#blonde review

[risingstarlets]

Sicily Rose - tartan dress part III: draft at dusk on TikTok 20/02/2021

[kbookblurbs]

The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn Era 1, #1)

5/5 - fabulous characters, heist novel, Vin my beloved!! start of a truly fabulous trilogy, really innovative magic

SPOILERS BELOW!!!

This was the first Sanderson novel I read and it really captured my heart (as it probably obvious). As such, it holds a special place of honor To Me as one of his superior works.

The Final Empire is excellent for a number of reasons. First, it's a heist movie in a book. Think Ocean's 11 (2018). The crew is all very likeable and they come together to put together a truly insane plan. The best part is that, at several points in the story, key elements of the plan go completely wrong. It's delightful. Nothing is better than watching characters who are supposed to be clever actually act clever.

TFE is also distinct amongst many trilogy consisting of a fight against an evil overlord in that the fight happens and succeeds in the very first book. It doesn't take them the usual first attempt, minor success, second attempt horrific failure, and third attempt actual victory that usually happens over the course of fantasy trilogies. This also means they actually have to have the philosophical discussions that usually get tossed to the wayside regarding what to do after a revolution succeeds. Delicious I tell you.

Sanderson is also a master of describing places that are foreign compared to Earth and then sells these concepts by changing the way that characters behave. People thinking plants being green would just be weird? Extra notes of importance on the color white because of all the ash? The world doesn't only look different, which is common in most fantasy settings, but the characters feel like they're from somewhere totally different, which some books are not successful at.

Allomancy as a concept is also something that's super distinctive to me. Sanderson is pretty well-known in fantasy circles for defining "hard" and "soft" magic and he abides pretty strictly by those rules.

And the cherry on top of the cupcake is Vin. My beloved. Her struggle with identity, trust issues, her own power, it's just everything to me. She goes through a whole "I'm not like other girls" arc and yet she's still struggling. She's immensely powerful and yet so inexperienced. I love her. I would do anything for her.

Also Vin and Elend's romance is just so cute. You have to feel for Vin the whole time. They have my whole heart.

Now having read The Secret History, I still harbor some conflicted feelings towards Kelsier. He's such a good father figure to Vin (which makes him dying so heartbreaking) but his whole religious arc still leaves me feeling weird.

PS: If you would like some really good Vin art, or good Sanderson art in general, I highly recommend @lamaery their Vin design and their costume design is !!! crazy good

[pandasaurio-espacial]

I've never seen dungeon meshi but it's all over my dash so here are the characters from what I've gathered:

Autistic hungry man

The sister of autistic man (also autistic)

The bad bitch the sister pulled by being autistic

👁👄👁 (evil? twink)

Gimli from lord of the rings

A dad who loves his family very much and hates being in the dungeons idk how he ended up there but he definitely wishes he was home

[abirdie]

Gael García Bernal in I'm with Lucy (2002, dir. Jon Sherman)

(these gifs also feature Monica Potter)

Gifs are all 540px wide so you can click to see larger.

[other gael filmography gifsets]

[flowerandblood]

me: will you watch with me HOTD trailer tomorrow?

my husband: maybe

me: do you remember anything from the first season?

my husband: that there was some rotting king who got married to that lady, who's also quite a wretch, there was some family of black people who floated on the sea, bedsides I remember that there was a woman who's grown old now, the blonde one, and that some boy flew off his dragon and got fucking eaten and now there's going to be a big family drama

me: *explodes with hysterical laughter*

i'll get you his reviews of the second season episodes, i promise

[stunningstarlets]

Aly Michalka - Ocean Pacific campaign photoshoot 2011

[droughtofapathy]

"Theatre critic circles are in desperate need of diverse voices, and these old white men cannot be the only arbiters of good and bad in the industry," and "it's not the feminist take you think it is to dismiss a show's negative reviews just because it's men who are raising the valid critiques you yourself see but can and will overlook because you're attached to a show you say is 'written for the girls, gays, etc." are two viewpoints that can coexist.

