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phant0m-l0rd · 2 years ago

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(I should’ve learned my lesson the first few times this happened, never to edit big chunks of text on tumblr because sometimes it’ll refresh for no reason and I’ll lose everything right before pressing send. Anyway, off to rewriting this whole thing I go!!)

I felt like doing this because I watched a lot of kdramas this year. Everything will be after the “keep reading” line. Some prompts will be edited because I didn’t watch any dramas actually made in 2022, so if you see things being crossed out like this and [inserted text], that’s what that is.

(featuring a bunch of gifs I made over the course of this year and never posted anywhere)

→ First drama completed in 2022: Black (2017).

→ Favourite actress discovered in 2022: Kim Hye-soo. I absolutely loved her in Hyena (2020) and fell in love with both her acting and her (she's literally the perfect woman). She was fabulous in Signal (2016) as well. Her ability to nail both comedic and serious acting is a testament to her amazing range.

→ Favourite actor discovered in 2022: Honourable mention to Ji Chang-wook, whom I adored in the 3 series I watched him in this year.

However, my favourite actor I discovered this year has got to be Lee Joon-gi. Truly a master of his craft; I’m convinced there isn’t a single thing he cannot do. His acting range is amazing, from subtle and subdued to incredibly emotional.

→ Favourite original song from a drama [discovered in 2022]: Adrenaline (Vincenzo OST). I feel like this song fit the series so perfectly, but also sounds really good as a stand-alone song. I love its brooding, ominous, yet entrancing atmosphere.

→ A visually beautiful kdrama [discovered in 2022]: I’ll be mentioning this series a lot in this post, if only for the reason that it’s become one of my favourite series of all-time, from the second I watched it, the series being Flower of Evil (2020). The cinematography of this series is one of the many elements that makes it stand out from a lot of other dramas I’ve seen. It’s so beautiful, the lighting is always stunning, the colours are soft, the framing is always on-point…

Take this shot, for instance, which is from the opening scene of the drama (I just had to gif it). It instantly draws you in and sets the tone for the rest of the series.

→ A drama you dropped in 2022: Strong Girl Bong-soon (2017). I’m actually surprised I made it this far into this series before dropping it considering how uncomfortable the humour made me feel. From thinly veiled homophobia to crass humour to making light of domestic abuse, this series shocked me, especially considering it isn’t that old. So many series have had narratives of female empowerment and have done so so amazingly well that this series feels very subpar in comparison, in my opinion.

→ Favourite character [discovered in 2022]: Do Hyun-so in Flower of Evil (2020). He stood out to me the most because of how complex and multidimensional he was, and how well all the different facets of his character were portrayed by Lee Joon-gi. I felt so empathetic for his character, angry at the tragic circumstances that had shaped his life, and endeared by the kindness and softness he retained despite all he had been through. His character is tragic but is also an exemplification of resiliency in the face of adversity.

→ A [drama discovered in 2022] with an interesting story: W (2016) had a very interesting premise that was actually executed surprisingly well, in my opinion. In brief, it centres around a webcomic that has somehow come to life, with there being a portal between the real world and the world within the comic book. It’s very entertaining.

→ Oldest drama you watched in 2022: Time Between Dog and Wolf (2007) which I’m currently watching (only 1 episode left). I started it because of Lee Joon-gi and have honestly not been disappointed one bit. Sure, the filming and editing is dated, but that doesn’t detract from the quality of the narrative and the acting. Nowadays, this premise (a revenge undercover story) feels like it might’ve been done many times, however it does not feel boring in this series at all, quite the contrary. It’s been incredibly engaging.

Furthermore, I just have to say… I love 2000s fashion and hairstyles. I mean, look at this. Oh and how could I forget the single earring.

→ Have you rewatched a drama in 2022? Oh yes. I tend to rewatch series quite a bit once they’ve graduated to being comforting series for me. Not sure if I rewatched The Guest (2018) this year or if it was in very late 2021, but I know for sure that I rewatched Her Private Life (2019) (my comfort series at the moment), Vincenzo (2021), Flower of Evil (2020), Sell Your Haunted House (2021), and Suspicious Partner (2017).

→ A drama that kept you on the edge of your seat: Most action/thriller series I watched this year kept me at the edge of my seat, so I cannot list but one. The 3 that stressed me out the most were Signal (2016), Mouse (2021), and Voice 1 (2017).

→ A drama friendship that stole the show: There’s actually quite a few so narrowing it down to one is hard. I think the friendship between the 3 lead girls (Yoon Ji-ho, Woo Su-ji, and Yang Ho-rang) in Because This is My First Life (2017) was really great and heart-warming.

I must also mention the amazing friendship between the two leads (Hong Ji-a and Oh In-beom) in Sell Your Haunted House (2021).

→ A drama you found boring: Nice Guy / The Innocent Man (2012). I watched this series for Song Joong-ki and sadly found it quite boring past the halfway point, which is a shame because it was really great up until that point. I kept with it until the end for both Song Joong-ki and Moon Chae-won but I’ll admit I did fast-forward quite a few scenes near the end and just wanted it to be over.

→ A writer or director who caught your attention: I’ll admit, I didn’t really look up writers or directors this year, but I was really impressed by the writer of Black (2017), Choi Ran (who, it turns out, also wrote Mouse (2021), which I’m only now finding out). Her writing in Black impressed me because of the sheer amount of plot twists and details that were in the series and the fact that there were still very few plot holes.

→ Favourite drama poster of 2022: Flower of Evil (2020) has some of the most memorable posters, to me.

→ Standout secondary character [discovered in 2022]: Choi Yoo-jin in The K2 (2016). I don’t know if she can really be considered a secondary character given her prominence in the series, but nonetheless I absolutely adored her. The perfect antagonist, not one-dimensional at all, on the contrary. Song Yoon-ah’s acting was stunning.

I must also give an honourable mention to Mo Tae-Goo in Voice 1 (2017), whose portrayal by Kim Jae-wook was both haunting and captivating.

→ A drama that made you laugh: Quite a few dramas actually did manage to make me laugh this year, and one of these is Live Up to Your Name (2017). Kim Nam-gil is truly an amazing comedic actor (I loved him in Fiery Priest (2019), which I watched last year). I have yet to watch his more serious roles, but I will.

→ A drama that made you cry: I don’t know why but, despite watching quite a few depressing series, the one that has made me cry the most this year is Time Between Dog and Wolf (2007). I don’t know what it is but this series has made me sob, whereas I know more recent series with similar premises haven’t tugged at my heartstrings in this way. I don’t know if it’s the nostalgia factor but safe to say this drama is making me feel all the emotions.

→ A drama that was better than expected: Simply because I was apprehensive when I saw it was about sports (as a non-sports fan), I did not expect Hot Stove League (2019) to be the absolute masterpiece that it was. Goes to show, you truly cannot judge a book by its cover. This series may be centred around baseball, but it’s so much more than that. It truly amazed me with how realistic it was, with the characters feeling like very real people whom I greatly empathised with.

→ Shortest / longest dramas you completed in 2022: None of the series I watched were shorter than 16 episodes or longer than 20.

→ Favourite costumes of 2022: Simply because I loved Hong Ji-a’s fashion style in Sell Your Haunted House (2021) and would wear it myself, I’ll go with her wardrobe.

→ Sweetest romance of 2022: Toss-up between Healer (2014) and Suspicious Partner (2017). I guess the key to a good romance, for me, is for either Park Min-young or Ji Chang-wook to be involved haha.

→ Most disappointing drama of 2022: Strong Girl Bong-soon (2017), for all the reasons listed previously.

→ A [drama discovered in 2022] that deserves a shout-out: Hot Stove League (2019) simply because I’m afraid people might glance over it simply because, in appearance, it’s about sports, but it’s truly spectacular and I think more people should give it a shot. Another drama that I want to shout-out even though I know it’s already incredibly popular is Itaewon Class (2020), simply because it’s great and heart-warming (despite it getting depressing at times).

→ Something you want to see more in dramas: I’m enjoying seeing more and more lgbt representation in dramas and hope it’ll keep going in that direction because it’s just a nice thing.

→ A 2023 drama that you’re excited for: I don’t really look at future releases, I just find out about them after everyone else…

→ Was 2022 a good drama year for you: Yes- I believe I watched a total of 23 kdramas this year (not counting rewatches) and the vast majority of them were quite enjoyable. Other dramas I watched this year but haven’t mentioned in this post were Crash Landing On You (2019), Lawless Lawyer (2018), Descendants of the Sun (2016), 38 Task Force / Squad 38 (2016), and What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim (2018).

→ Favourite drama [discovered in 2022]: Flower of Evil (2020) (*pretends to be shocked*). Honestly though, this series was such a masterpiece that it’s second only to Stranger / Secret Forest (2017) when it comes to kdramas, in my mind. Everything that it set out to accomplish it did so well. It’s one of those rare series where I struggle to find any flaw in it. My mom, who also watched it (and has watched even more kdramas than me at this point), also said it might just be the best series she’d ever seen right after she finished watching it.

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sillsif · 2 years ago

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↳ 8 Shows To Get To Know Me

thank you @jyuubin for tagging me! sorry it took me a while to type this up.

i have decided to pick shows that i rewatch for comfort or keep me awake at night thinking about every little detail and emotion inside. here we go!

Bones (2005 - 2017) i grew up with this show and i just love temperance brennan with my entire life. i love the smithsonians i love booth and brennan i love i love i love and i rewatched s1-s3 sooooooo many times because iykyk it just kills me in the best way everytime.

Because This is My First Life (2017) my comfort feel good kdrama. i love how this drama focused on telling the stories of three women fighting for their dreams, and how every one of them had their own definition of happiness. oh i feel so much for the three of them and i love love love their love interests too. such a well-written show.

The Good Place (2016 - 2020) another comfort and feel good show. the good place is fun, intelligent, and most importantly, kind. it came out during a time when we all needed that reassurance: that things can be changed. things can be better. things SHOULD be better. WE should be better, and we CAN be. i'd even say it's another version of everything everywhere all at once's philosophy. it also has chidi anagonye, the love of my goddamn life.

First Kill (2022) if i were a zombie ♪ i'd never eat your brains ♪ a lesbian vampire x hunter show that got fucking cancelled by netflix bc netflix hates lesbians. i miss them sorely. this show was fun and intriguing, it has the right tone for teenage romance — dramatic and heart-wrenching. the cast is incredibly charming — gorgeous women from mothers to daughters and beautiful men too. talia burns you are everything.

Racket Boys (2021) coming-of-age sports kdrama. i had a visceral reaction to insol when he [redacted] and then i had a mini phase where i had intense brainrots over haesol ( haekang x insol ) which in retrospect is sorta like me with palmchopper. you get what i mean? i still love insol very much and i still have brainrots about them in fact i'm looking at my gifsets right now.

The Get Down (2016 - 2017) I WILL NEVER FORGIVE NETFLIX FOR CANCELLING THIS SHOW. the get down was about the bronx and the beginning of hip hop. ezekiel figuero and shaolin fantastic. mylene. dizzee kipling. i love them so much. so many iconic scenes and lines. justice smith has remained one of my fave actors since then.

Better Call Saul (2015 - 2022) i watched this show during the airing of its final season bc it was all on netflix and i did not expect how easily i grew attached. i watched breaking bad a long time ago and never thought too much of saul goodman the funny lawyer, so i didn't rush to watch bcs when it first aired. but damn how glad i am to have binged it when it delivered its finale too. incredibly tight-knit and immaculate in writing and filming. the details are so intricate it's almost impossible to pull off but they managed. it's quite heavy from time to time, and such a tragedy too. but that's the story. and it does get the ending it deserved. i can say it's the best written tv show i've seen with such a long run.

Scissor Seven (2018 - ) happy, feel good, comfort show. it's a chinese animated series with a lot of canto humour, which just hits home for a canto like me. it follows the regular shounen anime formula but with less self-importance. it's just about a guy who wants to live a good life with people he cares about on this island he calls home. well, with the past coming back for his life.

tagging anyone interested!

#aboutme

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mostlymovieswithmax · 4 years ago

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Movies I watched in March

Thought I’d chronicle the films I’ve been watching over the March period, from the 1st to the 31st, and how I’d rate them. If you’re looking for something to watch, perhaps this will help. A lot of these movies are available on streaming services also.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - 10/10

I hadn’t watched this in a couple of years but I was blown away. Peak Scorsese.

Rushmore (1998) - 7/10

Not the best Wes Anderson movie for me but still fun.

Lion (2016) - 8/10

I discussed this at length on my podcast: The Sunday Movie Marathon. Great movie!

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - 10/10

Now this is one of the best Wes Anderson movies. I discuss this more on The Sunday Movie Marathon. Fantastic, funny and I watched it twice because it’s so much fun.

Inception (2010) - 10/10

Discussed on The Sunday Movie Marathon. Best Christopher Nolan movie for me, Inception is just breathtaking.

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004) - 5/10

This might be Anderson’s weakest film (at least from what I’ve seen) but it’s still not as bad as a lot of directors at their worst.

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - 10/10

I was really on an Anderson binge in March. The Royal Tenenbaums is one of the most wholesome movies I’ve seen and certainly one of his best films.

Rome, Open City (1945) - 4/10

This was filmed in Nazi-occupied Italy and from that premise, the film enticed me. Despite having some interesting qualities, I do feel that initial pull is most of what the movie has going for it.

The Prestige (2006) - 7/10

I showed this to my brother and for what it’s worth, he enjoyed it. I do think this is one of Nolan’s weaker efforts but considering how much I like it, that speaks a lot to Nolan’s filmography as a whole.

Nostalgia (1983) - 10/10

I watched Nostalgia three times in the space of a week and reviewed it on The Sunday Movie Marathon. It’s phenomenal.

Kangaroo Jack (2003) - 1/10

Another one I watched for the podcast. Kangaroo Jack is truly terrible and it upset me a great deal. Avoid this movie.

Stalker (1979) - 10/10

Another Andrei Tarkovsky movie (director of Nostalgia). I watched this again during the day before my second watch of Nostalgia and while it’s hard to compare such different movies, I enjoy Stalker more. It’s a staple of Russian cinema for a reason.

Four Lions (2010) - 5/10

Watched for the podcast. I didn’t really gel with this comedy but it would certainly appeal to someone who enjoys the humour, as my co-hosts did.

