#if it wasn’t for orson I don’t think she would’ve been so involved in the relationship

[welcometophu]

Aftermath 4

Twinned Book 1: Commit to the Kick

Aftermath 4

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Power is back by the time they wake up on Monday morning. Alaric can hear the shower running down the hall and assumes Lewis has already claimed it. By the time he and Chris manage to get their showers in, and everyone’s eaten breakfast, more of the brothers are trickling in.

Without classes, it’s chaotic in the house, everyone shouting and enjoying the day off. When Dax arrives, Chris and Alaric shove him back out of the house and they start rounding people up. Alaric texts Drea and tells her to have Amy drop her off at Pawel’s house. Mac’s already heading there on her own, and Rory and Thorne’s lanky dad, Daniel, offers a ride to the rest of them.

The roads are fine, the ice melting off the trees. The cool fall day rises above freezing, almost balmy in the aftermath of the storm. Nikita meets them at the door with Conor when they arrive, and they send Daniel off and head inside. Corbin’s there, waiting with Drea, and they both pounce Alaric, rubbing his cheek with theirs as if to claim him.

“Dad was an asshole for the rest of the weekend,” Drea says quietly. “Mom’s worried about you.”

“I’m okay. I’ll go home for Christmas.” Alaric’s not ready to walk away yet, although he can see it coming. He wonders if that’s the split Alex was talking about, then wonders if she’d even know the answer if he asked her. “We were going through Orson’s stuff, looking for more clues. Dad seems determined to go to war with the Mages. We need to prove to him that that isn’t the right answer.”

There’s a knock at the door and Conor runs to answer, grabbing his jacket on the way. “I’m going to Alan’s!” he yells out, and a moment later the door slams, just as Pawel comes downstairs.

“I’m going to assume that was Emily and not a random kidnapper,” Pawel says dryly, looking at the door. “My son’s best friend’s mother,” he clarifies. “She takes Conor often. More than I deserve, really.” He drops into one of the chairs, slumps back. With his hair a mess and the dark circles under his eyes, he barely looks older than the rest of them. “I figured we’d be better off without Conor here for this.”

They all find space in the living room. Chris, Corbin, Alaric, Drea, and Rory manage to crowd together on the couch, with Thorne sitting on the floor, leaning back against their legs. Dax sits in the second chair, while Mac perches on the arm, and Nikita sits close to the coffee table, her arms folded atop the wood.

“I guess I should start the information sharing,” Nikita says quietly. “So. I slept okay last night. Pawel did something to try to keep me from doing whatever in my sleep, so I didn’t start up a storm again. But I’m exhausted, and he’s worse because he had to keep it going all night, so this isn’t exactly a workable solution.”

“I contacted a Dreamwalker family I know, and they’re coming here to meet with Nikita tomorrow,” Pawel says. He has his hand across his face, his eyes closed as he stretches his legs out. Long fingers hide his expression. “We aren’t sure that’s what’s going on, but it’s the first best angle to take. This is a family that hasn’t manifested the Talent, but they know how to work with Dreamwalkers who do, which might be Nikita. We don’t want to risk her life or sanity just because we don’t think it could be real.”

Nikita makes a dissatisfied, pained sound, her head thumping forward against the coffee table.

Rory twitches. Pawel glances over.

“I can help,” Rory says, raising his hand. “I can dampen her natural ability while she sleeps tonight, so at least you guys can get decent rest. We can probably work out a way so I can keep touching her while I sleep, too. It sounds like it’s a better temporary solution than yours is, anyway.”

“I should have thought of that,” Pawel mutters.

Rory shrugs. “You know I don’t like using it; it bothers people. So that’s fine, I brought it up now, and we can work with it. I didn’t realize it was this bad or I would’ve offered before, Nik.”

Her laugh is muffled, her head still down on the table. Her voice sounds like a muted echo. “Are you saying that if I’d crawled into your bed ages ago, this would’ve stopped?”

Rory leans forward, elbows on his knees. “You aren’t exactly my type, so getting you in my bed wasn’t something that really crossed my mind.”

She looks up, smirks. “You aren’t my type either, Rory, so don’t worry. I get it, this is platonic. What is it?”

“My natural magical ability is to nullify Talent,” Rory says quietly. “I can calm it. It should keep you from Dreamwalking, if that’s what you’re doing, and at the least you shouldn’t be able to play with weather in your sleep.”

Nikita nods her agreement. “Thanks.”

“What does any of this have to do with Orson?” Corbin spreads his hands when they look at him. “What? We’re all thinking it, aren’t we? Orson died. The guy from VIT died. Shadows attacked Mac and Ric. And this.” He gestures at Nikita. “Maybe the things aren’t linked, fine, but the timing of all the weirdness seems to indicate we should think about it. Right?”

“I went to talk to Noah,” Dax says. He clarifies, “The guy from VIT. He wasn’t there.”

Pawel frowns, leans forward. “Wasn’t there? Or wasn’t talking to you?”

“I didn’t even get an itch,” Dax tells him. “I know when there’s a restless spirit around, and Noah’s not restless. I went to his grave, and I went to the place he died—he wasn’t in either place. So what happened either destroyed him completely, or he crossed over without any complaint. Either way, he wasn’t around for me to talk to.”

