#hollywood actors are truly a different breed

[the-sage-libriomancer]

nothing will ever convince me that actors deserve higher pay more than behind the scenes footage of the live-action Beauty and the Beast

i mean

i could n e v e r play this shit with a straight face

[oh-my-damn]

No, not exactly what I meant. There is some women who do not actually like feminism or want to be part of it. In America I guess it some religious groups or seriously republican, but there is others around the world. They don't want to be responsible for themselves. Some have this idealistic view of the past. You don't know what I'm talking about?

No babe, I do know.

I was talking in very realistic terms when I answered that ask.

I believe a woman who has worked since she was a teenager in degrading filmography simply for the mere possibility of getting noticed, is a woman who wants a career. A career wherein she becomes famous, nonetheless.

I believe a woman who has garnered enough momentum to land a Netflix TV show as the lead, is a woman who wants a career.

Which is why your argument is invalid.

You're addressing it as if Alba never wanted a career, when in fact, she worked quite hard for the minor one she had, at a certain point in her life.

Which proves she did in fact want one.

What I condemn is that she has now chosen to give that up to be a breeding bunny to a high-level Hollywood actor, who is 16 years her senior, and that it does not qualify her as being a "traditional" women.

She wanted different but now settled for less, clearly.

She settles for being known as an actor's girlfriend or fiancé or wife.

Which proves she is oppressed.

With the work that is proven she has done, I do not believe this was her fucking "lifes dream" (it rarely is for most women)

But I do believe it is now the life she has settled for because she's realized her own talents can't bring her further than they did, and she now needs a more popular man to fulfill the rest of her dreams.

Which is anti-feminist.

On top of that, she is a racist and so are her friends, so you know... She's a terrible person, overall.

But spoken from a truly, blindly, women's perspective, no I do not think she lives up to the expectations of a true feminist.

And speaking from a personal perspective: If I had ever done any work in the same field as my boyfriend/fiancé/husband, it would fucking tear me to pieces if I was only known as his girlfriend/fiancé/wife/significant other/friend.

She is okay with being known as that. She is even perpetuating that narrative.

Which is surprising, considering how much she clearly worked for her career before meeting that middle aged white man who so many people worship for no reason.

[mrchalamet-mrstyles]

*A MUST READ:*

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart never broke up. Indeed, their split was merely a distraction for the press that would guarantee the former Twilight stars privacy. In the interim period, where Pattinson got engaged to FKA Twigs and Stewart dated a series of women, including St. Vincent, the pair were actually living in wedded bliss. Their PR game was so effective that it helped to hide no fewer than two pregnancies for Stewart. Now, the Pattinson-Stewart family are happy together, laughing at the ignorance of the press and public who believe they broke up years ago and moved onto fulfilling and happy relationships with other people.

Of all the weird celebrity conspiracies that pollute the internet, the Robsten fandom may be my favourite one. It has everything: Press conspiracies, outlandish theories that would put Moon landing truthers to shame, the inability to tell reality from fiction, and of course, bad photoshops. Every now and then, when I see Pattinson and Stewart in the headlines, I go and visit the tin-hatters’ sites for that potent combination of entertainment and fear for my life. It’s astounding that they’re still keeping up this façade. 

As time passes, I wonder more and more if they truly believe it or if they’re going full My Immortal with the scam. It’s too outlandish to be real, yet the emotions behind it clearly are.

Sadly, this is nothing new for the world of shippers, nor is it limited to the breeding pair of Twilight. Name a prominent pop culture property and the chances are there are hardcore shippers whose interest goes beyond a fizzy hobby. Some fans truly believe that Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson are a real couple, which is hysterical because their chemistry levels in the Fifty Shades series are sub-zero. The stars of Outlander face the same shippers. Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss are secret lesbian lovers, according to a subset of their fandom. Cate Blanchett will eventually leave her husband and children for Carol co-star Rooney Mara, thus freeing her from an exploitative bearding relationship with Joaquin Phoenix. The Larry fandom have yet to admit defeat, even as both Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson admit the fan delusions over their supposed secret romance hurt their real-life friendship. The Supernatural guys may never shake those conspiracies.

It isn’t all romance related either. Spare a thought for poor Benedict Cumberbatch, whose already overzealous fan-base includes a portion of people who think he was trapped into marriage and fatherhood by his wife, who they paint as the modern-day iteration of Medea. They don’t even think his kids are real. Apparently, one of them is clearly a doll.

I could go on, listing the many other fandoms I’ve come across with these near identical conspiracies of secret relationships, hidden children, public relations bullying, and so on. From Scandal to Orange is the New Black to The Hunger Games, it’s as big a part of fandom as cosplay and dirty fanfiction. A lot of the time, the celebrities being obsessed over don’t even know it’s happening. 

If they call it out, as Robert Pattinson did, or mock it, like Armie Hammer recently did on Instagram after someone DM-d him to claim he should be gay like his character in Call Me By Your Name, then they write that off as simply proving their point. The majority of fans deride and condemn this behaviour, partly because it reflects badly on everyone else but mostly because it’s blatant bullshit that should be treated as such. What is most striking about these myriad conspiracies is how eerily similar they all are in terms of tone and content.

The basic set-up for a tin-hatter shipping conspiracy is thus: The pair are in love, the pair are in a serious relationship, but they have to hide it from the world because of ‘evil PR’. The nature of this shadowy public relations organization is never made clear. It’s mostly rooted in conjecture and a hazy understanding of how the entertainment industry has worked over the decades. 

Historically, publicists and studios have operated with a certain degree of shadiness. In the Golden Era of Hollywood, where studios reigned supreme, a star’s image could be kept on a tight leash and their indiscretions hidden from the public. Fixers like Eddie Mannix (made famous in the Coen Brothers’ movie Hail, Caesar!) could clear up all manner of problems if the occasion called for it. Pregnancies could be hidden, illegal abortions procured, marriages annulled or concealed, and even the occasional murder dealt with (allegedly). We know this stuff happened, and we know that today, publicists do a lot of work to keep their clients happy. That probably doesn’t extend so far as to covering up marriages and multiple pregnancies and fake babies.

The psychologies behind these tin-hatter conspiracies tend to be remarkably similar too. There’s always massive amounts of paranoia at the heart of their delusions. Arrogance is key as well. You need infallible ego to maintain repeatedly debunked fantasies. They talk of their conspiracies as if they’re the most obvious truths in the world, deriding the ‘ignorant masses’ who refuse to see the reality in front of them, which they’ve kindly circled in MS Paint. The mentality is frequently rooted in a strong brand of self-victimization: They tie their theories to social issues like homophobia and claim anyone who opposes their belief that the One Direction guys are in love are clearly bigots. Even when the people in question call out this nonsense, they’re written off as poor closeted prisoners of invincible publicists. The game of tin-hating shippers is designed so that they never lose.

That’s the sad part of this all. They won’t be proven wrong simply because they’ve invested too much of themselves into this fantasy. They run around in circles, desperately claiming everything is against them and only they are smart enough to know the truth. 

If Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan insist they’re just friends, it’s only to throw everyone off the scent. When Tony Goldwyn talks of his love for his wife, it’s just to distract everyone from his romance with Kerry Washington. If Robert Pattinson is smiling in public, it’s because he’s thinking of Kristen; if he’s looking a bit down, it’s because he’s thinking of Kristen.

When the fantasy does begin to crumble, the tin-hatters get violent in their rhetoric. Taylor Schilling’s rumoured boyfriend briefly deleted his social media after receiving harassment from her fans who think she’s with Laura Prepon (who just had a baby with Ben Foster). Rooney Mara’s so-called fans called her a disgrace for dating a man and claimed she was letting down LGBTQ+ kids everywhere because of it. Robert Pattinson’s then-girlfriend FKA Twigs faced all manner of horrific racist and sexist abuse for simply existing. It can be easy to laugh people like this off, but we’ve also seen what happens to celebrities when their obsessive fans decide to invade their lives. A 19-year-old fan of Lana Del Rey drove cross-country to her house, broke into her garage and tweeted about it. An obsessive fan of Paula Abdul committed suicide outside her house. Rebecca Schaeffer’s stalker shot her on her own doorstep.

Real person shipping (or RPF) doesn’t bother me in theory. If you just treat it like any other fandom hobby - safe, private, clearly fiction - then go for it. There’s a major difference between liking two actors and writing silly fanfiction about them and going to extremes to prove they’re actually married. 

The people who cross that line are a minority, but they’re a loud and insidious minority who shouldn’t be written off as mere ‘crazies’.

This phenomenon is undoubtedly fascinating and reveals a lot about various intersections of celebrity, media, the internet, fandom, and so on. It’s worth keeping an eye on, if only to ensure nobody gets hurt, because it’s not unique to internet culture. This stuff breeds, and that should concern us all.

Now, when do I get my shadowy PR conspiracy cheque?

[sky-kiss]

Vampire Urzai: blood drinking. If you wanna get specific: Ursa finds herself a boytoy to feed from (struggling actor Ikem). Ozai gets jealous.

A/N: *shifty glance* don’t tell Kiki. Since I’m technically supposed to be writing my plot still hahaha. Also, sorry the end is super abrupt and there’s not a ton of Urzai until the end. BUT VAMPIRES.

______

Probably don’t trust super sexy vampires in  a vampire club, Ikem.

______

Ikem would never be a star. His acting was passable; his emotional range was decent. He was attractive but hardly noteworthy, especially by Hollywood standards. He was an everyman. More than that, he was an everyman without connections, without talent, without money. She pursed her lips, watching the way he moved. The fingers of his right hand kept curling inwards, nails biting at his palm before he caught himself indulging the tic. He was nervous. It radiated off of him, colored his blood. She could feel his anxiety from here.

Ursa teased her lower lip between her teeth. The truly desperate made for easy targets. She motioned for the bartender to bring her two beers before cutting across the club.

This particular establishment was one of her favorites; a gift from her now husband. It was almost perfectly equidistant from both their territories, deep within the heart of no man’s land. Elysium suited Ozai’s taste more than her own, somehow elegant and garish in equal measure, but it was...comfortable. The thrumming of the bass chased down her spine, eliciting a comfortable shiver.  It’d been too long since she last fed; too long since she allowed herself the thrill of the hunt.

She painted on a wide smile, dark hair falling over her shoulder, cocking her hip against the table, “You look like you could use a drink.”

Ikem blinked. His gaze dragged over her, quickly, snapping back to her face. Even in the halflight, she didn’t miss the sudden flash of color. He dragged a hand over the back of his neck, clearing his throat. Ikem held up his glass, still half full, “I uh...I already got one. But...if you need a place to sit. Feel free. It’s pretty crowded in here.”

He had a nice voice. A little too soft to suit his face but otherwise unthreatening. Ursa nodded her thanks, slipping into the open seat. Ikem returned to his fidgeting, scanning the crowd. Amused, she sipped her own drink, “Looking for someone?”

“Yeah. Guess you could say that,” he sighed, shrugging, “Was supposed to meet a guy here. Some kind of casting director. But uh…” Ikem tapped his phone. The background, she noted, was neutral. Default wallpaper; he’d either just bought the phone or lacked any sentimental attentions. “Been here more than an hour now and he hasn’t showed.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Eh, guess I should be used to it by now.”

She shifted closer, just a hair. Enough to look beautiful, interested, not enough that he might notice the...otherness of the air around her. Even the stupidest mortal had a latent...awareness of surrounding Kindred, a hold over from their ancestors. Humans felt predators. They sensed them, sensed Kindred. She offered him the beer without comment.

This time he took it, smiling softly, “Thanks. I’m Ikem, by the way. If uh...my whining didn’t turn you off this conversation.”

“You’re stressed. I understand that,” the vampire held out her hand, “I’m Ursa.” A small shiver raced up his arm. He’d take it as chemistry, an electric pull between them, rather than fear. He shifted neared, even as the small hairs on the back of his neck stood on edge.

He grinned at her, ducking his head, “Well, Ursa. Thanks for turning my night around.”

____

Ikem liked her.

He liked her and he was desperate. She caught flashes of his thoughts (or memories, perhaps; they were difficult to sort) as they danced. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to make rent; he was afraid he’d have to move home. He dreaded the idea of going back to his apartment. It was small; the air was faintly scented with mold, wet. It reminded him of a graveyard, of freshly dug earth, and awakened a very real dread in the young man.

She held him closer, listening to the steady thrum of his pulse. Ursa smelt of of honey. Ursa smelt of jasmine, bright, clean scents to overpower the decay that hung around every Kindred. Ikem relaxed in her hold, tucking his face in her hair. She reached into his mind, smoothing each of those fears away. He was safe here. He felt safe with her.

