#just watched Tár

[soupexpertt]

Cate Blanchett made me gay and then Tilda Swinton made me even gayer

[deramin2]

I don't know how to really express this except to come across as a "kids these days" scold, but so much of the criticism of queerness in Good Omens would simply not be a thing if kids these days watched more 20th century queer media. Or more complex indie queer media in general.

People seem to want a show that's like the straight stories they grew up with but gay. Or the gay fanfiction they grew up with. But that's not really the tradition it's coming from. First off the novel was released in 1990. Queer film classics of the time are Dead Poet's Society (1989) and Torch Song Trilogy (1988). The TV miniseries Tales of the City (1993) wasn't made until 3 years later and it was so far out there it never had a huge audience. Philadelphia (1993) is also 3 years out and was basically the first big studio queer film. The first fluffy queer Hallmark-style romcom wasn't until Big Eden in 2000, a full 10 years after publication.

Queer stories from the time it was written were about complex and often fraught relationships between people who the world was trying to force apart. There is an incredibly strong tradition in queer films of relationships with no guarantees they will work out both in the face of their personal baggage and the weight of the world. Take a film like Torch Song Trilogy that's about the two great loves of Arnold Beckoff's life over 9 years and how homophobia shapes them. Both externally (especially Allen) and internally like Ed struggling with his bisexuality and being terrified of being publicly out. Written and starred in by Harvey Fierstein, who identified as a gay man at the time and only came out as nonbinary last year.

The Boys In The Band (1968 play, filmed 1970 and 2020) was a monumental moment in Broadway history where finally there was a play about gay men in their own words where no one died and very strongly showed that homosexuality doesn't make people miserable but homophobia sure does. But that homophobia also throws their personal lives into constant turmoil and none of them are in happy relationships, although Hank and Larry are devoted to each other in their own fucked up way.

"Relationships are complicated and hard to make work and sometimes a struggle against the odds" is an aesthetic of classic queer film making. Partly it was influenced by the Hays Code (although independent films were not bound to it), partly influenced by the rampant queerphobia in society at the time that was inescapable. But it's also an aesthetic choice to resist the banal and unrealistic relationship depictions of straight media. There are actual stakes to the relationship. Queer people were actively resisting a world that said "Romance is seeing someone across the room and instantly falling in love with each other and little conflicts happen along the way but ultimately they're destined to be together and everything is happily ever after." Recall that "stalking as romance" was a completely inescapable trope in 1980s straight romance films, and every goddamn movie was being turned into a romance film.

So queer people in film and television when they can make what they please have a long tradition of saying instead "People don't always realize the feelings they've developed for a queer partner right away. They may have reasons for denying those feelings that are both a reflection of the cruelty in society and of their own insecurities. People struggle with where they belong and their relationships reflect that. Loving someone doesn't mean they don't also drive you crazy and you might fight with them constantly. But that doesn't negate the love or that feeling that even if things aren't okay, they're better with that person around. But maybe that person can't stay around. The world may be against you. And also maybe you don't just want that one person in your life. Soulmates is a very flawed model. Sometimes the strongest love is a struggle with yourself and the world and your person. You have to overcome yourself first. Happily ever after is a lie. You may be happy for a while, and hopefully for a long while, but everything ends. And you have to be ready to love again. Also your platonic bonds are just as important and life-altering as your romantic ones. Sometimes those platonic bonds include fucking if you want them to. Real life isn't a bunch of platitudes and world-altering moments, it's daily work to better yourself and the world around you. Especially when things just fucking suck. But also remember to have fun and fuck the haters. People who don't support you can eat rocks and you should yell at them more to shut the fuck up."

That is a fundamentally different outlook on what a "good relationship depiction" looks like. Personally, I thought I hated romance movies and then I started watching queer romance movies and discovered I love them and watch them all the time. Because it turns out what I hated was relationships being shown that had nothing at all to do with reality and privileged incredibly toxic ideals. Finally there was complexity, there were stakes, and there were people who had to truly want to be together enough to fight the world for it and not because they happened to be there. There were people actually talking out their problems and looking for resolutions. (And sometimes that resolutions was "I can't fucking deal with this bullshit anymore and I'm out.") For the first time it felt real.

