#like in that scene early on where alex and henry are doing a bunch of interviews back to back

[mothmanmalewife]

ok thoughts on the rwrb movie real quick even tho no one asked:

it's been a hot minute since I read the book, but the movie kept a lot of the stuff I remember loving about the book

I will definitely be rereading the book in the coming weeks

was it just me or were the visuals like. weirdly off? especially in the first 45 minutes or so? I don't know how to describe it but the lighting felt like a stock photo and picking characters out of a crowd was like a Where's Waldo

in spite of my complaints the visuals did stop bugging me around halfway through the film. towards the end there were some pretty nice shots (I'm not really a film guy tho, my analysis of shot composition is not deep)

some of the character introductions were. bad. I didn't like them. president Clairemont stands out as being exceptionally stilted in her first scene (although she did feel more like a person as the story progressed)

[meraki-yao]

RWRB Script: Meraki Thoughts and Notes, ACT II

Part 1

Here we go with the rest of the movie!

Highlight:

Red: Deleted Scenes

Yellow: Different from the movie

Blue: Fun/Interesting Movement Descriptions

Green: Extra Information of character/set

Three deleted scenes! Straight out the gate!

According to the people who went to the early screening, I think either 66 or 67 is a screen of Ellen's female staffers greeting her

One of these deleted montages was Alex on Zoom in a suit and his undies

"Something Wonderful from Henry" I wanna cry

"Trying to chill his excitement" to "going at each other" yeah dude you have no chill when it comes to your man

This is different: In the movie we don't get this; Alex blinks away and gradually sits up, and this is super minor but he just went "wake up, shit shit shit"

So these two lines aren't in the final product. Kinda glad, cause Alex my dear, there is nothing more glaringly obvious that someone is here than you saying "no one is here" before Zahra actually does anything

The entire description of Henry in the closet lmfao: "crimson with embarrassment", "But he is a prince after all"

This is the word/description Sarah was talking about during panels

"barely lucid" yup

What the fuck could have been deleted here? Also it's 87A?? A???

Two more??? What the fuck???

We lost Ellen kissing Alex's temple :(

This line was not in the movie, but confirmation that Oscar was told before the Texas vacation

"Young and tanned and free" my heart-

Another one

Okay I get that when you do a montage you get a bunch of footage and then pick and choose the ones that suit the final product the most but COME ON FOUR??? FOUR???

Confirmation that 1, Henry was wearing Alex's clothes in the bar scene, 2, He was drunk

"He looks like a true Texan" does he? But "completely charmed" awww

"Tiny stage" ... I mean yeah

"his most royal Freddie Mercury" lmfao bet Nick had fun with that

"giving it his all, having the time of his life", "smiles deliriously" 🥹

"with eyes that can only be described as love" Taylor took that line and wrote it into his eyes

One of these is the fireside "Prince with his heart on the outside" monologue

What the fuck is the other one, but which one is it

"He knows it will always matter" Henry :(

"tightens into a grimace of emotional pain" "as if all the joy is draining from his body"

"the faint tendrils of daylight still visible"

so in the movie we just hear one "Henry" and not the rest of the line, kinda prefer it that way

Now this is weird: there's supposed to be a deleted scene of Henry lying on the bed and Alex checking on him, kissing his forehead where 99 is, but we don't have that: then 101 is deleted scene after Henry already left the house?

"Of course he does" 😭

Again, I understand how montages are designed, filmed and edited, but THREE? THREE

I... don't really have words. It speaks for itself.

"stopping at his favourites", "Henry is more peaceful and contented than we've ever seen him", "Alex watches him as if seeing him really for the first time" I wrote that in one fic lmfao

Again the "look that can only be described as love"

"The glowing statues surround and protect them"

"as if trying not to break the spell"

Henry was supposed to stand in place?

Ok this was meant for a shorter Alex, I fucking wonder if they cast TZP, look at the boy's height and went "welp"

"Their hope filling this vast and holy space" I CRY

WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK, I KNOW THE KENSINGTON BREAKFAST IS HERE BUT WHAT THE FUCK, WHY ARE THERE THIS MANY

So in the movie we got Henry trying not to cry, instead of actually crying. Don't really know which one hurts more

"His world imploding" oh my love...

In the movie it was "I need to call him"

We were robbed of a Henry Bea moment :(

Again with the deleted montages!!!

Alex's inner voice lmao

another deleted montage, but this is right before the speech? What would it be???

What a description of Pip lmao

Love the (lecturing) in brackets

Awwwww 🥹

Hang on I reached my limit again fuck

[anincompletelist]

happy smutsgiving! :D

had no idea this was a thing but figured I'd share here in the final stretch of the day kjshdkjhs. as the title suggests, this is NSFW! 18+ only please.

here's a scene from hitman au! I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving! <3

+

“Your fucking mouth, sweetheart,” Alex grunts, his head tossed backward into the wall, “should be illegal. How much time do you think we have before someone comes looking for you?” 

“Mm, probably, like, half an hour?” Henry mumbles where Alex’s pulse is still caught between his teeth. “Maybe less if they finish up dinner early.” 

“Gonna have to make this quick then, hm?” 

Quick? In the past when Henry’d managed to get this far with someone they’d frantically gotten each other off with their hands and then promptly redressed and headed for the door before Henry could even get his clothes back on properly. All of those times had taken ten minutes at the very most. It’s always borrowed time, and never truthfully something Henry wants to take his time with. 

But Alex seems persistent in his quest to keep Henry both literally and figuratively on his toes, always hanging on every syrupy, sprawling syllable like some kind of fixation, the likes of which Henry typically tries valiantly to avoid. 

He eases back from Alex’s neck once he’s certain he’s left behind a sufficient bruise, a little shocked at his own eagerness. His fingers loosen where they’ve bunched up the material of Alex’s suit jacket at his shoulders, the reminder that he has no right to hold so tightly heavy in his temples as the shame works it’s way up his chest and onto his cheeks with a blush. 

Alex is blissfully ignorant of the sentiment though, and he tugs Henry closer to him with firm fingers and a seeking mouth, all muttered expletives and heat and the jagged cut of his teeth tugging at Henry’s lower lip.  The bite of pain keeps him present, keeps him steady, and Henry clings to it, gasps into Alex’s mouth when he squeezes roughly over the curve of Henry’s hips underneath his shirt until there isn’t a stitch of space left between them. 

