#John Dockery

[doodlesofmiddleverse]

let's talk about the boy with REAL Kenergy tho

[thenewdemocratus]

NBC Sports: CFA 1992- Pennsylvania Nittany Lions @ Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Full Game

Source:The Daily Press Penn State-Notre Dame, was one of the better college football rivalries in the 1980s and early 1990s. And it’s just a shame that they still aren’t playing. And I believe one of the weakness’ of Notre Dame not being part of a conference. Because a lot of their big rivalries wouldn’t have to end, because of where they are located they could’ve been in the Big Ten or Big East.…

[such-g00d-luck]

you know it hits hard

[silveragelovechild]

When I saw the first John Wick movie, I actually liked it. It was a revenge movie (he’s after the Russian goons that killed his beloved puppy). Sure, it was ultra violent but the fight scenes were stylish and I t introduced some novel concepts like the Continental.

I saw a couple of the sequels, but they were just rinse-and repeat with less style and more death and mayhem.

This year Hollywood offered us two contenders for a piece of the pie that John Wick baked. The first was Monkey Man, written and directed by Dev Patel. It too involved revenged (the cop that killed his mother) and an endless line of thugs for him to kill. The twist? He was aided by a transgender hijra community!

This week we got Boy Kills World starring Bill Skarsgård (famous as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in Stephen King’s It). He’s out for revenge too - the evil dictator who killed his mother and sister. The twist in this epic is that it’s a comedy. That is, if you find an endless line of thugs and innocent bystanders getting slaughtered is funny.

Skarsgård plays an unnamed Boy who survived a firing squad. He’s trained (and tortured) by a Shaman who wants him to kill the people that killed his mom & sister. The shaman is always blowing hallucinogenic smoke in the boy’s face. This made me wonder how much of the story we’re seeing is real.

BTW, the boy is also deaf and mute. As he grows older he forgets the sound of his own voice, so he imagine to be like the announcer of his childhood favorite video game. So throughout the movie we hear his thoughts voiced by H. Jon Benjamin of Bob’s Burgers and Archer fame.

Anyway, like John Wick and Monkey Man before him, the Boy kills Thugs (or the World as the title suggests)… lots and lots of thugs. There is a major set piece towards the end set in a theater with a winter theme… snow, igloos, and snowmen. I think it’s suppose to be funny, it not.

Oh, I forgot to mention… throughout the movie, in between killing thugs, the boy sees a hallucination of his young sister. These scenes are the best in the movie. Actress Quinn Copeland does a good job in an R Rated movie that she’s too young to see.

Neither Boy Kills World or Monkey Man are as clicker as John Wick or even John Wick sequels. Boy Kills World’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t known when to end. There’s a point when you think the story is over, yet it introduces another long and bloody slugfest. And when that’s over, there’s yet another bloody and long slugfest. Enough already!

Boy Kills World does answer a few Hollywood Mysteries:

It shows the reason why Famke Janssen will not play Jean Gray in the post MCU/X-men movies. (She’s starting to look like Katherine Helmond in the movie Brazil.)

It’s explains what happens when your post Downton Abbey career fails. (I’m talking to you Michelle Dockery).

[squintykitty11]

Are you normal or do you become obsessed with a tv show, your fav characters, then the actors who play them, and THEN have to look up/watch their entire filmography?!

Honestly, I’ve discovered some absolutely wonderful shows and movies that I wouldn’t have otherwise thanks to my obsessive personality! 🙃

[big-bishop]

deadpool, agent of chaos,'s 2023 birthday week celebration ;

> day five (feb. 17), tea time always, hayes & meredith fitzsimmons, & tom hopkins

yes, my partners do know about each other.

[hitchell-mope]

Fancast for a Broadway version of Great Expectations.

Phillip Pirrip. Jamie Flatters.

Estella Havisham. Emilia Jones

Herbert Pocket. Brenock O'Connor

Abel Magwitch. Bertie Carvel.

Miss Havisham. Catherine Zeta Jones.

Mr Jaggers. Damien Lewis.

Joe Gargery. Colin O’Donaghue.

Mrs Gargery. Michelle Dockery.

John Wemmick. Dominic Cooper.

Compeyson. Toby Stephens.

[medievalandfantasymelee]

Candidates for the title of

🌹Queen of Love & Beauty🌹

Candidates were given priority based on the number of submissions they received (in brackets behind their names and credentials). After all candidates with multiple submissions were entered, single submission candidates were admitted in order of submission.

Guinevere [Angel Coulby], BBC’s Merlin (2008-2012) [17]

Morgana Pendragon [Katie McGrath], BBC’s Merlin (2008-2012) [11]

Lady Éowyn of Rohan [Miranda Otto], The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003) [10]

Lady Marian Fitzwalter [Olivia de Havilland], The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) [9]

Isabeau of Anjou [Michelle Pfeiffer], Ladyhawke (1985) [8]

Arwen Undomiel [Liv Tyler], The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003) [7]

Galadriel of Lothlórien [Cate Blanchett], The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003) [7]

Princess Buttercup [Robin Wright], The Princess Bride (1987) [6]

Lucrezia Borgia [Holliday Grainger], The Borgias (2011-2013) [6]

Princess Isabella Maria Lucia Elizabetta of Valencia [Karen David], Galavant (2015-2016) [5]

Lagertha [Katheryn Winnick], Vikings (2013-2020) [5]

Sorsha [Joanne Whalley], Willow (1988) [5]

Lady Æthelflæd of Mercia [Millie Brady], The Last Kingdom (2015-2022) [4]

Princess Gwendolyn [Angela Lansbury], The Court Jester (1955) [4]

Maid Jean [Glynis Johns], The Court Jester (1955) [4]

Lady Marion of Leaford [Judi Trott], Robin of Sherwood (1984-1986) [4]

Rebecca of York [Olivia Hussey], Ivanhoe (1982) [4]

Alicent Hightower [Olivia Cooke], House of the Dragon (2022-) [3]

Aliena [Hayley Atwell], The Pillars of the Earth (2010) [3]

Queen Cersei Lannister [Lena Headey], Game of Thrones (2011-2019) [3]

Princess Daenerys Targaryen [Emilia Clarke], Game of Thrones (2011-2019) [3]

Danielle de Barbarac [Drew Barrymore], Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998) [3]

Devasena [Anushka Shetty], Baahubali (2017) [3]

Elizabeth de Burgh [Florence Pugh], Outlaw King (2018) [3]

Queen Guinevere [Vanessa Redgrave], Camelot (1967) [3]

Hürrem Sultan [Meryem Uzleri], Magnificent Century {Muhteşem Yüzyıl} (2011-2014) [3]

Lady Jocelyn [Shannyn Sossamon], A Knight’s Tale (2001) [3]

Princess Lili [Mia Sara], Legend (1985) [3]

Lady Margaery Tyrell [Natalie Dormer], Game of Thrones (2011-2019) [3]

Marian of Knighton [Lucy Griffiths], BBC’s Robin Hood (2006-2009) [3]

Lady Sansa Stark [Sophie Turner], Game of Thrones (2011-2019) [3]

Sheng Minglan [Zhang Liying], The Story of Minglan (2018) [3]

Queen Susan the Gentle [Sophie Winkleman], The Chronicles of Narnia (2005-2010) [3]

Lady Anne Neville [Claire Bloom], Richard III (1955) [2]

Lady Anne Neville [Phoebe Fox], The Hollow Crown (2012-2016) [2]

Brienne of Tarth [Gwendoline Christie], Game of Thrones (2011-2019) [2]

