#jesus that was like a movie….. a spectacle

[allyougottado]

HELLOO!! for ship bingo what about Cygnus/Captain Crimson which my mind crafted up recently......

where is the option “if they talked it would be totally funny”

i think they’re both SADDDDD like cygnus is begging for a possible past lover to come back while captain crimson’s precious plum (both ship and lady) ARE PROBABLY DEADDDD :(

could they fix each other? make each other worse? idk and that’s why its very interesting to me… thank u for enlightening me on this 🙏 thought it was just some funny thing

also they both look cool standing next to each other. steampunk and pirates are both cool statements. also matching red is COOL

[violentlydefending]

oh damn i completely forgot riz ahmed was in nightcrawler LMAO it's been a hot second !!

[pretty-little-aesthetics]

guys guys guys:

theory here.

what if the community movie is just a film about a film, like in Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples (season 2 episode 5). What if the movie is too good to ever truly exist, and is made to be a spectacle, not for our eyes to consume. As abed says,

“See, in the filmmaker's film, Jesus is a filmmaker trying to find God with his camera. But then the filmmaker realises that he's actually Jesus and he's being filmed by God's camera, and it goes like that forever in both directions like a mirror in a mirror, because all of the filmmakers are Jesus and all of their cameras are God, and the movie's called: "ABED" - all caps. Filmmaking beyond film. A meta-film. My masterpiece.”

I think i’m on to something.

But thats just a theory!

A COMMUNITY NBC THEORY!

[thevindicativevordan]

Why do you believe Gunn will pull through?

I’ve enjoyed everything he’s done since GOTG 1.

His casting choices draw no complaints from me, I’m only upset about what characters he chose. Getting a fleshed out Daily Planet crew is incredibly promising.

From what we’ve seen being filmed it seems like Gunn has found a balance between “feel good” (Superman hugging the kids, rescuing a cat) and serious (Superman being arrested by the military). Despite fearmongering it sure doesn’t appear to be a drama less comedy.

If we’re getting Lex again I at least can be reasonably confident that Gunn will give us the best live action Lex, given he’s already done a similar character in High Evolutionary.

His retrofuture approach to Metropolis at least promises to be an upgrade over the drab “realistic” approach of Snyder.

From his interviews it seems like he actually has a core storyline for Superman that the average human being can relate to, as opposed to Routh and Cavill’s struggle to be Space Jesus. Routh asked the question of “is Superman still relevant?” while Cavill went the route of “if God (Superman) is real, what does that mean for humanity?”. Both alienated the audience from Superman because regular human beings don’t care about the second and if you have to ask the question for the first, the answer is no. Gunn managed to get people to bond with a talking raccoon and tree, Superman shouldn’t be harder.

We’re getting Krypto and a Fortress that is (possibly) more than barren hallways!

Right now I think this movie is going to be like MAWS. It will nail Clark and his supporting cast, but struggle with the villains. Right now I feel like I will walk out of the theater and give it a B, it will be enough to repair Superman’s toxic brand, but I don’t see it performing spectacularly well. It will be hurt by F4 offering more in the spectacle department, Gunn loading the movie with Gluppos to set up his wider DCU, and the general audience not being enthused at yet another Superman movie with Lex and a villain with Superman’s powers as the bad guy.

$500-600 million is the ceiling for this film if it gets good reviews. They need to treat this like Batman Begins and be ok with a smaller box office that has good WOM. That’s not how Zaslav operates though, which means Gunn’s overeagerness to use Superman to get to his C-Listers could end up sinking his DCU. At this moment with no trailer, that’s how I feel. Regardless if the Superman movie succeeds, they better not leave him on the bench like Gunn has done with Bloodsport. Use Corenswet! If he’s not in the Authority movie, put him in! I’m looking at the trailer views for Creature Commandos and Gunn is insane if he thinks he can ignore the big brands for long. Right now DC simply can’t afford to do a GOTG film with the entire League bar Batman currently in the dumpster.

[lolahasmoxie]

Take a Trip - E.M.

I saw this AMAZING post from @shieldofiron and I had to do it.

P.S. I'm high right now. Rock on.

Pairing - Eddie Munson x Teacher reader

Warnings - drugs, casual intimacy, Eddie being a dumbass.

"Eddie, I'm home!" You didn't look inside your home as you removed your shoes at the door. Hanging up your coat, you turn your head when you hear socked feet quickly approaching.

"Hi, Baby, how was your day?"

"Not bad," you reply as Eddie dips to kiss your lips. "The kids were pretty good today, but I am so glad it's Friday, and I get you to myself for two whole days."

"Same," he replies with a dopey grin. He'd been pulling extra hours this week so that you could have an interrupted weekend.

"So, where are we going for date night tonight?" you ask as you walk past Eddie. "You never told me what we were doing for your pick?"

"Yeah," he replies shamefully, a hand rubbing his neck as he tries to catch up with you. "I don't think we'll be going anywhere tonight."

"What do you mean?" you ask, and stop dead when you spot Wayne sitting on the couch. He's staring at the TV, a bright cartoon playing as he smiles and laughs to himself. "Edward, what the fuck did you do?" you whispered, still loud enough that you caught the older man's attention.

