#doesn’t get nearly the mainstream hype she deserves

[hurricanewithmyname]

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[accio-lo-ki]

an attempt on ranking harry styles’ entire discography

this was hard. 

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from the dining table - his most raw and vulnerable musically and lyrically; paints a straightforward, clear picture and uses repetitive lines to effectively emphasize honest emotions; fave lines: “even my phone misses your call by the way” and “comfortable silence is so overrated”

meet me in the hallway - baseline trumps all his songs in my honest opinion; almost goes hand in hand with from the dining table, which is fitting given as this song opens the album and that song closes it; musically and melodically one of his best and most unique; fave lines: “we don’t talk about it / it’s something we don’t do / but once you go without it, nothing else will do”

fine line - i remember in vivid detail the first time i really processed and listened to this song; i was in the shower and it came on shuffle, and i was so shocked that it was harry styles i was listening to because i had never thought that he would do this kind of folk-indie sound that i admit i was a fan of. made me cry. lyrically on of his best and the build up in the production is amazing. fave lines: “put a price on emotion / i’m looking for something to buy / you’ve got my devotion, but man i can hate you sometimes”

golden - one of the best from fine line; the contrast between the upbeat melody and the melancholic lyrics is amazing; i’m especially fond of the repetition of the line “i don’t want to be alone,” i feel like it sends the desperation and fear across clearly and subtly; fave lines: “i know you were way too bright for me” ; “i know that you’re scared because i’m so open”

sign of the times - i will never get over how this man chose a six minute rock ballad as his debut single and called it “playing safe.” this song is easily a classic and i can see it transcending time akin to bohemian rhapsody and the like. fave lines: “you can’t bribe the door on your way to the sky”

to be so lonely - easily the best musically in fine line; the guitarlele is such an edge and the melody is outstandingly complex; plays with his self-deprecation perfectly the way he failed to do in falling. fave lines: “i’m just an arrogant son of a bitch who can’t admit when he’s sorry”

adore you - literal pop perfection in terms of production and musicality; putting a (albeit simple and basic) guitar solo in the bridge of a pure pop song is refreshing and brave; lyrically simple but the overall song makes up for it. also hints at his self-deprecation which i always like. fave lines: “you don’t have to say you love me / you don’t have to say nothing / you don’t have to say you’re mine”

only angel - there’s something about this kind of style that brings out the best in harry’s voice. the nearly one minute choir intro is simply deranged and perfect. a lot of strong lyrical points. fave lines: “i’m still the only one who’s been in love with me” ; “broke a finger knocking on your bedroom floor / i got splinters in my knuckles crawling across the floor” ; “i must admit i thought i’d like to make you mine / as i went about my business through the warning signs”

lights up - musically one of his most unique; the combination of modern and traditional sounds in the production is very well done; his tone of voice in this is also very unique. fave lines: “lights up and they know who you are / know who you are / do you know who you are?”

watermelon sugar - perfect mix of mainstream bait and still being a really good song; production is amazing and the hype is well-deserved. fave line: “getting washed away in you”

kiwi - the perfect tour song; a lot of good lyrical points; the bridge is amazing; this song really brings out his vocal abilities. fave lines: “such a pretty face on a pretty neck” ; “it’s new york, baby, always jacked up / holland tunnel for a nose, it’s always backed up” ; “she sits beside me like a silhouette / hard candy dripping on me ‘till my feet are wet”

cherry - not quite as raw and vulnerable as from the dining table, but lyrically still honest and paints a really clear picture. minus points for the generic lyrics/ rhymes in the chorus but the great verses make up for it. the build up in the production is once again amazing. fave lines: “i confess / i can tell that you were at your best / i’m selfish so i’m hating it” ; “i noticed / there’s a piece of you in how i dress / take it as a compliment”

she - a nice attempt at an omniscient voice; superior vocals in the chorus; the guitar solo is once again basic (not in a bad way) yet hits so hard. i’m always a fan of specific place or time in the lyrics as it makes the song seem much more real. fave lines: “sends his assistant for coffee in the afternoon / around 1’32 / like he knows what to do”

