#anyways! happy gq and new year to anyone who celebrates | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

virglows · 7 years ago

Text

Famous/Famous

♣︎ The Brightest Lights ♣︎ 70k by Rearviewdreamer

After watching yet another actor walk away with his Oscar, Louis is on the lookout for the role of a lifetime that might finally get him the one thing he has always wanted. He didn't think coming out of his self-proclaimed break to do another film would be all that difficult, but that was before he met his new co-star.

♦︎ Young Gods ♦︎ 77k by sincewewereeighteen

“Why don’t you stay?” Harry looked down at him and snorted. “What?” “You’re not my type, Louis”, the boy rolled his eyes sitting on the edge of the bed to put on his boots. “Says the man you just had sex with”, Louis pointed feeling smart, but Harry was one step ahead of him, with the answer on the tip of his tongue. “You see, if you were my type, I wouldn’t have”, Harry winked, cheeky as hell. “I would’ve gotten to know you first.” “Bullshit”, he accused the boy not letting it show how intrigued he was. “How can you know I’m not your type if you don’t know me?” “How about I list five things about you to prove I’m right and if any of them are false I’ll lie down again.” “Ok. Go.”

[Or: the one in which Louis is a model and Harry's supposed to be a normal guy... Until he isn't.]

♠︎ Amazing Sin ♠︎ 56k by thecheshirepussycat

Gears started turning in Louis’ head. Purely mischievous gears that had Louis formulating a revenge plan against Taylor. He’d had enough of sitting around and taking it. If she was going to call him a whore, then fine, he’ll act like one for real. “I’m going to say something, and as my friends you are obligated to love me anyway.”

“This can’t be good,” Niall said, Zayn just groaned.

“So I know we have this strict ‘no lashing back at Taylor’ rule with me, but what if I can get press revenge a different way?” Louis asked. He wasn’t expecting an answer, because they knew by now to just go with it. “What if I stole her boyfriend?”

Or, the story of Louis ‘Steal Your Man’ Tomlinson.

♥︎ Of Love and Blood and Hate ♥︎ 42k by orphan_account

“You auditioned without me,” Louis says, his voice disbelieving. “How the fuck can you stand there and hurl all this shit at me when you literally left me behind to go audition for the show we’d been dreaming of being on together?"

“What was I supposed to do, Louis? You refused to audition with me unless we were honest about being a couple. I knew we never would have made it past the first auditions. You left me no other choice; it was either audition alone or not audition at all."

Louis feels his own eyes start to fill with tears. “You chose a fucking reality show over our relationship. If you still don’t see that you made the wrong choice than I don’t think there’s any reason for me to waste another second here.”

A Famous/Non-Famous turned Famous/Famous AU where Harry makes the biggest mistake of his life and Louis’ left to pick up the pieces.

♣︎ you've set on me ♣︎ 31k by lissome

Harry’s been completely blindsided, is the thing. Like a car without headlights crashing into him. It’s not that he thought he’d never see Louis again in his life. It’s just this. He wasn’t ready for this.

au. louis' in an obscure band. harry's an international popstar. their paths aren't meant to cross, not like this, but when louis' band signs on as harry's opening act, both harry and louis are forced to confront the open wounds of their shared past.

��︎ Time Bomb ♦︎ 291k by ThisSentimentalHeart

“Why exactly are you here?” Louis asked, feigning annoyance and failing pathetically at it. “My publicist told me I can't go anywhere near you.” Harry said, eyes still smudged with last night's eye liner. “That makes you my favorite person in the world.”

Or the one where Louis has everything: a lead role in a giant Hollywood franchise, a glittering new house with an entertaining Irish neighbor, and a steady, normal boyfriend who he probably loves. Louis never expected to become a household name among young Hollywood overnight. He also never expected to find something endearing about the enigmatic rockstar who keeps showing up on his back porch.

♠︎ come on jump out at me ♠︎ 56k by yoursongonmyheart

“you know, i offered for you to fake out me, but, i don’t know anything about you other than you being my biggest celebrity crush probably since posh spice.”

louis almost chokes on his chicken, “jesus christ,” he sputters.

harry takes a swig of his beer with a smirk. “i was very disappointed when you didn’t say i was your celebrity crush after you came out.”

louis almost cries. “you know i did plan on it. then i ran into you narrating taking a piss and talking about my ass and i thought ‘wow this kid does talk some shit’ and decided against it.”

harry barks out a laugh, his ears tinged red. he takes a bite of his pizza. “i suppose i do have no filter while high.”

louis rolls his eyes, “bit of an understatement, mate.”

harry giggles, “whatever pal,” louis screams internally.

