#North American Premiere

[ulkaralakbarova]

TIFF 2024 North American Premiere: "Caught by the Tides" Do Not Miss It

caught by the tides still – Courtesy of TIFF Experience the North American premiere of Jia Zhang-Ke’s latest masterpiece, Caught by the Tides, at TIFF 2024. This transformative film offers a powerful portrait of contemporary China, spanning two decades of Jia’s cinema. Caught by the Tides reimagines Jia’s career and reflects on China’s recent history, serving as a love letter to actress Zhao…

[marisatomay]

what is joe biden’s plan to do this in these united states of america

[lostcryptids]

ERM im seeing city hunter angel dust next week in theaters yaaaaaay

[dgspeaks]

Spencer Sutherland: A Theatrical Journey with “The Drama”

Spencer Sutherland is ready to take the music world by storm with his sophomore album, The Drama, released on October 4, 2024. This album is more than just a collection of songs; it’s a three-act modern rock opera that promises to redefine the landscape of pop music. Featuring theatrical arena anthems and Spencer’s signature vintage flair, The Drama is a riveting exploration of the highs and lows…

[readinginthestarlight]

They finally made an official announcement:

Also, not sure how reliable this next source is, but it's an interesting and confusing tidbit if true.

It's wild to me that they'd even consider not having a team in Boston because Boston Pride (the current PHF team) was regularly selling out games this past season (possibly they even sold out all of their games, I can't verify how many).

oh boy...

[unsuitablepet]

i've noticed you're Canadian, and as an incredibly terrified american, are you guys getting news that war is actually likely? our news and search engines are being heavily censored, i actually cannot find anything past 2024 about possible war. i'm reeling that it's possible, but i wouldn't put it past the orange fuck. i am so sincerely sorry for that cockalorum.

Hey! First of all, thanks for reaching out, and I'm sorry to hear you're terrified. We are also terrified to hear that your news is being censored. As I'm sure you can imagine, now more than ever, we want Americans to be aware of our situation and what's going on up north.

In terms of whether our news is saying war is likely... that's hard to answer. Truthfully, our news sources take a bit of a different tone than yours, for the most part. We're very avoidant of absolutes until things are certain, and our journalists (the respectable ones) tend to avoid alarmist rhetoric - at least compared to the kind of reporting and headlines we often see from many (still very respectable!) publications in the States.

So, what I'll say is this: in short, no. I have not seen any explicit reporting that war is imminent. However, there have been a lot of signals that a Big Bad is coming, and that's what a lot of us have been deducing from that. Here are some examples:

PM Justin Trudeau called a summit with most of our major industry leaders, informing them that Trump's annexation threats were very real and that we needed to start preparing.

Following that meeting, he flew to Europe to meet with several EU leaders to strengthen alliances and met with the Secretary-General of NATO for apparently similar discussions.

On a potentially related note, CSIS (our version of the CIA) released a foreign interference intelligence report to Parliament on Jan 28, most of which has not been made available to the public. However, I’ve seen some reporting that the United States was one of the countries mentioned as trying to interfere in our elections, and that the government’s response could be read as a silent invocation of NATO Article 4.

Perhaps most telling of something bad to come: our leaders are reaching across the aisle more than I've ever seen. Trudeau has been meeting with our premiers often, and outside of the numbnut in Alberta, they’ve unanimously come together to work on plans that prioritize Canada. We're hearing some of our most despicable, power-hungry conservatives advocate for Country Over Party and Country Over Province, willingly working with Trudeau—whom not even a month ago they treated like the most egregiously offensive man who ever lived—in supporting his plans to push back on Trump.

Our most conservative, openly pro-Trump candidate for the next election (Pierre Poilievre) is adding the establishment of a new military base and an Arctic defense strategy to his platform.

All candidates have been talking about increasing military spending.

Finally, all of our economic conversations have been focused on trade diversification and expanding internal manufacturing capabilities. We just signed a massive trade deal with China—something we had been refusing to do primarily because of our allegiance to the United States as our ally, which has now clearly been broken.

So yeah. Nothing overt, but it's not looking good.

On the ground, regular people (at least where I live) have been talking about war as if it's a real possibility and discussing what they'd do. Overwhelmingly, people are willing to stand up to this if it comes to it.

War aside, I've never seen anti-American sentiment run so high in this country. It's truly terrifying. People—on the right and left—are buying Canadian and boycotting American products. People are selling their American vacation homes, canceling travel to the U.S. (and those still taking their American vacations are being called traitors in some circles). Companies are ripping up American contracts. Stores are pulling American products off the shelves. And then, of course, there's the booing.

I know this seems grim, but I want to be honest with you. Our nations' relationship has been irrevocably harmed. There is no world where we go back to how it was before—whether or not Trump is gone—because we simply can't trust we won’t be put in this position again. And honestly—no offense to you, your ask was very polite, and I truly sympathize with every American who is as appalled by this as we are—I don’t think Canadians would feel this strongly about “never going back” if it weren’t for the response we’re seeing from American people online and American media.

Initial reactions to these threats were outright dismissal... of a threat to our sovereignty. Then, it was met with jokes and condescension, with late-night hosts chalking it up to picking a fight with your lapdog ally (literally, Jon Stewart called us golden retrievers), and people online treating it like just another crazy Trump-ism. Which is, again, a) not an appropriate reaction to a threat to a country’s sovereignty, and b) a complete dismissal of the real-time effects we're already feeling from this. The Canadian dollar dropped CONSIDERABLY in value the day the tariffs were announced. Just look at the USD:CAD forex charts and see how fucking stupid it looks since Trump took office.

And then, finally, we keep being met with either MAGA idiots who double down on the threat and tell us about how they can't wait to annex us/invade us and how we don't stand a chance against your military, or we're met by well-meaning but ultimately self-centered Americans who didn't vote for Trump and seem to be looking for us to absolve them and confirm we know they, in particular, didn’t do this. Which, like, okay, but how does that help anything? And really, should you be turning to us for comfort in this moment? This might sound dramatic, but literally go to the comment section of any Canadian creator, and you'll see this playing out there. It's aggressive and overwhelming, and you can’t blame Canadians for feeling like we can't count on you (again, en masse—not you specifically) to have our backs.

That said, the Canadian people and the Canadian government still truly sympathize with Americans—and immigrants in America (documented or not)—who did not choose this and are being impacted. We really, truly, and deeply appreciate Americans like you who are seeking out our voices, seeing through the noise, and trying to stay informed.

So, with that in mind, to help with the root of your question regarding news sources... first, I would recommend getting a VPN. I think your online experience would greatly improve. Second, there are a few Canadian sources you can go directly to, like our national broadcaster, the CBC.

Personally, I also enjoy following some left-leaning creators on TikTok, most of whom are journalists. I just try to be careful to keep their biases in mind and do my own follow-up research/think critically about what I hear. Here are a few of my favourites: Kat Arnett - she's a photographer but she used to be a political journalist. She's been pretty great at talking about how Canadians have experienced all of this.

KnittyKnits - she's a progressive (I'd say left but not far left) creator based in Alberta and she covers a lot of Canadian news.

Contra Tenore - He's a left-wing creator who I personally feel has a fairly pragmatic approach to analysis. He's VERY supportive of our left wing party (The New Democratic Party or 'NDP') and he's been talking a lot about this situation with the U.S. He doesn't mince words, though, and sometimes his videos are a little hard to take.

