#it's so much like a coming-of-age teen romcom movie

[alexiethymia]

Things I love about that Fittes party scene

- Lucy’s electric blue eyeshadow!

- Her entire look to be honest

- The 90s prom vibe 

- How legit Lockwood acted like a scorned lover “How am I supposed to compete with that?” (Heck, I’m sure Lockwood himself is pretty confused by now with how often he mixes up “I” and “we”. Self-projection at its finest. “We need you.” “We can’t let you go.” “Please don’t give up on us.” At least for the last part, he was finally honest, “Please don’t give up on me.”)

- They outright destroyed the most posh party of the year. 

- “This party’s dead. Want to ditch it with me?” Oh Lockwood, you think you’re so slick.  

[aurelim]

Genres: Slice-of-life, coming of age, comedy, drama, romance, parody

Status: No public demo, outline written, release date November 2024

Rating: 15+

Content Warnings: Violence, language, bullying, depression + depiction of other mental illnesses, manipulation, tba

Inspired by those Disney Channel movies (you know which ones) and The Parent Trap.

As a 17 (soon to be 18) year old senior, you are anxiously awaiting for the day you graduate, pack your bags, and ditch Sunnyview, the sleepy, incredibly boring, town that you have grown up in all your life. It has been your dream for as long as you can remember—sometimes you can almost taste freedom on your tongue, so close yet so far away.

But one day, all of that changes when the filming for a movie is announced near your hometown. Not only is it a Stephen Zuckerberg, but it stars the recent award-winning actor Taylor Victory. Their presence stirs great interest and excitement in your small town. You did not care much about the actor beyond your keen interest in Stephen Zuckerberg movies, or at least, you thought you did not.

Until you have a chance encounter with the one and only Taylor Victory, and you notice the eerie facial similarities you share with them. Thus, a deal is struck between you.

You will swap places with each other—Taylor will experience a normal week of high school as you, and you will live the life of an actor in their place. Plus, their offer of money doesn't quite hurt, and with it you would have enough to leave Sunnyview.

Oh, how little did you realize how much trouble you were about to get yourself into.

↬ customize your name, nickname, gender, looks, personality, etc.! however you will think of yourself as a "regular, ordinary" person living a boring life.

↬ taylor's gender, pronouns, and looks will be identical to yours (with a few modifications)!

↬ take the place of a famous teen actor and perhaps get to film a few scenes. lie, cheat, gaslight, manipulate; whatever it takes to convince others that you are who you say you are. otherwise...

↬ fall in love with your best friend, the popular kid (aka your crush), your "co-star," or no one. break or make your relationships with them.

↬ celebrate your 18th birthday as taylor and all by yourself.

↬ attend prom as yourself. or taylor? you aren't quite sure what it is yet.

Taylor Victory (gender based on MC) → The Identical Twin

The actor who became well-known for their lead role in the romcom movie "High Love" and won awards for it. Ever since Victory entered the entertainment industry at the age of 5, they have never been able to live a "normal" life. Until, that is, they meet you. They are charming, suave, and everything that you imagine an actor to be. Especially their cockiness.

Maxie Yang (gender selectable) → The Best Friend

You have known them ever since you were in diapers; your sweet, quirky, and incredibly reliable best friend since forever. They have always cherished you and you to them, acting as your shield when you used to be heavily bullied in middle school. They have a remarkable passion for art and is a total geek for mythology. Years later, Maxie remains the same as ever, though sometimes you catch their adoring gaze at you. Do they...no, probably not.

Tropes: friends to lovers, unrequited pining (on their part)

Kelsey Lovelock (gender selectable) → The Crush

Kelsey Lovelock is one of the popular kid at school...and has also been your longtime crush since 8th grade. You don't remember when it first began, but they have always treated you nice enough even if their friends are assholes and made your life hell the years before and during. Charismatic and currently in the running nominations for Prom King/Queen. They likely do not feel anything for you considering how little you have talked to them in your final year of high school…and they are dating someone else.

Tropes: acquaintance to friends to lovers, unattainable

Peyton Ryans (gender selectable) → The Co-star

Taylor's co-star in their upcoming movie together. And for whatever reason, they seem to hate Taylor with a passion. Unfortunately, they play as the protagonist (that's Taylor)'s love interest, so you often have to make contact with them. Perhaps you could try to persuade them to see a "different" side of Taylor and change their view. It all depends on how you play the game—just hope they don’t find you out.

Tropes: enemies to lovers, coworkers

FAQ

[fahye]

book recs sept/oct 2023

THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER by simon jiminez -- I have no idea how to describe this. best book I've read in a year. absolutely gutting and beautiful and intricately put-together fantasy about two young men escorting an escaped god-empress on a pilgrimage to bring down an empire. but actually it's so much more intimate than that. please please please read this book, it deserves the world. yes it's gay.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO by jessica dettmann -- an aussie romcom tailored specifically to me, someone who imprinted on the kenneth branagh much ado about nothing movie. very meta and genre aware, lively and touching, a heap of fun.

LOOKING GLASS SOUND by catriona ward -- also very meta! it's uhhh about a bisexual disaster teen's coming-of-age summer, and also about the decades-later fight over who gets to control the narrative of that summer. and hauntings. and serial killers. every single one of ward's books is its own unique thing and a wonder to behold.

THE NOBLEMAN'S GUIDE TO SEDUCING A SCOUNDREL by kj charles -- if i haven't made you read any kjc books by now then what are we doing here. I don't know how she keeps getting better and better and better. this one is another slippery liar/stubbornly goodhearted but bad-tempered lord pairing. I adored every word.

NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS by jodi mcalister (ARC) -- 3rd book in her series set on a bachelor-like tv show, and my hands-down favourite. friends to lovers but also make it schemer 4 schemer!! I would die for this ruthless tv villain and her sleep deprived gremlin producer and their intense, searing, incredible romance entirely free of conventional moral compasses.

THE HOLLOW PLACES by t. kingfisher -- how are her books both so hilarious and so wildly, skin-crawlingly unsettling?? I think it's because of how relatable the protagonist is. I would react EXACTLY like kara if I found an eerie alternate dimension nexus made of willow trees in the walls of my uncle's weird museum. superb and very readable horror.

THE GILDED CROWN by marianne gordon (ARC) -- fantasy with a sapphic romance between a death-witch and the assassinated princess she was hired to raise from the dead. yes you're right that DOES sound amazing. the writing is assured and smooth and propulsive; if you like stories with a heightened mythic/fairytale feel, you'll love this.

[lilium-dell]

RANDOM MOUTHWASHING HEADCANNONS

This is going to be a long post...I apologise in advance.

And english isn't my first language, I apologise for any mistakes! (´；ω；`)

Captain Curly (pre-crash)

Used to be a rebel as a teen, have bad grades, drink, all the stuff. Because of that, he gave himself piercings and some hand poked tattoos.

He still has some scars from said piercings and hides the badly done tattoos he did at the ripe age of 16.

Hates science fiction movies. He thinks that they are super unrealistic and will spend the entire time criticizing them.

Loves romcoms tho.

Secretly loves punk music, the only thing left from his rebellious phase.

Works out as much as he can. He's sad? Goes to the gym. He's happy? Gym. He's stressed? Gym.

When he goes to the Tulpar, he always brings some weights so he can lift before bed/after he wakes up.

Gives the best hugs. You can't tell me this man will not bear hug you until you feel better.

Wanted to be a psychologist before studying to be a pilot, yet he gave up because he was too much of a people pleaser.

His favorite animal is bears, grizzly ones to be exact.

Captain Curly (after crash)

Spends the days thinking on what he could've done to make things different.

