#a bit of johann johannson

[liahswriting]

Hi liah. Long time reader first time messenger here. I just wanna ask you what your bloodhound look like to you? I see bloodhound as a female and I picture her with red hair just like you! What else can you tell us about your bloodhound? Also I hope your day is great! 🥰

Hello hello! My day is great so far. I hope yours is as as well <3

It seems that red hair is a common headcanon among fans. I think it just has to do with Bloodhound's uncle having red hair. Although, I just want to give a short biology lesson here, red hair is a recessive gene. Meaning BOTH parents have to pass it on to their child for the child to show red hair. We know that Bloodhound's father carries the red hair gene because Uncle Artur is Bloodhound's uncle on his father's side. We don't know anything about Bloodhound's mother, so it's not known if his mother carries the red hair gene.

I REALLY wish I was able to draw, because I just can't find any fanart of Bloodhound that matches what I see in my head. I was able to find this image through Google like forever ago and I edited it a bit in photoshop to more closely resemble my own Bloodhound. It's not perfect by any means, but it's sort of the idea.

Again, this isn't my drawing. I only edited it. All credit goes to the original artist. I don't know who drew it because I found it off of Google, so if anyone knows who the artist is, let me know and I'll make sure to properly credit them.

Basically, my Bloodhound -has red hair -has greyish/light eyes (not exactly blue) -has a few tattoos as seen in the image -and still has the face scars he got as a child from inhaling coolant (I was unable to add the scars into my edit because I couldn't find a way to make them look "natural")

My Bloodhound is also late 30's, like 38-ish. Which is how old he actually is in the Apex universe. I also like to think his name is either Einár Johannson, or Viðarr Johannson. Why?

1) because, historically, Scandinavian culture went by patronyms (naming your child after the father). Most Scandinavian countries no longer use this custom. Norway, for example, made it a LAW back in like the 1920s that every family must have an inheritable surname, so most families at the time either just used the last-given patronym as a surname, or created a surname based on where they lived or what their profession was. My family in Norway has been using the same last name for generations now because of this law. I think it's my great uncle that was the last person to have a patronymic name??? I'm not exactly sure. My family is not exactly close with them because we're so far removed from each other. Iceland still uses patronymic names, and Bloodhound is Icelandic, so I gave Bloodhound a patronym. Bloodhound's father is named Johann, so Bloodhound's patronymic name would be Something Johannsson, which means Son of Johann. Sweden and Iceland use the name ending -sson, whereas Norway and Denmark use the name ending -sen.

2) I chose the name Einár (pronounced aye-narr) because it's an Old Norse name, which I like Old Norse since Bloodhound was raised "by the old ways". It means "one who dies in battle" or "one who fights alone", which I thought was fitting for him because he essentially lives his life in solitude. I also chose the name Viðarr (pronounced Vee-tharr) because Viðarr is the son of Odin, and I thought having a God's name would connect Bloodhound more with The Old Ways. It means "wide warrior", although the name meaning wasn't really why I picked it.

And that's about it for my Bloodhound. Of course I have headcanons related to his personality, but that's just a whole shit load of things that would take too long to type out here. I try to incorporate those headcanons into my fics whenever I can (i.e. Bloodhound having a MASSIVE sweet tooth).

[seoul-bros]

The Astronaut: Jin steps into the unknown

It's less than 24 hours since the first hints about Jin's solo project started surfacing but as I have noted before ARMY are relentless and tenacious detectives and some connections that maybe Jin had thought would be made slightly later are already well known.

We have a logo trailer. Presumably that is Jin on a space walk. It looks a bit like a cross between Sandra Bullock's hair-raising return to earth in Gravity and the classic Asteroid game (if anyone is old enough or retro enough to remember that). Oh and there is a cute canine thrown in for good measure.

The Promotion Schedule promises lots of goodies in the build up to the song's release on the 28 October. The poster has just been released.

Also yesterday the wootteo profile on Instagram was created and was quickly associated with Jin by ARMY and JHope.

I mean there were some giveaways.

And just now, wootteo posted a couple of photos with him and Jin together.

Anyone else reminded of Wall-E and Eva?

Finally, the marketing materials have let even more details out of the bag including the news that the credits on the song include Cold Play members, Kygo and one Johann Johannsson.