Cole.NotCole - He's probably my favourite starting point for a lot of my research right now. He gives short summaries of the day's news. He's sort of our Aaron Parnas but less problematic and less priviledged. He has a Liberal (center-left) leaning lens, but I don't personally feel he editorializes too much.

JB|Canadian Politics - Overtly progressive, but great political updates in my opinion - bias or no bias. He's been engaging Americans a lot during this whole thing in really interesting ways.

Unlearn16 - They're an extremely progressive high school history teacher (or maybe social studies?). I've really enjoyed their content covering all of this. They do a great job of breaking down the impact of political maneuvering and spelling out historical contexts.

Anyway... I hope this helps! And thank you again for asking. It really does mean a lot to see people seeking out Canadian perspectives at this time.

[theabigailthorn]

So I'm a person that thinks Nebula is *really* cool as a concept and I was curious if you are allowed to tell us how you think it's going as far as letting creators actually have more control over their own labour.

I mean, I own all the rights to The Prince still - in fact the North American premiere is happening today and the drama company licensed it from me, not Nebula, so that's certainly one example of me being in control!

I own all the rights to Dracula's Ex-Girlfriend too, and of course Philosophy Tube, so, yeah I'd say I have a lot of control! Plus I own a little piece of Nebula's parent company, which is nice - once you've been with them for a certain amount of time you get the option to buy a bit of it, which means I get to vote on certain things and have an input with the business strategy if I want.

[yurimother]

Yuri Anime 'Whisper Me a Love Song' Announce April 13 Debut; HIDIVE to Simulcast

Last Friday, an announcement posted to the official website for the upcoming television anime adaptation of Eku Takeshima's Whisper Me a Love Song (Sasayaku You ni Koi o Utau) revealed that the series will premiere on April 13. Additionally, on Wednesday, Sentai Filmworks announced that it has licensed the anime and will stream the anime internationally on HIDIVE.

Whisper Me a Love Song follows first-year high school student Himari Kino, who, at a welcome ceremony, witnesses Yori Asanagi singing and instantly falls in "love." She immediately confesses her admiration to Yori, who misinterprets Himari's feelings as romantic. However, once she realizes her mistake, Yori swears that she will make Himari fall for her for real.

The release date announcement also included a new key visual (above) and information about the opening and ending themes. Whisper Me A Love Song's opening theme, "Follow your arrows," is performed by the fictional band SSGIRLS from the anime and sung by Kana Sasakura, who provides the singing voice for main character Yori Asanagi.

Sentai Filmworks will simulcast the anime exclusively on HIDIVE in North America, Australia, the the British Isles. The North American premiere will be screened at Anime Boston 2024 on March 29.

The anime, which was delayed from its initially announced January premiere, is directed by Akira Mano at Cloud Hearts and Yokohama Animation Laboratory. Mano replaced the initially announced director, Xin Ya Cai, due to "health reasons." Character designer Minami Yoshida and script supervisor Hiroki Uchida join Mano.

The anime stars Hana Shimano as Himari Kino and Asami Seto as Yori Asanagi. Additional cast includes:

Konomi Kohara as Mari Tsutsui

Mikako Komatsu as Aki Mizuguchi

Ai Kakuma as Kaori Tachibana

Yuna Nemoto as Shiho Izumi

Reina Ueda as Momoka Satomiya

Chika Anzai as Hajime Amasawa

Aoi Koga as Miki Mizuguchi

Ichijinsha serializes the original manga in Ichijinsha's Comic Yuri Hime. Kodansha USA publishes the manga in English and will release the eighth volume on March 26.

Sources: Official Anime Website, HIDIVE Press Release

[worstjourney]

Quick heads up – Iron Circus (my wonderful North American publishers) are having a 50% off sale on their whole online shop on Friday 29 November. That means you can get the super sexy hardcover US edition of Worst Journey Vol.1 for a paltry US$10! Or the e-book for $5! What a steal!

Check out the rest of the shop, too – you may be able to knock a few people off your gift list with their varied selection ... and maybe one or to favoured libraries as well ...

[typhlonectes]

Dragonflies of North America

by Ed Lam

A comprehensive, fully illustrated guide to every dragonfly species found in North America

Dragonflies are large and beautiful insects, diverse in color and pattern. This premier field guide provides all the information you need to identify every male and female dragonfly found in North America, whether in the field, in the hand, or under the microscope. The extensive illustrations are the heart of the book. Close-up color portraits of each species, often several times life size, show the best possible specimens for close examination. Each sex is depicted using multiple images, with postures and viewpoints consistently maintained to aid comparison. Dragonflies of North America is the ultimate guide to these extraordinary insects.

Covers all 329 North American species, including distinctive subspecies and variations

Features nearly 1,900 highly detailed paintings and drawings, providing clarity and consistency that photographs cannot match

Illustrates each species with multiple views for easy identification and comparison

Gives an invaluable introduction to dragonfly anatomy, behavior, and life cycle

Offers additional guidance for the most challenging species that defy field identification, highlighting anatomical characteristics to aid identification in the hand

Includes a distribution map for every species

[driver270]

New Prime On The Block

Happy North American premiere day for Transformers One! I'll do my best not to spoil the film for others (at least until it's out on streaming/Blu-ray, anyway 😅).

[dweemeister]

NOTE: Thanks goes to the 2024 Animation is Film Festival in Los Angeles for their screening of Flow this last October.

Flow (2024, Latvia/Belgium/France)

In modern animated movies, audiences expect that any animals that show up to be as sassy as the big-name actor that invariably portrays them. The idea of depicting animals in de-anthropomorphized ways or having them express only animalistic wants and needs have, for decades, been out of fashion (if they ever were). To portray animals in nature, as they are or might be, is not a concern to the major American animation studios. But it is the concern in Gints Zilbalodis’ feature film, Flow (Straume in the original Latvian). Produced by a patchwork of Latvian, Belgian, French, and other studios across the European Union, this is Zilbalodis’ second feature, after Away (2019). Animation in Europe, with Comcast-owned Illumination (France) and maybe Aardman (United Kingdom) as exceptions, remains a thoroughly unprofitable and infeasible venture without the collaboration of partner studios across the continent and subsidies from various E.U. governments.

Through the animals found in Flow – and especially the black cat via whom we experience the film’s narrative – Zilbalodis relates to the audience how difficult and, ultimately, rewarding it can be in learning how to trust and work with others. That trust, in turn, enriches one’s own life. The animals of Flow embody these themes while remaining simply animals. Other the occasional anthropomorphized behavior, the cat and their companions (no names, no genders) are what you expect them to be. There is refreshingly zero dialogue in Flow (excitedly, that makes it two fantastic no-dialogue animated films for me this year), allowing for a rare instance in which a 2020s film can easily cut across geographic, linguistic, and age barriers. Speaking of age barriers, Flow dissolves any notion that animation is simply a children’s medium. This is a film that a viewer of any age can enjoy; children and adults will both take something very different away from one of the most remarkable animated features of the year.

Nature has reclaimed the ruined vestiges of humanity – present nowhere in a waterlogged world. On a forested hilltop in a wooden cottage lives a black cat, surrounded by wooden carvings of cats and an enormous statue of a cat that looms over the residence. The cat has just had a testy exchange with several dogs and is resting one evening when they notice that the water is rising dangerously fast. Sprinting to the largest cat statue, the cat notices that water is fast consuming almost all of the land as far as their eyes can see. In a stroke of good fortune, the cat hops onto a passing boat just as the statue becomes completely engulfed in water. Already sailing this new high sea is a well-mannered capybara, who we find out has already learned how to steer the boat. On this journey of survival, the cat and capybara will pick up other passengers: a towering secretary bird, a kleptomaniac lemur, and a Labrador Retriever who always wants to play, no matter the situation. Our central quintet will encounter other animals along their travels: those who wish to be left alone, others who might want to join them on this journey without destination, and others who help in their own way.

