Cameron Monaghan, unexpected and uncredited on the event description.

I almost rolled out of my chair.  Then I frantically started smacking my husband (who’s never played the game, but loves music and production) and hissing “it’s him it’s him it’s the Jedi!!!”

Cameron’s intro was brief but lovely.  He introduced himself, then paused and said something like, “Do you hear that?  That’s the sound of silence. That is awful. I can hear my own thoughts!  No one wants to play a game like that.  Which is why we have these guys!”  He introduced the composers, Stephen and Gordy, as well as the sound engineer Alan and the moderator for the event, shook their hands and exchanged some hugs, then sat down in the audience.  Giddily I returned to my notes as Jon led the discussion.

Q: How did you get into scoring video games?

Stephen was a gamer and had always been interested in working with video games.  They were “enticing” and the schedule was much more appealing than for TV, where you might be handed a script and told to get the music back in a few days.

Gordy hadn’t worked particularly in games before.

Alan has been mixing and engineering video game soundtracks for the past 25 years, like Gears of War.

Q: What’s the difference between scoring a film and scoring a video game?

For film, it’s adding music onto what already exists; often the composer isn’t involved until the last 6 weeks or so of production.  (Fun fact I learned earlier this year, Ludwig Goransson was involved from the start on Oppenheimer because Christopher Nolan specifically wanted to subvert that.) 

The film is fairly static by the time the composers get their hands on it, so things are unlikely to change.

Video games are more like trying to put clothes on someone running a race, because drastic changes can happen at any time.  The timeline is also greatly extended — 2-3 years is common — so things may evolve and shift drastically in that time.

Film is also much less volume of music… they wrote an entire 8 hours!

Q: Is there a Star Wars music “house” style?

Initially Star Wars projects outside of the original trilogy were often scored as if they were B sides to the original soundtrack.  But the aesthetic is evolving.  There are a few standards though — there must always be that symphonic scale.

The score was performed at Abbey Road.  Alan mentioned that he was actually there on 9/11 working on a movie about a terrorist attack.  Stephen loves recording at Abbey Road so much he and his wife named his daughter Abbey.  All three of them agreed that Abbey Road is magical and the orchestra practically blends itself; for choral performances, all you have to do is stick a couple microphones in there and they sound fantastic.

They played a clip of “Dark Times,” with gameplay footage intercut with the symphony performing at Abbey Road.  They explained that they wanted to develop a new theme for the Empire.  At this time, the Empire just is.  You can’t use the Imperial March, because the Imperial March is how the Empire perceives itself.  But how does Cal see the Empire?  It’s dark and ominous. It’s everywhere.  It’s a fact of life.

Gordy explained that they literally shaped the melody like the sinus rhythm of a heartbeat to indicate that Cal’s on the run, his heart always pounding, never safe.  They used a full 12 tone chromatic scale to keep the track always uncomfortable and unsettled.

Stephen is such a Merrical shipper!  He talked about how one of the central conflicts of Survivor is Cal struggling with his feelings towards Merrin, and what do you do when you’ve utterly lost the fight?  He pointed out what the Senator tells Cal, and calls him a pretty reasonable guy.  Do you stop fighting when you’ve clearly lost?  “Maybe Cal should go shack up with Merrin somewhere and have a nice life.”

Q: What is it like having so much funding for the score on a game like this?

All you can really sell now is quality, and people expect it now.

Q: What is the process like?

They are brought into the game in the script phase, where they may see some concept art and get to read the script to help determine the story beats.  

The collaboration is joyful!  It seems like it could be really scary, to have game play testers, the game designers, and other music folks all weighing in on how the score is working or not working, but they actually really enjoyed it.  They’ll usually do about half the music, then have people test play it for a few months, come back with notes, and then work on the remainder after seeing what worked and what didn’t.

