#edmund henley when I find you.

[drummer-from-down-under]

You can't tell me that this boy wouldn't have loved The Lost Boys if he had just lived for another 8 years

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)

With the solid foundation established by The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, this sequel flourishes. I didn't expect The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian to be as good as first but the characters are richer, the action more intense, and the plot darker. It's just as - maybe even more - engaging than its predecessor.

It’s been a year since Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), and Lucy (Georgie Henley) left Narnia for their home of England. When the young Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), calls for them in a desperate moment, they are summoned back to the magical realm, only to find that over 1,200 have passed.

What I like best about Prince Caspian is the way it follows up on the previous story. When we see the Pevensie children in London, they’re bored out of their skulls, wishing they could return to the fantastic world where they grew to adulthood and ruled benevolently over wild creatures and mythical beasts. When they return, they’re as excited as you are. What has Mr. Tumnus been up to? Has Aslan returned as well? What about… wait, what’s this? Armored men in Narnia? The former residents of a noble kingdom forced to live in a shrinking wilderness? Talk about a crisis! You can’t wait to see Peter and his siblings assemble an army and kick those interlopers outta there.

The stage is set and now we fill it with great characters. While Caspian’s scheming uncle Miraz (Sergio Castellitto) is what he is, everyone else has rich character arcs. Most notably, there’s a rivalry between Peter and Caspian that's both satisfying and logical considering they’re both monarchs from wildly different worlds. The action scenes are rousing because they demand the Narnians overcome their opponents via strategic planning. It all leads to an unexpected mano-y-mano fight that isn’t like the ones we’ve seen before. Both combatants have an advantage and are on relatively even ground. The thing that’ll determine who wins and loses is which one underestimates the other.

Prince Caspian benefits from better special effects than its predecessor. The performances are better - to be fair, the actors have had 3 years to hone their skills. The climax contains everything thrilling about Aslan and his allies’ battle with the White Witch and her minions, and then amps it up by giving us a nail-biting one-on-one battle between Peter and Miraz. The new characters introduced are a joy to watch and, as a sequel, it delivers everything you want to see. I might even like it more than the first – which isn’t a slam against The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, it’s a compliment for how big of a pleasant surprise this film turned out to be. Next up is Voyage of the Dawn Treader and I’m excited to see what it has in store. (On Blu-ray, August 25, 2017)

[nevervalentines]

in which jamie forgets an anniversary and dani burns dinner. 

She wasn’t drunk when she started, but that was two glasses of wine ago, before she had burnt the first sirloin, and before Jamie had called to tell her she would be late.

Of the two of them, Dani was the better cook, but this wasn’t accounting for a new recipe borrowed out of one of Agnes’s yellowed cookbooks, dogeared and oil-spattered. This wasn’t accounting for the uneven burners on the ancient gas stove, for Jamie’s unexpected delay or for the cloudy, white wine induced fog that had descended on her quite suddenly, all things considered.

Making a simple pan sauce didn’t seem quite so hard on late night reruns when Julia Child was doing it, but searing off the meat was supposed to be the easy part, and here she was peering into the saucepan like she is trying to read tea leaves at the bottom of a cup.

She’s so focused on browning the steak, she almost doesn’t hear the door unlock, but Jamie drops her bag with a clunk just over the threshold, and Dani’s head swivels toward the kitchen door. Even without seeing her, Dani can picture the way Jamie will kick off her shoes, rifle a hand through her curls, toss her keys into the tiny, clay bowl sitting in the foyer.

There’s the pad of socked feet then, called from a few rooms away, “Is something burning, Dani?”

Two glasses of wine ago, that might not have stung. But now, armed with a wooden spoon and a little strung out from the alcohol-flush and the heat of the stove, it digs the knife a little deeper.

She clicks off the burner and turns just as Jamie graces the entryway, looking dashing and night-air ruffled, smelling a little like cigarette smoke, and a lot like the pub a few blocks away.

Jamie’s face breaks into a smile when she sees her, and even through her hurt, Dani finds herself a little enamored to see it. It dimples her cheeks in all the best ways, gives her chin that roguish, endearing tilt.

Her sleeves are pushed up above her elbows, a patchy, worn flannel sloppily tucked in, half-unbuttoned over one of her soft, thermal Henley’s that Dani loves so well.

Conversely, Dani thinks she must look something of a mess – nearly the suburban caricature she was always secretly terrified she would become:

Like the harried, half-forgotten wife, spending evenings in front of a stove, herding children and chores until a husband stumbles in at half past seven on their anniversary.

And it’s not that Jamie has ever made her feel like that, or meant to. They are equals in everything, and most nights, it’s Dani who urges them to go out more, drags them to movie showings or those cheesy neighborhood block parties every third Wednesday.

But like this, feeling frustrated and a little stood up, those fears creep in – like she’s back in the Midwest, watching a wedding day approach as the world moves in double-speed around her.

She can tell Jamie doesn’t know yet that she’s in trouble. If she did, she would have showed up sheepish, maybe armed with flowers, and wouldn’t have beelined across the kitchen for a kiss with so much confidence.

Dani turns her head at the last second, and Jamie’s mouth catches her nearly at her hairline, almost on her ear. Only does then does Jamie pull back to look at Dani, puzzled. Brow furrowed; her mouth pursed into a pout. Looking at her, Dani feels even more of her latent annoyance seeping away.

“What was that for?” Jamie asks. She reaches for Dani, fits two hands on her waist over the hemline of her skirt, tries to pull her to her.

Dani resists, and Jamie drops her hands, steps back.

Jamie looks around the kitchen, searching. Looking like she had showed up to a pop-quiz sans pencil, paper or even the faintest clue what class she was in.

“Is everything okay?”

“It’s –” Dani crosses her arms over her stomach, feels suddenly and terribly like she might cry. “I just – you’re late.”

“I’m late?” Jamie looks at Dani hard, then at the singed meat at the top of the garbage pail, the half empty bottle of wine on the counter. “Are you drunk?”

Dani shakes head her head. Reconsiders. Nods. “Only a little.”

“This is a bit of a fancy dinner you have in the works,” Jamie says. She tucks her bottom lip into her mouth. “Baby, I told you the guys wanted to buy me a drink after work and I could fend for myself, remember?”

Dani steels herself. Clears her throat.

“We had said we would celebrate the anniversary tonight.” She blurts it out, all at once, squeezes her eyes shut. “We talked about it last week, and I said I would make dinner and you said that sounds great, and I said great, and then I, well –”

She flaps her hand around the kitchen.

“I didn’t know how to remind you when you called without sounding,” her voice drops here, “well, nagging, I guess.”

Jamie’s eyes go wide, and the memory of the conversation seems to hit like a punch to the stomach.

“Oh, shit.” She brings a hand to her mouth, looking around at the kitchen with fresh eyes, the bunches of rosemary and thyme on the counter, the open cookbook. “Oh, shit.”

“I should have said,” Dani says weakly. “It’s really not a big deal. I just thought you might remember.”

And it wasn’t a big deal, it really wasn’t. Wasn’t even a proper anniversary, just six months since they signed the lease on the rental, six months since they decided they might settle here for a while. Take it one day at a time, see what happened.

It’s not a big deal, it can’t be. But, well, Dani wasn’t used to wanting to celebrate these sorts of things. Had used to feel a vague embarrassment every time Edmund insisted they celebrate a landmark. She cringed away from Valentine’s Days, and chocolates, and any sort of romantic gesture.

It had confused her to make such a show of the passage of time, really. Who wants an award for standing still?

But this – this had been different, somehow. And looking at the kitchen, knowing the dining table was set in the next room, made her feel flush and stupid. Christ, she had even lit a candle.

“I can just clean it up,” she said, watching Jamie’s face go through the five stages of grief at an astonishing speed. “We can just put a movie on.”

“Baby, baby, no.” Jamie reaches for her, and this time Dani lets her pull her into her arms, buries her face in Jamie’s shoulder. “This is my fault. I’m so sorry.” She chafes her hands at the back of Dani’s sweater, turns her cheek against her hair.

“With the store opening and everything, I completely just lost track of things.” She unearths Dani from her embrace to look her in the eyes, cheeks a little flush, mouth downturned. “That’s not okay.” A hand smooths Dani’s hair back from her face, thumbs at the corner of her mouth. “You are my first priority, always. I fucked up.”

“We just had opening day last week,” Dani says, sniffling a little, trying for a tremulous smile. “It’s so not a big deal. The shop – ”

“Fuck the shop,” Jamie says, cups her face in her hands.

This close, Dani can count her eyelashes. Having her in kissing distance always makes it hard to concentrate, and Jamie doesn’t help the issue, ducking in to press her lips at the corner of her mouth, like she’s making up for any earlier missed opportunities.

“I never would have gone to the pub if I remembered, you know that right?” She punctuates the question with another kiss, half on her chin. “I was jiggling my knee the whole time, just waiting until I could make an excuse to get back to you.”

Dani rocks to tiptoe, kisses her flush on the mouth, rocks back down.

“I didn’t even have a drink,” Jamie whispers, noses in. “But it seems like somebody had enough for both of us.”

“Only two glasses,” Dani mumbles. She turns her face into Jamie’s hand, presses a kiss to her palm.

