#he's got such a diverse filmography

[nancydrewwouldnever]

Ryan ate Chris up in TGM though. He's really talented, and I love that he branches out and takes on different kinds of roles. Just take a peek at his IMDB page. His filmography is so varied and diverse. Per early test reviews, he and America are the standouts in Barbie. I can't wait!

He's always been more of a "serious" actor. I can't remember whether or not he got an Oscar nom for Half Nelson. I think maybe.

I love America Ferrera. I watched every nonsensical season of Ugly Betty and didn't regret it.

As to TGM: I don't know, I kinda felt it was a draw. That script was just so weak. I feel the better part of it must have just been direction lines for explosions.

[harrisonbrainrot]

worst and best hf movie in your opinion? have you watched one of his movies and thought it was gonna be good/bad and it ended up being the opposite? how many of them have you watched?

LOVE this ask.

Okay bear with me; I'm drunk. This is ignoring Indy + Star Wars + Blade Runner. I have seen... almost everything. Like.. damn near everything. According to IMDB he's been in 86 things. Tbh I've seen.. 68.

Top movies:

Hanover Street, it's a bitter sweet romance. Love it. It made me so sad but so fulfilled. It's some of his best acting imo. He's a total hopeless romantic. I love WWI/II films so that's nice.

Frantic is VERY fun. Ew, Roman Polanski. But a fun movie. He accidentally does coke. Overall vibe of his character is indoor cat that got outside on accident.

Heroes is GREAT. Vietnam War vet. Short screen time but memorable and tbh my dream guy. He's funny and sweet and super kind. Kinda a loser. I love him.

Frisco Kid. LOVE HARRISON AS A COWBOY. He's pure of heart and dumb of ass. He's got humor and all sorts of fun lines and moments.

Getting Straight; he had 1.5 minutes of screen time and played an art major and your honor, I LOVE HIM.

Regarding Henry; my first experience with a Harrison movie that wasn't Indy or Star Wars. It's sweet and fun and I'm really connected to it as someone with a TBI. Obviously not of the same caliber but.. still.

Honorable mentions:

Sabrina, the fugitive, the devil's own, and six days, seven nights, American Graffiti.

My LEAST favorite movie he's done is bar none; k-19: widow maker. Please, for the love of God, don't make my man do a Russian accent.

Dishonorable mentions;

42, they did his hair dirty. The possessed bc his character was gross and the movie was bad. Force 10 from Navarone is a snooze fest as a movie but I stuck it out for Harrison. A GREAT look for him but the film is slow. Very, very slow. He has a lot of screen time though. If WWII films from the 70s aren't your thing, don't watch it.

If you want a good laugh, watch his 42 seconds of fame in Luv, hilarious. If you want to see him in a western-esque film but with sideburns? Journey to Shiloh. For absolute stoned out of your gourd humor, belly laugh, his short appearance in the holiday special is just.. absolute gold. He embodies me at every holiday family function I do not want to be present at. Apocalypse now is a fun one, for his very short cameo as colonel Lucas, which is a homage to George Lucas. Wild he got that 2 years after Star Wars and it was filmed the same year as Hanover Street. He was in two episodes of Gunsmoke, which I knew from watching the show. The Sodbusters and Whelan's Men.

Idk man he's got such a diverse filmography. Dm me and I'll give you detailed film reviews of anything I've seen and you want to watch. Like fr. Just dm me, y'all.

[fuckheadwitha]

My favorite thing about Goncharov posting is that Martin Scorsese's filmography is actually so long and diverse that I bet you could pretend his real movies were fake and achieve the same thing.

Did you know Martin Scorsese made an 1870s period romance starring Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder based on a 1920s novel by Edith Wharton that had multiple academy award nominations including best actress?

Did you know that Martin Scorsese directed the Michael Jackson video for "Bad" which featured Wesley Snipes' first role as an actor?

Did you know that after "Raging Bull" Martin Scorsese took on a small budget movie about a desperate lonely New York journalist played by Malcolm McDowell and based on a script by a guy whose only other film credit is "Exorcist 2" but Marty would still get nominated for an Academy Award and win best director at Cannes?

Did you know he made a biopic about the Dalai Lama for Disney that bombed both critically and commercially?

Did you know Martin Scorsese made a surreal drama in the early 2000s about EMTs in New York that starred Nicholas Cage and Ving Rhames and featured a scene where they're in a goth club and resuscitate someone overdosing on heroin while Ving leads the goths in prayer to Jesus?

Were you able to figure out one of those isn't real before you got to this sentence?

Were you right about which one was fake?

[notafunkiller]

If only Seb didn't care about the Oscars. I'll give you a better example. Leonardo DiCaprio no matter how he is in personal life, he won Oscar for Revenant. Honestly he has done much better movies that were nominated for Oscars and deserved to be won. But finally they had to give it to him. Another example is Cillian Murphy. He has been robbed for so many awards for Peaky Blinders, but got all the awards for Oppenheimer.

Agreed about both Leo and Cillian.

Leo's filmography is absolutely amazing and diverse and he deserved an oscar 3738 times till then, so it lost its value for him and his fans. And he did not even care about it that night, especially bc, as you said, they felt like they had to give it to him.

(He also talked about the lobby).

Cillian is an amazing actor who got the Oscar for a role that is not, in my opinion, his best or the most representative for his career, but it was a big film (and ofc his performance was amazing, but yk what I mean)

Oscars are political and they do not value art that much. I know many Americans think they are the most prestigious film awards (and ao do many actors), but in my opinion, film festivals like Venice or Cannes and other international awards value the art so much more.

[pritishsblog]

BEST DIRECTORS IN CINEMA- 6

Hi everyone! This blog is going to be the 6th part of the 8 part series who I think are the Best Director Cinema has ever seen

And today I will be talking about

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.) is an American motion-picture director, writer, and producer whose films range from sweeping epics to small-scale character studies. As the director of films such as The Godfather (1972), The Conversation (1974), and Apocalypse Now (1979), he enjoyed his greatest success and influence in the 1970s, when he attempted to create an alternative to the Hollywood system of film production and distribution.