Revolutionary Road (2008) - 6/10

This Sam Mendes joint was a tad too melodramatic but still boasted some great performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

Metropolis (1927) - 6/10

This silent film is a staple in cinematic history. Its themes are as painfully relevant today as they were in the 20’s, yet despite that I found a lot of it to be intensely boring. After it hit the hour mark, I started playing it at 1.5x speed.

Crimson Peak (2015) - 4/10

A lot of great set design and costumes and colours, yet the story itself was madly uninteresting.

Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind (2004) - 10/10

Who doesn’t love a good movie written by Charlie Kaufman? I reviewed this on The Sunday Movie Marathon and after a third watch, it is as fascinating as it is gut-wrenching.

Godzilla (2014) - 3/10

If you wanted to see Godzilla fight a bunch of monsters for two hours, then this is not the movie for you. There’s maybe about ten minutes total of on-screen Godzilla action and considering that’s really all anyone’s watching this for, it’s amazing the titular sea lizard occupies so little of the movie.

Prisoners (2013) - 10/10

Brilliant mystery thriller by my favourite director, Denis Villeneuve. Discussed on the podcast.

Eraserhead (1977) - 7/10

David Lynch’s debut feature film went down in my estimations this time around. You can listen to why on The Sunday Movie Marathon. Still, Eraserhead is a very good movie.

Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981) - 6/10

The first Indiana Jones movie proved to be a fun romp and Harrison Ford plays the character beautifully. I’m just not a big fan of Spielberg and his average verging on pretty good but rarely ever great movies. Perhaps on a second watch, I may enjoy this more.

The Seventh Seal (1957) - 9/10

Watching this movie again was so much fun. So far, it’s my favourite Ingmar Bergman film. It’s a celebration of life and love, with an underlying sense of dread as death looms ever-present.

Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984) - 5/10

I can tell why this generally looked on as the weakest in the trilogy. Harrison Ford is still great but the movie dragged a lot and felt more like a bunch of things happening for the sake of it rather than a fun action/adventure.

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989) - 7/10

The Last Crusade was a lot of fun and maybe it was Sean Connery’s inclusion, or perhaps the bottle of wine I drank through the movie elevated my enjoyment. But alcohol aside, I still believe this to be the best in the series.

Justice League (2017) - 2/10

People really weren’t kidding when they said this was bad. I watched this in preparation for the Snyder cut and I was not happy. This took years off my life.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) - 3/10

Barely any better and double the run-time of the original. I discussed this on The Sunday Movie Marathon and I was certainly not impressed. Better luck next time, Zack!

The Truman Show (1998) - 10/10

Brilliant movie and one I would highly recommend for a stellar Jim Carrey performance. This was another recommendation for the podcast.

Eighth Grade (2018) - 7/10

I was impressed with Bo Burnham’s debut feature. This is a coming of age story centred around a young girl growing up in the modern world and how it can affect the youth of today. Burnham shows a deep understanding of youth culture and a real knack for filmmaking.

Bad Education (2019) - 8/10

A real “yikes!” movie. If you want to learn a bit about the embezzlement that took place in an American school back in the early 2000’s, you need not look further than this tight drama with fantastic performances from Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney.

Twelve Monkeys (1995) - 8/10

One of the only movies where the time travel makes sense. I recommended this for The Sunday Movie Marathon and it’s pretty great.

Ready Or Not (2019) - 7/10

Despite a premise that is not wholly original and a super goofy third act, Ready Or Not is gory, violent fun with a lot of stylish art direction.

Dead Man (1995) - 3/10

Recommended on the podcast. I really did not get a lot out of Dead Man. It’s a very slow movie about Johnny Depp going through the woods and killing some people on the way, but it’s two hours long and hugely metaphorical and sadly it just didn’t connect.

Misbehaviour (2020) - 6/10

A big draw for me in Misbehaviour is Keira Knightley; I think she’s a great actor and I’m basically on board with anything she does. I’d been wanting to see this for a while and I was shocked to see just how relevant it is (being set in 1970) to the world we find ourselves in today, where women are still fighting to be heard and to be treated equally. While the film is not spectacular, I still got a lot from its themes, so recently after the murder of Sarah Everard and how women are being treated in their protest.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb (1964) - 7/10

I was surprised at just how hilarious this early Kubrick movie is. While I can’t say it floored me or took any top spots, it’s still a great examination of the military and how they respond to threats or try to solve problems and the side of war we don’t often see in films: the people in the background sitting in a room making crucial decisions.

Taxi Driver (1976) - 10/10

Wow! I can’t believe I’d never seen this before but I’d never really had access to it. Taxi Driver is a beautifully made movie with so much colour and vibrancy. De Niro puts on perhaps his best performance and Paul Schrader’s timeless script works miracles.

Sleepy Hollow (1999) - 5/10

Classic Tim Burton aesthetics in a pretty by the numbers, almost Supernatural-esque story eked out over an hour and forty minutes.

Seaspiracy (2021) - 6/10

Everyone’s going crazy over this documentary and I agree it tackles important issues we’re facing today surrounding the commercialization of the fishing industry, but a lot of what’s presented here is information already available to the public. The editing feels misplaced at times and the tone is all over the place. Nonetheless, it’s still quite fascinating to see good journalism being done in a way that exposes this side of the industry.

Pirates of The Carribean: The Curse of The Black Pearl (2003) - 8/10

Super fun and a great first instalment in a franchise that sadly seems to have peaked at the first hurdle.

My Octopus Teacher (2020) - 8/10

Great cinematography and a lovely premise, this documentary has garnered an Oscar nomination and I can see why.

The Sisters Brothers (2018) - 8/10

A really solid western I was happy to watch again. It’s a shame no one really talks about this movie because it is excellent with stunning visuals and great performances.

Pirates of The Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) - 5/10

A strangely massive drop in quality from the original. If I didn’t like the whole concept of this franchise so much, I might have had a worse time.

Reservoir Dogs (1992) - 8/10

On a second watch, Tarantino’s first feature is still wildly impressive.

Life of Brian (1979) - 7/10

This is perhaps my third time watching Monty Python’s Life of Brian and it’s still incredibly funny, however it never manages to measure up to its predecessor (and one of my all time favourites), Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

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f1chronicle · 4 years ago

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Best Formula 1 Books

When you’re looking for the best Formula 1 books to buy and read, one of the biggest problems you come across is that all the reviews are the same – copied and pasted from Amazon. Also, how do you know if the books you like are what the reviewer likes?

The Formula 1 books below have been read by me, not just copied and pasted from other listings. I like books that share stories, that get into the emotion of the subject and leave you feeling something. I’m not a facts and figures guys, so a book full of dates, cold facts, and specifications will have me putting the book back on the shelf half-read.

I like my books like I like my F1 – fast-paced and dramatic.

So if you’re like me, the below Formula 1 books will be for you…

The Best Formula 1 Books

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Life to the Limit: My Autobiography by Jenson Button

This is actually my favourite Formula 1 book, which is why it is at the top of the list. When you read it, you can’t help but have the voice of Jenson Button in your head, which makes his jokes funnier (and this is a very funny book). While there is a lot of humour, often self-deprecating, the tone definitely takes a turn and you can’t help but be moved when Jenson talks about losing his father.

Some of the chapters are super short too, as in a handful of pages, so if you’re someone who likes to read before bed and has to finish at the end of a chapter, this book will make sure you get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Read my full review on Life to the Limit: My Autobiography by Jenson Button

Jenson Button: Life to the Limit: My Autobiography

Amazon Kindle Edition

Button, Jenson (Author)

English (Publication Language)

361 Pages - 10/19/2017 (Publication Date) - Blink Publishing (Publisher)

$7.49

Buy on Amazon

Senna versus Prost

Before I read Jenson’s book, Senna versus Prost was my favourite.

Malcolm Folley has done a cracking job of creating a space for people to share their stories of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in a way that instantly transports the reader back to those great battles of the 80s and 90s.

What’s even better is Folley speaks with a lot of team personnel, people in the background who we’ve not really heard of, and lets us know what it was really like to be on the ground as the battles took place out on the track.

So much has been made of Ayrton Senna over the years, that Prost’s version of events was somewhat overlooked – until now. And although he could have used the book as an opportunity to lay the boots into his rival, Prost does a brilliant job of relaying events as he saw them.

Le Professeur off the track as well as on it.

Read my full review on Senna versus Prost

Sale

Senna Versus Prost: The Story of the Most Deadly Rivalry in Formula One

Arrow Books

Folley, Malcolm (Author)

English (Publication Language)

410 Pages - 05/26/2010 (Publication Date) - Random House UK (Publisher)

$16.49

Buy on Amazon

Murray Walker: Unless I’m Very Much Mistaken

Murray Walker is the voice of Formula 1. He has one of those voices that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when you’re watching an old race and his enthusiasm for F1 jumps through the speakers.

Some artists use paints, some use pencils, Murray Walker used a microphone.

Walker is a quintessential storyteller, so once again this is a book that you will most likely read in his voice. He tells vivid stories about growing up, his time in the war, all the way through to the Murray Walker we know from our TV screens commentating on Formula 1.

Known for the odd gaff in the commentary box, Walker isn’t shy about having a laugh with it, and understands it helped endear him to fans over the years.

Unless I’m very much mistaken, this is a must-read book that you will thoroughly enjoy.

Unless I'm Very Much Mistaken: My Autobiography by Murray Walker (2003-06-01)

Walker, Murray (Author)

06/02/2003 (Publication Date) - Willow (Publisher)

$25.32

Buy on Amazon

Niki Lauda – The Biography

If a book about a man who had a horrific crash at the wheel of a Formula 1 racing car, was given the last rights, then was back on the grid a month later doesn’t move you, then nothing will.

Niki Lauda was a man of little fuss or sentiment, and Maurice Hamilton has written this book in much the same vein. Starting from Lauda’s early days growing up in a proper family who felt motor racing was beneath their station, to his racing years, to flying, and much more.

If there is to be one criticism of this book, it’s that it doesn’t go into a great deal of detail on his time with Mercedes. However, the vivid recollections of his racing days from people who witnessed it definitely make up for this.

Niki Lauda

Hardcover Book

English (Publication Language)

Simon & Schuster UK (Publisher)

$19.06

Buy on Amazon

The Unknown Kimi Räikkönen

The Unknown Kimi Räikkönen gives great insights into Kimi’s path to F1, his upbringing, and now the importance of time with his growing family.

If you’re looking for a book of anecdotes from Kimi’s time in the paddock, this book isn’t it.

But if you want to learn more about Kimi’s path to F1, his motivation for quitting the sport, and his motivation for coming back to it.

The photos he shares are excellent too.

Read my full review on The Unknown Kimi Räikkönen

The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen

Hotakainen, Kari (Author)

English (Publication Language)

336 Pages - 08/22/2019 (Publication Date) - Simon & Schuster UK (Publisher)

$13.25

Buy on Amazon

Aussie Grit: My Formula One Journey

This is one that most Australian’s will love, as the Aussie legend shares anecdotes or ‘yarns’ from his time in F1 racing against some of the best drivers on the planet.

Those who remember the ‘Multi 21’ saga and breakdown in the relationship with Sebastian Vettel will like this book, as Webber gives his version of the events that unfolded in front of our eyes on race days.

A highlight of this book is Webber walking us through his personal struggles, as it’s not something often associated with the stoic Australian. This book is brutally honest in parts, and will give you a deeper appreciation of the man, not just the driver.

Aussie Grit: My Formula One Journey

PAN

Webber, Mark (Author)

English (Publication Language)

320 Pages - 09/28/2016 (Publication Date) - Macmillan UK (Publisher)

$16.30

Buy on Amazon

The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane

Marc ‘Elvis’ Priestley was one the number one mechanic at McLaren, who as well as this book has an incredible YouTube channel where he shares his insights and analysis of Formula 1 regularly.

Simply put, his book needs to be on the bookshelf of every Formula 1 fan, it’s that good.

I’ll admit I’d never really thought about the pit crew. We see them for a few seconds each race, maybe more if something dramatic happens to one of their drivers.

This book takes us well and truly behind the scenes, into the life of partying and fast-living away from the track.

Priestley also shares a lot of secrets about the rivalries he was part of during his time in F1, which may make him a little unpopular with a few people…

Sale

The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane

Priestley, Marc 'Elvis' (Author)

English (Publication Language)

256 Pages - 11/01/2018 (Publication Date) - Yellow Jersey (Publisher)

$8.49

Buy on Amazon

Chequered Conflict: The Inside Story on Two Explosive F1 World Championships

You could be forgiven for thinking this book by Maurice Hamilton is the work of a family member of Lewis Hamilton, but it’s not. Maurice Hamilton is the author of amazing F1 history books on the likes of James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Jackie Stewart, Frank Williams, and more.

Grand Prix racing in 2007 and 2008 was an explosive affair between Ferrari and McLaren, and this book captures all the drama perfectly.

2007 was the first time since 1986 that three drivers had a chance of winning the title going into the final race, and this book puts you back on the edge of your seat again as you re-live this piece of F1 history.

Chequered Conflict: The Inside Story on Two Explosive F1 World Championships

Amazon Kindle Edition

Hamilton, Maurice (Author)

English (Publication Language)

320 Pages - 09/04/2008 (Publication Date) - Simon & Schuster UK (Publisher)

$16.99

Buy on Amazon

The Mechanic’s Tale

This book by Steve Matchett is quite different to The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane in that it is more about the author’s life, from trying desperately to break into the world of Formula 1. Although he’s not a racing driver, the struggles he faced are on par with some of the drivers mentioned in the books above.

Steve Matchett also shares a lot of his own eye-witness accounts of some of the greats such as Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, and Michael Schumacher. Plus there is a lot on his time with Benetton which is great reading.

The Mechanic's Tale

Matchett, Steve (Author)

English (Publication Language)

240 Pages - 02/03/2000 (Publication Date) - Orion (Publisher)

$13.19

Buy on Amazon

Flat Out Flat Broke: The Original Stig

When you think of Formula 1, names like Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill and Jackie Stewart come to mind straight away, but what about Perry McCarthy? No? Didn’t think so.

McCarthy spent the 1992 Formula 1 season ‘racing’ for the Andrea Moda Formula team, but unfortunately, never qualified for a Grand Prix.

That hasn’t stopped him from writing a hilarious autobiography that has already become a motorsport best seller.