“Why don’t I pour you another,” Jamie says, runs her eyes down Dani’s body like a touch, face sharp with interest, but a crease still disrupting her brow. “I would offer to finish up dinner, but neither of us want that.”

“Are you still hungry?”

“Randy’s shitty bar food has nothing on you,” Jamie says. Then, quickly, “Your cooking I mean.” The tips of her ears flush scarlet. “I know I’m not out of the doghouse yet.”

A laugh bubbles up from Dani’s chest, and she swats at Jamie, nudges her toward the kitchenette table. “I’ll finish dinner if you keep me company.”

Eagerly, Jamie rushes to obey. “To be safe, I think I might just not let you out of my sight again,” she says.

Dani turns back to the stove, reaches to fetch another wine glass from the shelf. Smiles. “Deal.”

**

Jamie drags a stool up to the counter to watch her cook. Chin propped in her cupped palm, she looked up at Dani adoringly, her whole body oriented toward her, socked feet tapping on the rungs.

The second steak was salvageable, and Dani leaves it marinating in the same brown butter and herbs it was basted in, heating a clean skillet to prepare the pan sauce under Jamie’s watchful eye.

She tops off Jamie’s glass as it does, then her own. Derailed, somewhat, by Jamie’s mouth on the lip of the wine glass, her quiet hum of pleasure as the wine touches her tongue.

“You’re being unfair,” Dani murmurs, turns back to the pan, begins to sweat the shallots, letting a few cloves of crushed garlic slide into the hot oil.

“Quiet,” Jamie says. Takes another sip, a little showy this time, catching on. “I’m learning.”

She cradles the glass languidly in her palm, twirls the stem as she watches Dani’s profile, studying her in that keen, fond way she does, even when Dani is doing something especially mundane – like folding laundry, or turning the pages of a book.

Dani peeks at her out of the corner of her eye. “You’re staring.”

“You’re beautiful.”

“Jamie,” she says, a little chastising, a little pleased. “Stop it.”

She watches Jamie take another sip, the pulse of her throat, the perfect line of it, a bruise that might be a love bite hidden under the fall of her curls.

“I’m not doing anything.”

It’s definitely a hickey. Racking her brain, Dani thinks she can remember the moment from the day before, remembers Jamie, flush with some sort of shop-related victory, clambering on top of her on the living room floor. Scattering puzzle pieces and throw pillows to rub her face in Dani’s neck. Can remember how fast the tables turns once she got on top.

“You alright?” Jamie asks.

Dani realizes she has been clutching a little desperately at the beef stock for the past thirty seconds and jump starts her brain with a squeeze of the carton.

“Fine, just thinking.” She hopes, uselessly, that Jamie doesn’t call her on it. She should know better, really.

“About what?”

Glugging the carton into the pan, she deglazes with the stock and a healthy pour of red wine, produced from its hiding place behind the pasta.

“Just,” a flap of her hand, “the recipe.”

Jamie reaches from her perch, peels the bottle from Dani’s hand, and takes a long swig. She emerges from the throat of the bottle with a sideways smile and a curl of her fingers, beckoning.

“Come give me a kiss.”

“I’m cooking,” Dani says. “Just because you burn everything, doesn’t mean I have to.”

“Oh, cheeky,” Jamie crows, delighted. Anytime Dani bites back, she gets a look on her face, like she ordered a tuna sandwich and was delivered a four-course-meal. She reaches for her, a little pouty, abandoning her glass of wine to dedicate both hands to reeling Dani in. “Just a little kiss, Dani. What could it hurt?”

“My painstakingly prepared meal,” Dani mumbles, but lets herself drift within arm’s reach, finds herself corralled between Jamie’s knees, finds Jamie’s arms wrapping around her neck.

“Love me a little bit,” Jamie says, noses in until their lips are almost touching. Waits. “Just a little kiss.”

This close, Dani can’t say no, isn’t even sure if she has the capacity. She closes the gap, finds the taste of wine on Jamie’s tongue, lets her hands drop to her waist and cup, pull her close.

“I’m sorry again,” Jamie murmurs, catches her bottom lip in her teeth, bites down soft. Dani hums low in her throat, pressing close enough that the metal of Jamie’s belt buckle digs into her stomach.

“You’re forgiven,” Dani manages in between kisses. She turns her head to the side to catch her breath, leaving her neck vulnerable to Jamie’s mouth and teeth and, most troublesome, her tongue, licking a hot, wet line up the column of Dani’s throat.

“The sauce –”

“It’s fine,” Jamie says, drags her mouth to Dani’s chin-jaw-cheek, catches her lips in another kiss. Her hands clutch, move lower to palm roughly at Dani’s skirt.

“It’ll burn,” Dani gasps, slips her tongue in Jamie’s mouth anyway, feels an electric jolt in her stomach, the satisfaction of Jamie’s muted gasp.

“I’m not stopping you,” this said against her cheek, fingers deftly untucking her sweater to splay wide across the warm skin of her back.

Dani lets the kiss drag a moment longer, Jamie’s tongue stroking into her mouth until her body is buzzing in that tuning-fork pitch, Jamie’s touch setting her humming. With a groan, she wrenches away, untangles herself from Jamie’s legs and moves for the stove, a little sluggish.

She lowers the heat of the burner, scrapes the spoon through the reduction, pleased to find it hasn’t stuck to the bottom the way she worried it would. Jamie makes a loud noise of protest, reaching for her wine and draining it a long, steady draw, eyes still fixed on Dani.

Surfacing, she frowns. “No fair, Poppins.”

“Consider this your punishment,” Dani says absently, drops a hunk of butter into the pan, melting into a beaded, oil slick.

“Oh, yeah?” Jamie’s mouth turns up, a little impish. “How else are you going to punish me?”

“Oh my God.” Dani jerks her chin to face her, cheeks flushing. “Jamie.”

Both hands up in surrender, lips pinching. “Just a thought.”

Dani levels Jamie with her best scolding teacher face, lips pursed, brow furrowed, then – “Hey, wait.” Twists her hand around to her back. “Jamie, did you undo my bra?”

Leaning forward, Jamie tilts her head for a better look, hums, like she’s only just noticed. “Oh, yeah, maybe.” At Dani’s looks she splays her palms out, open, innocent. “Habit?”

Dani looks at her silently, long enough that Jamie’s smile crumples into a shit-am-I-actually-in-trouble frown. She opens her mouth like she’s about to backpedal, and Dani holds up a hand to stop her.

Obediently, Jamie clicks her mouth shut. Dani turns off the stove.

“Are you really sorry?”

Jamie nods, forehead crinkling. Her feet hook over the rung of the stool, and she tilts forward, all doe-eyes and pretty, pink mouth – like she’s imploring Dani to touch. Dani knows, without thinking, that if she did something as simple as set her hand at the small of Jamie’s back, that Jamie would fold, pliant and wanting.

But that would be too easy, and she’s acutely aware of the wine now, of Jamie’s submission.  

Fingers slipped under the capped sleeves of her sweater, Dani drags down the straps of her bra one at a time, reaching under the hem to pull it free. She drops it to the kitchen floor, maintaining a slow, steady burn of eye contact.

Swallowing, Jamie tilts her chin up. Watches steadily, her only tell the rapid rise and fall of her chest, breath hiking.

“You really want to apologize?” Dani asks, absently shifts the cookbook off the counter, relocates the open bottles of wine to the table in the kitchenette.

Jamie’s white knuckles the lip of the stool, and she leans forward so far she’s liable to topple. “Yeah, I want to apologize.”

“And you’re sorry?”

“Yeah,” Jamie says. She digs her teeth into her bottom lip, drawing the cupid’s bow of her mouth taut. “You know I am.”

Dani creeps forward, powerful with the knowledge of Jamie’s desire, the story of it written plainly on her face, expression earnest and embarrassingly naked. “How sorry?”

“So sorry, baby.” A bit of a drawl now, voice pitched low. Looking for permission, she starts to get up slowly, permitted by an incline of Dani’s chin.

“Prove it.”

And, yeah, that’s definitely the wine talking. That she would ever be brave enough to challenge Jamie like this would have seemed almost inexplicable to her a matter of months ago. But here she is, knowing Jamie can see the weight of her chest through the thin cashmere of her sweater, knowing her breasts and the shape of her nipples are visible under the tight fabric, knowing exactly where Jamie is staring.

And Jamie tips the stool in her eagerness, reaches for her and catches her by the waist, pulls her into a deep kiss. She backs her into the counter until the lip of it digs into Dani’s skin, her back bowing under the full body press of Jamie against her.

Hands go straight to her chest over her sweater, groping a little sloppily – a little high school, a little tipsy, moaning like it’s the first time a girl’s ever let her be so bold. Those hands slide to her hips and then around, cupping under her thighs and encouraging her up onto the counter. Dani hops up easily, scattering a salt shaker and nearly thumping her head back into the cabinets.

Peeling up the hem of her sweater, Jamie adapts well to having her chest at eye level. She presses sloppy kisses to her stomach, moves up until she can teethe at the curve of Dani’s tits, licks out until Dani sighs, buries her hands in Jamie’s curls and holds her firm.