Key to immersing oneself into Flow’s measured pace is to not look for answers where the film has none. When Flow made its North American West Coast premiere at the Animation is Film Festival in Los Angeles, Zilbalodis claimed he “did not care to explain” the exact reasons for humanity’s complete absence from Earth. Without exposition, Flow is, at a basic level, a depiction of animals contending with the whims of nature. Beyond this, the film is ripe for interpretation – one could even argue that the narrative of Flow itself exists only for its own sake. There are several hints that the dramatic water level rises have been occurring for some time, and only now is it reaching the elevation where it concerns the cat. The closing minutes of Flow leave the fates of each character ambiguous. Credit to Zilbalodis and co-screenwriter and co-producer Matiss Kaza for trusting the audience’s intelligence here.

Between those moments, each of the animals – the cat, the capybara, the secretary bird, the lemur, the Labrador Retriever – all grow, to different extents, to cast aside their selfishness and to assist the others in the boat. As long as they travel together, their lives are inextricably tied to that of the group. Because the cat is the film’s main character, the cat’s personal growth is most apparent. Aloof early on, implicitly used to some sort of indulgent lifestyle, and clearly annoyed by the nonsense of the lemur and the Labrador Retriever, the cat learns to fend for themself, to not depend on the odd bit of charity from the capybara or the secretary bird for food. In a colorful montage where the cat teaches themself to hunt while swimming, it initially appears that the cat will catch the fish just for one. Who would blame the cat after eating only a few bananas on this voyage? Instead, in respect to the secretary bird – who alternates with the capybara in steering the boat and who defended the cat earlier in the film from harm – the cat shares some of the aquatic bounty with them, as well as the Labrador Retriever.

There are perilous scenes that more dramatically depict the growth of each of our central quintet. In the sum of Flow’s dramatic and its quotidian moments, all of the animals – separated from others of their own species who might better understand them, with only a few feet of wooden planks separating them utter desolation – embrace the things that are essential. Eventually, they set aside their pride, material desires, and perhaps their own wellbeing to ensure the safety of the others. All of this is shown through their actions, in ways that will be understandable to audiences across cultures and time. Flow is a deceptively simple film when examining it solely through its story. Its complexities appear when one understands how difficult it is for a group of different-minded individuals to come to a mutual understanding for their own survival, let alone members of different animal species.

Made for less than $4 million in 2024’s USD (for contemporary comparison, The Wild Robot cost $78 million, Inside Out 2 at $200 million), Flow contains animation that belies its fractional budget. Animated using the open-source tool Blender, Zilbalodis’ team had to use some shortcuts in animating. The backgrounds, lush as they appear, are not always as detailed as they seem to be. If a scene does not have the animals move into the recesses of the background, Zilbalodis and his animators choose to leave the foliage as a blur, giving an impression of depth where there is none (see: draw distances of vistas in open-world video games as a counterexample). One can even glimpse a faint brushstroke among the trees and stone columns that dot the landscape – imperfections that remain in the film intentionally. The human infrastructure – or what remains of it – that appears is similarly not as detailed as one might think at first. The architectural styles seen within make no geographic sense, ranging from vaguely Venetian to Himalayan.

The human attention and processing power of Flow’s animation instead goes into its character animation and water effects – the latter was the responsibility of exactly two animators. So too the incredible sound design by Gurwal Coïc-Gallas (2017’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, 2023’s Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds). Flow’s character animation and its animal acting is the animated marvel of this production. Zilbalodis, who had a cat himself during his secondary school years, based the cat’s behavior on that cat. In interviews, Zilbalodis has described his film as, “not… copying nature, [but] interpreting it and creating a performance.” Granted, each of the animals in Flow behaves how you might expect them to in nature. But, like its spiritual predecessors in Bambi (1942) and Watership Down (1978), Flow necessarily injects a level of anthropomorphizing. Nevertheless, Flow – even with some humanizing (especially in some of the facial expressions) of the animals – feels as shorn of anthropomorphizing as one could expect in an animated movie. Too often in major animation studio films, there is a slickness and rubbery texture to character and background animation that, after a few minutes, loses its personality. Flow, in its imperfections and attentive animal acting, might be CGI-animated, but its craft always feels human.

Like his first film Away, Gints Zilbalodis does much of the work beyond directing and cowriting. Zilbalodis is also co-producer, cinematographer, editor, art director, and co-composer (along with Rihards Zaļupe). During the production of Flow, Zilbalodis also learned, like the animals in this film, to learn how to ask for help and to be a better collaborator. Zilbalodis, who also composed the music for Away, had to call in Rihards Zaļupe because he was having difficulty in directing the emotional contours of Flow’s score. Like the score to Away, Flow’s score is largely an ambient experience, with few melodic throughlines – this is a score meant only to accompany the film, not to help in the storytelling. Zaļupe, a professional composer, brought in a full orchestra to help Zilbalodis – gifting the film rapturous cues such as “Flow Away”. Other times, such as when the animals enter the Venetian-like city, Zilbalodis and Zaļupe’s score crescendos and layers the orchestra, only for no apparent reason on-screen and within the score itself. Zilbalodis was correct in calling in a professional composer to assist him on the music, but this is a score of someone who needs to learn that a film score can be more than just textural.

Gints Zilbalodis has noted that Flow was not truly influenced by cinema or any other works of art (other than maybe the comedic timing of silent film stars like Buster Keaton). It is a film that comes almost purely from dreams, sometimes adopting the logic of dreams. Too many modern filmmakers, forgetting that cinema is principally a visual medium, over-rely on dialogue to move a story or characterizations forward. Flow is a necessary reminder that, in film, visual storytelling comes before anything else – not the dialogue, nor messaging. It is a remarkable sophomore directorial effort from Zilbalodis – one that elevates his standing beyond animation diehards. Flow is also a breathtaking statement of animation’s power, its primordial closeness to the dawn of cinema, and what one can achieve when we genuinely try to understand the plights of others.

My rating: 9/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog. Half-points are always rounded down.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[auspicious-manner]

welcome back! just some simple domestic fluff with mike faist and famous reader! get to this whenever you feel like it! lots of love<3

thank you for the kindness! <3

i’ve missed writing for mike! also have you guys seen the new challengers trailer AHHHHH IM SO EXCITED IT LOOKS SO GOOD!!! i have a few challengers themed mike stories in my inbox/drafts, so expect those somewhat soon ;)

also it’s been a long time since i’ve written a fluff fic, so sorry if this sucks lol

fem reader x mike faist

warnings: anxiety and mentions of depression

Worthy

���

you loved nearly everything about your life. being an actress, singer, and now a writer has given you more confidence than anything else.

you started as an actress. ever since you were little, you would put on shows for your entire family with costumes and scripts. they weren’t simple either; you would perform full dramatic monologues, emotional scenes, and romantic moments with your stuffed animals. your mom didn’t have to hesitate putting you into acting classes.

into your teen years, you booked commercials and small roles in children’s shows. then, right when you turned eighteen, you got your big break when you gained a major role in a movie alongside some of hollywood’s biggest stars, directed by none other than steven spielberg.