sunflower, vol. 6 - the production in fine line hits its peak in this song; there’s a lot going on but it somehow works. lyrically underrated. fave lines: “my eyes want you more than a melody” ; “i couldn’t want you anymore / kiss in the kitchen like it’s a dance floor” ; “tired eyes are the death of me / mouthful of toothpaste / before i got to know you” ; “i’ve got your face / hung up high in the gallery” ; “your flowers just died / plant new seeds in the melody”

treat people with kindness - the chorus grows on you, but it’s really the melody and his vocal in the verses that sell this song. not for everyone. fave lines: “all we ever want is automatic all the time / all we ever want is auto all of the time”

carolina - another vocal highlight; the verses are better than the chorus. fave lines: “there’s not a drink that i think could sink her”

canyon moon - musically could be better, but the lyrics are outstanding. a nice attempt at a more poetic, lyric-focused song. fave lines: “quick pause in conversation / she plays songs i’ve never heard / an old lover’s hippie music / pretends not to know the words"

woman - his vocals and the production in this is what makes it work. it’s not a bad song–it’s really good actually–but it just doesn’t stand out in his discography. fave lines: “this thing upon me howls like a beast / you flower, you feast”

sweet creature - this is also a very good song, but compared to his discography, it’s apparent that he still wasn’t that comfortable and is still finding his own sound when making this. takes a lot of inspiration from the beatles’ blackbird. this just doesn’t scream “harry styles’ song”; it could easily have been another artist’s. fave lines: “i always think about you and how we don’t speak enough”

two ghosts - another one where it’s a good song but it doesn’t have his signature style yet. also, if there’s any song in hs1 where he’s definitely playing it safe, this is one of those. has great lyrical moments. fave lines: “tastes so sweet, looks so real / sounds like something that i used to feel / but i can’t touch what i see” and “this was all we used to need”

ever since new york - another good song that just doesn’t stand out. the dynamics are better live than in the studio version. fave lines: “choose your words cause there’s no antidote for this curse” and “there’s no water inside this swimming pool”

falling - okay. if there’s one harry styles song that i can throw away and pretend doesn’t exist entirely, it would be falling. not that it’s a bad song. it’s alright. but i feel like this song is textbook mainstream bait and it shows, especially when compared to the other songs in fine line / his discography. the first two lines in the verse (I’m in my bed and you’re not here) makes me want to cut my ears off with how generic the lyrics and melody are. i’m sorry. i’m only this harsh because i know that harry is better than that this song and that line. also, going back to vulnerability and self-deprecation, this one tries but just fails to land. the “vulnerabilty” is too in-your-face to feel genuine. again, not a bad song because he doesn’t have any, but this is pretty close. fave lines: “what if i’m someone i don’t want around?"

-

so. agree? disagree? feel free to send me your thoughts!

[bisoras]

ok uuuh whats some disney opinions that u have?!

PREFACING THIS W THE FACT THAT I AM SALTY AND IT’S BEEN ON MY MIND ALL WEEK

i didnt like the live action beauty/ an d the beast!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it made zero (0) sense to bring a live action version to the table!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

snow white, cinderella, and sleeping beauty?????? live action versions of those films made sense because it was about updating 1930s and 1950s versions of the tales and modernizing them so that today’s newer and younger generations could better appreciate the stories without being forced to remember “oh yeah, these were literally in the works nearly a century ago”

but b@tb was already a modern tale????? it only came out in 1991??? kids today still recognise the animated version as something modern??????? there wasn’t anything outdated, or that needed fixing or amending or clarifying to better appeal to today’s generations.

for example!! something a lot of people criticize about the 1950 cinderella is that cinderella didn’t have any true agency of her own, and that the only reason she made any effort to do anything was to meet the prince and fall in love with him. because the film didn’t emphasize on cinderella’s pain or show her do anything except abide by her stepmother’s rules, people had this idea that it was a man who became her catalyst. (this isn’t the case, of course, but from the casual viewer’s perspective i can understand why this could be such a problem.)