Ikem pulled back, inspecting her face. His grin was easier. She felt the echoing thought drift through his head, organic, of his own imagining. Yes. He liked her. He liked being with her.

She pressed her lips to the underside of his jaw, voice low and silky, “I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

He shivered, grip tightening, “We just met… I don’t want to…”

Take advantage. He was sweet, if a little dull. She reached up, smoothing a few errant strands of hair away from his face, “Please. I...it’s been a difficult few months. My divorce finalized earlier this week. And I just feel…” she let the sentence drag off, dropping her eyes.

Ikem was sweet. Ikem was desperate. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.

____

“This is where you live?”

He stood in the doorway, eyes huge, trying to take in everything at once. Ursa laughed. For the first time of the evening, it was genuine. She caught his hand, dragging him inside, “It’s nice, isn’t it? I’m not here as often as I’d like so you’re welcome to stay.”

The words didn’t seem to register. Ikem crossed to the balcony. The back of the penthouse was all glass. At night, the heavy curtains were thrown back, revealing the entirety of downtown L.A. After centuries of life, she still found the view quite beautiful.

Ikem turned back to her. If she wasn’t mistaken, he looked...grateful.

It was a foreign concept to the Kindred. She reached up, threading her fingers through his hair. He was not like her husband. Not beautiful, not striking. Ikem simply was. He comfortable and boyish and dull. A palette cleanser, almost.

He kissed her again and she let him, humming into the touch. She let him take her to bed, let him undress her. He’d stammered out an apology as he undressed, struggling with his belt. She willed him to calm (and he did). Ursa settled over him, pressing him back into the mattress, lips pressed against the column of his throat.

She drank from him, greedily, barely away of his moans, the fitful way he clutched at her hips. After, she willed him to sleep.  In the morning, he would awaken with a headache. Tired but sated, convinced they had made love.

She brushed the back of her wrist over her mouth, cleaning the blood away before she redressed.

____

His blood was...rarely pleasing. Delicious even.

And he was convenient. He was desperate.

Ursa offered him the apartment. She offered him a job. Night guard of this very apartment complex. Ikem had stared at her, eyes wide and adoring. He clutched her to his chest, kissing her cheek and breathing against her skin, “You’re an angel. You’re a lifesaver.”

She’d smiled instead of responding.

_____

“You’ve been absent, wife.”

His voice came from inside her head rather than out.  Ozai sounded disinterested. An act, put on to appease his ego, rather than the reality of the situation. She could make out the underlying edge, the note of irritation, possession. She had turned her attention outward, away from him.

“Business, my love,” she responded. Ursa inspected her reflection in the mirror. While her husband stood no more than a foot behind her, his own image was notably absent. His clans curse; a constant irritation. In a show of deference, she recovered the glass, turning to face him. “Don’t tell me you’ve missed me?”

“Never,” he poured them each a drink. Blood, too viscous to pass as wine. Ozai crossed to her, pressing the crystal into her hand, “How is your...pet?”

The right corner of his lips curled back, sneering. As petty as it was, on Ozai it was an undeniably elegant expression. A month apart had weakened her resistance to his charms. She tamped down on the first stirrings of desire, “Jealousy is an ugly emotion, Ozai. Even for one as beautiful as yourself.”

“Not beautiful enough to keep your attentions.”

She laughed, winding her arms around his waist, “Would you prefer I drink from you every time I hunger? I don’t imagine so. And you have pretty young women of your own.”

“That’s different.”

“How, my love?” She could feel his irritation across their bond. Ursa reached out, smoothing it away as best as she was able, pressing her body against his. She nosed his cheek, “You know I am loyal to you. You can feel it. You see it. I would never stray.”

“I do not like your toy…”

She hummed, curling her fingers in the front of his suit, “I know, my love. Perhaps you should meet him. Set your mind at ease?”

They could come to an arrangement. They could share her toy. Ozai frowned, head tipped to the side like some great, indolent, predator. She felt the moment he agreed, a savage breed of glee flooding his gold eyes. Ozai nuzzled into her throat, “Yes, my love. Yes, I would love to meet him.” He grinned at her and she felt a sickly thrill chase down her spine.

[spryfilm]

“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” (2018)

Drama/Thriller

Running Time: 122 minutes

Written by: Taylor Sheridan

Directed by: Stefano Sollima

Featuring:  Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Jeffrey Donovan, Isabela Moner, Catherine Keener, and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo

Alejandro: [to Isabela] “You have no reason to trust me, but trusting me is how you’re going to survive.”

Critical Commentary:

There is no doubt in my mind that the release of “Sicario” (2015) three years ago not only announced a few new talents but also solidified quite a number more in front of, as well as behind the camera, it also was possibly the most underrated film of that year. It should have scored multiple Oscar nominations but for the most part flew under many peoples radar which is a crime. On the surface it was a film about drug cartels, revenge as well as the journey of a young idealistic DEA agent, of course it was much more than that as well as a precursor to the unruly politics that would follow just a year later. It also stated that the war on Mexico was just beginning, one that would not only rage at the border but on nightly television, ultimately right now in the White House itself. “Sicario” was that rare breed of film that had at its heart a female protagonist surrounded by men who were undermining her at almost every point, it had a well thought out plot as well as an almost Cinéma vérité narrative but with a look that was stunning in its widescreen lushness and not afraid to, at times pull back for the big picture eschewing star power and good looks for some kind of grittiness even though at times it was still a Hollywood film. The one aspect of the film that was overwhelming was that I know when I saw it I wanted more, now three years later the sequel has arrived, “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” (2018).

On the surface this sequel may seem like a real mixed bag, undoubtedly the star of the first film has returned in Taylor Sheridan the screenwriter, who has gone from strength to strength in his career having written the magnificent Oscar nominated “Hell or High Water” (2016), writing and directing his magnificent noirsh “Wind River” (2017) as well as the upcoming series “Yellowstone” (2018). Also returning are the definitely now great character actors, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Donovan in the same roles. Unfortunately there is a downside with the loss of Denis Villeneuve, Emily Blunt, Daniel Kaluuya, Roger Deakinsand Jóhann Jóhannssonare all not returning which does lessen the impact of the sequel but it is still a fascinating affair to be sure. What is great to see is that new fresh talent has replaced these non returnees to the betterment of the film overall.

“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” has been directed by Stefano Sollima an Italina filmmaker who is possibly best known for directing a large proportion of the series “Gomorrah” (2014 – ) based on the film of the same name, so the subject matter is not far removed from this new film. The great aspect of both films was to have foreign directors in charge as it always seems to be a benefit to politically charged movies, that to have someone removed from the situation in charge, opens up the narrative as well as the plot in ways someone who has a stake in the subject matter might do. This is accentuated by the look of the film, here Deakin’s has been replaced by Ridley Scott’s long-time cinematographer Dariusz Wolski who like his predesscor is an expert at creating both interior as well as exterior palate that are not only original but subject sensitive and eye catching.

The film is set fter discovering that Mexican drug cartels are smuggling terrorists across the United States border, the CIA sends Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and former undercover operative Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro) to eliminate the problem. They kidnap Isabela Reyes (Isabela Moner), the daughter of a drug lord, in a false flag operation designed to incite war between rival cartels. The mission goes awry when it is discovered by the Mexican government, prompting Graver to order Reyes’ death; when Gillick refuses, he turns rogue to protect her as Graver assembles a new team to hunt them both.

The quality of the leads goes without saying in Oscar winner Benicio del Toro who has become one of the great character actors as well as someone who can play physically imposing men that with the subtly in his face can play deep emotion, while Josh Brolin has aged well into his middle age and someone who knows how to build a character from the ground up, one need only look at his increasingly complex roles over the past five years to see the evidence in that. While they are both playing the same characters from the first film, it is del Toro who is the one with real growth especially when thinking about his arc from “Sicario”. Added to the mix are Isabela Moner, Catherine Keener, Mathew Modine, Shea Whigam and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo who all play new characters designed to reinvigorate the film with the light shining directly on Moner as the maguffin of this new story. Moner has to show a range of very tough emotions as well as starting her character in one place of dominance but winding up with her persona changed in a very extreme way with layers peeled back for all to witness. The other relative newcomer is Manuel Garcia-Rulfo who like his co-star is a changed character from beginning to end, something that is a very rare to witness not just in film but also for minority characters that are normally marginalised or reduced to stereotypes. All of the actors do incredibly nuanced work with material that is not only complex but much of the narrative just have been found in the edit so to see performances as good these is rare indeed.

There is no doubt that this is a narratively as well as plot heavy film that rewards those that stick with the complex goings on within the story, following different characters at different times with varying objectives as well as never losing sight of the human drama at the core of this challenging piece of work. The ways in which the story begins to unfold on different fronts of the world may seem scattershot but they are executed in a way that the audience witness how in the dark, law enforcement can be losing sight of the people they are trying to protect so that lines are blurred between the good of the many against destroying the rights and loves of the few, especially when we are talking about cross border skirmishes. For me the key to the film is the returning character of Alejandro Gillick who as we know from the previous entry lost his family to the drug war in particular one cartel leader who is one the plot points of this film. In fact the key scene and one I imagine the writer loved creating involves sign language, a family in the middle of nowhere and a small explanation of his past which for me was one of the two best scenes of the movie. This is a film loaded with meaning as well as motivations of everyone involved, one scene sees Matt Graver going to meet the Secretary of Defence a comment is made about him being sunburnt as he is always in the field carrying out covert actions. The next scene we see a roomful of Generals and politicians, it is easy to see the pale faced men who make decisions sending the tanned men out into the danger to do the dirty work, something that should not be lost on viewers especially as we hear and see these politicians changing their minds on a whim without a thought of those doing the work in the field. It could also be seen as a comment on those holding high office especially the Presidency who have never served in their life.

As far as this years films go “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” is one of the best so far, it is a truly great sequel that stands on its own in every way. It transcends the first film in that it is about so many elements of not only human nature but incorporates social, political and personal issues that are as relevant today as they have ever been. We see the fingers of the White House through an unnamed President who fears impeachment over public support or anything else, sound familiar? Another important aspect of the film that cannot be underestimated is the mix of genre that takes place within its narrative, at points it is a road movie, a drama, a political movie, a thriller and at times even has some comedy, it melds all these genres into one coherent narrative that never lets up from its shock beginning to its almost ultimate conclusion that is at once revealing, shocking but expected.

This is a film that must be seem and seen on a big screen it takes risks with its plot and narrative which pay off for the audience it is almost all believable in its own way with nary a false move which is something to behold. Even though it is missing some key figures in front of as well as behind the camera, the screenwriter has wisely pivoted the plot to make it more of an original movie with familiar characters than attempting to make it a fully fledged sequel which seeing this movie now would have been a major error. I recommend this even for those that have not seen the first movie as it stands on its own in almost all ways which is not something that can be said of all movies even though that is how it should be, something that has been lost over the past few decades.

Technical Commentary:

Video:

“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” arrives onto 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with an upscaled 2.40:1 2160p transfer with HDR10 from a 2K digital intermediate. Dolby Vision is not an option on the disc. While upscaled, the image offers a notable uptick in detail clarity over the 1080p Blu-ray – in particular for close-ups and middle shots.

With HDR10, the image enjoys a kick in the primaries without overdoing things. Reds, blues, and the abundant yellows throughout all see some nice enhancements.

While that is a plus for Dolby Vision, a negative is in some of the night sequences things just look too dark. The brief scene where the Spec-Ops team halo jumps in the middle of the night to capture the smuggler Bashiir is an example. That scene in HDR10 is still dark, but light enough that you can actually make out some of the details of the soldiers as they fall. Dolby Vision goes dark almost to the point where they’re shadowy blobs falling from the sky. Regardless, this 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray is a solid effort from Sony and provides a clean and clear improvement over the 1080p disc.

Audio:

On 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” is upgraded to a full object-based Dolby Atmos mix.

Dialogue is well balanced throughout and, like the DTS-MA 7.1 mix, Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score offers some great mood and atmosphere pumping up those low LFE tones giving that creepy dissonant vibes. Levels are spot on without any softness issues or need to raise the volume higher than you normally would.

Special Features:

From Film to Franchise: Continuing the Story (HD 8:06)

An Act of War: Making Sicario: Day of the Soldado (HD 15:34)

The Assassin and the Soldier: The Cast and Characters (HD 14:04)

Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin star in SICARIO 2: SOLDADO.

4K Blu-ray review: “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” (2018) "Sicario: Day of the Soldado" (2018) Drama/Thriller Running Time: 122 minutes Written by: Taylor Sheridan Directed by: Stefano Sollima…

[doomonfilm]

Review : Extinction (2018)

Here we are, yet again... the last few weeks have been devoid of major releases that I feel deserve my attention, and I find myself combing through the streaming services for ‘original’ content.  This go round, I found myself in the world of Netflix yet again, with a big old slice of science fiction in the form of Extinction. 

