#Mel Fair

[blackramhall]

Amsterdam - Written and Directed by David O. Russell (2022)

[rookie-critic]

The Menu (2022, dir. Mark Mylod) - review by Rookie-Critic

I walked into The Menu expecting a horror movie that may be overly critical of people who consider themselves "foodies" with an ill-willed message about how overly saturated everything has gotten with food, but that's not what I got at all. What I did get was a deeply dark comedy about idol worshipping in the food world and, as seems to be a popular theme this year, how affluence has affected food culture and divined food as a benchmark for status and clout. I think my favorite bit about it tackling this particular theme as it pertains to this film is that it does so on both sides of the aisle, putting just as much emphasis on the misdeeds Ralph Fiennes' Chef Julian Slowik and his staff as it does on the rich people dining at his restaurant. The one exception to the film's ire is our protagonist, Anya Taylor-Joy's Margot, who is brought into this world from the outside. She's not a part of this rich world of small portions and exorbitant prices. That being said, Chef Slowik is not without his sympathetic moments, and by the film's end you can almost consider Taylor-Joy and Fiennes as co-leads.

The wit of the script is fierce and constant and mean-spirited, sometimes to the point where it's walking on a razor's edge between having fun at the expense of people who just like food and foodie culture and people who crave food as a status symbol, but it never tips the scales over to the "malicious towards the innocent" side, which I always appreciate in movies satirizing a subculture. Much like Triangle of Sadness, the film's message can be boiled down to "rich people = bad," but what sets it apart from Triangle is that The Menu manages to be a bit deeper than that in showing a character that very clearly started their journey with the best intentions, but lost their way at some point to the chase for clout and respect from people that don't matter. This and tackling something that's a bit more niche than just the wide umbrella of affluence set The Menu apart, and outside of some pieces of the film that I'm still trying to parse out meaning from and a few other little nitpicks that I won't mention here, it surprisingly soared above my expectations for it. This one is highly recommended.

Score: 9/10

Currently in theaters only.

[egophiliac]

Hi it's just to let you know that the official romanization of Revaan's name is Raverne ! Also they have romanized Baul's name to Baur !

Twst coming back at us again with the least expected romanization! thank you everybody (oh god my inbox) (no it's great, I literally asked for this and the reactions have been INCREDIBLE, thank you all!)

I do like Raverne though, I think it's got a nice fancy sound to it! (I had kinda suspected it was going to be an R instead of an L, so the fact that it's SO close to Laverne except for that is hilarious to me personally.) and Dragoneye Duke is honestly probably the best translation for his title, I wasn't envying the localizers that one. :') Baur instead of Baul I was NOT expecting, but in retrospect I think his name's supposed to be a reference to the Bauru crocodile, so that actually makes way more sense!

someone else also said Meleanor has become Maleanor, which is the REALLY weird one to me, because I was so surprised it was written as Mel instead of Mal in the first place?! oh god no I can't decide which one I like better. 😭 (I wonder if they might change it to Mal...they have made romanization changes before) (like I remember House of Distraction being corrected to House of Destruction in Playful Land) (I did check and she's still Mel for now, but I dunno, they might Mal her up and some point and save me from having to make a decision about which one to use) (HECK I CAN'T DECIDE)

uhhhh thank you for letting me ramble about anime names, let's just say MONOGRAMMED SWEATERS FOR EVERYONE

[cl-0v3r]

Riot needs to take this poor woman out of their basement before I tweak out and do it myself

Everyone's been getting baby treatment and all us Mel connoisseurs have been living off of SCRAPS AND A SINGLE POSTER AND ITS NOT FAIIIRRR

Im actually going insane i need her back.

[moonlightflower-queen]

Rip Persephone she only ever got to raise plants

[rhaesaria]

Sorry to talk about the show canon but imagine in season 6, when Sansa reunites with Jon at the wall, she arrives before they brought him back to life, instead of getting there afterward and never even knowing he was dead. You travel to the edge of the kingdom to find your last family member and he was already murdered, you just missed him

[audreyhepburninblackandwhite]

Audrey Hepburn, in a Givenchy satin robe from Charade and a René Manciny pair of shoes, and her first husband Mel Ferrer at the Warner Brothers Burbank Studios during a break in the production of My Fair Lady in September 1963 Photography by Bob Willoughby

[aro4aro-t4t-gabv1el]

mirage in places ive taken pictures of that i draw in a dect-like style part 2

[purple-crusader]

Okay. Wow. That was an intense start for the season ngl. So much stuff happened there, Piltover is turning to facism, Hextech is gonna destroy all of reality, there's some magic entity hunting Ambessa and Mel, Viktor is Jesus now, that fucking werewolf.