It’s exhilarating to be wanted so openly, even if they are hidden away in an off-limits gallery away from prying eyes. Alex kisses him like he might die if he doesn’t, and that’s- Henry’s only ever been kissed indifferently, if he was even kissed at all. Alex’s hands keep gripping and tugging at different parts of Henry’s body like he can’t decide which part he wants to explore first, and Henry hates himself for hoping that it’ll take far more than just tonight to finish the expedition. 

Alex slides his shoulders down the wall a few inches and the motion juts his hips forward, one of his thighs, thick and muscular, settling in the space between Henry’s legs. Though Henry usually prefers the control, he’s helpless to stop the way his knees threaten to give out at the pressure of Alex’s own hips pressing firmly into his. 

He keens and topples forward, his nose glued to the space just behind Alex’s ear, and Alex catches him easily with a hand around his waist, slowly urging him back and forth. He presses a wet kiss to the part of Henry’s cheek that he can reach, then smooths a dangerous grin to the same spot. 

“Yeah? S’that feel good?” he coos, his voice deceivingly sweet before it dips into a filthy drawl, his teeth bared and fingers digging into flesh. “Come on, baby, ride me. That’s it.” 

The heat coils and simmers in his belly, his hands back to clutching fistfuls of Alex’s shirt as he abandons his resolution to remain unaffected. It doesn’t matter that they’re practically strangers, that Alex - Ander? - doesn’t seem to exist in any of the records or on any of the guest lists. Henry knows it’s the kind of thing he should probably bring up to the security staff, that he should leave well enough alone and stay away from Alex even if he is frustratingly alluring and by far the most beautiful man Henry’s ever seen. It’s risky and it’s dangerous and it’s stupid and Henry knows it. 

And yet. 

He feels mindless as he grinds forward into Alex’s hip and then back down onto his thigh, the pressure so dizzying that he has to keep his eyes shut, his mouth open against Alex’s shoulder, a bit of drool gathered on the material. Henry can’t remember the last time he’s ever felt so out of control, but it isn’t as terrifying of an idea as it always used to be with the others

Not when Alex is equally as affected, the outline of his cock straining stiffly against the bulge at the front of Henry’s own trousers, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of his neck. Henry’s chin tilts and his lips part on instinct, gathering the salt onto his tongue with a quiet moan. 

“Fuck,” Alex hisses, nudging Henry with his head until he can look him in the eye, pushing the hair back from his forehead with his hand. “You’re gorgeous, you know that? You think you can get off like this?” 

“Probably,” Henry admits, his voice trembling. “It’s- it’s been a while. For me.” 

“Baby. That’s so fucking hot.” 

His hips stutter on Alex’s thigh, a crease forming between his brows. “It is?” 

“Fuck yeah, it is,” Alex growls, fingers digging into the flesh at his waist and urging him forward, back into a bruising rhythm as he breathes directly over the shell of Henry’s ear. “Knowing you think I’m worthy of getting to have you like this? Thinking about finally getting you all to myself after dancing around each other for months? Knowing I’m the one that gets to take you apart with my lips? With my hands? With my teeth?” Henry gasps, gripping frantically at Alex’s shoulders as he sucks a reciprocative bruise into the side of his jaw, the sharp line of his teeth marring his pale skin and drawing the blood to the surface. “Picturing you so desperate for me that you had to pull me away from the party and abandon your princely obligations just so you could have your fix?” A breathless chuckle lands somewhere against Henry’s collarbone, condescending pleasure mixing with the sweetest hint of pain. “S’a fuckin’ dream, sweetheart.” 

“Alex,” Henry groans a bit too loudly in the quietness of the room, shuddering at the lofty implications of his words, but Alex doesn’t shush him. 

What would they say? Henry wonders deliriously. How scandalized would people be to see the Prince of England’s Hearts with his own stuck in the confines of his throat, desperate to be handed on a silver platter to the man with his hands underneath the waist band of Henry’s trousers, the other wrapped around his neck? To see the picture of prim propriety panting and debauched, rutting mindlessly, desperately, on the brink of losing his meticulous control? Handing it over willingly?

“Yeah, baby. Say my fuckin’ name.” 

“Close,” Henry chokes. 

“Yeah? You gonna come for me?” Alex grins again, his eyes half-lidded as they roam lazily over Henry’s face, the antithesis of the punishingly quick, sharp snaps of his hips. “Wanna hear you, Henry.” 

“Yes,” he gasps, and Alex leans forward to fill in the gap between his lips with his own once more. 

It’s too much and too fast but he’s loath to stop it now, and suddenly he’s melting into molten heat headfirst, Alex’s heady eyes blazing and fierce, his grip tight and his rhythm unrelenting as it crashes over Henry in waves. He shivers and bucks and falls forward again, shaking in Alex’s arms as his eyes dip backward and flutter closed against the rush of heat. 

The world is still a little hazy around the edges when he registers Alex reaching down between them to undo the front of his trousers and get a hand around himself, pausing to lick a stripe up the center of his palm before he’s stripping himself in hurried strokes, flicking his wrist and rubbing a thumb over his slit, and Henry can see how much he’s leaking each time the flushed head of his cock fits through the top of his clenched fist. If he weren’t so lax-limbed and shaky, Henry would drop to his knees right this moment. 

He’s not as good at talking as Alex evidently is, but he’s always been intuitive with his body, with his lovers, though he’s not usually given the chance to explore or appreciate that. But Alex is here, right in front of him, gorgeous and desperate and close, and Henry can’t help the way he brings a trembling hand forward to grip at the newly exposed skin at Alex’s hip that’d been covered by his pants only moments before, only inches away from where he’s aching and swollen, and Henry curves a thumb into the jut of bone and soft flesh, and presses. 

“Ah, ah, fuck, Henry-” Alex comes with a stutter and a loud groan, clinging to Henry like a vice as he chases the feeling and then draws away, like it’s both too much and just on the precipice of too much. Henry understands. 

He strokes a hand down the back of Alex’s head until he calms, pulling back enough to look Henry in the eye and press their mouths together, softer than he had earlier. When he moves to clean them up Henry pushes him back against the wall with a gentle hand to his shoulder, ignoring Alex’s cocked brow as he reaches down on autopilot. 

