#anti nuclear family propaganda

[egg-emperor]

a lot of people in fandom are so susceptible to nuclear family propaganda and let it shape their views and goals of a successful life and see it as what makes all people and characters "complete". but I am so aro and have such low empathy and am so uninterested in having kids that there's nothing you can do to make all that shit appealing to me, no matter how much it's romanticized and has so emotional please cry moments to sway you lol

not saying this is in the Sonic games, it's obviously not. but some people genuinely really want Eggman to become part of a nuclear family so bad to the point of asking officials if it's gonna happen and they do crossovers of it with media that is propaganda for it. not even surprising that they're mad that I don't like that at all because they're easily won by that while I'm very immune :P

[yersuyla]

rad-fem core values

*pro-choice/bodily autonomy*

-pro abortion

-pro female anotomy education

-fighting with medical misogyny and ignorance of female spesific health

*female oppression is sex-based*

-women are opressed due to being female

-men want to control the bodies of women,as we are the creators of life

-womb envy

-medical misogyny and period opression

-rape is a misogynistic hate crime

*critical of misogynistic culture*

-misogyny in media

-misogyny in pop culture

-sexpectations,purity culture

*intersectional*

-antiracist

-antihomophobic

-feminism is for ALL WOMEN AND GIRLS of every color,creed,ability and sexuality

-DOES NOT INCLUDE MEN

*critical of traditional marriage and the nuclear family*

-women being housewives

-the opression and burden of motherhood

-women being financially dependent on men

-heteronormavity

*antinatalism/ critical of motherhood and pressures*

-women do not need to be mothers to be happy

-women are pressured into motherhood by the church,state and society

-demanding social benefits for supporting mothers and their children

-free childcare

*antitheism*

-religion is a misogynistic propaganda designed by men to control women

*left wing*

-antifascist

-anti-imperialist

-antiwar

-anticapitalist

-socialist

*gender-critical*

-critical of transgenderism

-critical of traditional gender roles

*pro seperatism*

-advocate for female only spaces

*body neutrality/acceptance*

-less focus on beauty,more focus on body acceptance and neutrality

*anti sex industry*

-antiporn

-antiprostitiution

*anti surrogrcay*

-the bodies of women are not for sale or for rent.

-surrogacy contributes to human trafficking

*anti beauty industry*

-profiting off of women's insecurities

-makeup culture

-cosmetic and plastic surgery

-shaving

-anti-aging

*socialist feminist*

-equal pay

-eliminating female financial dependency on men

-more women in male-dominated fields of work

[besttropeveershowdown]

The person who submitted found family does not understand the difference between the trope itself and how it is interpreted. Yes some people MISINTERPRET the point of found family and assign characters nuclear family roles but that is not the trope itself

Your propaganda (anti-propaganda? anti-anti-propaganda?) has been received.

[girlactionfigure]

🟠 IDF ATTACKS MISSILE DEPOT / HEZBOLLAH ATTACKS KATRIN - MORNING NEWS

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( VIDEO 1 - IDF strike(s) Hezbollah weapons warehouses in Baalbek, northeast Lebanon. )

( VIDEO 2 - HOME hit by Hezbollah rocket in Katzrin, Golan Heights. )

⚠️(6:30) Warnings to Golan towns and Katzrin to remain close to protected spaces, minimize gatherings, etc.

♦️IDF DEEP ATTACKS (4) ON HEZBOLLAH.. in Baalbek, northeast Lebanon, hitting surface-to-surface ballistic missile depots.

▪️NASTY HAMAS PROPAGANDA ATTACK..  threatening messages and calls received by families of hostages - some from the phone numbers of their loved ones (via taken phones).  Messages sent by Hamas and Iran per the Defense Ministry. ,The messages included threats such as: if you don't fight you won't see your loved one, or demands to pay a ransom in exchange for information.

▪️AVNEI HEFETZ UNDER FIRE.. Avnei Hefetz is a Jewish town in Samaria near Tulkarm.  Fatah's Khalli al-Aqsa takes responsibility for gunfire at the town, many rounds of attacks.

▪️TERROR ATTACK THWARTED.. Police just reported this event from 2 weeks ago: by the Gilon intersection Route 85, terror-minors set up with Molotov cocktails at 4:30 AM.  Spotted by police, arrested.

▪️SIREN TESTS.. Moshav Shadi Hamad, Moshav Mishmatar, Matan and Nirit from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.  In upgraded tests, some of these tests are regular up-down alert sounds with Home Front soldiers stationed around the area to register siren sound levels.

▪️PROTEST - ANTI-CONSCRIPTION - JERUSALEM.. by Shaarei Yisroel street.  Large police forces present.  Charedi anti-draft protest.

⭕50 ROCKET BARRAGE by HEZBOLLAH - GOLAN.. Katzrin area, several HITS including on a home in Katzrin, man injured.  Katzin is a small city, the population is NOT evacuated.

⭕ATTEMPTED MINE LAYING BLOWS UP.. in Temon, by Tubas, as it was being buried to attack the IDF.

⭕SHIA MILITIAS IRAQ (Iranian proxies) SAYS ATTACKED EILAT.. via suicide drones.  No such arrival of attack reported.

♦️COUNTER-TERROR OPS.. overnight in Shechem, and Shawika.

🔸DEAL NEWS.. Fox News reporter says Hamas sent him the points of dispute (in a PowerPoint presentation):

-The Philadelphi (Egypt border) Corridor (as in, who controls it, the IDF inspecting it)

-The Netzarim route (divides Gaza) (as in, the IDF manning in and preventing the free movement of Gazans and terrorists)

-Inspection of displaced civilians returning to northern Gaza (which might include hostages! And terrorists!  And rockets!)

-Changes to the hostage/prisoner exchange details (Hamas demands the most senior biggest mass murderers be freed, and first).

-Tying aid/reconstruction to acceptance of other conditions (they demand reconstruction BEFORE even releasing hostages).

.. President Biden: Blinken - "We must bring the deal to the finish line.  The United States will not accept Israel's long-term occupation of the Gaza Strip.”

.. At the end of his visit to Doha, US Sec State Blinken sent a message to Netanyahu: It is important that the negotiating teams working on the details of the agreement have "maximum flexibility" so that we can reach a deal.  (Note he is not hassling Hamas, who has refused to send delegates in person.)

.. Politico: Senior US officials say the ceasefire deal is on the verge of collapse.

🇺🇸Not Israel related:  In March President Biden ordered US forces to prepare for possible nuclear confrontations with Russia, China and North Korea.

[awritersbro]

Sic Semper Tyrannis

The loneliest man in the world lives in a marble-clad mansion on the top of a great hill. The hill is completely surrounded by a giant moat half a mile deep and one hundred yards across, and what the lonely man still considers to be the most sophisticated wall in the world.

It is indeed an awe-inspiring work of architecture. One thousand feet of stone, concrete and steel, protected by security cameras that watched every square inch of the wall and its immediate surroundings, over two thousand machine guns, and over two hundred guard towers rising a hundred feet atop the wall. Each watchtower was topped with two anti-aircraft missile systems, antennae for jamming enemy communications and disseminating propaganda, and one nuclear launch system. Whether or not the lonely man ever had bombs to launch is still a matter of debate.

Nobody living outside the walls has been brave enough to check, and the loneliest man in the world is not about to tell.

Behind these walls lie the Presidential Gardens. They aren't as beautiful as they were when the lonely man's propaganda was filmed, before the grapevines were allowed to cover the marble statues of the Heroes of the Republic and the wheat and corn were allowed to spread like the grasses they are. Before the roses covered the calm, winding paths in sharp thorns and the orchards began to spread and turn the entire place into a single large forest. Before feral pigs and chickens could wander freely through it all. Before the giant golden statue of the lonely man at the top of what had once been the President's Fountain had a family of pigeons nesting happily atop its head.

