#game changer movie review

[sanammovies123]

Game Changer Movie Review | By Sanam Movie Review Ram Charan Kiara Ad...

[telugufundahyd]

https://telugufunda.com/game-changer-review-shankars-socio-fantasy-of-empowering-the-common-man-is-underpowered-with-its-logical-flaws

[rosellerivers19]

What I’m looking most forward to in Game changer

So I’m a fan on Ram Charan have been even before RRR Maghadheera was one of my favorite movies as a kid and not just because of Kajal’s beautiful wardrobe in that movie *cries in can’t wear pretty dresses because of social anxiety*

But we’re not going to be talking about Maghadheera today we are going to be talking about Ram Chatman’s new movie “Game Changer”

Granted I have not seen it because I don’t usually go to the movies and it has released on an Ott platform my family uses but since it’s not in the best quality I’m gonna wait for a bit before watching it and I have exams too so I have to finish that before relaxing.

But Game Changer is a movie I was initially very excited for when it was announced before the trailers and teasers and everything.

It was because it was Ram Charan’s first appearance in a movie after RRR and because the look and style of it , it reminded me of his old movies and gave me the vibe he was going to go the safe route after RRR and give like one of those classic movies but maybe with a more intriguing storyline.

Now after watching the trailer and teaser I still do believe that to some point but after hearing a person on my fyp talk about how the formula this movie used was too much like those old 2015-2018 Telugu movies I’m a bit skeptical but I think I still might enjoy it somewhat.

When I first watched the trailer though I was really excited because I could for the life of me not know what was going on there was a suspense that made me want to watch the movie more. And I couldn’t tell if there was gonna be two or three versions of Ram Charan in the movies because of how different he looks in different parts of the trailer. I’m assuming it’s two but I guess I have to see.

I’m not gonna be comparing my opinions on my first look of Game Changer to Devara at all because they’re clearly very different types of movies Devara is a movie that gives off a lot of dark vibes while Game changer does have conflict but has a more bright color scheme.

Also I do feel like Devara had a good premise the execution and storyline in the end was just . . . meh.

Don’t really know what to expect in the sequel if Devara himself isn’t alive in my opinion it makes it way less interesting and the romance was not there at all.

Back to Game changer

As the title suggest I am going to be describing what I’m looking forward to in this movie.

First of all I’m interested in what the plot would be I know there’s a politician vs police officer plot in there because one of Ram Charan’s characters stated he was an IAS Officer till he dies and after reading the subtitles (don’t bully me I’m not fluent in Telugu) the villain so revealed to be the prime minister of Andhra Pradesh and honestly that itself isn’t really interesting I’ve seen the plot where the corrupt politician steals money from the people a bunch of times I’m just wondering what they’re gonna do with it because I remember S.J Suryah the actor who plays the villain in the movies was also in Saripodha Sanivaram and I really loved his performance in that because of his backstory and dis likable character so I hope “Game Changer” properly utilize him in this movie as well.

Also I’m curious about how the Rangasthalam version of Ram Charan will play a role in the whole IAS officer thing, by Rangasthalam Ram Charan I mean the version of Ram Charan in this film who lives in the countryside or village area with his family a wife and kid since there’s like four versions of him in this film (they decided to really milk him out). Im assuming he’s going to meet the IAS version of himself to talk about the injustices his village is facing and from a scene I accidentally watched while my parents were watching the movie (*Spoiler alert kinda*) Rangasthalam Ram set up his own political party to benefit his village I think but that was like hinted in the trailer as well.

I know the IAS Ram Plotline will be the main plotline because of how many scenes we have of him compared to Rangasthalam Ram but honestly I’m looking forward to scenes with Rangasthalam Ram way more.

Rangasthalam Ram in this movies seems so honest and hardworking and sweet and IAS Ram is also honest and hardworking but there’s something relatable or endearing about Rangasthalam Ram he seems like he isn’t a natural leader and struggles to help his village in family to get through their tough environment but pushes through because he deeply cares for them. And that’s true bravery fighting to protect the people that you love even if it isn’t with fists but other actions this is what Mass hero movies gloss over and since “Game Changer” seems like a Mass movie I’m very glad that this type of character is included in this film and as a main character too even if he isn’t the ‘main’ ‘main’ character.

Oh-OH!

edit: So I just watched the song Arugu Meedha from Game Changer. Initially when watching the trailer I thought Rangasthalam Ram’s relationship with his wife seemed way cute than IAS Ram and the conventionally attractive heroine Kiara Advani who seems to be used to fill in the box-

oh well we got a fair skinned heroine let’s check that out and give her no role whatsoever and possibly make her relationship with the Hero incredibly one sided when it comes to affection and probability of working in an actual relationship.

She was also in Vinaya Vidhaya Rama and they did the exact same thing Unlike Devara though where the most screen time we got from Janhvi Kapoor was in the songs I think “Game Changer” will try to decently build up IAS Ram and Kiara’s character’s love story but it probably won’t be anything new or exciting.

Okay so back to my “OH!” I watched Arugu Meedha and in the trailer I thought Rangasthalam Ram’s relationship with his wife is something I’d like better even if I saw like maybe one scene of them together where his wife played by Anjali rested her head on his back as he rode their bike with them and their child which I found very domestic and cute especially since we don’t get a lot of Telugu mass movies where the characters are already married and have this domestic bliss

ARUGU MEEDHA IS SOMETHING ELSE!!!

THIS IS A SONG DEDICATED JUST TO THEM, and sure it isn’t an item song but I don’t freakin care!!! This is cute!

The way Anjali’s character looks at Rangasthalam Ram when he comes home looking upset?!?!?

It gives off why her very attentive husband brushes past her not out of anger against her but the way he’s so preoccupied with such a troubling matter coming into their once simple life.

AND BY ATTENTIVE I MEAN ATTENTIVE He legit fans her feet when she looks like she’s sick without her asking too like- and he looks so worried it’s so adorable ughhhhh.