With a soft sigh, Henry indulges himself in yet another fantasy he’s never been able to act on. He grips Alex’s dirty wrist from between them and drags it up to his mouth, eyes shut as he curls Alex’s fingers over his tongue and cleans each of them thoroughly, from his fingertips to his knuckles and back again, warm flesh and piquant release soothing his frayed senses. 

“Holy fucking shit,” Alex chokes, the breath knocked out of his chest. “You’re fucking perfect.” 

Henry hums and continues, pulling off of his fingers to drag his tongue across the veins and tendons running through the back of Alex’s hand that lead down to his wrist. He doesn’t stop until there’s no trace of Alex left on him, then eases a soft kiss to the center of his palm, leaning into it when Alex uses the same one to grip his cheek and pull him forward again. 

“Thank you,” Henry murmurs against his mouth, his gratitude eagerly accepted and returned by swollen, salacious lips.

+

[ariainstars]

Red, White and Royal Blue: A Movie Like an English Waltz with a Kick

I had practically given up on watching stories about same-sex relationships some time ago; for a while, I thought the reason for my growing indifference was that not belonging to the LGBT+ community, I am not directly involved. It took me a while to realize that I was simply sick of watching stories with sad endings, good as they may be otherwise.

Same-sex love stories in my experience very often have a tragic ending, with the possible exception of the Netflix show Heartstopper, which is nice and interesting to watch without being overdramatic. Also, there were Beautiful Thing and Maurice, two enjoyable movies that most viewers today probably hardly remember. Despite their positive ending they are serious in tone however, not exactly fun.

Red, White and Royal Blue burst into my world catching me by surprise and all but sweeping me off my feet; I immediately fell in love with the movie and am fully on page with anyone who is already asking for a sequel.

First off, I must say that this is one of the few cases where I found the movie to be better than the novel. I read it after having watched the movie, but I could not bring myself to like the characters.

The novel is told from Alex’ point of view, so we never get to know Henry’s; and I got the impression of following a bunch of rich kids without regular lives and routines having fun being noisy and obnoxious when they’re not busy with wanting to save the world, all of them equipped with their personal therapists and consuming this or another substance. I found it heartbreaking that Henry had been in love with Alex for a long time, never hoping that his feelings could be requited; and it did not shed a good light on Alex that for a long time, he did not realize that being intimate with Henry felt so good because he was with someone who actually cared for him.

The tone and story development of the movie is different and, in my opinion, superior. These Alex and Henry are about ten years older than in the novel: the actors are neither groomed to look younger nor do they act like they were. These are two adults, grown men who know what they’re doing; the feelings between them deepen very quickly (in the book, for Alex at the beginning it seems to be nothing more than a cross between a diversion and a challenge); and they soon take responsibility for each other and their families respectively political surroundings.

Nothing shows this more than the airport scene where they actually exchange ring and key, contrarily to the book where Alex keeps the ring together with the key around his neck. His official speech after their forced coming-out was much more straightforward and convincing than in the book, and he had written it himself, not his sister; also early in the movie, the Texas campaign is his very own initiative, contrarily to the novel where his mother sets him up to do it. All of these are narrative choices which in my opinion make the story much more enticing and the characters more relatable.

The movie Red, White and Royal Blue lives largely from the chemistry between the two protagonists; there is playful banter between them and lots of fun scenes and quips that I looked for in the novel in vain. (Except for a few jokes at Philips’ expense, pitifully.) Even in their most intimate moments, there always seems to be a twinkle in their eyes; the teasing begins when they’re not even friends yet. Their happiness is joyful and carefree, not founded on the intensity of feelings of couples who know they will be torn apart. The movie’s tone is a perfect balance: funny without being silly; serious without being admonishing; romantic without being sappy.

Some well-known clichés obviously are all there: having to talk to one another due to being locked in a room, a first kiss while both are tipsy, the lover hiding in the closet, the intolerant parent (grandparent in this case), the understanding sister… Nevertheless, the story is fresh, well-paced and never boring.

In my personal view, this movie will be remembered as marking a break in the storytelling of same-sex relationships: light-footed, entertaining and touching. While the book is a self-indulgent fanfiction, the movie is in its tone, set-up and storyline for all intents and purposes a fairy tale, except that instead of a princess we have a prince.

One of the things I loved most was that in the end, the couple does not reunite in a castle or a similar luxurious environment, but that for their happy ending they leave their wealth behind and retire to a simple, comfortable home and an everyday life.

I had a smile on my face almost the entire time while watching this movie. And I hope there will be many more light-hearted movies and novels centered on same-sex relationships following this, instead of the usual heart-wrenching dramas. It’s high time.

[rockyroadkylers]

Weekend WIP game

Rules: List your WIPs below (if you only write one fic at a time, feel free to include future WIPs/ideas!) then answer the following questions. Then, tag as many people as you have WIPs (or more).

Thank you @happiness-of-the-pursuit for tagging me! (technically you tagged my main, @mainstreamelectricalparade, but this is my RWRB blog, so I'm responding here, LOL)

1. WIP List:

(bolding stuff I'm actively working on, since now that I've finished my current project, most of these are still in the very early stages 😂)

It's Nice to Have a Friend sequel (canon-divergent childhood friends-to-lovers AU)

INTHAF tabloid/social media companion fic

Actor AU enemies-to-friends-to-lovers (child actor Alex, non-actor Henry, technically)

the Bond AU (actually also an actor AU where Henry has the opportunity to follow in his father's footsteps and be the next generation's James Bond... but so does Alex 👀)

Tangled AU (Henry is Rapunzel, Alex is Flynn, you can guess where that's going)

I technically have other WIPs, but they're from a different fandom and thinking about them doesn't really spark joy right now, so I'm not going to include them here 😅

2. Which of your WIPs is currently the longest?

Um... I think the child actor Alex outline is currently longer than any of the others, and I have the opening scene written for it, so I'll say that one 😂

3. Which WIP do you expect will end up the longest?

Ooh... at this stage, it's so hard to tell! It could honestly be any of them, I haven't even started working on some of them properly, yet, so I have no idea if they'll be oneshots or fully-fledged longfics. Currently, my best guess would be the sequel for the childhood friends AU, but... that could change.