While he didn’t have much luck in F1, or in a lot of other things, McCarthy bounced back to become the first ‘Stig’ on TopGear.

If you want to share a story with someone you care about that will inspire them to chase their dreams and never give up, then this is the one to give them. They don’t even need to be a Formula 1 fan to enjoy this one.

Sale

Flat Out, Flat Broke 3rd Edition: The Original Stig

McCarthy, Perry (Author)

English (Publication Language)

256 Pages - 05/01/2013 (Publication Date) - Haynes Publishing (Publisher)

$11.95

Buy on Amazon

Bestselling Formula 1 Books

Below you will find a list of bestselling Formula 1 books, many of which you would have seen listed above.

As I purchase and read more from the below list, I will add them to our Formula 1 Reviews section.

SaleBestseller No. 1

Formula One: The Champions: 70 years of legendary F1 drivers

Hardcover Book

Hamilton, Maurice (Author)

English (Publication Language)

240 Pages - 03/03/2020 (Publication Date) - White Lion Publishing (Publisher)

$28.49

Buy on Amazon

SaleBestseller No. 2

Formula One 2020

Jones, Bruce (Author)

English (Publication Language)

128 Pages - 05/12/2020 (Publication Date) - Welbeck (Publisher)

$17.99

Buy on Amazon

SaleBestseller No. 3

Formula One: The Pursuit of Speed: A Photographic Celebration of F1's Greatest Moments

Hardcover Book

Hamilton, Maurice (Author)

English (Publication Language)

272 Pages - 09/14/2017 (Publication Date) - Aurum Press (Publisher)

$27.49

Buy on Amazon

Bestseller No. 4

The Fastest Show on Earth: The Mammoth Book of Formula One

Chicane (Author)

English (Publication Language)

416 Pages - 06/11/2019 (Publication Date) - Robinson (Publisher)

$19.99

Buy on Amazon

SaleBestseller No. 5

F1 Mavericks: The Men and Machines that Revolutionized Formula 1 Racing

Hardcover Book

Biro, Pete (Author)

English (Publication Language)

240 Pages - 08/06/2019 (Publication Date) - Motorbooks (Publisher)

$33.04

Buy on Amazon

Bestseller No. 6

Formula 1: The Official History

Hardcover Book

The Hague, Maurice (Author)

English (Publication Language)

272 Pages - 10/20/2020 (Publication Date) - Welbeck Publishing (Publisher)

$33.96

Buy on Amazon

SaleBestseller No. 7

Speed Read F1: The Technology, Rules, History and Concepts Key to the Sport (Speed Read (1))

Codling, Stuart (Author)

English (Publication Language)

160 Pages - 10/10/2017 (Publication Date) - Motorbooks (Publisher)

$15.77

Buy on Amazon

SaleBestseller No. 8

Formula 1 2019: Technical Insights (Preview 2020)

Filisetti, Paolo (Author)

English (Publication Language)

192 Pages - 12/01/2020 (Publication Date) - Giorgio Nada Editore Srl (Publisher)

$68.26

Buy on Amazon

Bestseller No. 9

Formula One Circuits from Above: 28 Legendary Tracks in High-Definition Satellite Photography

Hardcover Book

Jones, Bruce (Author)

English (Publication Language)

224 Pages - 09/03/2019 (Publication Date) - Carlton Books (Publisher)

$76.91

Buy on Amazon

Bestseller No. 10

How To Build A Car

Hardcover Book

Newey, Adrian (Author)

English (Publication Language)

09/16/2020 (Publication Date) - Harper Collins (Publisher)

$29.43

Buy on Amazon

Bestseller No. 11

Formula One Circuits From Above: 28 Legendary Tracks in High-Definition Satellite Photography

Hardcover Book

Jones, Bruce (Author)

English (Publication Language)

224 Pages - 10/06/2020 (Publication Date) - Welbeck Publishing (Publisher)

$34.95

Buy on Amazon

SaleBestseller No. 12

Formula 1 Technical Analysis 2016-2018 (Formula 1 World Championship Yearbook)

Hardcover Book

Piola, Giorgio (Author)

English (Publication Language)

208 Pages - 09/03/2019 (Publication Date) - Giorgio Nada Editore Srl (Publisher)

$52.11

Buy on Amazon

Bestseller No. 13

The Mechanic's Tale

Matchett, Steve (Author)

English (Publication Language)

240 Pages - 02/03/2000 (Publication Date) - Orion (Publisher)

$13.19

Buy on Amazon

Bestseller No. 14

The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen

Hotakainen, Kari (Author)

English (Publication Language)

336 Pages - 08/22/2019 (Publication Date) - Simon & Schuster UK (Publisher)

$13.25

Buy on Amazon

SaleBestseller No. 15

Monaco: Inside F1's Greatest Race

Folley, Malcolm (Author)

English (Publication Language)

320 Pages - 08/01/2018 (Publication Date) - Random House UK (Publisher)

$9.47

Buy on Amazon

Bestseller No. 16

How Do Formula One Race Cars Work? (Lightning Bolt Books ® ― How Vehicles Work)

Silverman, Buffy (Author)

English (Publication Language)

32 Pages - 01/01/2016 (Publication Date) - LernerClassroom (Publisher)

$8.99

Buy on Amazon

SaleBestseller No. 17

Formula 1: Car by Car 1950-59: 1950-59 (Formula 1 CBC)

Hardcover Book

Higham, Peter (Author)

English (Publication Language)

304 Pages - 07/14/2020 (Publication Date) - Evro Publishing Limited (Publisher)

$52.96

Buy on Amazon

SaleBestseller No. 18

Senna Versus Prost: The Story of the Most Deadly Rivalry in Formula One

Arrow Books

Folley, Malcolm (Author)

English (Publication Language)

410 Pages - 05/26/2010 (Publication Date) - Random House UK (Publisher)

$16.49

Buy on Amazon

SaleBestseller No. 19

Formula 1: Car by Car 1970-79: Formula 1: Car by Car (Formula 1 CBC)

Hardcover Book

Higham, Peter (Author)

English (Publication Language)

304 Pages - 03/20/2018 (Publication Date) - Evro Publishing Limited (Publisher)

$58.24

Buy on Amazon

Bestseller No. 20

Self-Discipline: 4 Books in 1: To do List Formula, Stop Procrastinating, Stop Overthinking,Stoicism. How to Build your Self-Confidence, Improve your Time Management and your Emotional Intelligence

Amazon Kindle Edition

Trust, Stephen (Author)

English (Publication Language)

417 Pages - 07/20/2020 (Publication Date)

$9.99

Buy on Amazon

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#Formula 1 news

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bbclesmis · 6 years ago

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No singing allowed

Victor Hugo’s epic novel Les Misérables might be best known for its musical adaptations, but a new small-screen adaptation produced for the BBC and Masterpiece on PBS feels more like a western, as exec producer Bethan Jones and director Tom Shankland explain.

When Victor Hugo sat down to write his epic 19th century novel Les Misérables, including in it a searing indictment of the divide between rich and poor and the travails of revolutionary political movements, he was probably considering a more distinguished legacy than an often-derided musical in London’s West End.

For when one thinks about Les Misérables, it is the bathetic tones of I Dreamed a Dream and carefully choreographed dance-acting that spring to mind. And although Anne Hathaway’s rendition of I Dreamed… in the 2012 Hollywood film did give a sense of the pain and despair her character Fantine was supposed to be feeling, the fact remains that this ambitious novel is often reduced to a collection of show tunes and the diminutive appellation ‘Les Mis.’

This is one of the reasons adaptation supremo Andrew Davies (Bleak House, Pride & Prejudice, Middlemarch) has taken on the project for UK pubcaster the BBC and Masterpiece on PBS in the US, alongside producers Lookout Point and BBC Studios, which is also distributing. When discussing the adaptation a few years back at the Hay Festival, Davies called the musical a “shoddy farrago” of Hugo’s original work, adding that he hoped his take would champion the book for its depth.

“Andrew loves being contentious, that’s his thing,” says Bethan Jones, exec producer on the series for BBC Studios. “For me, you take a big book like this and you adapt it to the form you are servicing. Inevitably, the musical has to have its baddies, its goodies, its romantic interests – it has to follow that journey. It has a certain amount of hours to fill and you have to tell a musical story. A film adaptation will be a very different thing again. What we’ve got in six hours is the opportunity to dig down a little bit more into those characters than potentially shorter adaptations have time to do; to explore the relationships and themes between the characters and their particular journeys.”

Part of this sharper focus on the source material is a strict ‘no singing’ policy, with Davies pointedly declaring at Hay that his cast would not “yell great things like they do in the musical.” Jones diplomatically says the musical and the BBC series – which lands on screens in early 2019 – are “two very different, but equally valid” ways of representing the book.

Pared down, Les Misérables tells the story of prisoner Jean Valjean and his continuous battle with police inspector Javert following his release from prison for stealing bread. After further run-ins with the law, Valjean attempts to change his ways and live life as a decent man. Interspersed with his long road to redemption are stories of family, love, rebellion and commentary on the social and political class system of post-revolutionary France. Its intricate plot has spawned – beyond the aforementioned takes – more than 60 adaptations across film and television, which raises another question about the BBC’s forthcoming production – do we need another?

Jones reiterates Davies’ desire to go back to Hugo’s original text and “draw out more of the real stories, themes and characters” and the book’s timelessness as justification. “We also felt it was timely in as much as while there is still poverty, hardship and degradation in the world, books like this will still be relevant. It feels timely to be looking at a classic text that deals with a complicated period and the division of rich and poor but through the eyes of brilliant characters.”

Director Tom Shankland (The City & The City, The Missing, Ripper Street) admits he hadn’t seen a single adaptation of the book before he took the helm, and thus hopes his is a fresh perspective. “For me, it felt like an epic western,” he says. “I’ve always loved westerns. There are all these fantastic characters – the bad sheriff, the wanted man, the hunted fugitive. It was everything I loved about that genre – the adventure and emotion of that.” Simply being thrilled by the plot isn’t enough to hook a director completely, Shankland points out, but he was snagged “emotionally and thematically” by Valjean’s quest for redemption and a “simple desire to be good in a bad world.”

The BBC has assembled a premium cast for the series, with The Affair star Dominic West taking on Valjean, Selma’s David Oyelowo playing Javert, Lily Collins as destitute young mother Fantine and Adeel Akhtar and Olivia Colman as petty criminals the Thénardiers. “David absolutely felt there was something around Javert’s role as a bit of a thwarted outsider with frustrations and drive to move up in the world, as well as being this person with a real ideological commitment to the belief that people are either born wicked or good,” Shankland says. “He kept on looking and finding, in extraordinary ways, the humanity – however twisted and bitter – in Javert. By the end, I’m almost in tears for him. In my wildest dreams, I wasn’t sure we’d get to that place with a character like that. David dug so deep.

“When I watch what Dominic does to take Valjean to this unbelievably brutalised place, which is almost a wordless, inhuman place, to where he ends, he makes me believe every part of that journey.”

Davies has a knack of turning a classic literary work into a TV drama that resonates cinematically and does not seem anachronistic. In 2016, he received universal acclaim for his BBC adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s epic historical novel War & Peace, in which he successfully brought chaotic battle scenes, aristocratic opulence and sweeping landscapes of 19th century Russia to the small screen. Furthermore, within that epic scope, Jones says Davies has a rare ability to portray relatable characters that “speak to” a contemporary audience.

“Andrew’s scripts made these characters feel modern. That was nothing to do with having them speak in a very modern way or changing their behaviour, he just found the humanity and earthiness of it,” Shankland says, recalling a scene in which Fantine and her companions urinate in a Paris park. “I thought, ‘Oh god, they’re going to pee in Les Misérables, that’s exciting.’ It was these little things that Andrew did to make these people feel real and have an immediate presence that made me think that it wouldn’t be like doing a conventional, polite period piece. We’d be doing something that had a real connection with today.”

Filming has taken the production to far-flung areas of the French-speaking parts of Europe, from southern Belgium to Sedan in the Ardennes region of north-eastern France. In Sedan, Shankland says, they found back streets acutely reminiscent of the period Hugo was writing about. Jones and Shankland both note that the filming of key scenes, such as the political uprising, where students revolt and erect barricades in the narrow streets of Paris, were inspired by contemporary riots such as those that took place in London in 2011 and in Northern Ireland during the Troubles in the 1960s.

“I wanted the images to resonate with the audience, so they’d be thinking, ‘Oh hang about, that doesn’t feel like [post-revolutionary France] even if they might have guns that are somewhat 19th century,’” Shankland says. “Actually, what happened in a street battle – the energy, fear and chaos of that – is very modern. I tried to let modern events into the imagery. In some ways, we never thought of it as a period piece.”

“It does speak to that modern world. It’s not the French revolution; it’s a small, failed skirmish. That’s the tragedy of it. It’s a group of people desperately trying to assert themselves in a situation where the state is so much bigger than them. That’s still very relevant,” Jones adds.

Considering Les Misérables’ hard-hitting topics, one might expect the series to comprise six hours of unremitting tension and misery. But Shankland is quick to reassure this isn’t the case. “For all that the story is full of these epic, intense themes, there’s so much humour in it, and not in a way that I felt was ever crowbarred in. However dark times are, there’s always room for lightness and romance. It’s just a beautifully textured piece.” And all without a songbook in sight.

(x)

#les mis bbc #bbc les mis #tom shankland #bethan jones #Interviews #articles

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scifigeneration · 6 years ago

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Captain Marvel: why female superheroes are not just for International Women's Day

by Ruth Deller

Brie Larson as Captain Marvel. Chuck Zlotnick..©Marvel Studios 2019

The release date of Marvel’s first solo female superhero film was deliberately timed to coincide with International Women’s Day. But is this a celebration of women or a bit of a cynical ploy? International Women’s Day has become something of a media, cultural, and commercial event in recent years. This year, for example, alongside Captain Marvel, soap operas Emmerdale and Neighbours have announced special episodes with all-female cast and crew.

It’s a great marketing strategy, but the line between celebration and cynical cash-in is a fine one. Several commentators have criticised the commodification of IWD and the emphasis on projects such as these media launches over raising awareness of more serious issues affecting women globally.

Focusing the need for greater female visibility (both behind and in front of cameras) around a single day also runs the risk of women’s participation becoming a “special” or unusual event rather than something so equal that it becomes commonplace and unremarkable.