It had been a surprise to find that strong, swaggering Jamie, with her big boots and sure, cocky grin, goes loose and pliant under Dani’s firm touch – that she submits easily and gratefully, that there are few things she likes more than sinking to her knees, hands digging dimples into Dani’s thighs.

“Good,” Dani hisses, tips her head back hard enough that the dull thump against the cabinets reminds her of the solidity of her own body, of Jamie’s knees grinding into the linoleum, her mouth working between her legs.

Dinner is cooling on the counter, the sauce congealing in the pan, and Jamie is sighing happily, nudging closer, her cheeks wet against the inside of Dani’s thighs. Her own pleasure seems perversely visceral in the mundane sepia glow of the tiny kitchen, the tasteless mid-century art watching her throat mottle with an ecstatic blush, her hands tightening in Jamie’s hair, her hips rolling.

Dani hopes, abruptly and breathlessly, that Agnes’s ghost isn’t also here to watch them desecrate her kitchen counter. Then, expletives rolling off her tongue as Jamie does something particularly innovative, moves her fingers to join her tongue, she realizes she doesn’t really fucking care.

Until Jamie, the power of sex had never belonged to Dani before. It was, at best, an inconvenience and, at worst, an obligation. Sex meant the stick shift of Eddie’s car digging into her back in empty parking lots, meant turning her head to the side and bearing the world around her.

When he kissed her, she felt the gestures – the rough chafe of stubble, the press of his mouth, the heat of his breath – but they never seemed to reach her. The flickers of sensation rolled off her skin, a storm over the ocean, missing the shore completely. And, after, the guilt wrung her dry.  

But this, just the flicker of Jamie’s eyes to hers before they flutter shut, lashes dark against her cheek, her hands spreading her thighs, Dani is submerged.

**

Dani Clayton didn’t believe in ghosts before she came to Bly, but now her own body is as haunted as a Victorian landscape, a dark manor on the moor, some rooms shuttered even to her.

But before Bly, Dani didn’t believe in this either – that she would ever feel the full-body pleasure of another person curled into her side, bare legs tangled and covered by a knit throw, feeding her bites of steak from sauce-sticky fingers.

“This feels absolutely animal,” Dani says around a giggle.

Jamie shrugs. “No reason to waste it.” She watches Dani lick her thumb clean with narrowed eyes, waggles a finger, a little admonishing. “And this time, I wasn’t the one who ruined dinner.”

“You played a very critical role,” Dani murmurs, and Jamie grins, a little pleased with herself. She shifts on the rug, trying to get comfortable, leans back into the couch.

“I like to think I played my part, yeah.” Turning her head, she drops a kiss on Dani’s bare shoulder. “How’d I do?”

Huffing a laugh, Dani offers her cheek for another kiss. “Five stars.”

They had retreated from the kitchen after Jamie began to complain of a leg cramp. The novelty of the kitchen counter wears off pretty fast, especially when any particularly creative maneuvers are likely to put something dangerously close to a hot burner.

Half-dressed and starting to shiver, skirt still hiked up to her waist, Dani had let Jamie tug her down onto the living room floor, finish what they started.

After, Jamie would put on a record, salvage what she could from the kitchen and rescue the half-drunk bottle of wine. It was still a good cut of meat, she insisted, marbled with fat and juice-dripping, and some people liked it better cold, anyway.

Now, the plate shucked somewhere under the coffee table, Dani rolls onto her back and drags Jamie with her. Drowsy, full of red wine and fine food, Jamie buries her head into the crook of Dani’s neck, leaves herself vulnerable to Dani’s naked, curious gaze.

Flush with the implicit permission to look, to explore, Dani trails a finger down Jamie’s arm, enamored with the smallest details – the dotting of freckles, the fine, soft hair on her arms, the tendons in her wrists that ripple when she closes her fingers gently around Dani’s wandering hand.

Eyes still closed, her words vibrating against Dani’s throat, she whispers, “good anniversary, then?”

“I think we salvaged it,” Dani whispers back, loathe to shatter the stillness of the room, the croon of the record and the impossibly light kiss dusted over her collarbone like an offering.

Despite the grind of the threadbare carpet against her back, the peace lulls her into the slow, syrup drift of near-sleep, but she stops her eyelids from drifting shut, wanting to continue her examination. She steals her hand from Jamie’s grasp to stroke lightly over the pink, raw divots where her clothes dug into skin – a band from the strap of her bra, the texture of her jeans leaving faint marks on her hips.

“I like living here with you so much,” Dani says. The honesty of her own voice a fragile thing, like an undressed windowpane, transparent in its nakedness.

She looks at the lines left behind from Jamie’s clothing, the fullness of her thighs and hips disguised by the drape of the afghan, teasing skin through its crocheted weave.

“I’ve never –” Dani starts, stops. Stalls, tries again. “– with anyone, before. Like, never –” She slips her hand under the blanket to stroke the plane of Jamie’s hip, draws a circle. “Y’know, never wanted to make someone dinner or come home to them or,” she pinches her eyes shut, “couldn’t wait to fuck them so we do it on the kitchen counter, instead.”

Jamie snorts, “And how was it?”

“Almost as good as kissing you,” Dani says, unthinking. She’s watching the shape of her hand through the thin blanket, but angles her chin to meet Jamie’s eyes when she feels her tense, finds her blinking up at her.

“Oh, yeah?” Jamie asks, a little dazed.

“Yeah.”

Tilting up, Jamie kisses her, slow. Lip to lip, the kind of kiss that drags on even after you pull away. Dani shivers.

“I can feel that in my entire body,” she says, a little dreamy. “Like you’re touching me all over.”

“You’re sleepy, baby,” Jamie says. She nuzzles in, “Talking crazy.”

She isn’t wrong – sprawled on the living room floor like cats in a sunbeam, the warmth of Jamie’s body, the smell of sex, the threat of the witching hour fast approaching, her eyelids are dragging closed, but – “I mean it,” she says, a little slurred now. “I can feel you everywhere.”

She loses Jamie’s reply to a foggy plunge into a deep, cotton sleep.

[moviemunchies]

I’m sort of doing this thing where I’m reading books and keeping a log of it, and if there’s a movie adaptation I try to watch it before moving on to the next book in the series. So I’ve been meaning to get to Prince Caspian for a while now after reading the book.

This one’s weird because a large chunk of the Chronicles of Narnia fandom doesn’t like this movie very much. And I pretty much loved it since I saw it in theaters? It’s not as faithful to the book as the previous film, but that doesn’t make it bad. I’m still struck by the design of the film, which stands out from most fantasy films of the time (and many today), and it’s got a lot of action! That’s enough to make me dig a fantasy movie.

_Prince Caspian_ is the second installment of Walden Media’s Chronicles of Narnia film series and the sequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It’s also the last film in the series that was made by Disney, as they quit because they were disappointed by this one’s reception. Walden Media managed to get another studio to fund and distribute the third movie.

After a year in England, the Pevensies come back to Narnia to find that over a thousand years have passed. The country’s been conquered by the Telmarines who have driven the Narnia creatures into hiding, thinking they’d been wiped out. The Telmarine prince, Caspian X, is sympathetic to Narnians but didn’t know they still existed--that is, until he has to run from the palace and lead them in rebellion against his uncle who wants him dead to take the throne. The Pevensies are there to help of course, but Peter butts heads with Caspian (and his siblings) on how to best fight this war. And Aslan’s nowhere to be seen, except by Lucy, who can’t convince the others to follow that lead.

This movie does actually have a lot of content from the book, just rearranged or recontextualized. The Plot is completely reworked and I don’t mind that because a huge chunk of Caspian’s story in the book is being told to the Pevensies by Trumpkin--that would be a very frustrating way to tell his story in the movie. Some things, like the animals holding faith for Aslan when others don’t, is implied by the way scenes are done rather than outright told to the audience.

There are some things that are in both the book and movie, but the movie doesn’t quite explain what that’s about. The sparring match between Edmund and Trumpkin doesn’t really make much sense in the movie.

There’s also the attack on the castle. This sequence is invented entirely for the movie, and while it’s frustrating in a similar way that Finn and Rose’s subplot in The Last Jedi is, the book does mention the Narnians losing some battles and so actually showing that to the audience is fine. Also I like seeing the way they apply griffins and mice in the raid. That’s cool thinking and I wish to see more fantasy films think about how fantasy creatures might be used on military operations.

Also I really like the design of this movie? The Narnian side mostly keeps the same designs for their weapons and armor, but it’s a lot more worn down, and that makes sense because they’ve been hiding in the woods for a few hundred years. They don’t have new weapons. The Telmarines, on the other hand, look fantastic. For their culture, WETA Workshop was inspired by Spanish and Italian culture, so instead of longswords they use side swords and falchions, and their armor brings to mind a combination of Spanish conquistadors, Italian condottieri, and Japanese samurai. They look more Renaissance than medieval and I love it.

The cast is also matched up to that, with Spanish and Italian actors playing the roles of Telmarines. Ben Barnes is an exception, as he’s English, but he’s putting on his best Inigo Montoya impression as Caspian.

