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katiemcgrath · 4 years ago

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Let’s go through these names:

Sarah Reed (Black), 32, had severe mental health issues which was known to prison officers and doctors. She had been complaining about being unwell and untreated to her mum for a long time. She was found dead in her cell at Holloway Prison in 2012, they lied and said she was found hanging in her cell, she wasn’t - she was found in her bed. There’s video footage of a police officer punching her and grabbing her hair after she was arrested for shoplifting - the officer was suspended and faced no criminal charges.

Mark Duggan (Black), 29, in 2011 Mark Duggan was shot by police in Tottenham, London, the police chased him in a minicab claiming he had a gun - a gun was later found 7 metres away from the minicab. Protests and riots in London and other areas of England ensued. The police were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Sheku Bayoh (Black), 31, was murdered by police in 2015 in Fife, Scotland. Very similar to George Floyd, Bayoh was knelt on by police for 9 minutes. Much like George Floyd, Sheku Bayoh’s last words were also ‘I can’t breath’. The police were not charged.

Christopher Alder (Black), 37, was a computer programmer for the British army. He was arrested in 1998 after he was punched at a nightclub and was supposedly ‘aggressive’ at a hospital. He was found ‘face down on a custody suite floor, with his trousers round his ankles and his hands cuffed behind his back, while police officers made monkey imitations and references to banana boots and a hood with slits.’ The officers were cleared of any wrong doing.

Smiley Culture (Black), 48, Culture stabbed himself in the heart (hmm) when police raided his home in London. His death was a contributing factor in the 2011 riots.

Jimmy Mubenga (Black), 46, Mubenga was being deported - three private security guards held him down on the plane and restricted his breathing, despite already being handcuffed to the seat. His last words were also ‘I can’t breath’. Th officers were cleared of manslaughter.

Michael Powell (Black), 38, Powell had many mental health difficulties and dealt with it by taking drugs. In 2013, his mother called the police on him after he started smashing car windows this a hammer, she was afraid and just wanted him restrained. Several police officers came and subdued him using pepper spray. He died in the back of the police van. All officers were cleared but it’s okay because over 10 years later, police have apologised for the pain and suffering he was in.

Leon Briggs (Black), 39, Briggs died in custody in 2013 after being held under Mental Health Act but no medical intervention was sought, he became unconscious and died. Police officers were cleared of any wrong doing. They were suspended with full pay.

Ricky Bishop (Black), 25, police in Brixton, London, in 2001 claimed Bishop was attempting to escape so held him down, he had a heart attack. He was still in cuffs when he arrived at the hospital. All officers were cleared.

Brian Douglas (Black), in 2005 PC Tuffey hit Douglas over the head with a police baton. Douglas was arrested and despite vomiting in his cell, he wasn’t taken to the hospital until 14 hours later, he suffered a fractured skull and damage to his brain stem. No disciplinary action was taken against the police.

Joy Gardner, (Jamaican), 40, “They say she was ‘illegal’, but she wasn’t illegal. She came here legally, she paid her fare, but she overstayed her time.“Then they broke into her flat, put 13 feet of tape around her head and a belt on her legs, and they suffocated her.” The police were cleared.

Roger Sylvester (Black), 30, Sylvester suffered from mental health illnesses. He was arrested in 1999 and held down by six officers. He fell in to a coma and never regained consciousness. The police were cleared of any wronging.

Azelle Rodney (Black),16, was shot by police 6 times in 2013. The officer said he suspected Rodney was hiding a machine gun. No machine guns were found on his person. The officer in question was arrested and sent to trial but the jury found him not guilty.

Habib Ullah (South Asian), 39, ‘During one hearing Emma Forbes, who was present at the time, said officers had held Mr Ullah face down on the ground at one point, and said they had “their hands around his throat, pressing down and putting their hands in his mouth at the same time”.’

Faruk Ali (South Asian), in Luton 2014, two police officers laughed as they chased after Ali, (who is autistic and has the mental age of 5) in their car and the proceeded to beat him. Thankfully, Mr Ali is alive and well. This incident lead to protests and a demand for justice for people with mental health issues. The police officers were sacked but no charges were made against them.

Adrian Thompson (Black), 34, Thomson was tasered by police after he was accused of breaking into flats when in fact he went to a friend’s birthday party. He died in the back of the police van.

Jean Charles de Menezes (Brazillian), 27, was shot by police after they suspected him of being a terrorist a day after the London 7/7 bombings in 2005 (he was not, it was mistaken identity but police shot first). No officers were charged, his parents took the case of the ECJ but they lost the fight.

Demetre Fraser (Black), 21, Fraser died after falling 11ft from a tower block in Birgmingham in 2014 after being chased by police. Police were not at fault according to met.

Aston McLean (Black), 27, McLean was being chased by police in 2014 when he was hit by an armed response vehicle. McLean was pepper sprayed before he was hit. officers cleared.

Olaseni Lewis (Black), 23, Lewis died after being restrained by 11 police officers. Officers were not charged but a law called ‘Seni’s law’ came into effect in 2018 ‘ Under the new legislation, hospitals will be required to publish data on how and when physical force is used.’

Anthony Grainger (Black), 36, was shot through the chest as he sat in a car in the village of Culcheth, Cheshire, by an armed police officer known as “Q9” in March 2012. Police were cleared.

David “Rocky” Benett (Black), Benett suffered with mental health illnesses. He was restrained for 25 minutes by up to five NHS staff members. He had punched a female member of staff after being moved to a different ward to separate him from another patient he had hit, but who later attacked Mr Bennett and racially abused him.“Rocky died a brutal death,” Dr Bennett said. “He was pinned face down on the ground by the very people who we trusted to care for him. “It breaks my heart every time I think about that night and it will live with me and my family forever.”

Alton Manning (Black), 33, “Manning, a prisoner on remand, and was killed on 8th December 1995 after being assaulted by prison officers at the private prison HMP Blakenhurst. An Inquest, which originally opened on Monday 12th January 1998 and concluded on 25th March 1998, unanimously decided that Alton Manning was unlawfully killed.” The officers were cleared.

Mark Nune (Black), 35, police acted as judge, jury and executioner after shooting Nune during a robbery.

- it’s not mentioned here so I’m not going to go into it right now by please search up Stephen Lawrence, it is an extremely important case and if there’s one thing you can do for his memory is learn about him and remember his name.

#uk politics #black lives matter #this took me over an hour and now I'm depressed #but that's okay baby before I'm an educator (;#forgive for any errors #I really did spend over an hour #I use google so you don't have to

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mariocki · 3 years ago

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Tecteun might be a real Bad Egg, but Barbara Flynn is an angel, and her appearing in DW has been a long time coming (and she has form with previous Doctors...):

She first found fame in WW2 drama A Family at War (Granada, 1970 - 1972), which featured Patrick Troughton among the supporting cast

She and Peter Davison starred together in A Very Peculiar Practice (BBC, 1986 - 1992), as did fellow DM alumnus (and son of Patrick) David Troughton

Peter Capaldi and Barbara in the first series of Chandler & Co (BBC, 1994) - neither returned for the second series

Barbara had a recurring role in Cracker (Granada, 1993 - 2006), as did a young Christopher Eccleston

I can't find any decent images, but both Barbara and David Tennant pop up in He Knew He Was Right (BBC, 2004)

And although I don't think they share any scenes, Sylvester McCoy and Barbara both have supporting roles in The Christmas Candle (2013)

That's not to mention a long career of incredible performances (she will always be the brilliant, unflappable, immovable Mrs. Jill Swinburne to me) opposite just about every major modern star you can think of. So while we might all agree that her character in Who is a rotter (to put it mildly) this blog remains a Barbara Flynn celebration zone!

#barbara flynn #doctor who spoilers #doctor who flux spoilers #new who #tecteun #classic tv #character actors #a family at war #a very Peculiar Practice #cracker #he knew he was right #the christmas candle #chandler & co #the beiderbecke trilogy #I'd suffer a full series of tecteun being an immoral monster to the doctor #if only to have Barbara on my screen that long

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twistedtummies2 · 3 years ago

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Two Weeks in the TARDIS - The Tenth Doctor

Welcome to Two Weeks in the TARDIS! I’m talking about the different versions of the titular protagonist from “Doctor Who.” Each day I’ll be covering a different Doctor, going in order from the First to the Thirteenth.

Today, we’ll be discussing arguably the most iconic modern Doctor. This is David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor!

BACKGROUND

After Christopher Eccleston left the program, Scottish actor David Tennant - a rising star - was called upon to take his place. While every other Doctor before and since was allowed to keep their natural dialect, Tennant was directed to speak with an Estuary English accent. This, of course, did absolutely nothing to prevent his popularity: to this day, when people think of Doctor Who, Tennant seems to be one of two key faces to automatically come to mind, the other being Tom Baker. Matt Smith, his successor (more on him next time) seems to be catching up, however…but I digress. I think this is because of the reason I said last time: “You never forget your first Doctor.” While Tennant was not the first New Who Doctor, he lasted significantly longer than Christopher Eccleston, with three seasons and more than three times as many stories within them. As a result, more people would simply RECOGNIZE him as the Doctor, and since many of these young budding fans had likely never even seen Tom Baker or any of the other Classic Doctors, it’s not surprising that Tennant would rise rapidly in terms of popularity. I strongly suspect the same goes for Smith, and given a few years, more and more people will say the same about Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker. It helps that a lot of the people who worked on and STILL work on the modern series were and are huge fans of Doctor Who themselves: it’s become a show made for fans BY fans, and Tennant was no exception: he was a HUGE fan of Doctor Who, and this became his dream role. That fact is not surprising, because, alongside Tom Baker and perhaps Sylvester McCoy, I would argue that Tennant’s portrayal of the Doctor has the least disconnect between the role and the performer. It’s telling that, ever since seeing him AS the Doctor, nearly every time I hear or see Tennant in anything, the Doctor is all that comes to mind: Kilgrave from the MCU? “Oh, so THAT’S what it would have been like if he played The Master instead!” His version of Hamlet? “Oh, so THIS is what it would have been like if Shakespeare had invited him to perform in one episode!” Scrooge McDuck? (pauses) Okay, actually, as Scrooge he’s pretty invisible, but hey, if DuckTales had ever featured the Daleks? I wouldn’t have been surprised. Tennant brings a natural zaniness and melodramatic intensity to the role, mixing swaggering humor with something much deeper and darker to create a truly fascinating take on the Time Lord.

PERSONALITY

Of all the Doctors I’ve talked about, Tennant’s Tenth is actually the single hardest for me to analyze and describe in terms of personality. That’s actually, I think, what makes him so particularly fascinating: he’s not an easy Doctor to categorize, so to speak. Mixing elements of various early Doctors with his own special seasoning, Tennant creates a particularly changeable Time Lord, whose moods and ethics are not easily explained. On the surface, Ten at first seems like a stark contrast to the Ninth Doctor: instead of the moody, slightly standoffish character of Eccleston, Tennant’s is superficially more extroverted and chipper, with a particularly zany sense of humor and a sort of wild-eyed passion in everything he does. He is, at first, a seemingly much happier person, but we soon start to realize the traumas are still there, and just as strong as ever: this is a man haunted by failure, who no longer wants to see things fall apart the way they did. As the Tenth Doctor’s era continues, the character develops in a startling and unexpected way: still haunted by his actions in the Great Time War, the Tenth Doctor puts on a veneer of apologetic pacifism, always trying to give his enemies a chance, even when they don’t deserve it. But at the same time, he is absolutely ruthless when he has to be, and does things to his foes that often make him seem more villainous than almost any Doctor (the only other one who might come close is the Seventh), as his vengeance on his foes is particularly nasty at times. There’s something particularly unhinged about his Doctor, like he’s constantly teetering on the boundary between sanity and madness; between being a good samaritan and a punishing devil. He can be hilariously silly, he can be vulnerable and sympathetic, and he can also be a holy terror, sometimes almost all at once. There’s a reason that, in the audio plays, there’s actually a parallel universe where the Tenth Doctor ends up becoming a villain rather than a hero: of all the Doctors out there, he’s one of the most morally and psychologically questionable, but he still manages to be endearing. The most notable thing people have noted about the Tenth Doctor’s era is the “Space Jesus” angle: Christ-like allegorical imagery and elements are used with the character constantly throughout his time on the TARDIS. He’s also VERY certain of his powers, perhaps to the point of outright hubris: this was the first Doctor to give what I like to call the “I’m the Doctor, STFU” speeches that modern Who is filled with today. Just by saying who he was, in grand fashion, this Doctor could bring his foes to their knees, and placed himself as a high authority. However, what’s interesting about all this is the way it’s used, and how his story arc tracks through his time in the franchise. At first, in the series, his attitude is actually treated as a good thing, as he takes down wrongful authority figures and saves lives, and while he’s egotistical, he’s also compassionate…but as time goes on, his arrogance starts to spiral out of control. We start to see that he’s not nearly as perfect as he believes, or as anyone would like to think. Without going into too many spoilers, this Doctor’s end is particularly bitter, as he is forced to come to terms with the fact that he’s neither invulnerable nor almighty, and the toughest challenges in his life are ones he ultimately has to face alone.

COSTUME

Again, the NewWho series tends to go for costumes that are less about “walking anachronisms” and instead ones that would fit in more with a modern, contemporary society’s norms. However, with the Tenth Doctor, the costumes DO start to become more eccentric. In some ways, this was another very Sherlockian Doctor: not as detached as Sherlock Holmes, but with the same mixture of madcap heroics and flawed danger. In fact, many of his stories played out almost like detective stories, including one episode where he met famed mystery writer, Agatha Christie. As a result, Tennant’s costume is something of a sort of “eccentric detective” getup. He’s often seen wearing a trenchcoat, like someone out of an old film noir, and under the trenchcoat he typically wore a suit of brown or blue, with pinstripes and a tie. All of this is elegant and almost 1940s esque, but then it gets contrasted by the unconventional choice of sandshoes, a spiky sort of hairdo, and the wide-lensed reading glasses he occasionally wears. He’s both classy and yet a total dork, for lack of a better way of putting it. On anyone else, the costume might look a bit bizarre, the different elements not necessarily smoothly tying together, but Tennant is so at home in the costume, that the way he moves, sits, and stands in it always makes it feel like a second skin: it’s all natural to him, and so he can be all the things he needs to be - from dangerous to daffy - no matter what the weather.