----

Or, the one where actor louis tomlinson and one direction superstar harry styles try to fake a sex tape to help harry get out of the closet and they both get more than they bargained for.

♥︎ I have your dreams (and your teeth marks) ♥︎ 118k by aloqueera

Louis and Harry don’t believe in second chances, but sometimes it feels like the universe does. A Music Industry/Getting Back Together AU.

He remembers how they were, always, Louis and Harry, Harry and Louis. He remembers the late nights and the lie ins, all the words they gave each other. He remembers how Harry would look at him like he hung the moon, and like he knew Louis’d done it just for him. He remembers it all. The problem, he thinks, is that he remembers how it fell apart, too.

♣︎ Empty Skies ♣︎ 134k by green_feelings

For three years, Harry has been running from his past. Now, he is moving to London and pledges to fulfil his only dream -- making it big in the music industry. Not everyone has a place, though, and the competition is tough. As is his past catching up on him.

Louis is part of the biggest boy band of the world, and getting there had meant a lot of hard work, as well as sacrificing parts of his heart and soul. He's still happy. Maybe not as happy as he could be, but who is he to complain?

Featuring Perrie as Harry's adorable flatmate, Niall as his manager, and Liam and Zayn as Louis' bandmates.

♠︎ Play Me Like One of Your French Girls ♦︎ 26k by zimriya

Louis is Hollywood’s ‘Bad Boy and Sometimes Darling’, and Harry is the clumsy, endearingly attractive part-time cellist whose cello gets upgraded to the seat next to his on the plane. They fall in love.

Also featuring R&B Superstar Zayn Malik, Olympic Gold Medalist Liam Payne, and Masterchef Niall Horan.

♣︎ In Vogue ♣︎ 121k by otpwhatever

‘Is that why David Beckham has been featured multiple times on the pages of your life’s work? Does your criteria seriously consist of one thing – a man’s ass?’ 'Well the ass is a man’s best asset,’ Harry smirks, holding the Martini glass high up his face. 'And don’t call the magazine my life’s work. There are far more important things in life, Louis Tomlinson, than what’s printed on the pages of a magazine.’

Fashion AU. Louis is the editor in chief of Vogue magazine, and Harry’s running British GQ. Featuring Zayn as the crazy creative director and Louis’ confidant, Liam as the sports writer that gets to sit front row at fashion week and DJ Neil as the only sane person in the whole story. (There are no skinny jeans in this fic)

♥︎ Fall At My Door ♥︎ 30k by FullOnLarrie

A-list actor Harry Styles and award-winning musician Louis Tomlinson have an acquaintances-with-benefits relationship, so whenever their busy professional lives happen to land them in the same city, they meet up. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.

And that’s all it is. Until it isn’t.

♠︎ Paint Me In A Million Dreams ♠︎ 110k by green_feelings

Harry's one of Hollywood's biggest actors, has made a name for himself in prestigious films and lives the life of a superstar. There's just one thing missing to make it picture-perfect, but the one Harry's in love with is completely out of reach for him. Enter Louis, one of Hollywood's biggest actors himself, who just came out of the closet and taps new genres in the industry. When Louis sacks the role Harry auditioned for in Scorsese's next big film, their irrational feud starts. Who could have guessed it would get even worse when for promo season, their teams decide to present them as a couple for publicity?

In short, Harry's in love with someone and doesn't care about dating anyone else, Louis never felt home in L.A., Liam writes love songs for someone he shouldn't write love songs to, and Niall makes everything better with good food.

♦︎ lock me up with love ♦︎ 29k by clicheanna

“So you must go out more often than I thought,” Harry said. “I see you all the time now!”

“Well, one of those times you literally came to my door.”

Harry laughed, a loud honking sound, a shock to Louis’ ears. He couldn’t remember the last time he made someone laugh, not so easily and genuine.

Harry didn’t seem embarrassed, but his eyes were hazy, hair a bit mussed up, cheeks red. Oh. He was drunk, or tipsy maybe. That explained a lot.

“That’s true,” he said, then frowned. “Oh no, do I seem like a stalker?”

“Eh,” Louis said, “just a little bit.”

