#but lucy in particular is a lot less lively now so we’ve been spoiling her

[mabelsguidetolife]

i still miss my dog so much, he was a damn fine buddy…… i try to put all my mourning energy towards loving our other animals and caring for myself and my parents to keep my mind off of him but once in awhile a flash of the (still very recent) memory of his illness and passing surges through my brain and i feel kinda sad again

[invisibleicewands]

Q&A with David Tennant and Michael Sheen

What can you tell us about the new series of Staged?

Michael: David and I are still being ridiculous with and about each other - that’s still very much the tone of it. We have a lot of amazing surprise appearances which I hope people will enjoy as much as David and I enjoyed doing the scenes with them.

David: It’s the same set up as before. Michael Sheen and I talking rubbish to each other over the internet from our respective homes, with Georgia and Anna, our other halves, keeping us from becoming too self-indulgent, not always successfully. But there is a bit of a twist to it all, which I’m not going to reveal here...

In the show you play exaggerated versions of yourselves, are you anything like these characters in real life?

David: I imagine not at all, but probably... quite a lot.

Michael: I think David would say that he's not at all like his character in the first series. Whereas I would say, I probably am quite like that. But I think between the two series, there's a slightly more representative version of ourselves emerging, or at least that's what I would say anyway.

Why do you think the first series was so popular?

Michael: We didn't take ourselves too seriously and made fun of ourselves - I think people enjoyed that. I'm using the sort of format and medium that everyone is using. Having to do calls on Zoom and all that kind of stuff - so we've been able to tap into what's funny and absurd about that as well. Also, having lovely surprises like Judi Dench and Samuel L. Jackson, we have lots more of those surprises in this new series.

David: People seemed to recognise what the characters were going through. Not the specifics of being an actor in lockdown as such, but the sense of helplessness, the frustrations and occasional joys of being stuck at home while the world trundled on. That and the fact that Simon wrote a really funny script - I mean without that we’d have been stuffed.

Did you think you’d be back for another series?

David: If you had told me a year ago that I’d end up making a series for BBC One from inside our house, without a crew, wearing my own clothes and being entirely responsible for turning the camera on and off I would have found it wholly implausible, so the idea that we would do it twice is just one of the many unpredictable eventualities that this weird, weird year has presented.

Michael: I certainly thought that if it went down quite well then there was no reason why we couldn't do more, because it was such an innovative way to make a series - filming in my kitchen with just the laptop and a smartphone. It was very nice to come back and do more of it.

What was it like working with your partners?

David: The scenes between Georgia and myself had to be fitted in around school drop-offs, baby naps and unloading the dishwasher, so there is a certain urgency to getting them done but we have really enjoyed making Staged together and we do laugh a lot - perhaps it’s the sleep deprivation.

Michael: I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was great. The difficulty for Anna and I was that one of us had to go and look after the baby, so that presented a bit of a challenge and limited how much we could do together. But the positive side of this was that it meant Anna could do more scenes with other people. So, there's more scenes between Anna and Georgia, Lucy and Simon as well. It was lovely not taking ourselves too seriously and to play around with it.

Will any of your children be making an appearance in the new series?

Michael: There’s that fantastic moment in the first series where you see David and Georgia's daughter in the background coming down the stairs and then going back up the stairs - that's very funny. I'm sure you can hear Lyra in the background of some scenes; you’ll have to be eagle-eyed and eagle-eared for that.

David: No, I think they find it slightly risible that mum and dad are making a TV show from the house and are mostly just annoyed when we tell them to be quiet for a take.

What can you tell us about working with the guest stars?

David: Well I think it’s out there that we have Ben Schwartz joining us this series, playing the assistant to Michael and my US agent. I’ve known Ben for a few years now, we both play the voices of ducks on Disney’s Duck Tales. Ben is very very funny and is a master at comic improvisation. Michael and I both had to sprint to keep up with him once he started going off script. Recording those scenes was a particular joy. But beyond that I’m saying nothing - that would spoil some nice surprises.

Michael: In the first series one of the most enjoyable things was being able to do a scene with Dame Judi and with Samuel L. Jackson. In this series we have plenty more where that came from and it was an absolute joy - a real thrill! We have some special guests this series who David and I both enjoy the work of. I hope the audience enjoy it half as much as we did and also see that it's not just us who have difficulty with the technical stuff!