It might be easy to dismiss a male critic's pan of a show because it's meant for women. That's not feminism. That's gender essentialism. The show may be written for a queer female audience, but should queer women not also demand quality and cohesion in a show's book and score, or must we always be satisfied by the crumbs we are given? We should not be arguing that just because a show is geared towards a female audience, it must be above critique, or that the real and present flaws in the book and score are only important to men, and all women will like it anyway.

As a queer woman of color, had I been a critic, my review would have been mixed to negative just like all those men you dismissed because the problems do not change from a gendered perspective. The book is weak. The score disjointed. The protagonist watered-down. It's like the writers set out to say "it's a queer love story," but didn't do the work to delve any deeper, and hoped to carry the show on that alone. Queer stories deserve to be held to the same high standard as any other show, and boiling it down to "it's queer so you have to like it and critics are homophobic" is a ridiculous, immature, reductive statement.

[clonerightsagenda]

Last night I dreamed that they made a Space Between Worlds/Those Beyond the Wall movie and I found out because people on tumblr started posting gifsets of the brothers interacting with not a trace of Cara or Dell in sight (typical) and also they cast Nik Nik and Adam as white (also typical). Nightmare scenario

[risingstarlets]

Sicily Rose - tartan dress part I: with Coco Quinn on TikTok 19/02/2021

[dougwallen]

Blonde Redhead review for The Weekend Australian

[torturedpoetsofpemberley]

This meme takes a classic film of "Legally Blonde" and turns the focus to the relationship dynamic between Marianne and Willoughby, specifically referring to the ballroom scene in which Marianne finds out he is marrying Miss Grey for money. Although Willoughby confesses he had been genuinely in love with Marianne and intended to ask her to marry him, he felt he had to marry for money because of his penniless state and debts post-scandal. I specifically found this meme funny and representative of Marianne because Elle Woods picks herself up from her poor relationship and works towards her goals. Similarly, Marianne is devastated by her romance with Willoughby, which leads her to reevaluate her emotional impulses and grow as a character. Initially, Marianne is depicted as passionate, impulsive, and deeply romantic, embodying the "sensibility" unlike her more pragmatic sister, Elinor, who represents "sense." At the beginning, Marianne romanticizes everything about Willoughby that she is blinded to his flaws, and ultimately ignores social decorum and throws herself wholeheartedly into the relationship, even without a formal engagement. When Willoughby betrays her, she is of course impacted emotionally, but even more so physically. The heartbreak weakens her to the point where she becomes ill, which serves as a metaphor for the destructive consequences of her unchecked emotions. During her illness, Marianne reflects on her actions and begins to understand the dangers of living solely through her emotions. This period of introspection is crucial to her transformation, as she recognizes that she needs to temper her sensibility with sense to move forward and regain control of her life. She ultimately grows and becomes the importance of balance between emotion and reason, and gains a newfound sense of caution and maturity in how she approaches relationships and life. She then slowly recognizes Elinor's ability to temper her emotions with rationality and begins to emulate this more balanced approach. She reflects on the value of self-control and understands that love, while rooted in emotion, must also involve discernment and mutual respect. When Marianne then decides to marry Colonel Brandon, it is a representation of her newfound maturity. While her feelings for him may not initially meet her idea of love, she grows to appreciate the steadiness and security of his love, which contrasts sharply with the fleeting, superficial allure of Willoughby. Marianne learns that true love is not just about grand romantic gestures, but also about commitment, trust, and mutual respect—values that Colonel Brandon embodies.

Ultimately, Marianne’s heartbreak and recovery led her to a deeper understanding of herself and the nature of love. She moves from a state of unchecked emotional excess to one of tempered emotional wisdom. Her growth is not about rejecting her emotions entirely, but rather about learning how to integrate them with reason, judgment, and self-awareness. By the end of the novel, Marianne is wiser and more grounded, having learned that love can be both passionate and sensible, and that true emotional fulfillment comes from a balance between heart and mind.

So, although Marianne did not attend Harvard Law, she did ultimately re-evaluate herself after going through a major heartbreak and grow as a character and is a representation of women growing in society for themselves, and not for the approval of another man. What, like it's hard?