Louis had a messed-up knee, ruined career, and labradoodle to take care of. Harry had a normal knee, perfect career, and concern for his recluse neighbor. Harry's baking skills were enough to bring them together.

#fic masterpost

1 note · View note

movietvtechgeeks · 8 years ago

Photo

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/brad-pitts-amazing-national-parks-images-hit-plus-american-idol/

Brad Pitt's amazing national parks images hit plus American Idol

Now that some time has passed since news broke of his impending divorce, actor Brad Pitt is finally opening up about his sudden split from long-time partner Angelina Jolie. As you may remember, people all around the world were left in a state of shock when it was officially announced that Angelina had filed for divorce from Brad. Subsequently, it was revealed that Angelina’s filing was partially prompted by an incident that happened while the Jolie-Pitt family was on an airplane, in which Brad had reportedly gotten physical with their adopted son Maddox. For the latest issue of GQ Style, Brad posed for three different covers, which feature him in various National Parks across America. In addition to the covers, Brad also got surprisingly candid with the publication - particularly about his recent relationship troubles and his decision to quit drinking. Looking back at the time of Angelina’s divorce filing, Brad recounted to GQ, “I was really on my back and chained to a system when Child Services was called. After that, we’ve been able to work together to sort this out. We’re both doing our best. I heard one lawyer say, ‘No one wins in court – it’s just a matter of who gets hurt worse.’ And it seems to be true. You spend a year just focused on building a case to prove your point and why you’re right and why they’re wrong, and it’s just an investment in vitriolic hatred. I just refuse. And fortunately, my partner in this agrees. It’s just very, very jarring for the kids, to suddenly have their family ripped apart.” It has been roughly 8 months since Angelina and Brad officially announced their split and since then Brad has made some major changes in his life. The Benjamin Button actor revealed to the publication that he moved out of his former Hollywood Hills mansion, as it was “too sad” for him to be living there on his own. In discussing his decision to get sober, Brad confessed, “"I can't remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn't boozing or had a spliff, or something. Something. And you realize that a lot of it is, um — cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I'm running from feelings. I'm really, really happy to be done with all of that. I mean I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year, you know—things I wasn't dealing with. I was boozing too much. It's just become a problem. And I'm really happy it's been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I've got my feelings in my fingertips again. I think that's part of the human challenge: You either deny them all of your life or you answer them and evolve." Below is an excerpt from the indepth interview with Brad Pitt.

Let's go back to the start. What was it like growing up where you grew up? Brad Pitt: Well, it was Springfield, Missouri, which is a big place now, but we grew up surrounded by cornfields—which is weird because we always had canned vegetables. I never could figure that one out! Anyway, ten minutes outside of town, you start getting into forests and rivers and the Ozark Mountains. Stunning country.

Did you have a Huck Finn boyhood? Half the time. Half the time, yeah.

How so? I grew up in caves. We had a lot of caves, fantastic caverns. And we grew up First Baptist, which is the cleaner, stricter, by-the-book Christianity. Then, when I was in high school, my folks jumped to a more charismatic movement, which got into speaking in tongues and raising your hands and some goofy-ass shit.

So were you there for speaking in tongues? Yeah, come on. I'm not even an actor yet, but I know… I mean the people, I know they believe it. I know they're releasing something. God, we're complicated. We're complicated creatures.

So acting came out of what you saw in these revival meetings? Well, people act out. But as a kid, I was certainly drawn to stories—beyond the stories that we were living and knew, stories with different points of view. And I found those stories in film, especially. Different cultures and lives so foreign to mine. I think that was one of the draws that propelled me into film. I didn't know how to articulate stories. I'm certainly not a good orator, sitting here telling a story, but I could foster them in film.

I remember going to a few concerts, even though we were told rock shows are the Devil, basically. Our parents let us go; they weren't neo about it. But I realized that the reverie and the joy and exuberance, even the aggression, I was feeling at the rock show was the same thing at the revival. One is Jimmy Swaggart and one is Jerry Lee Lewis, you know? One's God and one's Devil. But it's the same thing. It felt like we were being manipulated. What was clear to me was “You don't know what you're talking about—”

And it didn't fuck you up? No, it didn't fuck me up—it just led to some eating questions at a young age.

Have you ever felt the need to be more political? I can help in other ways. I can help by getting movies out with certain messages. I've got to be moved by something—I can't fake it. I grew up with that Ozarkian mistrust of politics to begin with, so I just do better building a house for someone in New Orleans or getting certain movies to the screen that might not get made otherwise.