Peter (Michael Pena) is an engineer attempting to keep his wife Alice (Lizzy Caplin), as well as his daughters Hanna (Amelia Crouch) and Lucy (Erica Tremblay), happy and peaceful.  Reoccurring nightmares, however, make it hard for Peter to keep a sense of stability, as the nightmares seem to be clear warnings of an otherworldly threat racing towards everyone Peter knows and loves, with the intent to wipe them all out of existence.  The nightmares cause a rift between Peter and his family, as they are unable to understand why the man they love sometimes acts as if his family is an afterthought.  At the urging of Alice, Peter finally decides to see a professional for help, but his experience in the waiting room only furthers his fears.  Peter’s worries, unfortunately, become reality as scores of unknown ships emerge from the sky, bringing chaos and destruction with them.  As Peter attempts to protect those close to him, he slowly begins to learn more about the threat, himself, and the reality everyone is facing.

This film is full of pointed choices meant to make us question things that should be ‘normal’, only to validate these odd choices in the final 20 minutes of run-time through a surprising (to me) twist.  Like most any twist, many will say that they saw it coming from a mile away, but in my experience, I felt like I was seeing what I thought were quirks, only to have my expectations subverted.  It’s not the most mind-blowing setup and payoff in the world, but it definitely makes me want to watch the film again, as I imagine it will play much differently knowing the key bits of information I know now.

That being said, the film is definitely a good premise with a good payoff (in my opinion).  Invasion movies usually have a rigid structure, and are almost certainly about understanding that we’re ultimately all the same in this crazy universe, but this one is fresh due to the way it switches expected roles.  Even the role switch is not necessarily all that fresh, per se, but this film does it as more of a bait and switch scenario and less of an opportunity to teach a universal lesson (though the lesson punctuation is definitely hit as the film closes out).  

After doing a bit of research, I learned that this film is a rare escapee of the famous pit of despair that is development hell.  Many stars and directors have been attached to the property, but ultimately it could not get enough faith from a studio to merit production, promotion or a decent budget.  With the advent of Netflix and their focus on originals, however, we’ve come to see many of these so called ‘unmakeable’ properties become a reality, and while not all are the blockbusters that the creators dreamed that they would be, many of them do meet the expectations set for streaming service-level film.  Seeing actors in roles that you would not normally see them in due to these budget constraints is a nice change of pace as well, as Hollywood continues to prove how familiarity can breed contempt by placing a handful of the same action stars in all of their big budget action fodder.

Michael Pena shows an amazing amount of restraint and control in his performance, to a positive degree... as much as his silliness has become a hallmark, it would not have played well in regards to his role, but he did prove he can stick strictly to drama if need be.  Lizzy Caplan also gives a surprisingly reserved performance, allowing her pronounced moments to play extremely effectively.  Amelia Crouch is strong in her role as the angst-filled child, while Erica Temblay stands up to the task of the ‘young child making bad decisions’ trope.  Mike Colter essentially makes an appearance, but his role does not call for much in terms of depth or range.  Emma Booth, Lex Shrapnel and Lilly Aspell make brief appearances as the family next door, and Israel Broussard plays a member of the invasion force, but each of these roles are ultimately present to push the story forward.

I’m still waiting for Netflix to drop the film that lets us all know that they’ve truly arrived as a force to be reckoned with in terms of film release, but unfortunately, Extinction does not mark that day.  It does, however, continue to show a trend in the right direction, and an effort to make films that viewers will return to.

[laurenlaber]

Denis Villeneuve

There are thousands of movies and films being created every year. Some are really good, and some are awful. But what makes a good film? Dennis Villanueva is arguably one of the best filmmakers of our time. Dennis Villanueva is a French-Canadian film director and writer. He was born in 1967 in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He has definitely had a quick rising in the film industry. According to the online journal of trespassing art, science, and philosophy, Coming from the small national cinema of Québec to work in Hollywood, Villeneuve is a new breed of transnational filmmaker, one who has intentionally made films in Hollywood but only on a temporary basis, relocating his skill but not his national affiliation.” In 2017 he was nominated as best Director and in 2011 he was nominated as an international feature film for his movie Incendies. He has internationally won and been nominated for tons and tons of awards. He has well deserved every single award he has received. His artistic style is like no other. While shooting his films he will quite literally torture himself in order to get the best films possible. The globe and mail states , “Villeneuve retains a rare ability to give each film his signature – the searching themes, the scoured visual palate, the approachable darkness.” While filming he keeps the viewer fresh in his mind. His amie is to provide the best viewing experience possible for the people watching his films.

Dennis is just about as artistic as it comes. The angles he is able to capture in his films are extremely unique. He prefers inverted aerial shots and rarely shoots with steep angles. His films produce a dizzying vertigo effect. In an article published by studio binder the author stated, “Denis Villeneuve films approach violence in a very particular and brutal way but he tempers this darkness with poetic shots like the one above.” He also uses extreme oblique and inverted angles to suggest that the characters are in a world of chaos. His films are thrillers so most of the time there is extreme chaos going on in his works. He is best known for the crazy angles he is able to shoot at in his films. Villeneuve can communicate what his characters are going through in a really cool way. He uses light and shadows to his advantage. Lighting please to his advantage because it allows him to show drama in a natural way. For more intense scenes he tends to have darker backgrounds so you can really focus on the characters and their facial expressions. He also uses a variety of landscapes and locations in his films. He does this to show how big the world truly is. What we see around different characters and his films provides us as viewers with different context and meaning. Obviously we know the background of where the movie is being filmed but he’s able to show the background in such a way that makes everything tie together very nicely. He also highlights certain situations with his superb costume and production designs. Dennis editors films in a way that won’t show key things that are happening. It is very interesting that he does this but it works out very well in his favor. By doing this he lets the viewer use their imagination and create what is going on in their own head. This provides a very individualized experience for the viewer. When he’s editing his films he constantly has the viewer and their experience in his mind. He also will use music to his advantage while he is editing his films. For some of his films he will even edit around Music that he’s putting in the movie. This makes his films flow very smooth and they are very satisfying to watch.

I looked at the film Sicario that was produced by Dennis. This film was essentially a drug bust movie. Two sides of law-enforcement were going after the same cartel and pretty much worked together in order to track them down. They tracked down all of his locations and relatives in hopes to bring him to justice. According to a journal of culture and literature , “Sicario depicts the moral ambiguity of it, revolving around the issue of drug wars that have already ruined many lives.” This film had amazing cinematography. The genuine darkness made me feel like I was literally working along side the lawn enforcement officers. A lot of the time when movies are filmed in the darkness, the filmmakers will edit it to make them look like they are in a brighter situation with lighting and such. But in this film when they were shooting in the dark it actually looked like they were in the dark. I don’t know why but this just really stuck out to me and added a great edge to the film. The suspense in this film was also fabulous. When watching I was on edge the whole entire time. Even when something crazy wasn’t going on there was always a feeling that some thing nuts was about to happen. The film was very well-crafted but pretty dark. There wasn’t really much sense of hope through the film and it was very gruesome. It was so gruesome that it honestly rubbed off on me as a viewer. It was very well done regarding how gruesome it was. I felt like I was right along side Kate Macer when she was throwing up because she saw some thing horrible. They definitely did not glorify the violence which was interesting. It showed truly how awful these drug cartels can be and how violent the FBI agents job is.

I also watched the film “Prisoners.” This film was super dark. It was a very straightforward and believable drama. According to the guardian “Now Villeneuve has made his first English-language film, Prisoners, a long, brutal and occasionally gripping forensic crime drama.” This was Villanueva’s first English language film. And he truly hit it out of the park. Throughout the film I had to pause it quite often because of how sick and twisted it was. The acting was superb along with the cinematography. They were interesting angles and again the lighting used was fabulous. The film does a great job addressing some social issues. The parents of the kidnapped girl were obviously extremely upset because their daughter was kidnapped. And the police officers assigned the case were trying their hardest to get their child back to them safe and sound. The disturbed induvial was played so well. The actor that played Paul Dano was able to perform so well under the role. Villeneuve was in an interview explaining that he made the sick and twisted movie to explore a part of human nature that he is afraid of.

Villeneuve has created a plethora of different film styles. He mainly focuses on thrillers and science fiction movies. He is very well known for his film “Blade Runner.” He’s arguably one of the best film directors of all time. The way his camera angles are set up are amazing, he is very good at editing his films in a way to make it very pleasurable to be viewed, and he’s just extremely artistic and talented. According to a Peer reviewed journal, “Before he arrived in Hollywood, Villeneuve had established himself as a major force in Québec, part of a 'nouvelle generation' (new generation) of French-language filmmakers (see Lever; Melnyk; Poirier).” He has always been a force to be reckoned with in the film industry. I enjoyed looking through his films and what he has created in the film industry.

[cindersinrags]

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart never broke up. Indeed, their split was merely a distraction for the press that would guarantee the former Twilight stars privacy. In the interim period, where Pattinson got engaged to FKA Twigs and Stewart dated a series of women, including St. Vincent, the pair were actually living in wedded bliss. Their PR game was so effective that it helped to hide no fewer than two pregnancies for Stewart. Now, the Pattinson-Stewart family are happy together, laughing at the ignorance of the press and public who believe they broke up years ago and moved onto fulfilling and happy relationships with other people.

Of all the weird celebrity conspiracies that pollute the internet, the Robsten fandom may be my favourite one. It has everything: Press conspiracies, outlandish theories that would put Moon landing truthers to shame, the inability to tell reality from fiction, and of course, bad photoshops. Every now and then, when I see Pattinson and Stewart in the headlines, I go and visit the tin-hatters’ sites for that potent combination of entertainment and fear for my life. It’s astounding that they’re still keeping up this façade. As time passes, I wonder more and more if they truly believe it or if they’re going full My Immortal with the scam. It’s too outlandish to be real, yet the emotions behind it clearly are.

Sadly, this is nothing new for the world of shippers, nor is it limited to the breeding pair of Twilight. Name a prominent pop culture property and the chances are there are hardcore shippers whose interest goes beyond a fizzy hobby. Some fans truly believe that Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnsonare a real couple, which is hysterical because their chemistry levels in the Fifty Shades series are sub-zero. The stars of Outlander face the same shippers. Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss are secret lesbian lovers, according to a subset of their fandom. Cate Blanchett will eventually leave her husband and children for Carol co-star Rooney Mara, thus freeing her from an exploitative bearding relationship with Joaquin Phoenix. The Larry fandom have yet to admit defeat, even as both Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson admit the fan delusions over their supposed secret romance hurt their real-life friendship. The Supernatural guys may never shake those conspiracies.

It isn’t all romance related either. Spare a thought for poor Benedict Cumberbatch, whose already overzealous fan-base includes a portion of people who think he was trapped into marriage and fatherhood by his wife, who they paint as the modern-day iteration of Medea. They don’t even think his kids are real. Apparently, one of them is clearly a doll.

I could go on, listing the many other fandoms I’ve come across with these near identical conspiracies of secret relationships, hidden children, public relations bullying, and so on. From Scandal to Orange is the New Black to The Hunger Games, it’s as big a part of fandom as cosplay and dirty fanfiction. A lot of the time, the celebrities being obsessed over don’t even know it’s happening. If they call it out, as Robert Pattinson did, or mock it, like Armie Hammer recently did on Instagram after someone DM-d him to claim he should be gay like his character in Call Me By Your Name, then they write that off as simply proving their point. The majority of fans deride and condemn this behaviour, partly because it reflects badly on everyone else but mostly because it’s blatant bullshit that should be treated as such. What is most striking about these myriad conspiracies is how eerily similar they all are in terms of tone and content.

The basic set-up for a tin-hatter shipping conspiracy is thus: The pair are in love, the pair are in a serious relationship, but they have to hide it from the world because of ‘evil PR’. The nature of this shadowy public relations organization is never made clear. It’s mostly rooted in conjecture and a hazy understanding of how the entertainment industry has worked over the decades. Historically, publicists and studios have operated with a certain degree of shadiness. In the Golden Era of Hollywood, where studios reigned supreme, a star’s image could be kept on a tight leash and their indiscretions hidden from the public. Fixers like Eddie Mannix (made famous in the Coen Brothers’ movie Hail, Caesar!) could clear up all manner of problems if the occasion called for it. Pregnancies could be hidden, illegal abortions procured, marriages annulled or concealed, and even the occasional murder dealt with (allegedly). We know this stuff happened, and we know that today, publicists do a lot of work to keep their clients happy. That probably doesn’t extend so far as to covering up marriages and multiple pregnancies and fake babies.