[sexilene]

elle woods!

she's sweet, ditzy but don't underestimate her! elle's got the style and smarts and i bet she'd smell heavenly walking past with bruiser in her shoulder bag on her to get manicure after a breezy day at law school! ᡣ𐭩ྀིྀི₊ ⊹

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Clinique Happy Clinique - obvi!! 🎀

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Fantasy in Bloom - heavenly!

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Burberry Brit Sheer Burberry 

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Couture La La Malibu - (one of my faves! especially for the summa! 🌺)

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Malibu Surf (close second to La La Malibu!)

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Very Hollywood Michael Kors

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Jimmy Choo Rose Passion

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Spring Flower Creed

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Miss Dior Absolutely Blooming Christian Dior

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Candy Yum-Yum MAC

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Oui Splash

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Signorina Ribelle Salvatore Ferragamo

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ DKNY Fresh Blossom Art Limited Edition Donna Karan

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Baby Doll Yves Saint Laurent

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ Daisy Sunshine Marc Jacobs

[scarabjewels]

Films I Watched Recently

Lately, I have watched a number of movies, which is a hobby. I was able to come back to after a long time. I was writing so many detailed opinion essays, so how about a brief short ones in a list.

(SPOILERS)

1) Immaculate

I watched this twice, with different sets of friends as well.

On my first watch, me and my best friend and we watched it without subtitles. Literally in Sydney Sweeney's character's perspective.

The story follows an American nun, Sister Cecilia, moving into a convent in Italy. In a miracle, she concieved a child as a virgin. The convent practically treasured her as they believed she bore the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

As we watched the movie, and my best friend questioning everything that is happening, Cecilia's experience in the convent gradually becomes creepier and extreme.

Just before the immaculate conception, Cecilia was shown the nail that the convent believed to be one of the nails that pinned Christ to the cross and "fainted". Cecelia then always felt like she was being watched, and in during her pregnancy, she was worshipped by the convent, all except her friend and another nun.

She was almost killed by a nun and we did not know why because we were lacking subtitles, so on the second watch with our other close friends, I learned that the nun was jealous and enraged, saying that it should've been her.

Cecilia's friend and a fellow nun, Sister Gwen, grew concerned as the convent refused to let Cecilia go to a hospital, and I think she was suspecting the cultist ways of the convent. When she spoke up, she was taken away, and we found out she was silenced to death.

Cecilia tried to escape on her own, which was almost successful. But she was caught and was locked up and watched closely in the last days of her trimester.

In the end, she was able to escape just in time to birth the child and well I don't think anyone who experienced a cult negatively will ever keep a reminder of it.

The film had A24 vibes, as it reminded me of Robert Egert's " The Witch" and Midsommar. The pacing was good, the build up, characters, horror elements, practically very decent.

Yet, somehow it's a 5.8 in IMDb but scored decent in Rotten tomatoes, 71% in Tomato meters and 60% in audience score.

It's not a horror but much more a good thriller, it can be triggering for pro-life and r**** victims, as the ending is subtlety but strongly graphic.

Personally, I liked it, it is a decent cult thriller. I think it is best to watch with friends, as admittedly the movie came of as mid, so watching it alone may not be as exciting.

2. Helter Skelter

Now this, this was A BLAST.

Please be warned of how much pornesque sex scenes it has (not quick regular movie sex scenes, trust me).

I already wrote about it and gave my thoughts so here's a summary.

Helter Skelter is a campy psychological thriller centering Lilico, a rising star in Japan and a plastic surgery addict. She is a protagonist but her story shows how much of an asshole she is, as she suffers from the extreme side effects of her extensive surgeries, her obsession with beauty, manic episodes, and how may people around her suffers from her actions.

I took the liberty to read the original manga of the same name, and the movie had many creative liberties with visuals and honestly the its visuals in the movie is beyond the manga, while the manga is campy and slightly mod, the movie was CAMP. The content was very much the same, that it was very impressive.