but in the live action cinderella, ella’s struggles were much more pronounced and we saw her fight to maintain the ideology her mother instilled into her, have courage and be kind. when she finally does meet the prince – or the apprentice, as ella believes him to be – she doesn’t immediately fall in love so much as she finally makes a connection with someone who not only listens to her but also shows her kindness in return, and we root for their love because we see the effect they made on each other. she went to the ball hoping to meet the kind stranger she met in the woods, and when she returned later knowing it was the prince she met in the woods that day and spent all night with she still only let herself believe it was a one night only sort of deal because she had no reason to believe he would (or could) come back for her. she went back living underneath lady tremaine in the home she grew up in because it was what she always promised her parents she would do.

but what did the live action version of b//atb actually update?????? nothing. it gave some backstory on what happened to belle’s mother (irrelevant to the story at large). lefou had more agency (but was still reduced to the butt of the big gay joke mainstream media seems to love and my big gay ass hated it). beast’s perspective is explored with evermore, but it wasn’t ultimately necessary because even in the original ‘91 film we see the beast loves belle and he’s letting her go because of it.

there is nothing (and let me repeat: there is Nothing) changed, expanded upon, or updated storywise from the animated film to the live action. i walked out of the theater feeling like i literally just watched the same film i’ve known since i was born but with like, one new song thrown in and i genuinely don’t believe it deserved even a ¼ the hype that it got (and is still getting)

also emma was subpar at best and if she was the director’s first and only real choice then noah fence but what the fuck

call me out for my bs (anon is on)

[itsfinancethings]

When Layla F. Saad thinks back to seeing images from the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, her skin prickles. “I think about the pure hatred that was in those men’s eyes, and see the connection that the hate is directed specifically at people who look like me,” she says. Saad, who was working as a life coach before she became an antiracist educator, was compelled to write a blog post in response to Charlottesville, addressing white women working in her industry and calling out their failure to combat white supremacy. From that blog post came her viral 28-day challenge on Instagram, #meandwhitesupremacy, where she encouraged followers to answer simple yet direct questions about their complicity in white supremacy, and a digital anti-racism workbook, which was downloaded 100,000 times in six months in 2018.

Saad’s book Me and White Supremacy, published in January 2020, encourages readers to carry on the challenge and write a daily journal in responses to prompts like “What have you learned about your white privilege that makes you feel uncomfortable?” and “In what ways have you been apathetic when it comes to racism?” It’s one of a selection of antiracism works that have gained significant attention as the Black Lives Matter movement surged in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd.

Saad says that her intersecting identities and experiences as an East African, Arab, British, Black Muslim woman, who was born and raised in the U.K. and now lives in Qatar, have given her a unique perspective “to look at the different ways that white supremacy shows up, in ways we’re not even thinking about.” TIME spoke with Saad about the response to her work in the current context, her advice for Black communities, and what doing anti-racist work really looks like beyond performative allyship.

TIME: Me and White Supremacy was originally an Instagram challenge that you created, where you encouraged people to think through and reflect on their racist thoughts and behaviors. How would you define white supremacy and what do you think some of the misperceptions are about it?

Saad: I think people hear that word and the image conjured in their minds is the men marching in Charlottesville. And they’re like, “I’m not like that, I’m definitely not bad.” But white supremacy is about this idea, this belief, this ideology that people who are white or who look white are superior to people of other races, and therefore they deserve to be dominant over people of other races. And that dominance shows up in various different ways. It showed up centuries ago with genocide and enslavement and colonization. But it still shows up today, in interpersonal relationships, in what we see as the norm in the media, or the norm in companies, or the norm in schools. And so dominance doesn’t have to just be enslavement.

Did you write the book with an intended audience in mind?

