#especially since they have actually started adding frontier monsters again

[hal-o-ween]

Monster Hunter <3

[entergamingxp]

Torchlight 3 Early Access Preview — A Set of Tracks Headed in the Right Direction

June 26, 2020 1:00 PM EST

Torchlight 3 is now in early access but does the third game in the series hold up the lofty standards of its predecessors?

Recently, Echtra has been making a ton of changes to their new Torchlight game. The team transitioned their old Torchlight Frontiers project from free-to-play to premium, renaming it Torchlight 3 in the process. They’ve also been slowly adding new classes, features, and updates. And now, the game is in early access to give the developers more feedback as they continue to build out the game. Over the past week, I’ve played about 10 hours of Torchlight 3. While the game certainly has a solid foundation that I hope Echtra can turn into a great game, the game still has a long way to go to get there.

Now, to be clear, 10 hours isn’t anywhere close to the amount I’d play if this were a full review. So, please, take everything with a large grain of salt. And, as a reminder, the game is still in active development. Things can and will change. Finally, I’ve only really put significant time into the Sharpshooter and Railmaster classes. There are two other classes that I’ve barely touched.

It’s also important to remember this is early access. There are, as expected, several bugs and kinks still being worked out. I don’t think it’s that helpful to talk about them at this stage, so I won’t be mentioning them. That said if you are thinking about hopping in now, keep in mind that Torchlight 3 definitely has some technical issues.

With all those caveats out of the way, let’s actually talk about Torchlight 3 as it exists in its current state.

In short, if you like classic action RPGs like Diablo 2 or Path of Exile, you’ll probably be fine here. The game plays exactly like its contemporaries. I’ve racked up thousands of hours in Diablo 2 and 3, so playing Torchlight 3 felt like slipping on an old glove. In some ways, that’s a good thing, but it also means the gameplay feels a bit old hat.

Take, for instance, the Sharpshooter. She’s your basic ranged damage-dealer. Sure, she has a few tricks up her sleeve (notably her ghost dog), but mostly you’re kiting enemies around and dealing massive damage to single-targets.

That’s not a bad thing. I had a ton of fun playing as a Sharpshooter because you have to constantly stay on the run. Her playstyle is engaging. You’re not just standing in one spot and swinging a sword. That said, she certainly feels like a character that could just exist in any other ARPG.

The Railmaster, on the other hand, is one of the most inventive pet characters I’ve ever seen. Instead of an animal or demon or whatever, the Railmaster has a fully automated train as his pet. You lay down a track and your train moves along it, firing at enemies along the way. As you level up, you can add new cars to the train, turning your train into a murder machine. It’s all completely unique and totally awesome.

If only all the character classes were that inventive. It’s hard to have any desire to play as a basic ranged class or a typical mage when you have a dude that uses an automated tank to fight off baddies. I’d love to see Echtra use their creative juices to dream up some other wild classes before the full release.

Outside of classes and combat, Torchlight 3 continues to feel like every other ARPG you’ve ever played. It has randomly generated maps. It has random packs of elite monsters. The one thing that helps it stand out just a little bit is the fort.

Early in the game, you discover a run-down fort that you decide to make your own. You have complete control over what its inside looks like. As I’m early, mine is pretty sparse, but there’s a ton of potential here. Importantly, your fort is account-wide. So, you can play on as many alts as you want and still contribute resources to your main character’s progression.

Being able to carry over your progression across your account might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Inside your fort, you have several items that provide passive bonuses to your character. For example, one is a luck tree that improves your loot drops. You can increase the bonus by feeding the tree unwanted gear. Since it’s account-bound, you’re not losing out on progress by trying out a new character. Instead of feeling restrictive, it encourages you to try out new characters. That’s a great move.

Outside of the fort though, there’s not much in Torchlight 3 that makes me want to play it over games like Path of Exile or Diablo 3. It just doesn’t do much new right now, and those games are much more fleshed out. Granted, they’ve had years to get there, so I’m not saying Torchlight doesn’t have a chance to be the next big thing in the genre. However, it does lessen my excitement for the final release.

I mean, look at Diablo 3. When it launched, if you wanted to play a new character, you just had to run through the campaign again. Later on, it added Adventure mode and completely revitalized the game. Instead of learning from that and incorporating it, Torchlight 3 just has you replaying the campaign when you start up new characters.

