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cdyssey · 2 years ago

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It's that tiny, baby goat named Bruce being brown and furry, like the pelt Shauna Shipman wrapped her dead baby in.

It's the fact that it's a boy goat too.

It's her immediate and irrational fear—upon even hearing the word sacrifice—that she's going to have to kill the kid. The goat. The baby. This precious, innocent life in her care. Because everything she loves gets taken away from her, doesn't it?

All her fault.

Every last bit of it.

She can't have anything that she doesn't eventually hurt.

(And yes, it's about Jackie. It's always about Jackie, even when she swears that it's not. Jackie, her first victim. Jackie, her first love.)

(She's wearing her shirt in this episode. She's wearing her life in this whole damn series.)

It's her sitting alone in the woods, disassociating, triggered by a goddamn goat, and it's her utter panic when she realizes that he's missing.

It's Misty telling her, “Well, you’re not that innocent either.”

And it's her so bitterly replying, “Do you think I don’t know that?” as she frantically searches for Bruce, yet another living creature that she thinks she’s failed.

It's the tenderness with which she holds him when she finds him again, mothering him so gently. She tells him—this goat—that he's delusional and dumb if he thinks she's gonna hold him all day, but then she fucking does it! She holds him! She cradles him to her chest like a baby, and it's so lovely.

But it's so, so sad too.

Because it's her pleading with the barn worker to make sure that the goat is okay; she doesn't trust her ability to take care of him; she'll fucking lose it if he gets hurt in her care.

And it's this guy robotically replying, "The kid’s care is entwined with your own." And it’s the way that Shauna's pupils immediately blow, and we intimately understand—well before she tells Lottie—that she's thinking about that baby in the woods.

And she's thinking about Callie.

And she's thinking that if this much is true—if her ability to care for herself is the metric by which she can care for a kid—then, of course, her children are so totally fucked.

With her as a mother, they were doomed from the very start.

(Relatedly, it’s Melanie Lynskey saying in an interview: “I don’t think Shauna’s really disappointed in people. I think she’s disappointed in herself. She takes things out on herself, and she just feels kind of fundamentally unlovable.”)

It’s her confrontation with Lottie, which is charged with their fraught and bloody past, by Lottie's obsession with the wilderness baby, by the dream where the baby is cannibalized, by Lottie's willingness to become both Shauna's punching bag and martyr.

It's the tears that run down her face as she says, as she confesses:

"I’m not crying about the goat. I don’t really know, um, what’s happening right now. Um, I think it’s just that I’ve always kept my daughter, you know, Callie, like, at arm’s length. I think just out of fear that she would… die, I guess. Or maybe that she was never even real to begin with. I don’t know. I try to tell myself it’s okay. That I’m safe to… to think of her as-as mine, you know, and to just be her mom. But I think something is broken, Lottie. I just can’t do it.

God, it’s how every line of this monologue is so fucking broken and raw. She told that bastard cop that she's just not very good at loving her daughter, and here is both the reason why and the brutal extent. In the woods, her baby died, but for just a brief moment, in the tantalizing spaces of that dream turned hellish nightmare, he lived. But then he died again; he was consumed; or was he?

No.

Abso-fucking-lutely-yes, but not in the way that Shauna could have ever conceived.

Because this is the idea that she can't think of Callie as her own when that first baby was never hers either.

Not really.

Our baby, Lottie had called him. He was their communal savior, their shining hope, their personal Jesus who didn’t live.

And Shauna's singular moment alone with him had been a cruel fantasy too.

It's her murderous rage at his death, the violence that such grief engenders in her, which in and of itself is an echo of Misty's Steel Magnolias monologue—the way she wants to hit someone until they feel as bad as they do.

It’s how she can't allow herself to love Callie completely because of her fundamental incapacity to discern reality from the nightmare. In the cabin, she accuses them all of killing her baby. Every goddamn day she fears that her daughter will die, if she even exists at all.

It's the panic in her eyes when she clutches the phone and asks Jeff if Callie is okay all the same.

Because that's her first instinct, her immediate assumption.

That something with her daughter is horribly wrong.

And that's the crux in the end, the horrible conclusion to all these frayed and tangled threads.

Something going wrong is the only reality that Shauna Shipman can ever reliably count upon. The entirety of her life is an open, gushing wound.

#shauna shipman #callie sadecki #s: yellowjackets #Yellowjackets #Yellowjackets spoilers #I am genuinely gutted by this entire episode #cannibalism tw #baby death tw #maggie blogs

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bizarrelittlemew · 9 months ago

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okay. i just watched the movie Snakeskin (2001). i bought a physical dvd in the year of our lord 2024 because Taika has 6.5 minutes of screentime in it. and now i'm sitting here trying to process wtf i just watched asjdhfdjsk so here are the highlights (thank you Meow @blakbonnet for going through this experience with me)

first of all, enjoy these screenshots from the trailer (i'm still not sure if they're mandatory disclaimers?):

...but say yes to snake imagery, because there will be a lot of it

we are definitely in 2001. this is extremely apparent throughout the whole movie. but especially from this girl's hair

Taika's character (Nelson) and his girlfriend (Daisy, pictured above) drive around in a repurposed ice cream truck and sell drugs btw. it's called Mr. Trippy.

main character Alice (Melanie Lynskey) is a huge fan of ✨America✨. her best friend is in love with her but she only wants Bad Boys. also said friend's name is Johnny but it's actually Craig

ALSO Craig-slash-Johnny is played by Dean O'Gorman (Fili)??!?!?!?

their hobby is to drive around picking up hitchhikers but only those who look not boring

enter The American. this guy is the most American you have ever seen. americans wish they could be as American as this guy. no one else has ever Americaned harder.

as you can see, i'm not lying. he even says "howdy ma'am" so we're convinced he is a real American

three skinheads are after The American because he stole their drugs (i think). he also stole drugs from Nelson and Daisy, who now owe money and/or drugs to their boss, who also has beef with The American for reasons i'm still not totally sure of

The American not only steals drugs and money, he also has a real gun(!!!) and fucks pretty much everyone?

"darlin'. u gotta earn the raaaiht. ter wear snakeskins 😎"

oh my god the sunglasses emoji just reminded me of the fucking sunglasses oh no i'm not sure i can do this akjsdhjsk this will make sense later i promise

do not learn gun safety from this movie

at one point, there is a whole lotta sheep. we are, after all, in Aotearoa New Zealand. and ok this had the cutest moment of Taika yelling "SHEEPY" out of a car

there's a scene where uhm. uhhh no not gonna describe this i think but. yeah fair warning this movie has some period-typical homophobia let's just say 💀 this is the live reaction:

MOVING ON

if you enjoy the 2000s aesthetic of "look how edgy we are doing drugs" *colorful-haired people on couches in dark club* *echo-y laugh* *hallucinations* *it's mushrooms look it's mushrooms we're doing psychedelics* then this is the movie for you my friend

oh and Alice also did acid at some point while being very "i've totally done drugs before" about it (((doubt)))

GIRL GET UP FROM THAT DIRTY BATHROOM FLOOR

[New Zealand accent] "wow. six and acid." yes she is living all her american dreams as you can see

by nighttime, all three cars (main characters, mr. trippy, and the nazimobile) and the motorcycle (mr. drug boss) have made it pretty far up the mountain, it seems. cute moment between mr. drug boss and nelson. look how :D he is!

but you know a movie with Taika in it needs to have a father figure talk down to him so he gets very 🥺 right after this

lots of shit goes down (i won't spoil too much if by any chance you still want to watch this) and it turns out that the older skinhead guy is the best actor in the movie??

and NOW things get weird

Craig and The American have so much beef by now that they decide to solve it by russian roulette

Alice's reaction to this is something like "ugh, you guys are crazy, i can't watch this 🙄"

like she just walks away?? GIRL THEY'RE AIMING A REAL GUN AT EACH OTHER

she keeps COMPLETELY UNDERREACTING TO WHAT IS HAPPENING like (spoilers from now on) CRAIG IS SHOT AND KILLED and she doesn't even run over and she doesn't even say anything to The American?? WHO SHOT HIM???? he's just standing there??

and then. AND THEN.

ok this is where i fully lost it for several minutes and missed half the following scene. i was fucking HOWLING like actually crying with laughter, i couldn't see or breathe and my partner got worried ksjdhfdjsk ok so here's what happens

they're in the car. craig is obviously very dead. alice is kinda in denial i guess. The American tells her to shut his eyes and she's like why? BECAUSE HE DEAD GIRL!! but she doesn't, she doesn't shut his eyes, no, this is what she does instead

I COULD BARELY MAKE THIS GIF BECAUSE I KEPT LAUGHING TO THE POINT OF TEARS

NOT THE SUNGLASSES ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. THE UNTAPPED MEME POTENTIAL HERE IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS

ANYWAY shortly after this we hear one of the funniest lines in the movie (and it's not even about the shooting and killing of Craig):

"fuck, Seth! this isn't fucking America, you can't just go around shooting everybody!"

oh yeah The American does have a name and it's Seth

i'll just post a few chat screenshots for the next part because i can't really describe it, i promise we're almost at the end

after some incredible visual effects™️, we end with Return of the Sunglasses (and me scaring my cats away because i was sobbing again)

i haven't even really talked about Taika's scenes much (the reason i watched this in the first place) because the ending took me OUT and honestly he is maybe the most normal person in this whole movie. one review (from the trailer) wrote this:

and yeah that may honestly be the best way to describe it. 10/10 movie watching experience, highly recommend. thank you for coming to my snek talk

#snakeskin (2001)#ida.stuff #🐭📓#anyway if you still wanna watch this movie hit me up lmao #i recommend drinking #but seriously i will go to bed now it's past midnight but i had to get this out #taika waititi

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fuckyeahelijahwoodfan · 4 months ago

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A great interview and lots of photos for ensemble magazine

Adored honorary Kiwi Elijah Woods is excited. His second film with Kiwi director (and husband of Ensemble’s co-founder Rebecca Wadey) Ant Timpson is about to be released and he’s fantasising about the meals he ate in Aotearoa while shooting here last year.

Unlike the first film they made together (Come to Daddy, an R18 dark, comedy horror filmed on Vancouver Island in 2018), Bookworm brought Elijah back to the filming location he’ll be long associated with.

Part Bigfoot genre movie and part a touching examination of parenthood, it’s a film that combines subject matter close to both Ant’s and Elijah’s heart, this time wrapped up in a wholesome PG rating.

A man of impeccable taste, Elijah has in the past worked with friend, photographer and filmmaker Autumn de Wilde on a Prada campaign, DJs with his friend Zach Cowie under the moniker Wooden Wisdom, and is friends with Kate and Laura Mulleavy of LA fashion brand Rodarte. He’s regarded by many – except perhaps Jared Leto – as one of the nicest people in show business.

Another example of his incredible taste? Early next year Elijah will marry long-term partner Mette-Marie Kongsved, one of the most beautiful (in every sense of the word) human beings we’ve ever met – and the person who named Ensemble.

Elijah and Mette-Marie were friends for several years, before falling in love while making the Sundance award-winning film I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore, which Mette-Marie produced, starring Elijah and Melanie Lynskey. When asked the best thing about the Danish producer, who also worked on Come to Daddy and Bookworm, Elijah brightens. “There's too many to name. She speaks seven languages. She is a bright shining light that makes a huge impression on everyone that she meets. She's very funny. She loves adventure. She loves food as much as I do. We share a lot of the same interests. She loves the Danish hotdog.”

What’s the best meal you've ever eaten?

