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brigidandair · 9 months ago

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So, I saw Damsel today...

**Spoilers and complete plot for the movie Damsel will be all over this post, so don't read if you care about spoilers. Also, this is based on one watch only, so if some timeline details are very slightly wrong, that is why, though the important parts I'll be discussing are not contingent on these details.**

I'm not usually one to closely review a movie, but this one left me with a lot of thoughts that kind of sum up a lot of my feelings about big budget movies in the past decade, so here I go.

First off, I did like Damsel. I enjoyed watching it. It was gorgeous to look at, and Millie Bobby Brown did a fantastic job with the role and script she was given. However, I was left feeling like there was something very important about the whole experience missing, and it took me a few moments to really put my finger on it afterwards. The plot was fine, if a bit predictable, and I did appreciate the focus on Elodie as a protagonist. I loved that the dragon was given a plausable reason to want to devour/kill princesses, and that the dragon wasn't slain at the end, even though the opportunity was presented. And oh my goodness, the costuming department did a phenomenal job.

What I want to do here is give a rundown of the plot, and to then give my thoughts, so if you've seen the movie and don't care for a rehash you can skip to the next set of dashes.

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So, basic plot: The film opens on a scene of a king and his entourage of knights are entering a sinister cave, where there dwells a fearsome dragon. The king declares that they will defeat the dragon, and his knights charge, but are immediately melted by the dragon's fire, leaving only the king. The king drives his sword into the ground, and falls to his knees, and the scene cuts away before we see what happens next.

Centuries later, Princess Elodie and her little sister Floria live in a kingdom that is beset with hardship. They are low on money and food, and their people are facing a hard winter. So when the king is contacted by the royal family of the kingdom of Aurea--a kingdom they had never heard of, but that seems to be very wealthy--with the proposal that Elodie marry the Aurean prince, the family immediately travels to Aurea to finalize agreements. Amongst the traveling party are Elodie, Floria, their queen stepmother, and the king.

Upon arrival in Aurea, Elodie is introduced to prince Henry, while the kings meet alone. However, when the king emerges from the negotiation chamber, his wife immediately notices that he seems upset and deeply disturbed, though he assures her that everything is in good order, the deal has been made, and their kingdom will soon have more gold than he ever dreamed of as compensation for their daughter's marriage to the prince.

The stepmother queen, sensing something is wrong, goes to Elodie and tells her not to marry the prince, but she has resigned herself to helping her people, even if it means marriage to a man she does not know. That night, she steps out ont her balcony and sees another tower, with another young woman doing the same, before the young woman's maid calls her back inside.

The next day, Elodie is married to prince Henry, and is told of a ritual that is performed after weddings up on a nearby mountain, that honors the trials of their ancestors. They travel up to the mountain, where Elodie is told of the story we witnessed at the opening of the film. When the ancestors of the Aurean people arrived on their island, it was inhabited already by a dragon, who set upon them, raining destruction for the insult of invading its land. Though the king was unable to slay the beast, he was able to broker an agreement. His people would be left alone if he were willing to sacrifice his three daughters to the dragon. So now, whenever a new royal heir is married, they make the trip up to the dragon's mountain, over the chasm that leads to its lair, to commemorate the sacrifice of that original king.

The queen motions to Henry, who then slices his palm, and once Elodie has done the same, they mingle their blood, symbolizing that their people have now become of one blood and line. The prince tells Elodie that, at this point, he is to carry her back across the chasm, and that she should close her eyes. But halfway across, he whispers that he is sorry, and then he throws her over the edge, down into the depths of the dragon's caves.

Elodie survives relatively unharmed, her fall having been broken by many roots and branches along the drop, but there seems to be no way out. Very shortly thereafter, she has her first encounter with the dragon itself, who epresses delight at the thought of getting to kill her, and Elodie is forced to run from the dragon's fire. She hits a dead end, and there she finds the body of the young woman she had seen the night before, half burned, and realizes that they were always ment to be sacrifices to the dragon. The dragon continues to taunt her, breathing more fire down the passage where she is trapped, but she notices a narrow hole in the cave wall that she manages to wedge herself through it, barely escaping and sustaining a severe burn on one leg. She rips part of her dress off, wrapping it around her wound, and continues.