Looking like it’s the last time he’ll see her when she probably got the flu. (Cries in loneliness)

And the fact is he’s probably still in the beginning of his political career after he started his political party for the villagers but he’s still such a caring husband.

And it’s not just him! Anjali seeing him upset uplifts his chin and seems to try and ask him what’s wrong even if what we’re actually hearing is her singing the song. He then turns away because he doesn’t want to subject his wife with his troubles even if he knows she’ll try to help, Especially knowing she’ll try to help the best she can because she loves him so much

And then we see the bicycle scene again which is nice but I like it more in the trailer since we see her rest her head on her husband’s back and seeing a woman so in love with her husband brings tears to my eyes (because we do NOT get that in Telugu cinema often)

And then more Angst- Anjali ,for some unknown heartbreaking reason, is crying the tears are simply falling off and then Rangasthalam Ram upturns her chin (what in the hell is with all the beautiful eye contact!?!?!?) holds her head in the palms of his hands wiping her tears with the thumbs of his hand before holding her shoulders and gently bringing her closer to cry freely on his shoulder holding the back of her head carefully like a child

AND TO TOP IT OFF WE GET A RANGASTHALAM RAM VERSION OF THIS TOO

with Anjali rushing over to her husband’s side seeing something is wrong

She holds his head gently and asks what happened

AND THIS TIME HE ACTUALLY OPENS UP! because he feels safe around her and wants her comfort and views her as his equal to tell things too. A true soulmate

And then after realizing what happened and why he’s sound defeated and heartbroken with how he can’t bring himself to look at her (out of guilt maybe) she brings his head closer to her shoulder to rest on it so he had the feeling that he’s okay that he’s safe.

Right there in her arms there is nowhere he’d rather be.

it just shows how endearing and TWO SIDED their relationship is with both of them deeply caring for each other.

And this scene where Rangasthalam Ram is happily carrying his wife and son off in the sunset shows that he’s not a masculine mass hero he’s just a guy. A guy who loves his family, his wife and son to the moon and doesn’t want anything to happen to them because they’re his life.

Um so that was definitely not tear wrenching (I’m crying as I type). Now this again is just what I’m imagining is happening unfortunately their relationship probably will be watered down thrown under the bridge or etc. but I what happened in Raayan with Meghalai (Aparna Balamurali) and Muthuvelraayan (Sundeep Kishan) from a previous post I made is less likely to happen because Rangasthalam Ram is still a main character more or less and his story matters in “Game Changer”.

So Excluding my whole Im very lonely montage im also curious about the woman in this picture for the movie “Game changer”

Who is she? And why does she matter?

I actually didn’t realize there was a little bit in the photo at first but I’m hypothesizing this has something to do with one of the character’s childhood trauma specifically the IAS Officer or maybe the “Collector” ,I don’t know how many Ram Charans are in this movie.

And that’s because he’s yelling for his mother in an abandoned building in construction. Then again the villain the minister might’ve actually kidnapped his mother and family who knows.

The woman whose face is blurred is probably either a reference to the woman in this picture or her herself

Or wait- that might be Anjali! The necklace and dress design matches the blurred woman but maybe it’s her husband’s mother’s attire and she’s wearing it for some special day but something unexpected happens.

God the theories you can make with the smallest things the movie better be feeding these theories.

Anyway that’s all I have to say for today I might or may not make a post after I watch “Game Changer” since I still haven’t made another post about Raayan after watching the movie. It’s mostly because I didn’t have a lot of complaints except for uh, ruining my hopes and dreams about Meghalaai and Muthuvelraayan but yeah we’ll see if Game Changer ends up not being an utter failure and ‘Rajamouli’s curse’ running in production then maybe I’ll make another post dedicated to Rangasthalam Ram and his story or maybe about the absurdity of having like 4 Ram Charan characters in one movie.

Yours truly

Roselle 🪷

[ulaganayagi]

yeah Game Changer was shit but my man was still hot 💀🙏

[alexisgentry]

Decided to record a little video with my thoughts on Game Changer…and I had to mention the volume lol

[tinytragedydreamer]

Watch Now

[damienns]

My GIF Making process: Screen capturing using MPV player, Organizing files, 3 Sharpening settings, Basic Coloring PSD + Actions set

This is a very long post so heads up.

I’ll try to be as thorough and true as much as possible to the way I make my gifs (I already use Photoshop Actions which I’ve long since set up but now for this tutorial I’m reviewing them to show you the exact steps I’ve learned to create my gifs 😃) and present them to you in a semi-coherent way. Also, please bear with me since English is my second language.

First things first. Below are the things and tools we need to do this:

Downloaded 4K or 1080p quality videos (let’s all assume we know where to get these—especially for high definition movies and tv series—so this post doesn’t get removed, okay? 😛)

Adobe Photoshop CC or the CS versions can work as well, but full disclosure I haven’t created gifs using the CS versions since 2020. I’m currently using Adobe Photoshop 2024.

mpv player. Use mpv player to get those frames/screenshots or any other video player that has a screen grabber feature. I’ve used adapter for the longest time but I’ve switched to mpv because the press to screenshot feature while the video is playing has been a game changer not to mention ultimate time saver for me. For adapter you need to play it in another video player (like VLC player), to get the start and end timestamps of the scene you want to gif which takes me ages before I can even open Photoshop.

Anyway! Please stop reading this post for a moment and head over to this amazing tutorial by kylos. She perfectly tells you how to install and use mpv player, both for Mac and Windows users.

One thing I have to share though, I had a tough time when I updated my MacOS to Sonoma since MPV is suddenly either duplicating frames or when I delete the duplicates the player seems to be skipping frames :/ I searched and found a solution here, though it didn’t work for me lol. My workaround for this in the meantime is decreasing the speed down to 0.70 then start screenshotting—it’s not the same pre Sonoma update but it works so I’ll have to accept it rather than have jumpy looking gifs.