Enter the Captain

Captain Marvel is one of the most-anticipated films of 2019 – and is one of the most established brands in the comics world. Captain Marvel and her alter ego, Carol Danvers, both have long histories within the Marvel Universe (and, indeed, the DC universe, with their version also an alias of the star of forthcoming film Shazam).

Like pretty much everything in comics, it’s complicated. Danvers only assumed the mantle of Captain Marvel – a role that has had several inhabitants, much like Spider-Man – in 2012. The character is a powerful and dynamic one: in the comics she has leadership within the Avengers team, and Marvel boss Kevin Feige has claimed she has the strongest superpowers of all their heroes.

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The announcement of a solo Captain Marvel film came in 2014, with Brie Larson attached to the lead role in 2016, closely following her Oscar win for Room. It is common practice for Marvel and Disney to announce films several years before release, but the long wait for a female-led film has angered some fans.

In between the announcement of Captain Marvel and its release, of course, Wonder Woman arrived. The Patty Jenkins film was released to much fanfare and its critical and commercial success was seen as a rare coup for Marvel’s rivals DC, whose recent cinematic outings have generally been regarded as weak.

Interestingly, both franchises have launched with films set in the past: Wonder Woman during World War I and its forthcoming sequel in 1984, and Captain Marvel in the 1990s (allegedly 1995, although there are some anachronistic details in the marketing such as songs on the soundtrack that weren’t released until much later).

Period drama: using 1990s-style Magic Eye images as a marketing tool. ©Marvel Studios 2019

These past settings may not just be for plot reasons. Given it has taken embarrassingly long for these female-led superhero films to arrive, it may be no coincidence that neither franchise is set in the present day. It is almost as if the studios are embarrassed of the fact and are trying to retrofit their past so that by the time the series reach the present day, the cinematic universes will have plenty of female superheroes fighting alongside their male counterparts. To launch a Captain Marvel film set in 2019 with her being presented as a “novelty” in a man’s world within the film’s world would seem tone deaf and clumsy (even if that is what’s happening in the “real” 2019).

A cinematic Marvel?

Initial reviews of Captain Marvel have been somewhat mixed – it has received few truly bad reviews, but several highlight flaws in the film. Larson’s performance has been praised, as have the humour and energy of the film. But it’s been criticised for not featuring enough big set-pieces, its narrative focusing too much on an easily resolved mystery, and having a slightly lacklustre plot.

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Captain Marvel is hardly the first superhero film to encounter mixed reviews, of course. Its current Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes scores rate it similarly to Iron Man 2 and 3, Doctor Strange, Avengers: Age of Ultron and both Ant-Man films, and significantly higher than the likes of the Fantastic Four and Hulk.

Even the well-regarded Wonder Woman was not without its problems, including the overemphasis on the love interest, the bloated running time, and the establishment of Diana’s race of fierce Amazonian women warriors at the start – only for them to be sidelined and replaced by an all-male team of laughably bad ethnic stereotypes.

So what might Captain Marvel indicate about the present – and future – of women in film? Within the superhero genre, it’s likely to lead to more. There are strong rumours of a sequel in the works and also murmurs of a Black Widow film. With other popular female comic heroes – such as Ms Marvel – ready and waiting for the big screen, if Captain Marvel proves a success, more will no doubt follow.

Captain Marvel: rumours of a sequel already in the pipeline. ©Marvel Studios 2019

But some critics have noted that simply increasing the presence of women in genres such as superhero films is insufficient to address the issues of gender inequality – privileging typically “male” genres, still offering a limited range of female representations, and focusing more on what is on-screen than broader inequalities within the industry where female filmmakers are still a minority.

Having a female-fronted and directed Marvel superhero film is to be celebrated, of course – though its release on IWD may be too cynically opportunistic for some. Hopefully, Captain Marvel will entertain and inspire audiences – men as well as women. But the fact that it is still an exception, rather than the norm, shows us that the film world still has a long way to go before women achieve anything approaching equality.

About The Author:

Ruth Deller is a Reader and Principal Lecturer in Media and Communication at Sheffield Hallam University

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

#movies #movie review #super hero movies #science fiction and fantasy #Marvel Studios #Captain Marvel #Marvel Cinematic Universe #international women's day #international women's day 2019

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theinquisitivej · 6 years ago

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Review Variety Pack: Singers, Vampires, and Autopsies

When you write reviews, there are some weeks where there’s simply nothing on the schedule that grabs your interest or sparks any ideas that you feel compelled to write down. Then there are the times where you have the opposite problem, and you end up watching more than enough content to fill two or three articles, and you just don’t know what to pick. When this happens, I’m often torn between my desire to cover everything I see to produce more content and talk about as many different things with my readers as physically possible, and the practical limitation of only having so much time each week to properly go into extensive detail of what I’ve seen. Well, on this occasion, I thought I would try something a little different and take a quick look at a couple films and a TV series rather than dedicate an entire article to just one of them. Don’t worry, I’ll be back to the more in-depth format for my reviews soon enough. For now, this approach just allows me to catch up on some of the content I’ve been meaning to talk about, as well as point you all in the direction of a couple of items. There may even be one or two which have flown under the radar for you.

‘A Star is Born’

Okay, so maybe not ALL of these are smaller projects that haven’t received a lot of media attention. But whatever – the deal with this movie is that Bradley Cooper decided to direct the latest in what has apparently been a long line of remakes and adaptations of the 1937 movie A Star is Born. Cooper plays a popular male singer who discovers a young woman with a talent for singing, played by Lady Gaga, who he wants to introduce to the world and drama ensues as they start a relationship and her fame keeps growing. I have no familiarity with the original or any of the other three remakes listed on Wikipedia, so take that for whatever it’s worth when I say I’m glad I saw this film.

The 2018 A Star is Born seems to be made with the knowledge that the audience has likely heard this song before. Even if you’re like me and you haven’t seen any of the four previous versions of this film, the rise-to-stardom story is so well-established that it’s a safe bet that you’ll recognise many of the typical story beats of this kind of film. You see the future star’s humble origins, their soaring debut, their optimism for their bright future, them getting signed on for a record label and a soulless manager character entering the picture, their image having to be changed as they get pushed further into the public eye, someone close to them criticising them because they believe the star has lost their way, one of the characters taking a bad turn as it starts to feel like the star has lost all control of their life, and so on. It’s a story we know, but A Star is Born appears to be conscious of this fact. Towards the end of the film, there’s a conversation where a character reflects on how the same notes are repeated over and over between different songs. The character remarks that it’s in the different ways that people see those notes and interpret them through their music that new experiences are created.

And I think that’s what this film does. The story may be similar to half a dozen other examples, but the execution is what engages. There’s a naturalistic direction to the film that you can see through the way characters talk over each other as they conduct their conversations, or the slight documentary-style to the cinematography, or the minimal use of non-diegetic music which makes the soundtrack seem as if it’s coming from the characters themselves as they sing and play throughout the story. This increases the sense of impact to some of the events within the story because the film is selling you on the impression that what you’re seeing is really happening. On top of that, Lady Gaga’s experience as a professional singer not only enables her to sing well throughout the film, but it also helps her to convey the emotions and thought processes being experienced by her character as she sings. She’s able to deliver a dramatic performance alongside her musical performance, and that’s compelling to watch.

The 2018 version of A Star is Born is not telling a new story, but it manages to tell a familiar narrative in a way that manages to be distinctive and emotionally affecting. If any of the people involved make the film of interest to you, or if the mood takes you and you want to experience a decent version of this sort of rising-star story, then this version of A Star is Born is a decent pick. Now I just have to watch Bohemian Rhapsody and see if the other film about musical celebrities currently out in cinemas does as good a job at hitting its marks.

Final Score: Bronze / Silver

‘Castlevania’ Season 2

Castlevania is one of those franchises that, on first inspection, appears to have a complicated history with dozens of instalments all coming together to form this grand tapestry telling the story of the war between Dracula, destined to reincarnate every 100 years, and the Belmonts, a family of vampire hunters that have dedicated their entire lineage to keeping Dracula and his forces of darkness at bay. And for fans who want to read into it, that expansive timeline is absolutely there, but on a very simple level, every Castlevania game more or less tells the same story. Dracula shows up along with his huge labyrinthine castle, and someone with a whip and a bunch of vampire-hunting equipment rocks up to kick him back into his coffin. Sometimes there are other characters along for the ride to make it slightly more complicated, but that’s the general gist. Also, there’s always some excellent music accompanying the proceedings.

The first season of the Netflix animated series Castlevania adapted the story of the third game in the series. As it was only four 20-minute episodes, the first season is barely longer than a feature-length movie, and just as it finds its purpose and you feel like you’re getting into it, it ends. It wasn’t anything more than a semi-decent series, but I felt like there was potential when I watched it last year. The animation during the scenes where characters are simply talking to one another was stiff and you’d only see characters shift in place after a sentence or two, rather than exhibit more natural, flowing movement from moment-to-moment. But the action scenes were clearly where the animation budget went, as fights were creative and choreographed with a satisfying flair which showcased the animator’s passion for the source material. Performances were suitably brooding and at the right level between genuine human levels of emotion and melodramatic excessiveness, which is fitting for something Gothic and cheesy like this. At times the excessive gore and general revelling in shock-factor violence grated on me, and none of the characters really captured my interest or felt like I could get behind them until the second half of the last episode.

Now Season 2 of Castlevania doesn’t fix all of my issues with the previous season, but I am very happy with some of the progress I’ve seen so far. I haven’t finished the season yet, as I’m six episodes in and have two left before I’m done, but I’ve seen enough to say that the extra time has benefitted the writers, allowing them to take the time to further explore characters and focus on conversations and interactions between the different members of the cast. The result is a more satisfying and complete-feeling season.

Apart from that, my thoughts are more or less the same as the first season. I like their presentation of the series’ established Gothic aesthetic through the impressive backgrounds and character design. I enjoy seeing characters and references from the games and think the showrunners are doing a great job at translating the tone of the games to an ongoing TV series. The excessive gore is a little much at times, and not because I can’t handle it, but because it feels inelegant and unnecessary when they’re already doing such a good job at establishing a Gothic atmosphere. I am enjoying the characters more, even though the attempts at humour feel a little awkward (though I think that’s part of the intentional style of the series, so take that for what it’s worth). All in all, a solid series that has gotten better since last year, but still has several areas in which it could improve. If you enjoy the original games or are a fan of cheesy Gothic fantasy, then give it a watch.

Final Score: Copper / Bronze

‘The Autopsy of Jane Doe’

Watching this 2016 horror movie from André Øvredal, the director of Trollhunter, was how I spent Halloween this year, and it was a night well spent. A father-son pair of coroners are given an unidentified body of a woman that was found on a crime scene and are tasked with finding a cause-of-death by morning so that the local sheriff can give a full statement on the matter. As they proceed with the autopsy, they find more and more things which don’t add up. There are signs of things happening to the body which don’t make scientific sense when you consider the body’s appearance, and to top it off, there’s an uneasy atmosphere around the office as things just don’t feel right. And from there, I’ll keep you in the dark, as one of the most enjoyable elements to watching this film for the first time is trying to work out what’s going on alongside the two main characters as they dig further into this mystery.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe got under my skin because it taps into the uneasiness you often feel when you’re stuck in an office or medical building late at night and you’re one of the only people remaining. It makes effective use of space to create a suffocating feeling to the autopsy room and the one or two other spaces our characters find themselves in as the film goes on. The use of the right-angled corridor to create suspense as you fear what might come around the corner is commendable. Both of the two main actors, Brian Cox as the father and Emile Hirsch as the son, work well in their roles, selling you on their close, familial relationship as well as the fact that they are professional coroners, so they know what to do and how to handle their nerves around a dead body, but they’re also human enough to get a little uneasy when things start looking weird.

As I touched on earlier, I was really drawn in by the set-up to The Autopsy of Jane Doe, fascinated to learn more as conflicting pieces of information are revealed to both the characters and the audience. It’s an exciting sensation that I think is unique to horror; it’s the human urge to find out more even when all signs are telling you that you should stop delving into this unsettling area. You have to know the truth and understand what’s going on, even when it takes you to deadly territory. It’s such a recurring feeling that I experience when watching horror, as well as see in the motivations of the characters within horror narratives, that I consider the horror and mystery genres to be close relatives. The Autopsy of Jane Doe is dripping with that sense of horrific mystery as it centres on an autopsy, a procedure that is done when you want to find out the truth behind something but is also inherently unsettling as you are staring face-to-face at death, in all its detail.

This horror movie has a great premise which is executed with impressive technical ability by its actors, cinematographer, and director (even if it leans on the jump-scare tactic a little too much). For those who like their horror with an air of mystery, then this is a hard recommend.

Final Score: Silver

#The Inquisitive J #Film Review #film #movies #film critic #movie critic #critic #reviews #television review #netflix castlevania #castlevania #a star is born #a star is born 2018 #the autopsy of jane doe #netflix castlevania review #a star is born review #the autopsy of jane doe review #the inquisitive j reviews

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filmpenance · 3 years ago

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Day 13 2022 - Other People

Other People (2016) Chris Kelly 1h 37m [Oh Mom!]

“This all just feels like... something that happens to other people.” - David

Other People[i] is a comedic drama showing the way that humour bonds us and gets you through the roughest times.

Things aren’t going great for David (Jessie Plemons). He and his boyfriend have just broken up, his career as a comedy writer has stalled and he’s moved from NYC back to suburban Sacramento to help his family care for his ailing mother Joanne (Molly Shannon). This isn’t what he thought his 20s would be.

The story is told over the course of a single year, and we watch David navigate important moments with his family and his mom.

The film is particularly good at detailing moments of gravitas and meaning happening in absurd contexts – like a discussion of cremation or burial at cafeteria style restaurant – or pump up against the weird like trying to have a serious talk with a friend as a stranger attempts to hit on you.

Molly Shannon could not be more perfect in this movie. Her performance is gut wrenching and hilarious. She gets across the depth and breadth of her character’s playful love for her family, while she realises many of the things she’s doing now will be for the last time. You’ve got to love a woman who when assessing the food neighbours have brought over says:

“Only a slut would come to the door with dessert.”

Bradley Whitford is great too as David’s father Norman. Norman never thought he’d lose his wife while in their 50s. Everything about his world is changing too, as must his relationship with his daughters and David.