"Y/N!" he says happily, and before you can say anything, Wayne rises from the couch and speed walks up to you. He wraps you up in a hug, and Eddie watches the whole spectacle with a bemused yet guilty look.

"Hi, Wayne," you begin. "Everything okay?"

"Haven't felt this good in years. Eddie made some homemade brownies; I didn't know he was so good in the kitchen, did you?" You sigh as your brain deduces what is happening. You glance over at your man, who now looks simply guilty.

"He is a whiz; in fact, I need to talk to the chef in the kitchen. Why don't you go back to your show?" Wayne nods, and when he's back on the sofa, you grab Eddie's hand and drag him into your kitchen.

"Now, before you say anything,"

"How much did he take, Eddie?" Eddie looked you in the eye as he mumbled an answer under his breath. "Loud enough for normal people to hear, dingus."

"Half a pan."

"HALF A PAN!" you say, shocked. Edward quickly shushes you as you rub a hand down your face. "Jesus H. Christ....you know we haven't been on a date in two weeks?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And that I was really looking forward to spending some alone time with you because I fucking miss you?" Eddie nods as he hangs his head. You let out a sigh as you assess the situation. "You know you owe me big, right?"

"One step ahead of you," he says with a boyish grin as he deems it safe to approach you. "I have a table at Enzo's tomorrow night, and the Hawk is showing your favorite movie, so I figured we could check it out after."

"Good save," you reply, and Eddie grins as he leans in to kiss you. You wrap your arms around his neck and pull him in. "Make sure to label your shit next time, Dr. Feelgood?" Eddie chuckles before he presses his forehead to yours.

"Yes, ma'am. And I can start making it up to you tonight if you'd like?" You pull back and study his face, waiting for him to continue. "Why don't you have a piece of brownie while I go upstairs and draw you a bath. Then, after Wayne has passed out, I will give you 35 uninterrupted minutes of oral sex."

His eyes are eager, eyebrows raised as you contemplate his offer. Those pretty chocolate orbs are laser-focused as you pretend to have an internal debate. "Make it 45, and we have a deal."

"Wow, twist my arm, why don't you," he says with fake annoyance. "I will do this for you; it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make." He makes a vigilant face, and you can't help but laugh at him. You pull him in and press your lips to his to allay his pride when he starts to pout, and deep down, you hope that this feeling you have with him never goes away.

"Now, my Lady," he begins with his Dungeon Master voice. "You grab a brownie, and I'll set up your bath." There's a quick peck to your lips, and your sweet boy is heading to your bathroom. You cut a piece of brownie and pop it in your mouth, smiling when you realize Wayne's assessment was correct. This brownie is fucking delicious.

As you take another bite, you hear Waye guffawing at something that happened on the TV. You turn your head when you hear Eddie come back into the kitchen. He bows and makes a sweeping gesture to the hallway. "My Lady, your bath awaits."

You kiss him on the cheek when you're in front of him, but Wayne's laugh stops you both before you can say anything.

"At least he's having a good time." Eddie offers, and you put a hand on his shoulder and shake your head.

"You realize he is going to murder you tomorrow, right?"

"It's Wayne; he wouldn't harm a fly," Eddie says with surety. "And if I'm wearing my running shoes in the morning, it's for a totally unrelated matter."

"Sure it is," you chuckle. "Now, you go babysit your Uncle, I’m gonna take a relaxing bath. Naked. While touching myself. Have fun!"

"Evil, EVIL woman," he mutters under his breath before he heads to keep an eye on his Uncle.

BONUS:

The next morning:

"Hey, Wayne. How are you..."

"Boy, if there isn't a mug of coffee in front of me in 5 seconds, I'm putting your ass up for adoption."

"Wayne, I'm 25."

"4, 3...."

"Coffee, got it."

[starchildrenofdustand-ashes]

your incentive to read to the bottom of this post is ✨Ben Vereen in a thong✨

In honor of yesterday being Good Friday and Easter being on Sunday, let me tell you about my current hyperfixation: Tim O’Horgans, original Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

This version is notoriously hated by Andrew Lloyd Webber- opening night being described as “the worst night of his life” but that’s only because even as a young man he was clearly a curmudgeon who hated fun.

This production is campy, it’s busy, and its clear it relies a lot on the spectacle pillar of theatre, but I love it nonetheless. my favorite version of JSC is the OBC recording consisting of: Jeff Fenholt as Jesus, Ben Vereen as Judas, Yvonne Elimen as Mary, Barry Dennin as Pilot, Bob Bingham as Caiaphus and Paul Ainsley as Herod. Some of the names you’ll recognize reprises their role for the 1973 movie.

I’m gonna tell you a few my of favorite fun facts/ things I noticed based on images and what I’ve read in Nassirs Rock Opera. Without further ado:

Overture: There are many descriptions of the overture, and they're very wild and I have no idea how to verbalize it. But I can tell you that Jesus rode in on a golden chalice with this opulent cape on lol.

You can learn more abt the staging for the overture here. The next pic is of him in his chalice chariot thing lol

Heaven on Their Minds: These are images of Judas and his tormentors. Now, Judas is usually played by a very strong actor, so a visual representation of what he’s going through isn’t really necessary, but I love the concept. They’re these hooded, shadow figures who follow him around and push him about on the stage. They chronically torment him and he fights them throughout the show until it’s time for his death where they lifthim up so he can get the rope to hang himself.