From here, we get a lengthy series of scenes of Elodie navigating her way through the trecherous cave system, hounded at every turn by the dragon. She finds an area inhabited by bioluminescent slugs, which she gathers in another part of the dress that she tears off, to use as a lanter, and finally reaches a small cave where a princess before her has written on the wall that this place is safe, and that the dragon cannot reach there. Written on the walls are the names of dozens of other princesses that, over the centuries, have reached this cave before inevitably being caught and killed by the dragon. Next to the names is a rough map of the cave system, showing Elodie a passage marked with a sun, which she assumes is the way out. She takes time to rest here, falling asleep, but when she wakes up she finds her burned leg covered in the bioluminescent slugs. She tears them away in disgust, but notices that anywhere a slug has been, her wound has been healed. Her determination renewed, she continues.

Elodie follows the directions of the map, making her way to the presumed exit, but finds that there is no way down the sheer rock face. As some riders go by she screames to them for help, but the dragon appears and nearly kills her, forcing her to retreat back into the caves. In short order, she ends up in the cave we saw in the opening sequence, and Elodie finds a three broken dragon eggs, with the desicated corpses of the baby dragons that once inhabited them still in the debris. The scene cuts back to that opening sequence, showing us that before encountering the dragon herself, the king and his knights murdered the dragonlings as they hatched.

Elodie realizes that it was the king who had originally attacked the dragon, killing her only children, not that the dragon had been a tyrant. The only reason she had demanded three daughters was in recompense for the wrong that had been done to her. The deal that had actually been struck was that the humans could only be allowed to survive if, every generation, they continued to pay the same price so as to never stop feeling the pain of losing their children. The kingdom, however, has figured out a loophole. By taking princesses from other countries, they could simply mingle blood, fooling the dragon into thinking that the princesses were actual descendents of their line instead of girls that they only knew long enough to technically become part of their family before being sacrificed.

However, at this point, Elodie's father, having been overwhelmed guilt for selling his daughter, arrives at the caves to save her. Before he finds Elodie, the dragon shows up, killing the king's men and mortally wounding the king himself. The dragon resumes her search, and Elodie is given the time to bid farewell to her father as he dies, and he is given the opportunity to ask her for forgiveness, and to tell her to use the rope that they had used to enter the cave to escape. He tells her that Floria and her stepmother have a ship and are waiting for her. So Elodie forgives her father, and follows his direction, barely escaping as the dragon persues.

When the dragon realizes that Elodie has escaped, she begins to raze the mountainside, creating an inferno that is visible from the Aurean castle. The queen of Aurea sees the destruction, and takes action, going to the ship where Floria and the stepmother are waiting. She has her men kidnap Floria, cutting her son's hand and throwing her into the chasm in Elodie's place. When Elodie finally meets up with her stepmother and learns of Floria's capture, she immediately resolves to retrieve her sister, and she follows the same footsteps that she had taken before, returning to the dragon's main chamber.

The dragon, still set on getting Elodie herself and able to smell that Floria is of the same family as Elodie, sets Floria up as bait for Elodie, but Elodie sets up a distraction, drawing the dragon away. She goes to Floria, who has been injured by her fall into the chasm, and before they can get away, the dragon returns. Elodie takes up the sword her father had dropped before, and manages to position herself directly by the dragon's eye, determined to tell the dragon of how they have both been lied to. The dragon, however, does not believe her, and tey have a battle, where Elodie uses her ingenuity to trick the dragon into severely injuring herself with her own fire. As the dragon lay wounded on the ground, Elodie shows her the cut on her hand, and tells her that the dragon has only been perpetuating the violence that had so hurt her before, killing innocent daughters instead of exacting the revenge she had sought. The dragon tells her to end it, then, but Elodie refuses, instead retrieving some of the bioluminescent slugs and placing them on the dragon's wounds to heal her.

The scene shifts to another wedding, where the third and final princess is marrying the prince, unknowingly destined to become the last sacrifice. As the ceremony nears its end, Elodie, still in the rags of her own wedding dress, walks in. She gives a speech to those present, and tells the last princess to take her family and go. The queen declares that they are not afraid of Elodie, and she says that it isn't her they should be afraid of, right before the dragon arrives, killing the royal family and razing the castle to the ground.

In the aftermath, Elodie's stepmother is given rule of their kingdom, which now has all of the resources that Aurea once owned, and Elodie sails off on a ship, with the dragon flying beside her.

The End.

