#even the inoffensive BRAT stuff

[lovelylovelyartist]

Mm, yknow I'd love to know why my stomach is reeling at every scrap of food I consume, and has been for like a week now

[deerydear]

A few months ago... I was watching this video:

My thoughts kind of keep coming back to it.

Something that stands out to me is the sort of focus on 'internal perception': "Do you feel like you were bullied?" "Did you feel ostracized?" "Did you feel singled out?" Sort of a focus on negative emotions.

I think there's a process of rationalization which can effect memory. If I focused my attention in a particular way, I might be able to remember some occasions "in which other people were trying (or intending) to be rude assholes according to their own metric", but I was not affected by it. I have my own metric. I have my own senses. I'm a full person.

In my childhood I was more likely to become a bully than to 'be bullied'.

So I don't remember the sorts of behaviours that she describes.

My family were also atheist immigrants, so I already felt like most people were of an alien species (lol, christians). (I like to try to be impartial and inoffensive on my blog... but I thought it was funny. Sorry.) Culture has such a strong impact. If two people disagree on the fundamental organization and primacy of reality... then...?

So I really just avoided most people. I actually had assumed that devout christianity was more common than it really was in the area I grew up. I remember feeling afraid to be 'found out' to be atheist. There is a minority of crazy, nutso hardcore 'christians' who might wanna persecute someone for being areligious, or of a different religion. I really just did not want to draw untoward attention to my family. I got used to lying in certain situations (like impressing my friends' parents).

The 'stimming' thing is interesting. because I do often do stuff like that. hahaha, Sometimes the people around me will start copying my behaviour!

(the following comic is read right-to-left)

I feel kinship with birds and dogs. I often imagine the emotions of the individuals I grew up with, when I'm expressing myself. I think I had more dog friends than human friends... (statistically). but I did have many other human friends. I didn't lack it. Again... Atheist in a religious society. Why bother with people who will get angry over strange stuff?

I guess the tone I want to convey in my response is: "I don't feel judged, I'm judging you. (or not... Everything is situational.)"

She discusses 'being bothered by sounds, smells, senses', but... in my evaluation of myself, I have no baseline for an outside perspective, and I honestly do not want to take other people's opinions seriously. Different people can have wildly different opinions of what is normal, even just depending on how their family raised them. Different cultures have differing standards of polite behaviour. Something that would be considered incredibly rude in Japan, might be nothing to balk at in the USA. (Something still might be rude, but normal.)

I also just have a strong oppositional knee-jerk reaction to anyone attempting to give me any kind of label. (maybe not any kind...)

"Oh, you're not one of THOSE people, right?"

See also: discussion the "autistic kill-switch".

"Feelings like this make feel like I’m not actually autistic sometimes, and I was just a poorly-socialized, privileged brat when I was younger."

I feel the idea of an autism diagnosis is very... controversial. I remember reading a blog post written by a mother whose son could be considered autistic, but her psychiatrist said that he would be unable to give him a formal diagnosis because: "the diagnostic criteria are based on behaviours that someone begins to show when they have become traumatized by being socially ostracized". I'm paraphrasing. He went on to say: "if your son were showing these specific signs of being traumatized, I would be able to give him a formal diagnosis [which may be used to seek formal accomodations, such as in classes, etc.], but since he is happy and healthy, and you are raising him well, he does not meet the official metric for an autism diagnosis."

I remember a discussion which mentioned a family of people who could have been diagnosed 'autistic', but none of them had been. They all saw eachother as normal, (or perhaps that they had their own quirks as a family). No one was ostracized from the family for being 'weird' due to "[what some people refer to as ]'autistic behaviours'."

Aghhhhhhh...

Then I also have more questions.

