#filmmaking discourse

[theinternetisfulloftrash]

Lol, people overwhelmingly decided to read the purposely terrible sex scene in Not Okay as actually sexy. I'm more concerned the fandom will rationalize his Ponyboi character's behavior than be not happy about the character.

Colin = bad fuck 💯

Did my brain malfunction when I heard Dylan's voice saying the words "fuck... you're so tight." Yes. Yes it did, but you're right. That was some God-awful sex, and it was supposed to be. People will always take moments out of context to appreciate their favs in roles though. Also, I think it's fair to say that many fans are separating Colin as a shitty, thoughtless, and selfish partner from the anesthetics of a blond Dylan O'Brien moaning while fucking someone on a sink in a public restroom (p.s. that's like a known kink of mine... so colour me flustered seeing hints of how it might play out). You know?

I also think it's impossible to expect every fan to view it the way each of us individually think it's appropriate to. People will react the way that they react, and I'm always hopeful that seeing discussion and debate about difficult subject matter is where a lot of the value lies. It's where minds are changed, where new perspectives are adopted. Someone saying 'oh he's so hot in that movie' and someone else saying 'the only redeemable quality about Vincenzo is that he has Dylan O'Brien's shoulders' is where we start to explore subject matter.

I guess I'm of the opinion that it doesn't really serve me to worry about what people are going to think or say, because I can't change it. I just hope that there is a net benefit to the world as a whole when subject matter like this is explored.

anon is furthering discussion of THIS ask

[rainbow-sunshine-unicorn]

No but you don’t understand how much I love that Anthony doesn’t see pleasuring Kate as a means to an end, but rather a complete purpose in and of itself

Anthony is someone who eats his wife out because he derives his pleasure from the act, and not because he sees it as a precursor to penetration.

I love how Anthony centres Kate’s pleasure from the very first time. In the gazebo scene, he keeps his pants on the entire time. In season 3 ep 1, he has his pants off and he’s still focused on eating her out. In ep 5, his idea of a quickie is eating her out. He enjoys making her feel good and that’s his entire purpose

It’s not just that the focus is on a woman’s pleasure but also that there is such a refreshing lack of emphasis on penetration as the whole sole end goal, especially in the context of a heterosexual couple. It’s so beautiful and important. To me, that is the embodiment of the female gaze.

[skymagpie]

People who are super pro-ship and post only pro-ship discourse but insist that it's antis who are obsessed with them is so funny, man it's time for introspection I think

[james-stark-the-writer]

finally watching Barbarian (2022) and this man has negative charisma tbh. incredibly funny to cast a man this good looking in a role like this.

[curiosityjams]

not even gonna throw my hat into the barbie (2023) discourse because at this point, everyone has said what i wanted to say and more eloquently at that. (my feelings on that movie are very well known to anyone that's followed me for some time now btw) HOWEVER, i can't believe you can point out that greta gerwig is THE first filmmaker ever to ever get their first 3 films (solo directorial efforts to be more exact) nommed for best picture and that it's a record that 2 of the nominees in best director haven't achieved (for ref: scorsese didn't get a best picture nom til raging bull while nolan didn't score a bp nom til inception. funny enough, tdk was a HUGE part of the reason why the academy decided to expand the number of slots in bp from 5 to 10.) and you have ppl in the youtube comments accusing you of belittiling their accomplishments to lift greta up all bc you stated a damn FACT. youtube, like twitter, has the same exact kind of "oh so you like pancakes?? then you must HATE waffles" energy that i find insufferable, sdhfjkgjh.

[artist-issues]

One of my favorite things that I have ever learned about storytelling (from Brian MacDonald, author of Invisible Ink,) is that a story is like a recipe.

If you’re making fettuccini alfredo, you can’t put chocolate in it. Because then it’s not fettuccini Alfredo anymore. 

If you’re making a movie about how all work and no play is a bad thing, then you can’t put an alien invasion in there. Not if it doesn’t tie in to the story. 