They played “Flight” in its entirety with gameplay of Cal and Merrin outrunning the Trident, and talked extensively about our girl Merrin!  Stephen talked about how in JFO, Merrin was important but not as big of a player.  Now in Jedi: Survivor, Merrin is vital,and we can see her story arc take shape.  Her small motif in JFO was expanded into an epic, heroic scale after we see her power with portals and moving on the wind.  They reached for all kinds of wind instruments, from Alpine horns, Tibetan horns, and even the “most tasteful vuvuzela ever.”

Note: it’s almost as heart-pounding to watch that sequence on the big screen as it is to play it!

They both said that some music flows onto the page and is easy to write; the escape from Jedha sequence was not one of those!  It wasn’t easy to write, mix or play!  A hundred people worked on this song, and it was hard as hell.  The orchestra musicians kept coming up to Alan and telling him they loved playing it because it was such a challenge.

They don’t always tell the studio who wrote what.  They work well together as they both love bourbon and coffee!  Stephen says he’s great at about ¾ of the tune but not the ending, whereas Gordy can fix that up in a jiffy.  They also sometimes divvied things up by planet or emotional beats.  

Q: I noticed in this last song (“Flight”) there was a choral element.  How do you decide when to incorporate choir instead of synth choir?

Choir is often the first casualty of budget cuts since it’s so many people involved.  Sometimes, synth choir is chosen for just a vibe or an extra layer.

However, there’s a rule that in musicals when the emotion is building to a point that words can no longer contain them, that’s when a character must burst into song.  For a score, when the emotion is swelling and can no longer be contained by mere instruments, that is when to pull out the choir.  So we see it in “Flight.”

Me: We also see it in “Rage,” muahahaha.

They used 120 singers for Flight and only needed 3 microphones because of how good Abbey Road sounds.

They prefer amateur choirs to session professionals since you can sometimes have too-professional singers trying to out-sing each other, and amateurs are usually more relaxed.

Q: There were a number of unusual or even invented instruments used for this score, tell us about them.

Gordy made bottle chimes.  He accidentally dropped a bottle of water while playing tennis and a ball pinged off it, making a lovely sound.  He ordered 20 metal water bottles and strung them in a wardrobe rack with different amounts of water in them.  Because it took ages to make, they used it in loads of places in the score.

Stephen went nuts and ordered 200 containers of BlueTack for the pianos for Koboh.  They wanted Koboh to sound like the old West, but not that spaghetti Western honkytonk piano sound.  If you make BlueTack into a sausage shape and roll it around a piano string you can make it make these strange broken sounds sort of like a gamelan.  This is called a prepared piano.  The low bumbumbum noises when first getting on Koboh and meeting the pit droid?  Freaking piano.  I would have never guessed!  They did this to 3 pianos.

They played a clip of Where the Nekkos Roam.  They used the prepared pianos, an orchestra, dulcimers, Basset horns, euphoniums, tubas.  They wanted Koboh to feel lived in and to have history expressed in the music.  The musicians were excited to have to rent out Basset horns since like nobody actually owns one.

Q: Tell us about the cantina music.

The original cantina brief from George Lucas to John Williams was apparently, “what if aliens came down in 1000 years and found sheet music from Benny Goodman, but didn’t have the same instruments?” And thus we got the Mos Eisley cantina theme which is almost unbeatable.  

They were thinking of scoring the cantina music themselves, but then thought, “what if we gave that brief to a bunch of really cool bands?”

They highly recommended Dan Mayo from Tantran.  They recommended taking a few hours to watch him kick ass on the drums on YouTube.

Tantran recorded "Fields of Dusk" for the cantina first, then Stig came back and said “what if we wove this into the score?  What if it was Cal and Merrin’s love theme?”  Then they created a symphonic version, also partially inspired by a Joni Mitchell song.

They played part of the cantina version of “Fields of Dusk,” then they played the symphonic version with Cal and Merrin riding the spamel to Cere’s base.  They gushed about being able to work with the story and the subtext.

Alan said that "Fields of Dusk” “is visceral.  It vibrates shit inside of you.  Mixing it was a highly emotional experience for me.  Even now sitting under the subwoofer — it’s right here, over my head — it’s very emotional.”