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So, what was wrong with this film? Plot-wise, nothing that would ruin it for me. It was a good story, and, like I said before, lots of fun to watch. But I was left feeling extremely empty. See, at its heart, this story was about the love and loss of children. The dragon was the last of its kind, left alone because of the unthinking cruelty of a king who viewed her as a beast, and cared not at all about the lives of her young. The dragon, though not innocent for all the dozens of lives she took over the centuries, was acting out of pain and loneliness, wishing only that that pain and loneliness be shared by those that inflicted it upon her. She was the one wronged, and the royal line of Aurea callously shunted their punishment off on the innocent and desperate. They did not deserve their prosperity, so the storyline had to lead to the breaking of that cycle, but the problem is that the film focused more on the retribution and that Elodie herself was badass than it did on any emotion.

And that's the big big thing. This movie left me empty because it was empty. Elodie was awesome, and she ended cycle of death, but we didn't know anything else about her. We get told she is clever, so that we don't question how her plans always end up working. We are told that she is capable, so that we don't question how she always manages to pull through. We are told that the prince is somewhat reluctant, but only barely, so that he doesn't seem too cartoonishly evil. We're not given enough to know the extent of his guilt, or enough to really know how complicit he is, or if it's really that his mother (who honestly is kinda cartoonishly evil) forcing the issue. It seems like we're supposed to kind of like him and feel bad that he doesn't want to kill these women, but it feels like it's only halfway suggesting the idea instead of developing aything. Elodie's stepmother is kind, but we are barely shown any of that, instead glossing over any real emotional connection in favor of action. She basically exists to give very heavyhanded foreshadowing, to tell Elodie when Floria is taken, and so they can say that Elodie doesn't have to be bound to royal duty after the death of her father, because there's someone else who can do it. And we're just told that Floria and Elodie are close. Floria seemingly exists solely as a plot device to make Elodie choose to face the dragon after her escape.

The glow slugs are a deus ex, somehow capable of healing life-threatening wounds on both humans and dragons in seconds, which seems to be just so they can pretend for a second that Elodie could really get hurt, but then have her in good enough shape to escape before her family leaves or the next princess is sacrificed. And also so that she can prove how badass she is by mortally wounding the dragon and having it at her mercy, but still have it up in moments, ready to come toast the real bad guys.

And Elodie's character is, unfortunately, also stuck with this same shallowness. She's intended to subvert the "damsel in distress" trope, and she kinda does...except that there are numerous times she is saved by pure luck, and the plotline of her having to go save Floria is just straight up doing the trope, just with a princess saving the damsel instead of a prince. I didn't even catch the names of the queen or king of Aurea, the prince's name (which is as bland as he is) is only spoken a couple of times, and the stepmother, who is arguably one of the more major characters aside from Elodie and the dragon, gets about 3 minutes of screentime and doesn't have a name that I can recall. Neither does the dragon, for that matter, though at least we get to see her more than the stepmother.

This is a story stripped down to its bare bones, and it's only as much of a huge shame as it is because there was real potential. I can't help but imagine how much better it could have been if given even another 45 minutes to help us understand and connect to our characters. I would have loved a real conversation with the dragon, getting to really feel her pain and experience the true cathartic acceptance and regret for what was done to her and what she did in response, instead of cutting away to the last wedding. I would have loved to see the dragon show any dimension of character other than anger and cruelty. I would have loved to see the prince wrestle with himself, or try to push back at all, or see the true struggle that Elodie's father experienced before he reached the conclusion that he'd made a mistake and needed to go save his daughter. Why did the ancestor king of Aurea choose to kill the dragon in the first place? It's implied by the end that the dragon was attacked unprovoked, but we don't really know. Was the dragon actually a hostile force that made them want to kill her, or was she simply there and the king wanted to eliminate a potential threat? Did no other princess ever try to talk to the dragon, espcially when they had a safe cave they could shout from, and the dragon conveniently seems to know when to immediately murder someone or let them speak for the plot? Why would the dragon continue to harbor such strong feelings for so long, and think she was truly achieving justice and exacting revenge when the humans were obviously thriving so?

And what do they plan to do from here? We know Elodie wants to travel and see the world, because she (once again) told us so, but is she doing that? And what of the dragon? We're told that she is the last of her kind, but how do we know there aren't any more elsewhere in the world? Is every gleeful murder of an innocent girl at her whim just forgiven and forgotten because she wasn't killing who she thought she was, and now centuries of hatred and bias has evaporated entirely, making her a friend of humankind? The ending could have been made better in seconds, should we have been given any kind of closure for either Elodie or the dragon in any way at all. Perhaps they're going off together to explore the world, to find out for sure if the dragon is truly alone or if there are more of her kind out there. Perhaps the dragon really does know, definitively, that she's the last, and so has decided to accompany the princess that ended the tragic cycle that defined her for so long, to keep her safe as she lives life the way she always wanted. Maybe the dragon has vowed to atone for her cruelty towards humans by going with Elodie, assisting the different peoples they encounter in their travels. Hell, even if a single narrated line was given that told us "and so they went on many adventures, and lived their lives to their fullest" it would be unsatisfying, but not as unsatisfying as the actual ending.