We’re making pasta. I know you like chocolate, but that’s not what we’re making. Let’s make brownies next time, and then you can have chocolate in there. But the chocolate can’t go in the fettuccini Alfredo. 

We’re making a movie about a businessman who needs to learn to slow down and enjoy life. I know you like alien invasion epics, but let’s make a movie about acceptance or the triumph of the human spirit next time, and then you can have alien invasions. But the alien invasion can’t go in the businessman movie.  If the goal is to tell a true story, then the best way to reach that goal is to combine focus with appeal. Don’t let it be so focused that it’s a lecture instead of a story—and don’t let it be so full of cool appealing things that there’s no substance and a lack of focus. You need both. 

The same goes for listening to or watching a story. Every scene, every character, every line of dialogue, is supposed to work together as a whole. You can’t take one scene or one one-liner and hold it up as an example of what the movie is about while totally ignoring the context. 

That’s like trying to separate the sauce from the noodles and say “this sauce is fettuccini Alfredo.” Well, no it’s not. It’s just Alfredo sauce. You need the noodles for it to be fettuccini Alfredo, and if you hadn’t separated the sauce from those noodles, fettuccini Alfredo is what you’d have. 

[fran-kubelik]

I know a lot of this is people posting just to post in hopes of getting clicks, like I get it. But this thing of acting like the writers/filmmakers/whatever didn't realize the implications of their own work is so obnoxious. Framing and perspective in storytelling are features, not bugs! The writers didn't miss their own point, YOU did. And it's hard not to notice this is done OVERWHELMINGLY to media written and/or directed by women 🙄

[eddiediazismyhusband]

once again, i work in film/theatre as both s costumer and a performer! every single choice made is intentional and has a meaning within the context of the story. it’s not some frivolous “oh yeah this looks goid here let’s put them in that.” no there are complex concepts and designs that are well thought out and executed intentionally to create a narrative through clothing bc (once again) this isn’t real life, this is a fictional story and stories use parallels and symbolism to drop hints/subtley tell us things that we may not notice at first glance until a reason is revealed later on.

(also sorry @mazzystar24 i did NOT mean to hijack this post is just completely agree w everything you said and wanted to use my own literal work experience to back you up 😭)

You know what REALLY irritates me?

The way people keep criticising the buddie fandom as delusional for seeing things in the show and are pretending that writing and editing and camera angles and costuming isn’t made up of intentional choices

Like you guys do realise there are wholeass departments of people doing things on purpose here right? Like clothes aren’t decided by eh this looks good enough🤷🏽‍♀️ cameras don’t pan places just for funsies, scripts and scenes aren’t included just because🤷🏽‍♀️

Like shipping aside, like that’s just how shows/movies work like it’s all preplanned and intentional

like I beg some of these fans before they hop on acting like everyone is crazy, to just spend a few minutes looking at how some costume departments explain their intentions for specific clothes or camera crews/editing departments talk about why they use certain angles or shots, or writers explain why tiny moments seasons ago sometimes are preplanned and crafted

[lizardsfromspace]

So I guess Film Twitter is apoplectic with rage over some people suggesting they have intermissions in long movies. Not over theaters adding one without the director's consent, but like, at the concept of them

...by which I mean, getting mad at disabled people daring to have complaints. There's a lot of "HAHA are you so STUPID you can't go beforehand? You can't HOLD it for three hours?" and implying you don't deserve to experience art if you can't

And, of course, because Film Twitter is a bunch of insular discourse-addled dipshits, they're tying this...to Marvel. Yes, people are only saying they have health conditions that make sitting still for a three hour movie is because...they're Marvel fans mad at Scorsese, or something?