As far as I know Johann Johannsson actually died in 2018. He was a long time musical collaborator of Denis Villeneuve who is currently bringing Dune to the big screen (with imo significantly more success than the 1984 cinematic debacle).

Johannson wrote original scores for Prisoners, Sicario and Arrival. He also worked on Blade Runner 2049 until Villeneuve decided to go in a different direction with the musical score. So since he is in no position to write new music, I am wondering could the production team be using bits from the score developed for Blade Runner 2049 in The Astronaut or does that sound too far fetched?

Post Date: 19/10/2022

[qvert]

3 and 30.

Okay I am so sorry :D I cant really do ask thingies and then proceed to just not answer any of them but... yeah been very busy as always so here we go (although the internet has probably already forgotten about it)

3 - THREE SONGS YOU WERE RECENTLY OBSESSED WITH

Everytime - Brittney Spears. Just one of those that get stuck in my head after one of my roommate listens to it in the shower on full blast so don’t even ask :D

No Love Lost - Keaton Henson. Some rainy day tea in the Wintergarden with my cat in my lap

30 - THREE SONGS YOU WANT YOUR FOLLOWERS TO KNOW (FOR REASONS OTHER THAN ALL THOSE ABOVE)

Such a fucking hard question MAAAAAN okay

Light - Sleeping at last. Because everyone need a bit of childlike wonder in their life

Nessus Dorma - with Aretha Franklin Because Jesus that woman can sing Oo

Honestly some good old Bach or Tchaikovsky or Dvoraks Symphony No9. - there are too many to list but I honestly think that classical music has smth very unique and powerful and soothing that at least I personally can’t find in contemporary Music. Might be because I grew up on it but with every nervous breakdown for me comes Bach's H-Moll Messe for me… but if you don’t want any of that at least go for Johann Johannson - Fordlandia or Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight

If you have no idea what this is about OR want to join in

[th3okamid3mon]

JoJo Rabbit, a well thought and heart-wrenching satire [SPOILERS]

Even in a comedy you can´t help to cry, there´s no way you can talk about any war without crying or feeling such a deep horrible feeling of fear and distraught.

(I´m gonna be disclosing a lot of SPOILERS, which include the ending and several key points of the story.)

Sinopsis:

Johannes Breztel is a 10 year old german fanatic who wishes to become a good nazi soldier. He goes to a military camp where he has to learn everything you need to know about being a good soldier and make Hitler proud. JoJo, with his imaginary friend Adolf, began their adventure to becoming a better German for their homeland and fighting against the evil plaguing it: jews. 

Writing and Characters:

I heard a lot about Taika Waititi, haven´t watch Ragnarok since I´m not exactly a huge fan on superhero movies (Watched most of the MCU movies mostly out of duty, in a ¨God, please just end it¨ kind of way. Loved Iron Man, hated the 3, Thor was boring, and etc, etc.), I heard how awesome he is, how good is he at also acting and such. This is a huge and great example for his brilliance to shine. 

Every story about WW2 is really predictable, you know people are gonna die and people are gonna be miserable or happy at the end of the war. Waititi does a flip by using dark comedy and the perspective of a child, which a lot of people seem to not want due to how disturbing it can be (once you get all the comedy out of the way). 

You follow Johannes ¨JoJo¨ Betzler, a 10 year old who is, as the character of Elsa says is:, ¨just a little boy playing to be a soldier with a funny costume trying to get in a club¨. We see he has blind devotion towards the evil Adolf Hitler and is really excited to participate in a training with the hopes of becoming a soldier or better yet, Hitler´s personal body guard. It is disturbing to think a young child, or any child by any means, want to become part on the worst human activity there is: war, and not only that, idolizes the worst and evilest bastard who could have ever been alive. Of course, JoJo is not good for war at all. No kid has the killing instinct in their blood, it´s not something you inherit its something they learn or, in this case, brainwash into believing. He gets into a hilariously portrayed accident that involved a hand bomb that exploded his left side. 