Now, after this part of kylos’ tutorial:

you can continue reading the following sections of my gif tutorial below.

I want to share this little tip (sorry, this will only cater to Mac users) that I hope will be helpful for organizing the screenshots that MPV saved to the folder you have selected. Because believe me you don’t want to go through 1k+ of screenshots to select just 42-50 frames for your gif.

The Control + Command + N shortcut

This shortcut allows you to create a new folder from files you have pre-selected. As you can see below I have already created a couple of folders, and inside each folder I have selected screenshots that I want to include in one single gif. It's up to you how you want to divide yours, assuming you intend to create and post a Tumblr gifset rather than just one gif.

Another tip is making use of tags. Most of, if not all the time, I make supercorp gifs so I tag blue for Kara and red (or green) for Lena—just being ridiculously on brand and all that.

Before we finally open Photoshop, there's one more thing I want to say—I know, please bear with me for the third? fourth? time 😅

It's helpful to organize everything into their respective folders so you know the total number of items/frames you have. This way, you can add or delete excess or unnecessary shots before uploading them in Photoshop.

For example below there are 80 screenshots of Kara inside this folder and for a 1:1 (540 x 540 px) Tumblr gif, Photoshop can just work around with 42-50 max number of frames with color adjustments applied before it exceeds the 10 MB file size limit of Tumblr.

Sometimes I skip this step because it can be exhausting (haha) and include everything so I can decide visually which frames to keep later on. You'll understand what I mean later on. But it's important to keep the Tumblr 10 MB file size limit in mind. Fewer frames, or just the right amount of frames, is better.

So, with the screenshot organization out of the way, let's finally head over to Photoshop.

Giffing in Photoshop, yay!

Let’s begin by navigating to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack…

The Load Layers window will appear. Click the Browse button next.

Find your chosen screenshots folder, press Command + A to select all files from that folder then click Open. Then click OK.

After importing and stacking your files, Photoshop should display the following view:

By the way, I'll be providing the clip I've used in this tutorial so if want to use them to follow along be my guest :)

If you haven't already opened your Timeline panel, navigate to Windows > Timeline.

Now, let's focus on the Timeline panel for the next couple of steps.

Click Create Video Timeline, then you’ll have this:

Now click the menu icon on the top right corner then go to Convert Frames > Make Frames from Clips

Still working on the Timeline panel, click the bottom left icon this time—the icon with the three tiny boxes—to Convert to Frame Animation

Select Make Frames From Layers from the top right corner menu button.

So now you have this:

Go and click the top right menu icon again to Select All Frames

Then click the small dropdown icon to set another value for Frame Delay. Select Other…

The best for me and for most is 0.05 but you can always play around and see what you think works for you.

Click the top right menu icon again to Reverse Frames.

I think Photoshop has long since fixed this issue but usually the first animation frame is empty so I just delete it but now going through all these steps there seems to be none of that but anyways, the delete icon is the last one among the line of feature buttons at the bottom part of the Timeline panel.

Yay, now we can have our first proper GIF preview of a thirsty Lena 😜

Press spacebar to watch your gif play for the very first time! After an hour and half of selecting and cutting off screenshots! 😛 Play it some more. No really, I’m serious. I do this so even as early (lol) as this part in the gif making process, I can see which frames I can/should delete to be within the 10 MB file size limit. You can also do it at the end of course 🙂

Now, let’s go to the next important steps of this tutorial post which I’ve numbered below.

Crop and resize to meet Tumblr's required dimensions. The width value should be either 540px, 268px, or 177px.

Convert the gif to a Smart Object for sharpening.

Apply lighting and basic color adjustments before the heavy coloring. I will be sharing the base adjustments layers I use for my gifs 😃.

1. Crop and Resize

Click on the Crop tool (shortcut: the C key)

I like my GIFs big so I always set this to 1:1 ratio if the scene allows it. Press the Enter key after selecting the area of the frame that you want to keep.

Side note: If you find that after cropping, you want to adjust the image to the left or another direction, simply unselect the Delete Cropped Pixels option. This way, you will still have the whole frame area available to crop again as needed and as you prefer.

Now we need to resize our gif and the shortcut for that is Command + Opt + I. Type in 540 as the width measurement, then the height will automatically change to follow the ratio you’ve set while cropping.

540 x 540 px for 1:1

540 x 405 px for 4:3

540 x 304 px for 16:9

For the Resample value I prefer Bilinear—but you can always select the other options to see what you like best.

Click OK. Then Command + 0 and Command + - to properly view the those 540 pixels.

Now we get to the exciting part :) the sharpen settings!

2. Sharpen

First we need to have all these layers “compressed” intro a single smart object from which we can apply filters to.

Select this little button on the the bottom left corner of the Timeline panel.

Select > All Layers

Then go to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters

Just click OK when a pop-up shows up.

Now you should have this view on the Layers panel:

Now I have 3 sharpen settings to share but I’ll have download links to the Action packs at the end of this long ass tutorial so if you want to skip ahead, feel free to do so.

Sharpen v1

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen…

Below are my settings. I don’t adjust anything under Shadows/Highlights.

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Click OK then do another Smart Sharpen but this time with the below adjustments.

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

As you can see Lena’s beautiful eyes are “popping out” now with these filters applied. Click OK.

Now we need to Convert to Frame Animation. Follow the steps below.

Click on the menu icon at the top right corner of the Timeline panel, then click Convert Frames > Flatten Frames into Clips

Then Convert Frames > Convert to Frame Animation

One more click to Make Frames From Layers

Delete the first frame then Select All then Set Frame Delay to 0.05

and there you have it! Play your GIF and make sure it’s just around 42-50 frames. This is the time to select and delete.

To preview and save your GIF go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)…

Below are my Export settings. Make sure to have the file size around 9.2 MB to 9.4 MB max and not exactly 10 MB.

This time I got away with 55 frames but this is because I haven’t applied lighting and color adjustments yet and not to mention the smart sharpen settings aren't to heavy so let’s take that into consideration.