In truth, the entire cast is fantastic[ii].

Writer Director Chris Kelly skillfully captures the right tone for the material. It’s also a pleasure to look at, the handheld shooting style is meshed nicely with the slice-of-life vignettes on screen. I will say, that this is a well off family, and the cost of Joanne’s care is never raised.

There are many delights in Other People – a film with light moments about a serious topic. Highly recommended.

Currently, Other People is streaming on Netflix Canada.

TRAILER: https://youtu.be/Y8WlTcD5gxE

NOTES:

[i] Not to be confused with “Sleeping with Other People” a Jason Sudeikis vehicle that I have not seen, but kept coming up when I tried to Google this movie.

[ii] I’m telling you, comedy people can do anything. This cast is filled from stem to stern with comedic talent in “non comedy” roles.

#film penance #filmpenance2022 #filmpenance #other people #other people 2016 #jessie plemons #molley shannon #chris kelly #comedy #drama #Oh Mom Wednesday #lent #recovering catholic #movie review #film review #film buff #cinephile

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disappointingyet · 7 years ago

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This is a list of my favourite films of the year. That sounds like a simple statement, but in some quarters the long-running arguments about what is and isn’t a film got very heated in 2017. Even the year bit of that can get very messy.

But for at least this one last time, I’m keeping things simple: these are the films I enjoyed most out of the ones that were released in UK cinemas in 2017.*

There were plenty of films I didn’t see: some I wanted to but didn’t get round to – Colossal is the one that stands out. Others I just wasn’t drawn to – Detroit, Dunkirk (give money to Christopher Nolan and he’ll only keep making movies) and the critically adored Call Me By Your Name (the super-annoying title probably didn’t help).

There were lots of movies I did see and like, though, and that’s what we’re here to talk about…

*This decision was made simpler because I didn’t love any of the films that Netflix streamed without even giving a token cinema release, which included Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) and Sundance favourite I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore. The best of the bunch was The Incredible Jessica James.

1. Manchester By The Sea

Back in October 2016, I wrote: ‘If a better film is released in the UK in 2017, I’ll be very impressed.’ Well, I have been impressed by the excellent movies below on this list, but none of them beat Manchester By The Sea as far as I’m concerned. In outline, it sounds like nothing special: a story of some grim stuff happening to a fairly ordinary family, in particular a bloke who likes to pick fights in bars and his teenage nephew. But writer-director Kenneth Lonergan turns the ingredients for a predictable drama into something very special, not least by lacing this grief-laden story with lots of (appropriately) funny moments.

Full review here

2. The Handmaiden

A lot of the films on this list are fairly light on plot, so if you want a movie with scheming, counter-scheming and deception, not to mention pretty costumes, sex, cherry blossoms, perviness (its 18 certificate is richly earned) plus differing Korean views of their Japanese occupiers, this is the one. It’s directed by Park Chan-wook, best known for Old Boy, and loosely based on Sarah Waters’ Victorian-set melodrama Fingersmith, which turns out to be perfectly suited to Korea in the 1930s.

Full review here

3. Certain Women

Resolutely low-key collection of three slightly overlapping short stories set in wintery Montana. It’s a character piece, with Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and (the excellent, previously little-known) Lily Gladstone leading each segment. Director Kelly Reichardt knows exactly who these women are, and how the place they live shapes them. It seems modest at first, but it stuck in my mind long after flashier films had faded away.

Full review here

4. Moonlight

So much of what I read about Moonlight made it sound so much less interesting than it is. Around awards time, you could have easily formed the impression it was a heart-tugging issue movie, not helped by the campaign to get Naomi Harris an Oscar (‘Look! Pretty woman getting grubby to play junkie skank!’)**

What makes it a remarkable film – and it is a remarkable film – are the extraordinary cinematography and the telling of the story via often fragmentary scenes, and how little is explained, at least until the much more conventional, even theatrical (and thus slightly disappointing) final segment. Great moviemaking is about the how, not the what.

Full review here

**The classic awards-season tendency to grade performances by perceived difficulty points led to people talking about Harris rather than the way better Janelle Monae.

5. The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Mäki

Lovely, bittersweet based-on-real-life tale of Mäki, a small man who was Finnish boxing’s big hope in the early 1960s. It’s not really a boxing film, more a story about two decent young people trying to work out what they want. Which probably doesn’t sound like the most gripping core of a film, but it works. My favourite Finnish film of the year, narrowly shading…

Full review here

6. The Other Side Of Hope

Why should social realism be the only way of looking at problems like the refugee crisis? Aki Kaurismäki brings his taste for dramatic lighting, deadpan acting and vintage rock’n’roll to this story of a young Syrian braving bureaucracy and street racism in Helsinki. Less funny than most Kaurismäki films, but I found it very moving.

Full review here

7. Spider-Man: Homecoming

I’ve had enough of super heroes on screen – Marvel’s The Defenders on Netflix was the last straw. I’m voting for a moratorium on them*** and gangsters. So it took a lot to persuade me to see yet another Spider-Man reboot. ‘Don’t think of it as an action movie, think of it as a high-school comedy,’ said my friend Jess, and she was right. It’s nimble and funny and doesn’t take itself too seriously – the best surprise of the year.

Full review here

***I’m totally prepared to believe that Thor: Ragnarok is enjoyable in a bonkers, proggy kind of way, but I’m not risking it. Too many people insisted Captain America: Civil War was good.

8. The Death Of Stalin

After dealing with the (by comparison small) monsters of the Blair era in The Thick Of It, Armando Iannucci turns to the worst – by at least one measure – men in history: Beria, Molotov and Uncle Joe himself.

I don’t think by portraying the farcical nature of the days after Stalin’s death the film is disrespectful to all those who died. I think humour has always been part of how we confront the horror.

The Death Of Stalin has the best ensemble cast of the year – Jeffrey Tambor as Malenkov, Steve Buscemi as Khrushchev, Jason Isaacs giving the performance of his career as Marshal Zhukov, and – best of all – Simon Russell Beale as Beria. And, crucially, it’s definitely a film, not a bit of TV that has snuck on to the big screen.

9. Daphne

Essentially, a classic US indie movie transplanted from Brooklyn to Walworth. The title character is a pretentious and self-centred 30-year-old failing to get her life together – she’s just like women I used to meet at parties in south London 10 or 15 years ago. That could make for a dull film, of course, but the writing, the feel for the place and Emily Beecham as Daphne make it funny and involving.

Full review here

10. After The Storm

Once promising writer with a gambling problem becomes low-rent PI and uses his new skills to keep tabs on his ex. If you think you can imagine how this film goes from that description, you’re probably miles from Hirokazu Kore-eda’s typically patient, generous-spirited and occasionally funny family drama.

Full review here

11. A Ghost Story

Or that one with the white-sheet-with-eye-holes phantom. A Ghost Story is definitely a film you either buy into or you don’t, an austere tale about grief and loss. I did, and found it sad and moving and pleasingly different.

Full review here

12. Neruda

It’s a playful movie about a playful title character – the Chilean poet and dilettante politician during his dramatic time on the run from the authorities – but Neruda has a melancholy underlying mood that rises to the surface as the film goes on. It’s a smart, complex and entertaining film.

Full review here

13. The Florida Project

A group of small kids living in a low-rent long-stay motel have adventures and misbehave a bit. And that’s mostly it, with a few dips into the struggles of the mother of one of the kids, plus a sense of the endless patience and generosity of spirit of the motel manager (Willem Dafoe, the sole big name in the cast). What’s impressive is the way Sean Baker maintains a tone that manages to dodge both ‘look at what grindingly terrible lives poor folk lead’ and being a whimsical adorable-kids-running-wild picture. It does drag a little about three quarters of the way in, but the ending pulls it back.

14. La La Land

First it was an instant masterpiece that was going to change the game, then it was a deflating bubble as the haters managed to shout louder than the lovers. So which take on this nostalgia-soaked showbiz musical do I agree with? Well, there are problems with the film – mostly to do with director Damien Chazelle’s continuing attempts to foist his rotten ideology of music on the rest of us via his movies – but I think the people who were swooning were closer to the truth than the raspberry blowers.

Full review here

15. Lady Macbeth

Bracingly bleak and at times hard to watch, this is very much in the anti-heritage industry counter-tradition of British period dramas. It’s about the rebellion of a young woman against a grim arranged marriage in Victorian Yorkshire, a struggle that makes strange and grim turns. Unpleasant, but an impressive and memorable piece of filmmaking.

Full review here

16. Blade Of The Immortal

‘Blood-drenched’ would be an understatement when it comes to this gleefully violent supernatural samurai tale in which an almost unkillable ronin is hired by a young girl to revenge her father’s death. If it doesn’t match up to veteran director Takashi Miike’s kinetic 2010 masterpiece 13 Assassins, Blade Of The Immortal is still full of staggering set pieces. Not for the squeamish.

Full review here

17. I Am Not Your Negro

In a variant on the title of this blog, I’d describe this documentary as kind of unsatisfactory yet powerful. It’s got a curious premise: it’s an ‘adaptation’ of a book that was only vaguely started: James Baldwin’s look at the meaning of the lives and deaths of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

The result is a slightly rambling wander through what Baldwin wrote and said about black lives in America. The clips of Baldwin on TV and at the Oxford Union are electrifying. The chunks of his writing are beautifully read by Samuel L Jackson in a warm, wise deep oak-aged voice than sounds precisely nothing like either Samuel L Jackson or James Baldwin.

Dropped in around the place are news stills from the last couple of years by way of saying, ‘Yes, Obama made it to the presidency, but otherwise things are still fucked.’ That’s a bit clumsy and crude. What makes the film is Baldwin himself – a great writer (I’m still annoyed that someone nicked my copy of The Fire Next Time in 1991) but also a figure who confounds our condescension of past times: here was a black gay man who was an international public intellectual in the 1960s.

Best old films I saw on the big screen

Scarface

Not every rapper’s favourite movie – this is the terrific 1932 original, a ripped-from-the-headlines account of the rise of a ruthless Chicago gangster that’s as electrifyingly urgent as current organised-crime dramas are weary.

Full review here

Un Flic

Jean-Pierre Melville, whose career stretched from the 1940s to ’70s, made some of my favourite films ever – Bob Le Flambeur, Le Samurai, Army Of The Shadows – and the BFI showed all of them in a splendid full retrospective this autumn. Of the ones I’d never seen before, my favourite was Un Flic, his last film, a bleak, minimalist film in which a laconic, sadistic cop (Alain Delon) slowly gets on the trail of a heist crew. Moody, stylised and very cool.

Full review here

The Cobweb

Over the top, and unashamedly so, Vincente Minnelli’s undervalued mid-’50s melodrama is set in a psychiatric clinic, has a great cast and a plot in which the choice of a set of curtains causes all manner of scheming, bitching and betrayal.

Full review here

La Vérité

An uncharacteristically meaty role for Brigitte Bardot is at the centre of this courtroom drama from Henri-Georges Clouzot. BB plays a beatnik girl on trial for murder, but what made her do it and can a patriarchal justice system treat her fairly? I suspect this felt dated when it appeared in nouvelle vague-era Paris, but it seems pretty relevant now.

Full review here

Salesman

Extraordinary documentary about a group of travelling salesman doing their damnedest to flog absurdly overpriced Bibles to low income Catholics in a late 1960s US where the Age of Aquarius most definitely isn’t in effect.

Full review here

And DYB’s films of:

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

#films of 2017 #Films of the year #movies of 2017 #2017 #manchester by the sea

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kwispayne · 5 years ago

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The Top 10 Films Of The Decade (2010-2019)

This decade for film was fantastic. Blockbusters coming out from every corner, the superhero genre dominating the market with actual quality and directors pushing out their greatest work with a freer range of ability. There has been alot of stinkers too, but I think the quality outweighs the dirge, if not in quantity.

So here are some rules:

1. I may have changed my opinion from previous lists. Sometimes things stick…sometimes they don’t.

2. I didn’t see every film this decade. But I am open to recommendations.

3. This is all personal opinion. And my tastes are odd.

10. Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford)

Year of release: 2016

While A Simple Man saw Tom Ford step into the film world as if he had been here for years, Nocturnal Animals saw him throw down the glove as one of the most stylistic and vibrant ones currently active. For a man to go from the fashion world into this is really something to be admired. But the best thing about his movies, as glitzy and glum as they look, the stories and how he presents the narrative is most impressive. He does not take the audience on easy ride, both with content and order, but the pay off is earned completely in this film. Also the cast he chose was spectacular, but the biggest props has to be given to Aaron Taylor Johnson who plays one the greatest villains I have ever seen in the past few years.

9. Sightseers (Ben Wheatley)

Year of release: 2012

What started off as a stage show got turned into one of the most memorable and funniest comedies to come out in the past few years. Now, Ben Wheatley's most recent filmography has been brilliant, but I think this is his underlooked masterpiece, as it takes his earlier style and accentuates Steve Oram & Alice Lowe's hilarious writing and acting. A movie not for the faint hearted, it really delves into really odd places to pull laughs. Also, Wheatley's odd cult and psychedelic obsession also bodes well to the really obtuse and odd tone of the film. I can still watch this and get a laugh.

8. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)

Year of release: 2016

The biggest plead and cause for humanity to come together I have seen in a very long time. Denis Villeneuve's filmography has also been fantastic this decade, but overall this is his hidden masterpiece, as it's subtly is what makes it so powerful. Effects wise, the film looks spectacular and incredibly life like. The cast do a fantastic job, but what really is the hook is the fantastic screenplay.

7. I Saw The Devil (Kim Jee-woon)

Year of release: 2010

When it comes to revenge movies, the Koreans are the best. Previously Park Chan-wook was the king of revenge films with the Revenge Trilogy being a prime example, but Kim Jee-woon has put his eyes on the crown with this mad dark twisted tale of a serial killer being hunted like game from the husband of one of his victims. Choi Min-sik does an amazing performance as a villain who does unspeakable crimes, but his torture is almost sympathetic, while the hero Lee Byung-hun has the hardest job of all, playing a hero doing the most unthinkable things in the spirit of revenge. Bloody, gory and constantly entertaining.