This Jesus Must Die: this one gets me really excited. So the High Priests are on this brige that’s meant to look like dinosaur fossils; and have you seen their costumes?? Like I have so many questions, this is such an interesting take. They keep their elaborate head pieces in the 1973 film, and they also give them a scaffold as a lair, but their costumes/set is so campy here. Really giving off Disney villain. Their part in the show received a lot of criticism because they’re portrayed kinda smarmy, and slinking in the shadows; the portrayal was deemed anti-semantic.

In the 1973 movie, they added the song “Then We are Decided,” between Caiaphus and Anna’s to portray a more human side to the Sanhedrin. That song is never performed, so you can imagine how well that went.

Hosanna

This is probably my least favorite song in the whole album but visually? I have no idea what's going on in this picture, but I love it. So it's a processional and the priests are watching from their lair. Apparently the props are supposed to look like microbes, and I know there was an insane thought process behind this, it's giving protozoa, amoeba realness. Like someone is carrying a giant set of dentures, can you find them?

Pilate's Dream

Costume Design for Pilate, and also Pilates Dream

The Temple: This is another wild one:

No Words, simply watch the Tony performance:

I Don’t Know How to Love Him:

She's so cute, I love her. This song was apparently one of the biggest applause of number, justifiably. I think one of the biggest complaints with this production as a whole, was the use of the gaudy mics. They're interesting. You can watch her performance at the tony's too.

Gethsemane: Apparently, Gethsemane was one of the biggest flops of the night, such a flop that people were laughing lol. It was staged with Jeff Fenholt, alone, center stage. There was this thing that dropped down behind him, O'Horgan dubbed 'The Universe Box'. It was suppose to look like Jesus was singing this song at the precipice of the universe with a galaxy of stars around him. In Rock Opera, Nassir refers to it as 'O'Horgans oversized toy', and there were several things that compared it to decorative boxes and toys from the 80's. I tried really hard to visualize this, because the concept of it sounds super cool. Instead, it looked silly to viewers and apparently Jeff Fenholt (who sings my favorite rendition of Gethsemane) didn't have the acting chops to pull away from the failure of the concept. YOU! DO! NOT! UNDERSTAND! THE! ANGST! I WENT! THROUGH! TO! GET! AN! IMAGE! OF !! THIS!!! DAMMED!!!!! BOX!!!!

Okay, I have to agree, it does look... strange and I would not have guessed it was supposed to represent the universe.

I'm not quite sure what is looks like. 💀💀

(I found the image from a person on TikTok! The account has lots of JCS OBC tidbits )

Pilate and Christ:

There was this really cool set piece that acted as the door to Pilates palace, it was ceasers head, and when the doors opened, it would expand to reveal 6 more eyes and pilate would sashay out lol.

King Herod

This number also got a lot of applause, it was definitely comedic relief, as Herod is often used for. Apparently he was wheeled in inside a giant, green dragons head and it opened to reveal him sitting in like a shell type thing. I'm still trying to find pictures of this prop- after finding the universe box, I am determined! He was in full drag with nails, the dress, the headdress and those fabulous platforms. Those platforms slay, btw.

Apparently there were a lot of high kicks and they did the Charleston lol.

Could We Start Again Please

There was some criticism about this songs placement in the show.This number was said to be not memorable at all because people were still reeling from the show Herod put on I think it's placed perfectly, because it kinda brings you back to the gravity of the situation. Had this song been placed before Herods Song, right after this Judas would hang himself. That's just too much too soon if you ask me. This provided a nice buffer, to settle down and get ready for the angst to come

Judas Death: Here are images of Judas' tormentors helping him take his life.

Trial With Pilate: Apparently this number flopped too. People said it was too long and the positioning of Dennen's mic caused him issues as his voice would cut in and out when he moved. Also, I have no idea what to make of the Roman guards costumes

I love the images of Barry Dennen going feral, pls best Pilate!!

Superstar: aaah,, the titular song. This was another stand out and y'all, If you thought Carl Andersons white fringe was extra? Any Judas getting bedazzled, wearing sparkles or glam during this song??? Yeah, none of that holds a Candle to Ben Vereen fucking coming out and performing this song in a gold thong. I can't make this shit up.

Now, I think this part is pretty cool. Jesus rises out of the ground wearing what's been dubbed 'the chrysalis'. It starts out thin, but each ensemble member grabs a pillar and spread the cape out across the stage. Judas sing this song on a butterfly set piece behind him. Okay metaphor 😩

For the opulence that was displayed throughout the entire show, the crucification was rather simple; he's simply stripped out of the 'chrysalis ' and put on a triangle.

Pls. Anyway. I love this show and we need a revival of this exact production! I'll wait until ALW expires and then find a producer lmfao 😌 There are a few updates that need to be made, but it is absolutely possible with todays technology?? Image updated gethsemane?? Tom O'Horgan your mind, sir!!!! Anyway. I love this production.