After he gets rescued from the cryogenic pod, he can't help but feel survivors guilt. All his crew was dead, except for the captain that should've gone down with the ship first.

After he gets his prosthetics, it takes him a while to get used to them and feels some phantom pain on the stumps of his arms and legs once in a while.

He regularly writes to his fallen crew members as if they are still alive. It helps him cope.

He also stayed in touch with the families of his fallen crew. Curly always apologizes for their death.

Anya

Left her cat on earth and the last words she said to him was "When I come back, I'll buy you wet food", as she would always buy treats for her cat after every excursion.

Her favorite thing to do on earth was to read with her cat on her lap and some tea.

Is a only child but always had pets throught her childhood.

Is a bad loser, everytime she loses at the game nights on board of the Tulpar she goes on a raging fit. Doesn't really hide it.

The only time the crew have seen her mad is when she loses at games.

Used to do combat sports as a teenager. Seeing the wounds of the people she trained with made her want to pursue medicine.

Is a really good driver. Just road rages a bit.

Wears contacts.

Her last thought on the medical bay was about her cat and how much he would miss her.

Daisuke

Loves shooting and RPG games.

Fluent in English and Japanese. Speaks mostly in japanese at home with his parents.

Has a younger sister. He used to let her do makeup on him when they were both younger.

Used to be a popular kid but never really had a girlfriend.

HUGE fantasy nerd.

He's actually a very smart kid, used to be an honor student.

Tried to teach Swansea about Pokemon and Kingdom Hearts lore on their lunch breaks. Swansea tried to understand.

Helps Anya take care of Curly, even if he doesn't have any medical experience.

Tried smoking once, started wheezing and gave up immediatelly.

Ties his hair when he needs to be super focused.

His playlist goes from Tyler the Creator to Lady Gaga to Bach in a click. The playlist is called Whiplash.

Swansea

Dog person. He definitely loves big dogs.

Sees the entire crew almost like family and takes care of them like family.

Listens to dad rock/country while reading the newspaper to relax.

He has a picture of his kids next to his bed. Unfortunately, everything got destroyed in the crash.

Was the one who brought the tabletop games for the crew. He's a huge tabletop games fan.

Girldad. He definitely spoiled his kids as much as he could.

Huge sports fan. Specially soccer.

Jimbabwe (I'm sorry)

Smokes two packs of cigarettes a day. Rothmans to be more specific.

He has a narcissistic disorder.

When he was a kid he used to torment his siblings.

Met Curry when training to be a pilot and got extremely jealous and spiteful when Curry got promoted instead of him.

Hates when Daisuke calls him every name under the sun except his. (Ex. Jimbo, Ji-man, Jimin, Jin).

Had an obsession with American Psycho as a teenager.

He was an edgy teenager.

I have so many headcannons but if I put them all here, the post would be gigantic...

[alottiegoingon]

hc! jealous and possessive jackie

jackie taylor x gn! reader

summary: jackie being a menace while being jealous

warnings: characters are aged up even tho theres no nsfw, jackie sucks at talking about her feelings, bad communication at first, established relationship but toxic at first?, way too sweet petnames, jackie being clingy, dumb reader, NOT proofread, i see jackie as a lesbian but i tried to make it more inclusive so gn reader

thank you for the idea, anon!! mwah <3

- you and jackie were the perfect couple at school. if life was like a teen romcom movie, you two would be like magnets; drawing everyone's attention and turning heads to you in the hallways

- jackie was the most popular girl at the wiskayok high school. being the captain of the yellowjackets was a big help but her personality was the main reason. she was born to be the leader. she the one to enchant people with no big efforts except for maybe just a smile or a charming look

- you didn't care about being popular but it was a consequence of being jackie's partner. it was really easy to notice all the looks directed at your girlfriend but you weren't much of a jealous person. you trusted jackie and knew that, to her, it wasn't anything but friendly attention or jealous fake people

- jackie, however, was the complete opposite.

- while being jealous, jackie would totally try to make you jealous by being too flirty with someone she hated, using them. she didn't care about them, but she did care about you

- she would bat her eyelashes, smile in a sweeter way and play coy while you were staring at her with a raised eyebrow and a perplexed expression but the moment you looked away, she would suddenly stop all of that and never talk to that poor person again

- jackie would be SO petty, ignoring you on purpose and not responding to your petnames for her, or touches. "hi, bunny. wanna go to the movies tonight?" you kiss jackie's cheek but she barely looks at you when rejecting your idea

- "i don't know. why don't you ask nat?" her words would drip with bitterness and all you did was to ask nat the time earlier that day

- once, during party in the woods, you were talking to jackie's friends from her soccer team. you still didn't remember the name of everyone but still tried to be nice to all of them; they were jackie's friends and you loved her

- jackie was in charge of getting you two drinks but distracted herself in the way in the second a few people called her, and you were left behind, deciding to make the best out of the situation

- when you and jackie werent together, you would spend your time watching lots of movies that you know she wouldnt like, like a nightmare on elm street. much to your surprise, van also liked horror movies and mentioned how it was a common thing to watch with her girlfriend taissa. they both loved scream

- you two quickly jumped into an enthusiastic discussion, ranking horror movies, gossiping about actors, chattering about upcoming movies that you were dying to see

- van innocently touched your shoulder as you two shared a good laugh after joking about how chaotic would be if someone dumped a bunch of red paint (blood was too much, you are no monster duh) on the students during the prom

- ironically, that happened during the exact moment that jackie was walking back to you. her grip on the red plastic cups got so tight that a few drops of the drink fell over. her happy and always ready to please expression turns into a pair of narrowed eyes and a grimace of jealousy

- the first thing you notice is jackie's voice and she slid her right arm firmly around your waist right after she shover your drink onto your own hand in a swift move. "hi, baby. i missed you!"

- and she kisses your cheek, tightening her clasp on your skin. her face changed to being serious, from seconds ago, to putting on a hollow and forced smile. jackie was good at soccer, good at makeup, good at choosing clothes, but, come on, she wasn't good at pretending

- "i-i missed you too." you utter in a bewildered voice but can't help yourself from smiling and feeling comfortable being so close to jackie. "van and i were joking about how fu-" you try to explain the joke but jackie doesn't seem interested. instead, she cuts you off and her grip on your waist moves to your arm, squeezing the fabric of your jacket, getting ready to drag you away

- "nice. can we talk for a second?" her faux smile doesn't go away until you politely said goodbye to van and let your girlfriend lead you to where your car was parked. her steps were firm and you had to glance back to ensure her furious strides hadn't scorched the grass

- "did you have fun talking to your new friend van?" jackie asks with a fierce glare.

- at first, you didn't get the memo. you had no idea why jackie was acting so furious but you thought it could be the stress from the upcoming exams. "well, yeah. they are really nice. can you believe that they like horror movies? even nightmare on elm..." you innocently blabbered about the exciting conversation you had with van but your voice trailed off as you noticed her raised eyebrows in disbelief

- "go on." she folds her ams across her chest, looking at you up and down

- "i mean, no. i was just waiting for you to come back!" you defend yourself, knowing it was useless now. "oh, really? cause you looked like you were having a blast." she strikes back

- "i just thought it would be fun if i-" you tried to explain but then you finally realize what was going on. "wait. are you jealous?"

- jackie's frown softens and her fury goes away but her arms remained crossed. "what? no." her voice is in a higher tone, a little whiny.