I believe anti-racism work is work that all people who have white privilege have the responsibility to do. I really wrote it for the people who self-identify or consciously think of themselves as people who either want to show up in allyship or believe that they are allies. I wrote it with the full understanding that even those well-intended, well-meaning people are going to be really upset by some of the things that I write about, but at least they have the willingness and the desire to look within themselves.

There’s such a huge difference between someone who reads the book, and someone who does the book. Reading the book really is about taking in information, but really still staying at a surface level and still remaining separate from white supremacy. The act of journaling alongside it really requires you to look only at yourself and to take self responsibility for the ways that you have had racist thoughts, have racist beliefs, done racist things, even when you weren’t meaning to.

Following the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade among several other Black men and women in the U.S., your book is one of several anti-racist books that people have sought out. How do you feel about that response to your work in light of the current context?

On the one hand, I’m so glad that so many people are finally turning to these resources and these works. And at the same time, I feel a sense of ambivalence. There are so many books on anti-racism, not just the ones that are currently on the bestsellers lists, but books that span back decades. This has been an ongoing conversation for so long.

I recently saw a white woman who posted about how when the Black Lives Matter protests begun, she bought my book and put out a note saying she was going to run a book circle with Me and White Supremacy. She initially had 55 people sign up—two weeks later, everyone’s disappeared, and there’s only five people left who are still showing up consistently.

So that rush and then apathy returning is why I have mixed feelings about it. It’s easy to buy a book, and it’s easy to say Black Lives Matter, and it’s easy to say, “I’m going to try to do the work.” It’s an entirely different thing to do it. And to do it when the hype is over, the news cycle has moved on, and you’re not getting rewarded for being so brave for saying Black Lives Matter. Now you’re just having to do the nitty gritty work — that’s where the real work is.

Courtesy of RF|BINDER

After events and protests in the U.S., there were several protests around the world, addressing racial injustice and white supremacy in individual countries. Do you think the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 is different to anything that has preceded it?

In my lifetime, we haven’t seen anything like what we saw these past few months, across the United States and also across the world. I don’t ever want to underplay that. People are feeling encouraged and more confident in not staying quiet anymore, and I think that is amazing.

Of course, we’re in this hyper connected world online now. I think that’s why the Black Lives Matter protests this year took off in the way that they hadn’t before globally because people are seeing things happening in other countries, and seeing how it shows up in their own countries. White supremacy is one of those forces that has shaped the world itself in ways that are just very powerful and very, very harmful. And so it’s never not present.

Many Black people in particular, as well as Indigenous people and people of color, have spoken about the exhaustion of being confronted with white fragility or white guilt in recent weeks. Do you have any advice for these communities?

During the protests that followed in the first two weeks after George Floyd’s murder, I think half a million people started following my Instagram account. That was very overwhelming for me. We had masses of white people coming into our space with a conscious desire to want to learn, but also with unexamined anti-Blackness and not having the skills and understanding of how to go into our spaces without disrespecting us.

Having white privilege still means that you can actually switch off and being Black means you cannot. The advice that I would give to Black people especially, and indigenous and people of color, is that your self care really does have to come first. While this moment of this movement that we’re in is really unprecedented, this work has been going on for decades, centuries, and it will continue to do so. So you can’t burn yourself out right now just because more people are interested in hearing from us. It’s also not your responsibility to teach white people about whiteness, and about white supremacy.

For Black people especially, one of the ways that we practice anti-racism is learning how to center ourselves, our joy, our self care, our mental wellbeing, our physical health. One of the things that’s so traumatizing from this is recognizing that Black lives only seem to matter when Black people are being killed in the most violent and horrific ways, and that we can only get attention when we are pimping our pain. When we say Black Lives Matter, it’s the life of Black people that matters.

Your book talks about the commitment and the discipline of doing this anti-racist work. How would you define that and what are some of the ways that people can do that beyond reading books like your own?