You know what? Let’s talk about this cast. Ben Barnes, back when he wasn’t just playing villains. I remember classmates in high school saying that he’s too old, but if he is that’s because the actor playing Peter is also too old. Caspian is supposed to be the same age as Peter, so I didn’t mind it here. I think he overdoes the whole “YOU KILLED MY FATHER” thing but I don’t think that’s Ben Barnes’s fault as much as he’s working with the Plot point that’s been sandwiched into the story.

William Moseley does very well in playing Peter as he’s written for this movie, the problem is that Peter in this movie is written to be an absolute prat. His whole arc in this movie is about learning that he doesn’t have to be in charge and to let Aslan take the wheel. This would make sense if his life experience was only what we saw in the last movie’s adventure, but we know that he apparently grew up in Narnia and became a successful and wise warrior king. So him being so full of himself here doesn’t make sense. I got over it, as I see what they were going for, deconstructing how a kid might feel after his time in Narnia, but it is very annoying and it makes Peter very unlikable.

Unlike Edmund, played by Skandar Keyes, who is absolutely THE SHIZ in this movie. Having learned his lesson from the last movie, Edmund is a cheeky wonder child who takes no crap from anyone. He doesn’t have that much of an arc in this movie, but he is great to watch, so I forgive it. He’s the guy who keeps his head screwed on straight when Peter and Caspian need someone to keep them grounded.

Anna Popplewell’s Susan is good? They still go with her being the “reasonable” one, albeit a little less uptight than in the first movie. They have this thing in the movie in which she and Caspian are definitely into each other and I don’t think that’s too out there--in the books Susan had at least half a dozen suitors when she was queen--it does mean that a lot of her character arc is dedicated to that, and we know that it goes nowhere. This one clearly implies that she’s having trouble holding faith in things she doesn’t see in front of her, and that’s a fascinating direction that doesn’t go quite as far in this movie as it could.

And Lucy. Georgie Henley as Lucy is still delightful. They removed and rearranged a lot of the material from the book in her character arc which is a shame, because I really like a lot of that stuff. As the one who still has the faith and wants to see the magic in Narnia when even the Narnians are giving up hope, she has to come across as sympathetic and believable. That doesn’t always work, especially when she does things like walk up to a bear that’s about to attack her, not realizing that it’s not talking (there ARE non-talking animals in Narnia, dear!). But for the most part she works in this movie.

You know Peter Dinklage is in this movie as Trumpkin? I find it odd that he made it big on a fantasy show that was billed as deconstructing usual fantasy tropes while heavily featuring sex and violence when he also starred in the film adaptation of a famously Christian book series and one of the giants of the fantasy genre. He does okay. I mean I like that Trumpkin is this grumpy guy who is cynical and tired of everyone and just wants to go home, but I don’t know if Peter Dinklage is acting or just… cynical and tired of everyone and wants to go home. It’s entertaining sometimes, but not brilliant.

And Warwick Davis is in this movie? He was in the BBC series as well, but instead of as Reepicheep this time he’s playing Nikabrik, the dwarf that is even more cynical than Trumpkin and hates all humans. It feels weird for me seeing him as a villain, though I know he’s done it before. I always had trouble with Nikabrik as a character because I always felt like him going full-on evil was… well, everyone seemed strangely unperturbed by that in the book, even if we had an idea of how we got there. In the movie I felt as if Warwick Davis does well in that you get him, and you get where he’s coming from, but not enough to agree. And other characters react to his turn in a way that’s appropriate.

Ken Stott voices Trufflehunter and he does not have enough to do in this movie. Trufflehunter is not that Plot-relevant in the book, but I always had the impression that he was an important character and one of the most prominent Narnians in the story. He’s okay here, but I really thought that he should be doing more in the story. Maybe the filmmakers didn’t think it would fit the darker tone they were going for, if there was a badger running around in many of the scenes? I don’t know, I wanted more.

We do, however, get quite a bit of Eddie Izzard as Reepicheep, which is fantastic because Reepicheep is fantastic. This mouse is amazing. There were some people very surprised that a mouse is going around killing people, but it’s a fantasy film, he’s a knight, and also it wasn’t as if the first movie didn’t have violence? I’m frustrated that the movies don’t go with the “talking animals are bigger than normal animals” EXCEPT with Reepicheep, because it’s pretty darn weird that all the other animals are ordinary-sized and the talking mice are the size of cats. But Reepicheep is very entertaining, very cool, and he’s great.

Sergio Castellitto plays a surprisingly sharp Miraz? Yeah, Plot-wise he’s generically evil, but I think that Castellitto makes him A) entertaining to watch, and B) convey that he knows that he’s the least popular guy in the room with the other Telmarine lords. The book version of Miraz has no idea that they’re plotting against him. Miraz in this movie does, and although he’s definitely not bright enough to realize exactly what they’re doing, by the end of the movie he knows that they’re happy to watch him die.

Pierfrancesco Pavino’s Glozelle, for instance, is barely a person in the book? He shows up to stab Miraz in the back. Here, not only is he not the person who does that, but the movie makes him very uncomfortable with the direction Miraz’s path to power is taking, despite remaining loyal until almost the very end. He’s a complex, conflicted character and I like him. 

And also noticeable is Damian Alcazar as Sopespian, a guy who doesn’t like Miraz, but is no more likable because of it. Because he’s obviously not doing it for any sense of the greater good, he’s doing it because he wants that power for himself. I don’t think anyone mistakes his motives or thinks of him as a secret good guy at any point in the movie, which I think speaks to the actor’s performance.

Liam Neeson is Aslan. He does great, though he really doesn’t have that many lines. Which is part of the point, that he’s not there for most of the movie, so it works, I think.

Also Tilda Swinton’s in this movie. There is some justification for it, but I think it was because she loved being in the first movie, and they loved having her in it, so they just brought her back.

I like fantasy movies with lots of action and sword fights and cool design choices. So no, Prince Caspian isn’t that faithful of an adaptation of the source material (though it’s more faithful than people give it credit for), and I do get frustrated with character arcs--mostly Peter’s. But I still really love this movie, and I have tons of fun every time I watch it.

[amandaklwrites]

Movie Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)

Genre: Children’s, Family/Action, Adventure/Fantasy

Rating: 10/10

Movie Review:

Man, Prince Caspian is such a great film.

I had seen it when it first came out in theaters (hello! Huge Narnia fan here, of course I did!), and I remember loving it so much. But funny enough, I don’t think I ever watched it again after that initial release. I didn’t even have on DVD until a few months ago. Recently, I had rediscovered my infinite love for Narnia (it was always there, it just came and went at times), so I had wanted to watch all the movies again. And as I watched Prince Caspian, I realized that I didn’t remember anything about this movie. So, it felt like watching it for the first time again!

And boy is it different. I like the take on the story. We have these four children who had grown up and had a whole life in this magical world, and then they return to their old world and have to start from the beginning. Could you even imagine? And the idea that when they do return to Narnia, it’s been like a thousand years since they had left??? I liked that the movie played with their reactions to this realization—that Narnia’s kings and queens had abandoned them, and the Pevensie’s have to live with that.

Before I get too much into the storyline, I should discuss the new addition to this world, the title character: Prince Caspian. I forgot how much I loved Ben Barnes as this role. He’s so fierce and confused and strong, and he’s finding himself throughout the entirety of this movie. He’s seeing the other side—Narnians and his people have been at war for so long. While he’s in the world of Narnia, having to rely on them and the Pevensie’s to help him, he can learn about this other side. He sympathizes with them, he understands the monstrosities his people have made to theirs. At the beginning, Caspian is only focused on one thing: the fact that his uncle murdered his father (ooh, so Hamlet-like!), and he wants revenge. But with the Pevensie children, with the Narnians at his side, he grows beyond that. He even learns that he doesn’t want to be a terrible person like his uncle and won’t kill him! Ben Barnes plays this role so well and you see his development over time, his understanding and learning as he progresses. Gah, if I didn’t already love Peter, Caspian would be my man!

What I also enjoyed was seeing a darker turn on Narnia. We see this land that had been so magical and new, and now it’s been hurt and destroyed, for the most part, for a thousand years since the joyous time after the White Witch’s reign. The Narnians have to deal with the fact that their rulers have returned, and most of them aren’t too happy about it. That was interesting in itself. Not many were rejoicing and explicitly happy that the Pevensie’s were back—they had to prove themselves worthy of the throne they had left (though it wasn’t on purpose). In an interesting way, they had to grow even more than they did in the first movie. They had to find themselves again.

Two of my favorite scenes, which interestingly, were the most brutal ones. The raid at Caspian’s castle was so honest and vicious and quite honestly, too much for a kid’s movie. That was a moment when I realized William Moseley was a fantastic actor—his face, his expression, when Peter had to make the decision to abandon his people that were trapped and killed off. I cried watching that part because the anguish and horror was right there—and it told the truth about being a ruler, at times, having to deal with those losses and deaths, and having to live with yourself after them. I thought William shined through in that moment.

My other favorite scene was the fight scene between Peter and Caspian’s uncle (I think Peter in my favorite?). I don’t know why, so I couldn’t even begin to fully explain myself, but I thought that whole action sequence was one of the most beautiful scenes ever filmed. The way they shot the action, the music, the tricks on the camera, the sound of the metal clashing, the actors/characters themselves. It was a scene that stuck with me afterward, and I couldn’t stop watching it in the first place.