You're good at playing that kind of character, the one that doesn't have a truly accurate vision of himself. It makes me laugh. Any of my foibles are born from my own hubris. Always, always. Anytime. I famously step in shit—at least for me it seems pretty epic. I often wind up with a smelly foot in my mouth. I often say the wrong thing, often in the wrong place and time. Often. In my own private Idaho, it's funny as shit. I don't have that gift. I'm better speaking in some other art form. I'm trying to get better. I'm really trying to get better.

And the movie really pokes at this, too, right—America's hubris? When I get in trouble it's because of my hubris. When America gets in trouble it's because of our hubris. We think we know better, and this idea of American exceptionalism—I think we're exceptional in many ways, I do, but we can't force it on others. We shouldn't think we can. How do we show American exceptionalism? By example. It's the same as being a good father. By exemplifying our tenets and our beliefs, freedom and choice and not closing borders and being protectionists. But that's another issue. You want me to tell you something really sad? I thought this was so sad. We were looking at—let me say, a certain war film that was looking to promote itself. The European posters had the American flag in the background, and it came back from the marketing department: “Remove the flag. It's not a good sell here.” I was, like, Man, that's America. That's what we've done to our brand.

You've played characters in pain. What is pain, emotional and physical? Yeah, I'm kind of done playing those. I think it was more pain tourism. It was still an avoidance in some way. I've never heard anyone laugh bigger than an African mother who's lost nine family members. What is that? I just got R&B for the first time. R&B comes from great pain, but it's a celebration. To me, it's embracing what's left. It's that African woman being able to laugh much more boisterously than I've ever been able to.

Do you think if the past six months hadn't happened you'd be in this place eventually? That it would have caught up with you? I think it would have come knocking, no matter what.

People call it a midlife crisis, but this isn't the same— No, this isn't that. I interpret a midlife crisis as a fear of growing old and fear of dying, you know, going out and buying a Lamborghini. [pause] Actually—they've been looking pretty good to me lately! [laughs]

There might be a few Lamborghinis in your future! “I do have a Ford GT,” he says quietly. [laughs] I do remember a few spots along the road where I've become absolutely tired of myself. And this is a big one. These moments have always been a huge generator for change. And I'm quite grateful for it. But me, personally, I can't remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn't boozing or had a spliff, or something. Something. And you realize that a lot of it is, um—cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I'm running from feelings. I'm really, really happy to be done with all of that. I mean I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year, you know—things I wasn't dealing with. I was boozing too much. It's just become a problem. And I'm really happy it's been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I've got my feelings in my fingertips again. I think that's part of the human challenge: You either deny them all of your life or you answer them and evolve.

Was it hard to stop smoking pot? No. Back in my stoner days, I wanted to smoke a joint with Jack and Snoop and Willie. You know, when you're a stoner, you get these really stupid ideas. Well, I don't want to indict the others, but I haven't made it to Willie yet.

I'm sure he's out there on a bus somewhere waiting for you. How about alcohol—you don't miss it? I mean, we have a winery. I enjoy wine very, very much, but I just ran it to the ground. I had to step away for a minute. And truthfully I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. I was a professional. I was good.

So how do you just drop it like that? Don't want to live that way anymore.

What do you replace it with? Cranberry juice and fizzy water. I've got the cleanest urinary tract in all of L.A., I guarantee you! But the terrible thing is I tend to run things into the ground. That's why I've got to make something so calamitous. I've got to run it off a cliff.

Do you think that's a thing? I do it with everything, yeah. I exhaust it, and then I walk away. I've always looked at things in seasons, compartmentalized them, I guess, seasons or semesters or tenures or…

Really? So, this is the season of me getting my drink on.… [laughs] Yeah, it's that stupid. “This is my Sid and Nancy season.” I remember that one when I first got out to L.A. It got titled afterwards.