His character is the most developed in the entire movie, we follow his steps, we see what he sees and we feel what he feels. His mother tried very hard to taught him how awful war was, he saw Elsa hidden in a tight spot where she had to keep quiet or she and the rest could get in serious trouble, he saw the military before and after going to war. He began to understand how awful can war be, but it wasn´t fully absorb until several traumatic events happened that no child ever had to see in their young life. It´s a very likable child, you are never angry at his devotion he was literally taught from infancy how he had to serve a dictator. The fault falls in the regimen, his actions, the things he does and acts are his only responsibility and thanks to his child innocence and wonder and compassion we know he is a good person in the inside just a bit confused. 

Rosie Betzler. If you didn´t like Scarlett Johannson for his previews acting on the fucking MCU movies (like me, GOD I hated her), well I bet you are gonna like her in this one. I mean... SHE SMILES? WOW, DIDN´T KNEW SHE COULD DO THAT. Seriously, the directing in the heroes movies fucked her seriously. She is a brilliant actress and is so wonderfully funny in this one. A kind mother with brutal honesty trying to raise her now beloved child alone (since her husband is at war and her older child died from influenza, I didn´t exactly got that from the movie) while keeping certain secrets to keep him safe is hard enough, but during NAZI GERMANY while being part of the jewish resistance is IS ANOTHER LEVEL OF HARD, ITS LIKE NIGHTMARE MODE IN FUCKING OUTLAST. Badass character, keeping a balance between trying to make her child feel like a child and also keeping the orphan Elsa a secret. She didn´t had a huge development and she didn´t need one, we only needed to see what secrets she was hiding and damn... They cost a lot once you knew them all. 

Elsa, brave and aggressive Elsa. Of course anyone would act the way she did if she had to be quiet to avoid being sent to a concentration camp. The girl has a lot of knowledge in popular culture, telling JoJo about different artists who, not only were writers or musicians, but also Jewish (to the dismay for poor, silly JoJo). She didn´t have a huge development, she begin to understand JoJo deeply as well as Rosie, since both where there for her (even if they had different and opposite motivations). Elsa is like an obstacle for JoJo except she doesn´t do much and wouldn´t do so if it meant putting herself at risk. We can see she is really brave once the Gestapo stop at their home, brave and smart that is. Without her quick thinking the movie would have ended then and there. I can´t imagine how deeply horrifying it would have been to do that and how awful and sad her life was after not only loosing her fiance to tuberculosis but also watching her family getting in a train and leaving to a place where no one returns. She acts aggressive and is harsh because she needs to survive and when she begins to trust JoJo, their bond become strong and deep and become like siblings. 

Capitan Deertz is a very apathetic and silly capitan, the guy is really tired of the war and doesnt really want anything to do with the children at the camp, not because of a moral compass he just doesnt give a fuck. You get this character and you laugh at his commentary and at how Rosie can easily threaten him. And then you see more of his character, he seems to care at certain some points. He cares about Finkel, who is a second in command. Every time they appear in screen they are literally whispering stuff at each other or have certain looks, clearly a gay couple. At that time period it was EXTREMELY dangerous to show any type of love towards another man and this two werent that subtle about it but since they were high in command guess no one actually care or said anything (considering most of the people in their command were children, no one would probably even care). Finkel was just this goofy guy who follow Deertz and show a deep appreciation. Not the main thing to focus, it´s just there and it´s funny and its normal. They dont have to look or act in ¨gay way¨, they are just there and they do their work and such. Which is fine until you get the war scenes and then you want to bawl even more (Because when you get at the war scenes you already should have bawled your eyes out due to a lot of sad circumstances). He also cared about Rosie and JoJo, even when he seem not to. When he saw Gestapo in Rosie´s house he helped JoJo save Elsa and when he was trapped by the Allies he helped JoJo again by ripping a nazi jacket off of him and shoving him to the ground while screaming at him. General jerk is actually a caring character, cliche move but man, does it always fucking works. 

The dialogues were impressively well thought, no one felt out of place and they made sense. The way they make fun of the whole blind fanatism and how the military views boys and girls it´s all in your face and its hilarious, it is presented as that so please no one start saying how sexist or how wrong it is for saying the things they say. It´s a SATIRE. It´s a MOVIE. ITS COMEDY.