NOTABLE COMPANIONS

The Tenth Doctor started out with Rose Tyler as his companion, carried on from Christopher Eccleston. Fans have mixed feelings about Rose’s time with the Doctor, but personally I didn’t mind it, and the moment when she left the show was really quite sad. My big problem is that Rose seemed to be treated as the “uber-companion” for the reminder of Ten’s time in the series. I suppose it makes sense, since - unless you count Grace Holloway and POSSIBLY Jo Grant - this was the first time the Doctor had actually apparently fallen in love with his companion. However, it became a problem when the next major companion - Martha Jones - showed up. Martha starts off with promise, but in my opinion she became rather bland as the series went on; she really felt like she was just a replacement for Rose, and one wonders why she even HAD to be replaced. Did Billie Piper, Rose’s actress, just not want to do the show anymore? (Seems unlikely, since she returned several times as a recurring character for the rest of Ten and even Eleven’s run.) Then came the third major companion, Donna Noble: in Donna’s first appearance, she’s a bit annoying, in my opinion, but when she became a fully-fledged companion...I’m going to be honest, I think she became my favorite companion of David Tennant’s. Part of this may be because of the relationship between both the actors AND the characters: in contrast to Rose and Martha, the Doctor no longer wanted a romantic interest, he just wanted a friend. And that was cool with Donna, because that was all SHE saw the Doctor as: her absolute best friend. In a way, she was a lot like Sarah Jane Smith (who made a surprise return during this era as a recurring character), but with even more sass and spunk than before. Actress Catherine Tate and David Tennant had amazing chemistry, and it’s telling that they would often work together after this - especially in comedic settings - as their friendship offscreen is and was just as powerful as it was onscreen. One last character worth noting is River Song: not a COMPANION, but a major recurring character who first appeared in this era. River was revealed to be the Doctor’s wife, but who met the Doctor in a future lifetime. Naturally, this led to shenanigans and heartbreak alike; all in a day’s work for this series.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

DEAR GOD, WHAT DO I CHOOSE?! XD The issue with the Tenth Doctor’s era, in stories, is that it’s sort of a giant mixed bag, in my opinion. There really isn’t any one episode of the entire show I would truly call definitive. Some showcase great villains, or have great stories, but aren’t necessarily most emblematic of what this Doctor was all about. Others are terrific showcases for David Tennant’s character, but lack the proper Companions needed or have particularly famous baddies involved. Some episodes are still great, some were well-received back then but have since received some rightful backlash, and some suck but at least have a sort of “so bad it’s good” quality to them. So...jeeze and darn, what do I even PICK here? I siphoned through a LOT of iconic stories before finally deciding on what I felt was the best choice here...not my FAVORITE Tenth Doctor story, I should point out, but the one I think comes the CLOSEST to a “definitive Tenth Doctor episode” I can find. That episode is the two-parter “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead.” In this one, the Doctor and Donna Noble have their first meeting with River Song, while doing battle with a race of carnivorous shadow monsters known as the Vashta Nerada. The story is dark, high-flying in its intellectual mind-bending, has a great sense of humor underneath it all, features the best Doctor/Companion relationship of the era (in my opinion), showcases River Song, and has one of the Doctor’s most iconic “I’m The Doctor, Now STFU” speeches in the show’s history. There are so many other episodes worth noting, it’s not even funny, but this one, I think, has the MOST of all the things I love about the Tenth Doctor’s era, so it gets my vote: if you’re only going to watch ONE David Tennant episode...don’t, please, watch more than one if you can, but consider starting with this one first.

Next time we’ll be discussing Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor: The Madman in a Box.

#two weeks in the tardis #doctor who #dr. who #sci-fi #tv #history #retrospective #new year's countdown #january special #tenth doctor #david tennant

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sirrigtonboiler · 3 years ago

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Dr Woe

I reckoned last night that as I'm paying for a TV licence* (fool that I am) I should give Dr Who a look for the first time in years.

Hmmmm... mistake.

You don't watch Dr Who in the hope of mind-boggling effects, Nobel-standard writing or... well for any reason other than idle curiosity or because the dog has swallowed the remote again. And it was good to see that nearly 60 years after I first thrilled (?) at William Hartnell battling the Zarbi (see above) in 1965 it maintains its proud tradition of terrible acting and cheap special effects.

Jodie Whittaker takes her place proudly among the more gung-ho interpreters of the role. Never mind your Matt Smiths and your Christopher Ecclestones; Dr Who should be, first and foremost, a Larger than Life character. Trouble is, she resembles Victoria Wood doing a PE teacher having a nervous breakdown. Only less funny. She tears around delivering her lines at incredibly high speed, always with eyes cast upward in the best Front of Stage tradition, as if speaking to invisible airborne (or possibly hallucinated) creatures. Which leaves her 'assistants' even more redundant than usual - though to be fair, staring awkwardly at her back may actually be the limit of their abilities. I've seen more expressive IKEA shelves, though perhaps they had been told to stand still while Whittaker acted, for safety reasons.

On the Boiler Patent Ham-o-Meter, Whittaker registered ahead of Pertwee and Troughton and only slightly behind Tom 'What me, roll my eyes and leer?' Baker, David Tennant's right eyebrow, and Peter 'Hahahahaha he was in Lair of the White Worm' Capaldi.

Sadly, on the Irritate-o-scope she also scored highly - to be less bearable than Peter Davison takes some doing - though of course Sylvester McCoy** may have thrown the readings off permanently.

Even though a Dalek appeared pretty swiftly (and comfortably out-acted the assistants) I still only lasted 10 minutes because rather than being knowing and camp as it should be it was joyless and leaden. Like watching a Year 8 school play about mortgage debt, or scabies. Written by the cast.

Oh - it had Aisling Bea in it. Turns out she can act, a bit. But she wasn't being funny, which seemed a waste. That's two comedians not being funny, if you count John Bishop. But he's never funny, so I don't. Still, it seems odd. Maybe the current route for stand-ups into straight acting is via kids' sci-fi? After all, look what happens when you try to go straight into Big Films (Russell Brand, Rik Mayall, Lenny Henry, Ricky Gervais).

Nah. More likely Bishop and Bea are just cheap. It's Dr Who!

OK. Now look, BBC - let's get back to basics. By all means cast someone who rivals Nicholas Cage in terms of nuanced understatement but, NB, spend nearly all the budget on the best writer you can find, even if it means your villain has to be a bloke dressed as a giant ant but wearing leather trousers and motorcycle boots.

The rest will take care of itself. Because if what you're showing now were Series 1 rather than Series 39 it wouldn't last another 57 days, let alone 57 years.

* Note to any passing foreigners: yes, we have to have a licence to watch TV here in the UK. It funds the BBC. And yes, that is how to spell licence.

** I Googled Dr Who actors and Sylvester McCoy didn't even appear. Which goes to show that Google is pants, but is nevertheless richly deserved. He was the worst thing in The Hobbit too, but it didn't matter because The Hobbit was a gigantic pile of poop in three unbelievably tedious, noisy, pretentious and vulgar episodes.

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leam1983 · 4 years ago

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Almost done watching "Nobody" and...

I mean, I thought John Wick, Except Keanu Reeves Isn't Around and Saul Goodman is Somehow Kicking Ass would be a bit derivative - hey, Derek Kolstad, how's your 2020 been, huh? - but I'm pleasantly surprised.

There's very little to hate, honestly. Michael Ironside's gone Blue-Collar Silverdaddy with a paunch that tickles the side of me that points for older men, Oedenkirk is as capable as he's ever been - and Christopher Loyd kicks all kinds of ass as David Mansell.

As a kid, I used to love his turn as Fester in both Barry Sonnenfeld Addams Family movies and I eventually warmed up to Doc Brown. Now, as far as he's concerned, he's Shotgun Grandpa - now and forever. A lot of the stuff feels like Kolstad took an unused John Wick treatment and filled in the blanks with different concepts - CIA "auditors" instead of assassins, blowing up your man-cave instead of excavating your trove with a sledgehammer, gold bars in place of coins and a network of CB-radio-networked veterans serving as a more slapdash relative of the Continental's cell phone network.

Other things don't change. The antagonist is Russian, the protag gets a muscle car, the bad guys' slush fund gets nuked and a family pet enters the fray as a motivating factor. I've counted exactly two camera sequences that felt positively Wickian, but Illya Naishuller manages to bring in some of his own readable and generally hyperkinetic action. It effectively makes Nobody feel like it's taking place in the same universe as Wick's tribulations, starring a member of a different kind of shadowy cabal.

There's a few misfires to account for, such as the movie not putting much effort to establish its antagonist as a grinning Russian crooner as a legitimate front even if everything points to this idea, or failing to compensate for the obvious notion of Alexey Serebryakov not natively speaking English and several of his lines reading like memorized phonetics more than like internalized dialog. His tone felt off in a few places, which left his American costars feeling like they themselves were repeating on-cue - just with a tad more situational wherewithal. A few more rehearsals and a more alert dialect coach could've fixed things to a degree, I'm sure. None of that is enough to diminish the fun of the exercise.

On the other hand, it absolutely is another one of these movies, wherein a bankable fiftysomething star known for character roles or dramatic performances pulls a heel-face turn and kicks ass for the good of the Box Office and bolsters the wavering egoes of all less-than-alpha males in their twilight years. Are you in your late forties? It's not too late! Buy a gun, some dumbbells, a spot in a judo school and anything you might've seen Daryl Hannah or Farah Fawcett driving back in the day that has a shitty mileage and an astronomic gas-usage rate, and you too could become a Power Dad! Non-disclosable past or shady skills not included! It started with Liam Neeson and Luc Besson's later chop-socky material, and now we're looking down at a line of Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzennegger, Sylvester Stallone or Clint Eastwood material - all of them more than itching to assure us that the Alpha Male isn't dead.

It's amusing enough in a glitzy, false, very Hollywoodian sort of way. Nobody is basically that upteenth variation on the Extra-hot Barbecue Nacho Chips bag you've seen under a million brands: it's cheap, unpretentious, fun and whoo, does it pack an adrenaline rush.

It's just too bad that you can already mentally flick through your Rolodex of A-Listers gone past their physical prime for a few believable picks in the same genre. Although, now that they've stuck Loyd with a shotgun, anything goes as long as your lead isn't beset with memory problems and can follow basic safety procedures.

I mean, we've already seen Bubba Ho-Tep, all that's missing is De Niro playing a Grandpa with a Dodgy Past who Kevin McAllisters the retirement home he lives in and blows the mobsters posing as Assisted Care workers to kingdom come.

Hey, Hollywood? I'm free all week. I don't have an agent and I take my own calls...

#nobody #movie review #bob oedenkirk #christopher loyd #john wick #the continental #derek kolstad #illya naishuller #hardcore henry #why does it always have to be the russian mob

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aetherschreiber · 5 years ago

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The Cycle of Fandom

I am an early Millennial. As a 1982 baby, I literally came of age in the year 2000. A lot of hay has been made about how my generation does things differently from our parents. And by now, plenty of it has been made about why, as well. I won’t rehash the talking points, but it comes down to how much things changed in our formative years. Our parents went from vinyl to 8-tracks. We went from cassette tapes to CDs to MP3 players to streaming over our phones. That’s a lot to have to adapt to and as a result adapting is just what we do.

But when it comes to fandom, the human condition really hasn’t changed that much. People like things and when they like things they obsess, collect, analyze, and sadly they eventually eventually gate-keep.

Now, let me preface all of this by saying that I don’t really have any citations for any of this. But, as someone who was thoroughly raised in fandom, I also have a tendency to get hooked on things a lot of my generation would scoff at for being old. I love the original Lost in Space and Man from UNCLE, the very first Mobile Suit Gundam is my favorite, I’m fascinated by the puppetry in Thunderbirds, and I’m a complete sucker for just about anything with Cary Grant. I will binge-watch classic Doctor Who as much as I will the new stuff and love every moment of each for what it is.

For most Millennials, this isn’t the case, for whatever reason. It’s neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It just is. Most folks in my generation have heavy nostalgia for the 80s at the oldest and just don’t really concern themselves with very much from before that. It’s not that they don’t have an appreciation, but they don’t have the resulting fangirl crush I have on David McCallum that I will commiserate with my mother about (Illya Kuryakin is an adorable badass and I will die on that hill).

I like to think that this has given me a bit of a unique view on fandom, in general. I participate in some older fandoms, where things move a bit more slowly and where the average age is usually at least one generation removed from me and therefore a bit wiser in a lot of ways. They’ve just sort of... already covered this ground, so to speak.

The difference is the pace at which they did it. But the cycle is the same.

It’s never anything that starts maliciously. No fan I know of has ever set out to point-blank keep someone else from liking the thing. Rather it starts with a sense of seniority. “You like this thing, now, too? Great! I was there for the beginning and let me tell you, back then...” It’s always like a fandom big sibling who wants to show their younger counterpart the ropes; get them proper caught-up and versed in the lore so that they can better participate.

I love fandom when it’s at this stage and it’s the type of fan I strive to be at all times. I don’t like setting conditions for fandom. I think it’s partly because I am such a late-comer to so many. The idea of being a fan of something that was made 30 years or more before you were born is a hell of a thing, but I’ve never let that stop me. And for the most part, these fandoms that are much older than I am have reached the point where they are welcoming and just sort of stuck in the big sibling stage. Sure, you have the occasional troll, the guy that scoffs that I can’t understand because I wasn’t there at the very beginning. But they’re usually slapped to the ground pretty quickly by everyone else.

There is the occasional exception, of course. But one of the things those such fandoms have in common is that there is still new content being made for it. Doctor Who is a prime example, as is Star Trek, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings (yes, I do count the upcoming Amazon series and other non-book content as new content, deal with it). There’s something about new content being made for a fandom that causes an odd anxiety that thing that the fandom loves is going to be somehow ruined.

I’m going to use Doctor Who as an example for a lot of this. The show turned 56 years old this last November. 56 years! And the fact that it had a couple of decade-long breaks in there, which were themselves only separated by a single two-hour movie, only serve to highlight the changes it went through.

My second-oldest memory is of Doctor Who. I remember the regeneration from Tom Baker to Peter Davison. Now, Whovian historians, before you freak out because that change-over happened in 1981, before I was even born, remember that back then the US got episodes around two and three years later than the BBC, in syndication on public television channels. So for me, that change happened when I was two. I remember there being some Big Thing (tm) that my dad was anticipating. I remember the burgundy and red outfit that Tom Baker was wearing while laying stricken on the ground, surrounded by his companions. And I remember him suddenly turning into a blond and sitting up, wide-eyed and mystified. I didn’t understand any of it at the time, of course. And so I also remember turning to my dad, who was watching with excitement, while the credits were rolling and asking why the man turned into another man. Oddly, that’s where the memory ends. I don’t remember the response. In fact, it’s only having since seen that episode as an adult that I have been able to identify it for what it was.