If you made it this far, thank you, I hope you now love this production as much as I do. 🫶🏾

[sleepythug]

Thoughts on Coppola's Megalopolis?

have such unusual feelings about it, it's easily my most anticipated film of the year (if your a cinephile it should be) however as elated as I am i'm also a bit trepidatious? if you've brushed up a bit on the best never-made films it's one of the most fabled unrealized projects, and sits in film history in a graveyard alongside: kubrick's napoleon, kubrick's a.i., alfred hitchcock's kaleidoscope, jorowosky's dune, leone's lenningrad, jerry lewis' the day the clown cried, sergei eisenstein's que viva mexico, robert bresson's book of genesis film, carl th. dreyer's jesus, among others...

what makes me trepidatious as equally i'm extremely excited is it's a work of a director's "late style", and with that lies great interest....there's something particularly endearing no matter the quality of the film, is to be updated on the aesthetics, or directorial instincts of a particular artist, see where their head is at yfm. and yet i have seen a couple of the latter coppola films (tetro, twixt), and wasn't so fond of them when i saw 'em although it's been quite awhile, and my filmic knowledge has expanded so I ought to revisit to refresh my memory, reappraise. however, coppola in general is a director of so many different modes, scorsese has his trademarks and has sort of sifted his visual style particularly in the past few features, however coppola has been experimenting with his style, and various modes of filmmaking since post-apocalypse now.

also regardless whether it's good or not, the pickle with megalpolis rn is while it's in the can, it exists, industry people have seen it. it sounds so far from commercial that it won't achieve the kind of wide distribution that you would hope for a new 150m+ francis ford coppola movie, especially one that promises spectacle. so it'll be seen by only so many people potentially in a limited theatrical run, then seen by most via Apple (my guess). Neon would be cool but idk how many screens they could throw it up on, and probably never enough as one would like regardless. kind of a bummer that it'll be another long awaited film event for film geeks like orson welles' 'the other side of the wind', or scorsese's the irishman, that you're first time seeing will either be on a laptop, or flat screen tv

[unsertraumschiff]

ALSO now that I’ve seen it and you’ve seen an actual performance to compare it to, I would love to hear your thoughts on JCS (1973)

I’ll start by placing my letterboxd review here because that kind of does most of the initial speaking for me, I think I need to see it again at some point. However I think the obc members who made it into the movie (Judas, Mary, Pilate) are so good in that movie and honestly most of my problems are with like the frame story and the aesthetic. Also that extra Caiaphas song they added is so stupid. Also the “could we start again please” song I didn’t really like in the movie, however it was in the touring production I saw and actually I really liked how it worked onstage? So I appreciate that from the movie. Also generally I like the way the show’s style has sort of evolved from the og 70s version (especially King Herod. He’s like a drag king/queen in the production I saw). I think the movie just isn’t the spectacle that the show is meant to be (except for superstar and king herod’s song, I wish they had committed to that theatricality.) I am judging solely from the movie and from the stage production that I saw, but I believe the original production was also definitely more subdued but that material truly flourishes when it’s loud and intense and Big

Oh um also one specific ass thing to point out from the movie. Jesus and Judas holding hands during everything’s alright is soooo ❤️ I would like to draw/paint that shot sometime

[multapohja966]

some fav things this year

Read

Detransition, baby - Torrey Peters' book. just adding a one more assurance that it is just as good as everyone says.

Shopping Star as a semiotechnical code modulating Greek femininity in pharmacopornographic capitalism - fun opulence of hard words discussing interesting things. (article utilising Preciado's analysis tools to discuss (post)recession Greece)

Chimamire Sukeban Chainsaw - Rei Mikamoto's insane gory gross, hard to explain, manga about a girl with a chainsaw trying to kill the person responsible for turning her classmates into grotesque minions.

One Piece - caught up finally. yes, it is worth it.

67,292 Things Car Guys Can Teach Transsexuals by Adrian Glenn - part of the 2 Trans 2 Furious zine. as a car guy associate and transsexual i deeply loved this one.

The Shape of Premodern Nonbinarity: A Conversation with Leah DeVun - I'll never stop talking about this article.

Watched

Bronson - Tom Hardy movie, biography of "Britain's most violent prisoner " Charles Bronson. It doesn't completely highlight everything essential about his story (having a less than nuanced view on untreated mental illness and its relationship with incarceration) but it's such a good fucking movie!! And at least artistically very loyal to who it's depicting (insane and absurdist).

this video of jack harlow at a chiropractic appointment - we live such weird fucking times. like it isn't heartfelt but it isn't disgusting either it's just, w-what? eh?

Little chinese everywhere - vlogger Yan who travels though less tourist heavy provinces in China, really respectful look to everyday life in more rural communities. these have given me a lot of peace and joy. a lot of extremely intresting architecture as well.

Inflatables and the adults who love collecting them - by furry youtuber Ash Coyote. Truly a gem of respectful by fandom, of fandom documentaries. Touching and lovely!!

MerPeople - don't touch netflix anymore but this documentary of the mermaid community and industry is incredibly good.

this rose ramdin x html jones vid - the well read terminally online gen z musical artists who get their estrogen money from twitter shitposting are the modern greek philosphers. in the sense that i'd sit on a stone public square step and listen to a convo like this for the whole day.

A normal creepypasta retrospective - there's hope for youtube actually

Cat soup / Nekojiru-sou movie

Earth Maiden Arjuna - early 2000s environmentalist anime series lovers make some noicee. this one is sooo lovely and gorgeous. real hidden gem.

