#i feel like its a weird side effect of running blog off a queue

[pagesofkenna]

Every time my queue runs out i keep checking the activity tab on the app like 'no ones interacting with me :(' as if anyones even aware im here to be interacted with

[baked-potatoes]

Review - Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018)

January 4, 2019

*spoilers included*

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson

Distributing Studio(s): Paramount Pictures (USA)

Runtime: 148 minutes

Rating: PG-13

US Release Date: July 27, 2018

Synopsis: Ethan Hunt and the IMF team join forces with CIA assassin August Walker to prevent a disaster of epic proportions. Arms dealer John Lark and a group of terrorists known as the Apostles plan to use three plutonium cores for a simultaneous nuclear attack on the Vatican, Jerusalem and Mecca, Saudi Arabia. When the weapons go missing, Ethan and his crew find themselves in a desperate race against time to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

I feel like last summer had an amazing and well-received queue of film releases (that was a weird sentence), and this seventh Mission Impossible installment does pretty well. Action movies usually are what they claim-- action porn-- but McQuarrie gives us a more unconventional take on the genre. Characters are believably flawed (Hunt makes a great deal of mistakes throughout the movie), and motivations are cloudy, as one might expect in the world of espionage and terrorism.

As a side note, the Golden Globes are this Sunday at 8PM EST/5PM PST, so I’ll be reviewing the Best Picture (Drama AND Comedy/Musical) winners after then! Which movie do you think will win? I’m excited to see who wins the Best Actor and Actress categories, since the race this year is intense.

Acting

What a great ride and medley of (mostly) rounded and realistic characters. Tom Cruise plays Hunt to a T in this film, spilling his heart on his sleeve and giving Ethan Hunt a fresh vulnerability. And Hunt is all too realistic, making mistakes and swearing profusely, just as any person would in his messy situation in this film. I think I saw him cry when he mourned Alec Baldwin’s Alan Hunley’s death, and it was the sort of ugly crying that shows off a well-developed acting ability and depth. Hunt’s character is massively rounded in this film, and coupled with cast chemistry and impressive stunt work, it works out really well.

Speaking of Hunley’s death, we get to see Henry Cavill as the main antagonist-- the man revealed to be the mysterious John Lark. It’s a complete far cry from Clark Kent as he plays the duplicitous CIA assassin August Walker (such a cool name), complete with a porno mustache and angry bicep reloading. Cavill captures this character’s essence extraordinarily well as a bitter, somewhat-insane man who complements Ethan Hunt-- for better or for worse. From the co-op bathroom (smartly-edited) fight against Liang Yang’s character to the final standoff on a collapsing cliff, Cavill’s turn as Walker shines in every mannerism and action.

Rebecca Ferguson comes back as MI6 agent Ilsa Faust from MI: Rogue Nation and plays her conflicted character to a similar T; a scene between her and Hunt in a wooded canopy park is one of the quietest yet vulnerable moments in the film. Perhaps the character arc is a bit exhausted after two films, but her character nicely fits into the IMF as it does in Rogue Nation. Like I mentioned, I didn’t really see how her character would develop over the course of this film, but I can see a real humanity within her as she tearfully reunites with Hunt and learns of the existence of his ex-wife, Julia: a compassionate and capable (if slightly boring) returning character who parallels Ilsa’s life and choices, played by Michelle Monaghan.

Other stand out performances include that of Sean Harris, who reprises as Solomon Lane. I have mixed feelings about his character because it just looks like his role in Rogue Nation but pushed to a side antagonist role. Harris plays it beautifully though, and it really looks like the deranged terrorist I remember from Rogue Nation.

Some other standout roles: Angela Bassett as CIA director Erika Sloane is powerful, capable, and as nice as you’d expect from a CIA director (meaning, not very). Her character is shrewd and cynical throughout the entire film and radiates careful danger. The ending speech to Hunt about saving one person over millions seems a bit clichéd, but it’s a well-played concession to Hunt’s humanity. Alec Baldwin does quite well as a final arc for CIA-turned-IMF secretary Alan Hunley, and his death genuinely moves Hunt enough to chase Walker around the city. Overall, his character and Simon Pegg’s Benji Dunn are played for laughs (I laughed at some of the running gags throughout the franchise, such as Benji messing up gloriously as a sidekick), but they and the rest of the IMF deliver brilliantly in the near-hopeless finale, when the nuclear bombs seem slated to go off and render their efforts meaningless. Ving Rhames is, of course, stalwart, and it’s just a well-rounded, chemistry-filled cast of characters that I’m excited to see in the next MI.