Sharpen v1 preview:

Sharpen v2

Go back to this part of the tutorial and apply the v2 settings.

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 20

Radius: 0.5

We’re adding a new type of Filter which is Reduce Noise (Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise...) with the below settings.

Then one last Smart Sharpen:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Your Layers panel should look like this:

Then do the Convert to Frames Animation section again and see below preview.

Sharpen v2 preview:

Sharpen v3:

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

Reduce Noise:

Strength: 5

Preserve Details: 50%

Reduce Color Noise: 0%

Sharpen Details: 50%

Sharpen v3 preview:

And here they are next to each other with coloring applied:

v1

v2

v3

Congratulations, you've made it to the end of the post 😂

As promised, here is the download link to all the files I used in this tutorial which include:

supercorp 2.05 Crossfire clip

3 PSD files with sharpen settings and basic coloring PSD

Actions set

As always, if you're feeling generous here's my Ko-fi link :) Thank you guys and I hope this tutorial will help you and make you love gif making.

P.S. In the next post I'll be sharing more references I found helpful especially with coloring. I just have to search and gather them all.

-Jill

[gingergofastboatsmojito]

The Pacino Variant

Since I found out that JAW got inspiration from Al Pacino to play some of Carmy's layers I immediately started thinking about Frankie and Johnny's dynamic and how it was all so messy in their relationship before it got to the good part. Granted, JAW was not inspired by Johnny, but by a different role Al Pacino played, but still. It got me thinking about how this very Austenian love story, of course, very realistic and bittersweet had certain points in common with Sydcarmy and once I started I just couldn't stop drawing parallels between the sydcarmy dynamic and the frankjohnny one because F&J was a very atypical comedy, just like The Bear and that's why many viewers now don't even understand how The Bear is a comedy, which it is, of course: A noir one. Back then, something similar kinda happened with Frankie & Johnny, it flopped as a rom-com but it became a cult movie and was critically acclaimed.

Here's a clip:

Context: they met while working together at a diner.

The main characters were described as: "lonely little people struggling to find love."

Rolling Stone's review back then read the following:

"Somehow Mr. Marshall, Mr. McNally, and their superb leading actors are able to retain the intimacy of their material. They also retain the story's fundamental wariness about romance, even when everything about Ms. Pfeiffer and Mr. Pacino has the audience wondering why they don't simply fall into each other's arms."

See? Sounds very Sydcarmy to me, building intimacy while NOT dating, Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer) is all business-no love, a tough cookie, she's been burnt before so she doesn't let any new guy into her life

and Johnny has to do the hard work to convince her (which Carm is not doing bc he rather denies his own feelings and deflects onto Claire as both this amazing meta by @Chefkids and my own humble opinion point out). In Johnny's case, there's no Claire but there is a rather complicated past that also conditions his choices and Frankie doesn't make it any easier on him, etc.

So my point is that the whole Sydcarmy back and forth before it actually happens, which I already mentioned here I think is gonna be more of a cliffhanger kinda thing bc before we get to that part they need to be at each other's throats, Carmy's relationship with C has to crash and burn, The Bear needs to win a bunch of awards and hopefully get out of debt, which will be S3's main focus, along with Nat's baby that's gonna be a total game changer in terms of the Berzatto family's dynamic, etc... when all of those boxes are checked ✅✅✅ then we will venture into Sydcarmy territory on Storer's terms. And I can't help but wonder if that transition from friends to lovers is gonna be kinda like F&J's, I think it might, because it sounds Storer-friendly. I'm not talking about the endgame per se, just the transition.

Would love to know what you all think about this theory.

If you haven't seen the movie and now feel curious about it, here's a playlist, and those short clips pretty much sum it all up.

❤️‍🔥

[baflegacy]

smosh au #???: Love is Blind!Actor AU part 3

Raunchy, Witty, and Stupidly Funny: Our Review of the First Two Episodes of 'Love is Blind' Season 1 by Kimmy Jimenez

With so many shows and movies that're being released month after month, it's rare that we get absolute gems constantly - ones that know what they're showing to the audience and are confident enough that we'll love it. Last year was a surprising exception to the content rollercoaster of Hollywood; audiences loved prestigious dramas such as A Court of Fey and Flowers and the second season of Without A Recipe, while comedies like Ghost Files and Game Changer quickly rose from obscurity and became fan favorites. And who could forget the underdog that was Last Meals, which took home the Golden Globe over Maestro?

This goldmine of a lineup has people setting their expectations high for 2024, and while we're still eagerly awaiting another season of Yellowjackets or if Bottoms will get a sequel, look no further than the sleeper hit that is Love is Blind, written and created by Comedy Central's own Tommy Bowe.

The trailer left a lot to the imagination when it first dropped; there's no reveal on who would end up with whom, which is already a win in our book when it comes to teasers (yes, we're talking about you, Mandalorian Season 2!). Beyond that, the trailers were a good balance of intrigue and freshness, letting us know that we're gonna be hooked. And hooked we were, because the first two episodes had us gripping our chairs already!

We won't spoil it too much for the readers out there who haven't watched it yet (but then again, why haven't you watched it, bud?), but what we will say is that Tommy Bowe and Jacklyn Uweh are a match made in writer-director heaven. As soon as we saw the RHOSLC and Jersey Shore references, we knew we were in for a treat. The colorful cast of characters are already great, but the standout for this premiere has got to be Angela Giarratana as Toilet Girl. Not only has she got the comedic timing down, she practically disappears into the role of the eponymous 'drunk contestant'.

Overall, we rate this premiere one solid 8/10. We can't wait for the next episodes to come out—and if Toilet Girl and New York have something going on!

[thatonefangirlly]

ATE: Stray Kids mini album Review

STAYS! IM BACK! Might I say this has been a wild weekend! Yes, I’m talking about ATE! And dare I say this is the best album? I do… I do dare. Now if you haven’t listened to my podcast or if you just prefer reading… here’s my review on ATE!