But at least I got this before the break up and Caitlyn turned to being a dictator!!

[mollysunder]

Why has no one mentioned the "hexcore" was included in the FentyxArcane collab?

I use quotations because it doesn't resemble the hexcore we know, but more the new version we see in the trailer.

And it's not called the hexcore here, it's called "The Anomaly".

It's already cool in general that Fenty's making a product out of this yet to be explored aspect of Arcane, but what's even more interesting is how they've been marketing it.

So far, Mel and Jinx have the most make up in the Arcane collection, and Fenty shows you. Fenty also shows you that JINX inspired one of the Anomaly eyeliner, Anoma'lit.

If you go to the Anoma'lit shade of the Chrome Catch'r Eyeliner, the decription will say it's a part of the Anomaly section of the Arcane collection.

So yes, Fenty really just showed us Jinx is connected to the Anomaly which is just a further evolved hexcore.

Some skeptics could assume that it's a mistake, Fortiche wouldn't spoil season 2 with a make up tie in, and I think that irrelevant because Fenty doesn't care. Fenty's already spoiled a new look for Mel so why not spoil that a product that's based more of an abstract concept is in fact connected to a popular character. It's no skin off Rhianna, lol.

Also, the show's already hinted at us that Jinx will be connected to the hexcore next season by putting her tag literally inside it in Viktor's tarot card.

Now here's some promo art!

If you want to see Mel's look and some bonus promo art, just look under the cut.

[kinglet1963]

Lisa Ann is WILD for doing this-

[rookie-critic]

Rookie-Critic's Top 25 Films of 2022: Honorable Mentions - The Menu (dir. Mark Mylod)

When I saw the trailer for The Menu, I was torn between interest and worry. It looked like it would be a fun thriller, but it also looked like it might be a film making fun of "foodie culture" at the expense of people who just genuinely love food. Thankfully, while it sometimes rides the line of doing so, it ultimately leans more on making fun of people who seek out fine dining and lavish food experiences as a status symbol, coming after patrons and creators in equal measure. Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes, and Nicholas Hoult all turn in fantastic performances, as does the whole cast, and the surprisingly comedic tone the film takes make the darkness of the happenings of the plot more tolerable by audience that might otherwise not be able to watch something like this. The climactic moment between Fiennes and Taylor-Joy's characters is one of the more memorable movie moments of 2022, and it caps the film's narrative off with a beautiful bite that I still think about sometimes.

Currently streaming on HBO Max. Read my full review of The Menu here.

[prettycoolducks]

just finished playing portal revolution. I like evil science lady and her rabid vacuum cleaner

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

Melisandre is one of my favorite minor POVs mostly because of how GRRM plays with the all-powerful mage trope. See the deconstruction with her is that despite her antics, she’s actually very powerful and all her visions are legit. It’s just that she absolutely sucks at interpreting said visions, mostly because she has all these preconceived notions and is very stubborn about them. And even when the answer is staring right at her (literally), she just doubles down. And it can be very frustrating as a reader, to be quite honest.

Like she’s been super gung ho about Stannis Baratheon being Azor Ahai/the Prince that Was Promised, though only R’hllor know why, to the extent that she will flat-out ignore any evidence to the contrary. Her visions in ADWD essentially scream that Azor Ahai is someone different (not Stannis!) but good ol’ Mel just won’t budge.

There’s this very hilarious interaction in Jon’s 10th ADWD chapter that essentially spells out all of her problems with visions and prophecy, with Jon serving as the reader’s proxy in some ways.

This interaction happens during Alys Karstark’s wedding feast and Patchface drops some of his weird jingles, which Mel very unsettled by. So she’s turns to Jon and is like, “ugh that dude is so creepy, all my visions tell me so”. And Jon’s reaction to this is super funny, because he’s like:

“You see fools in your fire, but no hint of Stannis?”