from there, business offers and acting gigs flew in. everything seemed to be happening all at once. it was all so overwhelming. but fame is what you wanted, right?

that’s what you thought, at least. as a child, you glamorized the picturesque hollywood starlight life. you wanted everything from the glitz to the glam. you didn’t realize that being famous came with this sense of dread that one wrong move could end your entire career. you felt unworthy of being in the spotlight all the time. so, in order to keep those intrusive thoughts from rearing their ugly heads, you kept so busy that not even a single thought could even cross your mind.

you knew you could sing, and you began writing songs and releasing music. you even went on a north american tour. then, when the tour slowed down, you wrote a novel. you kept so busy that you lost track of who you really were. what you felt you were meant to do.

sure, you had success and had more connections and fans than anyone could dream of. but what did it matter when you felt so alone?

you began closing yourself off. the limelight was making you anxious, and you couldn’t bring yourself to be seen in public in the state you were in. it all felt so hopeless. you considered living of the grid and going incognito in order to escape the expectations placed on you. for months, you stayed as hidden as possible, and it only made things worse.

being a long time friend of steven spielberg at this point, he sent you a personal invite to the premiere his new film west side story. you almost threw the invite in the trash. the thought of going out on a red carpet again and seeing all of these faces with bright, flashing cameras was out of the equation for you. yet, you missed the feeling of being dolled up. you missed feeling pretty.

when the big night came, seeing yourself in the dress that you had picked out didn’t feel real. you felt like you and not you all at the same time. your mind was conflicted; you knew the glam of hollywood was what made you happy, but since it had been so long since you have felt that way, you felt oddly out of body.

it was a long, off white dress with a leg slit and a completely open back. the dress had sleeves that stopped just below your shoulders, and it hugged your body tightly but not uncomfortably. your wavy hair fell onto your shoulders neatly in a half up half down, your curtain bangs framing your face. for the makeup, you tried to keep it relatively natural, and you didn’t want to draw too many eyes. you paired the look with some heels and a purse.

looking in the mirror, you tried your hardest to feel positive. you looked beautiful, you felt beautiful, yet something still felt wrong. maybe it was because you had no one by your side if you got anxious. as far as you knew, you would know one person there.

the car sent to pick you up took you on a ride through new york as your heart rate quickened. when you arrived at the scene, the bright lights and red carpet gave you chills.

after walking into the crowd, it didn’t take long to find steven. he pulled you aside into a fatherly hug. it felt good to be near someone as familiar as him.

“Y/N, long time no see!” he said excitedly as you hugged him.

“it’s been a while, hasn’t it?” you replied, pulling away.

“what have you been up to? knowing you, i’m sure it’s something great!”

you smiled, trying to create a facade. “oh, you know, a little bit of this and a little bit of that,” you said while nervously laughing. you couldn’t tell steven spielberg that you’ve been in a slump and that the most productive part of your day is waking up and making something to eat.

“i’m excited to see whatever you have up your sleeve,” he said, going to your side and taking your arm. “now, there’s someone i’d like you to meet.”

he guided you through the crowds, and you kept close to him. everything was becoming overwhelming.

you approached a man with his back turned to you. “Y/N, meet mike faist. you two could have a lot to talk about.”

the man turned around, and the first thing you noticed about him was that his eyes seemed to be glowing. they were brighter and bluer than anything you’d ever seen. they were absolutely stunning. upon further inspection, you realized that you recognized him from the posters for the movie, and knew he was playing riff.

he smiled at you, almost as enthralled with you as you were with him. he held out a hand, and you took it gently to shake it. you hoped he didn’t feel the sweat building on your palms. “Y/N L/N, it’s lovely to meet you.”

you grew flustered. “how’d you know my last name?”

mike looked taken aback. “doesn’t everyone?” your smile fell slightly, and mike noticed. “i’m a big fan of your work. your songs, your movies, and i recently started reading your book too. you’re amazing at everything you do.”

steven patted your shoulder before walking away, leaving you with mike. mike had a presence about him that made you feel welcomed and seen. it’s been a while since you felt that way.

“so, mike, what else have you been in?” you asked, wanting to know more about his work. he knew so much about yours, and you felt a little embarrassed that you didn’t know more about him.

he smiled and looked down. “i was a newsie in newsies on broadway, and i covered jack kelly. i played connor murphy in dear evan hansen on broadway, i was in a tv show called panic, and a lot of other stage and film work.”

you nodded, squinting your eyes slightly. “you know, i’ve seen both of those shows on broadway, and i didn’t realize until just now that that was you.”

he laughed. “am i not memorable?”

you giggled in return. “i don’t think it’s that. i just think i’m missing a little part of my brain.”

you and mike continued to talk about your respective careers. you noticed that he was so easy to talk to, and that he listened to and hung onto every word that you would say. it gave you butterflies, and you wondered what was wrong with you.

sadly, you remembered you’re at mike’s movie premiere and he had to do interviews and talk to other people besides you. you could tell he wanted to stay with you, but knew he had other obligations. before he left, he said, “we’ll see each other again before the night is through.”

you’ve had plenty of men try and charm you, with the efforts always falling flat. you’re no stranger to keeping your feelings under control and learning to not date in hollywood. it was too easy to be played by the wrong guys. but, your heart was telling you something different about mike. he made you more nervous and giddy than anyone else ever had and you barely knew him. you started to forget about the fact that you’ve been a hermit battling with your mental health for the last few months.

you caught up with a few old friends from the industry that you had recognized in the crows before it was time to go to a private screening of the film.

you watched as everyone funneled into seats in the theater next to their plus ones and friends. you stood back, scoping the area for empty seats. you felt frozen as all the seats seemed to fill.

“follow me,” a voice said close to your ear before taking your hand and walking with you down the rows of seats. you noticed it was mike and you smiled to yourself.

he took you close to the screen, but not too close, and sat down with you. you sighed. “thanks for saving me back there, i was getting stressed.”

mike tilted his head. “you’re from around here. you’re used to red carpets and screenings, aren’t you? i didn’t think this would stress out someone as experienced as you.”

he was right, it shouldn’t have stressed you out. you were so used to hiding away for so long that this all felt new to you again like it did when you were eighteen.

mike noticed your expression change, and he turned to you. “i’m sorry, i shouldn’t have said anything. but you’re worrying me a bit, is everything okay?”

you tried to brush it off. “i’m fine now, really. crowds just get me anxious-”

“i’m not just talking about tonight,” mike said, leaning in towards you. “the world has caught onto your unprecedented disappearance from the public eye. that can never mean anything good. are you sure you’re okay?”

you bit your lip, holding back tears. it was one thing to keep everything to yourself and pack it away and never confront what you’re actually going through, but to hear someone else say it put it into perspective for you. you had completely lost track of your vision and goal in life. you had lost track of you.

mike put his hand on your leg comfortingly, taking the silence and the glossy tears hidden in your eyes as a sign that you weren’t okay. the silent support he sent was exactly what you needed in that moment. a stranger was the person you least expected to comfort you.

before you could both think to say anything else, steven appeared at the front of the crowd and gave a speech, followed by the showing of the movie. every time mike appeared on the screen, you got chills. he was amazing. his performance made you hate riff yet feel some kind of empathy for him. that was due to mike’s spellbinding performance.

occasionally, you would feel mike’s eyes glance at you when important scenes came up. it’s almost as if he wanted to see your reaction. he wanted your approval.

then, after two and a half short hours, the movie ended, and the theater erupted in applause. everyone stood on their feet and you did the same, small tears running down your cheeks. you looked at mike, and his smile dropped when he saw you.