(Early Life)

Coppola’s father, Carmine, a frustrated composer who played flute in several orchestras, including Arturo Toscanini’s NBC Symphony orchestra, settled his family in the New York City area. Coppola grew up in and around Queens and in Great Neck, on Long Island. Confined to bed with polio at age nine, he devised puppet shows for his own entertainment and soon began making 8-mm films. After earning a B.A. in drama from Hofstra University, he pursued a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California at Los Angeles, studying filmmaking. During that period Coppola began working for noted low-budget exploitation-film producer-director Roger Corman, for whose American International Pictures he performed second-unit photography and direction, among other tasks. One of Coppola’s first projects was writing dialogue to be dubbed into his reedited versions of a pair of Russian-made films that became The Magic Voyage of Sinbad and Battle Beyond the Sun (both 1962). While on location in Ireland, Coppola persuaded Corman to put up $20,000 to bankroll his first directorial effort, Dementia 13 (1963), a gory horror film based on a script that Coppola had hastily written.After contributing to the scripts of This Property Is Condemned and Is Paris Burning? (both 1966) as a contract writer for Seven Arts, Coppola wrote and directed the charming coming-of-age tale You’re a Big Boy Now (also 1966), which served as his master’s thesis film. Short on plot but rich with incident, it was the story of a virginal young man (played by Peter Kastner) looking for love while in the employ of the New York Public Library.

(His Famous Works)

Coppola's reputation as a filmmaker was cemented with the release of The Godfather (1972), which revolutionized the gangster genre[13] of filmmaking, receiving strong commercial and critical reception. The Godfather won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with Mario Puzo). The Godfather Part II (1974) became the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.Other notable films Coppola has released since the start of the 1980s include the dramas The Outsiders and Rumble Fish (both 1983), The Cotton Club (1984), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), The Godfather Part III (1990), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) and The Rainmaker (1997). Coppola has acted as producer on such diverse films as American Graffiti (1973), The Black Stallion (1979), The Escape Artist (1982), Hammett (1982), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) and The Secret Garden (1993).

(Filmmaking Style)

His Filmmaking Style

Coppola’s style is defined by its versatility and innovation. He employs a wide range of cinematographic techniques, from intricate framing and innovative camera movements to innovative lighting designs. His films are known for their striking visuals that complement the thematic depth of his narratives.

(His Filmography)

Coppola made his directorial debut with a movie a named Dementia 13 in 1963. He went on to make movies like You are a Big Boy Now in 1966,Finian's Rainbow in 1968,The Rain People in 1969, The Godfather in 1972, The Conversation and The Godfather Part 2 in 1974, Apocalypse Now in 1979. He went on to make movies like One from The Heart in 1982,The Outsiders and Rumble Fish in 1983,The Cotton Club in 1984,Peggy Sue Got Married in 1986,Gardens of Stone in 1987,Tucker in 1988,The Godfather Part 3 in 1990, Bram Stoker's Dracula,Jack in 1996 and Rainmaker in 1997. After a 10 year hiatus Coppola released his movie by name of Youth without Youth in 2007,Tetro in 2009,Twixt in 2011. He is right now working on a movie by name of Megalopolis which is to be released in 2024.

(Awards & Honors)

During his more career spanning for more than 5 decades, Coppola's movie has earned more than 128 nominates including Academy Awards,The BAFTA's and Golden Globe Awards

His films have won 14 Academy Awards out of the 55 nominations,8 BAFTA's out of 31 nominations and 10 Golden Globe Awards out of the 42 nominations.

(Sources)

And that's it for this part folks, I'll meet you with another blog about some of the Greatest Directors Cinema has ever seen. Until then

CIAO

[thegeneralreturns]

Thoughts on OPPENHEIMER

Christopher Nolan is a great director who, for the past fifteen years, has devoted himself to making less-than-great films. The Dark Knight was the last time he sought to entertain, enlighten, or inform, and ever since, he's constructed his work for the sole purpose of getting us all to congratulate him on being the cleverest little boy there is (yes, even Inception, don't @ me). He directs like Salman Rushdie writes, and I don't entirely mean that as a compliment. God in Heaven save us from artists who know they're good, but think they're cute.

So it is with no small amount of satisfaction that I report that Oppenheimer break's Nolan's dry spell. It's the best film in his filmography, and my dissatisfaction with his more recent work should not, I hope, obscure the Gadsden Purchase worth of ground that covers.

If it is a standard biopic, then it is one fed through the woodchipper of Nolan's penchant for chronological jumble and thematic obfuscation, constructed less to draw attention to itself, and more to follow a dramatic and emotional through-line. The chain of events may be veined with diversion and distributed piecemeal, but how you feel about what you're seeing is as straight and as true as an arrow's flight.

Those worried about an attempted rehabilitation of J. Robert Oppenheimer himself need not do so, for Nolan can't make any clearer the fact that he holds the man in almost sneering contempt. Portrayed by the wraith-like Cillian Murphy, he is not afraid to portray him as a man blessed by vast intelligence, yet in a poverty of anything even remotely resembling a damn lick of sense as his personal relationships blow up in his face as spectacularly as any bomb might. And the film goes to great pains to show that even his late-inning mea culpas are a luxury he can't afford and didn't earn.

This is where Nolan's almost alien detachment really works for Oppenheimer's benefit, as the standard story beats of triumph are handled like that of a parent looking at a child who has no idea what they did. Even the third-act redemption, which would have been milked by a lesser filmmaker, is viewed through a thick film of sour irony. The mask only slips after the Trinity test, when Oppenheimer addresses a crowd of people, and the pyrotechnics attendant make apparent that this character is beheld by a director that hates him.

Oppenheimer is the best film of 2023 so far.

SIDE NOTE THE FIRST: A movie for grown-ups made eighty million bucks in the US this weekend. Say Hallelujah, c'mon, get happy.

SIDE NOTE THE SECOND: It took him over twenty years, but Nolan finally wrote his first legible and compelling female character. Congrats to Emily Blunt on her impending Oscar nomination.

SIDE NOTE THE THIRD: Matt Damon's character states he studied engineering at MIT, and all I could think was that Will Hunting got that time machine up and running.