Pawel leans back, tapping a finger against his chin. “Darrik Malone’s been found, and he’s been cleared of the murder,” he says slowly. “I went to talk to him, and he wasn’t particularly interested in the conversation. Can’t blame him—they incarcerated him for three nights, and the parents at his school called for him to be fired. He’s back on even ground now, but he figures his chances of getting tenure are slim. The problem is, he has no idea what happened.”

“Was he there?” Drea asks, and Pawel nods.

“He was there. It was a questioning ritual.” When everyone looks at him curiously, Pawel elaborates. “There are many ways to invoke predictive Talent, and it’s easiest when you have someone with that particular Talent around.”

“Like Carolyn.”

Pawel blinks at Drea, nods once. “Yes, like Carolyn. But apparently they wanted to ask questions without someone like her, so they did a questioning ritual. Darrik can’t remember what he planned to ask. They had gotten as far as each putting their blood in, and the next thing he knows, he was waking up in a hotel in Albany with blood on his clothes. His own blood, and unidentified blood—they tested it and it’s not Lorraine or Noah. Darrik did mention darkness rising up, so it’s definitely possible they were also attacked by Shadowwalkers.”

“Also known as Deathstalkers, which could explain why Noah’s nowhere around,” Corbin says solemnly.

“But also Shadowwalkers,” Pawel emphasizes. “It’s possible that Darrik was transported against his will to Albany and left there.”

“It’s also possible the unknown blood belonged to the Shadowwalker,” Alaric says slowly. “Are the clothes still in evidence?” It’s a lot of information to take in, but blood is something he knows what to do with. Scent is something he can use.

“Pretty sure he got everything back and has washed or destroyed it by now.” Pawel looks over at him. “His boyfriend died. I don’t think he’d want something around to remind him.”

Chris’s fingers trail across the back of Alaric’s neck, and Corbin leans into him from the side. Alaric stops growling as soon as he realizes that he’s the one making the noise, but the idea of what’s happened still disturbs him. That something is stalking them, stealing those who are important.

“We were talking about how maybe it’s Emergent Talents that are calling the Shadowwalkers,” Alaric says gruffly. “Maybe it’s the ritual, but that wouldn’t explain why one came after me and Mac.”

“That might have been because they know we’re investigating,” Drea points out.

“Or it could be a combination. Ritual is a strong magic, and it seems like in both cases the rituals were ones that were a little different,” Mac says. “I’m not a Mage, but if you’re customizing something, you’re putting something of yourself into it. Do we know how powerful the Mages involved were?”

Pawel shakes his head. “No, but we know that Nikita’s power levels are very high right now. And Alaric….” He glances over, considers him. “Alaric Emerged, in his own way, that night, manifesting a form that he never had before.”

“‘M’not powerful,” Alaric mutters. It’s been a common theme throughout his life, that he’s broken as a shapeshifter. Adding one more form doesn’t change how broken he is.

“Clan follow one line,” Chris says quietly. “Corbin’s a bird. Drea’s a mammal. You’re a hound, a bear, a lizard, an eagle, and a dragon. You might not have as many forms, but power could be argued, since you cross between different types of animals, and one of your forms is legendary.”

Alaric shivers, uncertain whether it’s because of Chris’s words, or the way he leans in close, breath warm against Alaric’s cheek. He never thought of it that way. “I—”

“I think I have an idea.” Pawel blinks at them, stands up abruptly without apology for the interruption. “Thorne, Rory, let’s talk about this. Dax, I can use you, possibly. I need more information. We need some time to figure this out. There are going to be several pieces, we need to be safe. But we can do this.”

He’s already halfway out the door before Alaric manages to ask, “Do what?”

Pawel turns back, meets his gaze. “Trap the Shadowwalker.”

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[ohmytheon]

honestly i can't stop thinking about a rebelcaptain resistance au finnpoe style lmao. like imperial defector jyn rescuing captured resistance pilot cassian because she needs to escape this hellhole and she needs a pilot dangit

….I was nearly complete with like a full page of writing, nearly finished with something I really liked, when I had a strange feeling and went to copy and save my work – and then this tab only crashed and I lost all of it while I was in the middle of trying to save. I’m fucking… UGH. ;______; This will not be anywhere near as good.

give me a pairing and an au and i’ll write a drabble

Jyn had never been meant to live under the iron fist of the Empire. She was a flower that could not blossom in dark, cramped places; she needed light and freedom, two things that the Empire would never give her. She could not be like her father, who played the role of downtrodden and beaten scientist so well that even she sometimes wondered if he truly was acting. She felt things too deeply, saw the hurts that the Empire caused, and she ached. And so she grew up hard and fast under the watchful eye of the enemy, stretching as much as she could with the space that she was given.

But mostly, she grew up resentful, hiding anger in her heart until it overflowed and bled through to the surface. She was not as good at lying as her father. She would always be a fighter, as her mother had been. When she smiled, she bared her teeth and she looked more ready to snarl and bite than shake hands and laugh. She was not a pretty little thing that could be toyed with. She was difficult to crack and let no one in. It was a lonely life, but one that she fought for. She knew that she was afforded more things than a typical subject of the Empire, considering who her father was, but that didn’t give her any illusions about what she was in the end.