Why is this complaint new? Well, bc runtimes are ballooning to the levels of the old epic filmmaking days of the 50s-70s. And those movies...had intermissions. Multi-act plays have intermissions. Bollywood films have intermissions. Intermissions were literally just abandoned so studios could cram in more screenings, not out of an artistic ideal. But anyone saying "this would make it easy for me to access this film I want to see" needs to be viciously shouted down and called a moronic, lazy child hating on Scorsese bc of "discourse"

I've seen that meme multiple times and Jesus, look at the bizarre disdain for your fellow human beings embedded in it. You dare still bodily exist during a Martin Scorsese movie? You have a disability I don't? Well, I have no problem just peeing beforehand and not buying popcorn or a soda (you should really just sit their quietly until it's done, when you can pull out your phone to log it on Letterboxd), so what's your problem?

Calling people who are into non-blockbuster films "film bros" is mostly untrue, but man, the hardcore Film Twitter types unambiguously check every box. They're certainly dismissive of anyone outside their little box; extremely insulting, in fact, of how anyone who disagrees with them even slightly must be a Marvel-addled hysterical artless moron. Because nothing says "artistic appreciation" like preemptively calling analysis of a movie's choices "discourse" ("Ugh, I can't believe the DISCOURSE about how a movie portraying a morbidly obese man portrays obese people" - what should they talk about, then, if the movie's subject is instantly off the table?) They think the idea that someone out there may have a disability that prevents them from sitting in one place for three and a half hours is a laughable thing made up by the internet; or when people pointed out that a movie only getting one or two screenings a city may be inaccessible to working people, and these bloggers and podcast hosts dunked on the idea that working class people may like art as a hilarious, made-up thing.

I don't know, maaaaaaybe classing the life experiences and complaints of anyone who isn't you as "discourse" and presuming it's made-up kvetching about nothing as a matter of course is bad, cruel nonsense, actually?

[chimaerakitten]

Murderbot for the ask game?

First impression

Holy SHIT this is a great opening paragraph. what the fuck. if they put this paragraph on billboards everyone on earth would read this book. I love this failed mass murderer soap-opera-obsessed robot.

Impression now

I LOVE this failed mass murderer soap-opera obsessed robot. MOST protagonist. MOST robot It's battling mental health issues. It's asexual. It modified itself to look human but it empathetically does NOT want to be human. Unapologetic It/its pronouns. It is so fucking good at what it does and it went from being classed as equipment to having friends who will threaten ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT over it. as of SC it's a DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER, taking into its own hands and feed-space the creativity which helped it in the first place.

Favorite moment

either the flying bag sequence from FT or it going around ART absolutely murderizing the targets in early NE. The second for the sheer badass of the murderizing and the first because of they of watching MB do something that is not murderizing and feeling almost euphoric about it. (Even if it did fall apart not long after)

Idea for a story

I have this concept for a story where it's pretending to be a human while trapped in a shipping container with a bunch of people who have been abducted for contract labor, trying to keep them all alive despite the fact that the mission has already gone very wrong. The muse is not there, for the moment, but it's a story I'm terribly fond of, for a lot of reasons.

Unpopular opinion

I Shan't swing a baseball bat at the discourse hornets today.

Favorite relationship

either MB & ART for just the great vitriolic besties thing they have or MB & Mensah. She's space president of the granola planet. It's a corporate surveillance and violence robot. They care about and respect each other SO MUCH.

Favorite headcanon

MB doesn't even know how many ripple effects its actions are having on the universe it lives in. They're small, and will probably always be small, but there are already more free constructs out there than there have ever been, just because of it.

[kummatty]

ArteEast has an online program--Archives of Power--screening several Palestinian films for free from March 7-17 !