It's a hard question to answer, but I would probably say it was at Fäviken in Sweden. Mette-Marie and I went there for New Year’s when we’d just started dating. We built our entire trip around eating there; we’d seen a profile on it and the chef, Magnus Nilsson, on Chef's Table. It’s remained one of my favourite meals, both in terms of an experience and the food. It was just totally all encompassing.

There were a few guest rooms so we opted to stay there and it was just magical. It was snowing, we drove up, there were these fire pits outside and a gentleman in a beautiful suit came to our car and he's like, ‘Elijah, Mette-Marie welcome.’ We were in the experience from that moment and the meal hadn't even started.

The meal itself was incredible. And the environment, it was like two tiered. You started the meal downstairs in this one area by a fireplace, and then moved up to this main dining room, in this old rustic, almost barn-like building. It was just magical.

The meal ended with cigars and cognac in a teepee outside. It was unbelievable. Oh my god. Then there was breakfast the next morning. It was totally magical and insane. That’s hard to top. The restaurant doesn't exist anymore. Magnus stepped down. He has an apple orchard now.

#elijah wood #ensemble magazine interview 2024 #bookworm 2024 #mette marie #elijah wood and Mette marie are getting married next year 🫠😇😍

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lakemichigans · 2 years ago

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tlou episode 4 thoughts!

- i loved seeing ellie play around with the gun in the bathroom. that felt like the perfect amount of childish innocence contrasted with the fact that she clearly knows how to use a gun on some level

- THE JOKE BOOK THE JOKE BOOK THE JOKE BOOK!!!!

- i totally didn't think we would see that scene with ellie and joel in the truck, i thought that the end of the last episode was all we'd see! i even showed my friend a clip of that scene from the game because i didn't want her to miss out, oops. super cute though

- joel not being able to sleep because god help him, he has a job to do. my hearttttt 😭 and the fact that as soon as he recognizes that he cares about her, even the smallest bit, he rebuilds that wall and insists that she's just "cargo", not family. typical joel.

- they really upped the tension leading up to the iconic "he ain't even hurt" scene (although i'm sad they cut that line, because it implied so much about joel). i loved how ellie felt genuinely scared and joel kicked into protector mode (and the callback to sarah hurting her leg: "are you hurt anywhere, are you hurt?" was so good)

- okay so of all my predictions on how the stolen gun would turn out, ellie successfully saving joel was the option i called the most boring, but i'm actually 100% happy with how it turned out. we finally get to see some humanity, remorse, and sadness from ellie in relation to death, something i've been CRAVING. this felt like the ellie i know and my heart broke seeing how that encounter happened. the fact that joel actually apologizes and doesn't act like an asshole after? hello?? that was a welcome change. hbo!joel is a lot more self-loathing where game!joel is more closed off to emotion in general, so this makes sense to me. joel teaching ellie how to properly hold the gun was so cute! and then she puts the gun in her pocket anyway yesss that's so ellie, that's my little shit

- "it wasn't my first time." HMMMM is she talking about riley? did she have to kill riley? :( or someone else?

- melanie lynskey killing it as always!!! it makes so much sense to tie her to henry. i'm super interested by her story! it feels like a soft intro to abby's future story; maybe they're introducing the idea of the cycle of revenge now so people won't freak the fuck out when we get to part 2? one can hope...

- jeffrey pierce!!! i didn't recognize his face but as soon as i heard his voice i was like omg

- joel wheezing his way up the stairs was so cuuuuute, "get up you lazy ass" 😭 i love them so much

- what a beautiful fucking scene, you know the scene i'm talking about. man. i could listen to them laugh with each other all day 🥺 reminds me of this concept art:

- HENRY AND SAM!!!! they must've already been in the building right? i loooove the way they introduced them after joel promised that no one would sneak up on them and they already stated that joel is hard of hearing on the right side, which we then see that he rolled over in his sleep (letting his guard down) and he didn't hear them sneaking in. just another one of joel's "failures" in his mind. and sam is deaf (?) or possibly they're just using sign language as a way to stay silent/safe? either way it all ties together so well

- this is a dumb complaint but i really wish they had used ashley johnson's cover of true faith for the credits. but i'm glad lotte kestner is getting recognition after what happened with the original trailer

- neil druckmann in the post-credits saying "i love humanizing villains" sooo real, i love it

#the last of us hbo #tlou spoilers #the last of us spoilers

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bereft-of-frogs · 8 months ago

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friday update!

we are reaching the end of my vacation week which is both good (I miss my routine and my own apartment) and sad (I have to go back to work and no longer have all day just to write)

reading:

(finished) The Great Transition - Nick Fuller Goggins : Not quite as good as Station Eleven but...surprisingly decent for a book doing stuff I normally find annoying.

(in-progress) Kill Show: A True Crime Novel - Daniel Sweren-Becker : Look I LOVE trying to recreate found footage in literature. House of Leaves, S...I'm not sure this one is doing it for me. I wish there was something more than just the interview transcripts, which he has room for. Like at one point there have been quotes from a journalist and a professor, instead of doing the same interview block quote, he could have put in excerpts from articles/dissertations, we could have had more narration and description that way. It's just a little flat with it all being the same and also I'm not sure he has enough distinct character voices to justify it all exclusively being interview quotes. I feel like you need really good, unique character voices to exclusively do transcript quotes. And there are other issues I feel like he didn't think through, like I still don't really know how old the brother is supposed to be in relation to the main missing girl because it's not in the character intro and no one's mentioned it. But I'm not super far in, I'm going to stick with it to see if it gets better.

(in-progress) Jaw Bone - Monica Ojeda: Also only a little ways in, intriguing though, I like this one much better than Kill Show so far.

Lord of the Rings reread: I did fall a little bit behind by a couple chapters this week, but! We're onto the last book of Return of the King.

(phone book) Into the Dark - Claudia Gray: haven't had to read on my phone much this week since I've been on vacation, but the High Republic reread continues!

watching (tv):

*vibrates* Yellowjackets (Paramount+/Showtime): oh my GOD I have been wanting to watch this for years and I finally did, binged all two seasons this week. (Minus two episodes I have left to watch, so no season finale spoilers yet!) Yellowjackets. What is there to say? It's great, you all knew it was great, I was late to this party. There's like a venn diagram you could make between this show, NBC's Hannibal, and Black Spot/Zone Blanche but I can't articulate it yet. It's just got everything to appeal to me specifically: spooky forest settings, plane crashes, cannibalism, antler gods, murder, not one but two cults. It's great, extremely on brand for me, Shauna is my poor little meow meow, Melanie Lynskey should play more cannibals, murderers and warlords, she does it so well.

watching (film):

Pearl / X (2022) (double feature): Is it an unpopular opinion that I like X better? I'm also a bit late to this party but I feel like I remember people being like 'oh X is fine but Pearl is so good!' (Confirmed by looking at their comparative Letterboxd scores.) I just think X had a more interesting time period setting, better ensemble cast, better cinematography...which I think make sense given my understanding was X was the film they were originally making, and then they added on Pearl as an origin story project while they were working on X. It felt like more thought was put into X. Also, the 'Don't Fear the Reaper' scene was great. It seems like most of the reviews just comment on Mia Goth's performance as a highlight but like...it's just a lot of yelling and then a very long monologue and then the end credits. Idk, I think X just worked better as a whole, with the ensemble cast.

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2023): This movie was so funny, probably my favorite ending/explanation to a 'wow everyone went from no murder to yes murder really fast' film I've ever seen. I also just love Lee Pace. Lee Pace sabre-ing a bottle of champagne. That is all.

there is no video game update because I have no mobile video game consoles so they are all at my apartment and I am not there, and since I had to leave early Friday instead of my original plan (Sunday) I didn't get to do anything before I left

craft update: slow sweater progress, so close to linking up the armholes and no longer having to purl, so close...

writing to-do list update:

I didn't end up working a ton on oneshots or 'omens' because...

I did it! I got up through chapter 6 on the longfic tentatively titled 'the station'. that's about the halfway point in chapter count, and I've been doing a pretty good job keeping the lengths even and hovering around 5k so far. It's 33k words now so I expect the final word count to be around 65-70k? Thereabouts? Which will be my longest Star Wars fic by quite a lot, even counting adding up the two pieces of the dark ocean duology. But since I'm only at the halfway point, maybe I shouldn't get ahead of myself. It's so much. I love it. I'm terrified it's secretly bad. But it's probably fine haha, I'm actually feeling pretty good about the plot I'm using to string together a bunch of self-indulgent angst, which really, what is fanfiction if not finding a suitable plot to tie together self-indulgent scenes, angst or otherwise?

list for the upcoming week:

I still have to extract my dogsitting fee aka do all of my laundry

got a couple social events over the weekend

pack up and head back to the city sunday

I'm considering doing a probably ill-advised chaos rearranging of my room when I get home unless reason and logic kicks back in and stops me

go back to work (boo)

also clean whole apartment throughout the week because I have eclipse guests

eep somehow acquire eclipse glasses yikes I put this one off

keep chipping away chapter-by-chapter on this fic. I'm just getting to the action, which is both fun because a bunch of things are coming to a head and terrible because oh god writing action scenes is so hard

#lists lists lists

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steveharrington · 2 years ago

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your will ask reminded me that ive been wondering what ur ranking for the yellowjackets girlies is! i started watching yj bc of the post you made about the challenge cameo in the show lmao, so thank you for that! 😁

omgggg i’m so glad you like it!! i think they may have gotten a few new viewers for including the bananas backpack which is So funny and amazing to me. anyways! i’m gonna rank them keeping in mind both their teenage selves and the adult selves

1. misty <3 she’s just my babygirl. both teenage and adult misty are, imo, the most interesting and compelling character in the show and i am literally never bored when she’s on screen. i genuinely think her smashing the black box was one of the best tv moments i’ve seen in years

2. lottie!! again she is just So fascinating to me and i always want to know more about her. i think teenage lottie esp is sooo nuanced and complex like. it would’ve been so easy for the writers to make fall into that archetype of like a Malicious Cult Leader who hungers for power or whatever but it’s so obvious that she’s still unsure of her role and she second guesses herself and doesn’t feel comfortable being worshipped… love her

3. nat!! first of all i think sophie thatcher is probably the most talented actress on the entire show period like she just Kills me with her performances omfg when she’s talking to jackie’s bones…. GOD and i feel so much empathy for her as a teenager and the fact that she’s literally the only one doing fucking anything and i really wish so much of her adult storyline wasn’t centered around travis

4. van!! i love characters who are unkillable. steve harrington type beat. i’m also very intrigued by her allegiance to lottie this season and i think it’s (again) a very smart subversive choice to have van be a believer like idk i didn’t expect it for her character! also adult van running a video rental store…. stuck in the 90s perpetually…. recommending landmark gay cinema to young lesbians …… so meaningful to me

5. shauna okay it’s kinda crazy that shauna is this low because i Love adult shauna she’s one of my favorite characters but i think honestly a lot of that is just. melanie lynskey. at the end of the day while i do really like shauna’s whole deal of yearning to go back to the woods, i’m not super compelled by her teenage storyline and i enjoyed that shauna/jackie stuff for a moment there when she ate her but now i’m bored with it again 😭

6. taissa ONLY because i feel like the writers are just going in circles with her plotline. i feel like we aren’t getting Anywhere with the sleepwalking and the visions like it’s been going on for two seasons now with literally no end in sight and as much as i enjoy tai’s personality and her rationality there’s only so many scenes of her sleepwalking and then waking up and getting scared that i can watch before wanting something new :/