After that, I don’t have much in the way of Doctor Who related memories until the Paul McGann movie in 1996. I was 14 and not well-steeped in Whovian lore at the time and I thought it was great. My dad was more luke-warm to it because it just wasn’t the same as what he grew up with. It was a sentiment shared by many, unfortunately, which meant that Paul McGann’s wonderful take on the Doctor was relegated purely to audio adventures until the 50th anniversary in 2013. Sadly, in the early days of the internet, those of us who liked it weren’t quite able to find each other yet. In the days of Usenet and mailing lists, it was still only the most hardcore fans of a thing who got together to geek out. Meaning that most of the conversation was “oh, that’s all wrong.” Lurking in those conversations, I saw pretty much every tremulous young person who dared to say that they liked it get slapped to the ground and told they weren’t a fan of “the real thing.”

Gate-keeping. It’s nothing new. And in 1996 Doctor Who fandom ran smack into its pad-locked closed barrier. Around that same time other old but still active fandoms were starting to manifest the same thing on the internet. It was when Trekkies suddenly separated into Trekkies (who had seen the original as it aired) and Trekkers (who came long later), for reasons I have never understood.

No, that’s not true. I understand it. Us humans tend to get possessive about our stories. We have a sort of emotional ownership to them, even if not a legal one. And when you feel an ownership of something, there is an instinct to protect it, keep it pure. And to do that, it’s natural to try to set oneself up as an authority on the subject.

It took another decade for Doctor Who to come off the shelf again, in 2005. I was 24 by then, the age that marketers tend to target. A friend got his hands on a digi-copy of Christopher Eccleston’s first episode, “Rose,” that had been leaked to the internet in its entirety about a week before it actually aired. We watched it before our D&D group met and I was instantly hooked. And the friend that was responsible for the new addiction was only too happy to have new fandom friends.

The pendulum had swung. Gate-keeping was out and welcoming people to the fandom was the MO. Of course, there were and still are to this day old school Whovians who deny that anything past Sylvester McCoy exists, calling the 1996 movie and the current series a different show entirely. There will always be those people. But for the most part, Whovians welcomed new fans with open arms throughout all of Eccleston’s and David Tennant’s runs.

Now, that one cycle, from welcoming to gate-keeping, and back to welcoming, took 42 years. Most things don’t last anywhere close to that long. A show might be on for five years or a movie and its sequels be around for ten and after that, for the most part, it’s done. And in the pre-internet age of fandom, the pendulum swung slowly enough never to hit a repeat in the cycle.

The internet has sped up everything about fandom. The airing of just about any show in any country might as well be a world-wide premiere these days because it all just travels that quickly. It has to if it wants to maintain any sort of surprise in its story lines, otherwise internet chatter will spoil it. These days, things move so fast that even the few hours between an episode of Doctor Who airing in the UK and in the US is enough that one can be subjected to spoilers. And the swing of the fandom pendulum has sped up accordingly.

For Doctor Who, it started swinging back again when David Tennant left the show and Matt Smith took over. Tennant’s Doctor had a lot of fans who desperately didn’t want “their Doctor” to leave, many of whom took to the internet, swearing off the show. They said it would never be as good because David Tennant was just the best Doctor ever. By then, there were a number of us Millennial Whovians who had dug into the lore and were comfortable with the concept of regeneration as a part of it. After all, it had already happened nine times. And there was a bit of a tendency to call those people who swore off Matt Smith’s episodes as being fans not of Doctor Who but of David Tennant. Meanwhile, of course, old school Whovians were patting us all on the head going “aren’t you cute. Now you understand why Tom Baker leaving was such a thing.”

And so, the pendulum started to swing back. You started having people call other people “not really fans of Doctor Who.” That only got worse when Peter Capaldi took over and there was a significant portion of the fandom upset that the Doctor was now an older guy instead of the 30-something Doctors we had grown accustomed to.

Gate-keeping reared its ugly head for most of Capaldi’s run and, sadly, I think that kept a lot of people from the fandom and from really appreciating the 12th Doctor. That cycle has started to swing back with Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor, but the gate-keeping is in a stage where it is desperate to hold on to what Doctor Who was when they became fans and therefore is very toxic right now. It’s not pretty. But those asshats are starting to be slapped to the ground on social media thanks to a new influx of fans who are now once again more comfortable with the idea of regeneration and its possibilities.

Similar swings are happening with many other fandoms. The Star Wars fandom is a really ugly place right now, quite frankly. Star Trek seems to be on the welcoming end. There are always the exceptions to every generalization, of course. There will always be “that guy” in fandom.

This swing has always existed. Millennials are just the first generation for whom it has swung multiple times in the life of the show. The internet is probably the biggest contributing factor to that. What that means is that we’re the first generation to really have the chance to see the pattern for what it is. A few of us have even been able to extrapolate back and understand that, no, this is how it always has been, just slower.

The hopeful part of that is this; by virtue of being the first to recognize the pattern, we are the first ones with the opportunity to learn from that history. And now we’re starting to see fandoms that actively abhor gate-keeping and just want more people to come in and play. But those tend to be very young fandoms.

The one that comes to mind for me is Critical Role. This is a fandom that was wholly born on the internet, as the series is streamed live on Twitch. It’s really unlike anything that has ever had a fandom this size before. It’s only been around for four years or so. But the cast is on its second D&D campaign which means it’s already had the opportunity to have the elitism gate that could be closed. But something different seems to have happened. The very moment that people started saying “I’m a real fan because I watched the Vox Machina campaign, not just the Mighty Nein,” they were told to shut the hell up and let people like things. A foot was stuck into the gate and wrenched it back open before it could close. And you know what? The fandom has absolutely exploded in the last two years. And I have yet to run into a single instance of someone gate-keeping for it that didn’t get an overwhelming and harsh rebuttal from the folks who welcome people to the fandom.

Sadly, the Critical Role fandom is distinct from the Dungeons & Dragons fandom on this point. But therein lies the difference. D&D is over 45 years old, ten times and more the age of Critical Role. And the “satanic panic” over it in the 80s made a lot of D&D players very protective of the hobby, only amplifying that. The age of your average Critter is only mid-to-late 20s or so. At 37, I’m a little bit of an outlier, I have found. The Critter fandom is big on TikTok which I... don’t grock, frankly, because I’m turning into an old fart. But I’ve never, ever, been made to feel unwelcome because of that difference. It’s been a refreshing experience, frankly.

In contrast, I really feel like I’m only now starting to be considered a “true Whovian” by the old school Whovians. It took me 15 years and required me getting hooked on the classic stuff (which I was all too happy to do). People who have never seen any of the classic stuff and don’t care to are often still looked down upon. That needs to change.

The Critical Role fandom is still young and all of this may prove to be overly-optimistic in the end. But I think it has the opportunity to be the first big fandom not to go through the gate-keeping cycle. I sincerely hope we can hold on to that. The cast and crew are a big part of that, with how they always hammer on the idea of inclusivity and engage so directly with the fandom. “Don’t forget to love each other” is Matt Mercer’s sign-off at the end of every episode and serves as a constant reminder. And if more casts and crews of more fandoms do that sort of engaging in the future, it will help break the cycle of fandom gate-keeping all the more thoroughly. This is a fact that production companies are starting to awaken to as Millennials, comfortable with social media, age into positions of authority.

So, welcome people in, gate-keep, almost cause the whole thing to collapse, repeat. That’s the cycle that fandom has engaged in for three generations and more. But I think we’re on the cusp of breaking that cycle, for the most part. The idea that you can be a fan of something without knowing absolutely everything about it has been gaining very visible traction in the last five years or so and it is wonderful to see.

Now, please, people. Don’t prove me wrong.

#fandom #Doctor Who #Critical Role #social observations #gatekeeping #toxic fandom

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tocinephile · 5 years ago

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The Morning After - The Year the Oscars Got it (mostly) Right Edition

The 92nd Academy Awards kicked off looking an awful lot like the Grammy’s with a splashy musical performance by Janelle Monae and Billy Porter, the first of a night’s performances/presenters/commentary designed to include all the groups it seemingly excluded in it’s nominees list. Meant to poke fun at themselves or a gesture delivered a little too overt and a little too late? Either way, I think in the end, the artistry of the South Korean-made foreign language film that swept the night’s awards won one back for every group that was overlooked.

Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite took home awards for Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature, Best Director, and Best Picture, making it the first South Korean film to win in all these categories. To do it all in a single evening is astounding.

Here’s a look at all the winners of the night:

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Best Picture:

“Ford v Ferrari” — Walt Disney “The Irishman” — Netflix “Jojo Rabbit” — Fox Searchlight “Joker” — Warner Bros. “Little Women” — Sony Pictures Releasing “Marriage Story” — Netflix “1917” — Universal/Amblin Partners “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” — Sony Pictures Releasing “Parasite” — Neon (WINNER)

Most deserving win of the night!!! Of course many of us hoped Parasite could be the underdog to win it all, but a more realistic prediction to win would be 1917. Thrilled to be wrong on this one.

Also, while I liked 1917 (more for its execution than story), even if Parasite had not been in the mix, I would have been rooting for The Irishman to win.

Lead Actress:

Cynthia Erivo, “Harriet” Scarlett Johansson, “Marriage Story” Saoirse Ronan, “Little Women” Charlize Theron, “Bombshell” Renée Zellweger, “Judy” (WINNER)

I am also in full agreement with this category and with Renee sweeping this category this awards season as well.

I have not seen Harriet, but if Renee hadn’t been in the race, Charlize would have been the best of the bunch.

Lead Actor:

Antonio Banderas, “Pain and Glory” Leonardo DiCaprio, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” Adam Driver, “Marriage Story” Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker” — (WINNER) Jonathan Pryce, “The Two Popes”

Again, no question this was the right winner. If only every win didn’t mean we’d have to roll the dice to see what kind of acceptance speech we’d have to endure... While I didn’t appreciate being chastised for adding milk to my coffee, Joaquin closed out his remarks by quoting his late brother River and I thought that was beautiful.

Director:

Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman” Todd Phillips, “Joker” Sam Mendes, “1917” Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” Bong Joon Ho, “Parasite” — (WINNER)

Another category that I thought the Academy would give to Sam Mendes, but nonetheless put my bets on Bong Joon-ho. Some big competition in this category (except Phillips... sorry, I’m not saying he’s bad, but he has yet to prove to me he’s a contender).

Original Song:

“I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away,” “Toy Story 4” “I’m Gonna Love Me Again,” “Rocketman” — (WINNER) “I’m Standing With You,” “Breakthrough” “Into the Unknown,” “Frozen 2” “Stand Up,” “Harriet”

Talk about a year of forgettable film songs. I think I left the room for every one of these performances except Elton’s. Did I miss anything?

Original Score:

“Joker,” Hildur Guðnadóttir — (WINNER) “Little Women,” Alexandre Desplat “Marriage Story,” Randy Newman “1917,” Thomas Newman “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” John Williams

As part of the montage for this category, the orchestra accompanies with each film’s original score. This segment, as they proudly pointed out, was being conducted a female for the first time in Oscar history (I’d like to shallowly add that she was also wearing the most amazing gold jacket to do it!). Now I don’t know if she also arranged it or whether she was just conducting, but I have to say, I don’t think the arrangement did the scores any justice whatsoever.

Luckily they were not being judged on this particular performance, and Hildur Guonadottir once again took home the accolade for Joker. I agree with this win. Little Women and 1917 also had impressive scores. Marriage Story didn’t particularly catch my attention, and while Star Wars’ themes will always be among my all time favourites, The Rise of Skywalker wasn’t particularly outstanding out of the saga.

Best International Feature Film:

“Corpus Christi,” Jan Komasa “Honeyland,” Tamara Kotevska, Ljubo Stefanov “Les Miserables,” Ladj Ly “Pain and Glory,” Pedro Almodóvar “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho — (WINNER)

If anyone else had won we would have rioted right?

Makeup and Hair:

“Bombshell” — (WINNER) “Joker” “Judy” “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” “1917”

Got this prediction correct, while not the most obvious frontrunner perhaps, a lot of subtle effort was put in to transform cast into their characters.

Visual Effects:

“Avengers: Endgame” “The Irishman” “The Lion King” “1917” — (WINNER) “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”

It’s naive of me, but seeing 1917 win for Visual Effects almost takes away from my appreciation of the film in some ways because in my head, I’d still like to think of all films outside of fantasy and sci-fi as largely real. I know it’s not the case and that even your average period drama is created largely with effects these days, it can’t help but ruin the magic a little.

Also I had guessed Avengers: Endgame would win.

And we all think that The Irishman is on this list for de-aging technologies alone right?

Film Editing:

“Ford v Ferrari,” Michael McCusker, Andrew Buckland — (WINNER) “The Irishman,” Thelma Schoonmaker “Jojo Rabbit,” Tom Eagles “Joker,” Jeff Groth “Parasite,” Jinmo Yang

This entire list is on par with each other I think, with Ford v Ferrari just edging out the rest. Also the editing is what made the film so dynamic, there was little room for a bad cut, whereas the others might have little bit more room to err.

Many might disagree but I think Little Women should have been considered in this category. The film’s editing choices was one of its main criticisms, but I think it actually made the film much more dynamic and differentiated it from previous adaptations. (If only they’d used a bit more of The Irishman’s aging/de-aging effects)

Cinematography:

“The Irishman,” Rodrigo Prieto “Joker,” Lawrence Sher “The Lighthouse,” Jarin Blaschke “1917,” Roger Deakins — (WINNER) “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Robert Richardson

Agree! Cool camera work in 1917 for sure.

Sound Mixing:

“Ad Astra” “Ford v Ferrari” “Joker” “1917” — (WINNER) “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

Um ok, if you’re going to split the sound categories between two films. I would’ve said Ford v Ferrari for both.

Sound Editing:

“Ford v Ferrari,” Don Sylvester — (WINNER) “Joker,” Alan Robert Murray “1917,” Oliver Tarney, Rachel Tate “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Wylie Stateman “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” Matthew Wood, David Acord

Agree. Hopefully everyone who wanted to see this film caught it in theatres, the sound was a huge contributing factor to the enjoyment of this film.

