#John Malkovich relationship

[ottiliere]

you know I was thinking last night as I rewatched Being John Malkovich, a movie which always reminds me of dirk, about how he actually would've started out using somethingawful just due to timeline of his universe. the very first time he spent money on the internet was to unban his account

[ilikethisacompletelynormalamount]

Andrew Scott, Vogue: April 2024.

by Zing Tsjeng, Photos by Annie Leibovitz

Ripley, in other words, is the hero of the tale. “That’s why he fascinates so many,” says Scott. “There’s been so many iterations of him. I think it’s because people root for him.” Actors like Alain Delon and Dennis Hopper have tried the role; Matt Damon played him as an obsequious, lower-class naïf; John Malkovich, as a slimy, camp killer. Scott’s Ripley is different; a watchful loner escaping rodent-infested poverty, more at home among art than he is around people. Musician and actor Johnny Flynn plays his first victim—the monied Dickie Greenleaf—and Dakota Fanning is Dickie’s suspicious ex-girlfriend. “I find Tom quite vulnerable,” Scott tells me. “I don’t think he’s necessarily lonely, but I certainly think he’s solitary…. He seems to me by his nature that he just can’t fit in. He’s trying to survive.”

In Ripley, Zaillian extracts maximum Hitchcockian dread from every creaky footstep. But most sinister of all is Scott’s face, which exhibits a sharklike steeliness throughout. It’s a performance that exudes queasy force. Is Ripley a scammer, a psychopath, or both? “There’s so many things lurking beneath him that I’ve been very reluctant to diagnose him with anything. I never thought of him as a sociopath or murderous,” Scott declares. “It’s up to everybody else to characterize him or call him whatever they want.”

As we weave through tourists near the Tower of London, barely anybody notices Scott, save for a faint glimmer of recognition among mainly young women. He seems to draw reassurance from it. “I don’t like to think about it too much, if I’m honest,” he muses of fame. “I find it a little bit, er, frightening.” He is known but not blockbuster-recognizable, although he is in the upcoming Back in Action with Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx. What stunts did he do? “I can’t give that away, I’m afraid, or somebody from Netflix will come and shoot me in the head.”

What’s been on Scott’s mind the most hasn’t been acting at all, in fact, but art. As a 17-year-old, he was offered his first movie role on the same day he was given a scholarship to study painting. He chose acting, but has recently been thinking about Oliver Burkeman’s philosophical self-help tract from 2021, Four Thousand Weeks, which makes the case for focusing on the five things you truly want to accomplish. “For me at the moment, it’s like, What do you want to do? What do you want to say?”

He scrolls through his phone to show me his work. There’s a watercolor of a couple arguing in a restaurant in rich reds and greens, line drawings of friends and people on the beach, and two self-portraits. “It’s a bit weird,” he acknowledges of his depiction of himself, all bulbous forehead and Pan-like tufts of hair. His brisk, nervy lines are reminiscent of Egon Schiele or Francis Bacon, who turns out to be one of his favorite painters. “Well, God, I’ll take that,” he mutters at the comparison. He would like someday to go to art school. “I don’t ever regret it,” he says of acting. “But I suppose you just get to a stage where you think, What else? That’s one of the big painful things in life for me, where you can’t quite live all the lives.” As he gets older, he feels the tug toward revisiting old working relationships, including with Waller-Bridge: “We’ve definitely got things cooking,” he smiles. “I’d love to work with her again. She’s just a singular, wonderful person.” For her part, Waller-Bridge says: “I’d love to see him do a fully unhinged slapstick comedy character. Someone who is outraged at everything, all of the time.”

As we round the pavement and the Tate Modern looms back into sight, he recalls a poster he received in 2017—a monstrously large graphic that detailed every week in a human life span. “It’s your entire life if you live to 80—you have to fill in all the bits that you’ve already lived,” he remembers in awe, “a visually terrifying gift.” What did he do with it? “I didn’t hold on to it for too long.” Easy come, easy go: We finally finish our loop around the Thames and, as Scott disappears back into the throng, anonymous just the way he likes it, it occurs to me that the actor has many lives to live yet. ■

[cosmic-light-fics]

Saw this gif by @yeyinde

and got curious about the film poster in the background. I've never seen the movie before but imdb has a great synopsis on it.

Rounders (1998):

John Dahl directed this exploration of New York private clubs devoted to high-stakes poker, with first-person narration from the film's central figure, law student Mike McDermott (Matt Damon), who loses his entire savings to Russian club owner Teddy KGB (John Malkovich). Mike then turns away from cards, devoting his attentions to his law studies and his live-in girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol), who's concerned when Mike's former gambling buddy Worm (Edward Norton) is released from prison. She has good reason to worry, since it takes Worm only a matter of minutes to draw Mike back into poker action. When she learns Mike has returned to the poker clubs, she moves out, and Mike begins to lose interest in his studies. Worm has a prison debt, and the threatening Grama (Michael Rispoli) wants the money. Mike not only indulges the irresponsible Worm, he gets involved in Worm's debts. When Grama demands $15,000 on a five-day deadline, the two buddies go into high gear with a non-stop, no-sleep gambling binge that spirals downward toward an ultimate confrontation with Teddy KGB.