Bronwyn [Nazanin Bonialdi], The Rings of Power (2022-) [2]

Queen Catherine of Aragon [Maria Doyle Kennedy], The Tudors (2007-2010) [2]

Contessina de Bardi [Annabel Scholey], Medici (2016-2019) [2]

Egwene Al’Vere [Madeleine Madden], The Wheel of Time (2021-) [2]

Queen Eleanore of Aquitane [Katharine Hepburn], The Lion in Winter (1968) [2]

Queen Elizabeth Woodville [Rebecca Ferguson], The White Queen (2013) [2]

Donna Giulia Farnese [Lotte Verbeek], The Borgias (2011-2013) [2]

Queen Guinevere [Cheri Lunghi], Excalibur (1981) [2]

Jadis, the White Witch [Tilda Swinton], The Chronicles of Narnia (2005-2010) [2]

Jeanne d’Arc [Renee Falconetti], The Passion of Joan of Arc {La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc} (1928) [2]

Joan of Arc [Milla Jovovich], The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) [2]

Kate [Laura Fraser], A Knight’s Tale (2001) [2]

Lady Kate Percy [Michelle Dockery], The Hollow Crown (2012-2016) [2]

Queen Lucy the Valiant [Rachael Henley] [2]

Queen Madelena [Mallory Jansen], Galavant (2015-2016) [2]

Queen Margaret of Anjou [Sophie Okonedo], The Hollow Crown (2012-2016) [2]

Lady Mary Boleyn [Charity Wakefield], Wolf Hall (2015-2024) [2]

Moiraine Damodred [Rosamund Pike], The Wheel of Time (2021-) [2]

Morgana Pendragon [Eva Green], Camelot (2011) [2]

Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen [Emma D’Arcy], House of the Dragon (2022-) [2]

Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem [Eva Green], Kingdom of Heaven (2005) [2]

Eliška Pomořanská [Jana Brejchová], A Night at Karlstein {Noc na Karlštejně} (1973) [1]

Lady Marian [Audrey Hepburn], Robin & Marian (1976) [1]

Ophelia [Jean Simmons], Hamlet (1948) [1]

Aykız Hatun [Hande Subaşı], Diriliş: Ertuğrul (2014-2019) [1]

Roberta Steingas [Clare Foster], Galavant (2015-2016) [1]

Tamina [Gemma Arterton], Prince of Persia (2010) [1]

Princess Isabelle [Sophie Marceau], Braveheart (1995) [1]

Alexandra [Geraldine Viswanathan], Miracle Workers: The Dark Ages (2020) [1]

Isabella of Valois [Emma Hamilton], RSC’s Richard II (2013) [1]

Jade Claymore [Erin Kellyman], Willow (2022) [1]

Anne Boleyn [Genevieve Bujold], Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) [1]

Mu Nihuang [Liu Tao], Nirvana in Fire (2015-2018) [1]

Padmavati [Deepika Padukone], Padmaavat (2018) [1]

Queen Isabella [Tilda Swinton], Edward II (1991) [1]

Djaq [Anjali Jay], BBC’s Robin Hood (2006-2009) [1]

Below is a list of Honorable Mentions...

Anne Boleyn [Natalie Portman], The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

Aslaug [Alyssa Sutherland], Vikings (2013-2020)

Aviendha [Ayoola Smart], The Wheel of Time (2021-)

Catherine of Aragon [Charlotte Hope], The Spanish Princess (2019-2020)

Cecilia Algotsdotter [Sofia Helin], Arn: The Knight Templar (2007)

Doric [Sophia Lillis], Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023)

Queen Elizabeth of York [Jodie Comer], The White Princess (2017)

Jiang Yanli [Xuan Lu], The Untamed (2019)

Guinevere [Julia Ormond], First Knight (1995)

Hafsa Sultan [Nebahat Çehre], Magnificent Century {Muhteşem Yüzyıl} (2011-2014)

Hatice Sultan [Selma Ergeç], Magnificent Century {Muhteşem Yüzyıl} (2011-2014)

Queen Isabella of Castile [Michelle Jenner], Isabel (2011-2014)

Isolde [Sophia Myles], Tristan + Isolde (2006)

Joan of Arc [Ingrid Bergman], Joan of Arc (1948)

Kira [Lisa Maxwell, Kathryn Mullen], The Dark Crystal (1982)

Queen Mab [Miranda Richardson], Merlin (1998)

Maleficent [Angelina Jolie], Maleficent (2014)

Lady Margaret Tudor [Georgie Henley], The Spanish Princess (2019-2020)

Marian Dubois [Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio], Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

Lady Mary Tudor [Sai Bennett], The Spanish Princess (2019-2020)

Empress Maude [Alison Pill], The Pillars of the Earth (2010)

Morgaine [Julianna Marguiles], The Mists of Avalon (2001)

Queen Ravenna [Charlize Theron], Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Rebecca of York [Elizabeth Taylor], Ivanhoe (1952)

Rosie Cotton [Sarah MacLeod], The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

Sharako Lohar [Abigail Thorn], House of the Dragon (2022-)

Tár-Miriel [Cynthia Addai-Robinson], The Rings of Power (2022-)

Ygritte [Rose Leslie], Game of Thrones (2011-2019)

Yara Greyjoy [Gemma Whelan], Game of Thrones (2011-2019)

[grigori77]

Movies of 2024 - My Summer Rundown (Part 2)

10.  BOY KILLS WORLD – Turns out this was a really GREAT SUMMER for action cinema, and the first genre entry here is EXACTLY what you’d expect from the true master of anarchic movie mayhem, Sam Raimi, here producing the feature debut of ambitious young German visual effects artist-turned writer-director Moritz Mohr.  The newcomer’s crazy PERFECTLY compliments our veteran’s crazy, because this is like if The Raid movies had been made by Don Coscarelli (see John Dies At the End for reference) – basically a geeky love letter to classic 90s 16-bit beat-‘em-up video games, it follows the bizarre misadventures of Bill Skarsgard’s “the Boy”, a traumatised deaf-mute orphan raised and trained to become a lethal living weapon by a mysterious (and genuinely WEIRD) jungle shaman (The Raid’s own Yayan Ruhian) in order to avenge his family’s brutal murder at the hands of the Van Der Kroys, the bloodthirsty organised crime family holding their dystopian city under a cruel thumb of violent oppression.  The film has been described as a “fever dream”, and honestly that’s a pretty accurate assessment – this is a COMPLETELY FUCKING MENTAL film, frequently spiralling off on surreal flights of fancy as its already pretty bonkers plot starts to unravel in truly WEIRD directions, but thankfully this adds to the unique charm a lot more than it ever threatens to alienate the viewer, sticking to JUST the right side of satirical parody while delivering a consistently winning line of jet black comedy.  Besides, the MAIN attraction here is EXACTLY what most viewers come to this kind of film for, and Mohr EASILY delivers in this venue – the action sequences are INCREDIBLE, flawlessly executed even as they frequently become as downright INSANE as every other aspect of the film, and without pulling ANY punches to deliver some of the year’s most gratuitously GRAPHIC blood-and-guts.  Skarsgard is, like always, thoroughly BRILLIANT throughout, effortlessly proving what an incredibly expressive physical actor he can be since he never speaks a word throughout the entire film … but that doesn’t mean the Boy doesn’t get his point across just fine, the film delivering a pretty ingenious conceit by having him speak to us through his “inner monologue”, using the announcer voice from his favourite arcade game when he was a child (voice actor extraordinaire H. Jon Benjamin, star of Archer, Bob’s Burgers and Dr Katz, Professional Therapist).  Then there’s the top-notch supporting cast, featuring the likes of Michelle Dockery, Stranger Things’ Brett Gelman, Sharlto Copley and Famke Jansen as the uniformly despicable Van Der Kroys, Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day and its sequel) as their lethal enforcer June 27, and Andrew Koji (Warrior, Snake Eyes, Bullet Train) as Basho, the affable oddball resistance fighter the Boy befriends and enlists into his crusade along with Benny (the Old Spice Man himself, Isaiah Mustafa), a mighty warrior with a thick beard and moustache who provides some of the film’s biggest belly-laughs (for reasons it’s best for you to find out for yourselves, trust me).  Relentlessly ridiculous, unflinchingly messy and frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious, this is definitely one of the year’s most unapologetically ODD films, but also definitely one of the most FUN too, as well as a spectacular showcase for the talents of a VERY fresh new filmmaking talent who is doubtless destined for great things in the future.  Just be forewarned, it definitely AIN’T one for the faint-of-heart or weak-of-stomach …