Supporting Actress:

Kathy Bates, “Richard Jewell” Laura Dern, “Marriage Story” — (WINNER) Scarlett Johansson, “Jojo Rabbit” Florence Pugh, “Little Women” Margot Robbie, “Bombshell”

Little surprise when Laura Dern swept this category, even though I maintain she wasn’t better than the rest. That said, I’m not sure who I would pick in her place, I say share the love between Laura Dern, Scarlett Johansson, and Florence Pugh (yes, I just said Amy March should get an oscar... I see the irony of this too)

Best Documentary Short Subject:

“In the Absence,” Yi Seung-Jun and Gary Byung-Seok Kam “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone,” Carol Dysinger — (WINNER) “Life Overtakes Me,” Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas “St. Louis Superman,” Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan “Walk Run Cha-Cha,” Laura Nix

I didn’t see any of the shorts this year, my bad. The winner sounds hella interestering!

Best Documentary Feature:

“American Factory,” Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar — (WINNER) “The Cave,” Feras Fayyad “The Edge of Democracy,” Petra Costa “For Sama,” Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts “Honeyland,” Tamara Kotevska, Ljubo Stefanov

I only saw American Factory and The Cave and I actually liked The Cave better. That said I felt strongly that American Factory had the edge, for starters it was backed by the Obamas’ production company. I didn’t love American Factory but I do feel it’s a timely piece that shows two sides of the story, inevitable prejudices based on what we’ve become conditioned to physically, mentally, socially, and also how important it is that we try to overcome or build a bridge to find solutions for the greater good.

Costume Design:

”The Irishman,” Sandy Powell, Christopher Peterson “Jojo Rabbit,” Mayes C. Rubeo “Joker,” Mark Bridges “Little Women,” Jacqueline Durran — (WINNER) “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Arianne Phillips

For a historical drama, I really didn’t find the costumes of Little Women to be that spectacular (I’m having visions of The Age of Innocence when you say Best Costume), though a part of me knows the period films win more often than not. While I think Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is strong contender, Jojo Rabbit should have won.

Production Design:

“The Irishman,” Bob Shaw and Regina Graves “Jojo Rabbit,” Ra Vincent and Nora Sopkova “1917,” Dennis Gassner and Lee Sandales “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Barbara Ling & Nancy Haigh (WINNER) “Parasite,” Lee Ha-Jun and Cho Won Woo, Han Ga Ram and Cho Hee

Yes! Once Upon a Time was a bit overrated (sorry Quentin) but this was one category where it really deserved to win, from the western sets, film studio lots, to the wardrobe and streets of the 60′s, lots of fun and spirit captured in the production design.

Best Live Action Short Film:

“Brotherhood,” Meryam Joobeur “Nefta Football Club,” Yves Piat “The Neighbors’ Window,” Marshall Curry — (WINNER) “Saria,” Bryan Buckley “A Sister,” Delphine Girard

Adapted Screenplay:

“The Irishman,” Steven Zaillian “Jojo Rabbit,” Taika Waititi — (WINNER) “Joker,” Todd Phillips, Scott Silver “Little Women,” Greta Gerwig “The Two Popes,” Anthony McCarten

I love that Taika Waititi is an Oscar winner. Also shouts to Greta Gerwig for making Little Women almost tolerable in her script! The Two Popes could not have been an easy adaptation either. Now can a comic book expert please tell me, how much of Joker is really from existing stories in comics, and how much was filled in by the writers? I understand why it was an adapted screenplay, but I feel like material like this almost completely open to interpretation and could easily be written anew as an original screenplay.

Original Screenplay:

“Knives Out,” Rian Johnson “Marriage Story,” Noah Baumbach “1917,” Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Quentin Tarantino “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho, Jin Won Han — (WINNER)

Just for fun, my ranking of the original screenplay nominees from best to alright:

1) Parasite, 2) Knives Out, 3) Marriage Story, 4) 1917, 5) Once Upon a Time

Animated Short:

“Dcera,” Daria Kashcheeva “Hair Love,” Matthew A. Cherry — (WINNER) “Kitbull,” Rosana Sullivan “Memorable,” Bruno Collet “Sister,” Siqi Song

I keep hearing great things about this short!

Animated Feature:

“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” Dean DeBlois “I Lost My Body,” Jeremy Clapin “Klaus,” Sergio Pablos “Missing Link,” Chris Butler “Toy Story 4,” Josh Cooley — (WINNER)

I clearly didn’t watch any animated films this year because I didn’t even know there were new How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story films released.

Supporting Actor:

Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” Anthony Hopkins, “The Two Popes” Al Pacino, “The Irishman” Joe Pesci, “The Irishman” Brad Pitt, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” — (WINNER)

Overall, if Brad Pitt sweeping this category means I get to hear at least one great speech per awards, then I’m ok with this. My personal ranking:

1) Al Pacino, 2) Joe Pesci, 3) Tom Hanks, 4) Brad Pitt, 5) Anthony Hopkins. I had to debate over Pacino and Pesci’s performances, I feel like this is one of the best problems in the world.

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Prior to the start of the show, I made a mess of notes about who I thought would win, who I thought should win, and shared my Oscar Pool Picks which were based on a mix of the two... My Oscar pool are an extremely knowledgeable bunch, and with 18/24, it only put me in a 3-way tie for third place (there were also three winners who split the winnings), I need to move back to the baby leagues!

If you were following my Twitter (or care to check in hindsight...@palindr0me) I also shared a little additional commentary and photos of some of my favourite dresses of the evening.

My personal top 3 moments during the Awards Ceremony were:

1) Every time Parasite won an award - Give this man all the statues he wants! lol

2) Billie Eilish’s rendition of Yesterday (I wish this was an actual recorded track so I could play it over and over)

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3) When Eminem took the stage at the end of a montage to perform “Lose Yourself” and my phone exploded with all these messages of “ Whaaat is happening???” LOL! Believe me friends, I was as confused as you were.

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Aaand, that’s a wrap on awards season! Looking forward to a new year and new decade in film!

#oscars #oscars2020

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bunnywand · 5 years ago

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doctor who is such a weird show bcos, and obvs this is bcos it’s been going for so long and also bcos there aren’t many (if any??) shows that change the lead actor like it does, i can’t think of another show that has such a generational divide?? 😮

like, my dad grew up watching jon pertwee and tom baker in it, so they’re his favs, and he’d kinda grown out of it when peter davison and colin baker were in it so he doesn’t rly rate them as much (and i don’t think he watched sylvester mccoy at all??)

but then david tennant grew up watching peter davison in it, so he’s said he’s his fav!!

and then i grew up watching christopher eccleston and david tennant, so they’re my favs, but there’s probs ppl younger than me who watched matt smith or peter capaldi as their first doctor and prefer them!! and it’s rly weird thinking abt how 2 younger ppl, christopher eccleston and david tennant are the “old doctors” 😧

also it’s so cute thinking how there’s kids now who saw jodie whittaker as their first doctor and she’s their fav!! 😭💕

#dw.txt

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timeagainreviews · 5 years ago

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Fury from the Deepfake

Earlier this year, Doctor Who fans were treated to some rather exciting, yet strange news. Students at the University of Central Lancashire had started a film project re-creating the lost First Doctor episode "Mission to the Unknown." I say "First Doctor," lightly, as it's the only televised story of Doctor Who to never feature the Doctor. Because of this, and it being only a single episode, it seems an obvious candidate for re-creation. Not to badmouth any of the actors involved in the episode, but none of them are irreplaceable. Even without Nicolas Briggs giving the project some weight, no sacred cows would be in jeopardy. Nobody has to fill the shoes of William Hartnell or his two lovely companions.

When I covered the new animated version of "The Macra Terror," I discussed the importance of re-creations. While a small portion of the fandom dislikes the practice, most fans agree that they're a good thing. The re-creation has taken on many different forms throughout the years. Classic Comics compiled the tele-snaps of lost episodes with captions allowing readers to follow the story. The Target novelisation is a sort of re-creation. For some, they act as the only way to experience lost episodes. There are the unofficial reconstructions from videographers like Loose Cannon. YouTuber Josh Snares has been working on some rather promising reconstructions of his own as well. Many of the narrated TV soundtracks have recently been pressed to vinyl. While it seems as though BBC is really pushing their animations, are those the final form of the reconstruction?

If you'd have asked me before the UCLAN students' project, I may have said yes. Now, I'm not so sure. The BBC seems to have sanctioned the project. Doctor Who actors Peter Purves and Edward de Souza even showed up on set to give their blessing. There's not a lot known as to exactly what sort of release the project will receive. Perhaps the BBC will release it on the Doctor Who YouTube channel. Or maybe it will be a blu-ray extra in the near future. But which blu-ray? An animation of "The Dalek's Masterplan," perhaps? Regardless, I believe it opens the door for an entirely new kind of re-creation. Enter deepfake.

For those of you not in the know, deepfake is a somewhat new form of cgi that uses facial recognition software to swap out a person's face for another, to varying degrees of success. You may remember it from the uncanny video of Jennifer Lawrence with Steve Buscemi's face. While many people fear deepfake's impact on identity theft and national security, there's also an undeniable artistic implication. Facial swap technology has been around for years in various forms. As a concept, it cropped up in places like the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "The Running Man." In 1994's "The Crow," Brandon Lee's face was swapped in after his tragic on-set death. With deepfake technology becoming more and more refined, it's also becoming cheaper and cheaper. Which is the point I'm here to make to the BBC- it doesn't cost much!

If you follow my logic, I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. What if we employed the methods of both the animations and the student film? What if the only thing an actor has to do is actually fill William Hartnell's shoes? Nobody has to recite his dialogue, they only need to be his body double. Deepfake can then follow the faces of actors mouthing the lines to the original soundtracks. With the same faithfulness to set design and filming that the students of UCLAN gave us, these episodes could see the light of day once more. Mind you, the sets would cost something, but weighed against the cost of animation, probably fairly comparable when you consider the budget of classic Who.

Let's face it, nothing will ever be as satisfying as the originals, but that's part of the fun of re-creating classic Doctor Who. It's a chance to be creative with the source material. But what about modern Doctor Who? How could deepfake impact the current series? There's no more obvious example than the 50th Anniversary special. While "The Day of the Doctor," was a critical success and loved by many (myself included) there is a glaring omission of the surviving Doctors. As I said in my article about older companions, the War Doctor was used as a sort of filler classic Doctor. Ironically, one of the show's biggest setbacks is time.

When they wheeled out DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, and William Shatner for six Star Trek films, there were no issues. But if you want to make a Voyager or Next Gen movie several years later, you have to explain why a hologram or an android got fat and old. Sure, Data could have upgraded with old age to feel more human, but we all know it's a dumb idea. While the Doctor is not an android or a hologram, they all regenerate. If Six regenerates with curly blonde hair (and Sylvester McCoy's face) then you can't see him with Colin Baker's wispy white hair. Though poor Peter Davison's weight and hair loss were explained by "time differentials" in "Time Crash."

In typical Doctor Who fashion, this multiple Doctor episode came with a caveat. Someone is always missing. It's funny then that the very technology I'm suggesting was used in the advert for "The Day of the Doctor." In a rather impressive sequence, we see several Doctors' faces on body doubles. We even get the closing shot of the episode where Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor joins his past incarnations to stand on a cloud. Sadly, the body doubles stood so still, I originally thought they were mannequins. (Gasp! Autons!)

It's inspiring to think that by 2023, Doctor Who will be celebrating 60 years in time and space. By then, it's entirely plausible that deepfake technology could get to a point where an episode like "The Fourteen Doctors," could happen. If we can replace William Hartnell with Richard Hurndall and David Bradley, or Matt Smith with Jacob Dudman, we can certainly replace Jon Pertwee with his son while a deepfake Second Doctor runs around with Fraiser Hines doing the lines. Doctor Who is a show that lends itself to these kinds of innovations. The very essence of this concept was instilled with the inspired concept of regeneration, or "renewal," as they called it back then.

I'll admit it, deepfake still looks pretty ropey, but so did most of the CGI in the Ninth Doctor's run. There are so many reasons why something like deepfake is perfect for Doctor Who. It's a chance outside of the comic books to see Jodie Whittaker running alongside Tom Baker and K9! We can create lost episodes. We can update missing scenes. There are multiple precedents within the show to look into the technology. We can finally do one better than ghoulishly sticking the Brigadier into a Cyberman suit. And if nothing else, we could finally get Christopher Eccleston back, sort of.

Well friends, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this quick little article. It's something to think on if nothing else. On a personal note, we finally finished building K-9! (Pics below) We're very proud of our accomplishment. The one we built is my friend Gerry's to keep at his house. We will be building a second K9 for me, however, so expect to see pics of K9 Mk II very soon! I may post a video as he does talk, but for now, enjoy these pictures!

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witchofthemidlands · 7 months ago

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witchofthemidlands thoughts on “space babies”

me & my mum stayed up together to watch this when it dropped on the iplayer, it was a great experience & i think i've finally gathered myself enough to unleash ✨thoughts✨

✨ this is my personal opinion, media is subjective you might not agree with my opinions & that's just fine✨

the unexpected return of the “this is gallifrey” score near took me out. noises were made.

i kinda like the doctor info dumping about themselves, i know it's there for the ✨dramatics✨ but i always wish that the doctor would just straight up tell their companion about the fact that they can regenerate way before the event so they're aware & can prepare. thirteen is the only one of the new who doctors who have prepared their companions in advance.

i want fifteen's coat, his necklace & ruby's rings 😩

i still think the stepping on the butterfly segment, whilst it's there for a laugh, is connected to the myths coming to life because of the salt at the edge of the universe incident.

i love how the tardis is being a public menace & causing genuine damage as it lands 😂

the babies in the tanks reminded me of this one strange game me & my friend at uni used to play & he wanted a nightlight of. fifteen has so much energy & life, he's fantastic 🥹 absolutely fantastic. god i love him i love ncuti so much, we’ve had the back half of “the giggle”, “the church on ruby road” & less than ten minutes of “space babies” & ALREADY ncuti gatwa is up there with christopher, david & sylvester for me as the best doctors of all time.