- "jackie..." you spoke softly. getting closer to her, your hands were the one to gently hold her waist now as you helped her to sit on the hood of your car. you positioned yourself in the middle of her legs and, even against her pride, she didn't complain when your hands touched her face

- "van is nice. they have a great taste for movies and they are really sweet." jackie looks at you in astonishment, not believing in what she was hearing. she was ready to slap your shoulder in response to your bold move "but i can't look at anyone else if it means that it isn't you." and just like magic, she melts

- "no one else in the entire world has your smile or your beautiful eyes. no one else scrunches their nose when they're happy. no one else is as smart, brilliant, kind and enchanting as you. i love you. you know that, right?" your foolish grin matched the look of adoration in your eyes as you were carefully memorizing every detail of jackie's face while talking.

- "yeah, i know. i love you too." and just like that, a rosy hue spread across her cheeks. she wasn't even able to held the eye contact for too long without sharing the same foolish smile of yours

- with a tender kiss on her soft lips and the delicate act of tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear, the night was saved and jackie's lips curled into an adorable pout that forced you to kiss her over and over again

- "okay, whatever." she gives in, trying to sound less shy by cleaning her throat. "let's just get out of here, it's freezing!" she says, leaping off the car hood. you open the door of the passenger's side for her, ready to offer your jacket as well.

- "whatever you want, bunny."

[sam-loves-seb]

the fruity four but make it hollywood au (1/x)

actor!steve who’s newly famous for his leading role in last year’s hit romantic comedy, everybody and their mother is in love with the guy, his face is on every fucking billboard across the country, he’s charming and funny and god is he attractive and eddie is so fucking over it.

eddie munson--lead singer and guitarist for successful metal band corroded coffin--doesn’t even know steve harrington but he’s annoyed by him nonetheless. by what, he’s not really sure. his success? his popularity? how his face is literally everywhere eddie turns? who knows! eddie writes him off as another one hit wonder actor who will flop in his next feature or burn out in the next five years from doing too much too fast and not being able to handle the workload or the stardom

but then he meets steve at some 30 under 30 in hollywood party, and he's not at all how eddie expected. they become sort of friends that night, and in the following weeks eddie starts to learn more about hollywood's newest heartthrob

like how steve never really wanted to be an A-list actor, how he never saw himself in the romcom game at first. he learns how steve got his start as a stunt double on a couple of decent coming of age/teenage hijinks action adventure films, how he spent most of his twenties absolutely broke, living paycheck to paycheck and constantly worried between jobs

how steve met his best friend robin (a makeup artist) on the set of his first real gig, and how he pulls her in to any and all of his projects now that he’s a big name (not that she isn’t talented in her own right, she’s damn good at what she does, but they've always looked out for each other like this in the near decade they've known each other). she's been his "date" on more than one red carpet this year, and every couple of months steve has to publicly squash the dating rumors that start to circle them

how steve met his ex-girlfriend nancy wheeler (yes, that nancy wheeler, picture perfect girl-next-door older sister on one of the most famous sitcoms of the last decade) when she starred in a movie where steve was her co-lead’s stunt double, how they dated for about a year and then broke up but stayed friends, even when she went through her rebellious phase and broke out of her cookie cutter miss-teen-perfect shell and had a bit of a "wild child" phase before settling into the indie film scene for a while and fading into the background for a couple of years

how steve never wanted to be an actor--like, not even a little bit--but on this one gig he flirted a little too much with this one casting director that he really liked, and then the next thing he knows he’s being cast as a supporting part in a six part mini series that sort of blew up one summer before everyone immediately forgot about it when fall programming began airing

fast forward a year or so and he’s still doing stunt work--with name recognition comes a steadier stream of gigs, so he's happy with what he's doing, he likes stunt work--when something goes wrong and he gets a pretty bad concussion (just another in a long line of them) and his agent tells him it might be time to hang it up for good for the sake of his health

but he doesn’t know what else to do, he has a little money saved from the mini series but it’s not enough and he needs a new plan, and robin--sweet, sweet robin--tells him about this movie she’s about to start working on where the male lead had to back out last minute and the directors are scrambling and she may have slipped steve’s headshot to the casting director when she caught him having a breakdown in the back room of the studio...

...and that's how steve gets his big break, starring in a well written romcom with an unknown cast that does big numbers at the box office, launching all of them into stardom overnight

and eddie is fascinated by all of this because, well, he thought steve was for sure a nepotism baby or some shit because he’s pretty sure steve grew up with money (he did, but he left it behind to move to LA and pursuit his dreams) and eddie just assumed his dad was a big name producer or something and that’s how steve got into all of this

so the two of them start hanging out and they become fast friends, always photographed getting coffee together trying to avoid the paparazzi or showing up to hollywood's hottest parties together (in an attempt to get both of their agents off their backs and actually show their faces in public) and buzzfeed starts to write these articles about how they're the most unlikely of friends

it takes them six months to start dating.

it takes another year before the press catches wind of it, and by that time they're already living together in a three bedroom luxury apartment in LA with robin and nancy sharing a place right down the hall. steve bought a ring. it sits in robin's sock drawer so eddie won't find it before steve's ready to pop the question

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | ko-fi

[variousqueerthings]

@yugiohio #op youre in good company as most people interpret this film as a queer coming of age film. myself included.#i saw it for the first time in my early teens and it impacted me in a way i have never been able to articulate.#ive reserved it from the library so many times. i have the movie downloaded to my computer. i made myself posters.#im still trying to find the dvd. im still trying to find the novel and manga. i love these girls and the way they love each other so much.#anywayyyyy you didnt ask for any of this but this movie is just so important to me and I'm so so so happy youve discovered it#and that youre posting content from it

hope it's okay to put this here, if not will edit the post, buuuut i usually do a little post-movie decompression and your tags are a great place to start it:

i have had this on my letterboxd to watch for awhile, and was tipped over the edge when the director of a play im in said "so there's a biker gang and one of the girls is obsessed with rococo" i cannot tell you what about that description charmed me so much i had to watch it immediately, but hey, sometimes you know that It's Time

i was kind of expecting a really serious film, and it turned out much more like a sweet queer romcom of that early 2000s lesbian flavour (meaning that most of them don't end up more than subtext, but the text in this one is... very text. they pretend they're about to kiss in the end-credits sequence type text)

was fun to accidentally land on another film that's about Style and Taste and The Soundtrack Being Cool, because i watched empire records and then young soul rebels these last couple of days, so clearly that's the theme of this little unexpected watching time

but seriously this film is really Cool, first and foremost, and it's got a fascinating set of philosophies in it about style (especially clothes) that surprised me, because you don't get a lot of cinema celebrating style without at least giving a cautionary "but watch out lest you become Shallow!" i really enjoyed that the arc of this one was "actually i am great at making clothes and im really capable actually, but i'd much rather buy clothes and look pretty in order to be a true rococo woman! the most important thing is dedication to Style! (and ichigo)"

like, her ethos really is high femme camp -- she's there to look beautiful and she enjoys that and she does it on her own terms, and specifically the only person she enjoys making for is... ichigo

and consequently, while she absolutely dresses for herself, there is also a sense that the only person whose opinion she values is also ichigo, and ichigo treats her exactly how she wants to be treated -- when momoko faints, she runs to her and cradles her head, she takes her out on her bike at the end, she's the strong badass to momoko's sweet prettiness

but then in another fun subversion, momoko is the one constantly looking out for ichigo -- she has the clothes she needs (and sells them for cheap), she embroiders her jacket after going a full day on a search for a person we later find out doesn't exist, she wins all the money, she comes for her when ichigo is in danger of getting seriously hurt and saves her, she gets offered a job based on her competencies that later on gives ichigo an opportunity (ironically to look pretty, which... she really really is beautiful) (although they both turn them down after getting a taste of it, they'd much rather roll around on a bike together). ichigo says at the end that she'll simply never be out of her debt, and that makes momoko smile, like yeah, that means they'll have to stay together forever

idk this movie is just so Cool and so Fun and soooo so gay

i also note that the single mild no-homo is so immaterial that watching it i wasn't actually sure if it wasn't about akimi, who was introduced as this beautiful vision that changed ichigo's life back in the day and now it turns out that not only is she engaged to this man, she's pregnant and leaving the gang, shifting ichigo's whole axis -- the framing is on her, she was introduced with the In Love/Lesbian Awakening Gaze, she's the reason ichigo is who she is, and the catalyst for why ichigo eventually leaves the gang (the other catalyst being momoko + the slightly less focused-on one of "not liking the direction it's going in"). it's got such a "im a teenager and upset about this but i cannot say why, it must be because im in love with this guy i barely know and because uh... i don't respect the new leader's vision!"