Now, can they add in their own twist on Adventure mode? Absolutely. I really hope they do. Echtra seems committed to making an alt-friendly game, so it certainly seems like a strong possibility. But it’s not there yet.

Things like this make the game feel old in a lot of ways. Just look at how the game handles skills. Compared to other games in the genre, Torchlight 3 offers a paltry selection of skills to customize your character. If all those skills are impactful, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. However, it does restrict the player’s creativity and ability to experiment.

Taking it a step further, Torchlight 3 doesn’t let you respec your character for free. You have to use an in-game resource. Personally, I thought we left that behind a long time ago. It even further makes you feel locked into a path and discourages experimentation. To me, that’s a mistake. Maybe the devs have plans to change it, but it just doesn’t seem like something that should exist in 2020.

At the end of the day, Torchlight 3 has a solid framework. The tracks of a good game are there, especially if Echtra focuses on things that make their game unique. More stuff like the Railmaster, please. However, in its current state, I don’t see why I would play it over something like Diablo 3 or Path of Exile. Those games are so much richer and more fleshed out.

Of course, Torchlight 3 might just get there. It is in early access after all. I’m excited to watch the game’s continued development and hope it can live up to its predecessors. The potential feels there. They just have to capitalize on it.

June 26, 2020 1:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/torchlight-3-early-access-preview-a-set-of-tracks-headed-in-the-right-direction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=torchlight-3-early-access-preview-a-set-of-tracks-headed-in-the-right-direction

[anotiondeepinside]

Springsteen Super Bowl

A Twitter thread from @darthastuart about Springsteen’s Super Bowl Halftime performance. I’ve compiled the tweets below in narrative form. Link to thread at end.

In 2009, Springsteen had surely accomplished everything he could possibly have wanted as a rock star. He actually accomplished most of that by 1989 or so, then went back and did it all over again in 1999, with the return of E Street. 

So he and the band were ten years and a couple albums into this de facto “reunion.” If you attended any of these shows or saw the concert films, there’s an unmistakable air of appreciation running through it all. It’s like a second chance. “Phantom” Danny Federici died. An original E Streeter from the earliest days, his death contributed an unmistakable air of mortality to the band—if they weren’t before, they were suddenly playing on borrowed time. Springsteen and the band walked into the 2009 Super Bowl with nothing and everything to prove. Nothing, because they’d already conquered so much; everything, because everything they’d conquered led them to this ultimate stage—the last rock frontier. 

It is easily the most tightly choreographed performance in Springsteen’s career, and it’s widely accepted the band played live to a pre-recorded backing track—BUT I don’t know if any artist has ever managed to condense his message and brilliance into 12 minutes this well. 

They start with “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” and “Born to Run,” where many of us started with him—music of escape and liberation, of a man with a guitar and a band of misfits ready to make a break for it. Iconic songs and the origin story of a modern rock mythos. T

Then—and this is important—the dude straight-up plays the lead single and title song from his new record. He’s not here to fuck around! He’s moving product. Rock is liberation and commerce at the same time. And there ain’t no shame in it. (That song, “Working on a Dream,” is regarded by many as a middle to lowlight of modern Springsteen. But it brings in a gospel choir, allowing the Boss to spotlight a heavy source of his songwriting inspiration since 2001’s The Rising). 

And when you have twelve minutes, there’s not time to take an audience through the desperation of Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River through the bleak landscape of Nebraska and Born in the USA. You have to skip to the ending, which he does. “Working on a Dream” may not be his greatest song, but it is great at succinctly summarizing his value system—you work for what you get, the love you have and the money you make, in a world where “the nights are long and the days are lonely.” It’s The Price You Pay. 

And then to “Glory Days,” which is the only place this could end up—returning to his biggest record, and a song that was a massive worldwide hit, but also a reminder that you should take none of this too seriously, because it’s over too soon...and if you’re lucky, if you’re LUCKY, life slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of glory days. Which is what we’ve just seen—not boring by a long shot, but a testament to glory days, those that have been and those still to come. It is 12 minutes rich in detail and feeling, especially if you come in as a fan. Think about Springsteen, singing to Clarence “the Big Man joined the band,” a line he wrote in the mid-seventies for a guy he’d known since 1971. And there he is, 38 years later...with his onstage foil and offstage soul brother, after hardscrabble days in shitty clubs and hours upon hours in theaters, arenas, stadiums—suddenly in front of 103 million people. Then he slides across the stage and slams his crotch into a camera. 