THE END OF THE WORLD CALLBACKS 😭 it's brand new but the elements of that beautiful episode is still there for me & that makes me so happy because that’s one of my favourite whoniverse episodes of all time 🥹 in my top ten 🥹

i was not expecting to be crying over cgi talking babies in the early hours of morning but there you go 😭

it is definitely just a coincidence that the baby is called eric but every time i heard that name i kept thinking of my favourite ncuti gatwa character ✨eric effiong✨

CAPTAIN POPPY 😩🥹😭🥹😩 i wanted to hug her too & all of them. i'm admittedly not the most maternal person on the planet but i wanted to gather them all up & protect them with my life 😭

i completely respect it & i love that rtd has ignored the naysayers & is honouring chibnall's creations but i have never been a fan of the timeless child plot, i've tried i really have but i just still can't get my head around it & it just doesn't work for me but using it to make the point that everyone is unique & individual & that’s a good thing is a really lovely way of making it work, i love that message.

“no one like me exists & that’s true of everyone” not only is this really positive moment but it also reminds me of the conversation between eleven & merry in the rings of akhaten.

THAT'S NOT A DOGGO 😂 this sent me 😂

eric saying “i love you ruby” twice in the episode was such a mood, i love you ruby 🥰

“if things connect then you are connecting like crazy” it's giving the lead up to the doctordonna & i'm on ✨the fence✨

ALIEN RUBY?!? maybe one of the doctor's species or something we haven't come across before?

“ERIC INVOKING THE DEITY”

IM GOING TO FIND THE NAUGHTY DOGGO & TELL HIM OFF! 🥺

i genuinely thought we were getting an eaten baby in the first episode of the season & i were like 😬

CAPTAIN POPPY & THE SQUAD TO THE RESCUE WITH THE FLAME THROWER 🔥

love the return of characters getting slimed <3 it was one of my favourite new who era doctor who & the sarah jane adventures tropes.

i really wasn’t expecting the “sleep no more” style revelation when it came to the creature.

the alien vibes are real, nan-e | jocelyn is blowing it out of the goddam airlock.

i am going to ignore the fact that i'm getting doomsday vibes from the doctor trying to save snotè

ruby comforting jocelyn 🥺 it reminded me so much of the care rose, martha & donna would show anyone who needed comfort. i have really missed rtd companions.

i am not going to think about the howl sounding like the werewolf. i am ignoring it i will not be crackers about this one. it's just a creature noise.

they're being jet propelled to the planet by the power of shizzle i love this show 😂 & to any naysayer who thinks this is too ridiculous (i am looking directly at my father as i type this because he's been the biggest naysayer of doctor who in my real life) this the same writer who had the doctor say the line “do you mind not farting whilst i'm saving the world”

the doctor probably getting war flashbacks to father's day as ruby ran into that tardis. i love the growth, they’ve definitely learnt their lesson with that one, i love his honesty & how upfront they are straight off the bat. it's good for the both of them. the doctor won't become reaper chow & ruby won't make a mistake that has emotionally devastating effects on the universe & herself.

i have said this before & i will say it again, i love that with the return of rtd that we have the return of his theme of chosen family, that adoption & fostering is a lovely option, it can give hope, love & more & be fulfilling, fantastic & beautiful. ruby's relationship with her mum is so lovely to watch & i hope even if we do find where ruby came from that carla will always, always ALWAYS be her mum & with rtd's track record with the sarah jane adventures, i think that will be the case.

CHERRY SUNDAY 😊 as someone who used to care for an elderly relative, i love every single thing about her character & the family dynamics with her, i have never seen elderly care represented on any tv show i love before & it's happening on my favourite one 🥹

why is carla acting like my mum 😭 never mind a bloomin’ big spaceship just landed - what’s it done to my kitchen

“tell your mum not to slap me” oh he is feeling the combined forces of jackie-francine-sylvia’s slaps & is NOT taking any chances.

oh god i think i've seen this before & i didn't like the ending. i am getting the ganger plotline from the doctor suddenly going solemn & scanning ruby oh no 😭

FANTASTIC START TO THE NEW SERIES 🤩

#fifteenth doctor #ruby sunday #carla sunday #cherry sunday #space babies #new new who #doctor who #whoniverse #kat’s thoughts 🍄#dw spoilers #dw thoughts #dw criticism #just in case i dont want to offend any fans of the timeless child arc

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tartantardis · 5 years ago

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The tenth* TARDIS Tennant

(* technically the eleventh, but we’ll let that go for the sake of alliteration... Anyway, this interview took place in Glasgow, when the Doctor Who team descended for a promotional drive for the 2006 series, eswith David Tennant, Billie Piper, Russell T Davies, Phil Collinson, Steven Moffat and others in attendance. Oh, and Billie’s then-boyfriend too. They premiered Tooth and Claw, a week before New Earth had been shown. This is an edited compilation of the highlights of what they said. As a result of this press conference, I stayed in touch with Russell, and he’s kind enough to give me quotes for Vortex now and again. Also, after I spoke to David Tennant, he was shocked to learn that Hamish Wilson, the other Jamie from The Mind Robber, was the same one who he had just missed out on as a lecturer at the RSAMD - as was - in Glasgow!)

When David Tennant became the Doctor in 2005, it fulfilled the young actor's dream.

The Scotsman, who was 33 at the time, had previously played guest roles in various Doctor Who audio plays from Big Finish Productions, opposite his predecessors Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy - and was over the moon to succeed Christopher Eccleston in the TARDIS.

When it came to casting a new Doctor, executive producer Russel T Davies looked to his leading man from another show which he had just made for the BBC, Casanova.

Russell said: "When I first saw the audition tape for Casanova, I didn't know who he was. I wasn't looking for a big star, and this was before Blackpool had been on, but I knew he was a well-known talent in Scotland.

"We saw him, we loved him and we cast him and enjoyed working with him.

"I also knew he was a big Doctor Who fan!

"Although Casanova was nothing to do with Doctor Who, as it was a separate production made by a separate company, when we learned Chris was leaving it all just fitted together very nicely. We didn't screentest him, having just done three hours of Casanova with David, and by that time I'd seen Blackpool."

And David recalled: "I remember being thrilled to bits when I got asked, and then thinking, 'Is this a good idea?' It didn't last long!"

However, there was controversy soon after David was cast, when it was revealed he wouldn't be using his natural accent.

Russell explained: "I didn't ban the accent - it was just part of the creation of David's Doctor. We talked about the costume, as, for example, we didn't say David would have to wear the suit. It was just a cast of human beings coming together and talking about things."

David said: "When Russell came to me, that was how he asked me to play it. I wouldn't say I was disappointed, it's just what I was asked to do. I've always that that part of working as an actor was to take on different accents.

"It doesn't make me any less Scottish because I'm not using my Scottish accent.

"It didn't bother me in particular, but it was a nice chance to do one episode where the Doctor came up with the idea of slipping into a Scottish accent which, remarkably, the Doctor can do!"

David's co-star Billie Piper added: "In the Christmas episode, the idea was that Rose's accent would have rubbed off on the Doctor, but we never actually got around to filming it."

David said: "It was like a chick imprinting on someone when it comes out of an egg."

Comparing the two Doctors, Billie said of David and Chris: "They are different people and bring different things. David's Doctor is a lot more emotional, while Chris's Doctor was more intense.

"Of course they are going to have a different approach, but they are playing the same part. A new person robs off on you very quickly, and you adjust - she moved with the times and the man."

David didn't get the chance to meet his predecessor at the regeneration, as it was shot weeks apart.

He said: "I didn't unfortunately, because of the way it had to be shot - we shot the regeneration on separate days. We haven't bumped into each other, unfortunately. I'm sure we will at some point."

David's third story as the Doctor, Tooth and Claw, saw the TARDIS land in Scotland, which delighted the actor.

He said: "It wasn't a specific ambition, but story-wise, it's nice if you move the characters around and take them to different places. Obviously with filming in Wales, Cardiff has had a shout.

"I was quite keen that Scotland should get a shout and it has certain personal ramifications as well. We filmed in Wales, but there's one shot where on the hillside, they've added a little bit of purple heather. But on the whole, it's remarkably similar with some of the landscape we have up here, so there wasn't a lot that needed doing."

Tooth and Claw was a dark story, featuring grisly deaths, but David denied that the series was too scary.

He said of Tooth and Claw: "I think it does push it quite far, but it's still, ultimately, very responsibly done. It's within a fantastic environment and I think children understand that too.

"I think that's part of growing up, being scared. That's what Doctor Who has done since 1963 and I'm glad to see it continuing to do so.

"A gore-fest would be ridiculous - there's no blood, and it was just fun.

"I think Doctor Who has had horror elements for as long as I can remember. It tours the genres - in the first one we were in a hospital five billion years in the future, then we we're in Scotland and it's gothic horror, the next week is a kind of Grange Hill - it's what Doctor Who does best - every week it's a new style of story."

David's first full series saw the Doctor and Rose growing closer than ever before, building on the friendship which was established with the Ninth Doctor.

"The Doctor and companion has always been very important," said David, "particularly in this series, but the way Russell writes it, it's always an emotional thing, which maybe the show hadn't had before. Rose's family ultimately became the Doctor's family.

"In episode eight, it looks like we're cut off from everything, forever, and we have a quiet moment to consider that idea of never returning home."

David admitted that putting himself in the spotlight as Doctor Who would mean his every action was analysed by the series' devoted fans, for years to come, as well as putting himself in the firing line for TV critics.

He said: "I don't think anybody ever likes being told they are not good at what you do. You invest a lot into what you do. You want everyone to tell you you are great all the time, but I'm wise enough to know what to expect.

"A show like this receives so much scrutiny and analysis, you are never going to please all the people, all the time."

A notoriously private man, David also found that his private life was subject to much speculation, with his romantic relationships regularly putting him in the gossip columns.

He added: "Nobody teaches you how to deal with that sort of stuff. You have to decide where the lines are drawn, and draw them yourself - and hope you leep your own personal integrity without pissing everyone off because you are being snooty about answering questions.

"You have to just try and keep yourself comfortable with what you are really about."

#DoctorWho #DavidTennant #BilliePiper #RussellTDavies #Glasgow #Scotland

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westworld-daily · 7 years ago

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Welcome to 'Westworld': Inside the HBO Drama's Season 2 Hollywood Premiere

The cast and crew of Westworld brought themselves back online Monday at the world premiere of the HBO drama's second season, with the red carpet rolled out at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.

"We're in a new loop," series co-creator Jonathan Nolan told The Hollywood Reporter, standing alongside his co-creator and wife Lisa Joy, both of whom were minutes away from delivering a speech in front of an auditorium filled with hundreds of their contemporaries and loved ones. "This loop looks a bit like the last loop. It's the same carpet ... the same shade of red."

The carpet was a soft red, a far cry from the blood-stained hues that coat season two of Westworld, launching April 22 on HBO. The premiere, titled "Journey Into Night," marks the first new episode of the genre-bending hit since it went off the air in December 2016 — almost a year and a half since Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) launched a revolution against her human oppressors.

"You're getting a much darker version of Dolores this year, that's for sure," Wood told THR about what's next for her human-slaying host. "Now she's well and familiar with all sides of herself: the Dolores that we love, the darker Wyatt version, and she's also building herself anew as we watch her throughout the season. We'll be seeing more and more of who she really is."

Fans are understandably eager to know not only Dolores' next move, but the greater narrative's next steps. Many of the actors count themselves among the fans awaiting the show's twists and turns, given how little the cast members know about the series as they're shooting it.

"I feel like there are three phases for someone who takes part in the show," said Ptolemy Slocum, who plays the selfish lab technician Sylvester. "You read it. Then you shoot it, and it's a totally different story. Then you watch it, and it's a totally different story. I'm about to embark on one of my favorite parts of being on the show: watching the show. It might sound like I'm bullshitting, but I'm not. It's fascinating. So much changes."

Indeed, much is changing as Westworld enters its second season, shattering the previous status quo in favor of a new narrative filled with expanding notions of consciousness, empowerment, oppression, war and what it means to be alive.

"For me, one of the fascinating things about season one is we were looking at hosts trying to understand the nature of their own reality as they come into power," co-creator Joy said. "By the finale of the season, Dolores has claimed some power for herself. Some agency. All of the hosts are moving toward agency. And the question now is: once you have power, what do you do with it?"

"Season one was very much about setting up the world and the characters in it, and the structures that we're working with," said Simon Quarterman, the actor who plays narcissistic narrative director Lee Sizemore. "This season, we're tearing down that structure. The container we created in season one is blown open. It's so much more expansive this season. It's an awful lot of fun."

Based on the 1973 Michael Crichton film of the same name, Westworld takes place in a far future where human "guests" visit a park populated by robot "hosts." Unlike the film, the TV series finds its roots in the perspectives of the hosts, originally presented as malfunctioning antagonists in Crichton's movie. Over the course of the first season, various hosts embarked on journeys of self-discovery, all thanks to the designs of park founder Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), who realized far too late in his life that his creations could be both physically and morally superior to humanity.

In engineering his own death at the hands of Dolores, and in unshackling the programming that prevented the hosts from harming the guests, Ford created a new status quo in which the hosts could not only rule Westworld and the surrounding parks (and yes, plural: beyond Westworld and the already teased Shogun World, the existence of at least four other parks has been confirmed by viral marketing for the show), but the wider world itself.

"There are awakenings happening," said Clifton Collins Jr., who plays Lawrence, the host who often acts as the Man in Black's gunslinging wing man. "How do you think Lawrence would react if he started developing a little bit of a conscience?"

Those are the kinds of questions the cast members loved chewing on over the course of filming season two, and certainly the same questions fans devour with insatiable appetites. Among the many reasons why Westworld captured imaginations with its first season, the fervent desire to solve the show's riddle-filled narrative stands close to the top. Reddit detectives and other sleuths all over the Internet spent weeks embedded in the theory trenches, in an attempt to figure out the biggest mysteries ahead of the show's reveals. Among the solved cases: the Man in Black's true identity as William (Jimmi Simpson), Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) secretly being one of the hosts, and Bernard also being based on the likeness of park co-founder Arnold Weber.

In the spirit of the online theory culture that's developed around the show, Nolan and Joy recently had some fun at their fanbase's expense, promising Reddit users a full-blown spoiler video if they received enough support from the community. With more than enough of the support they requested, the duo behind Westworld instead trolled the fandom with one of the Internet's greatest memes: the Rickroll.

"I've been a fan of the Reddit community from the beginning," says Nolan. "That community in particular rallied around the first season in a way like none other: dissecting and breaking apart the story, spending almost as much time thinking about it as we did while writing it. For us, it was a special thank you to that community, in a language perfectly tailored to them."