Q&A with Georgia Tennant and Anna Lundberg

What can you tell us about the new series of Staged?

Georgia: We are all still in lockdown but things are starting to open up a little and everyone is trying to feel their way through their new normal. David’s hair is longer and my wine cellar (metaphorically speaking. We don't actually have a wine cellar) is emptier.

How did you come up with the idea for the new series?

Georgia: We always said we would just do one and hope people didn't hate it. Much to our amazement people really didn’t hate it and of course it's much more tempting to visit something again if the reception has been good! When we filmed the first series I think we felt like it was a small window of time where the world had shifted and before long we’d all be back to normal and Staged would end up being this nice little time capsule. Simon Evans and Phin Glynn then came up with a brilliant little seed of a premise and we all took it from there.

In the show you play exaggerated versions of yourselves, are you anything like these characters in real life?

Anna: Well we’re all slightly different from the first season. I certainly don’t bring Michael charcuterie boards like I did in the first season, hah! I think in this season I have lost most of my patience with Michael and although that isn't true in real life, it seems closer to how we would behave with each other if we were living through those exact circumstances. I'd tease him for being so serious and a bit of an arse but at the end of the day we got each other's back. I've also gotten to know Georgia and Lucy a bit more since the first season, so those scenes seemed a bit closer to real life this time. Although I don't think there's a world that exists where I'd actually offer David Tennant advice on using Viking methods with an axe to deal with a conflict.

Georgia: This series ‘Georgia’ is slightly less tired and has gotten her fight back a little. The kids are back at school and she’s trying to get everyone else back to some sort of normality. She’s even less indulgent of ‘David’.

Why do you think the show was so popular?

Georgia: I think for the first time in probably ever the whole world was doing the same thing - sitting in their homes. To be able to watch a show where the actors are doing exactly as you and much less elegantly was probably the secret to its charm. To be able to laugh during this time has also certainly saved my sanity and having a comedy escape, albeit for 15 minutes, was probably very needed.

Anna: I think a lot of people around that time were happy to see something light and a bit silly as opposed to another heavy drama about what everyone was already going through, but without ignoring what was going on at the same time.

What was it like working with your partners?

Georgia: That was the best bit for me. He is my favourite person, actor and makes me laugh like no one else. I think I may struggle working with anyone else now!

Anna: The biggest challenge of filming with Michael is figuring out what to do with the baby when we do. Once we've managed to work that out around naps it’s great! He’s very encouraging and patient with me. Serious about the work though and likes to be in charge of all the technical stuff, even though I helped him to set it up in the first place. But I let him.

Will any of your children be making an appearance in the new series?

Anna: There’s always a chance you’ll hear Lyra’s voice in the background. She likes to get in on the action and has a great ability to project and be heard like her father. But no, not in vision.

Georgia: No. I cannot tell you how little they care about what we do. We were just annoying them by asking them to keep the noise down for takes.

[resonanteye]

via https://is.gd/IEusfG

horror movie talk with LFR

My friend Lucy F. R. has really great taste in movies.

I don’t say that lightly. You all know (if you’ve been reading me a while) how fussy I am about horror/weirdshit and how many movies I’ve watched. It’s my actual hobby, unrelated to anything else I do, purely for enjoyment. It’s hard for me to find people to talk about movies with, really- my uncle, who first introduced me to horror movies, and weird cinema, and one or two friends. So I’m really happy to have a conversation here about movies with someone.

Sal doesn’t take any shit from no man. (Beyond the Valley of the Ultravixens)

(R: me,  L:them)

R:  you’re on a grimy southern/grind horror kick right now. But what genre do you like best? What feeling are you after?

LFR: Horror is my favorite genre, I just get very into specific branches. I always want to end up saying to myself “this is a GOOD movie”.

R: What’s the best of the batch you’ve been into recently?

LFR:The Dunwich Horror (the 70’s one), Ghost Galleon, House By The Cemetery, Werewolves On Wheels, and Tourist Trap.

R: Tell me about Werewolves on Wheels. I just watched Dog Soldiers again, and I’ve been on a werewolf kick.

(Swamp Water)

LFR: Wait, you haven’t seen it? It’s about a small biker gang that are on their way to the desert and come across a monastery that they think is abandoned but come to find out it’s not and a mysterious cult interacts with them. The cult takes one of the biker girls and puts her in a ritual. The bikers take her back from them and go back on the road, but don’t know that ~one~ of them is now a werewolf at night.