The golden dome of the Great House of the Republic shines over the Presidential gardens, though the wind and rain has dulled the bright white marble facade to a dull pale gray. There is only a single door into the building that once housed nearly fifty thousand people. Above it, the Presidential balcony looks out at the gardens. Empty, save for five machine guns and a handful of spent shells.

The lonely man was once a very charismatic man, to be able to oversee the construction of all of this.

Day by day, the forest grows closer and closer to the Great House of the Republic. A Rose vine climbs up the first in a long line of pikes atop which the severed heads of Enemies of The Party are displayed. Wheat and corn and flowers of all types feed on the corpses beneath the mounds where the Enemies of The Party were buried. Saplings sprout right next to the mansion's walls, their roots preparing to eat away at its foundation.

The lonely man sees none of this, for he ordered all the windows in the mansion to be boarded up back when there were still people in the mansion to give orders to. A few years later, he ordered the same for the door outside. To protect his people from the Enemies of The Party.

The mansion is a colossal web of rooms and hallways, there is only one man alive who knows how it looks from the inside. Its original architect was labeled an Enemy of The Party and killed. His corpse rotting somewhere in the halls along with all those who questioned the lonely man's orders after the door was boarded up.

The loneliest man in the world lives in a marble-clad mansion on the top of a great hill. He wanders its endless halls calling for all within earshot to stand with him against the enemies of the Party and of the Republic before they can destroy their way of life.

The calls were quite convincing, when there were people there to hear him.

[autistic-ben-tennyson]

Some have written about this before and I’m a decade late to the party but ever realize Disney and Pixar’s animated superhero films are polar opposites, at least in political messaging and the main cast? TV tropes even lists BH6 as the spiritual antithesis of The Incredibles.

The Incredibles is a movie about a white nuclear family in a 50s-esque world with a token black friend, they’re all born with their powers while the villain relies on technology due to not having any super abilities. While Brad Bird may have not intended it, there have been several who interpret the movie as Randian or libertarian and some have read it as anti technology or elitist.

BH6 is about a mixed race kid with a single aunt struggling to run a business in a futuristic world. The team is a racially diverse group of college students and they all get their powers from technology they built. Both Callaghan and Syndrome are after revenge but Syndrome is portrayed as an irredeemable monster while Callaghan is more sympathetic.

Some other differences include the tone, TI is much darker, BH6 has some intense moments but is more lighthearted. TI is considered one of Pixar’s best while BH6 is seen as just average. The heroes in TI don’t intend to kill the villains but are okay if it happens while the BH6 team has a strict “no kill” rule. No one is treated as superior in BH6, regardless of their intelligence or abilities unlike TI with its anti mediocrity stance.

If both were released today, TI would be both lauded and criticized even more for its possible conservative themes than it already was while BH6 would be called “woke propaganda” by a lot of grifters for its more diverse cast especially due to the Baymax miniseries briefly featuring a trans man which did get some backlash. Those are some things I’ve noticed and I personally prefer BH6 despite it being less good of a film.

[singularsoldier]

Saw anti-polygamy propaganda so just so we’re all clear: Polygamy is completely normal in many cultures and nearly all hatred towards it is a hold over from Christianity and the belief that nuclear families are Morally Good and Normal

Polygamy doesn’t “normalize cheating” its literally a bunch of people loving one another. Its not cheating if 1) everyone knows each other 2) everyone agrees to date each other. Polygamy isn’t “anti-feminist” because there’s plenty of polygamists who, you know, respect the women. If your only frame of reference for how polygamy is “abusive towards women” is idk Joseph Smith you’re once again falling into a Christian-centric mindset.

[mariacallous]

When Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga resigned abruptly last month, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán lost one of his star protégés. 

The media-savvy Varga had been due to lead Orbán’s right-wing Fidesz party into the European election and was one of the best-known Hungarian politicians in Brussels. 

But as she has retreated from the spotlight, her ex-husband, former Fidesz official Péter Magyar, has emerged as a real thorn in Orbán’s side.

On Tuesday, after weeks of attacking Orbán online and in public, Magyar released a tape of his ex-wife Varga apparently incriminating members of Orbán’s inner circle in a corruption scandal. 

Magyar claims the two-minute recording, taped last year, proves that Orbán’s powerful Cabinet chief Antal Rogán tampered with documents related to a sprawling corruption dispute involving Pál Völner, a former state secretary in the justice ministry when Varga was minister. Völner resigned in 2021 after prosecutors accused him of taking bribes. 

The sensational release of the tape — which Magyar presented to the prosecutor’s office in Budapest before a sea of cameras Tuesday — is the latest twist in a drama that has transfixed Hungary and provided a rare moment of dissent against Orbán’s iron grip on the country’s political system. 

“This shows that the justice system is under political influence, that key figures tampered with the investigations, and that Varga knew this,” said opposition politician Katalin Cseh, a Hungarian member of the European Parliament.

“This is very clear evidence that the Hungarian justice system is not free and not independent,” she added. “It is also one of the first cases when someone from Orbán’s inner circle has spoken out.” 

A spokesman for the Hungarian government, Zoltán Kovács, dismissed Magyar’s claims, accusing the former Fidesz official of harrassing his ex-wife.

Varga, who said in February that she was retiring from public life, issued a statement on social media Tuesday saying she was “appalled” by Magyar’s release of the tape, accusing him of blackmail and domestic violence. 

She said she had been “terrorized” by her then-husband, and had told him what he wanted to hear on the tape.

Orbán’s new nemesis 

Magyar, a former Fidesz apparatchik and trained lawyer, is best known as Varga’s ex-husband.

The couple, who share three children, was often cast as a model nuclear family in glossy magazine features in a country whose government prizes “traditional” family values. Magyar, who served on state boards and worked in various roles for the administration, including in Brussels during Hungary’s last EU presidency, previously spoke about stepping back from his career to look after their young children when Varga’s career was taking off. 

Following their divorce last year, Varga had been expected to move to Brussels as an MEP after the European election. 

But since the double resignation of Varga and President Katalin Novák in February over a disputed sex-abuse pardon case, Magyar has emerged as a major voice of dissent in Hungary, and has announced plans to form a new political party. 

In February he resigned from the board of MBH Bank, accusing Orbán’s government of “hiding behind the skirts of women” by effectively scapegoating Varga and Novák. The former president had pardoned a man who had forced children to retract allegations of abuse by the director of a children’s home, while Varga had signed off on the pardon.

On March 15, Hungary’s national day, Magyar held an anti-government rally in central Budapest attended by thousands of people, where he accused Fidesz of spending the equivalent of hundreds of millions of euros annually on propaganda. 

Magyar said he had tried to convince Varga to accompany him to the prosecutor’s office; he was slated to give media interviews and hold another rally following the tape’s release later on Tuesday. 

Despite Magyar’s rapid emergence as a political force, Hungary’s opposition has until now failed to dent Orbán’s grip on the country’s politics. In the last parliamentary election in April 2022, its disparate opposition forces rallied around a single figure, Péter Márki-Zay, who ran on an anti-Fidesz platform. Orbán’s party was ultimately returned for a fourth consecutive term.

According to opposition MEP Cseh, Magyar’s intervention could signal a broader push against Orbán.

“Many people are beginning to think that something is starting to crumble within the system,” she said. “I hope that more former government insiders speak out and embrace the fact that there is life outside the system. There is a great need for them to take this risk.”

[beardedmrbean]

North Korea confirmed Thursday that its recently revised constitution defines South Korea as “a hostile state” for the first time, two days after it blew up front-line road and rail links that once connected the country with the South.

The back-to-back developments indicate North Korea is intent on escalating animosities against South Korea, increasing the danger of possible clashes at their tense border areas, though it’s highly unlikely for the North to launch full-scale attacks in the face of more superior US and South Korea forces.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that its recent demolition of parts of the northern sections of the inter-Korean road and rail links was “an inevitable and legitimate measure taken in keeping with the requirement of the DPRK constitution which clearly defines the ROK as a hostile state.”

