#minimalism in film

[televised-uhhh-nerdistry]

Haven't heard people really talk about this, other than complaining about that one moment in Revenge Party, but personally I hated the cinematography in Mean Girls (2024).

My main issue was the TikTok lighting and the emptiness of every shot.

For one thing, in terms of TikTok lighting, I guess it's just something I have to get used to in film. Netflix has been using it for a bit now in terms of films like He's All That. It rubs me the wrong way because it feels cringey (at least for me personally), but aside from that I can't really give constructive criticism, it's just a "me-issue".

In terms of the emptiness, I can actually offer an explanation as to why that bothers me. American high schools, or honestly, most high schools, are busy places. You've got students running around, busy hallways, teachers chatting this way and that and shaking salads and talking through bites, vice principles wandering and yelling, kids getting dragged out of bathrooms for vaping, smoking, or drugs or sexual acts. School is busy! And I don't see that anywhere in the 30 or so minutes that I managed to complete before exiting the film. It genuinely feels so jarring.

There's little to nothing in the background, the foreground, or anywhere quite frankly. The students are all incredibly spaced out as if there are no cliques other than the Plastics or whatever other groups are mentioned in the introductory cafeteria scene. AND SPEAKING OF CAFETERIAS!!! The cafeteria is so empty?? Like it's genuinely insane how empty it is. The tables are so small and minimalistic, like you can fit five people tops. There's no decorations on the walls, no flags, no posters, nothing.

Now I understand minimalism as a design choice in certain films. There are whole subsets of genres that thrive on this design choice. Clean Space, for example, as a Sci-Fi aesthetic. It's built on minimalism, it wouldn't exist without it. But, in terms of describing a busy high school? Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel that it fits. It doesn't make sense to me as a design choice.

Anyways. The film has its issues for sure, but overall, it is camp, and Renee is mother. Also the Letterboxd reviews are so funny I cannot express that enough! And despite the bad camera angle during Revenge Party, you have to admit it's worth a good chuckle. Not to mention John Hamm teaching sex ed, like honestly I didn't care for the jokes that much but the concept is hilarious.

[vodnoebalo]

by Aleksey Vlasov

Moscow

[margaretcruzemark]

For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

[soulari]

　 ⁑ 　　 ∿　　　◍　　 deja vu . . .⠀⠀ ⸝⸝

[espuor]

kenshō “ 本、

a experiência zen ou iluminação, quando a própria natureza é vista para o que realmente é.

“Em silêncio, respira profundamente. Olha com ferocidade para as árvores que ardem na beira da estrada, chamas verdes que se agitam como animais selvagens em pé. Ela as encara com agressividade. Como se esperasse das árvores uma resposta, ou melhor, como se exigisse, lança a elas um olhar sombrio e obstinado.”

────⠀⠀A Vegetariana, Han Kang.

[meloodi]

⠀ ⢷𓈒   可爱  ⊹﹑ Easy  Come,  Easy  

[etirabys]

a frustrating thing about battle royale stories is that they take place in a world where there's a massive popular appetite to see torture and death, the existence of this appetite is the main moral evil of the story (so far so fine), and the author tends to pretend this is also a huge problem in our world so that their work can stand as a Commentary On Real Evil. when the world their actual readership lives in has the opposite problem – too squeamish about seeing torture and death and coercion and collectively agrees to sequester it out of view so that nice things can keep being available for under five dollars at the grocery store

[389]

Patrick Concepción

[istarlar]

⠀⠀⠀ "Eu posso ser tímido, mas meu coração é louco por seus olhos e corpo."

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀

[madisoncounty]

— Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)

[disease]

"HAND AND ARM IN LONG SLEEVED BLOUSE IN FRONT OF BLACK HAIR" RICHARD AVEDON // circa 1968 [lithograph | 12 7/16 x 9 1/2"]

[okartichoke]

"...I'll eat my cravat. (with a butter knife)" Starring Miles Edgeworth as Miles Edgeworth

[vodnoebalo]

Betty Schupp by James Harvey-Kelly

[hheininge-art]

Esperanzada | HHEININGE

[porcelainsuit]

Comme Des Garçons 1998, Sarah Moon

[spyboy2000]

𝚂𝚊𝚞𝚕 𝙱𝚊𝚜𝚜: 𝟷𝟶 ɪᴄᴏɴɪᴄ ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇ ᴘᴏsᴛᴇʀs.