Excerpt from an old blog post:

She was assuming I was autistic because I was "acting shy." She had no idea of my psychological makeup, my life in the past… anything. Just, "you're shy". Maybe it isn't "autism". Maybe it's the same thing that happens to dogs if they aren't properly socialized with other dogs and people, in their childhoods. They become 'gitchy'. They aren't sure how to react, because they lack experience in certain situations. Some dogs become aggressive. They may see their owner as 'the only safe person', and everyone else as a possible threat. I grew up being raised with puppies. I remember my mom telling me about this --- why it was so important to take the dogs out for walks, to meet new people and animals. Maybe it is possible to change. Maybe it's "getting used to a set of circumstances", which can be adjusted. Can old dogs learn new tricks? Is that up to you? I just... really don't like this idea of "innateness".

I had been doing a little bit of research into this question, a few months ago...

I feel like I don't have an objective perspective on myself. but who does. Anyone? Anyone at all?

Should I get my blood tested for melancholy, next?

I still think this is a very interesting article in reference to cultural ideas of psychological affliction. I feel like the principle might have bearing on the discussion of an autism diagnosis...

plus, the sort of 'effect of the researcher' upon the subject studied.

Does a researcher hold bias? Which way does it tend to go? Can a researcher influence the people? Such as through asking leading questions... or segregating an autistic child into a different type of school experience from the majority of other children. That experience itself can also influence a child in ways that I don't think should be ignored. I wouldn't say "cultural bias causes all behaviour that might be labelled autistic", probably not... but in some discussions of ASD behaviour, I notice that some diagnosed people's self-image and understanding of "their behaviour vs. other people's" has been deeply influenced by what other people have told them, especially doctors and other authority figures. I think that 'making a strong statement whenever one doesn't know something for certain' may cause problems down the line. I think that's the type of mistake that some doctors have made, in the past. "YOU'RE different, YOU'RE wrong, and no one is like you. You're different from all the other children." I imagine what that does to a vulnerable child's self-perception. I hear it in some people's narration.

I don't like to share many details about my family, but I never thought I was weird. I thought the outside world was weird... or I embraced being seen as weird, because I thought it was funny, pseudo-'humble', subversive... etc.

I still don't think I consider myself autistic, but I feel like my knee-jerk reaction is lessening. It's becoming more of a neutral subject.

"Would the man who works as the detective L personally consider himself to be autistic?"

Oooh, an incindiary question...

I think yelyahnaloj had said something on the subject like: "I want to understand the underlying mechanisms and themes of this, not to separate reality into discrete boxes". I would concur. I want to understand human psychology, how people think, and why we do certain things, and how we benefit and harm ourselves and eachother.

Paraphrase again. I remember the sentiment but not the exact words! xD

[duskholland]

Ok but what about bratty reader who’s just sick of a lot of shit and prof!tom is getting the brunt of it & he’s like nah not on my watch baby doll

this. got to me. nsfw -- minors dni 18+ !!!!!!!

prof!tom fever night

warnings ↠ dom!tom, spanking as punishment, brat taming, good girl/sir kink, fingering, degradation + unprotected cockwarming. please practice safe sex.

*:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧ *:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧ *:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧

“I’m going to need you to shut up, or you’re really not going to like what’s going to happen, darling.”

You look up, eyes widening as you listen to the stern words coming from Tom’s mouth. He’s sitting over at his desk, watching you through darkened eyes as you lie stretched out over his sofa, glaring at a textbook you’re holding above your head.

“What?” you mutter, voice twanging disrespect. You’re frustrated and frazzled, and your irritated words have finally caught up to Professor Holland. “Don’t you agree, though? Who the fuck set this exam? It’s stupid. None of this stuff is useful.”

“Exams are a good way to evaluate a student’s performance,” he returns, crossing his arms. “Stop whinging. It’s been ten minutes, and as much as you know I love your voice, I can’t take it anymore.”

You scowl, lips twisting downwards as you dramatically toss the textbook onto the floor. You feel unsettled and restless, jumpy and energetic. It’s mid-way through finals week and you’re stressed, and today, it seems your frustration at university is presenting itself with a bad attitude and irritable remarks. It’s just too bad Tom finds himself on the receiving end.