The metaphor I use is that every morning you wake up and you hit the reset button on “how can I show up in anti-racist allyship today?” That includes things like learning and educating yourself, but also seeing in what ways white supremacy is showing up as you’re moving through the day, in what ways you are complicit in maintaining it, and therefore in what ways can you disrupt it. It’s about really taking mindful responsibility for your everyday lived life, and not seeing anti-racism as something that you do when you have a bit of extra time on the side.

We are now nearly two months on from when the initial protests started. How do you feel about the future of the Black Lives Matter movement, and where do you see it going?

My hope is that now as Black Lives Matter becomes more mainstream that white and non-Black people really take on the mantle as well and alleviate the burden from Black people, from us having to shout into the void, that Black lives matter. I think that’s a very long way off, because I don’t know any time when white people were in interaction with Black people that Black lives did matter. So the world that we’re building towards, and we’ve never seen it before. We don’t know what it looks like, we have no blueprint for it. We really have to use our imaginations and our creativity to work towards it. But we have to work towards it together.

Your next project is a children’s version of Me and White Supremacy. How can we equip children to talk about race and white supremacy?

I initially thought this would be an interpretation or translation of the adult version for younger readers, but I’ve realized this book has to be for all kids of all races and not just for white kids, which then changes everything. It’s a huge responsibility. Young kids are like sponges—they absorb everything, so this work has to really be done with care. Some of my intentions and aims are to equip them with context, history, language and critical thinking skills to really understand how white supremacy operates. It’s about giving kids a shared language to be able to grow into adults who can talk about race and dismantling white supremacy together.

As a Black kid, I had to learn about race from age seven. So I’ve been aware of race and racism my whole life. Many white adults are just learning it today. So we’re not on the same level at all. And I hope that through this book, kids of all races can have different conversations and create a different world.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

[mrmichaelchadler]

Nick Allen's Top Ten Films of 2018

Below is a small glimpse at my film year, a collection of the movies I was fixated on during and after festivals, recommended to you if you asked me what was good, or was simply blown away by. And in the case of my number one film, it was lodged so deep into my brain that its second-to-last shot made for a solid homemade Halloween costume. Of course, this list is subject to change at any minute, with special shout-outs to “Roma,” “Minding the Gap,” “Eighth Grade,” “Widows,” “Vice,” “Free Solo,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Blaze,” and the laugh-out-loud quality of “Mile 22.” 

10. “Bird Box” 

In 2010, Susanne Bier made one of the most unforgettable stories about the immediacy of day-to-day violence with “A Better World,” its plot hinging on acts of humanism across continents. She brings that focus on how we treat each other to the ruthlessly thrilling “Bird Box,” which tops off a year of nervous cinema, but is approximately 300% more stressful than the silent but deadly “A Quiet Place” (nor can “Bird Box” have its logic poked through by the prospects of farts). The hook here is an apocalyptic disadvantage—one’s eyes must always be covered from an outside force that invades consciousness, making them want to hurt others or themselves.

Adapted by Eric Heisserer from the novel by Josh Malerman, “Bird Box” takes the set-up of a survival story to its most tense limits, where characters are walking, driving, or riding down a river through unknown environments, without being able to see where they are going. In a year in which watching white supremacy terrorize families in “The First Purge” seemed redundant, “Bird Box” is one of the most terrifying depictions of fanaticism; those who do decide to see sometimes have a frightening, monstrous power, and try to force others to look. It's a scary reflection of our modern cults built on hatred, anonymous conspiracy theories, or willful misinterpretations of the Bible. 

The whole of "Bird Box" hinges on dumb luck, but each major set piece has an inescapable claustrophobia, in which the ability to see what the blindfolded characters can't, and imagining what could befall them, makes it that much more terrifying. At the center of it all is a top-level performance from Sandra Bullock, portraying a mother in the most desperate mode of survival. She makes a viewer even more wistful that somehow she and her two blindfolded kids can survive the film’s impossible world.