Now Carmy isn't dealing with poker cards or prison debts, but the story of a young man's attentions being diverted from his girlfriend and his other responsibilities rings too close to his situation in season 2.

Claire's arrival is akin to the arrival of the Worm character, being someone whose purpose is to divert the main character's attention away from his work. No surprise, but Sydney's character is akin to the girlfriend in this situation, the one who suffers from the loss of the main character and has to deal with his lack of attention to their shared business endeavor.

Also thinking about this in the context of the scene: Richie and Carmy are about to have a conversation about purpose, where Richie feels as though he has none and believes Carmy and the rest of the crew has one, which would then lead them to drop his ass. Carmy assures Richie that he won't drop him but also admits that being in the restaurant business is not fun for him (he makes the distinction that he does love it, just that it's not fun). That gets Carmy thinking about the lack of fun in his life, and culminates in his new internal goal of being able to provide amusement to himself in order to be able to provide it to others. What I've gathered from the first season is Carmy likes attacking problems the moment they are diagnosed and believes the quicker he works on them, the quicker they can be resolved (The Brigade - using terminology from the Al-anon meeting, "changing the chemistry", to solve the kitchen's chaos and keep his side of the street clean). Same can be said for how he tries to force amusement into his life.

Carmy is quick to accept any quick way to amusement, which is provided by the sudden arrival of a former crush. When the moment arises where he is given a chance to leave behind his responsibilities and pursue what he believes is amusement, he jumps at the opportunity, which leaves Sydney by herself in the process of constructing their menu and the restaurant.

Of course there are many more layers to this whole story (Carmy's personal life, his attachment to the past, his past traumas, his lack of relationship experience, his yearning for personal betterment, his budding feelings for his business partner, and his hesitancy to address of the emotional pain he's still holding on to after the losing Mikey). I just wanted to expand on how Rounders (1998) fits into the grand scheme of season 2 Carmy.

[blogthebooklover]

Shadow of the Vampire {2000} - Full Horror Film HD

Since the teaser trailer for the Nosferatu remake dropped this morning, here’s a 2000 movie, Shadow of the Vampire.  A fictional account of the making of Nosferatu featuring:

Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck/Count Orlok

He is an absolute blast in this role!  Tbh, I almost forgot he played Count Orlok in this.

John Malkovich as F.W. Murnau, director of Nosferatu

Equally just as great as Dafoe.

Eddie Izzard as Gustav von Wangenheim/Thomas Hutter/Jonathan Harker

She doesn’t have too much screentime, since the movie is focusing on Murnau and Schreck’s working relationship as director and actor; however, she is also great in this too.

Catherine McCormack as Greta Schroder/Ellen Hutter/Mina Harker

Cary Elwes as Fritz Arno Wagner, the cinematographer

Udo Kier as Albin Grau, occultist; the producer, art director and costumer designer

John Aden Gillet as Henrik Galeen, the screenwriter

[denimbex1986]

'***

It's always a risk to make another version of a well-loved story. Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley was a hit upon its publication and has remained one since, and the 1999 film adaptation is well-regarded in its own right. When Netflix announced Ripley, both anticipation and trepidation emerged in equal measure. Would it live up to its predecessors, or become just another remake that gets lost in the neverending river of regurgitated IP that seems to dominate both the big and small screens?

The show looked promising. A stellar cast, a characterful black-and-white style and, of course, a good story. It had all the makings of a mega-hit — but the sum of its parts doesn't add up to much at all.

One of Ripley's biggest problems is that it gets lost in its own style. The aesthetically engaged production and indulgent architectural shots, initially striking and unusual, lose their charm by the final episode, and seem to be favoured above movement of plot or character development from about halfway through. This isn't helped by the several pacing issues that make some episodes seem interminable and others' timeframes difficult to follow. There's a tendency among some recent shows to try to exploit the watch-on-demand format to make what is essentially an eight-plus hour film chopped into 60-minute segments rather than consider the actual enjoyability of the watching experience; Ripley, sadly, teeters on the edge of this flaw.

When it comes to the story itself, despite the strength of the original narrative Ripley decides to put its own spin on the tale. Art plays a prominent role in this interpretation of Highsmith's novel, with Tom besotted with an original Picasso hanging in Dickie's (Johnny Flynn) Atrani villa and, later, by an obsession with Cavarggio. The tie between the two characters is tenuous at best, and the nuance of the first few episodes is completely lost by the oblique signposts to the ‘parallels' in their stories later on. Particularly egregious is the inclusion of a hammy flashback sequence to a murder Caravaggio supposedly committed in 1606. Not only is this entirely unnecessary, it's inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the series and obliterates the narrative's tension.

A similar diversion from the original plot sees Tom meeting a fellow career criminal (John Malkovich in a nudge-nudge wink-wink cameo), the two recognising each other's nature based on some psychic criminal connection. This too is unnecessary, and is used as something of a deus ex machina to give this story a more conclusive ending than Highsmith's.

Andrew Scott, true to form, is excellent as the titular Tom Ripley. He plays the sociopathic social-climbing con man with an intriguing complexity, weaving humour and complexity into what could be a cliche, surface-level psycho. That complexity is limited, though, as the show never allows us to understand Tom's motivations, either overtly or subtextually. Despite being a textbook homoerotic tale, his relationship with Dickie has no sense of romance or lust to it. It comes across that his interest in him is purely financial, a desire for material goods and social status pushing him towards murder.