Gigs

Sabaton - as expected, bit of a weird vibe in the crowd demographic :--------D but show itself is an insane fucking spectacle I'm happy I saw. You can really sense these men are swedish, the "my country hasn't been in an active war for two centuries" theater kid energy is wild. Tank on stage.

Death Grips - I'm pretty sure this rebooted my whole brain. Went with close friend, pretty sure my biggest bruise came form her hands.

Antti Tuisku - Farewell gig of the best pop performer in finland. I do not understand how he doesn't pass out on stage with everything he's doing. The jesus allegory album is forever my favorite, it's so genious in how it discusses fame so well while staying funny and self-avare. Neck hurt for the next week due to headbanging.

Suistamon sähkö - small gig yet one of the absolute best this year. (i cried) You need to see these guys live, the vocal ability of the main singers is absurd, it doesn't come through fully in recordings. And they create a very special atmosphere and community within their gigs, literally joined hands and danced in a circle.

[leporellian]

thoughts on broadway and/or the tonys and/or musical theater in general

fuck i never did get around to this LOL here we go

broadway... compels me in some weird way. like for every single complaint musical theatre fans lob at opera- 'it's too much about spectacle!' 'it's too elitist!' 'it's funded by rich people!' (which that last point in and of itself is. Have you ever been to europe. but the way in which opera criticism is uniquely USAcentric is a convo for another time) are all... like... right there in musical theatre on broadway.

arguably those are even more of a problem over in musicals. musicals have Brand Identity. when you think of wicked, every wicked production is specifically built to look the same, with no real difference in direction or performance besides individual casting. (and also that infernal dragon, for some reason, that they never even really actually use except for like one moment where it wiggles around a bit. a lot of my memory of seeing wicked in 9th grade is just remembering how absolutely disappointed i was that they had a big dragon animatronic and they never used it in a satisfying way! like, what the fuck! anyway, again, tangent.) even if there isn't a cohesive brand there's the matter of rights settlements, and certain creative restrictions, and on top of that there's the fact that it is incredibly hard to go watch broadway musicals if you don't have transportation and monetary access to them. (and don't get me started on whatever the fuck "bootleg trading" is. like man they're even inventing capitalism in new places. hello.)

opera meanwhile is the wild fucking west. most of the standard rep works are in the public domain. there's only 1 standard rep opera i can think of off the top of my head that has any creative restrictions in the performance license contract, and given the one creative restriction with that one is "please have black people play the black characters and don't do blackface you freaks jesus christ" i'm totally down w/ it. if you want to go watch opera, there's thousands of recordings on youtube and on specialty sites like operaonvideo.com that just act as a huge performance archive. opera is genuinely one of the most accessible art forms there is with the advent of the internet.

(man remember when hamilton had basically a free raffle for 10 dollar tickets every week or whatever that was? meanwhile the opera company in my college city literally just sells 11 dollar tickets to students and every time you buy one from them it acts like it now has a blood debt to you. crazy.)

broadway is like genuinely so capitalistic it baffles me, godbless. and i do WANT to understand musical theatre better but a lot of the time it just sort of whizzes past my head and i have no idea what to make of it. (that, and theatre kids are.... Well. Yeah)

THE TONYS are equally baffling, but instead of broadway which feels like some strange dystopian world, the tonys have a distinctly alice in fuckin wonderland shit to me. there are opera award shows but none of them are nearly on the same level as the tonys. it's cool that the trophy spins around i think. i think its very obvious the tonys largely exist as a further marketing mechanic and not as like... actual awards, but to be fair thats the point of all awards shows at this point anyway. (well, that and making a lot of people very angry.)

looking at this year's nominations for example. here are some of my thoughts: i forgot about the some like it hot musical, i genuinely have no idea who the audience of that is meant to be. CORN MUSICAL??? who the fuck made a CORN MUSICAL and WHY? &juliet terrifies me with its existence. the plays should unionize together. i dont know why i was surprised ben platt is there i thought he just kind of faded into the walls after the dear even hansen movie or something. isnt new york new york a frank sinatra song. oh shit the sweeney todd revival already premiered? (i dont keep up with broadway news) why is there a corn musical. also when i looked up the tony awards i accidentally typed in 'the toby awards' which is apparently an award show for building design. Anyway thats my analysis as someone who is genuinely so clueless about current broadway news

[spaceoperetta]

Watched from the intermission til the end of Ben-Hur last night! The audacity of having an enter’act like I am at a musical!

The chariot race. Thrilling, riveting, the PRODUCTION. I was blown away for the entire nine minutes.No wonder this is what culture remembers about this movie. I went on wikipedia after the movie ended just to MARVEL at the production.

Sure it was boring after that because the leper stuff was generally a drag I’m like Jesus will cure them we know this and the end was abrupt. But! I really enjoyed it the movie. It’s fun to watch an old school epic.

(And from my wikipedia sojourn, they cut a bunch of Jesus stuff from the book which made the pacing snappier overall and Jesus only showed up like four times, all done tastefully enough. I was here for the spectacle of it all but the entire point is the Jesus stuff 😂)

[mermaidsirennikita]

What are your thoughts on Titanic? Especially as a romance? Do you think Rose and Jack would’ve had a HEA if he’d survived (I suppose romance convention dictates yes)?