6. The Greasy Strangler (Jim Hoskings)

Year of release: 2016

This is on this list for all the wrong reasons. Unimaginably disgusting and asburdingly annoying, this film can't get out of my head. And after some of my friends saw it, we can's stop quoting it to each other, to the point where we can verbally speak most of the dialogue from scenes. Jim Hosking is a film-maker who is going to make really weird shit in the next few years. His sense of humour is so unique, its hypnotising. He's my rootie tootie disco cutie.

5. Calvary (John Michael McDonagh)

Year of release: 2014

After making a hilarious debut with The Guard, John Michael McDonagh surprised everyone with this dark comedy drama about a priest who has been threatened with murder from an anonymous source. But instead of it being a Guess Who, it's a character study of those closest to him. Brendan Gleeson's performance is fantastic, but the surprise of this film is the dramatic performances from Chris O'Dowd & Dylan Moran who usually are confined to comic roles. Not many people have seen this film, and I highly recommend this one for fans of fantastic screenplays.

4. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)

Year of release: 2013

Tarantino before this had made his masterpieces, so this movie really was just an add on to a continuous streak. But one of the reasons its on this list is for the pure enjoyment from it. Now the subject matter behind it is very bleak, and it can almost be a distraction, but Tarantino approaches it with an honorable style. The screenplay itself is fantastic, but the real joy of the movie is watching Jamie Fox, Christoph Waltz & Leonardo DiCaprio battle for chewing the scenery. Any excuse to watch this movie is a good excuse.

3. The Wolf Of Wall Street (Leonardo DiCaprio)

Year of release: 2014

Speaking of Leonardo DiCaprio chewing the scenery, this film is pretty much nothing but that. Ok that's a lie, Jonah Hill and Margo Robbie are also battling for a piece too. But besides the fantastic acting, this film is highly entertaining to an almost pornographic level, full of sex, drugs and excess. But it comes with a price, and Scorcese in pure Goodfellas style has made the consequences dire and to a point, rather absurd. It's 3 hours, but once its over, you want to watch it again.

2. Polisse (Maïwenn)

Year of release: 2011

Who ever thought that blue haired alien from The Fifth Element would have made one of all time favourite films. Maïwenn's screenplay and directing in this is top notch, even to a point where she's an actor in the film, who is a photographer and journalist, to witness the events what's going on and reporting back to the audience (now that's what I call meta). The emotions in this film are high, going from drama to comedy, which sounds odd when it comes to the subject matter, but it just shows what life is like whenever you have one of the world's most stressful and emotional jobs. The acting is fantastic, but the real star is JoeyStarr, who before this film was a rapper. Another example of taking someone from one art to another to get a perfect performance. Emotionally draining but a fantastic spectacle.

1. Tyrannosaur (Paddy Considine)

Year of release: 2011

Wow, 2011 was one good year for film. I have always been a fan of Paddy Considine as an actor, and I was glad to know that he was going into directing (his previous writing in Dead Man's Shoes is fantastic). So what we got was a very very bleak film about a man dealing with depression and grief who finds friendship with a carefree Christian with a dark secret. The acting in this film is one for the record books. Peter Mullan and Eddie Marsden give fantastic performances, but Olivia Coleman steals the show with one of the most emotional performances I have ever seen on screen (she deserved that Oscar years before she got one, and I am very glad her acting talents are now being recognised). This is probably the best film ever made.

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theboredbookwyrm · 7 years ago

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Violence in Tokyo Ghoul vs violence Tokyo Ghoul fanfiction

This was for a school report but I thought i would put an abridged version of it on here as well.

This report looks at how violence in media affects creative writing by doing a case study on the stories Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul:RE by Sui Ishida. It looks specifically at how the original text/pictures influence the creative writing of its readers by exploring fan written work, colloquially known as fanfiction. It is a necessity in fanfiction to engage with the source material. Thus, writers must have read or interacted with Tokyo Ghoul and/or Tokyo Ghoul:RE (hereafter, Tokyo Ghoul unless otherwise specified as they have the same plotline).

All data points in this report were done by one person on a subjective topic. Also, it is impossible to know how much of the source material people have interacted with when they write a story so all graphs done within in a time frame, are done under the assumptions that most people are reasonably up to date with Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul:RE while writing their stories. It is important to note that I am doing this project specifically on how violent media affects creative writing, not how it affects real life behaviour.

Methodology

How can we tell if our wonderful writers are as violent as the source material? Easy, the depressing and quantitative analysis of violence in manga, and qualitative data in the form of interviews with writers and an opinion poll from the Tokyo Ghoul fandom. Let’s break it down into the two:

Quantitative: Violence in both the fanfiction and the manga were scored on a scale of 1 to 100 using a points system called a ‘Graphic Score’(see the end for how a graphic score is calculated). This ranges from zero (no violence) to 100 (extreme physical violence). Stories/Tokyo Ghoul get points based on the criteria they meet and how long that violence occurs. All chapters of Tokyo Ghoul and eight volumes of its sequel Tokyo Ghoul:RE were given a graphic score. This was also applied to 138 out of 1.4 thousand fanfictions from the English Tokyo Ghoul section of www.fanfiction.net. I also recorded how many people favourited a story on fanfiction.net compared to the violence in that story.

Since the majority of stories on the fanfiction archive are between 1000-5000 words I decided to only read a random selection of short, completed stories on the archive. This was because I felt that they were represented quite highly in the story archive. I also felt that shorter stories were more reactive to the source material than longer ones as people often have their plots planned in advance and don’t necessarily change them based on anything happening in Tokyo Ghoul.

I graphed the data by averaging the Graphic Scores in a time period of a volume of the Tokyo Ghoul manga. The first graph’s time period is between volume 6 of the original Tokyo Ghoul manga and volume 8 of its sequel Tokyo Ghoul:RE and the written work of the english Tokyo Ghoul fandom. These chapters/fanfictions were all written between the 19th of July 2013 and the 7th of August 2016.

Also, averaging out graphic scores gives a more accurate portrayal of violence in the stories and media chapter time compared to fanfiction upload date.

Qualitative: To hear the voice of the actual viewers and writers of Tokyo Ghoul fanfiction, I interviewed twenty people who have written at least one story for the Tokyo Ghoul fandom. I did this to gain a better insight on the opinions and reactions to violence people who read Tokyo Ghoul have. Another way the viewers’ voices were heard was through an online poll on a Google + Tokyo Ghoul community.

Analysis:

What can we get from these graphs? Though these graphs make the data simple, predicting how people react to certain material is very complicated. For example, when you talk to someone about a TV show you’re both watching on Netflix, often you will be at different stages of the program. This is a problem when collecting data based on a time period. However, based on my experience of the Tokyo Ghoul fandom, they are on top of what’s happening in the source material so their reaction times and story content are immediate to the source material.

*In this graph volume 1 to the beginning of 6 represents the original series while 6 onward represents Tokyo Ghoul:RE.

The data shows that there is a definite correlation between violence and written content that cannot be dismissed entirely as simply following the plot of the series. Violence must influence people’s writing beyond plot on some level because towards the end of the graph there is a clear deviation of the violence level in Tokyo Ghoul compared to the violence level in the fanfictions.

“Tokyo Ghoul has violence and gore, so a lot of Tokyo Ghoul fan fictions will have gore.Fan fictions do not have to match the tone of the source material, but for me, it shows that yes ‘yes this is a Tokyo Ghoul fan fiction, and not something where if I change the character’s names it can be used for another fandom.’ ” - Writer D

In the fanfictions the violence level drops dramatically while the violence level in Tokyo Ghoul stays the same. This is most likely a result of the fanfiction writers getting tired of the violence level in the story and thus wanting to shy away from it. There was a lot of controversy over the violence during that time period.This may also be further compelled by how little down time there is when it comes to violence in Tokyo Ghoul:RE compared to the original series, as shown below:

In the original series, the violence level has its peak at around 75 graphic points. When a chapter was particularly violent there were breaks with less or no violence to give the audience breathing room between an action packed/violent chapter. This is used in fiction to stop the audience from getting fatigued by the same thing over and over again. This technique is not used for its sequel Tokyo Ghoul:RE

The sequel has more violence and fewer breaks, giving the audience no real room to “recover” thus they get sick of the violence and make an active effort to write less violent work. Also, from my own experience, at the time where this deviance was recorded people in the Tokyo Ghoul fandom were annoyed by the specific plotline at the time which many thought was boring and dragged out.

Why do fanfiction writers write the violence from the series?

There are many factors into how people write, however, it is important to note that the fanfiction writers are not copying the exact level of violence occurring in the manga.

“Honestly, I have noticed that my writing has become more violent than usual ever since I joined the Tokyo Ghoul fandom. If it isn't physical violence, then surely the harshness that the dialogue in my stories consists of, [has] become more brutal. ”

- XX-Barmy Otaku-XX

The violence in fanfictions of Tokyo Ghoul are of a lesser degree than the manga and they follow a different trend of violence towards the end of time period analysed. Also, writers of fanfiction often desire to keep their writing true to the story but may not like the level of violence.

“The gore [in Tokyo Ghoul] isn't much of a bonus, either - I'm very squeamish. However, I'm extremely glad I did decide to read/watch Tokyo Ghoul.”

- Writer B

This is further illustrated by the feature on www.fanfiction.net known as ‘favourites’. If a person likes a story they can choose to ‘favourite’ the story and it have shown on their profile. The following graph represents this:

This graph shows that there is no correlation between the violence in a fanfiction and how much readers of that said fanfiction liked the story. In fact, some of the higher favourited fanfiction have no violence at all. This is further supported by a poll of 250 fans, where approximately 50% of fans watched the show for its concept not dark themes (19%).

“I try to stay close to the spirit of the original. If the source material is light hearted, I try to keep things on the lighter side, too, and if it's something darker with adult themes I try to reflect that in my work” - Tiny Octopus

People have a wide range of things that influence them to write and many writers believe that the whole purpose of fanfiction is to explore themes that aren’t present in the source material. This may vary from person to person.

“ I think fan fiction can have anything you want in it. Personally, most of what I wrote has been romance and family related which has virtually no place in the canon of Tokyo Ghoul” - theghoulthatwrites

“I do think that part of what attracts people to Tokyo ghoul is the tragedy, and removing that is removing a vital part of the anime's character. However, that doesn't mean it should be doom and gloom constantly, just that there shouldn’t be a magic cure all, or an overpowered character that majorly changes the story” - Writer C

Conclusion

Creative writing is guided to a certain extent by the violence in other media consumed by the creative writers, but only if it is useful in context. Through these graphs it is obvious that the writers follow the trends of violence in Tokyo Ghoul to help their stories remain accurate to the source material and not because they are influenced to be more violent.

This is supported by the fact that stories written about Tokyo Ghoul follow the same trends as the manga but are less violent and do not follow the level of violence at a certain point in the manga. The data and the wide range of opinions of the writers I interviewed clearly demonstrates that people do not write violence because they consume media that has it; it has to have a context (like keeping an accurate storyline in the case of fanfiction). Violence isn’t the only thing people enjoy out of creative media, and without context, it’s certainly not something that is emulated.

“The source material is just a base...when a source material lacks [a certain] style like for example romance, humour, drama, etc., [fanfiction] can give a new sense to the story. [Diversity of style] can bring a fanfic to be ... better than the source material.” - Soltis48

Acknowledgements

A special thank you to all the writers on www.fanfiction.net, @kawaiifolyfe & @theghoulthatwrites who agreed to be interviewed, for their insightful comments and understanding of Tokyo Ghoul. Your thoughts and opinions are deeply appreciated.

How the Graphic Score is calculated

Graphic Score is calculated by the initial violence of the media in eleven different categories:

0 no violence

10 low verbal violence (threats, verbal abuse etc)

20 moderate verbal violence

30 high verbal violence

40 low physical violence (no injuries)

50 low-moderate physical violence (mild injuries)

60 moderate physical violence (injuries with blood)

70 moderate-high physical violence

80 high physical violence

90 high-extreme physical violence

100 Extreme physical violence

A baseline number + one point per number pages of where the violence is shown (or approximately every 50 words for written work) - three points every five pages in a row where violence isn’t shown (written work: 250 words).

A points level will automatically jump to a 60 or above if it has the characteristics of that baseline number. The number of points added to a baseline number can go up or down into another baseline number with exception of 80, 90 & 100 which have to have their specific criteria met.

For instance if there was a bloody fight that happened between two characters for five straight pages of a Tokyo Ghoul chapter (which averages at about twenty pages) than the Graphic score would be 56.

The bloody fight would meet the criteria of baseline number 60.

It goes on for 5 pages so that’s five points added to the baseline (65)

The fight then stops and there is no violence for 15 pages so we get 65 - 3(15/5)

So 65 - 9 or 56 points

Note: the average Tokyo Ghoul chapter is considered to be twenty pages and the average fanfiction 1000 words) and 1 out of 100 = 1 point.

#tg #tokyo ghoul meta #this is the longest post I've written and it isn't even that long

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iwillsendapostcard · 8 years ago

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Day 2- of @wellyfullofale’s wedding countdown: Favourite Aaron quote to Robert.

I’ve picked a line of dialogue from the episode on 10th June 2016:

Robert: I mean, let's face it, we could all do with some therapy Aaron: I don't need therapy, I've got you for that ain't I? Any time I'm feeling down, I look at you and think, 'well it could be worse, I could be Robert.'

I really like this one because it demonstrates that they have their own personal brand of banter. Robert could have reacted with offence to this comment, but instead, he just laughed along with Aaron. I think this line was good for us, as an audience, to see because so much of the robron story has been intense drama, but here we see some lighthearted fun. Also, this is a line I could equally hear coming from Chas or Charity, showing us that Aaron has inherited the Dingle sense of humour and that Robert enjoys it.

However, I do also think there is a deeper undertone in this line. Had the line finished ‘any time I’m feeling down, I look at you...’ it would have been a romatic declaration of how Robert can always cheer him up. So there are a couple of nuances here. Also, Aaron could even be said to be acknowledging that he knows Robert will always be around to support him and that he feels glad that he is not Robert as he doesn’t have to deal with the extra burden of supporting him.

This is obviously just me reading way way into the line, but that’s the reason I love it so much.It’s fun nd silly, and it has banter, but if Danny had delivered it in a different tone, or with extra pauses, the meaning behind the line would have been totally changed. But instead of the usual (and very welcome) slice of drama, we have a throwaway comment that lets us view a little of what their kitchen sink conversations usually look like.

And that's really beautiful, I think.