The psychologies behind these tin-hatter conspiracies tend to be remarkably similar too. There’s always massive amounts of paranoia at the heart of their delusions. Arrogance is key as well. You need infallible ego to maintain repeatedly debunked fantasies. They talk of their conspiracies as if they’re the most obvious truths in the world, deriding the ‘ignorant masses’ who refuse to see the reality in front of them, which they’ve kindly circled in MS Paint. The mentality is frequently rooted in a strong brand of self-victimization: They tie their theories to social issues like homophobia and claim anyone who opposes their belief that the One Direction guys are in love are clearly bigots. Even when the people in question call out this nonsense, they’re written off as poor closeted prisoners of invincible publicists. The game of tin-hating shippers is designed so that they never lose.

That’s the sad part of this all. They won’t be proven wrong simply because they’ve invested too much of themselves into this fantasy. They run around in circles, desperately claiming everything is against them and only they are smart enough to know the truth. If Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan insist they’re just friends, it’s only to throw everyone off the scent. When Tony Goldwyn talks of his love for his wife, it’s just to distract everyone from his romance with Kerry Washington. If Robert Pattinson is smiling in public, it’s because he’s thinking of Kristen; if he’s looking a bit down, it’s because he’s thinking of Kristen.

When the fantasy does begin to crumble, the tin-hatters get violent in their rhetoric. Taylor Schilling’s rumoured boyfriend briefly deleted his social media after receiving harassment from her fans who think she’s with Laura Prepon (who just had a baby with Ben Foster). Rooney Mara’s so-called fans called her a disgrace for dating a man and claimed she was letting down LGBTQ+ kids everywhere because of it. Robert Pattinson’s then-girlfriend FKA Twigs faced all manner of horrific racist and sexist abuse for simply existing. It can be easy to laugh people like this off, but we’ve also seen what happens to celebrities when their obsessive fans decide to invade their lives. A 19-year-old fan of Lana Del Rey drove cross-country to her house, broke into her garage and tweeted about it. An obsessive fan of Paula Abdul committed suicide outside her house. Rebecca Schaeffer’s stalker shot her on her own doorstep.

Real person shipping (or RPF) doesn’t bother me in theory. If you just treat it like any other fandom hobby - safe, private, clearly fiction - then go for it. There’s a major difference between liking two actors and writing silly fanfiction about them and going to extremes to prove they’re actually married. The people who cross that line are a minority, but they’re a loud and insidious minority who shouldn’t be written off as mere ‘crazies’. This phenomenon is undoubtedly fascinating and reveals a lot about various intersections of celebrity, media, the internet, fandom, and so on. It’s worth keeping an eye on, if only to ensure nobody gets hurt, because it’s not unique to internet culture. This stuff breeds, and that should concern us all.

Now, when do I get my shadowy PR conspiracy cheque?

[suzannebyrne]

When the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Became a Thing With Celebrities

When the event was overrun with Kardashians, that was an indication! Here’s Kim Kardashian with Greta Van Susteren at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2010, the first year the reality star attended. (Photo: AP)

It remains to be seen whether the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, held on Saturday, will draw a celebrity crowd this year under the current conditions (i.e. Donald Trump being president, Donald Trump disliking the media, Donald Trump being the first president in 36 years to skip it), but the “nerd ball” has been a Hollywood favorite for years.

While it’s really a night in which the journalists covering the White House can have fun with the current administration — and in which journalism awards are handed out (this year by icons Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein) and funds are raised for scholarships for journalism students — Hollywood talent has long attended to provide entertainment (this year, comedian Hasan Minhaj, of Daily Show fame, will serve as host) and star power. News outlets started inviting celebrities to sit at their tables in the ’90s and that opened the floodgates — stars from Scarlett Johansson to Ozzy Osbourne have accepted the hot ticket. And, yes, there have been Kardashians aplenty.

This year could be different

The evening’s festivities usually involve the sitting president poking fun at himself (last year, President Obama literally dropped the mic after lampooning himself), but Trump wanted no part in that. He’s not going and neither is his administration as a sign of solidarity. In fact, he’s actually holding one of his rallies on the same day. (See, I have something better to do anyway! Noted.)

While there was talk celebrity attendance would be low anyway (you may have heard, Trump isn’t popular in Hollywood), it seems it will be even lower as some of the typical events that take place before and after the dinner have been canceled. Vanity Fair‘s hot afterparty (think: an Oscars-style bash for the D.C. crowd) was nixed as were bashes typically thrown by the New Yorker and Bloomberg. People magazine, which usually teams up with sister publication Time, pulled the plug on its annual pre-party, which obviously draws a big celebrity crowd considering the typical coverage, and announced that instead of attending the dinner, a donation would be made to the association. (Makes sense. A former People reporter says she was sexually assaulted by Trump while covering a story for the mag.)

Anybody here who isn’t famous? Paul Rudd, Rashida Jones, Amy Poehler, and Bradley Cooper were just a handful of the stars invited to the dinner in 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)

In light of the political climate — and the fact that Trump despises the mainstream media, constantly grumbling about “#FakeNews,” the focus will be less on the pretty famous actors and singers doing the step-and-repeat and more on the First Amendment. This is probably good news as some Washingtonians reportedly had griped about the “celebrity stink” at the event. Actual journalists couldn’t get seats at their own media outlet’s table because the brass wanted to have a big-name celebrity seated at their table, to boost stature, instead.

Another criticism of the dinner has been that it promotes a (too) friendly relationship between the press and administration (the New York Times stopped sending journalists in 2008), so with Trump not in attendance, some view that as a good thing for journalistic integrity.

Let’s be honest: Nobody was upset to see George Clooney at the WHCD in 2012. (Photo: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A brief history of the WHCD

Without trying to sound too much like your high school social studies or journalism teacher, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) was founded in 1914. The first dinner was held in 1921, and it was attended by all men. That didn’t change until pioneer journalist Helen Thomas pushed for a change in 1962. She pressured President John F. Kennedy, who then threatened to boycott the dinner. She scored an invite, and that was the end of the boys’ club.

The first sitting president to attend was Calvin Coolidge in 1924. Every president has since appeared at least once (so the Donald has three more years not to break with the tradition). Over the last several decades, the president has always attended. The last time one skipped was in 1981 when Ronald Reagan was recovering from his assassination attempt. He actually did call in though. (Even he didn’t miss it!)

Bob Hope became one of the first entertainers to host in 1941 — and other big names, from Frank Sinatra to Milton Berle, later did the honors. Comedians are typically on the menu (Jimmy Kimmel, Jay Leno, Stephen Colbert, Joel McHale, and many members of the Saturday Night Live crew), including some odd ones like Paula Poundstone and Sinbad. (Fun fact: SNL alum Al Franken is the only keynote speaker to later become a member of Congress. He performed at the dinner in 1994 and 1996.)

While Donald and Melania Trump won’t be there this year, they have attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner several times, including in 2015. (Photo: Getty Images)

As for Trump, despite refusing to go this year, he’s embraced the event in the past, attending on multiple occasions with his wife, Melania. (His children Ivanka, along with husband Jared Kushner, and Donald Jr. have also attended with and without dad.) While it was reported that Donald was unhappy when Seth Meyers made him the butt of jokes (for all his Obama birther comments) in 2011, he told the New York Times last year, “I loved that dinner.” Not everybody loved having Trump there, though. In 1993, he was seated next to model Vendela Kirsebom at one of the Vanity Fair tables and she said he was so vulgar (making comments about breasts) that she changed seats.

The celebrity boom

Will Smith made sure to get his own pic on the red carpet in 2016. (Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images)

The Boston Globe links the rise of celebs attending the event to 1987 when Fawn Hall, the secretary for Oliver North and a player in the Iran-Contra affair, was invited to the dinner by Baltimore Sun writer Michael Kelly. After that, news organizations began to invite high-profile guests. Just a few years later, in the early ’90s, Vanity Fair started hosting its popular party, and that really started to attract the A-list crowd. It didn’t hurt that C-SPAN began televising the dinners in 1993, as celebrities love seeing themselves on television.

Graydon Carter is partially to blame! Vanity Fair started throwing a big party (with Bloomberg) and the shindig, hosted by the editor in chief, always draws a star-studded crowd, including Kate Upton in 2012. There will be no party this year. (Photo: Getty Images)

For those covering celebrities, like us, we can further pinpoint it to a few years later when John F. Kennedy Jr., then the editor in chief of George magazine, attended with his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, in 1999. That year, the late president’s son made waves inviting Hustler publisher Larry Flynt as a guest (along with Sean Penn), but his canoodling with his wife at the event (kind of a rarity with those two) was an even bigger deal as, at the time, they were the most photographed couple around. Pictures like the one below, taken at the event, were everywhere — as well as a mention of where they spent their night out. We really started hearing about the White House Correspondents’ Dinner after that. (Sadly, it was rerun many times over when they died a few months later.)

John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy enjoyed themselves at the event in 2009. As editor in chief of the political magazine George, he invited Sean Penn and Larry Flynt as his guests. (Photo: Getty Images)

Those things sort of opened the floodgates. Models (Gisele Bündchen, Christie Brinkley, Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Ashley Graham, and Kate Upton) and sports stars (Serena and Venus Williams, Tom Brady, Apolo Ohno) have always been popular guests. Some years, entire casts (the top tier anyway) of shows attended, including the West Wing, American Idol, and Modern Family.

The odd mix of celebrities, newspeople, and politicos became a great breeding ground for funny photo ops. Think: Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne sitting with Greta Van Susteren. Sofia Vergara and Bill O’Reilly. Jenny McCarthy and Colin Powell.

Jenny McCarthy and Colin Powell were quite a pair in 2008. (Photo: Getty Images)

The list of attendees is truly a who’s who list: George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck (with Jennifer Garner in happier times), Forest Whitaker, Kerry Washington, Steven Spielberg, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis, Emma Watson, Justin Bieber, George Lucas, Mila Kunis, Katy Perry, Ashton Kutcher, Reese Witherspoon, Kate Hudson, Goldie Hawn, Mariska Hargitay, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, Jane Fonda, Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek, Demi Moore, Glenn Close, Rob Lowe, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jon Bon Jovi, Damien Lewis, Demi Lovato (with all three Jonas Brothers), and Claire Danes, among many, many others. (Honestly, the list of attendees is just so long we had to stop typing.)

On the other side, we can also pinpoint 2012 as the year the event jumped the shark, as they say. That was when the Kardashians attended as guests of Fox News. (Kim previously attended in 2010.) They shared a table with Lindsay Lohan, who was with her lawyer that night — and pretty much around the clock with all her legal woes.

Lindsay Lohan, with her attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, arriving at her table, where Kim Kardashian was parked, in 2012. (Photo: Kristoffer Tripplaar-Pool/Getty Images)

Though in 2008, The Hills stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt were there along with celebrity blogger Perez Hilton (real name: Mario Lavandeira), so that it’s hard to tell for sure.

Looking back, there were certainly some random attendees. In addition to Speidi, someone let Gary Busey in one year. Then there was a Bachelor summit another year with Andrew Firestone and Trista and Ryan Sutter.

No, this is not a meet and greet at a mall. This is Heidi Montag at the White House Correspondents’ dinner in 2008. (Photo: Getty Images)

Hot headlines

Of course, some great celebrity news has been born out of the event — and that’s all that really matters isn’t it? (It is to us.)

ScarJo and Sean Penn were in the middle of a hot and heavy fling in 2011 when they attended the dinner together. Us Weekly reported on their “intense” makeout session right at the table as “the main course of the dinner was being put on the table.” An insider said, “Scarlett was pawing at Sean, holding on to his hip while he was smoking. She gave him a short kiss. But then they took a walk some 30 feet away, broke off from the group, and kissed some more.”

Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn made out at the dinner in 2011. (Photo: Splash News)

Of course, it’s also the place where Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello met in 2014. Well, he checked out her booty there as she hung with the Modern Family cast. She was actually there with her former fiancé (yes, that guy), but when she was single and heard Manganiello was interested, they had a funny moment talking about the photo taken of them that night.

Sofia Vergara said this photo broke the ice when she was getting to know Joe Manganiello. Yes, he’s checking out her rear at the dinner in 2014. (Photo: Getty Images)

One of the best photos we came across in our search back in WHCD time is this shot of Sylvester Stallone and Wheel of Fortune’s Vanna White. Yes, they dated — and they brought their love to Washington in 1988. Check out Sly’s ponytail!