7. jackie sorry i was never super fascinated by her and i didn’t feel much sympathy when everyone pointed out how she doesn’t help. like. SHE DIDNT so idk her death was obviously a very monumental moment in the show and her … consumption was sooo well executed but that’s not really Her yk

8. mari. mean to misty. hope they spike pit her ass

#i feel like i ended up mostly referencing the teens storylines while thinking about this #i am just more interested in the wilderness story #answered #anon

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moon-ursidae · 2 years ago

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THE LAST OF US HBO (and game) SPOILERS

ya’ll i’m so fucking excited for this episode the pittsburgh section is one of my favorites so i’m fuckin stoked

also i was with a friend today and they’ve never played the game before. they know nothing about what’s to come. they said “surely no one else will die right? i feel like everyone that could have died has died right?” and i went “i’m not saying anything” HAHAHAHA I FEEL SO BAD. ANYWAY

HERE WE GO!!!

i’m so fucking excited for roadtrip scenes

and then the fucking truck crash

i’m so excited holy shit

the theme will never get old

omg ellie plz be careful

her practicing a smug face lmao

the innocence of this UGH

THIS SHOT IS GORGEOUS

i love them so much

JOKE BOOK

OH MY GOD

HER FACE I LOVE HER

THE LAST OF US (YOU AND ME) UGGGH

“he will be back. there’s nothing you can do to stop him”

OH MY GOD

FROM THE GAME

HANK WILLIAMS

KSBSLSBSKSBSKBSISBS

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

THE PORN MAG

IT’S LITERALLY THE SAME ONE FROM THE GAME

OH MY GOD

arby’s :(

this looks eerily familiar to me

like i swear i’ve driven here

him seeing that she’s soaced tf out and deciding to camp🥺

jesus she’s goin to town

i would too tbh

THE ONE THAT SMELLS GOOD IS FRANK’S UUUUUGH😭😭

“because he was outstandin’ in his field” AND HIS LITTLE SMILE AS HE TURNS OVER FUCK OFF

I LOVE THEM

“no one’s gonna find us” HE’S SUCH A DAD

I KNOW THIS MUSIC WAIT

i knew he was gonna be ALERT

that’s so sweet

COFFEE???

PLEASE TELL ME IT IS

YYYEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAA

JOEL GETS HIS COFFEE

THE WAT HE SIPS IT AFTER SHE SAYS IT SMELLS BAD HAHAHAHA

OMG WAIT TOMMY BACKSTORY

“where we met tess”😭😭😭

he’s such an older sibling

“now i gotta go get him”

“you keep goin for family”

“i’m not family.” “no. you’re cargo. and i made a promis to tess. and she was like family” 😭

joel you’re gonna change your mind about ellie bein cargo

“i’m not even tired.” THE SAME FUCKING CUT TO HER ZONKED IN THE FRONT SEAT HAHAHAHAHAHA

WE’RE HHHHHEEEEEERRRRRREEEEEEE

i’m so excited

THE SHOT FROM THE TRAILER AHHHHHH

he knows something’s up

that semi is a way to keep people in and make them go around and funnel them in one direction. then ambush them. and joel KNOWS somethin’s up

oh wait this is kansas city now??

fo sho fo sho i’m not mad

“screw it.” IT’S COMINNGGGGGG

uh oh. burned bodies.

HERE WE GO

THE WAY SHE IS SO CLOSE TO HIM

“and they’re not gonna hit you. look at me! they’re not gonna hit you. stay down. you stay low. you stay quiet.”

the way that he’s reassuring her but also himself rn i cannot deal w this

the parallels to sarah UUUUUGH i’m gonna fucking scream and cry and scratch at the walls goddamnit

OKAY JOEL

OMG IS THIS WHERE SHE KILLS THE GUY

HIS FACE HE’S SO SCARED

OH NO. OHHHH NO. SHE’S GONNA FEEL SO BAD.

HE JUST TOLD HER HIS NAME AND ABOUT HOW HE HAS FAMILY

oh joel’s pissed.

i like that they stick with how joel doesn’t try to comfort her immediately

“get back behind the wall.” OH MY GOD

THE WAY HE YELLS FOR HIS MOM AND PLEADS FOR HIS LIFE

SHE’S CRYINNNNG😭😭😭😭

the juxtaposition of her being upset and joel just moving onto the next task at hand

and how she was so innocent in the bathroom of the gas station and she was smirking and playing with the gun

UUUUUUUGH😭😭😭😭

MASH SQUARE TO GET THROUGH THE DOOR JOEL

LMAO

she’s trying to brush it off UGH

wait is he just not going back for his bag

JOEL. GET YOUR SHIT BRO.

MELANIE LYNSKEY!!!!

the way she seems so sweet but i know she’s gonna be ruthless

“you know where henry is” AYO?????

MY BOY????

okay slay eat him up

“but henry did” OHHHHHHHHH TEA

JEFFREY PIERCCCEEEEE

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

IT’S JEFFREY!!!!

i love how troy and jeffrey are playing antagonists

did he really just leave his shit in the truck???

he had time to grab it?

“are you okay?” PLEASE

“i’m alright. are you alright?” THE WAY HIS VOICE SHAKES PLEASE😭

“yea.” ellie don’t lie

“i didn’t hear that guy comin and- you shouldn’t have had to have- yknow.” “you’re glad i did though, right?” “you’re just a kid. you shouldn’t know what it means to-“

i love that instead of joel getting pissed and saying “i’m lucky i didn’t get my head blown off by a goddamn kid” he’s being sympathetic. and that he’s actually really trying to comfort her afterward which we didn’t see too much of in the game

HE’S TRYING SO HARD😭😭😭😭

“i mean it was my fault. you shouldn’t have had to. and i’m sorry.” 😭😭😭😭

THE MUSIC FROM THE TITLE SCREEN OF THE GAME AHH AHH

i’m crying

i’m gone

the way he looks down after seeing her wiper her eyes😭😭

i know he’s beating himself up to hell and back rn

pedro has been through this training so many times i’m sure lmao especially w narcos

I’M GONNA LOSE MY SHIT

THE WAY SHE’S GIGGLING AND SMILING

this is such a huge moment of trust for him

the way he gruntd when he gets up. i felt that.

knee injuries fuckin suck man

“we’ll get through this.” “i know.” AHHHHHHH

i’m upset that joel didn’t get his fuckin bag dude

THE DRAWINGS ON THE WALL THAT SAM DID FUCK OFF

😭😭😭😭

WAIT IS IT BLOATER TIME?????

BRO

jeffrey pierce slay

BOOSTING WOOOOOO

“straighten up. i got you.” FUCKIN FUCK OFF😭😭😭

THE “i got you” HAS BEGUN AAHHHHH

this is literally the game

WAIT IS THIS THE BLOATER BUILDING

IS THE BASEMENT HAPPENING NOW??

THE LAST OF US (GOODNIGHT) PLAYING FUCK OFF

“how’d you know it was an ambush?” ON THE STAIRS LIKE IN THE FUCKING GAME I’M YELLING

“i’ve been on both sides.” KABDKSHSKDBSKSV

MORE BACKSTORY ABOUT IT WOOOOO

“did you kill innocent people?” THE WAY HE LOOKS AT HER SKDHAKDJOWBS

AND DOESN’T ANSWER AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

the way he falls against the wall.

me too bitch.

“get up you lazy ass.” “lazy ass. 56 years old you little shit.” I LOVE THEM

looks damn good for 56👀

him setting up the glass is so smart

I LOVE THAT THEY’RE SHOWING THE BAD EAR NOW BC THEY HAVE TO BE MORE SPREAD OUT

the way he says “what?” like he’s so annoyed lmao

“are you sure you’re gonna hear it?” LMAOOOO

is she gonna go step on it to test him

i’ll laugh my ass off

“hey.” “yeah?” “when we were talkin about hurtin people. what do you mean it wasn’t your first time?” i love that HE is asking questions about her past now.

“i don’t wanna talk about it.” “alright. you don’t have to. i’m just sayin, it isn’t fair. your age. havin to deal with all of this.” AND HE’S TURNED TO WHERE HE’S FACING HER NOW. FUUUUCK OFF😭😭🫶🏻

“so it gets easier when you get older?” “no. not really. but still.”

and then she changes the subject back to him😭😭

“the reason i asked whether you’d hear the glass or not is because i’ve noticed you don’t hear too well from your right side. is it because you were shot there?”

AND THEN HE TURNS BACK OVER UUUGH

THE WAY HE SMILES AND THEN CHUCKLES AT THE JOKE PPLLLEEEAAAASSSSEEEEEEE

HE’S TRYING SO HARD NOT TO LAUGH

“that is so goddamn stupid.” “you laughed motherfucker.” “i didn’t laugh.” “yes you did.” “jesus i’m losin it” “you’re losin it big time” I LOVE THEM

AND THEN HE REALLY LAUGHS I’M GONNA FUCKING SOB RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW

JOEL MILLER SMILING AND LAUGHING IS SUCH A SERATONIN BOOST

THEM LAUGHING AND SAYING GO TO SLEEP DURING THE FADE TO BLACK I’M CRYINNNNG

oh fuck what’s happening

the way his eyes shoot open UUUUGH i love him

HENRY AND SAM AHHHHHHHH AHHHH AHHHH AHHHH AHHHH AHHHH AHHHH AHHHH

TRUE FAITH?????? TRUE FAITH???????

I’M CRYING

NEXT WEEK LOOKS SO GOOD

THE BLOATER

BTS TIME

“you get a sense that they’re a team.” 😭

BELLA!!!!!

“how ugly that violence is” AGHHH

CRAIG TALKING ABOUT THE LAUNDROMAT SEQUENCE AHHHHHH

“i love humanizing villains” WE KNOW NEIL. WE KNOW.

oh my god. that was fun! not as much plot but that’s A-OKAY. a nice break from the third episode hahaha🥲

i’m still lowkey mad joel didn’t get his fucking bag from the truck like he had time but it’s whateva

he’ll get another one later. i was just emotionally attached to that bag bc it was the game accurate one hehehe

ANYWAY

good episode! really loving the series so far!

so excited for next week. i’m taking an asl course right now so i’m fucking stoked to see it next ep!!

now time to rewatch and add the tracks to my soundtrack playlist!!

#the last of us hbo spoilers #the last of us spoilers #tlou hbo spoilers #tlou spoilers #the last of us hbo #the last of us #tlou hbo #tlou #joel miller #ellie williams #pedro pascal #bella ramsey

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festeringfae · 6 years ago

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I can't bring this up at all without reiterating "the question we should be discussing is how to get rid of homophobia within the entertainment industry" but with that said I feel like a lot of people iterating the reductive "only gay people should play gay characters" bit focus only on the very few "prestige" gay roles that serve as Oscar bait for straight actors. It completely ignores shit like Laura Dern, Harry Hamlin, Micheal Ontkean getting blacklisted for a DECADE after playing Ellen's love interest in the coming out episode of her show and starring in Making Love (1982) respectively. And those are just examples of straight actors who managed to bounce back after not getting work for t e n y e a r s, God knows how many more there are, especially since we've now started this lovely ahistorical trend of treating straight actors (Rob James-Collier) speaking out against homophobia getting them blackballed as co-opting oppression for attention instead of, you know, being mad homophobia can cost anyone a job. And how do you classify actors like Cate Blanchett and Gillian Anderson, who both identify as straight but have openly revealed having prior romantic & sexual relationships with women?