I'm an aroace trans gay man. Nothing about relationships or being in relationships has come easy to me, and the whole paradigm of straight patriarchal romance depictions makes absolutely no sense to me. It's completely alien. Queer romance stories actually feel human.

And that's the tradition Good Omens is coming from, even as it's being retold in 2019-2023 and hopefully beyond. Gaiman's work has always been based in that queer media paradigm. (I've been remiss and daunted and haven't read Pratchett but from what I do know his work also seems to sit more in that world view.) It's a beautiful cinematic tradition and it's baffling to me that people would resist it instead of embracing it for being honest.

And that's when I turn into a crotchety old man complaining about the youth not connecting with the history of their beautiful culture and instead begging for assimilation into a shithole allocishet media landscape that doesn't actually want them except for their money and has nothing at all interesting or valuable to say. But it's very funny (annoying) to me when people claim Good Omens is someone against queer culture when it's so thoroughly bathed in the best of queer media's storytelling traditions and what people are asking for is straight media with the serial numbers filed off. Like, stop being boring please and know literally anything about the culture the adults in the room lived through and were influenced by. The world didn't begin in 2015.

EDIT: I also want to add that in straight media arcs are linear. Traditionally in queer media arcs are cyclical. Queer media very often depicts people going around in circles relearning the same lesson over and over as they inch towards it sinking in. But every time they go through the cycle they gain just a little bit more enlightenment and slowly move towards a better place. From the comments this is an immensely important distinction. People don't actually have cathartic moments where suddenly all their past bad programming is shed and they saunter forward a new person with none of their old baggage. In reality people fall into the same patterns over and over even though they have had every opportunity to learn better. "People magically get better" is a trope of straight media that's an outright and frankly dangerous lie. Again, Good Omens follows the queer tradition not the straight one and it's depicted 6,000 years of that cycle. The world didn't end, and the wheel keeps turning, as it always has and always will. That's so fundamental to queer storytelling traditions I forgot to even mention it.

[joahnwiz27]

Yeah, I watched Tár, why are you asking?

But seriously, it’s a great movie and Cate was breathtaking as always.

[s-cullayy]

going to watch m*estro. pray for me

[violentlydefending]

riceboy sleeps fucked me UP man. fuck. legit cried like four separate times watching it i got FUCKED UP!!!!!!!!!

[teenagefeeling]

went to the library and got a shitty b horror movie, a documentary on animal agriculture, and an icelandic a24 movie. i truly am just going for every single vibe at the same time

[culmaer]

¶

[thesapphocinephile]

**Elaborate in the comments or tags**

[herbertwest]

I watched Basket Case 2 and I must say....what a movie. I'm not sure it can even be called a movie. It's pure cinéma.

[godlovesdykes]

this article is so funny alskdjlaksj

[maevesweirdart]

i’m. i’m not even sure if i should reblog this jfc

Jár

[ponett]

the discourse over the mario movie's reviews has truly been driving me insane. i've watched the takes devolve from "those snooty high brow film critics are just mad this silly mario movie isn't as intellectually stimulating as tár or [insert your idea of a High Brow Art Film here]" to "those snooty high brow film critics are mad it isn't as good as a pixar movie," as if that's an impossibly high bar to clear. this idea that film critics are up in their ivory tower hating fun and cartoons in general when all the critical reviews i've read were just like "it felt like it skimmed over letting mario and peach get to know each other at all in order to constantly jump to the next action setpiece" or "the performances are hit or miss" or "the jokes weren't that funny" or "the licensed song choices were trite." the OUTRAGE over this movie getting completely middle of the road reviews just because it's 3% short of getting a "fresh" on rotten tomatoes. the fact that people seem completely unable to accept that a movie can be mediocre but fun to watch, that critics aren't "wrong" for wanting a cartoon to have a half decent script, that people can have different opinions without it needing to be a culture war. the way box office performance is being treated as an objective measurement of quality. it's the perfect storm of brand loyalty, people taking rotten tomatoes scores too seriously, and gamers hating media critics on principle. it genuinely feels like it's getting to the point where people can't express negative or even middling opinions about the movie at all without people coming out of the woodwork to say "but it was FUN" or "it's just a kids' movie, don't take it so seriously," as if every other day of the year people aren't begging for kids' cartoons to be taken seriously and treated with respect as art. and as if this kids' movie isn't also banking on nostalgia for 40+ years of video games. the game the movie is named after is literally older than a lot of the parents taking their kids to see the movie. this shit is so inescapable that it's bordering on making me annoyed at the movie itself, even though i DO want to see it and think it looks okay! it's a nightmare

i hate the internet

[bl4nchetts-lvr]

hi! would you ever be up to writing a fic/drabble based off your lydia tar headcanons? have a great day!

yes! hope you like it.