Yes, Sly Stallone and Vanna White dated. They attended the event as a couple in 1988. (Photo: Getty Images)

Then there was Arrested Development‘s David Cross, husband of Amber Tamblyn, who made headlines after the fact for bragging that he did cocaine under the table at the dinner — some 65 feet away from President Obama — in 2009. Though he told Playboy that he didn’t really get high. “The jolt was similar to licking an empty espresso cup,” he quipped. He felt a little bad that his politically active wife could no longer attend. “I was her date, her plus-one, and she got dragged through the mud because of what I did,” he added. “She had nothing to do with it. And because of that she’ll never be invited to the White House again. That’s not cool.”

David Cross with Amber Tamblyn at a WHCD afterparty in 2009. He revealed he did cocaine under the table at the dinner earlier in the night. (Photo by Niche Media/WireImage)

And, this is just sentimental, but Carrie Fisher arrived on the arm of Tom Hiddleston last year, but the Star Wars actress, who died in December, secured an invite for her beloved pup, Gary, too. So they were the most adorable trio of all time at the event.

Carrie Fisher with Tom Hiddleston and her dog, Gary, at the 2016 dinner. (Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

What will happen this year? Will any big stars be in attendance? Will there be more than 100 Trump jokes? We’ll have to stay tuned for that.

Read more from Yahoo Celebrity:

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[chevd-blog]

My Two Cents: Whitewashing and Politically Correct Casting in Film

I’m poking the hornets’ nest again. 

Recently, it was announced that the Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi, would be leaving Doctor Who at the end of the 2017 season. Now, I’m a pretty big fan of Doctor Who, so of course, this was a big deal for me. I’m going to be sad to see him go. At first, I’ll admit, I was skeptical-- I absolutely adored David Tennant and Matt Smith in the role, and Capaldi’s version of the Doctor was very different. But in time, despite being older and initially quite a bit more abrasive, the last season truly made me a believer (particularly his performances in “The Zygon Inversion” and “Heaven Sent”).

But I digress.

Of course, with the news of Capaldi’s departure, there’s been the inevitable wave of conjecture-- who will play the Thirteenth Doctor? And of course, part of this conjecture has been the now-commonplace suggestion that the role in question need not go to another white male actor. This is something that has been seen with increasing frequency in recent years, and which has been directed at everything from Star Wars to Marvel to James Bond. As a fan of these franchises, I’m invested in this discussion. So, against my better judgment, I find myself compelled to broach the subject of how to approach race and gender in casting.

Before I begin-- I realize that identity politics can be a very thorny and divisive subject, even in the context of the film industry. I’d like to note, as a white male film fan, the opinions I express here are only my own, and should be taken with a grain of salt. I mean absolutely no disrespect to anybody else, and I appreciate other perspectives on the issue, including ones that diverge from my own, so long as they are respectful as well.

So what is whitewashing? Basically, it’s the practice of productions casting white actors for non-white roles. It’s a very old practice that Hollywood has undertaken ever since its inception. This 2016 segment from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver sums it up quite nicely (warning: NSFW language):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XebG4TO_xss

(Just as an aside-- while the John Oliver segment succinctly sums up the issue pretty well, I don’t agree with the entirety of it. For example, Tom Cruise’s role in The Last Samurai was a fictional character, but one which was based largely on a real historical figure named Jules Brunet. Admittedly, the film did take some liberties with the character, portraying him as American, where Brunet was actually French. Also, while it is largely open to audience interpretation, my impression of the film was that the “Last Samurai” referenced by the title was actually Ken Watanabe’s character, and not Tom Cruise’s.)

As shown here, there’s been quite a lot of backlash against whitewashing in recent years, with demands of more political correctness in casting becoming much more frequent. On the whole, honestly, I have to say I find fault with both sides of this dichotomy. Yes, whitewashing a movie like Gods of Egypt is absolutely ridiculous. I acknowledge that. And I also acknowledge that Hollywood has a long history of white actors being given preferential treatment. On the other hand, blind political correctness of any kind irks me as well, because it feels like an incomplete, disingenuous, kneejerk reaction to a complex problem. It doesn’t actually fix anything, it just breeds resentment. I suppose, for me, the governing principle is actually as simple as plausibility and faithfulness to the source material. Let’s take this on a case-by-case basis, using some of the properties that are most important to me, and I’ll explain my stance on each.

Let’s start in the realm of sci-fi. As a general rule, I would say that diversity is a boon in sci-fi, because one of the inherent appeals of the genre in the first place is the removal of real-world racial barriers. There have been so many fantastic non-white characters in my favorite sci-fi canons: Sulu, Uhura, Worf, La Forge, Tuvok, Chakotay and Torres in the Star Trek universe, Lando Calrissian and Mace Windu in Star Wars, Morpheus in The Matrix. Likewise, for women, there’s Princess Leia, Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, and Trinity. All of these characters have had a profound impact on me, and serve as a way for sci-fi to do what it does better than any other genre: reflect on the human experience, which in no small part includes our diversity. So long as there’s no conflict with the continuity, I’m satisfied. So from my position, the uproar over Finn from The Force Awakens made no sense. In the context of the continuity, there was nothing that really seemed problematic to me about the character being non-white, and I’d love to see more good roles created for females and non-white actors in sci-fi. This is an instance where I oppose whitewashing and unequal treatment of women.

Fine, I hear you say. The characters you’ve mentioned here were all clean slates when they first appeared in their respective franchises. What about non-white or female characters who are already established, as with live-action adaptations of books or animated series? Here, again, I reassert my stance against whitewashing. The best example I can cite here is the upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie. I’ve been a big fan of GitS since the first season of Stand Alone Complex aired on [adult swim] over a decade ago, during my early college days. I desperately want this to be a good movie. And in fairness, until the movie comes out, I’m trying to withhold too much judgment, but... I have to admit, I’m not thrilled by the casting of Scarlett Johanssen as Motoko Kusanagi. I don’t like the concept of discarding an established character’s core identity for the sake of being more sympathetic to a certain demographic of viewers.

Conversely, though, this is the same problem I have with the other side of the coin: political correctness in casting for its own sake. To demonstrate, let’s talk now about a character who was originally created as a white male: James Bond. I’ve been a fan of the James Bond movies since I was a kid, so this is a franchise which is uncommonly close to my heart. I have every single Bond movie in my collection, and I’ve seen them all multiple times. Growing up, I respected Sean Connery’s classics, and the grace brought to the role by Roger Moore, but of course, my favorite was the current one at the time, Pierce Brosnan. For me, there was nobody else who could make the role his own like Brosnan did. And then Daniel Craig was cast. As I was with Capaldi’s Doctor, I was a bit skeptical of Craig’s Bond at first. It wasn’t because he was the so-called “Blond Bond”, as he was called by so many others. It was because he was so serious, so dry, so gritty. Whatever wry sense of humor Brosnan brought to the role, Craig seemed to remove. In retrospect, it was probably for the better, considering that Ian Fleming’s original books depict Bond as a lot less “fun” than the movies made him out to be through the years, and I recognize that Daniel Craig is a talented actor. In Skyfall, I was heartened to see him even starting to lighten up with the role ever so slightly. With recent rumors of Craig’s retirement from the 007 mantle, though, much has been made of creating a female “Jane Bond” role for an actress, or, as mentioned in the clip above, casting Idris Elba. Now, as I just mentioned, I realize the movies have not always been faithful to the plot elements in Fleming’s books, and for the most part... yeah, it’s not that consequential to me. However, I do feel that changing the role of James Bond himself purely for the sake of political correctness is a bridge too far. I don’t say this to cast aspersions on Idris Elba, who is a truly phenomenal actor. But it is a complete, wholesale abandonment of Fleming’s original intent with the character. As an artist and an occasional writer myself, that doesn’t sit right with me. Yes, the Cold War is over, and popular attitudes about Bond’s womanizing ways have changed-- but to alter the core identity of James Bond would, I feel, fundamentally shatter the franchise. For those of us who have invested decades in the franchise’s evolution, and in the character’s development, it’s essentially saying, “All that time and emotion you put into following this is now completely nullified, and you don’t matter.” And truthfully, what logical sense does it make, to alter a pre-existing character’s identity, when someone could just as soon come up with a completely original non-white or female spy character? You want a franchise? Go for it. Own it. Create a new character to rival James Bond and Jason Bourne at the box office. I’ll be standing in line at the theater for a ticket just like you. I’d welcome diversity in this genre too. I just don’t see the sense in throwing 50+ years of continuity out the window and antagonizing longtime fans of 007 to accomplish it.

So what about the Doctor, who, like James Bond, also has 50+ years of precedent to consider? Well... the Doctor is a Time Lord, from Gallifrey. Things are a bit different for Time Lords, as there actually is established precedent for drastic canonical identity changes during regeneration, including race and gender. During Capaldi’s tenure as Doctor, his longtime Time Lord arch-rival, the Master, resurfaced with a new female identity, Missy-- and it was a great plot twist. In the past week, once again, I’ve seen Idris Elba suggested for the new role. In this case, I say-- yeah, great, if he wanted the role, I’d totally support that, because it doesn’t contradict the character’s canon. There are only really two things I’d prefer to see in a new Doctor: 1) that it remains a British role, and 2) that it goes to someone who will be able to believably embody the Doctor. That’s it, no skin color or gender requirements.

In conclusion-- my biggest problem with the usual arguments about this issue (and to some extent, about identity politics in general) is that the discussion really isn’t so simple as to merit a black-or-white response. No single answer is correct for every instance. Whitewashing is a perpetuation of an exclusionary status quo, but baseless political correctness can damage a franchise’s credibility as well. When it comes to casting, my suggestion is to practice moderation, make decisions based on what is best for the craft of storytelling on an individual basis, and look to the source for a guide.

[justakidwriting-blog]

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly

The parallelism of the journey that Kendrick Lamar and black people had to go through obstacles teaches them a lesson at the end of it. To pimp a butterfly means to make the full fledged butterfly, a metaphor for an adult, look impressive or “pimped out” for people to imitate because of the ostentatious words that he or she says. The purpose for this is for people to listen and understand where Kendrick is coming from to implement what he says into their lives to make the world a better place.

 According to Wesley’s Theory, the black man does not know money. The term originated from the actor, Wesley Snipes, who also did not know how to save his own money leading him to not paying for his taxes and ending him up in jail. For instance, Lamar aspires to “... to buy a brand new Caddy on fours, Trunk the hood up, two times, deuce-four, platinum on everything’, platinum on wedding’ ring...” when he gets signed. Cleverly, Lamar compares this girl who it seems he’s in relations with the lyric, “...You was my first girlfriend..” but it could also be a metaphor for your first money paycheck because he does not rap about her in depth for the rest of the song as he only raps about what he will do with his money such as buying a house or a car. He supports the theory when he talks to himself, “... Your horoscope is a gemini, two sides, so you better cop everything two times.. And everything you buy, taxes will deny, I’ll Wesley Snipe your ass before thirty-five” meaning that greed is taking over which will leave him bankrupt just like Snipes was. 

Money always bring women because of how much you have. Lamar is in dialogue with this girl who talks down on him and he responds with the phrase, “..this dick ain’t free..”  This means that it does not just take physical appearance just for him to give it up to her as he also depends on the connection too. He even sees “... our friendship based on business, pension, pension, you’re pinching’ my percents, it’s been relentless, fuck forgiveness, fuck your feelings...” telling me that the phrase “money talks” came to be in fruition in this situation. She then tells Lamar that “You ain’t no king” in the outro leading to Kendrick refuting this by calling himself “King Kunta.” Kunta Kinte was enslaved and taken to America in the 1820′s. I am assuming that he broke it off with the girl who was toxic in life so since she out of the picture, Lamar can be on his shit. At this point of his journey, he is over confident because “Now, I run the game, got the whole word talkin’...” about him as a rapper. This is the time after the success of his first commercially successful album to me, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, putting him on a pedestal of being apart of the new school of rappers. The reason for his confidence or what he calls it, “got the yams,” is because of his commercial success as a rapper. Everybody goes through this when they are successful because it breeds confidence in the individual from perfecting what they love doing. However, black people are conflicted and misusing his influence as what the poem starts with at the end of the song.