I cannot thought of any kind of plothole, I´m sure it has or it probably has but the story is so well thought and so well acted you are absorb into it. Your whole attention is in what will happen next, the story of WW2 can be predictable, but this story is always at 2 steps of ripping your heart and then replacing it and hoping it pumps blood normally and when it does pump blood normally it rips it off again. It´s a rollercoaster, and it´s capturing. Your attention is in the story 100% of the time, and you gotta pay attention to the details because they foreshadow so much good and so much PAIN. 

Directing and Acting: 

I almost go off in the other section about Scarlett´s acting, now here it comes: MY GOD. I hated her so much in Avengers. The mot disliked character for me was her, and I always forget it was the directors fault. Here´s a note: When an actor acts bad, it´s not always, if not NEVER, their fault. Most of the time is the directors fault, you have to give straight and good orders and to maintain a communication with them if not the story falls. When Black Widow was shown in Iron Man, I was like ¨Wow, I like her! She is really good and badass!!¨ and then Avengers happened and it fucking fall all over the fucking lava floor. And IT WAS A FUCKING SHAME. Scarlett Johansson is a really good actress! She portrayed an excellent character, even if it was a minor character, she did it perfectly and shown so much emotion with the looks and the words she said and the actions she did. She was a mom in this movie, and it showed! THIS! THIS CHARACTER MADE ME LOVE JOHANSSON! Please dont go to shit directors ever again, my god. Avengers was a fucking toxic relationship and SHE GOT OUT AND SHE IS BRILLIANT. 

Taika Waititi is such a great director, he really put his love and passion into this project and it shows. It bleeds passion, it fucking tastes passion. I dont understand, he needs more money to make more works. GIVE THIS MAN MORE MONEY. 

The kids? Holy- How old are th- 12!?!?!?!? ROMAN GRIFFIN DAVIS WAS 12?!?!?! How old was- HIS SIBLINGS ALSO WORK IN THIS?! Ok how old is the othe- 11!?!?!??! ARCHIE YATES IS 11!??!?!  Ok, as you can see, I am very impressed by this child actors. It can be a challenge to direct them because sometimes there are a lot of different needs they have and they also can´t work as much as the adults and such, this means there´s less time to work with them and maybe they have school and other child responsibilities. Waititi must have had a lot of patience and a really big understanding of their work hours, not over pressuring them and knowing how to explain the whole script. That doesn´t mean they dont have talent, though. This kids are EXTREMELY talented, they are funny and they show a lot of emotion, even when one is comic relief you can sense and see how exhausted he is while saying ¨I´m going to see my mom, I need a cuddle¨ LIKE... THIS ARE KIDS, THEY SHOULDNT BE AT WAR, WTF!? 

The actors protrayed their respective characters in such a way, deeply understanding what emotions go in each scene and making the scene so heart wrenching. 

[BIG SPOILER, SKIP IF YOU DON´T WANNA KNOW] There´s a scene I enjoyed a lot by how it is presented, it´s a good sequence and the punch hits you really hard. During the movie you can see a couple scenes where they only show Rosie´s feet, dancing or just moving while JoJo sees amused or not. Anyway, the scene I´m talking about is when he is following a really pretty blue butterfly that is flying at floors level. He walks towards it and smiles, he squats to take a better look at it before it flies away. And when he stands up again, he is next to a pair of legs, and not any legs, they have a specific kind of shoe, and they have a specific blue coat. Oh no. You dont have to see the face, there´s no need to see the face. You dont have to see the expression you only need to see JoJo. And this is where I have no idea how this kid did it, but his expression goes from wonder to horrifying sadness and desperation. I dont know what direction, what mental image did Waititi told him but he manage to portrayed a really raw and deep sadness and heartbreak you can only see in people who lost someone. And the kid is just holding his mother´s lifeless legs and crying and desperate trying to tie her shoelaces and then giving up and hugging her again. And then he is just broken, looking at her hanging with other people who might have been with her or not. The realization of how harsh the punishment is and how awful life is that day at that time. And he can´t believe it, he doesnt want to believe and maybe if he had acted differently she would have still been there but no. It wasn´t his fault, he had nothing to do with it. He later was explain what possibly happened. She was with the resistance, her husband was with the resistance in Italy. She was against nazi´s but she never told him to protect him and to protect herself. She sacrifice for other people, she put herself in danger for other people and for a better future for her son. JoJo wouldnt have known, he couldn´t know and now that he knew he just loved her so very much and it hurted him. It wasn´t the jews´ fault, it wasn´t his fault, it was the people of the regimen he was following, the regimen who promised a bright future for him and the other children. 