Lydia Tár smut fic

pairing: Lydia Tar x F!Reader

warnings: smut,lesbian sex,degradation (use of the word "slut"),sub!reader,dom!lydia,usage of a strap,toxic lydia (are we even surprised)

word count: ±1015

(not proof read/ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE,SORRY IN ADVANCE)

it's 23:41..

Lydia is sitting at her desk,working per usual. her pale blue eyes looking down at the papers,her veiny hand holding the black pen which was almost empty from all of the writting.

she hears you walk into the office,your slow footsteps which come closer and closer to the blond,but doesnt bat an eye. she looked at you only when she felt your body weight on her lap.

"can't you see i'm working?" she asks with her usual cold tone of the voice,her face expressionless per usual. but,if you looked closer,you could see the slightest discomfort on the woman's face,she doesn't like being interrupted while working.

you don't say anything,as you gently put the strand of her hair behind her ear which had no piercings,but had a tiny note tattoo behind it. you smiled at her a little.

"when will you be done,honey?" you ask a question,for which you do not get an immediate answer. you're used to it. Lydia is always like this: stoic,cold (even to you) and quiet. all you hear is a slight huff.

in reality,you knew the woman wouldnt be done for a long while,but you just needed her so,so badly. last time you two had sex was.. you can't even remember.

there is something about your wife that makes you want her more and more.. maybe it's the way she sits,manspreading and leaning back on her chair,or maybe it's the way she's dressed: a white button up shirt (which is not even halfway buttoned),her casual pants which hug her waist a little too good,her rolex watch which is concidered used only by "men",the way her collarbones are visible from the open shirt,the collarbones you love to bite and kiss so much whenever you two make love.

you were snapped out of your trance,when you realized that lydia has stopped you from riding her thigh by holding your waist tightly. it made you blush,as you realized you subconsciously started riding your wife.

"not now." you hear her sharp voice.

you were still flustered and embarrassed from this,so you couldn't say much. but the way her eyes were narrowed,her wrinkles on her forehead,under the eyes and near the mouth were showing..you wanted to kiss every one of those wrinkles while she scissors yo-

"can you not look at me so intensely?" you hear her voice yet again,the voice that makes you melt whenever she praises you,or even degrades you. you love her voice. you love her and you want her very,very much.

-------------------------------------------------------

as some time passed by,your constant whinning and begging finally made lydia snap and she looked so angry,but her anger turned you on even more.

you knew she was toxic,but,red is an attractive color,is it not?

you felt yourself being pinned down onto her desk,bent over. your right leg was now on the desk,as your wife grabbed your thigh harshly (it will definitely leave a slight mark).

lydia started taking off your panties,she put your skirt up (or,if you want imagine it being pants which she took off) and startes gently running her middle and index finger through your folds,which were already wet.

"so wet already? what a slut you are,it's amusing,really." she says with slight disgust in her voice,but she loves it. Lydia loves making you so wet,because she knows only she can make you wet.

lydia then uses your natural juices as a lube to push her fingers into you. she knows you love it rough,so,lydia goes all in with one push which leads to you moaning out her name. it feeds into her god complex..knowing that you,her little wife,is getting riled up by her,you moan because of her. she continues penetrating you with her slim and long fingers,as she looks at your face: the way your eyes roll back,the sweat that is slowly coming out and dripping down your forehead.

she then took her fingers out,leaving you feeling all empty,but not for long,because she unbuttons her pants where she had her black stap-on. she then slowly puts it at your entrance and goes in,this time she actually kissed your jaw,your earlobe and whispered praises.

"the pain will go away soon,princess,just take it like a good girl you are." you hear her raspy whisper.

the next thing you feel is lydia's hands on your thighs as she slowly picks up the pace while fucking you. she enjoys the feeling of being the superior one,the way you clench on her strap,the way you moan only for her,the way only she gets to make you feel like this.