[tiffanylamps]

honestly really impressed with the beyond evil casting people because if i saw yjg's cutesy fluff demeanor and overall leaning pretty cute filmography i would not have the wisdom to cast him as juwon opposite shk like how did they even see it? the borderline psychic powers they must have

In response to this post Hey anon!! Thanks for taking the time to message me. You are quite right, they are geniuses. Before Beyond Evil, I hadn't seen any of Yeo Jin Goo's or Shin Ha Kyun's work (I knew Ha Kyun vaguely). So, I had no preconceived notions of who they are as actors or the roles they played prior. Since I finished watching Beyond Evil, I have since seen multiple projects by them but still, I find Beyond Evil to be my favourite (for them both).

With Jin Goo specifically, his long (and still young) career seems to have two main categories: Sageuk or romantic lead in a fantasy drama.

He seems to have a little bit of an issue with being type-cast (not always the rule but there's definitely a pattern). The majority of his filmography isn't to my taste, I find it to be quite cringy (nothing against him or the projects. i just suck at dealing with positive depictions of love. I'm defo the problem here). I still haven't finished Hotel De Luna or Link: Eat, Love, Kill and I really found the romance storyline in The Crowned Clown to be painful (So Woon deserved better). So, I think it's exciting when he plays roles that go against his typecast. Personally, I think Joo Won excels at being unlikeable. He's so good-looking and has a trustworthy demeanour on screen. He's a cute guy (with his face and personality) and it shines through the screen! So when those elements are tested by his character's being a prick/outright evil, it makes him SHINE. I loved him as Han Joo Won and I wanted SO MUCH MORE of him as Yi Heon. He needs to play (another) villain ASAP!!

Also, the fact that he didn't win an award for his work in Beyond Evil or The Crowned Clown is actually a piss-take. Yeo Jin Goo is the best at crying (seriously, how does he do it?? who hurt him???). He's also one of the best at micro-expressions and showing depth to a character's emotional range. I think he's a very intelligent actor, who's not afraid to push his character to the max.

I really hope he pursues more serious drama roles to explore his acting chops in a variety of genres/stories/characters. He's very very good at the romantic male lead and the emotional King. He's sooo good at that. But... I think there's a much wider range there. (he's still super young so there's definitely time for him and his career to grow)

Shin Ha Kyun's career is just a gorgeous display of diversity and range. He's... gosh... that man. I just absolutely adore him.

(^ my reaction to everything I've watched him in. Every time he's on screen, I get sooo giddy like I've got a schoolgirl crush or something)

As for how the production team knew to put them together... Well... From my understanding prior to Beyond Evil, they were both very well-known, very popular actors who have both received acting nominations/awards. So, they both would be desirable to help boost the show's wide-range appeal/popularity. The production company (probably) sent out scripts to many agencies, and then the agencies dished out the scripts to the actors available/ best suited/interested in doing that role. Jin Goo and Ha Kyun were both clearly interested, so they probably auditioned separately and then eventually did a chemistry test... AND BOY DID WE GET LUCKY THAT THEY HAVE ON-SCREEN CHEMISTRY.

I think the casting team knew they had something special. (and they were right. not only can they both act their socks off, they understand their characters 100%, and they were both willing to push the boundaries of the role and story.... and they get on and work really well opposite one another)

We got soooo lucky that all the right dots aligned for this show to be made as well as it was. I'm forever grateful!! I hope Yeo Jin Goo and Shin Ha Kyun worked together again- they're special and the world would be such a more lovely place with more of them in it Thanks again for the ask, I'm going to go because my laptop sounds like it's actually taking flight haha Bye!

[lustriouse]

   *   maxence danet-fauvel  .  cis man .  he/him/his  .   /   that's  laurent desrosiers  walking  in  to  taste bar  -  you  know  ,  the  thirty - one  year  old  actor  known  for  cursing  at  a  reporter  during  a  red  carpet  event  ?  having  lived  here  for  four  months  ,  their  neighbors  know  them  to  be  perceptive  &  decisive  ,  but  their  opportunistic  &  impulsive  tendencies  shine  through  when  there  are  no  buses  in  to  the  city  .  @30extra​

general.

FULL NAME: laurent desrosiers. NICKNAME(S): rosy by his family. NAME MEANING: laurent  —  bright one / shining one,  desrosiers — someone living amongst rose bushes. AGE:  thirty - one. DATE OF BIRTH:  november 2nd. PLACE OF BIRTH:  lakeview. CURRENT LOCATION:  lakeview. ETHNICITY:  white. GENDER:  cis male. PRONOUNS:  he/him/his. ORIENTATION:  homosexual. RELIGION:  atheist. OCCUPATION:  actor. EDUCATION LEVEL:  college degree in theatre & art.  LIVING ARRANGEMENTS:  residing in his family home at lakeview. FINANCIAL STATUS:  wealthy. SPOKEN LANGUAGES:  english,  french  —  both fluent.

physical appearance.

FACECLAIM:  maxence danet-fauvel. HAIR COLOR AND STYLE:  brown,  messy in an artful, tousled way. COMPLEXION:  pale,  in desperate need of some sun. EYE COLOR:  blue  /  gray. EYESIGHT:  needs glasses for reading. HEIGHT:  186cm  /  6′1. TATTOOS:  none. PIERCINGS:  used to have a standard lobe piercing for both ears. CLOTHING STYLE:  simplistic,  aimed more for stylish comfort.  prefers neutral,  brown colors. SIGNATURE SCENT:  woody vanilla,  clean laundry.

coming from a legacy of entertainers, laurent was destined for the screen. with a filmography beginning from as young as six years old, he’d amassed a quick following eager to praise his diversity in roles. 

to the crowds, he was charming, sweet, humble in spite of the fame his name and family brought. to the insiders of the industry, he was temperamental, sharp, single-mindedly dedicated to his craft. his parents expected perfection, and he was not one to let the family name down.

the pressure of perfection began to crack the walls he built up. every project needed to be the next big thing, and every critic needed to not just love his performance, they needed to rave about it. it was all his family could talk about whenever they reunited for yearly dinners at lakeview.