Although the majority of the show features strong, compelling performances, casting choices don't quite ring true. When the first promotional photos of Scott as Ripley were released, although there was inevitable excitement, there were also concerns that he had been miscast when it came to age. In presenting Tom and Dickie as significantly older than Highsmith's original characters, the glow and beauty of youth is a theme entirely removed from the narrative. Their actions feel less like the impulsive decisions of young men and more like those of established adults, who understand (in their own ways) how the world works.

This could be used as an interesting twist, but no further changes are made to the story to accommodate for this striking difference. The somewhat age-blind casting doesn't work, especially when we're introduced to Freddie (Eliot Sumner), who looks considerably younger than his peers. Although at first glance Ripley appears to be sleek and polished, just like its titular antihero, it can never quite be what it wants to be. By forgoing a compelling narrative in lieu of incomplete thematic ideas and a focus on aesthetic charm, and in spite of Scott's undeniable prowess, the show never gets its claws into you.'

[drbased]

Have you watched or read I'm Thinking of Ending Things? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it tbh.

Hi anon! I'd never heard of this film before, so I decided to watch it and then respond to you.

Well, that was a fucking ride. Let's list the themes throughout:

women's lives being consumed by men

time

aging

quantum physics

perception of reality/schizophrenia

Honestly? I'm completely stumped by it. I think I'm going to have to re-watch to understand exactly what the film was getting at. It had a very good atmosphere throughout; there was such a sense of unease from the start, and it didn't just feel like a horror film but I got a strong sense it was deliberately mimicking one. When the dog was brought up, something about the cinematography really had me thinking the dog wasn't real, and then that was immediately dashed by the dog showing up. The interactions with the parents really had me thinking about the relationship between humour and horror, of comedy and tragedy - there were so many lines that felt like comedy bits, but I felt too tense to laugh. (Also, I too always thought it was Trivial Pursuit: Genius Edition). And there were all these callbacks that once again sat somewhere in that uncomfortable place between comedy and tragedy.

Without looking up the plot, I think this is what the story was: Jake is the janitor, reflecting on his past life - the main female character is an amalgamation of all the women he'd dated and brought back to his parents, who we see at various points in their life. We see this from her perspective to represent how men consume women, and as such how women become interchangeable to them. There's an implication that he steals her poetry to sell, he steals her art to sell. There are hints at him being controlling, and the third woman working at Tulsey Town is hinted at being his ex girlfriend, who he injured in some way (both his arm and her shared what looked like burn scars) - and she expresses fear for the main character. The main female character never ends up being able to ask to leave, and stays with him and watches from the sidelines as he finally becomes successful. I don't really understand what the dance sequence is - was that a younger version of one of them, who had been killed? Or was that janitor a younger jake, who has killed someone? I also have no idea what the whole diner film was about, although it also reflects the theme of male interference in women's lives, portrayed romantically in films.

This was directed by Charlie Kaufman, who is responsible for one of my favourite films of all time - Being John Malkovich, and one of my most hated films of all time - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I can see here he's really upped the surreality. Overall I'm not sure if I liked it or not - the atmosphere was tense and gave me the creeps, and the themes were very interesting. I don't need a film to be entirely literal - my other favourite film of all time, Annihilation, is almost entirely metaphor. But what I struggled with here is that the heavy-handed nature of the themes and the surreal, mixed-up timeline had me kind of thinking, well that's interesting and all but what is actually being said here about the nature of all these things? How do they all connect? The strongest theme by far is that of women being consumed by men, and the imagery of her name and backstory constantly changing really cemented that, so that the theme was as much 'show' as it was 'tell'. I don't know - I'm definitely going to have to rewatch it just in case I've missed some important connective tissue. Overall I found it interesting, but I have a small inkling it was a tad bit style over substance.

[carusolikey]

Paddington 3: Lost in Mallorca, Part 5/5

Pairing: Javier Gutierrez x afab!fem!reader

Rating: Explicit / NSFW 18+ (No Minors)

Summary: A sexy day in the life of Javi, his afab female partner, and their adorable little puppy. The fantasy is the reality - what would it be like to be Javi's one and only, to laugh and play, and get down with your bad selves (wink, wink - nudge, nudge)? You two feed into your love of movies, tv, and popular culture, as well as your ooky, kooky, spooky sides! This is fluffy and smutty, best of both worlds.

Warnings: A bit of rough sex/smut (fingering, fem penetration, oral [m + f receiving]), food play, 18+ only content, able bodied fem afab reader, alcohol consumption, pet names, fem can be carried, consensual "bondage", some use of y/n - but not in all, though consensuality is implied and intended through actions and reactions, no protection used / committed relationship

Additional Warning: Author has a weird sense of humor.

Word Count: 12,500 + (Sorry?)

Easter Eggs Part 1 Here

Masterlist Here

Giving me a gentle lift, I moved over to sit next to him, and Javi brought Sunset Boulevard up on the screen above the fireplace. 

Urgent music opened the movie, with cop cars and sirens, as a man’s voice began to tell the lurid tale, “Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard. Los Angeles, California. It’s about 5 o’clock in the morning,” as the cars passed the screen, “That’s the homicide squad. Complete with detectives and newspapermen. A murder has been reported, from one of the great big houses in the 10,000 block. You’ll read about it in the late edition, I’m sure.”