4. Which WIP is your favourite to write/the most enjoyable to write? Why?

I wouldn't say I have a favorite, yet... I've done the most outlining for the child actor Alex AU, just because we had a full-on conversation about it in the server, so a lot of the hard work was done for me 😂 I'm joking, obviously, I still have a lot of work to do, but the server gave me some great ideas, so I'm very excited about that fic. A close second is the childhood friends sequel, though, because that AU is my baby <3

5. Which WIP do you find the most intimidating to write? Why?

Hmm... A little nervous about the Tangled AU, maybe? I'm not sure why, I just find fics based on movies to be difficult, because I want to stay true to the story, but also make put my own spin on it and make it just different enough that it's not, like, an exact replica. I also have to find ways to work around the scenes with singing and dancing in them 😂 but that will be the easy part, tbh.

6. Which WIP do you experience the most self-doubt about. Why?

Maybe the childhood friends AU tabloid/social media fic? I've never really done anything like it before. I have to come up with a whole bunch of headlines, write excerpts of news articles, make social media posts, and tie them all together neatly in a cohesive timeline that ties into the original fic. I've maybe bitten off more than I can chew, but there's no pressure to get anything posted before I'm ready! I think people are more excited for the sequel, anyway 🤭

7. Which of your WIPs will you seek out a beta/sensitivity reader for? Why?

Umm... I might not get a full-on beta, but the sequel for the childhood friends AU isn't just going to be about Alex and Henry's budding romantic relationship, it's also going to be continuing to deal with topics such as the aftermath of Arthur's death, Bea's experience with rehab, Henry starting therapy, and so on, so I'll probably ask some friends from the server to check some stuff over if there's anything I'm not sure about.

8. Have any of your WIPs been struck by the curse of writer's block?

Technically, no, because I've barely gotten started on any of them 😂

9. Which WIP has your favourite OC? Tell us about them?

None of my WIPs have OCs, yet (though I imagine that will change once I really get into the actual writing), but my fully-posted fic, It's Nice to Have a Friend, has two: Robert, Catherine's equerry, and Judy, the head cook at Kensington Palace. I love them both, tbh, a mother could never choose a favorite child 😊

10. Which WIP is the sexiest?

lmao, I don't write sexy stuff 😂 The sexiest thing I've ever written is a brief moment in the epilogue of It's Nice to Have a Friend, where I blink-and-you-miss-it implied that Alex and Henry had sex after getting engaged 😂

11. Which WIP is the angstiest?

That's probably gonna be the sequel 😅 I'm gonna make it as fluffy as I can, but it's gonna be an immediate continuation following chapter 10 of It's Nice to Have a Friend, which means long distance. Plus, like I said in question 7, Henry's still got his grief and Bea's recovery to work through, so it's not going to be the smoothest ride.

12. Which WIP has the best characterisation (in your humble opinion)?

There's no way not to make this sound like a humble brag but I've gotten a lot of comments on It's Nice to Have a Friend that have told me my characterizations are really good, so assuming I'm consistent in the sequel, that will probably remain true there, as well. Although, the two enemies to lovers AUs I have... I don't have any interactions between the boys written down for either of those fics, yet, but that's pretty on-brand for them 😂

13. Which WIP has the best scene setting (in your humble opinion)?

Uhhh... not entirely sure what this means 😅 Like, overall universe setting, or like a specific scene? I think either way I'm gonna have to go with the childhood friends AU, because I'm just completely in love with it. I can't help it, that AU is my baby 😂 Although I am getting super into the child actor Alex AU, as well!!!

14. Which WIP have you worked the hardest on?

DEFINITELY the childhood friends AU! I spent five weeks writing the original fic, and I've been thinking about a sequel for at least two. I only started actually outlining it after I finished writing the first one, but there's no way I can say I've worked harder on anything else, even though the original fic and the sequel are technically two separate fics.

15. Which WIP do you have the highest expectations for? Why?

The sequel 😂 I can't help it, It's Nice to Have a Friend is the fic that made me fall back in love with writing, and I'm positive that the sequel will continue that legacy. Although I'm feeling really good about the way the child actor Alex AU is turning out, as well!

16. Do you dream about any of your WIPs?

Uh... maybe? Except, I couldn't really tell if it was just a vague, generic Alex and Henry dream, or if I was actually dreaming about them in the childhood friends 'verse.....

17. Do any of your WIPs have particular complexities that your other fics don't?

Well, yeah, I mean, before I started writing for RWRB, I was almost exclusively a platonic fluff writer in the Iron Dad fandom (just check my Ao3 page 😂), so almost everything more complex than a toddler with an ear infection adds a new challenge for me, but I'm loving it, so far.

18. Which WIP is the funniest or has the most humour?

Uh... I'll get back to you on that when I actually have stuff written for any of them 😂 the Tangled AU will probably be pretty funny, though.

19. Do any of your WIPs contain outside POVs or a deep dive on a character other than the main ship? How are you finding that process?

Yeah! The child actor Alex AU will actually have a lot of Arthur's POV, because in that fic he kind of takes Alex under his wing, both as an acting mentor and as a sort of father figure when Alex needs someone to turn to in the wake of his parents' divorce, so you'll get to see a lot of Arthur's thoughts and feelings as Alex and Henry get to know each other.

20. Tell us one thing we don't know about one or more of your WIPs.

Um... one of the boys is gonna be a Bond Girl, and I'm not telling you which one.

A tag per WIP - I'm still relatively new to this fandom, so I don't know a ton of people's URLs yet, but I'll do my best!