There are some things in the manga I wished occured in the movie: Hada being around the same age as Lilico, instead Hada was a pushover in her late 20s in the movie, and the detective's bubbly but calculative personality which became just weird and creepy in the movie.

It was a great watch with friends, I kind of preferred it.

3. Midsommar

This movie is the last one on this list that I watched with friends, and I hated it, and I was not alone.

The plot involves a depressed (yes it is actually relevant that she is depressed during this time) Dani tagging along with her boyfriend and his friends' trip to Sweden in their research of a cult, in the midsummer where nightfall was pretty non existent during this time in that country.

It pissed me off, but it was very entertaining. I hated the roofie consummation so much. JUST WHY.

I can handle the gore, the bear being gutted, skinned people, but that one just...no.

Anyway, it's a good thing I watched it with people because I don't think I could handle that alone.

4. The Help

Youtube shorts made me watch it, and it was WORTH IT.

The Help is the adaptation of the book of the same name, according to IMDb "An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis."

Skeeter, the aspiring author, is borne in an above average working class white family herself but was raised by her maid all her life. Her friends, members of the city's socialite group, were borderline participating in racist activities.

The first two maids Skeeter interviewed were the maids of her friends in the group. Aibileen, the narrator of the movie and a major contributer to the book (honestly, CO WRITER) , worked for Elizabeth, who started working as a maid at age 14. The second was Minny who worked for the incredibly mean socialite leader, Hilly.

While the project was risky enough for the time, as in the movie shows the dangers of speaking up in the 1960s, the hate crime was just as violent, and the culture was discriminated unjustly. However, it was pushed through.

The film was somehow a feel good movie, or maybe it just was. I just loved everything about it, Hilly getting her just desserts...ooohhh boy she did, Minny and Celia's friendship, and the scenes after the book was published, it was perfection.

I do feel like movies like this are almost nowhere to be found nowadays, everything is just so dramatic, complex, edgy or just trying hard. The simplicity of the film with just good acting (the star studded cast worked so well here) and a great story. I am so glad that Jessica Chastain and Bruce Dallas Howard actually stared in a movie together, it is so hilarious and just soo right, just watching them interact in a movie made it so worth while already.

5. ReLIFE : Live Action

More of a rewatch, Relife is the tale of a 27 year old man ,who is dissatisfied with his life, offered by an experimental company for a chance to relive his life. He finds himself turning younger and living a full year as a 3rd year high schooler with a group of friends and finding love in the process.

Another feel good movie. I never watched the anime and honestly I think I'm content not watching it. I liked the journey of Arata, he did not relive like a teenager, but as an adult trying to find purpose in a different environment. When he was rejected, he took it like an adult, which he is (I just like that maturity actually was portrayed in the story realistically). The twist was so simple yet sad at the same time, Hishiro, Arata's crush and first friend during his relife, is also partaking in the same experiment (she doesn'tknow he is in Relife tho). The sad part is that she also likes him and rejected him because she knew it is impossible for them to get together, as the experiment would erase any memories of other people of them after it ends. They are both in the experiment, meaning they will not be able to remember each other after. Yoake, the overseer of their experiments, sympathizes with their situation and at least in the live action, made subtle moves for them beyond his job as an observer.

Overall, it's a sweet story about living with intention with some love stories here and there.

6. Legally Blonde

After rewatching 'The Devil Wears Prada' so much, I decided to watch a couple of old chic flicks.

Legally Blonde is THAT GIRL.

(Google did not exactly provide me the source of this synopsis, just know it came up top)

"Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) has it all. She wants nothing more than to be Mrs. Warner Huntington III. But there is one thing stopping him (Matthew Davis) from proposing: She is too blond. Elle rallies all of her resources and gets into Harvard, determined to win him back."

This is everything. Just a good time. Warner is shit. Elle conquered and made a friend: Warner's (ex)fiance, Jennifer Coolidge and her future hubby, Emmett. Callahan should eat a brick. Tye bend and snap was nonsense but well, It's there.

10/10

Feel good. Great message: As Barbie once said, you can be anything (imo). Also just really sweet.