She was a prisoner. Of that, she had no doubt. She did what she could, lived as much as she could, but the constraints were always there, visible or not. Her father was a prisoner and so was she. But she had been born in a prison, and so she knew what to do in order to survive. She refused help from anyone, not wanting to appear weak or needy. The Empire could not break her. She would find a way to escape.  Until then, she had to play her part and try not to fight anyone in the process.

Life remained smothering and dreams impossible – until one Captain Cassian Andor stepped into her life.

Or well, forcibly shoved into her path.

Jyn was skulking around the base, trying to find something to do that wouldn’t land her in hot water, when two storm troopers pushed a shuffling man in chains so hard that he stumbled and crashed directly into her. The two of them went sprawling to the ground, him unable to catch himself because of his bonds and her because she’d been caught unawares. He landed heavily on her, his hands awkwardly jammed into her gut, and his face so close that his nose smashed into hers.

She was swearing hard enough to murder someone by the time the storm troopers pulled him off of her, apologizing all the while, but the chained man was silent as he stared at her with thinly veiled suspicion and curiosity. Ignoring the storm troopers' attempts to help her, Jyn pulled herself to her feet and then swiped any dust off of her, glaring at the man, but still he said nothing. She didn’t expect an apology from him, nor did she want one, but his dead silence was unexpected. She stormed off without another word.

It was only until the next day did she find out that the prisoner’s name was Cassian Andor, thanks to a death trooper with an ill-advised crush on her. Jyn spent the entire day thinking about him. His dark hair, days’ old scruff, those cold and intelligent dark eyes – likely the kind of man her Mama would’ve warned her about. Stick him in an Imperial Officer’s uniform and he would’ve looked like someone capable of tossing a dissenter out of the airlock without hesitation. Very dangerous, calculating, and sharp.

And he was apparently an Intelligence Officer in the Rebel Alliance. If there was ever a person her father would want her to stay away from, it would be him. Who knew what would be done to her if she was found even just associating with him. She wasn’t exactly known for her loyal and high opinions of the Empire after all.

It was for these very reasons that Jyn knew that this was her chance. If she was ever going to get out from underneath the Empire’s thumb, this was it. Would she rather die fighting for her freedom or live as a prisoner? Her mother had chosen the former. Some days, Jyn resented her selfishness; other times, she admired her mother’s bravery.

The death trooper uniform that she’d stolen didn’t fit her perfectly, but it would do in a pinch. Jyn wasn’t an exceptional liar, but she could act decently as long as it involved minimal talking, which death troopers did. It also gave her more leeway, as the storm trooper guarding Andor’s cell was very deferential and asked little questions about why she needed to see the prisoner. Death troopers were linked with power.

When she stepped inside, Andor sat up on his cot, silently eyeing her with disdain. She knew right away that he wouldn’t talk, not with her like this. She could see from the bruises, burn mark visible at his collarbone, and dried blood over his left eye that he was not prone to talking even under torture. So she did the one thing she knew a regular Imperial soldier would never do: she took off her helmet.

At that, Andor jumped to his feet. “What are you doing in here?”

A strange question, like he was in the position to make demands, but she supposed he was used to asking questions. “Doesn’t matter,” she replied dismissively as she glanced back at the door to make sure it was still closed. She stamped her left foot down, thinking of the information hidden inside the sole of the boot, and her heart thumped. Paranoia was beginning to worm its way into her mind already, but she shut it down as best as she could.

“The daughter of an Imperial scientist comes into my cell parading as a death trooper, I think it very much matters.”

Jyn clenched her fists as she jerked her eyes back to him. So he knew who she was. Of course he did. He was an Intelligence Officer. She wondered what else he knew – what information he had stored away up there that he shouldn’t have had. She saw his eyes – dangerous, dangerous – and tore her gaze away from him. Now was not the time to get distracted. “Can you fly a ship or are you only good at subterfuge and being annoying?”

“Depends on the ship,” Andor replied evenly. “Why?”

The idea of asking for help was abominable, but she had no other choice. “I don’t know how to fly,” Jyn admitted, glaring at the wall behind him. “I wasn’t allowed to learn anything so that it would keep me…dependent and grounded.”

Andor stepped closer to her. He wasn’t shackled anymore and she knew from the way that he moved that, despite any injuries, he was capable of hurting her. She knew how to fight, but he knew how to kill. Still, she did not back down; instead, she lifted her chin to stare back at him.

“You want to escape,” Andor said quietly.

“Yes.”

“You need my help.”

Jyn gritted her teeth. “Yes.”

“How do I know this is not a trap?” Andor asked, folding his arms. He leaned back to assess her, making her feel more exposed than she had ever felt in her life, like he was picking her apart piece by piece.

“Why would this be a trap?” Jyn demanded defensively. “I’m risking my life here! It’s not that I’m just asking for your help to escape; I’m offering you a way to get out of her with your life and your mind intact.”