Directing, Screenplay, Cinematography, Soundtrack

Christopher McQuarrie comes back from Rogue Nation to direct but aimed to create a different tone than the fifth film (as all of them do), and it pays off really well. Fallout mixes thrilling action, sympathetic arcs, and well-crafted plot twists to deliver a unique film for the IMF. His choice to do a long take for the HALO jump keeps the pace of that scene suspenseful and exciting, and that bathroom fight is smartly filmed without shaky cam or fast jump cuts, showing us how Hunt is a scalpel while Walker is a hammer (as noted by Sloane) in their fighting styles. And the two characters were beaten by Liang Yang’s John Lark decoy, showing us a great motif McQuarrie wants to show us in his script and direction: that these seemingly perfect people make mistakes. Hunt’s mistakes are continually mocked by other characters and often lead to genuinely terrifying consequences (although I laughed when Hunt tries to drop a helicopter payload onto Walker’s helicopter and fails, swearing). And even as Tom Cruise does these mind-bendingly amazing stunts, McQuarrie brings him a real vulnerability and does so for the entire cast. Well, Walker didn’t really have too many redeeming qualities (and his villain reveal seemed kind of clumsy in his dialogue), but I found him incredibly complex either way. He’s painted as a villain and assassin, but he’s loyal and ruthless for the CIA, which is really exciting to see. It’s not often that you see a unflinching and brave villain because those are qualities you’d expect in the hero, not the villain. The rest of the characters make mistakes too, as Benji fumbles with his navigation tablet and Ilsa misses shots from her motorcycle.

McQuarrie also made the decision to bring Lorne Balfe as the composer for this film’s soundtrack, and I have to say, bravo. Balfe’s soundtrack complements McQuarrie’s sympathetic and vulnerable script with a suspenseful yet moving score. There are elements of Lalo Schifrin's Mission Impossible theme mixed in with a softer, quieter tone overall. Some critics complained about the “Nolan-esque” style, saying it sounded too much like Hans Zimmer, but I disagree. It has its own style that fits in with McQuarrie’s direction and complements well with many beautifully shot scenes (side-scrolling London sprinting, anyone?), and honestly, I’d be thrilled if I were compared to Hans Zimmer.

Speaking of the cinematography, I enjoyed it a lot. Most of the film is shot in 35mm film (the ubiquitous film format). Cinematographer Rob Hardy collaborated with McQuarrie to create a closeup, gritty visual style, and it creates a strangely intimate yet pulse-pounding effect. Going back to that bathroom fight, Hardy used fluorescent lighting to contrast against the Palais party’s rave lighting and the brutality of the close-up and well-edited brawl. That infamous HALO jump is shot in digital IMAX over Abu Dhabi (recreated in post-production into Paris) and apparently could only be shot as one take per day (shortly after sunset).

Summary and Rating

Mission Impossible: Fallout brings an excellent take on the franchise as it delves into a combination of thrilling action and complex emotions.

9/10 : Hot Potato!

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission:_Impossible_%E2%80%93_Fallout

https://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/blog/blog_post/?contentid=4295008965

[mbrl]

a giant update!

 posted first here bc yolo

roadmap-

the stuff i bought from forever 21 today c:

other stuff i did today!

closing the chapter to january (the worst month i’ve had to deal with for awhile?)

things i look forward to in the future: march, april, may, summer.