It just...it could have easily been vastly improved in almost every emotional sense. Caring about our characters, their motivations, their struggles, and the emotional heart of grief and loss could have made this a deeply moving film, but the focus was instead placed on the princess saving herself. And I get the desire to do so, the desire to subvert that trope, but a story can't be a full, satisfying arc with just that. It's the same problem we keep seeing with big budget companies and their attempts to cash in on social issues. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad for any progress, even if it is largely a soulless cash grab, because any progress, however small it may be, is still heading towards an eventual shift in social consciousness, and thus permanent change. But this film wanted to get the brownie points for having a badass princess who doesn't need a prince to save her, and so they ONLY cared about that. It wanted to show off its budget and CGI, and "subvert" the trope, but it missed everything about why women might want a capable subversion of these longstanding, sexist tropes.

A capable woman isn't solely defined by the fact that she is capable. The point isn't to say "I can do anything a man can," but that's what this film makes it out to be. Elodie, and the entire story itself, is stripped of literally anything but what it needs to be to keep the plot moving. The story keeps saying it's about Elodie, and how she overcomes the obstacles in her way, but at the exact same time, it doesn't care about her at all. It cares about appearing to care about her story, and it's so frustrating to see all that potential wasted on such soullessness. It's like having every piece of a puzzle, but the filmmakers only bothered to put together the edge pieces, threw the rest in the garbage, and called that good enough. So instead of a beautiful, satisfying picture, we're left knowing that the rest of the pieces exist, but that they'll never be put in their rightful places, and that the beauty it could have communicated has been wasted.

So yeah, I liked this movie, at least in that I enjoyed the concept and the actual watching of it to a certain extent, but I wanted to love this movie. I hate how good it could have been, and that if it were given the love and care it needed, it could have been made into so much more.

At the end of everything, a story isn't just a spectacle. It's sharing and exploring our lives, ideas, and humanity through imagination and creativity. The beauty of fantasy is imagining what people would do when put into extraordinary situations, or at least imagining the extent of ourselves we wish we could be. A story like this one can be fun once in a while, but a truly good story, one that you remember and carry with you, usually remains because it resonates with you. And it just really sucks that Damsel denies its characters of their emotional cores, because when you eliminate the emotion of a story, the viewers are denied a connection to the humanity that makes that story worth telling.

#damsel netflix #damsel #this was entirely unplanned and unedited #and basically just stream of thought to sort out why i feel the way i do about this movie #so feel free to ignore it #not kpop #review-y brigid

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rickchung · 1 year ago

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They Cloned Tyrone (dir. Juel Taylor).

Netflix's kooky sci-fi riff on retrofuturistic '70s-era blaxploitation films is a genre-bending experience starring John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, and Jamie Foxx as a trio of street-level hustlers, a dealer, pimp, and ho. They're all trying to get by when they discover a series of conspiracies in their neighbourhood. There's an impressive fidelity to style and tone that cements the film as a fun and stylish genre ride into themes of paranoia, mind control, white dominance, and enslavement.

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crowcaws · 4 months ago

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my conspiracy theory is they're making movies more shit on purpose so we'll like tv shows better, because they can milk a show for money way longer before people start asking why there needs to be more of this IP.

#if stranger things was a feature length movie then season 4 would have been a direct to streaming sequel like bring it on 4 #and also it would have a bunch more letterbox'd reviews pointing out that super 8 did it first

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doodlebloo · 1 year ago

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Just saw Wonka movie. If you abandon all pre-concieved notions of what is Should be and just go in to see pretty colors and hear silly songs its fun. They milk a giraffe. The orphan girl's name is Noodle