DPRK stands for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name, while ROK stands for Republic of Korea, the South’s formal name.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry condemned North Korea’s constitutional reference to South Korea as a hostile state, calling it “an anti-unification, anti-national act.”

It said the South Korean government will sternly respond to any provocations by North Korea and unwaveringly push for a peaceful Korean unification based on the basic principle of freedom and democracy.

North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament met for two days last week to rewrite the constitution but state media hadn’t provided many details about the session.

Leader Kim Jong Un had earlier called for the constitutional change at that parliamentary meeting to designate South Korea as the country’s main enemy, remove the goal of a peaceful Korean unification and define North Korea’s sovereign, territorial sphere.

Thursday’s KCNA dispatch gave no further details of the new constitution, except the description of South Korea.

“There may still be an internal propaganda review underway about the appropriate way to disclose the constitutional revisions, but this confirmation was expected,” said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Kim’s order in January to rewrite the constitution caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors’ long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North’s terms.

In the past months, North Korea has torn down monuments symbolizing rapprochement with South Korea and abolished state agencies handling inter-Korean relations.

Some experts say Kim likely aims to guard against South Korean cultural influence and bolster his family’s dynastic rule.

Others say Kim wants legal room to use his nuclear weapons against South Korea by making it as a foreign enemy state, not a partner for potential unification which shares a sense of national homogeneity.

They say Kim may also want to seek direct dealings with the US in future diplomacy on its nuclear program, not via South Korea.

“North Korea has fallen so far behind the South that any social exchange or financial integration might look like paths to unification by absorption,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

“Pyongyang’s rejection of peaceful Korean unification is thus a strategy for regime survival and maintaining domestic control. This not only bodes ill for diplomacy but could also become an ideology motivating military aggression against Seoul,” Easley said.

KCNA, citing North Korea’s Defense Ministry, reported that North Korea on Tuesday blew up the 197 feet-long sections of two pairs of the roads and railway routes — one pair on the western portion of the inter-Korean border and the other on the eastern side of the border.

Largely built with South Korean money, the road and rail links were once a major symbol of now-dormant inter-Korean reconciliation movements.

In the 2000s, the two Koreas reconnected the road and rail routes for the first time since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, but their operations were halted later as the rivals bickered over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and other issues.

Last week, North Korea said it would permanently block its border with South Korea and build front-line defense structures.

South Korean officials said North Korea had been adding anti-tank barriers and laying mines along the border since earlier this year.

Animosities between the Koreas increased in recent days, with North Korea accusing South Korea of flying drones over its capital Pyongyang three times this month and vowing strong military responses if similar incidents happen again.

South Korea has refused to confirm whether it sent drones but warned that North Korea will face a regime demise if the safety of South Korean citizens is threatened.

Many observers say North Korea won’t likely launch a full-blown war because it knows its military is outgunned by the US and South Korean forces, and that North Korea ultimately aims to use its advancing nuclear program as leverage to wrest sanctions relief from the US.

But they say a miscalculation could still lead to border clashes.

Intense outside attention has been on whether the North Korean constitutional change includes new legal, territorial claims around the Koreas’ disputed western sea boundary, the site where several deadly skirmishes and bloodsheds happened in the past 25 years.

“South Korea and the United States need not overreact to North Korean moves. The recent drone incident raises the possibility of miscalculation and escalation,” Panda, the expert, said.

[qnewsau]

Vic bookshop owner wants books to be more white and less gay

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/victoria-bookshop-owner-wants-books-to-be-more-white-and-less-gay/

Vic bookshop owner wants books to be more white and less gay

The owner of a Victorian bookstore chain has apologised after she called for more picture books with “just white kids on the cover” and less “wheelchair, rainbow or Indigenous” representation.

Susanne Horman has owned the Robinsons Bookshop chain since 2007. There are a number of the indie bookstores across Melbourne.

At the weekend, a series of Susanne’s posts from her personal Twitter X account, written last month, circulated online.

In the posts, she called for Australian publishing to put out more “white family stories” with “white kids” on the covers, and less “wheelchair, rainbow or Indigenous” representation.

“What’s missing from our bookshelves in store?” Susanne Horman wrote in a now-deleted post, accompanied by the hashtag #weneedbetterstories.

“Positive male lead characters of any age, any traditional nuclear white family stories, kids picture books with just white kids on the cover, and no wheelchair, rainbow or indigenous art, non indig [sic] aus history.”

In another post, she also vowed not to stock diverse books that are “against white Australians” and “cause harm and make Australians hate each other”.

“Books we don’t need: hate against white Australians, socialist agenda, equity over equality, diversity and inclusion (READ AS anti-white exclusion), left-wing govt propaganda. Basically the woke agenda that divides people. Not stocking any of these in 2024.”

‘So wildly out of pocket’

At the weekend, an Instagram account coffeebooksandmagic shared the now-deleted social media posts, with hundreds of commenters calling them out.

The account owner clarified she’s “not one for willy nilly ‘cancelling’ but the comments … are so wildly out of pocket that I have no problem suggesting a widespread boycott would be appropriate”.

“[Susanne Horman] has not only said she wants more white people on covers and in books, but goes further to say that she won’t be stocking anything that … well, what, exactly? Isn’t about white people?” she wrote.

“And then somehow manages to claim that she’s fighting division.

“This kind of mentality has no place in the modern landscape and I truly hope it will eventually die out with the generation that’s as archaic as her website.”

Ouch.

  View this post on Instagram

  A post shared by Emily | books 📚 and magic ✨ (@coffeebooksandmagic)

Robinsons Bookshop apologises for comments

Speaking to The Age, Susanne Horman issued an apology to Robinsons Bookshop staff and “anyone who was offended by the comments”. She claimed they had been “taken out of context”.

In a Facebook statement, Robinsons Bookshop also apologised and said the posts “misrepresented the views” of the company.

“We clearly state, so there is no misunderstanding, that we fully support and encourage stories from diverse voices [and] minorities,” the post read.

“We are most definitely stocking these important topics and the authors that write them.

“As a business, we will continue advocating for positive hope-filled stories that bring out the best in all our community and make all people feel supported and fulfilled.

“We ask everyone to treat all of our staff with kindness and respect.”

Read also:

Gay author Will Kostakis invited to Catholic school, told not to say gay

Holden Sheppard’s queer novel Invisible Boys to become TV series

Brisbane’s Queer Readers recommend their must-read books this summer

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[doriandrifting]

Maybe some of us aren’t antisemetic? I stand with Noah, Brett, and Shawn Levy because I stand against terrorism and for the Jewish people

I’m not gonna sit here and be called anti-semetic for not supporting a genocidal ethnostate. That’s a tool straight out of the Zionist playbook. You’re regurgitating a propaganda point that is 75 years old. There are Jewish people sitting in jail as we speak who were arrested in mass days ago in New York for protesting against the Israeli occupation and genocide of Palestinians. Try again.

Hamas has literally offered up the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire, and Israel is refusing to take them back because they are political scapegoats. The hostages’ families were protesting the Israeli Prime Minister last night. Today, there’s a video of some of the actual hostages themselves saying that they’ve been watching the news, that they saw their families on the TV, and that they know that there is supposed to be a ceasefire, and they know that their government is refusing to stop bombing Palestine in order to free them.

You know why there’s supposed to be a ceasefire? Because the United Nations voted overwhelmingly that there should be, and Israel decided they didn’t care. Israel is quite literally in violation of several international laws including collective punishment of a civilian population. Israel has dropped nearly 20,000 tons of explosives in civilian areas, including hospitals, refugee centers, apartment buildings, etc. They have used white phosphorus bombs in open air which is again illegal. Nearly 8,000 Palestinian civilians are dead, and that’s only the number of people through the hospital. It does not account for the bodies still under the collapsed buildings. 51% of the population or 1,100,000 Palestinians are now homeless. Their access to clean water, food, medicine, and electricity has been cut. Their internet was only able to be restored in certain areas because Palestinian engineers walked through zones being bombed to get the grid back up.