Oh, the drama! Javi and I crackled with excitement as I eagerly asked, “Do you think we should get a mannequin and put it in a nifty-swell 1950’s suit - have it float face down in the pool for our Halloween party this year?”

I looked over at him, and he was just nodding. Nodding and nodding, a slightly crazed smile on his face.

“Yes. I don’t know why we haven’t done it before! But just one, we need to keep track of our body count, I think.” 

He said this pensively, but with a look that gave me the impression that he may be concerned about a potential, actual body count at our party. I gave him a slightly nervous look of disbelief, and he just burst out laughing while changing his facial expressions between sad, nervous, happy - the man was fucking with me. I gave him a gentle shove, and he went back to crying laughing, “Whyyyyyy?”

Continuing to watch the movie, we finally got to one of the most classic scenes in movie history. As Gloria Swanson and William Holden sat in the dark, while the creepy butler ran the movie projector, showing her own silent-era movie, Gloria became agitated. She spoke of how different movies are now and dramatically enunciated, “And no dialogue. We didn’t need dialogue - we had FACES!”

Holding our hands up dramatically, pretending to hold a long cigarette holder and turning our faces just so, we both dramatically blurted out, “We didn’t NEEEED dialogue! We had FACES!” cracking ourselves up in the process.

When the movie was over, after we’d made another round of drinks and finished off the leftover panna cotta in the fridge, we sat draped over each other, with a puppy in the middle.

“I’m so sorry Mr. Paddington, but it’s time to move this party upstairs,” Javi announced to the living room, while slowly wiggling himself up from his slouched position, careful not to disturb the little pup. 

His outstretched hand waited for me to take it, before giving me a firm pull up from the couch. Embracing me in a big, cuddly hug, he kissed me on top of my head, and then began to gather glasses and plates. I picked up what remained and followed him to the kitchen, where we talked softly while tidying up.

“I think tomorrow, we should watch that John Malkovich vampire movie, the fictional one about the making of the original Nosferatu...” As I started to go into the details, Javi gave me a look.

“The one with Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck? I think that’s a great idea! Is Carey Elwes in that or am I thinking of something else?”

Opening the IMDb app on my phone, I confirmed, “Yes, he is! And Eddie Izzard, too!”

“That’s gonna be great. Are you ready to go upstairs? Do we need to do anything else down here?”

Shaking my head, I yawned a response, “Nope! We’re all good - press play on that dishwasher!”

Javi hit play, and then flipped our dishwasher magnet from the Pee Wee Herman, “Dirty!” side, to the Mr. Rogers, “Clean!” side.

I grabbed one of our matching Nicholas Cage, “You’re My National Treasure,” mugs from a cabinet and filled it with some iced water. “Let’s gooooo allllllready!” And gave him a grin.

Dragging our feet up the stairs, after a pretty intense day, voluntarily intense, of course - I asked Siri on my phone, “Remind me to turn on the ‘Please Don’t Do Coke in the Bathroom’ signs at 9 a.m. tomorrow,” and Javi nodded his head. 

Our dog sitter was good, but sometimes needed reminders where things go and don’t go. Nobody needed another July 29, 2022 on their hands, especially not those dolphins. 

I never want to talk about it, but we did manage to raise a lot of money for Ashley and the dolphins when my friends and I released our "In Memoriam" song during the vigil and subsequent manhunt. Oh, this hole in my heart! Will it ever be filled?!

Immediately, I pushed those unwanted thoughts back into my hidden pit of despair in the basement of my soul. We brushed our teeth, while I hummed the dolphins' and Ashley's song, and wrapped my hair in a silk scarf. Then I kicked Javi out of the bathroom, as he gave me a look so full of empathy and caring, just before I closed the door and panic-plucked a pokey chin hair. 

When I came out of the bathroom, I mused aloud, “What should I wear to the museum tomorrow? Is it fancy? Is it casual? Should I break out those sparkly bell bottoms I got off Amazon?”

Javi raised his eyebrow as he pulled back the covers of the bed, “I know you’ll choose the perfect thing.”

“So that bright pink Dolly Parton t-shirt that says, ‘I Beg Your Parton!’?”

Gesturing with his hand, Javi emphatically stated, “This - this is why I love you. That’s exactly what I was going to wear. Now we’ll wear the same thing, and we won’t get separated. You’re SO SMART!” Ecstatically, he pulled my face to his with both hands and kissed me on the forehead with a big, sloppy, “mwah!”

“OUR smart,” I corrected him, “y te amo también.”

“Yes, yes. OUR smart.” He emphatically agreed.

Getting under the covers of the king sized bed, Paddington joined us after climbing up the little stairs at the foot of the bed - turning around 2 times to the left, then 4 times to the right, and finally settling after 1.5 more turns to the left again. 

Javi set up his CPAP and slipped the mask over his head, looking at me earnestly, he paused before saying, “I think I want you to be the big spoon tonight.”

“I second the motion - all in favor?” We both raised our hands. “The motion passes, let the record show that tonight, Javi will be the little spoon and I will be the big spoon.”