For the crowd gathered at the Cinerama Dome, there's no longer any need to theorize about what's ahead in the season two premiere, as the episode (clocking in at 70 minutes) unfurled in front of a packed audience. Before the screening, HBO programming president Casey Bloys introduced Nolan and Joy for some remarks about not only the world in which Westworld takes place, but the real world that inspires the show.

"Our show is about human nature — the dark side of human nature," said Nolan. "Our task was made vastly more difficult every day by the people we work with on our show. We were trying to hold onto [the darkness], and every day we had to work with the most talented, positive and generous collaborators — from the incredible writing-producers to the directors whose ambition never let up."

Saying it would be impossible to talk about "the professional without the personal," Joy concluded the opening remarks with a moving expression of appreciation for the human nature of the people who have brought Westworld online.

"We're a group of advocates, and we're a group of feminists, not just in the large and incredible sweeping gestures — the heroism of testifying before congress, the heroism of advocating for communities, and the heroism of battling injustice — but also in the small private gestures," she said in her opening remarks. "The ways we listen to each other. We enrich each other off of each other's experiences and perspectives. The way we are continually thriving, in art and in life, to do better and be better. We see examples of it every day on set. Jonah and I ourselves are beneficiaries of this kindness. Nothing in the world makes us prouder. Thank you for being collaborators who help us explore the dark themes of humanity while actively embodying and reaching the light. There are more stories to tell, more strides to be made, and we cannot wait to make them."

Following the speeches, and the premiere itself (which will remain unspoiled here, except for this innocent tidbit: there was at least one major laughing fit during the episode, thanks to a scene between Thandie Newton's Maeve and Simon Quarterman's Sizemore), attendees were invited out to the after party, held at NeueHouse Hollywood.

Bartenders and wait staff were outfitted in dark uniforms branded with the word "Delos," the same company that runs the show's parks. A DJ controlled the upbeat music from a balcony station high above the main floor, surrounded by robotic vultures and multicolored horses. Drone hosts lorded over several different corners of the space, and iconography from the series (including Arnold's maze) were studded throughout the party as well. Food items on display included sliders and endives with beet hummus, and reserved seating for members of the HBO family featured edible centerpieces, including olives, prosciutto-wrapped breadsticks, and more.

A litany of celebrities were spotted at the party, including Christopher Nolan and Liam Hemsworth, both of whom were supporting their respective brothers Jonah Nolan and Luke Hemsworth (who plays QA expert Ashley Stubbs). Also in attendance: Lea Thompson (Back to the Future), Bryan Fuller (Hannibal), James Tupper (Big Little Lies), David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer) and Silicon Valley stars Martin Starr and Thomas Middleditch.

But the most buzzed about star who came out in support of Westworld was none other than Katy Perry, who was photographed at the party and inside the theater alongside Shannon Woodward (who plays behaviorist Elsie Hughes, missing in action since the first season's sixth episode). As is the case with the award-winning music artist, fans will hear Westworld roar when it premieres its second season on April 22.

#westworld #articles #the hollywood reporter #season 2 #articles 2018 #s02

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twistedtummies2 · 3 years ago

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Two Weeks in the TARDIS - The Ninth Doctor

We’re now in the New Who Era! Today, we’ll be discussing My First Doctor: Christopher Eccleston, as the Ninth Doctor!

BACKGROUND

In 2005, after a few false starts and a near thirty year hiatus, Doctor Who was brought back on the air in what is referred to as the “New Who” era, in contrast to the “Classic” era. Depending on who you ask, that era either ended with Sylvester McCoy or Paul McGann; most fans, however, tend to agree that the first New Who Doctor was not McGann’s Eighth, but instead Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth. The Ninth Doctor’s tenure on the show was a short one: due to issues behind the scenes, Eccleston left the project after only one season, and to this day, any subsequent appearances his character has made have been few, scattered, and often begrudging. As a result - much like his fellow “short-timers,” Colin Baker and Paul McGann - he tends to get overlooked. I, however, have a HUGE soft spot for the Ninth Doctor: I won’t say where he ranks, exactly, but - MILD SPOILER ALERT - he’s actually in my Top 3 Favorite Doctors. Why? Well, in the words of a friend of mine, “You never forget your first Doctor.” I had heard of Doctor Who before the revival series, but I didn’t know much about it, and, for obvious reasons, I had never actually seen it. The first season of the revival series aired on the SyFy channel (which I think was still called “Sci-Fi” back then), and my parents decided to watch it. I watched it with them...and after that first season ended, it was actually a long time before I saw any Doctor Who ever again. I didn’t get a proper look at David Tennant and Matt Smith’s eras until COLLEGE. I saw scattered episodes of them during my time in High School, but I didn’t properly get back into the series until Smith’s time in the show was actually almost over. I don’t remember why this happened - maybe the show stopped airing, maybe my parents stopped watching it and I just didn’t take time to look it up in the ignorance of youth, I can’t really say for sure - but regardless, as a result of this, for a VERY long time, Eccleston simply WAS the Doctor to me. I think this is why I still love him so much, even though his time was short and his single season a bit hit and miss...but just what makes this Doctor who he is?

PERSONALITY

The revival series started by establishing a new continuity: sometime between the end of the 1996 TV film and the start of the New Who era, there was a Great Time War between the Gallifreyans and the Daleks. We’re not entirely sure what happened (at least, we weren’t when the 9th Doctor came around), but in order to end the War, the Doctor was apparently forced to destroy his own home planet. It was in the aftermath of this event that he regenerated. The guilt he feels, knowing he is the last of his kind, and knowing he is the reason why, haunts the Ninth Doctor throughout his tenure, and would continue to haunt subsequent Doctors after him for several years and several seasons. As a result, this Doctor once again is a sort of double-sided character: many people consider Nine to be the darkest and most humorless Doctor, but I actually completely disagree. The Ninth Doctor is INCREDIBLY funny; he’s wry, witty, and has a sort of manic intensity to him, flipping moods rapidly in a way so many early Doctors were wont to do. However, perhaps more than ever, the humor often feels like a facade: this time it’s not a weapon, but a defense mechanism. It’s his way of coping with bad situations. On that note, while this Doctor does gain Companions - and even falls in love with one of them - he’s not the easiest Doctor to become friends with: he’s not careless in the way Tom Baker is, but rather he seems to push people away. He’s scared of becoming attached; of hurting or disappointing people who get close to him. In short, I think it’s fair to say that Eccleston’s Doctor is a Doctor in depression: internally, he is tortured by the things he has seen and the things he has done, and the moments where that inner pain and inner darkness come storming out are intensely poignant as a result. He’s racked with self-loathing and, much like McGann, seems to be a Doctor trying to make up for the harm he has caused. Keep in mind, in his very first episode, we actually realize it hasn’t been that long since he’s Regenerated: now, however, he doesn’t just blunder into scenes. Starting with the first episode, and with several subsequent stories of his season (not all, but several) he doesn’t just stumble into danger. He’s not a wanderer anymore, he’s a fighter: a soldier without a cause, looking for some purpose in his life. And, within the span of his season, we see this Doctor overcome his depression, find a new cause to fight for, and realize that - for all his faults - he truly is “fantastic.”

COSTUME

The Ninth Doctor’s costume is probably the least eccentric of all. In fact, many fans would likely argue it’s one of the most boring costumes of the bunch. I wouldn’t call it “boring,” but I will say it’s one I can understand people not cosplaying in very often...even though it’s arguably the single easiest Doctor costume TO cosplay. XD Keep in mind, every Doctor’s costume reflects both the character and the decade(s) they’re in. The show was revived in the early 2000s, so the desire to create a Doctor who was more “hip” and “cool-looking” was a natural one to have. At the same time, in terms of personality, this Doctor is more moody and tormented, and he’s deliberately trying to distance himself from people and the world. This Doctor no longer wants to stand out in a crowd, he wants to fade into the background: he’s perfectly happy dying alone, at least at the start of the season, if it means he can do some good with it, or at least say he went out trying to offer help. The dark colors and modern dress - black leather jacket, jumpers of multiple shades, et al - and even his buzzcut hairstyle, as a result, may not necessarily be what most people think of when they think of the Doctor IN GENERAL, but I would argue they are PERFECT for THIS SPECIFIC Doctor. If he looked too eccentric or out of the ordinary, the effect would be lost, and audiences of the time probably wouldn’t have taken him seriously. And to this day, it’s hard for me to say I would have given him anything too different from the final look.

COMPANIONS

Despite a short tenure, the Ninth Doctor actually had a surprising number of companions: three, to be precise. The most prominent two were Rose Tyler and Captain Jack Harkness; the third was Mickey Smith, a.k.a. “Mickey the Idiot.” I never really cared for Mickey: the character got better as the New Who series progressed, but in this one season, I mostly found him pretty annoying. The other two, however...Rose remains one of the most iconic companions of all Doctor Who, and borrowed a lot from my favorite Companion, Ace. In some ways, much like Ace, the season was just as much about her as the Doctor: we actually meet Rose before we ever meet the Doctor, and she had a character arc that spanned throughout this season, running parallel to the Doctor’s own development. Rose wasn’t a journalist, a scientist, a warrior, an explosives expert, or any of the other types of “special” things many (though not all) of the prior companions had been, however: she was just an average, ordinary middle-class gal who happened to run into the Last of the Time Lords. As for Captain Jack Harkness - played by John Barrowman - he not only would become a recurring character in later seasons, but also got his own spin-off show, “Torchwood.” That, alone, gives you an idea of what a fun and interesting character he was. In a way, Captain Jack was sort of like the modern Brigadier: a soldier who didn’t always agree with the Doctor, but would gladly die for him (and kill for him) if needed. The difference is that while the Brigadier was something of a stuffed shirt, Captain Jack - much like a certain Pirate of the Caribbean with a similar name - was more of a loveable rogue. Together, they were a wonderful group of characters, and really set the tone for where the New Who show would go in later days.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

Over the course of one season, Eccleston would only have 13 episodes, and within those thirteen, only ten separate stories. That’s even fewer episodes/stories than Colin Baker had, and Baker, of course, was in the age of serials, which meant his storylines were obviously longer. In the modern era, Doctor Who episodes usually are single-parters, and while there may be season-long story arcs, multi-part epics are generally exceptions, rather than the norm. Not only that, but as much as I love Eccleston himself, and he was ALWAYS consistently great, the episodes in question tended to be hit or miss. There was one story that was particularly bad, a few episodes that were “okay,” another few that were REALLY good...and then there was one episode - one beautiful, BEAUTIFUL episode - that, in my opinion, is one of my Top 3 favorite episodes in ALL of Doctor Who’s televised history. That episode is the one simply entitled “Dalek.”

This one episode, in many ways, is the centerpiece of the entire Ninth Doctor era: after thinking that he has wiped out the Daleks once and for all (spoiler alert: he hasn’t), the Ninth Doctor discovers that one rogue Dalek has been found, and is now the “pet” of an unscrupulous business tycoon. This episode is important for a lot of reasons: it was the reintroduction of the Daleks, and many would argue it truly showed just how dangerous the Daleks really were. One Dalek, on its own, proves to be a threat of tremendous proportions here, in a way no one Dalek had perhaps EVER been in the past. It also serves to showcase just what makes the Ninth Doctor such a great character: he has funny moments, but this is a dark story that really gets into his inner pain and guilt, while also showing just how extreme the toll of the Time War has been on his own mind and soul.

The only downside to Dalek is that, of course, it was later revealed that the Daleks were, indeed, still around - not just this one straggling stray - and some could argue that undermines the effectiveness of the story in the long run, but taken on its own? It’s a brutal, intense, but still at times humorous character piece that perfectly shows everything that made the Ninth Doctor what and who he was. And, because this IS the New Who era, it’s all contained in just one forty-five minute tale, rather than being a multi-part serial like nearly everything else I’ve recommended so far, which, thanks to the format of the Classic era, will be the case for all future stories I suggest. I’d say that makes it easy viewing. ;)

Next time we’ll be discussing David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor: The Most Iconic Modern Doctor.

#two weeks in the tardis #doctor who #dr. who #retrospective #history #sci-fi #tv #ninth doctor #christopher eccleston

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weekendwarriorblog · 3 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior 8/6/21 - THE SUICIDE SQUAD, FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL, VIVO, ANNETTE, AILEY, NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL, JOHN AND THE HOLE, and More

After a week with three new wide releases and others coming up in August with three and even four (!), it’s kind of nice to get a “quieter” week with only one wide release, plus it's one that I’ve already reviewed. Yay!

With that in mind, that allows me to start things off with two film festivals that are near and dear to my heart, the first being the 25th annual installment of the Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs from this Thursday, August 5 through August 25. That’s three weeks, which is sort of the norm, although it will be a festival that blends virtual with in-person screenings making it a true hybrid festival. Personally, I would love to be up in Montreal for some of the in-person screenings, as they tend to be quite rousing and rowdy events -- and that will include an early preview of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad this Thursday -- but I will have to settle for the fest’s vast screener library inste ad. Not that I’ve actually had time to watch much as I watched my entire weekend and free time slip away in order to watch and write about other things, but there’s some good stuff.

For instance, they’ll be premiering Donnie Yen’s new movie, Raging Fire, directed by Bennie Chan, next Tuesday, a few days before it gets a theatrical release across North America. (Its International Premiere is actually taking place at the New York Asian Film Festival, which you can read more about below.) Fantasia will also have the World Premiere for Rueben Martell’s Don’t Say Its Name, a horror movie featuring indigenous talent both in front of and behind the camera. Let Me Make You a Martyr filmmaker returns with his new crime-thriller Ida Red, starring Joshua Hartnett, Frank Grillo and Melissa Leo.

This year’s Fantasia is going to close with The Great Yokai War - Guardians, the sequel to Takashi Miike’s The Great Yokai War which opened Fantasia way back in 2006. In fact, Miike has probably been one of Fantasia’s most consistent guests, having many movies playing at the festival that never get released in the United States in any form.

It’s going to be an interesting mix of in-person screenings and on-demand virtual ones, and as in the past, it’s almost impossible to see everything. I think my only issue with Fantasia is that there are so many great genre films played there every year that it’s very hard to figure out which ones to watch when you’re not actually there on the ground.