9. “Searching” 

Aneesh Chaganty’s “Searching” is a thrilling correction to a few bugs in mainstream filmmaking: it’s an unabashed crowd-pleaser that doesn’t talk down to its audience, a tech-savvy movie that doesn’t lament the growing presence of smart phones and social media so much as whole-heartedly embrace them, and a screen-based thriller that isn’t just the cinematic equivalent of watching a desktop. That it’s also a thriller that gives John Cho the leading role he’s long deserved is just one of its many elements to adore.

Scripted by Chaganty and Sev Ohanian, this story about a father (John Cho) searching for his missing daughter Margot (Michelle La) is one of the year’s most exciting examples of creativity, with elements of filmmaking one can easily take for granted—it’s one of the year’s best edited films for how it creates an emotional roller coaster using only the content on its characters’ screens, orchestrating a narrative out of an insane amount of on-screen detail that fully immerses us in everyone's lives. "Searching" plays wonderfully on repeat viewings, and the opening scene has deservedly won comparisons to the first ten minutes of “Up”—“Searching” is the debut of major storytelling talent, with a thrilling new perspective on the technology we use every day.

8. “John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection” 

“John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection” is a sports documentary that begins with a Jean-Luc Godard quote, and doesn’t show its title subject until five minutes in. Yes, this movie is a dream for anyone who has felt film semiotics and sports analysis aren’t too different of beasts, especially when one talks about the strengths and weaknesses of a performance. Needless to say, “John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection” transported me back to my brain-fueling Film Studies classes, all focused around a pivotal match for the hot-head tennis player in 1984. This doc does not just thrill with how it toys with form, but also in how it proclaims the expansive potential of critical thinking. I dare anyone who is interested in the very concept of criticism, whether for athletes or filmmakers, to try to turn it off after watching it for those five minutes.

7. “Makala” 

“Makala” popped into my life as a review assignment back in August, and by the end of the year it’s still the most exemplary idea of the power in minimalist storytelling. One of the most tense scenes this year is of Makala trying to push a huge bundle of coal, strapped to his bike, up a small hill, as captured with simplicity by director and cinematographer Emmanuel Gras. As it documents one man’s process in creating coal, carting it many miles and then trying to sell it, “Makala” speaks to the eternal values of filmmaking, and recognizes that walking many miles in someone else’s shoes is an instrumental part of it. 

6. “Cold War”

Anyone who was a bit miffed by the ending of Damien Chazelle’s musical “La La Land”—not that it ended on a surprising note, but that it felt like an incomplete thought—will find refreshing heart and soul in Pawel Pawlikowski’s musician story, “Cold War.” Told over various years and across countries, the story of two Polish musicians and their romance in spite of years and geographical distance beautifully condenses time but doesn’t cut short its emotion. “Cold War” precisely captures the different chapters of a relationship, while having a black-and-white beauty that makes the film like the year’s best love ballad.

5. “Mandy” 

Like a holy mix of “You Were Never Really Here” and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” as blended with a chainsaw fight and served on an actual dish of revenge, “Mandy” is one of the year’s most visceral proclamations of love and loss. Be not fooled by the howls from its growing cult audience, the best aspects of “Mandy” (directed by Panos Cosmatos and co-written with Aaron Stewart-Ahn) are not its albeit glorious action scenes but its sensitivity: this is the story of a man (Nicolas Cage), a woman named Mandy (Andrea Riseborough, her close-up laughing at macho BS the true face of this film) and the depths of his battling the demons of grief after his loved one is taken away. The late Johann Johannsson’s heavenly score uses synthesizers and heavy metal guitars to grip you from its opening text, and the film’s heavy use of color filters creates a dreamy atmosphere, which only gets kookier as “Mandy” becomes a straight-up hero odyssey with Cage battling phantasmagorical Jesus freaks. But the true beauty of “Mandy” is its intimacy; it’s as beautiful as looking into the eyes of your loved one as you both lie in bed, no one else existing in the world.