Tucking myself in behind him, he took my hand and pulled it around him, while simultaneously scooting his cute little butt right into me, for maximum spooniness. 

“Javi?”

Turning his head towards me so that he could hear me, he asked, “Yes, cara mia?”

“Mon cher, I had a really amazing day with you. Outside of the heat,” Javi grumbled in agreement, “you made me feel absolutely adored and romantically ravaged,” this time, he rolled his tongue and purred at me, “BUT,” and the purrs stopped short with an, “Eh?”

“Mi vida - I was very disappointed that I wasn’t able to give you a full proper blow job today.”

The rumbling in his chest grew, and he started laughing, pulling off his CPAP mask.

“Querida, you are the gift that keeps on giving. The way you always surprise me, you give just as much as you receive - maybe more, that thing you do with your tongue is…I have no notes, I am a very, very satisfied man.”

I started to speak, but then he got a second wind, “However, I do want you to know that anytime you have this, burning need, this - desire? Do not ever concern yourself with anything else - let me know. Right away. I will make time, we’ll make it happen. For. YOU.”

Laughing, I told him, “That is the most romantic and sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me,” he scowled at that, “And I want you to know that I will 100% want to suck your dick when we get back from the museum tomorrow,” the scowl was replaced with a satisfied grin, and Javi pulled my arm a little tighter around him, giving me no choice but to completely squish my body against his back, getting super, super close and cozy.

“Okay, mi amor - maybe we’ll do an unboxing video?”

“An unboxing video?” I guffawed, “Like they do on YouTube and TikTok? Wait - do you mean with your dick? I’m pretty sure that’s gonna get taken down right away.”

“No, no. Just us, no cameras. I’ll let you unbox my dick in private…”

“And then I provide a review, right? Demonstrate what its best features are, the best way to use it, whether or not it still works if it gets submerged or if you have to stick it in a bag of arroz?”

Javi laughed, “Maybe - maybe not that, but also… maybe that. I think I like it. I’m excited for tomorrow with you. And the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next one - all of the days. Te quiero hasta la luna y más allá!” As he yawned, he put his CPAP back on. (“I love you to the moon and back.”)

“Siempre, mi vida,” I gave him a kiss on the back of the neck, which he responded to with a happy little shiver, “Are you ready for me to turn off the lights?” he nodded, and I pulled my arm from him for just a moment, “I like my men like I like my lamps - clap on,” and as I clapped twice, “clap off.” And the lights went out.

"And tell all the stars above This is dedicated to the one I love." -The Mamas and the Papas

** While we may no longer be following our lovers' journey, for anyone who may like to imagine what tomorrow could bring, below is a little clip of Richard Ayoade in Travel Man, visiting the Fundaciaón de Joan Miró with fellow actor / comedian Kathy Burke in Barcelona - enjoy!

Check out all of the Easter Eggs I hid throughout the entire work, RIGHT HERE. It's "pretty cool".

Love you forever, Miley. <3

[verifiedaccount]

Watched Everything Everywhere All At Once. Found the first half pretty interminable, a lot of it sounds good on paper, the Daniels enjoy many of the same things as me but the sensibility, jokes, and execution were Not For Me. Second half was a definite improvement, they’re better at being earnest than funny, the earnest stuff was just as corny and well worn as the other stuff but easier to go along with for me. That the message is cliche and kind of trite means it’s operating at the philosophical level suited to most movies. You know, it used to be that if an actor or director had read a book, everyone would be surprised and impressed and consider them an intellectual; that was, like, Ethan Hawke’s entire deal, for example, or somebody like Richard Brooks. It was assumed that people who make movies would know a lot about making movies and the industry but be kind of dumb about everything else. Film people should stop trying to be smart and audiences should not expect them to be. Bumper sticker philosophy is the level suited to the vast majority of people who work on films, especially given the relative time limit and the fact that even films trying to convey ideas are generally also meant to work as narratives and have to devote time and attention to that aspect as well. The movie being so insistent on foregrounding the philosophical elements is sometimes a problem (the Jobu stuff and everything bagel were really not doing anything for me) but some of it is saved by how it actually plays as a movie. I was frustrated by how conventional it is in many ways, though. It often feels like an early Charlie Kaufman script revised by people who actually listen to screenwriting books and coaches, with the stakes and chosen one stuff and the way things neatly wrap together and resolve, and go through standard emotional beats and relationships even if the details of the scenes are strange (compare it to the relationships and character motivations and decisions in something like Being John Malkovich and the standard nature of EEAAO’s  story about family and parent-child relationships is thrown into relief). Of course, it’s this relatability and universality underneath the wacky trappings that has made the movie a success, and plenty of it worked on me. Still, I couldn’t get over the impression that what I was really watching, despite the homages to stuff Wong Kar Wai, was an adaptation of that old popular on tumblr back in the day webcomic a softer world with the mix of sometimes embarrassingly earnest, simple sentiments and occasional “random” lightly edgy humor that rarely worked well:

If it wins the Oscars that’s fine, people’ll remember it winning, whether it’s with satisfaction or embarrassment, and what should the Oscars be other than memorable?

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 film directed by Michel Gondry starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.

The screenplay, winner of the 2005 Oscar, is the work of Charlie Kaufman, who confirms his inclination for "psychological" and visionary films as demonstrated by other films such as Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

The film was a success with both audiences and critics and was also included in Empire magazine's list of the five hundred best films of all time at position 73.