I saw it again this weekend in the theater and was reminded how much I love it. It’s such an impressive spectacle and Leo and Kate really do have iconic chemistry and give great performances.

`

Oh, I adore Titanic. I think it's James Cameron's masterpiece (no I am not willing to hear arguments for anything. else.) and the type of movie I wish was made more these days. I've seen it in theaters during one of its previous re-releases. I somewhat purposefully indoctrinated my younger sibling into loving it by playing it all the time when I was watching them in their infancy (one of their first "sentences" was "I'm flying, Jack", a crowning achievement for 13 year old me). The special effects hold up; the script stands up pretty fucking well; the performances are great; it's the kind of un-self-conscious, wholehearted, bombastic movie that isn't made much today. I am, it must be said, a maximalist personality.

As a romance--Titanic, needles to say, isn't a genre romance due to the unhappy ending for Jack and Rose (sort of) but it is an excellent romantic drama. To me, it does an amazing job with getting you invested in a love story between two people who didn't know each other that long but just... clicked. Part of this is due to the script, but I think that basically any successful movie, but especially romantic movies, are successful because of a combination of a good script and good casting. With romance and erotic movies especially, I think that a movie can have a subpar script but make it work as a fun, enjoyable experience if the chemistry is there. Titanic has a good, if unabashedly sentimental script--it's taken over the top by very strong performances from Leo (who.... listen.... morally he is...... going off the deep end and that's all I'll say on that, but he remains one of the most talented actors of his generation) and Kate (who I also find morally kinda bankrupt, but obviously is a great actress--and this was pre "I will do anything for an Oscar" era Kate).

They also had... incredible chemistry. Do people even test for chemistry before casting leads today? Very few people today, I think, even understand what good chemistry is. I keep seeing those Set It Up people (who I like separately as actors, for the record) upheld as peak chemistry. Jesus. Even people who I would say have good chemistry today... often don't have the type of chemistry Leo and Kate have in Titanic and for that matter in Revolutionary Road. You feel the affection, you feel the fondness, you feel a carnality that nevertheless doesn't betray the innocence of the characters (I'm a "Jack was a virgin" truther, and Rose was not but I doubt she'd slept with more than one other person). I'm not ashamed to say that though I have seen this movie more times than I can count--put a few drinks in me and I'll cry at the end. Again. Because you just get so invested in the romance. And of course, also because the movie has like. Popsicle babies. I mean, Titanic was a true tragedy for all involved, and I actually think the movie portrays that pretty well.

But I mean... Yeah, I think those two would've had to get to know each other better, but they would've had an HEA had he lived. I think they clicked very well personalitywise. They loved each other. They had the determination to make it work. The trauma bond alone would've been intense, lol. I also am of the mind that she dies in the end and the final scene is the afterlife, and like.... I'm not saying she didn't love the father of her children... But did she love him AS MUCH? I don't know. Sorry to that man.

But yeah, I agree with you. Sometimes watching it makes me feel sad in a different way, because I feel like the time for movies like that... Truly epic movies where everything looks so tangible and there isn't a ridiculous IP attached and the story is intense and emotionally authentic and makes you feel bad (in a good way) sometimes... It's probably not over forever, but it definitely ain't happening at the moment and I don't see it coming back super soon.

Also, movies where the leads smashing faces actually sell me on their characters wanting to smash faces. Look at this deleted scene (which, yes it was deleted, but I firmly believe that was less because of the intensity and more because Jack was.... not supposed to be that good at kissing, hashtag Jack was a virgin, hashtag this is my door debate). Jesus. When was the last time we saw kissing like that in a movie that wasn't explicitly meant to be erotic~? People didn't give a shit about their teenagers watching Rose strip naked in the movie theater. (Fun fact: pretty sure Titanic is the first movie I saw with nudity? I was six, my parents were watching it at home, my dad was like "Maybe we shouldn't let her see this part" and my mom went "They're just breasts, she'll have the one day" and by God she was correct.)

[blue-is-a-sapphic-color]

For the dreblr ask game 5, 20, 23, 24?

Hellooo thank you for the ask <3

5. What do you think is the most character-defining c!Dream scene?

I'm going to be more general than a single scene, mostly because my analyst days are long behind me. I'd say c!Dream throughout the daedalus arc.

A little late in the timeline and there are probably way better and obvious choices (maybe the revival book montage) but I'll stick with this one.

I think these scenes are the closest we ever were to a c!Dream pov. My mental recollection of these scenes sometimes has Dream looking at Sam in Minecraft instead of the other way around. They are very private moments between c!Dream and c!Sam without the extreme power imbalance that other scenes with them had.

We got the reveal that c!Dream wanted to sleep in the prison cell even after he escaped. We got c!Dream free but freshly out of hell, hiding things from c!Sam, keeping The Plan and c!Punz safe but letting some things slip, revealing some things because it felt good to make c!Sam see how wrong he was about him.

We saw c!Dream kill c!Sam but ultimately, let him go. We saw c!Dream let c!Sam leave.