i think this film also carries a certain kind of vibe that reminds me of streets of fire, that is, in some ways it feels much more like a myth or a fairytale, because everything is so extravagant and yet slightly vague (and i mean that positively). we're being introduced to the origins of a myth of these two people who travel the roads in cool clothes and set biker gangs right, like. Urgh it's so Cool!

and the animation i didnt even mention the animation but it's got Cool Animation too!!!!

it's funny, i tend to land hard on the "gets obsessed with more masc characters" (wow wonder why) but in this one -- while of course they're both great and that's the point -- i was absolutely enamoured with momoko. her casual cynicism, her confusion about why she suddenly cares about one (1) person, her absolute dedication to The Vibe that is her whole being, her seemingly being completely unaware of just how easily she can draw people to her. just, the Power that is momoko (and now she's got the muscle of ichigo, nothing can stop them)

[trungles]

Regarding your winter romcoms: just wanted to say you have truly IMPECCABLE taste in films (which is to say that we have the *same* movie taste), and it makes me love you/your art all the more. Any other suggestions? Ultimte favorite films? Do share!

HELLO, it has been a hot dang minute since I did one of these, and I'm pretty sure this question was dropped into my inbox closer to Christmas of 2022. So. Thank you very much for your kind words, anonymous, and apologies for the very long delay!

This is a fun question, though, so I really wanted to answer it eventually. Forgive the typos, grab your popcorn and your Red Vines (the best licorice-ish candy, I WILL FIGHT YOU no I won't but I love them), and let's go through my favorite comfort-watch movies. They're mostly rom-coms and coming-of-age movies for teens.

As a general caveat, I am not a big movie person at all. I know basically nothing about film. You will find no sensitive critique or analysis here. My favorite movies are all VIBES. I'm also not a big horror/thriller/bloody violence sort of person, so I don't watch many of those, which is weird because a goodly number of my dearest friends are horror film buffs. Also, I have made it a habit, in my adulthood, to go watch movies that I wasn't allowed to watch or didn't have access to as a kid. I'm a first-and-a-half generation immigrant to the United States, so my way of getting comfortable with American culture was to sort of approximate its vibes by absorbing its popular culture almost anthropologically? So in this post I'll maybe go over why I like it, and I might mention some of the things that have not aged super well because, as I'm sure you know, every single thing ever made cannot help being a product of the time it was made. I believe in being able to watch these things critically, enjoying them as they are, understanding that everybody's mileage may vary, and that not everything I like will be for everyone. I'm mostly including this bit because it's internet and people don't always know how to simply disengage with things they don't like.

In my Winter Movie post, I recommended The Holiday, When Harry Met Sally, Single All the Way, Moonstruck, and While You Were Sleeping, so I won't go over those again. Let's kick this off with something to help manage everybody's expectations.

The McG-directed Charlie's Angels movies, 2000 and 2003. Both of them.

I actually saw the second one first. It was one of the first PG-13 movies I ever saw in theatres, and it sort of just imprinted in my psyche, I think? They're just fun. They're real fuckin' fun. Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu, and Drew Barrymore have great onscreen chemistry, and the cheesy wire-fu sequences are so ham-fisted that they delight me. These movies know exactly what they are, and they're very up-front about being Movies, particularly the second one where every scene seems to have an Old Hollywood pastiche. The first one has a bit of very odd brownface moments that I did not love upon rewatch.

Singin' in the Rain, 1952

I saw this movie for the first time when I was in middle school, and I was absolutely obsessed. It was the very first time I realized that the movies had its own histories, and that there was a transition of culture when there was a change in technology. Also, I just loved watching Gene Kelly dance, for gay reasons. Plus, Rita Moreno is in it for a split second, and she's divine.

Clueless, 1995

This movie rules, I don't know what else to say. It's a fantastic Austen adaptation, and while I was too young to catch this in the 90s, it felt great catching up with this one as an adult. I think it also helped me contextualize what other kids were into in the 90s, so I retroactively feel less isolated from my peers. It's a weird sort of magic. It's also strange to me, in hindsight, that in 1995 there was an enormous hit teen movie where there is a gay character who is treated incredibly lovingly for the time? Like, no gay trauma, no homophobic bullying, no nothing. He's just there, and he gets folded into the rest of the story and remains important to the main character's life? I'd have loved that as a kid.

Shanghai Noon, 2000

The year 2000 was an incredible time for goofy action comedies, and this one was formative for me. It's extremely silly and embarrassing to admit, but this movie was the first time I learned about how Chinese railroad workers built the transcontinental railroads in the later 1800s. I first saw it as a rental from the local video store, and my parents let me watch it because my dad liked Jackie Chan movies. It's... very 2000 in its treatment of racial politics, but you could reasonably argue that not too much has changed since.

The Princess Bride, 1987

I don't need to explain this to anyone.

Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994

God, you can see the accent on Hugh Grant's mouth. I don't know why I love this movie as much as I do. I came to it a bit later in my teen years, and I'd watch it again every few years. It's grown on me more and more as the years go on. It's the only British-American ensemble production that I really latched onto, and it's in no small part because the supporting cast is so much fun to watch.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1953

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I watch it probably three or four times a year. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell star as two showgirls who embark on a cruise to France to work around the machinations of an old millionaire who refuses to let his son marry Monroe's character. It's got that iconic Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend number, and it has one of the best third-act thesis statement speeches I've ever heard in any era. It's a great old musical.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, 2008

This is a gem that I missed back in 2008 because I was graduating high school at the time and had other things going on (being queer at a Catholic high school in the 2000s sucked ass, btw, let this ol' geezer tell ya). Frances McDormand plays a conservative governess who can't hold down a job because she, being a preacher's daughter, is a morally upright Amelia Bedelia. Out of desperation, she scams her way into becoming the social secretary for a bubbly young actress played by Amy Adams, and they spend a wild and heartwarming day together where Frances McDormand's character navigates wartime, friendship, and romance. This is also the movie that made me develop an embarrassing crush on Lee Pace (not because Lee Pace is embarrassing, I just hate having crushes on famous actors because I know, at the end of the day, that they're just weird theatre kids who have money now). It's based on a novel written in 1938, and it's aged surprisingly well.

Sailor Moon SuperS, 1995

I borrowed the VHS for this movie from the library as often as I could in the second or third grade. It was the one movie I had memorized in my brain to the extent that I could just recite the dub to myself whenever I wanted. Plus, Chibi Moon was my favorite (do not @ me, I will fight you).

Waiting to Exhale, 1995

I don't know how I caught this one as a kid or which channel aired it, but Waiting to Exhale–starring Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon–was something I saw pieces of when I was way too young to understand any of it, and it was a joy to revisit it as an adult. I've since seen it a few times. This endlessly gif'd scene pictured above is every bit as cathartic as it looks, and the soundtrack is incredible.