Archives, often perceived as impartial guardians of history, are actually deeply entwined with political agendas. In the context of the Palestinian struggle, archives have been systematically pillaged and obliterated by the Israeli state and military, resulting in the loss of invaluable records of Palestinian history and resistance. Among the missing archives are decades of footage by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Palestine Film Unit (PFU). This collective of militant filmmakers emerged in the late 1960s, utilizing the camera as a tool of resistance to document the Palestinian experience and the struggle for liberation. The film program features documentaries about the Palestinian film archive and filmic legacy – Azza El-Hassan’s Kings and Extras: Digging for a Palestinian Image (2004), Mohanad Yaqubi’s Off Frame (aka Revolution Until Victory) (2016)– as well as a selection of earlier films created during the revolutionary Palestinian film era, which have recently been restored as part of El-Hassan’s invaluable initiative, The Void Project, which was founded in 2018 to explore the presence and absence of the Palestinian visual archives as a discourse in narrative formation, and to restore and distribute some of the surviving films of the era. Archives of Power ultimately strives to amplify the voices and stories that have been marginalized and suppressed, reclaiming agency and autonomy in defiance of ongoing attempts to erase Palestinian history and visual narrative. This program serves as an indispensable platform for comprehending and challenging the mechanisms of oppression and resistance within the domain of archival representation.

[wingamy24]

Love all the stuff you’re doing for the jeffbritta girlies!!

And I know I’m asking for a lot but could you do like a little guide for their best episodes? Cuz when I sit down to watch a random episode I always forget what episodes have good moments with them that are not mixology certification lol

If this is too much to ask that’s okay💕

yesyesyesyeseyydysyeysyessegewghq

Okay, SO. This is my personal list of my go-to Jeffbritta episodes. Obviously not all of these are romantic: they're just focused on them or have funny interactions with them.

I love them and they deserve everything + endgame

Season 1

Season 1 has a BUNCH of Jeffbritta episodes, specially considering they were supposed to be the main couple of the show back then. My favorites are:

S1 E1 Pilot: Obviously.

S1 E3 Introduction To Film: Seize the day!

S1 E14 Interpretative Dance: This is the cute episode where Jeff brings flowers for Britta.

S1 E16 Communication Studies: This is the episode where Jeff gets drunk with Abed and ends up calling Britta and blablabla...

S1 E22 The Art Of Discourse: This one doesn't have any explicit Jeffbritta I think? It's just fun to see them make an evil plan to take revenge on some random highschoolers.

S1 E23 Modern Warfare: One of my (if it isn't my #1 favorite) favorite episodes of Community. The one where Jeff and Britta have sex in the study room table.

Season 2

On Season 2 we got a weirdly amount of Jeffannie episodes, but we still had our fair share of Jeffbritta episodes!

S2 E1 Anthropology 101: Not really Jeffbritta, but it's still fun watching them being gross in this episode, right?...right?

S2 E6 Epidemiology: Seeing Jeff walk around with Britta to give her drinks is funny.

S2 E10 Mixology Certification: This is an obvious one.

S2 E13 Celebrity Pharmacology: Cool cats. AKA, The Bi Panic™

S2 E16 Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking: That's Irak, stupid. WHAT DO I KNOW, I'M JEFF WINGER'S DUMB GAY DAD!

S2 E19 Critical Film Studies: This isn't really a Jeffbritta episode, but they match costumes... that's... that's enough, right

S2 21 Paradigms of Human Memory: Unrelated, but I just looked at the Wikipedia page, and it was almost entirely filmed in Universal Studios. The "popping the back of a raft makes it go faster" scene was filmed in a Jaws set! Anyway, we have the funny Jeffannie sequence, but it's a fun episode if you focus on Jeff and Britta, too.

S2 E22 Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts: Not a lot of Jeffbritta, but still, fun and cute interactions.

Season 3

S3 E6 Advanced Gay: I love this episode so much, it's so ridiculous at so many levels. Also, Britta adressing Jeff's daddy issues is always fun.

S3 E11 Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts: One of the many times Jeff and Britta almost get married.

S3 E12 Contemporary Impressionists: This is one of my favorites of all the show. It's so funny seeing Jeff be... whatever this is

S3 E21 The First Chang Dynasty: GothJeffandBrittaGothJeffandBritta

Season 4

It's amazing how many Jeffbritta moments the gas leak season gave us.

S4 E2 Paranormal Parentage: Again, Britta with Jeff's daddy issues.