Concept (10/10): Stray Kids have always been known for their edgy, experimental concepts, but ATE takes it to a whole new level. The album is centered around the theme of technology and artificial intelligence taking over the world, with the members of Stray Kids fighting against the machines. It's like a sci-fi movie come to life through music. The concept is so well-executed and immersive, it's like you're right there in the battle zone with them.

Lyrics (10/10): The lyrics are some of the most powerful and meaningful Stray Kids has ever written. They tackle themes of individuality, freedom, and the human spirit in the face of overwhelming odds. The words are like punches to the gut, leaving you breathless and wanting more. The way they weave the concept through the lyrics without it feeling forced is pure genius.

Beat (10/10): The production quality is top-notch, with beats that are both catchy and hard-hitting. You'll find yourself headbanging along to the intense rap tracks, and then the melodic hooks will have you singing along. The instrumental choices perfectly complement the vocals and add to the overall vibe of each song. It's like a rollercoaster ride of emotions, but in the best way possible.

"Chk Chk Boom" MV Visuals (10/10): The music video for "Chk Chk Boom" is a visual feast that will leave you stunned. The futuristic visuals perfectly bring the concept to life, with mind-blowing special effects and choreography that will have you rewinding over and over again. The members' performances are full of energy and charisma, and the fashion is on point. It's like a mini-movie that you can't look away from. And can I just say that Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman were chefs kiss!

Overall (10/10): ATE is a masterpiece from start to finish, showcasing Stray Kids' growth and talent in every aspect. It's an album that will keep you on the edge of your seat, eager to hear what they'll do next. The concept, lyrics, beats, and visuals all come together to create a listening and viewing experience like no other. Stray Kids has truly outdone themselves this time, and Stays around the world are eating it up.

Conclusion: ATE is a game-changer of an album that cements Stray Kids' status as one of the most innovative and exciting groups in K-pop. It's a must-listen for any fan of the genre, and is sure to win them a whole new legion of fans. So strap in, Stays, and get ready for the wild ride that is ATE.

Annyeong!

Have a song/ group you want me to review? Let me know!

[travllingbunny]

So, The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abbasi and starring Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova and Martin Donovan, had its world premiere on Monday at the Cannes festival. I have tried to avoid reading too many of the reviews, because most of them are written by people who seem to think they should be describing specific scenes (how do you write a spoiler-filled review for a movie based on real life? That's how), but I have still read several reviews in full and quotes from many others that have been plastered across social media, and seen reactions on Twitter.

And at this point I just have to address how terrible many of these reviews are.No, I don't mean in the sense that they are negative about the movie, I mean that they are terribly written and contain insane, stupid arguments. I will not be able to see the film until it is released worldwide (probably in the autumn), so I can't talk about the film itself and its quality, but some of the arguments are bad by themselves. It's not surprising that, due to the topic of the movie (you know), many are unable to be normal about it even when writing professional reviews. But can you write reviews that don't use arguments like.. (and here am I'm going to list increasingly bad, stupid arguments, with the dumbest and most insane one at the end (including a quote from a review that exudes homophobia and antisemitism))

"Why is this movie made, why now, do we really need it?" (We don't need any movie. No movie is a necessity. And maybe your review shouldn't be about you being pissed off to begin with that there's a movie about Trump, even if it's highly critical and unflattering.)

"We already know all this" (What else did you expect?! That's true of any movie or other fictional work based on real life events and people. Every such movie only tells events you already know if you have done a minimum of research on the topic -information is available online for everyone to see. .Unless you go and just make up things. Should a film based on real events include made up stuff to be better?? Not that the general audiences tend to know all about the real life topics of various biopics and real life fictional work, they usually don't because people don't read up on everything. )

-"Since these things are already known, it's unlikely that it could be a game changer in the elections" - Of course it won't. Who in the right mind ever expects a movie to change minds (people who don't like what's shown will just say it's lies and propaganda, which the Trump campaign is already saying) and affect elections?! What made you think that's what it's meant to do, or what movies generally do.

Anything along the lines of "Trump would hate/love seeing..." Why are you trying to read his mind? Especially weird when you see negative reviews based on the idea "Trump would actually love this because [reasons]" (especially wild knowing some of the extremely unflattering things shown in the movie, but these comments usually contain weird projections to the effect that he will think he looks cool because he 'wins' in the end? Which may say a lot about the people saying these things) Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is threatening to sue the movie

"The movie is tepid, doesn't go far enough... " (OK, in what way...?) "in making Trump look bad enough. it's so dangerous to humanize him" (?!) I guess the better approach would be to portray him as an alien monster from outer space who was born evil. This is obviously stupid in itself, but even wilder when you know it's about a movie where (SPOILER)................................ ....................................he is shown raping his wife............................................................................................. What does it say about you if you think this is still not unflattering enough? (Then again, Trump is not the only POTUS who has had multiple allegations of rape, sexual assault and sexual harrassment against him, in fact that's true of 3 of the 5 last Presidents of the USA including the curent one, so it's more of a feature than a bug in US politics...)

and then similar to this, but even wilder, is the absolute worst argument/criticism I've seen (and it says a lot that this is these are the only negative criticisms of the two central performances that I've seen): the performances are weak because those figures are are not caricatured enough?!

This last argument is something I've seen in only two reviews, but it's so bad that I just have to single it out.

One such is The Telegraph review, which argues that Stan's approach is "too sensitive" and that the role needed an actor who is "more of a caricaturist"?!