“why are you crying?” he asked.

you sniffled. “it was so amazing. you were so amazing.”

mike turned red, and he reached down to envelope you in probably the best hug you’ve ever had. he had the widest grin, and it wasn’t just from the movie.

you and mike traded numbers, and from that night on, you became inseparable.

*

mike awoke something in you that hadn’t been seen in a long time. he made you feel inspired at motivated and comfortable. you hid yourself away from the world in fear that the public would turn on you, twist your words into something far from the truth. mike dispelled those feelings for you; you felt like yourself again around him.

after the night at the premiere, mike made the first move in wanting to talk to you. you face timed each other for hours each night, staying awake into the early hours of the morning just talking about anything and everything.

you went out for a coffee date a week after the premiere, and it seemed clear to both of you that there was more to be discovered than just a friendship.

as you were walking through central park with mike, keeping your head slightly down as to not attract any unwanted eyes, you boldly brushed your hand against his, letting it linger for a moment. his hand moved away, but creeped back into place when he realized what you were doing. he slowly grazed his finger tips against yours as he walked, and he reached his fingers out and your hand fit neatly into his. you continued to hold hands for the rest of your walk.

when you arrived back at your apartment, you both sat down on the couch, your bodies turned inwards to face each other.

“i feel like i’ve know you my whole life, but its only been a week,” you said quietly, looking into his eyes.

mike smiled lightly. “i’ve never clicked this fast with anyone.”

you both paused, and mike hesitated before he spoke again. “can i ask you a question?”

you nodded, and he went on.

“there’s always been so much speculation about your love life in the media, and dating rumors and whatnot. i don’t like believing anything the media says, but i want to hear it straight from you.”

you smiled to yourself. the media liked to pull things that weren’t actually there and make up stories for fun. you’ve never actually had a real date since you’ve been in the business, let alone a relationship.

“i haven’t found anyone worthy yet.”

mike nodded, scooting closer to you. you could tell he was aiming to put his arm around you, but hesitated to see your reaction. you leaned in, telling him without words that it was okay, and he rested his arm around your shoulder as you laid close to each other. you immediately felt comfortable under his arm.

“i admire you, Y/N. i always have. i like that you know what you want, and that you know yourself. that’s a really great quality to have.”

you blushed, but your happiness faltered. you leaned your head back on his arm. “yeah, i guess. too bad i haven’t felt that way recently.”

mike looked at you, frowning. “why? if you don’t mind me asking.”

you weren’t typically the one to open up quickly to strangers. but mike felt different. he wasn’t going to judge, or make you feel bad about yourself. he was comforting.

“i’ve hid myself away from the world because i’m scared. i’m so insanely scared of messing up and having the whole world turn on me. so, i did the only thing i could think to do. i locked myself away in hopes that it would help,” you giggled nervously. “it didn’t do shit.”

you were smiling at your own misfortune, but mike stayed somber. “i’m sorry, Y/N, that’s awful.”

you shrugged. “yeah, but i did it to myself.”

mike sat up, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear. you froze under his touch. “the world needs your brilliance. don’t be afraid, there’s so many people ready to guide you and protect you from anyone trying to take you down. i’m here for you, i promise.”

you bit your lip, unable to say words. mike was so incredibly kind. all you could do was whisper a thank you.

mike put his arm back around you, and you leaned into the couch together. “if there’s anything i can do to help, let me know,” he said quietly.

you leaned your head on his shoulder, looking up at him. “you already have.”

mike smiled, turning red. “you’re cute.”

you felt complete. you hadn’t known mike for that long, but he filled a part of your soul that had been gone for a while. he made you feel liked again when you couldn’t like yourself.

you sat up and looked at him. your faces were only a few inches apart. at the same time, you leaned in, and your lips grazed each other before interlocking. it felt euphoric.

you pulled away, remaining close, and you smiled at each other. “you’re the most talented person i’ve ever met,” you whispered to him.

mike lightly placed his hand under your chin. “that means a lot coming from you. i love everything you do.”

you leaned in again, feeling your old self coming back again. you felt renewed. mike made you feel like the star you are again.

you rested your forehead on his. “thank you.”

mike tilted his head slightly. “for what?”

“for making me feel worthy again.”

mike smiled lightly, then gave you a short but sweet kiss. “never forget that you’re beautiful and wanted.”

a small tear escaped your eye. mike was everything you needed. you almost felt in denial that someone like him could be making you feel this way because you were so used to men not valuing you. you were moving fast with mike, but it felt right. you were never one to believe in love at first sight, but this was pretty damn close.

you leaned into his side again, and his hand rested on the back of your head. you could get used to this.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jennifer Rubin at The Contrarian:

After two days of watching the markets tank, President in Name Only Donald Trump’s lackeys began to talk about a “compromise” on his wrongheaded, disastrous rollout of steep across-the-board tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada, and China. This is a common Trump stunt: Make a boneheaded move, watch the fierce blowback, make a meaningless deal, and declare victory. In this case, the “compromise” appears to include a one-month reprieve from tariffs for automakers. However, after the one-month pause, those tariffs apparently will go into effect. No such relief was offered for other goods. Whatever wiggle room Trump provides, the damage is done. Markets, businesses, and consumers are rattled. (Even Trump acknowledged during his congressional rant that tariffs would require a “little adjustment.” I trust that may be code for “inflation plus job losses.”) In sum, Trump’s economic imbecility and on-again-off-again tariff scheme risks job losses and higher inflation. And he may have irreparably harmed relations with our closest neighbors. It is not hard to see why Trump should look for an out. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated that “there is absolutely no justification or need whatsoever for these tariffs.” The excuse that Canada has not stopped the flow of illegal fentanyl is “totally false.” He stressed that this was all Trump’s doing. He even taunted him. “Now, it’s not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal,” he said. “But Donald, they point out that even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.” (One can seriously question the former; the latter is objectively true.) In fact, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board citing the tariffs the “dumbest in history” may have been an understatement. The board went on: “Mr. Trump is whacking friends, not adversaries. His taxes will hit every cross-border transaction, and the North American vehicle market is so interconnected that some cars cross a border as many as eight times as they’re assembled.”

In addition to Trudeau, Ontario Premier Doug Ford (in multiple TV appearances) went right over his head to the American people, American businesses, and Americans who possess any degree of economic literacy. “Canadians love Americans. We love the U.S. It’s one person that’s causing these problems… It’s not you, it’s your president that’s causing this problem,” he explained on Tuesday. In direct, respectful language he explained how dumb the tariffs truly are—for both countries. “The market is going to go downhill faster than the American bobsled team. And we’re going to continue seeing in the U.S. plants closing, assembly lines shut down,” he said. All of this is “unnecessary,” he said. All Canada can do is “retaliate.” (Almost comically, he then apologized to the American people.) Ford also made clear how utterly isolated Trump is on the issue. “I’ve talked to Senators and Congresspeople and governors, Republicans and Democrats, not one of them agree with him,” he said. He added, “President Trump ran on a mandate to lower costs, to create more jobs. This is going to do exactly the opposite.”

Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at her Tuesday press conference blasted Trump. “We don’t want to enter into a trade war,” she said. “That only affects the people.” She also made crystal-clear that any border issues are a pretext for Trump’s tariff war.

[...] Thanks to Trump’s thick-headedness and ignorance, American consumers, businesses, and workers will all face unnecessary pain. Sadly, Canadian and Mexican leaders have a far better grip on what benefits the American people than does Trump or his sniveling MAGA allies. Democratic leaders have an opportunity to defend our workers, consumers, and investors. They must seize it.