Q: How many motifs do you have?

“Seven thousand.” - Stephen

Gordy later amended that to about two dozen, but with tons of variations.

Q: What are the interactions like with the game developers?

They get to be in the building with them, working on the narrative team — making sure to serve the story first.  It also lets them practice gameplay or watch others playing to see how it flows.

Again, it’s a 2-3 year process.

They played the clip of Cal and Merrin making a campfire in the cave on Jedha.  Stephen is all about the Merrical ship (not that he used those words, alas, but still)!  He said this was such gorgeous writing, really allowing the technology to showcase the acting, and it’s his all time favorite scene in the game.

The whole theater clapped as he said that.  Yes!  A whole theater clapping while someone was talking about Merrical and calling it gorgeous. *sobbing forever*

Q: What has it been like to meet fans?

They’ve been delighted by the fans and how much they love the characters and the amazing performances of all the actors in the game.

Q: Are there plans for a sequel?

Stephen: “Are there Lucasfilm snipers out there?  Look for the red dot…”

Gordy: “There’s not NOT plans.”

Fan questions!

Alan mentioned he loves doing the hardest piece first!  Then it’s all skiing downhill.

A fan asked about more weird created instruments.  

They also used a bunch of bamboo smacking other pieces of bamboo, as well as using little drums from other purposes or sets.

Was there anything they messed up or wanted to do differently than they did in JFO?

They accidentally didn’t loop music in the hangar on Zeffo, so if you stick around there for more than 3 minutes, it just becomes wind sound and gets very lonely.  A live streamer was playing the game, talked to his audience for like 10 minutes, then wandered around almost in silence as his fans commented “why is this game so quiet?”

Gordy wanted to make JFO sound much darker and got his wish in Survivor.

I had so been hoping they would talk about “Rage” and the struggle with the dark side, but they were sort of avoiding spoilers.  So when they got to the Q&A I had to speak up.

I asked, “What was it like working with darker themes later in the game, like with Rage?  You see a real shift in the motifs and there’s also more amazing choral work.”  Their faces seriously lit up XD

Stephen said this was one he handed to Gordy because it was very difficult.

Gordy said that this is Cal at his worst, so it had to be so over the top.  Think of consonant sounds crashing through the melody, Cal trying to keep control of his thoughts but they’re twisting away, he’s trying to think straight and can’t.  It’s discordant.  It’s also scored to evoke a heartbeat throughout, like breathing.  

It was so hard for the choir to do, going back and forth — you can’t do that with choral samples or synth!

They ended with a video they played from their Hollywood Bowl show in June, and said we were only the second group of people to see it.  They played a clip where they do use the classic Imperial March, but contoured so you only get the silhouette of its shape, instead of the full sound.  It ended with a clip of the Tantran band playing a wicked awesome set out in the desert.  The last image they showed was a list of the 287 people who worked on the score!

We let out and I did get to meet them!  Stephen was lovely  and I told him it was just such a beautiful, haunting score.  I actually had a sketch of the campfire scene with me and he signed it!  His daughter Abbey is an artist too and she was really impressed by my sketchbook (she looked to be about 11).  Gordy also got to see a bit of my sketchbook and signed Cal in Nova Garon!  What an awesome night!  We didn’t see Cameron again but I was so astounded to see him the first time I didn’t mind at all.  

SO COOL!  Sometimes, kids, living in Los Angeles isn’t so bad!!

[denimbex1986]

'It is absolutely no secret that Christopher Nolan is a beloved and respected filmmaker. We're talking about the man who made "The Dark Knight" for heaven's sake. Few people have ever managed to marry blockbuster filmmaking with artistic expression quite like him, save for a select handful such as Steven Spielberg and a few choice others. He's a rare breed and, with "Oppenheimer," the man has arguably cemented himself as one of the very best box office bets we have today — if not ever. This is not hyperbole either, as Nolan pretty much only makes big ass hits, save for a couple of caveats across his career, which has spanned well over two decades at this point.