#there is fatphobia in it (character played by keegan michael key just gets larger in every scene bc hes eating so much chocolate and it's #played for laughs)#but its cute. timmy is not very wonka but hes very manic pixie dream boy and it is frustratingly endearing (& thts coming from a lesbian)#u can tell its a Family movie bc some of the writing is very simple. simple jokes. but the plot has a surprising amount of meat to it for #like no reason? idk it had me laughing and it was very pretty to look at. watch it on streaming services maybe idk if it's theater worthy 👍#*uses my mcrp fanblog as a movie review blog* posting is so fun weeeeeeee #doodle.txt

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agentnico · 6 months ago

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Hit Man (2024) review

Is it too late to start a campaign for Glen Powell to be cast in Knives Out 3? Think he’d fit right into Rian Johnson’s world of suspects. Also I’d just love to see Powell riff off Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc. Then again I’d watch anyone riff off Benoit Blanc. Gosh I love those Knives Out films - can’t wait for the next one.

Plot: Gary Johnson is the most sought-after professional killer in New Orleans. To his clients, he is like something out of a movie: the mysterious gun for hire. But if you pay him to rub out a cheating spouse or an abusive boss, you'd better watch out, he works for the cops. When he breaks protocol to help a desperate woman trying to flee an abusive husband, he finds himself becoming one of his false personas, falling for the woman and flirting with becoming a criminal.

The ever so reliable Richard Linklater has up-kept such a varied filmography, but one of which all the films have a certain vibe to them. They are all “chill” movies. Even his more daring out-there projects like the sci-fi thriller adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel A Scanner Darkly in the hands of another director would have been this sprawling cyberpunk noir epic on the scale of Blade Runner, however Linklater’s take holds this passive coolness about it, that only a Linklater such as himself can do. With his new film Hit Man, he’s following up his interest in picking out random crazy true stories from newspaper articles (as he previously did with Bernie, the 2011 Jack Black dark comedy that is a fine watch, but features arguably the worst movie poster in film history), and this movie has had one hell of a ride through the film festival circuit last year. Rave review after rave review painting this to be the best rom-com of the last century. Of course the last thing I’d expect is for something to be overrated, cause I mean that never happens, so naturally I prepared for the second coming of Christ as this film released on Netflix this week.

Hit Man is a perfectly fun Richard Linklater film, with a simple yet quirky story that is filled with enough twists and turns on the way, fantastic chemistry from its two main stars and yet again that signature chill hang-out feel the director is known for. Naturally going to give this movie credit where credit is due, it has already begun an online trend amongst folks on Letterboxd leaving one-liner reviews saying “it’s a hit, man!”, so now just wondering how long it will take for that joke to get old. Clue: it already was. However as for it being the best romantic comedy ever, it is far from it. Again, it’s a good time, but the movie relies most sorely on its superstar central performance.

Glen Powell truly exemplifies as Gary Johnson. To be fair, this role is a dream for any actor, allowing them to stretch their skills to take on multiple different personas, such like James McAvoy in Split or on a smaller scale Tom Hardy in Legend. And so a major entertainment factor throughout the first half of the movie was seeing Powell take on the different eccentric disguises, whether it be a stone cold generic hit man with a focus on attitude and professionalism (I’m assuming this was inspired somewhat by Alain Delon’s steely-eyed loner in 1967’s Le Samouraï); to a soft spoken Englishman dressed in 70s yellow, holding them oh-so eloquently as if he’s just walked off the set of a Wes Anderson production; to wading through the New Orleans heat while wrapped in black leather, the stub of a cigar poking through his stringy black hair, adopting a strong Eastern European accent to growl out his responses, very reminiscent of the stoic Russian stereotype from action flicks. It’s all fun and games and Glen Powell truly steps up to the task. To be fair to him the guy has been solid since I’ve first seen him back in Linklater’s other movie Everybody Wants Some!!, and since then it’s hard to overlook the guy’s natural charm and charisma. Even if he does look a little like a capybara - once again thank you to the lovely world of the internet for enlightening me with that comparison that now I can’t take out of my head. As for Powell’s counterpart, Adria Arjona is perfectly fine as the love interest, however he chemistry with Powell is off the charts. The two seem so natural riffing off one another that I found them much more believable to whatever Powell and Sydney Sweeney were up to last year (off or on camera that is).