The Mummy, 1999

Yeah yeah, this is an incredibly unsurprising and safe pick, but the movie is so much damn fun, and Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz have the most belligerently bisexual energy ever shared between a heterosexual pairing. I don't know how else to explain it.

Sister Act 2, 1993

I saw this one on TV a lot, and I watched it from top to bottom every single time. I don't think I've ever actually seen the first one.

Adventures in Babysitting, 1987

I found this movie incredibly delightful, and I'm pretty sure I watched it in adulthood because I was looking for this movie I'd only seen in bits and pieces on TV as a kid or something. It stars Elizabeth Shue and a very young Anthony Rapp. Plot-wise, it's very much like Lord of the Rings if Gandalf were a plucky teen girl and the hobbits were a bunch of literal children. I'm not kidding. It's also an 80s movie about a bunch of white suburbanites who have adventures in Chicago, so there are a couple cringey moments, but by the standards of its time, nothing wildly egregious. Bonus points for a surprise appearance by strapping young Vincent D'Onofrio.

Pretty in Pink, 1986, and Some Kind of Wonderful, 1987, double-feature.

I put these two together because they're the same movie, but gender-swapped. They're both written by John Hughes and directed by Howard Deutch, so they have the same very ineffectual Reagan-era flattening of class consciousness. They're about a poor girl/boy protagonist who falls in love with a rich boy/girl. The protagonist develops a richer relationship with their beleaguered father character and develop a better understanding of themselves, kind of. John Hughes teen comedy-dramas are significant, I think, because they're some of the first blockbuster teen movies that took teens and their feelings seriously, wrote from their perspectives, and courted teens as an audience (for all kinds of historical and economic reasons between the 70s and the 80s, I'm sure, but I'm no expert). They're also more watchable than some of the other John Hughes teen movies; Sixteen Candles is basically unwatchable to me.

Porco Rosso, 1992

I told myself I could only pick one Ghibli movie for this list, and this is it. Porco Rosso might be my favorite Ghibli movie, which might seem like an odd choice for me. Like a lot of millennials who were teens when Spirited Away came out, I got really into the Ghibli catalogue in the late 2000s but had seen some Ghibli movies much earlier in my life. My first was technically Grave of the Fireflies. I was eight, and came away with the notion that if I left my little brother alone, who was five at the time, the adults around us would just let him die, so I had to watch him as carefully as I could. I became an incredibly anxious and overbearing older brother very early. Next, I'd see the Buena Vista release of Kiki's Delivery service, so I have a soft spot for all the Sydney Forest pop songs they inserted in the 90s dub of that movie. By the time I watched Porco Rosso, I'd seen most of the rest of the Ghibli catalogue, but it really stood out to me. Most of Miyazaki's protagonists are girls, but this one is a kids' feature about a middle-aged man with a pig's head. In hindsight, I think I loved it because it is one of those rare children's narratives that conflates femininity with practicality and masculinity with frivolous ostentatiousness. It's worth a watch!

Say Anything... , 1989

This is one of those teen movies where they take small, mundane problems and make them enormous, which I sort of love as a storytelling tool. John Cusack plays Lloyd, a high school underachiever who falls in love with the valedictorian, and you watch him experience true internal motivation for the first time in his young life. It's very cute! I think the thing this sort of teen movie gets really right about being a teenager is you don't really have a sense of scale for your problems at that age because all your problems are just problems you're encountering for largely the first time. Ione Skye's valedictorian character experiences a pretty devastating family issue with her father, but it's flattened into the same strata as her anxiety about flying, her first breakup, and her feelings of isolation and remove from her peers. Plus Lili Taylor is in this as Lloyd's best friend character, and she's great, just like in the next movie on this list...

Mystic Pizza, 1988

I couldn't decide which gif I wanted to use for this movie, so I just picked two. It's another slice-of-life teen comedy-drama, and it's real cozy. The performances from all the young actors are fantastic. Lili Taylor, Annabeth Gish, and Julia Roberts are great in this, plus you get to see strapping young Vincent D'Onofrio again, which is a treat. He gets to do a lot more in this one. At this point it's worth noting that 80s teen movies are obsessed with romances among young people across different social strata, and true to the Reagan era, the movies like to impress upon its audiences that hating rich people is the same as hating poor people (cue heavy eyeroll). This honestly explains a lot of things to me about today's political discourses, I think.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before, 2018

I enjoyed this Netflix movie so much that I watched it 16 or 17 times in the month after its release. It's fine, I'm fine. I don't know exactly what it was. I love rom coms. I've seen a ton of high school romance movies, and this one hit me really hard for some reason.

And that's everything I could come up with off the very top of my head. I think I hit something like 20 movies up there? Whew! That's my evening, but it was the only thing I could focus on for more than an hour at a time today.

[palfriendpatine66]

My dream is that you one day will write boiling rwrb au

Also I need to know all of your thoughts about the film

RED WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE MY BELOVED!!!!

In summary: I absolutely love it and have so many thoughts. But also I don’t see myself writing an obikin au for it. (Not to worry, I speak autocorrect 😉) Read more below the break

I adore rwrb. It’s my new comfort movie. I’ve watched it three times and I read the book after my first viewing.

The first time I watched in I could NOT believe how gay it was. Honestly I am still twirling my hair and kicking my feet that we get to have a rom com that is just SO!gay. I want more! And I’m really hoping that it’s popularity means we’ll get it

*side note for any of my younger followers: this makes me feel so old. But as a teen in the 2000s there wasn’t a lot of queer media readily available and what was definitely wasn’t showing or marketed toward teens. What I was aware of was adult dramas surrounding HIV/AIDS. Glee and Modern Family didn’t come out until I graduated. Stories like this would have been a game changer

Anyways: back to rwrb. I LOVE that it gets to unabashedly be everything that it is. Is it corny as hell? Yes! Is it tropey and over the top? Yes! Does it read like a fanfic? Yes! Is it fantastic that it gets to be all of these things that every!single! hetero romance/romcom gets to be while basically leading a pride parade through everyone’s Amazon Prime account? YES!!!

A short list of my favorite things about rwrb in no particular order:

All the star wars references in the book. They are nerds and they are my kind of people

Get Low is also my drunk jam. Yes I am the target audience. Yes I am ok with this

There’s a female president and vice president (girl power!)

The sex scene might just be the sweetest, most intimate thing I have witnessed with my own two eyes? It was so tender and so real

There was zero attempt made to pretend that they weren’t just copying the royal family and the fact that the movie leaned into it so hard is absolutely hilarious to me.

They’re also a biracial couple and they don’t shy away from Alex’s experiences as the son of an immigrant to the US (the book does more here)

The key stays on during sex, just hanging there bonking him in the face. 10/10. Hilarious. Kills me.

They do not shy away from gay sex happening and the boys are horny for each other. Like, we don’t just see them kiss once. Again, I’m old, but YES!!!!

I’m cutting myself off here but I could very much go on.

As for the possibility of an obikin au: I’m not going to lie, I thought about it. But I don’t think I see that happening from me.

The first reason is mostly how I write obikin. I don’t write same age aus because I can’t personally separate out their age gap and power dynamic from the other aspects of their canon relationship. I just don’t know how to make them work as peers. (Note: nothing against same age aus, I’ve read many that I’ve adored. I just can’t wrap my head around it to make it happen myself).