Even against remarkably huge competition from "Barbie," Nolan's latest pulled in $82 million on its opening weekend domestically to go with $97.7 million internationally for a $180.1 million global debut. Even against a $100 million budget, that represents a huge win for Universal Pictures, especially because "Oppenheimer" will almost certainly be in the awards season conversation later this year, if not a shoo-in for the Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. It also ranks as one of the biggest R-rated openings ever, just behind "The Passion of the Christ" ($83.8 million), narrowly missing the top 10.

"Oppenheimer" now represents Nolan's biggest opening weekend ever for a movie of his that doesn't have Batman in it. Yes, it somehow managed to out-perform the likes of "Inception" ($62 million opening) and "Dunkirk" ($50.5 million opening), despite the fact that those were seemingly better commercial bets. A three-hour biopic about the guy who made the A-bomb that is mostly people talking and doing science isn't quite as flashy as a full-stop World War II movie or a mind-bending, mind-heist flick. But that speaks volumes about Nolan's credibility with the moviegoing public.

A ridiculous track record

The fact of the matter is that this is just par for the course for Nolan at this point. Particularly since delivering a $1 billion smash hit with "The Dark Knight" 15 years ago, the man has been on an absolute tear that was only briefly interrupted by a pandemic. Even that didn't totally stop him, as "Tenet" made $363 million when people were still mostly staying home at the height of Covid in 2020. One imagines that movie would have made a whole lot more had Warner Bros. and/or Nolan waited to release it until marketplace conditions improved. But there's also something to be said about him trying to keep theaters afloat during a downright terrible time.

Nolan is currently the eighth highest-grossing director in history, with his dozen feature films raking in more than $5.1 billion worldwide. He sits just ahead of J.J. Abrams and just behind David Yates, but Nolan doesn't have seven "Harry Potter" movies under his belt to goose his total. Yes, he's got his "Dark Knight" trilogy, but the most impressive thing about Nolan's resume at this point is that he's accomplished so much of this with hit blockbuster originals, much like he's doing right now with "Oppenheimer."

At the very top of the list is Steven Spielberg, with $10.6 billion to his name, but that's across 36 movies. Other names in the top 10 include Peter Jackson ("The Lord of the Rings"), Joe and Anthony Russo ("Avengers: Endgame"), and Michael Bay ("Transformers"). All of them have more franchise films under their belts. Nolan stands out.

Nolan's greatest hits

After scoring one of the biggest hits in history with "The Dark Knight," Nolan followed that up with an ambitious (and expensive) original sci-fi thriller in "Inception." Despite having a potentially tough concept to execute and sell, the movie was an absolute smash hit, taking in $728.5 million worldwide and earning a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. Nolan would follow that up with "The Dark Knight Rises," which earned $1.08 billion and was DC's biggest movie ever at the time, but he's yet to make another franchise film since.

Next was "Interstellar" which, on the surface, had a sellable concept but proved to be a pretty heady, emotional trip. Audiences again turned out in droves, with the film making $647.8 million against a $165 million budget. In other words, another home run. What next? How about a World War II movie telling three parts of the same story from three different timelines in the form of "Dunkirk." $150 million budget, $512.3 million at the box office. Nolan is simply unstoppable. "Tenet," released under better circumstances, would have undoubtedly kept this amazing hot streak going.

Even his earlier, more modestly budgeted films such as "The Prestige" ($104 million/$40 million budget) are damn respectable. Plain and simple, Christopher Nolan does not miss. He budgets reasonably for the film at hand and audiences trust him almost implicitly now. If there's a safer filmmaker to bet on working today at this scale, and at this level of consistency, I'm struggling to find them. Sure, James Cameron knocks it out of the park every time, but we're lucky to get a movie from him once a decade at this point. Nolan is doing it every two or three years. That's impressive.'

[disenchantedif]

For each of the Ro’s: Barbie or Oppenheimer?

Viktor: Both. He’d pregame Barbie with Oppenheimer, go out for mimosas, then see Barbie.

Theo: Same as Vik. Let’s be real, they’re going with the squad and everyone is slightly tipsy.