#robron #10 day countdown

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 8 years ago

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Morose Mononokean 3 – 13 (FINAL) | Nanbaka 19 | ACCA 5...and anime from 2016, ranked.

(Morose Mononokean ep 3)

LOL, the kaomoji scroll.

Hopefully your handwriting won’t be illegible, Fusshi.

The Japanese place a lot of emphasis on independence, hence th errand running comment.

It’s so threatening to get pointed at with a stick.

I didn’t quite get the “five years again?” joke, but the jokes were going pretty rapid fire there. I might’ve just missed one and that’s OK. *shrugs*

Technically Ashiya lied when he said “you don’t have to believe me” because she believed him in the end…kinda sorta…?

Oh, to grandstand means to be showy. I don’t think I solidified that into my brain until just then.

Are those weeds or onions?

…Oops, not onions at all. Close enough (since they’re blub plants), though.

Where’s your dad, Ashiya?

Zenko’s not crying, you’re crying, I’m crying. Everyone’s crying!

…Oh, that’s the punchline of the joke…but Abeno’s scary when he’s really angry.

(ep 4)

I think even lil’ Fuzzy nods in the OP near the end.

The d and b thumbs are very inventive in regards to kaomoji. I like inventiveness.

Exhibit A of how Comic Sans ruins a mood, CR subbers.

So that’s Abeno’s writing (and not Comic Sans)?

Ashiya and Abeno have really creepy eyes on the eyecatch.

Shizuku means “water droplet” IIRC.

Ashiya, Super Sentai!...or something like that.

The Fuzzy Ashiya knows has 3 tails. This one only has one.

Ashiya, getting coerced into deals he can’t handle. *sigh*

(ep 5)

Fuzzy’s basically a Pokémon now.

What happened to Abeno’s jar?

Where I am, there’s three arms to the government: the legislative arm, the judicial arm and the executive arm. This show must run off a lot of the same principles.

Fuzzy seems vaguely unimpressed when Ashiya learns he doesn’t have to die.

How is that communicating with a fuzzball? Sad life for Abeno-san.

The sad thing about Abeno is that he’s very grumpy. While that does make him basically a male tsundere, his grumpiness isn’t something everyone can live with. Rippou (Legislator) included.

(ep 6)

The Ring? Like a horror movie? (This is the last of the Mononokean episodes I’ve seen before, so it’s not a horror movie, but I had to make the joke while I was at it.)

Fuzzy looks like an offering to the ancestors there on that cushion.

The Mononokean went “If you’d followed my instructions [yada yada yada] but…” Note the “but” – that wasn’t in the translation.

Where does Abeno sleep?

Fuzzy wrapped up is like a fuzzy sushi roll. I wouldn’t like to eat a fuzzy sushi roll, though.

Edo = old Tokyo…so are all Edoites (or whatever you call them) meant to be non-honorific users?

Manjiro must’ve been easy to draw if this were in the source material. However, since this is obviously a CGI Manjiro, it must’ve been easier to animate than, say, Fuzzy. (Apparently fur is hard to get right in CGI.)

“15 whole minutes”…hardly anything impressive…LOL.

Ashiya will never give you up, he’ll never let you down, he’ll never run around and desert you…

Even Fuzzy’s sweating up a storm just thinking about how to return the ring.

Ow. Getting headbutted by an eel is not the way to go.

The salve on Fuzzy looked like a box for a frame or two.

The irony of an eel shop with an eel youkai…

(ep 7)

It’s fresh impressions from here on out.

Butterflies don’t fly like that…

Since middle school is years 7 – 9…okay…Ashiya is that childish? *laughs awkwardly*

I just realised this show doesn’t do flashbacks very well.

I saw a grave in the back that said “Abe Family Grave”. It’s not the kanji for Abeno, though.

Don’t be so proud of your status as a hide and seek veteran, Ashiya.

“Yoko” is the word for a fox spirit. it’s why, in Tactics, the fox spirit is called Youko. Even I knew that much and Ashiya didn’t, LOL.

Oh right! Abeno calls Fuzzy “hairball”.

Abeno is 15?! I’m absolutely positively flipping out!...Abeno and Ashiya look like they’re 17!

(ep 8)

I thought something was up with the subs. Turns out “Haruitsuki” was spelt wrong.

Remember “–sama” is of more respect than “–san”.

I think Mr Chips from Eldlive was like this critter. Gets drunk on green tea.

Tsundere flying green youkai. That’s probably better than an annoying, possibly tsundere fairy (<- reference to One Wish They Never Wanted).

Benkei? I’ve never heard anyone yell “Benkei!” when they stubbed their toe. I get that it’s Standing Benkei though.

Aww. Even if it’s a youkai proposal, it’s so sweet…

(ep 9)

How do you spell “dispirited”? Two Ss? One?

Dangit, Ashiya would do well in job interviews…

The eyecatches always look unnecessarily dramatic, don’t they?

Does Abeno’s question about amateurs include Ashiya?

Abeno must’ve gotten a “Don’t come near my daughter again!” sort of thing a lot.

Fuzzy’s body went “boomph!” when he jumped on to Ashiya’s shoulder.

Fuzzy absolutely fails at rolling on balls, LOL.

(ep 10)

Why did I think of “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” when it came to large!Yahiko?

The title of this episode is “deku”, like Boku no Hero Academia Deku.

Rakugan.

How did the eyecatch manage to put shojo sparkles on Nobou and turn him into something that’s vaguely appealing (in a handsome sense)? It must be the magic of the shojo sparkles…Also, henohenomoheji scarecrow.

“Phantasmagoria” aka “fantasy” or “illusion”.

Wow, basically this show is an ethics lesson…

Who knew a mutant scarecrow could cause such a heartfelt story? Also, please stop hitting yourself with a potato.

(ep 11)

I don’t think I’ve seen the character for “purple” being read as shi before.

Stop using Fuzzy as a shield for your words, Ashiya.

Fuzzy jumped on to Zenko’s head. It’s kinda funny to see Fuzzy acting like a Swablu.

Fuzzy with a leaf hat is aesthetically pleasing. It soothes the soul. (Uh, hey. Come to think of it, Mononokean’s a lot like the works I’ve done on Honeyfeed, eh? Light comedy and a lotta drama.)

I keep stumbling upon spoilers for shows I’m not caught up on, this show included. So I technically knew about Yahiko and never mentioned it, and I’m going “oh no” here because I know what will happen to Ashiya…

Tomori. That was the name from the spoilers…oh no!!!

Fuzzy looks particularly round in the eyecatch.

Apparently Ashiya began as a doodle in the margin of Kiri Wazawa’s sketchbook, but he became the protag of Morose Mononokean. That’s the ultimate upgrade in life for a character, eh?

Abeno’s logic…I get it, but I guess it was played for hilarity. Well, it worked. Really well.

A 9-11. I thought it was funny at first, but now it’s scary and solemn.

Simultaneous equations? I want nothing to do with them anymore.

Come to think of it, Aoi may have been a woman due to the woman’s cloak.

(ep 12)

Oh? A sister? I’ve haven’t seen her in the show yet. I wanna see her.

One of the lil’ pine cones is sleeping. It’s strangely adorable.

(ep 13)

Yahiko’s so spoilt by Zenko.

*squints at Ashiya’s book* Oh hey. I haven’t done this in years! Yeah, that sort of stuff is “first year of high school” stuff, but speaking from experience as an advanced maths student, I have a skewed perspective of what “normal maths” is for a year level. Add that to the fact Japan has the idea that they have to push their geniuses to the limit by being ahead of their years (sometimes going up to one year ahead of the “usual” standard) and…yeah.

From the lip reading, the word could’ve been tera (Buddhist temple) or jinja (Shinto shrine). Knowing how Zenko is built off the ideas of Buddhism anyway, it’s tera.

Well, out of sight, out of mind, as they say.

Abeno looks like such a bad boy in that eyecatch, it’s hilarious.

Seriously, how does Nobou talk with no mouth?!

I thought the hand was Yahiko. Turns out it was Abeno.

Fuzzy looks downright ill when Ashiya’s scared.

A boss normally doesn’t bow his head to his subordinates, let alone call them “lord” (dono), which is the highest type of honorific one can give to a person.

See, the kaomoji scroll really is fun. If someone could make one for me, I’d love to play with it for a little bit. Maybe you could make a (computer?) program that could function mostly the same way…huh. That’s a good idea, actually.

Notice the Mononokean uses “watashi”. I guess it doesn’t have much of a gender anyway.

Nice hat, Ashiya. (LOL.)

Welp, that’s the final episode of all my 2016 anime. I moved the top 10 anime of 2016 to the bottom of this post for the surprise factor, but knowing my reactions to the anime means you can’t be too surprised by the results.

(Nanbaka 19)

Honey’s still on arrow mode.

The scream. It’s like a horror movie, but so funny because it overlays the OP.

The sparkles actually helped viewers see something for once.

Rokuriki. So that’s the guard’s name. It has “six” in it.

Deer hook swords. I’m not quite familiar with them but they look cool.

I only just realised, but they left Nico behind in the supervisor’s office.

The rubble is so beautifully rendered.

What was Jyugo doing behind the pots? Something for humour, I suppose, because I laughed.

“Hachiman” can mean 80000.

Kawaisouni… translates to “unfortunate” or “how unfortunate” but I probably wouldn’t peg it as “poor baby!” like the subbers did. It’s probably the tone Uno used that caused them to sub it the way they did.

Here we go again with this Jyugo comeback from episode 1…

It’s around the part where Upa’s trash talking Hachiman that you can identify Upa’s VA is Yuu Kobayashi (SGRS’s Konatsu’s VA). Even Nico is voiced by a dude and yet Upa is not.

(ACCA 5)

Seriously, this blue haired guy (Magie) reminds me of Japan from Hetalia. Must be the haircut.

How does a guy not remember toast? Probably because this is of Japanese origin, where rice and fish are more common than bread.

I still think his name should be Gene Otus.

CGI fits flawlessly into this style, and if you’ve been around these parts long enough, you know I don’t like obvious CGI.

Dowa Travel.

Hotel Akevitt. They have some weird names in this show.

Reindeer…? I’m not very good at identifying deer vs reindeer.

I heard you like wheat bread, so I put some wheat bread in ACCA to keep you happy, Jean. (insert more memes about wheat bread here)

Lotta really likes walnuts, eh?

Crow/Nino’s a free agent hired by Grossular, right?

Ah. I get it. Lotta’ll keep an eye on Nino for Jean.

Isn’t a sandpiper a bird?

Oh. So that’s why Grossular has such long hair.

Lilium’s bro? Gotta remember him for later.

Grossular’s an older Kyosuke Kuga, LOL.

Anime of 2016, Ranked

Since I have 17 entries this year and it took a lot of shuffling to get right, I’ve decided to show my entire 2016 rankings. Only shows I saw in their entirety at least once over in 2016 (with the exceptions of D Gray Man Hallow and Morose Mononokean, which are applicable through the simulcast commentary process but were only watched to episode 6 before 2016′s end, and fall anime, which due to being AFK at 2016′s end were unfinshable until 2017), and had at least one new seasonal entry in 2016, apply:

17. Prince of Stride Alternative

16. Mr Osomatsu s2

15. D Gray Man Hallow

14. Kiznaiver

13. Morose Mononokean

12. Nanbaka s1: can’t talk about this yet because its s2’s not finished!

11. Classicaloid s1: can’t talk about this yet because it′s not finished!

10. Flip Flappers: The art style and fight scenes really make this a show worth watching. However, it did get somewhat confusing at the end so that’s where most of the drop in the rankings comes from.

9. ReLIFE: While the themes were pertinent and the art style on point, it was a bit plain and there wasn’t much of an explanation as to why the pills work (even if that isn’t Yoake or An’s role). I guess I’m still used to it living in the shadow of Detective Conan, after all.

8. Boueibu s2: This was a step up from s1, but unfortunately there were prime contenders this year that knocked it out of higher places. Also the fact that it does seem more rushed than s1 due to the time constraints does give it a bit of a toll.

7. Bungou Stray Dogs (overall): 2 seasons makes this show stand out as a strong one, especially near the end when it really hits its stride. The fact light novel stories took up up to 4 episodes did make me worried, but the fans definitely have more than enough material to work with as a result, right?

6. Yuri on Ice: I don’t mind the off model in this one if it means the good stuff can come with it, but the fandom is quite intimidating and it was a “show of the year” in ways some people now consider to be a negative thing, so it did suffer a bit from that. I give it merit for the things it does well, but it’s not the saviour of anime the talk of the town can make it out to be.

5. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi: Stunning visuals, a Sayuri ED and good thrills with well executed cliffhangers. My only gripe with this one was the very end, but you’ll have to see the relevant posts for why that is.

4. Boku no Hero Academia s1: Even if it is repetitive, it rises above (Plus Ultra!) to become something more than just a fusion of East and West like I always try to strive for. It’s an emblem and it’s definitely something Horikoshi should be proud of after what happened to Barrage and Oumagadoki Zoo.

3. Sakamoto Desu Ga: This show also managed to go above its repetitive trappings with inventiveness and humour. The fact it’s also touching at exactly the right points shows you why Takamatsu is one of my favourite directors.

2. ConRevo s2: Colourful and politically striking as always, ConRevo was one of the shows I always looked forward to watching, even if it meant staying up past midnight to document things on the wiki. Even if I’m not that fond of the Urobuchi episode, this show managed to reach awesome highs without losing the fans it got from s1.

1. SGRS: With a soundtrack that brings you to the past, humour that can make you laugh no matter how many times you watch it and visuals to wow even the most serious of artists, you can tell SGRS is a labour of love in every aspect. Its second season has already surpassed its predecessor in only 4 or 5 episodes, so...only time will tell whether anything can challenge SGRS for the throne.

Total:

winter 4

spring 5 (incl. Bungou Stray Dogs s1)

summer 4

fall 5 (incl. Bungou Stray Dogs s2)

#simulcast commentary #anime #winter 2016 anime #spring 2016 anime #summer 2016 anime #fall 2016 anime #2016 anime #ACCA #Chesarka watches ACCA #acca 13-ku kansatsu-ka #nanbaka #nanbaka the numbers #nanbaka - the numbers #Chesarka watches Nanbaka #the morose mononokean #fukigen na mononokean #Chesarka watches Fukigen na Mononokean

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vileart · 8 years ago

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Eat the Dramaturgy: Jonny and the Baptists on tour

JONNY & THE BAPTISTS: EAT THE POOR

50-date UK tour for the hit musical comedy about inequality, friendship & revolution

5 MARCH – 27 MAY 2017

Three quarters of MPs are millionaires. A third of the country lives below the poverty line. Whatever your politics, Jonny & the Baptists think it's worth talking about.