laurent doesn’t know how he managed to hold it in for so long, but merely four months ago, during a red carpet event for a showing of his newest movie — a reporter happened to ask the wrong question. in that moment, he snapped. cursed at them for being uninspired, for not seeing the vision of the movie, for being another silly reporter looking for drama instead of caring about the heart of the film and its process. it was a reaction that went far with the consequences.

his pr team handled the fallout, and laurent was sent to cool off in his hometown of lakeview, far from the digital world.

headcanons.

deals horribly with pressure and conflict. he’s very much the type to just hold it all in until he eventually pops.

plays the piano !! he learned it for a role and discovered it was something he actually liked, so he took lessons and kept at it. when he was active on social media, he used to post covers.

nepo baby but he’s actually good at acting so it’s somewhat forgiven.

aside from acting, laurent really wanted to be a barista. he thinks it’s a really silly dream, especially since he doesn’t even like coffee (he’s more of a tea guy) but he heavily romanticizes the whole barista life.

adding on to that, huge romantic in general, except he’s got Major Avoidance Attachment Issues <3

wanted connections.

aside from the ones i’ve listed on the main, here’s a few more !!

enemies: this could rly go a hundred ways but someone who doesn’t like laurent for whatever reason <3 maybe they hate that he’s a famous nepo baby (i’d hate him for that too !!) or maybe they hate him bc they had a falling out! who knows !!

friends who drifted away: with his career taking him out of lakeview more often than not, the friendship ended bc of distance. now that he’s back (and it looks like he’s gonna be here for a while) things could be awkward or not </3

ok i lied that’s all i have jkHEHSEHSKHJES but do hmu 4 plotting <3

[tlbodine]

John Carpenter

A true legend of horror, John Carpenter's filmography has been diverse -- both in contents, and quality. Like Wes Craven, Carpenter doesn't let himself get boxed in, though he does have a few themes he likes to return to.

Another interesting thing about Carpenter as an auteur is that not only does he tend to write and direct most of his films, he also usually writes his own scores (including that iconic Halloween theme).

Anyway, if you're familiar with Carpenter, it's probably because of Halloween. Or perhaps The Thing. Then again, maybe you know him for his non-horror work, like Escape from New York or Big Trouble in Little China. I have a lot of respect for his chill, unpretentious attitude and blue collar sensibilities.

Not all of his films are masterpieces, of course. But that's just how it goes when you take risks -- occasionally you make a stinker. For our challenge, I picked two movies I hadn't seen (or, anyway, that I didn't remember having seen).

They Live (1988) stars Roddy Piper and a young Keith David. Like many movies of its time, it's a scathing critique of 1980s consumer culture, set in a grimy post-industrial Los Angeles. An itinerant drifter (Piper) shows up looking for work but has to scrape by at a homeless camp until, by chance, he discovers some glasses that reveal the truth of the world -- namely, that an alien race is secretly controlling the human population through subliminal messaging in advertisements, and that they live among people, holding positions in government and so forth.

The film is based on a story I haven't read, called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson.

I don't know whether "lizard people controlling the government" was already an established thing at this point in history, but this film certainly takes the concept seriously. (Some Neo-Nazis have of course taken this as symbolic of the Jewish "takeover," but Carpenter has been quite outspoken and clear that this was not his intent and also that the aliens are a direct reference to Reagan).

This film is delightful and charming and so on-the-nose accurate it hurts. The main character is kind of a dumbass who has spent all of his intelligence points in "memorable quips" rather than actual smarts, but he's kind of lovable all the same.

Anyway. I recommend watching this alongside The People Under the Stairs and The Stuff for a full-on 1980s "horror of Reaganomics" experience.

In The Mouth of Madness (1995) stars Sam Neill as an insurance investigator tasked with sniffing out a potential fraud case regarding an extremely valuable author whose publisher insists he's disappeared. Reasonably convinced it's all a publicity stunt anyway, he goes along with it, reading the author's work and discovering clues that point to a location...one which shouldn't be there, but is all the same. One slip through reality later and he's toying with madness and a deep, strange conspiracy.

The author in the film, Sutter Cane, is a clear Stephen King stand-in (they lampshade this by comparing the authors in the film) although his work has an H.P. Lovecraft sheen. This story falls in line with the "King in Yellow" theme I've talked about a bit before, raising among other things the question: what WOULD happen if the cursed text became the most popular book in the world?

This is a good time overall. Sam Neill is wonderful and the story honestly feels like a Stephen King novel, it's really surprising that he didn't write this lol (the script was written by Michael DeLuca). Funny enough, though I was sure I hadn't seen it, once we got into it a memory surfaced of watching it on late night cable at my parent's house when I was in college.

[ichayalovesyou]

A lot of people don’t like JJ Abrams’ influence on Star Trek and Star Wars. Why do you think that is?

Well I can’t speak for “people” but I just straight up HATE JJ Abrams as a director and as a “creative” force in Hollywood sci fi. His desire for diversity is superficial and poorly executed. His emotional investment in the property he’s working on is incredibly superficial as well. He seems, to me, based on interviews and his latest filmography, almost purely fame driven, and I deeply, deeply dislike him for it.

One, he treats his female leads like garbage and tends to pick a character to make into a glorified self-insert (see Spock and Kylo Ren) to forcibly bend the female lead into a romance with them. Zoe Saldana’s Uhura got relegated almost exclusively to “Spock’s love interest” until Star Trek Beyond, which wasn’t directed by him (thank god). I have heard on many occasions that Abrams decided on Spock/Uhura because he thought Zoe Saldana was hot, which is an insult to both character and actress. Every single female character in his Kelvin timeline films with a speaking role got a scene where they were in their underwear. Rey and Kylo Ren bothers me a LOT because again, even though she was the main character didn’t really get to be her own fleshed out character outside of a guy being in love with her (Finn and Kylo) and being related to Palpatine. Kylo actively psychically and emotionally abused her and was overall a whiny, genocidal maniac with a little over a decade age gap on her, and yet he still tried to bend it into a positive light with a sloppy attempt at a redemption arc for Kylo in episode 9. Gross.