“I’m bored, though,” you whine. “If you won’t let me do my work, why won’t you entertain me?” You stand up easily, and without a second thought, you pull off your shirt. You smirk as Professor Holland’s eyes widen, his pen stilling from where he’d been annotating an essay.

“I’m busy,” he responds, voice cool. His eyes linger on your figure, though, observing as you pull off your jeans too. When you’re left only in a set of matching panties and bralette, he clears his throat, blushing. “Y/N.”

“Yes, sir?”

“You’re being a brat,” he murmurs. He tilts his head to the side, brushing his slender fingers over his chin as he looks you up and down. “Either sit back down and quietly do some work, or I’ll need to punish you. And, trust me darling, you really don’t want to disturb my work. I’ll be in a terrible mood.”

You wander over to him, swinging your hips slightly as you bite your lip. “Maybe I want you to be mean,” you respond.

Tom throws his pen onto the desk and kicks his desk chair away from the table. He pats his thighs, his expression stern as he raises a brow. When you sink into his lap and throw a leg either side of his thighs, he grabs at your waist and holds you there tightly. Instinctively, you lean up to kiss him, only to whine when he dodges.

“No, baby,” Tom coos, hand drifting to hold your cheek. His brown eyes swirl with teasing desire. “You don’t get to kiss me.”

Your jaw slackens, and you look up at your boyfriend through wide eyes. “What?”

Tom smirks, thin lips taunting you. “I said I’d punish you,” he says. “Maybe you should’ve thought this through before you started being such a needy brat.”

When you frown and try to suck some of his fingers into your mouth, Tom’s brows furrow and he pushes you down. You moan softly as he turns and then bends you over his lap, your hands digging into the coarse carpet as your legs dangle beyond him. Your crotch rests over his, the blood rushing to your head. Tom’s firm hands move over the curve of your ass, you find yourself bucking up into his touch.

“Are you going to spank me, Professor?” you ask, biting at your lip.

There’s a loud tearing sound, and you feel your panties loosen a moment later. Tom responds to your question by letting his palm fall over your right cheek, three times in quick succession, the loud sounds drifting through the air. As your skin grows hot and your cunt clenches around nothing, he alternates to the other cheek.

Both of you know that this is hardly a punishment. All Tom’s spanks do is make you more aroused, your slit hot and your arousal gradually wettening the front of your ripped panties. You wonder what he has in store, but every time you try and think, Tom distracts you with his hands. When he’s not hitting your soft flesh, he’s massaging it, or bending over to kiss the curve of your skin, or distracting you with sweet, inoffensive words.

“So pretty, aren’t you, darling?” he murmurs, in between spanks. “So pliant. Knew you’d calm down if I gave you attention, hmm?” You don’t reply—you know not to. You know that Tom’s mocking you, his tone patronising and sweet. “Needy little thing. Can’t go ten minutes without my touch. It’s almost cute, if it wasn’t so embarrassing.”

“Sir,” you whimper. You’re sore and aching, your entire lower half throbbing with arousal. “I’m sorry.”

Tom stills his hits, instead rolling his hard hands over your ass soothingly. One of his hands dips down between your thighs, and he jerks your panties from your front. The material comes off easily, already split open at the back, and you cry out when two of his fingers wander up to your slit.

“Oh, darling… You’re messy.” When he curves two fingers into your entrance and strokes up against your stomach, your eyes roll back. “So wet, sweetheart. So hot, too.” Tom easily fucks you on his fingers, seeming to delight every time you moan. “Bet you’d really like to cum, wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

Tom bends over, kissing the base of your spine. He thrusts his fingers into you a final two times before pulling away completely. With his wet fingers, he reaches for your waist and turns you over again, pulling you up until you’re straddling his thighs again. You can feel your face, warm and slightly sweaty, and your chest heaves as you clutch at his biceps, trying and failing to get him to look you in the eyes.