S4 E5 Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations: Britta helping Jeff is heartwarming. SHE'S SO PROUD OF HIM YOU GUYS. Also, them in cars. You can never have enough Jeff and Britta in cars.

S4 E8 Herstory of Dance: This is also an episode I really like. Jeff and Britta are adorable in this one.

S4 E10 Intro to Knots: Greendale parents.

S4 E12 Heroic Origins: GUYS LOOK THEY MET EACH OTHER BEFORE

Season 5

I love the Jeffbritta episodes here, but at the same time... it's so cruel that they made all this build-up just for a Jeffannie ending. It's like they WANTED to make us suffer. Fuck you, Dan Harmon.

S5 E7 Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality: HE WANTS HER BACK

S5 E8 App Development and Condiments: mustard

S5 E12 Basic Story: I cried

S5 E13 Basic Sandwich: I also cried. RAGE TEARS

Season 6

I don't really like watching S6, buuuut I'm gonna say "S6 E6 Basic Email Security" for the short Jeffbritta banter.

...this is it. this took me two days. okay bye

[djuvlipen]

♀️latscho diwes djuviale♀️

💞 I made this blog to highlight the specific struggles Romani women face based on our sex, our race and our class

💞 I'm anti-gender, anti-sex trade, anti-religion, anti-capitalist

💞 I support women's and LGB rights. My feminism is female only!

💞 I'm a half-sinti, half-white working class homosexual woman living in Western Europe

BEFORE YOU BLOCK ME, READ THIS: x

FAQ, BOOKS AND RESOURCES BELOW

General / Frequently asked questions

-> Difference between Roma and Romanian (x)

-> Difference between Roma and Sinti (x)

-> My profile picture is from De la source à la mer (1984), by Sinti-Manouche filmmaker and writer Pisla Helmstetter

-> My banner is from The Gypsies are Found Near Heaven (1975), by Emil Loteanu

Posts on the racialized misogyny targeting Romani women

-> general masterpost (x)

-> posts on Romani women being sex trafficked into prostitution in Europe (x) (x)

-> posts on the forced sterilization of Romani women in Europe (x) (x) (x) (x)

-> post on healthcare discrimination (x)

-> incest, sexual and domestic violence targeting Eastern European Romani women (x) (x)

-> Roma, religion and misogyny (x)

-> On "Gypsy witches" (x)

Inspiring Romani women you should know about

-> autobiographies by Romani women (x)

-> Sandra Jayat, French-Romani painter and poet (x)

-> Katarina Taikon, Swedish-Romani writer and antiracist activist (x) (x)

-> Elena Gorolova, Czech-Romani women's rights advocate (x)

-> Jelena Savić, Serbian-Romani feminist, poet and essayist (x)

-> Tela-Tchaï, French-Romani actress (x)

-> Amoun Sleem, Palestinian-Domari antiracist activist and feminist (x)

-> Philomena Franz, German-Romani Holocaust survivor and writer (x)

-> Vera Kurtić, Serbian-Romani lesbian feminist (x)

-> Kiba Lumberg, Finnish-Romani and butch lesbian artist (x)

-> Zilli Schmidt, German-Romani Holocaust survivor (x)

-> "15 Bad ass Romani ladies you should know about" (x)

-> Romani herstory, an "ever-growing digital library that celebrates women of Romani descent from the past and present, unsung heroines & trailblazers who refuse(d) to conform to stereotypes"

Romani feminist writings

-> Intersections of Gender, Ethnicity, and Class: History and Future of the Romani Women’s Movement, by Jelena Jovanović, Angéla Kóczé, and Lídia Balogh (x)

-> Gender, Ethnicity and Class: Romani Women's Political Activism and Social Struggles, Angéla Kóczé (x)

-> Lessons from Roma Feminism in Europe: Digital Storytelling Projects with Roma Women Activists from Romania, Spain and Sweden, Jasmine Ljungberg (x)

-> Romani women’s identities real and imagined: Media discourse analysis of “I’m a European Roma Woman” campaign, Jelena Jovanović (x)