@affectionatelyrs, @inexplicablymine, @read-and-write-, and um... I genuinely don't know anyone's URLs, so I'll just leave it open 😂 if you see this somehow and you're like, "hey, Ky, why didn't you tag ME?" I tagged you in my heart, I just don't know where to find you 😭

[merlins-tits]

Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Characters: Alex Claremont-Diaz, Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Nora Holleran, Percy “Pez” Okonjo, June Claremont-Diaz, Shaan Srivastava
Additional Tags: Boys In Love, minor pez/june, past nora/alex, henry is jealous, Alex is stupid, POV Henry
Summary: The New Year’s Eve party but from Henry’s point of view. UM so I might have wrote the one New Year’s Eve party scene from Henry’s point of view because I couldn’t get it out of my head. The link is there but I’ll also just post it here, too. This is my first writing piece ever. Also I used most of the same dialogue from the actual scene but all credit goes to the wonderful Casey McQustion. These are their characters and they have all rights! A strong, deep bass rumbled from the speakers as Henry stumbled through the crowd searching for Alex. It had gotten to the point where he was on the verge of giving up when he spotted him. Alex was with two girls: Nora at his back with her arms wrapped around a small girl who looked vaguely familiar. Alex, though, had his head thrown back, laughing like someone had just told him the world’s best joke, his whole body alive with movement. It was intoxicating enough that Henry took a deep breath before sidling up next to him. He looked around to see people with their hands in the air, hands on someone’s waist, around someone’s neck, wrapped around a drink. Looking down at his own hands, he tried to copy those around him without looking completely prattish. Spoiler. It didn’t work. “You don’t dance?” Alex says, watching him. “No, I do,” Henry says. “It’s just, the family-mandated ballroom dancing lessons didn’t exactly cover this?” The last few words of his sentence come off as more of a question than a statement. “C’mon, it’s, like, in the hips. You have to loosen up.” Alex replies. He then does the unthinkable: he puts his hands on Henry’s hips and it’s all Henry can do to not tense up. By the look on Alex’s face, he thinks he’s failed. “That’s the opposite of what I said.” “Alex, I don’t–” “Here,” Alex says, moving his own hips, “watch me.” Henry feels the warmth creeping up the back of his neck, takes a gulp of his champagne, and says in what he hopes to be a level tone, “I am.” The song crossfades into another buh-duh dum-dum-dum, dum-duh-dum duh-duh-dum– “Shut up,” Alex yells, looking as though Christmas had come early. “Shut your dumb face, this is my shit!” He throws his hands up in the air as Henry stares at him blankly, and around them, people start cheering too, hundreds of shoulders shimmying to what Henry later learns to be “Get Low” by Lil Jon. “Did you seriously never go to an awkward middle school dance and watch a bunch of teenagers dry hump to this song?” Alex looks up at Henry as he stares back with wide eyes, clutching his champagne glass like a lifeline. “You absolutely must know I did not.” Alex turns to where Nora was standing a few feet away and snatches her away from the girl she was flirting with. Absently, Henry realizes that he recognizes this girl from the recent Spider-Man movie. “Nora!” Alex shouts, bringing Henry’s focus back to him. But honestly, when is he not focused on Alex? “Nora! Henry has never watched a bunch of teenagers dry hump to this song!” Nora stumbles and her face becomes so shocked that Henry fears that he’s done something wrong. “What?” she exclaims. “Please tell me nobody is going to dry hump me,” Henry says, bewilderment written all over his face. “Oh my God, Henry,” Alex yells, seizing Henry by one lapel as the music pounds on, “you have to dance. You have to dance. You need to understand this formative American coming-of-age experience.” Henry feels his willpower dwindling when he realizes just how close Alex has pulled them together. He doesn’t even think that Alex meant to, but suddenly, Henry is all too aware of the feeling of Alex’s body pressed against his. He thinks he might do something extremely stupid when Nora grabs Alex, pulling him away from Henry and spinning him around, her hands on his waist, and starts grinding with abandon. Alex woops and Nora cackles and the crowd jumps around and Henry just gawks at them. He lets out an indignant snort when he hears the lyrics for the first time. “Did that man just say ‘sweat drop down my balls’?” Alex is breathtaking, sweat on his brow, laughing hysterically, bent over grinding his ass against Nora’s front. She starts thrusting against Alex, smacking his ass on time with the beat of the song and Henry is sure he’s only seen this happening in movies. Henry rips his eyes away from the scene in front of him only to see Pez a few feet away bending over to the front and touching his toes. Alex sees it too and laughs even harder at Henry’s face. He accepts a shot from a passing tray, throwing it back and getting back to his dancing. He pouts his lips and shakes his ass, and even though Henry cannot fathom why his body starts reacting without him telling it to, his head starts to bop. "Fuck it up, vato!” Alex yells, and Henry laughs despite himself and hips start to move in a little baby shake. “I thought you weren’t going to babysit him all night,” June whispers to Alex as she twirls by, though it comes off as more of a shout. “I thought you were too busy for guys,” Alex says, nodding behind her. Henry looks over his shoulder and sees Pez watching June with a little grin on his face. He turns back around in time to see June throw Alex a wink before she’s off again. From there, Henry can’t find it in himself to care about how ridiculous he might look. He’s had too much to drink and there’s music he vaguely recognizes as early 2000s blasting from the speakers. He’s drinking champagne directly from the bottle and his willingness to dance likely has to do with how close Alex is and the fact that he can’t quite keep his hands to himself. Henry thinks he might explode. He watches Alex continue to grind against Nora and in the back of his head he hears a whisper that sounds a little bit like Pez saying “you wish that was you, huh?” The staring contest he seems to have started with Alex lasts well up until midnight, laughter bubbling out at random, wide smiles that they both can’t quite keep off of their faces. The countdown to the new year starts as they huddle up in their own little group, arms wrapped around each other, swaying slightly due to how much they’ve all had to drink. Henry thinks everything is going well until the countdown hits one, everyone screams “Happy New Year” and he sees Nora sling her arm around Alex’s neck and kiss him sloppily on the mouth. As they pull out of the kiss, Nora bites Alex’s lip and messes up his hair as he laughs. He opens his eyes and looks straight at Henry. Henry fights to keep his emotions off his face, he’s trained