So then, you stop yourself, but how do you—I don't know why this comes to mind but I think of a house—how do you renovate yourself? Yeah, you start by removing all the decor and decorations, I think. You get down to the structure. Wow, we are in some big metaphor here now.… [laughs]

If you can believe it…American Idol might be returning to your television screen sooner rather than later. The show, after 15 seasons, came to an end back in 2016. While it was initially believed that the reality singing competition had run its course and was permanently going off the air, it now appears as though it will be returning after just a brief hiatus. According to media outlet TMZ, TV networks FOX, NBC and ABC are all in talks to host a reboot of the show. The outlet also revealed that ABC is very serious about winning the rights to the show, as they are hoping to debut a brand new season early next year (2018). Earlier this week, ABC TV personality Kelly Ripa announced that former American Idol host Ryan Seacrest would be joining as her co-host on her daily morning show Live with Kelly. This makes ABC’s interest in taking over American Idol even more interesting, as they now have Ryan Seacrest on-hand to potentially return to his AI hosting gig. Although American Idol’s viewership ratings dropped drastically during the last few seasons, it looks as though TV executives are not ready to completely give up on the show just yet.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

#American Idol #Angelina Jolie #Brad Pitt #Featured #Ryan Seacrest

1 note · View note

theconservativebrief · 6 years ago

Link

Nora Lum, a.k.a. Awkwafina — the YouTube viral sensation turned star in this year’s Ocean’s 8 and Crazy Rich Asians and this week’s Saturday Night Live host — is having a very good 2018.

Her movies are doing well: Crazy Rich Asians is on track to be one of the biggest success stories of 2018; Oceans 8 has outearned all the other Oceans movies. And Awkwafina herself is being hailed as part of an immensely likable ensemble in Oceans 8, and as the breakout star of Crazy Rich Asians.

Rolling Stone called her Crazy Rich Asians performance “a singular, unforgettable take on the often-forgettable BFF part.” She’s “on the cusp of a movie star moment,” wrote Refinery 29. Newsweek declared 2018 “her year.”

“This is what Hollywood is built on,” gossip expert Elaine Lui told the Washington Post of Awkwafina’s current moment: “the moment a star arrives.”

But when Lum talks about her current star-making moment, she doesn’t seem to fully associate it with herself. That’s because she talks about Nora and Awkwafina as two different people.

She talks about leaving her office job for show business as going off “in pursuit of Awkwafina.” She switches between the first and third person when she talks about her persona. “You can put as much makeup [on me as you want] and put me in dance classes, but she’ll never be mainstream,” she told GQ, referring to herself and her persona (italics added). “It’s just not going to happen.”

“Awkwafina is someone who never grew up, who never had to bear the brunt of all the insecurities and overthinking that come with adulthood. Awkwafina is the girl I was in high school — who did not give a shit,” she explained to the Guardian in June. “Nora is neurotic and an overthinker and could never perform in front of an audience of hecklers.”

It’s a classic Norma Jean versus Marilyn Monroe split, and it’s laying some important groundwork for how Awkwafina’s career might develop.

Right now, Awkwafina is celebrated for her raunch; she’s America’s new favorite unruly woman. She’s doing the Melissa McCarthy/Tiffany Haddish maneuver, and doing it exceptionally well. She’s even got the SNL hosting gig to prove it, right on schedule: McCarthy hosted SNL for the first time six months after Bridesmaids premiered, and Haddish hosted four months after Girls Trip; Awkwafina’s outing comes four months after Ocean’s 8 and two months after Crazy Rich Asians.

That means that Awkwafina is currently on track to emulate the career path modeled by McCarthy and Haddish before her. But because she’s developed the Awkwafina/Nora split, she’s also left herself an escape route.

An unruly woman is a woman who transgresses the boundaries in which women are supposed to live their lives, and preferably one who does it gleefully, laughing all the time. She is the opposite of what we are taught a woman is supposed to be: She might be fat, or she might straightforwardly pursue sex, or she might just genuinely like herself without apology.

In her book The Unruly Woman, film scholar Kathleen Rowe names Miss Piggy — with her “overpowering” size and affection and her penchant for karate chops — one of the greatest unruly women on the American screen. The unruly woman breaks the rules of femininity, and she makes us love her for it.

When Melissa McCarthy exploded onto the screen in 2011’s Bridesmaids — stealing dogs and shitting in sinks with glee and abandon — she was breaking the rules on a new level. Bridesmaids was a whole movie about women who got to be gross and funny, and McCarthy was the grossest and funniest one of all.

GQ called her performance “the bravest, most batshit, most balls-out, and hilarious performance of the year,” and devoted an oral history to it. McCarthy “lit up the screen like a 500-watt bulb,” said Rolling Stone.

“Most of us remember the first time we realized that McCarthy was the funniest thing since really funny sliced bread,” recalled E Online five years later. “Some Bridesmaids fans cite the engagement scene when she pledges to ‘Climb that like a tree,’ others prefer the sight gag of her driving down the highway while wrangling a litter of puppies.”