A riotous and heartfelt musical comedy for our times, JONNY & THE BAPTISTS' Edinburgh Fringe hit EAT THE POOR will tour the UK in March-April-May 2017. With over 50 dates, their biggest ever schedule reflects growing national audiences from acclaimed shows and appearances on Radio 4’s The Now Show and BBC Live at Television Centre.

Created through extensive research travelling across the country in early 2016, the show combines contemporary satire and inventive musical silliness with an epic personal story. Setting out to explore the gap between rich and poor, Jonny & the Baptists’ lives turn upside down when Jonny betrays Paddy for financial gain. As Jonny enjoys the high life with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jerry Hall, Paddy falls into homelessness and despair.

An toe-tapping comedy about inequality, homelessness and revolution in modern Britain, EAT THE POOR sees the multi-award-nominees continue to grow in scope and ambition - and even dabble in a small amount of actual economics. Continuing the company’s commitment to reach broad, diverse audiences, their biggest ever tour schedule takes in leading theatres, arts centres, rural venues, comedy clubs and festivals across the country. (Full dates below.)

Nominated for five major awards (they’ve never won any), Jonny & the Baptists – real names Jonny Donahoe & Paddy Gervers – have rapidly become one of the UK's hottest live musical comedy acts. Winning rave national reviews for 2016 climate change comedy The End Is Nigh, they have also enjoyed regular broadcast work, major festival appearances, and once topped the iTunes Comedy Chart with single ‘Farage’. Alongside, Jonny has been nominated for a New York Drama Desk Award for his hit one-man show Every Brilliant Thing on international tour, now an HBO special (broadcast over Christmas 2016).

Answers by Jonny & the Baptists - Jonny Donahoe & Paddy Gervers (writer-performers) and Will Young (director) from rehearsals...

Thank you for taking the time to chat - it's much appreciated. I am a bit worried about asking questions on comedy, since I have no sense of humour and reduce everything to questions of structure...

Bearing that in mind - I've never been sure how you approach 'musical comedy'. There's two of you, so is this more like a gig, or one of those big productions they have in London?

Ha. Sometimes a bit of both. Our early shows were very much 'gigs': funny songs with a setlist, and often a theme but performed straight to the audience. We still love doing shows with a band from time to time (not least because it allows us to feel briefly like rock stars). Recently though we've made tentative steps towards something more like 'theatre'. Not like a west end musical - we can't afford the production values for one thing - but exploring ideas more through story and drama. We don't necessarily prefer one or the other, but they're different ways to get into the ideas we want to explore. The new show, Eat The Poor, is based around research into inequality but as we go, a personal story from our lives takes over and carries the ideas forward.

The inspiration for the show is pretty clear, but I am wonder how effective you find the stage as a medium for exploring ideas: do you find that the process of writing songs brings out your thoughts on a topic, for example, or do you have a clear idea of what you'll be saying from the start?

Generally we start with a very broad idea. It's usually whatever we're talking about in the pub, or something we want to know more about. The last show was about climate change, this one is about inequality and came from all the news stories in 2016 about homelessness and food banks, and the role of economic inequality in the EU referendum. It has to be something we want to know more about, because then we go on a period of research.

For Eat The Poor we spent several months travelling round the country working with homeless charities, local councillors and researchers, and talking to people from big cities to rural villages about how they experience poverty and inequality. From that you start to have an idea of what you want to say, so we go into a room with a massive pinboard and post every idea onto it with a different colour for themes, narrative elements, song ideas, jokes - everything we're thinking about.

From that you start to pare back, and see which ideas go together, and hopefully start to see the show coming together.

What about audiences - do they tend to agree with the political stance, or is there much argument around the show?

In 2014 we toured a show called Stop Ukip during the European Elections (and it's pretty clear we sorted that right out - you're welcome guys). At one show someone sat down, put up a Ukip poster by his seat and sat quietly throughout. Afterwards we had a chat with him. It was very polite. He explained that he thought we had a right to say what we wanted, and he had a right to present his own views however he wanted.

There's something valuable in those moments, when you can communicate openly with people who are far apart politically - but of course that's not the norm. Most people who come are probably broadly on the same political spectrum as us, but hopefully the shows also push ideas further and get people to think more, or in a different way, about their own role in the systems around them.

Is there a danger that political performance can end up as 'preaching to the choir', and becomes a nice place for people to nod their heads and agree with you, then do nothing about the problems? Is there any way around this?

We've been accused of 'preaching to the choir' on separate occasions by the Guardian and the Telegraph - which is quite sweet really, if you think about it. Our friend Grace Petrie, who's a wonderful protest-folk singer, has a brilliant response to the 'preaching to the choir' criticism: 'oh yeah, who are these other artists doing shows just for audiences who hate their work?'

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Of course, people who come to the shows usually like us and what we stand for. Most audiences for The End Is Nigh came agreeing that climate change is a massive problem: but do our everyday actions reflect that? In Eat The Poor we try to turn the problem back on ourselves as well, and by implication our audience.

We know a lot of well-meaning Corbynite socialists who are very good people, but bought flats in London supported by money from their parents, and send their own kids to private school. (We've had pretty privileged lives ourselves - you can tell that because we're answering a Q&A about dramaturgy!)

If you agree with us that inequality is a major social problem, you also have to ask where your own life sits in that structure.

Basically - you can still challenge people who agree with you, just as you can challenge yourself and your own behaviour.

Flying off in another direction: what musical influences are at play in your work?

That's a hard one, there's so many. Bob Dylan, Billy Bragg, Bjork, Jacques Brel, Usher, Rihanna, Nick Cave, The Divine Comedy, Grace Petrie, Marin Harley, the list goes on. Often the influences come from the song we're trying to write: is this more a protest song, a classic rock song, a blues number? The comedy and the theatre should mostly lead the song, so the music needs the right tone to make it funny or dramatic. Then sometimes there's just a tune you've had on the brain for years and eventually the right idea comes along.

Is your approach to making performance political in itself - does the format express any political ideas, for example, or the use of music as a medium for satire?

There's a long tradition of both political and protest songs in folk traditions; and of satire as a medium for attacking the establishment - so in that sense, yes. At heart also, we're entertainers. Music and comedy help our shows be fun, funny, warm and accessible while still tackling important issues. We always want to write inclusively, to have a show anyone can enjoy no matter their background or political interest.

That's what stops it being a lecture or feeling elitist. Getting an audience to sing along to a catchy chorus is a great way to break down barriers and build a sense of community in just three minutes. We want anyone to be able to come and have a brilliant time: partly because that's a good way to get the ideas out as broadly as possible, but mostly because it's more fun that way.

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FULL TOUR SCHEDULE:

5 MAR - BRISTOL - Tobacco Factory Theatres | tobaccofactorytheatres.com

7-11 MAR - EXETER - Bike Shed Theatre | bikeshedtheatre.co.uk

12 MAR - RICHMOND - Orange Tree Theatre | orangetreetheatre.co.uk

16-18 MAR - SALISBURY - Salisbury Playhouse | salisburyplayhouse.com

21 MAR - NORWICH - Norwich Playhouse | norwichplayhouse.co.uk

22 MAR - GUILDFORD - Star Inn | guildfordfringe.com

23 MAR - COLCHESTER - Lakeside Theatre | lakesidetheatre.org.uk

24 MAR - HARLOW - Harlow Playhouse | harlowplayhouse.co.uk

25 MAR - CARDIFF - Chapter Arts Centre | chapter.org

28-29 MAR - NEWCASTLE - Northern Stage | northernstage.co.uk

30 MAR - OXFORD - Old Fire Station | oldfirestation.org.uk

31 MAR - FARNHAM - Farnham Maltings | farnhammaltings.com

1 APR - BEDFORD - Quarry Theatre | quarrytheatre.org.uk

5 APR - SUNDERLAND - Pop Recs, Sunderland | sunderlandstages.co.uk

6 APR - READING - South Street Arts | readingarts.com

7 APR - HAVANT - The Spring Arts Centre | thespring.co.uk

8 APR - MIILTON KEYNES - The Stables | stables.org

11 APR - GLASGOW - Platform | platform-online.co.uk

12 APR - LANCASTER - The Dukes | dukes-lancaster.org

21 APR - CAMBRIDGE - Cambridge Junction | junction.co.uk

22 APR - CALSTOCK - Calstock Village Hall | calstockhall.com

28 APR - CARDIGAN - Small World Theatre | smallworld.org.uk

29-30 APR - MACHYNLLETH - Comedy Festival | machcomedyfest.co.uk

2-6 MAY - PLYMOUTH - The Drum, Theatre Royal | theatreroyal.co.uk

8-10 MAY - LONDON - Soho Theatre | sohotheatre.com

11 MAY - BIRMINGHAM - mac | macbirmingham.co.uk

12 MAY - CORSHAM - Pound Arts | poundarts.org.uk

13 MAY - FRITWELL - Fritwell Village Hall | fritwellvillagehall.co.uk

15 MAY - HOVE - The Old Market | theoldmarket.com

19 MAY - FAREHAM - Ashcroft Arts Centre | hampshireculturaltrust.org.uk

20 MAY - EASTLEIGH - The Point | thepointeastleigh.co.uk

21 MAY - IPSWICH - New Wolsey Theatre | wolseytheatre.co.uk

23 MAY - EDINBURGH - The Stand | thestand.co.uk

24 MAY - GLASGOW - The Stand | thestand.co.uk

25 MAY - MONIAIVE - Craigdarroch Arms | craigdarrocharmshotel.co.uk

26 MAY - BARNSLEY - The Civic | barnsleycivic.co.uk

27 MAY - SALFORD - The Lowry | thelowry.com

Eat The Poor was created with support from: Arts Council England, Pentabus Theatre, Bike Shed Theatre Exeter, Arts at the Old Fire Station Oxford, Old Red Lion Theatre London & Farnham Maltings.

from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2jkdeq9

#Theatre #Blogger #visual art #Edinburgh Fringe #Experimental Critique

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thisisfilmblr-blog · 8 years ago

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Best Comedies of 2016

1. Hunt For The Wilderpeople

One of those comedies that just feels special for how truly genuine it is. Gorgeously shot in New Zealand the film is not only stupendously visually appealing but incredibly intellectually engrossing. It’s warm, it’s heartfelt, it’s good-natured. It’s all the best aspects of comedy. It perfects the idea of an absurdist humour. The overall film operates with a tender tone that is both comical and sentimental.

2. Don’t Think Twice

While the story is about the struggles with creativity and success, the film itself lacks neither of those traits. One of the best aspects of the film is it’s clear passion for the subject it’s addressing. Mike Birbiglia does a wonderful job at representing his ability and his energy in comedy on screen. The cast all works incredibly well together, one of those comedic movies where everything (screenplay, direction, performance) just clicks.

3. Deadpool

New and inventive Deadpool too both the comedic and the superhero world by storm simply for it’s boldness and creativity. I don’t think anyone would have been more perfect to run this film than Ryan Reynolds, who fits the suit and role perfectly. Deadpool is as good as comedy gets. It manages to pack action in with sentimental moments. It cleverly infuses all sorts of references. It’s a mix of all the best aspects of comedy and one of the most entertaining films of the year.

4. Barbershop: The Next Cut

A truly rare gem - here is a comedy sequel that more than works! It brings back many of the strongest casting of the originals and introduces some amazing new cast members. The film balances subjects other comedies tend to be afraid to address and it’s refreshing to see a comedy that has something to say about what it pokes fun at. It’s jubilant while cynical, it’s funny while meaningful.

5. Everybody Wants Some!!

Nostalgic and sentimental in the best way possible Everybody Wants Some!! is indeed the comedy everyone has been wanting for quite some while. Richard Linklater does a fantastic job of directing the film’s purpose and each cast member thrives under his leadership. The film is simple in how it addresses it’s characters. It lets them just be and just act without trying to judge or forcefully poke fun at there actions. It’s an easy humour that succeeds on every level.

6. Other People

What could have been a melodramatic and forgotten film is impressively an impactful dark comedy. Boasting two subtle yet brilliant performances by the lead actors, the film tackles heavy issues in a manner that is not only uniquely respectful for a comedy but also in a manner that moves us. At the same time the film manages to remain a funny, edgy, and stylistic film. It’s a perfect balancing act.

7. The Nice Guys

The Nice Guys succeeds on a large level due to the phenomenal chemistry between Gosling, Crowe, and Rice. Each seems to have an acute awareness of the subtleties in each piece of humour. The film overall is slightly raunchy and slightly parodic. It’s a unique film of sorts which makes it all the more enjoyable to watch. It plays out like a wonderful mess of entertainment that everyone will smile through.

8. Sausage Party

Admittedly I don’t think anyone was all too much enthralled by the idea of a movie about a talking sausage but the film succeeds in such an entertaining fashion that no matter it’s absurdity you can’t help but laugh out loud in almost every scene. It’s so bizzare and odd that when watching you can’t help but enjoy every second of such a weird and funny experience. The film is visually crafted very well and actually is exceptionally intelligent. For those who appreciate and enjoy Seth Rogen’s humour it’s a must-see.

9. Hail Caesar

The cast is absolutely charming and the film itself is incredibly entertaining. It plays out as one of those films that you just can’t help but like. It’s a collection of humorous moments that overall build up to a solidly crafted screenplay. A classic Coen mix of wit and raw slapstick humour the film may not be their absolute best work but it’s still one of their funniest to date.

10. Captain Fantastic

Though definitely sliding into the drama category as well, Captain Fantastic deals out a heavy dose of humour and does so indeed in a fantastic fashion. It’s a unique story that quite sentimentally reminds you of Little Miss Sunshine. It’s humane and emotional and relatable for it’s imperfections. Each of the characters are equally as fascinating and they all fit perfectly together. Undeniably entertaining and moving.

Honourable Mentions: Toni Erdmann, The Confirmation, Buddymoon, Swiss Army Man, Bridget Jones’s Baby, Florence Foster Jenkins, The Intervention, Bad Moms

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