And one of the most insane parts of all of this that most people don’t seem to realize is that Palestine does not have a land army, or a navy, or an air force. These are civilians up against a nuclear superpower backed with the United States’ money and munitions.

That is terrorism. That is genocide. And I don’t care what the people on Stranger Things or you have to say about it.

[leifgrandeduchesse]

hi! do you happen to know why queen frederica gets such bad rep? is it justified at all?

Hii! Thank you for your question and apologies for taking a while to respond.

It is fascinating how even after 40+ years after her death she, 'Queen Horror' as some call her, continues to be a thorn in the side of many anti-monarchists and others (especially current-day Greek journalists).

She was intelligent, intellectually curious (one of her main interests was nuclear physics), opinionated (perhaps too opinionated for her own good and position), and iron-willed. The two main reasons for her bad reputation are undoubtedly meddling into politics, as well as her inability to remain reserved about her political viewpoints (unsurprisingly, she was staunchly anti-communist). The second one is her ancestry — her being the last Kaiser's granddaughter was often used by left-wing politicians as propaganda against her, and the fact that as a young girl she had been part of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls), a branch of the Hitler Youth group for young women. Her supporters argued that it was impossible to not be part of the organisation in Nazi Germany at the time.

With so much said about her, I decided to read her autobiography A Measure of Understanding to get to know her better, and it did not disappoint. Politics and conventions aside, I discovered a dutiful Queen, a loving wife, and a devoted mother. Here are a few excerpts, some of them referring to the points mentioned above:

I cannot for the life of me find this particular one, but it's about her saying that she feels and is Greek when somebody reproachfully alluded to her German ancestry. I'll add it here once it's found. There is, however, another one that conveys a similar idea:

"Sitting in the beautiful garden in Alexandria, surrounded by many-coloured bougainvilleas, I mused upon our past experiences. We had lost so much, our home and family life. We had lost Greece, the country I had learned to love not only with my heart but with my whole being. Now it was occupied, and suffered under the people among whom I was born. I could not understand why all this had to happen. Why did Germany stab us in the back when our people had fought so heroically against one enemy already? It was so unjust that it broke every emotional link I had with the land of my childhood. It freed me to love and to serve Greece and the Greek people to a point of identification with them."

2. About her being part of the Bund Deutscher Mädel.

"One day two women in uniform were shown into my parents' room and I was asked to leave. It had become the law that all children must join the Nazi Youth Movement and the women had called to remind my parents of this duty. From that day on, once a week, I had to wear a uniform which consisted of a white shirt, black scarf and black skirt. Dressed in this fashion I would walk down the hill into the village and join a group of girls in some empty schoolroom. I did not like wearing uniform and have never liked it since, but I looked upon it as something that brought me, at last, into contact with other children. We used to knit and sing. [...] An older girl would usually lecture on some national subject but I do not believe that any of us ever listened; we were much too busy gossiping with each other. My father was not sympathetic to the Nazi movement but he could not discuss it openly. We had a very big staff and many were in it - some fanatic, some not fanatic - but you had to be careful what you said around the house. After a couple of weeks in the Youth Movement I had a long private talk with my father. He explained what all this uniform business really meant and we both decided that it would be better for me not to have anything more to do with it. As long as I was in Germany this would have been impossible, according to the law, so I was sent to England."

3. Her welfare work (there are many stories, I can’t write all of them 😅).

"Early one morning I left in Thomas's car. Thomas was my husband's personal help. I sat on the floor so as not to be spotted by our police who would then have followed me. I wanted to see for myself, unrecognised, how the poorest of the poor have to live. [...] I found one family actually living under an umbrella. The squalor and misery were great. They were a legacy of the Asia Minor tragedy, when a million Greek refugees had to leave Turkey and settled around Athens and Piraeus. Even there I could find the beauty of our people's soul. [...] In one small hovel I found a woman cooking some evil-smelling fish. There was no chair to sit on, no window, just a bed with a few rags on top. The young woman was very friendly. She told me that a fisherman had given her the fish as a present and so her children could have a warm meal. Usually they ate some bread and olives or tomatoes. [...]. I found a blind old man living in a dark cave. The food he ate was given to him by his equally poor neighbours. I asked him if nobody had ever suggested that he go to a home for blind people, where he could be well looked after. 'You see, I do not know anybody who could help me', he said, 'Sometimes I think of appealing to Frederica. She would help me I know, but I do not know how to write to her.' It was strange to be talked about while standing in front of him. I took steps to see that he was helped."

"On the way up I watched a young boy with a hunchback. He tried to keep up with us but could not. The crows pushed him around as everybody tried to get near us and he reached the top long after us, just when we were leaving. I caught a look of despair in his eyes. Too many people were milling about near me, so I could not talk to him, but on the way down I looked back every now and then and I would always meet his eyes while he was falling and stumbling down the hill. I felt there was something he wanted to say to me so I asked Palo [King Paul, her husband] to wait and let him catch up. When he reached us I asked him if there was anything I could do for him. 'Please, take me with you', was all he said. He was in rags, had nowhere to live and moved from house to house to eat and sleep. Dimitraki boarded the destroyer with us, rags and all, and became a member of our official party. He got a tremendous ovation from his villagers as he waved goodbye to them from our ship. Later he returned having learned a trade and now able to look after himself."

4. When Churchill thought he did something by reminding her that Kaiser was her grandfather at Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's wedding, and I just really love her response.

"At one of my first meetings with Churchill, at the time of Princess Elizabeth's wedding, he said to me accusingly, 'Wasn't the Kaiser your grandfather?' 'It depends on how you look at it,' I answered, 'The Kaiser certainly was my grandfather, but Queen Victoria was my great-great-grand-mother. If you had the Salic Law in England my father would be your King today.'"

5. Due to her strong character and being able to charm (almost) every man, it was believed that she was the one wearing the pants in her and Paul's relationship, not to mention all those silly rumours about her having lovers left and right. I admire their relationship, as it was one of mutual understanding, respect, and naturally one of profound love.

"Palo was very wise and I was always learning from him but he was so modest that people often thought I ran the family. This distressed me but did not bother him. 'People do not have to know everything', he would say. 'I enjoy it this way.'"

The epilogue dedicated to her husband is written so beautifully, it honestly baffles me how anyone can think that that woman was unfaithful.

"Palo is my husband and my love. I cannot see him, but that doesn't matter; he still is my husband and I still love him. [...] We love in each other that which we never see. How can we ever lose each other? The true self is there, as much as before. The loss is theirs who do not know, it is not mine nor his who truly loved the changeless me. He said: 'I carry you in my heart, for ever and ever. We shall always be together. There is no separation, there is just one road. You and I, we know the road.' [...] I sometimes wonder, Sweetheart, if you knew what would happen to me when your battle was won. You were so keen that I should walk with you already, now, the road you saw on the other side. 'Come,' you said, 'come quickly, what are you waiting for?' It still rings in my ears and my soul. [...] Greetings, my Sweet. The dream for you is over. The Light is shining in our hearts. There is no sorrow, no shadow, and no night. Your peace, your joy, your love, help me to stay awake, and keep my eyes upon the glory that Heaven's Grace bestowed upon us."

[jojotier]

The spy x family au may be about political subterfuge and the interpersonal drama of a dangerous lot who at many points have to try and kill each other in a bunch of configurations, but also its about June becoming increasingly desperate to let her friends know that their kids have SUPERPOWERS and absolutely NONE of them taking it seriously bc they're too busy thinking that they're the best at being normal

Roxy straight up makes her veggies disappear into the void and June is desperately pointing at the plate going "???? You daughter just sent her veggies into the ether?????" meanwhile Rose has 100% missed it bc her boss slipped a secret code into that evening's newspaper that only she can decipher that says she has to take on an extra mission investigating a chocolate factory being a front for a Prospitian smuggling operation, while dressed as a theme park mascot, and Rose is now congratulating Roxy on finishing her least favorite food, my, isnt she just so mature?