If you still can't be bothered to care about any of this because they're straight people and what about gay people: it's a much more prevalent and damaging stereotype that gay people can't convincingly pretend to be straight as actors. Sean Hayes' negative reviews in the musical (MUSICAL!) Promises, Promises were so based in this homophobic idea that his straight costar Kristin Chenoweth published an op-ed entirely devoted to shaming critics for it. Any piece of media Matt Bomer has been in since he came out is guaranteed to mention his inability to pass as straight at least once, no matter that he did it just fine before he chose to come out.

The belief is so pervasive that it even impacts straight actors, through typecasting. When was the last time you saw Natasha Lyonne play a straight woman? Melanie Lynskey? How many straight actors have you seen have to have to have "transitional" roles from playing gay to playing some sort of sexual menace before they're allowed straight roles again? Stanley Tucci's pre and post Lovely Bones roles come to mind offhand, as does Gethin Anthony's leap from "the gay king from Game of Thrones" to "Charles Manson on Aquarius" (a show which no one watched, but, HMM, NBC renewed over gay-run Hannibal). The gay actor inverse of that phenomenon, of course, is the hyper-masculinity and/or depravity of all Neil Patrick Harris' straight roles (How I Met Your Mother, Gone Girl) or hyperconformativity to the feminine ideal alongside unthreatening homoerotic humor (Portia de Rossi as the wife of Tobias Bluth, Kate McKinnon in various roles & sketches).

And if all that isn't enough to convince you that "straight actors shouldn't play gay roles" is a laughably ignorant statement, I would really encourage you to think about everything we know about the production of the movie Frida. Should Salma Hayak have just not fought to have a Latina wlw on screen? Are we going to argue over whether or not she was the "right" person to be coierced into a sex scene by Harvey Weinstein? Are we gonna do that for Blue Is The Warmest Colour, too?

Or we could just focus on asking how to stop violence, including the innate violence of bigotry, within the entertainment industry. Yeah, let's do that instead.

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sincerepositivethings · 3 years ago

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Issue One Hundred and Twenty-Six

For the last few years we have relied on the expert taste of Adam Maid to make sure we didn't miss any of the best music, TV, books and movies of the previous year. Why Adam? Because he consumes it all. But first, real quick: I would like to know what your favorite piece of media to come out of 2021 was. Movie? TV Show? Book? Song? Food? Whatever! I plan on sharing a list of our readers' favorite things next week, and this is your chance to be a part of it! Just fill out this super short form and you're a part of the official SPT 2021 Going Away Celebration! Take it away, Adam!

2021! We got vaccines! Live music and movies came back! Sparks finally got the credit they deserve! And also a lot of bad stuff happened, but we're not going to think about that now! Here are some of the highlights from what was a really solid year in pop culture. Pig (movie) - A lot of the buildup for this movie made it sound like Nic Cage's John Wick—his pig gets stolen, he has to get it back—but the movie itself has other ideas. Instead, it only jabs a metaphorical pencil through your eye with how deftly and beautifully it examines themes of loss, forgiveness, and empathy. Lucy Dacus - Home Video (music) - Nobody writes sharper lyrics than Lucy Dacus, and by sharp I mean they are daggers. Every one of her songs has an exquisitely crafted knife hiding inside of it. And she also just makes great rock music. It Never Ends - Tom Scharpling (book) - Tom is, as the kids say, goated. Already the funniest person working in any of his other mediums (shoutout to his Double Threat podcast with Julie Klausner for making me laugh and rewind and laugh again more than anything else for the past two years), this is Tom's first book, and it is so much bigger and deeper than a typical comedy memoir. He promised he would make us both laugh and cry and, well, the rat bastid did it. Midnight Mass (TV) - I can't really write about Midnight Mass without first writing an appreciation of its creator, Mike Flanagan. Nobody has understood the importance of the human side of horror since early Stephen King (which is probably why he's ended up adapting several King novels). This is his third Netflix series—following The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, both also excellent—and his most emotionally affecting work yet. I don't want to give too much away on the plot, but I highly recommend if for nothing more than Hamish Linklater CRUSHING it. Dinosaur Jr - Sweep It Into Space (music) - What a band. What an album. They're still as vital as ever. Yellowjackets (TV) - [pounding on table] Yellowjackets. Yellowjackets. YELLOWJACKETS. Just check it out. You will not regret it (except for the part where you can't sleep later). Melanie Lynskey is undefeated. Revelator - Daryl Gregory (book) - I loved this book for a lot of reasons, but most of all for Daryl Gregory's always-impeccable flair for writing full, compelling characters. The rest of it is pretty great, too: Appalachian moonshining, family secrets, a strange god who lives in a mountain? Southern Gothic cosmic horror? Yes and thank you. The Mitchells vs. the Machines (movie) - If you're reading this newsletter, chances are you've heard the names Phil Lord and Chris Miller at some point. Whether it's their own project (Clone High, The Lego Movie) or something they've produced (Mitchells, Into the Spider-Verse), their worlds are bursting with creativity and their stories HIT. Their latest, co-written and directed by Jeff Lowe and Michael Rianda, is the story of the robot apocalypse and the family trying not to fall apart at the seams as they save the world. It is wonderful. A Little Devil in America - Hanif Abdurraqib (book) - A new release from Hanif Abdurraqib is a first-day, when-the-bookstore-opens kind of event. His writing in A Little Devil in America is as impeccable as ever, seamlessly combining memoir, cultural commentary, history, and love letter into a series of essays on Black performance that are as empathetic and vulnerable as they are ecstatic. You'll never hear "Gimme Shelter" again without wanting to give Merry Clayton her roses, too. No One Is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood (book) - As someone with professionally mandated Social Media Brain, the first half of this book was a rousing joyride of weird, dumb Twitter moments I should be ashamed I remember. As an uncle, the second half was a rousing roundhouse kick straight to the solar plexus. Painting with John (TV) - In the early 90s, actor/musician/artist John Lurie had a show on IFC called Fishing with John, in which he'd invite famous friends like Jim Jarmusch, Dennis Hopper, and Tom Waits out on different fishing expeditions. None of them know how to fish, on one occasion he and Willem Dafoe die at the end of an episode, and let me tell you it is a perfect show. Last year HBO got Lurie, now living on an unnamed Caribbean island, to come back for a new show, in which he crashes drones and ostensibly teaches you how to paint. It's like Bob Ross, if Bob Ross painted surreal watercolors and told messed up stories from New York in the 80s. Riders of Justice (movie) - Mads Mikkelsen stars as a soldier returning home to care for his daughter after his wife is killed in a train accident. Sounds like the setup to a fun comedy, right? Well, it turns out, yeah. Enter a trio of statistics and computer dorks who are convinced the accident was no accident, and enlist Mads to investigate the local gang they believe responsible. This is character-driven comedy done right, to dark and rewarding effect. Hey Ramsey, look over there! (Okay, folks, that will distract him for several minutes. Here are some more things I really liked this year.) Movies: The Beta Test, The Card Counter, Annette, Never Gonna Snow Again, Dune, Malignant, Zola, Titane, Shiva Baby, The Deep House, The Last Duel, Licorice Pizza Books: Filthy Animals - Brandon Taylor, Velvet Was the Night - Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mike Nichols: A Life - Mark Harris, Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder, My Heart Is a Chainsaw - Stephen Graham Jones, Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney TV: The White Lotus, I Think You Should Leave, Squid Game, Succession, Reservation Dogs, Hawkeye, Arcane: League of Legends, Made for Love, Kenan Music: Julien Baker - Little Oblivions, Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee, Reigning Sound - A Little More Time, The Mountain Goats - Dark in Here, Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen - "Like I Used To", BLACKSTARKIDS - Puppies Forever, Laura Stevenson - Laura Stevenson, James Blake - Friends That Break Your Heart, Action/Adventure - Pulling Focus

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ramseyesscom · 3 years ago

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Issue One Hundred and Twenty-Six

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nightmareonfilmstreet · 6 years ago

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[Recap] CASTLE ROCK Episodes 1-3; The Beginning

What would you do if you managed to capture the devil? Would you notify the police? The church? Would you tie it to a chair and pray for its redemption, or would you release it to continue its work harvesting the souls of the unsaved? In the end, after all of our pre-capture religious grandstanding, we would probably do exactly what the Warden of the Shawshank Penitentiary in Castle Rock, Maine, did:

When Dale Lacey found the devil, he locked it away in the dark bowels of the prison, hoping that it would never again see the light of day.

So goes the central mystery surrounding the first three episodes of Hulu’s new Stephen King-inspired series, Castle Rock. Created by Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason, the series is set up to be the Stephen King Extended Universe that all horror fans have been begging for since we first picked up one of his books. King is listed as an Executive Producer on this series, but it’s not his influence that shines through the brightest during these early episodes. For, even though the opening credits give us King Easter eggs from It, The Shining, and Cujo, and characters randomly drop hints of a shared universe, I could not watch this show without thinking about another Executive Producer’s previous work.

Castle Rock’s first three episodes could not be more similar in tone and feel to J.J. Abrams’ Lost, and I am 100% here for it.

Let’s start from the beginning. Castle Rock tells the story of a town that seems to be rotting from the inside. Like a cancer that eats away at its host, there is something gnawing at the soul of this small town in Maine. We meet Henry Deaver (Moonlight’s André Holland), who is a death row attorney in Texas, as he receives a call from a rogue guard at Shawshank. Apparently, a young man (Bill Skarsgård from last year’s It) was found deep in the lower levels of the prison. He wasn’t in a cell like the other inmates, however. He was kept in a tiger cage in a locked hole in an abandoned part of the prison.

Nearby cigarette butts reveal his jailor to be the ex-warden, Dale Lacey (Lost’s Terry O’Quinn), who had recently ended his own life in brutal fashion. The rogue guard knows that the new warden, T. Porter (Ann Cusack), is concerned only with PR and dollar signs, and will cover up this young man’s existence by any means possible. So he places a call to the one name the young man uttered during questioning, Henry Matthew Deaver.

Deaver is not a welcome sight back in Castle Rock, however. As a child, he was adopted by the preacher’s family and looks to be the only black person in a town that doesn’t seem to care much for folks that are different. In 1991, Henry went missing for 11 days, only to return unharmed and unable to remember anything about his life. Not only that, but his father, the reverend, was found nearby broken and nearly frozen to death. The man died in his home, and the entire town believed that Henry is the one that pushed him off a cliff.

As he returns home to see what is going on at the prison and to see why he was called by the mysterious young man, Henry is called “killer” on the street, kicked out of Lacey’s home by his widow and generally rebuffed at every step. He is stared at, joked about and lied to the whole time he is there. His old neighbor and oldest friend, an empath named Molly (Melanie Lynskey) turns him away because being near him causes her psychic abilities to drown out the rest of her life. She pops pills to cope, but even those cannot dull the cacophony of voices she hears whenever Henry is nearby. By the end of the third episode, they have joined forces to try to try to get Henry in touch with the young man in Shawshank, propelling the story forward towards a supernatural conflict.

“He always thought the devil was a metaphor, but now he knew. The devil was a boy, and he caught him and locked him in a box.”- Sheriff Pangborn

It’s not just the appearance of John Locke that makes Castle Rock feel like Lost 2.0. We have the central, unanswered mystery of Henry’s disappearance in 1991. Couple that with the discovery of the young man in the cage and the flashbacks showing Warden Lacey’s reasoning behind his imprisonment, and you have a classic Lost-like Good v.s. Evil story line. You are presented with the ultimate evil (Caged Young Man/Man in Black) and the ultimate hero (Henry/Jacob/Jack), who are brought together by fate to a mysterious place.

Like in Lost, this is represented by the stark differences between black and white game pieces (chess in Castle Rock, backgammon in Lost). Whichever piece you decide to grab, there must be balance. For there to be good in the world, you must have evil. Although many of King’s works (like The Stand) feature this Good v.s. Evil storyline, the first three episodes of Castle Rock do not feel like a King story at all.