Love this excellent column from Jennifer Rubin on how Trump is clueless on the economy, unlike Trudeau (CAN) and Sheinbaum (MEX).

[bloodydesires-if]

Bloody Desires: The Cure - Intro Post

Demo TBA (Twine) | Itch.io Page

Bloody Desires: The Cure is a supernatural interactive fiction set in the 21st century. When the Vampiric Round Table (VRT) summons you to New York, you have no choice but to go. The VRT has learned of a credible rumor that a cure for vampirism is somewhere out there. But your kind aren’t the only ones searching for it. The dangerous supernatural exterminators, Heaven’s Hunters, seek the cure to wipe vampires from existence.

18+ for violence, blood, death, sexual themes, explicit language, and morally gray storylines.

Embark on a bloody adventure featuring:

6 unique MC backstories;

3 clans to choose from (Viscardi, Crescendo, Saleyrn);

characters, both supernatural and mortal, who you can form alliances and relationships with (or piss off?);

the ability to play as non-binary, male, female, cis, or trans;

opportunities to level up your skills for the fight ahead; 

multiple endings. 

Learn more about the backstories and companion characters below.

The following companions have platonic and romantic routes.

Kieran Collins - The Shifter

137 years old (looks early 30s) | Irish | male | he/they

Kieran is a shifter who takes on the form of a wolf. They have full control of when they shift, although it can be painful if they shift too often between resting. In his human form, he relies on knives and has spent his life studying supernatural rituals and artifacts. 

Charlotte St. Claire - The Deadly English Rose

28 years old | English | female | she/her

Charlotte is a Londoner with a dark past, having spent a large portion of her life entangled with the dangerous underworld of London. This path led to her imprisonment by a group of vampires who treated her as their personal blood bag. After escaping on the precipice of her death, she was found by Kieran who took her under his wing. 

River Silvius - The Witch

32 years old | American | non-binary | they/them

River is the youngest witch in their family and was raised in the state of Washington. They are currently a professor at the New York Institute of Witchcraft, the premier witchcraft college in North America. They sometimes work on cases with Bennett. 

Katerina Kallergis - The (Other) Vampire

282 years old (looks late 20s to early 30s) | Greek | female | she/her

Katerina is a vampire who was born in Greece almost three-hundred years ago. She despises vampirism - including herself and other vampires. Not much is known about members of her clan, the Infinitum, as they are a tight-knit group of vampires who value privacy and usually avoid other supernaturals as much as possible. 

Bennett Williams - The Cowboy

31 years old | American | male | he/him

Bennett grew up on a ranch in Texas, where he was the only survivor of a Heaven’s Hunters (HH) attack that wiped out his family, including his sister who was a Witch and the intended target. He is currently a private investigator for supernaturals and their families. He is fond of his cowboy hat and shotgun and wears an eyepatch on his left eye. 

There will be additional characters who play their own role in the story, including members of the Vampiric Round Table, clan leaders, Heaven’s Hunters, and more. However, this post would be too long to list all of those people.

Here’s a brief look at the six possible backstories for MC. Subject to change if needed by the author.

Shadow of War World I

Born: 1896 - London, England | Turned: 1915 - Loos-en-Gohelle, France

Born in the heart of London, your life brimmed with dreams. But those were overshadowed by the devastating turmoil of World War I. You were driven by a sense of duty at 19 years old and enlisted alongside your best friend from secondary school. After watching your best friend fall in combat, you were overwhelmed by survivor’s guilt and were left trying to navigate the war-torn world without them. Eventually, you were dying on a different battlefield, reminded of them. But as the darkness closed in, so did a vampire…

Shadow of the Roaring 20s 

Born: 1898 - New York, NY | Turned: 1922 - New York, NY

Born to a working-class family in the heart of New York City, you spent the entirety of your mortal life there. Your Sire was drawn to you as soon as you entered the speakeasy that fateful night… as your connection with your Sire grew, so did both of your desires to never lose each other. A year after being turned, a relentless group of vampire hunters took them from you as they sacrificed themself for your sake...

Shadow of the Spanish Renaissance 

Born: 1608 - Barcelona, Spain | Turned: 1635 - Madrid, Spain

Born to a merchant family in bustling Barcelona, your early years were spent comfortably and your family hoped you would follow in their footsteps. But your passions lay elsewhere. You found yourself inspired by artists such as Coello and Velázquez, and frequented libraries and salons. As you grew older, the weight of familial obligations bore down upon you. One night while you were in Madrid visiting friends, a vampire approached you with a proposal…

Shadow of the French Revolution

Born: 1770 - Vizille, France | Turned: 1799 - Paris, France

Born to a family of budding rebels in Vizille, you experienced the backdrop of social unrest and discontent. As the revolution began to spread across France, you found yourself at the midst of it in Paris. It is there that your Sire became fascinated by your sense of justice and chose you to be their eternal descendent. Against your deepest desires, you were thrust into immortality, a fate you never sought, as your original intention was simply to fight for the betterment of humanity…

Shadow of the Zhou Dynasty

Born: 890 B.C. - Western Zhou | Turned: 867 B.C - Western Zhou

Born into a prestigious family, you spent much of your time at court, learning from tutors and schemers alike. As a young adult, you were caught in the crossfires of a power struggle within the court. Betrayed by those you once trusted, you were the victim of an assassination attempt. You only remember your eyes closing….and then waking up as a vampire, your sire nowhere in sight…

Shadow of the Nile

Born: 1050 B.C. - Tanis, Egypt | Turned: 1023 B.C - Thebes, Egypt 

Born to a family of esteemed lineage, you were raised in the sacred walls of the Temple of Amun-Ra in preparation for your future as a religious figurehead. You did eventually become an important leader in Thebes during a time of political imbalance. But then you died. When you awoke, a vampire was watching over you with an amused look. They swore to have found you already dying in an alley…

-----

Asks are welcome if you so desire, however, I won't be doing NSFW reactions or long reactions at this time. I will still do some regular reactions and answer general NSFW. Thanks!

P.S. please let me know if there's an error in the post, thanks <3

[jadelotusflower]

And Kansas, she says, is the name of the star

So, Wicked. I actually saw it two weeks ago but have been letting my thoughts marinate a bit. As with anything currently dominating the cultural zeitgeist, the film has received both overwhelming praise and unmitigated hate - although the latter seems to be directed more towards its stars than the film itself, where the line between playful meme-ification and genuine unkindness has been crossed.

Like many, I've been a fan of the world of Oz since I was a child, not only the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, but the quasi-sequels Return to Oz (check out my rewatch/analysis here) and the animated Journey Back to Oz (yes, the one with Liza Minelli). I read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at some point in my childhood (and have been making my way through the rest this year) but it was the films that really captured my imagination. Also a long time fan of musicals, I was first exposed to Wicked through the documentary Broadway: The American Musical, and was able to see the show in London in 2007 with Kerry Ellis and Helen Dallimore (+ Miriam Margolyes), and subsequently in Australia with Lucy Durack and Jemma Rix (interestingly, Glinda and Elphaba billing swapped for this production). I also read Gregory Maguire's novel shortly after first seeing the show, although have yet to read the sequels.