-> Džuvljarke: Roma Lesbian Existence, Vera Kurtić (x)

-> Re-envisioning Social Justice from the Ground Up: Including the Experiences of Romani Women, Alexandra Oprea (x)

-> Angéla Kóczé on the hijacking of the Romani feminist and antiracist movement by neoliberal groups (x) (x)

-> Mihaela Drăgan on the racialization of Romani women (x)

-> quotes from Romani feminist books (x)

Learn about the Romani genocide

-> general post (x)

The Genocide and Persecution of Roma and Sinti. Bibliography and Historiographical Review (x)

Roma Resistance During the Holocaust and in its Aftermath, Angéla Kóczé, Anna Lujza Szász (eds.) (x)

O Porrajmos: the Romani Holocaust, Ian Hancock (x)

Porrajmos: The Romani and the Holocaust, Ian Hancock (x)

Responses to the Porrajmos (the Romani Holocaust), Ian Hancock (x)

Barvalipe Roma Online University (playlist of lectures about many different aspects of Romani history, politics and culture) (x)

Romani slavery in Romania

Brief overview (x)

Alternatives to the labrys flag

(first design by @/sapphos-darling)

[flanaganfilm]

Good morning/ evening! My name’s Sam and I’m currently a film student hoping to get into freelance writing. I’ve got a couple questions if you don’t mind (hoping you haven’t already answered them and I just missed them).

When you first starting making your own films, did you have already have thick skin for any critics/ bad reviews? Or is that something you grew over time?

Also, for your production company, do you hire interns and PAs or do you prefer filmmakers with more experience?

Thank you!

To your first question, I do not have a thick skin in that area AT ALL and never have. I don't know many people who do.

I'm often approached by fans who will talk about what a project of mine means to them, or I find a review or think piece online where the author really connected with my work. I want to let that feedback in, because it's validating. But letting it in means letting ALL of it in, even the negative. I don't really get to pick and choose. Once I decided to let myself react emotionally to other people's feedback, those gates are open I've got to accept whatever comes through.

I take my work very seriously, and tend to pour my heart and soul into it. We make these things because we love them. It can literally take years of daily work to do. When people love it, it feels great. When people don't, it hurts. There's really no way around that.

Film criticism has, like a lot of things, devolved over time. I was a massive fan of Robert Ebert, who was thoughtful and sophisticated in his critiques (most of the time), and tried to approach each movie he watched on the film's own terms - from the perspective of "how successful was this at achieving what it set out to do?" I see a lot of criticisms today that don't do this, and instead are lamenting what a movie is or isn't, saying things like "I wish this was more..." or "This isn't good because I wanted it to be something else."

"I wanted a ________ and what I got instead was ______ so it sucks."

The other issue is that loud, sensationalized vitriol gets more clicks. Negative reviews, especially brutal and callous ones, get more attention than positive ones. I've gotten to know and befriend some professional critics over the years, who have all told me that the positive reviews don't generate the audience reaction quite like the negative ones. People enjoy watching things get beat up. We reward the wrong kind of discourse, and that isn't unique to film criticism - it's everywhere. That's just a symptom of our culture.

One of my great frustrations is how we assert our opinion as objective truth. There's nothing more dangerous than tweeting "I liked ______ movie!" The comments flood in about how you're wrong, how it sucks, blah blah blah. People think their own taste is somehow factual. If someone says "I had a fantastic steak dinner last night and I loved it," we don't say "you're wrong, steak sucks". We understand the concept of taste when it comes to other things we consume, but when it comes to entertainment each one of us thinks we're the ultimate authority.

For myself, my producer and my wife have long discouraged me from reading reviews. I still can't help it. It's not healthy though. I can scroll past a dozen positive ones, and they evaporate in my mind, but I read one scathing thing and it sticks with me for days. There is one particular review of MIDNIGHT MASS that is one of the most baffling and frustrating things I've ever read, as the author appears to have misunderstood just about every aspect of the series, and drawn the angriest, most misguided, most erroneous conclusions. I read it with my jaw on the ground... "but they're objectively wrong. That isn't what happens, and that isn't what the show is even about." But what can I do? Who am I to say their experience of the show is invalid? They feel how they feel, and that's fine. That's okay. It has to be.