And then closer to home in New York, another personal favorite, the New York Asian Film Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary in a combination of virtual and in-person screenings running between Friday, August 6 and August 22. Sure, there can be a bit of overlap between the NYAFF and Fantasia, particularly in the Asian content, but there are also a few distinct things, like the festival’s opening night film, Escape from Mogadishu from South Korea’s Ryoo Seung-wan, which covers the same Somali civil war as Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down but from another perspective. It will also be released in theaters this Friday. Chinese actor Chan King Long’s directorial debut, Hand Rolled Cigarette, will also premiere this Friday, as will Aimee Long’s directorial debut, A Shot Through the Wall, both of them debuting at the Walter Reade Theatre (the latter on Sunday).

And there’s just a slew of virtual screenings of some of the latest and most recent Asian films, many of which will never get any sort of release in the United States. That is probably the best aspect of the NYAFF, because while there are many filmmakers like Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho, who will eventually break out here, many of the biggest Asian filmmakers first got their start with movies at NYAFF. That’s why those interested in international cinema should definitely be giving the NYAFF some of their time and money every year, since it’s such a terrific discovery festival… plus it’s also a lot of fun. I’m half tempted to go up to see some of the in-person screenings myself, this weekend.

I’ve never attended Geena Davis’ 2021 Bentonville Film Festival, but thanks to it also going semi-virtual or hybrid, I’ll have a chance to see a few movies I might not have otherwise. There are a few great films by women directors that have already played at other festivals and will be released soon, such as Sian Heder’s Sundance award-winning Coda (which opens next week!) and Natalia Morales’ Language Lessons, both excellent films that have played festivals this year. Other films I’ve seen and liked that are playing Bentonville, including the Van Jones doc, The First Step, and the comedy, 7 Days.

I’m also interested in the World Premiere of The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu, directed by Anna Chi; Waikiki, Christopher Kahunakana’s feature debut about a Native Hawaiian hula dancer trying to escape an abusive boyfriend; Edson Jean’s Ludi; and Andrew and Joe Erwin’s doc, The Jesus Music, which looks at Christian Music. Bentonville tends to be another great discovery festival. This is obvious when I look at winners from past festivals like Yellow Rose and The Garden Left Behind.

As mentioned above, there’s only one new wide release, and it’s James Gunn’s THE SUICIDE SQUAD (Warner Bros.), a semi-sequel to the 2016 blockbuster Suicide Squad directed by David Ayer that includes a few of the original actors but a few not of others, although it’s still the same general principle, only done in a far more comedic way. Got it?

In case you missed all that (or the original movie), The Suicide Squad is based on the DC Comics superteam, of sorts, made up of DC villains who are seen as expendable as they’re sent on missions by Amanda Waller (played again by Viola Davis). If they fail or try to escape, their heads get blown up by explosives planted at the base of their skull. Fun, huh?

The original movie opened with an amazing $133 million and grossed $325 million In North America alone and another $422 million overseas, although reviews were less than kind and the fans, maybe a little less kinder. Sure, some people liked parts of it, but there were other parts that were just a disaster, so the movie grossing over $300 million was astounding (similar to the “Transformers” movies, in fact.)

Along comes James Gunn, freshly fired from the third Guardians of the Galaxy, which he will be doing next…. After a Christmas Special next year, and a Peacemaker HBO spin-off from this movie that hasn’t even been released yet. Warners snapped up Mr. Gunn, hoping that he could do for their property what he did for Guardians. While this may not be the most important IP in their drawer but has already proven to make enough money that you couldn’t just leave it in there forever. Fortunately, Gunn convinced Warner Bros. to let him make the R-rated Suicide Squad movie that the first one should have been and without the reins of a PG-13 Disney-released movie, Gunn could go absolutely nuts, and he did.

Some might be worried about WIll Smith not being in the sequel, because let’s face it, Big Willie is indeed an A-list star with a wide variety of fans of different ages, creeds, and colors. The fact that Will Smith could help turn an Aladdin movie directed by Guy Ritchie into a significant hit for Disney, well, that shows his power.

Even without Smith, Margot Robbie returns as Harley Quinn, who was last seen in last year’s Birds of Prey, a movie that was expected to do a lot better than its $33 million opening last February, before it got completely hobbled by the rise of COVID in March. It ended up grossing just $200 million worldwide, less than half of that in North America, and it might have put a damper on DC doing another R-rated superhero movie… except The Suicide Squad was well under way. Also back is Joel Kinnaman as Col. Rick Flag, a regular in the comics, and a decent actor but not someone anyone could seriously consider a box office draw. Other than Suicide Squad, Kinnaman has starred in quite a few bombs including a Robocop remake that tanked with $58.6 million domestic (it did better overseas), and then Run All Night, directed by Jaume Collet-Sera of last week’s Jungle Cruise, which made half that amount.

More importantly, the movie introduces a lot of new characters, including Idris Elba as Bloodsport, replacing Will Smith’s Deadshot, which might seem like a bit of a stepdown considering that Smith may be one of the top A-list stars on the planet, while Elba is popular but nowhere on the same level. Hey, it’s truth. Granted, Elba played Heimdall in Marvel’s Thor and a bunch of his sequels, and he’s provided his voice in quite a few Disney hits, while also appearing in a few odds and ends in terms of genre films like Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (which hit the $100 million mark) and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, which did a little better. Still, Elba has created quite a fanbase around him for shows like Luther and The Wire, and his role in The Suicide Squad should help him line up more leading roles in bigger movies. I wouldn’t expect him to play James Bond but he’ll be around a long time.

After that, there’s sometimes-wrestler John Cena as Peacemaker, another less-than-known DC character, but Cena also brings his fanbase (sort of) from wrestling, to which he’s returning for WWW SummerSlam in a few weeks. Cena hasn’t necessarily made huge waves on the big screen, although we can’t forget that he was just in F9: The Fast Saga, the latest in the unstoppable franchise that’s one of the biggest movies of the pandemic year. He also starred in Paramount’s Bumblebee, adding to his franchise cred. As mentioned above, Cena already has warranted his own HBO Max series, so obviously, someone at Warner Media felt he was doing something right.

Other key roles include Sylvester Stallone voicing King Shark, David Dastmalchian from Ant-Man playing “Polka Dot Man” (about as D-list a DC character you can possibly get but used hilariously in the movie), as well as Ratcatcher 2, played by Daniella Melchior, not be confused with her father, Ratcatcher 1. Oh, and of course, Viola Davis, the Oscar-winning goddess who should have won another Oscar for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but no, I’m not bitter that it screwed up my oscar pool. There’s a lot of other actors, many from Gunn’s other films like Mike Rooker, brother Sean Gunn, and Nathan Fillian, and if they were in the movie for very long, I would consider them something to consider, though their presences does insure that this is indeed a James Gunn movie.

As has been the case quite a bit since I revived this column to discuss box office, we have to take two things into account, one being COVID and the fears surrounding it that have kept many otherwise sane people away from movie theaters. Also, The Suicide Squad will be premiering concurrently on HBO Max, so anyone who has the WM streamer could literally just turn it on Friday and watch the movie for no extra charge beyond whatever they pay per month. Unlike other movies that had this kind of release, Warners is allowing theaters to play the movie for Thursday night previews, so there’s a lot of money that can be made there (and all weekend) from those who choose to see it in theaters. (Honestly, I have no idea why anyone would want to watch this movie, especially it’s absolutely enormous last act, on a computer or television, but welcome to 2021. Whine whine whine.)

I was ready to go north of $60 million on this one because it seems like the kind of movie that could get people back out into theaters, especially when you realize how much the original movie made and how the idea of heroes whose heads can be blown up at any moment (and in that case, the R-rating helps). Then I remembered Birds of Prey and how that came out pre-COVID and couldn’t even open over $40 million, so I had to lower my expectations, although I still think this will fare very well even with HBO Max and COVID in play, so I’m going with somewhere in the mid-$50 million range.

You can read my review of The Suicide Squad over at Below the Line.

This is how I see the Top 10 playing out at the box office:

1. The Suicide Squad (Warner Bros.) - $55 million N/A

2. Jungle Cruise (Walt Disney Pictures) - $17.5 million -50%

3. Black Widow (Marvel/Disney) - $3.6 million -45%

4. Stillwater (Focus) - $3.1 million -40%

5. Old (Universal) - $3 million -56%

6. The Green Knight (A24) - $2.8 million -58%

7. Snake Eyes (Paramount/MGM/Skydance) - $2.1 million -52%

8. Space Jam: A New Legacy (Warner Bros.) - $2 million -53%

9. F9: The Fast Saga (Universal) - $1.5 million -45%

10. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (Sony) - $1.3 million -42%

Hitting Netflix on Friday is the animated musical, VIVO (Netflix), which was produced by Sony Pictures Animation but then sold to Netflix rather than trying to make it work in theaters. Directed by Kirk DeMico (The Croods) and Brandon Jeffords, in features the voice of Lin-Manuel Miranda as the voice of the title character, an organ grinder’s monkey in Havana, Cuba with his organ grinder Andrés, voiced by Juan de Marcos González (Buena Vista Social Club), who desires to be reunited with his long-separated love Marta (voiced by Gloria Estefan), who went off to fame and fortune as a singer because Andrés didn’t want to express his feelings for her in fear of her giving up her singing career. Vivo ends up in Miami and decides to try to find Marta and reconnect the lovebirds.

Just really catchy numbers written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, so if you like his work from In the Heights and Hamilton and Moana, etc. etc, then there are more songs he wrote, which he sings… mostly in the body of an animated monkey. The story itself isn’t particularly great, as the movie takes what would be a unique and novel setting i.e Cuba and introduces a number of animated movie stereotypes, including the weird girl Gabby (Ynairaly Simo), who gets increasingly more annoying as the film goes on.

In general, I loved most of the songs and the musical production (other than Gabby’s theme, which I was not crazy about), more than the story or the actual animation. Because Vivo is a monkey, there’s a weird section of the film that talks about vaccines and quarantines, probably written before the pandemic, which just makes it that much weirder.

Vivo has some decent emotional beats and terrific songs, but otherwise, it seems very cookie-cutter in terms of the storytelling. It’ll be just fine for kids, but adults may have trouble staying very interested.

Speaking of musicals, the rock opera ANNETTE (Amazon), written by, and with music and songs from Russell and Ron Mae AKA Sparks, will hit theaters this Friday in advance of its debut on Amazon Prime Video on August 20. Directed by Leos Carax (Holy Motors), the movie stars Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard as stand-up comic Henry McHenry and opera singer Ann, respectively, who get married and have a baby girl named Annette, who is actually a puppet that sings. (I did warn you that this is from Sparks and Leos Carax, right?)

Annette is exactly what anyone should expect from this collaboration between the quirky L.A. avant-rock duo and the French auteur, even if you believe the FFS song that “Collaborations Don’t Work” -- which you would know not to be true if you went to see Edgar Wright’s documentary, The Sparks Brothers, as I recommended last month! But instead of dubbing this a musical, it’s gotta be called for what it actually is… a ROCK OPERA. Annette reminded me a lot of ‘70s musical movies like Tommy and Godspell, where you knew there must have been some drug use involved (cause it was the ‘70s).

Driver’s stage performances are definitely some of the aspects that will divide audiences, because he veers from being an outrageous shock comic (think a mopeyer Sam Kinnison) to just being an insane and abusive jerk who drives even his devout fans away. The two extended sequences show Driver at his most emotive, but he’s also the kind of character that could push the movie’s audiences away as effectively as he does his fans. On the other hand, Cotillard is absolutely brilliant, even if she isn’t singing her own opera, as is Simon Helberg -- yes, that guy from The Big Bang Theory -- as her piano accompanist who later becomes a conductor, and then more.

The movie’s mood constantly shifts gears and direction, although it never is quite funny enough to be considered “comedy,” and if one really needed to categorize it, it would be placed in the realm of dark thriller… with music.

One thing that Sparks fans should know is that this is not a movie full of new Sparks songs, even if it is full of Sparks music. In other words, other than a couple actual songs -- like the opening overture -- there isn’t much of the music that might work separately or out of content with the movie or the story. Like in opera, almost everything is sung with very little spoken dialogue persé, and this was clearly a decision.

I’m not quite sure Annette will find either Sparks or Carax many new fans -- I definitely liked it more than Holy Motors, that’s for sure -- but for many, it’s going to be a strange experience to get through and maybe one they won’t necessarily need to see in theaters.

I finally got around to watching Jamila Wignot’s documentary, AILEY (NEON), which has been playing in theaters in New York the past few weeks and is expanding to other areas this Friday. Of course, the film is about legendary New York choreographer Alvin Ailey, whose work spanned six decades before his death in 1989 but not before he helped many dancers and other choreographers beak it into the contemporary dance scene.

It’s a little weird writing about this movie now, because just two weeks ago, I was writing about another dance doc called, Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters, about another specific work by a choreographer and the message it was sharing about AIDS. In fact, Jones also appears in this doc talking about the influence and assistance Ailey gave him earlier in his own career.

Ailey is a much more straight-forward portrait doc about Ailey’s life and career, and because of that, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Can You Bring It, but the two movies actually end up acting as nice companion pieces to each other despite being made by different filmmakers in different environments.

Lucy Walker’s documentary BRING YOUR OWN BRIGADE (CBSN) will play in theaters starting Friday and then on Paramount Plus and CBSN starting August 20. It looks at the 2017 fires that absolutely destroyed Paradise, California, and unlike Ron Howard’s Rebuilding Paradise, this is as much about the fire and how it affected people as the aftermath and figuring out how to rebuild. I thought it was pretty good, although it’s tough to

Incidentally, I wrote about and reviewed Edson Oda‘s NINE DAYS (Sony Pictures Classics) last week, but it’s going to expand into a few hundred more theaters this weekend, as well.

Legendary character actor Udo Kier stars in Todd Stephens’ SWAN SONG (Magnolia Pictures), which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival back in March, and I quite enjoyed it. It will get a limited theatrical release this weekend and then will be released digitally. In this comedy, Kier plays Pat Pitsenbarger, a flamboyant hairdresser who escapes from his Ohio nursing home in order to grant a former client her dying wish of having him design her hairstyle. Also starring Jennifer Coolidge, it will be in theaters this Friday and On Demand August 13, and hopefully I can write more about it next week, because I did quite like it but didn’t have time for another viewing.

Another movie from Sundance that’s finally hitting theaters (and digital) this Friday is Pascual Sisto’s JOHN AND THE HOLE (IFC Films), written by Nicolás Giacobone, who wrote Alejandro Iñárritu’s Birdman and Biutiful. It stars Charlie Shotwell as the title character, John, who traps his family in a bunker that he finds in the woods behind their home. I wish I could tell you that there’s more to the movie than that or that it offers something riveting or thought-provoking or something unforgettable, but I’d be lying. It’s not good.