R: People reading might not have seen it. I usually try to explain a little when I start talking about stuff, especially the lists I make.

I feel like this could turn into a list?

I saw a short film recently also with a werewolf- soldiers are in WWII, surrounded by Nazis in an old police station. There’s a woman in a cell that’s locked herself in and they get stuck in there with her. She’s a werewolf and they turn so they can beat the Nazis.

I feel like- the older werewolf stuff, I think 60s to early 80s, a lot of it was hippie panic. Manson references.

I felt like Werewolves on Wheels is also backlash on feminism, like a lot of gory stuff from that time.

LFR: It felt like a backlash on feminism and hippies.

(Vamp)

R: with werewolves and vampires there’s the whole homophobic/transphobic thing too. “secret monsters” and all that.

what movies would you compare it to? what’s close to it, in feeling?

  LFR: In feeling as in how it made me feel while watching it for the first time: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House Of 1,000 Corpses, Ghost Galleon. I just know it’s a movie that I’ll recommend to everyone and watch over and over.

Aesthetics and mood-wise: Warriors, Clockwork Orange, Hammer Film movies.

R:yeah it’s got that grit to it. easy rider/warriors. I actually haven’t seen Ghost Galleon. Rip it up for me a little.

LFR: Oh man, so

I get really into bands and for the past few years I always look up what my favorite band member’s favorite movies are, or movies that feel like the music genre. So recently I’ve just been super into doom and stoner metal, naturally I’ve been listening to a lot of Electric Wizard. I asked a bunch of doom metal fb groups “what’s the most doom metal movie you’ve seen” and eventually I somehow found Ghost Galleon. It’s a movie that is not good. Very low budget. Like Ed Wood status. But it’s REALLY good.

These swim suit models go out on a shoot and stumble across a ship that should not be afloat still and is completely abandoned. They get stuck on the ship so friends come looking for them. But the ship’s crew is a satanic cult and they come alive and, to keep from spoiling, all hell breaks loose. And it’s THE most doom metal movie you will ever watch. It has it all- mood, aesthetic, and story wise.

R:so bad, it’s incredible. sounds perfect.

LFR: it’s on prime.

R: FUCK YEAH

you guys are always using my prime and my Netflix and my Hulu. you think this is a costume? this is a way of life

R:when I started watching musician friends’ recommendations I ended up discovering Green Room.

The last time before that, it was Pighunt, which is to this day one of my favorite movies.

LFR: You told me to watch that one years ago. I recommend it to basically anyone who will listen to me.

R:it’s like the least sexist least racist southern-USA monster movie ever made.

LFR:Les Claypool’s roll in that has forever changed how I see him. When I saw Primus all I could see him as was a hillbilly preacher.

R: yep completely.

let’s talk about art horror. the weird shit. seen anything good there lately?

(The Horde)

LFR:The Girl On The Third Floor. It was weird and a little comical, but I enjoyed it. I Am The Pretty Thing Living In The House is REALLY good but it’s a little weird and a major slow burn. And, Society, but that’s more body horror than art house horror.

R:Society is a classic. Body horror and class war. So amazing. I thought I am the pretty thing was a lot of fluff- I understand the drive to slow-burn right now, it’s nostalgic. But I think it’s one of the movies where they went too far into the slow burn.

If I’m going to wait 90 minutes, that girl better taste some damn butter. You know?

LFR: I can see why but I also saw it as more of a classic gothic horror story so the pace didn’t bother me too much.

R:I kind of got tired of Gothic horror at some point. The slow burn. I think I was too interested in French and Korean extreme and gore for a minute.

LFR: I’m a sucker for gothic horror and black and white universal monsters.

R:I liked Late Phases- that kind of straddled the line for me really well. Which brings us back to werewolves, strangely enough.

I have been seeing more elderly characters in movies, which I like a lot.

  LFR: I love creepy old women and demonic children in films. I feel like The Visit sparked people’s interest in elderly characters in horror.

R: yes! I agree. I really like variety- diversity. ” 5 teenagers on a road trip ” movies… it gets tiring. Bland.

not to mention that there’s actually Black people and elderly women in movies now.

LFR: Road trip gone wrong horror is good but, you gotta do it right.

R:tell me about one that you think gets it right.

LFR: The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It paved the way.