Fortunately, he has not forgotten where he came from, the ghetto, however, he is stuck in the ghetto mindset as Hollywood is not the ghetto. “I could still kill me a nigga, so what?” is the mindset that will end any career of anyone, especially blacks because they are stereotyped to be that way, supporting it. The reason why it is fortunate that he has not forgotten where he came from is because he remembered what his mom said, “Shit don’t change until you get up and wash yo’ ass, nigga...” meaning that it is up to him to change that “dirty” mindset of people from the ghetto. Instead of stealing from his contemporaries and giving back to his community or for himself as what is apart of the ghetto mindset, he realizes “... that’s me at these awards..” because he is giving them recognition which will lead to more attention from the outside communities around it as what more black people should also do. Next, the ghetto mindset is filled with a variety of different thoughts that are in conflict with each other thus for your influence being misused. “If these walls could talk, they’d tell me to swim good... go deep... they'd tell you, it’s too late..” is the reason why the influence is being misused as the ghetto mindset keeps switching as it is also a struggle of identity of the person. On one hand, you could go “Hollywood,” and at the same time try to stay afloat to stay true to where you came from, or go “Hollywood” completely, or even accept that you will always be ghetto. Being ghetto and going “Hollywood” are two different lives that bring their own positives and negatives, in which tends to outweigh each other depending on the aspect of them each such as privacy. In Hollywood, you have minimal privacy while in the ghetto, you have the opposite. It can be a bad or good thing because it is attention that black people want, but for the good reasons such as our accomplishments, not our troubled past for example. He retreats how much loving black people including himself is complicated because “... you’re irresponsible, selfish, in denial... your trials and tribulations a burden, everyone felt it..” It is irresponsible how they always seem to steal from others, selfish how they fight each other when they suffer the most by racism and violence towards them, and in denial as some even forget who they are. They should instead be more in harmony with each other since they are in opposition with the world as it seems with the civil war movement being an example of other people opposing them. Granted, black people are the way they are because of their environment that instrumented for him to embark on his career to get out of the toxic environment.

However, “... if God got us, then we got be alright..” which tells me that Kendrick is putting his faith in God for the love of his community to not be complicated.  This tells me that Kendrick is religious, which is a commonality among the black communities around the world. Lamar is seeing the errors of his way by proclaiming “Lucy” as a motherfucker and saying that “I can see the evil, I can tell it, I know that it’s illegal.” “Lucy” is short for Lucifer, who is also the devil. One of the seven sins are greed and Lamar was greedy for money to this point, but thankfully for his faith in God, he now knows that money is the root of evil. There’s no such as thing as having enough money because someone will always want more, making you more greedy. Money is materialistic and if you value it more than the non material things in life, you will feel resentment that will turn into. a deep depression; Lamar experienced this and “Found himself screaming’ in the hotel room...  I didn’t wanna self destruct ...The evils of Lucy was all around me, so I went runnin’ for answers.”  The answer was God in order to be more righteous and put value of things that matter in life such as family. On the other hand, “Lucy give you no worries, Lucy got million stories... gon’ fill your pockets... got’ move your mama out of Compton..” but at what cost? The endgame of valuing money excessively will make you self-destruct as Lamar alludes to it in his poem. Money does not buy happiness because you will always want more, making you never happy. This song is very authentic to me it is the reason why some people put the values on money because of them being indecisive from either choosing what money brings to the table which is glamorous or considering the endgame of doing just that to change for the better . In the next song, “Momma,” he acknowledges his growth as a person and now he is matured enough to bring back his knowledge to his community. The people of his community lack the knowledge to not fall victim to Lucy for example as one which is why “We been waiting’ for you” is reiterated in the chorus. Black people tend to get envious when they gain success more than others which is why they stealing is one of their universal stereotypes. He goes in more depth in “Hood Politics” in why they are prone to fall victim to Lucy as violence occurs because of “The LAPD  gamblin’ scramblin’ , football numbers slandering’” in combination with the ambulance taking forever to come to a crime scene. This tells me that police on black people violence occurs frequently , wrath. The ambulance taking too long to help the people only brings wrath too as it makes creates an ongoing anger among the black communities leading them to feel hopeless, no one cares about them.

Like any other human who separates from what they were attached to before, they will experience withdrawal and that is what Kendrick goes through in “How much a dollar cost?” The reason why is because of what it brings as with money, we can buy whatever we desire. It is like a drug because anyone can get addicted to those things because of the effect of it but, too much of it is a bad thing because they will eventually indirectly control your life and you will never be truly happy no matter how much of it you get because you will always want moreMoney can also breed power depending on how much of it you have which I believe that no one will turn down if they had the opportunity to grasp. Luckily, God, in the form of a homeless man, helped Lamar reflect on himself and ask if it is even worth it because “ A humble man is all we need.” The reason why is because being humble in Lamar’s position will spread humbleness to people in lower spectrums to him to better the world to lead by example. Money is a desire, not a necessity like water because it doesn’t matter at the end because without it; it doesn’t kill you right? Another thing that doesn’t matter is complexion because “It all feels the same.” God breeds the notion to love one another in the Bible  so In “Complexion (A Zulu Love)” Lamar calls for complexion between white and black people to be like the Zulu tribe which is comprised of different ethic groups in one nation in South Africa. The reason why is because it is warranted for the survival of mankind since “... beauty is what you make it..” Although, the reason why this idea is not pro active universally is because of stereotypes which comes from how each ethnicity is portrayed on television in my opinion leading to him calling the ghetto hell on earth because complexion does matter to them. I don’t believe he is the only black person who preaches for more love and peace in black communities , but no one is listening so hatred for your own people can reasonably unravel in my opinion. There has been a cycle of violence between blacks, police and blacks, and white and blacks, making the preacher exhausted because change is slow and it always will be. “This plot is bigger than me, it’s generational hatred” is the message he is conveying in “Blacker The Berry” because it is the reason for change being slow and it won’t take just one person to preach for the betterment of his people, instead it will have to be a cycle of it for the hatred to disintegrate. 

Next, Lamar teaches to his community from his journey is to always be yourself in “You Ain’t Gotta Lie (Momma Said)” The reason why is because “... the world don’t respect you... And the culture don’t accept you.. But you think it’s all love... And the girls got’ neglect you once your parody is gone...” This means that being yourself is critical in life because people can ultimately extinguish between real and fake, all it takes is time. Everybody’s true color eventually shine no matter how dim they were before because it is just how human nature works. In addition, being yourself and secure with yourself is essential to one’s happiness because you will become care free in accordance with who you are. Self love comes with this feeling of security with ones self because you are happy with who you are. This is displayed in “I” as Kendrick reiterates how much he loves himself. To elaborate, Kendrick is trying to convey the message to love themselves then the love for each other will follow. Life is short and it should be appreciated, but many people take it for granted because of how they feel inside; the only way to achieve that self love is to confront your negative feelings and express them in authentic way to feel free. To connect with the previous song, that is how the world and your culture will respect you and girls won’t neglect you for having the fortitude to do that which most people around the world lack because of fear of people not understanding them. They are scared that if they do that, then they will be shunned away or even outcasted because it is common knowledge that people are afraid of what they don’t understand. These teachings put Kendrick in a leadership position and in “Mortal Man,” he feels that he is the new voice for the black people as other leaders,  Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. , and Tupac Shakur were. Throughout the song, he  contemplates how loyal his listeners will “As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression.” If I was to listen to what Kendrick is saying that blindly follow his word then I would not grow. Life is all about make mistakes and learning from them in order to not do them again which Kendrick experienced. The only reason why Kendrick questions himself, “When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?” is because when people do actually express themselves and conduct a harmonistic attitude, it is quite possible that it could rub people the wrong way because maybe some people will be in an opposition of those people from circumstances thus violence occurs which will only teach hate to the surroundings, making Kendricks words less credible. 

As we get older, we tend to realize from our mistakes and learn from them in order to spread awareness of it from people to not repeat it, however, history always repeats itself. I believe that the only way to stop to wheel is for more and more people to share this idea of love for mankind which is needed the most. You can’t love mankind if you can’t love yourself so growing and “metamorphing into a butterfly” is the best thing to do. To do that, we start from being a caterpillar and consume everything so that they can to grow into a butterfly that reproduces in order to survive. In other worlds, consume, meaning to absorb as many experiences and mistakes as we can to reproduce them as an adult because in latter stages of life, we get tired of what we don’t like seeing such as violence so it our our responsibility to reproduce what we consumed for other people to consume and grow into the butterfly they can be to start a movement for the betterment of all. 

[mrmichaelchadler]

A Look Back at Those We Lost in 2018

Below is a full index of our tributes from 2018, celebrating the unforgettable talent we lost like Penny Marshall, Stan Lee, Aretha Franklin, Burt Reynolds, and more. Each tribute includes a passage from the obituary, a credit to the respective author, and a link to the full piece. 

John Mahoney (1940-2018) 

“Whether it was in film, on TV, or on stage, John Mahoney found a way to always feel like he was present in a scene, listening to the actor opposite him and not just waiting to say his rehearsed lines. I was lucky enough to see him at the Steppenwolf, and he was so completely captivating that he stole nearly every scene he was in. What he did was so subtle—whether it was in “Frasier,” “Barton Fink,” or on stage—that it probably didn’t get the attention it deserved, but he’s one of those rare actors about which one can honestly say that he made everything he was in just a little bit better. And sometimes a lot.” (Brian Tallerico) [link] 

Jóhann Jóhannsson (1969-2018) 

“He leaves behind an incredible discography, made from his sensibility to tell stories with minimalist melodies, grandiose arrangements and meditative pacing that challenged the conventions of music composition. Aside from his own accomplishments as a nearly unclassifiable composer, his film work was pivotal to helping numerous movies deeply resonate with audiences.” (Nick Allen) [link] 

Steven Bochco (1943-2018) 

“On the Mt. Rushmore of TV creators next to faces like Norman Lear and David Chase, there should be a spot reserved for Steven Bochco, the man who changed the medium of television drama in the way he emphasized ensemble over star vehicles and multi-episode arcs over standalone stories. Shows like “Hill Street Blues,” “L.A. Law,” and “NYPD Blue” earned Bochco a stunning 10 Emmy awards, along with prizes from the Directors and Writers Guilds of America and four Peabody Awards. In 1996, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. He should probably have his own wing.” (Brian Tallerico) [link] 

Isao Takahata (1935-2018) 

“As a producer, he co-founded the legendary Studio Ghibli with the legendary Hayao Miyazaki and would go on to collaborate with him on a number of his internationally celebrated films as a producer. […] Without his efforts and influence over the years, it is safe to say that the animated film industry would be a markedly different beast than it is now, and definitely a less interesting one to boot.” (Peter Sobczynski) [link]

Milos Forman (1932-2018)

Milos Forman, the Czech-born filmmaker who helped revolutionize cinema in his home country before moving to America and becoming one of its most celebrated directors as well, has died. The man behind such celebrated films as “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) and “Amadeus” (1984), both of which won Oscars for Best Picture and earned him prizes for Best Director, passed away from what was described as a short illness at the age of 86 at his home in Connecticut. Mixing together surreal humor, documentary techniques and an interesting blend of cynicism and affection, Forman helped put Czech cinema on the map. When he applied those same techniques to the projects produced in his adopted country, the result was some of the most incisive, knowing and most profoundly American films of his era. (Peter Sobczysnki) [link]

R. Lee Ermey (1944-2018) 

“Ermey was fun to watch. He became an actor by playing himself, a rare breed of man who was familiar as himself—an American, a Marine and later, an actor. While many scream over Hollywood's liberal slant or other preconceived notions, Ermey's presence on screen was an example talent always wins out. We're all winners for having the Sarge in our viewing life.” (BJ Bethel) [link] 

Anne V. Coates (1925-2018): 

“Throughout a career spanning over 60 years, she worked on over 60 films, receiving numerous accolades that included two Oscars and four additional nominations, and is credited with creating perhaps the most famous single cut in movie history. [...] In 2003, she was named an Officer of the British Empire by the Queen in celebration of her career. In 2007, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, who had in the past nominated her work on “Murder on the Orient Express,” “The Elephant Man,” “In the Line of Fire” and “Erin Brockovich," presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award. She received her second Oscar, a Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2017.” (Peter Sobczynski) [link] 

Margot Kidder (1948-2018) 

“She was a spiky brunette with a sexy low voice, but she had her goofy side. Her “Superman” director Richard Donner once said that Kidder was so physically maladroit that if she walked into an empty room with a small trashcan in it she would somehow find a way to get her foot caught in that trashcan.” (Dan Callahan) [link] 

Tom Wolfe (1931-2018) 

“As a journalist, he would take subjects that I would ordinarily have little interest in—Southern California car culture, LSD, the early days of the space program—and attack them with both a zingy writing style that was practically novelistic in nature. He had an enormous depth of detail that made the subjects come to life in the most memorable and unexpected of ways. Later on, Wolfe applied those same techniques in the service of narrative fiction and came up with a series of best-sellers that included one of the most popular and influential novels of the second half of the 20th century.” (Peter Sobczynski) [link] 

Philip Roth (1933-2018) 