"no one will make you feel as good as i do,remember that." she says coldly,as if spitting those harsh words onto your face. but you don't care,she is right,no one will ever make you feel so good. it's always lydia and only her.

as she continues fucking your wet cunt,you can feel the orgasm building up,about to come out. you gasp,which is an indicator (for lydia) that you're close. she grabs your hair in a fist,putting your head up,so she can see every little expression on your face.

"don't you dare to stay quiet,i want to hear you moan,slut." she said.

and that's what you did,you obeyed her yet again. as you felt the knot in your lower abdomen snap,your legs shook slightly and your teary eyes rolled back. you let out a gasp,then a raspy moan,which was followed by a loud moaning out of lydia's name.

she loved it. she had a smirk on her handsome face,as she looked down at you and the way your body reacted to her movements.

After all,lydia is the only one for you,no?

————————————————————————

Hope you like it,Anon,first time writting a smut fic! i'm open to take critisism and will try to get better.

[seerofmike]

Mike's Media Medley; September and October 2024

so it turns out having 3 jobs and being a part time student means i dont wanna do anything ever so this will be kind of a lightning round in which i just state some brief thoughts and give a score on all the things i experienced for the very first time in september and october 2024.

Movies (2024 releases): Blink Twice, My Old Ass, Transformers One, Saturday Night, The Wild Robot

Movies (non-2024 releases): Rear Window (1954), In The Heat of the Night (1967), Tár (2022)

Video games: Touhou Mystia's Izakaya (2021), Cult of the Lamb (2022), Sonic x Shadow Generations, Balatro, and Mouthwashing (2024)

Blink Twice

this is zoe kravitz's directorial debut and im gonna be honest this kind of slayed. i saw some people complain about how long the build up goes but i think the build up makes the twist work even better. speaking of the twist PLEASE take the warning at the beginning of the movie very seriously.

really enjoyed it and might watch it a second time to see if i can pick up new details but i think seeing it two times will exhaust its appeal to me, i think that's like the max i can enjoy it. really good movie but it hinges on the twist.

btw the title card popping up EXTREMELY briefly during a camera flash? 10/10 no notes

77.5/100

In The Heat of the Night (1967)

i think this movie is like, Fine. definitely a solid movie with good performances. i think the cultural context it was made in elevates it and i understand how BOLD this movie would've been back in the 60s (especially when sidney poitier slaps a white man) but as far as like. police procedurals/mystery solving etc goes its not my favorite but that's not necessarily the point.

decent watch, made better with the cultural context of its time

65/100

My Old Ass

this movie was ALRIGHT and i barely remember anything about it. i didn't hate it i don't think. i didn't love it. i think only one moment made me truly laugh and i can't even remember what that moment was.

40/100 on the basis of me liking it i.e it didnt piss me off like some other movies ive watched but maybe the score should be lower because i dont remember a thing about it idk

Rear Window (1954)

i meant to watch this in theaters for its 70th anniversary but i had to work both days it was showing so i rented it from my local library. this is my first hitchcock film and i thought it was REALLY good, definitely way better than i was expecting based on plot synopsis alone but that just shows i was a fool sorry for doubting alfred hitchcock

that being said watching old movies rly makes you notice how many young women get paired up with men twice their age and its narsty and i wanted the mc to die for most of the movie. im only half kidding. didn't care so much for the personal drama side between crusty ass man and his girl tbh

incredibly good suspense. might watch it again but idk if i would like it as much on repeat viewings

80/100

Saturday Night

i couldnt understand a word anyone was saying in this movie because of weird sound mixing and how intrusive the music was especially at the beginning which feels rly uh bad considering how talky this movie is.

wish i could give it a higher score but alas i didnt hear 75% of the plot or jokes which SUCKS because I AM RACHEL SENNOTTS BIGGEST SHOOTERRRRRR

40/100

Tár (2022)

i was kinda bored by this. i got the point i just got bored. i dont rly remember much except thinking it was incredibly funny she got punished by the narrative into orchestrating video game concerts

technically very well made and cate is obviously putting her pussy into this it was just not for me.