The show ends with classic Springsteen buffoonery, a mock referee coming out to do a fake “delay of game” call as they wrap things up, the kind of schtick he’s been doing since he opened Halloween shows by rising out of a coffin and doing “Monster Mash.” I never get tired of watching it. It always makes my neck hairs stand up. That wasn’t the end of Springsteen’s career, not by a long shot. And he’d play plenty more in the decade to follow. But it is the perfect capper on the greatest story rock ever told. 

PS “Glory Days” is also inspired because it’s a subtle fuck-you to the ad industry—the greatest song ever written for a beer commercial, refused for any beer commercial, on the biggest night for beer commercials every year. 

Link to twitter thread: https://twitter.com/darthastuart/status/1091372925897322497

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND April 5, 2019  - SHAZAM, PET SEMATARY, THE BEST OF ENEMIES, PETERLOO

Sadly, this is yet another weekend where I wasn’t able to see two of the three new movies, but that’s because I’m in Las Vegas covering CinemaConfor The Beat, but I do want to write a little more about a movie coming out this weekend that I want to put a little added focus on. Back in the day, I used to include a “Chosen One” in each week’s column, and I’m getting to the point where I’d like to try to do something like that again… and so, after the jump, you will get my review of one such film.

That movie is PETERLOO (Amazon), the new movie from director Mike Leigh, an eight-time Oscar nominee whose work has garnered him much respect and whose work I’ve especially enjoyed, particularly Vera Drake and Happy-Go-Lucky. The first of these is significant because it’s one of Leigh’s rare historic pieces but his last movie Mr. Turner went one further by telling the story of a real person, in that case, painter J.M.W. Turner, as played by Tim Spall.

Peterloo is somewhat of a departure for Mr. Leigh, since it isn’t focused on a small group of two to four characters, instead telling a massively complex storyline about a peaceful rally in Manchester that was racked by violence when politicians decided to disperse the crowd.

I have to admit that as Peterloo began on the battlefield of Waterloo, I wasn’t sure to expect, thinking it might be Leigh’s attempt at a war film, but the story follows a young bugler, Joseph, whom we see on the battlefield before he returns home to Manchester with a case of PTSD.  His family, and in fact, the whole town, is suffering from poverty and hunger, and there’s a growing desire to be represented in the Parliament in London so that things might improve. The city’s grew white hope is one Henry Hunt, played by Rory Kinnear, and he’s going to travel up to Manchester to talk to the people who will presumably vote for him.

Once it gets going, Peterloo is such a fascinating film. I’m really curious to see how Americans will react to it, because while it’s just as typically British as Leigh’s previous work, it’s a movie that’s more about British history and British politics, and I’m just not sure if that’s the sort of thing that will connect with Americans.

I can completely understand why some might be frustrated with Leigh’s latest, because it is very long, it does take some time to get going, and a lot of time you might not know exactly what is going on or what is being discussed.  I certainly wasn’t exactly sure what was going on or who some of the characters were as they flew through the vast ensemble cast moving from one character and location to another. Eventually, you get used to this pace and start seeing familiar faces that makes things much clearer.  Leigh also uses this tactic to create layers that build and build to the climactic last half hour of the film where violence disrupts an otherwise peaceful day. It’s quite the counterpoint to the war scene that opens the film, but don’t worry. Joseph doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, as you might suspect, because it really follows his journey despite often focusing on others.

One of the things I especially liked about Leigh’s latest is that while it does often get somber and serious, there’s still a wit to it, especially in the way it deals with the stupidity of the politicians and magistrates who seem to have little care for the people they’re supposed to be representing.

Oddly, two days after seeing Peterloo, I saw the Broadway musical Hamilton, a historical piece that takes place in America earlier than the events of Leigh’s film, but it offered a similar resonance to me, even though it did so with musical numbers rather than talking.

Leigh’s screenplay is another masterpiece, but I was equally impressed by the casting of such a large ensemble, many with British actors whom few on these shores will have ever seen or heard of. I’m really curious to know where he found them, because he’s become so known for working with the same small group of actors over the years, and almost everyone in this movie is new to the Leigh camp.

Personally, I think this is Leigh’s best film in many, many years, possibly on par with some of his best work even though I know it deals with a far more difficult (and localized) subject. Regardless, it’s also a film I will gladly see a second time just to catch some of the nuances I may have missed the first time around.