Secondly, I kind of don’t want to touch it? I realize I’m basically the queen of looking at a movie and thinking YES, but make it obikin! But I just went on a rant about how this movie/story feels special in that 1) it’s already queer and 2) is allowed to unapologetically be itself. And I don’t know that I want to change that

(Would I read a RWRB obikin au? Absolutely)

[currymanganese]

I’m so glad to have context for what inspired episode 5 from that writers insta post. Like that was my least favorite of the entire season, it took me out of the show and I kept asking “Why are we here? Who are these people? Go back to Sydney (or literally anyone else)” I physically was holding myself from fast forwarding through all of the cutesy long glances and kiss scene like just do it already! lol now knowing it was supposed to be this indie teen romcom (I’m not familiar with the garden state maybe I’ll watch it) I definitely see the vision more. Doesn’t make me like the romance plot more, and I pray that they’ve got it all out of their system and give Claire a backbone, but it does validate my sense that Claire really was just a character as a plot device in this coming of age movie side plot they created for Carmy.

Live footage of me during those scenes:

The thing that irked me the most is that Claire is supposed to be an ER doctor and had so much time on her hands. Really, she had NO ONE to help move her gran-gran's stuff? She had to blow up an old high school acquaintance/crush's phone? She had time to go to a house party for several hours to console a friend over a breakup? She had time to drive Carmy to the post-office? She had time to romp around acting cute and telling Carmy never to apologize? Why didn't they make her a freelance graphic designer between jobs or something, idk...

[gayleviticus]

i miss the love Simon hype a bit. it was very much a specific moment in time including big picture cultural stuff (esp for aus coming out v shortly after marriage equality), and for me personal life like coming out and not being in school and also having pre covid freedom. so that hype really isn't something you could just replicate but man. idk. it had a vibe i just don't feel like they replicated elsewhere - heartstopper, even love victor just don't hit the way

love Simon had that classic teen movie coming of age atmosphere - it wasn't a retro throwback in any way but it almost felt kinda instantly like cinematic nostalgia. and I think even tho the movie itself honestly isn't even like a cinematic masterpiece or whatever, there was a sense of palpable excitement when it came out about the thrill of having a moderately big studio gay teen romcom grappling seriously with issues around coming out and homophobia without being misery porn. it was more than just the movie itself, it represented a kind of hope for lgbt rep in media - and I guess on a way almost like lgbt rights in general. not that people thought representation in media was the key to equality lol, but I guess just in the way that it presented a story of hope while also grappling w the hard bits of being gay

and i think its fair to say that's been fulfilled? I guess we haven't really gotten an endless stream of gay teen romcom films, but I think that's cus that genre has largely switched to shows on streaming. and love Simon definitely walked so something like heartstopper could run

and some of its also just an age thing. I don't like to think it's coming up to 6 years since love Simon came out lol. but maybe heartstopper was as groundbreaking for today's teenagers, or maybe it didn't even need to be bc it was just such a fact of life that lgbtq people exist irl and on screens.

obviously not trying to suggest that all lgbt rights problems have been solved since 2018 but it's funny to feel nostalgia for like. the hope for future gay rep in 2018 looking back from 2024 when that hope has become a partial reality. in some ways the hope was more exciting than the prosaic reality lool. but that's just the nature of nostalgia, and i guess that hope continues to be real and unfulfilled as long as homophobia and the closet continue to exist

[watasemasaru]

Ten Films I LOVE

tagged by my comedy partner in crime, the tsukkomi to my boke; @zurdoabsurdo

Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl (1999 dir. Katsuhiro Ishii) This is my movie. Movie of all time. Rotten Tomatoes can eat my ass with their 25% rating. A yakuza on the run for stealing from the boss from a wacko cast of assassins with a clever girl in tow. It's what Tarantino wishes he could make.

Heat (1995 dir. Michael Mann) I mean, come on. AlPacino, Robert DeNiro, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Ashely Judd, Mykelti Williamson? This movie could not fail even if that was the goal.

The Accountant (2001 dir. Ray McKinnon) It's a short film, and Ray is actually from the town I've lived in the last twenty years, so I have a soft spot for him. Ray is so captivating as an actor, and this film was something else. It's somber but still moving.

Straight Talk (1992 dir. Barnet Kellman) It's a cornball romcom, but it's DOLLY PARTON'S romcom. I love this movie to pieces. I even have one of the original movie posters. Unfortunately I have to also look at James Woods' face lol.

Tombstone (1993 dir. George P. Cosmatos) Another that's like, be serious. I love westerns and the outlaw/lawman yeehaw bullshit. You know how it is with yeehaw bullshit.

Deadland Inferno/Zアイランド (2015 Hiroshi Shinagawa) An action zombie comedy. This one is for the yakuza gworls (gn). Basic we have a plan to get to safety from zombies and hijinks ensuse. Sho Aikawa, SHINGO TSURUMI MY BABY BOY BABY, Hideo Nakano, Hitoshi Ozawa, Sawa Suzuki. So like...dead souls but you're playing as Takasugi, Sagawa, Shibusawa, and Kuze LOL

The Bridges of Madison County (1995 dir. Clint Eastwood) Romance between an older couple, bittersweet partings, it's everything. I'm a closet die hard romantic.

My Dead Dad (2021 dir. Fabio Frey) I watched this for Raymond Cruz and wasn't expecting much but it really hit me. For reasons of my own dead dad that I was estranged from, but there were so many pieces that were like snapshots of my own teens years. The skate parks and ugly fucking skate shoes, weed, sour beer. It's also beautifully shot. It was my movie of 2022.

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997 dir. George Armitage) The soundtrack fucking rips. Probably one of my favorites ever. Joe Strummer put his whole pussy in it. A black comedy, John Cusack & Minnie Driver? Hot stuff

The Devil's Advocate (1997 dir. Taylor Hackford) MY GAY AWAKENING, A MOVIE I HAD NO BUSINESS WATCHING UNDER THE AGE OF TEN. I was obsessed with this movie. Tamara Tunie only had a small part man....she changed my life forever. If you love the tropes of good and evil, the devil, lawyers, Keanu Reeves with a terrible southern drawl, watch this :)

Tagging @necrotizer @coffeemakesmeahappybean @xyndario and anyone else that wants to share their favorite films <3

[teen-z-magazine]

Teen Z’s show/movies recs!!

If you're like me then you're always looking for something new to watch, but can’t really decide what. So in this article we will be helping y'all out by giving y'all 6 recs to binge watch over the week😌

-The O.C- Great for fans who love teen drama series with angst and romance. From episode 1, it will automatically become your favorite. It’s such a good show that you would enjoy, and honestly deserves more recognition. 

-Cobra Kai- Our favorite! If you liked The Karate Kid growing up and/or are interested in comedies/dramas, then you should totally watch this. Everything about this show is amazing, and trust us, you will love it just as much as we do!

-On My Block- This show has so much to offer if you like crime romance drama or coming of age show's we know you'll like this teen show

-Never Have i Ever- A great show fall around Super funny and Very Sweet if your looking for some romance and comedy this show is fot you

If you prefer movies, then watch these two!

-The Duff- A romcom is always going to get the job done, so with that being said, you have to watch this movie! It's such a hilarious teen movie that will legit have you dying while watching it. You can't not love it.

-Dazed and Confused- Set in the 70s, It’s a really interesting movie and truly makes you feel a part of that era. If you like the 70s or just coming of age movies in general, then you would definitely enjoy watching it.

I hope you guys enjoy these recs, and tell us how you liked them❤️

[no-pasaran-99]

u know what's funny is like. back when i was straight i hated (straight) romcoms for some mysterious reason, i guess i thought they were cheesy and gross and romantic, but now that i'm dykey as hell and actually letting myself enjoy things, i loveee romcoms. like LOVE

[octaviasdread]

any girls! dark academia movie recs? i really struggle to find anything not about a group of boys (as much as I love them)

SO MANY!!! This is probably a far more detailed answer than you were expecting but this is a popular question and I want to keep a list for myself and others.