McCarthy’s performance was so compelling that it effectively redirected her career. Before Bridesmaids, she was best known for being bubbly and sweet on shows Gilmore Girls and Mike and Molly; post-Bridesmaids, McCarthy would be best known for starring in a string of raunch comedies, some of them directed by Bridesmaids’s Paul Feig, and Mike and Molly would be tweaked to give McCarthy and her slapstick acumen more attention.

Six years later, Girls Trip premiered and it was Tiffany Haddish’s turn to take the Unruly Woman crown. Girls Trip, like Bridesmaids before it, was a raunchy sex comedy, and Haddish, like McCarthy before her, was the raunchiest one in the cast.

Over the course of the movie, Haddish gleefully scores absinthe, demonstrates her blowjob technique, and pees on a crowd while hanging from a zip line. The critics adored her. “It’s Haddish who brings all the hardest laughs,” opined Vanity Fair. USA Today called her “comedy gold.” “Tiffany Haddish steals the entire film,” concluded Caroline Framke for Vox.

What was shocking and exciting about these two performances was that McCarthy and Haddish were breaking all the rules of femininity — and they were doing it with incredible warmth and self-possession. (“I just love anybody who’s that comfortable in her own skin,” McCarthy confessed to GQ.) McCarthy and Haddish were utterly unruly and they loved themselves, and that made the rest of us love them too.

Moreover, they were breaking those rules in an extremely specific context. Part of what made Haddish and McCarthy��s performances so compelling is that they were playing the most unruly women in a group of women who were already pretty unruly. They were there to establish the outer limits in each movie’s Overton Window of raunch: next to McCarthy shitting in the sink, Kristen Wigg projectile vomiting doesn’t seem so bad. Jada Pinkett Smith pees onto a crowd while hanging from a zip line, too, but she does it accidentally, while whimpering with shame; when Haddish follows suit, she does it with both intention and glee.

Both Bridesmaids and Girl’s Trip are id-driven movies, and McCarthy and Haddish provide the bulk of the id. That frees up the rest of the cast to be grownups while they get to have all the fun.

As a culture, we seem to need to pick a woman every few years who is allowed to be bigger and brasher and louder and grosser than everyone around her, who is able to be unruly and who forces us to love her anyway. We want someone who is willing to break the rules, and to make the argument through the sheer force of their charisma that the rules are there to be broken. And this year, it’s Awkwafina’s turn.

[embedded content]

Awkwafina emerged into public consciousness primed to take the crown as America’s next favorite unruly woman. Her first viral hit was her YouTube rap “My Vag,” which sees her pulling a violin out of an off-camera vagina and boasting, “My vag speaks five different languages, and told your vag, ‘Go make me a sandwich.’” Her first movie role was a small part in the raunch-comedy Neighbors 2, which saw her flinging used tampons at a house.

Her big breakout movie came with Crazy Rich Asians, which doesn’t have the raunch of a Bridesmaids or a Girls Trip: it’s a conventional romantic comedy with no jokes about bodily fluids. But within the confines of a classic romcom, Awkwafina shines with her own kind of unruliness, one that’s calibrated to stand out against the film’s more traditionally comedic tone.

Critics have drawn the connection to her immediate predecessor in unruliness. Awkwafina “Tiffany Haddishes away with this film in a big old way,” said Glen Weldon on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. “You’re going to get tired of people telling you” about her.

Awkwafina is playing Peik Lin, the main character’s best friend, and it’s her blonde-wigged brashness that powers the movie through its funniest scenes. She feels like she’s in a different, slightly coarser movie than everyone else, in a good way.

Awkwafina is the id monster of this movie in the same way that McCarthy and Haddish were the id monsters of their respective breakouts, and it’s the over-the-top new money crassness of her character Peik Lin that allows Constance Wu’s Americanized Rachel Chu to feel comparatively well-behaved. Peik Lin has set the outer limit of the Overton Window of unruliness in this world.

In the sweet, mannered, Austenian universe of Crazy Rich Asians, when Peik Lin says, “Bawk, bawk, bitch,” or tiptoes through a lavish house party in designer pajamas, she’s being about as unruly as anyone could manage. She’s the only person in the whole movie who gets to say fuck.

“In a romantic comedy, you get very earnest,” director John Chu told Rolling Stone, “and you need someone who can pop it, who feels confident and different, not the same old sidekick.” That’s where brash, bold Awkwafina comes in. But it’s not where careful, considering Nora Lum comes in.