I thought this was the worst review I've seen, but it gets even worse in this review from something called Little White Lies (I'm linking the Tumblr repost, because I'm not giving this crap a click):

WTF?! Aside from why you would expect the performance to be campy (I know why...) apparently this dude thinks it's a failing that Jeremy Strong is giving a credible and realistic portrayal of Roy Cohn rather than making him look like a homophobic, antisemitic stereotype?! (I don't know if this dude's description of this other performance is accurate, but I'm going by what is said here.) Which this guy thinks is just the right way to go - obviously he believes (like quite a few liberals seem to) that it's OK and in fact desirable to be bigoted when it's against people who are/were bad, right wing and bigoted themselves. See, Roy Cohn was gay and Jewish and he hated being gay (true) and hated being Jewish (debatable), so it's not only perfectly OK but in fact awesome to be homophobic and antisemitic towards him? Oh but see it's fine because he was a hypocrite? Well, I have news for you - so are you. F**k off.

[bethrnoora]

omg wait if you block someone on letterboxd you wont see their reviews even if the review is listed on the movie page as a top "popular" review. this is a game changer

[rialynne]

Spider Man: Across the SpiderVerse Review

I have not felt this compelled to put my thoughts about a movie out there into the world for a while. The last time I did so was before the pandemic and a lot in my life has happened since then but I love it when I finally decide to watch something from a never-ending backlog of movies, especially for animation which is probably one of my first loves. 

So I lied. It’s a review of 2 films; Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse and its recent sequel Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse. Both from Sony pictures Animation, a studio which prior to me watching these 2 films, only released disappointing to bad films in my opinion (looking at you emoji movie). I finally felt compelled to watch them recently mainly to watch Across the spiderverse in theaters. 

First, I’ll make my thoughts on Into the spiderverse relatively brief. It truly is a game changer of a film for the would of animated movies. Amazing that it won an Oscar.  The animation alone really pushed the boundaries of what the medium could do, and the story was well contextualized and wrapped up. I loved the nots and references to comics throughout the film. Miles’ growth throughout the first film is truly a masterclass of storytelling of a young teenager finding his place in the world and taking on new challenges in his life. In the meantime, working to develop better relations with his supportive parents and carve out his own version of Spiderman. This is probably the best use of the multiverse concept that I have seen so far in film. The animation styles between each spider hero is great at defining characteristics. I loved how they went in the direction of Spider-Gwen for this film, it makes her more bad ass for sure and more of a character than a tragic plot motive. Her scenes with Miles are also so cute (Put a pin in that we will get into that more later for the 2nd film). Mile’s relationships with the men in this film, his dad, Uncle Aaron (aka the Prowler), and Peter B Parker are great representations of mostly healthy male relationships that I feel like isn’t as well represented in media these days. Each one of them helps Miles evolve over the first film to come into his own with his powers and with his feelings and interpersonal relationships with people. Loved the involvement of Aunt May and Penni, Peter porker and Spider Noir. Wish we got to see more of them, which hopefully we will in Beyond the Spiderverse (Put a pin on that too). I also love the influence of hip hop and the urban influence of Brooklyn in this film, the sound track is fire. Honestly what are you waiting for please watch this film.

Ok time for the big kahuna; Across the Spiderverse. WOW. Just wow. Into the Spiderverse is amazing in its own right but wow was it kicked up a notch tenfold for Across the Spiderverse. Starting off easy, the animation in this film once again is PHENOMINAL. But one element that really stood out over the previous film, the use of Color Theory, especially with Gwen. Holy Cow they nailed it with expressing subtle emotions through out this film using color theory, every single frame in this film should be in the Louve, I’m deadass. I loved the introduction of Spider-India and Spider-Punk. Loved how Pavitr literally called out Miles and Gwen having a thing lol, also the use of his bracelets, similar to a type of toy, being used in his web slinging is such a fun touch. Hobie really be that surprise MVP, who was actually punk this whole time, probably is the only one Miles trusts at this point, who loves chaos and taking down the Miguel influenced spider verse society. Also, him calling Miles Peter Pan and GWENDY…fucking iconic lol. I wish we could have seen more of Peter B Parker but happy to see him embracing Dad life with his little anarchist baby Mayday, who also helps confirm that the spider powers can be genetically passed on.

Some other notes before I get to the gushing part of this whole ass review. I loved how Miles’ parents and Gwen’s Dad evolved over the course of this film. For Rio and Jeff, they had to learn not to be helicopter parents to Miles, while also coming to grips that he is becoming an adult and still worrying over their baby. The parallels between them and my parents are astounding and the conversations very similar to what I had with them growing up at that age. Also exhibited in Gwen’s Dad, him falling upon duty as a police officer when he discovers his own daughter is Spider woman, thinking she killed her buddy but then its actually his daughter, and he resorts to being an officer. She was wicked lucky Miguel and Jess were willing to allow her through the portal, which makes sense because she did not have a home to go back to.  Also I really enjoyed all the easter eggs and the meta commentary on what Cannon is and the idea that a spider person has to suffer in order to be a spider person; and Miles being like FUCK That I’m not an abnormality and imma save my Dad and do me. Which comes full circle with what Rio talked to him about the world being harsh against him and to know that family will always be there and to nurture that inner child. Miguel clearly is drinking his cool aid too much on maintaining cannon but will he remain the enemy until all the spider people turn against him? Spot turning out to be the guy Miles threw a bagel at from the lab escape in the first film is wild. Also Spot over the film slowly becoming more powerful and will probably do something really bad to mess up the multiverse. Hopefully Miles and family are safe from all this. Also the fact the spider that bit Miles came from Earth-42, and Miles G Morales is the Prowler in that dimension. There better be an epic fight sequence in the beginning of the film between those three. Curious to see if Miles G will be an antagonist or not along with Aaron.