Feel free to add to it/give opinions. I've tried to give a tw for anything I can remember

Girls! Dark Academia Movies/TV Shows

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

1950s Women’s college

Art professor! Julia Roberts

She’s legit the female Mr Keating of the art & college world

Feminism vs. Tradition

Maggie Gyllenhall x Ginnifer Goodwin; their characters were more than friends. Fight me.

Does not end how you expect

Strike!/All I Wanna Do/The Hairy Bird (1998)

MY FAVOURITE!!!

Free on YouTube under one of its various names

Comedy

1960s all girls boarding school

Young Kirsten Dunst

Group of girls plot to sabotage a merger with a boys school less prestigious than their own

Secret attic clubhouse meetings of the D.A.R aka Daughters of the American Ravioli (eaten cold, ew)

girls get political & advocate for their rights using ANY elaborate and chaotic scheme

TW: eating disorder, vomiting & creepy male teacher but the girls plot against him too

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

based on a short book I read for uni by Muriel Spark

1930s girls school in Edinburgh

Scottish teacher! Maggie Smith, controversial with a focus on romantic ideals

Spoiler alert, the liberal teacher is actually a fascist

Her group of fave students has cult- vibes and it’s fascinating

Picnic at Hanging Rock

1970s movie or 2018 mini series

Never watched either but I plan to

Wild Child (2008)

00s romcom every UK teen girl loves

Emma Roberts as the spoiled rich American teenager sent to a strict English boarding school

Plots to get herself expelled but oh no she’s making friends with the girls who help her

And the headmistress has a hot son, and he’s nice??? Double oh no

ICONIC SCENES

Everything! Goes! Wrong!

omg she burns the school down

Feel good, comfort, nostalgia

St Trinians (2007)

English girls boarding school

The kids are all criminals, no joke

So are the teachers

CHAOTIC

gay awakening for british girls

Art heist pulled off by school girls

Government tries to shut them down but oh no, the education minister & the headmistress are ex-lovers

Colin Firth x Rupert Everett in drag

Superior cast: Jodie Whittaker, Gemma Arterton, Juno Temple, Stephen Fry, Colin Firth, etc...

embodies the phrase 'problematic fave'

St Trinians 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold (2009)

Mystery, pirate ancestors, hidden treasure

omg Shakespeare was a woman

girls disguised as boys to infiltrate and rob the posh boys school

Villain! David Tennant in that ICONIC boat scene

Teen girls vs. ancient misogynist brotherhood

like the first film but MORE chaotic and BETTER!???

The Falling (2014)

1960s all girls school

best friends! but its unrequited love

Agoraphobic + distant mother aka mommy issues

Sudden death and the school suppresses/ignores the students grief, sparking mass hysteria & a fainting epidemic in the girls

Cast: Maisie Williams (GoT) & Florence Pugh (Little Women) & Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders)

TW: teen pregnancy, death, vomiting, underage s*x, sibling inc*st, past s*xual assault

READ THE PLOT SUMMARY FIRST

The Book Thief (2013)

Based on an amazing book by Markus Zusak

set in 1940s Nazi Germany

Daughter of a communist whose family were taken by the Nazis/died is fostered by an older couple who teach her to read & she paints a dictionary on the basement walls

Coming of age story about a compulsive book thief. No joke, this kid steals books from banned book burnings and breaks into the mayor's library through the window

Family hides the Jewish son of an old friend in their basement and he helps her to start writing about her experiences in the war

TW: death, bombings, WW2 anti-semitism

Mary Shelley (2017)

Overall good & roughly biographical

Pretty costumes and aesthetic

Modern feminist take on Mary Shelly in her own time period

So many INACCURACIES for the drama so don’t take it as truth

Percy Shelley slander and not all of it is justified

Cast: Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, and Maisie Williams

The Secret Garden (1993)

Based on a fave childhood book

1901 colonial India & Yorkshire, England

Orphaned, spoilt & neglected girl sent to live with her reclusive Uncle in the English countryside

Gothic elements, mysteries, secret doors/passages/locked gardens

local boy with a flock of animals, magic, kids chanting around a fire and all around immaculate vibes

Happy ending!!!

Hidden Figures (2016)

African-American women as mathematicians for NASA

1960s space project

Women balancing a career and family obligations

Deals with racial & gender discrimination

Loosely based on the lives of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan who worked for NASA as engineers & mathematicians

Anne of Green Gables (1985) & sequel (1987)

Adaptation L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ books

Canada (late 1890s/early 1900s)

Highly imaginative & bookworm orphan is adopted by a reclusive elderly brother and sister duo

Small town & school years comedic drama

Unrequited Enemies -> Friends -> lovers

Inspiring new woman teacher

Girls re-enact Tennyson’s poem and nearly drown for the aesthetic™

Dramatic poetry reading with INTENSE 👀eye contact👀

Writer! Anne & English teacher! Anne dealing with unruly girls school antics

Collette (2018)

biographical drama on french writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette

Victorian & Edwardian era France

More talented than her husband so she ghostwrites for him

Fight for creative ownership of her wildly successful novels

Affairs with a woman called Georgie and also with Missy, born female but masculine presenting

Cast: Keira Knightly, Dominic West, Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark)

Enola Holmes (2020)

Netflix book adaptation

Younger sister of Sherlock Holmes

Victorian era! feminism/suffragettes

Mother-daughter focus

Mystery, adventure, secret codes, teens running away & escaping from (and eventually fighting) assassins

Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Fiona Shaw, Millie Bobby Brown

Ginger & Rosa (2012)

1960s England

best friends since literal birth navigating troubled teen years

poet & anti-nuclear activist! Ginger

off the rails but also catholic! Rosa

Shout out to Mark & Mark the gay godfathers we all want

family troubles 

TW: older man has an affair with a 17 yr old

Testament of Youth (2014)

based on WW1 memoir by Vera Brittain

young woman (writer & poetry lover) escapes traditional family & goes to study at Oxford University

abandons to become a war nurse

romance, tragedy and war trauma

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Kit Harrington (GoT), Taron Edgerton (Rocketman), Colin Morgan (Merlin)

Little Women (2019)

Writer! Jo & Artist! Amy

Mother/daughter focus and sister dynamics

the March sisters’ theatre club is *chefs kiss*

champagne problems edits of Jo x Laurie are a mood

Ambivalent ending perfectly captures Louisa May Alcott’s dilemma with the book the movie is based on

set in 1860s America

ALL STAR CAST and a Greta Gerwig masterpeice

Lady Bird (2017)

coming of age in early 2002/2003 Sacramento, California

all girls catholic school

writer! Christine aka Lady Bird wants to get outta town and start her life again at college 'in a city with culture'

Mother/daughter dynamics - so realistic!

I live for that Jesus car stunt & the nun's reaction

school theatre program

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein

Another Greta Gerwig gem

Beguiled (2017)

Virginia, civil war era

Girls school with only five students and two teachers left

Find an injured Union army soldier & bring him inside

Women & teenagers want his attention (v. problematic) before uniting against him

(tbh you'll either love it, hate it, or watch once & forget it)

Sofia Coppola film so its very feminine gaze

TW: violence, death, underage

Legally Blonde (2001)

No questions will be taken

Elle Woods was the blue print

TV series:

House of Anubis (2011-2013)

I know it’s a kids/young teen show but I still unironically love it

ANCIENT EGYPT!!!!