9.  THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE – Once again Hollywood is making it ABUNDANTLY clear they just DON’T LIKE Guy Ritchie any more, and I have NO IDEA WHY … despite 2020’s The Gentleman becoming a modest box office hit and signifying what many considered a triumphant return to form for the man who brought us the likes of Snatch, RocknRolla and the Sherlock Holmes movies (although personally I never thought he actually really fell off, despite what Swept Away and Aladdin might have made us think), his subsequent releases all got largely BURIED online – granted, some of it was down to COVID, but even after everything started to get back to normal the inexplicably disrespectful treatment continued, with Wrath of Man and The Covenant, both impressively well-executed and evocative cinematic features in their own rights, getting released straight to streaming with frustratingly little fanfare to drum up the attention they clearly deserved.  At least this one made it into theatres, but with a lacklustre advertising campaign and stiff competition from much more high profile fare it sank like a stone, almost like Lionsgate didn’t even WANT IT to succeed.  Even worse, for some unbelievably stupid reason it didn’t even RELEASE

in the UK, meaning I had to wait until it subsequently hit Amazon for me to finally get to check it out.  The most frustrating part, though, is that the critics CLEARLY feel the same as I do about the film we actually received – this is a TOP DRAWER piece of work, further proof that Ritchie never actually LOST a step, another genuine belter of a flick which takes a brilliant premise and crafts an offbeat and deliciously entertaining cinematic caper than really deserved to be seen by a really big audience on a proper big screen.  Taken from Winston Churchill’s declassified WWII files, it follows the true life exploits of special forces commando Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill) as he put together a covert team in order to execute a highly classified raid on a German U-boat outfitting operation in the hopes of crippling the subs long enough to help bring the Americans into the War.  The only problem?  March-Phillips was a disgraced loose-cannon, a fiercely independent troublemaker with a reputation for going off-mission and a major dislike of authority figures … he was also the original inspiration for James Bond, then mid-ranking SOE-officer Ian Fleming using him as the basis for the mercurial protagonist of his best-selling spy novels (and the rest, of course, is history).  Needless to say, it looks like this will be the closest Cavill’s ever gonna get to actually playing Bond, and he really sank his teeth into this opportunity, clearly having the time of his life investing the character with his trademark twinkle and roguish charm (as well as an amusing appreciation for fine men’s fashions); he’s the ironclad backbone of the film, driving the action and story with typical aplomb, and is ably supported by a winningly motley collection of misanthropes, the gang of miscreants March-Phillips put together to execute Operation Postmaster brought to life in pitch-perfect performances from Alan Ritchson (Reacher), Alex Pettyfer, Eiza Gonzalez, Henry Golding and more, while there’s an enjoyably NASTY turn from Inglourious Basterds’ Til Schweiger as the film’s dastardly big bad, SS Commandant Heinrich Luhr, and Ritchie regular Cary Elwes brings his classic stiff-upper-lip to bear as the operation’s top CO, Brigadier Colin Gubbins, while an all-but-unrecognisable Rory Kinnear portrays a suitably gruff Winston Churchill.  Ultimately, Ritchie delivers an enjoyably fiendish heist movie masquerading as a war flick, the plot snaking with crafty glee through a series of expertly executed set-pieces and ingenious little twists before finally landing a brilliantly cathartic climax which pays winning respect to the real life heroes that inspired the film, along with one of the greatest espionage thriller franchises OF ALL TIME.  That alone should have won this movie some respect, at least enough to raise its profile, and it’s a criminal shame it’s been treated with SUCH glaring disrespect.  Here’s hoping it earns the cult classic status it deserves, that might redress SOME of the balance …

8.  THE FALL GUY – Stuntman-turned-director David Leitch’s latest film (following on from well-deserved previous successes co-helming the first John Wick film before striking out on his own with Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Hobbs & Shaw and Bullet Train) is not only a genuinely EXTRAORDINARY big screen adaptation of one of the classic old school action adventure TV shows I grew up watching (alongside Knight Rider, The A-Team and Airwolf), but also raises one of the great unanswered questions of cinema – why isn’t there an Academy Award for stunts?  Anyway … turns out that Ken, in last-year’s runaway hit Barbie, wasn’t the only role that Ryan Gosling was born to play – he’s equally perfect for the role of Colt Seavers, the seasoned “unsung hero” who makes all those action hero movie stars look so awesome, at least until an on-set accident left him with a near career-ending back injury which forced him into semi-retirement.  He’s brought back into the game, however, when the action movie star he used to double for, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), disappears midway through the production of the debut directorial feature of his former lover, camera-operator Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt).  On paper he’s here to fill in for Ryder, but he’s really been brought in to find the missing star before the studio gets wise and shuts down production, but as he delves into what turns out to be a pretty tangled mystery it becomes clear that Colt might not really be the right man for the job … unfortunately he’s all they got … Gosling may be a master of understated performance, but as I’ve learned over the years (particularly from the criminally underappreciated The Nice Guys) he’s ALSO a master of comedic acting, and he’s really firing on all cylinders for this one, frequently damn near stealing the show from a high class cast who are nonetheless all equal to the task.  Blunt is, as always, as flawlessly charming as she is STUNNINGLY beautiful, while Taylor-Johnson is clearly really enjoying playing a supreme douchebag of a preening self-promoting prima donna, Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddington frequently walks off with her scenes as supremely oily producer Gail Meyer, and Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Stephanie Hsu and the great Winston Duke both hold their own admirably as Ryder’s put-upon personal assistant Alma and Colt’s long-suffering best friend, stunt coordinator Dan Tucker.  Needless to say, Leitch has long since proven that he is a MASTER of on-screen mayhem, effortlessly ushering in some of the very best action sequences we’re going to see in the cinema this year, but he also once again proves he’s ALSO a master of big screen comedy, bringing the pitch perfect screenplay from Drew Pearce (who previously wrote Hobbs & Shaw, as well as Iron Man 3 and his own directorial debut Hotel Artemis) to effervescent primary-coloured life as a gleefully anarchic and thoroughly irreverent celebration of action cinema excess and the gruelling hard work that it takes to actually make it all possible, all done with barely ANY digital trickery at all.  All round, then, this was some of the most fun I’ve had at the cinema this year (so far), and once again, it really does raise that all-time great question – why isn’t there an Oscar for stunt work?  Gods know this one would definitely have been a shoe-in next Awards season …