However, what ultimately really made me fall for this film is the decision narratively to make Gwen a significant part of the story and the relationship between Gwen and Miles. I can’t help it in a sucker for teen angst and pining. But let’s start off about dear Gwen. Good lord I feel terrible for her. She was put through the ringer in this movie. She is brought up to almost/Basically co main lead in this movie. We really get a much more fleshed out backstory of hers, dealing with how her Blonde Peter Parker died and dealing with hiding her identity from her father while he is unknowingly hunting her down. She, along with Miles are both struggling with hiding their secret super hero identities to their parents, main difference being Miles told his alternate dimension Mother, while at the end of the film when Gwen gets banished by Miguel back to her universe, she is forced to confront her father. The Color theory used on Gwen to convey her true feelings that she doesn’t state in the film is such a genius decision and it creates some of the most visually striking images in the film. The colors blue used to express her sadness and loneliness and the color pink, to express her happiness in her surroundings was a brilliant idea. I also loved how her Earth was just filled with water colors it’s like a painting I love it. Throughout the film, we see her struggling with dealing with her shitty home life, dealing with the cannon knowledge about Miles, feeling the need to follow the cannon timelines, believing she will die if she deviates from the timeline and her father would die as well, while trying to protect Miles but also having the desire to see him. She’s dealing with so much and is really put in a rock and a hard place, that in the process of trying to protect Miles, she unintentionally betrays him (same can be said for the other spider people Miles made friends with besides Hobie). Could she have told him the truth sooner, probably, but I think the outcome would be similar. However, after finally communicating with her Dad, taking the leap of faith if you will, like Miles, she is able to get through to her Dad and he breaks the Cannon event of himself dying on duty by quitting being a cop. This gives her the resolve, along with Spider-Punk’s wicked helpful homemade dimension watch to start looking for Miles and go from leaving a band and distancing herself from everyone around her, to getting people together who know Miles to help find him, and of course take down Miguel and Spot. What a beautiful arc for her, which I believe is not over yet, she still has some work to do to make up with Miles in the next film. But she’ll do so, she down bad for him lol.

Speaking of which, what really gave me life in this movie was the relationship between Gwen and Miles. Lord it is oozing young puppy crush love and I’m so here for it. It was clear from the 1st film Miles was into Gwen, and its only solidified further a year and change out from then. I mean stating you want to go to Princeton for Quantum Physics and dimensional travel…like boy we know why because you want to see all the spider homies again, especially the girl 15 months older than you that you draw from memory filling up almost every page of her, and adding her to your graffiti mural where you got bit. Looking at better photos of the note book he even drew her dancing like a ballerina, he drew her fresh drip, including new sweaters and chain chokers, and he drew her eating ramen like MY BOY you’re in a crush deeper than the deepest cervices of the ocean, you have it down so bad for her. Meanwhile Gwen while being sad, managed to still keep the half-buzzed hair cut from the 1st movie because Miles liked it. She’s shown to be constantly thinking about him, including the beginning drum sequence which is “Trust by Megadeath” (Look at the lyrics also btw, they honestly do foreshadow Gwen and Miles relationship as it stands at the end of the film), and throughout her universe missing him the one person she considers a friend. Also, she printed out a selfie of the two of them and looks at it every time she goes out as spider woman. That photo might as well be her social security card she treasures it so much. The only reason she is interested in joining the spider society also is to literally see him, which she doesn’t get to do until she convinces Jess enough to do an assignment in his world. And after finding out about his cannon events and getting an important assignment to go after Spot and stop him from messing up the universes, one of the most important missions to save the whole universes, and being warned to stay away from him, what does she do???? Ports straight to his bedroom, peroidt. She basically said Imma risk the universe for Miles; like im sorry that love bitch. Anyways she finds grounded Miles and he shook clearly. Gwen immediately goes in for the hug, and Miles be short circuiting, and trying to hide everything in his room. Gwen looking at all his drawings of her and very sweetly being all like “I missed you too”, only to slyly get Miles out of the house. They are so carefree swinging through Brooklyn and finally feel like they are their true selves. The sky also has a pink hue. And then when they get to the bank tower, their upside down talk is just so precious and done beautifully. Everything from Gwen being like I miss talking to you and Miles being like we the same. Miles inching ever so close to her about to Touch her hand MY BOYYYYY. Gwen going into how the Gwens fall for spider man, sees his hand inch closer, and then gives a very pained look mentioning that it doesn’t end well. Miles being the emotionally intelligent guy he is, respectfully pulls back and is all like “there’s a first time for everything” she gives him that look, you know that look of like I’m falling for you look, and purposefully LEANS INTO HIM. GIRL. She soooo into him but holds herself back due to all the bs she dealing with behind the scenes. At the rooftop party for Jeff, these two talking on the water tower, Miles almost finds out about Gwen tracking Spot, she gets briefly mad but apologizes, and then these two are so awkward teens to the point of like confessing a crush for real, and im sorry Is he looking at her lips wow. But before anything happens the parents show up. Gwen fumbles the bag by going on first name basis, and Rio is like “found a sweater, dis you?”. The parents come on to hard so I just feel second hand embarrassment for the both of them. Gwen makes an excuse to leave due to her tracking Spot you know the guy trying to destroy everything. She wanna touch Miles so bad she goes for the awkward hand shake. Damn. And of course what does Miles do later, he follows her to Spots portal hopping location and sees the exchange of Jess and Gwen, but Gwen before she leaves, looks out to the water tower, all the while Miles is invisible Upside down a la the spiderman kiss position. I cant yall. Also Gwen freaking out over Miles in Mumbatthan, and being all like “your amazing” to him after he changes the cannon event. That was so sweet. Its so painful to see how the ending of this film plays out with the betrayal. And his final sad goodbye to Gwen. She decides to talk to his parents, while using his jacket to hide her gear a la girlfriend vibes, to tell them how much he loves them and that she gonna find him. She is so determined and falling in love with him its not even funny. What really sealed the deal that these two I think will be end game, The fact that she can spidey sense he’s in danger IN A DIFFERENT DIMENSION!!!!! Oh My god, this is also similar to the first film where she had that spidey sense to go to the visions academy. Like lord if that’s not love idk what is at this point. They will need to work out some feelings which I hope comes up earlier in Beyond the Spiderverse so we can get back to some wholesome moments before all chaos breaks loose and hopefully, they will be endgame, and still alive.