So your skin doesn't get thicker, it is a bizarre emotional experience to put something personal out there into the world and see the gamut of reactions. But at a certain point you have to remind yourself that it's impossible to please everyone, and that these projects don't belong to the filmmaker - they belong to the audience, and each and every one of those experiences is unique and valid. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned, and perhaps the critique can help you grow as a filmmaker.

I have similar feelings when I see someone trashing someone else's work I happen to love - for example, I remain baffled by people who didn't like EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, but that doesn't mean anything. It didn't work for them, that's all. Nothing works for everyone.

I have found over the years that I respect and appreciate analyses and criticisms that take this more personal point of view, and talk about their own interaction with the work as opposed to just dismissing it outright. When someone says "this movie didn't work for me," or "I didn't connect with it," or "It just wasn't my cup of tea," I have a much easier time taking it seriously. It's changed how I talk about my own reactions to movies or shows that I didn't respond to. And I found that it's made it much easier for me to enjoy things even if they aren't quite for me. Instead of being reactive and saying "it sucks" or "I hate this," I've gotten better at realizing it's not a binary experience - I can look at what DOES work for me, and I can appreciate it, even while other elements might not.

It makes for a much more nuanced discussion, and helps me grow. Sometimes, though, it's just the wrong thing to watch on the wrong day, and that's fine too. Maybe that makes it a little easier. If I step out of something and just really don't enjoy it, it helps remind me that it's not personal. Clearly, other people DO enjoy these things, sometimes I'm very much in the minority. And when that happens, I can say "oh, it's not so bad if someone hates a movie I made, or a show, or whatever. Life's too short."

But I long ago decided I'd never say anything negative about someone else's work in public. I know too much about what it takes to make a movie, and I'm not a critic. I'm a filmmaker. This town is too small, and there is zero upside in dragging another filmmaker's efforts. On the rare occasions when I do see another filmmaker indulge in that behavior, it is always a terrible look. And it can have real-world consequences - there are a few filmmakers who I've seen publicly slag off other people's work, and I quietly decided never to hire them. Like I said, it's a small town... and most of us read what people say about our work.

We should get back to that work, remember how lucky we all are to do this for a living, and leave that kind of thing to the critics.

[wizardnaturalist]

I am not about to sit here and claim that any work is above reproach, but so many criticisms of RENT are either directly addressed within the show or are just. not true. and this perennial discourse about how Problematic it is annoys me, so here we go

Why don't they just pay the rent?

are you kidding me

did you watch the show??

they don't have any money

the situation established at the beginning is that Benny has allowed them to stay in their apartment rent free for the past year because Roger was unable to work and he and Mark wouldnt be able to afford living expenses as well as Roger's medication otherwise.

Benny then tells them that unless they break up Maureen's protest, they will not only have to immediately start paying rent, they will also have to pay back the entire previous year's rent or else be evicted

needless to say if you ware barely scraping by, you do not have a year's worth of rent and then some just sitting on hand

Mark was cosplaying poverty, he could've gone back to his parents' house at any time.

perhaps

all we know about Mark's parents from canon is that theyre pushy and he doesnt want to live with them. We don't know any details of their living situation or home life

but even if he would have been fine moving back home, it would have meant abandoning both the community he had grown into, and Roger.

Roger literally had not left the apartment since April died, and was not well enough to work to support himself at the time. Mark leaving would mean leaving Roger without support.

Mark's view of the homeless is often voyeuristic and expoitative.

yah

the conflict between Mark's comparatively privileged upbringing and the poverty amongst which he now lives is a major part of his character

remember when that homeless lady told him to fuck off

that didnt just slip in by accident

The whole show is about not being able to afford things, and then Mark quits his job for his Ideals.