in it. It’s hard considering the jealousy rising up and he’s certain he must be green with it. Alex’s smile grows wider when he registers Henry’s expression, so Henry lifts the bottle of champagne up to his mouth, takes a hearty gulp, turns and walks through the crowd away from two-thirds of the White House Trio. Henry finds himself in the Garden without even registering how he got there and how long he’s been there. He slowly walks up to a tree and looks up into the sky. He’s so numb from the alcohol that he doesn’t care how cold it is. The only way he knows that he maybe should be wearing a jacket is when he breathes out and sees little puffs of steam in front of his face. He’s been out there for God knows how long when he hears a curse as someone stumbles over a bench behind him. “What’re you doing back here?” Alex says, trudging up to stand next to him under the tree. Henry squints down at him trying to focus on Alex’s face. It doesn’t work. It’s still blurry. Still beautiful. Whatever. “Looking for Orion,” he settles on saying. Alex huffs a laugh, looking up into the sky. Henry realizes his excuse must sound silly when he looks up as well and sees Alex fighting back a smile. The sky is not clear. It’s full of fluffy white clouds. “You must be really bored with the commoners to come stand out here and stare at the clouds.” “‘m not bored,” Henry mumbles. “What are you doing out here? Doesn’t America’s golden boy have some swooning crowds to beguile?” He means for it to come out harsher than it sounds. He hopes Alex doesn’t recognize the fondness in his voice. “Says Prince fucking Charming,” Alex answers, smirking. Henry frowns up at the clouds. He’s not sure if he likes that Alex compared him to a beautiful prince or if he’s disappointed that he is anything but. “Hardly.” His knuckle brushes the back of Alex’s hand at their sides, a little zip of warmth in the cold night. Henry feels it in his whole body. From the corner of his eye he can see Alex looking at him. The garden is quiet. It makes Henry uncomfortable. “You really didn’t answer my question, though,” Alex notes. Henry groans, rubbing a hand across his face. “You can’t leave well enough alone, can you?” He leans his head back. It thumps gently against the trunk of the tree. “Sometimes it gets a bit…much.” Alex keeps looking at him. He shifts, leaning back against the tree too. He nudges their shoulders together and Henry feels the corner of his mouth twitch at the contact. He tries to keep his smile down. He’s probably failing. “D’you ever wonder,” he says slowly, “what it’s like to be some anonymous person out in the world?” Alex frowns. “What do you mean?” “Just, you know,” Henry says, trying to find the right words. “If your mom weren’t the president and you were just a normal bloke living a normal life, what things might be like? What you’d be doing instead?” “Ah,” Alex says. He stretches out one arm out in front of him, makes a dismissive gesture with a flick of his wrist. “Well, I mean, obviously I’d be a model. I’ve been on the cover of Teen Vogue twice. These genetics transcend all circumstance.” Henry rolls his eyes, fighting to keep a fond smile off of his face. “What about you?” Henry shakes his head ruefully. “I’d be a writer.” Alex gives a little laugh. “Can’t you do that?” “Not exactly seen as a worthwhile pursuit from a man in line for the throne, scribbling verses about quarter-life angst,” Henry says dryly. “Besides, the traditional family career track is military, so that’s about it, isn’t it?” He bites his lip, and his brain supplies the words I’d date more, probably, as well. It takes him a moment to realize he’s voiced his thoughts when Alex starts laughing. “Right, because it’s so hard to get a date when you’re a prince.” Henry looks down at Alex. “You’d be surprised.” “How? You’re not exactly lacking for options.” Henry looks at him. He thinks there’s a twinge of jealousy in Alex’s voice and he hopes it’s not wishful thinking. It’s probably what gives him the courage to say, “The options I’d like…” dragging the words out, trying to hint at what he’s trying to say. “They don’t quite seem to be options at all.” Alex blinks. “What?” And Henry’s infatuated with him even more. “I’m saying that I have…people…who interest me,” Henry says, turning his body toward Alex now, speaking with a fumbling pointedness. Alex still looks entirely too confused and it’s endearing. “But I shouldn’t pursue them. At least not in my position.” “I still don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Alex says. Henry wants to punch him. “You don’t?” “No.” “You really don’t?” “I really, really don’t.” Henry grimaces in frustration, looking up to the sky wishing there was something up there to please knock some sense into Alex. He straightens. “Christ, you’re about as thick as it gets,” he says, and he grabs Alex’s face in both hands and kisses him. Alex freezes, and for a split second, Henry wonders if he’s read Alex all wrong. Then he feels Alex lean into him and Henry almost sighs in relief. His mouth slides against Alex’s, opens, and his tongue brushes against Alex’s. It’s wonderful and warm and everything Henry had hoped for. Probably even better. Oh. Definitely better. One of Henry’s hands finds its way into Alex’s hair and grabs it at the roots at the back of his head. Alex makes a small noise in the back of his throat and that’s when Henry realizes just what he’s done. He pulls away roughly, enough that Alex staggers back, eyes glazed over, the beginnings of bewilderment etching across his face. Henry mumbles a curse and a series of apologies, holding up his hands as he backs away. Eyes wide and heart in his throat, he turns on his heel and rushes out of the garden, leaving Alex standing in the snow. When he reaches the portico, he looks back and sees Alex start to come back to himself, touching his lips and beginning to make his way toward the White House. Henry slips inside, pushes through the crowd where he finds Pez. Even in his drunkenness, Pez takes one look at Henry and he must know. It’s probably written all over his face. “Please,” Henry hears himself say. There’s a roaring sound in his ears. “I can’t–Pez, I need to leave. I can’t be here.” Pez grabs his hand and leads him to where the PPOs are waiting by the wall. He leans over to Shaan and the next thing he knows is he’s being shuttled to the SUVs parked around the side of the White House. Henry can’t breathe and he doesn’t remember walking to the SUV. Henry can’t breathe and he sees a flash of betrayal and confusion on Alex’s face in the back of his mind. Henry can’t breathe and suddenly he’s in the private jet. Pez doesn’t even ask him what happened. He looks at Henry with sympathy and keeps a worried eye on him the entire flight. He doesn’t fall asleep, he won’t when Henry can’t breathe. Pez takes a deep breath and grabs Henry’s hand. “It’s gonna be okay, Henry. Just wait. I promise everything will be okay.” He was right, like always, Henry thinks. He runs his fingers down Alex’s naked back in the brownstone they share. Henry takes a deep breath.