Rating: 8.5/10

Now, back to your regularly scheduled preview column…

As far as the wide releases, I’ve only seen one of them and that was SHAZAM! (New Line/WB), the latest DC Comics character to be brought to the big screen, in this case by Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg (Lights Out). I already reviewedthe movie for The Beat, so I don’t have much more to say about it (other than my Box Office Preview, which is ALSO at The Beat), but I did enjoy this quite a bit, maybe not as much as Aquaman but definitely as much as Wonder Woman. It’s a good movie that shows you can do something different with supereheroes and still make a movie work on its own merits (rather than connecting to future movies)

The other movie I’m really looking forward to seeing (when I get back from Vegas) is the new version of Stephen King’s PET SEMATARY (Paramount), directed by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, who found some fans in the horror crowd with their earlier film Starry Eyes.  I guess the cast could be more interesting, although I do love John Lithgow and Amy Seimetz has been a favorite of mine from the indie work she’s done. And I don’t hate Jason Clarke either, although some of his choices in films (other than last year’s Chappaquidick, in which he was great) sometimes leaves me scratching my head.

Robin Bissell’s THE BEST OF ENEMIES (STXfilms) is a civil rights drama that one would normally see during Oscar season, since it stars Oscar winner Sam Rockwell and nominee Taraji P. Henson. This story is interesting to me as someone who loved last year’s Green Book, mainly because there are stories like this (and that) from the ‘60s that deserve to be told. Unfortunately, I’m missing this due to CinemaCon as well, so hopefully I’ll have a chance to see it when I’m back in New York.

LIMITED RELEASES

Besides Peterloo, reviewed above, there’s a few other films I recommend seeking out, and hopefully the first three of these will expand into other places than big cities after this weekend:

Correction: Oops!! It looks like I missed the fact that Teen Spirit will not open in select cities until April 12, so I’ll rerun my write-up on it next week

Seemingly a lost project/movie, the late filmmaker Sydney Pollack was commissioned by Warner Bros. Records to capture a concert by Aretha Franklin singing gospel songs for a movie, but it was shelved due to technical difficulties. More than 45 years later, that concert is presented in AMAZING GRACE (NEON), and if there ever was any doubt in your mind about what an amazing singer Franklin was, this movie will certainly change that. It opens in select cities.

Opening in New York, L.A. and other cities is Emma Tammi’s Western werewolf movie THE WIND (IFC Midnight), which played at TIFF and Fantastic Fest last year and the more-recent What the Fest in New York. It stars Caitlin Gerard from Insidious: The Last Key as a rugged woman who has moved into a cabin on the American frontier in the early 19thCentury, where she immediately starts feeling as if there’s a sinister presence, possibly tied to the only other couple who lives out there. Her husband (Ashley Zukerman) doesn’t believe her.  If you like Westerns and want to see one with a dominant female presence (both in front and behind the camera) then you’ll want to check this out.

I guess this is as good a place as any to mention that one of my favorite filmmaker Terry Gilliam’s new movie The Man Who Killed Don Quixote will be available to see nationwide on Tuesday via Fathom Events. The movie, starring Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce and a number of amazing European actors who I was unfamiliar with, is one that Gilliam has been trying to make for over 20 years and no surprise, it harks back to his great films like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and The Fisher King, which came out during the filmmaker’s heyday. I’m just so happy Gilliam was finally able to make this movie, and it actually turned out quite well.. maybe a little weird for some tastes, but not too weird for lifelong Gilliam fans like myself. 

Hilary Duff stars in the title role of Daniel Ferrands’ THE HAUNTING OF SHARON TATE (Saban Films) about the murder of the 26-year-old actress who was pregnant with Roman Polanski’s baby when she was murdered by Charles Manson and his cult.It opens in theaters and will be available On Demand starting Friday.

Jordan Downey’s The Head Hunter (Vertical) involves a medieval warrior who is protecting the kingdom from monsters, collecting their heads as he slays them. The one monster he hasn’t killed yet is the one that killed his daughter, so he travels on horseback to try to get revenge. It opens in select cities and On Demand.

Jai Courtney stars in Shawn Seet’s adaptation of Colin Thiele’s Storm Boy (Good Deed Entertainment), an Australian drama in which the retired businessman Michael Kingley reflects back on his past life. Some of these memories including a story about how as a boy, he rescued an orphaned pelican and named it Mr. Percival.