R: it did pave the way. that there were pockets of deep weird hate in this country- I think the suburbs were really shocked by it. but if you grew up in bumfuck nowhere it was less shocking.

I think Dead End is the ultimate “road trip gone wrong” movie. Urban legend plot, Ray Wise, Lin Shaye. Just incredible pacing.

LFR: I haven’t seen that one, I’ll have to watch it.

R:oh, you’re going to love it.

I feel like the Hills Have Eyes deserves a mention here. though it’s more a “trapped on purpose” movie than a road trip.

LFR: That’s a “vacation gone wrong” horror movie, and it’s definitely one of the best ones. Vacation and road trip movies are two different branches of a genre to me.

R:I think of them as “wrong turn” vs “bad directions”. like they stumbled into trouble is one genre. they were purposely hunted/trapped, is another.

LFR:Yes, exactly!

R: like a vacation movie that’s a trap- hills have eyes a vacation movie that’s an accident- Jurassic Park

Texas chainsaw massacre is both a road trip and a vacation, an accident and a trap.

tell me about a movie that’s got a plot hole, or has kept you thinking afterward, lately. for me it’s been resolution/the endless, and residue. residue in particular. how do they keep that book? why such a dumb ending? resolution/endless bugs me and I have to watch it again- time loops force me to do math, and I end up a little obsessed with figuring out timelines.

(Requiem for a Vampire)

LFR:Horror wise, 3 From Hell. I keep thinking about how different of a movie it originally was going to be. But also, still, HOW did they survive the shoot out from Devil’s Rejects just… miraculously??? And how come this new Firefly brother was never mentioned previously whatsoever??

R:OMG yes. I couldn’t. I got too wrapped up in plot holes to enjoy it!

LFR:I still enjoyed it for what it was but yeah, I was like WAIT WHAT??? every ten minutes.

R:what about not-horror?

LFR: Picnic At Hanging Rock.

We’ve come for the crites.

R: oh yeah. that’s the kind of movie you think hard about the rest of the day. what’s your theory on the ending?

man I just went to find a photo from it and they made a show? what the hell.

have you seen The Fields? It’s set where I grew up, it’s got…a vibe. Stuck with me.

LFR: Honestly? I can’t come up with a theory on what happened. It just really feels like they simply vanished.

I haven’t seen it. Tell me about it.

(The Fields)

R: There’s a menacing thing in the cornfields. A kid has shitty parents and is sent to stay with family. The farm is in the middle of all cornfields�� there’s an abandoned little amusement park that lures him. It’s based on an actual place- a tiny amusement park that flooded and was shut down. it’s still there abandoned, right next to the town I grew up in!

cornfields are extremely creepy. it’s so easy to get lost in them.

The main characters- it’s got all the bad mountain people shit going on, abuse, drinking, violence, and then more because of the presence in the fields. pretty good stuff.

not a slow burn. a medium burn.

LFR:I’m definitely watching it

R: you’ll like it. big Jughead mood.

(and then I got tired and they I think did too, so that’s all for today)

I hope I get to do this again soon: I fuckin LOVE to talk horror.

Not your baby.

If you want to support LFR in some way, wear a mask, stay the fuck home, support BLM and trans rights, and get your government reps to continue unemployment payments for gig AND other workers. Seriously.

[jillmckenzie1]

Everything Is (Slightly Less) Awesome

It’s very difficult to be surprised by movies these days. You’ve seen trailers released by major studios that seem to leech most of the drama out of the film they’re promoting. If you go to certain corners of the internet, you can piece together marketing materials, leaked screenplays, and footage and basically get the gist of a film before it’s even playing theatrically.

That sucks, so I cherish those moments, particularly in studio blockbusters, when I get blindsided. One of my favorites from 2018 was the last 30 minutes of Avengers: Infinity War. If you haven’t gotten around to seeing that particular cultural juggernaut I won’t be so churlish as to spoil it. I will say that I admired the courage it took on the part of the filmmakers to allow the audience to leave on those particular notes.

Back in 2014, I was flattened by The LEGO Movie. Can you blame me? From the outside, it looked like little more than an extended toy commercial. We had already endured several appalling Transformers movies, and what were the odds a movie about toy bricks would be anything approaching good?

Turns out the odds were pretty good! A blend of strong visual storytelling, whip-smart writing, and a voice cast game to go as ridiculously as possible is why I maintain The LEGO Movie is the best film of 2014. It made over $400 million at the box office meaning that a sequel was required by federal law. Now that sequel, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, is upon us. It may not have the blazing creativity of the original, but it’s still good, good stuff.