7. Guillermo del Toro's Pinnochio

This was heartbreaking and themes are very touchy.

Fascism, loss, grief and immortality.

This pinnochio story is much more grimm that the last 3 movies I watched. I did not expect so much of the Nazi influence in the setting of the movie, or the amount of melancholic realities it was going to give. Geppeto's grief at the loss of his sons was devastating to watch, but when Pinnochio became an actual boy soldier, I couldn't help but just remember Jojo Rabbit, I never watched it in full but I saw glimpses of it so much in YouTube, that it does relate to this story in some way. Jojo Rabbit was history in the eyes of a child, so was this version of Pinnochio, that you would be so engrossed with its wonder but then it snaps you back to the reality of it, in Pinnochio, he witnesses and experiences physical abuse and exploitation, experiences death too many times, becomes a boy soldier in training and gets to see his loved ones die as he outlives them all.

A scene stuck to me in this movie, more like a question. Pinnochio becomes friends with a boy from his town, Candlewick, when they were reunited in a training camp for boy soldiers. Candlewick stood up to his father just before a bomb lands in the camp , literally in between his father and Pinnochio. Pinnochio's body blows out of the camp and he dies, only to come back a little bit after. Candlewick survived the bomb, but couldn't find Pinnochio. Candle wick did not appear again after that. I really wondered if he even lived or went home or something. Literally nothing. The cliffhanger was not disappointing but man, I really wanted to see Pinnochio and Candlewick reuniting.

As for the movie, it's a good watch. I had watched a lot of Guillermo's projects, and I think this is the second time his movie featured war themes mingled with child wonder. Just a thought.

8. Five Nights at Freddie's

Apparently, I have one more movie I watched with a friend and it's this one.

It started off good then just gets cheesy in the end. It's quality reminds me a lot of mid to late 2010s comedy films like "Happy Death Day" or " Ready or Not", but the overall premise is more similar to the Scooby Doo live action films, ironically they starred Matthew Lillard here too.

It's too cheesy, it's not bad or good either. I wish it had more horror to it like the game. I did not play it but I did have the pleasure to enjoy the commentary of it by the King of Five Nights at Freddie's himself: Markiplier and I was dissappointed that he did not appear in the film.

Needless to say, I was not entirely sure if it was trying too hard or not trying at all. But it did came off unfulfilled to the namesake.

That's about it and here's some more rewatches I felt like I do not have to make a semi detailed review on it:

• Julie & Julia ♡♡

• Emma (2019) ♡♡♡

• Chef ♡♡♡

• Swallow (2019) ♡

• Memoirs of a Geisha ♡♡

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Better Left Buried

sapphic YA thriller

on the way to their vacation, a girl’s private detective mother gets a call and they stop off at a small Appalachian town - and find the dead body of the patriarch of a local rich family at the abandoned amusement park he owned

she finds out her mother grew up there and is desperate to find out more about her past, and help find the murderer - along with a local girl who’s a suspect, because of her own past with the rich family.

[reckonslepoisson]

Blonde Redhead (1995), La Mia Vita Violenta (1995), Fake Can Be Just As Good (1997), In an Expression of the Inexpressible (1998), Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons (2000), Misery is a Butterfly (2004), 23 (2007), Penny Sparkle (2010), Barragán (2014), Sit Down For Dinner (2023), Blonde Redhead

At first Blonde Redhead listened as a sort of less avant-theory-heavy Sonic Youth, but over three or so decades they’ve certainly proven to be much more than Gordon, Moore and co. lite. From noisy rock origins to pared-back interludes to modern-day sheen, they’ve been concocters of pieces equal parts tense and brittle, dreamy and ungraspable, driven and unrelenting. 

Pick(s): ‘Astro Boy’, ‘(I Am Taking Out My Eurotrash) I Still Get Rocks Off’, ‘Bipolar’, ‘In an Expression of the Inexpressible’, ‘In Particular’, ‘23’, ‘Here Sometimes’, ‘Mind to Be Had’, ‘Before’

[itsallmadonnasfault]

The Muchness Of Madonna: The New York Times Book Review, November 5, 2023