Two, he also habitually sidelines or discards POC characters when the chips are down. This was much more of a problem in Star Wars than Star Trek even if ST as good about it as they could’ve been. Both Finn and Poe Dameron had the promise of giving us a SW main trinity that was composed of something other than white people, they both had potential for fantastic storylines (and for being queer rep but I think Abrams would rather eat nails than acknowledge Spirk or Finnpoe). Yet the main trio barely knew each other until the third film, and Rose, Finn and Poe all got extremely minimized in episode 9 and instead the film shifted most of its focus to Rey being the descendant of space Hitler and having a weird messed up forced romance with his protégé’s protégé. Not cool man. To put it lightly.

Three, the casual disrespect and lack of understanding the property he’s working on, specifically Star Trek. He openly claimed to not like it and to not have even watched it. He did not make his movies with people who love those characters in mind (the reason the Kelvin timeline is any good is because the ACTORS do an amazing job, and I will allow the beloathed the honest gratitude for bringing Star Trek back into the mainstream). He used Star Trek as a stepping stone for Star Wars, which he had FAR too much creative control over, and it crashed and burned as a result.

Quite frankly I hope he never touches the sci fi genre with his glorified big budget immature white boy power fantasy bullshit ever again.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Hell Here

Netflix has finally released a trailer for the long awaited Wednesday and i have to say, i love it! Listen, I've been a fan of the Addams Family for years. Long before those two excellent films (I'll get to those in am minute) i used to watch the old Fifties show religiously. It came on during the afternoon, right before Fox Kids Club. I watched The Munsters, The Addams Family, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Beverly Hillbillies. The standout for me was, of course, The Addams Family. When the Nineties films released, i was all over them. Already accustomed to the macabre shenanigans of these gothic good-fellows, i absolutely gravitated toward these more campy, eccentric, takes on the characters. I loved these films and my favorite character in them was, Wednesday. I literally fell in love with Wednesday Addams and developed an actual crush of Christina Ricci, one that I've held to this day. Suffice it to say, i am looking forward to what Netflix had planned but, more than that, it was cosigned by Tim Burton.

I really have to get around to that list of my favorite directors because there are plenty but Burton is up there. I love this dude’s style. I love the approach he takes to making his films. Burton basically makes live action cartoons. That’s it. That’s the draw. It makes sense as he got started as an animator at Disney but got canned because of his WAY too gothic sensibilities. The man crafts amazingly visual fairy tales and you absolutely have to respect the f*ck out of that. His films, however morbid, macabre, or weird, never disappoint. Even his stop motion work puts others to shame. Beetlejuice, James and the Giant Peach, A Nightmare Before Christmas, his two Bat-flicks, Corpse Bride, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Mars Attacks are all favorites. I trust in this man’s ability to craft a wonderful cinematic experience and look forward to what he contributes to Wednesday as a producer. I enjoy Tim Burton and, as a black dude, some cats might find that odd. Others, problematic.

Tim Burton doesn’t cast black people in his films. Hell, he doesn’t cast anyone of color, really. Like, Billy Dee Williams got to be Harvey Dent in the first Batman but, of the top of my head, that’s it. Everyone else is either Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, or Helena Bonham Carter. For me, i get it. The aesthetic Burton uses does not lend itself to those with melanin. In this man’s entire filmography, four films have had people of color in them. Cats are piling on the dude for being literally anti-black, which can be a thing. When asked about this lack of diversity in his films, Burton did himself no favors with his ridiculous answer but i get it. Dude leans heavy into German Expressionism. Striking whites to contrast exaggerated sets and costumes. Colors are as much a character as the actors and the palette Burton chooses to use does not allot for a lot of wiggle room in the melanin department. I get it. I don’t like it but i get it.

Burton is an artist. He is, by definition, an auteur director. If he doesn’t want to cast colored folk in his lily white films, that’s fine. I can’t be mad at a guy for following his creative inspiration, even if that inspiration is devoid of anything resembling representation. Does this mean Tim Burton is racist? I don’t think so. I don’t think Burton hates black people. I think he’s just comfortable with his deathly pale white folks. Do i think his films are problematic for their lack of diversity? Personally? No. If you get mad at Burton, you have to get mad at Peele because it’s kind of the same thing. More than that, Burton is really f*cking good at his goddamn job, man. I never once questioned why there weren’t any black folks in his movies because they were, very obviously, cartoons to me. Everything was surreal and exaggerated, so it was easy to accept that no one who looked like me, lived in those worlds. Besides, what black person is going to live in a place like Sleepy Hollow? What person of color is about to hire f*cking Beetlejuice to exorcise some ghosts or whatever?

Ultimately, i don’t think Time Burton has malice in his heart when he excludes people of color from his films. I think he just doesn’t believe they fit the look of the narrative he’s trying to tell. For me, it’s as simple as that. But I'm not a Zoomer and i did grow up on this man’s stuff. I have a much thicker skin for things like that because i grew up during a time when i needed one. I do love the fact that the youth are questioning the sh*t i took for granted, though. I love that they are challenging the status quo. Burton should be called out on this bullsh*t. He deserve to answer these hard questions but does his lack of diversity tarnish his filmography for me? Not at all. He’s still one of my favorite directors and i thank him every day of my life for vacuum sealing Michelle Pfeiffer into that catsuit.