Which is exactly why I love the show, so far! You could remove the references to King’s work, call the prison the “Babadook Correctional Facility” and it would still be a creepy, atmospheric mystery show with hints of the supernatural. There were moments where I wished that this was just a stand-alone show and was not attached to the King name, simply because I feel like there is a ton of potential in the story and the characters that have absolutely nothing to do with King’s universe. This is a testament to Shaw and Thomason, who wrote the first two episodes of the series. They created a world that feels so much like our own and filled it with kinetic characters that keep you wanting more. More stories, more history, and more explorations of the darkness.

It’s because of this incredible world building that the scariest aspects of the show are the ones rooted in real-life and not the supernatural. As Henry was walking the streets of his hometown, he was called “killer” by a passerby. It was said with the same disdain and contempt that the bigoted use a different word to describe a person of color like Henry. In one word, we learned all that we need to know about how the people of Castle Rock view people that aren’t like them. We see this everyday in the news as talking heads rant on about immigrants, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community and others who are deemed “outsiders” We see this town that is crumbling beneath economic hardships. Warehouses are empty. Mills have stopped running. Windows are busted out of once-great downtown shops. Inns are boarded up and cemeteries have been paved over, and it reminds us of American cities very similar to our own.

“Never again let him see the light of day… That’s what God told me” – Warden Lacey

The prison is the only employment in town, and even that is a curse. Shawshank has brought with it whole neighborhoods filled with the incarcerated’s families. Wives and Mothers who are stuck in cycles of depression and anger, sons and daughters who are so obsessed with the justice system that they hold mock trials in terrifying masks. These “games” are stark representations of what the justice system has done to them and their families. The only person in the “courtroom” not wearing a mask is the defendant, the others all false and anonymous. Secret men and women who get to destroy your life and then remove their mask and continue living their own.

Shawshank itself has transitioned into a privatized prisoner-mill, like many of our institutions here in the United States. This forces the new Warden to attempt to have the caged young man killed by another prisoner instead of revealing his existence to the authorities. The only things that matter to these people are capacity and profits, and anything that threatens the bottom line must be dealt with swiftly and brutally.

It’s these racial, economic, and societal horrors that make Castle Rock feel so real and so utterly terrifying. There are hundreds of small towns in America right now that can see a lot of similarities between their lives and the ones depicted in this series. I drive through three or four of them on a weekly basis here in Central Illinois, and it’s this real-world grounding that makes any supernatural aspect the future holds very intriguing. What will happen in the coming weeks? Will we begin to understand Henry’s disappearance in 1991? Is the young man in the prison actually the devil? Can he really do what the rogue guard saw him do on the CCTV? What role does Molly’s empathy and psychic abilities play in the upcoming confrontation, and why was she driven to do what she did so many years ago? It’s questions like these that will draw you to Castle Rock, but it’s the real-life horrors eating away at its soul that will make you stay.

You can catch the first three episodes of Castle Rock on Hulu, with more episodes dropping every Wednesday. I will be hanging out with you every week to discuss the show, so be sure to bookmark our homepage at Nightmare on Film Street so you don’t miss a single one! While you’re at it, head on over to Facebook and join our Fiend Club, where all the cool cats hang out. We’d love to hear what you think about Castle Rock, so let us know!

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cdyssey · 2 years ago

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Yellowjackets 2.03 Thoughts:

TW: Cannibalism

Oh, my God. Jackie’s shriveled, burnt, picked over hand.

Coach Ben and Paul. Cute!! I’m digging Paul’s earring.

TAISSA NOT KNOWING WHAT HAPPENED TO JACKIE. I AM SO UNWELL. NAT BEING PROTECTIVE. VAN BEING BLUNT ABOUT THE REALITY AND SCARED ABOUT THE REALITY OF HOW ADVANCED TAI’S SLEEPWALKING IS.

“… you ate her face.” Tai screaming and just utterly losing it. These girls. My god.

“I guess… no one wants breakfast.” MARI ANQNWJDJWJWJSJS.

Nat being a leader when it comes to practicalities in the cabin, suggesting that Jackie’s body be moved to the plane. But it’s also so fascinating at a power dynamic level that she checks in with Shauna here too. It’s the fact that she knows just how much Jackie meant to Shauna on one hand, but it’s also that Shauna is someone who subtly influences the team as well. They all look to her reactions in both timelines. It was her permission that they needed to eat Jackie.

Augh, Ben saying that burying her out there will make it look like she died with the rest of them. That’s probably the cover story they give to Jackie’s parents + the authorities, which is harrowing. If so, they erase five months of Jackie’s life to conceal what happened at her death.

That transition between young Lottie and adult Lottie!!!!!! ALSO, ALSO, I LAST WEEK, I JUST REALIZED THAT SIMONE KESSELL PLAYS BREHA ON KENOBI!!!

The antlers on Lottie’s quarters. That’s my Antler Queen right there.

LISA JUST STRAIGHT UP CHOPPING THAT CHICKEN’S HEAD OFF. Listen, there’s a somewhat decent chance that she’s wilderness baby. If so, like Mama, she’s got a way with butchering animals.

Simone. :(( I will actually lose it if she dies. SHADOW TAISSA DRAWING THE SYMBOL ON HER WIFE’S HAND. MA’AM.

THE VERUCA SALT NEEDLE DROP.

“I wasn’t stalking you. I was just finding a suitable nursing home for my mother.” AKQKDFJJSDJJD. Them casting Elijah Wood as an off-kilter Reddit stalker weirdo is the casting choice of a century.

RANDY FUCKING WALSH!

I didn’t think I was going to ship Misty and Walter, but omfg, their chemistry is SO good.

“IT WAS THE STRAWBERRY LUBE.” HELP ME GOD. THE WAITRESS JUST TURNING AWAY IQKQOQKWIWOWIDDISN.

“I THINK THIS STUFF IS FOR BISEXUALS AND GOTHS.” I’M CRYIN G.

“YOU’RE NO FUN.” ANQKQKOQKQOWIEIDIDDJSJJSJWWJS, this is the most insane marriage in the world. It isn’t just the fact that the strawberry lube was a seminal moment to Jeff in his marriage with a woman who survived 19 months in the Canadian wilderness and came back wrong, but it’s also the fact, that she remembers word-for-word what he said. I’m laughing so fucking hard.

Shauna is 100% bi. But is she goth? Discuss!! (Nat, on the other hand, definitely fits the descriptor.)

“It wasn’t about you. I mean, sure it was exciting. Exciting… mm, that’s not the right word. Um… okay. It made me feel like… I didn’t know what was going to happen. And I liked that. I liked not feeling like this… boring version of me.” Such perfect dialogue. It wasn’t about Jeff even from the start. It was about Jackie. It was about loving her, hating her, wanting to be her, wanting to fuck her, entirely consume her. And she did, she did, she did.

But we also get other stuff here. The fact that she misses the unpredictability of the wilderness. And yeah, she absolutely was excited, even if she doesn’t admit it here. My god. I love her.

JEFF TRYING TO BE SPONTANEOUS AND TAKING SHAUNA TO CHURN BUTTER, BLOW GLASS, OR BLACKSMITH. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS MAN (AFFECTIONATE)? SNWJQOQKWJS.

HOLY FUCK AT SHAUNA DEALING WITH THE THIEF. LIKE, DID YOU SEE THE ACTING MELANIE LYNSKEY WAS DOING. THE PRIMAL RAGE IN HER EYES.

“Are you Rambo?!”

“Callie’s old toy that she loved probably more than she loved me?” I’m actually unwell about this line. From what Melanie has said in interviews, so much of her arc this season is going to be about motherhood. I’m often thinking about the traumatic birth that Shauna experienced in the wilderness and how she brought that to the table with Callie, how she tried her best anyway, how Callie grew up to be a normal goddamn teenager. But now that she is older, now that she can see Shauna’s cracks and the facades and all the lies she’s told herself and others, that relationship is fractured. The Sadecki family, normal though they’ve seemed for all these years, has fundamentally been unwell from the start.

This is Melanie Lynskey’s world and we’re just living in it. Every microgesture is so, so raw.

LOTTIENAT OVER THE SHOULDER PROXIMITY. THAT WAS CHEMISTRY THERE.

The swirl of rocks around the beehives… it’s like the spiral from Sammy’s drawings.

Bee metaphor talk!!!!!!! OH, GOD. THATCUT TO THE BEES. TERRIFYING

Lottie, my love, stop offering ur blood tea. 😭

Oh, my God. Jackie’s remains being so small that Nat can easily hoist her over her shoulder.

Shauna staring out the window with tears in her eyes. :((

“But I wanted it too.” SCREAMING.

“I don’t know, I just feel so fucked up.” / “I’m scared, Lottie. Everything is out of control, like I don’t feel like I know what’s going to happen next.” God, the exact echo of what adult Shauna says. Shauna is always revisiting the moment of Jackie’s death and her consumption.

Lottie revealing the gender of Shauna’s baby, lmfao.

The girls getting so excited about a wilderness baby shower. 🥺 Crystal combing Misty’s hair in the background!!!

MISTY TELLING WALTER TO HIT RANDY FOR INSULTING NAT!!!!! THAT’S HER GIRLFRIEND.

Shipping is so much fun in YJ. I basically just ship everyone. Juliette and Melanie were so right. All those girls just made out in the woods.

“Forgive me. I have IBS.” QKWKWOQOWIEJDIEIEIDOEWJEID.

WALTER JUST STRAIGHT UP SLAPPING HIM. YELLOWJACKETS IS A GODDAMN COMEDY.

Taissa and Akilah making a crib. 😭 I am so soft. And now I’m teary-eyed. Oh, my God. I want Akilah to live. It isn’t fair what happened to these girls.

“That’s good, Mar. The baby can dream that it’s being stabbed to death every night.” ALOQOQOQJSJSEJ.

Mari hearing dripping that no one else does… she was also the one to feel something crawling down her back way back in S1.

“Too bad they didn’t listen to your broth idea.” JACKIE BONE BROTH. Oh, my fucking God.

CRYSTAL ABSORBING HER IDENTICAL TWIN IN THR WOMB WIWODJIEWKS.

The parallels between the Misty/Crystal storylines and the Misty/Walter storylines… Misty has finally found her kindred spirit. What the fuck happens to them?

Ben’s still starving because he didn’t eat Jackie. Oh, God, if he dies of starvation, I’ll lose it.

“You always say those girls are vicious, little monsters.” They’ve always been vicious. The forest gave them permission to be wild.

“You’re lucky, you know? I think shit is gonna get a lot worse out here. But you’re already dead, so… way to make everyone jealous of you one last time.” [Nat chuckles.] “I’m sorry… for what we did. Who knows? Eating you could be the reason why we survive the winter, so… thanks. Rest in peace, Jackie.” I AM FUCKING UNWELL. JACKIE, WHO DIED PEACEFULLY IN THE SNOW, WAS THE LUCKY ONE. NAT HAS BEEN JEALOUS OF JACKIE. OH, GOD. JACKIE, THE POPULAR TEENAGE QUEEN AND NAT, THE PERPETUAL LONER. NAT KNOWING THAT THE CANNIBALISM MIGHT HAVE BEEN ESSENTIAL FOR THEIR SURVIVAL. BUT HOW SURVIVAL ISN’T NECESSARILY A DESIRABLE FATE.

CGI WHITE MOOSE.