“Early novels like Goodbye, Columbus and later novels like The Humbling might show differences in relative aggressiveness but they grow from the same work aesthetic and the same desired relationship with the reader. Much like the greatest films, they pick you up, they draw you in, they show you a world—and the world, usually, is not the world you would have dreamed up. It is a world in which you are morally and intellectually uncomfortable.” (Max Winter) [link] 

Harlan Ellison (1934-2018) 

“That said: if you want to send Ellison off in style, do as he encouraged, and not just as he wrote: read more; talk back to any authority figure within earshot; raise a stink if you feel like you're being taken advantage of, even if it's by a friend; value your time, and don't be afraid to walk away from somebody you love if they don't; respect artists by paying for their work; denounce superstition whenever you can, especially when it seems harmless; reject platitudes, and don't let anybody tell you that your informed opinion doesn't matter. Life may be a series of confrontations, as Ellison said at least once, but you can't let the bastards get you down.” (Simon Abrams) [link] 

Claude Lanzmann (1925-2018) 

“The 1985 documentary “Shoah” was a movie whose critical reception, at least in its United States incarnation, was defined by a slight paradox. The nine-and-a-half hour movie about the Holocaust, specifically the Nazi death camps operated in Poland, was a work utterly defined by the personality, the aesthetic, and the moral determination, and determinations, of its director, Claude Lanzmann. [...] Lanzmann’s flame was an uncommon one. Filmmakers and people of conscience and compassion the world over would do well to keep its memory close by.” (Glenn Kenny) [link]

Tab Hunter (1931-2018) 

"And yet, it was the very things about him that the system sought to repress—such as a sly, self-effacing sense of humor and his homosexuality—that helped breathe new life into his career a couple of decades down the line. Now that he has left us, three days before his 87th birthday, Hunter will be remembered not just as a pretty face with an admittedly memorable name. He'll also be celebrated as a trailblazer whose accounts of his experiences as a gay matinee idol in Hollywood at a time when such things were unheard of helped pave the way for acceptance." (Peter Sobczynski) [link]

Aretha Franklin (1942-2018)

“Her lyrics told you to think, but her voice taught you to feel. She was a fountain of useful knowledge, too: She could tell you who was zoomin’ who, where Dr. Feelgood’s office was and the exact speed limit on the Freeway of Love. She also knew that the only path to immortality was through her art, so she infused every one of her performances with an otherworldly staying power.” (Odie Henderson) [link]

Neil Simon (1927-2018) 

“Neil Simon’s work was often about human connection. It was a message often hidden in humor, but he was clearly a playwright and screenwriter who believed in empathy and compassion, bringing together disparate personalities to ask a simple but crucial question: If Felix and Oscar can get along, can’t we all?” (Brian Tallerico) [link] 

Burt Reynolds (1938-2018) 

“His screen persona often fused the strong-silent jock-adventurer with the anti-establishment wiseass, a combination that had never been attempted in movies before, at least not to such staggering effect. In the '70s and early '80s, Burt (that's how you referred to him, as Burt) was the biggest movie star in existence.” (Matt Zoller Seitz) [link] 

Scott Wilson (1942-2018) 

“Every time I got to talk to him, he was unfailingly kind and open and, best of all, filled with great stories. I mention all of this here upfront because as you read this, I want to stress the fact that he was not just a great actor but a great guy as well. [...] Because of his association with “The Walking Dead,” it was ensured that his passing would not go unnoticed and I can only hope that the renewed interest in the man will inspire some to go looking at some of his past work to see what a truly gifted and memorable actors he was. He may not have been the most famous of actors but when it comes to the things more important than fame—little things like talent and decency—what he left behind will more than stand the test of time." (Peter Sobczynski) [link] 

Stan Lee (1922-2018) 

“It is impossible to fully grasp the influence Stan Lee had over the world of popular culture since he first achieved fame in the Sixties. As a writer, editor and publisher of comic books, he, along with an extraordinary group of collaborators, revolutionized and expanded what could be said and done in that particular art form in ways that reverberate to this day.” (Peter Sobczynski) [link] 

William Goldman (1931-2018) 

“William Goldman changed the perception of the screenwriter in Hollywood, often refusing to give in to studio or directorial demands—his list of “unproduced screenplays” is as long as the ones that got made. He was an icon in his industry that helped pave the road for well-known screenwriters that would follow him like Aaron Sorkin and Cameron Crowe. Movies wouldn’t be the same without him.” (Brian Tallerico) [link] 

Nicolas Roeg (1928-2018)  

“Roeg was one of the least celebrated influential filmmakers of the last half-century. In terms of the techniques that he helped refine, he's as important as Orson Welles or Stanley Kubrick. And if you judged contemporary cinema purely in terms of the grammar that it has borrowed and retained from past masters, you might have to give Roeg the edge, because of how he told stories.” (Matt Zoller Seitz) [link] 

Ricky Jay (1946-2018) 

“He was a sleight-of-hand magician whose illusions startled and amazed audiences throughout the world; a student of the history of magic who used his extensive knowledge to pen several books, and put together a number of museum exhibitions and lectured extensively on the subject; an actor whose cagey screen presence made him a favorite with such filmmakers as David Mamet and Paul Thomas Anderson; a crucial man behind the scenes who helped create a number of the screen’s most celebrated illusions.” (Peter Sobczynski) [link] 

Bernardo Bertolucci (1941-2018) 

“Bertolucci was the opposite of austere, providing the element of danger in these movies—this was dependent on plumbing a sub-conscious that could be seen as out-of-date in some areas, but that was part of taking such risks. Sometimes it felt like Bertolucci was providing the idea of a certain type of Italian film director of his time, and that idea was meant to be more than the sum of his filmography.” (Dan Callahan) [link]

Penny Marshall (1943-2018) 

“To some, she was the co-star of one of the most popular sitcoms of its era and a familiar face/voice on any number of shows over the years. To others, she was a trailblazing filmmaker who became the first American woman to direct a movie that made over $100 million at the box office, a feat she would repeat for a second time just a few years later. Whichever side of the camera she was working on, Penny Marshall was a consummate entertainer who could handle everything from the broadest slapstick comedy to serious drama.” (Peter Sobczynski) [link] 

from All Content http://bit.ly/2TogguT

[essaywriting011-blog]

One reason that California have been known as the Golden State is because of the influence of Hollywood

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One reason that California have been known as the Golden State is because of the influence of Hollywood

Final Paper

One reason that California have been known as the Golden State is because of the influence of Hollywood. The well-known reputation of the entertainment of Hollywood has been showed the natural advantages of California, such as the weather, coast, and the natural resources. Also, the Hollywood shows another side of California, which is the world-leading level of technology companies. However, it is controversial to state that California is shown to the world by Hollywood. In fact, I prefer the saying that the history and the multicultural environment breed the great potential of the newborn Hollywood at the first place. While Hollywood shows the diverse cultures in California, it expresses in the influence of the California history by showing the images of different racial people in the films.

California have been a state of immigration, attracting people from the world to migrate the family and invite them to contribute for the development of California. It is fair to say that California was built by the people with different ethnical backgrounds. However, Hollywood has not been treated equally to the contributors with different races. White can be always be the lead of the movie. For example, a white actor can play the role with quality of richness, smartness and toughness. A non-white Hispanic actor can play the role of a billionaire, a drug dealer, a villain, a genius, and a special agent. However, Chinese Americans have the least if the scenes in the Hollywood films. Chinese Americans express a very stereotypical image of neediness, Kungfu, or weakness. In historical speaking, the Chinese were first shown in California in the event of Gosh Rush in the 1800s. The image of Chinese miners in Gold Rush is influent to the image of the Chinese Americans from Hollywood firms. It is hard to truly know the Chinese culture through the media. I doubt that Chinese culture does not assimilate to the society of California. In the Chronicling California, it pointed out that the Chinese culture was not quite “fit” into the California society: “the expulsion of the Chinese is not demanded on the ground that they represent cheap labor… they are regarded by the thoughtful as objectionable because they represent a substitution of unchangeable foreign and hopelessly unassimilative material for that which is malleable and assimilative” (100, Hoikkala and Wallis). Most of the Chinese miners had the strong responsibilities to support their families by sending the money to oversea. The loss of currency conflicts with the California society also indirectly caused the Chinese Exclusion Act later in 1882. Comparing to other immigrants, Chinese suffered the unequal treatments, which is why it is hard to see the Chinese cultures in the early Hollywood films.

While Hollywood has published some great firms about the World War II, it emphasized the victory of the United States, avoiding the fact that how the California government treated unfairly to the Japanese American after the Empire of Japan’s attack on the Pearl Harbor. The Execution Order 9906

      According to the article “Hollywood has whitewashed Asian stories for decades. This year, they couldn’t ignore the backlash” by Traci G. Lee and Lakshmi Gandhi, they

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/hollywood-has-whitewashed-asian-stories-decades-year-they-couldn-t-n830241

  https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-hollywood-film-talent-is-flocking-china-1124383

[marriagebase]

How Jonah Hill’s Mid90s Captured 90’s Vérite

With characters essentially playing themselves, Jonah Hill presents us with a natural, documentary-inspired film on LA 90’s skate life. Audiences get a depiction of graphic skate culture through a slice of life, truly launching us into an artful, heartbreaking adventure. Hill’s style of directing and filming is not dissimilar to other techniques during the 90’s. With various other techniques adopted from No Wave and underground cinema, amateur filmography has its credibility way before the 90’s and their toy cameras.

Vérite Inspiration

What is No Wave cinema? New York City’s own No Wave movement really boils down to guerilla filmmaking emphasizing aesthetic above anything else. It was short-lived and had a huge effect on amateur, underground filmmaking due to its accessibility and practical realism that Hollywood failed to accomplish in its blooming grandiosity.

No Wave gave rise to Underground Cinema in a way that rejected “traditional definitions, aesthetics, and processes of filmmaking.” Processes is an important one since No Wave improvisation and shock value married low-budget often “found footage” types of approaches. It was straightforward and honest, scraped up and made into a film. Heavily inspired by punk and guerilla filmmaking, it challenged traditional roles of blockbuster, family-friendly cinema that permeated the 80’s.

With the rise of high-budget CGI films and special effects in the 90’s, you had a counterculture as with any art. Skate films and general punk culture invented all kinds of original film techniques and brought back a nostalgia for analog film. What was released in the 90’s? So much. You have Pulp Fiction (1994), Kids (1995) (huge impact), Forrest Gump (1994), and Dick Tracy (1990), which was the first 35mm film feature film to have a digital soundtrack.

Film and digital were becoming comparable; digital contesting film’s ability. It was the last stretch of analog film and production being a major entertainment platform. Jonah Hill plays with this conversion through the integration of grit and glam. For example, the switch to a 4:3 aspect ratio rather than 16:10. 4:3 hasn’t been popular since the 90’s, primarily used on TV and computer displays. Hill’s return to 4:3 only strengthens the film’s hold in its succinct technicalities. Hill also explores how this life may seem desirable from the outside but exposes the loss these characters have faced from being rejected by everyday norms.

Mid90s

This may be an obvious note: this article has spoilers in it.

So, what even is Mid90s?

Mid90s follows a young LA thirteen-year-old meeting new friends at a local skate shop. After escaping his shaky home life, this film explores complicated relationships and friendships amidst the dreamy setting of an LA summer piecing the events together.

It is also notably raw. Love is tough, and often dispassionate, and yet the sentiment from Mid90’s is captured by its gritty, blunt vérite style filmmaking on part of Jonah Hill. The actors are already their roles. These skate punks merely had to act out their world in front of a camera, a compelling vérite technique. The backbone of Mid90s is the reality they present for us themselves. Its a slice of life in the streets of 90’s Los Angeles with moments of nostalgia and torture, which is all childhood can be remembered as from Stevie’s perspective. From playing games on the SNES to browsing his complicated older brother’s music collection, young Stevie can’t help but find himself continuously with his new group of friends.

Stevie And His Brother

Once you’re in, you’re in.

Its an adventure from start to finish, literally thrusting you into a fight the first second you’re watching. Its engaged all the way to the end. One of my favorite scenes is between Ray and Stevie. After Stevie nearly gets killed at the end, Ray looks at him and says, “you take the hardest hits of anyone I’ve ever seen. You know you don’t have to do that.”

How film can capture an entire feeling in one scene is something explored by filmmakers and critics even today, and yet, this scene calls back to unexplained tension throughout the film. Stevie choking himself, hitting himself, torturing himself after his brother beats him.

Skating, to Jonah Hill, isn’t the glam that it is today. Skating was an artistic movement that defined major underground film techniques and participated in cultural and community love, however troublesome they may appear. They escape their homes and move onto the streets, skating and talking to one another. Our characters are living in the moment with Ray acting as a beacon of light, he wants more than just this world in front of him.