Filmmaker Emilio Estevez’s latest film, the political drama The Public (Greenwich), will also open Friday after playing TIFF and a few other festivals. It stars Alec Baldwin with Estevez, Jena Malone, Taylor Schilling, Christian Slater, Gabrielle Union, Michael K. Williams and Jeffrey Wright, and with a cast like that, do you really need to know what the movie is about? Okay, fine. It takes place in a public library in Cincinnati where a number of homeless patrons take it over during an Arctic blast, seeking shelter from the cold but also staging an act of civil disobedience, in the process.

Showing FREE OF CHARGE at New York’s Film Forum (as part of their annual Free Movie Week) starting Wednesday is Cam Christiansen’s animated doc Wall, which looks at the decision by Israel to build the 435-mile long wall to separate the Palestinian West Bank from the rest of Israel. Building that $4 billion wall meant the confiscation of 4,000 acres of Palestinian land and the destruction of 1,000 trees…and that area is still in disarray. So yeah… building walls is a bad idea.

Stephanie Wang-Breal’s documentary Blowin’ Up (Once in a Blue) deals with the first-ever court created to deal with prostitution in Queens, New York, the Queens Human Intervention Trafficking Court led by the Honorable Toko Serita. The purpose is to help deal with the women and girls arrested for prostitution who are illegal Asian immigrants or are black, Latina or trans, so they get shuffled through the system without it ever dealing with the complex reasons why they turn to prostitution. The doc opens at the Quad in New York Friday and then in L.A. on April 12.

Opening at the Metrograph in New York City is Qiu Sheng’s feature debut Suburban Birds (Cinema Guild) involving two narrative strands, one involving land surveyors who are laying subway tracks, the other involving pre-adolescents who rove the streets of the town unsupervised. It sounds…um… interesting?

Josh Stewart from Criminal Minds writes, directs and stars in Back Fork (Uncork’d) as family man Waylon who is struggling to keep his life together after tragedy, becoming more dependent on pills. Also starring Agnes Bruckner, the film will open in select cities and be available On Demand starting April 9.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

First up, on Tuesday began the 11th Annual ReelAbilities Film Festival at the JCC Manhattan, celebrating those who have fought past what would normally be considered “disabilities” to greatness. It kicked off with the Opening Night Gala and Screening of Irene Taylor Brodsky’s Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements, a documentary about a boy with genetic deafness who grew up with cochlear implants whose grandfather is adverse against using such technology in his old age. The festival runs through April 9 where the Closing Night film is Nick Kelly’s The Drummer and the Keeper about a drummer dealing with a bipolar diagnosis. In between is a full line-up of narratives and documentaries exploring different disabilities from blindness to mental disorders, and it’s quite an amazing array of films, many which might not ever get distribution, sadly. Screenings take place all over the city including Bellevue Hospital, Lincoln Center and the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens.

Although the 22nd Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival takes place in Durham, North Carolina – home of Duke University -- starting Thursday, I do have a love for the documentary genre that makes me want to mention the amazing programming, which will include a thematic program called “Some Other Lives of Time,” curated by Oscar nominee RaMell Ross (Hale County This Morning, This Evening). Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s American Factory is the opening night film while the Aretha Franklin concert doc Amazing Grace (released this weekend in other cities) closes this year’s festival. There’s an amazing line-up of docs in between, some that have played other festivals like David Modigliani’s Running with Beto  and Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, and others that are premiering at Full Frame. American Factory  directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert are getting a tribute with all of their earlier features and shorts shown, as well as their new film about a General Motors plant in Dayton, Ohio that closed, forcing 2,500 people into unemployment. This is a festival I’ve wanted to attend for so long and I do have friends in the Durham area that would make this worth a visit, but it’s only four days from Thursday through Sunday, so can’t do it this year.

Also, the Havana Film Festival New York begins at the Museum of the Moving Image on Sunday.

STREAMING AND CABLE

This week’s big Netflix release is Brie Larson’s directorial debut UNICORN STORE, in which she plays a 20-something artist named Kit, who is kicked out of art school, forcing her to move back home with her parents. Just as Kit decides to finally grow up, a salesman, played by Larson’s Captain Marvel co-star Samuel L. Jackson, shows up to offer Kit her heart’s desire. Based on a script by Samantha McIntyre, the film also stars Joan Cusack as Kit’s mother.