The film does suffer from some pacing issues, especially to the middle when it lingers a little too long on the rom-com cliches, so much so that it slows down the film to a halt and I’m like I get it, you love each other, you’ve consummated this point a gazillion times already, so get on with it! But then it does get going again, and I really enjoyed Austin Amelio (Dwight from The Walking Dead) playing, essentially, the dick of the rom-com genre. You know the guy who always gets in the way of the couple and tries to screw things over. It helps that Amelio has a really punchable face, so he fit the bill. I also appreciated the infusion of philosophical insights during Gary’s teaching classes that provided an unexpected layer of intellect, elevating the overall experience. And this movie features some truly laugh out loud moments. Like it’s been a while where I’ve seen a modern comedy that had me laugh out loud. Usually I just politely chuckle. So yep, it’s a solid good time, and the two leads are delightful to watch, but this isn’t Linklater’s best work. Again, don’t let that sway you away, this is an entertaining little film for what it is. All pie is good pie.

Overall score: 7/10

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twentysidednerd · 6 months ago

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POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR “I SAW THE TV GLOW”

‼️‼️‼️‼️THIS IS YOUR WARNING TO TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DONT WANT TO BE SPOILED‼️‼️‼️‼️

i’ve been thinking about “i saw the tv glow” ever since i saw it yesterday and all of the layers that were in it. especially since my brain’s been kinda blah since last night

yes, the whole movie is essentially an allegory to being trans and not being able to be yourself. and i LOVE that messaging, don’t get me wrong. i think it’s so important to have that narrative be told. that messaging is literally part of the reason why my friend and i got so emotional when we watched it lmao. i literally started thinking about the scene where owen/isabel tackles maddie/tara on the football field and runs away right before they go through with their plan at the dinner table yesterday and almost cried. how owen/isabel was so close but got too scared and ran away. that happens so much with trans people, myself included, and it just… ugh, it hit home so hard

but so much of it also reminds me of how it feels to deal with maladaptive daydreaming. how owen/isabel wants so badly to run away into the world of “the pink opaque” and be someone else, be someone he wants to be rather than what real life dictates he SHOULD be. when maddie/tara talks about time and reality feeling different and wrong when she’s in this world but feeling better or “normal” when she’s in the world of “the pink opaque”. the image of owen/isabel literally sticking his/her head into the tv screen, so close to that fantasy world, before being pulled away and forced back to this reality sticks with me to this very moment

you want to live in, and stay in, the worlds in your head so badly with MADD. i know i have an issue trying to be present and be a part of reality when the worlds in my head make me feel so much better. i have so much of an issue trying to be there for the people around me and focus on what’s happening but the second i start getting overwhelmed or just have time alone for myself, im right back into the worlds in my head and i would much rather stay there because it feels safer. i feel some semblance of control, of being someone worthwhile. the exact same way maddie/tara would rather be in, and stay in, “the pink opaque” world

that in itself is a coping mechanism for stress! a coping mechanism the stress owen/isabel finds himself/herself in when trying to be who he/she is in a world that doesn’t want him/her to be! the stress from the fear of wanting to come out and be yourself but being forced to conform to what the rest of the world wants! it’s all intertwined! and i love it! this movie just gets better the more i think about it!!

and i love that even though it doesn’t have a happy ending, there’s still a twinge of hope. because there is still time for owen/isabel, just like the chalk on the street says. there are plenty of people who transition later in life. though owen/isabel is struggling badly at the end of the movie, he/she still has time to be who he/she wants to be. who he/she is. it’s not too late. it might be bad at the moment for him/her, but it’s not too late

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streamingmovienight · 18 days ago

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The Lost City

"Dulcius Ex Asperis........Sweeter after difficulty." Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Brad Pitt star in this Action Adventure Rom-Com Romp through the jungle. Two Thumbs Up!

2022 Paramount Pictures Rated: PG-13 Length: 1 hr 52min Action ~ Adventure ~ Comedy ~ Romance Directed by: Aaron and Adam Nee Starring: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Brad Pitt. “Dulcius Ex Asperis……..Sweeter after difficulty.” Sandra Bullock stars as Loretta Sage, a widowed Adventure Romance Novelist whose life and career has been very…

#Action #Adventure #Brad Pitt #Channing Tatum #Comedy #movie review #Netflix #Romance #Sandra Bullock #streaming #Streaming Movie Night #Streaming Movie Review #The Lost City

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nerdby · 8 months ago

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I watched Mean Girls (2024) and thought it was a great movie. I didn't love all of the fashion choices especially for Regina, but there were definitely some cute outfits and the music was amazing. I think the real problem people have with the movie is that it's not just mindless escapism anymore.