Jake pulls a fully functional sonic screwdriver out of his toy chest bc he saw an episode of Doctor Who and hoped so hard that it was on Amazon that it just Was, for 19.99, and June points it out to Jade but Jade is the foremost nuclear scientist and just has no gauge for how much normal people know about space-time mechanics, so she just is going oh haha you know kids! They find the darnedest things online!! Wild that they're making these now huh? Then again, she's sure that the average person has a pretty alright basis of the quark phenomenon, so it makes sense! June is like what the fuck are you talking about and Jade is like wait do you not know about the paradox of atomic movement? And June's like why? Would I know that?? And Jade's like but everyone learns that dont they????

Dirk though. He's the worst offender. Because he hears June's thoughts about the superpower thing and waits until Dave leaves the room and then he looks June dead in the eye and repeats June's exact thoughts back to her. And then tells her that Dave will never believe her. And it all sounds very ominous but actually this is Dirk's version of a prank. And Dave doesn't believe her! Even as June is going "Dirk is LITERALLY REPEATING YOUR THOUGHTS," as Dirk repeats Dave's thoughts Dave is like oh haha isnt he smart? Kid's a natural at catching subliminals, which is good because of the propaganda. and June is like what and Dave is like what. And June's like you said it was because of the propaganda? And Dave's like whoa did I say that? sounds too fancy for my blood as hes like kicking the script to his latest anti-imperial dadaist SBAHJ fueled mockumentary-expose under the couch

At least June has Jane there to nudge her with a stick and ask about dinner when June inevitably sprawls over the floor at home in a defeated heap. That usually helps take her mind off things.

[comshipbracket]

Antis DNI - Block the tag "comship" if this causes discomfort.

Remember, you are voting for the ship you prefer, not the ship you find more problematic

Propaganda for both ships under the cut.

Disclaimer: All ships (other than the now-eliminated NozoCoco) on this bracket are FOLLOWER-SUBMITTED ships, the Mods do not always hold necessary knowledge to be aware of any errors or fanonizing what should be canon material that may arise.

Paire Propaganda (Incest - Uncle and Niece, Age Gap, MinorxAdult in Earlier Seasons)

"When a time-traveler from the future tells Peter, `Save the cheerleader, save the world`, he took it to heart, as did the marketing department, since it became the slogan for NBC’s hit sci-fi drama. Unbeknownst to her, fate of the world rests on Claire’s regenerating shoulders, and she luckily meets Peter, the handsome stranger who cheers her up and sacrifices his life to save hers at her high school homecoming. The two part ways the next day, but not before Peter is overcome with relief to see her alive and Claire is comforted to know she isn’t alone in having powers. Peter is able to access the powers he’s copied from others when, after being thrown from a building, remembering Claire allows him to use the regeneration he had in her company, which teaches him, `I don’t have to push her out! I have to remember her, how she made me feel!`" "Thanks to the meddling of Angela Petrelli, Claire discovers that her mysterious biological father is Nathan, Peter’s shady-politician older brother. When next they meet, Claire returns the favor by pulling a shard of glass from Peter’s brain stem, allowing him to utilize the regeneration his DNA copied when he met her. With the threat of a nuclear explosion destroying New York, Peter and Claire take comfort in each other’s company, looking for a way to prevent it. Though Peter had insisted on Claire shooting him if he began to combust, declaring her to be the only one who could, she’s ultimately unable to do the deed. Instead, Nathan flies Peter over the ocean so he can explode mostly-harmlessly in the sky." "For seasons after, Claire and Peter begin to fall out of step— much of season 3A follows a Peter that had time-travelled back to prevent the timeline where an angsty, violent Claire shoots him after declaring, `I’ve always loved you.` This future Peter is the one to save present Claire from getting herself hit by a train just to feel something. At one point, Peter is rendered powerless, then thrown out a window by his father, and rescued/nursed back to health by Claire. When the two hit the streets again to solve the issues created by the Petrelli patriarch, Peter describes wanting Claire to retain her innocence, having witnessed the violence of the timeline that his future self came from." "Conflicted feelings about Nathan’s actions drive a wedge between the uncle and niece at times, but Peter is almost always regarded as one of the first people Claire goes to and trusts, as the only person she believes can keep her safe. They generally can get along and talk comfortably, which becomes useful when Nathan dies, for realsies; the pair are relegated to cutting lemons and limes at the funeral reception, bonding over the way others in their lives infantilize them. Claire is the one to find and heal Peter when his grief manifests as trying to enact vigilante justice, then talking together to work through some of their problems. Regardless of familial relations, Peter is always protective of Claire, and wanting to act in her best interest by actually discussing with her what her needs are, even if they don’t always agree— he is often pulled in several directions by the moral grayness of loyalty to a toxic family system, which Claire can see through, having not grown up around it." "Claire feels safest and most secure with Peter— others might condescend her, keep secrets, act out of their backwards idea of her best interest, or make her feel weird for having powers, but he doesn’t. The two could easily have more comfortable, domestic conversations, if the universe would slow down and let them. Even when the two are at odds, they never fully forget the love they feel for each other, and the intense emotions of their interactions and utterly palpable, radiant chemistry between them is frankly unavoidable. When they interact, their hearts are in their eyes, fondness written all over their faces."

HaniMori Propaganda (Cousins, Pseudo-Age Difference - There isn't one, but Haninozuka looks much younger)

"Mori will literally do anything for Honey and it’s so cute!! You see them together in almost every scene they are so close"

[randomrichards]

TOP 10 BEST MOVIES OF 2023

10)                          BEYOND UTOPIA

Sometimes real life can be scarier than fiction, especially when it comes to tyrannical countries like North Korea as highlighted by the gripping documentary Beyond Utopia. Drawing from real footage, director Madeliene Gavin brings us into a North Korean’ family’s fleeing the country, a Pastor working to get them to safety and a human rights activist’s desperate attempt to save her son.

Gavin gives us a glimpse into the living conditions locals are subjected to in North Korea. You see the propaganda used to demonized “Western Countries” and manipulate its citizens. The Government’s attempt to glamorize their country’s contradicted by the hidden footage of citizens digging through wreckage for any scraps. That pales in comparison to footage of prisoners being tortured.

All of this makes you pray for the family as they stumble across forests in complete darkness with no certainty, they will make it to safety. Thankfully, they have an ally in Pastor Seungeun Kim. Through his non-profit organization Caleb Mission, Kim works hard to ensure the family gets to safety.

Gavin portrays not only the external struggle to escape but also the internal struggle. Even though they’re fleeing the country, the family still believes the anti-US propaganda taught to them. As defector/activist Hyeonseo Lee says “Imagine, waking up one day and realizing that you were born on a completely different planet.” But Lee embodies the hope that they can be deprogrammed.

Beyond Utopia keeps you on the edge of your seat.

9)            THE BOY AND THE HERON

Hayao Miyazaki once again comes out of retirement to create an animated feature destined to become a classic.

The Boy and the Heron highlights Miyazaki’s strength as a visual storyteller. He brings the same creative fantasy ideas that made Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro and Princess Mononoke. This time, he brings us an alternate world of anthropomorphic parakeets, marshmallow like spirits and the titular shape shifting Heron (Masaki Suba in Japanese, unrecognizable Robert Pattinson in English).

As always, Miyazaki and his animation crew lure us into fantasy through their dazzling animation. The Heron’s transformation is animated with slow detail, revealing one human feature at a time. That same detail goes toward the environments, which are animated with rich attention to detail. Whether it’s protagonist Mahito’s (Soma Santoki in Japanese, Luca Padovan in English) home, the underground library or the Gateway to the other side, every background is enchanting.