I loved seeing everyone come back—William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes, and Georgie Henley—and how much they had grown up and morphed as actors! I felt like all of their characters had changed a lot (though still themselves deep down) and it all shone through the parts of the plot. Even seeing the White Witch make a return was so interesting and complicated, and the use to show how Edmund could tell the others, especially Caspian, to deter away from her was really profound. And of course, Aslan!! I love how he was there all the time, without actually being there for most of the film. It was so interesting and well done. The new additions were great, too—Reepicheep is so funny and such a delight! Peter Dinklage as Trumpkin was a wonderful character as well, and I liked that he worked as the gap between Narnia and the kids.

The hardest part about this film (in terms of plot, not anything wrong with the film) is when you come to the realization that nothing will ever be the same. Peter and Susan admit that they won’t be returning to Narnia, and that breaks my heart every single time. Because it means that they had learned what they needed, and their ready to move on with their lives, even if it means just keeping Narnia in their hearts (I feel that…). Journeys come to an end sometimes, and though they don’t want to, they know it is time.

I loved everything about this film. The action, the music, the fighting sequences, the raw emotion in the characters, the humor. It was a bit of a darker contrast to the first film, especially for the characters, but it helped spark the movement forward for the world of Narnia.

Definitely a favorite.

[drummer-from-down-under]

Everyone else got to wake up.

[brassikarts]

I got tagged in a thing and now you have to read it >:)

Star sign: Scorpio

Put your playlist on shuffle and list the first four songs that pop up:

Missing U - Robyn

New Moon on Monday - Duran Duran

The Boys of Summer - Don Henley

Fancy - Reba McEntire

(Wow.  My Spotify dates me. >.>)

Grab the nearest book to you and turn to page 23, what line is 17?

I don’t have a book near me!

Ever had a poem written about you?

Not a serious one.

When was the last time you played the air guitar? 

Like... sometime within the last three days. 

One sound you hate and one you love: Hate: Popping knuckles.  HATE HATE HATE.

Love: Ocean waves.

Do you believe in ghosts? Nah.

Do you believe in aliens? I find them unlikely.

Do you drive and if so have you gotten in a crash? I do and I have, but I didn’t cause it. 

Do you like the smell of gasoline? Yikes.

Last movie you’ve seen? Spider-Man: Homecoming

Worst injury you’ve ever had?

Injury?  Once, I stepped into a snow-covered rabbit hole and fractured my ankle on a hiking trip in the Ozarks.  Being 23 at the time, I then hiked on it for 16 miles because why not.

(This ankle tells the weather now!)

Do you have any obsessions rn?  Obsessions?  Not so much... been in a write-y, art-y mood... I’m still kinda obsessed with perfume and finding the perfect orange blossom scent.  

Do you hold grudges? 

LOLOL.

Yes.  I try not to and I know it’s immature but it happens anyway.

In a relationship?

Yep.  Married to @edmund-valks for 9 years later this month.

Tagged By: @taciturnips but honestly, I kinda lack a real OOC blog.  I should rectify this.

Tagging: whoever wants to do this, I’m tired and have had some champagne and can’t remember names atm

[amandaklwrites]

Movie Review/Why This Movie Affected Me: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005)

Genre: Children, Family/Action, Adventure/Fantasy

Rating: 10/10

Movie Review/Why this movie affected me:

Oh, Narnia. A magical world that I had often dreamt of traveling to as a child. Even now into adulthood, I wish I could be whisked away through a magical wardrobe that left into a land that I could only imagine in my mind.

When this movie first came out in theaters, I was about the same age as Lucy (the actress and I are the same age anyway!), and I am so glad that I got to experience this movie when magic was still filling so much of my imagination. Not that it isn’t now, but it was more intense back then.

Just recently, I had watched this movie again. It is one that I can watch over and over, and never get tired of. It is one that has captured so much of my life that I don’t think I could ever shake it. It was one that stuck with me at age nine, and it’s still fully grasping my heart after so long.

I don’t think anyone will understand why this movie had been so apart of my soul. I don’t remember if anything specific convinced me to go see this movie or if my mom just took me, but I do remember how I felt afterward. I felt like I was empowered, like I had been brought to life. I was obsessed with this movie—and I mean OBSESSED. I talked about it so much in elementary school that other kids were constantly telling me to shut up. I wanted to learn archery because of this movie (my grandpa did teach me!), I had become enchanted with sword fights and armor from this movie, and I fell in love with every single character. I remember crying in the theater when the White Witch killed Aslan, and even more so when he came back to life (let’s be honest, I still cry now), and the absolute wonder of this world of Narnia. As I’ve grown up, I’ve come to realize how much I loved stories of kids traveling into other worlds as a kid. More so than magical things existing in our world (though, I did love Spiderwick Chronicles around this same time frame). I had wanted to fall down a rabbit hole or walk through a wardrobe so much that I had ached as a child.

Growing up, I remember always wanting to be Susan. I dreamt of being so beautiful and wonderful like her (and actually, I am a bit like her when I think about it—I am a bit too serious, I see some things in black and white, and I would probably be hesitant about going into battle), and she was like an idol to me in this movie. But the more I age, the more I realize, especially at the time of seeing this movie, I was more like Lucy. I was a little girl who had believed in what would be considered too many magical things, and I was a bit of a loner. I had dreamt of magic places and characters, and I would be off playing by myself whenever I got the chance. I was teased by other kids, I was made fun of, I was called a freak to my face and whispered about when I was nearby. So, when Lucy is telling the other kids about her experience in Narnia, and they don’t believe her, and Edmund makes fun of her, I know exactly how that feels. One hundred percent. So those moments always get to me. But also like Lucy, I still chose to believe what I believed in, and didn’t take crap from anyone. And I think, in the end, here so many years later, it was for the best. It was what made me who I am.

A few examples to show how much I love this movie, at that age and now—one of them is, when I was a kid and got this movie on DVD, I watched it over and over until I memorized every line, until I could quote the whole movie if I wanted to. And even to this day, when I probably don’t watch the movie for quite some time in between, I can STILL quote every line in the movie. I can say them along the characters, even when I’m not looking directly at the screen. It’s just one of those movies for me.

The other example was a few years ago. My family and I had gone to Seattle to visit, and we went into their big Pop Culture museum they have up there (I forgot what it’s called, I apologize), and I was touring through the Fantasy area, where they had props and costumes of so many fantasy movies. I had turned the corner, and just right there, I saw it instantly. It was Susan’s bow and arrows, and her horn. I remember whispering, “Narnia,” and I rushed over there and started crying. Then, just nearby, was the White Witch’s dress and staff. My mom had to come find me blubbering in the corner (I was luckily all by myself) and pull me away because I kept staring at them. I had felt like a kid again, so excited and amazed that I was looking right at these props of a movie that had changed my whole life.

If it isn’t easy to figure out, I love everything about this movie, even as an adult. It gives me the same feelings a child, though I can look at it from the adult perspective. Like I think it’s pretty incredible that all these children could go into a war and come out alive (though, yes, I do know that most of them are older than they are in the books—I did read all the books after I saw this movie!). It’s pretty amazing. But I do agree that they were strong characters in the first place, with a strong sense of right and wrong.

The cast, I think, are the most important part of this film. All four of the kids were absolutely perfect, and for their ages, fantastic actors in my opinion. William Moseley and Anna Popplewell slip so well into their characters that to me it felt so seamless. Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley were younger, so their portrayals were a little rougher, but honestly, they were still so good, considering their ages. Everyone else was just as wonderful—Tilda Swinton as the evil White Witch was horrifying, James McAvoy as Mr. Tumnus is just so sweet (and I somehow got Tumnus in a personality test?!!?), and the ultimate Liam Neeson as Aslan was the best casting.

Let’s talk about Aslan for a moment. I do know very well about the connections of these stories with Christian allegories that may or may not have been purposeful by C. S. Lewis (though, we can also discuss how Lewis was raised Christian, then became an atheist, then Pagan, then Christian again at the convincing of his friends—I’m looking at you Tolkien—so I think a lot of his work is influenced by it all), but can I just say: if Aslan is God, I’m one hundred percent okay with that. I think Aslan as a view of God is exactly what Christians should believe in for their God. I myself am not religious at all, but I know a lot of Christians and I have read the large chunks of Bible for Literature Studies, so I think I get the grasp of some of their beliefs. And most of the Christians I know, or people (like my family) that had been raised in churches and religion, believe in a God that is kind and watchful and just lets people live their lives (yes, I know, not everyone believes in this version of God, I’m just speaking on experience from talking to people that I know that believe in God). And I think Aslan reflects that well. He is “not a tame lion” as Mr. Tumnus puts it, which I think reflects on the idea that Aslan/God could be cruel and destructive if he wants (think about what he did the White Witch), but mostly, he is kind and gentle and all knowing. Aslan isn’t always there, and he doesn’t step into every single thing in the world of Narnia, he steps away and leaves the Narnians to experience the world themselves. And I see the connection between the idea that the Narnians are hopeless and left behind when Jadis the White Witch rules over Narnia and Aslan hadn’t come to save them. But, according to the prophecy of the four children, he wasn’t meant to save them all himself. He still keeps to the sidelines to let the Pevensie children save the world themselves, and he steps in toward the end. (And yes, with the same allegory, he returns and the Narnians faith does as well). But I have always loved Aslan, as a child and even as an adult that has an entirely different set up beliefs than most people I know. I love the allegory of him as a type of God. Because if there had to be a God, I would want it to be Aslan the Lion. I would believe in him completely. Though, I did notice the line that he said to Peter, where there was something even higher than him that controlled their destines and that makes me wonder—if that is a direct quote from Lewis (I’ll have to research that), or just a line from the movie, what does that mean?? Are they talking about the powers of the universe? Are they saying that Aslan isn’t the only higher power in this world? Which to me, makes him even more complicated and interesting, to have him mention something like that. And my god, he sacrificed himself for Edmund, do we realize that? I hated that scene in theaters and I still hate it now, watching the humiliation he’s put through, the absolute fear in his eyes, even if he knew what would happen. It makes him feel less like God, and almost human. Because though he knows he’ll come back—he’s scared. He doesn’t want to die at all, he doesn’t want to experience that. And to me, that was when I had loved him even more. Because he has feelings, he responds to fear and danger, but he still has the belief that everything will be okay. I could easily write a whole essay about Aslan, but I’ll leave it at that for now. I just love Aslan so much.