Andor smiled down at her. It was not terribly unpleasant, but it rattled her nonetheless. “Sending a pretty damsel in distress into my cell to convince me to let my guard down sounds like a good attempt at getting me to open up.”

Jyn opened her mouth to protest furiously, but then she snapped it shut. A pretty damsel in distress? Is that what he thought when he saw her? “Call me that one more time and I’ll knock you clean out.”

“I would not be much of a pilot if you did that,” Andor pointed out in an infuriatingly collected voice. She had a feeling that neutral tone was something that he typically defaulted to. It was going to piss her off.

“Do you want my help or not?” Jyn questioned.

Andor held out his hands, palms up and wrists pressed together, the universal sign of being bound. “I am at your command.”

As he gazed down at her, she refused to look at him as she replaced the shackles around his hand so it would look more convincing him while they traveled to the hanger. From there, she could only hope that he was as slick as his mouth. Jyn herself had learned how to creep silently unnoticed throughout the base despite typically standing out. She knew how to hide when it counted. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face the door. It was now or never. There would be no going back after this.

“Jyn,” Andor piped up, hearing her name tearing her out of her thoughts. “Your helmet.”

She glanced down at the death trooper helmet in her hands. “Oh.” She hadn’t put it back on, so lost in her nervousness. She put the helmet on, taking comfort in the anonymity it offered her. “You’re good at this spy thing, aren’t you?”

Andor shrugged. “You get used to it.”

“That how you’re so calm?” Jyn grumbled.

“Spies do not have a long life expectancy,” Andor told her unflinchingly. He was not scared or upset by this fact; he had clearly accepted it a long time ago. But for some reason, it hurt her. It made her think of her mother, who had to have known that she was going to die the moment she left eight year-old Jyn on her own to face Orson Krennic and his death troopers. She had accepted it as well and look where it had gotten them. Jyn wanted to think her sacrifice - anyone’s sacrifice mattered – but it was hard to think that when even the person making it didn’t seem to be affected by it.

What had Andor done and seen to make him think this way? Did he not have any hope left or was he just running? Was she? What was the point in trying to escape, in fighting, if she did not?

Jyn huffed, turning away from him. “Well try not to die until after you fly us out of here, got it?” Maybe lying wasn’t so difficult as long as she pretended to be something else. Like not scared. Not helpless. Not alone.

[bcwallin]

Just Because It Never Happened Doesn’t Mean It Isn’t True

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen the 2015 movie Steve Jobs. It’s the one that stars Michael Fassbender, not Ashton Kutcher. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve tried to nudge my friends and family toward watching it, too. To them, it’s a movie that was seen and left behind by many in 2015; it’s no big deal. I’ve lost track of how many times my friends said they’d never watch this one pretty well-received, but otherwise, probably unremarkable movie, just because I’d seen it maybe 30 times or more. They’re concerned.

Even if I had the capacity to push them toward trying it (“people don’t know what they want until you show it to them”), my friends, my family, and my exasperated wife would walk away saying “That? That’s the movie you can’t shut up about?” It’s the movie I’ve seen the most under quarantine (including one watch each with the two commentaries that come on the Blu Ray), and possibly the same for the before times. I’ve finished it and started all over again. I’ve played it on the subway, listening only to the audio. I’ve watched or listened to it on more than one continent, up to three times in a day. I read the interviews and watched the New York Film Festival Q&A where Kate Winslet barely gets any questions and I’ve heard Aaron Sorkin’s many different ways of saying he didn’t want a “cradle-to-grave” structure and I’ve read Danny Boyle talking about his reverence for Sorkin. I wasted 2 hours watching the supremely mediocre Jobs, because when you’re stuck in an all-consuming relationship with a movie or a piece of art or a particularly good donut shop, you want to take in every variety and idea that you can. I’m like Agnès Varda and the gleaners in The Gleaners & I; I’m trying to glean. Everything I can.

If I went in order from here, telling how I first saw the movie with my mom, then revisited it 3 years later, then got it stuck in my head like a bad song and then like a really good song, in a beginning-to-end, beat-by-beat telling with all the hit moments along the way, I would’ve learned nothing from Steve Jobs, at least in terms of storytelling. If I kept going on this navel-gazing path of pointedly telling a story in a way that’s not like all those other stories — this story goes to a different school — then I would’ve learned nothing from my feelings toward Aaron Sorkin, whose language I like quite a lot, and who spent a lot of the Blu Ray commentary asking editor Elliot Graham why different bits of his language, which he, too, likes quite a lot, were removed from the movie. My most significant memory of Aaron Sorkin is him saying “Damn it, how could this have happened?” before telling you in his Masterclass ad why you shouldn’t write that. He’s an exacting guy and he probably sees himself in Steve Jobs and Boyle sees himself in Steve Jobs and I don’t see anything of myself in Steve Jobs, but I see some of myself in Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg) wearing a loose-fitting t-shirt and tying his shoes onstage while Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) complains about a computer not doing what it’s supposed to do.