Miyazaki also has a knack for creating memorable characters. Mahito is not a bland boy hero but a troubled teen repressing his grief over his mother’s death. It gets to a point where he hurts himself with a rock. His personal life along has some engaging characters including his lovingly protective father (Takuya Kimura in Japanese: Christian Bale in English) and a group of nosy old women. And then there’s the Heron, a complicated untrustworthy character with uncertain motivations (at the start of the film at least) or a pyrokinetic girl (Yoshino Kimura in Japanese, Gemma Chan in English).

The film isn’t perfect. Miyazaki takes his sweet time before he gets to the plot, which may turn off some audience members not used to Miyazaki’s structure. The internal logic of the fantasy elements may be difficult to comprehend. Thankfully, that hasn’t stopped many moviegoers from enjoying the film.

At the core of the film is the lessons Miyazaki draws from the classic Japanese children’s book How do you Live? I won’t give too much away. I will say that the journey Mahito gives him an important lesson on accepting tragedy and how to move on with his life.

The Boy and the Heron delivers the enchanting fantasy that has made Hayao Miyazaki’s films so beloved.

8)            GODZILLA MINUS ONE

Godzilla’s film history is quite strange. The iconic Kaiju began as an allegory for the nuclear bomb, bringing destruction and death to innocent people. Then it’s flip flopped between being a source of destruction and being a saviour of humanity while fighting/teaming up with other Kaijus. Now writer/director Takashi Yamazaki takes Godzilla back to its original source material with his surprise hit Godzilla Minus One. This time Yamazaki uses the iconic kaiju as an allegory for World War 2’s aftermath. Taking the place in postwar, the film focuses on a small group of former soldier and locals forced to take on Godzilla as it brings destruction to Japanese towns already devastated by the war.

Yamazaki delivers all the destruction you’d expect from a Godzilla movie, with one gripping action scene after another. One notable standout is a scene where a tugboat tries to get away from Godzilla. Yamazaki draws the original film acknowledging innocents lost and homes destroyed in Godzilla’s wake. He also gives Godzilla regenerative powers to add more stakes.

A frequent problem with most Godzilla movies is the human characters. With rare exceptions, their story arcs are never as interesting as the Kaiju fight scenes. The Monarch-verse is most notable, with the most interesting characters being killed off too early. Yamazaki breaks that cycle by paralleling the Godzilla elements with a realistic depiction of Postwar Japan. The result is a full cast of complex, relatable characters whose struggles to find a life within the wreckage makes the human stories as compelling as the action scenes.

At the centre of the storyline is Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a kamikaze pilot wracked with guilt for surviving the war and failing to save a crew from Godzilla. Kamiki gives a compelling performance as a man coming to terms with survivor’s guilt. He’s surrounded by an array of engaging characters including Koichi’s minesweeping crew and his embattled neighbour Sumiko (Sakura Ando). Even if you take out Godzilla, their struggles to pick up the pieces of their devastated homes are still incredibly engaging. Through it all is a surprising message about the importance of life.

Godzilla Minus One became a surprise box office hit alongside The Boy and the Heron and both are very deserving.

7)            FALLEN LEAVES

After a single date, Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) accidentally loses his date’s (Alma Poysti) phone number. To make matters worse, he doesn’t even remember her name. This sounds like a premise for a classic romantic comedy but, Aki Kaurismaki is not the type of writer/director who makes Hollywood romantic comedies. In fact, Fallen Leaves couldn’t be more different than said romantic comedies.

Kaurismaki brings his trademark style to create a deglamorized romantic comedy. While other romantic comedies star matinee idols whose characters have posh lifestyles and comfortable jobs, the leads in Kaurismaki’s films are middle aged, downtrodden folks working minimum wage labour. His date Ansa is a supermarket clerk who sorts recyclable plastic. Holappa is a construction worker who can’t keep a job due to his alcoholism. Plus, they live in run down apartments.

While other romantic comedies are filmed in glamorous locations shot with bright colours, Kaurismaki ‘s characters live in a world of run down apartments and seedy bars shot with muted colours. He also shoots at a distance as the leads stare off into sad sack space.

This may sound depressing, but underneath the droll look hides some serendipitous hope and dry humour. In a classic romantic comedy movie, Holappa spends evenings waiting by the movie theatre in hopes of finding Ansa. The journey also forces Holappa to confront his alcoholism. There’s also a delightful karaoke scene involving “Mambo Italiano.” 

Kaurismaki’s films have a unique sense of hope. While most films try to reassure the audience that these characters will escape their poor circumstances, Kaurismaki has faith in his character’s ability to endure their circumstances. For Fallen Leaves, he assures the audience that they don’t need a fancy condominium or grand gestures to earn romance. At the film’s core is a belief that middle aged store clerks and construction workers are as deserving of love as the Ryan Goslings and Chris Evans of the world.

6)            KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

Martin Scorsese stares into the abyss that is American History with Killers of the Flower Moon, a biopic about the atrocious Osage Murders and the conspiracy behind it.

A lesser filmmaker would have gone the safe, white saviour direction by making it a crime drama centered on the agents investigating the murders. But Scorsese has always been a filmmaker who examined humanity’s dark side. So, he centres his film on an accomplice; Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), war veteran who marries indigenous local Mollie (Lily Gladstone) whom his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro) schemes to steal her fortune by murdering her family. While Ernest was worst in real life than portrayed in the movie, Scorsese and DiCaprio still makes a bold move in portraying Ernest as dimwitted moral weakling; a man repressing some guilt but is too easily manipulated to make the right decision.

De Niro delivers another masterful performance as the ultimate cinematic villain. He puts on a front of sympathetic ally for the Osage community but underneath his gentlemanly demeanor, he is a greedy, manipulative psychopath. The way he casually justifies his atrocious murder plot is disturbing. Just as disturbing is how many local authority figures were in on Hale’s plot as Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth bringing hints through Ernest and William’s interactions. The normalization of white supremacy becomes disturbingly clear in one scene of Klan members marching in a parade.

But the key to the film is Mollie, who serves as a reminder of the human cost of Hale’s evil plot. As one family member after another is killed, Gladstone makes us feel Mollie’s pain. But through her ordeal, Gladstone maintains a sense of dignity for Mollie. It would have been appreciated if there was more of Mollie’s and the Osage people’s perspective. But again, Scorsese is more interested in people’s capacity for evil.

This film plays like a crime drama, but underneath the western demeanor is a horror film about a racist system designed to murder a group of people for the crime of striking it rich while Indigenous.

5)            PAST LIVES

Writer/Director Celine Song begins her directorial debut with a distant shot of Nora (Greta Lee), her husband Arthur (John Magaro) and her estranged best friend Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) conversing at a bar. We don’t hear what they’re talking about, but we do hear unseen strangers gossiping about the protagonists. We hear them assume that Nora and Hae are a couple since they’re conversing the most while Arthur seems to sit by himself. Just from this scene, Past Lives has us under its spell.

At the core of the film is Nora’s relationship with Hae Sung. We first see them as childhood friends in South Korea before Nora’s family moves to North America. Decades later, Nora and Hae Sung reunite via video chats. Their lives have taken different paths with Nora becoming a happily married playwright in New York while Hae Sung has stayed in Korea to become an engineer. In their meetings together, Nora and Hae Sung rekindle the special bond they had.

Most films with this premise centre would lead to Nora and Hae Sung ending up back together in the end (usually after a series of misunderstandings). But Song isn’t here to make a Hollywood romance. Instead, she’s created a mature drama about two people reconciling with the circumstances that led them in different directions. In their conversations, Nora and Hae Sung ponder over the circumstances outside of and within their control that led them to the lives they had now. This leads them to face the dilemma of whether either can leave their current life behind and live together.