20. What are some of your favourite pieces of c!Dream analysis?

Oh my, so many. From the OG analyses from @ruby-whistler, to the amazing meta from @simplepotatofarmer. And of course, some of the awesome posts from the loreheads™.

But I'll link two posts that I think never really got the love/discussion about them/their content that they deserved:

c!punz's motivators by @merrinpippy

how c!dream lies by @rutadales

23. To what extent are you a c!Dream apologist?

If we are talking Seriously™, all the things he did to c!Tommy and others are unforgivable, and the stunt he pulled with the boomers is straight out of a horror movie. Any good intentions he has will always be stained black by his completely fucked up morality.

If we're not talking Seriously™, then he suffered a thousand times more than Jesus. He quite literally never did anything without a logical or justifiable reason, and all the crimes he's accused of are greatly exaggerated for the purpose of dehumanizing him and using him as a scapegoat for everything wrong with the server and all its other members.

I think he should be loved like he deserves by like half of the server At Least, starting with c!Sam in this essay I will-

No because I'm serious, c!Sam is just a mentally ill puppycat (he has ocd) who placed his loyalty on the server when he shouldn't have, and just has to learn he can let himself love c!Dream like he's fighting tooth and nail not to!!!

As you can see canon and arguing about morality doesn't serve me At All and I couldn't care less if my meow meow tortures people and is Extremely Weird About, first of all why do you think they're my meow meow in the first place, second of all it's literally all in Minecraft my meow meows aren't hurting anyone irl Calm Down Everyone Let Me Have My Fun!

24. When/how did you become a c!Dream apologist?

Early 2021. The first big dream smp stream I watched was Doomsday from Techno's pov so I was not that invested in clingy duo's fate during the disk finale, I just wanted to Take It All In and enjoy the spectacle aka Dream's performance. Then, the very first prison visit got me Interested, and the subsequent c!Ranboo lore streams got me Hooked. I was big into endersmile then, but I slowly transitioned to being more focused on the prison arc as a whole as well as the prison trio.

This animation was definitely a turning point to my interest in the character. Made my brain invested in c!Dream's mental state and well-being, which means I would never again be a c!Dream casual and would from that point on be a c!Dream apologist <3

[thecynicalcinephile]

So, About Avatar: The Way of Water,

Marvel take notes, this is what CGI can do when you actually give your artists time. However, that may be one of the only good things you can say about this film.

Honestly, I don't feel like there's very much to say about this film at all. It is, at the end of the day, exactly what it says on the tin: just another Avatar film, and everything that implies.

Of course, it's an absolute visual spectacle. The CGI is absolutely impeccable, the creatures are beautiful, and the vast vistas of Pandora remain as stunning as ever. You can almost feel the brutality of the human settlements and actions.

That itself, however, is a large part of the issue. There's absolutely no subtlety whatsoever. No nuances, no deeper meanings, just a black-and-white "uwu colonialism bad" story. Now don't get me wrong, I hate colonialism, but the problem is there's just no substance to this. It's the equivalent of looking at a pretty picture while a politician gives a double-talk riddled speech about how sad it was that we were mean to Native Americans.

Now remember when I said that this was "just another Avatar film, and everything that implies"? This is what I meant by that. The first Avatar film was also ultimately hollow, hence its near lack of impact on popular culture. This is very much what I like to call a "Sins of the Father" situation, in that all the problems of the first film carried over in full force. And Avatar 1 had more than a few problems. Just as both films are hollow, both films are also ultimately exploitative when it comes to their treatment of actual Native American culture.

This is, fundamentally, a film where we go in and look at how beautiful and amazing the essentially gentrified version of the Native American lifestyle would be, make ourselves feel bad about the aforementioned colonialism, and then, through our textbook White Savior Jake Sulley, we let ourselves vicariously feel like heroes for defending the poor pretty blue people. It's turning colonialism and Native American culture into cheap feel-good candy for Americans who want to pretend they're good people without actually doing anything.

Now I'm not saying audiences went in with those intentions consciously, I know I certainly didn't, but that's definitely the itch it scratches and is almost certainly on some level what James Cameron was going for.

Oh, and on a slightly lighter note, as long as we're on the topic of White Saviors and whatnot, Jake Sulley's adopted daughter is clearly being set up as a Jesus allegory. She was a virgin birth and her connection to Eywa is stronger for some mysterious & mystical reason. Now, the issue here is that her birth mother is Sigourney Weaver's Avatar, making her arguably yet another White Savior. I can excuse one White Savior every now and then, but two in the same franchise at the same time is where I draw the line.

Ultimately, if you want some cheap fun visual spectacle, go ahead and watch this movie, I can't stop you. Just don't expect any thrilling social commentary beyond the shallowest of surface levels, and try not to get so distracted by the pretty colors that you forget how hollow the whole thing actually is.

Actually, scratch that, don't watch this movie. Just go watch Avatar 1 somewhere on streaming. It'll probably be cheaper. The above warnings still apply, but at least you won't be rewarding James Cameron quite as much.