“Get out my cock,” he murmurs, voice low. “And clean my fingers, too.”

You suck his digits when he pushes them onto your tongue, your shaking hands taking a few attempts to unbuckle his belt which seems to amuse him. When he pulls his fingers out from your mouth, Tom wipes them on your front, your skin glistening with saliva. Tom reaches around you, picking up his pen again and looking at something on his desk as you pull his cock free and look at his length, his prick red and standing proud against his front.

“This is what’s going to happen, darling,” he says, husky voice drifting into your ear. “You’re going to sit on my cock and keep it warm until you’ve calmed down.” Tom pulls at your waist. He pauses his words as you follow through his actions, your forehead lulling forward to rest on his shoulder as you whimper and take him. Tom bottoms out when his cock is resting fully up inside you, your walls clenching around him and squeezing tightly as you moan and try to shuffle in his lap.

“Sir,” you whimper. “Please—”

“No.” Tom wraps one hand around your back. “You’re going to stay here until I’m finished marking my essays. I’ve had enough of your attitude, darling.”

You bite your lip as you shy your face away in his neck, your entire body pulsing. “Will you… Will you fuck me afterwards?”

Tom tilts his lips, kissing your cheek briefly before humming. “Maybe,” he responds. “Depends how good you are. I might just make you suck me off. I don’t know if you’ll deserve to be fucked. I guess you’d better be on your best behaviour, hmm?”

A breathless sigh falls past your lips, and you curl even closer to him. “Yeah,” you agree. “I’ll be on my best behaviour.”

Tom chuckles. You hear the top of his pen click, and he leans closer to the desk as he goes back to his papers. “That’s my girl.”

[seyaryminamoto]

I recently saw a heavy criticism of The Beach saying "it's the single least realistic portrayal of teenagers on television: spoiled, rich kids don't actively shun Zuko for having a disfiguring scar on his face, no one tries to start shit with Azula over the volleyball game, teenagers referring to themselves as teenagers, a teen boy tells people not to make a mess, a bunch of 14-16 year-olds sit in a circle and psychoanalyze each other, everything else about the campfire scene." Your thoughts?

:’) that someone looks at the Beach and dismisses it for being “unrealistic” by whatever their cultural standards are is probably enough of a sign of the irrelevance of said person’s opinion. I mean, obviously they’re free to think what they will, but...

Fire Nation society is not American society. I’m going blind here, maybe this person isn’t American at all, but somehow I mostly see such kinds of narrow-minded criticism from first-worlders who are seldom exposed to lifestyles outside their particular, contemporary bubble of experiences. 

Now then, let’s get into the actual debate: Fire Nation society values violence quite a lot. Fire Nation society is full of people who saw Zuko’s literal Agni Kai burning scene, and didn’t look away: the only character who does is Iroh, a very obvious hint by the writers that Iroh has discarded the cruel moral values the rest of the Fire Nation upholds.

With this in mind, a boy with a scarred face might earn all sorts of “ews” from our societies, damn right. From Fire Nation society, though? If even watching how the burn is inflicted didn’t bother most of them, why would the result be a problem? If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if people with burn scars are even seen more attractive because it implies they were caught in violent scuffles with fire and still survived? Of course, the argument might go that Zuko’s burn is meant to be a mark of shame... but it’s a mark of shame for PRINCE Zuko. For that mysterious boy with the emo haircut in Ember Island, whose real identity is a mystery? It is shown, instead, to result in this reaction:

Now then, we could say that this is meant to be a jab by the creators and writers at Zuko’s hordes of fangirls, because frankly, Book 3 has several instances of groups of girls swooning over Zuko and it might be what they were going for. In this case, though, they’re swooning over him WITHOUT knowing who he is, as opposed to the fangirls in Nightmares and Daydreams. So, while it absolutely can be inspired on the many Zuko fangirls the staff knew about, this actually ends up serving to characterize a society, a culture: they don’t think his scar makes him unattractive. It’s blatantly stated that their reaction is the opposite. So, instead of thinking “oh god that’s so unrealistic”, how about we actually stop trying to measure everything by our standards and consider that this could be an element of WORLDBUILDING...? :’)

(Also, I’m pretty sure there’s a fair share of privileged young women in our current society who think Kylo Ren was hot as hell with a huge scar across his face... are those people not real, by any chance? :’D If anything, they’re living proof that girls swooning over a scarred boy in ATLA are absolutely feasible, no matter if not everyone shares their opinion)

Continues under the cut becasue this got long....

Now then, Azula is shown to take the Kuai ball game too far. She outright causes the ball, in the final kick, to burst into flames and burns the net. Going by Chan and Ruon Jian, these kids are privileged idiots, why lie... but are these privileged idiots stupid enough to see a girl flying three feet into the air, kicking a firebent ball and then giving a foreboding speech, and say “OKAY WE’RE GONNA PICK A FIGHT WITH YOU FOR BEING SO COMPETITIVE!”???? I mean... honestly. Why would anyone do this? Azula turned an inoffensive Kuai ball game into a battlefield singlehandedly: THIS, as well, is meant to be a display of characterization. That people don’t take the game so seriously, that they wouldn’t pick a fight with her because she’s dangerous or because they just don’t care as much as she does... it’s characterizing Fire Nation people every bit as much as it characterizes Azula.

Azula and Zuko are both shown reacting in ridiculous ways to casual things in this episode: Azula takes the game too far, potentially stages the burning down of a house in retaliation for being rejected by a boy, Zuko is hysterical and jealous and snaps at Mai over stupid things... it’s, again, a matter of showing how poorly adjusted these characters are. They’re not normal kids. They DON’T behave like normal kids. Normal, privileged kids in the Fire Nation, are kids like Chan and Ruon Jian. The episode literally gives you the chance to see Fire Nation society for what it is, in a way no other episode does... and because it’s not like our societies, it’s somehow wrong?

... Also, teenagers referring to themselves as teenagers is somehow unrealistic? I mean... is it nowadays? I don’t think any teenagers had a problem with saying they were teens in my youth :’DDD literally remember MCR released a song called Teenagers and a lot of us loved it to pieces. What exactly is so outrageous about it? Might be that this worked better in the mid-00′s, but I hardly think this makes no sense? Aang refers to himself as a kid earlier in the show, is that unrealistic too and worth rebuking a whole episode over? Are all teenagers supposed to be pretending to be grown-ups, like so many 16-year-olds on Tumblr who always talk like they’ve figured out the world and try to impose rules on fully-grown adults upon whom they have absolutely no power? :’DDDDD Yeah, I think this particular point is a stupid thing to make a fuss over. Honestly, it is.

Chan tells people not to make a mess = unrealistic. Ha. Did this person ignore his reactions at the chaos Azula, Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee caused in his house? “YOU BROKE MY NANA’S VASE!!!”, anyone? Like... I’m sorry, but this IS characterization, yet again! This shows Chan is a spoiled brat who wants to stay in his family’s good graces. The party isn’t at all as crazy and wild as you’d expect from, again, an American teenage party... and why? Because, for one thing, Chan is clearly afraid of the consequences of too much chaos in the beach house: this implies fear of authority, of his parents, perhaps even his grandparents. 

For another, again, FIRE NATION SOCIETY: what does this clever critic know, by any chance, of Nazi Germany’s Hitler Youth? I’ve watched a few documentaries about it, and basically if you were a boy and you weren’t in Hitler Youth, you were no one. You were worthless. And what happened in Hitler Youth? Conditioning to the extreme. These kids were taught all the alt-right ideology that Tumblr despises, and they were made to believe it was an undeniable reality. Were there cases of kids who didn’t like it, kids who didn’t approve of it? Surely. But the general idea of Hitler Youth was to educate every kid to behave in the way Hitler considered appropriate, to the point where “the notion "Germany must live" even if they (members of the HJ) had to die was "hammered" into them.”