Sound design: 

It was delightful. Dialogues kept at their respective volumes, background noises were there and not overbearing, the sound of steps, something being dragged, the sound of bombs and artillery. Not a single time was any sound out of place, it was as if you were there, it immersive. The sound played a huge rolled into being capture in the story, with such detail at every sound that could be played at the scene. The silences where used perfectly, only backgrounds and atmospheric sounds plagued the scene, and when the moment hit you there was still no music until the realization was made. Perfect timing.

The soundtrack was beautiful, endearing and melancholic at their respective scenes. When there was music to dance on, the music played, when there was a hilarious montage the music exaggerates the ridiculous situation they are presented in. It was wonderful. 

Art design: 

They went all off!!! The clothes, the cars, the food, the plates, everything! I wonder how much investigation did they had to do to fully dress up an entire cast and also to do the little details. One thing is getting the clothes that, to be entirely fair, thanks to photos from those times and more investigation from books, you can figure out the type of clothes and materials they used, but the details from the streets, the kind of bikes and the inside of a house its an entire story:

Investigation is not entirely what you need to do, you have to consider what colors go well, what makes the character pop but also make sense, how the decor should be done and what kind of table and chairs are in a normal house. How do the hidden rooms worked and how where they hidden at plain sight, how do you make it work and how will it look. All has to be thought out, everything has to have a purpose, even the smallest change can be a whole new set. Make it look pretty but make sure it makes sense to the era. 

Photography: 

Let´s talk photography, shall we?

Look at how the colors vary, look at the highlights and shadows. Look at the saturated colors. I LOVE saturated colors, not many photographers used them out of fear, the colors can be very bright and distracting, but Mihai Mălaimare Jr. made it work! His shots are spectacular, they work perfectly to capture whats going on and how the characters feel. 

JUST LOOK AT THE CONTRAST. In the first picture there´s a big open shot, both Rosie and JoJo are in the very left corner while you can see the bright green grass. They are free from everything when they are out of town, they can be happy or enjoy their time while being there, even if JoJo likes to pretend to be mature and to still want to be a soldier while his mother is trying to make him understand how life has to be enjoyed while it last and how war has ruin that for everyone, including the nazi germans. The second shot is at the town, look at how grayish it looks. Everyone is miserable. There´s no such thing as a good war, and whether you believe it or not, even the nazi germans were suffering, the ones who werent fighting were frighten to be attacked, hungry because the food was not enough or was given to the soldiers, no one was happy at that point in life. The color palettes help tell a story, and influence how you look at the lives of the characters. It´s visual storytelling and you can feel the fresh air, the relief from the first shot and then the limited, claustrophobic and fearful atmosphere from the second. 

What a better representation of what war is. Kids going to get killed for an evil regimen disguised as the savior for their homeland. JoJo who finally sees that horrors of war, a kid who has lost so much now, who knows heartbreak but never fathom the idea of horrifying, raw, disturbing and sickening war is. How you loose more than you gain from fighting, how you see your friends being send like pigs to a slaughter, how the military blindly follows orders for a falling regimen. The look of utter disbelief and horror contrasting the he blind joy of dying for your country. This shot is everything and in motion is even more epic yet disturbing. 

Conclusion:

I might be too blinded by how well it was made that I don´t see any problems in it. I would have to watch it again to see if there´s some inconsistencies but going by the first watch I have to say it was really good. The plot was understandable, it had high points and slow points, but those were well made. It was smooth how the story evolve, the turns were expected but maybe not in the way they were presented. What i mean is, it can be predictable but you dont expect HOW it is presented. With War stories death is at every corner, it´s the manner that you don´t expect or hope to happen to anyone. The acting was phenomenal, the star was totally Roman Griffin, all the actors were amazing but you gotta give the kid credit, THIS WAS HIS DEBUT and he NAILED IT! 