Mark was not entirely jobless before being employed at the magazine. He wasn't going from having a job to unemployment. He always had money for food, clothes, medication, etc., even if it was tight

he just wasn't employed in his field. it wasnt a question of Having A Job or Not; it was about whether Mark was willing to accept the chance to get closer to making a living off of his art, even if it went against his morals, or whether he could be content carving out filmmaking for himself in a way that felt right

I thought Jonathan Larson was gay and died of AIDS.

not his fault??

neither Larson nor his estate ever claimed either of those things, you just jumped to a conclusion and made it everyone elses' problem

I can't believe this is a common "criticism"

A straight man has no right to write about the AIDS epidemic.

I dont know how to tell you this, but AIDS is not a gays-only disease. what are you, a politician from 1986?

RENT was not about being gay, it was about the disease. Roger, Mimi, Mark, and Benny- half the main cast- are all straight as far as the audience is aware. other than gay people, the most at-risk groups at the time were IV drug users, sex workers, people of colour, and impoverished people, all of whom are represented in the show

Larson may not have had AIDS, but many of his friends and loved ones did, and died of it. how incredibly callous to say that someone cannot write about the tragedy they personally lived through, just because they are not of the demographic you most associate with it

Larson plagiarized the whole cast and all the major story beats from Sarah Shulman's People in Trouble.

this is one that cropped up on tiktok a couple years ago

have you read the book?

I have

the only similarities are that they are both about poverty and AIDS in New York, and there are characters who cheat on their partners. that's it.

it's like saying Veep plagiarized The West Wing because theyre both about white house staffers. or like those guys who claim any fantasy story featuring swords and the hero's journey is a Star Wars ripoff. it' absurd.

RENT is directly and openly based off the opera La Bohème by Puccini, as well as incorporating autobiographical elements from Larson's life

stop just repeating things you hear

in conclusion: there are real criticisms and analyses to be had with RENT, but these are not them

[autistic-ben-tennyson]

Clearing the Air

Recently there was discourse over The Prince of Egypt that I take responsibility for starting. I went onto someone’s post that was praising the film and didn’t understand that they were joking when asking why people made more animated movies after it. I had gotten heated that day after arguing with Jumblr liberals regarding Gaza gofundmes and decided to fuck with the OP by calling the movie they love “Zionist propaganda”. The otaku in me saw it as overrated compared to stuff like Shinkai. Anyway, it was my fault for starting discourse over the movie and since it was kind of antisemitic, I’ll apologize for what I said especially since the person in question, Smhalltheurlsaretaken, had nothing to with said discourse.

I’ll clarify my beliefs here, even if the people reblogging the OP’s original response won’t listen or hear this. I do not hate Jewish people. There’s no reason to hate someone because of their religion. What I hate is the actions I’ve seen, especially those of blogs like emperorsfoot, and spot-the-antisemitism, especially their concern trolling over scams. Checking the blogs of those reblogging that post exposes them as either ultra transphobic conservatives like Beginnerblueglass or vote blue racist liberals like Prismatic Bell. So while I was in the wrong and take responsibility for my first comment, I’m not sorry about offending everyone else in the reply chain.

I don’t actually hate the movie and think it’s a good piece of filmmaking. Contrary to what this person believes, I can think for myself. I was just asking someone who was more educated than me on theology that had a dislike of the movie on why they criticized it. I have beef with the above user for personal reasons regarding their ableist view of Ben Tennyson as a character.

Ever since I made a post criticizing hardcore Jedi apologists and how they use Asian beliefs and people as shields, this blogger has been calling me discount Lily Orchard, as if she’s the only one who criticized the Jedi order. I don’t even watch her or Lindsay Ellis’s videos ffs. Maybe grow TF up and realize people have valid reasons to dislike your favorite characters that aren’t fascist or genocide apologism.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say. Decided to write it out instead of adding more to the OP’s post. I’m done with this discourse, but I’m going to leave this here for those who see the post and assume the worst without knowing my side.