oh my god i got really cute things from forever 21!! finally ordered a white/light grey windbreaker with swordfish pattern all over it for $20. also got white dolphin shorts (like dolphin style, not literal dolphins) with rainbow stripes on the side. and a dark-ish pink/blush off the shoulder dress with ties on the arm.. it’s kind of weird but was on sale for valentines day & idk how off the shoulder styles look on me... we’ll see ig! it’s really cute and flowy. and another dress, but maroon and long sleeve and floral, kind of in a baby doll fit. it’s lowkey mockneck so the reviews are like help i can’t fit my head through but .. hopefully it fits! there’s some really small lace parts on the sleeve :). and a white flowy vneck top with a bunch of pink flowers on it and a tie in the front. bell-ish sleeves with lace on the upper shoulders and parts of the back! oo and a light weight grey hoodie with kinda cheesy but still cool cool-toned floral embroidery on the hood. it’s p unique but the quality probably sucks and isn’t soft. lastly a peach mid-maxi skirt that has some sheer parts for the bottom half!! it’s like those ballet rehearsal skirts style. 

okay clearly i really like dresses and i think i’m going to start wearing more pink/color because i’m totally over winter in general and how drab that season is. honestly just light warm colors that kind of are reminiscent of furniture fabric/granny aesthetic is totally my vibe. like i want to look like i don’t give a fuck, but not in an emo way but more in a.... idk. i actually don’t know how to explicate my vibe but its like laid back and californian and whatever. hypebeast/grandma/passionate napper/hiker/couch appearance :) also i’m really happy to just sorta word dump and get my thoughts out again because they’re finally good vibes and i feel super excited to share it with my ... laptop screen & whoever’s reading! like getting outta funks is so nice and lowkey reminiscent of a few months ago when i finally got over this stupid boy

anyway okay. today i woke up at 9-10ish because i slept at 3am yesterday :( i felt really weird (ig you can describe as anxious) because of something i did, and i tried to do that thing where i imagined trump spouting all the self hate/angsty vibes i was telling myself, but i didn’t really purge the angst all that much. also i had taken a nap after school + drank boba the day before... (and 2 days before then i slept at 2 bc i had half a cup of green tea in the evening...) also i got angry at myself that i couldn’t sleep because it’s just annoying. it’s 12 am right now and i didn’t take any naps today but i’ll definitely be content & ready to sleep after i right this. so after i woke up, i spent like a few hours cleaning out my room-- i fixed the organization of my desk drawers so it could be more efficient and less cluttered. also the night before when i couldn’t sleep, i hung up all my clothes so that was nice. then in the early afternoon, i finished math hw (literally had 2 problems left, one of which i didn’t know how to do....) and did some japan bowl studying! i also started chatting hella people to ask for interest regarding a possible speaker event that intersections (my social justice club) is hosting... it’s about asian american health disparities, so i got 9 total clubs interested??? now i gotta email the presenter to update them but i’ll do that tomorrow. then from 3-5pm i had a really fun japan bowl meeting that was super untoxic and just productive. this year we have less frequent meetings, but i think we spend the biweekly meetings with... healthier vibes. it’s a lot more fun, and honestly no amount of shame expedites self-studying better than just having a safe and nice environment. we did some practice rounds & i knew the answers to some questions!!! it was fun. i’ll definitely be studying more ahahah this week’s meeting was kind of a throw away but it was good bonding? we also did reading practice.

then i went on tumblr/online shopped/youtubed for 2 hours or smtg..then finished bio hw (3 sections of notes!!!!) while watching gaming streams after eating dinner. then chilled and took a shower, went on tumblr some more, and here i am now! i feel like i didn’t do much but whatever. it’s okay to be leisurely and like.. i just have a worksheet for aplac and a few emails to write tmrw, and i guess that’s it? chill weekend.

okay queue the giant cbt paragraphs:

january was a giant mess mainly because of tasp application... it’s hard for me to take the experiences that i know are invaluable in building my character, and trying to relay that in a effective, understandable way. it made me feel secure because it was almost like i was selling myself/commodifying my experiences, but i was doing it in the course of a 3-4 weeks. it was annoying when i got the diction and syntax just how i wanted it, only for my editor to be like no this is weird. it’s weird to have someone who doesn’t know you try to word your experiences and push you into a template. thank god said editor actually got fired and isn’t my college counselor-- now i have this really tall and goofy friendly white guy (who majored in sociology so you can imagine he’s not the typical yt).