7.  MARS EXPRESS – My animated feature of the summer is a pretty singular work which came out of leftfield and really took me by surprise, a science fiction murder mystery thriller of rare vision, inventiveness and beauty which is tempered with a fascinating and more than a little troubling thematic message which raises far more questions than it answers.  Marking the feature debut of French writer-director Jeremie Perin (Crisis Jung, Lastman), it chronicles the investigation of two very unusual private investigators – world weary former soldiers Aline Ruby (Lea Drucker of Fox’s War of the Worlds TV series) and Carlos Rivera (The Crimson Rivers’ Daniel Njo Lobe), the latter of whom is now a kind of simulant android whose recorded consciousness was uploaded into an robotic body after he was killed in action – on a colonised Mars as they hunt for the cause of a supposedly harmless robot’s sudden malfunction and subsequent violent rampage.  As they tumble deeper down an alarmingly perilous rabbit hole, they uncover a terrifying clandestine conspiracy involving corporate malfeasance which may include their sometimes employer, tech billionaire Chris Royjacker (the great Mathieu Almaric), rogue AI and a looming technological revolution which could spell disaster for the Red Planet … this is a genuinely INTRIGUING film, Perin and co-writer Laurent Sarfati (who previously worked with him on Lastman) weaving a seductively labyrinthine detective story which works magnificently well as an ingenious sci-fi take on the classic Noir formula, but also delivers an equally fascinating Philip K. Dick-esque treatise on the potential dangers of the unchecked development of artificial intelligence and far more fundamentally challenging questions about what it really means to be alive, and to be human.  It’s also genuinely THRILLING, propelling the story at a furious pace generously peppered with a string of intensely full-blooded action sequences, as well as a genuinely GORGEOUS work of animated art, the exquisite mixture of 2D and digital animation (looking like a slicker version of Titmouse’s work on Scavengers Reign) rivalling some of the best anime I’ve seen but nonetheless somehow carrying a conspicuously FRENCH vibe.  Altogether this is a magnificent achievement for an up-and-coming filmmaking talent whose work I will DEFINITELY be keeping an eye out for the future, as well as a BREATHTAKING masterpiece of this cinematic artform.  I highly recommend hunting it down.

6.  TWISTERS – Back in 1996, Jan de Bont’s man-against-nature action thriller Twister turned out to be one of the most undeniably enjoyable summer blockbusters of the 90s, and it’s one of those rare CGI-heavy features from the fledgling digital days that STILL holds up impressively well today.  It also DEFINITELY worked perfectly well on its own merits, with no need for a sequel and CERTAINLY not a remake … so when it was announced that there was going to be one after all, like many I was suitably dubious.  I mean the story was told perfectly well in the original, there’s nothing new that could really be said in a follow-up, right?  Turns out there actually IS, though, and I’m pleased to report that Minari director Lee Isaac Chung’s new film lives up to its predecessor in fine style, thanks in no small part to him and screenwriter Mark L Smith (The Revenant, Overlord and The Midnight Sky) clearly taking the lessons of the 1996 film very much to heart and bringing us a fresh serving of everything that worked so well last time round while carving impressive fresh ground for a genuinely rewarding original story moving forward.  That being said, the greatest strength of the original wasn’t the effects anyway – it was the wonderfully well-rounded, fully-realised characters we followed into the film’s myriad dangers, and this one definitely pulls off the same feat, introducing a new generation of tornado chasers out to pioneer new scientific tech and hopefully save the lives of people living in the strife-torn environs of America’s Tornado Alley.  Glen Powell (hot off major career-making turns in Top Gun: Maverick and Hit Man) may be the heavyweight star power in this particular cast, and he’s definitely great, scene-stealing fun as Tyler Owens, the self-proclaimed “Tornado Wrangler” of YouTube, but the true heart of the film is Daisy Edgar-Jones (Fresh, Where the Crawdads Sing, Normal People) as meteorologist Kate Carter, who’s looking for redemption for past mistakes which led to the deaths of most of her old storm-chasing team, while Anthony Ramos (Hamilton and In the Heights) is certainly the soul as Javi, Kate’s former colleague who’s looking to help her realise her goal through his new tech venture Storm Par; there’s also hefty support from the likes of Brandon Perea (Nope), Sasha Lane (American Honey, Daniel Isn’t Real), David Corenswet (soon to be the new Superman in James Gunn’s DCU reboot) and even my girl Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding, Z Nation, The Mandalorian)!  They’re all just as fleshed out as Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt’s crew were back in the day, a compelling collection of lovable misfits we’re happy to go on this crazy death-defying adventure with, which of course does SO MUCH of the heavy lifting with regards to the tension-building because we get so deeply invested in them all.  That being said, the film definitely doesn’t scrimp on spectacle, the visual effects work having improved SIGNIFICANTLY on what was already impressively high quality work back in ’96, leading to some truly TERRIFYING set-pieces that would definitely surprise anyone who only knows Chung for his critically acclaimed and award-winning dramatic work (but less for anyone familiar with his work on The Mandalorian), which means I am VERY curious to see what he’ll deliver this Christmas on the highly anticipated Star Wars-based Skeleton Crew TV series.  This is a far cry from just pure by-the-numbers summer blockbuster fare, then, a heavyweight event pic with a surprising amount of substance and a hefty dose of proper FEELS to go with all that adrenaline and eye candy, and it’s MORE THAN worthy successor to an already rightly beloved classic.

5.  FURIOSA – 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road was not only one of the greatest films of the last decade, but was also the undeniable MASTERPIECE of director George Miller’s career, even managing to (almost) eclipse his classic FIRST sequel, The Road Warrior.  It was a triumph of visual storytelling, two hours of furious all-action mayhem with barely any digital trickery in evidence, and brought us one of the greatest female protagonists of all time in the irrepressible warrior woman who managed to overshadow Max Rockatansky himself – Imperator Furiosa, perfectly brought to life by an ON FIRE Charlize Theron.  It was, quite simply, A PERFECT FILM.  So did it really NEED a prequel, chronicling the story of what led such a badass lady to undertake the gruelling crusade of that most exceptional of cinematic extravaganzas?  Honestly?  Not really.  But does that matter?  No, not at all.  As soon as Miller started touting this as a project those of us who flipped out SO HARD over Fury Road IMMEDIATELY started frothing at the mouth at the possibilities … it was just that the more pragmatic among us were also a little worried that he might not be able to capture lightning in a bottle all over again.  Well, we never should have doubted him, Miller was definitely equal to the task – Furiosa may not be QUITE as good as the film it chronologically precedes, but as an origin story it is MAGNIFICENT, a sprawling, gruelling, exhausting post-apocalyptic action epic that definitely does flawless justice to such an incredibly strong character.  I don’t want to give too much away plot-wise, it’s better to just jump in and ABSORB it all, suffice to say that this does indeed reveal how the child Furiosa was stolen from her seemingly idyllic life in an oasis in the middle of the radioactive Australian wasteland, dragged out into the middle of a brutally hostile desert filled with warfare, insanity and SERIOUSLY POWERFUL VEHICLES and forced to forge herself into an indomitable, merciless and uncompromising living weapon in order to survive, thrive and find her way back to her long lost Green Place.   Anya Taylor-Joy is a fine choice indeed for a more youthful Furiosa, subtly nuanced and filled with simmering intensity buried under a haughty mask of righteous untouchability,