This is, of course, an extreme example and I’m sure Fire Nation education wasn’t that extreme because we saw it for ourselves, it’s not. But a slightly milder version of it? That’s absolutely feasible and consistent with what we see in The Headband. Therefore, kids getting high and drunk at a party? Maybe that kind of thing simply DOESN’T happen in a Fire Nation party? :’) Maybe they’re taught that those kinds of things are off-limits to anyone under a certain age (or outright forbidden, might be the case with drugs), and as they live in a tyrannical society that priorizes the Fire Lord and his decrees above all else, where his word is treated as that of a god, even mischievous teenagers refuse to act out? :’D oh, what an implausible concept, this just can’t possibly make any sense! Hitler Youth is unrealistic too!

Lastly, that a bunch of kids would sit in a circle psychoanalyzing each other seems implausible to this person is actually laughable for me. Not only have I constantly found myself, from my early teenage years to current days, serving as some sort of unofficial therapist for many of my friends, who share their woes and ask me for advice (whether they’ll heed it or not), most importantly, I once had an experience with a friend, back in high school, much like what happens with these kids in The Beach, after I’d spent years doing a lot of post-depression introspection. I shared a lot of stuff I didn’t often talk about, and beats me WHY I felt completely comfortable sharing it with my friend that day, but I did. She understood me, listened, offered her opinion, and we talked about her problems too. This happened when I was 15-16. If this person has never experienced such situation... why, that’s not anyone’s business. But it’s certainly not their business to determine this just DOESN’T happen, to anyone, ever. I can safely say it does, to people who do have problems and who sometimes just need a friendly shoulder to rely on. Maybe this critic’s life is just so perfect they’ve never had to share their woes with anyone else :’) I’m afraid that doesn’t invalidate those of us who are different, and it doesn’t invalidate the possibility that those four could talk, as they did, without breaking characterization, in the scene of the fireplace at the beach.

ANYWAYS...

Saying that a show about a group of kids who save the world and then effectively become leaders of such world, facing very little opposition in the process, is unrealistic because “teenagers aren’t like that becuase I wasn’t like that as a teenager” may be one of the most ridiculous and shortsighted things I’ve seen in this fandom, AND I’VE SEEN A LOT OF RIDICULOUS AND SHORTSIGHTED THINGS. A person’s experiences are NOT universal, regardless of how widespread their culture may be. More importantly, fiction does NOT have to abide by rules established by our current society’s state and cultural values. ATLA, as it is, is a completely different world from our own, regardless of its inspiration in many Asian cultures.

I, personally, find it a lot more unrealistic that Fire Lord Zuko can become Fire Lord without much in the way of visible protesting or boycotting when he was a banished prince who didn’t even win in his Agni Kai against Azula since it’s Katara who ends up defeating her and, as far as the rules go, Azula technically won even if not in the most dignified of ways. I find it even more unrealistic that LOK tells us Zuko was Fire Lord successfully for 70+ years and the Fire Nation has been fully reformed into a non-warmongering country despite the 100+ years of indoctrination started by Sozin’s rule. That this gets swept under a rug, not only in the neatly wrapped finale that leaves a thousand unanswered questions, but in the sequel show that merely confirms Zuko succeeded and shows NOTHING of how he managed to reform such a fucked up society...? That is a thousand times more important to me than “privileged kids aren’t acting like privileged kids OMG!”. Honestly, you want privileged kids abusing all their privileges in our society? Go watch Gossip Girl, I genuinely recommend it. You want something that proposes a completely different possibility and a glance at what a society guided by a tyrannical dictator looks like? Feel free to watch The Beach again with a completely different focus and MAYBE you’ll understand what the writers were going for.