Everything about this movie feeds me joy into my soul. The story itself, the magic, the love of the siblings, the battles, the comfort of knowing that something like Aslan can protect a whole world. The movie had created a whole world for all of us to see, and I thought it was beautiful then and I think it’s still just as magnificent now. It’s a movie that taught me something as a child and as an adult and keeps hope and belief and magic in my heart. Can’t you tell at this point? I could gush and talk about this movie for hours, maybe even days, so I can’t go into every single detail—but maybe I’ll mention some things I’ll reference on my blog in the future.

But I can say, this film opened my whole world. I can remember that whole time frame after I saw it, how much I loved it, how it made me feel so strong and magical myself. I even have a jewelry box that is an exact replica (though small) of the wardrobe, and some other cool prop stuff. I cried when I watched the Disney+ episode of props from their movies and it was William, Anna and Georgie seeing their costumes and props (I’m not kidding, I sobbed like a child). I still look into wardrobes just in case whenever I stay somewhere. It showed me that though I was considered a freak at my school, I didn’t care. I still believed in myself and the magic. I think this movie (along with Alice in Wonderland, to be honest, since I loved that one before this, so it was influential there too), is the reason I don’t care what people think of me, for the most part. I just do my own thing, I can be alone, I believe my own stuff. Of course, things get to me and everyone cares about what people think of them, but for the most part, I’m comfortable with who I am and I always will be myself. And I can thank this movie for that.

Whenever I watch this movie, I feel like I’m home.

[madamrogersstorytelling]

Day 5: Three favourite movies/series

This is quite easy, actually. For change. After suffering for two days with extremely hard topics, I’m very happy about this. I had my answers ready already. 

I haven’t seen all his works yet. I’m kinda new to his filmography anyway, but I’m going to watch everything (I tend to do that with all my favorite actors). So this list may change some time later, but let’s not care about that yet, let’s focus on his works I actually have seen. 

1. Jackie & Ryan (2014)

Directed by Ami Canaan Mann

Starring Katherine Heigl, Ben Barnes, Clea DuVall, Emily Alyn Lind

“A modern day train hopper fighting to become a successful musician, and a single mom battling to maintain custody of her daughter, defy their circumstances by coming together in a relationship that may change each others lives forever.” 

I’ve said it a few times now, but Ryan has a special place in my heart. I said in my post ‘Madamrogers Storytelling’ that I had this one moment I realized many things; that moment was after seeing this movie. It was a little over a month ago. 

Ryan made me realize that if there is a thing I want to do, something I want to accomplish, something I hold dear... I should not get stuck. I have to go towards it, no matter what. I think I somehow can identify with Ryan; I don’t write songs or play music, I write stories. There is still the same agony, the same will to succeed and being able to do what you love. And I’d love to have that same kind of courage as Ryan has, that same way of approaching life. 

There are two moments that make me cry. They always make me cry; I’ve watched the movie like five times now and those moments still make me cry. They’re both because of Ryan’s words. In the first one he says to Jackie: “He is not going to take Lia from you. Because you won’t let him.” He sounds so sure, so strong and reassuring that I take it. Something happens inside me. The other moment is when Ryan says: “I always ask myself where am I gonna go next, how am I gonna get there.” I’ve taken that. I ask myself that quite often now. And it helps. I can tell you, it truly helps.

I love Ben in this film. Ryan is so kind, a bit shy, helpful, strong and inspiring character, and Ben’s way of portraying him goes right into my heart. I realized his talent during this film. He tells so much without even saying a single word. I can feel all the emotions he’s showing. And don’t even get me started with his singing voice! I’ve always loved men who sing and play an instrument, especially a guitar. There is something about the way a guitar changes a person; they may be this nice person without it, but when they take a guitar, they change completely. They become deeper, more tender, there is something extremely beautiful in them, more than before. I love all the songs in this film, but Southbound. I fell in love with it during the first note and never stopped falling.

I cannot say that I’m a friend of romantic movies. Especially romcoms make me feel quite bad because they often show love and life so wrongly, like both of them were full of roses and laughter all the time. I’m a bit cynical, to be honest. The reason may be that I’ve never actually been in love. I like honest, meaningful movies that have no fear of showing life and love the way they really are. I have nothing against romance in movies, don’t get me wrong. I just want it to be realistic. And in Jackie & Ryan, this ugly and cruel side of life is shown. Not exactly so clearly, but it’s still there under all those layers. You can see it. I like it how friendly and kind this movie is at the same time as it’s honest and shows you that if something bad happens, often something good comes after it. It’s like when winter dies and spring begins. People’s choices matter. This movie is not just a romantic movie. This is, like Ben said in an interview, a movie about people. I’ve seen that people don’t like it because nothing happens in it. In my opinion, quite a lot happens. This is one of my Go To movies and I’m happy that I found it. It always makes me feel better. I believe in myself. Would probably need someone like Ryan in my life, someone so inspiring and someone who isn’t afraid of telling me the truth. But, for now, this movie’s Ryan will do.

2. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)

Directed by Michael Apted

Starring Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Ben Barnes, Will Poulter

“Lucy and Edmund Pevensie return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader. Along the way they encounter dragons, dwarves, merfolk, and a band of lost warriors before reaching the edge of the world.”

I’m actually glad that I watched Narnia films as an adult. I knew what Narnia was as a child, I probably got to know it around the same time as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings but never really watched the movies or read the books. I remember getting this book with a movie cover from a book club. I forced my mom to let me keep it, and gladly I succeeded because I found the book a few weeks ago and it made me so happy. There were happy tears involved. That was the moment I remembered I had wanted to see the film. I also remembered looking at Caspian when I was just a girl and thinking ‘there is something in that one’. Never saw the film, sadly. 

But a while ago I sat down and watched these movies (with my mom, actually) and I just fell in love. Especially with this third one. Why am I glad that I watched these films as an adult and not as a child? Mostly because nostalgia hurts me instead of actually making me happy. I remember how much better life was back then. (It hurts to look at Ron Weasley sometimes... He was my first fictional crush.) And because now I have a place I can go, the place I got to know as the person I am now. I have Hogwarts, Middle-earth and all the other worlds I’m not letting go of, but this feeling that there is a place for me. It’s funny, really. The ending song of this movie is just so beautiful. There is a place for us. This movie reminds me of that; there is a place for me. I just haven’t found it yet. 

I also love Caspian’s character. I find similarities with myself. Funny enough, my mom even calls me Caspian sometimes (that’s because I have similar hair as he had in Prince Caspian, but mom said once that we’re quite similar in a way). He seems like someone who could make you feel better in mere seconds. The way he speaks, the way he is, and also his hugs must be the best ones in all Narnia. I could go for one of those right now. He is exactly like a person I’d respect. And I respect him, even when he’s just fictional. But he’s a King anyway. And Ben as Caspian, so beautiful. I could say the same things as I did when talking about Ryan, but he has so many emotions in his eyes and body. The way he holds his hand could tell more than a sentence. 

We’ve had this common joke “let’s go to Narnia” with my mom long before we even saw the films. But now, after watching them, the joke is even more common. It’s not even a joke anymore. And I know that till the end of my days, these movies and Caspian will remind me of my mom. 

3. The Punisher (2017)

Marvel

Created by Steve Lightfoot

Starring Jon Bernthal, Amber Rose Revah, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ben Barnes

“After the murder of his family, Marine veteran Frank Castle became a vigilante known as "The Punisher" with only one goal in mind, to avenge them.”

I suck at watching Marvel’s tv series. I’ve seen almost all the movies of MCU and the new X-Men films and Deadpool, but these tv series I’ve pretty much neglected. I tried to watch Daredevil back in the day but didn’t continue. Then, through my dear friend @accio-rogers, I found out about this show and that Ben Barnes is starring in it as a man called Billy Russo (I had no idea who Billy even was). I went to check the series from IMDb and saw that the main role was played by Jon Bernthal, who I had seen before in The Walking Dead. This started to feel like a safe choice, and during the same day I started to watch it. I was also having an awful summer flu back then, so what else could I have done than watch Netflix? Nothing. Didn’t have energy for anything else. 