By the looks of the trailer you expect so much and it gives you that and more. To the eyes is a delight, to the heart is a pain and comfort and to the ears is a melody. To the soul is a story that has to remind you history, war is not a good thing and so many people get more damage by it than saved. No kid should ever be put in that situation, and yet there are kids suffering in this world. This movie could potentially be an Anti-War movie, because it literally shows how awful it is. Wars are awful in general! It´s kind of ridiculous we need to be reminded of that but here we are. 

We are shown a cruel environment with a humorous tone to get the message straight into our heads and it works perfectly. Give it 3 watches and then watch another 3 times, every time you feel like everything is going down, remember there´s still hope even in the darkest more horrifying places and times. We have the choice to make good, humans can be evil but can be extremely brave and compassionate. Never give up being a good person, it can be hard but it is more rewarding. People need kindness and compassion. We need to be those compassionate people for others. It always starts with one brave person. 

The last thing you leave the theater is with a verse from Rainer Maria Rilke: 

                                      Let everything happen to you.                                                Beauty and Terror.                                                Just keep going.                                               No feeling is final.

Sincerely moved, T.O.D

PS: Fuck Hitler. 

[andreariveroscomposer]

Thank you @flutistree for tagging me! I love these games! 

rule: tag 21 people

nickname(s): many people just call me Andre, some people jokingly call me “little miracles” (from one of my names), and two friends call me “Lupita”. 

star sign: Libra

height: 1m 53cm, (roughly 5′) 

last film watched: Pompeii on (TV), The Sword in the Stone (online), and Aladdin on cinemas (I didn’t like it)

favourite musician: At the moment I’m in love with Johann Johannson and Philip Glass, but I also adore Beethoven. 

song stuck in my head: 4′33″ by John Cage

other blogs: @othrrthingsilike (second Tumblr blog where I post non-music related stuff)

do i get asks: Not really. 

following: No idea.

what I’m wearing rn: White shirt, jeans and white converse. Nothing special. 

dream job (buckle your seatbelts): In my field I would love to be a working composer (I’ll be releasing one of my pieces as soon as I get some legal stuff clear), maybe someday write a soundtrack, or be premiered by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Outside of my field I would love to be a writer and write novels.

dream trip: I loved New York, and I’d love to go back. I also want to go to Paris and London someday (and Vienna).

play any instruments: My main instrument is the piano, and actually I do that as a second study,  but a while back I took violin lessons, and I also play guitar, electric bass, and a little bit of drums. 

languages: My native language is Spanish, but I’m very fluent in English (some people don’t know I’m not a native English speaker, and I’m very proud of that). I also took some semesters of French in college, but I’d love to be fluent, and also learn some Italian, German, Russian and Latin. (I love languages!)

favourite food: I don’t really have a favourite anything. I like traditional soups from my country (Colombia), especially the Cocido Boyacense.

favourite song: I don’t really listen to popular music, and I hate classical songs, so none.

random fact: I love daydreaming, and there are people -that I call triggers- that make me go into daydream mode as soon as I see them, no matter where or what they’re doing. And usually the things I imagine are not so good (which doesn’t mean I wish ill upon anybody), but I don’t like calling them Maladaptive Daydreaming or Intrusive Thoughts because I tend to do it voluntarily, and they do not interrupt my daily life. I usually daydream while commuting. 

Tagging: @four-flats @you-had-me-at-e-flat-major @secretstradivarius @thepianoblog @perks-of-being-a-violinist @the-sassy-composer @dschbach @dotted-half-note @chopinisbae @soprano-and-the-altoclef @aug-mentation @liebesstudie @the-versatile-composer @the-sleepy-musician @the-quirky-pianist (no idea who else, sorry )

[kkapre]

Mandy, 2018 – Panos Cosmatos

This review is written by Jack Taylor

9/10

Mandy, a creative daydreamer who spends her days drawing and reading fantasy novels and her lover Red live a peaceful existence out in the wilderness, apathetic towards the rest of the world. At the hands of a cult leader and his religious fanatics the life the couple lead is soon tipped into turmoil. Calling for the embarkment of nightmarish journey fuelled by vengeance and bloodlust.

“When I die, bury me deep. Lay two speakers at my feet. Wrap some headphones around my head, and rock and roll me when I’m dead.”