but she doesn’t even TURN UP until the midway point of the film, the lion’s share of the work to establish her unbreakable character through her lost childhood ultimately going to The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart’s Ayla Browne (who previously performed for Miller on Three Thousand Years of Longing), and she is nothing less than a TOTAL FUCKING REVELATION in the role.  Chris Hemsworth frequently steals the film as the best villain the franchise has EVER HAD (and that says a lot in a series that includes Hugh Keys-Byrne’s Toecutter), self-aggrandising preening peacock Dementus, who gleefully tips from adorably camp to chillingly monstrous to pompously flamboyant at the drop of a hat, effortlessly holding court over the likes of Nathan Jones’ spectacularly ridiculous Rictus Erectus and Romper Stomper’s Lachy Hulme as a more youthful incarnation of his tyrannical father Immortan Joe, while The Musketeers’ Tom Burke is equal parts heroic and stoic as Praetorian Jack, the doughty War Rig commander who takes Furiosa on as his protégé, and model-turned actress Charlee Fraser (Anyone But You) rules over the opening scenes as her ferociously protective mother, Mary Jabassa.  Miller delivers in fine style on the action like always, the War Rig chase in particular sure to go down as the year’s most memorable action sequence, and once again there’s a pleasing reliance on physical stunt-work, practical sets and good old fashioned elbow grease over CGI throughout that does its predecessor proud.  That being said, this one is NOT a breakneck movie-long chase, its more leisurely, sometime quite introspective pace instead going a long way to let the story breathe and the peerless world-building develop, although there is still a characteristic relentlessness to the tale which means that, despite its two-and-a-half-hour runtime it never feels overlong or outstays its welcome.  Then again, it once again deploys Fury Road’s secret weapon – another throbbing, propulsively atmospheric score from Tom Holkenborg – to create another very pleasurable ride through the irradiated hellscape of Miller’s Outback.  I for one would be very pleased to return to it someday …

4.  KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES – Matt Reeves is a tough act to follow, even before The Batman he was already blowing us away with his star-making directorial breakthrough helming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and its follow-up War For the Planet of the Apes.  The conclusion of that latter film put a very definitive exclamation point on the franchise as a whole, making ANY attempts to continue the saga a tough prospect indeed, and something that even a seasoned filmmaker might balk at.  But when I heard the proposed new trilogy, set hundreds of years after the events of War, would be directed by Wes Ball, I breathed a big sigh of relief – he did an INCREDIBLE job with the sci-fi trilogy adapting YA novelist James Dashner’s popular Maze Runner series, so I knew the saga was in very good hands indeed.  Having come up in visual effects, Ball’s always maintained a very strong balance between physical and digital filmmaking, so he was certainly up to the challenge of bringing a new generation of photorealistic, vitally ALIVE super-intelligent talking apes to the big screen, as well as putting his flesh-and-blood actors through their paces with similar skill and flair.  Most important, though, this film introduces a new lead protagonist who’s definitely got what it takes to succeed Andy Serkis’ mesmerizing Caesar in a new story, Owen Teague (It, I See You, Inherit the Viper, Black Mirror) thoroughly impressing in his first lead role as Noa, an uncertain young chimpanzee from an isolated tribal clan forced to grow up fast when his people are stolen in one terrifying night by masked ape raiders, leaving him to follow their trail with only intellectual orangutan Raka (The Orville’s Peter Macon) and an unusually smart “echo” (basically what humans have become since they lost their speech and intelligence) named Mae (The Witcher’s Freya Allan) to count as allies.  Macon is a thoroughly endearing presence throughout, while Allan delivers a fascinatingly complex performance that fuels many of the film’s most interesting twists (although I’m sure you can spot one or two coming ahead of time); and then there’s Kevin Durand, who’s clearly having a whale of a time getting his teeth into a rewardingly robust screen villain in the form of Proximus Caesar, an ambitious bonobo warlord who’s using a corrupted version of his namesake’s teachings to build a tyrannical empire of oppressed apes – he’s not quite as compelling an antagonist as Toby Kebbell’s Koba, but he serves most admirably indeed here.  Altogether, this film definitely had A LOT of heavy lifting to do to even APPROACH the heights of Reeves’ tenure on the franchise, and Ball and screenwriter Josh Friedman (War of the Wolds, Terminator: Dark Fate, Avatar: The Way of Water) have risen to the task in fine style, delivering a thrilling, affecting and inventive epic action adventure which skilfully builds on the framework provided by the previous trilogy while courageously forging ahead into the future, leaving room to venture forward into exciting further instalments.  Ultimately this isn’t QUITE as good as Dawn or even War, but with this the saga remains as rewarding, compelling and majestic as ever before, and I see great things indeed in its future.  I can’t wait for whatever comes next …

3.  A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE – It’s interesting, most of the time when you get a really great movie that becomes a big hit and spawns a franchise, THE LAST THING it needs is a prequel, and oftentimes when it DOES happen it feels like a shoehorned mess or even a total disrespectful retcon (they can’t ALL be Furiosa, after all).  A Quiet Place was never one of those – right from the start it was clear that how it all began was going to be JUST as interesting as where the original story was going, a fact which was DEFINITELY reinforced when Part Two dropped that TERRIFYING flashback cold open.  So when this finally arrived I was FIRST in my local queue, raring to go and so unswervingly excited that anything less than amazing was liable to be a disappointment.  Thankfully it turned out to be EVERYTHING I was hoping for – this is a super trim 99 minutes of knuckle-whitening terror with a (by now, not really all that) surprising amount of emotional power packed in, one of those films that brings you to tears when it’s not scaring the living bejeezuz out of you, just like the first two.  Lupita Nyong’o is a breath of fresh air as our new lead protagonist, Samira, a world-weary young New Yorker who’s been beaten down by a life of tragedy and chronic pain from the very same kind of advanced cancer that killed her beloved father, only to find a reason to stay alive (at least for a few more days) when the sound-seeking murder-beasts crash-land in the middle of the loudest city in the world and instantly go apeshit from all the noise.  Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn, meanwhile, puts us through the emotional wringer right from his entrance as Eric, a timid Brit law student whose anxiety is going THROUGH THE ROOF as this all goes off around him, forced to find inner reserves of courage he never knew he had after he latches onto Sam as she makes her way across the city in search of the last slice she’ll ever be able to get from her favourite Harlem pizzeria.  There are equally heartfelt turns from Alex Wolff (Hereditary, Jumanji, Pig) as Reuben, Sam’s put-upon hospice nurse, and Djimon Hounsou, showing how his character started his own apocalyptic struggle as Part Two’s Henri, but perhaps the biggest stars of this film are, unsurprisingly, Nico and Schnitzel, a pair of tuxedo cats who perfectly portrayed the role of Frodo, Sam’s service cat, who’s probably THE MOST CHILLED-OUT feline I have EVER SEEN in a movie, and definitely one of the cutest.  Ultimately this is an absolute TRIUMPH for its breakout writer-director, Michael Sarnoski, whose INSANELY impressive feature debut Pig already made him one to watch back in 2021, and he definitely did the original property justice while carving his own equally impressive path in the franchise.  The end result, then, is a welcome addition to an already INCREDIBLE horror movie series, and definitely a strong contender for the genre’s movie of the year.