The performances achieve the balancing act of being both grounded and engaging. Yoo makes an excellent romantic lead delivering excellent chemistry with Lee. Magaro also deserves credit for his performance as the other man who allows Nora to figure her situation out while secretly hoping he doesn’t lose her in the process. But it’s Lee who makes this move, letting the audience in on Nora’s inner turmoil.

Celine Song’s career has taken a fascinating turn from a staff writer for The Wheel of Time to creating a haunting romantic drama about accepting the paths you’ve left behind.

4)            THE HOLDOVERS    

Alexander Payne is an expert in finding comedy in misery. He certainly has lot of misery to work with in The Holdovers, a bittersweet dramedy about Scrooge-like history professor (Paul Giamatti) forced to watch over a rebellious student (Dominic Sessa) abandoned by his parents at their boarding school on Christmas.

This film feels like a time capsule from the 1970s with vintage looking camera work by Eigil Bryld’s cinematography making the snowy background pop. David Hemingson’s screenplay itself feels like the kind of dramedy that would have been made by Mike Nichols or Hal Ashby with its dry comedic focus on character’s inner turmoil over social expectations.

The strength of Payne’s direction is how he makes us feel for the characters even when we’re laughing at their circumstances. Professor Paul Hunham (Giamatti) certainly comes off as a total stick in the mud when he forces the students left behind to continue their schoolwork during the Christmas holidays, but you come to realize this is his way of finding a sense of order as the world changes around him. His student Angus Tully (Sessa) may constantly be at odds with Hunham, and yet he’s the only student passing Hunham’s class. Cook Mary Lamb (Da’vine Joy Randolph) has a tough time opening up after her son’s death. As the film progresses, they start to open to each other, gaining a better understanding of each other’s struggles and force each other out of their comfort zones. Thankfully, Hemingson avoids the shmaltzy ending in favour of a bittersweet ending.

Of course, none of this would work without the cast. A lesser actors would have made Hundham and Angus unpleasant jerks. Thankfully, Giamatti brings a world weariness and masterful comedic timing to Hundham that allows us to empathize with him. Sessa shows a lot of potential in this role, bringing out the pain underneath the snarky energy. But it’s Randolph who gives the film its heart as Mary uses her job to avoid confronting her grief.

In a time that makes many people feel lonely, Payne has created a Christmas movie that celebrates unlikely human connections that empathy can create.

3)            OPPENHEIMER

Nolan’s always been that rare filmmaker with the ambition to combine non-linear structures with labyrinth plotting while still being accessible to a moviegoer. Only Christopher Nolan could get away with making a 3 hour biopic about the theoretical physicist and then intertwin it with a courtroom drama about the senator who launched a smear campaign against him. If that wasn’t enough, he also shot half of it in black and white while making the whole movie on film. Not only does that but makes it a major event that results in a blockbuster. That is the miracle that is Oppenheimer, a compelling character study of the man who called himself the destroyer of worlds.

Half of the film follows J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy)’s journey from an arrogant Oxford student to the man racing against time to create the atom bomb to a physicist torn by the consequences of his action. In the process, we see many moments in Oppenheimer’s life including his attempted poisoning of a professor, his conversation with Albert Einstein (Bill Conti), his complicated relationship with his wife (Emily Blunt) and an interrogation by Roger Robb (Jason Clarke) just to name a few. And through it all, Nolan and Murphy reveal the many layers of this intelligent but conflicted man.

Oppenheimer’s story is intercut Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), a senator who led a secret smear campaign against Oppenheimer over an apparent slight. While Oppenheimer’s section plays like a character study, Strauss’s storyline plays like a political courtroom drama of the 1960s complete with black and white cinematography. This serves as the central structure for the film as Nolan and editor Jennifer Lame intercuts between Strauss’s plotline and moments in Oppenheimer’s life. Downey Jr. truly shines in this performance as he reveals the deep seeded pettiness under Strauss’s polite demeanor.

Nolan balances these storylines with an intricate attention to detail that keeps the film engaging from beginning to end. He also surrounds Murphy and Downey Jr with an endless calvacade of stars including Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek and Gary OIdman just to name a few.

Of course, Nolan is known to avoid CGI whenever he can in favour of practical effects and he certainly keeps this principle with the testing of the atomic bomb, leading to a hauntingly beautiful scene.

Oppenheimer shines as bright as that atomic bomb, delivering an ambitious and haunting look at a man forced to live with creating a means of destroying the world he was trying to save.

2)            POOR THINGS

Yorgos Lathimos closed out 2023 with one of the year’s horniest films. What are the odds it would be a Frankenstein-like satirical epic called Poor Things?

From the moment she is resurrected with a baby’s brain, Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) regards life’s pleasures like a kid in a candy store. And involves sex (even becoming an escort at one point). Meanwhile, many of the men try to seduce Bella only to be driven nuts by her lack of social etiquette and cluelessness. And through it all, Lanthimos mocks and interrogates the ideas of social norms with a Bunuel-esque satirical tone.

Poor Things serves as Lanthimos’ most visually stunning movie. He sets most of the first act in black and white, mostly in mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter’s (Willem Dafoe) home. The setting resembles the kind of prim European settings of Luis Bunuel. It’s when Bella is taken away by playboy gambler Duncan Wedderburn (scene-stealing Mark Ruffalo) that the settings truly pop with grand buildings and neon-coloured skies that look like they came out of a Terry Gilliam.

Lanthimos uses these grand sets to sneak in Bunuel-like satire mocking social mores, class systems and patriarchy. Watching the film, I kept being reminded of a film trope that infantilized women that you see from the likes of Lolita, Leeloo from the Fifth Element and most Marilyn Monroe Characters.[1] Some men in Bella’s life seemed to be attracted to (or want to take advantage of) her childlike innocence. But Lanthimos and Stone push the childlike behaviour to its furthest conclusion forcing the men to put up with Bella’s temper tantrums and social cluelessness. That behaviour causes Duncan to become hilariously unhinged as she destroys his life.

It's easy for a maverick filmmaker to find their style restricted when given a bigger budget. Thankfully, Lanthimos maintains his boundary pushing satire even on the most epic stage.

1)            SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

One can only image the pressure of making a sequel to an animated feature as groundbreaking and beloved as Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. Making a sequel already comes with its own challenge with the arduous task of expanding on the pervious material without becoming repetitive or losing the original’s appeal. It’s made more challenging when the first film changed the game of animated film. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse not only meets the challenge head on but has elevated the franchise to create another action packed, side-splitting masterpiece.

Writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have long demonstrated a mastery with comedic storytelling through Clone High, 21 Jump Street and the Lego Movie. Even apart, they create unforgettable works with Lord co-writing Into the Spider-Verse with Rodney Rothman and Miller creating the criminally underrated series The Afterparty. All this work highlights their mastery of parodying genre tropes while creating compelling storytelling starring unforgettable characters. Joined by co-writer Dave Callaham, Lord and Miller take their boldness a step further by centering the first 15 minutes entirely on Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen/the Ghost Spider/Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld). Her story arc would make an excellent movie on its own as she finds herself targeted by her father George Stacy (Shea Whigham), who blames Spider-Gwen for the death of her universe’s Peter Parker (Jack Quaid), not realizing that she and Gwen are the same person. And yet the writing trio manages to make this a compelling story while meshing it with the rest of Miles’ (Shameik Moore) storyline. Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson also deserve credit for keeping the story focused while delivering pitch perfect entertainment from start to finish.

They all managed to do this while introducing an endless array of memorable characters from the damn near perfect Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India (Karan Soni) to snarky hologram Lyla (Greta Lee). Even the cameos are unforgettable with he likes of a live action Prowler (Donald Glover), Cowboy Spiderman called Web Slinger and even a Spider-Rex. But the most notable standouts are the villains. Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaacs) starts out like an authoritarian who wants to maintain the status quo. But we come to understand his misguided need to maintain canonical events. And then there’s the Spot (Jason Schwartzman). He starts the film as a walking punchline but as he discovers his ability to travel across universes, he becomes an intimidating threat. And Kudos to the writers for turning a throwaway sight gag from the previous film into a character motivation.