It stars Michael C. Hall as John’s father and Jennifer Ehle as his mother, but Shotwell plays such a bland character that I just had a hard time finding anything that could really maintain my interest. The characters were boring, the writing was bland (which says a lot about how great a director Innaritu is), and there was just nothing I could glom onto. In that sense, the movie reminded me a bit of the first time I saw M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable in terms of all the boring conversations that dragged that movie down, and this has a similar issue.

There’s just no way around declaring that there really wasn’t very much that I liked about this movie, and honestly, the fact I tried to watch it a THIRD time after my first two attempts tell me that I’ve done more than my share of trying. It’s just not a good movie.

Unfortunately, my schedule this week got derailed quite tragically, so there were a few other foreign films I hoped to get to but just didn’t have the time…

From Korea (via the New York Asian Festival, as mentioned above) is Ryoo Seung-wan’s Korean war thriller, ESCAPE FROM MOGADISHU (Well GO USA), as the movie is in Korean, but it’s about two Korean war correspondents caught up in the Somali war.

From Uruguay, Maxi Contenti’s THE LAST MATINEE is about an audience attending the last showing of a horror film in a downtown cinema that’s terrorized by a murderer killing them off one by one. (This is actually my kind of jam so I’ll try to watch and write something about it once I do. I just ran out of time this week.)

From Afghanistan comes Mariam Ghani’s doc WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED (Dekanalog), which takes a look at the state-funded filmmaking program during the country’s Communist era with a bunch of writers, actors and filmmakers talking about five unfinished and unedited projects made between 1978 and 1991.

The Film Forum in New York City is starting another film series (or rather, continuing it from when it started before COVID in March 2020) called “The Woman Behind Hitchcock,” starting this Friday, which is fairly self-explanatory, but it should be a great series with a lot of rare films being shown.

Also hitting Apple TV+ this Friday are the first few episodes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s MR. CORMAN, in which he stars as the title character, produces, directs and writes a bunch of the episodes. In it, he plays an elementary school teacher in L.A., who is trying to come to terms with a lot of portions of his life. I’ve seen about half the episodes in the first season, and it’s quite a different show than anything else out there. I’ll have an interview with the Cinematographer, Jarod Presant, over at Below the Line later today.

A few movies that I just didn’t get to this week, include: THE MACALUSO SISTERS (Glass Half Full) MATERNA (Utopia) FIREBOYS NIGHTDRIVE (Dark Sky Films)

Next week, it’s August 13, and we have three new wide releases! (See what I mean?) We get Ryan Reynold’s Free Guy, the horror sequel Don’t Breathe 2, and the Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect.

#The Weekend Warrior #Movies #Reviews #Box Office #Suicide Squad #Annette #Vivo #John and the Hole #Ailey #swan song

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the-desolated-quill · 7 years ago

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The Day Of The Doctor - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

50 years, huh? Extraordinary.

Going into The Day Of The Doctor, I was already lowering my expectations. Not just because Steven Moffat was writing it, but also because multi-Doctor anniversary specials are generally never very good. Once you get past the novelty of Doctors meeting each other, you quickly realise that the stories are often weaker than a nun’s piss. While The Day Of The Doctor does fare slightly better than previous multi-Doctor stories, there are still a ton of problems with it.

Let’s start with the Doctors themselves. I was a little bit cross that there were no classic Doctors coming back (and no, the Curator doesn’t count). I wouldn’t have minded except apparently Moffat never even asked any of them. Some fans have given the excuse that you can’t use the original actors because they’re not as young as they were, which caused me to scoff and roll my eyes. Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee were both considerably older when they returned to play their respective Doctors in The Five Doctors over a decade after they left the role, but nobody batted an eyelid. It was just really cool to see them again. There’s no reason why you couldn’t have brought the classic Doctors back. Okay Tom Baker and Colin Baker have both put on a considerable amount of weight since the 70s and 80s, and neither Peter Davison nor Sylvester McCoy are as young and spry as they used to be, but once they’ve got the costumes on, nobody’s going to care about that. Ever heard of suspension of disbelief?

So the Doctors we end up getting are Eleven, Ten and Eight And A Half, aka the War Doctor. (The Ninth Doctor was originally intended to appear, but Christopher Eccleston turned it down, hence the creation of an all new Doctor. Why Moffat couldn’t have just used Paul McGann, I don’t know). It’s about what you’d expect. Three Doctors coming together and criticising each other’s attitudes and tastes in clothing, and admittedly it’s fun for about five minutes before you start getting bored and want Moffat to get the fuck on with it. I think I’ve mentioned numerous times now how annoying I find Matt Smith to be, so i don’t think I’d need comment on that further. While I don’t like Ten as much as everyone else does, it is good to see David Tennant again after all this time. It’s like he’s never been away. He’s got that same boundless energy and enthusiasm that you can’t help but find endearing. This story does however play at odds with where Ten is in his story. Remember for Ten this takes place between The Waters Of Mars and The End Of Time Part 1, where Ten is running from his own impeding death. Surely seeing his future self would affect him somewhat, right? Perhaps that was what all that ‘some new man goes sauntering away’ stuff in The End Of Time with Wilf was about.

As for the War Doctor... I must confess I’m slightly torn. I’ve mentioned before how I really don’t like the idea of a War Doctor that Eleven can conveniently blame so that he can stay as the pure saint with the unsullied past because it just simplifies the character to an insulting degree. And it’s funny because if you stop to think about it, outside of the big decision he has to make with the Moment, the War Doctor doesn’t actually have a character. We never really learn anything significant about him or what really differentiates him from his other incarnations. And yet I can’t help but find myself really liking the War Doctor. And I think that’s for two reasons. One is because of the late, great John Hurt. He gives an extremely good performance and he’s the one that keeps you engrossed in the character even when the writing doesn’t. And the second is that... Look, I have quite a few issues with New Who, and one of them is the more manic interpretations of the Doctor. And yes I know the Doctor has always been an eccentric, but it feels as though New Who have been pushing it to its absolute limit and beyond, to the point where we’ve now got Matt Smith’s Doctor who is just the most obnoxious character I’ve ever come across (in fact there’s a scene where the War Doctor pretty much sums up all my problems with Eleven by asking him “why are you so ashamed of being a grownup?”). And I recognise this is more of a personal taste issue. If you like that kind of manic Doctor, more power to you. I honestly don’t mind it in small doses. The thing is I grew up with the classic series (I used to watch them on old VHS tapes when I was a kid) and while I recognise the War Doctor isn’t very well written and that the reasons for his inclusion are incredibly stupid, I can’t help but instinctively be drawn to that kind of witty, reserved Doctor who can be a bit serious at times, but his hearts are always in the right place. That kind of Doctor just resonates with me more somehow and it’s a kind of Doctor that I really wish we could see more of in New Who.

Plot-wise, it’s all a bit so-so. Let’s start with the B story. Out of all the monsters Moffat could have picked to bring back for the 50th anniversary, why in God’s name did he pick the Zygons? I know classic series fans really like the Zygons, but for the life of me I can’t see why. They’ve only ever appeared in one story, Terror Of The Zygons, which, lets be honest, wasn’t really very good. Yes I know David Tennant loves the Zygons and I’m sure he was pleased as punch to get to work with them, but for the 50th anniversary? Are you fucking joking?

For the benefit of @captainivyb and others who are unfamiliar with the classic series, here is what the original Zygons looked like:

And now here are the new and improved Zygons:

It’s funny, isn’t it? State of the art special effects and a slightly bigger budget, and yet somehow the new Zygons look just as shit as they did back in 1975. I’m going to choose to believe that these new Zygons look deliberately shit so that they could pay tribute to the rubber latex monsters of Who’s past because if I have to accept the possibility that the New Who team honestly thought these new designs were good, I may have to sit in the corner and have a little cry.

I do like the idea of the Zygons hiding inside paintings. Wouldn’t it have been cool if maybe the Doctors went inside the paintings and had a bit of a gander? But no. Instead we get the really bizarre twist that the Zygons, a race of shapeshifting aliens, destroyed a bunch of statues and ground them into dust so they could hide underneath large sheets when UNIT arrives. Yeah, it’s a bit hard to be scared of monsters that have the same mindset as a child who think they’re invisible just by covering their eyes.

And why are the Zygons inside the paintings? Because they want to invade the Earth. Why they don’t just invade medieval Earth, I don’t know. Surely that would be easier than invading present day Earth. Less guns and nuclear bombs for one thing. Elizabeth the First (or at least a version of her that has been Pompadoured into the sassy, flirty woman that exists in all of Moffat’s stories) says that the Zygons are used to a certain level of comfort, but that’s bollocks, isn’t it? What could the super advanced Zygons with their biotechnology possibly want from present day Earth? It can’t be the Black Archive. How would they even know it exists before taking Kate Stewart’s memories? Do they want to borrow our Wi-Fi or something?

Cut to present day Earth and there is a genuinely good moment where Kate stands toe to toe with the Zygons and threatens to destroy the whole of London to prevent them from using the Black Archive. Jenna Redgrave gives a great performance here, channelling the Brigadier very effectively. It’s such a shame Moffat doesn’t do more with her character. (You may have noticed I haven’t mentioned Osgood yet... Well spotted). Then the Doctors show up to chastise Kate for her actions, using their own experience in the Time War to explain why before using the memory eraser thingy to make everyone forget whether they’re human or Zygon, forcing both sides to form a peace treaty. Yeah, because evil aliens hellbent on taking over the world are bound to stick to that once they get their memories back. (Also there’s a major continuity blunder here. Earlier we see a Zygon attack Osgood and assume her form, stealing her asthma pump. Osgood manages to escape and steal the asthma pump back. But at the end, Zygon-Osgood gives the asthma pump back. Huh?).

All of this is meant to cack-handidly tie into the Time War storyline and the Moment, which admittedly is slightly better. But first... is that it? Is that the Time War? Remember all the references that were made in the RTD era? The Jaws of the Nightmare Child. The Could Have Been King and his Army of Never Weres. People trapped in time loops, forced to relive their own deaths over and over again for all eternity. What do we end up getting? Some spaceships, a few lasers and explosions, and some screaming civilians. The Last Great Time War. The war to end all wars... and this is the best they could come up with? Sigh. I guess some things are best left to the imagination.

Also I could have done without Rose. Well... except she’s not Rose. She’s the Bad Wolf. Well... except she’s not the Bad Wolf neither. She’s the same Moffat female we’ve seen millions of times before (Has Moffat only ever met one woman is his life? That’s the only explanation I can think of for why all his female characters sound and behave the fucking same). Billie Piper does an okay job with the material she’s been given, but really, you could have picked anyone to play the Moment. Billie Piper is really only there for fanservice. (Moffat reportedly did not want to bring the Rose character back because he felt her story was wrapped up and he didn’t want to add anything to RTD’s arc. I want you to remember this people. It’ll become relevant later on).

The Day Of The Doctor is really about the redemption of the War Doctor. Him standing at the brink, prepared to make a terrible choice and is shown the consequences of his choice, whilst his future selves learn to accept and finally come to terms with the horrible decision they made. This aspect at least is done reasonably well. I liked the scene with the sonic screwdrivers and the ‘same software, different case’ metaphor. And by far the most powerful scene is when Ten and Eleven arrive to help the War Doctor push the button. It was incredibly moving and actually made me really emotional because it shows the Doctor at his core. It’s something I’ve been saying for years. He’s not a soldier or a hero or a warrior. He’s just some guy. To make the decision to destroy his own species in order to save the rest of the universe would be incredibly traumatising even for a trained soldier. For a simple traveller like the Doctor, it’s practically unbearable. So to soften the blow by allowing his future selves to come along and help him press the button so he doesn’t have to suffer alone is extremely touching. Plus the War Doctor is now reassured by the fact his future selves will do everything in their power to make things right and not allow others to make the same terrible choice.

...

How does Moffat fuck it up?

Oh yeah. You knew it was going to happen. Moffat is so insecure and so determined to trick his audience that he’s prepared to butcher perfectly decent stories in order to shove in some bullshit twist. And this is no exception. Rather than allow The Day of The Doctor to end on a sombre, but powerful note, Moffat decides to do the unthinkable and takes a great big shit all over it. Thanks to an intervention from Clara (ugh), the Doctor changes his mind and decides to use a stasis cube to trap Gallifrey inside a pocket universe, causing the Daleks to destroy themselves in their own crossfire, saving the Time Lords and everyone gets a happy little ending. Now look, I’m not necessarily angry that the Time Lords have been brought back from the dead. I’ve suspected the whole last of the Time Lords thing wasn’t going to be permanent since way back in 2005. What I am angry about is the insulting way in which Moffat does it. Remember when Moffat said he didn’t want to add to RTD’s arc? Well he seems more than happy to undo it completely just because it doesn’t fit with his vision of who the Doctor is. A vision that is utterly warped. Moffat has deluded himself into thinking the Doctor is this all powerful saint that can do no wrong and would never dream of doing something like destroy his own race, even though the show itself completely contradicts that. The Doctor has made morally dubious choices before. The Doctor has resorted to violence before. Okay he’ll always try to find a diplomatic and peaceful solution when he can, but when push comes to shove, he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. The Time War is just the most extreme example of that. Yes it’s a horrible choice, but what’s the alternative? Letting the whole of time and space burn? As Eleven himself said, it wasn’t possible to get it right. And the psychological ripple effects of this choice makes the Doctor a far more interesting character. By erasing all of this, all of that complexity and character development as a result goes with it. Moffat tries to cover himself by saying that none of the past Doctors will remember this because of Moffat logic, but that just makes it worse because now Nine and Ten are suffering from PTSD and psychological trauma for no reason.

What The Day Of The Doctor proves without a shadow of a doubt is that Steven Moffat doesn’t in any way understand the show he claims to be a fan of. And if you need further proof of that, in the final monologue where we see Matt Smith standing in front of a really bad photoshopped ensemble of previous Doctors, the Doctor talks about how he dreams about going home. That has got to be the most unDoctorly thing I’ve ever heard.

War Doctor: “If I grow to be half the man that you are, Clara Oswald, I shall be happy indeed.”

Oh go fuck yourself Moffat!

#the day of the doctor #steven moffat #doctor who #eleventh doctor #matt smith #tenth doctor #david tennant #war doctor #john hurt #clara oswald #jenna coleman #daleks #zygons #time lords #bbc #review #spoilers

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