45/100

Transformers One

now this is what im fucking talking about

i didnt think i remembered much about transformers but i watched this w my mom and the whole time we were going omg starscream omg soundwave omg i am optimus prime yassssss

choreography is fucking epic. jokes landed for me 75% of the time. but the obvious highlights are the character development and backstories for optimus and megatron. this movie was epic and you should watch it for free on your favorite pirate website because fuck paramount lives and SHOUT OUT TO BRIAN TYREE HENRY OF LEMON FAME WHO HASNT MISSED YET IM GONNA WATCH ATLANTA ONE DAY KING I PROMISE

85/100

The Wild Robot

gorgeous movie. lupita fucking killed it. cried at the end. dont think i would rewatch it much but i greatly enjoyed it. no notes go watch it

85/100

viddy games

Balatro (2024)

girl help

Cult of the Lamb (2022)

ADORABLE art style, lots of mechanics but not necessarily very in depth. the perks just feel kinda eh but i love the aesthetic and the music. also usually not big on things with religious themes but i let this one slide cuz its a cult doing. bad cult things LOL. also i love my little guys

Mouthwashing (2024)

theres literally so much i want to say about mouthwashing but what can i say that hasnt been said already...ill save it for my end of the year review because it is DEFINITELY making my top 7 unless these final 6ish weeks of the year are full of fucking bangers

Sonic x Shadow Generations (2024)

ok so i never played the og sonic generations much, i rented it on redbox once and my brother rented batman arkham city at the same time and we had one xbox so i barely played that thing before we had to return it becuz his stupid ass hogged it all weekend and im not bitter about this still at ALLLLLLLL but god i fucking love shadow the hedgehog so much hes truly the little guy ever

Touhou Mystia's Izayaka (2022)

so i haven't sunk a WHOLE lot of hours into this game because i keep getting distracted by other things but i think its VERY cute and chill and pretty fun and i might be tempted into the touhou project dark side maybe

[shesnake]

hello deah! I recently watched Tar and didn't really like it, what are your thoughts on it? i really appreciate ur opinion

hope u are well!

hello I hope you're doing well too ♥️ I hated tár and I'm actually writing up a big thing about Why so I won't say anything just now. in the mean time I do speak on it briefly in the most recent gayv club episode + I LOVE this review from Another Gaze which articulates a lot of my dislike perfectly:

[supercalifragipopculturevomit]

A Visit To The Last DVD Store While packing for a trip to Auckland, I saw that one of the latest episodes of Conan Needs a Friend podcast was with a caller working in ‘The Last DVD Store’.

The aforementioned store is Alice in Videoland and it's based in Christchurch, where I was staying with relatives for a month. So I HAD TO give it a listen and, eventually, a visit. Luckily, I had friends in town who were down to accompany me on this admittedly geeky excursion.

Didn’t meet the caller, James, but we did get to talk to one of his co-workers who told us that we—at least to his knowledge—are the first people to visit the store because of the podcast. He also had interesting news to share…

Conan recently dropped by himself as part of his HBO travel show, Conan Must Go. That’s James with him on a framed photo that sits proudly on the store’s wall. It’s for the second season, which hasn’t aired yet—so I guess that’s a spoiler?

Team Coco connection aside, as a film geek who grew up in the era of video rentals, but had no access to a shop with a selection this massive, I was truly in a wonderland. I could have spent my entire day there.

I mean, this is just a small section of the store but it already offers an array of standout films: The Holdovers, Anatomy of a Fall, Perfect Days, Civil War, Barbie, Past Lives, Furiosa, Challengers, Pearl, May December, Decision to Leave, Tár, Monkey Man, Dune, Monster, and The Banshees of Inisherin.

The international section was also impressive. Scanned it for Daniel Brühl films and was not disappointed.

It also has an accompanying theatre. I didn't get to watch a movie there, but I did catch the 70th anniversary screening of Seven Samurai in Lumière Cinema. I've been meaning to check out the works of Akira Kurosawa for a while now and to also watch a movie in a boutique cinema so I figured - why not hit two birds with one stone? Never mind that it was 3.5 hour black and white Japanese movie from the 1950s and that I woke up at an ungodly hour that day to catch a 6AM flight back to Christchurch. They served my coffee in a ceramic mug and all the seats had a tray attached—I was chuffed.

Also, not me stifling a squeal in an art gallery when I saw Goodbye, Lenin! in the Canterbury Film Society brochure... and the disappointment when I realized the month it was scheduled for had already passed.

Oh well, you can't have it all. Did get to explore Hobbiton as well—because New Zealand—but perhaps I'll save that post for a different time.