another thing was just friend stuff, but not in a way that points a finger specifically to anyone, it’s just... junior year will literally suck the life out of people and push them to extremes. for me, when i needed support from my friends, it’s not like i could receive it-- partly this is just normal though because normally i don’t confide in them anyway because my life is pretty easy anyway. most of the time/100% of the time i’m initiating the how-are-you type thing and listening to rants and giving advice or playing devil’s advocate or trying to empathize and validate. and when i needed someone to do that for me, i didn’t know how to ask for it? and my friends wouldn’t have the capacity to care for me bc i don’t think they actually know the background of my problems that well. i mean only i really know that and that’s fine bc it’s not really practical for other people to take the time to (1) understand and, (2) care... also it’s not worth it to me to expend the emotional labor explaining to someone. so this really isn’t to sound self sacrificing, it’s just that i consciously don’t expect my friends to be my therapist, but since i have amateur skills & pretty decent emotional intelligence, i’m glad to take that role for my friends. this just blows up in my face every once in awhile when my own problems resurface or smtg and i just turn inward and whatever. thank god it’s over!!! that was basically my january.

someone i kinda know also had something really egregious happen to them. and i can’t talk about it bc i’m making this post public bc i want a record of this on my studyblr blog. anyway i was alone in helping this person with the egregious thing because it’s not the kind of thing i can share (it’s not my story) and also sharing the information can force people to do things that ... wouldn’t be favorable. the stress from that time made me really upset for a few days and i was so angry that the egregious thing even happened, and i’m definitely not the person to get angry.

also had to get my physical for track from this gross pervert of a doctor who uses a stethoscope to touch breasts :\ and i felt really disgusting and gross and it happened and just yuck so cringe ijaijsf don’t wnat to talk about it

ugh okay another thing that i recently came to realize is that fat is really underrated in attractiveness because flab plausibly makes for super comfortable cuddling? basically other than in the context of a fatphobic society (and this isn’t to thin shame), there’s nothing definitively more beautiful about sharp angles or hard muscles compared to soft curves? someone i sit next to in a class wears hoodies and sweatpants almost everyday and they just look like a pillow/perfect big spoon. okay but at the same time food angst and body image stuff is lowkey resurfacing, but in a really lowkey way against myself :(. part of the reason why i got angry last night at myself was because i didn’t like how i drank boba at such a late time, and how i was basically on a sugar high at 2am. so i’m trying to limit my processed food intake as a means of control. i’m pretty safe from relapsing into fullblown AN but a lot of shame associated with certain foods is still there. also i still dislike my thighs and back flab and i didn’t run hard enough to be ready for track and i feel really out of shape :(

a few days ago i went volunteering and was utterly exhausted and not in the mood of being understanding. i don’t think i was being impatient, but i was being more curt than usual when working with somebody. i was really annoyed and dwelling on my irritation and letting it consume me. on the car ride home, i was thinking through all the reasons why i could be so pissy, so i had to think through all this angst and grossness in january. i was always hoping that i was just pmsing when i was feeling especially down during that month, but i think the stress made me skip that month :\ so idk where my period or pms went but goddamn ig i was just especially moody that month if hormones can’t explain it lol

during january, intersections was passed and that was such a big victory. but i didn’t really care about it. i honestly didn’t even want to do anything for it or hope that i’d go well. part of insecurity for me is that i doubt myself so much (sUBCONSCIOUSLY, which is especially annoying bc idk what i actually feel half the time) that i get frustrated easily.

but the stress of the summer app and distancing myself from the stressful things has allowed me to recover, and i’m really happy and my normal self (which i’m really happy about!!!) i’ve literally been writing for 40 min so i’m going to start doing lists for the remaining stuff i said i’d write about

things i look forward to!

feb: planning for intersections, week of break = cramming for jbowl, light school work load

march: starting my club, leadership conference i’m part of, almost time for jbowl

april: jbowl!, spring break, api healthcare disparities presentation?

may: giant speaker event with an alumnus possibly?

summer: lead a free program for low income students around where i live? there’s a lotta red tape and logistics that come with this one though... will be thinking about it for a long time.

okay i’m sleepy bye