It’s so easy to go back to the old favorites. You hold onto what you’ve already got. For so many people, if their parents showed them a movie that came out before 1985 when they were young, it’s enough to make it a classic, but for any other movie from that not-so-distant past or earlier, they’d rather not come to it for the first time. It’s like what I say every so often, which is that I don’t want to be writing; I want to have written. But that’s not really true. Being stuck inside is concerning. The world is concerning right now. If this is being read in the future, the world may be concerning then, and I hope you’re doing alright. If you’re reading this at any time, I hope you’re doing alright. Jobs didn’t care if people were doing alright, if you’d believe the movie. Jobs didn’t care how most people were doing until he’d pushed them to their lowest point, if you’d believe the book it’s based on, Walter Isaacson’s biography.

Let’s talk about the reality of the movie. Steve Jobs is a biopic. Aaron Sorkin would tell you that it’s not a piece of journalism; it’s a piece of storytelling. (What else would he tell you?) I’ve seen the fictional and the real versions of the movie — or, at least, those versions of parts of the movie, because most of it didn’t happen — because old keynotes are available on YouTube. You can watch the movie, then see how it stacks up against reality, then back again. Sorkin’s big idea with this movie is not to use a “cradle-to-grave” structure (he uses this phrase a lot); it takes place in an approximation of real time before three different product launches that the real Steve Jobs was at the center of. If you watch the B-roll, you can see that Boyle recreated the keynote speeches from those launches, at least in part, but you don’t need to watch those bits and pieces to make the comparisons. You get either a bit of rehearsal, a discussion about a detail going into the launch, or something of the like. Sorkin’s works tend to slip in the bits and the pieces that you need to get the gist of what’s going down.

The presentation of the iMac in 1998 — which Boyle, following filming in the Flint Auditorium Center and the San Francisco Opera House in keeping with history, chose a new venue to shoot in — was fascinating, but there are still the hitches of reality. Jobs walks over to the computer and then a beat and then he clicks the mouse and another beat and then the demo. In Steve Jobs, the 2015 movie, Michael Fassbender plays Steve Jobs in the turtleneck and jeans he wasn’t wearing in 1998 at the launch of the iMac and says “This is the iMac,” and he pulls the cover off in synchronization with the sounds of the lights shutting off and Daniel Pemberton’s electric score takes over the scene, and it’s not just because the exit signs are off (you see? It’s like poetry; it rhymes) that this historical retelling feels so cool. It’s Reality+ and it’s comforting.

The end of the movie is kind of like that, too, but it’s disingenuous. On a rooftop parking lot that’s not actually on the rooftop of the building they shot in, Michael Fassbender, playing Steve Jobs, reconciles with his character’s daughter, Lisa. He brings back the drawing a different actress playing Lisa pretended to draw earlier and he unfolds it from his pocket and she looks at him as the lightbulbs flash and he smiles at her onstage and she loves her dad. It’s probably because the idealized products mimic the feelings we get when we see the unveilings and announcements, unless you’ve pledged yourself to a different phone company, in which case Apple is and always has been a company full of idea hacks and copycats. But people. People are what matter. Unless you’re Steve Jobs.

It can be intoxicating listening to “Great Men” even when you know they’re not great men. I’ve watched/listened a lot to Orson Welles’s The Other Side of the Wind, a movie about a “Great Man” that was directed by a “Great Man.” It’s a movie about the making of a movie, and both movies have the same name. Whether you watch it from the outside-in (production horrors in trying to get this movie to ever be made) or the inside-out (the psychological and physical torments by a repressed alpha male played by John Huston), you see these “Great Men” put their loved ones and acolytes through their onslaughts and then, you hope, it’ll all turn into something incredible. But The Other Side of the Wind wasn’t finished by J.J. Hannaford and the other The Other Side of the Windwasn’t finished by Orson Welles, and maybe everything Welles put cinematographer Gary Graver through (cf. the making-of documentary, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead) and everything J.J. Hannaford (Welles stand-in-ish) put Brooks Otterlake through (Peter Bogdanovich stand-in) wasn’t really worth the failed end-result. But also I like my iPhone, so I can live with the past, I guess?

One of the pieces of Pemberton’s score for the 2015 movie Steve Jobs that I enjoy the most (and there are a lot of good parts) is what he described as an orchestra tuning up, which turns into a melody. It coalesces. That music plays while Michael Fassbender, playing Steve Jobs, says “I play the orchestra,” which is to say that Steve Jobs was best at getting other people to do things right. He did this by poking and prodding people in his exacting ways, repeating ideas back to people as if they were his, creating dichotomies between “insanely great” and “bullshit.” But was anything great ever made without alienating some people involved? Besides Paddington 2? If anybody walks out of Steve Jobs thinking that the lesson is to push people because that’s how they’ll do the best, it’s not the right lesson, but it’s also not a lesson the movie fully discourages, since everything pretty much works out for Michael Fassbender’s performance of Jobs. Even John Sculley (Jeff Daniels) comes back to give him a Newton (they edit in the words to Daniels’ mouth — if you watch the movie enough times, you pick up that he’s not moving his lips when words come out) because it’s a reconciliation. I also can’t help but love the sentiment of the scene and the way Daniels says “Let’s let it go now,” because even in the less real moments, Steve Jobs is a movie starring people at the top of their game (except in the last scene).