“Mandy” also features an unforgettable Nicolas Cage scene, in which he downs a whole bottle of vodka in a bathroom while standing in his underpants. He’s crying, howling, screaming. It epitomizes the appeal of one our greatest screen artists—that Cage is unafraid to tap into the absurd emotions we sometimes wish we could—and it pushes the surrealism of the scene to sincere and complete heartbreak. I’m placing “Mandy” in my proverbial “In Case of Loss, Break Glass” collection, right next to a copy of Philip Roth’s Everyman.

4. “Leave No Trace” 

I really love what my colleagues have written about Debra Granik’s story of a PTSD-afflicted father living off the grid with his young daughter, but one of my favorite qualities of this nearly pitch-perfect story is that it’s not what you think: it’s not about them living in the woods, but adapting to our society, a story that takes place after what only seems like the true narrative. The completely soulful performances from Ben Foster and Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie create a family dynamic you don’t want to see disturbed, and through small developments there’s a large unease that capitalism and technology could get in its way. Granik’s script, adapted with Anne Rossellini from Peter Rock’s book, has an incredible rhythm with its bare bones scenes, exploring the greatest of emotional stakes in the most deceptively simple way.

3. “Madeline’s Madeline”

In a sense, “Madeline’s Madeline” is a movie that was made for its debut lead, Helena Howard. You understand, about thirty seconds into the film, why Howard warrants her own project, and why a filmmaker like Josephine Decker would mix her own experimental and primal instincts with the talents of her future young star. “Madeline’s Madeline” is delightfully beyond words—describing it as a film about acting and actors is just scratching the surface—but it’s one of the most year’s most hypnotic movies, especially as Decker’s camera toys with point-of-view and takes an approach to editing that is unlike any other film from 2018.

2. “Shirkers” 

I spent much of my Sundance last January recommending to people a little documentary called “Shirkers,” and ramped up that practice when it came out on Netflix this past October. Believe the hype for this movie, which just took our #6 spot on the staff list, and is one of the few docs that has been making waves on #FilmTwitter. It’s both a celebration of and a mystery movie about the lost treasure of a film project that Tan directed as a teenager in 1990s Singapore with her friends, which then disappeared along with her pushy filmmaking mentor, an older white man named Georges, before the film was finished. “Shirkers” has Tan investigating what happened to the project and looking back at her life when she was a teenager making her cool-as-hell film that predates the style of "Ghost World" and Wes Anderson. Perhaps best of all, Tan shares with us the filmmaking daydreams, and the collaborating women, that fueled such an enigmatic passion project. 

1. “Hereditary”

I believe “If Beale Street Could Talk” director Barry Jenkins put it best when he once tweeted to “Hereditary” writer/director Ari Aster, “GIVE ME BACK MY PEACEFUL SLEEP,” followed by six crying emojis. Speaking as someone who has now seen Aster’s masterful debut five times (including an experimental, not recommended double feature at the theater with Fred Rogers doc “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”) I can only affirm the lasting power of “Hereditary” and its perfection as a modern American family tragedy that uses horror language in order to devastate its viewers. 

There are so many elements to cherish about the film, including its exact creepiness with slow-moving shots and deceptively long takes, a score by Colin Stetson that peacefully conjures the devil, and the way that while a first viewing may inspire one to watch it through their fingers, "Hereditary" only gets more disturbing with each viewing. And all of this for a horror film that’s about a household that doesn’t discuss trauma, or about a family plot that’s a highway to hell. Most importantly, however, is the emotional magnitude brought by the likes of Toni Collette, whose viciousness as the central mother can rival the terror of Joan Crawford proclaiming “No more wire hangers” in “Mommie Dearest,” and Alex Wolff, depicting the shattered, silenced nature of trauma. 

"Hereditary" is in the tradition of disturbing films like Kubrick’s “The Shining” or Zulawski’s “Possession"—it's equal parts terrifying and exhilarating, scarring a viewer with the emotional turmoil that's in the foreground. Aster's film messed me up in more ways than one in 2018, and it hurts so damn good. 