2.  DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE – Damn … if ever there was a movie that I really can’t say much of ANYTHING about for fear of dropping spoilers, even if most of the fandom has already gone to see it … this is an IMPORTANT MOVIE, maybe the most important of the year, because the MCU has been on the rocks of late, despite Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 going a long way to setting its fortunes back on the right track (but then that one has very much been considered a BLIP, really), and this one looks to have SINGLEHANDEDLY knocked the whole mess back on the right track while simultaneously mercilessly ripping the piss out of the whole debacle.  No, I mean IT REALLY DOES, there isn’t A SINGLE STONE that the Merc With a Mouth leaves unturned in his quest for meta-fuelled irreverence here (except maybe that dead Celestial poking out of the Pacific that nobody seems to be talking about after Eternals … or maybe I missed a joke somewhere).  Anyway, this is EVERY BIT as good as James Gunn’s third and final feature for the franchise, as well as another SUPER-solid entry in what was already Fox’s now expired X-Verse’s most popular series, but most importantly it’s also an EXTREMELY successful bridging film between that and the flagging Marvel Cinematic Universe, the perfect way to bring Mutantkind into the franchise with the least amount of fuss.  That being said, the BIG attraction here is, of course, getting to see two of Marvel’s biggest heavyweights going head-to-head in one movie, and of course beating seven shades of shit out of each other while they’re at it.  If you will … yeah, if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to get spoiled, you really should jump off at this point and just GO SEE IT while they’re still milking it for every cent they can in theatres, safe in the knowledge that it’s a fucking AWESOME movie and you won’t be disappointed.  Now SHOO!!!  Be off with you … okay, still here?  Right, then, watch me try to be as spoiler-light as I can moving forward … as much as Wade Wilson and Logan may be the very EPITOME of chalk-and-cheese onscreen, behind the scenes Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman have got on like a house on fire for a while now, ever since the former started lovingly teasing the latter in the first Deadpool movie and started his long-running campaign to lure the original Marvel Movie superstar into a big screen team-up, so it comes as NO SURPRISE that they’re both clearly having the time of their lives working together now.  Their chemistry in this is OFF THE CHARTS, the pair trading razor sharp quips, dirty looks and well-deserved face-punches with gleeful abandon from their first scene together RIGHT to the end, while the incredibly strong screenplay from Reynolds, series regulars Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Robot Chicken’s Zeb Wells and the film’s director Shawn Levy (who previously worked with Reynolds on Free Guy and The Adam Project, as well as Jackman on Real Steel) definitely gives them a really big Multiversal playground to let loose in, all while doing a really beautiful job of taking the baggage that the current condition of the MCU property’s left the franchise in and stuffing it all into what’s always been a much more stable if also far less RESPECTFUL cinematic sandbox.  There are easter eggs galore, both overt and a whole lot more subtle

throughout, especially during an extended sojourn into the Void (the TVA’s pruning dumping ground) which not only introduces a few fun new faces (including at least one X-Men franchise missed opportunity AS WELL as the VERY welcome return of my very favourite Marvel mutant of them all – so nice to see you back, Laura!  Sure hope you get to stick around for more) but also a bunch of fan favourites from across Fox’s Marvel pantheon, and as far as I’m concerned there ain’t a single bum note in the entire symphony here!  Certainly this is BY FAR the funniest Deadpool movie so far (which is saying something), but that’s not really surprising since Shawn Levy has consistently proven to be one of the VERY BEST cinematic comedy directors out there (especially with his consistently high quality Night At the Museum series), so this is just another day at the office for him, and he definitely delivered something TRULY SPECIAL here.  This is THE MOST I have laughed at the cinema so far this year, but thankfully like its predecessors it’s also got plenty of feels on offer too, meaning that it definitely fits in JUST FINE with the best that its new peers in the MCU have to offer.  Topping this off with a selection of genuinely BRILLIANT inspired soundtrack needle-drops (particularly in the thoroughly irreverent and MASSIVELY disrespectful opening title sequence which sees Wade mercilessly desecrating one of Marvel’s most sacred cows) and a genuinely moving closing credits farewell homage to Fox’s Marvel legacy, the filmmakers have done their material so very proud as well as opened the door to so much fresh possibility in the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward, and I for one hope this is a sign that things really are FINALLY back on the right track for the series.  Now if they could just get that Blade reboot out of Development Hell (wink wink) …

1.  ALIEN: ROMULUS – Ultimately landing JUST BEHIND a certain other major genre heavyweight entry on my list for the year so far, my (current) number TWO science-fiction film of the year is also easily one of the SCARIEST movies I’ve seen so far this year.  It’s also a very interesting and IMPORTANT film in that it goes A LONG WAY to knocking yet another major cinematic franchise back on track after spending a long while spiralling further and further out of true alignment.  Okay, I admit it, I LIKE Prometheus a whole lot as an actual FILM, but even I can admit that IN UNIVERSE its attempts to connect with Ridley Scott’s own original masterpiece and James Cameron’s (even better) follow-up were clunky at best and downright EMBARRASSING at worst (and in the end, the less said about Alien: Covenant the better, really).  So I guess it’s actually A GOOD THING that Scott took a step back into more of a producing role to allow somebody else to take the reins of this sort-of soft reboot, and it turns out that Fede Alvarez, writer-director of the first Evil Dead remake and Don’t Breathe (as well as the CRIMINALLY underrated The Girl In the Spider’s Web), was the PERFECT CHOICE for this job.  Fitting in somewhere between the events of Alien and Aliens, Romulus sees the dastardly Weyland Yutani Corporation find the blasted remains of the Nostromo floating in deep space, as well as traces of the original xenomorph itself, which they then transport to the film’s eponymous space station, in the orbit of the colony world of Jackson’s Star, in the hopes of exploiting the organism’s unique properties for their own gains.  Something clearly goes HORRIBLY WRONG in the interim, because when a gang of opportunistic young colonists, looking for a chance to jump ship to a freer life in another system outside of Corporate control, sneak onto the station in the hopes of scavenging some cryogenic resources for the journey, they find it derelict and ravaged by some kind of horrific disaster.  Then their poking around sets loose some of the fruits of the scientists’ biological labours, and before they know it they’re neck-deep in facehuggers and more than a few of their bigger brethren too …

Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla, Civil War, Bad Times At the El Royale) makes for a surprisingly robust action heroine in the classic Ripley mould as Rain, her diminutive size belying her character’s feisty determination and wily resourcefulness; Archie Renaux (Shadow & Bone) and Isabel Merced (Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Dora & the City of Gold, Turtles All the Way Down) are both extremely likeable as Tyler and Kay, respectively Rain’s ex-boyfriend and best friend, while Spike Fearn (Tell Me Everything) is kind of a prick as their cocky cousin Bjorn, and newcomer Aileen Wu is standoffish but precocious as talented young pilot Navarro.  The real breakout star of the piece, however, has to be Rye Lane’s David Jonsson, who delivers a spectacularly complex, multifaceted turn as Rain’s adopted brother Andy, a former Weyland-Yutani android dug out of a scrapheap and reprogrammed to protect her by her late father.  They’re all put through hell by the events that unfold within the faltering station, Alvarez turning the screws and fraying our nerves with his characteristic masterful skill as their situations progressively go from bad to worse to truly fucked, all while paying loving homage to the first two movies while also creating something new and fresh for the series if they do decide to move forward from here.  Best of all, though, as he’s always done in the past he largely eschews digital effects, preferring to do as much as he possibly can with physical effects, which makes the impressively icky creature work and seriously NASTY gore all the more delightfully gnarly throughout, with the film’s ONLY bum note being a particularly problematic “resurrection” choice which has already had a great deal made of it in the press, but which I, ultimately, found was actually handled surprisingly well in the end, so that it really didn’t detract very much from my personal enjoyment of the film as a whole.  Rounded off with an evocative and enjoyably old school score from Benjamin Wallfisch (who clearly had a great time channelling both Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner here), this is a rousing success for me, a phenomenal return to form for one of my very favourite sci-fi cinematic franchises and yet another standout offering from one of the very best fresh talents working in horror cinema today.  If he does indeed choose to stick with the property, I think Alvarez could well keep this series fresh and exciting for a fair few years yet.