[pennyserenade]

Your post about Colin Firth left me wondering what other actors you’d like to see Pedro do projects with… Like who would be your top five maybe?

this is going to be terribly bias, and sometimes not at all based on the people i think he'd work best with as much as it is my personal preference, but here it is:

al pacino. he's probably my favorite actor of all time, and i think if they found the right project for the two of them, they would really, really be great together. they both have a way of acting that seems to posses them - like they don't just act with their voices, but their entire bodies - and i think that would be so neat to see the way they play off each other. i know that they're both big on being on the stage acting too, so if they were in something together, i hope it'd be based on some sort of character driven play. i don't know what sort of dynamic they could have (maybe a mentor/mentee sort of thing? a sunset boulevard thing? an all about eve vibe? i think that all could be great).

ewan mcgregor. i have thought about this one an excessive amount because i absolutely love ewan. the fun thing about ewan is that he will do absolutely anything and his filmography is just so diverse. he's got westerns, musicals, romcoms, war films, period pieces. he's starred in so many films that have become cult classics over time, and i think he really is an actor who is underrated, even despite the fact that he is widely talked about. he's played everything from rockstars to jedis to journalists to christopher fucking robin, and i just think the possibilities are truly endless for what he and pedro could do together. i need someone to find a way to make this happen. if it's gay i'll be even happier

andrew garfield, and i do need that one to be gay. i've written about it here. i think that andrew and pedro both bring a lot of sensitivity and care to their roles and i truly and genuinely believe watching them fall in love would be such a nice experience. i think they could both do it in a way that doesn't come across as reserved or repressed in anyway, and that it could really showcase the beauty of gay love without being rooted in coming out or the fear that comes with that. they're both older actors and i think it'd be really neat to see them play men who know who they are in that way, even if they don't know who they are in any other way.

oscar isaac. i know he has been in a movie with oscar isaac, and i'm not shitting on triple frontier, but i think oscar isaac and pedro pascal deserve to be in a project together that is a little more developed character-wise than that. i regard them as the robert de niro/al pacino combo of today and i want a the godfather for them (preferably they will share a scene though).

bill hader. i think pedro has the ability to be a very funny actor on top of being a very serous one, and i think if he worked with bill hader, something very beautiful might come out of that. i love bill hader a lot, and this is partially because i admire him so much, and i think he and pedro would love each other because they're both films buffs. but! i really do believe that they would work well together and i do love a lot of the stuff bill hader has been in from the skeleton twins to barry to superbad. that project could lean more towards serious or funny and i wouldn't mind either way

also: ethan hawke for extra points, but i think that is happening, so all my dreams are coming true.

[seohyunpoint]

INTERVIEW | SEOHYUN ✦ ARENA HOMME+ OCTOBER 2022

SEOHYUN, 'I don't want to make only safe choices" 

Q. Not long ago <Jinxed at First> ended filming. The change in seasons was seen in the drama. How  long did you shoot?

 A. We started filming in September of last year and filmed for over 3 months. It was work I was so grateful for. The director was incredibly jolly and the direction was clear so atmosphere on set was truly nice. I got close to the actors too and it was a truly energetic site. Dramas film over a long period. I think the process is also important because I don’t live just for results. I was thankful and happy for this production process.

Q. A fairytale-like setting in the original webtoon, situations far off from every life, and events and set-up like a manhwa. The character also requires exaggerated acting. Did you have any burdens?

I didn’t want to make just safe choices. It’s my life, and as an actor my filmography will accumulate for the entirety of my life. With this project I wanted to show various sides of myself, and expand my acting career as I develop. 

Q. Is there a pressure to challenge new characters and show a new look every time?

A. I didn’t want to make only safe choices. It’s my life, and as an actor my filmography will build up for the rest of my life. Through this (most recent) project, I wanted to show another side of me, and expand my acting career as I grow.

Q. The character of Seulbi doesn’t look easy to play. Seulbi must have been a challenge, right?

A. She was a big challenge. In fact, I chose it because it looked like the most difficult project of any I had been offered. When would I ever do something like this? I chose it because it was a project I wanted to remain in my filmography, and after the first meeting with the director, I was certain. Last year I filmed multiple projects one after another so my schedule made it nearly impossible, but the director told me he could not it do it if not for me and that he would wait, so I made up my mind. It’s a destined project. And the character of Seulbi is truly similar to my personality.

Q. Your tension (energy/hyperness) was no joke?

A. That’s my “real” hyperness. (Laughs) I always had that energy whenever I went on set.  It was like that during ‘Love and Leashes’, and also during ‘Holy Night: Demon Hunters’.  It was enjoyable because the character was well-matched with my real energy. I had a lot of concerns. Since it’s an original webtoon and unrealistic, it could feel forced/inauthentic. Since she is not a character that is easy to identify with, there were quite a few points I was worried about how to express. Rather than seeking references, I read the webtoon, read the script, and approached it with the intention of bringing out the most Seulbi side of me and and melding that naturally. 

Q. You cursed superbly in ‘Private Lives’

A. (Laughs) Right. It’s even more lit in ‘Love and Leashes’. After ‘Love and Leashes’, even more diverse scripts came in. (Characters) ranging from high school students to their mid-late 30s. Since I’m 32 years old, I was grateful to be offered a variety of ages. In the past I was only offered roles in their 20s. As time goes by, I feel that the breadth of my acting is becoming wider so I think I chose my past works well so far.

Q. I think playing a challenging character can be a turning point as an actor. In other words, to elaborate on what you mentioned about expanding your range, it sounds like a statement of ‘I can also do this kind of acting’. 

A. That’s right. I never set a limit when choosing a project. I have never once thought for this or that reason I wouldn’t want to do (a project). I was always open, even when discussing it with the company. The scripts that came in after the drama ‘Private Lives’ become more diverse. I think a new side of me was seen.

Q. We’re also looking forward to a strong role from you in the future. Netflix’s “Song of the Bandits’ comes in strong from the title.

A. I have done a period piece before, but this is my first time doing a period piece set during the Japanese colonial period. The script is so interesting. Rather than taking on the challenge because of the character, I like the message of the project. The character is strong, she’s not quirky (*compared to Jiwoo, Seulbi, etc). After reading a script I choose based on what I want to leave and challenge in my career. ‘Song of the Bandits’ was a work that touched my heart greatly. It has really been a joy to film. 

Q. Even if the process might be fun, the hard part is the results. Isn’t it hard to detach from evaluations based on the outcomes that lead to them?

A. I don’t know about that. Of course, it’s the best if the result are good. But I think I would regret if I had to choose a work just eyeing outcomes. Without seeing a greater value, you are just chasing the light when there is a lot to gain from the shadows. I consider the process more important. As the processes accumulate, I think one will get good results eventually. It does not help an actor much to be bent on making choices only for the results. 