I very much enjoyed the film, even if for me it isn't really the definitive version, but simply another interpretation of a classic story, a different telling of the same fairy tale. Oz is particularly malleable in this way, the story very much of its time and yet also timeless. As Gregory points out in his preamble of the Wicked musical program: "Tolkein's Middle-Earth reinvigorated readers' interest in older narrative conceits of the hero in battle just as Europe was tumbling towards its mid-century paroxysms of genocide and war. Lewis Carroll, three quarters of a century earlier, had gently mocked Victorian certainties and niceties by portraying Wonderland as an anarchic dreamscape...While Oz was being invented and charted by Baum at the turn of the twentieth century, the American experiment in democracy was coming to resemble, in ways both bad and good, a great and powerful empire."

Maguire wrote his own revisionist tale in 1990, at the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the Gulf War, the musical adaptation premiered on Broadway just after the invasion of Iraq, and now the film is released in times that are no less turbulent, and in which the threat of fascism and the power of propaganda are more acute than ever. It's a story that was resonant in 1900, and is resonant now - albeit in different ways and through different perspectives.

It's all a parable - whether it be Baum's fairyland of childhood adventure, MGM's loving devotional to "the young at heart", Disney's dark fantasy of a splintered mind (and later, their own take on the villain/anti-hero origin story), Maguire's exploration on the nature of evil, the musical's bittersweet ode to the power of friendship, and the film's empowering of the other - a folk tale, a dream, a prophecy, a cautionary tale, a tick of the Time Dragon Clock.

But my thoughts! Here they are. Needless to say, spoilers for the film, stage musical, and all other Oz-related media.

Oz has always been a story that centered its heroines - in the books the arrival of the Wizard disrupts the natural order of the world by usurping Ozma, his power an illusion compared that of the women who surround him - good in Glinda the witch of the South and the unnamed witch of the North, and the wicked in the witches of the East and West. The Wizard and his successor the Scarecrow must both be deposed - the former by Dorothy (albeit unintentionally), and the latter by Jinjur and her girl army, until finally harmony is restored when Ozma returns to her throne.

Wicked of course plays with this notion, where good and evil are not so linear, where Elphaba (in the musical) is the only witch with actual magic - other than Madame Morrible, the true power behind the Wizard’s throne. It's not so simple as restoring a queen to the throne to benevolently reside over a utopia - Elphaba's activism either ends with her death (in the novel) or her escape from Oz (in the musical), Glinda replaces the Wizard as figurehead with the Grimmerie she doesn't know how to read, and the intention to deploy her other skills and popularity this time "for good" - whether she succeeds is unknowable. But I'm getting ahead of myself, because the film is only Part I, aka Act I of the stage musical.

On that point, it was absolutely the right decision to split into two films, even if Part I is almost double the runtime of Act I and seems to add very little (although I enjoyed what it did add). It’s Part II that will benefit from breathing room to pack in a lot of plot (and hopefully flesh out some of the holes). Although from the audible groans in my theatre when the “to be continued” title came up the marketing did its job hiding the split.

But back to my point, it's so gratifying to see not only a big-budget musical that's unashamed and unapologetic to actually be a musical, but one that so unequivocally is a story about women, not only their own struggles, but embracing their own power and exercising their own agency. Elphaba's faith in the Wizard as the cure for all her problems, both internal and external, is viciously shattered and she must take responsibility for her own destiny, Glinda as the epitome of privilege must learn to look beyond the superficial of both herself and others.

It's almost reflective of the classic golden age musicals that were often driven by women and their stories - Maria in The Sound of Music, Eliza in My Fair Lady, Anna in The King and I, Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly!, Fanny in Funny Girl, Mama Rose in Gypsy, and of course the (literal) mother of them all, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. And I think Wicked in some ways does hearken back to that classic style of movie musical in the setpieces and choreography, though not as much as I would like (more on that later). I don't think its a coincidence that Wicked's audience is skewed 70% female and it's been enormously successful, and much like last year's Barbie, has shown that women will show up an support a film about women when the story and characters are captivating rather than just lazy girlboss faux-empowerment sludge.

The casting is across the board good - I admit I had my reservations about Ariana Grande and while I don’t think she quite hits the rich vocal heights of Chenoweth, she certainly sells the comedy moments, even if there is more calculation and less ditz to her Galinda - there’s very little Billie Burke in her. Which is not a criticism, it's a valid take and her reverence for the musical is clear so of course that's her guiding light, while also making the role her own.

But the emotional core of Part I is Cynthia Ervio’s Elphaba, her isolation and otherness powerful astride her vulnerability and immense inner strength. I’ve always felt in the musical Glinda is the meatier role just because she has a more dramatic character arc, but splitting the film into two has really allowed the first part to centre Elphaba, and Ervio brings the emotional moments - her faith in the Wizard and subsequent loss of it in particular, as well as her humiliation at the Ozdust Ballroom which is just heart-shattering and so relatable. Ervio brings a fragility to the role where on stage there was hostility, and I actually think she is my favourite interpretation.

Michelle Yeoh brings steely manipulation to Madame Morrible, it was a good change to siphon off the comedic elements to new character Miss Coddle (heh) and lean into Yeoh’s natural gravitas. Yes, she talks on pitch rather than sings but who cares. There’s a menace to this Morrible, and yet we see her manipulation of Elphaba so very deftly (setting up Elphaba to need to prove her powers to the Wizard by reading the Grimmerie for example). I'll watch Yeoh in anything, although I do wish we'd seen her actually deliver "this wicked witch" line rather than Elphaba both times.

Jonathan Bailey is appropriately handsome and charming as Fiyero, with enough fluidity of movement to foreshadow his transformation into the Scarecrow (although not to the extent of my favourite Fiyero Adam Garcia, whose limbs were practically liquid).

Jeff Goldblum is doing Jeff Goldblum things, although leans into the sinister - the Wizard is genuinely wicked and fascistic in this version even moreso than the musical. It is kind of amusing that there is absolutely no hiding his distinctive voice in No One Mourns the Wicked so it's blatantly obvious he's Elphaba's father even for those who haven't seen the musical. I do wonder if they are going to make him well aware rather than being told by Glinda at the end - the way he plays A Sentimental Man it's certainly possible.

On that point, the screenplay is actually very faithful to the musical's book, which makes sense since Winnie Holtzman wrote the former and contributed to the latter. There’s some great changes that tweak and tighten the narrative - the relationship between Nessarose and Boq is given greater foundation, as is Elphaba’s connection with Dr Dillamond and her meet-cute with Fiyero. Making Glinda's minions Bowen Yang (Pfannee) and Brownwyn James (Shenshen) comic relief was also a great addition - "Elphaba, love you and your shoulderpads" made me cackle and I kind of wish there was more of them.

However I do feel there were some opportunities missed - I had thought with Act I being it’s own film we may get a bit more meat to Elphie and Glinda after they become friends - we do see that they form a group with Fiyero, Boq, and Nessa but more would have been nice (there were evidently scenes filmed we may see in flashback in Part II). I did appreciate the setup of the Wizard and his diorama (a nice way to visualise Oz) but could have done without Glinda naming the Yellow Brick Road. Not everything needs a reference!

I wish there were some references to Ozma, but it makes sense that the Wizard’s propaganda would erase her from history in favour of the “wise ones” (perfect cameos for Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth). It's interesting that, like in Oz the Great and Powerful, they invoke a prophesy the Wizard co-opts - this really is a mashup of all the Oz lore than came before it.

It also seems they cut "I got what I wanted" from the Ozdust scene (unless I missed it?) which is one of my favourite Glinda moments, so that was a shame.