So, what connects dusty skate life to filmmaking?

Everything.

Party Scene

Its the visceral nature of growing up with and on the streets; characters playing themselves. Mid90s is something Hollywood completely misses and what influencers and creators should learn to harness in their own content if they aim at establishing realism in their own films. Self-aware, meditated and cool, Hill engages with the double edge sword of the 90’s that breeds on both nostalgia and pleasure. By capturing the life of characters from vastly different backgrounds and histories, Jonah Hill continued to capture a world that just simply can’t be translated into Hollywood blockbusters.

And how else can you capture a middle school kid falling off a roof nearly dying? Or the fragile moments between Ray and Stevie sleeping on their boards in a public park after a night of skating.

How Jonah Hill captured Mid90s stretches back to his own humor: laughing at things that aren’t necessarily conventional or funny. Employing language that is unquestionably controversial right now in 2018, he captivates us with things that were once just fine, just whatever. Everyday middle/high school language by 90’s kids that just did not bother about anything more than what’s in front of them in the near future.

Music plays a huge role in the film. From Bad Brains blaring after Stevie’s first cigarette smoke experience (how to mask the smell!?) to a peaceful, most-necessary Morrissey moment. Music and film obviously plays a prominent role with one another… how can you have an LA 90’s-inspired punk film without punk music? Especially when a character named Fourth Grade is seen throughout the entire film already filming things we can’t see on his camcorder and presenting it to everybody at the end for the first time: Mid90s. A fisheye, nonlinear guerilla account of the whole film full of clips and nostalgic moments overlapped with Pharcyde Realness. (Passin’ Me By might be the great allegory of this whole film?)

Mid90s Cast and Director Jonah Hill

Give it a watch and you’ll feel a surge of 90’s nostalgia rush over you quick. Notice his laid-back techniques. The camera is another friend skating from the mob of cops that rush to incarcerate. Hill’s resources come through with the outstanding amazing soundtrack and the all-encompassing glimpse into the world of resolute point and shoot realism.

Snippet From Fourth Grade’s Film

  The post How Jonah Hill’s Mid90s Captured 90’s Vérite appeared first on Resource.

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7 Truly Odd Monuments | Mental Floss

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7 Truly Odd Monuments | Mental Floss

7 Truly Odd Monuments. From weird modern art to those whose purpose has been lost in time.

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What the Novelization of Star Wars: The Last Jedi Adds to the Movie. It includes a funeral and what Luke was doing during those lost years.

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When Neighbors Were the Morality Police. If authorities wouldn’t enforce justice, sometimes a mob would take a stand.

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Prom and Homecoming Royalty of the 1970s. When fashion was all about the hair.

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Are Home Renovations Necessary? “Take a moment to consider this simple idea: There is nothing wrong with your house.”

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These Photos Captured What Happened When the United States Started to Ration Shoes During WWII. Americans were only allowed three new pairs a year.

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The 2018 All Hockey Hair Team has been Announced. The very Minnesotan presentation leads to a surprise #1.

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15 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Airline Pilots. The job comes with plenty of restrictions as well as perks.

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Morning Cup of Links

Ancient Humans Had the Same Dental Problems as We Do

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Ancient Humans Had the Same Dental Problems as We Do. Luckily, we’ve become better at fixing them.

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Enjoy a 1980 Disco Star Wars Christmas show on German TV. Starring Mark Hamill, who thought no one would ever see this again.

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Why It’s So Important for Girls to Find Role Models in Female Scientists. There have been plenty of them, but their stories weren’t told.

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Mary Patten, the First American Woman to Command a Ship. She was 19, pregnant, and had a sick husband to care for, but she pulled it in.

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See a compilation of dog and cat pictures taken during or after a veterinary visit. Some are sedated, some are angry, and all are adorable in their own way.

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A Garage Sale Find of Rare Beatles Photos Took a Collector on a Magical Mystery Tour. The photographer was eventually identified, and his strange story involved Bob Dylan, Richard Avedon, and the Zodiac Killer.

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Measuring a Pothole Goes Wrong. Cheshire West and Chester Council posted a now-deleted Tweet explaining how they determine which potholes will be fixed first.

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9 Tax Breaks for Young Workers. Even if you’ve already filed, it’s never too early to prepare for next year.

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9 Fuzzy Facts About the Komondor. That’s the dog that looks like a mop.

Links Morning Cup of Links

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Slavery at George Washington’s Mount Vernon

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Lives Bound Together: Slavery at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. The stories of the people enslaved by the father of our country is told in a new exhibition at Washington’s home.

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Watch the First Trailer for RBG, the Documentary on Ruth Bader Ginsberg. It’s a superhero movie starring an 84-year-old lawyer.

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No, Getting a Hole Drilled in Your Head Was Never a Migraine Cure. There were plenty of other reasons for trepanation.

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11 Little-Known Words for Specific Family Members. You can teach them to your niblings.

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[alexfryerproductions]

My Top 10 Favourite films of 2017

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FILMS SELECTED ON THIS LIST ARE OF UK RELEASE DATES. 

Since I won’t be able to see another new release before the end of the year, I thought it would be best to get my list of favourite films out of the way before I depart for France for the Christmas holidays with no internet connection to accompany me. 

This year has seen quite a wide variety of memorable and outstanding films through blockbusters to independent works. While these films have entertained us, they have also provided quite thoughtful commentaries on the world we live in currently, whether it is on the treatment of women (Wonder Woman) or Trump’s America (The Florida Project) or the treatment of race (Get Out). Some well-known directors on this list have produced what could be their best works yet, to the point where they may have outdone themselves, while some rising directors have shown great development in their own craft. 

Without further ado, let’s commence with the list. But before we get down to the top 10, here are some brief statements of honourable mentions and my most disappointing film of this year. 

Honourable mentions 

Thor Ragnarok (Directed by Taika Waititi)  

Yet again, the Marvel Cinematic Film has delivered not only the best Thor film, but the best directed of this series. Having seen Hunt for the Wilderpeople from the same director, I was excited. Filled with style, colour, joy, eye popping visuals and hilarity from beginning to end, this is probably the most fun I’ve had in the cinema this year. 

La La Land (Directed by Damien Chazelle) 

Self confessedly, I am not a fan of musicals but given my love Chazelle’s Whiplash, I went to see what the huge fuss was about. Watching the film felt like staring at Edward Hopper paintings (which they are evidently inspired by) crossed with a stage play. On top of that, Chazelle inserts what he crafted from Whiplash while also incorporating techniques from other musicals to create a piece that’s a loving tribute to an otherwise forgotten genre. 

My one dishonourable mention (or most disappointing film of this year)

Justice League (Directed by Zack Snyder/Joss Whedon) 

Make no mistake, after seeing Wonder Woman, I really wanted to enjoy this film. Unfortunately though, this is just filled with an endless stream of problems. It is bland, dull, directionless and doesn’t even know what do with any of its characters. I would have put Alien Covenant here, but compared to this, that film had more ambitious film-making and desire to tell a story (even if it did fall short on the latter). 

And now for my top 10...

10.) Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Directed by Rian Johnson) 

While I did enjoy the previous recent instalments of the Star Wars series, this is the latest I was most surprised by. The film is full of twists and unpredictability, which, quite frankly, we have not seen since Empire Strikes Back nearly 40 years ago. With a compelling set of characters, nostalgia that is occasional and playful, a loving tribute to our princess (Carrie Fisher), plenty of new and weird elements never seen previously and a thought provoking narrative, Rian Johnson delivers a great Star Wars film that expands the vastness of the beloved universe and is not afraid to take risks along the way.    

9.) A Ghost Story (Directed by David Lowery) 

For those who have not seen the film, don’t let the title fool you, this is not your average ghost story (no pun intended) nor a frightening horror film in anyway. It is however in one word: beautiful. It has the visual melody of a Andrei Tarkovsky picture accompanied by the apocalyptic mood of a Godfrey Reggio film and the surrealism of David Lynch. Lowery composes moving images that all make for a poignant film. It is upsetting, strange and truly a bold piece of work. However one interprets this wondrous picture, the message delivered by the of end of this film is very powerful. Be warned: this film is not for the faint of hearts. 

8.) Logan Lucky (Directed by Steven Soderbergh)

In a another piece of confession, I have not witnessed any of the works of Steven Soderbergh prior to this film. But having heard nothing but praise and being fascinated by his rise as director, I went in with great anticipation and boy did I have a great time. Truthfully, I haven’t laughed this much at a comedy in quite a while. Whether it is the hilarious delivery from actors, the tension at play during heist scenes or Soderbergh’s independent applications, Logan Lucky is a tremendously different and clever breed of a crime caper and practically the feel-good film of the year. 

7.) Wonder Woman (Directed by Patty Jenkins)

Given my huge disappointment with how DC films were being handled, I was very apprehensive in seeing this. However, after the first half an hour, all I could do was just breath a huge sigh of relief because of Jenkins fantastic direction with this superhero outing. Is it formulaic? Like all superhero films, yes it is. But this has more heart, substance, style, great film-making and a thoughtful message above all else. The film reminded me of Richard Donner’s Superman films in their charm, tone, sense of fun and wonder and Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy in their maturity and grittiness. Wonder Woman is ultimately a sight to behold. 

6.) Logan (Directed by James Mangold) 

This is probably the film to signal the beginning of the end for the superhero genre itself. Even though I have enjoyed quite a few outings this year, I have been starting to feel a sense of fatigue for the genre, which will inevitably come to an end sometime, much like how the western did decades ago. The X-Men series had its highs and lows but has, nevertheless, persevered. Thanks to Mangold’s film-making and his blending of the western, science fiction and neo-noir and the gut-wrenching performances from both Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart, this is not only the best X-Men film but the best comic book film since The Dark Knight.  

5.) War for the Planet of the Apes (Directed by Matt Reeves) 

It’s very rare for a final film in a trilogy to accomplish a task that provides a worthy conclusion. Thankfully, War for the Planet of the Apes, proves to be one of those rare occasions. Matt Reeves constructs a piece that not only stands well on its own but also provides a spectacular end to the story of our main ape, Caesar, and does so in a emotionally satisfying manner. On top of that, Reeves expertly blends spectacle with, character, narrative, jaw-dropping visuals and emotion to provide a blockbuster that will be remembered in years to come. 

4.) The Florida Project (Directed by Sean Baker) 

While I have not seen Baker’s previous works, I was completely blown away by The Florida Project. It is impossible to determine how much of this film was improvised (like other independent works of the past) or how much of the film was written, which makes it all the more a fascinating watch. Taking cues from Jim Jarmusch, Vittorio De Sica and David Lynch, it mixes the harsh realist settings with the colourful visual tone of the story. This is independent film-making at its most visually gorgeous. 

3.) Baby Driver (Directed by Edgar Wright)

Even though one actor in this cast has lost my respect given the recent horrifying scandal going on in Hollywood right now, it doesn’t take away my enjoyment and love for Baby Driver. Edgar Wright is at his best as he crafts a spectacular piece of guilty pleasure with truly masterful film-making. Wright directs a film, which is practically ridiculous for the right reasons. All that ridiculousness serves the edge-of-your-seat action, characters and narrative, which is why Baby Driver is one of the most creative action movies I have seen in recent memory.

2.) Blade Runner 2049 (Directed by Denis Villeneuve) 

When I first heard that they were making a sequel to one of my favourite films of all time, I was terrified...but Villeneuve has done the impossible and has made a worthy sequel that may even be cinematically better than the original Blade Runner. At first, I was not sure how to digest it, but then the more I thought about it, the more I loved it. The film wastes no time with nostalgia (although there are a few tidbits here and there) and tells a story in a way that is visually gratifying, and answers questions left from the first film while also leaving some new ones. Villeneuve makes every image in the film matter as he transports us into this authentic, apocalyptic, yet beautiful world Ridley Scott envisioned. 

1.) Dunkirk (Directed by Christopher Nolan)

Truthfully, I am a huge suck-up when it comes Christopher Nolan. Nevertheless, (having seen it on 70mm IMAX) I just wasn’t prepared for the cinematic experience of Dunkirk through its grand-scale film-making. This was the most intense experience I have ever had in a cinema given its manipulation of both sound and images (thus giving it a feeling of virtual reality).This is the film where Nolan shows his true mastery in the art of film-making, whether it is through the script, genre-bending narrative, editing, practical effects, sound, score and so on. Nolan channels the ambition of David Lean, the precision of Steven Spielberg, the suspense of Alfred Hitchcock, and the craftsmanship of Stanley Kubrick. Dunkirk is a breathtaking masterpiece that is not to be missed.