Picking up five years after the events of the first film,* the candy-colored metropolis of Bricksburg has been overrun by squeaky-voiced invaders from the Duplo galaxy. In a clever nod to Mad Max: Fury Road, it’s now known as Apocalypseburg, and the inhabitants have adapted accordingly. Surfer Dave has become Chainsaw Dave. Sewer babies are a part of the morning commute. Lucy/Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) has become a hardened warrior who spends her mornings staring out upon the wasteland and brooding.

Well, almost everyone has adapted accordingly. Emmet (Chris Pratt) is still sunny, industrious, and perky. In the middle of this dystopian nightmare he’s built a cute little house to impress the tough-as-nails Lucy. He’s also started having mysterious dreams about an impending “Our-Mom-Ageddon.”**

There’s no time to worry about signs and portents, not with the arrival of General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz), the commander of the Duplo forces. She announces that the alien Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (Tiffany Haddish), supreme leader of the Duplos, is intent on marrying Batman (Will Arnett). In short order, Batman is kidnapped, along with Lucy, Unikitty (Alison Brie), MetalBeard (Nick Offerman), and Benny (Charlie Day). What’s the hapless Emmet to do?

Well, he grabs his trusty plant, Planty, he builds a spaceship, and he heads off to the Systar System to rescue his friends, naturally! Along the way, Emmet encounters Rex Dangervest (Also Pratt), a hilariously “edgy” adventurer accompanied by an army of tennis-loving velociraptors. From there we’ll get lots of music, a blizzard of pop-cultural humor, and some interesting observations about how we play and who we play with.

Last June I caught the boringly titled Incredibles 2. A little distance from that film tells me two things: first, it isn’t quite the thunderbolt of pure imagination that the original is; second, it remains a nearly impeccably made film that remains true to the spirit and ethos of its predecessor. I feel exactly the same way about The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.

 You can be forgiven for feeling apprehensive about director Mike Mitchell considering some of his past films were Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Shrek Forever After, and Trolls. There are definitely moments where you can feel the pacing lag noticeably as well as sequences that are a little repetitive. Mitchell strikes me as a filmmaker who doesn’t necessarily have a distinctive directorial voice. Rather, he’s a team player who rises to the level of the team around him. Here, he’s got a strong script to shoot from and producers who know exactly what the finished film should be. He may not be the driving force, but he’s delivered some solid filmmaking results.

Christopher Miller and Phil Lord are the driving forces in this particular case. Last time out they directed, produced, and wrote the screenplay. While they have handed off the filmmaking duties, this feels like their baby, primarily due to the script. Lord and Miller excel not only at transforming bad ideas into great ones, but they also have a solid understanding of how stories are told. That understanding allows them to tweak common tropes and spin them off into something unique, and you can see the results of that in the wildly creative Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. However, they haven’t quite cracked sequels. You can see that in the very good 21 Jump Street and not quite as good 22 Jump Street, and you can see that here. True, it’s not fair to penalize them for failing to recapture the magic the first time around. Their script is still crammed with a metric ton of clever jokes and tunes, including the appropriately named “Catchy Song.”

Just like last time, the cast has come to play. I give Chris Pratt a lot of credit for not only recapturing the sweetly zany energy of Emmet but also having a great sense of humor about his career playing the try-hard explorer/archaeologist/raptor trainer Rex Dangervest. Will Arnett’s Batman is still hilariously narcissistic, and Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle gives possibly the best performance, combining exasperation, determination, and hidden sweetness. I say “possibly the best performance,” since Tiffany Haddish gives her a run for her money. As the shape-changing Queen Watevra she’s delightful, particularly in a scene where she tricks Batman into proposing to her by implying she’s really into Superman.

I can live with The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part occupying a slightly lesser level than its predecessor. I’m pleased we’ve got a sequel that’s still motivated to do more than simply coast on the goodwill gained from the original. Plus, how can you get cranky when you have an end credits song by Beck, Robyn, and The Lonely Island about how great end credits are?

    *If you haven’t seen the first movie, this plot synopsis will sound insane. Plus, if you haven’t seen the first movie by now, why not?

 **I desperately want a movie where the main character has ominous visions that turn out to be nothing.

from Blog https://ondenver.com/everything-is-slightly-less-awesome/