Wow Jon lmao

He just had to call her out like that, unprovoked. But his frustration makes sense. He’s constantly been asking about Stannis’ whereabouts but Mel’s responses just aren’t very satisfactory (in his opinion).

Then we get this next line which really just says everything about Mel’s stubbornness and perfectly embodies the deconstruction of the all-powerful seer trope.

“When I search for him all I see is snow.”

So Mel looks for Stannis, whom she believes to be Azor Ahai, in her fires but doesn’t find him. Instead she sees “snow”. And this part tracks with her POV too. We know from her chapter that she constantly sees Jon in her visions. It’s how we get the very interesting “I pray for a glimpse of Azor Ahai, and R’hllor shows me only Snow” line.

So one would think that Mel might go: “Hmmm I look for the prophesied savior, but I don’t see Stannis. Instead, I only see Snow. I don’t doubt R’hllor’s power so if my visions are true, then maybe I need to rethink a few things”.

One would think…

But nope!

And Jon’s like “Hey maybe you’re not seeing Stannis because he’s super dead, ever think about that Mel?” And she proceeds to spout the usual Azor Ahai stuff and even mentions Dragonstone:

“When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone. Dragonstone is the place of smoke and salt.”

To which Jon’s replies, “uhhhh news flash Stannis was not born on Dragonstone so that doesn’t track”.

Obviously this is Jon’s skepticism but I like to think that he took the reader’s place here. Because many of us have asked ourselves, why oh why would Mel think of Stannis just because she saw Dragonstone? Like yeah, he’s the Lord of Dragonstone but he wasn’t born there. It’s quite a valid question and how does Mel counter it? She doubles down and twist herself into a pretzel to make Stannis fit (even though he doesn’t fit at all!)

Really, Jon’s reaction is essentially what would happen if someone dropped me into the world of ASOIAF and gave me the chance to meet Mel and ask her a few questions. I’d be quite frustrated, just as Jon is here. And to be fair, the reader has a lot of auxiliary information (e.g., Jon’s parentage) that Mel doesn’t have.

But then the next few lines really illustrate just why poor Mel can be so frustrating. Because Jon’s follow up is,

“And what of Mance? Is he lost as well? What do your fires show?”

And what does Mel say?

“The same, I fear. Only snow.”

…??!

Mel!😭

Seriously, I cannot! This is the exact same situation as with Stannis. She looks for a king but only sees Snow. This makes me wonder then, based on previous wording, if she’s specifically looking for “the King Beyond the Wall” (not just “Mance”) and only seeing Snow - at this point, Jon has all but supplanted Mance.

So once again, one would think that Mel would go: hmmmm I look for the King Beyond the Wall but I see Jon Snow and not Mance Rayder. Seeing that Mance’s power has been diminished and Jon Snow is now taking control of the wildlings, maybe I should re-evaluate a few things”.

Yeah, one would think…

Homegirl is trying her best, she really is. But sadly, her best can only get E for Effort.

And at this point the reader is just done with Mel, and Jon is too:

“You are seeing cinders dancing in the updraft.”

He doesn’t even bother to phase it as a question lmao. He just calls her out and doesn’t care.

And we’re in his POV so he’s thinking of the lower case “snow”. Also, why in the hell is Mel referring to Jon like this?

Anyway, this is why I think Jon serves as the reader’s proxy in this conversation because it’s like a thinking exercise (facilitated by the narrative) that ultimately goes nowhere because Mel is so, so stubborn.

Because if we really break it down:

R’hllor/the Narrative: Who do you see when you search for the king/Azor Ahai?

Mel: Jon Snow

R’hllor/the Narrative: Ok…and who do you see when you search for the King Beyond the Wall?

Mel: Erm, Jon Snow…

R’hllor/the Narrative/the Reader: Great! So say it with me. The king you’re looking for is J-

Mel: STANNIS BARATHEON!

R’hllor/the Reader: …?!

And before anyone claims that this is a misdirect, Mel really is seeing Jon Snow. Straight from the horse’s mouth:

“I am seeing skulls. And you. I see your face every time I look into the flames.”

Friend….I don’t even know what to say anymore…

[blujaydoodles]

Mel is very solidly in the 'literally always busy' zone right now but that doesn't mean she won't make time, depending on what it's for

[eternamenteaudreyhepburn]