If this person happens to see my answer, I hope they learn that worldbuilding, for a storyteller, entails CREATING a world that isn’t necessarily like the one we’re familiar with. There are multiple layers to such a world, and society and culture are some of them. Not all cultures and societies work the same way, which is part of why sometimes you’ll find behaviors from people who belong to wholly different cultures and wind up perplexed because whatever they’re doing is completely unfamiliar for you. Are there any universal behaviors in humans? Maybe! But in a work of FICTION, even the most universal of behaviors can be changed, deleted, altered however the writer sees fit! :’D it’s not a novel concept, and as far as logical fallacies are concerned, this show features a whole slew of those that have nothing to do with this peculiar sense of “realism”, fallacies that absolutely can and should be called out. Namely, things that contradict the internal logic of the show, rather than things that are incompatible with OUR world. Portraying a world that’s very different from ours, on virtually every level you can think of? That’s called creativity, not lack of realism. Please learn the difference.

[pigballoon]

The Florida Project

(Sean Baker, 2017)

The one real criticism I would aim at Sean Baker's follow up to Tangerine is that considering what it is, it's maybe a little on the long side. Once the film finally gets going it's outstanding for a whole number of reasons, but until it gets to the point where things really pick up it's a film that takes longer than is probably necessary to establish itself. Baker does a tremendous job establishing his world, his characters, their relationships, all in effortless fashion, free of phony exposition, but considering the pretty samey nature of the events we witness it's tough to justify the drawn out nature of the establishing stages of the movie, even if all that we witness is equally as likely to be wonderfully, riotously entertaining to as many people as will find it an obnoxious chore. 

Anyway, beyond that generally inoffensive niggling issue, after this movie sparks itself quite literally to life the turnaround is extreme. Baker transforms things from a simple atmospheric submersion into this world into a piece of writing peppered with a number of creative approaches to its storytelling. Key example: you may wonder why you’re repeatedly watching a little girl taking a bath, when the reveal finally comes it radically transforms that which previously appeared insignificant.

As touched on before, Baker generally totally avoids obviously fake ways to communicate anything to you, he doesn’t go for bombast even in moments that 90% of other movies would milk for all they’re worth. The Florida Project, set in the almost entirely unseen, but unspokenly ever present shadow of a magical kingdom favours doing things the small way, taking short routes to big places. The subtext remains entirely subtextual, never forced upon the viewer in any way, all that is directly communicated to the viewer via the filmmakers is the struggles of its character to make it, to survive in the world on the borders of a land of dreams.

Still, to all those for whom that doesn’t quite do it, there is Willem Dafoe here getting the most wonderful role he’s had in a good long while getting to flex both those off kilter comic chops so wonderfully harnessed in years past by Wes Anderson, and the grounded, down to earth, no nonsense, effortless side that’s made him such a staple of indie cinema for so long now. Yet while he is the biggest name on display the star of the show for me is 24 year old Bria Vinaite. You never for a moment have reason to doubt the authenticity of her in this world, as this character, and yet the latter stages of proceedings give her moments that allow her to transform beyond white trash into some sort of animal, a struggling one of not ill intent, Vinaite never loses sight of the humanity, aided by Baker’s direction keeping it all low key, but lays bear the monster inside of her clear as day.

All in all it’s a shame that the opening stretches are drawn out in the way that they are because I think the strengths of this movie go far beyond Tangerine from an acting point of view, a writing point of view, Baker’s elevation as a filmmaker sort of undeniable, but the excess in the opening act lets the side down to a certain degree. Still, it eventually grows so strong that it totally overcomes that, and it’s blending of the dark realities of this world with the magical innocence of childhood is brilliantly executed in a way that gives the movie an all too rare flavour, and ultimately makes it sort of unmissable stuff for anybody that can handle obnoxious little brats.