I was lucky enough to see this on the big screen, re-released at the Prince Charles Cinema, and I’m so glad for it. At the cinema I was sat there totally at the mercy of this film’s awe-inspiring and beautifully intense visual style and score. I felt naked and vulnerable as Johann Johannson’s wall of sound pushed through me in waves giving me an adrenaline rush I’ve similarly felt watching films such as Mad Max: Fury Road or the Evil Dead remake. The score is my favourite bit about this film, I’ve been listening to ‘Mandy’s love theme’ on repeat since I heard it, this piece of music is a love letter to the principle character and the film’s namesake. With this piece of music, the film convinces you to fall in love with Mandy, it tells us how special she is and in turn solidifies our connection to Nicolas Cage’s character and to feel as he does as we take the path of vengeance through him. Watching some of the brutal death scenes of the perpetrators that Red (Nic Cage) hunts down, with aid of the intense adrenaline inducing score gives you an immense sense of satisfaction. This is a revenge horror, and it beautifully illustrates how multifaceted and fluid the horror genre can be because not once did I feel scared watching this film, I was sad, exhilarated and angry but never scared, but this is horror film if ever I saw one and it was marvellous.

The casting was brilliant, both Nicolas cage and Andrea Riseborough were the perfect choices to play these roles. Nic Cage is his usual over-acting self, but this film welcomes it and channels it, in such a crazy over the top film, nothing less would suffice. Riseborough’s look with the help of special effects make up is what made the character of Mandy, with her heterochromia, scar under her eye and long black hair she was ethereal and beautiful, yet phantasmic and uncanny. Her performance is good too, she plays Mandy with a sort of naïve innocence, her speech almost childlike or perhaps alien like. Mandy’s character is disillusioned and bemused with the world /society, instead concerned with nature and space, always reading sci-fi fantasy novels and creating fantasy illustrations. I love the aesthetic influence here: the film being set in the early 80’s; the use of heavy metal; and the 70’s fantasy/sci-fi illustrations, all creates a strong visual style which influences the aesthetic tone throughout the whole film. Panos Cosmatos even creates a fake fantasy book of which Mandy reads a passage describing in vivid detail a scene…

“Under the crimson, primordial sky, surrounded by the jagged black rocks of the ancient volcanic mountain, the wretched Warlock reached into the dark embrace of the fissure until his hand touched a smooth glassy surface. Cold as ice. His fist closes around the Serpent’s Eye. Slowly he withdrew it and held it before him in the fading light of the blood red suns. It glowed from within. A ghostly emerald light. Strange and eternal”

This beautifully descriptive piece of writing illustrates for us the visual influences for this film without us actually needing to see it, the 70’s fantasy imagery that this piece of writing conjures up in our mind isn’t exactly what we see in the film but it is a clear influence. Mandy’s character holds all this information, with her books and drawings and talk of the universe, Panos Cosmatos uses her as his muse, and as a vessel to carry the visual influences of this film so that we can understand the wondrous visuals with more context, and the visuals are something to behold. There is so much to talk about when it comes to the visuals, whether it be the beautifully creepy animated dream sequences and animated title cards which mark each act of the film. Or the vivid colours and lighting which transform the scene to either dream or nightmare but never real life. Or the abstract cinematography, strong visuals are Panos Cosmatos’ biggest strength in his films are Mandy is no different. 

After a movie of intense visuals, intense sound and intense action, the film finishes and cuts to the credits in complete silence letting the viewer sit with what they have just experienced. A love story. A tragedy. A horror movie.

[milemarkers]

Reel Talk - Blade Runner 2049

DOUBLE FEATURE. I actually saw two movies this last weekend (call me spoiled, right?). It was glorious.