I love Randy fucking Walsh. So dumb. <3

Van trying to stay awake for Taissa… oh, God, and now willingly following her. Jasmin’s vocal inflection change when she’s playing shadow Tai is chilling.

THE MAN WITH NO EYES LEADS SHADOW TAI. DO NOT SHOW ME THAT MAN ON MY SCREEN. I’M NOT PREPARED FOR HIM TODAY.

OH, GOD, TAISSA HOLDS SHADOW TAI BACK.

The fucking flashback to him in the mirror. Ugh, scariest moment in the show for me. I do think, though, there’s gotta be something more complex going on with him than just, “he’s evil and trying to kill Tai.” I think he’s actually serving as some sort of fucked up protector for her.

Kevyn Tan at the gym!!! Wearing a backwards hat, lmao. Not Jeff going all angry-bro at him. Sir, you’re probably going to be a central part of a murder investigation. Don’t antagonize a detective. 😭

DON’T TALK ABOUT ADAM WITH HIM. JEFF. GODDAMN.

“Well, fuck your diligence. Okay? ‘Cause I-I know her.” / “We’ve been married almost twenty-five years. I know my wife, and I trust her.” HE’S SO DUMB, BUT I CAN’T HELP BUT LOVE HIM FOR BEING SUCH W RIDE-OR-DIE FOR SHAUNA. GODDAMN. Also, the fact that they got married almost straight after she returned from woods. Jfc!!!

My poor little meow meow with a gun is about to go get her car back. <3

“Have you ever peeled the skin off s human corpse? It’s not as easy as you might think. It’s really, uh, stuck on us. Skin. You have to roll back just the edges of it, so you can get a good enough grip to-to really pull. Which, again, isn’t easy. People are always so sweaty when you kill them. Just, like, oily. There’s a look people get… when they realize they’re going to die.” [Shauna smiles, tears in her eyes.] “It’s that one. My hand wasn’t shaking because I was afraid. It was shaking because of how badly I wanted to do this.” MELANIE FUCKING LYNSKEY.

I AM LOSING MY MIND. OH, MY GODDDDDDDD. SHE IS SO FUCKING GOOD.

AND THEN, AFTER COMPOSING HERSELF, SHE SLIPS BACK INTO A MIDWESTERN THANK YOU. UNREAL.

I SUPPORT WOMEN’S WRONGS.

Ben fantasizing what he should have said and done with Paul. :((((

VAN’S LITTLE CHANGING TEEPEE.

A MONOLOGUE FROM STEEL MAGNOLIAS. I’M CRYING.

NOT THE SALLY FIELD MONOLOGUE ABOUT SHELBY’S DEATH. HELP ME. I’M LOSING IT.

SHE’S BODYING IT. AKQOQOWJSJSIWIWIWIIWIAJSSJ. SHE GOT IT DOWN PERFECTLY. THE SOUTHERN ACCENT AND EVERYTHINT.

The girls being deeply moved by the monologue because it’s about grief and violence and how those things can be easily intertwined. They’ve lost so, so fucking much: their friends, their girlhoods, their innocence. And they just want to hit something.

Shadow Tai in the fucking mirror. Oh, my GOD. They’re doing an excellent job of making Tawny Cypress look like she hasn’t slept in three weeks.

Shadow Tai wanting her to go to Van. 😭

Tai trying to call Jessica Roberts, lmao. I miss my favorite morally fucked up fixer.

“Hacking… you can just say it,” WKWKJWDJEJJEJDDJ.

MISTY AND THE ADAM’S MOTHER LIE. THEATER NERD FOR LIFE HELP.

“Maybe I’m just a bored Moriarty looking for his Sherlock.” And Misty walking away because she doesn’t know what to do with that vulnerability. 😭

I actually just teared up at Shauna placing the stuffed animal next to Callie. Oh, my God, and Callie snuggling it.

Adult Nat finally putting on purple… hhhhhgh.

I think Lottie and Nat should kiss. <3

LOTTIE, YOUR WELLNESS ADVICE IS S LITTLE FUCKED UP, LOVE. <33

The symbol…

Lottie and Nat fighting, revealing where ALL of the group straddles the tension between them. The only (main-ish) girl who doesn’t really reveal her stance is Shauna.

TAI RUSHING TO SHAUNA.

THE DEAD BIRDS. THAT SOUND WAS TERRIFYING.

“Did these guys just suicide on our roof?” ANWKQKWJDJWSJS.

Them all putting the birds at Lottie’s feet… worshippers leaving offerings for their god.

LOTTIE’S BEES. WHAT THE HELL.

This Tori Amos song is stellar.

Oh, my God, the camera pulling back and revealing that it was Lottie’s hallucination. Her panic and grief. Jesus fucking Christ.

The GRIP that these women have on me.

#yellowjackets spoilers #yellowjackets #s: yellowjackets #maggie blogs #cannibalism

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its-just-like-the-movies · 7 years ago

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XX (17, B)

There’s something about XX, the four-part horror anthology that just popped up on Netflix, that feels hard to talk about. It’s not as though the material is unapproachable, or poorly made, or even mostly enjoyable. Hell, it was one of the titles I was most excited about coming out of Sundance, not just for the premise but for the directorial debut of musical fave St. Vincent aka Annie Clark, her leading lady Melanie Lynskey, and the follow-up feature of Karyn Kusama after 2016’s The Invitation, easily the best American horror film that year. As much as most great horror films have female leads, rarely are they made by women, and the idea of four interconnected stories coming from an exclusively female point of view was so enticing I watched it as soon as I realized it was streaming online. Yes, it’s uneven, as all interesting horror anthologies are, but the connective tissue is missing, and at some level all four seem underserved by their time constraints. This doesn’t stop the best features from being entertaining - incidentally, the best ones are by Clark and Kusama, with strong leading performances from Lynskey and Christina Kirk - but even their potency feels primed for more time to explore their protagonist’s dilemmas and flesh out the narrative. Consequently, the weaker first and third features feel even more stifled and underdeveloped than another five minutes would’ve allowed. Like the film, I’ll be dividing the review up into four segments, for the sake of being cute about it, with small intermissions to mention cool yet pretty unrelated stuff that, nevertheless, is still in the film. And now, without further ado, let’s begin.

Maybe it’s unavoidable at this point in time and media history to not think just the teeniest bit about American Horror Story when thinking about horror anthologies, but what gave me the strongest - perhaps the only - reminder of anything AHS has attempted was the stop-motion vignettes that separate each short film with the goings on of several monstrous doll houses with ports for porcelain doll faces. Other living toys flit about, along with teeth, an apple, other random objects, all existing in some sunlit, white-paint attic. Crafted by Sofia Carillo, it might be stretch to say that any one segment comments on the upcoming story so much as setting a tone or suggesting a narrative trajectory, but they’re all fun to watch and fairly inventive.

Doing us the kind grace of opening with its weakest story, Jovanka Vuckovic’s The Box doesn’t seem to have a strong enough hand on its own story. A young mother is helpless to watch as her son, then her daughter, then her husband all fall victim to some mysterious spell that makes each one happily unwilling to eat anything, even as it kills them. Her inactivity, evolving from an unconcerned assumption everything will work out to a state of resigned acceptance that everyone around her is doomed, is never given a proper explanation from the script or actress Natalie Brown. I’ve read reviews suggesting this is inspired from some Stepfordian symptom to act as though everything is fine when it clearly isn’t, but Brown doesn’t seem to be playing denial so much as she is the flippancy of someone who thinks their problems will work out even if an immediate solution isn’t in front of them. Her husband’s accusation that she doesn’t care that their children aren’t eating should ring falser than it does - hell, make her blatantly happy her family is practically finishing themselves off of you want - but instead it feels off because we have no idea what this woman is thinking. A dream sequence where her family finally eats a horrific meal feels cheap not because of any unearned shock value, it just feels like wasted potential. Even the closing narration suggests a slightly more interesting film waiting in the wings, as the woman tries to track down the man with the box in the hopes of being like them, of being with them. A mother’s exclusion from a bond the rest of her family share, as terrible as that bond is, for the sake of maintaining a semblance of normalcy, feels like it should pay off richer dividends than it does. I’ll give it credit for the combination of makeup and VFX that make the characters so emaciated, and how well it captures their gradual thinning out of existence, but this story has less meat on its bones than most of its characters. As is, The Box is easily the most weightless pick of the bunch, practically floating away next to the stronger styles and stories of the subsequent segments. Not just because those segments have something more to offer, but this has so little.

One question that feels obvious looking at this list of directors, and one that entered my mind pretty soon into The Box, was “Where is Jennifer Kent?”. The answer to that, according to her Wikipedia page, is that she is currently filming her next project, The Nightingale, about a young convict trekking to find the soldier who murdered her family in 1820’s colonial Tasmania. Kent herself said she received floods of offers from the United States after The Babadook premiered, instead focusing on doing more of her own work. I admire her resilience, and that XX chose to stick primarily with newer writers-directors (Kusama being far and away the exception, this being her sixth film and having about a dozen TV directing jobs to her credit), Still, her absence her feels like a lost opportunity, if only for us.

From its weakest story XX hops to easily my favorite of the segments, Annie Clark’s The Birthday Party. Set in the tone of high farce, we immediately learn the tone of the story as Clark’s opening close-up of some blue fabric turns out to be the wrinkles and folds of the nightgown covering Melanie Lynskey’s ass. Lynskey, game and hilariously neurotic from the word go, wakes up to find out that her husband arrived home early in the middle of the night, died at his desk, and, worst of all, did so the day of their adopted daughter’s seventh birthday party. It is this want to give their child the perfect party that inspires Lynskey to desperately try and hide the body rather than calling the police and harshing everyone’s vibe by telling her daughter than her father is dead. I still can’t exactly figure why Lynskey’s Mary didn’t try and prop him in the closet of his office, though it did seem like a cramped fit. Clark’s debut outing synthesizes everything so idiosyncratically delightful about her music and her persona into the presentation of the film. Mary looks out of place in her own home, with her torn robe sleeve and messy hair surrounded by hopeless gauche grasps at sophistication that seem to work for her friends. Even her severely styled maid looks more appropriate in the place than Mary does. Clark’s score also keeps the proceedings on edge, and she knows how to wield sound (of course she does) to tremendous effect, turning a child’s excited “Boo!” into a genuine jump scare by dialing up the single loudest sound bite in the whole film, and somehow making this as funny as a satisfied wink effect to commemorate the deal between Mary and a panda bear. Lynskey herself is instrumental to Clark’s success, dialing up the character’s anxiety and being able to play the whole thing for laughs without mugging in the slightest, and still finding room for emotionally beats with her daughter and her dead husband. By the end of it all she’s too tired to carry the damn corpse, hoping to hide it in plain sight, unable to stop what’s coming and finding the perfect face of exhaustion and resignation. I suppose the tone makes The Birthday Party more morbidly absurd than an outright horror movie the way that the other three segments are, but Clark and Lynskey by far craft the most singular and innovative segment of the bunch, standing out not just for its lightness but because, moment to moment, I couldn’t guess what happens next the way I could for better (in Kusama’s segment) or worse (in the other two) throughout the rest of the quartet. Clark also displays a real sense of humor in her art direction, the hilarious costumes of the children and some of the equally odd outfits and hairstyles of the parents. Two of the best props are objects Mary fusses with at the beginning, one that’s vaguely crescent moonish, the other horrifically familiar. “All she wanted was for her daughter to have a nice birthday and her jackass of a husband had to go and die.” my boyfriend said after watching it, and I agree with him wholeheartedly. It’s amazing that this is Lynskey’s second lovely performance of 2017, in another morbid comedy on Netflix that showcases her talent to great effect (the wonderful I Don’t Know How To Feel In This World Anymore). It’s just as amazing that this is only Annie Clark’s first directorial outing, so assured and confident within such an offbeat tone to operate in, let alone for this project. I’m excited to see more from them as soon as possible, and if it could possibly be together again, well, that’d be great too.