Which is not to say that Awkwafina hasn’t incorporated Nora Lum into her acting at all. “I don’t know which one I turn on for acting,” she told GQ, before suggesting that she might rely on both: “Lum is the calculating, thoughtful preparation,” the article summarizes. “Awkwafina is the chaos.” But it’s the chaotic glee of Awkwafina that’s powering her rise to movie stardom right now, and Awkwafina’s unruliness that critics are lauding.

But by separating Awkwafina from Nora, Lum has also built an alternative future for herself. She has essentially replicated the work that the unruly woman traditionally does in a comedy within her own persona: Awkwafina sets the outer limits of the Overton Window of raunch the way Peik Lin does in Crazy Rich Asians, so that beside her Nora Lum looks comparatively more conventional, the way Rachel Chu does next to Peik Lin. Awkwafina is the id monster, and Nora Lum the grownup.

And that duality gives Awkwafina the possibility for enormous freedom in her future career. She can be both the unruly woman and the ingenue, because she’s laid the groundwork for audiences to see her as both. She’s built her very own personal foil.

Original Source -> How Awkwafina rode the unruly woman trope to stardom

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

0 notes

junker-town · 8 years ago

Text

Eight types of college basketball coaches you’ll meet during March Madness

Coaches are our barometers as fans.

March Madness is perhaps the most emotionally destructive annual event in America. Across the country, thousands of people stake their money and their happiness to 18-20-year-old amateurs. They will pretend to know which sets of amateurs are better at basketball than other sets of amateurs, then fall apart when those amateurs do unpredictable things like blow a 12-point lead with 35 seconds left.

For a team to win in March, players have to be able to suppress the raw feelings that wreak havoc on us all. Whereas players stand out for keeping their cool, coaches stand out for losing it.

Coaches are the most nakedly emotional people in the NCAA tournament. They need to keep track of the odds, they need to yell at the referees for every injustice, and they need to understand the ebb and flow of momentum. They need to make themselves vulnerable, and when the stakes are as high as they are during the NCAA tournament, we get to watch these men enact the most extreme ends of human joy and agony.

All of this is to say that coaches are our barometers as fans. They are our signal that it’s OK to freak the hell out. They are our beacons, our guiding lights, our surrogates on the court. We want them to act in our interests. We want them to scream when we want them to scream, calm the players down when we need them be calm, call timeouts exactly when their opponent seems to be taking the upper hand.

It isn’t hard to relate to a college basketball coach. Look around the sidelines and you’ll probably recognize these bench-minders’ personalities in the people you’re watching the games with. Or worse, in yourself.

1. THE SO EXCITED

Virginia Tech head coach Buzz Williams doesn’t even attempt to contain his emotion. His body is an overstoked furnace. He is constantly expelling energy, by clapping his hands, and moving his mouth, and flailing his limbs.

He’ll dance. Oh, he’ll dance.

youtube

And it’s not even clear he knows he is dancing. No one consciously moves like that. He is absolutely, and mostly wonderfully out of control.

Buzz Williams is all of those who can’t sit still — the pacers, worriers, shriekers, jumpers, and dancers. Anyone for whom March Madness is a workout. These people are wonderful to be around in the good times, and awful in the bad.

2. THE CHRONICALLY INCREDULOUS

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo is aggrieved. I don’t know where he is or what he is doing right now, but somebody isn’t doing their job as well as they should be, and Izzo is so disappointed in them. Their burden is now his, and he believes this is so unfair. Poor little lamb:

Mike Granse-USA TODAY Sports

Tom Izzo doesn’t much like taking responsibility for his team’s struggles. Some external force is always acting against his team to try to keep it down, whether it’s the announcers, or injuries, or the referees — actually, it’s probably the referees.

There is no better coach at perceiving slights, and it has worked incredibly well for the Spartans — Michigan State has been to seven Final Fours and won one national championship in Izzo’s 19 seasons as head coach. He is absolutely the type of person who would write out a long, conspiratorial message board post when his team loses by two in the Sweet Sixteen. It’s probably fortunate, then, that Michigan State doesn’t lose all that often (all-time upset notwithstanding).

3. THE PERSON WHO REMINDS EVERYONE THAT ACTUALLY THIS IS ALL MEANINGLESS

Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari is incredible at recruiting, and pretty good at winning basketball games. The fact that the Wildcats aren’t also incredible at winning basketball games — and only have one national championship and two Final Four appearances in Calipari’s eight seasons — has been a weird source of criticism against the coach.