The original title, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, was taken from a verse in the work Eloisa to Abelard (1717) by the English poet Alexander Pope (already cited in another Kaufman film, Being John Malkovich).

Joel Barish and Clementine Kruczynski meet by chance on the beach in Montauk, New York, and begin to build a relationship on the train ride to Rockville Center.

While Howard manages to get the process back to normal, Mary can no longer hide an infatuation with him and kisses him.

On Valentine's Day, Joel decides to abandon work and instead take a train to Montauk, where he meets Clementine and where the narrative hooks up to the first scene of the film.

On the morning of February 16, back in town after a night on the frozen Charles River, Joel takes Clementine to her house to get her toothbrush so she can follow him to his apartment.

At home Clementine finds a Lacuna cassette in her mail and listens to it in Joel's car; they both hear all of her criticisms about him, which makes Joel think that she is playing with her feelings.

The film's soundtrack was released by the Hollywood Records label on March 16, 2004 for the US market and on April 19, 2004 for the United Kingdom.

[dykelawlight]

hello!! could i ask your top 5 books and/or movies?

ABSOLUTELY and I'm happy to do both of these tbqh. EDIT: SHOULD NOT HAVE SAID THAT BC THIS GOT VERY LONG SORRY. I'm literally putting it under a cut

BOOKS

This one takes its ceremonial place at the top because of how completely batshit it made me for years: Les liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (and its 1988 film adaptation starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich). Like nothing compares 2 U babe. Eighteenth-century French aristocrats play sexual games with the lives of the people around them. They are so evil and so fucked and so completely incapable of ever achieving happiness because of how tied what they think happiness is is to the misery of others.

[[[VERY VERY LOUDLY]]] Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield!!!!!!!!!! Oooohhhh it haunts me so bad. Fucked-up came-back-wrong lesbian romance about two wives, told through alternating-perspective chapters, one of whom returns from an accidentally long-extended submarine mission at her job doing marine biology for a mysterious bureaucracy. Most importantly this is a tragic portrait of a marriage and its dissolution. First book to make me put my hand over my mouth irl in easily 10 years.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, an Indigenous horror that ends up being about Indigenous womanhood, even though its initial principal characters are men. Four Blackfoot friends go on an illegal hunt in territory reserved for elders and kill a pregnant deer, promising to atone for the killing by using every part of her body. Meat rots in a freezer somewhere. The Elk-Head Woman shows up. Features the most thrilling game of life-or-death basketball ever played.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. Makes me literally go crazy. Everyone's heard of this one by now but it's a prismatic prose-poetic series of pictures turned over and over and over through different forms of criticism and media tropes of the author's abusive relationship with another woman. Everyone liked Her Body and Other Parties and that was great but this is somehow better.

Chouette by Claire Oshetsky, in which a woman called Tiny by her husband's family has an affair with an owl-woman under cover of dusk and gives birth to an owl-baby who will never be quite "right." Husband becomes hooked on chasing dangerous, abusive forms of "therapy" to make the child "normal." Very straight-up allegory for raising an autistic child as a parent who refuses to subject them to medical abuse in the pursuit of neurotypicality. Cheered and stomped my feet at the end.

(Honorable mentions here: The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara [very scary and timely], The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan [extremely relevant to my line of work], Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente [thought this was the most erotic book ever written in human history when I was 17]).

MOVIES (in no particular order)

House (1977): the jangled, nightmarish logic of this movie is so perfect, the visuals are perfect, it's just the right cocktail of zany and actually frightening. It also has so much to say about like, so much shit, and I refuse to be the guy who's like "following my post of yesterday about how this work of Japanese horror is about nuclear warfare, please see my new post about how THIS work of Japanese horror is about nuclear warfare" but like. It is. As dreamed up through the mind of the director's preteen daughter.

The Watermelon Woman (1996): incredibly richly layered work about a Black lesbian living in 90s Philadelphia (a fictionalized version of the director) who becomes obsessed with seeking out and making a movie about the history of a 1930s "mammy" actress she believes may have been a lesbian. It is 100% fictional but is so extraordinarily detailed and convincing and weaves such a believable life for the figure the protagonist is chasing. DOES contain a Camille Paglia jumpscare. (See also Cheryl Dunyé's earlier film Go Fish (1994), a lighthearted lesbian romance featuring an extremely sexy nailcutting-as-foreplay scene.)

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019): so, so beautiful and pierced me straight through. I like old French shit and lesbians and I loved the images of the movie and the world it put me in. SUE MEEEEE

Velvet Goldmine (1998): I have done some downright unseemly shit immediately after watching this movie is what I'll say about it. Horny supernatural glam-rock romance "loosely" based on David Bowie & Iggy Pop as cultural figures featuring gay people as the bearers of a magical spirit of art passed down through generations. Again. UNSEEMLY. SHIT.

Heavenly Creatures (1994): [chanting] LESBIAN MATRICIDE MOVIE LESBIAN MATRICIDE MOVIE LESBIAN MATRICIDE MOVIE. Dreamy, hallucinogenic take on a true-crime flick about that fucked-up homoerotic folie à deux friendship you had when you were 15.