I personally love Blade Runner. I can understand that its near 3-hour runtime can be a bit daunting considering, and I’ll admit that I didn’t understand some parts of the movie, but overall I liked everything, from the story to the sound design to the cinematography. Everything worked together to keep my attention and I ended up not minding the runtime. The story was quite interesting, and there was indeed a bit of a fakeout towards the end, since I thought the thread would go in a different direction, but I like it when things are unexpected so I’m cool with it! It’s definitely more of a detective procedural than an action/sci-fi flick, which warrants the slow burn found within the 3 hours (though I thought some scenes seemed a bit out of place to me). The movie also touches a lot upon the notion of memories, humanity, and technology, all very existential crisis-inducing topics, so that’s pretty fun. Kudos to the sound design team and the composer Hans Zimmer (taking over Johann Johannson’s duties) though, where the work of both entities ultimately blend into one another to make the sounds behind the movie feel vibrant and atmospheric. The sounds really make you feel like you’re living in a futuristic city. My favorite sound bit though is Officer K’s handgun, which sounds like an absolute cannon. I love it. Finally, I wanted to talk about the cinematography of Blade Runner, which very gorgeous. Credit goes to cinematographer Roger Deakins for that one. I would like to get to know more of his work, but if you don’t know, he’s the guy behind making films like Skyfall, Sicario, and No Country for Old Men look good. The colors are gorgeous, I love how that oversaturated look can pull you into an environment, whether it’s the orange desert you see in radioactive Las Vegas or the quiet white and steel blue of snowfall in Los Angeles. I also love how sharp everything looks. I personally like that clarity in film, since that interplay with shadows makes the visuals pop the most to me.

Overall, a solid film. I know not a lot of folks would like it the first time, but I feel like it’ll perform much like its predecessor. It may become the next modern-day cult classic. A solid “A” out of 10 stars.

[milemarkers]

Silver Screens

Let’s talk movies. I’ve always loved them, but I would say it’s more recently when I really started to get into them. I grew up on martial arts and action movies, so the immediate glam (even if the story can be a bit silly and gimmicky) holds a special place in my heart for fostering this interest. Of all factors that could’ve cultivated my eye for this art form, I’d give the biggest credit to the surge of essayists who analyze movies and other entertainment medias. Some of my absolute favorites are long-time favorites are Nerdwriter1, kaptainkristian, and Lessons from the Screenplay with a few newcomers including Ryan Hollinger and Films&Stuff (I would highly highly recommend these guys if you’re interested, they’re wonderful!) It’s these folks really opened my eyes to the effort, imagination, and attention to detail that goes into these works. It can look easy from the outside, but believe me that when you attempt to film any kind of movie, it’s actually harder than you’d expect! Nowadays I pay more attention to the various departments that go together to create this little bit of entertainment, from the sound design to the choices to the director makes to the actor’s/actress’ performance to (my personal favorite) the cinematography of a film. 

You’ll glue to hold all of these parts together, and that’s where I think the incredibly important story comes in. Can’t have a movie without telling a story (for the most part). If the behind-the-scenes is like the wand made of 10 and 3/4″ beech wood with unbending flexibility, then the story has to be the unicorn hair. Otherwise it just won’t work! I’ve had the pleasure of watching a few movies off of my bucket list (which I’ve made months ago, but I can share in another post) that have some amazing stories. I’m talking about Dunkirk and Arrival in particular. The best ones really immerse yourself in their world or begs a really important question for you to think about. Dunkirk’s sound design is phenomenal, for example. Hearing that terrifying shrill from the German fighter planes really puts you on the same beach as the British soldiers. There’s no patrotism and hero complexes in this battle, the game is here is survival. And it’ll take three fronts (land, air, and sea) to be able to get out alive. Panic and anxiety ensues for the next 2 hours. Arrival takes a different yet as intriguing approach by bringing aliens to the table and humanity’s believable reaction to first contact. I thought focusing on a linguist and pulling language of all compenents to the forefront really made this movie interesting. The entire structure is just awesome too as scenes come together in ways you didn’t expect. Plus the soundtrack is super unsettling and tense too (massive credits to Johann Johannson). I’m not one to spoil spoilers, but gah! if you haven’t seen these two movies yet, I’d highly recommend!

Even though film can seem like a relatively new medium, I believe it’s actually in line with a practice cultivated by humanity since our inception. We’re all born storytellers. It’s how we can update each other on life, learn from one another, or simply provide entertainment. Like the cave paintings of our ancient ancestors, films in their silver-screened glory provide people with stories where we can ultimately share a collective experience. Folks like being in the know, and in the end movies help connect people this way.

Plus they’re reel-ly cool too.