Q. Your heart must go in a different direction depending on the time period (you’re in) right? (Referring to characters she chooses to play)

A. That’s right. That’s why I’m content with my present projects not being consistent/uniform.

Q. How is your status right now?

A. It may be different tomorrow, but from where I stand today, I want to tell a realistic love story. It’s love stories that resonate the most. It’s a subject everyone navigates through and worries about. I want to try an ordinary everyday love story.

Q. You did a lot of of love stories didn’t you?

A. They weren’t ordinary. I was swept up in tremendous incidents, for example scamming or extreme suicidal situations. I want to try a normal and genuine love story that anyone can relate to.

Q. Isn’t ‘everyday acting’ an area that requires built up experience? 

Of course. There’s no acting that’s easy. Even seniors with 40~50 years of experience say they get nervous and that it's hard when they come on set. Acting gets more difficult the more you do it.

Q. You wont live like a moth to a fire!

A. Exactly!

Q. Where does your clear self-confidence and solid self-esteem come from?

A. It wasn’t this way from the beginning. When I was young, a lot of troubles and mistakes flew circles my head. I learned a lot from my mistakes. Things have already happened. I realized that if you have the time, it’s more important to think productively than blaming myself, being tormented, and thinking bad things. I tried little by little as if training my thoughts. What I did the most was read. It’s said that people know it all in the contents of a book, but I didn’t understand. So then are you living life just as it’s written in that book? I know you have to create good habits. But as you know, the present is hard if you can’t do that. If you want to change your life, try following the books, and if it doesn’t work, it can’t be helped. I set big goals and practiced them daily just as outlined in books. When I looked at myself objectively, I created habits toward the aspects I wanted to improve and life I aim for. As I trained my mind each day, from then my goals eventually started to come true. It’s even okay if I make a mistake now. Because it’s not like this is the only thing I have in my life. I already made the mistake, what could I do? I can do well next time. Like this, my thoughts changed. Life has become easier. 

Q. Don’t your friends say they respect you? (For self-esteem and confidence)

A. They say it’s fascinating. I have a lot of friends who say that (laugh). But this doesn’t happen overnight. I changed completely by working hard at it for around 10 years. I still get gloomy/depressed when I have a hard time but I recover faster than before. 

Q. What books did you read?

I read a lot of self-help books. I want to be accomplished and live my one life happily and enjoyably. Because I want to create a life that is better than the one I have now. What efforts did the people who make such lives make? Nothing just falls from the sky. You’re never going to just suddenly do well by doing nothing. You can’t hope for success after just a month of hard work either. That is greediness. Let’s keep at it. I trusted someday it would happen, so my heart became tougher. I gained something really big in my life (from reading). I think I gained the power to live believing in myself without being rattled or falling apart.  

Q. That is a respect-worthy attitude.

A. Life is hard. It’s hard, and you feel discouraged and doubt yourself and negative feelings keep piling up. Still you can’t let that happen. If you have confidence in yourself, you can do anything well.

Q. Seohyun-ssi, what is the most important value in your life?

A. It’s happiness. You can say life itself is about choosing happiness. Even if it’s hard today, I want to be happier today over the hope that I will be happy some day. I don’t mean just playing around and drinking. Finding a real, worthwhile happiness is my great purpose. Work is important but work is just a part of happiness. I don’t work for money or glory. I work because it makes me happy. Work is part of my life, it’s not my whole life. If you live for happiness, I think everything else seems to follow naturally.

Q. How did creating goals, following plans, and trying to develop mentally efforts help acting? Does acting practice follow that same path?

A. I think script analysis is important. To understand the work well and become one with the character comes first. The next question is how to express it. Rather than trying to express myself stylishly and beautifully, I want to get to the essence, why behave this way, why look this way, and after carefully analyzing each thing one by one I apply the voice tone and work on creating the visuals. So I do a lot of note-taking. Analyzing scenes is a given, but there are a lot of empty spaces in the script. A character’s life story isn’t in the script. I fill that void with my imagination. That preparation is important and I think it’s a job that requires a lot of responsibility. As the years of experience accumulate, that so-called vibe comes as a stroke of luck. I want to try to avoid that. I think I need to expand and develop myself. When I look at the world from only my experiences, my point of view narrows. When I talk to juniors I might say something like “when I was young”. What I experienced isn’t everything but I could get stuck in my own experience. When that happens I get angry with myself. Even when I act, I forget what I did in the past and try to continue make it new.

Q. You have no cracks. As an actor, what is the driving force underlying your efforts to create a character and maintain your original intentions? Could you say it’s a (moral) belief?

A. What doesn’t change is it begins with my own self. I think one has to be wary of looking at references and resource materials. Because it’s cool to create that person with my own color. When I am offered a project, I think I have to act in a way no one but me can do. I have to express it so only my own color seeps out. It’s my belief that I should not lose my color.

Q. To express colors differently from just your own, you need to collect enough data right? Observing everyday people and reading social phenomenas and trends shrewdly.

I like to observe people at cafes and Han River Park. Since my personality is polar E in MBTI, it’s hard for me to stay at home. I even read scripts outside. I also need a change of atmosphere. Sometimes I read scripts in in the mountains, sometimes I go for a walk outdoors with my dog, I even lay out a mat by myself and watch people. Sometimes open my laptop and work alone in a cafe. When you’re observing like that there are moments you gain something from it. These days it’s even fun to observe what tone of speech other people use.

SOURCE: Arena Korea

Note: Acting and self-growth related portions. Errors are possible.

[thealogie]

Okay Ryan Murphy was the dude in charge of The Prom but if you don’t mind explaining, what else has he done (in a filmography sense and a general sense ig lmao) and why do you have a thing against him (I mean this non-judgmentally in a “idk shit please explain” way)

the two shows I was specifically thinking of are the politician and Hollywood (both on Netflix). They have no plot or artistic drive or like...any real HEART behind them. They are simply like “what if concepts and buzzwords?? what if a diverse cast of people did fucked up stuff but also there are progressive themes? What if image after shiny image?”