Turned out that this choice affected on me more than I could’ve expected. 

This was the series which made me fall in love with Ben Barnes.

I probably have said this before, but instead of hating him, I love Billy Russo. I find him interesting. He is psychological, he has an interesting backstory. And I’ve always been interested in psychology, so I love this kind of characters. I don’t love everything he does or all his choices, no. No, no. I think he really is a bad man, but in this very interesting, captivating way. I’m unable to hate him. I understand why people hate him or refuse to write soft and sweet things about him. But still, in my deepest thoughts, hopes and fantasies (that came out wrong) - and probably headcanons - I can see that Billy really has a softer side. He is a psychopath, but maybe there is a side of him that is a bit softer? Maybe all of this is just his way of protecting himself? We know he had a tragic childhood. There must be tons and tons of armor on him, he has made stone walls around himself. Maybe there is someone else under those. No one, not even him anymore, can break those walls and armors. I’m more than willing to accept the fact that he is just a psychopath, as well. It makes him interesting. 

There is something about Ben playing the bad guy. He is so bad, but you cannot hate him. Billy is the perfect example. He is almost like a perfect villain. And the way Ben portrays him is magnificent: so much emotions in a blink of an eye. He’s phenomenal, a masterpiece. Billy Russo is my favorite antagonist of all time; he has this certain energy that makes him a bit frightening but likeable at the same time. He is well written. Full of layers and psychology. I cannot wait to see where Billy’s (or should we call him Jigsaw now?) story goes in season 2.

_________

If I could’ve list four, Westworld would’ve been the fourth. I spent quite some time finding out do I actually love or hate Logan; decided eventually that I love him, that hottie-naughty cowboy. And I’m only in season 1! Yikes. 

Happy Ben Barnes week!

@benbarnesweek

[awfullybigwardrobe44]

Little things from VOTDT movie

(I’m updating as I go along)

-Will Poulter is hilarious as Eustace, I love how he just kind of screetches and thrashes about when he gets on board the ship

-Caspian: “high king and queen of Narnia!”

Lucy: *waves adorably*

-When Reep says “we have nothing if not belief” when Lucy asks if he believes “Aslan’s Country” exists, Lucy gets really serious and quiet. She then asks if he really thinks one could sail there. It’s clear she wants to go there very, very badly.

-Lucy, when Eustace is being a brat: “Are you feeling better?”

-Caspian is adorably amused by Eustace and not annoyed

-“And you’re certain he’s related by blood?” -Caspian, seeing Eustace trip trying to get out of a rowboat, suggesting he knows what naturals Ed and Lu are at adventuring and how terrible Eustace appears to be 😂

-Lucy carrying an actual sword and not just her dagger

-Eustace: “Ah, Yes. Good idea, cousin. Very, uh... logical.” There’s that word “logical” again, from Eustace and not Susan this time...

-goodness gracious Ben Barnes ammiright

-Lucy crying when Gael runs after her mom

-Edmund: “we have to find Lucy, before it’s too late” *doesnt mention Eustace*

-Reep: “and... general... nuisancery.”

-“Period, exclamation mark.”

-I never realized Eustace was fighting Reep with a kitchen knife 😂

-Arabella Morton is a precious smol.

-Gael: “Your Majesty.”

Lucy: “Call me Lucy.”

-The Dufflepuds considered taking Gael to help them instead of Lucy, and chose Lucy because she reads. I wonder what she was reading? Also I love that Lucy, even in Narnia, choose to bring a book when going ashore for adventuring

-Lucy, realizing the Dufflepuds just need help because they can’t read: “Why didn’t you just say so?”

-Lucy’s face when she sees snow

-“Make me she, who’d I agree, holds more beauty than me.” Me, wishing I was Georgie Henley

-Aslan’s voice scolding Lucy 😭

-Lucy, hearing Aslan scolding her and knowing that Aslan knows everything: *hides spell book page under jacket*

-Dufflepuds.

-Dufflepud, after the magician throws pocket lint at them as a “spell”: “We’ll be twice as invisible as before!!”

-magician, telling them about temptation: *looks pointedly at Lucy* *Lucy looks down guiltily* “Be strong.”

-there’s a shot of a carved OWL FACE on the ship and then goes through the window to show Eustace.........

-Edmund, sarcastically: “Or get eaten by a sea serpent!” Heh heh hehhhh

-how is Lucy’s hair that curly from just being in a ponytail is it the humidity or something

-Gael looks so much like Lucy I feel all the nostalgia

-Aslan calls Lucy “child” 💜💜💜

-Aslan growls in the fireplace when Lucy throws the page in just like he did at Tumnus’ house!!!!!!!!

-leather pillows in the hammocks? How is that comfortable??

-this happened in the book too but I love that Caspian gave Lucy his bedroom and instead slept with the crew

-Eustace stayed in his England clothes the whole time 😂😂😂 the symbolism...

-“Ramandoo-doo”

-Reep comforting Dragon!Eustace :)

-Dragon!Eustace’s feet twitch in his sleep

-the symbolism of the Dawn Treader looking like a dragon...

-awww Caspian fell so hard in love at first sight awww awww

-get you someone who looks at you the way Caspian looks at Ramandu’s daughter

-Caspian: “every soul who stands before me has earned their place as a crew member on the Dawn Treader” (or something like that) including Gael who is watching :)

-“For Narnia!!!!!!!” (I mean, I wish there was a “AND FOR ASLAN” but it’s still a great moment)

-Edmund’s torch is ridiculously bright.... it’s clearly enhanced by Narnian magic, right?

-When Aslan changes Eustace back, Eustace has Narnian clothes :)

-Aslan calls Caspian “my son.” 💜

-Does... does Caspian have tears in his eyes when he almost goes through the wave and then decided against it????

-Aslan: “children?”

Lucy: *eyes get bigger, smiles hugely*

Edmund: “I think it’s time we went home actually, Lu.”

Lucy: *turns to Edmund with an “Edmund you totally ruined the moment” look*

-I’m not crying

-I’m not

-“that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

-when the waves wash over them, the place where Aslan was standing becomes the sun

-I’m not crying I swear

-okay I am

[christinaepilzauthor-blog]

The True Will Shakespeare

by Linda Fetterly Root

A comparison of the three earliest portraits, compiled by Stratford Brice from Public Domain Art- Wikimedia

The faces of William Shakespeare The three earliest portraits of Will Shakespeare are compared above. The first two were likely painted while he lived and the third was used when his first Folio was published. All three portraits are ante-dated by the sculpted image at Shakespeare's burial site in Trinity Church, shown below. A Man of Natural Talent or a Ghostwriter? I realize there are otherwise credible people who deny the Holocaust, the moon landing, the existence of the historical Jesus, and the assassination of JFK by Lee Harvey Oswald. Most of them are motivated by a political point-of-view compatible with their belief structure. I find no such justification for questioning the contribution to world literature by a guy named William Shakespeare. This does not mean other writers might not have contributed to his works. But does anyone claim Jim Henson did not create the Muppets simply because a second inventive genius named Frank Oz was involved? In treating the question, it would be disingenuous of me to claim the insight of the many distinguished thinkers who have raised the point: Freud, Samuel Clemons, and Helen Keller, to name a few, but their acknowledge genius does not make them right. Some of the disclaimers are based on mathematical analysis of word use and structure, others on principles of linguistics or the viewpoints expressed in the plays. Mine is simplistic and based on what we do know about Shakespeare, and what I know about the nature of writers. 

Shakespeare was real

Those disclaiming Shakespeare's authorship of his many plays do not go so far as to claim there was no such person as William Shakespeare, the young man from Stratford-on-Avon. There is no question a merchant named John Shakespeare and his wealthy wife Mary Arden gave birth to a son named William, who was baptized by that name on April 26, 1564, at Trinity Church in Stratford-on-Avon. The custom of the times would suggest the ceremony occurred approximately three days after birth, which is why April 23rd is accepted as Shakespeare's birthday. Below is the record of John Shakespeare's son William's baptism.

While some doubters stress the paucity of information about Shakespeare's early years to question the authenticity of his achievements, that is not the case when one factors in the profile of his father. John Shakespeare was politically active at the rural level, with ties to Midland England's aristocratic families including the Catesbys and probably the Treshams and Vauxes. At one time he was the Bailiff of Stratford—in modern terms, its mayor, a position unlikely to have been awarded to a highly visible recusant.