Or at least it was. Then Calipari proclaimed in 2015, after the Wildcats won 38 straight games before losing to Wisconsin in the Final Four, that his goal has never been to win national championships, anyway.

I hate to drive you traditionalists crazy, but I'll say it again: our goal at the beginning of the season was to have eight players drafted.

— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) May 21, 2015

And boy did that make people angry. Just as it might when that friend whose title pick gets eliminated in the second round doubles back and reminds you that amateur sports athletics are a modern form of indentured servitude.

Which — you’re not wrong, man, but killing our buzz.

4. THE PROFUSE SWEATER

Arizona’s Sean Miller will look like this at some point during the tournament.

And there’s nothing wrong with that, but know yourself, please. For everyone’s sake. From everybody’s pal Ryan Nanni:

That's ABSURD. If you know you are prone to this level of perspiration, you can't just decide to get frisky and not wear an undershirt. "But one layer fewer will help me stay cool!" Sean, it obviously didn't, and now we're a camera operator's whim away from learning entirely too much about your nipples. Your miscalculation was thinking you could avoid being a sweaty-ass mess. The reality is you just have to manage it.

5. THE PERSON WHO MAY OR MAY NOT UNDERSTAND BASKETBALL BUT KNOOOOOOOWS HUMAN NATURE

Villanova delivered one of the most dominant NCAA Tournament runs ever last season, capped by a buzzer-beater in the national title game that will go down as one of the greatest shots in the sport’s history. Head coach Jay Wright saw it happen, and he didn’t even flinch.

Wright doesn’t play by anyone else’s rules. He helped turn a pretty good program with pretty good talent into a powerhouse by eschewing coaching mores. A recent GQ profile described how Wright struggled at Hofstra when he “obsessed over the game strategy.” Then Wright got to Villanova, put a zen master on his bench, and stopped sweating the small stuff.

On the court, Wright is interested in how his players relate to one another, which means practicing things you might not expect. If a Wildcat takes an offensive foul or dives for a loose ball, the other four players are expected to run to him and help him up. Similarly, if a player hits a big shot in a game and gestures in celebration to the crowd, he'll incur the wrath of Wright, who spends as much time policing his kids' public displays as Duke's Coach K might spend diagramming backdoor picks.

Wright is exactly the same as the person who will be winning your bracket pool this year — cool, calm, and focused on the important things: Anything but basketball itself.

6. THE BUSTED BALLOON

Nobody seethes like Rick Pitino seethes. The Louisville head coach may seem calm on the sideline, immaculately coiffed and composed in pinstripes. The pressure is building beneath that facade, however. And every once in a while, the facade breaks.

It’s kind of scary, to be honest. Don’t be like Rick Pitino.

7. THE MID-MAJOR COACH WHOSE PLAYERS ADORE HIM

Every year, America falls in love with Cinderella’s head coach. In 2013 it was Andy Enfield, the multi-millionaire tech entrepreneur/architect of Florida Gulf Coast’s “Dunk City” basketball team that upset Georgetown and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. In 2014, a then-35-year-old Archie Miller, younger brother of noted PROFUSE SWEATER Sean, took the 11-seed Dayton Flyers to the Elite Eight. Georgia State’s Ron Hunter wore a cast and had to coach from a stool while the Panthers upset 3-seed Baylor in the opening round of the 2015 NCAA tournament. His son, R.J., hit the game-winner, and Ron fell out off his stool and into our hearts.

There are plenty of candidates to be that beloved person this year. Miller is back, and so is Kevin Keatts, head coach of trendy upset pick UNC-Wilmington and potential hot commodity after the tournament. There is also Pat Kelsey, head coach of a Winthrop team that won 22 of its last 25 games and has made a habit of challenging all comers.

Every year, these coaches and their teams represent what’s best about the NCAA tournament, and how much fun it is when we’re not invested in the outcomes. There are people in this world who are just happy about the thing itself, to be a part of it for the first time or once again, and for whom anything that happens after the first Thursday or Friday is a gift beyond the supreme joy of being there.

These people are thoroughly wonderful to associate with and you should surround yourself with as many as you can.

8. THE DUKE FAN

Mike Krzyzewski and Duke are perfect for each other, and they can both go kick rocks.

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

0 notes