[starlightmay]

Now that we've got a trailer and a release date for Oddity, here's the trailer of Here, Gwilym's other upcoming project, starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Paul Bettany, out on November 15.

"While Here focuses mainly on [Tom Hanks and Robin Wright's] family, the film occasionally flashes back to those who inhabited these four walls before them and faced their own upheavals and conflicts. Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) and Gwilym Lee (Bohemian Rhapsody) play the home’s first residents at the dawn of the 20th century, an aviator and his wife who never suspect how soon their living room will be used for a funeral wake." (Vanity Fair)

Gwil's character, John Harter, doesn't appear in the trailer but! Here he is 👨🏻

[doodlesofmiddleverse]

Memes

[tinyreviews]

Tiny Review: Boy Kills World 2023. Popcorn Raid-like violence.

John Wick meets The Raid, with an actor who appeared in both.  

And the actor who played Pennywise in IT.

I liked they did two twists. One obvious and one not.

Boy Kills World is a 2023 dystopian action comedy film directed by Moritz Mohr, in his directorial debut. The film stars Bill Skarsgård, Jessica Rothe, Michelle Dockery, Brett Gelman, Isaiah Mustafa, Yayan Ruhian, Andrew Koji, Sharlto Copley, Famke Janssen and features the voice of H. Jon Benjamin. 

[wouldadepressedpersonmakethis]

top portrayals:

LIZZY

[12] Lily James

[9] Keira Knightley, Jennifer Lawrence

[5] Imogen Poots

[4] Maisie Williams

[3] Sarah Bolger, Jenna Louise Coleman, Romola Garai, Bella Heathcote, Amber Heard, Saoirse Ronan, Emily VanCamp, Alicia Vikander

[2] Rose Byrne, Nina Dobrev, Taissa Farmiga, Sarah Gadon, Karen Gillan, Eva Green, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Anna Kendrick, Katie McGrath, Leighton Meester, Sophie Turner

[5] Matthew Goode, Jared Padalecki

[4] Jude Law, Aaron Paul

[3] Nathaniel Buzolic, Bradley Cooper, Hugh Dancy, John Krasinski, Landon Liborion, Miles Teller

[2] Jonas Armstrong, Justin Bartha, Douglas Booth, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Sam Claflin, Charlie Cox, Chace Crawford, Charlie Day, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., Martin Freeman, Ryan Gosling, Tom Hardy, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnum, Jake Johnson, Harry Lloyd, James McAvoy, Mads Mikkelsen, Julian Morris, Colin Morgan, David Morrisey, Dylan O’Brien, Evan Peters, Michael Pitt, Eddie Redmayne, Andrew Scott, Bill Skarsgard, Ben Whishaw

KATE THE GREAT

[ 3 ] Astrid Berges-Frisby, Bella Heathcote [ 2 ] Sarah Gadon, Felicity Jones

KATE AA

[ 8 ] Michael Fassbender [ 8 ] Keira Knightley [ 7 ] Tom Hardy

[ 6 ] Emilia Clarke, Phoebe Tonkin [ 6 ] Jensen Ackles, Richard Armitage, Henry Cavill

[ 5 ] Emily Blunt, Nina Dobrev [ 5 ] Nathaniel Buzolic, Sam Claflin, Luke Evans, Chris Hemsworth

[ 4 ] Jenna Louise Coleman, Michelle Dockery, Margot Robbie, Emma Watson [ 4 ] Ben Barnes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Evans, Liam Hemsworth, Jared Padalecki, Bill Skarsgard, Sebastian Stan, Toby Stevens

[ 3 ] Candace Accola, Natalie Dormer, Jessica Brown Findaly, Claire Holt, Scarlett Johanson, Freya Mavor, Katie McGrath, Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, Emma Watson [ 3 ] Robert Carlyle, Nikolai Coster-Waldau, Jaime Dornan, Theo James, Joseph Morgan, Julian Morris, Evan Peters, Aidan Turner

[ 2 ] Chloe Bennet, Shelley Hennig, Lena Headey, Amber Heard, Lily James, Leighton Meester, Emilie de Ravin, Krysten Ritter, Sophie Turner, Evan Rachel Wood [ 2 ] Aneurin Barnard, Douglas Booth, Charlie Cox, Charles Dance, Hugh Dancy, Scott Eastwood, Mark Gatiss, Tom Hiddleston, Michiel Huisman, Harry Lloyd, Richard Madden, James Norton, Colin O’Donoghue, Daniel Sharman, Milo Ventimiglia

LAUREN

[ 7 ] Natalie Dormer [ 6 ] Romola Garai [ 5 ] Emma Stone [ 4 ] Crystal Reed, Holland Roden [ 3 ] Karen Gillan, Rosamund Pike, Emilie de Ravin, Eleanor Tommilson, Charity Wakefield

TINA RAE

[ 5 ] Ben Whishaw [ 3 ] Billie Piper [ 3 ] Dylan O’Brian, Colin O'Donoghue [ 2 ] Alexis Bledel, Laura Carmicheal, Sarah Paulson, Lara Pulver, Taylor Swift, Anna Torv [ 2 ] JJ Field, Freddie Highmore, Josh Hutcherson, Gabriel Mann, Dan Stevens, Max Theriot

JENN

2: Cava Delevingne, Zoey Deutch, Phoebe Tonkin, Lea Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Suki Waterhouse, Emma Watson

3: Tom Hiddleston 2: Daane Dehann, Chris Hemsworth, Luke Mitchell

[mercyisms]

wld love for u to expand on your thoughts about asian jewish mercymorn?? my beloved hater girl

(:<<<< i was delighted to receive this ask and rolled it around in my brain for days and days, even though the real answer is "i'm silly and i like to have fun." to preamble: very, very generally, i think it can useful to have fun with white characters in works written by white novelists. i think it can be a lot of fun, too, to see a fancreator re-interpret a work into a culture they know a lot about and bring out different textures or tensions. but i also think it’s fun to reconsider specific characters (sometimes especially the ambiguously raced ones) and tease out tensions that might feel interesting or ones that somebody without cultural context may have overlooked. i like resisting the idea that whiteness is the default or a neutral default.

though! on the flip side and despite routinely joking that augustine being canonically blonde is a hate crime against me somehow, i also recognize that, for example, augustine’s whiteness (or presentation towards whiteness) seems intentional and is doing work in the text. (when i joke about john always having one six foot plus blonde around, it’s funny! but it’s also reflecting something the text is engaging with with regards to race.) so, anyway, that man can stay white. but to speak, at last, to our beloved hater girl. i think the first thing that opened the door for me is one of the initial descriptions we get of mercymorn.