TLDR: I love both of these films, go watch them please and Sony pay your animators better

ITSV: 4/5

ATSV: 4.5/5

[stuff-diary]

Anyone But You

Movies watched in 2024

Anyone But You (2023, USA)

Director: Will Gluck

Writers: Ilana Wolpert & Will Gluck

Mini-review:

After watching (and loving) Glen Powell on Twisters yesterday, I remembered I hadn't seen this one yet, so here we are. And what struck me the most about it was how genuinely funny it is! I don't know why, but I didn't expect it to make me laugh so much. Guess I'm a sucker for the tropes showcased here, fake-dating and misunderstandings. Tbh, the only thing I had heard about this movie was that Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney's chemistry is off the charts, and it absolutely is. Every single scene they share is so fun and engaging. I'm not saying Anyone But You is a game-changer or anything like that, but it's thoroughly enjoyable in a way that feels pretty refreshing.

[espeonology]

1:  An Introduction to The Vampire Academy Universe and Its Characters.

The first instalment of what would be known as a game changer within the genre of vampire fiction, Vampire Academy was released on 16 August 2007 and received good reviews, even being placed on the New York Times best sellers top ten in the children's division and placed along the likes of Stephenie Meyer’s Eclipse, the Harry Potter series in ALA’s teen top ten.  It features a  later 5 books and another 6 book series, Bloodlines, as well as a movie adaptation in 2014  featuring faces like Zoey Deutch (Harper in ‘Set it Up’ or Danni Sanders in ‘Not Okay’), Sarah Hyland (Haley Dunphy in ‘Modern Family’) and Dominic Sherwood (Jace Wayland in ‘Shadowhunters’). More recently a TV adaptation was released in 2022 featuring Sisi Stringer, Kieron Moore and Daniella Nieves as our main three.

The first book in the series introduces us to the main cast of characters: Rosemarie ‘Rose’ Hathaway and Vasilissa ‘ Lissa’ Dragomir, a pair of best friends who have been on the run for two years after running away from their prestigious european-esque highschool, St Vladimir’s; Dimitri Belikov, a stoic Siberian guardian who is placed in charge of Lissa upon her return he is also Rose’s love interest; and Christian Ozera, a traumatised bad boy with parental trauma and fighting spirit who serves as Lissa’s love interest. In the later books we are introduced to new characters such as: Adrian Ivashkov, a rebellious spoilt prince with a slight substance abuse problem; Sydney Sage, a vampire hating alchemist with a strong moral compass; finally, we also get familiar with a pre known character. Mia Rinaldi, a spoiled little girl turned fighter.

The book primarily take place in St Vladimir’s Academy, a school for the two main vampire species in this universe: the Moroi supposedly represent all that is good, they are vampires with elemental powers and their own running society where they are in full control; 

“There are also good vampires walking the world. They’re called Moroi.

They’re alive, and they possess the incredibly cool power to wield magic in

each of the four elements— earth, air, water, and fire. [...]  but the Moroi strongly believe magic should only be used peacefully. It’s one of the biggest rules in their society. Moroi are also usually tall and slim, and they can’t handle a lot of sunlight. But they do have superhuman senses that make up for it: sight, smell, and hearing.”

Frostbite, Prologue, page 1.

The Dhampirs are half-vampires with superish human strength and speed, they serve as guardians for the Moroi as they can only procreate with Moroi meaning they are crucial to the survival of the Dhampir race;

“Dhampir.

That’s what I am. Dhampirs are half-human, half-Moroi. I like to think

We got the best traits of both races. I’m strong and sturdy, like humans are. I

can also go out in the sun as much as I want. But, like the Moroi, I have

really good senses and fast reflexes. The result is that dhampirs make the

ultimate bodyguards—which is what most of us are. We’re called

Guardians.”

“Dhampirs can’t have children with other dhampirs. [...] Humans and Moroi

getting together will always make more dhampirs; that’s where we came

from the first place. [...] Through another weird genetic fluke,

however, Moroi and dhampirs mixing will create dhampir children. [...] You’d think you’d get a baby that’s three-quarters vampire, right? Nope. Half human, half Moroi.”

Frostbite, Prologue, page 2.

St Vladimir’s teaches both young Moroi on how to use their elemental abilities and trains novice  Dhampir in both physical and theory lessons spread across a day opposite to a regular (at night instead of day, 6pm = 6am). 

The third and final vampire race are the Strigoi, a race of blood hungry, moral-less monsters who hunt mainly Moroi and can turn any other race into Strigoi. Turning Strigoi of your own free will is considered one of the greatest crimes in their society;

“There’s a race of vampires on this earth who are literally the walking

dead. They’re called Strigoi, and if you’re not already having nightmares

about them, you should be. They’re strong, they’re fast, and they kill

without mercy or hesitation. They’re immortal, too—which kind of makes

them a bitch to destroy. There are only three ways to do it: a silver stake

through the heart, decapitation, and setting them on fire. None of those is

easy to pull off, but it’s better than having no options at all.”

Frostbite, Prologue, page 1.

The Royal Court of Moroi order is the official government of the vampire races. The courts themselves are located in a secluded area of Pennsylvania. The Royal Court is where all laws are passed and where the King or Queen resides. Whilst the courts do run on a monarchical system, it is a rotating circle of 12 royal families who nominate somebody to be put through a series of trials in order to be made King or Queen ending in a final vote by the families. The family which just ruled cannot rule again and in order to be nominated you must have at least one other family member, this isn’t a problem for most families due to them generally being very large with a central ‘main’ family such as the Zeklos family but there are other much smaller ones like the Dragomirs where this becomes a problem. It is known that Court, although intended for many serious purposes, is also a great recreational location, housing many residential areas, shops, restaurants, and much more. It is more of a central city for Moroi who generally live on the outskirts of human society, a capital city if you will. 

The next instalment will be about the 2014 movie: The Movie; Good as an Individual and an Adaptation?

Thank you so much for reading this,

~ Annie <3 

(word count: 983)