Like the original movie was about internalized misogyny and neglectful parents, but it only touched on those issues in passing. The real focus of the original 2004 film was the drama, the fashion, and edgey humor. This musical version, though, deals with a lot of real life issues and it calls out the people who hated Regina. Because Regina is human, too, and like all humans she has complex issues. And of course there's probably a shit ton of people who decided to hate on this version because they're eugenicist pieces of shit.

This is a movie that calls us out on our internalized misogyny and it's a musical. So, you know, that's definitely kind of a niche genre. I really think it's something that we all need to watch, though, because believe it or not cognitive dissonance is a good thing. Being put in your place can be a good thing if you're willing to just consider the idea that you have flaws and maybe you should listen to the people pointing them out.

That is something that I'm learning how to do and this movie helped me with that. This is definitely a movie worth watching if you want to try to be a better person and a better feminist, and if you want your kids to be better feminists. It's also great if you're looking for some new music.

Fuck the haters and give this movie a watch.

Five stars🤩

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askmovieslate · 1 year ago

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You can always make the argument that all streaming platforms are run by evil, faceless, money-hungry corporations, but that's a straw man's argument that ignores all the other more legit issues that some platforms have.

I haven't mentioned other services like Hulu, Shudder, Paramount+ or MGM+, because I don't have subscriptions to them, and thus I am a lot less familiar with their shortcomings.

If I were to recommend any of these? Honestly, and you're gonna call me out, I'd pick Disney+. I don't know any other service where I can have "Bluey" sitting right next to "Aliens". It makes for a fun, contrast-heavy library.

#ask movie slate #web comic #ask pony blog #unicorn #movie slate #Streaming #pony #mlp oc #ask blog #movie review #oc #Netflix #Prime Video #Disney +#HBO Max

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nancywheeeler · 1 year ago

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look i am delighted marvel is finally in the find out stage after they fucked around and completely over-saturated the market but i can't help noticing it is always, always, always the female-led projects bearing the brunt of the criticism and just left out to dry by disney

#the long awaited black widow movie given a direct-to-streaming release during the height of the pandemic #something they would have never done with a spider-man or thor movie #ignoring toxic (male) fans review bombing captain marvel #the terrible and rushed cgi in she-hulk #saddling their first solo female director with a project pretty much impossible to make work #and now instead of pushing the marvels release back because of the strikes like so many other studios did with their big fall films #disney just decided to drop it with the most lackluster promotional campaign. feeding it to the wolves essentially.#it's exhausting #a shout into the void

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pemberlyprose · 1 year ago

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Fairness in Snow White and the Huntsman

I recently rewatched the movie Snow White and the Huntsman, and when I tell you my brain was spinning after watching this show, I mean it was going faster than helicopter blades on a well-oiled merry-go-round. I felt so intrigued by the movie and couldn't get it out of my head. So here is an informal, possibly incoherent, short essay on the role beauty/purity plays in "fairness" in Snow White and The Huntsman 2012.

In Snow White and The Huntsman, we learn that what is "done by the fairest blood" can also be "undone by the fairest blood." Which draws an interesting parallel in the movie. If both the evil queen Ravenna and Snow white are equally fair despite their opposite natures, then how are they to be compared or their motives interpreted? Ravenna is the fairest of them all through her strengths in beauty and power. To Ravenna, beauty is a weapon to be wielded at all costs and her strengths come to be taken by force as her ambitions consume her. The price of such things is mutual destruction of Ravenna's beauty and the death of the land.

Snow White is the fairest of them all through her beauty and purity of heart. She comes by both naturally, and from her goodness has the power to restore life. However, as her purpose as hero becomes more prevalent, we see that life also comes at a cost. Snow White can only restore life to the kingdom and retake the throne if sacrifices are made, thus her morals are compromised in choosing to murder the Queen and let others suffer for her cause. Despite this, however, she understands the importance of her power and yields to it. Snow white even goes as far as declaring to her people before the war, "I will be your weapon!"

This not only reflects the Queen's sentiments on beauty being a weapon but deepens beauty's significance in the story. Of course, war leads to death and destruction. So, how is "fairness" in these characters to be judged?

Upon reflection we find that the Ravenna and Snow White mirror each other (pun intended) as two women seeking justice for what was done to them in the past. Ravenna's past reveals her to be a victim of war and violence. She was taken as a young girl after her village was pillaged by a less-than-honorable king. The result of this was her last memory being of her mother, who whispered to her that her beauty would be her power, her weapon, and that she must wield it to survive. Ravenna kidnapped and traumatized, then loses her mother to war.