Here’s where I admit that, apart from Jennifer Kent, I really need to expand my knowledge of female voices in horror. Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night and The Bad Batch, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, and Mary Harron’s American Psycho feels like the most obvious place to start, but I really don’t know who to look out for in terms of established or up-and-coming talents. I’ll be right in line with everyone else for Dee Rees’ recently announced black lesbian horror film, and will happily look for whatever projects that are recommended to me. All filmmaking markets deserve to give more room to women filmmakers, but horror is almost as reliant as the rom-com or other stereotypically “female” genres on having compelling women in front of the camera, and by god is it time to have more compelling women behind the camera too. Especially if this genre is going to keep packaging itself using stories that are mainly exclusive to cis women’s experiences.

Don’t Fall, written and directed by Roxanne Benjamin (who also helped write The Birthday Party), feels like an outlier among the four films. Gone is any idea about female horror rooted in motherhood, as is any idea rooted in a specifically female experience. It’s the most conventional of the stories, the one that feels the most like the opening to a film we aren’t allowed to see the rest of. I don’t mean conventional in any bad way, but as scary as Don’t Fall is, its style feels the most generic, its ideas vague. Look, the creature makeup was great and I enjoyed the camaraderie between the four friends. As little as she had to do, it’s always nice to see The Final Girls’ Angela Timbur, playing the lesbian girlfriend of the lead, no less. But there’s not much here to separate it from the opening of a pretty solid Syfy Original Movie, and I don’t have as great a sense of what’s unique about Benjamin’s directorial style as I do of Clark’s, Kusama’s, and maybe even Vuckovic’s stifled and slightly dread-filled atmosphere. That being said, there’s not a thing that’s bad about Don’t Fall. You feel the anxiety of Breeda Wool’s Gretchen, her unease not just with camping but with camping at this specific location, the way she does and doesn’t get along with the friends she’s traveling with. Benjamin finds a solid tone that works in a more naturalistic style that still accommodates a lot of hand-tipping. The depiction of the beast that possesses her is creepy, her rampage is terrifying, and the ending is genuinely scary. It’s the most straightforward of the segments to watch, Benjamin building it too sturdily to dissipate like The Box does without any of the singularities that make The Birthday Party or Her Only Living Son so fascinating. You won’t have a bad time, but the ways it doesn’t click with the other three segments makes me wish it had conformed with the others more, or that one of them (perhaps The Box) had shifted away from a specifically maternal point of view. Other reviews seem to put Don’t Fall as the most widely approved of the segments, usually not anyone’s favorite but one everyone seems fond of. And as much as I agree with these takes, I wish it had some kind of oomph to it to make it as specific as the others.

While we’re on the subject of female voices in horror, since so many horror films specifically revolved around female neuroses already, what’s to stop us from getting Lynn Ramsay’s Rosemary’s Baby? Or Karyn Kusama’s Stepford Wives? Or a female interpretation of any other paranoid, profound auteur project that use women as vessels for their ideas? Sophia Takal’s Always Shine has already been compared to a modern-day kind of Persona, and Emily Yoshida’s recent article about the male terror and fascination of women alone together brings up the very good point that, as wonderful as many of those films have been, there’s a remarkable lack of persona-swap films starring and made by women. It’s one thing to have an actress’s voice for your words, rewriting dialogue and contributing character details, it’s another to have a director’s voice making the material authentically female from the start. Perhaps this is the same thing I was talking about in the previous intermediary paragraph in a different key, but films about women’s pain and women’s terror are so often the subject of male auteurs. In this day of the remake, even if many of these films are classics (albeit classics already possessing shitty sequels or remakes), why not let a female director take a stab at a woman’s story? Men have plenty of thoughts about what it means to be a woman, the performativeness of “being” a woman in many contexts, yet actual female voices on the subject of being a woman feel sparse. Let them do it. Come on guys. Just let women tell their own stories.

Karyn Kusama’s Her Only Living Son stands out among XX’s segments, not just for having the most interesting of the titles, but for grafting itself connective tissue to an already existing classic. Putting us in the headspace of Rosemary’s Baby isn’t Kusama tipping her hand so much as letting her cards bleed all over us, allowing her segment to accumulate narrative dread through the friction between Christina Kirk’s Cora and her son Andy, played by Heath Ledger look-alike Kyle Allen, as the film barrels towards an inevitable confrontation. Tension accrues between Cora and the other increasingly odd adults in her life, so reverent of Andy, and her knowledge of his own violent outbursts and shifting physiology. Kusama overwhelms the film with dread, perhaps overbearingly so, and I wonder how much power it gains through associating itself with one of the best horror films of all time. It’s not as though the film doesn’t stumble a little, mainly in a suspicion-confirming conversation with mailman Mike Doyle that escalates into a personal reverie towards an unseen but increasingly felt presence. Thankfully, Kusama finds textures in Cora’s seeming overprotectiveness and Andy’s vicious isolation from his mother, making both more interesting than they might have been. Their final conversation is poignant and heartbreaking, as Cora reveals the circumstances of Andy’s birth and their nomadic lifestyle. She stakes as powerful a claim on Andy as his father, and their last acts are as visceral a bond of mother-son love and codependence as some of the most interesting scenes in The Babadook. And yet, for all the power of the segment, Her Only Living Son feels the most cramped into its running time. Unsettling encounters with the mailman and the principal of Andy’s school seem to tip their hand too much for the degree of uncertainty (denial?) that hovers over the film. It’s the only film crying out for a longer middle than a longer ending, and one I would happily sit through. As is, even if it’s flawed, Kusama’s power is as palpable in Her Only Living Son as it is in The Invitation, and I’m more than ready to see what the next unsettling spectacle is she’s going to put us through.

I don’t quite know what to make of the final stop-motion segment, where the demonic dollhouse that’s been the star of these vignettes brings a human girl to life. It feels even less connected to any of the stories than the previous one, though its power in mood and craft still hold. When thinking about XX, they’re a delightful diversion but not really worth discussion. Their delightful diversionary status is undeniable, but I wished they had narrative cohesion even between the other animated segments.

As a collective, I like a lot that XX has to offer even as I find plenty to quibble with on individual levels. The Box is too insubstantial, Don’t Fall too generic, Her Only Living Son too compressed, but each one boasts significant virtues - a strong sense of mood, a compelling story, sheer filmmaking and emotional force. The Birthday Party feels like the only segment that finds the right amount of story for its time limit, boasting a unique tone and texture, with a strong central performance to boot. All the disparities between the segments only make it more interesting to talk about and read about, and I’ve enjoyed seeing what resonates with reviewers for them to pick it as their favorite. Tommy’s favorites are the second and third segments, and mine are the second and fourth. I’ve seen commenters and articles praising all four films across various publications, and that makes the whole only more fascinating to me. The variance of opinion is almost as interesting in the variance of approaches XX gives us, and if I’ve singled out particular enthusiasm for Clark and Kusama’s segments, I’d be delighted to see a feature film from any of these gals. Each segment more than lays the foundation for longer, equally interesting films, headlined by imaginative directors working with committed actresses. That’s a solid hook for me in any genre, but when that imagination is let loose in such a strange, fascinating genre, I’m ready for anything they want to throw at me.

#my posts #my reviews #2017 #xx

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cdyssey · 2 years ago

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Yellowjackets 2.02 Thoughts:

Shauna talking to Jackie’s dead ghost is so fucking haunting. The utter banality of the talk, and yet, at the same time, Jackie always urging Shauna towards some sort of precipice, whether it’s confessing the “truth” or acknowledging that she’s the one holding the knife. No one’s doing homoerotic fucked up besties like them. 😭

Tai and Lottie both caring for Shauna makes me tender.

God, I really appreciate Callie’s character. Her parents are really messing her up, and yet, even as she’s cognizant of this, one of the things she seems to be hurt by most is the fact that neither of them have registered that she’s gone. She talks about using the vape to numb herself into oblivion. And that’s exactly how Shauna feels every single day.

TAISSA POUNDING ESPRESSO AFTER ESPRESSO. REFUSING TO SLEEP. HER REFLECTION MOVING. MA’AM, SEEK HELP.

The fucking no-eyed man. I can deal with the extensive gore. I can handle the cannibalism. But THIS GUY. Every time he comes on my screen, I McFreakin’ lose it. What is his DEAL?

Also, why tf is this show so darkly lit? Showtime, do better.

Sophie Thatcher perfectly replicating Juliette’s cadence is always so incredible to me!!!!! Of the casting pairs, I’ve always thought they look the least alike appearance wise, but goddamn, Sophie nails the mannerisms.

“We are an intentional community turning suffering into strength.” Lmao, Lottie. Also, adult Lottie is so, so pretty.

“It’s heliotrope, it’s not purple.” AKQKWKDJWJS.

Lottie treating Lisa like an underpaid intern about the drink, lmfao. Loving adult Lottie’s vibes so far. Her entire enlightened act is so performative, but simmering underneath, is that same uneasy energy that the rest of our core four has. To take the analogy further, she’s seemed to take the Tai and Shauna route of trying to repress what happened in the woods and pretend like everything’s fine. She’s fine. Of course she’s paired with Nat, the perpetual realist here.

Shauna trying to reach out to Callie and being rebuffed at every attempt. It’s not necessarily that it’s too little, too late, and more that she’s ignoring the elephant of a body in the room, trying to move past it, like she always does. Hhhhhghhh.

Misty’s screensaver being a stock photo of ultra cute kittens is perfect. ANQKWOQWODJ, MISTY ANGRILY REPLYING ON “REDDIT” AND THEN REALIZING SHE MADE A TYPO. WKQKWKSJDJAJ.

THE MAKEUP ON JACKIE. GODDAMN.

Tai confronting Shauna is so fucking painful. Sophie Nélisse utterly shutting down. Lottie defending her. I’m so unwell. They both care for her so much, and there’s also this added element of Taissa trying to run from her own demons by making Shauna confront her own.

Taissa and Shauna’s relationship genuinely might be my favorite on this show in both timelines. Like, it is so complicated and raw and brutal and simultaneously so loving. Hhhggsghhhshhh.

Kevyn showing up. Oh, God. Oh, God. And Shauna fuckin’ lying. LISTEN, I objectively know they’re not going to stick Melanie Lynskey in jail (at least for long), but still, I can’t wait for this storyline to be resolved.

KEVYN CATCHING HER IN THE LIE. GODDAMN. BABY GIRL, MISTY MADE YOU A COOKIE TELLING YOU EXACTLY WHAT TO SAY.

AND SHE’S STILL LYING. GIRLFRIEND,THEY CAN SUPBOENA YOUR TEXTS OR SOMETJING.

Callie stepping in to help her mom. I’m actually so tender about their effed up relationship, it’s unreal.

“So you lied to be feminist?” KQQKKWEKDJDJEJEJNSWHAJS.

“At least go through the back in case he’s still out there.” I’m unwell.

Sammy showing up. Hhhhgh. As upsetting as it is that Simone is being so cautious and cold towards Taissa, it is so warranted after finding your beloved family dog beheaded in the basement as part of some fucked up sacrificial altar.

Elijah Wood!!!!!!!!!! AKWKDNNSS. THE KNEE HIGH SOCKS WITH THE SHORTS.

NAT FAKING JAVI’S DEATH, OH, MY FUCKING GOD. CUTTING HERSELF TO FAKE BLOOD. THIS SHOW.