[becca-becky]

Hey question the post youve heen reblogging with a kid name Alex, what is that about? I wanna check it out-

K so the book in question is Red, White, and Royal Blue. It takes place in an alternate universe where a woman won the 2016 presidential election and it follows her son, Alex, and the young Prince of Wales, Henry’s relationship over about 10 months or so (i only read this a few hours ago, so my memory might not be entirely accurate). 

After a PR nightmare that had to do with gravity, the two of them, and a giant wedding cake, they had to act like friends to get the press thinking that they are actually friends so they can stop bugging them about it

And in the process, they become actual friends, and then lovers

Alex is biracial and has a friend group (called the White House Trio) composed of his ex/best friend, Nora, and his sister June (both are fairly gay in their own right tbh)

It’s good, political, and queer as hell. And our main characters are in their early twenties (so you know it’s gonna be good)

There are sex scenes, in case you needed a warning. It’s a bunch of tropes rolled into a book (rivals to friends to lovers, secret relationship, fake friendship, etc) and it rolls with it

And the side characters are *chef kiss* so good

It’s a really good book, highly recommend!

[lucyreviewcy]

The Mummy (2017) Dir. Alex Kurtzman

What can I really say about this movie?

I wasn’t allowed to watch the original Mummy movies as a kid, so when I eventually came to watch these forbidden films I was vaguely disappointed that they weren’t spooky enough. As a result, I was pretty excited for the much spookier looking Tom Cruise reboot (even though it had Tom Cruise in it - usually something that drives me away from the movie). 

There were a few alarm bells in the first fifteen minutes of the movie. For starters, we have a love interest who is a solid 23 years younger than our protagonist. She’s also definitely a love interest: she doesn’t do very much apart from get injured and be sad. 

The second alarm bell was something I hadn’t picked up on before seeing this movie, but which I believe to be generally true. Rule: if the main character in a movie is called Nick, the main character in the movie is usually the worst. The Mummy compounds this issue by layering the Nicks all over the place. The first two characters we are introduced to are Nick (Tom Cruise) and Sgt. Vail. Sgt. Vail is played by Jake Johnson, who most of us will know as Nick from new girl. This issue is then made even worse by the introduction of Russell Crowe’s character, Henry, who is essentially the Dark Universe version of Nick Fury. THAT IS TOO MANY NICKS. More Nicks than a well-used broadsword. More Nicks than a Santa vs Satan themed birthday party. More nicks than Adrian Dunbar in a room full of bent coppers.

Aside this sig-nick-ficant issue which probably only affected me. There are so many other problems with this movie, but before I list them I want to state that I found it a fun romp. I would probably watch this movie again as a spooky treat around Halloween. I am fully disappointed that the Dark Universe never took off, because if this were the first offering I would have been so ready for the rest of the franchise. Sadness abounds. 

That said, I can completely understand why audiences may have had trouble with this movie. Please see the following list of glaring flaws in The Mummy:

Tone. This movie has more trouble with tone than a dog trying to tastefully decorate a penthouse apartment. I don’t know much about its development, but it feels like an original version of the movie was shot and then producers said “Can’t you add a funny in every scene?” I don’t know if it was intentional, but even the big scary Pharoah-faced statue has something vaguely comical about it. As they lower the Mummy into her prison, past this big ol’ face, the face just looks really shocked and vaguely disgusted by her. I guess that’s a nice way of hammering home that the evil lady who just killed a baby really is evil. But also… She just killed a baby. We know she’s evil. We don’t need a statue to make an emoji-esque face to tell us that. This gets worse when later, as she’s lifted out of the prison, the same statue looks shocked and afraid. But we know that she’s bad. We don’t need to be told to be shocked and afraid by a big statue. Stop telling me what to feel, statue! This is typical of the film as a whole. Spooky fight scenes have comical sound effects and any brief emotional scene involving Nick is punctuated by a witty one-liner. I would have been happy with this in smaller doses, it works really well in Jurassic Park. In Jurassic Park we have lots of comical one-liners and witty banter from Jeff Goldblum in the early stages, but as the film darkens and characters start dying, Goldblum’s character is removed from the action and the gags are fewer and farther between. That doesn’t happen in this movie, we have jokes all the way through and a lot of them aren’t even funny. Especially this exchange: “You’re a good person Nick, I know that because you gave me the only parachute.” “I thought there was another one.” This doesn’t work for lots of reasons but it especially doesn’t work when it is referred back to as an emotional flashback in the final scene, sans punchline. The punchline of “I thought there was another one” is Nick’s way of brushing off this and indicating that actually he might just be an asshole through and through. You can’t use that compliment later on as proof that he’s a good person! You think you can do these things but you just can’t Nemo... sorry... I digress...

Gender. There’s a blonde female character who’s vaguely intellectual but actually clearly only there to roll her eyes at Nick and how he’s the worst. She earned her right to eye-rolling by having sex with him at some earlier point but now that’s all she’s allowed to do. She also provides the emotional core of the movie… What a shock, said no-one ever. Perhaps this is just because the last movie I saw that I loved this much was Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw which has Vanessa Kirby kicking ass and propelling the plot forward with sheer force of will, but I found the character of Jenny unnecessarily dull and cliche. She just screams a bunch to tell us about the threat that’s happening. In case we weren’t feeling threatened by the zombie mummies that are attacking her. But we were aware because we could see that happening. So… Thanks for trying, Jenny. Then there’s the Mummy herself. I swear no actress on the planet gets her talent squandered as frequently as Sofia Boutella. Equal parts terrifying and beautiful, Boutella is at her best when she gets to wreak havoc in Kingsman - but since then I’ve only ever seen her in limiting roles that don’t make the most of her delicate threat/allure balance. From almost bond-girl in Atomic Blonde to the-hit-woman-in-the-red-dress in Hotel Artemis (She’s a hitman = THREAT, but she’s in a red dress = ALLURE - delicate, subtle…), Boutella gets landed with characters that are tired stereotypes. Ahmamet is not much of an improvement. The parts of the film where the Mummy is less CGI and more makeup and physicality are really satisfying, allowing Boutella to be her spooky self. It’s disappointing that the mummy makes people into other mummies by kissing them, because of course the only way a woman can win a man over is by using her sexuality. FEMINISM. The Mummy could have pushed her much further, but if this movie proves anything it is that Sofia Boutella would have made a far better Enchantress than Cara Delavigne did in Suicide Squad. 