Netflix also has a number of new series starting on Friday including Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (from Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa) and the eight-part nature series Our Planet, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

I didn’t go to Sundance so I haven’t had a chance to see Rashid Johnson’s Native Son, starring Margaret Qualley, Nick Robinson, Kiki Layne, Ashton Sanders, Sanaa Lathan and Elizabeth Marvel, but that will premiere on HBO this Saturday night.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

On Friday, Metrograph will open a restoration of King Hu’s little-seen 1973 martial arts film The Fate of Lee Khan (Film Movement Classics) but the real winner this weekend is the Playtime: Family Matinees screenings of one of my childhood faves, Ken Hughes’ Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), starring Dick Van Dyke. Late Nites at Metrograph will show Sion Sono’s 2016 film Anti-Porno, which I may have seen before or maybe I just saw the trailer at Metrograph when it screened there a couple years back. I can’t remember! Also, the Total Kaurismäki Show continues through the weekend with Leningrad Cowboys Go America  (1989) on Thursday, more esoteric films like Juha  (1999) and Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana  (1994) on Saturday, Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994) on Sunday and then his recent The Other Side of Hopeon Monday. That series continues through next Wednesday. Thursday also continues the Academy at Metrograph series with a screening of the 1959 rom-com Pillow Talk.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Weds and Thursday are double features of  Jack Nicholson’s 1971 film Drive, He Said  with the 1972 John Wayne movie The Cowboys. Friday and Saturday, the New Bev does a sci-double feature of Silent Running  (1972) and The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971). This weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is Tom Hanks and Joe Dante’s The Burbs (1989), the Friday midnight screening is Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight (Multiplex version) while the Saturday night midnight offering is John Landis’ 1978 comedy classic Animal House. A 4-track mag print (whatever that is) of Carl Foreman’s war movie The Victors (1963) will screen on Sunday and Monday. Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999) will also screen on Monday afternoon.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Besides debuting an uncut (220 mins. With intermission) version of Franesco Rosi’s 1979 epic Christ Stopped at Eboli (Rialto Pictures), the Film Forum is screening the 1968 war film Where Eagles Dare introduced by British author Geoff Dyer (who wrote a book about the movie) on Saturday, and then John Boorman’s 1967 film Point Blank on Sunday, also introduced by Dyer.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Noir City: Hollywood – The 21stAnnual Los Angeles Festival of Film Noir continues through the weekend with chronological double features of 1955 films The Big Combo and Bad Day at Black Rock on Weds, the 1956 films A Kiss Before Dying and The Harder They Fall on Thurs, and then 1957′s The Midnight Story and Monkey on my Back Friday, Clara Bow’s Call Her Savage from 1932 with a Forbidden Hollywood presentation on Saturday, along with Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil and Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows, both from 1958. The series ends on Sunday with I Want to Live (1958) and Cry Tough (1959). 

AERO  (LA):

I wish I lived in L.A. right now because the Aero is launching a Mike Leigh retrospective called “Bleak, But Never Boring: Life According to Mike Leigh” starting Friday with a double feature of Naked  (1993)and Meantime (1984), Saturday is Secrets & Lies  (1996)and Vera Drake (2004), then Sunday is Life is Sweet  (1990)and High Hopes (1988).   On Thursday, the Aero is ALSO showing Animal House… but with guests!

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Strange Desire: The Films of Claire Deniscontinues through the weekend with Bastards and The Breidjing Camp on Thursday, Towards Mathilde (2005) with the 2002 short Vers Nancy and US Go Home (1994) & the doc Claire Denis, The Vagabondon Saturday. Denis’ fairly recent film Let the Sunshine Inwill screen again on Sunday, as will Denis’ 1994 film I Can’t Sleep.

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: B is for Bacall continues with 1966’s Harper Weds, Woman’s World  (1954) Thursday and Robert Altman’s Pret-A-Porter (Ready to Wear) (1994) on Friday.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

Besides taking apart in a few film festivals mentioned above, MOMI will also screen Antonio Tibaldi’s On My Own (1991) with Tibaldi in person.

QUAD CINEMA  (NYC):

Bertrand Blier’s Get Out Your Handkerchiefscontinues…

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

Friday’s midnight screening is the anime classic Akira.

The IFC CENTER in New York seems to be in-between repertory programs, while FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER is still focused on New Directors/New Films through Sunday.

Next week, Lionsgate revives Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, this time played by David Harbour, Tina Gordon’s comedy Littlestarring Regina Hall and Issa Rae, and LAIKA Studios returns with their latest stop-motion animated film Missing Link.