Just as memorable are the gags, which come fast and furious in a variety of forms from easter eggs to one liner. You have Ben Reilly’s (Andy Sandberg) overdramatic moodiness, Pavitr’s calling out Miles over “Chai Tea” or Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) contradictory philosophy (“I don’t believe in consistency”). They work with every actor bouncing off each other with effortless timing.

And then there’s glorious animation. Directors Dos Santos, Powers, and Thompson along with their animators apply a variety of animation styles for each universe. They use a watercolor style that drips across Spider-Gwen’s universe. Spider-Punk is animated with a collage-like art style. There’s even a Lego universe animated by a 14-year-old. The directors and animators manage to keep a perfect balance of style and substance by using stylizations to enhance the story while delivering some awe-inspiring action scenes. That and the animation is so gorgeous that it must deserves to be in a theatre.

The writers and directors keep all the style grounded with parents and child relationships serving as the emotional core of the film. Miguel’s grief over the loss of his daughter unintentionally causes the destruction of a universe. Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) begins his responsibility as a father to Mayday who has inherited his powers. Of course, at the centre of it all is Mile’s and Gwen’s relationship with their parents. Miles need to hide his Spider-identity puts a strain on his relationship with his parents, forcing to face the dilemma of whether to reveal his identity. Unfortunately, Gwen’s story is more devastating when she’s forced to confront her father about her superhero identity.

Unfortunately, testimonies from former animators recently revealed Lord and Miller had led to a toxic work environment for the animators, forcing them to work 11 hours a day for 7 days a week, even overruling the directors. Consider this review a celebration for the directors and the animators. Hopefully, conditions are much better for the animators of the third film. This praise goes out to those animators who made this masterpiece work.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

ANATOMY OF A FALL

When her husband is found dead in front of their cabin, writer Sandra Voyter (Sandra Huller) finds herself charged with murder. We follow Sandra through a traumatic ordeal as every private problem is brought to the public eye and every little detail is scrutinized to make her look guilty. Huller gives a powerful performance as a grieving woman left with the painful task of proving her innocence.

BARBIE

In a summer overwrought with superhero movies and sequels, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie blew up the movie theatres like a pink-coloured supernova. About every element made this movie special from the colourful set pieces to the surprising commentary on the patriarchal society and performative feminism. Margot Robbie shines as a stereotypical barbie going through an existential crisis. Ryan Gosling steals the film as a childlike Ken desperate for Barbie’s attention.

It's not a perfect movie. It’s solution to undoing the Patriarchy is more of a first step than an actual solution.[2] The subplot with the Mattel businessmen gets resolved too easily. Beyond this, it’s still an entertaining movie.

STOP MAKING SENSE

The main reason this one’s not on the list is because this is a reissue of a 1984 concert movie. But it’s hard to leave out one of the greatest concert movies of all time.

Late director Jonathan Demme and David Byrne structured a Talking Heads concert in a unique and engaging manner. They start with a minimalist design by having David Byrne perform “Psycho Killer” alone on a barren stage with only a guitar and a boom box. Byrne manages to hook the audience with such a bare minimum. Then each band member appears on stage after each song. Before long, the one-man show becomes a New Wave orchestra complete with chorus girls, an array of keyboards and three giant screens.

Every band member is on their A game, bringing a lot of energy to all the songs. And let’s not forget Byrne’s iconic giant suit.

[1] Here’s a video that does a better job explaining this trope than I could.

[2] To be fair, this message could be meant for the younger audience.

[the-celestial-bitch]

Hey! I saw your tags in my post. Just curious about why you can't trust the Chinese government? What did they do to you?

Hello! ill try to give a comprehensive answer, but i apologize in advance if it feels like rambling and my sources are weird, bc im mostly used to following politics in my own language.

that being said, I'd like to first clarify that my apprehension and distrust in chinese government is different from the anti-chinese propaganda currently happening in america. from what ive seen, the fear of chinese government meddling in us politics and economy is fearmongering for the sake of increasing the military budget. china wouldnt start a war like this. china would, instead, join a war in middle east.

first id like to point out that im iranian, and so ill be talking about chinese government in relation to iran. i know some stuff about other countries, but ill leave the matter to people who know it better than me.

china has been known to sell arms to iranian military and aid them in using new technologies in war. this might seem like a positive matter to a leftist westerner at first glance, bc they are doing it under the guise of helping middle easterners defend themselves against us military's invasive actions, but in reality its not a good thing for several reasons—most obvious of them all: giving the military even more power will only lead to more tension in the region. currently most of the fights in middle east are bc of the sunni/shia dispute. on one hand, you have saudi arabia, advocating sunni, and on the other hand, iran is the one advocating shia. shia is significantly less popular than sunni, but iran has its way of appealing to marginalized shia groups in sunni-majority countries. bc of the iran-saudi proxy conflicts, and the power-hungry governments, saudi arabia and iran have been at war, but not in their own countries—in other countries such as syria, iraq, lebanon, etc. for more information on this, you can check out this source. china has sold arms to both saudi arabia, and iran, for many years. they have, indirectly, added fuel to the flame of wars happening here. (sources: 1, 2). china has also been helping iran in developing nuclear weapons (source), despite it being a bad idea (for obvious reasons, i dont think i need to explain why giving nuclear weapons to governments are bad. but if ur wondering just look at us government and the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki).

i think i should point out a certain hypocrisy, and that is the issue of the genocide of the Uyghurs. if you dont know what exactly is happening, its basically like holocaust, with concentration camps, taking the children away from the families, and persecuting people for their religion and their race. for more on the matter, check this and this, but be warned, its pretty brutal. youd think that, considering that the current tension in the middle east is bc each branch of islam deems itself the true salvation of all muslims, their collective silence on this is deafening. yet its not really silence, is it? they have publicly defended chinese governments horrendous inhumane actions, as u can see it reported here. the real reason behind it is bc the chinese government has been supporting and aiding many of the governments who have yet to speak against the genocide happening right now. again, iranian government claims itself to be the true leader of the muslims, so why are they covering their eyes when they see uyghurs who have no one stand up for them?

thats bc the chinese government also does the same for these countries! for example, i dont know if you know about the protests happening in iran since last september. an innocent girl was murdered by the morality police, and since then hundreds have been murdered, thousands have been captured without even knowing where they are being kept, tortured, raped, abused. aside from that, the internet connection has been limited, often cutting off entirely when a huge protest has been happening. chinese government has not only aided iran in suppressing the protesters by granting them weapons and the technology of controlling the internet (for real, google is on safe-lock unless we use vpns. we cant use twitter, tiktok, instagram, whatsapp, twitch, and we dont have access to many websites such as bbc news, iran international, etc. they have also been controlling the vpns, killing them one after another. you'd be lucky if a vpn works for more than a month for you, and i cant stress this enough: u cant do anything without the vpns. its just the hell we're living in), they have also publicly defended irans rights to oppress the people, saying that the UN shouldnt interfere with a countrys affairs. (source) dont get me wrong, i dont believe that any of the western countries are trying to help us for the good of their hearts or whatever—they just want to omit a rival from the board, thats all. but siding with the oppressors leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, especially since i know they have also been brutally oppressing their own protesters, as we saw in the hong kong protests a few years ago.

aside from that our country has basically signed a contract with china that literally sells our everything to china to get arms and stuff (heres the whole contract shared in a propaganda website run by the iranian government and heres the wikipedia page for it breaking it down).

tldr: the chinese government has been actively aiding iran in the recent murdering of the protestors, and also the fact that they have been an indirect benefiting factor in the various middle eastern wars makes me suspicious of the sudden peacemaker mask theyre putting on.