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Five Fun Films From 2017 You Definitely Haven't Seen

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Five Fun Films From 2017 You Definitely Haven't Seen

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It’s been a year that’s just packed with must-watch releases – both mainstream, and more niche offerings. If, like many of us in the Gadgets 360 office, you made time for the latest from The Avengers and The Justice League, not to mention Star Wars, or Pixar films like Coco, then you probably ended up watching a ton of movies this year.

This means that you might have missed out on some really fun films that weren’t able to generate the same amount of hype over the year. Here are five really great movies we watched in 2017 that largely flew under the radar. They’re across a mix of genres but we can promise that while they might not all be the most thoughtful films, they’ll all leave you highly entertained. The one thing they have in common is that they didn’t have the kind of broad hype campaigns ahead of release that a film like It or Dunkirk released to, so there’s a good chance you haven’t seen them. In no particular order, here are five films you might have missed this year.

1. Atomic Blonde Starring Charlize Theron as an action lead fresh off the success of Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde nevertheless came and went with barely any traction. It released just after Dunkirk and Valerian, both of which received a lot of attention ahead of launch, and the poor showing by Valerian probably made people a little cautious about new IP too.

The film itself is not great, exactly, but it’s fun; the action is top-notch, but the story felt wafer-thin. It was a lot of fun to watch, which is pretty much all you need sometimes, so if you missed Atomic Blonde in the cinemas, consider picking up the DVD now.

2. The Girl With All the Gifts Love zombie movies but find that they’ve become all too predictable of late? Clearly you haven’t seen The Girl With All the Gifts yet. It started doing the rounds of film festivals before getting released online early this year, followed by a theatrical release. It’s a small film that likely went under the radar for most of us, but it’s also an excellent film that brings to mind Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, whose film adaptation seems unlikely at this point.

Humanity has been nearly destroyed by a fungal disease that turns its victims into “hungries”, and just a few children are immune. These children are being studied at an army base, and though they are still capable of reasoning and thought – unlike the hungries – these kids still have a craving for human flesh. The film is tense and intelligent, so find a copy now.

3. Ingrid Goes West It’s probably no surprise that we at Gadgets 360 would love a movie about a social-media obsessed stalker who travels across the country to be near a woman she’s fixated on via Instagram. And although it does play to our interests, this is honestly an excellent film overall that delivers a great dark comedy.

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It’s both sweet and very disturbing, which is something that star Aubrey Plaza in particular deserves a lot of credit for. Plaza also produced the film, and it feels almost like a funnier version of Black Mirror, which is definitely something we’d like to see more often.

4. Lost City of Z This film stars Charlie Hunnam as the British explorer Percy Fawcett, who disappeared in the jungles of Brazil in 1925 while seeking the lost city he called Z, which others believed was the fabled El Dorado. In some ways, it’s not surprising that this film wasn’t able to get a lot of attention, but it’s well worth watching. It gets a little weird in parts, but the exploration through the Amazon is just beautiful to watch.

The details that the movie tries to fit into the narrative get in the way of pacing at more than a few points, but it’s still an exciting adventure that doesn’t have superheroes or fast cars. We’d have enjoyed it more if the film took itself a little less seriously, but despite that, it’s really something you shouldn’t miss.

5. Colossal This Anne Hathaway starrer was also shown at festivals in 2016, but had its theatrical release in April this year. It’s a surprisingly enjoyable genre comedy that has touches of science fiction, romance, social satire, and monster movies. That jumble will unfortunately probably put some people off, but if you’re up for something quirky, do give this film a try.

It’s a surprisingly nuanced portrayal of a woman who is also (sort of) a giant Godzilla-type monster rampaging through the streets, while also being a slice-of-life film about our protagonist’s everyday life. The intersection of these themes delivers something that’s surprisingly enjoyable, and you should definitely catch the film.

These five films are definitely our favourites when it comes to movies that went under the radar, drowned out by the hype for films like Wonder Woman, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. We loved those films as well, so we’re not complaining, but if you haven’t seen these five films as well, give them a shot now.

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