[forcedapotheosis-blog]

Gloomy Days

So, how am I going to start this one? A while ago, maybe three months or so, I was scavenging the internet for fanfiction regarding my OTP in One Piece, SaNami, but after a while I didn’t find any new ones. But no problem, eh? Be the change you want to see in this world! Thus I started writing my own, my second fanfiction in general, in German, mind you, and thought it was going to be a oneshot. Well, so much for that, three months later I’m still not freaking finished. And until the muse kisses me again, I decided to translate it into English and share it with you. Please, cut me some slack though, it’s very average and, at times, a bit too angsty. Plus English is not my mother tongue and I’m a far cry from being a Shakespearean scholar. That said, I hope that you can force yourself to enjoy the first chapter. Cursive are the character’s thoughts.

Disclaimer: One Piece doesn’t belong to me. Which is a shame.

---

Chapter I – Broken, damned and drained

“Cast your stone into the water now

And watch the ripples spread like poison

Under the gun, underneath

You'll feel slaughtered and betrayed”

Witchcraft – White Light Suicide

Can't believe that I really came here. It's like cutting my own flesh, some kinda shitty devil must've possessed me, forced me to endure this torture.

Despite these grim thoughts, the scenery Sanji was enjoying in this very moment was far from horrible. Not a single cloud shrouded the bluest sky imaginable and the sun shone in all its glory. He was sitting on a bench, quietly staring at the marvellous estate before him. Two wide floors, born from the finest architecture one could find this side of the Grandline, surrounded by pillars made of incredibly expensive marble.

The owner must've been financially gifted.

Also, the obvious addiction to perfection didn't seem to stop when it came to the encompassing garden, blooming in all the wonderful colours of spring, seamlessly becoming one with nature while still holding its own special place. At this very moment, a literal army of gardeners  was working tirelessly to preserve the status quo, only adding one little piece to it: They were planting tangerine trees. Sanji of course knew where they came from.

Doesn't come of as a surprise, eh? She never settled for anything but the best., he thought.

He should've felt warm, sitting under the bright midday sun while wearing a custom tailored black smoking and, instead of his usual tie, a bow-tie made of silk. A few minutes ago, he had opened the jacket before sitting down to have a cigarette and contemplate his situation.

Look, even the shitty sun's giggling about the poor clown that is me. Goddamn shitty schadenfreude. So grossly incandescent, it seems that there's never going to be night-time again while I'm probably facing my darkest days here. Oh, l'ironie!, surprisingly enough though, he smiled. A tired and resignated smile, but nonetheless a smile. And the only thing that seemed to fit into his current mood. Fate had forced his hand when answering her invitation, fate and a whole lot of booze. How long has it been since the Straw Hats were forced to disband? How did it happen? He wasn't able to recall, mostly because he didn't want to. It's been a terrible time for all of them. He could still remember their former captain, Monkey D. Luffy, crying bitter tears of helplessness, vowing that they'll meet each other again to continue their adventures and the pursuit of their dreams.

 All of them again, together. Those have been his words.

But nothing did ever come true. I should be the last person to be surprised by that, shouldn't I? That's what comes from living a life of making empty promises to each and every attractive woman under the sun. Promised 'em the moon and the stars, but still left with the first light of dawn. Even after the bonds of friendship were shattered, even when I wasn't forced to live as a fugitive anymore, I couldn't stop moving to new places, from island to island, from woman to woman.

The cigarette was finished and he slowly thought about moving, not wanting to risk a late arrival to the ceremony, but he couldn't be bothered with that right now. Thus, he ignited another one. A ritual of his own. The first draw from a fresh cigarette always breathed life back into his body and soul, sometimes literally. With a slight smile on his lips, he remembered shrugging off devastating damage done to his body just by smoking. But those days were gone, probably forever. Why fight anymore, for anything?

At least some of us have been able to .. finally be happy with their lot in life. Shouldn't I be happy for them?, but he wasn't able to force himself to feel good, not for them, not for anyone. It even seemed to him that an eternity had passed since he felt anything at all anyway.

From a strictly objective point of view, those past years had been good to him. He managed to gain a small fortune with his cooking and his name was first on the list of many a food connaisseur on the entire Grand Line and all the four Blues. No, not 'Black Leg' Sanji. And don't even bother with that whole Vinsmoke-thing. He was 'Sanji, protégé of Uke Mochi', the mythical goddess of food. Sanji couldn't even remember when it was that he dropped the 'Black Leg', but sometimes, when his mind drifted away, he was compelled to remember just how proud he had once been.