Michael Fassbender doesn’t do an impression of Steve Jobs and he doesn’t try to look like Steve Jobs, and that’s not just because he’s not Ashton Kutcher (who was in the 2013 movie Jobs, a different movie). It’s evocative. None of this happened, Andy Hertzfeld said, according to Aaron Sorkin, as recorded on the Blu Ray commentary. But all of this happened (except for the last scene). It’s art and it’s a masterclass on how to tell a story (a. I’m not really into using that phrase; b. Damn it, how could this have happened?) that doesn’t have to be the story you thought you should tell. And then Michael Fassbender says that line, “It’s like five minutes before every launch, everyone goes to a bar and gets drunk and tells me what they really think.” It’s still not as awkward as the Bob Dylan lyrics projected on the floor and walls (added digitally in post) in the first third of the movie (did you know it’s a three-act structure?), but these are also the thoughts of a person who’s seen the 2015 movie Steve Jobs over 30 times. Boyle likes comparing the story to Shakespeare, so I’ll just say about all this, “Take in what sense thou feel.”

It’s like music. It’s like music that has awkward lines (“I got over the Mac and Woz and Sculley the same way you get over your high school sweetheart; build a new one.”) and that feels like a stage play that had cutaways layered onto it, but not as many cutaways as the 2013 movie Jobs’ incessant need to show people applauding the genius of Jobs, its hero. The more you watch the movie, the more it feels preordained, because that’s how everything is supposed to happen (it doesn’t matter if I come to a satisfied conclusion about why watching Steve Jobs a lot is therapeutic — my wife will still be exasperated). Steve Jobs, the 2015 movie where Kate Winslet takes no prisoners and Michael Stuhlbarg breaks your heart, is my comfort movie, even though it’s an insanely tense movie where your worst nightmares of claustrophobia are filled with quick-paced dialogue and one-upmanship that feels a lot less clever when you start to notice how crafted it feels. But you barely notice it because of how amazing everybody is (except in the last scene — but Fassbender uses his lower teeth like a well-tuned instrument when he says “I’m poorly made”). It’s my comfort movie. I’ve accepted I’m alone in this. For those considering, there are two options the character Steve Jobs offers on one of his computers: “buy it or don’t.” I doubt my disinterested friends are still reading, but I’ll let it go now. Must be time.

Originally published on The Sundae

[samdukewieland]

Stuck Inside Media Diary Week 8

Something that’s been nice about going back through Mad Men has been re-reading/re-visiting old Sepinwall recaps on the episodes. I read him religiously throughout high school and college, amongst others, but have since drifted from the recap on shows, for no good reason. Probably because there’s generally a podcast I can just listen to rather than read something (jock at heart-sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). This supposed to be a lesson in “go back and experience stuff from your high school years?” man, I don’t know; the venn diagram of things I did in high school and the things I do now is not small (or is it not big? What’s the best way to convey a lot of similarities with a venn diagram, size-wise). 

Sunday, May 10 (Mother’s Day)

The Third Man, Reed 1949

I was not super digging this while I was watching, it was late when I started watching it and it’s not slow exactly, but I was real curious how egg-zacktly Orson Wells was going to fit into the picture. Mysteries! I tells ya. Anyway, I’ve been stewing in it and realized, “huh, I think I actually like this movie quite a bit.” I think the Britishness, while not in your face, was secretly chipping away at my brain, already war-torn by tiredhead and then having a second wave of dry, British storytelling. Pretty good li’l picture (you could say that about movies in the 40′s-this isn’t uncommon).

Top Chef, Season 17 episode 4

This was done in an attempt to help my mom catch back up with Top Chef, which somewhat moved the needle, but I don’t think an episode (on her end) has been watched since. Mother’s Day: ruined.

Mad Men, “Tea Leaves”

My mom also watched this one with me, only because she just happened to be in the room. Her biggest hurdle with this show and her refusal to watch it is based solely on the fact that phones are ringing “all the time” and that “no one ever answers them.” Hard to refute it. She seemed mildly entertained by this episode, considering she had close to zero context for what was going on, thought that it was Ginsburg’s debut episode played some part into that. Pretty disorienting episode to be thrown into, what with the whole....Fat Betty thing (I was going to say “elephant in the room of Betty” but that just seemed cruel and trying too hard to try and be clever. An interesting, though ultimately aimless direction to take Betty this season and everyone involved kind of knows it.

The Last Dance, Parts 7 & 8

That this was the penultimate week of new Jordan doc created an unusual energy around the episodes, which were exciting in their own right as they went over his father’s murder, his baseball career and returning to basketball. But the thing that induced the most goosebumps was the “cliffhanger” (I am a moron) showdown between the Bulls and Pacers. 