[detectiveangel]

angel on my shoulder (1946)

the latest movie i watched following my obession with faustian posession plots had a wedding scene that made me laugh because it felt like a cornball protestant parody of the dybbuk in which the possessing spirit comes to jesus and calls off the wedding.

it gets better: the composer who score this (and many major films of this era including it's a wonderful life, mr. smith goes to washington, and shadow of a doubt), dmitri tiomkin, was a jewish ex-soviet emigre from the pale who carefully hid the fact that he used to work directly for the bolshevik government, most notably composing the music for the big 1920 3-year-anniversary-of-the-revolution public theater spectacle the storming of the winter palace. crazy that a guy managed to go from that to it's a wonderful life. he must have made some pretty steep devil's bargains of his own and he was cut up about it enough to title his autobiography "please don't hate me." i definitely want to study his life in fine detail once i'm free of my current academic obligations...

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

GOOD COPPOLA, BAD COPPOLA

Opening this weekend:

Megalopolis--The buzz on this long-cherished, finally realized project by Francis Ford Coppola is that people either love it or hate. But you may find that duality stifling. I kind of hated this movie, and I also kind of loved it.

It's an epic with sci-fi, fantasy and surreal elements, set in a city called "New Rome." New Rome looks exactly like New York, if New York was shot in exquisitely burnished metallic tones by the Romanian cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr., and if the men wore '90s-George Clooney haircuts. Against this backdrop, Coppola develops a story that very loosely parallels the Cataline Conspiracy of 63 B.C., as chronicled by Sallust.

Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver) still wants to take over Rome, but in this version he's a visionary architect and urban planner who wishes to create a new utopian downtown full of futuristic, even surreal amenities, made possible by a building material called Megalon. His rival Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) has, one might say, more modest ambitions for his town.

Trouble brews when Cicero's beautiful daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) goes to work for Cesar, and despite a dark secret involving Cesar's late first wife, he and Julia begin to fall in love. Into this basic conflict, rafts of supporting players and subplots and sub-subplots and digressions are interwoven, on the whole pretty chaotically.

The movie opens with a breath-quickening sequence in which Cesar stands on the ledge of the New Rome version of the Chrysler Building, leaning out, tempting gravity and stopping and starting time with the power of his will. The movie that follows seems to be Coppola trying to do the same with his art, and struggling with the awareness that time can't be suspended indefinitely.

It's potent start, but after that Megalopolis splutters and flails for quite a while, with short, scattered, over-edited scenes that fail to draw us in, or sometimes even to communicate what's happening and who's who in relation to who. A half-hour or so in, I was starting to squirm, thinking this could be a really punishing disaster. Very gradually, however, a story begins to take shape that we can invest in.

The intent seems to be satirical, but Coppola's tone comes across as too earnest, even naive, for any real bite. The writer-producer-director sees our society as in decline, and he wants to have "A GREAT DEBATE ABOUT THE FUTURE." This seems like a worthy goal; our current debates about the future seem pretty lacking in greatness, with one side regarding the future as a place where Jesus will come back and then all the elitists will be sorry, and the other side regarding the future as a place where maybe we'll get people's pronouns right.

Coppola certainly has broader, more robust, more soulful hopes for the future than these. But his utopian ideals are unspecific, beyond a sort of technocratic optimism. Cesar's "Megalon" (no relation, apparently, to Godzilla's old rival) is a conveniently vague plot device, and much of what Coppola shows us as evidence of our decline are lots of nubile young women partying too hard.

All this and more undoubtedly makes Megalopolis seem dubious, even campy. It's the kind of grand, glittering cinematic folly that we rarely see any more, because perhaps regrettably we don't have as many auteurs with the same level of delusional hubris as we did half a century ago. Yet it's hard to shake the sense that, at bottom, Coppola is right about contemporary society; that it is time for us to pull our collective heads out of our asses. And his sense of spectacle can get to you. His style here recalls everything from Orson Welles to Abel Gance to Koyaanisqatsi to Things to Come, and after he settles down, his movie begins to get exhilarating.

In no small part, undoubtedly, this is due to the uncommonly glamorous and vibrant cast. The roles are grievously underwritten--Dustin Hoffman in particular makes a fine, energetically weaselly entrance, but then his part seems unceremoniously truncated. But these actors inhabit their pageant figure roles and flesh them out with their own personalities.

Driver is excellent, again showing his ability to be eccentric and vulnerable while retaining the commanding presence of a leading man, and Esposito's pensive, wary eyes make a perfect, puny-spirited contrast to Driver's virility. Emmanuel is able to keep Julia from becoming too much of an idealized love object despite Coppola's gauzy presentation of her.

Shia LaBeouf has a juicy turn as Cesar's cousin and enemy Clodio, and Laurence Fishburne is a reassuring presence as Cesar's chauffeur, who also serves as the movie's Greek Chorus narrator. As Cesar's rich uncle Crassus, Jon Voight, despite his real-life political leanings, gives what seems like a gleeful parody of a certain recent president from the Big Apple, and it's fun to see veterans like Balthazar Getty, James Remar, Jason Schwartman, D.B. Sweeney and even Talia Shire among the supporting players.

It's possible that the strongest performance in the movie, however, is that of Aubrey Plaza, in the role of Wow Platinum, a TV financial reporter who has snaked her way into the lives of both Cesar and Crassus. Plaza isn't subtle as the lewd, scheming Wow, and from the beginning the character refuses to get buried by Coppola's grandiose conceptions. Every time she gets up to some juicy mischief, the audience comes happily to life.