I did find John M. Chu’s direction oft-times too frenetic. While this is effective and dynamic in numbers such as What is this Feeling? cross-cutting between Elphaba and Galinda and their early rivalry across various school activities, in many others I was desperate for the camera to slow down (or stop!) already and let me see what was on screen. There were so many beautiful things to see! But I missed half of them because the dolly was seemingly fixed to a rollercoaster. The set piece in the library and rotating bookshelves for Dancing Through Life was fantastic, but most of the choreography is muddled by frenzied camera motion, as is the cacophony of the Emerald City. Coming back to classic musicals, I wish he'd taken more a lead from them in locking a wide shot and letting us see the dancing.

Perhaps this is just my sensibility, but although a movie musical must justify its existence and rise above simply becoming a filmed version of the stage performance, there’s power in keeping the camera still and letting the performance speak for itself. In The Wizard and I Elphaba speeds through Shiz passing lakes and hallways and people - now there’s coloured glass! now there’s a cave! now she’s running through a field! now she’s looking over the Deadly Impassable Desert! (a change I'm assuming was made to allow Elphaba and Fiyero to leave Oz through it at the end of Part II). Even I’m not that Girl has luminescent flowers blooming in the background as Elphaba wanders yet again, this time in the dark. It’s almost as if Chu doesn’t trust the audience not to be bored unless there are Things to look at every moment.

I also think it was a mistake to set so many scenes at night rather than leaving that for the narrative turn with the Wizard. The Ozdust Ballroom re-imagined as undeneath the lake at Shiz is inspired, but ultimately is gloomy and dull because of the way it's lit (or rather, not lit). The sets however, particularly Shiz, are genuinely beautiful so I give Chu a great deal of credit for not going full cgi.

There’s also been a lot of criticism of the colour grading and I don’t disagree with it, “muddy” effects and muted palette seems par for the course these days and the camera movement was much more distracting for me. I can appreciate that Chu wanted this to be a less colourful Oz to contrast to '39 visually as well as thematically, but I still would have preferred a bit more vibrancy, especially in Shiz and the Emerald City.

I also didn’t care for Defying Gravity to be so broken up - it’s like that on stage, but still feels like it’s all building to towards that incredible climax. But the film inexplicably breaks up the final verse which absolutely halts the momentum, rather than the build of So if you care the find me/Look to the western sky to And nobody in all of Oz/No wizard that there is or was, we get an interlude of the Unlimited motif which prevents the final lines from soaring as they should. I get what they were going for, but it seems that Elphaba delivers the lines about the West, then flies out and sees it, and comes back to deliver her denouncement when it should have been the other way around. For all the papering over of possible holes in the musical’s book, it’s odd that there wasn’t some foundation to Elphaba’s reason for choosing to go West. For example, if that’s where the Animals said they were going, or if she and Fiyero had discussed his homeland.

However these are minor quibbles! I enjoyed the film enormously, and is a worthy contributor to the Oz canon.

On that point, I've been interested to see fandom discussions around the film, and have noticed that quite a few viewers now see Wicked as "the true story" to the Wizard of Oz's "propaganda". While it's certainly a valid interpretation, if the goal is to interrogate narratives, who is telling the story, and why, to replace one version wholesale with another and declare it "the truth” seems simplistic. This is storytelling, it is both truth in its purest form and propaganda, as all art is on some level. There is not, and cannot be, a "true" version of the story - just different perspectives, and different retellings.

It’s easy to forget that while 1939 has defined so many iconic aspects of the story (ruby slippers, green skin), it was made after forty years of books and staged productions exploring the world of Oz - which the '39 film acknowledges in its opening text. This has always been a story that has grown and changed, been added to and subtracted from, each version taking what they want and discarding the rest, building upon what came before.

And perhaps this is an unpopular opinion - but Wicked (be it book, musical, or film) does not work as a strict prequel to either Baum's novels or the 1939 film - Elphaba is clearly not the Wicked Witch we see in ‘39 (there’s no way this Elphaba would ever try to straight up murder a child to get her hands on shoes), similarly Fiyero and Boq becoming the Scarecrow and Tin Man respectively is fine as a throwaway on stage but just doesn’t line up with the film characters. It's a different version of the same fairy tale - much like Barrie's Peter Pan is different to Disney's, which is different to Hook, which is different to Once Upon a Time etc etc.

If Dorothy’s Oz in is a dream where she needed to find the strength within herself, Maguire’s Oz is gritty nightmare where fate is inescapable. Wicked the musical finds balance between the two, although I am interested to see how they incorporate Dorothy in Part II, as she is very much a bridge between all adaptations as her character changes very little between them (I've yet to see Dorothy as the villain, and honestly hope I never do).

Baum’s vision was an American folk tale, the ‘39 film framing of “it was all a dream”, the stage musical takes place inside the Time Dragon Clock, a mechanical propaganda machine inside which book!Elphaba is literally born. Even this film opens with the haunting voiceover of Glinda’s announcement of witch’s death, purporting to tell the "true story" but even that can only be from her own perspective, coloured by her own guilt. Maguire’s novel bills itself as the “Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” - it’s the telling of a story, the employing of a literary device.

I love thematic mirror, and the Oz of Wicked is in many ways a mirror-verse of the Oz of Baum/MGM - flipping the narrative to re-examine good and evil, to see familiar characters from the other side of the glass. Mrs Gultch takes Toto away on her bicycle to be destroyed, Elphaba take the Lion away on her bicycle to save him from captivity. Ruby slippers return to being silver shoes, the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are not just happenstance companions of Dorothy but the result of Elphaba's magic - even Elphaba's "i want" song in The Wizard and I can be mirrored to Dorothy's Somewhere Over the Rainbow, their respective unmasking of the Wizard as a fraud can be contrasted, and in the end the Wizard abandons Dorothy, but pursues Elphaba.

Glinda is perhaps one of the most fascinating mirrors from previous works - where she is the ultimate deus ex machina, stepping in at just the right time to save the day. But she is removed from the action, the hand of god, arguably the most powerful being in all of Oz. Wicked seems to both tear down this goddess figure and feed into it - in Part I Glinda wants to be seen as benevolent and perfect and kind when she starts as anything but, and ultimately Glinda the Good is a persona she adopts, like the Wizard she has no real power herself, only the power of myth-making.

Each of the character arcs in Wicked revolves around the stories they tell themselves/others juxtaposed against who they really are. This is a further mirror to the archetypes in Oz - the good witch, the bad witch, the powerful wizard. Elphaba's wickedness is confected, her otherness amplified to make an enemy of the people, but even before this she was using her exclusion as a shield, as Glinda observes, she cares deeply what others think of her, she just pretends she doesn't - and by the end of the film she throws off those shackles, willing to be cast as a wicked witch rather than betray her cause. Fiyero pretends to be "deeply shallow" while Elphaba sees through to his unhappiness, Morrible presents herself as wise mentor but is revealed as cruel puppetmaster, etc etc.

However, even Baum plays with this notion of artifice - the Emerald City is not in fact made out of emeralds, instead visitors don green-tinted glasses on entry, even his Wizard proclaims himself “a good man, just a very bad wizard” but the narrative condemns him as the man behind the curtain - although the subsequent books can never really quite decide if he a lovable rogue with pockets of enchanted piglets, or is he a sly trickster who deposed Ozma. Ultimately, he is both. He is a man from our world transplanted into a fantasy world, and cannot help but corrupt it.

I really have so much more to say! I love Oz in all its various incarnations but have probably rambled long enough.