The face beneath the icy parti-coloured hood was a prim, virginal oval; much in shape and feature like the shape of a saint’s face in a portrait, or a death mask. The nose and jaw and forehead were all carven and serene, and therefore had the same indifferent dullness of a well-formed statue.

i am fairly certain tamsyn is consciously trying to evoke one of the infinitely funny and also very beautiful medieval paintings or sculptures of the virgin mary (etc.) (divine conception: difficult mode, am I right, lads?). but for me, the refrain of mercy’s oval face is a great example of a descriptor that isn’t exclusive to whiteness. very practically, when i started looking for references to make humble sketches of mercymorn, i first turned to michelle dockery (expressive eyebrows! a face that can be cold and severe but then melts into heartbreaking, childish expression!) and then more and more to (an aged down!) kim seo hyung. (for the record, when i make stabs at augustine, i am usually drawing on a richard ii era fiona shaw, with dashes of young peter capaldi and perennially ancient jeremy irons. recently, my go-to for cytherea has been ophelia-era—of course—helena bonham carter.) but it’s rooted in more than just me dicking around in procreate. the idea of an asian mercymorn became more compelling to me when i considered how that would change the texture of her character. to try and be as brief as possible, there, as you may well be v familiar with yourself, are longstanding stereotypes of (largely east and south, but it all gets homogenized) asian immigrants being depicted as cold and unfeeling robots, as excelling only at rote memorization and lacking critical thinking or social skills, as being dangerous or suspicious or obnoxious over-achievers, and as, depending on the day, being too sexy or utterly sexless. (i am not claiming any of these are unique to the very broad category of ‘asian,’ just setting the table.) and i think mercymorn becomes really compelling reinterpretation and rebuke to expectations if she is asian. because she is so many of those things: overachieving med school graduate; someone who (though she seems to have excelled at the magicky part) gift comes from stubborn, rote memorization; someone deeply repressed; someone who is told and believes herself to be unfeeling and inhuman (”Every time you’ve said that I did not understand the human heart, that I was unfeeling, that I only knew worship without adoration”)—but is also a disaster of emotions, despite it all, and is driven by incredibly messy emotions and whose skills (the memorization, the drive to overachieve, even the repression) come from this vast and terrifying well of emotions that even she can’t really look at head-on. before mercymorn, i don’t know that i had seen these tropes reworked in exactly this way or thought to rethink these stereotypes in this way, and so that’s some of what mercymorn-as-asian does for me. (obviously caveat that i’m very strongly drawing from a north american context and i totally confess to not knowing what stereotypes are present in new zealand! but anecdotally through friends in australia and england, these stereotypes certainly seem present throughout the globe, and i would not be surprised if they were also present in nz. but just recognizing that!) i also, personally, find this a lot more satisfying than just going off tamsyn’s canon sheet and being like, yeah, got it, isaac is the one canonical east asian. that’s nice! that’s lovely! but it doesn’t really do anything for me or the narrative. i’m not upset about it! but the lyctors, those who lived pre-ressurection and lived closest to john and carry some of their biases with them, are people who have been shaped by a society where race is very present. vs. the younger 10,000 years out gen who ostensibly (though of course they are in a text written here and now) live in a “post-racial” society, at least from what we see within the house system. (i mean, i say this, but then i also feel like... have u met east asian christian converts. there is some eighth house energy there is all i will say. so, again, i just like to have fun.) re: the jewish thing, i am a hater girl myself and cannot like catholics have anything not ever (hashtag joking, tbc) and a) would love for a foot in and b) as myself and others have pointed out, mercymorn would love to kvetch, she’d be so good at it, she understands it implicitly and she deserves to have a community to kvetch with and c) as i think the inciting post for this ask pointed out she’d be so good at saying ‘oy vey’ and d) idk i just think it’s even funnier if a lapsed jewish woman and a nun walk into a bar and then kiss. in general, i also feel a vested interest in opening the door for mixed race readings of characters and one’s that, again, reinterpret or add to the texture of that character’s presence in text and are done in a thoughtful, fun, interesting way. i could possibly say more but i think this is enough for right now!! maybe!!! sorry this took me so long!! uhh but that’s a taste into my thought process, anyway, for how i like to interpret and reinterpret les lyctores and specifically best beloved hater mercymorn m. nolastname i love u. it is (obviously!) not the definitive or only interpretation, but is the one that currently speaks deepest to my soul. but i do love to see all kinds of interpretations and reinterpretations of our beloved necro-cast.

[lifewithaview]

Maggie Smith and Michelle Dockery in Downton Abbey (2010) S2E3

July 1917. As Isobel's plan to turn Downton into a hospital unites upstairs and downstairs in protest, O'Brien persuades Cora to make Thomas the hospital manager. Ethel enjoys the patients' attention whilst Edith earns respect as an auxiliary nurse. Chauffeur Branson, extolling the Russian Revolution, intends to be a conscientious objector but is rejected on medical grounds as former footman William, on his way to the trenches, proposes to Daisy. As Lang finds his trauma interferes with his work Anna discovers Bates working in a local pub. He tells her that Vera has been unfaithful and he is hopeful of a divorce. Violet and Rosamund learn that Carlisle coerced a reluctant Lavinia into exposing government secrets by using her father's debt - thus the engagement is still on.

*Chauffeur Branson was rejected for military service due to a heart murmur which he called Mitral Valve Prolapse. A murmur would have indeed kept him out of the military but the particular disease called Mitral Valve Prolapse wasn't discovered until 1966 by Dr. John Brereton Barlow.

[agentnico]

Boy Kills World (2024) review

Voice of Archer inside Pennywise’s ripped body… I was surprised he at no point screamed “LANAAAAA!!”

Plot: Boy is a mayhem machine who's been training to assassinate the bloodthirsty Hilda Van Der Koy and avenge his family's murder; guided by his sister's mischievous spirit, Boy uncovers one stunning revelation after another as he barrels toward Hilda.

Let’s get real - a cheese grater in a horror or gore film is simply the worst. Just the thought of it scraping away a hefty chunk of flesh is nothing short of skin crawling. Evil Dead Rise and now Boy Kills World - you guys are messed up. Nevertheless, we have another funky revenge action flick, a genre of which has seen a real resurgence since the success of the John Wick franchise. And it stars in the lead one of the eight Skarsgard siblings, though when you think action star you usually would pick Alexander. Bill up until now has carved out a niche as the best one to hire if you’re seeking a creepy vibe, be it the mysterious stranger in Barbarian or a killer clown in the IT films. However that changes with Boy Kills World, as Bill Skarsgard, rippling with muscles, plays the typical I-am-an-instrument-shaped-for-a-single-purpose; essentially a killing machine who disposes of his enemies in a variety of bloody styles (like a damn cheese grater!!).

This would have been a generic example of the revenge tropes, however the movie has an interesting stylistic choice in that Skarsgard’s character of Boy is a mute, so we get to hear his thoughts through a voice in his head, who happens to be the same voice as Archer from the FX cartoon series. I admire that the writers were trying out something new, but I must say as much as I enjoy H.J. Benjamin’s candescent voice, it did become over indulgent. It’s as if they were trying to imitate Deadpool’s fourth wall breaks and profanities, but without it being that funny. I also found it difficult to reconcile them as being the same person, as the mismatch of Bill Skarsgard’s physical performance with Benjamin’s voice was so stark that it became a distraction. Again though, I admire the creative effort.

The action sequences are hyper stylised and fun, with plenty of CGI blood splattering about and the camera zooming in and out of the action like it’s high on cocaine. The cast all seem to be having lots of fun, with the likes of Sharlto Copley, Michelle Dockery and Brett Gelman giving energetic cartoony performances, and overall I enjoyed it. The story is as by the numbers as you can expect, and 99% of what you see on-screen has been done thousands of times before. I liked the plot twist at the end though it was no M. Night Shyamalan, and in the end, it was a decent way to disengage the brain. Will I remember it though? No chance! Minus a point also for boy not actually killing a whole world. Like I get that they didn’t have the biggest budget, but don’t give false promises in your title.

Overall score: 5/10