Poor Travis. Oh, my God.

Adult Travis!! The fact that he calls Lottie as well… Simone Kessell is doing such a wonderful job with Lottie; her rage and fear in the Travis flashbacks are compelling.

GOD. TRAVIS INITIATING THIS RITUAL. Whether we can trust that Lottie’s telling the truth, that remains to be seen, but I do think the fact that they’re accompanying the story with a bonafide flashback makes me think that they want us to take it at least some of it at face value.

THE ZOMBIE FUCKING LAURA LEE HALLUCINATION. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. The tenderness in her eyes before LL stepped out of the shadows, though. Lottie/Laura Lee truthers rise up.

Also, adult Lottie/Nat have very good chemistry.

THERE BEING A CHAIN ON TAISSA’S GODDAMN DOOR. DID SHE HALLUCINATE HER SON? UM.

WHERE THE FUCK ARE SAMMY AND STEVE, TAI? 😭

Oh, God. The debate about Jackie’s clothes. So brutal. Like the earlier cabin scenes in this ep. showed, the tensions between the girls are reaching a fever pitch.

Lottie seeing the cut on Jackie’s arm, but not being judgmental about it. Giving her the necklace. 😭😭

Callie, don’t flirt with that grown ass man. Nooooooo.

Callie lying and saying she’s a student at Rutgers, the same school Jackie and Shauna were supposed to go to. ;-;

Shauna going to light the pyre when Nat was confronting Lottie. Hhhhgh.

“I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE YOU END AND I BEGIN.” NOT A BLURRED MARGINS LINE. FUCK ME UP.

Travis adding Javi’s pants to the fire. 😭 Lottie and Tai being the ones who escort Shauna away. Hhhhhshhhhhhgh.

I’m so excited to see the other adults interact with Lottie.

Nat having a clearly traumatic flashback when she lays down…

AWNDNSNSN, THE BLACKLIGHT NOTE.

THE DUDE CALLIE WAS FLIRTINT WITH BEING A DETECTIVE. JESUS.

Kevyn being soft on Shauna. ;w; I really do like him, and I’m glad they brought him back.

Not Travisnat having sex on the eve when he just found out his brother is dead. NOT HIM ENVISIONING LOTTIE. WOOF.

THE TWISTING AERIAL PERSPECTIVE. SNOW FALLING ON TOP OF JACKIE’S PYRE. OH, MY GOD. IT’S???????? IT’S SMOKING HER. IT’S FUCKING COOKING HER FOR REAL.

TAI HALLUCINATED SAMMY. OH, MY GOD.

“You are… very sick, Taissa.” I’m so sad.

“BAD ONE” TAISSA NOT LOOKING AT THE ROAD, GLARING AT SIMONE. A FUCKING WRECK. SHIT. SIMONE, PULL THROUGH QUEEN. SOMEONE HAS TO BE NORMAL FOR SAMMY.

OH, GOD. THAT FIRST SHOT OF JACKIE’S BODY IS SO FUCKED UP.

THEY ARE ALL GONNA FUCKIN’ EAT HER.

SHE WANTS US TO.

THE GREEK MYTHOLOGY FEAST. IT’S A SACRED COMMUNION. IT’S BACCHANALIA. IT’S STARVING CHILDREN EATING THEIR TEAM CAPTAIN AND FRIEND IN THE WOODS.

POOR COACH BEN. HELP AOQMWNDNJWJWJSJSJS.

#maggie blogs #yellowjackets #yellowjackets spoilers #s: yellowjackets #THIS SHOW HAS EVERYTHING

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its-just-like-the-movies · 7 years ago

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September 2017 Viewing List

Damn! Ain’t we back on a roll again?

Ingrid Goes West (17, B): You wanna make Mr. Ripley even more noxious? Swap in a palpably ill stalker. Plaza the exception of a smart cast. - Sept. 1

Death Note (17, F): Awful as an individual property, truly heinous & offensive as an adaptation. How could this protagonist be made so bland? - Sept. 2 (review)

You can palpably feel how much the Death Note people wanted Evan Peters and Emma Roberts for this. Also this is gross as shit.

I’m so fucking mad

John Dies At The End (12, B+): Who needs a budget to make something this fun and trippy? Keeps finding new ways to explore itself. - Sept. 3

Heavenly Creatures (94, A): Mad, yes, but everyone emerges as humans with their own, sometimes terrible wants. Love is in the air, and it hurts. - Sept. 3

That last scene, but especially that last shot of Melanie Lynskey, is gonna haunt me till I die isn’t it?

Citizen Kane (41, A): Hyperbolic sets the perfect living spaces of a man too big and finally too small to properly fill those rooms. - Sept. - 4

Beatriz at Dinner (17, B+): What else would the death of the world inspire but it’s own righteous anger? Why is that always scarier? - Sept. 4

Raising Bertie (17, A-): No tweet, but please rent it on iTunes. - Sept. 6

Modern Times (36, A+): Also no tweet, and streaming on Criterion so. Find it and savor it if you can. - Sept. 6

The Passion of Joan of Arc (28, A+): No tweet. Criterion. Pure fucking brilliance right here folks. - Sept. 6

Little Evil (17, D): Nothing again! But honestly, there’s just so little to say about it. - Sept. 7

Gremlins (84, B+): Amazing that you can be this morbid and this fun without bungling tone. Perfect antidote to all that holiday cheer. - Sept. 7

Is it really kid appropriate> Not sure how much it woulds resonated with my tiny ass save Frances Lee McCain(!!) slaying all those critters.

It (17, B+): So much dread and humor and kindess, in so many stripes. Marvelously made and indelibly cast. Has its kids and eats them too. - Sept. 9

Lady Macbeth (17, B): Impressively constructed as a taut, almost nasty experience, though so much so tough choices wind up easy to suss out. - Sept. 10

It (17, B+): This is such a great movie you guys. So amazingly made. Probably my favorite ensemble of the year. Who else wants to go? - Sept. 10

It’s so incredible that Pennywise and Georgie’s scene at the beginning somehow isn’t (or is it?) the film’s best scene yet fits the tone so perfectly.

I kept thinking of Juliette Lewis’s and Ileana Douglas’s big scenes with Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear. Those actors were amazing together. Fuck

The Conversation (74, A): Amazing that a story of paranoia stars a character so resistant to being seen, who winds up being even less. - Sept. 11

So many contradictions. That calm, maybe too calm score. A crime where every party plays the wrong roles. Spies who keep getting spied on.

Trouble the Water (08, A): Finds two of the best people to lead us through a terrifying, preventable, and poorly handled disaster. - Sept. 11

Get Out (17, A-): No tweet but friends. Romans. Countrymen. See it.Set it again. Or see it three times, like me did. - Sept. 11

Heathers (89, B): Amazing this satire has survived near 30 years of one of the most livewire topics alive. Or dead. You hear how it died? - Sept. 12

(Talking to someone who hates it) I definitely think it could use more punch in editing, acting. Not an all-timer. But I love how ridiculous it makes the school’s reactions.

Even if the suicides were real everyone uses them for personal gain and learns nothing. The onlookers get satirized more than the corpses.

Starlet: A- (17, A-): Plays like watching lives being lived. Funny, deft, and so very substantial while feeling light as a feather. - Sept. 13

Watching Besedka Johnson realize she got bingo was the happiest I’ve felt in what feels like a long, long time. Way to go girl.

*me, every time I watch a film where they look at the sky through gnarly, cool-looking tree branches* the cinnamontography

mother! (17, ??): Mise-en-scene, sound impress. I get the point it’s making but this felt like the ugliest way to do it. Not going again. - Sept. 14

I really liked parts of this. Pfeiffer’s rad. But I didn’t feel good watching this, and practically the whole theater rebelled. Poor Her.

It felt awful watching all that happen to her. And for what? Is this what it means to be with A Great Man? Fuck men! That was fucking gross.

The Big Sick (17, B): The warmest blanket of a movie 2017 could offer in counter to last night’s . . . . spectacle. Ace cast, script. ❤️❤️❤️ - Sept. 15

True Romance (93, B): Super fun! Eclectically and charismatically cast, with a corker of a script. Badlands link weird but hey, it kinda works. - Sept. 15

The Girl Without Hands (17, B): Simplicity of tone and tale is a marvel next to so many modern Grimm adaptations. Art style grew on me. - Sept. 16

It Follows (15, A-): Looking at it one way, getting mono was terrible. Looking at it another way, thank fuck that’s all it was. - Sept. 16

It (17, B+): No tweet, but guys. Go. - Sept. 17

Maudie (17, B+): Colorfully in league with A Quiet Passion for distilling the life of a fascinating artist, with an equally inspired lead. - Sept. 17

Baby Driver (17, C-): The more Baby became the film’s moral center, and the worse it treated the other characters, the less I liked it. Bleh. - Sept. 17

Raging Bull (80, A): This is how you implode over the course of 20 years, and how everyone puts up with the fallout till they can’t. - Sept. 19

The Color Purple (85, B+): Not quite the novel, but stacks up as an adaptation that carries visual and emotional power. Goldberg’s a miracle. - Sept. 19

Agnes of God (85, D+): Actors try, Nykvist goes above & beyond. But script stinks, pacing is off. Flails with ideas it barely grasps. - Sept. 20

Twice in a Lifetime (85, B): Applause for evoking so many points of view with such empathy. More than anyone else, the cast makes it special. - Sept. 20

Ex Libris - The New York Public Library (17, B+): I wish we spent more times in certain areas but there’s no denying how fascinating it is to be in this library. - Sept. 21

Prizzi’s Honor (85, C): I love Hickey’s odd vibe, but be it script, direction, or other performances, everyone’s their own kind of uneven. - Sept. 21

mother! (17, B-): Remember how I said I wouldn’t see it again? Most interesting to me for the wronged wife stuff. And fun to talk about. - Sept. 23 (review)

Would you believe everyone I saw mother! with had visceral, negative reactions to it?

Arrival (16, B): I can’t be Totally There with it, but there’s no denying its ambition, not just with temporal narrative but with sound. - Sept. 25

I think Adams is fine with it, but I kept imagining how well Louise would fit Sigourney Weaver, and especially how interesting Kristen Wiig might be.

Obit. (17, C): Politics and process of memorializing, favorite features of reporters intrigue. Not sure there’s a feature film here. - Sept. 26

The Girl With All The Gifts (17, B): Smarter about unsettling mood, world building, dystopian elements than so many adaptations. A gem. - Sept. 26

The Mist (07, B): Not great with techs, but marvelously realized on a budget, and tight as a drum with story and character. Cast on fire. - Sept. 26

Plenty (85, B): Tracing of messy, self-destructive lives impressive in a film that never shakes the feeling of being an adaptation. Streep! - Sept. 27

Columbus (17, C+): Rapport of mature leads eventually becomes more interesting than lusty affair between the cinematography and those sets. - Sept. 28

Fantastic Planet (73, B+): Style feels a bit cramped, but imagine adapting anything this odd with all its sharp, unusual edges intact. Hot damn. - Sept. 28

Kiss of the Spider Woman (85, B+): I want to talk about its politics, it poignancy. Does so much, I want to make sure I’m not missing a thing. - Sept. 30

Lost in America (85, B+): Sometimes, to reinvent yourself properly, you have to fail at it miserably. Brooks, Hagerty a wonderful duet. - Sept. 30

Don’t forget to check out my horror faves montage and the Supporting Actress Smackdown for 1985! Thanks for checking in folks! Happy October Halloween!!

#my posts #my reviews #month logs #2017

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