All the lives he - no, they - touched, all the tyrants they brought down, the marvellous and sorrowful moments they shared were connected to 'Black Leg'.

And maybe that was very the reason he had to get rid of it.

Absentmindedly, he gazed upon the estate, inclining his head from one side to the other, asking himself how many rooms this monster had anyway. And in how many of these rooms one lucky man received what and who he had been denied for so many years. He arrived an hour ago but had not yet taken any steps to introduce himself to the personnel or the owner.

Because he didn't know how he would react to seeing her again. Her beautiful copper-coloured hair .. I wonder how she wears it now. Still long? Maybe short again? Pinned-up maybe? Oh my.., her gentle and clever brown eyes, so deep that a man could drown himself in there, sometimes, especially when she was working on some kind of plan, looking sly, making her even more attractive. Her face as a whole, he was sure about that much, would still look like angels descended from the Heavens to sculpture it, their one flawless masterpiece walking amongst mere mortals. Only .. happy now, that she has arrived somewhere in her life after all the running, the fighting and falling of silent tears. No longer restless, no longer a fugitive, no longer burdened with fear about what would happen the next day.

Did they not have good times too? Even with the marines ever so close by, even with all the pirates that had a different understanding of that word than they had. At least they usually didn't have to go to bed with their stomachs empty.

But .. I guess I can understand her. These times left everyone of us scarred in more than one way, and some of them will never be able to heal .. but could it be that she had the worst lot of us all? At least I wasn't kidnapped and forced into marriage by that .. beast, Absalom. Yeah, I think I understand why she has chosen this way. Away from everything, conquering new frontiers., actually, he did want to walk the path of oblivion too.

Of course, he never thought about marriage. But after the end of the Straw Hats, he just wanted to forget everything, not willing to torture himself any more than he already did.

Before his thoughts could drift away again, he suddenly became aware of somebody entering his sphere of solitude.

"Marimo."

"Ero-cook."

A few seconds passed until they finally looked at each other and somehow both of them knew that it wasn't easy for the other one to be here. No matter how aloof they had tried to be when the bonds of friendship, nakamaship even, couldn't hold the crew together any longer, each and everyone of them was devastated. "Didn't expect to see you here, ero-cook.", the former pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro finally tried to start a real conversation, even though in his usual laconic manner.

"And I didn't expect that you'd make it in time before the ceremony ended, all the guests left and Winter Solstice.", was the obvious answer. The pirate hunter's bad sense of direction was the stuff of legends.

Sanji took a last draw of his cigarette and flung it away, pulling out another one while exhaling the smoke into the warm day.

"It's not like that you're very punctual yourself, mh? On your way here, did you have to cling to the last pieces of virility your startlingly small frame possesses?", surprisingly enough, the green-haired swordsman wore a suit himself. Not custom tailored, of course, but it was an actual suit. And it was even more surprising that this very guy, who usually couldn't care less about his appearance - as long as it was terrifying – seemed to have at least basic knowledge about the colours he could put on with that rather uncommon hair of his. Over a pale shirt, he wore a navy blue suit coat, complemented by trousers of the same colour. He didn't wear a tie though, but that didn't surprise Sanji in the least. The swordsman always went for a more casual look, but he could've done a lot worse.

"Actually, I saw you from a distance and it took me half the day igniting candles and having a hell of a lot of moments of silence for the poor, sodding drunkard that finished your attire.", both men looked at each other again and, surprisingly enough, both of them smiled the very same smile. For just one second, it seemed to both of them, the past was alive and well, new adventures and friends on their way.

"Jokes aside, I did not expect to see you ever again, ero-cook, here in the least of all places.", some seriousness found its way back into the conversation and both immediatly knew it, Sanjis mind unable to ignore it all. Maybe I wouldn't have come if I had received the invitation when I was sober. Maybe I would've just torn it apart to burn it and throw its ashes into the wind instead of thinking about all the good times we had for hours on end, weeping bitter tears just to accept it in the end, because I persuaded myself that I had to see her one last time.. How could I even think that some dreams are worth suffering, fighting for? Could've just stabbed myself right in the shitty chest, it'd amount to the same. What an idiot I am.., instead of replying with even one of these things, he just fell into a somber silence and for a second it seemed that not even the sun in all its glory and schadenfreude did not dare to touch him.

The first conversation after so many years it was, he didn't want to start it with lies.

More moments passed and the good mood had gone into the the realms of forgottenness.