Charlie: The designated driver of the squad, watches the mayhem unfold with a smile and an orange juice in hand.

Luci: Doesn’t want to see either. Cam forces them to go watch Barbie.

Cameron: Very enthusiastic about going to see Barbie. Buys a shirt and everything, makes Luci buy the candy and pose for a photo by the movie poster.

Amri: Again, both. Penny, who’s Amri’s roommate, wants to see Barbie, Amri wants to see Oppenheimer, so they compromise and make a day of seeing both.

Penny: So fascinated by the fashion in Barbie and the lore behind the film. Watches all the old animated movies the week before and forces Amri to make snacks and watch them with her.

Harlow: Doesn’t really have an opinion, also doesn’t really want to go see either alone. Would go watch either with MC if they asked.

Avery: Would go see Oppenheimer for the vibes, then go watch Barbie to cheer themselves up.

??? (Wraith): Has no idea about either movies, but happily drifts along if MC goes to see either.

[pedropascal24-7]

Saturn Awards Nominations

Pedro, Bella, and Nick have been nominated at the Saturn Awards and TLOU is nominated for Best Horror Series

[jeiceys-dead-poets-hcs]

Things My Best Friend and I Say as DPS Boys (Part 2)

you guys seemed to really like the last one! so here’s some more shenanigans courtesy of my best friend (plus some other friends) and i!

once again- warning for filthy and crude humour- it’s just- yeah—

part 1!

Neil: “when de moon”

Todd: “hits your eyes”

Neil: “. . .pizza”

Todd: “what?”

Neil: “that’s amore!”

Knox: “don’t do cancer, that shit kills you.”

Meeks: “i said something misogynistic. i’m gonna stand in the corner and think about my actions.”

[note: he did stand in the corner.]

Todd: “i fucking love music. whoever made that shit-? i’m about to- fucking make out with them.”

Charlie: “i am not misogynistic i do not know how to do . . . massages.”

Neil: “if oppenheimer makes a good song he’s boppenheimer.”

Charlie: “if oppenheimer works for law enforcement he’s coppenheimer.”

Todd: “okay, i think these jokes are getting a little to stale. i think it’s time to stoppenheimer.”

Charlie: “you are an std on the dick of society.”

Neil: “it’s enough to make a grown man cr— i am crying!”

Pitts: “what the fuck is sOOShi?”

Meeks: “this is an aspen tree. you can tell it’s an aspen tree because of the way that it is.”

Todd: [in denial] “you do— meth amphetamines.”

Charlie: [eats tiny microphone] “MM—”

Neil and Charlie: [in unison] “when- when you- when— whEEEN- wHEN YOU—”

Todd in any reaction to a small animal: [in bad Russian accent] “OH MY GOD! LITTOL GUY.”

Neil quoting Unus Annus: “who’s a big boy?”

Charlie finishing it: “i’m about to be—“

Cameron: “why are you over-minding your business, BITCH?”

Charlie: [acts like he tripped] “oh, fuck!” [starts twerking]

Neil after being called out: “that’s not funny.”

[rebeccalouisaferguson]

The Saturns, which honor the best in genre entertainment across film and television, are organized by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Winners will be announced February 4, 2024 in a ceremony at the LA Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel and will stream live on ElectricNow.

Best Action / Adventure Film

Bullet Train (Sony Pictures) The Equalizer 3 (Sony Pictures) Fast X (Universal Pictures) John Wick: Chapter 4 (Lionsgate Films) Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Paramount Pictures) The Woman King (TriStar Pictures)

Best Film Screenwriting

Avatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Walt Disney/Lightstorm) Barbie, Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig (Warner Bros. Pictures) The Menu, Seth Reiss & Will Tracy (Searchlight Films) Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Erik Jendresen & Christopher McQuarrie (Paramount Pictures) Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan (Universal Pictures) Pearl, Ti West & Mia Goth (A24)