Monday, May 11

Icarus, Fogel 2017 [as of now this is available on Netflix]

Kinda nice going into a documentary knowing hints of what it’s about and trying to figure out when it transitions to being about “X” but then you slowly realize you misremembered that information your friend Tommy told you and are surprised that it becomes about the Russian state (very possible I am misusing that term; just trying to sound smarter than I actually am). I don’t watch or know enough about documentaries to confidently state what’s a good one and what’s a great one-I think this one received some kind of critical backlash after it won Best Documentary, which happens. There’s definitely an intellectual superiority to saying you think less of a documentary that either wins that award or a lot of people like (in this case, both!). It’s engaging and accessible (another thing snobs hate) and has a misdirect that doesn’t blind side you; I don’t even care about the Olympics, but I felt sucked in.

Monty Python: Almost The Truth (Lawyers Cut), “The Much Funnier Second Episode - The Parrot Sketch - Flying Circus Included”

This one had more focus on the influence Flying Circus had on writers/comedians who were watching it at the time as kids (primarily). Lotta dudes. I can not stress how there are few things less appealing than hearing Russell Brand describing why Monty Python was funny (this was very much made in 2009).

Mad Men, “Mystery Date”

Some more Sopranos karaoke, though constructed a little bit better this time. This is also the episode that decides to flesh out Dawn (Don’s secretary, a joke that is never not funny) a little bit more, however Mad Men only does this when there’s “something to be said” about being black, which didn’t look great in 2012 and *flips through pages of notes* nope, still doesn’t look good here either. I suppose an argument you could bring up that is awfully flimsy is that they didn’t want to paint themselves into a Nikki and Paulo situation, in terms of never actually caring about digging deeper into Dawn’s story. I dunno man, I’m not trying to cast stones here.

Tuesday, May 12

The Taking Of Pelham One, Two, Three, Sargent 1974

What a white whale this movie’s been for me and brother, it feels good to have finally caught it. It’s insanely cool to go into a movie not knowing that it’s the 1974 version of Inside Man with a little bit of Dog Day Afternoon spliced in (pre-DDA mind you). This movie is packed with so many sarcastic assholes all working together in the same place, I loved it! I loved this movie! Cataloged in my brain as a Stop-Down-And-Watch if it’s on cable. However, my biggest gripe here is that Walter Matthau’s character is named “Zach,” a name that has never once been mistook for Walter Matthau’s; like there’s no way that they had Matthau casted before they came up with his name.

Mad Men, “Signal 30″

Beginning of the end of having any remote kind of sympathy for Pete Campbell. Hitting on high schoolers and shit. He wants so badly to be what he considers to be the best version of himself and will never be there.

Parks And Recreation, “The Set-Up”

Don’t know what it was about this particular viewing, but it landed better than it ever has this time around. Usually when I watch it, Arnett is so distracting and a much different energy than the show has created, but I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard watching this one as I did on this Tuesday morning. 

Wednesday, May 13

California Split, Altman 1974 [as of now this is available on Prime]

Hell yeh. Another movie I’ve been trying to see for a couple of years now, but feels nearly impossible to come across or find (note: to be fair, I have never checked to rent digitally, because I just don’t do that really ever, feels weird I don’t know why) and I found out on Tuesday night that it was put on Amazon Prime almost unceremoniously. I am by no means a gambler, so I have no idea if this is a good gambling movie, but it’s an incredible relationship and addiction movie. My introduction to Elliott Gould was Ocean’s Eleven where he is the opposite and still the same as the characters he played in the 70′s. The man has a debilitating incapacity to be effortlessly cool, even in a movie that he co-stars in with George Segal. I loved this movie.

Mad Men, “Far Away Places”, “At The Codfish Bowl”, “Lady Lazurus”

A great highlight of Don realizing he’s made a huge mistake marrying a 26-year-old. A great highlight of Roger Sterling is great with kids (and their grandmothers!). A great highlight of “Tomorrow Never Knows” fucking rules and uh, maybe wondering if Alexis Bledel is good? (certainly Rory Gilmore is good and it might’ve just been a “choice” to play this character so wooden, especially with what we know comes later on in the season)

Thursday, May 14

Cape Fear, Scorsese 1991

Apparently Spielberg was supposed to do this originally, but thought it was too violent and threw it over to Marty to get Schindler’s back from him (imagine trading those properties amongst yer friends-incredible). What’s real strange here is that he did’t give this to De Palma (I guess because it would’ve been in the wake of Bonfire), but it doesn’t really matter because Marty just goes and makes his version of a De Palma movie. It’s weird! However, when I wasn’t thinking about all of those things and being amazed at how much overt gore there was (overt for a Scorsese movie), I was shocked at the music I associate most with Sidewhow Bob (hold for Gilbert & Sullivan) is actually Max Cady’s music; like I knew that it was just Cape Fear but I had no idea it was just Cape Fear. 

Mad Men, “Dark Shadows”

Can’t go a season without a Don is actually Dick Whitman story/episode. That’s about it.

Friday, May 15

Becoming Mike Nichols, McGarth 2016 [as of now this is available on HBO]

This saved me a lot of time in the long run, should I ever read that new(ish) biography on Mike Nichols. It’s a pretty cut and dry interview focused purely on the prologue of Mike Nichols’s career, that’s a lot more interesting if you’re a theatre kid who doesn’t despise theatre kids (you know the type). Honestly, I was most engaged once Jack O’Brien pivoted towards his directing career outside of the theatre. Also gonna expose my ass here and say I didn’t realize Elaine May was that Elaine May-might’ve been a better interview if it was between two people who’re on equal level rather than a guy trying to kiss Mike Nichols’s and a bunch of theatre kids’ asses.