(MORE honorable mentions bc this was so hard: Persona (1966), Gone Girl (2014), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), Bound (1996)).

[his-breath-catches]

ok so ive seen a lot of stuff about maya hawke asking for robin to be a lesbian but ive also seen stuff about the duffers actually planning it and either way it's a win for byler. if it was indeed a request by maya hawke, well, half of our otp is played by a deranged insane maniac byler shipper who owns my entire heart while also acting out the most sensitive expressive queer character who i would kill and die for while he wears snapbacks and nike irl. the other half? absolute king of being in love with his best friend. theo decker, my baby boy. eddie kapsbrak (i think i haven't actually watched the movie). his jeans were super gay in the turning (2019). and now will byers. finn wolfhard is a-ok kissing boys and he giggles over byler with david harbour.

the other option. the duffers planned robin being a lesbian. they gave us the most heart-wrenching, realistic, and yet still seemingly out of nowhere coming out scene that had my jaw on the floor. they set up the perfect heterosexual relationship and perfect love interest for steve and then they just. threw it all away. they trolled us. robin flirting? she's actually just mean af. she's an icon. and the duffers can handle, née, master the queer repressed, scared, vulnerable storyline. and they will destroy our lives with noah's performance with a scene like robins coming out.

so either we have a.) noah and finn hold the duffers at gunpoint for byler canon and they deliver like they did with robins storyline or b.) the duffers are ready to throw away john malkovich and they've been setting it up to fail. they're going to give us the coming out scene that they've been setting up for seven years, four seasons, and the world will end.

either way, byler endgame. love y'all. x

[theadventurehuman]

Now I am a big lesbian, but I don’t know if I really connect with the Katya/Sofia ship like so many others seem to. They’re scenes together have more the air of an old friend trying to keep you from going down a path they are sure will destroy you. But beyond their first scene, it’s clear that Katya is already doomed to fall. Had Katya and Sofia run away together, it surely would have happened so early in the film so as to negate any of Katya’s import on the narrative.

After all, it was Katya who convinced Goncharov to continue working with Andrey even after his unwholesome connections came to light. One could argue this was only for the money, but I don’t think stability is what informs Katya’s character. She’s a woman trapped in a marriage with a man who cannot love her in the way she needs, and a refugee in a new country who has barely any freedom to explore it. She was attracted to Andrey because he represented the wildness and freedom that Goncharov could never give her.

This, of course, makes it all the more ironic when we see Goncharov fall deeper and deeper into the mafia, becoming ever more the man Katya wants, yet still ignoring her all the same. Maybe it’s just my longing for some real toxic triad relationships in media (a la Craig, Lotte, and Maxine in Being John Malkovich(1999)), but I’d love to see more fanworks that explores the complicated lust that Katya feels for Andrey, and what homoerotism she might have gleaned from Goncharov’s steady corruption throughout the film. I think there are even some trans feelings in there.

[tomorrowedblog]

Friday Releases for December 16

Friday is the busiest day of the week for new releases, so we've decided to collect them all in one place. Friday Releases for December 16 include Avatar: The Way of Water, Herbert, The Alchemist Sandwich, and more.

Avatar: The Way of Water

Avatar: The Way of Water, the new movie from James Cameron, is out today.

Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, “Avatar: The Way of Water” begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.

Mindcage

Mindcage, the new movie from Mauro Borrelli, is out today.

In this spellbinding thriller, detectives Jake Doyle (Martin Lawrence) and Mary Kelly (Melissa Roxburgh) seek the help of an incarcerated serial killer named The Artist (John Malkovich) when a copycat killer strikes. While Mary searches for clues in The Artist’s brilliant but twisted psyche, she and Jake are lured into a diabolical game of cat and mouse, racing against time to stay one step ahead of The Artist and his copycat.

The Almond and the Seahorse

The Almond and the Seahorse, the new movie from Celyn Jones and Tom Stern, is out today.

An archaeologist and an architect fight to re-imagine a future after a traumatic brain injury leaves them adrift from the people they love.

As Good As Dead

As Good As Dead, the new movie from R. Ellis Frazier, is out today.

An ex cop in self-imposed witness protection in Mexico becomes a target when a fight video of his apprentice goes viral.

Private Lesson

Private Lesson, the new movie from Kivanç Baruönü, is out today.

Posing as a private tutor, Azra secretly coaches students on achieving their goals in life and love — but not without a few bumps in the road.

The Recruit

The Recruit, the new TV series from Alexi Hawley, is out today.

A fledgling lawyer at the CIA becomes enmeshed in dangerous international power politics when a former asset threatens to expose the nature of her long-term relationship with the agency unless they exonerate her of a serious crime.

Herbert

Herbert, the new album from Ab-Soul, is out today.

The Alchemist Sandwich

The Alchemist Sandwich, the new album from The Alchemist, is out today.

Paper Route Frank

Paper Route Frank, the new album from Young Dolph, is out today.

wood tip

wood tip, the new EP from Zack Fox, is out today.

[denimbex1986]

'Starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, the 1999 rendition of The Talented Mr Ripley is still lauded as one of the best (and most glamorous) films ever: all white shirts and sundrenched Italian excess, it's hard to imagine any remake could top the original. However, Ripley, a new black-and-white series coming to Netflix, is going to try.

An adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's famous books, Ripley will star Andrew Scott (famed for his roles in Fleabag and Sherlock as well as, most recently, the film All Of Us Strangers) as Tom Ripley, "a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York, [who] is hired by a wealthy man to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home," says Netflix's description. "Tom's acceptance of the job is the first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud and murder."

Scott – who is also a producer on the series – will be joined by Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf, the playboy son whom Ripley must convince to come back to America, and Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood, Greenleaf's glamorous girlfriend. Other cast members include John Malkovich, Eliot Sumner and Maurizio Lombardi, so we've got high hopes for this classic tale of romance and lies.

"When you’re playing those famous literary characters, you don't want to just copy," Scott said in a recent interview, when asked about previous screen versions of Highsmith's novel. "I’m interested in the idea of what queerness is, and otherness, because that's what I think it's about. The reason [Ripley is] such an interesting character is you can't quite place him."

"If Tom Ripley was in a gay bar, I'm not sure that he would fit in there," Scott continued. "Nor do I think he's a straight character. I think he's a queer character, in the sense that he's very other. What's his relationship with sex, or death, or with family or friends? It's interesting that a character is the sum of the parts that you don't have to play."

In the sultry trailer for the series, Sherwood is shown in an interview, describing Ripley. "He came to Italy, moved into Dickie's house, he just wouldn't go away," she says. "Tom is one of those people who takes advantage of people. He's taking advantage of Dickie." Ripley can be seen mimicking Dickie in the mirror as he prepares to morph into the man with whom he gradually becomes obsessed, as the song The Great Pretender plays in the background. "I don't trust him. He's a liar. It's his profession," says Sherwood.

Debuting on Netflix on 4 April, all eight episodes of the series were directed and written by Steven Zaillian, the Academy Award winner behind The Irishman and The Night Of. "The edition of the Ripley book I had on my desk had an evocative black-and-white photograph on the cover," Zallian has said. "As I was writing, I held that image in my mind. Black and white fits this story – and it's gorgeous."

The choice of monochrome certainly lends an old-world glamour to the series, which looks set to be one of Netflix's most exciting releases this season...'

[gappeldonger]

How would I write the Mario movie? Isekai x Being John Malkovich.

Kid playing Mario wakes up in Mario's body, is scared and confused like a normal kid would be, but the voice of Mario, which lives on inside the body or the hat or something (with all the Martinet "yahoo"s and "here we go"s), encourages him to go forward and triumph. Subtle commentary on the player-character ludonarrative relationship AND it gives an actual reason for Chris Pratt to be the nebbish POV character without depriving us of the trademark Mario enthusiasm.

[madsblog20]

Being John Malkovich is a comedy film set in New York City. It follows the story of an unemployed puppeteer named Craig Schwartz, who gets a job as a filing clerk on the 7½ floor of the LesterCorp building. While working at this job, Craig discovers a portal connected to actor John Malovich's mind. When anyone enters this portal, they experience life through the perspective of John Malovich for 15 minutes. Throughout the film, you can see Craig becoming obsessed with the phenomenon and taking this opportunity to gain financial stability with coworker Maxine. As the film goes on, you can also see the progression of their relationship turn into a strange love triangle, including John Malkovich.

Moonlight is a dramatic film divided into three acts, each focusing on influential people and events in the life of our main character, Chiron. In Act 1, you get a glimpse of what life was like for Chiron, nicknamed Little, the cultural community, and how his peers perceived him. You also get an understanding of his family dynamic and see his mother's struggles with addiction. He meets a friendly drug dealer named Juan, who shows care and almost a fatherly protectiveness towards Little. You also meet Little childhood friend Kevin. Act 2 is where you see Chiron, whose new nickname is Black, given by Kevin,  now in his teenage years, and all the struggles he faces, from bullying from his peers to questioning his sexuality and identity and also seeing the consistent downfall of his mother's addiction. During this chapter of his life, you can see he finds comfort in Teresa, the girlfriend of the friendly drug dealer Juan, and his childhood friend Kev. During this phase, he shares an intimate moment with his friend Kev, which was taboo in the community. Kev ruined that trust and moment once other peers pressured him to beat up Chiron. This event led Chiron to get arrested for assault, and he found himself in juvie. The final act shows an adult version of Chiron called Black and resembles Juan's demeanor and toughness. Black finds himself working on the streets of Atlanta until he reconnects with his old friend, Kevin. The lead-up to this reunion makes Chiron confront his childhood traumas and start to heal and embrace his authentic self-identity.

One pivotal scene from Moonlight is during Act 2 when Chiron and Kevin share that intimate moment on the beach. At this moment, the main character gets a sense of validation for his identity and who he is. Growing up in Miami and living in a community that is super fixed on hypermasculinity but having this very impactful moment in his developing years is what finally led him to accept himself. What also really helps the scene is all the technical aspects that went into it. For example, the only things that were focused were the two characters, and the rest of their background was blurry, but the sound and lighting aspects in that scene also helped. For sound, he can hone in on the waves crashing into one another. Even though the scene was dark, there was something almost romantic and secretive: they were under the moonlight when they had this connection. The scene of focusing on one another and then panning out to both of them to capture them being one also really emphasizes what that moment meant for Chiron and Kev.