Modern day with Victorian era links to treasure hunters & Egyptian research expeditions (stealing from tombs)

Chosen one plot lines, curses, kidnapping, mysteries, secret tunnels under the school, elixir of life

Teens have investigate & protect themselves cus oh no the TEACHERS are involved in some shady stuff

new American kid at British boarding school is the actual premise not just a fanfic au

Nostalgic, light-hearted, funny, and kinda cheesy but I will accept no criticism

The Alienist (2018 -now)

Mid 1890s, New York

Woman’s private detective agency (Season 2)

Serial killer mystery

Woman secretary turns detective and teams up with a criminal psychiatrist and a newspaper editor to solve crime

TW: violence, child pr*stit*tion

Cast: Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans, Daniel Bruhl

The Queen’s Gambit (2020)

Woman chess prodigy

1950s & 1960s

TW: drug & alcohol abuse

Gentleman Jack (2019 - now)

Based on the diaries of Anne Lister

Victorian Yorkshire, England

Upper-class lesbians

Confident, suit wearing! Anne Lister x shy! Ann Walker

Business woman! Anne running the family mines

Cast: Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster) & Sophie Rundle (Peaky Blinders)

TW: violence

Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)

bubbly/ambitious single mom + intelligent daughter

bookworm! Rory Gilmore gets into a prestigious private school and then an Ivy League college

Small town drama is comedic gold

Fast dialogue packed with pop culture and literary references

Comforting & nostalgic

TEAM JESS

Anne with an E (2017-2019)

Loose adaptation of L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ books

they completely change the plot lines but it’s still very good content!

Orphan girl with trauma and a love of books/poetry is adopted by an elderly brother & sister duo, bringing light and fresh ideas to a rural community

Feminism, girls writing club, lgbtq safe spaces, girls eduction, black/indigenous representation

Miss Stacy as THAT inspiring teacher

Aunt Josephine’s lavish gay parties have my heart

TW: creepy male teacher tries to marry a student, racial discrimination, indigenous assimilation school

Victoria (2016-2019)

Adaption of Queen Victoria’s life

Victoria navigating her political, royal, and personal life

Albert’s involvement with The Great Exhibition, 1851 (on cultural + industrial innovations)

Alfred Paget x Edward Drummond is exquisite

Gorgeous costumes and aesthetics

TW: bury your gays trope

Derry Girls (2018-now)

1990s Northern Ireland during the troubles

Comedy, episodes 20-25 mins long

English boy sent to an all girls Catholic school with his cousin

✨Dead Poets Society parody episode ✨with a free-spirited female teacher

Sister Michael, the sarcastic nun who hates her job & reads the exorcist for giggles

Wee anxious lesbian! Clare Devlin (plus her friends wearing rainbow pins)

Badass with bad ideas! Michelle Mallon

Main Character! Erin Quinn

Lovable weirdo who would fight a polar bear! Orla McCool

Wee English fella & honorary Derry girl! James Maguire

Dickinson (2019-now)

Loose adaption of the poet Emily Dickinson’s life

Set in 19th century Massachusetts, US

Historical drama with modern dialogue & music that works SEAMLESSLY

gives a great understanding of Emily Dickinson’s poems

💕Vintage gays! Emily x Sue💕

Theatre club, writing, poetry, dressing as men to sneak into lectures, love letters, teen drama, feminism, and an underground abolitionist journal as a brief side plot in season 2

Wiz Khalifa plays death in a horse drawn carriage

TW: opium use

A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017-2019)

Based on great childhood books

Bookworm! brother, Inventor! sister, and baby sister with sharp teeth

Mystery, secret organisations, orphaned siblings figuring things out & fending for themselves against the villain after their fortune

Adults either cartoon evil, comedically incompetent, or SPIES

Boarding school, library owner, scientific researcher, and theatre episodes

Ambiguous time period which is really fun to try and pin point

Killing Eve (2018-now)

Classic detective who has homoerotic tension with the assassin she is tracking down

British Detective! Eve Polastri figures out the notorious assassin MI5 are investigating is a woman, is fired & then put on a secret MI6 case with a small team

Assassin! Villanelle, a psychopath with a tragic past and a mastery of both accents & fashion

Woman MI6 boss! Carolyn Martens, head of Russian section

Travel Europe following Villanelle’s killings and escaping the assassins sent by Villanelle’s organisation

‘You’re supposed to be my enemy and moral opposite but omg you’re the only one smart enough to get me and why am I obsessed with you????'

🚨 GO IN FOR A KISS AND THEN STAB YOUR ENEMY 🚨

Cable Girls/Las chicas del cable (2017-2020)

Spanish drama set in 1920s Madrid

Four young women at a telecommunications company form a group of friends and help navigate the difficult situations they are all in

Secret identities, dangerous pasts, murder, crime, lgbtq couple & throuple, trans man character, feminism/suffragists

girls commit crimes for humanitarian reasons and cover! it! up!

UNDERRATED SHOW!!!!

Gorgeous costumes and set

Haven’t finished it yet and I’m catching up

TW: abuse, violence, death

Outlander (2014 - now)

haven’t watched yet but plan to

Woman time travels to Scotland, 1743

Rebel highlanders, pirates, British colonies, American revolutionary war

Time jumps between 18th & 20th century

[leandra-kinard]

I mean you're definitely not wrong, and I've had the same thought.

When I try to think of my favorite movies, though, I mostly always come up with stuff from that time. The 90s and 2000s imho produced more memorable movies, or movies that had a bigger, more lasting impact and 'cult' around them, while everything seems so much more fast-paced these days. Even if you were thoroughly entertained by a more recent film, it's also more forgettable, because you didn't wait months for the VHS/DVD to come out and then made dates to watch it with friends; you just stream it and then forget about it again soon after because the next big thing is coming out.

Also, for people around Tommy's age, these movies came out in our formative years when we were teens or young adults who were just finding their identity, their taste, and generally going through a lot of changes and big firsts. So media from that time also tends to leave a more lasting impression on a purely personal level.

So I think it's possible he would still list it among his favorite movies. He probably sees the aspects that aged poorly or were a bit problematic, but he can still appreciate it for the vibes and some of the stories in it.

That just begs the question, what are his other (older and more recent) favorite movies? He and Chim referenced Fight Club in Bobby Begins Again (gay!), so maybe that's on the list. I can see classics from the turn of the millennium like The Mummy, or even older 90s and 80s movies - Die Hard, Indiana Jones and the likes.

We already know he's interested in Star Wars (and has controversial opinions on it, lol... and frankly, him preferring Revenge of the Sith over Return of the Jedi could point at him not originally having been a huge fan of the franchise in his earlier teen years). In my head canon, he's actually a bit of a Trekkie, and he probably also really liked the LOTR movies but disliked the Hobbit ones.

Maybe he was utterly blown away by the first Matrix and then hated the second and third.

As for other romcoms... I currently can't think of any others that were really good, lol. Hm, maybe 13 going 30. And I can see him liking - not a comedy, but a romantic movie - the Notebook.

And as for queer cinema, that's a tough one. In his early adult years, most of those were rather tragic (like Brokeback Mountain), but maybe he watched Queer as Folk? (Secretly, part ashamed at what he was feeling).

I could probably go on for ages, lol, but that's it for now.

my scariest hot take in this fandom is probably that i don't think love actually is actually tommys favourite movie [dodges pitchforks] LOOK hear me out that was the hot romcom of the early 2000s, when he called it his fave, but it's been a full 20 yrs since then and that film has NOT aged that well 😬 i think he has a soft spot for romcoms in general but has probably updated his fave since then !! queer cinema also flourished while he was in his coming out process maybe he has a meaningful queer film as his fave !! this may be my 00s teen bias but i simply don't think anyones taste in 2005 should be held against them