The restored family home on Henley Street, Stratford-on-Avon

At the time of Shakespeare's birth, his father was probably what was called a closet Catholic—those who gave the outward appearance of embracing Anglicanism, but embraced the auld religion in the privacy of the home. His wife Mary Arden was Protestant and came from a wealthy family. She gave birth to eight children, five of whom survived into adulthood. William Shakespeare probably attended the parish school in Stratford, which kept no surviving records. Some writers presume he was home schooled, but that is unlikely. While there was no compulsory education in early modern England, there were penalties imposed for homeschooling to avoid the curricula of parish churches, and until 1762, it was against the law for Catholics to teach. In addition, the prevailing evidence indicates both of his parents were illiterate. That single fact has been used to attack Shakespeare's authorship of the large body of literature published in his name, but it confuses literacy with intellect. Literate or not, Shakespeare's father was a civic leader. Snitterfield, the village where John Shakespeare grew to adulthood, had no parish school, but Stratford did. In all accounts, John Shakespeare was a successful designer/fabricator of leather gloves and headgear, with more than an average dose of entrepreneurship. He did, however, suffer an economic set-back possibly associated with his association with his Catholic leanings, or because his real estate investments were lucrative, but his other money lending was not, and at one point he had been charged and fined for usury. He became reclusive and ceased attending counsel meetings. Some writers state he was rehabilitated before his death, but by that time, his son William had acquired considerable wealth and influence, and may have been responsible for his father being granted a Coat of Arms which Shakespeare himself later used.

Sketch of the Schoolhouse at Stratford (PD Art)

Shakespeare was influenced by historical and religious events, consistent with themes expressed in his poetry and plays John Shakespeare and William Catesby, father of the leader of the Gunpowder conspirators, were both dignitaries in their separate Midland communities and were friends. On one occasion, both appeared on the same list of those who had been fined by the Protestant church hierarchy for missing mandatory services. Both families had ties to the nascent Jesuit mission to England launched by the priests Edmund Campion and his Jesuit superior, Fr. Robert Persons. Shortly after their arrival, the priests traveled to the Midlands, a hotbed of recusancy and Counter-Reformation sentiment. Father Campion likely stayed in the Catesby home, a mere 18 miles from Stratford-on-Avon. Persons is believed to have stayed with the Shakespeares.[1] There is evidence the two Jesuits distributed copies of a document to the recusants who harbored them. It was designed to be used as a model Spiritual Will and constituted a declaration of its testator's abiding Catholic Faith. A handwritten copy signed by John Shakespeare and believed to be, for the most part, genuine was found in the rafters of one of William Shakespeare's houses in 1757, although the first two provisions were likely forged by the man named Jordan who discovered them. Unfortunately, the entire document was later lost. Only it's translation survives.[2] Some historians use the materials concerning John Shakespeare as proof his famous son William knew the later martyred and Canonized Edmund Campion personally, but while it is possible, it is speculative. Shakespeare would have been a child at the time. What is apparent is Shakespeare's youthful exposure to the English Catholic cause and thought which surely shaped his works. During his career, Shakespeare demonstrated the ability to treat issues in a provocative manner nevertheless inoffensive to his sovereign.

The lack of record does not mean Shakespeare was uneducated

One argument against Shakespeare as the likely author of his plays is a lack of education, a highly Charlatan point of view fed by its companion argument raising the lack of historical record of his youth. Each argument feeds the other, and neither considers what I consider to be a highly salient fact: in Shakespeare's day, a Catholic education was illegal. It is likely that a child born of a recusant family might be overlooked in a rural schoolhouse, but those who advanced to England's few universities were vetted and culled. This does not mean there were no highly educated Elizabethan Catholics, but those who were had been educated abroad. The prime mover of the Gunpowder plot, Robert Catesby, attended nearby Oxford but dropped out rather than sign the Oath of Supremacy demanded of university graduates. Had Shakespeare been sent to Oxford, he would have faced the same obstacle. As stated above, homeschooling was a criminal offense. Also, Shakespeare's parents did not have the expertise to teach, but once the Jesuits appeared in the Midlands during Shakespeare's early adolescence, it would not have been that difficult to place an educated priest or layman tutor in the home under the guise of a footman or a stablemaster. Before his father's financial problems arose, the Shakespeare household could have afforded one. Other Midlanders such as the female recusant Eliza Roper, the Dowager Lady Vaux, held her own when interrogated by men like Lord Robert Cecil and his henchman Coke when suspected of harboring the much-sought-after Hunted Priest [3]John Gerard, and survived to establish a clandestine Jesuit boys' school at the family estate at Great Harrowden .There is evidence the Wizard Earl of Northumberland intended to establish a similar school in the courtyard at Warkworth Castle. We cannot eliminate Will Shakespeare and the author of plays like Lear simply because he did not make his way to Oxford. Nor would he have been ignorant of the dramatic form. Not only were plays written in Latin, a part of the grammar school curriculum at parish schools like the one in Stratford, but during Shakespeare's youth, aldermen issued licenses to more than twenty traveling theatrical companies [4] . And while It is tempting to confuse the terms educated and smart, even in modern times, such assumptions invite mistake. Think of John Steinbeck packing his duffel and leaving Stanford. Ben Franklin was homeschooled, and Ben Affleck dropped out of both the University of Vermont and Occidental College. Ever hear of a guy named Bill Gates? Frank Lloyd Wright? No one accuses self-taught Abraham Lincoln of having hired a ghostwriter to draft the Gettysburg address[5]. Look at your own life and think about gifted people you have encountered and ask yourself how many of them did not acquire their genius in a classroom.

What about William Shakespeare's early history? 

From the china cabinet of Linda Root, photo by the author

To illustrate the weakness of the argument of those who find insufficient evidence of Shakespeare's potential because of the lack of documents from his youth, I entered the name of the most famous of my grammar school classmates into several search engines, and did not find enough information to distinguish him from others of the same name, although he has served as head of a federal financial entity. Next, I tried the same with the most successful graduate of my high school class and was overwhelmed by posting and videos, but none which dated back to his youth and early successes and failures. Why should we demand more of William Shakespeare than we do of Ron Rosenfeld or Dan Spinazzola? With Shakespeare, images of his birthplace, the site of his christening, and the houses of his mother, Mary Arden and his wife, Anne Hathaway can be found in the dinnerware in my credenza. We know William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and they raised three children in Stratford-on-Avon, where his family remained when he moved to London. Details as to how he amassed his moderate fortune are sketchy, but hardly to the point to justify labeling his life as a husband and father living in rural England as 'Lost Years.' While there are several plausible stories as to what might have lured Shakespeare into the theater, and thus, to London, all of them are speculative. The fact, however, is he went, and by the time he arrived, he already had a reputation as an actor and fledgling playwright sufficiently widespread for a presumably jealous colleague, successful and prolific author Robert Greene, to call him an 'upstart crow'.[6] ,[7] What Greene did not call him was a plagiarizer. Robert Greene was not a fan of his youthful rival. He wrote his contemporary dramatists and begged them to put the upstart in his place. He may have thought Shakespeare's early works borrowed heavily on extant histories, but he never accused Shakespeare of putting his name to works penned by colleagues. The informative book, The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, vol 13, ed. Alfred Bates, London, Historical Publishing Company, 1906, pp. 104-107 makes a compelling case for Shakespeare's authorship of his plays by referring to Robert Greene's acerbic criticism, written shortly before Greene's death in 1592 in critiques approaching the polemic. In The Drama, Bates make the following point concerning Shakespeare's productivity during the years prior to the bard's arrival in London only a year before his detractor's death:

'Even in his wrath, however, Greene bears eloquent witness to Shakespeare's diligence, ability and success, both as actor and playwright. Of Shakespeare's amazing industry, and also of his success, there is ample evidence. Within six or seven years he not only produced the brilliant, reflective and descriptive poems of Venus and Adonis and Lucrece but at least fifteen of his dramas, including tragedies, comedies and historical plays'.

In conclusion, an argument I find compelling is based on my experience as a writer and a former prosecutor: Shakespeare's contemporaries most often propounded as the true authors of his plays never raised their claim. Those of us who write or perform are a prideful lot. We also have acquired the gift of access to a public audience: in essence, we have Voice. Would Ben Johnson, Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlowe, all of whom have been nominated as the true Will Shakespeare have remained silent when their colleague from Stratford-on -Avon claimed their masterworks? Never.

Christopher Marloew

Sir Francis Bacon

Ben Johnson

The Stratford Bust, possibly taken from a death mask.

References: [1] Pearce, Joseph, The Quest for Shakespeare, Ignatius Press, 2008. [2] Roth, Steve, Hamlet: The Undiscovered Country, Open House, 2 edition (December 23, 2013)3. [3]Gerard, John. S.J., The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest (Translated from the Latin by Philip Caraman, S.J., Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1952 [4] Wikipedia, 'Shakespeare's Life: The Lost Years' [5] See https://despicablewonderfulyou.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/brilliant-minds-and-great-people-not-necessarily-with-a-college-degree/ [6] Robert Greene, Wikimedia, Shakespeare's Life: The Lord years, and ` http://www.theatrehistory.com The Drama; Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization: British drama – Alfred Bates, James Penny Boyd, John Porter Lamberton [7] Bates, et al, Ibid.

~~~~~~~~~~ Linda Fetterly Root is a writer of historical fiction set in Marie Stuart's Scotland and Early Modern Britain. She is a retired major crimes prosecutor living in the Morongo Basin area of the Southern California hi-desert, on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park. She is a member of the Marie Stuart Society, the Historical Novel Society, and the Bars of California and the United States Supreme Court. William Shakespeare appears briefly in her current work-in-progress, The Deliverance of the Lamb, based upon the escape from England of flamboyant Jesuit John Gerard.

Hat Tip To: English Historical Fiction Authors

[drummer-from-down-under]

Edmund Henley, when I find you...