Mad Men, “Christmas Waltz”

This episode only exists to help punctuate how awful the next episode is, but damn if it’s not weirdly great. The Paul/Harry reunion was such a weird reunion, but only because it reminds you of how much time has passed since the beginning of this show (1960) to when it takes place now (1966); the total shift in aesthetic and thinking is massive, but it never feels shoehorned in.

Top Chef, Season 17 episode 9

Colicchio is pretty adamant about not having past challenges affect the decision of the current week’s choice in terms of sending someone home, but Melissa probably should’ve gone home this week if that were the case. They obviously weren’t going to after kicking Kevin off last week and Malarkey making the least offensive dish of the bottom 3. Melissa’s a front runner, same as Kevin was and you can’t have a competition where Malarkey is on but two frontrunners are kicked off back-to-back weeks (even if it was Kevin falling on his sword). Love Lee Anne, been with her since season 1 and hate to see her go, but she’s bigger than Top Chef-this is a loss that doesn’t make me think less of her.

Saturday, May 16

Notes On An American Film Director At Work, Mekas 2008 [as of now this is available on Vimeo]

I don’t know what to call this, honestly. It’s a videos of Martin Scorsese directing The Departed and it’s kind of fascinating. There are no sit down interviews, but snippets of conversations that you’re just thrown into the middle of. It could be that I just love him so much, but it was reaffirming to see that he (appears to be) is like a genuinely nice person. I don’t read about behind the scenes/making of’s, but I don’t really think he’s got any kind of reputation for being some kind of tyrant on set and this proves it (if he needs that proof for any kind of reason). It is one of those things though where watching actors, uh, act feels kina silly-apologies to Leo DiCaprio.

Mad Men, “The Other Woman”, “Commissions And Fees”, “The Phantom” [season 5 finale], “The Doorway” [season 6 premier], “Collaborators”

An incredibly harrowing stretch of episodes for Mad Men, maybe the best set-up for a finale the show has. The awfulness of the position they thrust Joan into and that Don is the only clear objector to this, be it that he only cares enough about the company is heartbreaking. Christina Hendricks wears so much disappointment and contempt on her face so well and that what happens is sandwiched between those interactions with Don is incredible. And awful. As is Lane’s suicide in the office (I still remember watching this episode for the first time when it aired and it’s as depressing now all these years later as it was back then; Lane and Bodie are probably my top-2 most upsetting television deaths that come to mind). Though it all seems worth it, despite how depressing it might be, for that scene between Peggy and Don where she resigns, an incredible parallel to Megan’s. I’m glad it wasn’t, but if they wanted to series wrap on Peggy there, they could’ve and it would’ve felt so incredibly earned, which you can see through both of those characters trying their hardest to choke down tears through a conversation smothered in so much understood in the unsaid. Now welcome, Bob Benson! (for the life of me, I can’t figure out if they introduce Bob like this intentionally, because it’s so fucking funny in how out of synch it is with everything else going on in the show)

Apocalypse Now, Coppola 1979 [as of now this is available on HBO]

It was either during my sophomore or junior year of high school when I became absolutely enamored with trying to watch this movie. I had built it up to such great heights in my head for whatever reason (I was very concerned with appearing knowledgeable about things like “important movies” and that this didn’t win best picture whatever year it was nominated fueled that fire even more ((I was also very concerned with being outraged over something like this)). I vaguely remember squeezing it in on a school night, but didn’t try and sneak it upstairs to my room to watch, like I tried to get this almost 3½ hour movie in under a reasonable bed time for a high schooler (I definitely didn’t have one, but I remember getting kind of dirty looks around the house if I was still hanging out past 10:30). So it was basically self-inflicted homework at that point, so I remember saying that I liked it, but I don’t know if I honestly believed it. And then that just gets all shaken up in your dumb high school brain that’s already trying it’s best to be super contrarian that you start believing that Apocalypse Now maybe sucks or at the very least isn’t as good as Hearts Of Darkness (a movie you won’t see for another 8 years). I had not watched this movie in its entirety since high school, and I knew all the big beats going into re-watching this, but it might as well have been that I had never seen it before. Man. I was a dumb as hell high schooler. This movie is electric and looks beautiful and I’m so glad that I never watched it all before this and decided to revisit it and I’m now furious at myself for letting the opportunity pass to not see it in theatres when it was remastered last year. 

The Adventures Of Tintin, Spielberg 2011 [as of now this is available on Netflix]

I was reading the oral history of Fury Road earlier that day and it got me really jonsing to watch Fury Road. For my mental health’s sake, I decided to not double feature Apocalypse Now and Fury Road, but rather Apocalypse Now and The Adventures Of Tintin. People of a certain generation really hate this movie and I kind of get it, but this movie rules. There’s maybe two sequences in it that I’d feel unashamed for putting up in the Spielberg Hall Of Fame.