This movie doesn’t know the difference between Zombies and Mummies. As soon as she wakes up, the titular Mummy starts snog-converting all of the locals into mummies who then become her lackeys. But they just look like zombies. She’s made zombies. They shamble around like zombies. We have the “Zombie on the car” sequence that I’ve seen before in zombie movies. These are zombies. I didn’t come here for zombies. I came here for mummies, the risen dead. Not zombies, the undead. The thing that’s really irritating about the snog-mummification sequence is that she turns all the living people into zombies even though it is later established that she can cause corpses to rise from the dead. So why is she bothering to turn all these alive people into zombies when she is in a graveyard. That’s so much extra effort. Has she never mapped a process? Has she not considered she may need to conserve her resources? Have you ever heard of RECYCLING? I mean she’s from ancient history so I guess not. Eventually, we do end up with a significant number of mummies because of some very heavily established buried knights (SO MUCH EXPOSITION), but those are fine. I’m just mad about all the zombies. 

Tom Cruise. I regret to inform you that Tom Cruise is no-longer a bankable star. The Mission Impossible movies are a bankable franchise and that is a different thing. I am never tempted to go and see a movie because Tom Cruise is in it. I spent the last hour of this film listing actors who could have made this movie better. The list ended up with one name on it and that name was Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds’ typical cynicism in the face of a well-loved franchise might have resulted in a more consistent tone to the movie. We know from every other movie that he does that he can balance serious and silly in a way that keeps the audience laughing and crying. We know that he can make even the thinnest of storylines seem plausible. We know that he does well opposite another equally sarky character so the chemistry with Jake Johnson (one of the few commendable parts of this movie) would still work and maybe even be improved. 

I loved Russell Crowe in this movie and there won’t be any more Dark Universe movies and it is all Tom Cruise’s fault. This point doesn’t need much expansion. Russell Crowe is just really fun as Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde and I loved every second of his performance. The structure of the movie is weird because it introduces him and then drops him almost immediately for about an hour, but he’s just great. I don’t normally love Russell Crowe in anything and this really won me over. I would have watched all the Dark Universe movies for Russell Crowe alone. My boyfriend pointed out, from only hearing his voice emanating from my laptop, that Russell Crowe in this movie sounded like he was voicing the big fat posh tuxedo cat that used to live near us. I loved it. 

I didn’t know how many feelings I had about this movie until I started writing them down. I loved the idea and I felt like I was enjoying it but now that I look back there were so many problems. It’s like if I spent a few days knitting a scarf without looking at my work and then discovered that I’d dropped like half the stitches and it was just a mess. That’s how I felt. 

I hope you can look past the many problems I have highlighted with this movie next time you need a wild, undead but also risen dead romp. In a lot of ways, The Mummy is just like Sofia Boutella’s characters in everything: both alluring and threatening at the same time.

[lifejustgotawkward]

365 Day Movie Challenge (2018) - #210: Call Me (1988) - dir. Sollace Mitchell

While doing a deep dive through Hulu’s streaming catalog, I was drawn to the synopsis of a film I had vaguely heard of but knew almost nothing about, Call Me: “Anna is the curious recipient of obscene phone calls that she assumes are from her boyfriend. When she arrives to meet the bizarre caller at a bar, Anna witnesses a brutal murder and becomes an unwilling player in a game of cat-and-mouse.” Given my own recent experience with an obscene phone caller at my workplace, I wondered how such a film revolving around a deed designed to upset women would play out.

For the most part, Call Me succeeds as a neo-noir drama/thriller. If you’re hungry for moody shots of NYC in the late 80s, particularly as a lone saxophone wails on the soundtrack, this is definitely your movie. (Cinematographer Zoltán David and composer David Michael Frank elevate the proceedings in these departments.) Patricia Charbonneau (best known for the landmark lesbian romance Desert Hearts) shines as Anna, a no-nonsense New Yorker who is tenacious in her professional life as a journalist yet disappointed by her unsatisfactory love life with her lackluster boyfriend, Alex (Sam Freed). The film does a nice job of building on Anna’s evolving sexual behavior, morphing from revulsion once she realizes that Alex isn’t the creepy caller to growing curiosity as to why the mystery man is so preoccupied with her. She begins to depend on the conversations as much as the caller does, allowing the pair to develop a mutual obsession that speaks to societal taboos about desire, especially regarding women’s sex drives and non-vanilla impulses. (Interesting side note: Mitchell’s film beat Call Me by Your Name by almost thirty years as a “call me” movie featuring a masturbation scene involving fruit.) Despite the propositions on which the story lays its foundation, there is genuine eroticism in these scenes.

The criminal aspect of the plot is where Call Me falters. A bunch of small-time drug runners and thieves are after Anna for witnessing the aforementioned homicide, including a couple of lowlifes nicknamed Jellybean (Stephen McHattie) and Switchblade (Steve Buscemi) and a corrupt detective identified only as Pressure (John Seitz). These guys mistakenly believe that Anna stole some money that Jellybean and Switchblade were supposed to pick up at the site where the murder went down, so their pursuit of her is motivated roughly 25% by not wanting her to turn them in to the cops (honest ones, presumably) and 75% by greed. Anna’s flirtations with an atypical sexual relationship and violent crooks - an odyssey of pleasure and pain - culminate in a flawed ending, but I guess it can be read either as Anna rejecting her forays into previously unexplored sexual territory or a possibility that she will become more bold and self-assured in her relationships, but face-to-face rather than over a landline. Furthermore, since I didn’t mention them earlier, character actors Boyd Gaines, Patti D’Arbanville, David Strathairn and Olek Krupa lend additional flair to the film. I won’t spoil the secret of who portrays the obscene phone caller, which is actually fairly easy to figure out early on, but in any case the choice was good.

At the beginning of the review, I alluded to knowing almost nothing about Call Me. The one piece of information that I did recall was that the film was written by Karyn Kay, a name that may be familiar to people like me who lived in New York City during the past decade. In 2012, there was quite a lot of news coverage when Kay's then-teenage son, Henry Wachtel, flew into a rage during an epileptic seizure and killed her. (Kay was an English teacher at LaGuardia High School and I was acquainted with someone who was one of her former students.) I have also never forgotten an essay published by the New York Times titled “A Killing, and Queries About a Life,” which rather cruelly argued that the victim bore some of the blame for her death at the hands of her son. (One need only peruse the comments section to see how much author Ginia Bellafante infuriated her readers, some of whom knew Karyn Kay personally and attested to what a good person she was.) I wish Karyn Kay had had more opportunities in her life to do more screenwriting because Call Me proved that she had exciting ideas and potential waiting to be honed.