Best Film Editing

Avatar: The Way of Water, Stephen Rivkin, David Brenner, John Refoua, James Cameron (Walt Disney/Lightstorm) Fast X, Dylan Highsmith, Kelly Matsumoto, Corbin Mehl, Laura Yanovich (Universal Pictures) Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker, Dirk Westervelt (Lucasfilm/Paramount/Disney) John Wick: Chapter 4, Nathan Orloff (Lionsgate Films) Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Eddie Hamilton (Paramount Pictures) Oppenheimer, Jennifer Lane (Universal Pictures)

Best Film Visual / Special Effects

Avatar: The Way of Water, Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett (Walt Disney/Lightstorm) The Creator, Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts, Neil Corbould (20th Century Studios) Guardians of the Galaxy-Vol. 3, Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick (Marvel/Walt Disney Studios) Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Andrew Whitehurst, Kathy Siegel, Robert Weaver, Alistair Williams (Lucasfilm/Paramount/Disney) Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland, Neil Corbould (Paramount Pictures) Oppenheimer, Andrew Jackson, Giacomo Mineo, Scott Fisher, Dave Drzewiecki (Universal Pictures)

Best Science Fiction Television Series

Andor (Lucasfilm/Disney+) Foundation (Apple TV+) The Mandalorian (Lucasfilm/Disney+) The Peripheral (Amazon) Silo (Apple TV+) Star Trek: Picard (Paramount+/CBS) Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+/CBS)

Best New Genre Television Series

Andor (Lucasfilm/Disney+) The Ark (Electric Entertainment/Syfy) The Last of Us (HBO/Max) Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power (Amazon) Silo (Apple TV+) The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC) Wednesday (Netflix)

Best Actress in a Television Series

Caitriona Balfe, Outlander (Starz) Lauren Cohan, The Walking Dead: Dead City (AMC) Emma D’Arcy, House of the Dragon (HBO/Max) Rebecca Ferguson, Silo (Apple TV+) Tatiana Maslany, She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law (Marvel/Disney+) Rose McIver, Ghosts (CBS) Elizabeth Tulloch, Superman & Lois (Warner Bros. Television)

[miraruinada]

"I had to do it to them, snipe. I went Judge Judy on that ass, snipe. I'm not loyal to anybody, I'm a demon. I have no loyalty for anyone. Never did, never will. Shorty chose to be with a demon, sounds like her problem to me. Haha. This shit ain't nothing to me, man. My wins longer than James Cameron. On and off the court, straight fundamentals. This shit ain't nothing to me, man. Moving like Dracula, we get it back in blood. You see it? I really did this. I'm really him. Flipped a whole brick into an empire, stop playing with me. I have no sympathy. I live for this shit. Haha. When I got the meat cannon, I shoot straight rope. Y'all can't fuck with me. I'm him. I've been him. I will continue to be him. I forgot who I am, can you tell me?"

"They thought they could stop a demon, I'm back. I hope them aliens are real so I have more things to fuck. This shit ain't nothing to me, man. I'm out here cloud seeding, the scope gleaming. I'm nice with it. I'm moving different. I'm sick in the head. I don't give a fuck if I go blind, I don't need to see the price tag. I'm taking it free. I'll fucking kill you. Last guy who ran off on the pack got choked out by some Givenchy gloves, the last thing he ever saw was the price tag on them. Slowly faded into darkness and I let the archangels take him. Haha. Welcome to the cream kingdom. Open up. Reach for my neck, you'll get turned into an example. I pushed the camel through the eye of a needle. This shit ain't nothing to me, man."

"Tied the opp to the back of a trackhawk and dragged him around the block for forty-eight hours. Opps wanted some initiative, blew up their entire quadrant. I'm moving like Oppenheimer. Step the wrong way and you will perish. I balled so hard they thought I was a fucking nutsack. They call me the sun. Look at me wrong, I'll make you go blind. Call me a laxative, cause I get shit moving. I can't buy pressure cookers, I can't buy fireworks, they got me on a list. Dick so good it got the whole world unionizing. Moving like tuberculosis, got the opps coughing up blood. This shit ain't nothing to me, man."