From that moment, Ravenna knew to protect herself from the evils of man, and to protect her brother (who ironically becomes the perfect likeness to that kind of man but that's a whole different essay) she will have to take beauty and life from others to ensure her own survival. Essentially, she becomes death to preserve her own life. However, this source is exhaustible. She can always take, but the result is the devastation of the land and people who sustain her. Despite knowing this, she is confident that misery and death is what the people deserve and insists on delivering "justice" for what was done to her ages ago. Therefore, she shows no remorse for her actions. These qualities, in turn, are seen in all those she keeps close to her, breeding mistrust, greed, and evil everywhere she goes.

Snow White had a similar event happen in her upbringing, as her mother and father were also taken from her at an early age due to war and darkness. However, because Snow White was raised with love and shown protection, different values were instilled in her. Being often told that it was not only her face that was fair, but her heart and soul, Snow White grew to understand that "purity" or "beauty" of soul is what strengthened her and others. This minor detail is what becomes pivotal to Snow White as a hero and competitor to the queen.

Even when Ravenna comes to her kingdom, murders her father, takes Snow White prisoner, and ravages the land, Snow White's heart remains strong in what is just and what is not. Her fairness, compassion, cleverness, and her beauty are what help her survive being hunted by the queen and gives her allies. However, it is not the expendable physical source of beauty that gives Snow White power, it is the giving of its intangible essence that creates life. Snow White agrees to sacrifice her life in pursuit of the Queen, not only to avenge her father and kingdom, but in the hopes of preserving life for those around her. Her life breeds more life, just as her goodness inspires goodness in others. This is what makes her heart the fairest in the land and the object of Ravenna's greed. Without Snow White's heart, the evil queen will burn out, but with her purity, she may be sustained forever. However, it is Snow White's heart that also leads to Ravenna's downfall in a different way.

Even with Ravenna's power and the fear she has instilled in the people, she cannot sustain her own protection forever based on being beautiful; A detail that the audience sees abandon her as she becomes more absorbed by fear and greed. Meanwhile, Snow White survives her curse and comes back to life through the power of love. Her beauty remains untouched despite having been tested repeatedly. In her resurrection we see that Snow White will always win against all odds, if she stays "true." But has not Ravenna also stayed "true" to her similar goal? Why does she fail after being in power for so long now that Snow White has risen to challenge her?

To answer these, we must fast-forward to the end of the movie. When Ravenna and Snow-White face each other in the mirror room we see Snow White stab the queen in the heart (as foreshadowed in the beginning by the Huntsman and don't even get me started on the amazing plot devices in this show). At the climax of this scene, just before the Queen dies at the base of the mirror hanging on the wall, Snow White says to Ravenna, "You can never have my heart." This completes the movie's premise that one fair heart will be the end of another, and we see how Snow White's victory seems destined to be. While the Queen pursued Snow White's heart to sustain her need for vengeance and power, Snow White pursued Ravenna's for justice and peace. Both things will always exist side by side, however, we see that one may never wholly possess the other.

The entire movie's significance is held in the line: "You can never have my heart" and is the answer to all previous questions. Snow White is not only taking back power from Ravenna physically by saying this, but emotionally and spiritually as well. Her compassion is also seen at its full strength at this moment despite its inherent violence as she explains, in a way, to Ravenna why she was always going to fail. Ravenna could have been good... she chose not to be. Snow White Is evidence of that.

In terms of morality, this line communicates that it is impossible for Ravenna to have Snow White's heart, because she does not have her goodness. Purity is the defining factor of justice in this movie. Despite both having parallel ambitions, it is Snow White who can have Ravenna's heart physically and yet chooses not to emblematically. Ravenna cannot say the same. Due to her innate greed, the Queen can never have Snow White's heart in the figurative sense, and therefore fails to attain it in every other sense. And, although Snow White still has blood on her hands, and has taken life to preserve it, she does not fall victim to power. Instead, she redistributes power back to the people who made both characters' stories possible to begin with and takes a position of leadership choosing to govern with "fairness" and compassion.

Overall, an exceptional theme in the show I've never noticed before. It was a pleasure to think about the different intricacies of the writing and enjoy how they unraveled for me as the audience. If you haven't seen this movie, I would recommend it. Take time to think about the symbolism in the show and enjoy its hidden meanings. There may be more than you think! There definitely were for me.

#essay #snow white #snow white and the huntsman #short essay #movie reaction #casual writing #stream of thoughts #movie review

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