I don’t even know that that’s his fault because glee (which I haven’t watched more than three eps of) did feel like there was a writer’s room that like had ideas! and was trying things out! and sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing! it was corny and real and people got invested because of that! anything on Netflix clearly has some level of very sanitized focus group tested quality to it where I do not believe people with passion and creativity are actually sitting around having fun and trying things out and saying oh wouldn’t it be COOL IF WE DID THIS!! If you told me they have AI rework every script I wouldn’t believe you because the state of algorithmic learning right now is still in a stage where the AI would make mistakes and accidentally create moments that are way more spontaneous and cutely clunky than what Netflix is putting out

[aion-rsa]

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Deals With The Mandarin’s Difficult History

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In a spectacular Marvel twist, the first Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings trailer confirms a rumor that the film’s director, Destin Daniel Cretton dropped last year: the Mandarin is Shang-Chi’s father.

Typical for the MCU’s shared universe, this plays out well on multiple levels. In the original comics, Shang-Chi’s father was none other than Fu Manchu. Fu Manchu was created by Englishman Sax Rohmer with his pulp fiction book The Mystery of Doctor Fu-Manchu in 1913. It was a stark, racist portrayal of Asians, and Rohmer capitalized upon the ‘Yellow Peril’ xenophobia of the time by milking his Fu Manchu character for a long running serial of over a dozen books. Fu Manchu became the West’s preeminent orientalist villain, a ruthless mad scientist evil genius with a signature mustache. The character was depicted in dozens of films, always portrayed by Caucasian actors with slant eye make-up including Boris Karloff, John Carradine, Christopher Lee, Peter Sellers, and even (in the spoof Grindhouse) Nicolas Cage. Even Ming the Merciless from the Flash Gordon comics was inspired by Fu Manchu. It’s essentially the same character right down to the facial hair, except in space. 

Marvel had a working agreement with the Rohmer estate to use Fu Manchu when Shang-Chi debuted in 1973. That eventually expired so the familial connection between Shang-Chi and Fu Manchu was downplayed later. Naturally, today Marvel needs to avoid reviving a racist stereotype, especially with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings boasting its diversity with the first Asian MCU superhero. 

Enter the Mandarin

The Mandarin was introduced in the comics in 1964, created by Stan Lee and Don Heck. He was another ruthless mad scientist evil genius, as well as a master of martial arts, and derived his power from ten finger rings based on salvaged technology from an alien spaceship. He was a major adversary of Iron Man, and in the MCU it was Ten Rings terrorists who initially kidnap Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) which inspires him to start creating his suit. The Mandarin also received some accusations of being a racist caricature over the years, although not nearly as bad as Fu Manchu. 

In the MCU, the Mandarin first “appears” in Iron Man 3, played by Ben Kingsley. The announcement drew early criticism of whitewashing the role, a landmine that the MCU would step on later with Tilda Swinton’s portrayal of the Ancient One in Doctor Strange. However, when Iron Man 3 debuted, it turned out to be another brilliant Marvel twist. Kingsley wasn’t the Mandarin after all. He only played him on TV. Kingsley was actually Trevor Slattery, a naive English actor playing a role, completely unaware that he was a pawn in global terrorism. 

It was a brilliant correction, meta in scope, especially because Iron Man 3 was heavily marketed to China. In fact, China got a different version of the film that included more footage of some of the A-list Chinese actors in the cast like Fan Bingbing and Wang Xueqi. It was a successful play as Iron Man 3 broke the opening day box office record in China at that time. 

So, is Slattery’s Mandarin Shang Chi’s dad? 

Of course not. In a direct-to-video Marvel One-Shot titled All Hail the King Slattery gets interviewed in jail by Jackson Norriss (Scoot McNairy). Norriss hopes to break Slattery out to introduce him to the real Mandarin. Unbeknownst to Slattery, Norriss is a covert agent of the Ten Rings. 

This One-Shot wasn’t a typical end-of-credit MCU scene. It was included on the Blu-Ray edition of Thor: The Dark World. For a while, it could be found on YouTube, however Disney has scrubbed it off streaming platforms for copyright issues. 

The Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings trailer teases the conflict between Shang Chi (Simu Liu) and his father, the Mandarin a.k.a. Wenwu (Tony Leung). Apparently Wenwu is the Mandarin’s alias for the film. The name means “scholar warrior” in Mandarin. It’s a novel moniker for the character suggesting that there will be other changes. The teaser also converts the Mandarin’s ten finger rings into glowing vambraces.  

Tony Leung is a decorated A-lister with nearly a hundred films to his credit. Considered one of the greatest Hong Kong actors of his generation, he won Best Actor at Cannes for In the Mood for Love. His filmography ranges from gritty gangster films like Hard Boiled and Internal Affairs, martial arts epics like The Grandmaster, Ashes of Time, and Hero, and outstanding dramatic collaborations with leading directors like Wong Kar-wai (Chungking Express, 2046) and Ang Lee (Lust, Caution). Like Iron Man 3, Leung’s inclusion is another play for the China market, as is this whole project. In the wake of the pandemic, China surpassed the United States as the most lucrative film market in the world. It’s great casting. If anyone can bring gravitas to the Mandarin, it’s Tony Leung. 

What Sets Asian Families Apart

Parent-child relationship issues are a persistent theme in Hollywood depictions of Asian families. It can be traced back to The Joy Luck Club, through to Crazy Rich Asians and The Farewell (both featuring Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings costar Awkwafina) and even into The CW’s reimagined Kung Fu TV series. However, it’s fair because the Confucian influence on Asian families is something to be reconciled for any Asian westerner today. 

Liu just came off the beloved Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience, which also tackled Asian family dynamics. Liu played Jung Kim whose prevailing story arc was the relationship between him and his father, Mr. Kim (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee). Sadly, the show ended abruptly in Season 5 when their creators moved on, despite already being renewed for a sixth season last year. Now in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Liu swaps an immigrant dad running a bodega with a ruthless mad scientist evil genius. 

With each new project, MCU is getting wiser about diversity and representation. In their latest project, the underlying racial issues addressed in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier have been on point. With Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, it’s looking like the MCU is going the right direction to correct a racist legacy into something positive. And we can all use more positivity now. 

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is expected to premiere on September 3, 2021.

The post Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Deals With The Mandarin’s Difficult History appeared first on Den of Geek.

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